The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-02-01
Lawyer and Client.

The following extracts are from the
lectures on the "Study and Practice of
Law" by Emory Washburn, of the Har-
ward Law School, may correct some pop
ular errors:
I would not, however, be misunder-
stood upon this subject of defending
persons charged with crimes. There is a
great deal Of cant and t,uaddle in the
Community about lawyers lending them
selves to shield the guilty and defeat JUS
tice, as if the cause of justice was not
strengthened and the confidence in its
administration confirmed in the public
mind, by its being known that no man
can be convicted except upon a fair trial,
even though, NOW and then, guilty man
escapes. I X X But the question
does not expend itself upon individual
instances of courage or the conviction, or
escape of this man or that, charged with
csimes. 1t lies deeper and goes down to
the foundation and constitution of civil
government itself. One of the purposes
Of government is to create feeling OF
security on the part of the citizens, that
the humblest of them is protected by
wise laws, wisely and impartially admin.
istered. Nor can people be accounted
free who do not feel that life and proper
tv too, are safe from the tribunals which
are to pass upon the questions on which
these depend. Next to the certainty of
having Justice done is the assurance that
the law can and will apply tests as nearly
infallible as may be, to discriminate be.
tween the guilty and the innocent, be-
tween what is right and what is wrong.
1t is here we have to meet the question
with which we started, with no sickly
sentimentalism about the guilty going
unwhipped of Justice The truth is, the
public need and they must have, class
of able, trained and disciplined men, set
apart as ministers of the law, whose SER
vices all may command, who can and
will stand by any one against whom socl-
ETY. is aiming blow, so far as to see that
he is fairly dealt by, and that justice be.
tween him and the public is meeted out
with an even hand.
"But while am insisting that it is not
only the right but the duty of a lawyer
to act as the advocate of any man who is
charged with crime, il his services are
sought or desired, I claim for him no in
diligence in the way of trick, falsehood
or Misrepresentation. BE has no more
right to use these in defending another
than he has in getting his neighbor's
money or cheating by false pretences::
But such means as the law has furnished
him, and made it lawful for him to use,
he would be derelict in duty if he failed
to apply, no matter what his suspicious
may be. If guilty man thereby es-
capes, honest men would feel safer in the
assurance they would thus gain, that
whatever the law is, it is no respecter OF
persons, and that no man is beyond the
pale of its protection, than they would
to see a wretch sent to prison because no
one could be found to plead his cause.
"I come back, then, to the enquiry
with which we began, by saying, so long
as you keep within the limits of fair,
honorable dealing, you need have no mis-
giving in lending your aid to any one
accused of crime, or in giving him the
best Of your power and skill. Nor is
there any danger that the State. which
commands the best talent in tho market,
will not be equally careful in seeing that
the public good does not suffer from any
'supesior skill df yours"