e honest convictions of his judgment,
notwithstanding their apparent impulsive and hasty character. Like his
tutor, Mr. Crawford, he cared little for ceremony or show; and in
every thing he was the kernel without the shell: his character was
marked before his company in five minutes' conversation, whether he
had ever met or heard of them before; and in all things else he was
equally without deceit. This openness to some seemed rude; and his
enemies were of this class. He expressed as freely his opinion to the
person as to the public; but this was always accompanied with a manner
which disrobed it of offence. But human nature will not in every
individual excuse the words because of the manner; and sometimes this
peculiarity made him sharp enemies. It will be supposed such traits
would have rendered him unpopular. At this day, when social
intercourse is less familiar, they certainly would have done so; but
they seemed a means of great popularity to Cobb, especially with those
who were most intimate with him, as all who met him were, after an
hour's acquaintance. His public life was as his private, open and
sincere; he never had a sinister motive, and this relieved him from
duplicity of conduct. His talents were of a high order: in debate, he
was argumentative and explicit; never pretending to any of the arts of
the orator; but logically pursued his subject to a conclusion; never
verbose, but always perspicuous. As a lawyer, he was well read; and
the analytical character of his mind appeared to have been formed upon
the model of Judge Blackstone. Before the juries of the country he was
all-powerful. These, in the main, were composed of men of very limited
information--and especially of legal lore. But they were generally men
of strong practical sense, with an honest purpose of doing justice
between man and man. Cobb with these was always sincere; never
attempting a deception, never seeking to sway their judgments and
secure a verdict by appealing to their passions or their prejudices,
or by deceiving them as to what the law was. Toward a witness or a
party of whose honesty he entertained doubts, he was sarcastically
severe; nor was he choice in the use of terms. As a statesman, he was
wise and able--and in politics, as in everything else, honest and
patriotic. In early life he was sent to the House of Representatives,
in the Congress of the United States, and soon distinguished himself
as a devoted Republican in politics, a