vi ADDRESSES ON RETIREMENT OF HON. SAMUEL TREAT.
ceed him. the beneficent growth of law, and the shifting conditions of judicial
service are such, that the questions of real-estate law, which then taxed bench
and bar to the utmost, have in great part been solved, and have almost dis-
appeared from the court as matters for serious debate.
When the supreme court_of the United States, after years of contention, de-
cided that admiralty and maritime jurisdiction under the constitution was not
limited to tide-waters, but extended "wherever navigation successfully aided
commerce," and hence covered our great inland lakes and rivers, this court
was created,’and Judge TREAT, as its first judge, was called to a new iield of
judicial duty. It so happened, from the geographical location of the court,
that in most every instance a new pathway had to be explored and marked
out to successfully apply the principles of maritime law as enforced on the
high seas to inland navigation and commerce. No man was better fitted for
that difficult task than Judge TREAT. He understood perfectly how to mould
principles to meet the necessities of the place and the occasion, and thus give
effect to the reason and spirit of the law rather than to its letter.
Following closely upon his accession to the district bench came the many
grave responsibilities and bitter questions occasioned by civil strife. In this
jurisdiction an unknown and difficult course had to be pursued by the ju-
diciary. The passions of the hour, bearing first in one direction and then
in the other, tended mainly to the overthrow of civil law, with all which
that implies. The judge of this court had daily to pass upon complicated
questions, new in all their aspects, growing out of non-intercourse and con-
fiscation acts, and oftentimes to interpose tl1e strong authority of the bench
against influences which tended to the disregard of some of the most cher-
ished constitutional safeguards. Of Judge Treat’s record during that event-
ful period it is all sufficient to say that he never swerved from the straight
line of duty as a judge, through the pressure of circumstances, or through
— cowardice or favor.
The establishment, as an incident of that war, of a system of internal
_ revenue bearing directly on all of the leading industries and business interests
of the country, led to the enactment of an elaborate code of laws, and to the
invention of machinery for their enforcement with which the public, and
even _the legal profession, were very generally unfamiliar. In to this new lield
‘ ` of litigation it was Judge TREAT’s fortune to lead the way. Very few per-
sons, I apprehend, who have not made a study of that branch of the law, can
form an adequate conception of the labor devolved on the judge of this court
infamiliarizing himself with the many provisions of those statutes, and in
mastering the details of minute and complex treasury regulations. It is a
matter of public history that those statutes imposed greater burdens of liti-
gation on the federal court of this district than on any other tribunal through-
out the country, and that prosecutions here. were more numerous, and ex-
cited,;both here and elsewhere, a mostabsorbing public interest. In the pres-
ence of so many lawyers who were daily witnesses of the proceedings to
which I allude, it is unnecessary for me to pass any comments upon the mas-
terful manner in which Judge TREAT discharged the labors and responsibil-
ities iucidentto that legislation.
‘ Next, in order of time, came the bankruptcy system, with all of its cumber-
some and ill-digested provisions, which daily taxed the powers of the court to
make out of chaos some well-defined rules .for the determination of the re-
spective rights of debtor and creditor. With great credit to himself, and with
vastbeneiit to the_public,_Judge TREAT supervised the proceedings under
that law from its adoption to its repeal, and the fruit of his labor has been
preserved for the advantage of those who will succeed him, if like legislation
shall be hereafter repeated.
This brief sketch of some of Judge TREAT’S important labors on the bench
of this court would be incomplete if I failed in conclusion to mention his serv-