_Bench and Bar_
The field which then lay before the ablest lawyers was far less
extensive and far less lucrative than at present. Thousands of cases
now arise which could not then have possibly arisen. No wealthy
corporations existed, expending each year in lawyers' fees enough money
to have paid the taxes of the four colonies of New England. Patent
law and railroad law, the business of banks and insurance companies,
express companies, telegraph companies, and steamships, have given rise
to legal questions of which neither Parsons, nor Tudor, nor Dexter had
any conception whatever. A fee of $20,000 was unknown; a suit involving
$50,000,000 was unheard of. Yet the profession was not ill-paid and
offered many incentives to bright young men. The law student of that
day usually began by offering his services to some lawyer of note,
and if they were accepted he paid a fee of a hundred dollars, and
began to read law books and copy briefs. In the course of two years he
was expected to have become familiar with _Coke on Littleton_, with
Wood's _Institutes of Civil Law_, with _Piggot on Conveyances_, with
Burns's _Justice of the Peace_, with Hawkin's _Pleas of the Crown_,
with Salkeld's _Reports_, with Lillie's _Abridgements_, and with some
work on chancery practice and some work on what would now be called
international law. This accomplished, his patron would take him into
court, seat him at the lawyers' table, whisper to the gentlemen
present, and with their consent would rise and ask leave of the court
to present a young man for the oath of an attorney. The court would
ask if the bar consented. The lawyers would then bow. The patron would
vouch for the morals and learning of his young friend, and the oath
would be administered by the clerk. This done, the new attorney would
be introduced to the bar and carried off to the nearest tavern where
health and prosperity would be drunk to him in bumpers of strong punch.
Thaddeus Stevens has left an amusing account of his brief connection,
about 1820, with the Maryland bar. The examination took place in the
evening before the judge and the bar committee. His honor informed
Stevens that there was one indispensable requisite to the examination.
"There must be two bottles of Madeira on the table and the applicant
must order it in." Stevens complied with the condition, and, after the
wine had been disposed of, one of the committee asked the applicant
what books he had read. He replied, "_Blackstone, Coke upon Littleton_,
a work on Pleading, and _Gilbert on Evidence_." He was then asked
two or three questions, the last of which related to the difference
between executory devises and a contingent remainder. A satisfactory
answer to this question led his honor again to intervene. "Gentlemen,"
said the judge, "you see the young man is all right. I will give him a
certificate." But before the certificate was delivered, the candidate
was informed that usage required that the ceremony should terminate
in the same way it had opened, and that two more bottles must be
produced. Stevens very willingly complied with this requirement and was
made a member of the bar.
With such a bar the courts were rude and primitive. The courts sat
often times in taverns, where the tedium of business was relieved by
glasses of grog, while the judge's decisions were not put on record,
but were simply shouted by the crier from the inn door at the nearest
market place. In North Carolina the laws were not printed for a long
time but only read aloud in the market place, and the courts and
legislature met in private houses and taverns.
Probably the best type of the judges produced by this system was old
Chief Justice Marshall, who occupied the highest seat in the Supreme
Court of the United States for 35 years. His decisions were recorded
and will be the noblest monument a man could have or wish. In reference
to two of them, Judge Story says: "If all the acts of his judicial life
or arguments had perished, his luminous judgments on these occasions
would give an enviable immortality to his name." Judge Story said of
the mode of life of the judges at these general terms of the court:
"Our intercourse is perfectly familiar and unrestrained, and our social
hours, when undisturbed with the labors of law, are passed in gay and
frank conversation, which at once enlivens and instructs. We take no
part in Washington society. We dine once a year with the President, and
that is all. On other days we dine together, and discuss at table the
questions which are argued before us. We are great ascetics and even
deny ourselves wine except in wet weather. What I say about the wine
gives you our rule; but it does sometimes happen that the Chief Justice
will say to me, when the cloth is removed, 'Brother Story, step to the
window and see if it does not look like rain.' And if I tell him the
sun is shining brightly, Justice Marshall will sometimes reply, 'All
the better, for our jurisdiction extends over so large a territory
that the doctrine of chances makes it certain that it must be raining
somewhere.' The Chief was brought up on Federalism and Madeira, and he
is not the man to outgrow his early prejudices. The best Madeira was
that labelled 'The Supreme Court,' as their Honors, the Justices, used
to make a direct importation every year, and sip it as they consulted
over the cases before them every day after dinner, when the cloth had
been removed."
Returning to lawyers, Henry Clay was extremely convivial, keenly
enjoying the society of his friends. He was fastidious in his tastes
though far from being an epicure. He indulged moderately in wine, took
snuff, and used tobacco freely. In earlier days he lost and won large
sums of money at play but ceased the practice of gaming in consequence
of censure, though he remained inveterately fond of whist.
Webster was majestic in his consumption of liquor as in everything
else. Parton in his Essay speaks of seeing Webster at a public dinner
"with a bottle of Madeira under his yellow waistcoat and looking like
Jove." Schuyler Colfax frequently spoke of seeing Webster so drunk that
he did not know what he was doing. Josiah Quincy describes Webster's
grief at the burning of his house because of the loss of half a pipe of
Madeira wine. John Sherman in his _Recollections_ describes hearing
Webster deliver a speech at a public dinner when intoxicated.
"In ante-bellum days, at this season of the year, when there was a long
session, a party went down the Potomac every Saturday on the steamboat
Salem to eat planked shad. It was chiefly composed of Senators and
Representatives, with a few leading officials, some prominent citizens,
and three or four newspaper men, who in those days never violated
the amenities of social life by printing what they heard there. An
important house in Georgetown would send on board the steamer large
demijohns filled with the best wines and liquors, which almost
everybody drank without stint. Going down the river there was a good
deal of card playing in the upper saloon of the boat, with some story
telling on the hurricane deck. Arriving at the white house fishing
grounds, some would go on shore, some would watch the drawing of the
seine from the boat, some would take charge of the culinary department,
and a few would remain at the card tables. The oaken planks used were
about two inches thick, fourteen inches wide, and two feet long. These
were scalded and then wiped dry. A freshly caught shad was then taken,
scaled, split open down the back, cleaned, washed and dried. It was
then spread out on a plank and nailed to it with iron pump tacks. The
plank with the fish on it was then stood at an angle of forty-five
degrees before a hot wood fire and baked until it was a rich dark brown
color, an attendant turning the plank every few moments and basting
the fish with a thin mixture of melted butter and flour. Meanwhile
an experienced cook was frying fresh shad roe in a mixture of eggs
and cracker dust at another fire. The planked shad, meanwhile, were
served on the planks on which they had been cooked, each person having
a plank and picking out what portion he liked best, breaking up his
roast potato on the warm shad, while the roe was also served to those
who wished for it. After the fish came punch and cigars and then they
reëmbarked and the bows of the steamer were turned toward Washington.
When opposite Alexandria an account was taken of the liquor and wine
which had been drunk, and an assessment was levied, which generally
amounted to about $2.00 each. I never saw a person intoxicated at one
of these shad bakes, nor heard any quarreling."
It is said that Webster went fishing the day before he was to deliver
his welcome to Lafayette, and got drunk. As he sat on the bank he
suddenly drew from the water a large fish and in his majestic voice
said, "Welcome, illustrious stranger, to our shores." The next day his
friends, who went fishing with him, were electrified to hear him begin
his speech to Lafayette with these same words.