The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1884-11-04
LAWYERS MORALS.

The Century, for November, has
an editorial of some length, under
the above head. For the benefit OF
the profession, We condense the
article and give its points, as follows
A lawyer ought to be gentleman.
His function as an attorney gives
him no dispensation to disregard
the ordinary rules of good
manners, and the ordinary prin.
ciples of decency and honor. He
has no right to SANDER his neighbor,
even if his neighbor be the defendant
in cause in which he appears for the
plaintiff. He has no right to bully OF
browbeat a witness in cross-examins-
ton, or artfully to entrap tina, witness
into giving false testimony. What
everthe privilege of the court may be,
the lawyer who is guilty of such
practices in court is no gentleman out
of court.
A lawyer ought not to lie. He
may defend a criminal whom he
knows to be guilty, but he may not
say to the jury that he believes this
criminal to be innocent. He may not
in any way Intentionally convey to
the jury the impression that be
believes the man to be innocent. He
may not, in his plea, pervert or
distort the evidence 30 as to weaken
the force or conceal the meaning of it.
He is a sworn officer Of the court, and
his oath should bind him to the
strictest veracity. 1t would be
quixotic to expect him to assist his
adversary, but his obligation to speak
the truth outranks every obligation
that he owes to his client. 1t is
notorious that some lawyers who
would think it scandslous to tell a
falsehood out of court, In any business
transaction, lie shamelessly in court
in behalf of their clients, and seem to
think it part of their professional
duty. That bar of justice, before
which, by their professional obliga-
tions, they are bound TO the most
stringent tru;hfulness, is the very
place where they seem to consider
themselves sbsOlved from the common
law of verscity. So long as the legal
mind is infected with this deadly
heresy, We need not wonder that our
cour of justice often become the
instruments of unrighteousness.
A lawyer ought not to sell bis SER
vices for the promotion of injustice
and knavery. Swindlers of all types
are aided by lawyers in their depreda-
tions upon society. The mock broker
who operates in Wall street, and
strips green country spectators of
their hard earned gains by the most
nefarious roguery, always has an able
lawyer as his accomplice. The gen.
tleman by whose agency a nest of
these rascals was lately broken up,
says: "The great difficulty in stop
ping swindles of this class is that the
rascals make enough money to be
able to employ the best of legal ad-
vice, and are, moreover, careful to do
nothing which will render them liable
to arrest" This is the testimony of
lawyer, Mr.. Ralph Oakley, Of New
York. "The best of legal advice" can
be had, then, in New York City for
such purposes. 1t would be more
difficult to believe this if its truth
were not so often illustrated in the
stupendous frauds and piracies of
great corporations, all Of which are
carefully engineered by eminent law
yers. Our modern "buccaneers"-I
our brave railroad wreckers-are in
constant consultation with distin-
guished lawyers. They undeniably
have "the best of legal advice" in
planning and executing their bold |
iniauities."