ILLUSTRATIONS JOHN MARSHALL OPPOSITE PAGE Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1801- From the Painting by Henry Inman; owned by the Association. WILLIAM RAWLE, LL. D. I Chancellor (1827-1836) From the Painting by Henry Inman; owned by the Association. 32 PETER S. DU PONCEAU, LL. D. Chancellor (1836-1844) From the Painting by Thomas Sully; owned by the Association 64 JOHN SERGEANT Chancellor (1845-1852) From the Painting by Thomas Sully; owned by the Association 96 HORACE BINNEY, LL. D. Chancellor (1852-1854) From the Painting by Thomas Sully; owned by the Association 128 JOSEPH R. INGERSOLL, LL. D. Chancellor (1854-1857) From the Painting by Thomas Sully; owned by the Association 160 WILLIAM MORRIS MEREDITH Chancellor (1857-1873) From the Painting by St. Jerome Uhl. In the Treasury Depart- 192 PETER MCCALL Chancellor (1873-1880) From the Painting by Bernhardt Uhle; owned by the Asso INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS by SAMUEL DICKSON Chancellor of the Law Association The completion of a century in the life of the Law Association is an event which could not have been permitted to pass unnoticed without disrespect to the memory of the lawyers by whom it was organized and who made the bar of Philadelphia pre-eminent in their own day, and imparted to it the impulse which made it what it has since been and now is. The consideration which we now enjoy, and which is one of the most precious rewards of professional labor, is, in large measure, due to the men who first gave distinction to the name "Philadelphia Lawyer," and left examples of character and conduct which have been the ideals of their successors to the present day. It must, therefore, always be profitable, as it is at this time peculiarly appropriate, to recall the history of our bar and to remind ourselves of the conditions and influences which produced the great lawyers of the last century. In such a retrospect the most striking fact is that from its first existence as an organized and working body it had the characteristics of a mature and metropolitan bar. The early fame of the Philadelphia lawyer was doubtless largely due to Andrew Hamilton, who had read in Gray's Inn, and might well have made an impression by learning then exceptional as well as by his marked ability, though Mr. Binney says of him that he was not "a scientific and thoroughly trained lawyer." He died in 1741, but he seems to have been "a voice crying in the wilderness," and down to the adoption of the Constitution of 1776 there had been practically no judicial administration of the law of the province. All the decisions previous to the Revolution, which Mr. Dallas was able |