Trial practice and trial lawyers : a treatise on trials of fact before juries, including sketches of advocates, turning points, incidents, rules, tact and art in winning cases, condensed speeches, a brief summary of the law of actions, evidence, contracts, crimes, torts, wills, etc., etc.

Front matter

Trial practice and trial lawyers :a trea

3 1924 020 162 164

The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library.

Index

ABOUT TRIALS, 62.

ACTION, 3.

ADBOITJSTESS, 47.

ADVOCATES, 246.

ATKIlSrSON", 303.

ARGUMENT, 37.

ARNOLD, 238.

ASSUMPSIT, 194.

B

BEACH, 260.

BLACKBURN, 295.

BLACK, 296.

BLACK, W. P., 280.

BLISS, 266.

BOOTH CASE, 175.

BRADY, 4.

BRADBURY, 299.

BREAUX, 292.

BRIEF, "99.

BROWNE, 308.

BUTLER, 249.

CAMPBELL, 294.

CANDOR AND DIGNITY, 102.

CARLISLE, 289.

CARTER, 294.

Till INDEX.

CAEPENTEE, 20.

CHEEVEE, 304.

tlllCAGO BAE, 2GS.

CHIEF JUSTICE WAITE, 41.

CUIPMAN, 302.

CHOATE, EUFUS, 253.

CIIOATE, JOSEPH, 264.

CIXCINNATI BAE, 282.

CIECUIT COUET PEACTICE, 142.

CIECUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE, 117.

CONKLING, 249.

CONTEACTS, 196.

COUEAGE m COUET, 155.

COEWIN, 21.

CEIMINAL CASES.

CEIMINAX, DEFENSES, 65.

CEIMINAL PEOSECUTIOXS, 63.

CEOSS-EXAMINATION, 70.

CUETIS, 2G4.

D

DAMAGES, 197.

DAVIDGE, 286.

DEXTEE, 268.

DICKINSON, 15.

DICKINSON, DON. M., 303.

DILLINGHAM, 16.

DIVOECES, 172.

DOOLITTLE, 278.

DOUGHEETY, 296.

i:loquence, 6. evidence, 198.

EVAETS, 258.

EIELD, 267.

FINE WOEK, 71. nSHBACK, 235.

INDEX. IX

I'OROE, 56.

FORGERY, 201.

FRAUD, 199.

GENERAL AGENCY, 200.

GENIUS, 84.

GIVE A LITTLE, 152.

GORDON, 308.

GREELEY'S TREE, 99.

GRIFFIN, 303.

H

HANCHETT, 305.

HARRIS, 295.

HARRIS, OF ALBANY, 29S.

HARRIS, IRA, 299.

HARRISON, 307.

HARRISON, 234.

HENDRICKS, 305.

HOADLY, 282.

HOMICIDE, 201.

HUMAN NATURE, 31.

INDIANAPOLIS BAR, 305.

INGERSOLL, 236-288.

IN THE PROCESSION, 232.

J

JOHNSON, 283.

JUSTICE CASES, 132.

JUSTICE STORY, A, 140.

K

KIRCHNER, 221.

X INDEX.

L

LARXED, 302.

LAWYERS' ADVICE, 37.

LAWYERS NOT ON TRIAL, 60.

LETTER WITNESSES, 130.

LIKES AND DISLIKES, 136.

LINCOLN, 19, 250.

LINCOLN, ROBERT T., 271.

LINCOLN, T. D., 283.

LOTHROP, 302.

M

MacLEAN-SCBIPP LIBEL CASE, 221.

Mcdonald. 307.

McSWEENEY, 284.

MANAGING CASES, 37.

MARSHALL AND CRITTENDEN, 9,

MABSTON, 302.

MAXIMS, 173.

MAY ON LINCOLN, 250.

MEMORY OF LIVES, 312.

MERKICK, 287.

MICHIGAN" BAR, 302.

MILLS, 273.

MISER'S HAND, 310.

MUNN IN CLARK MURDER CASE, 241.

O'CONNOR, 257.

ON HIS MERITS, 109.

ONE OPINION, 96.

ONLY ONE WITNESS, 230.

ORDER OP TRIALS, 163.

ORDER IN OFFICE, 25.

P

PARTNERSHIP, 205.

PECKHAM, 298.

INDEX. xi

PECULIAR xiDVOCATES, 15.

PEESOXAL PROPEETY, 206.

PHFLADELPHIA LAWYEES, 205.

POND, 504.

POETLAXD BAE, 299.

POETEE, 259.

PEEPAEING TEIALS, 23.

R

EEMEMBER LITTLE THINGS, 160.

EESEEVE FOECE, 58.

EIGHTS AND EEMEDIES, 193.

EUSSELL, 304.

EYAN, 13.

EYAN, 180.

SEJVIjMES, 291.

SEPAEATING WITNESSES, 43.

SEWAEn, 11.

SHARP PRACTICE, 172.

SHAFFER, 261.

SHIPMAN, 228.

SHORT SAYINGS, 169.

SOLDIER'S VERDICT, 157.

SOUTHERN BAR, 289.

SOUTHERN LAWYERS, 293.

SPECIAL VERDICTS, 83.

STANSBURY, 18.

STATING CASES, 34.

STORRS, 270.

STRANGE DEFENSES, 147.

STRANGE SUCCESS, 168.

STROUT, 300.

SWETT, LEONARD, 271.

TACT AND SKILL, 45.

TAKING WRONG POSITIONS, 79.

XU INDEX.

TALKING TOO MUCH, 106.

TEN TRIAL RULES, 29.

TENDER AND TROVER, 208.

TOTTEN, 287.

TREMAIN, n.

TRIAL ELOQUENCE, 234.

TRIAL LAWYERS, 1.

TRIFLES THAT TELL, 8L TURNING POINTS, 68.

TURNING VERDICTS. 113.

VALLANDIGHAM, 17.

VAN ARMAN, 269.

w

WAITE'S START IN LAW, 41, WASHINGTON BAR, 286.

WEBSTER AND CHOATE, 248.

WEBSTER, 254.

WESTERN JUSTICE, 135.

WHEN TO STOP, 158.

WILLS, 208.

WINNING CASES, 54.

TRIAL PRACTICE.

Chapter I. Tkial Lawyeks

THEIR ART, MANNERS, SiaLL, AND ELOQUENCE.

Trial lawyers, commonly called advocates, generally show a natural genius in lawsuits very early in practice, whether vivid, graphic, powerful, or eloquent speakers, their first efforts reveal their style, and future prospects of success. A real advocate is a genius ; he may be an excellent trial lawyer with but very few of the sraces of an orator, but he can never become a real advocate without natural faculties, warm sympathies, keen knowledge of human nature.

The skill, art, character and arrangement of speeches give them force and effectiveness. Gifted speakers are rhetorical and logical by nature ; their words flow spontaneously and apply to the subject arid the hearer with very little effort in selection. But the greatest advocates have added to nature's rare gifts, the polish of learning and acumen, anecdotes and illustrations.

wilh Sir wealth of excellent quotations to clothe and adorn their arguments.

Good arguments are not made by accident — occasional bursts of eloquence may come without forethought, but speakers like Clay and Everett relied upon careful study and thoroughness of research, and so, in the history of American advocates, the leaders, the trial lawyers of power and influence, have been naturally gifted and. highly cultivated ; their arts of practice are full of interest and instruction to all who follow similar callings.

Within the era of thirty years, and especially since the American conflict, a greater variety of subjects have been argued to juries, and, on the whole, a better line of arguments have been made than the average of any previous years in America. True, in England, there have lived but one Erskine and one Burke, in Ireland, but one O'Connel and one Curran, and in America, a single Webster, a single Choate, but one O'Connor and another Prentiss, whose places are never filled by recent rivals, but, in the main, a succession of brilliant men have brightened the pathway of modern trials with excellent examples of wit, humor, sagacity, and effective eloquence.

With the examples of success in the practice of the advocates mentioned, the world is already familiar. They were like sun-light to their brethren, and need neither comment nor coloring to enhance their brilliancy. But" there are others, more modern and less understood, that seem a closer connecting link with our generation, whose career it is well to remember, and whose well-won victories will form a part of the

ACTION. 3

Trial Practice, discussed in this volume. As all trials :are presumed to be managed by advocates as much as 3)lays are dependent upon their chief actors, it may be well to glance occasionally at some of the past leaders of the American bar, who have been head-lights to their followers, and may remain so for generations. To this end, I will assume to mention whatever is instructive in the career of men in different States, believing that an actual example will be more effective .than mere theories of practice.

ACTIOJSr.

AVhen a great master said that the first, second, and third requisite of oratory consisted in action, he evidently knew that the action of an orator was better understood than their average speeches. The dumb brute can detect his master's look of pleasure or unkindness. The child can comprehend a motion and a gesture, and of all things clear, the simplest and <;learest are looks and actions combined. The native Indians and frontier foreigners use limited words and " wink with their hands," as the Germans say, to convey their meaning. It is not strange that men are muddled on a jury, when even court and counsel often find it difficult to settle a legal controversy.

Actions attract more attention than words. The eye is wiser than the ear and wiser than the head. It is never satisfied with seeing. The curious motion that reveals some new plan of argument, is sure to be aioticed, especially if graceful and appropriate. Besides, gestures are always original ; they can never be studied ; therefore, they are newly born in view of 'an. jury. To secure such attention as to make an audiencefollow with their eyes the upward and onward gestures^ is to be eloquent. Actions are eloquent, often patheticor strong and determined, or faltering and courageous or even weak. They reveal emotions, and express truth or dishonesty. Often has a pause like that of Patrick Henry, in the midst of his greatest of speeches,- been more effective than twenty sentences: "and George the Third," — " may profit by their example."

The power of Judge Ryan's arguments consisted in his command of excellent Ensrlish and force in gesture.,

Webster's remarks of Bunker Hill Monument, " let it rise, let it rise, till it meet the sun in his coming," must have been majestic in sight of a vast concourseto see him rear the great figure in the air before his hearers. If the jury can read from a counsel's actions,, they may read from a witness and a client, and the case is often won or lost by the straight-forward actions of the witnesses and parties, to say nothing of counsel's candor.

BRADY.

James T. Brady was, next to John Van Buren, thegreatest criminal lawyer of New York City. A born genius, equipped with a fine form, size, voice, and engaging manner, brimfuU of wit, humor, anecdote, knowledge of human nature, pathos, and an attractive delivery.

His speeches were bristling with points from end to end. He was fertile in resources, ready in debate^, tolerably well versed in law, highly rhetorical, and.

BRADY. 5

rgenerally eloquent. Mr. Brady was a great after-dinner speaker. Like Tom. Corwin, his natural tendency was toward wit, but his brilliant imagination never ran long in one groove. Engaged in the Sickles-Key •cases, the Cole-Hisoock trial, and many more of great prominence, he became known as a great criminal lawyer more than a general counsel. He had pleasing and -expressive eyes ; a warm, cleanly-shaven face, curly hair, and small mustache, and seemed very young ; in fact, he died in his early prime, but gained the reputa- .tion of a master advocate.

The efforts of Mr. Brady throughout the Empire State were ever pungent and powerful, thrilling iu interest and extremely touching in many passages. His keen ingenuity and mastery of human passions was a marvel to the bar, and an entertainment to every jury before whom he appeared as counsel. He had piercing eyes, and attractive manner, and Avon by strange resources that seemed always his own. He was admired for his wit> and loved for his generous nature. His appeal to the court in defense of General .Sickles, in Washington, will never be forgotten by any who were fortunate enough to be in hearing when he pictured the father's first meeting with his child .after hearing of his wife's dishonor. The statement of Mr. Brady was so vivid and life-like, that General Sickles was completely overcome, and argument was suspended till he could be removed from the courtroom. Seeing its effect, Mr. Brady rested without a word to the jury, and won easily. He died young in years, but ripe in honor as an advocate. I cannot refrain from adding a brief passage of his

TRIAL PRACTICE.

ELOQUENCE.

In closing, Mr. Brady said :

"He seemed," said this distinguished witness, his; own heart filling up and overflowing, as he recalled thescene ; " he seemed particularly to dwell on the disgrace brought upon his child." These words set freethe tempest that had so long been ]3ent up. As they fell from the lips of Kobert J. Walker there occurred here in this very court a scene which from the memories of those who witnessed it never will be, never cam be, blotted out. All eyes were turned to the dock ;; every eye was eager, fixed, dilated, quivering; andi there was he, he who from the first hour of imprisonment down to the utterance of those words, had bornehimself with heroic calmness," suddenly overcome and! racked with relentless grief, stricken down as though he were himself the motherless and houseless child for- Avhom he wept, smitten to the quick and beaten to the dust ; drenched in the gall and wormwood of a tribulation, the depth of which no mortal hand can sound,, and over the subsiding flood of which no arch of peace can ever shine. There was he, the avenger of the invaded household of the more-than-murdered wife, of the more-than-orphaued little one ; there was he, in an appalling moment of parental agony, subdued at last. Talk of the mind diseased — talk of the circumstance* that unhinge, upset, and madden it — talk of the distraction into which a ruthless perfidy had plunged my client and my friend — talk of his condition of irresponsibility when he dealt the fatal blow — talk of this, and with your worrying interrogations strive; to elicit

ELOQUENCE.

the recollection of it from those who, themselves the witnesses of it, who were themselves agitated as they never were before. Nature, heaven, God himself, in his heart-broken image here, became here, in this very court, the witness of the torture by which on that terrible day, the 27th of February, the prisoner was inflamed .

" You beheld the scene of the 12th of April. It was the same as that to which Eobert J. Walker testified. Recall this scene. Think of how the proceedings of this court were suddenly arrested by the sobs of the prisoner when the beautiful image of his poor child was revived by the words of Eobert J. Walker ; how he was bowed to the earth, and how he writhed as though an arrow were buried in his heart ; how, supported by his friend, he was led from this court, his vision quenched in scalding tears, his limbs paralyzed, his forehead throbbing as though it had been bludgeoned by some ruffian, and his whole frame convulsed. Recall this scene. Think of this ; think of the tears you yourselves shed as this stricken victim Avas borne by — think of this — and then may we well say to the jury : if your love of home will suffer it, if your genuine sense of justice will consent to it, if your pride of manhood will stoop to it, if your instinctive perception of right and wrong will sanction it, stamp murder upon the bursting forehead that has been transpierced with the thorns of an aflliction which transcends all other visitations; and for the scandal, the dishonor, the profanation, and, in the end, the devastation which provoked this terrible outburst, this tempest of grief, this agony of despair, as Robert J. Walker described it ; for this incalculable wrong, I say, and for this ir reparable loss, declared by a verdict for the jDrosecution that so many thousand dollars, an appropriation from an economic or swept right off from a lavish jury, can afford a soothing compensation. Do this ; do it if you can, and then, having consigned the prisoner to the scaffold, return to your homes, and there, within those endangered sanctuaries, following your ignoble verdict, set to and teach your imperiled wives a lesson in the vulgar arithmetic of a compromising morality, and let them be inspired with a sense of ■womanly dignity by a knowledge of the value you attach to the sanctity of the household, to the inviolability of the wife, to the security of the hospitable roof, and last of all, but above all, to the inherited tradition of an innocent, but ruined, offspring."

STANTON.

Edwin M. Stanton, the companion of Brady, and great war secretary, was no less artful and logical, and often more powerful in debate, but ojjposite in build, manner and plan of advocacy. He won his eases more by adroitness of management and soundness of reason, than by pathos or appeals to passion. He was the associate of Mr. Brady in the Sickles trial, and ably did his work, fully consenting to drop the defense after the court-scene already described, as a wiser measure than further argument. He was large, tall, and dignified, and never forgot the gravity of an advocate's high calling. His manner was impressive and his methods ingenious. In a famous trial near Cleveland,

MARSHALL AND CRITTENDEN. i>

Sbefore the war, he was given a $1,000 retainer to save ^ young man from the gallows, who had stabbed a rival in a ball-room, after having threatened in the hearing of companions to do so, with only jealousy for a motive. Mr. Stanton's management of this defense was masterly. Reaching the county-seat, he early learned that public sentiment was deeply aroused, ^nd still a few were opposed to hanging in general. He was cool and quiet, said not a word, and noted the evidence carefully. He was opposed by the eloquent statesman and lawyer, John A. Bingham, and knew too well Bingham's power with the jury. The junior advocate concluded a short address for the people, and referred to his associates who should follow. Silence became intense. The court room was packed with listeners. "Proceed, Mr. Stanton," said the court, gravely, and a ruffle went round as the strong man arose and said in measured tones, " I have no remarks to add, your Honor." Bingham was white with rage. This cut him off entirely. He tore his notes in shreds, muttering imprecations at Stanton's trick. Deep disappointment followed. The case was duller now ; the jury said, " Murder in the second degree," and saved the young man's life. But this was Stanton's sagacity.

MAESHALL AND CKITTENDEX

Were another pair of brilliant Kentucky advocates, within this range and period, who stamped their characters on the Southern bar, as lasting monuments of fame and forensic eloquence. They were quite unlike in build and language, yet greatly similar in their managemeut of cases. Tom. Marshall was tall, slim, a Henry Clay build, and sparkled with wit and repartee in jury trials for years ; at times grave, severe, chaste ;. always original and effective ; in manner somewhat excentric ; a full master of human nature ; trained and cultivated, but born eloquent. His speech in the Matt Ward case is a model of rare passages.

He never met the fullness of success in jDolitical life that came to his associate in the AYard trial mentioned,, but it was difficult to say which one, Tom. Marshall or John J. Crittenden, moved the jury most or best pleased' the audience. Mr. Crittenden was a refined, though bold speaker. His dignity as a senator, governor, and statesman followed him in trials, with signal effect, everywhere. But he never rested on such resources. He was well-read, and persuasiveness seemed his art of winning juries. The candor, high sense of honor, rare knowledge of men, firmness, and courtly bearing did much to enforce attention. He had a fine presence,, rich voice, modulated like sweet music. He was clever and candid, and brought tears to his heai'ers by a beautiful quotation read from a German author, where justice, truth and mercy, came and pleaded with th& creator, saying (of man's creation) : " Make him not^ father : he will defile thy temple ; make him not : he will trample on thy law:" and, finally, mercy kneels, and says : " Oh, make him, Father, and I will follow him, and at last bring him back to thee." From this beautiful selection Crittenden will be remembered longafter his statesmanship is forgotten. It is known as Gov. Crittenden's allegory. He and the genial Tom. Marshall are gone, but their eloquence is not forgotten.

SEWARD TREMAIN. IT

SEWAED.

The genius of William H. Seward as advocate, is not easily overestimated. A man of small mold, neither large nor commanding, but intensely original and bold in his thought and action, he needed no counsel and preferred to try his case alone from the beginning. His sentences were measured, but pithy and full of logic. His art was work with a system well directed. He was ripe in learning, courageous in the belief of victory, and zealous in all his undertakings. In speaking, he seemed to grow taller and larger, and expand with his theme to a force hardly looked for in a man of his proportions ; more a statesman than orator, yet once enlisted for a client, his efforts never flagged till victory relieved him of his burden.

It is believed that his conscience prompted his action, as an advocate more than his retainers. Possessed of means and a large clientage, he could command any amount of ideal cases in which to exert his eloquence,, but the poor and rich, friendless and influential, received alike his best legal services. Like Lincoln, his great and successful rival for the presidency, he had a heart that beat for all humanity, and slighted no onewho commanded his talents. Unlike Lincoln, he was elaborate in his efforts before juries and clothed his language in the flowers of classically-quoted learning.

TREMAIN.

Lyman Tremain was another of New York's great, advocates, whose wit and logic, eloquence and skill,, will lono- remain in the minds of his juries and clients.-

Tall and commanding in person, grave and determined in manner, powerful and sublime in reasoning, he embodied all of the rare requisites of a master advocate. He cut his arguments as if out of solid marble, first rude, then shapely, then polished. His thoughts were inspired by great events. His dark complexion and Websterian manner needed an occasion to stir his nature to its real depths. He struggled with his juries like an athlete in an arena, trying first one means, then another, to meet and overcome their opinions. He was an ideal advocate in this. That he mastered the law and facts fully and presented both thoroughly, and yet his style was individual. He had but little of the pathetic, and, unlike Brady and Marshall, he needed thorough preparation and great trials to draw his fire, as soldiers express it. In his defense of Stokes, that is a monument to any advocate, he based his argument ■equally on four grounds ; self-defense, poisoning, probing and insanity. All ably sustained and eloquently urged. His effort was his last of capital defenses. Before this, he had often appeared for the ■people. Not a statesman, he goes into history purely -as a great advocate, and a ripe counselor.

EYAN.

Eyan and Carpenter, long the great rival advocates ■of Wisconsin, attained national eminence during the war. Of opposite dispositions, but natural genius, they reached the summit of fame in jury cases in their native State before Mr. Carpenter became the brilliant ^senator of the "West, and Judge Eyan adorned an hon-

KYAN. 13;

ored seat on his State Supreme Court bench at Madison. Both men were learned. Judge Kyan believed' that every word in our language had an appropriate meaning, and sought through varied dictionaries to search it out. Every faculty great, every passion intense, every undertaking mastered, but himself he could never rule. Erratic, high-tempered, and easily nettled, his career was somewhat marred by his bursts of anger and lack of genial bearing. Born a genius ^ like Webster, his politics differed from the average sentiment of his State, and no open opportunity ever led him to national eminence, like his competitor, the genial Matt Carpenter, whose career was so busy that he even declared he never had time for society. Judge Ryan made a study of the reason of things. The happy harmony of his sentences is noticeable in all his speeches. He revelled in the style of Addison and. Burke. Even in his intensest anger, he was sublime in expressions ; full, ready and exact, without fear, and Avith distinguished ability, never popular. He feared, no man's argument when he was grounded in the right. At the bar he was a giant that crushed all little obstacles. His size was not unlike AVebster's, with a warmer and more impulsive nature. In Webster's seat, at Washington, who knows what a name he may have carved in history. Surely in a court room he never would have feared the greatest of New England's advocates. It was largely his location and lack of a field for fame, that robbed him of glory and renown. He had read and mastered languages. He could reason with the greatest. He lacked no art of eloquence^ neither from fire, fervor, nor beauty of modulation,.

TRIAL PRACTICE.

and yet he passes into history as a great judge, and his speeches are rarely seen in print. As high as $50 a •copy has been offered for Ryan's speeches. His lan- ..guage was always fine and forcible, and often eloquent and beautiful. His feelings were strong and temperament ardent; his manner earnest, often vehement and denunciatory. His power of sarcasm uneqalled. He : abounded in metaphors. His figures were brilliant. iHis replies salient. His a|)peals all powerful, persuasive, and convincing. America has not produced an -advocate with greater command of language. And ifrom this we learn the value of urbanity.

DICKINSON. 15

Chapter II. Peculiar Advocates

Daniel S. Dickinson, of Binghampton, N. Y., was a ^genius in oratory, and a rare advocate. To have •" Dan " Dickinson was almost a victory from the first. His first case was tried about 1384, when he drove a -one-horse vragon into Binghampton, himself barefooted and ragged, with his worldly goods, his wife and child, and little or no means to provide a living. It happened the same day that a suit was set for trial at the hotel where he was stopping for dinner, and a banker, seeing his bright look and poor apparel, engaged to pay him a small sum to help in the case, which he did cheerfully. It was arranged that he should close, and so great was the expectation to hear a barefooted lawyer speak, that men left their shops, children ran away from school at recess, and even the banker had a seat within the railing. Dickinson never made a better effort to reach a jury. He was young, impulsive, full of quotations and warm argument. He talked directly to each juryman, one at a time. He seemed to guess their calling, and opened with the remark that law is the shield of the poor man's rights, ^s well as the rich man's possessions. That a simple

Ifi TRIAL PRACTICE.

change in circumstances ; a death of a partner or a father, might soon scatter the earnings of a lifetime,, and leave dependent children at the mercy of a charitable community. He quoted a verse of Burns that "man was made to mourn." He touched on the means and struggles of earning a living, and turned ta the tenant case only when his voice had reached the real melody of a song, saying : " And this is the house you are to carry from the heads of hi'* children, and this is the family you are turning from their home,, and this is the mercy that our friends would have you show." " But we will not," broke out a juryman, with a resolute look and a face well wet with involuntary tears. Instantly rejoined the speaker, "Then I am done," and cries, "go on, go on," came from thebanker and others, and confusion followed a verdict for the barefooted lawyer, who was made attorney for thebank, and became a statesman.

DILLINGHAM.

Governor Dillingham, of Vermont, was, in his day,, a powerful advocate A man of good presence, medium sized, educated in books and men, thorough in law, and equally so as a real student of human nature. He early acquired fame and fortune, with a fine clientage, in Vermont, where he was long known as Governor Dillingham, and a great favorite as an orator. He had a wonderful memory, a fund of rare humor, a keen, incisive way of cutting legal knots, and happy surprises in his conduct of trials that are always^ attractive. Merchants would close their stores, and

VALLANDIGIIAM. 17

farmers would quit their fields, to hear him. At one time, in an interior town, he was detained over night at a hotel where a lively law suit was in progress — suits were held in bar-rooms then. The Governor grew uneasy, called defendant's counsel aside and asked permission to aid him in closing to th'e jury, which request was granted. Quietly suggesting occasional points, he waited his turn to speak. Addressing the jury as a neighboring farmer who had dropped in to hear the fun, he gradually reached the real pith of the contest, and suddenly burst forth in a volume of such eloquent thoughts, stories, and copious reasons, that the jury sat spell-bound to the close. The plaintiff's counsel, up to this time confident of victory, was so completely captured by the apt words of his adversary, that his reply fell fiat and unnoticed. The jury found a verdict for the gray-haired farmer, whom counsel congratulated as " a mighty good talker, anyway," and later, learned, to their great amazement, that he was the State Governor. His art was in his humannature style of reasoning.

VALLANDIGHAM.

Clement L. Vallandigham was the most brilliant advocate of his day in Ohio, where he had an immense court practice, and excelled as an advocate before juries, in both civil and criminal cases, for a score of years. He was tall, slim, with sharp features, Eoman nose, and eagle eyes, magnetic in tone, power, and expression. His speeches abounded in illustrations, wit, and skillful setting of all the minor details. He was an exhaustive reasoner, a real volcano when aroused in heated discussion. His arms, hands, and body, seemed in harmony with his rapid thought and earnest conviction. He had intuitive genius. He was utter self-oblivion in all his gestures, bitter in speefth, and determined to win all victories. Graphic and dramatic in style, he suited his words and actions to perfect harmony. His sentences were cut in short, spicy sayings, that rang in the ears of the jury, and were intensely powerful and convincing. His art was in his clearness. Every particle of testimony illustrated, while in manner he was as vivid as Choate, and earnest as Seward. He died young, by his own accident, in showing how a woman could shoot herself with a pistol, in a famous murder trial, soon after the rebellion.

STANSBURY.

Henry Stansbury, leader of the Cincinnati bar for years, who died since '75, was a literal Cyclopedia of legal knowledge and acumen. Tall, spare, slim, of the style and manner of Chief Justice Marshall, he possessed, in a marked degree, the genius of reaching a jury by other means than eloquence. He was a pioneer in Kentucky, and lived at Newport, near Cincinnati ; grew wealthy in heavy cases in all branches of legal practice. The sturdy sense, courtly bearing, and natural aptitude for legal discussions, were the forces employed to carry his arguments. Juries believed him. They took what he said as a child would take food from a parent. He was a giant in law, by reason of his commanding abilities *>nd admirable