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xxiv PREFACE TO VOLUME TEN

education and conelderable experience and ability as a lawyer he
had the majority of the attorneya who practiced before him at a dis-
tinct advantage, and those whom he could not unhorse with legal
learning he cowed and silenced with jocular or brutal tyranny, as
best sulted his humor. But perhapa hie gravest offense was political
activity with which he never allowed his Judicial duties to inter-
fere, and he had not been long upon the circuit before angry out-
erfes were raised against his aggressive Federal particanship. Op-
position of thie character, however, meraly excited his belligerency,
end he never made the sifghteat effort to conceal his political
opinions, either on or off the bench. Indeed, when the Sedition Act
became a law, he had openly rejoiced at the opportunity it afforded
tor silencing critics of the administration and his actions were soon
to speak louder than words. During the trial of Fries,i0 hig arbi-
trary rulings practically forced the prisoner's counsel to retire from
the case in disgust, and when Thotnas Cooper, member of the Penn-
sylvania bar, convicted of libeling the President, was arraigned for
sentence, he announced in open court that if he could discover that
the Democratic party was behind the prisoner, he would inflict the
severest penalties known to the law.tt

Then we have a description of the people and the
bar assembling at the old court house to hear and take
part in the trial.

The threatened clash between the bench and bar was of course
particularly interesting to lawyers, but there were many laymen
among those gathered before the courthouse on the morning of the
trial, for the country was thoroughly aroused over the attempt to
enforce the Sedition Law within a state whose legislature had off
cially condemned it, and the conflict between the Federal and State
authorities was far more important to the average Virginian than
the settlement of any professional differences. Not all the borse-
men who came trailing across the Common were present from
choice, however, for the marshal had invaded the most distant plan-
tations in hia search for jurors and some of the victims bad ridden
ten, fifteen and even twenty miles In obedience to his summons,
spreading the news of the impending event through the outlying dis-
tricts, until the rapidly gathering crowd promined to surpass that of
any previous court day in Richmond, Nevertheless, no one of the
waiting throng seemed to be in any haste to move in-doora, and
jurors, witnesses, spectators and laywers remalned clustered about
the entrance or scattered along the edge of the Common discussing

10 See 11 Am. St, Tr.
1 Poat, p. 774,

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