New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-05-28

Beecher.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF AN ADVOCATE.
MAY 1T PLEASE YOUR HONOR, AND GENTLE
MEN JURY: Whatever diversities may present
themselves in the trial Of cause Its texture and its
eoors woven to the completion Of the picture the
citudes Of the advocate know ebb and they to
the food when he is to present the last plea for the de-
PENDANT and is to surrender his representative capacity
These solictudes not personal No considerations of
vanity fame have anything to do with his anxieties
All exhbitOry ostentatous speech has always been
foreign to forensic art wedea with realities We have
to do with living men and women, and with real,
sonal deeds 1t is this that disquets the advocate
when he to feel that the representation to
and all his faults and his failures to come as penalties
upon the client and he longer stand to nterpOse
any shield against his influences. 1t was this that
made Cicero sayCcero easily at the head Of all ancient
and easily transcending all modern. regulations in our
profession-Cicero after he had gained the credit Of
being the greatest lawyer among orators and the greatest
orator among lawyers-CicerO, who had built up that
credit which Is now represented by his works on the
shelves Of every scholar though he be not lawyer OF
every lawyer though he be not schoar-that led him
to say when he could not but confess good grounds for
confidence in himself: 81, notwithstanding all this de-
clare so may the gods be mercul to me, that never
think of the time when shall have to rise and speak in
defense Of client that 1 am not only disturbed In
mind, but tremble in every limb OF my body"
All then it Is that the fate Of the client, affected by
faults the defects the omissions of the advocate rest
indeed upon the mind of the latter. Certainly gentle
men, there is everything in this cause as through the
long period Of the trial it has been drawn out before you
that should make every feel not in this personal
sense but in this soctude for the Client what he would
desire, and what he misses in himself One would wish
of those fabulous powers by which poetic inven-
ton has sought to exc out the infrnities OF
our feeble nature. One would wish for a
crevce Of this testimony and draw forth apty and in
every fact when it was needed and as 1t would
be efectual. He would wish for hundred hands, that
now he could hold up the whole mass Of for its coec
tive power upon your minds; and then that he might
divide distribute, discriminate it, that at some fingers
end there should always be each topic each passage that
could shed light or carry conviction. He would wish
more than these aids Of Instruments that pcrceptvc
force which could discern the merit and the
efficacy Of the vastly dfused elements OF the
proof, and by unerrng magnetism draw 1orth
from all, missing single needle from any
haystack with which the field Of the trial is strcwn when
II was needed scratch the face Of ugly asehood or
prick the pompous bubble Of hypocrisy He would wish
he had that power Of reason that could crush inc
obdurae of evidence separate the ORE and then by
an intellectual alchemy purge 1t OF all the dross ana lose
not Of the gold OF TRUTH but seize
that and that alone sterling coin for your circulation
And most of all would he wish that moral power OF dis
tiaton that could deal with the juices OF TINS long Ter
mentatIon strip them Of all dscordant elements reject
all poisonous oils all corrosive acids all heavy heat OF
passion and Of prejudice and present TO you the pure
nyigoratng wine Of honest sympathy for human nature
Of honest warmth for human justice. And then he would
wish for that greatest gift eOquence-eoquence which,
overlapping the short circuit between the voice ana
ear speaks out from heart to heart face answereh to
face, and, what great thinker amo' mankind, Loru
Bacon, has said is more than eloquence discretion OF
speech that no excitements, no perversons, no enlist
should
TO his Client to Justice TRUTH to his opponents and to
you.
TIE DISTURBING INFLUENCE OF THE CASE.
If in a private cause, however m0mentOus
the interests these sentiments and feelings may justly
aoitate the mind OF the advocate, how much more op
prcssive are they when the matter in hand has 10 90
with great public interests and strong popular passions,
when the client has become involved in all the eddes
and currents of controversy between mems Opinions
preiudces feelings in all the forms that make up
the connections and the sympates OF society ana OF ire
Wbv II has been true this from the time that the
scandal first burst upon public attentiont mas been
,e in this case that far from the individual case
upon its real facts far as the Individual accuscu Oh
his real character far from the connected cuprt tne
lady, being judged Of by that measure that we WISH
70 meet that we may be 30 judged ourselves they
have been made the personalities and the names upon
which all sorts of public controversy, OF pubic coh
tumely of public discords, have turned Quesuons
OF taste of social ethics OF manners, OF morals OF
religious forms and Of religious faith. as anec.ihs
communities, cities, forms OF communion Paruou
lar churches particular circles OF society," Oil nave
been tossed about endless controversy IN winch thcse
ares and the actual facts of their case have really
hut little part Everybody has been trying every
body Europe has been trying America. New-iork mas
beep irving Brooklyn The other cities ana tne rest VI
the country have been trying Brooklyn and New-fork
counlipo them like Herculaneum and Pompen ana
sodom and Gomorrah. All the scofers and the mn
dels have been trying all the Christians Ihe ancient
church mother of all dissenting ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
pou,,sb Church-has been trying Professionalism
The church OF dignity and coming nearest 70 all es'a
,sbmen among Protestant churches mas peeh Trying MI
the forms of dissenters that have not ritual Anu 'n
the Presbyterians they have been trying all the more
lem forms Of dissenting sec is; and then the Metho
dsts and the Bapsts, each in turn nave peeh u! hs '
Cn,rooationasts and them at last the Congregation
o.ts have been trying Plymouth Church lLaughter'I
Wall we have MT any chance to be heard IN luis stor"
70 thew had formulas and propositions that on the part
Of Europe were to condemn our vulgar unc''h'"ou "
sttons and society; and then II these dneren' cie'
to try it on the question Of whether 1t happened III
Brooklyn and 1t did, why that was enough
d then in the churches-if men OF abso-
,,o ond Axed traditional faith said Gwen, the
,,oment r,eope undertook TO be Independent.
.ro care more for practical morality and pacuca
hr,tv than for orthodoxy of doctrine and vain human
on this IA the end Of IL" If these were TO DE
tho methods Of accusation, or imputauon' VI usou
and NJ conclusion why, MI Beecher ana MIS- lon anu
the actual form and pressure OF the charge are m e
s g., The dust of these whirwinds, and those forces
~ ., The conclusions OF men, and not the actual
,h, and character OF any particular conduct or eVi
go Then too when you came 10 consider Tue NC
saont s nlaced in the common attitude OF the CIVIL
80, n, the country at there was an Immense cA