n quite numerous
in Richland county, called Quakers, or Friends, who could not
conscientiously take the usual oath, but in witnessing all necessary
legal papers, and in contests, made their affirmations. There was,
therefore, left to me the pleadings, oral or written, and the
struggle of debate and trial. The practice of the bar in Ohio had
greatly changed from that of the early decades of this century.
As I have stated, the judges, in the earlier decades, accompanied
by leading lawyers, mounted on horses, went from county to county
and disposed of the docket. The local lawyers had but little to
do. Now all this is changed. Each county has its bar and its
leading lawyers, and only when the case is of great importance a
"foreign" lawyer is called in. The change has been caused by the
abnormal growth of population. In 1830 the total population of
the state was only 938,000, that of many of the counties being very
small. In 1850 the population had more than doubled, amounting to
1,980,000. In 1890 it was 3,672,000, well distributed among the
counties according to their capacity for supporting this increase.

Other remarkable changes have also taken place during the same
period. The entire mode of conducting business in early days has
been abandoned. Cash payments and short accounts have taken the
place of barter and credit. The Ohio banking law of 1846, followed
and superseded by the national banking act of 1863, produced a
radical change in the forms, credit and solvency of paper money,
and, more than any other cause, has encouraged the holding of small
savings of money in savings banks and like institutions. These
favorable conditions tended to limit credits, to encourage savings,
and to change the vocation and habits of lawyers.

Changes in methods have also affected the legal profession. The
adoption of a code of laws, and of new and simple pleadings, rendered
useless half the learning of the old lawyers, driving some of them
out of practice. I knew one in Mansfield who swore that the new
code was made by fools, for fools, and that he never would resort
to it. I believe he kept his word, except when in person he was
plaintiff or defendant. Yet, the code and pleadings adopted in
New York have been adopted in nearly all the states, and will not
be changed except in the line of extension and improvement.

These reforms, and the many changes made in the organization of
our state and federal courts, hav