182 court of appeals of maryland
Judge Miller was another faithful follower of
the law. He lived in Annapolis, and did much
of his threshing in walks up and down the corridor
of the State House, or along the walk in front of
it. In addition to a clear mind, and his experi-
ence in affairs during the war period, Judge Mil-
ler had had a training apt for the development of
a sound judge in his reporting of cases in eighteen
volumes of reports, and also in his collaboration
with J. Schaaf Stockett and Richard T. Merrick
in preparing the second digest of Maryland cases
(1857), covering the nine volumes of Gill's Re-
ports, the first eight of the official Maryland Re-
ports and the four volumes of Maryland Chan-
cery decisions. All that work had involved a
study of a body of law such as few lawyers take
occasion to make. And with these advantages,
Judge Miller worked with a scientific research
worker's freedom from interference by personal
tendencies and predilections. An unobtrusive sort
of workman he was, and he aroused no enthusiasm
in his day, but some of the most discerning law-
yers regarded him as the soundest judge on the
court. And later study of his opinions as authori-
ties has made this estimate widespread. As Judge
Robert N. Martin said of Chief Justice Taney,8
there was no glare about his intellect but it was
perfectly luminous.
Judge James McSherry, frequently compared
with Judges Alvey and Miller, was a man of em-
phatic, masterful personality and intellectual
power. He was a quick thinker, wrote his opinions
once only, in short spaces of time, and rarely made
3. Bernard C. Steiner, Life of Roger B. Taney, 527.
|
![clear space](../../../images/clear.gif) |