Page:Men of Mark in America vol 2.djvu/425

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
HENRY ST. GEORGE TUCKER
355

member of the Democratic side of the house, he was active and progressive, his most notable service being the origination and earnest advocacy of a bill in favor of a constitutional amendment for the election of United States senators by the people, and a bill for the repeal of the Federal election law. The latter was passed and was signed by President Cleveland, February 8, 1894. His congressional experience ending in 1897, he was elected to succeed his father as professor of Constitutional and International Law and Equity in Washington and Lee university. He was also dean of the law school from 1899 to 1902. These positions he filled with credit until 1902, when he resigned; and shortly afterward he accepted his present position, that of dean of the schools of Law and Diplomacy in the Columbian university, of Washington, District of Columbia, now the George Washington university. Mr. Tucker is the author of "Tucker on the Constitution," a two- volume work published at Chicago in 1899.

At the annual meeting in St. Louis in September, 1904, of the American Bar Association, Mr. Tucker was elected president of that body for the ensuing year — an honor which his father had so worthily worn just twelve years before.

To this sketch of the leading details of Dean Tucker's life, a few words of comment as to its guiding influences may be added. A member of the Presbyterian church, his earnest study of the Bible has been one of the strong forces bearing upon his moral development. The works of Shakespeare and Burns have played a similar part in his intellectual growth and development. While his profession was of his own choice, he was led to adopt it by family traditions; and his early impulse to strive for life's prizes undoubtedly came from his father. Home influence, indeed, especially that of his father, was the chief element in launching him successfully upon the voyage of life. His father taught him the rule for attaining success, which he offers to others: To "fix upon a career early in life and stick to' it." Asked for his favorite recreation Dean Tucker says that it consists in what some might deem the laborious exercise of "speaking in the cause of public education in the South"—a fact which speaks decisively for the earnestness and public spirit of the man. His interest in the advancement of education in the South has been untiring, and for two years under the direction of the Southern Educational Board he was engaged in canvassing the state of Virginia and arousing