The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1915-07-24
AS TO LAWYERS.

be better informed, are casting sneers
at the candidacy of lawyers for the
constitutional convention, In the event
that one is held. There will be pre-
ponderance of lawyers in this conven-
ton. The farmer and the plain bust
ness man will not be represented" Is
a sample of what is said, and this is
re-echoed by others, who do not think,
and who find 1t cheap and easy mat
ter to follow any open line Of argument.
And it has become very common to
assume that lawyers, because they
present the best possible case for in
dividual clients, oftentimes employing
every loophole of law in favor Of those
clients, are necessarily unable to deal
broadly with questions relating to the
general good. The names of thousands
of patriots, from Thomas Jefferson to
Francis T. Nichols, not to mention
those still living, refute the assump-
ton that nation and state do not owe
their best laws to the brains of lawyers.
No good law on the statute book is
profession or trade, has a lawyer
who put his best thought to it's compo-
sition to make it strong and enduring.
Again, every farmer, every merchant,
every business man of any branch Of
profession or trade, but has lawyer
as his adviser. He signs no important
paper, he buys no land unless lawyer
examines the titles, he does not at
tempt to draw up any legal paper of
any sort, but instead delegates it to his
attorney. In the last analysis, there
fore, business centers upon the lawyer,
and his advice in all important matters
Is supreme
In this question Of new constitu-
ton. be assured it will be written by
lawyers. Should the parishes one and
all send their ablest and most success
ful farmers, merchants, physicians,
and other business men to that con-
vention, and accordingly not one law
yer would have seat In the conven-
ton, nevertheless lawyers would be re-
Quired to write every article of that
constitution. No farmer, no Horace
Wilkinson would present a single
measure without first submitting it to
the eyes of his attorney, if the latter
did not actually write the article!
Such being the case, why all these
attempts, careless or studied, to be-
little the lawyers as delegates to the
convention? Since lawyers are to write
this constitution, whether as delegates
or counsel to other delegates, why not
select able lawyers, who are also good
men, and send them to the convention,
and thus define and fix their RESPONSE
bility to the people who elected them,
rather than confine their efforts to in
dividual clients, where their sincerity
is less recognizable?
In a word all this claptrap about law
yers Is due to the too common habit of
hasty generalization. Because some
lawyers are crafty and INSCRIPTIONS,
because some lawyers have used their
great abilities to entrench the trusts
in power; because lawyers use every
technicality of law to save it may be
your son or mine from the penitentiary
or the gallows, or to enable your neigh
Dor to cheat his creditors, it does not
follow that lawyers are not among the
first In moral worth and standing in
every community. Think a minute, is
it not so?
1t Is sort of fashion to belittle law
as profession from moral stand
point, but comparing lawyers, man for
man with the farmers and merchants
you know, do the former not stand the
test? There are farmers of great
worth, honest and Woodworking; there
are also farmers, idle, shiftless, in.
capable; and farmers, surly, quarrel.
some, bad citizens in every respect.
The mere name of farmer on account
Of these latter sorts, does not carry
Opprobrium; and neither should the
title of lawyer be discredited by the
misdeeds of individuals.
For our part, while we hope to see the
convention composed of men from all
walks of life, chosen for individual abil-
ity and integrity, as being more truly
representative, yet we are sure that if
every parish in the state, and every
ward in Orleans, chose its best lawyer,
best in every respect, and sent him to
that convention, an ideal constitution
could be written. The names of New
ton c. Blanchard, Jas. r. Thornton,
Edgar Farrar, A. P. Pujo, Lindsay
Beale, s. Nice. Lawrason, Charles Kill
bourne are among those that immedi-
ately flash into the mind in response
to such suggestion. It is not possible
to send all Of these, according to the