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Cornell University Library 
 LD 1386 1893.L41 
 The dedication of Boar dman Hg •<* the 
 
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
 SCHOOL OF LAW 
 
 THE DEDICATION 
 
 BOARDMAN HALL 
 
 AND THE 
 
 PRESENTATION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE MOAK LAW LIBRARY 
 
 PROCEEDINGS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 FEBRUARY 14, 1893 
 
 ITHACA, N. Y. 
 PUBLISHED EOS. THE UNIVERSITY 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013404771 
 
THE SCHOOL OF LAW 
 
 DEDICATION OF BOARDMAN HALL 
 
 AND 
 
 Presentation of the Moak Law Library 
 
 At a meeting of the Trustees, held June 16, 1886, formal 
 action was taken establishing a School of L,aw as a depart- 
 ment of the University. The public were at once advised of 
 the step, and that the School would be in readiness for the ad- 
 mission of students at the opening of the university year in 
 1887. The Faculty was chosen in March, 1887, and consisted 
 of the following members : The Honorable Douglass Board- 
 man, Dean, Harry B. Hutchins, Charles A. Collin, Francis M. 
 Burdick, Moses Coit Tyler and Herbert Tuttle, resident pro- 
 fessors, and the Honorable Francis M. Finch, the Honorable 
 Daniel H. Chamberlain, the Honorable William F. Cogswell 
 and the Honorable Theodore Bacon, special lecturers. At the 
 June meeting of the Trustees, in 1891, Professor Charles E. 
 Hughes was called to the professorship made vacant by the 
 resignation of Professor Burdick, and the resident instructing 
 corps enlarged by the election of Associate Professor William 
 A. Finch. A vacancy in the Deanship, caused by the death 
 
of the Honorable Douglass Boardman was filled in November, 
 1891 , by the election of the Honorable Francis M. Finch. The 
 personnel of the corps of special lecturers has changed some- 
 what from time to time, and at present is as follows : The 
 Honorable Francis M. Finch, of the New York Court of Ap- 
 peals, the Honorable Daniel H. Chamberlain, of the New 
 York City Bar, the Honorable Alfred C. Coxe, of the United 
 States District Court, the Honorable Albert H. Walker, of the 
 Hartford Bar, Professor John Ordronaux, of the New York 
 City Bar, the Honorable Irving G. Vann, of the New York 
 Supreme Court, the Honorable Goodwin Brown, of the Albany 
 Bar and the Honorable Irving Browne, of the Buffalo Bar. 
 
 The School opened September 23, 1887, with an attend- 
 ance of fifty-five students. The subsequent growth has been 
 such as to meet the expectations of the most sanguine. The 
 enrolment of the present year is two hundred and five. 
 
 It was very soon apparent that the accommodations pro- 
 vided for the School in Morrill Hall, would not long be ade- 
 quate, and that a separate building, to be devoted exclusively 
 to its use, would be a necessity. In February, 1891, the Trus- 
 tees made a liberal appropriation for this purpose. The build- 
 ing was soon under way, and although not entirely completed, 
 was sufficiently far advanced to admit of its occupancy at the 
 opening of the present university year. It is a large three 
 story structure, the extreme dimensions being 202 by 58 feet, 
 is built of Cleveland sandstone, and is practically fire-proof. 
 The interior finish is largely in oak. On the first floor are 
 three large lecture-rooms and the necessary halls and cloak- 
 rooms. Seminary rooms and the offices of the several resident 
 professors occupy the second floor, while the third is devoted to 
 library purposes. Here are three large, well lighted and ele- 
 gantly furnished library rooms, which have accommodations 
 
for 30,000 volumes and 300 readers. The building is heated 
 by steam and lighted by electricity, and is thoroughly well 
 ventilated. It is now entirely finished, is complete throughout 
 in all its appointments and furnishings, and is found to be ad- 
 mirably adapted for law-school purposes. The cost of the 
 building with its furnishing was $110,000. 
 
 The Trustees of the University, at a meeting held Sep- 
 tember 14, 1892, unanimously determined that, in view of the 
 long and valuable services of the late Judge Douglass Board- 
 man as a member of their body and of his official connection 
 with the School of I,aw, the new home of the School should 
 be designated as BOARDMAN HAL,!,, and a committee was 
 appointed to secure a suitable memorial tablet to be placed 
 upon the building. 
 
 At the opening of the present university year, the library 
 of the School consisted of about ten thousand volumes. The 
 most of these had been purchased with appropriations made 
 from time to time by the Trustees ; but the collection contained 
 the law library of Judge Boardman, he having generously be- 
 queathed it to the School. In October last, the large and care- 
 fully selected law library of the late Nathaniel C. Moak, of 
 Albany, N. Y., was placed upon the market. It was known 
 to be one of the most complete collections in the country. Its 
 purchase was at once authorized for the use of the School and 
 as a memorial to its first Dean, Judge Douglass Boardman, by 
 his widow Mrs. A. M. Boardman and his daughter, Mrs. Ellen 
 D. Williams. This collection, added to the original one, gives 
 to this School a library of 23,000 volumes, and one which is 
 second to none in the country. 
 
 Tuesday, the fourteenth of February, 1893, was the day 
 fixed for the formal dedication of the new law-school build- 
 ing and for the presentation of the library so generously donated. 
 
Invitations to the exercises had been sent to the State officers, 
 to members of the State Judiciary, to prominent members 
 of the bar and to the graduates of the School, and a large 
 audience gathered to listen to the addresses. The ceremonies 
 began at 3 o'clock P. M., the Hon. Henry W Sage, of the 
 Board of Trustees, presiding. The following was the 
 
 ORDER OF EXERCISES 
 
 Prayer, - By the Rev. Mr. Synnott 
 
 Music, - - The Cornell Glee Club 
 
 Presentation of the Moak L,aw Library, 
 
 By the Honorable Francis M. Finch in behalf 
 of the donors, Mrs. A. M. Boardman and 
 Mrs. Ellen D. Williams 
 
 Acceptance of the Gift, By President Schurman 
 
 Music, - - The Cornell Glee Club 
 
 Address By The Honorable Charles Andrews, 
 
 Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals 
 
 Music, - ' - The Cornell Glee Club 
 
 After the public exercises, Boardman Hall and the Moak 
 library were thrown open to the inspection of the public. 
 
 In the evening a general reception was given by the Eaw 
 Faculty in Boardman Hall, which was largely attended. 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. FRANCIS M. FINCH 
 
 PRESENTING THE 
 
 Moak Law Library to Cornell University 
 
 in behalf of mrs. boardman and 
 
 Mrs. George R. Williams. 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees : 
 
 I have been permitted to perform the duty, which it is a 
 great pleasure to perform, of presenting to the University, for 
 the use of its College of Law, the library of about twelve 
 thousand volumes, collected by the late Nathaniel C. Moak, to 
 be accepted and preserved as a memorial of Judge Douglass 
 Boardman, the first Dean of this department, and as the gift of 
 his widow and his daughter, Mrs. Boardman and Mrs. George 
 R. Williams. 
 
 Even beyond the value of the gift is the grace ot it ; for it 
 came with a cheerful and happy freedom which waited for no 
 one to persuade, and sought only the assurance that the gift 
 was worthy of the purpose from which it sprang. It is hardly 
 possible to overestimate its value. I know of but one or two 
 collections in the land which are as perfect and complete. Be- 
 ginning back in the shadows of the early centuries, when 
 Bracton, whose true name is in dispute, and Fleta, by an author 
 unknown, set growing in the bark and sap of the Saxon 
 branches innumerable grafts from the older Roman law, and 
 with the quaint and curious Year Books, couched in their bar- 
 barous Latin, and primitive Norman- French, the series of 
 English reports comes down without a break to the present 
 day. The concise and careful judgments of Hale, and the 
 crabbed and technical reasoning of Coke ; the grand integrity 
 
of Sir Thomas More, who thought that even Satan might have 
 rights in a court of justice ; the constructive and conscientious 
 genius of Nottingham, aided later by Somers and Cowper, and 
 Hardwicke, who drew largely from the best thought of the 
 Civilians ; the learning of Clarendon and the infamous brutal- 
 ity of Jeffreys ; the solid and marvelous wisdom of Mansfield, 
 who saw his own library burn in an hour of riot and misrule ; 
 the awkward and rude but irresistible logic of Eldon, who 
 boasted that he would rather have law without literature than 
 literature without law, contrasted with the opinions of Camden 
 who had both, and to rare vigor of thought added richness of 
 imagery and felicity of diction ; the smooth and plausible sen- 
 tences of L,oughborough, of whom Junius said with biting 
 sarcasm, — "there is something about him which even treachery 
 cannot trust ;" — the eloquence of Erskine, the impudence of 
 Thurlow, and the wonderful genius of Bacon ; the learning of 
 Deuman, and sarcasm of Brougham, and industry of Campbell, 
 historian of them all ; the early reporters, — Owen, and Noy, 
 and Coke, — with their brief and crude notes of decisions ; the 
 State Trials, beginning in 1 163 with the arraignment of Becket, 
 that Archbishop of Canterbury who ventured to question the 
 religious supremacy of a not over-religious king, and passing 
 on to their tragic and terrible stories of the blood through 
 which liberty and justice waded to the shores of a higher civil- 
 ization ; the Chancery volumes along the line of which one 
 can trace the growing strength and courage with which Equity 
 tempered the severities of the law ; the Colonial reports reflect- 
 ing the thought and tone of the mother land, but coloring all 
 with the new necessities of climate and situation and changes 
 born of Canadian snows, the Australian bush and the customs 
 of many islands ; all these are here, in orderly rank and array, 
 and none are wanting at the call of the muster roll. And with 
 them are massed the reports of that newer and younger life in 
 our own land, gathered from every state in the Union, omitting 
 none,— not one,— so that even the young Montana in the far 
 northwest leaves her mines of silver in the mountains to build 
 up justice in the new court house on their slopes. And the 
 
newer law of the newer land need not blush for its work when 
 to the judicial roll it has added three such names as those of 
 Kent and Marshall and Story. And with all these, which gar- 
 ner up the whole legal knowledge and wisdom of the English 
 speaking race, are commentaries and text-books without num- 
 ber, discussing all phases of jurisprudence and all forms of 
 adjudication ; so that it may be truthfully said of the gift 
 which these ladies make to you to-day, that no authority will 
 ever be cited, no case will ever be referred to, no existing doc- 
 trine will ever be asserted which cannot at once be verified in 
 the library thus added to your treasures. 
 
 And this remarkable collection was the work of one patient 
 and industrious lawyer, the brief story of whose life has lessons 
 for us all. 
 
 Nathaniel C. Moak was born at Sharon in this state in 
 1833. The boy on his father's farm worked in the fields in 
 summer, but studied with an early thirst for knowledge in the 
 district schools through the winters. With the scant earnings 
 of his industry he at last gained a few years of academic prep- 
 aration, and then beginning the study of law was soon after 
 admitted to the bar. Practicing first at Cherry Valley and later 
 at Oneonta, he finally moved to Albany, and built up there a 
 large and lucrative practice which absorbed the most of his 
 life. His great strength and pronounced success lay in his 
 marvellous and unflagging industry. I never knew such a 
 lover of work. Every case he tried, every appeal he argued, 
 manifested the completeness and thoroughness of his study. 
 His preparations for a struggle were as broad and patient, as 
 endless and far-sighted, in their humbler way, as those of the 
 great Field Marshal who led the German armies to the capital 
 of France. Brilliant he was not. Brilliancy I think he de- 
 spised. Brusque and abrupt and even sometimes rough in his 
 speech ; with a voice metallic and resonant and scorning all 
 modulations ; hating what was false and mean with a temper 
 that had some dynamite in it ; with a frame heavy and solid 
 and almost massive in its structure ; a born fighter at the bar 
 and fearless of all adversaries ; one would hardly have picked 
 
IO 
 
 him out as the gentle student, dearly loving his books. And 
 yet that he surely was. How early he began to gather them 
 about him I do not know, but year by year the fruit of his in- 
 dustry and energy, in volume after volume, in choice editions 
 and rare selections, crept along the shelves of his office and 
 those of his library at home until his partners and his wife en- 
 vied him the room which his favorites absorbed. And this 
 busy man put his chief fortune not into law books alone. 
 Thousands of volumes of history and biography, of science and 
 philosophy, of fiction and poetry, of the drama and of art, 
 were steadily amassed, and as steadily read and studied. And 
 with use of it all he began the work of author and annotator, 
 and wore his life out in the labor he loved. His books were 
 his friends. There are none more faithful and true, and he 
 loved them dearly and guarded them well. I missed him at 
 last from the bar before me, and learned that the end had come ; 
 and soon after stood among his books with some of his own 
 love for them, with a longing that seemed doomed never to get 
 beyond longing, and turned away hopeless and dismayed, when 
 there flashed along the wire a message from these two ladies, 
 whose servant to-day I am, authorizing an immediate purchase 
 for the use of this School of Law and as a memorial of its first 
 Dean, Judge Douglass Boardman. 
 
 I have spoken of him before. It is fitting that I speak of 
 him again. Though he took but a moderate part in the rou- 
 tine of instruction, what he did was like all that he did, thor- 
 ough and accurate and sound ; and beyond that his interest 
 in the work and prosperity of the school was unsleeping and 
 untiring. I am not permitted to say how often in his quiet 
 and reticent way he bore burdens for which his resources were 
 insufficient, nor how well I know that in that far land where 
 he awaits us in our turn, he looks down upon this day's work 
 with pleased approval. A sound and solid lawyer, a patient 
 and impartial and thoroughly upright judge, careful and wise 
 in all the business of life, a truthful and faithful friend, with 
 courage if need be to warn or reprove, steadfast and firm and 
 far-sighted in the councils of the University, modest to a fault 
 
and always underrating an ability which never failed or bent 
 under any responsibility, he left us when it was hard to spare 
 his useful and generous service, but comes back to us in those 
 whom he left behind, and who have taken up his work in love 
 and respect for his memory. 
 
 If I knew of some unperishing amber, pure enough and 
 fragrant enough and transparent enough to enclose their names 
 beyond the dust and destruction of Time, I should hang it 
 among these books to keep the remembrance forever. I think 
 I have found it ; am sure I have found it, in the memories of 
 the young for whom this Library is designed, in their grati- 
 tude born of its daily use, in the lessons they will learn, in the 
 good they will gather, in the growth they will attain, in the 
 work they will do, in the victories they will win. 
 
 And so, with thankfulness and gratitude to the givers, I 
 make to you the formal gift which they permit me thus to com- 
 plete. I give you the title to the library, the manuscript cat- 
 alogue of its collector, and the key which unlocks it for its in- 
 tended use. May it please you, Mr. President, to accept the 
 gift. 
 
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT SCHURMAN 
 
 Accepting the Gift of the Moak Library. 
 
 It gives me great pleasure to accept on behalf of the Uni- 
 versity the noble library which in the name of the donors Judge 
 Finch has just formally presented for the use of the School of 
 Law. Speaking only from the point of view of the University 
 and without invading the personal sphere of friendship or of 
 social ties, I recognize the special appropriateness of Judge 
 Finch being the spokesman on this gratifying occasion. I do 
 not allude to the fact that he was the friend of the founder and 
 co-operated with him in the establishment of this University 
 with a heartiness, a devotion, and a degree of efficiency which 
 have placed his name high in the roll of our best friends. I 
 have in mind rather his appearance at the opening of the Uni- 
 versity on that autumn day of 1868. For the representative of 
 our latest benefactors was also the representative of that 
 gracious lady who, at the nativity of the institution, offered 
 the first gift. The undying fragrance of the memory of Jen- 
 nie McGraw comes to me now like a sweet incense attemper- 
 ing us to the present celebration. 
 
 Once more the heart of woman has felt the needs of the 
 University and the hand of woman has made provision for 
 them. The benefaction comes at a most opportune moment. 
 It follows close upon the completion of the new building which 
 the prosperity of the School of Uaw has made necessary, 
 and which to-day we formally dedicate. In the interval how- 
 ever, there was time for one important occurrence. The trus- 
 tees, mindful of the devoted and valuable services which, both 
 as a trustee and as Dean of the School of Uaw, the late Judge 
 Boardman had rendered to the University, had resolved by a 
 
13 
 
 unanimous vote that the new home of the school should be desig- 
 nated BOARDMAN HAIX. [great applause'] This designa- 
 tion is now for the first time officially announced ; and the satis- 
 faction you express shows that the trustees in fixing the name, 
 merely anticipated the desire of all the members of the L,aw 
 School and indeed of the University. But how much our pleas- 
 ure has been heightened by the subsequent action of Judge 
 Boardman's heirs ! Not long after they had been notified of the 
 designation of the new building, it was announced that the 
 unique library of the distinguished jurist, whom the bar of New 
 York had j ust lost, was to be put upon the market. With a spon- 
 taneity born of deep affection and of ready insight and with a 
 promptitude that outran all competitors the library was pur- 
 chased, and presented to the University, almost before the trus- 
 tees of the University had heard of its existence, through the 
 bounty of Mrs. Boardman and her daughter, Mrs. George R. 
 Williams. For their munificent and most timely gift I desire 
 to extend to them the sincere and grateful acknowledgments of 
 the University, — and not only of its present members, but of 
 the innumerable throng of students whose minds this gift will 
 train and nourish in all the coming generations. 
 
 And yet the best way of showing our gratitude is to 
 accomplish the end designed by the gracious ladies who have 
 made this benefaction. Nor is there any doubt in regard to the 
 character of their aim. In the letter to me, announcing the 
 gift, Mr. George R. Williams stated that the object was "to 
 make good lawyers of noble men.''' By these books all who 
 use them are consecrated to high aims in life and excellency in 
 their profession. I^aw is the embodiment of the practical wis- 
 dom and conscience of mankind. L,et no man profane this 
 noble collection of legal works who thinks meanly of human 
 life or of the institutions of justice by which society is regu- 
 lated. On the other hand this library stands open to all good 
 men and true who see in the law a subject of serious study. 
 
 And what a library it is ! A monument to the erudition 
 and devotion, the patient purpose and the wise prodigality of 
 the distinguished jurist who formed it, the Moak collection, 
 
H 
 
 with its splendid wealth of reports, statutes, periodicals, and 
 text-books, not only doubles the number of volumes on our 
 shelves, but makes the Cornell Law Library one of the fullest 
 and most complete in the world. A competent expert, who 
 watched and even aided Mr. Moak in collecting his books, and 
 who knows thoroughly what they are, is authority for the 
 assertion ' 'That there is no case cited by a lawyer in his brief 
 or by a judge in his opinion, in any court of Great Britain 
 or America, which cannot be verified in the Moak library." 
 
 This noble gift will make the work of the Law School more 
 effective than ever. 
 
 There are many reasons why this School must be among 
 the foremost in the country. An organic part of this great Uni- 
 versity which is situated in the centre of the state of New 
 York ; away from the distractions of courts and offices, which 
 are a positive hindrance during the period of study ; in charge 
 of a strong faculty whose aim is to teach the principles of law 
 and how to apply them — and that by a method which careless 
 of the name of any man or of any school is careful only to be 
 pedagogically sound, — it is no wonder that the attendance has 
 grown during the five years of its existence from fifty-five to 
 two hundred students, nor is it a matter of doubt that with 
 our greatly improved facilities the numbers will increase still 
 more rapidly in the future. I think it entirely within the 
 mark to say that we are likely to have 500 students of law 
 before the close of the century. But Boardman Hall, which 
 we now formally dedicate, will accommodate them ; and the 
 Moak library, which we now formally accept, will serve to 
 instruct them — them and their successors, so long as the build- 
 ing and the books endure. For this present consummation 
 and for that greater future, I voice our thanks to all who have 
 contributed to their coming, but most of all, as is fitting, to the 
 gracious ladies who have inspired the proceedings of this day, 
 the generous benefactors whose deed the University will 
 hold in enduring remembrance and whose names we now hail 
 with grateful approbation — -Mrs. Boardman and Mrs. George 
 R. Williams. 
 
ADDRESS OF HON. CHARLES ANDREWS. 
 
 Influence of America on Jurisprudence. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Getitlemen : 
 
 This is a notable occasion in the life of this University. 
 The dedication of the new law building and its large library to 
 the Science of Jurisprudence, that department of human learn- 
 ing, the history of which is the history of civilization itself, 
 which connects itself more nearly than any other with pervad- 
 ing human interests, in that it relates to the security and pres- 
 ervation of those civil, political and personal rights most dear 
 to every individual in the community, which marks in its grad- 
 ual advance the progress of society, which has its basis in the 
 laws and institutions which regulate the relations of the State to 
 the citizen and of citizens to each other, and the mutual rights 
 and obligations of independent nations, the dedication of such a 
 foundation to the study of this important, practical and deeply 
 interesting science justly attracts the interest of intelligent 
 people and marks a step by Cornell University towards the 
 realization of the purpose of its wise founder to "found an 
 institution where any person can find instruction in any 
 study." I have read very recently the report of a Com- 
 mittee of the Board of Trustees, made to that body in June, 
 1886, recommending the establishment of a Law Department. 
 It sets forth in detail the reasons which in the opinion of the. 
 Committee justified the establishment of a law school in this 
 section of the state. What struck me most forcibly, in view 
 of the present, was the evident anxiety manifested as to the 
 ways and means by which the new department could be carried 
 along during its early years, which it was assumed would be 
 years of struggle to meet the necessary conditions of its exist- 
 ence, and during which it was thought it could expect little in- 
 
1 6 
 
 come and would be a drain upon the resources of the University. 
 It was suggested that some unused rooms in one of the ex- 
 isting buildings could be adapted for lectures, and some rooms 
 then occupied as dormitories could be fitted over for the "King 
 Library," as it was called, small, but adequate as the Com- 
 mittee thought, and as to the financial problem the Committee 
 expressed the hope that by the tuition fees, supplemented by a 
 comparatively small appropriation from the University funds, 
 the department could maintain its existence. The magnificent 
 result of this tentative movement attests the wisdom and fore- 
 sight of its projectors and is another illustration that a broad 
 and courageous policy, looking towards the completeness of the 
 University system, is quite sure to be justified in the interest it 
 creates and the material support it gathers in directions which 
 may not have been anticipated. This building with its large, 
 complete and valuable library, the gift of tender and thought- 
 ful affection, the crowded class room and the constantly grow- 
 ing interest in this department of University work, is an am- 
 ple vindication of the project of 1886. 
 
 The laws and jurisprudence of a state reflect with great 
 distinctness the moral, social and economical condition of the 
 people, and is one of the most fruitful aids in historical inves- 
 tigation. They form the most material and instructive portions 
 of its history. The law, and the science which treats of it are 
 indissolubly connected, in every government based upon 
 written and unwritten rules prescribing the power of the 
 state and the duties, obligations and rights of its citizens, in 
 short where, as expressed in the noble language of the pre- 
 amble to the Constitution of Massachusetts, the government is 
 "one of laws, and not of men." The law is the formulated 
 rule, supplemented by the rules regulating civil obligations, 
 recognized by common consent or general usage, having the 
 force of written law. It is the ligament which binds society 
 together. It is traced in the first attempts at organized soci- 
 ety. Without it there could be no social order, 110 adjustment of 
 relative or personal rights according to a fixed standard, no se- 
 curity for family or property, no opportunity for the develop- 
 
17 
 
 ment of the graces and courtesies of life, no progress towards 
 higher ideals in the social, intellectual and moral conditions of 
 the race. Liberty regulated and restrained by law is the great 
 acquisition of the later centuries, and the most notable and hope- 
 ful fact in modern civilization. The general rule that the laws 
 and jurisprudence of a people are an index to their character 
 and spirit, is more especially true in states where the people are 
 closely connected with the framing of their institutions and 
 the making of the laws by which they are governed. In 
 these, their natural tendencies and the spirit which animates 
 them, the value they place on civil and political rights, and 
 their moral and mental characteristics are most distinctly re- 
 flected. They take shape and color from the character of the 
 people and the influences and motives which impelled and 
 guided their action. When you become acquainted with the 
 institutions and laws of such a people, you know the value they 
 put upon human rights, the sacrifices they were willing to incur 
 to secure them, and how far in framing them they compre- 
 hended those principles of immutable justice which are the only 
 true basis of government. 
 
 The history of the origin and development of the institu- 
 tions, laws and jurisprudence of the United States, forms one 
 of the most important chapters of human history. The cognate 
 question as to the influence of America upon jurisprudence, 
 and as to how far and in what directions it has influenced the 
 laws and jurisprudence of other nations, and whether this in- 
 fluence is to broaden and to become more potential with the 
 advance of America in learning, wealth, commerce and popu- 
 lation, opens a most interesting field of inquiry. To some of 
 the phases in our legal and judicial history I shall briefly allude. 
 
 The men who framed the Constitution of the United States 
 were for the most part lawyers. They were not unacquainted 
 with the history of governments, and were familiar with the 
 struggles of peoples against the arbitrary power of rulers, and 
 they knew the necessity of establishing the fundamental 
 principles of liberty in the framework of the state. They 
 had asserted on the occasion of the final rupture with Great 
 
i8 
 
 Britain the right of a people in extremity to overthrow a gov- 
 ernment which failed to protect them, "and to institute a 
 new government, laying its foundations on such principles and 
 organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most 
 likely to secure their safety and happiness." They were the 
 men who had guided the colonies through the stormy period 
 which preceded the revolution. The discussions and conflicts 
 of that time had made the people familiar with questions per- 
 taining to the rightful functions of civil government, and had 
 hardened into fixed determination, the purpose, that arbitrary 
 power should no longer dispose of their lives and liberties. It 
 is but simple justice to say that the lawyers of the ante-revolu- 
 tionary period were the leaders of the people in the assertion 
 of the rights of the colonies against English pretensions to 
 govern them by parliament without representation, or to make 
 fundamental rights depend upon the caprice or will of the 
 sovereign. They constituted the learned and influential class. 
 They inspired the popular movement. They put in words the 
 discontent which pervaded the public mind. That series of 
 addresses and protests to the English government, which ex- 
 torted the admiration of English statesmen, was their work, 
 and when the actual conflict came, they left their offices and 
 homes, and shared the perils of the camp and of the field. It 
 was a work inspired by the loftiest patriotism and worthy of 
 the noblest ambition. It was nothing less than the work of 
 creating a state and laying the foundations of government for 
 a hemisphere. The influence of lawyers as a rule, has in all 
 governments been on the side of progress and civil liberty. 
 They have usually been obstacles to tyranny and oppression. 
 They created that written system of law, which regulated pub- 
 lic and private rights on the continent of Europe from the time 
 of Justinian, and the Code, the Pandects and the Institutes 
 are their imperishable monuments. Both the bench and the 
 bar share in the just claim that the influence of lawyers as a 
 class, has been on the side of human liberty, against arbitrary 
 power. There have been many exceptions. Meanness, ser- 
 vility and self-seeking are confined exclusively to no class, and 
 
19 
 
 in each they have their representatives. But the atmos- 
 phere which surrounds lawyers, the nature of their studies and 
 their constant dealing with human rights and interests, in view 
 of the demands of abstract justice, has an elevating influence. 
 It tends to make lawyers sensitive to infractions of personal 
 liberty and to make judges independent and just. The con- 
 trast is striking between the servility of Coke, as attorney 
 general, and his fearlessness and independence as a judge. As 
 law officer of the Crown, he lent himself and the influence of 
 his office to aid the King in his arbitrary measures ; as judge, 
 he resisted the abuse of prerogative and finally was dismissed 
 for his uncompromising assertion of the rights of the people 
 against tyrannical and arbitrary invasion. 
 
 The Convention which framed the Constitution of the 
 United States had the problem before it of adjusting existing 
 conditions to the necessity of a stronger national and central 
 authority. The autonomy of the States was to be preserved, 
 but there could be no nation without a national authority which 
 should be supreme within the sphere of its operations, and to 
 constitute such authority it was essential that powers affecting 
 the common, general and external interests of all the States, 
 should be vested in the general government. How this was 
 accomplished, and how the jealousies of the states were allayed 
 and a final conclusion reached by the convention, is familiar to 
 every student of our history. It was assumed that in framing 
 the national system the powers of the government should be 
 divided into separate, independent, departments. This was 
 necessary to its preservation and stability. The members of 
 the convention understood the importance of this principle. It 
 had been pointed out by Montesquieu : ' 'When (he says) the 
 legislative and executive powers are united in the same person 
 or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty ; 
 because apprehensions may arise lest the same monarch or sen- 
 ate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical 
 manner. Again, there is no liberty if the judiciary power be 
 not separated from the legislative and executive. Were it 
 joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject 
 
20 
 
 would be exposed to arbitrary control ; for the judge would 
 then be the legislator. Were it joined to the executive power 
 the judge might behave with violence and oppression. ' ' This 
 threefold division in the English system they knew and 
 appreciated. The convention therefore by the Constitution 
 vested the powers of government in three departments, Legis- 
 lative, Executive and Judicial, according to the English model. 
 The establishment of the judicial department was provided 
 for in the third article and in very brief terms : "the judicial 
 power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme 
 Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from 
 time to time ordain and establish." It was provided that the 
 tenure of the judges should continue during good behavior, and 
 that their compensation should not be diminished during their 
 continuance in office. The third section of this article defined 
 the cases to which the judicial power should extend. Among 
 others and foremost in the enumeration were "all cases in 
 law and equity arising under the Constitution, the laws of the 
 United States and treaties made or which shall be made under 
 their authority, ' ' and afterwards was another specification of 
 "controversies between two or more states." The powers con- 
 ferred upon the Supreme Court of the United States under these 
 two specifications, have made it a most powerful factor in the 
 development of the Constitution, and the most august and dig- 
 nified judicial tribunal in the civilized world. It is very doubt- 
 ful if the scope of the power conferred on the Supreme Court 
 by the first specification in the section had been fully appreciated 
 and understood at the time, the Constitution would even 
 have been adopted, and yet scarcely any provision in that in- 
 strument was more vital to the success of the new scheme of 
 government. The United States Constitution was the first ex- 
 periment on a large scale in the history of governments, to 
 establish and define by an organic written law the scope and 
 limitations of sovereign power, and to bound by prescribed lines 
 legislative, executive and j udicial functions. It declared that 
 that instrument, and the laws of the United States which shall 
 be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or which 
 
21 
 
 shall be made under the authority of the United States, shall 
 be the supreme law of the land. In England parliament is the 
 supreme and dominant power and the uncontrollable. authority 
 in legislation. The laws enacted by parliament are subject to 
 no revision, and the only security for private rights against 
 oppressive legislation, rests in the wisdom of that body and its 
 recognition of the principles of personal liberty, which have 
 come after many embittered contests to be regarded as the birth- 
 rights of Englishmen. The judiciary of England can not set 
 aside or disregard an act of parliament, however much it may 
 seem to conflict with natural justice or constitutional principles. 
 
 In the great case of Marbury v. Madison, which came be- 
 fore the Supreme Court of the United States in 1803, that court 
 made the first authoritative announcement of the principle which 
 has now become one of the fundamental doctrines in Ameri- 
 can Constitutional law, that the court has the right and power 
 and that it is its duty whenever the matter comes judicially in 
 question, to declare null and void an act of Congress in viola- 
 tion of the Constitution. Chief Justice Marshall in a calm, 
 luminous and powerful opinion, set forth the grounds of this 
 conclusion, basing it on the grant of judicial power to which 
 we have referred, and upon the declaration in the Constitution 
 itself, making it Supreme law. It was a startling assertion of 
 judicial power, transcending any which had ever been exercised 
 by the judiciary of any government outside of the United 
 States. In its possible scope it subjected every act of Congress 
 to the scrutiny of the court and to its practical annulment 
 whenever invoked by a party to a judicial proceeding and re- 
 lied upon to sustain a claim or a defense. 
 
 It is scarcely too much to say that if the court had faltered 
 here, the work of the convention would have failed. There 
 would have been no check on unconstitutional legislation. Con- 
 gress, influenced by the violence of faction or party spirit, or 
 by the sway of passion or predjudice, would have usurped 
 from time to time the power reserved to the states, and 
 overstepped the limitations of the Constitution, and the states 
 denuded of their rightful powers, would have resisted the 
 
22 
 
 usurpation, and anarchy would have resulted. All history 
 attests the fact that unrestrained power will be abused. For a 
 time Congress would have been influenced by a regard for the 
 Constitution, but the sentiment would have weakened with the 
 lapse of time and the line between permitted and excluded powers 
 would have been effaced. The real security against unconsti- 
 tutional legislation is found, not in the limitations of the Con- 
 stitution, but in the fact of the existence of an independent 
 body clothed with the function of measuring the validity of 
 legislation by the test of the Constitution. 
 
 Another great constitutional question came before the court 
 in the case of Fletcher v. Peck, decided in 1810, in which the 
 court declared the principle that state laws repugnant to the 
 Federal Constitution were void. This principle was comple- 
 mentary to that decided in Marbury v. Madison. Together 
 they established the supremacy of the Federal Constitution and 
 the invalidity of legislation, whether by Congress or by the 
 states, which transcended the limitations or violated the rights 
 secured by that instrument. The court, while it asserted with 
 dignity and firmness, its prerogative as the guardian of the 
 Constitution, with great wisdom declined to entertain jurisdic- 
 tion to control or interfere with the other departments of the 
 government, in matters exclusively of a political, executive or 
 legislative character. At the same time, it carefully upheld and 
 vindicated the sovereignty of the states and their exclusive 
 right to interpret and enforce their own constitutions and laws, 
 where the}- did not involve any conflict with the Constitution 
 of the United States. It was very fortunate that in the early 
 period of the court there was no pressure of business to prevent 
 the most complete argument and consideration of the great 
 questions of Constitutional law which came before it. The 
 thirty-four years during which Chief Justice Marshall presided, 
 were those in which the character of the Constitution was in- 
 delibly fixed by the interpretation of the court. The opinions 
 of that great magistrate during this period did more, I think, 
 to cement and perfect the union of the states and make the 
 United States a nation, than all other causes combined. Pos- 
 
23 
 
 sessing an intellect remarkable for the amplitude of its grasp ; 
 an almost intuitive knowledge of the spirit of the Constitution ; 
 a power of comprehending the conditions upon which the 
 Union could alone be perpetuated ; these, united with a lofty- 
 character and the purest patriotism, and the faculty of clear 
 and powerful statement, eminently fitted him to become the 
 interpreter of that instrument. I suppose that less than thirty 
 opinions embody the substantial work of Chief Justice Marshall 
 upon questions of Constitutional law. But they cover the 
 whole range of topics. Upon these few opinions rest the repu- 
 tation of this great judge and his enduring fame. It was under 
 his guidance that the court became what has been aptly termed 
 the "living voice of the Constitution," and to him more than 
 any one else it is due that the Constitution seems likely to work 
 out the design of its framers, as expressed in the striking 
 aphorism of Chief Justice Chase, "to create an indestructible 
 union of indestructible states. ' ' The same principle of the su- 
 premacy of the Constitution over the laws, enforced by the 
 Supreme Court of the United States with reference to the Fed- 
 eral Constitution, has been applied by the state courts with 
 reference- to the state constitutions, and no one now questions 
 the soundness of the principle, although when first announced 
 it met with strong opposition. 
 
 It has been said that the growth and authority of the ju- 
 diciary of the states and of the United States, is one of the 
 remarkable features of the American system of government. 
 It is not difficult I think to trace the cause. It is owing in a 
 great degree to the fact that the judiciary is clothed with a power 
 unknown in other countries, the power to set aside and dis- 
 regard acts of the legislative body transcending the limitations 
 of the constitution, when interposed to affect private rights. 
 The people have come to regard the courts as the final 
 custodian of their liberties. In no other land do the mass of 
 citizens so well understand in what political and civil liberty 
 consists, or what their infractions by power portends. These 
 great themes are discussed not only* at the bar, but in the 
 market place, in public assemblies and at the fireside. They 
 
24 
 
 have come to understand the dangers which attend legislation 
 and the importance of the judiciary as a check upon legislative 
 usurpation, and they look to the courts as the final arbiter and 
 judge, and hitherto their confidence has not been betrayed. 
 A potent element also in the growth of the influence of the 
 Federal judiciary, and which invests it with an unexam- 
 pled dignity, is to be found in the second specification of its 
 powers, to which we have referred, the power to implead sov- 
 ereign states at its bar to adjust disputes which in other 
 countries have been the occasion of bloody and devas- 
 tating wars. Under this power the court has on several oc- 
 casions settled questions of boundaries and territorial jurisdic- 
 tion, and its decisions, incapable of enforcement except by their 
 moral power, have been accepted by the interested states as 
 authoritative and final. If the time shall ever come when the 
 nations of the earth shall by common consent come to adopt 
 the principle of arbitration in the settlement of international 
 differences, it will be owing, I am sure, in no small measure to 
 the example set by the Constitution of the United States. 
 Civilization has achieved no greater triumph in this century 
 than it witnessed when the two great nations of the English 
 speaking race determined in this way one of the most irritating 
 controversies which could arise "to disturb the peace of nations. 
 The influence of New York upon American jurisprudence 
 has been most potential. The spirit of free institutions pervad- 
 ed the legislation of New York during the colonial period to a 
 greater extent I think than in any of the colonies. The insti- 
 tutions of Holland were, during the Dutch occupation, the ex- 
 ample upon which the customs and laws of the colony were 
 founded, and it cannot be denied that they were permeated with 
 the free spirit of personal and political liberty. A recent writer 
 whose brilliant work is a credit to our literature, finds in the 
 laws and institutions of Holland the germs of all which, as 
 now understood, constitutes civil liberty. He perhaps may 
 overstate the case and fail to adequately recognize the influence 
 of England in the development of free institutions through 
 the constant struggle which from the time of Magna Charta 
 
25 
 
 was maintained between the people and the crown. But it is 
 unquestionably true that the Dutch laws greatly influenced the 
 spirit of the legislation of New York after the surrender of 
 1664, and during its subsequent colonial history. The princi- 
 ple of religious toleration was recognized to a greater extent 
 than in any other colony with perhaps a single exception. The 
 right of a people to a voice in the making of the laws, was 
 asserted and generally maintained. The convention which 
 framed the first constitution of the state formulated the prin- 
 ciples of free government, and among other things it declared 
 in memorable phrase, which has been preserved in the subse- 
 quent constitutions of the state, the principle of religious free- 
 dom : ' 'This convention doth further, in the name and by the 
 authority of the good people of this state, ordain, determine 
 and declare that the free exercise and enjoyment of religious 
 profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, 
 shall forever hereafter be allowed within this state, to all 
 mankind. ' ' 
 
 The constitution of 1777 did not create a Supreme Court, 
 but assumed its existence. The judges who exercised the 
 judicial office under the state government during the first half 
 century of its existence, and who shaped its jurisprudence dur- 
 ing that period, were men of distinguished character and abil- 
 ity. Among them is a venerable name, whose fame as a jurist 
 is known throughout the civilized world. The importance of 
 New York, its large and rapidly growing population, its com- 
 mercial supremacy and increasing wealth, contributed to give 
 the state great prominence, and the decisions of its courts of 
 law and equity, were to a large extent followed as precedents 
 by the courts in the other, and especially in the newer states. 
 It is not I think too much to say that the influence of New 
 York upon the jurisprudence of America has far exceeded that 
 of any other state in the Union. 
 
 Not less marked has been its influence in moulding the 
 legislation of other states. This has been largely due to the 
 great work of constructive legislation known as the Revised 
 Statutes of 1830, which is the most important and successful 
 
26 
 
 undertaking in codification ever accomplished in this country 
 or England. The revision was an attempt to arrange into one 
 systematic body, the statutor3' law of the state, found in a 
 multitude of statutes, enacted from time to time during a 
 period of fifty years, regulating public and private rights, the 
 relations of government to citizens and of citizens to the state 
 and to each other. There was a further and most important 
 purpose : to prescribe the nature and limitations of estates in 
 land, and to abrogate the confused and complex rules of the com- 
 mon law of real property, unsuited to our condition, and to sim- 
 plify the procedure and practice by which rights should be ascer- 
 tained and adjusted. It was a work of great difficulty and deli- 
 cacy. The statutes were full of inaccuracies and inconsistencies, 
 and were simplified and rewritten. How to accomplish the radi- 
 cal changes proposed in the rules relating to land, without invad- 
 ing any essential right of property was a difficult problem. 
 The state was most fortunate in the character of the men to 
 whom the work of the revision was intrusted. They brought 
 to the discharge of their duties trained abilities, great learning 
 and industry, and while they had the conservatism which be- 
 longs to their profession, they had at the same time an intelli- 
 gent comprehension of the state of the existing law and the 
 changes required. They knew that while technical rules, 
 sometimes operate to preserve the substance of justice, that 
 more frequently they are used to delay or defeat it. They lim- 
 ited the changes proposed to the strict purpose of a Code, the 
 amendment of the law in respect of those things in which it had 
 been found that amendment was needed. They did not under- 
 take to formulate in the revision the rules of the unwritten law. 
 It is a somewhat cynical remark of Gibbon, referring to 
 the edict of Justinian forbidding any commentary or glossary 
 upon the Pandects or the Code, that ' 'it is usually the first care 
 of a reformer to prevent any further reformation." The re- 
 visers left the law as they found it, only interposing to remedy 
 acknowledged defects. They left untouched the great domain 
 of the unwritten law, and its development and improvement to 
 the processes of gradual growth and adaptation by circum- 
 
2 7 
 
 stances, to which it owed its origin. I consider the work of 
 the revision entitled to rank among the great achievements of 
 the human intellect in legal science. Whether you regard the 
 manner of its execution, the completeness and accuracy of its 
 definitions, the methods devised for bringing the rules of prop- 
 erty into harmony with existing conditions, without disturbing 
 established rights, and disengaging them from the subtleties 
 and complexities in which they were involved by the devices 
 adopted by the English judges in the effort to free property 
 from the fetters of feudal tenures, the revision stands in its 
 spirit and substance among the great Codes in the history of the 
 world. The Revised Statutes became the model upon which a 
 large number of states framed their system of statutory law, 
 and the laws governing property and personal rights in the 
 other States in the Union have been largely influenced by the 
 laws of New York as contained in the revision. 
 
 The reference made to the influence exerted by the state 
 of New York upon jurisprudence, would be quite incomplete 
 unless notice is taken of the system of revised procedure now 
 prevailing in most of the states of the Union, and to a consid- 
 erable extent in England, which originated in this state, and 
 was the immediate outcome of the changes in the judicial sys- 
 tem of the state made by the constitution of 1846. The abro- 
 gation of the separate jurisdictions of law and equity by that 
 constitution, and the provision for the appointment of Commis- 
 sioners to revise, reform, simplify and abridge the rules of 
 practice, pleadings, forms and proceedings of courts of record, 
 opened the way for the most important and radical change in 
 the procedure of courts known in the history of the law. The 
 Code of Procedure of 1848, swept away the whole system of 
 special pleading, with its complicated and technical forms and 
 the practice based thereon, and undertook to reduce pleadings 
 in actions to a plain assertion on the one side of the right 
 claimed, and on the other of the defence. It is not my purpose 
 to enter into any comparison of the two systems. I may say 
 without undertaking at this time to justify my opinion, that on 
 the whole a most beneficial change in the interest of justice, 
 
28 
 
 was wrought by the substitution of the new procedure. My 
 present purpose is to call attention to the wide influence which 
 the example of New York has had in other jurisdictions. 
 The Code of 1848 has been adopted as the basis of similar 
 Codes in a majority of the states of the Union, and of the 
 reforms in the law of procedure in England under the English 
 Judicature Act of 1873, and other English statutes of earlier 
 date. It is but just to say that to a distinguished member of 
 the bar of New York, one of a distinguished family, is mainly 
 due the conception and final adoption by this state of the new 
 system of procedure. It is permitted to but few men to make 
 as permanent a mark upon the jurisprudence of their time, as 
 has been made by the author of the Code of 1848. 
 
 With us the substance of civil liberty is endangered in two 
 directions. The intense struggle in American society for the 
 accumulation of wealth is encouraged by favorable conditions, 
 unknown to any similar extent in any other country, and stim- 
 ulated by the irrepressible energy of our people. Material 
 progress is the absorbing aim which dominates individual life. 
 We point with pardonable pride to our growing influence as a 
 nation and the advancement of our people in these material 
 conditions upon which the prosperity of a state is doubtless 
 largely dependent. The struggle of modern life to obtain the 
 mastery of the forces of nature and subordinate them to the 
 uses of man, has been developed here as nowhere else. Our 
 railroads span the continent. The voice of a friend in New 
 York may be heard in San Francisco as though speaking face to 
 face. Business interests of immense magnitude in every de- 
 partment of industry have been developed, commanding practi- 
 cally unlimited capital for their prosecution. Wealth has 
 largely accumulated and is seeking by consolidation to control 
 every department of industry, the tendency of which is to 
 divide the people into two classes — the employers and the em- 
 ployed and to perpetuate this division. It would be indeed 
 unfortunate if the process should continue so far that this ten- 
 dency should become fixed in the social condition of America. 
 The best security for the permanence of this government is 
 
2 9 
 
 that condition of social order which shall encourage the freest 
 play of individual activity and offer the best opportunities for 
 honorable and remunerative industry. Strike out the great 
 class of happy and contented citizens, able to earn an honest 
 and honorable living by their labor, with a reasonable prospect 
 by industry and frugality, of becoming in time the possessors 
 of a competence, and you remove one of the great securities of 
 the Republic. It is a problem of constantly growing import- 
 ance, how far the concentration of business in the hands of 
 corporations should be left without restraint, and whether the 
 tendency to absorb the business of any one department of in- 
 dustry into a single corporation, and placing it under a single 
 control, creating a practical monopoly, should be permitted to 
 go on unchecked by legislation. The largest freedom of ac- 
 tion and of contract consistent with the public safety, is of 
 the essence of civil liberty, but social and economic conditions 
 which repress individual liberty and take away the stimulus 
 and opportunity from the mass of citizens to better their condi 
 tion, may justify legislative action, and such legislation may 
 not be inconsistent with sound principles of government. 
 
 The other danger lies in a directly opposite direction. It 
 is, that organized disorder, may receive such encouragement as 
 to imperil the integrity of civil liberty. Every student of 
 American constitutional history will remember the opposition 
 made in some of the states, especially in Virginia, to the adop- 
 tion of the Constitution, because it omitted a bill of rights, and 
 that it was only because a speedy amendment was expected 
 that their assent was obtained. It is a curious fact in the his- 
 tory of the evolution of opinion, that the bill of rights was 
 then insisted upon as a protection to the people against the 
 danger of executive or legislative usurpation. But now that 
 declaration in the Constitution of fundamental principles is re- 
 garded of more importance as a check upon the inconsiderate 
 and unconstitutional demands of the people themselves. It 
 was forcibly and justly urged when the adoption of the Consti- 
 tution was under debate, that it was of great importance that 
 the fundamental rights of persons and property, the recognition 
 
3° 
 
 of which by governments has been one of the slow but rich 
 conquests of civilization, should be set forth and declared in 
 the organic law, as the unchangeable heritage of the citizen, 
 in order that those exercising public powers might be constant- 
 ly reminded of their existence and have no pretext for their 
 violation. 
 
 In my judgment America has rendered no more important 
 service to the cause of civil liberty through the world, than has 
 resulted from its system of written constitutions, fixing and 
 declaring on the one hand the powers of government, and on 
 the other the inalienable rights of citizens. It has tended to 
 draw the attention of people everywhere to the fact that unde- 
 fined or arbitrary power is inconsistent with civil liberty, and 
 that the paramount interest of society lies in the maintenance 
 and preservation of individual freedom, restrained only so far 
 as is necessary for the maintenance of public order, or to en- 
 force a due regard for common and mutual rights. We have 
 passed the period of permanent danger from usurped authority 
 by the legislative or executive branches of the government. 
 But are the fundamental rights of persons and property there- 
 by permanently secured ? Are there no dangers to the body 
 politic from the play of the interests and the passions of the 
 large body of the people, invested with the suffrage, who with- 
 out property themselves, look upon the possessor of property 
 as an enemy of society, and who demand as a natural right a 
 share in the accumulations of others ? Is there no danger from 
 these combinations which seek by organization to control that 
 healthful liberty of action which is the substance of personal 
 freedom, that liberty, through the operation of which this 
 country has become above all others distinguished as the home 
 of a prosperous people, large numbers of whom have by thrift 
 and industry raised themselves from penury and dependence 
 to a position of comfort and influence. 
 
 This is not the place to enter into a discussion of the social 
 problems which are pressing upon the attention of thoughtful 
 men. I only refer to the spirit of socialism and communism, 
 which is so rife in many quarters, to say that our system of 
 
3i 
 
 written constitutions is one of the great safeguards against the 
 dangerous growth of these elements in our social condition. 
 They have served to keep in the foreground and close to the 
 thought of the people the things which enter into a true con- 
 ception of civil liberty, and a lively and constant sense of the 
 priceless value placed by the fathers upon the rights in which 
 it consists. These declarations in the organic law are barriers 
 of inestimable value against anarchy and disorder, and when 
 wild schemes of legislation, subversive of personal rights and 
 inconsistent with the proper function of government, are 
 broached, the answer of the Constitution has hitherto been, 
 and hereafter will be, I think, accepted. We cannot assume 
 that labor has no wrongs to be redressed, or that greed and 
 avarice have no tendencies which should be restrained. The 
 agitations which are going on in society cannot safely be ig- 
 nored or set aside as unworthy of attention. It is the duty 
 of the statesman and of the student of social problems, to 
 patiently investigate the causes of the unrest which per- 
 vades large classes in our community, and to ascertain 
 whether there are real grievances which require correction. 
 Society is not to be destroyed, nor is social order to succumb to 
 anarchy. L,ife, liberty and property secured by law are to re- 
 main, the most valuable and precious of our possessions, and 
 when the time shall come, as it surely will, when the dangers 
 which now menace our social order shall have passed away, 
 the value of our written constitutions as a factor in keeping the 
 great mass of people true to fundamental principles, will come 
 more and more to be recognized and appreciated. 
 
 The preservation of social order in America will depend 
 largely upon the influence which shall be exerted by the mem- 
 bers of the learned professions. The dangers which threaten 
 society in this country, spring in no small degree from the very 
 excess of our prosperity, and the broader life which under our in- 
 stitutions is opened to all classes in the community. In no 
 country is labor so well rewarded. Free schools have raised 
 the grade of general intelligence. Improved conditions beget 
 wants and aspirations among the industrial classes, which are 
 
32 
 
 elsewhere unknown. None are content to be confined to the 
 ranks of mere labor. All hope and strive for better conditions. 
 This restless spirit, it cannot be denied, has its disadvantages. 
 It excites discontent and an unwillingness to submit to limita- 
 tions imposed by necessary and irreversible conditions. The 
 problem is to so guide the surging activities of our time, that 
 while on the one hand the spirit of progress shall not be unduly 
 repressed, on the other it shall not stand as an excuse for law- 
 less license or make men unwilling to recognize those distinc- 
 tions which have their root in the ineffaceable differences in 
 individual capacity and character. 
 
 In working out the social problems which are confronting 
 us, and in shaping our legislation to meet the new exigencies 
 which threaten our security, the members of the legal profes- 
 sion will of necessity take a leading part. The great questions 
 which occupied the attention of the great lawyers of the ante- 
 revolutionary period and of the period immediately succeeding, 
 have been settled. The right of the people to protection 
 against arbitrary power, for which they contended, is no longer 
 questioned, and the principles of civil liberty were by their ex- 
 ertions established in the organic law of the state. Whether 
 our government shall continue to be administered in the spirit 
 of the Constitution, and the orderly and regular progress of 
 society secured by adherence to fundamental principles, will 
 largely depend on the character of the legal profession. It 
 cannot be doubted I think, that of late years there has been a 
 tendency to a lower standard of professional life. The profes- 
 sion of the law has been thrown open to men not fitted by edu- 
 cation or character to discharge its duties. The practice of the 
 law has become more and more a mere business, and the learn- 
 ing and dignity of the profession has been affected by an undue 
 tendency to use its opportunities as a mere means of securing 
 a fortune. But while the great subjects which engrossed the 
 attention and inspired the efforts of the early generation of law- 
 yers, are no longer living and vital questions, it was never 
 more important than now that the lofty spirit, the patriotic 
 
33 
 
 purpose and sense of public duty which animated them, should 
 be the controlling forces in guiding the conduct of our profession. 
 The establishment at this seat of learning of a school for 
 the training of young men in the science of law, is an import- 
 ant step in the effort to elevate the character of the profession. 
 The best work requires a high ideal. The stimulating atmos- 
 phere of a great University is an important element in the 
 attainment of the best results of education. I cannot forbear to 
 congratulate the L,aw School of Cornell University that among 
 its able faculty is enrolled a jurist distinguished for his rare 
 and accurate learning, who has consented, when his judicial 
 work is ended, to devote his time to this department, and like 
 the juris-consults of Rome, after having passed the active period 
 of his professional and judicial life, to give his eminent talents 
 to the work of illustrating the science of jurisprudence.