The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1855-07-11

WOODSFIELD, MONROE COUNTY, OHIO, JULY Il, 1855

ceeds, without a gesture, or the least sign
of excitement, to tear in pieces the argu-
ment of Ashley, that dissolved and melted
away at his touch like frost before the sun
light. Every one looked surprised. His
logic was at once so brief and so lumin-
ously true, that the rudest peasant could
easily comprehend it.
Anon he came to the dazzling wit of
the poet lawyer Pike. Then the curl of
his lip grew sharper-his sallow face kin
died up, and his eyes began to open-dim
and dreamy no longer, but vivid as light
ning red as fire globes, and glaring like
twin meteors. The whole soul was in his
eye-the full heart streamed out upon his
face. In five minutes Pixies wit seemed
the foam of folly, and his finest satires
horrible profanity, when contrasted with
the inimitable sallies and eXterminating
sarcasms of the stranger, interspersed with
iests and anecdotes that filed the forum
with roars of laughter
Without as much as bestowing an allu-
sion to Prentiss, he turned short on the
perjured witnesses of Hopkins, tore their
testimony to atoms, and hurled in their
faces such terrible invectives that all trem-
bled as with an ague, and two of them ac-
tually fed dismayed from the court house.
The excitement of the crowd was becom-
ing tremendous. The united life and soul
appeared to hang on the burning tongue
of the stranger. He inspired them with
the powers of his own passions He sat-
urated them with the poison of his own
malicious feelings. He seemed to have
stolen natures long-hidden secret attrac-
ton. He was the sun to the sea of all
thought and emotion, which rose and fell,
and boiled in billows as he chose. But
his greatest triumph was to come.
His eyes began to glance furtiyely at
the assassin Hopkins, and his lean, taper
| fingers, slowly assumed the same direction.
He hemmed in the wretch with circum-
vallation of strong evidence and impreg-
nable argument, cutting off all hope OF
escape. He. piled up huge bastions Of
insurmountable facts.
He dug beneath the murderer and SLAM
derer's feet bitches of dilemmas, such as
no sophistry could overleap, and no stretch
of ingenuity evade; and having thus, as
one might say, impounded his victim, and
girt him about like scorpion in circle
of fire, he stripped himself to the work
of the massacre.
Oh! then, but it was vision both glo.
rious and dreadful to behold the orator
His actions, before graceful as the wave
of golden willow to the breeze, grew
impetuous as the motion of an oak in the
hurricane. His voice became trumpet
filled with wild whirlpools, deafcning the
ears with crashes of power, and yet inter
mingled all the while with sweet under
song of the softest cadence. His face
) was as red as drunkard's-his forehead
glowed like heated furnace-his counte
nance looked haggard like that of ma
] MAC; and ever and anon he flung his long
bony arms on high, as if grasping aftel
thunderbolts. He drew picture of mur
der in such appalling colors, that in com
parison, hell itself might be considered
beautiful. He painted the slanderer 81
black that the sun seemed dark at noon
day, when shining on such an accurset
monster; and then he so fixed both por
traits on the shrinking brow of Hopkins
that he nailed them there forever Th
agitation of the audience nearly amount
ed to madness.
All at once the speaker descended from
his perilous height. His voice walled ou
for the murdered dead and the living
the beautiful Mary, more beautiful ever,
moment as her tears flowed faster-til
men wept, and lovely women sobbed lik
children.
i He closed with strong exhortation tt
the jury; through them to the bystanders
, He entreated the panel, after they shoult
bring in the verdict for the plaintiff, no
to offer violence to the defendant, howeve
richly he might deserve it; in other words
"not to lynch the villain Hopkins, but t
leave his punishment to God" This wa
the most artful trick of all, and best cal
culated to insure vengeance.
The jury returned verdict of fift
thousand dollars, and the night afterward
Hopkins was taken off his bed by lynch
ers, and beaten almost to death
| have listened to Clay, Webster, AM
/, Calhoun-to Dewry, Tying, and Bascom
but have never heard anything in the forr
of sublime words even remotely approx
mating the eloquence of John Taylor
massive as q mountain, and wildly rushing
as a cataract of fire. And this is tn
opinion of all who ever heard this remark
able man.
, Nazarene Women.
Miss Plumley, in her journals of travel