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THE GREAT LEGAL HISTORY OF BOSTON (cont.)
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41. Old State House
The Old State House, built after its wooden predecessor was
destroyed in the fire of 1711, may not be considered the oldest
state house in the country, but only because it was used before
the Revolution by both town and provincial British government.
Now a museum, it houses many documents and artifacts of the
nation's early history. (See Quincy Reports and Marke,
Vignettes of Legal History 241 (1965).) |
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42. Boston Massacre
A bed of cobblestones on the State Street side of the Old State
House marks the site of the Boston Massacre. Here Crispus Attucks,
a free black man, was killed and several citizens were injured
by shots fired by a cornered and frightened British officer.
John Adams volunteered to defend British Captain Preston --
a dramatic example of the legal obligation to represent any
defendant, no matter how unpopular the cause.
State Street was also the scene of "Bloody Monday" in 1806,
when Boston attorney Thomas O. Selfridge shot and killed Charles
Austin in a dispute arising from an accusation that Selfridge
was "soliciting" business. (Marke, The Case of the Outraged
Lawyer, 2 Litigation 37 (Summer 1976)). James Sullivan
and Daniel Davis argued eloquently for the state on the issue
of justifiable homicide, with Christopher Gore and Samuel
Dexter representing the defendant, and Judge Isaac Parker
presiding. Selfridge was acquitted. In 1800, these five lawyers
were considered among the nation's finest. Boston had 33 lawyers
at the time.
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43. City Hall Annex
The Old City Hall is the bookend to the City Hall Annex. The
plaques commemorate the incarceration of Captain Kidd and the
pioneering efforts of John Augustus, the first probation officer
in the United States. Note the sign, Court Street -- the site
of the Old Court House, where Lemuel Shaw presided. The law
offices of Rufus Choate, and those of Hutchins & Wheeler (the
second oldest in the country), were nearby. |
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44. John Adams
Although Quincy, Massachusetts is the ancestral home of the
Adams family, Boston is where John Adams began his successful
career. Here on Court Street were his law office and a series
of homes. He drafted the 1780 state constitution, which was
ratified in Boston on October 25, 1780, and contains his immortal
declaration on the separation of powers "to the end it may be
a government of laws and not of men" (Richard L. Perry, Sources
of Our Liberties, ABA 1978). |
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45. Pemberton Square
Behind 3 Center Plaza is Pemberton Square. It was developed
for residence in the manner of Louisburg Square, but it did
not fare as well. First dwarfed by its huge neighbor, the original
Old Court House, then demolished to make room for Government
Center, it has provided a prestigious address for some of Boston's
best-known law firms, notably Ropes & Gray, founded by two eminent
lawyers in Pemberton Square's outstanding Barrister's Hall.
(See the plaque at 3 Center Plaza.) Ropes & Gray has since moved
to One International Place.
The American Law Review was established in 1886 and
edited from the office of Ropes & Gray. Oliver Wendell Holmes
also served for a time as its editor.
John Chipman Gray was one of Boston's most illustrious lawyers.
While practicing law, he was also a professor at Harvard Law
School, of whom it was said, "If you want to know what the
law used to be, ask Langdell; if you want to know what it
is going to be, ask Beale; if you want to know what it ought
to be, ask Ames; but if you want to know what the law is,
ask Gray." For a New York version of this anecdote, see Peck,
Decision at Law 260 (1961).
John Codman Ropes (1836-1899), no less a lawyer than his
celebrated partner, lived at 99 Mt. Vernon Street.
Steeped in history and steep in grade, the walk up to the
Old Court House used to be known as "Cardiac Hill."
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