Life and Correspondence of James Iredell V1 - One of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States (1857) (Hardcover)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER XVII. . 32?33. INTRODUCTORY SUMMARY. LETTERS FROM HOOPER, SIR N. DIJ- KINFIELD, PIERCE BUTLER, IREDELL, REV. A. IREDELL, S. JOHNSTON, AND H. E. M'CULLOH. Mr. Iredell continued during the year '84 actively engaged in his professional avocations. At the close of the war commenced an animated struggle between military men and those who, amid the clash of arms, had been overshadowed. Upon the return of peace, those accustomed to command could not, without a sigh or effort, surrender their authority to others. Then began a contest, fierce enough, between thought and action: but, as must always necessarily happen where the press is unshackled and freedom of debate exists, mind soon established its ascendency. The return of the Tories, and their strenuous efforts to procure the restoration of their property; the activity of the lawyers, stimulated by the opening of a lucrative career; the commencement of new, the revival of long dormant suits ? all conspired to foster exasperation, cupidity, avarice, revenge. It is never to be expected that immediately after a revolution effected by arms, the passions of the combatants will subside; and that trade and the currents of life will return to their wonted channels. The sea, disturbed to its depths, does not sleep quietly as soon as the storm is stilled; troubled dreams are, long afterward, attested by its heaving bosom. A very violent prejudice, at this period, existed in narrow and vulgar minds against the legal profession: this antipathy was fomented by many persons of more talent and less principle, as a means of destroying those whom they feared as rivals, and as an instrument by which they might effect their political ends. The lawyers of the State were generally conservatives; hence it was that they excited, i...