parties; the appearance of "the three" in has won his fair proportion of victories. But the bar-room; the rush-the fight-the Mr. Prentiss on this occasion not only paradeath-the trial and the acquittal. Massin-lyzed the prosecution-not only fortified the ger never conceived any thing finer; and Prentiss, in the spirit of the old bard, worthily performed his work. The court-house in which the trial took place was crowded to overflowing, and among the audience were to be seen nearly two hundred ladies, drawn to the scene by the fascinating fame of Mr. Prentiss. That he should have been inspired with unusual feeling is not surprising, for his clients were his personal friends, and the bright eyes of a portion of his auditory were of themselves a Promethean fire to even less enthusiastic spirits than his. His speech throughout was listened to with almost painful interest; and in spite of the place and the circumstances, those that heard would occasionally give utterance to pent-up feelings that refused to be controlled. The Hon. Benjamin Hardin, "the opposing counsel," a man of vast experience and self-control, seemed to feel that the judgments of the jury and court were affected by what they had heard, and he pays the highest possible compliment to Mr. Prentiss in the opening of his reply. Turning to the jury, he said : "Whatever may be your feelings, you will, I am sure, keep in mind that you are bound to exercise your reason, and that you owe a duty of no ordinary responsibility to yourselves, your characters, and your country. That duty is a sacred trust reposed in you, which you cannot weigh lightly without injury to yourselves as well as wrong to others. Nor must you surrender up your reason to your passions, and allow yourselves to be carried away by the shout of applause from a fashionable audience, as if you were in a theatre, where a Junius Brutus Booth and a Miss Ellen Tree exhibit the practised art of controlling the feelings, and successfully eliciting the noisy plaudits of excitement. This is not a theatre; this trial is not a farce; nor are you seated on those benches for amusement. This, gentlemen, is a solemn court of justice; a solemn tribunal, in which your Judge, presiding with becoming dignity, represents the majesty of the law, and in which you are expected to deliberate with becoming gravity upon circumstances of awful import." No ordinary impression on the part of a jury would have called forth these remarks from the cool-headed and talented Ben Hardin, a counsellor who has in a long life of arduous and important practice grappled with the giant intellects of Kentucky, and defense-but he seemed to urge the strongest possible points against the cause of his clients, only to answer them with increased force, and destroy them for ever. It was therefore that the prosecution, ably as it was conducted, seemed to be in a great degree fatiguing to the jury and the audience, with recapitulations of things already more pleasantly or more terribly urged by Mr. Prentiss. His allusion to his friend Judge Wilkinson is a fine specimen of his style. He said: "I regret to behold a valued and cherished ordeals ever invented to try the human feelings or friend passing through one of the most terrible test the human character; an ordeal through which, I do not doubt, he will pass triumphantly and honorably, without leaving one blot or stain upon the fair fame that has been so long his rightful portion; but through which he cannot pass unscathed in his sensibilities and feelings. The lightning scar will remain upon his heart; and public justice herself cannot, even though by acclamation through your mouths she proclaims his innocence, ever heal the wounds inflicted by this fierce and unrelenting prosecution, urged on as it has been by the demons of revenge and avarice." Of the excitement before the trial he drew the following vivid picture : "It is not unknown to you, that upon the occurrence of the events, the character of which you are about to try, great tumult and cxcitement prevailed in the city of Louisville. Passion and ular feeling was roused into madness. It was with prejudice poured poison into the public ear. Popthe utmost difficulty that the strong arm of the constituted authorities wrenched the victims from the hands of an infuriated mob. Even the thick walls of the prison hardly afforded protection to the accused. Crouched and shivering upon the cold floor of their gloomy dungeon, they listened to the footsteps of the gathering crowds; and ever and anon, the winter wind that played melancholy music through the rusty grates, was drowned by the fierce howling of the human wolves, who prowled and bayed around their place of refuge, greedy and thirsting for blood. away slander and falsehood upon its wings. Even Every breeze that swept over the city bore the public press, though I doubt not unwittingly, joined in the work of injustice. The misrepresentations of the prosecutor and his friends became the public history of the transaction; and from one end of the Union to the other, these defendants were held up to public gaze and public execration as foul, unmanly murderers, and that too before any judicial investigation whatever had occurred, or any opportunity been afforded them for saying a single word in their defense." One of the witnesses, although "he fired a pistol," and "knocked one of the defendants down," gave in his testimony in a manner that indicated such a perfect indifference to the shedding of blood and willingness to get into a fight, that it afforded a fine opportunity for Prentiss's playfulness, and he treats this witness as follows: 'Surely Mr. "There is something of pride in the perilous hour, "You have heard, gentlemen, of the bright, warm livered with a force that made strong men pale with horror, and for a moment look as if the fearful tragedy of murder was tangibly enacted before their eyes. "But, gentlemen of the jury," said he, with an earnestness that thrilled through every heart, “although my clients are free from the charge of shedding blood, there is a murderer, and, strange to say, his name appears upon the indictment, not as a criminal, but as prosecutor. His garments are wet with the blood of those upon whose deaths you hold this solemn inquest. Yonder he sits, allaying for a moment the hunger of that fierce vulture, Conscience, by casting before it the food of pretended regret, and false, but apparent cagerness for justice. He hopes to appease the manes of his slaughtered victims-victims to his falsehood and treachery-by sacrificing upon their graves a hecatomb of innocent men. By base misrepresentations of the conduct of the defendants, he induced his imprudent friends to attempt a vindication of his pretended wrongs, by violence and bloodshed. His clansmen gathered at his call, and followed him for vengeance; but when the fight began, and the keen weapons clashed in the sharp conflict-where was the wordy warrior? No 'blast Ay, Where was Roderick then?' upon his bugle horn' encouraged his companions as they were laying down their lives in his quarrel; no gleam of his dagger indicated a desire to avenge their fall; with treacherous cowardice he left them to their fate, and all his vaunted courage ended in ignominious flight. That "Sad and gloomy is the path that lies before him. You will in a few moments dash, untasted, from his lips the sweet cup of revenge; to quaff whose intoxicating contents he has paid a price that would have purchased the goblet of the Egyptian queen. I behold gathering around him, thick and fast, dark and corroding cares. face, which looks so ruddy, and even now is flushed with shame and conscious guilt, will from this day grow pale, until the craven blood shall refuse to visit his haggard cheek. In his broken and distorted sleep his dreams will be more fearful than those of the false, perjured Clarence;' and around his waking pillow, in the deep hour of night, will flit the ghosts of Meeks and of Rothwell, shrieking their curses in his shrinking ear. "Upon his head rests not only all the blood shed in this unfortunate strife, but also the soul-killing crime of perjury; for, surely as he lives, did the words of craft and falsehood fall from his lips, ere they were hardly loosened from the holy volume. But I dismiss him, and do consign him to the furies, trusting, in all charity, that the terrible punishment he must suffer from the scorpion-lash of a guilty conscience will be considered in his last account." Every kind of talent seems to be displayed in this masterly speech, which can only be fully appreciated by reading the trial entire. From the commencement to the It was soon after Mr. Prentiss returned end there is one continued series of beautiful imagery, or the evidence of successful from Kentucky that I had the pleasure of blows given to the prosecution. Mr. Pren- first seeing him. In his personal appeartiss never falters, and finally closes with the ance he was eminently handsome, and yet terrible climax quoted below, which he de-eminently manly. Although of medium VOL. VIII. NO. III. NEW SERIES. 17 section of the State are to be found an immense number of his warmest personal as well as political friends. The place selected for the gathering was one of the most beauti height, there was that in the carriage of his head that was astonishingly impressive; it gave a wonderful idea of power. I shall never forget him on one occasion, when he rose at a public meeting (a political discus-ful that could be conceived. The ground rose sion) to reply to an antagonist worthy of his steel. His whole soul was roused, his high smooth forehead fairly coruscated. He remained silent for some seconds, and only looked. The bald eagle never glanced more fiercely from his eyrie; it seemed as if his deep dark-gray eye would distend until it swallowed up the thousands of his audience. For an instant the effect was painful; he saw it and smiled, when a cheer burst from the admiring multitude that fairly shook the earth. His voice was clear and sweet, and could be heard at an immense distance, and yet, to be all like Demosthenes, he had a perceptible impediment in his speech. As a reader he had no superior; his narration was clear and unadorned; proper sentences were subduedly humorous, but the impressive parts were delivered with an effect that reminded me of descriptions of the elder Kean. His imagination was unsurpassed, and the rich stores of his mind supplied him with never-ending material, quoted and original. The slightest allusion to any thing gave the key to all its peculiarities. If he had occasion to speak of the diamond, its bed in the Golconda, its discovery by some poor native, its being associated with commerce, its polish by the lapidary, its adorning the neck of beauty, its rays hrilliant and serene, its birth, its life, its history, all flashed upon him. So with every idea in the vast storehonse of his mind; he seemed to know all things in mass and in particulars, never confused, never at a loss; the hearer listened, wondered, and dreamed. Thoughts of moment came forth as demanded, but ten thousand other thoughts, rare and beautiful, continued to bubble up, after all effort ceased. The Presidential campaign of 1844 probably called forth some of the best specimens of Mr. Prentiss's eloquence, when in the full maturity of his mental power. Of the pecujiar impression he left on the mind, some faint idea may be obtained from the following descriptions. In 1844, the admirers of Mr. Clay in Adams county, Miss., gave a great barbecue, and among the wealthy planters of that from a centre a perfectly natural amphitheatre. "The stand," of Corinthian architec ture, was adorned by beautiful ladies, who brought to bear the most cultivated taste, and the command of every necessary means the columns were wreathed with myrtle and jessamine, the top arched over, entwining the choicest flowers with the folds of our national flag; upon the key-stone rested a truthful bust of the "great statesman of the West." At the foot of the steps that led to the platform were placed magnificent orange trees, that were connected with the ascent above by rows of costly exotic flowers. On each side of this "stand" towered magnificent forest trees, that seemed to embrace in the clouds, to protect the floral pyramid beneath. On the ascending ground ranged comfortable seats for five thousand persons, above which stretched out, until lost in the distant vernal shade, tables groaning with every possible luxury, while costly equipages in picturesque groups filled up every bit of shade that could be obtained under the scattering trees. The audience was not only remarkable for intelligence, wealth and beauty, but contained a large majority of the earliest friends of Mr. Prentiss. Other orators had been invited to speak, but he was the magnet of attraction; for him, and for the sake of Mr. Clay, was all the vast gathering and costly preparation made. Mr. Prentiss rose, as if deeply impressed with the events of the day. His peroration was a most imaginative appeal to the nymphs of the wood who revelled among the trees, and a series of compliments to the hundreds of ladies, who shot at him their bright glances of greeting when he came forward to speak. From this playful strain, he soon entered into the serious part of his labor, and in a masterly manner reviewed the great principles involved in the coming Presidential struggle. To follow him would be impossible; but on that day more than usual he indulged in that terrible sarcasm for which he was sometimes so remarkable. That it was occasionally ill-timed there cannot be a doubt, but when he mounted upon some lofty principle, and looked down upon the grovellers beneath, or when his scorn took in his eye; he fairly struggled and heaved possession for the moment of his reason, he poured it out like gall and wormwood, regardless of all consequences. He was that day advocating the cause of his political idol, for there is that in Mr. Clay that filled up the measure that Mr. Prentiss had formed of a great man. He seemed never content at public gatherings, without he had some opportunity of praising Mr. Clay's boldness and undaunted courage-his eloquence and statesman-like qualities; and in this severely contested election was the soul of Prentiss altogether roused. As "Speaker of the But Prentiss really carried no bitterness House," Mr. Polk had sent him home to in his spirit; he bore down upon his oppoMississippi without his seat in Congress, and nents and poured in his broadsides of irony in the political contest that followed, it would and sarcasm with the power of a man-of-war, seem that he only sowed the wind of his but the moment the action ceased, he was wrath, that was to be reaped in the whirl- ready to muzzle his gun and succor the wind that followed in his mind against Mr. wounded and dying; and this spirit of ancient Polk, when Mr. P. became a candidate for chivalry is amusingly illustrated in the folthe Presidency. From the moment the cam-lowing anecdote: Gov. Me, who figured paign commenced, he went through the contemporaneously with Prentiss in Missiscountry like another Peter the Hermit, preaching a crusade; he seemed to defy the very infirmities of humanity in his extraordinary exertions. It was evident that his parallel between the candidates for the Presidency was to be a masterly effort, and no one was disappointed. His portrait of Mr. Clay on the occasion, as we recall it to our mind, was one that can never be forgotten by those who heard it; there was a tangible massiveness and grandeur about it, as perceptible as if he had raised the mighty head of Mount St. Bernard from out of the alluvial plains of the Mississippi, and bid his enraptured auditory to gaze upon the cloud-capped summit. There was also a softness and beauty, a perfection and minute completeness, that strangely harmonized. He opened the musty archives of antiquity for illustrations; he drew from all modern quarters for comparisons; and, still ascending, would replume his wings, soaring still upward in untrodden regions of eloquence, until he piled "Pelion on Ossa," and made the very reason of his audience tremble on its throne. Suddenly he paused, and with a voice as of a trumpet, asked, "Who is the opponent of Henry Clay?" His eyes flashed unwonted fire, and you saw him falling headlong from his dizzy height, but his very course marked the impetus of a destroying angel; you saw that there was a vial of wrath in his hand, a consuming fire sippi politics, ever afforded him an inex- Prentiss had originally a constitution of iron; his frame was so perfect in its organization, that, in spite of the most unusual negligence of health, his muscles had all the compactness, glossiness, and distinctiveness of one who had been specially trained by diet and exercise. It was this constitution that enabled him to accomplish so much in so short a time. He could almost wholly discard sleep for weeks, with apparent impunity; he could eat or starve; do any thing that would kill ordinary men, yet never feel a twinge of pain. I saw him once amidst a tremendous political excitement; he had been talking, arguing, dining, visiting, and travelling, without rest, for three whole days. His companions would steal away at times for sleep, but Prentiss, like an ever-busy spirit, was here, and there, and every where. The morning of the fourth day came, and he was to appear before an audience familiar with his fame, but one that had never heard him speak; an audience critical in the last degree. He desired to succeed, for more was depending than he had ever before had cause to stake upon such an occasion. Many felt a fear that he would be unprepared. I mingled in the expecting crowd; I saw ladies who had never honored the stump with their presence struggling for seats; counsellors, statesmen, and professional men, the élite of a great city, were gathered together. An hour before, I had seen Prentiss, still apparently ignorant of his engagement. The time of trial came, and the remarkable man presented himself, the very picture of buoyant health, of unbroken rest. All this had been done by the unyielding resolve of his will. His triumph was complete; high-wrought expectations were more than realized, prejudice was demolished, professional jealousy silenced, and he descended from the rostrum, freely accorded his proper place among the orators and states men of the "Southern Metropolis." but his friends pushed him forward. Again his name was shouted, hats and caps were thrown in the air, and he was finally compelled to show himself on the portico. With remarkable delicacy, he chose a less prominent place than that previously occupied by Mr. Clay, although perfectly visible. He thanked his friends for their kindness by repeated bows, and by such smiles as he alone could give. "A speech! a speech!" thundered a thousand voices. Prentiss lifted his hand; in an instant every thing was still; then pointing to the group that surrounded Mr. Clay, he said: "Fellow-citizens, when the Eagle is soaring in the sky, the owls and the bats retire to their holes." And long before the shout that followed this remark had ceased, Prentiss had disappeared amid the multitude. Soon after Mr. Prentiss settled in NewOrleans, a meeting was held to raise funds for the erection of a suitable monument to Franklin. On that occasion the lamented Wilde and the accomplished McCaleb delivered ornate and chaste addresses upon the value of art, and the policy of enriching New-Orleans with its exhibition. At the close of the meeting, as the audience rose to depart, some one discovered Prentiss, and called his name. It was echoed from all sides; he tried to escape, but was literally carried on the stand. Mr. Clay visited the South in the spring As a rich specimen of off-hand eloquence, of 1844, and, as he was then a candidate I think the address he delivered on that ocfor the Presidency, he attracted in New-Or-casion was unequalled. Unlike any other leans, if possible, more than usual notice. speech, he had the arts to deal with, and His hotel was the St. Charles; toward noon of course the associations were of surpassing he reached that once magnificent palace. The streets presented a vast ocean of heads, and every building commanding a view was literally covered with human beings. The great "Statesman of the West" presented himself to the multitude between the tall columus of the finest portico in the world. The scene was beyond description, and of vast interest. As the crowd swayed to and fro, a universal shout was raised for Mr. Clay to speak; he uttered a sentence or two, waved his hand in adieu, and escaped amidst the prevailing confusion. Prentiss meanwhile was at a side window, evidently unconscious of being himself noticed, gazing upon what was passing with all the delight of the humblest spectator. Suddenly he heard his name announced. He attempted to withdraw from public gaze, splendor. I knew that he was ignorant of the technicalities of art, and had paid but little attention to their study, and my surprise was unbounded to see him, thus unexpectedly called upon, instantly arrange in his mind ideas, and expressing facts and illustrations that would have done honor to Burke, when dwelling upon the sublime and beautiful. Had he been bred to the easel, or confined to the sculptor's room, he could not have been more familiar with the details of the studio; he painted with all the brilliancy of Titian, and with the correctness of Raphael, while his images in marble combined the softness of Praxiteles and the nervous energy of Michael Angelo. All this with Prentiss was intuition. I believe that the whole was the spontaneous thought of the moment, the crude outlines |