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the country that a man with such learning, courage and independence was called upon to interpret that provision of the Constitution and administer the law.

Burr was shortly after tried upon another charge and acquitted. He went forth with a verdict by the jury of acquittal, but condemned then and for all time to come, at the bar of public opinion. He thenceforth, for years became a wanderer, unsettled, restless, hopeless of any amelioration of his condition or any change of public sentiment towards him. He attempted to regain his practice in New York and recover some of the property lost through his reckless, extravagant and improvident conduct, with but little success. The mark of the criminal was upon him, and the curse of Cain followed him to the end.

Aaron Burr's ability as a lawyer has been variously estimated by those passing judgment upon him. That he never was a great lawyer in the broader and better sense of the term, has been generally conceded, even by his most ardent admirers. He was shrewd, cunning, of keen perceptive faculties, ready to avail himself of success by any intrigue, trick or deception. He possessed a marvelous power over individual men and over women, not unusual or uncommon in thoroughly bad men. He was successful in his practice for a time, because of the methods and means adopted, but unscrupulousness, trickery, dishonesty and deception in the prac tice of law sooner or later destroy confidence and produce a loss of clientage.

Parton divides lawyers into three classes:

"To the first class belong the great souls who love justice, and who love law as the means by which justice is done. Of such lawyers, few everywhere, the American Bar can boast at least its fair proportion."

For the credit of our profession I challenge the declaration that such lawyers are few. It may be that in comparison with the vast army they are largely in the minority, but

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every city throughout the length and breadth of our country has lawyers who can honestly claim a place in the ranks of the "great souls who love justice and who love law as the means by which justice is done." Fortunate is the people, and fortunate the bar when such men are elevated to the bench. To that class belonged the eminent Chief Justice who presided at the trial of Burr; to that class belong some of the Judges who have heretofore honored, and some who still honor, the Bench in this city where we are met. The number of such lawyers and judges ought to be greater than it is.

The second of Parton's classes "comprises the majority of practitioners whose single consideration it is to serve their clients by all means which the Bar stamps legitimate. If they triumph, it is well, whether justice triumphs with them or not; whether their triumph is due to a recognized legal trick, or to a right interpretation of the law." To this class Burr belonged, and was one of its keenest intellectual examples. The present commercial aspect of the age has multiplied this class of lawyers. Their services are sought by those who are fighting for success and supremacy in the commercial and mercantile world, and if it be that they do not present the highest types of manhood and morality, it must be remembered that they are largely made what they are by their clients and employers. Their standard of

morality and integrity is at least as high as those who require and procure their services.

The third class, according to Parton, "are simply unscrupulous. They hang upon the outskirts of the profession and prey upon its offal. It is their trade to assist, to protect and to deliver villains." "To be a lawyer of the first description and to excel in it, demands a broad, comprehensive and noble understanding; the second class requires a quick, acute intellect, tact, adroitness, self-possession, great physical stamina, together with a certain moral obtuseness, which enables a man to do in his professional, what he would not do in his private capacity. The third kind of lawyer is merely a scoundrel, cunning enough to obtain the rewards of crime without incurring its risks. To a place among the greatest lawyers Aaron Burr has no title. He was tough, elastic, polished, penetrating, a perfect rapier, not a broadsword; successful while

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he did a rapier's work, failing when a heavier blade was needed in his place."

Two things only have conspired to keep alive at all the memory of this worthless man; the killing of Hamilton, and his trial for treason, a notoriety that no man is likely to covet. It has been said Burr's attempted treason grew out of remorse for the killing of Hamilton. I have yet to discover any evidence, either in his character, his utterances, or his correspondence showing that he ever entertained a sentiment of remorse for any of the disreputable acts of his life. He could be capable of chagrin and mortification at the failure of his plans and schemes, but he never apparently knew what sorrow and remorse were for any of his crimes and misdeeds. He could and did, as remorselessly as a fiend without conscience, invade and destroy the peace and purity of the homes of his friends, and there is not a scintilla of evidence of any regret at the ruin and devastation he caused by the gratification of the basest passions of human nature, nor did they leave him or apparently abate till near the end of his long life. At seventy he married an old woman for her fortune, and was making, or attempting to make, provision for an illegitimate child, begotten at that age.

Adversity, trouble, disappointment, punishment, seemed to exercise over him no corrective power. As he was when a young man, he continued to the end. Lodge said of him:

"It has been the fashion to portray Burr as a being of great but misguided intellect, a human Mephistopheles,-grand, evil, mysterious. In reality he was a shallow man, with a superficial brilliancy and the conspirator's talent for intrigue of all sorts. He was a successful rake, bad, unscrupulous, tricky, possessing what women and young men call fascination, and utterly devoid of any moral sense."

One reason for the selection of this subject, was that I might hold up to the younger members of the profession examples of different kinds of lawyers and jurists. It is a question for every young professional man to determine for himself, what sort of a career he will choose and follow. If suc

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cess in life is measured by the petty victories in the forum, or by the acquisition of wealth; if the highest happiness is secured in the pursuit of these, regardless of consequences to the individual or the community, then they will follow the example of Burr in his professional life; but if self-respect, without which no man has a right to expect or demand the respect of others, is of value; if conduct and character are worth more than mere success, or are better than the accidents of life; if to be is better than to do, and to have, then avoid the intellectual, moral and professional errors of Burr, and follow carefully, considerately and closely in the foot steps of the Chief Justice who held the scales of justice so evenly during the trial of that great culprit.

Reputation and character are infinitely better than mere notoriety and they become infinitely more valuable to the individual as time goes on. A good name, even to the lawyer, ought to be vastly more desirable "than great riches."

No lawyer can have a greater or better tribute to his character and memory than the general opinion among those to whom he is best known that he belonged to that class of "great souls who love justice and who love law as the means by which justice is done."

HORACE KENT TENNEY.

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A RULE OF LAW WHICH IS A CREDIT TO THE BAR

HORACE KENT TENNEY, OF CHICAGO.

In referring to the subject of this paper as "A Rule of Law which is a Credit to the Bar," I do not mean to imply that it is the only legal rule for which the bar can claim the merit of responsibility. As a member of the profession, I claim for it a large measure of whatever credit is due for the perfection of the system of jurisprudence which defines the rights of men and aims to protect them. In the creation of this system, the dominant influence of the lawyer, as legisla tor, as judge and as advocate, has ever made itself felt. The bar has constantly been engaged, not only in administering and enforcing the law, but in creating it, and in moulding the application of its general principles to the accomplishment of justice in the new cases which changed conditions produce. My purpose is merely to call attention to the sharp contrast which exists between the rules which apply to the business transactions of laymen, and those which apply exclusively to members of the profession. The credit for these rules can fairly be claimed by those whose conduct is regulated by them.

It is an old saying that "law is the perfection of reason, and that which is not reason is not law." No member of our profession would think of questioning the truth of this statement, whose hoary antiquity gives to it the appearance of a fundamental principle. But the reason which is thus said to reach its perfection in the law is, after all, a sort of cold and abstract logic, which, following the lines of mathematical