[348] 9 Cranch, 425.
[349] 9 Cranch, 426-29.
[350] Ib. 428-29.
[351] "We ... have Neutrality, soft and gentle and defenceless in herself, yet clad in the panoply of her warlike neighbours—with the frown of defiance upon her brow, and the smile of conciliation upon her lip—with the spear of Achilles in one hand and a lying protestation of innocence and helplessness unfolded in the other. Nay, ... we shall have the branch of olive entwined around the bolt of Jove, and Neutrality in the act of hurling the latter under the deceitful cover of the former....
"Call you that Neutrality which thus conceals beneath its appropriate vestment the giant limbs of War, and converts the charter-party of the compting-house into a commission of marque and reprisals; which makes of neutral trade a laboratory of belligerent annoyance; which ... warms a torpid serpent into life, and places it beneath the footsteps of a friend with a more appalling lustre on its crest and added venom in its sting." (Wheaton: Some Account of the Life, Writings, and Speeches of William Pinkney, 463, 466.)
Pinkney frankly said that his metaphors, "hastily conceived and hazarded," were inspired by the presence of women "of this mixed and (for a court of judicature) uncommon audience." (Ib. 464-65.)
Except for this exhibition of rodomontade his address was a wonderful display of reasoning and erudition. His brief peroration was eloquence of the noblest order. (See entire speech, Wheaton: Pinkney, 455-516.)
[352] See vol. i, 72, 195, of this work.
[353] 9 Cranch, 430-31.
[354] Ib. 430.