OPENING ADDRESS OF HON. JOSEPH SPRIGG.

GENTLEMEN:

As I have had a good deal to do with your assembling here to-day, it has been suggested as proper for me to call you to order, and to state briefly the objects and purposes for which you have been invited to come.

We have assembled, My Brethren of the Bar, for the purpose of organizing a State Bar Association, to be composed of all the Attorneys in good standing in the State who see proper to join with us.

As stated in the published call for this meeting, the object and purpose in organizing this association is the advancement of the science of Jurisprudence, the promotion of reform in the laws, to facilitate the administration of justice and to uphold integrity, honor and courtesy in the legal profession in West Virginia.

My brethren, these are grand, worthy and noble objects. I do not know that we could assemble, having in view the promotion of grander, more worthy or nobler objects than these. As citizens of West Virginia, I conceive it to be our duty, to endeavor to carry out each one of the objects and purposes I have mentioned. I take it, we owe it to ourselves, to our neighbors, and to our children to promote, by all the means in our power, good government in the State of West Virginia. We are citizens of West Virginia, and as such, have an interest in common with the rest of our fellow-citizens of the State, in promoting good government. In the promotion and perpetuation of good gov

crnment in the State our lives, happiness and fortunes are as indissolubly connected as any other class of citizens.

We are about, My brethren of the Bar, to form an Association for the promotion of good government within our State, believing that as an organized and compact body, acting in concert and harmony, we can do more good than we can otherwise. It will be no inconsiderable event, gentlemen, that the members of the Bar—and the judges and expounders of the laws of the State -meet together in a compact and harmonious body to consult with each other upon the duties, obligations, and social interests which directly or indirectly spring out of our profession. Such consultation means very much more, than the cultivation of social intercourse. It means, in the language of our published call for this meeting, "The advancement of the science of jurisprudence," which in its highest purposes and ultimate results, means the promotion of the peace of society and the security of all, in the rights of life, liberty and property.

. Drawing our inspiration from that great foundation of civil liberty, the Common Law, and educated by the masculine courage of its great masters, we, My brethren, naturally stand in the front rank, to protect and defend organic law, and make its soyereign power loved by the good and orderly and feared by the bad and vicious.

Our profession, more than any other, represents that great principle of divine power, that there is no respect of persons before the law.

I am perfectly well aware, My brethren, that there is prevalent among certain classes, a sentiment inimical to our profession. But I am very happy to say, I believe it is principally confined to the most ignorant and demagogical. Who does not know, that whenever and wherever there is government regulated by law, and it happens that with either real or fancied cause, these rights are invaded by the strong arm of the government or by the violence or cupidity of individuals, our counsels and our aid and assistance are first invoked by the sufferer for redress; and no matter how poor and humble he may be, no worthy member of our profession ever turns the "cold shoulder" to him. In the language of Mr. Justice Blackstone, ours is a

profession taught the science "which distinguishes the criterions of right and wrong;-which teaches to establish the one, and prevent, punish or redress the other; which employs in its theory the noblest faculties of the soul, and exerts in its practice the cardinal virtues of the heart; a science which is universal in its use and extent, accommodated to each individual, yet comprehending the whole community."

The science of the law, My brethren, is a grand and noble science. It has had, and has to-day within its ranks more good noble-minded and true-hearted men, statesmen and patriots, than any other profession. Let me say that a profession that can boast of such men, statesmen and patriots as Marshall, Taney, Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Story, Kent, Wirt, Martin, Johnson, Pinkney, Chase, and whole hosts of others I could mention, need not fear the adverse criticism of any individual or class of men. We know, My brethren, that we love our State and our whole country. We know that what we do is for the best interests of our State and country. We love our State and our country, not simply because the one is broad, rich and powerful, and the other capable, under proper management, of becoming so, but because, under their laws, the lives, liberties and fortunes of the people are protected better than in any other government under the sun. We know our duties to our government, and to our fellow men. ciples by our profession. We desire to improve our laws. We desire the improvement in the law to keep pace with the progress of other improvements. We desire to better our own and the condition of our fellow citizens generally, so far as the law can do it.

We are taught these grand prin

The peace, happiness, and prosperity of our country, My brethren, rest and ever will rest upon the virtues of her people, and the cultivation of a true spirit of liberty, equality and patriotism. The very best way to create a reverence for law, is to make the law worthy of it, and the best security for life, liberty and property, is wise, wholesome laws, honestly and faithfully executed. To secure love of country, on the part of the people thereof, we must have good laws, and make and keep all the ministers of the State pure. The members of our profession

must look to this. It is our peculiar task. It is for this purpose we are here to-day, to organize a State Bar Association. Estimating at its true value, My brethren, of the Bar, the intimate relations of our profession to the public, can there be any higher duty or more worthy object, than that to which I have referred? to-wit: the promotion of the administration of justice, the advancement of the science of jurisprudence, and the upbuilding and upholding of the honor of the profession? Because of our calling, gentlemen, we are constantly brought face to face with the defects and imperfections in our laws. No other class of men in the community see as quickly or know better the defects and imperfections of the law. There is no other class of men in the community better fitted to furnish a remedy for such defects and imperfections. I know of no other occupation in life half so well calculated to make men self-reliant and capable of forming sound, just judgments upon public questions as they arise. The study of the law necessarily stores in men's minds a mass of useful information in respect to property, liberty and business, which will be brought into requisition almost every day. But the incidental effects of the study of the law are still more important. A body of men instructed in the law, cannot fail to have an important influence; and their extensive connection with the people engaged in all the great industries of the State and country, cannot fail to give them great advantages over others less favored.

I believe, My brethren, that the time will come, in this country, when men will be selected for important positions with some reference to their educational qualifications to perform the duties, and that, as a necessary consequence, there will disappear from the bodies that make our laws that great anomoly, ages ago pointed out by Mr. Justice Blackstone, when he said it was "perfectly amazing that there should be no other state of life, no other occupation, art or science, in which some method of instruction is not looked upon as requisite, except only the science of legislation, the noblest and most difficult of any."

I need not stop to call over the many positions connected with the making and administration of our laws, in which higher degrees of legal learning are, in my humble judgment, absolutely

essential; and especially a revival of that interest in them which early teaching can alone induce. It occurs to me, My brethren, the greatest danger to our institutions and to our grand and glorious system of jurisprudence, springs from the listless inattention of large masses of our best people, in their cager pursuit after money, to that, which alone can make it of any value to them when acquired.

There is too great a disposition, unquestionably, on the part of such people to shirk personal performance of the most important public duties, and to cast them upon the ignorant and incompetent. In this way, we see, one by one, our great safe guards, either totally lost or seriously impaired.

For long ages, trial by jury has been looked upon by all libertyloving people, as the bulwark of civil liberty, and the security of property. The continuance of jury trial has been provided for in the constitutions of all the states of the American Union, and yet, My brethren, how often do we hear and see the best and most intelligent men in the community pleading with the judge on the bench, to release them from the performance of jury duty, that they may go and attend to money getting. My brethren, jury trial is our great bulwark and safe guard, so long as ignorance, incompetency and dishonesty are excluded from the jury box. We can not do without it. We must reform, improve and preserve it.

The judges of our courts are now no longer the organs of public authority to simply settle private disputes or punish public offences. They ought to be, and most of them are sentinels upon the watch-towers of our constitutions to sound the alarm of approaching danger, and to protect the persons and property of the people from all illegal invasion. The judges of our courts must give effect to the spirit and grand purposes of these instruments, no matter from whom or where the invasion may

come.

Is it not a remarkable fact, gentlemen, that in such a vast country as this, with so many temptations constantly before them, and while so many other men in other positions succumb to these temptations, we hear and see so little of the unjust or corrupt judge. Throughout the history of our country, we very