The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-04-02
"s,,nset" Oox's First Law Case

"sunset" Oox's f1rsS Ia"
Tn The wear 1915 a friendly contes
arose in Cincinnati h;ob ~,
Gentleman and myself, wnicn w. W.
nmntually agreed to have tTieo III ~
court. each employing his " coun
sci. The amount at issue was Pc;
ei.;tt1e Sam Cox, as he was tne1
called. and by which name alone !
Lnaw MIN. was a lad about seventeel
years old. q law student in the oiict
~ Vachei Worthington. He was .
shrawd little fellow, working as al
office bow to pay the expenses OF hls
edncation. and everybody. was M
friend. determined, partly, IN tht
sniriE of fun, and partly to test the
bov's capabilities, to employ him as
m y counsel. I made him well &C.
monainted with the character OF Inc
case. "a trial for debt and The trla'
was to be had before old Judge I. y.
Snellbecker, f,ther Of Col. Shellbeck'
er. of the Theatre Comique. OF This
civ. Little Sam worked like y Iro-
ian to master the proper points SIT.
ting no late at night to consult legal
authorities. in which he had the as
sis,ance of Stanley Matthews. now
Supreme Judge OF the United States;
and at the converting Of the court ne
was ready for action, with legal guns
we'll shotted.
Witnesses were called and exam
ined. MY opponent strove hard,
with his counsel, to win, and little
Sam was not a whit behind In his
efforts. His points, tersely and pre-
cisely presented, met every argument
that was made by my opponent. The
bows dream of ambition nerved him
on in the struggle. When his turn
came to sum up the evidence and
make his maiden plea, h. entered
upon it with a little timidity at first.
but this he gradually ttrew off. uCtil
he came to his spread-eag'e pelora-
ton. As nearly as my memory viii
serve, and with the help of my notes,
it was as follows:
"Your Honor! I demand for my
| client only simple justice! If you re-
fuse him this, you will violate every
rule of jurisprudence-rules AS old as
jurisprudence itself which have
been left undisturbed by the storms
! of fate since the day when Julius
! Caesar planted his foot upon English
soil, after the conquest Of Gaul, since
the day when the first Indian ex-
| plored the western wilds of Ohio.
! Why, sir, refuse justice to my client,
! and YOU will shake the tabernacle of
his soul, and cause him to tremble
| for the destinies of his country.
! Your honor. the case to me is as clear
as the sun at MONDAY. when its
| beams penetrate, like shafts of living
light. down to the bottom of the
! slumbering sea! The effulg-nce of
! that heavenly orb ear fAlhom the
! profoundest depths of the human
heart, and open wide its portals that
we may read its secret workings.
Clear as that crystal sun, the mind
of man penetrates the deepest recess
es of the brain, where are opened to
its prophetic vision thoughts which
enable him to look into the sealed
book of fate, and as he turns over the
leaves of that musty volume-mil-
dewed by the breath OF time lie aves
which have been sealed to the gaze OF
man since creations earliest dawn.
he half expects to hear the voices
of Oracles of the departed ages! Cast
ing his minds eye still backward, he
beholds the trillions and quadrillions
of human beings that have passed
away, and prophetic vision sees the
untold ' illions of billions yet to come
all of whom had, and all will have
brightest hopes and aspirations fully
equal to our own, and all uttering the
universal cry of justice!'
"Justice, your honor, blended with
mercy, should be set in a diadem
high as the midnight heavens, and
surrounded by a halo of the brightest
planets. there in letters of light to
shine perpetually, that the moon and
stars, in their regular rounds, may
pay obedience and how in devotion
te those talismanic words Justice and
mercy
"Sir, the heather Hottentot and
the American savage have those
heavenly attributes engrafted upoE
every principle of life and action.
They behold it in the sun, moon, and
stars; they hear 1t in every wind that
blows. It will be the Magma Charta
of al generations of men. Why, SIR.
inspiration and poetry spring from
thoughts of justice and mercy; for
blended with these is the poetry of
the Heavens, when, in the gorgeous
ness of light, the sun proclaims.
voiced as with a golden Tyre. the pow
ers of the eternal; or at night, when
the moon aud stars give forth, IN sill.
very accents, the samea doring hymn
In these we find the poetry of the
sea, when it speaks in rippled meas
ure or thunders in the voice of its
own resounding pillows. or in green
fields. in waving woods and delight
full gardens.
"Y0ur honor, justice is what / de-
mand from you, that justice with
which Armand de Richelieu ruled
France for fifteen years, when he
held her to his bosom, in the dreadful
strlfes which desolated her held
her there, pillowed upon justice.
Why, sir, thoughts fly through my
brain in numbers like as blades of
grass upon our boundless western
prairies. thickly az the hosts of Luci-
fer when he marshalled hi, forces on
the seashore to attack the angels, in
numbers as many as the autumnal |
that strew the ripping brooks !
my own classic Muskingum."
With this, in part his maiden
the young lawyer held the
audience and court spell bound more
than an hour, aud when it was con-
cheer vi on cheer rang out
through that old justice hall such as
were never heard there before, and
little Sam was the hero of the hour.
His opponent arose and simply
to the court that as Cox had
fairly covered the grounds upon both
sides of the case he had nothing to
say. except that he knew his honor
would decide the Ease by a strict rule
Of justice.
1t required but a moment for the
court to render its decision It was:
Judgment in full for the amount
claimed by the plaintiff and costs to
paid by the defendant The snm
vt issue and costs were ut once paid.
md all present, including the officers
IF fhn II,