WEST VIRGINIA. BOGGESS, CALEB COLE, W. L. DAVIS, JOHN J. HEREFORD, FRANK WISCONSIN. CARY, ALFRED L. HOOKER, DAVID G. WINKLER, FREDERICK C. Clarksburg. Buckhannon. Charleston. Wellsburg. Milwaukee. Madison. Milwaukee. ADDRESS OF WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER, OF NEW YORK, PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. ON the recurrence of our annual meeting it is a source of special satisfaction to me to welcome to the state of New York, and to the most attractive of its summer resorts, so many members of the American Bar. Your presence attests the fact that one purpose of our organization is already fulfilled in the closer union of the members of our profession in the several states in that friendly personal intercourse which cannot fail to give inspiration and strength to our efforts for the improvement of the law. We are happily exempt from some of the disturbing elements which so largely inhere in other learned professions. We have no conflicting and contending schools, or sects, or parties, and the errand which brings us here is one which combines with a true spirit of fraternity an unselfish purpose to advance the welfare of our common country by strengthening the foundations of justice. and purifying the methods of its administration. The eighth article of our Constitution provides that the President shall open "each annual meeting with an address in which he shall communicate the most noteworthy changes in statute law on points of general interest made in the several states and by Congress during the preceding year." The same article makes it the duty of the member of the General Council from each state to report to the President, annually, on or before May 1, any such legislation in his state. |