Western lawyers pursued politics, land, and litigation as fortune routes

Evidence

No frontier town was too raw and muddy for lawyers. They were out to seek their fortunes in land and litigation, sometimes even in genteel larceny. Politics had an irresistible appeal for western lawyers; it was the road to fame, or fortune, or both. Some began their careers in the West as politicians who had wangled a job in the territories. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1828

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Commercial complexity made lawyers indispensable despite colonial hostility — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 519; Frontier lawyers subsisted chiefly on land and debt collection work — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1839; Ambitious educated eastern lawyers migrated west seeking fortune — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1833