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his glowing imagination, his exquisite ingenuity, his magnificent generalizations, his manly pathos, his faculty of grouping and contrasting facts, his fertility of illustration, and his vivid and dramatic rhetoric, seize upon the listener, and carry him out of himself and make him the property of the orator."—Albany Law Journal, during Beecher-Tilton trial, 1875.

SEARGENT SMITH PRENTISS, MISSISSIPPI.

(1808-1850.)

Seargent Smith Prentiss was born at Portland, Maine, September 30, 1808; died in Natchez, Mississippi, July 1, 1850, aged forty-two. He graduated at Bowdoin College, in 1826; went to Natchez in 1827; was admitted to the bar in 1829; removed to Vicksburg in 1832; was elected to the Legislature in 1835; and to Congress in 1837, where his seat was contested and given him in December, 1838, only after three elections. Of his marvelous speech on that occasion, Webster said, "Nobody could equal it." In the House he so well maintained his reputation that, commenting upon his speech on the Sub-Treasury Bill, an opponent truly said: "He is, beyond all controversy, the first man of his age." After his great Nashville speech for Clay in 1844, he fell fainting into the arms of Governor Jones, who enthusiastically exclaimed: "Die, Prentiss, die! you'll never have a more glorious opportunity." He was invited in 1849, before Webster and Choate, to address the Story Law Association of Harvard. His appeal at New Orleans

in behalf of the starving population of Ireland has been pronounced second only to Antony's oration over the dead body of Caesar.

From 1834 to 1845 he was in almost every great case tried in Mississippi. His most powerful jury efforts were those in the Bird and Phelps murder cases, which he prosecuted, both being convicted; while his matchless tact and brilliant defense of his friend wrested from a Kentucky jury a verdict of “not guilty” in the famous Wilkinson murder case. Dissatisfied with the policy adopted in the repudiation of the State debt, in 1845, he removed to New Orleans, but returned to Natchez just prior to his death.

The depth, accuracy, and extent of his classical attainments; his profound knowledge of the law and rapid mastery of facts, wondrous power of analysis and argument, high character and courage, engaging manners and rare urbanity, challenged the admiration and won the hearts of all classes; while his vast learning and iron logic, poetic soul and sublime imagination, musical voice and impassioned eloquence, gave him an irresistible charm before court, jury and people.

Read Biography.

"It would be well to read some biography-more especially the lives of the great men of our countryWashington, Franklin, etc. It will raise your ambition, and show you what can be done through industry and exertion, by those whose advantages have not been as good as your own."-Advice to his brother George.

Success in Life Depends Upon Skill in Use of Knowledge.

"Success in life depends not so much upon the actual quantity of knowledge which a man possesses, as upon the skill and facility with which he is enabled to bring it to bear upon the affairs in which he may be engaged. This is particularly true with regard to great men. Their greatness consists less in the extent of their knowledge than in the way in which they use it. Clay's superiority consists in the power and adroitness with which he brings his information to bear."-Letter to his younger brother: Memoirs, p. 125.

Teaching.

"Teaching is an ungrateful task.”—Idem, 174.

Lafayette's Resting Place.

"Let no cunning sculpture, no monumental marble, deface with its mock dignity the patriot's grave, but rather let the unpruned vine, the wild flower, and

the free song of the uncaged bird, all that speaks of freedom and of peace, be gathered around it."—Prentiss' depiction of a fit resting place for Lafayette: Shields' Life and Times of Prentiss, p. 439.

Love of Literature.

"I have always cherished a taste for literature, and I only regret the waste of so many bright hours of my life, which might have been devoted to a more close cultivation of that taste."-Said to Hon. Jos. Cobb, of Columbus, Miss.: Shield's Life of Prentiss, p. 416.

Humbleness.

"The world's applause has always astonished me. I am not conscious of ever having neglected the business of a client or constituent, still I have really been an idle man. I feel that I have not improved my time as I might and should have done."-Idem, 416.

Setting Sun.

"Friends, that glorious orb (the setting sun) reminds me that the day is spent, and I, too, must close. Ere we part, let me hope that it may be our good fortune to end our days in the same splendor, and that when the evening of life comes, we may sink to rest with the clouds that close in our departure, goldtipped with the effulgence of a well-spent life." Close of a speech for General Taylor in campaign of 1848: Shield's Life of Prentiss, p. 412.

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