The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-03-20
LUTHER MARTIN.

kill, always spoils man. An old soaker
may live TO be ninety; and, in some rare
cases, Doctors tell us, a man attains old age
! because he is an old soaker. But in every
instance hard drinking takes from mans
life all that renders it valuable or pleasing
to himself and to others. Luther Martin
is a case in point. For many years he was
the glory and the shame of the Maryland
bar, and his nearest friends could scarcely
tell whether they more admired or blushed
for him.
He was born in New Jersey, in IA, and
after graduating at Princeton, wandered off
to Maryland, where he taught school, studi-
ed law, and was admitted to practice. Very
early in his career he became man of dis
tinction; for he served in Congress during
the Revolutionary War; and by the time he
was forty years of age, he was beyond all
! comparison, the head of the bar in the
State of Maryland. At a time when learn
ing was the prime requisite for success al
the bar and the quality held in most re-
spect both by the profession and the peo-
| pie, he was admitted to be the most learn
ed of lawyers. At what period of his life
he fell under the slavery of drink no one
has recorded. But we know that before he
was fifty years of age the habit was fixed,
and had made serious depredations on his
character and talents.
When young Roger fancy in 1895 came
to Annapolis to study law, and visited the
court where the judges still wore long
scarlet cloaks, and sat in solemn row in the
great chairs on a lofty platform, he was all
curiosity to see the great Luther Martin,
then near the height of his reputation. At
| last he had the pleasure of hearing him
conduct a cause. Great was the disap-
pointment of the youth He saw before
him coarse looking, dirty and addressed
influence of liquor. His attire was a dis
tressing mixture of the gay and the un-
clean. He wore ruflles at his wrists, bor-
dered with costly lace, although they had
| long ago gone out of fashion, and those
ruttles, nspicuously broad, were rumpled
and dirty. His voice, always harsh, crack
ed when he was much excited his argu-
ments were full of 6isressions; and, as he
| INDUCED in constant repetition, his speeches
were usually very long. He was really a
very good scholar, and wrote with classical
| correctness but he seemed to take bar
barous pleasure in using such words as
c0tch for caught and s0t for sat. At the
table, too, his manners were coarse and
disgusting.
With all these obvious and offensive
faults which constantly grew upon him, he
held his place at the head of the profession
for at least twenty years. The late Chief
Justice explains this mystery:
"He was profound lawyer. He never
missed the strong points of his case; and.
although much might have been better
omitted, everybody who listened to him
would agree that nothing could be added
He had an iron memory, and forgot nothing
| that he had read; and he had read great
deal on every branch of law, and took great
| pleasure in showing it when his case did
!
the bar, when was engaged in an import
ant case on the same side with Mr.. Shaaff,
and Martin was opposed to US. Mr. SHAFT
and myself went over the case together
very carefully, and when we had done with
the examination, he said: L think the case
is with us, and see nothing to be afraid
OF; bit I an Arrays AFRAID Of Martini
| Yet Mr.. SHAFT ranked then with the fore
most men in Maryland"
The greatest of Luther Martins profess
sional triumphs were at the trial of Judge
Chase. of the Supreme Court, in 1905, at
! Washington. Judge Chase was a violent,
arrogant man. who, it was charged, had
allowed his preiudices as a politician to in
fluence his decisions as a Judge. The i'm
peachment created universal interest, and
attracted great multitude of people from
all parts of the country. Aaron BUR-, the
Vice President, presided, and the Senate
Chamber was fitted up in grand style, with
places for foreign ambassadors, members
of the House of Representatives., and other
spectators. The Senators sat in great semi
circles on each side of the Vice President,
and the temporary galleries were draped
with blue cloth; the whole presenting
scene that must have been striking in the
extreme. A special interest was impaired
to the trial by the situation of Col. Burr.
! His duel with Hamilton had occurred few
months before; two indictments for murder
were hanging over his head, and he had
been for months fugitive from justice.
But he had bore himself on this occasion
with GOODNESS and dignity that excited
universal admiration. He conducted the
with the dignity and impartialty of an
angel, but with the rigor OF devil
The working man of this trial, he whose
exertions decided the issue, was Luther
Martin. He was not only a friend and fell
low citizen of Judge Chase, but he sympa-
thized with him in politics to the utmost.
Martin WAS an infuriate Federaist, or, as
Jefferson once called him, "a Federal bull
dog" and he threw himself into the de-
Tense with a mixture of GOODNESS and I'M
petuosity, of passionate ardor and quiet
dexterity altogether peculiar to himself.
Every specification he sifted to the bottom,
and exhausted every argument tending to
refute it. For four weeks, during which
the trial lasted, lie was always in his place
prompt interchangeable, vigilant. 1t was
unquestionahly he who secured the Judges
acquittal. Many of the charges were dis
tinctly proved, but on no one of them was
he condemned by two-thirds vote, which