Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1859-08-01
ABOUT RIFFS CHOATE.

b. The following description and anecdotes of
Mr. Choate, are from an article Published in
Putnam's Monthly for April. 1885:
MIR. Choate is a great actor, an artist of the
first rate; but actor after all. We rather
think from the piles Of written sheets behind
which he rises to address a jury, and which
disappears ono by one the speech rolls on
that every werd of the eloquent and impas-
stoned argument is all there, cut and dried
We heard Webster, once, In q SEN
tence and look, crush an hours argument Of
the curious workman; IL was most Intellectual
ly wire-drawn and hsir-splitting with Grecian
sOphistry, and subtlety the LeOntine Gorgias
might have envied. 1t was about two car
wheels, which, to common eyes looked rs like
n two eggs; but Mr.. ChOate. by fine line of
argument between tweedle-dum and tweedle-
dee. and adiscOuTse on 'the fxation of points +"
so deep and fine as to be lost in security, showed
the jury that there was a heaven-wide differ
ence between them But" said Mr. Web
scr, and his great eyes opened wide and black
a he stared at the big twin wheels before him
gentlemen of the jury, there they are-look
ut EN- :" and ss he pronounced this answer in
tones Of vast volume the distorted wheels
seemed to shrink back again into their original
similarity. and the long argument on ''iIation
Ol points died a natural death. 1t was an
example Of the ascendency mere character over
mere intellectually, but so much greater,
nevertheless, the intellectually.
You would by no means suspect the anic
energies lurking beneath, from any appear
ance on the surface. In his wan and worn,
and bloodiess, but benignant face, You would
enough to suspect intellectual treasures
slowed up, and an inner life of strange and
unusual topics and movement He looks as if
he moved about in his own mysterious solitude
forever, whether in crowds or alone; like some
strange child of a land bathed in sunset beauty,
musing over on warm Arabian skies, and the
burning stars and gorgeous bloom Of the hang
IA Rufh n
tOric presence is nothing; and therefore he
never impresses an audience, especially pro-
feSsiOnal one, with a sense of his greatness till
he does something; till he speaks or acts in the
legal drama. We see no external symptom of
overpoweTing native character; no symptom of
anything which would make you think that
that man, by his grand movement, by his
baSlllsk eye. by his uplifted arm, might strike
dumb opposition and palsy hate. And yet
we Esve seen him when in battle, his battle
that of thoughts and words, standing right over
legal adversary, with OutStretehed arm, with
eye burning black with smothered fire, and face
white with death-hke palor, his form erect,
his brow more spacious, and the dark curly
locks on his temples futtering about, waving
and uplifting like battle flags to launt defiance
TO the foe; then he looked the oratoric war-gcd.
He eTR present his thoughts as bold and bare
bleeding bones, but he prefers to give il
forth as IL first comes TO him, embodied in
besnty and rObed in splendor. You can never
listen to him ten minutes, anywhere, without
being walked up by some surprising imagins-
tive analogy or fanciful illustration. In court
or with an audience this warm imagery ap-
pears, equally In an insurance case he apostro-
rhizes the spirit which leads the phlsnthro-
~ Of two hemispheres TO the icy grave of Sir
John Franklin, or when in Faneuil Hall he
eoDjures up before the eyes of a wildly-ap
plaading political assembly vision beauteous
of the dark-eyed girls Of Mexico waiIing to
the II1hf vuitar Ahf xrna Is e..
thousand years, and by the vividness of his
conception and the corresponding intensity of
his delivery causing the people almost to hear
with the mortal ear the long lament as Of the
daughters of Judea over ruined land sounds
the most melancholy Of all the sorror-stricken
fields of earth.
How often have We seen the opposite counsel
IN case utterly puzzled and bafled by the
strange way in which Choate seemed to be nut
tEg the facts to the jury, and interrupting him
again and sgain in vain, met and foiled every
time By the reply, Do misstste the facts
L IN only arguing upon them" and the dis
e1mhted inteTruPter would sink back in de-
SPAR, utterly unable to detect precisely where
was the error, yet feeling sure that he had
heard no such evidence. The fact was, Choate
had the basis fact all right; he was only paint
ing snd infaming it with his own colors; but the
paints on his pallet were to his adversaries as
the sky of Italy TO the sky of Sweden. and they
were brought on his canvas in even more per-
picking and bewildering hue by the impas-
stoned heat of his unbridled sensibility
brilliantly was this capacity exhibited in
the case of Captain Martin, indicted in the
nited States District Court tor casting away
hts vessel OF San Domingo, with the intent to
procure the Insurance. The Government had
been at the cost Of sending special agent to
Hsyu for evidence, and he had brought with
him black man from Souloque's Empire
called BY the swelling appellation of Duke
Pino- All the other evidence was manage
able, but his testimony was very ngIv. He
swOre positively through an interpreter that
he dived down under water and examined the
logwOOd cargo Of the ship, and her stnrboard
bow, and in the latter he found great smooth
hole, not rough enough for a rock TO have
made, and wbi'h evidently was the death
wound of the ship. All the other parts of the
proof of the Government might Be got over:
some of them, indeed, were somewhat favor
able; but that awful hole threatened 10 sval-
low up case, captain, advocate, and all. All
the rest he managed adroitly and aptly; but
when on the second day of his argument to the
jury he came TO that part he didn't blink at
all, he rose right at the wall. He told the jury
in set terms that they need not think he was
afraid Of that dark duke. butting his black
head among the lOgwood fathoms deep under
water; and then all at once he opened his
whole Armament, in such double broadside of
eloquence, fiction, and ridicule, that he riddled
poor Duke Pine himself into hone ycomb, and
then taking advantage Of . felicitOus circun-
stance in the captain conduct; 10 wit, that he
did not ay when accused, he concluded with q
singulsriy noble, simple and scriptural burst,
which came in like some grand trumpet choral
10 crown his lyrical Grafton. ''Gentlemen Of
the Jury, the accused man paused, he did not
ny, Tor he turned his eyes MPapard, and he was
thinking Of the sublime promise, When thou
goest through the FIRE thou shall not be burned
and through the deep waters, they shall not
overflow thee" And, saying these words,
the great advocate sank into his seat The
jury acquitted the Captain, and the expenses
Of the expedition Of the Bsronet Pine to Amer
ics were charged by the Government, We pre-
sumo, to profit and loss, rs 4 pleasure sI-
euTsion to Boston Of the ducal diver.
The extraordinary sfiucnce and diction which
Mr- Choate possesses, Is drawn from all the re-
sources of literature and mems talk, common
and uncommon; from the Bible and the news
papers, from some Homcric stansa, and from
the chat Of our streets; from books the people
love and books they never heard of. simple
words, long legged words, all mixed up and
stuck together ike some bizarre mosaic show
Co. -