The Sumter banner. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1846-1855, 1851-02-19
Henry 8. esyer. Senator elect from
Mfssourj E|F

Henry 8. eeyer. Senator elect from
Missouri.
In May last, said a friend to us
the other day, happening to DO dc.
tanned in st. Louis to await the con-.
pletion of some business arrange
ments, and not knowing we'll how to
dispose OF any time, l strolled up to
the Court House, in hopes of seeing
the Montcsquicns, who were at that
time i'll custody on q charge Of muir
der. | was led there not so much
by a desire to hear the arguments of
counsel, as by q curiosity to see the
men whose case was exciting so much
interest in the community. In this
l was disappointed, rs the parties
were not IN court. AS l was stand
ing, however, in the courthouse, car
~ in the afternoon, the Sheriff cour.
tcously invited me to q seat within
the bar, which I accepted. Some
one, whose name I did not learn, and
which | felt too little interest to in.
quire, was making a long.winded
Grafton for the prosecution on the
question of admitting the prisoners
to bail, in which he consumed the
whole afternoon. Near me was
seated a tall, elderly man, with a
plain matter-of:fact looking counter.
ancc, and as l should judge about
sixty years Of age. There was moth
ing striking in his manner, dress, or
personal appcarancc-nothing, in
deed, to indicate that he was anything
more than ono of those men you
would likely to meet every day in
a crowd, or pass in the street without
bestowing q second thought as to who
or what he was. lie sat near the
table, with his body bent forward,
whirling his spectacles between his
knees, and apparently giving no spe.
cial attention to the proceedings of
the court, or to anything else, that
was going on around him. In fact,
he might have been taken for a cas-.
ual visltcr ofthe courtroom, led there
by the same curiosity by which l
myself had been drawn.
The argument Ct the prosecution
went on. consuming the whole after.
noon, and was not completed when
the court adjourned. The following
morning I visited tho courthouse
again. There stood the prosecutor
still urging his point with determined
perseverance, and there sat my
neighbor of yesterday, still twirling
his socctaclcs. About noon, after
having spoken many hours, the pros
ccutor concluded. AS he did 80, the
Judge observed that as the defence
might wish to occupy some time to
reply, the court had perhaps better
adjourn. Then it was that my neigh
Dor of the spectacles rosc and for the
first time | discovered my mistake in
surprising him nothing more than an
unintercstcd loitcrer like myself
He said there was no necessity for
an adjournment-all he wished to
say, he could say in twenty minutes.
lie then proceeded with his bricfar
gumcnt. There vas nothing like eL-
oquence in what he said; but there
was a strong common sense hat let
a pathway Of light through all the
intricacies with which the question
was involved, rivc,ting the attention,
and carrying conviction to the minds
OF all present. lie spoke about
twenty minutes carried his point,
and the court adjourned. felt 1hat
l had been in the presence of q strong
man, and turning to some one ncar
me, with n curiosity l had not felt
before, | inquired the name of the
gentleman who had last addressed
the court:
'Ihat,' replied the stranger. that
is Henry S. Gcyer.'
well, said /, She is a pretty con-
siderable man, isn't he
Yes, sir, was the reply. we
think go, and we think he ought to be
in Tom Benton's place, in the Sen,
ate
Yesterdays Telegraph announced
that he is in Tom Bcnton's place in
the Senate CincinUai Chronicle.