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The President:

Governor McGovern and Mr. Mallory: On behalf of the American Bar Association I express my profound appreciation of your cordial words of welcome. The great names of the Wisconsin Bench and Bar are not unknown beyond the confines of this beautiful state. Luther S. Dixon, Edward George Ryan, Matthew Hale Carpenter are stars in the brilliant galaxy of the American Bench and Bar; and your great men of business of whom the portrait of one of the most honored is on the wall of this room-John Plankinton-are not unknown to us.

We appreciate your welcome very heartily, and we appreciate particularly the efforts which you have so intelligently put forth for our comfort and entertainment.

The President then delivered the President's Address.

(See the Appendix, page 255.)

The Assistant Secretary read the names of candidates reported from the General Council for election to membership in the Association.

The candidates were duly elected members of the Association. (See New Members marked (‡) in State List, page 196.)

A recess of five minutes was then taken to enable the members from the various states to make nominations for members of the General Council.

After the recess members of the General Council were duly elected.

(See List of General Council, page 125.)

The Annual Report of the Secretary of the Association was read by him and was duly received and adopted.

(See the Report at End of Minutes, page 72.)

The Annual Report of the Treasurer of the Association was submitted by him and was referred to the Auditing Committee. (See the Report at End of Minutes, page 74.)

The Reports of the Executive Committee were presented by the Secretary.

The Secretary:

There are two reports of the Executive Committee. I will first read the general report, and, after action has been taken thereon, I will in pursuance of the By-law merely state the substance and purport of the special report, inasmuch as that report has already been printed and sent out to all of the members of the Association. The general report is as follows:

(See the Report at End of Minutes, page 90.)

The general report of the Executive Committee was, on motion of Joseph R. Edson of the District of Columbia, seconded by M. A. Hurley of Wisconsin, received and its recommendations adopted.

The Secretary:

On August 12, 1912, a special report of the Executive Committee, concerning the status in the Association of William H. Lewis and Butler R. Wilson, of Massachusetts, and of William R. Morris, of Minnesota, was printed and sent out to all members of the Association.

It is unnecessary, therefore, to say more than that the report referred to three resolutions passed by the Executive Committee; one, of January 4, 1912, concerning the status of William H. Lewis, and the other two, of August 12, 1912, concerning the status respectively of Butler R. Wilson and William R. Morris, all three of those gentlemen being of the colored race. The report concludes as follows:

"The committee has not rejected any one of the three mentioned gentlemen for membership in the Association, or assumed to determine the desirability of electing to such membership a colored man otherwise qualified, but forasmuch as the settled. practice of the Association has been to elect only white men to membership therein, the committee felt itself constrained to reserve the important question of electing colored men for determination by the Association itself, and to that end the committee has regarded it as a plain duty to rescind its earlier action. The status of the three above named persons as candidates for admission remains unimpaired.

Having endeavored so to prcceed as to leave the Association free to exercise its own plenary power, the committee now re

ports the matter to the Association without recommendation in the premises, and, inasmuch as doubt has been expressed as to the right and jurisdiction of the committee to pass the resolution of January 4, 1912, and those of August 12, 1912, the question as to whether the committee had power to act therein, or to adopt such resolutions, is also hereby referred to the Association."

Such is the substance and purport of the special report of the Executive Committee printed and distributed to members on the 12th of August, and which is now submitted for that action which the Association may deem proper to take.

(See the Report at End of Minutes, page 93.)

The President:

The report is before the Association. I will ask Mr. Fraser, of Indiana, to take the Chair.

Daniel Fraser, of Indiana, assumed the Chair.

The Chairman:

What will you do with this report?

J. M. Dickinson, of Tennessee:

There is one thought which I am sure, is uppermost in the minds of all of us. Every true lover of the welfare of this Association hopes that the crisis which has been impending will pass by, leaving unimpaired an Association which has done so much for the usefulness and honor of the profession and for the good of the country and continue it in its full strength and in the amity and good will which hitherto have characterized it.

Without intending to engage in any discussion of its merits. I am about to offer a resolution which I believe men of your intelligence can vote upon as well without discussion as with it. The individual members here will need no enlightenment to guide them in what they deem to be the right course. Discussion might do much harm; I am convinced that it can do no good, and therefore appeal in the interest of the Association to the members present, whatever their views may be, that they vote upon the resolution without a discussion of its merits. The resolution reads:

"WHEREAS, Three persons of the colored race were elected to membership in this Association without knowledge upon the

part of those electing them that they were of that race, and are now members of this Association.

Resolved, That, as it has never been contemplated that members of the colored race should become members of this Association, the several local councils are directed that, if at any time any of them shall recommend a person of the colored race for membership, they shall accompany the recommendation with a statement of the fact that he is of such race."

Nathan William MacChesney, of Illinois:

I rise to second the resolution presented by the distinguished gentleman from Tennessee. I do this in the spirit that has been expressed by him that we may so solve this difficult situation that we may not impair the usefulness of the American Bar Association, either to the country at large or to us as memhers of a great profession, or in any way affect the cordial personal and professional relations of the members of this Association. Now I wish to call attention to five things connected with this resolution. (1) That it recognizes that these men were elected. (2) That they were elected without knowledge by the Executive Committee that they were colored men. (3) That they are now in fact members of the Association. (4) It states as a matter of fact and of history that it has never been contemplated that colored men were to be members of this Association. That is a matter of fact and a matter of history to which all men, north and south, whether in favor of one action or the other, must agree. (5) That as this was by inadvertence and as it had not been in contemplation, that in the future the local councils shall state where persons of the colored race are proposed for membership that they are of that race.

You all know that Mr. Dickinson speaks for those men who hold the Southern view, although, perhaps, we want to recollect in considering this situation and in voting upon the matter that the race question is neither of the North or of the South, and I would remind some of the gentlemen from my own state that we have as serious a situation with reference to this question in Illinois as there is in any state of the South. So that we should not look upon it in any narrow, partisan or sectional spirit. The fact of the matter is that in my own state

within five years past the National Guard was called out more frequently to suppress race disturbances than it had been in the entire history of the commonwealth from 1818 down to five years ago. I simply call attention to the fact that some of the men of the North who have in private conversation opposed this resolution must recollect that it does represent the true spirit of the Association and solves the difficulty in a way that preserves its usefulness and at the same time gives full justice to the men whose status was questioned.

I trust, therefore, that the resolution will be carried without debate.

Francis F. Kane, of Pennsylvania:

But that is what the gentleman himself has been doing. He has been debating the question.

The Chairman:

Are you ready to vote?

George W. Wickersham, of New York:

It is due to this Association and to myself-because I am perhaps more responsible than any other person for bringing this subject before the Association-that I should state that in my opinion this resolution accomplishes that which I personally have been endeavoring to accomplish, namely, to recognize the status of three members of this Association which in my opinion could not be lawfully and legally disturbed by the action of the Exccutive Committee. Therefore I accept and shall vote for this resolution because I did not embark upon any wider compaign. than that which finds its solution in the recognition of the continued membership of those men.

Burton Smith, of Georgia:

I think the members of the Association misunderstood my brilliant friend from Chicago when they laughed because he said that he was not discussing the question. I do not think he meant to discuss the question. He meant to discuss the general situation. There is a situation here that we all know, and it is an issue or problem which is not proper to be discussed

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