Show GREATEST OF LEGAL ORATORS Proud Position That Has Been Accorded Accorded Ac Ac- corded to William Pinkney of Maryland But by long odds the greatest of our purely legal orators was William of or Maryland His speeches were the be beacon con lights that directed the footsteps of the Supreme court of the United States In the formative period of or our government The great argument in the Nereide prize law case is steeped In a richer rhetoric than almost any other of his speeches The bold figure of Hercules Hercules Hercules Her Her- cules crushing the lion has been een referred to as one of the sub sub- In our oratory Seldom has bas any man been so abundantly abundantly antly equipped for tor the highest displays displays displays dis dis- plays of or eloquence and this too was largely tho the result of studies When sent as an ambassador to England England England Eng Eng- land he was asked at table one day for tor his opinion on a certain Greek phrase being discussed at the time and was ineffably mortified and humiliated hu hu- hu- hu to confess that he knew nothIng nothing nothing noth noth- ing of the subject under discussion Then and there was born bom in him the tho determination to be a classical scholar schol schol- ar and bending himself to the task he became in a few years highly proficient proficient pro pro- not alone in the ancient but In Inthe Inthe inthe the modern classics as well His mind became a reservoir of Judicial and literary learning and his speeches began to bear the Indefinable Impress of mental superiority Ills eloquence satisfied the Intellect as well as the love of ornament No vocabulary ever surpassed his hin In full tull fulland fulland and rounded excellence Poetic to a rare degree yet governed withal by byan byan byan an almost perfect taste he clothed his large philosophy In the sheen of such sucha a golden style as made it seem quite a matter of course that Story and andI I Marshall should rono p-rono pronounce nce him Incomparable Incomparable tn In I comparable and that he should be beI bethe bethe the boast of Maryland and the pride I of th the United States It Is not too much to say that had all of his speeches before the Supreme court I and elsewhere been preserved he would have been universally esteemed the greatest of legal or orators tors In the I whole world Ho ro was grea greater er than Is eus or L Lysias because his view was wasI I broader and more philosophical and his powers of expression by far tar more I poetical captivating and persuasive |