A Class Of Business Peculiar To New Territories And States Arises From
The Land Laws.
A great many pre-emption cases are contested before the
land officers, in which the services of lawyers are required.
This
fact will partly explain why there are, generally, so many lawyers
located in the vicinity of a land office. In a community that is newly
settled the title to property must often be in dispute; and however
much averse people may be to going to law, they find it frequently
indispensable, if they wish to have their rights settled on a firm
basis.
The opinion prevails almost universally in the East that a lawyer can
do best in the West. In some respects he can. If he cannot do a good
deal better, he is not compensated for going. I had the pleasure of a
conversation last summer with one of the most eminent members of the
New York bar (Mr. O'Connor), on this very subject. It was his opinion
that western lawyers begin sooner to enjoy their reputation than the
lawyers in the eastern cities. This is true; and results from there
being less competition in newer communities. "A lawyer among us," said
Mr. O'Connor, "seldom acquires eminence till he begins to turn gray."
Nevertheless, there is no field so great and so certain in the long
run, in which one may become really a great lawyer, as in some of our
large commercial cities, whether of the East or the West. To admit of
the highest professional eminence there must be a large and varied
business; and a lawyer must devote himself almost exclusively to law.
And then, when this great reputation is acquired, what does it amount
to? Something now, but not much hereafter. The great lawyer lives a
life of toil and excitement. Often does it seem to "break on the
fragments of a reviving dream." His nerves are worn by the troubles of
others; for the exercise of the profession, as has been said by a
brilliant lawyer, "involves intimate participation with the interests,
hopes, fears, passions, affections, and vicissitudes of many lives."
And yet merely as a lawyer, he seldom leaves any durable vestige of
his fame behind him hardly a fortune. But if his fame is transient
and mortal, there is some equivalent in the pleasure of triumph and
the consciousness of power. There is no man so powerful as the great
lawyer. The wealth and the character of his fellow men often depend
upon him. His clients are sometimes powerful corporations, or cities,
or states. Crowded courts listen to his eloquence year after year; and
no one has greater freedom of speech than he. The orator and
politician may be wafted into a conspicuous place for a brief period,
and fall again when popular favor has cooled; yet the lawyer is rising
still higher, nor can the rise and fall of parties shake him from his
high pedestal; for the tenure of his power is not limited. He is, too,
one of the most serviceable protectors of the liberties of his
country. It was as a lawyer that Otis thundered against writs of
assistance. The fearless zeal of Somers, in defence of the seven
bishops, fanned the torch of liberty at the beginning of the great
English revolution. Erskine and Brougham did more as lawyers to
promote freedom of the press, than as Statesmen.
I cannot refrain from inserting here Mr. Justice Talfourd's
interesting analysis of the professional abilities of Follett: "It may
be well, while the materials for investigation remain, to inquire into
the causes of success, so brilliant and so fairly attained by powers
which have left so little traces of their progress. Erskine was never
more decidedly at the head of the common law bar than Follett;
compared with Follett he was insignificant in the house of commons;
his career was chequered by vanities and weaknesses from which that of
Follett was free; and yet even if he had not been associated with the
greatest constitutional questions of his time and their triumphant
solution, his fame would live by the mere force and beauty of his
forensic eloquence as long as our language. But no collection of the
speeches of Follett has been made; none will ever be attempted; no
speech he delivered is read, except perchance as part of an
interesting trial, and essential to its story, and then the language
is felt to be poor, the cadences without music, and the composition
vapid and spiritless; although, if studied with a view to the secrets
of forensic success, with a 'learned spirit of human dealing,' in
connexion with the facts developed and the difficulties encountered,
will supply abundant materials for admiration of that unerring skill
which induced the repetition of fortunate topics, the dexterous
suppression of the most stubborn things when capable of oblivion, and
the light evasive touch with which the speaker fulfilled his promise
of not forgetting others which could not be passed over, but which, if
deeply considered, might he fatal. If, however, there was no principle
of duration in his forensic achievements, there can be doubt of the
esteem in which they were held or the eagerness with which they were
sought. His supremacy in the minds of clients was more like the rage
of a passion for a youthful Roscius or an extraordinary preacher, than
the result of deliberate consideration; and yet it prevailed, in
questions not of an evening's amusement, but of penury or riches,
honor or shame. Suitors were content, not only to make large
sacrifices for the assured advantage of his advocacy, but for the bare
chance the distant hope of having some little part (like that
which Phormio desires to retain in Thais) of his faculties, with the
certainty of preventing their opposition. There was no just ground, in
his case, for the complaint that he received large fees for services
he did not render; for the chances were understood by those who
adventured in his lottery; in which after all there were comparatively
few blanks.
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