Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/761



THE CITY OF PORTLAND 559

capacity for hard work enabled him to accomphsh more work than Judge BelHnger and in less time, and with less wear and tear of body and soul. Unlike Bellinger, Cotton had never wasted any time on politics, but had been, ever since his admission to the bar, continuously storing away mental capital in the form of fundamental principles of law and leading precedents of judicial decisions. With this equipment, his part of making the great code was not a laborious job.

Another edition of the code of the Oregon statutes has been authorized by the legislature. An act was passed authorizing the supreme court to select a suitable person to revise the laws, arrange it in the form of a code and super- intend its publication, and William P. Lord selected by the court to do that work.

William Paris Lord was born at Dover, Delaware, in 1838, a graduate of Fairfield College, N. Y., and a graduate of the Albany law school, 1866. Joined the union army on the breaking out of the southern rebellion, and served as major in the Delaware cavalry under Gen. Lew Wallace ; and after the war at Forts Alcatraz and Steilacoom, and in Alaska. Resigned his commission in 1868, and commenced practicing law at Salem, Oregon. Member of state senate in 1878; member of supreme court in 1880 — served twelve years; elected governor of the state, served four years ; and was then appointed by President McKinley as min- ister to the Argentine republic ; served four years, and is now code commissioner of the state of Oregon.

THE LAWYER-POLITICIAN.

Oregon has, like every other state, had a full supply of the lawyers who es- sayed political distinction. From the earliest times, the majority of public men have been taken from the ranks of the lawyers. This statement holds good from the presidency down through congress; cabinet ministers, governors, foreign min- isters and legislatures east of the Alleghany mountains. The Oregon legislatures have always had a majority of farmers and tradesmen. Of the thirty-six men who have represented Oregon in congress, thirty have been members of the legal profession. Of the governors under the territorial government none of them were lawyers ; but of the governors under tthe state organization, seven have been lawyers, two farmers, one merchant and one savi^mill man. It is not in- tended to go into the record of any living lawyer of Portland who has made politics the main object of his ambition. And of those deceased, the greatest of them have already been noticed. But as this book is written to not only tell the facts of life and progress or decay, as affecting this community and this city, it is necessary to refer to at least one, and that one the most remarkable career that has ever transpired in any American state.

And there could be no justification in referring to the life of John H. Mitchell if it did not teach a great lesson. And while charity should spread its mantle over the faults of him that has fallen, justice to all and the safety of society re- quires that those who supported and contributed to the corrupt system, or tamely surrendered to the vicious public opinion that made Mitchell's career possible, should be shown the evil of their own guilty part. The misfortune of it all in this world is, that we love the evil we do until we suffer from it ; and that the evil we do does not die with us. If we could see the end from the beginning, we might, as Shakespeare says :

"Gather honey from the weed,

And make a moral of the devil himself."

For forty years it was an open secret that Mitchell's political ethics justified any means that would win the battle. And he could not have succeeded in the face of all the bitter opposition to him if the majority of the electors in the state were not either openly in favor of his style of politics or silently consent- ing to it. He was seven times a candidate for United States senator before the Oregon legislature and won in four of the contests; and if he had lived to serve