New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-01-18
THE COURTS AND TIE NEWSPAPERS

THE COURIS AM IHb NhVo OF N bh'p'
We print upon another page the principal
part of an address delivered yesterday at AL
bany before the State Bar Association by MIR.
Daniel Doughcrty, late of Philadelphia, but
now, happily, our felow-townsman. The
orator began with certain reflections upon the
mutual obligations of the Bench and Bar, sug-
ecsted by a long and honorable experience as
practitioner but the chief feature of his
address is a criticism of the relations of the
public press to the administration of justice,
as they were presented to his attention during
the recent bribery trials, and especially while
he was himself engaged in the defence of AL
derman Cleary. In that case he had the mis-
fortune to be associated in the popular mind
with his impulsve brother, MIR. Ira Shaier;
but those who were familiar with the circum-
stances Of the trial will remember that Mr.
Dougherty did not think it essential to the
welfare of his client that all the counsel for
the defence should paralyze the jury with
kysterical denuncations of the newspapers
His suave but earnest criticism of the press at
this time appears. therefore, TO be the fruit OF
mature delibcraton, and for this reason ID
seems desirable TO point out some OF the errors
into which be has fallen.
The position which Mr. Dougherty takes is
this That it is the privilege and may be the
duty of free press to record minutely the
progress of a trial, but that it should never,
under any circumstances, offer any comment
or prediction, any expression of hope or state
ment Of obligation in connection herewith,
before a verdict has been rendered. He thinks
that the ewspapers were radically and wofully
wrong in their treatment of the bribery cases.
that they persistently pursued course whose
constant tendency and ultimate result must
be TO undermine justice and overthrow clvillza-
ton and he would be glad to see the penalty
of fine and Imprisonment attached to similar
offence in the future.
IL is the custom Of the legal fraternity, in
public discussions, sometimes in a spirit of
rhetorical exaltation, but often, we are per-
suadcd, with all sincerity to dilate upon its
supreme place in the order Of existence, and
to assume that its members are professionally
endowed with so mysterious and awful
sanctity that Shcridan's ascrption to Justice
might appropriately be addressed to the mean
est OF them :-"Whose favorite attitude is to
stoop to the unfortunate, to hear their cry, to
rescue and relieve, to succor and save; majestic
from its mercy, venerable from its utility, up
lifted without pride, firm without obduracy,
beneficent in each preference, lovely though
in her frown." Now the disquieting fact is
that the legal fraternity. taken as whole just
escapes being public nuisance To controvert
without quoting Mr.. Dougherty, it does not
live up to lofty conception of its duty to
itself or the community; it does not purge
itself Of unworthy members; it docs not I'M
peach corrupt Judges it does not furnish the
strongest support of social order. 1t is, TO
great degree, lax selfish and unprincipled. The
bar would never of its own yolition and energy
have indicted twenty-one Aldermen and the
man who bribed them, convicted four and sent
three to Sing Sing. In commonplace pro-
cedures it is tho duty Of the press to refrain
from anticipating the verdict-a duty which
is seldom violated; but there are occasions
when the great court of public opinion. to
which Bench and Bar must bow Is under the
most sacred obligation to make its will mani
fest. 1t has happened more than once, when
justice has been drugged by avarice and bound
by technicalities, that the press has aroused
her and set her free.
We yield to TO one in our admiration Of the
character and gratitude for the example and
services of hlgh-mlnded, fearless, unsclfsh,
incorruptibo lawyers; and such men have
never been numerically few in any generation
But when next the Bar Association does itself
the honor to listen to Mr.. Doughcrty he may
confer lasting benefit upon its members and
upon the community by dcvoting his polished
and animated eloquence to an exposition OF
the mournful fact that no man can concoct
scheme for public or private plumber too vile
to command within an hour the services Of a
lawyer in good and regular standing at the
Newly DIRK Bar.