Excerpt from Biographical History of Massachusetts, Vol. 7: Biographies and Autobiographies of the Leading Men in the State; With Opening Chapters on the Bench and Bar of Massachusetts

During the colonial period the administration of justice was entrusted at first wholly and even later almost entirely to men of weight and standing in the community and not to trained lawyers. But the Constitution adopted in 1780, and with some amendments still in force, declared the necessity of providing for every subject'a certain remedy by law for all injuries or wrongs by an impartial administration of justice, and of having the independence of the justices secured from influence by any other department of the gov ernment. This Constitution also, besides recognizing the Supreme Judicial Court, granted to the General Court (or Legislature) full power to erect and constitute j udicatories and courts of record or other courts. Under this power the Legislature in 1782, by chapter 9 of the Acts of that year, established the Supreme Judicial Court, with a chief justice and four justices. This court, with some changes from time to time in its number and in the nature and extent of its jurisdiction, has continued to be the highest court of justice in our system and the tribunal of last resort in the Commonwealth for the determination of all questions of law. Its decisions have been pub lished regularly and in increasing amount since September, 1804, and now constitute a body of law by which, more perhaps than by any other single instrumentality, the rights and obligations of all parties are determined and regulated. The past chief and associate justices of this court have so borne themselves in their responsible positions and have done their work with such learning and ability that the Commonwealth may well be proud alike of the excellent service which they have rendered and of the high reputation which they have acquired for themselves and the State which they served. Their successors are bound to exert themselves to the utmost of their powers to keep up so far as may be to the standard which has been thus set.

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