St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1896-02-21
THOMAS BARTLETT.

iohiS vi unique dCNOCdtc llH-
gers among the fading traditions of
the Vermont bar. Through all this
countryside, where he was known,
Thomas Bartlett is still a name to
coniure with"
He was born June 18. 1908,
studied law with Isaac Fletcher in
Lyndon, Vermont, practiced in this
section for forty years or so, was
sent to congress in 1851, and died
Sept. IL, 1876. Meagre as this
statement is, it will be enough for
our purpose. Even these dates will
have no interest for most of those
who read these pages. If anything
about him can hold their attention
it will be a d%eliEeation of the orator
himself. And a remarkable orator
he certainly was, Deficient in early
education, with many and gross
faults of style when judged by the
purest standards, there is yet no
doubt that, as a jury advocate, he
spoke at all times effectively, and
often with genuine ~eloquence and
power. He had precisely the make.
up of an orator. Large. hearted,
generous, sensitive, sympathetic,
impulsive. woman.like in tenderness,
leonine in anger-laughter and tears
alike at his command, and as for
language-well, he had kissed the
blarney stone, With happier for
tune, with severer training, with
6rmer self-control he might have
been, unless all reports about him lie,
among the greatest orators that
ever spoke. In the first place he had
those physical advantages which
Wendell Phillips used to say. in
speaking of O'Connell, are half the
battle" OF royal height (six feet
four, | think). nobly proportional,
with grave and striking features,
with a halting step an a palsied
arm, infrmities which, as he man.
aged them, really increased the i'm
pressiveness of his bearing,-he had
only to address himself to motion
like as he would speak" to find his
audience half won already in interest
and sympathy. And then, when he
did speak, a voice of unsurpassed
strength, depth and richness did the
rest. Fluent to a fault, almost, yet
carefully discriminating in the choice
OF words, he poured before his hear.
ers, often unlettered though they
were, his wealth of diction, imagery,
allusion, needless of any fear that it
might prove beyond their compre'
hension. This does not mean that
he did not gauge his article to his
hearers. He did. Before a back dis
trict jury in some Justices court, he
could be a match in co%arseness for
Swift or Smollett, or Rabelais him
self. Nothing was too malodorous
for his use, it it was really of use
But he never forgot that men otter
admire most what they possess the
least of,-that in a speech fine Ian
guage and lofty sentiment may
appeal s%trikingly to those who have
formed but a slender acquaintance
with either in everyday life, and hi
rarely failed to fatter his listeners
by a liberal display of both.
How many make the opposite mis-
take. When a New Hampshire poll
tician rose to address the little towr
of Carroll in that state, and being
the worse for liquor, began, Fellow
citizens, have rosen'-then stopped
dimly conscious that something wa,
wrong, his colleague on the platform
whispered impatiently, "D-n it
lake, 60 on. Rosen's good enough
for CARROLL" and he went on. Tha'
was not Bartlett's idea. He would
rather have endorsed Rufus Choate',
reply to the critic who asked hin
how he could expect a commonplace,
jury to appreciate his rhetoric
They appreciate which side it's on
said Choate, land that's enough
AS with Choate, too, the study o
language was his delight. He woulc
turn the pages Of a dictionary by thu
hour.
He came to Isaac F~letcher's office
at Lyndon Corner one morning tc
study law,-the greenest, gawkies'