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JOHN B. CASSODAY.

short at the age of 47 by Burr's murderous shot, and what Webster in later years did become, the great expounder of the American constitutions, as a lawyer in the American courts. If such was his secret design, it was, seemingly, overcome by a wise and overruling Providence, in order that his deliverances should, for the benefit of his countrymen, take the more permanent and commanding forms of judicial opinions. It may be assumed, that there are but few, if any, bold enough to declare that no finger from on high had anything to do with the shaping of the events which led to an appointment so essential to the perpetuity of the Union, and hence so salutary to mankind throughout the world, as that of Marshall, to the great office he held so long.

Undoubtedly, there were some who sat with him upon the bench, more learned in the history and technicalities of the law, and more brilliant in their exposition, but none with more accurate conceptions of the general scope, purpose and significance of the powers granted, limited, permitted, prohibited and reserved by our national constitution.

Moreover, in the field of dispassionate analytical reasoning, in the enforcement of the several provisions of that instrument, in the absence of precedent, he stands out as the most exalted American.

Besides a matchless intellect, he was wholly without guile. He was intensely, broadly and truly a patriotic Ameri

can.

He had, moreover, those essentials of a great judge, the power of reserving and suppressing conviction, until with impartial discrimination he had mastered the case in all its bearings, and then to clearly formulate and grandly carry his conclusions into execution, regardless of consequences to himself, or popular clamor.

Such is a very meager sketch of an obedient son, a discriminating student, a brave soldier, a loving husband, an affectionate father, a patriotic citizen, a faithful representa

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tive in both the state and national councils, an able lawyer, a discreet diplomatist, a wise cabinet officer, an unselfish man, a modest, unassuming and genuine Christian, a consummate judge. Manifestly, the comprehensive and conservative patriotism of the American Bars and the American peoples, would not allow them to do less, than to follow the suggestion of the Illinois State Bar Association, and resolve, as they have all over the country, and then grandly execute, as they certainly will on the coming 4th day of February, by appropriately commemorating the eminent judicial services of John Marshall. May his memory ever be held sacred by the American bars, his wisdom continue to guide the American courts, and his services in preserving the integrity of the Union always be appreciated by the American people.

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LEVY MAYER.

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HAS COMMERCIALISM IMPAIRED
THE LAWYER OF TO-DAY?

LEVY MAYER, OF CHICAGO.

"If law be a science and really deserve so sublime a name, it must be founded on principle, and claim an exalted rank in the empire of reason," said Sir William Jones more than a hundred years ago. Does the sentiment apply at this time? Or, is the charge "trade and tradesman," frequently applied in recent years to law and lawyers, true? The contention that the law is now a trade and its votaries tradesmen, is strangely enough made by lawyers to lawyers and usually at gatherings of this kind. Is the law still a science as it was in the days of Jones and Mansfield, of Marshall and Story? Does it still take "exalted rank in the empire of reason?" Are its devotees merely commercial mechanics and artisans?

An occupant of the bench in one of the eastern States is said to have asserted that between the lawyer of the present and of former days, there existed great differences in mental equipment, and in their methods and processes of arriving at results and working out legal problems; that the effect of the modern methods upon the practitioner himself is belittling, and that the system which we have been taught to regard as the perfection of human reason is, as now practiced,

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