The Supreme Court of Indiana.

least beyond the State lines, to the excellent set of eight reports he edited. As early as 1822 his attention was drawn to the advan tage of a systematic report of the opinions of the court; but the first volume did not appear until 1830, containing opinions ex tending over the first ten years of the court's creation. This report at once took its place beside the Massachusetts and New York re ports. Of it Chancellor Kent said that it was " replete with the extensive and accurate law-learning, the notes of the learned re porter annexed to the cases being especially valuable." Said Washington Irving, then Secretary of our Legation at London, " I meet with it frequently, and I am often asked as to the antecedents of its author, whose name is quite familiar at Westminster." One thousand copies were printed of the first volume; seven hundred and fifty (1834) of the second; one thousand each of the third (1836), fourth (1840), and fifth (1844); one thousand five hundred each of the sixth (1845) and seventh (1847); and one thousand two hundred and fifty of the eighth (1850). They are Blackford's monument; and no better example of reporting can be produced in America or England. The opinions reported in this series of reports are selected from a large number never reported. They all received the per sonal attention and revision of the reporter. He did not hesitate to correct the opinions of his associates, or even to remodel them. He studied the art of punctuation, and read the best books for style. In his opinion a misplaced comma was as inexcusable as a grammatical blunder; and on one occasion an entire signature (sixteen pages) was printed four times before the punctuation suited him. In the printing of the eighth volume the entire printing establishment was delayed three days, at the cost of $125, until the author had determined the correct spelling of " jenny," a female ass. He had spelled it with a " g," but finding it spelled differently, he was not content to let it pass until he had examined every book in his 29

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library. During the year 1843 he paid his printer #600 for loss of time occasioned by these delays. The publication of the eighth volume covered eighteen months, and he paid his printer $1,100 for delays and cor rections. He had a standing reward with the printer for the discovery of errors; and he kept the sheets of each volume, as it was coming out, in the Supreme Court room, ac companied by a request that all errors be noted on the margin of the page containing the error. Ex-Governor Porter, our present Minister to Italy, noted an error in the use of the word " optionary." Several months afterward he was surprised to read in the papers his appointment as Supreme Court Reporter, to succeed Mr. Carter, recently de ceased. Seeking the Governor, he tendered his acknowledgments, but was referred to Judge Blackford, who, he was informed, had urged his appointment solely on the recom mendation of the discovered error. Indeed the story is told that that eminent lawyer, Samuel Judah, used to boast that he secured a delay in the decision of a case in the hands of Blackford for three years, sim ply by suggesting to him that Kent and Story differed in the spelling of " eleemosynary;" and although this tale may not be true, it in dicates the character of a man about whom such a story could be invented. Such is a faint outline of Blackford, the judge, the jurist, the scholar, and the recluse, and the greatest special pleader ever in the State. Stephen C. Stevens. Stevens first appeared in public life as a member of the legislature of 18 17 from Frank lin County, and was chairman of the commit tee on revision of the laws. In 1824 he was a member of the same body from Switzerland County, being elected Speaker; and in 1826 was elected to the State Senate, serving two terms. Afterwards he removed to Madison, and was appointed judge, Jan. 28, 1831, resigning in May, 1836. He was an oldtime Abolitionist; and in 1845 was the nom