The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-07-30
The Leaders OF the New York Bar.

George Alfred Townsend is writing some
very interesting, letters to the Troy Times
of men and things in New York, and he
thus describes its three most prominent
lawyers:
The bar of New York has just renown.
It's strength is unimpaired to-day. At its
head, in natural gifts, is James T. Brady,
the Little Giant" of the forum, man of
positive genius, of desultory learning, with
a memory that is tenacious and universal !;
a manner adaptable, spontaneous, mag
netic; perception skilled and keen; of
convictions unstable, yet of earnest mo-
mentary sympathies, he has as pleader
equal force at the bar and on the stump,
and a generally patriotic though ftful re-
cord. His legal learning is fragmentary.
He divines what most men have read. He
would rather carry point than deserve it,,
and the happy turning Of a period has fire.
quently carried him away from the post
where he meant to stand. In appearance
he is very individual; round, grand
storehouse of head, ringletted under its
deep, sober brows falls a weak yet ami
NAL face, scarcely strengthened by a
bunch Of "imperial"; his eye has
penetration, but not directness the
mans real nature is subordinate to his ap-
petites and he has had so many fulsome
adulations Of his intellect that with the
weakness of genius he asserts that his true
loves are more bodily and more practical.
His body is slight and low, abruptly ro-
tund where the turtle soup is deposited !;
and so much power in suggestion, argu-
ment, and glib preciseness, has he, that he
is explosive rather than projective-a man
of the school of Garrick, Sheridan, and
Fox useful to clients, but nigh lost to HIM
self. When he speaks you are charmed.
severely humorous, and his ready know
ledge Of human nature, if at fault in rare
instances, is seldom misdirected against
the bulk of jury. lie is man of clubs
and comrades, most excellent when in the
company of his interiors, and however
more thorough men may affect to rate
him, Brady's head is q match for all their
books. The ready sympathy Of this
pleader has kept him steadtast to the
Union-though democrat, his instincts
are truer than learning. There is no man
in New York whom I would set down as of
equal genius with James T. Brady.
Cold, Greek in the antique signi fication
of most pure and stately features, as he is
"Greek" in the vulgate by name, Charles
O'Conor seems to stand highest in esteem
as an exact and profound counsel, unsur-
passed in the forms and reverences of the
law. He is gray and pale, with glittering
teeth, an English temperament and a
naughty carriage, and he keeps prece-
dent and gall in the place where other
men keep progress and sympathy. The
lines in his face are Of disdain; his voice
is merciless; he is, in public character, an
American Lord Derby, without heart
upon his sleeve, or an apparent forgive
ness in his eye. His prepared argu-
ments have mathematical power as ire
sistible and as unsympathetic as stone
spear-head. He knows the law as if he
were itself articulate.
William NJ. Evarts, the peer of O'Conor
in learning, is man Of law tempered
with love. He looks deeper than the mo-
tive of statute; to its germ, and that
which makes it heighten, ripen, and over
shadow with freshening, protecting foliage.
The tree Of law is rod to O'Conor, to
Eyarts an arbor. The one is scourge 10
be welded by few, the other is a branch
to shelter those most sun-stricken and
toil-worn. Evarts is almost skeleton in
body, with boyish face, whose cheerful
ness is little saddened by overwork-a
reminder of Alexander 81. Stephens-at-
tenuated, but without wrinkles. 1t is a
part of his life and his memory that he
loved the Union equally with the law.
These are few of'the preferred names at
the bar Of New York.