The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-01-27
GEORGE R.
PECK'S SPEECH
Made Before the State Bar As
ISOLATION Last Night
Makes Some Entertaining and
AmiabIe Criticisms
OF THE JUDICIARY
And Calls Out Many a Laugh
BY
Touching Up the FOibles OF the
Legal Profession.
OF THE JUDICIARY

The following is George r. Peck 3
speech delivered before the Kansas
State Bar association last night:
1t has often been said that home is
the sweetest word in our language. Only
those who have been banished, can
know how true the saying is, or ap-
preciate how much more it means than
it seems to mean. Since 1 left this
state six years ago, have known some
joys and many sorrows, but there has
never been a moment when Kansas was
not the dearest spot on earth to me.
Here are the old friends and the true
friends; here were the small beginnings
of my professional life, and here the
children played in the days when we
were all happy together. Your welcome
has touched me deeply, for it gives me
assurance that even yet, prodigal sons
may return and claim kindred with
those who have kept the homestead.
The old theological doctrine "once in
grace always in grace may or may
cot be true, but "once a Kansan always
a KanSan' finds a sure response in the
hearts of all who have ever breathed
the air of this great commonwealth.
salute you as a loyal son, and joyfully
greet the neighborS, companions and
friends of other days
1t is not in my nature to attempt a
formal address on such an occasion. 1t
is too much one of personal happiness
to permit me to care for the themes
usually considered appropriate at your
yearly meetings. 1 am thinking more
of the past than the present. But being
booked to appear before you, must
needs go forward as best may, appeal
ing to your charitable consideration if I
wander somewhat from the subject. 1t
was chosen after painful elaboration,
and imbecility wrestling with each
other" and 1 f1atter myself that it is
rather happy one, for it has great
latitude and great longitude. THE
judge, the lawyer and the citizen" COM
prehend the entire body polite, except
ing only a few unnaturalized foreigners,
Cinnamon and Indians not taxed. 1t is
so great a. theme that 1 can only hover
around it's edges, making here and
there a suggestion which, after all, may
not be pertinent. Sometime ago L re-
ceived an intimation that you did not
desire profound and learned discourse;
and then 1 knew why you invited me.
As our great Senator Lane used to say:
Gentlemen, thank you for this evil
dence of your confidence
After all, what difference does it make
what the text is, or whether one sticks
very closely to it? If the spirit of good
will is in our hearts, and if tonight we
are called to a renewed faith in the
ideals of our profession, our meeting
will not be a, waste of time. 1t is not
for me to give advice as to the ethical
duties that rest upon judges or lawyers.
The things that make for righteousness
can not be tabulated and set down by
fixed rules, and if they could, who would
dare strike the balance of his own &C
count? Men are such little creatures
when viewed in their relation to the
worlds history-the great sweep of
things from the beginning of beginnings
that it seems almost impossible to
name any duty or any responsibility in
a fixed and determinate way. AS the
courts some times remark when they
can think of nothing else to say, 1--WE
must consider the circumstances"
RACE HAS GONE FORWARD.
The standards of human conduct have
so many limitations, so many modifica-
lions, SO many exceptions, that we may
be forgiven if the task of laying down
absolute rules is beyond our capabilities
And yet IN some way, by some infinitely
large evolution, social order has been
attained, and in what we call civiliZa-
ton men have come to put limits upon
their native instincts and brides upon
their own unguided impulses. This is
law; the great uplifting force which has
gradually transformed mere savagery
into the high conception we now have
of mutual rights, the understanding
that peace and not war is the true rela-
ton of men with men in their daily
lives. I consider it the strangest thing
in all the phenomena of human growth,
that the ungoverned wildness of animal
nature should have voluntarily put a
yoke upon itself, and from century to
century grow more submissive to it's
was so hard for primeval man to grasp,
has almost become part of our natures
and we recognize it not as a surrender
of our liberties, but as their sureSt
guaranty. The family, the clan, the
tribe are steps toward that highest form
of organization, the institutional gov
eminent, under which individual liberty
finds it's truest safeguard. The race
has gone forward by putting upon itself
the restraint of laws, and only by so do
ing has there been what we call pro-
nd fe 1nr1, 10 ~-1-.r
of our profession, that it has helped the
onward movement, helped to hold the
ranks together under the sway of rules
not always very clearly specified and
not always, perhaps, the wisest or the
best, but after their fashion eSta blishing
the sanctions of human conduct in COM
munitieS. states and nations. The judges
and lawyers who compose this asSocia-
ton stand for something more than
mere mum bers in the affairs of the state
for they exercise and have always exer-
cised wider influence than that of any
other equal number of men. No one can
deny that their Influence has generally
been wisely and usefully directed.
In the United States more than any
where else, the bar is potential in DO
Htical affairs. Our system of govern
ment which makes the judiciary a dis
tinct, Independent, or to use the familiar
word coordinate" branch, differs so
much from the system of most European
countries that 1t is still considered by
many of their writers as a doubtful ex-
pertinent. AS lawyers are officers of
the courts in which they practice, they
are in a certain sense part of the gov
eminent, a part of the mechanism by
which laws are enforced and the rights
and duties of citizens asserted 1 fear
they are not always very sensibly i'm
pressed with this great fact, but they
ought never to forget it, for in the ad-
ministration' of justice, the office of at
torney is second only in Importance
to the office of judge. You may lay
down any other position and take up
that OF the pract4cing lawyer with no