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A COLLECTION

OF

ARGUMENTS AND SPEECHES

BEFORE COURTS AND JURIES.

BY EMINENT LAWYERS.

WITH

INTRODUCTORY NOTES, ANALYSES, ETC.

BY

WILLIAM L. SNYDER,

OF THE NEW YORK BAR.

NEW YORK:
BAKER, VOORHIS & CO., PUBLISHERS,

66 NASSAU STREET.

1901.

;

COPYRIGHT, 1881,

BY BAKER, VOORHIS & CO.

Ninth Impression.

PREFACE.

THE object and design of this work is to preserve some of the best efforts of eminent lawyers, selecting those which have justly been regarded as models of legal reasoning and forensic power. The task is an exceedingly difficult one, in view of the fact that some of the most distinguished advocates have left but few traces of their intellectual labor. Their fame is often traditional; the recollections of their great efforts and high achievements fade in the near generations. The memory of the eloquence of Ogden Hoffman and David Graham lingers in the minds of a few living men, and in another decade will have been forgotten. What remains of the forensic utterances of Dexter and Otis; of John Adams, Joseph Hopkinson, Jared Ingersoll, Seargent S. Prentiss, Robert Goodale Harper, Luther Martin, Edward D. Baker, Rufus Choate even, and a hundred others, whose names are familiar, who have graced the profession with their genius and learning? Whatever remains-in memoirs, in fugitive pamphlets, in reports of trials, or wherever found-it is our purpose to gather and preserve.

With this view, and believing that a collection of legal speeches and arguments, embracing topics upon various branches of the law, would be instructive and valuable, especially to the younger members of the profession, the publishers began many years ago to collect materials for this work. The original intention was to divide it into subjects corresponding with the main divisions of jurisprudence, and to illustrate each by the arguments and opinions of distinguished advocates and jurists. It was, however, found impracticable to pursue this plan, and it was finally determined to select the best efforts of eminent lawyers in this country and Great Britain and arrange them conveniently, with an analysis of each, and a full index to indicate the points of chief importance to the practitioner and student.

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