Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-13

twhen the Nashville Bar Association pre-
sented Judge 10 Guild, the sage of Nash
the speech of presentation, whereupon 10
Guild is reputed to have made this reply)
Gentlemen of the Bar Of Nashville
and of the Bar Association: am like
the old Baptist preacher who was un-
prepared. He opened his mouth and
trusted in God to fill it. Oaughter.)
1t would be a great pleasure for me
If, when We look back at the distin-
guished bar that Tennessee has been
honored with. could see upon these
walls the portraits of the lamented Felix
Grundy, of Ephram H. Foster, William
L. Brown, Bane Peyton, of Crab, of
Haynes, of John Bell, and that great
galaxy of talent that has never been
excelled at any bar in these United
States.
- There never was a revolution, there
never was lick struck for liberty. for
the cutting down of the prerogative of
kingly power, the oppression of the
people, but the members of the bar
were leaders in the great work.
You belong to a noble avocation; you
have the example of those great men
running down the tide of time to
emulate, to admire. It was Cicero's
great fire that burned on the forum
and in the Senate at Rome; it was his
fire that drove the traitor Cataline
from Rome, and the infamous Claudius;
it was the sacred fire of DemostheneS
that aroused Athens; 1t was the elo-
quence of Philip that nerved Leonidas
and his 300 followers at Thermopylae
for the salvation of their country; 1t
was a lawyer, when the apostles be-
Jor iI,t Hn
den and deserted the blessed Messiah,
that stood firm, his heart swelling with
indignation at the treatment of Christ
on Calvary amid the Roman bayonets,
and then took down our Savior, dressed
him in linen and embalmed him in the
Sepulcher: it was the lawyers of Eng
land that rose up against the tyranny
of the Tudors, the Stuarts and the
IancastcrS, and aroused the English to
arms: it was Shrewsbury and Lord
Bolingbroke who put William and Mary
on the throne in 1888
When George the Third sought to
Cypress the colonies of America James
Otis rose up and made great speech
against the bill of assessments. Old
John Adams caught the fire of Otis.
The ball was set in motion in Massa-
chusetts and brought out the cele-
brated speech of Patrick Henry, the
great natural orator, in the Virginia
House of Burgesses.
Otis was an argumentative man, and
when he ceased to speak his hearers
became dissatisfied. He could strike
chords of the heart that moved his
audience. 1t was a different kind of
oratory from that of Henry. Otis was
beautiful, placid river, that ran along
the lawns. kissing the grasses as its
waters passed along; but Patrick Henry
was on of those mountain streams
which come rushing, roaring. frothing,
laundering down the mountain-and he
Just knocked them into cooked hat
e-v-e-r-y time. cloud, prolonged and
convu:s:vc laughterl
And whenever / near a man crying
out against the profession of the
lawyer 1 regard him as worse than an
egg-sucking dog. tRenewed laughter.)
His mouth ought to be burned with
hot eggs. naughter.)
While I don't contend that lawyers
are better than other men. yet from
their opportunities, from the whetting
of their intellects, from their constant
looking into the history of the state,
study of human nature, and rubbing
against men, l say that liberty is in
debted to the lawyers in every country
Their military fire burns slowly, but
when the spirit is touched up with
lightning, you may expect the devil
from them. (Laughter)
There was Alexander Hamilton, who
probably did more toward carrying the