The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-05-16
ASHLAND. ASHLAND COUNTY OHIO. WEDNESDAY MoRNI

sill sod. =
j better. and diff rec, toto ealo om anything ev
.er before heard i a the South 1t had no sud
Eden efuptionsy poured forth by volcanic spasms
4 of fiery passion: no ineteoric flight or rain Of
shooting stars On the contrary, every para
i graph. was calm, distinct, and lucid as light
4 itself Every sentence was clear as crystal
AMI altogether presented massive chain oi
the most rigid and faultless demonstration -
] Nevertheless, it must not be inferred that he
was..a col dry speaker, whose thoughts turned
| to ice ON the tongue. 5 His words glowed at a
red heat, but he forged them. in the fires OF
the intellect, not in those of the heart. He
could not shed tears at all, ike Grimes OF
j Grundy, whose pathosl proved sllpowerful with
! juries, until the trick became stale, and of
course Improbable. He owned not the wild
raging energy, the prophetic firore of Pey-
ton, nor rthezuplimitede eoaInstaad of luxuriant
! imagery and lofty imagination which charae-
terized the genius Of Prentiss.s He never once
Eappealed to any class of human feelings, He
aimed only at the reason, and piled it with
! thick-fying shafts from the quiver OF logic,
until the most sceptical would surrender at
discretion ~ 70 't! 5EsSai izas4 isi Is stisl
The evidence against the fair prisoner hap
pened. all to be crcumstanfial, and by no
means conclusive. niHe tore it into fragments
with as much coolness and deliberation as one
would use in destroying the piece of danger
Gus letter. He careered over the whole field
Of history and of criminal jurisprudence, in
all ages and nations Il and collected the most
striking instances of unjust punishment which
have been the results of conviction upon bare
hypothesis, and all the while he intermingled
with his discourse the most appropriate quo
eations from the books--En g1ish, German,
French, Spanish, and Latin, translating as he
went along, till even Grimes was lost in admi-
ration. He closed by claiming for the prison er
the benefit of every reasonable doubt, and
when he took his seat the hall reverberated
with deafening shouts of applause. in which
some of the sworn jurors unconsciou.y joined
5;a ,Preutiss the great, concluded for the prose-
Ecutiof, but failed to effect his usual impressions
seer ihgly beswilaered by the may labyrinth
Of logic and learning which his rival lad so
I1aboriously aerected round the subject He
discharged his, showers of cleaning arrows.
abnt they recoiled upon himself, as from wall
of iadamant, The remarkable contrast between
the two counsel showed itself in the strongest
light. Prentiss reGembfed the Rarthian horse
man, darting here and there with the rapidity
of lightning, eleaming' all over with -jeweled
ornaments, and welding his fine weapons with
inipitable agility and graces drawing plenty
of blood, yet falling to reach the heart The
movement of Rice, like the stately tread of
the Roman infantry, was slow, steady, ceaseless,
ever onwards, into the centre of the enemy's
ranks, into the broken bosom of his marble
Notwithstanding down all things beneath
the weight of chainlnail, and of most pom
derous sword! fo g'- taf e!st 81 10 i'.' 2 -
s=Fhe he inry, after being charged BY the court.
returned the verdict OF acquittal without leay-
ing their box; and the people at first so pre-
JUDGED against the accused, now warmly cheer
-ed the result. On the instant the lovely pris-
oner fell upon the breast of her chaml ion, and
covered his neck with tears. From that hour,
his fortune might be said to be made in New
Orleans, if he did not mar it himself But
alas !! for the feeble strength of human reason,
in the presence of constant temptation. The
practice, of drinking of the misnamed Hwater
of life then prevailed universally in genteel'
society at the South, and Gabriel Rice at last
became a victim to the fatal habit. It is true
that, for some time, he ascended higher and
higher, as if only to render the more ruinous
his final fall He an,assed sufficient wealth in
few months for the independence of life
time., He turned his attention to politics, and
was elected to Congress- But heleft no mark
there The spell of the poisoned cup of Circes
was upon his soul, and the animal already pre-
dominated over the man, in the enchanted
process of transformation. The wings of his
thought, heavy with the brutality of intem-
perance; should skim the clouds nogmore, for
ever. He was afterwards appointed Judge of
the Supreme Court of Louisiana But the
dark demon still held him in its grasp, and
his thirst for dissipation led him to the COM
mission. of an impnudent thact, which was tor
tured by his enemies into a public charge. of
forgery He attempted to drown himself in
the Mississippi, and being rescued by some
friends, fed to Texas and found an asylum
on the Rio Grande. b.s5qo1i So " 1sgro fu-i 4
He was for long period, and is perhaps
this very day, to be seen rolling around the
low groceries of Brownsville, with bloated fea-
ures and fiery red eyes, which retain not one
ray ofthe rich intellectual light they coinedsin
the morning prime of youth, when they bearna4
ed like stars = 1is1i' i;tsfA ai.a. isas sdi -