MARTIN VAN BUREN declamatory and exciting; that of Van Buren insinuating and delightful. Williams had the livelier imagination; Van Buren the sounder judgment. The former presented the strong points of his case in bolder relief, invested them in a more brilliant coloring, indulged a more unlicensed and magnificent
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it to his purpose, and in working into the judgments of his hearers the conclusions of his own perspicuous and persuasive reason ing." There is an ancient story which ex presses the truth more concisely than the stately, old-fashioned phrases of the great Reviser. Williams is reported as saying
ELISHA WILLIAMS
invective, and gave more life and variety to his arguments by his peculiar wit and inimitable humor; but Van Buren was his superior in analyzing, arranging and com bining the insulated materials, in comparing and weighing testimony, in unravelling the web of intricate affairs, in eviscerating truth from the mass of diversified and conflicting evidence, in softening the heart and molding
tersely of his rival: "I get all the verdicts and you get all the judgments." Van Buren himself says of Williams: "I invariably encountered him with more apprehension at the circuits than any of the great men I have named, and I am sure I speak but the opinion of his professional contemporaries when I say that he was the greatest nisi prius lawyer of the New York
