Mr. Madison
appointed him district attorney of the United States for the district
of Louisiana, when a very young man. This appointment introduced him
to the Bar and the practice immediately. He was one of those
extraordinary creations, who leap into manhood without the probation
of youth: at twenty-two he was eminent and in full practice, ranking
with the leading members of the Bar. Truly, Grymes was born great, for
no one can remember when he was not great! Never, in company, in
social life, with a private friend, at the Bar, or anywhere, was he
even apparently simple or like other men; in private, with his best
friend, he spoke, he looked, and he was the great man. He was great in
his frivolities, great in his burlesques, great in his humor, great in
common conversation; the great lawyer, the great orator, the great
blackguard, and the great companion, the great beau, and the great
spendthrift: in nothing was he little.
His language was ornate, his style was terse and beautiful; in
conversation he was voluble and transcendently entertaining; knew
everybody and everything; never seemed to read, and yet was always
prepared in his cases, and seemed to be a lawyer by intuition.
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