Then I spoke, and spoke with an intenseness, a directness of purpose

and aim--a stern deliberateness--a fire and a feeling--which

certainly electrified my hearers with surprise, if with no more

elevated emotions. That one look of hostility had done more for

my mind than could have been effected in my behalf by all the kind

looks and encouraging voices of all the friends in creation.

After a brief exordium, containing some general proposition on the

subject of human testimony, which meant no more than to suggest

the propriety of giving to the prisoner the benefit of what was

doubtful and obscure in the testimony which had been taken against

him--I proceeded to compare and contrast its several parts. There

were some inconsistencies in the evidence which enable me to make

something of a case. The character of the witnesses was something

more than doubtful and that, too, helped, in a slight degree,

my argument. This was rapid, direct, closely wound together,

and proved--such was the opinion freely expressed by others,

afterward--that I had the capacity for consecutive arrangement of

facts and inferences in a very remarkable degree. I closed with

an appeal in favor of that erring nature, which, even in our own

cases, led us hourly to the commission of sins and errors; and

which, where the individual was poor, wretched, and a stranger,

under the evil influences of destitution, vicious associations, and

a lot in life, which, of necessity, must be low, might well persuade

us to look with an eye of qualified rebuke upon his offences.

This was, of course, no argument, and was only to be considered

the natural close of my labors. Before I was half through I saw

my uncle rise from his seat, and hastily leave the court-room; and

then I knew that I was successful--that I had triumphed, through

that stimulating influence of his hate, over my own fears and

feebleness. I felt sure that the speech must be grateful to the

rest of my hearers, which HE could not stay to hear; and in this

conviction, the tone of my spirits became elevated--the thoughts

gushed from me like rain, in a natural and unrestrainable torrent

of language--my voice was clear and full, far more so than I had

ever thought it could be made--and my action far more animated,

perhaps, than either good taste or the occasion justified. The

criminal was not acquitted; but both William Edgerton and myself

were judged to have been eminently successful.

The result of my debut, in other respects, was flattering far beyond

my expectations. Business poured in upon me. My old employers,

the merchants, were particularly encouraging and friendly. They

congratulated me warmly on my success, assured me that they had

always thought I was better calculated for the law than trade;

and ended by putting into my hands all their accounts that needed

a legal agency for collection. Mr. Edgerton was loud in his

approbation, and that very week saw his son and myself united in

co-partnership, with the prospect of an early withdrawal of the

father from business in my favor. Indeed, the latter gave us to

understand that his only purpose now was to see us fairly under

way, with a sufficient knowledge of the practice, and assured of

the confident of his own friends, in order to give his years and

enfeebled health a respite from the toils of the profession.




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