Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1884-12-11

WHlCu H0 hdu llNcO maze IllIu lOOh OluoIs
He was very tall, with a massive frame,
and eyes that no age could dim glaring
from out OF cavernOus sockets. He raised
his spectacles from his great forehead,
and looked from one jurymaa to another
until he had surveyed the whole group.
When he began speaking 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 con-
cluded, /, for one, forgot there was any
impeachment 70 his elOquence. From
notes taken at the time / reproduce as
nearly as possible the substance of his
opening remarks:
Gentlemen of the jury, have come
before you, stranger in strange com
munity, to plead the cause OF poor man
against conspiracy to fix stigma up
on his character, and to crush him with
the weight OF an enormous amercemeht
or to lncarcerate him in peRitentiary
dungeon. All unprepared as / am, l ap-
pear by the courtesy of this court to
make such poor plea as l may in behalf
of a fellow citizen of our common e0un-
try. where speech should be every where
as free as the air we breathe.
"The learned gentleman who has pre-
coded me has warned you, my cOuntry-
men, to beware of the poetry that l
should introduce. Gentlemen of the ju-
ry, God pity me, am no poet! L would
to Heaven that l were! | have never
made one true rhyme. So much the
worse for me! l have never drunk of the
HelicOnian spring. But, gentlemen,
such is the strength of this case, and
such is the wrong attempted to be perpe-
trated upon my client, that it might well
draw tears from the most callOus heart;
and should l, stirred by its thrilling in
terest: be moved to words of fervOr. | pray
you to remember that what the dlstin-
guished gentleman may call poetry may
nevertheless be the burning truth.
Truth, gentlemen, is cOeval with
pOetry-EOth are immortal, eternal; and
it grieves me that member of the pro-
fessiOn in which it is my pride to be en-
rolled and the pleasure of my life to serve
should seek to discover these twin sis
ters.
"When the gentle bard of Avon tuned
his harp to strains that echoed to the
farthest end of earth and rang down the
listening and enraptured ages, did he
not crystalline in his undying verse the
truths Of human life. and record in
truths own essence the beating of ma
lures rhythmic heart to read till time
shall he no more?
"Wh'n Milton, the blind prophet Of the
fedora ion of humanity, sang such
strains rs woke the conscience Of great
England, what but clarified, eternal, ON
nipotent truth did he utter, sweet though
were his measures with the fragrance Of
the sOftest Italian airs?
and, when Dayid sang in the courts
of JehOvah-Jireh, or when Miriam went
forth with tlmbrel in hand to shout ever
Egypt's dark sea tho freedom of her peO-
pie, did either of them sing anything
but living, breathing, glowing, heavenly
| truth?
"When the morning stars sang tOgeth-
er for Joy twas the first song of time,
the primeal poem Of the universe. Thus
you 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 heav-
ing sea and breaking surf. in the carols
of birds, and in the murmurs Of ripping
streams.
"The gentleman should have risen as l
| did, this morning., and gone out to see
the glorious orb Of day mount up the
horizon from out of the bosom of your
| sublimely beautiful lake, and ask him
TO gaze, on the morrow, upon that splen
did and majestic scene, and then tell me,
though it be poem repeated by ben
eGcent ll-father in his infinite loving
kindness day by day for the comfort and
delight of the jewellers in this rarely
beautiful city, if it be any the less a ra-
| dainty impressive truth.
MAY God in his mercy, and may you,
| gentlemen, in your kindly cemmisera
tlOn forgive my learned opponent for his
sacrilegious onslaught upon the divine
| gift of Heaven to fallen world; and
may he long liye to repent him of his so
great wrong. 1t may be that In the mys-
teriOHs depths of yOnder green bag the
profound and original counsel for the
prosecution may have found some prece-
dent for the assumption that poetry is
inimical to or incompatible with truth;
but neither in my collegiate curriculum
nor in the course of professional prac-
tice through life which, as You see, Is
wearing toward its close, have / ever be-
fore knewn such position to be seri-
ously, maintained in the presence of an
intelligent jury or of any other tribunal.
And assure the gentleman that if he
shall fucced in establishing this new le-
gal maxim need of fame Is in waiting
for him beside which the bays that en-
circle the heads of a Bacon. LittletOn,
a Coke, Blackstone, or Story, will
wither and shrivel, and leave him and
his green bag alone and unapproachable
in their supreme immortality"
And Marshall then proceeded to re-
view of the points in the case as he had
been enabled to gather them, in the
course of Mr.. Martins speech, from the
counsel for the defense, and one by ono
he attacked the arguments of the gen