The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-10-09
CLEMENS EULOGY
Members of Shawnee Bar
Association Deliver One.
He Had Qualities That Go to
Make Great Lawyer.
A MAN OF MANY PARTS.
Was Exceedingly Modest in APP
praisal of His Powers.
His Death will Be Serious Loss
to Legal Profession.
A MAN OF MANY PARTS


room today and passed resolutions Of
respect for one of their deceased mem
/ bers. Short eulogies were delivered this
morning on G. c. Clemens who died
early Sunday morning. Resolutions of
1 respect We're read and adopted and cop
/ les win be sent to the widow of the de-
! ceased and presented to the federal and
] supreme courts and made a portion of
| the records OF the district court.
The committee consisting of W. H
Rossington, chairman; H. S. Allen,
David Overmyer, z. T. Hazen and Judge
A. W. Dana drafted the following me-
mortal resolutions which were read and
adopted:
Your committee to whom was as
signed the sad and difficult task of
1 drafting resolutions commemorative of
the death of Casper c. Clemens, who
begun his professional career in this
city more than 81 years ago and had it
concluded by death on Sunday last,
! have determined to put our report in
the form of a brief address as suitable
to the occasion and in consOnance, as
we happen to know, with the wish OF
Mr.. Clemens if he would be here to ex-
press it. He always asserted his great
contempt for the formal mOrtuary res
olutions that were offered on such occa-
sions as this as being farcical and in
sincere, and, as he expressed it, adding
a new terror to death His decease,
following so close upon that of our
mund Burke once said, to sensibly re-
mind us what shadows we are and what
shadows we pursue.
Lawyers as a rule are a long lived
race, and these two men died when
they and their friends might have rea-
sonably expected that the world might
have had for many years longer the
fruit of their ripened talents and pow
ers.
Practically the entire professional
| life of Mr.. Clemens was spent here. He
was admitted to the bar in the supreme
court of Ohio at Columbus in 1862 af
ter passing a very brilliant and remark
/ able examination for admission. Not
/ long afterwards he moved to Topeka
1 and within a short time after his ar
4 rival gave evidence not only of extra
4 ordinary attachments in the law but Is
! the pCSseSSCr of unusual talents as an
/ advocate. He seemed to have been
/ specially endowed by nature with the
| peculiar mental habitudes and qualities
! that go to the making of a great lawyer.
I'VE all have our points of self
4 appreciation and conceit, as we all in
a greater or less degree share in the
lfoibles of humanity. It would have
Ebeen natural and justihable If Mr..
! Clemens had himself put high value
/ upon his SKILL aptitude and phenom-
email talents as a lawyer, but upon
/ that score he was always modest and
self depreciatory. If he had any con
ceits, and who has not, they were con-
fined to the belief that he possessed
/ extraordinary talents in literature and
/ powers as a political revolutionist.
/ With his career and accomplishments
! in the latter lines we have nothing to
do here; it is only as a brother in the
law that we here commemorate him
and deplore the great loss resulting
from his death. His marked abilities
and learning as a lawyer resulted in
/ his being often retained in complex
! and difficult causes upon what would
seem to be at first blush the losing
side. and those Of us who have watched
+ his career as a lawyer can recall many
/ cases where by his resourcefulness his
I integrity, his almost encyclopedia
/ knowledge of the law he snatched
victory from defeat Indeed, he rather
4 rai0iced and exulted in such contests.
not only because the rewards were
/ ordinarily greater for success. and he
! always. like most lawyers had a pres
ent and urgent need for such rewards,
/ but because it gave full scope and
| play to his raOrdinary powers. IN
the tactical branch of the law, so to
speak. where the issue Of victory or
! defeat is forced in preliminary skirm-
ishes he was adept and resOurceful to
| was urged by the court to proceed to
argue the merits of the case He
lpromply replied. with that playful
humor which never deserted him IN
/ der the most trying circumstances,
| May it please your honor, when the
| merits of the case are reached I lose
all interest in it.. However, it was
| true that upon the argument of the
merits of any cause he presented them
/, with such force and lucidity as to
make him at all times a formidable
adversary.
although he was not black-letter
lawyer, his reading had been so wide
and extensive and his memory was so
great and retentive that hardly any
/ question could arise upon which he
| could not array at command large
haps more thoroughly and profoundly
versed In the science of chancery
Jurisprudence than any lawyer in the
state and was the equal in that respect
Of any lawyer OF whom we have
knowledge. He also had an expert
knowledge of statutory law, not only
of Kansas but OF other states of the
Union, of rules of construction and of
the muItitudinous decisions thereon.
He might if he had addressed himself
seriously to the work have been a great
legal reformer. 1t was always re-
GREETED. however, by those who knew
him best as a lawyer and were for
that reason capable OF estimating and
measuring his powers, that he was
easily diverted from the work of the
law to the exploitation of his peculiar
political views or to his literary am
bitionS As we have said. he was
modest in the appraisal of his powers
as a lawyer and perhaps extravag CANT
in his view of his talents in other lines
of intellectual endeavor. But it may
be said that although the work and
achievements of lawyer are almost
as ephemeral as those of an actor
upon the mimic stage, to those of his
day and generation in Kansas he gave
evidence of being perhaps the abfest
and most brilliant advocate that the
courts of Kansas ever had on their
rolls. And yet according to the
worlds estimate, he was not what
would be called a successful lawyer:
one the constant possessor of a
stable and growing practice. evidenced
/ by material acquisitions in the form of
houses and lands. He fulfilled the
maxim of Rufus Choate as to the fate
OF lawyers who lived well. worked
Id Al liaa raan,-