Daniel Dougherty and the Philadelphia Bar. miah T. Black and Robert C. Grier, who often left their country circuits to practice in Philadelphia. These, like Brown, were remarkable for stringently upholding the ethics of the profession. I feel sure that the Philadelphia bar has always equaled, if it did not surpass, all other bars, in free dom from pettifoggers and from chicanery. "In such regard I recall an anecdote once current about Dougherty. A client called with a retainer, which he laid upon the table together with process served upon him, and said, ' I am the defendant here. I have made the fee large, for I want you to treat the opposite party with the same great severity that he has practiced upon me.' "' Before I accept retainer,' returned Dougherty — as any Philadelphian advo cate would also have said — ' let us under stand each other; do you wish me to use the severity whether I may think he de serves it or not? If I thought it deserved, I should exercise it without your stipulation, but if you fancy that I shall be severe when I believe its exercise unjust, I could not be unjustly severe for any fee you might bring.' "The test of the relations between advocate and client, laid down by Brougham in his Queen Caroline address, was never adopted by the Philadelphia bar, but rather the well known rule of Lord Hale, viz., ' I never thought my profession should either neces sitate one of its members to use his elo quence to make anything look worse or better than it deserves, for to prostitute rhetoric in such a way is basely mercenary, and below the worth of a Christian man to do so.' "What may be termed the ethics of the Philadelphia bar can be described in an opinion of Chief-Justice Gibson, as reported at page 189 of 2 Barr's Pennsylvania reports, and that is on all fours with Male's view. "William D. Kelly obscured great legal attainments, as did Samuel J. Randall, with political preferment. But while at the Phila
delphia bar, Kelly was distinguished for his success before juries. His long career in Congress — wherein his advocacy of tariff protection was so prominent — made even his townsmen sometimes forget his triumphs at the bar. But Jerry Black (everybody called him Jerry) never allowed his political entanglements to obscure his legal fame, as his attorney-generalship at Washington and his labors as reporter abundantly testified. "Our Philadelphia bar has always been remarkable for its esprit de corps and ab sence of jealousies. Its intercourse with its always brilliant bench was profoundly courteous and fraternal, and never fell into that atrocious obsequiousness which London barristers and Q. C.s display toward their ' Ludships.' "I shall claim," concluded my octogena rian lawyer, " that our Philadelphia bar is, for personal dignity, purity in Saxon ex pression, and in professional courtesy and decorum, exquisite models for all other bars. I have visited courts in many cities, but I never found one approaching so near as in Philadelphia this Baconian description — 'the place of Justice is a hallowed place, and therefore not only the bench but the footplaces and precincts and purprise thereof ought to be preserved without scandal and corruption.' "Another peculiarity of our Philadelphia bar is that its members nearly all excel in belles lettres. Was not the author of the patriotic hymn of ' Hail Columbia' a Phila delphia lawyer? How many of its members have written plays? David Paul Brown himself produced a tragedy on the boards of a theatre, and he wrote excellent verse. "Dougherty, too, was a poet and an ama teur playwright. Like Brown he was a noted wit and wag. One evening at the Union League Club, of which he was found er, a discussion arose in his presence touch ing a coming fancy ball in society. One of the club group remarked that he would not go, because a ball made his head giddy.
