Proceedings in Memory
op
WILLIAM N. H. SMITH
Chief J ii stick
Memorial Presented to ire Supreme Court
(955)
Attorney-General Davidson, in presenting the memorial and resolutions in
honor of the late Chief Justice Smith to the Supreme Court, said:
May it please your Honors:
I arise for the purpose of presenting to the Court the resolutions adopted at
a meeting of a large number of the members of the Bar of North Carolina, in
Raleigh, on the 3d inst., commemorative of the life, character, and public
services of the late Chief Justice of this Court.
It has not often happened that the death of an individual produced such
general grief and sense of public loss as that of Judge Smith. Throughout the
Slate, even among those to whom his features were unknown, he was held in
the highest esteem — I may say, veneration. There were happily combined in
his nature those characteristics to which the people readily and cordially
yielded absolute confidence. In a long life, in which lie was called upon to dis¬
charge many delicate and grave duties, he preserved that confidence, and, at
its close, was followed to the grave by a mourning people, who felt they had
lost a wise friend, a faithful servant and a fearless guide.
Of his attainments as a lawyer, his wisdom as a judge, his virtues as a citi¬
zen, these resolutions truly speak. The love and veneration of those who were
brought in close personal and oliicial relations with the deceased for him are,
perhaps, the highest tributes to his memory. To them his death is a personal
bereavement which will never lie obliterated. May we humbly, but faithfully,
strive to imitate his virtues, public and private, and thus preserve his fame
with the living and perpetuate it with those who come after us.
I move, your Honors, that these resolutions and the accompanying memorial
be entered upon the records of this Court:
In accordance with appointment, the Supreme Court Bench and the Bar met
on the afternoon of 3 December, at 3 :30 o’clock, at the Supreme Court room, to
adopt a memorial and resolutions in respect to the memory of Chief Justice
Smith.
Hon.
Л.
S. Merrimon, Chief Justice, and chairman of the former meeting,
called the assembly to order. All the members of the Supreme Court Bench
and a large number of the members of the Bar were present.
Mr. T. C. Fuller, chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, then read and
submitted the following:
William Nathan Harrell Smith was horn in Murfreesboro, Hertford County,
N. C., on 24 September, 1812. After the usual preparatory course, lie entered
Yale College and graduated in the class of 1834, and then studied law at
the Yale Law School, and afterwards entered upon the practice of his (956)
profession in Hertford County.
In 1840 lie was elected to the House of Commons from Hertford, and, in
1848, to the Senate from the district in which he resided, and the Legislature
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