Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1874-01-29
AN GRAFTON.
BY ID. .. UHL.
Delivered In the Court House, Millers-
burg, Ohio, Jan, oath, 1874.

me the pleasant duty of saying some
thing about your organization-the Bar
of Holmes County, and of the law as a
science, and lis relations to the null
tifarious and never-ending business
transactions of men. Since this inyi-
tation was so kindly rendered me, cir
cumstances of business character have
prevented me from giving the occasion
such reflection as the Members of the
Bar have right to demand of any one
who accepts the position as chief orator
of their Annual Reunion. And indeed,
| was only induced to undertake the
task, after examining the proceedings OF
the former meetings of the association,
and the commendable brevity of the
eloquent gentleman who then filled this
honorable office. Regarding these as
precedents not to be limited or over
ruled, l have entered upon the under
taking, bearing in mind L well defined
proposition to hover quite near the sup
posed confines of an endless ocean.
| When we reflect but for moment, we
must be appalled, 1T entering upon 4
subject the boast of which is, the per-
fection Of reason; its permanency CO.
equal with civilization, and indispensi-
BILE to lis existence. Though the SEEM
ing paradox of change coupled with i'm
mutable stability, is ever presented to
US, yet it fathoms the deepest caverns
and envelOps every part of the noble
processes of logical disquisition. 1t
reaches further, it furnishes the rule by
which all property, reputation and life
il measured. Its footprints are found
| in the stratas of the earth and seen in
the flashing stars above. Its violation
is written in the decay of nations and
its threatening thunder heard in the
mountains of God. The application of
| it leads the sea with commerce and
shoots the electric spark through its
bosom. it finds and utilities mines of
gold and iron. 1t marks upon every
created thing the finger points of intel
ligent design. 1t also rules the man;
society i'm its limited and govern
mental forms, and finally furnishes US
the untrembling scale in which nature
rests, and is held in system and perfect
order. And if any be so fortunate as
to stand sentinel upon the dizzy border
of perfect reason, they will find that
the known existence, regularity, dura-
ton and uniformity of operation fur
nishes the only safe rule, save revela-
ton, from and through which we may
fairly infer the sure existence of the
great things unseen and which are now
far removed from any possible grasp OF
human investigation. | reflect in this
general sense and am astonished at the
yastness of the simple definition, that,
"Law is a rule of action" 1t cOmpre-
hends all actions of men and things-of
mans civil and religious rights as well
as the laws of his physical being, OF all
things, rs they are artiiicially designa-
ted and classified as property, and in
deed, pertains to every book and line of
true science ever written. In its uneX-
plored regions the depths of which is
too deep, and the breadth too broad for
our present purposes, mines of regular
ity exist, and judging from the past,
will, at all times yield their richest
treasury TO patient toll and an unyield-
ing application of the rules of action.
IL this were not so, development and
progress would be impossible, society
would and could never have been form
ed. The steam engine and the printing
press would be reposing in their ele-
ments, and the earth itself remain for
al
ness of chaos" With it development
and progress is rushing tide. Society
exists and stands far advanced IN po-
lite and christian civilization. The
steam engine tracks every plain and
scales every mountain, carrying in its
train the commerce and life of nations,
and the press carries its mighty infiu-
ence, for veal or wo, to every hearth
stone, And before whose coming light
corruption hides, and Kings and Popes
and Presidents must quail. The sealed
book is open and the tangled jungle
bursts forth in bloom; the roar of in
dustry comes on like the mighty rush
ing wind; waving fields delight the
eye and orange groves cool the heated
brow of toll.
In all this brain is the power, the in
strument, and the discovery, the first
kno,cledge of the rules of action, which
in themselves are as old as the plan of
God in their creation.
The exact sciences and the subjects
of moral certainty alike exist and are
equally utilized by the processes of rea-
son, differing only in the degree of GER
tainty in the conclusion. Truth is the
object sought, the laws and processes
by which it is obtained equally immu-
table the existence of objects sought as
certain, but alas, our poor reason will
not, and cannot be sure. 1t staggers
under the uncertainty of moral evidence
and goes half bewildered all along the
paths of moral research, and is but lit
tie bolder in its recognition, and appro-
priation of the surer signs of mathe-
matical certainty.
Here, already, we are burdened with
the truth, that the subject is far too
great for the allotted half hour. l am
unwilling to enter its portals, even were
| gifted for its elucidation. Philoso-
pliers and sages have thought, States
men have lent hand at the mighty
helm; Judges and Lawyers have given
lives of toll, the accumulated wealth of
all is our Inheritance; the shelves of
civilization groan under the pages and
volumes, where this thought has taken
form, and these laws discovered, recOg-
nized and established as rules of action
all action, animate and inanimate.
l am unwilling to believe that these
reflections are wholly foreign to the
scope allotted me by your Committee,
while it is true that you are an associa-
ton of gentlemen who are more partic-
ularly engaged in the study and prac-
tice of municipal law. Yet is there a
class of men anywhere to be found
whose avocation leads them more in to
the refinements of Metaphysics as well
as the study Of order, in all things?
From these the civil lawyer receives his
most lasting impressions of all analo-
gies. He sees in the operations of the
laws of nature as developed in science
an increased mobility of his accounta-
bility presented to him in Revelation.
But to the Devotees of municipal law,
subjects which engage mems attention
in daily life, are more closely allied, ag-
ricultural employments, commercial
transactions in their varied forms, the
practice of mechanics arts are all gov
erned by it.
1t seems that the acquisition and
and transmission OF propcrty-having
absolute and exclusive control over =
thing-is the aim of many of these rules
and present tc the lawyer the most Diff
ficult and embarrassing questions. He
must also consider the rules which are
made to control, in 4 measure, the acts
of men. These are not arbitrary, but
necessary out-growths of his existence
here. To protect the person from abuse
and outrage is inherently required that
we may obtain the consent of each in
dividual to the protection of the whole
body, called society. To protect the
reputation of the individual, when he
has rendered it worth protecting, is the
protection of the reputation of the en-
tire community. To punish for the
commission of crime is no more intended
to reform the criminal, than to preserve
the adhesive qualities of society. To
have a care that the pure purlings o.
truths crystal stream is not rendered