Daniel W.
Voorhees as Lawyer and Orator.
already achieved. In 1860- 1862 he was elected to Congress. In 1864 he was again returned, but on a contest his seat was awarded to his political opponent. In 1866 he refused to be again a candidate for Con gress, but was re-elected in 1868 and 1870, and defeated in 1872. On the death of Senator Oliver P. Morton, in November, 1877, Mr. Voorhees was ap pointed by Gov. James D. Williams to the vacancy thus occasioned; which position he held until March 3, 1897, when he was succeeded by Hon. Charles W. Fairbanks. Mr. Voorhees first achieved a national reputation as an orator in defense of John , E. Cook, in 1859, one of the followers of "Osawatomie Brown" in his raid on Har per's Ferry. Cook was a fair-haired boy, scarcely of age, and a brother of the wife of Ashbel P. Willard, then Governor of In diana. Gov. Willard sent for Voorhees, who was in a distant county arguing a case, to go to the defense of Cook. Voorhees left in the midst of the argument, proceeded at once to Indianapolis; and, against the advice of his friends, left forthwith for Charlestown, Virginia. His friends were fear ful for his personal safety; but Voorhees was perfectly indifferent on that subject. Brown was convicted of treason and murder; but Cook only of murder. An appeal was made to Gov. Wise of Virginia, by Gov. Willard, for executive clemency on behalf of Cook; but Wise, very injudiciously, refused to grant him a pardon. It was a great mistake on the part of Wise; for Cook was little more than putty in Brown's hands. Cook con fessed his crime before the trial. In the whole range of forensic oratory there is not a more eloquent and forcible appeal to a jury for leniency than Voorhees made in defense of Cook. He was then thirty-seven years of age, conscious of his great powers, possessing a magnetic power
357
over all who approached him, having an un usual command of language, and endowed with a fine, poetical imagination. The mere reading in silence the leaden pages embalm ing this oration for posterity stirs the heart with unusual emotions. Nothing but great political excitement and fear of public op probrium prevented a different verdict. Very naturally the appearance of an In diana lawyer in a Virginia court, to defend an Indiana man, who had committed a heinous crime against the laws of Virginia, would greatly tend to raise a prejudice against the defense. With consummate skill Voorhees sought to put this aside : " I come from the sunset-side of your western moun tains — from beyond the rivers that now skirt the borders of your great State — but I come not as an alien to a foreign land, but rather as one who returns to the home of. his ancestors, and to the household from which he sprang. I come here not as an enemy, but as a friend, with interests com mon with yourselves, hoping for your hopes, and praying that the prosperity and glory of Virginia may be perpetual. Nor do I forget that the very soil on which I live in my western home was once owned by this venerable commonwealth as much as the soil on which I now stand. Her laws there once prevailed, and all her institutions were there established as they are here. Not only my own State of Indiana, but also four other great States in the Northwest, stand enduring and lofty monuments of Virginia's magnanimity and princely liberality. Her donation to the general government made them sovereign States; and since God gave the fruitful land of Canaan to Moses and Israel, such a gift of present and future empire has never been made to any people. Coming from the bosom of one of these States, can I forget the fealty and duty I owe to the supremacy of your laws, and sacred-
