e gift of the gab," and
a species of forcible eloquence that some of our lawyers might envy.
He would have distinguished himself in any of our town meetings; and
with cultivation, might have shown in history. He, however, committed
that very common fault among our popular orators,--_he talked too
much_. The President of the Committee was not much of a speaker; but
he was a man of sense and prudence. Cool as he was, he was thrown a
little off his guard by an intemperate phrase of the culprit; who in
the ardor of his defence, accused the President of being a
_Federalist_; and this turned the current of favor against the
unguarded orator, and he was from all sides, hissed. When quiet was
restored, the President took advantage of the current just turned in
his favor, and said, "Fellow Prisoners! I perceive that I have
committed an error in confining this man without a previous trial, and
I am sorry for it. At the time, I thought I was doing right; but I
now see that I was wrong." He then proposed to have the accused
regularly tried, before the full committee, which he hoped would prove
themselves the real representatives of the community, collected in
course of events within the planks of an enemy's prison ship. He
exhorted the committee not to be influenced by party, prejudice, or
local attachment, but to act justly and independently. The accused was
allowed to speak for himself. He was not an old Jack Tar, but the son
of a respectable New England yeoman, with a clear head, and not
destitute of learning, nor was he ignorant of the law. He defended
himself with real ability, and the spirit of Emmet spoke with him.
Among other things, he said--"What have I done to bring down upon me
the resentment of the committee, and the vengeance of its President?
In attempting to establish the rights of this little community, I have
suffered the ignominy of a close confinement, by the order of my own
countrymen. While we are suffering oppression, degradation and insult,
from the external enemy, shall we redouble our misery, by wrongfully
oppressing one another? I thought it my duty to exert myself in favor
of an equality of rights among us. I could not bear to hear the
domineering language, and see the overbearing conduct of the purse
proud among us; of a set of cunning, tricking, slight-of-hand men, who
were constantly stripping the unwary and artless American, of the
small sums he had acquired, not by gaming, but by labor and good
beha