spute.

The conclusions of professional retainers, committed before they begin
their so-called investigations to a literal belief in the fabulous,
should be accepted with great caution. For them to come to conclusions
outside of that which they have been taught, is not only to forfeit
their social position, but to lose their actual means of livelihood.
Perhaps the truth in the final summing up can best be gotten from those
who have made no vows that they will not change their opinions, and have
nothing to lose if they fail occasionally to gibe with the popular.

On a certain occasion after Colonel Ingersoll had delivered his famous
lecture entitled, "Some Mistakes of Moses," he was entertained by a
local club. At the meeting, which was of the usual informal kind known
as "A Dutch Feed," a young lawyer made bold to address the great orator
thus: "Colonel Ingersoll, you are a lover of freedom--with you the word
liberty looms large. All great men love liberty, and no man lives in
history, respected and revered, save as he has sought to make men free.
Moses was a lover of liberty. Now, wouldn't it be gracious and generous
in you to give Moses, who in some ways was in the same business as
yourself, due credit as a liberator and law-giver and not emphasize his
mistakes to the total exclusion of his virtues?"

Colonel Ingersoll listened--he was impressed by the fairness of the
question. He listened, paused and replied: "Young man, you have asked a
reasonable question, and all you suggest about the greatness of Moses,
in spite of his mistakes, is well taken. The trouble in your logic lies
in the fact that you do not understand my status in this case. You seem
to forget that I am not the attorney for Moses. He has more than two
million men looking after his interests. I am retained on the other
side!"

Like unto Colonel Ingersoll, I am not an attorney for Moses. I desire,
however, to give a fair, clear and judicial account of the man. I will
attempt to present a brief for the people, and neither prosecute nor
defend. I will simply try to picture the man as he once existed, nothing
extenuating, nor setting down aught in malice. As the original office of
the State's Attorney was rather to protect the person at the bar than to
indict him, so will I try to bring out the best in Moses, rather than
hold up his mistakes and raise a laugh by revealing his ignorance.
Modesty, which is often egotism turned wrong side out, might here sa