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James Hamilton Lewis Political Enigma
James Hamilton Lewis Political Enigma
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Kindle version of vintage magazine article originally published in 1900. Contains lots of great info and illustrations seldom seen in the last 100 years.
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Although Lewis is a great conjurer with juries, his successes are mainly attributable to his extraordinary industry, his tireless application to the work in hand, and his intimacy with the books. It is said of him that he can find more bad law for a bad case than any lawyer in the state, and that scarcely any question can arise in the practice at which he has become so skilled upon which he is not prepared to cite authorities. These may not always be in his favor, but his memorized references will almost invariably disclose the subject matter at controversy. This advantage was long ago recognized at the bar as his most substantial resource.
If the human brain was properly likened by De Quincey to the palimpsest of the ancients, that of Lewis fails to disclose under the fluid action of the will the literary treasures committed to its keeping. He quotes philosophy, he quotes poetry, he quotes economics, he quotes Scripture, he quotes Latin—and almost invariably mis-quotes. But to the multitude, such are his suavity and address that his misquotations serve to clothe him with t h e dignity and wisdom of the sage. He has, moreover, an amusing infelicity in his scholastic flights. He affects to esteem Hortensius highly, to revere Cicero as his model, and he has discoursed glibly about Jeremy Bentham as their contemporary. In concluding a brief to be filed in the state Supreme Court once, he made a lengthy quotation from Virgil, accrediting it to Homer. When the error was pointed out by a law partner, he exclaimed, indignantly, "Confound that stenographer!"
In smoothing over his bad breaks, he is never wanting in readiness of excuse. On the stump once he scored a political opponent as a "horrible Centaur with the head of a human being and the body of a snake."
When a friend challenged his information next day, he replied: "That is nothing, my dear boy - a mere slip of the tongue."
In his periphrastic deliriums Lewis is prone to invent quotations. One of his common campaign tricks in 1896 was to read from the Republican text-book statements it did not contain. He has been caught resorting to the same device in court; he has been trapped citing authorities that did not exist, and quoting from others wrongly. On one public occasion, he felt inspired to test his familiarity with Gibbon.
Read excerpt -
Although Lewis is a great conjurer with juries, his successes are mainly attributable to his extraordinary industry, his tireless application to the work in hand, and his intimacy with the books. It is said of him that he can find more bad law for a bad case than any lawyer in the state, and that scarcely any question can arise in the practice at which he has become so skilled upon which he is not prepared to cite authorities. These may not always be in his favor, but his memorized references will almost invariably disclose the subject matter at controversy. This advantage was long ago recognized at the bar as his most substantial resource.
If the human brain was properly likened by De Quincey to the palimpsest of the ancients, that of Lewis fails to disclose under the fluid action of the will the literary treasures committed to its keeping. He quotes philosophy, he quotes poetry, he quotes economics, he quotes Scripture, he quotes Latin—and almost invariably mis-quotes. But to the multitude, such are his suavity and address that his misquotations serve to clothe him with t h e dignity and wisdom of the sage. He has, moreover, an amusing infelicity in his scholastic flights. He affects to esteem Hortensius highly, to revere Cicero as his model, and he has discoursed glibly about Jeremy Bentham as their contemporary. In concluding a brief to be filed in the state Supreme Court once, he made a lengthy quotation from Virgil, accrediting it to Homer. When the error was pointed out by a law partner, he exclaimed, indignantly, "Confound that stenographer!"
In smoothing over his bad breaks, he is never wanting in readiness of excuse. On the stump once he scored a political opponent as a "horrible Centaur with the head of a human being and the body of a snake."
When a friend challenged his information next day, he replied: "That is nothing, my dear boy - a mere slip of the tongue."
In his periphrastic deliriums Lewis is prone to invent quotations. One of his common campaign tricks in 1896 was to read from the Republican text-book statements it did not contain. He has been caught resorting to the same device in court; he has been trapped citing authorities that did not exist, and quoting from others wrongly. On one public occasion, he felt inspired to test his familiarity with Gibbon.
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