Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 17.pdf/538

 GEORGE R. PECK have been our fate if another and not he had occupied that great seat, we may well believe that Providence watched over the Republic. He interpreted the constitution, but he interpreted it in the comprehensive way which made it a thing of life instead of death; a chart of government instead of .a collection of meaningless phrases. Only two Americans are better entitled to the grati tude of our people — George Washington and Abraham Lincoln." Mr. Peck's characteristics as a lawyer are thoroughness of preparation, rare discrimina tion in the use of his -materials, whether of fact or law, directness and simplicity in pre sentation coupled with unusual literary form, and a keen insight into the springs of human action. His arguments are not symmetri cal creations of articulated thought, cold and colorless. They are interesting discus sions in which sound reasoning is made persuasive by a charming style and a moral earnestness, and by subtle appeals to senti ment and experience which give 'logic a compelling power. In a word, he has what has been aptly called an unerring sense of the jugular. He plans to deliver the one lethal blow rather than many. The simplest case involves many questions that may be controlling, but the most complicated case generally turns at last upon a single issue that Court or jury deems decisive. Perhaps it was his experience under General Sherman that taught him to concentrate his fire, to find and most fiercely to attack the weakest spot in the enemy's lines, while diverting such an assault from his own. In an address before the law class of the University of Wisconsin, in 1892, Mr. Peck declared that, while learning, training, and reasoning power are essential to success at the Bar, tact is the supreme qualification; for, without it, other qualities prove inef fective in the actual combats of the profes sion. This, tersely, describes his own equip ment as a lawyer, but it gives no hint of his capacity and great versatility; his intellec tual strength directed by sound and prac

tical judgment, the rare combination of beauty and vigor in diction, the charm of manner, the breadth of culture, the exuber ant imagination, the play of wit and humor, which give lightness and carrying power to his arguments, and delight the listener while they convince him. Singularly qualified to win and hold pop ular favor, and enjoying the full confidence of the people among whom he has lived, Mr. Peck has steadfastly refused office, and has devoted himself unsparingly to the work of his profession. The district attorneyship, which he held in his youth, was his only public office. He declined the ap pointment as senator from Kansas which was tendered him by Governor Humphrey, in 1891, upon the death of Senator Plumb. He drafted, in 1893, the original articles of association of the Civic Federation of Chi cago, from which the National Civic Feder ation and its allied organizations have grown. For more than twenty-five years he has made each year memorable to some com munity by an address before university, or literary society, or patriotic organization. Wherever he has spoken he has carried the gospel of idealism, and has presented it with a literary beauty that never failed to win praise and personal regard in equal measure. His address on "The Kingdom of Light," first given before the students of Washburn College, Kansas, suggests by its subject his delight in the intellectual life. His oration before the University of Virginia upon "The Worth of a Sentiment," made him known to the people of the Old Dominion as an orator of the first rank. His speech at the unveiling of St. Gauden's statue of Logan, in Chicago, is, perhaps, the most per fect address of its kind delivered in recent years. His lecture on "Temperament" has been given before the State Teachers' Asso ciations of Wisconsin and Kansas, and before the State Normal Schools of Illinois and Iowa. Unique and notable is his lecture upon "The Puritans," first delivered before the Ethical Society of Milwaukee, in 1902.