Cornell University Library 
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 Law students and lawyers, The philosophy 
 
 3 1924 018 805 469 
 
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LAW STUDENTS AND LAWYERS, 
 
 The Philosophy of Political Parties, 
 
 AND OTHER SUBJECTS: 
 EIGHT LECTURES 
 
 DELIVEEED BEEOEB THE 
 
 LAW DEPARTMENT OF HOWARD UNIVERSITY, 
 
 BT 
 
 A. G. RIDDLE. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C: 
 W. H. & O. H. MOR41ISON. 
 
 1873. 
 
LAW STUDENTS AND LAWYERS, 
 
 The Philosophy of Political Parties, 
 
 AND OTHER SUBJECTS: 
 
 > 
 
 EIGHT LECTURES 
 
 DEliIVEKED BEFOEB THE 
 
 LAW DEPARTMENT OF HOWARD UNIVERSITY, 
 
 A. G. RIDDLE. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C.! 
 
 W. H. & O. H. MOR^IISON. 
 
 1873. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1873, by 
 
 W. H. & O. H. MORBISON. 
 
 In the office of Librarian of Congress, in Washington. 
 
•^ snisnA 
 
 TO THE 
 
 GENTLEMEN OF THE FIRST GRADUATING CLASS 
 
 or THE 
 
 LAW DEPARTMENT OF HOWARD UNIVERSITY, 
 this volume is inscribed. 
 
 The Authob. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Law 7 
 
 Law Studehts and Lawtees - 40 
 
 The Aeqcment to the Juet -..•-. 72 
 Last Words — Advisoey and Suggestive .... 104 
 
 Public Speaking 128 
 
 Government - - - - - - - -175 
 
 Observations on the Constitution - - • . . 205 
 The Philosopht op Politioal Paeties - - - - 233 
 
 (6) 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 LAW. 
 
 In assuming the duties of this chair, I can dis- 
 course of one subject only — Law. It is, in its 
 higher aspects, the oldest and grandest of themes, 
 while the ordinary field occupied by it is the com- 
 monest and the most hackneyed. 
 
 In any yiew which I may be able to take of it, 
 no attempt will be made to say anything new; 
 for although the subject is in no way exhausted, 
 the labors of this chair will be to familiarize you 
 with the accepted rules and texts as they are sup- 
 posed to exist, without attempting much in the 
 way of philosophizing or reflection. 
 
 My present purpose is to address to you some 
 general considerations which, it is to be hoped, 
 will enable you to get some glimpses of the field 
 of our future labor as a whole. 
 
 I. Essential law — that which, when applied to 
 matter, is its property, and which alone can fur- 
 
nisli the rule of morals, whether an attrihute or 
 an emanation of divinity, in the just estimate of 
 a sound philosophy — is alone entitled to be called 
 law. It alone is paramount and supreme. It alone 
 is everywhere potentially present. It cau never 
 be escaped from, eluded, evaded, resisted or ap- 
 pealed from. No modification of it can by possi- 
 bility occur. No repeal or suspension of any 
 clause or provision can be hoped for, and no limit 
 to it, in time, space, or eternity, can be contem- 
 plated. 
 
 Matter exists, is changed, and perpetuated by 
 it, and necessarily mind and spirit are equally 
 within its compelliiig and controlling embrace. 
 And if indeed it enforces the perpetuity of matter, 
 it may be claimed as a just corollary that spirit 
 is necessarily indestructible also. It enforces 
 itself. No matter by whom or under what cir- 
 cumstances any of its provisions are violated, de- 
 tection, arrest, trial, and sentence instantaneously 
 and inexorably follow, without remission or com- 
 mutation of punishment; and whoever hopes to 
 violate it and avoid its penalties, would do well 
 to thoroughly understand and estimate his means 
 of escape. 
 
 The study and ascertainment of this law is the 
 
highest and grandest science; and a complete 
 knowledge of it, as applicable to the conduct of 
 men, will he the highest reach of the human 
 mind, and an observance of it the greatest moral 
 achievement. 
 
 In the direction of this attainment the race of 
 men are slowly and blindly progressing. Stum- 
 bling upon the law, and learning its text usually 
 by suffering its penalties again and again, and 
 finding, by repeated experiments, that they can- 
 not be evaded, slowly and almost imperceptibly 
 men conform to its mandates. 
 
 II. We may only glance upward at this high 
 theme while on our way to that which must oc- 
 cupy our attention. We are to deal directly with 
 man's law — that which he enforces as emanating 
 from himself, and upon his sole authority, to 
 which he professes obedience, and which, as he 
 may, he compels others to obey, because it is his 
 law. When compared with the law as we have 
 glanced at it, how weak and short and narrow 
 and blind and futile it is ! Proiessing to secure 
 the right, it often becomes the means and instru- 
 ment of wrong: the guardian of innocence, it 
 often tears what it protects: the refuge of the 
 
10 
 
 weak, It sometimes devours tliose who flee to its 
 sanctuaries. 
 
 Compared with man's other achievements, it 
 assumes the first place. What so venerable, so 
 profound, so all pervading, so potent? Among 
 all the helps that man has created, this has most 
 aided him in his pilgrimage of progress. From 
 its bosom sprang what we call civilization — that 
 elder and shadowy sister of Christianity — if it 
 was not one of the main instrumentalities em- 
 ployed to render that possible. 
 
 In the absence of order, no possession can be 
 secure. In the absence of law, order is impossible. 
 That nation or people/which has been fortunate 
 in the elements of its law, and which has had the 
 sagacity to enforce and the wisdom to modify and 
 improve it, as its condition changed and its wants 
 increased, has gone forward to the first place 
 among the nations; while others, unable to 
 mould and enforce the original elements into 
 consistent law, have remained barbarians; or 
 who have permitted their laws to become fixed, 
 have never been able to advance beyond the con- 
 dition in which they were when their code was 
 hardened and ossified into changeless forms. 
 
11 
 
 III. Of things human, there is nothing of which 
 the common estimate is so erroneous as of the 
 law. It is popularly regarded as an intermina- 
 ble series of dark and cunningly-devised pitfalls, 
 snares, and traps, invented by dark and cunning 
 lawyers in the interest of fraud and injustice, 
 where the unwary are caught and tangled, and 
 where the guilty alone find refuge. There is an 
 impression that, no matter how unjust a case may 
 be, somewhere in some of the numerous books 
 of the law, hidden away under the covers of its 
 jargon and fictions, a rule can be found that 
 will enforce and secure the success of that unjust 
 case. 
 
 There is a vague supposition that, at some far- 
 off old time, in some age of darkness and weak- 
 ness, of misfortune and desertion, the lawyers 
 laid their wicked heads together, and devised and 
 imposed upon the world this dark and wicked 
 code, and have managed to maintain and enforce 
 it to the present time. And it is really believed 
 that a dozen plain and honest-minded men could 
 in a few weeks devise a plain, simple code, that 
 could with immense advantage take the place of 
 the whole" existing body of our law. And men 
 wonder why it has not been done. Indeed, it is 
 
12 
 
 supposed that, if the lawyers could be kept out 
 of parliaments and congresses and legislatures, 
 this would have been done long ago. 
 
 Inasmuch as this is not likely to occtir in our 
 time, however desirable, we must turn our atten- 
 tion to the law as it exists, and master it as we 
 may. 
 
 IV. The technicalities — terms of art of the law, 
 which are popularly supposed to obscure it — are 
 comparatively few, and of little practical import- 
 ance. As you will come fully to know, the great 
 body of our law came to us from our English an- 
 cestors ; that once in its history it was written in 
 Norman-French, and once also in poor Latin; 
 and that, in translating it into English, a few 
 Norman-French and Latin names and phrases 
 were retained, as it was at that time thought that 
 our English, in its poverty, furnished no equiva- 
 lent. 
 
 These technicalities are merely a few of the old 
 clothes, so to say, of the law. They neither con- 
 tain its spirit nor express its force and beauty. 
 They occasionally embody a maxim, and some- 
 times express a rule ; and, as they are said gen- 
 erally to be neither good French nor pure Latin, 
 
13 
 
 they do not much heautify the law, and are not at 
 all in the way of its mastery hy those familiar 
 alone with the English. 
 
 V. I shall not attempt to give you a definition 
 of law. You will find several in the books ; and if, 
 upon reflection, none of them appear scientifically 
 accurate, you will remember that the law does 
 not claim to be an exact science, and you will be 
 at liberty to discover or invent a definition of your 
 own. 
 
 When I speak of the law, I mean thai; mass of 
 rules, mandates, and directions, whatever may be 
 their origin or source, which is recognized among 
 our people, to which their obedience is claimed, 
 and which the courts and governments enforce 
 against them, and which also includes the ma- 
 chinery and means of redressing wrongs and of 
 enforcing liabilities, which exist among the sub- 
 jects of governments to each other, and are due 
 froni them to the government. 
 
 The origin of law, either in time or the condi- 
 tion of society, is a problem which, in its own 
 nature and surroundings, lies beyond the reach 
 of solution. Its beginnings must have been with 
 the commencement of government, and partook 
 
14 
 
 of its rudeness and simplicity. Obviously, among 
 the first objects of government is that of or- 
 daining the relations between itself and its sub- 
 jects, and of regulating their intercourse with 
 each other; and this is the ordination of law, 
 and comes very near furnishing a definition 
 of it. 
 
 Speculative writers and theorists have endeav- 
 ored to suppose a condition of human beings an- 
 terior to the existence of society among them, ere 
 government or association had a beginning, when 
 the man was neither son, father, brother, lover, 
 or husband, and the woman neither daughter, 
 sister, mother, or wife ; for if any relation existed, 
 it must have been upon some, at the least, implied 
 terms — a time when no man had anything, and 
 hence was without rights as between himself and 
 fellows; when he did nothing, and hence was 
 without rule of conduct ; when he said nothing, 
 and hence no rule of intercourse could exist. 
 
 This unnatural, preternatural, supernatural 
 condition is called "the state of nature," and 
 must have preceded the time of the establishment 
 of any of the laws of nature : a condition which 
 could never have existed in fact, and which can- 
 not exist in imagination. 
 
15 
 
 Wherever and whenever human heings have 
 associated, some terms of such association have 
 in some form been observed. It is apparent that 
 law must have preceded what we call civilization ; 
 yet exactly what civilization is no man has ever 
 clearly defined. M. Guizot describes it as one 
 thing, and Mr. Buckle says it is quite another. 
 We hear of several civilizations, and of various 
 stages and degrees of it, and we know many of its 
 qualities and conditions ; yet just what will con- 
 stitute it, so that the absence of any part will 
 reduce it below civilization, has never been ascer- 
 tained. When may a people be justly regarded 
 as civilized is not a question for us, but obviously 
 at a time and under conditions which it has 
 reached through the ordination and enforcement 
 of some code of law, of which it is in some part 
 the product. 
 
 We may suppose a people favored with wise 
 chiefs and rulers, whose laws have wisely been 
 improved, in such way as to catch up and fix in 
 enduring forms its various acquisitions, until the 
 sum total may be called civilization; and we 
 should expect the reaction of civilization, or of its 
 elements, upon their laws, which would in turn 
 be improved, advanced, and perfected, thus en- 
 
16 
 
 abling such a people to go on in uninterrupted 
 progression. 
 
 But woe to that nation whose rulers, having, 
 as they supposed, perfected its laws, decree and 
 ordain that they shall remain unchanged perpet- 
 ually. Such a nation, filling and shaping itself 
 to the form and capacity of its law, would become 
 itself fixed and petrified, and its laws, from being 
 a source and power of progress, would become 
 manacles and fetters that would render progress 
 impossible. 
 
 Whoever glances even cursorily at the history 
 of the law will be struck with the apparently fixed 
 forms of the laws of the elder nations. It is said 
 that it was the boast of the Modes and Persians 
 that their laws never changed. 
 
 The legislative power was exercised, but at rare 
 intervals. A period would be finally reached 
 when a general code, the essence and aggregate 
 of existing laws, would be formulated and promul- 
 gated, which was usually left unchanged, to work 
 out its result. 
 
 The consequence was, that new causes, arising 
 out of new enterprises, changes, and improve- 
 ments, would be unprovided for, and without 
 [protection and remedy. Hence new enterprises 
 
17 
 
 would perish, change would not occur, improve- 
 ment would not be made, and progress rendered 
 impossible. 
 
 In all nations of real progress, the history 
 of their laws shows them also to have passed 
 through a curious period of fictions — fictions of 
 law. These were the inventions of bold, enlight- 
 ened judges and lawyers, by which an old rule 
 was extended to reach a new cause, or the old law 
 modified so as to secure and protect a new inter- 
 est, and without an apparent change of the law 
 itself. 
 
 The history of the Roman and English law is 
 rich with illustrations of this method of improv- 
 ing and perfecting the law, while there is said to 
 be an absence of them in the laws of the Eastern 
 nations. As a consequence, the Koman and 
 English peoples advanced, while the Orientals 
 remained stationary — indurated in the fixed form 
 of caste. In modern times, among enlightened 
 nations, the legislative power is active and con- 
 . stantly exercised, as the exigencies of a given 
 people may seem to require, which not only ren- 
 ders further resort to fictions unnecessary, but in 
 some of our owli States the old fictions have been 
 
 abolished by statute. This is particularly the 
 2 
 
18 
 
 case in Sta.tes which have adopted what are called 
 codes of civil procedure ; for it was only in the 
 remedial parts of the law — those which were con- 
 cerned in the administration of justice — that fic- 
 tions occurred. 
 
 VI. The principles of the law are few .and sim- 
 ple, and consist of the abstract elements of pure 
 right. And law is the human endeavor to apply 
 these principles to the affairs of life — to compel 
 their observance by men in their transactions 
 with each other, and in their relations to govern- 
 ment and authority. 
 
 The principles themselves are obvious, and 
 their application to the rude and primitive con- 
 ditions of men not so difficult. It is when 
 men emerge into broader fields, climb to eleva- 
 tions, grow artificial, divide labor, discover 
 science, create art, become luxurious, cultivated, 
 and refined, when the powers of government be- 
 come divided and delegated, that the very effort 
 to apply and enforce the observance of these prin-' 
 ciples becomes difficult and doubtful, and the 
 more so as nations advance. It then becomes 
 necessary to create machinery^ formulate rules, 
 and to so adjust the whole that the law itself 
 
19 
 
 shall ever attend all tlie transactions of the most 
 advanced communities — he present and a part of 
 them — always enforcing justice, always compel- 
 ling the performance of duty and obligation, with 
 a prepared remedy for every violation of right. 
 
 Tou see that such a system must in time he- 
 come vast, complex, and highly artificial ; that 
 of the whole number of men few can master it ; 
 that its study and administration must become a 
 specialty, requiring the entire time and talents 
 of a class set apart for that purpose. 
 
 VII. The sources of law — the immediate fount- 
 ains from which it springs, and from which it 
 can alone emanate — are very obvious. 
 
 There is the direct law-making power, whose 
 primarji duty and right it is to devise and pro- 
 mulgate laws in^ the forms of edicts, mandates, 
 or legislative acts, called statutes, no matter 
 whether vested in one or many men. These, 
 collectively, are known in the books as the writ- 
 ten law. They are not evidence of what the 
 law is, but they are law— ^law reduced to for- 
 mal writing — and they alone are to be consulted 
 in all cases arising under them. As these embody 
 the declared will of the law-making power upon 
 
20 
 
 given subjects, they stand as the exclusive law 
 upon those subjects, changing, amending, or re- 
 pealing all other and older laws in the premises, 
 and can themselves be only changed or repealed 
 by another exercise of the power which created 
 them. 
 
 You will be surprised, when you come to learn, 
 that while much of the active machinery of the 
 law, used in enforcing its remedies, is furnished 
 by these statutes, how few are the suits brought 
 to enforce rights conferred by the statutes them- 
 selves. 
 
 We are to look to quite other sources for the 
 law that describes and defines the right's usually 
 enforced by suits. This law, in contradistinction 
 to statute law, is called the unwritten law, or the 
 common law. Its text was never reduced, to writ- 
 ing authoritatively. None but the law-makers 
 could do that. Written evidence of what it is, 
 however, exists in abundance, and the study and 
 mastery of this evidence will be your labor mainly ; 
 and that evidence is now found in the elementary 
 text-books of learned^writers upon law, and the 
 reports of the cases tried.- and decided by the 
 highest courts in given jurisdictions. 
 
 It is apparent that, no matter how or when a 
 
21 
 
 given rule, use, or custom comes to be recognized 
 and observed as a rule of conduct by a given 
 people, generally and throughout their tertitory, 
 whenever it is adopted and acted upon, it be- 
 comes a law, and is as binding upon a people, 
 and will be enforced by the courts in the same 
 way, as if it had been solemnly enacted and pro- 
 mulgated by the legislature. 
 
 Thus, then, usage and custom, especially in the 
 elder time, were a fruitful source of law ; and when 
 a custom had been thus accepted, it remained the 
 law until abrogated by a statute. One custom 
 could never repeal or change another, nor can it 
 overcome or do away with a statute. 
 
 It is thus seen that, whenever a parliament, a 
 congress, or a legislature promulgates a statute, 
 or the people, by common consent, accept a cus- 
 tom, so much is added to the body ofthe law, 
 and that whenever one conflicts with the other 
 the statute prevails. 
 
 Statutes and customs are general, covering large 
 fields, and embracing a variety of cases, and do not 
 enforce .themselves; and hence it is necessary tbat 
 there should exist somewhere a power whose duty 
 it shall be to apply these general rules to particular 
 cases. This power and correlative duty are vested 
 
22 
 
 in the various courts, provided also hy law. A 
 party claims that a right or duty is due him from 
 another by virtue of some statute or some rule 
 of the common law, and he brings the party of 
 whom he claims the right or duty, with the sub- 
 ject-matter of his claim, before the proper court 
 to enforce his right, which we call a suit. The 
 court, having the jurisdiction of the persons and 
 subject-matter, proceeds to inquire whether any 
 and what claim exists, and whether it is one that 
 falls within the scope and meaning of any exist- 
 ing law, statute or common, and judges accord- 
 ingly. This action of the court is the application 
 of a general law to a particular case, for the pro- 
 tection and enforcement of a particular right, in 
 which it determines what the law is, and whether 
 it controls the case before it, using for that pur- 
 pose the means the law furnishes, applying the 
 rules of construction to the law, and consulting 
 the decisions of courts in the same or analogous 
 cases, and all in the spirit of the law itself: and 
 its judgment is the law of that case. It deter- 
 mines what the law is under the circumstances of 
 that case. When the decision is made or affirmed 
 by the highest court, with power to pronounce 
 in the premises, the law so found and declared, 
 
23 
 
 from that time forth, becomes and is a part and 
 parcel of the law of the land, whenever the same 
 questions arise, and goes to swell the hulk of the 
 common law. And as a perpetual evidence that 
 such is the law. the case, with the judgment of 
 the court, is reported, and, with other cases, is 
 authoritatively published in books for the infor- 
 mation and guidance of other parties, and espec- 
 ially as a perpetual reminder to itself and other 
 courts that the law has been ascertained, and 
 what it is. 
 
 This application of a general law to a special 
 case is called jurisprudence, and, as you see, it is 
 a perennial source of common law. 
 
 When you remember that, being at one time a 
 constituent part of the British empire, many of 
 whose statutes applied to us, whose customs and 
 usages were ours, and whose jurisprudence was 
 part of our law, you will understand that, in a 
 general way, English and American law are one, 
 and why we study the English text-books and 
 read English decisions to our courts, as at least 
 advisory .of what the law is. 
 
 For your information I may here say, that there 
 are now five of the higher courts of England, and 
 others in Scotland and Ireland, whose decisions 
 
24 
 
 may thus be read ; that the decisions of the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States, and of those 
 of the highest courts of each of the States, are 
 also reported, and that each produces one or more 
 volumes a year. You can thus form some esti- 
 mate of the increase to the bulk of the common 
 law. And I also say to you that, in my poor 
 judgment, while the mass of the common law is 
 thus rapidly swollen, its quality is not much im- 
 proved: the labor of the bar is immensely in- 
 creased, while its learning is hardly advanced, 
 and this rapid multiplication of books of reports 
 is becoming a serious mischief. 
 
 All these reports, in a loose way, are spoken 
 of as authorities, and we now so regard text- 
 books. This is hardly accurate. By authority 
 we mean a decision which is binding ; which can- 
 not be departed from; and which, whenever the 
 same question arises, must decide it. In this 
 sense the decisions of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States control the subsequent decisions of 
 that and of all the other courts of the United 
 States, and are of the greatest weight in all the 
 State courts, and bind them in all cases arising 
 under any law or treaty of the United States. 
 
 The decisions of the highest court in each State 
 
 N, 
 
25 
 
 are binding in that State, and may be read as 
 advisory in the courts of the United States and 
 of the several States, and are conclusive upon all 
 questions arising out of the statutes of that State 
 everywhere. 
 
 In some instances, undoubtedly, a custom or 
 usage had its origin in the decision by a court in a 
 particular case: as when a court, at an early day, 
 decided a case upon general principles. What it 
 so decided so commended itself to men as just and 
 proper, that by common consent it was accepted 
 and followed as a business rule and habit, in a 
 certain branch of trade or labor, and so originated 
 a custom. But we know that in many instances, 
 as in the law of commercial paper, the courts 
 adopted as the rules of their decisions the usages 
 of merchants, to prove which prominent mer- 
 chants were brought into court to advise the 
 judges what those usages were; and so of many 
 other instances. 
 
 We thus have three sources of law: statutes, 
 accepted and established usage or customs, and 
 jurisprudence. 
 
 VIII. The law is a self-impelling, self-sustain- 
 ing, and self-enforcing power. It has established 
 
X 26 
 
 the rules and prescribed the means for ascertaining 
 its own meaning; the rules for construing statutes ; 
 for ascertaining the existence of customs which rise 
 to the importance of laws, or those more narrow, 
 and which affect particular localities or certain 
 persons. It prescrihes the methods by which its 
 remedial power alone can be invoked ; marks out 
 the paths which conduct suitors to its courts ; the 
 forms for stating the questions to be tried ; com- 
 pels the presence of parties, and the submission 
 of their disputes to its judgments. It prescribes 
 exact rules for the investigation and ascertain- 
 ment of disputed facts; arms the parties with 
 power to compel the evidence of witnesses ; de- 
 fines and describes all instruments of evidence, 
 and compels their production. It provides the 
 means of estimating and weighing evidence and 
 determining its sufficiency ; and, finally, it is 
 armed with ample power to enforce and execute 
 its own judgments and decrees. 
 
 IX. The field occupied by the law, and where 
 it works its purposes, as well as the instrumental- 
 ities which it employs, are low, common, and 
 practical. It deals with money values alone. It 
 exacts money for injuries to the sensibilities ; puts 
 
27 
 
 coin values to paternal and connubial afFection, 
 and measures broken hearts, wounded loves, and 
 damaged reputations by the standard of the cir- 
 culating medium ; and when it puts an end to a 
 man's life, it piously prays God to have that 
 mercy which it refuses, 
 
 If any possible claim or demand can arise which 
 in its nature is not susceptible of a cash value 
 under the rules, the law decides that there is no 
 property interest in it, and refuses redress. 
 
 It deals with actions alone, and never with in- 
 tentions. It punishes the act, and never a mere 
 purpose of the mind. It is true that, to determine 
 the quality of the act, it inquires as to the inten- 
 tion with which it was done; but then it assumes 
 that the party intended to do what he did do ; 
 that is, he is presumed to have intended all the 
 natural and necessary consequences of his acts: 
 so that the proof of the act also ordinarily proves 
 the intention, if the party was capable of forming 
 an intelligent intention, and to help that out, the 
 law presumes that every man is capable of form- 
 ing and acting upon such intention. 
 
 The law never, in any direct way, attempts to 
 prevent crime: it punishes the actual commission 
 of it. Wherever it sees a sore, it slaps on a 
 
28 
 
 caustic or cuts oif a limb or head, without inquir- 
 ing into the cause or troubling itself about the 
 effect of its treatment. It never establishes and 
 endows schools for virtuous education and naoral' 
 training, but it sets up prisons and appoints 
 hangmen. It questions its right to compel chil- 
 dren to attend school, but entertains no doubt of 
 its ample authority to hang men. It offers no 
 rewards to virtue, but has an abundance of pen- 
 alties for crime. It attempts in no way to deal 
 with what are called sins, and claims no juris- 
 diction over the sentiments, emotions, and affec- 
 tions. It has no means of ascertaining their 
 existence and quality, and disclaims all jurisdic- 
 tion over them. A man may go steeped to the 
 lips with malice prepense, but so long as he 
 refrains from acts, he commits no crime agaiuist 
 the law of the land. 
 
 Man, for a wonder, is humble in the conscious- 
 ness of his weakness in these premises. He leaves 
 this whole subject in the hands of Him who shapes 
 and moulds the heart and rules its affections, as 
 easily as he gave to matter that property which 
 determines the forms of crystals. 
 
 It is thus seen that the law never idealizes, and 
 never attempts to stop from the dead level of the 
 
29 
 
 common-place and the hnmdrum. It is rude, 
 coarse, practical, and excessively vulgar. It calls 
 things by their oldest-fashioned Anglo-Saxon 
 names, where it avoids old barbarous French or 
 bad Latin, and it roughly deals with everything 
 in the rough. 
 
 It has, nevertheless, in a grim way, a tender, 
 lovely, and benignant side. It not only sched- 
 ules, defines, and broadly attests our ownership 
 of all our rights, privileges, and powers, but war- 
 rants and assures to us their uninterrupted^ pos- 
 session and enjoyment. It protected us and the 
 persons of our mothers ere birth ; it was present 
 to secure from harm at that event ; stood around 
 about our cradles ; attended us in childhood ; 
 went with us through youth ; stood to crown and 
 arm us with the rights, immunities, franchises, 
 and privileges of manhood ; opened and guarded 
 all the paths of honorable pursuits ; secured to 
 us all our acquisitions; fenced and protected us 
 from all wrong; was present and secured to us 
 good faith in all our transactions with our fel- 
 lows ; made our persons sacred ; was present and 
 consecrated our nuptials; stood about and pro- 
 tected our homes ; secured to us the custody and 
 obedience of our children ; and breathed about us 
 
30 
 
 and filled our atmospliere with its sacred influence, 
 which we denominate "the public peace" — that 
 sense of absolute safety and security, which can 
 come alone from all-powerful, ever-present, ever- 
 watchful law; any infraction or disturbance of 
 which is punished as a grave offense against the 
 State. 
 
 Living as we do, as we always have, in the 
 protecting arms of such law, we cannot appreciate 
 its priceless benefits or estimate its value. To us 
 it is a second Providence, which always was, and 
 the absence of which we can neither appreciate 
 nor apprehend. 
 
 X. The law is at once a despot and an embodied 
 democracy. In its contemplation and presence 
 all human beings stand on an absolute level. It 
 knows them only as persons. It has no power 
 of perceiving a possible diiference among them. 
 It does not know that there can be advantage on 
 the side of wealth, or that high position can exist. 
 It cannot comprehend poverty, or that rags and 
 squalor can disqualify and degrade. In its grim 
 way it applauds only those who follow its pre- 
 cepts, and frowns only on those who violate them. 
 It occupies a height above the highest, and still 
 
31 
 
 lias its protecting arms under the lowest. Those 
 who make it are its subjects, and those who brekk 
 it its only enemies, Grovernors obey it abjectly; 
 and those who violate it, even while it punishes, 
 are still the objects of its care and solicitude. 
 Magistrates are strong only in its strength, and 
 like others become tlie objects of its animadver- 
 sion when they transcend its commands. The 
 clearest thing to it is a human life; and whatever 
 it esteems as the property of a human being, it 
 makes sacred, because it belongs to a person. In 
 its estimate a murderer is the greatest criminal, 
 and the perpetrator of a fraud the most odious of 
 men. Mercy is no quality or attribute of the law, 
 and sympathy and compassion are sounds which 
 convey no meaning to it. Coldly and colorlessly 
 it embraces all, shelters all, compels all, and 
 protects all. 
 
 The law occupies and fills all human space and 
 everywhere with the same vitality, strength, and 
 power. As it can know no difference in person, so 
 all possible places arc alike to it. No altar is a 
 sanctuary from it^ no retreat a refuge, and no walls 
 or bolts or bars a barrier against it. Stronger 
 than all other power, those who defy or resist it 
 can find security alone by overthrowing the gov- 
 
32 
 
 ernment that ordained it. There exists nowhere 
 a power that can suspend its rule, divert it from 
 the object of its pursuit, or exempt persons, places, 
 or things from its visitation. 
 
 XI. Law is not an exact science. Its uncer- 
 tainty has passed into a- proverb. I say to you, 
 however, that this uncertainty does not arise from 
 the uncertainty of the text of the law. Tliere is 
 generally little doubt about that. The rules ai-e 
 generally clear, and the books free from ambi- 
 guity, and you will find no great difficulty in 
 understanding them. Th^e uncertaisty usually 
 arises. in the doubt about the facts, to which a 
 known and clear rule can apply. Thus, if A 
 owes B, the law, with absolute clearness, declares 
 he shall pay him what he owes. B makes his 
 demand of payment, and sues A for the debt, and 
 A comes into court and denies that he owes B; 
 and this is the matter to be tried — -the alleged 
 indebtedness of A to B. It is usually a matter 
 of fact that is involved in this investigation, and 
 witnesses are called and examined on both sides. 
 And they differ ; they contradict each other ; per- 
 jury may be committed ; and the gravest doubt may 
 exist as to the facts ; and so the clear, plain rule 
 
33 
 
 of law stands idly by till the facts are ascertained 
 and established ; and, as you see, the doubt and 
 uncertainty is only that which attends the ascer- 
 tainment of a human transaction. And so of " the 
 law's delay." The law never delays. It is 
 always ready, and so are lawyers. They have no 
 purpose but in pushing their cases to trial, for 
 usually they are not paid till the end is reached. 
 The delay usually occurs in securing the evidence, 
 and often by the tardiness, inattention, or the 
 doubts and fears of those who commence the suits. 
 
 XII. The strength of the law is the measure 
 of the power and strength of the government that 
 seeks to enforce it. 
 
 That government is strong which enforces all 
 its laws effectively; that is weak or inefScient 
 which cannot or does not. A government that 
 permits itself to be defied by its own subjects, on 
 its own territory, cannot long retain the respect 
 of any of its subjects, and is contemptible in the 
 eyes of other nations. It was this consideration, 
 among others, that compelled our own Govern- 
 ment to the hard necessity of subduing, at all 
 possible hazards and without reference to cost, 
 the late rebellion. If it could not enforce its laws 
 8 
 
34 
 
 in Charleston and Richmond, it lost the power of 
 doing it in ISTew York and Chicago; and that 
 patriotism which found its limits in the boundary 
 of a single State, compelled a citizen of a loyal 
 State to battle for the supremacy of the General 
 Government in all, for in that alone could he find 
 assurance that his own should remain in peace 
 and security. 
 
 It may not be critically accurate to say that the 
 strength of the law is the strength of the govern- 
 ment that seeks to enforce it. There is another 
 subtle, intangible, ever-present, and all-pervading 
 influence^ often stronger than the sum total of the 
 powers of the government, and which habitually 
 governs and controls the government. We call it 
 public opinion, and it may be said to be the pop- 
 ular judgment upon a given subject. It is the 
 result to which the thinking, reflecting, intelli- 
 gent come in given premises. This is not quite 
 accurate, for it often happens that a matter is of 
 such general interest that it addresses itself di- 
 rectly to the masses, who do not think and reflect 
 much, and yet who pronounce upon it, and whose 
 judgment is entitled to be called public opinion, 
 and which for the time is potent. 
 
 A statute enacted by a legislative body, elected 
 
35 
 
 by the mass of the people, ought to be taken as a 
 fair declaration of popular opinion, but it is not 
 always. There are some subjects upon which the 
 masses desire no legislation, and yet upon which 
 their representatives feel constrained to act, and 
 the result is a law not in accord with popular 
 opinion; and it will be found that the act cannot 
 be or is not enforced, because it is counter to 
 public opinion. This is not invariably the case, 
 for amona: the most odious of the laws are those 
 which assess and collect taxes, and yet govern- 
 ments have usually been able to enforce them, 
 partly, perhaps, because the governments em- 
 ploy extraordinary efforts for that purpose, and 
 partly because, however obnoxious, the owners 
 of wealth and men of positioa and influence feel 
 the necessity of their enforcement, and the mass 
 acquiesce, while many of the most dangerous 
 class are without property, and hence without 
 any motive to resist the law. I refer you, in 
 illustration of this idea, to statutes prescribing 
 punishment to certain crimes. 
 
 The laws of all the States and of the United 
 States punish murder with death, and yet it is 
 rare and growing more and more difficult to pro- 
 cure convictions for murder. Indeed, the law 
 
36 
 
 itself long since invented a very remarkaWe test 
 of the qualification of a person to sit as a juror in 
 such a trial. The government is permitted to 
 ask the proposed juror if he has conscientious 
 scruples ahout the infliction of the death penalty ; 
 and if he answers that he has, the courts hold 
 that he may he challenged for cause. 
 
 It is becoming obvious that public opinion is 
 adverse to the infliction of death as a punishment, 
 and it clearly is wholly illogical. So statutes for 
 the punishment of gambling ; statutes to suppress 
 the sale of intoxicating liquors ; and statutes for 
 punishment of crimes against chastity. Although 
 they are found on the statutes of every State, yet 
 they everywhere remain comparatively a dead 
 letter. They are not enforced, and as a general 
 rule cannot be. Legislators have felt constrained 
 to enact them, but public opinion does not sustain 
 them: indicative of a condition of morals which I 
 commend to the reflecting. 
 
 What shall be done with statutes that cannot 
 be or are not enforced? They are a reproach 
 either to the legislature or the people, and tend 
 to bring the administration of all law into dis- 
 repute. 
 
 The statute enforcing the death penalty is un- 
 
37 
 
 doubtedly below public opinion, while the others 
 are as clearly above it. A law below it ought to 
 be brought up to it, while I should hesitate to 
 lower one that was above to its level, especially 
 where its purpose is the promotion of purity. I 
 would at least have the statute-book declare 
 against vice, and labor to change and elevate 
 public opinion to the standard of the law. The 
 repeal of the statutes referred to would neces- 
 sarily have a mischievous tendency, obsolete as 
 they are. 
 
 I may remark that the sources of many vices 
 and crimes lie too deep to be effectively reached 
 by mere legislation, which is necessarily super- 
 ficial. 
 
 You cannot enforce the requisitions of Christian- 
 ity or eradicate sin by statute. Public opinion 
 sustains, for a time at least, a law derived from 
 usage; otherwise, it would not have become a 
 law. When public opinion becomes adverse, a 
 statute abolishes it. It also sometimes controls 
 the verdicts of juries, in violation of clear law, 
 and in opposition to clear evidence. Kepeated 
 instances of this have recently occurred under 
 our eyes, until thoughtful men have become 
 alarmed. -Whenever man or woman, in revenge 
 
38 
 
 for a fancied or real injury to female honor, 
 takes life or attempts it, juries, as a rule, find 
 the absurd plea of insanity to he true, and ac- 
 quit. The instances of murder trials are of this 
 class. 
 
 As lawyers, we have to do only with the admin- 
 istration of the law as we find it. We come to 
 know its defects, and are sometimes pained by 
 its practical results : and it is often in our power 
 to suggest valuable amendments and improve- 
 ments. 
 
 XIII. Thus, gentlemen, have I endeavored, in 
 this brief time, to introduce to you the law as a 
 whole. I trust that in some way I have given you 
 glimpses of its grandeur as a mere human achieve- 
 ment, and have enabled you to appreciate some- 
 what its importance as the regulator, director, 
 and protector of our conduct, persons, and acqui- 
 sitions. 
 
 You will now take up its leading principles, 
 master their unfoldings, and become familiar 
 with their relations to human conduct and affairs. 
 Passing forward, you will follow the extended 
 lines of their various applications to the vast and 
 varied interests which men, in the most artificial 
 
89 
 
 conditions of human society, create and acquire. 
 You will wonder as you wander through the 
 mazes ; you will admire and master the subtlety 
 of the law's logic, and learn to appreciate the 
 nicety and importance of its distinctions; andj 
 more than all, you will love and revere its con- 
 stant, ingenious, and ingenuous endeavor to do 
 justice, promote the right, defeat fraud, and pun- 
 ish the guilty. You will finally learn to love the 
 law. and become loyal to it as the paramount 
 object of veneration created by man. 
 
LECTUKE II. 
 
 LAW STUDENTS AND LAWYERS- 
 
 I. We are atout to enter upon an experiment, 
 and that its conditions and hazards may be ap- 
 preciated, I propose to make them the subjects 
 of my present discourse. 
 
 You purpose to become practical lawyers, and 
 you come to us to aid you in acquiring such a 
 mastery of the law that you can enter favorably 
 upon its practice. 
 
 Under any circumstances the undertaking is a 
 serious one, and doubly so in your position. You 
 are of that race — are its representatives — which 
 has labored in physical and mental servitude, and 
 suffered from political and social degradation from 
 the planting of civilization on this continent. I 
 do not care to speculate as to the • influence of 
 these upon your race or upon its representatives, 
 nor do I trouble myself with any question of race, 
 or the comparative mental status of races ; but it 
 (40) 
 
41 
 
 is fair to remember, in forecasting the probabili- 
 ties, the chronic, unreasoning, and brutal prejudice 
 which denies you mental excellence of any kind — 
 which declares you are without intellectual vigor 
 and inventive power, and destitute of strength to 
 grasp and persistency to retain and master any 
 complex or profound proposition. You commence 
 your trial before a jury whose pre-formed judg- 
 ments would disqualify them from sitting in any 
 other case. Not only are you on trial, but your 
 whole race with you — a race which is condemned 
 for the failure of any of its individuals ; while the 
 success of every person of it is pronounced excep- 
 tional, and due to accidental conditions. 
 
 Gentlemen, you cannot afford to fail, not any 
 of you ; and the failure of one is the failure of all 
 in the wise world's judgment. You must not 
 only equal the average of your white competitors ; 
 you must surpass them. The world has already 
 decided that a colored man who is no better than 
 a white man is nobody at all. You make good 
 soldiers ; you succeed as teachers ; you sometimes 
 surpass as preachers and public speakers : but it 
 remains to be seen whether you are equal to the 
 hard, tough, strong, and long-continued strug- 
 gles of the bar : in some respects the severest test 
 
42 
 
 that can be applied to a man. You cannot afford 
 to fail, and yet tlie world will be slow to admit 
 your success, until, perhaps, you shall have pro- 
 duced an Attorney General or a Justice of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States. 
 
 For myself, although I come to the duties of 
 this position against the wish and protest of many 
 valued friends, I come cheerfully and hopefully to 
 their performance. I am only embarrassed by a 
 conscious lack of qualification. I am not a bit 
 of a professor. I come from the nisi prius courts, 
 where all my life I have been, and still am, too 
 busy for the thorough, extended, and varied read- 
 ing without which one can be but poorly prepared 
 for this chair. I am not, however, without the 
 hope of being able to impart to you much useful 
 and practical information, and to aid you in the 
 most important part of preparation for your future 
 duties. We must not fail. 
 
 II. One further preliminary remark I must be 
 indulged in. I want to feel assured that all of 
 you now before me enter upon the study of the 
 law with the full determination to pursue it 
 as a life-long calling. I shall feel little inter- 
 est in attempting to place in your hands imple- 
 
43 
 
 ments that you never intend to use, and of 
 stocking your minds with a knowledge that is to 
 remain unproductive. For you, while its acqui- 
 sition would be good mental discipline, and not 
 without a possible incidental benefit otherwise, 
 yet in this busy world, and with its hungry de- 
 mands upon you, time spent. in dalliance with the 
 law would be a comparative waste, and a misap- 
 plication of illy- directed effort. A man who did 
 not intend to pursue the law as a calling would 
 never thoroughly master it ; and among all useless 
 things the half lawyer occupies the first place. 
 
 It was long ago said by one of the first law- 
 yers, that law is a jealous mistress ; and I say 
 to you, she never flirts or coquets ; she will have 
 nothing to do with danglers; and reserves her 
 favors for those alone who woo in good faith and 
 with the most honorable intentions. The love of 
 the law is an acquired sentiment, and no mere 
 student, from love alone, ever pursued it effect- 
 ively. 
 
 I want you should come to the study of the law 
 with the manly purpose of making it your own — 
 of subduing and mastering, and to compel it 
 to become your property, your possession, your 
 servant : one that you are to use — your capital, on 
 
44 
 
 which you are to trade. I want you should feel 
 that your life and hope, your acquisitions and 
 ambitions, depend upon it; and without some- 
 thing like this you will never become lawyers: 
 you will at best be but smatterers or pettifoggers. 
 Nor would I have you enter upon it with the idea 
 of using it as a transfer to political life, or any 
 other pursuit or calling. You will certainly fail 
 as a lawyer. Tou would linger and dally in a 
 half-hearted and wholly inefficient way, making 
 the law a mere resting-place in a wayfaring 
 career, like those young women who seek tem- 
 porary places as clerks, or who coquet with en- 
 graving or phonographing, until the prince, in 
 the guise of a husband, comes ; and as it is not to 
 be a life calling, they are inefficient and indiffer- 
 ent, and it is marked against the sex as incom- 
 petency in such pursuits, as in your cases it would 
 be charged up against your race. Let us be in 
 dead earnest in this enterprise, or let us abandon 
 it now. 
 
 III. The work of a slave is servile and degraded, 
 and because it is performed by a slave. The work 
 of a king is royal, and because a king does it. By 
 as much as the head is exalted above the hands 
 
45 
 
 does the work of the brain rank above mere manual 
 labor. 
 
 The study and much of the practice of the law 
 is purely intellectual^ which is one of the reasons 
 that the uniform position of the bar is elevated ; 
 and while it will furnish ample scope for the finest 
 minds, it does not necessarily call into constant 
 exercise all of the highest mental qualities. The 
 imagination and fancy — the inventive faculties — 
 may not often be called upon, while those which 
 enable us to perceive, compare, weigh, determine, 
 and reflect, find more constant employment. It 
 has never required the greatest intellect, at any 
 given period, to furnish forth the greatest lawyer 
 of its time ; and yet the first places of the bar have 
 never been reached save by minds of a very high 
 order; while to achieve a fair average position 
 much mental excellence is required. Of all the 
 possible pursuits of men, the law is that field 
 where seemings and shams can find no place or 
 employment. Superficial and showy qualities 
 stand no chance there, while wind-bags collapse 
 under the mere pressure of the legal atmosphere. 
 
 If I was not wholly unhappy the other evening, 
 you have some idea of the laAv, and that its study 
 will require long, steady, and persistent labor. 
 
46 
 
 You are to suppose yourselves in court witli a 
 case of some importance and some doubt, which 
 you have well prepared for tiial ; that is, you 
 have investigated, analyzed, and marshaled all 
 the facts, and collated and collected the law, and 
 are ready. You may suppose, however, that you 
 have only mastered the facts on your side, and 
 may expect some extraordinary evidence on the 
 other, as well as further light upon the law, and 
 you are there alone with your single self, to con- 
 duct one side of a serious, long-continued mental 
 contest. You are to remain cool and self-possessed, 
 with all your armor on, and all your weapons at 
 hand. Your own faculties are to be all aroused, 
 on the alert, and fully in hand. You are to state 
 your case, examine your witnesses, get from them 
 the best they know for you, and in the best way 
 for your side. You are to be ready to argue un- 
 expected questions of law, as to the admissibility 
 of evidence, without time to consult books; to 
 reply to such arguments from the other side ; an- 
 swer questions from the court; take exceptions 
 to adverse rulings; cross-examine your adver- 
 sary's witnesses; make and sustain objections 
 to them. You are in some way to take and re- 
 tain all the testimony in a protracted trial, and, 
 
47 
 
 after four or five days of exhausting work, arise, 
 with only such preparation as you can make 
 while the trial is going on, and produce a clear, 
 luminous, and logical presentation of the whole 
 case, involving a discussion of all the law, and 
 the aggregate result of all the evidence, in a final 
 argument. You may then listen to the other 
 side, and make your reply ; watch the charge of 
 the court, and be ready to except to the points in 
 which you think the court erred at your expense. 
 You see, gentlemen, that to do all this reason- 
 ably well is a serious tax upon the trained and 
 experienced faculties of an able man. Indeed, so 
 extraordinary are these constantly-recurring ex- 
 hibitions in our courts to laymen and the outside 
 world, that they never cease to be astonished by 
 them ; and he who reasonably succeeds in them 
 comes necessarily to receive a large share of merited 
 admiration, and grows to be a man of mark. 
 
 IV. Of course, to commence a career that may 
 reasonably be expected to conduct one to such 
 success requires as a preparation some high degree 
 of mental training, as well as a class and order of 
 faculties capable in time and by eff'ort of accom- 
 plishing it. 
 
48 
 
 You have observed how difficult it is for a man 
 accustomed to manual labor only, to execute or 
 even apprehend long-continued mental effort. 
 After two or three spasmodic attempts, he aban- 
 dons it, just as one of us, of sedentary habits, is 
 totally disqualified for any continued severe physi- 
 cal labor. 
 
 In your own cases, if you have not now, you 
 can rapidly attain this power and capacity for 
 mental work, just as you can rapidly acquire an 
 ability to perform severe and continuous manual 
 labor. Beading and the study of the sciences will 
 do much for you, not only by way of discipline, 
 but the accumulation of facts and information. 
 Don't cram; don't glance at books, few or many. 
 Master them ; make it a point to master all you 
 touch. Take the essence of your author ; rob him 
 of his soul ; squeeze out all his blood ; and make 
 them yours. Don't lumber your memory alone 
 with them ; but think, digest, assimilate, till that 
 which you have is part of you. Never mind a- 
 writer's words or his old clothes; don't borrow 
 his shoes ; but take the essential man, and devour 
 him by a sort of mental cannibalism. Establish 
 for yourselves regularity and fixed habits of study. 
 This is one of the great advantages of training at 
 
49 
 
 school. The mind knows how to work — has the 
 capacity and habit formed. If you have not this, 
 you must acquire it. Not books alone. Men, 
 after all, are not wholly educated by books. That 
 is a narrow and singularly erroneous impression, 
 that we are educated alone at school and col- 
 lege. Undoubtedly we imbibe the germs of a 
 majority of all our ideas before we can profit much 
 by school or books. 
 
 Our essential practical education we get from 
 association with the world. We inhale it from 
 the world's atmosphere. It is knocked into us by 
 our collisions ; cut and pricked and shot in by our 
 friends and enemies ; by our successes and mis- 
 haps ; by our questions and being questioned ; by 
 the conversations of the wise, learned, rude, fool- 
 ish, and simple. It comes to us from the pulpit, 
 the court-room, the platform, the market, the 
 wharf, the railroad, the mechanics' shops — from 
 wherever we go and from whoever we meet: 
 and what is most wanted is a capacity to learn. 
 And essentially the law student must graduate 
 into the many-sided and accomplished man of the 
 world, and become quick, shrewd, observing, and 
 practical. The law that he studies is but the ac- 
 cumulated history of the manifestations of our 
 
50 
 
 commou human nature: the foot-marks of man's 
 avarice, meanness, frauds, and vices ; his ambi- 
 tions, achievements, and failures; of the work- 
 ings and out-croppings of his worst and strongest 
 qualities, as they have revealed themselves in 
 treasons, murders, and conspiracies; of his com- 
 mercial enterprises ; the colonizing of new conti- 
 nents, and his conquests of old kingdoms; of his 
 noblest powers; his struggles for freedom; his 
 wars for religious toleration ; his battles for the 
 press; of the play of his affections, and the 
 flow of his charities. All this, too, may you 
 profitably study in the living world with which 
 you mingle. Learn to go about, then, with your 
 eyes open, and get the power to see what is going 
 on about you. Cultivate, not the length of your 
 ears, but their capacity to hear. Take nothing 
 for granted; question everything ; test everything. 
 Hear and understand the voice of the age in which 
 we live, throb with its pulse, and receive the won- 
 derful lessons which it teaches and preaches. 
 Nothing is too high to be questioned, or too low 
 to be overlooked, nor so common or usual as to 
 be unprofitable. Every fact you shall acquire; 
 every hint you may store up ; every idea you ob- 
 tain ; every thought you can lay away ; every item 
 
51 
 
 tliat you assimilate not only adds to your maga- 
 zine of useful stores — your arsenal of weapons — 
 but has performed the double purpose of needed 
 mental discipline. 
 
 Once again: You are to think, not merely ac- 
 cept, and pile, and pack away in the rough. You 
 are to store only the real and useful ; and that you 
 may do this, you must think. You must not only 
 perceive: you must learn to compare, estimate, 
 weigh, arrange, analyze, combine, mark qualities, 
 properties, and relations, and form judgments. 
 Having taken in the raw, you are to work up, 
 manufacture, and then store away. 
 
 V. I must not pass so summarily the matter 
 of books and miscellaneous reading. Time can 
 most profitably be spent on subjects somewhat 
 akin to the law: the biographies of eminent 
 lawyers, particularly those parts that recount 
 their early years, th^ acquisition of their profes- 
 sion, and first struggles at the bar. Campbell's 
 Lives of the Chancellors, severely as the work has 
 been criticised, can be read with great advantage; 
 so his Lives of the Chief Justices, which together 
 constitute quite a history of English law, as well 
 as a political history of the kingdom. Our own 
 
52 
 
 literature is not rich with works of this character. 
 There is a condensed history of the first three of 
 our Chief Justices ; the Life and Letters of Judge 
 Story ; the Biography of the elder Adams ; Ken- 
 nedy's Life of Wirt; and the Life of Henry by 
 Wirt, which is a little mythical, like Plutarch's 
 Lives ; the Life of Daniel Webster ; the Life of 
 William Pinkney, though I cannot say much for 
 this ; and I am in doubt whether I can commend 
 to law students Parton's Life of Burr, rich as it 
 is. Works of the character of these furnish useful 
 examples, store your minds with valuable infor- 
 mation, and surround you with a semi-legal at- 
 mosphere, and excite, stimulate, and direct your 
 ambition. So, too, as you can, you should glance 
 at the newspapers, and not remain wholly ignor- 
 ant of current literature. These last can come in 
 for a larger space, when you have completed your 
 preparatory studies, and have been admitted. 
 
 VI. I have said that the faculties most useful 
 and most in requisition were the perceptive, the 
 reasoning, and judging — those which we exercise 
 most in our every-day, common-place, humdrum 
 life ; such as we can dig with, quarry with, accu- 
 mulate, and retain with. We shall not have much . 
 
53 
 
 occasion to fly, and little for show or ornamenta- 
 tion for the present. All our faculties are to be 
 used and cultivated, until all can be united and 
 wielded as one — as a rapier to thrust ; a broad- 
 sword to cleave ; a sledge-hammer to deal blows ; 
 a piece of ordnance to batter with ; a man-at-arms, 
 steel clad, to make a charge. 
 
 The lawyer, too, must have a will of his own. 
 As a student, he must master the law, because he 
 will; and as lawyer win cases, because he will. 
 No weak, infirm of will, easy-yielding, good- 
 natured man ever succeeded at the bar, or ever 
 will; and courage, moral and physical, are essen- 
 tial. There never was a really great advocate 
 without both in a large share. Erskine, confess- 
 edly the first English advocate, was largely in- 
 debted to these endowments, if he was afraid of 
 Pitt; and withal you should have a good share 
 of combativeness — a readiness and willingness to 
 contend, to fight on and not yield, and to fight 
 the battle over when lost. It is the especial priv- 
 ilege of a lawyer to never give up a case. 
 
 YII. Among the qualities required for a suc- 
 cessful study of the law, and for eminence in its 
 practice, none are more imperatively demanded 
 
54 
 
 than clean hands, pure hearts, and exalted souls. 
 I shall refer to this subject again in these ob- 
 servations, and bring it more practically to your 
 consideration. , 
 
 The lowest motives for human action, as well as 
 the highest, unite in recommending that absolute 
 rectitude of conduct which can flow alone from 
 the purest sentiments ; for remember, the lawyer 
 will always be opposed by one of equal or superior 
 skill, whose object will be to detect and expose 
 any departure from strict truth and good faith ; 
 and that, necessarily, all attempts in that sinister 
 direction tend to injure alike the case in hand, 
 and also the lawyer who exploits it ; that, what- 
 ever may be the skill or ability of a member of 
 the bar, a distrust of his integrity — a taint in the 
 atmosphere of his practice — is usually fatal to his 
 career. Whenever, by common consent, the mem- 
 bers of a given bar deem it useful to watch one 
 of their number, although the world may know 
 no reason for it, he is pretty certain to decline. 
 
 I have also observed, and deduce from my ob- 
 servation this rule : that a continuous, healthy 
 mental growth is oijly possible when accompanied 
 by a corresponding moral development. Whether 
 it is that the intriguing man of indirect courses 
 
55 
 
 is obliged to devote so much time and attention 
 to his sinister methods to work out his question- 
 able schemes, and secure himself from the conse- 
 quence of discovery and exposure, as well as the 
 depressing consciousness of his want of integrity, 
 render him unable and incompetent to so put forth 
 and direct his efforts as to achieve the first mental 
 excellence ; or whether God has so constructed and 
 ordered things that a true growth and expansion 
 of mind can alone take place when accompanied 
 with corresponding elevation and growth of soul, 
 we may not determine. But we know that the 
 higher and nobler qualities flourish best when 
 they grow together, each imparting its excellence 
 to the common soil from which all spring, and 
 they strengthen and support each other. I have 
 often, at the bar, seen a man of many excellencies 
 of mind, but of doubtful expedients, passed by 
 men of fewer mental gifts, but with a just appre- 
 ciation of all moral obligation. The first would 
 become a skillful, adroit, and unscrupulous man- 
 ager, whom nobody trusted and everybody 
 watched, while the latter passed steadily and cer- 
 tainly to the higher walks and honors of the profes- 
 sion. And I may, perhaps, be permitted to remark, 
 that my ideal of the lawyer is one who is more 
 
56 
 
 and better than the mere lawyer — one in whom 
 the high elements of morality and religion are 
 properly developed, and who unites in himself all 
 the accomplishments of the Christian gentleman. 
 
 VIII. We are to study the law. Nobody has 
 attempted to catalogue the present text-books of 
 elementary law, the volumes to which the student 
 is to devote his attention. The rapid growth of 
 new enterprises, and the myriad multiplication 
 of new cases, have created entirely new and vast 
 fields for the labor of bench and bar, and are fur- 
 nishing new and interesting themes for commen- 
 tators and text writers ; and the last few years are 
 rich in these valuable contributions to our legal 
 literature. 
 
 There are the new worlds of railroads, tele- 
 graphy, and life insurance, to say nothing of the 
 vast additions and improvements made in the 
 older titles of the law. No student is expected to 
 read all these books^ nor any considerable number 
 of them. That would be impossible. No law- 
 yer reads, and perhaps few buy them all. No 
 man ever yet read, even cursorily, all the books, 
 or fully possessed himself of the whole body of the 
 law. To catch its soul ; imbibe its spirit ; master 
 
57 
 
 its intent ; compreliend and be able to apply its 
 artificial reasoning ; apprehend and appreciate its 
 nice distinctions ;. to become so possessed and sat- 
 urated with it that one comes to have a legal 
 instinct, is about the highest attainment of the 
 lawyer. 
 
 The student is expected, in the first place, to 
 master its elements; that is, he must familiarize 
 himself with its principles — thoroughly under- 
 stand them. For this purpose we continue to 
 place in his hands the still incomparable Com- 
 mentaries of Sir William Blackstone. Snob, as 
 he may have been called, and truckler to power, 
 and excuser of tyranny and abuse, as well as 
 eulogizer of old chronic wrong and out-grown cus- 
 toms and usages, and obsolete as one-fourth of his 
 entire work is, and not wholly reliable as matter 
 of history, it is still unrivaled, notwithstanding 
 our Kent; and after Walker's Introduction, we 
 still place it in the hands of students, and often 
 as a first book. In this work you find the whole 
 law epitomized in a wonderfully luminous man- 
 ner. Here its principles are stated and unfolded 
 in a way to be understood by the common mind. 
 All the succeeding books which will be placed in 
 your hands will be but amplifications of the head- 
 
58 
 
 ings of Blackstone's chapters. In these you will 
 trace out the practical applications of the element- 
 ary principles, and find them . illustrated hy a 
 reference to actual cases, which will furnish the 
 instances and manner, as well as the judicial 
 reasons for such application. 
 
 We do not want you should read many books. 
 We do not mean you shall. We do not expect that 
 you will become lawyers under our hands, but we 
 do intend you shall go from us with the means and 
 intention of becoming such. We expect you will 
 master the principles. We expect you will follow 
 out their application in the law of contracts, com- 
 mercial paper, copartnership, agency, common 
 carriers, insurance, &c. ; that you will learn 
 something of the absurdly complex, artificial, and 
 intricate law of real estate, that still disfigures 
 our law of property; that you will thoroughly 
 master the rules of evidence, of pleading, and so 
 much of practice, that you can commence and 
 conduct a common-law case. 
 
 We desire that you should secure a good under- 
 standing of that most important title — of equity — 
 and learn at least the rudiments of criminal law. 
 I do not care much about this last, although I 
 have, I am sorry to say, been much in the trials 
 
59 
 
 of criminals. That law lies in a narrow compass, 
 and an ordinarily good commercial lawyer will 
 master it without special study, when he has occa- 
 sion to. 
 
 But whatever you attempt shall be well and 
 thoroughly done. Ton will understand every- 
 thing you touch, and we shall know that you do 
 no superficial reading. No hop, skip, and jump- 
 ing ; no firing into game, and then leaving it to 
 run or fly away. An obscure passage is to be 
 made clear. A retiring principle is to be hunted 
 down ; a hidden meaning is to be uncovered ; an 
 obscurely-stated case is to be beaten and battered 
 until it yields up its principle ; and you and each 
 of you must do this for himself. In no other way 
 can you make the law yours. We cannot teach 
 it to you from a blackboard. I shall not reduce 
 and dilute it to babies' food for you. Tou must 
 master it, as I know you will, man fashion. Tou 
 will find difficulties, and we shall help you through 
 them. With the Congressional Library open to 
 us, we feel tolerably confident that we can help 
 you through anything that may demand our help. 
 We at least know where to find the law, and that 
 is something, as you will come to know. 
 
 And so we will journey pleasantly and profit- 
 
60 
 
 ably through our contemplated course ; and as we. 
 go on we will furnish you with tough questions 
 to try your teeth on in the moot court, and you 
 shall be set to write theses, and we will criticise 
 them severely ; and in our rhetorical exercises we 
 will aid you to become good public speakers, and 
 not mere ranting mouthers; and when we come 
 to offer you to the public at the end, it shall be 
 astonished at your proficiency, and we shall all 
 be satisfied. 
 
 IX. I may naturally, in this connection, say 
 some words to you of the character and position 
 of the profession of which you are to become mem- 
 bers — a lawyer's estimate of his associates, which 
 differs somewhat from the popular judgment, or 
 rather prejudice. 
 
 Of the profession, and of lawyers as a whole 
 and in the abstract, the world entertains some 
 depressing views. It has a distrust of their in- 
 tegrity. They are placed in the worst positions 
 in anecdotes, jokes, and stories. They sustain 
 bad and sinister characters in novels and fictions, 
 never being the high-minded heroes of romance. 
 Indeed, it is supposed that the legal atmosphere 
 is the death-damp of romance, love, and poetry, 
 and fatal to the chivalric elements of heroism. 
 
61 
 
 Lawyers have seldom written novels ; and when 
 they have, they as often pandered to the popular 
 relish. There usually is some foundation in fact 
 for most popular delusions, which are the result 
 of some kind of observation and experience ; and 
 I do not know that, in this respect, the law has 
 fared much worse than divinity and medicine. 
 There always have been, as there will always con- 
 tinue to be, unworthy members of the bar. The 
 profession, as a whole, is an exceedingly small 
 body: so small that the misconduct of one re- 
 flects upon the whole, and in some way discolors 
 the atmosphere of the law. 
 
 The estimate of the bar formulates itself in 
 this expression, which we often hear from very 
 intelligent men : '' Lawyers are a necessary evil." 
 This is certainly a depressing estimate which the 
 world places upon itself, and goes far to reconcile 
 as to its judgment upon ourselves. It is so bad, 
 so much worse than we are, that, doubtful as may 
 be our morals, we are nevertheless a necessity to 
 it; that without us it would go wholly to the bad. 
 But law in itself is an admitted, positive good; 
 and yet it cannot be administered, and would not 
 long exist, were it not for lawyers born of it. 
 Courts are good, and iudges in the main pure, 
 
62 
 
 upright, and incorruptible ; and yet they cannot 
 come except from the bar. Does good directly 
 produce evil ? Can evil spring directly frona good ? 
 There are texts of high authority bearing on these 
 questions, which in other language have been 
 asked before. 
 
 There is a prevailing impression that, if not 
 the study, yet at the best the practice of the law, 
 has a logical tendency to undermine integrity, 
 and induce the practice of sinister methods : in 
 short, that lawyers are, and are in the way of 
 regarding themselves, as remitted to a lower 
 standard of morality, in the discharge of their 
 official duties, than the rest of the. world. Need 
 I assure you that this is utterly erroneous, and 
 without any foundation in fact? There is a cer- 
 tain habit of some of the best members of the bar, 
 and of some of the purest writers upon law, that 
 gives a certain indirect countenance to this charge. 
 They speak and write treatises of "the ethics of 
 the bar," "the morals of the bar," and somewhat 
 as if there might be one code for the world and 
 another for the bar. 
 
 Gentlemen, let us have no hesitation over this 
 thing. There can be but one code — one right and 
 one wrong. I pray you make no doubt or mis- 
 
68 
 
 take; don't stop to query and stumble in this 
 prime matter. Honor is honor, and truth is truth, 
 everywhere and under all circumstances; and 
 that which is wrong in the ordinary pursuits of 
 men is wrong at the bar ; and that which is right 
 at the bar cannot be wrong anywhere else ; and 
 if it shall be found that it is, then it was wrong, 
 and not right, at the bar. 
 
 A man who knowingly attempts to mislead 
 court or jury, or who willfully states a falsehood 
 in court, is a knave and a liar, and as such should 
 be branded and avoided. But do not men uncan- 
 didly urge doubtful arguments, and contend for 
 untenable propositions on the trial of cases? 
 Undoubtedly at times. Do they not everywhere? 
 Is it peculiar to the bar? 
 
 Bear in mind, the contests of lawyers are not 
 ex parte. They confront each other in the face 
 of learned and astute courts, and in the presence 
 of the world, where lies and frauds have the least 
 possible chance of success, and where exposure 
 would usually be fatal to a cause. 
 
 Do not lawyers sometimes employ fraudulent 
 evidence, rely upon perjury and simulated proofs? 
 No honorable lawyer ever does, with a knowledge 
 of the character of the material. He would no 
 
64 
 
 more use the lies of another than fabricate them 
 himself. His love of truth would forbid, and the 
 danger of exposure would be the same. Such 
 means as come to his hands, without a knowledge 
 of their spurious character, if they are such, he 
 can in good faith make an honest use of. 
 
 It is said that lawyers voluntarily engage in 
 the defence of the worst criminals, whom they 
 know to be guilty. We may linger a moment 
 over this. Suppose a man is guilty : shall he be 
 dismissed to punishment without trial? If he 
 is tried, shall he have the aid of counsel ? How 
 can he be tried without? Besides, how do you 
 know he is guilty? He may, after all, be innocent. 
 Accused men often are ; and a rule that could by 
 possibility work injustice should yield to one that 
 gives reasonable hope of security. And besides, 
 the wisest, most merciful, the oldest of rules, is^ 
 that a man is presumed to be innocent until 
 proven to be guilty ; and to defend him is but to 
 give eifect to this just presumption of the law. 
 The man is to be tried and defended. How 
 shall he be defended : merely pro forma, without 
 ability, without care, without earnestness and 
 skill? Without all these his trial is a sham, a 
 fraud upon him, and an outrage upon the law 
 
65 
 
 itself, and upon all sense of justice. Eemem- 
 bei'j that against him the might and power of 
 the State — of the United States — ranges itself; 
 able and experienced counsel appear to prose- 
 cute him ; and the court and jury who try him 
 are citizens of the State which prosecutes him. 
 Surely he is enough at disadvantage without 
 being betrayed by his counsel ; and against the 
 odds he encounters, he is surely entitled to zeal, 
 learning, ability, and experience ; and, though 
 guilty, sacred laws would be violated and the 
 public safety endangered if his guilt was not 
 legally ascertained, and punishment assessed in 
 the spirit of the law.. 
 
 For me, I know no duty more sacred and solemn 
 than the defense of even the most guilty, by an 
 advocate conscious of our human frailties, before 
 twelve erring mortals, and a court not exempt 
 from human infirmitj'-, and earnestly urging such 
 considerations as come to his hands, that may 
 throw a doubt upon the alleged crime, or that 
 may go in its extenuation. And the stronger 
 the State and public opinion bear him down and 
 corner him, the more zealous and resolute must 
 be his defense. 
 
 I utterly repudiate, and as I believe the Amer- 
 5 
 
66 
 
 ican bar has repudiated, the atrocious rule of 
 Lord Brougham, and which is said to have con- 
 trolled the conduct of Phillips, the Irish barrister, 
 not long since, that in the defense of a criminal 
 an advocate should know no man but his client, 
 and nothing hut his acquittal ; and that, to se- 
 cure this, he was remitted to the choice of means, 
 unlimited by truth and unknown to honor. Such 
 a rule makes the counsel accessory after the fact. 
 A lie is not a legal means of defense ; a fraud can 
 find no place in the armory of defense. The ad- 
 vocate must remember the law and his loyalty to 
 it, and not forget God and truth in the exigencies 
 of any case. And when it is remembered that a 
 lawyer is not at liberty to refuse to defend a man 
 charged with crime, the force of this charge 
 against lawyers, which I have considered, can be 
 appreciated. 
 
 It is often urged against us, that we appear 
 indifferently on either side — as often on the wrong 
 as the right — and make the same exertion to en- 
 force the wrong as the right ; which is utterly in- 
 consistent with all proper notions of human con- 
 duct. This assumes that all cases have a clearly 
 right side, and as obviously a wrong side, which 
 men of ordinary capacity could discern . The world 
 
67 
 
 should be able to comprehend that such cases are 
 very rarely litigated — seldom or never are. Judg- 
 ment usually goes by default in them. It might 
 also come to know, though I presume it never 
 will, that in a majority of cases no possible ques- 
 tion of moral right — a question of right and 
 wrong, as we call it — is involved; while in a 
 great majority of cases, whether the right in- 
 volved is moral or legal, or both, there is the 
 gravest doubt upon which side it will finally be 
 made to appear. 
 
 A man comes to me with a case, and states it 
 as he understands it. I make allowances for the 
 coloring and overstatement and omissions which 
 most men impart to their narrations, and still 
 find he has the seeming right, and commence a 
 suit for him. His adversary goes to another law- 
 yer, and tells his story with the same result, and 
 is advised that the apparent right is with him, 
 and he defends. From that moment we each 
 look for evidence and law to sustain our side, and 
 we come to the trial with the sincerest conviction 
 that we are right, and we try the case under that 
 conviction, sincerely, earnestly, and with what 
 might we have; and the man who is beaten 
 keenly suffers from a sense of the injustice done 
 
68 
 
 his client ; and this is true of nearly every liti- 
 gated case in all the courts. 
 
 The first condition of success is, that the advo- 
 cate should convince himself that he is right ; and 
 he must be a poor one indeed if he cannot do 
 that, however he may fare with court and jury. 
 If he cannot, he certainly need not hope to con- 
 vince anyhody else. 
 
 This advocacy of opposite sides is not peculiar 
 to the bar. Men dispute propositions out of 
 courts without suffering in the general estima- 
 tion. Take the reverend clergy, for instance; 
 and upon matters of divine revelation, which we 
 might expect would be tolerably certain, they 
 take opposite sides, as if such a thing could have 
 two; g-nd sometimes, failing to convince, they 
 burn an opponent. Now, we may not doubt 
 their sincerity, however much we may admire 
 their Christianity. We never go to this extreme 
 with advocates, though we sometimes hang their 
 clients. 
 
 You see, gentlemen, that whenever we examine 
 for a moment the popular impressions against 
 lawyers, they resolve themselves into popular 
 delusions. I may not pursue this further. 
 
69 
 
 X. The law, rightly studied, is the noblest 
 theme that can command our time or employ our 
 faculties. Its effects upon the mind and soul of 
 the student are at once to exalt and enlarge, what- 
 ever the world may say or think. Its practice 
 calls into constant exercise his best qualities of 
 intellect, and familiarizes him with the use only 
 of the most honorable means ; while, as a result 
 of his contests in the presence of the world, those 
 conflicts are necessarily of the most honorable and 
 often of the most chivalrous character. 
 
 As one consequence, there is almost a total 
 absence offends, animosities, and jealousies among 
 the members of the profession ; and few tales, slan- 
 ders, and scandals, concerning its practitioners, 
 find inventors or bearers in the atmosphere of the 
 law. 
 
 The rule of absolute integrity is the rule of 
 the average good-class lawyer; and he may be 
 intrusted with the dearest possessions, the most 
 sacred of human confidences, with the certainty 
 that good faith will govern his entire conduct in 
 the discharge of all his duties. 
 
 The study and practice of the law enlarges and 
 strengthens all the faculties of the mind, and 
 naturally leads to varied attainments. The con- 
 
70 
 
 stant dealing with the business and affairs of 
 men makes the lawyer an adept and expert in 
 all the varied branches of industry and enter- 
 prise. His habit and business of advising in 
 difficult and complex transactions makes him a 
 cautious, safe, and a skillful counselor. 
 
 His constant intercourse with men renders him 
 a master of human nature; the workings and 
 weaknesses of the human heart ; the play of human 
 passion ; and the springs and motives of human 
 conduct. He sees rather the worst of men, and 
 would grow cynical and misanthropic^ if he was 
 not constantly surrounded with the illustrations 
 and manifestations of man's better qualities, in 
 the persons of his professional friends. 
 
 His habit of investigating everything, and of 
 taking things only on proof, makes him incred- 
 ulous ; and hence he is seldom imposed upon, and 
 is never visionary. His love and veneration for 
 law render him somewhat conservative ; while 
 his skill and ability as a public speaker — a real 
 power in a free community — always attract to 
 him the popular admiration, and open to him 
 the highest places his ambition may covet. The 
 successful lawyer unites in his person more of the 
 elements of a popular leader than are usually found 
 
71 
 
 in anotlier ; and necessarily the members of the 
 bar, although numerically smaller than any other 
 calling, trade, or profession, can and usually do 
 directly exercise a larger influence among a given 
 people than any other, and by concert could un- 
 doubtedly do much to control its affairs and shape 
 its destinies. 
 
 And it certainly is no discredit to them, that 
 the aggregate of this power and influence has 
 always been exercised to promote and build up 
 those institutions that advance civilization ; ex- 
 tend the field of human effort ; encourage popular 
 education ; promote science and the arts ; purify 
 the morals ; extend the franchises of the citizen ; 
 protect virtue ; and secure religious toleration. 
 The bar has necessarily exercised the whole judi- 
 cial power of this country. It has furnished the 
 controlling influence in its varied legislation, and 
 contributed out of all proportion to its executive 
 ofiicers. In the main, this influence has been en- 
 lightened, liberal, and patriotic; and in no instance 
 has it attempted to advance its own interests, as 
 distinguished from the masses of our peojile. 
 
 This, gentlemen, is a subdued and colorless 
 sketch of the profession you propose to enter, from 
 the modest stand of one of its humble members. 
 
LECTUEE III. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT TO THE JURY. 
 
 I. I SHALL on this occasion necessarily refer to 
 some of the same matters, and possihly reproduce 
 some of the things, already presented in my 
 lectures on Public Speaking, and Law Students 
 and Lawyers.* 
 
 In this country we generally do not follow the 
 English usage, in the argument of causes to the 
 jury. There the affirmative opens with a full 
 statement, and an argument of all the evidence to 
 be given in its support. The evidence is then put 
 in, and the negative then opens with a complete 
 reply and a presentation of its side. The evi- 
 dence is then introduced, and the senior counsel 
 for the negative argues and sums up the whole case, 
 and is replied to by the senior on the other side. 
 
 We usually content ourselves with a statement 
 of the case to the jury, to commence with, and re- 
 
 *Thi3 lecture was delivered after those mentioned above and 
 placed here with kindred subjects. 
 (72) 
 
73 
 
 serve all argument until all the evidence is given. 
 The affirmative then opens, is followed hy the 
 other side, and is replied to by the affirmative. 
 Both sides may submit the case without an argu- 
 ment, as may either side, whether the other does 
 or not. As a general rule, do not submit your 
 case without comment. Be sure that the jury 
 understand it, so far as they can be made to ; 
 and it may be useful to the court also. As often 
 as I have submitted a case without argument, I 
 have had occasion to regret it. 
 
 II. Whatever may be vulgarly said or thought 
 of the office and importance of argument, there 
 can be but one opinion among lawyers and en- 
 lightened minds. Nothing tends so effectually to 
 a just comprehension and a right understanding 
 of any controverted matter as a thorough discus- 
 sion of it by men who fully understand it, and 
 who are properly trained for this labor — men who 
 kick and knock it about, and show all sides of it. 
 Of course the respective counsel cannot be sup- 
 posed to be without ample information upon every 
 part of the case, so far as proof has been produced, 
 and no one can be so well prepared to hold up and 
 exhibit the questions involved in every light re- 
 
74 
 
 fleeted from the evidence ; and when this is fairly 
 done on both sides, most important and valuable 
 aid has been given to court and jury. They have 
 heard all the evidence, and finally all that clear- 
 headed men could say, upon both sides, in the ap- 
 plication of that evidence, and the diverse conclu- 
 sions to which, from the same evidence, they have 
 come. The jury are to say which shall prevail. 
 
 III. As I have elsewhere said, it is the first 
 condition of an efiective advocacy that the counsel 
 should believe that he is right. It must be a 
 poor advocate who does not convince himself; 
 and if he fails in this important requisite, he can 
 hardly hope to convince others, who are indifferent 
 or biased against him. All this matter, in its 
 moral and mental bearings, I fully presented in 
 the lecture on Law Students and Lawyers. Any 
 man with warmth enough to be an advocate 
 becomes so thoroughly imbued with his case, so 
 earnest in his faith, that, long before he reaches 
 the final argument, he has lost sight of every 
 consideration, except how best to present it. 
 Money, fees, labor, all pass out of his mind and 
 memory. It is in this mental condition that he 
 works through a trial. 
 
75 
 
 The advocate is to remember that everything 
 in the world is subordinate to the case. Of course 
 I mean everything not inconsistent with truth, 
 honor, manhood, justice, and a decent regard for 
 the feelings of others. The advocate is not to 
 think of himself or his reputation. He is of no 
 conseq[uence, except as he can fairly advance his 
 case; and he must consider how he can best do 
 that ; and what, on the whole, seems best for that 
 purpose he must say ; and that which will not, 
 he must refrain from, however tempting. This is 
 his personal relation to his case. His zeal, how- 
 ever, must be according to knowledge. He takes 
 up his client's cause, but his client's feelings, pas- 
 sions, enmities, dislikes, and prejudices are never 
 to be his ; for to just the extent that he becomes 
 saturated with these and becomes his client, to 
 that extent he loses his capacity to judge coolly, 
 speak prudently, and act wisely. Some men are 
 so constituted that they at once become possessed 
 of their clients, (and they had as well be possessed 
 of the devil,) who, in their estimation, are the 
 only honest men in the world, except the wit- 
 nesses who swear for them, while their oppo- 
 nents are hopeless villains, and their witnesses 
 perjured scoundrels. Such men are often good 
 
76 
 
 lawyers and advocates, but it is in spite of these 
 qualities. 
 
 You are then to argue the cause, not for your own 
 benefit or fame, but solely to convince the jury, 
 and for no other purpose in the world ; and as 
 the minds of men work much alike, if you will 
 remember the processes of your own, making 
 allowance for the difference of your positions, you 
 may get some hints as to the best method of deal- 
 ing with the minds of the jury. 
 
 IV. You will do well to reflect somewhat upon 
 the mental character of the men you are to address. 
 They are "the country," to whom all issues of 
 fact are specially referred ; numerous enough and 
 of sufficient variety to represent the average com- 
 mon mind; and are supposed to embody the un- 
 biased public opinion in their verdicts. Juries 
 are an awkward, cumbrous, and unintellectual 
 means for the ascertainment of facts ; as much so 
 as could be invented. They are the only purely 
 democratic element of our Government. The man 
 is a juror because he is a citizen ; and the way is 
 level aad straight from his home to the jury box. 
 fie comes with his feelings, passions, prejudices, 
 ignorance, experience, and knowledge, just as he 
 
•77 
 
 is, and sits with tliem all as a part of his citizen's 
 garb. You have the common man to deal with. 
 You are to approach twelve of these at one time, 
 openly, publicly, in the presence of the court, and 
 in the face of the enemy; and if you can, gain 
 their attention, interest them in your cause, se- 
 cure their confidence and sympathy, and convince 
 their judgments ; or at any rate get their verdict. 
 
 Now, you want to be able to approach them at 
 once, and step into the circle of their thought, or 
 bring them into yours, which is better. Long 
 before you come to address them, they will have 
 some impression of you personally, and of your 
 side of the case. They will have read you pretty 
 well, whatever you may have done. You ought 
 to be able to come to them with a reputation for 
 candor and fair dealing. Your manner and course 
 of management should be such, that they will not 
 be armed against you, or in mental hostility to 
 you; and whatever there is of unpopularity or 
 prejudice about you, will be a thing to be over- 
 come or put out of sight in some way ; for other- 
 wise it will be a weight to carry. So any defect of 
 person, manner, dress, or oddity may work in the 
 same way. 
 
 Some men can at once attract and win, while 
 
78 
 
 others repel ; and no one can quite tell why. One 
 thino- is obvious : a man must rise and stand on 
 exactly the same level occupied by the jury. It 
 will never do to stand above, and naturally look 
 and shoot over, or have to depress the muzzle 
 of your piece to reach them ; nor must the mis- 
 take of appearing below them be made : though 
 for a rising man it will be easier to get up than 
 for a lofty one to come down. The common level, 
 on which all can meet and recognize ; the frank, 
 natural, unassuming, unconstrained, pleasant, 
 respectful way in which gentlemen meet each 
 other ; where both sides understand that import- 
 ant matters are to be disposed of, in which all are 
 interested, is your ground. Levity is indecent; 
 awful solemnity out of place ; pomp and grandeur 
 of manner are obsolete. You must be yourself, 
 if you can be — if that self is worth being ; if not, 
 you should be out of court. Of course you will 
 for a long time, and after many arguments, be 
 diffident and nervous. Do we ever get over it, 
 so that it never returns ? Now, if you have about 
 you, in your dress, anything that you don't like, 
 that you don't feel well in, don't wear that on 
 the day of argument. Of course you will not 
 appear in full dress on ordinary occasions; but 
 
n 
 
 you must feel yourself; and if dress helps you, 
 dress. I knew a gentlemen who once sent sixty 
 miles for a favorite pair of boots, in which to 
 make his final argument ia a great case. 
 
 You are not only to rise to the level of the 
 jury, hut you must keep constantly in mind the 
 mental level of that body. It is the average 
 common mind of men, unaccustomed to sustain 
 mental labor, and who weary of it as soon as 
 would an office man of carrying brick up a three- 
 story building. Especially remember this: the 
 mind is unaccustomed to the labor, and incapable 
 of it, if long continued. The twelve can no more 
 follow a long, close, nice, analytical discussion 
 upon the respective sides of a complex proposition 
 than they can fly ; nor do juries ever arrive at 
 verdicts in that way. We are often astonished 
 by the reasons given by courts for conclusions of 
 facts, and of law also; and few juries could give 
 the intellectual processes which conducted to their 
 conclusions, if tlie intellect had anytliing to do 
 with it. They are the country ; an epitomized 
 mass-meeting of citizens ; they are moved in the 
 same way; follow the same mode of thinking, or 
 rather of not thinking ; and are almost always 
 governed by their impressions. I wonder if the 
 
80 
 
 clergy think of these things? The issue is a single 
 material point, and the jury will be more strongly 
 impressed in favor of one side than of the other. 
 What have you to present in the way of argu- 
 ment, simple, strong, clear, and forcible, that 
 they can understand, and that will impress them 
 indelibly in your favor? 
 
 You will see that your points must be few and 
 strongly marked — the fewer the better — not more 
 than one or two — and these are not to be weak- 
 ened or obscured by making minor and less im- 
 portant points. Sei2» one or two, and remember 
 that the jury have heard the evidence but once, 
 have no notes of it, and it may be conflicting. 
 Seize one or two points, clear them from doubt 
 and obscurity, present and re-present them in 
 every light which the evidence will permit, 
 and be certain that you are understood. Re- 
 member that the mental grasp of the jury is 
 weak and lazy, and easily overcome; and you 
 must not overload and overwhelm them, or con- 
 fuse and bewilder them, unless in that lies 
 your hope ; and so you must put up your goods 
 in a single parcel, if possible, and so fix it in 
 the minds and memories of your hearers, that 
 they cannot lose or have it wrested from them. 
 
81 
 
 Cutting or shooting it into them, is the only safe 
 way. 
 
 V. Don't entertain the popular idea of analyzing 
 your jury, and of saying one thing to one man, 
 making a point for him, and another thing to the 
 next, and so on through, until you have hooked 
 and strung them all, after the marvelous fashion 
 of the marvelous Choate. Nohody else ever did 
 such a thing, or if they did, it will never be done 
 again. Of course one juror is impressed by one 
 thing, and another by another ; but the advocate 
 can seldom tell where or whom he hits, or how ; 
 and the kind of eclecticism mentioned, if at- 
 tempted, while it might convince the one or some 
 other one, might repel the other eleven. 
 
 Among twelve there will seldom be more than 
 two or three, often not more than one or two, (and 
 sometimes none,) active and intelligent minds; 
 and while I would never undertake to analyze 
 the twelve, the advocate would be very careless 
 if he failed to recognize the leading minds by the 
 time he comes to address the jury. Now, my 
 struggle would be for the souls and consciences 
 of these men, with little care for the average 
 blockhead, so that I did not offend him. It is 
 6 
 
82 
 
 amazing how few do the thinking in this human 
 world; and one clear head and strong will con- 
 trols a hundred ordinary men. Indeed, this will 
 force is a wonderful power in the hands of the 
 advocate. Men carry doubtful cases sometimes 
 because they will, and men yield rather than arm 
 and defend themselves. I have seen courts shaken 
 and driven from their judgments by a strong, con- 
 trolling will. Capture and hold, if you can, the 
 governing mind^ and it will take care of the weak- 
 lings and nobodies. 
 
 VI. You will keep in mind that you can come 
 to but one conclusion : that the merits of the case 
 are with you, and that the verdict must be for 
 your client, unless, indeed, you are prepared to 
 admit that the case is so hopeless that it will not 
 hold you up in an argument ; and that case must 
 be hopeless, when an ingenious man can find 
 nothing to say on its poorer side. I remind you 
 of this only for the purpose of sayings that while 
 you are bound to one result, you must reach it 
 solely by means of the evidence admitted by the 
 court. You can use nothing but the evidence; 
 and if that cannot, by skillful handling, adjust- 
 ing, and arranging, be made to carry out that 
 
83 
 
 result, you should suffer a defeat, and probably 
 will. 
 
 All you can do is to make the best possible use 
 of the evidence. Your duty is plain and obvious : 
 you are to argue. You cannot, by bald assertion, 
 supply a missing link. You may show that, in 
 the nature of things, that link must exist, though 
 absent; but you are to argue from what you 
 have, scant though it is, and not from what you 
 have not, important though it may be. What- 
 ever your evidence implies it proves, and you 
 may have the benefit of it; and it is often aston- 
 ishing how far strong hands will carry and be 
 carried by a little evidence. While you cannot 
 supply evidence^ so you must not misstake it. Not 
 even a temporary advantage could be gained, while 
 certain exposure and loss would follow. 
 
 An advocate has no more authority or warrant 
 for an untruthful statement to a jury than to any 
 other parties, and is under the same rule of rigid 
 morality in dealing with them as with the rest 
 of the world ; and whoever deems himself remit- 
 ted to a lower or other standard in the practice 
 of the law from that which should govern the 
 rest of the world, has utterly misunderstood the 
 spirit of his profession, and the standard it sets 
 
84 
 
 up for him; and for him no high degree of suc- 
 cess is within reach. I must repeat myself on 
 this point. I have observed, especially in our 
 profession, that a healthy mental growth is seldom 
 found where there is a lack of healthy moral de- 
 velopment. The man may become skillful and 
 adroit, but he will seldom become a distinguished 
 lawyer, and more rarely still a great advocate. 
 A man's moral make-up is soon comprehended; 
 and when a jury know that there stands before 
 them athoroughly reliable, honest-minded, honest- 
 hearted man, they give themselves into his hands 
 with great confidence, while the dishonest never 
 wins full assent. If inclined to believe him, a 
 jury fear a snare, and stand aloof. Of all the 
 callings of men, that of the lawyer exacts the 
 most rigid uprightness ; and high reputation will 
 attend none but the upright. 
 
 Men talk and write about legal ethics, the 
 morality of the bar, and all that sort of insuffer- 
 able stuff. He who so talks compromises himself; 
 and whoever contends for any but the common 
 rule of honesty and truth, recognized the world 
 over, makes an opening for a dangerous and most 
 damaging inference and suspicion. You are, then, 
 to deal fairly and honestly with a jury ; and there 
 
85 
 
 can be no excuse for attempting to deceive them, 
 except that you are yourself deceived. Nor is it 
 in good taste or ever useful to declare your own 
 personal belief in the truth or correctness of your 
 position. Show a jury the open, fair road to con- 
 viction, by exhibiting the evidence in its most 
 favorable light. Open and light up the way to 
 the wished-for conclusion, but don't stand outside 
 and solemnly asseverate that there is a way, and 
 that they ought to find that they are already in 
 it, because you say that you believe that the way 
 is open and straight to the conclusion. 
 
 VII. Whatever you may feel called upon to do 
 or warranted in attempting, never, in cold blood, 
 deliberately determine to be eloquent. Eeal elo- 
 quence is rare; few occasions arise that produce 
 it; and very few men are equal to those rare oc- 
 casions. Indeed, it is difficult to say what it is 
 or in what it consists . The young advocate dreams 
 of it, and a few realize the dream. Be earnest, 
 sincere, and warm ; speak with feeling, force, and 
 energy; but don't try to be eloquent. There is 
 one other thing more fatal than eloquence, and 
 that is pathos. Of all t.he barbarities practiced 
 by man on man, the dry, creaking, laborious at- 
 
86 
 
 tempt to produce tears is the cruelest — ''boring for 
 water," as somebody called one of tbese droughty 
 efforts. Be funny — be anything but moist. 
 
 Sarcasm and invective may sometimes, when 
 sparingly used, be not without effect; but don't 
 fall into the common error of mistaking abuse 
 for sarcasm, or coarseness for strength. Men 
 sometimes affect wit and humor, and barely suc- 
 ceed in being low and vulgar. 
 
 VIII. Eschew formal openings. If you are not 
 quite sure of yourself, fix well in your mind a few 
 modest, common-place opening passages, that will 
 occupy you until you are sure that you are on 
 your feet, and before the court and jury — some- 
 thing pertinent and modest. Your voice may 
 sound strange to you at the first, but you will re- 
 cover it as well as your other self. All the bar 
 and the court will sympathize with you. Your 
 opponent would be pained by your failure; but 
 you cannot fail if you understand your case, and 
 know well what you want to say, and go about it 
 in a direct and manly way. Study the case, but 
 don't study a grand peroration; or if you have, 
 omit it, and merely stop when done ; which after 
 all is no easy thing to do. 
 
87 
 
 Explain the nature of the issue, what each side 
 of you must do, and then proceed to take up and 
 apply the evidence to each point, and all of it, 
 and be sure and make yourself understood. 
 
 If you have occasion to cite books and cases, 
 make yourself as familiar with them as possible 
 in advance. They are always heavy and awkward 
 to a young advocate, and when you can, master 
 them — especially the cases — beforehand. Don't 
 content yourself with merely marking a passage 
 or two and reading mechanically. Explain the 
 case with a clear statement of the facts, so as to 
 show how the points arose. Nothing is so ad- 
 mirable as the easy, absolutely clear, and distinct 
 statement of facts, whether in your own case or 
 of those brought to sustain it. Never take into 
 court a book or case merely because it in some 
 way treats of analogous matter; but be sure that 
 the text supports you, and the case is in point. 
 First, be sure and master your own case, and then 
 understand and master your authorities ; and re- 
 member that these are for the court. Every case 
 will naturally fall into some methodical order. 
 Pursue this, and, when fairly through, close up 
 your argument. Every moment beyond adds no 
 strength. 
 
IX. In the matter of advocacy, like other things 
 connected with the law, eminence is usually only 
 attained by labor, study, practice, and unremit- 
 ting effort. You may be a genius, whatever that 
 is, and may really have fine parts, calculated, 
 when exercised and developed, to conduct you to 
 distinction ; but it will be fatal to trust to them. 
 Thank God for them, and gratefully labor and 
 study to make the most of them. Eemember 
 that no genius was ever so generous and happy 
 that it could alone conduct to eminence. 
 
 The power and capacity of effective speech can 
 only be acquired — for it is an acquirement — by 
 industry, study, and much practice. 
 
 In the first place, the man must, under all con- 
 ditions, have a speech in him. You cannot by 
 any means get out of a man what is not in him. 
 You cannot always getwhat is in him. Wliat is 
 not must be looked for elsewhere. Mere words, 
 sounding and polished rhetoric, will not do : there 
 must be some sound meaty matter, wholesome 
 and nutritious. Shams and sounding-boards will 
 not last an hour in the rude forum of a nisi prius 
 court ; and this matter you must be prepared to 
 furnish in some quantity and kind. Don't be 
 afraid that it will not be appreciated. It ccr- 
 
89 
 
 tainly will be. Men forced to act in cases of diffi- 
 culty always eagerly and gratefully listen to every 
 word that helps them on and out; and such 
 words you must he prepared to utter ; and every- 
 body fully estimates and deals kindly with what 
 falls from the young advocate. 
 
 X. As for the manner of utterance — the mere 
 mode — cultivate a natural, easy, graceful, fin- 
 ished style. Eememher that whatever is import- 
 ant enough for you to say, is of sufficient import- 
 ance to be well said. Have nothing florid, finical, 
 or mouthing ; but simple, manly, proper, finished, 
 and elegant, if it may be. Don't, for heaven's 
 sake, fall into the careless, slovenly, slip-shod 
 way and manner of speech so prevalent in our 
 courts. No matter in what court you appear, or 
 what may be the habit of its practitioners, you 
 may not hope to reform it, but you can avoid 
 falling into it. You are a gentleman, a lawyer, 
 and an advocate, and each of these is inconsistent 
 with the manners and address of the legal loafers 
 who disfigure our courts. We mean to turn out 
 the possibilities of good lawyers and advocates. 
 We should blush if any but thorough gentlemen 
 went from us. 
 
90 
 
 You are to convince, if possible. To do that, 
 you must be understood ; and that you may be 
 understood, use none but the plainest, simplest, 
 and most common words. Indeed, among intel- 
 ligent people, every child at ten has acquired 
 language that will be the staple of your speech. 
 The words used longest and oftenest will be to 
 you the handiest, most forcible, and useful. Re- 
 member that they are not thought or ideas, but 
 the bearers of your thought to others ; and they 
 must deliver them into the comprehension and 
 understanding of your hearers. Never use a word 
 until you are certain of its meaning, and until 
 you are also familiar with its sound and pronun- 
 ciation; and avoid scraps of law Latin and law 
 French, or poetry or Scripture. 
 
 I would by no means have you neglect the 
 study and acquisition of language. On the con- 
 trary, I would master all English words, and be 
 familiar with all the terms of art and science. 
 Surround yourself with language, search out its 
 sources, laws, and relations, so that you may 
 never feel its want, and can command its strength. 
 
 XI. Let me suggest a useful exercise, and one 
 that will employ every leisure hour or odd mo- 
 
91 
 
 ment. Think always in words; compel your 
 silent thoughts to clothe themselves in the forms 
 of language. I know nothing that more rapidly 
 helps you to the mastery of language and expres- 
 sion. 
 
 I may confess to you, perhaps, a practice of my 
 own, in all my young law student and young law- 
 yer days, with what advantage I know not: and 
 that was the constant creation and delivery of im- 
 aginary arguments to imaginary juries, in unreal 
 courts, in extemporized cases, upon supposed evi- 
 dence. 
 
 My mind would construct cases out of the most 
 ordinary incidents of every day life, and glean up 
 evidences from all possible sources ; and I would 
 prosecute and defend, sue and be sued, and always 
 hastened my cases to an issue, trials and argu- 
 ment. I used to have some standing cases, in 
 which I had a great many new trials, with all 
 manner of inconsequent verdicts and reversals of. 
 judgments. 
 
 This habit did not arise from any bias of my 
 mind, or inclination to judicial studies and labors, 
 for I had none ; but they were among the sponta- 
 neous expedients of an active and imaginative 
 mind. I don't know as the results were of the 
 
92 
 
 least value, and I only state this practice as a 
 suggestion to you. I don't know as this was 
 ever practiced by any other man, but think that 
 it might have been attended with some advant- 
 age in my own case. 
 
 XII. Whether there is anything in our climate 
 or peculiar to our continent, to our habits of life 
 and mode of thought, it is indisputable that we 
 have a wonderful facility for public speaking — to 
 speak while standing; and few Americans born 
 but can acquire great fluency in the use of words. 
 Persistent effort and constant practice, in almost 
 every instance where there is no phj^sical defect, 
 is certain to develop a ready use of words. This, 
 however important an accomplishment it may be 
 and most useful it is, yet, standing alone, can 
 achieve nothing. Words alone are nothing. It 
 is only where they are the bearers of thought, 
 freighted and rich with sense and pertinent matter 
 — when they go, like brown bees, burdened with 
 the gatherings of labor — that they are listened 
 to, treasured, and remembered; and, when thus 
 employed, they tell upon the position of an oppo- 
 nent like cannon-shot upon a beleaguered fortress. 
 So that, after all, for the rough and ready work of 
 
93 
 
 tlie nisi prius advocate, the mind should be well 
 stored with matter, which will get itself uttered 
 somehow. Have the best possible matter that the 
 field or mine of your case permits. Enrich it, if 
 you can, from other sources of thought and expe- 
 rience; embellish it sparingly, and with severe 
 taste, and deliver it as effectively as you can, 
 naturally and earnestly, and in the order that 
 best commends your case to favorable considera- 
 tion. 
 
 XIII. Of the mental qualities necessary to suc- 
 cessful advocacy^ the most important must be 
 the power to clearly and discriminatingly un- 
 derstand the exact elements involved in a given 
 controversy — to comprehend and discriminate. 
 The thing must be understood and separated 
 from every other thing, while at the same time 
 its relations to other things niust he discovered, 
 and as clearly traced out and understood. Some 
 minds, of a metaphysical cast, have an especial 
 aptitude for correctly apprehending and draw- 
 ing the boundary line around the most abstract 
 ideas; and the danger to these minds is, they 
 are apt to sight too fine, and draw too close and 
 nice distinctions for the average minds and com- 
 
94 
 
 jliensions of men in practical life. One thing 
 absolutely certain: no man can convey to 
 other a clear and accurate idea and under- 
 ,nding of what he does not himself fully com- 
 jhend and understand; and the clearer he 
 IS it, the more readily can he bring it within 
 3 clear vision of others. The faculty of clear 
 prehension must generally be cultivated, while 
 3 matters immediately involved must be spec- 
 ly and thoroughly understood. This is a first 
 idition of useful advocacy. The next is the 
 ;ulty of clearly stating to others — of conveying 
 d delivering into their minds — the matters 
 d things which so clearly and distinctly rest 
 the mind of the advocate. A vast deal is 
 irolved in this. The ideas must stand in log- 
 l1 order in the speaker's mind, and, without 
 :ddle or confusion, should in this order be con- 
 yed to others without breakage. This requires 
 e freest and readiest connection between the 
 ocess of thought and the faculty of utterance 
 d speech. These thoughts, ideas, or under- 
 mdings must be made to take the form of clear, 
 ,ppy, and forcible expression in speech, which 
 volves, of course, the power and faculty of cloth- 
 g ideas in words, and giving them utterance. 
 
95 
 
 As to this latter, you have enjoyed the great ad- 
 vantage of the discipline and training, as well as 
 the practical suggestions, of your professor,* who 
 has had that matter specially in hand. I may 
 be permitted to say, that these words are to be 
 distinctly pronounced, and_, in a mere statement 
 of the case, deliberately uttered. As no word 
 will be in excess, so each word must have its 
 weight. Nothing is so effective and advantageous 
 as a clear, logical statement of facts ; nor is there 
 a better test of a good advocate. 
 
 Of this statement of facts, such as are not dis- 
 puted, if any, should be enumerated as admitted ; 
 and the advocate then proceeds to take up, in his 
 own order and in liis own way, such as he claims 
 are proven by the evidence. Of course I need not 
 say that all and every word of evidence in the 
 case, no matter from what source derived, or on 
 which side produced, is to be analyzed, explained, 
 grouped, and applied for and against each fact. 
 The whole, claimed to be admitted and estab- 
 lished, should then be grouped and arranged, 
 and regrouped and rearranged, in all the forms 
 and methods which the advocate deems necessary 
 
 * Professor Langston. 
 
96 
 
 "or the most favorable consideration of his side. 
 Dhis involves the whole matter of argument 
 jroper, as well the opening as the reply to any 
 irgument of the other side. 
 
 I have already spoken of will force as an im- 
 jortant element of advocacy, and observe further, 
 hat the manner of the advocate should always be 
 hat of unhesitating confidence in every position 
 le takes, and conclusion to which he arrives. 
 Nothing could be more damaging than a doubt- 
 ng, hesitating, feeble, or vacillating manner, 
 jet the advocate, with a modest, but decided, 
 lonfident, firm manner, plant his foot upon every 
 )osition he proposes to maintain, and stand there 
 vith the fixed confidence and determination of a 
 nan who will maintaiu it; and let him approach 
 he positions of his" adversary without arrogance 
 ir swagger, but with his forces well in hand — 
 viih a cool, intrepid manner — and carry them by 
 torm, if necessary: and juries are sometimes car- 
 ied in the same way. But always distinguish be- 
 ween mere noise and actual manful force. The 
 ,dvocate must also have the power of condensing 
 ,nd concentrating himself on one side of a case, 
 ,nd to see the other only to see a way of demolish- 
 Qg it. This is one especial power of the advocate. 
 
97 
 
 XIV. Great and constant practice is essential 
 to a successful speaker of any sort, and all prac- 
 tice is, to a certain extent, useful to the beginner. 
 But the random declamatory, story-telling, balder- 
 dash way of political speaking, as is much prac- 
 ticed, cannot be long pursued without being hurt- 
 ful and destructive to the severe and logical 
 method of presenting matter essential to the ad- 
 vocate. He rises with an inexorable point which 
 he must make, and holds in hand the exact and 
 only means that he can employ. His structure 
 must bear a certain height and solidity, and he 
 can employ only certain material ; and, like the 
 Hebrews in Egypt, he may be obliged to gather 
 straw for his brick in waste places. 
 
 The political orator rises with a subject as lim- 
 itless as the out-door horizon ; may speak for 
 some definite object or none; and draw his ma- 
 terial from any source. And whoever indulges in 
 this discursive, miscellaneous st3'-le, dissipates and 
 finally loses his faculty of condensing his thought 
 and speech in the effective manner which courts 
 will alone tolerate. And this is the reason why 
 so many distinguished advocates make indifferent 
 parliamentary and congressional speeches. They 
 rise in an unaccustomed forum, with no certain, 
 7 
 
98 
 
 definite issue to be maintained, and with no speci- 
 fied, marked, weighed, and counted material, 
 which can alone be used. The walls of the cham- 
 ber vanish, and imponderable atoms fill the air, 
 which they cannot clutch and condense into logi- 
 cal formulas; and they have not the faculty "to 
 float in the amplitude of nature," or bombast, 
 which is often the element and aliment of the 
 stump speaker. And hence, naturally enough, 
 Brskine, the over-estimated English advocate, was 
 the under-estimated speaker in Parliament, while 
 Curran, the ardent, passionate, illogical, Irish 
 declaimer, succeeded in the Irish House of Com- 
 mons q^uite as well as did Grattan. 
 
 XY. It is, perhaps, singular that, while oratory 
 ranks, with the beauty of woman and with gold, 
 as one of the greatest powers to move, seduce, and 
 control men, and is sometimes more powerful 
 than both, and although we are a nation of pub- 
 lic speakers, yet with us the arts of oratory are 
 rarely or never cultivated ; and this seems to be 
 so in all modern countries. The art of oratory 
 may be classed with the lost arts. I cannot here 
 inquire into the causes that have contributed to 
 this, but we have hardly in this generation a 
 
99 
 
 speaker who can be called an orator in the good 
 sense of the word. Speakers we have — strong, 
 logical, powerful, passionate, vehement, overmas- 
 tering, and, at times, irresistible ; but orators, per- 
 haps none. 
 
 The prevailing and growing habit of writing 
 and reading essays called sermons precludes the 
 possibility of even moderately effective efforts in 
 the pulpit. Neither the rich nor poor can be said 
 to have the gospel, or anything else, preaclied to 
 them now, as a rule. 
 
 One seldom hears effective speaking in the 
 House of Kepresentatives. The crowd and com- 
 petition for the floor and the hour rule compel 
 members to write out their speeches^ and trust to 
 some odd time, in Committee of the whole House 
 on the state of the Union, long after all interest 
 in their subject has passed, and in the absence of 
 all but a dozen members, companions in misfor- 
 tune, when they may read and print, and mu- 
 tually subscribe for and frank their speeches to 
 the world and posterity. When one is fortunate 
 enough to get the floor on a field day^ his very 
 effort to make himself heard above the clamor and 
 din compels him to use his whole physical force, 
 which render,^ intellectual labor feeble or im- 
 
100 
 
 ossible. He rises at one of the remote desks, 
 ith knots and separate crowds, and little half 
 idependent mobs, and in directions between him 
 nd the Speaker, with clamor and confusion of 
 lembers about him and in cloak-rooms behind 
 im, and pitches his voice so that his words 
 layhap go over the intervening noisy throngs, 
 nd drop on the desk like small shells among 
 be House reporters. He is speaking to the 
 ountry, to posterity -^-God help him! Of all 
 he places on this earth, and of all bodies called 
 eliberative, I declare the American House of 
 Representatives the hardest and most trying to 
 peak in ; and many able and accomplished men 
 ever try it but once, and many not at all. 
 The Senate is smaller, more quiet and select, 
 nd a less ability wins a reputation in that body. 
 )ne now seldom hears good speaking in the Su- 
 ireme Court of the United States. Nothing which 
 ealizes the traditions of Webster, Wirt, Pink- 
 ley, and Emmett. Indeed, the manner of dealing 
 rith cases in that august forum precludes and 
 iiscourages the higher efforts of speaking. - All 
 3 humdrum, dry, and matter of fact ; and it is not 
 iften that the popular advocates, trained in the 
 rial of cases before juries, appear in that court at 
 
101 
 
 all, and whea they do, a rigor mortis supervenes. 
 I am most decidedly of opinion, that the best 
 speaking in our country is at the har of the nisi 
 prius courts — the best, in all respects, estimated 
 by any standard. 
 
 XVI. As I may have before remarked for your 
 encouragement, it does not take the greatest in- 
 tellect to make the greatest lawyer. Good law- 
 yers are common, and the bar, in learning and 
 ability, is undoubtedly in advance of any for- 
 mer day. Grood advocates, though by no means 
 scarce, are more rare than good lawyers. A 
 man can be a good lawyer and a very indifferent 
 advocate; but there never was a good advocate 
 who was not a good lawyer. Something more 
 and a little higher comes in to fit up the advo- 
 cate, not essential to the mere lawyer. 
 
 Among all the achievements of the human in- 
 tellect, the rarest on this earth has ever been and 
 always will be the first places in oratory. Indeed, 
 while, human history is studded with great com- 
 manders, great poets, painters, sculptors, and 
 philosophers, antiquity gives us but two orators ; 
 and how many have modern times produced? 
 
 You may not expect to reach the first eminence, 
 
102 
 
 but you may all hopefully struggle to become in 
 time good advocates, whicli is a high distinction. 
 
 In many of our large cities the work of law- 
 yers has undergone the division of labor that at- 
 tends the later stages in all branches of human 
 effort and enterprise, and many, distinguished in 
 special branches, never appear in court to argue 
 cases while the advocate is constantly in court. 
 
 Of course every student of the law who intends 
 to pursue it as a profession — and no others should 
 study it — is ambitious to become an advocate^ and 
 certainly no more worthy object of a manly ambi- 
 tion exists. 
 
 There is no human knowledge that may not 
 aid, and no human faculty that will not contribute 
 to the success of the advocate. His labor, on great 
 occasions, is one in which the highest elements ol 
 the human intellect and soul may, when called to 
 their greatest exertion, find the amplest field for 
 their united display: one in \\ihich the highest 
 possible human achievement may be realized. 
 
 A great advocate, on a great occasion^ at his 
 best and highest, may for his hour stand on the 
 highest 'pinnacle of his race. The highest courts 
 bow with submissive awe before him, and rever- 
 ently profit by his conclusions. These occasions 
 
103 
 
 and achievements may not come to us, but our 
 profession leads us along the way that conducts 
 to them. 
 
 No rules can he laid down which, however faith- 
 fully followed, will make a first-class advocate. 
 The present manner of conductiug business — 
 modes of thought and temper of our courts — does 
 not lead to, does not demand, the cultivation of 
 the highest order of speaking. The tendency is 
 to the humdrum and matter of fact — a business 
 style — and an absence of the finished and elabor- 
 ate ; and I fear that labored dullness sometimes 
 passes for learning, and grave and solemn common- 
 place for force, even in the courts. 
 
 All can reach a fair average of business advo- 
 cacy. Beyond that, much certainly depends upon 
 mental make-up, ardor, and warmth of tempera- 
 ment, and the play and power of the emotional 
 nature. A man who sincerely believes that he is 
 right, who has deep and earnest convictions, and 
 who is so accustomed to speaking that he thinks 
 quickest and best on his feet, (legs; as the English 
 say,) will always be impressive ; and if he has a 
 quick, kindling, sympathetic nature, he will often 
 rise to heights of real power, and may sometimes, 
 perhaps, touch the realm of true eloquence. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 LAST WORDS — ABVISORT AND SUQGISTrVE. 
 
 As we are near the end of our second academic 
 year, and some of you are about to go out and 
 away from us forever, I take this opportunity to 
 say to the department some words of advice and 
 admonition, and which, though I trust will be 
 profitable to all, will be to the graduating class 
 last words, and a final adieu from this chair. 
 The past has been summed up and reviewed, and 
 a few sober words for the future alone remain to 
 be spoken. They will be entirely practical. 
 
 Upon admission to the bar, no long lapse of 
 idleness should intervene before entering upon, or 
 holding yourselves out to enter upon, the active 
 labors of the profession, if you ever seriously in- 
 tend to practice law. 
 
 Where shall you locate? Shall you form a 
 partnership? As to this last, the question may 
 be narrowed as to many of you, on account of 
 (104) 
 
105 
 
 race. It is not often that a very eligible opening 
 is found to form a connection with the most de- 
 sirable partners. Men of standing and position 
 at the bar, if they desire it, have partners ; and 
 if not, they usually prefer full-grown lawyers 
 to young students. Occasionally such oppor- 
 tunities present themselves, and are gladly ac- 
 cepted. The advantages are obvious. You secure 
 an establishment at once — an office, library, and 
 business — with a chance to acquire a knowledge 
 of practice, and all the various modes and forms 
 of business, with a freedom from the danger of 
 blunders, and an apparently open way to active 
 and successful professional labor. 
 
 The disadvantages are less apparent, but very 
 real. You stand a good chance of always filling, 
 or at least of occupying, a subordinate position. 
 Suppose you form a connection with a man in full 
 practice. For a long time you will be a mere 
 office-boy and messenger. The inquiry will always 
 be for the senior, and at the most you will at first 
 answer that he is out, or refer the caller to him. 
 • If you are content to do this, and only copy and 
 write what you are set to do, the danger is that 
 you will never grow to anything better. You 
 will get in the habit of being passed by, until 
 
106 
 
 our busy senior may conclude that you never 
 m do anything. All that he really can do for 
 ou is to hold you out as his partner, and occa- 
 ionally advise and put special things in your 
 ands to do. When left at the office alone, you 
 an not only answer questions, but inform callers 
 hat you are a partner, and suggest that the busi- 
 less of the visitor can possibly be advanced by 
 ou. This will often lead to a conversation, not 
 nly as to what is the matter in hand, which will 
 ften prove something that you can do, or at least 
 mderstand, so that you will perhaps make a use- 
 ul acquaintance, make yourself useful to your 
 enior, and necessarily to yourself. No oppor- 
 unity should be neglected to pick up the odds 
 ,nd ends of business, and of thoroughly under- 
 tanding everything, not as a clerk, but a princi- 
 al. The chief danger is the habit of depending ; 
 f leaning and relying upon another ; of always 
 oing in leading-strings, and being supported, 
 ntil you lose the confidence and ability to go 
 lone. Of all the discouraging and belittling 
 ifluences that one can fall under, this might be ■ 
 le most fatal. JSTo blight is so enfeebling as 
 lat of the constant shadow of a strong, powerful 
 3nior, to him who constantly walks in it: and 
 
107 
 
 the abler and more distinguished he is — and hence 
 the more desirable as a partner — the more fatal 
 will be his influence ; and the junior of such a 
 man bids fair to always remain a junior. I have 
 known many instances. He is the errand boy; 
 carries the papers and books; looks up cases to 
 order ; and occasionally skirmishes in the opening 
 battle of a trial, and disappears. If a case is 
 called up in court in the absence of the senior, 
 his dismay is hopeless and helpless. It takes a 
 good deal of native strength and courage to grow 
 up strong and healthy under such overwhelming 
 association. I have known instances, but they 
 are rare. I would prefer as a partner, as indeed 
 for most professional services, a rising man, who 
 was yet working for reputation, and full of sym- 
 pathy, ambition, and unused-up energy. 
 
 Of all associates, as partners or otherwise, the 
 most to be dreaded and avoided, for all purposes, 
 are the often numerous swarm of drowsy, dron- 
 ing, superannuated, broken, lazy, useless legal 
 loafers, who hang about court-houses, talking 
 about and getting interested in other men's cases, 
 and who crowd about a trial table, and pick up 
 and read the papers, and make suggestions and 
 themselves unendurable, and who have no busi- 
 
108 
 
 less anywhere, and are idlers and loungers every- 
 where. These shun and avoid, as you would war, 
 )estilence, and famine. They are at their hest 
 jood for nothing under any circumstances. 
 
 Two patient, industrious, and ambitious young 
 nen, fresh at the har, may often with advantage 
 ;ommence together. They mutually encourage, 
 itrengthen, and sustain each other through the 
 ong, long interval between the time of dawn 
 md the hour when the sun does really rise with 
 lope and strength and life in his beams; and 
 vhen a case comes, as it certainly will, the two 
 logether will not often be too much for one side 
 )fit. 
 
 One other thing, most important : rely on your- 
 lelves. Go at once to your books, and learn from 
 hem exactly what you want to know about what- 
 iver comes up, unless it is a question of local 
 )ractice. Your law will be good, and do you 
 ^ood all your days. Let this be your rule. You 
 lay borrow a book, may inquire about a case; 
 ut never be seen running about begging crumbs 
 nd broken bits of law here and there. You will 
 hrivel and perish on such food. I would not 
 ike such law ; and was I a client, I would never 
 ike law from any counsel in the street. 
 
109 
 
 But where shall you commence? This is a 
 grave point to determine. 
 
 As to the place, one thing is certain : it must 
 he where there already is, or quite certainly will 
 be, law business. I have known a good many 
 young men to spend a long time, and go a long 
 way, to find "an opening "^ — some hungry va- 
 cancy, yearning for a yoimg lawyer to fill it. 
 Openings do not exist. The youth must make 
 one for himself. His search for one will be an 
 idle quest: usually a pursuit of knowledge under 
 difficulties. I should be very reluctant to locate 
 in a town not a county seat or shire town. The 
 inconvenience alone would determine me, if I 
 wanted to practice in the courts. 
 
 Would I recommend a large or a small town? 
 I should not expect much from a very small, old 
 town. If it was new and thrifty, and with a 
 possible future, the objection would be less. One 
 can, undoubtedly, sooner get a start in a small 
 place ; but if he hoped for growth and distinction, 
 he would be obliged to move; and a man can't 
 move many times. A small town cannot do much 
 for a young man. He soon gets his growth there, 
 if he grows at all. Courts sit more seldom, have 
 shorter terms, fewer cases, and of little import- 
 
liU 
 
 ance. Few lawyers, and of little prominence, 
 frequent the courts. A young man needs to be 
 in an atmosphere of law, and constantly in the 
 courts, and to associate with the best men of his 
 profession, and where there are books and cases 
 and business. Competition, sharp, constant, and 
 spirited rivalries, which keep a man always on 
 his feet and at his best, are the conditions under 
 which good lawyers are produced. They cannot 
 be made: they must develop and grow; and 
 mental activity, industry, and time are requisite. 
 It requires courage to attack the world alone, in 
 a great city, with only one's unknown name on 
 a tin card of four by twelve inches. Who will 
 ever see or heed it? There is a popular delusion 
 that, in a large town, innumerable strangers, 
 with important cases and large retainers, are 
 constantly rushing around and into the first law 
 office that they can find, and who employ the 
 first lawyer they meet. There is no such thing. 
 A man who wants a lawyer, unless he knows 
 one, always inquires of somebody whom to em- 
 ploy ; and the chances of fishing up rash strangers 
 are of the smallest. The chances to marry an 
 heiress are better. I am decidedly of opinion 
 that, under all circumstances, a large and flour- 
 
Ill 
 
 iahing town should generally he selected to begin 
 in. The new towns of the West are thought to 
 he eligible to start in, although this considera- 
 tion has filled the West with a surplus of young 
 and ambitious lawyers; yet, after all, business 
 channels are less settled there, and men com- 
 mence on terms more nearly equal. Wherever 
 you go you will find all the cases in the hands 
 of somebody. Everything there is to do anywhere 
 is already taken up and absorbed ; and the holders 
 of it will not entertain a proposition to hand it or 
 any part of it over to you. Nor will an increase 
 of lawyers increase the cases; nor do lawyers 
 make business, nor can they; nor do or can they 
 have any motive in the world, as we practice 
 law, to prolong litigation, and delay the trial of 
 cases. You must, then, somewhere enter upon 
 an already occupied field, and create another 
 center, and induce business to flow to it. Un- 
 derstand and accept the conditions. They are 
 inevitable. 
 
 You must have an oifice, and may not be able 
 to have a very large or elegant one; nor will you 
 require such. It may be small and plain, and 
 not in the most desirable place ; but it can be 
 kept neat, cleanly, and must not become a loung- 
 
112 
 
 ing place, where idle young men congregate to 
 smoke, spit, and talk foolishly of women. 
 
 Have as many of the newest text-books as your 
 means will allow, and reports, if you can. Don't 
 have much uninvested money. You won't. Some 
 books, biographical and other, more or less con- 
 nected with your profession : and you are then to 
 wait for business. When one has put the last of 
 his few things in order, and he has nothing more 
 to do but to wait, with nothing in particular that 
 he can do, and is alone, he may be excused if he 
 feels a little heart sinking, and is somewhat ner- 
 vous and anxious. 
 
 The instances in England and the United States 
 together, where a young man has, by some acci- 
 dent, been early called into an important case, 
 and has at once rushed into a practice, are so 
 few and apochryphal, that they cannot even 
 arouse the imagination of the most sanguine. 
 Nothing of the kind has ever fallen under the 
 observation of any of the men of our time, and will 
 happen to none of you ; nor need you wait for a 
 great case and a great opportunity. If you do, 
 you will be unequal to them if they do come. 
 Be at your oifice during the whole of business 
 hours, or in the court room, where cases are being 
 
113 
 
 tried. Your mornings and evenings will be 
 enough for society and exercise. What shall 
 you do? Read. Read your law books; draw 
 pleadings ; read Shakspeare ; the laws of Moses, 
 the poems of the Old, Testament; the lives 
 of the Lord Chancellors ; newspapers ; the re- 
 views — anything but wasting time, especially 
 in lounging about drinking places and billiard- 
 rooms. 
 
 Of course it will occur to all as advantageous 
 to make as many acquaintances as possible, and 
 among business people. Beyond that, I know 
 of no way that a lawyer can recommend or make 
 himself known, save by doing everything well. 
 I don't object to his advertising; and he may get 
 himself noticed in a newspaper for aught that I 
 know, and perhaps may solicit collections : but I 
 cannot understand how a man can hawk himself 
 about like a patent-medicine man, nor do I think 
 he would get himself employed if he did. That 
 is not the usage of the bar. Lawyers, like women, 
 wait to be asked. I should unhesitatingly go 
 before the magistrates' courts and into the police 
 courts, with or without compensation, and I should 
 certainly take cases in the higher criminal courts ; 
 but there is an awful odor about the prisons, which 
 8 
 
114 
 
 I would not like to have about my garments. The 
 smell of a jail is sometimes fatal. 
 
 To commence with, you will not hesitate to 
 appear in the inferior civil courts. The cases* 
 may be trivial, and the courts of trivial merit. 
 But you will remember, that there may be as 
 much and the same law involved in the adju- 
 dication of five as of five thousand dollars; and 
 that every court, clothed with jurisdiction, has, 
 at least in legal contemplation, a certain dignity, 
 and i^ entitled to respect from that consideration. 
 No matter how trifling the case may be in its 
 cash estimate, it will be important to the suitors; 
 and, if you engage in it, it will be important 
 enough for you to examine and prepare with care, 
 and try with your best skill and judgment. Make 
 it a rule, to which no exceptions can exist, to do 
 your best in everything you undertake. Always 
 be at and do your best, and let each thing be done 
 better than the last. This rule will insure rapid 
 improvement. 
 
 Approach the inferior magistrates with the re- 
 spect due to the ministers of the law, however 
 they may maladminister it, and treat with respect 
 and courtesy all whom you meet before such 
 courts. You cannot aff'ord to have altercations 
 
115 
 
 ■with them, and you can by no possibility become 
 a blackguard. Any advantages you might gain 
 in such contests would rank among your saddest 
 ^Jefeats. 
 
 In the higher courts your bearing to the bench 
 is always to be that of courteous, deferential re- 
 spect, the manner of the high-bred gentleman in 
 the presence of a tribunal entitled to his respect 
 and confidence : always remembering, however, 
 that in your own proper sphere your rights are 
 equal to those of the court, and that your only 
 superior is the law ; and at all hazards you are 
 bound to see to it, that not a fraction of law is 
 violated in your person. Contests with courts are 
 to be deprecated and avoided; but whoever, for 
 lack of courage and firmness, fails to vindicate the 
 law, is, if possible, more reprehensible than he who 
 sacrifices his client's rights through ignorance. 
 A man may find an excuse for not knowing all 
 the law, but there can be none for his not being 
 always a man. 
 
 Tour intercourse with your associates of the 
 bar, especially when opposed to you in trials, 
 must he that which characterizes the relations of 
 gentlemen everywhere. Tou are at war, to be 
 sure, but war has its rules, and they are those of 
 
116 
 
 a chivalrous courtesy. Don't appear to fall into 
 the delusion that your opponent, his clients, and 
 witnesses, are painims and caitiffs all, and that 
 they are all in conspiracy to cheat and defrautt 
 you, by perjury and chicanery, and with whom 
 justice forbids you to be on terms of Christian in- 
 tercourse. Do try to think it is possible that they 
 may say and do several things not prompted by 
 malice nor by the instigation of the devil. 
 
 It is amusing, and at times a little annoying, 
 to encounter the fierce, brusque, young lawyer, 
 charged to the brim with a first case, who hon- 
 estly believes that his client is the victim of your 
 diabolical machinations, and that he must strip 
 and lay your villainy bare, and deal with you as 
 an outlaw, to be put to a speedy and violent death, 
 you and your whole gang! It requires some 
 coolness and no little patience to deal with him ; 
 but one can, and it is often good practice. Now, 
 you are to try your case, but not the patience of 
 the court and of your opponent. Observe towards 
 him a careful courtesy, and treat his client and 
 witnesses with respect; they are usually entitled 
 to it, and are all possible friends and clients. 
 
 Never, under any circumstances, make an im- 
 putation upon the integrity of counsel opposed to 
 
117 
 
 you, and don't have a suspicion of it, if you can 
 avoid it — and I will not say to you that you can- 
 not under any circumstances — nor for the fraction 
 of a moment submit to such an imputation upon 
 your own. If a man makes such, at your ex- 
 pense, you must take care that he does not repeat 
 it, and in a way that others will be interested in 
 treating you with respect. There are bullies even 
 at the bar ; and there, as everywhere, spirit and 
 firmness win respect and security from attack. 
 
 The first actual, bona fide client you have, no 
 matter who, and no matter how unimportant may 
 be the matter he or she calls about, make him or 
 her your friend by the kind attention with which 
 you listen, and the tender and sympathetic way 
 in which you treat and deal with them ; and let 
 this be the rule of your professional life. Do not 
 be in a hurry to pronounce an opinion of the law, 
 until you have mastered all the facts. 
 
 Few in legal trouble are quite content with an 
 opinion or advice upon the law. They want more. 
 No part of the duties of your calling are more im- 
 portant, more difficult, and none so delicate, as 
 that of advising ; and on your skill in this depart- 
 ment, and upon the kindness and consideration 
 with which you conduct your interviews with 
 
118 
 
 your callers, will in a great measure depend your 
 success. Whatever you are doing, if it is possible 
 to leave it, drop it at once to attend to whoever 
 calls, and turn to them as if it was an actual pleas- 
 ure, as no doubt it will be, to have them call. 
 
 Ordinarily the lawyer's duty, when consulted, 
 is ended when he has fairly and fully expressed 
 an opinion of the law involved. Few clients are 
 satisfied with that. They usually want to know 
 what they can do in the premises. This, of course, 
 is involved in the law opinion. But they are apt 
 to go further, and ask what they had better do. 
 This is a question for a friend rather than for a 
 lawyer ; but the lawyer must become a friend. I 
 have preferred, when the question involved was 
 the commencement of a suit, to lay open, fully 
 and fairly, the whole ground involved, explain 
 the uncertainty and probable costs, and leave them 
 to decide ; but if I had to deal with a weak and 
 timid nature — with a woman or a young person — 
 and the case was in my mind tolerably clear, and 
 involved a question of undoubted moral right, I 
 have unhesitatingly taken the responsibility of ad- 
 vising as a friend as well as a lawyer. It is almost 
 surprising the facility, as well as the ability, one 
 acquires in the important character of an adviser, 
 
119 
 
 and the confidence which the character of a sound, 
 judicious, and cautious adviser inspires ; and if 
 you once acquire it, there can be no doubt of your 
 success. 
 
 Tou will, of course, be sought by women in 
 distress, often poor and friendless, and sometimes 
 attractive, and possibly designing. To you, all 
 women are chaste, and your manner and deport- 
 ment must be so absolutely pure, that all may ap- 
 proach you with confidence, and go away with the 
 certainty that they can receive from you nothing 
 hut respect and consideration. The lawyer hears 
 heart histories and chronicles of the inner lives of 
 men and women, especially of women, and the 
 confessional itself should not be more sacred than 
 the narrations confided to him. They are not 
 your secrets or property, and no word or lisp of 
 them should at any time escape from you. This 
 silence of all communicated to you will become 
 a habit of the mind, from which you will soon 
 find no inclination to depart. 
 
 I am in the hortatory vein, and will continue. 
 As you know, there is such a thing as sharp prac- 
 tice, which is never to be your practice. It is not 
 through this that papers mysteriously disappear, 
 or new ones are found among files. This involves 
 
120 
 
 vulgar larceny and forgery. Nor yet in having 
 arrangements vrith opposing counsel, vrhicli are 
 repudiated. This is vulgar and atrocious lying, 
 consistent with no gentlemanly notion. Sharp 
 practice consists in the violation of the letter of 
 no rule of court, and ho infraction of the rules of 
 truth ; but in so enforcing the rules of practice 
 that an undue advantage is gained of an oppo- 
 nent, pushing and striking in actual silence, hut 
 breaking no rule. The confidences of lawyers, 
 their unquestioning reliance upon each other, is 
 romantic : each implicitly reposes upon absolute 
 good faith and fair and liberal dealing from his 
 brethren of the bar. A lawyer is out of court, or 
 inadvertently permits a rule day to go over with- 
 out having filed a plea or answered a rule, and he 
 comes into court the next day to find a judgment 
 by default, or a rule absolute taken against his 
 client, which costs him much trouble to set aside, 
 and his client much money. The placing him in 
 this position is sharp practice, and he who took 
 advantage of his carelessness or pressure of busi- 
 ness may never expect favor from him, and is 
 usually watched by the rest of the bar, who, by 
 common consent, regard him as an Ishmaelite, 
 with whom the rules of ordinary warfare are not 
 
121 
 
 to be observed. When you hear a lawyer say 
 that such a man must be watched, why, watch 
 him. 
 
 The contests of lawyers are in open day, in the 
 face of an observing and admiring world, which 
 begets a chivalrous and honorable mode of deal- 
 ing with each other, which does not so fully 
 govern the contests of men in other pursuits ; and 
 the lawyer who fails to become imbued with the 
 honorable spirit which this produces, has quali- 
 ties that will preclude great success, ordinarily, 
 and you will have to watch him. 
 
 Of all the places in theVorld, the bar is that in 
 which a man is the soonest conectly estimated, 
 both intellectually and morally, by his fellows, 
 and the world very soon accepts and never revises 
 this judgment. In the rough and searching en- 
 counters of the court-room, shams and seemings 
 disappear in an hour, and no art or care can re- 
 store them. Labor for the good opinion of your 
 associates, and that of the world will follow. If 
 there is a calling in this world whose brotherhood, 
 in their professional intercourse, should be gov- 
 erned by the golden rule, it is the profession of 
 the law, and it is usually the practiced rule. 
 Tou will sometimes be required by clients, and 
 
122 
 
 perhaps tempted by extra fees^ or the prospect of 
 success, to do or omit something which a nice sense 
 of the right and honorable would not approve of. 
 I need not say that there can be but one rule of 
 human conduct, and that the lawyer is as di- 
 rectly within its letter and spirit, all the time, as 
 any other human being, and can commit no in- 
 fraction of it without fatal consequences to himself. 
 It is quite enough that your client has bought 
 your talents and learning; your honor and sense 
 of right must remain yours, and you must man- 
 age the case and conduct yourself in your own 
 way ; and it is no excuse for a mean or unwoi'thy 
 act that your client required it. You had better 
 retire from the case and the bar, unless you can 
 be master of both the case and your own conduct. 
 
 The man of strong moral perceptions, and with 
 a just appreciation of his obligations, and who has 
 cultivated what is called the moral sense, finds 
 no temptations at the bar; while the weak and 
 dishonest will fall anywhere. 
 
 The practice of the law necessarily accustoms 
 and familarizes one with the essential elements of 
 human nature, and its workings under all circum- 
 stances ; with the sources and springs of human 
 actions, and how men are governed; and the 
 
123 
 
 reasonably successful man at the bar is invariably 
 a man of position and influence, while his habit 
 of addressing courts and juries, disciplines and 
 brings out in their best excellence his talents and 
 capacity as a public speaker. 
 
 The very nature of his studies; the mastery of 
 law; its sources, scope, and spirit ; the frame and 
 object of statutes; the old mischief and new 
 remedy ; all so immediately connected with and 
 springing from politics, pre-eminently fit the law- 
 yer, not only to be a leader among men in the 
 practical affairs of life, but especially qualify 
 him to become a political leader ; and hence it is, 
 that a majority of the leading political places in 
 this country are filled by lawyers; while in all 
 free countries — and the bar flourishes in no other 
 — lawyers have been an influential body, doing 
 much to shape and mould public opinion, and 
 usually in the interest of liberty and progress. 
 This is not new from me to you. 
 
 The young advocate, accustomed to see himself 
 passed by for inferior men in his profession, merely 
 because they are his seniors, finds that he has be- 
 come an object of interest in another way : poli- 
 ticians want his aid as a speaker in a campaign ; 
 and he has leisure, is ambitious,. wishes to perfect 
 
124 
 
 himself as a public speaker^ make acquaintances, 
 and here is his opportunity. A moderate indul- 
 gence may be helpful, but let him beware. He 
 finds himself admired, and sees a crowd swayed 
 by him — what under the heavens is so sweet as 
 this evidence of his intellectual supremacy among 
 men? How intoxicating the dream, that he may 
 have been born to govern and command men! 
 He begins to feel his strength, and knows noth- 
 ing of his weakness. He sees his name on large 
 posters and in newspapers; committees receive 
 and wait on him ; he fancies himself in the State 
 Legislature, reforming the statute-book ; he dreams 
 of the National Hall of Eepresentatives, on some 
 great occasion, with the nation for an auditor ; and 
 he goes back to his narrow office, his few dead 
 books and meager, unimportant cases, and the 
 tame, thin, cold, severe atmosphere of a law 
 court, with a disturbed imagination, if not with 
 a dissipated mind. 
 
 Young gentlemen, be admonished. Every 
 American must, in some sense, be a politician ; 
 an office-seeker, never. Be informed, have opin- 
 ions, always vote; but if you would be a lawyer, 
 avoid much participation in politics as a speaker 
 or candidate. ¥ou can hardly, by possibility. 
 
125 
 
 succeed in botli: either will demand your entire 
 time and ability, however gifted. They are horses 
 running different ways. Look at the results of 
 political life. Aside from the moral and mental 
 wear and tear, what is the final come-out of the 
 average successful politician of the better order ? 
 A seat in the State Legislature ; possibly a Gov- 
 ernor, with one or two terms in Congress, and 
 
 then . The man is out, at middle life or 
 
 later, without a business, without fortune, and 
 without a capacity to acquire either ; with a few 
 forgotten speeches, a scrap-book filled with parti- 
 san laudations of small newspapers, a dissipated 
 and rained mind, a regretful memory of the past, 
 and an utter hopelessness of the future. For 
 him there is nothing left but an unavailing so- 
 licitation for some starving office, at the hands 
 of an Executive to whom he can no longer be 
 useful; or he haunts the halls and lobbies of 
 Congress, a candidate for doorkeeper, or in the 
 prosecution of doubtful claims before its com- 
 mittees. 
 
 The most melancholy spectacles at the capital 
 are these half mendicant ex-members, coming 
 back soured^ discontented, and disappointed, to 
 sop up any drizzle of executive patronage, or 
 
126 
 
 gatlier the dirty crumbs that fall from the tables 
 at which they once sat as honored guests. 
 
 There is, perhaps, a sadder sight still — the lin- 
 gering and haunting forms of some of the most 
 successful and honored of American piiblic men, 
 whose lives were spent in the highest service, who 
 have finally passed to private life, and yet who, 
 restless and discontented, cannot live out of the 
 capital, and who linger and wander about, com- 
 pelled, hut unable, to retire. And who is to 
 enumerate and sketch the broken failures, whose 
 wrecks and ruins mark the devious way of politi- 
 cal aspirants ? 
 
 Be advised by one who dreamed and realized, 
 as young lawyers will and sometimes do, but who 
 a,woke before either he or the country suffered 
 much by his folly. 
 
 I hope you have studied law with the design 
 of becoming lawyers — to press steadily forward, 
 and work to its more elevated walks — and will he 
 content to look there for an honorable reputation, 
 and the means of a generous life. You can be- 
 come good lawyers ; you may become distinguished 
 advocates ; and more and better than both, you 
 can develop a true, genuine, noble, pure man- 
 hood—the highest type and state of human 
 
127 
 
 achievement. These are not accomplished at a 
 dash, nor won in a day ; nor are they grasped hy 
 the arrogant hand of genius. Patience^ that will 
 not be exhausted ; pertinacious labor, that will 
 not be discouraged; integrity, that cannot be 
 bribed, directed steadily forward, also conduct 
 upward, where alone the higher prizes await the 
 faithful. To such efforts I commend you; to 
 such destinies I dismiss you. 
 To the Seniors, adieu. 
 
LEOTUEE V. 
 
 PUBLIC SPEAKING. 
 
 I. Of all the fruits of human labor — thoughts, 
 ideas^ philosophies, poetry — the products of the 
 mind are esteemed the most wonderful. Of all 
 the means for the communication of ideas, the 
 conveyance of thought, the declaration of senti- 
 ment, the expression of emotion — passion, joy, 
 fear, love, hope, hatred, or sorrow — of all the 
 means of informing, producing conviction, per- 
 suading, or moving, the organs of human speech 
 are the most exquisite and perfect, and by much 
 excel the sum total of all others. Of all the 
 agencies to please, excite, allure, seduce, charm, 
 elevate, depress, or move, nothing in the universe 
 of nature and the empire of art combined equals 
 the human voice. In music it furnishes the idea 
 and model ; and that instrument excels as it ap- 
 proaches the power and compass of the human 
 voice in giving expression to melody. Of all the' 
 (128) 
 
129 
 
 things the eye rests upon, it turns to the human 
 face, with its wondrous combination of organs 
 and features, as that which gives the most con- 
 stant and highest pleasure; while the labor of 
 the highest art finds scope for its greatest efforts 
 in attempting to reproduce the grace, beauty, and 
 majesty of the human form. 
 
 It is apparent that the art, or combination of art 
 and science, which employs all these marvelous 
 agencies and powers combined must occupy a high 
 place in the field of human effort; and that he 
 who possesses and can employ them all in their 
 perfection, must hold the first place in human 
 estimation ; and that he who in any degree ap- 
 proaches the best, enjoys a proportionate position 
 in the regard of men. 
 
 Such an one, in some sense, is an orator; and so 
 rare and marvelous is the highest excellence, that 
 the ancient world produced but two^ and neither 
 of these was perfect. Can it be truthfully said 
 that the number has since been increased ? 
 
 Strange, is it not, that, while every human 
 being is born with the rudiments of all these 
 agencies, organs, and powers, with occasion for 
 their constant use, and every inducement for their 
 perfection— with the certainty that every devel- 
 
130 
 
 opment and increase of their capacity is increase 
 of power and conseq[uence — so few excel as speak- 
 ers? But when we rememher how sparingly and 
 how eccentrically human gifts are distributed, and 
 what a combination of rare qualities, and all of 
 the best — physical, mental, moral, of temperament 
 and spirit — must concur to produce the orator^ we 
 may not be surprised at the rarity of their union. 
 And especially, too, when we observe, that of the 
 whole talking, babbling, gabbling race, how rare 
 it is that you can find one who can produce a single 
 forcible and elegant sentence in writing, and still 
 more, one who can utter one in private conversa- 
 tion. 
 
 See how dumb the inexperienced speaker is, no 
 no matter how endowed, when called up, even at 
 a private dinner party. Kecall the absolute terror 
 which the idea of such a call produced in Thack- 
 eray and Hawthorne, and a host of similarly 
 gifted and accomplished men. 
 
 II. We do not talk much of orators, save as the 
 organic remains of an older period. We call the 
 men who exercise the art, or who occupy the place 
 of the orator with no art, public speakers — men 
 who converse or speak standing, and to whom 
 
131 
 
 others are supposed to listen ; and yet how much 
 it takes to fit up and furnish the successful public 
 speaker of to-day, and enable him to acquit him- 
 self creditably. He must rise collected, self- 
 jossessed, with easy, modest confidence, with an 
 attitude that does not repel, and a manner at 
 least negatively good. His voice should, at the 
 worst, not be harsh or unpleasant, and capable of 
 modulation and inflection; his words simple, flow- 
 ingj and well and distinctly pronounced. He 
 must, in a few words, commend himself and sub- 
 ject to the favorable consideration of those whom 
 he addresses. He must be able to state his 
 propositions simply, concisely, and distinctly ; 
 his narrative of facts, naturally, clearly, and 
 forcibly; his argument arranged in a striking 
 and logical order, so framed and adjusted that its 
 application is at once appreciated, and nothing 
 omitted that renders it complete and satisfactory; 
 and an infinite deal more, if he would be among 
 the best. The man must be alive, and full of 
 warm, red blood that beats. He must be capable 
 of kindling and glowing, and of imparting life 
 and warmth to whatever he touches. His subject 
 must grow and rise, his field broaden, and his 
 horizon enlarge. Argument and its material 
 
132 
 
 must lieat and melt and fuse, and take new 
 ■shapes of strength and beauty. A structure must 
 go rapidly up, symmetrical and shapely, capable 
 of occTipation and defense ; and fancy must come, 
 and imagination must quicken, and trees with 
 verdure must shade it, and grass and flowers 
 surround it. The whole person, ceasing to he 
 material and physical, must become ethereal- 
 ized, and possessed as by a spirit. His eyes will 
 flash and speak; his attitude will inform, com- 
 mand, and enforce ; while his hands will become 
 endued with an actual power, giving meaning 
 and force and beauty to words freighted with the 
 combined burden of brain, heart, and soul. 
 
 The man must have something of this capabil- 
 ity ; and when at his best, when fully aroused, 
 with his forces armed, words must come readily, 
 arranged in fit and happy forms, tendering them- 
 selves, and asking for utterance with finished and 
 apt figures and striking illustrations. His varied 
 arms and implements must present themselves 
 with their handles for his grasp. His informa- 
 tion, his resources^ his means, must be inex- 
 haustible, and all ready marshaled and in order. 
 If he is interrupted — if a question is asked — it 
 should be a new source of interest and effort. 
 
133 
 
 New strength, new powers, new figures must be 
 ready for the occasion; and when that is hap- 
 pily disposed of, lie must naturally and grace- 
 fully return, with increase of force, to his main 
 labor. 
 
 When the theme is presented, the structure 
 completed, let the artist, with his weapons in his 
 hands, in the heat and glow and glory of his 
 achievement, with the air effulgent about him, 
 with undiminished strength, sit down amid un- 
 exhausted material, with the wish strong in the 
 hearts of his auditors that he had continued, 
 that he would never stop. The hour and oppor- 
 tunity were his, and he dominated them right 
 royally, and for a moment he touched, perhaps, 
 the pinnacle of human achievement. The glow 
 passes, and the glory fades. No power could 
 gather up, transfer, and preserve it; and its 
 memory, a living marvel, lingers in the hearts 
 of, at the most, a few hundreds of men, who wit- 
 nessed, heard, and felt it. One is sad when he 
 thinks of the greatness of the orator's achieve- 
 ment, and realizes how evanescent and transitory 
 it was. 
 
 Do you say that I have sketched a remarkable 
 spectacle? It is such, and yet I have witnessed 
 
134 
 
 t some scores of times. The picture, if striking, 
 3 true to the life. 
 The improvisatore, who extemporizes rhymes, 
 erses, and sometimes poetry, suggested hy any 
 ;iven suhject, is often a mark of wonder ; but his 
 lower to produce does not exceed, if it equals, 
 hat of the thoroughly-informed, cultivated, and 
 iracticed public speaker. Such an one, in the 
 aaturity of his powers, will, on the shortest 
 lotice, speak well upon almost any topic of 
 luman interest. 
 
 III. And I say to you, young gentlemen, that 
 b is in the power of almost any youth, born of 
 American parents, with study, practice, and per- 
 everance, to attain an excellence as a speaker, 
 hat will enable him, in some degree, to approach 
 he outline I have just sketched for you. 
 
 I believe, relying upon history and the observa- 
 Lons of others, that no people, certainly no 
 lodern people, possess more natural aptitude for 
 ublic speaking than the natives of this country ; 
 nd I know of no American who has attempted 
 ; who has not, with practice and effort, become 
 fluent speaker. Indeed, it is a remark of for- 
 i ;n'irs, the facility and fluency with which 
 
135 
 
 Americans speak in public. And yet, altTiough, 
 under our form of government and social life, 
 almost everything is originated or carried on or 
 consummated at a public meeting, and speaking 
 is the universal agency employed for everything, 
 little or no attention is paid to. it as an art, and 
 no preliminary study or training is deemed ne- 
 cessary. Whatever Americans may or -may not 
 do, it is the national faith that every American 
 born can, with no other qualification, edit a news- 
 paper, represent a district in Congress, and make 
 a speech. Indeed, there is a sort of impression, 
 sometimes shared by men who should know better, 
 that nature unaided forms the best speakers, and 
 that to her should be left the whole business of 
 producing them. This is a grave matter, and 
 we will be practical. Take any man who thinks 
 that training and study are useless, and put him 
 up to make a speech ; and if he attempts it, it is 
 hazarding little that he will not make an articu- 
 late sound. If he succeeds in uttering a sentence, 
 write it out and show it to him, and he will be 
 slow to attempt it again. 
 
 Think of it: here are two of the most import- 
 ant professions, whose trade it is to speak in 
 public — the ministry and the bar. No man now 
 
136 
 
 thinks of setting a man to preacL. without some 
 study and mastery of theology ; so that he may 
 have something to advance, some mental source 
 to draw from; otherwise, he would have noth- 
 ing to say. But he is put up in the pulpit, 
 with no capacity to speak, and as ignorant and as 
 incompetent to preach as if he knew nothing of 
 the subject ; and all that he ever learns is by his 
 discouraging, imperfect, and halting practice after 
 called to a charge. No wonder that he falls back 
 upon written essays and poor reading, and forever 
 remains inefficient. And yet the faith that would 
 trust to grace and inspiration for the power and 
 majiner of speech, might also trust to the same 
 source for the matter to be delivered. Indeed, 
 matter was promised. And so of the bar, where 
 really less depends upon speaking. A man is 
 asked to devote three years of intense study to 
 master the law, and not an hour to fit and pre- 
 pare him, to give him courage, strength, and 
 ability, for the ordeal of his first trials — trials of 
 himself, more severe and doubtful than the issue 
 submitted to court and jury. 
 
 IV. The purpose of speaking is to inform, to 
 convince, to persuade, or to move; and often all 
 
137 
 
 are to be accomplished many times over in a single 
 speech. How can you inform another, unless, in 
 a clear, simple, natural way, and to his entire 
 apprehension, you can tell him the matters and 
 things you wish to impart to him? How con- 
 vince, unless you are master of presenting, in a 
 forcible and logical manner, the reasons that 
 conduct to the desired conclusion? How per- 
 suade, unless you can please, win, allure, charm, 
 and induce? And how move, unless you can 
 excite, stimulate, arouse, heat up, or melt down, 
 and so produce the sensation desired? And 
 all this supposes that you have ample matter. 
 You know the power of the mere charm of 
 manner. Add the charm of speech, coined words, 
 sweetness of voice, winaingness of smile and eye, 
 beauty of elocution, tenderness of sentiment, 
 warmth of sensibility, and grace of gesture. You 
 know that goodness can be made to appear repul- 
 sive, and beauty can be disfigured and rendered 
 ugly, while charity herself may assume the air 
 of a swindler ; and all by the garb in which some 
 owner of them all might present them ; while 
 ugliness and disfavor can be made to appear be- 
 coming, and vice goes innocently about, a seeming 
 virtue for the time. 
 
138 
 
 However good a thing may be, there is no harm 
 in putting it at its best ; and whatever is of im- 
 portance enough to be said at all, is important 
 enough to be well said ; and the ability and power 
 to say everything well is that which we earnestly 
 wish you to acquire and cultivate. This is a work 
 which you only can do, each for himself. We 
 can, perhaps, aid less in this than in any other 
 field of your labor. We can furnish hints and 
 suggestions and useful criticism, but we can no 
 more make an orator than we can endow a statue 
 with life. All the inner work and processes must 
 be yours ; all the outer exercise, effort, and prac- 
 tice are your work. We can help you. With 
 attention on your part we can save you from 
 many faults of attitude, gesture, and manner ; 
 can correct your pronunciation and grammar ; 
 can suggest methods for managing the voice, and 
 detect faults of articulation ; and beyond these we 
 cannot go. 
 
 V. Two things must concur in the most ordinary 
 labor of the speaker: matter to be delivered and 
 its actual delivery. The one involves the whole 
 art and science of composition ; is the whole inner 
 life, generation, process of development, growth, 
 
139 
 
 maturity, and arrangement of the essential speech; 
 as the other is the whole out-power, grace, and 
 strength of its utterance — its vocal publication. 
 The intrinsic excellence of the speech itself will 
 depend upon the former, while its effect will be 
 largely due to the latter. When the highest ex- 
 cellence in both unite in the same person, they 
 form the first speaker ; and the result the highest 
 effect of oratory and eloquence. 
 
 Which is the most important? Don't ask the 
 question. One would be inclined to answer at 
 once that the matter was vastly the most essen- 
 tial. But then he remembers that a dumb orator 
 cannot exist, and that voice and speech are as 
 important to the orator as brains. Of what con- 
 ceivable value is a casket of the rarest jewels lost 
 beyond recovery? And of what use is the rarest 
 and most beautiful pitcher, admirably constructed 
 to pour out, deliver, and yet which can never con- 
 tain anything? 
 
 I must confess, however, my preference for 
 matter. I can at least imagine the richness and 
 splendor of the jewels, though I may never see 
 them; while of nothing do I weary so soon as 
 mere empty voice, musical though it be. And 
 mere manner and physical grace and beauty. 
 
140 
 
 ■wlien we come to know that they are the outer 
 mask of mere nothing, lose at once their charm. 
 
 VI. Let us turn our attention, then, to this mat- 
 ter, the hody, heart, and soul of our speech. And 
 by matter I don't mean things in the raw, material 
 in the rough, ships in trees, and pearls in ocean 
 depths — "flax in the hundle," as the rude figure 
 was — but a store of complete and finished things, 
 wrought and perfected up to the latest style, with 
 all the modern improvements, and made for spe- 
 cific uses — implements with handles and edges. 
 Men don't bore down trees, however they may 
 men and audiences, nor do they cut with axes 
 hung on strings. G-uns are to be charged, and 
 with ball ; and blades, to be keen and tempered. 
 Fruits are to be ripe, and meats and breads, like 
 heads, to be baked ; and if the occasion is festive, 
 real red wines with soul, and natural flowers 
 with color and fragrance, with the dew still on 
 them. Not only must the whole cargo and outfit 
 be as complete and perfect as may be, but every- 
 thing must be of one's own manufacture. I don't 
 mean that one must quarry his own rock, and 
 mine and reduce his own metals; though he 
 should certainly gather his own fruit, and pluck 
 
141 
 
 liis own flowers. We may and must be indebted 
 for mucli to others ; but we are to take it in, mas- 
 ticate, swallow, and assimilate, and make it ours, 
 part of ourselves — our blood, muscle, brain, and 
 spirit. We take of every man, from everywhere, 
 from all fields, highways, mountains, and plains, 
 whatever is good, and mix and mingle and pro- 
 duce something new and strong of our own. 
 Don't stuff and cram, and then turn out a con- 
 fused mass of other men's goods and wares; and 
 don't bring forth slop-shop garments, with the 
 sellers' cards and prices still on them. 
 
 We have some speeches, and notably in Con- 
 gress, not tolerated of the gods or men, made up 
 of odds and ends and parings of other men's 
 speeches and essays, and scraps of poetry which 
 have been kicked and cuffed and maltreated about 
 the world's vulgar ways, with nothing of the 
 orator's own but the thread on which these old 
 tatters and shreds are displayed. Time was, in 
 the old days of the stilted and stately, the swell- 
 ing and inflated, when the old classics underwent 
 daily vicarious suffering for the sins of others, and 
 an apt quotation in the House of Commons, ac- 
 cording to Wraxall, was sometimes decisive of 
 the fate of ministers. And even at the beginning 
 
142 
 
 of our time, the great Webster had a tenderness 
 for not over good Latin. And there was almost a 
 feud once, growing out of a quotation by Mr. 
 Emmett, in the old Supreme Court, in a case 
 where Mr. Wirt appeared on the other side. 
 
 VII. I must impress upon you — and without 
 which real and permanent success as a speaker is 
 impossible — the imperative necessity of thorough 
 and complete preparation. The speaker must arise 
 full — brain, heart and soul — filled to the lips with 
 his subject, with all his faculties and sensibilities 
 alive, and tremulous with a ready eagerness to 
 perform their part of the task. He must know 
 that all his implements and material are ar- 
 ranged and ready, all aglow with latent vitality, 
 and ready to spring into his hands. A man thus 
 prepared arises master of himself and of his sub- 
 ject, and at once becomes master of his audience. 
 If he feels any embarrassment, it comes from the 
 presence and weight of his theme. 
 
 It is rare, perhaps it never has occurred, that 
 a man has arisen and delivered a really great 
 speech, full of profound matter and sustained 
 power, without this ample preparation. Nor is 
 there a name in the catalogue of orators the 
 
143 
 
 owner of which was equal to such an effort, unless 
 we may perhaps mention Miraheau. To assert 
 that this can he done, is to assert that a man .can 
 be great without achievements, and profound with- 
 out study. No genius was ever so rich and 
 strong, that it could throw off grand thoughts, 
 great arguments, and profound reflections spon- 
 taneously, as the cloud throws out lightning. 
 And even the cloud must be surcharged in ad- 
 vance. 
 
 But is there really no extemporaneous speak- 
 ing? Do we never witness the astonishing phe- 
 nomena of off-h^nd argumentation and speech, 
 full of masterly thought, and radiant with power? 
 The most effective speaking is usually the really 
 extemporaneous, but its effectiveness is mainly 
 due to previous thought and preparation, as I 
 believe. 
 
 The practical extempore speaker is seldom 
 unprepared to speak upon any subject that he 
 will permit himself to undertake. He mentally 
 sketches whole speeches, sometimes completes 
 them, and sometimes leaves them in outline. He 
 makes fragments and little studies. His mind is 
 always at work taking in material, working out 
 thought, elaborating argument, following out and 
 
144 
 
 finishing figures^ and observing where grow beau- 
 tiful flowers, all of which, more or less finished, 
 are laid carefully away for use when wanted. He 
 gets clues to thoughts and hints of ideas, all of 
 which he defines, tests, and rejects, or stores 
 away. He is constantly coining happy expres- 
 sions, turning and arranging and polishing, or 
 he strikes out a bold metaphor, or a strong and 
 lofty flight. Everything he sees and hears con- 
 tributes to hini: and he sees and hears every- 
 thing, and he absorbs and subsidizes all, and all 
 are worked up in the line of his art ; and memory, 
 trained and perfected, ever attending him, care- 
 fully gathers up and lays everything away where 
 she can at a moment, when bidden, grasp and re- 
 store them. When the occasion comes, he is ready; 
 and an astonished and delighted audience wonder 
 at the grandeur of his, to them, freshly-made 
 thought, and are dazzled and amazed at the 
 splendor and brilliancy of his imagery, and the 
 naturalness and fragrance of his flowers, that 
 may have been with him so long that he has for- 
 gotten when or where he first obtained them, or 
 whether they are all really his own or borrowed. 
 The advocate is necessarily the most extempo- 
 raneous of speakers. He cannot write out his 
 
145 
 
 arguments. He cannot, as a general rule, com- 
 pose, even mentally, in advance. He knows the 
 issue, lie hears the evidence, and the moment it 
 closes, if he has the affirmative, he must, without 
 further time, rise, and, as he may, sustain by 
 argument his side of the issue. He rapidly ac- 
 quires the capacity to see the force and application 
 of evidence the moment he hears it. He sees all its 
 various combinations long before it is completed. 
 His mind has firmly and securely grasped it all, 
 and almost unconsciously it analyzes and arranges 
 the whole. He rises, and by use can think best 
 on his feet ; and as his mind quickens and warms, 
 heats and glows, with its labor, it strikes out new 
 views and bold and startling contrasts, aud goes 
 further and with more power than it was otherwise 
 ♦• capable of; and yet the substance of the whole, 
 with its method and arrangement, lay embodied 
 in his grasp when he rose. He worked it out 
 on his feet, and the mere heat of his labor added 
 intensity and force to its effect ,' and this heat and 
 force and fervor is a source of strength, power, 
 and invention that the extempore speaker may 
 always calculate upon, who really has an accu- 
 mulated stock in hand, and what the writer and 
 memorizer of speeches never has the benefit of. 
 10 
 
146 
 
 VIII. It is said that JEschines, the rival of 
 Demosthenes, first practiced extempore speaking; 
 that is, his preparation was probably mental 
 wholly, as compared with writing and memorizing. 
 Demosthenes composed and wrote his out with the 
 utmost care, going over and over with them, till his 
 meaning was so clear and transparent that he could 
 not be misunderstood. Every particle of foreign 
 matter and sediment was washed out, and such lan- 
 guage finally selected that but one meaning could 
 be conveyed by it. Not a particle of ornament, 
 ao touch of fancy, no tint of imagination, no 
 rhetoric, no efiect of mere words. Transparent 
 statement, pure logic, dry law: the whole cold, 
 clear, and colorless. And such was the ancient 
 model of the age of Demosthenes ; and this is the 
 subject of complaint in a celebrated dialogue upon 
 oratory, attributed to Tacitus, the historian of the 
 early Roman empire. The ornate, the flowery, 
 the rhetorical — "the Asiatic," as Wirt called it — 
 if not introduced by Cicero, was by him carried to 
 perfection, and has ruled largely since. 
 
 The effect of Demosthenes' s speeches must have 
 been due mainly to his marvelous delivery : the 
 pure heat and passionate vehemence, the force, 
 beauty, and grace of the orator. His speech of 
 
147 
 
 fhe crown, made in defense of his friend (Jtesi- 
 ption, who had proposed a crown of merit for him, 
 and was prosecuted hy ^schines for making the 
 proposition, seems very cold and tame, and yet, 
 as he delivered it, it caused the exile of ^schinea 
 himself. 
 
 It is said that Pericles wrote all his .speeches, 
 as did most of the orators of eminence of that 
 day. Cicero wrote and elaborated all his. In- 
 deed, many of his most famous were never deliv- 
 ered at all ; while Demosthenes often wrote 
 speeches for others. 
 
 Coming towards our own time, we know that 
 Sheridan wrote, re-wrote, committed, and deliv- 
 ered, and re-delivered his, before he ventured to 
 let them off in Westminster Hall or the House 
 of Commons ; and even the freshest of his jokes 
 and sharpest of his points went through many 
 editions and underwent many changes before the 
 world had them. Wirt informs us of the labor 
 of Richard Henry Lee as something like that of 
 Sheridan. 
 
 It is said that Mirabeau, in the multitude of his 
 huge labors — and there never was such a worker — ■ 
 had his speeches sketched and sometimes written 
 out by others in advance ; but when he came to 
 
148 
 
 pour his might and energy, his heat and passion, 
 into, or rather over, them, they were shattered 
 or overwhelmed, and lost. They furnished hints, 
 hut hore no more resemhlance to his delivered 
 speech than a lay figure to a fierce, vengeful, and 
 mighty giant. 
 
 We are told that Chrysostom wrote and com- 
 mitted his sermons. So did Whitefield, some of 
 which — and he never had many — he preached an 
 hundred times ; while Robert Hall thought out, 
 and composed his mentally. 
 
 Mr. Webster, as we know, wrote the most of 
 his speeches, as did Fisher Ames, and as is the 
 habit of Mr. Sumner and many other of our emi- 
 ment public men ; while Mr. Corwin, the most 
 eloquent man who ever spoke English^ never 
 wrote: but then his mind was a storehouse of 
 inexhaustible riches. 
 
 IX. I have thus spoken more directly of the pre- 
 paration for some particular occasion, and only in- 
 cidentally of the general acquisitions of a public 
 speaker. His appearance in public is seldom, 
 perhaps, and exceptional, save in the office of a 
 minister of the gospel. The lawyer in a large 
 practice speaks comparatively but a few times, 
 
149 
 
 and tlie occasions for other speakers are still 
 more rare. The sum of a speaker's life is made 
 up mainly out of his forum — elsewhere ; ^,nd it is 
 from that elsewhere that he must bring the bodies 
 and brains of his speeches. 
 
 It is the ultimate purpose of the soldier to ap- 
 pear on the field of battle ; but battles occupy little 
 of his time. The whole of it is mainly spent in 
 learning how to be a soldier, and in the accumu- 
 lation of material for the struggle. In addition 
 to this, the orator is the general and grand army 
 of all arms- — quartermaster and commissariat ; and 
 with the whole world to forage in, and with all 
 its arsenals to arm from, with the experience and 
 lessons, the lives and examples, of all its masters 
 to teach and stimulate, it is his own fault if he 
 does not win eminence. 
 
 Time must be had for study and practice, and 
 thoroughness and completeness of general prepar- 
 tion and outfit, so that, when a call is made, it 
 ought to be met mainly from accumulated re- 
 sources, rather than from new and temporary 
 pickings and stealings. What I have said of the 
 mental labor and training of the law student is 
 directly in force and point here, and I must beg 
 you to remember it all. 
 
150 
 
 A lifetime of labor and application is requisite 
 reach the first places; and there is nothing 
 (rhich men do in which they are capable of such 
 onstant and ever-continued improvement, and 
 cithout ever attaining perfection, as in the art of 
 peaking.; and usually the faculties and powers 
 aost useful go on perfecting until after the first 
 lecay of the physical frame; and many of the 
 7orld-renowned craters were old men, and best 
 n their age. 
 
 I pray you, young gentlemen, he not deceived 
 n this, nor become discouraged and discontented, 
 f you have to wait and work. 
 
 The instances of high attainment in oratory in 
 outh are rare. History brings us none from an- 
 iquity, and modern times furnish few. The 
 Ider Pitt (Lord Chatham) entered Parliament at 
 wenty-six, and made himself talked about at 
 wenty-eight or twenty-nine. The younger Pitt 
 ras born great, and was famous at twenty-four ; 
 rhile his great rival, Fox, entered Parliament 
 efore he was twenty-one, and attracted notice 
 t once. Erskine was admitted to the bar late, 
 fter serving in the army, and became noted at 
 liirty. These instances are rare, and more rare 
 )r occurring nearly all together and in one 
 
151 
 
 country. A young man will get reputation from 
 a speech that would attract no notice in riper 
 years, and because he is young ; but few actually 
 achieve fame before thirty-five or forty years of 
 life, and often later still, 
 
 X. Of the inner lives and experiences, the 
 methods and labors, of the great masters of oratory 
 we know but little. I^one of them left confes- 
 sions, and biography and memoir are not rich 
 under this important head. Wo are told that the 
 first Pitt translated Demosthenes's speeches half 
 a dozen times, and committed the sermons of Bar- 
 row to memory ; that he went twice through 
 Bailey's Dictionary; while his son, born an 
 orator, underwent training quite as severe, and 
 all for mere style and words. By what mode, or 
 at the expense of what labor, they acquired the 
 great mass of facts, and worked it up to knowl- 
 edge, and assimilated and made it the source and 
 substance of thought, and by which it assumed 
 the definite form of ideas, and what were the 
 processes of mental training, we are not informed. 
 
 We are told that it is useful to study the 
 speeches of eminent orators, both for the purpose 
 of acquiring ideas, as also to become familiar with 
 
152 
 
 ;heir methods, and perhaps catcli their spirit and 
 ityle. It is thought that a mind, by long famil- 
 arity with a given structure of sentences and 
 lahit of language, so to speak, will unconsciously 
 icquire it ; and I have heard of a young Amer- 
 can who copied the letters of Junius for the pur- 
 30se of catching his style. I doubt whether style 
 s contagious. A weak mind may imitate or 
 plagiarize; a vigorous one will have .a style of 
 ts own, more useful to it than any that it can 
 borrow. 
 
 Style and language, most important parts of 
 composition, if it becomes necessary to determine 
 ihem in advance of the delivery of the speech, 
 yould necessitate a reduction of the whole to writ- 
 ng ; a process to which I am not partial. I think 
 ;he mind had better be trained to produce and hold 
 ;he substance of the speech in solution, with its 
 nethod and arrangement outlined, and in a way 
 ;o leave language and style to themselves. On 
 some nice point it may be well to reduce ideas 
 -0 writing, to be certain that the mind has 
 bought closely and accurately. If the whole 
 ipeech is reduced to writing, it must be for the 
 mrpose of delivery as written ; when of course 
 he main labor would be to recall and repeat. 
 
153 
 
 If memory failed, wliat would become of the 
 speech? If it succeeded, the chances are that it 
 would be cold, thin, stilted, and artificial. Un- 
 doubtedly some of the greatest and most effective 
 speeches ever deliv^ed were thus composed and 
 memorized; but the labor must be serious, the 
 art great, and the practice perfect. 
 
 In passing from this part of my subject, I 
 remark, that while we know much of the mind, 
 have divided it into faculties, and have named 
 and classed them, and know something of its 
 modes of labor, and have given names to many of 
 its processes — that while we can do much to improve 
 it and help it, yet we know of no rules by which 
 it can procure or produce certain or any results. 
 It is, after all, a law to itself. Its strength, ca- 
 pacity, equality, and efficiency are its own. They 
 can be enlarged, strengthened, made active, and 
 capable of work; yet what they can do in a given 
 case, no man can know till the eflFort is made. As 
 no man can produce what is not in him, so no 
 man can tell what another has, till he delivers 
 himself of a specimen. 
 
 One thing, a speech must have action in itself — 
 action, action, action. It must be alive and heav- 
 ing, like the sea ; run and leap, like a river : the 
 
154 
 
 action of thought, the throb of ideas, breaking 
 and upheaving old crusts — the beating of moved 
 blood, the stir of heart, and swell of soul. This 
 is undoubtedly the action of the old Athenian, to 
 which the sympathizing bocJ|^ and members re- 
 spond, and which they illustrate in attitude and 
 gesture. 
 
 XI. Of words I remark, that in and of them- 
 selves they are indifferent — neither good nor bad, 
 strong or weak ; that all depends upon the use 
 made of them ; that they become good or bad as 
 they are well or ill used ; strong or weak as they 
 carry strong or weak thoughts, or none at all. 
 Without them speech is impossible, and with them 
 good matter is effective or not, as it is fortunate 
 in its mode of expression. Feeble matter is often 
 made impressive by happy and well-arranged 
 words, pronounced with force and grace. Words 
 must be had, and plenty of them — apt, copious, 
 and at will, and coming in well-arranged order. 
 It will never do to wait long for one, or miscall 
 or recall it. There must be the readiest and most 
 perfect connection between the thinking apparatus 
 and the vocal organs. When a thought is ready, 
 tliere must be the fittest word-car, on at least a 
 
155 
 
 level, and never on an up-grade, and all self- 
 acting. What is so painful as the creaking, 
 groaning, blowing effort which some men make 
 to get these two warmed up and working to- 
 gether? When at their best use, words are not 
 the drapery, the clothes, of ideas, but the sole 
 carriers, that receive from the mind and deliver 
 to the auditors its treasures, thoughts, feelings, 
 passions, and impressions — whatever it has for 
 them. They may become the very thought 
 itself, more potent than shot and shell in the 
 demolition of the bulwarks of old wrong and 
 abuse. From the orator's mouth goes forth a 
 great vital idea, potent and glowing, to disen- 
 gage and banish some prescriptive outrage ; or it 
 calls into activity the dormant energies of a peo- 
 ple from the half sleep of death, and buried under 
 an age of oppression. What marvels are words, 
 when burdened with the life and power of great 
 thoughts. 
 
 The world, it is said, was spoken into being; 
 and man seems most god-like when he speaks 
 great re-creating words to his lost fellows. Then 
 they equal the great actions which they cause. 
 
 Wise men, prudent merchants, sagacious trad- 
 ers, intrust their valuables — rich stuffs, precious 
 
156 
 
 gems, gums, and spices — to the plainest, simplest, 
 and most substantial caskets and chests, without 
 show or ornament. Security and safety over the 
 sea and across the desert are the sole objects. 
 Swords and muskets, scythes and reaping-hooks, 
 engines and springs, are made of iron and steel, 
 the commonest and most enduring of metals. A 
 great truth or a grand thought is strongest in its 
 simple assertion. Many or long words obscure 
 it ; amplification compromises it ; illustration 
 darkens it. It abhors verbiage, and will rend 
 the man who attempts to array it in the milli- 
 nery of fancy. Chips and debris of ideas may 
 endure furbelows and garlands, and bear confine- 
 ment in word-prisons. 
 
 The plainest and simplest words are the best 
 and only safe carriers of thought, spoken or writ- 
 ten. We know them — everybody knows them — 
 and their meanings. They are always at hand; 
 will come when wanted; are easily pronounced; 
 will readily arrange themselves in orderly sen- 
 tences; and promptly and certainly deliver their 
 freights. What use can be made of a fancy car, 
 that nobody can get into or out of, except with a 
 certain key that nobody has? And what can be 
 worse than a long, curiously-sounding, strange 
 
151 
 
 word, of uncertain pronunciation, and more doubt- 
 ful meaning? And how it huddles and compresses 
 the little, short, plain words of the sentence, and 
 often hurting the speaker, who was taken with 
 its sound, and his vanity tickled with its rarity. 
 
 I pray you ponder the rude simplicity of the 
 Scriptures. Kead*the story of Joseph, of Ruth, 
 or the more extended tale of Job, the poems 
 of Isaiah. Study the unshowy diction of Shaks- 
 peare and Milton, or the grand poverty of the 
 mere words of Burke and of Webster. They had 
 much grave and ponderous matter to deliver, and 
 would intrust it only to the plain, strong, ungar- 
 nished old messengers. The adornments and 
 splendor of these masters are in the richness and 
 splendor of material, and nothing in apparel. 
 
 If we can bring ourselves to this plain, common 
 language, we need not trouble ourselves much 
 about the acquisition of mere words. Our mothers 
 furnished us with enough for a lifetime. We will 
 not be compelled to commit to memory a diction- 
 ary. Let us fully master them, and know well 
 their use. Their structure into terse and forcible 
 sentences will require more labor, and much care 
 and pains. Studying fine models will help ; trans- 
 lating and copying are recommended. I commend 
 
158 
 
 you to the habit of thinking in words, and the 
 constant exercise of silent speech-making. If 
 you would see how your speech or parts of it look, 
 report it, examine, and criticise it. Tou will find 
 it very faulty, as the most practiced speakers do, 
 when asked to correct a literal report of even a 
 successful speech. If you wamt to know how it 
 sounds, get some of your associates to listen to it, 
 with the understanding that they shall criticise it. 
 
 Much, I am sure, can he done by composing 
 and then writing out ; hut care must be taken to 
 preserve the force and freedom of the extempor- 
 aneous style, which is always direct, with short 
 and vigorous sentences, and familiar, easy, con- 
 versational modes of expression. Men say that 
 they can always detect a written and recited 
 speech, and usually from the style and structure 
 of the sentences ; and I presume as much, by its 
 lack of crisp, sparkling life. 
 
 I wish to remind you that rough and coarse 
 language is not strong and forcible language; 
 that vulgar expressions are not wit; that lan- 
 giiage, mere words, has no inherent power of its 
 own , but receives all its apparent force and beauty 
 from the thought it conveys. I do not mean 
 that it makes no difference what words you use. 
 
159 
 
 Some have been so long employed to convey cer- 
 tain meanings — put to base uses — that we call 
 them vulgar, meaning that they are indecent ; 
 and from those which are eligible great choice 
 exists; and the more felicitous and the more 
 happily arranged are the words, the more effective 
 will be the speech. Delicacy of sentiment will give 
 chastity to language, as elevation of thought will 
 impart dignity. A light, strong, graceful car- 
 riage, drawn by blooded horses, is certainly a 
 better and more rapid means for the conveyance 
 of passengers than a wheelbarrow propelled by 
 an Irishman, plain and common as these last are. 
 
 XII. A vice of speaking and writing of our day 
 and country is, a constant use of words which, 
 under proper management, are capable of becom- 
 ing the strongest, and of forms of expression the 
 most strained and intense, for the ordinary pur- 
 poses of communication. Everything is pitched 
 and kept up on the high and overwrought key 
 of the double intensive of chronic rhapsody, so 
 that if a really elevated thought ever does come, 
 it finds its own proper chariot overloaded with 
 an inferior herd, all wearing its clothes, with 
 whom it must bundle in and huddle on, merely as 
 
160 
 
 one of the gang. Another, and if possible a more 
 offensive, is, the stupid and vulgar abuse of an 
 opponent, or perhaps of a really bad man — the 
 merely calling him by offensive and coarse names, 
 applying brutal vituperation, instead of a free, bold, 
 strong, but truthful sketch, in proper language, 
 of what he really is or has done, and leaving to 
 others to supply names. Of all the things which 
 you may ever be tempted to do, under any provo- 
 cation, don't call names. If you think it ever 
 becomes necessary to slaughter a swine in public, 
 it must be done artistically, with the implements 
 of the trade — cleanly, and with no offensive expose 
 of blood, bristles, and offal. I should then much 
 prefer passing the animal to a professional, and 
 spare myself and audience. 
 
 I dismiss words with a recommendation to se- 
 cure and study G-rant White's work upon "Words 
 and their Uses." 
 
 Whatever words you employ, and however you 
 arrange and use them, you have no business to 
 misuse and abuse them, nor any of them, by a half 
 birth or hurried delivery. Understand, that if a 
 word is not wanted, leave it out wholly ; if it is, 
 speak it out plainly. Pronounce it so that it can 
 be heard, and with its own proper name and 
 
161 
 
 sound, so that it can be understood. Every word 
 should be full and perfect, like a coined eagle. 
 You may speak ever so rapidly, but that must 
 never be at the expense of distinct articulation 
 and correct modern pronunciation. Language 
 should flow bright, crisp, and sparkling, and not 
 ooze or droll out, thick and muddy. Form the 
 words low and well back in the organs ; keep 
 the lungs full, with the head well back; and 
 you will learn to speak easily and for hours with- 
 out physical exhaustion, even to an out-door au- 
 dience. 
 
 XIII. I must again remind you that the most 
 wonderful of all human agencies— it may well be 
 called a natural force — and one of the most power- 
 ful, is the voice. What so potent to command, so 
 awful to condemn, so bitter to denounce, so re- 
 sistless to persuade, so sweet to soothe, and so 
 subtle to charm? Of all the sounds of the 
 rhythmic world, what so ravishing as the voice 
 of love ? 
 
 An orator, like a river, must have a mouth ; 
 
 and nature, with her usual forethought, generally 
 
 gives him a large one, which in use is found the 
 
 best for sonorous utterance. A full, manly voice 
 
 11 
 
162 
 
 can hardly come from a small moutli — one of your 
 little, pouting, rosebud girl mouths. 
 
 The voice, no matter what are its natural qual- 
 ities, can and should be trained, until it is usually 
 soft and musical; and words always commend 
 themselves by the sweetness of their sounds. 
 Passion or pathos, when they really exist, will 
 find their own proper voice. When simulated, 
 they or their pretense should remain mute. It 
 is useless to attempt to produce an emotion in 
 others which the speaker does not intensely feel 
 himself. Eemember this. So, too, the voice 
 must be capable of easy modulation and inflec- 
 tion — must have what we call compass. Nothing 
 becomes so wearying as the one key — a monotone. 
 I have now in my mind two distinguished mem- 
 bers of Congress, both eminent speakers, and yet 
 what an added charm, an actual power, each 
 would receive with the capacity of a fine modula- 
 tion of voice. Whether it is a fault of the ear, a 
 natural defect of the voice, or, what is more prob- 
 able, an early bad habit, I know not. 
 
 If a speaker pitches his voice too high, it is 
 hard to reduce it ; and he is apt to exhaust him- 
 self physically in the painful effort to sustain his 
 forced key, and the necessary mental labor be- 
 
163 
 
 comes difficult or impossible ; while his audience 
 is wearied with him. 
 
 Fix the eye on the remoter persons of your 
 audience, and commence at the pitch of easy 
 conversation with them, and go forward, easily 
 and flowingly. The warmth and action of the 
 speech, if it has them, will, as they arise, raise 
 and warm the voice, which will musically sink 
 with the ebb of the discourse to its ordinary 
 level ; and so it will rise, go up, and subside, and 
 fall in pleasing variety, as the oration progresses, 
 and thus become a positive charm in itself, as 
 well as a vast aid to the matter. And nothing 
 can be more delightful than a harmonious union 
 of voice, action, and manner in perfect elocution. 
 I remember the effect of these produced by Mr. 
 Everett, with his finished elocution, in the de- 
 livery of his piece of masterly rhetoric on Wash- 
 ington. I sat for successive evenings on the plat- 
 form near him with unabated delight. Nothing 
 could be more happily adapted and harmonious. 
 Matter, delivery, voice, articulation, manner, 
 gesture, all the product of a single inspiration, or 
 rather of high art. All sweet, easy, flowing, and 
 melodious. Nothing abrupt or startling. Some- 
 times I was momentarily cheated into the delusion 
 
164 
 
 that some real emotion or strong thought was 
 moving the lower depths ; but it invariably bub- 
 bled to the surface and subsided, a shining ripple 
 of rhetoric. 
 
 Many distinguished statesmen, eminent as 
 speakers, have had most faulty voices, both of 
 quality and management. Burke delivered him- 
 self in a sort of a high-keyed monotonous cry, and 
 he occasionally cleared the house. Mr. A. H. 
 Stephens, of Georgia, hardly had a voice: it used 
 to he a shrill piping ; while that of the greater 
 Thaddeus Stevens was always dry, husky, and mo- 
 notonous. What can be more sonorous than that 
 of Mr. Sumner at its best, badly modulated as it 
 generally is, or what more perfect than the voice 
 of Corwin? Clay and Webster were both re- 
 markable for voices, which were as unlike as the 
 men, and both had emphatic mouths, as has 
 Fred. Douglass, a born orator. Wendell Phillips, 
 the best speaking American, has voice and a beau- 
 tiful mouth, and so have Mrs. Livermore and 
 Mrs. Stanton. 
 
 Of all abominations, the most abominable is 
 what is called mouthing, which cannot be de- 
 scribed, but which everybody has been shocked 
 by. Do you speak after the manner of men. 
 
165 
 
 XIV. The noblest, and as I have already said 
 the most beautiful, object the eye can rest upon is 
 the human countenance, when aglow with sublime 
 thought, transfigured with holy sentiment, or 
 subdued with tenderness. So it may become 
 repulsive, terrible, or hideous. It has a power 
 of its own, expressive of every shade of emotion, 
 with the capacity of imparting to beholders what 
 it so faithfully pictures. And next to the voice, 
 it is the most copious agency that can be em- 
 ployed in speech, and by far the most potent that 
 can address the eye; and yet few men make it 
 really effective. Some seem to have no power 
 over it beyond the mere heat of exercise; some 
 distort and make it repulsive; while the power 
 of some to express by it is really marvelous, es- 
 pecially everything partaking of the ludicrous or 
 humorous. Mr. Oorwin's faculty of this kind 
 was wonderful. 
 
 It is the habit of many — I fear of a majority — 
 and of really good speakers, as they enter upon 
 the laborious parts of their speeches, to permit the 
 face, with all its features, to fall into a fixed frown, 
 or an expression indicative of deep physical dis- 
 tress, and to remain so. I know a distinguished 
 member of the House, and a really able man, and 
 
166 
 
 among its best speakers, whose face, in the par- 
 oxysm of his speech, expresses the agony of a pa- 
 tient suffering from bilious cholic. 'Now, whether 
 one can master and avail himself of the full force 
 of facial expression^ he certainly need not turn 
 his face against himself. He usually finds obsta- 
 cles enough in his subject and audience. One 
 certainly can cultivate and manage to wear a 
 pleasant expression, ready to ripple into a smile, 
 and, if moved to a frown, have the power to sub- 
 side again to a peaceful aspect. I have observed, 
 however, that there are among speakers more bad 
 habits of face than of any other. Perhaps orators 
 are naturally an ugly set of men. 
 
 XV. We see the speaker's form and face before 
 we hear him, and usually have an impression of 
 him before he opens his mouth. He ought, then, 
 to be able to secure a favorable one. He should 
 arise, or enter, and come forward with the self- 
 possession, ease, and grace of a man of society. 
 He should have the refined air and manner which 
 can be acquired and formed only in the society of 
 refined and accomplished women. I would im- 
 press you, gentlemen, that such women can and 
 will do much for all who will avail themselves of 
 
167 
 
 their aid, and most of all for the public speaker. 
 Whoever learns to he at ease and graceful with 
 ladies, will be so everywhere. The speaker cer- 
 tainly should be well dressed. Some men feel 
 at their best only when well dressed, and I sym- 
 pathize in that. Let such a man dress himself 
 so as to be at ease with liimself. It used to be 
 said that Mr. Webster, on his field days, ap- 
 peared in laultless costiime, and, as it was vul- 
 garly supposed, to give effect to his speech. Not 
 a bit of it. He felt best when well dressed, and 
 to secure that was his sole purpose; and hence 
 his constitutional buff and blue. 
 
 You cannot get much help from rules as to 
 attitude and gesture, manner, &c. Observing 
 critics can help you to avoid bad habits. Much 
 in these respects depends on the personal make-up 
 of tlie man. A tall, commanding figure, with a 
 grave, rather heavy face, imposes upon and bears 
 us down by mere weight, which might be lost or 
 destroyed by over- much action. So, a short, but 
 thick and heavy man, would not move much, 
 while a slight, nervous man could indulge in freer 
 action. Indeed, I have sometimes thought that 
 a slight man, physically, must largely excel^ in 
 the quality of his performance, to equalize the 
 
168 
 
 advantages between himself and one of a stately- 
 presence. 
 
 I know from memory that a very young man's 
 hands are an incumbrance on his first appearance 
 in society or as a public speaker, and hence I 
 speak of them. Well, let them hang naturally, 
 to commence with ; or perhaps the right may 
 rest lightly on a desk or table, if such an obstacle 
 is near — and a young man wants some cover — 
 and then let the mouth and voice commence. 
 
 Unless he is quite sure of himself, the young 
 orator would do well to have a few sentences that 
 he is certain of. He must get a start. Very soon 
 some thoughts will want the help of the hand, 
 which will obey the call. And, as the speech 
 gets warmth from motion, the other may be 
 called in, and sometimes every muscle and fibre, 
 etherealized and quivering with electric force, 
 may become enlisted, and, if they do, grace and 
 force will rule : the man will speak all over. 
 
 XVI. In my observations upon law students, I 
 mentioned some of the qualities that enter into 
 attitude, manner, and bearing, as will and cour- 
 age — that courage which can disregard public 
 opinion ; that will face a mob, or a court, or a 
 
169 
 
 king ; that enables a man to bear himself well, 
 it may be proudly and haughtily, in the presence 
 of enemies, and helps so much to put him at his 
 best in times of difficulty. 
 
 Demosthenes was reproached for taking money 
 for blows ; and, whether true or not, had he been 
 braver, he would have been a greater orator. 
 
 Cicero lost the case of Milo for want of nerve. 
 He dared not deliver for him his speech in the 
 spirit in which it was written ; and Milo, in exile, 
 said that if it had been pronounced with courage, 
 he had not been banished. Erskiiie, though a 
 man of courage, dared not defend Hastings — was 
 afraid of Burke, and Pitt, and Fox. Indeed, in the 
 House of Commons he failed through fear of Pitt. 
 
 Lord Brougham won his highest honors because 
 he had the courage to defend Queen Caroline. It 
 was said that Mr. Pinkney had not the courage to 
 defend Judge Chase, when impeached. Mr. Sew- 
 ard met public denunciation and an angry public 
 opinion, and defended Freeman. And Mr. Chase 
 faced the mobs of pro-slavery Cincinnati at great 
 personal peril in several cases. Cultivate courage. 
 
 XVII. After all, gentlemen, whatever may be 
 the study or ability^ no man ever excels as a public 
 
iro 
 
 speaker without practice, and mucli practice — 
 persistent, long-continued, and thorough. Our 
 own Henry, like Mirabeau, burst out a finished 
 orator, to the amazement of the world; but both 
 were marvelous exceptions. Charles James Fox, 
 the greatest English parliamentary debater, made 
 it a rule to speak every night. What a bore he 
 must have been ! The Pitts and Burke succeeded 
 early, but with intense labor. Demosthenes 
 failed a score of times, to commence with, and 
 Cicero did not succeed until after painful effort. 
 Lord Lytton, as Mr. Bulwer, one of the most 
 eloquent writers of English, failed notably in his 
 first effort, and was ridiculed by Mrs. Bulwer, 
 although he finally became a fine speaker. Dis- 
 raeli was openly laughed down in the House of 
 Commons when he first attempted a speech. He 
 turned, and, shaking his clenched fist in the faces 
 of his revilers, hissed into their teeth that the 
 time would come when they should hear him; 
 and it did. Patient effort, study, and practice, 
 with a manly determination, will alone conduct 
 to success. 
 
 XVIII. What is eloquence? Will I define it? 
 I cannot do it. Will I describe it? I will not at- 
 
171 
 
 tempt that. It has never been described, and defi- 
 nitions of it are failures. I can talk some about 
 it. Many men have. Some have tried to analyze 
 itj and think they understand it, and will sell you 
 a recipe for making it. To me it is indescriba- 
 ble^ and will only reveal and communicate itself. 
 A man may be a very good speaker, and never 
 produce real eloquence — may be able, profound, 
 logical, fanciful, imaginative, with warmth and 
 glow, can attract and enlist, and all that. Elo- 
 quence is not a property of matter ; does not dwell 
 in the mind ; is not a quality of spirit. It does 
 not inhabit a man's body, nor have its seat in the 
 soul, nor hide in the passions, mor run in thp 
 .blood, nor haunt the voice, nor linger in manner, 
 gesture, or look. All may unite to produce it; 
 and it sometimes springs out of very unpromising 
 ground. I don't think the highest art of the 
 most accomplished orator, with all his methods, 
 by a deliberate attempt, ever produced it. I 
 think it lies out of the realm of mere art. Nature 
 and happy circumstances must do much in its 
 creation. It can have no protracted life ; born of 
 an inspired moment, its memory only lives. 
 
 We may imagine an occasion : A gifted speaker, 
 clear, easy, flowing, with matter, attitude, voice, 
 
m 
 
 gesture, all harmonious, all with the charm of 
 manner. We want a great deal more — radiation, 
 power of creation, inspiration ; add heart and 
 soul; give life to inanimate things, heauty to 
 ugliness, and grandeur to the common-place. 
 Let things color and breathe and be warm. Let 
 the voice melt to the soft, sweet, musical, endear- 
 ing tone of conversation : such as we entreat and 
 persuade in, with its marvelous flexile flow. Use 
 the dear, sweet, home words of mother and sisters, 
 every one of which brings the clinging memory 
 and warmth of the hearth ; the fragrance of child- 
 idyllic life, that fall softly as the touch of caress- 
 ing hands, and warm as the pressure of sweet 
 lips, that all turn to meet and kiss: and then the, 
 marvelous thing we call sympathy comes to place 
 the speaker's pulse against the listener's heart, 
 and they throb together. And sympathy be- 
 comes magnetism — one heart, one life, one emo- 
 tion, kindling and glowing and flowing together, 
 and finding exquisitely satisfying expression by 
 the mouth that speaks. What marvels, when 
 speaker and audience become one, mutually giv- 
 ing and receiving: the audience bearing the 
 speaker onward, and the orator lifting the audi- 
 ence to higher and still higher levels. 
 
1Y3 
 
 Eloquence is then sometimes attained — tlie 
 united product of speaker and audience. For 
 what is it but the inspiration of the strong, rich, 
 sweet emotions, and giving to them celestial ex- 
 pression? What so satisfies, and what so fills the 
 whole being with anguish, as to feel the stir of 
 these emotions within, and to feel them die dumb? 
 The eyes fill with tears crushed into them, the 
 bosom swells and heaves, and they expire with a 
 great mute throb of pain. 
 
 A man may have eloquent thoughts, utter elo- 
 quent words, may be an eloquent man, and make 
 eloquent speeches, but he can never produce elo- 
 quence alone. He must have the help of his 
 audience. He must have the art and power, born 
 of those natural qualities, that give inspiration 
 to the poet, forms of beauty to the painter, and 
 ecstasy to the devotee — to create the faculty to 
 help, and impart the charity to give it. 
 
 Eloquence is rare. It can no more be fixed 
 and described than the most enchanting melody, 
 which it resembles. The great composer hears 
 it in his soul, and writes its representative char- 
 acters ; but it is mute until the great soprano or 
 tenor gives it life. You may report the words 
 uttered by eloquence, but they are cold and dead. 
 
1T4 
 
 [t is not all passion, is not all intellect, is not all 
 ?oul, is not all sense ; but the highest and most 
 sxquisite expression of them all, when united in 
 the embrace of a great seducing and compelling 
 force. 
 
LEOTUEE VI. 
 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 I. Law is the expressed will of a government, 
 by which its subjects are compelled to regulate 
 their conduct. As it is derived from and can be 
 amended, repealed, suspended, or enforced only 
 by government^ I propose to offer to you some 
 observations upon government itself. 
 
 Government may be said to be that power and 
 its exercise which regulates and controls the con- 
 duct and affairs of a given people, state, or nation, 
 and includes the working machinery and instru- 
 mentalities for carrying it on. 
 
 All government is essentially one and the same. 
 Any apparent variety is due solely to the form 
 and agencies employed for working its processes 
 and producing its ends. Whether these are one 
 man, with limitless powers, a constitutional mon- 
 archy and parliament, a magistrate and congress, 
 or a pure democracy, the thing accomplished is 
 (175) 
 
11Q 
 
 government. And so, too, the source and objects 
 of government must he essentially the same, with- 
 out reference to the form. 
 
 The quality and excellence of government are 
 different things from its form, ar.d doubtless de- 
 pend somewhat upon that, and much upon the 
 quality and genius of a people, and their fortune 
 in securing wise and virtuous rulers. 
 
 II. The American idea of government is, that 
 it can alone spring from the people. "Govern- 
 ments derive their just powers from the consent 
 of the governed^" is the formula of the Declara- 
 tion. "All power is inherent in the people," 
 respond the American constitutions. All govern- 
 ment not of right must be usurpation. If of 
 right, then it must have sprung from some source 
 having power to confer the right, and which, 
 acting freely, with power to do otherwise, has 
 conferred the right. 
 
 We find men living in communities upon some 
 implied conditions as to how they shall behave 
 to each other ; and we call this the social com- 
 pact. If hy any means a power should be created, 
 vested anywhere, to enforce this mode of inter- 
 course, that power would become its government. 
 
Ill 
 
 If it exercised its functions by their consent, we 
 should call it a rightful government ; if without 
 that, it ought to be considered a usurpation. 
 
 We say that all persons are born with or born 
 to exactly the same rights, powers, and franchises. 
 We say that these are inalienable ; that is, they 
 cannot, by force or fraud, be taken from persons, 
 nor can they, by agreement, part with them^ 
 no matter for what consideration ; and whenever 
 taken from them, with or without their consent, 
 they can rightfully resume them, because they 
 are inalienable. This rests upon the ground 
 that all persons owe certain duties, must perform 
 certain obligations, which they can only render 
 and perform while they are in full possession of, 
 and with power to use, certain primal rights and 
 privileges ; and hence these must so absolutely be 
 the property and condition of the person, that they 
 cannot be severed from him or her. As no power 
 can discharge the person from the duty and obli- 
 gation, so no power can deprive the person of the 
 means of rendering and performing them. As 
 each person is born with these rights and powers, 
 so, necessarily, is each person endowed with the 
 right and power to protect them, which must 
 also be inalienable. It would be absurd to say 
 12 
 
178 
 
 that a man has a certain inalienable right, and 
 yet may be deprived of the right to protect 
 that right. The right to protect another right 
 must be as broad and enduring as that other 
 right. 
 
 When persons associate in permanent commu- 
 nities, each retains to the full these rights. My 
 right to live cannot be violated, nor can my right 
 to preserve and protect my life. If I had not this 
 latter right, or did not exercise it, other persons 
 or the community might so order aifairs that my 
 life might be lost. This right to protect my 
 other rights I call the right of sel^government ; 
 but as I am surrounded by, and associated with, 
 other persons, in order to protect and govern my- 
 self I am obliged in some sort to govern others, 
 and they, in like manner, acquire a right to 
 govern me. And thus it is apparent that the 
 right to govern othersis the direct product of the 
 right to govern ourselves ; and it is confidently 
 submitted that this is the sole source of such right, 
 md that government is the sum total, the aggre- 
 gate, of individual self-government. And as self- 
 government is inalienable, no government can be 
 rightful and just, in which all the subjects, under 
 miform rules and conditions, do not bear an equal 
 
179 
 
 voice in directing, and an equal use of tte means 
 of directing. 
 
 III. If, as with us, this means is the ballot, 
 then do all Americans, at the time of life when 
 parental authority ceases, have the same right to 
 its use ; for it is by that alone that the inaliena- 
 ble right of protecting other inalienable rights 
 can be exercised. And if there exists any law or 
 usage that prevents this use of the ballot, that 
 law or usage is an unwarrantable usurpation, 
 and should be swept out at once. 
 
 I do not forget that the recognition of the truth 
 of this proposition recognizes the right of woman 
 to the ballot. I have never found any difficulty 
 in following out a just and logical proposition to 
 all its just and logical conclusions; and I only 
 remark of this, that woman is born with the same 
 rights and obligations as is man, and what, in the 
 absence of human law, is right for him to do is 
 right for her. If he has inalienable rights, so 
 has she, with the same right to protect them. 
 If in association he is to preserve the right of 
 self-government, so should she. If his welfare 
 and safety require the ballot, so do hers. And 
 if this proposition is unsound, its fallac)'^ can be 
 
180 
 
 ixposed. If it is just and logical, it should be 
 ncorporated into the working process of our 
 governments. The justice of this proposition is 
 •ecognized by the texts of the American consti- 
 tutions, which not only declare it in terms, but 
 ise words to limit the ballot to the males, 
 ihus admitting in practice that, without these 
 ivords of limitation, all persons of proper age 
 svould of right be entitled to the use of the 
 ballot. 
 
 The constitutions of the late rebel States were 
 barriers to the use of the ballot by colored men. 
 With the destruction of those States these barriers 
 fell; and Congress recognized the right in the 
 jolored males, and provided for its use. 
 
 No American constitution has ever attempted 
 to create the elective franchise. All have recog- 
 Qized it as pre-existent^ and have only provided 
 for its exercise as the conventional method by 
 tvhich the natural right of self-government could 
 be made effective. I deem it of importance that 
 yon should understand that your right to bear 
 ^our part in the government of our common coun- 
 try rests upon an older and better foundation 
 than a mere statutory grant, and that the mere 
 repeal of a law cannot divest you of the right ; 
 
181 
 
 and that your present enjoyment of it is only the 
 new exercise of a very old right. 
 
 IV. The form of government is determined 
 somewhat hy the genius, intelligence, and char- 
 acter of a given people, modified, no doubt, by 
 race and climate, and often by the shaping hand 
 of fortuitous circumstances, the fortunes of sur- 
 rounding nations, and sometimes it is dictated by 
 conquest. 
 
 The ancient idea was, that the individual, as 
 such, was nothing: the state was everything; 
 and persons were of importance only as they went 
 to swell the mass, and were useful to the state. 
 Under that idea, the freest governments were 
 despotisms, without reference to their forms. 
 As the person grew into importance, and his 
 rights gained recognition and protection, the 
 spirit, and sometimes the form, of governments 
 changed. 
 
 Despotic kings and emperors claimed to rule 
 hy direct authority delegated of God ; and when- 
 ever and wherever they felt compelled to relax or 
 mitigate the severity of their rule, it was in the 
 form of granting privileges and franchises, the 
 bestowal of graces and favors upon their subjects, 
 
isa 
 
 and never in the form of a recognition of any sup- 
 posed right inherent in the person. 
 
 There is doubtless some truth in the observa- 
 tion, at least in modern times, that a given gov- 
 ernment, in form and spirit, is about as good as 
 the condition of its people requires; which is in 
 effect saying, that government is usually com- 
 pelled to consult public opinion, and conform to 
 the spirit of the age, and accord with the charac- 
 teristics of its people. While, in a qualified way, 
 this may he true, governments undoubtedly do . 
 much to shape and fix the character of a people ; 
 direct or repress its energies ; smother or develop 
 its tendencies ; enlarge and liberalize its minds, 
 aspirations, and enterprises; or depress, darken, 
 and dwarf mind, spirit, and manhood. In which- 
 ever way the tendency of a government is, it in- 
 variably will derive a reflex influence from its 
 subjects in the same direction. 
 
 It is very likely true that every tribe and people 
 have or have had placed within their reach a clue, 
 which, if they had the wisdom, courage, and per- 
 severance to lay hold of and follow^ would conduct 
 them to the open field of progress and human 
 advancement; and this clue would undoubtedly 
 
183 
 
 be the agency of a wise government, which many 
 of them were uneq[ual to construct. 
 
 V. Governments evidently began, like most 
 things human, in the most illogical of ways ; never, 
 in the first instance, formulated to secure the best 
 interests of the governed, and rarely or never 
 established with their consent, and usually with- 
 out any reference to their wishes or interests, but 
 wholly to subserve the ambitions, swell the con- 
 quests^ and gratify the lust of some man's domin- 
 ion. Being established solely in the interests of 
 the party governing, it has been only in the 
 rare cases, when the king or despot has had the 
 wisdom to find his interests and those of his peo- 
 ple to coincide, that his rule has been fortunate 
 for them. 
 
 Grovernments more or less despotic, having es- 
 tablished themselves, govern in the way that will 
 apparently secure their own perpetuity • and in 
 the minds of narrow rulers, whatever would re- 
 strain and repress the subject, apparently would 
 strengthen and add permanency to the dynasty. 
 
 Among peoples two forces, more or less active, 
 have always in some form manifested themselves ; 
 and from these manifestations we determine their 
 
184 
 
 existence. The one is a tendency to equality — a 
 democracy ; and Ihe other to accumulate power in 
 the hands of the few — an aristocracy. The first 
 always has the advantage of numhers, the strength 
 of honesty of purpose, and the plea of good inten- 
 tions. It lacks discernment, unity, and sagacity. 
 As it must have a magistrate, it allies itself with 
 the monarchical principle; and its chosen ruler 
 often hecomes its king. 
 
 An aristocracy, with unity of purpose, is op- 
 posed to a monarch, for it will endure no superior. 
 It often monopolizes the learning, wisdom, and 
 brain-power of a whole people, which, as the 
 history of the race shows, has enabled it to 
 establish and maintain a despotism more unen- 
 durable than that of a single man, and often more 
 difficult to resist or overthrow. 
 
 VI. The simple forms of government are usually 
 said to be four: a theocracy, a pure monarchy, 
 a, constitutional monarchy, and a democracy. No 
 enlightened nation, in modern times, has perhaps 
 furnished a sample of either. We find several 
 composed of the mixed forms of constitutional 
 monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. A feeble 
 monarchy often allies itself with an oppressed 
 
18i; 
 
 democracy, to restrain or reduce a governing and 
 liaughty aristocracy. I believe no instance can be 
 found of the combination of the people and nobles 
 against a king, and few of king and nobles against 
 a people. 
 
 England is an instance of an oppressed people : 
 a feeble monarchy, and an arrogant, haughty, 
 governing aristocracy; and I have sometimes 
 wondered what would happen there if a king 
 with brains and patriotism should come to the 
 throne, and who should ally himself with the 
 democracy, to crush the aristocracy. 
 
 The various forms of government are sup- 
 posed to possess excellencies peculiar to each. 
 A prevalence of the monarchical element is sup- 
 posed to give strength; a predominance of the 
 aristocratic is thought to insure wisdom ; while 
 honesty is the peculiar characteristic of a democ- 
 racy. 
 
 Few now would recommend a return to theo- 
 cratic forms. Whether because the inspiration 
 necessary for such government is doubted or want- 
 ing, or whether man has become too perverse for 
 such dominion in his ordinary affairs, the success 
 of that form, as gathered from the annals of the 
 p<joples who were its subjects, has not been such, 
 
186 
 
 in a worldly point of view, as to warrant its 
 repetition. 
 
 I am inclined to doubt tlie assertion, tliat an 
 absolute monarchy is the strongest; and such, I 
 think, is not the lesson of history. The Greeks 
 were certainly the most powerful when the freest, 
 and so were the Komans. So were the wonderful 
 cities of the Middle Ages — Venice, G-enoa, and 
 Florence. What despotism could have resisted 
 the Spanish power of Philip II, like the Dutch 
 Eepublic? What nation under kings would have 
 remained unconquered, occupying the territories 
 of the Swiss Cantons? When was England com- 
 paratively so formidable as under Cromwell? 
 And when did the French ever exhibit such mar- 
 vels of strength and power as during their first 
 republic? And if, as Americans assert, our own 
 Government is the best of human handiwork, 
 then it is not true that aristocracies embody the 
 most wisdom. 
 
 VII. Established and maintained, as most gov- 
 ernments have been, in the interests of kings and 
 rulers, who have permitted to their peoples the 
 exercise of the minimum of their natural rights, 
 consistent with the existence of the government, 
 
18T 
 
 the political history of the nations is the annals 
 of the constant struggle of the governed to wrest 
 something more of human right from the grasp 
 of despotism; and this, as exemplified in the 
 story of our English ancestors, began when the 
 people were not an element in the controversy. 
 That was a contest between the crown and an 
 oppressed nobility, and resulted in Magna Gharta, 
 in which the people are not named, and who were 
 then known only as villeins or serfs. 
 
 N"ations are developed like individuals; and 
 when the whole energies are employed for the 
 maintenance of a bare existence, little improve- 
 ment in mind or manners, little progress in art 
 or science, is possible ; and in the long, dark, rude 
 infancy of modern nations, their peoples made 
 little progress in the recognition of the rights of 
 the person, or in the means for their protection. 
 What may have been gained of a weak and sorely 
 pressed ruler was lost to him again, when he re- 
 trieved his fortunes, or was swept away in the 
 conquest of his kingdom. The struggles and 
 wars of those times were usually either wars be- 
 tween rival nations, or civil wars between rival 
 claimants to a throne, in which privileges were 
 promised or granted to the people, to purchase 
 
188 
 
 service or aid for the war. Those were the days 
 of guilds and corporations, of the freedom of cities 
 and horoughs, through which and hy which ac- 
 cumulations of right were made and stored away, 
 which rendered the later wars of ideas and free- 
 dom possible. 
 
 VIII. Americans are surprised, disgusted, and 
 chagrined at the inconsequence, the final failures, 
 of even the successful revolutions of the modern 
 peoples of Europe against despotic governments. 
 We have many times seen a people successfully 
 rebel, overthrow a throne, and banish a dynasty, 
 only to fail almost inevitably in the effort to es- 
 tablish a government without the monarchy, and 
 followed sometimes by a return of the expelled 
 rulers; and we are in the habit of saying that 
 such a people are incompetent to self-government, 
 and, complacently remembering our apparent suc- 
 cess^ claim offensive superiority for ourselves. 
 We never allow for the diverse conditions of the 
 experiments. Indeed, we are ignorant of many 
 of them. We should remember, that when a 
 king is expelled, he leaves behind him a consid- 
 erable party — many and powerful adherents ; that 
 all the institutions of the realm are monarchical ; 
 
189 
 
 its oivilization, manners, and customs formed 
 under a royal influence; and all the traditions 
 of the people partake of kingly rule. The people 
 are unaccustomed to self-government; they are 
 unaccustomed to obey anything not evidenced by 
 the insignia of power ; while the leaders of the 
 revolt are themselves unaccustomed to use power, 
 unfamiliar with administration, and doubtful of 
 their hold upon the people, and fearful of exer- 
 cising authority sufficient to enforce order and 
 repress discontent: while the people, in their 
 escape from severe and often wholesome rule, will 
 not submit to the necessary restraijit, from which 
 alone order can flow. We are to remember also 
 that they are hemmed in on all sides with power- 
 ful enemies, directly allied against their success. 
 In our own experience we were a democracy, 
 pure and simple, from the begiuning, planted on 
 unoccupied soil. The company which colonized 
 Jamestown were equals. No figment of aristoc- 
 racy freighted the Mayflower. The element of 
 aristocracy that afterwards found place in the 
 woods was never dominant: it was merely intel- 
 ligent respectability. Kingly power and its min- 
 isters, its trappings and liveries, were always 
 foreign ; and our peoples — homogeneous democra- 
 
190 
 
 cies — accustomed to self-government, intelligent, 
 making and obeying law — obeying it from senti- 
 ments of reverence and respect, and not because 
 it was enforced with ostentatious show of power — 
 had had the healthy growth of a hundred and fifty 
 years, had other complete and organized govern- 
 ments, and were nearly unanimous in sentiment. 
 And when we remember their origin, character, 
 and qualities, and find them, after the expulsion 
 of kingly rule, in full possession of the continent, 
 without powerful neighbors^ we find them under 
 conditions the most favorable to success; and 
 while thus situated, with time and opportunity; 
 with the experience of war and peace ; with much 
 self-knowledge; with strong and complete State 
 governments, deeply rooted in the soil, and fully 
 in the confidence of their peoples; and with the 
 experience under the Articles of Confederation, 
 we framed the Constitution for our national Gov- 
 ernment, and we succeeded. And I confess, on 
 quite mature deliberation, that I think we ought 
 to have succeeded, while I am not much surprised 
 at the failures of our European brethren ; and I 
 think it quite likely we should fail under the 
 same conditions. 
 
191 
 
 IX. In the present enlightened condition of po- 
 litical science, we understand the nature and ele- 
 ments of government. We know pretty well what 
 it ought to do, and the quantum of power neces- 
 sary to produce given results; but we shall always 
 he met with certain known factors, of unknown 
 power and strength, which must always enter 
 into the working processes of every government. 
 The highest places and positions in all govern- 
 ments, which will always be sought by the power- 
 ful, able, and ambitious, must have large margins 
 for the discretion of those who fill them ; and the 
 problem to be solved is and will long remain, to 
 so adjust the government and its working ma- 
 chinery that, while those who work it are pursu- 
 ing their own ambitious elevations and renowns, 
 they will at the same time best promote and 
 advance the true interests of the people. 
 
 It is useless to say that public servants ought 
 not to be selfish and ambitious ; that they ought 
 self-sacrificingly to devote themselves to the good 
 of the people. The reverse is true, and always will 
 be ; and the thing to be achieved or approached is, 
 to have the line of a strong man's ambition coin- 
 cide with the line of a nation's advance along the 
 way of progress: a still unsolved problem. 
 
192 
 
 X. One of the defects in the existing practice of 
 representative governments grows out of carrying 
 them on by political parties. No method has yet 
 been devised, and in our present stage of develop- 
 ment none is to be looked for, of working them 
 without ; and when the rule is and must be, that 
 a majority, for the time of its existence, must 
 govern, it is seen that a minority may be practi- 
 cally annihilated, or at best but counted as so 
 many non-voters, in apportioning representation 
 among the people. Here is a State, for instance, 
 in which one party is in a large minority, and yet 
 so distributed through it, that it may not for 
 years elect a single legislative or executive officer. 
 It is seen that, for the practical purpose of gov- 
 erning, the members of this party really do not 
 exist. They may think, speak, and write, and so 
 express their views, but they can secure no other 
 or further recognition. 
 
 XI. A plan has been devised to remedy this 
 evil, which has received the favorable considera- 
 tion of many thoughtful men.* It is in effect to so 
 arrange the elective districts, either by an increase 
 in the number of representatives or by putting 
 
 * This has been incorporated in the Constitution of Illinois. 
 
193 
 
 several single districts together, and thus increase 
 the number to he elected in a district, and then 
 allow to each elector a number of votes equal to 
 the whole number of representatives, with the 
 liberty to cast them all for one or two, or one for 
 each, of the proposed representatives, so that, by- 
 concentrating them, the minority will thus secure 
 representation. Suppose a district, in which the 
 minority numbers slightly more than a third, 
 should be entitled to three representatives, with 
 the right for each citizen to cast three votes : it is 
 apparent that, by concentrating all their votes on 
 one, this minority would secure a representative. 
 Or a State might be regarded as one district, with 
 as many votes to each citizen as it has Senators 
 and Representatives. No difficulty would occur 
 in devising a practical method of working out this 
 scheme. 
 
 It may be said that this minority may also 
 ^be in a minority in the body of representatives, 
 and it would still be powerless, and in effect non- 
 existent. This is not at all the position of a minor- 
 ity in a deliberative body. It is in the power of a 
 minority to be of the utmost service. Its actual 
 presence — alert, watchful, discriminating — with 
 its strong, clear, and just, or partial, unjust, and 
 18 
 
194 
 
 partisan criticism — is never without effect ; and 
 often it is of the utmost service to the public. 
 This opposition always keeps a majority on its 
 guard — on its best conduct ; and the most valua- 
 ble hints — often the strongest and clearest light, 
 is shed upon a proposed measure by the adverse 
 criticism of its enemies ; and many measures are 
 shaped and changed by the heat and fire of a 
 thorough and searching debate, brought about 
 only by an opposing minority. Not only of the 
 utmost service to the people is an able minority, 
 but it is of actual value to the governing majority. 
 It has been not the least of the misfortunes of the 
 present dominant party that its majority has been 
 uniformly so large. I am, for one^ not anxious 
 again to see a party so powerful" for a series of 
 years that it can at pleasure amend the Constitu- 
 tion. Ordinarily that should never be accom- 
 plished, save by the concurrence of both parties. 
 
 XII. The great subject of controversy among 
 writers, as well as the frequent cause of revolts, 
 rebellions, revolutions, and insurrections^ has 
 been- the mere politics, so to speak — the form of 
 government. This is the battle-ground between 
 monarchists and republicans, and sometimes, with- 
 
195 
 
 out mucti reference to actual, essential govern- 
 ment, the thing accomplished, and to which I 
 now invite your attention. 
 
 You will have discovered that, in these obser- 
 vations, I am attempting no methodical presenta- 
 tion of the subject. I quote no authorities, and 
 follow no author. I hope only to offer suggestions 
 and views that may help you in your examination 
 of books, or furnish some elementary outline of 
 the principles involved. 
 
 "What are the proper objects of government, 
 and what is it in its work and manifestations? 
 
 There is a very shallow and a very false saying, 
 and which is very common in the mouths of many 
 who should not utter it as a maxim embodying 
 any considerable truth: "That government is 
 the best that governs the least." If the sole 
 function of government was to restrain men of 
 their natural rights and rightful freedom, to strip 
 them of property and franchises, it certainly would 
 embody sound and practical wisdom ; but as such 
 is not at all the purpose and objects of rightful 
 government, I am inclined to repudiate it wholly. 
 
 XIII. In a general way we may say that gov- 
 ernment should do for a people whatever is neces- 
 
196 
 
 sary for their advancement and welfare, and which 
 as individuals they cannot do for themselves. The 
 accomplishment of this is government. Anything 
 short of it is not the hest government. 
 
 That a government should he a mere heartless 
 skeleton corporation — merely maintaining itself, 
 isolated and apart from its subjects ; simply giv- 
 ing them a place among nations, and drawing 
 from them a revenue for its own support; and 
 shriveling itself to the discharge of a few enumer- 
 ated functions, merely and purely political — may 
 realize the idea of a model government; hut it 
 would fall far short of my conception of its duties. 
 
 The threefold duty of collecting a revenue, pro- 
 viding for the public defense against other na- 
 tions, and the enactment and enforcement of law^ 
 securing internal order when scantily performed, 
 would meet the requisitions of the rule, but would 
 in no way meet the just demands upon the gov- 
 ernment of any of the modern enlightened nations. 
 
 Men have fewer and fewer isolated and merely 
 individual wants and pursuits. They associate, 
 extend, and enlarge. They improve, grow arti- 
 ficial, and complex. Immeasurably more wants 
 are created, which daily grow more and more 
 difficult to meet and supply. The absolute ne- 
 
19Y 
 
 cessity for a universal and somewhat thorough 
 education of all children is now generally admit- 
 ted. This cannot be accomplished by individual 
 enterprise. Does anj^body doubt the power of 
 government over the subject? Clearly this is 
 one of its primary duties. 
 
 The general health of the people, which can be 
 secured by the abatement of nuisances — the re- 
 straint of noxious manufactures; the draining of 
 swamps and marshes ; the analysis of deleterious 
 substances ; the tracing out of dangerous diseases ; 
 promotiag the discovery of remedies; to guard 
 and protect mines ; take supervision of the use of 
 steam; inspect steamboats, bridges, &c. ; and so, 
 in dense populations, the prevention of fires, the 
 supply of fresh water, air^ gas, &c. — in short, to 
 create and enforce a thorough system of sanitary 
 police — must be regarded also as a primary duty 
 of the government. Allied to this is the estab- 
 lishment o^liospitals, foundling institutions, and 
 the whole subject of pauperism, registration of 
 marriages, births, deaths, &c. 
 
 Who ever regarded the establishment and main- 
 tenance of the post-office system as the exercise of 
 political power? But who now doubts that it 
 properly belongs to the duties of the government, 
 
198 
 
 as able alone to do it, and to do it cheaper and 
 better than could any part of it be done by in- 
 dividuals? So, too, the whole system of means 
 employed for commercial intercourse, foreign and 
 internal, and by all the methods known, as well 
 as to secure: the cheap and expeditious transfer of 
 persons from place to place. 
 
 The development of the natural resources of a 
 country ; the encouragement of all its useful arts 
 and manufactures; the discovery and perfection 
 of science — -all these and innumerable other sub- 
 jects fall under the care and within the purview 
 of government, without any reference to politics, 
 and whatever may be its form. 
 
 XIV. All these matters are of vastly more im- 
 portance to our people than the success of a political 
 party, the election of a President, or the enactment 
 of a political law ; and as our Government well or 
 ill performs its duties in these respects,' and secures 
 or fails to secure their creation and perfection, it 
 is to be esteemed a good or bad government. It 
 is useless to boast of the freedom it allows and 
 protects, if it leaves us to perish for want of a 
 proper care; and it would provoke derision if, 
 when compared with another form of government. 
 
199 
 
 we should boast of its superiority ; while it should 
 he found that the subjects of that other enjoyed 
 as much freedom, and at the same time, in all 
 the essential elements of civil government, all 
 their interests were much better advanced and 
 protected than are ours. As we advance, im- 
 prove, extend, refine, and come to have still more 
 complex interests and artificial modes, our Gov- 
 ernment must open and protect paths, create 
 means, furnish facilities, foster, and protect, and 
 become also more complex, refined, and artificial. 
 It must work out and accomplish its ever-present 
 andever-potentfunctions in these respects, silently, 
 certainly, and efi&ciently, without break, jar, or 
 intermission, like the silent, certain, and benig- 
 nent processes of nature. To work out this is 
 government; to work it out efficiently is good 
 government. The government that governs in 
 this way the least is a bad government, whatever 
 men may say. 
 
 XV. One of the obstacles in the way of this result 
 with us is its cost. In the first place, we require 
 the ablest of our men. To secure this, such com- 
 pensations should be offered, by way of salaries, 
 as would practically secure the best, and would 
 
200 
 
 not preclude a prudent poor man from entering 
 the. public service: a rate of compensation pro- 
 portionate to the rewards that like talents and 
 services command in first-class private enterprise. 
 Iq the second, the outlay and expenditure in the 
 mechanical structure of the necessary thorough- 
 fares, machinery, buildings, offices, and apparatus 
 by which these various governmental duties are 
 to be performed ; and that economy would be 
 niggard meanness that should limit this expendi- 
 ture below a liberal estimate, made with reference 
 to securing the best and most useful service. 
 
 Third. Another constant and often a fatal hin- 
 drance to securing the best public results by a 
 representative government, is the perpetual and 
 all-powerful presence of a controlling party spirit. 
 Not only all political measures, but every leading 
 measure becomes a party measure ; is supported 
 and opposed, not at all upon its merits, but as it 
 is proposed by a given party : and as its estab- 
 lishment is made to depend upon the success of 
 that party, so its continuance is sometimes meas- 
 ured by the term of that party's power. i 
 
 It is impossible to over-estimate the mischiefs 
 of these constant changes in the personnel of those 
 who work the government processes, and in every 
 
201 
 
 possible department. I do not know as there ever 
 will be any way of preventiDg this in the elective 
 offices. The people at the present seem to regard 
 these as specially created for the numerous aspir- 
 ants ; and in order to bestow them as widely as 
 possible, they act upon the rule of rotation in 
 office: the equivalent of the ruin of the public 
 service. Thus, for instance, a Representative in 
 Congress can only, in a tolerable way, master his 
 duties and manifest his capacity to his associates 
 on the floor, and fit himself for usefulness in a 
 single term of two years ; and just as he has in a 
 way concluded his apprenticeship, he is usually 
 discharged, and another unknown and untried 
 man set to learn, and in turn dismissed at the 
 same time in his career ; and the people, instead 
 of getting the best, thus get the worst possible 
 service. 
 
 Ifot only is this change made in elective offices, 
 but as often as a general change takes place in 
 them, or in the Chief Executive, it is followed by 
 a sweeping change in all bureaus and offices of 
 the administrative departments; and a hungry 
 swarm of raw, uneducated, inexperienced boobies, 
 who have failed at everything else, hurry in pell 
 mell to the places thus vacated. And the wonder 
 
202 
 
 is, not that the various branches of civil service 
 suffer, but that the Government works forward 
 at all. 
 
 A remedy for this monstrous mischief is so ob- 
 vious that all parties are to blame deeply for its 
 coutinuanoe. Ascertained fitness for the place 
 should be the only qualification permitted to se- 
 cure an appointment; and if found efficient, the 
 pleasure of the incumbent should be his tenure 
 of ofiice. The attention of thoughtful people 
 will be more and more directed to this subject, 
 and in time the remedy will be applied. Some 
 party will be obliged finally and in good faith to 
 make it a party measure, if it long remains with- 
 out remedy. 
 
 Fourth. So far as the action of Congress is con- 
 cerned, I have observed another source of difii- 
 culty, and which also extends to the Supreme 
 Court of the United States : a difficulty which 
 will rapidly increase, and in the case of Congress 
 the remedy is not so obvious. 
 
 The various subjects demanding the attention 
 of Congress have doubled within the last fifteen 
 years, and were never before so rapidly increasing 
 as now, especially with the present disposition to 
 extend its legislation to subjects usually supposed 
 
203 
 
 to fall within tlie scope of State law, and to assume 
 the right to investigate, as Congress is pleased to 
 call it, every possible thing within the boundaries 
 of the United States. 
 
 While this rapid increase has taken place in 
 the public business of the two houses, the means 
 and facilities for transacting it have not increased 
 at all, nor is it apparent how there can be any 
 addition to them. Already much that is import- 
 ant suffers for want of time, while more and more 
 laws and measures are left to the shaping hands 
 of standing committees and committees of confer- 
 ence, the houses often adopting a report without 
 any debate, and usually without a thorough dis- 
 cussion. Members are now paid by the year, and 
 very soon will find that all the working days are 
 inadequate to a proper dispatch of the public 
 business. And so, too, the Supreme Court, with 
 commendable diligence, finds itself about three 
 years behind the current business, which still ac- 
 cumulates faster than it can be disposed of. It 
 would seem that this might be within the reach 
 of adequate remedy ; but it is not apparent what 
 remedy can be applied to the difficulty under 
 which the Congress labors. 
 
 I have thus called your attention to the sources 
 
204 
 
 of government, its form, and some of the objects 
 falling within its proper scope ; and mindful as I 
 am that, in spite of my advice, yon can hardly 
 fail to become somewhat the political instructors 
 and leaders of a race needing both, I commend 
 the whole subject^ so wide, varied, complex, and 
 important, to your study and reflection. I pur- 
 pose also to offer you some observations more im- 
 mediately upon our Government, and also to unfold 
 to you somewhat the laws that govern the rise, 
 career, and decline of political parties among us. 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 I. By the term constitution, as applied to a 
 government, we understand the fundamental con- 
 ditions of its existence : the principles upon which 
 it is founded, which enter into its frame-work, and 
 determine its structure; the powers it creates, 
 their distribution, and the means by which they 
 are executed. A material departure from these 
 principles, the exercise of other important powers, 
 or the use of the powers conferred in any other 
 manner considerably variant from the prescribed 
 mode, would violate the fundamental conditions of 
 the government, and therefore are not permissive. 
 We mean a government of ascertained and lim- 
 ited powers. The principles need not be enumer- 
 ated and defined in writing, nor need the powers 
 and mode of exercise be formulated on paper ; but 
 they must nevertheless be clearly understood, and 
 capable of specification . 
 
 (205) 
 
206 
 
 The American Constitution was the logical 
 result of the previous political, mental,jand relig- 
 ious experience and growth of the American 
 peoples, framed when that experience was quite 
 ripe, and after a century and a half of healthful 
 growth. Its formation was in a time of peace, 
 on mature deliheration, and by a people who were 
 enjoying the already existing advantages of estab- 
 lished governments — governments that were to 
 remain, whatever might be the result of the pro- 
 posed experiment. Every part of it was reduced 
 to writing by its framers, men who knew the use 
 of words, and who selected them with care. 
 
 As a whole, it consists of principles and powers, 
 and the mode of applying the principles, and 
 the means of exercising the powers. The prin- 
 ciples are understood and implied rather than 
 expressed^ and are nowhere defined. The text 
 employs itself with their practical application, the 
 creation and distribution of powers, and directing 
 the manner of, and providing the means for, their 
 exercise. 
 
 With the trite subject of the text of the Con- 
 stitution I do not propose to deal; and I remit 
 you to the instrument itself for its creation and 
 enumeration of powers. I propose to call your 
 
207 
 
 attention to the principles upon whicli it rests, 
 and whicli have given it shape ; some of the ideas 
 that it seeks to realize in 'its working processes, 
 as well as some of the ends to he accomplished hy 
 it; some general and hroad views, not set down, 
 perhaps, by any writer, but such as would occur 
 to you on reflection. 
 
 II. The great and fundamental idea of the 
 Constitution, and of which it is predicated, is the 
 unqualified sovereignty of the people. They are 
 the sole source of power, and alone confer it upon 
 the agencies for its execution^ directly or indi- 
 rectly ; and power thus derived can alone be used 
 for some purpose of theirs. It is the antithesis 
 of despotic government , 
 
 This proposition is nowhere stated in the Con- 
 stitution or any accompanying paper, and is de- 
 duced indirectly from various articles and clauses 
 of that instrument, and mainly from those which 
 provide for the election of Representatives, Sen- 
 ators, and President. You observe that, without 
 the exercise of this primary power, the machinery 
 of the Government could never have started, and 
 that an abstinence from voting by the people, at 
 any general election, would be fatal to its contin- 
 
208 
 
 uance. Suppose that' for this year we should fail 
 to elect a House of Representatives and a Presi- 
 dent. There is no authority for the present in- 
 cumbents to hold over. The Grovernment would 
 suddenly perish. The Executive Mansion would 
 become silent, and the south wing of the Capitol 
 a marble desert. The Senate and Supreme Court 
 would linger a little time in melancholy solitude, 
 until Senators and judges, one by one, should pass 
 out and away. In the absence of the great heads 
 of the departments, the administrative machinery 
 would go slowly and uncertainly for a few days, 
 and stop, and the crowd of bureau officers would 
 disperse. The unmanned national ships would 
 be left to rot, the army would disband, and the 
 national standards fade out in solitude. 
 
 You see, gentlemen, what consequences would 
 follow a refusal or neglect of the people to exercise 
 the elective franchise ; and we have had many in- 
 stances of the results of a bad use of it. 
 
 III. The acceptance of this Constitution by the 
 people produced a nation, and not a confederacy. 
 There is no expression in the Constitution bearing 
 upon this proposition, and the only reference to 
 it is found in the preamble, where it is declared, 
 
209 
 
 that the first purpose of that instrument was "to 
 form a more perfect union." Obviously this had 
 reference to the union of the existing States. What 
 effect was or ultimately would be produced by the 
 Constitution upon the whole people, citizens of 
 the different States, at that time, might not be 
 apparent. Beyond the perfecting of a union, it 
 was provided, that the citizens of each State 
 should be entitled to all the privileges and im- 
 munities of citizens in the several States, while 
 citizens of any State became citizens of the United 
 States ; and except by the process of naturaliza- 
 tion, there was no other method of becoming a 
 citizen of the United States. These conditions, 
 narrowly regarded, would perhaps present the 
 idea of an aggregation of peoples, having certain 
 interests and agencies in common, rather than 
 that of completeness and oneness, which consti- 
 tute a nation ; and yet, with the adoption of the 
 Constitution, a new growth commenced, and more 
 directly in the path of identity of policy, progress, 
 and destiny. The vicissitudes of war, constant 
 intercourse, an immense inter-State commerce, the 
 effects of a common language, and the prevalence 
 of comnion political ideas, with the constant as- 
 sociation of the representative and administrative 
 14 
 
210 
 
 officers of the General Government, tlirough a 
 lapse of years, tended powerfully to strengthen 
 the bonds of union, and consolidate the peoples, 
 notwithstanding the repellant force and power 
 of slavery, until finally, in the furnace of the 
 great civil war, that disturbing element disap- 
 peared, and all peoples became one; and we 
 realize as a fact, among ourselves, that we are a 
 nation : and that we have become such through 
 the agency of the Constitution is apparent. 
 
 IV. The National Government is in all essen- 
 tials and respects sovereign ; and this also may 
 be rather a result of the workings of the Consti- 
 tution, under the variant fortunes and vicissitudes 
 that make up our history, than a legal and logical 
 conclusion, drawn from the text of the instrument 
 itself. Certain officials are created — a President 
 and Congress — to whom are delegated certain spe- 
 cific powers and duties, with whatever power may 
 be necessary to exercise the granted powers and 
 perform the specific duties. Everything else is 
 withheld. 
 
 I do not know that any man has ever attempted 
 to make a schedule of the powers, a sum total of 
 which amounts to sovereign power. I doubt 
 
211 
 
 ■whether that is possible. And certain it is, I 
 think, that the framers of the Constitution did 
 not trouble themselves with the thought, whether 
 they were creating a sovereign power or not. 
 They had in view certain things, which must be 
 accomplished by a common government, and these 
 they were careful to specify ; and they then as 
 carefully prohibited the use of any and all power 
 not necessary for the accomplishment of those 
 specified things. And whether the sum total of 
 all the power thus conferred amounted to sov- 
 ereign power, they never inquired; and beyond 
 the enumeration, grant, and prohibition, there is 
 no light on the subject in the Constitution. That 
 it did not create a full sovereign, as we know, was 
 always denied by a powerful section of the country 
 until within the last few years. 
 
 The Government was launched, and as fast as 
 necessary began to use and exercise sovereign 
 power. For instance, there can be found no 
 grant to create Territories and govern the resi- 
 dents upon lands outside the limits of a State; 
 and yet Congress has always exercised it; and 
 Chief Justice Marshall derives it as an incident 
 of the general power to govern and care for what- 
 ever belongs to the United States, which is cer- 
 
212 
 
 tainly a property of sovereignty. (Case of Am. 
 Ins. Co. V. Canter, 1 Peters, 511.) And so also 
 we find no express grant to acquire territory ; but 
 the same high authority derives that from the 
 power to make war and conclude treaties. (Id.) 
 We have not only acquired territory, but we have 
 annexed at least one foreign nation, people and 
 territory, as in the case of Texas ; and still fur- 
 ther, we have ceded territory, as in the instance 
 of our northeastern boundary. 
 
 As you know, it was claimed, and notably, by 
 Messrs. Hayne, Calhoun, and others, that a State 
 had power in effect to stay or suspend the execu- 
 tion of a law of the United States in its limits, 
 known as nullification or States-rights doctrine. 
 
 In vindication of this doctrine, and of the sup- 
 posed right of the States, certain States seceded 
 from the Union, as it was called. It was pre- 
 tended that this was not a revolt, not a rebellion, 
 but the exercise of a reserved right; and, as you 
 well remember, all powers not conferred by the 
 Constitution were, by its tenth amendment, re- 
 served to the States and the people. And so the 
 question was fairly and broadly made in the forum 
 of arms, and ten thousand pieces of artillery thun- 
 dered their inexorable logic upon it ; and it was 
 
213 
 
 established, that the Government of the Constitu- 
 tion was sovereign and supreme, and this was 
 sealed by five hundred battle-fields. 
 
 Y. The National Government, then, being 
 supreme in all cases arising within its jurisdic- 
 tion, gives rise to questions of no little difficulty. 
 Where is the line of demarkation between the 
 the States and the United States? And most 
 undoubtedly the present tendency is the very 
 opposite of the States-rights doctrine ; and there 
 is an unhealthy, not to say a dangerous, tendency 
 to disregard the powers and rights of the States, 
 and to centralize and consolidate all the import- 
 ant powers in the hands of Congi-ess and of the 
 National Executive. 
 
 The relation of subject and sovereign is that 
 subsisting between every American citizen and 
 the National Government. So long as the citizen 
 is loyal, he may claim the protection of his sov- 
 ereign. Suppose he is oppressed or neglected by 
 his immediate State government: may he appeal 
 to his sovereign paramount? 
 
 I admit, inclined as I am to an assertion of the 
 rights of the States under the Constitution, I 
 nevertheless contended, and as I insist rightfully, 
 
214 
 
 that, while certain persons, as between themselves 
 and certain other persons, were claimed and holden 
 as slaves under the State governments, yet as be- 
 tween themselves and the United States they were 
 subjects ; and that if the sovereign paramount 
 found anything in slavery that prevented this 
 class of subjects from discharging to the sovereign 
 all the duties of subjects, it could abolish slavery, 
 and that the person could claim the intervention 
 of his sovereign to protect him from the rigors of 
 servitude. However this may be, where and what 
 is the limit to the jurisdiction of the National 
 Government, as between it and the State? 
 
 VI. The existence of such a national govern- 
 ment as the last proposition contemplates im- 
 poses upon it duties and obligations commensuraite 
 with its powers and jurisdiction ; and, recalling 
 your attention to my observations upon the proper 
 subjects of governmental care, I dismiss this head 
 with the remark, that among the paramount duties 
 of our Government is to care for and protect itself. 
 You will remember that, towards the close of the 
 unfortimate administration of the unhappy Mr. 
 Buchanan, it was the doctrine of the majority of 
 his Cabinet, in which he concurred, that while 
 
215 
 
 there was no riglit or power on the part of Statea 
 to secede from the Union, still there was no power 
 vested in the General Government to prevent 
 such secession, and of course none to compel their 
 return ; and, being without power, it would follow 
 that the administration had no duty to perform 
 in the premises, and acted accordingly: an error 
 which the war also corrected. 
 
 VII. The Constitution is the fundamental law 
 of the States alone. It does not in a direct way 
 apply to the Territories, or to people not within 
 the limits of organized States. It was framed and 
 adopted by the people of the States, and is a union 
 of States ; and there exists no power to extend it 
 elsewhere. The action of the people of a Terri- 
 tory, asking for admission into' the Union, is an 
 application to be admitted to the platform of the 
 Constitution; and when admitted, it becomes the 
 law of the new State. This is not only the prin- 
 ciple governing this question, but there is abund- 
 ance of authority sustaining the proposition.* 
 
 * See the case cited above; also, The United States \ . Gratiot, 
 14 Peters, 525; The United States T. Sogers, 4 Howard, 567; 
 2 Story on the Const., ? 1328; 1 Kent's Comm., 8th ed., Lect. 17; 
 Daniel Webster, App. Globe, vol. 29, pp. 270-273, 274; Benton's 
 Thirty Years in the Senate, vol. 2, pp. 729-731. 
 
216 
 
 The Constitution, however, as we have seen, 
 produced a National Government, with complete 
 sovereign powers ; and as a result. Congress has 
 ample power to legislate for the government of 
 every body and thing American, located and heing 
 outside of an organized State, and such govern- 
 ment is in this indirect way constitutional; and 
 in the exercise of this constitutional power. Con- 
 gress acts without constitutional limit or control, 
 and without any limit except the implied one that 
 it shall govern in accordance with American ideas, 
 and constitutes an unwritten article of our Con- 
 stitution. This is the true source of the power 
 exercised by Congress over the people and terri- 
 tory of the rebel States. They for a time were not 
 American States, within the purview of the Con- 
 stitution, and hence were remitted to the discre- 
 tionary government of Congress for the time being. 
 
 The proposition which I have just presented is 
 not the popular idea. There is a vague notion 
 that the Constitution in some way adheres to 
 every American, and accompanies him wherever 
 he goes, and attaches itself to everything he 
 touches ; that it underlies all American soil, and 
 can be found everywhere by digging down ; that 
 it hovers over everywhere ; and the moment we 
 
217 
 
 conquer a foot of land, or acquire a rood of rock 
 or sand, we find this everlasting, ever-present 
 Constitution there awaiting us. This, I submit, 
 is a mere figment. 
 
 VIII. On turning our attention to theframe-work 
 of the Constitution, we observe that it broadly 
 marks the distinction between the primary co- 
 ordinate powers of Government, and carefully 
 provides against any practical confusion in the 
 exercise of them. One body of. men is invested 
 with the legislative, another with judicial, while 
 the executive is to be exercised by a single indi- 
 vidual ; and neither of these can exercise any of 
 the functions of either of the others. The power 
 to recommend measures to Congress, as also the 
 qualified veto, is not the exercise of a legislative 
 function ; while the President and Senate must 
 concur to appoint to office, which is the exercise 
 of a power to elect, and is neither executive nor 
 legislative. Each of these branches of govern- 
 ment is rendered independent of the others. In 
 tlie nature of these powers, it is apparent the 
 legislative is the stronger, as well as the more 
 extensive, and may exercise much influence upon 
 the other two. It cannot limit or reduce the 
 
218 
 
 power conferred by the Constitution on the ex- 
 ecutive, but it may prescribe by law the mode of 
 its exercise, and greatly embarrass him. So, too, 
 while it cannot deprive the Supreme Court of its 
 constitutional jurisdiction, it can omit to furnish 
 the means for its exercise, and to some extent 
 direct how it shall be exercised ; while, under the 
 pretense of reorganizing that court, it can legis- 
 late any or all of the justices out of oiSce ; and by 
 refusing to make appropriations to carry them 
 on, it could starve out the entire executive and 
 judiciary, and nobody but the people could remedy 
 the mischief. So, also, the House may impeach, 
 and the Senate may condemn the officers for the 
 time being discharging the functions of both co- 
 ordinate branches, whereby a complete change 
 might be worked; while the electors alone can 
 deal effectively with members of the two houses. 
 
 IX. The Constitution provides a tribunal, and 
 a qualified method for its own exposition and 
 preservation. It and the acts of Congress and 
 treaties made under it are the supreme law of the 
 land. It thus becomes an active, ever-present 
 rule of adjudication, in every case that can be 
 referred to it, and in every court, from a magis- 
 
219 
 
 trate's to the Supreme Court. And wherever 
 any law conflicts with the Constitution, that law 
 is to he pronounced void ; and for the adjudication 
 of all such cases the Supreme Court is the final 
 tribunal, and its solemn judgment in the case is 
 binding, not only upon the parties to that suit, 
 hut upon the President and Congress of the 
 United States. It is thus seen that power to pre- 
 serve the Constitution is vested in the Supreme 
 Court. 
 
 I ought, however, to say to you, that whenever 
 a question of a political nature — that is, one in- 
 volving the idea of the creation of or the exercise 
 of a mere political right or power — arises in a case 
 before the Supreme Court, and in reference to 
 which question Congress, in whom the political 
 power is vested, has already construed the Con- 
 stitution — that is, declared what its meaning is — 
 the Supreme Court considers itself hound by that 
 construction. As, for instance, a question comes 
 up in that court, in which it is necessary to decide 
 what is the status of a given State : that question 
 is political ; and if Congress, in any act or joint 
 resolution, has declared what that status is, the 
 Supreme Court holds itself bound by that declara- 
 tion ; so that Congress may decide the constitu- 
 
220 
 
 tionality of all political questions, and does, when- 
 ever it legislates upon them ; and no question of 
 the constitutionality of such an act can arise. 
 This last is really an unwritten article of the 
 Constitution. 
 
 X. It is also a rule, that the puhlic faith 
 shall be inviolable. In practice this sometimes 
 involves an awkward difficulty. The President 
 and Senate concur to make a treaty. That is the 
 exercise of an original inherent power to contract ; 
 but every treaty which requires the payment of 
 money depends for its execution upon the House 
 of Eepresentatives, which has the primary power 
 of appropriating mouey; and if it refuses, the 
 treaty fails. It was but yesterday that by treaty 
 we bought the Island of St. Thomas of Denmark. 
 The House refused to pay for it, and poor little 
 Denmark had to keep her island. I suspect that, 
 had the purchase been made of Eussia or Franco 
 or England, the House would have taken a differ- 
 ent view of the case, or we might hear of some- 
 thing more than mere caricature cartoons, and 
 which, in the case of poor Denmark, were very 
 poor caricatures. 
 
221 
 
 XI. There is one section of the Constitution 
 that in practice has hecome obsolete. An effort 
 was made to place the election of the President 
 and Vice President one remove from the people, 
 hy authorizing them to elect bodies of men, 
 whose sole duty it should be to elect these 
 ofScers, and that by virtue of the powers thus 
 vested in them. In practice, the people, by the 
 machinery of political parties, nominate the can- 
 didates, and nominate and elect boards of electors, 
 pledged in a,dvance to vote for them ; and there 
 is no instance on record where a single elector 
 has cast a vote in violation of this pledge; and 
 the device of the Constitution has proved to be a 
 clumsy, expensive, and wholly useless expedient, 
 and ought to be removed. 
 
 XII. Practically the example of Washington 
 added another section to the Constitution — an- 
 other of its unwritten articles — to wit: No Presi- 
 dent shall be eligible to a third election. Un- 
 doubtedly, had Washington been elected a third 
 time, his successors would have been ambitious 
 of the like honor ; and, probably, had he retired 
 at the end of his first term, we might have been 
 spared many mischiefs which have since sprung 
 
222 
 
 from the efforts to secure a second election. It 
 would not have been decorous to do what Wash- 
 ington did not do. 
 
 In this connection, though out of the line of 
 my comments, I wish to remind you of the ines- 
 timable blessings which have flown to us from 
 another example of Washington: his voluntary 
 relinquishment of power and retirement to private 
 life at the end of the war for our independence. 
 Many inducements, strongly colored with patriot- 
 ism and seeming justice, would have conducted a 
 less clear-sighted and a more selfish man to an- 
 other destiny, the result of which cannot be im- 
 agined. Had he taken the sinister course, every 
 small general who might have arisen since would 
 have pursued the same course, and our country 
 would have become an older Mexico ; and we are, 
 perhaps, as much indebted to Washington for 
 what he did not do, as for what he did. 
 
 XIII. The Constitution ordains that representa- 
 tion and taxation shall remain a correlative right 
 and duty. Personal liberty and the privacy and 
 sacredness of domicil are solemnly decreed, and 
 guarded by trial by jury and the writ of habeas 
 corpus; while the right to give bail and exemption 
 
223 
 
 from undue punishment are amply secured. The 
 institutions and forms of republican government 
 are made perpetual, and a practical democracjr 
 decreed, by a denial of power to confer titles. 
 
 XIV. What is called the right of revolution 
 cannot exist under a self-originated, self-imposed, 
 and self-conducted government; and it certainly 
 finds no place under the Constitution, which con- 
 tains ample provision for its own amendment or 
 entire abolition. 
 
 XV. The last of the old amendments to the 
 Constitution, framed and adopted under the in- 
 fluence of Alexander Hamilton, was made in the 
 long time ago, of 1804. 
 
 The Constitution, as framed, avoided the vice 
 of the recently-formulated American organic laws, 
 that of running into unnecessary detail, and which, 
 instead of being constitutions proper, become irre- 
 pealable laws, and which are often found awk- 
 wardly in the way of necessary legislation. 
 
 The work of our fathers was in the proper 
 sense a constitution, dealing with principles, and 
 giving general directions, leaving full scope for 
 legislation. It was so constructed that it could 
 
224 
 
 Le made to apply readily and usefully to the 
 needs of a rapidly-increasing people, a widely- 
 extending territory, the opening of new enter- 
 prises, and the creation of new wants; and sixty- 
 one years elapsed before a further change was 
 made, or a new article was added to it. 
 
 XVI. Then came the 13th, abolishing slavery, 
 and forever forbidding its possible future exist- 
 ence, not only in the United . States^ but also in 
 every place subject to its jurisdiction. This 
 was at once a self-executing edict, freeing every 
 slave at the time within the reach of our power, 
 and also a rule for the future. It was a logical 
 conclusion of the recent war, and a fit addition to 
 the grand elements of the Constitution. 
 
 XVII. This was followed by the 14th, the 1st 
 section of which necessarily followed the 13th. 
 This, which broadly declares that all persons 
 born or naturalized in the United States are 
 citizens of the United States and of the States 
 where they reside, may be said to be the fit- 
 ting crown of the Constitution ; and as it also 
 forbids any and all abrogation of the rights of 
 the citizens, and imposes upon Congress the duty 
 
225 
 
 of enforcing them, they seem to have heen made 
 secure. 
 
 I cannot but regard the rest of the 14th amend- 
 ment, excepting, perhaps, the second clause of the 
 4th section, and also section 5, as unnecessary, dis- 
 ingenuous, temporizing, indirect, and as disfigur- 
 ing the great instrument to which it is appended. 
 The 2d section is an attempt to induce the 
 States lately in rebellion to recognize and protect 
 the rights of citizenship of the late slaves, and 
 contains a promise of increased national repre- 
 sentation if they should, and also a threat of its 
 diminution if they did not. 
 
 The 3d section fulminates a new penalty against 
 certain classes of persons for their participation 
 in the rebellion, and places its final infliction in 
 the hands of Congress, to take effect or be escaped 
 from, as that body might, in its wisdom, caprice, 
 or prejudice, determine. 
 
 The first clause of the 4th is a useless declara- 
 tion, that the money obligation of the United 
 States to its defenders during the war should be 
 observed. The second clause precludes the pay- 
 ment of the rebel debt by the United States ; and 
 time can alone determine the necessity of incor- 
 porating it into the Constitution. 
 15 
 
226 
 
 XVIII. The 15th amendment seems to have heen 
 adopted to explain, enforce, and give effect to the 
 1st section of the 14th, and was promulgated to 
 insure the exercise of the elective franchise to the 
 colored citizens ; and as it thus compels the various 
 States now to observe and protect this right, it in 
 effect repeals and expunges the discreditable 2d 
 section of the 14th amendment. 
 
 It is contended by many able men, that this 
 amendment recognizes the right on the part of 
 the States to withhold the franchise from all but 
 colored citizens, thus placing them on higher 
 ground than that occupied by any other citizens. 
 If this is so, it is not only unjust^ but it also in- 
 volves this apparent constitutional absurdity: 
 The 1st section invests all citizens with the right 
 of the elective franchise as a constitutional right ; 
 and this last, it is said, recognizes in the States 
 the constitutional right to abrogate that constitu- 
 tional right. 
 
 It is submitted that these sections are not 
 amenable to this discrediting criticism. 
 
 XIX. We have been in the way of hearing 
 the Constitution lauded to the fullest capacity 
 of our language. It has been holden up, not only 
 
227 
 
 as the crowning perfection of human excellence 
 and wisdom, but as the only worthy ohject of ven- 
 eration and preservation. During the late war 
 we were constantly told that the measures em- 
 ployed to reduce the rebel States were so many 
 sacrilegious violations of this sacred instrument ; 
 and we were taught that the Constitution was of 
 so much more value than the country, that no 
 hesitation should be felt in sacrificing the country 
 to that instrument. This sounds ineffably absurd 
 now. But the Constitution in times past was 
 made the common barrier, behind which wrong, 
 outrage, injustice, and all uncleanness found 
 refuge, and may be used for the same purpose 
 again ; and it may be well to estimate it at its 
 proper value, so far as we may. It was the work 
 of men — of wise, able, sagacious, patriotic men, 
 but still men — and partakes largely of common 
 human imperfection. It can be changed, amended, 
 or abolished, at the pleasure of our people. 
 
 Our country is the growth of two centuries, 
 under favoring circumstances, and secures to us 
 all that is desirable in human possession; all 
 that is valuable produced by human labor; all 
 that is excellent in human achievement ; all that 
 we have and are as individuals ; everything dear to 
 
228 
 
 memory or beautiful to hope ; and its destruction 
 would involve misfortunes to us individually, and 
 to our countrymen collectively, that cannot be 
 estimated or appreciated. 
 
 The Constitution has been one of the great aids 
 to us — one of the means of our advancement and 
 progress. It helped to make us a people, to grow 
 to a nation, to become powerful and respected in 
 the eyes of the nations, and to secure tranquillity 
 and peace, in the presence of which we have made 
 great progress. Let us cherish this Constitution. 
 We revere it for all it has done in the past, as we 
 revere the men who made it. We will trust and 
 cling to it in the future, and as a means of help, 
 and never as a fatal hindrance. As we discover 
 imperfections in it, we will carefully and reverently 
 amend and perfect it as our needs require, and as 
 the fathers provided for. Let us not foolishly 
 boast of it as the sublimest of human achieve- 
 ments. It may be. Let others see that. It has 
 done well for us, and let us master, study, and 
 enjoy it. 
 
 So, too, let us not boast of being the most 
 powerful, wisest, and greatest of all the nations 
 of the earth, of all time. Quite considerable 
 peoples have flourished before our time, and other 
 
229 
 
 remote parts of tlie earth are inlialDited now. Let 
 us quietly enjoy our greatness. If we are so ever- 
 lastingly big, other nations will find it out some- 
 time. I think we are greatest in promise and 
 possibilities ; and if we are modest and wise, we 
 shall some time realize them; and you and I, in 
 our best way, will, at the least, not be hindrances 
 to that realization. But a true estimate of the 
 Constitution is not found in a blind adoration of 
 it. It can only be found by carefully ascertaining 
 what it has done for us, and sagaciously antici- 
 pating what we may hope from it in the future. 
 And I am not without the hope that I have 
 helped you a little in these directions. 
 
 XX. The safety and durability of the Consti- 
 tution rest wholly in this estimate of its value 
 and capabilities by the masses of our people. In 
 their enlightened judgment, love, and veneration 
 of it can it alone find security. We are told much 
 of its ingenious safeguards, its checks and bal- 
 ances, its cunning and curious adjustments, so as 
 to avoid usurpation and misrule^ and secure a 
 wise and patriotic administration of its powers. 
 After all, abstractly and of itself, it is a piece of 
 dead parchment, curiously written over with 
 
230 
 
 formulas and rules, all dead and powerless, un- 
 breatliing and unvitalized. Life and pulse, 
 strength and power, heart, soul, mind, and in- 
 spiration must be imparted to it by the grasp of 
 strong, tender, careful hands. Living hearts, 
 strong brains, brave souls, and wise minds must 
 engineer and work, manage, drive, and propel; 
 and all these we must train, educate, pick out, 
 select, mark, and set apart for these duties ; and 
 we must be ever present, and oversee and superin- 
 tend, reward, and punish. And in the heat and 
 paroxysm of a great and long-continued party 
 struggle, how easy to disregard and depart from 
 the Constitution ; and how fatal such a departure 
 may become, and how hard to return to it again 
 sound and whole. 
 
 I repeat, that its only safety lies in an enlight- 
 ened estimate of its real value by our people gen- 
 erally. It is utterly powerless to protect and 
 care for itself, and may be torn and spit upon, 
 save as guarded by those who love it. 
 
 XXI. When contrasted with a monarchy, one 
 of the apparent differences between such a gov- 
 government and ours is in the manifestations of 
 the power exercised. The king sits in his capital, 
 
231 
 
 surrounded with his ministers, with all the regalia 
 and physical insignia and trappings of royalty, 
 with a standing army to enforce authority, and 
 with the ohvious channels in which that author- 
 ity flows. The concentrated material reins of 
 government all unite under his hand, and he 
 depends upon coercion and fear to insure obe- 
 dience and submission. Ours is a serene, unseen, 
 unfelt, unheard reign of equal law, known only 
 by the order and tranquillity whi()h everywhere 
 obtain. The men who for the time make, ex- 
 pound, or administer our laws and govern, come 
 and go in our midst, unknown and indistinguish- 
 able from the mass of our citizens. No badge 
 marks them ; no insignia distinguishes them ; no 
 ceremony attends them ; no marshal heralds them ; 
 no courtiers or lackeys surround them. No armed 
 soldier, no flag or trapping, in any way find em- 
 ployment in our civil service. It is a silent reign 
 of self-imposed law. Whoever can overthrow the 
 prince and possess his capital, gathers up the ma- 
 terial insignia of power, and rules, and by the 
 same means. Destroy our capital ; assassinate 
 the President and Cabinet; banish both houses 
 of Congress; destroy every copy of the Constitu- 
 tion and statutes ; raze out every word and line 
 
232 
 
 of authority, and murder every officer ; anniliilate 
 every vestige of every State government, and yet 
 the American institutions remain intact ; and the 
 American people would assemble in convention 
 to-morrow, and restore the whole, improved by 
 the hand that would destroy them. Such a gov- 
 ernment is perpetual, and such a people inde- 
 structible; and in this inner life and strength 
 and power lies much of the excellence and value 
 of our system'of government. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF POLIGHOAL PARTIES. 
 
 I. Political parties have existed in all free gov- 
 ernments, and, SO far as we may forecast, tliey 
 always will. One of the errors of the authors 
 of our Constitution, if they committed any, was 
 an nnder-estimate of the scope, strength, and 
 hitterness of parties. Obviously their rise, pro- 
 gress, decline, and extinction are due to constantly- 
 acting laws — laws many of them not difficult to 
 discover; while others furnish evidence of their 
 existence hy the recurrence of similar phenomena 
 alone. 
 
 I am not aware of any attempt to elucidate 
 these laws or to trace such phenomena to their 
 producing causes. I am sure the subject is one 
 of very grave practical importance, as well as 
 full of speculative interest. I shall take a look 
 at it in the light of our times ; and if my obser- 
 vations are not of a profound character, 1 hope 
 (283) 
 
234 
 
 not to overlook things apparent on the surface, 
 and, with no pretense of being erudite, I will 
 honestly attempt to comprehend and do some- 
 thing to arrange what is apparent to me ; and if 
 I can stimulate some observing thinker or some 
 thinking observer to turn his serious attention to 
 it, I shall feel that I have rendered some service to 
 American politics. Ours is a history rich in speci- 
 mens of suddenly arising and of as suddenly sub- 
 siding parties : of abortive attempts to create, and 
 of unavailing efforts to prolong or overthrow them. 
 
 II. All governments consist of at least three 
 concurring agencies: the constitution or frame- 
 work — that which distributes, powers and pre- 
 scribes the manner and means of their exercise: 
 laws, rules, and regulations; the propelling 
 power — that which works the machinery. In a 
 free government these are legislatures, councils, 
 congresses, parliaments, governors, presidents, 
 with cabinets and courts and judges. And third, 
 and more important, the directing and controlling 
 intelligence — that which applies the power, keeps 
 the machinery in motion, repairs or changes it, 
 and dictates, within its productive capacity, what 
 results shall be attained or attempted. 
 
235 
 
 Of course the machinery must be formed with 
 direct reference to the thing desired ; but no ma- 
 chinery will work alone, and none can be long 
 left to its operatives. The owners must supervise, 
 direct, and oversee ; and this makes every share- 
 holder of power, and to some extent all the mem- 
 bers of their families, practical politicians. It 
 imposes upon them the necessity of having definite 
 objects to be attained ; to know the capacity and 
 working power of their machine; a knowledge 
 of the fitness of the agents — the operatives to be 
 employed; and they must exercise a constant 
 supervision over the whole. A people unable 
 or unwilling to perform all these duties can 
 easily escape from them. Every country has a 
 plenty of men who will take the whole labor off 
 their hands. 
 
 m. The machinery, then, must be worked with 
 a fixed and certain purpose, clearly ascertained and 
 agreed upon in advance, and before any general 
 election of the officers and men who are to do the 
 immediate work; for all these must be selected 
 with special reference to their fitness to work out 
 the proposed governmental object. Men must 
 not only know beforehand what they want to 
 
236 
 
 accomplish, but some certain, well-devised plan 
 of action must be concerted among all who unite 
 in it. Men, then, must concert, must agree, must 
 unite, must act together. They can accomplish 
 this purpose in no other possible way. And this 
 concert of action and union of effort will neces- 
 sarily be temporary or permanent, as they desire 
 to accomplish a temporary thing or work out a 
 succession of things, and establish and carry on a 
 given policy. This last necessarily requires a 
 permanent organization — the formation and main- 
 tenance of a political party ; and whatever may 
 be the evils and mischiefs attendant upon parties, 
 their corruptions, and the bitterness of their strug- 
 gles, I know of no other way of securing given 
 results, of infusing new or old truths, of working 
 any idea into governmental processes, save by 
 the agency of parties. Some party must adopt, 
 some party must favor, or it never will be prac- 
 tically realized. Of course, if adopted by one 
 party, it will be opposed by the other, and at the 
 hazard of defeat. But it insures a thorough ex- 
 amination of its properties, and a thoughtful ap- 
 plication of it in practice ; and with the two factors 
 of merit in it, and intelligence with the people, 
 its final success is assured. 
 
237 
 
 IV. A political party may be said to be a vol- 
 untary association of persons, in their primary 
 capacity, as the holders of political power, organ- 
 ized and maintained outside of the forms of law, 
 to accomplish certain political objects. These may 
 be a change in the structure of the government, a 
 change in the personnel of those who carry it on, 
 or a change in the policy of the government, or 
 anything else. The organization is usually loose 
 and general, and always understood rather than 
 expressed. No large association, worthy to be 
 called a party in this country, to my knowledge, 
 ever had a written formula of rules and regula- 
 tions, unless it was that mysterious and ephem- 
 eral organization called the Know-Nothings, 
 which, like the gourd of the prophet, came and 
 went in a night, and with much the same result. 
 Usually those of distinctive political views act 
 together by a common consent. Their ideas are 
 formulated by resolutions, adopted by a conven- 
 tion, and accepted as the party platform, and their 
 affairs are managed by a committee. Its code 
 consists of a few generally-received rules, recog- 
 nized by all parties, and such as impliedly govern 
 the ordinary intercourse of honorable men: as, 
 whoever subscribes to the platform is a member 
 
238 
 
 of the party, with the right to vote at its primary 
 meetings ; and his contributions to its revenue are 
 voluntary. In conventions, the common parlia- 
 mentary law, which attaches itself to every de- 
 liberative assembly, in the absence of special 
 rules, governs its deliberations. A majority 
 rules : a law never departed from in this country, 
 except in the two or three national democratic 
 conventions preceding the recent war. 
 
 V. The final action of a convention is conclusive 
 upon all the members of the party. This is ne- 
 cessarily the rule. All honorable men repre- 
 sented in a convention must hold themselves 
 bound by its action ; and this, in reference to its 
 declaration of sentiments and its selection of 
 candidates. Both of these matters are expressly 
 or impliedly submitted to the general conventions 
 of parties. They usually re-discuss the party 
 platform in the light of all apparent changes in 
 popular opinion, and pronounce the result authori- 
 tatively. They select the candidates, and decide 
 their political, moral, and intellectual fitness ; 
 and no question as to any of these should be 
 deemed to be longer open among the members 
 of the party. A convention, for instance, nomi- 
 
239 
 
 nates candidates for its own party, and not for 
 its opponents; and it is really none of their 
 business. ' Still they will assail them ; and when- 
 ever they do, the party that nominated them will 
 stand hy them. As to the party, the question of 
 fitness was finally settled. This, whatever may 
 he said against it, is the only practical rule. No 
 great evil can grow out of it, for it is against the 
 plainest interest of any party to nominate bad 
 men ; and a bad man had better, in the opinion 
 of prudent men, once in a while, be voted for, 
 rather than that a party be broken up. 
 
 When I say that the members of a party are 
 
 bound by the action of a convention, it is to be 
 
 always understood that its proceedings were fair — 
 
 nobody is bound by fraud — that it was governed 
 
 by the understood usages of the party. I do not 
 
 think that any convention can have the right to 
 
 impose sentiments at war with its own creed upon 
 
 the members of a party. I don't think it can go 
 
 outside its party for candidates ; nor do I think it 
 
 has power to enter into a coalition with another 
 
 party. These are clearly outside of its implied 
 
 powers; and in such cases each member of the 
 
 party is at liberty to follow his own judgment 
 
 and inclinations. 
 
240 
 
 VI. The fortune that dictates the names of par- 
 ties is indeed capricious. They sometimes adopt 
 or take a name, but it is often thrust upon them by 
 their opponents in derision : a rule that has ex- 
 tended to religious parties as well, although these 
 last have often been taken from the name of their 
 founders or leaders, or sprung from some practice. 
 The enemies of the French Protestants called them 
 Huguenots, yet no man can tell why. The Whig 
 party of England was named by its enemies in 
 derision ; and what the name meant was never 
 explained, as nobody knows why their opponents 
 were called Tories. The Jacobins of France took 
 their name from the place where the parent club 
 met, although the name appears to have been 
 older. The young JSTetherlanders who resisted 
 Philip II called themselves "The Beggars," and 
 each wore a wooden spoon. In our own country 
 the Federalists took their name from favoring the 
 adoption of the federal Constitution, while their 
 opponents finally called themselves Republicans. 
 Jefferson's followers were sometimes called Jeffer- 
 sonians, while Jackson for a time gave his name 
 to his supporters. That party, for many years, 
 a good many, in the histories of parties in this 
 country, was constantly called by its opponents 
 
241 
 
 Locofoco, while the present parties are knowa 
 by names of their own choosing ; and on the whole 
 the rule with us is, that the great parties name 
 themselves, while in a small way we have had 
 the Bucktails and Barnburners and Hard and 
 Soffcshells in New York, and the Freesoilers in 
 Ohio and Massachusetts. 
 
 VII. It is the primary condition of the existence 
 of a party that it have something to do ; something 
 to which it can direct the eyes of its followers ; 
 something to be worked for and finally accom- 
 plished ; and something with life and humanity 
 enough to be sympathized with. It need not be 
 very high, and often is not, nor very logical: it 
 is sufficient if it is expedient and practical. It 
 should be obvious and palpable. When its ex- 
 istence has to be proven or made apparent by 
 argument, the party will soon be in a bad way, 
 as in the time of the old Whig and Democratic 
 parties at their best, who had nothing to quarrel 
 over but questions of finance and commercial 
 policy. Think of Clay, Calhoun, Webster, and 
 their great associates striding about and cutting 
 paper dolls with the scissors of fate, or forging 
 puppets with the hammers of the Cyclops. 
 16 
 
242 
 
 A party organized to not do a thing — fof in- 
 stance, of men who don't believe in Kidd's money, 
 and who associate to not dig for it — would prob- 
 ably subside; and parties cannot long be held 
 actively together merely to elect to office and 
 divide up the public plunder. The people finally 
 grow weary of that. Nor will a party long go on 
 merely by the law of inertia. 
 
 The old Federal party, though nearly monopo- 
 lizing the talent, intelligence, and morality of its 
 time, without the capacity to take new ideas, 
 struggled in vain for life after the purpose of its 
 existence disappeared from practical politics ; and 
 so the late Whig party, having abandoned oppo- 
 sition to slavery, and having no live thing to 
 work for, disappeared in the presidential contest 
 of 1852; and what a dreadfully bad way the 
 Democratic party was in, when it annually had 
 nothing to ofi'er but its "time-honored" opposi- 
 tion to a national bank. That, it killed beyond 
 resurrection years before. Nothing but slavery 
 and its wars carried it forward; and even the 
 awful power and vitality of slavery would not 
 have preserved it long after the disappearance 
 of its old rival. I shall recur to this matter 
 
243 
 
 VIII. I may lay it down as a law, that a politi- 
 cal party cannot, be made. Men cannot produce 
 a carefully-defined system of principles, and mark 
 out a programme and policy, and then, by force 
 of arrangement, combination, and conspiracy, 
 persuade or force a party into existence. No 
 matter how many conventions assemble, nor how 
 unanimous their action, the essential life they 
 cannot impart to it. 
 
 The numerous, persistent, well-arranged, and 
 well-conducted experiments, always resulting in 
 failure, in this country and in our time, warrant 
 me in laying down the above as a fundamental 
 law, and which, if it be a law, should be clearly 
 ascertained and generally understood. Our his- 
 tory is rich in the fossils of these artificial parties. 
 Think of the persistent efforts to create an anti- 
 slavery party. Strong, wise, persistent, and very 
 brave men and women labored hopelessly for 
 years. Their labors were full of incidental re- 
 sults, good in various ways, but beyond the actual 
 carrying and placing, arranging and securing, by 
 missionaries, no product, by way of a party, 
 with body, limbs, and blood, was ever even out- 
 lined. There certainly was a great work to do — 
 a work that appealed alike to men's judgments 
 
244 
 
 aad sympathies ; but it did not enlist them, did 
 not reach them. The time had not come. It 
 did not open its own mouth, and cry out to be 
 done. In 1848 a spasm produced the Freesoilers 
 of Ohio and Massachusetts, and a political grudge 
 the Barnburners of New York ; but no party came 
 into existence. 
 
 The recent memorable attempt of August, 1866, 
 may be cited as an evidence of the truth of my 
 proposition. The party in power were being 
 swept forward with the still unspent tide, and 
 somewhat blindly and unknowingly, towards 
 the reconstruction of the States; the exact 
 means and conditions of which were not very 
 apparent, nor are they now, (February, 1869.) 
 It was not, perhaps, remembered that crystali- 
 zation of foundations and some new growth were 
 necessary for a State. The President was under 
 the full force of the law that compels a subor- 
 dinate, who unexpectedly leaps to supreme power, 
 for which he was never intended, to enact the 
 character of an actual usurper, and was busy in 
 thwarting, turning aside, and overturning the 
 plans of his electors, to make way for a policy 
 and reign of his own. The land was filled with 
 the debris of the war, the broken fragments of 
 
245 
 
 the rebellion, the wreck and ruin of States, and 
 the elements of an overthrown civilization. Dis- 
 graced and dismissed officers ; detected fraudulent 
 contractors; dissatisfied aspirants for office; all 
 the ill-contented, disappointed spirits, set loose 
 from the ordinary walks of life; all the timid_, 
 doubting, hesitating moderates; all who were 
 sick of existing rule — all these, with all the or- 
 dinary motives under which men act, combined 
 and conspired to readjust public affairs, and con- 
 trol political action, by the formation of a new 
 party. The Democratic party was in helpless 
 ruins with its ally, the rebellion ; and all its 
 leaders out of employment were seeking new 
 fields of enterprise, and a reconstruction of politi-i*! 
 cal fortunes. The revolution must at least be 
 stayed,- if not turned back; and a convention for 
 the 13th of August, ever memorable, was called 
 at Philadelphia. A spacious building was erected, 
 every congressional district was represented, and 
 the myriad outside world of enumerated elements 
 congregated. There certainly was a great thing 
 to do. Men were in earnest to do it. Many 
 places there were, and many more who wanted 
 them. The assembly attracted the eyes of the 
 American world, and filled patriots with a real 
 
246 
 
 appreliension. Everytliing concurred to aid; the 
 auspices were favorable; the moon was right; 
 and the sign in the stomach, or immediately 
 below. A Senator and a Cabinet minister ruled, 
 and harmony and silence were frozen. At the 
 predestinated moment, Massachusetts and South 
 Carolina, arm in arm, walked vicariously in, as 
 logically united as a foul stomach and a nervous 
 headache. A great editor read a piece, the great 
 convention resolved a party, and in silence and 
 tears one was supposed to have been born. A 
 solemn benediction was pronounced, the great 
 convention melted away, and the new party evap- 
 orated ; and its memory lives only in the gibes of 
 a scoffing world. You cannot create a party. 
 
 There must not only be an apparent thing to 
 do, but it must in a way make itself apparent to 
 many men by a sort of self-revelation — must in a 
 way ask to be done. 
 
 IX. Old parties are conservative. Both distrust 
 new ideas. Neither dares to adopt one — is afraid 
 of the consequences. The platforms have been 
 carefully adjusted, have been found well enough. 
 Let them alone, and fight out the contests for 
 power on the old issues. A new idea will upset 
 
247 
 
 all. When a new idea is projected into the world, 
 bowling along the thoroughfares of men, what a 
 consternation it produces, and notably among 
 politici.ans — practical men. They will have 
 nothing to do with it. They would tumble it 
 out one side, and bury it at once. As for the 
 idea, it finds all the men monopolized by one or 
 the other of existing parties., and is rejected of 
 both. It can get itself worked into governmental 
 processes only by the formation of a new party. 
 It will not be hidden or retire. It gets a poet to 
 put it into a song, and the common people sing 
 it. Some thoughtful scholar writes it for all to 
 read. Some apt orator throws it hissing into a 
 crowd to explode. It begins to make converts, 
 and it takes them indifferently from the old par- 
 ties. It takes their best — the young, thoughtful, 
 hopeful, and courageous — whatever and whoever 
 it wants; and so it goes on, disintegrating both 
 parties, and making discord, sowing dismay, and 
 causing desertion, and gets itself and followers 
 hated. It becomes strong, alive, is aggressive, 
 like all new causes, and the result is, that the 
 old parties, or their enfeebled remains, no matter 
 how bitterly they may have hated and abhorred 
 each other, readily unite in opposition to the new. 
 
248 
 
 Thus it was when the utterly illogical idea of 
 limiting the progress of slavery seized the minds 
 of the men of the North. It at once took all the 
 large anti-slavery element, which received it, as 
 better than nothing, the fruit of the nominal Lib- 
 erty party that was found in both parties, and 
 sprung rapidly into proportions that challenged 
 dominion in this country. The remains of the 
 old parties, besotted and bedeviled, by the most 
 na;tural process in the world, united and amal- 
 gamated in opposition; and in time the name 
 Whig came to stand for a very respectable elderly 
 gentleman, who drank the best of liquor, took the 
 National Intelligencer, and voted the Democratic 
 ticket, as was said. 
 
 X. As I have already remarked, the purpose and 
 object which will create or stistain a party, need 
 not be one of very elevated morality — may hardly 
 be allied to morals; but it must be at least ex- 
 pedient and eminently practical, as in the instance 
 just referred to. It was expedient to limit slavery. 
 The freedom of the northern people from the 
 dangers of its neighborhood and spread among 
 themselves seemed to demand this action ; and 
 hence the Kepublican party. They had refused 
 
249 
 
 to act against slavery, on its own account, and 
 on what they conceded to he its own ground, no 
 matter what it really was^ or how it conducted 
 itself there ; and, as we see, refused to unite in a 
 broad and logical party against it. And so also 
 the Republican members of Congress united in 
 the Crittenden resolutions^ at the extra session of 
 1861, in which they declared that it was no pur- 
 pose of the war to overthrow slavery ; and but two 
 members of the House voted against it. It was 
 the declared purpose of the Eepublican party to 
 subdue the rebellion and save slavery; but the 
 war was stronger than the Republican party^ and 
 stronger than both houses and the President, and 
 secured its own purposes. And, finally, when 
 the councils of men doomed slavery, it was on the 
 ground of expediency, and that has continued to 
 be the only ground upon which has rested all the 
 legislation of Congress protecting the rights of 
 the emancipated slaves ever since, unless we ex- 
 cept the abolition of slavery in the District of 
 Columbia. I think the abstract right had much 
 to do with that. 
 
 XI. I think it may be stated as a law, that there 
 cannot at any one time exist but two parties in 
 
250 
 
 a given State or People. There may be factions 
 or temporary associations for a single purpose. 
 Powerful leaders may have small and separate 
 followings: and so, upon the breaking up of old 
 parties, at the formation of a new one, there may 
 for a time appear to be three. History gives us 
 no instance of three armies in the field, each of 
 which fought both of the others; and no man 
 ever saw three men engaged in such a contest. 
 Two will always coalesce against the third. The 
 reason is so obvious as to be overlooked. A man 
 asserts a certain fact, quality, status^ or condition 
 of a given thing, which is a challenge to somebody 
 to deny it. He does not wait long for an opponent. 
 They contend with warmth, and those attracted 
 by the dispute come up and take sides with one 
 or the other in dispute, as they happen to view it ; 
 and the way they look at it depends on their in- 
 telligence, habit of thought, association, and tem- 
 perament ; for the members of a party often have 
 more things in common than a political bias or 
 sentiment, and it is these other things that often 
 determine that bias. And thus, you see, men 
 divide, upon all questions of practical life, into 
 two, and never into three parties. A given ques- 
 tion may be capable of many views, and present 
 
251 
 
 more than two sides ; but men, in the unthinking 
 way with which they deal with political or social 
 questions — anything of common interest — take 
 one of the two views already presented. It is the 
 habit of the common mind to take opinions, and 
 not to form them ;^ and in politics these are ready- 
 made. 
 
 XII. That party which wrests the machinery 
 of government from its opponent, and succeeds 
 to its place in the legislative and executive de- 
 partments, necessarily encounters great peril from 
 two sources : and so obvious that there is no excuse 
 for their being overlooked. 
 
 A party seldom or never performs what it 
 promised its followers and country, as inducement 
 to sustain it in the preceding campaign. Parties 
 promise too much, and often what should not 
 be performed. They often find that what they 
 promised cannot be performed. No party in this 
 country ever promised more in advance than the 
 Whig party in 1840. It did undoubtedly make 
 an honest effort to enact the leading of its pro- 
 posed measures, and was in the most of them 
 defeated by the perversity which must govern an 
 ordinary man who, as Vice President, succeeds to 
 
252 
 
 the Presidency; and Mr. Tyler was a very ordi- 
 nary man. Still, had they all been enacted into 
 laws, and enforced in good faith, their conjoint 
 result would have disappointed the people. But 
 there is a law of human conduct which often for- 
 bids the attempt to fulfill a party promise. Almost 
 all men — and this includes the leaders of parties — 
 take vastly different views of things, the moment 
 they find themselves in power and under respon- 
 sibility, from what they did when they clamored 
 as the partisan leaders of a fierce, unthinking 
 opposition. They now, in the coolness that 
 comes after the first glow of success, and when 
 steady in the coveted places, find themselves, for 
 the first time, in a position from which they can 
 survey all sides, and properly estimate the view 
 of their old opponents; and the best of reasons 
 may be found to make them hesitate and tempor- 
 ize. And I think this may be deduced as a law : 
 that success renders party leaders conservative. 
 I use the word conservative to express a disin- 
 clination to make a sudden great change — a law, 
 often salutary — little as I like the word conserva- 
 tive. 
 
 A failure to perform the* promises of a party 
 must necessarily be attended with consequences 
 
253 
 
 often grave, no matter whetlier they ought to be 
 kept or not, and without reference to the power 
 to perform them. The people always understand 
 a promise in its exaggerated form. They are 
 always made to expect some immediate personal 
 advantage. They are always disappointed, and 
 not unfrequently make it a personal matter, and 
 range themselves with their late enemies. 
 
 XIII. An imminent source of danger is the dis- 
 tribution of patronage. Under our practice, a 
 party succeeding their opponents has in effect all 
 the places, jobs, and contracts of the whole gov- 
 ernment at its disposal, which has come to be a 
 powerful factor in stimulating exertion on either 
 side. Often the more desirable places are prom- 
 ised, and sometimes the same one, to several. 
 Upon the inauguration of a new administration, 
 we are in the way of seeing our city thronged for 
 months with an eager, hungry, clamorous set of 
 not over well-favored place hunters. There will 
 be from ten to one hundred applying for each; 
 and it is marvelous how much the successful can- 
 didate owes to each of them. In our day, for 
 instance, it was never known how many men 
 severally secured the first nomination of Mr. 
 
254 
 
 Lincoln, although it was pretty well known how 
 many members of the two houses did not favor 
 his renomination. There were at one time a 
 great many original discoverers of Andrew John- 
 son ; and an innumerable host of all sorts of men 
 now present themselves each as the man who first 
 gave form to the idea of elevating, as it is called, 
 General Grant to the Presidency. One of the 
 ten or one hundred will be selected, who will 
 remain an active partisan ; and the fact of his 
 holding an office will render his partisanship 
 comparatively useless ; while the danger is, that 
 the nine or ninety-nine unsuccessful ones become 
 bitter enemies. More than one administration 
 has broken down mainly through enmities engen- 
 dered from the distribution of places. 
 
 XIV. The party failing becomes the party in 
 opposition ; and one of the benefits of parties is 
 forcibly demonstrated by the practical uses of an 
 opposition. In the legislature it is always pres- 
 ent — keen, observant, scrutinizing, persistent, 
 dogmatic, critical. Often unreasonable, fre- 
 quently obstructing, bitterly unjust, thwarting 
 a good measure, assailing a necessary one, at 
 times unpatriotic, and always selfish, it is never- 
 
255 
 
 theless, witli all its faults and follies — its bitter 
 ness and hatred, its uncharitableness and narrow- 
 sightedness— productive of so much absolute ben- 
 efit, so much real good, that it is a necessity. 
 It challenges everything; it opposes everything; 
 it criticises everything. Nothing can escape it. 
 Every measure has to be subjected to the test of 
 adverse criticism, stimulated to expose every pos- 
 sible fault, weakness, defect, or want of merit. 
 All that can be urged against it, and necessarily 
 all that can be said for it, is brought out; and 
 nothing can be better adapted to illustrate its 
 "virtues or expose its vices than such a debate. 
 And when it is finally passed, it is usually in the 
 shape to which it has been hammered in these 
 party conflicts, and is not what either party 
 alone would have enacted, but is generally the 
 result of their conjoint effort. 
 
 Not alone is the force of opposition beneficial 
 to legislation. The presence of a strong, vigi- 
 lant, active, intelligent opposition, made up of 
 able and honorable men, at the capital, is of 
 immense benefit in various ways. The conduct 
 of the party in power is always governed more or 
 less by it. It affects the Executive almost as 
 much. Nothing eludes it; and it can never be 
 
256 
 
 silenced or purchased. In its presence men must 
 be on their personal good conduct, in private as 
 well as in public ; and we cannot quite afford to 
 dispense with the fear of exposure, as a provoca- 
 tion to negative virtue, here at the capital, more 
 than elsewhere. 
 
 It may be said, as a general rule, where two 
 powerful parties exist, neither of which is so 
 feeble that it may not contest the supremacy of 
 the other, that the final course of the government 
 is the result of their opposing forces; that the 
 direct power applied to it by either, when in 
 power, is always modified by the indirect power 
 of the other; and that, under these influences, 
 its course is more likely to be in the line of good 
 government than it would otherwise attain. 
 
 XV. It is a cardinal condition of the minority, 
 that it must oppose every leading measure of 
 party policy sustained by the majority, without 
 the slightest reference to its merits, its justice, 
 necessity, or expediency. It is seen in a moment 
 that its very existence as a party depends on this : 
 It must oppose or perish. Every country has many 
 purely national things peculiar to itself — certain 
 traditions and policies, not partisan, that both 
 
257 
 
 parties sustain ; so it must have certain expendi- 
 tures, of army, navy, and civil list, that parties 
 may unite upon ; but when a great party measure 
 is pending, they must divide, or the minority 
 ends. Whenever the minority votes with the 
 majority on such a measure, it is with them, and 
 ceases to be a party ; so that it holds its existence 
 upon the hard necessity of opposing all leading 
 distinctive measures, right or wrong. 
 
 If a nation becomes involved in a war, the war, 
 its maintenance and success, is the leading, all- 
 absorbing measure of the administration ; and 
 whoever and whatever sustains the war sustains 
 the administration. For the time it becomes the 
 country ; and whoever opposes the administration 
 opposes the war, and whoever opposes the war is 
 for the time being the ally of the common enemy 
 against his country. 
 
 A given administration is fighting a war. Now, 
 all who oppose that administration are allies. 
 They work for a common purpose, and of course 
 help each other, whether they wish to or not. It 
 is the logic of their position. Whoever embar- 
 rasses my foe helps me. If, while I am engaged 
 in a personal contest with one enemy, another 
 approaches and assails me, the two for the time 
 17 
 
258 
 
 are the allies of each other — a joint, common 
 enemy — whether their cause be the same or not. 
 The Whigs of Great Britain accepted this position 
 in our old War of Independence — Chatham, Fox, 
 Burke, &c. ; and so in the French Eevolution 
 Fox and Burke and their associates occupied and 
 held the same position. When Fox succeeded to 
 power, he made peace with France; and when 
 Burke grew weary of being an enemy of his 
 country, he threw away the revolutionary dagger, 
 and rushed over to the ministerial benches, and 
 crowded in between the younger Pitt and the 
 burly Dundas. 
 
 The Federalists opposed the administration of 
 Mr. Madison, and of course the War of 1812, and 
 became the allies of the enemy, and openly sym- 
 pathized with England. The Whigs opposed 
 the Mexican War, to start with, and several of 
 their leaders admitted their sympathy with the 
 Mexicans ; and neither of these parties long sur- 
 vived its course in the premises. It was a charge 
 directly made, and felt to be just, that in each 
 case the minority were allied with the common 
 enemy. And this is the hardship of the position : 
 To sustain the war disbands the party ; to oppose 
 it is to aid the enemy — often as fatal to the party. 
 
259 
 
 The first gun at Sumter, for a time, annihilated 
 parties. Douht and uncertainty were ended, and 
 our people had to face a frightful fact, of unknown 
 proportions and obscure promise. When they re- 
 covered from the first surprise and discovery, they 
 looked at it as Americans and men. While there 
 were many opinions as to the proper course of ac- 
 tion, colored undoubtedly by party predilections, 
 yet men did not divide by party lines ; and the 
 unanimity and concert of action were little dis- 
 turbed by party considerations. The dominant 
 party, however, filled all the places of civil trust, 
 and of course was responsible for the management 
 of the war . It became identified with the country — 
 for the time was the country ; and apparently the 
 success of the national cause would give it con- 
 sistency and duration. Lost with the mass, a con- 
 tinued and habitual concurrence in the measures 
 of the Government for an indefinite period, through 
 unknown vicissitudes, was the absolute annihila- 
 tion of the Democratic party. 
 
 This and other considerations induced Mr. Val- 
 landigham, in the sessioifof 1861-62, to inaugu- 
 rate a movement for the reproduction and reap- 
 pearance of the democratic elements as a party, 
 which was successful. Of course it had to be a 
 
260 
 
 party in opposition. This was the sole condition 
 of its existence. It had to oppose the war, and 
 all the measures for the support of the war ; and 
 it did persistently, bitterly, relentlessly. It op- 
 posed every measure for that purpose, and brought 
 forward none of its own. The inevitable logic of 
 its position made it the consistent, steady, and un- 
 wavering ally of the rebellion. This was steadily 
 and persistently denied : a denial in the face of 
 absolute demonstration. 
 
 The necessity of its position made it necessarily 
 oppose all the measures of the still dominant 
 party since the close of active war, and it naturally 
 and logically came into the support of the present 
 Execubive, as it had before sustained Mr. Tyler 
 and Mr. Fillmore under like conditions. 
 
 XVI. A conservative party cannot govern a pro- 
 gressive country. I presume this will be admitted. 
 I use the term conservative in the broad sense of 
 politicians, as one who adheres to the traditions, 
 methods, and policy of the past ; one with his 
 head turned reverently backward, who distrusts 
 the present, and looks to the future with nothing 
 but doubts and fears. There is a natural tendency 
 in men to this conservatism. We attribute every- 
 
261 
 
 thing to the fathers — wisdom, prowess, and all 
 the virtues. They were hest ; their ways hest ; 
 and there is no safety but in the use of their 
 methods, and in the practice of their examples. 
 Whoever can be accused of being wiser than his 
 fathers, is amenable to ridicule ; and whatever has 
 the sanction of their precept and the authority 
 of their precedent, is strong in the popular confi- 
 dence. And especially where a people has pros- 
 pered under a given rule, or has been happy con- 
 temporaneously with certain measures, whatever 
 was the real source of their prosperity, the com- 
 mon mind associates the rule and the measures 
 with the favored condition, in the relation of 
 cause and effect, and sees them abandoned with 
 distrust and regret. 
 
 The American rule, however, is not to dwell 
 in the houses of one's grandfathers. They were 
 wise, strong, and prosperous, because they had 
 the sagacity to depart boldly from precedent and 
 usage and old methods, and wisely apply present 
 helps to present wants. They did not regard 
 their institutions as perfect, and forecasting the 
 needs of the future, provided ample means for 
 their change and amendment, as time and pro- 
 gress might require. They did not follow, they 
 
262 
 
 made precedents. No man or set of men can 
 long govern any modern nation, who has not a 
 capacity to entertain and accept new ideas, new 
 methods^ and invent new policies. Conservatives 
 can never govern any nation, unless it consents 
 to stand still and let them. A modern nation 
 will naturally out-grow and cast off the re- 
 straining measures and mediaeval policies, as the 
 young eagle escapes from its shell. In our day, 
 a conservative is most like that obstinate animal, 
 so powerful to stand still, strong in breeching ; 
 and a party of such men, strong only to not 
 move, can be of no possible use, except as an 
 opposition — a mere weight to steady. 
 
 The Democratic party, though it had much of 
 the fresh young blood of the country in it, with 
 many aspirations, nevertheless surrendered itself 
 to slavery, that awful anachronism, and was 
 obliged to accept a policy, and measures fitted to 
 foster that — measures and policy which would 
 dwarf the energies of free institutions to a stand 
 still, while its actual progress was in the line of 
 stealing land from one country to plant slavery 
 on, and people from another to enslave on it. 
 Of course, when slavery was arrested, and power 
 departed from it, that party fell, and you nor I 
 
263 
 
 will ever see it with its old grasp upon our country 
 again. It can only serve the country in opposi- 
 tion. 
 
 One corollary of the above is, that a govern- 
 ing party must have a capacity to take new ideas. 
 Another, that a conservative party is useful only 
 in opposition. 
 
 XVII. For the improvement of party morals, 
 the toning down ot party spirit^ and final soften- 
 ing of party asperities and bitterness, as also for 
 the elevation of party aspirations, reliance must 
 by placed in the more general diffusion of educa- 
 tion, the increase of intelligence, and a consequent 
 advance and elevation of public opinion and sen- 
 timent. Nothing ever will eradicate the mischiefs 
 and evils which flow from these sources. 
 
 One of the greatest of these evils is the chronic 
 aspersion of private reputation ; and although we 
 know that it is inspired ^y pa^rty hatreds, yet the 
 constant detraction of a political opponent finally 
 makes such an impression on the minds of his ad- 
 versaries, that we may accept it as a rule, that 
 people generally cannot do justice to the character 
 and motives, the talents and public services, of any 
 man, however eminent,, pure, and patriotic, who 
 
264 
 
 does not belong to their party. And it is sad to 
 reflect, that every active public man will live and 
 die the object of the hatred, execration, and detes- 
 tation of one half of his countrymen. To me, 
 this occasions the bitterest regret of any of the 
 many mischiefs springing from party spirit. 
 
 XVIII. Of party leaders I must observe further, 
 the remarkable declination which I think I have 
 noticed within the last ten years in their power and 
 influence with the members of their respective par- 
 ties. I think this is a fact, and most significant. 
 During the recent war, the people had no leaders ; 
 .they drove the prominent men forward, or left 
 them to lag along in the rear. And lord ! how 
 quick and relentlessly they whistle them off, the 
 moment the slighest indication of faltering is 
 discovered. See how they have cut off every man 
 whom they suspect of supporting the present in- 
 cumbent of the Executive Mansion.* 
 
 Even the great preacher, the most popular idol of 
 our day, vs^rote a letter from the South, and how he 
 fell ! When a great man stumbles now, nobody 
 stumbles with him ; and when he goes out from us, 
 he goes alone. I can name a dozen instances to you. 
 
 * President Johnson. 
 
265 
 
 It may be said that we do not now have men 
 the equals of some of yesterday. That may he. 
 But it is to be remembered, that each of those 
 survived his popularity, while but one or two of 
 them ever had any hold upon the popular heart. 
 Chieftainship has passed away. 
 
 We are never to have such great men again. 
 Men of the same ability will never occupy the same 
 places among us in the future. The rapid eleva- 
 tion of the masses, I may say, has by much 
 diminished the difference between great and com- 
 mon men — a difference that shall diminish, until 
 in a way it will nearly vanish. All — most all — 
 prominent men are great by comparison, rather 
 than from inherent greatness. And as we approach 
 them, they seem also to come towards us ; and sin- 
 gularly enough, diminish as they approach. 
 
 This decline in the power and importance of 
 so-called leaders — they have ceased to be such — is 
 significant of the great advance of our people in 
 intelligence, in thought, and of necessary independ- 
 ent opinion and action. Party drill will become ob- 
 solete, and party discipline a memory. The crack 
 of the party whip is no more heard, and men care 
 less for the party programme, than for the reason 
 that dictated it. And already parties can count 
 
266 
 
 less and less upon a following, and are obliged to 
 resort more and more to a policy that will bear 
 examination, and not suifer from criticism. 
 
 This would indicate an advance, rather than a 
 decline of party morals. It is a most hopeful in- 
 dication. 
 
 XIX. Parties, like other associations, assemble 
 in conventions to arrange for an election, overhaul 
 and readjust a platform, and especially to designate 
 and place before the party, candidates for its sup- 
 port. As parties are coextensive with a congres- 
 sional district, a State, or the United States, it is 
 impossible for any considerable number of the 
 whole to assemble, and the obvious method is by 
 the selection of representatives or delegates. The 
 results attained at these conventions have become 
 .the subjects of grave complaints ; and so constantly 
 as to bring the method of selecting candidates by 
 coaventions under frequent discussion ; and it is 
 supposed that there must be some inherent vice in 
 the system itself that demands its abolition. 
 
 It is said that conventions no longer represent 
 and reflect the wishes of the people. That candi- 
 dates are constantly put in nomination, not only 
 not the choice of the people, but in opposition to 
 
267 
 
 a known preference. The convention was packed. 
 Notoriously, the people as a whole, are indifferent, 
 indolent, and lax in their attention to political 
 questions in ordinary times, and especially every- 
 where away from political centers. In the rural 
 districts the primary meetings are often wholly 
 omitted, or. at the best made up of half a dozen ; 
 and any man may be elected, who will be at the 
 trouble of going to the convention. As one in- 
 evitable consequence, the vigilant, managing, in- 
 triguing working man, or ring, or clique, can se- 
 cure a return of the required delegates merely by 
 attention ; while in the cities all the known means 
 and appliances are employed. It is a contest be- 
 tween managers, intriguers, and dealers. The good 
 are away. The consequence is, that the mass ol 
 the party finds itself confronted with an obnox- 
 ious candidate ; with the choice of voting for him, 
 not voting at all, or bolting. And I have observed 
 that there never occurs a good time to bolt. As on 
 the human form there is no good place for a boil, 
 so with a party, there is never a good time to bolt, 
 or pay off a political grudge. 
 
 Clearly, the fault is not in the system of con- 
 ventions. It as surely springs from the inher- 
 ent defects and vices of men. What can save them 
 
268 
 
 from tlie results of laziness, carelessness, venality, 
 and ignorance? These liave always borne bad 
 crops, and the remedy, that great unknown quan- 
 tity. No system or scheme can be devised that 
 will work out exemption from the evils and vices 
 of human nature. None can be formed that the 
 corrupt and designing will not use to their profit. 
 The same means that secure the nomination of a 
 bad candidate, notoriously elect United States 
 Senators, and are felt everywhere in human life. 
 The view is depressing, but just. 
 
 XX. There are many thoughtful men not active 
 politicians, and many politicians of various com- 
 plexions ; many men dissatislied with the past con- 
 duct of affairs, who predict new partj^organizations 
 and new departures, to date from the inauguration 
 new departures, to date from the inauguration 
 of the new administration.* They think that 
 the dominant party has worked out its mission ; 
 that it can do no more good ; and they would be 
 glad to see its power for evil pass away. I may 
 venture some words of that party, yet not as a 
 partisan, I trust. It has been tried as no party was 
 ever tried. For years of peril and disaster it con- 
 stituted the country — ^its members were the people. 
 
 * March 4, 1869. 
 
269 
 
 Unaccustomed to govern, and after a fierce elec- 
 tive campaign, it received the government from 
 its opponents in fragments. The navy was dis- 
 persed, and the army disorganized, credit ruined, 
 and commerce diminished. One half of the Ee- 
 public was in possession of the rebellion, which 
 was training and organizing armies to march on 
 the capital, into which the new President had to 
 steal in disguise as a fugitive. Their political 
 opponents as a party, whose conduct of affairs had 
 produced this state of things, became the allies of 
 the common enemy, while the governments of the 
 civilized world sympathized actively with the re- 
 volted States. To say that a party under these 
 accumulated difl&culties did not fail utterly and 
 perish, is to give them higher praise than can be 
 awarded to any other party of modern times. 
 The Republicans of France met and conquered 
 similar difficulties, but perished in their inability 
 to govern themselves. The Republicans of Amer- 
 ica overcame all the obstacles that gathered for their 
 destruction, and not only preserved their liberties, 
 but they secured the freedom of three millions of 
 slaves, and have placed the rights and liberties 
 of both on an improved basis and a better found- 
 ation. As a party, they have evinced courage, 
 
270 
 
 firmness, constancy, sagacity, invention, ability, 
 skill, power, and wisdom, with a great capacity 
 to receive new ideas, and adapt themselves to new 
 conditions. 
 
 They have committed grave mistakes, made sad 
 blunders, sometimes been weak, and often wrong. 
 They have raised and equipped and kept on foot 
 huge armies, and peculation and malversation 
 have attended the public service. 
 
 They have collected and disbursed revenues that 
 can find no expression in our old knowledge of the 
 power of numerals, and fraud and abuse have found 
 lodgings and hiding places in this branch of the 
 service. But it is to be remembered that, for the 
 last four years, they have not only had to govern 
 the country under all the difficulties referred to, 
 but have had to fence around, wall in, manacle, 
 and fetter a hostile, obstinate, powerful and 
 unscrupulous Executive, who alone appointed, 
 instructed, and controlled the agents who trans- 
 acted this public business, and whose main effort 
 has been to so manage the affairs of the nation 
 as to throw the greatest obstructions in the way 
 of, and bring the worst odium upon, the party 
 in power. That weak, bad, and wicked men find 
 feeding grounds and resting places with that 
 
271 
 
 party is obvious. If, while at the resting place 
 where the election of General Grant leaves them, 
 they do not purify and weed out these bad ele- 
 ments, the people will do well to distrust their 
 party, and hold them to a more rigid accounta- 
 bility. But with their prestige, vigor, experience, 
 and skill, with their aptitude for new ideas and 
 progress, from whence may be expected the threat- 
 ened danger? What law governing the progress 
 of parties suspends over them the penalty of dis- 
 solution? 
 
 Their very majorities in Congress, though essen- 
 tial to government, have been dangerous to the 
 integrity of the party, and should the apparent 
 majority in the next Congress be further reduced, 
 its quality would not be impaired. 
 
 It would seem that from their opponents the 
 Eepublicans have more to hope than to fear ; a 
 compact, able, vigilant, and powerful opposi- 
 tion could be only useful to them. The grave 
 questions with which they must still deal will in 
 due time, and in some unexpected way, find their 
 own solution, as questions always have and will. 
 Their dangers are undoubtedly internal, and will 
 spring from their own midst. 
 
 Formed as the party was to set limits to slavery, 
 
272 
 
 tliat single issue was hardly broad enough for a 
 permanent organization. All who for the time 
 regarded that as a paramount question united as 
 Eepuhlicans ; and yet entertaining every shade of 
 variant opinion on every other question of moment. 
 This limitation of slavery strangled it, and logi- 
 cally, men may expect that, with the accomplish- 
 ment of the purpose for which the party was 
 formed, it would dissolve. By force of the laws I 
 have attempted to evolve this would follow, were 
 it not for intervening causes that take it out of 
 their scope. 
 
 The pressure of the war gave consistency to the 
 the party ; its leaders and people became accus- 
 tomed to act together, and endeared to each 
 other. It has prestige and memories, and must 
 remain until we have completed our transit to 
 stable government. And with its capacity to ad- 
 vance, I can see no immediate cause for its decline, 
 and none for its dissolution. And yet one may 
 intervene in a month ; and I repeat, if overthrown, 
 this fate will be evolved from within. 
 
 XXI. Two vital questions are already in agita- 
 tion by outline parties, and must sooner or later 
 receive some political adjustment, neither of which 
 
273 
 
 m any present aspect of it, presents that sharp, 
 practical, and well-defined angle or handle, so 
 necessary to seizure and adoption hy political 
 parties. One is the so-called woman question. 
 
 For certain reasons this never can, I think, 
 be a controlling element for the formation or 
 action of a party. Indeed, one involving sex 
 probably never will. No question has so much 
 negative strength; and none so little combining 
 power. N"o set of men seriously oppose it ; all 
 stand good-naturally acquiescent, ready to yield to 
 a demand made with any unanimity by women. 
 Few men will actively co-operate to bring about 
 such political changes as the question demands ; 
 for few men will feel, and fewer admit the necessity 
 for the active participation of women in politics. 
 And however a man may be convinced of the ab- 
 stract right of women to vote ; and however willing 
 he might become to have his wife do it, he will 
 be slow to feel the necessity for it ; and slower still 
 to ask her to do so, even when convinced of the 
 necessity. He feels that it is a man's work, and 
 he can do it himself. 
 
 The work is for women with women. The 
 hindrance comes from them, and all the more 
 powerful, because the motive for it is not founded 
 18 
 
274 
 
 in reason ; but lies shrouded in usage, prejudice, 
 and caste. Woman also feels that it is man's work, 
 and merely because he has always done it, and 
 she shrinks from it. When she asks for it, she 
 will receive it. When she comes forward to vote, 
 the ballot-box will be open, the vote ready, and 
 the way broad, clean, and flower-strewn. She will 
 get it without a party. 
 
 And so of the labor question. This, too, though 
 long agitated, full of merit and strength, and ap- 
 pealing to the needs of a vast majority, and the 
 sympathy of all, has as yet assumed no shape, 
 has taken no form, that makes it available as an 
 organizing force. Although broad and palpable, 
 it has not yet revealed its working power. When 
 it does, it probably will find no set of men hardy 
 enough to oppose it. 
 
 The practical and apparently expedient thing 
 of limiting a day's work to eight hours has no 
 vitality or force, as a working political element. 
 The thing to do is to reach below, and readjust 
 values, so that labor shall appreciate; while every 
 thing else remains, a thing hardly within the juris- 
 diction of common politics ; or, what is deeper and 
 more radical still, things must be so changed that 
 a man will work for himself, and not for another. 
 
215 
 
 If this ever becomes a controlling party dogma, it 
 will be in some sucb seemingly illogical way as 
 tbat in whicb slavery presented itself finally. And 
 wbat revelations it is capable of no man knows. 
 
 Both of tbese questions — tbe political status of 
 women and the rights of labor — lie deep in the 
 organic elements of society, and must to some ex- 
 tent depend upon a radical change of them and 
 public sentiment, rather than upon direct political 
 action: a change which the discussion already 
 going on is slowly but certainly producing. 
 
 I have thus, gentlemen, quite imperfectly I am 
 sure, given you my notions, the product of some 
 experience and much observation, of the existence 
 and workings of the laws that produce political 
 parties, govern their workings, and limit their 
 existence : — some of the elements of the philosopb y 
 of political parties. 
 
l.-J '_'A^^,4JM 
 
 
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