OCR Text |
Show STOIIIESOF BEX BCTLEK. PECULIARITIES OF THE FAMOUS FA-MOUS LAWYER. I'.'.t 'Ti :Mana Imputation for Ltaralar, Wit, Audacity and Gtala Jiel No (oellras-lluR-i liars; Worker ill His Life A Tireless 1 sirjer. The legal ability of lien. Butlor has long commanded the admiration of his feliow members of the Boston bar, says the Advertiser. Since tho gen-oral's gen-oral's announcement in the United Mates District court that the Johnson case would be probably the last j criminal cause that he should ever try. the legal fraternity ha9 irdulged in luuny reminiscences of their dis- I ' agreed with the counsel for the prose-! ; tuition that three indictments should be quashed on condition that tho prisoner ' should plead guilty to the one which j charged tho theft of tha greatest amount. The prisoner to his araaze-! araaze-! merit, was ordered by his counsel to ulend guilty. y guilty, sir," said the general, sternly. The man obeyed ' and the other three indictments were ' nol prosstd. Hut when th counsel : for the prosecution moved for sentence ' Gen. Butler pointed out a fatal flaw, : manifest to every one when attention ! was called to it. In ten minutes the i astonished prisonor was a free nvtn. It is said the court laughed at the ruse, the cleverness of which it was Impossible not to admire. tinguished fellow member's long and ' in many respects remarkable legal j career. Gen. Butler was twenty-two years of age when ho was admitted to the bar in 1840. As a law student he ! had been a hard worker as woll ns a quick scholar, and his memory and application were equally great. Before his admission to tno bar he hud practiced a little in the police court at Lowell, conducting suits brought by factory girls against mill corporations for wages withhold on one prelenso or another, and glad enough to earn an occasional fee of $2. Lawyer Butler entered into partnership partner-ship with his preceptor, William Smith, father of II. F. Durant. It was not long befoto he acquired a largo practice. One of his earliest cases was a most important one. It was an action against the city of Lowell for damages claimed' for injuries received by falling into a cellarway which opened upon tho sidewalk. The young lawyer won his case, and the city paid $2,000 damages, the principle that cities are liable for such defects being then established. In another early case, the audacity which has always distinguished Gen. Butl?r in court was displayed mo- t effectively. The ease being called in court, the young lawyer law-yer said in the usual way: "Let notice bo given." "In what paper?" was tho inquiry oi the gray-haired clerk of the court, a stanch Whig. 'In tho Lowell Advertiser," said the young Deinoeraticlawyer, naming a Jackson paper. "1 don't know such a paper,"' said the Whig clerk disdainfully. "Don't interrupt tho court proceedings, proceed-ings, Mr. clerk," said the lawyer, "for if you begin to tell us what you don't know there will bo no time for anything any-thing else." In 1848 Gen. Butlor was counsel in a case concerning tho taking of Lake Cochituato water. Ho was tho counsel coun-sel of mill owners. Tho city of Boston had constructed at groat expense various vari-ous reservoirs to supply as compensation compensa-tion to tha mill owners an amount of water equal to the amount taken from them. Gen. Butler objected before the court that, having taken the water, j . the city could not compensate in that way. This position was sustained, and the city later sold its costly reservoirs. reser-voirs. In another case in which a person was indicted for stealing a key to a house. Gen. Butler argued that a key could not bo a subject of larceny, being part of tha realty, and tho prisoner pris-oner was discharged. During his long practice Gen. Butler has been associated with or opposed to such men us Webster, Choate, Fletcher, Evorelt, dishing. Curtiss, Kantoul and Abbott. There were two cases, differing widely in character, however, in which Gen. Butler was opposed to liufus -Choate. One was a e uit for damages instituted on the part "of the crew against a captain who had neglected to supply his ship with antidotes for the scurvy. Gen. Butler conducted tho cause of the sailors, and Mr. Choate defonded the captain. The trial lasted ntneteen days. (Jen. Butler's chief points wero that the captain was bound to procure fresh vegetables if ho could: and that ho could. A most remarkable amount of evidence was submitted by the sailors' counsel. Before tho trial was over almost every leading physician in Boston, and nearly every sea captain and ship owner hud appeared on the witness stand. In spile of Mr. Choate's skill and eloquence the jury gave damages of $3,000. Another case in which Gen. Butler met Mr. Choate is proverbial. The former devoted a largo share of his argument to warning the- jury to beware be-ware of the magic spellof Choate's eloquence, elo-quence, which caused men to lose their reason and become incapable of judging between right t. id wrong and to award their verdict as a tribute to 'oratory rather than as a just decision. The effective warning caused Choate's eloquence to seem the chiof issue in tho case. Consequently tho great orator ora-tor dared not exercise it, and began his argument by saying: "My speech slvll bo the speech of a plain old man." But Choate was not Choate in a noueloquent speech, and Gen. Butler won. Gen. Butler's gift for springing out and taking advantage of every technicality techni-cality was fully illustrated in the famous fam-ous case of a respectably connected man in Boston, who, being affected with a mania for stealing, was brought to trial on fou iudictments. Gen. Butler But-ler was the prisoner's council. If the prisoner was convicted on all four Indictments In-dictments ho would be liable to imprisonment im-prisonment for sixty days. As the' court was assembling Gen. Butler |