The Soldiers' journal. (Rendezvous of Distribution, Va.) 1864-1865, 1864-07-06
Daniel Webster's First Case.


farmer. The vegetables in his garden suffered
considerably from the depredations of wood
chuck, whose hole and habitation the
premises Daniel, some ten or twelve years old,
and his brother Ezekiel, proposed to kill the
imal and end at once all further trouble with
him; but Daniel looked with compassion upon
this meek, dumb captive, and offered to let him
go free. The boys could not agree and appealed
to their father to decide the case.
"Well, my boys, said the old gentleman, 81
will be judge. There is prisoner, pointing to
| the woodchuck,) and you shall be the COUNSEL
and plead the for and against his life and
liberty
Ezekiel opened the with a strong argu-
ment, urging the mischievous nature of the ami
NAL, the great harm he had already done; said
that much time and labor had been spent in his
capture, and if he was suffered to live and go at
large, he would renew his depredations and be
cunning enough not to suffer himself to be caught
again, and that he ought now to be put to death;
that his skin of some value, and that to make
the most of him they could, it would not repay
one half the damage he had already done. His
argument was ready, practical, and to the point,
and Of much greater length than limits will
allow us to occupy in relating the story.
The father looked with pride upon his son,
who became distinguished jurist in his man
hood.
"Now, Daniel, it's your turn; I'll hear what
you have to say"
1t was his first case. Daniel saw that the plea
of his brother had sensibly affected his father,
the Judge; and as his large, brilliant black eyes
looked upon the soft, timid expression of the
animal, and as he it tremble with fear in
his narrow prison-house, his heart swelled with
pity, and he appealed with eloquent words that
his captive might again go Free God, he said,
had made the woodchuck he had made him to
live to enjoy the bright sunshine, the pure air.
the free fields and woods. God had not made
him nor anything in vain the woodchuck had
as much right to live as any other living thing
he was nota destructive animal, as the wolf and
fox were; he simply ate few common vege-
tables, of which they had plenty and could well
spare a part; he destroyed nothing except the
little food he needed to sustain his humble life;
and that little food was as sweet to him, and as
necessary to his existence as was to them the
food upon their mothers table. God furnished
their own food; he gave them all they possessed,
and would they not spare little for the dumb
creature, who really had much right to his
small share of Gods bounty as they themselves
had to their portion; yes, more: the animal had
never violated the laws of his nature, nor the
laws of his God, as man often did, but strictly
followed the simple he had received from
the hands of the Creator of all things Created
| by Gods hands, he had a right from God to
life, to food to liberty; and they had no right to
deprive him of either He alluded to the mute
but earnest pleadings of the animal for that life
as sweet as dear to him as their own was to
them and the first judgment they might expect,
if, in selfish cruelty and cod-heartedness, they
took the life they could not restore again.