Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 25.pdf/10

 The Volume XXV

Green

Bag

January, 1913

Number 1

Ithamar Conkey Sloan of Wisconsin By Duane Mowry, LL.B. of the Milwaukee Bar An eminent jurist of Wisconsin1 once said of a deceased brother attorney on the occasion of memorial services by the bench and bar: "But yet a few years, and we, his contemporaries, shall have passed away too. Then will be little left of Mr. 's professional career, except vague traditions and doubtful anecdotes. So passes away the fame of a great lawyer. We see men of inferior parts give to history names, such as they are, while lawyers — their moral and intellectual betters — are forgotten. That is not because the life of a lawyer is less useful or honorable, but because the immediate subjects of a lawyer's labors rarely enter into what we call history. The heroes of history are not always, perhaps not often, the truly great. The faithful discharge of the duties of a profession, often exercising the most sacred measure of human faith and the highest order of human ability, the confidence and admiration of con temporaries for these, are the only glory of a lawyer." These observations are peculiarly ap plicable to the subject of this sketch. For the fame of Mr. Sloan as a great •Chief Justice Edward G. Ryan of the Supreme Court.

lawyer seems to be rapidly "passing away," although less than a score of years have elapsed since he passed into the shades. And there is "little left" but the recollection of the faithful dis charge of the arduous duties of an ex acting profession and the consciousness of exceedingly able professional work well performed. But there have been written into the reports of the Supreme Court of Wis consin and of the United States, opin ions which reflect the great legal vision of this master mind of the Wisconsin bar. And it seems fitting that some account be made of the ken of Mr. Sloan's intellectual powers. They were of a high order of merit and were turned to excellent account in the public interest as it will presently appear. Ithamar Conkey Sloan was born at Morrisville, the county seat of Madison County, New York, May 9, 1822. He had a common school education, read law, and taught school in Georgia during his student days. He was admitted to the bar in 1848, in New York, having previously studied law in the office of Timothy Jenkins, a distinguished lawyer residing at Oneida Castle. Mr. Sloan was associated with him for a time as