Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-11-20
Gales aud Sketthes.
An Unpublished Speech of Tom MARSHALL.

An Unpublished Speech OF Tom Marshall.
never but once heard Kentucky's great
. est natural orator and this occasion so
impressed itself upon my memory as to be
indelible
In 1862 friend said 20 me one day that
, the renowned Tom Marshall was at the
court house. in Chicago. and was shortly
. to make speech in case before the CIR
!, cult Court. fastened to the court room
where found that the quietly-circulated
report of his presence had accumulated a
. large audience. The case was a suit for
malicious SANDER, in which the leader law
! yer for the prosecution was MIR. Martin,
, now resident of Wisconsin. and one OF
the most genial and pleasant gentlemen
one will meet in a weeks travel After the
old English custom. as we'll as the custom
which prevailed to some extent IN early
DAYS ia our Eastern States, Mr.. Martin
usually bore into court with him green
bag, in which he carried his briefs and
such law books as he bad occasion to use
. in the trials of his cases. OF this bag
more anon.
As entered the court room Mr.. Martin
was concluding his speech for the prose
cution. It appears that Marshall had
Just been introduced to the court as
assistant counsel for the defense. few
minutes before Martin began his speech.
1t was understood that the great kentucki-
an had been upon prolonged LARK,
and had volunteered in this case as mere
freak, and to furnish spor for a number OF
friends. Martin was evidently discon-
cerfed by the appearance OF such an antag
onst, and found him making depreci
al. al
gentlemen" he said, against being daz-
zled by the briliancy of the celebrated
orator who is to follow me. | have
endeavOred to present to you the facts in
this case; and it behooves YOU to be faith
tul to your oaths, and keep your mind up
on the truth, so as not TO be seduced
therefrom by the poetry that you are about
to hear
Marshall arose. He was then about sixty
years of age and the intensity with which he
had lived. made him look older. He was
very TALL with massive frame, and an eye
that no age could dim, glazing out from cav
ernous sockets. He raised his spectacles up
on his great forehead, and looked from one
iurvman to another until he had surveyed
the whole group. When he began speak
ing his voice was so husky that he could
hardly be heard by those nearest to him.
He had severe cold, which had settled
upon his lungs. and seriously impeded his
speech throughout; and yet before he had
concluded |, for one, forgot there was any
impeachment to hi eloquence. From notes
taken at the time reproduce as near as
possible the substance of his opening re-
marks:
Gentlemen of the jury, have come
before you, a stranger in strange COM
munity. to plead the cause of poor man
against a conspiracy to fix a stigma upon
his character. and to crush him with the
weight of an enormous amercement, or
to incarcerate him in a penitentiary dun
geon. All unprepared as | am, | appear,
by the courtesy of this court, to make such
poor plea as may in behalf of fellow
citizen of our common country where
speech should be everywhere as free as
the air we breathe.
1.-The learned gentleman who has pre-
coded me has warned you. my country
men, to beware of the poetry that should
introduce. Gentleman of the jury. God
! pity me. am no poet would to Heaven
that were! have never made one true
rhyme So much the worse for me!
have never drunk of the Heliconian spring.
But, gentlemen, such is the strength OF
this case, and such is the wrong attempted
to be perpetrated upon my client, that it
might well draw tears from the most cal
, lous heart; and should |. stirred by its
, thrilling interest, be moved to words of
, fervor. pray you to remember that what
the distinguished gentleman may call
, poetry, may nevertheless be the burning
t truth.
; Truth, gentlemen, is coeval with poe
I try-b0th are immortal eternal; and it
grieves me that member of the profess
sion in which it is my pride to be enrolled
and the pleasure of my life to serve. should
seek to discover these twin-sisters.
, "When the gentle bard OF Avon tuned
. his harp to strains that echoed to the
1 farthest ends of earth and rang down the
listening and enraptured ages. did he not
70 crystalline in his undying verse the truths
: of human life, and record in truths own
essence the beating of natures rhythmic
r. heart to be read till time shall be no
( more ?
( when Milton the blind prophet of the
federation of humanity, sang such strains
as woke the conscience of great England.
what but clarified, eternal. omnipotent
truth did he utter, sweet though were his
medSuTes WIFI tHe lIdSTdllC9 " tHe SOIueSb
O Italian airs?
"And. when David sang in the courts of
0 Jehovah-Jireh. or when Miriam went forth
e with timbrel in hand to shout over Egypt's
dark sea the freedom of her people, did
/ either of them sing anything but living.
t breathing, glowing heavenly truthp
i when the morning stars sang together
for Joy, twas the first song of time, the
primal poem of the universe. Thus you
Q see that the Almighty began his grand
: Providence with choral harmony. which
has continued to this hour. in the rolling
seasons, in the requiem of heaving sea
and breaking surf, in the carols of birds.
and in the murmurs of Iippling streamsI
n The gentlemen should have risen as
5 did, this morning. and gone out to see the
n glorious orb of day mount up the horizon
d from out of the bosom of your sublimelv
, beautiful lake; and ask him to gaze, on
n the morrow, upon that Respondent and
majestic scene, and then tell me. though
it be poem repeated by beneficient
a Allfather in his infinite loving kindness
= day by day, for the comfort and delight of
the jewellers in this rarely beautiful CITY.
if be any the less radiantly impressive
truth