Eighteenth-century lawyers drew attack from both classes and crown alike

Evidence

In the eighteenth century, too, there was sentiment against lawyers. The lower classes came to identify lawyers with the upper class. Governors and royalists, on the other hand, were not sure of the loyalty of lawyers and were at times afraid of their influence and power. In 1765, Cadwallader Colden, lieutenant governor of New York, told the Board of Trade in England that the “Gentlemen of the Law” had grown overmighty. They ranked just below the large landowners, and just above the merchants in society. Lawyers and judges, said Colden, had such power that “every Man is affraid of offending them”; their “domination” was “carried on by the same wicked artifices that the Domination of Priests formerly was in the times of ignorance.” — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 515

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Revolutionary-era lawyers led both sides of the political divide — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1808; Eighteenth-century English ruling power operated as a parasitical racket — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1972; Noble history was a weapon against clerks who read the law as royal will — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 3920

Broader Connections

• Revolutionary-era lawyers led both sides of the political divide #expands (0.75) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1808
• Eighteenth-century English ruling power operated as a parasitical racket #corroborates (0.72) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1972
• Noble history was a weapon against clerks who read the law as royal will #contradicts (0.70) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 3920