University of Michigan Law School - Quad Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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VIEW OF LIBRARY ACROSS LAW QUAD AERIAL PANORAMA OP THE LAW SCHOOL AS AN INSTITUTION The Law School, like any institution, evolved from the cumulative foresight of leaders and the good sense of fol- lowers into something which is both a process and a physical entity. Fittingly, the goal towards which all of us-students and faculty alike-have labored was stated by William W. Cook, who in an act of magnificent philan- thropy provided a home for the aspirations of generations of legal educators. In 1929, as the Law Quadrangle was being built, Mr. Cook wrote a long letter to the Lawyers Club. In view of his conception of legal education, the fact that he ad- dressed himself to the school collectively rather than to one man takes on more significance than it might seem to carry at first notice. Mr. Cook regarded the Law School as much more than a place to exchange information. Be- hind the quadrangle which sprouted at his will lay a far- reaching, but definite, goal. To my mind, he wrote, there are three great things. . . to accomplish: Q11 to furnish leaders for this republic, Q25 to produce competent, honest law- yers, CBJ to state American jurisprudence. Leadership l place ahead of everything. By leadership I mean character, force, and broad views. First of these, please take notice, Iput character. Dean Henry M. Bates, who accepted Mr. Cook's gift to his law school, discounted the folklore he saw gathering around the school's benefactor. As a student in the Law School, he wrote in 1934, it is reported that fMr. Cookj was quiet, earnest, but unobtrusive, making no demon- stration of becoming an enthusiastic alumnus of the school. Dean Bates also denied that Mr. Cook had con- ceived of the project in its entirety in the sort of super- natural vision mentioned in some plaudits. Far from apocrypal dreaming, Mr. Cook, a lawyer's lawyer, worked it out slowly, step by deliberate step, with the final result reflecting his concern for detail. But the Law School already had 63 years of official history behind it in 1922, when one of its unobtrusive students decided to present it with a substantial part of the 316,000,000 he gave to the University of Michigan. Unofficially, it was much older-exactly how much was settled by the Supreme Court of Michigan, 4 Mich. 213 118567, which held that the University fwith provisions for legal studiesj had been founded by the territorial legisla- ture August 26, 1817 by a statute entitled An Act to establish the catholepistemiad, or university of Michi- gania. It is the oldest legislative enactment, state or territorial, which includes law as a subject to be taught in a publicly organized and supported institution of higher learning. The statute, like the Law Quadrangle built more than a century later, was the product of one man's energy and good will. Augustus Brevoort Woodward, Chief Judge of the Territory of Michigan from its organization in 1805 until 1824 received praise and tongue-lashings for his accomplishment, but both sides of the controversy recog- nized him as the central figure. To the loggers, trappers and farmers ofthe territory, Judge Woodward's projected university, modeled along lines suggested in his System of Universal Science, seemed somewhat less than utilitarian. It was to be divided into 13 didaxiae fprofessorshipsl the ninth of which included law, but because of popular recalcitrance, things at Catholepistemiad were a little rough-hewn at first. Two men held all 13 professorships provided for by the statute, and opened the doors in 1817 to what has been described as a primary school and classical academy. The University gathered enough momentum by 1859 to bring Judge Woodward's ninth didaxiae to reality, and on

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.AW QUAD RANG LE several occasions during that year the Detroit Weekly Tribune carried the advertisement of the opening of the law department of the University of Michigan. It read, ENTRANCE TO LAWYERS CLUB were made from time to time, and in 1826, Con- gress increased its appropriation to a.n amount of land sufficient to make up two townships, . . . The original charter was modified in 18213 andin 1837 it was remodeled again. . . . The act of 1837 pro- vided more specifically than the previous statutes for the organization of three separate Depart- ments, one of which was to be a Law Department. in part: The course extends through a period of two years, each term commencing the first of October, and closing the last week in March following. Students may enter at any time,but are strongly advised to enter at the commencement of the term. The charges are 3510 Matriculation fee, and S5 annually for incidentals. The Board of Regents confidently expect, from the eminence and practical skill of the pro- fessors, the trifling amount of the charges, and the fine spirit with which the establishment of the Department seems to be everywhere greeted by the public-that the Law Department will at once take position with the older Institutions of the country. Two years after the speech, the 24 members of the first graduating class bid farewell to their three pro- fessors and sallied forth into practice, perhaps a little disconcerted by the Honorable I. P.Christiancy's address: Case lawyers are like pilots unskilled in the science of navigation, who succeed well enough while they hug the coast and keep the heacllands in view, but are always in danger of being lost when they are driven beyond the sight of land. While he whose mind is well storedwiththe prin- ciples and reasons of the law-who, when a question is presented, instead of seeking first for a case, recurs at once to his own internal re- sources, determines what, upon principle, the law must be, and resorts to cases only for illustration and proof-such aman is ready for any emergency, and is never disconcerted when his case suddenly Upon reaching Ann Arbor October 3, 1859, the 92 law students listened to the Honorable James V. Campbell describe the events leading to the founding of the depart- ment: In 1817, an act was passed by the Governor and assumes a new phase. He finds, in the resources of his own mind, compass and quadrant,chart and chronometer, calculates his place, takes boldly to the open sea, and strikes directly forhis destina- tion. Judges. . .for the incorporation of the Catho- lepistemiad, or University of Michigania-an act containing provisions for organizing many dida- xiae, or professorships, under very uncouth names, and disfigured by a barbarous pedantery which has brought ridicule upon thewhole scheme. There was , however, nothing ridiculous in the sub- stance of this law, which was not only a compre- hensive and enlightened plan for a University. . .but was, in many respects, in advance ofthe times . . . . . .In the same year inwhich this law was adopted, an appropriation was made of certain lands to the new University, by an Indian treaty,the chiefs who made it anticipating that some of their young men might desire a college education. Other donations Enrollment increased to 956 to 1906,but fell off sharply in the following years because of the school's Stiffening admissions and examination policies. Nevertheless, grad- uation from high school was not made an admissions re- quirement until 1912, and a college or university diploma became necessary only in 1958. The deluge of returning servicemen in 1945-46 finally pushed enrollment past the 1906 level. At the present time, 1008 students attend the Law School, alternately wheedled, cajoled, and blud- geoned by 56 faculty members. The interaction of these 1064 individuals over the past three years went largely unrecorded in the ponderous body of the law, but whatever discoveries were made here will not be lost on the future. Hopefully, they will reflect the foresight of leaders, the good sense of followers.