The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1860-05-16

down in cheers, in which even the sworn
jury themselves joined, Notwithstanding
the stern order of the bench. Thus won>
derfully susceptible are the Southern peo
pie to the charms of impassioned elo-
quence.
1t was the strangers turn. he had
remained apparently abstracted during all
the previous speeches. Still and straight
and motionless in his seat his pale smooth
forehead shooting high like mountain
cone of snow, and but for that continued
twitch that came and went perpetually in
his face, you would have taken him for a
mere man of marble, or human form
carved in ice. Even his dim dreary eyes
were invisible beneath those gray shaggy
eyebrows.
But now at last he rises-before the
bar, not behind it-and so near the won
dering jury that be might touch the fore
man with his long bony fingers. With
eyes half shut and standing rigid as a pill
lar of iron. his thin lips curled as if in
measureless scorn, slightly apart, anG the
sound came forth.
At first it is low and sweet, insinuating
itself into the brain, as an artless tune
winning its way into the recesses of the
heart like the melody of magic ircanta-
tion, while the speaker proceeds without
gesture or the least signal of excitement
to tear to pieces the argument of Ashley,
which melts away before his touch as frost
before the sunbeam. Every one looked
surprised. His logic was at once brief
and so lumino ously clear, that the rudest
peasant could comprehend it without an
effort.
Anon, he came to the dazzling wit of
the poet lawyer, Pike. Then the curl of
his lips grew sharper, his smooth face be-
gan to kindle up, and his eyes to open
dim and dreary no longer, but vivid as
lightning, red as fire globes, and glaring
as twin meteors. The whole soul was in
his eyes, the full heart streamed out OF his
face. In five minutes Pixies wit seemed
like foam of folly, and bis finest satire,
horrible profanity when compared with the
inimitable sallies and exterminating sar-
casm of the stranger, inlerposed with jests
and anecdotes that filled the forum with
/ laughter.
Then without so much as bestowing
an allusion upon Prentice, he turned
around short at the ptrjnred witnesses o1
Hopkins, tore their testimony into atoms
and hurled into their fuces such invectives
thas all trembled as with ague, and two
of them actually fed in dismay from the
court house.
The excitement of The crowd was be
, coming tremendous. Their united lif
and soul seemed to hang upon the burn
ing tongue of the orator. He inspired
them with the power of his own passions
Q He saturated them with the poison of hi
t own malicious feelings. He seemed t.
s have stolen natpre's long hidden secret Q
: attraction. He was soon to be the Sc
of all thoughts and emotions, which ros
and fell and boiled in the pillows as
= choose. But his great triumph was ye
l. to come.
IS His eyes began to glance furtively a
i the assassin Hopkins, as his lean tape
finger assumed the same direction. H
= hemmed the wretch with circumvalls
e ton of strong evidence and impregnabl
G argument. cutting off all hopes of escape
d He piled up large bastlons of insul
is mountable facts. He dug beneath th
b murder and slanderer's feet, bitches I
:, dilemmas, such as no sophistry could Owe
Is leap, and no secrets Of ingenuity evad
d and thus having, as one might say in
4 pounded his victim, and girt him abo,
like q scorpion in circle of FIRE, he striI
N ped himself to the work of massacre.
le Oh! then it was vision both gloriol
and dreadful to behold the orator. II
in willow in the breeze, grew impetaous I
L the motion of an oak in hurricane.
rt His voice became a trumpet filed vii
,e wild whirlpools, deafening tho ear Wi
d. the crashes of power, and yet interminl
ling all the while with sweet undertol
ae of the softest cadence. His face was r,
er as drunkard's-his forehead glo we'd lii
ly a heated furnace, his countenance W
lis haggard like that of maniac, and ev
,h and anon he flung his long and bony arr
ne on high, as if grasping after thunde
ut bolts.
On He drew picture of murder in su
IS; appalling colors, that in comparison, b
n itself might be considered beautiful.
painted the slanderer SO black that t
u sun appeared dark at MONDAY, when shi
he ing on such an accursed monster, and tn
h; fixing both portraits on the shrinki
he Hopkins, he fastened them there forev'
e. The agitation of the audience amount
almost to madness.
en- All at once the speaker descended frt
to his perilous height. His voice wail'
ey out for the murdered dead and living
ho the beautiful Mary, more beautiful eve
ST. moment as her tears flowed faster-s
wept and sobbed like child
he He closed by. q strange exortation
ch the jury, and through them to the bysts
he ders. He advised the panel after th
should bring in verdict for the plain
ith not to offer violence to the defenda
d. however richly he might deserve it,,
IL