Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-11-13
Lawyers Morals"

The Century for November has an ed
itorial under the head of Lawyers Nor
ais" from which the following points
are quoted:
81. 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
PRINCIPLES of decency and honor. He has
I no right to slander his neighbor, even if
h his neighbor be the defendant in cause
! in which be appears for the plaintiff. He
has no right to bully or browbeat a wit
ness in cross-examination, or artfully to
entrap that witness into giving false tes-
1 timony. Whatever the privilege of the
court may be, the lawyer who is guilty
of such practices in court is no gentle>
man out of court.
80. A lawyer ought not to lie. He
may defend q criminal whom ne knows
to be guilty, but he may not say to the
jury that he believes this criminal to be
innocent. He nay not in any way in
tentionally convey to the jury the i'm
preston that he believes the man to be
innocent. He may not. in his plea, per
vert or distort the evidence so as to
weaken the force or conceal the meaning
of it. He is a sworn officer of the court,
aud his oath should bind him to the
|stricIest veracity. 1t would be quixotic
TO expect him to assist his adversary, but
his obligation to speak the truth out
ranks every obligation that he owes to
his client. 1t is notorious that some
lawyers who would think it scaHdaIous
10 tell falsehoOd out of court, in any
business transaction, lie shamelessly in
court in behalf of their clients, and seem
10 thirk it part of their professional
duty. That bar of justice. before which,
10y their professional obligations. they
are bound to the most stringent TRUTH
fHlness. is the very place where they
seem to consider themselves absolyed
from the common law of veracity So
Tong as the legal mind is infected with
This deadly heresy. We need not wonder
that our courts of justice often become
the instruments of unrigbteousness.
''3. a lawyer ought not to sell his
services 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 speculators of their hard
earned gains by the most nefarious rogue
ry, always has an able lawyer as his ac
cOmplice. The gentleman by whose
agency nest of these rascals was lately |
broken up says: The great difficulty in
stopping swindles OF this class is that the |
fdscaIs make enough money to be able to
employ the best of legal advice, and are, J
Borrower, 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 le-
gal advice Can be bad, then, in New |
u ork 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 our |
brave railroad wreckers-are in constant |
with distinguished lawyers
They undeniably have the best of legal |
advice in planning and executing their
boil iniquities."