He found
the place where the roads diverged, got the Court's face set
in the right direction, and then stopped. He would argue
in ten or fifteen minutes a point where some powerful antagonist
like Curtis or Choate would take hours to reply. I once told
him that his method of argument was to that of ordinary lawyers
like logarithms to ordinary mathematics. He seemed pleased
with the compliment, and said, "Yes, I know I argue over their
heads. The Chief Justice told me he wished I would talk a
little longer." I do not know that Bartlett ought to be reckoned
among orators. But he had a great power of convincing, and
giving his intellectual delight to minds capable of appreciating
his profound and inexorable logic.
Edward Everett seems to me, on the whole, our best example
of the orator, pure and simple. Webster was a great statesman,
a great lawyer, a great advocate, a great public teacher.
To all these his matchless oratory was but an instrument and
incident.
Choate was a great winner of cases, and as relaxation he
gave, in the brief vacations of an overworked professional
life (he once defined a lawyer's vacation as the time after he
has put a question to a witness while he is waiting for an
answer), a few wonderful literary and historical addresses.
Pages:
1341
1342
1343
1344
1345
1346
1347
1348
1349
1350
1351
1352
1353
1354
1355
1356
1357
1358
1359
1360
1361
1362
1363
1364
1365