Dan Coquillette honored on completion of
Josiah Quincy, Jr. publications
June 8, 2010

The Hon. Margaret H. Marshall, SJC chief justice, accepts copies of Quincy volumes from Professor Daniel R. Coquillette.

On June 8, 2010 Professor Daniel R. Coquillette and Josiah Quincy, Jr. were honored by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Judges, historians, Boston College and Harvard faculty and staff, alumni, colleagues, family, and friends gathered to celebrate the publication of Dan's landmark five-volume series of books on Josiah Quincy, Jr., co-edited with Neil Longley York.

Speakers included the Hon. Robert Cordy (SJC), Colonial Society President Donald Friary, the Hon. Chief Justice Margaret Marshall (SJC), and of course Professor Coquillette himself. Terming Coquillette a “brilliant, thoughtful, learned and ethical” lawyer and scholar, the Hon. Margaret H. Marshall, SJC chief justice, accepted copies of his recently published Portraits of a Patriot in a special ceremony June 8 at the John Adams Courthouse.  

Remarks by Margaret H. Marshall
Chief Justice, Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts

… It is a pleasure to welcome all of you to the John Adams Courthouse. Thank you to the Colonial Society for planning and hosting this special event, and to the many individuals and institutions that contributed to the publication of these magnificent volumes. On behalf of the Supreme Judicial Court I am deeply honored to accept this remarkable set of books.

The history of the Supreme Judicial Court is long, and rich. Everything we learn about this Court illuminates its many layers of history. I welcome, welcome enthusiastically, any contribution that helps to explicate the Court's history. But the contribution of these volumes is exceptional.

This is because of two extraordinary individuals: Josiah Quincy, Jr., and Daniel R. Coquillette. Professor Coquillette, I am confident that I am not the only person who has noticed how much you resemble Mr. Quincy, —well perhaps not physically. The words that you have used to describe Josiah Quincy, I use to describe you: brilliant, thoughtful, learned, ethical. You both share a deep passion for professionalism among lawyers. Mr. Quincy’s contributions and your contributions embrace many of the same goals: advancing the rule of law, furthering our knowledge of the law's history and sources, and preserving that history.

You have demonstrated your devotion to these goals in countless ways: as a law clerk, practicing attorney, teacher, mentor, scholar, Dean, and trusted advisor to countless individuals, organizations, and institutions. No one could have been more suited than you to have undertaken this important work. No one else could have brought Quincy’s contributions to light, with such a deep and personal understanding.

Because of your painstaking work, lawyers and judges and scholars and readers will be able to reexamine the work of the Superior Court of Judicature and the role played by its judges and members of the Bar from 1761 - 1772, critical years in the history of the Commonwealth, and of this nation.

Many of the cases in these volumes are of great significance: the Writs of Assistance and Boston Massacre cases to name only two. As you have mentioned, the second volume of Quincy's Reports begins in August 1765, the moment when a mob, angered by the Stamp Act, had destroyed the home of royalist Chief Justice Thomas Hutchinson. Quincy records Chief Justice Hutchinson's apology to the Court for his dress, noting that he had no other shirt because the riotous mob had left him "destitute of everything." … Quincy's Reports is a mine of historical gold nuggets.

As you have emphasized today, the judges and lawyers who populate these volumes shared, above all, a commitment to the rule of law. With assistance from your wonderful, insightful and informative introductions and annotations, Quincy's Reports permits us to trace the origins of our nation's embrace of a government of laws and not of men. Of an independent judicial branch of government. And ultimately of a constitutional form of government. An understanding of constitutional democracy, what it is and what sustains it, is not, as retired Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor reminds us, "passed down from generation to generation through the gene pool; it must be learned anew by each generation." Your work is a great contribution to our collective education ...

Professor Coquillette, these volumes will be treasured by everyone who values the rule of law, by everyone who pursues justice. In your own words, "[Josiah] Quincy’s faith in a rule of law as the ultimate protection of freedom is the cornerstone of today's American legal system and remains the chief article of faith of Quincy’s spiritual heirs, the American legal profession." (Vol I, p. xxvii). We in Massachusetts feel a particular responsibility to serve as those spiritual heirs.

Constitutional democracy is living democracy. It presumes an ever-changing world. Justice has no pinnacle. Its work is never done. "Justice, justice shall you pursue," commands Deuteronomy. We do not know what tomorrow’s work of justice will demand. We do know that Josiah Quincy and his peers, John Adams, William Cushing, so many others, seeded in Massachusetts perhaps the best system ever devised to make possible a just society where all people are free and equal. Trials by jury, not mob violence. Judges and lawyers constrained by rules of law and rules of professional ethics. A legal system that allows for both stability and change, that permits for self-correction when new facts and circumstances arise. A legal system that is the model for free societies everywhere.

Professor Coquillette, your work is an inspiration to everyone who cherishes the rule of law and the pursuit of justice. A former law clerk to Justice Robert Braucher of this court, you return in triumph. On behalf of the Supreme Judicial Court, "the oldest court in continuous service in the western hemisphere, operating under the oldest, still functioning written constitution anywhere,"
Thank you for this gift. Respice. Adspice. Prospice. These volumes will enrich our understanding of our past; they will inform our work in the present; they will inspire the generations who will follow.

Coquillette is the principal editor of the works that include the law reports originally written by Josiah Quincy Junior (1744-1775), recording the cases of continental America’s oldest court, the Superior Court of Judicature of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, direct ancestor of today’s Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, which has been in continuous existence since 1692.Coquillette spent 10 years annotating and writing comments on the elder Quincy’s notes. “Now, 145 years after the Civil War and Samuel Quincy, we have fulfilled this hope – the hope of Josiah Quincy, the hope of Samuel Quincy,” Coquillette said. “And the work is finally finished.”

“There are a lot of things [in Quincy’s reports] that link up to issues we face today,” added Coquillette. “One of the cases was cited in the United States Supreme Court just four years ago. Not only are these reports historically interesting, they are still cited as sources of law.”

“This is a major accomplishment,” noted Donald R. Friary, president of The Colonial Society. “It has real significance and use for the legal profession and for the bench. People still cite these reports that Quincy did in the 1760s and 1770s. These will be useful as well as historical.”

(from left) Associate Justice Ralph D. Gants; Donald R. Friary, President, Colonial Society of Massachusetts: Associate Justice Margot Botsford: Daniel R. Coquillette, Editor of the Quincy Papers, J. Donald Monan, S. J., University Professor, Boston College, and Vice President of the Colonial Society; Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall; Rev. J. Donald Monan, S. J., Chancellor, Boston College; Associate Justice Robert J. Cordy.