Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 11.pdf/325

justice irritated his ever nice sense of honor. subtlety, that whatever may have been the Knowing this, all judges regarded his state jurisdiction that Adams' own State had over ments as equal to an affidavit; and recogni the transaction, New York certainly had tion of that fact aided his retainers from at- none. But able as seems his brief, and as tornies. The presence of a judge on a bench undoubtedly his argument was, the court was as sacred a spectacle to him as is to the unanimously refused relief and decided that devotee the sight of a priest at the altar. He the jurisdiction was perfect. was emphatically a worshipper at the shrine The case of Brewster v. Stryker, 2 N. Y. of jurisprudence, and legal principles were 20, sustained the point made by Wood, that venerated by him as the priest venerates the law of New York would imply a formal Biblical teachings. His life as a lawyer be delegation of a trust when one was in sub comes therefore, a model for any young stance indicated or implied in a will. In Lot lawyer beginning practice. v. Wyckoff same volume, p. 357, he made In the first and second volumes of New with success an ingenious argument to show York Court of Appeals reports of 1848, how an entail resulted in an estate of fee several cases, in the argument of which simple. In Couch v. Delaplaine, also in same George Wood participated, can be found volume, p. 400, he established that a claim which illustrate the ingenuity with which against a foreign government for indemnity he originated points and views. Adams v. was assignable in equity. Perusal of these cases will serve to show how happy were The People in 1 N. Y. Rep. p. 174 es pecially furnishes such an instance. Adams his legal efforts in abstruse doctrines of law. was a client of Woods, living in Ohio, And all the New York and some New Jersey who had never been in New York City, but reports show how much it was the fashion of had induced and employed an innocently attorneys to shower their apparently desper acting agent to take to the New York firm of ate cases on George Wood. Suydam Sage & Co. a warehouse receipt of The annals of the law prove that its pro a valid firm in an Ohio city which Adams fession has in all times really honored only forged. The agent sold the receipt to the those of its ministers who honored it with aforesaid firm for a large sum of money, courageous probity. All famous lawyers which was well covered by the collateral that worthy of posthumous fame have been the receipt represented. The money so ob good and just. Lawyers of mere craft only, tained was by the innocent agent remitted to disciples of policy, or believers in mere Adams, and correspondence showed his pos means towards ends in their profession may session of it. When the fraudulent charac win notoriety and ill-gotten wealth, but ter of the receipt was discovered, the firm never respect or fame. What a chasm for from whom, by the false pretences, the money instance divides a Coke from a Hale, or a was obtained, caused Adams to be indicted, Burr from a Marshall. and Adams by requisition was brought on A very grand sight was presented at the from Ohio, tried and convicted. Wood ap Castle Garden of New York in the summer plied for a stay and argued on appeal that of 1850, when, at amass meeting in behalf judgment must be arrested, because the of of the integrity of the Union, the young fence of Adams was not committed in the Evarts and the veteran Wood mingled their jurisdiction of the indictment and trial, for oratorical voices in behalf of the Fillmorethe prosecution admitted that Adams had Clay-Webster compromises of the then never been in New York until brought there pending slavery agitations, those cast-be as a prisoner. Wood's point was a eoram fore shadows of the emancipation times of nou judiees and he contended with great just a decade afterwards.