The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-17
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS.

IHE IOuoWlnB communication from men,
Der of the bar of this city explains very
clearly the principle we have endeavored to
set forth on several occasions, that q lawyer
owes something to society and to abstract
justice as well as to his client. We under
took to criticize distinguished lawyer of this
city for what we believed to be a substantial
endorsement of the professional misconduct
of a well-known New York lawyer-whose
performances, by-the-way, have since been
pretty thoroughly ventilated by one of his
professional brethren-and for this we were
taken 10 task by several ardent legal gentle
men who accused us of improper personality,
but who nevertheless declined to discuss the
main question. We contend that noble pro-
fession is disgraced by the conduct of
certain men who call themselves
lawyers, but who operate upon the
principle that they are bound by no. rules of
law or conscience in the prosecution of their
business, and that all means are legitimate
which will enable them to win case. This
idea has gained such foothold in the legal
profession that it is certainly high time the
respectable lawyers of the country had CON-
bined to discountenance it. Such perform
ance as that of Messrs. William B. Mann and
Lewis G. Cassidy in the Ficken case was a
disgrace to the legal profession, and the re-
spectacle members of the bar will be obliged
to suffer in public opinion in consequence,
unless they do something to discountenance
such things in the future. 1t is gratifying to
know that many lawyers are fully impressed
with the Importance of relieving themselves
and their profession from the odium which
some recent events have tended to cast upon
them, and we take pleasure in commanding
the following communication to the attention
of our readers, as it expresses our views very
forcibly:-
| To the Editor of The Eoening Telegraph.
In the last work of Fenimore Cooper,
''The Ways of the Hour" calling attention to
| some of the social evils of the day, more par
| ticularly in connection with the administra-
| ton of criminal justice, the types of two
classes of lawyers are most strikingly and ac-
| curately portrayed.
Dunscomb, well known as a sound, reliable
| legal adviser, and respected as q high-toned,
| conscientious, exemplary lawyer, was averse
| to nefarious strife and the perversion of law
and justice for the sake of dollars and cents
| The author represents him by his practice, by
| his mode of conducting and arguing causes,
and by his intuitive sense of right and wrong,
as O model lawyer-the type of a large
number-while his antitype, Timms,
is tv0s graphically represented as oaas the
ready to serve or betray any cause for hire or
| gain. And Mr. Cooper, in illustration of the
| two classes pointedly observes: law is
doubtless very elevated profession when
its practice is on O scale commensurate with
| its true objects. 1t becomes a very different
| pursuit, however, when its higher walks
aha 30 ol41 \
thickets and quagmires. Perhaps no human
pursuit causes a wider range of character
among its votaries than the practice of
this profession. In the first place, the diffe-
renee in an intellectual point of view between
the man who sees only precedents and the
man who sees the principles on which they
are founded, is as marked as the difference
between black and white. To this great
distinction in mind is to be added another
that opens O still wider chasm, the results
of practice, and which depends on morals
While one class of lawyers turn to
the higher objects of their calling, declining
fees in cases of obviously questionable
right, and struggle to maintain their honesty
in direct collision with the world and its
temptations, another, and much the largest,
falls readily into the practice of their craft
the word admirably suited to the subject
and live on encumbered and endangered not
only by their own natural vices, but greatly
damaged by those they might adopt, as
1T might be, eG-0BicSO. This latter course is
unfortunately that taken by vast number
of the members of the bar all over the world,
rendering them loose in their social morality,
ready to lend themselves and their talents to
the highest bidder, and causing them to be at
first Indifferent, and in the end blind, to the
great features of right and wrong These
are the moralists who advance the doctrine
that the advocate has right to act as his
client would act" While the class first named
allow that ''the advocate has q right to do
what his client has a right to do, and no
more"
| The foregoing extract 80 accords with the
! two forcible and common sense editorials of
! your issues of February "a and 27 on the
duties and responsibilities of lawyers, that it
| is submitted for publication.
| Junius in one of his letters observes that
''the t1dtsc1tminGte defense of right and
wrong contracts the understanding while it
corrupts the heart"
There is in the heart of every upright and
honorable lawyer an intuitive sense of right
and wrong which will irresistlbly lead him to
decline assistance in behalf of q bad man,
or bad cause, or of pretensions made avail
able only by arts or teohnicalities. A bad
man with good cause is too much like a s0hite
6Lackbird.
The honest and reliable lawyer can never
hesitate while guided by the principles incul-
Gated by your editorials on this subject; and
such lawyer has no hesitation as TO his duty
and responsibility. stake heed unto the
thing that is right for that shall bring man
peace at the last, is as applicable to the lawyer
J as it is to the man. CoKE.