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.