THE REIGN OF LAW
405
THE REIGN OF LAW BY HON. JOSEPH W. FOLK I AM indeed glad to meet the members of the Kentucky Bar, and congratulate you upon the splendid results accomplished by this Association in bringing the members together in the amicable relations so neces sary to the highest conception of the ethics of the profession. It is well to meet occa sionally in fraternal intercourse, forgetting the strenuous controversies of the day, and hear discussed the ideas which have guided the profession through all the years of civil ization. These principles are summed up, in the language of Sidney Smith : "Impress upon yourself the importance of your profession. Consider that some of the greatest and most important interests of the world are committed to your care. You are the preservers of freedom, the de fenders of weakness, the unravelers of cun ning, the investigators of artifice, the humbiers of pride, and the scourgers of oppression. When you are silent, the sword leaps from its scabbard and the nations are given up to the madness of internal strife. In all difficulties men depend upon your exercised faculties and spotless integrity, and require of you an elevation above all that is mean, and a spirit which will never yield when it ought not to yield. As long as your pro fession retains its character for learning, the rights of mankind will be arranged; and as long as it retains its character for virtuous boldness, those rights will be well defended." The idea of the practice of law which makes it a matter of quibbling and petti fogging is a low and perverted one; the highest honor and integrity must mark the calling which deals with the rights and lib erties of the people. The lawyer is the medium through which the law reaches the people and that brings the public and the law into relations with each other. The commission is a sacred one, to be zealously guarded and exercised. Jack Cade in " King Henry VI " proposed to reform England, and cheerfully advocated as the first step that all
the lawyers be killed. Such a state of so ciety would hardly be desirable. Whereever there is liberty, there must be law, and wherever there is law, there must be lawyers. Lawyers are necessary to civil liberty, as civil liberty rests upon law. The lawyer owes a duty to the public which is high and sacred. The license to practise carries with it obligations to society far above those of the layman. By reason of his training and his position he is looked to for guidance and advice and wields an influence for good or evil greater than other men. In the early history of our government, lawyers molded and shaped its destinies; they builded the foundation upon which the superstructure of states rests to-day; they bore the burdens of government, and were the pillars of the young republic. It may well be questioned if the lawyers of to-day, particularly in the large cities, as carefully fulfil their civic obligations as their forefathers. There was a time when the opinion of the upper thou sand American lawyers would sooner or later become the opinion of the American people. This was so because they exercised their full duty in public affairs, regardless of private mterests. The wave of commercial ism has affected the legal profession along with other callings, and now would it be safe to permit the upper thousand American lawyers to dictate the policies of state? Some of the most brilliant minds in the pro fession are in the employ of interests antag onistic to the welfare of the people. Legiti mate combinations of capital are perhaps a necessary incident of advanced civiliza tion, and to these I do not refer, but to the pirates of the business seas that prey on the people, under the guise of corporate char ters, in defiance of laws. Lawful corpora tions are beneficial to a community, but associations conceived in corruption and born in bribery are inimical to the public
