USA > Pennsylvania > The twentieth century bench and bar of Pennsylvania, volume II > Part 71
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The post in which his abilities shone pre- eminently was as presiding judge of the Dis- triet Court. On the Supreme Court bench his feeble health prevented Judge Sharswood from displaying his great energies, and his efforts to reduce the work of that tribunal which was nearly overpowering the court when he first became a member of it, had caused him, especially while chief justice, to
render many opinions which, in a few short sentences, clarified the whole question. With less exacting duties and with better health, Judge Sharswood might have added to his reputation even greater laurels than he gained. As it is, he was probably the great- est presiding judge the courts of Philadel- phia ever had, and as a Supreme Court jus- tice hie ranks with Tilghman and Gibson. Besides his arduous duties on the bench, Judge Sharswood successfully organized the Law School of the University of Pennsylva- nia, of which he was professor for many years. We will have occasion to say more on this portion of the work of Judge Shars- wood when we will speak of the Law School. In appearance Judge Sharswood was rather a stern looking man, but he was most genial in his conversation. He died in the same vear that he retired from the bench. There is an excellent portrait of Judge Sharswood at the University Law School.
Judge Sharswood was incessant in his la- bors. During the years that he was occupied with his duties both on the bench and as professor and dean of the Law School, Judge Sharswood was engaged in many legal works both as author and editor. The most impor- tant of these works is Sharswood's edition of Blackstone, which first appeared in 1859. Among other works . he published in 1854 was an unique little volume called "Profes- sional Ethics," and in 1856 he published a volume entitled, "Popular Lectures on Com- mercial Law." In 1870 he published a vol- ume of "Lectures Introductory to the Study of Law," a series of introductory lectures selected by Judge Sharswood from those he delivered in connection with his work at the University Law School. Besides these works Judge Sharswood edited many of the lead- ing text books. such as "Roscoe on Crimi- nal Evidence" and "Smith on Contracts."
Eli K. Price was born in 1797 in Chester county, Pa., and spent his early boyhood on a farmn. His first inclination, when he reached
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his majority, seemed to have been to engage in commercial pursuits, and with that end in view he entered the counting honse. He soon, however, discovered that his taste was in following a professional career, and he chose the law and entered in the office of John Sergeant, who at that time was in pub- lic estimation on fair and equal terms with Horace Binney. Mr. Price was admitted to the bar in 1822. Early in his career as at- torney, he followed the tendency of the present age and specialized his efforts along the line of real estate. IIe be- came the greatest real estate lawyer Phila- delphia ever had. His greatest public work was as member of the Assembly, which brought to a succesful conclusion the con- solidation of the present city of Philadel- phia. The public was deeply agitated over the enormous evils this city suffered from the splitting up of the territory of the coun- try into several municipalities. A movement was started, looking towards remedying that evil. Horace Binney said that, in his opin- ion, if those interested in the movement could place the name of Eli K. Price, with his consent, at the head of the list, the move- inent would be half won. Mr. Price reluctant- ly consented to become a candidate to the state senate in 1851, and it was largely to his efforts that the Consolidation Act of 1854 succeeded.
Mr. Price held but few public offices out- side of being a member of the senate. He was a member of the Park Commission from its organization in 1867 until the time of his death, and he took great interest in the beau- tifying of our grand Fairmount park. At the time of his death, which happened in 1884, he was the senior member of the bar and had reached the venerable age of eighty- seven years. Chief Justice Sharswood, at a dinner tendered to him by our bar on the event of his retiring from the bench, after a very touching allusion to Mr. Eli K. Price, said Mr. Price has certainly not been what
we term a conveyancer, but in England he would rank in that high class of the pro- fession, adorned with the names of Booth, Butler, Fewme and Preston.
Peter McCall was born in 1809, in a town near Trenton, New Jersey. His father was a merchant in Philadelphia, and having failed in business, retired to Trenton and lived there with his family the rest of his life. Ile died shortly after Peter was born.
Peter McCall graduated from Princeton at the age of sixteen. After his graduation, Peter's mother removed to Philadelphia, where Peter commenced to prepare for the bar, and where he was admitted in 1831. Very shortly after that he distinguished himself by his professional skill and elo- quence in a capital case in which he was the colleague of David Paul Brown. From that tinre on MeCall's practice increased rapidly.
Mr. McCall devoted himself almost exclu- sively to his calling, early in life attracting the public by the singular purity and integ- rity of his life. IIe was elected to both branches of the city council at different times, and in 1844 he was elected mayor of the city. On his retirement after his term of office, he returned to his practice and nev- er again held public office. When his term of office as mayor expired, the expression of appreciation of his administration for cleanliness, integrity and vigor was heard from all sides and of all shades of political creed.
Mr. MeCall was a vice provost of the Law Academy for many years, and in 1838 he de- livered an address before that society on the early "Judicial History of Pennsylvania," which contained a great deal of valuable and interesting information of the early courts of Philadelphia. Mr. McCall was also a member of the Historical Society of Penn- sylvania, and for many years he was on the executive council of that body.
At the time of his death Mr. McCall occu- pied the proud and honorable office of chan-
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eellor of the Law Association. This office had been held by William Henry Rawle, Pc- ter S. Du Poneean, John Sergeant, Horaee Binney and William M. Meredith, who was the immediate predecessor of Mr. MeCall in that offiee.
Mr. McCall was also associated with Judge Sharswood as professor at the Uni- versity Law School. He was professor of praetiee, pleading and equity at the Law Sehool from 1852 to 1860, when he resigned. As a lawyer, Mr. MeCall was profoundly versed in the knowledge of the law, and in preparing his ease for court he made himself thoroughly familiar with the eause so that he was never taken by surprise or unpre- pared. It has been said that Mr. McCall was one of the last men who were accustomed to come to court with a brief on all points that might possibly arise during the progress of its trial. As an advocate, Mr. MeCall was a finished speaker, and an orator of the high- est order, graceful, fluent, vigorous and con- vineing.
Mr. McCall was a man of extremely mod- est and quiet disposition and of such cour- teous and gentlemanly bearing that he has been considered as pre-eminently the gentle- man of the bar. He was before the bar for nearly half a century and had during that time won the admiration of his fellow mem- bers of the bar and of the community by his great industry and his great ability as a lawyer as well as by his eharaeter for hon- esty, integrity and gentlemanly bearing. He died in Philadelphia in 1880.
The beneh of Philadelphia has during the past twelve months lost two of its most learned members :
Samuel W. Pennypacker, who was presi- dent judge of the court of Common Pleas No. 2, resigned on being nominated to the office of governor of Pennsylvania, to which office lie was elected. and which he fills with honor to his state and credit to himself, and
Michael Arnold, who presided over Common Pleas No. 4.
The loss to the city of Judge Arnold was a sadder one, as it was occasioned by his death.
Michael Arnold was born in Philadelphia in 1840. He sprang from humble surround- ings, and early in life obtained his edueation in our public schools, graduating from the Central High school in 1857. He served an apprenticeship in a mercantile calling for a short time and began to study law in 1859. Arnold was admitted to the bar in 1863, and in the same year enlisted in the army and was paymaster therein for a while. At the end of the year, however, he returned to Philadelphia and to the practice of his pro- fession. In 1882 Arnold was elected to Com- mon Pleas No. 4. The court was at that time presided over by M. Russell Thayer, who had been senior associate of the District Court at the time of the abolishiment, and thereafter president judge of Common Pleas No. 4, which high offiee he occupied until the time of his retirement in 1897, when Judge Arnold sueeeeded him as president judge of that court.
Judge Arnold, prior to his elevation to the bench, was not well known to the commu- nity. Among the members of his profession he was known as an industrious, painstak- ing young man, and especially well versed in matters of procedure. He was a lifelong Democrat, and was nominated by those who opposed the re-election of Judge Amos Briggs, and subsequently he was elected.
Judge Arnold, early in his judicial eareer, began to interest himself in trying to simpli- fy the practice of our courts. His efforts being directed against the traditions of the profession, were slow in bearing fruit, but many reforms were instituted as a result of the untiring effort of Judge Arnold. The greatest of these reforms was undoubtedly the passage of the act of 1887, known as the
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Statement Act. This aet was framed by Judge Arnold, and its passage seeured through his solicitations. This aet is well known by name in the profession, and its re- sult on the aetions named in the aet is al- nost revolutionary in eharaeter.
Judge Arnold was re-elected at the end of his first term in 1892, and again in 1902. At the inauguration of his third term, Jan- uary 5, 1903, there was a distinguished gath- ering of the beneli and bar of the eity in honor of the oeeasion. After the oath of offiee was administered by Judge Robert N. Willson, the associate judge of eourt No. 4, Samuel Diekson, the venerable ehaneellor of the bar association, on behalf of the bar of the eity, congratulated Judge Arnold upon his brilliant reeord as a judge for two dee- ades, and of his re-election to office for a third term. On April 24, 1903, seareely four months after that event, Judge Arnold sue- eumbed to an illness from which he had been suffering for over two years. `In his death the beneh of Philadelphia lost one of its greatest members, and probably the most popular of its judges.
It was the great ambition of Judge Arnold to be on the Supreme Court beneh. In 1888 he was tendered by the Demoeratie eonven- tion the nomination as judge of the Supreme Court, but Judge James T. Mitehell, the present senior associate of the Supreme Court, was nominated for the Supreme Court by the Republican party, and his nomination was virtually an election. Aeeordingly Ar- nold deelined the nomination and J. Brew- ster MeCullum was nominated instead. Shortly after the convention Justiee John Trunkey of the Supreme Court died, thus ereating another vaeaney, which insured MeCullum's eleetion.
THE BAR TODAY.
We have thus given an imperfeet sketeh of a few of the great men of the bar of Phil- adelphia from its settlement to the present
time. The life of an attorney, and espe- eially one who has not been in publie offiee, may appear at first sight to be only a very dry collection of faets of no interest exeept to the person who played the role. On fur- ther thought, however, it will be seen that it is not so. A study of a great man in any walk of life is interesting and instruetive; especially is this the ease of a lawyer or judge who possesses great eharaeter and ability. It is the lawyer who feels the heart throb of society as the doetor feels the pulse of the individual. It is the lawyer who eomes direetly in eontaet with the daily life of the members of the community, and the feeling and thoughts of its eitizens. It is perhaps for this reason that in all the stages of English history and of the history of the United States, the lawyer, who naturally should think of the old order of things, is foremost for reform, for freedom and for greater politieal rights of the people. We therefore consider that in studying the lives of the great names of the legal profession from David Lloyd, the champion of the polit- ieal rights of the people, Andrew Hamilton, the champion of the freedom of the press. William Lewis and William Rawle, the champions of the freedom of the slaves, until the present day, one really sees the feelings, the thoughts and the struggles of the people found expression in their eloquent spokes- men.
The bar of Philadelphia today numbers over two thousand members. It is inereas- ing in numbers very rapidly. On aeeount of the reeent very rapid inerease of attorneys the large majority of the present members of our bar are young men, who have their rep- utation and their fortune yet to make. The difference between the members of the bar of today and of a century ago seemed to be that we have not sueh prominent and eon- spieuous figures for great abilities and great learning, nor men possessing great renown. Moreover, for the past quarter of a century
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or more, in an inereasing degree, young men have been allured from the pursuit of the farmer, the workman, the meehanie and the elerk, to that of a profession. And the pro- fession of the law has great attraetion for such persons. The possibilities of gaining fame and renown in the praetiee of the law appeal to very many. The result is that the bar is composed of many men, sons of the working elasses and the small merehant, in- dustrious, intelligent, hard-working young men, men of sterling qualities, but laeking, perhaps, that keen insight and fine education and seholarship of the old attorney. The modern lawer is, therefore, probably not so edueated nor so versed in the principles and in the lore of the law as the member of the bar of fifty years ago had the reputation of being and undoubtedly was.
The present tendeney of haste in eom- mereial life, by which the merchant has no time to lose over matters that are of no pres- ent consequenee, exists with the lawyer as well. The lawyer of today has no time to dig for the law and to go into the first sour- ces thereof. He does not waste his time in reading the old and obseure English eases. Ile says he ean learn all he needs in the en- eyelopedias and the digests. He under- stands them easier and loses no time in read- ing stuff apparently worthless to him. He therefore gets a great deal of information on a great variety of subjeets, but has no pro- found, wide and really valuable knowledge of the law. To a certain extent the lawyer of today is bound to consult the digests and the modern text book, which is really only a digest, because of the great seope of knowl- edge which a lawyer of today must possess. as against the lawyer of fifty years ago. Many new branches of the law have come into existenee, compelling the attention of the lawyer of today and driving him, for laek of time, to get a superficial knowledge of them.
The lawyer of Philadelphia of today is, for all that, able, often studious, and always
industrious. The older members of our bar are looked up to, respected, and their worthy example emulated by their juniors as of old. The younger men are making progress toward the top by indefatigable energy and by their gennine abilities. Not possessing sueh men as Ilorace Binney and William M. Meredith, of national and even international reputa- tion, yet on our roll are contained men of great powers, both in eloquenee and in learn- ing. We possess men who organize and ear- ry on successfully large business enterprises, men whose great powers as speakers before the jury and before the court are witnessed by their juniors not with envy, but with the strong wish that they in their time may be equally capable, equally successful and equally true to the principles of their profes- sion.
CHAPTER III.
ORGANIZATIONS OF OUR BAR.
LAW ACADEMY OF PHILADELPHIA.
The beginning of the organization of the Law Academy of Philadelphia is to be found in the year 1783, when it appears to have been ealled the Law Society of Philadel- phia. Among its members at that time were Bushrod Washington, Peter S. Du Pon- ceau and John Wilkes Kiterra, who had then only recently been admitted to the bar. In 1789, in order that they might have a regu- lar place of meeting, the members of the society requested and received permission to meet in one of the rooms of the College of Philadelphia. This association kept up its existenee, though only at intervals, until 1806, when the society assumed a more defi- nite shape under the name of the Law Soci- ety of Philadelphia. In 1820 a number of judges and lawyers organized "The Society for the Promotion of Legal Knowledge and Forensie Eloquenee." They invited the Law Society then existing, of which Du Poneeau was president, to form themselves into a Law Academy. A coalition was effected and
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Du Poneeau was elected the first provost and James Gibson, viee provost.
The academy was formally opened on Wednesday, February 21, 1821. From that time on the society continued to exist and prosper. It must be remembered that dur- ing all these years there was no regular law sehool in Philadelphia. The members of the Law Academy made an effort in 1832 to start a law sehool in eonneetion with the universi- ty by sending a petition to the trustees of the university setting forth the need of sueh a school. This petition was not heeded by the university and so the society added a course of law leetures at different tinies to its regular exereises.
In 1838 a charter was obtained from the legislature incorporating this society. At that time the Law Academy had beeome quite large in membership and influence. From the time of its first formal opening in 1821 until his death, which happened in 1844, Peter S. Du Poneeau was the provost of the society, and throughout that period took a most active interest in its welfare. He had for years advocated the idea of joining with the university. This, however, was not ef- feeted, probably to the advantage of the so- eiety. The university has now an exeellent law sehool, while the academy still exists, as aetive as ever, with a very large membership and continuing in the work which was planned by its founders.
On the opening of the academy in 1821, Mr. Du Poneeau made an opening address to the academy. This was the beginning of a series of lectures delivered each year, and it has ripened into a eustom which has be- eome established in the society, so that from that time on some prominent person in the community delivered an annual address upon some interesting legal topie. From its ineeption the society saw the advantage of holding most eourts in the nature of those held at the Inns of the Court in Eng- land. This method of legal education was
adopted by the academy and is contin- ued until this day. Cases are assigned to members and argued before one of the pro- vosts of the academy. In the words of Mr. William McLean, Jr., "With a membership of nearly 500 and a faculty of 11, the aead- emy enters the new eentury without a rival. No similar society ean boast of its long, eon- tinuous existenee, nor of its illustrious mem- bership.
LAW ASSOCIATION OF PHILADEL- PHIA.
One hundred years ago the great need of the legal profession was a library. Books were few and very costly, and consequently very few attorneys eould have aeeess to them. The bar of Philadelphia was very small, and the need was felt of having a plaee outside of the eourts where its mem- bers could meet on common ground in eon- genial and social conviviality. These needs found expression in the organization of the Law Library Company on the 13th day of Mareh, 1802, and a law library was estab- lished. This was the first law library in the United States.
In 1821 a rival society was formed, which ineluded the principal lawyers of the day. The minutes of this latter society have not survived, and little is known of its early his- tory. This society was ealled "The asso- ciated members of the bar of Philadelphia, praetieing in the Supreme Court of Penn- sylvania." In 1827 a fusion of the two so- cieties took place under the present title of "The Law Association." William Rawle was eleeted first chancellor, Horaee Binney vice chancellor, and George M. Dallas seere- tary.
Although the library was the starting point of this association and has been its chief care and object, the association has watehed with its jealous eye the conduct of the bar and has made its influence felt as a potent factor in restraining the irregular ae-
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tions of members of the bar within as well as without the society. Its board of eensors, baeked by the sentiment of the bar, has taken up cases that warranted their interfer- ence. Motions for disbarment at the in- stanee of the society have been rare, but have been of sufficient frequency to aet as a restraining power on those who might be tempted to forget their oath of offiee to aet with fidelity to the eourt as well as to their clients.
The society has always used its utmost endeavors to maintain our high judicial standard, and also to present to our legisla- ture the need for legislation, either on judi- cial matters or on matters coneerning the ad- ministration of justice. It is one of the un- written laws of the association, that a judge on the benchi in our county, who has proven himself an honest man and a good judge, deserved to be re-elected by the people when the term for which he was elected for of- fiee expires. This society believes that the re-election of such a judge serves the best interests of the community. It therefore used its best influenee towards the re-election of such judges. Outside of the lines we have just indieated, the society always avoids all politics.
The library, beginning in a small way as it did, has now over thirty thousand volumes, and is one of the best equipped law libraries in the country. The present quarters oecu- pied by the library are on the sixth floor of the eity hall. These quarters have been oc- cupied by the soeicty since 1897, when they were completed and equipped with all con- veniences. Besides the books, the society possesses a large and valuable collection of busts and portraits of the great legal lumi- naries of the bench and bar as well of our own city and state as of our country. In all the society owns over forty busts and portraits. Perhaps the most valuable of the portraits is that of John Marshall, the great chief justice.
On March 13, 1902, the one hundredth an- niversary of the existence of this organiza- tion was celebrated in an elaborate manner. Hon. James T. Mitehell, associate justiee of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, deliv- ered an historical address of the society. The closing words of Judge Mitchell's address aptly describe the eharaeter and work of this society. They are as follows :
"A review of its work redounds to the credit of the law association. From the day of the small things, through difficulties and discouragements, it has fostered a library, now a notable repository of learning in every branch of the law, for scholars as well as for the daily toilers of the profession. And it has interested itself in the morals and the eonduet of the bar with moderation and dis- eretion; has exerted its influence on legisla- tion as well as on litigation, and always for patriotic and beneficial ends. It has main- tained the tone of professional ethies, and has been recognized as doing so with undevi- ating eourage: so that, though it had never had in its membership the majority of the whole bar, it has always had the best, and has been the recognized organ of the high- est professional opinion."
THE LAWYERS' CLUB.
The Lawyers' club is an organization that has for its aim the social entertainment of its members. One of the very newest institu- tions among the lawyers in Philadelphia, this society is very prosperous, having a large membership and a spacious elub house. The Lawyers' club was organized and ineor- porated in 1892. Its membership is made up of members of the bar of this eity as well as of non-resident attorneys. The purpose for which the soeicty is maintained, as ex- pressed in its eharter, is as follows: "To en- courage among its members social inter- eourse, a free diseussion of matters affeet- ing lawyers, elevating the standard of pro- fessional ethies, aiding in all movements
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