GREAT MEN'S BODIES
His clientage is very large, and he is employed on one side or the other of the most important cases. His fees as counsel are said to amount to not less than eighty thousand dollars per year.… He was elected in the fall of 1893 to the Constitutional Commission, of which he was chairman; and took a leading part in the important debates had in that body. He was for many years associated with William M. Evarts, and is now the head of the firm, since that eminent lawyer has substantially retired from practice. The firm name is still, as it has been for many years, Evarts, Choate & Beaman. Mr. Choate is a graduate of Harvard, is a fine general scholar, and has long been in the front rank of excellence as an after-dinner speaker.… It is said that Mr. Choate will not go into court for less than five hundred dollars, no matter how small the fraction of a day consumed."
Connecting early with the foremost law firm in America and now its head, his career has been like that of a "Limited Express" with the right of way clear, and everything- telling to help his great abilities in enabling him to become a very great lawyer. It is often asked how Webster would have stood at the present Bar. In the amount and quick despatch of work, Mr. Choate would have likely passed him; for Webster was slow to start, and in small or moderate-sized cases was often beaten. But when once aroused, and he shook off his lethargy, and had a great question to deal with,—this and every other land has yet to match him. Comparison between these two men was much heard when Mr. Choate tried for a seat in the United States Senate. But he had a professional against him; and met with the result usual in all trials when an amateur runs foul of a professional. But Mr. Choate did not try to enter public life till past sixty; while Webster began at twenty-eight. Mr. Choate is a gifted and charming speaker. Webster's Dartmouth College argument; his addresses at Plymouth Rock; at Bunker Hill; on the Foot Resolution in reply to Hayne— are part of our country's history; and of the outfit of our brighter school-boys; and will last for centuries. But which speech of Mr. Choate is destined to outlast him? Connected with more important cases than any other American lawyer now living, it has not fallen to him to have part—save in the Income-tax case—in one of great national or international importance. A man of lofty character, with the respect and affection of the Bar; refusing the most exalted judicial position upon the face of the411
