Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 10.pdf/38

 Some Virginia Lawyers of the Past and Present. persevering application, without which that learning is not acquired. He was, indeed, woefully deficient as a lawyer; so little ac quainted with the fundamental principles of his profession, and so little skilled in that system of artificial reasoning on which the common law is built, as not to be able to

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One of his most eloquent early speeches was in behalf of a Spanish captain whose ves sel and cargo had been libelled. No jury could resist him. Wirt says : " He infused his voice into them, mixing its notes with their nerves. His language of passion was perfect. It was a sweet revery, a delicious trance, and

GALLERY OF PORTRAITS IN CAPITOL AT RICHMOND.

see the remote bearings of the reported cases; and hence it happened with him not unfrequently, whenever he did attempt to argue a question of law, to furnish authori ties destructive to his own cause. Yet he never did and never could vanquish his aversion to the systematic study of the law. On questions turning on the laws of na tions, and maritime law, whose basis is natural reason and justice, his vigor of mind made him very great."

his defense of criminal causes was his great professional forte." It is told that once when he had been speaking more than two hours some one asked Major Joseph Scott, the marshal, how long the argument had lasted. "Fifteen minutes," was the prompt reply, and it took the evidence of several watches to convince him of his mistake. In 1765 he was elected a member of the House of Burgesses of Virginia and in structed to oppose the Stamp Act and his