Graham's Magazine, Vol. XL, No. 3, March 1852Various
Science
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XL, No. 3, March 1852
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
And now, with all seriousness, what more shall be said? I have shown:
1.—That my brethren of the bar enjoy a very dangerous and altogether
very disproportionate power as the law-makers, the law interpreters, and
the law enforcers. 2.—That however honest they may be _by nature_; and
however honest in all the other relations of life; and that they are so,
I acknowledge with pleasure; yet, as Lawyers, they have a code of morals
peculiar to themselves, making it their duty to league with knaves, and
cheats, and murderers, and house-breakers, and to furnish them with aid
and comfort, _for pay_; in other words, for _a share in their profits_,
and this _duty_ is of such a nature as to lead them continually astray,
to blind their reasoning powers, to darken their consciences, until they
are incapable of distinguishing between truth and falsehood, or right
and wrong in the defense of their clients; and that under pretense of
being _faithful_ to them, they become after a while too unfaithful to
everybody else, even to themselves, and to their Maker; and that
_therefore_ they are not trustworthy as legislators. 3.—That in
consequence of their position as the holders of political power, too
large a portion of our young men—our intellectual strength and hope, is
diverted into that particular profession, to the injury of every other,
and especially to the business, and laboring, or productive professions.
4.—That another evil is our superabundant legislation—the instability
of that legislation—the prodigious cost of so many debating societies
maintained at the public charge, under pretence of law-making all over
the land; whereby the public business of the whole country is delayed,
month after month, and year after year; and sometimes never done—or if
done at all, is done at last in such a hurry, and after such a slovenly
fashion, that when the law-makers are called together again, a large
portion of the little time they are enabled to set apart from
electioneering, is spent in patching up and explaining the laws of a
previous session; here, by taking a piece off the bottom and sewing it
on the top, as the Irishman lengthens his blanket; and there, by taking
out a piece of the same, to patch a hole with: and that _therefore_,
notwithstanding a multitude of glorious exceptions to be found, year
after year, in the senate chambers and representative chambers of our
country, Lawyers are never to _be trusted in the making of laws_; and
that, if it were not for the simple fact that, as judges, they are the
only authorized expounders of the law, they ought not to be trusted even
with the wording of a statute.
And now, what more? We are all ambitious—lawyers above all the rest of
the world in this country. Not one but labors—if we may believe his
mother and sister, or his betrothed—not one “but labors with the
nightmare meanings of Ambition’s breast”—not one who does not feel—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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