Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 17.pdf/43

 THE GREEN BAG After practising eight years, Mr. Seward was elected to the New York legislature, in 1830 and 1832, serving four years. In 1835 he resumed the practice of the law, with all of his former industry, working day and night. His business steadily increased, and, in March of that year, he wrote : " I am now doing a very fair business. If I continue to attend to it, as I have done since my return from Albany, it would be worth more than $3,000 a year to me." He went to work at nine o'clock every morning, but he was interrupted by calls, messengers, let ters, etc., and accomplished very little be fore dinner, which was at 3.30. In those days a country lawyer could not follow the same regular office hours as a city attorney. People called at all hours, and asked legal advice, but did not expect to pay for it unless a definite arrangement had been made. His four years in the New York legisla ture, 1830-34; his position in the land office, 1836-37; and as governor of New York, 1839-43, had with the exception above noted removed him from active practice for at least ten years; and, when he resumed it in the last mentioned year, he had to begin almost at the bottom of the ladder. These years of absence from the trial-table had made him rusty in the law, and he was conscious that he knew less than he did twenty years before, and any young law yer, fresh from his books, might have out witted the ex-Governor. In a letter writ ten about that time, he says: "I spend my days in my law office: I charge reasonable counsel fees, and they have thus far been cheerfully paid. My earnings have been equal to the salary (of Governor), for the same period of time; while my expenses are vastly diminished. I do not work hard, and especially devote myself as counsel; have no partner, and only one clerk. I may earn $5,000 this year, if business con tinues as it has begun." In August, 1845, he noted his continued progress, and, in December of the same year, he wrote: "For

the first time, I begin to feel, as well as to enjoy, the dignity and ease of a counsel." Seward made a great reputation as a jury lawyer by his defence of four criminals although he lost all of the cases. Two of these were murder cases; another was the celebrated Van Zandt case, in which an Ohio farmer of that name was tried for the violation of the Fugitive Slave Law; the fourth was that of Abel F. Fitch, who, with others, was indicted for entering into a con spiracy to destroy the property of the Mich igan Central Railroad, and injure its pas sengers. In the midst of his successful general practice. Seward became, suddenly, as it were by accident, a patent lawyer. The owner of a patent for a planing machine, heard Mr. Seward argue a case and was so much impressed by his ability, that he in sisted on his accepting a retainer although he protested that he was not familiar with that branch of the profession. Neverthe less, he was so successful in this his first patent case, that business of that kind crowded upon him, and he was in great demand, not only in New York, but in other cities. Before he was elected to the United States Senate, in 1849, he had ac quired one of the largest and most lucrative practices in the State of New York outside the city of New York. His forensic argu ments were clear, brilliant, interesting, and convincing, but they! acked that close, exact reasoning that persuaded the hearer that there was no other side to the case except the one on which he argued. His pleadings were always strong, and he brought to bear on the case everything that could be found in the books. As a lawyer, he was a model of industry; he studied sometimes half the night; occasionally all night, and when his clerks arrived at the office in the morning, they found the floor covered with paper containing the result of his lucubration. EUGENE L. DIDIER. BALTIMORE. MD.. Dec.. 1904.