The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-02-02

rascals he had saved from the gallows, he would
have fearful account to render. If lawyers are
responsible for all the bad case they have, for all
the perjuries and forgeries committed by their
ichents and their Witnesses, God forbid that any
OF us should practice the profession.
! can see manifest impropriety in members Of
Congress being interested ia the prosecution OF
elaine before Congress. can also BEE that their
ATTENDING to the prosecution of claims before the
Executive Departments, and becoming interested
IN them, might lead to abuses. The intercourse
between the Executive Departments and members
OF Congress is 80 intimate that the practice might
lead to abuse. The prosecution of claims before
Congress by the members of Congress for com
pensation' is morally wrong; for upon such claims
members have to decide. In the prosecution Of
Claims before the Executive Departments the case
10 dlfferent, and though the practice may lead to
/ abuse It is not morally wrong. Claims pending
! before Congress and the Executive Departments
are properly said to be claims against the Govern.
i ment; but claims pending in court are wholly diff
! ierent, and are beyond the reach of executive or
| Legislative influence.
i Mr.. Speaker, as | have said, the Mexican
Claims Commission was court, and one of high
characters and neither law, morality, or propriety
was any more violated by practicing before it,
than by practicing in the Supreme Court of the
But it is said Mr. Corwin was employed because
OF his high political POSITION and therefore his con
duct was improper. My experience is, that men
will follow bindIy after political and religious
IcaueIs, tnat tney VIII be Quped and humbugped
in almost all the relations of ife but that law
are employed because of their legal abilities. In
that matter, men generally act with reason and
dlscretlon Lawyers are not employed because
they have been Judges or because they are Sena-
tors, Governors, or Representatives, but because
! they are lawyers.
Mr. DEAN, Gnterrupting Will the gentleman
from Ohio allow me to ask him question? UNI
who prosecuted this Gardiner claim were employ
ed because they were lawyers, and for their stand
ing at the bar. Does the gentleman mean to saw
that Major Laily was employci for the same rea-
son, because he was lawyer?
MIR. BARRERE. DO not know what the gentle
man from New York understood. said nothing
about the reasons why the gentlemen in this par
ticuar case were employed, for do not know.
stated general proposition as the result of nv
experience. What was GARDENERS motive for
employing Major Lally / do not know, nor the
motive of General Thompson for employing Mr.
d Corwin. Major Lally was distinguished officer
IN the army; whether ne is lawyer or not do not
know. have understood that he is the confden-
tia friend of the President elect and suppose is
very honest and upright man. Inever heard any
thing to his disparagement. understand that be
is a business man Of high character.
The morals of the profession of law think as
hlgh-toned and elevated as those of any other
class of men. know, sir, that there are those
who consider the bar as corrupt and dangerous
/ members OF the community. The question has
even been argued whether a man can be Chris
tian and practcing lawyer. 1t is not uncommon
for demagogues to denounce lawyers, and to heap
dunn upon the profession. But as class know
OF no more useful, honorable, and upright BODY of
men, none who have done so much to plant and
! establish liberty and justice in the world. The
profession, true to itself, its honor and the cause
/ OF justice, will always condemn its unworthy
whole American and British bar did the celebrated
Mr. Phillips for protesting to his belief of the in
nocence of a client who had confessed his guilt to
] him. But the profession never dreamed that they
i nnoSht 10 fo~ &ka 1r
causes. Like others, they liable to imposition,
/ and when they become cognizant of the frauds or
| misconduct OF their clients, then it is their un-
| doubted duty to expose them; and that an honest
! lawyer will do to the extent of his ability.
| In this case Mr.. Corwin has been shown to have
rendered every assistance in his power to the full
development of the nature of this claim In july,
1851 the claim became suspected for the first time
| BY an officer in the State Department, and from
/ that time to the present the Administration have
been using their utmost endeavors to ferret out
the true nature OF the Gardiner claim and to bring
the perpetrators OF the fraud to Justice.
fear, MIR. Speaker, that / am insulting the
House and the country by seriously arguing this
matter. The committee have reported that there
is nothing found in all this investigation even
having tendency to prove that Mr.. Corwin had
any knowledge of the unfounded character of
Gardlner's claim, or that any improper evidence
was used or to be used. That, his friends have
thought, was entire acquittal of every imputa-
ton cast upon him or attempted to be cast upon
q
the hnding OF the committee appeal has been
taken to the country. The question is before it.
The committee say that the Government has been
defrauded without his knowledge. They do not
question either his honor or his integrity but Nv
their finding have vindicated both. This finding
is not the work of hs political friends but of his
polltcal adyersaries, arrived at, too, in the midst
OF high party excitement. If it were improper to
appear before the Board of Commissioners at all.
that censure he must bear; but he will bear it in
company with many of the purest and most dis
tlnguished men that have lived among us in the
earlier, and as some have thought, better davs of
the Republic, as well with some of the most dis
tinguished of his contemporaries
Mr. Speaker, | have not spoken this subject
because thought it was necessary for me to vim.
dictate the character of Mr.. Corwin That the
committee have done in the amplest manner I
have spoken because my constituents love the man
Mr. Corwln has never sought office; Office has
sought him. He desired not his present position
in the Cabinet. He was importuned by his friends
until he accepted the place. He served in our
Legislature several years; was a member of this
House ten years, then Governor of our State before
ne took seat in the Senate. During all that time
he escaped the bitterness of partisan opposition
Until he made that celebrated, that Immortal
speech against the Mexican war, Il never knew of
any bitterness of political hostility against him.
But slnce that time he has been the subject of con.
slant vfcation and abuse by the baser sort Of his
political opponents.
care not what any man may say about that
speech, or what he may think of the time and the
OSSooioA
live, not only production of brilliant eio
quence, but for its high and noble moral senti
ments. No man but one of high moral bearipg
could have made that speech. It required moral
hero to doit 1t was not speech made to suit the
popular clamor the day. The man who believes
thatthe Mexican war was just and right-that the
government acted right in prosecuting it with ali
its energy and power, looking to the circumstan
ces by which Mr.. Corwin was surrounded at the
tme-must concede, if he have proper apprecia.
ton OF true merit, that it not only an ELOQUENT
and powerful speech, but speech which showed
him to be possessed of superior moral powers.
What was that speech, viewed in its true spirit?
Why, sir it was nothing more nor less than an eff
fort to impress upon the mind and conscience of
this great people the importance of the rule, that
they should do unto others they would that 9th
ers should do unto them.
The history Of nations, teaches US that the
stronger powers have always dsregarded the
rights of the weaker, when in conflict with their |
schemes of interest or ambition.
Mr. Corwin was among the first of the distin-
guished men of the country who assumed the posi-
ton that the law of nations ought to be practically
what it ia in theory: that the United States should
disregard what they might suppose to be their in
terest when the eternal principles of justice were
in nAict with it; that the laws of God the laws
OF morality, should be the rule of our foreign poll
cy This is the scope and spirit of that truly elo-
quent speech.
Mr. Corwin had then been long in public life, and