"Yes," he once said to a man who offered him such a case; "there
is no reasonable doubt but that I can gain your case for you. I
can set a whole neighborhood at loggerheads; I can distress a
widowed mother and her six fatherless children, and thereby gain
for you six hundred dollars, which rightfully belongs, it appears
to me, as much to them as it does to you. I shall not take your
case, but I will give you a little advice for nothing. You seem a
sprightly, energetic man. I would advise you to try your hand at
making six hundred dollars in some other way.
He would have nothing to do with the "tricks" of the profession,
though he met these readily enough when practised by others. He
never knowingly undertook a case in which justice was on the side
of his opponent. That same inconvenient honesty which prompted
him, in his store-keeping days, to close the shop and go in
search of a woman he had innocently defrauded of a few ounces of
tea while weighing out her groceries, made it impossible for him
to do his best with a poor case. "Swett," he once exclaimed,
turning suddenly to his associate, "the man is guilty; you defend
him--I can't," and gave up his share of a large fee.
After his death some notes were found, written in his own hand,
that had evidently been intended for a little lecture or talk to
law students. They set forth forcibly, in a few words, his idea
of what a lawyer ought to be and to do.
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