Oh3c UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES SCHOOL OF LAW LIBRARY REPORT CONVENTION CLEVELAND, JULY STH AND QTH, 1880 FOR THE JUKPOSK OK FORMING A STATE BAR ASSOCIATION A INDIANAPOLIS REPRINT BY THE HOLLENBECK PRESS 3c. PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION CALLED FOR THE PURPOSE OF FORMING A STATE BAR ASSOCIATION HELD IN CASE HALL, CLEVELAND JULY STH AND 9TH, 1880 The delegates to a general state convention, having for its ob- ject the formation of a State Bar Association, assembled in Case Hall, in the city of Cleveland, at 10 o'clock A. M. on the 8th day of July, 1880, pursuant to the invitation of the Cleveland Bar As- sociation, issued in accordance with the following resolutions adopted by that association on the 8th day of May, 1880. Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed, of which the corresponding secretary shall be chairman, to correspond with the several bar associations of the state, and with prominent members of the bar of counties, where there are no bar associations, upon the subject of forming a State Bar Association, and to appoint a time and place for the holding of a convention for the organiza- tion of such state association, and to request each of the local bar associations to send delegates to the said proposed state conven- tion, one delegate for every ten members of such local association. and that the members of the bar of each county where there are no associations be requested also to send delegates upon the same basis of representation, and that the bar of any county having less than ten members be entitled to one delegate. Rufus P. Ranney, of Cleveland, was named as temporary chairman of the convention and delivered the address of welcome. (See Appendix.} OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION J. T. Holmes, of Columbus, was appointed temporary secre- tary. The temporary chairman announced the following committees: OX CREDENTIALS. Amos Denison, Cuyahoga county. S. A. Northway, Ashtabula county. George W. Geddes, Richland county. ON PERMANENT ORGANIZATION. Durbin Ward, Cincinnati. T. J. Pringle, Springfield. J. H. Wallace, New Lisbon. C. H. Grosvenor, Athens. N. H. Swayne, Jr., Toledo. L. J. Critchfield, Columbus. W. J. Boardman, Cleveland. William H. Upson, Akron. John A. McMahon, Dayton. ON ORDER OF BUSINESS. R. A. Harrison, Columbus. Stanley Matthews, Cincinnati. R. D. Marshall, Dayton. William Lawrence, Bellefontaine. P. A. Laubie, Salem. William White, Springfield. Luther Day, Ravenna. Said committees were instructed as to their respective places and times of meeting, and thereupon on motion of S. A. Bowman, of Springfield, the convention adjourned until two o'clock p. M. AFTERNOON SESSION. The convention assembled at two o'clock p. M. The report of the committee on credentials being called for, Amos Denison, chairman, presented and read the following list of duly accredited delegates, to wit : FIRST DISTRICT. Hamilton County Durbin Ward, S. T. Crawford, J. D. Cox, W. A. Davidson and E. H. Kleinschmidt. SECOND DISTRICT. Montgomery County George W. Houk, H. Elliott, J. L. H. Frank, J. A. McMahon, O. W. Lowe, R. D. Marshall, R. M. Nevin, Elihu Thompson. Warren County J. M. Smith, J. D. Miller. Clarke County William White. S. A. Bowman, T. J. Pringle, Charles R. White, F. C. Goode. Greene County John Little, E. H. Munger. THIRD DISTRICT. Defiance County Henry Newbegin. FOURTH DISTRICT. Erie County Homer Goodwin, P. C. Schinkel, E. B. King. Huron County Chas. P. Wickham, George W. Knapp, Geo. R. Walker, Timothy R. Strong. Lucas County R. C. Lemmon, B. W. Rouse, J. H. Doyle, C. H. Scribner, William Baker, Charles Kent, Charles Pratt, Barton Smith, S. H. Pike, John C. Lee, George H. Beckwith, 6 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION N. H. Swayne, Jr., John R. Osborn, Edward Bissell. Sandusky County R. P. Buckland, J. R. Bartlett, John M. Lem- mon. Ottazi'd County W. B. Sloan. Lorain County P. H. Boynton, Lester McLean, W. S. Fay. Medina County L. M. Lewis. Summit County W. H. Upson, E. P. Green, J. J. Hall, M. C. Read. Cuyahoga County R. P. Ranney, J. M. Adams, S. Burke, Charles E. Pennewell, S. O. Griswold, Samuel E. Williamson, J. K. Hord, John W. Heisley, V. P. Kline, W. J. Boardman, H. L. Terrell, George S. Kain, John Hutchins, C. W. Noble, G. M. Barber, J. P. Bishop, E. J. Estep, L. W. Ford, George Willey, A. J. Marvin, N. A. Gilbert, George H. Foster, J. H. Rhodes, C. M. Stone, W. C. McFarland, M. D. Leggett, M. B. Gary, M. R. Keith, Amos Denison, Ed. S. Meyer. FIFTH DISTRICT. Brozi'n County W. D. Young. Highland County S. F. Steel. Ross County T. A. Minshall, W. H. Safford, Milton L. Clark, L. T. Neal. Franklin County E. F. Bingham, L. J. Critchfield, George K. Nash, J. T. Holmes, W. E. Guerin, Gilbert H. Stewart, John D. Sullivan, D. T. McNaghten, W. B. Page, T. J. Duncan. SIXTH DISTRICT. Knox County F. C. Lewis. Ashland County W. J. Smith, R. M. Campbell, J. S. Wertman. Morrou 1 County A. K. Dunn, Charles W. Allison. Richland County D. Dirlam, Geo. W. Geddes. Coshocton County J. M. Williams. Wayne County James B. Taylor. SEVENTH DISTRICT. Athens County C. H. Grosvenor. Washington County S. S. Knowles, M. D. Follett. ACCREDITED DELEGATES 7 EIGHTH DISTRICT. Jefferson County John H. Miller. Tuscarawas County H. T. Stockwell. Harrison County D. A. Hollingsworth. NINTH DISTRICT. Stark County S. Meyer, R. A. Folger, A. J. Ricks, D. Ford- ing, George E. Baldwin, Anson Pease, F. L. Baldwin. Columbiana County P. A. Laubie, John Clark, H. R. Hill, J. H. Wallace, W. A. Nichols, Charles D. Dickinson, N. B. Bil- lingsley. Mahoning County J. M. Edwards, Mason Evans, A. W. Jones, Thomas W. Sanderson, George F. Arrel, J. R. Johnson, Tod Ford. Trumbull County R. W. Ratliff, A. F. Moore, Julius N. Cow- dery, George P. Hunter, A. W. Thayer, L. C. Jones, Warren Q. June, M. A. Calhoun. Portage County Luther Day, J. D. Horton, W. B. Thomas. Lake County A. L. Tinker, C. D. Clark, Horace Alvord. Geauga County J. N. Hathaway, D. W. Canfield. Ashtabula County H. B. Woodbury, E. H. Fitch, F. R. Smith, S. A. Northway, Theodore Hall. TENTH DISTRICT. Hardin County A. B. Johnson, J. H. Smick, W. T. Cessna. Logan County William Lawrence. The report of the committee was, on motion, unanimously adopted. Upon the call of the 'chairman the committee on permanent organization, through Durbin Ward, its chairman, made the following report : FOR PRESIDENT OF THE CONVENTION : RUFUS P. RANNEY. of Cleveland. 5 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION FOR VICE-PRESIDENTS : ist District Samuel T. Crawford. 2d District William White. 3d District Henry Newbegin. 4th District Charles Kent. 5th District E. F. Bingham. 6th District D. Dirlam. 7th District S. S. Knowles. 8th District J. H. Miller. 9th District S. Meyer. loth District William T. Cessna. FOR SECRETARIES: J. T. Holmes, Columbus. W. A. Davidson, Cincinnati. On motion the report of the committee on permanent organi- zation -was unanimously adopted. The suggestion of Mr. Newbegin of the Third District, that Judge Latty's name be substituted for his own as vice-president, was not entertained. On motion of W. J. Boardman, Esq., all judges of the supreme, district and common pleas courts, present, were voted the rights and privileges of delegates in the convention, an amendment to admit all lawyers present to such rights and privileges having been meanwhile made and withdrawn. The committee on order of business, William White, of Spring- field, chairman, reported, recommending the appointment of one member from each judicial district to report to the convention a constitution and by-laws for a State Bar Association. The report of the committee was unanimously adopted and a motion empowering the delegation from each judicial district to name its committee man having prevailed, the following committee was selected : CONSTITUTION 9 ist District Stanley Matthews. 2d District S. A. Bowman. 3d District Henry Newbegin. 4th District S. E. Williamson. 5th District Milton L. Clark. 6th District A. K. Dunn. 7th District M. D. Follett. 8th District H. T. Stockwell. 9th District P. A. Laubie. loth District A. B. Johnson. S. A. Bowman moved that the convention take a recess of ten minutes. Gen. Durbin Ward moved that the committee on constitution and by-laws have leave to retire and consult. Thereupon Mr. Bowman's motion was withdrawn and Gen. Ward's motion was adopted. Pending the retirement of the committee, Judge William White, being called for, delivered an entertaining and instructive address upon our judiciary and judicial reform. S. A. Bowman, of Springfield, on behalf of the committee on constitution and by-laws, then made the following report : THE CONSTITUTION. This association shall be known as "The Ohio State Bar As- sociation." II. OBJECT. The association is formed to advance the science of jurispru- dence, to promote reform in the law, to facilitate the adminis- tration of justice, to uphold integrity, honor and courtesy in the legal profession, to encourage thorough liberal legal education, and to cultivate cordial intercourse among the members of the bar. IO OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION III. MEMBERSHIP. The members of the bar attending this convention as dele- gates, this 8th day of July, 1880, are hereby declared to be members of this association, provided they shall, during its present session, pay the admission fee and sign this constitution. Any member of the bar, of good standing, residing or practicing in the state of Ohio, may become a member of the association upon nomination and vote, as hereinafter provided. IV. ELECTION OF MEMBERS. All nominations for membership shall be made by the com- mittee on admission, and must be transmitted in writing to the president and by him reported to the association, and if any member demands a vote upon any name thus reported, the as- sociation shall thereupon vote thereon by ballot. Several nom- inees may be voted upon on the same ballot, and in such case placing the word "no" against any name or names upon the ticket shall be deemed a negative vote against such name or names, and against those only. One negative vote in every five shall suffice to defeat an election. No member of the bar, residing in a county where there is a local bar association, shall become a member of this association unless he shall also be a member of such local association. v. OFFICERS. The officers of the association shall be a president, who shall deliver the annual address, and be ineligible for a second term ; one vice-president from each judicial district reported by mem- bership in the association ; a secretary and a treasurer. All of these shall be elected at the annual meeting and hold their office till the next annual meeting of the association, and until their successors are elected. CONSTITUTION 1 1 VI. COMMITTEES. The president shall, with the approval of the association, ap- point the following standing committees : An executive com- mittee; a committee on admissions; a committee on judicial ad- ministration and legal reform ; a committee on legal education ; a committee on grievances, and a committee on legal biography. And each standing committee shall be composed of one mem- ber from every judicial district represented in the association. A majority of the members of every committee who may be present at the meeting of the association shall constitute a quo- rum of such committee for the purposes of such meeting. Every committee shall, at each annual meeting, report in writing a summary of its proceedings since the last annual report, together with any suggestions deemed suitable and ap- pertaining to its powers, duties or business. A general sum- mary of all such annual reports and of the proceedings of the annual meetings, shall be prepared and printed by and under the direction of the executive committee, together with the con- stitution, by-laws, names and residences of officers, standing com- mittees and members of the association, as soon as practicable after each annual meeting. VII. FINAL ACTION. Xo action of the association of a permanent nature or recom- mending changes in law or the administration of justice shall be final until approved by the standing committee to which the same shall be referred by the association. VIII. PRESIDENT. The president, or in his absence the senior vice-president, shall preside at all meetings of the association, and the presi- dent shall deliver an address at the opening of the meeting next after his election. 12 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION IX. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. The president and secretary shall be ex-officio members of the executive committee. This committee shall manage the affairs of the association subject to the provisions of the constitution and by-laws, and shall be vested with the title to all its property as trustees thereof and shall make by-laws for the association, subject to amendment by the association. X. COMMITTEE OX ADMISSION. The proceedings of this committee shall be deemed confidential and shall be kept secret except so far as written or printed reports of the committee shall be necessarily and officially made to the association. XI. COMMITTEE ON JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION AND LEGAL REFORM. It shall be the duty of the committee on judicial administra- tion and legal reform to take record of all proposed changes of the law, and to recommend such as may be in their opinion en- titled to the favorable influence of the association ; and further to observe the working of the judicial system of the state, to collect information with reference thereto, and to recommend such action as they may deem advisable. XII. COMMITTEE ON LEGAL EDUCATION. It shall be the duty of the committee on legal education to examine and report what change it is expected to propose in the system of legal education and of admission to the practice of the profession in the state of Ohio. XIII. COMMITTEE ON GRIEVANCES. The committee on grievances shall receive all complaints which may be made in matters affecting the interests of the legal pro- fession, the practice of the law and the administration of jus- tice, and report the same to the association with such recom- mendation as they may deem advisable. CONSTITUTION 13 The proceedings of this committee shall be deemed confiden- tial and kept secret except so far as reports of the same shall be necessarily and officially made to the association. XIV. COMMITTEE ON LEGAL BIOGRAPHY. The committee on legal biography shall provide for the preser- vation among the archives of the association of suitable written or printed memorials of the lives and characters of deceased members of the Ohio Bar. SECRETARY. The secretary shall keep a record of the proceedings and con- duct the correspondence of the association, and perform the usual duties of such office. TREASURER. The treasurer shall collect and by order of the executive com- mittee disburse all funds of the association and keep regular accounts, which at all times shall be open to the inspection of any member or members of the executive committee. ANNUAL MEETING. This association shall meet annually at such time and place as the executive committee may select, and those present at such meeting shall constitute a quorum. DUES. The admission fee will in all cases be $2.00. The annual dues of members shall be 82.00, to be paid yearly on or before the first day of the annual meeting of the association, and no person shall be qualified to exercise any privilege of membership who is in default. 14 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION AMENDMENTS. This constitution may be altered or amended by a vote of a majority of the members present, at any annual meeting, with the approval of the executive committee. A motion to adopt the report of the committee was seconded. , Thereupon A. B. Johnson moved to amend by striking from the last clause the words "with the approval of the executive committee." The proposed amendment was supported by Messrs. Johnson. Heisley, Hutchins and Lee, and was opposed by Messrs. New- begin, Griswold, Burke, Folger, and Grosvenor. A motion to amend the provision that a majority of the mem- bers present may alter or amend the constitution by substituting "three-fourths" instead of the words "a majority" was made and withdrawn. The amendment offered by Air. Johnson was lost. Mr. Baker, of Toledo, moved to amend so as to make the presi- dent ineligible for the next ensuing term only. Amendment lost. Mr. Heisley moved that the committee be instructed to report a provision for calling a special meeting. Motion lost. The question recurring on the adoption of the report of the committee, the same was adopted, nan. con. Mr. Bowman moved that a committee of one from each ju- dicial district, on officers of the association, be appointed. The chairman suggested that the motion was out of order. "This is a convention still, and not an association." A motion to adjourn was disregarded, and Mr. Bowman's motion was adopted. The following persons were named as such committee : ist District Durbin \Yard. 2d District John Little. 4th District Wm. H. Upson. 5th District Thad. A. Minshall. OFFICERS 15 6th District George W. Geddes. 7th District C. H. Grosvenor. 8th District John H. Miller. 9th District H. B. Woodbury. loth District John H. Smick. The committee, on leave, retired, and after a brief consultation made the following report on officers of the association : For President. Rufus P. Ranney. For Vice Presidents. ist District Stanley Matthews. 2d District Geo. W. Houk. 3d District H. Newbegin. 4th District R. P. Buckland. 5th District Leander J. Critchfield. 6th District D. Dirlam. 7th District S. S. Knowles. 8th District D. A. Hollingsworth. 9th District Luther Day. loth District Win. Lawrence. For Secretary. J. T. Holmes. For Treasurer. W. J. Boardman. The motion to adopt the report of the committee was put by General Grosvenor, and unanimously adopted by the association. J. M. Adams, on behalf of the Cleveland Bar Association, ex- tended an invitation to delegates and their families to take a ride on the lake in the steamer Pearl, at 2 p. M. to-morrow. On motion the invitation was accepted with thanks by the association. 1 6 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION A motion to adjourn until to-morrow morning was not en- tertained. A motion to adjourn until 8 p. M. to-day, suspended. A motion to instruct district delegations to furnish the presi- dent a name for each standing committee was withdrawn. The president requested the district delegations to confer with him and furnish such names. William Lawrence offered and moved the adoption of the fol- lowing resolution : Resolved, That the committee on judicial administration and law reform be and are directed to prepare the plan of a judicial system for the state, which, if properly administered, will render it practicable to secure a final disposition of every litigated case in courts, in one year or less, and to present the same to the Governor and request him to urge the legislature to provide for its adoption. Also that the president of the association be ap- pointed an additional member and chairman of said committee for the purpose stated. At the close of Mr. Lawrence's address in support of his reso- lution, the motion to adjourn until eight o'clock p. M. was adopted. At eight o'clock p. M., pursuant to adjournment, the associa- tion, with a large audience of ladies and gentlemen, convened and listened to the address of Stanley Matthews. (See Ap- pendix. ) FRIDAY MORNING, July 9, 9 o'clock. The association convened. John Little offered the following resolution : That the executive committee be and the same is hereby di- rected to cause 3,000 copies of the minutes of the convention and association, including the constitution and by-laws and the opening address and that of Judge Matthews, to be printed in pamphlet form and distributed among the members for circu- lation. Adopted. Stanley Matthews moved that all ex-judges of the supreme GENERAL MINUTES I/ court may become members of the association by signing the constitution and paying initiation fee. L. J. Critchfield moved to amend by saying, "all judges and ex-judges of the supreme court be ex-officio members." Motion as amended adopted. Mr. Houk moved a reconsideration of the adoption of the pro- vision of the constitution in relation to admission to the associa- tion. Unanimous consent not given, motion not entertained. Mr. Bowman moved that when the association adjourned it adjourn to meet at Columbus on the 28th day of December next. Adopted. The question of the adoption of the resolution offered by Mr. Lawrence at the close of yesterday's afternoon session recurring, Mr. Critchfield offered the following substitute : Resolved, That the committee on judicial administration and law reform, together with the president of the association, are instructed to prepare a plan to facilitate the administration of justice in this state, and to report such plan to this association at its adjourned meeting. They are also requested to publish the plan previous to such meeting. The president, Judge Ranney, calling Judge White to the chair, delivered an address in support of the substitute. (See Appendix.) Judge P. A. Laubie moved to amend by inserting the word "next" instead of the word "adjourned" "next" being the word originally written in the substitute. Amendment lost. The substitute was then unanimously adopted. On motion the association unanimously extended a vote of thanks to Stanley Matthews for the able address which he de- livered last evening. Mr. Houk offered the following : Resolved, That the Cincinnati daily and weekly Law Bulle- tin may publish all proceedings of meetings, notices of this as- i8 sociation, etc., no charge to be made for the same, and shall be the official organ of the Ohio State Bar Association for the en- suing year. Adopted. The following standing committees were appointed by the president with the approval of the association. COMMITTEE ON ADMISSIONS. ist District W. A. Davidson. 2d District S. A. Bowman. 3d District Henry Newbegin. 4th District William Baker. 5th District Thad. A. Minshall. 6th District J. S. Westerman. 7th District M. D. Follett. 8th District D. A. Hollingsworth. pth District P. A. Laubie. loth District J. H. Smick. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. ist District Stanley Matthews. 2d District John Little. 3d District 4th District Wm. H. Upson. 5th District E. F. Bingham. 6th District Geo. W. Geddes. 7th District C. H. Grosvenor. 8th District D. A. Hollingsworth. 9th District H. B. Woodbury. loth District A. B. Johnson. COMMITTEE ON JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION AND LEGAL REFORM. ist District Durbin Ward. 2d District John A. McMahon. STANDING COMMITTEES 3d District Alex S. Latty. 4th District Charles Kent. 5th District R. A. Harrison. 6th District A. K. Dunn. 7th District S. S. Knowles. 8th District H. T. Stock well, gth District T. W. Sanderson. loth District Wm. Lawrence. COMMITTEE ON LEGAL EDUCATION. ist District E. H. Kleinschmidt. 2d District J. M. Smith. 3d District 4th District Homer Goodwin. 5th District S. F. Steele. 6th District R. W. Campbell. 7th District M. D. Follett. 8th District John H. Miller. 9th District S. Meyer. loth District J. H. Smick. COMMITTEE ON GRIEVANCES. ist District S. T. Crawford. 2d District R. M. Xevin. 3d District 4th District S. E. Williamson. 5th District W. D. Young. 6th District J. W. Smith. 7th District C. H. Grosvenor. 8th District H. T. Stockwell. 9th District A. L. Tinker, loth District A. L. Allen. COMMITTEE ON LEGAL BIOGRAPHY. ist District Durbin Ward. 2d District E. Thompson. 2O OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION 3d District 4th District John R. Osborn. 5th District William H. Safford. 6th District F. C. Lewis. 7th District S. S. Knowles. 8th District John H. Miller. 9th District Geo. P. Hunter. 10 District \Vm. Lawrence. The name of A. S. Latty was added to the committee on judi- cial administration and legal reform as the member from the third district, on motion of Mr. Ward. On motion the standing committees were approved. On motion of Mr. Critchfield the committee on admissions was requested to report, and, after a brief consultation, reported the following nominations for membership : Salem Jacob A. Ambler, Peter Ambler, B. S. Ambler, Thomas Kennett, J. C. Boon, Rush Taggart, L. L. Gilbert, J. T. Brooks, J. D. Fountain. New Lisbon S. J. Firestone, C. Hune, Harvey Morrison, John McVicker, William J. Jordan, H. E. Frost, John M. Dickinson, W. S. Potts, Simon Wisden, L. W. Morris, H. W. Brown, William G. Wells, George H. Hallam, James W. Rielly, P. C. Young, P. M. Smith, James G. Moore, T. A. Collins, M. E. Taggart, C. N. Snyder, George W. Love, E. S. Hallaway, Tohn G. Beatty, F. A. Witt. Second District James S. Goode, W. R. Womack, James E. Hawes, H. H. Williams, A. F. Hume, D. L. Meeker, James A. Gilmore, A. W. Doane, D. A. Haines. Fourth District H. H. Dodge. Greene County Roswell F. Howard, Benow Xesbitt, Charles C. Shearer, Freeman P. Martin, Charles Darlington. Milo Snod- grass, Peter R. Schmebley. Thomas E. Scroggy, Campbell L. Maxwell, Thomas L. McGruder. NOMINATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP 21 Defiance County Silas T. Sutphen, X. G. Johnson, Henry Hardy, Benjamin R. Kingsbury, William C. Holgate. Putnam County J. J. Moore. Allen County C. M. Hughes. Williams County Albert M. Pratt, Charles E. Bentley, Sehvyn N. Owen, Thomas Emery, Edward Foster. Bryan Charles S. Bentley. Seventh District Silas H. Wright, John S. Friesner, John J. Harper, James Tropp, J. P. Bradbury. Lake County J. B. Burrows, Perry Bosworth, George W. Alvord. Cincinnati P. B. Swing, Jacob Burnett, W. L. A very, Joseph Cox, Fayette Smith, F. W. Moore, N. Longworth, R. A. Johns- ton, Isaac B. Matson, Rufus Keing, George Hoadley, T. D. Lin- coln, A. Long, H. B. Banning, John F. Follett, A. E. Ferguson, W. F. Forrest, W. M. Ramsey, J. B. Stallo, E. W. Kittredge, M. F. Force, J. B. Foraker, Judson Harmon, G. H. Wald, E. B. Ma- lony, J. H. Bates, J. R. Murdoch, J. R. Sayler, T. A. Logan, J. D. Cox, H. A. Merrill, A. Taft, J. R Murphy, W. H. Pugh. Trumbull County E. B. Taylor, W. T. Spear. Elyria G. J. Clark, E. G. Johnson, E. C. Manter, A. W. Nich- ols, George C. Jeffries, George P. Metcalf, I. A. Webster, C. W. Johnston, A. R. Webber, D. J. Xye, X. L. Johnson, J. M. Hord, F. A. Beckwith, S. J. Clark. Wellington J. H. Dickson, W. F. Herrick. OberlinC. A. Metcalf. North Aniherst E. H. Hinman. Cleveland B. R. Davis, S. M. Eddy, E. Sowers, L. A. Russell, J. H. Webster, George A. Groot, A. T. Brewer, A. J. Williams, J. M. Henderson, John C. Hutchins, A. C. Caskey, H. C. Ranney, J. H. Hoyt, L. A. Willson, O. J. Campbell, Andrew Squires, John C. Grannis, W. S. Kerruish, William Clark, J. W. Tyler, John Coon, T. J. Wing, J. E. Ingersoll, Arnold Green, James Mason. Jefferson N. L. Chaffee, W. P. Rowland, E. C. Wade, W. H. 22 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION Ruggles, E. Jay Pinney. A. C. White, E. B. Leonard, John C. Talcott. Ashtabnla T. S. Hoyt, John Strong, L. S. Sherman, F. A. Pettibone, Charles Booth, Eusebius Lee, Edgar Hall. Conncant A. W. Cox, C. R. Goddard. Toledo J. P. Pugsley. C. H. Scribner. Frank B. Swayne, James M. Brown, James M. Ritchie. Edward Bissell, George R. Haynes, Burchard Hays, Charles Dodge, Emory D. Potter, Jr., \Yilliam F. Lockwood, Joshua R. Seney, Richard Waite, Edward T. Waite, Charles D. Wilson, Harvey Scribner, David R. Austin, Avery Hill, James J. French, James M. Hueston, E. P. Raymond, John F. Kumler, J. Kent Hamilton, Joseph D. Ford, William A. Collins, W. S. Thurston. Highland County Alphonso Hart, LTric Sloane, A. G. Mat- thews, James H. Thompson, Xelson Barrere, Henry M. Higgins, Henry L. Dickey, Charles H. Collins, Cyrus Newby, John T. Hire, James M. Dunrenil, R. T. Hough, R. T. Ditley, William H. Irwine, William H. Eckman. Augustus Harmon, Kirby Smith, E. M. DeBruin, William M. Meek. Akron S. Edgington. Columbus Chancery X. Olds, Francis Collins, William J. Gil- more, Eugene Lane, Bryan Collins, John G. Mitchell, R. H. Platt, Benjamin Woodbury, D. E. Williams. H. J. Booth, George L. Converse, T. J. Keating; W. O. Henderson. G. O. Hamilton, E. L. Taylor, H. C. Taylor. G. G. Collins, George J. Atkinson, J. W. Firestone, J. M. Lowe, John M. Pugh. J. C. L. Pugh, John H. Heitmann, W. T. Wallace. F. F. D.' Albery. F. W. Arnold, D. K. Watson, A. E. Creighton. J- D. Burnett. R. C. Fulton, Jo- seph Olds, S. F. Marsh, H. L. Jones. J. C. Richards, John C. Groom, William J. Clark, A. L. Keister, H. J. Wylie. James L. Bates, J. A. Miles. C. G. Saffin, H. P. Andrus. E. P. Evans, E. B. Jewett, Charles Ozias, L. Baker, H. B. Albery, R. P. Woodruff, S. P. Mulford, John G. McGuffey, William C. Stewart. S. Ham- bleton, J. M. Tibbetts, J. M. Mooney. H. M. Butler. F. W. Wood, P. E. Fleck. L. D. Hagerty. I. H.' Crum. A. L. Ralston. C. H. Rippey, William Dennison, J. A. Wilcox. George B. Okey, David NOMINATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP 23 Jones, J. H. Outhwaite, T. P. Linn, C. E. Burr, Jr., James Wat- son, George S. Peters, Luke G. Byrne, D. C. Welling, George L. Artz, R. C. Hoffman, F. F. Hoffman, James F. Hoffman, E. L. DeWitt, A. W. Krumm, Ivor Hughes, G. J. Marriott. J. Y. Lee, Charles Tappan, R. T. Clark, L. English, J. William Baldwin, DeWitt C. Jones, George D. Jones, C. T. Clark, Horace Wilson, Percy R. Wilson, J. J. Stoddart, John L. Green, Henry C. Xoble, James E. W'right, R. B. Smith, G. F. Castle, J. H. Godman, Allen Miller. On motion the names were read to the convention by the secre- tary. A motion instructing the secretary to sign the names of nom- inees to the constitution, upon request and payment of fees, was adopted. A motion was adopted requesting the members of the bar throughout the state to form associations to cooperate with this association. The following resolution w r as offered by W. D. Young, Esq. : That the several standing committees be requested to organize immediately, and that they report to the secretary the names and addresses of their officers, to be by the executive committee pub- lished with the minutes of this association. Adopted. The following was unanimously adopted by the association : Resoh'cd, That the thanks of this association are hereby ten- dered to the members of the Cleveland Bar Association, for their hospitalities and courtesies, extended to the delegates of this as- sociation. On motion the association adjourned to meet at Columbus on the 28th day of December, 1880. Immediately after adjournment the following standing com- mittees organized and reported the names and addresses of their officers, under the resolution therefor : COMMITTEE OX ADMISSIONS. Chairman, WILLIAM BAKER, Toledo. Secretary, WILLIAM A. DAVIDSON. Cincinnati. 24 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. Chairman, RUFUS P. RANNEY, Cleveland. Secretary, WILLIAM H. UPSON, Akron. COMMITTEE ON JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION AND LEGAL REFORM. Chairman,, DURBIN WARD. Secretary, H. T. STOCKWELL. COMMITTEE OX LEGAL EDUCATION. Chairman, HOMER GOODWIN, Sandusky. Secretary, S. F. STEELE, Hillsborougri. COMMITTEE ON GRIEVANCES. Chairman, SAMUEL E. WILLIAMSON, Cleveland. Secretary, W. D. YOUNG, Ripley. COMMITTEE ON LEGAL BIOGRAPHY. Chairman, WILLIAM H. SAFFORD, Chillicothe. Secretary, E. THOMPSON, Dayton. MEMBERS DECEMBER i, 1880 Name. ANEL, GEORGE F. AMBLER, J. A. ADAMS, J. M. ALLEN, A. L. ALVORD, H. BAKER, WILLIAM BECKWITH, GEO. H. BUCKLAND, R. P. BlNGHAM, E. F. BOWMAN, S. A. BOARDMAN, W. J. BARBER, G. M. BlLLINGSBY, N. B. BOYNTON, P. H. BALDWIN, GEORGE E. BREWER, A. T. BISHOP, J. P. BEAVIS, B. R. BENTLY, CHAS. S. BROOKS, J. T. CAMPBELL, OSCAR J. CLARK, M. L. CLARK, A. H. COWDRY, J. N. CLARK, JOHN CRITCHFIELD, L. J. CRAWFORD, S. T. CADWELL, D. CANFIELD, D. W. CULVER, E. M. CLARK, C. D. CLARK, E. J. COON, JOHN CASKEY, A. C. CLARK, W. T. DUNCAN, THOMAS J. DIRLAN, D. DUNN, A. K. DICKERSON, CHARLES D. DAVIDSON, WM. A. DENNISON, AMOS DARLINGTON, DEWOLF, HOMER B. ELLIOTT, H. Town. Youngstown, Salem, Cleveland, Ken ton, Painesville, Toledo, Toledo, Freemont, Columbus, Springfield, Cleveland, Cleveland, New Lisbon, Elyria, Canton, Cleveland, Cleveland, Cleveland, Bryan, Salem, Cleveland, Chillicothe, East Liverpool, Niles, New Lisbon, Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Chardon, Sandusky, Willoughby, Elyria, Cleveland, Cleveland, Cleveland, Columbus, Mansfield, Mt. Gilead, Columbiana, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Xenia, Cleveland, Dayton, County. Mahoning Columbiana Cuyahoga Hardin Lake Lucas Lucas Sandusky Franklin Clarke Cuyahoga Cuyahoga Columbiana Lorain Stark Cuyahoga Cuyahoga Cuyahoga Williams Columbiana Cuyahoga Ross Columbiana Trumbull Columbiana Franklin Hamilton Cuyahoga Geauga Erie Lake Lorain Cuyahoga Cuyahoga Cuyahoga Franklin Richland Morrow Columbiana Hamilton Cuyahoga Greene Cuyahoga Montgomery 26 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION Name. EDGERTON, S. EVANS, MASON ESTEP, E. J. EDWARDS, J. M. FOLLETT, M. D. FlNNEFROCK, T. P. FITCH, EDW. H. FAY, W. L. FRANK, J. L. H. FOLGER, R. H. FORD, TOD FOSTER, GEO. H. FOSTER, EDWARD GILBERT, LUCIEN L. GUERIN, W. E. GROSVENOR, C. H. GREEN, E. P. GOODK, FRANK C. GOODWIN, H. GILBERT, N. A. GRISWOLD, S. O. GARY, M. B. GREEN, ARNOLD HUTCHINS, JOHN HOLLINGWORTH, D. A. HUTCHINS, J. C. HOLMES, J. T. HOUK, GEO. W. HALL, J. J. HUNTER, GEO. P. HILL, R. H. HATHAWAY, I. N. HORTON, J. D. HALL, E. HALL, THEODORE HAMILTON, E. T. HEISLEY, J. W. HUNE, CONRAD HARRISON, R. A. JOHNSON, J. R. JOHNSON, A. B. JONES, J. M. JONES, A. W. JORDAN, W. J. KNOWLES, SAM'L S. KAIN, GEO. S. KLEINSCHMIDT, E. H. KING, E. B. KENT, CHAS. KLINE, V. P. KEITH, M. R. KERRUISH, W. S. LAUBIE, P. A. LATTY, A. S. Town. Akron , Youngstown, Cleveland, Youngstown, Marietta, Freemont, Jefferson, Elyria, Dayton, Massillon, Youngstown, Cleveland, Bryan, Salem, Columbus, Athens, Akron, Springfield, Sandusky, Cleveland, Cleveland, Cleveland, Cleveland, Cleveland. Cadiz, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Akron, Warren, East Liverpool, Chardon, Ravenna, Ashtabula, Ashtabula, Cleveland, Cleveland, New Lisbon, Columbus, Canfield, Kenton, Cleveland, Youngstown, New Lisbon, Marietta, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Sandusky, Toledo, Cleveland, Cleveland, Cleveland, Salem, Defiance, County. Summit Mahoning Cuyahoga Mahoning Washington Sandusky Ashtabula Lorain Montgomery Stark Mahoning Cuyahoga Williams Columbiana Franklin Athens Summit Clarke Erie Cuyahoga Cuyahoga Cuyahoga Cuyahoga Cuyahoga Harrison Cuyahoga Franklin Montgomery Summit Trumbull Columbiana Geauga Portage Ashtabula Ashtabula Cuyahoga Cuyahoga Columbiana Franklin Mahoning Hardin Cuyahoga Mahoning Columbiana Washington Cuyahoga Hamilton Erie Lucas Cuyahoga Cuyahega Cuyahoga Columbiana Defiance MEMBERS Name. LITTLE, JOHN LEWIS, G. W. LEE, JOHN C. LAWRENCE, WM. LOWE, THOMAS O. LEGGETT, M. D. MASON, JAS. MILLER, J. D. MlNNSHALL, T. A. McNAUGHTON, D. T. MCMAHON, JOHN A. MATHEWS, STANLEY McLEAN, LESTER McFARLAND, W. C. MILLER, J. H. MARSHAL, R. V. MEYER, S. MUNGER, E. H. MACKEY, JOHN MORE, J. J. MARVIN, A. J. McMATH, J. H. NEWBEGIN, HENRY NICHOLS, W. A. NORTHWAY, S. A. NASH, GEO. K. NEVIN, R. M. NEAL, L. T. OSBORNE, J. R. OWEN, SELWYN N. PRINGLE, T. J. PRATT, CHAS. PIKE, L. H. PENNEY, T. E. PAGE, WALTER B. PENNEWELL, C. E. PETTIBONE, F. A. PRATT, ALBER M. RHODES, J. H. READ, M. C. RANNEY, R. P. RICKS, A. J. ROUSE, B. W. RUSSELL, L. A. SMITH, J. M. SMITH, J. W. STOCKWELL, H. T. SWAYNE, N. H. STEEL, S. T. SLOAN, W. B. SULLIVAN, JOHN D. STEWART, GILB'T H. SAFFORD, W. H. SMICK, J. H, Town. County. Xenia, Greene Medina, Medina Toledo, Lucas Bellefontaine, Logan Dayton, Montgomery Cleveland, Cuyahoga Cleveland, Cuyahoga Franklin, Warren Chillicothe, Ross Columbus, Franklin Dayton, Montgomery Cincinnati, Hamilton Elyria, Lorain Cleveland, Cuyahoga Steubenville, Jefferson Dayton, Montgomery Canton, Stark Xenia, Greene Sandusky, Erie Ottawa, Putnam Cleveland, Cuyahoga Cleveland, Cuyahoga Defiance, Defiance New Lisbon, Columbiana Jefferson, Ashtabula Columbus, Franklin Dayton, Montgomery Chillicothe, Ross Toledo, Lucas Bryan, Williams Springfield, Clarke Toledo, Lucas Toledo, Lucas Kenton, Hardin Columbus, Franklin Cleveland, Cuyahoga Ashtabula, Ashtabula Bryan, Williams, Cleveland, Cuyahoga Hudson, Summit Cleveland, Cuyahoga Cleveland, Cuyahoga Toledo, Lucas Cleveland. Cuyahoga Lebanon, Warren Ashland, Ashland New Philadelphia, ' Tuscarawas Toledo, Lucas Hillsborough, Highland Port Clinton, Ottawa Columbus, Franklin Columbus, Franklin Chillicothe, Ross Kenton, Hardin 28 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION Name. STRONG, T. R. STONE, C. M. SCHENKLE, P. C. SQUIRES, ANDREW SADLER, E. B. SOWERS, E. SANDERSON, T. W. TAGGART, W. RUSH THAYER, A. A. TlBBALS, M. D. TOMPSON, E. TAYLOR, R. W. THOMAS, W. B. TERRILL, H. L. TYLER, JOEL W. UPSON, W. H. WARD, DURBIN WILLIAMSON, S. E. WHITE, C. R. WERTMAN, J. S. WILLIAMS, J. M. WALLACE, J. H. WHITE, WILLIAM WOODBURY, H. B. WALKER, GEO. R. WEBSTER, J. A. WILLEY, GEO. WEBSTER, J. H. WILSON, H. A. WING, T. J. WRIGHT, JAMES E. YOUNG, W. D. Town. Norwalk, Cleveland, Sandusky, Cleveland, Sandusky, Cleveland. Youngstown, Salem, Warren, Akron, Dayton, East Liverpool, Ravenna, Cleveland, Cleveland, Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Springfield, Ashland, Coshocton, New Lisbon, Springfield, Jefferson, Norwalk, Elyria, Cleveland, Cleveland, Cleveland, Cleveland, Worthington, Ripley, County. Huron Cuyahoga Erie Cuyahoga Erie Cuyahoga Mahoning Columbiana Trumbull Summit Montgomery Columbiana Portage Cuyahoga Cuyahoga Summit Hamilton Cuyahoga Clarke Ashland Coshocton Columbiana Clarke Ash tabula Huron Lorain Cuyahoga Cuyahoga Cuyohoga Cuyahoga Franklin Brown APPENDIX ADDRESS OF R. P. RANNEY. GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION I take very great pleasure, on behalf of the bar association of this county, in welcoming you all to the city of Cleveland, and to the hospitalities which I hope will be extended to you. I only regret that the association did not see fit to name some one who could express in more fitting terms than I can the warm thanks of the association for the generous response that has been made to their call on the part of the bench and bar of Ohio. I would take the occasion also to say that nothing could afford me greater pleasure than to see assembled here so many of the members of the bar of this state with whom, in former years, I have had official, professional and personal re- lations, which constitute to-day, and ever will, the most pleasing recollections of my life. If this meeting had no other object than that of promoting so- cial intercourse amongst gentlemen engaged in the same pursuit and profession, it would be well worthy to be held, and the time, and, as we who live here think, the place have been most fittingly chosen. The members of the bar are relieved temporarily in most parts of the state from the arduous duties which weigh upon them during the year by the general adjournment of the courts, and have come to a vacation, and if there is any class of persons who need relaxation from duty in order that they may revive their spirits and their health, it is the bar of the state. With the weighty responsibilities which rest upon them, with the numerous annoy- ances which attend the practice of the law and this includes the bench as well to continue it through the whole year is simply to break down in most instances the best constitutions that are found amongst the body. And now, my brethren, it so happens that we can come together in a social manner, and renew old acquaintances and form new ones, and cement new friendships, for which we all live, and it so happens that we can combine with it a consideration of many im- 32 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION portant matters which should, in my judgment, engage the atten- tion of the bar of the state. The formation of a State Bar Asso- ciation is calculated to carry into effect that determination to ce- ment a closer alliance between the members of the bar in all parts of the state than has hitherto existed, and to be attended with the consequence of giving unity and force to such deliberate recom- mendations as the bar may see fit to make to the authorities hav- ing in charge the making of the laws and the executing of the laws ; to examine themselves ; to look over the whole ground and see what abuses exist, if any, and to take measures unitedly to re- form them. A close examination of^he bar itself has become an absolute necessity. Such examinations are not calculated or never are made with the view of giving a feeling of any increased improve- ment of those who enter upon them. We commonly come out of such examinations rather chagrined at our own weaknesses and failings than assuming to ourselves an importance which ought not to belong to us. It is, therefore, a very useful exercise and quite indispensable that the bar should at all times keep an eye to its own members, to its own body, in order that they may challenge the public confidence which we think is due them. The bar of the state of Ohio will hereafter, in public estimation, be just about what the bar sees fit to make it. If the members of the bar will impress upon the public at large that honor, integrity and ability are found in the bar and will be maintained there, and that the public may rely that in all their connection with them they will find these great and indispensable qualities of the lawyer in the bar of the state, there need be no apprehension that the public at large will not accord them full credit for it. Indeed, in my own experience, I do not remember that ever the public at large have been disposed to do any injustice to the bar. While undoubtedly at times very many pleasantries and jokes are perpetrated at the expense of the bar, still, when we come down to solid and solemn action on the part of the people, to whom so soon do they resort as to the members of the bar. and call into requisition their abil- ity, experience and integrity in all the great affairs in which the public are concerned. This consideration, with such confiding ADDRESS OF R. P. RAXXEV 33 disposition on the part of the public, should lead us to make our- selves worthy of it, and when we are worthy of it, I repeat, there need be no apprehension that the public will not award it to us. I think, gentlemen, that it is a very good thing for us all to consider occasionally what responsibilities naturally and neces- sarily devolve upon us. what is our position in the body politic, what space do we occupy, what part do we perform in the great purposes of civil life ? If you will reflect for a single moment that the duties of the lawyer are simply a succession and combination of trusts reposed in him by others, it will then be apparent to you that you all should be faithful to your trusts. Think for a moment what it is. In the first place, from the bar is drawn the bench. The bench will be exactly what the bar is never more, and certainly ought never to be less. In all times past and in times to come the judges of the superior courts of the state, constituting one of its great sovereign departments, the most important of all of them, must be derived exclusively from your body. The administration of justice in the state must come through the organs furnished by the bar itself and the bench of the state. Again. Those who do not pass from the bar to the bench, and exercise the accumulated duties and responsibilities which high positions upon the bench impose, have, nevertheless, by their po- sition in the state, imposed upon them, and upon them exclu- sively, duties and responsibilities equally high and' equally im- portant. Did you ever reflect that the courts of justice are al- lowed to be approached only by members of your own body ? The poor and the rich, the high and the low. must alone approach the portals of justice in the courts of the state through the interven- tion of the body of gentlemen now before me. It is not permit- ted, as you all very well know, for any person to choose whom he will to represent him in the important concerns that transpire in the courts. He is remitted by the law of the land alone to your body, and upon your shoulders he alone can cast the high respon- sibilities which result from the great interests that may be in- volved in the proceedings before the courts. You therefore oc- cupy a semi-official relation to the people of the state, and yon 3 34 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION ought in all conscience, occupying that position under the laws of the state, and commissioned by the state alone to appear in the courts of justice and vindicate the rights which are there in question, to consider yourselves as servants of the highest order for the promotion of the public interests. Again. What is it that the members of the bar and the gentle- men upon the bench are called upon constantly to deal with and administer? One of the grandest sciences known in the whole list, an applied science applied a thousand times every day to the concerns of men in society. Taking man in society, society being a necessity imposed upon his very existence, you take him on the outset and you follow him through all the various manifestations and relations that he sustains in life with other men, and the law goes right along with you, regulating and controlling this intel- lectual being in all that he does that may have any effect what- ever, injurious or otherwise, upon his fellow men. That is the law. It is not an art ; it is not a contrivance by which a certain body of gentlemen earn a livelihood, as some people are disposed to think. It is not that, it is administering the laws of nature the voice of God through the constituted tribunals of the country and through the intervention of these chosen and trusted agents. Beginning with the very first step in society, that of husband and wife, no sooner is the relation formed than there arise out of it duties and obligations which the law recognizes and fixes. The next step, no child is born into the world that is not, the moment he draws a breath, under the protection of this great science. His person, anything that may have been devolved upon him in the way of property, is as carefully guarded while he lies un- conscious in the cradle, by these guardians of this great science, as though he was capable himself of vindicating his rights with physical power. Extending our thoughts a little wider, we go to the local communities in which we live all regulated by the law. We extend them to the state, that first manifestation of sovereignty growing out of the aggregation of men. We still extend in this country beyond the state to that grand association of states grand association of great governments that cluster around the federal government, and along with and in addition to all the ADDRESS OF R. P. RAXXEY 35 great principles that experience and reflection for centuries have defined as belonging to the natural law, enforced by the municipal law, in addition to all the learning required to understand them properly, we come to that great field in this country of constitu- tional law the relation of the states to the federal government, and of the federal government to the states ; and nobody ever practices law extensively that he does not pass from the lowest form of social organization and its legal regulation, on, on, to the great questions that involve the powers of states and federal governments, as bearing upon individual rights. Again, in modern times more particularly, the lawyer may be called, and is often called to determine what are the rights of a nation as between it and other nations, resting upon treaties, and resting still more broadly upon that great system of international law, which, founded upon the laws of nature, enforces those laws in the conduct even of nations with each other. I only mention this, gentlemen, for the purpose of coming to the point of impressing you for a moment with the importance of the position you hold in society, with the confidence that has been reposed in you by the law-making power, and to ask of you to meet the requirements which this confidence imposes, in the first place, by determining for yourselves and enforcing in a peremp- tory manner the introduction of members into this body. The law is not, in one sense, what it has 1 been, even within the recollection of many before me. The study of the law, the teach- ing requisite to bring one to the bar, even within my own recol- lection, was quite a different matter from what it has come to be in later times. The whole system of fictions and technicalities which enveloped, and, in my judgment, marred the beauty and symmetry of this great science, has almost passed away. We pay no attention -to forms, except so far as forms may be necessary to impress in clear and explicit language the rights which nature and the municipal law confer upon individuals, and to complain of the deprivation, or encroachment upon those rights. That is all the remedial law really now that falls within the sphere of the stu- dent in qualifying himself to come forward and assume the high positions which a membership at the bar imposes. We have come 36 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION then really down to the science of the law, to an understanding of its great principles, to an understanding of the infinite almost, which relation man may bear to man, of the rights which each in- dividual, as against every other individual, is entitled to assert for himself his rights of person ; his rights to property, and his rights to maintain his reputation and everything else in the world that you can conceive of that he holds dear. An education, therefore, for the bar now, should be of the same character as the education conferred in the higher institutions of the country, in any of the great sciences which have received such an impetus, and which now are so generally brought home to all cultivated and educated men. The law r has not been at a standstill during all these years, while everything around us has been moving. The great science, with its fundamental princi- ples, it is true, has remained the same ; but in the multiplied rela- tions which men have assumed during this long period of time in society, these principles have extended until they embrace every possible relation that man, individually or acting collectively, can sustain to his fellow man. During this time, as you are perfectly well aware, there has been progress in most of the sciences that has astonished the world. \Yhile the naturalist has been, through ingenuity and indefatigable research, discovering worlds of ani- mated life beyond the ken of our natural eyesight, and while the astronomer, on the other hand, to go from small things to great, has been completely mapping the heavens and describing per- fectly the innumerable bodies that float through space, while even the sun has been compelled to give up its secret as to its compo- sition and matter ; while these things have been going on and are familiarly taught in the great institutions of the country, the law also has been marching forward, and has, if the bar will make it so, attained a position, which, in point of importance from every point of view, is vastly superior, vastly more useful, more neces- sary to mankind than any of the advances that have been made in these sciences. The student, therefore, of the future, the lawyer of the future, must be the man who can stand upon a science applied to man in society, and understand the great principle? which underlie his profession rather than the man who is familiar ADDRESS OF R. P. RANNEY 37 with forms only, and has a very poor appreciation of the princi- ples of the science which he is called upon to administer. It is therefore, as it seems to me, the duty of the members of the bar to use all the influence they possess to make the bar of the future, your associates for a time, and your successors in the ad- ministration of these great trusts in this state, worthy of the state, worthy of its population, and able to meet and perform the great obligation which the position imposes upon them. It will therefore, I presume, be thought necessary by the gentlemen of the bar assembled, to come to a rational and clear understanding as to what ought to be the qualifications of those who are to be hereafter admitted to the bar. Let me be understood not as expecting that those who come to the bar should come there fully armed with the knowledge that covers such a vast field as this in all its details. I perfectly well know, and no one knows better than I, that the bar must be re- plenished from what we denominate the subordinate walks of life young men emanating from it with very few advantages ex- cept those which are seized by themselves and utilized, and thus by their own exertions bringing themselves forward to the quali- fications for the high standing which the bar ought to have. I only require that before one takes upon his hands the admin- istration of the great trusts which involve the rights of the widow and the orphan, the rich and the poor, the great and the small, he shall be competent to begin the task, at least, which the business of his life imposes upon him, and above all that it shall be carefully seen that he comes with that ambition which from day to day adds to his knowledge of this great science, and brings that integrity above all things upon which all men may rely. Another great duty devolved upon the bar, if it will maintain its credit and character and be worthy of the position it occupies in the state, is to see that those members that prove unworthy of exercising these high trusts are excluded from their body. You can not bring vice and incompetency up ; they simply drag you down, and the bar will manifest itself to the community as worthv to be trusted when the community sees that it deals with 38 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION an unsparing hand with those who abuse the high trust which the position imposes upon them. I do not expect that the bar is ever going to be clothed with the power which carries into effect its determinations in this re- gard, but its resolutions are none the less important to bring be- fore the constituted tribunals every delinquent in its ranks, and set him outside of it. This is due to the position they occupy to the public ; it is clue to the state that honors them with the commission they bear ; it is due to that confidence which the state reposes in them in giving them access alone to the tribunals of justice for the trials and ascertainment of the rights of individuals. I do not pretend myself to dictate nor even suggest what course the convention shall take in respect to any of these questions. That is for the convention itself, when organized, to determine. I only make these few suggestions that are uppermost in my own mind, and having the credit of the bar at heart, having spent my life- time within her portals, and expecting to die in the harness, I only desire that the bar shall do itself justice, and in doing itself justice shall do all men justice, and shall honor and respond to the confidence which the state reposes in it as the great instrument it uses to approach its courts and to have justice done to its people. There is one other thing, gentlemen, aside from what I have been saying as to the duties and responsibilities which are im- posed upon the bar that I will simply mention, not because in all my life long I have seen any dereliction upon the part of the members of the bar in that direction. The poor, the unfortunate, the ignorant, those who can not take care of themselves, will abound in every community, and be found by every lawyer in every community. It is a beautiful feature, therefore, of the ac- tion of the bar and its members that when they find cases of that sort they should extend that charity which all men owe to all men, and that they should never turn away from a man who needs their advice to set him in the right, or who needs their efforts to vindicate the plain rights he may have because he is not able to pay for it. They should feel a pride in their own way, not being extraordinarily blessed with this world's goods, of diffusing ADDRESS OF R. P. RAXXEV 39 through the poor and unfortunate parts of the community that knowledge and exertion which peculiarly belongs to them, and, as I have said, as they alone can be relied upon to carry home to the benefit of the masses of the people. I have never seen any reluc- tance to do this, but really I would as soon justify a doctor who should turn away from the sick child of a widow because she could not pay his fee, and leave it to die, as I would a lawyer who had it in his power to set the poor man right, or, if it need be, to vindi- cate his rights through the tribunals of the country. One other thing, gentlemen of the bar, permit me simply to mention and call to your attention, without expressing any opin- ions of my own upon it, and it seems to me it is a subject which ought to engage your serious and early attention. The lawyer, better than anybody else, knows what is the working of a judicial system, and everybody else has a right everybody who wields political power, either through the intervention of the people di- rectly or through their representatives in the general assembly, has a right to know what this experience on the part of the mem- bers of the bar has demonstrated whether evil exists, and if evil exists, what is the appropriate remedy. In one respect, it must be evident to every member of the bar (and I state a fact which is equally well known to every member of the bar), the administration of civil justice in Ohio has come to be very unsatisfactory, especially in the appellate courts. I know of no state in which the disposition of business is so long delayed as in the state of Ohio. I am told by those who have the best means of knowing, that ordinarily a case commencing in the courts of common pleas and taking its way, as every controverted case may, through all the courts in which it can go, stands a very small chance of being finally determined before five or six years after its commencement. Our constitution has declared now for more than three-quarters of a century that the courts should be opened and justice should be administered without denial or de- lay ; and while I do not suppose that in the very nature of the business perfect promptitude in the disposition of all cases can be expected, I still think it to be a very great abuse and a very great dereliction of duty on the part of the people of the state, or their 4O OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION representatives, that such a state of things should continue as that parties can not realize the justice they seek short of such an interminable delay. It is productive not only of the greatest pos- sible inconvenience, but productive also of ruin to a numerous class of suitors. In the regular transaction of the business of the country, we think that a settlement each year a bringing up of the business of the year seeing how we stand at the end of the year is due to any energy or enterprise in the prosecution of a business ; and it should be equally so with the business transacted in the courts. They should be put upon such a footing that, at least for the mass of the business that comes into it, the year shall terminate the controversies that the year has begun. To stand by for five or six years, embitter neighborhoods with controversy and litigation, make those who are deprived of their rights wait and wait before they can know whether they are worth anything or not, or before the property which may be the subject of con- troversy can be disposed of in any way to support even the widow and the children that may be left by the father to enjoy it I say to allow such a state of things to continue is certainly a very great abuse. Now, it is in the very nature of the lawyer that he does not try to shrink from nor cover up evils of this kind. Openly stated, openly discussed, openly made known to the people of the state, I have not the slightest idea but that the people of the state, or their legislature, if the remedy lies in that direction, will be found perfectly ready at once to correct this great perversion of one of the fundamental propositions of their own constitution ; and I, therefore, invite the members of the bar to an attentive consideration of this most important subject, to find, in the first place, where the fault lies, in what it consists, and then with that manhood which forever characterizes them, and that courage which they are displaying every day of their lives, to go to the people or to the constituted authorities, and laying bare the truth of the case, call for the correction of the great evil to which I have alluded. It will also undoubtedly occur to the members of the bar when assembled in this manner, and when consulting with each other and getting the aggregate sense of the bar, that an examination ADDRESS OF R. P. RAXNEY 4! of our statutes regulating the practice in our courts should re- ceive their attentive consideration. I am pretty seriously im- pressed myself with the belief that some amendments in that re- spect are imperatively needed. I am impressed with the belief that there is too much machinery about our system machinery productive of delay and expense and often of injustice and that really the remedy which the lawyer who is imbued with a love of the great science he is called upon to administer will find will be a simplification of the modes of procedure so as to bring them the most clearly within the comprehension of the great masses of the people, for therein is to consist the great beauty of this science in the future, and the great strength of those who administer it. It is that they will be relieved from falling back upon mysteries and technicalities and fictions that people do not understand, or if they understand can not approve falling back upon those grand principles of right and obligation which constitute the great body of this science, and which ennoble every man who has any- thing to do with its administration. Let me add one word. The practice of the law, not only all ex- perience shows, but all theory would lead to the same result, can not do otherwise than make those who assiduously pursue it in its true spirit better men continually, as well as stronger and more in- telligent men. It is impossible that one can devote his life to the examination, comprehension and systematizing of a great body of natural law carried into municipal regulation without enlarging his understanding, and without binding him as "by hooks of steel" to those great principles which the Creator has impressed upon all his works. It is impossible that one can devote his whole life to the devel- opment of facts through such rules and principles as the laws of evidence prescribe, bringing to his aid every fact and circum- stance, often remote, that bears upon the elucidation and truth of any given proposition I say it is perfectly impossible that he should go through his life summoning to his aid all this glorious connection which the Creator has placed between things remote and things nearer, and not come out in the end a greater lover of 42 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION truth than any man can be who has not passed through such an experience. And now, gentlemen, I beg your pardon for detaining you any time in uttering these scattered thoughts of mine, but I leave you to reflect, I leave you to consider whether your own interests, the interests of those who are leaning upon you, as the whole com- munity does and must, the interests of the great state you in- habit, its honor and glory, do not all demand that you should con- cur, after full discussion and full understanding, in supplying worthy associates while you live and in providing worthy suc- cessors when you and I have passed away in bringing to the bar and to the administration of this great science men who are worthy to carry upon their shoulders the great responsibilities it imposes and the high confidence the community repose in them, and whether, with this sort of feeling, you are going to permit that the wolves who find their way into your flock shall remain there, not only to degrade and disgrace you, but to prey upon a confiding community who have set you as sentinels upon the watchtower to warn them against the depredations of such per- sons, and whether you will not deem it a matter of honor, duty and conscience alike to see that the bar is purified brought down to its worthy members and very careful to see that there is no introduction of persons hereafter into the body that are not able to discharge these great and important trusts in a conscientious and enlightened manner. ADDRESS OF STANLEY MATTHEWS The honor of an invitation to take the part assigned me in these proceedings was one that I could not afford to decline, at whatever cost of labor or personal inconvenience, and at whatever peril of reputation in not proving equal to the expectation of the occasion ; for I could not but regard it as a marked professional distinction, awarded by professional brethren, bearing upon it the specific stamp and value of their good will and appreciation. Nevertheless, its acceptance involved embarrassments, and of these not the least, perhaps, was that it furnished no guidance as to the selection of topics for this introduction, except what might be inferred from the scope and nature of the occasion itself. We have been called together as members of the bar from every part of our good commonwealth, upon the invitation of our breth- ren in this beautiful and flourishing city, to inaugurate a State Bar Association ; to form an organization of the profession throughout the state, which shall thoroughly and efficiently em- body and develop its corporate life and spirit. Local associations of this character, germs of the proposed association, have existed among us in several important centers of activity for many years, and have exhibited vitality enough at least for their own preservation. Now that seems strong enough for propagation. The fact of their existence would seem to imply a reason for existing. At any rate, as in other similar cases, the fact will stand instead of the reason, until the latter is discovered in the utilities it will disclose and supply. Life is no accident, either in individuals or organizations of individuals. Its reality is proof of its necessity and value, and justifies itself eventually by experience and in history. Following the analogies of our political system, and meeting a necessity created by it, there was established two years ago, under the name of the American Bar Association, a national 44 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION organization intended to embrace representatives of the profes- sion from every locality in the country. Its third annual meeting- will be held in Saratoga during the month of August next, where its two preceding sessions have been held. Its constitution de- clares that "Its object shall be to advance the science of jurisprudence, promote the administration of justice and uniformity of legisla- tion throughout the union, uphold the honor of the profession of the law and encourage cordial intercourse among the members of the American bar." It already embraces in its membership a considerable number of eminent lawyers from widely separated portions of the country, and seems to be a growing center of professional interest, as it will no doubt prove to be a useful and efficient agency of profes- sional improvement and reform in the directions indicated by its constitution. By its action the attention of the profession through- out the country has already been called to several important re- forms to be undertaken for the improvement of the law. Among these are proper and concurrent legislation by the several states to secure uniformity in the acknowledgment and authentication of deeds and other instruments affecting real estate, and in the mode of executing and attesting wills ; also the enactment of laws for assimilating throughout the Union, on principles of comity, the standing of members of the bar, already admitted to practice in their own states, by admitting to equal rights and privileges as practitioners of law in the courts of all the other states those who have practiced for three years in the highest court of the state of which they are citizens ; and also the maintenance, under pub- lic authority and regulation, of schools of law, with a view r to pro- mote a higher professional education and standard of professional qualification in candidates for admission to practice law. The spirit of association in our profession, therefore, seems quite general. There are many reasons why it should be so, and why it should be acknowledged and encouraged. It is indeed but a rival of an inherited tendency. The bar of England that most illustrious body of well-trained men. who have wrought so usefully and so conspicuously in the gradual construction of the ADDRESS OF STANLEY MATTHEWS 4^ best civilization of the age, whose traditions we follow, whose language we speak, whose system of jurisprudence we administer, whose precedents are our authorities is to-day the only survivor of the mediaeval guilds that retains, untouched by the chances and changes of time, its ancient and original privileges and preroga- tives : chiefly the right of admitting and excluding from admission to its own membership. Xo man can be admitted to practice law in England except by the bar of England. Its home and schools are still, as for hundreds of years they have been, in the beautiful temples by the Thames, the ancient seats of Christian knights, whose spirit of chivalry and charity and justice to the poor and weak still inspires the locality, and survives in the tour- naments and jousts and peaceful strifes and contests of high- minded lawyers, honorably maintaining their opposing sides, but, nevertheless, fighting in the same great cause of civil justice under a common banner Suiiiu cuiqnc tribncrc. The vast extent of the field of jurisprudence, covered by the jurisdiction of the British judicial tribunals and embraced conse- quently in the course of investigation of every student of English law, is illustrated constantly in the judgments of the judicial com- mittee of the privy council. A recent decision of that tribunal, upon an appeal from a sentence of the vice admiralty court of Sierra Leone, in the case of a Portuguese brig, seized in the harbor of Freetown, in that colon}-, on the ground that she was engaged in the slave trade and liable to forfeiture, was reported in the Lon- don Times. The comments of that paper upon the exercise of that jurisdiction are striking and worthy of reproduction. It said : "There is another and wider aspect of the case which is not unworthy of a few moments' attention. It illustrates in a strik- ing manner the vast and varied jurisdiction of the privy council. To this supreme tribunal a legal epitome of the British Empire in all its variety and extent there come from time to time cases to be decided according to the principles of almost every body of laws in the world. At one time there may come an appeal from India which carries us back in its pleadings and recitals to the oldest institutions of the Aryan race : at another a case from our youngest colony may call for an application of the 46 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION newest principles of the most advanced jurisprudence: Canada may furnish a case in which the ancient feudal law of France is involved, while the courts of admiralty beyond the seas send up from time to time intricate questions of maritime law and inter- national jurisprudence. In fact, if the theory and history of law could be learnt from its practice, the judicial committee of the privy council ought to be the greatest school of comparative jurisprudence in the world. As a general rule, however, a few lines of highly technical report are all that the public at large ever learns or perhaps cares to learn of a case which has traveled from some remote Indian village to the capital of the British empire, and which if it were fully unfolded would be found to contain the history and explain the meaning of some of the earliest institutions of the human race. The existence of such a tribunal is without parallel in the history of the world. Rome itself had no such empire as that of England, nor was the juris- prudence of Rome as flexible and as tolerant of local variations as is that of modern times. Every country and every age, almost, it may be said, every phase of organized society, has contributed its share to the splendid mosaic of jurisprudence administered by the judicial committee of the privy council. There is scarcely an institution which has ever left its mark on mankind whose history would not be found to be involved in some one or another of the decisions of that supreme tribunal. It may seem a long way, perhaps, from the seizure of a reputed slaver in an African port to comparative view of legal systems and a survey of human institutions. But the jurisdiction of the privy council covers the whole distance, for its judicial functions have hardly any practical limit. It is hardly paradoxical to say that a mere enumeration of the causes decided by this tribunal in a single decade would fur- nish to those who are at the pains to understand it a picture of the British empire as comprehensive and complete as any that has ever yet been drawn or imagined." A glance at our own complex system of state and national juris- diction will help to deepen the impression as to the vastness and variety of the intellectual exercises of an American lawyer. Here we see in everv state this same svstem of English common law. in ADDRESS OF STANLEY MATTHEWS 47 force and vigor, modified by local circumstances and legislation, working its applications in every part of the community and adapting itself to every social change, unfolding and developing with every growth of our times, giving rise daily to the most novel and interesting questions of practical justice, to be solved by the knowledge and skill of court and counsel. Each state has its own jurisdiction, to which that of all others is foreign, and thus we have a system of international rights within our own national domain. Many of them are coordinated by the supreme law of national authority, and we have a system of jurisprudence to which the states themselves are subject. Complementing our con- stitutional jurisprudence with that which is based on strictly in- ternational relations, and we have a world-wide system in which there is mingled, with the common law of England, elements from the civil law of France and Spain as it prevailed in Florida, the Louisiana territory, Texas, California and the Mexican provinces, the mining customs of the districts where gold and silver are the principal products, and questions ultimately, if not soon, to arise out of the peculiarities of our relation to the Indian tribes within our borders, we can not say any longer upon our frontiers. But an adequate and satisfactory view of the universal field of jurisprudence can be obtained only by a complete and method- ical analysis. Sir John Fortescue, in the I3th Chapter DC Landibns Legiiin Anglias, says : "The law under which the people is incorporated may be compared to the nerves or sinews of the body natural ; for as by these the whole frame is fitly joined together and compacted, so is the law that ligament (to go back to the truest derivation of the word, Ic.v a Uganda) by which the body politic and all its sev- eral members are bound together and united in one entire body. And as the bones and all the other members of the body preserve their functions and discharge their several offices by the nerves, so do the members of the community by the law. And as the head of the body natural can not change its nerves or sinews, can not deny to the several parts their proper energy, their due proportion and aliment of blood, neither can a king, who is the head of a body 48 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION politic, change the laws thereof, nor take from the people what is theirs by right, against their consent." In the same vein is the memorable sentence of the judicious Hooker, the eloquence of which is not diminished by familiarity: "Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world ; all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempt from her power ; both angels and men and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy." Jurisprudence is both the philosophy and the science of law. Law, as the subject-matter of jurisprudence, is the body of rules regulating the relative rights and duties of men in society, de- clared and politically enforced by public authority. As a branch of philosophy, jurisprudence is concerned with the origin of law, its nature, and its connection with the other phenomena which make up the universe. As a science it classifies into system the body of our knowledge acquired by a study of its actual de- velopment and history, and traces the principles which connect its various results. As philosophy, it teaches the theory of all possi- ble law ; as science, it teaches the facts and principles of all actual law. Jurisprudence, regarded as a whole, comprises not only a study of what the law is and has been, but what it would be if the prin- ciples to be extracted from it were correctly worked out. It permits us to test those principles themselves by a standard ex- ternal to them by our abstract notions of what is right and reasonable, by our observation of what is useful, by the visible wants and tendencies of society. "It may be said of laws that mankind have but one law, though every nation has had its own system of laws. For positive law is not essentially a simple col- lection of isolated rules and ordinances, arbitrary or conventional in their nature, but it is a system exhibiting, amid all its variations in time and place, invariable and fixed principles and relations which constitute the foundation or identical part of all laws ; that is to say, universal or natural law." (II Law Mag. and Rev., ADDRESS OF STANLEY MATTHEWS 49 Lond. N. S., 548.) "For as reason and reflection are natural to man, and are as important parts of his nature as the highest of its instincts, so laws founded on the right exercise of that reason are natural laws in the best and highest sense of all." ( Duke of Arjyle, Reign of Law.) The nature of man as a rational and moral creature points out the ends and objects of his existence on earth, and the means furnished by external nature by which, in the exercises of his activities in society, they may be attained, and in the progressive exercise of these activities establishes the various relations which bind together and classify mankind in a social order. Arising out of the nature of men, and in its relations to the physical and moral universe, and developed in history in the progressive cul- ture of the race, jurisprudence may be traced and studied both deductively and historically. The conclusions reached by this double analysis, and reconciled, constitute the science. Law and government appear as facts in human history simultaneously. They never exist apart, and from their nature can not. it being the very office of the government to declare and enforce the law, consisting of those rules of conduct which are enforceable and actually enforced by that public authority embodied in govern- ment. Law and government are therefore correlates. Each im- plies the other. From the simplest to the most complex political organizations the family, the tribe, the nation as society de- velops historically, law is always present ; but in the logical order its idea is prior, for governments exist in order that law may be declared and enforced. The study of human nature gives rise to the conception of a moral order, the realization of which constitutes man's high- est good, and the pursuits of which employ all his activities. It constitutes the final cause of man's existence, the purpose and perfection of his being, his end and destiny. \Yhatever con- forms to that moral order is right; whatever violates it is wrong. Subsidiary to that conception of universal moral order, and forming parts of it, through the medium of which in combination it is to be realized, are subordinate conceptions of the human rea- son, declaring and defining the relations of men with each other 4 5O OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION in society, of men with each other in relation to external nature, and to the universe of things material, intellectual and moral. Illustrations of these are conceptions of the family, the state, of property, of contract, etc. To conform to that universal moral or- der that is, to do whatever is right and avoid whatever is wrong the nature of man recognizes as his duty, which at trie same time he is conscious, by virtue of the freedom of his will, that he may choose not to perform, the exercise of which in that way, however, he feels to be a breach of an obligation. The conception of this moral order binding him, as a rational free agent to its observance, is the idea of morality, the rules of which, analyzed and classi- fied, constitute the science of ethics ; and those rules, habitually practiced, are named virtues ; their habitual violations, vices. Among virtues we find that of justice, which is defined to be the habitual disposition to render every man his due ; and those claims, whatever they may be, which belong to man as matters of justice, are called rights. The duties resting on all to render to each his rights are called obligations, the violations of them wrongs : the relations between men thus established are distinguished as jural. Rights differ from other moral claims of men upon each other in this that the latter are duties, depending for their fulfillment altogether upon the good will of those bound by them ; the for- mer carry with them a claim to be enforced by physical compul- sion. But as the mind of man is not the subject of physical force, the rights which are susceptible of being enforced must be such only as constitute claims upon the external conduct or overt acts of others ; but for the purpose of determining the moral qualities of these it often becomes necessary to investigate the mental condition of the agent at the time of their commission, as in ques- tions of motive, intention, negligence, sanity, intoxication, nonage, etc. And the physical force required for their enforcement is furnished by the public authority, representing the rational will of the community in the administration of law. That public au- thority, organized in every separate, independent community constituting a state or nation, is its political and civil government; and to it is referred the determination, from time to time in each successive stage of its history, of the question, \vhat are the just ADDRESS OF STANLEY MATTHEWS 51 and natural moral claims of each member of society upon all, which it will enforce as legal rights ? And its declarations to that effect are the positive laws of that state. The supreme public authority inherent in every independent state or nation, whereby it organizes its political and civil government, is called sover- eignty, and the mode in which the government exercises the powers of sovereignty is its constitution. There are no legal limits to sovereign power, for it declares what the law is ; it is bound only by moral restraints ; but the constitution of a state may impose legal limitations upon the government, and this gives rise to public or constitutional law. There is, however, a supreme law which binds and restrains the sovereignty of individual states. It is the law of nations, or international law. It consists of a body of rules regulating the relative rights and duties of independent nations in that mutual intercourse demanded by the progressive advancement of human society. It is the application of the right reason and cultivated conscience of mankind to the relations of men organized into separate and independent communities and as subjects of distinct sovereignties. It is developed by diplomatic discussions and state papers; by the decisions of judicial tribunals in private contro- versies, where the litigants have no common municipal superior ; by the treatises of philosophical jurists, and is embodied in a tra- ditionary code of international usage and the modifying legislation of treaties and conventions. It is not, as has sometimes been said, without a sanction ; for, although sovereign nations recognize no common superior with power to prescribe the rules of their con- duct, nevertheless, each sovereign is a public authority, which by resort to the ultima ratio of just war, is entitled, according to the public opinion of the civilized world, to enforce the commands of the international law, any breach of which, though directly injurious to but one, is also an offense against the rights and peace of all. Every individual member of human society is under a moral necessity that is, owes the duty by the rational exercise of his will to conform to the universal moral order by the habitual observance of all the rules of morality and practice of those vir- 52 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION tues which constitute the ideal excellence of life and character, and is, therefore, not only entitled, but required by the constitu- tion of his nature to employ the means necessary to enable him to perform that duty. The means to this end are furnished by the organization of mankind in society, and the material for its de- velopment provided by the material universe with which he is placed in contact or connection. But both duties to attain the end and use the means rest equally on all, and the liberty of each man's will in the pursuit of his highest good is limited by the proper exercise of the wills of all others. The harmony of this co- existence is the establishment of civil and social order, which is the sphere and scope of human freedom, personal, civil and polit- ical, being liberty regulated by law, the principle of which is equality in right. The perfection of civil order, it is manifest, therefore, con- sists in the largest liberty of individual action compatible with equal liberty to all others that is, compatible with the general good, and the question requiring solution in every case as it arises or is foreseen is, to what extent is public authority justified in imposing physical - restraint upon, or applying physical coercion to individual action? It has been found hitherto impossible to announce any principle which will theoretically answer that ques- tion for all cases. There has been found, indeed, as yet no com- mon agreement as to the true principle on which the public au- thority intervenes forcibly at all. Some ground it on the principle of self-defense, some on the preservation of the status quo, some on the abstract nature and quality of rights as enforceable, some on the application of the maxim, "Do as you would be done by," others by the principle that one may prevent what will make his physical condition less comfortable than it is by nature ; but the opinion most generally received is, that the proper limit of the law, as the applied or threatened public force, is in every case a question to be determined by the cultivated reason and enlightened conscience of mankind, testing and correcting their conclusions by progressive experience as it advances in civilization, resorting to expediency and utility, not as the standard and measure of truth, but as its evidence and confirmation, seeking the perfection ADDRESS OF STANLEY MATTHEWS 53 of man in the historical realization in human society of ideal justice. Consequently every system of civilized jurisprudence will be found to contain two elements one deduced by the public rea- son from the general principles of natural justice, the other dog- matically fixed by recognized custom or by express legislation and affected by the peculiarities of national character, history and situation. ' The latter is arbitrary, accidental and positive ; the former is its rational element and unchangeable foundation. "It would be hard," says Burke, "to point out any error more truly subversive of all the order and beauty, of all the peace and happi- ness of human society than the position that any body of men have a right to make what laws they please or that laws can derive any authority whatever from their institution merely, and inde- pendent of the quality of their subject-matter. All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory. They may alter the mode and application, but have no power over the substance of original justice." Jurisprudence, then, is distinguished from ethics as a part is from the whole, being one of the branches of that larger and more comprehensive department of human knowledge. On the other hand, its own province includes: i. Natural law, or that theory of human relations, and the rights and obligations implied in them, deducible from the nature of man and the things around him, and of which his social and individual advancement require the enforcement, if necessary, by physical power. 2. Interna- tional law, or that body of rules deducible from the relations of men, organized into separate and independent communities and which are applied ( I ) to regulate the intercourse of sovereign states, and of which the ultimate sanction is just war; (2) to de- termine the rights and obligations arising between individuals considered as subjects of separate sovereign jurisdictions by ju- dicial tribunals acting and deciding on private controversies. The former is called public international law. the latter private inter- national law. 3. Public or constitutional law. or that body of customary or enacted rules which form the frame of political government or constitution of the state, prescribing the divisions 54 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION of political power, the functions of public authorities and the rela- tive rights and duties of the national government and the subjects of its jurisdiction. 4. [Municipal law, or the domestic law of particular states, prescribing the relative rights and obligations of all persons subject to its jurisdiction as members of that separate community. Examples of this are found in the Roman law, con- spicuously called the civil law, which forms the base of the civil rights and duties of a large number of the modern states, in which it has been preserved since the days of the supremacy of the Roman empire ; and the common law of England, which consists chiefly of a body of principles applied in the historical develop- ment of the English-speaking people, embodied in traditional customs, deduced by judicial practice and decision by the applica- tion of reason to the varied and multiplying relations of men and things in communities remarkable for vigorous and continuous growth, and from time to time supplemented by express legisla- tion. The canon law also constitutes part of the municipal law of those states where it is or has been organized, being originally a body of rules established by the ecclesiastical authority of the Christian church, acting with civil power over certain matters claimed by it to be, by reason of their spiritual nature, exclusively within that jurisdiction; but since, in accordance with more en- lightened views as to the true division of the civil and spiritual authority, adopted by the civil power of the state as part of the body of its municipal law. Under the head of municipal law is to be found the whole body of authoritative rules regulating the per- sonal status of the individual members of the state, and the rela- tions annexed to and growing out of it, with the corresponding rights and obligations, such as husband and wife, parent and child, etc. ; also the relations of men to one another, as constituted by contract, property, and all those civil relations which are based on their mutual intercourse. A large part of ever}- such system be- comes law by the unconscious operation of social instincts, growing into habitual observances, thus forming what is known as custom- ary law, which became scientifically developed by a long series of judicial decisions, making new applications of recognized princi- ples, discovering new principles by the analogy of reason, and ADDRESS OF STANLEY MATTHEWS 55 supplied, as necessity or convenience requires, by the aid of ex- press legislation. When the mass and body of municipal law, thus built up, has grown enormous, confused and unwieldy, a comprehensive legislation reduces it to the written form of a code, such as those of Justinian and Napoleon, on which, as on a new foundation, the work of development begins again. In presenting the analysis of the general subject of jurispru- dence, with a view and survey of its different departments, ab- stract and metaphysical as it may appear, I have not been unmindful of the entirely practical nature of the objects and purposes we are now contemplating. As I regard them, they may be summed up to be the improvement of the law as a prac- tical system of administration, and the improvement of ourselves and our successors in the knowledge and practice of it. The attainment of the objects require the adoption of certain definite and practical measures improvements in legislation, in judicial procedure, in the constitution of the courts, in the tenure of the judicial office, possibly in the mode of appointment and the scale of compensation for judicial service, in the transaction of judicial business, and the suppression of frivolous litigation and the speeding of judgment in that which is important and neces- sary. These and other equally important matters of detail will undoubtedly, each in its turn, claim and receive its due share of attention. But there are considerations more vital and fundamental, which affect the entire question, and form the basis for the whole move- ment. In my view the first of these is that its success can only be founded on the support of an enlightened public opinion. The judges and the lawyers can by themselves do but little to influence and inform that. And in order to do that successfully, the peo- ple, whose sympathy, support and approval we must have, must have intelligent judgments on the subject. They must learn the character of the system they are asked to support ; they must be convinced that .the business in which we are engaged is that of doing justice between men ; that it is the chief business of society, and the most important, if not the sole function of government, 56 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION and one in which each individual has the most immediate and direct personal interest. To do this we must show that the law is not arbitrary, artificial, and technical, lending itself as often to wrong and violence and fraud as defending the weakness of the right ; that, on the contrary, it is the highest reason, the most enlightened moral sense, the wisest justice, the indispensable com- fort and solace for all oppression and wrong. This can best be done by exhibiting it in its essential principles, illustrated by the judicial history of its development and expansion, and in the com- mon and usual, as well as extraordinary and signal, examples of its application in the daily life of men. And this work can be further advanced by the improvement in excellence of the profes- sional conduct and character of those who administer it, both as judges and as lawyers. Nothing will tend so strongly to elevate the standard of that character as thorough knowledge and train- ing in the primal principles of jurisprudence. No man, in my judgment, can be considered as a model lawyer, who does not habitually seek the solution of legal difficulties by a careful and thorough application to the circumstances and relations of men of the rules and principles of natural justice and immutable morality. And they can usually be solved with most success by an original study and analysis of the case, in the light of these principles. The study of decided cases and of systematic treatises is valuable as a guide to the knowledge of these principles, of the best methods of investigating and applying them, and particularly in training and disciplining the mind of the student and practi- tioner in the practical knowledge of the modes by which they limit each other, a knowledge of which is the foundation of all sound judgment, safe advice, and wise and just determination. But a memory of instances, no matter how full, retentive, and obedient, and a fancy for illustration and analogy, no matter how rich and brilliant, can never supply to the judge or advocate that safe and sure guide to truth and justice, which is furnished by a luminous apprehension of the relations between the parties to a transaction and the obligations which natural and right reason deduces for them, for on these rest the \vhole fabric of the law. Of course there are, alwavs have been, and will long: continue ADDRESS OF STANLEY MATTHEWS 57 to be, many miscarriages of justice, just as there are many disap- pointments in nature and in life. But the direction and tendency are right, and the approximation is steady and constant. Our purpose to-day is to pledge our mutual cooperation in the search for and perfection of ideal justice, vindicated among men by the establishment and practice of righteousness in human relations and transactions, and illustrated in the sincerity, unself- ishness and probity of those who are called to share in its admin- istration. REMARKS OF R. P. RANNEY. MR. PRESIDENT I desire to say a few words upon the resolu- tion of Judge Lawrence and this substitute. I do not desire, gen- tlemen, to make any remarks upon these proposed resolutions with a view to urging the association to any immediate action upon the subject. I quite concur in the policy of referring the matter to the committee, as has been suggested, with a view to report from that committee after very mature consideration of the subject. That committee, however, and the association after- ward, when called upon to act upon any project which they may bring forward, should do so with a full understanding of the bearings of the question in all its parts, and with a full under- standing of the wishes of the bar of the state, for upon unanimity in the bar of the state will depend the success of any reform that is proposed. Now, in the first place, in this, as in all other matters, we ought to be well assured that a grievance exists before we go to talking about reforming it. The matter has been alluded to so by differ- ent members of the association that I shall take no time in estab- lishing the fact that our judicial system is working very badly, in the matter of producing unendurable delays in the administration of justice. I think every member of the bar knows that, and if the community do not know it as well as they should, it is cer- tainly because the facts have not been brought to their attention. I do not concur with Judge Lawrence in supposing that when the people of the state are advised of the actual situation of affairs, and of the character of the abuse, as I look upon it, they will refuse or be reluctant to adopt anything that remedies the evil and places the administration of justice in Ohio upon a solid and satisfactory footing. I have not any such opinion of the peo- ple of the state, from all I have learned of them or know about them in the long time that I have been acquainted with very many of them. But it will be found to be entirely indispensable that REMARKS OF R. P. RAXXKV 59 the members of the bar, who call for an amendment of the con- stitution, or who call for legislation that shall increase the judicial force, or materially change the present arrangements, shall be able to give, not alone to the members of the bar. but to the people of the state, to the judges on the bench, and to everybody inter- ested in the administration of justice, very good and solid reasons why they should act. Now, what is the abuse? Our judicial system, as at present working, without imputing any fault to anybody connected with it, is certainly productive of such delays as are a flat violation of the pledge of the state to the people, that justice shall be ad- ministered without delay. Indeed, the delays are so great that in very many instances they work a total denial of justice, or render unimportant to the parties who are originally deeply in- terested in controversies, the results after a lapse of years. And now, how much time does it take really because we may talk loosely about this subject how much time does it take really. when you exercise your utmost diligence, to have it determined in the state of Ohio whether a man has rights or not whether they are to be accorded to him or refused him ? How much time does it really take? I hold in my hand a record with which I have been concerned myself a case originating in this county. which was commenced in the superior court of this city in November, 18/3. ^ concerned a tract of land in which widows and children were alone interested ; and it remained suspended from that time down to a week or two ago. when it came to a final decision in the supreme court between six and seven years. You may think that some of us were negligent and inefficient in carrying the case forward and obtaining the judgment of the sev- eral courts into which it had gone. Any such supposition would be very far from the fact. In the first place, the case stood upon a demurrer ; no delay on account of witnesses or sickness of par- ties or anything of the kind. In the next place, I represented widows and children who were dependent upon the very property in litigation for their daily bread, or rather the necessity of con- verting it into something to furnish their daily bread, and they have not omitted to inform me. rather oftener than has been 60 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION agreeable, that the case ought to be decided, and to urge me by every means in my power to put it forward. I have done so. I have followed it straight along as fast as the wheels of the judicial machinery would permit me to do, and finally it came to a deci- sion in the supreme court not complaining of the decision here and was reversed. The property was taken away from my clients so far as the decision has gone. The case now comes back. Well, I shall struggle for other defenses. I shall not give it up if I can help it. The result is that now it starts back anew on its travels, and with the present prospects before one, it can not be expected that any less time will be embraced than before ; and if it shall take another seven years to run the rounds to have it determined whether these widows and children own this land or whether the claimants of it are entitled to it, I beg you to reflect about how much use will it be to the widows and children or to anybody else by the time we get to a final decision of the contro- versy. It is said often that those people who go to law may very well wait long : that honest people are at work on their farms or else- where, and that, therefore, the litigants have no great claim on the public for going to increased expense to expedite the decision of their cases. I would like to know who it is that knows whether he is going to be a litigant or not. What man, woman, or chiM that has anything in the world can tell how soon his right to retain it may be challenged in the courts of justice? It is one of the most absurd of all replies in the world to make, for a default in affording a proper administration of justice, to say that the persons who are drawn into the courts are not so meritorious but that they can well wait and let other people make money while they suffer. Now, gentlemen, what is the remedy for this evil? You will observe that our judicial system is not now what it was made. I mean by that, not in practice what it was made. The framers of the system created an intermediate appellate court called the district court, but they never contemplated that that court was going to be held exclusively by the very men who decided the cases in the first instance that they were going to turn reviewers REMARKS OF R. P. RAXXEY ()I of themselves. It was an essential feature of their system, without which it never could have passed through the convention, that the judge of the supreme court, with his knowledge and weight of character should forever preside in that appellate court. \Yhat have we realized for years past in practice? That court is held by the judges that decide in the first instance, the common pleas judges doing as well as they can, I admit, but in no wise meeting the public expectation of an appellate court to put an end to con- troversies. The consequence is that cases finding their way int^ that court go there simply as a stopping-place a necessary resting- place to be crowded into the supreme court ; and the consequence is that all the important litigation of the state finds its way right through this first appellate court into the supreme court. \Yhat is the consequence then? A docket lying by of 700 or 800 cases undecided, the last of which there is no hope can ever be reached and finally determined, short of six or seven years from this time. Now, gentlemen, I had occasion to reflect upon this subject some time ago five years ago when the proposition was made in the legislature for some step to be taken for the mitigation of the great evils arising from these delays in justice. I then, at the instance of some gentlemen, committed to writing my own views upon the subject, and one branch of the legislature did me the honor at the time to print them. I have looked it over again, and after five years I see no reason to take back a single thought I then had ; but during this long interval of time everything that has transpired has simply impressed upon me more forcibly the overwhelming importance of remedying this trouble : and I have seen no better way myself than that which I then sketched, and it, I verily believe, the people of the state, if they had the oppor- tunity, would adopt as the proper corrective. In the first place, there is no need of going to the people of the state with any proposition greatly to increase the number of office-holders ; for, while those in office are certainly an exceed- ingly meritorious class, without which we could hardly get along, still the people are not hankering after too much of a good thing. They do not want any more than is necessary to accomplish the public purposes for which all offices are created, and hence any 62 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION proposal to the people of the state greatly to increase the number of judges in the judicial establishment will assuredly meet with a failure. Again, the people of the state are an economical people, as everybody knows. They do not propose to take more money from their pockets to distribute to gentlemen in place than is necessary to accomplish their objects, and any great additional expense in the operation of the judicial system will most assuredly meet with disfavor when any proposition to adopt reform is sent to the people. Keeping these things in mind all the time, and avoiding the troubles that I foresee would come of a more extended establish- ment, it occurs to me that just one simple, radical amendment of the constitution is all that is required to set the judiciary of Ohio upon a footing equal to that of her sister states, when an assur- ance will be given, and carried out, too, that justice shall be admin- istered as speedily here as elsewhere : because it is a matter of fact, as has been stated, that we are probably more defective in this particular than any state in the Union certainly more so than an}- state with which I have any acquaintance. We undertook the job in this state of creating too many courts, of requiring the process to be too long to go from one end to the other of the judicial system. What is wanted in this state is that which is adopted in every other state that I know of in the Union, and which is an inherent quality of every judicial system that there shall be competent judges to decide cases in the first instance between parties, and other competent judges simply to determine whether the cases have been rightly decided or not. When you get more than that, when you crowd into any system more than that, you have got more than the demands of justice require ; and every addition you make to the simplicity of such a system is a clog upon progress in getting through the courts. I would, therefore, gentlemen, simply suggest this now to be thought of because I am in favor of referring this resolution, as has been proposed. I simply ask the members of this associa- tion, the bar of the state generally, and every intelligent man in the state every legislator particularly, upon whom is devolved REMARKS OF R. P. RAXXEY 63 great responsibility as to how he will discharge this public trust to the people of the state I say, I simply suggest to them whether or not striking the district court right out of your system and simply providing for a supreme court with judges enough to do the appellate business on the circuits and in bane is not all that the people of this state want. We have tried it for more than half a century of our existence. It became too small, it was true. We could have but four judges and but two of them could sit at a time ; and still, without counting myself as old as Methuselah. I have administered that system myself upon the bench, as well as practiced under it for a number of years. I believe now that with a simple enlargement of that system, without putting myself up, now, as having any superior wisdom to the smallest man in the profession I chanced to be in the constitutional convention that adopted the system as it is now, and I then said, what I repeat at this distant time, that a simple enlargement of the old system prior to 1851, by adding to the force of the supreme court, was all that was required for a speedy and correct administration of jus- tice in Ohio. I believe, as I have said, that an addition to the supreme court of four judges for the present, raising the number to nine, with capacity to make more if it shall be found necessary, will enable the judges of that court in their own way (for I would not fetter them at all all I would require of them would be that they do the business in their own way) each year to settle their books. All I w r ould require of them would be that upon the circuit two of them sitting together the Yankees say that two heads are better than one, and two judicial heads, according to my experience, are indispensable to make it sure you are always right two judges sitting together will be able in the place of the district court to go through all the counties of this state ; and when I say all, I do not mean all, because there are plenty of coun- ties in this state in which a single case or two may originate that had better travel to some adjoining county or to some common center than to send judges and lawyers there to hear it. So I am not too radical on that subject, but approaching the people and the bar as near as you can with two judges of the supreme court, elected through the state, and with a little longer rope, in 64 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION my judgment, than is given to the present judges. I mean by that, a longer term. I mean, again, that they shall be selected, because they are the principal characters to whom the people are directed, and not that they shall be put onto the tail of somebody's political ticket, and never heard of from one end to the other of a campaign. I say judges selected in that manner, either by a sep- arate election or using the spring elections for the purpose, with a reasonable tenure of office, such a one as will divide the nine, say, into three parts, and elected instead of annually, three judges once in three years, making the term nine years, then pay them as you would other laborers who work for you, and set those judges to work with a clean sheet, and just require them to do appellate justice to the people of this state on the circuit, and in bane in respect to such matters as they shall see fit to reserve there, or shall see fit to permit to come there, and I am just as sure as I am that I am living that there will be no piling up of cases in your appellate courts, and that the system will work en- tirely satisfactory to the bar and the people. But it may be asked, "What do you propose to do with the seven or eight hundred cases that are there?" They are like the old man of the sea, it is true. I do not propose, in the first place, to put them on the backs of any new animals to be carried. I pro- pose that my friends of the supreme court those who see fit to stay there because it is all open into the new apartments and if none of them see fit to stay, then those that the governor shall place there, shall go to work at that pile, vigorously not stopping either to write books or to make treatises spending none of their time at that, but just going to work at that holy and great and mighty duty, the greatest that can be devolved upon man. of de- termining what is justice to the parties who are before them. With that, this accumulated business can soon be worked off decided ended and then, with the determination of the people of the state and the bar of the state, and the ambition of a new set of judges to take hold of the current business, as I say, I believe it may all be safely, surely kept at as it shall rise, and be speedily determined in the sense of the constitution upon that subject. Xow, I desire to say simply so much, that people may think REMARKS OF R. P. RANXEV 65 upon it. I may be all wrong about it. Whether this can be done by legislation, without amendment of the constitution, I am not here now to say ; but let it be the legislature or let it be the people of the state ; I am not a particle afraid that either, seeing the evil and the extent of it, and the disgrace it brings to the state in the administration of justice, would refuse to adopt the needed reform in this particular. But, whether we obtain any changes in this particular or not, permit me again to simply state the fact, and let people think of it. Our course of practice now is wonderfully productive of these great delays and expenses that attend the administration of justice in Ohio. There is one thing that is out of joint with the whole system, not in harmony with anything connected with it, that we still continue. A man tries his case in the common pleas ; his wit- nesses are heard there ; let it be equity or law, or whatever it may be, the trial, whether by a jury or by the court, determines what his rights are, finds what the facts are, and what is the truth in regard to his matter. Now, what does he do if it happens to be that he demands money, so that it is called "at law?" He must stop there, without any pawing over of the facts, except as he takes them to the district court on paper. But, if it happens to be a case where specific relief is demanded, under the head of "equity jurisdiction," you allow him to nullify the judgment of a court that has heard his witnesses and heard him all through, by his simply putting in a bill and taking his case to the district court, where again these hordes of witnesses must appear and be examined at interminable length, three-quarters of the time of every session of the district court consumed in hearing them, and a large percentage of perjury manufactured in the meantime, and you call that doing justice. The law man has had to stop. What- ever he failed to get on paper is lost to him forever. The equity man may go into the district court, and drive his case through there, with the enlargement and amendations of perjury, and compel three judges, instead of one, to sit by and hear him for a week, until he gets through with all these witnesses. I believe that that one reform in our practice would cut down from one- S 66 OHIO STATE BAR ASSOCIATION third to one-half of the time necessarily consumed in the district court. Now, gentlemen, how about the lawyers? You know it is a sort of popular opinion with a certain class that the lawyers are interested in prolonging things running them along, the longer the better. They seem to suppose that length of time is equal to the profession to length of years, and that each brings about an equal blessing along with it. Such an erroneous idea as that, known to every member of the bar to be entirely erroneous, should also be made known to the people of the state. Instead of the lawyers having any interest in prolonging litigation, it is exactly the other way. What the lawyer most of all things wants is to get these troubles at the earliest day possible off his shoulders, and realize, if he may, his just compensation for doing the busi- ness. So that, of all classes interested in speedy justice, no class is so thoroughly interested in it as the lawyers. And aside from any of the considerations I have named, there is the additional consideration, which ought with the bar to weigh more than any- thing else, that in respect to the community and the moral stand- ing they occupy, they are upon the vantage-ground of being able to say, "We simply put our shoulders to the wheel, to promote justice among men, and we make that wheel roll just as fast as the wheels of justice can." What is the further effect of devolving the whole appellate business upon a body of judges elected throughout the state, and included in the supreme court? Just ask your judges of the common pleas. They will tell you that from at least a quarter to a third of their time and exertion is taken from the common pleas business in their respective districts : and with that added intermediate, or stepping-stone, court in the various counties of their districts. What is the effect of the amendment I would propose? It is to remit to these judges the ability to put in one- quarter to one-third more time in the disposition of the common pleas business in their respective districts ; and with that added to the power they can bring to the transaction of business there, anybody can see they can do the business better : anybody can see thev can do all there is to do, and evervbodv will see that the REMARKS OF R. P. RANNEY 67 state is already supplied with a common pleas force completely adequate with rapidity and dispatch to the disposal of all business in the first instance that will find its way into those courts. Now, gentlemen, I beg your pardon for taking so much time, but I desire that with the resolution adopted, I hope, sending this matter to the committee, to furnish us with a scheme for get- ting out of the enormous troubles in which we are involved I desire to go along with that the information, or rather the exhor- tation, I make to every member of this association, and to every member of the bar of Ohio, to put his shoulder to the wheel, to use his brains and his best judgment to advise this committee what conclusion they should reach, and what conclusion the association should adopt, and when adopted that all will stand shoulder to shoulder, or rather at every man's back, who enforces upon the legislature and the people the indispensable necessity of making Ohio as honest in these respects, at least, as other states are. A 000412592 8