Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 19.pdf/296

 JUDGE WILSON — NATION BUILDER Apropos of this last remark, his friend Thomas Smith, a member of the Continental Congress, in a letter speaks of his looking through his spectacles,1 "like a surveyor through a compass," adding jokingly, for the letter was addressed to Wilson, "with a good-natured smile upon your countenance, so that all the house might see what excel lent and white teeth you have." The disin terment of Wilson's remains, at which the writer was present, disclosed that the last intimation had substantial foundation in fact; that the occlusion of the upper and lower dentures was remarkably perfect; and that the lower jaw, while well proportioned and not objectionably obtruding, was un usually long and massive, with the chin very broad and square, all betokening that strength and determination of character which, in Wilson, were such dominant traits. The remnants of the coffin showed the inside measurement to have been six feet one inch in length. His wealth of hair still retained the bright auburn hue of the typical Scot, and was bound in a cue, after the manner of his time, though in life it was no doubt often well powdered, if we may judge from the snow whiteness of the hair in the miniature,2 painted from life and reproduced as the frontispiece of the January issue. The portrait of Wilson by Trumbull in his The Congress Voting Independence, now in the possession of Yale University, and in which Wilson's is one of the five full length figures, shows a man of great power and personal vigor, with determination stamped on every line of face and figure. This painting, so superbly engraved nearly a century ago by Durand, and extensively distributed, is far superior to the replicas, one in Hartford and the other in the Capitol at Washington, in both of which the por traiture is most defective. 1 They were very large with wide, heavy frames and are now in the possession of Mr. Israel W. Morris, of Philadelphia. ' Now in possession of the Montgomery family of Philadelphia.

269

William Rawle, the elder, in an address delivered in 1824, declared that Wilson's views on the great questions of the day "were luminous and comprehensive," and that "his knowledge and information always appeared adequate to the highest subject, and justly administered to the particular aspect in which it was presented." He also said: "His person and manner were dignified; his voice powerful, though not melodious; his cadences judiciously, though somewhat artificially regulated. His discourse was generally of a reasonable length; he did not affect conciseness nor minuteness; he struck at the great feature of the case, and neither wearied his hearers by a verbose prolonga tion, nor disappointed them by an abrupt conclusion. But his manner was rather imposing than persuasive, his habitual effort seemed to be to subdue without conciliat ing, and the impression left was more like that of submission to a stern than a humane conqueror." On the other hand, Dr. Benjamin Rush, who served with him in the Continental Congress and who knew him intimately, declared that "he reasoned, declaimed, and persuaded, according to circumstances, with equal effect;" that "his mind, while he spoke, was one blaze of light;" and that "his eloquence was of the most command ing kind." Francis Hopkinson bore simi lar testimony in a letter to Jefferson, declar ing that "the powers of Demosthenes and Cicero seem to be united in this able orator." Still another contemporary, Alexander Graydon, in his celebrated Memoirs, recorded that "he never failed to throw the strongest light on his subjects, and seemed to flash rather than elicit conviction syllogistically," and that " he produced greater orations than any other man I have ever heard"; and his great contemporary, Robert R. Livingston, of New York, wrote to Jefferson that his oratory in the Pennsylvania ratifying con vention "combined information, logic, and eloquence with resistless effect." "His voice," records Wain, "was powerful," and "its cadence perfectly modulated."