"Intense earnestness, and a faculty of an immediate and powerful
concentration of all his mental faculties on any subject which
interested him, were the predominant peculiarities of the early
manhood of Mr. George. When he came to the bar, he manifested a
power of felicitous language, and a largeness of vocabulary,
which were rarely to be seen even in the most practiced
speakers. He never prepared beforehand the words of his spoken
utterances, either at the bar, in the committee-room, or on the
stump. Whatever he could see and understand at all, he saw and
understood clearly. The strength of his feelings, the enormous
power and range of his vocabulary, added to this clearness of
vision, made mere verbal preparation unnecessary for him. His
speaking was made up of a clear perception of the turning-point
of his case, and then of pungent epigram, sparkling paradox,
rattling attack, vivid repartee, hearty humor, and, when
occasion called for, of a fearlessness of denunciation of what
he believed to be wrong or unjust or unfair, which made him,
even at the outset of his brilliant career, a dangerous
antagonist for the most practiced and powerful members of the
New Hampshire bar."
Though not retiring from general practice, Col. George has devoted his
attention largely to railroad law for many years past, having accepted,
in 1867, the position of solicitor for the Boston & Lowell Railroad, and
established an office in Boston for the transaction of business in
connection with that position. For nearly twenty years previous to that
date he had served as clerk and counsel of the Concord Railroad
corporation, and had already become familiar with the law of railways
and their general relations to the public. To-day there is no higher
living authority upon railroad law in New England than Col. George,--no
man who understands more thoroughly or can state more clearly the
respective rights, duties, and obligations of railroad corporations and
the people, in relation to each other, a general understanding of which
is becoming more and more essential to the fullest measure of our
national prosperity. His public addresses upon the subject, his
arguments before legislative committees, courts, and juries, are models
of clearness and cogency, admirable in construction and convincing in
effect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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