92
The Green Bag
[Hon. john F. Dillon—Continued.]
As I grow older and my experience enlarges my conviction of the infinite superiority of what Bentham with unjust derision styled "judge-made law" over legislative law when dealing with the principles of right and jus tice, constantly increases and strengthens. We have in this country in the decisions of the National and State tribunals the richest mines of judicial wisdom and legal principles as applied to transactions and conditions of modern life that exist in any country in the world. The priceless treasures of these mines are greatly diminished not only to the legal profession but to the people of the nation and states for the want of such a work as this Memorandum proposes. I heartily endorse the spirit, purpose and scheme of this great project. It has all the elements of a patriotic and philanthropic object of the highest national and public importance. Its execution must not be put upon any lower basis than that it intimately concerns the public and general welfare, present and future, on matters of the supremest moment to every man, woman and child in the United States.
And as such I venture earnestly to commend the necessary financing of the foundation for the work to the favorable regard of some one or more of our wealthy, philanthropic and generous fellow-citizens who can thus have at one and the same time the double satisfaction of rendering an inestimable service to their fellow-men and of connecting their own names in perpetuity in the interests of a perpetual body of men and the ever expanding interests of the American Republic and through it of the interests of mankind in the world at large. Hon. John G. Milburn, Member of the New York State Commission on Revision of the Code of Civil and Criminal Procedure and Consolidation of all Statute Law since 1779; the President of the Pan-American Exposition, 1901: I have carefully studied your “Memoran dum in re Corpus juris.” The subject of the Memorandum has often occupied my thoughts, and I have wondered whether in my time there would be such a statement of the entire body
of American law as you and your associates propose. I have never entertained a doubt as to the necessity and vast influence for good in many directions of such a statement, but the difiiculties and obstacles in the way of
it always seemed to me to be insuperable. But the study of your Memorandum has con vinced me that it is perfectly feasible with the aid of an adequate foundation. There should be a logically arranged state ment of existing American law as a whole. Until we have one the Bench and Bar will flounder along in a bewildering mass of con flicting rules and principles emanating from many different judicial sources, state and national, and the great sufferers are the peo ple, because it is their rights and duties which it is the function of the law to define and regulate. . . . I cannot but think that when it is appreciated by the liberal-minded men of our country who are seeking rational avenues for their philanthropy they will pro vide a sufiicient endowment. Hon. Elihu Root, of the New York Bar, United States Senator; formerly Secretary of State:— I have examined very carefully the matter which you sent me in relation to the proposed Corpus juris of American law and I have no doubt whatever that such a work, if done in a manner adequate to the importance of the subject, would be of very great value. . . . With best wishes for the prosperity of your very public-spirited and laudable plans. Hon. Alton B. Parker, former Chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals and Presi dent American
Bar Association,
l906-07:—
A concise, logical and philosophical state ment of the whole body of the Common Law, as applied and developed in each and every one of the many jurisdictions in the United States, is a pressing public necessity. The reasons for it are so admirably stated in "Memorandum in re Corpus juris," by Mr. Lucien Hugh Alexander, that nothing need be added. They are not understood by the public generally, who are so vitally interested, for, if they were, the money necessary would be promptly forthcoming. The Bench who administer the law, the lawyers who seek to advise their clients, and the teachers of the
law who try to equip students for their life work, do appreciate these reaons, however, and therefore they know the public need that this work be at once undertaken and pushed to completion. Their duty is clear. It requires them to contribute, each in his own way, toward the
upbuilding of a public sentiment that will
