The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-03-29
IRELAND'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO
 s0kLD'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS
o-ntinued from page AJ

met was Wn C- P1nckney, the most eloquent, perhaps of all our great law yers, not excepting Webster. He was polished, witty, critical, powerful. Words poured forth from his lips like thunder from the clouds, as shot and shell from a forts batteries. To graceful eloquent powers of express sion he added 6iction that was as rich as 1t was copious. He was well known He belonged to one of the most distinguished families. He had been minister to England To some, I might say to many, he seemed ar Eegant, self-assertive, the Roscoe CcEkling of his day. Opposed to hlm was an exile, the most modest of men, Emmet. For two hours or more, af- Ger opening, Pinckney poured a per feet torrent of abuse upon Emmet. It rose to a flood. John Marshall bent his head in shame. Women wept- Eobbine could be heard on all sides Black Dan Webster wiped his great eyes. It is said that when some one Near him remarked that ''we VIII nave an Irish row in the Supreme court to- day., Webster interrupted him to say, s'I will answer for Emmet, get some one to govern Plnckney- The oniy person who seemed unmoved was Em- met He sat, one side, his pale, mar b1e like face resting on his hand, two Elittering, beautiful eyes fixed on his opponent. A tenser feeling had never been felt in that hall. Finally after c brilliant peroration Pinckney sat 4own. Emmet was known only to lawyers. His life had been too mod est for his fame, to have gone very far. When he got up, it was to meet fascinated eyes fixed on him no mat ter which way he turned. Ignoring Pfnckney he took up the case, carried 1t on and on through all the intricate windings of his adversary's sophistry until it was all as plain as the lan- guage of simplicity and the eloquence of truth could make it. He won; and not only won. but was paid in the win ming, so runs the record as was given to me. one of the highest tributes ever paid to the lawyer of the Supreme Court. s'whateuer your decision will be- said he, in concluding for his cn.- ents: whether it confirms those or the lower courts. I am sure as are my clients. that it will be based upon jus 4ice and the law. To your de- cision then, commit the case es far as or my clients clients are are brother Pinckney has seen lit to at tack me personally. That I pass. It Is the custom of my family to leave to posterity. to other times comments and estimates of characters. Mine. leave to my countrymen, and to my adopted countrymen. But, MT Pinckney has seen fit to refer to Ireland and to my people in terms that I may not. must not let pass. He has attacked the Hb- critics of the one, and has cast asper- eions upon fhe other. I have been charged with too great a love Of coun- try. do love my country; Her green to me- like the hills of God, of Para disc The old land, that Ireland loved and left for this land, is to me the fairest and sweetest land in the world. In it's soil are buried those nearest and dearest to me: the mother upon whose breast I slept. at. whose knees kne8; the father of whom I was all of me. Is it wrong, your Honors. for a man to love the land of his. birth And Is the Supreme Court of the United States. the last refuge of the endangered and oppressed. place not unlikesth temple of Apollo at Delphi or the altar railing of the Christian Church. the last refuge for sinners as we'll as Saints. when oppression was approaching. is that place I say. Lib erty's last sanctuary. the place for love of country to be referred to as treach- cry? -But.I pass this by your Honors. I know that my brother Pinckney in his zeal for his clients. forgot himself; forgot the respect due to this place. But I am sure that he will regret when he remembers it's effect upon others. More than that. feel sure that when he bends by his bedside to night to pray, and he comes to that wonderful passage Hsped and learned. as you lisped and learned it at your mothers 8 knee. the passage that has meant so much as a force for morality and jus fice, the passage that asks God to for give our trespasses as we forgive those who treSpaSS against us, he will re- member this hour and the injustice done to one, who never thought of him. except in Kindness, even love and admiration" By that time Pinckney was up out of his seat. He flung his arms around Emmet'S neck. turned to the court. and in voice shaking with emotion. but eloquent beyond words he eaid, "I can't wait, your Honors. for any such moment. Here, now, where and when | have sinned. I must ask x-r.1y Oafharin0 hI1 a all God and this noble man. to forgive me-" And he was forgiven. There was a eobbing then. but the sobbing of men and women stirred in the nob1est parts of their nature. Irish character had triumphed again. The ease of the Mercedes was forgotten. All that men or women saw was the wonderful souls shining out at each other upon the bench. up to God from the eyes of Elm met and Pinckney.
 ROBERT HOLMES.
 Again I ask you to enter a court room. John Mitchell. John Martin, lives: the charge is high treason-The Irish call it patriotism. Silence is calIed-and oppressive is the silence that reigns- Court is being held in the room out of which Robert Emmet marched to the scaffold in 1903, less than half a century previous. Men like Lord Norberry and Major S-rr are in charge Wendell Phillips is in the duulcHCcs HIS OiS IlSdIt OIl ire lOT the men in the dock. An aged man, his head crowned with the frosts of
 more than eighty winters rises. In his hands he holds copy Of the ind ct ment.. This he reads. His voice is like the soft sound of an evening bell. Such a voice said Phillips had never heard. As the man read, he brought out the clear significance of every sentence, of every syllable. When he was done he turned to the court, who looked far more guilty than did the men on trial. ssThe S, timents,' said he, flor which the priS CTS at the bar are on trial for their lives. were the sentiments of
 my childhood I learned them, Iisped them, as a lad, at the knees of an Irish mother" Then he read part of them again. s'These My Lord" he fhundered. were the sentiments of my young manhood. of my old age Why does not your Attorney General arrest me2''. The sentence was "death,'' but only to be changed to exile. The orators fire had its effect; it had found a weak spot in the government They were afraid Who wasLthis man?