New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-04-14

ment must needs be POLITICIANS, TOO. Nos con'eu'
with the profit and glory Of bis large share IN that
recent triumph Of legal cunning-the scquittai 81
the wretched Kentucky rowdy who had killed
seboolmastsr in cold blood-an achieve
ment 10 bring about which not onl!
lawyers were feed, but jurors were bribed az wen
as befoesed; not content with the pay and the
honor acquired BY this distinguished exercise OF
hi. profession as q lawyer, Mr.. Crittenden must
needs set up as professional politician too, and In
the exercise of this his latter VOCATION must resort
in defense of Border Ruffianism and on behalf OF
the extension Of Slavery into Kansas TO al the
pettifoggn NJ acts, pitiful bubbles, and mean de-
vices in which his great natural gifts, aided By MS
long and successful practice at the bar, have made
him so very adrot.
1t is not necessary to deny, and We must Ut be
understood as denying that the profession OF poll
tics is now exercised-and especially in these last
twenty years, since the slave-drlying and slave
breeding interest has raised itsef TO the friendship
and despotic control Of our political Ofhcers-uly
merits all the approbrium which, by implication at
least Mr. Crtienden sees fit 10 cast upon 1t.
What We have to say merely is, that il does not
become him in his capacity of lawyer to cast the
first stone Nothing can be clearer than that the
great predominance among our politicians OF per-
sons bred to the bar, and who conjoin the two not
yerv compatible professions Of practicing law
yers aid makers OF the laws, has done more
10 lower the moral standard of politics, and to
curse US with class Of politicians to whom right
and wrsng and the public interest are nothing and
Office, emoument and private interest everything,
than all other causes combined. What, indeed,
can be more natural than that lawyer should
carry into politics the principles and feeling he has
learned at the bar, and wholly irrespective of al
public considerations, should be ready to sell his
voice and his votes to the side able and willing TO
psy him best
Nor is il less true that the most disgraceu pOlltl-
cal acts of our recent history, to redress which. to
obliterate which from our statute book, the moral
principle and selfrespect of the nation has at length
been reused to arms-msy sill be traced by foot
steps too plain to be mistaken to the effect OF legal
studies and pettifogging practice upon those whom
for our sine, and as it were, to humble our repub-
Gcan pride, We have been led aud left to intrust
VIII lUt duoBtuntut VI Jul hotioh"i
Take for a single and conclusive instance the re-
peal of the Missouri Compromise. Who but
lawyer, pettifogger bred as well as born such,
would ever have conceived the idea of getting rid
of an honorary obligation such as that was, deber
atey entered into, and all the advantages OF
which had been fully rept on the side of those for
whose benefit it was now to be repudiated, upon
such miserable, technical grounds as those upon
which Mr. Douglas, for the sake of increasing his
chances for the Presidency chose to bring forward
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and in so
doing to risk the peace OF the nation, beside
sacrificing the interests, political and economical,
of the great mass of the free laborng people OF the
United States, South as well IS North, to the in
terests, or supposed interests, OF Mr. Douglas
and few thousand Virginia and Kentucky slave
breeders.
30 clergyman ever sits in the British House of
Commons; BY some of our State Constitutions no
clergyman can sit in either branch Of the Legisla-
ture. 1t might perhaps, be worth while to con-
slider whether a similar exclusion might not be
adyantageously extended to the legal profession.