The Volokh Conspiracy - A Nice Little Rant from Georgia Supreme Court Justice Joseph Lumpkin (1853):

He was writing in a case that considered whether the absence of a seal made a certain document void, but in the process touched on broader jurisprudential principles. I found the passage interesting and colorful, though somewhat one-sided, and thought I'd pass it along (some paragraph breaks added):

For myself, I am free to confess, that I despise all forms having no sense or substance in them. And I can scarcely suppress a smile, I will not say "grimace irresistible," when I see so much importance attached to such trifles. I would cast away at once and forever, all law not founded in some reason — natural, moral, or political. I scorn to be a "cerf adscript" to things obsolete, or thoroughly deserving to be so.

And for the "gladsome lights of jurisprudence" I would sooner far, go to the reports of Hartly, (Texas,) and of Pike and English, (Arkansas,) than cross an ocean, three thousand miles in width, and then travel up the stream of time for three or four centuries, to the ponderous tome of Sidenfin and Keble, Finch and Popham, to search for legal wisdom. The world is changed. Our own situation greatly changed. And that Court and that country is behind the age that stands still while all around is in motion.

I would as soon go back to the age of monkery — to the good old times when the sanguinary Mary lighted up the fires of Smithfield, to learn true religion; or to Henry VIII. the British Blue-Beard, or to his successors, Elizabeth, the two James's and two Charles's, the good old era of butchery and blood, whose emblems were the pillory, the gibbet and the axe, to study constitutional liberty, as to search the records of black-letter for rules to regulate the formularies to be observed by Courts at this day.

I admit that many old things may be good things — as old wine, old wives, ay, and an old world too. But the world is older, and consequently wiser now than it ever was before. Our English ancestors lived comparatively in the adolescence, if not the infancy of the world. It is true that Coke, and Hale, and Holt, caught a glimpse of the latter-day glory, but died without the sight.

The best and wisest men of their generation were unable to rise above the ignorance and superstition which pressed like a night-mare upon the intellect of nations. And yet we, who are "making lightning run messages, chemistry polish boots and steam deliver parcels and packages," are forever going back to the good old days of witchcraft and astrology, to discover precedents for regulating the proceedings of Courts, for upholding seals and all the tremendous doctrines consequent upon the distinction between sealed and unsealed papers, when seals de facto no longer exist! Let the judicial and legislative axe be laid to the root of the tree; cut it down; why cumbereth it, any longer, courts and contracts?

UPDATE: Whoops, got the date wrong in the original header; I for some reason recorded the date as 1845, but it was actually 1853, as the corrected header indicates. Thanks to Bill Raftery for setting me straight.

	[Eugene Volokh, June 19, 2008 at 5:19pm] Trackbacks A Nice Little Rant from Georgia Supreme Court Justice Joseph Lumpkin (1853): He was writing in a case that considered whether the absence of a seal made a certain document void, but in the process touched on broader jurisprudential principles. I found the passage interesting and colorful, though somewhat one-sided, and thought I'd pass it along (some paragraph breaks added): For myself, I am free to confess, that I despise all forms having no sense or substance in them. And I can scarcely suppress a smile, I will not say "grimace irresistible," when I see so much importance attached to such trifles. I would cast away at once and forever, all law not founded in some reason — natural, moral, or political. I scorn to be a "cerf adscript" to things obsolete, or thoroughly deserving to be so. And for the "gladsome lights of jurisprudence" I would sooner far, go to the reports of Hartly, (Texas,) and of Pike and English, (Arkansas,) than cross an ocean, three thousand miles in width, and then travel up the stream of time for three or four centuries, to the ponderous tome of Sidenfin and Keble, Finch and Popham, to search for legal wisdom. The world is changed. Our own situation greatly changed. And that Court and that country is behind the age that stands still while all around is in motion. I would as soon go back to the age of monkery — to the good old times when the sanguinary Mary lighted up the fires of Smithfield, to learn true religion; or to Henry VIII. the British Blue-Beard, or to his successors, Elizabeth, the two James's and two Charles's, the good old era of butchery and blood, whose emblems were the pillory, the gibbet and the axe, to study constitutional liberty, as to search the records of black-letter for rules to regulate the formularies to be observed by Courts at this day. I admit that many old things may be good things — as old wine, old wives, ay, and an old world too. But the world is older, and consequently wiser now than it ever was before. Our English ancestors lived comparatively in the adolescence, if not the infancy of the world. It is true that Coke, and Hale, and Holt, caught a glimpse of the latter-day glory, but died without the sight. The best and wisest men of their generation were unable to rise above the ignorance and superstition which pressed like a night-mare upon the intellect of nations. And yet we, who are "making lightning run messages, chemistry polish boots and steam deliver parcels and packages," are forever going back to the good old days of witchcraft and astrology, to discover precedents for regulating the proceedings of Courts, for upholding seals and all the tremendous doctrines consequent upon the distinction between sealed and unsealed papers, when seals de facto no longer exist! Let the judicial and legislative axe be laid to the root of the tree; cut it down; why cumbereth it, any longer, courts and contracts? UPDATE: Whoops, got the date wrong in the original header; I for some reason recorded the date as 1845, but it was actually 1853, as the corrected header indicates. Thanks to Bill Raftery for setting me straight.