University of Virginia Library

4. CHAPTER IV.
THE TRIAL.

“Well, now,” said Frank Russel, to one or two lawyers
with whom he was sitting, in a side-room of the court-house
at E., “look out for breakers! Clayton has mounted
his war-horse, and is coming upon us, now, like leviathan
from the rushes.”

“Clayton is a good fellow,” said one of them. “I like
him, though he does n't talk much.”

“Good?” said Russel, taking his cigar from his mouth;
“why, as the backwoodsmen say, he an't nothing else!
He is a great seventy-four pounder, charged to the muzzle
with goodness! But, if he should be once fired off, I 'm
afraid he 'll carry everything out of the world with him.
Because, you see, abstract goodness does n't suit our present
mortal condition. But it is a perfect godsend that he
has such a case as this to manage for his maiden plea, because
it just falls in with his heroic turn. Why, when I
heard of it, I assure you I bestirred myself. I went about,
and got Smithers, and Jones, and Peters, to put off suits,
so as to give him fair field and full play. For, if he succeeds
in this, it may give him so good a conceit of the law,
that he will keep on with it.”

“Why,” said the other, “don't he like the law? What 's
the matter with the law?”

“O, nothing, only Clayton has got one of those ethereal
stomachs that rise against almost everything in this world.
Now, there is n't more than one case in a dozen that he 'll
undertake. He sticks and catches just like an old bureau

drawer. Some conscientious crick in his back is always
taking him at a critical moment, and so he is knocked up
for actual work. But this defending a slave-woman will
suit him to a T.”

“She is a nice creature, is n't she?” said one of them.

“And belongs to a good old family,” said another.

“Yes,” said the third, “and I understand his lady-love
has something to do with the case.”

“Yes,” said Russel, “to be sure she has. The woman
belongs to a family connection of hers, I 'm told. Miss
Gordon is a spicy little puss — one that would be apt to
resent anything of that sort; and the Gordons are a very
influential family. He is sure to get the case, though I 'm
not clear that the law is on his side, by any means.”

“Not?” said the other barrister, who went by the name
of Will Jones.

“No,” said Russel. “In fact, I 'm pretty clear it is n't.
But that will make no odds. When Clayton is thoroughly
waked up, he is a whole team, I can tell you. He 'll take
jury and judge along with him, fast enough.”

“I wonder,” said one, “that Barker did n't compound
the matter.”

“O, Barker is one of the stubbed sort. You know these
middling kind of people always have a spite against old
families. He makes fight because it is the Gordons, that 's
all. And there comes in his republicanism. He is n't going
to be whipped in by the Gordons. Barker has got
Scotch blood in him, and he 'll hang on to the case like
death.”

“Clayton will make a good speech,” said Jones.

“Speech? that he will!” said Russel. “Bless me, I
could lay off a good speech on it, myself. Because, you
see, it really was quite an outrage; and the woman is
a presentable creature. And, then, there 's the humane
dodge; that can be taken, beside all the chivalry part of
defending the helpless, and all that sort of thing. I
would n't ask for a better thing to work up into a speech.

But Clayton will do it better yet, because he is actually
sincere in it. And, after all 's said and done, there 's a
good deal in that. When a fellow speaks in solemn earnest,
he gives a kind of weight that you can't easily get
at any other way.”

“Well, but,” said one, “I don't understand you, Russel,
why you think the law is n't on Clayton's side. I 'm
sure it 's a very clear case of terrible abuse.”

“O, certainly it is,” said Russel, “and the man is a
dolt, and a brute beast, and ought to be shot, and so forth;
but, then, he has n't really exceeded his legal limits, because,
you see, the law gives to the hirer all the rights of
the master. There 's no getting away from that, in my
opinion. Now, any master might have done all that, and
nobody could have done anything about it. They do do it,
for that matter, if they 're bad enough, and nobody thinks
of touching them.”

“Well, I say,” said Jones, “Russel, don't you think
that 's too bad?”

“Laws, yes, man; but the world is full of things that are
too bad. It 's a bad kind of a place,” said Russel, as he lit
another cigar.

“Well, how do you think Clayton is going to succeed,”
said Jones, “if the law is so clearly against him?”

“O, bless you, you don't know Clayton. He is a glorious
mystifier. In the first place, he mystifies himself.
And, now, you mark me. When a powerful fellow mystifies
himself, so that he really gets himself thoroughly on to
his own side, there 's nobody he can't mystify. I speak it
in sober sadness, Jones, that the want of this faculty is a
great hindrance to me in a certain class of cases. You see
I can put on the pathetic and heroic, after a sort; but I
don't take myself along with me — I don't really believe
myself. There 's the trouble. It 's this power of self-mystification
that makes what you call earnest men. If men
saw the real bread and butter and green cheese of life, as

I see it, — the hard, dry, primitive facts, — they could n't
raise such commotions as they do.”

“Russel, it always makes me uncomfortable to hear you
talk. It seems as if you did n't believe in anything!”

“O, yes, I do,” said Russel; “I believe in the multiplication
table, and several other things of that nature at the
beginning of the arithmetic; and, also, that the wicked
will do wickedly. But, as to Clayton's splendid abstractions,
I only wish him joy of them. But, then, I shall believe
him while I hear him talk; so will you; so will all the
rest of us. That 's the fun of it. But the thing will be
just where it was before, and I shall find it so when I wake
up to-morrow morning. It 's a pity such fellows as Clayton
could n't be used as we use big guns. He is death on anything
he fires at; and if he only would let me load and
point him, he and I together would make a firm that would
sweep the land. But here he comes, upon my word.”

“Hallo, Clayton, all ready.”

“Yes,” said Clayton, “I believe so. When will the case
be called?”

“To-day, I 'm pretty sure,” said Russel.

Clayton was destined to have something of an audience
in his first plea; for, the Gordons being an influential and
a largely-connected family, there was quite an interest
excited among them in the affair. Clayton also had many
warm personal friends, and his father, mother, and sister,
were to be present; for, though residing in a different part
of the state, they were at this time on a visit in the vicinity
of the town of E.

There is something in the first essay of a young man, in
any profession, like the first launching of a ship, which
has a never-ceasing hold on human sympathies. Clayton's
father, mother, and sister, with Nina, at the time of the
dialogue we have given, were sitting together in the parlor
of a friend's house in E., discussing the same event.

“I am sure that he will get the case,” said Anne Clayton,
with the confidence of a generous woman and warmhearted

sister. “He has been showing me the course of
his argument, and it is perfectly irresistible. Has he said
anything to you about it, father?”

Judge Clayton had been walking up and down the room,
with his hands behind him, with his usual air of considerate
gravity. Stopping short at Anne's question, he said,

“Edward's mind and mine work so differently, that I have
not thought best to embarrass him by any conference on
the subject. I consider the case an unfortunate one, and
would rather he could have had some other.”

“Why,” said Anne, eagerly, “don't you think he 'll
gain it?”

“Not if the case goes according to law,” said Judge
Clayton. “But, then, Edward has a great deal of power
of eloquence, and a good deal of skill in making a diversion
from the main point; so that perhaps he may get the
case.”

“Why,” said Nina, “I thought cases were always decided
according to law! What else do they make laws for?”

“You are very innocent, my child,” said Judge Clayton.

“But, father, the proof of the outrage is most abundant.
Nobody could pretend to justify it.”

“Nobody will, child. But that 's nothing to the case.
The simple point is, did the man exceed his legal power?
It 's my impression he did not.”

“Father, what a horrible doctrine!” said Anne

“I simply speak of what is,” said Judge Clayton. “I
don't pretend to justify it. But Edward has great power
of exciting the feelings, and under the influence of his
eloquence the case may go the other way, and humanity
triumph at the expense of law.”

Clayton's plea came on in the afternoon, and justified the
expectations of his friends. His personal presence was
good, his voice melodious, and his elocution fine. But
what impressed his auditors, perhaps, more than these, was
a certain elevation and clearness in the moral atmosphere
around him, — a gravity and earnestness of conviction,

which gave a secret power to all he said. He took up the
doctrine of the dependent relations of life, and of those
rules by which they should be guided and restrained; and
showed that while absolute power seems to be a necessary
condition of many relations of life, both reason and
common sense dictate certain limits to it. The law guarantees
to the parent, the guardian, and the master, the
right of enforcing obedience by chastisement; and the
reason for it is, that the subject being supposed to be imperfectly
developed, his good will, on the whole, be better
consulted by allowing to his lawful guardian this power.”

“The good of the subject,” he said, “is understood to be
the foundation of the right; but, when chastisement is inflicted
without just cause, and in a manner so inconsiderate
and brutal as to endanger the safety and well-being of the
subject, the great foundation principle of the law is violated.
The act becomes perfectly lawless, and as incapable
of legal defence as it is abhorrent to every sentiment of
humanity and justice.”

“He should endeavor to show,” he said, “by full testimony,
that the case in question was one of this sort.”

In examining witnesses Clayton showed great dignity
and acuteness, and as the feeling of the court was already
prepossessed in his favor, the cause evidently gathered
strength as it went on. The testimony showed, in the
most conclusive manner, the general excellence of Milly's
character, and the utter brutality of the outrage which had
been committed upon her. In his concluding remarks,
Clayton addressed the jury in a tone of great elevation and
solemnity, on the duty of those to whom is intrusted the
guardianship of the helpless.

“No obligation,” he said, “can be stronger to an honorable
mind, than the obligation of entire dependence. The
fact that a human being has no refuge from our power, no
appeal from our decisions, so far from leading to careless
security, is one of the strongest possible motives to caution,
and to most exact care. The African race,” he said, “had

been bitter sufferers. Their history had been one of wrong
and cruelty, painful to every honorable mind. We of the
present day, who sustain the relation of slaveholder,”
he said, “receive from the hands of our fathers an awful
trust. Irresponsible power is the greatest trial of humanity,
and if we do not strictly guard our own moral purity
in the use of it, we shall degenerate into despots and
tyrants. No consideration can justify us in holding this
people in slavery an hour, unless we make this slavery
a guardian relation, in which our superior strength and
intelligence is made the protector and educator of their
simplicity and weakness.”

“The eyes of the world are fastened upon us,” he said.
“Our continuing in this position at all is, in many quarters,
matter of severe animadversion. Let us therefore show,
by the spirit in which we administer our laws, by the
impartiality with which we protect their rights, that the
master of the helpless African is his best and truest friend.”

It was evident, as Clayton spoke, that he carried the
whole of his audience with him. The counsel on the other
side felt himself much straitened. There is very little
possibility of eloquence in defending a manifest act of
tyranny and cruelty; and a man speaks, also, at great disadvantage,
who not only is faint-hearted in his own cause,
but feels the force of the whole surrounding atmosphere
against him.

In fact, the result was, that the judge charged the jury, if
they found the chastisement to have been disproportionate
and cruel, to give verdict for the plaintiff. The jury, with
little discussion, gave it unanimously accordingly, and so
Clayton's first cause was won.

If ever a woman feels proud of her lover, it is when she
sees him as a successful public speaker; and Nina, when the
case was over, stood half-laughing, half-blushing, in a circle
of ladies, who alternately congratulated and rallied her on
Clayton's triumph.

“Ah,” said Frank Russel, “we understand the magic!

The knight always fights well when his lady-love looks
down! Miss Gordon must have the credit of this. She
took all the strength out of the other side, — like the mountain
of loadstone, that used to draw all the nails out of the
ship.”

“I am glad,” said Judge Clayton, as he walked home
with his wife, “I am very glad that Edward has met with
such success. His nature is so fastidious that I have had
my fears that he would not adhere to the law. There are
many things in it, I grant, which would naturally offend a
fastidious mind, and one which, like his, is always idealizing
life.”

“He has established a noble principle,” said Mrs. Clayton.

“I wish he had,” said the judge. “It would be a very
ungrateful task, but I could have shattered his argument
all to pieces.”

“Don't tell him so!” said Mrs. Clayton, apprehensively;
“let him have the comfort of it.”

“Certainly I shall. Edward is a good fellow, and I hope,
after a while, he 'll draw well in the harness.”

Meanwhile, Frank Russel and Will Jones were walking
along in another direction.

“Did n't I tell you so?” said Russel. “You see, Clayton
run Bedford down, horse and foot, and made us all as
solemn as a preparatory lecture.”

“But he had a good argument,” said Jones.

“To be sure he had — I never knew him to want that.
He builds up splendid arguments, always, and the only
thing to be said of him, after it 's all over, is, it is n't so;
it 's no such thing. Barker is terribly wroth, I can assure
you. He swears he 'll appeal the case. But that 's no
matter. Clayton has had his day all the same. He is evidently
waked up. O, he has no more objection to a little
popularity than you and I have, now; and if we could humor
him along, as we would a trout, we should have him a
first-rate lawyer, one of these days. Did you see Miss Gordon

while he was pleading? By George! she looked so
handsome, I was sorry I had n't taken her myself!”

“Is she that dashing little flirting Miss Gordon that I
heard of in New York?”

“The very same.”

“How came she to take a fancy to him?”

“She? How do I know? She 's as full of streaks as a
tulip; and her liking for him is one of them. Did you notice
her, Will? — scarf flying one way, and little curls, and
pennants, and streamers, and veil, the other! And, then,
those eyes! She 's alive, every inch of her! She puts me
in mind of a sweet-brier bush, winking and blinking, full of
dew-drops, full of roses, and brisk little thorns, beside!
Ah, she 'll keep him awake!”