Analyzed. THE LEADERS OF THE OLD BAR OF PHILADELPHIA, "One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin,- More laud than gilt o'erdusted." PHILADELPHIA: 1859. PREFACE. IN the title of these sketches, the "Old Bar of Philadelphia," refers to the first Bar after the Declaration of Independence. Of the primitive Bar of the Province, we know nothing; and next to nothing of the men who appeared at it from time to time, up to the termination of the Colonial government. The statement of Chief Justice Tilghman, in the Bush Hill case,* reveals to us all we know, and all that probably we can ever know, in regard to this subject; for, as the grandson of Tench Francis, who was AttorneyGeneral in 1745, and connected by marriage and association with the most eminent families of the Bar, he knew as much of the former Bar as any of his cotemporaries, and they have all long since departed without adding anything to what he left. "From what I have been able to learn," said the Chief Justice, "of the early history of Pennsylvania, it was a long time before she possessed any lawyers of eminence. There were never wanting men of strong minds, very well able to conduct the business of the Courts, without much regard to form. Such, in particular, was Andrew Hamilton, the immediate predecessor of Mr. Francis, and the father of the testator; but Mr. Francis appears to have been the first of our lawyers who mastered the technical difficulties of the profession. precedents of pleadings have been handed down to the present day; and his commonplace book, which is in my possession, is an evidence * Lyle v. Richards, 9 Serg. & Rawle. His of his great industry and accuracy." "Mr. Francis succeeded Mr. Hamilton, and Mr. Chew succeeded to Mr. Francis, in the office of Attorney-General, and in professional eminence." Mr. Chew remained at the Bar until 1774, and was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from that time until the former order of things passed away; and although there are a few other names, at the same epoch, to be added to these three, yet the narrowness of the tradition, taken altogether, the constitution of the Provincial Supreme Court, in which the Chief Justice was commonly the only lawyer, the total absence of every note of judicial decision until 1754, and the all but total until after 1776, had caused that Bar to disappear from nearly all memories at the beginning of the present century; and therefore, in the middle of the fourth generation since the Revolution, I have taken the liberty of referring to the earliest Bar under the new order of things, as being the Old Bar of Philadelphia. From that time to the present, the Bar of this City has been an identity, superintended by competent and frequently very able judges, whose proceedings have been vouched by authoritative reports, and having, at all times, among its leaders, men of legal erudition and ability. It is not, however, to ignore the primitive Bar, so much as to give its due precedence to the first Bar of the Commonwealth as a scientific Bar, and as the true ancestry of the present Bar, that I have used the language in the title-page. The description of the subjects of sketch, as the leaders of the Bar, may appear to be too definite; but although definite, it is not meant to be exclusive. It must not imply that there were no others who held the position of leaders. The three in particular were the seniors, by a few years, of all the Bar, and were generally the most prominent in the professional as well as in the public eye. My own freer association with them has induced me to select them from the body, and to pay to them a debt which, though it may have too little dignity to be called a debt to the law, is a debt or duty to their learning and ability in the law. In the new order of things introduced by the American Revolution, these gentlemen largely contributed to establish the reputation of the Bar of this City. Their professional example and learning were of great and extensive use in their day, and ought to be handed down by something better than such fugitive pages as these. A lawyer who has passed his youth and early manhood in the society of such men, is the happier for it through life, and especially in old age. On all occasions of vexation or weariness with things near at hand, he can escape at pleasure into the past of these men, which was full of their influence, full also of judicial independence and dignity, and full of professional honor, with unlimited public respect; from which scene, the few clouds that are to be found in the clearest skies have been absorbed or dispelled by time, and to which the clouds of his own day, if there are any, cannot follow him. PHILADELPHIA, March, 1859. H. B. |