Part 1 (2/2)
The admonition, ”Beware the nificance The co of many books there is no end” Professor Phelps is authority for the statele opinions in which more authorities are cited than were mentioned by Marshall in the whole thirty years of his unexampled judicial life; and briefs that contain uments he ever delivered”
The lawyers of the times whereof rite were, almost without exception, politicians--in close touch with the people, easy of approach, and obliging to the last degree Generally speaking, a lawyer's office was as open to the public as the Courthouse itself That his surroundings were favorable to the cultivation of a high degree of sociability goes without saying Story-telling helped often on the circuit to while away the long evenings at country taverns At tis and clatter”
Oratory counted for much more then than now When an important case was on trial all other pursuits were for the time suspended, and the people for miles around were in prompt attendance This was especially the case when it was known that one or ation, too, was to a large extent different from that of to-day The country was new, population sparse; the luxuries and many of the comforts of life yet in the future; post-offices, schools, and churches many miles away In every cabin were to be found the powder-horn, bullet-pouch, and rifle The restraints and ae ether much was to be, and was, ”pardoned to the spirit of liberty” There were no great corporations to be chosen defendants, but much of the time of the courts was taken up by suits in ejectment, actions for assault and battery, breach of promise, and slander One, not infrequent, was replevin, involving the ownershi+p of hogs, when by unquestioned usage all stock was perrades, and in all their details, aroused the deepest interest To these the people caeneral muster This was especially true if a h, and the argu to close, were listened to with breathless interest It will readily be seen that such occasions furnished rare opportunity to the gifted advocate In very truth the general acquaintance thus for of more than one successful and brilliant political career Moreover, the thorough knowledge of the people thus acquired by actual contact--the knowledge of their condition, necessities, and wishes--resulted often in legislation of enduring benefit to the new country The Ho apart a moiety of the public domain for the maintenance of free schools, and judicious provision for the establishment of the various charities, will readily be recalled
Politics, in the modern sense--too often -stones to local offices and even to Congress, the caucus and convention were yet to come Aspirants to public place presented their claims directly to the people, and the personal popularity of the candidate was an i success Bribery at elections was rarely heard of
The saying of the great bard,
”If o before, All ways do open lie,”
awaited its verification in a later and more civilized period As late even as 1858, when Lincoln and Douglas were rival aspirants to the Senate, when every voter in the State was a partisan of one or the other candidate, and the excitement was for many months intense, there was never, fro to influence the result
No period of our history has witnessed reat party leaders than that of which rite Of eminent stateser space than did Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson The former was the early political idol of Mr Lincoln; the latter, of Mr Douglas
Possibly, since the foundation of the Government, no statesman has been so completely idolized by his friends and party as was Henry Clay Words are less when the attes of his own State for their great chieftain For a lifetime he knew no rival His as law to his followers In the realreater than he hath not appeared At his last defeat for the Presidency strong men wept bitter tears When his star set, it was felt to be the signal for the dissolution of the great party of which he was the founder In words worthy to be recalled, ”when the tidings ca over the State that Harry Percy's spur was cold, the chivalrous felt so incident, along the line indicated, may be considered characteristic While Mr Clay was a Senator, a resolution, in accordance with a sometime custom, was introduced into the Kentucky House of Representatives instructing the Senators fro in Congress The resolution was in the act of passing without opposition, when a hitherto silentto his feet, exclaiislature is undertaking _to tell_ Henry Clay how to vote?” The Speaker answered that such was the purport of the resolution
At which theup his arms, exclaimed ”Great God!” and sank into his seat It is needless to add that the resolution was immediately rejected by unanio the Hon John P Kennedy wrote of the lawyers of his day:
”The feelings, habits, and associations of the bar in general, have a very happy influence upon the character And, take it altogether, there reater enerous spirits, than from any other equal numbers of society They live in each other's presence like a set of players; congregate in courts like the forreen room; and break their unpremeditated jests, in the intervals of business, with that sort of undress freedoic seriousness hich they appear in turn upon the boards They have one face for the public, rife with the saws and learned gravity of the profession, and another for theay thoughtlessness The intense ive them a peculiar relish for the enjoyree, incapacitate theal attention to their private concerns which their limitedair of unthriftiness in personal matters, which, however it may operate to the prejudice of the pocket of the individual, has a mellow and kindly effect upon his disposition In an old ray in the service, there is a rich unction of originality that brings hi relief His habitual conversancy with the world in its strangest varieties and with the secret history of character, gives him a shrewd estimate of the human heart He is quiet, and unapt to be struck onder at any of the actions ofcal out in words; the confidence which has been placed in him, in the thousand relations of his profession, renders him constitutionally cautious His acquaintance with the vicissitudes of fortune, as they have been exemplified in the lives of individuals, and with the severe afflictions that have 'tried the reins' of ent and charitable apologist of the aberrations of others
He has an iood huhtfulness into o, said of the early Western bar:
”Not only was it a body distinguished for dignity and tolerance, but chivalrous courage was athe bar, as aht the British and the Indians Hence, insulting language, and the use of billingsgate, were too hazardous to be indulged where a personal accounting was a strong possibility Not only did co the members of the bar, but an exalted spirit of honor and well-bred politeness prevailed
The word of a counsel to his adversary was his inviolable bond
The suggestion of a lawyer as to the existence of a fact was accepted as verity by the court To insinuate unprofessional conduct was to impute infamy”
I distinctly recall the first time I saw Mr Lincoln In Septefield, sohted froton The taller and younger of the tas Abraham Lincoln; the other, his personal friend and forood fortune to hear Mr Lincoln address a politicalat the old Courthouse in advocacy of the election of General Winfield Scott to the Presidency The speech was one of great ability, and but little that was favorable of the military record of General Pierce remained when the speech was concluded The Mexican War was then of recent occurrence, its startling events fresh in the memory of all, and its heroes still the heroes of the hour The more than half-century that has passed has not wholly dispelled my recollection of Mr
Lincoln's eloquent tribute to ”the hero of Lundy's Lane,” and his humorous description of the military career of General Franklin Pierce
The incident now to be related occurred at the old National Hotel in Bloolas had been advertised to speak, and a large audience was in attendance It was his first appearance there since the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill
The writer, then a student at the Wesleyan University, with his class and las at his hotel While there the Hon Jesse W Fell, a proton and the close friend of Mr
Lincoln, also called upon Mr Douglas, and after some conversation with him said in substance, that inasreat question then pending, and the people were anxious to hear both sides, he thought it would be well to have a joint discussion between Judge Douglas and Mr Lincoln To which proposition Mr Douglas at once demanded, ”What party does Mr Lincoln represent?” The answer of Mr Fell was, ”the Whig party, of course” Declining the proposition with las said, ”When I caton I was assailed in the northern part of the State by an old line abolitionist, in the central part of the State by a Whig, and in Southern Illinois by an anti-Nebraska De responsible for what the abolitionist says, nor the anti-Nebraska Democrat responsible for what either of the others say, and it looks like dogging a man all over the State” There was no further allusion to the subject, and Mr Lincoln soon after called The greeting between Judge Douglas and himself was most cordial, and their conversation, principally of incidents of their early lives, of the e Lawrence Weldon, just then at the beginning of an honorable career, was present at the above interview, and has in a sketch of Mr Lincoln given its incidents more in detail
Courts of justice, and the law as a distinctive calling, are the necessary outgrowths of civilization In his rude state, ed But as coanic form, tribunals were instituted for the administration of justice and the ress of society, fronorance to a state of the highest culture and refinement,justice, and in the character and learning of its tribunals The advance steps taken from time to time in the history of jurisprudence are the hway of civilization All along the pathway of huress, the courts of justice have been the sure criteria by which to judge of the intelligence and virtue of our race
Truly it has been said: ”With the co of the lawyer came a neer in the world The steel-clad baron and his retainers were awed by terms they had never before heard and did not understand, such as precedent, principle, and the like The great and real pacifier of the world was the lawyer His parchment took the place of the battle-field The flow of his ink checked the flow of blood
His quill usurped the place of the sword His legalism dethroned barbarism His victories were victories of peace He impressed on individuals and on co to impress on nations, that there are many controversies that it were better to lose by arbitration than to win by war and bloodshed”
It is all-inify the law Whatever lessens respect for its authority bodes evil and only evil to the State No occasion could arise more appropriate than this in which to utter solereater ht to be apprehended fron foe In many localities a spirit of lawlessness has asserted itself in its most hideous form The rule of the es have been perpetrated in the nahtful ard of individual rights, and utterly subversive of all lawful authority
By the soleuards of law, the fact of guilt is to be established, and the guilty punished The spirit of the onism to all constituted authority Unless curbed it will sap the foundation of civilized society Lynching a human creature is no less le individual There is no safety to society but in an aroused public sentiment that will hold each participant amenable to the law for the consequences of the crime he either perpetrates or abets This is the land of liberty, ”of the largest liberty,” but let it never be forgotten that it is liberty regulated by law Let him be accounted a public enemy ould weaken the bonds of human society, and destroy what it has cost our race the sacrifice and toil of centuries to achieve