Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 12.pdf/302

 Col. Richard W. Thompson. compelled to face Senator Voorhees, the most powerful criminal lawyer of the day. No higher eulogy could be passed upon his power than to record the verdict of the jury — " one year in prison." If there ever was a man whose brilliancy might place him alongside of Voorhees to divide the honors of Indiana advocacy that man was Major Jonathan W. Gordon. Thompson was pitted against this jury giant in the defence of Dr. Newlands who killed his daughter's betrayer. It is doubtful if Gordon ever exerted himself more earnestly than in the prosecution of this case. His speech to which Thompson responded, deserves a place side by side with Voorhees's masterpieces. Thompson here was in his element. Himself the very embodiment of domestic virtue, clinging to the old Virginia code of morals, he justified the killing of any man who dares assail the purity of innocence. His defence of Newland was successful and his action in that trial recurred to him with ever increasing pleasure throughout his suc ceeding days. Colonel Thompson was the first legal representative Terre Haute ever had acting in that capacity from 1846 to 1848. When in 1852, the Terre Haute and Indianapolis railroad of the Vandalia Line first pierced the Hoosier forest and bade the stage begone, he was made the first general counsel. Asan orator he ranked high but lacked that versatility of expression that characterizes the truly great tribune of popular favor. Unlike the Tom Corwin of General Coburn's description who " was an orchestra complete and not a single instrument," Thompson played but few instruments, but those were perfect. Argumentation, sustained and musically composed and delivered was his forte. He exhausted every subject that he touched. Rich in ideas he clothed them be comingly in an inexhaustible vocabulary. Not only did he speak longer than any Indi ana orator, he spoke with a rapidity that was unexcelled. To quote General Coburn :

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"For the first four or five hours he was a very entertaining speaker but after that he became somewhat prosy." He was not the orator of glittering phrases gleaned from the midnight oil. Precise in his diction he sel dom paints lurid pictures with which to play upon the fancy. He contented himself with the elevating prose of musical proportions and pure diction which charms the pages of Addison and his school. He was as simple and strong in utterance as in action. The exquisite beauty of his discourse consisted more perhaps in the sweet-toned and wellmodulated voice which once heard, reverber ates forever in the memory. In his address at the unveiling of the Morton statue he essayed with brilliant success to analyse the oratorical style of fourteen celebrated orators within the space of five minutes. With that analytic faculty that distinguished his genius, together with the literary brilliancy that adorned his style, he struck off in elegant completeness images of the greatest orators in our history. His speeches always verged on literature. He had aspirations toward literature. He breathed the atmosphere of books. His li brary was his temple. His pen has given four books to the world of letters, all bearing the stamp of literary power. His work on "The Papacy and the Civil Power " while manifestly inspired by an undue fear of the Pope's protruding his official sway into Ameri can political life, deserves to live in the lit erature of ecclesiastic controversy. What ever may have been the spirit in which the subject was approached, the language in which it is treated is always calm, temperate, re spectful and argumentative. To understand the scope of Thompson's mind, his breadth, depth, and versatility; to comprehend that natural greatness which makes him kindred to Gladstone, one must lay aside all preju dice and passion and read his books as well as the speeches that reflect his public career. Disbelieving as I do in the fear which