Ransom, William L.

English

Fordham University School of Law

Fordham Law Review Volume 5 Issue 3 Article 1 1936 Tribute of American Bar William L. Ransom Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr  Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation William L. Ransom, Tribute of American Bar, 5 Fordham L. Rev. 397 (1936). Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol5/iss3/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. It has been accepted for inclusion in Fordham Law Review by an authorized editor of FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. For more information, please contact tmelnick@law.fordham.edu. Tribute of American Bar Cover Page Footnote Member of New York Bar; lately President of the American Bar Association This article is available in Fordham Law Review: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol5/iss3/1 FORDHAM LAW REVIEWVOLUME V NOVEMBER, 1936 NUMBER 3TRIBUTE OF AMERICAN BARWILLI L. RANSO.tAT a time when America and the world are taking stock of theassets of Christian civilization and are making re-appraisal of thespiritual and social forces which enter into the individual life, theremay be far-reaching significance in the moving exercises which took placein the little town of Tr6guier, in quaint Brittany, France, on May 19,1936. This was the traditional "Grand Pardon" and fte day of St. Ives-lawyer, priest, and saint-an affair always well attended; but thisyear the day was distinguished by the dedicatory ceremonies, ecclesiasticaland lay, for the memorial window which had been installed in thecathedral at Tr6guier, as the gift and testimonial of American lawyersto the patron saint of their profession. I count it as a great privilege thatthe culmination of this worthy project, and the installation and thepresentation and dedication of this memorial, took place during the yearin which I was President of the American Bar Association.An assemblage estimated as high as 40,000 people gathered, from allparts of France, for this occasion. Regardless of whether they camefor the special ceremonies or for the traditional privileges of the Pardonand fete, their presence was tribute to the life and services of a lawyerwho never held high office, never addressed multitudes by radio, neverasserted personal leadership, never marshalled any admiring throngin the advocacy of a controversial cause, never identified himself withhigh forensic art or with ambitious adaptations of the eternal law ofindividual rights to the supposed will of majorities. Numbers in attend-ance in a public assemblage may ordinarily have little or no lastingsignificance, even when their gathering is voluntary and spontaneous;but we may gain a standard of comparison, if we try to imagine anassemblage of 40,000 men and women being brought together, anywherein the United States, in memory of any other lawyer, long since dead. Ifwe search out the spiritual causes of the continued adoration of the life andcharacter of St. Ives, the disclosed reasons may be of benefit to themembers of the profession of law, in their contemporary self-analysisand re-examination of what they can do to serve.It is not within the province of this foreword to set forth any narrationtilember of New York Bar; lately President of the American Bar Association.FORDHAM LAW REVIEWof the impressive ceremonials at Treguier. As Mr. Donald Harper ofParis, member of the Committee of American lawyers, wrote to me,"the picturesque costumes of the inhabitants, the gorgeous robes of theclergy, the French lawyers in their robes, added much to the colorfulpageantry." A most appropriate and moving surprise was the incidentwhen, at the end of the characteristically formal banquet which signalizedthe day, twelve American seminarists, who are finishing their studies atthe Grand Seminary at St. Brieuc, thrilled those present with the sing-ing of "The Star Spangled Banner." And then when M. LeBellac, theeloquent Vicar General, concluded his panegyric to the sainted IvesHeloury, lawyer, priest and judge, in the course of the pontifical vespers,the French daily newspaper L'Ouest-Eclair fittingly said:"The shining figure of th6 humble rector of the little parishes of Louanneand Tredrez, takes on at once, in the eyes of the pilgrims, the mystical cbaracterwhich is proper for it: ascetic, miracle-worker, hero of charity, St. Ives is allthat at the same time."It is trite to say that in bestowing this timely and appropriate memo-rial to St. Ives, American lawyers have honored their patron saint not somuch as themselves. The occasion should lead each of us to think, asto our ideals for ourselves and for our profession. No socialized con-cept of life or human relationships has yet been established, which coulddestroy or impair the everlasting truth, exemplified by St. Ives, thatjustice and fair dealing and consideration for the unfortunate and theoppressed are individual and personal. St. Ives sought no socializedjustice, and needed no militancy of majorities. So long as poor or richare anywhere denied justice, so long as the arbitrary use of power bygovernment or in private hands leaves men and women with a ranklingsense of wrong, so long as defects in the law or its administration closethe door of hope and crush "the good and the true and the beautiful inhuman lives," there is work for lawyers to do.I could not now state the matter better, for this foreword, than Idid in the letter which, as President of the American Bar Association,I sent to the Honorable Pendleton Beckley, of Paris, Chairman of theAmerican Committee, and which was placed in the front of the memo-rial book left in the cathedral at Tr6guier:"In paying respect to the memory of St. Ives, we make obeisance to ournoblest concept of our profession-the ideal that remains aspiration, the hopethat is held in the heart but never realized, the vision of what our professionmight be but rarely is. St. Ives was and will remain the patron saint of thelawyers, not alone of France and the United States, but of all lands, religionsand races, everywhere. His was the universal sense of justice and law andpeace-no considerations of geography and no boundaries laid by men couldencompass such a soul. Like One who was the noblest and purest of men, he'went about doing good.'[Vol. 5TRIBUTE OF AMERICAN BAR"Profound in his learning, disciplined in his habits, magnanimous in hisdevotion to the Christ he served and to the law he exemplified, he spent hislife in the cause of justice and fair dealing among the common people-assistingwithout recompense the widows, the orphans, the poor, all who had the greatestneed of such a ministry of justice."In a later day and a more complex civilization, the profession of the lawseems often to have strayed far from the noble example of its patron saint.The concepts of individual justice and fair play between man and man, sofinely exemplified in the life of St. Ives, have given way to impersonal andoften brutal practices which punish and crush many people, in the name of a'social justice' which too often is organized greed. But in the silence of theCathedral in Brittany, we may reverently give homage to our patron, in whosepath we have so poorly followed."We of the American Bar are happy to have installed this memorial window,in perpetual tribute to his name and fame, and with the hope also that sucha token will serve the even greater cause of peace and justice among theNations-the abandonment of force and arbitrary will, in favor of the humaneascendancy of peace and justice according to the impartial arbitrament oflaw. Between Nations, no more than between men, there are and can be nocontroversies or conflicts of interest that are in fact beyond the possibility ofdetermination through the ministry of an impartial and law-governed Court.To the supremacy of international adjudication backed by the decent opinion ofmankind, the lawyers of all the Nations might well dedicate themselves anew,as an act of fealty to the genius of their patron saint and to the spirit of all law."This foreword may appropriately be closed with a quotation fromMr. Beckley's moving words of presentation:"In presenting this window as a memorial to St. Ives we wish to renderhomage to a man who represented the ideals of our profession, who devotedall his energies to the service of justice and right, and who thus merits the dis-tinction of being the patron of lawyers throughout the world."His life, so humble and austere, and above all his passionate defense of thedowntrodden, have made him famous in every country, and it is not withoutjustice that he is called 'the lawyer of the poor.' Today we have wished toshow that he is, in our minds, the ideal of the man of law in relation to thosehe judges and those he defends."Truly there is hope and cheer for the preserving of religion andcivilization, so long as the ideals and the example of St. Ives are deeplycherished in the hearts of so many people in modem states.1936]A MESSAGE OF THANKS FROM TREGUIERREV. LOUIS LAIN*tYOU have asked me to tender a brief message to the Bar of the UnitedStates and to express my sentiments upon the gift of the (St. Ives)Memorial Window presented to the Cathedral of Trfguier. How couldI decline such a duty? On the contrary I am eager to fulfill it with allthe outbursts of my soul filled with admiration and gratitude.What a magnificent gesture the American lawyers have made in gen-erously consenting to give expression to their devotion to Saint Ives bythe offering of a very beautiful window which shows the Saint performinghis office of judge, and which bears the escutcheon of the United States.That act, which is enduring, has immediately given proof of its powerand fecundity, for on the very day of the unveiling of the memorialwindow and of the Feast Day of Saint Ives, the glorious 19th day ofMay, 1936, Monsieur Thomas Braun, "batonnier" of the Order ofLawyers of Belgium, who was in attendance at Treguier, announcedthat he wanted to obtain for his country and for his Orderthe great honor the American lawyers have acquired by their gesture andby their gift; and on the 19th of May, 1937, the lawyers of Belgiumwill repeat the act which the lawyers of the United States have had theglory first to accomplish: they will come in great numbers to offeranother memorial window to their patron Saint Ives, and certainly theBelgian lawyers will invite to that celebration the lawyers of the UnitedStates.So it comes to pass that Saint Ives receives adoration and internationalhomage, and through that devotion, the great fraternity of the lawyersthroughout the world increases its power, strengthens its unity and thusgives to Justice and to Law an unshakable rampart.Let thanks be always rendered to the American Bar for the immortalsplendor of their act and of their gift.'I Rector, Cathedral at Tr~guier, Brittany.This message has been translated from the French by Professor Ernest Chenel, Headof the Department of Modern Languages, Graduate School, Fordham University.

Tribute of American Bar

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Tribute of American Bar

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