The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1909-08-13
PRINCIPLES OF
JURISPRUDENCE
w. T. HUGHES DELIVERS ADDRESS
AT MINoT.
One Of the Most Scholarly Addresses
Ever Delivered in the State Made
Before the State Bar Association at
Its Closing Session.

~" ~'SS''A SSS@iOHs
Ninot N. D., Aug. lS.-For several
hours last evening, at the closing ses-
sion of the annual convention of the
North Dakota state bar association, w.
T. Hughes of Chicago held the closest
attention of the attorneys of the state
while he delivered a mastery address
on The Iulmutable Principles of Juris-
prudence. The address teemed with
illusions to notable events in the his
tory of the world, TO biblical lore, to
the world masterpieces OF fiction, etc,
and it was one of the most scholarly
addresses ever heard in Minot.
/ Mr.. Hughes said in part:
Jurisprudence and morality make
for the same end. The theologian's
golden rule commends pothing higher
than the lawyers. The lawyers gold
en- rule, Juris prae cepta sunt haec:
Honeste vivere, alterum non laeders,
suum cuique tribuere (These are the
precepts of the law: To live honestly,
!
cry man his due) is from Justinian. II
is on the title page of Broom's Max
I inns, and is approved by Blackstone.
Both of these golden rules are from
the same fountains and both are i'm
perishable. The law is a spirit and
not type on paper. 1t does not come
by digging" The law is the gift of
Heaven. 1t comes from the sky, not
holes in the ground
"Ignorantia legis neminem excusat
! Ignorance Of the law excuses no one)
may be picked from the hearing given
thetJman, the woman and the snake in
the Garden of Eden. A part of the
sentence was that the man and the
woman go therefrom throughout all
ages and climes charged with a knowl-
edge of the law. Upon respect for this
principle depends the enforcement of
all law. If ignorance Of the law could
be defense, then no law could be en-
forced. The great corporation could
defeat the laws of the government by
pleading its Ignorance or the law, as
the reason why it applied for and got
from the common carrier favored and
Illegal rates. Disregard this immut-
able principle and government cannot
protect nor enforce. Therefore this
requirement for knowledge of the law
is sacred for the cause of government
THE leading branches of the law
rest on certain, fixed and immutable
principles, the denial or impairment
of which wtthdraws the cornerstones
of those Subjects. Debne fundamen-
tum fallit opus (when the foundation
/ foil oil
In closing he said: LAS irrigation is
to the desert, so is Jurisprudence to
lawful authority. AS water separates
the garden from the desert, so juris-
prudence separates a constitutionalism
from an absolutism. What the Eu-
pilates was to Babylon good courts ad-
minfstering the laws are to govern
ment. OF what followed tlr7 diversion
of that stream by Cyrus, it is written:
'Belshazzar's grave is made,
| His kingdom passed away,
He in the balance weighed
Is light and vulgar clay
The shroud his robe of state,
His canopy a stone,
The Mede is at his gate.
The Persian on his Throne
upon the legal profession depend
the destinies Of the Causcasian in the
western hemisphere. And this .infor-
nation ever awaits the coming of high
and noble minds, who give to 1t the
wealth of intellect and of purse for
the way OF. the glorious career of. sue
ceeding kings.
"The moorings which will save from
judicial anarchy are found in the pre-
be picked the sun, moon and stars
that will light and guide. AS the mar
iner has his North Star and it's point
ers so has the jurisprudelt, for whose
guidance the lawyer of this age owes
a high and indeed paramount duty; a
duty imposed by the oath of his ad-
mission. He owes il TO those who
come after him to gather that matter
and so set and present it that it will
Ienlighten and advance all who will
look and read. ri
(There is life alone in duty done.)
'It is easy to point to the facts
abroad all over the land that lawyers
/ are judged by wrong standards. and
that in this the members of the pro-
lfession generally acquiesce; also that
the profession has not been active nor
| resourceful in protecting the public
against the ways of the politician in
conventions and of the activities of the
congressional delegation in securing
the appointment Of federal judges. 1t
lis time that the profession erected
barriers to defeat the operations Of
these malefactors What these have
done Is attested by thousands of de-
cisions. In several states these are de-
structive of the ends for which they
were made into books and preserved.
How much longer will the legal pro-
fession submit?
What was written of great SOW
ereign may be quoted here for the i'm
Iaginative:
I'll minded man, why scourge thy kind,
Who bowed so low the knee,
Who gazing on tElyseIf grown blind
Thou taughtst the. rest to see,
with might unQuesttoned, power to
save,
Thine only gift hath been the grave
To those that followed thee"
INJURED FAST RECOVERING.