The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-11-03

In one o. MS tl4lA4A y
senate Mr.. Hoar made mention th't
Henry Er~kine was the greatest advocate
10 ever spoke the English tongue 10
rnqland. There was something like a
.4rvation here. and no doubt it IVES
mat another advocate who spoke t1e
rnglish tongue III another hcmisphe e
as a greater than Erskine, and MI. ffoa.
vas not alone IN the opinion, Tor Danlel
webster and Matthew Il. Carpehler pc
leved that Rufus Choate was the great
81 advocate who ever spoke the English
rangue anywhere. Chief Justice MAJ
hall thought Pinkney the first of Amer
an LAWYERS. Webster gave first place
10 Jeremiah Mason, and there were capa-
ia Judges who put Webster himself be-
| fore either Of them. But there was no
hspute as to Choate's place among adEo-
rates. Perhaps he was a less gifted ora
Tor than S. s. Prentlss or Thomas /.
Marshall. He was not 80 powerful Oh
| he stump as Thomas CorWin or NLlIarn
A.. Yancey. He was in tho National
House of Representatives, but he was
cyershadoWed there by John QUINCY
ADAMS and George Evans. He was IN the
senate. but there were many greater Sen
lators. His place was IL the courtroom,
conducting a trial at nlsl prlus. Ihere ne
vas splendid. There he was, unrlvaled.
| AndAnd it was Webster who said OF HIM
that as a mere dry lawyer he was equal
to himself as en- advocate.
The one reason why Choatc is not one
Of the first names in American states
msnship is that he had no personal polti-
cal ambition. The thing he desired above
All things political was to see Daniel Web
stnr President of the United States. 1t
had been pestered with Ialf the desire
for political distinction that he was ior
the advancement of Webster, he might
have disputed with John @. Adams tor
second place among New England public
men.
Rufus Choate was born Of genuine Purl-
tan stock, at IsWich, Mass, October /,
1879. He was reared near the sea, of which
he never ceased to- be ~passionately fond.
As it did Garfield, the sea fascinated
Croate's whole being and IN his tender
childhood he read ell sorts of books that
tcld of the sea and the adventures OF sea-
faring men. In his ripper years one CT his
NEST brilliant productions was q lecture
on the sea. He was a precocious boy, and
read over and over again Pilgrims Prog
ress before he was siv. His memory was
pl odigious, like Walter SCOTS or T. B.
M~acaulay's. He was a constant reader
OF the English Bible, and delighted in all
its wonderful literature. At the age OF
q sixteen he entered Dartmouth College.
The great Dartmouth case was heard
in the Supreme Court while Choatc was a
student. and it was that litigation that
determined him to be a lawyer. He heard
some of the arguments IN the State court,
and nc 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 one of the
cCrner-stones the great jurist quarried out
OF 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 Wiz hen Attorney
General in tho Ca binet CT President Mon
roe, and one of the first lawyers of that
or any other period. Every young lawyer,
every young man, lawyer or layman,
ought to read the Life of william Writ
by Kennedy. 1t is the history of a gentle
nan, and no gentleman can read this
story without both profit and pleasure.
It IS worth a trip across the continent
to read that charming narrative of Wits
professional visit to Boston,; how the
Yankees made a social lion of him, ana
letters about it will haunt you as lons