This is Judge Cooley\u27s tribute to former University of Michigan astronomer Professor James Craig Watson, who died unexpectedly at age 42 and is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Ann Arbor. While not specifically related to the law, Cooley memorializes Watson with his ringing prose:  ... it was among the stars this great man found his chief delight, and fitting it was that he should do so. He knew the stars as one knows the faces of his friends ...  But it is the last few pages of the tribute that Cooley asserts the glory of the State of Michigan and specifically, the University of Michigan:  ... here was and always must have been his scientific home. It was the University of Michigan that he had crowned with a garland of stars, and from whose Observatory the lightning had announced his successive discoveries...  Cooley\u27s finale quotes the Ordinance of 1787 that the fathers of the Republic  bound the people of the territory [of Michigan] by the unalterable law, that \u27Religion, Morality, and Knowledge, being necessary to Good Government and the happiness of mankind, Schools and the means of Education shall forever be encouraged

Adams, Charles K.

Cooley, Thomas M.

Frieze, Henry S.

Winchell, Alexander

English

bepress Legal Repository

The Memorial Addresses Delivered in University Hall, November 26, 1880, at the Funeral of Professor James Craig Watson, … Professor in the University from 1859 to 1879

University of Michigan School of Law

University of Michigan Law School University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository Other Publications Faculty Scholarship 1882 The Memorial Addresses Delivered in University Hall, November 26, 1880, at the Funeral of Professor James Craig Watson, … Professor in the University from 1859 to 1879 Henry S. Frieze Charles K. Adams Alexander Winchell Thomas M. Cooley Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/other/164 Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/other  Part of the Law and Philosophy Commons, and the Legal History Commons UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN.THEMEMORIAL ADDRESSESDelivered in University Hall, November 26 , 1880 ,AT THEFUNERALOFPROFESSOR JAMES CRAIG WATSON, Ph. D ., LL . 1).,Professor in the University from 1859 to 1879,Acting PRESIDENT HENRY S. FRIEZE , .PROFESSOR CHARLES K . ADAMS ,PROFESSOR ALEXANDER WINCHELL , ANDHONORABLE THOMAS M . COOLEY .PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY .1882 .JUDGE COOLEY 'S ADDRESS .When a man of great eminence is suddenly cutdown ,and we have had time to collect our shocked and sur .prised senses , and to realize that the most useful life isatthe mercy ofthe same unfriendly influences and disorders that may terminate the most unworthy and insig .nificant , the first thoughts are naturally of the loss in itspersonal and social aspects , and we do not immediatelycomprehend that there may be a loss greater than these ,which reaches beyond individuals and family circles andthe circle of personal acquaintance , and affects thewhole commonwealth . This is especially true when theman ' s sphere of action has been apart from the noiseand display of political and official life , in the comparative quiet ofacademic halls , or in the retired studywhere he could best commune with science and push hisinquiries from step to step among the evidences andresults ofeternal law . The life we contemplate to -daywas an unofficial life , but it was not the less one thatconcerned the whole State , and was in a true and important sense public ; and considerations press upon ourattention that demand the careful thoughts ofallthel onpeople .Twenty years ago James Craig Watson was called to achair ofinstruction in Michigan University . It was inthe first year ofthe law department , and I saw him28often and came to know him well . He was stout androbust in build ; hisphysical vigor was remarkable ;and his temperament was sanguine in that degree thathehad but to conceive a plan and it seemed to himalready half accomplished . He had been endowed in anunusual degree with themathematical faculty , and heseemed to play with problems which taxed and weariedthe energies ofothers . No doubt his abundant physicallife and his consciousness of great powers made himsomewhat wayward , and it is probable that the eninenteducator who as president ofthe University was thenbusy in planting its pillars upon imperishable foundations , did not always find their relations harmonious ,but the president ' s generous nature recognized andappreciated the powers ofhis subordinate , and it is wellremembered that on one occasion when foolish complaint was made that the able and learned astronomerthen in charge ofthe Observatory had little to dowith instruction , the great president with something oflofty scorn for the stupidity ofthe complaint , and something ofthe pride with which the lioness in the fablepoints to her one whelp , retorted that true enough itwas that Dr . Brunnow had spent many hours in the .recitation room giving instruction to a single pupil ,butthat single pupil was James C . Watson . Honoredpupil , blessed in receiving such instruction from such ateacher ! Honored teacher to whom was given theopportunity to train for eminence such a pupil !OfWatson ' s long and brilliant record as the successorofBrunnow , another has faithfully and lovingly told us .Many in other lands first learned through reports ofhiswork that in this new State there was growing upaerwas29University of great promise . But while he laboredfaithfully in his peculiar field he also performed otherservices which are not unworthy of being mentionedeven on this solemn occasion . Few knew so well as Idid thevaluable service he rendered to thepeople inplacing the great interest oflife insurance upon a solidfoundation . He understood thoroughly the principlesofthis business and was impatient that irresponsibleorganizations , by deceptive and fraudulent contrivancesshould draw money from the people under the false pretense of insuring their families against losses bydeath .He thought , too , ' that there should be home organizations whereby the vast and steady flow of money fromthe State should be checked and the accruing profitsfrom insurance retained and expended among our ownpeople . When at last such an organization for lifeinsurance was perfected , he was invited quite unexpectedly to himself to beits actuary , and so invaluablehave his services been found that his judgment hascome to be accepted aslaw by the able business menwho have been at the head ofitsaffairs , and it wouldhave continued to be their law had he lived until hisraven locks were bleached in the frosts ofold age .Some ofus had personal knowledge that more than oneState legislature invited his assistance in framing insurance laws , and that he had large influence in preventingcrude and mischievous legislation on a subject withwhich the general public is unfamiliar , and concerningwhich those who think they know it well , are generallymost profoundly ignorant . Public services like thesemade no display ; his name did not appear in the redbooks of States , oron their official rolls , but it is true in30his case as in many others , that themost useful public ser.vant does not always wear the robes of office , or ornamenthis name with official titles . When the national govern .ment had labor to perform in the line of hisown peculiar science , requiring close observation , nice calculation ,and the most perfect accuracy , the observatory whichthe generosity ofcitizens ofDetroit had planted bytheHuron was remembered , and the foot -prints of his astronomical journeys may be traced in the public recordsfrom Sicily to farthest Asia , and . back again to theWestern Sierras .And this is noteworthy , that in whatever quarter ofthe globe heheld intercourse through histelescope withthe heavenly bodies they had something new to commucate through him to the scientific world , and the scientific world gave credit for it to the State and to the University . Men of science everywhere recognized theirkinship to him , and watched for the result of his observations as ofone who was born to unlock mysteries whichnature had concealed from others . As a writer and discoverer hewas not long in making his own name andthat ofhis State familiar , and it often happened to himabroad as it did when he was presented to the learnedand many -sided monarch ofBrazil , that he found him .self atonce in the presence ofone who had read withinterest and pleasure his contributions to the astronomical journals of Europe , and was ready to enter into discussion with him upon their leading points , and to drawfurther from his great stores ofscientific knowledge andgeneral information .But it was among the stars this great man found hischief delight , and fitting it was that he should do so .31Heknew the stars as one knows the faces of his friends,and when an unknown planet sailed within the sweep ofhis instrument, he saluted the stranger as it wereinstinctively , noted its shade of light and took its meas .ure and watched with eagerness itscourse as it sailedaway , as a youth may watch the retreating footsteps ofa maiden whose beauty has captivated his affections .It sometimes happens that great men are fond of vulgardisplay , as Bacon was fond of gay clothes , and Erskineoftheatrical posturing in presence oft1the case was opened . Watson had a contempt forthese things : he unostentatiously did things worthy ofrenown and then left his works to praise him . Somemen have the art to trumpet their own achievements andare not ashamed to do so . Watson was not one ofthese .If the journals of the day requested information , he gaveit freely ; but so far as concerned hisown pleasure , thesame modest telegram that announced his discoveries toobservers atParis , or Greenwich , or Berlin , contentedhim as anannouncement to the public athome . Had hepushed in legislative bodies for personal recognition , andsolicited the members , and wearied them with his importunities , he might perhaps have won a vulgar successthereby ; but we who meet to honor him today wouldhave respected him less and mourned him less than wedonow . We gratefully remember that his labors werealways forthe common good , and that he recognized theUniversity as first of all entitled to the benefit of hislabors . Hewas too busy in honoring the State with hiswork to bea personal supplicant for its bounty . Hethought it a great mistake in the State that it did notrecognize with more ample generosity thekinds of abilityen S were. 32that arerare ,and that command the highest rewardselsewhere ; but the State heard no complaint , and noincumbent ofa chair in theUniversity found Watsonpushing his own claims to the detriment ofothers .It is just to say for the State that Watson was withoutthe advantages ofwealth in his youth , and might elsewhere have had difficulty in obtaining an education .But heobtained one that was solid ; and in obtaining itacquired a hearty and wholesome contempt for shams ,and especially for allartificial shams . He would haveno high sounding pretence in college work , and it was amaxim with himthat the University should encourage itscorps ofleaders to make themselves eminent byvaluablework , instead of calling in men already eminent to enjoyin comparative idleness here the honors won elsewhere .It has often been a source of pleasure to people fromthis State when among learned men abroad , to find theState valued and esteemed asthe commonwealth whosepioneers while yet they were busy in . clearing littlepatches in the wilderness where they might raise thenecessaries oflife , turned their attention to a morethorough provision than any country in the world hadtheretofore made forthe general and complete education of the people , andpursued their plans ,when onceformed , with a patience and perseverance that com .manded success . Even to -day , while we are arrangingfor these burial ceremonies , there is laid upon ourtables a leading review in which a writer in one ofthe most distant States appeals to the people to establish such a State University as was planted here underthe advice and general direction ofthe man whom thewriter characterizes as “ the able and accomplishedn33Superintendent Pierce to whom chiefly Michigan owesher admirable system of public instruction .” These arehis words, not mine ; and they make mention of an actof profound statesmanship which will be remembered tothe honor of our venerable friend when measures of partypolitics over which leaders cross weapons, and growfurious, andstir upStates and sections to animosity ,have like their authors had their day and been forgotten .But Father Pierce only conceived wise plans ; it fell toothers to execute them ; and among these thepart ofWatson was as faithful to the wise plans as it was brilliant . If any one should venture to say now , his serviceswere valuable to a single institution only , not to theState , we may well turn to such a person with the oldquestion , What constitutes a State ? What was thisteeming land of plenty which we call Michigan ; whatwere its great forests and what its exhaustless mineswhen “ the poor Indian with untutored mind , ” amid theunbounded wealth ofnature , won a precarious subsistence by the fishing net and the arrow ? And is thecommonwealth proud now ofwhat nature has done forher , or rather of the sons and daughters whose intellectual attainments and vigor , acquired in the training ofher schools , have made her name a name of renown ?“ These constitute the State . " And what glory can aState covet which would be greater than this : To holdthe place ofhonor in public instruction , and present anexample which other States delight to follow ? Andwhat state or national boundary can limit the beneficentinfluence of any man who has lent a helping hand ingiving hisState this honorable prominence ?Watson loved the State , but he went out from it . Hea34:took pride in the name which he had inseparably associated with his achievements , but science was his mistress , and when she seemed to offer to him golden inducements elsewhere , he struck his tent and departed .Even now we sorrowfully put to ourselves the solemnquestion : Did the eminence he won in the service ofthis great and prosperous commonwealth , and wherebyhe conferred honor upon her name,make him so valuableto the scientific world that the State could no longerafford to retain him ?When he went out from us he still left his heart withus. A cordial welcome greeted him in the new commonwealth whose appreciative citizens had enticed himaway from us ; he found friends there and congenialassociations ; but here beneath the native oaks where hehad played as a boy, and the graceful elms which hehad assisted to plant, and in the shadow of buildingsassociated alike with his student life and his labors as ateacher , author, and discoverer ; here was and alwaysmust have been his scientific home. It was the University of Michigan that he had crowned with a garland ofstars , and from whose Observatory the lightning hadannounced his successive discoveries . This , therefore ,was the field to which his thoughts and desires perpetually returned . He admired and had a strong andabiding attachment for the President of the University ,who fully appreciated his genius and his value , andwhose whole household will bow their heads in sorrowwhen the intelligence of his death shall reach that farcountry where people representing the oldest civilization on the globe, once watched with curious eyes thisyoung savant from the new world , while he planted hisinstruments of observation in sight of their capitol , thathe might learn secrets of the heavens which the observations of thousands of years had never disclosed totheir learned men . But Watson had strong attach - -ments, too , for the men who had been associated withhim here, and who had won distinction in other fieldsof research ; peculiarly strong , as I think , for those whohad been pupils in the samehalls, and had been advanced ,as he had , to seats of honor as instructors ; he madegenerous acknowledgment of their achievements , andtook pleasure in them as they did in his. Hewent outfrom us full of hope,but he has fallen speedily ,with hismanhood still vigorous in him and his brain still powerful ; has fallen with his hands still warm from our parting embrace ; but we feel and we know that howeverlong hislife might have been spared , no other field oflabor could have offered attractions that would havediminished his affection for this ; he would still haveturned his thoughts , and often his footsteps , to the academic home ofhis youth and his manhood ; and whenever he came he would have been welcomed bythosewho remained , as the family circle in the old homesteadwelcomes the returning son and brother when from distant fields oflabor and renown hecomes back withaffection undiminished byhishonors , to enjoy once morethe old , endearing associations . And as often as he camethere would have arisen in the innermost chambers ofmany a heart the earnest question whether losses likethis to the State are inevitable . Even now we hearabout usthe inquiry , whether into this beloved State ,seated in such majesty and beauty at the head ofthegreat lakes , rich in the cattle of a thousand hills , and in36the corn garnered from unumbered fields , and in boundless forests “ tall as the mast of some high admiral,"and in exhaustless mines stored full from the beginningof time for her endowment - into this State which soearly promised to be the patron of letters , it must bethat the stranger shall come and select for adoption andbear away from unfinished labors the brightest and mostpromising among her children ; selecting them and bearing them offbecause they have done and are doing grandwork to make her name a name of praise , and haveadded and are adding to her wealth offorest and field ,offlocks and herds , of inland seas and running waters ,the great and lasting endowment ofanhonorable namein the world of letters . Surely this was not what thefathers ofthe Republic intended when in the immortalordinance of ’ 87 they bound the people of the territorybythe unalterable law , that “ Religion , Morality , andKnowledge , being necessary to Good Government and thehappiness ofMankind , Schools and the means of Education shall forever be encouraged . ”

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The Memorial Addresses Delivered in University Hall, November 26, 1880, at the Funeral of Professor James Craig Watson, … Professor in the University from 1859 to 1879

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