Webster says that Mason talked
to the jury "in a plain conversational way, in short sentences, and using
no word that was not level to the comprehension of the least educated man
on the panel. This led me to examine my own style, and I set about
reforming it altogether." Note the simplicity in the following sentences
from Webster's speech on _The Murder of Captain Joseph White_:--
"Deep sleep had fallen on the destined victim, and on all beneath his
roof. A healthful old man, to whom sleep was sweet, and the first sound
slumbers of the night held him in their soft but strong embrace.... The
face of the innocent sleeper is turned from the murderer, and the beams
of the moon, resting on the gray locks of his aged temple, show him where
to strike."
In his speech on _The Completion of the Bunker Hill Monument_, we find the
following paragraph, containing two sentences which present in simple
language one of the great facts in human history:--
"America has furnished to the world the character of Washington! And if
our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have
entitled them to the respect of mankind.
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