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An Unappreciated Heritage

On Tuesday, June 21, 1910, Jamestown High School held its annual Class Day, the 23rd such observance. Eighteen-year-old Robert Jackson of nearby Frewsburg, New York, who had spent the 1909-10 academic year as a post-graduate student at JHS and was graduating with its class of 1910, was selected to give the student oration of the day. His speech, which we today would call “environmentalist,” described Chautauqua County’s and Jamestown’s settlement and development and called for stewardship by current inhabitants of the beautiful region.

The Significance of the Nuremberg Trials to the Armed Forces

The armed services are naturally concerned as to what we were driving at at Nuremberg, and as to the principle on which the leaders of the German armed services were called upon to pay a penalty for their acts. Military men throughout the world wanted to know what it was that brought the German military men to that somewhat unhappy position. I propose to face that problem very frankly today and to discuss the effect of this trial on the profession of arms.

Nuremberg Trial of the Major Nazi Leaders

I gladly accepted the invitation to talk informally about the Nurnberg trial of the major Nazi leaders because it was supremely interesting and important work of my life and an experience that would be unique in the life of any lawyer. The proceeding itself was invested with a certain melancholy grandeur both from its nature and from the character of the parties.

America’s Lack of Success in Europe

Uppermost in the mind of every thoughtful youth today is this question: Will I have to go through another war? I cannot answer that question, of course, but perhaps I can point out some of the factors that will help you to determine the probabilities.

Address at St. Lawrence University

The enemies with whom hostilities so recently ceased were among the most literate, scientific and artistic peoples of the world. No European people could better meet a general education test than the Germans, and no Orientals were more proficient in the Western arts and sciences that the Japanese. Barbarians no longer menace civilization, for modern war is a complicated enterprise that only a generally educated nation can manage. Hence the paradox that a people is to be feared in direct proportion to its education.

Liberian Anniversary Address

Many different reasons have led to the foundation of different new nations. Liberia is the only one that occurs to me as having been founded to ease a troubled national conscience. It is an outgrowth of the most deplorable chapter in American history-one which still leaves an ugly residue of misunderstanding between races and, to some extent, between sections or our country.

A Country Lawyer at an International Court

One morning the telephone rang and we were asked about how to deliver a telegram to a man whom we happened to know but who had just moved into the neighborhood. Of course, we gave the information, but when they delivered the telegram he was surprised to find he had been identified so quickly and he said, "How did you ever know where to find me?" "Oh," said the telegraph man, "that was easy. We just called the Justice of the Peace:" (Laughter) So I claim that I am the first damn Yankee to be made a Virginia judge as quick as that.

Tribute to Mary Willard

On Wednesday afternoon, June 10, 1931, Jamestown attorney Robert Jackson was one of the speakers at the Jamestown Public Schools’ annual memorial exercises for former teachers and students. On this occasion, Jackson spoke in the Euclid Street School auditorium about his former high school teacher and important mentor Mary Rosina Willard, who had died earlier that year at age 74. Jackson’s speech, which was published in a local newspaper, also is contained in his papers in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Box 32.

Jamestown High School Dedication

On Friday evening, November 15, 1935, Robert Jackson spoke at the dedication of the newly-constructed Jamestown High School building. His speech is contained in his papers in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Box 32.

Tribute to Milton J Fletcher

On Thursday evening, June 30, 1932, Jamestown attorney Robert Jackson attended the dinner 64th annual reunion of his 1910 alma mater, Jamestown High School. At this event, which was held at the Hotel Jamestown, Jackson spoke about Milton Joseph Fletcher, the former JHS Principal (1888-1919) and then Jamestown School Superintendent (1919-1932), who was retiring.