APPENDIX.
ADDRESS OF WILLIAM I\ BYNUM, JR.
Presenting the Portrait of Judge Thomas Settle to the Supreme Court,
7 November, 1905.
May It Please Your Honors:
An eminent lawyer in a recent address has truly said that every declara¬
tion by a court of the unconstitutionality of a statute is a test of the loyalty
of the people to the majesty of the law, and the acquiescence of the people is a
magnificent tribute to the judiciary. The people pay this tribute, in his opinion,
because of the acknowledged power of the courts vested in them by the Consti¬
tution. “The Constitution rests upon public opinion, and in matters pertaining
to law, public opinion rests upon the opinion of the bar, and the bar recog¬
nizes and sustains the authority of the courts. The judiciary,” he declares, is
therefore “the strongest department of our government. It is the most perma¬
nent. It has amplified its power and jurisdiction. It was never stronger than
today.”
The Supreme Court of North Carolina, from its organization nearly ninety
years ago, has justly held the respect and confidence of the people more stead¬
fastly than any other branch of the State government. This is due not only
to its power and its exalted function as the head of one of the great depart¬
ments of government established by the Constitution, but in an especial sense
to the character and achievements of the thirty-eight judges who, during that
period, have been members of this Court. Coming from the different walks of
life, with varied talents and experience, they have performed' the duties of their
office with that uniform wisdom and fidelity which have endeared them to the
State and justly entitled them to be numbered among the great builders and
interpreters of our law. Their splendid services need not be recounted here.
The record and result of their labors may be read in the decisions of this Court,
the judicial chronicles of their time, and their names will be revered as long
as the profession which they ennobled shall endure.
What stranger, even, entering this hall and beholding the faces which adorn
its walls, does not realize that he is in the presence of extraordinary men'?
He finds not here the stern countenance, the severe eye of the typical judge of
old, but a company of gentlemen whose dignified and scholarly, yet mild, benig¬
nant features show clearly the warm heart, the broad, charitable spirit of just,
magnanimous men— judges who were not feared, but loved.
Into this splendid company of the dead, and their worthy successors, the
living, the portrait of Thomas Settle today is brought by his devoted children
and presented to the Court that it may take its place in this stately gallery
of our judges. Elevated to the bench at the age of thirty-seven, the youngest
judge that ever sat in this Court, his term of service altogether was seven
years, and his qualities of mind and heart were such as to endear him
throughout not only to his associates on the bench, but to the bar generally,
and won for him the admiration and affection of all who knew him.
The family to which he belonged is of pure English origin. Near the middle
of the eighteenth century his great-grandfather, Josiah Settle, came from
England and established a home in the borders of this State, in the beautiful
region along the foothills of the Blue Ridge, in what is now Rockingham
County. He was one of a colony of men who, as Bancroft says, came “from
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