St. Charles Republican intelligencer. (St. Charles [Charles City], Iowa) 1856-1857, 1857-06-04
Tge yntellige11ter.
DALTON DIVORCE CASE.

A correspondent writing from Bos
ton says:
We have been surfeited with scan
dalous trials, and, thanks to the news
papers, with subjects of conversation
not the most delicate or improving
but which to the multitude have been
Of an absorbing yet morbid interest
l shall pass over without any refer.
encc to their details-so little honora.
bic to our COMMUNICATIVE trials Of
the past fortnight, only pausing to
say few words in regard to the two
magnificent specimens of forensic elo.
luenc, worthy Of the best days of the
English bar, and hardly surpassed, in
power, ability, or legal art, by any.
thing of the kind on record. Of course
l refer to the arguments of Messrs.
CHoArE and DANA in the revolving trial
that has just closed of Dalton VS.. Dal-
ton, the husband against the wife, for
a divorce. Your readers may know
from other journals enough of the sad
story of what is here called the Shaw
nut Avenue tragedy to render it un.
necessary for me to even glance at
the alleged facts in the case. l will
say that the defendant is hardly more
than girl am not sure even that
she is yet out of her tcens--of consid.
cradle personal attractions, and by
her presence, unveiled in the crowded
courtroom, day after day, has enjoyed
whatever advantage may be supposed
to be derivable from sympathy for her
sex, her youth, inexpcrience, and per-
sonal attractions. Her counsel, Mr..
Choate, has a worldwide reputation
for his legal art and wonderful sue
cess in making the worse appear the
better cause. In no instance has he
exhibited more of his magical arts, or
woven a more elaborate or ingenious
masterpiece of forensic eloquence than
his plea in this case 1t has been re-
ported verbatim, as it fell from his
lips, during the nine mortal hours of
its delivery, and will long be read, ad-
mired, and studied as specimen of
special pleading, almost unequalled,
of its kind. In striking contrast, in
some respects, is the argument of
Mr.. Richard H. Dana, the opposing
counsel, who has far exceeded all his
previous efforts, and proved himself
fully equal to his trying duty. Pub
lie opinion here awards to Mr.. Dana
the high honor of having overtoppcd
even Mr.. Choate in the power, elo-
quence, and successful art of his plea.
Free from the artifice, except in very
few instances, of the special pleader,
his argument is throughout grand,
massive, and triumphant. As for the
merits of the trial itself, have moth.
ing to say. l have been too far dis
gusted by its details, eagerly publish
ed by some of our papers, to have any
sympathy for either party in this sad
record. The only redeeming feature
in the whole affair has been the noble,
intellectual, legal, and forensic abili-
ty it has been the means of calling
forth. From Mr.. Choate's speech on
behalf of Mrs. Dalton, the defendant
in the case, extract a characteristic
passage:
1t is said that there was an intima-
cy between Helen Dalton and Sumner
because of the drives, the rings ex-
changed, and books given. An inti-
macy Of some kinda light and friv-
olous, Objectionable intimacy-one
which as long as she is living wo-
man is to DC the sorrow and repent
ancc Of her whole life, did exist
They will say, as Mr.. E. o. Coburn
expressed it, that there was q flirta.
tion between Sumner and Mrs. Dalton.
| answer yes, there was, and exactly
in the words of E, o. Coburn. that it
was only Irritation; that it went
no further, and that it might have gone
further but it was stopped. l answer
this second great piece Of circumstan-
cial evidence in the words of their
witnesses, that it was Irritation, on
ly, and there it stopped. answer in
my own language also, in the next
place, gentlemen, which greatly pre-
fer, that this intimacy which since the
days of Joseph Addison, has been call
ed a filtration, "a vulgar, gross, but
most expressive word, but with the
master Of classic lore, Addison, how
ever this evidence, proving the fact
Of adultery, is wholly worthless.
have the honor to say, and shall
refer to authority to warrant it, that,
as circumstantial evidence of the crime
of adultery, it is not entitled to the
slightest consideration. There is no
fact in all our social life better estab-
lished, than that a young married wo-
man may admit a Irritation and accept
certain degree Of pleasure from it,
and yet her heart not be touched for
an instant by sentiment of danger
Gus love and yet start back when a
proposition of crime is intelligibly
made to her, as if hell yawned under
her feet. ! submit that our own OBJ
servatiOns and the books we read-our
Addisons, our Edgeworths and our
Walter Scotts-all we observe and all
we read. goes upon this distinction