The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1921-04-15

ton OF tho constitution. The reason he was able to accomplish
TINS enormous task was, because he was peculiarly . s..ss.ns,.
1t thus appears that in America ultimate power rests in ix
courts touching It's economic, social and industrial policy. W.
have already stated that the American judges must necessarily
% APPOINTED from . single class which forms . very small pro.
portion OF the general population to wit, the legal profession.
Let M slso see what DsToequsvine says about the Aenriean
lawyer.
BE says: I'm visiting the Americans and in studying thsir
laws We perceive that the authority they have entrusted 70 mem.
hsrs Of the legal profession, and the influence which these indfyvidd.
uss exercise in the Government is the most powerful exissins
security against the excuses Of democracy. -
The special information which lawyers derive from their
studies insures them > separate station in society, and they con-
sttute . sort OF privileged body in the scale Of intelligence. This
notion Of their superiority, perpetuany recurs to them in the
practice OF their profession; they are the masters Of a science
which is necessary but which is not very generally known: they
serve as arbiters between the citizens, and the habit Of directing
the blind passions Of parties in litigation to their purposes, in.
spires them with q certain contempt for the multitude.
A portion Of the tastes and of the habits of the aristocrscy
may consequently be discovered in the characters Of the men Of
the profession OF the law. They participate in the same love of
order and Of formaities, and the same" secret" contempt for the
government OF the people. I do not mean to say, that the natural
propensihes OF lawyers are sufficiently strong to sway them If
ristibly; for they, like most other men, are governed By their
private interest and the advantages of the moment.
The people in democratic states do not mistrust the members
OF the legal profession, because it is well known that they are
interested in serving the popular cause, and it listens to them
without irritation, because it does not attribute to them any sin
lister designs. The object Of lawyers is not indeed to overthrow
the institutions of democracy, but they constantly. endeavor to
give it an impulse which diverts it from its real tendency by
means which are foreign to its nature.
Lawyers belong to the people by birth and interest, to the
aristocracy by habit and by taste, and they may be looked upon
as the natural bond and connecting link Of the two great classes
of society.
The profession of the Law is the only aristocratc element
which can be amalgamated without violence, with the natural
elements of democracy, and which can be advantageously and.
permanently combined with them. = I question whether dem
ocratic institutions could long be maintained and I can not be-
heve that a republic could subsist at the present time if the in
fuence of lawyers in public business did not increase in proper
ton to the power Of the people.
In America there are no mobiles or literary men, and the peo-
PIE are apt to mistrust the wealthy; lawyers, therefore, form the
highest political class and the most cultivated circle Of society.
They have therefore,, nothing to gain by innovation which adds a
conservative interest to their natural taste for public order. If
I were asked where I place the American aristocracy, I should
reply without hesitation, that it is not composed of the rich, who
are united together by no common tie, but that it occupies the
judicial Bench and the Bar. AS the lawyers constitute the only
enlightened class which the people do not mistrust, they are
naturally called upon to occupy most of the public stations. They
fl the legislative assemblies and they conduct the administra-
ton; they consequently exercise a powerful influence upon the
law and upon its execution. The lawyers of the United States
form a party which is but little feared and scarcely perceived
which has no badge peculiar to itself, which adapts itself with
great fexibility to the exgencies of the time, and accommodates
itself to all the movements of the social body; but this party ex-
tends over the whole community and it penetrates into all classes
Of society; it acts upon the country imperceptbly, but it finally
fashions it to its purposes"
We conclude our quotations from DeTocquevile with the
following:
IF ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that
event may be attributed to the unlimited authority of the major
iy which may at some future time urge the minorites to desper-
alton and oblge them to have recourse to physical force. An
archy will then be the result but it will have been brought about
by despotism."
Hamilton expresses the same opinion in the Federalst, in
which he says:
ut is Of great importance in a republic not only to guard
the society against the oppression Of its rulers, but to guard one
part Of the society against the injustice of the other part. JUS
tice is the end Of government. It is the end of civil society. It
ever has been and will he pursued until II ha obtained ~
until liberty be lost in the pursuit. In a society under the forms
Of which the stronger faction can readily unite and Cypress the
weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of
nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the
violence Of the stronger"
Since DeTocquevile wrote his book, the members of the
legal profession have continued to hold most of the offices.
Several years ago the proportion prior to that time was as
follows.
Twenty-Five out of fftysix signers of the Declaration Of
Independence, fifty out Of ffty-fve members of the Convention
which framed our Federal Constitution, nineteen out Of twenty
four Presidents, seventeen out Of tw~entythree vice presidents
of the United States, and two hundred and thirtyfour cabinet
officers were lawyers; that more than twothirds of the United