The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1884-11-20
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1884.
Lawyers Morals"

The Century for November has An
editorial under the head of Lawyers
Morals" from which the following
points are quoted:
II. A lawyer ought to be gentle
man. His function as an attorney
gives him no dispensation to disregard
the ordinary rules of good manners,
and the ordinary principles of dccency
and honor. He has no right to SANDER
his neighbor, even f mis- neighbor be
the defendan in cause in which he
appears for the plaintiff. He has no
right TO bully or browbeat witness in
cross-eXamination, or artfully to entrap
that witness into giving false testimony.
Whatever the privilege of the court
may be, the lawyer who is guilty of
slch 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 in
tentionally convey to the jury the i'm
preston that he believes the man to be
innocent. He may not, in his plea,
peryert or distort the evidence so as to
weaken the force or conceal the mean
ing of it. He is a sworn officer of the
court, and his oath should bind him 10
the strictest veracity. 1t would be
quixotic to expect him to assist his adj
versary, 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 scan
L IL I
III any business transaction, lie shame
lessly in court in behalf of their clients,
and seem to think it part of their pro-
fessional duty. That bar of justice,
before which, by their professional OBJ
legations, they are bound to the most
stringent truthfulness, is the very place
where they seem to consider themselves
absolyed from the common law of We
racity. So long as the legal mind i,
infected with this deadly he ssy, we
need not wonder that our courts of
Justice often become the instruments of
unrighteousneSs.
%. 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-
lions 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 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 rascals make enough
money to be able to employ the best of
legal advice, and are, moreover, careful
to do nothing which will render them
liable to arrest. This is the testimony
Of a lawyer, Mr.. Ralph Oakley, of New
York. The best of legal advice can
be had, then, in New York City for
such purposes. l. would be more diff
cult to believe this if its truth were not
so often illustrated in the stupendous
frauds and piracies of great corpora
tons, all of which are carefully engin-
cered by eminent lawyers. Our mod
ern buccaneers brave railroad
wreckers-are in constant consultation
with distinguished lawyers. They unde-
niably have the best of legal advice in
planning and executing their bold
iniguities,