Year: 1859

"The extraordinary affiuence and diction
winch Mr.. Choate possesses, is drawn from all
the resources of literature and mems talk,
common and uncommon; from the Bible and
the newspapers; from some Homeric stanza,
and from the chat of our streets; from books
the people love, and books they never heard
OF; simple words, long-legged words, all mixed
mp and stuck together like some bizarre mosa-
ic, showing forth some splendid story, in all
its infinite variety OF hues


"Over all his works a serio-comic cast is
perceptible. In marine criminal case he had
been making lofty flourish, ushering in up
on the stage of his thoughts, like the motley
cavalcades of a circus in one grand entree,
Capt. Perry and the English crown, eternal
SHOWS and the royal enterprise of new en-
pire, and Heaven knows what else, in the
most singular and striking juxtapositiou, his
whole manner dignited, fervent and lofty in
the extreme-when suddenly he gave the odd
est, widest counter-stroke of sentiment we
ever heard, even from him, by turning to a
leading witness who had testified against him,
and who had said in discrimination that
he had got some of his opinions from the
policemen of the whaling city of New Bedford
turning right to him, he brought down roars
of laughter on his devoted head, and utterly
demolished the weight of his evidence by
shouting out the sarcastic and funny inquiry,
pray, what opinions do the policemen of New
Bedford hold on these things? | wonder
what the policemen of New Bedford think of
the great, newly discovered, tranquil sea, en-
circlng the North Pole ?"


"Once, in cheap case in a Criminal Court,
when he wished to tell the jury that the cir
cumstance that the defendants assigned in
insolvency paid but a small dividend al
though the defendant had been a very veal
thy man, was no evidence of fraud on his
part because an estate turned suddenly into
cash, by an assignee Indifferent to the inter-
est of the owner, would waste and net moth
ing like its value,) he contrived to liken the
property melting away under that assignee's
management, to the scattering of magnifi-
cent mirage under the noon-day heat and
rising higher and higher in his mood, as he
saw the twelve pair of eyes before him,
stretching wide, we well remember how in
loud and pealing accents, he swept in glory
through the climax of his imagery and argu-
ment by this astonishing comparison of the
dry goods mans bankruptcy: $50 have l
heard, that the vast possessions of Alexan-
der the Conquerer crumbled away in dying
dynasties in the unequal hands of his weak
years"


''The peroration Of one of his arguments,
as we now recall it from memory, after an
interval of nine years, was an affecting illus
tration of the tender and beautiful traits of
his speaking. 1t was an argument to a sim
gle judge, sitting without a jury, to hear a
libel for divorce. Daniel Webster was on
the other side, and he supported the hus-
bands petition for divorce on the ground OF
the alleged wrong of the wife, Choate de-
Tended the wife on the ground that the prin-
clpal witness was not to be believed, and
that the wife was falsely accused by the hus-
band, who, perhaps, was impatient of the
matrimonial chain. He wound np a close
and clamorous attack upon the witness who
swore to certain improprieties of young
man with the lady, his client, by the vehe-
ment declaration, that if this were true.
''That young man is the Alcibiades of Amer
ica; this he uttered with vehement and i'm
passioned energy, fire in his eye and fury on
his tongue; and then he made a full stop.
he looked into the stern, grand face of Web
ster; he looked at the scowling husband and
the fearful wife he looked at the solemn
judge; his eyes seemed to moisten with his
thought, and presently grave, calm and
plaintive tone broke the deep stiffness, Whom
God hath Joined together, let no man put
aSunder.'


'l 6eseech your Honor. put not away this
woman from this welded husband. to whom
she has been ever true, but keep them still
together, and ere long some of the dispensa-
tions of life, some death-bed repentance of a
false witness giving up her falsehood with
her dying breath, some sickness, some ca
lamity touching this husbands own heart,
shall medicine his diseased mind and give her
back to happiness and love"


"The subduing gentleness and plaintive
beauty of this appeal to the stern image of
Justice, aptly personfed in the single Judge
sitting silently before him, was made more
marked by the bold, strong way in which
Webster who instantly rose to reply, began
his argument. For conscious apparently of
the strong sympathy which Choate had
raised, he launched heavy blow at this
feeling at the outset. He opposed by very
powerful, but unpolished and inharmonious
comparison of the husbands fate, if not di-
vorced, to the punishment recorded in histo-
ry of dead and decaying body lashed for
ever to the living and breathing form of the
condemned criminal. The impassioned pray
er of the wife's advocate, however. was des-
tined to prevail.


"We once heard a lawyer, who had often
heard Mr.. Choate speak, declare that the fin
est exhibition of eloquence he ever heard from
him was in little country office, before a
Judge OF Probate, upon the proving of a will.
1t was winter morning, and the Judge sat
before the fire with his feet up in the most
careless manner. He evidently had a great
contempt for oratory as applied to law, and
was quite resolved to have none of it; so
turning up his head, as he saw the counsel
for the heir looking over pile of notes, he
said, in the most Indifferent way, IF you've
any objections to make, Mr.. Choate, just state
them now The idea of asking Rufus Choate
to 'just state" anything.] Choate began in
the most tame manner he could assume, by
running over few dry legal saws and some
musty and absurd principles of law govern
ing wills. The old judge began to prick up
his ears soon the argument advanced from a
mere legal principle to trifing but telling
illustration of it, couched, however as far as
possible, in legal phraseology the Judge
gave more attention and the advocate en-
forced the illustration by very energetic ar
gument, but not yet fowery; and speedily
the Judges legs came down, one after the
other, his body turned round and his eyes
were fixed on the speaker, and at last, as he
rose in his congenia1&and unfettered field of
argument, and pictureaIw aIwith flaming passion
the consequences to the whole domestic and
social state of New England, if the construc-
ton for which he contended should not be
applied to the wills of the farmers of New
England, the Judge fairly nodded in admir-