OF THE TWENTIETH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE American Bar Association HELD AT CLEVELAND, OHIO, August 25, 26 and 27, 1897. PHILADELPHIA': DANDO PRINTING AND PUBLISHING COMPANY, 34, SOUTH THIRD STREET. 1897. TRANSACTIONS OF THE TWENTIETH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE American Bar Association, HELD AT CLEVELAND, OHIO, AUGUST 25, 26, AND 27, 1897 Wednesday, August 25, 1897, 10 A. M. The meeting was held in the Hall of the Young Men's Christian Association, and was called to order by the President, James M. Woolworth, of Nebraska. The President: Gentlemen, I declare the twentieth annual mecting open, and I have the pleasure to introduce the representative of the Ohio State Bar Association, Judge Samuel F. Hunt, of Cincinnati. Samuel F. Hunt, of Ohio: Mr. President and Gentlemen of the American Bar Association The Ohio State Bar Association, at the annual meeting held in July last at Put-in-Bay, took formal action in view of this meeting by appointing a select committee to extend its cordial salutations to the brethren of the American Bar Association and to express its gratification at their presence in this city, which sits in reflected beauty on the lakes. The committee is here not only to perform that pleasing duty, but to give further expression to the fact that the profes sion in Ohio recognizes in this Association a body of men who counsel together as to amendments in the law which time and experience may develop, and who examine the current of legislation and judicial decision to the end alone that justice may be attained. It has been observed that our legislative bodies are occupied rather with the refinements of civilization, than the fundamental questions of government. These in a large measure have been fixed and determined. Still there is need of the association of the good and the strong and the stalwart in every part of the land to preserve the established principles of our national life and to maintain unsullied our national honor. There is often a wide difference between the first announcement of a legal principle and its final enthronement. The people must look largely to the lawyers of America for the enthronement of the law. The law must be invested with a supreme majesty for the peace of our streets and the security of our homes. We greet you as co-workers in the cause of public order and good government. The student need only to follow the legislation of the respective states—often differing widely in their interests-to realize the essential unity of the country. We have in common the rich traditions of freedom. You are welcome as fellow-citizens of a common country whose history is a common heritage, whose property is a common blessing, and whose honor it is the sacred duty of all to vindicate. The classics used to call all the studies of scholars-poetry, art, eloquence, music, history-the humanities, because they brought no contention, no strife, no bitterness shed. The best happiness, the best home, the best law, the best government, comes not from the discord of souls but from a deep friendship from man to man. We offer to you, then, gentlemen of the American Bar Association, not doubtful disputations, but a welcome which comes from a spirit of brotherhood and which like the humanities, wins in the name of pleasure and peace. The President: On behalf of the American Bar Association it gives me great pleasure to receive from Judge Hunt the very graceful welcome which he has tendered to us. It is a happy circumstance that the Association in whose behalf he has spoken is one of the most vigorous and intelligent and useful associations of the kind in this country and those of us who come here from other parts can all take lessons of the Ohio Bar Association and go home and repeat in a measure the splendid work which that institution has heretofore performed. I have the pleasure of now presenting to you Mr. James II. Hoyt, of this city. James H. Hoyt, of Ohio: Mr. President and gentlemen of the American Bar Association: I have been suddenly selected as the unworthy representative of the worthy Bar of Cleveland to express its welcome to you. The gentlemen to whom was assigned this pleasing duty by the committee is, I understand, a late riser and is, therefore absent; while I, having come in on an early train and being, therefore, by force of circumstances, compelled to be abroad at this unseasonable hour, have been asked to tell you as best I can how glad we are to see you. It is fitting that the American Bar Association, composed, as it is, of representative lawyers from all parts of the country, should at last come to Cleveland, for Cleveland has been the home of some of America's ablest jurists and lawyers. Here lived the great Ranney. There is no lawyer before me who is not indebted to that profound jurist for his clear announcement of legal principles. Here lived, also, the brilliant and eloquent Sherlock J. Andrews and Judge Prentiss and Judge Foote, famed for their logic and wisdom, and here lives Judge Burke, whom we are happy to have still with us. The rest of us members of the Cleveland Bar are so young that we hesitate to mention our names now; but we live in the hope that |