The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-11-14
ChOate Before a jury.

the eloquent Massachusetts lawyer,
controlled the minds of jury, is depict
ed by e. T. Whipple, who says, in
Harper's Magazine !: ...
In Jury trials his main object was to
influence the wills of the twelve men
before him. He addressed their un-
derstandings; he fascinated their i'm.
aginations he stirred their feelings ;
but, after all, he used all his powers
in subordination OF that one primal
power which dwelt in his magnetic
individuality, by which he subdued
them, bringing on that part of their
being which uttered its reluctant "yes
or "no," the pressure of stronger
nature as we'll as of larger mind.
As an advocate, he thoroughly under
stood that men in the aggregate are not
reasonable beings, but men with the
capacity of being occasionally made
reasonable, if their preiudices are once
blown away by superior force of blend
ed reason and emotion-in other words,
by force of being. His triumphs at the
bar were due to the fact that he was a
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
I happened to be witness in case
where trader was prosecuted for OBJ
tanning goods under false pretenses.
Mr.. Choate took the ground that the
seeming knavery of the accused was due
to the circumstance that he had de-
ficient business intelligence-in short,
that he had unconsciously rated all his
geese as swans. He was right in his
view. The foreman of the jury, how
ever, was hard-headed practical man,
model of business intellect and integ-
rity, but with an incapacity of under
standing any intellect or conscience
radically differing from his own. Mr..
Choate's argument, as far as the facts
and the law were concerned, was
through in an hour. Still he went on
speaking. Hour after hour after passed,
and yet he continued to speak with con-
stantly increasing eloquence, repeating
and recapitulating, without any seeming
reason, facts which he had already stated
and arguments which he had already
urged. The truth was, as I gradually
learned, that he was engaged in hand
to .hand-or rather in brain TO- brain
and heart-to-heart-c contest with the
foren an, whose resistance he was de-
termined to break down, but who con
fronted him for three hours with def
ance observable in every rigid line OF
his honest countenance. "You fool I"
was the burden of the advocates inge
NOUS argument "you rascal ~ was
the phrase legibly printed on the fore
mans 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 deienses 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 and moral consti-
tuition differed from his own, and who
were yet as honest in intention as he
was, but lacked his clear perception
and sound Judgment. The verdict was,
"Not guilty" 1t was just verdict,
but it was mercilessly assailed by mer-
chants who had lost money by the prison
er, and who were bounding him down
as an enemy to the human race, as
another instance of Choate's lack of
mental and moral honesty in the de-
fense of persons accused of crime. The
fact 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 I listened to
Choate's argument in this case, I felt
assured that he would go on speaking
until he dropped dead on the floor rather
than have relinqliished his clutch on the
soul of the one man on the jury whom
he knew would control the opinion OF
the others.