A brief interval now passed over, after my connection begun with
Mr. Edgerton, in which time the world went on with me more smoothly,
perhaps, than ever. My patron--for so this gentleman deserves
to be called--was as indulgent as I could wish. He soon discerned
the weaknesses in my character, and with the judgment of an old
practitioner, he knew how to subdue and soften, without seeming to
perceive them. I need not say that I was as diligent and industrious,
and not less studious, while in his employ, than I had been in that
of my mercantile acquaintance. The entire toils of the desk soon
fell upon my shoulders, and I acquired the reputation among my
small circle of acquaintance, of being a very good attorney for a
young beginner.
It is true, I was greatly helped by the continued
perusal of an admirable collection of old precedents, which a long
period of extensive practice had accumulated in the collection of
my friend. But to be an attorney, simply, was not the bound of my
ambition. I fancied that the forum was, before all others, my true
field of exertion. The ardency of my temper, the fluency of my speech,
the promptness of my thought, and the warmth of my imagination, all
conspired in impressing on me the belief that I was particularly
fitted for the arena of public disputation. This, I may add, was
the opinion of Mr. Edgerton also; and I soon sought an occasion
for the display of my powers.
It was the custom at our bar--and a custom full of danger--for
young beginners to take their cases from the criminal docket.
Their "'prentice han'," was usually exercised on some wretch from
the stews, just as the young surgeon is permitted to hack the
carcass of a tenant of the "Paupers' Field," the better to prepare
him for practice on living and more worthy victims. Was there a
rascal so notoriously given over to the gallows that no hope could
possibly be entertained of his extrication from the toils of the
evidence, and the deliberations of a jury, he was considered fair
game for the young lawyers, who, on such cases, gathered about him
with all the ghostly and keen propensities of vultures about the
body of the horse cast out upon the commons.
The custom was evil, and is now, I believe, abandoned. It led to
much irreverence among thoughtless young men--to an equal disregard
of that solemnity which should naturally attach to the court
of justice, and to the life of the prisoner arraigned before it.
A thoughtless levity too frequently filled the mind of the young
lawyer and his hearers, when it was known that the poor wretch
on trial was simply regarded as an agent, through whose miserable
necessity, the beginner was to try his strength and show his skill
in the art of speech-making. It was my fortune, acting rather in
compliance with the custom than my own preference, to select one
of these victims and occasions for my debut. I could have done
otherwise. Mr. Edgerton freely tendered to me any one of several
cases of his own, on the civil docket, in which to make my appearance;
but I was unwilling to try my hand upon a case in which the penalty
of ill success might be a serious loss to my friend's client, and
might operate to the injury of his business; and, another reason
for my preference was to be found--though not expressed by me--in
the secret belief which I entertained that I was peculiarly gifted
with the art of appealing to the passions, and the sensibilities
of my audience.