Show p I Lee Slater Overman of North BY SAVOYARD SAVOY ARC The average successful lawyer is Isa isa a student of precedents dents Consult him today and he lie will wUl bid you yu Ou call next n week for his opinion He Is laborious runs down the decisions and arid when you again agnin enter his office he Is ready to advise you He does not r his mind as to the philosophies of Or the law though he h has the eye of a lynx l for its technicalities His mission is to ob obtain obtain tain tam the Judgment and earn eara his fee To his mind law lawis Is law because the courts have held it to be sov so There is ia a higher class of lawyers lawers I they hey who are endowed with a genius for the he science of Jurisprudence and have lave a profound sense of Justice They make a study of or principles which they affix to their minds as the mathe mathematician mathematician matician flies the multiplication table to his calculations Consult such a lawyer awyer and he Is not necessitated to turn urn to the authorities to learn the law The Gordian knot of It he will un nfl unloose unloose loose Familiar as his garter This man has saturated his mind with Coke and Littleton Attleton ton Blackstone Fearne Chitty and the rest of the great masters John G Carlisle had a big case pending in the supreme court ourt of one of the Ohio valley states that hat his political duties as speaker of ot congress did not allow him to devote much nuch attention to A few days be before before fore tore this cause was to be argued he casually examined the record and said aid to his secretary There Is a sin single single gle jle question involved herein I do not mow know that it has ever eer been decided in Inthis inthis this his country or in England but if It it has been teen adjudicated the finding ought to have hae been and then he made his meaning clear dear to the secretary who searched Jn tn the sup preme court library for two days and found the very decisions the pre prescience prescience prescience science of Carlisle had pointed to Armed with them he gained the case ease though the argument he made to the bench consumed less time than thirty minutes Aaron Burr a very success successful successful ful tul practitioner declared that to be law which is clearly stated st ted and log maintained Lawyers of the class of Carlisle call that law which Is founded on Justice as interpreted by human reason North Carolina has been celebrated for a century for the rugged learning of its bar The old North state can c din n show more lawyers familiar with Ba Bacons Bacons Bacons cons Abridgments than New York can show Romulus Z Linney a Carolina mountaineer knows more black letter lore than all Har Harvard Harvard Haryard vard yard college the Dane law school in included included eluded He can trace every principle to its source and give gie the human rea reason reason reason son for its It birth He can apply that principle to any given facts and if It he misses English grammar a mile he hits fair and square the bullseye of 01 English jurisprudence Risden T Bennett another North Carlian mountaineer was one of the first lawyers law ers In congress the four years The con congress congress congress gress restricted by b a written tion that divorces church from state undertook to throw the Mormon church into chancery chancel Bennetts speech on that question would have hae added luster to the legal career of PInckney and Webster of Black or Benjamin Old Ben Hardin himself could not have put It stronger His speech was as homely as a meat ax and when he sat down the other side felt that it had been chopped to sau sage by a meat ax The way they the make great lawyers In North Carolina Is to set them to reading the text books by the light of pine knot fires Lee S Overman United States sen son senator ator from North Carolina in the pres ent congress is another lawyer from the mountains of North Carolina The family English nonconformists settled on the coast of Durants Durante Neck in Perquimans county count where the acres are broad and fertile Some of or them were Quakers but they vol volunteered volunteered volunteered to swell the ranks of the Rhode Island Quaker Nathaniel Greene In his military operations against Lord Cornwallis Leaving old England for faith and freedom the did much to help build up upa upa a free commonwealth in the western hemisphere and men of ot that family have hae been prominent in North Caro Carolina Carolina Carolina lina since long before the revolution of 76 Senator Ovean was born in 1853 and when he lie had fulfilled his second North Carolina oppressed and despoiled was the province of ot a satrap and his minions The bottom rail was on top and nothing but loy by loyalty alty and larceny had any commercial or political quotable rating in the state of 01 Nathaniel Macon and Zebu Zebulon Ion lon B 2 Vance but there were left to North Carolina the memories ot of her glories from Kings mountain to Get Gettysburg Gettysburg and these sustained her pride and nerved her h r sons for the struggles of reconstruction The boy Overman was educated in inthe Inthe inthe the country countr schools to and from which he walked miles through field and forest His body was toughened by labor and outdoor sport and his mind waxed with the vigor Igor thus sup supplied supplied supplied plied the muscle In his earlier man manhood manhood manhood hood he was a teacher and a short time after atter he h entered as fine a school as could have hae been found In all Amer America AmerIca AmerIca ica he became the secretary the friend the confident the disciple the dally daily companion of ot Zebulon Zebu Ion B Vance then governor and one of the most extraordinary characters this country ever eer saw patriot soldier r statesman orator poet nobleman admirable Crichton his brilliant versatility ers so dazzled his own generation that his giant stature will be fully measured only by posterity Here was a school worth more to the Intelligent boy or young man manthan manthan manthan than all the academies Vance was even a wiser man than he lie was bril brilliant brilliant He was as practical as he was poetic Who but Zeb Vance could have hae put steamers on the ocean to bring from abroad supplies for tor the be beleaguered beleaguered beleaguered confederacy and at the same time carry In his exuberant imagination the thoughts that spawned the splendors of that match matchless matchless matchless less oration The Scattered Nation 1 The Jews of America and of all the world must wear Zeb Vance in their hearts But Overman when he fell feU under the spell of Vances tremendous per personality personality personality was not a crude mountain boy He had ben been b n graduated from Trinity college a denominational In Institution Institution of at the Methodist church South and thus he ho brought culture as well as native wit to fit him for the association of Vance Augustus S Merriman and a d Vance rance born in the same county had been rivals in boy bo each had emulated the other in manhood Vanee Vane had done as much muchas muc as as Ben HIlt Hill to drive the t carpetbag vultures s out cur Ut n tie t l and it wa ivis b I thus he became known to the tiie country cO at large larg He had made mada madaR a speech t Louisville Ky that wa waby d dby by those who heard it equal as asa a stump effort to anything v that thit ever r fell from the lips of Thomas F Mar lIar Marshall Marshall shall or Richard rd Menifee or Joseph Holt and Democrats everywhere out outside outside outside side of North Carolina longed for the time when Vance should take his place in the senate but for f r the terms Merriman ws vis preferred Vance him am ani Merriman Ie then be became became became came chief Justice of the state su supreme supreme supreme preme bench The rivalry between these distin distinguished distinguished men was not without bitter bitterness bitterness ness nes ness and it ft speaks volumes for Over Overman Overman Overman man that though he married the daughter of Merriman Vance Vanco refused to part with him as private secretary It was not until Vance became sen senator senator senator ator in 1879 that Overman Ov entered ac actively actively actively on n the practice of law He was immediately successful and soon be became became became came a leader of the bar of North Ca Carolina Carolina rolina How much of at skill as a practitioner practitioner practitioner he owed to his association with Vance nobody knows but we w may be well assured it was a great deal Like all southern gentlemen Overman could not have kept out of ot politics had he tried t led and he did not try He was five times returned to the thel legislature l of which body he served as speaker Overman advocated the cause of temperance In the North Carolina campaign In 1881 it was a not very popular thing to do in those days da s It ItIs Itis ItIs Is different now but Overman has never never boasted of his early advocacy of local option The whisky men marked him for tor slaughter hut but ut he ac accepted accepted accepted their challenge and ov cv beat them at the election of 1882 In 1894 he was chosen president of the North Carolina railroad and in 1900 1000 he was elector for the st te at large on the Democratic presidential ticket Predatory politics broke loose in bleeding Kansas when Ben Harrison Harrl on was president and took the phase of ofa ofa ofa a alliance It ex extended extended extended tended to the south where it was a combine Every Everywhere Everywhere Everywhere where It was a child of ot envy eny and ig ignorance ignorance ignorance norance and ever had three or four eyes on the main chance spoil of or office The leader of ot this layout in North Carolina was a man named Butler Butier He was a great friend of at the farmer and md president ent f the alliance North Carolina had haa in Vance and Ransom but this young Butler preached a new evangel and got to be the most powerful citizen of the entire state tate Vance died in 1904 or even he probably would have hae fallen fallena a victim to the craze Young Yung Y ung Butler got Ransoms seas sel in the senate in 1895 In the senate senale he was exceeding exceedingly ly I garrulous He appeared to be in intent intent Intent tent on serving his country and the rest of mankind and it looked to me meas meas meas as though he was was all the time seek seeking seeking ing Inga a court of adequate Jurisdiction in order to have his action a tion of damages against Divine Providence for not opening a a yawning gulf In the Cap Capitol CapItol Capitol itol like that we read of in the Roman to give him opportunity to play Mettus Metaphorically he cut the caper c per every time he got the floor ioor and that was every cery time he was pres pros present present ent during a sitting In 1895 the Democrats Democrat nominated Mr Overman for foi the une t rm of Vance in the senate but Butler brought out Peter Pritchard id and beat him Eight years later however the partnership between guile and folly f llY had been dissolved by b mutual disgust and general disappointment and Overman got the place he pe should have had h d in 1895 Butler was beaten by bythe bythe bythe the present Senator Simmons in 1901 and North Carolina has been Demo Democratic Democratic Democratic cratic ever eer since When the rate bill was under con eon consideration consideration two years ago the speech of Senator Overman challenged all aU the legal learning of the senate and the Overman amendment touching the report review was the subject of much debate But the tho leaders of the senate played a game of politics am and the White House joined in The Roose combination combination combination tion was turned over o r to o the Ananias club and the Ov agree agreement ment was lost in the shuffle Mr lr Aldrich drafted the Allison amendment the White House accept accepted ed it and the long agony of the great greatest greatest greatest est of all octopus chases was over But Senator Overman got much credit out of ot the debate and he ranks among the leaders of the greatest po political political political deliberative body bod of America Copyright 1908 by E W Newman |