Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1884-11-13
A LAWYERS MORALS.
Some Points for the Profession to
Study.

Some Points for the Profession to
Study.
The Century, for November has an
editorial under the head of Lawyers
Morals,n from which the following
points are quoted:
81. A lawyer ought to be a gentleman.
His function rs an attorney gives him
no dispensation to disregard the ordi-
nary rules of good manners, and the
ordinary principles of decency and hon
or. He has no right to slander his
neighhor, even if his neighbor be the
defendant in u cause in which he ap-
pears 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
such practices in court, is no gentleman
out ofcOurt.
"2. A lawyer ought not to lie. He
may defend 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,
pervert or distort the evidence so as to
weaken the force or conceal the mean
ing of it. He is sworn officer of the
'court, and his oath should bind him to
the strictest veracity. 1t would be Quix-
Otic to expect him to assist his adver-
sary, 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
dalous to tell q falshOod out of court, in
any business transaction, lie shamelessly
in court in behalf of their clients, and
seem to think it part of their profess
sional duty. That bar Of justice before
which, by their professional obligations,
they are bound by the most stringent
truthidlness, is the very place where
they consider themselves absolved from
the common law of veracity. So long
as the legal mind is infected with this
deadly heresy, we need not wonder that
our courts of justice often become the
Instruments Of unrighteousness.
"3. A lawyer ought not to sell his
services for the promotion of injustice
and kuavery. 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 county 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 liable
to arrest This is the testimony of a
lawyer, Mr.. Ralph Oakley, of New York
'The best legal advice can be had, then
in New York ci.y for such purposes
1t would be more difficult to believe
this if it's truth were not so often illus.
trated in the stupendous frauds and
piracies Of great corporations, all OF
which are carefully engineered by emf
nent lawyers Our modern buccaneers
our brave railroad wreckers-are in
constant consultation with distinguish.
ed lawyers. They undeniably have
the best of legal advice in planning
and executing their bold iniquities."