The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-01
IS"NIL DE MORTUIS NISI BONUM'' THE RIGHT
DOCTRlNEP

ends of truth and justice?" Nor in the
prosecution of a case did he ever seem
to hesitate in the use OF doubtful ana
dishonest means to secure the END.
ESpouSing the interest and object or
his client with great ardor, he used all
the powers of his mind, all the graceS
of his oratory, all the suggestions
which a reckless ingenuity or a des-
perate strait prompted, to reach the
desired result. Too often doubtless
he was successful by these means, and
if many a time justice has been VIM
dicated, and the truth unravelled, and
endangered right has triumphed,
through his splendid efforts, when
they would otherwise have failed, too
often by the same intervention has
the wrong gloried in success, justice
been perverted and the criminal
screened from the punishment due to
his offense No cause seemed so des-
perate or SO bad that he would not
undertake its defense; no suggestion of
law, no trick of forms, SO shallow or
puerile that he would not press it in
to service for his purpose.'>
Is there not more need Of editors
like Samuel Bowles, who will brave
the natural feeling to write only good,
and write an honest and faithful esti-
mate of the public man when his life
work has ended and the time has come
for judicially passing upon it? And
ought not the press to speak out clearly
when we see in this day, as in Choate's
time, successful lawyers of ability
who never ask us this right" and
who never hesitate in the use of
doubtful and dishonest means to Sc
cure the end?" Mr.. Bowles said, when
Choate was in his grave, mo cause
seemed so desperate or so bad that
he would not undertake it's defense;
no suggestion of law, no trick of
! form so shallow or puerile that he
would not press it into service for
his purpose" And yet nearly every
eulogist in press, pulpit or forum, al
most made a god of Choate because
| he had been successful. What was
the result? Ambitious young lawyers,
! anxious to succeed, saw that the gift
ed advocate who did not hesitate in
! the use of doubtful and dishonest
| means to secure an end did not lose
caste by such prostitution of his tai
ents but instead he was held up as
| the perfect exemplar to the youth of
the land. 1t was harsh. it was graf
| ing. it was wanting in what we would
call consideration for the family"
for Samuel Bowles to write the truth
good and bad-of the eloquent and
learned Boston lawyer. But was it
not his duty to speak plainly?
10 a To fnv Yaf N a
posterity may impartiaIly judge and
get the benefit Of their example ~
| No full and complete estimate OF
the life and character of public man
can be made until his life is ended.
Must the world have a lop-sided and
D.. untrue conception of his life by TAX
ing off all the warts and blemishes?
| or shall the truth be'told-''the Glory
and the Shame"-and posterity en-
abled to see the man as he moved
among his fellows? Shall the biogra-
pher give u flesh and blood man, or
write fiction and call it biography :"
One portion of the world has never
yet forgiven Froude for his Life of
! CARLYLE" because he followed Car
lyle's own idea of writing biography.
The man of Craigenputtock never
toned down a picture until all the
individualism and power in his great
man was lost in making him like his
worshippers wished he had been. He
wrote of his characters with frank
ness that the sentimentalists called
brutal" What a mockery it would
have been if Froude had painted a
Carlyle without the pessimism and
the grumbings and the harsh sayings
that characterized this later Do
genes!