USA > Illinois > Sangamon County > History of Sangamon County Bar > Part 2
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formed a partnership with Thomas C. Mather. They enjoyed a lucrative practice under the firm name of Connolly & Mather.
Major Connolly had a brilliant war record. He served two terms in Congress with distinction. In thinking of him I am reminded of the tobacco chewing story Clarke E. Carr tells about Milton Hay. Mr. Hay stuck to the habit, but I think the quid he mentions had grown some by 1885.
With all his long practice Mr. Hay was not an expert expecto- rator-far from it. I knew only one member of the Bar less expert, and that was L. F. Hamilton, who was, I think, the most inexpert spitter I ever saw, although there are still some with us who lack a lot of being spit artists. I mention this by way of comparison with Major Connolly, who was the neatest, cleanest, most accu- rate and most entertaining expectorator I ever saw. I think he could hit a fly 3 times out of five, at four yards.
Major Connolly was a bright man and a good lawyer. He was small but well formed, with a fine ringing voice, almost perfect enunciation, and a clear, cogent, attractive style. He was a very effective prosecutor.
I recall an incident which occurred in the Federal Court while he was District Attorney, which is worth repeating.
Governor Palmer and I were waiting to defend a client charged with an offense against the Postal laws.
The Governor was conversing with a rather fresh young lawyer from an Eastern State who had a matter pending for trial.
The visitor was telling why he was present and said: "A Mr. Connolly is on the other side of the case. Is he present now, I'd like to meet him." The Governor said he was present, and pointed him out.
The stranger smiled and remarked, "That little fellow, why he doesn't weigh much over 100 pounds."
With an amused smile the Governor said, "Before you're through with him you'll think he weighs a ton."
McClernand & Keyes were quite prominent in 1885. The Gen- eral was then well over 70, and doubtless a little beyond his best, but he was quite vigorous in body and mind. He had served in the ranks in the Black Hawk War when he was only 20. He served three terms in the General Assembly and five terms in Congress. He prepared and introduced the bill giving the I. C. R. Co. the grant of land which did so much to develop the State of Illinois. His activities in the Civil War are matter of history.
Mr. Keyes and he were both good lawyers, and any one op- posed to them in a trial knew he had been in a fight.
Mr. Keyes served successfully for several terms as Master in Chancery. Far as I knew he was never associated with any lawyer but General McClernand, whom he almost worshipped.
General McClernand is the only one of the great Civil War generals whose body lies at Springfield. Only a few days ago his widow died in Peoria, and her body was laid to rest by his side in Oak Ridge Cemetery.
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The stone which marks his last resting place there truthfully tells us he was soldier, lawyer, patriot and statesman.
It would prolong this paper beyond reason to speak even briefly of all the various members of this Bar who have passed from among us in the past 45 years. The exhaustive report of the necrologist makes that very clear, but I feel that I should at least mention the names of some whom the older lawyers will be pleased to recall, and whom I have not referred to at greater length :
James C. Conkling, Father of Clinton L., learned, precise, sedate,
dignified, served for several years as Postmaster after retiring from practice of the law.
Joseph Wallace, brother-in-law of Lincoln, author of Illinois and Louisiana Under French Rule; a real history showing research and learning.
James A. Kennedy, lawyer and Justice of the Peace.
John F. Barrow, jolly and genial. Could qualify as first mate on Mr. V. Y. Dallman's flagship "Smiles."
George A. Sanders and William E. Bowers, made a specialty of bond business and collections.
Ralph W. Haynes, a very promising young man. He accepted a government job in Washington, and practically disappeared.
Wiley E. Jones, served a term in the legislature. Went to Arizona,
where he became Attorney General of the State, and died there a few years ago.
Elmer Parks, easy going and jolly. Second mate for the good ship "Smiles."
Hugh Chumley, optimist. Loved to talk of his aristocratic British ancestors and tell how they spelled the family name, "Chol- mondeley." He adopted the phonetic form "Chumley," and stood up under it very well.
James E. Dowling came from Menard County in the '70's. No other lawyer here looked so profound. He knew a lot, too. More than once I have heard men say, "I wish I was as wise as he looks."
Webner E. Loomis, lawyer, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, student; related to the author of Loomis' Algebra and Geome- try, which were quite popular half a century ago. Web ac- quired a reputation for beginning law suits but rarely conclud- ing them.
Alex J. Walker, brilliant at times, a little erratic at other times. Bart Galligan, philosopher, student; inclined to be pessimistic.
H. Clay Wilson, the best dresser, and almost the best looker at the Bar.
Chas. E. Selby, genial and good natured, took to politics, served in the General Assembly.
John C. Snigg, the wit of the Springfield bar.
Andrew J. Lester, ambitious, oratorical ; unwilling to climb slowly. Went to New York to live.
Hugh Dikis and Burke Vancil, came from neighboring farms near Waverly ; two very fine characters.
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Ned Robinson, Referee in Bankruptcy under Judge Humphrey, and a very excellent one.
W. A. Northcott, served three terms as State's Attorney of Bond County; was Lieutenant Governor of Illinois; head of the Modern Woodmen of America; a fine public speaker and a great organizer.
T. J. Condon, who made one of the gamest fights imaginable to gain admission to the Bar. He had been a locomotive engineer, and became involved in the great Wabash strike, although he was opposed to it. He worked hard at the Bar and got a very good grip on the law. A fine specimen of physical manhood. Tim McGrath came to the Bar in 1885. A very careful, studious lawyer of unblemished character, disposed to be somewhat technical.
A. G. Murray, brother of Judge Murray, and a very good lawyer. Davis Mckeown, was assistant State's Attorney under James B.
Jones, a careful, painstaking, hard-working lawyer, and a square shooter.
Sidney Breeze, grandson of Judge Sidney Breeze, one of the pio- neer lawyers and judges of Illinois-and himself a lawyer of fine character and ability; and finally, there was
Charlie Gibbs, a lawyer with a dark skin but a clean heart, a phil- osopher and a humanitarian, a man who had been severely buffeted by the storms of life, but who retained his fine human sympathy to the last.
Pardon me if I return to the early '80's and dwell a while on some of those lawyers who-if not abler than these I have men- tioned-at least were more in evidence before the courts and in the public eye.
James H. Matheny, Jr., was admitted to the Bar in 1877-there Were few closer students of the law, and very few who had higher professional ideals than he. He did not court jury trial work, but he had a large and valuable chancery practice and a good office business. He made it a point to read all the opinions of the Appellate Court as they were published. His death was a loss to the Bar.
Albert Salzenstein was admitted to the Bar in 1881. He passed the Bar examination in 1880 but being only 20 years old, had to wait almost a year before a license could be legally issued to him. He was of studious habits, had a thorough knowledge of the law and of the history of the law, and an absolute confi- dence in his judgment as to the application of the law to a given state of facts. He had a high conception of the ethics of the profession and lived up to it.
Mr. S. P. Wheeler came to Springfield from Cairo about 1888 to take the place of Judge Allen in the firm of Brown, Wheeler & Brown, in which association he remained till his death. He was a sound lawyer and a good citizen.
Judge Thomas F. Ferns came to Springfield from Jerseyville where he occupied a foremost place at the Bar of Jersey County. He
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had a good business till his health failed. He served success- fully as Master in Chancery. Owing to continued ill health he virtually withdrew from practice some time before his death. A. L. Knapp, I never saw, but all reports made him one of the leaders of the profession. Mr. Shutt thought him the leader.
Mr. Milton Hay was still a prominent figure in Springfield in 1885, although not then in active practice.
I heard him a few times in the Circuit Court. His style was very deliberate and his language simple. He gave one the im- pression that he had no particular interest in the result-that he was merely trying to help the Court.
Clarke E. Carr, in his book, "The Illini," gives a rather inter- esting description of Mr. Hay on the occasion of their first meet- ing, in Pike County, in 1858. I quote :
"He had a Websterian forehead, florid complexion and a round cheery face. He had, dancing on his lips, a small round quid of tobacco, about the size of a pea, which he always kept rolling from side to side of his mouth. I saw him afterwards quite frequently and he was always smiling and rolling about what seemed to be the same little quid of tobacco.
"I asked Mr. Hatch, who is that man?
"That is Milt Hay," said he, "the best lawyer in the country. He is about to move to Springfield."
Speaking of Governor Palmer, in 1854 Mr. Carr says: "Pal- mer was a striking figure. He impressed me as a broad-minded man, too good a lawyer to be a great statesman, and too able a statesman to be a great lawyer. He had no regard for party unless it happened to represent his own views."
Mr. Carr quotes some comments made on the public men of Illinois at that time, by Leonard Swett and W. H. Herndon.
He says they spoke of Lyman Trumbull as a cold blooded Connecticut Yankee, who was a thorough lawyer and a student. Of General McClernand as "The Grecian Orator," and of John M. Palmer as an able man but too impracticable to succeed.
John A. Logan was a daredevil, carousing fellow who had become a power down in Egypt.
Swett undertook to defend Logan, and said he was just a Douglas-worshipping, nigger-hating, fun-loving, riproaring Egyp- tion Democrat.
James C. Robinson, familiarly known as "Governor," I had seen and heard. He was not a great lawyer in the sense of being learned in the law, but he was a powerful, if not very elegant, speaker. He made a powerful appeal to a jury, as he did also to a mixed audience.
I saw John T. Stuart but never heard him in court. He died in the fall of '85. He was spoken of as the Nestor of the Bar but all agreed that in knowledge of the law Judge Logan ranked him.
The Junior member of the firm, Mr. C. C. Brown, was a man of mark. It would be hard to find a finer looking specimen of physical manhood. He was not a great lawyer but he was a good
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business man and was, I believe, the business manager of the great firm he was identified with. He was one of the kindest of men.
What Mr. Brown was to his firm, Mr. W. E. Shutt was to the firms with which he was associated. Mr. Shutt's judgment of the law was good-but he understood it better than he could tell it. He was a good business man, and as loyal a friend as any one could have. He made a good District Attorney, and an excellent Referee in Bankruptcy.
General Alfred Orendorff, who was associated with James A. Creighton from 1877 to 1885, and afterwards with Mr. R. H. Patton, might truthfully be called the Prince of good fellows. He never tired of helping others. He was a bright, capable man, fa- miliar with the principles of the law, but I have a suspicion he didn't like the hard work and constant application necessary to achieve greatness in that exacting profession. He had a fine sense of humor, loved social occasions, and excelled as a post-prandial orator. He deserved and had a legion of friends.
He was for a time in partnership with Lincoln's old associate, W. H. Herndon. He served in the General Assembly and as Adju- tant General of the State during the Altgeld administration.
Major Samuel D. Scholes, who was my first law partner, came from Peoria to Springfield in 1866, the year he was admitted to the Bar.
Mr. Scholes was a fine chancery lawyer, having served several terms as Master. He did not care for jury trial work. Our part- nership ceased when I became State's Attorney in December, 1891.
Judge Thomas S. Casey came to Springfield from Jefferson County in 1886. He had just completed a six year term on the Circuit and Appellate Benches. He was a very distinguished look- ing man, well over six feet and of fine proportions. He frequently- indeed, usually - wore a full dress suit which admirably showed off his fine physique and made him the observed of all observers.
He had a brilliant mind and was a good lawyer.
He distinguished himself in the Civil War as Colonel of a regiment which afterwards became the 110th Illinois Infantry. He served under General Palmer at the Battle of Murfreesboro, where his regiment resisted and broke up an enemy attack with clubbed muskets after their ammunition had given out.
James A. Creighton came from Wayne County to Springfield in 1877 and formed a partnership with General Orendorff.
He was the working member of the firm. He told me he made it a point to be in his office at seven o'clock every morning.
He never ceased being a hard worker. He had an addition made to his home on Second Street for a den or office where he worked evenings. Judge Creighton had an analytical mind and wanted to get to the bottom of everything.
I saw but little of him as a trial lawyer. He was elected to the Circuit Bench in June, 1885, and from that time on I saw a great deal of him, both on and off the Bench. No man ever wanted
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more than he did to be a good Judge, and few, if any, ever worked harder than he to achieve that ambition.
When he went on the Bench the local Bar was usually strong and jury trials were battles waged without quarter.
Palmers & Shutt, Patton & Hamilton, Greene, Burnett & Humphrey, McClernand & Keyes, Gross & Broadwell, Conkling & Grout, McGuire & Colby, Major Connolly, L. H. Bradley, and other fine lawyers were in their prime, all really great trial lawyers, each perhaps thinking himself the best of all.
Often as many as three firms would be represented on each side in important cases, civil or criminal.
Questions as to the admissibility of evidence were, I think, given more importance-at least were more hotly contested-then than later.
The courts developed a more liberal tendency towards the ad- mission of evidence that had any relevance.
However that may be, when Judge Creighton first went on the Bench, contentions over the admissibility of evidence were frequent and vigorous-almost violent.
I have often seen a large part of a day spent in argument and in the search for authorities as to the admissibility of certain evi- dence, and I have seen the Judge adjourn court for the day that he might go to the State Law Library to run the question down, saying it was cheaper and better for the litigants to wait and have the question decided right.
He early determined to master the subject of evidence.
He made an intensive study of it, and before very long he felt able to dispose of all questions of that kind promptly.
I wonder if you know that at one time he had the manuscript of a work on Evidence ready for publication, and had arrangements for its publication made, but just then Dean Wigmore's voluminous work appeared, and he and his publishers concluded they were too late.
As a matter of fact, however, there would have been little conflict, as Judge Creighton's book was a scientific treatise dealing with the principles of evidence somewhat after the plan of Stephen's little book, whereas Wigmore's work deals more with substantive law than it does with Evidence.
He intended prefacing the volume with a complete skeleton outline or diagrammed analysis giving a bird's eye view of the whole subject.
I went over it all, as a sort of proof reader, at his request, and had and still have somewhere a copy of the skeleton or analyti- cal outline. I regard Judge Creighton as a very high authority on the question of the admissibility of evidence.
His work in the Appellate Court will always stand as evi- dence of his power to analyze the facts of a case and to apply the law to them. He admired Judge Treat's opinions and in a way modeled his after them.
He was a sound lawyer and a great Judge.
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Mr. J. W. Patton lived too near our time to be a proper subject for comment, probably all of you remember him as Postmaster and many of you also as lawyer.
He was an indefatigable worker and one of the most tenacious of men. I said in substance a few years ago, and I repeat it now, that I doubt if he could see through a complicated legal situation as quickly or as clearly as a certain descendant of his with whom we are all familiar, but he could stick to it and wrestle with it till he did see it, and while his words were not as rapier like as those of that descendant, he would stay with it till he made the Court or the Jury see it.
He and Mr. Hamilton made a very strong team.
Governor John M. Palmer was in many ways a remarkable man.
He was of magnificent physique, a little under 6 feet tall, weigh- ing over 200 pounds, with a large, well-shaped head well set on a finely formed trunk, as may be seen from the figure in the State House grounds, which is a good representation.
Physically and mentally he was fearless, strong and well equipped.
He had a rich, pleasing voice, a good vocabulary, a very accu- rate knowledge of the meaning of words, and used them with accuracy.
He had a wealth of information on almost every subject, and used it to illustrate his points.
Indeed, he sometimes followed an illustration too far from the main stem of his argument, but he always came back to it.
He analyzed a situation with great clearness, and reasoned about it with great cogency.
I thought he could unravel a complex situation and make the little things in it stand out more clearly than any one, although Mr. Henry Greene was also very strong in that line.
Judge Creighton, with whom I had many quiet conversations about the lawyers, said one day : "If you grant Governor Palmer's premises you can hardly escape his conclusions."
Governor Palmer was by nature a partisan. He was never on the fence-never neutral. He was on one side or the other, and it was no trouble to find out which side he was on.
He was very strong in the fundamental principles of the law, but he did not-when I knew him well-pretend to keep up with the almost infinite number of court decisions. John Mayo was much better at that than his father.
A client told of laying the facts of a controversy before him for his opinion and advice.
After hearing the story the Governor said: "Well, on that state of facts the law should be, thus and so. John, what do the cases say about it?"
He was especially strong on constitutional lines.
It was fortunate that he was Governor from 1869 to '73, when the constitution of 1848 was going out and the constitution of 1870 coming in.
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The former permitted special legislation and the rush to get special laws enacted under it was simply awful.
The printed private session laws for the 1869 session made over 2800 pages, the general laws only 480 pages.
The Governor vetoed a very large number of bills but many of them were passed over his veto. His veto messages showed both courage and understanding.
His correspondence with President Grant over the Federal invasion of Illinois during the Chicago fire in 1871 had a fine and much needed effect in reminding the Federal authorities and the people that the legitimate rights of the states still existed.
He also rendered fine service to the country when at President Lincoln's special urgence he acted as Military Governor of his native state of Kentucky at the close of the Civil War.
Governor Palmer was a great conversationalist. Under proper conditions he loved to talk about the Civil War, and about the lawyers he had known, and on such subjects he was very interest- ing and entertaining.
I have often speculated as to how much the Civil War had to do with the elevation of many of the men of that period to the places of prominence which they deservedly occupied.
At the Sangamon County Bar were the following who made distinguished Civil War records :
Major General John M. Palmer ;
Major General John A. McClernand ;
Colonel James H. Matheny ;
Colonel William L. Gross;
Colonel Thomas S. Casey ;
Major James A. Connolly ;
Major Bluford Wilson ;
Major Samuel D. Scholes; and
Major Alfred Orendorff ;
not to mention the great Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, Abraham Lincoln.
In 1885 and for several years thereafter, I think it was gen- erally conceded that Governor Palmer and L. F. Hamilton stood at the head of the Springfield Bar. They were different types and it is not very easy to compare them. Governor Palmer had a broader outlook, a clearer comprehension of fundamental principles, and greater felicity of statement.
Mr. Hamilton knew the law well. He was constantly engaged in trial work, embracing every character of cases and against able lawyers.
He prepared very carefully for every case, and clearly, a lawyer who had many trials, embracing all sorts of cases, and makes thorough preparation must, perforce, be familiar with the law. Mr. Hamilton was familiar with the court decisions, and measur- ably, with the fundamentals of the law.
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Governor Palmer's early training went back to a time when lawyers relied more on the application of legal principles than on the citation of cases, and that plan certainly tends to mental breadth and depth too.
If we are to go on relying on cases, the practice of the law will eventually become a trade instead of a profession. The best lawyer will be the one who can make the most careful and pro- longed search for a decided case that fits his facts, and needless to say, one does not have to be a lawyer to do that.
Mr. Hamilton was not as skillful in the choice of words as Governor Palmer, or as Henry Greene, or as Major Connolly at his best, but before he left his subject he would cover every point. He would present every side of it at least once.
Palmer and Hamilton were usually on different sides, and it is possible, if not probable, that there was some feeling of rivalry. I can say that I never heard Governor Palmer express or show any sign of jealousy of any one.
In speaking of these two giants of the profession on a former occasion I said their contests reminded me of a combat between Hercules wielding a club and D'Artagnan with his trusty rapier.
Mr. President, the Law is a great profession, and in a civilized society must always remain so. Its importance at any time will be measured by the fidelity with which the lawyers stick to the best traditions of the Bar. They must stand resolutely for what is honorable and ethical. There is no other class of men so trusted and that will be true as long as they deserve it, and possibly a little longer, but if they are to remain leaders of public and politi- cal opinion they will have to abandon a blind adherence to prece- dents. New conditions are calling loudly for new precedents.
Conditions are approaching-if not already upon us-which make the old precedents inapplicable, and I think that if true to themselves and their profession the lawyers will make the safest guides in the future as well as in the past.
Like the other professions, the law is becoming so crowded that success calls for close application, and hard, very hard, work.
Lord Eldon said, "Who would be a great lawyer must live like a hermit and work like a horse," but it is not quite so bad as that now.
The true representative of the legal profession will never forget that, after all, his proper function is to aid the court in the ad- ministration of justice.
And justice is the greatest thing in the world.
Justice includes all the virtues. Without justice there can be no true liberty.
Justice is the very flower-the crown-the glory of civilization.
There can be no higher duty cast on the citizen than the duty cast on the lawyer to aid the court in the administration of Dis- tributive Justice.
To that duty, I trust, the members of the Sangamon County Bar will ever prove true.
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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA
340.0977356G76H C001 HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY BAR SPRINGFI
3 0112 025293827
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