The Bar as an Institution of the State Page: 12
16 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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-12sluch
a tribunal deals anld which its judgments conclude, forbid
resort to any standard less sure and stable than established
rules of decision, founded upon just principles and resting in the
wisdom of experience, tested by time and service, and illustrated
by specific application to particular instances through the
medium of pj)ublishled opinions, the value of w-hose utterance and
the force of whose precedent make them the veritable anchors of
thle law.
To him oIur organize forms and fundamental agencies are not
the rodullct of a day, for a temporary luse. to be altered with
facility anl adapted at will to the mood of the hour. They are
the gro-wth of long y-ears, the evolution of severe experience,
the fruits of noble sacrifice, nlarkedl 1b the scars of tragic conflict,
seasoned through hard trial, and endeared to the public
heart by all the ties of heroic association. They represent to
himl something' more than even established institutions. They
lem(lod(y the spirit of his race; that rare courage that defied
the I)ower of despotic kings and bligoted prelates and faced
tlie terrors of dungeon walls and scaffold tree in its stout resistalnce
to the tyrannical sway of prerogative and arbitrary rule,
andl that )pervading gt'enius which wrote into oreat characters the
implerishable truths of human liberty andc established the principle
of self-government among men. Ile is familiar with those
cheerless and sometimes )lool od chapters which record the bitter
travail through which the stubborn, unsubdued resolution of
this stock of men accomplished their final conquest, and set them
up before the world as examples of the just powers of government
and the enduring ouaranties of the rights to which all
freemen are entitled. lie knows that in other lands, through
those dark periods of an elder time, stained by the cruel excesses
of uncurbed passions and the riot of violent forces, patriots
dreamed and martyrs suffered in the hope that a republic
like this might some day be established; and when under the
providence of God it was born, it realized the world-old aspiration
of mankind for a free government and became consecrated
with all the sacrifice and hardship of the long and weary struggle
for its ultimate attainment. His patriotism is of that school
which teaches that when its founders dedicated it to its high
uses. they imposed a trust upon their children to protect and
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Texas Bar Association. The Bar as an Institution of the State, book, July 2, 1913; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth38099/m1/13/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.