APPENDIX F.

LAW AND LAWYERS.

PAPER BY J. C. C. BLACK, OF AUGUSta.

Of law, in a general sense, it may be said it has God for its author, the universe for its kingdom, and order and harmony, and truth and justice for its objects. It rules the mineral, the vegetable and animal kingdoms. It holds its benign sway in the realm of the material, the intellectual and spiritual. We find it in the dewdrop that glistens on the bosom of the blushing flower and the great ocean with its wide expanse of unsounded depths. It holds glittering stars and blazing suns and revolving worlds in their appointed places. The earth "was without form and void" until it reigned, and should it cease chaos would follow. It furnishes a rule of action for the worm that crawls in the dust and the imperial bird that soars with tireless pinion in highest air. It preserves order on earth and harmony in heaven. All intelligences, angelic and human, are under its dominion. It has to do with all affairs, secular and religious, temporal and eternal. It is in the earth and sea, and air and sky. It pervades all life and without it death would be everywhere. Love we are told is the summum bonum of life. Love is greater than hope, which has done such mighty things. Love is greater than hope, which sustains in trial and inspires the noblest endeavor. Love is eternal, but love is the fulfilling of law. "In the fullness of time God sent his Son into the world, made of woman, made under the law." His life was a life of obedience to law. His death was a vindication and satisfaction of law. When we would see the fullest expression of God's love for men, we betake ourselves to the cross on which the Saviour of men died. It is no less the emphatic and awful expression of God's regard for law. The

evidence of man's love to God is conformity to his law. Under the old dispensation obedience to law was better than sacrifice, and the Psalmist sang "The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul," while the great apostle of the new declares, "The law is our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ." We cannot think of God as being without authority, and this involves the idea of law. To strip Jehovah of authority would be to destroy his power and this would impair or destroy his benevolence and goodness. If love most adorns his throne, law sustains it. The very exercise of mercy and pardon presupposes law. The gospel does not abrogate law, it is only another and better law. As to mere human law, while it is necessarily imperfect in its enactment and enforcement, what would we do without it? It is indispensable. Without it society would be disorganized, government would cease, civilization would lapse into barbarism. It enters into all the affairs of our every-day life. It abides with us in the home. It stands sentinel at the door and protects from the intrusion of the unwelcome and violent. While we sleep it watches. When we awake, it is by our side, and goes with us into the highway, the field, the shop, the office and the sanctuary. It stimulates us in our work by assurance that we shall enjoy the products of our labor. It protects us in our amusements and our worship. It has concern for everybody and every interest, not only liberty and property, but life, body, health and reputation. The most needy are the objects of its special care. It levies tribute to take care of the destitute and helpless. It shields the weak from the oppression of the strong. It protects the strong from the envy and hatred of the weak. It confers rights upon us before we are born. It hovers over our cradle. It guards us all the way to the grave, and even then does not abandon us, but lingers there to protect the grass and flowers love has planted from the touch of desecration. As far as may be it is a husband to the widow and a father to the orphan. Its ears will not listen to falsehood. Its eyes are not clouded by partiality nor distorted by prejudice. Its hands are a shield for the innocent and a rod for the guilty.

Its feet tread the

paths of justice and equity. It speaks, and its voice commands what is right and forbids what is wrong. It thinks-its underlying principles are founded in reason. It has feeling-it makes allowances for human passions and frailties. It has symathy and is merciful. Its whole being rejoices in the truth; truth in its entirety-the whole truth; truth unmixed-nothing but the truth. The temple in which it dwells should be pure; its altars undefiled, its ministers clean.

"Justice, sir, is the greatest interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together. Wherever her temple stands, and so long as it is duly honored, there is a foundation for social security, general happiness, and the improvement and progress of our race. And whoever labors on this edifice with usefulness and distinction, whoever clears its foundation, strengthens its pillars, adorns its entablatures or contributes to raise its august dome still higher in the skies, connects himself in name and fame and character with that which is and must be as durable as the frame of human society." So spake Daniel Webster. Such necessary and honorable work is the avocation of every true lawyer. The claim of his profession to rank among the most useful and distinguished pursuits that have or can ever engage the thought and stimulate the effort of man is amply vindicated by the characters of those who have been its votaries and their contributions to the wellbeing and progress of the race. They have stood as the champions of civil and religious liberty. Unawed by force, unbribed by station, they have defied the power of tyrants and fearlessly defended popular freedom. The history of the progress already made in popular government is luminous with their eloquent and fearless advocacy, and any assault upon it now would awaken their prompt and powerful resistance. Ever ready to oppose the oppression of power, they have been as firm and unyielding in their support of law and order. In character, in intelligence, in public spirit, in useful service to community and state and country, they are foremost. Venerable for its antiquity, worthy of the highest respect and admiration for its history, the necessity

for our profession springs from the conditions of organized society and it must continue as long as such society exists. To it in the future, as in the past, must be largely left, by the unwritten law of common consent, the enactment and execution of our laws, State and Federal, and from the necessity of the case not only must their construction devolve upon it, but the restraints within constitutional limitations, so essential to the general welfare must be enforced by an intelligent, upright, impartial, fearless judiciary chosen from its ranks. With unfaltering purpose we should maintain the honor of our profession-preserve its exalted rank and dignity, and promote its beneficent mission. Its high tone should never be lowered. It is not a trade for mere barter and sale. The true lawyer's office is not a shop. It is no place for mere bargain-counters. It is rather a school where he must, by diligent and unremitting study, qualify himself mentally to instruct the ignorant, strengthen the weak, defend the oppressed, prevent wrongs, terminate contentions, promote justice, inculcate respect for and obedience to constituted authority, and to do this, it should also be a shrine to truth and right, at which the spirit shall reverently kneel and on which the heart shall offer its tribute of sympathy and love.

The lawyer's avocation is a business, but it is more than that. He must possess qualifications not demanded in other pursuits. These must be ascertained by examination and duly certifiedat the threshold he is put under the sanction of an oath, he i invested with prerogatives, and holds an office which makes him a part and an indispensable part of one of the necessary departments of government. He should not indulge in the Pharisaical pretension that he is better than other men, but to forget or ig nore that, in a sense, he is separated from other pursuits, however necessary and honorable, is to lose the highest and justest conception of the rank and station of his profession-and to drag his calling down to the level of a mere business is to degrade the high office it should be his pride, as it is his duty, to honor and exalt. Who could think of the judge on the bench as pursuing a mere business? Who would not instinctively feel that such

conception of his station was false and degrading? He sits as a minister of justice, he is clothed with the majesty of the law, he represents the power and sovereignty of government. As the mouthpiece of the law, pronouncing its decisions, he enters the judgment by which property is taken, liberty is restrained, the stigma of infamy is branded upon reputation-life itself is forfeited. Six men constitute the tribunal of last resort in determining questions affecting the highest interests of the more than a million and a half people in the State of Georgia. Like interest of seventy-five or eighty millions of freemen are committed to nine men. We are accustomed to speak of the three great departments of our system of government as equal and coordinate, but the judicial department may declare null and void the joint work of the other two. Neither the executive nor the legislative, nor both combined, without flagrant usurpation could interfere with the judgment of a court while it is not only within the province but the solemn duty of a nisi prius court sometimes to set aside an act which, after deliberation and discussion, has been passed by one and approved by another department of government. An upright, capable, fearless judiciary is the last hope of the people for protection against themselves. The peo ple, the source of all power, wisely recognize the necessity for a written constitution which shall set limits beyond which they themselves cannot go, and in times when tumult and passion sway popular thought and feeling, from the bench alone must come the voice of supreme commanding authority which shall curb the spirit that would override these limitations. That rights so sacred have been so well guarded, interests so valuable so well preserved, and power so vast wielded without abuse, is in honor to human nature, weak and imperfect as it is, and an undying glory to the profession which has and must continue to furnish the bench of our country with the men, who we may confidentiv expect, as their predecessors have done, will continue to shed luster upon their exalted stations, bless their country with their services, and achieve for themselves the highest distinction. In the structure of our government there is a special court of the