The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-11-01
RUFUS CHOATE
Orator and Advocate

In one Of his admirable orations in the
Senate Mr.. Hoar made mention that
Henry Erskine was the greatest advocate
who ever spoke the English tongue ~
England. There was something like a.
reservation here, and no doubt it was
that another advocate who spoke the
English tongue in another hemisphere
was greater than Erskne, and Mr.. Hoar
was not alone in the opinion, for Daniel
Webster and Matthew H. Carpenter be-
. eved that Rufus Choate was the great
est advocate who ever spoke the English
tongue anywhere. Chief Justice Mar
shall thought Pinkney the first of Ameri
can lawyers. Webster gave first place
to jeremiah Mason, and there were capa-
BILE judges who put Webster himself be-
fore either of them. But there was no
dispute as to Choate's place among advo-
Gates. Perhaps he was a less gifted ora
tor than S. S. Prentlss or Thomas f.
Marshall. He was not so powerful on
the stump as Thomas Corwin or William
L. Yancey. He was in the National
House of Representatives, but he was
overshadowed there by John Quincy
Adams and George Evans. He was in the
Senate, but there were many greater Sen
ators. His place was in the courtroom,
conducting trial at nisl prius. There he
was splendid There he was, unrivaled.
AndAnd it was Webster who said of him
that as mere dry lawyer he was equal
to himself as an advocate.
The one reason why Choate is not one
OF the first names in American states
manshp is that he had no personal polti-
cal ambition. The thing ne desired above
all things political was to see Daniel Web
ster President of the United States IT
; - had been pestered with half the desire
for political distinction that he was for
the advancement of Webster, he might
have disputed with John @. Adams for
second place among New England public
EIen.
Rufus Choate was born Of genuine Puri-
tan stock, at Iswich, Mass, October 1,
1923. He was reared near the sea. of which
he never ceased to be passionately fond.
As it did Garfield, the sea fascinated
Choates whole being and in his tender
childhood he read all sorts of books that
told of the sea and the adventures of sea-
faring men. In his ripper years one of his
NEST brilliant productions was lecture
read over and over again Pilgrims Prog
ress before he was siv. His memory was
piodigous. like Walter Scott's or T. B.
Macaulay's. He was a constant reader
of the English Bible, and delighted in all
its wonderful literature. At the age OF
sixteen he entered Dartmouth College.
The great Dartmouth case was heard
in the Supreme Court while Choate was a
student. and it was that htiga ton that
determined him to be lawyer. He heard
some of the arguments in the State court,
and no doubt his young and glowing mind
followed the pleas of Webster. Mason,
Smith, and Hopkinson for the college, and
Writ and Holmes for the university, with
the intensest solicitude, and we may be
sure that Choate, boy and man, rejoiced
in the Judgment Marshall gave in that
momentous litigation that is Ole of the
corper-stones the great jurist quarried out
o. his robust understanding and laid IN
the grand edifice of the government of the
United States. In 1921 Choate went to
Washington to study law, and entered the
office of William Writ, then Attorney
General in the Cabinet OF President Mon
roe, and of the first lawyers of that
or any other period. Every young lawyer,
every young man, lawyer or layman,
OugHJ u Itdu Tue I<iIC VI w lilidiii WIZ
by Kennedy 1t is the history of gentle
man. and no gentleman can read this
story without both profit and pleasure.
1t is worth a trip across the continent
to read that charming narrative OF Wirt's
professional visit to Boston; how tie
Yankees made social lion of him, and
how he got into their hearts. One of his
letters about it will haunt you as Ions
as YOU have a memory. Salmon P. Chase.
another young New Englander, studied
law in the office of Mr.. Writ.
At Washington Choate saw Marshall
preside on the bench and heard Pinkney
plead at the bar. Of the latter, he said:
HE is hit !. 6..6 30 80 SO 90. 6. 6
"He is the most consummate master OF
manly and exuberant spoken English l
ever heard" In 1923 Choate was admitted
to the bar. and opened an office at DAN
pers, a town he represented in both
hranchers of the State legislature before
he was twenty-seven. 1t is curious to re
late that he was discouraged and conteni-
plated failure in the profession of which
he was to be splendid an ornament.
There is story to the effect that he
gained confidence by his successful man
agement of case in which was involved
something about dog. 1t was said that
he treated the QOg ike ~ W DIS an clepHeiut
or lion. and the trial justice as though
h. was chief justice.
At the age of thirty Choate was return
ed to the Twenty-second Congress from
the Salem district. and among his col
leagues from Massachusetts were John
Quincy Adams, Edward Everett, and John
Davis. From other States were George
McDuffie, George Evans, James K. Polk,
and Thomas Corwin. The tariff was
leading issue, and Mr.. Choate discussed
that question in a speech that attractct
great attention and received great APP
plause His elegant presence, classic teat-
ures. beautiful voice, and wonderful dc
ton charmed everybody, while his cosent
reasoning made him foeman worthy
anybodys steel. The celebrated Ben
Hardin. of Kentucky, was at that tire
a member of the House, and wing, as
was Choate. He told that 1t was his
r,.1o IN npyer hear a SDeeCh that wa