368 State Papers and Addresses

the open, and when the issue was decided, he retained and enjoyed the friend-
ship and admiration of those who differed with him.

He was a man of broad sympathies. He possessed humanitarian views.
His consideration for his fellow-man was as broad, as tender and as generous
as his yearning to serve his State successfully and beneficially.

Another single trait of Mr. Nice's character, besides his kindly friend-
liness, that impressed itself with particular force upon those who knew him,
was his quiet, uncomplaining courage. Those of us who came more intimately
in contact with him in the Courts and in the political arena, knew perhaps
more fully than the other people of our State the physical handicaps which
from time to time hampered Mr. Nice, and which in many another man, would
probably have brought to an -early end the intensely active public contacts in
which Mr. Nice was engaged almost to the time of his demise.

A big man physically, and at times a very ill man, it must have taken the
strongest will-power many times to have enabled him to continue the arduous
program which he had mapped out for himself. At the same time, it was a
tribute, indeed, to his character that, no matter how ill he may have been, no
matter how unwilling his ailing body might have been to continue on its ap-
pointed way, he never was known to complain, but maintained to the end the
cheerfulness that always marked his never-ceasing activities.

No one can deny that an appointing authority exercises great influence in
the success or failure of the Judicial Branch of Government, when he selects
Jurists who, in the final analysis, are to decide matters of far-reaching im-
portance between citizens, or even the Government itself. The appointment of
well-qualified and incorruptible Judges is second in importance to no other
responsibility of a Governor.

If that be true, then Governor Nice made a distinct contribution to good
Government by his appointment of outstanding Judges to the Supreme Bench
of this City and to the Circuit Courts of the Counties.

To much emphasis can never be placed upon the necessity of preserving
inviolate the highest standards of the Judiciary. If public confidence in the
Courts is caused ever to be shaken, then a telling blow has been struck at the
stability of our institutions. In contemplating the all-important part which
the Courts occupy in our System of Government, I can think of no more fitting
description than that given by Webster in his eulogy of Mr. Justice Story when
he said:

"Justice is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament
which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together. Wherever her
temple stands and is duly honored, there is a foundation for social security,
general happiness, and the improvement and progress of our race. And
. whoever labors on this edifice with usefulness and distinction, whoever
clears its foundations, strengthens its pillars, adorns its entablatures or
contributes to raise its august dome still higher in the skies connects him-
self, in name, and fame and character with that which must be as durable
as the frame of human society. "
These courts which knew him so well, will be distinctly the poorer for his