Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 17.pdf/42

 WILLIAM H. SEWARD AS A LAWYER

WILLIAM H. SEWARD AS A LAWYER BY EUGENE L. DIDIER AS the impression made by the Hague disappears when the traveller looks on Venice, so the early reputation of William H. Seward as a lawyer was dimmed, if it did not entirely pass away, before his later distinction as a statesman. Yet, for almost a quarter of a century, he occupied a high, if not a leading position, at the bar of the State of New York. Most American statesmen have been law yers in their early life, but few of them have continued to practise their profession after acquiring distinction in public life. Among those who have been included in his series of articles, Aaron Burr was the only one who remained at the bar to the end of his life; perhaps he would not have been the solitary exception had he reached the goal of his ambition, the Presidency. Seward's latest biographer, Frederick Bancroft, says that his vocation and life-long pursuit were politics — that his practice of the law was hardly more than an avocation to which he returned at times for financial reasons. Like Master Slender, he had no great love for the profession in the beginning, and was glad to exchange the smaller triumphs of the bar for the larger field of state and national politics. Although his heart was not in the profession, he worked at it effectively, and was a successful lawyer, but without enthu siasm or much satisfaction. He says him self, in his Autobiography, that he "prac ticed law only for a competence, and had no ambition for its honors, still less any cupidity for its greater rewards." While as yet a law student, he formed a partnership with his preceptor, Ogden Hoffman, who afterwards became a cele brated criminal lawyer in New York. The arrangement was that Seward should receive one-third of the office business and all he

earned in the justices' courts, while Hoff man had the counsel fees. After his ad mission to the bar, in October, 1822, the partnership of Hoffman and Seward was dissolved, and the latter formed a partner ship with Elijah Miller, at Auburn, N. Y., being guaranteed five hundred dollars per annum, by the senior partner. Seward's first client was an ex-convict, from the Auburn prison, who entered a house to steal, but was frightened off before he had secured anything except a few pieces of worthless cloth. He was arrested, and indicted for petty larceny, for taking ' ' one quilted holder of the value of six cents," and "one piece of calico of the value of six cents." The young lawyer convinced the jury that one piece was not "calico," but white jean, and the other was not "quilted" but sewed. In this way, he saved his client from serv ing another term in the Auburn peniten tiary. From the beginning of his practice, Seward gained experience by trying his own cases instead of depending upon the assistance of older lawyers. His first year yielded him more than the five hundred dollars guar anteed him. He soon became known as a safe, skilful, industrious lawyer, and busi ness quickly came to him. His first chan cery suit came to him in 1823, when he had been less than a year at the bar. The opposing counsel conducted the case so negligently that he was ruled out of court; the case was taken up by no less a person than Aaron Burr, who, by making use of his wonderful shrewdness and finesse, secured the plaintiff's re-establishment in court. This case was not finally determined until 1850, when Mr. Seward closed his business with the chancery court with a decision in his favor".