Declamation

“ It contains some vigorous declamation, but is wanting in the averment of facts, which are indispensable to give it sufficiency as a pleading, for the purpose intended. The complaint to which it refers does not help it. ”

“ While I am willing to allow that declamation, or the powers of an effervescent imagination, are no evidences of wisdom, the House must admit that the mere dullness of a special pleader without his accuracy does not imply any pretensions to knowledge. ”

“ The witchery of words, powerful enough on the printed page, is to me ten times more powerful when it is reinforced by voice and glance and gesture. Fine rhetoric and lofty declamation have always stirred my blood; and yet I suppose that Demosthenes was right, and that, though rhetoric [Pg 285] and declamation are good, still the most valuable asset for a public speaker is a complete identification with the majority of his countrymen, in their prejudices, their likings, and their hatreds. ”

“ The air of the New World seems favorable to the art of declamation. ”

“ YOU cannot conceive the odd agreeable mixture of pleasure and pain I felt on the receipt of your favor;—believe me, good friend, I honor and respect your nobleness of principle—but at the same time greatly disapprove of your actions.—My dear Madam, bribery and corruption are the reigning topics of declamation;—and here, because I happen to be a well-wisher, you are loading us with presents.—One word for all, my good Mrs. ”

“ What excuse can you offer for being her destroyer? Dear madam, don’t use so severe an expression—Sir, I can use no other: How can you extenuate the fault, by which you merit so severe an appellation? To a lady of your rigid delicacy, madam, said he, perhaps what youth could offer, in extenuation of the fault, might appear but a weak plea: yet ’tis most certain, that I was surprized into the fatal error: I am under no promises, no ties, no engagements whatsoever to the lady. No ties, Sir! (interrupting him) Is your own honour no tie upon you, supposing you free from any other obligation? ”

“ The term “pleadings” is used for the collected whole of the statements of both parties; the term “pleading” for each separate part of the pleadings. The term “plea” (placitum, plaid) [1] is now applied in England oftenest to the defence made by an accused person. To “plead” is to make a pleading or plea. [2]
All systems of law agree in making it necessary to bring the grounds of a claim or defence before the court in a more or less definite and technical form.
Roman System.-In Roman law the action passed through three stages (see Action) , and the manner of pleading changed with the action. ”

“ Every pleader who acts in the business of another should have regard to four things:—First, that he be a person receivable in court, that he be no heretic, nor excommunicate, nor criminal, nor man of religion, nor woman, nor ordained clerk above the order of sub-deacon, nor beneficed clerk with the cure of souls, nor infant under twenty-one years of age, nor judge in the same cause, nor open leper, nor man attainted of falsification against the law of his office. ”

“ In testing the sufficiency of the complaint on a motion to dismiss, all reasonable inferences must be resolved in favor of the complaint, and the pleadings are to be liberally construed. Id. Our rules require fact pleading, and a complaint must state facts, not mere conclusions, in order to entitle the pleader to relief. ”

“ These references to the pleadings are sufficient, without more, to exhibit the real issue between the parties, and to show the proper application of the several propositions of fact maintained on the one side and the other in the argument at the bar. ”

“ You seem to me to be both in the wrong, Give back this petition. Tomorrow I shall issue a Proclamation, Forbidding people to gamble. If they don’t obey it, they will certainly be punished. The gate-keeper is too old. ”

“ So there are three kinds,—one of judgment, one of deliberation, one of embellishment; and this last, because it is chiefly employed in panegyric, has its peculiar name from that.
IV. C. F. What objects shall the orator propose to himself in these three kinds of oratory?
C. P. In embellishment, his aim must be to give pleasure; in judicial speaking, to excite either the severity or the clemency of the judge; but in persuasion, to excite either the hope or the fear of the assembly which is deliberating. ”

“ I reckon that these sorts of conceited appellations, are usually invented by the vulgar; who, not troubling themselves to examine thoroughly the merits of a cause, are consequently the most violent partisans of what they espouse, and in their quarrels usually proceed to their beloved argument of calling names, until at length they light upon one which is sure to stick: and in time, each party grows proud of that appellation, which their adversaries at first intended for a reproach. ”

“ One can read pleadings when one cannot collect one’s ideas to speak. It is not usual to do so. The counsel in a cause states the substance of the pleadings, leaving the Court to refer to them if it thinks necessary. ”

“ Let the persons harmed or annoyed present a petition to the attorney general setting forth the facts and if, in his judgment, they show a case of habitual falsehood, defamation and scandal so as to constitute a public nuisance, let him file a bill in the court of common pleas having jurisdiction, asking for an abatement of the nuisance, and let the court have authority, upon sufficient proof, to make such abatement by suppression of the journal so offending, in whole or in part, as may be necessary. ”

“ Statements and declarations is the expression,-what the applicant states, and what the applicant declares. Nothing can be more simple. If he makes any statement in the application, it must be true. If he makes any declaration in the application, it must be true. ”

“ For praise, or blame, or the statement of an opinion, or accusation, or denial, ought all to effect different ends. In judicial investigations the object of inquiry is, what is just; in demonstrative discussion the question is, what is honourable; in deliberations, in our opinion, what we inquire is, what is honourable and at the same time expedient. For the other writers on this subject have thought it right to limit the consideration of expediency to speeches directed to persuasion or dissuasion. ”

“ Whenever such a plea is presented, we can, if it comes to us, pass intelligently on its validity. If issue is taken, the facts can be embodied in a bill of exceptions or some other form, and we can say whether those facts render the contract void. ”

“ Their claims are so affecting, and so obvious, the remedy that would save them from all pain is so cheap and simple, that it is, we feel, only necessary to appeal to the public to obtain by acclamation a verdict in their favour. ”

“ Looking at the case as exhibited to us by the record, it appears to be an appeal by respondents from a decree dismissing the complainant's bill with costs. It often happens that a court may decree in favor of a complainant, but not to the extent prayed for in his bill, and he may have just cause of appeal on that account. ”

“ The name acclamationes was also given to the decrees passed by the senate in honour of the emperor, and to the congratulations addressed to him, inasmuch as these were always carried by acclamation. Under Trajan these were entered in the Acta, and engraved upon bronze. (Plin. Panegyr. 75, &c.; Capitol. Maxim. duo, 16, 26, Gordian. tres, 11; Lamprid. Alexand. Sever. 6-12; Vopisc. Tac. 4, 5, 7, Prob. 11.) Many instances of acclamationes are given by Ferrarius, De Veterum Acclamationibus et Plausu, in Graevius, Thesaur. ”

“ Material allegations in the bill of complaint ought to be answered and admitted, or denied, if the facts are within the knowledge of the respondent; and if not, be ought to state what his belief is upon the subject, if he has any, and if he has none, and cannot form any, he ought to say so, and call on the complainant for proof of the alleged facts, or waive that branch of the controversy ”

“ The first step towards what we should call bringing an action against a person, is to present a petition to the judge, who writes on the margin of it an order for bringing before him the party against whom complaint is made. ”

“ Whenever the legislature has accurately determined what are the facts which shall give commencement, and what those which shall give termination to a right, the whole confused and intricate mass of what in English law is called Pleading, reduces itself to those clear and simple elements. A begins, by affirming some one of the facts which gives commencement to a right. ”

“ If thou art a leader (or administrator) , hear quietly the speech of the petitioner. He who is suffering wrong desires that his heart be cheered to do that on account of which he hath come ....... It is an ornament of the heart to hear kindly. ”

“ The office of a plea is, to state on the record the answer of the defendant to the allegations of the plaintiff, but not to the evidence by which the defendant conjectures the plaintiff will endeavor to support those allegations. ”

“ An unconditional promise, in writing, to accept a bill before it is drawn, shall be deemed an actual acceptance in favor of every person to whom such written promise shall have been shown, and who upon the faith thereof shall have received the bill for a valuable consideration. ”

“ In the ecclesiastical courts the statements of the parties are called generally pleas. The statement of the plaintiff in civil Ecclesiastical suits is called a libel; of the promoter in criminal suits articles. Every subsequent plea is called an allegation. To the responsive allegation of the defendant the promoter may plead a counter-allegation. The cause is concluded when the parties renounce any further allegation. ”

“ What you have done seems good, and as was to be expected from your learning and prudence. And inasmuch as I have ordered a full reply to be made in regard to the matters upon which you have consulted me, as you will see by the memorandum accompanying this letter, signed by my grand chancellor, I therefore command and charge you to examine it, and in accordance with it direct affairs, so that, so far as we are concerned, it will be evident that nothing remains to be done for the fulfilment of what we agreed upon. ”

“ Do you attribute any greater weight or any meaning to the words “I swear,” and to the fact of kissing the book, beyond the words of ordinary promise?—Not beyond the words of ordinary promise made under statutory obligation. ”

“ In the next place the fact is to be represented, the case is to be stated, and the speaker then proceeds to prove his allegations; he next proceeds to confute what has been advanced by the other party; and at the conclusion of his speech, whatever makes in his favour he is to magnify and improve, and whatever makes against him he is to weaken and extenuate. ”

“ When my solicitors heard that we two had lunched together, they threw up their hands in amazement.
“The two principals in a libel action! And the one who alleges libel allows the other to pay for his lunch! The case collapses!” ”

“ The Court having heard oral argument by the Attorneys General of the States and having considered the printed briefs of counsel, the Court is of the opinion that the motion for leave to file the bill of complaint should be granted. ”

“ There is no act of Congress, and nothing to be found in American jurisprudence, which bears very directly on the subject. In the English law the instrument is thus defined: 'Proclamation proclamatio-is a notice publicly given of anything whereof the king thinks fit to advertise his subjects. ”

“ It is true that the court of appeals asks us to assume the bill of complaint to be 'in other respects sufficient,' that is, sufficient to entitle complainant to relief, if the fraud alleged were available. ”

“ To persuade others to his own point of view, the pleader, as we know, at times, resorts to exaggeration, to vilification of men who have been, or are, prominent in church or state, and even to false statement. ”

“ My Lord,—Being wholly unknown to your lordship, I have only this apology to make for presuming to trouble you with a request, that a stranger’s petition, if it cannot be easily granted, can be easily refused. ”

“ While the word 'claim' may sometimes be used in the broad juridical sense of 'a demand of some matter as of right, made by one person upon another, to do or to forbear to do some act or thing as a matter of duty,' Prigg v. ”

“ Without adverting to others, which are open to serious objections on account of the looseness and generality of their texture, we are of opinion that the fifth plea is a complete answer to the action. ”

“ Upon a writ of error we are confined to the bill of exceptions, or questions of law otherwise presented by the record; and upon an appeal, to the statement of facts and rulings certified by the court below. The facts set forth in the statement which must come up with the appeal are conclusive on us. ”

“ He had not replied to the letter from the law department of the Provisions Company which asked if he wished to sue for libel, and begged him to do so. He had burned the paper, but the headlines were seared into his brain. ”

“ I SHOULD before this have returned you thanks for the favour of your letter, but that I feared too quick a correspondence might be troublesome to you. When I receive a very great honour and favour, I think it ungenerous immediately to sue for another, though I have the highest sense of the obligation. ”

“ A statement of defence may not be delivered except under order made on the summons for directions (which must be taken out immediately after the appearance of the defendant in answer to the writ) , nor a reply without special leave. The result of the present practice is to substitute “particulars,” i.e. specific statement of the details which the parties intend to prove, for the more general terms in which pleadings were formerly framed. ”

“ If anyone refuses to come to court or to do what the rachinburgii have commanded, that is, to give pledge for payment, or for the ordeal, or for anything which the law requires, then the complainant is to summon him to the presence of the king. ”