Colonel Burr's style of speaking at the bar was unique, or peculiarly
his own; always brief; never loud, vehement, or impassioned, but
conciliating, persuasive, and impressive; and when his subject called
for gravity or seriousness, his manner was stern and peremptory. He
was too dignified ever to be a trifler; and his sarcasm, sometimes
indulged in, rarely created a laugh, but powerfully told upon those
who had provoked it. His enunciation was slow, distinct, and emphatic;
perhaps too emphatic; and this was pronounced, by his early and
devoted friend, Judge Paterson, [3] a fault in his mode of speaking
while a youth, and seems never to have been fully corrected, as he did
that of rapid utterance, attaining the true medium for public speaking
in this respect. He spoke with great apparent ease, but could not be
called fluent, although he never appeared at a loss for words, which
were always so chaste and appropriate that they seemed to, have been
as carefully selected before they fell from his lips as if they had
been written down in a prepared speech and committed to memory. His
manner was dignified and courteous; his self-possession never for an
instant forsook him. He never appeared hurried or confused, or
betrayed the slightest embarrassment for want of ideas to support his
argument, or language in which to clothe it; and possessed a memory so
well disciplined as never to forget any thing in the excitement of the
legal forum which in the retirement of his study he had intended to
use. He has frequently been heard to say that he possessed no
oratorical talents; that he never spoke with pleasure, or even
self-satisfaction, and seemed unconscious of the effect which he
produced upon the minds of his audience.