Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1884 — HENRY CLAY. [ARTICLE]

HENRY CLAY.

A Beminiseenea of the Kentucky Bar Forty Year* Ago. Whatever is interesting in the lives of distingoised men ought to be recorded. These have come under my personal observation, for I stood to him in the relation of pastor during the last fourteen years of his life and knew him well. A number of incidents and anecdotes connected with Henry Clay, some of which, on repeated recital to interested listeners, I have been asked to put in permanent form. The following anecdote is illustrative of his skill as an orator in seizing the occasion to convince a court, 4 jury aud an audience of the justness of his cause before he had made the speech: About forty years ago, when some of the dissatisfied legatees of a Mr. Rogers, in Fayette County, Ky., brought suit to set aside the will which involved the distribution of seventy or eighty thousand dollars, the Hon. John J. Crittenden was engaged by the dissatisfied party to break the will, and Hon. Henry Clay was engaged by the other side to sustain it. I had never heard before of the meeting of these political and forsenic champions in a legal contest, and probably they had never met in an inferior court. The interest of the people was thoroughly aroused as the time drew near for the meeting of these legal gladiators. The trial was held in the Court House of Lexington, the home of Mr. Clay. The room was too small to accommodate one-fourth of the people who had gathered in the city to hear these giants of oratory and the law argue this case, so full of public interest. They crowded into every available spdt long before the opening of the court; and there was no need for the sheriff to call “silence,” for every countenance wore a subdued expression, and seemed painfully burdened with a feeling of uncertainty as to the result of this contest, and was evidently worried at the thought of the possibility that the other great Kentuckian might defeat Mr. Clay in the Court House of his own county. I was favored with a seat within the bar, and very near to Mr. Clay. The assistant counsel made such statements to the jury as the occasion called for, and the closing of the case was left to those two great competitors. Out of the material on which he had to work, Mr. Crittenden made one of the most effective speeches of his life. I have often regretted, for the fame of the great orators of that day, the art of short-hand writing had not been farther advanced, so that some of their most brilliant efforts might have been recorded for the instruction and gratification of men in after times. It is not possible, however, that any printed speech could convey to the mind, the personal presence, the attitudes, the voice, the passion and the magnetic power illustrated in their delivery. During the progress of Mr. Crittenden’s speech, Mr. Clay would occasionally ask his son James, who was associated with him in practice, for a law book, and, finding his authority, he would turn down a leaf for easy reference and lay it down with indifference. When Mr. Crittenden had concluded his argument, a painful, I might rather say a shuddering, stillness pervaded the court room. There seemed written in every countenance the conviction that the case was closed—Mr. Clay’s case was lost; that he could have' nothing to say, and that he was beaten in his own city by his great compeer—Crittenden. He saw and felt the effect that had been produced by his powerful opponent. He saw the deep anxiety which the dead silence indicated, and his friends ready to weep at his apparent discomfiture. With the sagacity of an expert in controversy, he at once determined what to do, and that was to call back instantly the convictions of his audience, the court and jury, and by manner and action to ask them to hold their decision in abeyance until they heard from him. He rose majestically. . I never knew « man that could rise up and sit down with equal dignity and grace. His small, bluish-gray eye expressed the vehemence with which his soul was burning ; his brow was knitted and his under lip quivering with intense emotion; he raised his hand and looking upward, said: “By the help of God! (then turning to the Judge) and the pleasure of this court, before I resume my seat, I intend to show the utter futility and groundlessness of the arguments assumed by my honorable friend in this cause.” In the expression of the words “futility” and “groundlessness,” he threw his arms around toward Mr. Crittenden with a downward gesture and rung them out with a passionate emphasis which thrilled every listener, making them to feel that he knew his power and how to wield it. What an adroit and skillful way of recovering the favor of an audience whose mind seemed made up adversely to the pleader. What an expert in rhetoric to begin his speech in a reverential and supplicatory tone of voice, with “By the help of God” in addressing a court and jury. Its necessity was doubtless seen only at the moment seized upon, and had the desired effect. Every countenance, which before was wreathed in sadness, was now lighted up with joy at the assurance that Mr. Clay would sustain his reputation in this cause, as one of the grandest pleaders and astute lawyers in the land. He based his argument mainly on the premises assumed by Mr. Crittenden, and as he progressed the result was clearly seen, for there scarcely ever was before such a topling over of a beautiful, logical and rhetorical structure which Mr. Crittenden had raised, and which seemed so perfect to the eye of the mere observer to be indestructible. Tbe jury went out and returned in a few minutes with a verdict for the will, and in spite of the orders of the court and its officers the audience rose and burst out in loud shouts of exultation. It was impossible to restrain the people. It was the reaction of the mind from a painful state of doubt and apprehension in reference to the success of a man whom they almost adored, to that of thrilling joy at a grand result. It may be said that this demonstration

was clearly coincident with the feelings of the court, as no one was committed for contempt— Cor. SL Louis Republican.