Williams, C. C., Jr.

English

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Volume 44 Issue 4 Article 13 June 1938 Johnson Newlon Camden--A Study in Individualism C. C. Williams Jr. West Virginia University College of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/wvlr  Part of the Legal History Commons Recommended Citation C. C. Williams Jr., Johnson Newlon Camden--A Study in Individualism, 44 W. Va. L. Rev. (1938). Available at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/wvlr/vol44/iss4/13 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the WVU College of Law at The Research Repository @ WVU. It has been accepted for inclusion in West Virginia Law Review by an authorized editor of The Research Repository @ WVU. For more information, please contact ian.harmon@mail.wvu.edu. WEST VIRGINIA LAW QUARTERLYBOOK REVIEWSJOHNSON NEWLON CAmDEN - A STUDY IN INDIVIDUALdsM. ByFestus P. Summers. New York. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1937. Pp.605.Legal history, - if we may paraphrase Macaulay, - in itsstriving towards perfection combines legal precepts with socialand economic history. One seeks primarily to find the extent towhich legal doctrine has been the product of existing conditionsof civilization, and then pictures this by a vivid portrait of variousof its many striking phases. Nor are these lacking in the worksof Maitland, Vinogradoff and -others. The difficult task, that ofcharting with more or less certainty a future course of action onthe basis of the legal materials of the past, historians habituallyignore. Thus, the profits from their research are often left towholly unskilled hands.Perhaps the current tendency to overlook the role of historyin social control has been due to the rigid separation in treatmentof each of these hostile elements of authority and history. Institu-tional treatises abound, filled to overflowing with the latest judicialutterances and exhaustive in treatment Iof each topic surveyed.The "law" is presented as one meets it hi the reports and restate-ments; occasionally, statutory references creep into the text, butalmost never fundamental historical study. These tools of thebusy practitioner are obviously intended for immediate personaladvantage, not for constructive legal reform. By the same analogy,excellent volumes by historical jurists are available, their discus-sion separated as far as possible from conditions of reality. Prob-ably it would be improper and grossly unfair to expect the his-torian to discuss the present worth of the requirement of consider-ation in contracts, or to attempt to justify equitable conversionin a vendor-purchaser situation where there has been destructionof the res. Legal history seldom deals with the real merits of aphase of case-law which by painful evolution has gradually crys-tallized into hard and fast rules. In any event, unimaginativedigests and colorful histories have ultimately made partition of afield of legal literature "of which they were formerly seised permy et per tout." Now these hold "their respective portions inseveralty, instead of holding all in common." Legal history thensuffers, just as the unknown heir is sometimes overlooked, in theprocess of partition.1Williams: Johnson Newlon Camden--A Study in IndividualismPublished by The Research Repository @ WVU, 1938BOOK REVIEWSGranted this division of labor, (with none of the usual advan-tages), Dr. Summers' life of Johnson Newlon Camden presentsfaithfully the social and economic history of West Virginia, duringthe latter half of the nineteenth century. As a member of thefaculty of the Department of History of West Virginia University,the author has had access to the voluminous Camden collection ofLetters and Papers now deposited in the University library, "thesize and richness of which alone adequately justify the presentwork." In consequence, we have no grave and stately recordsuch as biographies usually offer, but rather a lively representationof the characters and manners of society over a period of six dec-ades. With great industry and great acuteness, Dr. Summershas sought both to picture and to explain the career of a prominentstatesman, and has done so in ample fashion by describing theforces which dominated and shaped the spread of industry here.Accordingly, the book may properly be said to summarize, andperhaps to epitomize, the development of the state.As the title implies, Senator Camden was an individualist inevery sense of the term. From the early days of his training atWest Point, he constantly strove for commercial and industrialleadership, frequently against severe obstacles and without assis-tance from others. Successively prosecuting attorney in Braxtonand Nicholas counties, he was a merchant at Sutton, a land specu-lator in Lewis county, and an investor in oil and gas enterprisesin the western part of the state. Removing to Parkersburg, Cam-den went into the refining business and in time became presidentof two important subsidiaries of the Standard Oil Company. Al-ways more or less active in banking, he devoted time and thoughtto building the Ohio River Railroad, the West Virginia and Pitts-burgh Railroad and other lines. Throughout it all, he remainedcontinuously a leader in political life. It can truthfully be said thatfew West Virginians have enjoyed so wide a career or attained suchoutstanding success.The importance of the present volume to the legal professionis obvious. With a knowledge that is extensive and profound, theauthor has told from original source-material the beginnings ofmany of the important industries of the state. It is frequentlynecessary in litigation to ascertain the precise origins of an entre-prise: in various instances, these facts have been set forth fullyhere. Moreover, new data has been made available as to the origin2West Virginia Law Review, Vol. 44, Iss. 4 [1938], Art. 13https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/wvlr/vol44/iss4/13WEST VIRGINIA LAW QUARTERLYof the "long and short haul clause", and indeed of the InterstateCommerce Act, itself. Similarly, after reading the rather compli-dated story of the railroad rebates on oil shipments, one can under-stand the imperative necessity for ultimate passage of the ElkinsAct. In truth,-this work is strikingly practical, for it teaches notonly the rules which governed industrial expansion in the past,but indicates the mode for their application in solving future prob-lems of the state.The style of the author is both clear and interesting. Un-questionably the book will be of service in tracing the growth -oflegal doctrine, in the legal history of the state that is yet to bewritten. Dr. Summers is to be commended for a most satisfactoryperformance of his undertaking.The volume has an excellent index.C. C. WLAM S, JR.College of Law,Morgantown, West Virginia.THE SCMNCE OF JUDICIAL PROOF. By John Henry Wigmore.Boston, Mass. Little, Brown & Company, 3d ed. 1938. Pp. 1065.A treatise by Wigmore dealing with the subject of evidencerequires no introduction. In The Science of JudiciaZ Proof, theauthor considers, not the trial rules governing the admissibility ofthe evidence, but the greater and far more important field dealingwith the valuation of the proof. Our formal legal studies deal large-ly with the formjer and the latter is left to the realm of chance, tobe acquired, if at all, through experience. After the evidence isadmitted, what use will be made of it? Will it be effective inproving the point at issue, will it contribute to such proof or willit be successfully refuted by the opponent? The trial rules arenecessary because it is impossible for the court in the limited timeat its disposal, and because of the untrained personnel of thetribunal (untrained in the various scientific fields) and thediversity of interest of the litigants, to consider all the evidence,evaluate each item and eventually reach a conclusion. Much ofthe evidence which a scientist would consider and place some valueupon (even though a negative one) must be omitted from thetrial.3Williams: Johnson Newlon Camden--A Study in IndividualismPublished by The Research Repository @ WVU, 1938

Johnson Newlon Camden--A Study in Individualism

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Johnson Newlon Camden--A Study in Individualism

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