New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-05-13

the Judgment seat, shall have faded from his
cOuntenance, he may learn that there are other
rewards than these which have sometimes
recompensed the advocate, but which he failed
to win.
The latitude which custom and legal pre-
cent allow to the advocate is so wide that
to oyerstep it is not only without excuse but
is professionally held to be grossly dishonor-
able. II assimilates the advocate to the Grim
inal whom he defends Ii betrays the evil OF
the nature which seeks by such irregular and
illegitimate means to justify an evil cause. In
such cases as that in which MIR. Graham mas
so dramatically siriven, and with results so
apparently gratifying to himself, it Is not alone
the prisoner at the bar who is on trial. Judge,
advocate. accusers, and even witnesses, pass an
ordeal az stern and incnr Judgment as IRE
ycrsiblc as that which awaits the culprlt. Ana
This wider iury is not one which is bewildered
with sOphisticatiOns, nor awed by ciahlorous
inyective. nor accessible to any influence hkeiy
70 delude its understanding or to pervert It's
Judgment IL is strictly the court OF last re-
sort before which the deeds OF living men
and dead generations pass in review, and there
is inaexible equity in its decisions. II Mr..
Graham thinks that he has passed stainless
while before this judgment bar we shall not
seek TO disturb so innocent a consciousness OF
good desert and rectitude, nor illumine moral
fog so hopeless and impenetrable. 1t may DE,
it is true, that he is indifferent to the verdict
of this vast and passionless tribunal. con-
tempt of public opinion, or a Sc0rn or the
APPRECIATION of good men, would sufhclentiy
explain the fanaticism which met the courtesy
of his professional opponents with coarse ana
reckless insult and profanity, which included
even the Judge in its maledction 1t would
explain the irrational sOphistry and the evil
purpose with which he persistently tortured
plain words from their plain significance, and
affirmed the infamy of sentences laden
with kindness and generosity; it would ex-
plain his justification of the atrocious
SANDER which, uttered by his colleague,
recoiled upon its utterer with an explosion
which blew that astOnished counselor into
far and desolate regions of repentance
and shame, from which he will probably
not at present emerge; it would explain
his otherwise inexplicabe essay Of futile
pugilism and the uncanOncal phrases with
which he preluded and accompanied that ex-
ercise 1t would explain, in short, why MI
Graham throughout bore himself like one whO
having nothing to fear from public OPINION,
was Indifferent how grossly and recklcssly he
outraged it. A sentiment so defiant OF the
common sense of the community is the more
TO be regretted from the fact that Mr.. Graham
had an opportunity of winning to himself high
and deserved distinction in the conduct OF this
case. He stood at the outset conspicuously
forward as the apostle and champion OF do
mestc morality. This is an interesting at
titude 1t ELECTS at once the sympathy
and commands the warmest appreciation OF
virtuous persons of all degrees. When to the
character of the apostle one adds the advan-
tage of conspicuous and even celebrated per-
sonal purity of life, who wears the white
flower of celibacy unsOied, his ministrations
are benefcent and high. He speaks chaste
words with chaste lips, and virtue hangs upon
his accents with rapture, while vice shrinks
and covers before him, as the demons OF the
Morse song covered before the shining figure
of the archangel, VINO, unfortunately for our
smile. turned out to be one of Themselves
clad in pilfered raiInent. II III the general
drift of things it sometimes happened that a
person who was himself the arch-prest of i'm
morality and the slave of indiscrminate lust,
should stand forth as the champion of domes-
tic purity, the sacredness of the family rcla-
ton, and who should denOunce wrath to those
who followed his own example, pos
sibly the effect of his inculcations
would be less striking than if he
alleged his preaching with a little con-
current practice. No such misgiying as to the
irreconcilability of his exhortation with his ex-
ample could possibly have arisen in any mind
as to Mr.. Graham. The consistency of his
practice with the principles of which he sought
to make himself the apostle are well known.
He had, therefore, no obstacles to encounter
except those which the defects of intellectual
discipline interposed. Ho had q very wide
moral field to browse over, and he might have
cropped it with incalculable credit to himself.
But the infrmities of his temper, the Occa-
siOnal clOudiness of his understanding, and his
unwillingness or inability to recognize the
limits which should circumscribe even the ter
giversations of an attorney, have deprived him
of the honorable reward which even less energy
than his, allied with rudimentary sense of
right and honor, would have allowed him to
win.
|
Paris is tranquil says the telegraph 1t is a
legend old as the NapoleOnic dynasty, and no