Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1865-01-27


/. the forum with roars OF laughter
Then without so much as bestowinl
5 an alluson on Prentiss, he turned shor
a on the perjured witnesses Of Hopkins
2 tore their testimony TO atoms, and hurled
] into their faces such terrible invective
! that all trembled as with an ague, and
; two of them actually Aed dsnayed from
! the Court House.
The excitement of The crowd was be-
coming tremendous. Their united life
and soul appeared to hang on the burn
ing tongue of the stranger. He inspired
them with the powers Of his own passion.
lie saturated them with ,he poison of his
own malicious feelings. lie sesmed to
have stolen natures long hiddea secret
attention. He was the sun of lie sea of
all thought and emotion, which rose and
fell aud boiled in pillows, as he dh0se-
But his greatest triumph was 10 come.
His eyes began to glare furtitoIy at
| the assassin, Hopkins. a. hi, lear taper
finger slowly assumed the same irec-
| ton. He hemmed the wretch around
with circ0mvallation oi strong evidence
aud impregnable argument, cutting oil
all hopes Of escape. lie dug beneath the
murderers and slanderer's feet bitches Of
dilemmas, such as no sophistry could
overleap, and no stretch of ingenuity
evade, and stripped himself to the work
Of massacre.
Oh then it was vision both glorious
and dreadful to behold the orator. His
action, before as graceful as the wave OF I
golden willow in the breeze, grew as
impetuous as the motion Of an oak in
hurricane. His voice became trumpet T
filled with whirlwinds, deaf-ning the ear
with crashes of powder, and yet inter
mingled all the while with a sweet under
song Of the softest cadence He drew a
picture of murder in such appalling colors,
that, in comparison, hell itself might be
considered beautiful. He painted the
sanderer so black, that the san seemed
dark at MONDAY, when shining on such
an accarsed monster; AMI then fixed
both portraits on the same burning brow
If Hopkins, and nailed them there for
sver.
The agitation of the audience nearly
mounted TO madness.
All at once the speaker decended from
is perilous height. His voice walled
ut for the murdered dead, and described
he sorrows, of the widowed living, the It
eautiful Mary, more beautiful every :
as her tears flowed iaster-til
len wept and lovely women sobbed. II
He closed by a strange exhortation to
ne jury, and through them to the by
snders. He entreated the panel, after A
ley should bring in their verdict for the
laintiff, not to offer violence to the de-
ndant, however richly he might deserve II
; in other words, not to lynch the VIII al
in, Hopkins, but leave his punishment ii
God. This was the mos, artiui trick
all, and the best calculated to insure Ia
,ngeance. he
The jury returned verdict of fifty IN
ousaud dollars and the night after y
ards Hopkins was taken out OF his bed
, lynchers, and beaten almost to death.
As the Court adjourned, the stranger
ade known his name, and called the "
tention Of tie people with the announce
ent-"John Taylor will preach here at p.
rly candle light" -
The crowd all turned ont, ard Taylor,
rmon equaled, if it did Mt sprpa,s, thr "
lendor of his forensic efforts. This is ~
exaggeraiion. have listened to Clay,
ebster and Calhoun-Dewey, Tying
d Bascom; but have never heard any col
ng in the form of sublime words even SCI
nolely approximating to the eloquence au
John Taylor-massive as mountain,
! wildly rushing as a cataract Of fire. car
I'd this is the opinion of all who heard the
marvellous man. TEA