The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1878-05-25
Our @liu.
Lawyers as they Should Be.


Law Academy of Philadelphia on Apr
4th, by the Hon. William A. Porter, on
of the leaders of the Bar of this city, ha
been published, and furnishes some goo,
reading to lawyers and law students, ant
also to the general public. Judge Porte
speaks with tie weight of years, of Ions
experience at the Bar, and of services OIL
the Bench, and he urges forcibly that tn,
best legal adviser is he who prevents liti
cation and settles disputes already com
menced, who encourages the falling debtor
to stand by his integrity, and demonstrates
to the hard creditor how to reconcile for.
bearance and safety, who prevents hasty
disposition of property to the injury Of
children, sustains the sanctity of marriage,
enforces the inyiolability of trusts, and
directs the course of men engaged in
schemes of religion and benevoIence.
Lawyers, too, especially in this country,
are looked to for instruction to their fel-
low-citizens in their public duties, and they
are called on to assist the Government in
preserving peace and order. For these
varied and important responsibilities, the
good lawyer must be SO thoroughly educa-
ted that good books shall be his constant
resource. Judge Porter refers to Mr..
Rufus Choate's diary, showing that amid
all the disquietudes of politics, the labors
of professional life, and the pains of sick
ness, that eminent advocate was uncon-
sciously strengthening himself by diligent
study of the great masters in literature,
reading Greek, Latin and French; Homer,
Tacitus and the great French and English
orators and authors, taking half dozen
lines of Virgil to a page of Williams on
Real Property.
A lawyer must train his reasoning fac
ulties, for it is to their right use that he
will owe his success and his clients their
safety; and for this there is no better
study than that of the best treatises on
metaphysical sciences. He must see how
the great leaders of the Bar attained their
position by persistent endeavor and un-
wavering honesty and fxedness of pur-
pose, and he must add to knowledge of
the leading cases a precise acquaintance
with the political history of the times in
which they were decided, and above all
and always he must study the principles
of the law, for upon his knowledge of
these, the foundation alike of statutes and
decisions, depends the accuracy of his ad-
vice, the soundness of his arguments, the
success of his opinions. But, apart from
his duties as an adviser, the lawyer has a
wide field before him as an advocate, and
these are not always convertible terms, for
many great advocates have been poor ad-
visers, and few sound lawyers have been
able to meet all the requirements of both
branches of the profession. In England
this fact has been SO distinctly recognized
that there are two distinct professions in
the law-the Attorney and the Barrister
and in this country, in the great cities
and centres of legal activity, it is found
that such division of labor increases the
usefulness and improves the qualities of
the lawyer who follows one or the other as
his special calling
Judge Porter draws freely from his large
acquaintance with some of the greatest ad-
vocates of this country and of England,
and he illustrates his statement that mod
esty, even to the fear of failure, is an al
most invariable sign of great oratorical
success, by the example, among others, of
Mr.. John Sergeant, of this city, as great
forensic advocate as the country ever
produced, who always spoke under strong
agitation, yet he was the wisest man in
matters of law, Judge Porter tells US, with
whom he ever personally came in contact;
he never saw any man who relied so little
on the last decided case, and so much on
the principles Of the IaaoS as science.
No greater tribute was ever paid by one
great lawyer to another than Mr.. Binney's
eulogy of Mr.. Sergeant; and, after hearing
his first speech and his last, at an interval
of fifty years, so great an authority as
Horace Binney could hardly find words
strong enough for the praise that was just
ly due Mr.. Sergeant. Judge Porter sketch
es with great force the Distinguishing traits
of the leading lawyers of his own acquain-
tance, Taney, Pinckney, Clay and Reverdy
johnson. He sat as Judge in Court
to which Mr.. johnson in his eightieth
year delivered one of the ablest arguments
heard there; his speech was bold, strong
and manly, every word seemed to fall ma
turally into its proper place, the facts were
arranged in their most natural order, and
stated with admirable clearness, the au-
thorities cited were all pertinent to the
question, everything uttered bore directly
on the question before the Court it
wonderful then that Mr.. johnson was one
of the great lights of the American bar
Judge Porter enforces the necessity of
breyity as one of the shrinking require
ments of all our oral discussions, but he
wisely says that brevity is relative term.
and he refers to the speeches in the Girard
will case, where Mr.. Webster's speech, al
though only one-third the length of Mr..
Binney's, was too long, for most of it had
little to do with the question at issue. He
refers to Franklin's reputation and yet
he is said never to have spoken more than
fifteen minutes; to Jeferson's example,
and he is said generally to have spoken
but ten minutes. Mr.. Webster's first great
speech as a constitutional lawyer, that in
the Dartmouth College case, can be read
in an hour and half. Pitt seldom spoke
an hour; his father, Lord Chatham, seldom
more than half that time, yet they ruled
supreme, while Burke spoke to empty
benches, but then he never stopped. In
Warren Hastings case he spoke at inter-
walls for nearly nine years, and it would
take sixty working days to read all that he
said. Judge Porter enforces the dignity,
usefulness and importance of the. profess
sion of the law, and of the necessity that
those who practice it should aim to be
pure, truthful and generous. His address
is one of the best Of the brief treatises for
students and young members of the bar.
PHILADELPHIA Ledger.
CosT OF FENcING.-It costs $4,000
to fence 100 acre farm into ten equal
enclosures, with five rail post fence, and