Albuquerque evening citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1905-1907, 1905-09-23

and Bar, Their Relation TO Each Othtr
and to the Public
About one year ago received AN iuyi-
tatiou TO be- one of the guests OF the
West Texas Bar Association at "a BAN
quet to De given at III Paso.
Anticipating that / might be called up
on to say something ! prepared, i'm mind,
what / thought would Dee very appruprl-
ate to the occasion. Being "a Tennessee
an Intended TO talk of the relation OF
tie old Volunteer state TO the Lone star
state.
l Intended to say that Tennessee had
given to Texas the hero of san Jacinto,
Saiu Houston; that another Tennessee
an. David Crockett. had baptized the al
tar Of the Old church of the Alamo with
the richest lihation that ever flowed IN
libertys cause.
1 intended To recount some OF the his
tory of Tcnnesseeaus In hat struggle; to
speak of Palo Alto, Monterey. Buena
Visto, Cerro Gordo; and finally how It
was hat on the very heights of Chapul-
tepec IL was "a Tennesseean VINO tlung
the Stars and Stripes to the breeze.
The Texas x Pacific train was late as
usual, so that 1 did not arrive at the
scene Of festivities until about the time
the guests were being seated at the TIA
BILE, when / found to my utter dismay
that / had been assigned to a seat be-
tween two distinguished officials of the
Republic of Mexico. My ]eloQuence, like
Bob Acres courage, began to fade away.
j saw that must switch
II - very true llltl / htu NOT bttl tl-
vised as 60 the toast TO which il was eN-
peCted that / would respond. nor indeed
that ! would be expected to speak at
all; but l had read enough of Chauncey
Depew 20 understand that it is a very
poor after dinner speaker who cannot
adopt any kind of a speech to any sort
Of a subject.
l was called upon to respond to the
toast of the bench ana bar OF New Mex
leo.
/ am going to repeat a few things here
that / said in that address. III more
so because l was aftlI wards criticized
by some Of the press # New Mexico
for my FL Paso speech.
l said that We In New Mexico didn't
have what would he called in an old
eastern state a bench. That in the older
states the bench was composed of law
yers taken from the bar; that they were
selected not only because of their emin-
ence in the profession, but that the law
yers themselves who had most to do
with creating the bench were interested
in promoting lawyers of great practice
In order that they themselves might in
herit their practice. That this rule was
not pursued in New Mexico; that our
judges were taken as a rule from for
eign Jurisdictions appointed in many in
stances in payment of political debts;
that they came to the territory with
preConceived ideas of practice: that
they imported from their own jurisdic-
tion their several forms Of procedure.
l alluded to the fact, also, that in New
Mexico we have Of all jurisdictions the
greatest complication; that our jurispru-
dence was made up partly of the civil
law was derived from Mexico and Spain,
partly of the common law as inherited
from the founders of the constitution,
and partly of "A system Of legislation so
intolerably contradictory and confusing
as to be utterly incomprehensible; that
our temple Of justice was built not after
the style Of the Grecian, Ionic, Doric nor
composite, but was after the purest style
of the conglomerate.
Added to this, ! said our syste moi ap-
peals was the very worst that could be
imagined. That while each legislature
undertook to provide some means of
Supreme Court undertook by it's decis-
ions to make it impossible to do this.
That our Supreme Court has been
d"enominated a COnVocation of gentlemen
met to affirm each others errors.
1t is true that the good natured re-
porter represented me as saying that II
was a meeting to correct each others
mistakes.
l never thought of such a thing.
In speaking of the bar, i said that
with one exception New Mexico had the
rightes and brainiest bar of any juris-
diction in the United States.
You will understand that my environ
ments made it proper to except Texas.
/ said that New Mexico lawyers were
called upon to confront he most diff
cult legal problems. That in the main
the were men of push and energy and
brains. That they were possessed OF
great courtesy. That my tribute to the
bar of New Mexico was not mere flat
terry; but that the truth of 1t was capa-
BILE Of demonstration l alluded to the
fact that while in all of the eastern
states owing to the of the bar
the attorneys were allowed from two to
three hours on a side to present their
cause to the Supreme Court, that in the
Supreme Court Of the United States the
attorneys were allowed two hours to the
side; that such was the hrilliaucy of our
bar, and such its powers of concentra-
ton and condensation that one hour to
the side was found to be all that was
necessary, and that our Supreme Court
had made a rule limiting counsel to that
time.
sad furthermore that less attention
was paid by our courts to our own de-
cisions than to the decisions of other
jurisdictions That / had rather go into
one Of our courts with a well considered
case from Connecticut, New York
Indiana. Illinois, Ohio, OF Nebraska thar
will two cases from our own courts.
did not include Massachusetts in the lis
of authoritative states, because at tina
time our friend, Judge Abbott, had no
been appointed. If you will examine tn
tenth volume of our reports YOU vii
find that Of three hundred and ninety
seven cited cases only thirty-seven ar
from our territory, while the remaining
three hundred and sixty are from othe
states.
/ said that it was no part OF my pur
pose 10 cast any aspersiOns on GU
judges, who were In the main good law
yers, and all of whom were e~NCoIleu'
-courtly gentlemen,
/ confess that / handled our system z
judicature rather roughly, because It d,
served il.
II there is any worse system on eartl
am not aware Of II.
/ nave embraced this, the fist oppo
tunity, / have had, TO meet the attacl
made on me for that speech.
II has been charged that my rcmarl
were disrespectful to the judges Of OF
courts.
l am at a loss 10 know in what parti
ular they were disrespectful. No one h.
statements which / made; and the tru
ought not 10 be regarded as disrespec
ful to the court, unless uttered in q
presence Of the court.
Besides all this, my remarks. IL dlsr
speCtful towards any one, were to
one more so than TO myself.
], myself, had been sent 10 the territ
~ from an eastern jurisdiction. / hi
become a New Mexico Judge long befO
becoming a New Mexico lawyer.
What then are, or ugh to be, u
true relations existing between the benz
and the bar2
The keystone OF that relation Is trut
and candor; for after all what is Il
difference between the lawyers at n
bar who stands before the court plea,
ing the cause Of his client, and a
judge on his bench who sits there
hear that cause2
All Of them are officers; all Of ther
acting under oath, are ~discharging gre'
obligations, the lawyer for the plainti
his sworn obligation TO his client, q
lawyer Tor the defendant his sworn ogI