Why members of the Philadelphia bar should be credited with superhuman sagacity, has never been satisfactorily explained.
1803. If would (to use a Yankee phrase) puzzle a dozen Philadelphia lawyers, to unriddle the conduct of the democrats towards that great ornament of their party, Edward Livingston, Esq.—The Balance, Nov. 15, p. 363/1. (Italics in the original.)
1824. The New England folks have a saying, that three Philadelphia lawyers are a match for the very devil himself.—Salem Observer, March 13.
1824. The New England folks have a saying, that three Philadelphia lawyers are a match for the devil, and that they are able to unravel any knotty point, be it ever so hard.—Nantucket Inquirer, March 24.
1825. To puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer, is proverbially difficult.—J. K. Paulding, ‘John Bull in America,’ p. 165 (N.Y.).
1830. When in all creation any of ’em will be finished, I guess it would puzzle a Philadelphy lawyer to tell.—Seba Smith (‘Major Downing’), ‘My Thirty Years Out of the Senate,’ p. 64 (1860).
1833. It does n’t take a Philadelphia lawyer to tell, that the man who serves the master one day, and the enemy six, has just six chances out of the seven to go to the devil; you are barking up the wrong tree, Johnson,—take a fresh start, and try to get on the right trail.—James Hall, ‘Legends of the West,’ p. 46.
1837. Will the Editor of the Ledger inform us from whence came the phrase, often used over a knotty subject, it would puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer? (Portlander). This phrase originated in the superior sagacity of our lawyers, and they still preserve the quality.—Phila. Public Ledger, Jan. 26.
1840. What between specy circlars, anti-masons, pocketing of bills, (Lord knows what that means!) vetoes, distribution, fortifications, abolition, running down Indians, and running up accounts, politics has got into a jumble that a Philadelphy lawyer couldn’t steer through them.—John P. Kennedy, ‘Quodlibet,’ p. 160 (1860).
1848. It would puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer to pint out the latitude of eny thing like it [the United States] in all creation.—W. E. Burton, ‘Waggeries,’ p. 68 (Phila.).
1856. It would require a ‘Philadelphia lawyer’ to improve the legal ‘drift’ of this rejoinder.—Knick. Mag., xlvii. 537 (May).
1861. It would puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer to prove the difference.—Id., lviii. 176 (Aug.).
1866. Which one ’twas, it would have puzzled a Philadelphia lawyer to tell.—Seba Smith. ‘’Way Down East,’ p. 63.
