The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-30
MaSterly Appeal for Honest Elec-
 tOnS and Less PartiSanShip.
SPOKE TO THE BAR ASSOCIATION
In Presence of Large Audience Distinguished Ala bamian Reviewed COuntry'S History, and Con-
 Sidered its Present and Future. >


 the Alabama Bar Association on Fri day, June 18th:
 MT. President. and Gentlemen of the
 Alabama Bar Association:
 I thank you sincerely for this oppor- tunity to renew in this, your annual gathering, an association which has always ben to me a source of pride ard unmingled satisfaction. The calendar shows that it has been many, many years since l was made happy by being licensed. in this capitol, to practice law. and so though have often denied 1t myself, must be growing old. What is more convincing perhaps than the calendar, is that I find myself con .stantly reverting to the brave deeds of the past and the great lawyers that lived in the halcyon days of long ago. am becoming a 'laudator temporis acti;" like him whose muse was always most cheery when singing of the glories of his "hot youth. when George the Third was King"
 Nevertheless, my brethren, am sure that age Is playing no trick with my memory, when I speak of the period during which I was a fiedgling Tn the profession .as the golden age of the Alabama Bar. Certainly you will all agree with me. that the leaders of that Bar in the sixties made remarkable group. For learning in the law, for fidelity to clients, for industry. for pro- fessional honor for knightly discharge of all the duties of citizenship, not to mention here survivors and not un. dertaking to catalogue all who were leaders, what galaxy was that! The Walkers of North Alabama; John Lit tie Smith, Robert H. Smith and B. s. Dargan of Mobile! Cochran and Bull lock of Eufaula; John A. Fillmore. Tucker Sayre, Thomas J. Judge, Thomas H. Watts, William P. Chiffon, Daniel S. Troy, Henry c. Semple, George Goldthwaite, Samuel F. Rice, A. J. Walker, George w. Stone and David Clopton! These men. none of them, had such experience in public af- fairs as to entitle them to be called great statesmen; but they were all eminent in and devoted to their pro- fession, and they all of them were more or less influential in shaping public sentiment. Contemplating them as group and remembering how each 1n- cidentally was called upon served his State, I am reminded of remark Of DeToqueville, the great French author who wrote in the days Of Jackson. l quote him from memory as saying that the American lawyers was the most
  tenance of the American Republic. The lawyer who is qualified for the high duties of his profession is not only essential to the Judge upon the Bench, in the administration of justice, but by his arguments at the Bar as well as also by his walk and conversation he teaches his fellow man the love of law, order and justice. His studies. too. fit him to judge off he only turns his attention to them-the most important questions of State, while his position and occupation give nm com- manding influence.
 The considerations have suggested to me as a topic for this occasion "The Duties and Responsibilities of the American Lawyer in the Twentieth Century"
 refer not so much to his obligations to his profession, as to those duties which, by reason of his profession and his position as a counsellor at law. the lawyer of today owes to the state. And what I shall say does not apply exclusively to members of our profes- sion.
 The United States have just entered unon the most critical period of their existence as a government. Their gov prnment Is founded upon public opin- lon: if it is to survive and perform its functions, if it is to meet and success fully solve all the complicated problems that will confront 1t in this Twentieth Century, domestic and foreign, 1t must have the help, the active, earnest help, pfall who are influential in the forma- tion of sound, conservative and con- tinously healthful, public sentiment: St must have the help of the schools, Of 4he pulpit, of the press and of the Bar. It is because am deeply impressed with the gravity of the many new Oroblems teeming in upon us with the new century, that I venture to address Vnu on the topic I have selected, not from the standpoint of political par +izan. hut from that higher point, if rnav attain it, where I may stand and urqe upon every member of this As- sociation the imperative demand ais country now makes upon him to think boldly and speak plainly upon all the questions of the day as they arise.
 I1,dee Dargan, whom have mention ~6 as one of the leaders of our Bar in +he long ago, was as you will all re- tnenoher A member of the Confederate Congress. The old Judge had his pecu- Iiarities. One of them was that aItbouRh he was a scholar and wrote bis oninions in beautiful English he had contracted the habit of using very bad English in his common speech. he IvaS occasionally, too, a hypochondrlac. Tate in 1863, when the Confederates had suffered many reverses, the Judge was sick at his boarding h?use in richmond, and MT. Pugh, who was about to return to Alabama, called to tell him goodbye. Pugh expressed to his colleague the hope that he would goon be better. "No," said the old Judge, "I'n never be any better. I'm rwine to die, and Pugh, l want you to take a message to my constituents; want you to tell them that Republican government is a failure, for you heard Dargan say so on his death-bed."
 fudge Dargan lived for years after wards, Whether he ever changed his oninion I do not know. This, how ever. I do know, that about the time 4bIs conversation occurred, and for wears afterwards. there were many Tn fhe Southern States of this Union who agreed with Judge Dargan. But .,tempora mYtantur ct nos in illis ynutanur." Now, as we contemplate the wonderful power and prestige and nrosperity of a reunited country, those oS ms who did for a time lose faith in self government are almost ashamed to admit that there ever was moment T,ben we could not look forward to the daylight that was coming. Few of Us are willing to confess that we ever did,