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=_292._= WIRT'S STYLE OF ORATORY.
He became, in the maturity of his career, one of the most philosophic
and accomplished lawyers of his time. In earlier life, he was remarked
for a florid imagination, and a power of vivid declamation,--faculties
which are but too apt to seduce their possessor to waste his strength
in that flimsier eloquence, which more captivates the crowd without
the bar, than the Judge upon the bench, and whose fatal facility often
ensnares ambitious youth capable of better things, by its cheap applause
and temptation to that indolence which may be indulged without loss of
popularity. The public seem to have ascribed to Mr. Wirt some such,
reputation as this, when he first attracted notice. He came upon the
broader theater of his fame under this disadvantage. He was aware of
it himself, and labored with matchless perseverance to disabuse the
tribunals, with which he was familiar, of this disparaging opinion. How
he succeeded, his compeers at the bar have often testified. None amongst
them ever brought to the judgment-seat a more complete preparation for
trial--none ever more thoroughly argued a case through minute analysis
and nice discrimination of principles. In logical precision of mind,
clearness of statement, full investigation of complicated points, and
close comparison of precedents, he had no superior at the bar of the
Supreme Court.
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