Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1894-06-07
THOMAS MASON'S ORATORY.

splendid to a North Car
Dina Genius by a North Carolina
Genius-William T. Dortch, a
Remarkable Man, a Powerful
Jury Orator, and a Fine Tacti-
clan in the Law.
The literateur Shaw says OF
one of his most critical and fer
tile pages, that Grafton is pecu-
liarly the literature of republics.
William T. Dortch, of Wayne
county, was a successful lawyer
in Eastern North Carolina. In
many respects he was a remark
able man.
During the Confederacy he
rose to great distinction. When
the Confederate government was
in it's formative period, he, then
speaker of the lower House IF
the North Carolina Legislature,
was elected to the Confederate
Senate. Until the Honorable
George Davis, of Wilmington,
passed into the cabinet Of Jeffer-
son Davis, he was the Senatorial
colleague of Mr.. Dortch.
Mr. Dortch was unique in the
fact that before juries he Won all
his cases, with exceptions map
preciable in his career as a prac-
titioner. He was not classical
as a speaker. He never used
what is called a fine phrase; and,
while he kept the law under
standingly in his mind, he never
talked law outside of court, ex-
cept to clients, nor did he talk
much law in the court.
[ have heard opposing counsel
begin and trace a principle
through all mutations, tradi-
tional and statutory, of it's exis-
tence, and then, with apparent
pertinence and force, apply it to
the pending issue. In the mean
time, Mr.. Dortch would either
walk up and down the bar,
with his hands behind his
back, or sit with his face covered
by his hands; his fingers thrust
into the depths of his hair.
When the counsel on the oppo-
site side had finished, he seldom
began aspeech, but quickly pick
ing up a book and opening where
he had turned a leaf, he would
approach the court, lay the book
before the Judge, and say
May it please Your Honor,
all that amounts to nothing,
here's the law" or, heres the
decision of the Supreme Court"
Before a jury he was not SO
~laconic, but, withal, compact: in
short, without metaphor OF sim
lie, his t~erseness was a marvel
of forensic speech. He had but
one gesture. Closing his hand,
he would press the thumb over
and against the forefnger, then
accenturate his points by shifting
the railing or table. When his
fist impinged the wood it was at
the nuckles and gave forth a
sound, not very loud: just keenly
resonant.
A few months before the death
of Judge Shipp that jurist told
me that,in his opinion Mr.. Dortch
was the finest tactician who had
ever practiced before him, and
that as a lawyer, strengthful
and successful, he had seldom
known his equal. His powers
remained at the zenith of q sp1en-
did mental and physical man
hood for many years. In the
counties of Wayne, Lemon, Viii
son, Johnson, and Nash, he was
the greatest counsellor and adj
vocate known to the people.
Socially, except with his init
mates, he was somewhat taciturn.
in his speeches before juries
there was a piquancy which
sometimes sharpened to keenest
Of acerbity. But he was a MAI
of deep feeling, though out
wardly repressed.
While the income from his
practlce was for years a very
large sum, he yet gave his time
and talents as largely to charity
as to his own pecuniary behoof
Without personal gain, he woul6
rescue the estates of orphans
and the bowers of widows from
those who had violated the trus-
of legal or natural custodians.
His name belongs to the mem
l ory of his friends, the history O.
} his State and the annals of thu
Confederacy.
l In Goldsboro, beneath a sculp
l tured monolith, in Willow Dali
Cemetery-away from the wran
giles of the law, and where sound
less the echo from crash Of Sen
. ate forum into the ruins o
:, Southern empire-he sleeps a
L all must sleep.
Each year, when the gras
and flowers, symbols of green
Z ness and fragrance of memory
have wilted in the chill Of au
4 tumn, then the quiet snow, fall
ing over dead blade and bloom
types the stainless integrity Q
William T. Dortch, Advocate an
5 Senator.
Some who are not admirers c
O Senator Ransom may not appfe
tciate the expression of my cal
did belief when [ state, that he
mot merely the greatest Twin
North Carolinian as an orator
1.44lo4 he o To lor tho MOI