David Graham was a lawyer. He published A Treatise on the Practice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York and A Treatise on the Law of New Trials in Cases Civil and Criminal, which passed through several editions.
Background
David Graham was born on February 8, 1808, in London, England, where his parents were temporarily staying while on their way from the north of Ireland to the United States.
His father, David Graham, was a Presbyterian clergyman and a man of much culture. Having become involved in some political troubles, he had been compelled to emigrate, and eventually, he took his family to New York City.
Education
Graham received an excellent education at home from his father and also studied law with the latter, who, having abandoned the ministry, had been admitted to the bar and was practicing in New York City.
Career
On his admission to the New York bar in 1829, the younger Graham entered into the partnership with his father, and from the first gave evidence of possessing the unusual ability.
As a student, he had been intensely interested in the highly technical and involved system of pleading and practice of the courts, and in 1832, he published A Treatise on the Practice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York.
Though he was only twenty-four years old at the time he displayed a complete mastery of the subject. The work was received with enthusiasm by the profession and took the place of all existing books on the practice until superseded by the code of procedure promulgated in 1850.
In 1832, Graham was chosen to serve on a committee to draft a new city charter, and in 1834, he was elected an alderman of the city of New York.
In the latter year, also he published A Treatise on the Law of New Trials in Cases Civil and Criminal, which passed through several editions.
His practice increased rapidly, and as counsel, he was constantly requisitioned in cases of exceptional difficulty, but despite the heavy demands on his time, he prepared A Treatise on the Organization and Jurisdiction of the Courts of Law and Equity in the State of New- York, which appeared in 1839.
Shortly thereafter, he appeared as corporation counsel in the series of actions, brought against the city of New York for damages resulting from the destruction of buildings when an attempt was made to stay the progress of the great fire of 1835, and successfully defended his clients.
The reputation which he had acquired through his brilliant defense of Ezra White on a sensational charge of murder had been enhanced by his conduct of Bishop Onderdonk’s case in 1844, but his defense of Mary Bodine, indicted for the murder of her brother’s wife and child, established him as the ablest criminal lawyer of his time.
The evidence was entirely circumstantial and on the first trial, the jury disagreed. On the second trial she was found guilty, but the conviction was quashed on appeal on exceptions to the judge’s rulings.
The third trial lasted a fortnight and resulted in an acquittal after a remarkable address to the jury by Graham. Appointed in 1848 by the legislature one of the commissioners on practice and pleadings, he drafted much of the resultant code of civil procedure, though he dissented from some of the conclusions.
Graham’s health, never robust, finally gave way in 1851, necessitating his retirement from practice. He went to Europe in the hope that a change of climate would prove beneficial but shortly afterward died at Nice.
Politics
Early in life, as a Whig, Graham took an active part in politics, being an ardent supporter of Clay and Webster, but he never aspired to public office, and in his later years took no part in public life.
Personality
Though not a profound lawyer, Graham had a thorough grasp of underlying principles and a knowledge of their practical application which few of his contemporaries could equal.
An expert cross-examiner, his handling of witnesses was masterly; no emergency ever found him unprepared. His addresses were always distinguished for their beauty of language and close reasoning, and he seemed to exercise a magnetic influence in his appeals to a jury.
His courtesy was proverbial, and he was never known to lose control of his temper under any circumstances.