It is known that Mr. Pinkney was engaged for the appellants; and much
interest was excited at the approaching contest between two men whose
peculiar province was the law of admiralty; but before the appointed
time, Pinkney was summoned to another and higher tribunal; and among
those who deplored the loss which our whole country suffered in his
death, none was more sincere than Mr. Tazewell. A friend, who had heard
the current rumors concerning the death of Pinkney in connexion with the
case, ventured to ask Mr. Tazewell about the truth of the matter. He
instantly said that it was all a fiction,--that Pinkney, who was of a
full temperament, died of an inflammatory disease (as we all know from
his life by Wheaton); that there were no extremely difficult points in
the case, and that, if there had been, Pinkney feared the face of no man
living. Of Mr. Tazewell, intellectually and physically as he appeared at
this time, an eloquent likeness is presented in the sketch of Francis
Walker Gilmer.[5]

Tazewell had argued the Cochineal case in Norfolk and in Richmond
before it reached the Supreme Court, and had exhibited such an abounding
wealth of argument, it was believed that his last speech would be a mere
reflection of its predecessors in the cause; but he was as wary as he
was able; and, knowing from the magnitude of the case it would be
carried up, and would be maintained by the greatest legal talents of the
age, he wisely reserved some of his strongest points for the court of
the last resort. When General Taylor, who went up to hear the final
argument, returned to Norfolk, he told the bar, that to his surprise
Tazewell had taken six new points in the case.

When M. Chacon, the Spanish Consul, called on Mr. Tazewell to engage him
in behalf of the Spanish claimants, he was informed that he would