Among the prominent agencies which give shape and order in the early development of the civil and social condition of society, the pulpit, press and bar, are perhaps the most potential in molding the institutions of a new community; and where these are early planted, the school, academy, and college are not long in assuming their legitimate position, and the maintenace of these institutions secures at the start a social and moral foundation upon which we may safely rest the superstructure of the county, the State, and the nation. The establishment of courts and judicial tribunals, where society is protected in all its civil rights under the sanction of law, and wrongs find a ready redress in an enlightened and prompt administration of justice, is the first necessity of every civilized community, and without which the forces and press of society in its changeable developments, even under the teachings of the pulpit, the direction of the press, and the culture of the schools, are exposed to peril and disaster from the turbulence of passion and conflicts of interest; and hence the best and surest security that even the press, the school, or the pulpit can find for the peaceful performance of its highest functions, is when protected by and intrenched behind the bulwarks of the law administered by a pure, independent and uncorrupted judiciary.
The Madison County bar has from its beginning numbered among its members able jurists, talented advocates and safe counselors. Here, many eminent lawyers from the surrounding counties have, with "silver tongue of ready utterance," sought to make the wrong appear the better reason, or with honest purpose and manly courage maintained their client's cause; while others of the local bar are still upon the stage of action, who have been prominent in the advancement of the interests of Madison County, and figured conspicuously in the councils of the State.