THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. AND ADDRESSES OF AN AMERICAN LAWYER BY HENRY W. TAFT OF THE NEW YORK BAR New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY All rights reserved INTRODUCTION The fugitive papers and addresses contained in this volume are the by-product of a busy professional life. They were prepared during the last decade; and yet the march of events has been so rapid that little more than a historic interest now attaches to the subjects they deal with. Their publication in a book was suggested by the difficulty I have encountered in collecting addresses of my father delivered threequarters of a century ago. Aside from the desire to put in a permanent form the results of some labor, I have some hope that the publication of the contents. of this volume may have some effect upon the younger members of the legal profession in stimulating them not only to greater effort in promoting the effective administration of justice, but also to a more active performance of the duties of citizenship. The pursuit of an absorbing profession in a metropolitan city leaves little time for the indulgence of tastes in the fields of general culture. The law is such a jealous mistress that she does not suffer gladly even dilettante ramblings in art or science or literature. If a lawyer does disentangle himself from the phylacteries of a system of law and procedure whose practice frequently tends to a narrowness of vision, he quite naturally turns to some phase of public affairs, and, moreover, as I have pointed out in these papers, a sense of public duty ought to press him, more than those engaged in other pursuits, in that direction. But the complexities of modern existence in America |