The Green Bag
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ercise of rhetorical skill in oral dis
isolated in the world of;experience.
course;
And before a just and proper judgment can be reached, his cause must be weighed according to standards of conduct in general. To thus correlate the facts of a case, and explain their
eloquence."
And
when
we
examine the speeches of famous advo cates we find that they produced their efiects not by wandering from the facts but
by
them.
marshalling
and
correlating
Cicero in the oration against
Verres brings forward instance after
instance of the depredations of the Governor of Sicily. Erskine did not procure the acquittal of Lord George Gordon, Horne Tooke or Thomas Hardy,
by appeals to the jury to disregard the facts, but by using the facts to demonstrate that the accused were not guilty. Take also the celebrated defense
of Judge Wilkinson by Seargent Prentiss. With marvellous skill he passes in review the facts, thereby establishing
meaning in relation to one another, and to human experience in general—to do this well, is oratory. And the lawyer who can do this will not in the argument of questions feel at loss if he cannot find an exact precedent. He will study the principles of the law in order to
ascertain its aim. Then he will examine the principles of philosophy, of sociology, of political economy, to find whether a given decision would accomplish the end which the law has set for itself.
the innocence of his client.
And when he states a proposition he will not be forced to base it upon his
Burke and Sheridan, one the most splendid, the other the most fervid of
bare assertion, but can establish it by reasoning and enforce and illustrate
orator's, in their speeches against Hast
it with the facts of history and literature. Erskine became Lord Chancellor of England; yet his fame rests upon his
ings, denounce him in the most bitter terms, but always upon the evidence before the court. They do not, it is true, confine themselves to a mere
recapitulation of the testimony. If an advocate did so there would be no use in wasting time to hear him,
for
the triers could
depend
upon
their own recollection, or in the case of a jury they would have the
successful assertion of individual liberty,
in the State of Trials. And as he was defending rights under the English Constitution
he
discussed
freely
its
history and its principles. Nor did he refrain from discussing questions of policy. Nor were these excursions irrelevant
or
merely
idealistic.
To
assistance of the judge’s charge. But a bare recital of the testimony favorable
his speech in support of a new trial for the Dean of St. Asaph it is reported
to his cause does not comprehend the
that
duty of the advocate.
He must go
polished statesmen alike listened with
further and explain the relation of the
delight.” And the principles he asserted soon found their way into the laws of
circumstances of the case to each other,
uold
black
letter
lawyers and
He must examine every bit of
England. His theory of the rights of the jury in libel cases was adopted by act
testimony, testing it by other parts of the testimony, and pointing out its
of Parliament, and to him, more than to any other man, is due the honor of
as well as their relation to extraneous
facts.
significance in the light of the whole
having forever given the death blow
case. The facts in his case are not things by themselves, unrelated to other facts of life. His case is not
to constructive treasons. No mean achievement this for any man. The
need for such lawyers has not passed,
_.
.J
