The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-01-27

could not have higher praise. There are
SO many in these hurrying times VINO
rush blindly on, that we can afford to
be classed with those who would not
willingly give up the old and tried.
INNOVATION THE LAW OF PRO-
GRESS.
Speaking in broad terms, innovation
is undoubtedly the law of progress. We
cannot go forward by maintaining the
same old standing place. But change
means simply a shifting of position, and
we should remember that not every
change of position is forward In our
political history we have what we call
landmarks; in our legal history we have
precedents. Who would willingly strike
them down? Courts follow decisions
under the maxim stare decisis, simply
because they are decisions, because
rights have grown up under them, ana
because certainty is better in judicature
than absolute correctness in the first
decision. An Emerson says or 1nnoVa-
ton and conservatism leach is a good
half but an impossible whole" We can
not recklessly uproot established rules,
nor stupidity insist that they must last
forever Good government is not attain
ed by leaps and bounds. Speaking only
my personal views, welcome every for
ward movement, every experiment that
has the promise of better things for all
the people. But not all who offer to
lead have any idea, even the crudest, of
causes that really demand leadership.
Washington was q STUN bllng-block
once and Lincoln an impeachment to the
plans of those who could not wait.
We have been making history very
rapidly in this last year. A foreign war
summoned us to action, and the nation
responded. Something we have learned
that we did not certainly know before.
We have learned that the cankers OF
calm world and a long peace had not
Slapped our vigor nor made US race OF
mere money getters. We have learned
that there is always an undecorated
knighthood, wearing no insignia, pc
h1If
steadily under CONSIDERATIONS not always
visible, but as Wordsworth profoundly
sang:
"Felt in the blood. and felt along the
heart"
All our LAWSUITS are insignificant
compared with the issue which Dewey
tried when he sailed into the bay. In
that sublime hour he demanded and
obtained judgment for centuries Of
wrong. While we go on with our small
contentious, he is there yet, keeping the
flag on the top-most mast, and assert
United States is in the Orient be-
cause it has right to be.
A STRONG, VIRILE PATRIOTISM.
Gentlemen, we are lawyers by choice,
but citizens by birth. The judge may
retire from the bench, the lawyer may
retire from his practice, but the citizen
is mustered in for life. The object of
this association is to advance the wei
fare of the legal profession, TO BRING the
judges and lawyers of the state INTO
pleasant social relations and to discuss,
from time to time, questions which IN
terest US in our professional capaclueS
But 'tthe gladstone light of jur1spru-
dence'' can never be so sweet an infiu-
ence as the light of patriotic impulses,
stimulated by an intelligent conception
of the duties of citizenship. The law
yer and the judge have taken an oath
to be true to their respective callings,
but the citizen is under immemorial
obligation. 1t comes with him into the
world, and broods over him until he
says his last farewell 1t is a sentiment
in part, with the sweet, subtle influence
of a mere emotion, but it's trueSt basis as
the mandate of the law. The highest
patriotism has ever been obedience to
the commands of legitimate authority,
for authority is legitimate until it has
passed the bounds of reason and en-
durance, and then revolution stalks to
the front. When the things that are
Caesars crowd too hard upon the things
that are Gods, the tribute must go to
the higher power. But progress, en-
Iightenment and freedom, of which we
talk so much, move slowly, taking their
time in a calm and self-contained way
as sane ideas always have since the
world began.
Did you ever consider the fact that
most of the great struggles of history;
and particularly Anglo-Saxon history,
have been over ancient rights and priv
ileges instead of new demands? Such
was Magma Charta; Sucn was the great
Bill of Rights; and such was the lofty
enumeration of principles in our own
Declaration of Independence. Gentle
men. our danger is not that we may fail
to secure guarantees for newly discov
cred liberties. The real problem is, how
shall we best hold those we have be-
Iieved to be ours by the prescriptive
tenure and birthright of American citi-
zens? Before all other men, the lawyer
should stand for the orderly movement
of events; the even flow of that great
current in which history moves to its
consummations better than we dreamed
of when the race was in it's dawn. There
was once a deadly struggle in a narrow
pass between a little band Of Greeks
and a horde of Asiatic invaders. On the