Document Type
Tribute
Publication Date
1882
Abstract
This is Judge Cooley's tribute to former University of Michigan astronomer Professor James Craig Watson, who died unexpectedly at age 42 and is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Ann Arbor. While not specifically related to the law, Cooley memorializes Watson with his ringing prose: "... it was among the stars this great man found his chief delight, and fitting it was that he should do so. He knew the stars as one knows the faces of his friends ..." But it is the last few pages of the tribute that Cooley asserts the glory of the State of Michigan and specifically, the University of Michigan: "... here was and always must have been his scientific home. It was the University of Michigan that he had crowned with a garland of stars, and from whose Observatory the lightning had announced his successive discoveries..." Cooley's finale quotes the Ordinance of 1787 that the fathers of the Republic "bound the people of the territory [of Michigan] by the unalterable law, that 'Religion, Morality, and Knowledge, being necessary to Good Government and the happiness of mankind, Schools and the means of Education shall forever be encouraged."
Recommended Citation
The Memorial Addresses Delivered in University Hall, November 26, 1880, at the Funeral of Professor James Craig Watson, … Professor in the University from 1859 to 1879. By Henry S. Frieze, Charles K. Adams, Alexander Winchell, Thomas M. Cooley. [Ann Arbor, Mich]: Published by the University, 1882.