Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/47

 EULOGY OF DANIEL M. CHRISTIE.

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��counter. Entering the lists on some oc- casions with some of the leaders of the American bar, they found him a foeman worthy of their steel, and in the encoun- ters which ensued he was never vanquish- ed. Though so apparently timid and hesitating at the outset, he had immense combativeness, and used to say that he loved the smell of battle. When once launched upon a trial, he was a great ship of the line moving into action and bearing down, black and frowning, upon his adversary, with all sails set, decks cleared, and every gun shotted to the muzzle. At such times he was a specta- cle of grandeur, and I appeal to your Honor, and everyfgentleman of the bar who has ever been put to the trying test of being his antagonist, that when he seated himself for the struggle, you always saluted him with homage, and felt that though he might be out-uianceu- vered or worsted by dexterity and adroit- ness in avoiding a close encounter, it were a hopeless struggle for any adver- sary who should come within range of his terrific broadside.

Mr. Christie was less eloquent than many men in the ordinary acceptation of that term. But as an advocate before j uries,and before the full bench upon great questions he was, nevertheless, great and almost invincible. He had not great read- iness, or fullness, or felicity of speech — he did not command a very copious vocabulary — but he had words enough to express the most vigorous thoughts and the most accurate shades of meaning. His great strength lay rather in his skill- ful presentation of strong points, and his logical and sinewy argument, simple, direct, ordinarily unadorned by any imagery, and free from any flights of fancy. He took no circuitous routes, but pressed straight home to his object with a pace so steady and strong and sustained that it could not fail to bring him to the goal. He had great power of sarcasm and invective, and had a keen sense of the ludicrous, which seemed to me to be a late outgrowth of his mind, and to grow keener and sharp- er as he grew older. Many anecdotes might be told illustrative of this quality, but the bench and the bar remember

��vividly, I am sure, some of his later efforts on occasions of importance, when this mighty man would not only .lift the Court, and jury, and spectators, up to his clear and luminous view of the law and the justice of his case, but amused and sometimes convulsed all who heard him by his quaint humor, by curious turns of expression, and grotesque comparisons and illustrations, of the wit of which he seemed to be sublimely unconscious. But he never put himself on parade. These were all tributary to the stream of his argument and his purpose, and flowed in and along the channel of his reason and logic, like flowers on the bosom of the Mississippi.

The degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon Mr. Christie by his Alma Mater in 1857; and his acknowledged eminence as a jurist is abundantly attest- ed by the offer on two occasions of the Chief Justiceship of this Court — a Court which can boast that a Smith, a Richard- son, a Parker, and a Perley have occu- pied its highest seat. But he declined judicial station, although none can doubt that he would have filled and adorned it with consummate learning, wisdom and integrity. In fact, from all we know of him, we must believe him to have been equal to every possible occasion a lawyer might be called upon to meet, and I think it would be the uiianimous opinion of the profession that he would have been as great and conspicuous in any forum as he was here.

A glance at him showed him to be no ordinary man. His personal appearance was noble and commanding. His im- posing dignity, his austere demeanor, "his look, drawing audience," his Jove- like head, and towering brow, singled him out as a king among men. As for myself, whatever the opinion of others may be, I long since concluded that my knowledge of other men had furnished me no measuring lines wherewith to estimate his full intellectual strength and power.

Mr. Christie was bred to the Common Law, and his admiration for that noble science, for its severe methods, its intri- cate reasonings, and for its august uses and capacities as a means of determin-

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