George Turner, a Character from Plutarch [Part 1]

• Main Author: Johnson, Claudius O.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: UW Law Digital Commons 1943
• Subjects: Legal Biography; Alabama; North Atlantic; Alaska
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wlr/vol18/iss4/1; https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/context/wlr/article/2608/viewcontent/geo.pdf

It was no accident that Turner's ablest and noblest efforts on the floor of the United States Senate were in the interest of a subject people, for the battle for justice, at whatever points the lines happened to be breaking or threatened, was the most absorbing drama of his career. A statesman and a lawyer of a generation that has passed, he loved any fight; but it was with stem joy and unflinching courage that he hurled his deadliest shafts at the forces of injustice or oppression. A Federal marshal in Alabama (1876-1880), Judge of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Washington (1884-1888), member of the Washington constitutional convention (1889), United States Senator (1897-1903), member of the Alaska Boundary Commission (1903), of leading counsel for the United States in the North Atlantic Fisheries Arbitration (1910), and for nearly fifty years a leader of the bar in the State of Washington, Turner presents a career which merits review. Self-educated, distinguished in appearance, courtly in bearing, courageous in action, unyielding on essential points of honor and justice, he presents a character worthy of analysis.