USA > Wisconsin > History of the bench and bar of Wisconsin, Vol. I > Part 30
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Gilbert, of the Gilbert Book Company, and was induced to engage in what proved to be his life work, viz., the writing of law books. His first venture was an index-digest of the Missouri reports, which was fol- lowed by indexes to the reports of Ohio, Iowa, Tennessee, and the re- ports of the supreme court of the United States. He also prepared an an- notated constitution of Missouri, a supplemental volume to Wagner's Missouri statutes, a supplement to Whittelsey's Missouri practice, and assisted in the preparation and publication of Green's Pleading and Prac- tice in Code States, to which work he also prepared a supplement, with forms, adapting it to the practice in Missouri.
Following this was a digest, in two volumes, of the Texas reports, which was begun by Judge Seymour D. Thompson, of St. Louis, and taken up and finished by Mr. Myer in 1881.
He came to Madison, Wisconsin, in the spring of 1881, partly for his health, and also to superintend the printing of his Texas Digest. In the spring of 1882 he began work on Myer's Federal Decisions, which oc- cupied his time, and that of a large body of assistant editors, during the next seven years. This is a work of thirty large volumes, and com- prises the decisions of all the federal courts, down to the date of publica- tion. The decisions are redigested, and arranged according to the sub- ject matter, instead of chronologically. The work presents the federal law in a form to render it easily accessible, and within the reach of lawyers of moderate means. While Mr. Myer was the responsible editor, and had the entire supervision of the work, he was assisted by a number of eminent law writers. Among these were Senator Daniel, of Virginia, James Schouler, Prof. W. G. Hammond, dean of the St. Louis law school, E. H. and S. C. Bennett, of the Boston law school, Leonard A. Jones, Benj. Vaughan Abbott, Judge B. R. Curtis, of the Boston law school, Percy D. Maddin, of Nashville, Tenn., Simon Greenleaf Croswell, Melville M. Bigelow, F. A. Farnham, W. D. Baldwin, and Woodbury Lowery, of Washington, D. C., C. F. Beach and E. W. Patti- son, of St. Louis. His principal office assistants were Adelbert Hamil- ton, of Chicago, Theodore B. Wallace, of Missouri, and Charles R. Dar- ling, of Boston.
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In 1891 Mr. Myer published a work on vested rights-selected cases, with notes, on retrospective and arbitrary legislation affecting vested rights of property, under the federal and state constitutions. Recently, associated with the late Hon. John Sayles, of Abilene, Texas, he has prepared a digest, in three volumes, of the later Texas reports, a work in two volumes on practice in civil cases in courts of record in the state of Texas, and an annotated civil statutes, in two volumes, for the state of Texas. He has also rendered assistance in the preparation and publication of other works to which his name does not appear, such as the Texas reports, and other works for Texas and Missouri.
He was married, in Madison, in 1885, to Miss Eva B. King, and is living at present on his country place, consisting of eight acres, two miles east of the capitol, near the north shore of Lake Monona.
He is not a member of the bar of Wisconsin. Not having the time nor inclination to enter upon the practice of the law, he has never ap- plied for admission to the bar of that state.
In politics Mr. Myer is a republican. He has never held a political office of any kind; has never sought or asked for an office, and office has never sought him.
James Simmons, of the Walworth county bar, is mentioned in con- nection with his Wisconsin digests and as the reporter of several vol- umes of the decisions of the courts of Wisconsin, in other subdivisions of this chapter. He has, however, produced other volumes of digests. Among them, volumes 4, 5 and 6 of Clinton & Wait's digest of New York reports. (See the preface of the 6th volume.) These were pub- lished in 1870, 1877 and 1882. Another work by the same author is a "digest of Moak's English reports, volumes I to 15, inclusive; with a list of cases reported, table of cases reversed, overruled and considered." This was published in 1878, and a continuation of it in 1886.
William W. Wight, of the Milwaukee bar, is the author of an inter- esting and learned monograph entitled "Lord Mansfield's Undecided Case," which treats of the disposition of the property of relatives, dev- isees and legatees perishing in the same calamity. This was published in 1893, and contains 27 pages.
CHAPTER X.
THE STATE BAR ASSOCIATION OF WISCONSIN.
BY EDWARD P. VILAS.
For some time prior to the meeting first mentioned below, there had been more or less desultory consideration of the propriety, and even advisability, of the organization of a state bar association, and upon the happening of a vacancy in the position of judge of the district court for the western district of this state, there offered an opportunity, of which advantage was taken and out of which arose the present organization.
On September 26th, 1877, a meeting of the bar of the western dis- trict was held at Madison, to consider the selection of a district judge to be recommended by the bar in place of Hon. James C. Hopkins, then recently deceased. At this meeting preliminary steps were also taken for the formation of a state bar association, and a committee was an -- pointed who subsequently issued the call for the meeting at which the bar association was afterwards organized. The meeting of the 26th of September was adjourned to October 16th, at which adjourned meet- ing Hon. Romanzo Bunn was selected as the choice of the bar of the district, and his appointment by the President soon followed. The com- mittee appointed at the September meeting was authorized to take such action as it should deem expedient to effect the organization of the bar association, and on December 8th, 1877, a call for the preliminary meeting of the bar of the state at large was published in the following form:
"STATE BAR MEETING.
"To the Members of the Bar in the State of Wisconsin:
"At a meeting of the members of the bar of the western district of Wisconsin, held on the 26th day of September last and attended by many lawyers from various parts of the district, it was resolved to initiate
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a movement for the formation of a state bar association. In pursuance of such resolution we, the undersigned, were appointed a committee and requested to call a meeting for the purpose of effecting such organi- zation.
"We fully concur with our professional brethren who have made this request, in the belief that much advantage to the profession and to the state will result from such an association properly formed and main- tained, and we take pleasure in assisting to form it. We, therefore, appoint the 9th day of January next, at twelve o'clock M. as the time, and the city of Madison as the place, of such meeting; and we cordially invite the lawyers of the state to attend and take part in the deliberations of the meeting and to cooperate in founding and upholding the pro- posed association.
"Madison, Wis., November 12, 1877.
"(Signed) E. G. RYAN,
Chairman. "L. S. DIXON, "H. B. JACKSON, "DAVID TAYLOR, "O. B. THOMAS, "JOSEPH W. LOSEY, "C. M. WEBB, "J. C. SPOONER, "WM. F. VILAS,
"Secretary, "T. R. HUDD, "J. M. BINGHAM, "JOHN R. BENNETT, "H. H. HAYDEN, "Of the Committee."
Pursuant to this call, a meeting of the members of the bar was held in the old supreme court room in the capitol at Madison on the 9th of January, 1878, at which the present organization was perfected. The meeting was called to order by Chief Justice Edward G. Ryan as chair- man of the committee, who delivered the following address:
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Brethren of the Bar:
As chairman of the committee which called this meeting, I have the pleasant duty of welcoming you here. I have long desired to see an efficient association of the state bar; and I am happy to think that the auspicious time has at last come when one may be formed.
The uses of such an association are obvious. Without it, the bar cannot properly assert itself or exercise its due influence in matters of interest to it. Doubtless, in matters bearing on the interests of the profession, individual members of the bar exercise some influence. But such influence is necessarily fragmentary and sometimes discordant. The bar, as a body, can only have the influence which properly belongs to it, on professional subjects, through an organization by which it can speak with one voice.
The vast body of our law, called the common law, is the work of our profession; the wise and just rules which have been the legacies of generations of lawyers, through the centuries, to all common law people. And these constitute to-day, not only the great body of our municipal law, but the bulwarks of civil and religious liberty, of the rights of persons and of things, more extensive and secure than any written constitution. If it be true that the common law was somewhat due to the free spirit of the people amongst whom it arose, it is none the less true that it has educated all the peoples with whom it has prevailed, to higher, firmer and more independent manhood. It may be safe to say that no people, thoroughly educated in the rights of the common law, could be brought to tolerate an oppressive political system. Civili- zation from time to time outgrows some of the fixed rules of the com- mon law; and it is the business of legislation to relax them and to adapt the common law to the existing condition of society. And the pro- fession which is educated in the common law and has mastered it as a science, ought to have an influential voice in all legislation which modi- fies or repeals its rules.
But it is not outside only, but inside of itself, that the judgment and common voice of the bar should be heard and felt. We are all proud of our profession; proud of the multitudinous worthies who have made it illustrious in the past and who are showing forth its honor in the present. No profession or calling has given so many great names to American history as the bar. There is no state in the Union on which the names of its great lawyers have not shed luster. An American law
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list from the beginning would embrace a large proportion of the names held in honorable memory by the American people. There is a passion for military glory amongst all nations-hero worship. And the glory of the soldier may be more dazzling than the glory of the statesman- lawyer, but it is less solid; for the truest glory of the soldier, here at least, is to preserve the work of the statesman. The path of the soldier, however patriotic or worthy the war, is destruction. The path of the statesman-lawyer is organization; and the path of every lawyer, worthy the name, is preservation. And in a high sense, true heroism may be in a tribunal as well as on the battlefield. Duty, fearlessly and faithfully performed, against all influences and difficulties, is the only true glory. Moral courage is a higher quality than physical.
He reads American history superficially who does not see the illus- trious dead of our profession, battling in the vanguard for all true po- litical and social amelioration; and he who looks upon society without seeing in the profession the sentinels of social order, sees through a glass darkly. In civilization, a community without a bar is worse off than an army encamped without sentinels; for the army may rally against surprise, but a community cannot peaceably defend its rights without the aid of the bar in the administration of justice. If the millennium be coming, it has not come. And the administration of justice is essen- tial to the security of all rights, public and private; essential to all social order. There is the strength of the bar, powerful where an army would be powerless. In peaceful social order, the integrity of the state and every sacred personal right is in the keeping of our profession. The legislative power would pass laws and the executive draw the sword to enforce them, in vain, if there were no courts to administer them; and a court without a bar would be little better than an untrustworthy illu- sion-a disturbing phantom of justice. For not only must the bar edu- cate competent judges, but it is the efficient and only fit censor of the judges promoted from it; a police power over the intelligence and justice of courts. In common law courts, the bar is as essential as the bench. A learned and independent bar is a condition of true civiliza- tion.
But the glory of the bar and the easy access which it gives to high place have drawn towards it men unfitted for it by nature or education. The bar has no exemption from fools or knaves. The foolish lawyer is perhaps the most dangerous of all fools; almost a knave. by assum-
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ing duties of such grave import to the well-being of society, without adequate ability or training. Horace says that poets are born, not made; and perhaps orators are born also, though Horace thinks they are made; but though there may be geniuses who think that they are born lawyers, we know that a lawyer is born only of years of patient, steadfast, laborious study; and even then the safest knowledge of the wisest lawyer is the comprehension of how limited and uncertain his knowledge is. A knavish lawyer is certainly the most dangerous of all knaves, for it is to the profession that, in time of peril, all rights of person and property are committed. The bar is the trustee of every- thing which man holds sacred; and the opportunity to betray trust is fearfully easy. Indeed, it may be truly said that integrity of character is as essential to a lawyer as professional learning, for without innate love of truth and justice it is impossible truly to comprehend a profession essentially founded on truth and justice; and it is perhaps amongst the highest glories of the profession that instances of betrayed trust are so rare in its ranks.
But it must be admitted that there are unworthy members of the bar. The rule of admission is unfortunately lax. The doors are not ajar, but wide open. And there are those who have come in at them who should surely pass out of them. Doubtless all or most of you have had the same experience as myself. At the bar and on the bench I have sometimes seen-not often, but sometimes-conduct, even amongst able lawyers, calling loudly for scrutiny or censure; ignorance so great as to be almost guilt, and malpractice so audacious as to be al- most folly. Such should not be permitted to abuse public confidence in our profession, or to cast a shadow upon its honor.
The power of courts to weed the profession of its unworthy mem- bers is limited and inadequate. Judges may be painfully obliged to surmise professional default, without judicial knowledge. All efficient steps to purge the bar must come from the bar itself. And this could scarcely be done-is almost never done-by individual effort. The aggregate bar must speak and act. The great body of the profession should enforce its ethics; censure what is worthy of censure, and move to disbar all who forfeit the honor to belong to it. This I take to be a main object of the association which you propose to form.
And the security of the profession should not stop at the bar; it should reach the bench. Positively corrupt judges are very rare, the
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black swans of the profession. But a long life at the bar has led me to fear that semi-corrupt judges are not altogether so rare; men who insensibly look out of court room windows to see how the wind blows; men incapable of corrupt motive, but not above the influence of semi- conscious partiality ; the dullards and cowards of the bench, who cannot and dare not look the truth in the very face, and declare it ruat coelum. The bench has no exemption from weakness or ignorance. And these are perhaps more dangerous in judicial office than corruption, because neither bar nor people are so intolerant of them. And yet it would be difficult to judge which way works the greater judicial wrong-the weak and ignorant judge, or the corrupt judge. These blights upon the administration of justice may not be so easily removed from the bench; but the voice of a united and unanimous bar would be potent to keep them from it.
And it is not only by direct action that a bar association, with these objects, would be felt for good. The existence of such a body, ready and potent to strike, would operate as a wholesome restraint; would strengthen weak conscience in others. We may at least hope that it will be so. We may at least hope that a few years of action and influence of such an association will go towards making universal the conviction that a lawyer is the most trustworthy of men in peril; true to his client when all else desert him; that a good lawyer is essentially a good man, an enlightened, high-minded, honorable gentleman.
For obvious reasons, gentlemen, I cannot share your deliberations or your work. If I should survive my term of office, I hope to find a place in your association. Until then, my work for the honor of the profession must be essentially distinct from yours. And I beg you now to choose your presiding officer, that I may retire.
Notwithstanding the very obvious meaning of the last paragraph of the address, the chief justice was at once nominated as president of the meeting, but he promptly declined to take further part in the organi- zation of the association, for the reason that the court over which he presided might be called upon to act judicially upon matters brought before it by the association. Thereupon Moses M. Strong was nomi- nated and unanimously elected president of the meeting, and Edwin E. Bryant was elected secretary. William F. Vilas, secretary of the com-
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mittee appointed to call the meeting, stated the circumstances which led to the call-the action of the western district bar meeting and of the committee, and on behalf of the latter submitted and read the con- stitution which was recommended by the committee as the basis of organization. The constitution was thereupon considered by sections and adopted, and still stands as the constitution of the organization without change, except in the matter of the place of holding the annual meeting, and a minor amendment relative to the filling of vacancies in office. Upon the adoption of the constitution, officers of the state bar association were elected as follows:
President, Moses M. Strong of Mineral Point. Vice-presidents : First circuit, T. D. Weeks of Whitewater. Second circuit, A. R. R. Butler of Milwaukee. Third circuit, L. F. Frisby of West Bend. Fourth circuit, David Taylor of Fond du Lac. Fifth circuit, J. Allen Barber of Lancaster. Sixth circuit, J. M. Morrow of Sparta. Seventh circuit, M. A. Hurley of Wausau. Eighth circuit, S. H. Clough of Superior. Ninth circuit, A. G. Cook of Columbus. Tenth circuit, W. H. Norris, Jr. of Green Bay. Eleventh circuit, J. M. Bingham of Chippewa Falls. Twelfth circuit, no election. Thirteenth circuit, H. H. Hayden of Eau Claire.
Secretary, Edwin E. Bryant of Madison.
Treasurer, J. H. Carpenter of Madison.
Executive Committee for three years: John W. Cary of Milwaukee, W. F. Vilas of Madison, A. A. Jackson of Janesville; For two years: F. C. Winkler of Milwaukee, H. B. Jackson of Oshkosh, S. U. Pinney of Madison;
For one year: J. W. Losey of La Crosse, J. V. Quarles of Kenosha, S. D. Hastings, Jr. of Green Bay.
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Mr. Strong upon assuming the chair as president of the association delivered the following address:
"Brethren of the Bar:
"I thank you for the high compliment implied by my election to the position of first president of the state bar association. I do not presume to attribute the compliment so much to personal considerations as to the fact that it is my fortune to have outlived in active practice all the other members of our profession who were in practice when I first entered upon it in Wisconsin in 1836; a distinction which advanc- ing years admonish me I cannot long expect to retain.
"Permit me to congratulate you, and the other members of the bar of the state whose names will soon be enrolled with ours, upon the harmonious formation of this association under such favorable auspices.
"The chief justice, in his interesting address this day to the meet- ing, whose action has resulted in the formation of this association, has so aptly set forth its advantages and utility, that you may well congratu- late yourselves upon the success of your efforts, if it shall so result that your work will be calculated to attain such advantages and usefulness. So far your efforts have been limited to the formation of a constitution, which is to form the fundamental law of your organization. This for the present is enough. This organic law provides all the machinery essential to the attainment of the objects of the association.
"A most important part of this machinery is found in the provision for the four standing committees. The committee on amendment of laws will, if it faithfully perform its duties, find much work demanding its attention, not the least important part of which will be the endeavor to obtain such a modification of the laws relative to the admission of attorneys to practice, as will be calculated, by denying the high privi- lege of practicing our profession to persons unfit to enjoy it, either from want of learning, general or professional, or want of moral character, to elevate the character of the profession to that high plane which has made its history at once the pride and boast of all who are worthy to share its honors.
"The older of you can remember when nothing less than seven years' study, four of which may have been devoted to preparatory studies in college or other high literary institutions, was requisite to entitle an applicant to even an examination for admission to the bar. Now,
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how changed! There are practically no prerequisites of either knowl- edge of law or knowledge of anything else as conditions of admission to the bar.
"In their endeavors to obtain such modification of the laws as have been shadowed forth relative to admission to the bar, the committee on amendment of laws can and should receive essential aid from the standing committee on legal education, whose duties as defined by the constitution pertain to this subject. There are also other and obvious ways in which this committee can materially aid in the important work of elevating the tone of the profession.
"It is, however, through the agency of the judicial committee that present active steps must be taken to reform the profession, by depriv- ing of its privileges shysters and other unworthy members. It is the province of this committee to hear and consider all complaints against any member of the profession, whether members of this association or not, and to adopt such measures as the committee may deem advisable to effect their removal from the bar.
"It is supposed that none who are not worthy members of the pro- fession will be and remain members of this association. From the nature of the case, no discrimination can be made in original member- ship; and if it shall be found that a 'black swan' has had the audacity to enroll his name as a member of the association, it can only be purged of his presence by expulsion on vote of two-thirds of its members. After sixty days, however, no one can become a member of the association except upon a vote of three-fourths of its members; and it is believed that expulsion from the association, or a refusal of admission to it, will have such moral effect that the subject of it will be powerless to contami- nate the profession or to inflict much evil upon the community by virtue of being nominally a member of the bar.
"Another important characteristic of our association will be its social element. The fact alone that several hundred members of our common profession, in which we all take so much interest and pride, meet together annually and exchange greetings and indulge in common sources of joy and pleasure, and speak of our common or individual experiences, our successes or our failures, or as may be, and too often will be, to mingle our griefs over the death of some of our brethren, cannot fail to create and annually cement a bond of sympathy and friendship which will be as lasting as time, and as holy as love.
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"Nor will it be an unfitting concomitant of these reunions that their interest be augmented by such social festivities as shall be appro- priate to such occasions.
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