... represented the plaintiff or the defendant, before either a justice of the peace or the circuit court or the Illinois Su-preme Court in Springfield, or in one of the courts of the other Eighth ... literary talent, the effort backfired. The language and the devices of the “Sampson’s Ghost” letters are shrill and stilted. They have none of the personal or the rhetorical depth of the letters ... difficulty of the task and the inadequacy of the speaker; a review of the what, how, and why of the occasion; an analytic presentation of the relevant facts and arguments; a synthesis of the underlying...