Page images
PDF
EPUB

thies are broad and deep; yet I can look upon him in the "dry light" of science-dispassionately and without asperity. So to-night I shall lay aside all distinctions and treat them as if equals.

The young lawyer exults in logic and analysis-he defies them both. Let us contemplate him. He may be described as the genus homo importans "deep on whose front engraven deliberation sits and public care." He is res tota,-in the modern tongue, "the whole works." He is great in persona rather than in rem or in rebus. According to experienced trial judges the young lawyer is a contradiction in terms, yet a necessary evil, whose chief function is to grow older. Like the law. he is a process, not a completed product,-university diplomas notwithstanding. In judicial opinion he is obiter dictum. Among lawyers he is sui generis—a sort of difference without—a distinction. The jurists appear to concede that he exists by presumption of law, and the weight of authority seems to be that he thrives by presumption in fact. He can scarcely be said to come within the purview of the laity; his name loometh large on his own sign to the public. It shineth from afar—and very faintly. He is not expressly classified among the public utilities, but he no doubt has his place; the difficulty is to find it. His sphere is coextensive with that ascribed by Lord Brougham to the law of England, "to get twelve men in a box"-and jam down the lid!

He is a peripatetic institution of learning, dedicated to his own glorification, endowed with majestic powers of his own imagining, and founded upon the three cardinal virtues, faith, hope, and charity,-faith in his own infinite knowledge, hope for the obtuseness of judges and juries, and charity for the older lawyers who have all the business; and the greatest of these is faith.

He disdains to shine by reflected effulgence. He is a legal light in, and unto, himself, only waiting to be extinguished. To him law and abstract justice are the same. He is long on theory and short on practice. With him "knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers." And until he realizes that men and all human institutions are mere approximations to perfection, and that good and evil alike are persistent forces, with juridical "eye in the fine frenzy rolling" he crouches in his lair, like a fierce giraffe, ready to leap, upon quixotic provocation, to right the wrongs of an erring world. And be it said to his honor that he stands peerless and transcendent in the domain of "Buffalo Jurisprudence" and "Kangaroo Procedure."

I have never talked to a young lawyer that did not "out-Herod Herod" for prosperity It is not with him an occasional or acute attack, bu a chronic condition. As a young lawyer I had more business than I could have attended to in sixty years, and the magnitude of my income

was incredible. But as I grew older, the law somewhat fell in disrepute with clients, and my coffers contained naught but "intangible assets."

The lawyer should know everything-the young lawyer does. If the old lawyer knows most, the young lawyer knows best. It is no trouble for him to tell what the law is it is rather a surprise. But the evil day cometh apace when, "with assurance doubly sure" and stride triumphant, he marches into court with his first case; and, enveloped in the darkness of his own pleadings, he falls into the clutches of the grisly old gorilla, General Demurrer. Let us not paint the pathetic picture, nor voice the lamentation.

The young lawyer is gregarious, he cometh in flocks. But tremble not, friends, at the annual increase of competitors, for many young lawyers are called, few deliver the "merchandise." To the established practitioner the situation is not hopeless, but has its compensations. Let us be just, for we know that the young lawyer is a valuable litigious. asset. And, furthermore, whether we agree that the law is an exact science or not, we know that it has a sort of certainty that often amounts to fatality; and that, while its policy is to put an end to litigation, its practice puts an end to young lawyers, thus establishing in the profession a subtle relation of equilibrium between genesis and exodus. Also let us be generous. And when the young lawyer feels that his place is precarious, and that his talents are not appreciated, and that everything is against him, let us exhort him to brace up, have courage, and be firm; for conditions will change and probably get-worse. And, my dear young friend, let me admonish you, in the melancholy hour and whatever may betide, to think always of the nobility and dignity of your profession. Keep well in your own mind that you are a lawyer; and some day perhaps the community will discover your secret. Make yourself agreeable to the old practitioners. Keep in touch with them. Impress them with your significance, and with the fact that you have a college education. Let them know that you are a "coming" as well as a "going" concern. Tell them how well you are doing; that you first cases to a finish and never let up. Blow-even as the four winds; they admire enthusiasm. Do equity by them; withhold not the worst; when you have lost a suit, go to them-pari passu. Regale them with the law of extenuating circumstances; cover the subject to the point of exhaustion. Try the case all over again for their refreshment. You may get another trial-if their opinion theretofore has been good they will probably set aside the judgment.

Shun, as you would the pestilence, the evil spirit of commercialism. in your professional conduct. Be not money-driven hirelings of a trade.

I have heard that, in some sections of our country, lawyers have yielded to this sinister influence and have trailed the priceless standard of our calling in the golden dust, and have sacrificed our lofty traditions upon the altar of Mammon. Reluctantly though I confess it, I am reliably informed that lawyers in the large cities of the north and east have reduced the profession to a business; that they boldly receive money for legal services, and actually earn from this source a comfortable livelihood. And some, more daring than the rest, are said in this doubtful manner to have acquired a fortune. Coming as I do from a distant state, whose professional atmosphere is chaste and undefiled, I hesitate to believe the accusation. And I may add, with pardonable pride, that never in my personal experience at the Texas bar has such an ominous condition of affairs been known to exist. My own observation has been that in Texas the rich lawyer is a paradox; and my conjecture has been that in other states he was a "legal fiction." Yes, my friends, in good conscience I may aver that in the imperial state from which I come the law, like virtue, is its own reward-at least I have found it so. Esteem the law, thy mistress, the guardian angel of blind justice, and, by men's unthought appointment through the ages, her majestic voice and dread interpreter. She sits aloft on the rock-ribbed Mount of Right, a peaceful virgin, frowning chaos and disorder down throughout the world. To stay the hand of reckless might and turbulence she reacheth forth; and higher yet to lift the blood-won standard of longwakening man's humanity to man. From us she's hid betimes in mist, and from her dim retreat 'tis sport to watch us climb and stumble, fall and then again essay the height. There leads no path of dalliance to her bower; to her favor winds the stubborn royal road of honor, courage, and devotion. With the largess of content that on the faithful she bestows, nor gold, nor regal purple, nor the "wealth of Ind," nor argosy with precious stones deep laden, e'en can vie; all these are but the greedy gew-gaws of a life misused, against the tranquil balm which waits. the seal of her approval. My friends, she is a stern mistress, "correctly cold," and never to be completely subdued. To the blandishments of the young man of wealth she usually giveth the "marble heart." For a soft income turneth away resolution, and dulleth the edge of endeavor. My comrades, let me warn you: do not fall under the ban-don't be a rich man's son. To a young lawyer there is no predicament more baleful and tragic-except to be a poor man's son.

Develop generous impulses. It is to my keen sense of gratitude that I chiefly owe my present business relations. When the world was apprised, through the Associated Press, that I had procured license to practise law, the clamorous demands usually made for the services of

the young lawyer by interests in large cities were directed toward me. But my father, who had sent me to school, I felt had some claims upon me. So I took no account of any of the inducements offered me. I went to my father and said: "You have educated me, at least you think you have. I am grateful. You have an established practice; you need me." And I proved it by taking him into partnership. And I advise every young lawyer similarly situated to follow my example, especially if he has any reverence for the three graces, food, shelter, and raiment. Censure me not for paternalism; each to his own. But verily, to depend on our fathers is silver; to depend on ourselves is "brass." And, lest you have cause to lament with your client, I charge you fling away self-reliance, for by that sin fell the angels.

May you always know the flush, but never the blush, of victory. And to this end remember that in our time under the statute de bonis asportatis you must not be "caught with the goods."

You will no doubt make mistakes. The man that never makes mistakes never makes anything. And to the man of indomitable will nothing succeeds like failure. "Upon our dead selves as stepping stones we rise to higher things." I have traveled the road myself. I want to see you successful. You have my best wishes ever. In your adversity my heart goes out to you; in your prosperity-my hand.

In conclusion-be your success, as men call it, what it may, bear in mind that change is the law of life. The watchword of progress is "move on"; and fixation is retrogression. And in this regard, doth justice ever grant fair and ample dispensation to her servitors of the law. Mindful of your solace, she hath wisely provided. And when the city's "thick-coming" complications, and garish flare and turmoil, shall have palled upon you, and you have overtaxed your "credulity in listening to the whispers of fancy"; and have pursued with vain "eagerness the phantoms of hope," you may still answer the plaintive call of the bucolic siren for her own-and take to the tall timber; And, my dear young friends, as a prophet without honor in his own, or any other country, let me predict that I shall precede you there; and be the first to bid you welcome, in copious draughts of obscurity, back to nature and the simple life.

CHAPTER X

SPEECHES OF INTRODUCTION

§ 60

INTRODUCING LOUIS KOSSUTH

By William Cullen Bryant

(Address at the banquet given in honor of the Hungarian patriot by the Press of New York, December 9, 1851.)

GENTLEMEN: Before announcing the third regular toast, which is a very short one, allow me to say a few words. Let me ask you to imagine that the contest in which the United States asserted their independence of Great Britain had closed in disaster and defeat; that our armies, through treason and a league of tyrants against us, had been broken and scattered; that the great men who led them, and who swayed our councils, our Washington, our Franklin, the venerable President of the American Congress, and their illustrious associates, had been driven forth as exiles. If there had existed at that day, in any part of the civilized world, a powerful republic, with institutions resting on the same. foundations of liberty which our own countrymen sought to establish, would there have been in that republic any hospitality too cordial, any sympathy too deep, any zeal for their glorious but unfortunate cause too fervent or too active to be shown towards these illustrious fugitives? Gentlemen, the case I have supposed is before you. The Washingtons, the Franklins of Hungary, her sages, her legislators, her warriors, expelled by a far worse tyranny than was ever endured here, are wanderers in foreign lands. Some of them are within our own borders; one of them sits with his companions as our guest to-night, and we must measure the duty we owe them by the same standard which we would have had history apply, if our ancestors had met with a fate like theirs.

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. Born at Cummington, Mass., November 3, 1794; died at New York, June 12, 1878; educated at Williams College; studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1815; practised law at Great Barrington, Mass.; joined the staff of the New York Evening Post in 1825; was editor-in-chief of the Evening Post, 1828-1878.

« PreviousContinue »