The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1882-11-21
Our Legal Censors.

association, which was attended by ex-
actly thirteen lawyers. y resolution
was passed instructing the president to
appoint committee of five to inquire
whether, in addition to the remedies
now provided by law, any further leg
isiatiOn is necessary or expedient to
protect the individual or society, or
both, against all abu>e of the freedom
of the press: x X x land If the
committee shall he of the opinion that
further legislation is necessary or ex-
pedIent. then that it accompany its
report by the draft of bill, or bills
embodying its conclusions" This
action, We presume, is taken in accord
ance with the formal resolutions
passed on the coca sion Of the death of
Col Slayback, in which the bar of St
Louis said: I'VE feel it our duty to
protest against the spirit of ruffianism
which is abroad against the wanton
or studied employment in speech or
writing Of Incorporate. licenli0u- and
defamatory language" etc
As these thirteen mem .ers Of the
bir have as umed to legisiate in tn,
name of the whole community upon
that liberty of speech and writing
which is at the bottom of all other
liberties, it may be proper to remi d
them of some unpleasant features of
he situation which they attempt to
ignore, but which have forced them
selves on the attention of the commu
nifty. The bar is not called on, und, r
the circumstances, to attitudinize as
censors Of any profession, nor to sit in
Judgment on their conduct. and if it is
going TO repress the errors and excess
es of any class of men We do not know
where it can begin better than in deal
ing with its own body.
When the Slayback resolutions were
presented, spirit of iuffianism was
not abroad; it was at home, in the
very meeting which pretended to de-
plore it. On that sad and solemn &C.
casion. of the eight speeches which
were made by members of the legal
profession. four were filled with tn,
spirit of ruffianism, and embodied the
wanton and studied employment OF
incorporate, licentious and defamato
~ language, and if the report of The
proceedings which appeared in the
Republican is To be trusted. the APP
clause of the audience rewarded the
fierce appeals To violence and the
blackguardism which disgraced the
occasion.
Let the bar look to its own record
before it sits in judgment on the rec
ord of the press. The conduct Of those
Iawless lawyers who. in deploring the
spirit of ruHianism, committed more
,trocious ruffianism than that which
they deplored. is not a solitary in
stance Only week before that one
lawyer boosted Of using his revolver
and cow-hide on an old man two
weeks after another lawyer knocked
down the counsel tor the other side
twice, in the presence of the judge be-
f;,re whom he was arguing his case
We have not heard Of any action of
the bar taken or proposed to be taken
in rebuke of these or of any other ex-
cesses committed by members of the
par.
These acts of notorious violence.
which would make lengthy record if
set down in full. are the results of
spirit of lawlessness which is more
painfully conspicuous in the conduct
Of the lawyers than in any other pro-
fession. 1t is, perhaps, a question of
ethics whether lawyers need greed
ljusti6es him in taking a fee in any
case, no matter how mean and dirty it
is. 1t is to the credit of the bar that
there are honorable members of the
profession who will not sully their rep
utations in this way. But. if we may
Judge by the records of the court,
there is no case so vile and shameless
that it will not find lawyer to defend
| it, and, as far az We can see, no lawyer
suffers in professional repute for serv1-
ing the cause of a swindler, for turn
ing a criminal loose to prey on the
community. or for lending his profes-
sional services to deprive an innocent
man of his property, his liberty, or
even his life.
These may be mere points of ethics.
but there is no moral doubt to be rails
ed, nor objection to be interposed in
defence of those excuses which have
characterized the bringing IF suits and
the management of the cases in court,
with the sanction of the Bar AssOci-
ton. The notorious abuses of the
notary law, under cover Of which the
powers of the court were prOstituted
to the base purposes Of blackmailing,
, tho