The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-03-18
Second Great Lawyer to Leave
Senate TO Resume Practice
at the Bar.
EDMUNDS OF VERMONT
FOLLOWED SIMILAR COURSE
Left Public Life With Sense
of Relief, and Soon Made
Fortune.

| special TO The tribune.
WASHINGTON, March 17-John c..
Spooner is the second great lawyer to
resign his seat in the United States
Senate TO go into the law practice,
The other was George F. Edmunds of
Vermont Edmunds stood at the head
of the judiciary committee when he
resigned. and was the leading lawyer
on the Republican side. Spooner was
regarded as the ablest lawyer on the
Republican side when his resignation
was handed to Governor David son, and
he stood next to the head of the judi
ciary committee. Edmunds made a
small fortune out of the law. He
marched out of public life with much
the same expression OF relief that
Spooner wore and that beamed from the
features of John G. Carlisle when the
latter returned to the law. Carlisle
and Edmunds were eminently successful
in their second experience at the bar.
Carlisle made 100000 the first year he
returned to the profession.
Story About Carlisle.
There is an interesting story about
the great Kentucky iurist that has not
heretofore been printed. The late Cen
eral Pat Collins of Boston related it to
a friend while on one of his visits to
Washington, and the latter repeated it
the other day while discussing Mr..
Spooner's second fight into the process
sional field. Had Carlisle remained in
the Senate, he would probably have
been in public life today. He was not
radical, and there are many Demo
..rals wno believed frat n" W." Sc
strongly devoted to his party that he
either in the trying times of 1896 and
the years that followed but for the
fact that he had become a member of
President Cleveland s official family
and LOYALTY was one of Mr., Carlisle s
strongest qualities. But at the close
of Mr.. Cleveland s administration his
Secretary of the Treasury, Mr.. Car.
Isle, found himself outside the pale OF
his party and apparently without poo"
ltical future. He turned to his friends
for suggestions He wrote to General
Collins asking the latter whether 1t
wouId be profitable for him to open a
law office in Boston. General Collins
discouraged it, and advised Mr.. Car
Isle to 60 to New York. 1t proved TO
be very good advice. Some of MI
Carlisle's enemies have charged that he
secured his law practice in New York
CITY as result of the bond sale nego-
tiated to j P. Morgan e. Co. while he
was Secretary Of the Treasury, But
this is disproved by the. fact that Mr
Carlisle had no clients when he left the
Treasury Department, and, as General
Collins story shows, was actually seek
ing professional location.
Evidently Mr.. Spooner means to fol.
low the same professional methods and
do general practice rather than tax
,. .-cnt with a single corpora
tion or individual. Senator Edmunds
did much the same sort OF practice.
He appeared a number of times before
committees of Congress. making argu-
ments at hearings, and has also repre-
scnted clients before the government
departments.
Carlisle's Great Mind.
Mr.. Carlisle had one of the finest
Congress, He had q capacity for get"
ting together an abundance OF lntor-
nation and presenting 1T IN the moSt
concise and lucid style. Nh. Carlisle
was not n profound student. such as
the late Nelson Diugley of Maine, but
he had the faculty of taking up sub
iect and getting together all av"!laoie
evidence, analyzing 1T and presenting IL
in most attractive style. This seems
10 be tnc QuallLy VI rhi' hPo''N' ',SN'
In the preparation OF his great speeshes
in Congress he would generally hiIe
AWAY in library for two or three days,
surround himself with bevy Of clerks
and messengers, bringing all sorts Ut
reference works, and no seemed TO have
the faculty of concentrating his mind
entirely upon the subject nntu ho be-
came absolutely lost to eXt"aneous mat
ters. After two or three days of this
sort Of research, Spooner would emerge
from his mass OF books, a complete
master Of his subject. He would march
into the Senate chamber, and when nc
started 10 speak his desk would be piled
hirh with reference works, and, not in
frequently, the desks Of his nelghbor
Senators, and the surrounding floor
would be covered with law reports anI
reference works Many times he would
quote the reference before lie found
tho book, so completely did he have
his facts in mind. There was very
little rhetorical flourish about Spooner'
speeches. He could be terribly in earn
est. and his addresses were very at
tractive to the lawyers in the Senate,
MANY like Teller, Bacon. Culborson,
Bailey, Morgan, Knox, Clapp and Bur
rows would become so profoundly in
terested in Mr.. Spooner' g legal presen-
tation that they were ready to quarrel
with any Senator who dared interrupt
him with a question. None of the law
yers Of the Senate doubts for moment
that the retiring Senator from Wiscon-
sin will achieve n remarkable success
at the bar.
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