The Oskaloosa herald., 1912-07-04
Io1O0 State Bar Association
Cedar Rapids, June q, II
Toast-The Early Bench and Bar of Iowa. Response by
Major John F. Lacey of the Oskaloosa Bar. -

Union in 1886, and, though ! cannot
realize it, | am older than this COM
mSnwealth. Atpart of my boyhood
and all myisniAhhood life have been
in Iowa, and l love her history, her
land, and even her climate, with the
affection of a native.
came to the bar in the autumn OF
1885, and at time when the old
leaders were still in middle life.
When I was requested to speak to
you upon the subject given me l did
not understand that it was to be at
banquet. l am glad now to know
that it is to a well-fed and well-satis-
fed audience that am to speak.
The heart is very near the stomach
or, as King Dodo expresses it, THE
cardiac pumping station is just north
of the lunch counter"
OF course you cannot expect new
things about the old bench and bar,
but it is comforting to me to know
that there is no story so fresh as an
old and forgotten one. Montesquieu
in the eighteenth century relates that
he heard the same brand new story
told 225 times in three weeks in the
salons of Paris.
There Is nothing new under the
sun. You all remember the old legal
joke about Lawyer Sharp and Judge
Wise. The lawyer told the court that
there were sixteen reasons why a
certain witness was not present. The
first reason was that he was dead.
Judge Wise promptly replied that he
need not mind the other fifteen. You
will find that same story told by Sue
tonius about the Emperor Claudlus,
and the Roman historian probably got
it from the Greeks, who, in turn got
it from the Egyptians, and, perhaps,
they got it from Judge Crosby.
Therefore, even in telling you any
ancient stories of our bench and bar
you may not be sure that they were
new even to our predecessors. His
tory is the greatest of plagiarists and
she is fond of repeating herself
The old bar is substantially all gone
to that God
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days"
No one but the old bar can write or
speak adequately of that bar-but
they are gone. Let us deal gently
with their traditions. ~
When l returned from a service of
four years in the civil war was i'm
mediately admitted to the bar and
hung out my gilded single in my
home town. # The law practice of the
old leaders had been literally, as well
as ffguratively, shot to pieces by the
war. Many of the old lawyers had
gone to the front in all capacities,
and new practice must be sought
even by those who left busy offices in
their journey to the front. Such men
as Croker, Belknap, the Rices, Bar
tholomew, ]. r. Reed, A. J. Baker,
J. w. Rankin, s. r. Curtis, c. H.
Mackey, Jed Lake, w. M. Stone,
Frank M. Davis, J. A. Williamson, H.
C. Caldwell, w. G. Thompson, John
Mitchell, John Shane, N. M. Hubbard,
H. H. Trimble, G. l.. Godfrey, VIM.
Smyth, M. M. Trumbull, P. Cad Bryan,
w. S. DUNCAN, S. l.. Glasgow, G. w.
Clark, j. s. Clark, J. B. Weaver, w.
p. Hepburn and a veritable host of
patriotic lawyers had closed their of.
fees and books and marched away to
fight for the constitution and the laws.
w. M. Stone, then a judge on the
bench, entered upon his docket:
This court is adjourned until the
war is over" and raised company OF
infantry and afterwards a regiment
until he was recalled" to civil life
by his election as governor of Iowa
The old bar of 1883 to 1851 was in
the full tide of busy practice when
the guns of Sumter called a halt up,
on the bloodless contests of the for
UNI. In 1865 those of the old leaders
who had not passed away were not
yet very old men. Iowa was the
home OF the young people. A man OF
sixty In those days was a very old
man.
good Illustration of this may be
pointed out In the case of Judge Nc
Farland. The rising generation OF
young lawyers were constantly re
galed with the quips and oddities OF
this eccentric Judge. "Old" McFar
land was said to have done this, and
said this and that strange and outland
ish thing. He was always odd
Judge Mcfarland But the young
lawyers Of the era, following the civil
war, will be surprised to know that
"Old" Judge c. J. Mcfarland died al
the advanced age of thirty-nine.
These old fathers of the profession
we're boys after all, just as the faith
ers of the Revolution, whose venerat
ed and venerable forms we love tC
recall, were most of them young
men. In 1776 Washington was only
forty-four, Jay thirty-nine, Marshall
twenty-one, Hancock Twenty-Five, JET
ferson thirty-three, Warren thirty
five, Hamilton twenty.nine and La
fayette nineteen; and so it was with
the old leaders Of the Iowa bar. They
were not only young men as a rule
but very young men. asEts
But youth is one of the things which
is rapidly outgrown. These young
leaders were in middle life and some
Of them in fact old in 1865. wa: