Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf/560

 William Augustus Beach. law before the appellate courts. It is to this day a question of dispute among their breth ren at the bar, who were accustomed to hear them in both forums, in which they appeared to the better advantage. While Mr. Beach was District Attorney of Saratoga County, he tried many important criminal cases, in most of which he was op posed by the leading lawyers of that section of the State. At that time the great lawyers uniformly appeared in the defence of persons charged with crime. Indeed, it was in crim inal cases that forensic contests were fiercest, and forensic honors won. It was in these cases that Mr. Beach acquired his thorough knowledge of criminal law, as well as his reputation as an orator, which caused his services to be sought, during the remainder of his life, in every important criminal case in the State. In 1851 Mr. Beach removed to Troy, to enter into partnership with Job Pierson and Levi Smith, the leading lawyers in that city; and the firm of Pierson, Beach, & Smith continued until the death of Mr. Pierson, and thereafter the firm of Beach & Smith continued until the removal of Mr. Beach to New York City. Porter had removed to Albany, to join Nicholas Hill in the famous firm of Hill, Cagger, & Porter. Those two firms for twenty years monopolized the best part of the law business of that section of the State. Nicho las Hill argued more cases in the Court of Appeals than any lawyer of his time, but tried no cases before a jury after his removal to Albany. At the time of his death he was regarded as the head of the bar of the State of New York. Mr. Beach was retained in almost every important jury trial, and his name appears very frequently in the reports of the cases in the Court of Appeals during that period. He was the leading counsel for the plaintiff in the celebrated Albany Bridge case brought to prevent the construction of a bridge across the Hudson River, in which the com plaint was finally dismissed because the Su

513

preme Court of the United States were equally divided as to whether the action could be maintained. He defended Canal Commissioner Dora, who was impeached for malfeasance in office before the Court for the Trial of Impeach ments, and secured his acquittal. In 1867 he was associated with James T. Brady in the defence of General Cole, charged with the murder of L. Harris Hiscock. The case was tried at the Albany Oyer and Terminer, and attracted wide atten tion. On the first trial Brady summed up for the accused, and the jury disagreed. On the last trial Beach summed up, and the de fendant was acquitted. It was in this case that the jury, after retiring, came into court and, stating that they found the defendant sane the moment before and the moment after the killing, but were in doubt as to his sanity at the moment of the killing, asked the instructions of the court. Their verdict of acquittal followed soon after the judge's instruction that on that point, as upon others, the jury must give the accused the benefit of any reasonable doubt.1 At the request of Governor Seymour, Mr. Beach went to Washington in 1865 to defend Colonel North, charged before a military tri bunal with frauds in connection with the for warding of the-votesof the soldiers of the State of New York in the Presidential Election of 1864. His speech on that occasion, mainly directed to showing that a military court had not jurisdiction of the alleged offence, has always been regarded as one of the masterpieces of forensic eloquence. It may be found in the volume entitled " Great Speeches by Great Lawyers" (p. 449). While Mr. Beach resided at Troy he had been retained in several trials of magnitude in the city of New York; notably in the suit of the Erie R.R.Co. v. Commodore Vanderbilt, popularly known as the " Five Million Dollar Suit," in which he was associated with Charles A. Rapallo, who was for many years the attorney and counsel for Commo1 7 Abb. P. n. s. 321.