The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1875-07-17
.PT0TeSSaO7aaI Ethics.

PTOTeSSSO7lGC Ethics.
We have always locked upon the legal pre-
fession as an honorable one. We believe that
there is as large proportion Of its members hon
orable, heightened gentlemen as there is in any
other profession. 1t Is the naaD-not the pro-
fession-that settles the individual.I I'VE believe
that the legal profession has been unjustly con-
sidersd disrsputable. The reputs Of lawyers has
been rated almost altogether by the peactices-
malpractices-of shysters. We know lawyers
whose honor is stainless and whose integrity is
beyond reproach, whose statements can be i'm
plicitly relied upon. 1t is anfair-grOssy IN
just-to place gentlemen of this character upon
the same level with men who practice law in
any shape to make money, who will do any
thing to make fees, who are only careful to keep
themselves out Of the clutches Of the law. 1t
would be just as criminal to say thatsvsry grocer
is cheat because some of them give short
weights, or that every physician is quack be-
cause some Of them are, or that every drygoeds
man is a swindler because some of them will
every lawyer is rascal because some of them
are consummate scamps. There are good and
bad in all circles Of society, all walks of life all
pursuits, employments and professions. Our es-
Inmates of men should be formed from their con-
duct and not from the profession or pursuit in
SI4cy
The counsel on both sides in the Beecher-Til-
e ~ Ia0o
fession and high-standing as members OF the
community. But one of them, at least on the
Tilton side of the case, certainly transcribed the
bounds of professional ethics, stepped outside Of
his duty to his client and committed crime
more henious in its character than that commit
ted by Beecher, if Tilton's charge were true or
that committed by Tilton, if his charge were
false, or that committed by MOulton If he knew
Tilten's charges were false. We refer to the
conduct of Mr.. Beech. When nearing the close
of the case he made an assault uponithe jury so
pointed that one of the jsfsrs interrupted the
proceedings and delivered quite lengthy speech,
using Mr.. Beech up badly. Mr.. Beech broadly
limited that the friends Of Beecher had been tam
pering with the jury for the purpose of securing
a verdict in his favor and he asserted that he
would furnish unquestioned proof to that effect
and upon that prsof he would ask the Court to
reopen the case for more testimony. In day
or two after this marvellous statement Beech pro-
duced to the Court the atndaylts OF Loader and
p-;aa that ska.- Lad haar srnlaxed Of Tiltan,z
house in 1869, in putting down carpets, that
while there man answering Beecher's descrip-
ten was observed by them taking improper famil-
iarities with Mrs. Tilton. Beech made affdavits
that this tsstimoney was not discovered until after
the commencement of argument fer the close of
the case. The Court very properly declined to
reopen the ease on these statements. Price be-
comes frightened in a day or two, turns States
evidence and reveals the fact that these afidavits
are false; that they-Leader and Prics-were
never at Tiltons house; that they were precur-
ed to make the afidavits that they were pre-
pared in the presence and under the advice of
Beach, and that Mouton wrote part of them.
~ He knew that his assertion that he would
produce evidence that Beechers friends had been
tampering with the jury was without foundation.
That he produced no testimony to that effect
must be taken as conclusive that he knew of
none to produce. The only reason for making
this assertion was to secure a disagreement of
the jury.
(2) His presence, advice and counsel in the
preparation Of false afidavits, and his parading
ing them in the hearing of the jary-in order to
secure disagreement-makes him the highest
criminal Of the lot
ANY lawyer guilty of either one of these Of
fences, in our humble opinion, should be stricken
from the roll of Courts. The first was an unfair
means of influencing the jury. Failing to show
that he had the strongest kind Of reason to be-
leve that such evidence could be furnished, he
should be dismissed from the bar. lawyers
duty to his client is completely discharged when
he has done for him all that can be honestly DONE
He has no right to compromise his own honor or
COED name to make point for his client. He
should be made to suffer severely when he prac-
tices what he knoacs is an imposition upon either
Court or jury to accomplish that end.
Any man guilty of the second ofense should
be obliged to take up hsresidence on Blackwell
Island at the expense of the State. Loader and
Price are indicted for perjury, while the men who
procured their false af1idavts and thus conspired
to influence the verdict of the jury, go unframed
1t will be an outrage upon justice to send Loader
and Price to the States prison and leave Beach
and Moulton at large.
The opportunities Of lawyers for doing good or
evil are numerous and great great deal of
their business is transacted with their profession
al brothers and the Courts upon their word of
honor as gentlemen. Their statements in Court
should be only such as they can establish by
proof or that they have good reason to believe
they can. Any statement that an attorney knows
he cannot verify and that is made only for effect
is a clear imposition upon Court and jury, tends
to degrade the profession and the Courts and
should be visited by judges with the severest
apprehension. If prominent man like Beach
were given his deserts it would do much towards
restoring the opinion Of the community TO what
it should be concerning the profession ard the
Courts.
Ns- On 18th instant, Cotton Congress as
sembled at Raleigh, N. C. 1t is attended by
members from most of the Southern and some
of the Westrn States. Governor Brogden of
N. c., welcomed the members ofthe Congress
in handsome speech in which he used the
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