The Law and the Lawyers [excerpt]

THE request of President MCKINLEY that his murderer should not himself be the victim of violence, but should have a trial in accordance with law, has its parallel in the pages of legal history. Lord KILWARDEN, the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, was, as is well known, assailed by an insurrectionary band in the streets of Dublin in 1803, and died from the injuries he sustained at their hands. Among the Pelham papers is a letter describing Lord KILWARDEN’S last words, written by Mr. Baron SMITH to a friend in England. His friends had gathered round, seeing the end to be close at hand. “Just then a person came in and said to Major SWAN, in Lord KILWARDEN’S hearing, ‘We have taken four of the villains, and what is to be done with them?’ SWAN: ‘Executed immediately.’ Lord KILWARDEN (stretching out his hand with effort and difficulty): ‘Oh, no, SWAN! Let the poor wretches have at least a fair trial.’”

——————————

MR. ROOSEVELT, the former Vice-President of the United States, has stepped, by the death of the President, into the Presidency for the remainder of the term for which the late President had been elected. The question has arisen, Who would succeed Mr. ROOSEVELT in the Presidency in the event of his death within the period of office? It was formerly provided by statute, not by Constitution, that, failing both President and Vice-President, the presiding officer of the Senate for the time being should succeed to the Presidency, and, failing him, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. It has, however, been enacted by an Act passed in 1886 that on the death of a President (including a Vice-President who has succeeded to the Presidency) the Secretary of State shall succeed, and after him the other officers of Administration in the order of their rank: (see Bryce’s American Commonwealth, vol. 1, pp. 51-52).