The specialization of American society has not, however, stopped with its specialized organization.

A similar process has been taking place in the different professions, arts, and trades; and of these much the most important is the gradual transformation of the function of the lawyer in the American political system.

He no longer either performs the same office or occupies the same place in the public mind as he did before the Civil War; and the nature and meaning of this change cannot be understood without some preliminary consideration of the important part which American lawyers have played in American political history.
The importance of that part is both considerable and peculiar--as is the debt of gratitude which the American people owe to American lawyers.
They founded the Republic, and they have always governed it.

Some few generals, and even one colonel, have been elected to the Presidency of the United States; and occasionally business men of one kind or another have prevailed in local politics; but really important political action in our country has almost always been taken under the influence of lawyers.

On the whole, American laws have been made by lawyers; they have been executed by lawyers; and, of course, they have been expounded by lawyers.