The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-05-30
HOMEMADE LAWYERS
INDIANAPOLIS LAW SCHOOL Turns
OUT ITS FIRST PRODUCT.
Addison &. Harris's Address ON s.The
Lawyer Of the Future"-The
Award of Prizes.

mouth Church with a fair audience present
despite the intense heat. Professor Donley,
the organist, opened the programme with
a voluntary, and Rev. Il. Il. Dewhurst led
In prayer. w. p. Fishback. dean of the
school, was master Of ceremonies. He pre-
sented Addison c. Harris for the delivery
or the stated address. The subject was
The Lawyer Of the Future 1t was read
from manuscript and was a thoughtful,
interesting inquiry and discussion of socio-
political questions whose answers were
clear and satisfying. 1t was somewhat
optimistic in tone and held the rapt at
tention OF the hearers. 1t was in part as
follows:
w are about to enter on another GEN.
fury. Your lives must be finished and your
careers as men and lawyers achieved within
the decades OF the new cycle. You will
form a part of and find your natural places
In the body of the new generation that is
coming like a great army, gathering re-
cruits and comrades on the march. Ii will
be a century of wondrous energy. The
diary or the day will be read the same
nignt everywhere, and the foremost place
In the rank of the nations is destined to
be held by our Republic. The people of the
old world and the new will look TO the
INT States of America as the beacon
to make peace"
MT. harris SAID mat the next century
VIII be an era of Industrial. commercial
and intelligent activity. Action is agrees
sion and progress is essential to aggression,
and the object and purpose of law is to
roster progress and yet restrain ii from
trespassing upon the rights of others. This
is civilization. II was pointed out that
there must needs be some who shall de-
vote their lives to the protection and the
enforcement of the rights of all and give
to every one the fullest assurance of in
dividual liberty. Without a certainty Of
good laws there can be no progress. Russia
stands still. The law of a nation is the ex-
preston of its best current opinion. Juris-
prudence controls the development of man.
Kind. An ignorant people must be ruled
BY force. But in a land of intelligence there
the prime and essential demand is for good
laws. surely and quickly enforced.
Heretofore the profession of law has
progress. Otis resigned the office of attorney
or the crown and took his place at the
bar at Boston to maintain that taxation
without representation wiS tyranny. a
lawyer severed church from state. a law
yer broke down the rule of primogeniture.
Webster at the bar and Marshall on the
jestic whole the framework of the Con-
stitution. Kent and Story applied the uni
versal principles OF justice to the new con-
ditions OF this land. 1t was the mission
OF a lawyer that gave to the world the
greatest document of the century, IL not
OF all centuries, the emancipation proclama-
ton.
Mr.. Harris declared thi I our race has
put away the crown and that the Anglo
Saxon has adopted certain fundamental
for securing the most essential privileges
of the governed. 1t has been shown. how
ever, he said. that the majority, the SOW
ereign OF the democracy, is likely to be
as arbitrary. as Indifferent. sometimes as
cruel, to the weak and the few, in the
exercise of the governmental power, as
any king of old. In the flush of enthus-
iastic power. men forget, or, remembering
despise the rights, OF those they have over
come.
To counteract these tendencies it has
been found necessary to limit the might
of majorities by the new amendments. By
these 1T is declared that the majority shall
property without due process of law nor
deny to any the equal protection of law.
self.exe srs nSt T Fsw fendenss Of they the ym h5d
is to feel that II may do anything not
expressly prohibited. but obedience to in
n ri, ton does Tes not give free warrant VAR r noi 10 . 40
potential advocate OF the momentary ma
jority. In many States, at least, the execu-
tive has been impotent as a protector
against legislative aggression. The. veto
has not been exercised in England for 80
years. Ii is coming to be less and less
recognized i'm America. To whom, then. in
down by the foot of numbers. appeal for
succor? The court is their only and last
refuge. Yet the bench cannot act alone.
1t can only decide that which is properly
and intelligently presented. 1t is true that
in this State the great majority has written
il that every man can be his own lawyer.
AS well say in the army regulations that
every soldier shall be his own general.
who can protect and defend the rights
of men unless he knows what their rights
are?' continued the speaker. And who
can know what these rights are until he
has mastered the history. knows the
sources. development and the true rela-
tons of man and laws in the scheme of
civilization? Here is one great field n not
the greatest for the lawyer of the future.
Looking across the threshold of the CEN
fury. great problems are seen in the per-
spective that in magnitude and seriousness
rise as high as my that have been
mastered in the century just closing. This
by majorities. Power long enjoyed becomes
arbitrary. And numbers beget Indifference
to the few. The rights of the minority are
not yet settled. The majority is not the
State, and Is bold in claiming the power
of the state-as bold as Louis when he
said: I am the state, Out OF his seems
Of the majority Is as unlimited as the will
OF the monarch. The majority, it is felt,
can do no wrong. This is not true in a
political sense-but when applied to social
and property rights, il becomes an engine
of evil and destruction. The science of
Jurisprudence rests on the broad and firm
OF momentary majorities. Equality of man.
hood implies that the minority, even but
one. has the same equal right to life,
liberty, and the pursuits OF happiness as
the majority. even all save one. All class
law is bad law. All laws and usages that
tend to invest numbers with the powers
10 limit the right of mar to SOW as broad
as he may, and reap and sell his harvest
In the free mart. as he will. is arbitrary
and mischievous. and fraught with sure
Approached from the one side,
IL shows monopoly: from the other social
ism and anarchy. The Legislature cannot
pilot society through the storm. 1t is
the creature of the aggressive majority. The
executive cannot do 1t. because he is not
only in sympathy with the power that puts
him in place but he is. in the main, i'm
potent to resist the power by present con-
stitutional methods. II the equality of man
served. as they must be preserved TO So
ciety. that duty, that defense must be made
by the bar and upheld by the bench of the
next century. 1t is not the work of a day
or a campaign. IL is the work OF a genera
ton. 1t will be the duty of the twentieth
century to protect the individual in his
right and liberty 10 pursue his happiness
as he will. unrestrained BY any and every
power that may attmept to bind his hand
or brain. k is the struggle of the one and
the weak against the many and the strong
And upon the final result will pivot the
course OF free institutions. If wealth, if
numbers. if the rush and crush of agitation
are met and put beneath the foot OF inC-
ing with no help but the law. stands above
and over every one that deies the law-if
this shall come in time TO be accepted and
observed. tn IN. indeed. Will the tri-
Il will be for the son or law 10 make this
Mir. Harris spoke OF the tendency OF the
people. impatient of the slower methods of
the law. TO turn to the Legislature. He said
that the courts should not cling steadfastly
TO a principle because il had once been held
TO be settled. but should conform TO the
new order of things. He showed that after