ted sympathy for one of the parties, and
antipathy for the other; sympathy for the white, antipathy to the black;
sympathy for the slaveholders, in place of protection for the
unfortunate and oppressed. It is impossible by any abstract or outline
to do justice to the laborious ability with which this argument is
sustained. The just severity with which he scrutinizes the proceedings
of the Executive and the demands of the Spanish Minister, the
completeness with which he vindicates for these Africans their right to
freedom,--the extensive research into the law of nations, and the broad
principles of eternal justice, on which he supports their claim to be
liberated, were probably not excelled by any public effort at that
period, whether of the bar or the senate. He concluded with the
following touching reminiscences of distinguished members of the bench
and the bar, with whom in former times he had been associated:

"May it please your honors: On the 7th of February, 1804, now more
than thirty-seven years past, my name was entered, and yet stands
recorded, on both the rolls, as one of the attorneys and counsellors
of this court. Five years later, in February and March, 1809, I
appeared for the last time before this court, in defence of the
cause of justice and of important rights, in which many of my
fellow-citizens had property to a large amount at stake. Very
shortly afterwards I was called to the discharge of other duties,
first in distant lands, and in later years within our own country,
but in different departments of her government. Little did I imagine
that I should ever again be required to claim the right of appearing
in the capacity of an officer of this court; yet such has been the
dictate of my destiny, and I appear again to plead the cause of
justice, and now of liberty and life, in behalf of many of my
fellow-men, before that same court which, in a former age, I had
addressed in support of rights of property. I stand again, I trust
for the last time, before the same court. '_Hic caestus, artemque
repono._' I stand before the same court, but not before the same
judges, nor aided by the same associates, nor resisted by the same
opponents. As I cast my eyes along those seats of honor and of
public trust now occupied by you, they seek in vain for one of those
honored and honorable persons whose indulgence listened then to my