Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1872-12-12
SEWARD AT THE BAR.

SEWARD All THE BAR.
When Mr.. Seward entered the lega
profession, Talcott, Van Vechten, Spen
Ger, Butler, Cady, Noxon, Mathews
Griffith ana others, whose names have
passed into history, were at the bar. Et
first appeared at the bar of the court fol
the correction of errors in the case O.
Wakeman VS.. Grover, which is still re
garded as leading case.-one that frs
settled the Law in reference to assign
ments in tru$. for the benefit of credit
ors. 1t created much interest, particu
ly among the merchants in the city Of
New York. Mr.. Seward was opposed
by Samuel A. Talcott, Benjamin F,
Butler and Daniel A. Lord. de was
assisted by Abraham Van Vechten.
10 enter contest of this nature
against such powerful opponents, was a
severe but profitable test of the young
lawyers abilities. Though he was the
youngest counsel in the case, he won the
respect of his colleague and of his op.
ponents by his strong, welldigested,
learned, but unassuming argument.
As lawyer, Mr.. Seward possessed g
minute, comprehensive, and rapid OBJ
Servation-a memory at once retentive
and ready; penetrating mind, capable
of great exertion. Though he was not
distinguished for grace of oratory, he
was an able debater and shilItul advo.
cate. His legal arguments were char
acterlzed by force, celebrity, persp Guilty
OF detail; plentltude Of legal knowl-
edge, and continuity of expression it
was impossible to follow HIM through
any of his legal or parliamentary effoT Is
without at once being delighted and
improved; and yet, without close after
ton, he was liable to be misunderstood,
Judge Cowen once said Of NJ. Seward :
He Is clear, logical and natural
speaker at the bar, and yet he is some-
tunes considered obscure from the intel
lectual effort alone, which it requires to
follow him" a simil n remark was
once made Of Edwin Burke, with the
further objection that his arguments
we're too astrict and tumid.
Mr.. Seward united habits of abstrac.
hon IN everyday practice, and he could
consider things ii general or in detail,
as occasion required, differing from those
possessing knowledge of general prin-
ciples,-a talent for general reasoning
united with huency Of speech, and who.
to the crowd, seem to possess abilities
suitable for any exalted position in life,
while wholly incapaciated for the con.
duct OF affairs requiring close argument
or minute attention to detail.
At the bar, and in parliamentary
bodies, Mr.. Seward, while comparative
ly young. came in collision with great
men-with Clay, Webster, Douglas. Ben.
ton, and, as has already been said, with
the eminent lawyers of the past-with
men whose memory creates in the mind
feelings Kin to the emotions to the awe
struck pagan amid the ruins of Delphi, as
fancy brought to his ear the voice of
the oracle and the music of the invisible
harp, who beheld in the dismantled
shrine the alembic from which once
emanated supernal wisdom, and history
will confirm the assertion that he lost
nothing when compared with his great
competitors.
His defense of William Freeman, the
murderer Of the Van Nest family, was
one OF the most mastery and able in
the history of criminal trials. But bril-
liant and great as was his effort in de-
tense of Freeman the moral effect of his
defense OF Henry Wyatt renders that
the browning effort of his professional
life. In that defense Mr.. Seward was
sustained with great learning and ability
by Hon. Christopher Morgan, of Auburn.
and Hon. Samuel Blatchford, of New
York. Both of these eminent lawyers
were then the law partners of Mr.. Sew
ard, and entered into the defense of
Wyatt with great zeal and ability.
Wyatt, convict in Auburn State
Prison, was indicted and brought to
trial FOR boldly and atrociously killing a
fellow prisoner while on the way to the
prison chapel. Mr.. Seward and his as
sociates interposed for their client the
plea of moral insanity-that plea which
insists that persons who are the subjects
of natural or congenial moral derange-
ment are not morally accountable, be-
cause, though they may know an act to
be wrong, cannot refrain fromd ding it
that swhen disease is the propelling,
uncomfortable power that urges man
to commit crime, he is as innocent as
the weapon with which the deed is com.
mltted, the mental and moral elements
being as gulltless as the material; that
he might as well be punished for his
inability to distinguish between right
and wrong as for an incapacity 20 resist
mental disease which forces upon him
its choice of the wrong" Though il
was believed by many that this plea
rested on subtle medical theory, and
therefore unpopular, yet in the case Of
Wyatt it was boldly, ingeniously. and
powerfully advocated, and if uusuccess-
full it resulted, as will be seen, in the
Punishment of the lash and the whip
ping post from the prisons of this and
other States, and from our navy.
While Governor of New York, Mr..
Seward frequently but fruitlessly rec
commended the abolishment of whips
ping as q punitive measure in prisons.
After many closely contested objection
he was permitted by the court to prove
shat when a convict was sentenced to
the "cat," as the whipping was called,