groundless.  The deed was done in the house of Taylor, in the city of Columbia, and was premeditated murder.  Mrs. Taylor was a lovely woman and highly connected.  In her manners she was affable and cordial; she was a great favorite in society, and her universal popularity attracted to her the host of friends who so much admired her.  Dr. Cheesboro was one of these, and the green-eyed monster made him, in the convictions of Taylor, the especial favorite of his wife.  McDuffie was employed in his defence, and he made a most triumphant success against evidence, law, and justice.  His speech to the jury was most effective.  The trial had called to Columbia many persons connected with the family; and all were interested to save from an ignominious death their relative.  This, it was thought, could only be done by the sacrifice of the wife’s reputation.  This would not only ruin forever this estimable lady, but reflect a stain upon her extensive and respectable connections.  She was appealed to, to save her husband’s life with the sacrifice of her fame.  In the consciousness of innocence, she refused with Spartan firmness to slander her reputation by staining her conscience with a lie.  Her friends stood by her; and when hope had withered into despair, and the possibility gone forever of saving him by this means, the eloquence of McDuffie and the influence of family were invoked, and successfully.

In the examination of the witnesses he showed great tact, and successfully kept from the jury facts which would have left them no excuse for a verdict of acquittal.  But it was in his address that his great powers made themselves manifest.  The opening was impassioned and powerful.  Scarcely had he spoken ten minutes before the Bench, the Bar, the jury, and the audience were in tears, and, during the entire speech, so entirely did he control the feelings of every one who heard him, that the sobs from every part of the courtroom were audible above the sounds of his voice.  When he had concluded, the jury went weeping from the box to the room of their deliberations, and soon returned a verdict of acquittal.

This effort established the fame of McDuffie as an orator and man of great mental powers.  Fortunately at that time it was the pride of South Carolina to call to her service the best talent in all the public offices, State and national, and with one acclaim the people demanded his services in Congress.  Mr. Simpkins, the incumbent from the Edgefield district, declined a re-election, that his legal partner, Mr. McDuffie, might succeed him, and he was chosen by acclamation.  He came in at a time when talent abounded in Congress, and when the country was deeply agitated with the approaching election for President.  Almost immediately upon his entering Congress an altercation occurred upon the floor of the House between him and Mr. Randolph, which resulted in the discomfiture of Mr. Randolph, causing him to leave the House in a rage, with the determination to challenge McDuffie.  This, however, when he cooled, he declined to do.  This rencontre of wit and bitter words gave rise to an amusing incident during its progress.