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The Green Bag

Referring to the counsel who had pre ceded him in a long and tiresome speech, Marshall characterized him as suffering

badly from that lately discovered disease,

To read any of Ingersoll’s better speeches

is to be transported into a fairyland of sentiment and revel amid multiform beauties of thought and expression. His

“dementia oral, the insane desire to hear

arguments are seldom elaborate, but are

oneself talk." It was just such a speech as would have been most effective in the

as a rule clear, simple, terse and accom

panied by a sarcasm or a poetic senti

prosecution of any great criminal case, and deserves to rank among the greatest

ment that at once clinches and conﬁrms their effect. While arguing one case he

masterpieces of American oratory.

referred tauntingly to the poor spelling

Another great orator of those times was Jere Black, the Pennsylvanian,

of a witness whom he had charged with

the forgery of a will.

whose oratory was virile, strong, full of

lawyer on the other side came to the

wit and sarcasm, and was generally effec

defense of the witness with the remark that such evidence was not convinc

tive in driving opponents to shelter, although it laid him open to terrible excoriation on one memorable occasion when he engaged in a magazine contro versy with Ingersoll. There were few men, however, if any, who could with

Instantly the

ing, and that he “had done worse"

himself. “You have done worse," replied Inger soll, “but you have never spelled worse."

pressed others with his deep sincerity, while as on all other occasions his speeches were glowing and brilliant. The victories

After this, he was more or less free from interruption. Ingersoll possessed in a high degree this faculty of rising with extemporaneous power to the emer gencies of debate, and it is a pity that his life was not so shaped as to bring into fuller prominence his capacity for these intellectual jousts. To one who wishes to read the great

in the Star Route trials and the Davis

speeches of which this article treats, the

will case, as well as several other notable

mean truth will readily appear that no adequate collection of great legal speeches has ever been made. Judge

stand him in the glittering clash of wits in an oratorical duel in court. Ingersoll’s chief power as a lawyer lay in his oratory. He could work wonders

with a jury.

Always earnest, he im

performances, are tributes to his power over men. Many of these speeches have

been preserved by Mr. Farrell in the

Donovan’s Modern Jury Trials is a

famous Dresden edition of Ingersoll’s works, perhaps the best edition, from the

ﬁne and discriminating work, but not complete enough. Snyder's collection of great legal speeches suffers from the same fault. Some publisher should

bookmaker’s standpoint, ever published of the works of any orator. Ingersoll, in his excellences as well as in his faults, was closer to the people than most any of our orators of the North, who have, as

a rule, been rather too academic for public speaking before mixed crowds.

open the hidden wealth of American legal oratory and give it to the public in the masterpieces of the masters from every section of our country. Here's our best to him who tries.