Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-06-20
LAWYERS AND CONGRESS-.
Statesmen Trained at the Bar.
Men Who Have Used the Law as a
Stepping Stone to Political Dis
tinetion-Fortunes They Have
Made and Are Still Max
ing-GoSSip.

Louse dlIu tAe senate you ma them on the
street corners in Washington, and after
they leave public life they settle down
here to practice. Of the 4l2 members of
this congress 2SS are lawyers. The speak
er is a lawyer; all of the leaders of the
house are lawyers, and more than three
fourths of the men who hold down those
soft IS 900 cushions in the senate are or
were, limbs of the law. 1t has been so
since the beginning of the government.
The law Is stepping-stone to politics.
Clay, Webster and Calhorn were all law
yers; jefferson was making 5000 a year
at the law when he married; Madison and
Monroe had each studied law before they
got into politics; Tom Benton practiced
IN tie Tennessee courts before he
went to Missouri; Presidents Arthur.
Hayes, Johnson, and Lincoln practiced
law, and so did Pierce, Tyler Fillmore,
Martin Van Buren, Andrew jackson and
James Buchanan. Buchanan made 1898
the first year he practiced and ten years
later he had run his fees up to Sll 900 a
year, He dropped the law when he got
into politics and this is the case with some
of the publ men to-day
John Sherman was admitted to the
bar at twenty-one. He studied law in
his brothers office in the little town of
Mansfield, .Ohio, and borrowed $50 to 90
to Columbus to be admitted to practice
before the Supreme Court. When he
came back his brother took him in partner
ship and the two had a fare collection
business, John was soon able to save $500
a year, and the savings well invested form
ed the foundation of his fortune. 1t was
about ten years after this that he was
elected to Congress and dropped his prac-
t1ce. He has not taken it up since and is a
statesman pure and simple.
OF the lawyers now of the United States
senate ban Voorhees, is perhaps the best in
criminal cases. Of the murderers among his
clients none have ever been hanged, and he
can bring the tears to the eyes of the
jury IN any case he pleads. He defended
one of the members of John Browns raid
at Harper Ferry, and he gets the biggest
fees of his kind. Senator Spooner was
making $4,000 year as a railroad law
yer when he was elected, and he is said to
have one of the cleareSt legal minds in the
United States Allison was known as a
good lawyer in Ohio before he went to
Iowa, and there are few better lawyers in
the country to-day than old Senator Joe
Brown, of Georgia. Brown is Il sef-made
man from the gTOunl up. He drove a
Bs'IL vi StCCIo " Illt hDVulH SdIOIlIld AtdJlt-
my. where he was educated and got the
master to take the steers in payment for
his board and tuition. 1t was here that he
got the rudlments that enabled him to be-
gin the study of the law ard he taught
school after this and studied law at the
same time. He borrowed enough money
to give him Il year at the Yale Law School
and improved his time so well that he
was able to make 81 200 during the first
year of his practice. He pushed his earn
ings from this steadily up until the reach
ed $1,000, and he invested all his savings
well. The first $40 he made went into
a piece of land with a copper mine on it,
and he sold the half interest of this later
on for S25, ZOO, W hich he invested in farms
and which formed the basis of the i'm
mense fortune which he now owns. He is
worth s6,000,OO0.
Tom Reed studied law while he was
teaching school in California and he would
have been a rich man if he had stuck to
the practice. Leland Stamford once
practlced law in Wisconsin. He had one
of the finest law libraries Of the Northwest
and was doing well when a fire broke out
and ate up this and thirteen mortgages
then contained the bulk of his accummua-
tlons. The result was that he was reduc-
ed to $500, and rather than rebuild he de-
clded to 60 to California. He there be-
came involved In business and railroads.
and instead of being rich Wisconsin
lawyer he has become the hundred million
aire United States senator Senator In
gals studied law in Massachusetts and as
soon As he was admitted to the bar started
to Kansas with SO in his pocket. He
opened an office near AtchinsOn His
law library was made up of three books
and the whole of his furniture was a chair
and a table. His first client was a car
penter and his fee was paid in kind. He
got table and high desk for his legal
services and this desk painted green is
kept in Ingalls, family to-day as one of its
most precious pieces of furniture It be-
longs to Ingalls, son Ellsworth. who carried
it with him to college, and who probably
now uses it as part of his office furniture
IN the starting of his law office.
Senator ingalls, office furniture recalls a
story which Senator Mitchell told me about
his early legal experiences in Oregon
Mitchell had just s. in his pocket when he
reached Portland, but he registered at the
hotel as though he was a millionaire. and
engaged rooms which cost him $50 week
He rented a little eight by ten office which
lLltl DO luI HIbuIt Whatever III III ana ne
spent his IS for volume of the statutes of
Oregon, and this constituted his whole
library. He found he could get trusted for
his board and his rent. but he was at a
loss as to furniture A friend of his gave
him two chairs, and he went to a carpen-
ter and asked him to make him a table on
tick. The carpenter coolly replied that he
did not do business that way. and Mitch
oil finally al,+a1ral ba oF ,l,,1r
adjoining Office. He put out his shingle.
and at the end of that wear he had twenty
six out of the fifty-two cases that came up
before the court. His practice grew stead
lily, and citizens of Portland tell me that
he was soon making $40 600 a year. He
had one client. Ben HOLIDAY. who paid
him $4,000 year for a number of years,
and he still makes some of the biggest fees
of the country.
Nearly all the southern senators are
lawyers. The late Senator Beck had a good
practice in Kentucky before he came to Com
gress, q | Blackburn can make a splendid
speech before the Jury Bate. Of Tennessee.
was practicing in Nashville and left his
law Office for the United States senate and
GC~ernor Vance Is one of the leading law
yers VI NCrth Carolina. Butler comes from
fanny Of lawyers and be studied in the
Office of his uncle, 4 p Butler. Senator
Eustls, of Louisiana. Is graduate Of the
Harvard Law School and he has been for
years professor Of civil law in the Uniyer-
sity Of Louisiana. He comes Of a very
rich family and he has number Of noted
lawyers among his ancestors. Senator
Gibson Is also a lawger and he Is also rich
George, Of Mississippi, / not only a good
lawyer, but he is a legal author, and his
frowsy head Is packed full Of legal facts.
General Walthall was getting $4,000
year as a railroad lawyer when he was
elected TO the United States senate. and he
was at one time partener of Justice La
mar Lamar himself has paid more atten-
ton to books ani literature than to the
practice Of the iaw but he has a good
legal mind and he Is hard worker
Lamar first case was the defending Of
man who had whipped another but feared
that he could not do so again and he want
ed bis rival bounc over to keep the peace.
Lamar succeeded in doing this and re-
ceived as his fee two jugs of handsome
whisky.
The late Sunset Cox got s25 for hi. first
law case, and Henry Cary's first fee
amounted 70 Just Is shiIlings. Represen-
tative Holeman. the noted economist.
learned how 10 skiup the government by
skimping his stomach 70 fit the size Of a
country Hoosier's legal salary and John
Allen the funny man from Mississippi,