WKSa^BRi 
 
 NEW Yi 
 
Cornell University Liorary 
 KF 272.M13 
 
 How successful lawyers were educated :ad 
 
 3 1924 024 516 746 
 
 (5nrttpll ilaui Btl^aul ^jtbtary 
 
I^S^ 1805 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024516746 
 
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 i'^d^J'^.w'^ ^ 
 
HOW 
 
 SUCCESSFUL LAWYERS 
 
 IaTrrr Edugatrd. 
 
 ADDRESSED TO STUDENTS, TO THOSE WHO EXPECT 
 
 TO BECOME STUDENTS, AND TO THEIR 
 
 PARENTS AND TEACHERS. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE A. MAC DONALD, B. S., LL. B., 
 
 OF THE NEW YORK BAR. 
 AUTHOR OF " A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK." 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 BANKS & BROTHERS, 
 1896. 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1895, 
 
 BY George A. Macjjonald. 
 
TO MY MOTHER, 
 
 JANET CAMPBELL-ERSKINE MACDONALD, 
 THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED. 
 
TABLE OF COMTENTS. 
 
 Frontispiece, Portrait of Chief-Justice Fuller. page. 
 
 Dedicatory 3 
 
 Preface 7 
 
 Webster and Choate on The Law 9 
 
 Ruskin, Quotation from 9 
 
 Professor Phelps on Importance of Beginning Right 10 
 
 Introduction ii 
 
 Course of Study, Supplementary to or substitutional for an Under- 
 graduate college course 19 
 
 Lord Chief-Justice Coleridge on IWemory 12 
 
 William Wirt on Acquiring Miscellaneous knowledge-- 13 
 
 Method in the Study of Law 13 
 
 Chancellor Kent on 14 
 
 Rufus Choate on 14, 17, 18 
 
 Professor Phelps on 14 
 
 Sydney Smith on 15 
 
 Economy in Time 15 
 
 Daniel Webster on Method 16 
 
 John C. Calhoun on Concentration and Application 17 
 
 William Wirt on Chief-Justice Marshall 17 
 
 When and How to Read Law 18 
 
 Study of English Composition, Literature and Rhetoric ig 
 
 Justice Story's Advice on Oratory 19 
 
 Henry Clayon the Cultivation of Oratorical Powers 19 
 
 Lord Chesterfield on the Importance of Oratory 21 
 
 Rufus Choate on Study of Oratory 22 
 
 Justice Parsons' Persuasive Oratory 22 
 
 Recommended Books for the Study of Rhetoric 24 
 
 The Study of Latin 24 
 
 Importance to the Lawyer of an Intimate Acquaintance with the 
 
 Bible 24 
 
 Dr. Campbell on 25 
 
 Daniel Webster's Knowledge of the Scriptures 26 
 
 Sir William Jones on the Bible 27 
 
 Senator Leigh on the Value to a Lawyer of a Knowledge of the Bible 27 
 
 Charles Dudley Warner on Study of the Bible 28 
 
 Recommended Books for the Study of the Bible 28 
 
 Study of English and American History 29 
 
 Recommended Books for the 29.30, 31 
 
 Study of Political Economy 31 
 
 Recommended Books for the 31 
 
 Study of Logic 31 
 
 Study of Ethics 32 
 
 Study of International Law 32 
 
 Recommended Books for the 32 
 
 Blackstone's Commentaries 32 
 
 Recommended Editions of 33 
 
 Fiction, Works of, of interest to Law Students 33 
 
 Legal Recreations 34 
 
 Perseverance, J. G. Holland on 34 
 
 William Wirt on 37 
 
 S 
 
Concentration in the Study of Law ._, 38 
 
 Lord Erskine on Concentration 30 
 
 Necessity of High Standard of Honor in the Practice of Law 49 
 
 Chief-Justice Coleridge on Personal Purity 42 
 
 Law Schools - 
 
 43 
 
 Opposing " Methods" of Law instruction 43 
 
 The " Harvard Method," 44 
 
 James C. Carter on the " Harvard Method " 44 
 
 Dean Keener on the " Harvard Method " 45 
 
 John C. Calhoun on the " Case Method " 46 
 
 Tlie " Dwight Method " 46 
 
 Dean Chase 011 the "Dwight Method " .._ 46 
 
 Professor Phelps on Law Schools 54 
 
 Edmund VVetmore on Law Schools 58 
 
 Professor Tiedeman on the Studyof Law 58 
 
 Quiz Classes 64 
 
 The Choice of an Office in which to serve a Clerkship. ^ 64 
 
 Letter by Rufus Choate on the Study of Law 69 
 
 William Wirt " " " 72 
 
 Daniel Webster " " " 74 
 
 John C. Calhoun " - " " 75 
 
 Chief Justice Rutledge " " 76 
 
 Judge Sharswood on the Study of Law 79 
 
 Valuable Works of -Legal Biography 81 
 
 William M. Evarts, Portrait of 83 
 
 Biography of 85 
 
 Joseph H. Choate, Portrait of 89 
 
 Biographyof 91 
 
 James C. Carter, Portrait of 93 
 
 Biography of :-• 95 
 
 Clarence A. Seward, Portrait of 97 
 
 Biography of 1 ^i .99 
 
 Chauncey M. Depew, Portrait of lor 
 
 Biography of ro3 
 
 Charles L. Buckingham,. Portrait of : 105 
 
 Biography of : ^ 107 
 
 John Cochrane, Portrait of ill 
 
 Biography of iij 
 
 Davids. Coddingtoit, Portrait of 117 
 
 Biography of -.. 119 
 
 Jefferson Coddington, Biography of : -- 121 
 
 Henry Clinton Backus, Portrait of 123 
 
 Biography of-1 ^ 125 
 
 Thomas H.Edsall, Portrait of 129 
 
 Biographyof 131 
 
 F. Carroll Brewster, Portrait of 135 
 
 Biography of ^ 137 
 
 Henry C. Terry, Portrait of 139 
 
 Biography of 141 
 
 Samuel B. Huey. Portrait of 145 
 
 Biographv of 147 
 
 Joseph L Doran, Portrait of 149 
 
 Biographyof 151 
 
 Charles H. A. Esling, Portrait of 153 
 
 Biography of 155 
 
 Harvey D. Hadlock, Portrait of 157 
 
 Biographv of 159 
 
 William E. Russell, Portrait of 163 
 
 Biography of 165 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The profession of law is the goal towards which a large 
 proportion of the ambitious youth of this and other lands 
 has ever set its face. The liberal financial returns the law 
 affords the successful practitioner, the opportunities it ex- 
 tends to him for useful public service, the social prestige 
 accorded by every community to him who honorably follows 
 this high and honorable calling, these are incentives which 
 have in almost all times and countries moved so great a 
 number of intellectual and aspiring young men to enter this 
 most exacting of all vocations. Particularly is this applica- 
 ble to our own country. The oft-repeated declaration that 
 "the profession of the law is overcrowded" does not seem- 
 ingly deter any of our ambitious American youths. There 
 are to-day eight thousand students in attendance at the 
 various law schools throughout the United States ; and per- 
 haps as many more young men are seeking to fit themselves 
 for the profession while serving as clerks in busy law-offices. 
 I venture to say that there is scarcely a town or hamlet in 
 the United States that does not contain at least one such 
 aspiring youth. 
 
 It is the hope of the author that the present work will 
 be of interest and service not only to students, but also to 
 the innumerable throng of lads who hope some day to be- 
 come lawyers. The work should interest, too, those parents 
 whose sons will soon be called upon to select a profession, 
 and also the practising lawyers throughout the country and 
 the general public. 
 
 7 
 
Not the least valuable portion of the work should be 
 that which contains the biographies of the successful practi- 
 tioners of the present day. For, however interesting may be 
 the account of the lives and training of the great lawyers of 
 the past, the most useful and I believe interesting part of the 
 present work will be the life-stories of the men who to-day 
 are recognized by their fellow-practitioners and the general 
 public as the representative successful lawyers of the cities m 
 which they respectively practise. 
 
 In considering Afhat names should be selected for this 
 purpose the author has been assisted, in many cases, by the 
 advice of the judges in the respective localities of the lawyers 
 whose biographies are presented. 
 
 For the many faults of omission and commission that 
 may be found in the work the author would most abjectly 
 crave the pardon of all his critics ; resting his defense only 
 on the fact that the work was written in those leisure hours 
 that could be spared from the duties of an active law prac- 
 tice. 
 
 41 Wall Street, New York, 
 June 10, 1896. 
 
 In connection, with the remark, in the above preface, concerning 
 the opportunities for public service and the social prestige accorded to 
 American practitioners of ability and unquestioned integrity, it may be 
 well to note here the fact, shown by statistics, that seventy-five per cent, 
 of the men in public life in the United States to-day are lawyers by 
 profession, and to refer to De Tocqueville's remark, " If I were asked 
 where I place the American Aristocracy. I should reply without hesita- 
 tion that it occupies the judicial bench and bar." 
 
 Lawyer Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. Lawyer 
 Hamilton was one of its foremost sponsors and the founder of our 
 present financial system. Of its fifty-six signers twenty-seven were 
 lawyers. Lawyer Lincoln wrote the Proclamation of Emancipation; 
 and nineteen of the twenty-three Presidents of the United States have 
 been lawyers. 
 
"The Law ! It has honored us. May we honor it." 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 
 
 "The Law! There's nothing else to love in all the 
 
 world." RUFUS CHOATE. 
 
 "In general I have no patience with people who talk 
 about ' the thoughtlessness of youth ' indulgently ; I had 
 infinitely rather hear of thoughtless old age and the indul- 
 gence due to that. When a man has done his work, and 
 nothing can in any way be materially altered in his fate, let 
 him forget his toil, and jest with his fate, if he will ; but what 
 excuse can you find for wilfulness of thought at the very time 
 when every crisis of fortune hangs on your decisions ? A 
 youth thoughtless, when all the happiness of his home for 
 ever depends on the chances or the passions of an hour ! 
 A youth thoughtless, when the career of all his days depends 
 on the opportunity of a moment ! A youth thoughtless, 
 when his every action is a foundation-stone of future con- 
 duct, and every imagination a fountain of life or death ! Be 
 thoughtless in any after years rather than now — though, 
 indeed, there is only one place where a man may be nobly 
 thoughtless, his death-bed. Nothing should ever be left to 
 be done there." ruskin. 
 
" For of all sad words of tongue or pen, 
 The saddest are these, ' It might have been.' " 
 
 WHITTIKR. 
 
 "The man of fair abilities, sufficient to have insured 
 him a satisfactory if not a brilliant success, and willing to do 
 the work that is necessary in order to make the most of him- 
 ' self, not infrequently fails to achieve much at the bar. And 
 it has seemed to me that the reason is generally to be found 
 in the lack of the mental discipline and the true foundation 
 of legal knowledge, which must be acquired, if at all, in 
 early life and in educational studies. The want of these is 
 rarely overcome. He who sets out in the wrong direction is 
 likely to get further away from his course the longer he trav- 
 els. The building that is erected upon an incomplete and 
 insecure foundation, however it may be elaborated and 
 wrought over in its upper stories, is never strong or perma- 
 nent. When the rains descend, and the floods come, it will 
 be seen to be founded upon the sand." 
 
 HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS, 
 Professor of Law in Yale University. 
 
 10 
 
HOW SUCCESSFUL LAWYERS 
 WERE EDUCATED. 
 
 P^RT I. 
 
 " He who is not a good lawyer when he comes 
 to the bar will seldom be a good one afterwards." It 
 is the object of the author to present such advice and 
 suggestions as will assist the student to a right solu- 
 tion of the questions : " What books shall I read pre- 
 paratory to my legal studies proper ?" " What qual- 
 ities of mind and character shall I cultivate ?" " What 
 law-school shall I enter ?" " When shall I enter an 
 office, and what office shall I connect myself with?" 
 " Should I desire to make a specialty of some branch 
 of the law, what preliminary studies shall I take up 
 to fit myself for it?" " What has been said on these 
 subjects by the great lawyers of the past and the suc- 
 cessful lawyers of the present day ?" " What other 
 aids and suggestions can I possibly obtain that may 
 help me in my purpose to become absolutely as good 
 a lawyer and as successful a practitioner as my native 
 ability will permit me to become ?" 
 
 There can be no doubt that the best preliminary 
 education for the law student is to be secured in the 
 ordinary undergraduate college course. The duties 
 of the lawyer are so varied, the stock of knowledge 
 
 II 
 
from whicli he is constantly called upon to draw is so 
 comprehensive, that the foundation of his acquire- 
 ments must be broad and deep. Nor is it advisable 
 that the student in college devote himself especially 
 to those subjects that he deems to have a particular 
 bearing on his future profession. The object of a 
 college education is preparation for life itself, not for 
 an)' one vocation. 
 
 But there are many bright youths, ambitious to 
 become lawyers and to excel in their profession, who 
 have not been and will not be able to attend any col- 
 lege. Assuming that these youths desire to compen- 
 sate to some degree for their lack of opportunity, 
 the author has outlined for their guidance a course 
 of study which, while particularly adapted to the 
 requirements of the law student, may also go far as 
 a substitute for the regular college curriculum. It 
 may be of interest also to college students and grad- 
 uates who are studying or who intend to study law, 
 and who desire to take up a course of reading along 
 the lines of their chosen profession. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that these studies are 
 valuable not merely for their subject-matter, but also 
 for the qualities of mind and habits of thought which 
 a close application to them instills. These qualities 
 are memory, the power of application, close reason- 
 ing, precision, conciseness and energy of expression, 
 the habit and method of independent investigation. 
 The possession, in some degree at least, of these 
 qualities, together with common sense and a knowl- 
 edge of men and their motives, is essential in the 
 make-up of a successful lawyer. 
 
 Referring to the faculty of memory. Lord Chief 
 Justice Coleridge during a visit to America said, in 
 an address at Haverford College : " Speaking as an 
 
old lawyer especially, I may say that few things com- 
 pare with a retentive, accurate memory. It is in. 
 youth that this faculty is formed and trained, and one 
 of the best methods of strengthening it is the habit 
 of learning by heart passages from authors in prose 
 and verse that we admire. When you get into pro- 
 fessional or active life you will come home tired, with 
 very little inclination to study Hence the impor- 
 tance of doing that work now." 
 
 And on the same topic William Wirt, one of 
 America's greatest lawyers, has spoken as follows : 
 " Old-fashioned economists will tell you never to pass 
 an old nail, or an old horseshoe or buckle, or even a 
 pin, without taking it up ; because, although you may 
 not want it now, you will find a use for it some time 
 or other. I say the same thing to you with regard 
 to knowledge. However useless it may appear to 
 you at the moment, seize upon all that is fairly with- 
 in your reach : for there is not a fact within the whole 
 circle of human observation, nor even a fugitive an- 
 ecdote that you read in a newspaper, that will not 
 come into play at some time or another ; and occa- 
 sions will arise when they involuntarily present their 
 dim shadows, in the train of your thinking and rea- 
 soning, as belonging to that train, and you will regret 
 that you cannot recall them more distinctly." 
 
 It has been said that "the life of all study is 
 method ; next .to which is a judicious selection of the 
 various sources of knowledge." 
 
 " Thus useful arras in magazines we place, 
 All ranged in order and disposed in grace ; 
 Nor thus alone the curious eye to please, 
 But to be found, when need requires, with ease." 
 
 And whatever is said of method in the student's 
 preliminary course applies with even greater force to 
 the study of the law itself. 
 
 13 
 
By method in study is meant that the student 
 must not read a little on one subject to-day and a 
 little on another subject to-morrow. He must take 
 up each study methodically, examining it in all its 
 phases, possessing himself in the beginning, how- 
 ever, with a bird's eye view of the entire subject. He 
 may relieve the tediousness resulting from too con- 
 tinuous attention to one topic by arranging his stud- 
 ies in alternate and regular order as to time of study. 
 This will prove a more congenial method than would 
 be that of the exhaustive and exclusive consideration 
 of a single subject. 
 
 He should remember that the widely-read man 
 is not necessarily the well-read man ; that, particu- 
 larly at the outset of his studies, a good maxim to 
 observe is, "Multum legendum non multa ;" and anoth- 
 er, " Beware of the lawyer of one book." Chancellor 
 Kent was once asked by a young student what made 
 him a great lawyer. The judge replied, "Lack of 
 books." Rufus Choate, in his time the leader of the 
 American bar, said, in advising students in his law 
 office, " Desultory reading is waste of life ;" and Pro- 
 fessor Edward J. Phelps, of Yale Law School, once 
 asked one of the leaders of the Connecticut bar how 
 it came to pass that the lawyers who framed the Uni- 
 ted States Constitution had obtained such a mastery 
 of legal principles and such a clearness in the expres- 
 sion of them as there displayed. The reply was, 
 " Why, they had so few books." Professor Phelps 
 says on this subject, " ' Beware of the lawyer of few 
 books, wisely chosen and entirely understood,' is a 
 good adaptation of the proverb. I would regard 
 mental discipline, habits of thought, and the learn- 
 ing how to think clearly, accurately and with the con- 
 fidence that can only come from a sure foundation, as 
 14 
 
far more important than the premature accumulation 
 of much knowledge. This would leave a good deal 
 for future acquisition ; but the deficiency would be 
 more than compensated by the enlarged faculty of 
 acquisition, and the effectual planting, broad and 
 strong, of the foundations upon which alone can 
 learning and scholarship usefully repose in practical 
 life." Sydney Smith was of the opinion that it were 
 better to be " ignorant of a great number of things 
 in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of 
 everything." " I would exact of a young man," says 
 he, "a pledge that he would never read Lope de 
 Vega ; he should pawn to me his honor to abstain 
 from Bettinelli and his thirty-five original sonneteers ; 
 and I would exact from him the most rigid securities 
 that I was never to hear anything about that race of 
 penny poets who lived in the reigns of Cosmo and 
 Lorenzo di Medici." 
 
 The student should utilize all those short inter- 
 vals or odds and ends of time which abound in even 
 the most methodical of lives. They will be fewer in 
 number, however, if he observes the foregoing rule 
 as to method of work and study. 
 
 "Lost yesterday, somewhere between sunrise 
 and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty 
 diamond minutes. No reward is offered, as they are 
 gone forever." — Horace Mann. 
 
 " Dost thou love life ? Then do not squander time, 
 for that is the stuff life is made of." — Franklin. 
 
 As to the method of study to be observed by the 
 law student when he enters upon his law studies 
 proper the same observations may be made, with this 
 in addition. The nature of the work of the young 
 lawyer is such that it is often desultory and broken 
 in upon by many interruptions. He should there- 
 's 
 
fore at each sitting recur to any unsettled question, 
 so that the outcome of his studies will be knowledge 
 that is definite and tangible. William Wright in 
 his Advice on the Study and Practice of the Law 
 (1824) says: "Men who read for amusement or in- 
 struction on general topics may read as they please 
 and acquire information. It is not necessary for 
 such purposes critically to weigh sentence after sen- 
 tence ; and, when amusement is the object, to cast 
 the eye over the page may be sufficient. But, where 
 knowledge is to be acquired which depends upon the 
 construction of words and an accurate idea of scien- 
 tific terms, the student must advance with patience 
 and resolution proportionate to his understanding. 
 Books which every man reads may be perused as a 
 newspaper ; but such as contain information of an 
 abstruse nature, requisite to be permanently im- 
 pressed on the mind, must be repeatedly read and 
 with minute attention." 
 
 Daniel Webster was throughout his life a me- 
 thodical reader. Speaking of his student days he 
 once said, " Many other students read more than I 
 did, but so much as I read I made my own. When 
 a half hour or an hour at most had elapsed, I closed 
 my book and thought on what I had read. If there 
 was anything peculiarly interesting or striking in 
 the passage I endeavored to recall it, and lay it up 
 in my memory, and commonly could effect my 
 object." 
 
 In the Memoirs of Sir T. F. Buxton we read that 
 Sir Edward Sugden thus explained to Sir Thomas 
 Buxton the cause of his great success as a lawyer : 
 " I resolved, when beginning to read law, to make 
 everything I acquired perfectly my own, and never 
 to go to a second thing till I had entirely accom- 
 16 
 
plished the first. Many of my competitors read as 
 much in a day as I read in a week, but at the end 
 of the twelve months my knowledge was as fresh as 
 as on the day it was acquired, while theirs had glided 
 away from their recollection." 
 
 Rufus Choate said, " Devote six hours a day 
 to study : four to study proper and two to lucubra- 
 tion and legal talk. This is amply sufficient. The 
 mind burdened loses its memory and originality and 
 alacrity." 
 
 In speaking of the power of concentration and 
 application, John C. Calhoun once said : " I early 
 subjected my mind to such a rigid course of disci- 
 pline, and have persisted without faltering, until I 
 early acquired a perfect control over it. I can now 
 confine it to any subject as long as I please without 
 wandering for a moment. It has been my uniform 
 habit, when out alone to walk or ride, to select a sub- 
 ject for reflection, and I never suffer my attention to 
 wander from it until I am satisfied with its examina- 
 tion." And on the same topic, Rufus Choate said 
 that in every important case he undertook, his mind 
 became a stream that took up the cause like a ship, 
 and bore it on, night and day, till the verdict or a 
 judgment was reached. William Wirt once said of 
 Chief-Justice Marshall: "Here is John Marshall, 
 whose mind seems to be little else than a mountain 
 of barren and stupendous rocks: an inexhaustible 
 quarry from which he draws his materials and 
 builds his fabrics, rude and Gothic, but of such 
 strength that neither time nor strength can beat 
 them down : a fellow who would not turn off a sin- 
 gle step from the right line of his argtiment though 
 a paradise should rise to tempt him." 
 
 A good plan in the study of any subject is to 
 
 17 
 
read over the text twice, underlining all those sen- 
 tences or clauses that appear to be of especial im- 
 portance ; which underlined clauses, when read over 
 in review, will constitute in themselves a digest or 
 skeleton of the entire subject. No text should be 
 read more than twice. The real study of a subject 
 takes place when the student, after reading the text, 
 closes his book and carefully considers the matter he 
 has been reading, in all its phases and relations. 
 Rufus Choate's advice to young lawyers was this : 
 " Take," said he, " a reported case, read the marginal 
 statement and get at the facts, shut the book, and 
 study out what should be the law, write out the de- 
 cision, and then compare with the decision of the 
 court. This to improve the powers of reasoning." 
 
 Before commencing to read a book always pe- 
 ruse carefully the preface and table of contents. By 
 this method you will secure an accurate idea of the 
 purpose and plan of the author, which is always a 
 great help, and you will also secure a preview of the 
 entire work, which is a valuable aid to a complete 
 comprehension of the subject-matter. 
 
 Never read when the eyes are wearied or the 
 mind jaded by continuous application to study. 
 
 Whatever the subject of study is, have constant- 
 ly within easy reach a dictionary to refer to when a 
 word or term arises the meaning or derivation of 
 which you are not entirely familiar with. 
 
 The study of the law differs from that of some 
 other subjects, in this : that its end cannot be accom- 
 plished by merely memorizing words. Its object is 
 the acquisition of principles. When the student ac- 
 quires a thorough knowledge of the principles of his 
 subject he has mastered the text. If he merely 
 memorizes words the text has mastered him. And 
 18 
 
when, sooner or later, the words of the text escape 
 him, he is helpless without them. Nor should he re- 
 gard an illustration of a principle as a definition of 
 the principle itself. 
 
 Another important and valuable habit is that of 
 reviewing. Says the great teacher Wyttenbach on 
 this subject : " The practice of reviewing will have an 
 incredible effect in assisting your progress ; but it 
 must be a real and thorough review ; that is, it must 
 be again and again repeated. What I choose is this : 
 that every day the task of the preceding day should 
 be reviewed ; at the end of every week, the task of 
 the week ; at the end of every month, the studies of 
 the month ; in addition to which the whole course 
 should be gone over again and again during the va- 
 cation." 
 
 In the following paragraphs, I have indicated 
 among other things a course of study preliminary to 
 or parallel with the study of the law proper, together 
 with the best text-books and works of reference on 
 the subjects mentioned. It is assumed that the ex- 
 pectant law student has already acquired the ordinary 
 common-school education. 
 
 English Composition, Literature and Rhetoric. 
 In this subject the student should aim to acquire a 
 clear, simple and attractive style ; using but few 
 words, apt and precise in meaning. This he will 
 acquire by practice in writing essays and by participa- 
 tion in the exercises of some active debating society. 
 He should also pay considerable attention to elocu- 
 tion, thereby eliminating all natural awkwardness, 
 defective enunciation and mannerism. 
 
 The following poem by Justice Story, one of the 
 greatest jurists America has produced, suggests 
 Hamlet's Advice to the Players. It should be read 
 
 19 
 
and reread by every student who desires to excel in 
 forensic oratory : 
 
 " Be brief, be pointed ; let your matter stand 
 Lucid in order, solid, and at hand ; 
 Spend not your words on trifles, but condense: 
 Strilce with the mass of thoughts, not drops of sense; 
 Press to the close with vigor, once begun, 
 And leave — how hard the task ! — leave off when done. 
 Who draws a labor'd length of reasoning out 
 Puts straws in lines for winds to whirl about ; 
 Who draws a tedious tale of learning o'er 
 Counts but the sands on ocean's boundless shore ; 
 Victory in law is gained, as battles fought. 
 Not by the numbers but the forces brought. 
 What boots success, in skirmish or in fray, 
 If rout or ruin following close the day ? 
 What worth a hundred posts maintained with skill, 
 If, all these held, the foe is victor still ? 
 He who would win his cause with power must frame 
 Points of support, and look with steady aim ; 
 Attack the weak, defend the strong with art: 
 Strike but few blows, but strike them to the heart ; 
 All scattered fires but end in smoke and noise, 
 The scorn of men, the idle play of boys. 
 
 Keep, then, this first great precept ever near: 
 Short be your speech, your matter strong and clear ; 
 Earnest your manner, warm and rich your style, 
 Severe in taste, yet full of grace the while ; 
 So you may reach the loftiest heights of fame, 
 And leave, when life is past, a deathless name." 
 
 It would be difficult to over-estimate the im- 
 portance to the advocate of a pleasing and attractive, 
 and at the same time convincing style of public dis- 
 course. Henry Clay, at the age of twenty -seven 
 began the habit, which he continued for years, of 
 perusing and speaking upon some historical or scien- 
 tific book. " These off-hand efforts," he says, " were 
 made sometimes in a cornfield, at others in the forest, 
 and not infrequently in some distant barn, with the 
 horse and ox for my auditors. It is to this early 
 
practice in the great art of all arts that I am indebted 
 for the primary and leading impulse that stimulated 
 me forward, and shaped and moulded my subsequent 
 destiny." 
 
 "Let not a day pass, young men, without in- 
 creasing your powers of public speech. There is 
 no power like that of oratory. Caesar controlled 
 men by exciting their fears ; Cicero by capturing 
 their affections and swaying their passions. The in- 
 fluence of the one perished with its author ; that of 
 the other continues to this day. " 
 
 Lord Chesterfield had been requested to pro- 
 mote the adoption by the British Parliament of the 
 Gregorian calendar for England. " And then," he 
 says, " my difficulty began. I was to bring in this 
 bill, which was necessarily composed of law jargon 
 and astronomical calculations, to both of which I am 
 an utter stranger. However, it was absolutely neces- 
 sary to make the House of Lords think I knew some- 
 thing of the matter ; and I also had to make them 
 believe that they knew something of it themselves, 
 which they did not. For my own part, I could just 
 as soon have talked Celtic or Sclavonian to them as 
 astronomy, and they could have understood me just 
 as well ; so I resolved to do better than speak to the 
 purpose, and to please instead of inform them. I 
 was particularly attentive to the choice of my words, 
 to the harmony and roundness of my periods, to my 
 elocution, to my action. They thought I was in- 
 formed because I pleased them ; and many of them 
 said that I had made the whole very clear to them, 
 when I had not even attempted it. Lord Maccles- 
 field, who had the greatest share in framing the bill, 
 and who is one of the greatest mathematicians in 
 Europe, spoke afterwards with infinite knowledge 
 
 21 
 
and all the clearness that so intricate a matter would 
 admit of ; but as his words, his periods and his utter- 
 ances were not nearly so good as mine the prefer- 
 ence was most unanimously, though unjustly, given 
 to me." This estimate by Chesterfield of the power of 
 oratory, though an extremely exaggerated estimate, 
 and his opinion of his own powers of rhetoric, though 
 characteristically egotistic, will serve nevertheless as 
 an illustration of how immensely valuable to the 
 lawyer is the ability to speak fluently and eloquently 
 on any subject that he may have occasion to discuss 
 in public. 
 
 In a letter to his son, then a student in Amherst 
 College, Rufus Choate said : " I hope that you will 
 from the start cultivate elocution. The power of 
 speaking with grace and energy — the power of using 
 aright the best words of our noble language — is itself 
 a fortune and a reputation — if it is associated and 
 enriched by knowledge and sense. I would, there- 
 fore, give especial attention to all that is required of 
 you in this department. But not one study pre- 
 scribed by the government is to be neglected." And 
 on another occasion the same great jurist said : " De- 
 liberative eloquence, in its highest forms and noblest 
 exertion, is the utterance of men of genius — prac- 
 tised, earnest and sincere, according to a rule of 
 art — in presence of large assemblies, in great con- 
 juncture of public affairs, to persuade a people." 
 
 Simplicity in diction and -.oratorical style is a 
 strong weapon in addressing the court or jury. A 
 distinguished judge once told this story of Justice 
 Parsons. " When Parsons was a young lawyer he 
 was retained to argue an important case iu a Maine 
 court. He was unknown to the people and even to 
 the lawyers. I had heard of him as a rising man, 
 
 22 
 
and was drawn to the court room by curiosity to 
 learn the secret of his power. Parsons began his 
 plea by putting one foot in a chair. Then leaning 
 one elbow on his knee he talked to the jury as a 
 man would tell a story at his fireside. Pretty soon I 
 thought I understood him. He was winding the jury 
 round his fingers. He made no show. He treated 
 the case as if it were a very simple affair, of which 
 the conclusion was obvious and inevitable ; and he 
 did not take long. He got a verdict at once ; and 
 after the jury were dismissed, one of them, whom I 
 happened to know, came to me and said : " Who is 
 this Mr. Parsons ? He is n't much of a lawyer, and 
 does n't talk or look as if he ever would be one ; but 
 he seems to be a good sort of a man." 
 
 A familiar acquaintance with the priceless treas- 
 ures of English literature, with the characters painted 
 by its novelists, with the philosophical narrations 
 and thrilling descriptions by its historians, with the 
 sweet songs of its poets, with all the riches that 
 have been contributed to our literature by the mas- 
 ter minds of the mother country and of our own, 
 this is a possession which he who hopes one day 
 to be a great lawyer in the true sense of the word 
 cannot afford to lack. The biographer of Rufus 
 Choate says : " Literature to Choate was of direct 
 service in a double way. It quickened his fancy and 
 ingenuity, and enlarged his mind, without taking 
 from him the power to narrow down its proportions 
 again to legal dimensions, and was also of essential 
 service as a mental relaxation and pastime." 
 
 On the subjects of English Composition and 
 Rhetoric, Elocution, and English Language, the 
 following named books are recommended by the 
 
 23 
 
author. The Knickerbocker Publishing Company, 
 of 14 Vesey Street, New York City, has agreed to 
 furnish any of the books recommended in this vol- 
 ume at the regular publishers' prices (which are 
 here given after each title) on receipt by mail of 
 a postoffice Order, or check to the order of Knicker- 
 bocker Publishing Co., 14 Vesey Street, New York. 
 
 Bain's Rhetoric, %i 50; or Genung's Practical Ele- 
 ments of Rhetoric, $1 25 ; or E. T. Channing's Oratory 
 and Rhetoric, 75 cts. ; Skeat's Principles of English 
 Etymology, %2 25 ; Trench's Study of Words, %\ 00 ; 
 Brown's Common Words and Phrases, $1 50; Graham's 
 Synofiyms, %i 20; or Soule's Synonyms, $1 00; The 
 Cultivation of the Speaking Voice, 60 cts, ; Cushing's 
 Manual, 75 cts. ; Robinson's Forensic Oratory, $2 50 ; 
 Hard wick's Art of Winning Cases, $5 00. 
 
 Latin. In some of the States a more or less 
 extensive acquaintance with Latin is an essential in 
 order to admission to the law schools and to the Bar. 
 But even in those States where it does not prevail 
 it would be wise for the student entirely ignorant 
 of Latin to acquire, before beginning his law studies, 
 a knowledge of the various Latin phrases that re- 
 peatedly occur in the text books. For this purpose 
 an excellent work is Taylor's Law Glossary, published 
 at $4 00. An admirable book for the study of the lan- 
 guage itself is Harkness' Complete Latin Course, $1 30. 
 These books and any other books recommended in 
 this volume will be supplied by the Knickerbocker 
 Publishing Co., 14 Vesey Street, New York, on re- 
 ceipt of a mail order, enclosing check or postoffice 
 money order. 
 
 As a necessary foundation for the study of the 
 law no single book is equal to the Bible ; that album 
 of biographies of soldiers and statesmen, prophets 
 24 
 
and patriarchs, kings and judges and lawyers. For 
 the Bible is not only a revelation of the nature of 
 God ; it is also an accurate portrayal of the nature of 
 man, of the motives and principles which guide and 
 govern, and ever since human history was recorded 
 have guided and governed, man in all the relations of 
 life. The nearer one approaches to a full compre- 
 hension of this Book of books the nearer will he come 
 to a complete insight into human nature. 
 
 A familiar knowledge of the Scriptures is partic- 
 ularly useful to the student of law because of the 
 light thrown upon many of the important subjects 
 of the jurisprudence of to-day : such subjects as the 
 origin of society and nature of government; the 
 nature of property and the obligations of an oath ; 
 marriage and divorce ; the relation of husband and 
 wife, parent and child, master and servant ; the na- 
 ture and punishment of crimes ; the alienation of 
 property ; the acquisition of property by inheritance 
 and by bequest. 
 
 Dr. Campbell in his Lectures on Ecclesiastical 
 History says : " When we consider attentively the 
 institutes of Moses we perceive that they compre- 
 hend everything necessary for forming a civil estab- 
 lishment ; not only precepts regarding the morals of 
 the people, and the public and private offices of relig- 
 ion, but also laws of jurisprudence : such as regu- 
 late the formalities of private contracts, inheritance, 
 succession and purchases ; such as fix the limits of 
 jurisdiction and subordination of judicatories, appoint 
 the method of procedure in trials, both civil and crim- 
 inal, and punishments to be awarded by the judges 
 to the several crimes. I may add that they compre- 
 hend also a sort of law of nations, for the use of that 
 people in adjusting the terms of their intercourse 
 
 25 
 
with other states and kingdoms, prescribing rules for 
 the making and conducting of war and peace, enter- 
 ing into treaties and the like." 
 
 The fact is that, in every country and in all ages, 
 the greatest lawyers have been well versed in the 
 Scriptures, and their arguments have been enriched 
 with illustrations drawn from this source. The 
 speeches of Lord Erskine are a notable example of 
 this. 
 
 A distinguished English lawyer, who during his 
 career was remarkably successful in training law 
 students, used invariably to have each student at the 
 commencement of his studies take up a systematic 
 course of reading and analysis of the Bible. His 
 opinion was that " there is nothing else in any lan- 
 guage for the development of mind." 
 
 Of Daniel Webster a writer says : " While a mere 
 lad he read with such power and expression that the 
 passing teamsters, who stopped to water their horses, 
 used to get ' Webster's boy ' to come out beneath the 
 shade of the trees and read the Bible to them. Those 
 who heard Mr. Webster in later life recite passages 
 from the Hebrew prophets and Psalms say that he 
 held them spellbound, while each passage, even the 
 most familiar, came home to them in a new meaning. 
 One gentleman says that he never received such 
 ideas of the majesty of God and the dignity of man 
 as he did one clear night when Webster, standing in 
 the open air, recited the Eighth Psalm. Webster's 
 mother observed another old fashion of New Eng- 
 land in training her son. She encouraged him to 
 memorize such Scriptural passages as impressed him. 
 The boy's retentive memory, and his sensitiveness to 
 Bible metaphors and to the rhythm of the English 
 version, stored his mind with Scripture. On one 
 
 2«6 
 
occasion the teacher of the district school offered a 
 jack-knife to the boy who should recite the greatest 
 number of verses from the Bible. When Webster's 
 turn came he arose and reeled off so many verses 
 that the master was forced to cry ' Enough.' It was 
 his delight in the idioms and music of King James' 
 version that made him the ' Biblical Concordance of 
 the Senate.' But it made him more than a ' concord- 
 ance.' The Hebrew prophets inspired him to elo- 
 quent utterances. He listened to them until their 
 vocabulary and idioms, as expressed in King James' 
 translation, became his mother tongue. The young 
 man who would be a writer that shall be read, or an 
 orator whom people will hear, should study the Eng- 
 lish Bible." 
 
 Sir William Jones truly says that " the Scriptures 
 contain, independent of a divine origin, more true 
 sublimity, more exquisite beauty, purer morality, 
 more important history, and finer strains both of 
 poetry and eloquence than could be collected within 
 the same compass from all the books that were ever 
 composed in any age or in any idiom. The antiquity 
 of these compositions no man doubts, and the appli- 
 cation of them to events long subsequent to their 
 publication is a solid ground of belief that they are 
 inspired." 
 
 Senator B. W. Leigh, of Virginia, in his day one 
 of the leaders of the American bar, says, in a letter 
 of advice on the study of the law, " I speak of the 
 Bible as a book which it behooves every lawyer to 
 make himself thoroughly familiar with. It is the 
 code of ethics of every Christian country on the 
 globe, and tends above all other books to elucidate 
 the spirit of laws throughout the Christian world. 
 It is in fact a part of the practical law. of every 
 
 27 
 
Christian nation, whether recognized as such or 
 not." 
 
 Charles Dudley Warner, in " Harper s Monthly" 
 writes this, concerning the study of the Bible : " The 
 ignorance of the Bible among students in our public 
 schools and colleges furnishes a curious illustration of 
 the inadequacy of our educational machine to meet the 
 requirements of life. Wholly apart from its religious 
 or from its ethical value, the Bible is the one book 
 that no intelligent person who wishes to come into 
 contact with the world of thought and to share the 
 ideas of the great minds of the Christian era can 
 afford to be ignorant of. All modern literature and 
 all art are permeated with it. There is scarcely a 
 work in the language that can be fully understood 
 and enjoyed without this knowledge, so full is it of 
 allusions and illustrations from the Bible. This is 
 true of fiction, of poetry, of economic and philosophic 
 works, and also of the scientific and even agnostic 
 treatises. It is not at all a question of religion, or 
 theology, or of dogma ; it is a question of general in- 
 telligence. A boy or girl at college, in the presence 
 of the works set for either to master, without a fair 
 knowledge of the Bible is an ignoramus, and is dis- 
 advantaged accordingly." 
 
 The following books are recommended for the 
 study of the Bible. They can be had at publishers' 
 prices by sending P. O. money order or check to the 
 Knickerbocker Publishing Co., of 14 Vesey Street, 
 New York : 
 
 Geikie's Hours With the Bible, 6 vols., $7 50; 
 Hon. Wm. E. Gladstone's Impregnable Rock of Holy 
 Scripture, $1 ; ^ Lawyer's Examination of the Bible, %\ ; 
 Greenleaf's Testimony of the Evangelists, $4 50 ; Men- 
 S\.Qsdhn's Jurisprudence of the Ancient Hebrews, %2 50. 
 28 
 
History. English and American History and 
 the Constitutional and Institutional History of Eng- 
 land and the United States. A firm grasp of the 
 principles of these subjects is absolutely essential in 
 the equipment of any lawyer who aspires to rank 
 above the pettifoggers. And in my opinion the 
 student who desires to secure a knowledge of these 
 principles cannot do better than take up the course 
 of reading outlined below. Each book there men- 
 tioned should not only be read but thoroughly 
 mastered. 
 
 For a knowledge of the history of the United 
 States and of England is valuable to the student, 
 not merely because it imparts a knowledge of the 
 ever glorious Anglo-Saxon race, but because it also 
 presents a picture of the evolution of a people, rather 
 than a recital of the personal careers and more or 
 less vicious lives of emperors and sultans with their 
 attendant courtiers and courtesans. 
 
 Amos' Science of Law, %\ 75 ; Anthon's Law Stu- 
 dent, $3 50 ; Dole's Talks About Law, $2 50 ; Montes- 
 quieu's Spirit of Law, 2 Vols., $4 ; Maine's History 
 of Early Institutions, $3 50; Maine's Ancient Law, 
 $2 75 ; Guizot's History of Civilization, with notes by 
 Prof. Henry of New York University, $1 20 ; Maine's 
 Village Communities, $3 50 ; Hallam's Middle Ages, $2 ; 
 Hadley's Lectures on Roman Law, %\ 30 ; Daly's 
 Common Law, $1 ; Pollock's History of English Law, 2 
 Vols. $9 ; Green's Short History of the English People, 
 $1 20 ; Hallam's Constitutional History of England, 
 %2 ; Higginson's History of the United States, $3 50 ; 
 E. Benjamin Andrew's History of the United States, 
 $4 ; Cooley's Elements of Constitutional Law, $3 ; 
 Story on The Constitution of the United States, 2 Vols, 
 $12, or Schouler's History of the United States under 
 
 29 
 
the Constitution, $ii 25, or Mr. Justice Miller's Lec- 
 tures on the Constitution of the United States, $5 ; 
 Broom's Legal Maxims, $6 50, or Wharton's Legal 
 Maxims, $3, or Peloubet's Legal Maxims, $2, or Mor- 
 gan's Legal Maxims, $2 50. 
 
 To the student who desires to make an especial 
 study of Political Science the following works will 
 be of value : 
 
 Lieber's Civil Liberty and Self-Govermnent ; Mac- 
 intosh On the Law of Nature and of Nations ; J. S. 
 Mill On Liberty and On Representative Government ; 
 J. C. Calhoun On Government ; Nash's Morality and 
 the State ; Mulford's The Nation ; Bryce's American 
 Commonwealth ; De Tocqueville's Democracy in Amer- 
 ica; The Federalist ; '^XiioVCs, Debates on the Adoption 
 of the Federal Constitution in the Several State Conven- 
 tions ; G. T. Curtis' Origin of the Constitution of the 
 United States ; Marshall's Decisions of Cases Involving 
 the Interpretation of the United States Constitution; 
 Life of Thomas Jefferson, with Memoirs, Correspondence 
 and Miscellanies ; Life and Works of Alexander Hamil- 
 ton ; Sullivan's Letters on Public Characters ; Dwight's ' 
 Character of Jefferson as shown by his writings ; 
 Dwight's History of the Hartford Convention ; Life 
 and Speeches of Daniel Webster ; Life and Speeches of 
 John C. Calhoun; Van Buren's History of Political 
 Parties in the United States ; T. H. Benton's Thirty 
 Years View of the United States Government ; Bu- 
 chanan's President Buchanans Administration; Has- 
 ting's Ancient American Politics ; Life of Thomas Jef- 
 ferson in the American Statesmen Series; Life of 
 Henry Clay in the same series ; Blaine's Twenty Years 
 in Congress; Johnston's American Politics. 
 
 To students of New York State Politics these 
 books will be of interest : 
 30 
 
Hallam's New York Politics ; Bigelow's Speeches 
 of Samuel Tilden ; Life of Horatio Seymour. 
 
 Other valuable works on Political History and 
 Political Science are : 
 
 Bagehot's English Constitution ; Creasy's Rise and 
 Progress of the English Constitution ; Lord John Rus- 
 sell's English Government and Constitution ; De Lolme's 
 Constitution of England ; Burke's Reflections on the Rev- 
 olution in France; Mackintosh's Vindicice Gallicce ; 
 Guizot's History of the English Revolution and Causes of 
 Success of the English Revolution of 1640 and i688. 
 
 Political Economy. A knowledge of the ele- 
 ments, at least, of the science of national wealth, in 
 their latest developments and applications, is of vital 
 importance to the lawyer. An admirable work on 
 the subject is Professor Laughlin's edition of MilVs 
 Principles of Political Economy, published at $3 50. It 
 can be had by sending a letter enclosing Post-office 
 money order or check to the Knickerbocker Publish- 
 ing Co., of 14 Vesey St., New York. 
 
 For a more extensive study of the subject the 
 student should read Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations ; 
 and the works on political economy of Ricardo, Se- 
 nior, Whately, Fawcett and McCuUoch, together with 
 Carey's Essays and Bastiat's Popular Fallacies ; Bow- 
 en's Political Economy 2XiA. American Political Economy ; 
 Perry's Elements of Political Economy and President 
 Walker's Political Economy. 
 
 Logic. A short course in this subject, whereby 
 the student will become acquainted with the outlines 
 of scholastic logic and with the terms employed in 
 the science of mental philosophy, will be of especial 
 value. For this purpose Professor Alexander Bain's 
 Logic is as good a text-book as any other published 
 on the subject. It is issued at $2, and can be had by 
 
 31 
 
sending P. O. money order or check to the Knicker- 
 bocker Publishing Co., 14 Vesey St., New York. 
 
 Ethics. Some knowledge of the Science of Eth- 
 ics should be possessed by the student, and there is 
 no better work on this subject than Calderwood's 
 Ethics, %\ 50. Sharswood's Legal Ethics, $1 50, 
 should also be read. Both of these books can be se- 
 cured by mail order from the Knickerbocker Pub- 
 lishing Co., 14 Vesey St., New York. 
 
 Elements of International Law. In the principles 
 of this science, year by year becoming a more impor- 
 tant one, the law student should be well grounded. 
 This subject is especially important in this country, 
 where the will of the people determines in the last anal- 
 ysis our policies regarding our relations with foreign 
 states ; and where the practice of diplomacy is not 
 delegated to a select few, constituting a distinct class 
 and pursuing it as a vocation, but where the opin- 
 ion of every citizen is a determining force in that 
 great resultant which we call the law of the land or 
 our national policy. In the study of this subject 
 (see note on page 24) I would strongly recommend 
 as a guide Woolsey's International Law, the well- 
 known work of Yale's greatest President, Dr. Wool- 
 sey. It is published at $2 50. Other valuable works 
 on this subject are: Wheaton's International Law, 
 $8 50, and Tucker's The Monroe Doctrine, $2 25. 
 
 The more ambitious students in this subject 
 should also read: Bemis' Precedents of American Neu- 
 trality and Hasty Recognition of Rebel Belligerency ; 
 Letters on International Law by " Historicus "; Ber- 
 nard's British Neutrality. 
 
 Blackstone's Commentaries. Ever since its pub- 
 lication it has been recognized that, for the acquisi- 
 tion of those prime principles which are the very 
 32 
 
foundation of the law of this country and of Eng- 
 land, there is nothing that can compare with the Com- 
 mentaries of Sir William Blackstone. Hence it is that 
 this is invariably the first work placed in the hands 
 of the student of law. There have been published 
 many American editions of Blackstone 's Commen- 
 taries, of which I would recommend the following : 
 Chase's edition, $6.00 ; Cooky s edition, 2 vols., $10.00 ; 
 Sharswood's edition, 2 vols., $10.00 ; Hammond's edi- 
 tion, 2 vols., $10.00. 
 
 Fiction. In the works of many of the great 
 novelists is to be found much that will not only be 
 of peculiar interest to the law student but will also 
 shed some light on many of the principles of the 
 common law. Blackstone and Sir Walter Scott were 
 almost, if not quite, contemporaneous ; and many of 
 Blackstone's principles of law are illustrated and 
 illumined by Scott's exposition of those ancient 
 customs which are the soul and essence of the law. 
 Thus the word " blackmail," which occurs frequently 
 in Blackstone, is constantly brought to mind in read- 
 ing the works of Scott, as for instance in the in- 
 troduction to Rob Roy and in Waverley. In fact 
 throughout Scott's novels occur many interesting 
 and instructive references to law terms and practice. 
 For a vivid picture of a court trial in Scotland the 
 student should read the trial of Effie Deans for child 
 murder in The Heart of Midlothian. Equally inter- 
 esting, though perhaps not as instructive, is Dickens' 
 Pickwick, in which are depicted many phases of the 
 machinery of the law, including character sketches 
 of judges, barristers, clerks, beadles and constables. 
 See also the character of Mr. Tulkinghorn m Bleak 
 House. 
 
 Other works of fiction in which law students 
 
 33 
 
have been especially interested are : Warren's Ad- 
 ventures of an Attorney in Search of Practice ; War- 
 ren's Ten Thousand a Year ; Reade's Hard Cash ; 
 Reade's A Terrible Temptation ; Haggard's Mr. Mee- 
 sons Will ; George Eliot's Felix Holt, the Radical ; 
 Lord Bulwer's Paul Clifford. 
 
 There is another class of books that have al- 
 ways been of interest to law students and lawyers, 
 and which may be grouped under the heading of 
 Legal Recreations. In this group are : Davis' The 
 Law in Shakespeare, $2.50 ; Heard's Shakespeare As 
 a Lawyer, $1.50; Campbell's Shakespeare's Legal Ac- 
 quirements, $1.00; Roger's Law of the Road, $1.50; 
 Roger's Z«ie/ i?/" Hotel Life, $1.50; Remarkable Trials 
 with Speeches, 2 vols., $9.00 ; Proffat's Curiosities and 
 Law of Wills, $1.50; Paget' s Judicial Puzzles, $1.50: 
 Curiosities of Law and Lawyers, $3.00; Baldwin's 
 Flush Times, $1.50; Comic Blackstone, $3.00; Heard's 
 Curiosities and Oddities of Law, $1.50; Jefferson's 
 Pleasantries of English Courts and Lawyers, $1.50; 
 'Qxo'wnQ's Htimorous Phases of the Laiv, $1.50; Crooke's 
 Lyrics of the Law, $1.50; Crooke's Poems of the Law, 
 $1.50. 
 
 Many and high are the obstacles that the law 
 student must surmount in the path that leads to the 
 temple of fame and professional glory. But, with 
 integrity, ability and perseverance as his possessions, 
 surmount them he surely will. Of this last faculty, 
 perseverance, J. G. Holland (Timothy Titcomb) says : 
 " It is well that all young men remember that noth- 
 ing will do them so much injury as quick and easy 
 success, and that nothing will do them so much good 
 as a struggle which teaches them exactly what is in 
 them, educates them gradually to its use, instructs 
 them in personal economy, drills them into a patient 
 34 
 
and persistent habit of work, and keeps them at the 
 foot of the ladder until they become strong enough to 
 hold every step they are enabled to gain. The first 
 years of every man's business or professional life are 
 years of education. They are intended to be, in the 
 order of nature and providence. Doors do not open 
 to a man until he is prepared to enter them. We 
 think it is the experience of most successful men, who 
 have watched the course of their lives in retrospect, 
 that whenever they have arrived at a point where 
 they were thoroughly prepared to go up higher the 
 door to a higher place has swung back of itself and 
 they have heard the call to enter. The old die, or 
 voluntarily retire for rest. The best men who stand 
 ready to take their places will succeed to their hon- 
 ors and emoluments. It is related of Webster that, 
 when a young lawyer suggested to him that the pro- 
 fession to which he had devoted himself was over- 
 crowded, the great man replied, ' Young man, there 
 is always room at the top.' Never was a wiser or 
 more suggestive word said. There undoubtedly 
 always is room enough where excellence lives. Web- 
 ster was not troubled for lack of room. Neither 
 Clay nor Calhoun was ever crowded. 
 
 " The young men will say that only a few can 
 reach the top. That is true ; but it is also true that 
 the further from the bottom one goes the more scat- 
 tering the neighborhood. One can fancy, for illustra- 
 tion, that every profession and every calling is pyra- 
 midal in its living constituency, and that, while only 
 one man is at the top, there are several tiers of men 
 below him who have plenty of elbow room. If a man 
 has no power to get out of the rabble at the bottom 
 then he is self-convicted of having chosen a calling 
 or profession to whose duties he has no adaptation. 
 
 35 
 
" The grand mistake that young men make dur- 
 ing the first ten years of their business and profes- 
 sional life is in idly waiting for their chance. They 
 seem to forget, or they do not know, that during 
 those ten years they enjoy the only leisure they will 
 ever have. After ten years, in the natural course of 
 things, they will be absolutely busy. There will then 
 be no time for reading, culture and study. If they 
 do not become thoroughly grounded in the princi- 
 ples and practical details of their profession during 
 those years ; if they do not store their minds with 
 useful knowledge ; if they do not pursue habits of 
 reading and observation and social intercourse which 
 result in culture, the question whether they will ever 
 rise to occupy a place where there is room enough 
 for them will be decided in the negative. The young 
 physicians and the young lawyers who sit idly in 
 their offices and smoke and lounge away the time, 
 ' waiting for something to turn up,' are by that course 
 fastening themselves for life to the lower stratum, 
 where their struggle for a bare livelihood is to be 
 perpetual. The first ten years are golden years, that 
 should be filled with systematic reading and obser- 
 vation. Everything that tends to professional and 
 personal excellence should be an object of daily pur- 
 suit. To such men the doors of success open of them- 
 selves at last. Work seeks the best hands as natu- 
 rally as water runs down hill, and it never seeks the 
 hands of a trifler, or one whose only recommendation 
 for work is that he needs it. Young men do not 
 know very much any way, and the time always comes, 
 to those who become worthy, when they look back 
 with wonder upon their early good opinion of their 
 acquirements and themselves." 
 
 Thomas Erskine, shortly after he had been ad- 
 36 
 
mitted to the bar, was riding one day on Hounslow 
 Heath when, turning suddenly to his companion, he 
 said, "The time will come when I shall be Lord 
 Chancellor of England, and the Star of the Thistle 
 shall blaze on my bosom." Both of these prophecies 
 were fulfilled. 
 
 Speaking of perseverance and industry William 
 Wirt once said, " Take it for granted that there is 
 no excellence without great labor. No mere aspira- 
 tions for eminence, however ardent, will do the bus- 
 iness. Wishing and sighing and imagining and 
 dreaming of greatness will never make you great. 
 Laborious study and diligent observation of the 
 world are both indispensable to the attainment of 
 eminence. By the former you must make yourself 
 master of all that is known of science and letters ; by 
 the latter you must know man at large, and particu- 
 larly the character and genius of your own country- 
 men. 
 
 " Read the political and legal arguments of Chief 
 Justice Marshall, and those of Alexander Hamilton. 
 Read them, study them, and observe with what an 
 omnipotent sweep of thought they range over the 
 whole field of every subject they take in hand, and 
 that with a scythe so ample and so keen that not a 
 straw is left standing behind them. Brace yourself 
 up to these great efforts. Strike for this giant char- 
 acter of mind and leave pettiness and frivolity to 
 triflers. It is. perfectly consistent with these hercu- 
 lean habits of thinking to be a laborious student and 
 to know all that books can teach. You must never 
 be satisfied with the surface of things ; prove them 
 to the bottom, and let nothing go till you understand 
 it as thoroughly as your powers will enable you. 
 Seize the moment of excited curiosity on any subject 
 
 37 
 
to solve your doubts, for if you let it pass the desire 
 may never return and you may remain in ignorance. 
 The habits which I have been recommending are 
 not merely for college, but for life. Form these 
 habits now." 
 
 The student should have a well-defined ambition 
 in life. If his object is to become a lawyer, then to 
 the law should be devoted his entire attention. " The 
 law is a jealous mistress " has now become a saying 
 so trite as to rank with that most shamefully over- 
 worked one expressing a desire to write a country's 
 songs rather than its laws. He must not expect to 
 succeed if he occupy any considerable portion of his 
 time with "side-issues," as politics or society. Emer- 
 son has said, " Concentration is the secret of strength 
 in politics, in war, in trade ; in short, in all manage- 
 ment of human affairs. One of the high anecdotes 
 of the world is the reply of Newton to the inquiry 
 how he had been able to achieve his discoveries. 
 ' By always intending my mind.' There was in the 
 whole city but one street in which Pericles was ever 
 seen — the street which led to the market place and 
 the council house." 
 
 Mark Twain observes, " The fool saith, ' Put not 
 all your eggs in one basket.' The wise man says, ' Put 
 all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket.' " 
 
 Boswell, when a boy, attended a performance in 
 the Drury Lane Theatre, and while seated in the pit 
 imitated so well the bellowing of a cow as to cause 
 cries from the galleries of " Encore the cow !" He 
 attempted, however, to show some versatility by imi- 
 tating the barking of a dog, with such poor success 
 that Dr. Hugh Blair, who sat next to him, whispered, 
 " Stick to the cow, mon." 
 
 Lord Erskine replied to a friend who was trying 
 38 
 
to induce him to enter Parliament, " Keep the path 
 that leads to where one is going. Keep the path ; 
 i. e., be steady in your exertions, read your briefs 
 thoroughly, let your arguments be learned and your 
 speeches to juries be animated. There is no advan- 
 tage in keeping the path except it be the right one. 
 I am in the path and mean to keep it. To a grave 
 lawyer like me Westminster Hall is the only path 
 to greatness." 
 
 Lord Eldon has said that in order to become a 
 great lawyer the student must live like a hermit and 
 work like a horse. 
 
 The pith of all this is : first, find out what you 
 are fit for, and then do your very best to develop 
 yourself along the lines that nature has laid out for 
 you. Versatility does not pay. By this I do not 
 mean that a man may not be a great lawyer and also 
 a creditable musician, a good golfer and a proficient 
 broad-swordsman. These latter accomplishments 
 have to do with the social aspect of life, in itself a 
 very important one. What I mean is that no man 
 can be at one and the same time a successful practis- 
 ing lawyer, a prosperous business man and a great 
 financier, and that no law student will ever become 
 a successful lawyer who, while studying law, also 
 gives his attention to politics, to society, to sport or 
 to money-making. " Shoemaker, stick to your last !" 
 You must cultivate the faculty of presentminded- 
 ness. No mental wool-gathering in the make-up of 
 the successful lawyer. Under all circumstances he 
 is always ready. The introduction of unexpected 
 evidence or unlooked for tactics by the opposing 
 counsel or an unexpected ruling by the court may 
 call for an immediate change of tactics, and unhappy 
 is the counsel who is not always ready to adapt his 
 
 39 
 
course of action on the instant to the maneuvres of 
 his opponent. Of this faculty of readiness Dr. John 
 Brown says, " It is a curious condition of mind that 
 this requires. It is sleeping with your pistol under 
 your pillow and the pistol at half-cock ; a moment 
 lost and all may be lost. There is the very nick of 
 time. Men, when they have done some signal feat 
 of presence of mind, if asked how they did it, do not 
 very well know — they just did it. It was in fact done 
 and then thought of ; not thought of and then done— 
 in which case it would very likely never have been 
 done at all. It is one of the highest powers of mind 
 thus to act. It is done by an acquired instinct." 
 
 Years ago the poet Milton wrote that "most 
 men are allured to the trade of law, grounding their 
 purposes not on the prudent and heavenly contem- 
 plation of justice and equity, which was never taught 
 them, but on the promising and pleasing thought of 
 litigious terms, fat contentions and flowing fees ;" and 
 ever since his day it has been no unusual thing to 
 hear the legal profession referred to in terms derog- 
 atory to its honesty. • 
 
 John Doe recites the well-known epitaph : 
 
 " We see great wonders now and then: 
 Here lies a lawyer, and an honest man." 
 
 To which Richard Roe replies, " Well, well ! "Why 
 did they put them both in the same grave ?" 
 
 In Milton's day his characterization, applied to 
 a considerable portion of the profession, may have 
 been more or less just. But to-day there is no pro- 
 fession, not even excepting the ministry itself, that 
 calls its votaries m^ore strenuously to the practice of 
 absolute integrity, personal honor and fidelity to 
 truth than does the profession of the law. 
 40 
 
Integrity, ability and industry — these are the 
 three great things in the practice of the law ; but the 
 greatest of these is integrity. With it men of only 
 ordinary ability have succeeded. Without it many 
 men of large learning and superior intellect have 
 miserably failed. 
 
 Hugh Miller said, of the stone-mason under 
 whom he served his apprenticeship, that " he put 
 his conscience into every stone that he laid." 
 
 The student should remember that evil com- 
 munications corrupt good manners ; and that under 
 no circumstances, nor to accomplish any end, how- 
 ever laudable in itself, is it expedient to affiliate 
 with men of doubtful reputation. 
 
 He should bear in mind that, in order to be a 
 good lawyer in every sense of the term, one must 
 first be a good man. He should remember that 
 the " highest attainments are imperfect without that 
 delicate moral sense which feels a stain like a wound, 
 and that resolute moral strength which makes a 
 man submit to be torn in pieces rather than do 
 what he knows to be wrong." 
 
 Blackstone has called law the "science which 
 distinguishes the criterions of right and wrong ; 
 which teaches to establish the one and prevent, 
 punish or redress the other ; which employs in its 
 theory the noblest faculties of the soul, and exerts 
 in its practice the cardinal virtues of the heart." 
 And Hooker has written : " Of law no less can be 
 said than that her seat is the bosom of God, her 
 voice is the harmony of the world ; all things in 
 heaven and earth do her homage : the very least as 
 feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted 
 from her power; both angels and men, and the 
 creatures of what condition soever, though each 
 
 41 
 
in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform 
 consent admiring her as the author of their peace." 
 
 Rufus Choate has said of the law that " There 's 
 nothing else to love in all the world ;" and Edmund 
 Burke declares that "Law is one of the first and 
 noblest of human sciences, which does more to 
 quicken and invigorate the understanding than all 
 the other kinds of learning put together." 
 
 Chief Justice Coleridge, speaking of personal 
 purity in the address at Haverford College referred 
 to in the preceding pages, said : " See to it that you 
 preserve your moral purity. It can never be too 
 early to begin. The temptations of youth, like all 
 others, can be conquered. Do not believe those who 
 tell you that such achievement is impossible. It is 
 perfectly possible, as many have proved. Take my 
 word for it, the word of a man who has no possible 
 motive for misleading you. And nothing will so 
 help you to it, nothing will tend more to keep you 
 from evil, than the company of good books and the 
 thoughts and counsels of good men." 
 
 In the "Study and Practice of the Law" (1806) a 
 " Member of Lincoln's Inn " writes, " Look up to the 
 exalted characters of the past and resolve at least to 
 imitate, if you cannot equal them ; but despair not 
 even of that. Do you think they would ever have 
 risen to their own elevation if they had not beheld 
 the eminence of some master whom they venerated 
 at an awful distance, as you now venerate them? 
 Or if, beholding that eminence, they had been dis- 
 mayed by it? By such examples the study of the 
 law comes recommended to us ; and he who would 
 rise in it must have such examples before his eyes ; 
 he ought never to lose sight of them. The elo- 
 quence, the wisdom, the justice and the virtue which 
 42 
 
distingfuished them must be his; he must labor as 
 they have labored, he must study as they have 
 studied, if he expects to reap the same glorious 
 rewards which have crowned their course." 
 
 " The Law !" said Daniel Webster, in a toast at 
 the Charleston Bar Dinner, May lo, 1847. "The 
 Law ! It has honored us ; may we honor it !" 
 
 It is now universally conceded that the law 
 schools afford the student the best opportunities of 
 acquiring a groundwork for his professional career, 
 the advantages of such a course of training being 
 the necessary concentration upon and application of 
 the mind to the study in hand ; which advantage the 
 student does not possess who studies only at home or 
 in a law office. Another advantage is the incentive 
 to industry resulting from the rivalry which always 
 exists among any considerable number of earnest 
 young men engaged in a common pursuit. 
 
 This being granted, the question arises in the 
 mind of the student : " What law school shall I at- 
 tend ?" There has of late been much discussion as 
 to the best method of legal education : whether that 
 known as the case system, whereby the student is 
 at the very outset of his studies required to deal with 
 the original sources of the law — that is, by the study 
 of cases — or that system for so many years followed 
 by the great teacher Prof. Theodore W. Dwight: 
 which system consists in the study of the general 
 principles of the law as presented in text books, with 
 oral comments in the form of lectures by the in- 
 structors and references to leading cases to illustrate 
 the text book matter. 
 
 It has been the privilege of the author to have 
 pursued the study of his profession under each of 
 
 43 
 
the two systems, and therefore in the discussion of 
 this subject the charge of undue partiality cannot be 
 made against him. Nevertheless, instead of stating 
 his own opinion, he will content himself by present- 
 ing the views on either side by those who, by reason 
 of long experience in the practice or teaching of law, 
 are entitled to speak authoritatively on the subject. 
 
 Mr. James C. Carter, who ranks second to none at 
 the New York Bar, and a sketch of whose brilliant 
 career appears on pages 93-96 of this work, says in 
 support of the " case system ": 
 
 " What is it that a student goes to a Law School to learn ? What is 
 it to begin the study of what we call ' the law 7 What is this thing 
 which we call ' law,' and with the administration of which we have to 
 deal ? Where is it found? How are we to know it? It is not found in 
 that code which was proclaimed amid the thunders of Sinai ! It is not 
 immediately and directly found in the precepts of the gospel. It is not 
 found in the teachings of Socrates, or Plato, or Bacon. It is alone found 
 in those adjudications, those judgments, which from time to time its 
 ministers and its magistrates are called upon to make in determining 
 the actual rights of men. 
 
 " What was our former method of acquiring it ? Going primarily to 
 the judgment? No; for the most part the basis of these investigations 
 was in the study of text books, the authors of which, if they had acquired 
 any knowledge of law for themselves, must have obtained it by resort- 
 ing to those original sources. We, therefore, got it at second-hand. I 
 think the result of all investigations concerning the method by which 
 any science may be acquired and cultivated has been to teach us to go 
 to tlie original sources, and not to take anything at second-hand. 
 
 " Now, is this method open to the objection that the study of cases 
 is apt to made the student a mere case lawyer? Not at all. The pur- 
 pose is to study the great and principal cases, in which are the real 
 sources of the law, and to extract from them rules which, when dis- 
 covered, are found to be superior to all cases. 
 
 * *- * * -t » 
 
 " This method of studying law, by going to its original sources, is 
 no royal road, no primrose path. It is full of difficulties. It requires 
 struggle. If there is anything which is calculated to try the human 
 faculties in the highest degree it is to take up the complicated facts of 
 different cases; to separate the material from the immaterial, the 
 relevant from the irrelevarft ; to assign to each element its due weight 
 44 
 
and limitation, and to give to different competing principles and rules 
 of law their due place in the conclusion that is to be formed ; and I 
 know, on the other hand, of no greater intellectual gratification than 
 that which follows from the solution in this way of the great problems 
 of the law as they successively present themselves." 
 
 Also, in support of the "case system," Sir Fred- 
 erick Pollock says : 
 
 " One of the first and greatest fallacies besetting law students is to 
 suppose that law can be learned by reading about the authorities. Pro- 
 fessor Langdell's method ^for it should justly bear the name of the 
 inventor) strikes at the root of this." 
 
 Another supporter of the " case system " is Mr. 
 Dicey, the learned English jurist, who says in advo- 
 cating it : 
 
 " To master the rules of English law you must study these rules 
 as applied to the affairs of life. They are maxims which derive their 
 full real force from their application to cases. As Paulas excellently 
 said of Roman law, confuting by anticipation the pretentious and shal- 
 low writers who fancied that Roman lawyers were less practical than 
 English ones, 'Non ex regula ius sumatur, sed ex iure quod est regula 
 fiat.' Judicial decisions are legal experiments, reports are the record of 
 such experiments ; our evidence of ' ius quod est.' The lawyer or stu- 
 dent who really enters into the results of a line of leading cases learns 
 more than a few verbal maxims which may be committed to memory. 
 He sees what is the true meaning of legal doctrines when applied to 
 facts ; he ' becomes ' as Mr. Finch well expresses it, ' familiar with the 
 tone of thought, the attitude of mind, which prevail in our courts; 
 he gets a touch of the genius of English law ; I may venture to add, 
 of the English race.' He learns, in short, by the only method by which 
 it can be learned, the notion of justice which the lawyers and judges 
 of England have developed by labors extending over centuries, and 
 have impressed upon the minds of English people." 
 
 Prof. Wm. A. Keener, under whose instruction it 
 was the good fortune of the author to have been for 
 some time, has this to say in advocacy of the " case 
 system," now followed at Columbia College Law 
 School, of which institution Prof. Keener is the effi- 
 cient and honored Dean. 
 
 "A system in which principles are studied in their application to 
 facts would seem to combine in the highest possible degree the theo- 
 
 4S 
 
retical and practical. In no other way can a student so thoroughly 
 acquaint himself with the methods used by judges in applying princi- 
 ples of law to the facts before them. It must be borne in mind that this 
 method of teaching does not consist in lectures by the instructor, with 
 references to cases in support of the proposition stated by him. The 
 exercises in the lecture-room consist in a statement and discussion by 
 the students of the cases studied by them in advance. This discussion 
 is under the direction of the instructor, who makes such suggestions and 
 expresses such opinions as seem necessary. The student is required to 
 analyze eacli case, discriminating between the relevant and the irrele- 
 vant, between the actual and possible grounds of decision. And hav- 
 ing thus discussed the case he is prepared, and required, to deal with it 
 in its relation to other cases. In other words, the student is practically 
 doing as a student what he will be constantly doing as a lawyer. By 
 this method the student's reasoning powers are constantly developed, 
 and while he is gaining the power of legal analysis and synthesis he is 
 also gaining the other object of legal education, namely, a knowledge 
 of what the law actually is." 
 
 It was evidently the opinion of that great law- 
 yer and statesman, John C. Calhoun, that the " case 
 system " is a most admirable one, as will be seen by 
 reading his letter which appears on page 75 of this 
 volume. 
 
 On the other hand, the " Dwight Method " has 
 also received the commendation, based on experi- 
 ence and observation, of many of America's fore- 
 most lawyers and judges. The following explana- 
 tion of this system is from data furnished me by 
 Dean Chase, of the New York Law School; the 
 esteemed associate of the famous founder of the sys- 
 tem, and under whom it was my great privilege to 
 have studied at Columbia Law School. 
 
 The " Dwight Method " receives its name from 
 Prof. Theodore W. Dwight, since it was distinctively 
 the method which he employed and by which he 
 achieved great success and distinction as a legal in- 
 structor. In 1858 he came to New York City to 
 open a law school in connection with Columbia Col- 
 lege. The new school began with but few students, 
 46 
 
and for some years had to combat a prevalent spirit 
 of hostility among the lawyers, who, having been 
 brought up themselves in lawyers' offices, viewed 
 that as the only true way to gain a legal education, 
 and regarded the new method as an absurd innova- 
 tion. The new method triumphed, however, and 
 before many years lawyers and judges were sending 
 their own sons to the school, and institutions of like 
 character began to spring up all over the United 
 States. The attendance at the school grew larger 
 year by year, its standards became higher and more 
 rigorous, and students were attracted to it not only 
 from all parts of this country but from foreign coun- 
 tries as well. Prof. Dwight resigned his chair at 
 Columbia in 1891, and his long period of service as a 
 teacher of law came then to an end. His death fol- 
 lowed within a year thereafter. 
 
 Professor Dwight laid no claim to being the 
 originator of this method. He described it as simply 
 the " natural method " of instruction, which has been 
 pursued since men began to teach and pupils began 
 to learn. As respects legal education, he showed 
 that it was the method advocated in the Roman law 
 of introducing students to their first knowledge of 
 that remarkable system of jurisprudence. 
 
 In order to exhibit the nature of the " Dwight 
 Method" in such a way that those who have never 
 studied law may be able to understand its essential 
 character as contrasted with other methods, it will 
 be necessary at the outset to explain of what the 
 English and American system of law consists, and 
 how it has been developed. It is composed of (i) 
 the Statute Law, and (2) the Common Law. Statute 
 Law is that which is enacted by the Legislature, 
 while Common Law is that which is declared by the 
 
 47' 
 
courts in their adjudications upon the successive 
 particular cases which are brought before them for 
 decision. An adjudication upon the rights and obli- 
 gations of the parties in any single case becomes an 
 established rule of law for any subsequent case pre- 
 senting a like state of facts, and the various rules of 
 law thus set forth in the great body of decisions 
 emanating from the courts constitute collectively 
 the " common law." Causes once decided serve as 
 precedents for the future, and it is a cardinal rule that 
 precedents must be followed in like cases which sub- 
 sequently arise. Thus by a vast number of indi- 
 vidual cases, relating to the almost infinite variety of 
 human transactions and relations, has been built up 
 a composite system of rules and principles which 
 we call the "common law," and which determines 
 the rights, interests and obligations of men in all 
 the affairs of life. This practice is still continuing, 
 and will continue in the future as long as our sys- 
 tem of law endures. In England and the United 
 States thousands of cases are decided year by year, 
 each of which forms a precedent to guide the deci- 
 sion of similar cases which may thereafter be liti- 
 gated before the courts of the same State. These 
 decisions are published in volumes called "Reports," 
 each of which may, on an average, contain a hun- 
 dred cases, more or less, bearing on as many differ- 
 ent questions. Not all decisions are reported and 
 published, but those of the higher courts in any 
 State are sure to be. Each case will give the names 
 of the plaintiff and defendant who litigated the case ; 
 also a statement of the " facts of the case," i. e., the 
 acts, dealings, or occurrences, as between or con- 
 cerning the parties, which led to the litigation and 
 which show what was the precise point in issue be- 
 48 
 
"tween them ; also the decision of the court deter- 
 mining that point in issue, and thereby, in effect, 
 establishing a precedent for similar cases. To each 
 case in the Reports is prefixed what is called a 
 "head-note," or "syllabus," giving a brief statement 
 of what was decided by the court in that particular 
 case. These head-notes are of valuable service, since 
 they give a ready clue to the contents of the several 
 decisions, and show their scope and purport. 
 
 The Statutes of a State are also published in book 
 form at the close of a session of the Legislature at 
 which they were enacted. From time to time, also, 
 such of these enactments as are of general public 
 value are published in volumes called " Revised 
 Statutes," or " Public Statutes," or the like. Such a 
 publication contains all the statutes of general appli- 
 cation which have been passed by the successive 
 Legislatures of the State, from the earliest to the 
 latest, and have not been repealed. 
 
 The Statute Books, containing the rules of law 
 enacted by the Legislature, and the Reports, contain- 
 ing the rules of law declared by the courts in their 
 decisions, constitute, therefore, two great sources of 
 knowledge as to what the rules of law are. Lawyers 
 buy these books, or consult them in law libraries, and 
 find in them material for lifelong study, whether in 
 preparing themselves to give legal advice, or to con- 
 duct and argue cases before the courts, or to enlarge 
 and clarify their general knowledge of the law. 
 
 It might be thought, inasmuch as the courts have 
 been for generations past deciding cases and thus 
 establishing precedents, that the body of principles 
 constituting the common law would, by this time, be 
 quite fully and accurately determined, so that there 
 would be little need for further adjudication. So far, 
 
 49 
 
however, is this from being true that the amount of 
 adjudication is now greater than ever, and is steadily 
 increasing year by year. Thus the reports published 
 throughout the United States in 1892 contained the 
 enormous mass of over 11,000 cases. Allowing a 
 hundred cases to a volume, this would make no vol- 
 umes for a single year, and in ten years there would 
 be 1,100 volumes. The cause of this result is the ex- 
 treme diversity and complexity of human affairs. 
 As any new case arises, and is presented to a lawyer 
 for his advice thereon, he knows that if precisely the 
 same question has been already decided in a prior case 
 in the highest court of the same State, the rule of 
 law thereby established must govern the case now in 
 hand, if that prior case has not been overruled. But 
 in studying carefully this new case he is very likely 
 to find that it differs in one or more important points 
 from any case that can be found in the Reports. It 
 is a common experience to find that the case under 
 consideration resembles one prior case in some re- 
 spects, a second in other respects, and there may also 
 be a third, fourth, fifth, or even more, as to which the 
 similitude is more or less close, without being exact. 
 Under such circumstances the lawyer has to com- 
 pare his case with all these others, consider carefully 
 the elements of similarity and of contrast, in order to 
 determine, if he can, whether the same rule that was 
 applied in one of these former cases should govern 
 in the present instance, or whether some modified 
 rule deduced from some or all of them collectively 
 should be applied, or whether some new and distinct 
 rule, not previously formulated as a principle of law, 
 would better promote full and exact justice between 
 the parties. Very frequently the result is that, as 
 the lawyers on the opposing sides of the question do 
 so 
 
not agree in their conclusions, the matter in contro. 
 versy has to be submitted to the courts for determi- 
 nation, and thus a new law-suit arises, which may lead 
 on to a decision, and thus to another case in the Re- 
 ports. So cases multiply by the thousands and tens 
 of thousands, although the mass of those already 
 accumulated is great enough to place it beyond the 
 capacity of any one man to familiarize himself with 
 them, even if he should devote to this task every 
 working day and hour of an entire lifetime. 
 
 The Statutes and Reports are said above to be two 
 sources of information in ascertaining the law. But 
 in view of the immense collection of reports and de- 
 cisions, which even the most unremitting application 
 cannot cope with, the question naturally suggests 
 itself. Is there not some valuable aid which can be 
 used to acquire a knowledge of the law which may 
 lessen the labor and facilitate research ? The answer 
 is that we have such an aid in the Treatises or Text- 
 books, as they are called, which have been written by 
 eminent legal authors upon the various branches of 
 the law. For example, Mr. Joel P. Bishop, a writer 
 of ability and distinction, has published a treatise 
 upon Criminal Law, in which are set forth the rules 
 of law in regard to all the different kinds of crime : 
 murder, forgery, theft, etc. In preparing this book 
 it was necessary for him, besides studying carefully 
 the statutes on criminal law, to search out all the 
 cases in the English and American Reports relating 
 to crimes, carefully read them, classify them, and 
 deduce from them the principles of law which they 
 establish. It was a labor of years, and the treatise, 
 when published, was as full and thorough and accu- 
 rate an exposition of this important branch of law as 
 an acute and highly skilled writer like Mr. Bishop 
 
 SI 
 
could produce. Several editions of it have now been 
 published, and it has always been regarded by the 
 legal profession as a treatise of great value. The 
 work done in writing it was similar to that which an 
 historian does in writing history. Mr. Parkman, for 
 example, in writing his history of the French and 
 English occupation of North America, spent a life- 
 time in examining original archives, and ascertaining 
 and exhausting other sources of information. As his 
 histories are of exceeding value, so it is easy to see 
 how a legal treatise, prepared by a great writer, will 
 also be of exceeding value. 
 
 With these explanations the difference in the 
 methods of legal instruction may be readily under- 
 stood. 
 
 The Dwight Method is a method of recitation and 
 exposition, accompanied by the reading of illustrative 
 cases. It uses text-books as the basis of instruction. 
 Its theory is that a legal treatise by an able writer 
 may have great value as a statement of the law to be 
 deduced from the Statutes and Reports, in the same 
 way as we have seen that Parkman's works have great 
 value in exhibiting the history of an epoch. Hence 
 the treatise of a competent author is, by the Dwight 
 Method, regarded as stating the law with substantial 
 accuracy. The treatise, moreover, it is claimed, has 
 the great advantage of setting forth the rules and 
 principles of law in logical, systematic arrangement, so 
 that students can see their relative importance and 
 mutual dependence. The practice in using the text- 
 book is this : the instructor assigns each day to his 
 class a certain number of pages of the text-book for 
 careful study in preparation for the recitation of the 
 next day. When the class meets again the next day 
 for recitation he questions them, one after another, in 
 52 
 
rapid succession, in regard to the rules of law which 
 they have studied, receives their answers, finds out 
 thus whether they have understood what they have 
 read, and by a running comment of his own, which 
 is intended to simplify and illustrate the subject 
 tinder consideration, endeavors to make the legal 
 rules and principles so clear, and so well adapted to 
 their comprehension, that they will bear away with 
 them full, clear and definite knowledge. In this way 
 the students come to the class-room each day well 
 prepared by previous study to understand and profit 
 by the exposition there given. The instructor, there- 
 fore, can devote special attention during the exer- 
 cise to difficult points which his experience shows 
 him are not likely to be fully comprehended. He 
 aims to reduce abstruse and complex propositions to 
 the simplest possible form of statement, and to cite 
 illustrative cases which, by showing the application 
 of a rule to a given state of facts, shall make the 
 operation of the rule easily understood. His object, 
 above all, is to treat the principles of the law and the 
 reasons on which they depend as of fundamental 
 importance. 
 
 The Dwight Method also comprises the reading 
 of cases in connection with the study of the text- 
 book. But the cases are read, not, as in the case- 
 method, to form the basis of instruction, but as illus- 
 trations of the legal principle which the student finds 
 stated in his text-books. The cases thus serve as 
 object lessons of the application of principles. Such 
 reading may begun to a moderate degree at an early 
 period in the student's course, and gradually broad- 
 ened in its scope and extent as his knowledge of 
 principles increases. By comparing the cases with 
 the statement in his text-book the student will also 
 
 S3 
 
be enabled to comprehend how the treatise writer 
 deduces the principles from the cases. This will be 
 of value in teaching him how to extract the princi- 
 ples himself from the study of the reports. He need 
 not, however, undertake to read as many cases as by 
 the case-method would be deemed requisite. The 
 author whose treatise he uses has studied the cases 
 in the mass, so as to state the principles of law with 
 all due qualifications. The student, therefore, need 
 not traverse this whole ground again. It is enough, 
 in general, if he reads such cases as show the appli- 
 cation of the principle in its most important relations, 
 or enable him to understand its practical usefulness 
 and sphere of operation. 
 
 The Dwight Method thus combines the study of 
 Text-bopks with the study of Statutes and of RepoHed 
 cases. The student begins with elementary topics, 
 and gradually proceeds to those which are more difi5- 
 cult. He has the aid of the ablest treatise writers. 
 He has also the constant aid of the instructor to 
 guide him in his studies and aid him to comprehend 
 and apply them. All the valuable sources of legal 
 knowledge are thus placed at his disposal. 
 
 Prof. Edward J. Phelps, one of the greatest jur- 
 ists in the United States, outlines a method similar 
 to the " Dwight Method " in a letter to the Yale 
 Law Journal, to the editors of which publication the 
 author of this volume desires to express his grate, 
 ful appreciation of courtesies extended him. Prof. 
 Phelps says : 
 
 " Such views as I have are not derived from consideration of sys- 
 tems of study, but from observation of their results. I have paid little 
 attention to the processes of culture but have had large opportunities 
 to observe the harvest, for my acquaintance with the profession in all 
 its grades has been long and wide. 
 54 
 
"Men of exceptional intellectual power, or specially qualified by 
 the character of their minds to deal with legal principles, will reach dis.> 
 tinction, if they devote themselves to that pursuit, in spite of all disad- 
 vantages of education. Some great lawyers have had no more fortu- 
 nate beginning than the study of a tattered Blackstone by the light of a 
 pine-knot fire. There is another class of students, unfortunately, to 
 whom no facilities of instruction, however excellent, will prove useful. 
 They are either those who are lacking in mental capacity or in natural 
 adaptation to the study of law— for capacity is more frequently adapta- 
 tion to the work in hand than is always remembered — or they are those 
 who cannot or will not bring themselves to perform the necessary labor. 
 Some young men are disposed to regard the profession of the law as a 
 genteel way of getting a living without work, or as a convenient intro- 
 duction to that highest of American ambitions, the holding of some sort 
 of public office. In the latter expectation they may perhaps succeed^ 
 as it does not usually much depend upon intellectual qualities; in the 
 former they will not fail to find out their mistake, perhaps after it is too 
 late. But the man of fair abilities, sufficient to have insured him a 
 satisfactory if not a brilliant success, and willing to do the work that is 
 necessary in order to make the most of himself, not infrequently fails to 
 achieve mucli at the bar. And it has seemed to me that the reason is 
 generally to be found in the lack of the mental discipline and the true 
 foundation of legal knowledge, which must be acquired, if at all, in 
 early life and in educational studies. The want of these is rarely over- 
 come. He who sets out in the wrong direction is likely to get further 
 away from his course the longer he travels. The building that is 
 erected upon an incomplete and insecure foundation, however it may 
 be elaborated and wrought over in its upper stories, is never strong or 
 permanent. When the rains descend, and the floods come, it will be 
 seen to be founded upon the sand. 
 
 "The very first and indispensable requisite in legal education, 
 without which there can be none that is worthy of the name, is the 
 acquisition of a clear and accurate perception, a complete knowledge, a 
 strong, tenacious grasp of those unchangeable principles of the common 
 law which underlie and permeate its whole structure, and which con- 
 trol all its details, its consequences, its application to human affairs. 
 That should be the work of the law school, to the student who is happy 
 enough to enjoy its privileges. If it does that for him it does quite 
 enough, and all there is time for. If it fails to do that it does nothing 
 that is really worth while. If the student goes out from it with hazy 
 and uncertain conceptions and vague and indefinite knowledge, if he 
 is enriched only by a vast and varied misinformation and a widely 
 extended misunderstanding, he had better address himself to almost 
 any other profession for which he is disqualified than to the profession 
 of the law. And it is certain that his mental habits will be of the same 
 character as his acquirements. 
 
 ss 
 
" If I were to venture upon any criticism of the system of instruc- 
 tion that is now, so far as I know, universally in vogue in these institu- 
 tions, because universally demanded, I should say that they attempt 
 too much for the time at their disposal and the capacity of their average 
 students. In establishing their standard they fix their eyes rather upon 
 what should be accomplished at the end of a lawyer's career than at its 
 beginning. They cover too much ground ; they burden the student 
 with too much reading, too much instruction, too many topics. They 
 cram him with more than he can digest; they load him with more than 
 he can carry. The culture he receives is too wide to be deep. The 
 mental discipline, without which knowledge is only an encumbrance, 
 is sacrificed or impaired in the overstrained effort at accumulation. 
 Learning is made to take the place of knowledge, and knowledge out- 
 runs strength. No man certainly can evolve a mastery of the law out 
 of his inner consciousness ; it must be obtained by study, and the real 
 lawyer must be a student in earnest all the days of his life. But, on the 
 other hand, mere learning can never make a lawyer. The faculties 
 of acute and accurate perception, of seeing things just as they are, of 
 strong logical reasoning, and of a high and clear sense of justice, must 
 be formed and trained and incorporated into the mind as legal knowl- 
 edge is acquired. The process, therefore, cannot with most men be 
 very rapid. Excellence will be found a plant of slow growth. Study 
 should consist not merely in reading and hearing but in reflection ; so 
 that what is received may be thoroughly mastered. The unhappy ten- 
 dency of our time, not merely in schools but to a considerable degree 
 in the profession and in the courts, is to encumber the law with much 
 that is called learning, sought to be deduced from millions of hetero- 
 geneous, often irreconcilable, and sometimes incomprehensible cases, 
 each of which, instead of being a decision on the point involved, is a 
 dissertation upon the general law of the subject. The terse, clear and 
 logical judgments that are found in the earlier English and American 
 reports, in which conclusions are deduced from principles instead of 
 from other conclusions, are not now much in fashion. It is easy to find 
 single opinions in which more authorities are cited than were men- 
 tioned by JMarshall in the whole thirty years of his unexampled judicial 
 life, and briefs that contain more cases than Webster referred to in all 
 the arguments he ever delivered. To plunge a student into this chaos, 
 with his powers untried and imperfect and his knowledge of principles 
 incomplete, to grope his way through it as best he may, and to triangu- 
 late from case to case, supposing that he is getting forward when he is 
 only going astray, is not to educate him, but tends rather to make him 
 proof against education. If the time comes when he can encounter it 
 with the discrimination that is born only of a lucid conception of legal 
 principles, he may be more safely trusted in a great law library without 
 danger of being conducted 'by learned reasons to absurd decrees.' 
 He will then see how cases may illustrate the application of principles 
 56 
 
which they do not create and cannot destroy ; that the law is, after all, 
 the science of justice, as far as justice can be made eflFectual by general 
 and established rules ; and that its warrant and its eulogy are only to 
 be found in ' the good justice that is done in the land.' 
 
 " If I were to frame a law school upon my own old-fashioned idea 
 of what it should be it would attract no students. It would be like the 
 common school by the side of the academy. The slenderness of its 
 library — small, but well-selected, rich principally in what it did not con- 
 tain, and jealous of new accessions — the simplicity of its curriculum, 
 the moderation of its speed, the apparent modesty of its extent of 
 attainment would be likely to excite derision. Such was the school 
 which I had the advantage of attending in the happy days of my youth. 
 Out of such schools, and from the same system of instruction outside of 
 them, have come a large proportion of the greatest lawyers I have ever 
 seen or expect to see. What was taught there was only fundamental, 
 but it was taught effectually. It sank into the student's mind and 
 wrought itself into his ideas and his modes of thought. The habit of 
 reasoning from principles to conclusions gave him, if he was capable of 
 attaining it, the large conprehension and strong logical power which 
 are the characteristics of the sound lawyer, and the true weapons of 
 the advocate. On the foundation thus formed the superstructure can 
 be rapidly built in after life. To a mind so trained, no legal proposi- 
 tions, however new, will be difficult ; no complication of facts, however 
 unusual, will embarrass the application of the rules of law or put jus- 
 tice out of court. 
 
 " I have felt less hesitation in expressing these antiquated views be- 
 cause there is no danger of their being adopted. Institutions must 
 meet the demands of their time, right or wrong, or they will soon cease 
 to be institutions, for the lack of disciples. Public opinion in these 
 times, upon any subject that much attracts public attention, flows in 
 currents which sweep everything before them. It is idle to try to go 
 against the stream ; one must go with it or be left behind. Education 
 in all its departments, nowadays, is the business of rapidly imparting 
 universal knowledge to all mankind. The end sought is acquirement 
 rather than strength, accumulation at the expense of understanding, 
 quantity instead of quality. This can only be corrected, if it needs cor- 
 rection, by tlie experience which perhaps may disclose that such is not 
 the way to make strong men. 
 
 " I may well enough terminate these observations in the language 
 of a worthy and honest justice of the peace in the State of Vermont, 
 who, in rendering judgment in an action that had been sharply con- 
 tested before him, concluded by saying, ' These are my views in respect 
 to this case ; I have no doubt about it ; very likely I am wrong. I am 
 generally wrong.' " 
 
 57 
 
Also, in advocacy of the " Dwight Method," Mr. 
 Edmund Wetmore, of the New York Bar, says : 
 
 " I have given some time and thought to the subject of different 
 methods of college instruction, and I believe that, as a preparation for 
 the legal profession, Dr. Dwight's system of teaching is that which 
 experience has shown to be the best; and certainly he himself, as a 
 teacher, has had few rivals in this country. The controlling principle 
 of .his system is the inculcation of the elementary rules of law ap- 
 plicable to its leading branches, by presenting them in the clearest and 
 simplest form, under a carefully studied and logical arrangement, 
 and fixing them in the mind by apt illustration and the drill of recita- 
 tion and review. The consequence is that the student bears away 
 with him that which he never forgets. He has stamped upon his 
 memory an outline within which the results of all future labors nat- 
 turally and readily fall. He has the basis upon which to rest the sci- 
 ence of legal reasoning, the best equipment for the future development 
 of his powers. There is no student of Dr. Dwight's, who has faithfully 
 followed his profession since he left the school, who will not heartily 
 confirm my words." 
 
 Finally, in opposition to the " case system," are 
 these words from the distinguished writer and in- 
 structor of Law at the New York University, Prof. 
 Christopher G. Tiedeman, whose splendid qualities 
 of mind and heart are the admiration and inspiration 
 of his former pupils, among whom the present author 
 is proud to be numbered : 
 
 " There are four things to be attained by systematic legal instruction, 
 and no system is complete which does not make provisiot) for the at- 
 tainment of all of them ; viz, to teach (i) what is the law; (2) how law 
 is evolved or made; (3) how to extract the ruling principle of law from 
 an adjudicated case ; (4) how to apply known principles of law to new 
 cases as they arise. 
 
 " No one would deny that the study of actual cases will alone satisfy 
 the third and fourth requirements of legal education as just set forth. 
 Nor can there be much doubt that a student cannot learn how law is 
 made unless he studies adjudicated cases, even where the particular 
 matter is regulated by statute. For the statute does not always contain 
 the true living rule of conduct. The true rule or rules which are pro- 
 duced by the enactment of a statute are not to be found in the letter 
 of the statute, but in the construction placed upon it by the courts. 
 58 
 
The law student cannot find in the Statute of Frauds all that is neces- 
 ary for him to determine when a writing is necessary to the validity of 
 a contract. He must look for an accurate answer to his inquiry to the 
 thousands of cases in which the provisions of the statute of frauds have 
 been construed and modified in their application to particular cases, or 
 he must go to some reliable treatise on the subject whose author has , 
 made the investigation for him. The student should be made to un- 
 derstand that the edicts of the legislature are not in themselves neces- 
 sarily living law, except so far as they reflect the prevalent sense of 
 right, but that the real rule of civil conduct is to be extracted from the 
 cases, in which the statutory rule finds in its application to individual 
 litigation the more or less serious modification which is necessary to 
 bring it into conformity with the popular suse of right. 
 
 " The second and third aims of legal education, as here differentiated, 
 only serve to teach the student how to discover for himself what is the 
 law, while the fourth gives him an opportunity to learn how to make a 
 practical use of his legal knowledge. Legal educators many differ as 
 to the amount of time which should be devoted in a law school course 
 to the attainment of these three elements of professional education ; 
 but they cannot seriously deny that the study of cases is the only 
 method by which this instruction may be imparted. Nor can there 
 be much cause for doubt or dispute that the major part of a law school 
 course must be devoted, not to teaching how law is evolved, or how 
 to extract the law from adjudicated cases, or how to apply it to new 
 cases, important as these things are, but to leacliing what is the law ; 
 what are the principles, general and special, which give logical shape 
 to all systems of jurisprudence. And it is at this point in the discussion 
 of educational methods that there is the greatest cause for contention. 
 
 " There is very little room for doubt that, at least in the Anglo-Saxon 
 world, the adjudicated cases are the great reservoir of legal learning, 
 and that the original investigator must go to these cases for the ma- 
 terials out of which he may construct our jurisprudence, or satisfy the 
 more modest desire of ascertaining what is the law of the land on a 
 particular subject. But he would use the cases not for the purpose of 
 learning directly from them what is the law, but to discover, as the 
 scientific investigator hopes by his experiments with tlie forces of 
 nature, the fundamental principles underlying the concrete manifesta- 
 tions of their influence. If the chemist, or physicist, or biologist, wants 
 to learn what is already known about their respective sciences he goes 
 to the treatises in which are recorded the results of the investigations 
 of others. He does not open the book of nature and expect to find 
 therein the principles set forth in sucli intelligible terms as that he who 
 runs may read. He goes to his library, instead of to his laboratory. 
 
 " The adjudicated cases constitute nothing more than materials out 
 of which the scientific jurist is to construct a science of jurisprudence. 
 
 59 
 
They are not law in themselves, they are but applications of the law 
 to particular cases. Law is not made by the courts ; at the most only 
 promulgated by them. Any one who believes that judges are free agents 
 in the rendition of decrees and judgments may be inclined to question 
 the .soundness of the last proposition. But he who is fully persuaded 
 that law is not the independent creation of the judicial mind, but is the 
 resultant of the social forces reflecting the popular sense of right, will 
 readily give his assent. The judge is but an instrument for the pro- 
 mulgation of this popular sense of right in its particular application to 
 the cause at issue. When I first met with the proposition, which is so 
 often enunciated by legal writers as a proper and satisfying explana- 
 tion of the relation of statutory law and -judge-made "law, as Benthara 
 contemptuously calli it, that the judge in rendering a decision on a novel 
 question, or in modifying a principle of law which has been previousiy 
 enunciated, does not make law but only declares what was the pre- 
 existing, although perhaps as yet unexpressed, law, I was inclined to 
 repudiate the doctrine altogether as a fiction, and to give my approval 
 to Bentham's criticism of this judicial liberty. But when I looked 
 deeper into the origin of the law, and satisfied myself that all law, so 
 far as it constituted ii living rule of civil conduct, whether it takes the 
 form of statute or of judicial decision, is but an expression of the pop- 
 ular sense of right through the popular agents, the legislator or the 
 judge as the case may be — then a new light was thrown upon what I 
 was inclined to pronounce an unwarrantable fiction, and I believed all 
 the more firmly that neither the judge nor the legislator makes living 
 law, but only declares that to be the law which has been forced upon 
 him, whether consciously or unconsciously, by the pressure of the 
 popular sense of right, that popular sense of right being itself but the 
 resultant of the social forces which are at play in every organized so- 
 ciety. 
 
 " If this be the true conception of the origin and development of law, 
 then it must be conceded that learning what principles of law have been 
 given birth, or have been more or less modified in a particular decision 
 or set of decisions, is not an elementary work which piay be entrusted 
 to beginners, or which law students, at least in the earlier stages of their 
 professional training, may be expected to do satisfactorily to themselves 
 and to their teachers. In the first place, the whole law or any appreci- 
 able part of it, on a particular subject, cannot be learned from the study 
 of a few leading cases, but only from a very large number of cases. 
 For example, in order to learn the law in relation to the requirements 
 of the statute of frauds, one would have to read not a few cases but 
 thousands of cases. To teach law by cases — granting for the present 
 that it is possible to teach law as a science by cases alone — it would re- 
 quire incredible length of time teach even the elementary law. 
 
 " But, apart from the physical impossibility of reading enough cases 
 60 
 
in order to enable the student to learn the law in the time to which tlie 
 exigencies of American life require a law school course to be limited, 
 the legal tyro is not mentally capable of extracting the principles of the 
 law from adjudicated cases, even though he be a college-bred man and 
 possessed of more than the average of ability and industry. A few men 
 of extraordinary mental powers may be able to collect together and 
 formulate correctly, by the study of cases alone, the principles upon 
 which the adjudications rest, but the average student will, by such a 
 system of instruction, if pursued exclusively, be impressed with the 
 great weight of judicial precedent, and he will become what is so gen- 
 erally deprecated, a case-lawyer ; who thinks the whole business of advo- 
 cacy consists of persuading the court that the cases he cites in support 
 of his side of the controversy are to be followed, not because they enun- 
 ciate a profound scientific truth, but merely because they have given 
 judgment for the plaintififor defendant on a similar statement of facts. 
 The higher aim of their instructors, to make of them conspicuously 
 original investigators in the law, is lost on the average law students. 
 Law students, in the present state of public opinion, are inclined to con- 
 sider rules of law, as they are enunciated by the court, as distinct and 
 independent propositions, which may be strung together in a digest in 
 some more or less orderly manner but which have no logical connec- 
 tion, leading up to the formation of a compact scientific system of juris- 
 prudence. And it strikes me that this evil, so far at least as the average 
 student is concerned, will be intensified by telling him that he must 
 learn the law from the cases alone. The average student will not do 
 the necessary work in order to be able to construct for himself, out of 
 the mass of judicial decisions, an orderly and logical presentation of 
 the fundamental principles which are the groimdwork of every system 
 of jurisprudence, and a knowledge of which is absolutely essential to 
 any scientific conception of the law as a whole, or in the detailed appli- 
 cation to special cases in actual practice. 
 
 " If it taxes the mental energies of the most experienced and skilful 
 of our law writers to present accurately and logically the law on a given 
 subject, so as to guide and not mislead the active practitioner and judge 
 in the winning and settlement of judicial contests, we certainly cannot 
 expect the student to do this work satisfactorily or accurately. One of 
 the most successful of our American legal authors once observed in my 
 presence that he often found it impossible to discover the common prin- 
 ciple by which conflicting decisions, even of the same court, may be 
 reconciled. He did not refer to cases in which there was a direct repu- 
 diation of a prior decision, but to those cases in which there was an 
 express or implied confirmation of the prior decision, but with so great 
 a departure in practical results as to force one at least to the conclu- 
 sion that the later decision imposes a serious modification of the rule 
 of law as laid down in the prior decision. To present in a clear light 
 
 6l 
 
the rule of law, as it emerges in a modified form from the clashing 
 interests represented by two or more decisions, requires the skill and 
 leisure of the experienced legal author. The busy practitioner has not 
 the time, and the tyro has not the skill or experience to enable him to 
 escape the confusion of ideas which the reading of conflicting decisions 
 occasions. 
 
 "But even if the student is capable of doing this work, from which 
 old practitioners shrink, why should he be forced to learn the law exclu- 
 sively in this laborious and difficult manner ? Must he be denied the 
 privilege, which the students of medicine, chemistry and the other sci- 
 ences enjoy, of learning at the outset of his study, from treatises, wliat 
 other original investigators have discovered? Like the student of the 
 different sciences, the law student must learn how to make original 
 investigations for himself, and diagnose, so to speak, the principles of 
 law from the cases in actual litigation. But no reason can be given why 
 he must learn the whole science of the law by his own investigations in 
 the undigested mass of raw material in the shape of adjudicated cases. 
 No medical school can pretend to give a complete course of instruction 
 at the present day without introducing into its curriculum a compre- 
 hensive course of clinics. Nor does the professor of physics or chemis- 
 try teach these sciences exclusively by the use of the text-books and 
 pictorial representations of the various experiments, as was once the 
 practice. But the instructors of these sciences have not discarded the 
 treatise ; they have only supplemented the use of the treatise with the 
 resort to the laboratory and operating room. 
 
 " The difficulty in reaching a common agreement in the present dis- 
 cussion over methods and means of legal instruction is the difficulty 
 which is often experienced in finding the middle and true ground of a 
 controversy. Impressed by the defects of the older systems of instruc- 
 tion — in which the law student was presented with more or less abstract 
 propositions of law, with the aid of text-books which often were either 
 nothing more than digests of the cases, and put together in an illogical 
 and disorderly manner, or whose statements of the law were so loose 
 and inaccurate as to prove misleading; and more impressed with the 
 necessity of " legal clinics " in the course of instruction in the law school 
 instead of being left for acquisition in the law office — the advocates of 
 instruction by cases have gone to the opposite extreme of placing too 
 high a value upon the study of cases, and of unduly depreciating the 
 value of the study of theoretic law, apart from learning it through the 
 medium of practical law. But notwithstanding their undue appreciation 
 of the study of cases they tacitly concede its inefficiency, as a sole means 
 of learning the law, by accompanying the study of the cases with a glos- 
 sary or commentary of that part of the law which is treated in the cases. 
 The cases are therefore used merely as illustrations of the law which is 
 set forth in the commentary, which is either given to the student in 
 62 
 
printed form or imparted by the professor in his class-room instruction. 
 If the commentary consists of a scientific and logical treatment of the 
 branch of law selected, corresponding to the methods adopted by the 
 better legal treatises of modern times, the instruction by cases differs 
 only from the instruction with tlie aid of the best text-books in that the 
 illustrations of the law constitute the text, while the law is put into foot 
 notes, and has the disadvantage of misleading the student as to what is 
 and what is not the nature of the law. If the glossary or commentary 
 is nothing more than a digest of the cases for which space could not be 
 found in the text, then the employment of such a book in a class-room 
 instruction will not avoid many of the evils which were complained of 
 under the older rigime. 
 
 " The advocates of instruction by the use of cases have effected an 
 important reform in legal education by arousing the law schools of the 
 country to the importance of infusing more life into their instruction, 
 and of introducing into their curricula what I would call " legal clinics ;" 
 and for this great good the legal profession should bti grateful to them. 
 But the great danger, of driving out of the schools all scientific study of 
 the fundamentals of the law in the unchecked study from the cases of 
 isolated propositions of the law, ought not to be lost sight of. I think we 
 may, in this connection, consider with profit the order of legal instruc- 
 tion pursued at the German universities. In the first half of their three 
 years' course the student gets nothing but theoretic and relatively ele- 
 mentary law, which he gleans from the lectures of the professor and 
 from the treatises corresponding to the English and American text- 
 book. The same course of instruction is maintained to the end of the 
 university course, except that the seminarinm is added ; in which the 
 student gets his first insight into practical law and where the method 
 of instruction is practically a study of la\Y by cases, except tliat the cases 
 are in the main hypothetical. When the student receives his doctorate 
 he is enrolled among the oflScials of the court as a referendar, perform- 
 ing duties as an assistant to the judges which are calculated to give 
 him the practical experience which is aimed at by the law in many of 
 the American States in requiring of candidates for the bar an appren- 
 ticeship or clerkship in a practising lawyer's office. 
 
 "If I were called upon to establish a course of legal instruction I 
 would follow the German methods as nearly as the situation and public 
 opinion in America would allow. I would make the course in the law 
 school three years. During the first year I would confine the student 
 to the study of the fundamental principles of the law with the aid of the 
 most approved treatises, and without any resort to cases except by the 
 instructor, who would use them in tlie class-room for the purpose of 
 illustrating the text. The second year would be in the main similar to 
 the course of instruction of the first year, with a partial introduction of 
 ' legal clinics ' and of the seminary methods. In the third year the 
 
 63 
 
instruction would largely consist of the study of cases, and of practice 
 and pleading. 
 
 " During the entire course in the law school I would place the ban 
 upon the resort of the student to the law office. His clerkship in the 
 law office should begin upon his graduation from the law school." 
 
 Having read the arguments, pro and con, by the 
 leading exponents of the respective systems, the stu- 
 dent should carefully consider under which of the 
 two he desires to pursue his course of study. 
 
 In my experience, one of the most desirable fea- 
 tures of a law-school course is the " quiz class," ordi- 
 narily composed of a limited number of students who 
 meet regularly, daily or weekly, to review and dis- 
 cuss the topics of the few preceding days. One of 
 the members is selected at each meeting to serve as 
 " quiz-master," and under his leadership the various 
 topics are discussed. At each meeting also a mem- 
 ber reads a paper on a special topic previously as- 
 signed to him. 
 
 An extremely important step in the law student's 
 career is the choice of an office in which to gain the 
 necessary practical training as student or clerk pre- 
 paratory to admission to the bar. Many offices there 
 are which, for any really beneficial training the stu- 
 dent may derive therein, are next to useless. In such 
 offices the student has thrust upon him unimportant 
 routine work incidental to office practice, and which 
 serves no purpose except to squander his valuable 
 time. 
 
 He should be careful, then, to select an office 
 where he can secure a familiarity with all the details 
 of legal business ; a knowledge of the management 
 of an office, with the privilege of a good working law- 
 library ; an opportunity for contact with able lawyers, 
 and, above all, with honorable men. The presence 
 64 
 
or absence of this latter feature oftentimes exerts a 
 great influence on the student's career in after life. 
 As John Stuart Blackie has said, " To have felt the 
 thrill of a fervid humanity shoot through your veins 
 at the touch of a Chalmers, a Macleod, or a Bunsen, 
 is, to a young man of fine susceptibility, worth more 
 than all the wisdom of the Greeks, all the learning of 
 the Germans, and all the sagacity of the Scotch." 
 James A. Garfield once said of the illustrious Presi- 
 dent of Williams College, " Mark Hopkins seated on 
 a log would be a university." 
 
 Lord EUenborough, the illustrious English jurist, 
 speaking of Archdeacon Paley, said, " Paley formed 
 my character, and I consider that I owe my success 
 in life more to my character than to any natural tal- 
 ents that I may possess." 
 
 I have repeatedly been asked by some young 
 friend the question, " When should I begin my peri- 
 od of clerkship in a law office ?" The best answer to 
 this question is found in the following quotation from 
 Hoffman's Study of the Law : 
 
 " Many young men on leaving college at once 
 place themselves in a law office, and are frequently 
 made mere drudges, to copy pleadings, deeds, letters, 
 etc., which the proprietor of the office is either too 
 busy or too indolent to copy himself, and which nei- 
 ther improve the student's handwriting nor add one 
 mite to his legal stores. Others are suffered to grope 
 through the intricacies of the law without torch or 
 clue, and destitute of all method. Left to self-direc- 
 tion, they essay the perusal of some black-lettered 
 folio as the herculean task alone necessary to be sur- 
 mounted ; the difficulties of this widely diffused sci- 
 ence are then to vanish, and this musty and ponder- 
 
 65 
 
ous folio is to be the avenue through which they are 
 to pass, as by enchantment, into smooth and unin- 
 terrupted paths. Disappointment, however, is the 
 certain reward of such students. Their minds are 
 not prepared for so vast an undertaking. The first 
 beams of legal knowledge have not been felt when 
 they ignorantly and rashly fl.y, like Icarus, in the 
 very face of the sun, and meet with the same inevi- 
 table and ruinous fate. Some, again, are contented 
 with the scraps and bits of knowledge gleaned from 
 writing deeds and declarations ; from listening to the 
 protracted narratives of clients to their counsel, and 
 the hasty advice which the former receive from the 
 latter : or from an occasional attendance on courts of 
 justice; while the remainder of their office hours are 
 dedicated to politics and pamphlets or the ephemeral 
 and amusing productions of the day. In this round 
 of time-slaughtering the three or four years origi- 
 nally appropriated as the period of legal study have 
 elapsed, and the student must now embark in the 
 practice of a profession the very rudiments and gen- 
 eral contour of which have never been fully presented 
 to his mind. This is by no means a picture of too 
 high coloring, but a faithful sketch of the history 
 of many students of law. We, therefore, earnestly 
 entreat the student to devote three-fourths of the 
 period allotted for his legal apprenticeship to private 
 study, and by no means to enter an office until the 
 year previous to his entering the practice of his pro- 
 fession. If the public records be accessible to him, 
 he should read occasionally the entire record of a 
 case carried from an inferior tribunal to the Supreme 
 Court ; the perusal of a few records of this kind 
 would impress on his mind a distinct view of the 
 whole routine of an action, through perhaps a hun- 
 66 
 
dred diflEerent forms or entries, to the return of the 
 executory process." 
 
 Daniel Webster once told William Pitt Fessen- 
 den, "When I began to practise law I never let a 
 legal document pass out of my hands without read- 
 ing it three times at least." 
 
 The following advice was given by Kelso Storey 
 in an address to the Sunderland Law Students' Soci- 
 ety, a report of which was published in the London 
 Law Students Journal : 
 
 " The years which a man spends as a clerk are 
 of the highest importance to him. I fear that this is 
 not sufficiently realized, and very much of this time 
 is not used to the best advantage, but, on the con-, 
 trary, a great deal of it is wasted. It is apparent that 
 our numbers are becoming very great, and in conse- 
 quence that those persons who are best qualified have 
 a better chance of succeeding in our profession. Ob- 
 servation is one of the best teachers, and a clerk 
 should always keep his eyes and ears open to every- 
 thing that is going on in the office that comes under 
 his notice. Having entered into a covenant to keep 
 the secrets of the office, he ought zealously to guard 
 his tongue. The letter-book should be carfuUy pe- 
 rused day by day, or as often as occasion permits, to 
 see the correspondence going on in the office, and 
 this will also be a training in the drafting of letters 
 that forms such an important item in a solicitor's 
 work. When a new piece of business is commenced 
 it should be watched step by step until it is conclu- 
 ded. Take, for illustration, a matter of conveyancing 
 where the solicitor is acting for the purchaser of a 
 house. The clerk should peruse the agreement or 
 condition of sale, if any ; go through the abstract and 
 note any requisitions on the .title ; see the draft of 
 
 67 
 
the conveyance, and notes, if any, on the completion 
 of the purchase. Also in an action in court he should 
 note the various steps from the issuing of the writ to 
 the judgment and execution. Order and method in 
 one's work should be carefully observed and prac- 
 tised from the beginning, as without this a solicitor's 
 office would become a veritable chaos and utter con- 
 fusion would prevail. It would be an advantage to 
 keep a diary and make a record of what one does 
 each day, and form habits that might be advanta- 
 geous to him afterwards. Regular attendance at the 
 office during business hours is of great importance. 
 Many clerks seem to think they need only attend 
 when they please. The clerk who attends the office 
 and does not unnecessarily indulge in walking about 
 the streets is the man who, when he gets an office of 
 his own, will be there when he is wanted, and will 
 not need so frequently to put upon his door, ' Will 
 return in ten minutes." I would advise clerks to 
 attend the courts occasionally. Public speaking is an 
 art that should be cultivated by all. Mutual improve- 
 ment societies and debating clubs afford a good op- 
 portunity for acquiring this art. And law students 
 who have the privilege of being members of a deba- 
 ting society have an opportunity that should be taken 
 advantage of. Points of law set down for argument 
 should be looked into and authorities sought out. 
 With regard to the course of reading to be adopted, 
 the student should not start with the idea of doing as 
 little reading as possible and still meeting the require- 
 ment, or of doing the requisite amount of reading in 
 the shortest possible space of time. His duty is not 
 to cram to pass the examinations. It is a strong 
 point to be well up in case law, and to carefully read 
 the judgments of leading and recent cases. The 
 68 
 
taking of notes is a help in some cases. It is scarcely 
 possible to take notes of all the works to be read, but 
 difi&cult points and places that you wish to refer to, 
 briefly noted, refresh the memory. Too much reli- 
 ance must not be placed on the notes, and they must 
 not under any circumstances take the place of mental 
 notes. Learning is essential to members of the pro- 
 fession, but there is something more important still ; 
 that is, reliability and integrity of character. If you 
 wish to succeed in your profession, take care of your 
 good name and strive to keep it free from blemish. 
 A man, however learned, but without a character, is 
 poor indeed, and an object of pity. Sometimes peo- 
 ple, by way of joke, and sometimes seriously, for 
 want of better sense, speak disparagingly of lawyers. 
 We regret that there are some who have disgraced 
 their profession and should never have been in it ; 
 but these are extremely exceptional cases, and the 
 good name of the profession should not be taken 
 away or abused and slandered on account of a few 
 black sheep. We are proud to know that we do be- 
 long or aspire to belong to an honorable and learned 
 profession ; both honor and learning are essential to 
 its position, but we regard our honor as the more 
 important, and it should be the endeavor of each one, 
 by strict integrity of character, as well as careful 
 study of the law, to maintain the honor and dignity 
 of the legal profession, and to increase its usefulness 
 and influence, and to be worthy of the great respon- 
 sibilities committed to his charge." 
 
 In 1823, Mr. Edmund Carleton, then a tutor in 
 the family of John C. Calhoun and residing in the 
 city of Washington, wrote a letter to Rufus Choate, 
 then the foremost lawyer of America, asking for the 
 
 69 
 
views of the brilliant jurist on tlie subject of the 
 education of lawyers, it being Mr. Carleton's inten- 
 tion to take up the study of the law. In due time 
 the following reply was received. Mr. Carleton sub- 
 sequently studied law and was admitted to the Vir- 
 ginia bar. He shortly afterward returned to his 
 native town of Littleton, New Hampshire, where he 
 practised his profession with much success : 
 
 Mr. Edmund Carleton, City of Washington, D. C, 
 
 Care of Dr. T. Sewall. 
 
 Salem, June i, 1823. 
 
 Dear Sir:— I have had an answer to your letter lying by me for a 
 long time in the hope that Dr. Sewall would procure it from mc, as I 
 was unwilling to make you pay for what I am afraid you will hardly be 
 able to read, or if you read will be of little service. But he has not writ- 
 ten me since I received yours, and I should be uncivil to wait any 
 longer. It gave me great pleasure to hear that you were so pleasantly 
 situated at W., and to have it confirmed by yourself. Some of that 
 young female society into which you have become introduced is among 
 the most interesting that I have known, and your attachment to our 
 much-loved New England must be a. great deal stronger than even 
 mine if you are not easily reconciled by it to at least one year's exile. 
 Miss M ■ has fine powers of mind and very much feeling and charac- 
 ter, and so has Miss R , her Latin classmate. I feel a warm attach- 
 ment to them both, and to the others of that circle, and may well thank 
 them for some of the happiest moments of my life. May I ask you to 
 present my respects with great affection to those of them who remem- 
 ber me? A niece of Dr. S 's, E C. W is a special favorite 
 
 of mine and of everybody. You know her too, I presume. 
 
 I am sorry to say, in reference to your suggestion as to the en- 
 couragement with which the law meets in the Eastern States, that I 
 reallj' do not think Massachusetts at least at all a promising stand for 
 a young practitioner. As inevitably happens in every comparatively 
 old community and in all kinds of business the profession is full to 
 overflowing and starvation ; and in this country particularly the com- 
 plaint is general and earnest. The amount of professional business 
 here varies very much with the condition of our foreign commerce, and 
 lawyers and merchants grow rich or poor together. The latter are 
 becoming insolvent, and looking to a war in Europe as a last and only 
 chance for relieving their fallen fortunes ; the former lounge in their 
 offices, " pick clean teeth " and talk of the scarcity of clients and the 
 still greater scarcity of fees and the neglect of merit. I suspect, how- 
 70. 
 
ever, that New Hampshire would furnish some very eligible situations. 
 You can tell better than I. At any rate the fluctuations of a capricious 
 and uncertain commerce affect its lawyers but little, and the people 
 generally, I am inclined to fancy, are somewhat more litigious than in 
 this well ordered, orthodox, exhausted neighborhood. But, after all, all 
 situations are very much alike. The first years of a professional life — 
 spend them where you will — must be years of hard labor and scanty 
 revenue ; so at least I shall surely find it, and then the money and the 
 applause of one community are worth just about as much as those of 
 another. Only we both love New England a little too sincerely, I dare 
 say, to think that life would be worth anything away from it — unless, of 
 course, we could pass it at the west end of the city of Washington. 
 
 I should be very happy to suggest anything that would be of 
 service in the outset of your professional reading, but I very much 
 doubt if I have thought enough about the proper course of study to be 
 able. You will find mucli excellent matter, however, along with a great 
 deal of bad taste, in Hoffman's course, the merely legal part of which is 
 very well, the other, to you or any respectable Northern graduate, of 
 little service. The letters on the study of the law, too, are worth read- 
 ing, and a little book mentioned by Hoffman, and which I found in 
 French's bookstore, Pennsylvania Avenue, is still better — the Barrister. 
 It strikes me as liberal, scholarlike and highly judicious to lay a broad 
 and deep foundation in the first place for a future course of historical 
 reading that shall embrace the whole history of modern Europe. The 
 common law is really of Middle Age growth, and its true essential 
 spirit can never be well understood but by one who has lived much in 
 feudal times, has mingled in the strifes and aided in the public coun- 
 cils and drunken at the feasts of that proud baronial aristocracy which 
 shaped the first forms of government and the first forms of jurispru- 
 dence that were reared upon the subsiding flood of civil revolution and 
 anarchy which had rolled over the Roman world. For this purpose 
 Hallam's Middle Ages, and then Robertson's introduction to his 
 Charles V. are the best and are indispensable. Then would naturally 
 follow Hume's England, and then I should think one might plunge at 
 once into the elementary writers on English common law. 
 
 It was a great mistake in my own course of reading that I passed 
 Blackstone so hastily and superficially. He is the first author, and I 
 really think that one or two years in the beginning would be well spent 
 on him. The largest part of the first volume, though, the analysis of the 
 English Constitution, is, as law, entirely useless ; but you may work it 
 very advantageously into your course of political studies along with 
 De Lolme, The Federalist, etc. The rest of his four volumes, with the 
 exception of a few chapters here and there, I should impress every 
 word of it on my memory and let it serve as a sort of central point to 
 which to refer and around which to dispose and arrange all your after 
 acquisitions. Once fully master of this inimitable analysis and digest 
 
 71 
 
of the English common law the rest of the course is easy and delightful, 
 and you may ascend from his finished and perspicuous chapters into a 
 minuter study of the several departments of that complicated jurispru- 
 dence without a single one of those feelings of perplexity and those 
 vague, misty, bewildering and unsatisfying views with which, as Stewart 
 somewhere remarks, we make our first acquisitions in every science. 
 The first of these departments with which you will make it your busi- 
 ness to form a more close and practical acquaintance than such a 
 merely elementary writer as Blackstone can give you is the law of 
 real property. Before beginning Cruise, someone calls it a good plan, 
 and surely it is an admirable one, to review that part of Blackstone's 
 second volume relating to it very attentively, and then part of his third 
 on real actions and injuries to realty; then Sullivan s lectures, and 
 then Cruise, with some considerable exceptions. After Cruise, if you 
 know where you are to practise, the statutes and judicial decisions of 
 the State Legislature and State Court are the subjects of your reading. 
 Then follows personalty ; but I dare say you are quite satisfied already. 
 There is one observation, however, that I should have been glad to 
 have had made to me at the outset of my legal studies. The alterations 
 which English law has undergone here are very many and material, 
 but I would not embarrass myself much with them for two years. Yet 
 if they are pressed upon your notice in conversation, or bv the office 
 business, or if you light on them in books, the only possible way to 
 retain them for after purpose is to enter them under their proper titles 
 in a commonplace book. I would certainly therefore procure one. 
 
 I shall always be happy to hear from you on the subject of pro- 
 fessional studies, or any other, and it will give me great pleasure to see 
 you once more, if your plans of life bring you this way again in New 
 England. With much esteem, sir, and the best wishes, yours, etc., 
 
 RUFUS CHOATE. 
 
 A few months ago a package of letters was dis- 
 covered in an old desk in the garret of a Washing- 
 ton residence. The package contained letters from 
 Daniel Webster, William Wirt, John C. Calhoun and 
 Senator B. W. Leigh. These letters were replies 
 received by a member of the family two generations 
 ago in answer to a request for the views of these 
 men on the subject of the education of lawyers. 
 They are as follows : 
 
 72 
 
(from WILLIAM WIRT.) 
 
 Washington, July 22, 1822. 
 
 Sir: — I regret extremely that I have to answer your very polite and 
 obliging letter of the 3d inst. currente calatno. It arrived while I was 
 absent on a professional tour, and I have returned only in time to equip 
 myself for an expedition to the Bedford Springs in Pennsylvania, ren- 
 dered necessary by the state of my health. 
 
 It is not entirely certain whether I shall myself be a resident of this 
 place at the close of the next winter, the earliest period at which you 
 speak of being here. I have some thought of moving to Baltimore 
 before that time. In this uncertainty I can only say that if I should be 
 here, and your inclination hold, I shall be very happy to receive you as 
 a student and to assist you with my opinion in the direction of your 
 studies. 
 
 The plan of study which I have used has depended on the time which 
 the student proposes to devote to it. For every plan, however. Black- 
 stone (see page 32 of this volume) is the best introductory author, as 
 opening to the student all the original sources of his science, beside giv- 
 ing him a clear and comprehensive view of its present state. In all 
 studies, historical, political or any other, dependent for their system on 
 the march of mind, a synopsis like that of Blackstone is of great value. 
 Geography, for example, is best taught by stamping in the first place on 
 the mind the great outline of the different countries, and their relative 
 position toward each other. The details are afterward encountered 
 with more intelligence, and consequently with more enjoyment, for the 
 student at every step knows afterwards of his whereabouts with relation 
 to the whole, and is no danger of being bewildered or confounded by 
 the apprehension of interminable labor or an inexhaustible labyrinth. 
 So it is with the law. Blackstone, therefore, thoroughly understood, I 
 direct the attention of the students in the next place to the great sources 
 from which all the laws of civilized countries are derived, and take them 
 through the following course, which is enlarged or contracted in propor- 
 tion to the time they have to bestow on their preparatory studies: ist. 
 The law of nature and nations, Rutherford : and, if there be time, Grotius 
 and Vattel. 2d. The Roman Civil Law, Brown's Lectures ; and, if time, 
 the references in the Corpus Juris Civilis, as they are made by Brown 
 and Huber's prelections. 3d. The Common Law (see page 29 of this 
 volume) Bacon's Abridgement, as the text-books, read with references. 
 4th. The Statute Law and State Decisions of the residence and contem- 
 plated place of practice of the student. This course, particularly the 
 latter part of it, should be combined with a regular attendance on the 
 rules of court in some well-kept clerk's office, with the advantage of 
 drawing declarations and pleadings in the office of some regular and 
 
 73 
 
extensive practitioner, with tlie study of Chitty's Pleadings and Espin- 
 asse's Nisi Prius, whicli should be familiar to the student. 
 
 I have said nothing of historical studies, belles-lettres, composition, 
 reciting paragraphs from poets, and debating, though I deem them all 
 essential in the preparation of an accomplished advocate. Regular days 
 should be set for composition, and the compositions should be submitted 
 to the best critic of whom you can make a friend. You should inflame 
 your emulation by the frequent study of Cicero's Orator, and of his 
 Brutus above all, and imagine yourself to belong to that splendid gal- 
 axy of Roman orators which he there displays. Quintilian's Institutes, 
 too, should be thoroughly studied, and the dialogue de causis corruptee 
 eloguentice, the work, I believe, of the same author, but which has been 
 incorrectly published with the works of Tacitus. The letters of Pliny, 
 the younger, especailly those to Tacitus, v/ith the orations of Demos- 
 thenes, Cicero, Erskine and Lord Chatham. I do not mean that these 
 should be read merely, but that they should be studied and analyzed 
 according to the model which Mr. Blair has furnished for Cicero's Action 
 for Cluentius. 
 
 These exercises, with a debating society, under the direction of an 
 experienced man of vigorous intellect and correct taste, accompanying 
 your law course, will diversify your employments most agreeably and 
 usefully, and recreate and cheer you on your ascent up the arduous 
 steep which leads to the temple of the goddess you so properly wor- 
 ship. 
 
 I beg you to excuse this scrawl, the effect of haste, and believe me, 
 with warmest wishes for your success. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 WILLIAM WIRT. 
 
 (from DANIEL VITEBSTER.) 
 
 Washington, February i8, 1823. 
 To Thomas J. Johnston, Esq. 
 
 Sir:— Before I left home I received yours of the 21st of November, 
 in which you very flatteringly ask my opinions on some subjects con- 
 nected with professional studies. It is unfortunate for you, ray friend, 
 that you are your own solicitor in this cause, since your manner of ask- 
 ing for that which you say you need shows that you do not need it. It 
 is quite obvious that you have both employed your own thoughts and 
 had the benefit of those of others upon the subjects about which you 
 write. I shall only venture to enclose you a copy of a paper exhibiting 
 a course of study which has been generally pursued by students under 
 my care. It is substantially a good course, and if it shall suggest any- 
 thing useful to you I should be glad. (The list here referred to by Mr. 
 Webster has unfortunately been lost.) Our profession, my friend, is 
 74 
 
a noble profession, and our country more than all others favorable 
 to its respectability and advancement. Free institutions afford the 
 atmosphere and aliment for good lawyers, and good lawyers have 
 proved themselves, in all times and countries, the most strenuous as 
 well as the most intelligent supporters of free institutions. Let us all 
 endeavor to requite our country for the blessings she bestows on us. 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 
 
 (from JOHN C. CALHOUN.) 
 
 The date of this letter is three years subse- 
 quent to that of the others, and was evidently writ- 
 ten for the information of a young friend of the 
 recipient. 
 
 Washington, March 20, 1826. 
 
 Dear Sir: — It at all times affords me much pleasure to render 
 any aid to youths seeking information and improvement, and I only 
 regret my incompetency to advise your young friend on a general 
 course of reading on law and jurisprudence. 
 
 I remained only two years at the bar, and have not read law 
 books in twenty-five years, so that I am far in the rear of the profession 
 as it now stands. But I would say to your young friend, study atten- 
 tively all the best elementary treatises, be assiduous in his attendance 
 in court, and attentive to the routine of office. He will of course make 
 himself master of the practice laws of the state where he intends to 
 practise. But no previous attention can supersede the necessity of the 
 minutest and closest attention to the cases he may undertake, after he 
 is admitted to practise, both as to the facts and law. On this point the 
 success of a lawyer mainly depends. The study of particular cases is 
 better calculated than anything else to give full and accurate legal 
 
 knowledge. 
 
 As to history, he will, of course, study all the ancient classics, to 
 be followed by Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 
 to which the history of England (see page 29 of this volume)-and that 
 of our own country -ought to succeed. Both ought not only to be read 
 but studied. Add to these some good general history, and a foundation 
 will be laid which may be built on from time to time by reading at lei- 
 sure the histories of the more celebrated states of modern times. With 
 respect, I am 
 
 J. C. CALHOUN.: 
 
 Thos. J. Johnston, Esq. 
 
 75 
 
Senator B. W. Leigh, of Virginia, also wrote a 
 reply, giving a course of study in law, history, politics 
 and literature. His estimate of the value of a knowl- 
 edge of the Bible to a lawyer is given on page 27 
 of this volume. 
 
 The following is a letter from Chief Justice John 
 Rutledge to his brother, Edward Rutledge, then a 
 student of the Temple, in London. John Rutledge, 
 Governor of South Carolina in the Revolutionary 
 period. Judge of the State Court of Chancery, Asso- 
 ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, and chief Justice of South Carolina, was born 
 in 1739. He was a student of the Temple and com- 
 menced practice in Charleston in 176 1. He was emi- 
 nent as an orator and practitioner. He died in 
 1800. 
 
 Dear Edward: — Be constant in attending the Chancery out of 
 terms and when there are no sittings at Nisi Prius in London or West- 
 minster; for I would prefer attending the King's Bench and sitting of 
 the Chief Justice (Lord Mansfield) of that Court at Nisi Prius, when 
 they are held : and remember what I hinted to you of attending alternate- 
 ly in the different Courts by agreement between you and some of your 
 intimate fellow students, and then of comparing and exchanging notes 
 every evening ; by which means, if you select your proper acquaintances, 
 in whose judgment you can rely, you will have the same advantage as 
 if you attended all the Courts in person. 
 
 Vou should attend the House of Commons constantly. 1 would 
 not have you a dabbler in politics. What I intend is that you may have 
 opportunities of seeing and hearing the best speakers and of acquiring 
 a good manner and proper address. 
 
 You must not neglect the classics: but rather go through them 
 from beginning to end. I think that you had better get a private tutor, 
 who will make you in six months, at your age, better acquainted with 
 them than a boy in school generally is in seven or eight years. Read 
 occasionally the purest English authors, to acquire an elegant style 
 and expression. (See page 19 et seq. of this volume.) 
 
 What different impressions do the same sentiments make when 
 conveyed in different modes of expression ; but for a man who speaks 
 in public, whose business it is not to be content with barely proving a 
 76 
 
thing by dull argument — after having wearied out his hearers with bad 
 language, and a deal of tautology, and if he has said some good things 
 has buried ihem in rubbish ; but to engage the constant attention of his 
 hearers, to command it, and to carry immediate convictioil along with 
 him. 
 
 The history of England should be read with great care and atten- 
 tion ; all the different writers of that history read and compared to- 
 gether. (See page 29.) Stock yourself with a good collection of law 
 maxims, both Latin and English : they are of great use. (See page 30.) 
 Make yourself familiar with all the terms of the law. 
 
 77 
 
PART II. 
 
 " Biography is by nature the most universally profitable, 
 universally pleasant, of all things, especially biography of dis- 
 tinguished individuals. " — Carlyle. 
 
 "There can be no pleasure in this study, no success in 
 its practice, unless excited and sustained by an ardent desire 
 to excel. The highest eminences of the profession should be 
 constantly kept in view. Every student may not, indeed it is 
 certain that it will be the lot of few to reach them. Let him 
 keep his eye on the examples of the men, living and dead, 
 who have climbed the steep and rugged path before him. 
 He will not fail to mark, almost without exception, the ardu- 
 ous self-training and single devotion to the business of their 
 lives. His shaft will not fly the worse for being aimed at the 
 highest point. A lofty — and is it not an honorable ? — ambi- 
 tion can alone sustain that close, unwearied and patient mental 
 toil, year after year, which is necessary to qualify him to take 
 his place in the rank of the foremost, to serve his country and 
 his fellow-citizens with ability and to be an honorable and 
 useful man." — ^Judge Sharswood's Law Lectures (1870). 
 
 79 
 
NOTB. 
 
 Within the confines of a volume of this size it would be 
 obviously impossible to present even the crudest outlines of 
 the careers of any considerable number of those lawyers of to- 
 day that have arrived at the proud distinction of being ranked 
 among the "leaders of the American bar." From a list 
 therefore of a hundred or more names of American lawyers, 
 each almost to an equal degree entitled to be classed under 
 this heading, the author has selected the names of 1 7 practi- 
 tioners, whose biographies are given in the following pages ; 
 the selection being based not on the fact that the lawyers men- 
 tioned tower above the remaining 83 ; but on the fact that 
 their life-stories happen to contain material that will be of espe- 
 cial interest and value to the ambitious and earnest young men 
 for whose instruction and guidance this volume was written. 
 
 Valuable works of legal biography are the following ; any 
 of which will be supplied at regular publishers' prices by the 
 Knickerbocker Publishing Co., 14 Vesey Street, New York. 
 
 Flander's Lives and Times of the Chief Juslices, $6 ; 
 (Zzxs\^\>^' ^ Lives of the Chancellors, 10 vols., $17 50; Camp- 
 bell's Zz»ef of the Chief Justices; $7; Van Santvoord's Lives 
 of the Chief Justices, $3 50; Forsyth's History of Lawyers, 
 $1 50; Proctor's Lives of Eminent Lawyers, 2 vols., $6; 
 Erskine's Speeches, $8; Curran's Speeches, $4; Choate's 
 Speeches, $2 25 ; Webster's Great Speeches, $3 ; Great 
 Speeches by Great Lawyers, I5 ; Donovan's Modern Jury 
 Trials and Advocates, |4 50 ; Life and Speeches of Thomas 
 Corwin, I3 50. 
 
 81 
 
•,iT-^'-^^.^-^ . ril vCfC V J 
 
 
 3»».i»». ' 
 
 -•4- — i.-jfl^iiCfV'- 
 
II lUuDii AI. Evajis. 
 
WILLIAM M. EVARTS, 
 
 OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Until his retirement from active practice, a few- 
 years ago, William M. Evarts was for many years 
 unquestionably the leader of the New York Bar. He 
 was born in Boston, in February, 1818, and at the age 
 of nineteen was graduated at Harvard College. At 
 college he ranked first in the study of English litera- 
 ture, logic and oratory. Indeed his subsequent 
 success in his profession he attributes in large meas- 
 ure to the careful training he received in these sub- 
 jects while at college. Soon after graduating at 
 Harvard he came to New York city, and was at once 
 thrown into contact with the very foreuiost lawyers 
 of that day: among these was Charles O'Conor, 
 against whom he was pitted in the noted Lemmon 
 case, and over whom, in this and several other cases, 
 he triumphed. Other cases of national interest in 
 which he was victorious were the Impeachment 
 Trial of Andrew Johnson, the Geneva Award case, 
 the contest before the Electoral Commission to decide 
 as to whether General Hayes or Mr. Tilden had been 
 elected President of the United States, and the case 
 of Tilton vs. Beecher. 
 
 In the interim of these important cases, victory 
 in any one of which would suffice to give a man 
 national and lasting reputation, he served as Secre- 
 tary of State in the cabinet of President Hayes and 
 as Attorney General of the United States. He also 
 received the high legal honor of an election as a Uni- 
 ted States Senator. Profound legal learning and logi- 
 cs 
 
cal powers are the qualities which have chiefly 
 aided him to attain the enviable position he holds 
 to-day. 
 
 A few years ago the following pen picture of 
 Mr. Evarts appeared in one of the New York papers : 
 " In that pale and almost emaciated face, that fragile 
 enwrapment of body, which seems shaken with the 
 earnestness of its own talk, is packed that library of 
 knowledge and that fiery concentration of eloquent 
 speech which collectively make up the product 
 among men, called William M. Evarts. He looks 
 like a man whose whole soul has burned up with its 
 own intensity till all that was inflammable was ex- 
 haled, leaving a thin asbestos body and a face lit up 
 with great, weird, far-seeing eyes. He seldom laughs ; 
 but he is not ungenial, only so immeasurably in ear- 
 nest that he has no time to laugh." 
 
 Almost contemporaneous with Mr. Evarts were 
 William A. Beach, James T. Brady and Benjamin F. 
 Butler. William A. Beach, the noted criminal lawyer 
 who was cotemporaneous with James T. Brady, was, 
 like the latter, fortunate in the environment of his 
 boyhood home. His father, being a man of keen per- 
 ception and scholarly attainment, saw early in his 
 son's life evidences of native talent for oratory and 
 the law. In accordance with his advice, therefore, 
 young Beach laid the foundation for his superb ora- 
 torical powers by a close application to the study of 
 three books : the Bible, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress 
 and Shakespeare. James T. Brady had the rare good 
 fortune to be the son of a successful lawyer in active 
 practice. Beginning his law studies in his father's 
 office, he possessed the advantage of the latter's spe- 
 cial direction and guidance. The success of the late 
 86 
 
Benjamin F. Butler was due to his large legal learn- 
 ing, his wonderfully retentive memory, his powers 
 of sarcasm and invective, his keen, ready wit, and 
 his fertility in resources. He began life in compara- 
 tive poverty and obtained his early education at the 
 common-schools, securing by manual labor the means 
 whereby to pursue his college course. 
 
 87 
 
Josip'd II. Chna/f 
 
JOSEPH H. CHOATE, 
 
 OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Mr. Choate is, admittedly, the greatest jury 
 lawyer in the United States. He was born in Salem, 
 Mass., about sixty-one years ago ; but with his heavy 
 chestnut hair, his unwrinkled face, his tall graceful 
 figure, and bouyant step, he does not appear to be 
 much more than forty-five years of age. A writer in 
 a recent number of Munsey's Magazine says : 
 
 " Men are great comparatively. Rufus Choate 
 never had to strike the pace that a lawyer must strike 
 to-day to hold first place in the metropolis. There 
 are vastly more skilful fighters now to measure 
 swords with than in the days of the elder Choate. 
 The demands upon one are incalculably greater. 
 The practice of the law is reduced to a finer science. 
 It calls for wider reading, a better knowledge of 
 affairs, and a more subtle reasoning. The responsi- 
 bility, with men of highest grade, is augmented a 
 hundredfold. Millions and tens of millions are now 
 the stake for battle. The warfare is conducted on 
 broad lines. The best legal skill is enlisted. Money 
 without stint is thrown into the balance. Not one, 
 not two, but half a dozen of the keenest minds must 
 one face in the conduct of an important case. His 
 associates cannot help him. He must force the fight 
 alone — one man against six ; one cool, clear, certain 
 mind against six. 
 
 " It is in scenes like this that ' Joe ' Choate has 
 won his greatest laurels. Here he has no equal. If 
 Rufus Choate could come back, and, at his best, meet 
 
 9> 
 
Joe in the arena, he would probably have to acknowl- 
 edge that in his young cousin he had at last found 
 an antagonist with whom he could not cope. 
 
 " Choate fixes upon the salient point of a case and 
 makes that the basis of his argument. He thinks 
 that cases should not be decided on insignificant de- 
 tails. The common sense of the thing, sustained by 
 good law, is his telling weapon. He makes far less 
 use of citations than other lawyers. He is a student of 
 people and affairs, as well as of Blackstone. His in- 
 imitable humor, the keenness of his satire, the bland- 
 ness of his voice, the charm of his smile, and his 
 matchless mastery of himself and of his theme make 
 him the peerless advocate of the bar. There are 
 more profound students of the law than Choate, but 
 they are not the verdict winners. Choate 'gets 
 there ' ; he has the habit of being in at the finish, 
 and the man who is in at the finish is the man on 
 whom we are wont to bank. This is why Choate has 
 the largest income from the legitimate practice of 
 law of any member of the American bar." 
 
 92 
 
JaiiifS C. Carter. 
 
JAMES C. CARTER, 
 
 OF NEW YORK. 
 
 James C. Carter, who shares with Joseph H. 
 Choate the reputation of " leader of the New York 
 Bar," is the son of Solomon and Elizabeth White 
 Carter, and was born October 14, 1827, at Lancaster, 
 Mass. From the Derby Academy at Hingham, 
 Mass., he entered Harvard College with the class 
 of '50. While there he joined the " Institute of 70," 
 the Hasty Pudding Club, and the Alpha Delta Phi 
 Fraternity. At college he won prizes for disserta- 
 tions in Latin and for English essays. He was 
 graduated in 1850 an A. B., and later, after three 
 terms in the Harvard Law School, an LL.B. 
 
 In 188s his Alma Mater conferred on him the 
 honorary degree of LL.D. Since his graduation, he 
 has, from time to time, written monographs which 
 are well known to every lawyer. The most impor- 
 tant of these are The Attempted Codification of the 
 Common Law ; The Province of the Written and Un- 
 written Law, an address before the State Bar Asso- 
 ciation of Virginia in- 1889; and The Ideal and the 
 Actual in Law, delivered before the American Bar 
 Association. 
 
 No banquet or gathering of distinguished law- 
 yers in recent years has been complete without his 
 presence, and his ready wit, tact and fine oratory 
 have been a subject of national comment. Until a 
 few years ago a staunch Republican, the trend of 
 National politics has constrained him to independent 
 action in politics, and he is now numbered among 
 
 95 
 
those intelligent and conscientious citizens wlio re- 
 joice in Mr. C. A. Dana's contemptuous epithet of 
 " Mugwump." To his remarkable quickness of com- 
 prehension, his decision and his unsurpassed logical 
 powers is due in large measure his great success. 
 He is a member of the Metropolitan, Harvard, Cen- 
 tury, City, Union League, Down Town, University 
 and Alpha Delta Phi Clubs, the Bar Association and 
 the New England Society. 
 
 At a recent dinner of the Law Students' Debat- 
 ing Society, held in London, one of the invited 
 guests, Mr. F. O. Crump, Q. C, said, in response to 
 the toast "the Bench and Bar," that law students 
 should cultivate not merely the power of debating, 
 but also the highest flights of oratory. He referred 
 to the fact that in the Behring Sea arbitration, con- 
 ducted in Paris, Mr. Carter, the United States lead- 
 ing counsel, had addressed the court for eight hours 
 a day for six consecutive days, and at its close Baron 
 De Courcel, the president of the court, had paid him 
 perhaps the highest compliment ever paid to any 
 advocate. Mr. Crump suggested that, unless the 
 English bar study the art of public speaking more 
 assiduously in all its branches, the American law- 
 yers would surpass them as orators. 
 
 Mr. Carter is a bachelor and the head of the 
 firm of Carter and Ledyard, his partner being a 
 nephew of Lewis Cass. Such is Mr. Carter's reputa- 
 tion for logical argument that it has been said of 
 him that, once grant his premises and you are bound 
 to accept his conclusions. 
 
 96 
 
Clarence A. Seward. 
 
CLARENCE A. SEWARD, 
 
 OF NEW YORK. 
 
 President of the oldest and strongest social 
 organization in the United States, the Union Club 
 of New York, of honored name, made even more 
 honorable in our day by his own life and career, it 
 may be safely said that the career of the Hon. Clar- 
 ence A. Seward combines all the best qualities that 
 may be found among those who have attained suc- 
 cess in the great financial, social and intellectual cen- 
 ter of the country. 
 
 He was born in New York City in 1828 and is of 
 Welsh and Irish ancestry. Being left an orphan he 
 was adopted by his uncle, the Hon. Wm. H. Seward, 
 afterwards Lincoln's Secretary of State, and was pre- 
 pared for college at Cooperstown and Auburn, N. Y. 
 
 Entering Hobart College he became a member 
 of Alpha Delta Phi and was graduated with the de- 
 gree of B.A. in 1848. 
 
 In 1 87 1 he was granted by his Alma Mater the 
 highest of all degrees, the Doctorate of Laws. Re- 
 cognizing the great opportunities of a large city, 
 Mr. Seward returned to New York to begin the 
 practice of his profession. He soon became a part- 
 ner of Mr. Samuel Blatchford, late Justice of the 
 United States Supreme Court, which partnership 
 continued until the latter was elected to the Bench. 
 Mr. Seward's success has been so continuous that 
 his name has been prominently mentioned for ap- 
 pointment to the United States Supreme Court. 
 While his capacity and fitness were everywhere ac- 
 
 99 
 
knowledged, lie could in no way be induced to allow 
 his friends to work in his behalf. 
 
 Though entirely devoted to his profession Mr. 
 Seward's talents have occasionally been diverted to 
 matters of diplomacy. After the attempted assassi- 
 nation of Wm. H. Seward he was called to Wash- 
 ington as Assistant Secretary of State. 
 
 Always a Republican, he has been a delegate to 
 State and National conventions, and was one of the 
 electors on the Garfield and Arthur ticket. He was 
 also for four years Judge Advocate for the State of 
 New York. 
 
 Though somewhat modest and retiring, but al- 
 ways felicitous in manner, speech and judgment, 
 Mr. Seward until a few years ago was a member of 
 many clubs. From many of these organizations, 
 however, he has resigned, retaining his membership 
 to-day only in the Union, New York Yacht and 
 Mendelssohn Clubs, of New York, and the Somerset 
 Club, of Boston. He is at the head of the well- 
 known firm of Seward, Guthrie, and Morawetz, 
 which figured so prominently in the recent attack 
 on the " Income Tax Law " before the United States 
 Supreme Court. 
 
CJiaiDiCfV AI. Depew. 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, 
 
 OF NEW YORK. 
 
 The town of Peekskill, N. Y., will always be 
 celebrated in American history as the birth-place of 
 the most representative American citizen of the 
 nineteenth century's last decade, Chauncey Mitchell 
 Depew ; the successful lawyer, the masterful orator, 
 the versatile man of affairs. Here he was born in 
 1834, the son of Isaac and Martha Mitchell Depew. 
 His father was of Huguenot extraction. His mo- 
 ther, a beautiful and accomplished woman, was the 
 grandniece of Roger Sherman, Signer of the Decla- 
 ration of Independence. 
 
 Her grandfather was the Rev. Josiah Sherman, 
 and her father, Chauncey R. Mitchell, was a distin- 
 guished lawyer. The Depews settled in the vicinity 
 of New Rochelle, N. Y., in 1685, and the farm pur- 
 chased by the family in those early days has de- 
 scended to and is now the property of "Chauncey." 
 He was graduated with honors at Yale in 1856. 
 While at college he received the much coveted 
 honor of an election to " Skull & Bones." In 1858 
 he was admitted to the bar. Early in his career he 
 played an active part in the political affairs of his 
 district, and in 1861 he was elected to the Legisla- 
 ture, being re-elected the following year. In 1863 
 he was elected Secretary of State of New York, and 
 later was tendered, by Secretary of State Seward, of 
 Lincoln's Cabinet, the post of Minister to Japan, an 
 appointment which he declined. In 1866, his marked 
 ability as a lawyer having attracted the attention of 
 
 103 
 
Commodore Vanderbilt and the latter's eldest son, 
 Mr. W. H. Vanderbilt, Mr. Depew was appointed 
 Attorney to the N. Y. & Hartford R. R. Co., and in 
 1869, when this Company was amalgamated with the 
 N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R. Co., he was made attorney to 
 the newly organized company, and a member of its 
 Board of Directors. In 1875 he was installed as 
 General Counsel to the Vanderbilt system. The 
 year previous he had been elected Regent of the 
 University of the State of New York. On the retire- 
 ment of Mr. Vanderbilt from the Presidency of the 
 Road, in 1884, Mr. Depew was made Vice-President, 
 in the place of Mr. Rutter, who had been promoted 
 to the Presidency, and in 1885, after the death of the 
 latter, Mr. Depew was elected President of the great 
 corporation. He has repeatedly declined exalted 
 political offices, among them that of Secretary of 
 State. Such, in crude outline, is the career thus far 
 of this unique figure in the legal, political, industrial 
 and social life of two continents ; a man to whom 
 may fittingly be applied Dr. Hudson's characteriza- 
 tion of Daniel Webster : " the crown and consumma- 
 tion of American manhood and intellect." 
 
 104 
 
CliarUs L. Buckingham. 
 
CHARLES L. BUCKINGHAM, 
 
 OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Those distinguished counsellors that day after 
 day are engaged in the conduct of cases involving 
 the validity of wills, and other matters which the 
 ordinary lay mind can readily grasp and which it 
 therefore imagines to be always of transcendent im- 
 portance, have by the frequent reports of these 
 trials in the daily press attained such prominence 
 that their names are household words. 
 
 But there is another class of lawyers, few in 
 number it is true, whose names seldom appear in 
 the daily newspapers, but who nevertheless have 
 intrusted to their care cases involving millions of 
 dollars, and calling for the exercise of almost infinite 
 professional skill and profound legal and scientific 
 knowledge. 
 
 Naturally, the number of men possessing the 
 native ability and power of application necessary to 
 great success in so exacting a vocation is extremely 
 limited ; and for this reason the elect few reap such 
 financial returns and professional glory as to make 
 them the envy of their less fortunate brethren. 
 
 Of this class there are perhaps four or five from 
 whom it would be difiicult to select any single one 
 as the " leader ;" but it would not be very far from 
 truth to say that Charles L. Buckingham stands as 
 well to the front of his profession as any other New 
 York practitioner. 
 
 Mr. Buckingham was born at Berlin Heights, 
 Ohio, October 14, 1852, a direct descendant from 
 
 107 
 
Thomas Buckingham, who emigrated to Boston in 
 1637, and who was the founder of New Haven and 
 of Milford, Conn. He obtained his early education 
 in the public schools of his native town, and at the 
 age of nineteen entered the University of Michigan, 
 where he was graduated in the class of 1875. Dur- 
 ing his college course he showed marked proficiency 
 in mathematics and mechanics and the natural 
 sciences, and after graduation was appointed Exam- 
 iner in the United States Patent Office, attending at 
 the same time the Law School of Columbian Univer- 
 sity at Washington, D. C. He remained in the 
 Patent Office until 1880, when he removed to New 
 York City and became attorney for the Western 
 Union Telegraph Company. In this position he has 
 conducted many cases of vast importance involving 
 patents of immense value ; among them those upon 
 the quadruplex apparatus and the electric stock 
 printers. He has also appeared in notable cases 
 where his technical knowledge and years of practical 
 experience have served him well. These cases have 
 covered patents on the telephone, electric light and 
 railroads, and are of far-reaching importance to the 
 electrical industries of the country. He has also ap- 
 peared in cases involving the Tesla patents on the 
 multiphase alternating motors, designed to transmit 
 electrical power to great distances, as from Niagara 
 Falls to Buffalo. 
 
 But aside from his success in this field he has 
 demonstrated his ability as a general practitioner 
 and counsel by his success as against some of the 
 most distinguished lawyers in the country ; among 
 them Roscoe Conkling and David Dudley Field. 
 He is now chief counsel for the Western Union 
 Telegraph Company, the Schuyler Electric Light 
 108 
 
Company, the Delaware and Atlantic Telephone and 
 Telegraph Company. 
 
 His " Electricity in Daily Life " published in 
 Scribner's Magazine (1889-90) was favorably com- 
 mented on by the press, and subsequently published 
 in book form. He is of a genial and magnetic per- 
 sonality and the many friends he makes he retains. 
 There are extremely few men in New York City 
 who have at so early an age attained so large a 
 measure of success. He is a member of the Union 
 and Metropolitan Clubs of Washington, and of the 
 Ohio Society of New York, 
 
 109 
 
Jo}iii Cochrane. 
 
JOHN COCHRANE. 
 
 OF NEW YORK. 
 
 The career of this distinguished lawyer has been 
 such an eventful one that I can present, in this brief 
 sketch, only the crudest of outlines. 
 
 Born at Palatine, Montgomery County, New- 
 York, 1813. Father — Walter L. Cochrane. Grandfa- 
 ther — John Cochrane, Surgeon-General of the Revolu- 
 tionary Army. Mother — Cornelia W. Smith, sister 
 of Gerrit Smith, of Peterboro, N. Y., philanthropist 
 and abolitionist. Grandmother on the paternal side — 
 Gertrude Schuyler, sister of Maj.-Gen. Philip Schuy- 
 ler of Revolutionary fame. Grandmother on the mater- 
 nal side — Elizabeth Livingston, eldest daughter of 
 Col. James Livingston of the Army of the Revolu- 
 tion, who, by his timely shot, drove the British sloop 
 of war. Vulture, from her mooring in the North 
 River, thus securing the capture of Andre, effecting 
 the discomfiture of Arnold's treason, and assuring 
 the safety of West Point, the key of the Revolution. 
 1 83 1 — Graduated at Hamilton College. 1834 — Ad- 
 mitted to the practice of law. 1846 — Removed to 
 New York city, where he has since continued to 
 reside. 1853— United States Surveyor of the Port 
 of New York during four years. 1 857-1 861 — Rep- 
 resentative in Congress. Two terms. 1864— Can- 
 didate for Vice-President of the United States on the 
 ticket nominated by the Independent Republican 
 Convention at Cleveland, O., with Gen. John C. Fre- 
 mont candidate for President. 1861 — Nov. 2d. 
 Commissioned by President of the United States, 
 
 "3 
 
Abraham Lincoln, Colonel of the First United States 
 Chasseurs. 1861 — Nov. 13. Historic speech before 
 his regiment in camp near Washington, in presence 
 of, and with the approbation of, Simon Cameron, 
 Secretary of War, insisting upon the arming of the 
 slaves. The contemporary press announced it as the 
 " Keynote of the War." Orders in some of the regi- 
 ments of the Rebel Army were given afterward not 
 to take Col. Cochrane prisoner but to shoot him, in 
 battle. 1862 — July 19. Commissioned by Presi- 
 dent Lincoln, Brigadier-General, Volunteers. 1863 — 
 Feb. 25. Resigned because of serious and severe 
 physical disability. Battles : Fair Oaks, Malvern 
 Hill, Antietam, Williamsport and Fredericksburg. 
 1 863-5 — Attorney-General of the State of New York. 
 1872 — President of the Common Council of City of 
 New York. 1872. — May 1.3. At the Liberal Repub- 
 lican National Convention in Cincinnati, as leader of 
 the New York delegation, was chiefly instrumental 
 in procuring the nomination by the Convention of 
 Horace Greeley for President of the United States. 
 1869 — Tendered by the President, U. S. Grant, the 
 mission to Uruguay and Paraguay united— declined. 
 Member of Chamber of Commerce of New York — 
 resigned. Member of St. Nicholas Society of New 
 York city — resigned. Sachem of Tammany Hall — 
 resigned. Member of the Historical Society of New 
 York— resigned. Chairman of Tammany Hall Gen- 
 eral Committee three years — resigned. Member of 
 Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United 
 States, and President, one year, of the Commandery 
 of the State of New York. Member and Comrade 
 of the Grand Army of the Republic. Member of the 
 Army of the Potomac. Member of the Sons of the 
 Revolution. 
 114 
 
But the honor which he probably prizes above 
 all others is the distinguished one he now holds as 
 President of the Society of the Cincinnati in the 
 State of New York. In fact so thoroughly is the 
 General identified with this organization that to 
 mention the name of the Cincinnati suggests at 
 once the name of Gen. Cochrane. A pamphlet re- 
 cently issued by the Society has created much dis- 
 cussion. It was written by Gen. Cochrane in the 
 form of a letter to the New York Society, and sets 
 forth the unauthorized existence of a Cincinnati So- 
 ciety in France. Herein, also for the first time, the 
 origin of the Cincinnati Society is ascribed to the 
 reactionary effect of the celebrated Newburgh Ad- 
 dresses. 
 
 "5 
 
■■:?W^LL UfiU't^^ti'f i' 
 
 
David S. Coddinglon. 
 
THE LATE DA VID S. CODDINGTON, 
 
 OF NEW YORK. 
 
 The New York Herald, in alluding to a speech 
 of Mr. Coddington delivered at the meeting of the 
 War Democracy in Cooper Union, November i, 
 1864, on which occasion General Sickles also spoke, 
 said : " But the gem of the occasion was the splendid 
 speech of Mr. Coddington. We have heard noth- 
 ing from the stump for many years superior to this 
 oration. His keen, piercing style and the nervous 
 energy of his statements and illustrations remind us 
 of John Randolph ; while his speech in its brevity, 
 comprehensiveness and compactness suggests Cal- 
 houn." 
 
 David Smith Coddington was born in New York 
 city in 1823, and was the third son of John I. Cod- 
 dington and a lineal descendant of one of the oldest 
 families of the country, tracing its lineage back to 
 William Coddington, founder. Judge and first Gov- 
 ernor of Rhode Island. John I. Coddington, father 
 of David S., was a leader of the Democracy of his 
 day, and was appointed Postmaster of New York by 
 President Jackson, holding this position until the ad- 
 ministration of John Tyler, who asked him to renew 
 his bond ; and while considering whether he would 
 comply or not with this requirement he received the 
 news that John Graham had been appointed in his 
 place. At that time the Postmastership of New York 
 carried with it so many perquisites that it was prob- 
 
 119 
 
ably the most lucrative office in the gift of the Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 David S. Coddington began his studies at schools 
 in New Utrecht and New Brunswick ; and when only 
 fourteen years of age he entered Columbia College. 
 A year subsequent he entered Union College as a 
 sophomore, and remained there two years. Here he 
 received the prize for elocution, and graduated, leav- 
 ing behind him the remembrance of many a witty 
 and epigrammatic saying. 
 
 While at Union he evinced a remarkable talent 
 for elocution and great force and readiness in extem- 
 poraneous discussion. He therefore selected the 
 profession of the law, and entered with George W. 
 Strong, a distinguished lawyer of the old school, in 
 whose office many eminent men now in practice have 
 been students. Here, and later in the office of Slos- 
 son & Schell, likewise a famed resort for aspirants to 
 the bar, Mr. Coddington completed his legal educa- 
 tion, varying the monotony of professional study by 
 an occasional votive offering to the muses, or contrib- 
 uting an article to the press. 
 
 At the age of 21 he was admitted to the bar; 
 and until the Democratic convention of 1848 he pur- 
 sued ardently his studies as a lawyer, perfecting him- 
 self meantime in public speaking. Like many of 
 the successful lawyers of to-day he evinced a warm 
 interest in public affairs, being a Free Soil Democrat. 
 He became leader of that wing of the Democracy 
 which supported the Government during the Civil 
 War, and was elected to the Legislature in 1861. 
 Here he at once took foremost rank as a skilful and 
 able debater. 
 
 On his return to the North, in June, 1865, from 
 Charleston, whither he had gone to regain his fail- 
 
ing health, his growing reputation as an orator was 
 evidenced by the many invitations he received to 
 address the people in different parts of the country 
 on the ensuing Fourth of July. But his last oration 
 had been delivered. He seemed to feel that his peri- 
 od of activity was over, and he retired to his favorite 
 resort at Saratoga Springs to pass the summer. Here, 
 very suddenly, yet not unexpectedly, he died on the 
 morning of September second. 
 
 Mr. Coddington's reputation with the general 
 public must depend on his achievements as an ora- 
 tor. His speeches are wonderfully compact, terse and 
 elegant combinations of fact hurled at an audience 
 with most effective eloquence. The most successful 
 stump orator of this country, Tom Corwin, did not 
 win greater triumphs in the Log-cabin Campaign of 
 1840 than did Mr. Coddington with his patriotic audi- 
 ences of 1 86 1. 
 
 One of his brothers, Jefferson Coddington, was 
 also a successful practitioner ; but being of an ex- 
 tremely retiring disposition he devoted himself to 
 office practice and to the management as trustee of 
 several very large estates. He was educated at Co- 
 lumbia College, and was possessed of fine intellectual 
 endowments and a rare and accurate memory. It 
 was the opinion of many well-known scholars of his 
 day that few of his contemporaries were so thor- 
 oughly informed in the facts of American political 
 history. He was always an earnest Republican, 
 faithfully discharging the duties of a citizen but 
 never seeking or desiring office. He was a member 
 of the Union League Club. His death occurred in 
 1876. 
 
Another brother, the eldest of the family, Jona- 
 than I. Coddington, born in 1819, was also a success- 
 ful lawyer, and at a very early age amassed a consid- 
 erable fortune, which, however, was swept away by 
 unfortunate speculation in Wall Street. He was an 
 extremely popular man and a well-known figure in 
 the fashionable life of his day, possessing a superb 
 physique and standing six feet, six inches tall. 
 
Ht-niy Clinldii Llad;ui. 
 
HENRY CLINTON BACKUS, 
 
 OF UTICA, NEW YORK. 
 
 Henry Clinton Backus was bora in Utica, 
 N. Y., May 31, 1848, and was taken to New York city 
 by his parents in 1850. While a boy he attended one 
 of the public schools of that city for six years, and 
 also received a course of instruction for a time at a 
 private school and under private tutors. Then, after 
 pursuing a final preliminary course of study under 
 Professor Wentworth, at Phillips Academy in Exeter, 
 N. H., Mr. Backus entered Harvard University and 
 was graduated, in 1 871, as a Bachelor of Arts. There- 
 upon he completed the full curriculum of legal attain- 
 ment offered in Columbia College Law School and in 
 1873 received his degree as a Bachelor of Laws: and 
 his admission to the bar of New York occurred im- 
 mediately afterward. 
 
 Mr. Backus' fondness for legal erudition and his 
 keen perception of the limitless field of inquiry and 
 accomplishment in the civil branches of the law led 
 him early to seek the civil departments of jurispru- 
 dence as forming the preferable path for his profes- 
 sional career. Accordingly he connected himself, so 
 soon as admitted to practise, with the office of San- 
 ford, Robinson & Woodruff ; and, a year later, with 
 that of Beebe, Wilcox & Hobbs— at that time the 
 leading firm in admiralty practice in this country. 
 
 His career as a lawyer has covered a large field, 
 embracing almost the entire range of civil law ; yet 
 
 125 
 
he has devoted special study and attention to the law 
 and practice peculiar to probate, domestic relations, 
 corporations, realty, admiralty, constitutional prob- 
 lems and international rights and issues. The able, 
 efficient and successful manner in which he has con- 
 ducted legal controversies involving fine points in 
 the law has secured him a prominent position in the 
 profession, and demonstrated his remarkable faculty 
 for analyzation. In fact all his professional work is 
 conspicuous for clearness, for careful attention to de- 
 tail and for thorough and vigorous presentation. He 
 invariably treats opposing counsel with fairness and 
 hearty courtesy and thus obtains the kindly regard 
 of his professional brethren, which he holds ; while 
 in his relations to clients he has proven himself 
 always scrupulously honorable and thoroughly zeal- 
 ous for their welfare and the advancement of their 
 interests, and thereby he has won and retains their 
 unlimited confidence. In legal circles Mr. Backus 
 not only commands the respect of his colleagues at 
 the bar but he also enjoys the esteem of the bench, 
 his dignified course as a lawyer standing eminently 
 free from all petty and unprofessional tactics and 
 tricks and siibterfuges and being uniformly marked 
 by studious accuracy. 
 
 Although he has not pursued the practice of 
 criminal law, yet his judgment, tact and energy saved 
 without doubt the sacrifice of the life of an innocent 
 man in the prosecution by the State of Kansas against 
 one Baldwin for murder. Lack of space prevents 
 a recital here of the facts in this interesting case. 
 Suffice it to say that, after a sentence of death had 
 been pronounced against the defendant Mr. Backus 
 was called into the case, and by the extended legal 
 research and learning adduced by him and embodied 
 126 
 
in an appeal-book upon the case, by his astute inge- 
 nuity in arousing and enlisting the attention of the 
 bar and the press of the entire State, and by his in- 
 domitable perseverance, he procured a hearing and 
 inquiry from the Governor of the State and the un- 
 conditional pardon of the hapless convict. 
 
 127 
 
Thomas Hiiiry Edsall. 
 
THOMAS HENRY EDS ALL, 
 
 OF COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO. 
 
 Descended from early English and Dutcli set- 
 tlers in America who were prominent in the colonial 
 affairs of New York and New Jersey, Mr. Edsall 
 was born in the city of New York, was educated at 
 academies in New York and New England, was 
 graduated from Brown University, A.B., in 1861, was 
 commissioned Adjutant of the 176th regiment, New 
 York Volunteers, in 1862, and served in the Depart- 
 ment of the Gulf with his regiment, and on detached 
 service at headquarters, until mustered out at the ex- 
 piration of his term, near the close of 1863. He had 
 begun the study of the law before entering the 
 army, and after his retirement resumed his studies 
 at the law school of Columbia College and in the 
 office of O'Conor and Dunning. After having en- 
 joyed the advantage of Prof. Dwight's legal inspira- 
 tion and Mr. O'Conor's advice and suggestions in his 
 studies, he was admitted to the bar in New York 
 City in the spring of 1865. The year which ensued 
 was chiefly spent in making researches and investi- 
 gations for Mr. O'Conor in his preparations for the 
 trials of the validity of Madame Jumel's will, the 
 indictment against Jefferson Davis for treason, etc. ; 
 an invaluable experience and training for a young 
 lawyer, which was supplemented a few years later 
 by service, under the same eminent lawyer, as a 
 junior member of the Bureau of Municipal Correc- 
 tions organized by O'Conor and Messrs. Tilden, 
 Evarts, Carter, Peckham, et al., for the prosecu- 
 
 131 
 
tion and punishment of the Tweed Ring. In 1866 
 he formed a law partnership with Theodore M. 
 Davis, under the name of Davis & Edsall, which 
 continued with a substantial practice until 1871. 
 Then, after Mr. O'Conor's retirement from his long- 
 continued partnership with Mr. Benjamin F. Dun- 
 ning, was formed the well-known law iirm of Dun- 
 ning, Edsall & Hart — later Dunning, Edsall, Hart & 
 Fowler — of which Mr. Edsall continued ' to be an 
 active member until impaired health caused his re- 
 moval to Colorado in 1886. Meanwhile he had been 
 an interested student of the early history of New 
 York and New Jersey, to which he made several con- 
 tributions, an active member of the New York Histor- 
 ical Society, a member and trustee of the New York 
 Genealogical and Biographical Society, for which he 
 prepared several papers giving the results of his 
 genealogical researches ; one of the founders and 
 Vice-President of the New York Society of the Sons 
 of the Revolution, and one of the organizers of the 
 University Club, in which his membership continues. 
 On his removal to Colorado he first settled in Glen- 
 wood Springs — then one hundred miles from any 
 railway and west of the continental divide — where 
 he spent several years in special practice as attorney 
 for new railway, coal, land improvement and mining 
 companies formed to open up and develop the re- 
 sources of northwestern Colorado. In 1890, with 
 restored health, he came out from the mountains 
 and formed a law partnership with Judge A. E. Pat- 
 tison, of which Mr. Henry W. Hobson afterwards 
 became a member, constituting the present law firm 
 of Pattison, Edsall & Hobson, of Denver and Colo- 
 rado Springs, Colorado, which has an extensive gen- 
 eral practice. Mr. Edsall resides in Colorado Springs 
 132 
 
and is general counsel for a number of railway, 
 mining, irrigation, etc., corporations operating in 
 Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, New Mexico 
 and Texas, and director and officer of several of 
 them. He is a Member of the Loyal Legion of the 
 United States, the Holland Society of New York, 
 the leading clubs of Denver and Colorado Springs, 
 and President of the Country Club at the latter 
 place. 
 
 133 
 
J- Cai lull IlrtusU 
 
F. CARROLL BREWSTER, 
 
 OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 No man has been more intimately identified 
 with the history of the bar in Philadelphia in the 
 last twenty-five or thirty years than ex-Judge and 
 Attorney-General Frederick Carroll Brewster. In 
 one direction he has exerted an influence like that 
 of Socrates himself — the impartation of the principles 
 he found valuable to himself to young men follow- 
 ing after, so that it may almost be said Judge Brew- 
 ster will be perpetuated, personified and exemplified 
 in the younger members of the bar who have been 
 his students. 
 
 Born in the old city proper, his boyhood was 
 bright and promising in intellect. From the careful 
 tuition of the Friends' School he went to the Univer- 
 sity of Pennsylvania, of which Rev. Dr. Ludlow, 
 father of Judge Ludlow, was Provost, and gradu- 
 ated at 1 6 years of age. William Henry Rawle and 
 Horatio Gates Jones were among his classmates. He 
 was for several years President of the University 
 Alumni, and the orator at the laying of the corner- 
 stone of the buildings in West Philadelphia. Upon 
 leaving the university he entered his father's ofiice, 
 and in 1844 was admitted to the bar. 
 
 His advance was phenomenal, and his first great 
 criminal cases were red-letter days in his legal life. 
 The Cunningham murder trial, in which he estab- 
 lished that apprehension of the intention of an assail- 
 ant to inflict bodily harm is sufficient cause for self- 
 's? 
 
defense to the extent of taking life, the acquittal of 
 Lenairs and the wonderful management of the Kirk- 
 patrick poisoning case, all helped to establish young 
 Brewstew as an advocate of the highest distinction. 
 His success in the contested election case between 
 William B. Mann and Lewis C. Cassidy was even 
 more important, and then his acquittal of the presi- 
 dent of the collapsed Pennsylvania Bank proclaimed 
 him to the profession as one of the greatest masters 
 of pleading and one of the most learned of them all 
 in the law. Since then justices of the Supreme 
 Bench have acknowledged the soundness of his argu- 
 ments, and students of the law have found that his 
 opinions were better than the books. His greatest 
 triumph, perhaps, was in establishing the validity of 
 the bequests of Stephen Girard to the city of Phila- 
 delphia, and so much is owing to his efforts in that 
 direction that whoever have derived benefits from 
 the Girard bequests should take off their hats to 
 Judge Brewster when they meet him. 
 
 His entrance into public life was his election as 
 City Solicitor, and in 1869, 1870 and 1871 he was 
 Attorney-General of the State. 
 
 138 
 
Henrv C. TcrrV- 
 
HENRY a TERRY 
 
 OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Henry C. Terry is a lineal descendant of Wil- 
 liam Bradford, who came over in the Mayflower, and 
 who was for thirty-one years annually elected Gov- 
 ernor of Plymouth Colony. Mr. Terry was born in 
 Philadelphia, March 17, 1846. His father had been 
 possessed of large means till the breaking of his 
 Southern business connections by the civil war. He 
 afterwards removed to Woodbury, N. J., where his 
 son pursued, almost unaided, those studies which 
 fitted him for entering his profession. As a youth, 
 during his school days, Mr. Terry held front rank as 
 a debater and elocutionist, and when scarcely six- 
 teen years of age gave evidence of unusual dramatic 
 ability in performing the titular role in Knowles' 
 drama of " William Tell." He enacted the character 
 in such a manner as to attract the attention of that 
 noted tragedian, the late Edwin Forrest, who ad- 
 vised him to adopt the stage as a profession. He 
 had set his hopes of distinction, however, upon the 
 bar, and in 1863 returned to Philadelphia, where he 
 entered upon the study of law in the office of Fred- 
 erick Carroll Brewster. 
 
 Some time before he reached the age of 2 1 years 
 Mr. Terry passed his examination and was qualified 
 to practise, but as under the law he could not be 
 admitted until he attained lawful majority he was 
 not sworn in until March 16, 1867, the day he became 
 of lawful age. Immediately thereafter he became 
 
 141 
 
an assistant to the late Judge Lynd, then City Solic- 
 itor, and continued with him until 1869, at which 
 time he ofHced for himself and began a career which 
 attests the ability he brought to the performance of 
 his professional labors. 
 
 While mainly concerned in litigation in the 
 County and United States Courts in Philadelphia 
 and in adjoining counties, and in the Supreme Court 
 of Pennsylvania, he is well and favorably known to 
 the bench of New Jersey, the Supreme Court of the 
 United States and the Court of Claims at Washing- 
 ton. His most notable successes have been in cases 
 for and against corporations, though he has a large 
 mercantile and Orphans' Court practice. 
 
 In the suit of the " Kensington and Oxford 
 Turnpike Company" against the city of Philadel- 
 phia — an action brought to free from toll a road 
 through a populous and fast growing portion of the 
 city — he opened for municipal improvement property 
 belonging to the principal stockholders in the plain- 
 tiff corporation, and valued at upwards of $3,000,000, 
 receiving from his clients a fee, which was con- 
 tingent upon success, of $50,000. In damage cases 
 against railroad companies he has been remarkably 
 successful, the Supreme Court at its 1887 term affirm- 
 ing a verdict for $10,000 for the loss of the hand of 
 a little child, occasioned in passing between the coup- 
 led cars of a train. This was then the largest verdict 
 for personal injuries to a child ever paid in the coun- 
 ty of Philadelphia. 
 
 He recently, in the Dobbins' Electric Soap case, 
 pending in the New Jersey Courts of Errors and 
 Appeals, successfully established his clients' title to 
 their trademark, valued at $1,000,000, against some of 
 the most eminent members of the New Jersey and 
 142 
 
Pennsylvania bars. He organized and has always 
 been Solicitor for the Berwind-White Coal Mining 
 Co., of Pennsylvania and New York, the largest 
 bituminous coal company in the United States, if 
 not in the world ; the Ocean Coal Co., of Philadelphia 
 Philadelphia Coal and Coke Co., West Philadelphia 
 Coal Co., Elk Run Co., Punxsutawney Coal and Coke 
 Co., Eureka Supply Co., and other corporations of 
 Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Colorado, 
 and is solicitor for various other coal companies and 
 corporations in Pennsylvania and several other states 
 and for many private business firms. He has with- 
 in a few weeks successfully appeared in a novel case, 
 settling some very important questions of Pennsyl- 
 vania corporation law regarding the rights of mi- 
 nority stockholders to cumulate their votes in the 
 election of directors of a manufacturing corporation 
 (Forsyth vs. Brown in re. Wilkinson Manufacturing 
 Co.), his legal adversaries being two eminent mem- 
 bers of the Philadelphia bar. 
 
 Except as assistant to Solicitor Lynd he has 
 never held public office. 
 
 143 
 
Samuel B. Huey. 
 
SAMUEL B. HUEY, 
 
 OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 In a city famed for many years for its brilliant 
 lawyers it is a difficult task to designate any indi- 
 vidual practitioner as the "leader of the bar;" but a 
 conversation on the subject with many of the prom- 
 inent lawyers of Philadelphia has confirmed the 
 writer of this work in the opinion that no attorney 
 in Philadelphia has a better title to be numbered 
 among the five "leaders of the Philadelphia bar" 
 than has Samuel B. Huey. 
 
 Mr. Huey is the son of Samuel C. Huey, who 
 was a prominent business man of Philadelphia and 
 President of the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Com- 
 pany. He was prepared for college at private schools 
 and at the Central High School, from which he grad- 
 uated as valedictorian. He entered Princeton Col- 
 lege and was graduated in 1863, receiving prizes in 
 oratory and debate. In college he was captain of 
 the cricket team and baseball nine. After gradua- 
 tion he entered the navy as captain's clerk. He be- 
 came Ensign on the staff of Rear-Admiral Bailey, 
 and in 1864 Assistant Paymaster. He served in the 
 attacks on Forts Fisher and Wilmington and on 
 blockade duty to the end of the war. He then began 
 the study of law in the office of John C. Bullitt and 
 in the Law Department of the University of Penn- 
 sylvania, where he was graduated an LL. B. in 1868. 
 He entered active practice, associated with Mr. Bul- 
 litt, until January, 1872, when he opened offices for 
 himself. 
 
 147 
 
As his erect figure and soldierly bearing would 
 indicate, he has always been interested in military 
 affairs, and has served in the National Guard as Cap- 
 tain, Major, and Assistant Adjutant General. Pres- 
 sure of professional duties necessitated his with- 
 drawal in 1878. 
 
 A mere recital of some of the cases with which 
 he has been identified as counsel would emphasize 
 his right to the title of one of the " leaders of the 
 bar." During the existence of the Bankruptcy Law 
 of 1868 he conducted the largest bankruptcy practice 
 of any of the practitioners in the United States Court 
 of the District, and was often asked by Judge Cad- 
 walader during pressure of business to sit with him 
 and pass judgment on cases. He has conducted 
 some of the largest tax cases ever disposed of at the 
 State Capitol. In 1870 he was admitted to the Su- 
 preme Court of the State, and in 1 880, on motion of 
 Benjamin F. Butler, to practise in the Supreme Court 
 of the United States. 
 
 He is counsel for the Penn Mutual, Phoenix, 
 .^tna Life and Spring Garden Insurance Companies, 
 the American Bell Telephone Company, Edison 
 Electric Light Company, and for a number of the 
 largest business houses in New York city and Phila- 
 delphia. 
 
 148 
 
Joseph J. Doran. 
 
JOSEPH I. DORAN, 
 
 OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Joseph I. Doran, the distinguished corporation 
 lawyer of Philadelphia, was born in that city January 
 17, 1844. His father, the Hon. Joseph M. Doran, 
 also a native of Philadelphia, and born October 10, 
 1800, was graduated from the University of Pennsyl- 
 vania, studied law, and became one of the leaders of 
 the Philadelphia bar. He was an active member of 
 the Convention to Revise the Constitution of Penn- 
 sylvania, having been elected to represent the city 
 of Philadelphia. In 1840 he was appointed to the 
 Bench of the Court of General Sessions of Philadel- 
 phia, in which position he served three years. He 
 died in 1859. 
 
 Joseph I. Doran obtained his preliminary educa- 
 tion in private schools and academies, where he was 
 prepared to enter the University of Pennsylvania. 
 Remaining at the University but a short time, how- 
 ever, he in the fall of i860 entered the ofSce of John 
 C. Bullitt, first as clerk, then as student of law. He 
 was admitted to the bar in 1865. In 1867 he was 
 admitted to practise in the Supreme Court of Penn- 
 sylvania. To-day, by reason of his unsurpassed in- 
 dustry and close application, and his great legal acu- 
 men, he enjoys a practice of which any lawyer might 
 be proud. He is consulting counsel of many large 
 corporations, and has been General Counsel of the 
 Norfolk and Western Railroad since its organization. 
 
 Since 1880 he has been interested as counsel in 
 the development of the great coal and iron indus- 
 
 151 
 
tries of Virginia and West Virginia. Although en- 
 tirely given up to the practice of his profession, he 
 has occasionally diverted himself by the authorship 
 of monographs which have been received with much 
 favor by the press. His monograph on Building 
 Associations, an interesting and suggestive paper, was 
 read before the American Social Science Conven- 
 tion, and attracted considerable attention at the time. 
 Another, entitled Our Fishery Rights in the North 
 Atlantic, published in 1888, was a masterly investiga- 
 tion of the complicated subject, and was generally 
 credited with being the most forcible statement of 
 the American side of the case, the Philadelphia Led- 
 ger speaking of it as a brief, pungent and able pam- 
 phlet, and the Boston Evening Post remarking that 
 "it is one of the most satisfactory contributions to 
 the literature of the Fishery question." 
 
 152 
 
C/iarks //. A Esliiig;. 
 
CHARLES H. A. ESLING, 
 
 OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Charles Henry Augustine Esling was born 
 in Philadelpliia, January 21, 1845, ^'^^ comes from 
 old Colonial ancestry, distinguished in the Colonial 
 and Revolutionary Wars. He pursued his classical 
 studies at St. Joseph's College, Philadelphia, and 
 subsequently entered the Philosophy School of 
 Georgetown University, D. C, which conferred upon 
 him the honorary degree of A. M. at its Centennial 
 Jubilee Celebration in 1889. 
 
 In 1886 he entered the Law office of the late 
 Hon. Wm. M. Meredith, and was the last student of 
 that distinguished jurist. He was admitted to the 
 bar June 19, 1869, and to the Supreme Court of the 
 State, January 20, 1872. Even as a student in the 
 moot courts of the Law Academy, one of the most 
 venerable institutions of its character in the United 
 States, he at once acquired a large reputation for 
 forensic ability. 
 
 Mr. Esling's physical constitution and tempera- 
 ment have obliged him to largely restrict his busi- 
 ness to chamber and surrogate practice, but no mem- 
 ber of the bar possesses in a higher degree the con- 
 fidence of his clients for integrity, energy and ability, 
 particularly in the management of trust estates ; his 
 tact, judgment and discretion in several instances 
 being attended with almost phenomenal success and 
 winning for him the praise of distinguished senior 
 colleagues. His literary talents are marked. He 
 has published, among other works, a volume of poems 
 
 155. 
 
which has won the favorable notice of critics, and he 
 may be styled the " Poet-lawyer " of the Philadelphia 
 bar. He is an ardent Republican in politics and 
 takes great interest in athletics, particularly in oars- 
 manship, which sport he has done much to promote 
 in his native city, whose rowing clubs he represented 
 in 1895 at the Henley Regatta. He is a member and 
 of&cer of numerous social organizations. He has 
 represented the Catholic Church of the United States 
 on a special mission at the Vatican, and twice been 
 tendered diplomatic positions at the Russian Court. 
 
 156 
 
ITaii'dV Dfiinng Uadloik 
 
HARVEY D. HADLOCK, 
 
 OF BOSTON. 
 
 Harvey Deming Hadlock, who while yet in the 
 prime of life has attained conspicuous success in his 
 profession, is the youngest son of Edwin and Mary 
 Ann Stanwood Hadlock, and was born at Cranberry 
 Isles, Maine, October 7, 1843. He received his early 
 educational training from his mother, a woman of 
 superior intellectual gifts and culture, and in the 
 schools of his native town. In 1856 his parents re- 
 moved to Bucksport, Me., where he enjoyed the ad- 
 vantages of the East Maine Conference Seminary. 
 Here, and under private instruction, he pursued an 
 advanced course of classical study, which he supple- 
 mented with a partial scientific course at Dartmouth 
 College. Under the supervision of ex-Governor Ed- 
 ward Kent, then one of the Justices of the Supreme 
 Judicial Court, he began the study of law in the office 
 of Hon. Samuel F. Humphrey, at Bangor, Me. 
 
 At the age of twenty-one he was admitted to the 
 bar of Maine, and later to practise in the Federal 
 Courts of the District. In the fall of 1865 he moved 
 to New Orleans, where he pursued the study of civil 
 and maritime law under the direction of the eniinent 
 jurist Christian Roselius, in order to prepare himself 
 for practice in that city, where he maintained an 
 office on Carondelet Street. In 1868, having deter- 
 mined to fix his residence in the North, he was admit- 
 ted to practise in Massachusetts and in 1869 he was 
 admitted to practise in the State and Federal Courts 
 
 of New York. 
 
 159 
 
Mr. Hadlock's thorough research of the law, 
 coupled with the accuracy of the conclusions drawn 
 by him, has for many years caused his opinion on 
 Constitutional and Corporation Law to be highly val- 
 ued and sought after and frequently published. His 
 devotion to his profession throughout his legal career 
 has been characterized by the closest application. 
 Case has succeeded case, without intermission, and 
 day has succeeded day of unremitting and unwearied 
 industry, which never could have been performed but 
 for the vigor and unfailing spirits arising from recu- 
 perative qualities of the highest order. Mr. Hadlock 
 is of distinguished presence. In addressing a jury, 
 by adapting his expressions to the comprehension of 
 each member he combines the eloquence of the ora- 
 tor with the acute reasoning and crisp directness of 
 the special pleader. His career is a remarkable illus- 
 tration of what native ability, and persistent, untiring 
 industry, can accomplish in the legal profession. Mr. 
 Hadlock, with one exception— in 1876, when he ac- 
 cepted the nomination as Judge of the Probate Court 
 for Hancock County, Me.— has refused all judicial 
 and political nominations and appointments tendered 
 him. 
 
 Since 1887 Mr. Hadlock has resided and prac- 
 tised his profession in Boston, at the same time main- 
 taining an office and enjoying a lucrative practice in 
 New York city, while the general range of his prac- 
 tice extends beyond the State and Federal Courts of 
 New England and New York, embracing cases of 
 great moment in the Supreme Court of the United 
 States. 
 
 On January 26, 1865, Mr. Hadlock was married 
 to Miss Alexene L. Goodell. They have two children, 
 Inez and Webster. They were sadly bereaved in the 
 1 60 
 
death of their eldest son, Harvey Deming Hadlock, 
 Jr., at fifteen years of age, by accidental shooting 
 while handling a revolver. Their summer residence, 
 an elegant mansion on the banks of the Penobscot, 
 from which is presented an unobstructed view of 
 rare beauty, is a delightful place in the picturesque 
 and historic village of Bucksport, in their native 
 Pine Tree State. 
 
 i6i 
 
]\'illiain E. Russell. 
 
WILLIAM E. RUSSELL, 
 
 OF BOSTON. 
 
 William Eustis Russell, the youngest man 
 that was ever elected Governor of the "Old Bay 
 State," has achieved a success in the legal profession 
 almost as marked as that he has won in politics. He 
 was born in Cambridge ; and he has always lived 
 there. He was graduated at Harvard, and then he 
 studied law at the Boston University. He was 
 elected alderman for several successive years and 
 then, at the age of twenty-eight, was made Mayor of 
 Cambridge. 
 
 The mayor of a small suburban town ordinarily 
 has little opportunity to extend his fame beyond 
 local limits. But Mayor Russell commenced a con- 
 scientious administration of Cambridge municipal 
 affairs that soon began to be talked about in Boston. 
 He worked for the public's benefit, without thought 
 of his own advancement, and unconsciously added to 
 his reputation. 
 
 Boston began talking about the young mayor, 
 and what Boston talks about is the theme for the 
 whole Commonwealth of Massachusetts, so that peo- 
 ple began to remark what a brilliant young Democrat 
 had appeared to strengthen the party's ranks, now 
 somewhat weary with so many hopeless contests 
 against the Republicans. 
 
 The old leaders of the party in the State were 
 retiring and a coterie of young men in Boston 
 formed around William E. Russell to infuse new 
 blood. They were ambitious and energetic. Many 
 
 i6s 
 
of them were personal friends of the young mayor, 
 and they saw in him the possibility of a new, dash- 
 ing leader. 
 
 So the young men went to the convention in 
 1888 and exuberantly cheered for William E. Russell, 
 then but thirty-one years old and looking ten years 
 younger. The old-timers got together and talked 
 the matter over. Finally they said : " There is not 
 much chance for success this year. Let the young- 
 sters try it and see what they can do. They can't 
 do any harm, and may do some good." Russell was 
 nominated for Governor, and then began a series of 
 campaigns that are famous in Massachusetts history. 
 
 Tariff was the one issue discussed, it being a 
 Presidential year. The experience developed all of 
 Russell's latent talents. His whole mind and 
 energy were given to the work. His speeches were 
 carefully prepared. They were models of rhetoric 
 and composition, and he knew how to deliver them 
 well. Such words of wisdom and eloquence from 
 one who appeared a mere boy attracted great atten- 
 tion. 
 
 The party was defeated, as was expected, but 
 the next year Russell was again nominated, and en- 
 tered with even more enthusiasm on a second cam- 
 paign. 
 
 It was during this campaign that Russell threw 
 off much of his boyishness, though his appearance 
 was youthful as ever. 
 
 His personal magnetism began to appear. He 
 suddenly acquired a handshake that was of wonder- 
 ful drawing power. The farmer of Berkshire hills 
 and the fisherman of Cape Cod each thought that 
 Russell had come specially to see him, and won- 
 dered what all the neighbors were there for. 
 166 
 
Though again defeated, the Republican major- 
 ity was smaller and the earnest work of the young 
 campaigner was telling. For the third time, in 1890, 
 he started out to repeat the tour of the State, and 
 this time it was a great triumph. Russell and tariff 
 reform swept the Commonwealth, and he was elected 
 Governor by a substantial majority. His administra- 
 tion was marked by the same thoughtful earnest- 
 ness that he displayed as Mayor of Cambridge. 
 
 Massachusetts chooses its Governor every year, 
 and when Gov. Russell's first term expired there 
 was no question about his renomination. Before 
 the campaign had proceeded very far his election 
 was assured. 
 
 After having been through five campaigns, and 
 three times elected Governor, the young man retired 
 to private life and commenced to build up a posi- 
 tion for himself at the Boston Bar. He made a 
 speciality of corporation law and is counsel for sev- 
 eral large companies; among them the West End 
 Railroad Company, which controls nearly all the 
 streets of Boston. He seldom appears in court. 
 
 Through all this public career Mr. Russell has 
 retained a hearty enjoyment of outdoor sports and 
 never forgets his boyhood days. It is that which 
 keeps him so young and active. When he was a 
 youth he was a brilliant short-stop in baseball, an 
 oarsman, a football player and a sprinter. He won 
 a tennis championship and medals as a rifle shot. 
 
 He aspired to become a soldier, and once secured 
 an appointment to West Point. But he was hope- 
 lessly left-handed and the Examining Board rejected 
 him. Even to-day he writes with his left hand. 
 
 The " boy Governor " has no more sincere ad- 
 mirers than the boys themselves. A day's outing 
 
 167 
 
with him is the highest delight of the youngsters of 
 Cambridge, " He is just like one of us," the boys 
 say, but it is a quiet, gentle comradeship that is 
 never beneath the dignity of great men. 
 
 A few days after an outing with some young 
 folks Gov. Russell attended the dinner of the United 
 States Supreme Court Justices in Washington, and 
 there the boy was transformed into a serious lawyer 
 whose dignified bearing and brilliancy won the re- 
 spect of the nation's highest jurists. 
 
 1 68 
 
The Knickerbocker Publishing Co. 
 
 OF 14 VESEY STREET, NEW YORK, 
 
 Beg leave to announce that they have a limited number of 
 copies for sale of their immensely popular, recently-issued volume, 
 entitled, 
 
 SELECT ORGANIZATIONS Ii\ THE 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 COMPILED BY ^U.. VAN RENSSELAER MILLER. 
 
 "The American Bnrhe's Peerage." 
 
 A superbly illustrated, elegantly bound volume; edition de luxe; 
 half-tone plates ; containing Historical and Descriptive Sketches of 
 the Leading Societies of the United States, by prominent members 
 thereof ; with Portraits and Biographies of Representative Mem- 
 bers, embracing Social, Political, Sporting, Athletic, Art, Amateur 
 Dramatic, Musical, Historical and Patriotic Organizations ; Bicycle, 
 Kennel, Golf, and Yacht Clubs. 
 
 The only Work of the kind Published. 
 
 The publishers have have spared neither pains nor expense to 
 make this volume the most noteworthy publication that has yet 
 appeared in the field of club and society life. It has been pro- 
 nounced by the press and public to be worthy of perpetuation in 
 every select library in the United States. It has already achieved 
 an immense circulation. Socially it tells " who is who." Among 
 the contributors are John Quincy Adams, Mrs. Schuyler Hamilton, 
 Jr., General John Cochrane, Chauncey M. Depew and General Hor- 
 ace Porter. It discusses College Greek- Letter Fraternities, the Cin- 
 cinnati, Society of Colonial Wars, and the various other social and 
 patriotic societies and the leading social clubs all over the country ; 
 fifty cities being represented. 
 
 The price is $1.00 net. As there are but a limited number of 
 copies remaining unsold, those desiring to purchase a copy should 
 send in their orders by mail at once, by P. O. Money order. 
 
 It also contains portraits and biographies of men prominent in 
 the various walks of life throughout the United States. Among the 
 New York men are the following: John Jacob Astor, James W. 
 Beekman, Perry Belmont, Cornelius N. Bliss, Grover Cleveland, 
 Frederic J. de Peyster, T. Suffern Tailer, Frederick W. Vanderbilt, 
 Wm. C. Whitney, Roswell P. Flower, J. Hooker Hamersley, ex- 
 Governor George Hoadly, George A. Macdonald, Colonel John J, 
 McCook, Warner Miller, Levi P. Morton, Horace Porter. 
 

 Date Due 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^sii^^ 
 
 
 
 
 M^:>6 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Library Bureau 
 
 Cat. No. 1137 
 
 
KF 27$ M13 
 
 Author 
 
 MacDonald, George A. 
 
 Vol. 
 
 Title Copy 
 
 How SuccessfU Lawyers were