Legal Reminiscences. to be proud of his calling. Lifting our eyes to a survey of the whole horizon of active life, and we see no art, trade, business or profession which maintains higher standards for the conduct of its members than the law. There are cynics, I know, and some of them in high places, who profess to entertain low opinions of the morals of the bar. Perhaps these critics are confirmed in their opinions because lawyers never contradict them. Yet these critical gentlemen will admit that the acts which have conferred the highest honors upon the late President Harrison and Pres ident Cleveland have been the high character of their judicial nominations. Of these none have been more honorable or more fit to be made than the very latest. It meets the approbation of the bar because Mr. Hornblower is an able lawyer, a courteous gentle man and a man of clean reputation. In this connection I might also refer to one of the most striking object-lessons of the century, just now presented to the public view. A nomination to a high judicial office is tendered in payment of a political debt. Grave charges have been preferred against the candidate, which called for investigation. The bar condemns no man unheard. It sub mitted these charges to a tribunal of a num ber of its best and most competent members —men of unimpeachable integrity, purity of character and high judicial qualifications. After an investigation which omitted no material fact or circumstance and included the best attempt at exculpation which the accused could make, that committee with no dissenting voice, were constrained to de clare him guilty of an act which the common judgment of men and the law of the land denounce as a high crime. He left them no vestige of ground for excuse. With incredible
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fatuity he proclaimed that he performed the act with deliberation. The report of that committee permanently fixes his status with the bar. Politicians may pay the wages of his crime with a judicial nomination — men who profess to obey the commandments may palter with their consciences to excuse him — a majority of the voters may elect him, but in such unworthy performances they can have no assistance from the reput able members of the legal profession. Instead of it their voices and their votes will be given against him. Without distinction of party interest, or any thing in the heavens above or the waters under the earth, the influence of the bar will be exerted for the honor of the state and the purity of its judiciary. The foregoing was written two weeks in advance of the verdict. I let it stand as a proof that the bar can be counted upon to maintain the purity of our judiciary. The election has been made. By a majority of more than one hundred thousand votes, the competitor of the candidate who defied the opinion of the bar and the public has been elected. In his fall that candidate is now charged with the defeat of every other nomi nee on his ticket. Whether this charge be true or not, neither he nor any other overzealous partisan will repeat his error. A powerful object-lesson has been set before all politicians. Hereafter all judicial candi dates in the Empire State will be men en titled to the confidence of the people and the support of the bar. The vicious notion, that character and moral principle no longer count in politics, has received its quietus. Finally and better than all the rest, we have another assurance that "a government of the people, for the people, by the people has not perished from the earth."
