Stuart Lefstein's speech at Moline admissions ceremony

LINCOLN:  OUR ILLINOIS LAWYER - PRESIDENT

By Stuart Lefstein Justice Kilbride - Thank you so much for inviting me here today and for your kind introduction. Justice Lytton, Chief Judge O'Connor, Judge Vespa, Honorable Justices of the Appellate Court, Honorable Judges of the Circuit Court, President O'Brien of the Illinois State Bar Association, and most distinguished honorees - my soon to be fellow Illinois "attorneys and counselors at law" - a phrase that is inscribed on the licenses you will receive today -families of the honorees, friends and other guests: When Justice Kilbride asked me to say a few words on this occasion, I was delighted to say "yes."  As an old man, I enjoy being in the company of young lawyers.  I also don't say "no" to the Supreme Court, unless it's the correct answer to a question from the bench during oral argument. But the problem with accepting invitations like this is that when you are up here you have to say something!  What is there left to say to a group of young lawyers who have already sat through commencement speeches at high school, college and most recently, law school graduations?  In the few minutes I have, I doubt if I could be very helpful in telling you how to practice law or handle whatever other employment you might choose.  Also, and sadly, I lack a blueprint for what young lawyers need to do in order to successfully navigate these very difficult economic times. So I am departing today from the conventional words of wisdom that are usually imparted on occasions like this. Because you are about to be sworn in as Illinois lawyers, I thought it might be appropriate to briefly reflect on the most revered lawyer that ever practiced in our state - particularly this year - this year because February 12^th marked his 200^th birthday - so to borrow a line from his most famous speech, "It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this."  That speech, of course, was given at Gettysburg 146 years ago this month, and the small town Illinois prairie lawyer who gave it was, as we all know, President Abraham Lincoln. When historians and scholars discuss Lincoln's greatness, they usually don't connect his Presidential attributes to his instincts as an American lawyer.  While I am not a Lincoln scholar, my unscholarly eyes see the lawyer in him throughout his Presidency.  At his first inaugural on March 4, 1861, when secession was in the air and civil war was imminent, Lincoln spoke of the law.  He said that "universal law," "fundamental law,"  and our Constitution hold that "the union of these states is perpetual." (Emphasis added.) Lincoln concluded by saying to those bent on secession: You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect and defend" it. He was, of course, referring to the words of the oath found in the Constitution. Later, when Lincoln, the politician, determined the time was ripe to announce what the civil war was really about - Lincoln, the lawyer, made humanity itself the war's core purpose.  On January 1, 1863 he issued the Emancipation Proclamation - declaring that the slaves in the states of rebellion were free.  The Proclamation itself was technical and dry, but its last lines again showed us Lincoln the lawyer - the defender of the Constitution.  The Emancipation Proclamation, he said, was "an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution."  (Emphasis added.) To former slaves, like Frederick Douglass, Lincoln's Proclamation of January 1, 1863, would rank with July 4 as the twin births of liberty in the United States. But later, when his prospects for reelection looked bleak, there were those who urged him to revoke the Proclamation.  Lincoln, the lawyer, would have none of it.  "Rights," he said, once granted, are not to be stripped away. Lincoln, the lawyer, spoke again when he delivered his ten sentence, two minute masterpiece at Gettysburg.  As school children, we learned that he spoke of our nation as having been "conceived in liberty," "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal," and "that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish."  Again, these were principles embedded in our Constitution. Finally, in his second inaugural, even though he had led the bitter struggle through a four year civil war, his guiding principle was - "with malice toward none; with charity for all."  Vengeance was not among the core beliefs of Lincoln, the lawyer.  In his legal career, he had represented criminal defendants, and had filed petitions for clemency with the governor, so he understood that an enlightened system of justice contains a place for mercy and forgiveness. Lincoln is now universally revered.  It was not always so.  After the Gettysburg address, a Pennsylvania newspaper called the President's remarks "silly."  Lincoln himself was not satisfied, telling a friend he should have prepared with "greater care."  But a reporter for the Chicago Tribune immediately understood what Lincoln had accomplished at Gettysburg.  He telegraphed his paper that "President Lincoln's remarks will live among the annals of man." One of his greatest tributes came years later from a member of the House of Representatives on Lincoln's 114^th birthday. This congressman told his fellow House members: There is no new thing to be said about Lincoln.  There is no new thing to be said of the mountains, or of the sea or of the stars.  ... Lincoln. ... was a star ... .   And he abides. In 2005, shortly after President Barack Obama was elected United States Senator from Illinois, he wrote a piece for Time Magazine's July 4^th issue on Lincoln.  He described a portrait taken at the end of his life, which showed Lincoln to be frail and almost broken.  Mr. Obama said that It would be a sorrowful picture except ... that Lincoln's mouth is turned ever so slightly into a smile.  The smile doesn't negate the sorrow.  But it alters tragedy into grace.  It's as if this rough-faced, aging man has cast his gaze toward eternity ... . Somehow, I like to think that if Lincoln really could gaze toward eternity, that slight smile would get a little broader knowing that the nation he forever changed, as of the time of his 200^th birthday:

• Had elected a black man to occupy the same office where he signed the Emancipation Proclamation;
• And his smile might get broader still if he knew that the black man - like himself - had adopted Illinois as his home when he was a young adult;
• And broader yet, if he also knew that this new young President, like himself, had started his career as an Illinois lawyer;
• But unlike himself, who studied law by reading law books, Lincoln would have been amazed to learn that this black president had graduated from the most prestigious law school in the United States.

All of this was because of events set in motion by Lincoln, our lawyer-President from Illinois. Does his gaze toward eternity, as Mr. Obama said, have anything to say to all of you as you pick up your law licenses today?  I think so.  President Obama, in that Time Magazine piece, also referred to his recent Senate candidacy.  He wrote: When I, a black man with a funny name, born in Hawaii of a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, announced my candidacy for the U.S. Senate, it was hard to imagine a less likely scenario than that I would win - except ... for the one that allowed a child born in the backwoods of Kentucky with less than a year of formal education to end up as Illinois' greatest citizen and our nation's greatest President. Thus, Mr. Obama pointed up the immense obstacles Lincoln faced in becoming President.  He faced even greater obstacles in governing after he became President, but he overcame them all, saving the union and abolishing the terrible evil of slavery. The problems Lincoln faced obviously dwarf those that individual lawyers face in their careers and practice - but his perseverance can serve as a metaphor for the firmness of purpose that all of you will need in the days and years ahead.  Lincoln offered this straightforward, yet simple, advice to young lawyers, which perhaps explained his own success: If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already.  ...  Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.  (Emphasis added.) The Illinois State Bar Association now has as part of its logo a picture of Lincoln.  Next to his picture is this comment: Our State has a history of some pretty good lawyers.  We're out to keep it that way. Class of 2009:   I'm confident that you will add to that history and keep it that way. Congratulations, best wishes and the best of luck to each of you. Stuart Lefstein, a Rock Island lawyer, is senior counsel to Pappas, Hubbard, O'Connor, Fildes, Secaras, P.C., with offices in Chicago and Rock Island.