The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-07-24

Mount Moriah) the great temple of
worship, and ofjustice. In the porch of
this grand temple were erected two
magnificent and exquistely orna-
mented pillars "Jachin" emblemat-
ical of stability and "Boaz,' emblemat-
lcal of strength, symbolized by these
unique bronze columns, are the essen
tial elements of all well organized
governments. The school house the
church and the court house or forum,
are the pillars Of our Republic. The
church and the school house constitute
the Boaz. or strength of the Govern
ment that gives it power, for knowl-
edge is power. But the court house,
or temple of Justice, is the joachim"
that gives stability to our Republican
institutions. The judiciary is the con-
servative arm of our Government,
that directs its power that conserves
the life and the franchises and the au-
tonomies of the county, of the State,
and of the nation. The sovereign
citizen and the citizen sovereign, alike
find refuge in the judiciary. De
Tocqueville, in his Democracy in
America, says: "The people in DEM
ocratic states do not mistrust the
members of the legal profession, be-
cause It is we'll known they are in
terested in serving the popular cause.
Lawyers belong to the peo-
pie by birth and interest, and to the
aristocracy by habit and by taste, and
they may be looked upon as the nat
ural bond and connecting link of the
two great classes of society. The pro-
fession of the law is the only aristo-
cratic element which can be amalga-
mated, without violence, with the
natural elements Of Democracy, and
which can be adNantageously and
permanently combined with them. |
am not unacquainted with the defects
which are inherent i'll the character of
this body of men; but without this
admiXture of laWyer-like sobrety with
the Democratic principles, | question
whether Democratic Institutions could
long be maintained; and | cannot be-
lieve that republic could subsist at
the present time, If the influence of
lawyers in public business, did not in
crease in proportions to the power of
people. In the mind of an
English or American lawyer, taste
and a reverence for what is old, are
almost always united to n love of reg
ular and lawful proceedings.
The more we reflect upon all that oc-
ours in the United States, the more
shall we be persuaded that the lawyers
as body, form the most powerful, if
not the only cOunterpoise, to the Dem
ocratic element. = The courts
of justice are the most visible organs
by which the legal profession is ell
abled to control the Democracy. The
Judge is a lawyer who independently
of the taste for regularity and order,
which he has contracted in the study
of legislation, derives an additional
love of stability from his own inalien-
able functions The strength
of the courts of law has ever been the
greatest security which can be offered
to personal independence" Jurists
are accustomed to regard precedents
| rather than to introduce and and ell
| courage Innovation or revolution Most
public men are, or have been, legal
practitioners, aud they introduce the
| technicaities of their profession into
the affairs Of the country. All Glasses
of men have been either witnesses or
! jurymen and have acquired in the
! courts of justice, To some extent the
| language of the law, and have carried
into their social circles degree of re-
| spect for law and some regard to the
| forms and logic of infleXible justice.
In pursuing the thought suggested by
the occasion the mind reverts to the
Areopagus on Mars Hill, situated in
Athens, that erudite queen city, where
in that awful and supreme court Of
judicature, Mars, the god of war, had
| been tried and acquitted by twelve
! gods, where from time nnmemorial
! the greatest of crimes were determined
by the august judges in casting down
| pebbles upon the tables for acquittal or
for condemnation, but | shall not
weary your patience by further recital
of the events in the history of the
! Hellenic nation. Waldo Emerson
says that, 'every book is quotation,
every house is u quotation out of all
the forests, mines, and stone guarries,
and ever man is quotation from all
| his ancestors The new temple of
| justice you are about to erect and to
dedicate and for which you are about
to place in position its cornerstone,
will be Il quotation out Of the forests,
mines and quarries, as was the great
temple on Moriah and the Areopagus
| i'll the Grecian metropolis, and your
old wooden court house Of thirty. i've
years ago. l see before me many IA
miliar faces but few however, that were
| at the laying OF the cornerstone of
your old forum. Many have passed
away whom we shall again meet at
the great day of assize. Many are the
| pleasing memories of the last three
decades, although mingled with regrets,
and should | attempt to relate but a
tithe of the adventures of the early
pioneers OfyOur shire town and county,
their narrative would seem like an
Arabian myth, or legend of the age
of fables. Waving the consideration
of the "reminiscences and the Pickle
associations of the past, it gives us
| pleasure to mark the progress of events
that relate to your own as well as your
sister counties, and the country at
large, in the contemplation of which
we are struck with amazement at the
progress. and they are still marching
on. Wecongratulate you, fellow peers,
that you are about to extend the lines
and strengthen the stakes of your ju-
dicial forum. That on the ides of
July, the month auspicious to liberty,
fatal to Bastiles and adverse to tyranny,
that you are met to lay the corner
stone of a new temple wherein justice
and righteousness shall be admins
tered, and where the strong arm OF
the law shall restrain all licentious-
ness and conserve the freedom of our