New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1873-09-04

what was best in all the others. American
jurisprudence is like a mighty river which.
with its numberless branches, drains CONT
nent. Its tributaries have reached through
the vale of centuries, bringing with them
Whatever Of wisdom, justice, and prudence,
has existed in other nations In all ages, to
swell the volume Of our beneficent law.
PROGRESS OF LAW
Law is emphatically progressive science.
1t is continually undergoing changes and i'm
provement. Like everything else Of human
invention, it has been imperfect, and errors,
the most pernicious and degrading, have often
| crept into it. So that reforms in the law
have engaged the best efforts of the greatest
minds of all nations and have generally
marked the grandest epochs in those nations
histories. The acquisition of territory and the
conquests Of armies are not to be compared
in importance or sublimity to the revolutions
IN nations laws. The royal assent to Magma
Chdrta, which the English people wrung from
their reluctant king, was q triumph Of more
transcendent brightness than all the victories
of their Wellingtons and their Nelson's
| 1t is interesting TO trace the various changes
of the law through its several stages of devel-
opment to its present status; to see how,
sometimes slowly, but steadily, it has adj
vanced to more accurate perception Of truth,
and to more efficient administration of JUS
tice. Englishmen take pride in the fact that
from trial by wager of battle, by ordeal, and
the like, they have come to trial by jury
that "bulwark Of English liberty" And
what high-minded American is there who
does not experience thrill Of gladness when
he contemplates the miraculous changes
which have taken place on the statute books
of our own Republic: The odious "black
laws" are blotted out with blood. The law
no longer permits the enslavement of the
negro; no longer declares him to possess no
rights which the white men are bound to
respect but he stands forth to-day "redeem-
ed, regenerated, and disenthralled," his
political equality asserted and maintained by
the law of the land.
RELATION TO RELIGION.
Law is the handmade OF religion. True,
in every free Government the religious belief
is beyond the reach of the State; and yet in
all there is reciprocal strength and vitality
which law and religion derive from each
other. In no narrow, sectaran light does
the law lend its aid but for that large, lib
eral, and universal religion to which all man
kind subscribe. What sentiment is more
worthy place in the tenets of every sect
than that infexible maxim of the law that
she who seeks equity must do eQuity?"
In fact the legal maxims are literal store
house of the most equitable principles which
have been accumulated by the sages of the
past and sanctioned by the wisdom of the
present.
i 1t has been quantity said of the American
Constitution that it tolerates all religions :;
but that it does not tolerate no religion"
Listen to the words of Webster in the cele-
brated Girard Will Case, touching this sub
) ject. He said: "Christianity is part of
the law Of the land. Everything declares it.
The massive cathedral of the Catholic the
Episcopallan church, with its lofty spire,
pointing heavenward; the plain temple of
the Quaker; the log church Of the hardy
pioneer of the wilderness; the mementoes
and memorials around and about US the
consecrated grave-yards, tombstones and
epitaphs, their silent vaults, their moulder-
ing contents, all attest it. The dead prore it
as aceH as the hiring. The generations that
are gone before speak to it and pronounce it
from the tomb. We feel it. All, all, pro-
claim that Christianity, general, tolerant
Christianity, Christianity Independent of
sects and parties, that Christianity to which
the sword and the fagot are unknown gen.
eral, tolerant Christianity, is the law of the
land
| SUPREMACY OF LAW
The supremacy of law is a subject which
challenges our highest admiration Where
once the sword and the spear were the chief
arbiters men now bow in graceful submission
3 to the sovereignty Of law. No respector OF
persons, the high and the low alike-the
laborcr in his hut and the Chief Magistrate
OF the nation-are amenable to law. No
nation can acquire more enduring fame or
accomplish 4 more useful end than by per.
fecting system Of just and equitable laws.
Her legal grandeur will Outlive her martial
greatness. 1t is said the glory of the Roman
arms and the prestige of the Roman name
are departed. But Rome still lives and lin.
gers in our memories with profound venera.
ton through her codes of jurisprudence,
which have come down to us through the
, long vista of intervening ages, monument
of human wisdom and justice, and beacon
light to the modern mariners of civilization
NECESSITY FOR LAWYERS TO ExPoUNI
THE LAWS.
Law is like a steam engine-wondcrfull,
beautiful in construction and power but il
you wish to utilize it, you must put it IN mo.
ton. You must move the valve. Not only
so; it must be managed skillfully. There
must be practical engineer to control it:
action; he must know its power and its
weakness. And this includes knowledge
of its various parts-the steam chest, the
piston rods, the wheels, the furnace, the
boiler, the hues; he must know how the
steam operates on those parts to the ultimat.
turning ofthe wheels he must be able to reat
the gauge and use the safety valve. With
: out this skill applied to the locomotive, the
0 most marvellous and skillful invention of mor