History

Judge Conway W. Sams

jurist, president of the Maryland State Bar Association · active 1906-1907

Maryland judge who presided as president of the Maryland State Bar Association at its annual meeting held at Ocean City in July 1907. His presidential address, delivered in the Atlantic Hotel to a session of about sixty-three members, argued that something was 'radically wrong' with the criminal law and repeated his proposal that no new trial be granted on technical grounds unless the errors had produced a verdict contrary to the facts.

In the record (1)

  1. 1907 · 1907-07-03

    The Maryland State Bar Association meets at the Atlantic Hotel and hears John S. Wise attack Roosevelt's "india-rubber Constitution."

    The Evening Star of 3 July 1907 carried a dateline from the town: "OCEAN CITY, Md., July 3. - Lawyers from all over the state, as well as several judges, are here preparatory to the annual meeting of the Maryland Bar Association, which began today. The features of the first session will be the address of President Conway W. Sams and an address by Mr. John S. Wise, the noted New York lawyer, upon 'Centralization by Construction.'" Judges Boyd and Pearce of the Court of Appeals and Judges Alfred S. Niles and others were present. Der Deutsche Correspondent of 5 July put sixty-three people in the Atlantic Hotel session where Judge Sams spoke on "The law and its enforcement" and argued that no new trial should be granted on technical grounds. Wise's address, summarised by the Alexandria Gazette, said that many of the things President Roosevelt was doing had "no justification in the Constitution" and that the Constitution was being so treated "as to make it an india-rubber Constitution." The Baltimore County Union of 13 July called it "the most successful meeting ever held by the Maryland State Bar Association"; membership was largely increased, and L. Allison Wilmer of La Plata was elected president for the coming year, with Robley D. Jones of Snow Hill vice-president for the First Circuit.

    Atlantic HotelMaryland State Bar AssociationJohn S. Wise

    Source · checked 2026-08-06