and work in the committee concerning a reorganizing of the Federal Courts and a new Federal Practices Act. No doubt the more important considerations before the Association have been dealt with and will be found to be covered by the new Judiciary Act of March 3, 1911, reorganizing and simplifying our system of Federal Courts. The committees of the Association have long been in conference with committees of Congress in this connection.

The Chattanooga meeting was well attended and notwithstanding the extreme heat was an active and effective session. Many courtesies were extended the delegates, the well-known historic setting of the city itself contributing greatly to the pleasure and interest of those in attendance.

Mr. President, I have only hinted in the last sentence at a phase of the Chattanooga meeting, or rather an influence to which it was subject, growing out of the wonderful historic environment of that city. May I ask your indulgence and speak a moment longer concerning this matter. I do so the more willingly, perhaps, because in the tremendous constitutional conflict culminating in the Civil War, our profession bore a signal part. We have Webster and Marshall and their co-workers who dreamed of and crystallized for us the priceless ideal of National Unity. We have Lincoln whose mighty task it was to hold aloft that ideal and to bear it through the fires of conflict to the peaceful realm of accomplished fact. And in the days just following we of Iowa may take pride in our contribution of men like Samuel F. Miller of the Supreme Court whose duty it was to reweave into a garment having all its old time glory, the torn fabric of our national life. And so of the meeting at Chattanooga where on every horizon line monument and tablet and grave stone stand as reminders of the sacrifices of which our civilization of today is the fruit, it is proper that I should tell you that the greatest achievement of that meeting of lawyers from the North and South was the deeper inspiration carried away by every delegate toward a life of patriotic devotion.

Chattanooga, now a city about the size of Des Moines, is situated upon the east bank of the Tennessee River that, coming from the north, sweeps first to the southeast about the foot of

Lookout Mountain, then back to the northwest, thus completing the famous Moccasin Bend. Lookout Mountain rises precipitately eighteen hundred feet above the river, the crest thereof a rugged crag from which may be viewed portions of seven States. To the left of the mountain is Chattanooga Valley and on the left of that and north lies that rugged line of wooded hills, rising five hundred feet or more above the valley, known as Missionary Ridge. Off a few miles to the southeast is the famous battlefield of Chickamauga. Here in September, 1863, in a dense wood, struggled 110,000 men. We were taken over the field where everywhere are reminders of the awful conflict.

The field is marked by hundreds of monuments and tablets, indicating points where engagements took place, where losses were heaviest, and the position of the various regiments engaged. Here are the little fields and quaint log cabins which still bear the impress of the fight. Trees abound whose tops have been shot off and in whose trunks are imbedded cannon balls and shells, where nature is now endeavoring with her greenery to cover the wounds of war. Here is Snodgrass Hill where the forces of Thomas almost alone held in check the Confederate forces and preserved Rosecrans in his retreat to Chattanooga from what would have been complete rout. It is a lesson in patriotism to go over this bloody field. The Union troops were defeated and withdrew to Chattanooga. The Confederates followed and fortified Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and the intervening valley. Having possession of the mountain, they cut off the only railroad connection with Chattanooga, the line of railway entering the city along a ledge at the foot of the mountain at the margin of the river. For two months the Union forces were thus under siege and suffered great privation and loss. Finally Rosecrans was relieved and Grant took command. Sherman by a night movement led a force concentrated upon the east bank of the river, opposite the north end of Missionary Ridge. Hooker with his forces was sent to Lookout Valley to the west of the mountain. Heavy forces were retained in the Union center at Chattanooga to coöperate in the attack. Sherman began his attack at the north end of the ridge on the Confederate right and at the same time Hooker was directed to attack Lookout

Mountain. To the north was heavy fighting. During Hooker's advance upon the mountain there was a storm which rendered the field of conflict invisible to those in the valley. Up the mountain side came Hooker's men, fighting as they came, until they reached the ledge of the mountain just below its crest, where were the Confederate headquarters in what is known as the Craven House. Here the conflict was bitter, but inch by inch the Confederate position was taken and when the morning of the second day came Grant's troops in the valley and Sherman's at the north end of the ridge could see our flag floating over the crest of Lookout Mountain.

This famous "battle above the clouds" was one of the most dramatic engagements of the war. Word was sent to Hooker to press down the mountain into Chattanooga Valley and thence across to Rossville Gap at the south end of the ridge. Fighting began at both ends of the ridge, and was supplemented by an advance from the Union center upon the rifle pits at the foot of the ridge opposite Bragg's headquarters. The rifle pits were taken but the troops went on up the mountain. This further advance was pursuant to no orders, but was due to the well known initiative of the American soldier. This continued attack upon the right, left, and center of the Confederate position resulted in a bitter conflict and great loss of life. At length the Confederate positions all along the ridge were taken and the enemy, defeated, were forced off into the broken country to the east.

The delegates were taken all over these historic fields, and every delegate, whether from the North or the South, was thrilled by the reminders on every hand of what is now our common heritage the valor of the American soldier in the Civil War. Among the delegates visiting these fields were many old soldiers from both sides of the conflict and I could but feel that here was a fulfillment of the prophecy contained in the never-to-be-forgotten words of Lincoln:

"The mystic chords of Memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every loyal heart and hearthstone in this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when touched as surely they will be by the better angels of our nature."

After being taken with the delegates over Lookout Mountain I went again alone. As I reached the crest a storm swept over the mountain, hiding the valley below just as it did on that November day in 1863. Working my way by footpaths down the face of the mountain I came to a little ledge about a hundred yards wide where stood the Craven House and where took place the bitterest fighting. Here I encountered the beautiful shaft erected by the State of Iowa as a memorial to her troops. Here upon the side of the mountain fifteen hundred feet above the valley stands that noble memorial to the valor of the boys of Iowa. Upon its face is inscribed this prayer in which every patriotic soul must today join:

"May the heroism which dedicated this lofty field to immortal renown, be as imperishable as the Union is eternal."

THE PRESIDENT: I am very sure the Association will be very glad to have this interesting and inspiring report of the American Bar Association placed upon record.

Passing the reports of any other committees now, we will take up the first paper on the program-"The Lawyer as a Patriot", by Justice John C. Sherwin, Mason City.

THE LAWYER AS A PATRIOT

The subject that I have chosen for this necessarily brief paper is as broad as the history of the world. Indeed, were full justice to be done it, volumes would be required to present to the profession in the most condensed form the splendid achievements of its members as statesmen and as patriots. From the very beginning of organized society, the lawyer has taken a large and a leading part in shaping the policy and the destiny of state and nation. It is not my purpose, however, to do more than to call your attention to a very few of the great number of lawyers whose names and public services are a bright and lasting part of the history of our own country, and in making my selection I have been guided by no thought of belittling the work and ability of those who are not the immediate subjects under consideration. I have only attempted to present a few thoughts concerning the men who have always commanded my deepest admiration and

have appealed to me as worthy of the highest esteem and admiration of the profession and of people generally. The three great events in our history as a nation are the Declaration of Independence, the Adoption of the Constitution, and the Civil War, and in each of these events and in the debates and agitation preceding them, lawyers took conspicuous parts and were, at least, among the foremost in securing to the people of this great Republic the blessings which they today enjoy.

All American citizens pay willing homage to all of the great men of the Revolutionary Period, but no one of these great men, except perhaps Washington, manifested more exalted patriotism and unselfish devotion to public interests than did John Jay, the lawyer, statesman, and jurist. He was admitted to the bar in 1768, at the age of twenty-three, and soon obtained a good practice for those times. His career at the bar was brief, however. While he was inclined to be conservative relative to the impending conflict between the colonies and the mother country, when the colonists decided upon a separation, Jay became at once aggressive and was chosen to represent the citizens of New York on the committee selected to settle questions arising out of the Boston Port Bill. While acting on that committee, he drafted the suggestion of the committee that "a Congress of Deputies from the Colonies in general" be convoked, which, in fact, resulted in the Continental Congress.

New York sent him as a delegate to the first and second Continental Congresses. When he entered the first Congress in 1774, he was but twenty-nine years of age and was scarcely known beyond the boundaries of his own State. He was made a member of the committee appointed to "state the rights of the colonies in general", and by direction of that committee he prepared an address to the people of the mother country, which was reported to Congress and adopted. The paper was everywhere praised. Jefferson, without knowing its author, said that it was the production of the finest pen in America. Webster declared that it stood at the head of the incomparable productions of the first Congress, productions which Lord Chatham pronounced not inferior to those of the master minds of the world. It is, therefore, not at all strange that when the session of the first Congress