Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 09.pdf/119

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
94
The Green Bag.

could. For that purpose she drew black lines around all laws she found which seemed to wrong her sex, and was preparing to cut them from the books when her father discovered her object. He said to her, " If you believe these laws are wrong, your rem edy must be to wait until you arrive at a proper age, when you can go before the legislature and ask for their repeal." Her father was very conservative upon this and all other questions and then little dreamed that he would live to see that ad.vice followed. In the year 1846, when thirty-one years of age, she appeared before a committee of the legislature of New York to advocate the cause of women, and in 1848 that celebrated law awarding women many rights was enacted, mainly on account of the interest she had awakened. She prepared her address in advance, and while reading it to her father, tears filled his eyes, and he became a convert to her cause. Elizabeth Cady Stanton is now in her eightysecond year and is engaged in writing the "Woman's Bible." When Mr. Cady entered the profession it was adorned by such men as Alexander Hamilton, James Kent, Edward Livingston, and George Clinton was then Governor. In his long practice he often appeared be fore Chancellor Kent, Ambrose Spencer, Samuel Nelson and Greene C. Bronson and other distinguished jurists. During his practice he came in contact with different generations of great lawyers, among whom may be mentioned Abraham Van Vechten, John V. Henry, Marcus T. Reynolds and Samuel Stevens of Albany, Joshua A. Spencer of Utica, and B. Davis Noxon of Syracuse, Benjamin F. Butler and Thomas Addis Emmet of New York. In that early day lawyers had to practice three years as attorneys before they could be admitted as counselors which author ized them to argue cases in bane. Mr. Cady was admitted such counselor in 1798, and he at once argued his first case, which

was an ejectment suit, but it was not report ed, as in that early period no reports were published. The first reported case in which he was counsel is Jackson v. Sample (i Johnson's Cases, 231). It involved a large tract of land in Montgomery County. Abraham Van Vechten was counsel for the plaintiff, and Daniel Cady and Aaron Burr represented the defendant. The court-house in Johnstown was built by Sir William Johnson before the Revolu tionary Var. It is still standing and has been the scene of many a famous profes sional contest, among which was the trial of Solomon Southwick in 1812, on an indict ment for attempting to bribe Alexander Sheldon, Speaker of the Assembly, to give his vote in favor of incorporating the Bank of America. Chief-Justice Kent presided. Thomas Addis Emmet, Attorney-General, led on behalf of the prosecution; Southwick was defended by Aaron Burr, Daniel Cady and Ebenezer Foote. The defendant was acquitted. About 1841, a prominent lawyer from New York City, on his way to Johnstown to try an ejectment suit, called at the office of Nicholas Hill, the famous Albany lawyer. Mr. Hill inquired who was to be his oppo nent, and the New York attorney said his name was Daniel Cady, a country law yer, and he predicted he would have no trouble in succeeding in the case. Mr. Hill asked him to call on his return and report the result. A few days later the city lawyer did call and reported Mr. Cady non-suited him before he knew where he stood. Mr. Cady's reputation as an ejectment lawyer places him at the very head in that branch of jurisprudence. He was as familiar with reversions, remainders vested and con tingent, and executory devises, as with the simplest questions in ordinary practice. Al though elected several times to the legisla ture, and to Congress in 1814, he preferred his profession rather than the life of a politician.