The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1866-01-09
THE VOLUNTEER COUNSEL.
Il Thrilling Story.

Oouu 4dyioF was HceusSu, "neu youth oi
twenty-one, to practice at the bar. He Was
poor but we'll educated, and possessed ex.raor-
binary genius. He married beauty, who after
wards deserted him for another.
On the 9th of April, 1S4O, the Court House
in Clarksvile, Texas, was crowded to overflow
ing. An exciting case was about to be tried.
Gov. Hopkins, a wealthy planter, had offered q
gross insult to Mary Ellison, the young and
beautiful wife of his overseer. The husband
threatened to chastise him for the outrage, when
Hopkins went to Ellisons house and shot him
in his door. The murders was arrested and
bailed to answer the charge. This occurrence
produced great excitement, and Hopkins, in
order to turo the tide of popular indignation,
had circulated reports against her character, and
she had sued him for slander. Both suits were
pending-for murder and for SANDER.
! The interest became deeper when it
known that Ashley and Pike, of Arkansas, and
S Prentiss of New Orleans, by enormous fees,
had been retained to defend Hopkins.
| Hopkins acquitted, The Texas lawyers
were overwhelmed by their opponents, it was
| fight of dwarfs against giants.
| The SANDER suit was for the 9th, and the
throng of spectators grew In number as we'll as
excitement; public opinion was setting in for
Hopkins; Ills money had procured witnesses
who served his powerful advocates. When the
SANDER case was called, Mary Ellison was left
without an attorney-all had Withdrawn.
| "Have you no counsel p inquired Judge
Millet, looking kindly at the plaintiff
"No, sir, they have all deserted me, and I am
too poor to employ any more;;" replied the
beautiful Mary, bursting into tears
"In such case, will not some chivalrous
member Of tie bar, volunteer ?" said the Judge,
giancing around the bar.
The thirty LAWYERS were silent.
II will, your honor" said voice from the
thickest part of the crowd behind the bar.
At the sound Of that voice many started-it
was so unearthly, sweet and mournful
The first sensation was changed into laughter,
when TALL gaunt, spectral figure ebowed his
way through the crowd and placed himself with
n the bar His clothes looked so shabby that
the Court hesitated to let the case proceed under
his management.
"Has yoar name been entered on the. rolls of
the State ?.,aoquired the Judge.
at is immaterial," answered the stranger, his
thin bloodess lips curling up with fendish
sneer. "Here is my license from the highest
tribunal in America" and he handed the
Judge broad parchment.
The trial went on.
! He suffered the witnesses 20 tell their own
story, aud he allowed the defence to lead off -
Ashley spoke first, followed by Pike and Prem
tlss. The latter brought the house down with
cheers in which the jury joined.
It was now the strangers turn; be rises-be
fore the bar, not behind it-and so near the
wondering jury, that he might touch the fore
man with his long, bony fingers. He proceeded
to tear to pieces the arguments of Ashley, which
melted away at his touch, like frost before Il
sunbeam, every one looking surprised. Anon
he came to the dazzling wit Of the lawyer poet
Pke-the curl of his lip grew sharper, his thin
face began to kindle up, and his eyes to open,
dim aud dreary no longer, but vivid as ightnng,
red as fire globes, and garing as meteors, the
strcamed out of his face. Then, without be-
slowing an alluson to Prentiss, he turned short
around on the perjured witnesses Of Hopkins,
tore their testimony into shreds, and hurled into
their faces such terrible invectives that all
trembled like aspeus, and two of them fed from
the court house. The excitement of the crowd
was becoming tremendous. Their united life
and soul seemed to hang OF the burning tongue
of the stranger; he inspired them with the
power Of his malignant passions; he seemed to
have stolen natures long hidden secret of at
traction. But his greatest triumph was yet to
come.
His eyes began to glance at the assassin Hop
kins, as his lean, taper fingers assumed the same
direction. tie nefntneO the Wretcn with wall
Of strong evidence and impregnable argument,
cutting off all hope of escape. He dug beneath
the murderer's feet bitches of dilemma and held
the slanderer up to the scorn and contempt of
the populace. Having thus girt him about with
circle of fire, he stripped for the massacre.
Oh, then it a vision both glorious and
dreadful to behold the orator His actions be-
came as inpetuous as the motion of an oak in a
hurricane His voice became trumpet, filled
with wild whirpools, deafening the ear with
crashes of power, and yet intermngled all the
while with sweet under-song Of the soltest
cadence His forehead glowed like heated
furnace; his countenance was haggared, like that
of a maniac, and ever and anon he flung bis
long bouy arms on high, as if grasping after
thunderbolts
lie drew his picture Of murder in such ap.
palling colors, that in- comparison hell itself
might be considered beautifully; he painted the
slanderer so black, that the sun seemed dark at
MONDAY, when shining such accursed
monster; and then fixing both portraits on the
shrinking Hopkins, fastened them there forever
The agitation of the audience nearly amounted
to madness.
All at once the speaker descended from the
perilous height. His voice walled But for the
murdered dead and living-the beautiful Mary
more beautiful every moment, as her tears flowed
faster, till men wep: aud sobbed like children
He closed by strange exbortation to the
} jury, and through them to the bystanders; he
advised the pannel after they should bring in {
verdict for the plaintiff, not to offer violence te
J the defendant, however richly he may deserve
it; IN other words "not to lynch the villain, bu