Great Lawyers and How
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GREAT LAWYERS, AND HOW THEY WON.1 Bv William G. Peckham. IT has been my good fortune to know some of the leaders of our bar and that is why I presume to try to pay the debt of your hospitality by telling you what I know of those leaders. It is a great pleasure to be of use to young men. New York is a centre for commerce and for the business of other States and other countries, but more yet it is a centre where litigated matters are brought into court. To New York come the cham pions at the bar of other States and other countries. Three Presidents of the United States have been members of our city bar within about ten years. Here also settled Evarts and Choate from New England, O'Conor of Irish birth, Robert Ingersoll from Illinois, Governor Hoadley from Ohio, Secretary Carlisle from Kentucky, Prior from Virginia, the Van Wycks from North Caro lina, and a thousand others of greater or lesser degree and from all parts. The com petition has been of the keenest and the ability required for success of the highest. Eloquence has become common, especially in our brethren from the South and from Ire land, but perhaps it is less valued, if not combined with other gifts, in a town where the judges have little time. The business quality is far more valuable to the successful lawyer of to-day. Industry is more valuable. A conspicuous integrity is a still better asset. I think our leaders have been men who com bined all these qualities with a large human ity. Charles O'Conor was the leader of this bar thirty years ago, and he was the last of the old school. He was a beautiful figure, ' An address before the New York Phi Delta Phi Club, November II, 1901.
full of emotional power, like a fine sort of Irish Galahad. Mr. O'Conor once gave in his incisive way a useful hint to all lawyers : " Crossexamination is an amusement indulged in by the very young. It is like trying to pull the tiger out of his den. You may pull him out, or again he may pull you in." Mr. O'Conor did effective work for good government and for elevating the character of bench and bar. Next came Mr. Evarts. His great legal contests were the International Arbitration at Geneva, where, as chief, he won $ 17,000,000 in damages, the Hayes-Tilden electoral con test, the Andrew Johnson impeachment trial, where he was at his greatest, intellectually, the Vanderbilt Will case, which he closed out at short notice, and the Beecher-Tilton liti gation. He won them all. Mr. Evarts had a fine, old-fashioned dignity and elevation of character, and high power in national and international law. From time to time the selection of the judges of the United States court rested with Mr. Evarts. His choice was always for judges of the highest oldfashioned quality. Then came the younger Choate, who has stood as our belted champion against all comers for twenty years. He has tried and won more litigations involving large amounts than any lawyer of history, — for Webster and the elder Choate tried some small coun try matters all their days and never had litigations involving such large pecuniary matters. Joseph H. Choate's winning record in all multi-millioniare will-cases is a sample. It needs a book to tell of all. In the court or at the Cooper Union, while he has always
