The daily gazette., 1877-02-06
The High Commission.
YESTERDAY CONS UMED IN AR
GrNENT OYER THE EJI-
DENCE TO BE CON
SIDERED.
THE POWERFUL SPEECHES OF
WILLIAM M. EVARTS AND
CHARLES O'CONOR

WASHINGTON, February 5.-The Elec-
toral Commission adjourned this after
noon to announce tomorrow morning its
decision upon the admission of evidence
in the Florida case. For nearly four
hours it sat listening to the pleas of the
leading advocates on either side, O'Conor
and Evarts, and with it listened the Gov
ernment. The Cabinet, the presiding Of
ficers OF both chambers, their leading
members on either side, and the bench of
the Supreme Court, were within the mar
row curving walls of the old Senate
Chamber. 1t was perhaps well for both
Speakers that they spoke within the room
OF an ordinary chamber and needed moth
ing more than the easy slides of CONVEX
sation to reach their hearers. 1t is long
since either has been heard to better ad-
vantage. Both spoke from the same
place, the file of law books which O'Con-
or turned losing itself in the row which
EvartS consulted, Evarts seating himself
at the close in the chair from which o.
Conor followed his predecessors speech,
and in his turn following with unfailing
and respectful attention his successor.
Something like twenty years separate the
older and younger advocate in age. There
was no gap to day between the vigor of
either speaker, and such contrast as there
was best appeared in the careful pause,
dropping back in his chair by way of pc
riod, with which Evarts emphasized the
rhetorical close of his speech: "And from
the rule of the judges the people shall find
no cure, no resort, but that which the
children of Israel had in praying for
king" And then, rising from his seat,he
proceeded to dispose of that little cloud
of authorities with which lawyer fills
the Bench at closing without disturbing
by quotation the easy and relevant flow
of his argument.
O'Conor was at no such pains, pass
Ing with simple direction from the body
ofhis argument to the citations with which
he buttressed its conclusions. If O'Conor
closed along.the dead level of the Reports
be began with studied care. No one fami-
liar with his habits will fancy that the
plain protest from which Evarts stepped
to his argument lacked studied care,
but it was care of different order from
the classic exordium, classic even to
iiidihCl ttlISl u oCJ III
the Verrene Grafton with which O'Conor
began. The speeches were full of con-
trast Evarts grew subtle and more recon-
dite as he advanced; O'Conor simpler and
clearer. There was no point at which
the logical skeleton of O'Conor's argu-
ment was not bare to layman, there were
many sentences in Evarts's plea whose
close ran on though verbal and resound-
ing ''cayerns measureless to man." The
difference widened as each warmed.
Evarts's impulse drove him past the nor
NAL and proper close of every sentence;
O'Conor's speech broke up under excite
ment into crisper and sharper phrases.
Nor was there wantinga a constant contrast
i'll other less important matters. Evarts
always looks as if he had dried away
from his clothes, which hung and swung
at every turn to-day. Taller by head,
his coat tightly buttoned, there was never
a moment when O'Conor was swinging
over table with one hand in his pocket
or finding rest for both on the lower
them of his vest, nor was he ever in
hurry-deliberat to the last degree, deli
berate at starting, as he gently swung his
steel-bowed glasses to the cadence ofeach
careful sentence; deliberate in the one
isolated metaphor of his speech; deliberate
in his close, which moved lesurely through
its full time. Evarts timed himself and
closed on the last allotted second, bring
ing his last sentence up on round turn.