American Legal Orators and Oratory any particular. His eloquence satisfied the intellect as well as the love of orna ment. No vocabulary ever surpassed his in full and rounded excellence. Poetic to a rare degree, yet governed, withal,
by an almost perfect taste, he clothed his large philosophy in the sheen of such a golden style as made it seem quite a matter of course that Story and Mar
shall should pronounce him “incompara ble" and that he should be the “boast of Maryland and the pride of the United States." It is not too much to say that had all of his speeches before the Supreme Court and elsewhere been preserved he would have been universally esteemed the greatest of legal orators in the whole world. He was greater than Isaeus or
Lysias because his view was broader and more philosophical and his powers
of expression by far
more poetical,
captivating and persuasive. Almost his last thoughts were bent on Italy, her art, romance and song, and much of the immortal beauty
of these objects of his love lives and breathes in the finest master
627
Crittenden's wonderful speech in the
same case sufiered alike fate. Many others that made a noise in the world at the time of their delivery were lost in the same manner, and to some of them this is, perhaps, an advantage, since innumerable speeches that in their
delivery worked wonders with the juries who heard them would hardly be con sidered eloquent or even tolerable by the mere reader. It is, however, always pleasant to the lover of eloquence to
linger over the traditions of those mighty speeches and fondly endeavor to picture to himself each rapid, captivating glance and hear each burning word. We can imagine how burning and irresistible
was the eloquence of William L. Yancey in a great murder case after we have read his speech on the Oregon bill and several other of his more splendid pro ductions; we can conceive in a general way of the eloquence by which Choate
worked his magic spells over sworn jurors; but no tolerable reports of the
juridical addresses of either of them has ever been published so far as the writer
pieces of his own genius.
knows. Among the hundreds that have been almost the only one of our legal orators ' reported, however, a few stand out in whose speeches are interesting to read, such glowing freshness and beauty as to our juridical oratory boasts of quite a be by universal consent in a class by number of speeches that are very read themselves, while others enjoying great fame are not at all eloquent. able. The speech of John Adams in defense The excitement attendant on these occasions generally spurred the orators of the British soldiers, and of Dexter in to their best efforts, and the occasions the Selfridge case, though very able in
While Pinkney was the foremost and
were generally made available as the stepping stones to political careers. Nearly all of our great orators won their early renown before juries. Many of these speeches were never reported and have been irrevocably lost. Clay’s great speech in defense of Charles Wicklifie——
One of the most eloquent, electrifying
argument, can certainly not be considered finished speeches, while Patrick Henry's juridical speeches are known only in
tradition. The first in point of time among the great speeches of this type that have
come down to us is William Wirt's speech
and successful pleas of modern times—
prosecuting Aaron Burr, which though addressed to the judges on a. motion to
was allowed to pass unreported, while
discharge is nevertheless a jury trial
