Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1845-04-04
Hon. Rufus Choate.

First among the men Of Boston in middle life
is the Senator of Massachusetts, RUFUs
CHoATE. He was graduated at Dartmouth
College in New Hampshire, in 1918, and is
rboui forty-five years old. In College, he made
an impression upon the memories of his ASSOC
ciates and teachers which has been embodied
in the expression that, next to Daniel Webster,
he is the greatest man who has graduated al
that ancient institution. He is a scholar, a u-
rst, a statesman. He has cherished that love
for the classics which forms so graceful an or
nament to the statesmen of England, and
which, like the pillars Of the Parthenon, is both
ornament and strength He is scholar of ma
ny atiainments, and in different constitution
of society might have passed his years in the
bowers OF the muses.; yet it is better as il is,
Tor after all, government is among all nations
the greatest interest Of man next to religion,
and in this age of this republic, its administra-
ton calls for those energies which in other
times might be consecrated TO letters, with an
earnestness that cannot be denied. As jurist
he is the most desirable counsel in the city,
His hair is black, complexion dark, eye pier
cling.
While pleading his eye flashes as il turns
rapidly from the Court TO the jury and the jury
TO the Court. Ever remarking with intuitive
sagacity the slightest traces of emotion or
thought in the eye, lip, face, position, move
ment OF the judge, ever reading the soul re-
vealed perhaps TO him alone, and comprehended
by that mysterious sympathy which untes the
orator and auditor as by an electric atmosphere
through which thoughts and feelings pass and
rcpass in silence hut in power, ChoaIe is aware
with the certainty Of genius and the rapidity of
instinct OF the effect he has produced upon the
Judge, whose slightest word he knows is
weighter than the eloquence of counsel, and
the first slight intmation Of dissent rapidly but
almost mperceptibly modifes, limits and ex-
plains his idea until he feels the concert Of men
tai sympathy between mind, and then, like
steed checked into noble action, or river ri
sing to burst over its barriers, with his mind
raised and excited by opposition, he discourses
that linger in memory like the parting sound of
cathedral bell, or the dying note Of an organ.
His voice is deep, musical, sad.
Thrilling it can be as n fife, but has often a
paiutive cadence, as though his soul monrned
amid the loud and angry tumul Of the forum
for the quiet grove OF the academy, or in these
evil times sighed at the thought Of
those charms and virtues which we dare
Conceive 10 boyhood, and pursue as men,
The unreached Paradise of our despair.
His mind is as rapid as consists with sanity.
In the attempt TO keep pace with him reporters
throw down their pencils in despair. His own
pen traces in the same vain attempt one long,
waving, illegible line, scarcely 10 be read by
himself, and defying the scrutiny Of all others.
1t has been said of him that il Morse's tele-
graph were affixed 10 his lips, the words would
heap on the wires.
His style is the poetry Of piose, with here
and there an expression, which, TO use the ques-
iionable expression Of Burke, rises from poetry
into eloquence, some thought which entrances,
some idea which burns. Such is that inimita-
Bile comparison when speaking Of the principles
Of Henry Clay. He said, they rise like The
peaks of lofty mountain range from the ia
bic land Of an iiiustrious life. Such is that
sentiment, worthy of Henry, the greatest orator
of the new world, if not OF all time, when in
the very words which we may suppose "the
lorest-born Demosihenes" would have used,
he said, "What! DANISH THE BIBLE PROM
Neverl WHILE THERE is PIECE
MAKE GUN FLINT OBJ ashtngton Cor.
IF N. y. Com. .4du.