Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 07.pdf/302

 A Ghost of Nisi Prius. But bless you, " added the ghost, stroking his Rip Van Winkle beard, " eloquence don't count for much now-a-days before jurors and judges; but in earlier juridical times in this city, jurors expected the graces of ora tory, and looked disappointed if these be came absent. They had not been vaccinated with the modern virus of sheer utilitarianism. "James Kent was not long a practitioner before he became a judge: but from what I heard of his appearances in court he was better fitted for a chamber than a nisi prius counselor. He was a very dry speaker, with a monotonous voice. But, " added the ghost with a chuckle, " trip hammers don't make music when they strike metal, but the blow is strong and decisive. "Ah, those early times of national nisi prius were so different from the times of the present. D'ye know, I've come to think that legal practice has almost ceased to be a pro fession and is fast becoming only a trade. The courts were then imbued with greater surroundings of dignity and formality, and were as mysterious and awe-inspiring to lay men as are the behind-scenes of a theater to pitites and gallery gods. Jurors served from sense of duty, and did not hasten to make excuses for shunning service. Ah me, what changes have I not seen and lamented!" sighed the ghost. At this point of ghostly interview I saw that my narrator was becoming digressive — as doubtless ghosts in general feel — wherefore I recalled him to the standpoint of my curiosity with this interlocutory re mark : " But were there not other lawyers worthy of mention of those Hamiltonian, Burr and Kentish times?" "Are they not catalogued in this memo rial brain of my spirit world? I have met all of them there when visiting the consocia tion of spirit lawyers. Let me see. Who first to name? They were all great in some particular branch, although in early republi can times lawyers, nor doctors, had not then, as now, branched into specialties. Yes,

271

there was Robert Troup, and Elisha Pendle ton, and Ambrose Spencer, and David Cadwallader Colden, and David B. Ogden the first, and David Graham the first, and James Emott the first, and Abram Van Vechten,— every one of whom had descendants, some now in practice, to tread in their legal foot steps. Each one of these was especially given to the lore of procedures : for life at the bar was then tentative. Jurisprudence was getting rid of old British Colonial bar nacles, and accommodating itself to novel Republican government, and was teaching State and Federal jurisdictions and proce dures to ward off collisions. Technicality and the claim of in cortice were then the genii of the bar. It was a rare delight for me to listen then to their ' keen encounter of wits.' Should you ask me qui meruit palmam of that grand legal group, perhaps it would distract my supernatural judgment. But in the first few years of the century at the New York bar, there did come one towering lawyer — John Wells, to whom be longs the fame of being the means of settling the law of libel, in what is known as the case of Cheetham, whom Wells defended and was successful enough to win a verdict of only six cents, when everybody expected a ver dict mounting into the thousands. But I must not omit in this reminiscent connection to recall that, in the year previous, Hamilton had as successfully defended an editor named Harry Croswell for a libel (denomi nated seditious) upon Thomas Jefferson, or to add that the defense was an agreeable task to Hamilton, who had come to dislike Jefferson and his new fangled Democracy as much as Hamilton detested Burr. Did I attend the trial? Well, as is the modern slang I hear often at nisi prius from impu dent young lawyers, ' I should smile.'" And the ghost did smile until every hair of his beard joined in it. " Have I not told you there has scarcely been a cause celebre in New York City from which I was absent? I attended both libel trials, and shared the