those who were most intimate with him, as all who
met him were, after an hour’s acquaintance.
His public life was as his private, open and sincere;
he never had a sinister motive, and this relieved him
from duplicity of conduct. His talents were of
a high order: in debate, he was argumentative
and explicit; never pretending to any of the arts of
the orator; but logically pursued his subject to a
conclusion; never verbose, but always perspicuous.
As a lawyer, he was well read; and the analytical
character of his mind appeared to have been formed
upon the model of Judge Blackstone. Before the
juries of the country he was all-powerful. These,
in the main, were composed of men of very limited
information—and especially of legal lore.
But they were generally men of strong practical sense,
with an honest purpose of doing justice between man
and man. Cobb with these was always sincere; never
attempting a deception, never seeking to sway their
judgments and secure a verdict by appealing to their
passions or their prejudices, or by deceiving them
as to what the law was. Toward a witness or a
party of whose honesty he entertained doubts, he was
sarcastically severe; nor was he choice in the use
of terms. As a statesman, he was wise and able—and
in politics, as in everything else, honest and patriotic.
In early life he was sent to the House of Representatives,
in the Congress of the United States, and soon distinguished
himself as a devoted Republican in politics, and a
warm supporter of the Administration of Mr. Monroe.
Here he was reunited socially with Mr. Crawford and
family, and so close was this intimacy that he was
on all political measures supposed to speak the sentiments
of Mr. Crawford. Associated with Forsyth, Tatnal,
Gilmer, and Cuthbert, all men of superior abilities,
all belonging to the same political party, and all
warm supporters, of Mr. Crawford, he led this galaxy
of talent—a constellation in the political
firmament unsurpassed by the representation of any
other State. Nor must I forget, in this connection,
Joel Crawford and William Terrell, men of sterling
worth and a high order of talent. Mr. Cobb was
a man of active business habits, and was very independent
in his circumstances: methodical and correct,
he never left for to-morrow the work of to-day.
He was transferred from the House to the Senate, and left it with a reputation for integrity and talent—the one as brilliant as the other unstained—which falls to the lot of few who are so long in public life as he was. Unlike most politicians whose career has been through exciting political struggles, the blight of slander was never breathed upon his name, and it descended to his children, as he received it from his ancestry, without spot or blemish.