His habitual conversancy with the world in its strangest varieties and with the secret history of character, gives him a shrewd estimate of the human heart.
Adlai Stevenson
The Public Record
gutenberg.org
There is a deep current of observation running calmly through his thoughts, and seldom gushing out in words; the confidence which has been placed in him, in the thousand relations of his profession, renders him constitutionally cautious.
His acquaintance with the vicissitudes of fortune, as they have been exemplified in the lives of individuals, and with the severe afflictions that have 'tried the reins' of many, known only to himself, makes him an indulgent and charitable…
He has an impregnable good humor that never falls below the level of thoughtfulness into melancholy.
Hence, insulting language, and the use of billingsgate, were too hazardous to be indulged where a personal accounting was a strong possibility.
Not only did common prudence dictate courtesy among the members of the bar, but an exalted spirit of honor and well-bred politeness prevailed.
The word of a counsel to his adversary was his inviolable bond.
The suggestion of a lawyer as to the existence of a fact was accepted as verity by the court.
To insinuate unprofessional conduct was to impute infamy.
Courts of justice, and the law as a distinctive calling, are the necessary outgrowths of civilization.
The progress of society, from a condition of semi-barbarism and ignorance to a state of the highest culture and refinement, may be traced by its advancement in the modes of administering justice, and in the character and learning of its…
The spirit of the mob is in deadly antagonism to all constituted authority.