Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 113, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1910 — LAWYER A MODERN INNOVATION [ARTICLE]

LAWYER A MODERN INNOVATION

Evolution from the Crude and Bar. barous Rulings of the Powerful. In the more primitive times the man was the head of all family relations; his wife, his children, his servants, were his to do with as he would. If a babe was deformed, sickly or a girl where he wanted a man-child, he had only to say the word and it was slain or exposed to the elementa and wild beasts. Later kings arose, and when such an one ruled a tribe or nation “whom he 'would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive.” Suspicion in the king s mind meant death, swift when merciful and lingering through untold torments when kingly hatred or policy so decreed. In due time the priest became at times superior to patriarchal prince and kingly tyrant and claimed his human sacrifices to appease the outraged gods. Not only the criminal and the captive enemy perished. “In Ur of the Chaldees,” when Abram left the city with his childless wife Sar-ai, both doubtless rejoiced in their hearts that no man-child of theirs had gasped out its budding life on the altar of Hurki, the relentless moon god. Under systems so crude and cruel man lived subjected to strong thieves and slaying mercilessly brute and man who lessened by fraud or force his limited substance. From a general paucity of necessities and luxuries and the ease of escape beyond the reach of post or pursuit, arose the Draconian laws, which put to death millions of human beings for crimes that to-day are petty offenses indeed. Naturally this “king’s justice” was an inquisitiofi and not a trial, decided not on abstract rules and Icarefully weighed evidence, but by whatever rude justice, mercy, policy or favor might rule the royal mind or judge’s reason for the time. Execution followed fast upon sentence, and when the Assyrian’s face was covered and he was led forth he knew that bitter torture or sudden death was close at hand. Whoever .questioned the justice of the king or the decision of judge or priest might be a brave man, but seldom survived the resentment of his judges. Therefore the lawyer is a modern innovation.