Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-12-08
Choate Before a Jury

The power with which Rufus Choate.
the eloquent Massachusetts, LAWYER. con,
trolled the minds Of a jury, is depicted
by b. L. Whipple, who says, in Jumpers
Magazine:
II jury trials his main object was to
influence the wills of the twelve men
before him. He addressed their under
standings; he fascinated their magma
tons; he stirred their feelings; but, after
all, he used all his powers in subordina-
ton of that one primal power which
dwelt in his magnetic individuality, by
which ne subdued them, bringing on that
part Of their beginning which uttered its
reluctant Eyes" or 'no," the pressure of
stronger nature as well as Of larger
mind AS an advocate, he thoroughly
understood that men in the aggregate
are not reasonable beings, but men with
the capacity Of being occasionally
made reasonable, if their prejudices are
once blown away by a superior force of
blended reason and emotion-in other
words, by force Of being. His triumphs
at the bar were due to the fact that he was
q powerful man, victorious over other
men because he had a stronger manhood.
stronger selfhood, than. any BODY on
the jury he addressed. On one occasion
l happened TO be Il witness in a case
where a trader was prosecuted for OBJ
talnlng goods under false pretensions.
Nh. Choate took the ground that the
seeming knavery of the accused was due
to the circumstance that he had a deficient
business lntelligence-in short, that he
had unconsciously rated all his geese as
swans. He was right in his view. The
foreman OF the jury. however, was hard
headed practical man, model Of business
intellect and integrity, but with an in
capacity Of understanding any intellect
or conscience radically differing from his
own. Mr. Choate's argument, as far as
tue facts and the law were concerned, was
through in an hour. Still he went on
speaking. Hour after hour passed, and
yet he continued to speak with constantly
increasing eloquence, repeating and re-
captivating, without any seeming reason,
facts which he had already stated aud
arguments which he had already urged.
The truth was, as | gradually learned,
that he was engaged in hand o-hand-
or rather in brain-to- brain and heart
to-heart-contest with the foreman, whose
resistance he was determined to break
down, but who confronted him for three
hours with defiance observable in every
rigid line of his honest countenance.
You tool" was the burden of the advo-
Gates ingenious argument; "you rascal! !"
was the phrase legibly printed on The
1oreman's incredulous face But at last the
features OF the foreman began to relax,
and at the end the stern lines melted
into acquiescence with the opinion of the
advocate, who had been storming at the
defenses of his mind, his heart and his
conscience for five hours, and had now
entered as victor. He compelled the
foreman to admit the unpleasant fact that
there were existing human beings whose
mental ana moral constitution differed
from his own, and who were yet as honest
IN intention as he was, but lacked his
clear perception and sound judgement
The verdict was mot guilty. It was
just verdict, but it was merciiessly rs
sailed by merchants who had lost money
by the prisoner, and who were bounding
hln Gown as an enemy to the human
race, as another instance of Choate's lack
OF mental and moral honesty in the de-
tense OF persons accused Of crime. The
TACT that the foreman OF the Jury that
returned the verdict belonged to the class
that most vehemently attacked Choate
was sufficient of itself to disprove such
allegations. AS [ listened to Choate's
argument in this case, I felt assured that
he would go on speaking until he drop
ped dead on the floor rather than have
reilnqulshed his clutch on the soul of the
one man on the jury whom he knew
would control the opinion Of the Others