Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-01-11
THE VOLUNTEER COUNSEL.

d
youth OF twenty-one, to practice at the
bar. He was poor but well educated
and possessed extraordinary genius. He
married a beauty who afterwards desert.
ed him for another
On the 9th of August, 1841, the Court
House at Clarksville, Texas, was crowd.
ed to overfowing. An exciting case was
to be tried George Hopkins, wealthy
planter, offered gross insult to Mary
Allison, the young and beautiful wife OF
his overseer. The husband threatened
to chastise him for the outrage, when
Hopkins went to AllisOn's house and
shot him at the door, The murderer
was arrested and bailed to answer the
charge. The occurrence produced great
excitement, and Mr.. Hopkins, in order
to turn the tide of popular Indignation
had circulated false reports about hel
character and she sued him for SANDER
Both suits were pending-for murder
and for SANDER.
The interest became deeper when it
was known that Ashley and Pike, OF
Arkansas, and S. S. Prentiss, of New
Orleans, by enormous fees had been re-
tanned to defend Hopkins
Hopkins was acquitted. The Texas
lawyers were overwhelmed by their op,
ponents. Itwas fight of dwarfs against
giants.
The SANDER suit was ready for trial
and the throng of spectators grew in
number, as in excitement Public opin-
ion was setting in for Hopkins; his mo-
ney had procured witnesses who served
his powerful advocates. When the SLAM
der case came up, it was left without an
attorney-all had withdrawn.
Have you no counsel?" inquired
Judge Mills kindly, of the plaintiff.
No, sir, they have all deserted me,
and | am too poor to employ any more, y
replied the beautiful Mary, bursting in
! to tears.
In such case, will not some chival-
rous member of the profession volun-
teer?" said the Judge. glancing around
the bar.
The thirty old lawyers were silent as
the grave.
Il will, your honor" said a voice
from the crowd behind the bar. His
clothes looked so shabby that the court
hesitated to let the case proceed under
his management.
Has your name been entered upon
the rolls of the State?' demanded the
Judge.
1T is immaterial," the stranger an
swered, his thin, bloodless lips curling
up with sneer Here is my license
from the highest tribunal in America" :"
and he handed to the Judge broad
parchment
The trial went on. He suffered the
witnesses to tell their own story, and
allowed the defense to lead off. Ashley
spoke first, followed by Pike and Prem
tiss. The latter brought down the house
in cheers, in which the jury joined,
also.
1t was now the strangers turn. He
rose before the bar, not behind it, and
SO near to the wondering jury that he
could touch the foreman with his long,
bony finger. He proceeded to tear to
pieces the arguments of Ashley, which
melted away at his touch like frost be
fore sunbeam. Everyone looked sur
prised. Anon he came to the dazzling
wit of the poet-lawyer, Pike. Then the
curl of his lip grew sharper, his smooth
face to kindle, his eyes to open, dim and
dreary no longer, but vivid as lightning,
red as fire globes and glaring as twin
meteors The whole soul was in his
eyes; the full heart streamed out of his
face, Then, without any allusion to
Prentiss, he turned short round on the
perjurcd witnesses of Hopkins, tore
their testimony into shreds, and hurled
into their faces such terrible invectives
that all trembled like aspens, and two of
them fed from the Court House.
The excitement of the crowd was be-
coming tremendous. Their united life
soul seemed to hang upon the burning
tongue of the stranger and he inspired
them with the power Of passion. He
seemed to have stolen natures long hid
den secret of attraction. But his great
est triumph was to come.
His eyes began to glance at the assas-
sin Hopkins as his lean, taper fingers
assumed the same direction. He en-
closed the wretch within wall of strong
evidence and impregnable argument. cut
ting off all hope of escape He dug be-
meath the murderer's feet bitches of
dilemas, and held up the slandercr to
the scorn and contempt of the populace.
Having thus girt him about with a cir
Gle of fire he stripped himself for the
work of massacre.
Oh! then it was vision both glorious
and dreadful to behold the orator His
actions, too, became as impetuous as the
motions of an oak in hurricane. His
voice became trumpet filled with whirl
pools. deafening the ears with crashes
of power, and yet intermingled all the
while with sweet undersong of sweet
est cadence His forehead glowed like
heated furnace, his countenance was
haggard like that of maniac, and ever
ard anon he flung his long, bony arms
on high, as if grasping after thunder
bolt.
He drew picture of murder in such
appalling colors, that in comparison hell
itself might look beautiful; he painted
the slanderer so black that the sun
seemed dark at monday when shining
on such monster. And then, fixing
both portraits on the shrinking Hopkins,
fastened them there forever. The agi-
tation of the audience amounted almost
to madness
All at once the speaker descended
from his lofty height. His voice walled
out to the murdered dead, and living
the beautiful Mary, more beautiful ev-
cry moment as her tears flowed faster
and faster-till men wept and sobbcd
like children.
He closed by strong cxhortation to
the jury, and through them to the by
ISLANDERS; the panel, after they should
bring a verdict for the plaintiff not to
offer violence to the defendant, however
richly he might deserve tin other
words, not to lynch the villain, but to
leave his punishment to God. This was
the most artful trick of all, and was cal
culated to insure vengeance.
The jury rendered verdict of fifty
thousand dollars, and the night after
wards Hopkins was taken out of his bed
by the lynchers and beaten almost to
death
AS the court adjourned, the stranger
said:
John Taylor will preach here at ear
ly candle-light.
He did preach and the house was
crowded We have listened to Clay,
Webster and Beecher, but never heard
anything in the form of sublime words
even approximating to the eloquence of
John Taylor, massive as mountain