less command of his temper, and
showed more plainly the smart of the hostile shaft; and, though prompt
as lightning to return it, did not always send it back to the enemy as
steadily as he might have done with more deliberation. Their modes of
reasoning differed as widely as their temperaments. Each was a supreme
master of reasoning in his respective department; and, if we look along
their entire course at the bar, it is hard to say which of the two won
the most verdicts. Perhaps, though both of these able men wielded at
times an almost omnipotent sway over juries and over the bench; yet it
may be said that the style of Tazewell was more decisive with the court,
and that of Taylor with the jury. Each seemed necessary to the greatness
of the other; and it is probable that, if Tazewell had not been
constantly pressed throughout his career by such a man as Taylor, he
would never have made those wonderful displays before a jury and in
popular assemblies which form no small part of his fame; and that
Taylor, unless checked by the severe logic of Tazewell, would, indeed,
have been, as he was, the great advocate of his time, but would have
failed to acquire that reputation for profound ability and learning in
the law, which no less a judge than Marshall acknowledged in terms of
high commendation. In a strictly legal point of view, it would have been
best that both these able men had been removed in early life from the
deteriorating influence of inferior courts, and transferred to a higher
sphere. Had they gone together to New York, and had been compelled to
follow their cases through the highest courts as well as the lowest, or
had confined themselves to appellate tribunals, they would in their
daily efforts have reared a legal reputation coextensive with the Union,
and, perhaps, more durable. It is only necessary to state that Taylor
remained at the bar ten years after the retirement of Tazewell; that he
was then called upon to preside in the courts in which he had reaped his
brilliant fame; that, when a long and honored judicial career seemed to
stretch before him, he was snatched away at the comparatively early age
of sixty; and that Tazewell survived him more than a quarter of a
century.[4]

Before we leave the Court-room of 1802, glancing, as we pass, at the
face of young Maxwell, then just returned from Yale, who four years
later was to make a name for himself, and of Arthur and Richard Henry
Lee, brothers, whose sparkli