SAMUEL P. WHEELER.

A Memorial.

By James H. Matheny.

Today we have turned aside from the work and care of daily life. to contemplate and to again record the making of Illinois and the men who made it; and as we look at them in the dim light of history they seem, as shadows so often seem, to be of more than human-of heroic stature. But now we turn from them to the life of one whom we knew and who knew us-a man human like ourselves-but who like them was strong and true. Twelve months ago he was with us, full of years and honors, but with the old time brightness in his eye and with all the force of early days. Today there is but a memory cherished by hearts that too will cease to beat-the fading tradition of a strong and useful life. There is a sense in which the influences of every life are truly immortal in their effect upon the lives of others, and through them upon yet others from generation to generation, but their identity is soon lost in the mazes of current and counter-current that make up the life of the world.

It has been said that the memory of the lawyer is peculiarly ephemeral. A judgment may be a land mark of the law-it may make an epoch in the progress of jurisprudence; it may make historic the judge who pronounced it; and yet the lawyer whose logic and eloquence have perhaps inspired it, whose thought and whose words it may embody, is forgotten, save, as in after years, some wearied student "may pause to spell his name and wonder who he was." We therefore come today to preserve for future generations our memories of Samuel P. Wheeler.

He was born at Binghamton in the state of New York on the 12th day of January, 1839. He was the son of Dr. Alvan Wheeler, a physician of that city. He came to Illinois in early manhood and taught school for a time. He was admitted to the bar of Illinois when twenty years of age. He practiced his profession at Mound City on the Ohio. river, and then at Cairo. He resided for a few years at Mt. Carmel, called there by his duties as manager of the Cairo, Vincennes & Chicago Railway. He returned to Cairo where he remained until 1887, when he removed to Springfield, residing here until his death.

His ability had early recognition. In his day the lawyer was trained in the office of the leaders of the bar and from this and from the constant association in the courts. where the profession, young and old,

saw every achievement, every failure, the lawyers of the former day knew each other as those of the present time do not. Mr. Wheeler soon made his position and his early partnerships attest it. He was associated for some years with William Joshua Allen afterward judge of the United States District Court for the southern district of Illinois. Those of us who remember Judge Allen in the calm and ease of his work at Springfield can hardly realize his power and activity when at the bar, in southern Illinois. Mr. Wheeler was also associated with John H. Mulkey, afterward judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois, and with George W. Wall afterward a judge of the Illinois Appellate Court for this district. These firms were concerned in nearly all the great litigations of a large territory and the life of each member was the strenuous life of the court room lawyer.

In 1887, upon the accession of Judge Allen to the bench, Mr. Wheeler removed to Springfield, as has been said, and became a member of the firm of Brown, Wheeler, Brown & Hay, which was historic among the law firms of Springfield. It then included Christopher C. Brown, an account of whose life appears in your last volume; it had included John T. Stuart and Benjamin S. Edwards, and more remotely, Abraham Lincoln. It is a most interesting fact that the name of Lincoln was associated with the early days of another notable firm of lawyers coming down to our own times with the names of Stephen T. Logan, Milton Hay, John M. Palmer, Shelby M. Cullom, Henry S. Greene, David T. Littler and the distinguished jurist who is to address you today.

I remember well the announcement of his coming to Springfield and an expression from a most competent judge-John Mayo Palmer-to the effect that he would be found to be the strongest piece of legal timber that had come here for many a day. Of his position at the bar at Springfield I need not speak, further than to say that it met the demands of his previous reputation and of the connection to which he had come; that he was a lawyer of learning and logical power; most effective in the service of his clients and fair to the courts and to opposing interests.

Mr. Wheeler accepted and performed with credit a number of trusts of great financial importance. For five years he was receiver for the Cairo, Vincennes & Chicago Railroad, and for a number of years acted in the same capacity for the Jacksonville, Louisville & St. Louis Railroad, and the Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis Railway.

He was active in the work of the Illinois State Bar Association particularly in its earlier years and took part in the movement for the creation of a system of appellate courts in Illinois which was actively conducted by the association and which was the occasion of its organization. In connection with ex-Judge Anthony Thornton and the late Harvey B. Hurd, he argued in support of the constitutionality of the act creating the new courts in the test case which was immediately brought. The question was one of the greatest interest to the bench, the bar, and the people. In 1893 he was elected to the presidency of the association, succeeding Lyman Trumbull.

Mr. Wheeler well avoided the extremes of seeking office on the one hand and of coldly refusing all public duties on the other. For twenty-five years he was one of the trustees of the Southern State Normal University at Carbondale, and for much of this time was chairman of the board, resigning in the spring of 1906, and in recognition of his service the handsome new library building of that institution bears his name. For ten years he served as a member of the board of education of the city of Springfield and rendered full and faithful service particularly in connection with the new high school building.

Both at Cairo and at Springfield Mr. Wheeler was an earnest and consistent member of the Presbyterian church. He was faithful in attendance and rendered valuable assistance in the lines of activity to which he was best adapted.

It is difficult to pick out any characteristics of him more prominent than the rest, but I may mention two that impressed me. His was an ordered life in the best sense. I once heard him say in reference to his locating at Cairo that he chose that city because, after his experience in boyhood with the snows of New York, he wanted to go. as far south as he possibly could without getting into a state in which slavery existed. I do not know that he meant this to be taken seriously but the expression was an index to his character. His plans of life and work were thought out and then worked out and rarely did they fail. One strong element of his power at the bar was the orderly massing of all the resources of law and fact at his command. The lawyer is proverbially careless and many reputations have been largely made by ingeniously meeting situations that never ought to have existed. It was not so with him; he often surpassed the expectation of his friends, he never fell below it.

His appearance, his manner, and his mental habits were truly judicial. They so impressed those with whom he was brought into contact that although he was not a judge at any time, nor so far as I know, had ever sought to be, yet he was constantly so called and is so recorded in many of the volumes issued by this association.

The quality of judicial fairness may appear to be inconsistent with the work of a practising lawyer, but it is not so in fact. The honest lawyer does not assist his clients in doing that which they may not honestly do, nor does he argue in the courts questions of law or fact that are not truly debatable. Experience has demonstrated that with a debatable question the best result is attained by the effective presentation of all that is pertinent in law or in fact, first on behalf of one side and then on behalf of the other, and that the division of this labor between counsel for the parties helps toward the result.

In such presentation there is room for the widest range of logical power and for the greatest eloquence, but the arguments are sound and the elements that enter into the result are not misrepresented. Viewed in this light-its true light-the work of the lawyer is an indispensable part of our judical system.

In this we are reminded of the solemn utterance of Lord Coke. In speaking of the solution of difficult questions he said: