The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-01-16
LAWYERS MORALS

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legal Gentlemen Should Not Lie n.
sslI Their Brains TO Defend rniust,ea
From the November Century.
l. A lawyer ought to be a gentleman !.
function as an attorney gives him no aisrsna.
ton to disregard the ordinary -:..s i -
manners, and the ordinary principles - 's !.
lcency and honor. He has no right 70 al..sS
his neighbor, even if his neighbor be- tha !.
PENDANT in a cause in which he apnear. y
plaintiff. He has no right to bully ar Ma.
beat a witnessin q ross-examination. or y
fully to entrap that witness into giving f.Isa
testimony. Whatever the privilege az nv Y
court may be, the lawyer who is guilty ~ sr1I
practices in court is no gentleman out =
court =
2. A lawyer ought not 10 lie. He NAV )
tend a criminal whom he knows Ia he. ar,s ~
but he may not say to the jury that he bsSi;aSsss
his criminal to be innocent He may nos <
any way Intentionally convey to the Jury M
impression that he believes the man 70 be b.
nocent. He may not in his plea, peryert !,
distort the evidence SO as to weaken tie foyes
or conceal the meaning of it He is a sworn
officer Of the court, and his oath should hinS
him to the ~strictest v~eracity. 1t would 81
q~uixotic to expect him to assist his adyersarv
but his obligation to speak the truth ont'
ranks every obligation that he owes to bis al.
emit 1t is notorious that some LAWYERS who
think it scandalous to tell a falsehood ont II
court in any business transaction lie shame.
essly in court in behalf of their clients. and
seem to think it a part OF their professional
duty. That bar of justice before which hi
their professional obligations they are bound
TO the most stringent truthfulness is the yery
place where they seem to consider themselves
abSolved from the common law of yeracity
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.
8. A lawyer ought not to sell his service fof
The promotion of injustice and knayery.
Swindlers of all types are aided by lawyers IN
their ~depredations upon society. The mock
broker who operates in Wall street, and strius
green country spectators of their hardearned
gains by the most nefarious roguery, ALWAYS
has an able lawyer as an ~accomplice. The
gentleman by whose agency a nest of these ras-
calls was broken up says: ''The great difficulty
in stopping swindles of this class is that the
rascals make enough money to be able to en-
ploy the best of legal advice, and are, more
over, careful to do nothing which will render
them liable to arrest" This tho testimony Of
a lawyer, Mr.. Ralph Oakley, of New York
''1'he 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 trutl
were not 80 often illustrated in the stupendoul
frauds and piracies of great corporations, all
Of which are carefully engineered by eminent
lawyers. Our modern ''buecaneerss-oul
brave railroad trreckers-are ia constant con.
situations with distinguished lawyers The
~undeniably have ''the best legal advise h
planning and executing their boldiniquities