ew. To lose a criminal case was considered even
mildly disgraceful. It was a point of professional pride for the lawyer
to get his client free, without reference to the circumstances of the
time or the guilt of the accused. To fail was a mark of extreme
stupidity, for the game was considered an easy and fascinating one. The
whole battery of technical delays was at the command of the defendant.
If a man had neither the time nor the energy for the finesse that made
the interest of the game, he could always procure interminable delays
during which witnesses could be scattered or else wearied to the point
of non-appearance. Changes of venue to courts either prejudiced or known
to be favorable to the technical interpretation of the law were very
easily procured. Even of shadier expedients, such as packing juries,
there was no end.

With these shadier expedients, however, your high-minded lawyer, moving
in the best society, well dressed, proud, looked up to, and today
possessing descendants who gaze back upon their pioneer ancestors with
pride, had little directly to do. He called in as counsel other lawyers,
not so high-minded, so honorable, so highly placed. These little
lawyers, shoulder-strikers, bribe-givers and takers, were held in
good-humored contempt by the legal lights who employed them. The actual
dishonesty was diluted through so many agents that it seemed an almost
pure stream of lofty integrity. Ordinary jury-packing was an easy art.
Of course the sheriff's office must connive at naming the talesmen;
therefore it was necessary to elect the sheriff; consequently all the
lawyers were in politics. Of course neither the lawyer nor the sheriff
himself ever knew of any individual transaction! A sum of money was
handed by the leading counsel to his next in command and charged off as
"expense." This fund emerged considerably diminished in the sheriff's
office as "perquisites."

Such were the conditions in the realm of criminal law, the realm where
the processes became so standardized that between 1849 and 1856 over one
thousand murders had been committed and only one legal conviction had
been secured! Dueling was a recognized institution, and a skillful shot
could always "get" his enemy in this formal manner; but if time or skill
lacked, it was still perfectly safe to shoot him down in a street
brawl--provided one had money enough to employ talent for defense.

But, once in politics, the law could not stop at the sher