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Les diagrammas suivants illustrent la mAthoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 MICROCOPV RESOIUTION TEST CHART (ANSI ond ISO TEST CHART No 2) 1.0 I.I Mi ■ >. 13.2 Hi. 136 14.0 1[ B2J 2.2 2.0 1.8 ^ /APPLIED IIVMGE Inc ST. 1653 East Mo-n St'eet r^S Rochester. New York U"09 uSA ■^S (716) *82 - 0300 - Phone ^S (716) 288 - 5989 - Fo» >'» Famous Orators of the World And Their Best Orations i -CONTAINING- The Lives of the Greatest Orators and their Best Orations from Earliest Times to Present Day with an Account of Place and Tim>i of Delivery of Each Oration and Explanatory Notes on Obscure Passages. ARRANGED IN EIGHTEEN GREAT EPOCHS OK BOOKS By Oiarles Morri^ LL.D. Author of "Manual of Classical Literature" "Half-Hours with Best AmerlcMi Authors," "History and Triumphs of the Nineteenth Century," Etc.. Etc., Etc i Profusely Illustrated with Great Historic Scenes and I Portraits of Brilliant Orators. J. M. macgregor publishing CO. VANCOUVER, B. C. Entered «ccordlna to Act of Cer\T«s» In the year I902 by W. E. SCVLL. In the office of the LlbrarUn of Congreee. «t WMhIngton. D. C. All Right* Reserved THE CHARACTERISTICS Of ORATORY AND THE END. AIM AND PURPOSE OF THIS WORK ORATORY is, in its essential elements, the oldest of the arts, for it is one that requires, for its ordinary exercise, no other equipment than fluency of speech and some degree of self-confidence on the part of the speaker. It has, therefore, been practiced for ages past, as well among savage and barbarous tribes as among civilized peoples, in evidence of which may be mentioned the striking examples of native ora- tory attributed to the American Indians. This being the case, it might naturally be conceived that the literature of civiliza- tion would be overflowing with oratorical productions of high merit. Yet such a conclusion would be by no means a safe one. When we come to consider the abundant examples of oratory on record, it is to find the pure gold of eloquence often sadly alloyed. The orations of supreme merit, those which have won a position in the world's best literature, are few in number, and the list of world-famed orators is less extended than in almost any other field of human art. From this fact we can but conclude that the necessary equipment for the higher type of c-atory demands far more than mere readiness in speech, grace in gesture, and fluent command of language. Back of these accomplishments must rest superior powers of thought, logical consistency in reason- ing, quickness and brilliancy of conception, control of rhet rical expedients, and much of what is known as personal magnetism, 1 U IHE CHARACTERISTICS OF ORATORY the ability to sway tht; feclin^rs of hearers by syn.i warmth of utteranct:. To these there must be acUleil, fo. nent success upon the rostrum, rich ami full powers of voice, large traininj,' in the effective use of language, graceful and conmianding attitudes and gestures, and all those personal qualities which give living force to spoken words. The orator should have the art of the poet as well as the force of tho rea- soner, be capable of clothing his thoughts in a brilliant cloak of words and phrases, of controlling the feelings as well as appealing to the judgment of his hearers, in short, of employ- ing all the expedients of wh.-h language is susceptible, all the attraction of which the v.jice and person are capable, and all the powers of thought with which the intellect ' , furnished. THE EFFECT OF ORATORY An oration, to be fully appreciated, must be heard, not read. Much of what gave it force and effect is lost when it is committed to print. The living personality is gone— the flash- ing eye, the vibrating voice, the impetuous gesture, the pas- sionate declamation, the swaying and sweeping energy of elo- quence which at times gives to meaningless words a controUmg force. Much is lost, but by no means all. The real flesh and blood of the oration is left -its logic, its truth, its quality a? -^ product of th° intellect. When thus read, apart from the per- sonal influence of the orator and with cool and judicial mind, the sophistry, the emptiness, of many showy orations become pitifully evident, while the true merit of the really great effort grows doubly appar. n. No longer taken captive by the speaker's manner and the external aids to eloquence, the reader can calmly measure and weigh l.is words and thoughts, with compete.icv- to reject the vapid example of speech-making and give its just pre-eminence to the truly great oration. From what is above said it should be evident that the powers of the orator are not alone those of pure reasoning, of logic reduced to its finest elements. No example of oratory THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ORATORY |U should be jiidjred from such a point of view. An orator is essentially a partisan. He takes sides almost mcessarily, and is apt to employ any means at his command lo j,Mve thesiiprem- acy to his own side of the. pies. ion at issue, lie is the count -r- part, not ol ..he judj^e— who calmly and logically weighs the two sides of the cr :-. f . b.; decided and seeks to a, oid preference to either— but of the advocate, whost; aim it is to convince the jury that his own side is the correct one. and who does this by employing every sophistry, every ttick of speech rnd argument, every device to add to the strength of his client's case and Icbsen^ that of his opponent. But ordinarily the orator, partisan though he may be, has a wider audience than a jury, and a higher sense of duty to aimself and his hearers than is usually to be found in a jury trial. Though it may be his purpose rather . o convince than to prove, and though he may not hesi- tate to help his side of the argument by ora:orical devices and sk-'lful deceptions, he must have an earnest belief in the strength and cogency of his own cause or he can scarcely hope to succeed. No man can serve God and Mammon. The great oration must come from the heart and not from the lips. Yet it is not enough for a man to believe in his cause ; his cause as well as his belief must be strong. The speech which does not rmg true to a judicious reader is defective either in its cause or its advocate. Sophistry may weigh well on the plat- form, but it becomes hollow and empty in the cabinet, and tiie merit of no oration can be justly decided upon until it has been put to the te«* of the reader's mind. While, therefore, the idea is widely entertained that an oration must be heard to be truly appreciated, this conception IS far from cor/ect. There are two things to be consid.^red in judgmg every oration ; the real quality and merit of the thought expressed, and ^he effect of dellvery-the speaker's powers of elocution and t.ie magnetic influence of voice and personality. The latfer has often n immense effect, and the hearer fre- quently leaves the presence of the orator convinced against the i, THE CHARACTERISTICS OK ORATORY decision of his own intellect, taken captive by thr personal powers of the speaker. To learn what the oration really con- tains, and what force it has as a pure expression of human thought it must be read and weighed by the mind of the audi- tor when in a cool and critical state. Under such conditions the verdict is often changed and the weakness and emptiness of what may have seemed irrefutable arguments are exposed. For this reason it may be held that no one should decide as to the true merit of an oration until he has read it, and the really great orations can be enjoyed by the reader centuries even after they were delivered. THE PUHPOSE OF THE VORK In the present work an effort has been made to do justice to the orator, as far as possible, from both points of view. While carefully chosen selectlo... from notable speeches have been made, in evidence of the quality of thought and mode of expression of each person dealt with, there has also been an endeavor to give a living impression of his personality. For this purpose a detailed portrait gallery of orators has been presented to the reader, that he may see them " in their habit as they lived " ; the special occasion which gave rise to each oration is cited ; and a sketch is given in 'ie instance of each orator of the qualities and circumst.nces r.o which he owes his fame and his characteristics as a man. It is hoped in this way to give a degree of vital personality to each of the several per- sons dealt with, and as fidly as possible to put them on the stage before the reader ; enabling the latter, while enjoying the elo- quence of each member of our galaxy of orators, at the same time, in some measure, to behold him in person, to catch him, as it were, in the act of delivery. Aside from the endeavor here indicated, it is the purpose of the editor of this work to ofTer examples of oratory selected from the choicest orations on record in every field ; chosen alike from the stars of the first magnitude in this art and those THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ORATORY y of lesser yet considerable brilliancy. It need scaicely be said that oratorical efforts of the finest quality exist in several of the leading field;, of hiiip »n thouj^'ht.such as those of the parliament- ary cnamb r, the political rostrum the bar, the puipit.the lecture platform ami the sociul hall. But many of these lack inK^rest to the general reader. In making sc ections from the store at com- mand the subject as well as the manner needs to be carefully considered, matters of local or temporary character losing their force and potency as time ^oes on, however effective they m , have seemed when the occasion served. The legal oration, oi example, is usually of passing interest, rarely appealing evcii at the time to n ore than a few persons, and seidom having a message to del. . r to the world. The parliamentary oration, on the contrary, which deals with the great questions of govern- ment, political and national relations and ♦he inherent rights of man, is apt to have a perennial hold upon the human mind, keeping its interest fresh even after centuries have passed. These are the two extiemes between which it is necessary to choose. A DBTINCmVE FEATURE OF THIS BOOK It .nay further be said that in many cr "s the orator owes his fame largely to some one supreme effc some grand dis- play of his powers which throws all others ..uo the shade, and yields us the product of his intellect and force of expression at their highest elevation,. This is, as a rule, a result of the incitement of some stirring contingency, some mighty crisis which can be justly dealt with only by the highest powers of thought and which is apt to arouse the orator to the utmost exercise of his faculties. In our selections we have been guided in a measure by this fact, choosing from the more famous examples of oratory, for the double reason that these present the orator at his best, and usually deal with subjects of permanent interest in themselves — those great occasions or events of history which never grow dull or stale, but retain their freshness through the ages. !i CONTENTS PART I. AMERICAN ORATORS BOOK I. REVOLUTIONARY ORATORS OF THE UNITED STATES Patrick Henry '^ An Appeal to Arms James Otis l^^ The Writs of Assistance 24 Joseph Warren ^^ The Boston Massacre ^7 Samuel Adams ^^ The Struggle for Independence 3° Alexander Hamilton 32 The New Constitution 33 The Stability of the Union 3o James Madison 3» The American Federal Union 39 Fisher Ames ^^ The Obligation of Treaties 44 ■ Henry Lee f ^ The Father of His Country 4» (Jouvemeur Morris 53 The Free Use of the Mississippi 54 John Marshall ^l The Defence of Nash 5» BOOK II. THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN ORATORY Josiah Quincy ^ 2^ The Evils of the Embargo Act 03 John Randolpu ^ The TarifiF and the Constitution 67 vi i CONTENTS vii WilUamWirt "g" Burr and Blennerhassett -.^ Henry Clay ' The American System .\ The Horrors of Civil War il Robert Y. Hayne I South Carolina and the Union . . Sn Daniel Webster g" The Reply to Hayne 8d The Secret of Murder 88 John C. Calhoun o South Carolina and the ITnion .... q, John Quincy Adams ^ . A Eulogy of Lafayette □? Edward Everett '..'.'.'.'.. og The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Declaration no Rufus Choate '.'.'.'.' 102 A Panegj'ric of Webster ,0, Thomas H. Benton '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. 106 Spanning the Continent ..... 10- ThomasCorwin '.'.'.'.'.'. 109 The Dismemberment of Mexico • • . . ■ ^ ^^ John J. Crittenden . . . . 112 The Strong Against the Weak , , , Thomas F. Marshall '..'.'.'.'. Wl The States and the Central Governme it ! ! . 1 16 BOOK III. ORATORS OF THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD Abraham Lincoln ,20 John Brown and Republicanism . . 121 The Gettysburg Address . . . 122 ^ The Second Inaugural 121 Stephen A. Douglas .'.'!.".! 12s Slavery in the Territories i5fi Thaddeus Stevens '.'.'.'.'.'. \Vo Fanaticism and Liberty 110 Jefferson Davis ......! 112 Relations of North and South ,,, Alexander H. Stephens • ■ • •' 135 Separate as Billows, but One as the Sea . . i\6 Robert Toombs '.'.'.'. i\% The Creed of Seces.sion i^o Charles Sumner . . . ! 14? The True Grandeur of Nations 1^2 WilUam H. Seward .' ; ; ; ^s America's True Greatness \ 1^5 viii CONTENTS PAOB Frederick Douglass 148 Free Speech in Boston 149 Henry Winter Davis 151 The Peril of the Republic 152 William M. Evarts 154 A Weak Spot in the American System 155 Schuyler Colfax 157 The Confiscation of Slave Property 158 James A. (Jaxfleld 160 The Evil Spirit of Disloyalty i6i James Q. Blaine i'^^ A Eulogy of Garfield 105 BOOK IV. RECENT POLITICAL ORATORS John W. Daniel 168 Dedication of the Washington Monument 169 Benjamin H. Hill 171 A Plea for Union 172 Lucius Q. C. Lamar 173 Sumner and the South 174 George F. Hoar 176 The Ordinance of 1787 176 John J. Ingalls 179 The Undiscovered Country 180 Roscoe Oonkling 182 The Nomination of Grant 183 Samuel S. Cox 185 The Sermon on the Mount 186 Carl Schurz 188 Amnesty for the Conquered 189 • Benjamin Harrison 191 Inaugural Address 192 William McKinley 194 The Agencies of Modern Prosperity 195 Albert J. Beveridge 199 Eulogy of the Republican Party 200 The Republic Never Retreats • • . . . 201 Joseph H. Ohoate 203 Farragut at Mobile 204 O.ir Pilgrim Mothers 205 Henry W. Grady 206 Tlie New South 207 Henry O. Lodge 209 A Party on Live Issues 210 Joseph B. Foraker 212 The United States under McKinley 213 CONTENTS . Thomas B. Reed '*»" ^„.„. ^'f*^ *o Liberal Institutions '. '. f'l William J. Bryan ... ^'^ The Cross of Gold '. ^'* Theodore Roosevelt .... ^'9 The Strenuous Life ..'.!.'.".' .' ^^' National and Industrial Peace "^ ■ 224 BOOK V. THE ORATORS OF CANADA • Joseph Howe Canada and the United States ^^^ Sir John A. MacDonald ... ^^9 The Treaty of Washington ." ^^° George Brown . . . . ." ^3' Ki^u 1 '"'^ Greatness and Destiny of Canada '.'.'.'. f^^ Nicholas P, Davin .... ■^j c- «,. The British Colonial Empire ' '.'.'. l^t Sir Charles Tupper .... ^37 n ,j . "^i?^ Protection of the Fisheries" .'.'.'.' if^ Goldwm Smith ^3> God in the Universe . ^"^^ Sir Wilfrid Laurier '*^ Gladstone's Elements of' Greatness . . !tt Riel and the Government . . **! Sir John Thompson ^^6 The Execution of Riel '. ''^^ 250 BOOK VF. FAMOUS PULPIT ORATORS Ljmaan Beecher TTT-iv The Sacredness of the Sabbath ' '.'.'.'. lH William Ellery Channing . . ^55 The Rights of the Individual '.'.'..'. H^ The Power that Moves the Age I Theodore Parker ^58 HemyW^d'^SS'"''.'^''^^^^"^.*''"^^"'^^^^^^^^^^^ • • • '^° Lincoln Dead and a Nation in Grief it^ A Corrupt Public Sentiment . . Zr Edwm H. Ohapin ^^5 Christianity the Great Element of' Reform 1}1 The Triumphs of Labor ... ^^l «,-.„. V^^ Handwriting on the Wall JZ Phillips Brooks ^"^9 The Evil that Men do Lives after Them ..'.,'.'.'. '. 11° , CONTENTS rAsa William G. Brownlow 'Jl The Union and the Constitution ^'-J Tribulations in Tennessee 74 Robert Oollyer ; Stopping at Haran ' ' Thomas De Witt Talmage ^^y The Upper Forces in American History 20^^ Hemy Codman Potter IJi The Heroism of the Unknown 2°^ Frank W. Qtmsaulus • l„^ The Tapestry of Anglo-Saxon Civilization 2°° DwightL. Moody J°9 God is Love ' J 300K VII. LEADERS IN THE LECTURE FIELD Joseph Story •.•■■•••. Itt The Destiny of ';ie Indian -^J Hasty Work is 'Prentice Work 290 Sergeant S. Prentiss ^97 The Pilgrims If Wendell Phillips 3oi John Brown and Liberty •*"■' Clear Vision versus Education 304 Ralph Waldo Emerson 305 Man the Reformer 3 George W. Curtis 3 Wendell Phillips and his Life Labor 3"y Joseph Cook ■ ■ l[l Efficient but iiot Sufficient •»'■' John B. Gough f /J The Temperance Cause J'^ Robert J. Ingersoll l\l Blaine the Plumed Knight ^^° At his Brother's Grave -^'9 Henry Armitt Brown 3^' Men's Progress and Problems 32* Henry Watterson ^23 A Vision of American History 324 The Puritan and the Cavalier 325 Charles Francis Adams 327 The Veterans of Gettysburg 32» Grover Cleveland 33° Manual Training for the Colored Race 33 1 Booker T. Washington 332 Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are 333 CONTENTS BOOK VIII. NOTABLE WOMEN ORATORS Elizabeth CSady Stanton -*°^ A Plea for Equal Rights " "- An Appeal to the Law Makers i,s Susan B. Anthony •^'H Woman's Right to the Suffrage .'.'.'.'. l^Z Mary A. Livermore i^c The Battle of Life ... . ^7, Prances E. Willard !."!!.'"' its Safeguards for Women 'l.i, Belva Ann Lockwood ,]o The Political Rights of Women ... ,,o Anna E. Dickinson ,„ Why Colored Men should Enlist ....'.'.'.'. '. ,' ' 353 BOOK IX. SPEAKERS ON FESTIVE OCCASIONS Ohauncey M. Depew ..^ The New Netherlands ^^, Our English Visitors ' ' " ' „8 Liberty Enlightening the World .... ' «n Whitelaw Reid .... ^^^ The Press— Right or Wrong [ L, Edward Everett Hale ^62 New England Culture L, James Russell Lowell '.'.'.'.'.' iel The Kinship of England and America . . ,«? PitzhughLee '. ' ' " ' ' 767 Harmony under the Old Flae . ,fl Samuel L. Clemens ■■'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'' «o Unconscious Plagiarism ... „ Horace Porter [ [ [ \ ' ' ' ^11 The Humor and Pathos of Lincoln s Life ,, , Joseph Jefferson [[]]'' ■^U- My Farm in Jersey • • . . 37 Charles Emory Smith '■'■'■'■'.'.'.'.'' Ill The Advantages of the Pilgrim Fathers ,,0 W. Bourke Cockran ' " ' ^sn The Soldier and The Lawyer ... ,0? James Proctor Knott ,0, The Mystery of Duluth ,0^ Wu Ting Pang ^8^ A Wonderful Nation ' ' ' ,»9 John Mitchell '.'.'.'.'.''' l^ An Appeal for the Miners 39^ xU CONTENTS PART II. EUROPBAN ORATORS BOOK I. ORATORS OF GREECE AND ROME PAOB Pericles 395 The Dead who Fell for Athens 396 Lysias 398 The Crimes of Eratosthenes 399 Isocrates 401 Flattery more Powerful than Truth 401 The Principles of Good Government 402 The Basis of a Virtuous Life 403 Demosthenes 404 Philip the Enemy of Athens 405 On the Crown 407 .ZEjSchine 410 Against Ctesiphon 411 Marcus Porcius Cato 413 Woman in Politics 414 Oaius Gracchus 415 The People's Rights above Privilege 416 Oaius Julius C^sar 417 The Punishment of Catiline's Associates 418 Marcus Tullius Cicero 420 The Treason of Catiline 42 1 The Cruelty of Verres 423 Mark Antony 425 Brutus Derounced 4^-6 BOOK II. PULPIT ORATORS OF MEDIiEVAL EUROPE Saint Augustine 430 The Lord's Prayer 431 Saint Chrysostom 432 Death a Blessed Dispensation 433 Saint Bernard 434 The Deliverance of the Holy Land 435 Albertus Magnus 436 The Significance of Christ's Crucifixion 437 Martin Luther 438 Defence before the Diet at Worms 439 CONTENTS xUi John Calvin ""' The Courage of a Christian . 442 Jacques Benigne Bossuet a1^ The Death of the Prince of Cond6 444 Louis Bourdaloue 446 The PassioH of Christ ! ! ! 447 Francois Pension ! . ! . 449 God Revealed in Nature 4^0 Jean Baptists MassiUon •452 The Iniquity of Evil Speaking • • 453 BOOK III. ENGLISH ORATORS OF THE MIDDLE PERIOD Francis Bacon .,5 The Evils of Dueling ?„ Sir Edward Coke Z%, The Charges in Raleigh's Case ' ' Tfio Sir John Eliot '. ." ' 461 The Perils of the Kingdom 462 • JohnPym '.'.'.'.'. lex Law th > Basis of Liberty 464 Oliver (?romwell 466 The Kingly Title "..'.'.'"■ 467 Earl of Chesterfield ." ' 468 The Drinking Fund '. . . 469 BOOK IV. THE GOLDEN AGE OF BRITISH ORATORY Earl of Chatham 4-, Remove the Boston Garrison ! . ! ! 47- The War in America • • • ■ .^ Fdmund Burke '■'.'.'.'.'.'.'. 476 The Impeachment of Warren Hastings ......!. 477 Marie Antoinette ' ' ^g^ • Charles James Fox Isi The Tyranny of the East India Company . . ." '. [ 482 Liberty is Strength and Order ' ^g. Lord Thomas Erskins ."!"..'" 48s The Governing of India ' Tgg Henry Grattan Toq The Rights of Ireland ij, The Epitaph of England Tq, John Philpot Cvuran ' ' ' ' llx The Pension System ' ' ' ' lot The March of the Mind T^^ The Evidence of Mr. O'Brien " ' ' ' 495 , CONTENTS William Pitt . . • • ... 503 The Peril from Prance ... 505 Robert Emmet ! ! 506 A Patriot's Plea BOOK V. ORATORS OF THE VICTORIAN REIGN 510 Qeorge Oa'^mr ■■•••• . . 511 In Repo' i Yet in Readiness '...!. 513 Sydney Smith ■■•■■■• . sm The Opponents of Reform = ^ Taxes the Price of Glory |j^ Daniel O'OonneU • • •. • "... 518 The Charms of Kildare ^^i Viscount Falmerston -^, Civil War in Ireland ^^g Sir^^^Jj^porianceofbassicalKducaUon: '. ." ! ". ! .' ". '■ 5^7 Lo-dJ°:fj,^X'enBoroughs>= of England-. ! ! '. ." ! ■ • • • 530 Importance of Literary Studies ^^^ Richard L. Shell ,.•,■,;•:• su Irish Aliens and English Victories "4 The Horrors of Civil War ^J'^ Thomas Babington Macaulay -f Superficial Knowledge ' ^^^ Richard Oobden ... • ' o ' » ■lii The Gentry and the Protective System 54i Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfleld . '^44 The Dangers of Democracy ^^^ William Ewart Gladstone ^■^' Warfare and Colonization ^*^ Home Rule for Ireland ' ' ' ,^^ "^°^^'^he*Crushing Weight of Militarism ^53 Charles S. Parnell ■••.••. „8 Evictions and Emigration ^^^ Joseph Chamberlain •■•■„•• =61 The Anomalies of the Suffrage 5"' CONTENTS XV BOOK VI. THE PULPIT ORATORS OF GREAT BRITAIN Hugh Latimer . ,.a.;i< ite T ,- ™ '^^^ Sermon of the Plow ■'5<'4 ^^ John Knox .... 565 JohnwSey ^""^'•'^•-^^ '^^^ -f Things ! .' : ; ; Jg George Whiad'""'^.^^".^^.^^'^*^^'"^ • ' • • • 570 A Warning Against Worldly Ways ^^^ . - ^ Innocent Diversions . 573 ' John Henry Newman ... 574 XT T,T'"^ ^^■'''' of Money Getting 575 Henry Edward Manning ^ 576 i ._,, Rome the Eternal . 578 Arthur Penrhyn Stanley . . 579 r.»,o 1-^ w'^^o^^^"""'" ^almerston'bLife ■ • • 58« Charles H, Spurgeon .... 582 T«a-«i, ^''^i ^"^^"'^^'P °f the Bible ■ '. . '. S84 Joseph Parker 585 Human Frivolity 587 588 BOOK VII. ORATORS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION Count Honore de Mirabeau . And yet you Deliberate . 590 Pio,^ TT Privileged and the People 59 1 Pierre Vergmaud ^ 593 An Appeal to the People 595 fteorr,. T^^ ^^P^^ism Of the Jacobins . .' .' 59^ ueorge Jacques Danton ... 597 Let France be Free 598 T^=« 11 '^? « '■^' Always to Dare .' .' 599 Jean Paul Marat 600 «» • .,^ ^^^^"se from Impeachment ^°' Maximihen Isidore Robespierre 602 A Final Appeal 603 604 BOOK VIII. NINETEENTH CENTURY ORATORS OF FRANCE Victor Cousin Ai u ^"P7«™acyoftheArtof"pK II. Book m. Book iv. Book v. Book vi. Book vii. Book viif. Book ix. REVOl.UT,ONARV O.ATO.S OF THH UNITED THE CJOLDEN AGE OF A.MER.CAN ORAToPY ORATORS OF THE CiV.L WaR Per.od Recent Political orators DISTINGUISHED ORATORS OF CANADA Famous Pulpit Orators Leaders in the Lecture Field Notable Women Orators SPEAKERS on festive OCCASIONS 17 BOOK I. Orators of the American Revolution GREAT occasions brin^' forth great men and lead to ur^'iit it^vnts. What would have been known of Washin^'ton but for the strugj,'le for American Independence, of Napoleon but for the Trench Revolution, of Grant but for the American Civil War? Men like these would, no doubt, liave made their mark under any circumstances, but their fame would have been limited by the lack of oppor- tunity for the display of their special powers, and the history of their achievements would not have stirred the world It is the same with oratory as with other branches of human effort, its ^'rea'. triumphs have been dependent upon great exigencies in human attairs. While orators have been as numerous almost as lutumn leaves, world-famous orations seem as few , , the planets of our solar system. The orator v.ho ^^ould win fame must have, not only f^ne powers ot thought and expression, but tae impulse of momentous events, some vast stir in the tide o^ history to call forth his genius to the uttermost and t. give his words a living force and a permanent vitality. The first such occasion in American history was that exciting era whi :h gave birth to the American Republic. It is the stirring events of this history- making epoch that produced the earliest outburst of American oratory, due to such masters of the art as Henry Otis. Ames, Hamilton and their contempora- ries, and it is from this epoch, therefore, that our first selections are drawn. 18 I PATRICK HENRY (1 736- J 799) THE BEACON-UGHT OF THE REVOLUTION DET us viow a ^rront hi^orical pictuiv. Its «,viu. is the Anscnilily hall oi- tlio IIcMs,. „f iJurKi'ssw of \'ii>riuia. its nt..f K„g- liin.i to tax tho Aiiifri.au colonics without t hoi r consent. Tho Hur- gossos ha.l mot in j.iotost and talko.' vvoiildy alK>ut tho Stamp Aot. which was stirring up Ainorica to its .loptlis, I.ut woro on tho iK.int of a.ljo.inung without taking? any action, when a tail au.l slen.lor man wlu.m few of thorn know arose in th.Mr mi,Ist. It was a now momlKT a lawyer from Louisa County, Patrick ll.nrv hv name. Tho oM anJ nilluonlial momlx-rs looko.l with tlisplrusuro oi, tho raw newcomor vvhovontared to a.l.lross them on u to] ■ whid. 'Ley l.a.l feaml to deal with theinsolves. Tiuy worn th- moro ai:..ovoa an.l umazod when ho ofiero.l a wt of resolutions .seuinj: iorth that the Stamp Act ami all acts of Parliament adccting tho Col.aies were contrary to the Constitution, an.l therefore null and void, and that the Burgesses •ind Covornor alone ha.l tho right t.. levy taxes ui^on the iKJonlo of Virginia. This daring declarauon startle.! tho mort; timid niemlx>ns and a storm of protests a rose, but they failed to silence the voung orator, who quickly showe.l himself master of tho .situation. Never ha.l the ol.l walls of Virginia's legislative hall rung with such mighty wor.ls :ia those by which ho supi>ortod his resolution, and his a.l.fro.ss on.Ie.l with a thun.lorlH)U of defiant elo.iuence that startled tho world. Mis vibrant voic rang out with '-Casar had his Brutus, Charles tho Fii^t his Cromwell, and George tho Third"— Loud crie^ of "Treason ! Troa- son ! '• from the frightene.l Burgo.s.sos interrupted the .si^akor. Hee.L less of them he completed his seuteuce, '•.may I'Jjofit ity theik kxami-lk. 10 20 PATRICK HENRY If this be treason, make the most of it." His words carried the hall by storm; the resolutions were adopted; and from that day to this Patrick Henry has been hailed as one of the greatest of American orators. Henry was sent as a delegate to the Continental Congress, which he electrified with his noble oratory. During most of the Revolu- tion he was (Jovernor of Virginia and again from 1784 to 1 786, i>overty forcing him to decline other elections and return to his legal practice. In 1788 he opposed the new Constitution, being a strong advocate of State independence. His speeches in this cause were very eloquent, but the Constitution was adopted. In 1705 President Washington offered him the position of Secretary of State, which lie declined. The following year he was again elected Governor of Virginia, which ix>si- tion he also declined. During tlie exciting events of 17118 and 1799 he once more entered the iwlitical field, made his final i)ul)lic address, and was elected tu the Assembly. He dieil before he could take his seat. .^Jt I AN APPEAL TO ARMS. [As PaUick Henry had hurled the first defiance against Great Britain in 1765, he was the first to make an open appeal to arms in 1775. This was on March 23d, three weeks before the fight at Lexington precipitated the Revolution. Henry had returned from the Continental Congress and was now a member of the Virginia Con- vention, with Washington for one of his colleagues. Here he offered a resolution that the Colony should be "put into a state of defence," and sustained it by the most brilliant speech to which the Revolution gave rise.] Mr. President : No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights ; and, there- fore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen, if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without resert'e. This is no time for ceremonj'. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a ques- tion of freedom or slave-y ; and in proportion to the magnitude of the sub- ject ought tc be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at the truth, and fulfil the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I reveie above all earthly kings. I A/t ¥' P PATRICK HENRY'S GREAT SPEECH The Orator electrifies his .udlence by bolJIv declaring that the Cnlnnists would not endure the nprression «f the H,.xp C.-.ven,. uienl and boldly declares tor Independence. sum ^ PATRICK HENRY 21 Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope We are apt to shut our ejes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged m a great and arduous struggle for liberty ? Are we dis- posed to be of the number of those, who, having eyes, see not, and having ears hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salva tion ? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, 1 am willing to know the whole truth ; to know the worst, and to provide for it I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided ; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House? Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been latdy received? Trust it not, sir ; it will prove a snare to your feet Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask youreelves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike pre- parations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation ? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation ; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen , sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission ? Can gentleme, .-.sign any other possi- ble motive for It? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies ? No sir she has none. They are meant for us : they can be meant for no other' They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chain, which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them ? Shall we try argument ? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to ofiFer upon the subject ? Nothing We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable • but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplica- tion ? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted ? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir we have done ever>'thing that could be done, to avert the storm which is now com- ing on. We have petitioned ; we have remonstrated ; we have supplicated • we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament Our petitions have been slighted ; our remonstrances have produced addi- tional violence and insult ; our supplications have been disregarded • and It 22 PATRICK HENRY we have been spumed, with contempt, from the foot of the throne ' In vam, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and recon- cihation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free— If we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending— if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon, until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtamed— we must fight ! I repeat it. sir, we must fight ! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us ! They tell us, sir, that we are weak ; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger ? Will it be the next week or the next year ? Will it l)e when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house ? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction ? Shall we acquire the means of eflFectual resis- tance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make the proper use of those means which the Gwi of Nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up fnends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir. is not to the strong alone ; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir. we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat, but in submission and slavery ! Our chains are forged ' Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston ! The war is inevit- able—and let it come ! I repeat it. sir, let it come ! It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, peace— but there is no peace. The war is actually begun ! The next gale, that sweeps from the north, will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms ! Our brethren are already in the field ! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish ? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery ? Forbid it, Almighty God ! I know not what couree others may take ; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death 1 r k' JAMES OTIS (1 725-1 783) FREEDOM'S PIONEER ADVOCATE WIe cannot more effectively introduce James Otis than in the m words of President John Adams, who thus describes his famous speech on the "Writs of Assistance." " Otis was a flame of fi'-e With a promptitude (,f classical allusions, a depth of research, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal authori- ties, a prophetic glance of his eye into futurity, and a rapid torrent of impetuous eloquence, he carried away all before him. American inde- pendence was then and there born. Every man of an immense crowded audience appeared to me to go away as I did, readv to take arms against Writs of Assistance. Then and there was the first scene ot tlie farst act of opi^sition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain " Otis, a native of Massachusetts, was a hard student in youth and became one of Boston's leading lawyers. He had a taste for literature also, and wrote t^ well as spoke ably. When opposition to the tyranny ot King and Parliament began in Massachusetts, he was among its prominent advocates, and in 1761 was selected to defend the mer- chants against the Crown lawye.-s on the legality of the Writs of Assistance. This wa. the occasion of the great speech above eulogized He afterwards became active in the legislature, but in 1769 was attacked by an enemy and so severely injured that his reason was shattered and his usefulness to his country destroyed. He lived tosee the end of the Revolution THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE. [Hardly had George the Third come to the throne in 1760 when acts of ooores- s.on aga.nst the Colonies began. The severe ,..d unjust commerdrial h^dZS yieldr othecro,r-,. .; new king issued orders that gave the revenue officer. 23 U JAMES OTIS power to compel sheriffs and constables to search any man's house which they thought might contain smuggled goods, by issuing what were called "Writs of Assistance" This tyrannous right of search was bitterly resisted, and gave occasion to Otis's bril- liant speech. May it Please Your Honors : I was desired by one of the Court to look into the books, and con- sider the question now before them concerning Writs of Assistance. I have accordingly considered it, and now appear not only in obedience to your order, but likewise in behalf of the inhabitants of this town, who have presented another petition, and out of regard to the liberties of the subject. And I take this opportunity to declare, that whether under a fee or not (for in such a cause as this I despise a fee), I will to my dying day oppose with all the powers and faculties God has given me all such instru- ments of slavery on the one hand , and villany on the other, as this Writ of Assistance is. It appears to me the worst instrument of arbitrary power, the most destructive of English liberty and the fundamental principles of law, that ever was foiind in an English law book. I must therefore beg your honors' patience and attention to the whole range of an argument, that may perhaps appear uncommon in many things ; as well as to points of learning that ar more remote and unusual : that the whole tendency of my design may the more easily be perceived, the conclusions better discerned, and the force of them be better felt. I shall not think much of my pains in this cause, as I engaged in it from principle. I was solicited to argue this cause as Advocate General ; and because I would not, I have been charged with desertion from my office. To this charge I can give a very sufficient answer. I renounced that office, and I argue this cause, from the same principle ; and I argue it with the greater pleasure as it is in favor of British liberty, at a time when we hear the greatest monarch upon earth declaring from his throne that he glories in the name of Briton, and that the privileges of his people are dearer to him than the most valu- able prerogatives of his crown ; and as it is in opposition to a kind of power, the exercise of which in former periods of history cost one king of England his head and another his throrie. I have taken more pains in this cause than I ever will take again, although my engaging in this and another popular cause has raised much resentment. But I think I can sincerely declare, that I cheerfully submit myself to every odious name for conscience' saV ; and from my soul I despise all those whose guilt, malice, or folly has made them my foes. Let the consequences be what they will, I am determined to proceed. The only principles of public conduct that are worthy of a gentleman or a man, are to sacrifice estate, JAMES OTIS V> ease, health and applause, and even life, to the sacred calls of his country. These manly sentiments, in private life, make the good citizen; in public life, the patriot and the hero. I do not say, that when brought to the test I shall be invincible. I pray God I may never be brought to the melancholy trial, but if ever I should, it will be then known how far I can reduce to practice principles which I know to be founded in truth I admit that special Writs of Assistance, to search special places, may be granted to certain persons on oath : but I deny that the writ now prayed for can be granted, for I beg leave to make some observations on the writ itself, before I proceed to other acts of Parliament. In the first place, the writ is universal, being directed "to all and singular justices, sheriflfs, constables, and all other ofiBcers and subjects ; " so that, in short, it is directed to every subject in the King's dominions. Every one with this writ may be a tyrant ; if this commission be legal, a tyrant in a legal manner also may control, imprison, or murder any one within the realm. In the next place, it Is perpetual, there is no return. A man is account- able to no person for his doings. Every man may reign secure in his petty tyranny, and spread terror and desolation around him, until the trump of the archangel shall excite different emotions in his soul. In the third place, a person with this writ, in the daytime, may enter all houses, shops, etc., at will, and command all to assist him. Fourthly, by this writ, not only deputies, etc., but even their menial servants, are allowed to lord it over us. What is this but to have the curse of Canaan with a witness on us ; to be the servant oi servants, the most despicable of God's creation ? Now one of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one's house. A man's house is his castle ; and whilst he is quiet, he is as well guarded as a prince in his castle. This writ, if it should be delcared legal, would totally annihilate this privilege. Custom-house officers may enter our houses when they please ; we are commanded to permit their entry. Their menial servants may enter, may break locks, bars and everything in their way ; and whether they break through malice or revenge, no man, no court, can inquire. Bare suspicion without oath is sufficent The words are, " It shall be lawful for any person or persons author- ized, etc." What a scene does this open! Every man prompted by revenge, ill-humor, or wantonness, to inspect the inside of his neighbor's house, may get a Writ of Assistance. Others will ask for it from self- defence. One arbitrary exertion will provoke another, until society be involved in tumult and in blood. JOSEPH WARREN (J74J-J775) THE MARTYR OF BUNKER HILL 0Mr)N(} the patliotif events of the Revolutionary War there are none that liavo apjiealeil more to tin sympathy of the American people than the death of Dr. Josejth Warren, one of the patriots, at the hattlo of Bunker Hill. Warren, a native of Iioxhury, Ma.s.saclm- setts, had made himself eminent a.s a physician, and in those exciting years at Boston that ushered in the American Revolution was one of the most earnest advocates of the people's rights, supporting the cause of the Colonies by pen and voice. Of his orations, the most fervent and hrilliuni was that delivered in Boston on March 6, 177'), in com- memoration of the "Boston Massacre" of five years before. On April 18th it was he who sent out Paul Revere, on his memorable night ride to warn the patriots at Concord of the coming of the British sol- diers. With the events of the next day the Revolution began. Warren threw himself with his whole soul into the contest. As Presi- dent of the Provincial Congress, he dis[)layed an eminent fitness to meet the emergencies of the time. On June 14, 1775, he was appoin- ted a major-general, and two days afterwards took an active part in the occupation of Bunker Hill. "As surely as you go there you will 1)6 slain," said Elbridge Oerry to him. Warren replied with a Latin quotation, signifying, " It is pleasant and honorable to die for one's country." On the morning of the fight he rode to the field. Colonel Prescott, the veteran conunander, offered him the command, but War- ren declined, saying that he had come as a volunteer and to learn the art of war from an able soldier. Borrowing a musket, he plunged into the thick of the fight, encouraging the troops by his courage and daring. After the Americans had fired their last bullet a ^ turned to retreat, Warren was one of the very last to leave the fieh As he 26 JOSEPH WARREN 27 rolnctantly retin-.I u hullot stru.k liim in tl.o head, and hv Ml thr first illustrious victim to the imtriots' eauso. His e8t sorrow, and added to the determiimtion of tiio eolon- ists to figlit to tiie end for their lilx^rties. THE BOSTON MASSACRE [All readers of history arc probably familiar with the event of March 6 1-70 When a body of British soldiers, irritated by the taunts of a throng of Bostonians firci upon them, a number fallinK dead and woun.led. This event, which Ix^came known as the Boston Massacre,' pro,luced an intense scnsiition in city and country. Or VVarrcn dchvered two anniversary oratiotis on it, one in .772 and the other in ,775: The latter was in defiance of the British soldiery, who had threatened to shoot anyone who dared speak on the subject. Warren contemned their threats and delivered at Old bouth Church an unpaasioned address, from which we make the following selection] Could it have beeti conceived that we should have seen a British army in our laud, sent to enforce obedience to acts of Parliament destructive to our liberty ? But the royal ear, far distant from this western world, has been assaulted by the tongue of slander ; and villains, traitorous alike to king and countrj-, have prevailed upon a gracious prince to clothe his countenatice wih wrath, and to erect the hostile banner against a people ever affectionate and loyal to him and his illustrious predecessors of the House of Hanover. Our streets are filled with armed men ; our harbor is crowded with ships of war : but these cannot intimidate us ; our liberty must be preserved ; it is far dearer than life— we hold it even dear as our allegiance ; we must defend it against the attacks of friends as well as enemies ; we cannot suffer even Britons to ravish it from us. No longer could we reflect with generous pride on the heroic actions oi^our American forefathers ; no longer boast our origin from that far-famed island whose warlike sons have so often drawn their well-tried swords to save her from the ravages of tyranny ; could we, but for a moment, enter- tain the thought of giving up our liberty. The man who meanly will sub- mit to wear a shackle contemns the noblest gift of heaven, and impiously affronts the God that made him free. It was a maxim of the Roman people, which eminently conduced to the greatness of that state, never to despair of the commonwealth. The maxim may prove as salutary to us now as it did to them. Short-sighted mortals see hot the numerous links of small and great events, which form the chain on which the fate of kings and nations is suspended. Ease and prosperity, though pleasing for a day, have often sunk a people into effeminacy and sloth. Hardships and dangers, though we forever strive to shun them, have frequently called forth such virtues .ts have com- manded the applause and reverence of an admiring world. Our country S8 JOSEPH WARREN loudly calls you to be circumspect, vigilant, active and brave. Pf rhaps (all graciout, Heaven avert it), perhaps the power of Britain, a nation great in war, by some malignant influence may be employed to enslave you; but let not even this discourage you. Utr arms, 'tis trw, have filled the world with terror ; her troops have reaped the laurels of the field ; her fleets have rode triumphant on the sea : and when, or where, did you, my countrymen, depart inglorious from the field of fight? You too can show the trophies of your forefathers' victories and y^ur own : can name the fortresses and battles you have won ; and many of you count the honor- able scars of wounds received whilst fighting for your king and country. Where Justice is the standard. Heaven is the warrior's shield: but conscious guilt unnerves the arm that lifts the sword against the innocen.. Britain, united with these colonies by commerce and affection, by interest and blood, may mock the threats of France and Spain, may be the seat of universal empire. But should America, either by force, or tliose more dangerous engines, luxury and corruption, ever be brought into a state of vassalage, h. ain must lose her freedom also. No longer shall she sit the empress of the sea ; her ships no more shall waft her thunders over the wide ocean ; the wreath shall wither on her temples ; her weakened arm shall be unable to defend her coasts : and she, at last, must bow her vener- able head to some proud foreigner's despotic rule But my fellow-citizens, I know you want not zeal or fortitude. You will maintain your rights, or perish in the generous struggle. However diflacult the combat, you never will decline it when freedom is the prize. An independence of Great Britain is not our aim. No, our wish is that Britain and the colonies may, like the oak and ivy, grow and increa.se in strength together. But whilst the infatuated plan of making one part of the empire slaves to the other is persisted in , the interests and safety of Britain , as well as the colonies, require that the wise measures, recommended by the honorable the Continental Congress, be steadily pursued ; whereby the unnatural contest between a parent honored and a child beloved may probably be brought to such an issue, as that the peace and happiness of both may be established upon a lasting basis. But if these pacific meas- ures are ineffectual, and it appears that the only way to safety is through fields of blood, I know you will not turn your faces from your foes, but will undauntedly press forward, until tyranny is trodden under foot, and you have fixed your adored goddess Liberty on the American throne. 4 $ i i SAMUEL ADAMS (I722-I803) LEADER OF THE BOSTON PATRIOTS EROM ITfiO to 1775 Boston was tho hotlx-d of roj.istnnce to British oppri'SNioM. Oi. it Ihohau.l of (Joopko III. ,K..s,r.,.U.,l with cmsl,- iiif,' weijrht, an.l a «talwart giouj) of patriots, K.fi,.,l tlu' otrorts of those wh.mi they deenuMl their mortal eue.uie... Foreino.t anio,,.. tliese was Samuel A(hims, who led in all the movements against -tix- ation Without representation/' an.l l,y his fervid oratory kept the spirit of resistance alive. Poor thou-h ho was. he could not Ik- hought though more than once an eflort to l>ril)e him to desert the cause of the people was made. " Come, frien.l .Samuel," said to him Mather l.yles, a Tory clergyman of .{oston, " lot ... relinquish repuhlican plmntoms and attend to our fiel.ls." '• Very well." ho roplie.l " vou attend to the planting of liberty and I will grub up the ta.xes.' Thus we shall have pleasant places." He was the lea.ling spirit in the celebrated " Boston Tea Party " On December 16, 1778, when the tea-ships lav in the harbor, a great town meeting was l.oM, in which Adams and others took pronnnont part. When night had fallen 1... rose an.l .said: •• This mooting can do nothing more to save the country." These wor.ls seemed a si-mal a war-whoop was heard at the ,loor, an.l a partv of men disguise.l as Indians rushed im{,ctuously to the wharf, hoarded the ships an.l (lung the tea to the Hshes of the harlmr. This event an.l the action of the king m response thereto, ha.l a great .leal to do with procini- tatiiig the Uevohition. A.lams became a member of the Continental Congress an.l -. one of the most earnest and unflinching of those who labored for the Declaration of In.lependence. The siirai„g of the Dc-lnritioa gave occasion for the delivery of the ..nly o.xam,,lo we possess of his fervent i 80 SAMUEL ADAMS oratory. Adams continued in Congress during the war, and after- wards reniaiut'd a proinint lit Hguro in Massachusetts politics, being Ciovernor from 1795 to 17D7. He died in 1803 at a good old age. THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE [The only extant speech of Samuel Adams was delivered at the State House in Philadelphia, to a very numerous audience, on the ist. of August, 1776, its subject being American Independence. We give its eloquent and inspiring peroration] If there is any man so base or so weak as to prefer a dependence on Great Britain , to the dignity and happiness of Uving a member of a free and independent nation, let me tell him that necessity now demands what the generous principle of patriotism should have dictated. We have now no other alternative than independence, or the most ignorainiotts and gall- ing servitude. The legions of our enemies thicken on our plains ; desola- tion and death mark their bloody career ; whilst the mangled corpses of our countrymen seem to cry out to us as a voice from heaven : " Will you permit our posterity to groan under the galling chains of our murderers ? Has our blood been expended in vain ? Is the only reward which our constancy, till death, h. s obtained for our country, that it should be sunk into a deeper and more ignominious vassalage ? ' ' Recollect who are the men that demand your submission ; to whose decrees you are invited to pay obedience ! Men who, unmindful of their relation to you as brethren, of your long implicit submission to their laws ; of the sacrifice which you and your forefathers made of yottr natural advantages for commerce to their avarice, formed a deliberate plan to wrest from you the small pit- tance of property which they had permitted you to acquire. Remember that the men who wish to rule over you are they who, in pursuit of this plan of despotism, annulled the sacred contracts which had been made with your ancestors ; conveyed into your cities a mercenary soldiery to compel you to submission by insult and murder, who called your patience, cowardice ; your piety, hypocrisy. Countrymen ! the men who now invite you to surrender your rights into their hands are the men who have let loose the merciless savages to riot in the blood of their brethren, who have taught treachery t> your slaves, and courted them to assassinate your wives and children. These are the men to whom we are exhorted to sacrifice the blessings which Pro- vidence holds out to us — the happiness, the dignity of uncontrolled free- dom and independence. Let not your generous indignation be directed against any among us who may advise so absurd and maddening a meas- ure. Their number is but few and daily decreases ; and the spirit which can render them patient of slavery will render them contemptible enemies. t SAMUEL ADAMS and aZo^^Jr t '""' "°"''''''l '' ""^ ^°"«^'t"^'°" -o^Posed, established. mayTustlvlH..r "■' "°'' ''' ^^''^''^"^ °f ^""^ «-" liberties. We youi 2 O J:- ■'"• \'^^° Pf« '"to a law without your consent. Be Pinrde^nds' •"''"• '"^ '^ '°" °^ ^^°^^ '^^ «" ^^-^ ^our hap- tude tl H^ f ' '"' "' y^""" ^^"^'■«"« enterprise, with grati tude to Heaven for past success, and confidence of it in the fut„rl T ALEXANDER HAMILTON (1757- J 804) THE CREATOR OF THE AMERICAN REVENUE mX a noble speech by Daniel Webster we read the following pass- ajre • " How he fulfilled the dutieH of such a place, at such a time, the whole country perceived with .lelight and the whole world saw with ad.niration. He sn.ote t.e rock of tlje naturna resources and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He ouche.l the dead corpse of the public cre.lit, an.l. it sprang upon it^s tee . 1 he fabled birth of Minerva, from the brain of Jove, was hardly more su.hlen an.l more perfect than the financial system of he I n.ted States as it bui-st forth from the conceptions of Alexander Haunlton We can add little to tliis splendid .atburst of poetic oratory. In 1789, when the Govern.uent of the I'niled States under the Constitu- tion was organi/.ed and Alexander Hamilton was made Secretary ot the Treasurv bv Presi.lent Washington, the finances of the new republic were in a deplorable state. The country was drowned in debt and practically bankrupt. The exi)enses of the Revolution had been mainlv niet with paper money, which had become more worthless than the paper on which it was printed. During the years after the war the government had been carried on almost without money. It was obliged to beg the states for every penny it neede.l, and ,t otten besiied in vain. The new government began with an empty purse and a ruined credit. All this was reverse.l by Hamilton's magic touch Within a year's time the country's credit was restored its purse was filled, and its great financial career had fairly begun. 1 h.s is the work whicli Webster so highly eulogi/ed. Its details may be found in the financial history of tlie United States. Alexander Hamilton was a man brimful of talents, in his way as remarkable as Washington himself. Coming from Ins birthplace 32 f> r ALEXANDER HAMILTON 33 f in the West Indies to the United States in 1772, a hoy of fifteen, ho soon lK><,'an to iiiake liis j^wer felt, and in 1774, .-;tiil a small, slender lad, he made a striking speech before a great meeting in New York, in which he denomiced (ireat Ih'itain, called upon the colonies to resist, "and described the waves of rebellion sparkling with fire, and washing back upon the shores of England the wrecks of her power, her wealth, and lier glory." This wonderful \»>y grew into a remarkable man. When the war broke out, he entered the army and fought with distinguished valor in the battles from Brooklyn to Trenton and Princeton. He afterwards became military secretary to Washington, and showed that he could write as ably as he could tight. .\t Yorktown be was in arms again, and made a brilliant attack on the Briti.^h works. The war ended, be took an active part in striving to adjust the wrecked finances of the country, aiding Rolx'it Morris in this work. The first bank of the United States was suggested by him. No man was more active than he in bringing about the convention to form a lunv Consti- tution, and no man aid"d it more with voice and pen. llis papers, published in the Fedrntlixt, are the most valuable parts of our Consti- tutional history. His speedies on the same suiyect are welcome additions t oratory. His work as a mendjer of Washington's cabniet wa- 1 praise. As a lawyer, he was among the ablest the country ^ o.sessed. And when, in 1S04, he fell a victim to the bullet of Aaron I5urr, the whole land put on sackcloth and ashes for the loss of its ablest statesman and linancier. His name will always stand high in the list of those eminent citizens to whom this country owes its greatness and its prosperity. M r THE NEW CONSTITUTION [Hamilton's work for the Constitution was not confined to his labors leading up to it and on the floor of the Convention, and his brilliant writings in its defence. Still more able were his efforts to overcome the bitter opposition in the State of New York to the ratification of the new Constitution. Day after day, and week after week he worked in the New York Convention, fixhting the enemies of that invaluable state paper with voice and pen, showing the fatal defects of the old Confederation and the ruin that would come upon the country if the Constitution were not adopted and the Union formed, and finally winning against the marshalled forces of ite foes. From his many speeches ou this subject we are obliged to content ourselves with a brief extract in illustration of his style.] .-^H^jJIf- 34 ALEXANDER HAMILTON Mr. Chairman : The honorable member, who spoke yesterday, went into an t-xplanation of a varie' ' of circumstances to prove the expedi- ency of a change in our national government, and the necessity of a firm union ; at the same time, he described the great advantages which this State, in particular, receives from the Confederacy, and its peculiar weak- nesses when abstracted from the Union. In doing this, he advanced a variety of arguments, which deserve serious consideration. Gentlemen have this day come forward to answer him. He has been treated as having wandered in the flowery fi^ds of fancy ; and attempts have been made to take off from the minds of the committee that sober impression which might be expected from his arguments. I trust, sir, that observa- tions of this kind are not thrown out to cast a light air on this important subject, or to give any personal bias on the great question before us. I will not agree with gentlemen who trifle with the weaknesses ot our country, ar.d suppose that they are enumerated to answer a party purpose, and to terrify with ideal dangers. No ; I believe these weaknesses to be real, and pregnant with destruction. Yet, however weak our coun..-y may be, I hope we shall never sacrifice our liberties. If, therefore, on a fu!l and candid discussion, the proposed system shall appear to have that tendency, for God's sake let us reject it. But let us not mistake words for things, nor accept doubtful surmises as the evidence of truth. Let us consider the Constitution calmly and dispassionately, and attend to those things only which merit consideration Sir, it appears to me extraordinary, that while gentlemen in one breath acknowledge that the old Confederation requires many material amendments, they should in the next deny that its defects have been the cause of our political weakness, and the consequent calamities of our country. I cannot but infer from this, that there is still some lurking, favorite imagination, that this system, with corrections, might become a safe and permanent one. It is proper that we should examine this matter. We contend that the radical vice in the old Confederation is, that the laws of the Union apply only to States in their corporate capacity. Has not every man who has been in our legislature experienced the truth of this position ? It is inseparable from the disposition of bodies who have a constitutional power of resistance, to examine the merits of a law. This has ever been the case with the federal requisitions. In this exami- nation, not being furnished with these lights which directed the delibera- tions of the general government, and incapable of embracing the general interests of the Union, the States have almost uniformly weighed the requisitions by their own local interests, and have onl-' executed them so far as answered their particular convenience or advantage. Hence there t* J-f i ih %f ALEXANDER HAMILTON 35 have ever been thirteen different bodies to judge of the measures of Congress— and the operations of government have been distracte 1 by their taking different courses. Those which were to be benefited have complied with the requisitions ; others have totally disregarded them Have not all of us been witnesses to the unhappy embarrassments which resulted from these proceedings ? Even during the late war, while the pressure of common danger connected strongly the bond 01 our Union, and mcited to vigorous exertions, we felt many distressing effects of the impotent system t From the delinquency of those States who have suffered little by the war, we naturally conclude that they have made no efforts ; and a knowl- edge of human nature will teach us that their ease and security have been a principal cause of their want of exertion. While danger is distant its impression is weak ; and while it affects only our neighbors, we have'few motives to provide against it. Sir. if we have national objects to pursue we must have national revenues. If you make recjuisitions and they are not compiled with, what is to be done ? It has been well observed, that to coerce the States is one of the maddest projects that was ever devised. A failure of compliance will never be confined to a single State. This being the case, can we suppose it wise to hazard a civil war ? Suppose Massa- chusetts, or any large State, should refuse, and Congress should attempt to compel them ; would they not have infiuence to procure assistance especially from those States who are in the same situation as themselves ? What picture does this idea present to our view ? A complying State at war with a non-complying State : Congress marching the troops of one State into the bosom of another : this State collecting auxiliaries and forming perhaps a majority against its federal head. Here is a nation at war with itself. Can any reasonable man be well disposed towards a government which makes war and carnage the only means of supporting itself— a government that can exist only bv the sword ? Every such war must involve the innocent with the guilty. This single consideration should be sufficient to dispose every peaceable citizen against such a government. But can we believe that one State will ever suffer itself to be used as an instrument of coercion ? The thing is a dream ; it is impossible ; then we are brought to this dilemma : either a Federal standing army is to enforce the requisitions, or the Federal treasury is left without supplies and the government without support. What, sir, is the cure for this great evil ? Nothing, but to enable the national laws to operate on indi- viduals in the same manner as those of the States do. This is the true reasoning of the subject, sir. The gentlemen appear to acknowledge its li I HP m ALEXANDER HAMILTON force ; and yet, while they yield to the principle, they seem to fear its application to the Government. What then shall we do ? Shall we take the old Confederation as the basis of a new system ? Can this be the object of the gentlemen ? Certainly not. Will any man who entertains a wish for the safety of his country, trust the sword and the purse with a single assembly organized on princi- ples so defective, so rotten ? Though we might give to such a govern- ment certain powers with safety, yet to give them the full and unlimited powers of taxation, and the national forces, would be to establish a despot- ism; the definition of which is, a government in which all power is concentrated in a single body. To take the old Confederation, and fashion it upon these principles, would be establishing a power which would destroy the liberties of the people. THE STABILITY OF THE UNION [Tlie following extract bears upon the same general subject, but is from a speech delivered in February, 17.S7, before the Constitutional Convention met. The Cou- Srcsiof the Confederacy, being dependent for funds upon the small sums doled out to it by the sepcrate States, wished to lay an impost or general tax to supply it with the nnich needed funds. This the .States opposed. The spcci-h from which we (juote was Qclivered before the Assembly of New York. It depicts strongly the weaknessand the peril of the feeble Union that then existed.] Is there not a species of political knight-errantry in adhering pertina- ciously to a system which throws the whole weight of the Confederation upon this State, or upon one or two more? Is it not our interest, on mere calculations of State policy, to promote a measure, which, operating under the same regulations in every State, luusl produce an equal , or nearly equal, effect everywhere, and oblige all the States to share the common burthen ? If the impost is granted to the United States, with the power of levying it, it must have a proportionate effect in all the States, for the same mode of collection everywhere will have nearly the same return everywhere. What must be the final issue of the present state of things ? Will the few States that now contribute, be willing to contribute much lonf^er ? Shall we ourselves be long content with bearing the burthen singly ? Will not our zeal for a particular system soon give way to the pressure of so unequal a weight ? And if all the States cease to pay, what is to become of the Union? It is sometimes asked, Why do not Congress oblige the States to do their duty ? But where are the means ? Where are the fleets and armies ; where the Federal treasury to support those fleets and armies, to enforce the requisitions of the Union ? All methods short of coercion have repeatedly been tried in vain. • • • • M* >H ffi ALEXANDER HAMILTON 37 YX Having now shown, Mr. Chairman, that tht-re is no constitutional impediment to the adoption of the bill ; that there is no danger to he apprehended to the public liberty from giving the power in question to the United States ; that in the view of revenue the measure under considera- tion is not only expedient but necessary— let us turn our attemion to the other side of this important subject. Let us ask ourselves, what will be the conseq.ence of rejecting the bill ? What will be the situation of our national affairs if they ..re left much longer to float in the chaos in which they are now involved ? Can our national character be preserved without paying our debts ? Can the Union subsist without revenue ? Have v,'e realized the conse- quences which would attend its dissolution ? If these States are not united under a Federal Government, they will infallibly have wars with each other ; and their divisions will subject them to all the mischiefs of foreign influence and intrigue. The human pa.?- sions will never want objects of hostility. The Western Territory is an obvious and fruitful source of contest. Let us also cast our eye upon the map of this State, intersected from one extremity to the other by a large navigable river. In thee^ent of a nipture with them, what is to hinder our metropolis from becoming a prey to our neighbors ? Is it even suppos- able that they would suff'er it to remain the nursery of wealth to a distinct community ? These subjects are delicate, but it is neces.sary to contemplate them, to teach us to form a true estimate of our situation. Wars with each other would begtt standing armies— a source of more real danger to our liberties than all the powers that could be conferred upon the representa- tives of the Union. And wars with each other would lead to opposite alliances with foreign powers, and plunge us into all the labyrinths of European politics. The Romans, in their progress to universal dominion, when they con- ceived the project of subduing the refractory spirit of the Grecian republics, which composed the famous Achaian League, began by sowing dissen- sions among them and instilling jealousies of each other, and of the com- mon head, and finished by making them a province of the Roman Empire. The application is easy : if there are any foreign enemies, if there are any domestic foes to this countrj-, all their arts and artifices will be em- ployed to effect a dissolution of the Union. This cannot be better done than by sowing jealousies of the Federal head, and cultivating in each State an undue attachment to its owr power. ffi mm t^mmmm M ( JAMES MADISON fI75J-J836) THE FATHER OF THE CONSTITUTION i Irii national tiilo, llio I'nitcil States of America, has lioon in nso Hiui'C the Declaration of ln "m JAMES MADISON *> Ml framed the ronstitution, wliich he aided Hamilton in supjiortinK 'n that Hjdeiidid series of esMavs i)ul)li.Hhed under tlio title of "The I'Vderalist." After serviii-rin I'on^jresH and in the Virginia I.ej^islatnre, Madi.-on lu'eame Secretary of State under Jefferson, and in \m\\ tof>k his seat as Pn'sident. He continued in this high oflice for eij,'ht years, of which three were years of war. The remainder of his life was siwnt in rest and quiet. Madison was one «if the most illustrious of the early .Vmerican Htatesmen, an ahlo thinker, a skillful writer, and a i>riIiiaMt orator. He took an active part in the dehates on the Constitution, and after- wards in the N'ir>;inia Convention called to ratify it. Ihiv he had to contend against the vehement oratory of Patrick Henry and the ptT- suasive elo,'rfss oftt-n sij;iiali/.(.(l themselves by their attachment to their Stales ? Sir, I plfeen more closely uniteil, their pvoplc would have betn happier ; and their united wisdom and stretigth would not only have renderet uinoii^' tlic ilistiiiuMii-hrd orali.rs n{ tli('i'iiii)ftli(('.,nstituli<)ii, wiis, ill tlic wonl- of l)r.( 'linrlrv (':il,l well, '•Dociilcillyollcoftlic irin-t .-plcli'liil rljctolirialisotl !ir ml;!'. Two of his spcccln-s, tliat on .lay's livaly ami that usually caii-il his 'Tomahawk' spcccli (hccaiisr it iinhidcd s.uih' rcsplcnilint s|m(c1ic, mm Iiiiiiaii massacres) jirc the mo>t hrilliaiil ami fascinating' sjm limcns of oloi|U('iic<' I have ever hcanl, yet I have lisleiicii lo some of iIh nio-t (•el( hrateil s|ieakers in the I'.ritish I'ariiani.iit." Dr. I'nestly also - li-l that. " Tlie s[teecli of Anies, on the l>riti-h Treaty, was the mo4 iK'witchinu jiiece of parliamentary oratory I have ever listeneil to," Tlie orator thus hi;:hly euloj^i/eil was of Massaciiiiselts hiiih ami training, Ifarvanl Collejie iwing his «///«/ m'//«r. lie heeame witlelv fmiiiliiir with the he>.t literatnre, stmlied law, and wrote al.ly on the jMiiitical prohlem of 17S4 and later, in papeis sijimd /,',»/».., and I 'tmilliiK. These gave him wide renown, and won him el(>ction to the first Coiigivss ill 17.s'.». He eontimied a niemher of the House until 175)7, when failing health ohliged him to withdraw from |M.litieal lahors. In ISd-l he was ehosen ['resident of Harvard ;a!i to sri/.c Amcruan ships trading with tbat country, and to take seauicu from Atnerican vessels ou the pretense that they were I u FISHER AMES Bntish su ,jectB. An effort to adjust these difficulties led i„ ,795 to a new treatv negotiated by John Jay. Chief Justice of the Supren.e Court of the n "ted S' SH nirK "'; ?7""'-- "> '^'''P"'-^ "-Pt that of the sei ,r o' An.er I i In i do ?" ' ";: " "r,""""' """"«" ^""«-- '■^--t «" oppositil , s, all Us detects, no better could l)e had at the time -.n,I it nv„,,o 1 •, , The treaty is bad, fatally bad, is the cry. It sacrifices the interest the honor, the independence of the United States, and the faith of Tur engagements to France. If we listen to the clamor of party intemperance the evils are of a nttmber not to be counted, and of a nature not o b^ borne, even in idea. The langttage of passion and exaggeration JZ silence that of sober reason in other places, it has not done ft he^e ^i.e qnestion Ik re ,s, whether the treaty he really so very fatal ns to oblige the na ion to break its faith. I admit that such a treaty ought not to bt exe cuted I admit that self-preservation is the first law of societv, as well t, of individuals. It would, perhaps, be rr a.Ou. more than the present trade to Surinam ; would the proof of the fact avail anything in so grave a question as the v olatio of the pul)lic engagements ? "uiLiun It is in vain to allege that our faith, plighted to France, is violated by his new treaty^ Our prior treaties are e.xpressly saved from the opent- tion of the British treaty. And what do those mean who snv that our honor was forfeited by treating at all, and especially by sttch a tr.a" > Justice, the laws and practice of nations, a just regard for peace ns' a duty to mankind, and the known wish of our citizens, as well as that "self respect which required it of the nation to act with dignity and moderation" FISHER AMES 45 all these forbade an appeal to arms before we had tried tlie elTt.rt of negotiation. The honor of the United States was saved, not forfeited, by treating. The treaty itself, by its stipulations for the posts, for indemnity, and for a due observation of our neutral rights, has justly raised the char- acter of the nation. Never did the name of America appear in Ivurope with more lustre than upon the event of ratifying this instrument What is patriotism ? Is it a narrow affection for the spot where a man was born ? Are the very clods where we tread entitled to this ardent preference because they are greener ? No, sir, this is not the char- acter of the virtue, and it soars higher for its object. It is an extended self-love, mingling with all the enjoyments of life, and twisting itself with the minutest filaments of the hearl It is thus we obey the laws of society, because they are the laws of virtue. In their authority we see, not the array of force and terror, but the venerable image of our country's honor. Every good citizen makes that honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious, but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defence, and is conscious that he gains protection while he gives it. For what rights of a citizen will be deemed inviolable when a State renounces the principles that constitute their security ? Or if his life should not be invaded, what would its enjoyments be in a country odious in the eyes of strangers and dishonored in his own ? Could he look with affection and veneration to such a country as his parent ? The sense of having one would die with him; he would blush for his patriotism, if he retained any, and justly, for it would be a vice. He would be a banished man in his native land. I see no exception to the respect that is paid among nations to the law of good faith. If there are cases in this enlightened period when it is violated, there are none when it is decried. It is the philosophy of politics, the religion of govLriinieiits. It is observed by barbarians— a whiff of tobacco smoke, or a string of beads, gives not merely binding force, but sanctity to treaties. I^ven in Algiers a truce may be bought for money; but when ratified, even Algiers is too wise, or too just, to disown and annul its obligation. Thus we see neither the ignorance of savages, nor the principles of an association for piracy and rapine, permit a nation to despise its engagements. If, sir, there could be a resurrection from the foot of the gallows : if the victims of justice could live again, collect toget.i -r and form a society, they would, however loath, soon find themselves obliged to make justice, that justice under which they fell, the fundamental law of their state. They would perceive it was their interest to make others respect, and lliey would, therefore, soon pay some respect themselves to the obligations of good faith. 'I] I \ «; 46 FISHER AMES me not even imagine that a republTcaug^veL^tntT^rr- ''°' ''' •s. from a people enlightened and uncorrumS I^ ^ "^' "" °"'' °^" origin is right, and whose daily disdpHnrfsl' ^ «^°^'^'-"'"^"t ^^hose debate, make its option to be faithle^^'n H . ^' ""' "P°" ^°'^'"" not avow ""^ *^**^'^-^^° ^are to act what despots dare I,et us not hesitate, then, to a?r«. to »»,» „„ ■ • faithful execution. Thus w shaHale thelhhT"" '° '"^^ " '"^° its peace, and diffuse the soirit of .IfiT ! ^ °"'' "^^'°°' ^"^"'•e nient its prosperity The n otl r T! ^"^ '"'""^"^ ^^^^ ^^i" «"g- ful, and.LmnS thilk t'oSpid TTf ,r/ ™P^— *- -ndi vast. and. if peace and g^v^fshot dt ;T^^^^^ ^'"^ ^^ ions of our citizens are not so ple.^ing as the proofeTfTil /'^""" the instruments of their future success Th. r ^ I "'''"^*'^ ^ aug„,ent its power. Pr ,it ,s ever ho.iT h '' °f exertion go to crop of our neutrality is aH sidtw J .^«^°'°'"g capital. The vast b.ond calculation. l^^^^^Z^^^ Xlfn t^:;^'"'"^^ what seems to be fiction is found to fall short of experience "^ '^'"'' ThoseXire'vTiltr^^^^^^^ unfitted me. almost eua^yfo/^:^^^^^^^^^ °f "'^ 1-lth has pared for debate, by cLefJl'refleron i^^y ::t Jem^^^^^ l^f ''"'"■ .on here, I thought the resolution I had takln oTt heL '' "^ '""!; by necessity, and would cost me no elTort to maintaTn V^ hT ' T:r'^ vacant of deas, and sinkintr n< t ,» i '"""*'"^in. With a mind thus imagined the v;ry d^^e of Jn u- ' ^'' ^"^' ""'^^'' ^ '^^"^^ of weakness. I that'i had notrn^tr a7'? :w;rrc:m'?"f ^' '' *'^ p-^"--" the vote. I start b'ack .L iTZ h edl^fr. "T^"' °' '"''^'"^ are plunging. I„ ,„y view, even the mhiutet^ ^ '"so !"'" "'"' "^ tion have their value, because thev ormrlVt t^ ^! '" ^'^P°'^'"la- in which alone we m^y resol" ""efca^e" t "'"' "' ''^ ''°''* ^^""^ I hai iz:^ '^7:1': zir""''^ ^ ?• r •^ -^^^ ^^ ^-^^'^ «- event as any one here. Tireis I h^'' " "'' ^"'""'^^ '"^^^^^^ '" ^he his chance^o be a witnisTf the ' ' "°""''""''^ ^'" "''^ """"^ however, the vote sh^X-s to r^^^r'"- "^"^^ ^'"' "•"^- ^^' with public disorders to mS ■ r ^ spintshculd rise, as it will, der and almost b^kenaT-vhoH confounded, even I, slen- ment and Constitution o^/co^L^^^^^^ "'^ ''' "^^ ^"^'"^^ ''^ ^— HENRY LEE (J756.J8J8) UGHT HORSE HARRY mHE name of Lee is of high distinction in American history, and especially in the military annals of the United States. This ap- I>lies almost wholly to a single family, of which Robert Eward Lee, the Confederate hero of the Civil War, is the most famous member. Two of his sons and one nephew became Generals in the Civil War, the latter, Fitzhugh Lee, becomingproinincntlx)t»i as a soldier and statesman. But we are here concerned with the first famous representative of tho family, Henry Lee, the father of Robert Kdward, and the "Light Horse Harry" of the Revolution, in which conflict he was the most dashing of cavalry commanders. We have in the record of this family a cir- cumstance without parallel in our history, in the fact that one of the famous soldiers of the Revolution left a son who bt>came one of the two great conmianders in the Civil War, eighty years afterward. General Lee, a native of Virginia, was made a captain of cavalry early in the war for independence. His exploits were numerous anil brilliant, especially in 1780 and 1781, when he connnanded a cavalry corps under (ieneral Greene in the Carolinas. Of his later career it must suffice to say that ho was Governor of Virginia in 1794, and that he served several terms in Congress, where the soldier showed that he had gifts of oratory also. In tho latter field he was selected by Congress to pronounce the funeral oration ujwn Washington, whom ho designated by the famous aphorism, "First in war, tii^t in peace, and first in the hearts of his country-men." THE FATHER OF HIS CXJUNTRY [George Washington ended his life on the 14th of December, 1799, almost at the close of a century in which he had few rivals in military ability, and none in wise and self«crificing patriotism and unselfish devotiou to the best iuteresUofhiscountry. 47 i V i 48 HENRY LEE There are many, alike in A.nerica and Kurope. who regari Washington as pre- enn„c,„ V ,he ^reatcsl „,., .,f th.t ..ntury. Such was the'scntimct ofoie peo^plo wl... ..n lcann„« „f ,„s .ieath, ,n..urae,l hu„ as if they had lust not only the '.Father ot h>s country/' hut the nnn.ediate father of each of then, as well One of his war,„estfr.e„dsa„d ablest companions in anns. Henry Lee, was chosen by Congre^! o vo,ce us sense of the country's loss. We give helow Lee's eloquent tnbute to his great commander s n.e.nory, spoken at th. :icnnan Lutheran Church, Philadelphia on the 26th of December, 1799.] ' *^""^'i='Piia. In obedience to your will I rise your hutnble organ, with the hope of executing a part of the system of public mourning which you have been pleased to adopt, conmiemorative of the death of the most illustrious and most beloved personage this country has ever produced ; and which while It transmits to posterity your sense of the awful event, faintly represents your knowledge of the consummate excellence vou so cordially honor Desperate, indeed, is any attempt on earth to meet correspondently this dispensation of Heaven ; for, while with pious resignation we submit to the will of an all-gracious Providence, we can never cease lamenting Ml our finite view of Omnipotent wisdom, the heartrending privation for which our nation weeps. When the civilized world shakes to its centre • whe;: -n-er>- moment gives birth to strange and momentous changes • when our u: Aceful quarter of the globe, exempt as it happily has been from any shr,rt .a the slaughter of the human race, may yet be compelled to abandon her pacific, •• policy, and to risk the .loleful casualties of war ; what limit is there to the extent of our loss ? None within the reach of my words to express ; none which your feelings will not disavow. The founder of our federate republic -our bulwark in war, our guide m peace— is no more ! O that this were but questionable ! Hope the com- forter of the wretched, would pour into our agonizing hearts its balmy dew. But, alas ! there is no hope for us ; our Washington is removed for ever! Possessing the stoutest frame and purest mind, he had passed nearly to his sixty-eighth year, in the enjoyment of high health, when habituated by his care of us to neglect himself, a slight cold, disregarded became inconvenient on Friday, oppressive on Saturday, and, defying every medical interposition, before the morning of Sunday put an end to the best of men. An end did I say ?-his fame survives ! bounded only by the limits of the earth, and by the extent of the human mind. He sur- vives in our hearts, in the growing knowledge of our children in the affection of the good throughout the world : and when our monuments shall be done away ; when nations now existing shall be no more ; when even our youn g and far-spreading empire shall liave perished, still will our • 'fhe speaker here refers to the disiurlx-tl rond!tir,„nf l.-.,,o„.,., hat i-.«rii .» 1 the .mmlueul peril of war with I-rance, due ,0 ITeuch iulerrerence i^ih AmerTcan commer?^."^"^ '° t t I HENRY LEE 49 1 Washington's glory unfaded shine, and die not, until love of virtue cease on earth, or earth itself sinks into chaos. How, my fellow citizens, shall I single to your grateful hearts his pre-eminent worth ? Where shall I begin in opening to vour view a char- acter throughout sublime ? Shall I speak of his warlikeachievements, all springing from obedience to his country 'swill— all directed to his country's good? Will you go with me to the banks of the Monongahela, to see your youthful Washi!igton. supporting, in the dismal hour of Indian victor>-, the ill-fated Braddock, and saving, by his judgment and by his valor,' the remains of a defeated army, pressed by the conquering savage foe ; or, when oppressed America, nobly resolving to risk her all in defence of her violated rights, he was elevated by the unanimous voice of Congress to the command of her armies ? Will you follow him to the high grounds of Boston, where, to an undisciplined, courageous, and virtuous yeomanry, his presence gave the stability of system, and infused the invincibility of lo^e of country ; or shall I carry you to the painful scenes of Long Island, York Island and New Jersey, when, combating superior and gallant armies,' aided by powerful fleets, and led by chiefs high in the roll of fame, he stood, the bulwark of our safety, undismayed by disaster, unchanged by change of fortune ? Or will you view him in the precarious fields of Trenton, where deep gloom, uimerving every arm, reigned triumphant through our thinned, worn down, unaided ranks; himself unmoved? Dreadful was the night. It was about this time of winter, the storm raged, the Delaware rolling furiously with floating ice, forbade the approach of man. Washington, self-collected, viewed the tremendous scene; his country called ; unappalled by surrounding dangers, he passed to the hos- tile shore ; he fought ; ho conquered. The morning sun cheered the Ameri- can world. Our country rose on the event ; and her dauntless chief, pur- suing his blow, completed, in the lawns of Princeton, what his vast soul had conceived on the shores of the Delaware. [The orator recites, in similar eulogistic words, his hero's remaiuing services in the war and continues as follows :] Were I to stop here, the picture would be incomplete, and the task imposed unfinished. Great as was our Washington in war, and as much as did that greatness contribute to produce the American Republic, it is not in war alone his pre-eminence stands conspicuous. His various talents, combining all the capacities of a statesmen with those of a soldier, fitted him alike to guide the councils and the armies of our nation. Scarcely had he rested from his martial toils, while his invaluable parental advice was still sounding in our cars, when he, who had 'oeen our shield, our sword, was called forth to act a less splendid, but more important part.' if i'l i 1.1 : %i KO HENRY LEE Possessing a clear and penetrating mind, a strong and sound judg- ment, calmness and temper for deliberation, with invincible firmness and perseverance in resolutions maturely formed ; drawing information from all ; acting from himself, with incorruptible integrity and unvarj'ing patriotism ; his own superiority and the public confidence alike marked him as the man designed by Heaven to lead in the great political as well as military events which have distinguished the era of his life. The finger of an overruling Providence, pointing at Washington, was neither mistaken nor unobserved when, to realize the vast hopes to which our Revolution had given biith, a change of political system became indispensable. How novel, how grand the spectacle ! Independent States, stretched over an immense territory, and known only by common difficulty, clinging to their union as the rock of their safety, deciding by frank comparison of their relative condition to rear on that rock, under the guidance of reason. a common government, through whose commanding protection, liberty and order, with their long train of blessings, should be safe to themselves, and the sure inheritance of their posterity. This arduous task devolved on citizens selected by the people, from knowledge of their wisdom and confidence in tlieir virtue. In this august assembly of sages and of patriots, Washington of course was found ; and, as if acknowledged to be most wise where all were wise, with one voice he was declared their chief. How well he merited this rare distinction, how faithful were the labors of himself and his compatriots, the work of their hands, and our union, strength and prosperity, the fruits of that work, best attest. But to have essentially aided in presenting to his country this consum- mation of her hopes neither satisfied the claims of his fellow-citizens on his talents, nor those duties which the possession of those talents imposed. Heaven had not infused into his mind such an uncommon share of its ethereal spirit to remain unemployed ; nor bestowed on him his genius unaccompanied with the corresponding duty of devoting it to the conmion good. To have framed a constitution, was showing only, without real- izing, the general happiness. This great work remained to be done ; and America, steadfast in her preference, with one voice summoned her beloved Washington, unpracticed as he was in the duties of civil admin- istration, to execute this last act in the completion of the national felicity. Obedient to her call, he assumed the high office with that self-distrust peculiar to his innate modesty, the constant attendant of pre-eminent virtue. What was the burst of joy through our anxious land, on this exhilarating event, is known to us all. The aged, the young, the brave. HENRY LEE a » I the fair rivaled each other in demonstrations of their gratitude ; and this high-wrought, delightful scene, was heightened in its effect by the singular contest between the zeal of the bestowers and the avoidance of the receiver of the honors bestowed. Commencing his administration, what heart is not charmed with the recollection of the pure and wise principles announced by himself, as the basis of his political life ! He best understood the indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and individual felicity ; watching, with an equal and comprehensive eye, over this great assemblage of communities and interests, he laid the founda- tions of our national policy in the unerring, immutable principles of morality, based on religion, exemplifying the pre eminence of a free government by all the attributes which win the affections of its citizens, or command the respect of the world. " O fortunatos uimiuin, sua si bona norint ! " Leading through the complicated difficulties produced by previous obligations and conflicting interests, seconded by succeeding Houses of Congress, enlightened and patriotic, he surmounted all original obstruc- tion, and brightened the path of our national felicity Pursuing steadfastly his course, he held safe the public happiness, preventing foreign war, and quelling internal discord, till the revolving period of a third election approached, when he executed his interrupted but inextinguishable desire of returning to the humble walks of private life. The promulgation of his fixed resolution stopped the anxious wishes of an affectionate people from adding a third unanimous testimonial of their unabated confidence in the man so long enthroned in their hearts. When before was affection like this exhibited on earth ? Turn over the records of ancient Greece ; review the annals of mighty Rome ; examine the volumes of modern Europe; you search in vain. America and her Washington only afford the dignified exemplification. The illustrious personage, called by the national voice in succession to the arduous office of guiding a free people, had new difficulties to encounter. The amicable effort of settling our difficulties with France, begun by Washington, and pursued by his successor in virtue as in station, proving abortive, America took measures of self-defence. No sooner was the public mind roused by a prospect of danger, than every eye was turned to the friend of all, though secluded from public view, and gray in public service. The virtuous veteran, following his plough, received the J 1 i ti; ii '• w HENRY LEE unexpected summons with mingled emotions of indignation at the unmeri- t«l ill-treatment of his country, and of a determination once more to risk his all m her defence. The annunciation of these feeling's, in his affecting letter to the President, accepting the command of the army, concludes his ofticial conduct. First in war, first in peack and first in thk hkarts of his corNTRYMHN, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life. Pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere ; uniform dignified and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting. To his equals he was condescending ; to his inferiors kind ; and to the dear object of his affections exemplarily tender. Correct throughout, vice shuddered in hi presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand '; the purity of his private character gave eflfulgence to his public virtues. ' His last scene comported with the whole tenor of his life ; although in extreme pain, not a sigh, not a groan escaped him ; and with undis- turbed serenity he closed his well-spent life. Such was the man America has lost ! Such was the man for whom our nation mourns ! Methinks I see his august image, and hear, falling from his venerable lips, these deep sinking words : " Cease, sons of America, lamenting our separation ; go on and con- firm by your wisdom the fruits of our joint counsels, joint efforts and common dangers. Reverence religion ; diffuse knowledge throughout your land ; patronize the arts and sciences ; let liberty and order be insepar- able companions ; control party spirit, the bane of free government • observe good faith to and cultivate peace with all nations : shut up every avenue to foreign influence ; contract rather than extend national connec- tion ; rely on yourselves only ; be American in thought and deed. Thus will you give immortality to the Union which was the constant object of my terrestrial labors. Thus will you preserve, undisturbed, to the latest posterity, the felicity of a people to me most dear; and thus will you supply (if my happiness is now aught to you) the only vacancy in the round of pure bliss high Heaven bestows. " CKDUVERNEUR MORRIS (1752-1816) THE ONE-LEGGED STATESMAN mHK carl}' period of Unitotl States history lirouj,'lit distiiictiou to two men of tlic name of .Morris, esi>ecially to KoU'rt ^rorn^i, tho financier of tlie Revolution. The second, Gouverneur Morris, while less distinguished, made himself prominent among the states- men and orators of that era. lie began to win credit for oratory in his college career. He l>ecame a lawyer in 1771, and in this profession soon gained reputation for unusual eloquence. During the JJevolu- tion he was a memlwr of the Continental Congress. In 17S0, after he had resumed the practice of the law, he had the misfortune to he thrown from his carriage, and was so injured tliat the amputation of his leg became necessary, a loss which he bore with remarkable fortitude. In 1781 he was ap[X)inted assistant to Robert Morris in adjust- ing the finances of the country, and remain =d for tiireo years. In 1787 he became a mendK>r of the Convex tion that framed the Constitution of the United States, of which, ts Madi.son says, "he was an able, an eloquent, and an active me nber. . . . The _/i;i/sA given to the style and arrangement of the Constitution fairly belongs to the pen of Mr. Morris." Ho was .sent as Minister to France in i7!>2, and in 1800 was elected United States Senator from New York. While in Paris, he wore an ordinary wooden leg, in preference to anv artistic substitute for his lost limb. It served him well on one occa- sion during the French Revolution. A mob. of fiery revolutionists attacked his carriage in the street, with the fatal cry of" Aristocrat!" Morris coolly thrust his wooden leg out of the window, and cried out : "An aristoeriit? Yes; who lost his leg in the c-mse of AnHii'in liberty?" This apt reply turned the temper of the mol) ; tliey 63 i \i M OOUVERNEUR MORRIS chcorod tlic niiiii they liml Ih'cu pukct to hann, ami the (juick-wittcd American pHRwdid Iriiiiupliantly on liis way. THE FREE USE OK THE MISSISSIPPI [In the opcniiiK years of the nineteenth century, when cuiigrants from thi- Kastern States were i)ourinK rapidly into the valley of the Misgissippi, the freedom of navigation of that great artery of the West became a burning question, and the obsta- cles whii-h the SiMinif h at New Orleans put in tlie way of free river commerce stirred up the high-spirited pioneers almost to the point of war. In 1802 it was learnr 1 that France, by a secret treaty with Spain, had become the owners of the Louisiana territory, and the irritation which had existed in the country deepened into alarm. Napoleon, then First Consul of France, was n different character to d^al with than the weak monarch of Spain, and it w.i.s impossible to conjecture to what critical con- ditions his restless ambition might Ic.id. The difficulty was soon to be settled by the diplomacy of Jefferson and his ministers, who purr lascd the whole vast tr** from Napoleon ; but it was a burning question on the a^th of February, 1803, when Morris delivered an able and spirited speech, in which he openly advocated war as the only available means of securing the freedom of .•America's greatest stream. We quote some stirring pa.ssagcs from this lengthy address.] What is the state of things ? There has been a cession of the island of New Orleans and of Louisiana to France. Whether the Floridas have also been cecUd is not yet certain. It has been said, as from authority, and I think it probable. Now, sir, let us note the time and the manner of this cession. It was at or immediately after the treaty of Luueville, at the first moment when France could take up a distant object of attention. But had Spain a right to make this cession without our consent ? Gentle- men have taken it for granted that she had. But I deny the position. No nation has a right to give to anotln a dangerous neighbor without her consent. This is not like the case of private citizens, for the when a man is injured, he can resort to the tribunals for redress ; an et, even there, to dispose of property to one who is a bad neighbor, is ; vays con- sidered as an act of uiikindness. But as between nations, who can redress themselves only by war, such transfer is in itself an aggression But it is not this transfer alone ; there are circumstances, both in the time and in the manner of it, which deserve attention. A gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Wright, has told you, that all treaties ought to be pub- lished and proclaimed for the information of other nations. I ask, was this a public treaty ? No. Was official notice of it given to the govern- ment of this country ? Was it announced to the President of the United States, in the usual rms of civility between nations who duly respect each other ? It was not. Let gentlemen contradict me if they can. They will say, perhaps, that it was the omission only of a vain and idle cere- mony. Ignorance may, indeed, pretend that such communication is an OOUVERNEUR MORRIS U empty compliment, which, established without use, may be omitted with outoffetice. But this is not so. If these beceremonies, they are not vain, bnt of serious import, and are founded on strong reason. He who means mc well, acts without disguise. Had this transaction l)een intended fairly, it would have been told frankly. But it was secret because it was hostile. The First Consul, in the monjent of terminating his differences with you, sought the means of future influence and control. He sought and .secured a pivot for that immense lever by which, with potent arm, he means to subvert your civil and political institutions. Thus, the begin- ning was made in deep hostility. Conceived in such principles, it pre- saged no good. Its bodings were evil and evil have been its fruits. [After reviewing the state of Europe nndcr the domination of Napoleon, and the value of the territory bonleriiij; on the Mississippi, the speaker proceeds.] Having now considered in its various relations, the importance of these provinces, the way is open to estimate our chance of obtaining them by negotiation. Let me ask on what ground you mean to treat. Do you expect to persuade ? Do you hope to intimidate ? If to persuade, what are your means of persuasion ? Every geiitletnati admits the importance of this country. Think you the First Consul, whose capacious mind em- braces the globe, is alone ignorant of its value ? Is he a child, whom you may win by a rattle to comply with your wishes ? Will you, like a nurse, sing to him a lullaby ? If you htive no hope from fondling attentions and soothing sounds, what have you to offer in e.xchnnge? Have you any- thing to give w hich he will take ? He wants power : you have no power. He wants donunion : you have no dominion — at least none that you can grant. He wants inflt in Europe. And have you any influence in Europe? What, in the name of Heaven, are the means by which you would render this negotiation successful ? Is it by some secret spell ? Have you any magic power? Will you draw a circle and conjure up devils to assist you ? Or do you rely on the charms of those beautiful girls with whom, the gentleman near me says, the French grenadiers are to incorporate ? If so, why do you not send an embassy of women ? Gentlemen talk of the principles of our government, as if they could obtain for us the desired boon. But what will these principles avail? When you inquire as to the force of France, Austria, or Russia, do you ask whether they have a liabtas corpus act, or a trial by jury ? Do you estimate tlieir power, discuss their interior police ? No ! The question is, How many bultalions have they ? What train of artillery can they bring into the held ? How many ships can they send to sea ? These ar» the important circumstances which command tespect and facilitate nego- tiation. Can you display these powerful motives ? Alas ! Alas ! To I 1 ■• OOUVERNBUR MORRIS all th«e question, you answer hy one poor wor.l-confidence-confid^no, -confidence-yea. verily, we have confidence. We have fa^rfh «ait for fordgn alli.„„( No' anim J wilh , Did we then that we liave gained it shall v> ,.ii f '^"■\"*^'' "t"''''""- And now BUiiicu 11. snail vt til i J from our honor > hir, I repeat to you that i -..i-h for pence- r^nl i »• peace. To obtain and secure this bl JnL iTt us 7 r?,"^' ^°"°™*''^ conihict. convince the powers of P 1 5' ' *' " '^"''^ ""^ ''"^i^'ve our rights ; that J:^::^,S:7^ ^7 '^r '"^' ^'^ '^^^"'^ dation. This is the conduct wl^rCL ^ "' " "''' ^'" '^^'^•''■ conduct V il, connnand the rc.pec of tJeToTld ^x""""' ^"^'^ "^'"^ all Kuro,. to a proper --of'iheirsituaUr ' They'^^^^^ T^ of p< uer. on which their liberties dtnend is if ni T ? , ^ ''""'^"^^ ''•"-..er. They know that the drminio^oV Fr ' . f"'"''^' '" ^^^^"^'"^ ti-.e sword over millions who !rnZT I ^^' ''"'^" extended by These unwilling .4ra«;:rrer^^^^^^^ not, like that of Rome secured VvJIv, .^'^.^ ^'" •""■<-' "^ the Gauls is broken. «ut whateve:'™^^,:^^ ^ ;r: ^us \ T ^" '^ si^TALrt::— - - --- -;::-r r:r that they will n.eanirrSe o pa v the"" """T" ' ^^""°* '■*»-- honor and support their in; rpl^nu'L' sTth^f "V^ /'"'''^^^^ "'^'^ of America. They will disd^fin submissi! "to he^,; , " '"' ^'^''P'^ eauh. They have not lost the spirit o ^ But T'^T "''"'^" "" as to barter their riglus for eold if th, ''^^ ^'^ '° '*^«e .•efend their honor, th^y are nSwn;',:!^^^^ '''' ''''' '^'^ -^ ^uatter how soon they are parcelled out a^t^tnerL^S: ''''' ' ^^ "° JOHN MARSHALL (1751-1831) AMERICA'S GREATEST JURiST mllKRK irni>oHaii« careorM arc ninly ('ihl)r.i<'("l in fix lifiofa «ini:lo man, yd in Juliii Maivliall \\c liiid oiiisclvi - in tli.- pnv-^uci. at oiifi' of a l)ravt' Mildiir, an alilc statfsiiiaii, mhI iin cniint lit jurist. Horn in Viri;ir.ia, tlio fosti-r-liom.- of statesmen. Maisliall wis a soldier in tlio Ifevolufioii. takini,' part in t\w l)attles(.r I'.ran.jyw inc. (iormantown ami .Monmouth ami end irin-j the terrihle winter :it Valley For^'e. His duties as a state-y the executive or the judiciarv. GrxBWOld gays, in his "Prose Writers of America," "That ar-ument deserves to be 57 t( i 1' I 58 JOHN MARSHALL '■'ii mnkcd among the most .lignified displays of the human intellect •' a. = i • j. • . study and decision, resembling those for which V-^2Z ""'^'lect- Asa close judicial strengU. and balance could l/s hZ on.: ^'i^i^g u 'n^^""^^^^^^^^^ ''''"°"'' J!* done here, its character will be indicated by our ^trlcU.] """"^ "" The case stated is, that Thomas Nash, having committed a murder on hoard o a Bnttsh frigate, navigating the high seas under a contmiX f om Hts Bntann.c Majesty, had sought an asylum within the United St .tes letter If'th""'?,' '^'^ '^" '^'^ '''''*^' " ^"PP''^*"^ ^^ P^^^f- ^^ within the etter of the article, provided a murder committed in a British frigate on the l"gh seas be committed within the jurisdiction of that nation bv tht^intT ' ^''•'^^^ 5^'''''"' "'^'^ J""''^i-tion, has been fully shown by the gentleman from Delaware. The principle is, that the jurisdiction of a nation extends to the whole of its territory, and to its own citLens i every part of the world. The laws of a nation are rightfully obhgl" ol ts own ctizensm every situation, where those laws are reallyTxtendS to them. This principle is founded on the nature of civil un on i t supported everywhere by public opinion, and is recognized by write "on he aw of nations. Rutherforth. in his second vofume. p r8o, sTys riie jurisdiction which a civil society has over the persons of its menbe^' affects them imniedtately, whether they are within its territories or not ■ ' This general principle is especially true, and is particulariy recog- nized, with respect to the fleets of a nation on the high seas. To pS offences committed in its fleet is the practice of every nation in theT. , e se : and consequently the opinion of the worid is that a fleet at sel L u. hin the jurisdiction of the nation to which it belongs. Rutherforth olume ., p. 491 says: -There can be no doubt about the jurisd iction Hit TTT P^'-'^""^ -•^-" compose its fleets, when tLy are I ;lrt of t' "■ ' "'^ "''"^ "P°" '' °^ ^'^ ^^^^--'^ - ^^y P-ticullr The gentleman froiii Pennsylvania (Mr. Gallatin), though he has not dtrec^b' controverted this doctrine, has sought to weaken it by ob e^ l' that the jurisdiction of a nation at sea could not be complete even 7n7. own vessels ; and, in support of this position, he urged the adniitte Ic .ce of submitting to search for contraband-a practice not tolerated on and, within the territory- of a neutral power. The rule is as stated l^ .s founded on a principle which do., not affect the jurisdiction of a nation over Its citizens or subjects in its ships. The principle is, that in the ea Itself no nation has any jurisdiction. All may equally exercise their nghts, and consequently the right of a belligerent ^ower to pr^ent^d JOHN MARSHALL to being given to his enemy is not restrained by any superior right of a neu- tral m the place. But if this argument possessed any force, it would not apply to national ships of war, since the usage of nations does not permit them to be searched. According to the practice of the world, then, and the opinions of writers on the law of nations, the murder conmiitted on hoard of a British fngate navigating the high seas was a murder committed within the jur- isdiction of the British nation Gentlemen have considered it as an offence against judicial authority and a violation of judicial rights, to withdraw from their sentence 'a criminal against whom a prosecution had been commenced. They have treated the subject as if it were the privilege of courts to condemn to death the guilty wretch arraigned at their bar, and that to intercept the judgment was to violate the privilege. Nothing can be more incorrect than this view of the case. It is not the privilege, it is the sad duty, of courts to administer criminal judgment. It is a duty to be performed at the demand of the nation, and with which the nation has a right to dis- pense. If judgment of death is to be pronounced, it must be at the prosecution of the nation . s-nH tlie nation may at will stop that prosecu- tion. In .lis respect tht President expresses constitutionally the will of the nation ; and may riu^htfully enter a »o//f troscqui, or direct that the criminal be prosecuted ,o further. This is no interference with judicial decisions, nor any invasion of the province of a court. It is the exercise of an indubitable and a constitutional po v\ er After trespassing so long on the patience of the House, in arguing- what has appeared to me to be the material points growing out of the resolutions, I regret the necessity of detaining you still longer for the purpose of noticing an observation which appears not to lie considered by the gentleman who made it as belonging to the argument. The subject introduced by this observatioi', however is so calcu- lated to interest the public feelings, that I mu^t be excused for stating my opinion on it. The gentleman from Pennsylvania has said, that an impressed Amer- ican seaman, who should commit homicide for the purpose of liberating himself from the vessel in which he is confined, ought not to be given up as a murderer. In this, I concur entirely with the gentleman. I believe the opinion to be unquestionably correct, as were the reasons that gentle- man has given in support of it. I have never heard any American avow a contrary sentiment, nor do I believe a contrary sentiment could find a place in the bosom of any American. I cannot pretend, and do not pretend, to know the opinion of the executive on the subject, because I in 60 JOHN MARSHALL have never heard the opinions of that department ; but I feel the most perfect conviction, founded on the general conduct of the government that it could never surrender an impressed -American to the nation which, in making an impressment, had committed a national injury. The belief is, in no degree, shaken by the conduct of the executive in this particular case. In my own mind it is a sufficient defence of the President from an imputation of this kind, that the fact of Thomas Nash being an impressed American was obviously not contemplated by him in the decision he made on the principles of the case. Consequently, if a new circumstance occurred which would essentially change the case decided by the Presi- dent, the judge ought not to have acted under that decision, but the new circumstance ought to have been stated. Satisfactory as this defence might appear, I shall not resort to it, because to some it might seem a subterfuge. I defend the conduct of the President on other and still stronger ground. The President had decided that a murder committed on board a British frigate on the high seas was within the jurisdiction of that nation and consequently within the twenty-seventh article of its treaty with the United States. He therefore directed Thomas Nash to be delivered to the British minister, if satisfactory evidence of the murder should be adduced. The sufficiency of the evidence was submitted entirely to the judge. If Thomas Nash had committed a murder, the decision was that he should be surrendered to the Brilisli minister ; but if he had not committed a murder, he was not to be surrendered. Had Thomas Nash been an impressed American, the homicide on board the Hennione would, most certainly, not have been a murder. The act of impressing an American is an act of lawless violence The confinement on board a vessel is a continuation of that violence, and an additional outrage. Death committed within the United States in resisting such violence, would not have been murder, and the person giving the wound could not have been treated as a murderer. Thomas Nash was only to have been delivered up to justice on such evidence as had the fact been committed within the United States, would have been sufficient to have induced his commitment and trial for murder. Of conse- quence, the decision of the President was so expressed as to exclude the case of an impressed American liberating himself by homicide. II K BOOK II. The Golden Age of American Oratory OF what may be called the critical periods in the history of the United States, there have been two which stand pre-eminent in the development of oratory as in other respects. The first of these was the period of unrest and social and political turmoil which led to the war of the Revo- lution and to the formation of the Constitution. The second was the period of equal disturbance which had its outcome in the Civil War. In both cases a con- flict of words preceded that of arms. The voice of the orator was the weapon employed, and a long con- test on the rostrum preceded the appeal to arms. With the first of these periods we have already dealt. The second was dominated by two exciting political problems, the tariff question and the slavery contro- versy. The first of these led to the attempted seces- sion from the Union of South Carolina. Its most notable result, so far as oratory is concerned, was the famous Congressional debate between Daniel Webster and Robert Y. Hayne, the grandest verbal passage-at-arms in American history. The other sub- ject of controversy was more extended ; continuing for forty years, during which the halls of Congress rang with arguments of fiery contestants ; and ending in actual war when logic and argument had failed to smooth the waves of hostile feeling. This period has been well denominated" The Golden Age of American Oratory." It gave rise to such giants in debate as Clay, Webster, Calhoun, and added to the literature of oratory many brilliant examples of the speaker's art. 61 il yi Ml i I 1 ! !:i ^t JOSIAH QUINCY (1 772-1864) A FAMOUS FATHER AND SON minO iiaiMo of Josiali (iniiKv appertains to two oratoi-s, father an.l .-osed the party in jiower with great energy and ability. " He' was oqual to the emergency," says (iriswold, ••an(i sustained himself on all occasions with manly hiileiK'ndence, sound argnment, and fervid declamation." Whik the oration> of the father are traditional, those of the son are on recon^ some of his aldest speeciies being in opiK)si- tion to the Embargo Act of 1807, the admission of Louisiana in 1811, and the war of 1812. After leaving Congress, Mr. (^uiney served us a senator and a judge in Massachusetts, Mayor of Hoston from l8'_>;i to \S-?(i and president of Harvard College from 1829 to 1845. He dieTt.a„ bondage. It is a barter of so much of our rights, oTso mth tl^: T r k'"'" f°^I-^'^'-l P-- to be transferred toother hands. It ought to be met, and I trust it will be met, in the southed country as was the Stamp Act, and all those measures which I will Tt detain the House by recapitulating, which succeeded the Stamp Act and P educed the final breach with the mother country, which it took atut ten ears to hnng about ; as I trust, in my conscience, it will not take as long to bung nhout similar results from this measure, should it become a law All policy ,s verj- saspicious, says an eminent statesman, that sacri- fices the interest of any part of a community to the ideal good of the whole : and those go -crnments only are tolerable where, by the necessary construction of the political machine, the interests of all the parts are oi Lgcd to be protected by h. Here is a district of country extendine from the Patapsco to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Alleghany tot"he Atlantic : a district which taking in all that part of Maryland lying south of he Patapsco and east of Elk river, raises five sixths of all the exports of this country; that are of home growth. I have in my hand the official ^tements which prove it-hut wliich I will not wcai^- the H ones by reading-in all this country, yes. sir, and I bless God for it ; for with aU \*i 1 ili- i;, lii I \4 II it fi m JOHN RANDOLPH the fantastical and preposteroas theories about the rights of man (the theories, not the rights themselves, I speak of), there is nothing but power that can restrain power. I bless God that, in this insulted, oppressed, and outraged region, we are, as to our counsels in regard to this measure, but as one man ; that there exists on the subject but one feeling and one interest. We are proscribed and put to the bar ; and if we do not feel, and, feeling, do not act, we are bastards to those fathers who achieved the revolution ; then shall we deserve to make our bricks without straw. There is no case on record in which a proposition like this, suddenly changing the whole frame of a country's polity, tearing asunder every ligature of the body politic, was ever carried by a lean majority of two or three votes, unless it be the usurpation of the septennial act, which passed the British Parliament by, I think, the majority of one vote, the same that laid the tax on cotton bagging. I do not stop here, sir, to argue about the constitutionality of this bill ; I consider the Constitution a dead letter. I consider it to consist at this time of the power of the General Government and the power of the States : that is the Constitution . You may entrench yourself in parchment to the teeth, says Lord Chatham, the sword will find its way to the vitals of the Constitution. I have no faith in parchment, sir ; I have no faith in the " abracadabra " of the Constitu- tion ; I have faith in the powet of that commonwealth of which I am an unworthy son ; in the power of those Carolinas, and of that Georgia, in her ancient and utmost extent, to the Mississippi, which went with us through the valley of the shadow of death in the war of our independence. I have said that I shall not stop to discuss the constitutionality of this question, for that reason and for a better ; that there never was a consti- tution under the sun in which, by an unwise exercise of the powers of the government, the people may not be driven to the extremity of resistance by force. "For it is not, perhaps, so much by the assumption of unlaw- ful powers as by the unwise or unwarrantable use of those which are most legal, that governments oppose their true end and object; for there is such a thing as tyranny as well as usurpation." If under a power to regulate trade you prevent exportation ; if, with the most approved spring lancets, you draw the last drop of blood from our veins ; if, scatndunt artem, you draw the last shilling from our pockets, what are the checks of the Constitution to us ? A fig for the Constitution ! When the scor- pion's sting is probing us to the quick, shall we stop to chop logic ? Shall we get some learned and cunning clerk to say whether the power to do this is to be found in the Constitution, and then if he, from whatever motive, shall maintain the aflirmative, like the animsl whose fleece foniis so material a portion of this bill, quietly lie down and be shorn ? . . . . -1^ m WILLIAM WIRT (1772-1834) THE DEFENDER OI L; NNERHASSETT HAROX r.rKI{, a skillful |M)liii(i| Ku.loi (.t'flif .miIv years of (ho AiiKTicau liiioM, \vlM-,'shnuiiii.>f)sed puiiH/se u;i-i \»vviM T.\a> from Mexico and form ail iiide|KMideiit nation, with N'.- v Orleans lor its capital and liims<"lf as the aihiter of its destinies. U iiatev,( the finest iH)wers. The learning and ehxiuence displayed hy him in the trial made his repu- tation as an orator, his arguments were read with delight, and his name was enrolled among tho.se of America's ahlest men. Of the siKjeches made at this trial, that of Wirt alone .survives as a hrilliant example of ekxjuence. Mr. Wirt had long Ix-en famous as a lawyer: his reputation increased after this famous trial until, in 1«17, he was made Attorney -(ieneral of the United States. This position he held dur- ing the eight yeai-s of Monroe's administration, and wa.« reapj^inted iu 1825 hy President Adams, who had hecu his associate in Monroe's 60 !?• \ i fi It 70 WILLIAM WIRT Cabinet. In 18.'}2 he was noniinuted for the IVsidcncy by the Anti- Mason party, but carried only one State. JIo won n'imtlition as ii writer also; es|H>ciaIly by his " I.if,. of Patrick ilmry." which many consider a piece of biographical writing of unrivalkd merit. BURR AND BLENNERHASSETT [In Wirt's arraignment of Burr, the most famous passage is his word picture of the earthly paradise of Blenncrluissctfs dwelling, on an island in the Ohio, into which Burr entered as the serpent of temptation. Though a highly ex.-iK«eratcd picture it IS ,1 most engaging one. The counsel for the defendant had advanced the theory that Blennerhassctt was the originator of the scheme and Burr a victim of his treasonable designs. Wirt effectually disposed of this theory in the following burst of elo-. Pervading the continent rr,.,n New York to New Orleans, he draws into his plan, by every allurei.uMit which he can contrive, men of all ranks and descrii)tions. To youthful ardor he presents danger and glory ; to ambition, rank an.l titles and honors ; to avarice, the mines of Mexico. To each person wliom he ad- dres-ses he presents the object adapted to his taste. His recruiting officers are appointed. Men are eng.iged throughout the continent. Civil life is indeed ciuiet upon its surface, but in its bosom this man has contrived to deposit the materials which, with the slightest touch of his match, produce an explosion to shake the continent. All this his restless ambition has hBmmfmsmk WILLIAM WIRT n contrived ; and in the autumn of 1806 he goes forth for the last time to apply this match. On this occasion he meets with Blennerhassett Who is Blennerluissett ? A native of Ireland, a man of letters, who fled from the sto-ms of his own country lo find quiet in ours. His history shows that war is not the natural element of his mind. If it had been he never would have exchanged Ireland for America . So far is an army from furnishmg the society natural and proper to Mr. Blennerhassett s char- acter, that on his arrival in America he retired even from the population of the Atlantic States, and sought .juiet and solitude in the bosom of our western forests. But he carried with him taste and science and wealth • and lo. the desert smiled I I'ossessing himself of a beautiful island in the Ohio he rears upon it a palace, and decorates it with every romantic em- bellishment of foncy. A shrubbery that Shensto.ie might have envied blooms aroun.l him. Music that might have charmed Calvpso and her nymphs is his. An e.xtensive library spreads its treasures before him A philosophical apparatus offers to him all the secrets and mysteries of nature Peace, traii.iuillity and innocence shed thdr mingled delights around him And, to crown the eiiclnntment of the .scene, a wife, who is said to be lovely even beyond her sex, and graced with everv accomulishment that can render it irresistible, had blessed him with her love, and made him the father of several chihlren. The evidence would convince you that this is but a faint picture of the real life. In the midst of all this peace, this innocent simplicity and this tran- quillity, this least of the mind, this pure banquet of the heart, the destroyer comes ; he comes to change this paradise into a hell. Yet the flowers 'do not wither at his approach . No monitory shuddering through the bosom of their unfortunate possessor warns lii-n of the ruin that is coming upon him. A stranger presents himself. Introduced to their civilities by the high rank wl.ioh he had lately held in his country, he soon finds his wav to their hearts by the .lignity and elegance of his demeanor, the light and beauty of his conversation, and the seductive and fascinating power of his adilress . The coiKjuest was not difficult. Innocence is ever simple and credu- lous. Conscious of no design itself, it suspects none in others. It wears no guard before its breast. Every door, and portal, and avenue of the heart is thrown open, aiiu all who choose it enter. Such was the state of lulen when the serpent entered its bowers. The prisoner, in a more en- gaging form, winding himself into the open and unpracticetl heart of the unfortunate Blennerhassett, f.miid but little difficulty in changiiiK the native character of tliat heart and the objects of its affection. By degrees he infuses into it the poison of his own ambition. He breathes into it the m ! i- »!E?aiMtivi!f%ilriL%iraif«'£g^^ ' ■wmi] 72 WILLIAM WIRT ' ( fire of his own courage ; a daring and desperate thirst for glory ; an ardor panting for great enterprises, for all the storm and bustle and hurricane of life. In a short time the whole man is changed, and every object of his former delight is relinquished. No more he enjoys the tranquil scene; it has become flat and insipid to his taste. His books are abandoned. His retort and crucible are thrown aside. His shrubbery blooms and breathes its fragrance upon the air in vain ; he likes it not. His ear no longer drinks the rich melody of music ; it longs for the trumpet's clangor and the cannon's roar. Even the prattle of his babes, once so sweet, no longer affects him ; and the angel smile of his wife, which hitherto touched his bosom with ecstasy so uns^.^akahle, is now unseen and unfelt. Greater objects have taken possession of his soul. His imagination has been dazzled by visions of diadems, of stars, and garters, and titles of nobility. He has been taught to burn with restless emulation at the names of great heroes and conquerors. His enchanted island is destined soon to relapse into a wilderness ; and in a few months we find the beautiful and tender partner of his bosom, whom he lately "permitted not the winds of" summer "to visit too roughly," we find her shivering at midnight on the wintry banks cf the Ohio, and mingling her tears with the torrents that froze as they fell. Yet this unfortunate man, thus deluded from his interest and his happiness, thus seduced from the paths of innocence and peace, thus con- founded in the toils that were delioerately spread for him, and overwhelmed by the mastering spirit and genius of another— this man, thus ruined and undone, and made to play a subordinate part in this grand drama of guilt and treason, this man is to be called the principal offender ; while he, by whom he was thus plunged in misery, is comparatively innocent, a mere accessory ! Is this reason ? Is it law ? Is it humanity ? Sir, neither the human heart nor the human understanding will bear a perversion so mon- strous and absurd ! so shocking to the soul ! so revolting to reason ! Let Aaron Burr, then, not shrink from the high destination which he has courted, and having already ruined Blennerhassett in fortune, character and happiness for ever, let him not attempt to finish the tragedy by thrusting that ill-fated man between himself and punishment. i HENRY CLAY (1 777- 1 852) THE PEOPLE'S FAVORITE mN those days of lariU'aiid slavery a^Mlatiuii, wIumi all sooincd at risk in tlio j,'roat Papuhlic of the Wt';-!. tlii' iiohlc tifjfiirc (it'IIonry Clay stood in the front rank of the patriots who fought against tho forces of disunion ; not towering, lik(! Wehster, in heroic- defiance of the foes of tho rnion. hut heiiling it- wounds, allaying the violence of the oonihat, and winning hy mild measures wh.it could not ho attained hy violence. Where other men made themselves admired, Clay made himself loved. His gentleness ami courtesy won him an ahiding place in the luarts of his countrymen. lie was everA-where tho favorite of the pioplc. "Who ever," says I'arton, "heard such cheers, .so hearty, distinct and ringing, as those which his name evoked'. Men shed tears at his defeat and women went to l>ed sick from pure .symiiathy with his disapjiointment. He could not travel during the last thirty years of his life, he only made jimr/renHc.i ; the coinnuttee of one .^tato i)assing him on to the conuuittee of another, the hurrahs of one town dying away as those of the next caught his ear." How did tliis man win such high esteem? I?e Ix'gan life hum- bly enough, working on a \'irginia farm to aid his widowed mother, and riding barefoot to mill for the fanvily flour — whence his familiar title, "The Milhhoy of the Slashes." A ch'rk in Richmon.l at four- teo'i, he was admittwl to tho bar at twenty, and hy signal fortune l)eeanio a niemher of the United States Senate before reaching the constitutional limit of thirty years of age. His rapid progress was due to his fine native jwwers of oratory, his skill in debate, and bis controlling influence in political measures. Endowed hy nature with a voice of wonderful compass and rich harmony, fluent in delivery 73 £1 i<| I: I ; SL^S9s^^i^fresa:r:3^^sii 74 HENRY CLAY and graceful in gesture, his reputation soon spread from end to end of the land. " Take him for all in all," says Parton, " we must regard him as the first of American orators; but posterity will not assign liim tliat liigh rank, fur posterity will not hear that matchless voice, will not sec those large gestures, those striking attitudes, that grand manner, wliicli gave to second-rate comi)osition first-rate effecl." While excelled as a n-asoner by Webster, and surpassed in fiery earn- estness by f 'alhoun. none were his equals in grace of oratory and charm of manner. His siK>eches do not all read well. Many dull passages are nut with. They lack that splendor of delivery which gave theiu such winning effect. Yet they present, even on tiio printe, the Tarilf Compromise of 18:1", and the Territorial Compromise of 18.")(), the latter two being initiated and carried tln-ough 1)V him. Hy these noble services he smoothed the waves of discontent and .stayed the spirit of disunion until death removed him from tiie scone. His own words form the true motto of his character: "I would lather be right than be President." THE AMERICAN SYSTEM [Clay, who had argued strongly in favor of a protective tariff during the spirited discussion in i8-24, look different ground in 1S32 and 1833, during a period of excite- ment in the South against high tariff that yielded in South Carolina an attempt to nullify the United States tariff laws. Clay, in a speech in 1S32, showed vividly the prosperity which had arisen between 1824 and the latter date, due, as he believed, to the protective tariff. But in the following year he introduced, in order to nilay the irritation, a bill for a gradual reduction of the tariff during the ten succeeding years. This was the compromise above spoken of.] Eight years ago it was my painful duty to present to the House of Congress an unexaggerated picture of the general distress pervading the whole land. We must all yet remember some of its frightful features. We all know that tlie people were then oppressed and borne down by an ciiormeus load of debt ; that the value of property was at the lowest point of depression ; that ruinous .sales and .sacrifices were everywhere made of real estate ; that stop-laws and relief-laws and paper-money were adopted I HENRY CLAY 76 to save the people from impending destruction ; that a deficit in the public revenue existed which compelled the Government to seize upon, and divert from its legitimate object, the appropriation to the sinking fund to redeem the national debt ; and that our commerce and navigation were threatened with a complete paralysis. In short, sir, if I were to select any term of seven years since the adoption of the present Constitution which exhibited a scene of the most wide-spread dismay and desolation, it would be exactly that term of seven years which immediately preceded the establishment of the tariff of 1824. I have now to perform the more pleasing task of exhibiting an imper- fect sketch of the existing state of the unparalleled prosperity of the country. On a general survey, we behold cultivation extended, the arts flourishing, the face of the country improved, our people fully and profit- ably employed, and the public countenance exhibiting tranquillity, con- tentment and happiness. And, if we descend into particulars, we have the agreeable contemplation of a people out of debt ; land rising slowly in value, but in a secure and salutary degree ; a ready, though not extrava- gant, market for all the surplus productions of our industry ; innumerable flocks and herds browsing and gamboling on ten thousand hills and plains, covered with rich and verdant grasses; our cities expanded, and whole villages springing up, as it were, by enchantment ; our exports and imports increased and increasing; our tonnage, foreign and coastwise, swelling and fully occupied ; the rivers of our interior animated by the perpetual thunder and lightning of countless steamboats ; the currency sound and abundant ; the public debt of two wars nearly redeemed ; and, to crown all, the public treasury overflowing, embarrassing Congress, not to find subjects of taxation, but to select the objects which shall be liberated from the impost. If the term of seven years were to be selected of the greatest prosperity which this people have enjoyed since the estab- lishment of their present Constitution, it would be exactly that period of seven years which immediately followed the passage of the tariff of 1824. This transformation of the condition of the country from gloom and distress to brightness and prosperity has been mainly the work of American legislation, fostering American industry ; instead of allowing it to be controlled by foreign legislation, cherishing foreign industry. The foes of the American system, in 1824, with great boldness and confidence, predicted : ist. The ruin of the public revenue and the creation of a necessity to resort to direct taxation. The gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Ilayne), I believe, thought that the tariff of 1824 would operate a reduction of revenue to the large amount of eight millions of dollars. and. The destruction of our navigation. 3rd. The desolation of commercial I 78 HENr y CLAY cities. And 4th. The augmentation of the price of objects of con- satnption, and further decline in that of the articles of our exports. Every prediction which they made has failed — utterly failed. Instead of the ruin of the public revenue, with which they then sought to deter us from the adoption of the American system, we are now threatened with its subversion by the vast amount of the public revenue produced by that system. The danger to our Union does not lie on the side of persistence in the American system, but on that of its abandonment. If, as I have supposed and believed, the inhabitants of all north and east of the James River, and all west of the mountains, including Louisiana, are deeply interested in the preservation of that system, would they be reconciled to its over- throw ? Can it be expected that two-thirds, if not three-fourths, of the people of the I'uiteU States would consent to th.e destruction of a policy believed to be indispensably necessary to Iheir ])rosperity — when, too, this sacrifice is made at the instance of a single interest which they verily believe will not be promoted by it ? In estimating the degree of peril which may be incident to two opposite courses of human policy, the statesman would be shortsighted who should content himself with viewing only the evils, real or imaginary, which belong to that course which is in practical operation. He should lift himself up to the contemplation of those greater and more certain dangers which might inevitably attend the adoption of the alternative course. What would be the condition of this Union if Pennsylvania and New York, those mammoth members of our confederacy, were firmly persuaded that their industry was paralyzed and their prosperity blighted by the enforcement of the British Colonial sys- tem, under the delusive name of free trade ? They are now tranquil and happy and contented, conscious of their welfare, and feeling a salutary and rapid '.irculation of the products of home manufactures and home industrj tlir-.v.-^^ bout all their great arteries. But let that be checked ; let them feci that a foreign system is to predominate, and the sources of their subsistence and comfort dried up ; let New I\iigland and the West and the Middle States all feel that hey too are the victims of a mistaken policy, and let these vast portions of our country despair of any favorable change, and then, indeed, might we tremble for the continuance and safety of this Union ! THE HORRORS OF CIVIL WAR [Of Henry Clay's contributions to the stability of the I'uioii, one of the greatest was the Compromise of 1850, uhich he erected as a dam Hj;ainst the flood of hostile sentiment which was then swelling in North and South alike. If no check were put to it, if it should lead to the fatal nllim.iluni of secession, a war of frightful dimen- sions would be, in his opinion, an inevitable consequence. He was justified in his I li HENRY CLAY ORATOR AND STATESMAN Henry Clay's rank as an iirator has IncreaseJ with time His piiMiltin was aitaiPfJ fy rainstakinj; i-iliiri. Ci.n Webster anJ Ca :ic)un are rankeJ tugelhtr as tlie srealest American Orators I 11 HENRY CLAY 77 prcdirtion ; the war came, and while it lasted its horron were as Inrid as he had painted them. Fortunately itii diimtion and its consc(|uences were widely diflcrent from his depressing prediction. As fur himself, his wish was granted.. He did nut survive to witness the "heart-rending spectarlc." Wegivc this prediction from bia speech in the Senate on February 6, 1850.] Mr. President, I am directly opposed to any purpose of secession, of separation. I am for staying within the Union, and defying any portion of this Union to expel or drive me out of the Union. I am for staying and fighting for my rights — if necessary, with the sword — within the bounds and under the siifeguard of the I'nion. I am for vindicating these rights, but not by being driven out of the Uniun r.ishly and unceremoni- ously by any portion of this cotifederacy. Here I am within it, and here I mean to stand and die — as far as luy individual purposes or wishes can go ; within it to protect myself, and to defy all power upon earth to expel me or Irive me from the situation in which I i.m placed. Will there not be moro safety in fighting within the Union than without it ? bitppose your rights to be violated ; suppose wrongs to be done yoo, aggressions to be perjietrated upon you ; cannot you better fight and vin- dicate them, if yoti have occasion to result to that last necessity of the sword, within the Union, and with the sympathies of a large portion of the population of the Union of these States differently constituted from you, than you can fight and vindicate your rights expelled from the Union, and driven from it without ceremony and without authority ? I said that I thought that there was no right on the part of one or more of the States to secede from this Union. I think that the Constitu- tion of the thirteen States was made not merely for the generation which then existed, but for posterity, tmdefined, unlimited, permanent and per- petual — for their posterity and for every subsequent State which might come into the Union, binding themselves by that indissoluble bond. It is to remain for that posterity now and forever. Like ;ii. other of the great relations of private life, it was a marriage that no human authority can dis- solve or divorce the parties from ; and if I may be allowetl to refer to this same example in private life, let us say what man and wife say to each other : " We have mutual faults ; nothvig in the form of human beings can be perfect. Let us then be kind to each other, forbearing, conceding ; let us live in happiness and peace. ' ' Mr. President, I have said what I solemnly believe, that the dissolu- tion of the Union and war are identical and inseparable ; that they are convertible terms. Such a w.ir, too, as that would be, following the dissolution of the Union ! Sir, we may search the pages of history, and none so furious, so vU n HENRY CLAY bloody, M> implacable, so exterminating, fron the wan of Oreeoe down, including thoae of the Commonwealth of England and the rerolation of France — none of them raged with sach violence, or was ever conducted with such bloodshed and enormities, as will that war which shall follow that disastrous event— if that event ever happens— of dissolution. And what would be its terminatior ? Standing armies and navies, to an extent draining the revenues of each portion of the dissevered empire, would be created ; exterminating wars would follow — not a war of two nor three years, but of interminable duration— an exterminating war would follow, until some Philip -or Alexander, some Ceesar or Napoleon, would rise to cut the Gordian knot and solve the problem of the capacity of man for self-government, and crush the liberties of both the dissevered portions of this Union. Can you doubt it ? Look at history — consult the pages of all history, ancient or modem ; look at human nature ; look at the character of the contest in which you would be engaged in the sup- position of a war following the dissolution of the Union, such as I have suggested ; and I ask you if it is possible for yon to doubt that the final but perhaps distant termination of the whole will be some despot treading down the liberties of the people? that the final result will be the extinc- tion of this last and glorious light, which is leading all mankind who are gazing upon it to cherish hope and anxious expectatation that the liberty which prevails here will sooner or later be advanced throughout the civil- ized world? Can yon, Mr. President, lightly contemplate the conse- quences ? Can you yield yourself to a torrent of passion, amidst dangers which I have depicted in colors far short of what would be the reality, if the event should ever happen ? I conjure gentlemen — ^whether from the South or North — by all they hold dear in this world, by all their love of liberty, by all their veneration for their ancestors, by all their regard for posterity, by all their gratitude to Him who has bestowed upon them such unnumbered blessings, by all the duties which they owe to mankind and all the duties which they owe to themselves, by all these considerations I implore them to pause — solemnly to pause — at the edge of the precipice, before the fearful and di8;istrous leap is taken into the yawning abyss below, which will inevitably lead to certain and irretrievable destruction. And, finally, Mr. President, I implore, as the best blessing which Heaven can bestow upon me on earth, that if the direful and sad event of the dissolution of the Union shall happen, I may not survive to behold the sad and heart-ienJiug spectacle. ROBERT Y. HAYNE (J 792-1 839) THE CHAMnON OF SOUTH CABOUNA mN 1830 a resolution, innocent in appearance but momentous in consequences, was introduced into the United Htaion Senate by Mr. Foot, a member of that l)ody. It related to tlie sale of the public lands, and had no visible bearing on other questions; yet it gave rise to a controversy in which the doctrine of tlie ri^ht of a State to withdraw from the Union was brought prominent Iv forwanl, and which drew forth from Daniel Webster his noblest and most famous speech. His ojjjwnent was Robert Y. Hayne, of South Carolina, the leading advocate of the principle of nullification and the right of secession. Hayne was descended from a patriotic South Carolina family of revolutionary fame. He himself served with gallantry at Fort Moultrie in 1812, and there first became known as an able orator, in an address on the anniversary of independence, in which he evinced earnestness of patriotism, purity of style and depth of pathos. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1822 and remained a mem- ber for ten years, resigning in 1832 to accept the governorship of South Corolina. Hayne was a vigorous opponent of the policy of protection, and, in his celebrated speeches on Mr. Foot's resolution, advanced u thinlv- veiled doctrine of disunion. He became an open supiK)rtcr of this doctrine in 1832, in the convention called in South Carolina to nullify the tariff laws of the United States. The Ordinance of Nullification was adopted on November 24, 1832. On December 10th, President Jackson issued a proclamation vigorously denouncing-it. Governor Hayne issued a counter-proclamation, in which he showed his inten- tion to resist the Greneral Govenunent, even at the bayonet's point. 79 MICROCOPY RESOIUTION TEST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No 2) _j /IPPLIED IN/MGE Inc ^F 1653 East Mom Street ^^ Rochester. New York 1*609 USA •J^ (716) 482 - 0300 - Phone ^S (716) 288 - 5989 - Fox 80 ROBERT Y. HAYNE 11 Twelve thousand volunteers were tailed out, and preparations made for the defence of the State, but Jackson's energetic measures quickly brought them to an end. In the following March tlie passage of Clay's Compromise Tariff Act removed the subject of dispute ; and in a subsequent convention, over which Governor Ilayne presided, the Nullification measure was repealed. Ilayne was a man of excellent mental powers and was ready, fluent and able as an orator. SOUTH CAROLINA AND THE UNION [Mr. Foot's resolution, which ciilled forth the brilliant passage of arms between the oratorical champions of South Carolina and Massachusetts, was for an inquiry and report on the quantity of the public lauds remaining within each State and Territory, and to consider the expediency of continuing or ceasing their sale. This resolution was debated by Hayne in two able speeches, both of which were answered by Webster. In these speeches the subject broadcnetl far beyond the original topic, bringing in the question of the stability of the Union. In his second speech Hayne was very caustic in his allusions to the Massachusetts Senator, provoking the latter to his famons rejoinder. We must confine ourselves to suggestive extracts from this speech.] Mr. President : When I took occasion, two days ago, to throw out some ideas with respect to the policy of the Government, in relation to the public lands, nothing certainly could have been further from my thoughts than that I should have been compelled again to throw myself upon the indulgence of the Senate. Little did I expect to be called upon to meet such an argument as was yesterday urged by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Webster). Sir, I questioned no man's opinions ; I impeached no man's motives ; I charged no party, or State, or section of country with hostility to any other, but ventured, as I thought in a becoming spirit, to put forth my own sentiments in relation to a great national question of public policy. Such was my course. The gentle- man from Missouri (Mr. Benton), it is true, had charged upon the Eastern States an early and continued hostility towards the West, and referred to a number of historical facts and documents in support of that charge. Now, sir, how have these different arguments been met ? The honorable gentleman from Massachusetts, after deliberating a whole night upon his course, comes into this chamber to vindicate New England ; and, instead of making up his issue with the gentleman from Missouri, on the charges which he had preferred, chooses to consider me as the author of those charges; and, losing sight entirely of that gentleman, selects me as his adversary, and pours all the vials of his mighty wrath upon my devoted head. Nor is he willing to stop there. He goes on to assail the institu- tions and policy of the South, and calls in question the principles and ROBERT Y. HAYNE j^j conduct of the State which I have the honor to represent. When I find a gentleman of mature age and experience, of acknowledged talents and profound sagacity, pursuing a course like this, declining the contest offered from the West, and making war upon the unoffending South I must believe. I am bound to believe, he has some object in view which he has not ventured to disclose. Mr. President, why is this ? Has the gentleman discovered in former controversies with the gentleman from Missouri that he is overmatched by that vSenator ? And does he hope for an easy victory over a more feeble adversary ? Has the gentleman's distempered fancy been disturbed by gloomy forebodings of " new alli- ances to be formed ' ' at which he hinted ? Has the ghost of the murdered Coalition come back, like the ghost of Banquo, to "sear the eyeballs of the gentleman," and will it not " down at his command ? " Are dark visions of broken hopes, and honors lost forever, still floating before his heated imagination ? Sir, if it be his object to thrust me between the gentleman from Missouri and himself, in order to rescrc die East from the contest it has provoked with the West, he shall not b. gratified Sir I will not be dragged into the defence of my friend from Missouri The South shall not be forced into a conflict not its own. The gentleman from Missouri is able to fight his own battles. The gallant West needs no aid from the South to repel any attack which may be made on them from any quarter. Let the gentleman from Massachusetts controvert the facts and arguments of the gentleman from Missouri, if he can— and if he win the victory, let him wear the honors ; I shall not deprive him of his laurels The gentleman from Massachusetts, in alluding to a remark of mine that before any disposition could be made of the public lands, the national debt (for which tliey stand pledged) must he first paid, took occasion to intimate " that the extraordinary fervor which seems to exist in a certain quarter (meaning the South, sir) for the payment of the debt, arises from a disposition to weaken the ties which bind "he people to the Union" While the gentleman deals us this blow, he professes an ardent desire to see the debt speedily extinguished. He must excuse me, however for feeling some distrust on that subject until I find this disposition mani- fested by something stronger than professions Sir. as to the doctrine that the Federal Government is the exclusive judge of the extent as well as the limitations of its powers, it seems to me to be utterly subversive of the sovereignty and independence of the States. It makes but little difference, in my estimation , whether Congress or the Supreme Court are invested with this p-wer. If the Federal Gov- ernment, in all or any of its departments, is to prescribe the limits of 82 ROBERT Y. HAYNE Its own authority, and the States are bound to submit to the decision, and are not to be allowed to examine and decide for themselves when the bar- riers of the Constitution shall be overleaped, this is practically " a Gov- ernment without limitation of powers." The States are at once reduced to mere petty corporations, and the people are entirely at your mercy I have but one word more to add. In all the efforts that have been made by South Carolina to resist the unconstitutional laws which Congress has extended over them, she has kept -^eadily in view the preservation of the Union, by the only means by which she believes it can be long preserved, a firm, manly, and steady resistance against usurpation. The measured of the Federal Government have, it is true, prostrated her interests, and will soon involve the whole South in irretrievable rain. But even this evil, great as it is, is not the chief ground of our complaints. It is the principle involved in the contest-a principle which, substituting the dis- cretion of Congress for the limitations of the Constitution, brings the States and the people to the feet of the Federal Government, and leaves them nothing they can call their own. Sir, if the measures of the Federal Government were less oppressive, we should still strive against this usurpation. The South is acting on a principle she has always held sacred— resistance to unauthorized taxation . These, sir, are the principles which induced the immortal Hampden to resist the payment of a tax of twenty shillings. Would twenty shillings have ruined his fortune ? No ' but the payment of half twenty shillings, on the principle on which it was demanded, would have made him a slave. Sir, if in acting on these high motives. If animated by that ardent love of liberty which has always been the most prominent trait in the Southern character, we should be hurried beyond the bounds of a cold and calculating prudence, who is there with one noble and generous sentiment in his bosom, that would not be dis- posed, m the language of Burke, to exclaim, " You must pardon some- thing to the spirit of liberty ! " DANIEL WEBSTER (I782-J852) THE BULWARK OF THE U^fION Vr h\ KR wr.s there witnensccl i„ the Congress of the L'nite.! States i-V ''\ «"".'t^''- '""l »'orc impressive scene than that of a memorable ents which no han.l, however great Us skill couMjoni together again. Daniel Webster k-cunie p- minent in three fields of effort as lawver orator and statesn.an. He ,d won wide distinction for his M powers before he entered Congress in 1«04. There his fame was ten- fold enhanced Of his n.any speeches, the most famous were the Ilunou h Rock address of 1820, the Bunker Hill oration of 182.1 Bd n l.S.,0. llus last, spoken little n.ore than two years before his death, IS regarded as one of tiie noble;j! efforts of his career "W the eilect of Mr. Webster's manner in manv parts," savs Mward Everett, '• it would be in vain to attempt to giv; .„y one n^-t present the faintest idea. It has been n,v fortmie to^ear some Tf Z ablest speeches of the great(-st living orators, on both sides of the water, but I must confess I never heard anything which so com.detelv r 'd my conception of what Demosthenes was when he delivered tile oration for the Crown." Webster's speeches bear another relation to those of Demosthenes hey possess a living force, they are as great on the written page as they were on the rostrum. There is no waste of force, no feeble- ness of an anti-climax, in any of these great mental efforts, and their worth as literature is not less than was their value as oratory. The S3 I : !iii j 'if? 84 DANIEL WEBSTER name ; f Webster will always live as one of the few supreme orators of the world. IT. REPLY TO HAYNE [Of Daniel Webster's Congressional orations, that which stands first on the roll of fame is his niagni'iccnt address of January 30, 1830. The occasion for this fai.ious display of oratory was a speech made by Robert Y. Hayne, of South Carolina, in which he affirmed the right of a State to annul an Act of Congress, assailetl New England, and made caustic remarks about Mr. Webster himself. From this speech we b'jve quoted. Webster's reply was unanswerable. In it he drew the charge from Mr. Hayne's guns by praising South Carolina while eulogizing Massachusetts.] The eulogium pronounced on the character of the State of South Carolina, by the honorable gentleman, for her revolutionary and other merits, meets my hearty concurrence. I shall not acknowledge that the honorable member goes before me in regard for whatever of distinguished talent, or distinguished character. South Carolina has produced. I claim part of the honor, I partake in the pride, of her great names. I claim them for countrymen, one and all : the Laurenses, the Rutledges, the Pinckneys, the Sumpters, the Marions— Americans all — whose fame is no more to be hemmed in by State lines than their talents and patriotism were capable of being circumscribed within the same naiTow limits. In their day and generation they served aiid honored the country, and the whole country, and their renown is of the treasures of the whole country. Him, whose honored name the gentleman himself bears- does he esteem me less capable of gratitude for his patriotism, or sym- pathy for his suflferings, than if his eyes had first opened upon the light of Massachusetts instead of South Carolina ? Sir, does he suppose it in his power to exhibic a Carolina name so bright as to produce envy in my bosom? No, sir, increased gratification and delight, rather. I thank God, that, if I am gifted with little of the spiilc which is able to raise mortals to the skies, I have yet none, as I trust, cf that other spirit which would drag angels down. When I shall be found, sir, in my place here in the Senate, or elsewhere, to sneer at public merit, because it happens to spring up beyond the little limits of my own State or neighborhood ; when I refuse, for any such cause, or for any c luse, the homage due to American talent, to elevated patriotism, to sincere devotion to liberty and the country ; or, if I see an uncommon endowment of Heaven , if I see extraordinary capacity and virtue in any son of the South, and if, moved by local prejudice, or gangrened by State jealousy, I get up here to abate a tithe of a hair from his just character and just fame, may my tongue cleave to the rocif of my mout. I Sir, let me recur to pleasing recollections — let me indulge in refresh- ing remembrances of the past — let me remind you that in early times no DANIEL WEBSTER 85 States cherished greater harmony, both of principle and feeling, than Massachusetts and South Carolina. Would to God that harmony might again return ! Shoulder to shoulder the> went through the Revolution ; hand in hand they stood round the administration of Washington, and felt his own great arm lean on them for support. Unkind feeling, if it exist, alienation and distrust, are the growth, unnaturul to such soils, of false principles since sown. They are weeds, the seeds of which that same great arm never scattered. Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts- she needs none. There she is— behold her, and judge for ycurselves. There is her history ; the world knows it by heart. The past, at lea.st, is secure. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill— and there they will remain for ever. The bones of her sons, falling in the great struggle for Independence, now lie mingled with the soil of every State from New England to Georgia ; and there they will lie forever. And, sir, where American Liberty raised its first voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives., in the strength of its man- hood and full of its original spirit. If discord and disunion shall wound it, if party sirife and blind ambition shall hawk at and tear it, if folly and madness— if uneasiness, under salutary and necessary restraint— shall suc- ceed to separate it from that Union, by which alone its existence is made sure ; it will stand, in the end, by the side of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked ; it will stretch forth its arm, with whatever of vigor it may still retain, over the friends who gather round it ; and it will fall at last, if fall it must, amidst the proudest monuments ot its own glory, and on the very spot of its origin. [The concluding portion of Mr. Webster's speech was in support of the United States Constuution. In it he vigorously denied the power of any State legislature to set aside a provision of the Constitution, or to annul an .\ct of Congre^ passed in ^l^trc^ontcTrS "" ^"°"*"" '^ """^ °' '•'^ "'"^^ '"»^'fi-°' "-P'- °f Let it be remembered that the Constitution of the United States is not unalterable. It is to continue in its present form no longer tUn the peo- ple who established it shall choose to continue it. If they shall become convinced that they have made an injudicious or inexpedient partition and dist Dution of power between the State governments and the general government, they can alter that distribution at will. If any thing be found in the national Constitution, either by original provision, or by subsequent interpretation, which ought not to be in it the people know how to get rid of it. If any construction be established unacceptable to them, so as to become, practically, a part of the Constitu- tion, they will amend it, at their own sovereign pleasure : but while the far* 'A m DANIEL WEBSTER people choose to maintain it as it is ; while they are satisfied with it, and refuse to change it ; who has given, or who can give, to the State legisla- tures a right to alter it, either by interference, construction, or otherwise? Gentlemen do not seem to recollect that the people have any power to do any thing for themselves ; they imagine there is no safety for them any longer than they are under the close guardianship of the State legislatures. Sir, the people have not trusted their safety, in regard to the general Constitution, to these hands. They have required other security, and taken other bonds. They have chosen to trust themselves ; first, to the plain words of the instrument, and to such construction as the govern- ment itself, in doubtful cases, should put on its own powers, under their oaths of office, and subject to tl r-ir responsibility to them— j"''t as the people of a State trust their own State governments with a sin ilar power. Secondly, they have reposed their trust in the efficacy of frequent elections, and in their own power to remove their own servants and agents, when- ever they see cause. Thirdly, ti.c-y have reposed trust in the judicial power ; which, in order that it might be tmstworthy, they have made as respectable, as disinterested, and as independent as was practicable. Fourthly, they have seen fit to rely, in case of necessity, or high expedi- ency, on their known and admitted power to alter or amend the Constitu- tion, peaceably and quietly, whenever experience shall point , 't defects or imperfections. And, finally, the people of the United States have, at no time, in no way, directly or indirectly, authorized any State legislature to construe or interpret their high instrument of government ; much l<»s to interfere, by their own power, to arrest its course and operation. If, sir, the people, in these respects, had done otherwise than they have done, their Constitution could neither have been preserved, nor would it have been worth preserving. And, if its plain provisions shall now be disregarded, and these new doctrines interpolated in it, it will become as feeble and helpless a being as its enemies, whether early or more recent, could possibly desire. It will exist in every State but as a poor dependent on State permission. It miist borrow leave to be ; and will be no longer than State pleasure, or State discretion, sees fit to grant the indulgence, and to prolong its poor existence. But, sir, although there are fears, there are hopes also. The people have preserved this, their own chosen Constitution, for forty years, and have seen their happiness, prosperity, and renown grow with its growth, and strengthen with its strength. They are now, generally, strongly attached to it. Overthrown by dirt t assault, it cannot be ; evaded, undermined, nullified, it will not be, if we, and those whr shall succeed us here, as agents and representatives of the people, shall conscientiously DANIEL WEBSTER 87 and vigilantly discharge the two grent branches of our public trust- faithfully to preserve, and wisely to administer it. Mr. President, I have thus stated the reasons of my dissent to the doctrines which have been advanced and maintained. I am conscious of having detained you and the Senate much too Ion". I was drawn into the debate, with no previous deliberation such r^ is suited to the discussion of so grave and important a subject. But it is a subject of which my heart is full, and I have not been willing to suppress the utterance of its spontaneous sentiments. I cannot, even now, persuade myself to relin- quish it, without expressing, once more, my deep conviction that, since it respects nothing less than the union of the States, it is of most vital and essential importance to the public happiness. I profess, sir, in my career, hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole country and the preservation of oui Federal Union. It is to that Union we owe our safety at home and our consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union that we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That Union we reached only by the discipline of our viitues in the severe school of adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, pros- trate commerce and ruined credit. Under its benign influences these great interests immediately awoke as from the dead and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings ; and although our territory has stretched out wider and wider, and our population spread farther and farther, they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social and personal happiness. I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the Union to see what might be hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty when tlie bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below : nor could I regard him as a safe counsellor in the affairs of this government whose thougnts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the Union should be best preser\'ed, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it shall be broken up and destroyed. While the Union lasts we have high, exciting, gratifying prospec' . spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that, in my day at least, that curtain may not rise. God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind. When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the I ! ij n na«' (M DANIEL WEBSTER sun in heaven, may I not see hira shining on the broken and dishono. fragments of a once glorious Union : on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! Let their last feeble atid lingtring glance, rather, behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now kn>;wn and honored throughout the eartli, still full high advanced, its amis and trophies streaming in thr" original lustre, not a ripe erased or polluted, nor a single stcr obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as. What is all this worth? nor those other words of delusion and folly, Liberty first and Union afterwards, — but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind u.'der the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true An--rican heart — Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable ! THE SECRET OF MURDER [As an example of WVbsters forensic oratory w.- offer a selection from his cele- brated argument in the trial for murder of John K. Kii.ipp. In the passage given he soars far above the dry level of legal oratory, and depifts the effect of conscience on the mind of the murderer in sentences of thrilling intensity.] He has done the nmrder. No eye has seen him, no ear has heard him. The secret is his own, and it is safe ! Ah ! gentlemen, that was a dreadful mistake. Such a secret can be safe nowhere. The whole creation of God has neither nook nor comer where the guilty can be tow it and say it is s^fe. Not to speak of that eye which pierces through all disguises, and beholds everything as in the splendo^ of noon ; such secrets of guilt are never safe from detection, even by men. True it is, generally speaking, that " murder will out." True it is, that Providence hath so ordained and doth so govern things that those who break the great law of Heaven by shedding man's blood seldom succeed in avoiding discovery. Especially, in a case exciting so much attention as this, discovery musl 'ime, and will come, sooner or later. A thousand eyes turn at once to explore every man, everything, every cir- cumstance, connectc d with the time and place ; a thousand ears catch every whisper ; a thou-^and excited minds intensely dwell on ihe scene, shedding all their light and ready to kindle the slightest circumstance into a blaze of discovery. xVleantime tho guilty soul cannot keep its own secret. It is false to itself; or, rather, it feels an irresistible impulse of conscience to be true to itself. It labors under its guilty possession, and knows not what to do with it. The human heart was not made for the residence of such an inhabitant. It finds itself preyed on by a torment, DANIEL WEBSTER m which it dares not acknowledge to Ood or man. A vultare i' devouring it, and it can ask no sympathy or assistance either from '.uaven or earth. The secret which the murderer possesses soon cotiii^ to pos' I'ss him : and, like the the spirits of which we rex"., it overcomes him, and lead-. him whithersoever \l will. He feels it heating at his heart, rising to his throat, and demanding'! ciomre. He thin ks the whole world sei-s it in his face, rea;r.iiid proportions of the inexorahlc figure of Kate in the mythology of ancient Greece.] Gentlemen, your whole concern should be to do your duty, and leave consequences to t.ike care of tb'.'mselves. You will receive the law from the Cc^rt. Your verdict, it is true, may endanger the prisoner's life ; but then, it is to save other lives. If the prisoner's guilt has been shown and proved, l)eyond all reason'i!)le doubt, you will convict him. If such rea- sonable doubts of guilt still remain, you will acquit him. You are the judges of the whole case. You owe a duty to the public as well as to the p-isoner at the bai You cannot presume to be wiser than the law. Your duty is a plain, straightforward one. Doubtless, we would all judge him 'n mercy. Towards him, as an individual, the law inculcates no hos- tility ; but towards him, if proved to be a murderer, the law and the oaths you have taken, and public justice, demand that you do your duty. With consciences satisfied with the discharge of v.nty, no conse- queuLOS can harm you. There is no evil that we cannot either fac • or fly from, but the cont-.ousness of duty disregarded. A sense of duty pursues us ever. It is omnipresent, like the Deity. If we take to ourseive:, the wings of the morning and dwell ni the utmost parts of the seas, duty performed, or duty vioLated, is still with us, fo'' our happiness, or our mi.-iery. If we say the darkness shall cover us, in the darkness as in the light our obligations are yet with us. We cannot escape their power nor fly i iin their presence. They are with us in this life, will be with vis at its close ; and in that scenu of inconceivable solemnity which lies yet farther onward, we hall still find ourselves surrounded by the consciousness of duty, to pain us wherever it has been violated, and to console us so far as God may have given us grace to perform it. ^f ^■1 i JOHN C CALHOUN (1782-1850) THE STATE RIGHTS' LEADER IF tho piirliiimoiitarv onitois „f tl..' Ainorican "koI.Umi ajro " tlnvo stau.l (l.ci,l,.,IIy n\nnv i]u-\r U-Unws, WoWcr, Clay im.l Calliomi, all of tliciii uu-n of ;r«'iii»M and orators of reinarkalilc jxiwer. '• Tl.(> clo^iuoiuo of Mr. CallH,,,!!." savs Wohstor, " was part of his ii.telleftual character. It grew out of tlie (,ualitie.s of his ,„i,„l It was plain, stron- torse. con.lcns«'(l. coneiso ; sometimes imp.ussione.l —still always severe. Ftejeeting onianK..., not often seeking far for Illustration, his power cnsiste.l in the plainness of his proi^sitions, m t)ie closeness of his Io«ic, an.l in the earnesine.ss an.l energy of his manner." IJorn in the same year as Wehster (1782). the one in South Carolina, the other in New Hampshire, these two men became prominent adversaries in Congress on the question of the stability of the Union, each of them een prevetited from bringing the »iuestion fairly Ix-fore the court, ami t'lat by an act of that very majority in Cingnsn who now upbraid them for not making that appeal ; of ihat majority, wl •. on a motion (jt one of the nu isliers in the other House, fn .a South Carolina, refus'xl to give to the act of 1828 its true title— that it was :i protective aid not a rtvenue act. The State has never, it is true, relied upon that .ribunal, the Supreme Court, to vindicate its reserved rights ; yet they have always considered it as an auxiliary means of defence, of which they would gladly have availed themselves to test the constitutionn' v of proicction, had they not been deprived of the means of doing so hs the act of the majority. Notwithstanding this long delay of more than ten years, under this continued encroachment of the Government, we now hear it on all sides, by friends and foes, g .^vely pronounced that the State has acted pre- cipitately — that her cr act has been rash ! That such should be the language of an interested majority, who, by means of this unconstitutional and oppress^ ,'e system, are annually extorting millions from the South, to be bestowed upon other sections, is not at all surprising. Whatever impedes the course of avarice and ambition will ever be denounced a« rash and precipitate ; and had Soutii Carolina delayed her resistance fifty instead of twelve years, she would have heard from the same quarter the same language ; but it is really surprising that those who are suffering in common with herself, and who have complained equally loud of their grievances ; who have pronounced the very acts which she asserted within her limits to ue oppressive, unconstitutional, and ruim after so long a struggle— a struggle longer than that which precedei. e separation of these States from the mothijr country — longer than , .^ period of the Trojan war — should now complain of precipitancy ! No, it is not Caro- lina which has acted precipitately ; but her sister States, who have suffered in common with her, have acted tardily. Had they acted as she has done; had they performed their duty with equal energy and promptness ; our situation this day would be very different from what we now find it. Delays are said to be dangerous ; and never was the maxim more true than in the present case The bill violates the Constitution, plainly and palpably, in many of its provisions, by authorizing the President, at his pleasure, to place the different ports of this Union on an unecjual footing, contrary to that pro- vision of the Constitution which declares that no preference shall be given to one port over another. It also violates the Constitution by authorizing him, at his discretion, to impose cash duties in one port while credit is allowed in others : by enablin' the President to regulate 03 JOHN C. CALHOUN commerce, a power vested in Congress alone ; and by drawing within the jurisdiction of the United States courts powers never intended to be con- ferred on them. As great as these objections are, they become insignifi- cant in the provisions of a bill which, by a single blow— by treating the States as a mere lawless mass of individuals — prostrates all the barriers of the Constitution. I will pass over the minor considerations, and proceed directly to the great point. This bill proceeds O!' the ground that the entire .sovereignty of this country belongs to the American people, as forming one great community ; and regards the States as mere fractions or counties, and not as integral parts of the Union ; having no more right to resist the encroachments of the government than a county has to resist the authority of a State ; and treating such resistance as the lawless acts of so many individuals, without possessing sovereignty or political rights. It has been said that the bill .eclares war against Sonth Carolina. No. It decrees a mas.sacre of her citizens ! War has something ennobling about it, and, with all its horrors, brings into action the highest qualities, intel- lectual and moral. It was, perhaps, in tlie order of Providence that it should be permitted for that very purpose. But this bill declares no war —except, int'eed, it be that which savages wage— a war, not against the community, but the citizens of whom that conmiunity is composed. But I regard it as worse than savat^t: warfare ; as an attempt to take away life under the color of law, without the trial I)y jury, or any other safeguard which the Constitution has thrown around the life of the citizen ? It authorizes the President, or even his deputies, when they may suppose tlie law to be violated, without the intervention of a court or jury, to kill without mercy or discrimination ! It has been said by the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Grundy) to be a measure of peace ! Yes, such peace as the wolf gives to the lamb— the kite to the dove ! Such peace as Russia gives to Poland, or death to its victim ! A peace, by extinguishing the political existence of the Stale, by awing her into an abandonment of the exercise of every power which constitutes her a sovereign connnunity. It is to South Carolina a ques- tion of self preser-ation ; and I proclaim it that, should this bill pass, and an attempt be made to enforce it, it will be resisted, at every hazard- even that of death itself Death is not the greatest calamity ; there are others still more terrible to the free and brave, and among them may be placed the loss of liberty and honor. There are thousands of her brave sons who, if need be, are prepared cheerfully to lay down their lives in defence of the State and the grc-at principles of constitutional liberty for which she is contend!: ... God forbid that this should become necessary ! JOHN C. CALHOUN !« It never can be, unless this govenitiiont is resolved to bring the s. Fron, his oration on this^sutject delivered .n Congress on December 3.. iS^. we give the eloquent peror.ation.] Pronounce him one of the first men of his age. and you have not yet done hmi justice. Try him by that test to which he sought in vain to stimulate the vulgar and selfish spirit of Napoleon ; class him among the men who, to compare and seat themselves, must take in the compass of all ages; turn back your eyes upon the records of time; summon from the creation of the world to this day the mighty dead of every age and every cl.me-and where, among the race of merely mortal men, shall one be found who, as the benefactor of his kind, shall claim to take prece- deuce of Lafayette ? ^ There have doubtless been in all ages men whose discoveries or nventions, ,n the world of matter or of mind, have opened new avenues to the dominion of man over the material creation ; have Increased his means Z th!t r "h '"" °/,""J">'"^^"^ = l^'-^-- '■'^i^ed hint in nearer approximation to that higher and happier condition, the object of his hopes and aspira- tions in his present state of existence. ir,...Yr^^^l-^'"'°''^'''^ "'^ "'^ P"""'P'^ °f P«"ti^« «^ morals. He nvented nothing in science. He disclosed no new phenomenon in the laws of nature Born and educated in the highest order of feudal nobility. fortune T ^^'^^'^^'f ."— ''y of K-ope, in possession of an afHuen fortune, and master of himself and of all his capabilities at the moment of IT^U^ T °'' '''' P"""P'' °' ^^P"^'-'^'"' J-^'- -'d of social equality took possession of his heart and mind, as if by inspiration from r JOHN QUINCY ADAMS above. He devoted himself, his life, his fortune, his hereditary honors, his towering ambition, his splendid hopes, all to the cause of liberty. He came to another hemisphere to defend her. He became one of the most effective champions of our Independence ; but, that once achieved, he returned to his own country, and thenceforward took no part in the controversies which have divided us. In the events of our Revolution, and in the forms of policy which we have adopted for the establishment and perpetuation of our freedom, Lafayette found the most perfect form of government. He wished to add nothing to it. He would gladly have abstracted nothing from it. Instead oi the imaginary Republic of Plato, or the Utopia of Sir Thomas More, he took a practical existing model, in actual operation here, and never attempted or wished more than to apply it faithfully to his own country. It was not given to Moses to enter the promised land ; but he saw it from the summit of Pisgah. It was not given to Lafayette to witness the consummation of his wishes in the establishment of a republic, and the extinction of all hereditary rule in France. His principles were in advance of the age and hemisphere in which he lived. A Bourbon still reigns on the throne of France, and it is not for us to scrutinize the title by which he reigns. The principle' of elective and hereditary power, blended in reluctant union in his person, like the red and white roses of York and Lancaster, may postpone to aftertime the last conflict to which they must ultimately come. The life of the patriarch was not long enough for the development of his whole political system. Its final accomplishment is in the womb of time. The anticipation of this event is the more certain, from the consider- ation that all the principles for which Lafayette contended were practical. He never indulged himself in wild and fanciful speculations. The prin- ciple of hereditary power was, in his opinion, the bane of all republican liberty in Europe. Unable to extinguish it in the Revolution of 1830, so far as co'icerned the chief magistracy of the nation, Lafayette had the satisfaction of seeing it abolished with reference to the peerage. An here- ditary Crown, stript of the support which it may derive from an hereditary peerage, howe\er compatible with Asiatic despotism, is an anomaly in the history of the Christian world and in the theory of free government. There is no argument producible against the existence of an hereditary peerage, but applies with aggravated weight against the transmission, fiom sire to son, of an hereditary Crown. The prejudices and passions of the people of France rejected the principle of inherited power, in every sta- tion of public trust, excepting the first and highest of them all ; but there they clung to it, as did the Israelites of old to the savory deities of Egypt. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 97 This is not the time or the place for a disquisition upon the compara- tive merits, as a system of government, of a republic, and a monarchy sur- rounded by republican institutions. Upon this subject there is among us no diversity of opinion ; and if it should take the people of France another • half century of internal and external war, of dazzling and delusive glories, of unparalleled triumphs, humiliating reverses, and bitter disappointments, to settle it to their satisfaction, the ultimate result can only bring them to the point where we have stood from the day of the Declaration of Inde- pendence—to the point where Lafayette would have brought them, and to which he looked as a consummation devoutly to be wished. Then, too, and then only, will be the time when the character of Lafayette will be appreciated at its true value throughout the civilized world. When the principle of hereditary dominion shall be relinquished in all the institutions of France ; when government shall no longer be considered as property transmissible from sire to son, but as a trust com- mitted for a limited time, and then to return to the people whence it came ; as a burden&ome duty to be discharged, and not as a reward to be abused : when a claim, any claim, to political power by inheritance shall, in the estimation of the whole French people, be held as it now is by the whole people of the North American Union— then will be the time for contem- plating the character of Lafayette, not merely in the events of his life, but in the full developr. .nt of his intellectual conceptions, of his fervent aspirations, of the labors and perils and sacrifices of his long and eventful career upon earth ; and thenceforward, till the hour when the trump of the Archangel shall sound to announce that time shall be no more, the name of Lafayette shall stand enrolled upon the annals of our race, high on the list of the pure and disinterested benefactors of mankind. ! I ri r l^i EDWARD EVERETTT (J 794- J 865) THE RESCUER OF THE HOME OF WASHINGTON mHE title we have yivcn Everett is in remembrance of his strenu- ous efforts to save for the people one of America's most sacred relics, Washington's home at Mount \' ernon. Resigning his seat in Congress in 1S54 on account of failing health, he began, the moment returning health i)ermitte(i, one of the most active efforts of his life, the collecti(yn of money by writing and lecturing for the pur- chase of this historic estate, that it might bo kept for all future time as a place of pilgrimage for patriotic Americans. The sum raised by him, about one hunat he soon resigned, on account of ill honlth. Conscrvativo hv toniiK.ni- ment, he favored a conciliatory policy on the part of the North witli the hope of averting the threatene.l war, and Im-a..... the non.inVe for \ ice-President of the party of co.n.-mniiso an.l conciliation, on tiic ticket headed by John Bell of 'iVnn.>.s.soe. But wh.n war Urauu. inevitable, he u.se.l all his energy towards the supj^rt of the Cov- ernment. He survived till near the end of the cmllict, .Ivin- on January 15, 1865. - . f, " THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION ^m^jn"*" ^'" '^!f • ""^'"^ '^''"•Pleted the fiftieth anniversnrv o. American Inde- pendence, wa, one that gave occasion for much stirring oratory, ..„d for general cet bration ,n honor of the thrilling days and heroic „>e„ of '76 Most famous an" ,g the patnouc addresses ,s that of Daniel Webster, delivcrcl at the laying of the corner stone of the Bunker Hill Monument on June 17th. On July 4th, the ann?vcr3 of the s,g^.ng of the Declaration. Edward Everettdelivered at Cambr dge. Mas IchusetN a notable oraUon. with the Declaration for iu subject. From this fo^^ ZlZnon address we select some illustrative passages.] e'ofiueiit hr . ^.!''T ^'I'f ""' '■ " *^^°'^ '° "'' ^'^^ «^^°"g P^Prie'y. to cele lu!^ IT ^^ *°''° °^ Cambridge, and the county of Middlesex, are filled with the .>^tiges of the Revolution; whithersoever we turn our eves we behold some memento of its glorious scenes. Within the walls in which we are now assembled, was convened the HvHt provincial congress, after Its adjournment at Concord. The rural magazine at Medford reminds us of one of the earliest acts of British aggression. The march of both divisions of the royal army, on the memorable 19th of April was through the limits of Cambridge ; in the neighboring towns of Lexington and Concord the first blood of the Revolution was shed ; in West Cam bridge the royal convoy of provisions was, the same day, gallantly sur prised by the aged citizens, who staid to protect their homes while their -3ns pursued the foe. Here the first American army was formed ; from uns place, on the -jth of June, was detached the Spartan band that immortalized the heights of Charlestown, and consecrated that day, wi.li blood and fire, to the cause of American liberty. Beneath tlie venerable em which stUl shades the southwestern corner of the common. General Washington first unsheathed his sword at the head of an American annv and to that seat* was wont every Sunday to repair, to join in the suppii-' cations which were made for the welfare of his country. • The fir,l wall pew. to the right of the pulpit ofthe church in which the oration wa. delivered. 'h I •■ i ii'i i i ti. 100 EDWARD EVERETT How changed is now the scene ! The foe is gone ! The din and the desolation of war are passe 1 ; Science has long resumed her station in the shades of our venerable university, no longer glittering with arms ; the anxious war-council is no longer in session, to offer a reward for the dis- covery of the best mode of making saltpetre,— an unpromising stage of hostilities when an army of twenty thousand men is in the field in front of the foe ; the tall grass now waves in the trampled sally-port of some of the rural redoubts, that form a part of the simple lines of circumvalla- tion within which a half-armed American militin held the flower of the British army blockaded : the plough has done wliat the English batteries could not do,— has levelled others of them with the earth ; and the men, the great and good men— their warfare is over, and they have gone quietly down to the dust they redeemed from oppression. [Speaking of the prai«e due to those who took part in the struggle for inde- pendcuce, tb" orator continues :] This meed of praise, substantially accorded at the time by Chatham, in the British Parliam ., may well I>e repeated by us. For most of the vener- ated men to whom it is paid it is but a pious tribute to departed worth. The Lees and the Henries, Otis, Quincy, Wan-n, and Samuel Adams, the men who spoke those words of thrilling power which rai.sed and ruled the storm of resistance, and rang like a voice of fate across the Atlantic, are beyond the reach of our praise. To most of the»n it was granted to witness some of the fruits of their labors— such fruit as revolutions do not often bear. Others departed at an untimely hour, or nobly fell in the onset ; too soon for their country, too soon for liberty, too soon for every- thing but their own undying fame. But all are not gone ; some still sur- vive among us ; the favored, enviable men, to hail the jubilee of the inde- pendence they declared. Go back, fellow-citizens, to that day when Jef ferson and Adams composed the sub-committee who reported the Declaration of Independence. Think of the mingled sensations of that proud but anxious day, compared to the joy ol this. What honor, what crown, what treasure, could the world and all its kingdoms afford, com- pared with the honor and happiness of having been united in that com- mission, and living to see its most wavering hopes turned into glorious reality! Venerable men ! you have outlived the dark days wliich fol- lowed your more than heroic deed ; you have outlived your own strenuous contention, who should stand first among the people whose liberty you vindicated. You have lived to bear to each other tlie respect whicli the nation bears to you both ; and each has been so happy as to e.Kchange the honorable name of the leader of a party for that more honorable one, the Father of his Country. While this our tribute of respect, on the jubilee 1i I [ , i ii * m h. 'I iiT ? EDWARD EVERET-i m of our independence, is paid to the gray hairs of the venerable «ur\'ivor in our neighborhootl,* let it not less heartily Iw »pe the ease and tumfort of the old age of him who drew it ? Ought not he who, at the age of thirty, declaretl the independence of liis country, at the age of eighty to be secured by his country in the enjoyment of his own ?t Nor let us forget, on the return of this eventful day, the men who, when the conflict of counsel was over, stood forward in that of arms. Yet let me not, by faintly endeavoring to sketch, do deep injustice to the story of their exploits. The efforts of a life would scarce suffice to paint out this picture, in all its astonish-ng incidents, in all its mingled colors of sublimity and woe, of agony and triumph. But the age of commemora- tion is a' hand. The voice of our fathers' blotd begins to cry to us, from beneath the soil which it moisteneil. Time is bringing forward, in their proiicr rtlief, the men and the deeds of that high souled day. The genera- tion of contemporary worthies is gone ; the crowd of unsignaiized great and good disappears; and the leaders in war as well as council are seen, in Fancy's eye, to take their stations on the Mount of Remembrance. They come from tin embattled cliffs of Abraham ; they start from the heaving sods of Bunker's Hill ; they gather from the blazing lines of Sara- toga and Yorktown. from the blood-dyed waters of the Brandy wine, from the dreary snows of Valley Forge, and all the hard-fought fields of the war. With all their wounds and all their honors, they rise and plead with us for their brethren who survive ; and bid us, if indeed we cherish the memory of those who bled in our cause, to show our gratitude, not by sounding words, but by stretching out the strong arm of the country's prosperity to help the veteran survivors gently down to their graves. *Johti Adams. t Thomas Jcffernon. (It ii a circumstance of (trikinft intcrett that Adams and Jefferson, the two men SDoken of lii this paiisagt-, both died ou the day in which the cration was delivered, departing from life by one of the moat remarkablr coincidences in history, on the fiftieth anuiveraary of the slgnine of' the sreat Declaration of wliich they were the joint authon. * i RUFUS CHOATE (J 799- J 858) AMERICA'S ABLEST ADVOCATE K^'FUS CHOATE was not alone the great light of the bar of Xew England, but may fairly be given place a^ the most eminont legal advocate America has ever produceil. His vast learning in law and literature formed but the ground-work of his illustrious career. Nature had endowed him with the requisites to the highest success in oratory. A tall and commanding person, a highly expressive countenance, a voice rich, musical and sympathetic, gestures vnricd and forcible, were the outward elements of a personality of which the inward were an exuberant imagination, fertile and prodi- gious mental resources, unusual amplitude, profuseness and brilliancy in si)cecli. and an instinctive knowledge of the methods by which the mmd can Ixst ix- moved. Whether he addressed the dozen men of a jury or a 11 ranging multitude, he had the power of controlling their minds and 1 udiug their thoughts to his will, while his gracious and winning manners and amiable character won him hosts of friends. Alike as an ii Ivocate and as a public orator he may clfum place among the masters oi modern eloquence. A PANEGYRIC OF VEBSTER [The death in 1852 of the giant of y.merican oratory, the far-famed Daniel Webster, called forth many earnest oratorical tributes to his public and private char- acter and his eminent statesmanship. Of these none are of more interest than the words of praise and encomium of his distinguished friend and co-laborer, Rufus Choate. This address was delivered at Dartmouth College, the aima mater of both Webster and Choate, on the 27th of July, 1853. We select .Vom this fine eulogy a passage iu which Webster'i Ilk long services to his country are summed up in cul- ininatinj;; strength in a single sentence, certainly one of the longest in the literatnre of >ur language.] 102 RUFUt CHOATB It WM while Mr. Webster wa» lacending through the long gradations of the legal profewion to its highect rank, that, by a parallel series of display on a sUge, and in patu toully distinct, by other studies, thoughts and actions, he rose also to be at his death the first of Americnn states- men. The last of the mighty rivals was dead before, and he stood alone. Give this aspect also of his greatness a passing glance. His public life began in May. 1813, in the House of Representatives in Congress, to which this State had elected him. It ended when he died. If you except the interval between his removal from New Hampshire and his election in Massachusetts, it was a public life of forty years. By whr jlitical morality, and by what enlarged patriotism, embracing the whole country, that life was guided, I shall consider hereafter. Let me now fix your attention rather on the magnitude and variety and actual value of the service. Consider that, from the day he went upon the Committee of Foreign Relations, in 18 13, in time of war, and more and more the longer he lived and the higher he rose, he was a man whose great talents and devotion to public duty placed and kept him in a position of associated or sole command ; command in the political connection to which he belonged, command in opposition, command in power; and appreciate the responsibilities which that impli*^, what care, what prud- ence, what mastery of the whole ground— exacting for the conduct of a party, as Gibbon says of Fox, abilities "^nd civil discretion equal to the conduct of an empire. Consider the work he did in that life of forty years ; the- range of subjects investigated and discussed— composing the whole theory and practice of our organic and administrative politics, foreign and domestic ; the vast body of instructive thought he produced and put in possession of the country • how much he aciiieved in ingress as well as at the bar ; to fix the true interpretation, as well as to impress the trans- cendent value of the Constitution itself, as much altogether as any jurist or statesman since its adoption ; how much to ctablish in the general mind the great doctrine that the Government of the United States is a government proper, established by the people of the States, not a compact between sovereign communities ; that within its limits it is supreme, and that whether it is within its ?imits or not, in any given exertion of itself, is to be determined by the Supreme Court of the United States— the ulti- mate arbiter in the last resort, from which there is no appeal but to revolution ; how much he did in the course of the discussions which grew out of the proposed mission to Panama, and, at a later day, out of the removal of the deposits, to place the Executive Department of the Govern- ment on its true basis and under its true limitations ; to secure to that department all ite just powers on the one hand. and. on the other hand, to 104 RUFUS CHOATE vindicate to the Legislative Department, and especially lo the Senate, all that belonged to them : to arrest the tendencies which he thought at one time threatened to substitute the government of a single will, of a single person of great force of character and boundless popularity, and of a numerical majority of the people— told by the head, without intermediate institutions of any kind, judicial or senatorial— in place of the elaborate system of checks and balances, by which the Constitution aimed at a govern- ment of laws, and not of men ; how much, attracting less popular atten- tion, but scarcely less important, to complete the great work whicli expe- rience had shown to be left unfinished by the Judiciary Act of 1789, by providing for the punishment of all crimes against the United States ; how much for securing a safe currency and a true financial system, not only by the promulgation of sound opinions, but by good specific measures adopted, or bad ones defeated ; how much to develop the vast material resources of the country, and push forward the planting of the West— not troubled by liny fear of exhausting old States— by a liberal policy of public lands, by vindicating the constitutional power of Congress to make or aid in making large classes of internal improvements, and by acting on that doctrine uniformly from 1813, whenever a road was to be built, or a rapid suppressed, or a canal to be opened, or a breakwater or a lighthouse set up above or below the flow of the tide, if so far beyond the ability of a single State, or of so wide utility to commerce or labor as to rise to the rank of a work general in its influences — another tie of union because another proof of the beneficence of union ; how much to protect the vast mechanical and manufacturing interests of the country, a value of many hundreds of millions — after having been lured into existence against his counsels, against his science of political economy, by a policy of artificial encouragement — from being sacrificed, and the pursuits and plans of large regions and communities broken up, and the acquired skill of the country squandered by a sudden and capricious withdrawal of the promise of the government ; how much for the right performance of the most delicate and difficult of all tasks, the ordering of the foreign aff"airs of a nation, free, sensitive, self-conscious, recognizing, it is true, public law and a morality of the State, binding on the conscience of the State, yet aspiring to power, eminence and command, its whole frame filled full and all on fire with American feeling, sympathetic with liberty everywhere ; how much tor the right ordering of the foreign affairs of such a State — aiming ii all its policy, from his speech on the Greek question in 1823 to his letters to M. Hulsemann in 1850, to occupy the high, plain, yet dizzy ground which separates influence from intervention, to avow and promulgate warm, good will to humanity, wherever striving to be free, I I RUFUS CHOATE 10-"> to inquire authentically into the history of its struggles, to take official and avowed pains to ascertain the moment when its success may be recog- nized, consistently, ever, with the great code that keeps the peace of the world, abstaining from everything which shall give any nation a right under the law of nations to utter one word of complaint, still less to retal- iate by war — the sympathy, but also the neutrality, of Washington ; how much to compose with honor a concurrence of difficulties with the first Power in the world, which anything less than the highest degree of discre- tion, firmness, ability, and means of commanding respect and confidence at home and abroad would inevitably have conducted to the last calamity — a disputed boundary line of many hundred miles, from St. Croix to the Rocky Mountains, which divided an exasperated and impracticable border population, enlisted the pride and affected the interests and controlled the politics of particular States, as well as pressed on the peace and honor of the nation, which the most popular administrations of the era of the quietest and best public feelings, the times of Monroe and of Jackson, could not adjust ; which had grown so complicated with other topics of excitement that one false step, right or left, would have been a step down a precipice— this line settled for ever— the claim of England to search our ships for the suppression of the slave-trade silenced for ever, and a new engagement entered into by treaty, binding the national faith to contribute a specific naval force for putting an end to the great crime of man— the long practice of England to enter an American ship and impress from its crew terminated for ever ; the deck henceforth guarded sacredly and completely by the flag ; how much, by profound discernment, by eloquent speech, by devoted life to strengthen the ties of Union, and breathe the fine and strong spirit of nationality through all our numbers : how much most of all, last of all, after the war with Mexico — needless if his counsels had governed— had ended in so vast an acquisition of territory , in presenting to the two great antagonistic sections of our country so vast an area to enter on, so imperial a prize to contend for, and the accursed fraternal strife had begun — how much then, when, rising to the measure of a true, and difficult, and rare greatness, remembering that he had a country to save as well as a local constituency to gratify, laying all the wealth, all the hopes, of an illustrious life on the altar of a hazardous patriotism, he sought and won the more exceeding glory which now attends— which in the next age shall more conspicuously attend — his name who composes an agitated and saves a sinking land ; recall this series of conduct and influence, study them care- fully in their facts and results — the reading of years— and you attain to a true appreciation of this aspect of his greatness, his public character and life. THOMAS HART BENTON (J 782- J 858) "OLD BULUON' 1 ET Wiis ill the days of unlimited paper money, issued almost at random by every wildcat hank throunhmil the land, that Thomas 11. Benton won his sobriquet of "Old Bullion," by his urgent a Ivoeaey of a currency of the precious m'tals, issued by the government alone. But i)erhaps Benton's most piominent claim to distinction was in the part he l)ore in one of the gi< atest parliament- ary debates of modern times, that between Ilayne and Webster in 18:J2. Benton, an advocate of the right of State opposition to laws deemed unconstitutional, though not of nullification, began his debate by an attack upon Massachusetts, an assault whicii precipitateil the mighty contest which has been already dealt with in our skctchis of Webster ' and Ilayne. Those were the days of giants in oratory, and perhaps we should add to the names of Clay, Webster and Calhoun that of Benton, as the fourth in a great quartet. Unlike the former three, he was a strong supf)orter of Jackson, whom he earnestly sustained in his su[)pression of the United States Bank and in other radical issues. In earlier years Benton was as decided an enemy of .lack.son as he afterward became a friend. He cpiarrelled with him in 1812, when in command of a regiment under him. In lxl;{ Jackson attempted to horsewhip him at Nashville, and wa« severely wounded by a pistol shot fire l)y Benton's brother. But all tliis was forgiven in later years, and thi^ former enemies became close friends. Born in North Carolina, Benton began to practice law at Nash- ville in 1811, and founded a jwlitieal newspaper at St. Louis in 1815. In 1820 he was elected to the Senate from Missouri, and remained a member of tiiis l>ody for thirty yeai's. He was defeati'd in 18.J1, and afterwar-] >^er\-pd for some years in the House of Representatives. 106 1 THOMAS HART BENTON 107 Benton rcmlcrfd u servico of tlie f,'mitest viihic to Con-rmss and the cotnitrv liy his voluminous work, entitled " A Tliirty Years' View, or a History of the Working; of the Anieriean (Jovenunent for Thirty Years, from ISJO lo Ixr.o." This most exeellent history of Con},'ivss was supi>lemented lor the sueceedinf^ twenty years in a similar work hy James (i. Blaine, the two photojiraphinj,' for us a half century of Congress. SPANNING THE CONTINENT [In place of offering our readers a selection from Benton's Congressional speeches, we prefer to give a l)ricf address on a different topic, an eloquent prevision of a great work that was to 1)C realised twent_v years afterward. In 1849, when this address was delivered, the railroad in this country had not reached its twentieth year of age, and the couniiy west of the Mississippi was a vast unknown land, the home of liie Indian and tlie liuifiilo. Our almost utter ignonincc of it is indicated in the maps of thai period, in which a mighty territory, now the home of innumerable farms, is desig- nnled as "The (Ircat American Desert. " Yet Benton's prophetic vision already saw the ilroad stretching over these unsettled thousands of miles and the iron horse careen- ing from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In this speech he suggested the building of such a road. It then seemed like the dream of a wild enthusiast, yet we all know how amply his broad conception has since then been realized.] We live in extraordinary times, and are called upon to elevate our- .selves to the grandeur of the occasion. Three and a half centuries ago the great Columbus, — the man who afterward was carried home in chains from the New World which he discovered, — this great Columbus, in the year 1492, departed from Europe to arrive in the east by going to the west. It was a sublime conception. He was in the line of success when the intervention of two continents, not dreamed of before, stopped his progress. Now, in the nineteenth century, mechanical genius enables his great design to be fulfilled. In the beginning and in the barbarous ages tiv sea was a barrier to the intercourse of nations. It separated nations. Mediceval genius invented the ship, which converted the barrier into a facility. Then land and continents became an obstructi* - . The two Americas intervening prevented Kurope and Asia from communicating on a straight line. For three centuries and a half this obstacle has frustrated the grand design of Columbus. Now, in our day, mechanical genius has again triumphed over the obstacles of Nature and converted into a facility what had so long been an impossible obstruction. The steam car has worked upon the land among enlightened nations to a degree far transcending the mira- cle which the ship in barbarous ages worked upon the ocean. The land has now become a facility for the most distant communi^.^tion , a convey- ance being invented which annihilates both time and .space. We hold the '*. I r imi 108 THOMAS HART BENTON intervening laud ; we hold the obstacle which stopped Columbus ; we are in the line between Europe and Asia ; we have it in our power to remove that obstacle ; to convert it into a facility to carry him on to this land of promise and of hope with a rapidity and a safety unknown to all ocean navigation. A king and a queen started him upon his great enterprise. It is in the hands of a republic to complete it. It is in our hands, in the hands of us, the people of the United States of the first half of the nineteenth century. Let us raise ourselves up. Ut us rise to the grandeur of the occasion! Let us repeat the grand design of Columbus by putting Europe and Asia into communication, and that to our advantage, through the heart of our country. Let us give to his ships a continued course unknown to all former times. Let us make an iron road, and make it from sea to sea ; States and individuals making it east of the Mississippi and the nation making it west. Let us now, in this convention, rise above everything sectional. Let us beseech the national legislature to build a ^reat road upon the great national line which unites Europe and AsiaT the line which will find on our continent the Bay of San Francisco for one end, St. Louis in the middle, and the great national metropolis and emporium at the other : and which shall be adorned with its crowning honor, the colossal statue of the great Columbus, whose design it accomplishes, hewn from the granite mass of a peak of the Rocky Mountains, the moun- tain itself the pedestal and the statue a part of the mountain, pointing with outstretched hand to the western horizon, and saying to the flying passengers, " There is East ; there is India." i H FOUR GREAT AMERICAN SENATORS I AlllmuKhrcprcsentinKupptisitesiJesim (treat questidns. Sumner . Dimslas, Stephens anj Ti>i)mbs were the foremost of American Urators and came from Jifferent sections of the United State I i. i I \ NOTED AMERICAN PULPIT ORATORS ..inkers i" ii^'^ pui^t;^;„i^;^,x;rpI:,r:. ^ "^•"'-'""^ THOMAS CORWIN (J 794- J 865) THE OHIO CAMPAIGN SPEAKER mHERE arc men who need a great occasion to rouse them to a great action. ( >f siuh was Thomas Corwin, a man who, when stirred to iiis depths l)y some strong impelling cause, was capa- ble of a fine outhurst of oratory, yet who usually lacked the sustain- ing force to kecj) him long at a high level of siK>"ch and thought. He lived at a time when the gifted puhlic speaker rose rapidly into prom- inence and exercised the greatest influence among his constituency. His greatest effort hy far was his si)eech on the Mexican War, which one writer characterizes as " one of the most memorahle sjieeches ever delivered in America," and as the hasis of his reputation as an orator. Corwin, born in Kentucky in 1794, was admitted to the har in Ohio about 181S, and soon gained celebrity as a lawyer and orator. He was elected to Congress in 1S;?0, became (iovernor of Ohio in 1H4(». an.l was a United States Senator from ]84r) to l.SoO. In 1840 he actively supported (leneral Harrison for the Presidency hy numei-ous speeches at mass-meetings, to which his jiopular style of oratory was especially adapted. In 1850 he was appointed Secretary of the Treas- ury by President Fillmore. His later public service was as meml>er of Congress froili 1X58 to 18(;i, and Minister to Mexico from LstJl to 18«4. He returned home to -, you are unworthy to possess it ; I have got one-half already, and all I ask of you is to give up the other ! " England might as well, in the circumstances I have described, have come and demanded of us, "Give up the Atlantic slope— give up this trifling territory from the Alle- gheny Mountains to the sea ; it is only from Maine to St. Mary's— only about one-third of your Republic, and the least interesting portion of it." What would be the response ? They would say we must give this up to John Bull. Why? "He wants room." The Senator from Michigan says he must have this. Why, my worthy Christian brother ; on what principle of justice ? "I want room ! " Sir, look at this pretense of want of room. With twenty millions of people, you have about one thousand millions of acres of land, inviting set- tlement by every conceivable argument, bringing them down to a quarter of a dollar an acre, and allowing every man to squat where he pleases. But the Senaloi from Michigan says we will be two hundred millions in a few years, and we want room. If I were a Mexican I would tell you, " Have you not room enough in your own country to bury your dead ? If you come into mine we will greet you with bloody hands, and welcome you to hospitable graves." Why, says the Chairman of this Committee on Foreign Relations, it is the most reasonable thing in the world ! We ought to ?iave the Bay of San Francisco ! Why ? Beca'.se it is the best harbor in the Pacific ! It THOMAS CORWm 111 f 1 has been my fortune, Mr. President, to have practiced a good deal in criminal courts in the course of my life, but I never yet heard a thief, arraigned for stealing a horse, plead that it was the best horse he could find in the country! We want California. What for? Why, says the Senator from Michigan, we will have it; and the Senator from South Carolina, with a very mistaken view, I think, of policy, says yai can't keep our people from going there. I don't desire to prevent them. Let them go and seek their happiness in whatever country or clime it pleases them. All I ask of them is, not to require this government to protect them with that banner consecrated to war waged for principles — eternal, enduring truth. Sir, it is not meet that our old flag should throw its protecting folds over expeditions for lucre or for land. But you still say you want room for your people. This has lieen the plea of every robber chief from Nimrod to the present hour. I dare say, when Tamerlane descended from his throne, built of seventy thousand human skull;;, and marched his ferocious battalions to further slaughter, — I dare say he said, " I want room." Bajazet was another gentleman of kindred tastes and wants with us Anglo-Saxons — he " wanted room." Alexander, too, the mighty " Macedonian madman, " when he wandered with his Greeks to the plr.ins of India, and fought a bloody battle on the very ground where recently England and the Sikhs engaged in strife for "room, "was, no doubt, in quest of some California there. Many a Monterey had he to storm to get " room. " Sir, he made as much of that sort of history as you ever will. * Mr. President, do you remember the last chapter in that history ? It is soon read. Ah, I wish we could but understand its moral. Ammon's son (so was Alexander named) after all his victories, died drunk in Baby- lon ! The vast empire'he conquered to " get room," became the prey of the generals he had trained ; it was dismembered, torn to pieces, and so ended. Sir, there is a very signihcant appendix ; it is this : The descend- ants of the Greeks, Alexander's Greeks, are now governed by a descend- ant of Attila ! Mr. President, while we are fighting for room, let us ponder deeply this appendix. I was somewhat amazed the other day to hear the Senator from Michigan declare that Europe had quite forgotten us, till these battles waked them up. I suppose the Senator feels grateful to the President for " waking up " Europe. Does the President, who is, I hope, read in civic as well as military lore, remember the saying of one who had pondered upon histor>' long ; long, too, upon man, his nature. and true destiny. ' ' waking up. ' ' ' tiresome." Montesquieu did not think highly of this way of Happy," says he, "is that nation whose annals are \y i I i JOHN J. CRITTENDEN (J 787- J 863) THE EULOGIST OF HENRY CLAY JENRY CLAY did not live witliout an ajwstlo and did not die without an ouloyist. Witliout niuny siudi, wo nii>jlit say, but wo are ooneerno.l liore with one in particular, like him a Kcn- tuoky Senator, throufjh life his warm friend anil ardent supporter, and after death his most eiocpunt extoller. Among the oratorical efforts of John Jordan Crittenden, his eulogy of Henry Clay is usually looked uiKin as the finest example of liis powers, though it was by no means the only time ho rose to a high level of dignified eloquence. Crittenden, a native of Kentucky, early gained distinction as a legal ai)ointed Attorney -( lenoral of the Tnited States hy ['resident Harrison in 1841, and Ijy President Fillmore in I80O, and was elected (iovernor of Kentucky in lH4H. In 1861 he attemptid to mediate l)etween North and South, offering a series of resolutions known as the Crittenden ComiHomise. THE STRONG AGAINST THE WEAK [On the 15th of February, 1859, Mr. Crittenden made in the Senate one of his ablest and most eloi ii t > THOMAS F. MARSHALL (1800-1864) A KENTUCKY WIT AND ORATOR ■© LD KAINTL'CK," to give, the l>luo-«rass Stat. i,,s vrnnnilar npiK'llation, can Injaxt at leaf-t thiw orators of Mati.,nal fan... belongiiifr to the porio.! uii.Icr coiisMorati..,, -n,.„rv Cliv rhoma« F. Marshall, and John J. (•ritton.l..„. the last ,u„' nati;.- SOU8 of the soil. Marshall, the one of this trio with w hon. we are a. present concerned, was gifted with unusual fluen.v and e,.n„Mand of language, equalling in this respect, in his Inst ellnrts I|,.,„.v dav himself. He was distinguished alike for wit and oratorv, and ihougj. his Congressional career was very hrief-fron. 1841 tol84;J-it was end)ellished hy numerous .siK-eches of remarkable l.rilliancv Hi. ix)wer of oratory made him very successful at the l.ar aurl' in tlu- political campaign field, and on his efforts in the latter his reputation as an orator largely rests. In his .lays the metho.l of Congressional ri-lK.rtu.g was not of the bes;, an.l he in particular was so aggrieve.l by the way in which his remarks were mangle.l. that he rose'in the Hou.se and indignantly deman.led that his speeches shoul.l n..t he rejHjrted at all. His legal career was pa.sse.l at Loui.sville, where for a time he served as judge of the Circuit Court, an.l where he .lied September 22. 1864. THE STATES AND THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT [Of MarshaU's Congressional speeches, the only cne that s-o-ns to haNc been adequaelj. reported was that of July 6. ,84,. on a Bill to.lisposcof tJe Pr'-eeiro ertl^nt";,^"'" "*f """''' °" ^'^ '''''''''-' °^»'- «'«'- to the cJ2^t:l ernrnent and the.r mutual stability, are of deep interest, and stamp Marshall as an equally strong Unionist with Clay and Crittenden.] Whence, Mr. Chairman, springs this jealousy of the Federal Govern- ment and whither does it tend ? One would imagine that it was created but to be feared and watched. It is treated as something nHturall^ • ul 115 IIU J IM f ill. i: 116 THOMAS F. MARSHALL necessarily hostile and dangerous to the States and the people. The ))owers with wliicli it is armed are considered but as so many instruments of destruction. It is represented as a great central mass, chaiged with poison and death, attracting everything within its sphere, and polluting or destroying everything which it attracts. It is represented as something foreign and inimical, whose constant and necessary policy it is to bow the sovereign crests of these States at the footstool of its own power by force, or to conquer and debase them into stipendiaries and vassals by bribes and ci)rruption. Sir, while I listened to the impassioned invective of the gentleman from Virginia, I felt my mind inflaming against this mortal and monstrous foe, meditating such foul designs against public virtue and public liberty. But the question recurred : What is this government, and who are we? Is Kentucky to be bought and sold, that she may be corrupted and enslaved? Are New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia — all — all — to be brought under the hammer and struck off— honor, i;'.depcndence, freedom —all at a stroke ? And who tlie auctioneer ? Who the purchaser ? Their own representatives, freely chosen and entirely responsilile ? Nay, sir, they are doubly represented in this govcrnniei)t, so bent upon their destruction. We come fresh irom the hands of the people themselves, soon to return our acr iunt fur our conduct. Those in the other end of the Capitol represent the States as sovereign. Strange violation of all natural order, that we should plot the ruin of those whose breath is our life, whose independence and safety are our glory. Whither does this jealousy tend ? Are the States only safe in alienation from, and enmity to, their connnon head ? Are we most to dread the national authority when exerted most benf-ficially upon State interests ? Sir, what can this mean, and to what does it tend, save dismemberment ? Why continue a government whose only power is for mischief; which, to be innocent, must be inert; and which, where most it seems to favor and to bless, means the more insidiously, btil the more surely, to corrupt and to destroy ? I can understand why a Consolidationist, if there be such a foe to reason and to liberty, or an early I'ederalist, feeling an overwrought jealousy of the Slate sovereignties, and dreading the uniform tendency of confederated republics to dismemberment and separation, slioul ' feel unwilling to part with the power of internal improvement, and grant the revenue necessary to its exertion along with the power. I can under- stand why such an one, stretching his vision forward to that period when a sum approximating to the national debt of England shall have been expended in State authority, and the State governments, surrounded with ABRAHAM LINCOLN ^a. .-'.rr.'" .'\- t)"UKta5 won for Abraham Lincoln a Debate ^^^ high rank in AitU'rican OrauJr'y V M :] I i THOMAS F. MARSHALL 117 corporations of their owi; creation and invested in perpetuity with the revenues in future to I)e derived from this vast and most profitable expend! ire, shall swell into populous, opulent and potent nations, the people uaking up to them as the source from whence the facilities of com- merce have been dmved.-I can understand that such an one might apprehend that, under these circumstances, the more distant orb, the cen- tral sun, would grow dim and lose its just proportions to the planets which were destined to wheel round it. But how a States Rights man, one whose jealousies are all in the other direction, who dreads, from the centripetal tendency, the absorption of the smaller bodii-s and the consoli- dation of the system,— how such an one can see aught in this bill to threaten the power and independence of the States passes my under- standing. For my part I see no danger on either hand. I .see power, inde- pendence, and ample revenues for the States; but, as they swell, the nation which they compose cannot dwindle. The resources of the National Treasury expand in exact proportion to the expansion of the population, the wealth, the commerce, and the consumption of the States. Indeed, sir, as a mere measure of national finance, as a far-sighted means of deepening the sources, the exclusive and peculiar sources, into which the States are forbidden to dip, and from whence they as governments can- not drink, I should vote for this measure. Imagine the vast wilderness turned into cultivation, eight hundred millions of acres of fertile land teeming with people, studded with cities, and intersected and connected by highways and canals ; compute the consumption, if you can ; imagine the revenm derived from it ; concede, what is manifest, that, as the revenue inc; le burdens on commerce will diminish : and tell me— no, sir, you v /' ..ot tell me— tliat the effect of this bill is to weaken the national powers or to oppress the people. [Mr. Marshall goes on to assert that peace is the natural policv of tliis country and this policy is likely to bo strcuslhcncd rather than inv^.li.latcd t)v the increase jii power and wealth. lie refers f. the dcnmiid of .Mr. Wise, of \-ir>;inia', that New Vork should protect itself against certain Cau.idian eucroachineuls upon its territory bv its own power, and continues :] If wrong has been done. New York has surer remedy in the united and constitutional guarantee of twenty-six States than she could find in her own arm, potent as it is. The soil of New York is the soil of the United States ; the citizens of New York are citizens of the United States ; the right and the power, constitutional and physical, have been surren- dered to this Government to settle all cpiestions touching the safety of either, in their collision with other countries, whether by negotiation or 11 1. !> f k 4 J .. '' ir i 1 118 THOMAS F. MARSHALL the Sterner arbitrament of the sword That the rights and the honor of New York are secure from violation or insult in the hands where the Constitution has placed them, I should deem it akin to treason to doul)t. Her rights, her honor, her territory, are the rights, the honor, tne territory of the United States. She is part of my country. She is covered by the imperial flag ; overshadowed, every inch of her, by the wings of the imperial eagle ; protected by his beak and talons. For these sentiments I may be permitted to answer tor at least one State in the Union. Kentucky is placed securely in the centre. So long as this Gov- ernment lasts, her soil is virgin and safe from the imprint of a hostile foot. Her fields — thanks to the wisdom of our ancestors, the goodness of God, and the guardian power of this imperial Republic — her fields can never be wasted by ravage, her hearths can never taste of military violation. She knows full well the source of her security, the shield of her liberties. . . . The frontier of New York is her frontier ; the Atlantic seaboard is her seaboard ; and the millions expended in defending the one or the other she regards as expended for herself. A blow aimed at New York is a blow aimed at herself; an indignity or an outrage inflicted on any State ia this Union is inflicted upon the whole and upon each. To submit *o such were to sacrifice her independence and her freedom — to make all other blessings valueless, all other property insecure. Not all the unset- tled property of the Union, in full property and jurisdiction, could bribe her to such a sacrifice. BOOK in. Orators of the Civil War Period FOLLOWING the period which was so largely dominated by the slavery controversy, and was distinguished by a brilliant galaxy of Congres- sional and popular orators, came four years o'' war, the logical result of the slavery contest and the fiercest and most destructive conflict of recent times. This was followed by a decade of reconstruction, du.ing which the warfare of opinion was as virulent in its way as had been that of the combat in the field. In all this was plentiful food for oratory. In the few years preceding the war, when the coming conflict impended over the land like a dark thunder cloud whose lightnings were for a while withheld, the voice of the orator was heard in the land, dealing stren- uously with the threatening issues which were soon to burst out in devastating storm, and after the war had ended and the thunder of the cannon was hushed, new and momentous questions arose. The States which had voted themselves out of the Union, and had failed to win independence by the sword, were left in an anomalous situation. That they must event- ually be restored to the Union was, in the sentiment of the American people, a foregone conclusion, but th^ conditions of their restoration, the principles uprn which reconstruction would be based, remained to be determined. The halls of Congress again became the arena of verbal tournaments, and stirring orations upon vital subjects of political expediency were once more the order of the day. The finest orations of the period under review, however, belong to the period preceding the shock of arms rather than to that which succeeded it. ii» U it'. ABRAHAM LINCOLN f 1 809- J 865) THE MAHTYR OF THE CIVIL WAR mHE two vital periods of American history, that in which the people were strugj^liiif^ for independence and the formation of a stable Union, and that in which they were fighting for the preservation of this Union, were marked by two men of sublime alti- tude, as compared with tlieir fellows, — Washington, the hero of the Revolution, and Lincoln, the presiding genius of the Civil War. These two men, whom future history is likely to place on pedestals equally high, and to regard with equal veneration, were men of different aspect and character. Washington was .stately, dignified, a man sufficient unto himself, commanding the respect and admiration rather than the personal affection, of tlic people. Lincoln was simple and approachable, a man full of " the milk of human kindness," one who, while he also was respected and admired, was loved as well. In truth, no other man ever reached the topmo.st sunnnit of our politi- cal structure while remaining so nca'- to the hearts of the people as the simple-minded, great-souled, gentle-natured Abraham Lincoln, the earnest, honest, genial Father Abraham of slave and freemen alike. Lincoln in the fullest sense began life at the lx)ttom and climbed to the top. Where he got his genius it is not easy to say, but genius of a high and original type he possessed. He was one of those men whom the conditions of life, however adverse, could not keep down. Step by step his course was upward, until he rose from the ablest man of a neighborhood to the Republican leadership of his State, and from that to the highest position in the gift of the people of the United States. In 1858 took place that memorable contest for the Senatorship with Douglas to which he owed the national reputation which two 120 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 121 years later brought liiin the Rppuhlican noininutioii for I'rcsi.lont. The versatility, the depth, the eoiiiprehensivoness of Lincoiii's niiinl were first fully revealed in this oratorical contest, and his position as the natural leader of the anti-slavery ho>ts hocaine assured. '• V house flivided against itself eainiot stand," he said. '•! helievo this country cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. It will heeonie all one thing or all tli<" other." The march of events soon made his wonJs good The c(;initry went to war to make it 'all the oi>e thing or all the other," and Vhraham Lincoln was .scK'ctcd as the Imnner- k>arer in the great struggle. Ho lived to see the country all free, a consunnnation he did more tiian any other man to bring al)out; and then ho died, a martyr in thogieat cause to wlii;li he devoted his life. Abraham Lincoln had the mind of a gn'at statesman and the powers of a great orator. Mis gift of expression was e.jualied by the lucidity of his thoughts and the majesty to which ho could rise upon a fitting occasion. His Cetty.slmrg speech is a sublime effort which will never be forgotten by his countrymen : and of bis second inaugural speech it has been said: "This was like a sacivd poem. No American President had ever spoken words like theso to tlii> American people. America never had a President who found such words in the depth of his heart." JOHN BROWN AND REPUBLICANISM [Lincoln's first visit to the East was in tlic early inontlis of iS6o, and on the a7th of February he niade a speech at Cooper's Institute, New York, nliich struck with surprise and filled with admiration his fellow-RcpnI.lii-ans of that city. It niav be said that but for this oratorical journey in the East he prohablv would never have been made President of the United States. We give a brief selection from this notable address. ] You charge that we stir up insurrections among your slaves. We deny it ; and what is your proof? Harper's Ferry ! John Brown I John Brown was no Republican ; and you have failed to implicate a single Republican in his Harper's Ferry enterprise. If any member of our party is guilty in that matter, you know it, or you do not know it. If you do know it, you are inexcusable to not designate the man and prove the fact. If you do not know it, you are inexcusable to assert it, and espe- cially to persist in the assertion after you have tried and failed to make the proof. You need not be told that persisting in a charge which one does not know to be true, is simply a malicious slander. ;o ' ll I .^< ! %' mn m 123 ABRAHAM LINCOLN h i J ill Some of you admit that no Republican designedly aided or encour- aged the Harper's Ferry affair, but still insist that our doctrines and declarations necessarily lead to such results. We do not believe it. We know we hold to no doctrine, and make no declarations, which were not held to and made by our fathers, who framed the Government under which W3 li%'e. You never dealt fairly by us in relation to this affair. When it occurred, some important State elections were near at hand, and you were in evident glee with the Ijelief that, by charging the blame on us, you could get an advantage of us in those elections. The elections came, and your expectations were not quite fulfilled. Every Republican man knew that, as to himself at least, your charge was a slander, and he was not much inclined by it to ca.st his vote in your favor. Republican doctrines and declarations are accompanied with a continual protest against any interference whatever with your slaves, or with you about your slaves. Surely, this does not encourage them to revolt. True, we do, in common with our fathers, who framed the Govern- ment under which we live, declare our belief that slavery is wrong ; but the slaves do not hear us declare this. For anything we say or do the slaves would scarcely know there is a Republican party. I believe they would not, in fact, generally know it but for your misrepresentations of us, in their hearing. In your political contests among yourselves each faction charges the other with sympathy with Black Republicanism, and then, to give point to the charge, defines Black Republicanism to simply be insurrection, blood and thunder among the slaves And how much would it avail you if you could, by the use of John Brown, Helpe's book, and the like, breakup the Republican organization. Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed. There is a judgment and a feeling against slavery in this nation which cast at least a million and a half of votes. You cannot destroy that judgment and that feeling— that sentiment — by breaking up the political organization which rallies around it. You can scarcely scat- ter and disperse an army which has been formed into order in the face of your heaviest fire ; but if you could, how much would you gain by forcing the sentiment which created it out of the peaceful channel of the ballot- box into some other channel ! What would that other channel probably be ? Would the number of John Browns be lessened or enlarged by the operation ? THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS [Never did eloquence reach a more sublime level, and never was more deep and significant thought compressed within a few sentences, than ia Lincoln's world- famous remarks at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, on November 9, 1863.] ABRAHAM LINCOLN 123 i|' Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposi- tion that all men are created ecjual. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whetlR-r that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedi- cated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting-place of those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper tijat we should do this. Hut in a large sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, livi 'g i,u-i' h IM ABRAHAM LINCOLN lilt insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war, — seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide the effects by negotiatiiig. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them wouhl make war rather than let it perish, and war came. One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed j>eneral!y over the Union, but located in the southern part. These slaves contributed a peculiar but powerful interest. All knew the interest would somehow cause war. To strengthen, perpettiate, and extend this interest was llie object for which the insurgents would rend the Union by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected the magnitude or duration which it has already attained ; neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease even before the conflict itself should cease. Kacli looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astonishing. Both read J same Bible and pray to the same God. Kach invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing bread from the sweat of other men's faces : but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayer of both should not be answered ; that of neither has been answered fully, for the Almighty has His own ''poses. "Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must nted.> be that offense come : but woe unto that man by whom the offense cometh. ' If we shall suppose African slavery one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which having continued through His appointed time. He now wills to remove, and that He gives lo both North and South this terrible war, as was due to those by wlioni the offense came, shall we discern that there is any departure from those divine attributes which believers in the living God always ascribe to Him ? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away ; yet if it be God's will that it continue until the wealth piled by bondsmen by two hundred and fifty years' unrequited toil shall be sunk, a-d until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and orphans ; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. I I {^ I STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS (I8I3-I86I) THE UTTLE GIANT JHOHT in Htaturolnit fiiviit in incntiil posvcr wiisthonmnwlioni his admirers fitly nanii'.I "The Little (iiant/' tlie -liversity „f |,is pliysiciil and his mental stature heiim sii^nified in this (ainiliar title. A man of j,'reat lliieney of lanKUaj,'c and (luiekness of tliouj;lit. Stephen A. I >ouf,das Ix'came one of tlio most famous orators of the West. He may justly he classed with his country's leadiiitc ni.l„,|tly after the armies met in actual conlliet. In hi« famous euntest witi. lancoln he was on the losing; side. Ihilliant and s|K>cious he lacked the deep insijiht of his aMlafj;onist, and weakly permitted hiujself to he drawn on to attemi)t to answer -., series of siihtlo questions pro- |»oiindedl)y his shrewd opponent. His answer had its share in win- nin^r hi, a the Senatorship. it prove.l fatal to iiim in his hi^rh^r aspiialion. that of Ihmh;,' ma.le President of the I'liited States. As an orator Dou.-las first gaine.l hij,'h distinction in tlie canvass for President in 1840. Elected a -hidye of the Supreme Court of Illi- nois in 18 tl, he became a memlnjr of the House of Representatives in 1.H43 and of the Senate in 1.S47. His candidacy for a third term in the Senate le(l to the debate spoken of in the sketch of Lincoln's career. In the Senate he sup|K)rteuri Compromj-^c was r-nrealed. But when war actually began Douglas ranged himsi-lf on the si ij in Hi i'f r *3( 126 STEPHEN A. D0U0LA8 the government, making a patriotic speech at Springfield, Illinois, on April 25, 1861. He died while the first sounds of the conflict weiv in the air. SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES [It was at Freeport, Illinois, on the 17th of June, 1858, that Douglas made the effort, fatal to his hopes of the Presidency, to answer a series of questions which his far- seeing antagonist had propounded. One of these questions was whether there were lawful means by which slavery could be excluded from a Territory before its admis- sion aa a State. Lincoln's friends foresaw what Douglas would reply, and said that his answer would satisfy the legislature and insure his re-election. " I am after larger game," said Lincoln. " If Douglas so answers he can never be President, and the battle of i860 is worth a hundred of this." Lincoln was right. Douglas's answer enunciated a doctrine which might keep slavery out of a Territory, in spite of the Dred Scott decision. As a result, he lost the support of the Southern Democracy, the party nominated two candidates, and Lincoln was carried triumphantly into the Presidential chair, Douglas receiving only twelve electoral votes. We give the reply so far as it relates to Lincoln's more important questions.] I am glad that I have at last brought Mr Lincoln to the conclusion that he had better define his position on certain political questions to which I called his attention at Ottawa. He there showed no disposition, no inclination, to answer them. I did not present idle questions for him to answer merely for my gratification. I laid the foundation for those interrogatories by showing that they constituted the platform of the party whose nominee he is for the Senate. I did not presume that I had the right to catechise him as I saw proper, unless I showed that his party, or a majority of it, stood upon the platform and were in favor of the propo- sitions upon which my questions were based. I desired simply to know, in as much as he had been nominated as the first, last, and only choice of his party, whether he concurred in the platform which that party had adopted for its government. In a few moments I will proceed to review the answers which he has given to these interrogatories ; but in order to relieve his anxiety, I will first respond to these which he has presented to me. Mark you, he has not presented interrogatories which have ever received the sanction of the party with which I am acting, and hence he has no other foundation for them than his own curiosity. [We omit the first question which related to the terms of the admission of Kansas as a State.] The next question propounded to me by Mr. Lincoln is : Can the people of a territory in any lawful way, against the wishes of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from their limits prior to the formation of a State constitution ? I answer emphatically, as Mr. Lincoln has heard me answer a hundred times from every stump in Illinois, that in STEPHEN A. DOUOLAS 127 my opinion the people of a territory can, by lawful means, exclude slavery from their limits prior to the formation of a State constitution. Mr. Lin- coln knew that I had answered that question over and over again. He heard me argue the Nebraska Bill on that principle all over the State in 1 854 , in 1855, and in 1856, and he has no excuse for pretending to be in doubt as to my position on that question. It matters not what the Supreme Court may hereafter decide as to the abstract question whether slavery may or may not go into a Territory under the Constitution ; the people have the lawful means to introduce it or exclude it as they please, for the reason that slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by local police regulations. Those police regulations can only be estab- lished by the local legislature ; and if llie people are opposed to slavery, they will elect representatives to that body who will by unfriendly legisla- tion eflFectually prevent the introduction of it into their midst. If, on the contrary, they are for it, their legislation will favor its extension. Hence, no matter what the decision of the Supreme Court may be on that abstract question, still the right of the people to make a slave Territory or a free Territory is perfect and complete under the Nebraska Bill. I hope Mr. Lincoln deems my answer satisfactory on that point. [The third question was: " If the Supreme Court of the United States shall decide that a State of this Union cannot exclude slavery from its own limits, will I submit to it ? The answer to this we shall omit.] The fourth question of Mr. Lincoln is : " Are you in favor of acquir- ing additional territory, in disregard as to how such acquisition may affect the Union on the slavery question ? " This question is very ingeniously and cunningly put. The black Republican creed lays it down expressly, that under no circumstances shall we acquire any more territory, under any condi- tions, unless slavery is first prohibited in the country. I ask Mr. Lin- coln whether he is in favor of that proposition. Are you (addressing Mr. Lincoln) opposed to the acquisition of any more territory, under any cir- cumstances, unless slavery is prohibited in it ? That he does not like to answer. When I ask him whether he stands up to that article in the platform of his party he turns, Yankee fashion, and, without answering it, asks me whether I am in favor of acquiring territory without regard to how it may affr?t the Union on the slavery question. I answer that when- ever it becomes necessary, in our growth and progress, to acquire more territory, that I am in favor of it, without reference to the question of slavery ; and when we have acquired it, I will leave the people free to do as they please, either to make it slave or free Territory, as thev prefer. m STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS It is idle to tell me or you that we have territory enough. Our fath- ers supposed that we had enough when our territory extended to the Missis- sippi River, but a few years' growth and expansion satisfied them that we needed more, and the Louisiana Territory, from the west branch of the Mississippi to the British possessions, was acquired. Then we acquired Oregon, then California and New Mexico. We have enough now for the present, but this is a young and growing nation. It swarms as often as a hive of bees ; and as new swarms are turned out each year, there must be hives in which they can gather and make their honey. In less than fif- teen years, if the same progress that has distinguished this country for the last fifteen years continue, every foot of vacant land between this and the Pacific Ocean owned by the United States will be occupied. Will you not continue to increase at the end of fifteen years as well as now ? I tell you, incren e and multiply and expand is the law of this nation's existence. You cannot limit this great Republic by mere bound- ary lines, saying ; "Thus far shalt thou go, and no further." Anyone of you gentlemen might as well say to a son twelve years old that he is big enough, and must not grow any larger, and in order to prevent his growth put a hoop around him to keep him to his present size. What would be the result ? Either the hoop must burst and be rent asunder, or the child must die. So it would be with this great nation. With our natural increase, growing with a rapidity unknown in any other part of the globe, wUh the tide of emigration that is fleeing from despotism in the Old World to seek refuge in our own, there is a constant torrent pouring into this country that requires more land, more territory upon which to settle ; and just as fast as our interests and our destiny require additional territory in the North, in the South, or on the islands of the ocean, I am for it, and when we acquire it, will leave the people, according to the Nebraska Bill, free to do as they please on the subject of slavery and every other question. I trust now that Mr. Lincoln will deem himself answered on his four points. He racked his brain so much in devising these four questions that he exhausted himself, and had not strength enough to invent the others. As soon as he is able to hold a council with his advisers. Love- joy, Farnsworth, and Fred Douglass, he will frame and propound otheiB. 1 . THADDEUS STEVENS (1 793-1 868) THE FRIEND OF FREEDOM AND EDUCATION mHADDEUS STEVENS, a native of Vermont, but identified with Pennsylvania, made himself notahK- in two ways. It was his powerful advocacy of iK)i)ular education in 183") that gave Pennsylvania her common school system. And his unrelenting hostility to slavery placed him in rank with ^'ich men as (Jarrison, Phillips, Parker, and their fellow friends of human freedom. Nearly half his life was spent in the service of his State and country, while the slave system found in him one of its bitterest adversaries. After the end of the war he became the most prominent member of the House and a strenuous o])ponent of President Johnson's policy. He and Sherman were the authors of the Reconstruction Bill that was adopted by Congress, and it was he who first advocated the impeach- ment of the President. He was one of the managers of the impeach- ment trial, and died soon after its end. FANATIdSM AND LIBERTY [Stevens did not mince lanjjuajjc in dealing with the slavery question and its advocates. His feeling on the subject was intense, and he denounced it with bvtrning eloquence. Those Northern statesmen who supported the Compromise of 1850, includ- ing Webster, were handled Ijy him in the most vigorous language, as is evidenced in the following selection, taken from one of his speeches on this subject.] Dante, by actual observation, makes hell consist of nine circles, the punishment of each increasing iu intensity over the preceding. Those doomed to the first circle are much less afflicted than those of the ninth, where are tortured Lucifer and Judas Iscariot — and I trust, in the next edition, will be added, the traitors of liberty. But notwithstanding this difterence in degree, all, from the very first circle to the ninth, inclusive, is hell — cruel, desolate, abhorred, horrible hell ! If I might venture to make ^ suggestion, I would advise those reverend perverters of Scripture 9 129 \ 130 THADDEUS STEVENS to devote their subtlety to what they have probably more interest in ; to ascertaining and demonstrating (perhaps an accompanying map might be useful) the exact spot and location where the most comfort may be enjoyed— the coolest comer of the lak'^ that burns with fire and brimstone ! But not only by honorable gentlemen in this House, and right honorable gentlemen in the other, but throughout the country, the friends of liberty are reproached as " transcendentalists and fanatics." Sir, I do not understand the terms in such connection. There can be no fanatics in the cause of genuine liberty. Fanaticism is excessive zeal. There may be, and have been, fanatics in false religion— in the bloody religion of the heathen. There are fanatics in superstition. But there can be no fanatics, however warm their zeal, in true religion, even although you sell your goods, and bestow your money on the poor, and go and follow your Master. There may be— and every hour shows around me— fanatics in the cause of false liberty ; that infamous liberty which justifies human bondage; that liberty whose corner-stone is slavery. But there can be no fanaticism, however high the enthusiasm, in tbr- cause of rational, universal liberty— the liberty of the Declaration of Ir dependence. '^^t.is is the same censure which the Egyptian tyrant cast upon those old abolitionists, Moses and Aaron, when they "agitated" for freedom, and, in obedience to the command of God, bade him let the people go. But we are told by these pretended advocates of liberty in both branches of Congress, that those who preach freedom here and elsewhere are the slave's worst enemies ; that it makes the slaveholder increase their burdens and tighten their chains ; that more cruel laws are enacted since this agitation began in 1835. Sir, I am not satisfied that this is the fact But suppose it were true that the masters had become more severe, has it not been so with tyrants of every age ? The nearer the oppressed is to freedom, and the more hopeful his struggles, the tighter the master rivets his chains. Moses and Aaron urged the emancipation of the enslaved Jews. Their master hardened his heart. Those fanatical aboli- tionists, guided by Heaven, agitated anew. Pharaoh increased the bur- den of the slaves. He required the same quantity of bricks from them without straw, as when the straw had been found them. They were seen dispersed and wandering to gather stubble to make out their task. They failed, and were beaten with stripes. Moses was their worst enemy, according to these philanthropic gentlemen. Did the Lord think so, and command him to desist lest he should injure them ? No ; He directed him to agitate again, and demand the abolition of slavery from the king ^ THADDEUS STEVENS 131 himself. That great slaveholder still hardened his heart and refused The Lord visited him with successive plagues-lice frogs, locusts, thick dark- ness—until, as the agitation grew higher, and the chains were tighter drawn, he smote the firstborn of every house in Egypt ; nor did the slave- holder relax the grasp on his victims until there was wailing throughout the whole land, over one dead in every family, from the king that sat on the throne to the captive in the dungeon. So I fear it will be in this land of wicked slaverv. You have already among you what is equivalent to the lice and the locusts, that wither up every green thing where the foot of slavery treads. Beware of the final plague. And you, in the midst of slavery, who are willing to do justice to the people, take care that your works testify to the purity of your intentions, even at some cost. Take care that your door-posts are sprin- kled with the blood of sacrifice, that when the destroying angel goes forth, ai- go forth he will, he may pass you by. Aside from the principle of Eternal Right, I will never consent to the admission of another slave State into the Union (unless bound to do so by some constitutional compact, and I know of none such), on account of the injustice of slave representation. By the Constitution, not only the States now in the Union, but all that may hereafter be admitted, are enti- tled to have their slaves represented in Congress, five slaves being counted equal to three white freemen. This is unjust to the free States, unless you allow them a representation in the compound ratio of persons and property. There are twenty-five gentlemen on this floor who are virtually the representatives of slaves alone, having not one free constituent This IS an outrage on every representative principle, which supposes that rep- resentatives have constituents whose will they are bound to obey and whose interest they protect It is my purpose nowhere in these remarks to make personal reproaches ; I entertain no ill-will towards any human being, nor any brute; that I know of, not even the skunk across the way. to which I referral Least of all would I reproach the South. I honor her courage and fidelity. Even in a bad, a wicked cause she shows a united front All her sons are faithful to the cause of human bondage, because it is their cause. But the North-the poor, timid, mercenary, driveling North -has no such united defenders of her cause, although it is the cause of human liberty. None of the bright lights of the nation shine upon her section. Even her own great men have turned her accusers. She is the victim of low ambition-an ambition which prefers self to country per- sonal aggrandizement to the high cause of human libertv. She is offered up a sacrifice to propitiate Southern tyranny ; to conciliate treason. ;f : JEFFERSON DAVIS (1 808- J 889) PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY w |HAT young man, gentlemen, is no ordinary man ; he will make his mark yet." Such was the opinion of Jolin Quincy Adams, after hearing Jefferson Davis make liis first siieech in the Senate. Make his mark he did, in two ways ; first, as orator and statesman of the Slavery and State Rights party ; second, as President of the Southern Confederacy during the Civil War. The soldiers of the Federal army, in their songful wish to " Hang Jeff Davis on a sour apple tree," were eager to have him make his mark in a different way, and would ijcrhaps have quickly ended his career if ho had fallen into their hands. As an orator Davis possessed much fluency and ahility. In style he was simple and direct, indulging in no flights of rhetoric, but moving straight forward to his goal, with much force and energy of statement and an unadorned severity of manner. RELATIONS OF NORTH AND SOUTH [In 1850 Henry Clay brought before Congress his famous Compromise measure, its purpose being to settle the questions which had arisen from the acquisition of territory from Mexico. The issue was precipitated by the demand of California for admission to the Union as a free State. Clay proposed to balance the claims of the two sections. In response to the Northern demand he asked for the admission of California as a free State and the prohibition of slavery within the District of Columbia. In favor of the South he asked for a stringent law for the return of fugi- tive slaves. The question of the admission of slavery to New Mexico and Utah was to be left for their people to decide. This compromise was carried, and for the time being, settled the questions in dispute. Davis opposed it in terms that hinted at future secession. The following selection is from his speech of February 4, 1850, on the question of the admission of California to the Union.] If, sir, the spirit of sectional aggrandizement, or, if gentlemen prefer, this love they bear the African race, shall cause the disunion of these States, the last chapter of our history will be a sad commentary upon 132 ) JEFFERSON DAVIS 133 the justice and the wisdom of our people. That this Union, replete with blessings to its own citizens and diffusive of hope to the rest of mankind, should fall a victim to a selfish aggrandizem-nt and a pseudo-philanthropy i prompting one portion of the Union to war upon the domestic rights and peace of another, would be a deep reflection on the good sense and patriotism of our day and generation. But, sir, if this last chapter in our history shall ever be written, the reflective reader will ask, Whence proceeded this hostility of the North against the South ? He will find it there recorded that the South, in oppo- sition to her own immediate interests, engaged with the North in the unequal struggle of the Revolution. He will find again that when North- em seamen were impressed, their brethren of the South considered it cause for war, and entered warmly into the contest with the haughty power then claiming to be mistress of the seas. He will find that the South, afar oflF, unseen and unheard, toiling in the pursuits of agriculture, had filled the shipping, and supplied the staple for manufactures, which enriched the North. He will find that she was the great consumer of Northern fabrics ; that she not only paid for these their fair value in the markets of the world, but that she also paid their increased value, derived from the imposition of revenue duties. And if, still further, he seek for the cause of this hostility, it at last is to be found in the fact that the South held the African race in bondage, being the descendants of those who were mainly purchased from the people of the North. And this was the great cause. For this the North claimed that the South should be restricted from future growth, that around her should be drawn, as it were, a sanitary cordon to prevent the extension of a moral leprosy ; and if for that it shall be written that the South resisted, it would be but in keeping with every page she has added to the history of our country. It depends on those in the majority to say whether this last chapter in our history shall be written or not. It depends on them now to decide whether the strife between the different sections shall be arrested before it has become impossible, or whether it shall proceed to a final catastrophe. I, sir— and I speak only for myself— am willing to meet any fair proposi- tion ; to settle upon anything which promises security for the future ; any- thing which assures me of permanent peace ; and I am willing to make whatever sacrifice I may be properly called on to render for that purpose. Nor, sir, is it a light responsibility. If I strictly measured my conduct by the late message of the Governor and the recent expressions of opinion in my State, I should have no power to accept any terms save the unqualified admission of the equal rights of the citizens of the South to go into any of the Territories of the United States with any and every species of property 'W 'fl' IM JEFFERSON DAVIS I held among vs. I am willing, however, to take my shnre of the responsi- bility which the crisis of our country demands. I am willing to rely on the known love of the people I represent for the whole country and the abiding respect which I know they entertain for the Union of these States Mr. President, is there such an incompatibility of interest between the two sections of this country that they cannot profitably live together ? Does the agriculture of the South injure the manufactures of the North? On the other hand, are they not their life-blood ? And think you if one portion of the Union, however great it might be in commerce and manu- factures, were separated f''om all the agricultural districts, that it would long maintain its supremacy ? If any one so believes, let him turn to the written history of commercial states ; let him look upon the moldering palaces of Venice : let him ask for the faded purple of Tyre, and visit the ruins of Carthage ; there he will see written the fate of every country which rests its prosperity upon commerce and manufactures alone. United we have grown to our present dignity and power ; united we may go on to a destiny which the human mind cannot measure. Separa- ted, I feel that it requires no prophetic eye to see that the portion of the country which is now scattering the seeds of disunion to which I have referred will be that which will suffer most. Gra.ss will grow on the pavements now worn by the constant tread of the human throng which waits on commerce, and the shipping will abandon your ports for those which now furnish the staples of trade. And we who produce the great staple upon which your commerce and manufactures rest, will produce those staples still ; shipping will fill our harbors ; and why may we not found the Tyre of modern commerce within our own limits ? Why may we not bring the manufacturers to the side of agriculture, and commerce, too, the ready servant of both ? . . . . It is essentially the characteristic of the chivalrous that they never speculate upon the fears of any man, and I trust that no such speculation will be made upon the idea that may be entertained in any quarter that the South, from fear of her slaves, is necessarily opposed to a dissolution of this Union. She has no such fear; her slaves would be to her now, as they were in the Revolution, an element of military strength. I trust that no speculations will be made upon either the condition or the supposed weakness of the South. They will bring sad disappointments to those who indulge them. Rely upon her devotion to the Union ; rely upon the feeling of fraternity she inherited and has never failed to manifest ; rely upon the nationality and freedom from sedition which has in all ages characterized an agricultural people; give her justice, and the reliance will never fail you. i> ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS (J8J2-J883) THE CONFEDERATE VICE-PRESIDENT |HEN, in the oarly days of 1801, the secession convention of Gcorgin, was considering the j)crilous purpose wiiich most of its menilxTs hae no violation of the divine trust. During the conflict of arms I frcfjuently almost despaired of the liberties of our country, both North aiid South. The Union of these States, at first, I always thought was founded upon the assumption that it was the best interest of all to remain united, faitlilully performing, each for itself, its own constitutional obligations undt-r the compact. When secession was resorted to as a remedy, I went with my State, holding it my duty to do so, but believing, all the time, that if successful, when the passions of the hour and of the day were over, the great law which pro- duced the Union at first, "mutual interest and reciprocal advantage," would reassert itself, and that at no distant day a new Union of some sort would again be formed. And now, after the severe chastisement of war, if the general sense of the whole country shall come back to the acknowledgment of the original assumption that it is for the best interests of all the States to be so united, as I trust it will, the States being "separate as the billows, but one as the sea "—this thorn in the body politic being now removed— I can perceive no reason why, under such a restoration— the flag no longer waving over provinces, but States— we, as a whole, with peace, commerce, and honest friendship with • 11 nations and entangling alliances with none, may not enter upon a new career, exciting increased wonder in the Old World, by grander achievements he. ■'''— to be made than any heretofore attained, by the peaceful and harmonious workings of our matchless system of American federal institutions of self-government. All this is possible, if the hearts of the people be right. It is my earnest wish to see it. Fondly would I gaze upon such a picture of the future. With what rapture may we not suppose the spirits of our fathers would hail its opening scenes, from their mansions above ! But if, ijistead of all this, sectional passions shall continue to bear sway, if prejudice shall rule the hour, if a conflict of classes, of capital and labor, or of the races, shall arise, or the embers of the late war be kept a-glowing until with new fuel they shall flame up again, then, hereafter, by some bard it may be sung : " The Star of Hope shone brightest in the West, The hope of liberty, the Last, the best ; It, too, has set upon her darkened shore, And Hope and Freedom Mght up earth uo more." H ,1 ROBERT TOOMBS (1 8 10-1885) THE ORATOR OF SECESSION "WTJIIILH Pliillips iind I'arkor wor - ' ti. !i.,iitly i(»« aiiil tijiial eld- i]ii<'iur, was advoratiii!,' and siistaiiiiiiL' it in tlio South and in the Sonalo of the Fnili d States, of whicli lio was n incnduT fioni lH'):l to ISiJl. A man of dtcji politiral in.-i^dil, lio disccrni'(! tho coniinjij war at a \on^ ilistanco, and ft\>(>\io in favor of ^cession from IS.jO onward. Tho icciuisition of territory from ^[exiro ho looked U|ion as "a jxdicv ^ l.ioh threatened tho ruin of tlio Soulli and tho .suhveision of tiii^ (Jovprinncnt." In ids opinion tliis movement jK.intod to con- nietai.i wouM end in war. .V leader in tho .seeeH.Hion nioveniont in (!e<)ri,Ma, lio ro.-i>,Mied from the Senate wlieii th.it Stato left tlio rnioii, mid wa.s afterwanl a Confeclerato .Soerolary of War, Senator and hrigailior-jjcneral. THE CREED OF SECESSION [As an orator Toombs was a man of rciii.irkalilc readiness and fluency. His daring was as great as his cloe enjoyed. Kven in a monarchy, the king cannot prevent the sub- jects from enjoying etiuality in the di.sposition of the publi<- property. Kven in a despotic government this principle is recognized. It was the bloofl and the money of the wliole people fsays the learned Orotius, and say all the publicists) which acquired the public proporty, and therefore it is not the property of the sovereign. This right of equality being, tlien, according to justice and natural c(iuity, a ri;. ht belonging to all States, when did we give it up ? You say Congress has a right to pass ri'k-s and regulations concerning the Territory and other property- of tht- United States. Very well. Does that exclude those whose bl ..d and money paid for it ? Does " dispose of " mean to rob the rightful owners ? You must show a better title than that, or a better sword than we have. But, you say, try the right. I agree to it. But how ? By our judg- ment ? No, not until the last resort. What then ; by yours ? No, not until the same time. How then try it? The South has always said, by the Supreme Court. But that is in our favor, and Lincoln says he will not stand that judgment. Then each must judge for hims^ 1f of the mode and manner of redress. But you deny us that privi'jge, and finally reduce us to accepting your judgment. We decline it. Yoa say you will enforce it by executing laws ; that means your judgmeni of what the laws ought to be. Perhaps you will have a good time of execi'lng your judgment. The Senator from Kentucky comes to your aUl .iw says he can find no constitutional right of secession. Perhaps not ; V. ,• . le Con- stitution is not the place to look for State rights. If that right i;.iongs to independent States, and they did not cede it to the Federal Oovernnitnt, it is reserved to the States, or to the people. Ask your new commentator %vhere he gets your right to judge for us. Is it in the bond ? . . . The Supreme Court have decided that, by the Constitution, we have a right to go to the Territories and be protected there with our property. You say, we cannot decide on the compact for ourselves. Well, can the Supreme Court decide it for us ? Mr. Lincoln p.f.y«. be doc- not care what the Supreme Court decides, he will turn us out anyhow. He says this in I I i, I 140 ROBERT TOOMBS his debate with the Honorable Senator from Illinois (Mr. Douglas). I have it before me. He says he would vote against the decision of the Supreme Court. Then you do not accept that arbiter. You will not take my construction ; you will not take the Supreme Court as an arbiter ; you will not take the practice of the Government ; you will not take the treaties under Jefferson and Madison ; you will not take the opinion of Madison upon the very question of prohibition in 1820. What, then, will you take? You will take nothing but your own judgment ; that is, you will not only judge for yourselves, not only discard the Court, discard our construction, discard the practice of the (lovernnient, but yon will drive us out simply because you will it. Come and do it ! You have sapped the foundations of society ; you have destroyed almost all hope of peace. In a compact where there is no common arbiter, where the parties finally decide for themselves, the sword alone at last becomes the arbiter .... You will not regard confederate obligations ; you will not regard constitutional obligations ; you will not regard your oaths. What, then, am I tj do? Am I a freeman ? Is my State a free State, to lie down and submit because political fossils raise the cry of the glorious Union ? Too long already have we listened to this delusive song. We are freemen . We have rights ; I have stated them. We have wrongs ; I have recounted them. I have demonstrated that the party now coming into power has declared us outlaws, and is determined to exclude four thou- sand millions of our property from the common Territories ; that it has declared us under the ban of the empire, and out of the protection of the laws of the United States everywhere. They have refused to protect us from invasion and insurrection by the Federal power, and the Constitu- tion denies us in the Union the right either to raise fleets or armies for our own defence. All these charges I have proven by the record ; and I put them before the civilized world, and demand the judgment of to-day, of to-morrow, of distant ages, and of Heaven itself, upon the justice of these causes. I am content, whatever it be, to peril all in so noble, so holy a cause. We have appealed, time and time again, for thej;e consti- tutional rights. You have refused them. We appeal again. Restore us these rights as we had them, as your court adjudges them to be, just as all our people have said they are ; redress these flagrant wrongs, seen of all men, and it will restore fraternity, and peace, and unity to all of us. Refuse them, and what then? We shall then ask you, "Let us depart in peace." Refuse that, and you present us war. We accept it ; and, inscribing upon our batniers the glorious words, " Liberty and equality," we will trust to the blood of the brave and the God of battles for security and tranquillity. % I f CHARLES SUMNER (J8U-J874) WEBSTER'S FAMOUS SUCCESSOR i In the 22(1 of May, 18')(>, took place an event which formed the legitimate climax of the loiij; iunl virulent slavery contest in the Conj^ress of the United States. On that day Pre.ston S. I'.rook!<,a South Carolina Representative, attacked Charles Sumner, a ^^assachu- setts Senator, in his seat in the Senate chamlH>r, heating him on the head with a heavy cane till he hecame insensible, and injuring him so seriously that it was years before he fully recoverer the succt^ion of murderous slaughters by which their progress has been marked. As the hunter traces the wild beast, when pursued to his lair, by the drops of blood on the earth ; so we follow man, faint, weary, staggering with wounds, through the black forest of the past, which he has reddened with his gore. Oh 1 let it not be in the future ages as in those which we now contemplate. Let the grandeur of man be discerned in the blessings which he has secured; in the good he has ace omplished ; in the tri- umphs of benevolence and justice ; in the establishment of perpetual peace. As the ocean washes every shore, and clasps with all-embracing arms every land, while it bears upon its heaving bosom the products of various climes ; so peace surrounds, protects, and upholds all other blessings. Without it, commerce is vain, the ardor of industry is restrained, happi- ness is blasted, virtue sickens and dies. And peace has its own peculiar victories, in 'Comparison with which Marathon and Bannockburn and Bunker Hill, fields held sacred in the his- tory of human freedom, shall loselheir lus«tre. Our own Washinton rises to a truly heavenly stature, — not when we follow him over the ice of the Delaware to the capture of Trenton ; not when we behold him victorious over Cornwallis at Yorktown, — but when we regard him, in noble defer- ence to justice, refusing the kingly crown which a faithless soldiery prof- fered, and at a later day upholding the peaceful neutrality of the country, while he received unmoved the clamor of the people wickedly crying for war. What glory of battle in England's annals will not fade bythesid. of that great act of justice, by which her legislature, at a cost of one hundred million dollars, gave freedom to eight hundred thousand slaves ! And when the day shall come (may these eyes bt gladdened by its beams !) that shall witness an act of greater justice still, the peaceful emancipation of three millions of our fellow-men, " guilty of a skin not colored as our own," now held in gloomy bondage, under the Constitution of our country, then shall there be a victory, in comparison with which that of Bunker Hill shall be as a farthing candle held up to the sun. That vic- tory shall ne^-* no monument of stone. It shall be written on the grate- ful hearts of uncounted multitudes, that shall proclaim it to the latest gen- eration. It s>-all be one of the links in the golden chain by vhich humanity shall connect itself with the throne of God. As the cedars of Lebanon are higher than the grass of the valley ; as the heavens are higher than the earth ; as man is higher than the beasts of the field ; as the angels are highei than man ; as he that ruleth his spirit is higher than he that taketh a city ; so are the virtues and victories of peace higher than the virtues and victories of war. i i: ^ i WILLIAM H. SEWARD (J80J-J872) THE WAR-TIME SECRETARY OF STATE |N that fatal April day in ISfi"), when Lincoln foil victim to the huilot of an assMssin, William H. Scwanl, his Secretary of State, then on a he.l of .sickness, narmwly escaped a similar fate, he being stahhtMi in several places, and only stivcl from death by the courage of the old soldier who acted as his nurse. The assassins were shrewd in selecting Seward for one of their intended victims, since in his special field of duty he was almost as imi>ortant a figure in the government as Lincoln himself. Five years before, when Lin- coln was fii-st nominated for the Presidency, Seward was really the most prominent man in the party— too prominent, as it api)eared, to receive the nomination in the face of the enemies he had made. Deeply disapiKiinted as he undoubtedly was. he -lid not permit his private fcding to conflict with his pnblic duty, but did hi^ utmost to chock the fcchemes of the conspirators in liuchanairs cabinet, and smooth the way for the new I'resi.lent. Chosen as Secretary of State by Lincoln, he doulHless accepted the office with the idea that" !ie would be " the power behind the throne,"' and o.Kort a controlling inHuence over the inexperience.l Westerner. ■)isai.i)ointed in this again, he fell gracefully uito his true vocation, that :.? a faithful counsellor of the President. In his sphere of duty no man could have lR>en more efficient and his skillful handling of the Trent affair and the French occuption of Mexico, saved tla; ccnitry from dangerous foreign com- plications at a time when it ni'eded all its energies at homo. The war ended, Seward, who remained Secretary of State under .Johnson, quickly cleared Mexico of the French invadi is. Anothergreat service he did and one for which he was then seveivly criticised, was the pur- chase of Alaska, whose actual value he v'as one of the first to jwrceive. W 145 146 WILLIAM H. SEWARD While in the Senate he took an advanced {wsition among the opponents to shivery, a position which he firmly held throuf^hout the trouhlous tinus that followed, despite all criticism and abuse. During this period his oratory made him a y>o\\er in the Senate, while the views exjiressed hy him formed a declaration of principles ii\K>n which all sections of anti-slavery men could agree. As regards his powers, a marked example of them was shown in 184<», when he defended a negro murderer against whom a hitter popular feeling existed, greatly endangering his popularity by his jH'rsistence in this charitable action, though ho nmch enhanced his reputation by his treatment of this case. Mr. Cladstone said to Charles Sunnier, " Mr. Seward's argument in the Freeman case is the greatest forensic effort in the English language." He would not even except Erskine in this opinion, which was certainly a highly flattering one, coming from such a source. AMERICA'S TRUE GRE.\TNESS [As an example of Seward's oratory we offer the following selection, taken from one of his addresses, which is of much interest as showing his elevated conception of the mission of the United States, and of the perils which threatened the development of this mission. It was by working at the bottom, not at the top, by training the young in the exercise of public virtue, that the great Republic was to be saved and its mission accomplished.] At present we behold only the rising of our sun of empire, — only the fair seeds and beginnings of a great nation. Whether that glowing orb shall attain to a meridian height, or fall suddenly from its glorious sphere ; whether those prolific seeds shall mature into autumnal ripeness, or shall perish, yielding no harvest, depends on God's will and providence. But God's will and providence operate not by casualty or caprice, but by fixed and revealed laws. If we would secure the greatness set before us, we must find the way which those laws indicate, and keep within it. That way is new and all untried. We departed early, we departed at the beginning, from the beaten track of national ambition. Our lot was cast in an age of revolution — a revolution which was to bring all mankind from a state of servitude to the exercise of self government ; from under the tyranny of physical force to the gentle sway of opinion ; from under subjection to matter to dominion over nature. It was ours to lead the way, to take up the cross of republicanism and bear it before the nations, to fight its earliest battles, to enjoy its earliest triumphs, to illustrate its purifying and elevating virtues, and by our courage and resolution, our moderation and our magnanimity, to cheer WILLIAM H. SEWARD 147 and sustain its future followers through the baptism of blood and the mar- tyrdom of fire. A mission so noble and benevolent demands a generous and self-denying enthusiasm. Our greatness is to he won by beneficence without ambition. We are in danger of losing that holy seal. We are surrounded by temptations. Our dwellings become palaces, and our vil- lages are transformed, as if by magic, into great cities. Fugitives from famine, and oppression, and the sword crowd our shores, and proclaim to us that we alone are free, and great, and happy. Our empire enlarges. The continent and its islands seem ready to fall within our grasp, and more than even fabulous wealth opens under our feet. No public virtue can withstand, none ever encountered, such seductions as these. Our own virtue and moderation must be renewed and fortified, under circum- stances so new and peculiar. Where shall we seek the influence adequate to a task so arduous as this ? Shall we invoke the press and the pulpit ? They only reflect the actual condition of the public morals, and cannot change them. Shall we resort to the executive authority ? The time has passed when it could compose and modify the political elements around it. Shall we go to the Senate? Conspiracies, seditions, and corruptions in all free countries have begun there. Where, then, shall we go to find an agency that can uphold and renovate declining public virtue ? Where should we go but there where all republican virtue begins and must end ; where the Promethean fire is ever to be rekindled until it shall finally expire ; where motives are formed and passions disciplined ? To the domestic fireside and humbler school, where the American citizen is trained. Instruct him there that it will not be enough that he can claim for his country Lacedte- monian heroism , but that more than Spartan valor and more than Roman magnificence is required of her. Go, then, ye laborers in a noble cause ; gather the young Catholic and the young Protestant alike into the nursery of freedom, and teach them there that, although religion has many and different shrines on which may be made the offering of a " broken spirit " which God will not despise, yet that their country has appointed only one altar and one sacrifice for all her sons, and that ambition and avarice must be slain on that altar, for it is consecrated to humanity. 1 FREDERICK DOUGLASS (J817-J895) THE SLAVE-BORN ORATOR SMONG those who spoke for the rights of man and the freedom of tlie slave in the i>erio(l " before the war," there is one to whom we must accord jxjculiar credit ; Frederick Douglass, a member of the race whose cause he advocated, born a slave himself, yet escaping from his bonds, becoming self-educated, and developing a gift for oratory that gave him a high standing in the ranks of the opi)0- nents of human slavery. lie stood alone, the first and foremost Ameri- can orator of his race, a fact which in itself gave him nnirkeil prominence. Yet it was not solely as a prodigy that he won reputa- tion, for he had true jwwer in oratory ; being a man of intellect and feeling, with fine jwwers of expression and much self-control. His lectures against the slave system, begun about 1841, attracted wide attention, and on his visit to England in 184i, his '^arnest and fluent eloquence drew large audiences. He edited a newspaper, The Notih Star, at Rochester, New York, and after 1870 held several positions under the government, the last being that of Minister to Haiti, in 1889-1891. FREE SPEECH IN BOSTON rin 1841, when Douglass delivered at Music Hall, Boston, the speech whose closing portions we give, free-speech in certain directions was a nondescript in that famous centre of intellect and reform. Men were free to speak, if they accorded ir views with the multitude, but addresses in favor of slavery abolition were tabooed, au' those who indulged in them did so at imminent peril. The anti-slavery doctrine, which was to grow so immcns<*tv in the two following decades, wasstill in its infancy, and Boston itself was a strong seat of the pro-slavery element. In the following words Douglass scores it for its lack of liberal sentiment.] Boston is a '^reat city — and Music Hall has a fame almost as exten- sive as that of Boston. Nowhere more than here have the principles of 148 f I FREDERICK DOUOLASS 141) human freedom been expounded . But for the circumstances already men- tioned, it would seem almost presumption for me to say anything here about these principles. And yet, even here, in Boston, the moral atmos- phere is dark and heavy. The principles of human liberty, .n if cor- rectly apprehended, find but limited support in this hour of trial. The world niovet; slowly, and Boston is much like the world. We thought the principle of free speech was an accomplished fact. Here, if nowhere else, we thought the right of the people to a.ssemble and to express their opin- ion was secure. Dr. Ch.nning had defended the right, Mr. Garrison had practically as.serted the right, and Theodore Parker had maintained it with steadiness and fidelity to the last. But here we are to-day contending for what we thought was gained years ago. The mortifying and disgraceful fact stares us in the face, that though Faneuil Hall and Bunker Hill Monument stand, freedom of speech is struck down. No lengthy detail of facts is needed. They are already notorious ; far more so than will be wished ten years hence .... No right was deemed by the fathers of the Government more sacred than the right of speech. It wa;; in their eyes, as in the eyes of all thoughtful men, the great moral i jnovator of society and government. Liberty is meaningless where the jht to utter ones thoughts and opin- ions has ceased to exist. That, o all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers founded in injustice and wrong are sure to tremble if men are allowed to reason of righteousness, temperance, and of a judgment to come in their presence. Slavery can- not tolerate free speech. Five years of its exercise would banish the auction bl(xk and break every chain in the South. They will have none of it there, for they have the power. But shall it be so here ? Even here in Boston, and among the friends of freedom, we hear two voices ; one denouncing the mob that broke up our meeting on Monday as a base and cowardly outrage ; and another deprecating and regretting the holding of .such a meeting, by such men, at such a time. We are told tliat the meeting was ill-timed, and the parties to it unwise. vVhy, what is the matter with us ? Are we going to palliate and excuse a palpable and flagrant outrage on the right of speech, by implying that only a particular description of persons should exercise that right? Are we, at such a time, when a great principle has been struck down, to quench the moral indignation which the deed excites by casting reflections upon those on whose persons the outrage has been committed ? After all the arguments for liberty to which Boston has listened for more than a quarter of a century, has she yet to learn that the time to assert a right is V uo FREDERICK DOUQLASS the time when the right itself is called in question, and that the men of all others to assert it are the men to whom the right has been denied ? It would be no vindication of the right of speech to prove that certain gentlemen of great distinction, eminent for their learning and ability, are allowed to freely express their opinions on all subjects — including the subject of slavery. Such a vindication would need, itself, to be vindi- cated. It would add insult to injury. Not even an old-fashioned aboli- tion meeting could vindicate that right in Boston just now. There can be no right of speech where any man, however lifted up, or however humble, however young, or however old, is overawed by force, and com- pelled to suppress his honest sentiments. Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker. It is just as criminal to rob a man of his right to speak and hear as it would be to rob him of his money I have no doubt that Boston will -vindicate this right. But in order to do so there must be no concessions to the enemy. When a man is allowed to speak because he is rich and power- ful, it aggravates the crime of denying the right to the poor and humble. The principle must rest upon its own proper basis. And until the right is accorded to the humblest as fref'y as to the most exalted citizen, the government of Boston is but an empty name, and its freedom is a mockery. A man's right to speak does not depend upon where he was born or upon his color. The simple quality of manhood is the solid basis of tne right — and there let it rest forever. I 1 HENRY WINTER DAVIS ^8 J 7-1 865) A SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE if.i I mN IsrjO, wlien Tloiin' Winter l>:ivi3, a Hnltimorc Roprcsontative in CongrosH, votoil for tho Kc|iuhlican cimdidiito for Speaker, ho gave high offenro to tho Maryhmd legishitors, who pas-so*! nvsolutions dechiriiiR that ho liad forfeited tho confidence of tlio [wo- ple. Their wrutliful action failed to rouse ahirm in tlio l)reaHt of its subject. In a si)eecli Wfore tl.< House Davis dischiinfully bade tliem to take their message back to tlicir masters, the ])eople, to wliom alone he was responsible. Tl i people justified his trust in them by re-elect- ing him ns their servant in ('ongress. Davis was a man of much eloquence; of an intellect keen, inven- tive and capable of sustained effort. A Whig in fM)litics, he joined the American I'arty after the demise of the Whigs, and in 1861 became an ardent Republican, earnestly loyal to the Union. In a sjM^ech in February of that year ho denounced the supinen> ^s of the IJuchanan administration. This stand he firmly and zealously main- tained throughout the war, and after its end, in 1865, made an impor- tant and clocjuent sjxcch in Chicago in favor of Negro suffrage. He died in 1 )ecembcr of the same year. !ii^- L? I 'J vi THE PERIL OF THE REPUBLIC [it needed no small courage for a native of a slave State, in which sympathy with the doctrine of secession was at that time stronnly declared to come onf in snch ardent advocacy of the preservation of the Union as Henry Winter Davis 1 in his notable speech ut February 2, lS6i. He had been opposed to forcing the issue between Nortli and South, but no sooner was secession decreed than he took as firm a stand for the suprciiuiry of the National Government as any member from the most extreme anti-slavcry district could have done, and criticised the senile weakness of the Uuch.-man udniinistration in words that must have stung like adders. We give the pith of this vigorous address.] n 188 HKNKY WINTER DAVIS We are at the end of the insane revel of partisan license, which, for thirty yean*, ha» in the IJnitctl States worn the mask of government. We are about to close the niascjuerade by the dance t)f death Within two months after a formal, pt-aceful, regular election of the Chief Magistrate of the United States, in which the whole Ixxly of the people of every State competed with zeal for the prize, without any new event intervening, without any new grievances alleged, without any new menaces having l)een made, we have seen, in the short course of one month, a small portion of the population of six States transcend the bounds at a single leap at once of the State and the National Constitu- tions ; usurp the land ; usurp the extraordinary prerogative of rejjealing the supreme law of the land ; exclude the great mass of their fellow-citi- zens from the protection of the Constitution ; declare themselves emanci- pated from the obligations which the Constitution pronounces to lie supreme over them and over their laws ; arrogate to themselves all the prerogatives of independent power ; rescind the acts of cession of the pub- lic property; occupy the pul)lic offices ; seize the fortresses of the United States confided to the faith of the people among whom they were placed ; embezzle the public arms concentrated there for the defence of the United States ; array thousands of men in arms against the United States ; and actually wage war on the Union by besieging two of their fortresses and firing on a vessel bearing, under the flag of the United States, reinforce- ments and provisions to one of them . The very boundaries of right and wrong seem obliterated when we see a cabinet minister engaged for months in deliberately changing the distri- bution of public arms to places in the hands of those about to resist the public authority, so as to place within their grasp means of waging war against the United States greater than they ever used against a foreign foe ; and another cabinet minister — still holding his commission under the authority of the United States, still a confidential adviser of the President, still bound by his oath to support the Constitution of the United States — himself a commissioner from his own State to another of the United States for the purpose of organizing and extending another part of the same great scheme of rebellion ; and the doom of the Republic seems sealed when the President, surrounded by such ministers, permits, with- out rebuke, the Government to be betrayed, neglects the solemn warning ot the first soldier of the age till almost every fort is a prey to domestic treason, and accepts assurances of peace in his time at the expense of leav- ing the national honor unguarded. His message gives aid and comfort to the enemies of the Union, by avowing his inability to maintain its integ- rity, and, paralyzed and stupefied, he stands amid the crash of the falling ''• HENRY WINTER DAVIS 1S3 i Republic, still mattering, " Not in my time, not in my time . after me thedeluRc! " . . . . Mr. Spt-aker, we are driven to one of two alternativey • must recogni/.e what we have been told more than once upon thi: ,,or is an accomplishtd fact— the independence of the reWlions States -or vve must refuse to acknowledge it, and accept all the responsibilities that attach to that refusal. Recognize tluni ! Abandon the Gulf and coast of Mexico; surrender the forts of the XTnited State«» : yield the privilege of free com- merce and free intercourse ; strike do- ^i ilu- guaratitees of the Constitu- tion for our ftllow-citizens iji all tlat wide region ; create a thousand miles of interior frontier to be furnislud with internal custom houses, and armed with internal forts, themselves to he a prey to the next caprice of State sovereignty ; organize a v i'Vtr cupnVo. ainniiion or hostility may see fit to invite the d«r^[><)t ol' I'rar"; or the aggressive power of England to attack us upon our uiidt-i. lukd frontier ; sever that unity of territory which we have spent millions aiiu I.iboud through three genera- tions to create and establish ; pull down ihc ti.ig ol tin- Uniietl States and take a lower station among the nations of the earth ; abandon the high prerogative of leading the march of freedom, the hope of struggling nationalities, the terror of frowning tyrants, the boast of the world, the light of liberty ; to become the sport and prey of despots whose throne? we consolidate by our fall ; to be greeted by Mexico with the salutation: " Art thou also to become weak as we ? art thou become like unto us ? This is recognition ! Refuse to recognize I We must not coerce a State engaged in t'u peaceful process of firing into a United States vessel to prevent the rein forcement of a United States fort. We must not coerce States which, with- out any declaration of war, or any act of hostility of any kind, have united, as have Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana, their joint forces to seize a public fortress. We must not coerce a State which has planted cannon upon its shores to prevent the free navigation of the Mississippi . We must not coerce a State which has robbed the United States Treasury— This is peaceful secession 1 Mr. Speaker, I do not design to quarrel with gentlemen about words. I do not wish to say one word which will exasperate the already too much inflamed state of the public mind ; but I say that the Constitution of the United States and the laws made in pursuance thereof, must be enforced ; and they who stand across the path of that enforcement must either destroy the power of the United States or it will destroy them. 1 ■ 'v ; if' :t WILLIAM M. EVARTS (J8J8-J90J) MANHATTAN'S MOST FAMOUS ADVOCATE. mN the judicial liistory of the United States, the most iiii|>osing s[K'ctacIo was tiiat wliuh took jilace in 1868, when President Jolmson waH put on trial, inipeaehed for " hij,di crimes and misdemcanois," the Senate of the United States sitting as the Court, and the Chief Justice of the Su})rem'> Court presiding. Prom- inent among tliosc who took part ami chief counsel for the President, was William ^faxwell Evarts, the most i)rilliant legal iiglit of the New York har, anate. Tlie- time was u.ii ripe yet for cmauripation, l)'.it General liuller selllctl ilic (lilf.culty in his military Uislrict \>y putting ilieni to work as " contraband of war," and on April 23, 1S62, Colfax niado a vij;(jrous speech, in which he strongly advocated their conliscition as a means of roiluciu),' the power of the oppoueuta of the Union. \Vc append a selection from his spcecli.] The engineers oftliis rehellion— tiie Catilines who sat here in the council chambers of the Republic, and who, with, the oath on their lips 157 ill %'■] W 158 SCHUYLER COLFAX and in their hearts to support tbt Constitution of the United States, plottee and despair. On the 'id of July he had been laid low by the bullet of an insensate assassin iu Washington. On the 19th of "SeptenilnM- eanie the sad day that ended his career, within toueh of the fresh sea l>rec/.es at Ell>eron, on the New Jersey coast, where the dee[) bass of the bivaking waves sounded the re(iuieni of his brave .soul. It is rare tliat a great stress in national events passes away with- out its martyr; ami t.x) ofti'n it is the greatest and l)e.«t of the nation that tails as ;i sneritice to the MoLk-Ii of passion ami revenge. So it was in 18' •'•. sv '.i n Lincoln fell as the last viitini to the terrii>le mental strain of the Civil War. And so it was in IHHl, when (iarlidd fell a similar victim to the passions aroused by tiic struggle for Civil Ser- vice Reform. Taking the Presidential chair in March of that year, his evident i.urjK.se of making this reform a ruling policy of hi.s administration, and the controversy which, in consequence, arose l)etween him aud the Senators from New York, gave rise to a highly excited feeling among the partisans of the old .system, otlice-giying Congressmen and ollice-seeking political workers alike. The fatal result of this I'xcilement came on July 'id, wiicn a worthless ofiice- seeker, half-crazed by disapiM)intment, shot the President in the rail- road station at Wa.shington, iniliding what proved to be a fatal wound. Such is one of the fatalities of revolutionary movements. im 1 I JAMES A. GARFIELD 161 Garfielf! bepjan life as a poor hoy, oven working for a time as a driver on the to\v-i>iith of n caDui. Hut l>y iniuito cnerjiy he made liis way through college ami to the itOHition of ti college professor siikI State Senator. He served in tlie war, iK^eoining a major-geiienil. The remainder of his life was passed as a Congressman, in which he won great influence as an orator and statesman, becoming sj»eaker of the House in 1877, Senator in 1880, and President in the same year. \ 1 THE EVIL SPIRIT OF DISLOYALTY [A man of kindly nature and destitute of malice, Garfield was still strongly emotional, and under sufficient provocation could be arousejl to severe denunciation. Such was the case on the 8th of Murch, 1864, when he rose to reply to a motion of Alexander Long, a Representative from his own State, proposing to negotiate for peace with the Southern Confederacy. We give the more pithy portions of this speech.] Mr. Chairman: I should be obliged to you it you would direct the Sergeant-at-Arms to bring a white flag and plant it in the aisle between myself and my col- league (Alexander Long, of Ohio), who has just addressed you. I recollect on one occasion, when two great armies stood face to face, that under a white flag just planted I approached a company cf men dressed in the uniform of the rebel Confederac) , and reached out my hand to one of the number and told him I respected him as a brave man. Though he wore the emblems of disloyalty and treason, stiil underneath his vestments I beheld a brave and honest soul. I would reproduce that scene here this afternoon . I say, were there such a flag of truce — but God forgive me if I should do it under any other circumstances. .... Now, when hundreds of thousands of brave souls have gone up to God under the shadow of the flag, and when thousands more, maimed and shattered in the contest, are sadly awaiting the deliverance of death ; now, when three years of terrific warfare have raged over us, when our armies have pushed the rebellion back over mountains and rivers, and crowded it back into narrow limits, until a wall of fire girds it ; now, when the uplifted hand of a majestic people is about to let fall the light- ning of its conqtiering power upon the rebellion ; now, in the quiet of this hall, hatched in the lowest depths of a similar dark treason, there rises a Benedict Arnold and proposes to surrender us all up, body and spirit, the nation and the flag, its genius and its honor, now and forever, to the accursed traitors to our country. And that proposition comes — God for- give and pity my beloved State ! — it comes from a citizen of the honored and loyal Commonwealth of Ohio 11 J m JAMBS A. OARFIBLD But, sir, I will forget States. We have something greater than States and State pride to talk of here today. All personal and State feeling aside, I ask you what is the proposition which the enemy of his country has just made ? What is it ? For the first time in the history of this contest, it is proposed in this hall to give up the struggle, to abandon the war, and let treason run riot through the land I I will, if I can, dis- miss feeling from my heart, and try to consider only what bears upon that logic of the speech to which we have just listened. First of all, the gentleman tells us that the right of secession is a con- stitutional right. I do v< *. propose to enter into the argument. I have expressed myself hitherto on Sute sovereignty and State rights, of which this proposition of his is the legitimate child. But the gentleman takes higher ground, — and in that I agree with him, — namely, that five million or eight million people possess the right of revolution. Grant it ; we agree there. If fifty-nine men can make a revolution successful, they have the right of revolution. If one State wishes to break its connection with the Federal Government, and does it by force, maintaining itself, it is an independent State. If the eleven Southern States are determined and resolved to leave the Union, to secede, to revolutionize, and can maintain that revolution by force, they have the revolutionary right to do so. Grant it. I stand on that platform with the gentleman. And now the question comes : Is it our constitutional duty to let them do it ? That is the question, and in order to reach it I beg to call your attention, not to an argument, but to the condition of aflFairs that would result from such action — the mere statement of which becomes the strongest possible argument. What does this gentleman propose ? Where will he draw the line of division ? If the rebels carry into successful secession what they desire to carry ; if their revolution envelop as many States as they intend it shall envelop ; if they draw the line where Isham G. Harris, the rebel governor of Tennessee, in the rebel camp near our lines, told Mr. Vallandigham they would draw it,— along the line of the Ohio and of the Potomac ; if they make good their statement to him that they will never consent to any other line, then I ask what is this thing that the gentleman proposes to do ? He proposes to leave to the United States a territory reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and one hundred miles wide in the centre! From Wellsville, on the Ohio River, to Cleveland, on the Lakes, is one hundred miles. I nsk you, Mr. Cnairman, if there be a man here so insane as to propose that the American people will allow their magnificent national proportions to be shorn to so deformed a shape as this ? JAMBS A. OARi--IBLD m I tell you, and I confess it here, that while I hope to have something of human courage, I have not enough to contemplate such a result. I am not brave enough to go to the brink of tiie precipice of successful secession and look down into its damned abyss. If my vision were keen enough to pierce it to the bottom, I would not dare to look. If there be a man here who dares contemplate such a scene, I look upon him either as the bravest of the sons of woman, or as a downright madman. Seces- sion to gain peace ! Secession is the tocsin of eternal war. There can be no end to such a war as will be inaugurated if this thing oe done. Suppose the policy of tlie gentleman were adopted to day. Let the order go forth : sound the " recall' on your bugles, and let it ring from Texas to the far Atlantic, and tell the armies to come back. Call the victorious legions to come back over the battlefields of blood, forever now disgraced. Call them back over the territory which they have conquered. Call them back, and let the minions of .secession chase them with derision and jeers as they come. And then tell them that that man across the aisle, from the free State of Ohio, gave birth to the monstrous propo- sition ! Mr. Chairman, if such a word should be sent forth through the armies of the Union, the wave of terrible vengeance- that would sweep back over this land would never find a parallel in the records of history. Almost in the moment of final victory the "recall" is sounded by a craven person not deserving freedom ! We ought ever>- man to be made a slave, should we sanction such a sentiment. I said a little while ago that I accepted the proposition of the gentle- man that the rebels had the right of revolution ; and the deci.sive issue between us and the rebellion is, whether they shall revolutionize and destroy, or we shall subdue and preserve. We take thr ..itter ground. We take the common weapons of war to meet them ; and, if these be not sufficient, I would take any element which will overwhelm and destroy ; I would sacrifice the dearest and best beloved ; I would take all the olj .sanctions of law and the Constitution, and fling them to the winds, i' neccessary, rather than let the nations be broken in pieces, and its peopl- destroyed with endless ruiu. t:i\ w w JAMES G. BLAINE 1 18304893) THE "PLUMED KNIGHT" OF POUTICS )BERT CJ. INGERSOIJ;s iiii>;iii^' words, i>\io\n'n l«fore the Rpimhlifiui National ('onvciitioii of 1876, wUvn ho rose to jircsont tho name of James (i. lilaine as a caii'liilati' for the Presidency, have never l)een surpassed for etUctiveness on siuli an oecnsion. lUaine had Ixen hitterly assailed hy his political f(K's, and had routed them in a si«'ecli of striking vi^'or. It was to this defense that Ingei-soll alluded when hcelectrilied the convention with the fol- l.)wing words : "Like an armed warrior, like a Plumed Knighf. James (J. Blaine marched down the halls of the American Congnss and threw his shining lance full and fair against the hra/.en foreheads of the defamers of his country and the maligners of his honor. For the Republican party to desert this gallant leader now is as though an army should desert their general uiwn he field of buttle." Yet Blaine failed to receive the nomination. A sunstroke which prostrated him, and of which his enemies took advaiitaj;e to spread their falsehoods, turned the current of votes away from him. Again in 1880, he was defeated as a candidate. He was triumphantly nomi- nated in 1881, but ev<'ry one knows of the lu.licrous incident which then made Cleveland Trc^sident, and robbed Blaine of his well-fouglit- for honors. The result of Mie election turned upon the vote of the State of New York, and there the Rev. Dr. Burchard's fatal allitera- tion of "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion" turned enough of the Irish Catholic vote from Blaine to give Cleveland the 1000 majority that car- ried him into the Presidential chair. Rarely has so insignificant an incident had so momentous a result. As an orator Blaine had finely marked ability, and as a statesman his influence was unsurpassed during his career. Depew says of him, 104 JAMES C. BLAINE lOft " He will stand in our history as the ablest parliamentiiriun and nioht skillftil tUhater of our congressionul history. . . . No man during his active career has diNpuftd with him his hold upon the i^jtular imagi- nation and his leadership of his party." A EULOGY OF GARFIELD In February, i88j, Blaine delivcrcit, in the hall of the House of ReprcienUtiTe*, a pathetic culoRy on the martyred Gartield. Never was there a more distinguished audience. It included the President and his Cabinet, both Houses of Congress, the Supreme Court, the foreign Ministers, and grc;it number* of distinguished men and women. The touching words in which he bore tribute to hi» dead friend held spell- hound the crowded audience, and as he spoke that sublimely beautiful passage with which the oration closed, the solemn hush which fell upon the great assembly deep- ened the impression felt by every one present, that he had listened to one of the noblest of oratorical cflbrts.] On the morning of Saturday, July 2d, the President was a contented and happy man— not in an ordinary degree, but joyfully, almost boyishly, happy. On his way to the railroad station, to which we drove slowly, in conscious enjoyment of the beautiful morning, with an unwonted sense of leisure and a keen anticipation of pleasure, his talk was all in the grateful and gratulatory vein. He felt that, after four months of trial, his administration was strong in its grasp of affairs, strong in popular favor, and destined to grow stronger ; that grave difficulties confronting him at his inauguration had safely passed ; that troubles lay behind him, nnd not l)efore him ; that he was soon to meet the wife whom he loved, now recovering from an illness which had but lately disquieted and at times almost unnerved him ; that hi was going to his a/ma mater to renew the most cherished associations of his young manhood, and to exchange greetings with those whose deepening interest had followed every step of his onward progress, from the day that he entered upon his college course until he had obtained the loftiest elevation in the gift of his country- men. Surely, if happiness can ever come from the honors or trinmphs of this world, on that quiet July morning James A. Garfield may well have been a happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted him ; no slightest premonition of danger clouded his sky. His terrible fate was upon him in an instant. One moment he stood erect, strong, confident in the years stretching peacefully out before him. The next he lay wounded, bleed- ing, helpless, doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence and the grave. Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For no cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness and wickedness, by the red hand of mur- der, he was thrust from the full tide of this world's interest, from its \ MKROCOPV RISOIUTION TEST CHART (ANSI ond ISO TEST CHART No 2) A /APPL I ED IM/IGE Inc ^^ 1653 Eost Mjin Street yjS Rochester, Ne« York 14609 :'SA '■ass (716) 482 - 0300 - Phone ^S (716) 288 - 5989 - Fox 1«6 JAMES G. BLAINE hopes, Its aspirations, its victories, into the visible presence of death-and he did not quail. Not alone for one short moment, in which stunned and dazed, he could give up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, but through days of deadly languor, through weeks of agony, that was not ess agony because silently borne, with clear sight and calm courage he looked into his open grave. What blight and ruin met his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell ; what brilliant, broken plans, what baffled, high ambitions, what sundering of strong, warm, manhoods friendship, what bitter rending of sweet household ties ! Behind him a proud, expectant nation, a great host of sustaining friends, a cherished and happy mother wearing the full, rich honors of her early toil and tears ; the wife of his ^uM^u 'I'""'' ''■^'"''^ ^''"^ '''^' '" '"' = ^''^ ^'"1^ boys "ot yet emerged from childhood s day of frolic ; the fair, young daughter ; the sturdy voung sons just springing i„to closest companionship, claiming every day and everyday rewarding a father's love and care : and in his heart, the eager rejoicing power to meet demands. And his soul was not shaken His countrymen were thrilled with instant, profound„and universal svmpathy Masterful in his mortal weakness, he became the center of a nation's love' enshrined in the prayers of a world, liut all the love and all the sympa- thy could not share with him his suflfering. He trod the winepress alone With unfaltering front he faced death. With unfailing tenderness he took his leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss of the assassin's bullet he heard the voice of God. With simple resignation he bowed to the divine decree. As the end drew near his early craving for the sea returned The stately mansion of power had been to him the wearisome hospital of pain and he begged to be taken from his prison walls, from its oppressive stifl- ing air, from its homelessness and its hopelessness. Gently, silently the love of a great people bore the pale sufferer to the longed-for healing of the sea, to live or to die, as God should will, within sight of the heaving billows, within sound of its manifold voices. With a wan, fevered face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, he looked out wistfully upon the ocean's changing wonders ; on its far sails ; on its restless waves, rolling shoreward to break and die beneath the noonday sun ; on the red clouds of evening, arching low to the horizon ; on the serene and shining pathway of the stars. Let us think that his dying eyes read a mystic meaning which only the rapt and parting soul may know. Let us believe that in the silence of the receding world he heard the great waves break- ing on a farther shore, and felt already upon his wasted brow the breath of the eternal morning. ■idttlH BOOK IV. Recent Political Orators WITH the passing of the Civil War and the period of reconstruction of the Union tliat followed, there vanished a prolific source of fervent oratory in the United States. Since then, indeed, the country has not been without its events calling for argument and breeding controversy, but these have been of minor importance as compared with the all-controlling excitement of the slavery conflict and the reconstruction debate. There have been active party controversies, on such perennial subjects of public interest as the tariff, the greenback currency, free silver, the Philippine question, and other topics on which opinion difiFered ; but none of these have a threat of war or revolution behind them, and the stir of thought or vigor of expression to which they gave rise, was slight compared with that in which the dissolution of the Union was involved. There have been no lack of orators in the recent period, many of them eloquent, some of them full of force and fervor. But it is not easy to make a hot fire without coals, and a vehement burst of oratory on an inconsequential subject is apt to yield more smoke than flame. The speeches upon which we shall draw, therefore, in the present section, are largely of the academic character ; many of them fine efforts, displaying cultured thought and eloquent powers of expression, yet none of them based on such national exigencies as gave inspiration to the words of a Henry or a Webster. 107 i H:-: 1 n f! JOHN W. DANIEL (1842 ) A VIRGINIA ORATOR AND STATESMAN EORTY years ago a private in Stonewall Jackson's brigade, and to-day an United States Senator, with the reputation of being one of the most eloquent men in the Upi^er House of Con- gress, we herewith present John Warwick Daniel to our readera. Born at Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1842, and a boy at school when the Civil War began, he lost no time in closing his books and taking his musket, finding ready entrance into Jackson's famous brigade. Be- ginning as a private, he left the army as a major, with several wounds to his credit, and again resorted to his books at the University of Vir- ginia, making the law his study. His powers as an orator and activity as a iwlitician soon led him to the Virginia legislature, in which he sat from 1869 to 1881. He here won a high reputation as an orator and statesman, and was made the Democratic nominee for Governor. Beaten in this contest, he was sent to Congress in 1884, and in 1885 succeeded General Mahone in the United States Senate. In this body he is one of the leaders among the Democratic members. DEDICATION OF THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT [Loftiest among the srchitectural erections in the world stands the great monu- ment to the " Father of his Country," on an elevated situation in the National Capi- tal. Of obelisk shape, and towering 555 feet in the air, it dominates the landscape for miles around. Projected early in the century, its completion and dedication came in 1885. We quote here from the eloquent oration made by Mr. Daniel in the hall of the House of RcpresenUtives, February 21, 1885, in honor of the important event, his glowing panegyric of Washington's work and character.] No sum could now be made of Washington's character that did not exhaust language of its tributes and repeat virtue by all her names. No sum could be made of his achievements that did not unfold the history ol 168 II JOHN W DANIEL Iffi) I his country and itr institutions, the history of his age and its progress, the history of man and his destiny to be free. But, whether character or achievement be regarded, the riches before us only expose the poverty ot praise. So clear was he in his great office that no i leal of the leader or ruler can be formed that does not shrink by the side of the reality. And so has he impressed himself upon the minds of men, that no man can justly aspire to be the chief of a great free people who does not adopt his principles and emulate his example. We look with amazement on such eccentric characters as Alexander, Ciesar, Cromwell, Frederick, and Napoleon, but when Washington's face rises before us, instinctively man- kind exclaims : " This is the man for nations to trust and reverence, and for rulers to follow.' ' Drawing his sword from patriotic impulse, without ambition and with- out malice, he wielded it without vindictiveness and sheathed it without reproach. All that humanity could conceive he did to suppress the cruel- ties of war and soothe its sorrows. He never struck a coward's blow. To him age, infancy, and helplessness were ever sacred. He tolerated no extremity unless to curb the excesses of his enemy, and he never poisoned the sting of defeat by the exultation of the conqueror. Peace he welcomed as a heavensent herald of friendship ; and no country has given him greater honor than that whi 'x he defeated ; for England has been glad to claim him as the scion of 1 blood, and proud, like our sister American States, to divide with Virginia the honor of pro- ducing him. Fascinated by the perfection of the man, we are loath to break the mirror of admiration into the fragments of analysis. But lo ! as we attempt it, every fragment becomes the miniature of such sublimity and beauty that the destr xtive hand can only multiply the forms of immortality. Grand and manifold as were its phases, there is yet no uifficulty in understanding the character of Washington. He was no \'eiled Prophet He never acted a part. Simple, natural, and unaffecte-i, his life lies before us, a fair and open manuscript. He disdained the arts which wrap power in mystery in order to magnify it. He practiced the profound diplomacy of truthful speech, tb" consummate tact of direct attention. Looking ever to the All- Wis' poser of events, he relied on that Providence which helps men by giving them high hearts and hopes to help themselves with the means which their Creator has put at their service. There was no infirmity in his conduct over which charity must fling its veil ; no taint of selfishness from which purity averts her gaze ; no dark recess of intrigue that must be lit up with colored panegyric ; no subterranean passage to be trod in trembling lest there be stirred the ghost of a buried crime. iiia i L 170 JOHN W. DANtBL A true son of nature was (ieorge Washington — of nature in her brightest intelligence and noblest mold ; and the difl&v /, if such there be, in comprehending him, is only that of reviewing fi .m a single stand- point the vast procession of those civil and military achievements which filled nearly half a century of his life, and in realizing the magnitude of those qualities which were requisite to their performance ; the difficulty of fashioning in our minds a pedestal broad enough to bear the towering figure, whose greatness is diminished by nothing but the perfection of its proportions. If his exterior— in calm, grave and resolute repose — ever impressed the casual observer as austere and cold, it was only because he did not reflect that no great heart like his could have lived unbroken unless bound by iron nerves in an iron frame. The Commander of Armies, the Chief of a People, the Hope of Nations could not wear his heart upon his sleeve ; d yet his sternest will could not conceal its high and warm pulsations. Under the enemy s guns at Boston he did not forget to instruct his agent to administer generously of charity to his needy neighbors at home. The sufferings of women and children, thrown adrift by war, and of his bleeding comrades, pierced his soul. And the moist eye and trem- bling voice with which he bade farewell to his veterans bespoke the under- lying tenderness of his nature, even as the storm-wind makes music in its undertones When Marathon had been fought and Greece kept free, each of the victorious generals voted himself to be first in honor, but all agreed that Miltiades was second. When the most memoraMe struggle for the rights of human nature of which time holds record was thus happily concluded in the monument of their preservation, whoever else was second unani- mous acclaim declared that Washington was first. Nor in that struggle alone does he stand foremost. In the name of the people of the United States, their President, their Senators, their Representatives, and the'.r Judges do crown to-day with the grandest crown that veneration has ever lifted to the brow of glory, him whom \irginia gave to America, whom America has given to the world and to the ages, and whom mankind with univvjrsal suffrage has proclaimed the foremost of the founders of tht empire in the first degree of greatness ; whom liberty herself has anointed as the first citizen in the great Republic of Humanity. 'i 1 I ■ \ I s BENJAMIN HARVEY HILL (18234882) A BRILLIANT LAWYER AND ORATOR IlIKV, in 18»)l, the advorates of socossion j^rcw active in their efl'orts to drag Georgia out of the Union of the States, chief among those who stood firm for tlie old flag, and fought seces- sion boldly in tiie convention, as at once a wrong and a hlutider, was Benjamin Harvey Hill, one of the most brilliant legal advocates in the State. In this lie was sustained by Alexander H. Stephens, the sub- Hecjuent vice-president of the Confederacy. Hill followed Stephens in sui)port of the measure after it had been carried, and sjjent the four years of the war at Richmond, as a member of the Confederate Siniate. The war ended, he was among those fully ready to accei)t tlie new conditions, and in 1873 entered the United States Senate as a member from tlie licondnidcd State of (leorgia. He remained there until his death, well sustaining his reputation for eloquence and statesmanlike ability. A PLEA FOR UNION [As Hill had opposed secession and the disruption of the Union for the preserv- ation of African slavery in the Georgia Convention, he expressed himself to the same effect in a noble speech made before the United States Senate on May lo, 1879. A more eloquent appeal for the stability of the American Union has never been made. Before this great good, in his opinion, the system of African slavery was not worthy of a moment's consideration. We select the most eloquent portion of this address.] The Southern people did not secede from hostility to the Constitu- tion, nor from any desire to b' rid of the system of government under which they had lived. The highest evidence is what is given you in the very act of seces- sion, when they pledged themselves to form a new union upon the model of the old. The \eiy night when I was writing that letter and the sere- nading bands were in the streets, I wrote to my friends : " We will be able to effect a new Union upon the model of the old," and we did form X!\ itti :(;i^ ^\i m ^ 17-.' BENJAMIN HARVEY HIi-L a constitution which varied not one whit in principle from the one under which we had lived. No, sir; the South seceded because there was a war made upon what she believed to be her constitutional rights by the extreme men of the North. Those extreme men of the North were gaining absolute power in the Federal Government as the machinery by which to destroy Southern property. Tlien the Northern people said— a large number of the leaders and the Republican party said— that if secession was desired to l)e accomplished, it should be accomplished in peace. Mr. Greeley said that they wanted no Union pinned together by b.iyonets. Here is the condition in which the South was placed ; they believwl the Northern extremists would use the machinery of the Government to their injury ; the people of the South believed that they would protect their property by forming a new Union in the South precisely upon the basis of the old. They believed they could do it in peace ; and I say here that there were thousands upon thousands, yes, hundreds of thousands of the best men of the South, who believed that the only way to avoid a war 7::'s to secede. They believed the Northern conscience wanted to get rid of the responsi- bility for slavery ; they believed they had a right to protect their slave property, and they thought they would accommodate the Northern con- science by leaving the Union and preserving that property. They believed they could do it in peace ; and if they had believed that a war would result, they never would have seceded. Mr. President, I know I have detained the Senate long. I was born a slaveholder. That was a decree of my country's laws, not my own. I never bought a slave save at his own request ; a.id of that I am not ashamed. I was never unkind to a slave, and all that I ever owned will bear cheerful testimony to that fact. I would never deprive a human being, of any race, or color, or condition, of his right to the equal protec- tion of the laws ; and no colored man who knows me believes I would. Of all forms of cowardice, that is the meanest which would oppress the helpless, or wrong the defenseless ; but I had the courage to face seces- sion in its maddest hour and say I would not give the American Union for African slavery, and that if slavery dared strike the Union, slavery would perish. Slavery did perish, and now in this high council of the greatest of nations, I face the leaders of State destruction and declare that this ark of our political covenant, this constitutional casket of our Con- federate nation, encasing as it does more of human liberty and human security and human hope than any government ever formed by man, I would not break for the whole African race. And cursed, thrice cursed forever, is the man who would ! 4 ^ I'l V I i LUCIUS Q. C LAMAR (J825-1893) AN ELOQUENT SON OF THE SOUTH NATIVE of CoorRia. aixl a lawyer of Mississippi, Lucius ^.amar rcpivsont.-l the latter State in Coii-ress .lurini: the exeitin-: peiiod from IHoC to 18(iO, wiieii veliemeiit eloquence had nbun.lant opportunity for its .lisplay. Castin- his inrtunes with the South, he served .lurinj? the war as a Confederate oilieer an.l a commissioner to Itussia. Tlie war en.lo.l, for six years he was a i.ro- fcssor in the University of Mississippi, leaving it to enter the I mte.l States C'on-ress in 1 S"-.'. Four years later he was eleete.l to the ben- ate, remaining there till 1H«5, when he hceame Secretary ot the Interior under Presi.lent Cleveland. In 18H,S he was made a .Justice of the Sui.renir ( ourt of the United States. During hia term m Con- gress that body had no more eloquent and elfcctive speaker. SUMNER AND THE SOUTH rWhilc maintaining that the South had co.nmittcd no moral or legal wrong in its attcne.tcd secession, Lan.ar was earnest in his desire to heal the wou.ls of feel- ing remaining from thenar. In his graceful eulogy of Charles Sumner, after the death of the latter in 1874- l>e dealt with moving eloitions of tlic Uiiitfil States to vvliicli it led. brought this country face to face with froish g'- ^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ powe" were dissipated and dispersed with his parting breath-we do not ^"° These are the unsolved, the insoluble problems of mortal life and humlJitL. which prompted thetroubled patriarch to ask that momen- tous question for which the centuries have given no answer,- If a m.n """ t^:^^^^^^ o^ a circle Whose fatal circumfe.nce he can not vl^ Within its narrow confines he is potential, beyond it he plh" and if immortality is a splendid but delusive dream, if the Lcompleteness of every career, even the longest and most fortunate, be not rp?i m-^ andVfected after its termination here, then he wh oreads to die should fear to live, for life is a tragedy more desolate and ^"tf atuh^dL^Jhose obsequies we have paused to solemnize in this Cham^ irecall no one ^^ — ^^^^^^^^^^^^ s^a^s ;:L^r^^: s^ ^!r high piat.u .i.d.^^^ th=,t serene atmosphere where temptation no longer assails, where tne Imorourpa Sons no more distract, and where the conditions are no^t torablefo^r noble and enduring achievement. His "P--^ Jj^^^ been through stormy adversity and contention such as infrequently falls LtL lot of men. Though not without the tendency to meditation rev rle and introspection which accompanies genius, his temperament V s palestrl He was competitive and unpeaceful. He was born a pol- c'and ontroversialist, intellectually pugnacious and combatwe So U at he was impelled to defend any position that might be assailed or to attact any po'uion that might be intrenched, not because the defence or the assauU was essential, but because the positions were mamtained and LToL who heldthem -^ ^y^at^^^^^^^^^^ J- i ] JOHN J. iNQALLS 181 i ■ for their own sake. He accepted intrepidly any conclusions that he reached, without inquiring whether they were politic or expedient. To such a spirit partisanship was unavoidable, but with Senator Hill it did not degenerate into bigotry. He was capable of broad generosity, and extended to his opponents the same unreserved candor which he demanded for himself. His oratory was impetuous and devoid of artifice. He was not a posturer or phrasemonger. He was too intense, too earnest, to employ the cheap and paltry decorations of discourse. He never reconnoitered a hostile position, nor approached it by stealthy parallels. He could not lay siege to an enemy, nor beleaguer him ; nor open trei.ches, and sap and mine. His method was the charge and the onset. He was the Murat of senatorial debate. Not many men oi this genera- tion have been better equipped for parliamentary warfare than he, with bis commanding presence, his sinewy diction, his confidence, and imper- turbable self control. But in the maturity of his powers and his fame, with unmeasured opportunities for achievement apparently before him, with great designs unaccomplished , surrounded by the proud and affectionate solicitude of a great constituency, the pallid messenger with the inverted torch beckoned him to depart. There are few scenes in history more tragic than that protracted combat with death. No man had greater inducements to live. But in the long struggle against the inexorable advance of an insidious and mortal malady, he did not falter nor repine. He retreated with the aspect of a victor ; and though he succu.nbed, he seemed to conquer. His sun went down at noon, but it sank among the prophetic splendors of an eternal dawn . With more than a hero's courage, with more than a martyr's fortitude, he waited the approach of the inevitable hour and went to the undiscov- ered country. \1 ill A ROSCOE CONKLING (18294888) GENERAL GRANTS ELOQUENT CHAMPION fjlN 1881, when President Garfield took his seat as Executive of the 1 I I An.oricau nation, he did so in large measure as the representa- Lil tive of a new principle in American governmental economy, that of Civil Service Reform. Since the days of Jackson, fifty years before, the discreditable idea that " to the victors belong the spoils" had ruled in the political world, and the ofTicial positioxis m the gov- ernment haeaker both in and out of the Senate Hall. THE NOMINATION OF GRANT rWhat many look upon as the most effective nomination speech ever made at a parly convention u-.^ that uiade by Roscoe Conkling in 1880 before the National Republican Convention, when nominating Ex-President Grant for a third term. This IS-' ROSCOB CONKLINO 183 strenuous effort failed, through the ineradicable objection of our people to a third term President, yet Conkling'a address will live among the telling examples of American oratory. We append its niosit striking portions.] When asked whence comes our candidate, we say, from Appomattox. Obeying instructions I should never dare to disreB;ard ; expressing, also, my own firm conviction ; I rise in behalf of the State of New York to propose a nomination with which the country and the Republxan party can grandly win. The election before us will be the Austerlitz of Ameri- can politics. It will decide whether for years to come the country will be " Republicar or Cossack." The need of the hour is a candidate who can carry t' e doubtful States, North and South ; and, believing that he more surely than atiy other can carry New York against any opponent, and carry not only the North, but several States of the South, New York is for Ulys.ses S. Grant. He alone of living Republicans has carried New York as a presidential candidate. Once he carried it eveti according to a Democratic count, and twice he carried it by the people's vote, and he is stronger now. The Republican party with its standard in his hand is stronger now than in 1868 or 1872. Never defeated in war or in peace, his name is the most illustrious borne by any living man ; his services attest his greatness, and the country knows them by heart. His fame was born not alone of things written and said, but of the arduous great- ness of things done ; and dangers and emergencies will search in vain in the future, as they have searched in "''in in the past, for any other on whom the nation leans with such conhdence and trust. Standing on the highest eminence of human distinction, and having filled all lands with his renown ; modest, firm, simple, and self-poised ; he has seen not only the titled but the poor and the lowly in the utmost ends of the world rise and uncover before him . He has studied the needs and defects of many systems of government, and he comes back a better American than ever, with a wealth and knowledge and experience added to the hard comuioii sense which so conspicuously distinguished him in all the fierce light that beat upon him throughout the most eventful, trying, and perilous sixteen years of the nation's history. Never having hr a policy to enforce against the will of the peo- ple," he never betrayed a cause or a fri%;nd, and the people will never betray or desert him. Vilified and reviled, truthlessly aspersed by num- berless presses, not in other lands, but in his own, the assaults upon him have strengthened and seasoned his hold upon the public heart. The ammunition of calumny has all been exploded ; the powder has all been burned ; its force is spent ; and General Grant's name will glitter as a bright and imperishabie star in the diadem of the Republic when those I, IM ROSCOE CONKLINO who have tried to tarnish it will have moldered in forgotten graves and their memories atid epitaphs have vanished utterly There is no field of human activity, respoiisibili*y, or reason in which rational heitigs object to Grant, because he has been weighed in the balance and not fouiid wanting, and because he has had unequalled experience, making him exceptionally competent and fit. From the man who shoes your horse to the lawyer who pleads your case, the officer who manages your railway, the doctor into whose hands you give your life, or the minister who seeks to save your soul, whom now do you reject because you have tried him and by his works have known him ? What makes the presidential office an exception to all things else in the common sense to be applied to selecting its incumbent ? Who dares to put fetters on the free choice and judgment, which is the birthright of the American people ? Can it be said that Grant used ofiBcial power to perpetuate his plan ? He has no place. No official power has been used for him. Without patron- age or power, without telegraph wires running from his house to the con- vention, without electioneering contrivances without effort on his part, his name is on his country's lips, and I.e is uck'at by the whole Demo- cratic Party because his nomination will be the death blow to Democratic success. He is struck at by others who find offense and disqualificatio '. in the very service he has rendered and the very experience he has gained. Show me a better man. Name one and I am answered; but do not point, as a disqualification, to the very facts which make this man fit beyond all others. Let not experience disqualify or excellence impeach him. There is no third term in the case, and the pretense will die with the political dog-days which engendered it. Nobody is really worried about a third term except those hopelessly longing for a first term and the dupes they have made. Without bureaus, committees, officials or emis- saries to manufactr c sentiment in his favor, without intrigue or effort on his part. Grant is the candidate whose supporters have never threatened to bolt. As they say, he is a Republican who never wavers. He and his friends stood by the creed and the candidates of the Republican Jr'arty, holding the right of a majority as the very essence of their faith, and meaning to uphold that faith against the common enemy and the charla- tans and the guerrilhs who from time to time deploy between the lines and forage on one side or the other. I SAMUEL S. COX (1824-1889) AN ORATOR OF PEACE AND GOOD WLL I^VMUEF. SULLIVAN COX, iK)i.uIiitl;.- kimsvii nn "Sunsot Cox," \V!is a mail of duplex mind, \n'i\\^ at (iiicr iiist iiict witli tlio spirit of fun and capahlo of tlie deoiio.st intensity of utteranco and fcol- ing. Thoso from whose lipn wit flows easily, in wliose tliou>rlit.s liumor shinejlike winter ■'unheams, are apt to find itdifliiiilt to win a repu- tation for gravity and earnestness yet Cox, while he could at will send ripples of laughter through an audienee, could, when occnsion demanded, be as elevated in tone as any of his fellow-Congressn;en. He was able, alike ms a speaker and a writer. His Congressional career is depic'ed in his " Eight Years in Congi-ess," and his varied travels in " The Buckey.- Abroad,"" Search for Winter Sunl)ea us." and various other works. Through most of these tales of travel a vein of genial humor runs. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT [Mr. Cox's masterpiece of oratory was given in the peroration of a speech deliv- ered before the House on the 3rd of July, 1879. The subject of it is plainly enough indicated in its language. It dealt with the aftermath of the exciting period of Reconstruction, that era of " test oaths and other reminiscences of our sad and bloody strife," inciters to bitter passions, which the speaker so eloquently contrasts with the spirit of the teachings of Christ.] I hope it may not be presuming to say, Mr. Speaker, that I have been something of a traveler, and have been upon many mountains of our star. I would that my observations had been better utilized for duty. I have been upon the Atlas, whose giant shoulders were fabled to uphold the g'.obe. I have learned from there, that even to Northern Africa the Goths brought their fueros or bills of right, with their arms, from the cold forests of the North to the sunny plains and rugged mountains of that old granary of ihe Roman world. I have been amid the Alps, where the spirit of Tell 186 \^ 1:' «{ I ^!» 1 \m 8AMUBL 8. CC: and liberty is always tempered with mercy, and whose monnUins are a monument through a thou?ind of years of Republican generosity. I have been among the Sierras of Spain, whete the patriot Riego-whose hymn is the Marseillaise of the Peninsula-was hunted after he had saved constitutional liberty and favored amnesty to all, -the noblest example ofpatriotism since the days of Brutus. From the seven hills of Rome, down through the corridors of time, comes the story which Cicero relates from Thucydides ; that a brazen monumetU was erected by the Thebans to celebrate their victory over the Lacedcemonians. but it was regarded as a memento of iv.l discord, and the trophy was abolished, because it was not fitting that any record ahould remain of the conflict between Greek and Greek. From the same throne of ancient power come the words which command only commem- oration of foreign conenn IN'Vo- * luti<.in-f 1H4S, v ^j.ivii.l throuf,'li«iil tli(> <«»ii1ii»nl, ami (ii.l.'.l with tho v\iW- ..f inmiyof i(H ahl.'s( ami most l.I•o;,'^.•s^iv(• sons, rromimiit ainonj,' tliosc rmiutioriiiany \vli« wuinht tho laml d lil)erty Inyoml th.' was was Carl Sc-hur/, who I'unif to the riiitcl Stales in I8r.2, niidinj,' a m\v homo in Wiscon-in. In tiiis oouiitry la- has licon fno to express his pro.i,'ivssive sentiments, and has been very active ii; inditieal lal>ois. Hiseaivor lieiolx-Kan in l«r,(;, with spe•{' tho war. Removing t<> St. I-ouis in 18G.S, Missonri si^nt him to tho I uited States Senate, and nnder Presi- dent Hayes he serr ,d in tho Cah aet as Steretary of the Interior. As a puhlicspeak. r Mr. Solmrz is pi. in and direet in stylo, not given to ornamental langiuige, yet strong ■.■■vA olfective. II.; is an al.lc writer, his "Life of Henry Clay" in esp. .ial In-'ng regarded as a classic of its kind. He has also written a '• Life of Ahraliam Lincohi." AMNESTY FOR THE CONQUERED [The orations of Cnrl Schurz cover a widi> range of time and subjects. Old as he has grown to-d;iy. lie preserves his fluency ^ts a speaker. In selectinR from his many speeches, however, we go back to that period after the war. when the question of amnesty for the South was before Congre>s. and give Schurz's eloriucut and humane yievs upon this subject. The contrast which he pi^to-os b^ween the conditions of the two s^eiiou. is anim-,ted .nd ctriUing, and his plea for mercy to the subjected one of the most forcible that co ild be Liade.} IJ n I' . M f CARL SCHURZ 189 Sir, I have to say a few words about an accusation which has been brought against those who speak in favor of universal amnesty. It is the accusation resorted to, in default of more solid argument, that those who advise amnesty, especially universal amnesty, do so because they have fallen in love wiih the rebels. No, sir, it is not merely for the rebels I plead. We are asked. Shall the rebellion go entirely unpunished ? No, sir, it shall not. Neither do I think that the rebellion has gone entirely unpunished. I ask you, had the rebels nothing to lose but their lives and their offices ? Look at it. There was a proud and arrogant aristocracy, planting their feet on the necks of the laboring people, and pretending to be the born rulers of this great republic. They looked down, not only upon their slaves, but also upon the people of the North, with the haughty contempt of self asserting superiority. When their pretentions to rule us all were first successfully disputed, they resolved to destroy this republic, and to build up on the corner-stone of slavery an empire of their own, in which they could hold absolute sway. They made the attempt with the most overwhelmingly confident expectation of certain victory. Then came the Civil War, and after four years of struggle their whole power and pride lay shivered to atoms at our feet, their sons dead by tens of thous- ands on the battlefields of this country, their fields and their homes devas- tated, their fortunes destroyed; and, more than that, the whole social system in which they had their being, with their hopes and pride, utterly wiped out ; slaverj' forever abolished, and the slaves themselves created a political power before which they had to bow their heads ; and they, broken, ruined, helpless, and hopeless in the dust before those upon whom they had so haughtily looked down as their vassals and inferiors. Sir, can it be said that the oellion has gone entirely unpunished ? You ma" )ject that the loyal people, too, were subjected to terrible sufferings ; that their sons, too, were slaughtered by tens of thousands : that the mourning of countless widows and orphans is still darkening our land : that we are groaning under terrible burdens which the rebellion has loaded upon us ; and that, therefore, part of the punishment has fallen upon the iiniocent. And it is certainly true. But look at the difference. We issued from this great conflict as conquerors ; upon the graves of our slain we could lay the wreath of vic- tory ; our widows and orphans, while mourning the loss of their dearest, still remember with proud exultation that the blood of their husbands and fathers was not spilled in vain ; that it flowed for the greatest and holiest and at the same time the most victorious of causes ; and when our people labor in the sweat of their brow to pay the debt which the rebellion has loaded upon us, they do it with the proud consciousness that the heavy !■;; f r ■< : \] ll ' jjQ CARt, 8CHURZ price they have paid is infinitely overbalanced by the value of the results they have gained : slavery abolished ; the great American Republic puri- fied of her foulest stain ; the American people no longer a people of masters and slaves, but a people of equal citizens ; the most dangerous element of disturbance and disintegration wiped out from among us. this country pi . upon the couree of harmonious development, greater, more beautiful, mightier than ever in its self-conscious power. And thus, whatever losses, whatever sacrifices, whatever sufferings we may have endured, they appear before us in a blaze of glory. But how do the Southern people stand there ? All they have sacri- ficed, all they have lost, all the blood they have spilled, all the desolation o? their homes, all the distress that stares them in the face, f;!^^ wreck and ruin they see around them-all for nothing, all for a wicked folb. , al for a disastrous infatuation ; the very graves of their slam i-Uiing but monuments of a shadowy delusion ; all their former hopes vanished for- ever • and the very magniloquence which some of their leaders are st.ll ndul'gTng in nothing butTmocking illustration of their utter discom- fiture ' Ah, sir. if ever human efforts broke down in irretrievable disaster, if ever human pride was humiliated to the dust, if ever human hopes were turned into despair, there you behold them. BENJAMIN HARRISON (J830-J90J) THE EXEMPLAR OF CHRISTIAN STATESMANSHIP i mT may be supposed that Benjamin Harrison, twenty-third Presi- dent of the Unit > ' States, attained this high jiosition through the fact that liis grandfather. General William Henry Harri- son, was President bofore him. Doubtless that fact had its influence in siigges ; hia name as a suitable one for the presidency. But the leading p^.iticians of the United States are seldom carried away by sentiment. They are too hard-headed for that. They seek to seloc-t the man that the pcoi)le want, and had not the younger Harrison made his mark by ability in statesmanship and fine powers of oratory, his hereditary relation to the elder Harrison would have had no influ- ence upon tiio nominating convention. At any rate, he was elected President over Cleveland in 1888, and that is all with which we are here concerned, except the counter fact that Cleveland was elected over him in 1892. Defeated in a contest for the governorship of his State in 1876, he was elected to the United States Senate in 1880, and there made the brilliant record that carried him to the presidential chair eight years afterward. He was one of the most polisht speakers in public life. • INAUGURAL ADDRESS [President Harrison was very ready as an orator, a feet which he conclusively proved during the presidential campaign, his versatility in the numerous speeches made by him ' ?ing quite remarkable. He never repeated himself, and his subjects were as varied as the days. We cannot, however, offer a better example of his ora- torical powers than the address delivered by him on his inauguration as President. It strikingly states the relative duties of the people and their Executive, and points out the only road by which national greatness can be reached.] There is no constitutional or legal requirement that the President shall take the oath of office in the presence of the people, but there is so 191 a J \i Utni ? I I, • * I i jjg BENJAMIN HARRISON manifest an appropriateness in the public induction to office of the chief executive officer of the nation that from the beginning of the Government the people, to wbrse service the official oath consecrates the officer, have been called to witness the solemn ceremonial. The oath taken in the presence of the people becomes a mutual covenant. The officer covenants to serve the whole body of the people by a faithful execution of the laws. so that they may be the unfailing defense and security of those who respect and observe them, and that neither wealth, station, nor the power of combinationssh." be able to evade their just penalties or to wr«t them from a beneficent public purpose to serve the ends of cruelty or selfishness^ My promise is spoken; yours unspoken, but not the less real and solemn. The people of every State have here their representatives Surely I do not misinterpret the spirit of the occasion when I assume that the whole body of the people covenant with me and with each other to-day to support and defend the Constitution and the union of the States, to yield willing obedience to all the laws and each to every other ciUzen hisequal civil and political rights. Entering thus solemnly into covenant with each other, we may reverently invoke and confidently expect the favor and help of Almighty God-that He will give to me wisdom strength and fidelity, and to our people a spirit of fraternity and a love of riehteousness and peace. , , ^. This occasion derives peculiar interest from the fact that the presi- dential term, which begins this day, is the twenty-sixth under our Con- stitution. The first inauguration of President Washington took place in New York, where Congress was then sitting, on the thirtieth day of April, 1789, having been deferred by reason of delays attending the organi-tion of Congress and the canvass of the electoral vot. Our people have already worthily observed the centennials of the Declaration ^Independence, of the Battle of Yorktown. and of the adoption of the Constitu^on, and will shortly celebrate in New York the institution of the second great department of our constitutional scheme of government. Whl^the centennial of the institution of the judicial department, by the organization of the Supreme Court, shall have been smtably observed, as I trust it will be. our nation will have fully entered its second century. I will not attempt to note the marvelous and, in a great part, happy contrasts between our country as it steps over the threshold into its Lond century of organized existence under the Constitution and that weak but wisely ordered young nation that looked undauntedly down the first c-ntury, when all its years stretched out before It. Our Sople will not fail at this time to recall the incidents which accompanl^l the institution of government under the Constitution or to im" BENJAMIN HARRISON 193 find inspiration and guidance in the teachings and example of Washing- ton and his great associates, and hope and courage in the contrast which thirty-eight populous and prosperous States offer to the thirteen States, weak in everything except courage and the love of liberty, that then fringed our Atlantic seaboard Let us exalt patriotism and moderate party contention. Let those who would die for the flag on the field of battle give a better proof of their patriotism and a higher glory to their country by promoting fraternity and justice. A party success that is achieved by unfair methods or by practices that partake of revolution is huitful and evanescent, even from a party standpoint. We should hold our differing opinions in mutual respect, and, haying submitted them to the arbitrament of the ballot, should accept an adverse judgment with the same respect that we would have demanded of our opponents if the decision had been in our favor. No other people have a government more worthy of respect and love, or a ;-nd so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon, and so full of geaftrous suggestion to enterprise and labor. God has placed upon our head a diadem, and has laid at our feet power and wealth beyond defini- tion or calculation. But we must not forget that we take these gifts upon the condition that justice and mercy shall hold the reins of power, and that the upward avenues of hope shall be free to all the people. I do not mistrust the future. Dangers have been in frequent ambush along our path, but we have uncovered and vanquished them all. Pas- sion has swept some of our communities, but only to give us a new demonstration that the great body of our people are stable, patriotic, and law-abiding. No political party can long pursue advantage at the expense of public honor or by rude and indecent methods, without protest and fatal disaffection in its own body. The peaceful agencies of com- merce are more fully revealing the necessary unity of all our communi- ties, and the increasing intercourse oi our people is promoting mutual respect. We shall find unalloyed pleasure in the revelation which our next census will make of the swift development of the great resources of some of the States. Each State will bring its generous contribution to the great aggregate of the nation's increase. And when the harvests from the fields, the catUe from the hills, and the ores from the earth shall have been weighed, counted and valued, we will turn from them all to crown with the highest honor the State that has most promoted education, virtue, justice, and patriotism among its people. \1 ¥; lii 1» WILLIAM McKINLEY(J843490J) THE ELOQUENT EXPONENT OF THE AMFJilCAN TAHIFF mX 1865 Abraham Lincoln, forty clays aft.v Ins socond niaugura- tion as President of the United States, fell the victnn of an assassiM's bullet. In 1881, James A. Garfield, four months alter his first inauguration as President, met with a similar fate. In 1901 William McKinlev, six months after his second inauguration, also fell before the fatal bullet of the assassin. It is a singular fact that the United States, the home of liberty, should have suffered ni this way more severely than any of the homes of monarchy b«>yond the seas. Id the case of McKinlev there was far less incitement to the murder- ous act than in those of Lincoln and Garfiel.l, whose violent deaths were due to the passions excited by war and reform. But McKinley fell ill a time of peace and great prosperity, with scarcely a personal enemy in the whole great republic, and when present at a celebration typical of the vast advance of civilization in America. He fell the victim of a horde of insensate assassins, without home or country, and with no creed but that of death to rulers, whether they be the auto- crats of empires or the elected executives of republics. Virtue and benevolence are no safeguards against such hands, and men supreme in honor and goodness have no better security than those superior only in vice and oppression. William McKinley was a native of Ohio, a regiment of which State he entered as a private in the Civil War, rising in rank to the grade of brevet major by tlie end of the war. Taking afterward an active part in Republican politics, he was elected to Congress, w^ere he became noted as a leading advocp' . of protective tariff. His ettorts ltd to the high tariff bill of 1890, which is known by his name. He was subsequently Governor of Oluo, and was nominated and elected 194 3 r WILLIAM Mckinley ,pj President of the United States in I89fi. and again in 1900, the Spanish American War and the Philii.pine insurrection n.aking his a'innnis tration a notahly exciting one. The fulal .h-o.l xvi:i(h dosed his ctrocr tool, place during a visit to the Pan-AnuMic.-m i:x,K.sition at Buffalo, JV. i ., death coming to him on Septenihcr 14, litOl, u voek after the anarchist's deadly act. THE AGENCIES OF MODERN PROSPERITY H.n. M v-^?'Tr" ^'. '""• *''" ''"^ ^'^''"' •-'' f'*'--'' ^^"""d was received Prcsi- dent McK.nley dclucrcd before a„ assembled multitude at Ih. Buffalo "position .„ address wh,ch attracted attcnfon throughout the nation, alike fron. the Xt ^t U washis final one and that it suggested the growing need „f a change in the tariff policy wh.ch he had for n.any years upheld. In view of these facts we g ve here th! salient points of this significant and interesting address.] Expositions are the timekeepers of progress. They record the world's advancement. They stimulate the energy, enterprise and intellect of tie people, and qmcken human genius. They go into the home. They broaden and bnghten the daily life of the people. They open mij^hty sto ehouses of mfornatton to the student. Every exposition, grea^ or small has helped to some onward step. Comparison of ideas is always educational, and as such instructs the brain and hand of man Friend[v rivalry follows, which is the spur to industrial improvement, the inspira^ tion to useful mvention and to high endeavor in all departments of human acuvtty. t exacts a study of the wants, comforts, and even the Tms wif tldTw' ""'"^" ^'^ ^"^'^^^^ "' ''^' '^"'^"'^ -^ "- P"-" The quest for trade is an incentive to men of business to devise invent improve and economize in the cost of production. Btisiness life whether amongourseh.es. or with other people, is ever a sharp struggle f^r u " cess. It will be none the less so in the future. Withotit competition we would be chnging to the clumsy and antiquated processes ofTarm n" and manufacture and the methods of business of long a-^o and he twin tjeth would be no further advanced than the eightelitl "c tu y B " though commercial competitors we are. commercial enemies .ve ^ After all. how near one to the other is every part of the world Modern inventions have brought into close relationTvidely separate! no-" Pl^and made them better acquainted. Geographic and political d^sL" ^111 continue to exist, but distances have been effaced. Swift ship a"d fast trains are becoming cosmopolitan. They invade fields wh ch a few years ago were impenetrable. The world's products are exchanged 1 M ;'' (I ■j »- I! jj^ WILLIAM McKINLEY u <• «„^ «,5th increasing transportation facilities come increasing Isolation IS no longer possible or ^^"f ^^•,;;^^^'^;"'ii pj^^.^en- news is read, though in - ^-""^'^''"^foZl "i* » «'^^' SC.S t" " S .t^S^i&a ^ .^ ...a . u».y or ,>.ace bad been signed. How aiff"'"' °°" ' ^ ^^ „„ „„, . „„» of A. ,l,e beginning of .he "■»«7^^; ° "^^.t,!^ X .o «ake it, s,e.„, railroad on the g^obe. N"" *- « J,„^ ^„f ..^^c telegraph; circuit many times. Then tuete was n „„„ we have a v,u,t mileage traversmg »" •»* ^^j'^"!., t, Mlffer- man have lin.ed <-^l^":::::fXo.l::^T>^^°'i'' <-'■ "'•' -roS:.t;essrasi:nr.he„ror^,s„ndey.^^^^^^^^ „e disposition, wl.n we ;»7„f,t'::S'n^^„r'rS. „™iona, dilutes, arbitration, the noblest form for the settletnent My feliow-citUens, '»^;«»'-- ^'^l^'^: ^losTa^.l Jg. They state of unexampled prosperuy^ The hg>"^" ^ ^ ^„ „, sbow that «e are nt,li.ing our fields »■ ^ for-t» ^^'^ "^ » J „„ii„g„en „„ fnmishing 7»-*-'r»g^;»clLTa:d happiness to'their tZ£Z ta^rg't ^S;"'Tay1.y saWngs for old age and dis- ^^'"?b.t all the people are P--Pa.i- » ;h» ^l^^^^. L'S^d^*>:or:Sui' o".r U .s the care and secuHt, WILLIAM McKINLBY NT of these deposits, and their safe investment demands the high>.-st integrity and the best business capacity of those in charge of these depositories of the people's earnings. We have a vast and intricate business, built up through years of toil and struggle, in which every part of the country h:is its stake, which will not permit of either neglect or undue selfishness. No narrow, sordid policy will subserve it. The greatest skill and wisdom on the part of manufacturers and producers will be required to hold and increase it. Our industrial enterprises, which have grown to such great proportions, affect the homes and occupations of the people and the welfare of the country. Our capacity to produce has developetl so enormously, and our pro- ducts have so multiplied, that the problem of more markets requires our urgent and immediate attention. Only a broad and enlightened policy will keep what we have. No other policy will get more. In these times of marvelous business energy and gain we ought to be looking to the future, strengthening the weak places in our industrial and cotnmercial systems, that we may be ready for any storm or strain. By sensible trade arrangements which will not interrupt our home production we shall extend the outlet for our increasing surplus. A sys- tem which provides a mutual exchange of commodities is manifestly essential to the continued and healthful growth of our export trade. We must not repose in fancied security that we can forever sell everything and buy little or nothing. If such a thing were possible it would not be best for us, or for those with whom we deal. We should take from our cus- tomers such of their products as we can use without harm to our indus- tries and labor. Reciprocity is the natural outgrowth of our wonderful industrial development under the domestic policy now firmly established. What we produce beyond our domestic consumption must have a vent abroad. The excess must be relieved through a foreign outlet, and we should sell every- where we can and buy wherever the buying will enlarge our sales and productions, and thereby make a greater demand for home labor. The period of exclusiveness Is past. The expansion of our trade and commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial wars are unprofit- able. A policy of good will and friendly trade relations will prevent reprisals. Reciprocicy treaties are in harmony with the spirit of the times ; measures of retaliation are not. If, perchance, some of our tariffs are no longer needed for revenue or to encourage and protect our indus- tries at home, why should they not be employed to extend and promote our markets abroad? Then, too, we have inadequate steamship service. r " / v\ jj^ WILLIAM McKINLEY New lines of steamers have already been put into commission between The Pacific Coast ports of the United States and those on the western oas^of Mexico and Central and South America. These should be fol^ foTt!l up with direct steamship lines between the eastern coast of the United States and South American ports. On; of the needs of the time, is direct commercial lines from our vast fields of production to the fields of consumption that ^^ ,^ave but bardy touched Next in advantage to having the thi .g to sell .s to Ije U- convenience to carry it to the buyer. We must encourage our mer- h n -Line. We^must have n,ore ships. They must be unc^r ^he American flag, built and manned and owned by ^"-"--^ T^'^^J^^f not only be profitable i,i a commercial sense ; they wdl be messengers of neace and amity wherever they go. ^ W^ must La the Isthnuan Canal, which will unite the two oceans and give a straight line of water communication with the western coasts of Central and South America anook- agent. His adopted profession was that of tiie law, in which he became an advocate in many im jwrtant cases in the courts of Indiana. While still a boy, he had sliowii himself a ready .ind eloquent s{M?aker in col- lege contests, and ho now enjployed his skill in oratory in the fie: 1 of Republican iK)litics, winning so higii a {H)sition in his party as to be eU-cted to the Senate from Indiana for the term beginning March, 18<>9. In the summer of 1899, Mr. Beveridge visited Eastern Asia, where he made a tiiorough study of the relations of the Ru.^sians and Chinese in Manchuria, his observations leading to a .series of illumin- ating letters which throw new light upon the position and purposes of Russia in Asia. EULOGY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY [At the meeting of the National League of Republican Clubs, held at Chicago in October, 1902, Senator Beveridge made a brief but telling speech, than which we can offer no more characteristic example of his style of oratory. Its occasion gave the cue to its character, which is that of an ardent eulogy of the Republican party, of whose principles Mr. Beveridge is an earnest advocate.] Young blood is Republican blood. It is the blood that believes and builds : the blood of faith and hope and deeds. That is why there is no 19^ 1 'a I .1 I f (I t '1 if — ^ ALBERT J. BEVERIDOB political home for Young American, ""P^l" ''; t'^'^'^'rht; d^ n^ Voinv, American, are »>«lieverH in the ReptibhCH future. They do not think that all the great work has l)een done. Ln.t vear the Superintendent of a great railway system »»>•» «"»"• Chic.Kc^him,elf a penniless, friendless boy who started as a fre.ght handler at so cents a day. and who is now only 5o years of age-told me tlmt nu- :,g\he ,0.000 n.en under him he was searching for an Ass.stan Sup.nna.mlente.,ual to the work required. Said he: " The question « not Shall I take Brown or anes or Smith ? The question is. Where is the man '- And that is the question which industry and politics and religion and all the world has asked since the dawn of history, and never asked so earnestly as to-day. ' Where is the man ?• asks mo« his justiiicatiou. When William McKinley'n name remains hut a beautiful nu inory, and his internal • >unselH kImII have lost their interest uiuler chutiging conditions, the cini', and that preparetlness has found its task. The Republic's opportunity is as noble as itsstengtli, and that opportunity is here. The Republic's duty is as sacred as its oppor- tunity i-i real, and Americans never desert their duty. The Republic could not retreat if it would; whatever its destiny it must proceed. For the American Republic is a part of the movement of a race — the most masterful race of history — and race movements are not to be stayed by the hand of man. They are mighty answers to Divine commands. Their leaders are not only statesmen of peoples — they are prophets of God. The inherent tendencies of a race are its highest law. Tiitv precetle and survive all statutes, all constitutions. The first ques- tion real statesmanship asks is; What are the abiding characteristics of my people? From that basis all reasoning may lie natural and true. From any other basis all reasoning must be artificial and false. The sovereign tendencies of our race are organization and govern- ment. We govern so well that we govern ourselves. We organize by instinct. Under the flag of England our race builds an empire out of the ends of earth. In Australia it is to-day erecting a nation out of fragments. In America it wove out of segregated settlements that complex and won- derful organization, called the American Republic. Everywhere it builds. Everywhere it governs. Everywhere it administers order and law. Every- where it is the spirit of regulated liberty. Everywhere it obeys that voice not to be denied which bids us strive and rest not, makes of us our brother's keeper and appoints us steward under God of the civilization of the world. Organization means growth. Government means administration. When Washington pleaded with the States to organize into a consolidated people, he was the advocate of perpetual growth. When Abraham Lincoln argued for the indivisibility of the Republic he became the prophet of the i n i\ II \ 111 202 ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE Greater Republic. And when they did both, they were but the inter- preters of the tendencies of the race What of luiglaiid? England's immortal glory is not Agincourt or Waterloo. It is not her merchandise or commerce. It is Australia, New Zealand and Africa reclaimed. It is India redeemed. It is Egypt, mummy of the nations, touched into modern life. England's imperishable renown is in English science throttling the plague in Calcutta. English law administering order in Bombay. English energy planting an indus- trial civilization from Cairo to the Cape, and English discipline creating soldiers, men and finally citizens, perhaps, even out of the fellaheen of the dead land of the Pharaohs. And yet the liberties of Englishmen were never so secure as now. Anc' that which is England's undying fame has also been her infinite profit, so sure is duty golden in the end. And what of America ? With the twentieth century the real task and true life of the Republic begins. And we are prepared. We have learned restraint from a hundred years of self-control. We are instructed by the experience of others. We are advised and inspired by present example. And our work awaits us. The dominant notes in A.nerican history h.ive thus far been self-gov- ernment and internal improvement. But these were not ends only, they were means also. They were modes of preparation. The dominant notes in American life henceforth will he not only self-government and internal development, but also administration and world improvement. It is the arduous but splendid mission of our race. It is ours to govern in the name of civilized liberty. It is ours to administer order and law in the nrme of human progress. It is ours to chasten that we may be kind, it is ours to cleanse that we may save, it is ours to build that free institutions may finally enter and abide. It is ours to bear the torch of Christianity where midnight has reigned a thousand years. It is ours to reinforce that thin red line which constitutes the outposts of civilization all around the world. JOSEPH H. CHOATii l662 THE DISTINGUISHED BEARER OF A FAMOUS NAME lUFUS CnOATE, the greatest of Amorit-in l(>-";*';'•,;',:;' ,.,.a, .„,i hi» :;::;;;: ':;;;il;;-rt;;r:.Sua";'c .- -.»»• «. N„.a, ..a South into a closer union. THE NEW SOUTH true address, fro. the Cosing p.rt of ^'^^cU .e "fTer^ s^^^^^^^^^^ -/^^'^-^^ in :887, at the annual banquet of the New ^"f '^ J^^^'^^^ ^J^fupon topics of national '208 1 s i ■I HENRY W. GRADY 207 ideas and aspirations. It is to this that I address myself. You have just heard an eloquent description of the triumphant armies of the North, aiul the grand review at Washington . I ask you , gentlemen , to picture, if you can, the foot-sore soldier who, buttoning up in his faded gray jacket the parole which was taken, testimony to his children of his fidelity and faith. turned his face southward from Appomattox in April, 1865 Think of him as ragged, half-starved, heavy-hearted, enfeebled by want and wounds. Having fought to exhaustion, he surrenders his gun, wrings the hands of his comrades, and, lifting his tear stained and pallid face for the last time to the graves that dot the old Virginia hills, pulls his gray cap over his brow and begins the slow and painful journey. What does he find ?— let me ask you, who went to your homes eager to find all the welcome you had justly earned, full payment for four years' sacrifice— what does he find, when he reaches the home he left four years before ? He finds his home in ruins, his farm devastated, his slaves freed, his stock killed, his barns empty, his trade destroyed, his money worthless, his social system, feudal in its magnificence, swept awsy, his people without law or legal status, his comrades slain, and the burdens of others heavy on his shoulders. Crushed by defeat, his very traditions gone, without money, credit, employment, material, or training ; and, besides all this, confronted with the gravest problem that ever met human intelligence-^ the establishing of a status for the vast body of his liberated slaves. What does he do— this hero in gray with a heart of gold— does he sit down in sullenness and despair? Not for a day. Surely, God, who had scourged him in his prosperity, inspired him in his adversity ! As ruin was never before so overwhelming, never was restoration swifter. The soldiers stepped from the trenches into the furrow ; the horses that had charged upon General Sherman's line marched before the plow, and fields that ran red with human blood in April were green with the har- vest in June. From the ashes left us in 1864, we have raised a brave and beautiful city ; and, somehow or other, we have caught the sunshine in the bricks and mortar of our homes and have builded therein not one single ignoble prejudice or memory. It is a rare privilege, sir, to have had part, however humble, in this work. Never was nobler duty confided to human hands than the uplifting and upbuilding of the prostrate South— misguided, perhaps, but beautiful in her suffering, and honest, brave, and generous always. On the record of her social, industrial, and political restoration we await with confidence the verdict of the world. The old South rested everything on slavery and agriculture, uncon- scious that these could neither give nor maintain healthy growth. The li h pi' II HENRY W. GRADY "^ ti,^ oliearchs leading in the MDular movcn.uu-a socal >.>»»>" =»"V ^„„arec ag^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ The new South is --0^^;^ f, ;Uer day is falling fair m b^^_ -^ .he stands -^--ed and e^a^o^ - P^S t^^ - breu'hing the keen air and looking °^ J^ ^^^^^ i„\i,e inscrutable m.- u deltands that her emancipatio.. came becaus^ ^^^^^ armies were aom of God her honest purpose ^^^^ and apology. The South „.aten. This is said in no ^P^^^ ^T^, \"uch she has excuses to make, has nothing to take back; ^^^'^^^Jlm.ni that crowns its central hdls- In my native town of Athens i ^ -;"^";;;.^ • ,ides is a name dear to tne a plain white shafl. Deep cut "^ «^ ^ :^"^ J ,i,„pie man who died m .bove the names of men. that of -^2^^;,^^ J ^^ew England, from lave and simple faith. Not for all the g ^^^ ^^^^.^^^^ ^^ ^^,^ ^, ,„ Plymouth Rock all the way, ^^»"^;^ "J^.^ I,, ^-^adow of that memory ,L patriot's death. But, sir. ^P-^- ^ f 1^^ , ^^^ .^at the cause in which :rulhIhoiiorasldonot .^g-^;-^^^ by higher and he suffered and for which he g^ve ^^^^ ^^^ ommscient.God Ller wisdom ^^^^^-::^^r;^..^ and that the American -t:r:^::S^rpn^-:^^ WhenOener. tuh ^ur strength, renewed ^ ^^^^^^^ ^^rf^^^^ Tattox. he spoke *— ,^-;^^^^'^f^:f p™,n that day to this. Hamilcar honest man from Maryland to ^^^^^^^ ^ ,^ hatred and vengeance ha nowhere in the South sworn y-^^ «ann ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^.^^ ^ ,, _!but everywhere to loyalty and to love v ^^ ^^.^ comrades, ;; base of a Confederate ^^^:^^, the young men about his empty sleeve tossing in the ^P^^-^.^^^^^ J government against which h m to serve as honest and loyal -^'^^"^'J,^^^ ^h^t sacred presence Zn fathers fought. This ^S^'^twsT And. sir. I declare here if has gone home to the hearts of "'^ J^^^^n aspirations, that they would 4 4 B HENRY CABOT LODGE (1850 - HISTORIAN, ORATOR .\ND STATESMAN |0R many veal's the name of Ilcniv C'ahot Lodge has been known to the Ainoriean imhlic as tliatot'a veisatile ami ahlo liistoriaii, on the suhjeets of Knghsh and Anieriean history. Some of Ids books are, " Land-Law of tlie An>,do-Saxons," "English Colonies in America," "Studies in History," and "The Spanish-American War." lie was also the well known editor, for a number of year.-, of the "North American Review," and the "International Review." Ilf lias long been a prominent political orator in Massachusetts, and wasekrted to Congress in 18S7. In 1893 he was elected to tiie rniicd States Scnat<', in which ho still aljly represents Mas.sachusets by oraloiy and states- manship. Senator Lodge long since made his mark as a learned, graceful and eloquent speaker, and a statesman of exalted character. A PARTY ON LIVE ISSUES [In the Republican N.itional Convention of 1900, Sen.itor Lodge was chosen as permanent chairman, ana delivered a powerful and impressive speech, in which he specially dwelt upon the work of the Republican party during the preceding four years of the McKinley administration. We give some illuitrative extracts from this address.] We promised to deal with the Cuban question. We have done so. The long agony of the island is over. Cuba is free. But this great work brought with it events and issues which no man had foreseen, for which no party creed had provided a policy. The crisis came, bringing war in its train. The Republican President and the Republican Congress met the new trial in the old spirit. We fought the war with Spain. The result is history known of all men. We have the perspective now of only a short two years, and yet how clear and bright the great facts stand out, like mountain peaks against the sky, while the gathering dark .ss of a just oblivion is creeping fast over the low grounds where lie forgotten the 14 . 209 !l 1\^ 1-^ 11 i| HENRY CABOT LODGE these ereat facts : victories and no defeats, with 'a war of a hundred d^y^- ^^^ ™J/, Zf^, with a triumphant out- no prisoners taken from us and no ^^^ f j^'^J^rtk-wide meaning. Was come startling in its completen-s and > ^ - ^^^^ ^^ everawarmorejustlyenteredupon nK,r J J^.,^ j^,, ^een driven from „,ore thorough - its/esults? ^uba « ^ ^J^ to our arms and crowned the Western Hemisphere P;^^/J°^^^ri,a„ people, but the Republican Ir flag. It was the work of^^e Africa J ^.P^^ ^^ ^^^ '^:Z tllytrA^aham Uncoln. we have fought a good fight, retepttet^. we have ^^^^^:, ..xander. It cuts Uie War, however. >^ ^^^^ i'^f'rin'^any results not to be foreseen^ knots. It is a great f -"V^;^^,";^ "m in hours the work o years o The world forces unchained m war pert ^^ ^^ ^^^^^ The auiet. Spain sued for peace, ^"f^^;""' ' i,en by the President of the an wer to this great question had to ^^ g'^^^/^^ rj.o. in the Philip- S States. We were -ctonous in Cuba, in ^ ^^^^^ , ^^ was again the answer. Would our F ^^^ .^^^^^^ ^^^,, ,,e had Tubmitted to any other reply ?Sbould^e^^^^^^^ ^^ ^f P^^C destroyed all existing s^^'^'^ff'^'^^M^f gome other nation? Agamthe aJmitic anarchy and the ^^^^^^^^^^ :Z:^ as the nation he repre- Lvitable negative. Agamthe Presid^^^ ^^^ .^^^^^^ . ^^^ .^em inted would have him -"«-". J^p^tSuity ; took them from a deep knowing well the burden ^""^ '^^'"^^^"^^ L a just foresight as to our sen^of dutv to ourselves and « l^^'^^' f^'*^f °^, ,tuity of the American futSe in the East, and with entire f«'^ »" ^^^^^^ conventions point to people to grapple with the -^-^- J^ -ade history, they will pro- the deeds by which the Republican party Administration the claim with especial ^^^^^l^^t ^J.i.^. Spain was the work of war of 1898 was fought, and that P William McKinley. are proud of it, but we do not expect to live So much for the past, ^^^^^/'".eminently the party of action, and upon it. for the Republican party is pre ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^ , ^o Z march is ever fo-ard W are -^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ,^y, f ^ur party are ^ Z 1 .Tn^rU?: ^gJven to the American people that we HENRY CABOT LODGE 211 ■s S J not be unworthy of the great leaders who hr'.ve gone. The deeds of yes- terday a e in their turn a proof that what we promise we perform, aud that th»r oplewhoput faith in our declarations in 1S96 were not deceived, and may place the same trust ii. us in n)<:>o. But our pathway has never lain among dead issues, nor have we won our victories and made history by delving into political graveyards. We are the party of to-day, with cheerful yesterdays and confident to-morrows. The living present is ours, the present of prosperity and activity in business, of good wages and quick payments, of labor employed and cajata! invested, of sunshine in the market place, and the stir of abounding life in the workshop and on the farm. It is with this that we have replaced the depression, the doubts, the dull business, the low wages, the idle labor, the frightened capuil. the dark clouds which overhung industry and agriculture in 1896. This is what we would preserve, so far as sound government and wise legisla- tion can do it. This is what we brought to the countrj' four years ago. This is what we offer now. Again we promise that the protective system shall be maintained, and that our great industrial interests shall go on their way unshaken by the dire fear of tariff agitation and of changing duties. Again we declare that we will guard the national credit, uphold a sound currency based on gold, and keep the vages of the workingman and the enterprise of the man of business free from that most deadly of all evils, a fluctuating standard of value. The deficit which made this great country in a time of profound peace a borrower of money to meet its current expenditures has been replaced by abundant revenues, bringing a surplus, due alike to prosperity and to wise legislation, so ample that we can now safely promise a large reduction of taxation without imperiling our credit or risking a resort to loans It is on these facts that we shall ask for the support of the American people. What we have done is known , and about what we intend to do there is neither secrecy nor deception. What we promise we will perform. Our old policies are here, alive, successful and full of vigor. Our new policies have been begun, and for them we ask support. When the clouds of im- pending civil war hung dark over the countrj' in 1 86 1 , we took up the great task then laid upon us, and never flinched until we had carried it through to victory. Now, at the dawn of a new century, with new policies and new opportunities opening before us in the bright sunshine of prosperity, we again ask the American people to entrust us with their future. We have profound faith in the people. We do not distrust their capacity of meeting the new responsibilities, even as they met the old, and we shall await with confidence, under the leadership of William McKinley, the verdict of November. u ^ . I 1 r lOSEPH B. FORAKER (1846 ) OHIO'S POPULAR ORATOR STATESMAN ^='"--r^-T:;;;::;re;:::';:;it:;r^-S at Conu.!! in IS... Aao,tu., "-^"f;^^^^ ,: ^,,/su,H.rior Court at Cincinnati. 1U> Wean... .a. y l- ^, ^^^^^ ^,^! ^, ^^^ _._^^^^, ^^^ tieian a.i.l orator, an.l ran .mr nu- -^ ^ ,897 he vvass.nt Ohio. H----r'-^;'':':;,i::;'t ln.io. In the U.,.uhliean THE UNITED STATES UNDER Mckinley ing illustrative example] ... one e.. of tUe W . t.e o^ in ev^^- ^^^^ speak for him here or el^e,vhere. He ha^ a^^^^^ achievements, a to all the world. He has a J-« ^^^^^^^^^'^ ,„d highest eulogy. It record that speaks at once both his perfoma ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ comprehends both peace and ^var. and con. 1212 JOSEPH B. FORAKBR SIS "5 illustration possible of triumphunt ami inspiring fidelity, and success in the discharge of public duty. Four years ago the American people confidwl to him their highest and mcsi sacred trust. Behold, with what rtsults. FI- r.,.nm\ the industries of the country paralyzed and prostrated ; he - reiuirements And it IS no exaggeration to say that in all American history there is no chap- ter more brilliant than that which chronicles, with him as our commander- in-chief, our victory on land and sea. In one hundred days we drove ^!Tn ^i'V'" ^^'""^^"^ Hemisphere, girded the earth with our acquisitions and filled the world with the splendor of our power .- The American name has a new and greater significance now. Our flag has a new glory. It not only symbolizes human liberty and political equality at home, but it means freedom and independence' for the lone sufifenng patriots of Cuba, and complete protection, education, enlighten ' inent. uphftmg and ultimate local self-government, and the enjoyment of all the blessings of liberty to the millions of Porto Rico and the PhUippiues t; ifi ill H. I M !'f 214 JOSEPH B PORAKER What we have so gloriously tlonc for ournelvcs we propose most gener- ously to (Ui for tlKin. W'v have so declared in the platform we have adopted. A littiiig place it is for this party to niake such a declaration. Here in this magniticent City of Philadelphia, where the evidences so at)ound of the rich blessings the Republican party has brought to the American people ; here at the birthplace of the nation, where our own Declaration of Independence was adopteemoerats n'fiiHi>d to vote on roll call, but Spaker Uccd noived the difficulty by counting enouy;h of them as '• present but not votinj;" to constitute a quorum. T!ie uproar was tremendous, the Democratic meml« is hotly protesting an and doing it with a vigor that knows no obstacles. Whether as a hunter on the western plains or in the Mississippi cane-brakes, a soldier in the Santiago cam- paign, a police couunissioner in the slums of New York, or President of the United States, his innate characteristic of streiuious activity displays itself, and if there is anything which Theodore Roosevelt cannot do, it is to let anything pass him without his having a hand in it. And with this j)hysical and mental, there goes the moral activity which is needed to make a fully-rounded man. Honesty of purpose and an elevated sense of public duty are leading features in his character. He may make mistakes; his passion for settling things may lead him into hasty and ill-advised acts ; but that he means well in every movement no one doubts, and his intelligent moral energy is worth an ocean of policy and exi>edienoy which have too often marked the careei-s of many leaders of public opinion in America and other countries. The true spirit of the Western civiliza- tiou has one of its fullest exemplars in Theodore Roosevelt. ( as THEODORE ROOSEVELT There is much that is remaricable in tlie recent story of Roosevelt's life. We find liiiii, wlien the Spanish-Amcriciin war broke out, roHi<,'ii- iiijf his |K).'- ited by Englisii-speaking peoples. No citizen of the Spanish-American republics seems to have won a world-wide reputation in this art. Thoujjh many of them may have breathed " words that burn," their thouj^hts have not llamed hii,di enough to be visible afar. In our selections, therefore, we are confmed to the two commonwealths, the United States and Canada. While the history of the former has been marked by great exigencies that called forth noble efforts of oratorical art, the sann; may be said of the latter. The history of the Dominion, indeed, has been wrought out with no such mighty conllicts as that of the slavery (piestion, leading to civil war ; but it has not passed without its conflicts, internal and e.xternal ; its strenuous struggles, which were none the less vital from being confined to [)arliamen- tary halls, were fought out by able statesmen and orators instead of by the herot^s o. c. i, tented field. Canada has its Union as has the United States, and it has had to withstand provincial feeling and threats of secession. It has had its bitterness of racial jeal- ousy, its insurrectionary outbreaks, its religious heart- burnings, its struggle between British and American tendencies and inlluences. Fortunately, the voice of the orator, the wise counsel of the statesman, have '.lealed these dissensions without recourse to harsher measures. An author of the Dominion says : "Can- ada only needs to be known in order to be great," and foremost among those who have helped to make her great are her orators. 227 \ I 1 JOSEPH HOWE (J 804- J 873) THE BRILLIANT ORATOR OF NOVA SCOTIA EOR mnny yenrs tlic niaritimo ]>rovin(o of No,.( Hiotia was tlie abiding jiluio of nu orator of fstriking ability i.n/i i»o\vt'r. Of JoK'pli Ilowe it is ju.>*tly Maid, " Noiio could touch him in eloquence, logic of argument, force of invective, or brilliancy of rhetoric, and it is a question if the Dominion has ever produced his ecjual in these resjK^cts." His ]>o,vers were most effectively shown in the merciless invective with which he assailed Sir Colin CanqilKll an* of arbitrary method." — fairly driv- ing them from the p-i^vince. In 1863, after long legislative service, Howe was made Prei.ucr of Nova Scotia. In the subseijuent Dominion confederation he led a movement of secession on the part of Nova Scotia, whose j)e()|)lc claimed tliat they had l^'cn carried into the Union by a trick and had been given no opiKjrtunity to vote on the act of Union. A compromise, by which Nova Scotia benefited, settled the difficulty, and Howe afterward sat in the Dominion Parliament. In 1873, the year of his death, he was made Lieutenunt-Clovernor of Nova Scotia. CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES [Asa favorable example of Howe's oratorical powers — not of the sarcasm and invective in which he excelled — we append the following elocjuent extract, in which is cle.irly shown the essential unity of race and purpose between the Dominion of Canada and the United States.] We are here to determine how best we can draw together, in the bonds of peace, friendship and commercial prosperity, the three great branches of the British family. In the presence of this great theme all petty interests should stand rebuked. We are not dealing with the con- cerns of a city, a province or a state, but with the future of our race in all time to come. 228 J. 1 JOSEPH JEFFERSON ACTOR AND ORATOR Joseph Jefferion Is not only a fjmous actor, but an eloijucnt !» Imprr)mptu speaker. He is famous for his part as •Rip Van i Winkle,' from Washington IrvlnRs (ireal Story. V I, ' ' 1 ♦ .1 JOSEPH HOWE 229 .3- 'I Why should not these three great branches of the family flourish, under different systems of government it may be, but forming one grand whole, proud of a common origin and of their advanced civilization ? The clover lifts its trefoil leaves to the evening dew, yet they draw their nourishment from a single stem. Thus distinct, and yet united, let us live and flourish. Why should we not ? For nearly two thousand years we were one family. Our fathers fought side by side at Hastings, and heard the curfew toll. They fought in the same ranks for the sepulchre of our Saviour. In the earlier and later civil wars, we can wear our white atid red roses without a blush, and glory in the principles those conflicts established. Our common ancestors won the great Charter and the Bill of Rights; established free Parliaments, the Habeas Corpus, and Trial by Jury. Our Jurisprudence comes down from Coke and Mansfield to Mar- shall and Story, rich in knowledge and experience which no man can divide. From Chaucer to Shakespeare our literature is a common inheri- tance. Tennyson and Longfellow write in one language, which is enriched by the genius developed on either side of the Atlantic. In the great nav- igators from Cortereal to Hudson, and in all their " moving accidents by flood and field," we have a comiiion interest. On this side of the sea we ha e been largely reinforced both by the Germans and French ; there is strength in botb elements. The Germans gave to us the sovereigns who established oui ireedom, and they give to you industry, intelligence and thrift; and the French, who have distin- guished themt^elves in arts and arms for centuries, now strengthen the Provinces which the fortune of war decided they could not control. But it may be said we have been divided by two wars. What then ? The noble St. Lawrence is split in two places— by Goat Island and Anti- costi — but it comes down to us from the same springs in the same moun- tain sides ; its waters sweep together past the pictured rocks of Lake Superior, and encircle in their loving embrace the shores of Huron and Michigan. They are divided at Niagara Falls as we were at the Revolu- tionary War, but they come together again on the peaceful bosom of Ontario. Again they are divided on their passage to the sea ; but who thinks of divisions when they lift the keels of commerce, or when, drawn up to heaven, they form the rainbow or the cloud? . . . . I see around the door the flags of the two countries. United as they are there, I would have them draped together, fold within fold, and let "Their varying tints unite, And form in Heaven's light, One arch of peace. ' ' \ i -2 SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD (J8J5-I89I) THE "PERPETUAL PREMIER " OF THE DOMINION jo other mnn h«s played so great a part in Canada as Sir John Alexander Maedonald, in a measure before and notably since the confederation of its provinces. It was the leading pur- I)Ose of his life to found on the vast Canadian domain a mighty and IK)vverful state, by tlie union of its jieoples and provinces, and this union he succeeded in accomplisliing. From 1844 to the end of his career he was the most conspicuous figure in the Canadinn As.-embly and the Dominion Parliament. The united Canada of to-day is very largely the fruit of his lalwi-s. The first government for the new Dominion was formed by hiai in 1867, and from that time until his death, with only a five yeai-s' intermission, he retained tiie premier- ship. Another of the great services which Canada owes to him is the Canadian Pacific Railway, one of the most magnificent engineering enterprises on the continent, which runs through some of the grandest scenery in the world, and which has aided wonderfully in cementing into one the far-separated members of the Dominion confederacy. THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON [The treaty of Washington, concluded in 1871, was the greatest diplomatic event in Macdonald's career. By it were settled the questions of the fisheries and various other subjects of acrimonious debate between the Dominion and the United States. In this Maedonald had to fight bis way not alone against the Washington diplomats, but also against his British colleagues, and it was with the greatest difficulty he obtained a treaty at all. On his return to Canada he was received as John Jay was in the United States after the treaty of 1794. Men called him a Judas Iscuriot and Benedict Arnold in one, and years passed before he received the credit he had well earned by his judicious and patriotic efforts. His speech before the Canadian Parlia- ment on this subject was the most eloquent ever heard from his lips. We give an extract from the peroration of this able address.] 230 it SIR JOHN MACDONALD 231 I shall now move the first reading of this bill, and I shall simply sum up my remarks by saying that with respect to the treaty I consider that every portion of it is unobjectionable to the country, unless the articles connected with the fisheries may be considered objectionable With respect to those articles. I ask this House fully and calmlv to consider the circumstances, and I believe, if they fully consider the situation, that they will say it is for the good of Canada that those articles should be ratified. Reject the treaty, and you do not get reciprocity ; reject the treaty, and you leave the fishermen of the Maritime Provinces at the mercy of the Americans ; reject the treaty, and you will leave the mer- chants engaged in that trade off from the American market : reject the treaty, and you will have a large annual expenditure in keeping up a marine police force to protect those fisheries, amounting to about $84 000 per annum ; reject the treaty, and you will have to call upon England to send her fleet and give you both her moral and physical support, although you will not adopt her policy; reject the treaty, and you will find that the bad feeling which formerly and until lately existed in the United States against England will be transferred to Canada ; that the United States will say and say justly: " Here, where two great nations like England and the United States have settled all their differences and all their quarrels upon a perpetual basis, these happy results are to be frus- trated and endangered by the Canadian people, because they have not got the value of their fish for ten years. ' ' It has been said by the honorable gentleman on my left (Mr Howe) in hisspmrh to tne Voung Men's Christian Association, that England had sacrificed the interests of Canada. If England has sacrificed the interests of Canada, what sacrifice has she not made in the cause of peace > Has she not for the sake of peace between these two great nations, ren- dered herself liable, leaving out all indirect claims, to pay millions out of her own treasury ? Has she not made all this sacrifice, which only Eng- lishmen and English statesmen know, for the sake of peace-and for whose sake has she made it? Has she not made it principally for the sake of Canada ? Let Canada be severed from England, let England not be responsible to us, and for us. and what could the United States do to England ? Let England withdraw herself into her shell, and what can the United States do? England has got the supremacy of the sea-she is nnpregnable in every point but one, and that point is Canada; and if England does call on us to make a financial sacrifice ; does find it for the good of the empire that we, England's first colony, should sacrifice some- thing : I say that we would be unworthy of our proud position if we were not prepared to do so. \'§ \ I 232 SIR JOHN MACDONALD z £ I hope to live to see the day, and if I do not that my son may be spared to see Canada the rii^ht arm of England, to see Canada a powerful auxiliary to the empire,— not as uow a cause of anxiety and a source of danger. And I think that if we are worthy to hold that position ss the right arm of England, we should not object to a sacrifice of this kind when so great an object is attained, and the object is a great and lasting one. It is said that amities between nations cannot be perpetual ; but I say that this treaty, which has gone through so many difficulties and dan- gers, if it is carried into effect, removes almost all possibility of war. If ever there was an irritating cause of war, it was from the occurrences aris- ing out of the escape of those vessels, and when we see the United States people and Government forget this irritation, forget those occurrences, and submit such a question to arbitration, to the arbitration of a disin- terested tribunal, they have established a principle which cau never be forgotten in this world. No future question is ever likely to arise that will cause such irritation as the escape of the Alabama did, and if they could be got to agree to leave such a matter to the peaceful arbitrament of a friendly power, what future cause ot quarrel can, in the imagination of man, occur that will not bear the same pacific solution that is sought for in this ? I believe that this treaty is an epoch in the history of civiliza- tion ; that it will set an example to the wide world that must be followed ; and with the growth of the great Anglo-Saxon family, and with the development of that mighty nation to the south of us, I believe that the principle of arbitration will be advocated and adopted as the sole princi- ple of settlement of differences between the English-speaking peoples, and that it will have a moral influence on the world. ^-^^ GEORGE BROWN (J8I8-I880) JOURNALIST, STATESMAN AND DIPLOMAT DIKE many of tlie Canadian loaders, George Brown was horn on the island of Great Britain, Edinburgh being his naial home. He beeame a journalist in New York in 1838, and from there drifted to Canada, where, in 1844, he founded the Toronto Gfobe. Of this he remained the proprietor until his death, which was due to a wound received from a discharged employee of the paper. Brown's legislative career k^gan in the Parliament of Upper Canada, of which for a short time in 18-57 he was the premier. In 187.3 he was elected to the Dominion Senate, and in the following year served at Wasii- ington as a pleniiwtentiary from Canada. Politically he was one of the principal leaders of the Reform or Liberal party, whose principles he advocat'^d with voice and pen. THE GREATNESS AND DESTINY OF CANADA [Hopkins's " Story of the Dotniniou " in speaking of the conference of the " Fathers of Confederation " at Quebec, in 1S64, tells us that " George Brown, the energetic, forceful personality, the honest lover of his countrj-, the bitter antagonist of French or Catholic supremacy in its affkirs, was present vith a sincere desire to advance the cause of union which, for some years, he had been most earnestly advo- cating." We give the forceful peroration of his speech before the Canadian Parlia- ment on this important subject.] One hundred years have passed away since the conquest of Quebec, but here we sit, the children of the victor and the vanquished, all avow- ing hearty attachment to the British Crown, all earnestly deliberating how we shall best extend the blessings of British institutions ; how a great people may be established on this continent, in close and hearty connec- tion with Great Britain. Where, sir, in the page of history, shall we find a parallel to this ? Will it not stand as an imperishable '■lonument to the generosity of British rule ? And it is not in Canada alone that this scene 233 •SM GEORGE BROWN has f)een witnessed. Four other colonies are at this moment occupied as we are-declaring their hearty love for the parent State, and deliberating with us how they may l»st discharge the great duty entrusted to their hands, and give their aid in developing the teeming resources of tliese vast possessions. And well, Mr. Speaker, may the work we have unitedly proposed rouse the ambition and energy of every true man in British America Look, sir, at the map of the continent of America. Newfoundland com- manding the mouth of the nol,le river that almost cuts our continent in twain, is equal i- e.xtent to the Kingdom of Portugal. Cross the straits to the mainlands and you touch the hospitable shores of Nova Scotia a country as large as the Kingdom of Greece. Then mark the sister Prov- ince of New Brunswick-equal to Denmark and Switzerland combined Pass up the St. Lawrence to Lower Canada— a country as large as France Pass on to Upper Canada— twenty thousand square miles larger than Great Britain and Ireland put together. Cross over the continent to the shores of the Pacific, and you are in Hritish Columbia, the land of golden promise— equal in extent to the Austrian Empire. I speak not now of the vast Indian territories that lie between, greater in extent than the whole soil of Russia ; and that will, ere long, I trust, be opened up to civilization, under the auspices of tlie British American Confederation Well, sir, the bold scheme in your hands is nothing less than to gather all these countries into out- ; to organize them under one government with the protection of the British Hag, and in heartiest sympatliy and affection with our fellow-subjects in the land that gave us birth. Our scheme is to establish a government that will seek to turn the tide of emigration into this northern half of the American continent ; that will strive to develop its great national resources, and that will endeavor to maintain liberty and justice, and Christianity throughout the land. ' What we propose now is but to lay the foundations of the structure to set in motion the governmental machinery that will, one day we trust' extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And we take especial' credit to ourselves that the system we have devised, while admirablv adapteH to our present situation, is capable of gradual and efficient expansion in future years to meet all the purposes contemplated by our scheme. But if hon- orable gentlemen will recall to mind that when the United States seceded from the mother country, and for many years afterwards, their population was not nearly equal to ours at the present moment, that their internal improvements did not then approach to what we have already attained and that their trade and commerce w.is not a third of what ours has already reached, I think they will see that the fulfilment of our hopes may OBOROB BROWN 23o 'i '# not be so very remote as at first sight might be imagined. And they will be strengthened in that conviction, if they remember that what we propose to do is to be done with the cordial sympathy and assistance of that great Power of which it is our happiness to form a part. And said I not rightly, Mr. Speaker, that such a scheme is well fitted to fire the ambition and rouse the energy of every member of this House ? Does it not lift us above the petty politics of the past, and present to us high purposes and great interests, that may well call forth all the intellectual ability, and all the energy and enterprise to be found among us ? Sir, the future destiny of these great Provinces may be affected, by the decision we are about to give, to an extent which at this moment we may be unable to estimate. But assuredly the welfare, for many years, of four millions of people hangs on our decision. Shall we then rise equal to the occasion ? Shall we approach this discussion without partisan- ship, and free from every personal feeling but the earnest resolution to discharge, conscientiously, the duty which an overruling Providence has placed upon us ? Sir, it may be that some among us may live to see the day when, as the result of this measure, a great and powerful people shall have grown up in these lands ; when the boundless forest all around us shall have given way to smiling fields and thriving towns, and when one united government, under the British flag, shall extend from shore to shore ; but who could desire to see that day, if he could not recall with satisfaction the part he took in this discussion ? Mr. Speaker, I have done. I leave the subject to the conscientious judgment of the House, in the confident expectation and belief that the decision it will render will be worthy of the Parliament of Canada. \n ittl !■ \li s :i NICHOLAS FLOOD DAVIN (J843-J90J) EDITOR, AUTHOR AND ORATOR elCHOLAS F. DAVI.V, connected in liis later years with the journalism of Assinilwia, owed his birth to Ireland, while his early career, as a lawyer and journalist, was spent in London. Durin)^ the Franco-(iernian War he siTved as war corresi>ondent for the Irinh Tlmcx and the Lonilon JSIuiidard. Seckinfj Canada, he was called to the Ontario har in 1874, and later to that of the Northwest province, l)eing created Queen's Counsel by the YaitI of Derby in 1890. In 189.3, he established at Regina the Leader, the pioneer newspaper of Assinilwia. His jKJwers as an orator made liim promi- nent in i>olitical life, and from 1887 to 1890 he represented Assini- boiu in the Dominion House of Commons, being noted as one of the most scholarly men in that body. THE BRITISH COLONIAL EMPIRE [In 18i»7, during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebration, Mr. Davin repre- sented Canada at the meeting held in Boston, Massachusetts, in honor of that event, and delivered tlrere an eloquent address, suited to the occasion. A selection follows.] This is a magnificent festival ; but, contrary to the rule, it is greater relatively than absolutely. Grand as it is, its grandeur is enhanced when we think that at this moment, not merely in London is the En. aire's Queen gathering her children around her, but in great cities in all lands ; in a land like this, which no British heart can heartily call foreign — for what is this great Republic but one of the lion's whelps grown to lionhood and for distinction's sake growing a pair of wings, and caUing itself a lion of the air ; and, as we know from a hundrer' Vattlefields, when we look at your literature and see your extraordinary power and commercial activity, we conclude that, although you may be an eagle in the air, after all there is a great deal of the British lion about you. In great cities and capitals, under the southern cross, under northern auroral lights, in the eye of the g ] I tlf i' DISTINGUISHED CANADIAN ORATORS Iisrin'e acted upon by a Republican Senate. That proposal was rejected, and Canada was forced, a vu know, rx ficccssitate r,i. to adopt the policy of teniper.itely and jitdiiiously, but firmly, protecting the rights of Canadian fisherman in Canadian waters ; and I am glad to Ix able to state that during my term of .dice as High Commissioner in I^ndon, where I ha.l constant aiwl fuqu. nt intercourse with the great statesmen of Iwth of the political , ..;!,-, i„ that country in relation to this question,— whatever party wu- in p.i. tr. or whnt. ,•■ r might l« representing the Government— I met ihe Jirm ■uul unqu.slifKxi desire, on the part of Her Majesty's Government, u, .>ui.:. ut ully what were the undoubted rights of Canada and the Kmpirc : u.d 1 .;.rak ofth.- Governments which represented both the great parties in J i-- land, when I say I found on their part the steady and uniform desire and determi- nation firmly to maintain Canada in the assertion of herjust and legitimate rights. I believe that, anxious as are Her Majesty's Government— and every- body knows how extremely anxious they are to avoid the sliglitest cause of difference with the United State.-*- the time i-, far distant when the Gov- ernment of England will shrink in the slightest degree from giving fair and candid consideration to whatever are the just claims of Canada in relation to that question. Under these circumstances I think we had n right to expect from the Congress of the United States a different course to that which they pur- sued. 'When the President of the United States sent this api^al to Con- gress for an international commission, what did the people interested in the fisheries say ? They said, " We do not want to have anything to do with Canadian waters ; we want no international connnission. The fish have all turned south ; they are coming into our waters; we do not require togomto Canadian water?; at all; we want no commission, no interna- tional arrangement, but simply to keep ourselves to ourselves, and let the Canadians do the same." I think that is very much to be regretted. I think the interests of that great country and the interests of Canada alike require close commercial relations and extended reciprocal relations. I t 111 1;^ 240 SIR CHARLES TUPPER have no hesitation in saying so. It would be, in my judgment, a great misfortune if anything were to prevent reciprocal trade arrangements with the United States, which would be, as they were when they existed before, alike beneficial to both countries. We know we were satisfied with reci- procity, but we do not conceal from ourselves, because the statistics of our own country prove it beyond question, that, advantageous as was the Reciprocity Treaty from 1854, for twelve years, to the people of Canada, it was infinitely more advantageous to the people of the United States. But as I say, we were met by the proposal to arm the President with the power of declaring non-intercourse. I do not believe he will put that power into force, and I am strengthened in this belief by the letter which the President of the United States addressed to the parties who communicated with him on the subject, and which showed that that gentleman, armed with this tremendous power, fully recognized the enormous interests that had grown up under that peaceful intercourse between Canada and the United States, and that he was fully alive to that momentous responsibility that would rest upon his shoulders if he should put it in operation That is the solitary cloud now upon the horizon, but it is not without its silver lining. Non-intercourse would not be an unmixed evil. I would deeply deplore it. Every member of the House, and every intelli- gent Canadian, would deeply deplore any interruption of the c(fbimercial relations which exist between this country and the United States ; but I cannot forget that, if this policy of non-intercourse were adopted, it -^ . tld lead to the development of the channels of communication bet wet. ar- selves ; and that the commerce of Canada, which is to-day building up New York, Boston and Portland, would be carried through exclusively Canadian channels to Canadian ports, and would build up Montreal, Que- bec, St. John and Halifax with a rapidity which the people of this coun- try can scarcely understand. So, looking at this question in all its bearings, while I most earnestly hope that no such policy will l)e adopted ; while I have not the slightest idea that it will ; I say that should it be adopted, great as is the American Republic, enormous as is their population, they will find that Canada feels that she has as great and as valuable a portion of this North American continent under her management and control and to be developed as that lying to the south of us ; and they will find the people of this country an united land of patriots, who, sinking every other consideration, will say they owe it to their country, they owe it to themselves, to show that there will be no faltering in maintaining to the utmost the undoubted and admitted rights that belong to the people of Canada. I ^ GOLDWIN SMITH (J 823 ) THE DISTINGUISHED LECTURER AND WRITER ': It I m % SOLDWIX SMITH has dwelt au.l made his mark in three separ- ate soils. Born in KnjjUmd and educated at Oxford, he was ma(ki I'rofessorof Modern History at that univereity in 1858. Coming to tiie l'nite. t. I 7 «/",•/ 1 ^ 242 OOLDWIN SMITH imagine more, there speaks to us a Being whose nature is akin to ours, and who has made our hearts capable of such converse. Astronomy has its practical uses, without which man's intellect would scarcely rouse itself to those speculations ; but ite greatest result is a revelation of immensity pervaded by one informing mind ; and this revelation is made by astronomy only in the same sense in which the telescope reveals the stars to the eye of the astronomer. Science finds no law for the thoughts which, with her aid, arc ministered to man by the starry skies. Science can explain the hues of sunset, but she cannot tell from what urns of pain and pleasure its pensiveness is poured. These things are felt by all men, felt the more in proportion as the mind is higher. They are a part of human nature ; and why should they not be as sound a basis for philosophy as any other part ? But if they are, the solid wall of material law melts away, and through the whole order of the material world pours the influ- ence, the personal influence, of a spirit corresponding to our own. Again, is it true that the fixed or unvarying is the last revelation of science ? These risings in the scale of created beings, this gradual evolu- tion of planetary systems from their centre, do they bespeak mere creative force ? Do they not rather bespeak something which, for want of an ade- quate word, we must call creative eflbrt, corresponding to the effort by which man raises himself and his estate ? And where effort can be discov- ered, does not spirit reign again ? A creature whose sphere of vision is a speck, whose experience is a second, sees the pencil of Raphael moving over the canvas of the Trans- figuration. It sees the pencil moving over its own speck, during its own second of existence, in one particular direction, and it concludes that the formula expressing that direction is the secret of the whole. There is truth as well as vigor in the lines of Pope on the discoveries of Newton : " Superior beings, when of late they saw A mortal man unfold all Nature's law, Admired such wistloni in ati earthly shape. And showed a Newton as we show an ape." If they could not show a Newton as we show an ape, or a Newton's discoveries as we show the feats of apish cunning, it was because Newton was not a mere intellectual power, but a moral being, laboring in the ser- vice of his kind, and because his discoveries were the reward, not of sagacity only, but of virtue. We can imagine a mere organ of vision so constructed by Omnipotence as to see at a glance infinitely more than could be discovered by all the Newtons, but the animal which possessed that organ would not be higher than the moral being. i OOLDWIN SMITH S«3 Reason, no doubt, is our appointed guide to truth. The limits set to it by each dogmatist, at the point where it comes into conflict with his dogma, are human limits : the providential limits we can learn only by dutifully exerting it to the utmost. Yet reason must be impartial in the acceptance of data and in the demantl of proof. Facts are not the less facts l)ecause thev are not facts of sense ; materialism is not necessa- rily enlightenment ; it is possible to be at once chimerical and gross. We may venture, without any ingratitude to science as the source of material benefits and the training school of inductive reaso;i, to doubt whether the great secret of the moral world is likely to he discovered in her laboratory, or to be revealed to those minds which have been imbued only with her thoughts, and trained in her processes alone. Some, indeed, among the men of science who have given us sweeping theories of the world, seem to be not only one-sided in their view of the facts, leav- ing out of sight the phenomena of our moral nature, but to want one of the two faculties necessary for sound investigation. They are acute observers, but bad reasoners. And science must not expect to be exempt from the rules of reasoning. We cannot give credit for evidence which does not exist, because if it existed it would be of a scientific kind ; nor can we pass at a bound from slight and precarious premises to a tre- mendous conclusion, because the conclusion would annihilate the spiritual nature and annul the divine origin of man. i^ i ' / 4 ^ i r Hi 1?^ SIR WILFRID LAURIER (J84I THE GREAT T.IRRRAL REFORMER ( mHE Dominion of Canada, as is well known, has a population nuule up of two Jistinct races, the Fivueli and the Britisli, representing to-day the successive ownei-ship of tliat great area. Though these arc amalgamated to a coiiKidcrahle extent, their original diversity iias by no means disappeared, tic French stratum of the population retaining its old language and many of its old i^lcas. Tn 189G the Canadian French became more intimately affiliated with the Government than ever before, when Wilfrid Laurier, a statesman of their race, was apjwinted to the higii dignity of Premier of the Dominion, the iirst of his ijeojde to Jiold that i)osi(ion. lie was invested with the honor of knightliood in the following year. For many yeara the Conservative party had been predominant in Canada. With Laurier the Liberals came into jxiwer, after a long interregnum. They could not have done so under an abler leader tiian f^ir Wilfrid, who is considered by many as the ablest orator Canada has ever known, and is distinguished " not more Ijy the finished grace of his oratory than by the boldness and authority with which he handled the deep- est political problenjs" in the Dominion House of Commons. He designates himself " A Liberal of the Knglish school, a pupil of Charles James Fox, Daniel O'Connell, and William Ewart Gladstone." GLADSTONE'S ELEMENTS OF GREATNESS [Lauiier's political orations are numerous, and many of them evince great abil- ity. We api-end from these an example of his powers as a political orator.but we give in precedence his eulogy of Gladstone, as one of the most appreciative, striking and brilliant estimates of the character of the great English statesman.] The last half century in which we live has produced many able and strong men, who, in different walks of life, have attracted the atteotion 2U SIR WILFRID LAURIER 90 of the world at large ; but of the men who have illostrated this age, it seems to m« that in the eyes of posterity four will outlive and outshine all others — Cavour, Lincoln, Bismarck, and Gladstone. If we look sim- ply at the maitnitnde of the results obtained, compared with the exiguity of the resonrces at command; if we remember that out of the small king- dom of Sardinia grew United Italy, we must come to the conclusion that Count Qj&vonx was undoubtedly a statesman of marvelous skill and pre- science. .Viiraham Lincoln, unknown to fame when he was elected to the preskiejjcy, exhibited a power for the government of men which has scarcely been surpu»«»jed in any age. He saved the American Union, he enfranchised Ihe black race, and for the task he had to perform he was endowed in some respects almost miraculously. No man ever displayed a greater insight into the motives, the complex motives, which shape the public opinion of a free country, and he possessed almost to the degree of an instinct the supreme quality in a statesman of taking the right deci- sion, taking it at the right moment, and expressing it in language of incom- parable felicity. Prince Bismarck was the embodiment of resolute common sense, unflinching determination, relentless strength, moving onward to his end, and crushing everything in his way as unconcernedly as fate itself. Mr. Gladstone undoubtedly excelled every one of these men. He had in his person a combination of varied powers of the human intellect rarely to be found in one single individual. He had the imaginative fancy, the poetic conception of things, in which Count Cavour was defi- cient. He had the aptitude for business, the financial ability, which Lin- coln never exhibited. He had the lofty impulses, the generous inspira- tions, which Prince Bismarck always discarded, even if he did not treat them with scorn. He was at once an orator, a statesman, a poet, and a man of business. As an orator he stands certainly in the very front rank of orators of his country or any country, of his age or any age. I remember when Louis Blanc was in England, in the days of the Second Empire, he used to write to the press of Paris, and in one of his letters to Le Temps he stated that Mr. Gladstone would undoubtedly have been the foremost ora- tor of England if it were not for the existence of Mr. Bright. It may be admitted, and I think it is admitted generally, that on some occasions Mr. Bright reached heights of grandeur and pathos which even Mr. Gladstone did not attain. But Mr. Gladstone had an ability, a vigor, a fluency which no man in his age, or any age, ever rivaled, or even approached. That is not all. To his marvelous mental powers he added no less mar- velous physical gifts. He had the eye of a god ; the voice of a silver bell ; and the very fire of his eye, the very music of his voice, swept the t ;1 ij ^ ( 'I ' < I 248 SIR WILFRID LAURIER hearts of men even before they had been dazzled by the torrents of his eloquence In a character so complex and diversified one may be asked what was the dominant feature, what was the supreme quality, the one characteristic which marked the nature of the man. Was it his incomparable genius for finance ? Was it his splendid oratorical powers ? Was it his marvelous fecundity of mind ? In ray estimation it was not any one of those quali- ties. Great as they were, there was one still more marked ; and, if I have to give my own impression, I would say that the one trait which was dominant in his nature, which marked the man more distinctly than any other, was his intense humanity, his paramount sense of right, his abhor- rence of injustice, wrong, and oppression wherever to be found, or in whatever shape they might show themselves. Injustice, wrong, oppres- sion, acted upon him, as it were, mechanically, and aroused every fibre of his being, and, from that moment, to the repairing of the injustice, the undoing of the wrong, and the destruction of the oppression, he gave his mind, his heart, his soul, his whole life, with an energy, with an intensity, with a vigor paralleled in no man unless it be the First Napoleon. RIEL AND THE GOVERNMENT [In the Dominion House of Commons in the early months of iSS6 an acri- monious deliatc took place, in which Mr. Lauricr and Mr. Blake took the ground that in the execution for treason of Louis Ricl, the half breed insurgent, the Government was seriously culijahle, having knowingly and deliberately goaded the half-breeds to desperation and revolt. Sir John Thompson and others as vigorously defended the Government in its action. Mr. I.au-iers speech on this subject, delivered March i6, 18.86, is looked upon by many as his best effort and the finest oration ever beard in Canadian Parliament. We give itn opening and closing pas.sages.] Mr. Speaker : Since to i,-ni=- .n the other side of the House has the courage to continue this d^bjie, I will do so myself. The Minister of Public Works stated the Government were ready and anxious to discuss this question ; and is this an evidence of the courage they pretend to pos- sess ? Sir, in all that has been said so far, and that has fallen from the lips of honorable gentlemen opposite, there is one thing in which we can all agree, and one thing only — we can all agree in the tribute which was paid to the volunteers by the Minister of Public Works when he entered into a defence of the Government. The volunteers had a most painful duty to perform, and they performed it in a most creditable manner to themselves and the country. Under the uniform of a soldier there is gen- erally to be found a warm atid merciful heart. Moreover, our soldiers are citizens who have an interest in this coutitry ; but when they are on duty they know nothing but duty. At the same time it can fairly be presumed SIR WILFRID LAURIER S47 1 3 that when on duty the heart feels and the mind thinks ; and it may be fairly presumed that those who were on duty in the Northwest last spring thought and felt as a great soldier, a great king, King Henry IV. of France, thought and felt when engaged in battle for many years of his life, in fighting his rebellious subjects. Whenever his sword inflicted a wound be used these words : " The king strikes thee, God heal thee." It may be presumed that perhaps our soldiers, when fighting the rebellion, were almost animated by a similar spirit, and prayed to God that he would heal the wounds that it was their duty to inflict, and that no more blood should be shed than the blood shed by themselves. The Gov- ernment, however, thought otherwise. The Government thought that the blood shed by the soldiers was not sufficient, but that another life must be sacrificed. We heard the Minister of Public Works attempting to defend the conduct of the Government, and stating that its action in this matter was a stem necessity which duty to our Queen and duty to our country made inevitable. Mr. Speaker, I have yet to learn— and I have not learned it from anything that has fallen from the lips of gentlemen opposite— that duty to Queen and country may ever prevent the exercise of that prerogative of mercy which is the noblest prerogative of the Crown. The language of the honorable gentleman was not the first occasion when responsible or irresponsible advisers of the Crown attempted to delude the public, and perhaps themselves as well, into the belief that duty to Queen and country required blood, when mercy was a possible alternative. When Admiral Byng was sentenced to be shot for no other crime than that of being unfortunate in battle, there were men at the time who said to the King that the interests of the country required that the sentence should be carried out ; though thecourt, which had convicted him, strongly recommendetl him to mercy. Those evil counsels prevailed, and the sen- tence was carried out ; but the verdict of history, the verdict of posterity — posterity to which honorable gentlemen now appeal — has declared long ago that the carrying out of the sentence against Admiral Byng was a judicial murder. And I venture to predict, Mr. Speaker, that the verdict of history will be the same in this instance. In every instance in which a Government has carried out the extreme penalty of the law, wlien mercy was suggested instead, the verdict his been the same. Sir, in the province to which I belong, and especially amongst the race to which I belong, the execution of Louis Riel has been universally condemned as being the sac- rifice of a life, not to inexorable justice, but to bitter passion and revenge. 1 ! H' U m liii iiij 24S SIR WILFRID LAURIER Indeed the Government have convinced all the people here mentioned, the half-breeds, the Indians, the white settlers, that their arm is long and strong, and that they are powerful to punish. Would to Heaven that they had taken as much pains to convince them all, half-breeds, Indians and white settlers, of their desire and willingness to do them justice, to treat them fairly. Had they taken as much pains to do right, as they have taken to punish wrong, they never would have had any occasion to con- vince those people that the law cannot be violated with impunity, because the law would never have been violated at all. But today, not to speak of thosi v ho have lost their lives, our prisons are full of men who, despairing ever to get justice by peac e, sought to obtain it by war ; who, despairing of ever being treated like freemen, took their lives in their hands, rather than be treated os slaves. They have suffered a great deal, they are suffering still ; yet their sacrifices will not be without reward. Their leader is in the grave ; they are in durance ; but from their pri.sons they can see that that justice, that liberty which they sought in vain, and for which they fought not in vain, has at last dawned upon their country. Their fate well illustrates the truth of Byron's invocation to liberty, in the introduction to the " Pris- oner of Chillon ' ' : Eternal Spirit of the chainlcss mind I Brightest in dungeons. Liberty thou art I For there thy habitation is the heart — The heart which love to thee alone can bind ; And when thy sons to fetters are consigned — To fetters and the damp vault's daylcss gloom, Their country conquers with their martyrdom. ^■S=-XlUMi«l. , SIR JOHN THOMPSON (J844.J894) A NOVA SCOTIAN PREMIER AND ORATOR |IR JOHN THOMI'SON, a nativo of Halifax, Xovji S.otia, h.-Rnn Ills jwlitieal career in 1877, in tlie le^^islatureof that province. Stil)se(|iiently entering; the Dominion rarliaincnt, iii; iH'caine rt prominent and active Conservative nieniher of that IkwIv. An earnest ami aide orator, nnd a statesman of excellent powers, iie won a position of leadership in his party, and in lKy2 was c^alleil upon to form a Cabinet, and accejit the post of I'rime Minister of Canada. He died two years later, at Windsor, while on a visit to Kngland. m- THE EXECUTION OF RIEL [On March 33, 1886, Thompson made a long and a)jlc <;prech before the House of Commons, in response to those of Laurier and Blake on the snliject of the execu- tion of T.ouis Ricl, the half-breed leader of insurrection. As n rivom1)le example of hi* manner we append some passages from this speech.] Let me call the attention of the House to one point with regard to the fairness of the trial which strikes me as absolutely conclusive. That is, that if there had been an unfair ruling in that trial from beginning to end, either on the application to postpone, or on a question of evidence, or on any part of the jitdge's charge, it would have been laid open by tne prisoner's counsel on their appeal to the Court of Queen's Bench in Mani- toba. The prisoner had an advantage which no man has who is tried in the older Provinces. He had a right to appeal to a Bench of judges sit- ting in another Province, far removed from the agitation in his own coun- try, an appeal on every (jnestion of the law and fact involved. Every lawyer knows that a prisoner in the Provinces has only these chances of appeal ; he has his chance of a writ of error, to bring up defects shown by the record, and as regards any objections to the evidence or to the rulings of the judge, the judge may himself decide whether he shall have an appeal or net. Louis Riel was not in that position. He 24» »« 2fiO SIR JOHN THOMPSON had the rij,'lit to bring W fore the Bench in Manitolia every quention of the law or fact that aruse on his trial, iitnl when he took that appeal, he was rt-prisentcil liy the Inrst coun^tl. I suppose, that th!,, rominion could have jjivt n him, and yet not a sinj;le txception was taken to the fairness of the trial, or the ruliuKS of the jtulgi-. The prisoner took this addi- tional step, which is a wry rare one in connection with the criminal jus- lice in this country : he applied to Her Nfajesty to exercise the prerogative by which Her Majc-ty, by the advice of Her I'rivy Council, is able to entertain ati appeal in a case connected with the criminal jurisdiction from . any one uf her subjects in the Kmpire : and how is it that in the petition that was prepared to enable the prisoner to take the judgment of that high tribunal which had to make its report to the fountain of justice itself in the British noniinions — how is it that neither the prisoner's counsel nor himself, nor the petition, nor anything said on trial in his favor, urged a single objection to the fairness of the trial, the rulings of the judge at that trial, or the way in which the judge had directed the jury ? I should suppose, sir, that that was exceedingly significant. We were told, the other night, that the judgment of the Privy Council said nothing about the procedure of the trial, that it was silent on that point. The signifi- cance of that silence is all we want. When a man has a full opportunity to appeal, and takes his appeal, and makes no complaint about the fair- ness of a ruling which would liave given hitn his liberty if he could establish its error, I want to know if we need any more than the silence of the able counsel by whom he was advised and represented, to satisfy us that exceptions were not taken in the highest Court of Appeal in the Em- pire for the simple reason th.at they did not exist. And yet, sir, because we administered in the case of I.ouis Riel, the judgment which the law pronounced, the confidence of this House is asked to be withdrawn from the Government. I must read from the Win- nepeg Free Press an extract which was read to the House once or twice before, and which I am, therefore, almost ashauie;'. to repeat, but which I must repeat, because it applies directly to the point in hand, and comes from a newspaper as hostile to this Government as any newspaper in the Dominion. It was published on the 17th of December, immediately after the execution. Some papers havebeei. accused of inconsistency in advo- cating Kiel's execution beforehand, and taking the opposite ground after- wards, but after his execution the Winnipeg Free Press said : " Kiel was fairly tried, honestly convicted, laudably condemned, and justly exe- cuted." But, sir, if our confidence in the triliuiials themselves be ikjI sufficient, if the luct tiiat the courts of appeal before which the case was taken, ruled 1 SIR JOHN THOMPSON i51 that the trial was fair, and that justice had been done, be not HufKcient, I asic honorable gentlemen opposite if, with any sense of candor or fair play, they can ask that this government should In; condemned for not changing ihe sentence on the ground that the trial had been unfair, when there has not l)een down to this hour a petition or rc^t n,...,. . I 'isainst the Lmtananism. THE SACREDNESS OF THE SARRatu ance as ,s evinced in the foUowing'^srection fn w ^1 ^°'"^' "^ ^="s'°"^ ^bserv- prohahh^X' am^az',^ nues^tfon^'s foTo H "^v,"? «""^'-^''°". by ourselves of our fathers shall he iZrZ or thr '^' ^''^'''^^ ^^^ inheritance Shan be a delight or a loXng whethertheT '' "'"''^^ °"^ ^^''^^"- shall be crowded with drunkfrds or th ' l^''^''''' <^^ that holy day. worshippers ; whether riot and pr^fe^ L^s "S'^^ °' ''°' "*^' ^"'"'^^ erty our dwellings, and convicts ouMaTls H °7 '''''''' ^"^ P^^" whether industry, and temperance Tnd "i^ht" "°''"'' °"'- ^«"^- °^ bility of our times; whethe^ nfirCs shlu r "t ''''" '^ "^^ «^- sion of freemen, or the iron roTof a tvrfnt" 7', ''' ''^^^^"^ ^"^mis- of slaves. Be not deceived HumJ n . ^^ " ^''""^""^ ^'^'"-ge nature everywhere. All Itua^dTff . '" '^'^ '''''' ^' ''^e human and the result of our l^J::^!: ZH^' ^J.^^^""-. 254 naoiis. It js a moral in' LYMAN BEECHER «.. Zoo instruction of children neglected -ukI tl,P Ifr ^ 'f""'^"^ ^"'^ religious mitt^,i .„ (1 ■ , '"-S'ecied. and the htreanis of intemperance be oer- nutted to flow, and her g orv will dcrrirt T;,,. „-.n r r . ^ ...rro.... ,„. „., „. i„r,.„„ Of *;r ...T;;:' r,,t'L:' uir™ bands ,vl,ich now 1,„I,1 i,, Jo, 'e ,k „ s- T °"T "'"°™' """ "■" unbarring the gate of Pande.oniuin IL, t.: L ^ 1. :;; ^'^f crimes and the miseries of hell If the Most H . i ^ f ^^'^ and cast n. a single ingredient in" ^ c!;:/;;:;;, ^ ^'^ ^^l t:!; o be full of superlative woe. But He will not stand aloof Ts.t hal have begun an open controversy with Him, He will contend openl^ whh us And never, since the earth stood, has it been so fe.rful i th L f nations to fall into the hands of the living God The hv If v ^ commotion are dashing upon everv shore Is this tl,„„ * ^ ^ foundations, when the en ih itself slnk^i 11,;' T ? '/""'^■^ protecUon of Cod, when the hearts oft^are'f U ^.^^i^ ^'^:::: for looking after se things which are coming on tlS eath^ isthi time to run upo .s neck and the thick bossed of H s h'lck er wLI . ^t^is^re drinking blood, an:! fainting, .nd passin;:;;';"^ ^^^^^^ : Is this a time to throw awav the shield of f.iH, ,t.i. .„ it- ' d^nk with the blood oftheslainPTo^rL";:?h:":;^^^ the clouds are collecting, and the sea and the waves are roaring ad hunderB are uttering their voices, and lightnings bhi.ing in the ream" a.d the great hail is falling from heaven upon men. and every mrta;' sea. and island ,s fleeing in dismay from the face of an nicensi 3 ■ » i m (If m m WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING (J 780- J 842) THE GREAT UNITARIAN ORATOR AND WRITER rTjN William Ellery Channinjj;, Hhodc Island contribiitod to the XI ■'^"'^''''fini piilpit one of tlie ino.«t brilliant tigures that have * ever occupied it. To the Unitarian Churdi he came as a revelation, a leaositiou to African |l3 f^l'ivory should lie phiccd Thi-odoio ParkiT, to whom tlio Southern .system ai)i)eared a tissue of alMmiinations, and wiio gave all tlie fjreat powers of his ardent and emotional mind to the advoeaey of emaneiiiation of the slavis. A heretic to the i)revailing sentiment in this respect, ho was e(iually lieretical in his reli,',nous views, and aroused much acrimonious criticism by his rationalistic teachings. A native of Lexington, Massachusetts, the place of ori- gin of the Revolutionary War, his whole life was a warfare against prevailing views and institutions. Kntering the I'ldtarian ministry, he began to preach in If^'Mi. But his studies of (ierman rationalisin caused important changes in his theological belief, changes which he made no etlort to conceal, and he was soon vigorously opposed by many of his Unitarian brethren. His unusual ability as an orator and thinker, however, brought him an abundant audience, and in 1846 he was regularly installed at the >b'lodeon, in 15oston, where he continued to disseminate what many criticised as plain heresy for the remainder of his life. While performing his duties as a minister, ho was a deep student and for years a highly popular lecturer. But the subject to which he gave the most attention was the Miiquity of human slavery, against which for yeai-s he fought with all his great lowers of mind, and died on the verge of the success of his opinions. THE GREATNESS AND THE WEAKNESS OF DANIEL WEBSTER [The public life aud private character of Webster has never been so set forth, alike in its greatness and its weakness, as in the memorable attack made by Parker on the mighty orator after he had passed away. Webster's course of action in regard to slavery the ardent abolitionist could not forgive, and while giving him fall credit for 259 I'* ' ill •iii I V I!.- » I : i ii ii-- ak) THEODO^.E PARKER I his wonderful power* of tnind hikI liole men, the com- panions of princes, enlarging their testimony in the Court. I mourned when my own parishioners fled from the " stripes " of New England to the stars of Old Ivngland. I mourned when Ei'en Craft fled to my house for shelter and for succor ; and for the first tim^ in all my life, I arn'-'d this hand. I mourned when the courthouse was hun^ in chains ; when Thorn.'... Sims, from his dungeon, sent out his petition for prayers and the '.mrches did not dare to pray. I n; nrned when I married William and Kllen Craft, and gave them a Bible for their soul, and a sword to keep that soul living and in a living frtitne. I mourned when the pool outcast in yonder dungeon sent for me to visit him, and when I took him by the hand thrit Daniel Webster was chaining in that house. I mourned for Webster when we prayed our prayer and sung our song on Long Wharf in the morning's gray. I mourned then ; I shail not cease to mourn. The flags will be removed from the streets, the cannon will sound their other notes of joy ; but for me I shai! go mourning all my days. I shall refuse to be comforted, and at last I shall lay down ray gray hairs with weeping and with soi row in the grave. Oh, Webster ! Webster! would God that I had died for thee ! lie was a great man, a man of the largest mold, a great body and a great brain ; he seemed made to last a hundred years. Since Socrates, there has seldom been a head so massive, so huge — seldom such a face since the stormy features of Michael Angelo : " The hand that rounded Peter's dome. And groined the i sles of Christian Rome " — he who sculptured Day and Night i. to such beautiful forms, — he looked them in his face before he chiseled tl: em into stone. Dupuytren and Cuvier are said to be the only men in our day that have had a brain so vast. Since Charlemagne I think there has not been such a grand figure in all Christendom. A large man, decorous in dress, dignified in deportment I 5 THEODOKE PARKER SBl T s f It 1 I he walked as if he felt himsflf a king. Men from the rountn', who knew him not, stared at him us he passed Uirongh onr streets. The coal- heavers and porters of London looked on him as one of tiie great forces of the glol)e ; they recognized a native kiii^. In the Senate of th'> rnited States he lookeil an emperor in that council. ICven the w ijestic Callu-un seemed common compared with him. Clay looked ulgar, and Van Bnren hut a fox. What a mouth iiv- had I It was a lions mouth. Vet there was a sweet grandeur in his smile, .id a woman's sweetness when he would. What a brow it was ! Whai eyes ! like cliarccd fire in the bottom of a deep, dark well. His fuce A'as rugged with volcanic fires, great passions and great thoughts : " The front of Jove himself ; And cye« like Murs, lo threaten nnil command." Oivide the faculties,, not bodily, into intellectual, mural, affectional, and religious; and try him on that scale. His late life shows that he had little religion — somewhat of its lower forms- oiiventional devoutness, formality of prayer, " the ordinances of religion " ; but he had not a great man's all-comiuering look to God. It is easy to be "devout" The Pharisee was mor^; so than the Publican. It is hard to be moral. " Devoutness" took the Priest and the Levite to the temple; morality the Samaritan to the man fallen among thieves. Men tell us he wa?, religious, ard in proof declare that he read the Hible ; thought Job a great epic poem ; quoted Habakkuk from memory, and knew hymns by heart ; and latterly agreed with a New Hampshire divine in all the doctrines of a Christian life. Of the aflfectio'-i. he was well provided by nature — though they were little cultivated — very attractable to a few. Those who knew him, loved him tenderly ; and if he hated like a giant, he also loved like a king. Of unimpassioned and tinrelated love, there are two chief forms : friendship and philanthropy, Friendship he surely had ; all along the shore men lovtd hiih. Men in Boston lo\.>d him; even Washington held loving hearts that worshipped him. Of philanthropy, I cannot claim much for him ; I find it not. Of conscience, it seemed to me he had little ; in his later life exceeding little ; his moral sense seemed long besotted ; almost, though not wholly, gone. Hence, though he was often generous, he was not just. Free to give as to grasp, he was cliaritable by instinct, not disinterested on principle. His strength lay not in the relipious, nor in the affectional, nor in the moral part of man. His intellect \ s immense. His power of compre- hension was vast. He methodized swiftly. But if you look at the forms of intellectual action, you may distribute tt m into three great modes of i,. i ' l\i »'; i: iP :i^ I > i i nil U'i Is*,- 263 THEODOKE PARKER . I I! force: tl„ lui.lerstatulinR. tht- imnRination, and the reason -the under- slandins. < cnliniriation in Iltniy Wanl nioii, underliueil with 11 floep moral and spiritual oaruestuess, needier dwelt unsurpassed. His famo as an orator waM-.iot ooiifiiied to the pulpit. On the leeture platfoiin he was e{|ually j,'reat and pojiular. [mindled hy his traiu- iuf,', environment, and hatred of all things evil, ho <'nteivd earnestly into the crusade against slavery, and won the reputation of l)eing one of the t,M'eate.st, if not e of Bt>echer were called forth hy the events of this dread condi.t. In the cuuso of temperance lu was also noted, and no reform, social ■ • political, wa.s left without his i)owertul su{ij)ort. LINCOLN DEAD AND A NATION IN GRIEF [Of Beccher'* secular orations may especially be named, as among his ablest and most striking effons, that called forth on the replacing of the flag of on Fort Sumter, and that of two days later (.April i6, 1865,) on the death of Lincoln. In the former the note of triumph prevails, in the latter the note of pathos. We append the Lincoln oration a.* one of the finest examples of elegiac orator>-.] In one hour joy lay without a pulse, without a gleam or breath. A sorrow came that swept through the land as huge storms sweep through the forest and field, rolling thunder along the sky, disheveling the flow- ers, daunting every singer in thicket and forest, and pouring blackness and darkness across the land and up the mountains. Did ever so many hearts, in so brief a time, touch two such boundless feelings ? It was the 203 II ii.^ m!^ i 264 -»FNRY WARD BEECHER -noon and midnight, uttermost of joy ; it was the uttermost of sorrow- without a space between. The blow brought not a sharp pang. It was so terrible that at first it stunned sensibility. Citizens were like men awakened at midnight by an earthquake and bewildered to find everything that they were accus- tomed to trust wavering and falling. The very earth was no longer solid. The first feeling was the least. Men waited to get straight to feel. They wandered in the streets as if groping after son-e impending dread, or undeveloped sorrow, or someone to tell them what ailed them. They met each other as if each would ask the other, " Am I awake, or do I dream ?" There was a piteous helplessness. Strong men bowed down and wept. Other and common griefs belonged to some one in chief; this belonged to all. It was each and every man's. Every virtuous household in the land felt as if its first-born were gone. Men were bereaved and walked for days as if a corpse lay unhuried in their dwellings. There was nothing else to think of They could speak of nothing but that ; and yet of that they could speak only falteringly. All business was laid aside. Pleasure forgot to smile. The city for nearly a week ceased to roar. The great Leviathan lay down and was still. Even avarice stood still, and greed was strangely moved to generous sympathy and universal sorrow. Rear to his name monuments, found charitable institutions, and write his name above their lintels ; but no monument will ever equal the universal, spontaneous, and sublime sorrow that in a moment swept down lines and parties, and covered up animosities, and in an hour brought a divided people into unity of grief and indivisible fellowship of anguish Even he who now sleeps has, by this event, been clothed with new influence. Dead, he speaks to men who now willingly hear what before they refused to listen to. Now his simple and weighty words will be gathered like those of Washington, and your children and your children's children shall be taught to ponder the simplicity and deep wisdom of utterances which in their time passed, in party heat, as idle worlds. Men will receive a new impulse of patriotism for his sake and will guard with zeal the whole country which he loved so well. I swear you, on the altar of his memory, to be more faithful to the country for which he has perished. They will, as they follow his hearse, swear a new hatred to that slavery against which he warred, and which, in vanquishing him, has made him a martyr and a conqueror. I swear you, by the memory of this martyr, to hate slavery with an unappeasable hatred. They will admire and imitate the firnuiess of this man, his inflexible conscience for the right, and yet his gentleness, as tender as a woman's, his moderation of spirit, which not all the heat of party could inflame, nor all the jars HENRY WARD BEECHER 9S& i and disturbances of his country shake out of place. I swear you to an emulation of his justice, his moderation and his mercy. You I can comfort ; but how can I speak to that twilight million to .vhom his name was as the name of an angel of God ? There will be wail- ing in places which no minister shall be able to reach. Wht-n, in hovel and in cot, in wood and in wilderness, in the field throughout the South, the dusky children, who looked upon him as that Moses whom God sent before them to lead them out of the land of bondage, learn that he has fallen, who shall comfort them ? O thou Shepherd of Israel, that didst comfort thy people of old, to thy care we commit the helpless, the long- wronged and grieved. And now the martyr is moving in triumphal march, mightier than when alive. The nation rises up at every stage of his coming. Cities and States are his pallbearers, and the cannon beats the hours with solemn progression. Dead, dead, dead, he yet speaketh. Is Washington dead ? Is Hampden dead ? Is David dead ? Is any man that was ever fit to live dead? Disenthralled of flesh, and risen in the unobstructed sphere wliere passion never comes, he begins his illimitable work. His life now is grafted upon the infinite, and will be fruitful as no earthly life can be. Pass on, thou that hast overcome. Your sorrows, O people, are his peace. Your bells and bands and muMed drums sound trium- phant in his ear. Wail and weep here ; God made it echo joy and triumph there. Pass on. A CORRUPT PUBLIC SENTIMENT A corrupt public sentiment produces dishonesty. A public sentiment in which dishonesty is not disgraceful ; in which bad men are respectable, are trusted, are honored, are exalted, is a curse to the young. The fever of speculation, the universal derangement of business, the growing laxness of morals are, to an alarming extent, introducing such a state of things. If the shocking stupidity of the public mind to atrocious dishonesties is not aroused ; if good men do not bestir thetuselves to drag the young from this foul sorcery ; if the relaxed bands of honesty are not tightened, and conscience tutored to a severer morality, our night is at hand — our midnight not far off Woe to that guilty people who sit down upon broken laws, and wealth saved by injustice ! Woe to a generation fed by the bread of fraud, whose children's inheritance shall be a perpetual memento of their father's unrighteousness ; to whom dishonesty shall be made pleasant by association with the revered memories of father, brother and friend ! But when a whole people, united by a common disregard of justice, conspire to defraud public creditors, and States vie with States in an ll b !-:: ! ill ! V y 'J i" I I 'i 2«6 HENRY WARD BEECHER infamous repudiation of just debts, by open or sinister methods ; and nations exert their sovereignty to protect and dignify the knavery of the commonwealth, then the confusion of domestic affairs has bred a fiend before whose flight honor fades away, and under whose feet the sanctity of truth and the religion of solemn compacts are stamped down and ground into the dirt. Need we ask the cause of growing dishonesty among the young, the increasing untrustworthiness of all agents, when States are seen clothed with the panoply of dishonesty, and nations put on fraud for their garments ? Absconding agents, swindling schemes, and defalcations, occurring in such melancholy abundance, have at length ceased to be wonders, and rank \yith the common accidents of fire and flood. The budget of each week is incomplete without its mob and runaway cashier— its duel and defaulter, and as waves which roll to the shore are lost in those which follow on, so the villainies of each week obliterate the record of the last. Men of notorious immorality, whose dishonesty is flagrant, whose private habits would disgrace the ditch, are powerful and popular. I have seen a man stained with every sin, except those which required courage ; into whose head I do not think a pure thought has entered for forty years ; in whose heart an honorable feeling would droop from very loneliness ; in evil, he was ripe and rotten ; hoary and depraved in deed, in word, in his present life and in all his past ; evil when by himself, and viler among men; corrupting to the young ; to domestic fidelity, recreant ; to common honor, a traitor ; to honesty, an outlaw ; to religion, a hypocrite— base in all that is worthy of man and accomplished in whatever is disgraceful, and yet this wretch could go where he would— enter good men's dwellings and purloin their votes. Men would curse him, yet obey him ; hate him, and assist him ; warn their sons against him, and lead them to the polls for him. A public sentiment which produces ignominious knaves cannot breed honest men. We have not yet emerged from a period in which debts were insecure ; the debtor legally protected against the rights of the creditor ; taxes laid, not by the requirements of justice, but for political effect, and lowered to a dishonest inefficiency, and when thus diminished, not collected; the citizens resisting their own officers ; officers resigning at the bidding of the electors ; the laws of property paralyzed ; bankrupt laws built up, and stay- laws unconstitutionally enacted, upon which the courts look with aversion, yet fear to deny them lest the vvildness of popular opinion should roll back disdainfully upon the bench to despoil its dignity and prostrate its power. General suffering has made us tolerant of general dishonesty, and the gloom of our commercial disaster threatens to become the pall of our morals. m 1* ;j ■i EDWIN H. CHAPIN (J8H-I880) A GREAT ADVOCATE OF GREAT THEMES 0S 11 popular iiiul cloijiiont preacher ('liiij)iii w:is iimiv.ilod lunoiiK the ministers of I'nitnriauisin, iiiid tlnre \vt iv few \viii> sur- passed liiin iuuong tliose of any ileiioiiiination in onremni- try. As a puhlic hrturer lie was equally popular, heini; accountiMl one of the ahlest and most attractive of this class. lie stood on a par with such famous speakei's as Bcechcr, I'hillips and Parker, and made his themes nnich the same — temperance, aholition, universal peace. and the like. In 1H.")0 he was a nuMuber of the Peace Convention at Frankfurt-on-tlie-Main, and made there a hiirhly effective address. In 1848 he took charji;e of a church in New York, which j^^rew, l>y suc- cessive stages, from one of modest size to a j,n-eat erection, capal.le of holding the innnenso congregations that (locked to hear him. He puhlished .several volumes of .sermons and other works, and in 1872 became editor of the Chritfian Lewhr. CHBISTIANITY THE GREAT ELEMENT OF REFORM [From Chapin's numerous addresses we select soiiio brief passages as illustra- tions of liis style and clofjuent handling of any subject touched l)y him. There is :in element of picturesqueness in all he says, and his delivery was so effective as to give him great influence over the minds of his hearers ] The great element of reform is not born of human wisdom, it does not draw its life from human organizations. I find it only in Christianity. " Thy kingdom come ! " There is a sublime and pregnant burden in this prayer. It is the aspiration of every soul that goes forth in the spirit of reform. For what is the .significance of this prayer ? It is a petition that all holy influences would penetrate and subdue and dwell in the heart of man, until he shall think, and speak, and do good from the very neces- sity of his being. So would the institutions of error and wrong crumble ^1 ) if m m llili 1 : 'i ^ 1 or ■•111 IH 111 268 EDWIN H. CHAPIN and pass away. So would sin die out from the earth ; and the human soul, living in harmony with the divine will, this earth would become like Heaven. It is too late for the reformers to sneer at Christianity ; it is foolishness for them to reject it. In it are enshrined our faith in human progress, our confidence in reform. It is indissolubly connected with all that is he; eful, spiritual, capable, in man. That men have misunder- stood it and perverted it is true. But it is also true that the noblest efforts for human amelioration have come out of it ; have been based upon it. Is it not so ? Come, ye remembered ones, who sleep the sleep of the just ; who took your conduct from the line of Christian philosophy ; come from your tomb, and answer ! Come, Howard, from the gloom of the prison and the taint of the lazar house, and show us what philanthropy can do when imbued with the spirit of Jesus. Come, Eliot, from the thick forest where the red man listens to the Word of Life. Come, Penn, from thy sweet counsel and weaponless victory, and show us what Christian zeal and Christian love can accomplish with the rudest barbarians or the fiercest hearts. Come, Raikes, from thy labors with the ignorant and the poor, and show us with what an eye this faith regards the lowest and least of our race ; and how diligently it labors, — not for the body, not for the rank, but for the plastic soul that is to course the ages of immortality. And ye, who are a great number, — ye nameless ones who have done i ood in your narrow spheres, content to forego renown on earth and seeking your record in the Record on High, — come and tell us how kindly a spirit, how lofty a purpose, or how strong a courage the religion ye profess can breathe into the poor, the humble, and the weak. Go forth, then, spirit of Christianity, to thy great work of reform ! The past bears witness to thee in the blood of thy martyrs, and the ashes of thy saints and heroes ; the present is hopeful because of thee ; the future shall acknowledge thy omnipotence. THE TRIUMPHS OF LABOR Who can adequately describe the triumphs of labor, urged on by the potent spell of money ? It has extorted the secrets of the universe and trained its forms into myriads of powers of use and beauty. From the bosom of the old creation it has developed anew the creation of industry and art. It has been its task and its glory to overcome obstacles. Moun- tains have been leveled and valleys have been exalted before it. It has broken the rocky soil into fertile glades ; it has crowned the hill tops with verdure, and bound round the very feet of ocean ridges of golden corn. Up from the sunless and hoary deeps, up from the shapeless quarry, it drags its spotless marbles and rears its palaces of pomp. It steals the I EDWIN H. CHAPIN 269 them in its course, surge. ^^ ^^^f^^ *^^7;,,, .j.tories, it weaves more tion follows in its path. It achieves g^«""^ conqueror. His name durable trophies, it holds wider ^-'^y^Zl^' ^^P^X,^,,,,rXs his becomes tainted and his -"^'^J^^:^J^: '^^^^^.r.^ better red battlefields into garden «"f . ^'^""^^ ™°"''™'"^ {^ ,,rites with the things. It rides in a chariot driveii by the w „d^ It ^v r^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ lightning. It sits "°-7^^^j.^,^X^^ I glistens in the fabric of the its roar o.-" triumph f-'" ^ "> T ^^^^ i,,lfer ; it glories in the shapes loom ; it rings -\«P-^ f J^^^/^^^ , j, ..kJs th'e sinewy arm strong ::itS;;rptVm:-^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ..th content, crowns theswarthy Tnd sweaty brow with honor, and dignity, and peace. THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL Nature is republican. The discoveries of Science are republican^ ^ ^Z^ What are they but the servitors of the people, and not of walls of despotism, men^ meni tekel npharstn ! n im PHILLIPS BRCX)KS (1835-1893) BOSTON'S EMINENT BISHOP-ORATOR century pu-ached the (;^; ' 0^.':^;;""' '^^-'^^"^'^ " q""^- "f a ton. For the la.st two 30 ,■ of hS fc T" I)" ';"'""^" ^" ^^«•^- of Massacluisett... B.ooks In 1 t,t h. '•';" ^^''''^^"^ ^'^^'«I* Beecher. If e lacked the t. I'L^^ll^'^-rP;-^ popularity of verbal originality to which tl e ]• tt^^ f "^T^' *^' ''''''''''' "»<> public, yet ho was one o tl o' LT ""T'l °' ''^ ^"'^^ ^" ^'- t.y during the greater part ^ hL at™ £« ^'^^ ""^'^'"^ '^^ *^^° -""" style than Beecher. l.L lan^u e oT f "l '' '"°'' ^^"''^^^^'^ ■» artistic in treatment - a iu^^f t f '"'^"'^ ^^""P'^'^^^^ y^^ "Iwavs meat and elevated thought '""'^ '''^'^ ^''* ^^ ^^"^^^^ senii- [Phil.ips'To.^,'^ '^"^'^ MEN DO LIVES AFT^R THEM- pie of his pulpit oratory i^ whTcK " show^at '". "" ^"'P'*- ^'= «'- - ™- i« .oJSrS^^^f-- ";^^-o -.it this eve„in,that ting that sin ? Suppose ^o^ llok intT t T" "^ """ '™" *^°™°"*- wiseman tells you what vill be th^nh ^°"'^"^"<^^- Suppose the You shudder and you shrh," and n£/''''' consequences of that sin. Suppose you see the gW Lttht ^^' ^°" ''' ^''''^''y ^^^^^ed. spiritual, if you do nof coLl' t"at' s L "th ^°"'.P^^^'-'' ^-Po-l. to you-the blessing and the richnl Tn your 11^11°' ll^'""^ '"^'^ 270 ' ^"^- -^gai" there comes a PHILLIPS BROOKS LTl great power that shall control your lust and wickedness. Suppose there comes to you something even deeper than that, no consequence on con- science at all, but simply an abhorrence for the thing, so that your whole nature shrinks from it a» the nature of God shrinks from a sin that is pol- luting, and filthy and corrupt and evil. They are all great powers. Let us thank God for them all. He knows that we are weak enough to need every power that can possibly i^e brought to bear upon our feeble lives ; but if, along with all of them, there could come this other power, if along with them there could come the certainty that if you refrain from that sin to-night you make the sum of sin that is in the world, and so the sum of future evil that is to spring out of teuiptation in the world, less, shall there not be a nobler impulse rise up in your heart, and shall you not say : " I will not do it ; I will be honest, I will be sober, I will be pure, at least, to-night ? " I dare to think that there are men here to whom that appeal can come, men who, perhaps, will be all dull and deaf if one speaks to them about their personal salva- tion ; who, if one dares to picture to them, appealing to their better nature, trusting to their nobler soul, and there is in them the power to save other men from sin, and to help the work of God by the control of their own passions and the fulfillment of their own duty, will be stirred to the higher life. Men — very often we do not trust them enough — will answer to the higher appeal that seems to be beyond therj when the poor, lower appeal that comes within the region of their selfishness is cast aside, and they will have nothing to do with it. Oh, this marvelous, this awful power that we have over other peo- ple's lives ! Oh, the power of the sin that you have done years and years ago ! It is awful to think of it. I think there is hardly anything more terrible to the human thought than this — the picture of a man who, hav- ing sinned years and years ago in a way that involved other souls in his sin, and then, having repented ot his sin and undertaken another life, knows certainly that the power, the consequence of that sin is going on outside of his reach, beyond even his ken and knowledge. He cannot touch it. You wronged a s nl ten years ago. You taught a boy how to tell his first mercantile lie ; you degraded the early standards of his youth. What has become of that boy to-day ? You may have repented. He has passed out of your sight. He has gone years and years ago. Somewhere in this great, multitudinous mass of humanity he is sinning and sinning, and reduplicating and extending the sin that you did. You touched the faith of some believing sou! years ago with some miserable sneer of yours, Vrilh some cynical ai)d skeptical disparagement of God and of the mau f| ! ; ,1 " : i'. .1, l-i -T:' PHILLIPS BROOKS whu is the utterance of Gtxl upon the earth. You taught the soul that was tnthusinstic to be full of skeplioisnis and doubts. Von wronged a woman years ago and her life has gone out from your life, you cannot begin to tell where. You have repented of your sin. You have boweTG PERSON OF TENNESSEE mENNESSEE can boast of two citizens wlio were ainon{ a Knoxville pa{)or, and with i)en and voice made himself a power in that sei-tion of the South. Though opf)Osed to the abolition of slavery, the outbreak of war found luin an uncompromising adherent ot the old flag, which he kept flying over his house in defiance of all throats to pul! it down. H(; wa> nnpris- oned for several nionttis by the secessionists, but his voice could not be hashed, though it was raised in unrestrained ei"'rgy iu favor of the North and the Union. After the war he was for two terms gov- ernor of Tennessee, and later on was elected to the .Senate of tho United States. THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION [Tlie brief extract here given is taken from a speech of Mr. Brownlow delivered in a debate in Philadelphia with the Rev. Mr. Prynne. No abolitionist of the North could have shown a more ardent love for and belief in the Union than this anti-abo- litionist of the mountains of Tennessee. ] Who can estimate the value of the American Union ? Proud, happy, thrice-happy America ! The home of the oppressed, the asylum of the emi- grant ! where the citizen of every clime, and the child of every creed, roam free and untrammelled as the wild winds of heaven ! I^iptized at the fount of Liberty in fire and blood, cold must be the heart that thrills not at the name of the American Union ! When the Old World, with "all its pomp, and pride, and circum- stance, ' ' shall be covered with oblivion, — when thrones shall have crumbled 18 . 273 274 WILLIAM «--. "HryVNLOW and dynasties shall have been forgotten,— may this glorious Union, despite the mad schemes of Southern fireeatern and Northern abolition- ists, stand amid regal ruin and .lational dtsolation, towering sublime, like the last mountain in the Deluge — majestic, imntutable, and magnificent ! In pursuance of this, let every conservative Northern man, who loves his country and her institutions, shake off the trammels of Northern fanati- cism, and swear upon the altar of his count-y that he will stand by her Constitution and laws. Let every Southern man shake off the trammels of disunion and nullification, and pledge his life and his sacred honor to stand by the Constitution of his country as it is . the laws as enacted by Congress and interpreted by ihe Supreme Court. Then we shall see every heart a shield, and a drawn sword in everj hand, to preserve the ark of our political safety ! Then we shall see reared a fabric upon our National Constitution which time cannot crumble, persecution shake, fanaticism disturb, nor revolution change, but which shall stand among us likt some lofty and stupendous Apennine, while the earth rocks at its feet, and the thunder peals above its head I TRIBULATIONS IN TENNESSEE [The following remarks were made by Parson Browulow at Nashville in 1862. They tell their own story, aud give in plain language the fighting Parson's opinion of the secessionists.] Gentlemen : Last December I was thrust into an uncomfortable and disagreeable jail, — for what? Treason! Treason to the bogus Confed- eracy ; and the proofs of that treason were articles which appeared in the A'noxzille Whig in May last, when he State of Tennessee was a member of the imperishable Union. At the expiration of four weeks I became a victim of the typhoid fever, and was removed to a room in a decent dwell- ing, and a guard of seven mea iiept me company. I subsequently became so weak that I could not turn over in my bed, and the guard was increased to twelve men, for fear I should suddenly recover and run away to Ken- tucky. But I never had any intention to run ; and if I had I was not able to escape. My purpose was to make them send me out of this infamous government, according to contract, or to hang me, if they thought proper. I was promised passports by their Secretary of War, a little Jew, late of New Orleans ; and upon the faith of that promise, and upon the inviia- tior of General Crittenden, then in command at Knoxville, I reported myself and demanded my passports. They gave me passports, but they were from my house to the Knoxville jail, and the escort was a deputy- marshal of Jeff Davis. But I served my time out, and have been landed here at last, through much tribulation. I WILLIAM O. BROWNLOW ^.75 When I started on this perilous journey I was sore distressed both in mind ami Iwdy. i>eing weak from disease and confiiu-nutit. I txpeott-d to meet with insults and indignities at every point from the Ida.kKuard portion of the re»)el soldiers and citizens, and in tliis I was not disap- pointed. It was fortunate, indeed, tliat I was not m<)hl)e»i. This would have Ijeen done but for the vigilance and fidelity of the ofFiceri* having me in charge. These were Adjutant General Young and Lieutenant O' Brien. clever men, high minded and honorable ; and they were "' my own selec- tion They had so long been Union men that I felt ;;>isu..vt they had not lost the instincts of gentlemen and patriots, afflietc 1 as they were with the incurable disease of secession. Hut, gentlemen, some three or four days ago J landed in this city, as you are aware. Five miles distant I encountered tiie l-Vderal i)icket». Then it was that I felt like a new man. My depression ceased, and retumin;? life and health seemed suddenly to invigorate my svstem and to arouse my physical constitution . I had l)een looking at soldiers in uniform for twelve months, and to me they appeared as hateful a;< their Confeder- acy and their infamous flag. But tliese Federal pick-ts, who received me kindly and shook me cordially by the hand, looked like angels of light Gentlemen, I am no abolitionist ; I applaud no sectional doctrines. I am a Southern man, and a!! my relatives and interests are thoroughly identified with the South and Southern institutions. I was born in the Old Dominion ; my parents were born in Virginia, ami they and their ancestors were all slaveholders. U-t me assure you that the South has suffered no infringement upon her institution> ; the slavery question was actually no pretext for this unholy, unrighteous conflict. Twelve Senators from the Cotton States, who had sworn to preserve inviolate the Constitu- tion framed by our .orefathers, plotted treason at night— a fit time for such a crime— and telegraphed to their States despatches advising them to pass ordinances of secession. Yes, gentlemen, twelve Senators swore allegi- ance in the daytime, and uuswore it at night. 1-^^ 5 y ROBERT COLLYER (1823 ) THE BLACK "MITH EXPOUNDER OF THE GOSPEL Ell'"r^' yt'iiis or iiiort' !;;;(• a ('(iiiiiiry I'laclssiiiitli, working; ut liis tnnlc ill M rural 'l:^lii|M>rliiiiity, aiilol liim in (lie stii'ly ut' tlicolojiy, ami lu- U- caiiH' a Mflli(ifi'-(in in (|tHsii(>n, was of luij^Iisli liiitli, ami had learned tlie l.iavksiiiitli trade tlieic in Ids yoiitli. He was not lonj; in Aim riea before (lie foriie was aliandoned for (lie pnljiit, in wliieli lie proved liini-elf as L;"od a jireat'lier as lie liad Ik'cii a Maeksinitli. lie did not Iniii; eo.itiiiiie a Metli'idist, liowcver, liut adopted I'nitarianisiii, uid fiMin Is.",!) to 1.S7!» wa- jiastorof a I'nitarian clinreli ir, ('liieay;o. Sinet' tlie latter date '.e has h;!d the pastoral eaic fifJ" SOCytKERS Robert G InKersdII, ^Tial piil-lk-.liclurir ; Henrv \V. Waltersi*:'' Jistini:uislu'a K>TluiU\ cJitiir ; Henry tiraJ\ , of till' NfwSoulh ; FitzhuKh Let. statesman anj oraJo*.', ......... - . . . „ •■ , « ROBERT COLLYER 077 this power is very seldom in it I would try to verify ; and it is not your old Philip, but your young Alexander, who conquers the world. I can remember no grand invention, no peerless reform in life or religion, no noble enterprise, no superb stroke of any sort, that was not started from a spark in our youth and early manhood. Once well past that line, and you can dream of Canaan ; but the chances are you will stop at Haran, so this putting off any great and good adventure from your earlier to your later age is like waiting for low water before you launch your ship. If we want to make our dream of a nobler and wider life of any sort come true, we must push on while the fresh strong powers are in us, which are more than half the battle. The whole wealth of real enterprise belongs to our youth and earlier manhood. It is then that we get our chance of rising from a collective mediocrity into some sort of distinct nobility. We may be ever so sincere after this, as far as we can go ; but we shall go only to Haran. Yes, and we may have a splendid vision, as when this man saw Hermon and Sharon and the sea in his mind's eye as he sat in his chair ; and a noble and good intention, as when he started for the mountains, and halted on the plain ; but just this is what will befall us also it we are not true to this holy law of our life. This is my first thought ; and my second must take the form of a plea to those who do strike out to do grand and good things in this world, and do not halt, but march right on, and then nourish a certain contempt for those who still lag behind. The chances are, it is because they begin too late, that they end too soon : and it is no small matter that they begin at all. For myself, I can oidy blame them when, with the vision of a nobler life haunting the heart, they tell me that Haran is good enough for any- body, :uid we need none of us look for anything better. If they know all the while, as this man knew, that the land of promise still lies beyond the line at which they have halted, and will say .so frankly, though tlu'v may go only the one day's march, I can still bare my head in rewrcnce before such men. I know what it is to leave these lulessas of our life, and what it costs; how the old homes and altars still have the pull on you, and the shadows of the palm-trees, and the well at which you have drunk so long, and what loving arms twine about you to hold you back from even the one day's march. vSo. when I hear those blamed who stop short still of where I think they ought to be, I want to say, have you any idea of what it has cost them to go as far as that, and whether it was possible for them to go any farther ? And then, is it not a good thing anyhow to take those who belong to them the one day's march and, setting their faces toward the great fair land of promise, leave God to see to it, that this which may be i-i Im I- t' 1 n I \ -if ii ii ! If h 278 ROBERT COLLYER more than an impulse in the man who has to halt, may grow again to a great inspiration in the son of his spirit and life who goes right on ? And this, I think, is what we may count on in every honest endeavor after a wider and better life. So I like the suggestion that the way the eagle got his wings, and went soaring up towards the sun, grew out of the impulse to soar. That the wings did not precede the desire to fly, but the de«re to fly preceded the wings. Something within the cresture whisp- ered : " Get up there into the blue heavens; don't be content to crawl down in the marsh. Out with you ! " And so, somehow, tlirough what would seem to us lo be an eternity of trying — so long it was between the first of the kind that felt the impulse, and the one that really did the thing — done it was at last, in despite of the very law of gravitation, as well as by it ; and there he was, as I have seen him, soaring over the blue summits, screaming out his delight, and spreading his pinions twelve feet, they say, from tip to tip. I like the suggestion, because it is so true to the lu'e we also have to live — trying and failing ; setting out for Canaan, and stopping at Haran ; intending great things, and doing little things, many of us, after all. I tell you again, the good intention goes to pave the way to Heaven, if it be an honest and true intention. There is a pin feather of the eagle's wing started somewhere in our starting — a soaring which goes far beyond our stopping. We may only get to the edge of the slough, but those who come after us will so&r far up toward the sun. So let me end with a word of cheer. The Moslem says : ' ' God loved Abdallah so well that He would not let him attain to that he most deeply desired." And Coleridge says : " I am like the ostrich : I cannot fly, yet I have wings that give me the feeling of flight. I am only a bird of the earlh, but still a bird." And Robertson, of Brighton, sa3'S : " Man's true destiny is to be not dissatisfied, but forever unsatisfied." And you may set out even in your youth, therefore, with this high purpose in j'ou I have tried to touch. You will make your way to a good place, to a wider and more gracious life ; do a great day's work ; rise above all mediocrity into a distinct nobility ; find some day that, though j'ou have done your best, you have fal a far below your dream, and the Canaan of j'our heart's desire lies still in the far distance. All great and grand things lie in the heart of our strivings. — ,i; T. DeWITT TALMAGE (J 8324 902) THE TRUMPET BLAST OF THE PULPIT w JRUMPET BLASTS » is the title given to one of the works of selections from Talmage's sermons, and it is one which seems well fitting to their character. In popularity as an extem- poraneous pulpit ora' and lecturer Talmago has had few superiors in this country. He was very eloquent in his way; a way marked by an unstinted fluency in words and abundant duplication in the expres- sion o; oughts. His popularity is shown in the wide circulation of hisseriuons, which for over thirty years were printed weekly in many hundreds of newspapers, so that his preaching reached an immense audience. After holding various Dutch Reformed pastorates, he be- came pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn in 1869, and in 1894 transferred his scene of labor to Washington. THE UPPER FORCES IN AMERICAN HISTORY [Krom Talmage's very numerous sermons, we select a passage in which he elo- quently points out how the divine energies appear to have wrought for good in Ameri- can history, raising up men and moulding evente for the best results in the develop ment of the United States.] As it cost England many regiments and two millions of dollars a year to keep safely a troublesome captive at St. Helena, so the K ig of Assyria sent out a whole army to capture one minister of religion — the God-fear- ing prophet Elisha. During the night the army of the Assyrians sur- rounded the village of Dothan, where the prophet was staying, and at early daybreak his man-servant rushed in, exclaiming, " What shall we do ? A hole army has come to destroy you ! We must die ! Alas, we must die ! " But Elisha was not frightened, for he looked up and saw that the mountains all around were full of supernatural forces, and he knew that though there might be 50,000 Assyrians against him, there were 100,- 000 angels for him. In answer to the prophet's prayer in behalf of his 270 in 11 ; 280 T. DEWITT TALMAOE i i affrighted man-servant, the young man saw it too ; for " the Lord opened the eyes of the young man ; and he saw : and, behold, the mountains were full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." .... How do I know that this divine equipage is on the side of our insti- tutions ? 1 know it by the history of the last one hundred and fifteen years. The American Revolution started from the hand of John Hancock in Independence Hall, in 1776. On one side were the colonies, without ships, without ammunition, without guns, without trained warriors, with- out money, without prestige ; on the other side were the mightiest nation of the earth, the largest armies, the grandest navies, an^! the most distin- guished comi. nders, with resources almost inexhaustible, and with nearly all nations to back them up in the fight. Nothing against immensity. The cau.^e of the American colonies, which started at zero, dropped still lower through the quarreling of the generals, and through their petty jealousies, and through the violence of the winters, which surpassed all their prtdecessors in depths of snow and horrors of congealment. Elisha, when surrounded by the whole Assyrian army, did not seem to be worse off than did the thirteen colonies thus encompassed and overshadowed by foreign assault. What decided the contest in our favor? The upper forces, the upper armies. The Green and the White Mountains of New England, the Highlands along the Hudson, the mountains of Virginia, all the Appalachian ranges, were filled with reinforcements which the young man Washington saw by faith ; and his men endured the frozen feet, the gangrened wounds, the exhausting hunger and the long march, because " the Lord opened the eyes of the young man ; and he saw : and, behold, the mountains were full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.' Washington himself was a miracle. What Joshua was in sacred his- tory the first American President was in secalar history. A thousand other men excelled him in special powers, but he excelled them all in roundness and completeness of character. The world never saw his lik'^, and probably will never see his like again, because there will never be another such exigency. He was sent down by a divine interposition. He was from God direct. I cannot comprehend how any man can read the history of those times without admitting that the contest was decided by the upper forces. Again, in 1861, when our Civil War opened, many at the North and at the South pronounced it national suicide. It was not courage against cowardice, it was not wealth against poverty, it was not large States against small States. It was heroism against heroism, the resources of many generations against the resources of many generations, the prayer 1! T. DEWITT TALMAGE 281 of the North against the prayer of the South, one-half of the nation in wZtZlT^ ~"'r ''' """•■ '''' ""' '""^ "'^^■'"" ■" —I indignation. What could come but extermination ? At the opening of the war the commander-in-chief of the United States forces was a man who had served long in battle, but old age had come, with ,ts many infirmities, and he had a right to repose. He could not mount a horse, and he rode to the battlefield in a carriage, asking the dnver not to jolt too much. During the most of the fouf years of the ;'ontest the commander on the Southern side was a man in n.idlife who .ad m h,s veins the blood of many generations of warriors, himself one of t le heroes of Cherubusco and Cerro Gordo, Cont^eras and Chapultepec. As the years rolled on and the scroll of carnage unrolled, there came o-it from both sides a heroism and a strength and a determination that the world hacl never seen surpassed. What but extermination could come where Ph.hp Shendan and Stonewall Jackson led their brigades, anj Ifr. Tr""'^ ^^^""^ J°''"''°" '■"•'-' '" f^'*" ^he Xorth and South, and G. ,.t and Lee. the two thunderbolts of battle, clashed ? Yet we are still a nation end we are at peace. Karthly courage did not decide the contest. It was the upper forces that sa; ed our land. They tell us that there was a battle fought above the clouds at Lookout Mountain • " but there was something higher than that-a victory of the Lord of Hosts' Again, the horses and chariots of God came to the rescue of this nation in 1876. at the close of a Presidential election famous for its acri"- mony. A darker cloud still threatened to settle down upon this nation 1 he result of the election was in dispute, ..nd revolution, not between two or three sections, but revolution in every town and village and city of tlie United States, seemed imminent. It looked as if New York would throttle l^ew \ork; and .New Orleans would grip Xew Orleans; a„,l Poston Boston ; and Savannah, Savannah ; and Washington, Washington Some said that Mr. Tilden was elected ; others .said that Mr. Haves ^'elected and how near we came to universal massacre some of us guessed, but Ciod only knew. I ascribe cur escape not to tlie honesty and righteousness of infuriated politicians, but I ascribe it to t]>e upper forces, the armv of divine rescue. The chariot of mercy rolle^e inehide Alonzo Totter, eonseerated UislKip of Pennsyh-ania in 1845; Horatio Potter, his hrotlier, Hi.-ihop of New York in isrjl ; and Henry Cod- man Potter, his -on, who was consecrated IJishop of New York in 1S87. The last named had previously held various rectorships, the most noteworthy hein;; at (iracc Church, New York. He is the author of a nuiiilxr of valual^le works of literature, and is a pulpit orator of line powers and liijil stimation. THE HEROISM OF THE UNKNOWN [As a fitting example of the warmth ami effectiveness of Bishop Potter's elo- quence, we j;ive the following extract from an address made by him at the dedication of a monument in commemoration of the men of New Vork who fell at the battle of Gettvsliurg. .\fter speaking cf the seemingly inevitable character of the Civil War, and the gre.-.t moral prolilcni which it solvetl, he offered the following tribute to the unknown heroes who gave their lives at Gettysburg in their country's cause.] Thirty years ago to-day these peacefn! scenes were echoing with the roar and din of what a calm and unimpassioiied historian , writing of it long years afterward, described as the ' ' greatest battle-field of the New World. ' ' Thirty years ago to-day the hearts of some thirty millions of people turned to this spot with various but eager emotions, and watched here the crash of two armies which gatliered in their vast embrace the flower of a great people. Never, so declared the seasoned soldiers who listened to the roar of the enemy's artillery, had they heard anything that was comparable with it. Now and then it paused, " . though the very throats of the mighty guns were tired ; but only for a lulle. Not for one day, nor for two, but for three, raged the awful conflict, while the Republic gave its best life to 282 ' fc HENRY CODMAN POTTER redeem its honor and the stain of all previous blundering and faltering far away .t all seems as we stand here to-day ! How profound the con trast between those hours and days of bloodshed and the still serenity of Nature as .t greets us now ! The graves that cluster aro.nd us h r uL peaceful resting-places of a nation's heroes, are green and fair and withn, them, they who fell here, after life's fierce and fitful fev;r^?e sleepmg peacefully the sleep of the brave ' lever. are This day, this service, and most of all these our heroic dead, stand- let us here swear never to forget it-for the sanctity of law, for the endur- mg supremacy of just and equitable government, and so for the libertL of a united and law-abiding people. "oerues What, now. is that one feature in this occasion which lends to it supreme and most pathetic interest ? Here are tombs and memorials of heroes whose names are blazoned upon them, and whose kindred and friends have stood round them, have recited their deeds, and have stood in tender homage around those forms which were once to them a living joy But for us there is no such privilege, no such tender individually of gnef. These are our unknown dead. Out of whatever homes they came we cannot tel . What were their names, their lineage, we are ignor " One^thing only we know. They wore our uniform. And that is enough We need to know no more. From the banks of the Hudson and the the ^TT"" ' r^ "''.T"''' °^ "'" ^"'^'^'"^ ""^1 '''' Adirondacks : from the salt shores of Long Island ; from the fresh lakes of Geneva and Onon- daga, and their peers ; from the forge and the farm, the shop and the fac- tory; from college halls and crowded tenements; all aliie, they came here and fought and fe!l_and shall never, never be forgotten. Our gre^t unknown defenders! Ah, my countrymen, here we touch the foumla- muchl'th'"' ,H. "'^'-rf ' '""°"'^ ^"^^"^^^- ^^'^ ='- --t to talk much of the world's need of great leaders, and their proverb is often on our lips who said of old. "Woe unto the land whose King is a child \es, verily, that ,s a dreary outlook for any people when among her sons there is none worthy to lead her armies, to guide her councils, to interpret her laws, or to administer them. But that is a still drearier outlook when in any nation, however wise her rulers, and noble and heroic her com- manders, there IS no greatness in the people equal to a great vision in an emergency, and a great courage with which to seize it And that I maintain, was the supreme glory of the heroes whom we commemorate ^day_ All the niore are they tlie fitting representatives of you and of me-the people, ^ever m all history, I venture to affirm, was there a war |;U lUi i m i > ' '\i if j If i' ii 1(j| ■ III! .'it SM HENRY CODMAN POTTER wh(jse aims, whose policy, whose sacrifices were so absolutely determined by the people, in whom lay the strength and the power of the Republic. When some one reproached Lincoln for the seeming hesitancy of his policy, he answered— great seei as well as great soul that he was—" I stand for the people. I am going just as fast and as far as I can feel them behind me." And so, as we come here to-day and plant this column, consecrating it to its enduring dignity and honor as the memorial of our unknown dead, we are doing, as I cannot but think, the fittest possible deed that we can do. These unknown that lie about us here — ah, what are they but the peerless representatives, elect forever by the deadly gauge of battle, of those sixty millions of people, as to-day they are, whose rights and liber- ties they achieved ! Unknown to us are their names ; unknown to them were the greatness and glory of their deeds ! And is not this, brothers of New York, the story of the world's best manhood, ana of its best achievement ? The work by the great unknown, for the great unknown —the work that, by fidelity in the ranks, courage in the trenches, obedi- ent to the voice of command, patience at the picket line, vigilance at the outpost, is done by that great host that bear no splendid insignia of rank, and figure in no Commander's despatches— this work, with its largest, and incalculable, and unforseen consequences for a whole people — is not this work, which we are here to-day to commemorate, at once the noblest and most vast ? Who can tell us now the names even of those that sleep about us here ; and who of them would guess, on that eventful day when here they gave their lives for duty and their country, how great and how far-reaching in its effects would be the victory they should win ? And thus we learn, my brothers, where a nation's strength resides. When the German Emperor, after the Franco-Prussian War, was crowned in the Salle des Glaces at Versailles, on the ceiling of the great hall in which that memorable ceremony took place, there were inscribed the words: "The King Rules by His Own Authority." "Not so," said that grand old man of blood and iron who, most of all, had welded Ger- many into one mighty people—" not so : ' The Kings of the earth shall rule under me, saith the Lord.' Trusting in the tried love of the whole people, we leave the country's future in God's hands ! ' ' Ah, my coun- trymen, it was not this man or that man that saved our Republic in its hour of supreme peril. Let us not, indeed, forget her great leaders, great generals, great statesmen, and greatest among them all, her great martyr and President, Lincoln. But there was no one of these then who would not have told us that which we may all sec so plainly now, that it was not they who saved the country, but the host of her great unknown • CABrlPAlGN OR>\TORY ^ ■;i 5' I i p; li I T ■ } ■ 1 ilM «] FRANK W. GUNSAULUS fI856- CHICACO'S FAVORITE PULPIT ORATOR EMON(; the pulpit omtoiN of th.. West, Dr. (iunsmili..s, whose mm 1st raf ions tor many years pn*eyetl the vision , they have l)een the t uly great in history. Separated by ages and of differing temperaments, sure to have formed an irreconcilable company had they ever met on earth, uniting with tiie uncrowned kings of time, such as Hampden, Un- coin and Cavour, each of them in the light of this vision has Income great They have come into a growing supremacy over men's hearts, not so much Ijecause of might of mental emlowuient or that wit or wisdom which springs from uniijue prowess of brain, as l)ecause of the fact that each of them, after the manner of his own character, loyally seized upon the purpose of the Infinite One anroinc Court of tlio Initcl States in 18l],uluii tliiity-t wo years of ago, liad the Iionor of lieinij; th(^ Youngest, man wlio had ever hekl .so high a jiulifial iMisjtion either in America or Knjiland. He continued to hold t'ii;;t ofiiee until his death in 1ee. Ih' reijuireil no preparation to si)eak on any subject, ami on all he was equally happy. Wo have heard from him, thrown *>ut ir a diinier speecii, or at a public meeting, wheu unexpectedly calliil on, more brilliant aud striking thoughts than many of the most celebrated poels and orators ever elaborated in their closets." ]k)rn at Portland, Elaine, an op))ortunity for a lucrative tutor- ship took him froiu ei)llege to Natchez. >[ississippi, and it was in this city and in New Orleans that he afterward resided, obtaining in eatdi a very large legal practice. Electeil t "ongre«s in ls;i7, Ids seat was contested, and he addressed the Ilou.se in sui>port of his claim in a most admirable bunst of oratory. His reputation as an orator had preceded him, and the House was crowded with thost; who desii'ed to test the quality of his eloquence. IJareiy has Congress heanl an abler or more telling address. Webster .said, on leaving the hall, " Nobody could equal it." Ex-President Fillmore remarked : " I can never for- get that speech. It was certainly the most brilliant that I ever heard." Prentiss did not remain long in Congress. A parliamentary career was not to his taste. But his brief stay there was one of brilliancy and success, his few speeches winning him public applause and finnly .establishing his tame as a statesmanlike orator. He continueti, how- m IH 4 111: aw SERGEANT S. PRENTISS LI i ovor, to take par( i„ pulitical .M.,v...,u.t.ts, a>„nH..,,inr wi.l.lv known as a m..st Hhrf.v,. ..unpaif^Mi .s,M.ak».r. In iHir, |„. roruovcl f.,ni \iclv.sl)urj,' to Now Orleans, in wlii.h city 1„. ,|it.,I i„ 18.-,1. THE PILGRIMS Ne» I-.„„Un,l S-oo.y of New Orlcn.H, „„ I)cc-c„>l,cr =a, ,H45. Uisclogv of the Til! Kn,MH«aHHmost clTcct.vc bit of word faintinK, especially in his oonfrast of their character un.l nuns with those of the Spanish adventurers of the Sonlh.] Two centuries and a quarter ago, a little tempest-lost, weather- beaten urk, Laaly escapetl from tl.e jaws of the wild Atlantic, landeil upon the bleakest shore of New Ivngland. From her deck disembarked a hundred an-. account of the " great and golden city," and "the mighty rich and beautiful empire." We can hardly imagine that any one have believed, fur a moment, in their existence. Al that day, howe\.., the whole matter was received with the most implicit faith. Sir Walter professed to have explored the country, and thus glowingly describes it from his own observation ; " I never saw a more beautiful country, nor ino'o lively prospects; hills so raised here and there over the valleys— the river winding into divers branches— the plains adjoining, without biish or stubble— all fair green grass — the deer crossing in every path — the birds, towards the even- ing, singing on every tree with a thousand several tunes— the air fre»u, with a gentle easterly wind ; and every stone that we stopped to take up promised either gold or silver by its complexion. For lu-alth, good air, pleasure, and riches, I am resolved it cannot be eiiualled by any region either in the East or West." The Pilgrims were urged, in leaving Holland, to seek this charming country, and plant their colony amid its Arcadian bowers. Well might the poor wanderers cast a longing glance towards its happy valleys, winch III ^ w li ( > t It .100 8EROEANT B. PRENTISS I \\ I 11 I »efinefl to invite to pious contemplation and jK-accfiil lal>or. Well might the Krcn. grass, the pleasant groves, the tame ,lecr, and the singing birds allure them to that smiling land In^neath the equinoctial line. Hut while they (Iouhtee. Behol.I the Pilgrims, as they stood on that cold Decem- ber day-stern men, gentle Nvonien, and feeble children-all unitinir in singing a hymn of cheerful thanksgiving to the good God. who lud con- ducted them safely across the mighty deep, and permitte.l them to Ixvd upon that sterile shore. See how their upturned faces glow with a pious confidence winch the sharp winter winds cannot chill, nor the gloomy forest shadows darken : ^ " Not as the conqueror comes. Tlicy, the true-hearted c.niiie ; Not with the roll of the stiniiij.; I'.riim, NiT the trumpet, that siiij^s cf f.niic ; Nor us the flyiiiK come, III silence and in fear — They shook the depths of the desert gloom With their hymns of lofty cheer." Noble and pious band ! your holy confidence was not in vain • your hymns of lofty cheer " find echo still in the hearts of grateful millions. \ our descendants, when pressed by adversity, or when address- ing themselves to some high action, turn to the " Landing of the Pilgrims " and find heart for any fate-strength for any enterprise ' \\: I WENDELL PHILLIPS fl8U-J884) SLAVERY'S RELENTLESS FOE w |0U iiro looking for a man wlio is all art and thunder. Lo I a (liiift man glides upon tin- |(latt'orni and lic;,Mns taikin>; in a siniplc, easy, I'onviMsiitional way. I'rcscntly lie niakc.^ yon smilo at soinf liappy turn, then In- .^^taitlcs you by a ra[.ii'r like thnist, then electritii's you by a grand outburst of fftling. You iio is oratory — lo produce tiio grratot ttlitt by tbc simplt-t means." Wo cannot la'tler present Wendell TbillipH in lii.srok' as an orator, than by thisiiuotalitm from one of hi.s admirers. .\s an uneomprouiis- ing foe to hunian slavery, bo \va.s one of the group of which Parker and (iarrison were other conspicuous mendxMS. Tiio a.ssault by a Hoston mob, led by gentlemen, on William Lloyd (Jariison, in which the latter barely escaped with life, made I'liillips an abolitictnist. Ho took his titand p\ibiiidy in a memorable siK'ech at Faneuil Hall in 1837, whicii Or. C'hanning designated as •' morally Kul»lime." So ijitter did Phillips become in his hatred of the slavery ^y.stem, that he refused to practice law under a Constitution which recognized it, and was ready to welcome a dissolution of the Union as an elleclual na thod of free- ing the slaves. He was president of the Anti-Sluvery Society till its dissolution in 1«70, and was also a warm advocate of woman. suffrage, prohibition, prison reform, and greenback currency, on ail of which lie made eloquent speeches. JOHN BROWN AND LIBERTY [The growing sentiment in the North in favor of the abolition of slavery, rapid OS it was, moved loo slowly for the impatient spirit of Wendell Phillips, and when John Brown made his memorable assault on Harper's Ferry, in a hopelessly futile attempt to promote an insurrection of the slaves, Phillips regarded him as one of the 301 !f; ^ I 1 . It H ! i 3Q2 WENDELL PHILLIPS great heroes of humanity, and could scarcely find words strong enough to expre- h.s appreciation of the old man's effort. In November. ,859. while Brown lav undl^ ^ntence of death his defender eulogized him in the foUo^fng exa^gerar^ but vTgS Tih.r?r "'" '"Z ^'l^" °^^'^'"*- '^'^''^'' '° '^^""^o^ i" Jaurels. Liberty knows nothing but victories. Bunker Hill, soldiers call a defeat ' But Liberty dates from it, though Warren lay dead on the field. Men sav the attempt did not succeed. No man can command success. Whether It was well planned, and deserved to succeed, we shall be able to decide when Brown IS free to tell us all he knows. Suppose he did fail, he has done a great deal still. Why, this is a decent country to live in now Actually, in this Sodom of ours, seventeen men have been found ready to die for an idea. God be thanked for John Brown, that he has discovered or created them. I should feel some pride if I were in Europe now!n confessing that I was an American. We have redeemed the long infamy of twenty years of subservience. But look back a bit. Is there anything new about this ? Nothing at all. It is the natural result of antiiaver^ teaching. For one. I accept it ; I expected it. I cannot say that I prayed for It : I cannot say that I hoped for it ; but at the same time no sane man has ooked upon this matter for twenty years and supposed that we could go through this great moral convulsion, the great classes of society clash- ing and jostling against each other like frigates in a storm, and that there would not be such scenes as these. Why in .835 it was the other way. Then it was my bull that gored your ox. Their ideas came in conflict, and men of violence, and men who haa not made up their minds to wait for the slow conversion of conscience men who trusted in their own right hands, men who believed in Bowie knives-why such sacked the city of Philadelphia, such made New York o ^h?HTr"1 k'^ ';T\' ''°''°" ''"' ''' °^^y°^ «"PP''^"* «"d kneeling tothechief of broadcloth in broad daylight. It was all on that side The natural result, the first result of this starting of ideas, is like people ^ho get half-awaked and use the first weapons that appear to them The finst developing and unfolding of national life were the mobs of i8.s People said it served us right : we had no right to the luxury of speaking our own nunds ; it was too expensive: these lavish, luxurious persons walking about here and actually saying what they think ! Why it was Ike speaking aloud in the midst of avalanches. To say '• Liberty ' ' in a loud tone, the Constitution of 1789 might come down-it would not do But now things have changed. We have been talking thirty years' Twenty years we have talked everywhere, under all circumstancJ ■ we ^ WENDELL PHILLIPS «« have been mobbed out of great cities and pelted out of little ones ; we have been abused by great men and by little papers. What is the result ? The tables have been turned ; it is your bull that has gored my ox now. And men that still believe in violence— the five points of whose faith are the fist, the Bowie knife, fire, poison, and the pistol —are ranged on the side of liberty, and— unwilling to wait for the slow but sure steps of thought— lay on God's altar the best they have. You cannot expect to put a real Puritan Presbyterian, as John Brown is, —a regular Cromwellian dug up from two centuries ago,— in the midst of our New England civilization , that dares not say its soul is its own , nor proclaim that it is wrong to sell a man at auction, and not have him show himself as he is. Put a hound in the presence of a deer, and he springs at his throat if he is a true bloodhound. Put a Christian in the presence oi sin, and he will spring at its throat if he is a true Christian. And so into an acid we might throw white matter, but unless it is chalk it will not produce agi- tation. So if in a world of sinners you were to put American Christian- ity, it would be calm as oil ; but put one Christian like John Brown, of Ossawatomie, and he makes the whole crystallize into right and wrong, and marshal themselves on one side or the other. And God makes him the text, and all he asks of our comparatively cowardly lips is to preach the sermon and to say to the American people that, whether that old man succeeded in a worldly sense or not, he stood a representative of law of government, of right, of justice, of religion, and they were pirates that ^thered around him and sought to wreak vengeance by taking his life. The banks of the Potomac are doubly dear now to history and to man ' The dust of Washington rests there ; and history will .see forever on that riverside the brave old man on his pallet, whose dust, when God calls him hence, the Father of his Country would be proud to make room for beside his own. But if Virginia tyrants dare hang him, after this mockery of a trial, it will take two more Washingtoiis at least to make the name of the State anything but abominable to the ages that come after. Well, I say what I really think. George Washington was a great man. Yes, I say what I really think. And I know, ladies and gentle- men, that, educated as you have been by the experience of the last ten years here, you would have thought me the silliest as well as the most cowardly man in the world if I should have come, with my twenty years behind me, and talked about anything else tonight except that great example which one man has set us on the banks of the Potomac. You expected, of course, that I should tell you my opinion of it. I value this element that John Brown has introduced into American politics for another reason. The South is a great power. There arc no . 1U * 304 WENDELL PHILLIPS 31 li cowards in Virginia. It was not cowardice. Now, I try to speak very plainly, but you will misunderstand me. There is no cowardice in Vir- ginia. The people of the South are not cowards. The lunatics in the Gospel were not co%vards when they said : "Art thou come to torment us before the time ? " They were brave enough, but they saw afar off. They saw the tremendous power that was entering into that charmed circle ; they knew its inevitable victory. Virginia did not tremble at an old gray-headed man at Harper's Ferry. They trembled at a John Brown in every man 'sown conscience. He had been there many years, and, like that terrific scene which Beckworth lias drawn for us in his " Hall of Eblis," where all ran round, each man with an incurable wound in his bosom, and agreed not to speak of it, so the South has been running up and down its political and social life, and every man keeps his right hand pressed on the secret and incurable sore, with an understood agreement, in Church and State, that it never shall 1 mentioned for fear the great ghastly fabric shall come to pieces at the talismanic word. Brown uttered it, and the whole machinery trembled to its very base. CLEAR VISION VERSUS EDUCATION Some men seem to think that our institutions are necessarily safe becaase we have free schools and cheap books and a public opinion that controls. But this is no evidence of safety. India and China have had schools, and a school-system almost identical with that of Massachusetts, for fifteen hundred years. And books are as cheap in Central and Northern Asia as they are in New York. But they have not ::»cured liberty, nor secured a controlling public opinion, to either nation. Spain for three centuries had municipalities and town governments, as independent and self supporting, and as representatative of thought, as New England or New York has. But that did not save Spain. De Tocqueville says that three years before the great Revolution, public opinion was as omnipotent in France as it is to-day ; but it did not save France. You cannot save men by machinery. What India and France and Spain wanted was live men, and that is what we want to-day ; men who are willing to look their own destiny, and their own functions and their own responsibilities in the face. " Grant me to .see, and Ajax wants no more," was the prayer the great poet put into the lips of his hero in the darkness that overspread the Grecian camp. All we want of American citizens is the opening of their own eyes and seeing things as they are. — ( .) RALPH WALDO EMERSON (I803-I882) THE PHE.OSOPHER, POET AND ORATOR SMf]RICA has produced only one Emerson, one to wlioni all nature was a song of l)eauty and use. to whom Howerand wo(>d ahke told tlie story of upliftinji, wlio looked throufrli tlie veil of the future and saw nuin gro\vin power which is at once spring and regulator in all efforts of reform, is the conviction that there is an infinite wortniness in man which will appear at the call of worth, and that all particular reforms are the removing of some impediment. Is it not the highest duty that man should be honored in us ? I ought not to allow any man , because he has broad lands, to feel that he is rich in my presence. I ought to make him feel that I can do without his riches, that I cannot be bought, — neither by comfort, neither by pride,— and though I be utterly penniless, and receiv- ing bread from him, that he is the poor man beside me. And if, at the same time, a woman or a child discover a sentiment of piety, or a juster way of thinking than mine, I ought to confess it by my respect and obedi- ence, though it go to alter my whole way of life. The Americans have many virtues, but they have not Faith and Hope. I know no two words whose meaning is more lost sight of. We use these words as ■'" they were as obsolete as Selah and Amen. And yet they have the h < adest meaning, and the most cogent application in Boston in 1841. Tlo Americans have no faith. They rely on the power of a dollar ; they are deaf to a sentiment. They think you may talk the north wind down as easily as raise society ; and no class more faithless than the scholars or intellectual men Every triumph and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm. The victories of the Arabs after Mahomet, who, in a few years, from a small and mean beginning, estab- lished a larger empire than that of Rome, is an example. They did they knew not what. The naked Derar, horsed on an idea, was found an over- match for a troop of Roman cavalry. The women fought like men, and conquered the Roman men. They were miserably equipped, miserably fed. They were Temperance troops. There was neither brandy nor flesh needed to feed them. They conquered Asia and Africa and Spain on barley. The Caliph Omar's walking-stick struck more terror into those who saw it than another man's sword. His diet was barley bread ; his sauce was salt ; and ofttimes, by way of abstinence, he ate his bread without salt. His drink was water ; his palace was built of mud ; and when he left Medina to go to the conquest of Jenisalem, he rode on a red camel, with a wooden platter hanging at his saddle, with a bottle of water and two sacks, one holding barley and the other dried fruits. But there will dawn ere long ou our politics, on our modes of living, a nobler morning than that Arabian faith, in the sentiment of love. This RALPH WALDO EMERSON 307 is the one remedy for all ills, the panacea of nature. We must be lovers, and at once the impossible becomes possible. Our age and history for these thousand years has not been the history of kindness, but of selfish- ness. Our distrust is very expensive. The money we spend for courts and prisons is very ill laid out. We make by distrust the thief and burglar and incendiary, and by our court and jail we keep him so. An acceptance of the sentiment of love throughout Christendom for a season would bring the felon and the outcast to our side in tears, with the devotion of his faculties to our service. See this wide society of laboring men and women. We allow ourselves to be served by them, we live apart from them, and meet them without a salute in the streets. We do not greet their talents, nor rejoice in their good fortune, nor foster their hopes, nor in the assembly of the people vote for what is dear to them. Thus we enact the part of the selfish noble and king from the foundation of the world Let our affection flo , out to our fellows ; it would operate in a day the greatest of all revolutions. It is better to work on institutions by the sun than by the wind. The state must consider the poor man, and all voices must speak for him. Every child that is born must have a just chance for his bread. Let the amelioration in our laws of property pro- ceed from the concession of the rich, not from the grasping of the poor. Let us begin by habitual imparting. Let us understand that the etjuitable rule is, that no one should take more than his share, let him be ever so rich. Let me feel that I am to be a lover. I am to see to it that the world is the better for me and to find my reward in the act. Love would put a new face on this weary old world, in which we dwell as pagans and enemies too long, and it would warm the heart to see how fast the vain diplomacy of statesmen, the impotence of armies and navies and lines of defense would be superseded by this unarmed child. Love will creep where it cannot go, will accomplish that by imperceptible methods — being its own lever, fulcrum and power — which force could never achieve. Have you not seen in the woods, in a late autumn morning, a poor fungus or mushroom, — a plant without any solidity, nay, that seemed nothing but a soft mush or jelly, — by its constant, total, and inconceivably gentle pushing, manage to break its way up through the frosty ground, and actually to lift a hard crust on its head ? It is the symbol of the power of kindness. The virtue of this principle in human society in application to great interests is obsolete and forgotten. Once or twice in historj' it has been tried in illustrious instances, with signal success. This great, over- grown, dead Christendom of ours still keeps alive at least the name of a lover of mankind. But one day all men will be lovers, and every calamity will be dissolved in the universal sunshine. 5 ! ' GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS (I824-I892) THE EASY-CHAIR PHILOSOPHER mT WHS in tho Xatioiuil [{cpiililifaii Coiivoiition of 1884 that (ioor^'c William Curtis dccisivt'ly (Icclaml hiinsolf on tlio suhjoct of party politics. On a proposition hcinj; made tliat all (lo]c<;atos sliouj.l I.IikI tlii'insclvi's to support tlic noiuinco of tlio Convention, Curtis rose and finiily said : "(unticnu'U of tlio Convon- tion : \ Ropuhlican and a free man F ramo into tiiis Convention; l>y till' j,M-a(rof (iod.a I{ei)ui)iican and a free man will I j;o out of this Convention." This rin<,nn^' dcelaration cheeked the movement to hind tho minds of the memhers, and gave rise to the i!idependent Repuh- liean movement of tiiat year. A frraceful and often a hrilliant writer, Curtis also won a hi;,Mi n'putation as a leeturerand puhlic speaker, and was lonj^ a favorite with .\meriean audienee.s. WENDELL PHILLIPS AND HIS LIFE LABOR [Wc ■-" Phillips, looked upon by many as an unmanageable agitator, had a highly moral method in liis madness," as an uncompromising foe of human slavery and of U.e oppression of labor in any form. Chief among those who gave him credit for the utility and humanity of his life work was George William Curtis, whose eloquent oration in Tremont Temple, Boston April i8,' 1S84, was one of the finest tributes to the memory ofthe famous abolitionist. Wcgive themost effective portion of this address.] When the war ended, and the specific purpose of his relentless agita- tion was accomplished, Phillips was still in the prime of life. Had his mind recurred to the dreams of earlier years, had he desired, in the fulness of his frame and the maturity of his powers, to turn to the political career which the hopes of the friends of his youth had forecast, I do not douht that the Massachusetts of Sumner and of Andrew, proud of his genius and owning his immense service to the triumphant cause, although a service beyond the party line, and often apparently directed against the party itself, would have gladly summoned him to duty. It would, indeed, have 308 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS ao9 been a kind of peerage for this great Commoner. But not to repose and peaceful honor did this earnest soul incline. "Now that the field is won," he said gaily to a friend, " do you sit by the camp-fire, but I will put out into the underbrush." The slave, indeed, was free, but emanci- pation did not free the agitator from his task. The client that suddenly appeared before him on that memorable October day was not an oppressed race alone; it was wronged humanity ; it was the victim of unjust sys- tems and unequal laws ; it was the poor man, the weak man, the unfor- tunate man, whoever and whatever he might be. This was the cause that he would still plead in the forum of public opinion. " Let it not be said," he wrote to a meeting of his old abolition friends two months before his death, "that the old abolitionist stopped with the negro, and was never able to see that the same principles claimed his utmost effort to protect all labor, white ana black, and to further the discussion of every claim of humanity." Was this the habit of mere agitation, the restless discontent that followed great achievement ? There were those who thought so. But they were critics of a temperament which did not note that with Phillips agitation was a principle, and a deliberately chosen method to definite ends. There were still vast questions springing from the same root of self- ishness and injustice as the question of slavery. They must force a hear- ing in the same way. He would not adopt in middle life the career of politics which he had renounced in youth, however seductive that career might be, whatever its opportunities and rewards, because the purpose had grown with his growth and strengthened with his strength to form public opinion rather than to represent it, in making or executing the laws. To form public opinion upon vital public questions by public dis- cussion, but by public discussion absolutely fearless and sincere, and con- ducted with honest faith in the people to whom the argument was addressed — this was the service which he had long performed, and this he would still perform, and in the familiar way No man, I say, can take a pre eminent and effective part in conten- tions that shake nations, or in the discussion of great national policies, of foreign relations, of domestic economy and finance, without keen reproach and fierce misconception. "But death," says Bacon, " bringeth good fame." Then, if moral integrity remain unsoiled, the purpose pure, blameless the life, and patriotism as shining as the sun, conflicting views and differing counsels disappear, and, firmly fixed upon character and actual achievement, good fame rests secure. Eighty years ago, in this city, how unsparing was the denunciation of John Adams for betraying and ruining his party ; for his dogmatism, his vanity and ambition ; for his exasperating impracticability — he. the Colossus of the Revolution ! And I i 310 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS il iS I nil Thomas Jefferson ? I may truly say what the historian says of the Sara- cen mothers and Richard Cuuur de Lion, that the mothers of Boston hushed their children with fear of the political devil incarnate of Virginia. But, when the drapery of mourning shrouded the columns and overhung the arches of Faneuil Hall, Daniel Webster did not remember that some- times John Adams was imprudent and Thomas Jefferson sometimes unwise. He remembered only that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were two of the greatest American patriots — and their fellow-citizens of every party bowed their heads and said, Amen. I am not here to declare that the judgment of Wendell Phillips was always sound, nor his estimate of men always just, nor his policy always approved by the event. He would have scorned such praise. I am not here to eulogize the mortal, but the immortal. He, too, was a great America" patriot ; and no American life — no, not one — offers to future generations uf his countrymen a more price- less example of inflexible fidelity to conscience and to public duty ; and no American more truly than he purged the national name of its shame, and made the American flag the flag of hope for mankind. Among her noblest children his native city will cherish him, and gratefully recall the unbending Puritan soul that dwelt in a form so gracious and urbane. The plain house in which he lived, — severely plain, because the welfare of the suffering and the slave were preferred to books and pictures and every fair device of art ; the house to which the North Star led the trembling fugitive, and which the unfortunate and the friend- less knew ; the radiant figure passing swiftly through these streets, plain as the house from which it came, regal with a royalty beyond that of kings ; the ceaseless charity untold ; the strong sustaining heart of private friendship ; the sacretl domestic affections that must not here be named ; the eloquence which, like the song of Orpheus, will fade from living memory into a doubtful tale ; that great scene of his youth in Faneuil Hall : the surrender of ambition ; the mighty agitation and the mighty triumph with which his name is forever blended ; the consecration of a life hidden with God in sympathy with man — these, all these, will live among your immortal traditions, heroic even in your heroic story. But not yours alone ! As years go by, and only the large outlines of lofty American characters and careers remain, the wide republic will confess the benediction of a life like this, and gladly own that, if with perfect faith and hope assured America would still stand and ' ' bid the distant generations hail," the inspiration of her national life mu.st be the sublime moral courage, the all-embracing humanity, the spotless integrity, the absolutely unselfish devotion of great powers to great public ends, which were the glory of Wendell Phillips. if « t I JOSEPH COOK (1838-1900 THE BOSTON MONDAY LECTURER SMONO men who seem born with the capability of hamllinfc even- subiect, aii.l treating all with a fair .legreo of etU-ctive- ness' mav he nanie.l Joseph (V)ok. the fanie.l Mondav lecturer. E.lucatea at Yale and Harvard Universities at,d in (Jermany, ho gave four years to stu.lv at Andover Theological Seminary, which he loft witl/a license to preach, and spent four yean* in the pulpit. Ho suhscqucntlv became of great repute as a lecturer, si^akmg to great audie-ices on Mon.lavs, at Boston, f..r twenty years, and lecturn.g wi.lelv in all Knglish-si^^aking countries. His Mon.lay lectures have "been published in ton volumes covering such diverse subjects as "Biology," "Orthodoxy," " Tra.iscondentalism," "Conscience, " Hcro.m. The., came forward before the angel three other spirits whom I heard the ten thousa,ul t.mes ten thousand call by names known on earth.-- Adams a..d Jefferson and Webster. And behind then, stood Chath;m wtl'i r r' ""'"f "'' ''^ ^°'"^" ^^-^'^^ -d « multitude who had keys a.,d crowns. A.,d they said to the angel : " We will go on earth and teach d.ffusion of property. We will heal America by the^eJf respect of ownership. ' ' And the angel said. • ' Go. You will Jefficient, but not sufficient. ' '^"i'-icui, Meanwhile, under emigrant wharves and crowded factories and beneath Wall Street, and under the poisor s alleys of suffc^ated grit cities, I heard yet the black angels laugh. ^ ..rJ^r ""IT ^^f y-Z^'-'^^'-d before the angel three other spirits, with garments white as the light ; and I saw not their faces, but I her rd the ten thousand Umes ten thousand call them by names known on earth ~ JOSEPH COOK 313 Edwards and Dwight and Whitefield. And behind them »tooe found the healing of the nations, — the diffusion of liberty, the diffusion of intelligence, th'.- diffu- sion of property, the diffusion of conscientiousness. You will be more than ever efficient, but not sufficient." I listened, and under Plymouth Rock and the universities there was no sound ; but under emigrant wharves and crowded factories, and under Wall Street, and in poisonous alleys of great cities, I heard yet the black angels laugh ; but, with the laughter there came up now from Ijeneath a clanking of chains. Then I looked, and the whole firmament above the angel was as if it were one azure eye ; and into it the ten thousand times ten thousand gazed ; and I saw that they stood in one palm of a Hand of Him into whose face they gazed, and that the soft axle of the world stood xipon the finger of another palm, and that both palms were pierced. I saw the twelve spirits which had gone forth and they joined hands with each other and with the twelve hours, and moved perpetually al)out the globe ; and I heard a voice, after which there was no laughter : 'Ye are efficient, but I am sufficient." I; ?|t i ! » it, k JOHN B. GOUGH (t8J7-J886) THE FAMOUS TEMPERANCE ADVOCATE |K who can W-st m.iko liimsclf felt on iinv fi l,i ., t i- ho who has Koiio tliruii^'li tht> lire of cxiKTifiiei'. Thi.. i* was with John li. fJoiich, thi: iiiiiiieut fiiiiiHTaiH-(« IwturtT. While Icaniiiif,' the iKiokl.indiii): tra.lo in New York ho f.-II into tlie hahit ofdrinkinn, anil for ten years was mieh a slave to int^ni|HMaiice that lie sank into the lowest depths of iH)vorty ami wretehedness. Ahout 1840 lie was induced to sign the total ahstinenee [.ledfje, and from that time forward devote.\ ei.iotional oratory, and comhining with this the qualities of an aci ■•, iie soon (listin<,niished hiiux If as the most elo- quent and snccosfiil advocate of the temperance cause. < )ratorv, anecdote, iMip(rsonation. impassioned relations of his own degrada- tion, comhi'ied in him to yield a woiKh'rful ellect upon his audiences. Ho lectured for many years widely through the llnglish .six^aking world, and douhtless was the happy in.strument for saving myriads from the curse of drink. THE TEMPERANCE CAUSE [Cough's orations oil his chosen .subject were niultitudinous. The utmost we can ' the State of Massachusetts, I am not satisfied with the loyalty of that State, if the nominee of this convention cannot carry the grand old Commonwealth of Mas.sachusetts by seventy five thousand majority, I would advise them to sell out Faneuil Hall as a Democratic headiiuarters. I would advi.se them to take from Bunker Hill that old monument of glor>-. 317 M m Mi ■1 ! I j * i I- ^is- t it. I H 318 ROBERT G. INOERSOLL I The Republicans of the United States demand as their leader in the great contest of 1876 a man of intelligence, a man of integrity, a man of well-known and approved political opinions. They demand a statesman ; thej' demand a reformer after, as well as before, the election . They demand a politician in the highest, broadest, and best sense — a man of superb moral courage. They demand a man acquainted with public affairs, with the wants of the people, with not only the requirements of the houi , but with the demands of the future. They demand a man broad enough to comprehend the relations of this Government to the other nations of the earth. They demand a man well versed in the powers, duties and prero- gatives of each and every department of this Government. They demand a man who will sacredly preserve the financial honor of the United States; one who knows enough to know that the national debt must be paid through the prosperity of this people ; one who knows enough to know that all the money must be made, not by law, but by labor ; one who knows enough to know that the people of the United States have the industry to make the money and the honor to pay it over just as fast as they make it. The Republicans of the United States demand a man who knows that prosperity and resumption, when they come, must come together; that when they come, they will come hand in hand through the golden harvest fields ; hand in hand by the whirling spindles and turning wheels ; hand in hand past the open furnace doors ; hand in hand by the flaming forges ; hand in hand by the chinmeys filled with eager fire — greeted and grasped by the countless sons of toil. This money ha's to be dug out of the earth. You cannot make it by passing resolutions in a political convention. The Republicans of the United States want a man who knows that this Government should protect every citizen at home and abroad ; who knows that any Government that will not defend its defenders and protect its protectors is a disgrace to the map of the world. They demand a man who believes in the eternal separation and divorcement of Church and School . They demand a man whose political reputation is spotless as a star ; but they do not demand that their candidate shall have a certificate of moral character signed by a Confederate Congress. The man who has in full, heaped and rounded measure all these splendid qualificctions is the present grand and gallant leader of the Republican party — ^James G. Blaine. Our country, crowned with the vast and marvelous achievements of its first century, asks for a man worthy of the past and prophetic of her future ; asks for a man who has the audacity of genius ; asks for a man who is the greatest combination of heart, conscience, and brain beneath ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 319 her flag. Such a man is James G. Blaine. For the Republican host, led by this intrepid man, there can be no defeat. This is a grand year ; a year filled with the recollections of the Revo- lution, filled with proud and tender memories of the past, with the sacred legends of liberty ; a year in which the sons of Freetlom will drink from the fountains of enthusiam ; a year in which the people call for a man who has preserved in Congress what our soldiers won upon the field ; a year in which we call for the man who has torn from the throat of treason the tongue of slander ; for the man who has snatched the mask of Demo cracy from the hideous face of Rebellion ; for the man who, like an intel- lectual athlete, has stood in the arena of debate and challenged all comers, and who, up to the present moment, is a total stranger to defeat. Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, James G. Blaine marched down the halls of the American Congress and threw his shining lance full and fair against the brazen foreheads of the defaniers of his country and the maligners of his honor. For th^ Republicans to desert this gallant leader now is as though an army should desert their general upon the field of battle. James G. Blaine is now, and has been for years, the bearer of the sacred standard of the Republican party. I call it sacred, because no human being can stand beneath its folds without becoming and without remaining free. Gentlemen of the Convention, in the name of the great Republic, the only Republic that ever existed upon this earth ; in the name of all her defenders and of all her supporters ; in the name of all her soldiers living ; in the name of all her soldiers dead upon the field of battle ; and in the name of those who perished in the skeleton clutch of famine at Anderson- ville and Libby, whose sufferings he so vividly remembers, Illinois- Illinois nominates for the next President of this country that prince of parliamentarians, that leader of leaders, James G. Blaine. ■I ■ ! 1 ■ • ■ I ; i M ORATION AT HIS BROTHER'S GRAVE [A discourse with the deep feeling and jKithos of this is oue that would hardly be looked for from a man with the reputation of a contemner of religion. It shows that, despite liis ordinary attitude, Ingersoll had a religion of his own, and a trust in the hereafter.] Friends, I am going to do that which the dead oft promised he would do for me. The loved and loving brother, husband, father, friend died, where manhood's niorning almost touched noon, and while the shadows still were falling toward the West. ' i ! ! IJii ■.i-M ROBERT G. INGERSOLL wm Hi ihi He had not passed on life's highway the stone that marks the highest point, but, being weary for a moment, he lay down by the wayside, and, using his burden for a pilluw, fell into that dreamless sleep that kisses down his eyelids still. *»Vhile in love with life and raptured with the world, he passed to silence and pathetic dust. Yet, after all, it miy be best, just in the happiest, sunniest hour of all the voyage, while eager winds are kissing every sail, to dash against the unseen rock, and in an instant hear the billows roar above a sunken ship. For, whether in mid sea or among the breakers of tht farther shore, a wreck at last must mark the end of each and all. And every life, no matter if its every hour is rich with love, and every moment jeweled with a joy, will, at its close, become a tragedy as sad and deep and dark as can be woven of the warp and woof of mystery and death. This brave and tender man in every storm of life was oak and rock, but in the sunshine he was vine and flower. He was the friend of all heroic souls. He climbed the heights and left all superstitions .'"ar below, while on his forehead fell the golden dawning of the grander day. He loved the beautiful, and was with. coLii , form and music touched with tears. He sided with the weak, the poor, and wronged, and lovingly gave alms. With loyal heart and with the purest hands, he faithfully discharged all public trusts. He was a worshipper of liberty, a friend of the oppressed. A thou- sand times I have heard him ([uote these words : " For justice, all place a temple, and all season, summer.' ' He believed that happiness was the only good, reason the only torch, justice the only worship, humanity the only religioii, and love the only priest. He added to the sum of human joy ; and were every one to whom he did some loving service to bring a blossom to his grave, he would sleep to-night beneath a wilderness of flowers. Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eter- nities. We strive in vain to look bej'ond the heights. We cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry. From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word ; but in the night of death hope sees a star, a ;;^ listening love can hear the rustle of the wing. He who sleeps here when dying, mistaking the approach of death for the return of health, wnispered with his latest breath : " I am better now." Let us believe, in spite of doubts and dogmas, of fears and tears, that these dear words are true of all the countless dead. And now to you who have been chosen, from among the many that he loved, to do the last sad office for the dead, we give his sacred dust. HENRY ARMITT BROWN (1844-J878) THE ORATOR OF MUNICIPAL REFORM SMOX(i the promising orators of the liittcr lialf of the nineteenth century must lie named Henry Ariuitt Brown, a youn-,' hiwyer of rhihulelphia, gifted l.y nature witli rare elo((uenee, yet cut down l)y fate before lie readied tlie zenitli of liis powi-ix Iliis reputa- tion, wliicii liad grown widely l)efore iiis deatii, was gained as a jKditi- cal orator in presidential eaiiiiiaigns and in the service of municipal reform in Philadelphia. His early decease was a serious loss to the latter cause, which has moved backward decidedly in the years that have since followed, though it can hardly he hoped that oratory would have materially shaken the retrograde movement. H !i . i MAN'S PROGRESS AND PROBLEMS [Of the public addresses of Mr. Brown perhaps the most admirable, as the most admired, was that delivered at the Valley Forge centennial. The extract givei- .8 full of suggestive truth as to the life of man aud the conditions surrounding him.] The century that has gone has changed the face of nature and wrought a revolution in the habits of mankind. We stand to-day at the dawn of an extraordinary- age. Freed from the chains of ancient thought and superstition, man has J)egun to win most extraordinarj' victories in the domain of science. One by oi;e he has dispelled tho doubts of the ancient world. Nothing is too difficult for his hand to attempt ; no region too remote, no place too sacred, for his daring eye to penetrate. He has robbed the earth of her secrets and sought to solve the mysteries of the heavens ! He has secured and chained to his service the elemental forces of nature ; he has made the tire his steed, tlie winds his ministers, the seas his pathway, the lightning his messenger. He has descended into the bowels of the earth, and walked in safety on the bottom of the sea. He ha.^ raised his head above the cloud:,, and made the impalpable 21 :iL'l !:i^ 1 1 . fi i M 322 HENRY ARMITT BROWN air his resting-place. He has tried to analyze the stars, count the constel- lations, and weigh the sun. He has advanced with such astounding speed that, breathless, we have reached a moment when it seems as if distance had been annihilated, time made as naught, the invisible seen, the inaudible heard, the unspeakable spoken, the intangible felt, the impossible accomplished. And already we knock at the door of a new century which promises to be infinitely brighter and more enlightened and happier than this. But of all this blaze of light which illuminates the present and casts its reflection into the distant recesses of the past, there is not a single ray that shoots into the future. Not one step have we taken toward the mystery of the solution of life. That remains to-day as dSLTu and unfathomable as it was ten thousand years ago. We know that we are more fortunate than our fathers. We believe that our children shall be happier than we. We know that this century is more enlightened than the last. We believe that the time to come will be better and more glorious than this. We think, we believe, we hope, but we do not know. Across that threshold we may not pass ; behind that veil we may not penetrate. Into that country it may not be for us to go. It may be vouchsafed to us to behold it, wotideringly, from afar, but never to enter it. It matters not. The age in which we live is but a link in the endless and eternal chain. Our lands are like the sands upon the shore ; our voices like the breath of this summer breeze that stirs the leaf for a moment and is forgotten. Whence we have come and whither we shall go, not one of us can tell. And the last survivor of this mighty multitude shall stay but a little while. But in the impenetrable To Be, the endless generations are advancing to take our places as we fall. For them, as for us, shall the earth roll on and the seasons come and go, the snowflakes fall, the flowers bloom, and the harvests be gathered in. For them as for us shall the sun, like the life of man, rise out of darkness in the morning and sink into darkness in the night. For them as for us shall the years march by in the sublime procession of the ages. And here, in this place of sacrifice, in this vale of humiliation, in this valley of the shadow of that death out of which the life of America arose, regenerate and free, let us believe with an abiding faith that, to them, union will seem as dear, and liberty as sweet, and progress as glorious, as they were to our fathers, and are to you and me, and that the institutions that have made us happy, preserveil by the virtue of our children, shall bless the remotest generations of the time to come. And unto Him who holds in the hollow of His hand the fate of nations, and yet marks the sparrow's fall, let us lift up our hearts this day, and into his eternal care commend ourselves, our children and our country. \ I HENRY WATTERSON f J840 ) THE POPULAR ORATOR AND EDITOR OF KENTUCKY HMONd tlic i>hra.scs wklcly current in the American i)olitical worl.I is ti.at of '-Taritr for revenue only," a Democratic •slopin wiiich has formed the war-cry in more than one hard- fought hattlo for tiie Presidency, and whicii is credited to the fertile hrain of Henry Watterson, one of the ahlest among Western editors. As a counterpoise against taritf for protection, this phrase has had a telling eU'ect in iKilitical and economical argument. Wattei'son U'gan hir career as a newspaper writer in Washington, returning to his paternal home in Tennessee at the outhreak of the Civil War, and serving in the Confederate army. .Since 18()« he has heen known as the ahle and trenchant editor of the Cmtrier Jouniaf, of Louisville. An old-line Democrat of the Jeiferson and Jack.son school, he has steadily workc.i for this wing of his party. Watterson is elocjuent and popular as an orator, hotlj in the political and lecture field, and in the ligiiter vein of the "after-dinner" speech. A VISION OF AMERICAN HISTORY [One of Watterson's choicest efforts in oratory is his oration -lelivered October 21, 1892, at the dedication of the Columl.ian World's Fair in Chicago. From this fine address we select one of the most eloquent passages.] We look before and after, and we see, through the half-drawn folds of time, as though through the solemn archways of some grand cathedral, the long procession pass, as silent and as real as a dream. The caravals! tossing upon Atlantic billows, have their sails refilled from the East, and bear away to the West ; the land is reached, and fulfilled is the vision whose actualities are to be gathered by other hands than his who planned the voyage and steered the bark of discovery ; the long-sought golden day has come to Spain at last, and Castilian conquests tread upon one another 323 I !i !ij>; Hi) ML 324 HENRY WATTERSON fast enough to pile up perpetual power and riches. But even as simple justice was denied Columbus, was lasting tenure denied the Spaniard. We look again , and we see in the far Northeast the Old World strug- gle between the French and English transferred to the New, ending in the tragedy upon the heights above Quebec ; we see the sturdy Puritans in bell-crowned hats and sable garments assail in unequal battle the savage and the elements, overcoming both to rise against a mightier foe ; we see the gay but daumless Cavaliers, to the southward, join hands with the Roundheads in holy rebellion. And lo, down from the green-walled hills of New England, out of the swamps of the Carolinas, come faintly to the ear, like far-away forest leaves stirred to music by autumn winds, the drum-taps of the Revolution; the tramp of the minute-men, Israel Putnam riding before ; the hoof beats of Sumter's horse galloping to the front ; the thunder of Stark's guns in spirit battle ; the gleam of Marion's watch- fires in ghostly bivouac ; and there, there in serried, saint-like ranks on Fame's eternal camping-ground stand, " The old Continentals In their ragged regimentals. Yielding not," as, amid the singing of angels in Heaven, the scene is shut out from our mortal vision by proud and happy tears. We see the rise of the young republic, and the gentlemen in knee breeches and powdered wigs who made the Constitution. We see the little nation menaced from without. We see the riflemen in hunting shirt and buckskin swarm from the cabin in the wilderness to the rescue of country and home ; and our hearts swell to see the second and final decree of inde- pendence won by the prowess and valor of American arms upon the land and sea. And then, and then, — since there is no life of nations or of men with- out its shadow or its sorrow, — there comes a day when the spirits of the fathers no longer walk upon the battlements of freedom ; and all is dark ; and all seems lost save liberty and honor, and, praise God ! our blessed Union. With these surviving, who shall marvel at what we see to-day — this land filled with the treasures of earth ; this city, siiatche.1 from the ashes to rise in snlendor and renown, passing the mind of man to pre- conceive ? Truly, out of trial comes the strength of man ; out of disaster comes the glory of the state. THE PURITAN AND THE CAVALIER To tell you the truth, I am afraid tu^it I have gained access hereon false pretences ; for I am no Cavalier at all ; just plain Scotch-Irish ; one of HENRY WATTERSON 325 those Scotch-Irish Southerners who ate no fire in the green leaf and has eaten no dirt in the l)ro\vn, and who, accepting, for the moment, the terms Puritan and Cavalier in the sense an effete sectionalism once sought to ascribe them— descriptive lalwls at once classifying and separating North and South ; verbal redoubts alung that mythical line called Mason and Dixon, over which there were supposed by the extremists of other days to be no bridges— I am much disposed to say, "A plague o' both your houses!' ' Each was good enough and bad enough in its way, whilst they lasted ; each in its turn filled the English-speaking world with mourning ; and each, if either could have resisted the infection of the soil and climate they found here, would be to-day striving at the sword's point to square life by the iron rule of Theocracy, or to round it by the dizzy whirl of a petti- coat ! It is very pretty to read about the Maypole of Virginia and very edifying and inspiring to celebrate the deeds of the Pilgrim Fathers. But there is not Cavalier blood enough left in the Old Dominion to produce a single crop of first families, whilst out in Nebraska and Iowa they claim that they have so stripped New England of her Puritan stock as to spare her hardly enough for farm hands. This I do know from personal experi- ence, that it is impos.sible for the stranger-guest, sitting beneath a bower of roses in the Palmetto Club at Charleston, or by a mimic log-heap in the Algonquin Club at Boston, to tell the assembled company apart— particularly after ten o'clock in the evening! Why, in that great, final struggle between the Puritans and the Cavaliers— which we still here some- times casually mentioned, although it ended nearly thirty years ago — there had been such a mixing up of Puritan babies during the two or three generations preceding it that the surviving grandmothers of the combatants could not, except for their uniforms, have picked out their own on any field of battle ! Turning to the Cyclopaedia of American Biography, I find that Web- ster had all the vices that are supposed to have signalized the Cavalier, and Calhoun all the virtues that are claimed for the Puritan. During twenty years three statesmen of Puritan origin were the chosen party leaders of Cavalier Mississippi : Robert J. Walker, born and reared in Pennsylvania ; John A. Quitman, bom and reared in the good old State of Maine. That sturdy Puritan, Slidell, never saw Louisiana until he was old enough to vote and to fight ; native here — an alumnus of Columbia College — but sprung trora New England ance-itors. Albert Sydney John- ston, the most resplendent of modern Cavaliers — from tip to toe a type of the species ; the very rose and expectancy of the young Confederacy — did not have a drop of Southern blood in his veins ; Yankee on both sides of the house, though born in Kentucky a little while after his father and 33n HENRY WATTERSON mother amved there from Connecticut. The Ambassador who ser%'e9 our Government near the French Republic was a gallant Confederate soldier and IS a representative Southern statesman ; but he owns the estate in Ma^achusetts where his father was born, and where his father's fathers lived through many generations. V ^""^ *'l!,^'*r'i"'' "'''° ""'^^ ^^^" """■"?«• somehow, and got into Yankee saddles? The woods were full of them. If C.ister was not a Cavaher. Rupert vvas a Puritan. And Sherwood and Wadsworth and Kearny, and McPherson and their dashing companions and followers' The one typ.cal soldier of the war-mark you !-was a Southern, not' a Northern, soldier : Stonewall Jackson, of the Virginia line. And. if we should care to pursue the subject farther back, what about Ethan Allen and John Stark and Mad Anthony Wayne-Cavaliers each and everyone' Indeed, from Israel Putnam to -Buffalo Bill," it seems to me the Puritans have had rather the best of it in turning out Cavaliers. So the least said about the Puritan and the Cavalier-except as blessed memories or horrid examples— the better for historic accuracy. If you wish to get at the bottom of facte, I don't mind telling you- m confidence-that it was we Scotch-Irish who vanquished both of you ■ some of us m peace, others of us in war-supplying the missing link of adaptability, the needed ingredient of common sense, the conservative principle of creed and action, to which this generation of Americans owes ite intellectual and moral emancipation from frivolity and Pharisaism its rescue from the Scarlet Woman and the mailed hand, and its crystalliza- tion into a actional character and polity, ruling by force of brains and not by force of arms. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JR. (J 835 ) i ffl THE POLISHED EXPONENT OF HIGH IDEALS FIE A«liims fiiinily, n.-i \vii.s hhuI in a I'ornior Hkotch, hns lx?cn notalilo in the liislorv of oratory and imtriotisin. It lias two Prt'sidtiits to its crt'ilit, Jolm Adams, and .lolin (iiiincy Adams, Cathcrand son, iKitli famous statesmen and anient patriots. LattT in tiio iim- wo meet with Ciiarlos Kran(,-is Adams, tlie able states- man and diplomatist, and Ids son, of the same name ; tlie latter a cav- alry soldier in the war, later on a railroad commissioner and aihitrator, and always a true seion of his patriotic aneest y. He was elected president of the I'nion Paoilie Railway in 1884, and Ijecame presiding ofticor of the Massachusetts Historical Soci'ty in 189."», While all the distin<;uished men of the family have won reputation as orators, the one now under consideration is certainly not the least eloquent among them. In 188.3, in his address entitled, "A College Fetich," he sharply criticised the American system of higher education, stirring up the adherents of the system to an acrimonious discussion of his strongly expressed views. THE VETERANS OF GETTYSBURG [On the 4tliof July, i>S69, tlic sixth aiiuiversary of the greatest battle of the Civil War, Mr. Aditiis dcliverpd an oration at Quiiicy, Massachusetts, on this subject, which is looked upon as his nia^Trpicce, though he hr.s other eloquent speeches to bis credit. Wc give the patriotic ixjroration of this admirable address, following a most animated description of the hasty march to Gettysburg.] It is said that at the crisis of Solferino, Marshal McNf ahon appeared with his corps upon the fit Id of battle, his men having run for seven miles. We need not go abroad for examples of endurance piid soldierly bearing. The achievement of Sedgwick and the brave Si.xth Corps, as they marched upon the field of Gettysburg on that second day of July, far excels the vaunted efforts of the French Zouavr- m ii il I J! I »» CHARLLa l-RANCIS ADAMS. JR. Twenty-four hours later we .stood on that same ground. Many dear fnendH had yielded up their young In:, -luring the hours which had elai«ee that never again may we or ours iHi called upon so u, ceUbrate this anniversary ? An.l yet. now that the passionate hopes and fears of those days are all over, now that the pef whichcan never be forgotten is softened and modified by the sooth- mg hand of time, now that the distracted dou!,ts and untold anxieties are huned and almost forgotten, we love to remember the gathering of the hosts, to hear again in memory the shock of battle, and to wonder at the magnificence of the drama. The passion and the excitement are gone and we can look at the work we have done and pronounce upon it I do not fear the sober second judgment. Our work was a great work -it was well done, and it was done thoroughly. Some one has said, '• HapDv is the peoplewhich has no history." Not so ! As it is better to have loveil and lost than never to have loved at all, so it is better to have lived greatly, even though we have suffered greatly, than to have pas.sed a long hfe of inglorious ease. Our generation-yes, we ourselves have been a part of great things. We have suffered greatly and greatly rejoiced • we have drunk deep of the cup of joy and of sorrow ; we have tasted the agony of defeat, and we have supped full with the pleasures of victory We have proved oursehes equal to great deeds, and have learned what qualities were in us, which in more peaceful times we ourselves did not respect. And, indeed. I would here in closing fain address a few words to such of you, ,f any such are here, who like myself have been soldiers during the War of the Rebellion. We should never more be partisans We have been a part of great events in the service of the common country we have worn her uniform, we have received her pay and devoted ourselvei to the death if need be, in her service. When we were blackened by the smoke of Anti.tam. we did not a.sk or care whether those who stood shoulder to .shoulder beside us, whether he who led us, whether those who sustaine in Ui • iaiid w. arc thf ancients, the veterans of the Republic. As such, it .^ f,,i- u:. to j rotect in peace what we preserved in war ; it is for us to look at a'l things w.iii a view to the common country and not to the exigencies ut i^irty politics • it is for us ever to bear in mind the higher allegiance we Imvc sworn, and to rememl)er that he who has once been a soldier of the motherland degrades himself forever when he Ijecomes the slave of faction. Then, at last, if through life we ever liear these lessons freshly in mind, will it lie well for us, will it be well for our country, will it be well for tl'iose whose names we bear, that our bones also do not molder with those of our brave comrades beneath the so'=«°'1>" II, 190=., at thr.op.,i„g . .n I>h.ladelph..-i of the Bcrcan Man.ml Training and Industrial School, for the purpos^ of gi ving an industrial education to people of the colored race, j It has often occvrred to me that ever since we have become a nation the American people have almost constantly been confronted will: large problems, more or less perplexing, and directly affecting the political industrial and social phases of our national welfare. This experience iti so far as it has accustomed us to difficulties, has made us a strong and strenuous people. I think it mu.t be admitted, however, that our success m overcoming these difficulties has engrafted upon the American char- acter such confidence in our ability to extricate ourselves from embarrass- ments as amounts to actual national vanity. We seem to have a con- tented notion that, whatever danger press upon us, and whatever obstacles 880 OROVER CLEVELAND Sil are to be surmounted , we " are able because we seem to be able, " and that, because we have thus far escaped threatening perils, a happy-go-lucky reliance on continued ^ood fortune will avail us to the end of the chap- ter. I plead guilty as the chief amongsinners in the vanity of my Ameri- canship. I have a suspicion, however, that our serene self-conSdence has sometimes not only made us very brave and daring, but has stood in the way of an early and provident treatment of national problems, which, having been allowed to grow and harden, have invited increased pain and difficulty in their rectification. I am, therefore, impressed with the importance of this occasion, because it has to do with certain conditions which, I believe, in their present stage, should be dealt with speedily and effectively It is foolish for us to blind our eyes, to the fact that more should be done to improve the condition of our negro population ; and it should be entirely plain to all of us that the sooner this is undertaken, the sooner will a serious duty be discharged, and the more surely will we guard our- selves against future trouble and danger. We cannot forget, however, that we have to deal with those whose deficiencies do not result entirely from their lack of education, as that term is commonly used. The circumstances of their case are peculiar and exceptional. Generations of dependence and enforced monotonous daily toil, without wages or other incentive to willing labor, and without the chance of instructive or constructive work, tainted in days past the very blood of their ancestors ; and from them the present generation has inherited, not only unfitness for such diversified work as best suits the needs of self respecting American citizenship, but also listless disinclina- tion to attempt such work Unciuestionably all this should be corrected— and corrected speedily. But how ? No one who has given the subject deliberate thought can doubt that, if we are to be just and fair towards our colored fellow-citizens, and if they are to be more completely made self-respecting, useful and safe mem- bers of the botly politic, they must be taught to do something more than to hew wood and draw water. The way must be opened for them to engage in something better than menial service, and their interest must be aroused to the rewards of intelligent occupation and careful thrift. I believe that the exigency can only be adequately met through the instrumentality of well equipped matmal training and industrial schools, conducted either independently or in connection with ordinary educa- tional institutions. I place ko much reliance on this agency for the solu- tion of the problem of negro citizenship that I am inclined to estimate it above all others in usefuluess. ' !] III. ' !s BOOKER T. WASHINGTON (J 858 ) THE EVANGEL OF THE NEGRO RACE K have before us to-dny a sif^'iiificaiit exnniplo of an A meruan erv and dc'Ta- nol)lemaii, in a man of l)laik skin, liorn to slav dation, who lias raised himself, h> force of <'harac'ter, to he an honored citizen an.l tlio admired of all generous-hearted people every- where. Booker T. Washin-ton, whose very name is borrowed, is in the most ai)solute sense a self-ma.le man. No one coul.l have been more destitute of advantages or more completely have made his own way. Pairiy foreinp himself into Hampton Institute, with nothin- to help him but ea<,'erness to learn and determination to succeed, he left it a man of education, and with the warm friendship of the whole faculty. Chosen to conduct a normal ,'anicl Cady, of Johnstown, New York, she early displayed marked intelligence, and her indignation at Iniing refused admittance to the college in which her hrother was educated had much to do with the trend of her later life laboi-s. iShe, however, studied Latin ami Greek and stored jur mind with much useful infor- mation. In everything she undertook she proved that she had the courage and ability displayed hy her brotliers. Marrying Henry B. Stanton, a prominent orator and writer on anti-slavery subjects, in 1840, she entered actively into the alx)litionist movement, and was a delegate to the World's Anti-Shivery Convention held in 18-11 in London. The Woman's Rights movement was inaugurated by her and Lucretia Mott, they issuing a call for the first convention, which met in 1848 at Seneca Falls, N-.w \'ork. She was the soul of the conven- tion, and all her life a/'.rward worked actively for the cause thus instituted. In 1895 ii> i- « .yhtietb birthday was celebrated in New- York by three tbou.sand delegates from women's .societies. As an orator Mrs. Stauton was forceful, logical, witty, .sarcastic and eloquent. A FLEA FOR EQUAL RIGHTS [On the assembling of the first Woman's Rights Convention, July 19, 1848, Mrs. Stanton delivered an impressive oration, of which we give the eloquent peroration. Our churches are multiplying on all sides ; our missionary societies, Sunday-schools, and prayer meetings, and innumerable chaiitable and reform organizations are all in operation ; but still the tide of vice is 33G ELIZABETH CADY STANTON as7 swelling ; and threatens the destruction of everything, and the battlement;-, of righteousness are weak against the raging elements of sin and death. Verily the world waits the coming of some new element, some purifying power, some spirit of mercy and lo\e. The voice of woman has been silenced in the state, the church, and the home, but man cannot fulfill his destiny alone, he cannot retleem his race unaided. There are deep and ten- der cords of sympathy and love in the hearts of the down-fallen and oppressed that woman can touch more skillfully than man. The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation, because in the degradation of woman the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source. It is vain to look for silver and gold from the mines of copper and lead. It is the wise mother that has the wise son. So long as your women are slaves you may throw your colleges and churches to the winds. You can't have scholars and saints so long as your mothers are ground to powder between the upper and nether millstone of tyranny and lust. How seldom, now, is a father's pride gratified, his fond hopes realized, in the budding genius of his son. The wife is degraded, made the mere creature of caprice, and the foolish son is heaviness to his heart. Truly are the sins of the father visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation. God, in His wisdom, has so linked the human family together, that any violence done at one end of the chain is felt throughout its length ; and here, too, is the law of restoration— as in woman all have fallen, so in her elevation shall the race be recreated. " Voices ' ' were the visitors and advisers of Joan of Arc. Do not " voices " come to us daily from the haunts of poverty, sorrow, degradation and despair, already too long unheeded ? Now is the time for the women of this country, if they would save our free institutions, to defend the right, to buckle on the armor that can best resist the keenest weapons of the enemy— contempt and ridicule. The same religious enthusiasm that nervwl Joan of Arc to her work nerves us to ours. In every generation God calls some men and women for the utterance of the truth, a heroic action, and our work to day is the ful- filling of what has long since been foretold by the prophet— Joel ii. 2,S : " And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." We do not expect our path will be strewn with the flowers of popular applause, but over the thorns of bigotry and prejudice will be our way. and on our banners will beat the dark storm-clouds of opposition froni those who have entrenched themselves behind the stormy bulwarks of custom and authority, and who have fortified their position by every means, holy and unholy. But we still steadfastly abide the result. Unmoved we will bear it aloft. Undauntedly we will unfurl it to the ; I if i! I «1 .'i:;.s ELIZABETH CADY STANTON Rale, for we know that the storm cannot rend from it a shrc..s,nn. AntLoMv. 1..,,, .l,,.,!. ,| tnr Iht ,.,,iui..ns in Umo sl...nM,h. n.s,...Hnn,l,...l,nnui..„,.faIlwl,ou..,vn.,ml.lo -f .1. ...v.. ,.., c.uu, ., HU„-,, „n,l ,1... ,i,.vo,i,... ..f ,1, ,vI.o w.to .■„„. .•."n.,.. n, .1,,. .„„.;.„ s„irn.,.. ,n.,v..rM..M.. Sl.e c.„.ti„„.,i a w,.rk,.,.ali <-" Im'.n . .1 ... tl... c-.u... ul l.,n,.,.n,n..,.. .....i s„1k,.,,uo..|Iv i.. thai of "<-....... suha^^o. SI... was also,,.. a,.,ivo al,oli,iu.,ist. I.. l89'> sl.e VOMAN'S RIGHT TO THE SUFFRAGE never pn. .his Zj.l 1 ^ .eve 1^ The f' " "" '"''% ""' ^'" ^""•'^'' ^""^ ^°"'<» forth t'hc following fore..;;: r^^n.e.n.] '' ""■"'"' '" "' '"'^«'" -"°«-"ed Friknds and F.aum-CiTizi.:Ns : I stand before you to-night und.r nd.ot.n.nt lor the alleged crime of having voted at th' last pfi den' elec.on w.thout having a lawful right to vote. It shall be mVwork ".is .v.„,„g to prove to you that in thus voting, I not onlv Zllitjl ;t^ oJ :: stjsr :;;;^"^ ':\ ^'^ ^-'°-' ^--^-t:... i.,.„. ,,^ The preamble of the Federal Constitution says ■ uniol' !«!' /I'V'^'P^." °^"'^ ^'"-'-^ States, in ord'er to forn, a more perfect umon establ.shjnst.ce. insure ,/....//. tranquillity, Provide for the con mo., defence, pron.ote thegeneral welfare, and secure the blessings of HbeTv «3» IS MO SUSAN B. ANTHONY It wa« we, the peopk : not we, the white male citizen* ; nor yet we, the male citizens ; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them ; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people— women as well as men. And it is a downright motkery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of lit>erty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them providetl by this demo- cratic-republican government — the ballot. The early journals of Congress show that when the committee reported to that body the original articles of confetleration, tlie very first article which became the subject of discussion was that respecting equality of suffrage. Article IV. said : •' The better to secure anil perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse lietween the people of the different States of the Union, the free inhabitants of each of the States (paupers, vagabonds and fugitives from justice excepteti), shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the free citizens of the several States." Thus, at the very lieginning, did the fathers see the necessity of the universal application of the great principle of eijual rights to nil ; in order to produce the desired result — a harmonious union and a homogeneous people B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, in the three days' discussion in the United States Senate in 1866, on Senator Cowan's motion to strike the word male from the District of Columbia suffrage bill., said : " Mr. President, I say here on the floor of the American Senate, I stand for universal suffrage : and, as a matter of fundamental principle, do not recognize the right of society to limit it on any ground of race or sex." .... Charles Sumner, in his brave protests against the fourteenth and fif- teenth amendments, insisted that, so soon as by the thirteenth amendment the slaves became free men, the original powers of the Unitwl States Con- stitution guaranteed to them equal rights— the right to vote and to be voted for Article I of the New York State Constitut'on says : " No member of this State shall be disfranchised or deprivefl of the rights or privileges secured to any citizen thereof, utdess by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers." And so carefully guarded is the citizen's right to vote that the Consti- tution makes special mention of all who may be excluded. It says : ' ' Laws may be passed excluding from the right of suffrage all per- sons who have been or may be convicted of bribery, larceny or any infa- mous crime. " . . . . I SUSAN B. ANTHONY ^1 "The law of the land • is the United States Constitution, and there ifi no provision in that document that can be fairly construed into a tK;r- misflion to the Stat.-, to deprive any class of their citizens of their riKhVto vote. Hence. New York can get no power from that source to disfran- chise oneentire half of her members. Nor has ' the judgment of their peers been pronounced against women exercising their right to vote • no disfranchised person is allowed to Ik. judge or juror, an.l none but dis- franchised ,,erso„s can be women's peers ; nor has the Legislature passed laws excluding them on account of idiocy or lunacy ; nor yet the courts convicted them of bribery, larceny or any infamous crime. Clearly then there IS no constitutional ground for the exclusion of women from the ba lot J«x in the State of New York. No harriers whatever stand to-day between women and the exercise of their right to vote save those of pre- cedent and prejudice * For any State to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people is to pass a bill of attain- ciu' ."" 7 /""''A'-''' l«w, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. By It the blessings of liberty are forever withheld from women and their female posterity. To them this government has no just powers denved from the consent of the governem, disease cannot produce health. Look at our women of to-day, with their enfeebled bodies, dwarfed intellects, laxness of moral force ; without enough of healthy stimulus to incite tl.em to action ; and compare them with our grandmothers of the Revolution and the Martha Washington school. Here you find a woman who dared to control her own affairs ; who superintended a farm of six hundred acres ; giving per- sonal instructions to the workmen, writing her own bills and receipts, and setting an example of industry and frugality to the neighboring women who called to see her. I need not, gentlemen, enumerate to you to prove what I wish to prove to-day, the countless numbers of women who have participated creditably in government from the days of oui Saviour until the present time. You know that Victoria rules in England ; nnd the adoration of the English heart to-day for its Queen found expression but a few weeks since in one of our popular lecture halls, when ♦^he audienc.^. composed partly ot Englishmen, were asked to sing " God Save the Queen." The wisdom of the reign of Elizabeth, " good Queen Bess," as she has been called, ive to England her prestige— the proud pre-eminence which she holds today among the nations of ihe earth. Isabella I. of Spain, the patron saint of America, without whose geh^ ity our country to-day might have been a wilderness, was never nobler than when, after Ferdi- nand's refusal, after the refusal of the crowned authority of England, the disapproval of the wise men of her own kingdom, she rose in her queenly majesty, and said, " I undertake it for my own crown of Castile, ard will plecge my jewels to raise the necessary funds." Maria Theresa, of Aus- tria, who assumed the reins of govern- ..ent with her kingdom divided and disturbed, found herself equal to the emergency, brought order out of chaos, and prosperity to her kingdom. Cliristine, of Sweden, brought that kingdom to the zenith of its power. Eugenie, Empress of the French, in the late disastrous revolution, a uuied the regency of the i ill m) BELVA ANN LOCKWOOO Empire in defiance of her ministry, nml -d to flee, coverera llarton, with her clear head ad generous heart, has lilted up the st irving women of Strashurg, and made it possihle for them ♦o he self sustaining. I need not eite to you Cii'l'.nrine of Russia, Cleo- I)aUa, or the Queen of Sheha, who came 'o admire the wisdom of Solo- mon; or the Roman matrons, Zonohia, I.ucretia, TuUia ; or revert to the earliest forms of govenuueiit when the family and tlie churcli were law- givers ; remind you of I^ )e, the deaconess. I' is a well-known fact that women have been sent as mir'Sters and ambassadors, the 'alter a power fuller than our couu- t: grants, to treat on important State matters between the crowned heads of Europe. In many cases they have represented the person of the mon- arch or emperor himself. P'rance, since the beginning of the reign of Louis XIV., througli the period of the ascendency of Napoleon I. down to the reign of Napoleon ill., has .r.iployed women in diplomacy. Instan- ces maybe found recorded in a work entitled " Napoleon and His Court," by Madame Junot, and also in our own consnlar works. The late Empress of France has been said to be especially gifted in this respect. It has l)een the custom of Russia for the past century, and still continues to be. to send women on diplomatic errands. In this empire, also, where the voting is done by households, a woman is r'tpu sent to represent the family. Women are now writing a large proportion of the books and news- papers of the country, are editing newspapers and commandir.g ships. They are admitted to law schools, medical schools, and the higher ordc- of colleges, and are knocking at Amherst an.l Yale. Yea, more, they are a litted to the practice of law, as in Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Wyoming and I'tah ; admitted to the practice of medicine everywhtre, and more recently to consultation. One hundred women preacheis are already ordained and are preaching throughout the land. Women are elected as engrossing and enrolling clerks in Legislatures, as in Wisccnnin, Missouri and Indiiina ; appointed as justices of the peac.:, as in Maine, Wyoming and Connecticut : as bankers and brokers, as in New York and St. Louis. They are filling as school teachers three-fourths of the schools of the land. This is more than true of our own city. Shall we not then have women school trustees and superintendents ? Already they are appointed 8 i i i i BELVA ANN LOCKWOOD $VI in the liast aivl in the W't-nt. imi woukii are peniiilted to vole at the school ekctions. Who h:is . deeper interest in the schools than the mothers. Look .a the hnnd.eds of women cUrks in tiie government depart- ments. They are all eliKJblf, since the jm- a^e of tl * Arnell hill, to the hij;hest clerkships. Look at the postmistresses »nron^,diont the land.. Ivich one a hondetl officer of the j;overnniciu, appointed by the Prc.'^ident and confirnitJ by the Senate, the highest execntive power in U'c land. " The power of the President to appoint, and of the Senate to confirm, has never l)een j all who heard her by her fervid i'lo(|uenee and rare elocutionary powers. Whtii a child of fourteei- ' • laul written an article against slavery, whicii was pub- lished in the Ltberalor, and at fifteen she made her first appearance as a public sjK'aker, in answer to a man wlio had delivered a tirade against women. From that time her voice was often heard on the subjects of slavery and temiieranee. Dismissed in l«61 from a })osi- tion in the United States M'ut.lKK'ause in a siwechat West Chester she had charged (Jenend McCIellan with causing the disaster at Ball's Blutf, she entered ujion her true vocation, that of a lecturer. At ti\e request of William Lloyd Garrisoi who had heard her, and named her "The (iirl Orator,'' uli dcli\rred a memorable address in Music Hall, Bos- ton, on " The National Crisis." From tliere she siKike widely, and with the most flattering success, through the East. The war ended, she took up woman's suHrage and other themes, delivering in Utah her famous lecture on " Whited Sepulchres." In 1«77, Miss Dickinson made the serious error of deserting the platform for the stage. She lacked the histrionic faculty, and alike as au actress, a dramatic reader, and a playwright she proved a fail- ure. Her plays were ">hirie Tudor" and "Anne Boleyn," in both of which she played the leading part, without previous training as an actress. Several novels w ritten by her als" failed to achieve success, and the later period of her life was one of mistakes and misfortunes. Her principal liooks were "A Paying Investment " and "A Ragged 352 1! I f i i ANNA E. DICKINSON ■iW ReKi»*<'r "f I'«'Ol>l<*. PliiceM and ( )i>iiiioiis.' As an orator xho lunl !?ren, the Press is a mild-spoken and truly modest institution which never chants its own praises. Unlike Walt Whitman, it never cele- brates itself. Even if it did become me — one of the youngest of its con- ductors in New York — to undertake at this late hour to inflict upon j'ou its eulogy, there are two circumstances which might well make me pause. It is an absurdity for me — an absurdity, indeed, for any of us — to assume to speak for the Press of New York at a table where William Cullen Bryant sits silent. Besides, I have been reminded since I came here, by Dr. Chapin, that the pithiest eulogy ever pronounced upon the first editor of America, was pronoiuiced in this very room and from that very plat- form by the man who at that time was the first of living editors in this country, when he said that he honored the memory of Benjamin Franklin because he was a journeyman printer who did not drink, a philosopher who wrote common sense, and an oflBce-holder who did not Pteal. One word only of any seriousness about your toast ; it says : " The Press — right or wrong; when right, to be kept right , when wrong, to he set right." Gentlemen, this is your affair. A stream will not ris.. higher than its fountain. The Hudson River will not flow backward over the Adirondacks. The Press of New York is fed and sustained by the com- merce of New York, and the Press of New York to day, bad as it is in many respects — and I take my full share of the blame it fairly deserves — is just what the merchants of New York choose to ha'.-e it. If you want it better, you can make it better. So long as you are satisfied with it as it is, sustain it as it is, take it into your families and into your counting- rooms as it is, and encourage it as it is, it • 1 remain what it is. If, for instance, the venerable leader of jiir Bar, conspi-uous through a long life for the practice of everj- virtue that adorns his profession and his race, is met on his return from the very jaws of the grave, as he re-enters the Court-room to undertake again the gratuitous championship of your cause against thieves who robbed you, with the slander that he is himself athief of the meanest kind, a robber of defenceless women — I say, if such a man is subject to such persistent repetition of such a calumny in the very city he has honored and served, and at the very end and crown of his life, it is because you do not choose to object to it and make your objec- tion felt. A score of similar instances will readily occur to any jne who runs over in his memory the course of our municipal iiisloiy for the last dozen years, but there is no time to repeat or even refer to them here. EDWARD EVERETT HALE (J822 ) AUTHOR, LECTURER AND PULPIT ORATOR mN 1801, the opening year of the Civil War, a decided sensation was produced by the apjjearance of a remarkable work, entitled " The Man Without a Country." It ca >io at an op})ortune time, when millions of our people seemed bent upon discarding the country of the Stars and Stripes, and detailed the melancholy experience of one man whose sentence for treason against tlie United States was that ho should thenceturth live in utter oblivion of the land of his birth and allegiance. As worked up by the skillful }K'n of the vriter, the Hev. Kdward Everett Hale, the fate of this exile was most vi'. idly portrayed, and the work became one of the literary phenomena of its day. NEW ENGLAND CULTURE [Mr. Hale may be held to possess excellent standing before the American people as an orator as well as a writer ; as a lecturer as well as a pulpit speaker. Whatever he writes is fresh and spicy, and much that he says has the sr.me quality. As a guest of the New England Society in the City of New York, on t'le occasion of its seventy- first annual banquet, I-iecembcr 22, 1876, he responded as follows to the toast : " New England Culture— the Open Secret of Her Greatness."] Mr. President .\nd Gentlemen : You seem to have a very frank way of talking about each other among yourselves here. I observe that I am the first stranger who has crossed the river which, I recollect Edward Winslow says, divides the Continent of New England from the Continent of America, and, as a stranger, it is my pleasure and duty at once to express the thanks and congratulations of the invited guests here for the distinguished care which has been taken on this occasion outdoors to make us feel entirely at home. As I came down in the snow storm I could not help feeling that Elder Brewster, and Will. am Bradford, and Carver, and Winslow could not have done better than ;his in Plymouth ; and indeed, as I ate mv pork and beans just now, I felt that the Gospel of New Eng- land is extending beyond the Connecticut to other nations, and that what »32 ] 1 mmm wmm EDWARD EVERETT HALE lUbl f is good to eat and drink in Boston, is good to eat and drink even here on this benighted poirit of Delmonico's. When you talk to us about "culture." that is rather a dangerous word. I am always a little afraid of the word "culture." I recollect the very brightest scjuil) that I read in the late election campaign — and as the President says, geiulemen, I am going to respect the proprieties of the occasion. It was sent to one of the journals from the Western Reserve ; and tlie writer, who, if I have '^ightly guessed his name, is ore of tii» most brilliant of our younger poets, was descanting on the Chinook vocabulary, in which a Chinook call» an Englishman a Chinchog to this day, in memor\' of King George. And this writer says that when they have a young cliief whose war paint is very perfect, whose blanket is thoroughly embroidered, whose leggings are tied up with exactly the right colors, and who has the right kind of star upon his forhead and cheek-^, but who never took a scalp, never fired an arrow, and • ;ver smelled powder, but was always found at home whenever there was anything that scented of war, he says the Chino^ks called that man by the name of ' ' Boston Cultus. ' ' Well row, gentlemen, what are you laughing at ? Why do you laugh ? Some of you had Boston fathers, and more of you had Boston mothers. Wny do you laugh ? Ah ! yon have seen these people, as I have seen them , as everybody has seen them — people who sat in Parker's and discussed every movement of the campaigti in the late wat , and told us that it was all wrong, that we were going to the bad, but who never shouldered a musket. They are people who tell us that the emigratic , that the Pope of Rome, or the German element, or the Irish element, is going to play the dogs with our social system, and yet they never met an emigrant on the wharf or had a word of comfort to say to a forei2;iier. W^e have those jieople in Boston. You may not have them in New York, and T am very glad if you have not ; but if you are so fortunate, it is the only place on God's earth where I have not found such a people. But there is another kind of culture which began even before there was any Boston— -for there was such a day as that. There were ten years in the history of this world, ten long years, before Boston e-^cistetl, and those are the years between Plymouth Rock and the day when some unfor- tunate men, noi able to get to Plymouth Rock, stopped and founded that city. This earlier culture is a culture not of the school-house, or of the tract, but a culture as well of the Church, of history, of the town-meeting, as John Adams says ; that nobler culture to which my friend on the right has alluded when he says that it is born of the Spirit of God— the culture which has made New Knglaiid, which is l)om of God, ana which it is our mission to carry over the world. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1989-1891) THE HOSE/. BIGLOW OF OllATORY SMONfi Amprinin nuthors there are none more versatile, none on whose shou'ulers motley sits more };raeefiill_v, than I^)\vell, the jxiet, es^iM'ist, eritie, and hiniiori^t, thr man who could 1m' everj'thinK for every occasion, who could wear tlu cap and hdls of the mirth-maker, flourisli the sharp prod of the oriti-, hrin^ sweet music from the harp strin<,'s of the poet, or walk with grave dignity in the cloak of the essavisL and professor. They who lovo laughter cainiot do l)etter liian read Lowell's inimitable " IMglow Papers," or take in the genial fun of his " C'ov.rtin'." For the patrons of jMietry he has set out many toothsome moi-sels ; while in the line of the essav wi' can name no finer example of classical satire tlian his " On a Jertain Condescension in Foreigners." Lowell dill not onfine himself to the production of literature. For a numlxM- of years he lectured on this subject at Harvard, and then for other years he edited the Ailnntlc .Voiillil;/. and after that the Xoiih Amci lean Ji'ci-ieir. Political honors also came to him. lie was Jlinister to Spain under ['resident Hayes, and afterward Minister to England, where be made the whole country his friend and admirer. As an orator be distinguished himself by numerous public addresses, which brought him higli praise. As an example of his manner, we present a brief specimen of his after-dinner speech-making. THE KINSHIP OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA [The inciting cause of the followin>; remarks was a banqnct to Henry Irving, the celebrated actor, at London, on July 4, 1883. On this, the natal day of the United States, Lowell, then Minister to England, represented and sjxjke for the great Republic of the West. Among the guests was Lord Coleridge, Lord Chief Justice of England, himself a forceful speaker, whom Lowell especially addressed in the following grace- ful fragment of social oratory.] 364 4 i i JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL MA T may be allowetl to make one remark as to a iH-rsonal experience. Fortune has willcl it that I shouKl see as many- perhaps more— cities and juanners of men as I'lyssi's ; ntul I have ohservid one general fact, and that is, that the adjectival epitliet which is prefixed to all the virtues is invariably the epithet which geographically de»i(lingsympathies between all men of a common descent .id a common lani,-uage. I am sure, my lord, that all you said with regard to the welcome which our distinguished guest will receive in America is true. His eminent talents as an actor, the dignified— I may say the illustrious— manner in which he has sus- tained the traditions of that succession of great actors who, from the time of Burbage to his own, have illustrated the English stage, will be as highly appreciated there as here. And I am sure that I may also say that the chief magistrate of England will be welcomed by the Bar of the United States, of which I am an unworthy member, and perhaps will be all the more warmly welcomed that he does not come among them to practice. He will find American law administered— and I think he will agree with me in saying ably administered— by judges who, I am sorry to say, sit without the tradi- tional wig of England. I have heard since I came here friends of mine gravely lament this as so serious an innovation. I answered with a little story which I remember hearing from my father. He remembered the last clergyman in New England who still continued to wear tie wig. At first it became a singularity and at last a monstrosity ; and the good doctor concluded to leave it off. But there was one poor woman among his parishioners who lamented this sadly, and waylaying the clergyman as he oHA JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL came out of church she «ld. •• Oh. dear doctor. I have always Iwtened to your sermon with the greatest edification and comfort, hut now that the wig IS gone all is gone." I ha^e thought I have seen some signs of encouragement in the faces of my Hnglish friends after I have consoled them with this little story. But I must not allow myself to indulge in any further remarks. There is one virtue, : am sure, in after-dini.cr oratory, and that is brevity • and as to that I am reminde,' |»n)ved safe. Grandson of one of the sohlier fieroes of tht- Kevolutii)n, .ind nephew of the soldier hero of tlie South in the Civil War, the part phiyed hy hims'if as a cavalry K-ader in the Confederate ranks was no uninijKjrtant one, he In-ing chief in command of the cavalry of the army in Virginia at the end of the war. During; tho years of \mii:o that followed, (ieneral Lee was called uj)on to till important jiosts. In 1886, Virginia chose him for her Ctovernor. From 1893 to 1898 he w'rved as Consul (ieneral at Havana, and he was a Major-Cieneral of Voluntci ■-< in the war with Spain. He suhsequently, for a time, held the {wst of Mil* y-Governor of tlie Province of Havana, con- trolling with tir.il hand the e.Kcited [uitriots of Cu/xi llbrv during liie early days of their new imjjortance as citizens of an indej)endent nationality. His jMjpularity in his own State as well as throughout the country calls for his services on many social and public occasions. HARMONY UNDER THE OLD FLAG [During the splendid celebration at Philadelphia in I887 of the hundredth anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution, one of the great historical events of which the Quaker City was the seat, Governor Lee was present as the principal repre- sentative of the Old Dominion. During his visit he attended, as the guest of Gov- ernor Beaver, of Pennsylvania, a dinner given by the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and the Hibernian Society of Philadelphia. The distinguished guest was naturally called upon to address the convivial assembly. He did so in words of admirable good fellow* ship.] 867 3(58 FITZHUGH LEB Mr. Chairman, and Genti,emen of the Hibernian Society :— I am very glad, indeed, to have the honor of being present in this Society once more ; as it was my good fortune to enjoy a most pleasant visit hen- and an acquaintance with the members of your Society last year. My engagements were such to-day that I could not get here earlier ; and just as I was coming in Governor Beaver was making his excuses because, as he said, he had to go to pick up a visitor whom he was to escort to the entertainment to be given this evening at the Academy of Music. I am the visitor whom (Governor Beaver is looking for. He could not capture me during the war, but he has captured me now. I am a Virginian and used to ride a pretty fast horse, and he could not get close enough to me. By the way, you have all heard of " George Washington and his little hatchet." The other day I heard a story that was a little variation upon the original, and I am going to take up your time for a minute by repeating it to you. It was to this effect : Old Mr. Washington and Mrs. Washington, the parents of George, found on one occasion that their supply of soap for the use of the family at Westmoreland had been exhausted, and so they decided to make some family soap. They made the necessary arrangements and gave the requisite instructions to the family servant. After an hour or so the servant returned and reported to them that he could not make that soap. "Why not," he was asked, "haven't you all the materials?" "Yes," he replied, "but there is something wrong." The old folks proceeded to investigate, and they found they had actually got the ashes of the little cherry tree that George had cut down with his hatchet, and there was no lye in it. Now, I assure you, there is no " lie " in what I say to you this afternoon, and that is, that I thank God for the sun of the Union which, once obscured, is now again in the full stage of its glory ; and that its light is shining over Virginia as well as over the rest of the country. We have had our differences. I do not see, upon reading history, how they could well have been avoided, because they resulted from different con- structions of the Constitution, which was the helm of the ship of the Republic. Virginia construed it one way, Pennsylvania construed it in an other, and they could not settle their differences ; so they went to war, and Pennsylvania, I think, probably got a little the best of it. The sword, at any rate, settled the controversy. But that is behind us. We have now a great and glorious future in front of us, and it is Virginia's duty to do all that she can to promote the honor and glory of this country. We fought to the best of our ability for four years ; and it would be a great mistake to assume that you could bring men from their I Eeun^'^mism FITZHUGH LEE 3r.<» cabins, from their ploughs, from their houses and from their families to make them fight as they fought in that contest unless they were fighting for a belief. Those men believed that they had the right construction of the Constitution , and that a State that voluntarily entered the Union could voluntarily withdraw from it. They did not fight for Confederate money. It was not worth ten cents a yard. They did not fight for Confederate rations ; you would have had to curtail the demands of your appetite to make it correspond with the size and quality of those rations. They fought for what they thought was a proper construction of the Constitu- tion. They were defeated. They acknowledged their defeat. They came back to their father's house, and there they are going to stay. But if we are to continue prosperous, if this country, stretching from the Gulf to the lakes, and from ocean to ocean, is to be mindful of its best inter- ests in the future, we will have to make concessions and compliances, we will have to bear with each other and to respect each other's opinions. Then we will find that that harmony will be secured which is as neces- sary for the welfare of the States as it is for the welfare of individuals. I have become acquainted with Governor Beaver — I met him in Richmond. You could not make me fight him now. If I had known him before the war, perhaps we would not have got at it. If all the Gov- ernors had known each other, and if all thepeople of different sections had been known to each other, or had been thrown together in business or social communication, the fact would have been recognized at the outset, as it is to-day, that there are just as good men in Maine as there are in Texas, and just as good men in Texas as there are in Maine. Human nature is everywhere the same ; and when intestine strifes occur we shall doubtless always be able by a conservative, pacific course to pass smoothly over the rugged, rocky edges, and the old Ship of State will be brought into a safe, commodious. Constitutional harbor with the flag of the Union flying over her, and there it will remain. 24 SAMUEL L. CLEMENS (J 835 THE ORATOR OF LAUGHTER SNY man who attempts to introduce " Mark Twain " to an American audience might as well write hnnself down ' ) a promising candidate for a lunatic asylum. Everybody knows the genial " ^lark," — that is, everybody who reads and has been blessed by mother Nature with an appreciative tas ir humor. His books, from " The Innocents Abroad " to the latesi contribution to the literature of mirth, lie on a myriad tables in our land, and have elicited enough laughter to lift the dome of the Capitol. Mr. Clemens, born in Missouri, was in his early life a printer, a Mississippi steam- boat pilot, and secretary to his brother, who was Secretary of Nevada Territory. His later life has been passed in authorship, with inter- missions devoted to lecturing, in which his ample vein of humor breaks prominently out. We append a brief example of his method. UNCONSaOUS PLAGIARISM [" Mark Twain " has frequently made his mark as an after-dinner orator. One of his efforts was at a dinner given by the publishers of the Allantic Monthly to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, in recognition of his seventieth birthday. The remarks of Mr. Clemens on this occasion formed a good example of his genial wit and humor, and are well worth reproducing.] Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : — I would have traveled a mach greater distance than I have come to witness the paying of honors to Dr. Holmes ; for my feeling towards him has always '-'^n one of peculiar warmth. When one receives a letter from a great man for the first time in his life, it is a large event to him, as all of you know by your own exper- ience. You never can receive letters enough from famous men afterward to obliterate that one, or dim the memory of the pleasant surprise it was, and the gratification it gave you. Lapse of time cannot tuake it common- place or cheap. 870 '■)«i^^saiiaaa,sN^'!gericine to (U'scril)C the ^itirring events of war times under Grant, for he served as Hrigadier-deneral under that famous commander during the Civil War, and came very near to him as his ])rivate secretary durnig th" eight yeai-s of his Presidency. A gradu- ate of West Point in 1S()(), General Porter served in the field through- out the Civil War, holding in succession every conunissioned grade uj) to that of Brigadier-General. In 1897 ht |)ointed United .Stales Amhassador to France by President -McKu. y, holding this important diplomatic post throughout McKinley's term and continuing to represent this countryat the French court under President Roosevelt. He has heen prominent in business, being president of several railroad corporations. As an orator General Porter delivered the address at the Grant memorial ceremonies, and at the inauguration of the Washing- ton Arch at New York, in lSi)7. He is especially capable in after- dinner s))eech-makii.g, his rich vein of humor causing him to be often called upon to respond on such occasions of festivity. THE HUMOR AND PATHOS OF LINCOLN'S LIFE [At the dinner given by the Republican Club of New York City on the nine- tieth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, February 12, 1889, General Porter responded gracefully to the toast, "Abraham Lincoln— the fragrant memory of such a life will increase as the generations succeed each other." In Porter's remarks two phases of Lincoln's character were prominently brought out, his foi.dness for humor- ous story-telling and the innate sadness of his later career. General Porter is best known as a fluent source of amusing oratory ; but in the remarks subjoined he shows that h2 is master of the r'.ement of pathos as well.] I fear your committee is treating me like one of those toy balloons that are sent up previous to the main ascension, to test the currents of the 273 874 HORACE PORTER air ; but I hope that in this sort of ballooning I may not be interruped by the remark that intenupted a Fourth of July orator in the West when he was tickling the American eagle under both wings, delivering himself of no end of platitudes and soaring r.loft into the brilliant realms of fancy, when a man in the audience quietly remarked : " If he goes on throwing out his ballast in that way, the Lord knows where he will land." If I demonstrate to-night that dryness is a quality not only of the champagne but of thf first speech as well, you ni.iy reflect on that remark as Abra- ham Lincoln did at City Point after he had been shaken up the night before in his boat in a storm in Chesapeake Bay. When he complained of the feeling of gastronomic uncertainty which we suffer on the water, a young staff officer rushed up to him with a bottle of champagne and said : " This is the cure for that sort of an ill." Said the President: "No, young man, I have seen too many fellows seasick ashore from drinking that very article." The story of the life of Abraham Lincoln savors more of romance than reality. It is more like a fable of the ancient days than a story of a plain American of the nineteenth century. The singular vicissitudes in the life of our martyred President surround him with an interest which attaches to few men in history. He sprang from that class which he always alluded to as the " plain people," and never attempted to disdain them. He believed that the government was made for the people, not the people for the government. He felt that true republicanism is a torch— the more it is shaken in the hands of the people, the brighter it will burn. He was transcendently fit to be the first successful standard-bearer of the progressive, aggressive, invincible Republican party. He might well have said to those who chose to sneer at his humble origin, what a mar- shal of France raised from the ranks said to the haughty nobles of Vienna boasting of their long line of descent, when they refus;ed to associate with him: "I am an ancestor; you are only descendants ! " He was never guilty of any posing for effect, any attitudinizing in public, any mawkish sentimentality, any of the puppyism so often bred by power, that dogmat- ism which Johnson said was only puppyism grown to maturity. He made no claim to knowledge he did not possess. He felt with Addison that pedantry and learning are like hypocrisy in religion— the form of knowledge without the power of it. He had nothing in conmion with those men of mental malformation who are educated beyond their intellects. The names of Washington and Lincoln are inseparably associated, and yet. as the popular historian would have us believe, one spent his entire life in chopping down acorn trees and the other in splitting them up into rails. Washington could not tell a storj'. Lincoln always could. HORACE PORTER 37(1 t t And Lincoln's stories alwaj'S possessed the trae geometrical requisites, they were never too long, and never too broad. He never forgot a point. A sentinel pacing near the watchfire while Lincoln was once telling some stories quietly remarked that, " He had a mighty powerful memory, but an awful poor forgettery." . . . . But his heart was not always attuned to mirth ; its cliords were often set to strains of sadness. Yet throughout all his trials he never lost the '■ourage of his convictions. When he was surrounded on all sides by doubting Thomases, by unlielieving Saracens, by discontented Catilines, his faith was strongest. As the Danes destroyed the hearing of their war- horses in order that they might not he affrighted by the din of the battle, so Lincoln turned a deaf ear to all that might have discouraged him, and exhibited an unwavering faith in the justice of the cause and the integrity of the Union. It is said that for three hundred years after the battle of Thermopyla; every child in the public schools of Greece was required to recite from memor>' the names of the three hundred martyrs who fell in the dtfence of that Pass. It would be a crowning triumph in patriotic education if every school child in America could contemplate each day the grand character and utter the inspiring name of Abraham Lincoln. He has passed from our view. We shall not meet him again until he stands forth to answer to his name at the roll-call when the great of earth are summoned in the morning of the last great reveille. Till then [apos- trophizing Lincoln's portrait which hung above the President's head], till then, farewell, gentlest of spirits, noblest of all hearts ! The child's simplicity was mingled with the majestic grandeur of your nature. You have handed down unto a grateful people the richest legacy which man can leave to man — the memor>' of a good name, the inheritance of a great example. , I JOSEPH JEFFERSON (1829 ) THE RIP VAN WINKLE OF DRAMATIC ORATORY BOH iiiaiiy docadoH of the jtast the lovers of the tlieatrc have feasted full on one oft served repast, Jeirerson's " IJip Van Winkle," whieh is growing to Ik; u tradition even while it remains a living tenant of the stajje. .leH'erson has so thorou^idy identified liiin«<'lf with " Old Hip " that the two have fairly Ik eoine one. He is growing esjKJcially like him in one partieular, old age is elassing him among its veterans ; hut he is uidike him in anotlier, lie has not slept away his years. In faet, no man has kept more vitally alive and more fully in the eyes of the {K'ople than Joseph Jetl'ei-son. lie is protean in his changes. We see him now as "Hip," again as " Boh Kccles," next in some other form ; hut in none of them does he ohliterate himself. Througli all these variations something of the genial-hearted Joe Jellerson shows out. Horn of a family of actors, he came to his profession hy hereditary right, and has ahundantly proved his claim to fill the throne of his father. MY FARM IN JERSEY [Jefferson is not confined in his powers to repeating the words of others, but can speak effectively for himself. And as a comedian, he has naturally a sense of humor. As evidence of this we present the closing portion of his remarks made at the tenth annual dinner of the Author's Club, New York, February 28, 1893.] It is curious that there is one path in which the actor always wanders — he always likes to be land-owner. It is a curious thing that the actors of England — of course in the olden times you must remember that we had none but English actors in this country, — as soon as they came here, they wanted to own land. They could not do it in England. The elder Booth owned a farm at Bellaire. Thomas Cooper, the celebrated English trage- dian, bought a farm near Philadelphia, and it is a positive fact that he is the first man who ever owned a fast trotting horse in America. He used 376 JOSEPH JEFFERSON m i m i to drive from the farm to rehearsal at the theatre, and I lielieve has been known, when in convivial company, even to drive out at night afterwards. Following and emulating the example of my illustrious predecessors I became a farmer. I will not allude to my plantation in Louisiana ; my overseer takes care of that. I have not heard from him lately, but I am told he takes very good care of it. I trust there was no expression of distrust on niv part. Hut I allude to my farm in New Jersey. I have not been so suc- cessful as Mr. Burroughs, but I was attracted by a townsman and I bought a farm in New Jersey. I went out first to examine the soil. I told the honest farmer who was about to sell me this place that I thought the soil looked rather thin ; there was a good deal of gravel. He told tne that the gravel was the finest thing for drainage in the world. I told him I had heard that, but I had always presumed that if \\.<: gravel was under- neath it would answer the purpose better. He said : " Not at all ; this soil is of that character it will drain both ways," by what he termed I think caterpillary attraction. I bought the farm and set myself to work to increase the breadth of my shoulders, to help my appetite, and so forth, about the work of a farm. I even went so far as to emulate the example set by Mr. Burroughs, and split the wood. I did not succeed in that. Of course, as Mr. Burroughs wisely remarks, the heat comes at both ends ; it comes when you split the wood and again when you burn it. But as I only lived at my farm during the sunmier time, it became quite unnecessary in New Jerse}' to split wood in July, and my farming operations were not successful. We bought an immense quantity of chickens and they all turned out to be roosters ; but I resolved — I presume as William Nye says about the farm — to carry it on ; I would carry on that farm as long as my wife's money lasted. A great mishap was when my Alderiiey bull got into the greenhouse. There was nothing to stop him but the cactus. He tossed the flower-pots right and left. Talk about the flowers that bloom in the spring, — why I never saw such a wreck, and I am fully convinced that there is nothing that will stop a thoroughly well- bred bull but a full-bred South American cactus. I went down to look at the ruins and the devastation that this animal had made, and I found him quietly eating black Hamburg grapes. I don't know anything finer than black Hamburg grapes for Alderney bulls. A friend of mine, who was chaffing me for my farming proclivities, said : " I see you have got in some confusion here. It looks to me from seeing that gentleman there — that stranger in the greenhouse — that you are trying to raise early bulls under glass.'' CHARLES EMORY SMITH (J 842 EDITOR, CABINET OFFICER AND ORATOR mllE ilistinj^uisled inemlxT of Pn^siilpiit McKink-y's Cabinet with wliom we have now to ileal, has kept himself loiif; and fully in the jmlilie eye, alike as journalist, as diplomat, and as Cabinet otti<-ial. A native of Conneeticnt, he was an editor in Albany for the fifteen years froui IHtir) to IXHO, and sintv- the latter date has l>een tlie ruling spirit of the rhiladelj)hia Piriw, the oldest and ablest exponent of the Rcpubliean party in the (iuaker City. In his dii)lo- matic service Mr. Smith was Minister to Uussia 1890-!»2. In 1898 he was appointeatllc nf Manila iSay. won a (lcjj;rii' of |.roniinrn( r in the dinnnin of aftfi-diiuiir otatoiy at New York, in lM!t!» ; his t,' story <»f liow iVwcy tanL,'lit a lis>on to llic laiinan aihniral sprfadinj,' likr wildlirc thronuli till' country. 'I'liis one spcoch is well wortii pn-sorvinj,' lM)tli for its intrinsic interest ami as an c,\ani|.lc ot tlic style adapted to a .«I>eecli which includes a ii;.'li In- (mic it with xrcmiiij,' •li^ri'i'iiril. \\,ii no (ItMilit iniiiiif.1 l.y it. Tlii- i.« iv i.li m m tin- . uiniin.itiii),' iiMi.liui, as (l(-(iiiiii| l>i liiu, PF.WEY A , MANILA |Cii(itHiii Ci'Kliliiti't ;iill;iMl |)e«i-y.| Mk. rilie si.eaking— either political, legal, religious or educational. Yet in Wu Ting Fung, late Chinese Minister to the Unite.l States, we have had an oratorof excellent powers, a living prooi that the Chinaman onlv needs opportunity to .levelop oratorical ability. Minister Wu, indeed, was educated in Western lands, is proficient in the English language and literature, and has native lowers of thought and llu-ncy in expres- sion associated with a sense of humor which gives pi.juancy to his utterances. It is to these educational and natural powers that he owes his reputation in oratory. During his .sojourn at Washington he was often heard in the neighboring cities, on social or other occasions, an of the administration. Since the unfortunate occurrence* I have been receiving from day to day innumera- ble letters from persons, many of whom I have not the pleasure of know- ing, expressing their sympathy for China. There is a saying in our classics that the people should be made to follow, but not be able to understand, the reason of things. But I may say, in the case of the American people, this maxim of Confucius is inap- plicable, because I find in every public question that the people are very intelligent and lovers of fair play. This, indeed, is a wonderful nation. Last Wednesday the city of Washington celebrated its centennial, and I was fortunate enough to listen to the exercises at the Capitol, and among the public addresses given by the Congressman and Senators, there is one speech I will not forget. It is the speech of Senator Daniel. In his • The Boxer outbreak in China. I DISTINGUISHED WOMEN ORATORS Temperatue, Equal Rights for Womt-n and Reform in the Moral and Political World h;ivp been thi* themes iidvocjited by these distinguished women orators. '\J \^''^^' WU TING KANG 389 ! i f 4 opening address, if I temember rightly, he said that ancient history has no precedent for the United States of America, and modern history has no parallel. That is a grand expression, but it is nevertheless true. There is no ancient history for your great country, but your country has been making history. American hi.story dates from the life of Washington, and is enriched by the noble achievements of Lincoln and (Irant and the many others whom it is needless for me to enumerate, and of whom you know more than I do. Coming to the present day, it is embellished by such household words as the names of Miles and Dewey, and last, but not the least, the name of William McKinley. Yes, your history is rapidly filling up with the noble deeds of your men. But we diplomats, we foreign diplomats, do not understand your politics. I am speaking of myself — perhaps I should be going too fai thus to refer to my colleagues, who are more learnetl than I am — but, speakmg for myself, I do not understand your politi:s. Your politics are too coniplicawd for me. For instance, I have not been able to master the intricacies of " sixteen to one ' ' and the " full dinner-pail." These things are too deep for my dull understanding. But I understand this, which- ever political party may reign in the White House, the glory of the Stars and Stripes will not in any event grow dim. As long as yr>n remain the people who form this administration, headed by that nobk, humane, and level-headed man who is now your President — I say, as long as you have such men at the head of your government, your great nation will continue to command the respect of all the other nations of the world. Gentlemen, I will not occupy your time much longer, and in conclud- ing will say that Senator Daniel, in concluding his «;peech, expressed the hope that the city of Washington will be in course of time the capital of a universal republic. When I heard this I could not understand, but when I came home I pondered over it, and I think I have found out his deep* meaning. The meaning, if I am not mistaken, is this — that the position, the high position, and the just policy of your nation will be in cours.i of time recognized and will prevail among all different nations, so that the city of Washington will become in the near future the seat of universal peace, justice, and truth. When that day comes, and I hope it will not be far distant, the superior men of this country, of which the members of this club form an element, will have much to do, and will take a prom- inent part in bringing about that happy state of things. Gentlemen, I thank you for your courtesy and the honor you have done me. JOHN MITCHELL (1869 ) THE COAL MINER'S ADVOCATE i' If tlio roprpscntiitivos of tlu" \vorkingm«'ii at tlio ojHMiiiij; of tho twentieth cpntury iKmi- was nioro /ealous for tlio advaiurinciit of liis follow-artisaiis, or more widely known to the peoph' alike of America and Europe, than John Mitciiell, PresiiU nt of tlie Tnited Mine Workers, and leader in the fi;reat strike of the anthracitn eoar miners in 1902, the most famous event of the new century in tiio world of industry. A miner himself — lie ciil(>red ' he mines of Illinois at til ' aj^o of thirteen — Mitchell early joined the Knif;;lils of I^alxjr, studied at night to gain what education he could, rend all tlii> hooks he could find on sociological suhjects and, in every way availahle. fitted himself for his future career. His native jKJwers and genius for organization told. Joining the I^nitt 1 Mine Workei's in 1890, when twenty-one years of age, he was made vice-president of the organi/a- tion in January. 1892, and president in tho following January. This presidency which he has held for so many years is of an organization oi iiver 300,000 members. He led the soft coal mineis successfully through the great strike of 1897, and the hard co' . rs through that of 1892, and is looked ui)on by working men and capitalists alike as a genius in organization and a Napoleon in the manage- ment of an industrial convulsion. As an orator. Mr. Mitchell is not given to the passionate declama- tion so commonly indulged in hy j«pular leaders, hut confines him- self lo logical treatmentof the question at is.sue, expressed in language so simple that even the breaker hoys of tho mine can follow him with interest and unde^-tanding. He is always cool ami self-|xissessed, never permits himself to become flustered or thrown into a i)assion, and ill :'!! the difficult sitnatioris arising from the greiit coal strike, 3W 8 JOHN MITCHELL 391 !• conducte'l himself in u manner to win tlie respect and admiration of hia adversurie:^. Mr. Mitrht'll'H oratory scarcely appertains to the prese!it section of our work, but as the youngest of American public speakers who has won a r»|uilation, we deem it advisable to place him here at the end of the American section of our work. AN APPEAL FOR THE MINERS [On Labor Day, September i, 1901, John Mitchell addretwed an immense audi- encr of workingmcii at Washington Pnrk, a place of public resort near Philadelphia. As a favorable example of bit oratorical uiauner, we append his adsl-etaon that occasion.] This day has been decreed as labor's special holiday, and from one end of the country to the other the great hosts of labor have assembled and are reviewing the struggles of the past and preparing for the struggles of the future. The year just closed has been unprecedented in the growth of the trades union movement, and of independent thought and action. But new problems have arisen which will tax our greatest strength to solve. We have this year government by injunction and ownership by Divine right in the most accentuated form. If one of the most conspicu- ous among the capitalists properly represents the sentiment of his asso- ciates, then we must take it for granted that they believe that God in His infinite wisdom has given into their hands all the resources of our country. As a boy I was taught to believe that God loved all His people alike ; that He conferred no more power or privileges on one than on another. And, notwithstanding the declaration of the controllers of the trusts, I am not prepared to abandon the teachings of my mother and my Sunday-school teacher. Every year sees some strnegle of the workers that stands out conspicuously. This year it happei hat the coal miners of Penasyl- vania are engaged in a life and death struggle for the right to live. The struggle of the miners is the greatest contest between labor and capital in the history of the world, not only because of its magnitude, but because of the issues involved. The miners are fighting for rights guar- anteed by our country and exercised by their employers. They are en- gaged in a life and death struggle, trying to gain sufficient to enable them to take their children of tender years from the mines and the mills and send them to school, where, as American children, they belong. I want to repeat to you what I said in a speech in Wilmington : Had the Coal Trust known that it had to fight the American people to beat the miners, they would never have engaged in this fight. I have an abiding faith in the American people. Once they believe that a wrong has been perpetrated the heart of the people goes out in sympathy, and they see that li I an JOHN MITCHELL the wrong is righted. If my reception in Philadelphia and l\ere reprettent* the sentiment throughout this country, and I believe it does, then, my friends, the coal miners cannot lose. I am noi one of those who believe that the loss of the miners' strike will destroy the trades union movement; but I do believe it would give to unionism the most severe shock it has had in many years. The history of the inception and progress of the strike is known to all of you. It is indelibly impressed upon the hearts of the workingmen of the country. It is unnecessary to review that now, but I want to say that this struggle was not started until we had exhausted every conceiv- able means of settlement. The struggle would not have been inaugurated or continued if the operators had consented to conciliation, mediation or arbitration. They have turned a deaf ear to all. Now we must win or be crushed. To win thi.s strike we must have the assistance of our fellow-workers and of all generous citizens. It is much more pleasant to give than to receive. I should be much happier if I could come here and say that the miners' union had hundreds of thousands of dollars to give away, rather than ask you to help feed the families of the men. As it is, we are com- pelled to appeal to workingmen and to the public to give us a small portion of their earnings to keep our people from starving. I believe the time is not far distant when workingmen will know how to solve this problem. I am free to say that my own views have been somewhat changed since this strike started. Workmen know that I have been identified with every peace movement that might help the workers. I am not prepared to say that they always will be failures, but they will be failures as long as employers will not listen to reason and the truth. I look forward to the time when the wage earners will take their proper place ; when those who build the mansions will not live in hovels ; when the men who build the lightning express and the parlor cars will not walk from station to station looking for work ; when those whose labor erects the buildings whose spires reach heavenward will not have to pass by the doors because they are too ragged to enter. I stand for the solidarity of the trades union movement. I hope to see the time when no man who earns his bread by the sweat of his brow will be outside of his trade union, when the workers of our country will take possession of their own. European Orators f BOOK I. BOOK II. Book III. BOOK IV. Book V. Book VI. Book VII. Book VIII. BOOK l\. Orators of Greece and Rome Pulpit Orators of Meui/Cval Europe Hnglish Orators of the Middle Period the (iolden age of british oratory Orators of the Victorian Reign The Pulpit Orators of Great Britain Orators of the French Revolution Nineteenth Century orators ui- France Orators of southern and Central Europe B(X)KI. Orators of Greece and Rome THE history of oratory is as old as the written history of the human race. Hut for examples of actual discourses we must come down to the literature of the classic age, the period of Greece and Rome. And of the orators of this age, the public utterances of very few have been preserved in their original form. Of the speeches of Pericles, the earliest famous orator of Athens, we have oniy the version to be found in the works of Thucydides; while the dying speech of Socrates, as given by Plato,' was probably invented by Plato himself. It is the same in Roman literature, most of the speeches we possess being the versions given in historical works, such as those of Livy, Sallust and Tacitus, who either invented or modified them to suit their own tastes. Those were not the days of stenographic reporters, and only those orations had a fair chance of future e.xistence which were written out carefully by the orators themselves. Of extemporaneous rpeakers, the historical recorders may have given the burden of what they said, but scarcely the verbal form. In the case of the most famous orators, how- ever,— including Lysias, Isocrates, Demosthenes, yEschines, and some others of Greece, and Cicero of Rome, — the orations were written before they were spoken, and were heedfully preserved as part of the literary productions of their authors. Many of these have come down, in their original form to the present time, and translations of them have been made which closely preserve the spirit of the original. Our selec- tions are made from these translations. an d PERICLES (495-429 B. C) FOUNDER OF THE SPLENDOR OF ATHENS 1 EIRST in tii.io iind one of the foremost in ability of the great orators of Athens stands llie famous Pericles,' whose silver voice and rare eloquence gave him the masterv of the Athe- nian jiopulace during his life. T.^nder his hands Athens reached its height of splendor in architecture and art, the unrivaled Parthenon adorned as it was by the sculptures of Phidias, being the noblest exam- ple of ins concei»tions. As an orator he had no rival in the Athens of Ins day, his graceful figure, mellifluous voice, and complete self-com- niand enabling him to sway his audiences at will. .Supreme as was his power, ho used it solely for the benefit of the city and its populace being soIht and recluse in habu, - while the tenderest domestic attach- ment bound him to the engaging and cultivated Aspasia." THE DEAD WHO FELL FOR ATHENS [^f the oratory of Pericles we possess only the famous example which Thncv- d.dcs he historian, has preserved for us, the long funeral oration over those who di«l m battle.n43. B- C.. the first year of the destructive Peloponnesian War. Howclosely this repeats the words of the orator it is now impossible to tell. The speech opens with a laudation of tne glory and progress of Athens, for which the soldiers are gU^a credit, and continues with an eulogy of their merits] We are happy in a form of government which cannot envy the laws of our neighbors-for it has served as a model to others, but is original at Athens. And this our form, as committed not to the few, but to the whole body of the people, is called a democracy. How different soever in a private capacity, we ail enjoy the same general equality our laws are fitted to preserve; and superior honors just as we excel. The public admiratton ,s not confined to a particular family, but is attainable only by merit. Poverty is not a hindrance, since whoever is able to serve his country meets with no obstacle to preferment from his first obscurity. 386 3v6 PERICLES The offices of the State we go through without obstructions from one another ; and live together in the mutual endearments of private life without suspicions ; not angry with a neighbor for following the bent of his own humor, nor putting on that countenance of discontent which pains though it cannot punish — so that in private life we converse without diffidence or damage, while we dare not on any account offisnd against the public, through the reverence we bear to the magistrates and the laws, chiefly to those enacted for redress of the injured, and to those unwritten, a breach of which is thought a disgrace. Our laws have further provided for the mind most frequent inter- missions of care by the appointment of public recreations and sacrifices throughout the year, elegantly performed with a peculiar pomp, the daily delight of which is a charm that puts melancholy to flight. The grandeur of this our Athens causes the produce of the whole earth to be imported here, by which we reap a familiar enjoyment, not more of the delicacies of our own growth than of those of other nations .... That we deserve our power we need no evidence to manifest. We have great and signal proofs of this, which entitle us to the admiration of the present and future ages. We want no Home, t j be the herald of our praise ; no poet to deck off a history with the charms of verse, where the opinion of exploits must suffer by a strict relation. Every sea has been opened by our fleets, and every land has been penetrated by our armies, which has everywhere left behind them eternal monuments of our enmity and our friendship. In the just defence of such a State, these victims of their own valor, scorning the ruin threatened to it, have valiantly fought and bravely died. And every one of those who survive is ready, I am persuaded, to sacrifice life iu such a causs. And for this reason have I enlarged so much on national points, to give the clearest proof that in the present war we have more at stake than men whose public advantages are not so valua- ble, and to illustrate, by actual evidence, how great a commendation is due to them who are now my subject, and the greatest part of which they have already received. For the encomiums with which I have celebrated the State have been earned for it by the bravery of these, and of men like these. And such compliments might be thought too high and exagger- ated if passed on any Grecians but them alone. The fatal period to which these gallant souls are now reduced, is the surest evidence of their merit — an evidence begun in their lives and completed in their deaths. For it is a debt of justice to pay superior honors to men who have devoted their lives to fighting for their country, though inferior to others in every virtue but that of valor. i i t; WU TING FANG AMBASSADOR AND ORATOR A most pulished speaker greatly in demand by lar^e audiences. Until recently he was Ambassador frctsaiUe In tils Intellectual powers. .-;> ' ■ 4 PERICLES Sit? Their last service effaces all former demerits — it extends to the public; their private demeanors reached only to a few. Yet not one of these was at all induced to shrink from danger through fondness for these delights which the peaceful affluent life bestows ; not one was the less lavish of his life through that flattering hope attendant upon want, that poverty might at length be exchanged for affluence. One passion there was in their minds much stronger than these— the desire for vengeance upon their enemies. Regarding this as the most honorable of dangers, they boldly rushed toward the mark to glut revenge, and then to satisfy those secondary passions. The uncertain event they had already secured in hope ; what their eyes showed plainly must be done they trusted to their own valor to accomplish, thinking it more glorious to defend themselves and die in the attempt than to yield and live. From the reproach of cowardice, indeed, they fled but presented their bodies to the shock of battle ; when, insensible of fear, but triumphing in hope, in the doubtful charge they instantly drop- ped, and thus discharged the duty which brave men owe to their country. As for you, who now survive them , it is your business to pray for a bet- ter fate, but to think it your duty also to preserve the same spirit and warmth of courage against your enemies ; not judging of the expediency of this from a mere harangue — when any man indulging in a flow of words may tell you, what you yourselves know as well as he, how many advantages there are infighting valiantly against your enemies — but rather making the daily increasing grandeur of the community the object of your thoughts. And when it really appears great to your apprehensions, think again that this grandeur was acquired by brave and valiant men ; by men who knew their duty and in the moment of action were sensible of shame, who when- ever their attempts were unsuccessful, thought it dishonor their country should stand in need of anything their valor could do for it, and so made it the most glorious present. Bestowing thus their lives upon the public, they have every one received a praise that will never decay, a sepulchre that will always be most illustrious — not that in which their bones lie moldering, but that in which their fame is preserved, to be on every occasion, when honor is the display of either word or act, eternally remembered. This whole earth is the sepulchre of illustrious men. LYSIAS (458-378 B. C) THE FATHER OF NATURAL ORATORY fflHEIl^i was abundant oratory l)efore the days of Lysins, but he stands (irst aiiioiifj the aneioiit orators \vho.<(i works still exist, otherwise than in fragments. Thueydides gives us in his his- torj' orations attributed to Pericles and others, hut these may have been largely the work of liis own hand. The dying speech of Socrates comes to us only in Plato's works, and we do not know that it was not of his own invention. But of the orations of Lvsias thirty-five still exist — some {)erhaps spurious, but most of them doubtless his own. The great credit of Lysias is that he broke away from the artificial man- ner of the previous schools of oratory, and develojied a new, forcible and natural manner. The diction of Lysias is eminently graceful, pure and conspicuous. " He resembles," says Quintilian, " rather a pure fountain than a great river." He employs only the simplest language, yet has the happy art of giving to every subject treated an air of dignity and importance. As a rule, however, he excels in ele- gance and {wrsuasion, rather than in vigor of declamation ; though this is not the case in the example quoted. Lysias was born at Athens, the most celebrated citv of Greece. alx>ut 458 B. C He traveled amonjr other Grecian cities and the Grecian colonies of the Mediterranean. During his travels he studied rlietoric and oratory. THE CRIMES OF ERATOSTHENES [The great sum of the orations of Lysias relate to private matters. Of those extant only one ison a public theme, the arraignment of Eratosthenes. The occasion of this may be briefly stated. Lysias, after residing for years in Italy, returned to Athens, which was then under the rule of what are known in history as the Thirty Tyrants. He and his brother opposed these civic magnates, the result being that his brother was executed, and he had to fly for his life. After these tyrants were expelled be returned to Athens and became a composer of orations for others. Eratosthenes, f ! i ! J LY8IA8 igg one of the expelled tynrnts, returned and asked amnesty from the court. Duri.ig the trial Lysias came into Court and denounced the assassin of his brother in a burst of simple and passionate eloquence, which must have had a great effect on his hearers In this he hrst broke from the stilted manner previously existin? into his natural Uter style of speech. We give an illustrative passage from this oration] It is an easy matter, O Athenians, to begin this accusation. But to end it without doing injustice to the cause will be attended with no small difficulty. For the crimes of Eratosthenes are not only too atrocious to describe, but too many to enumerate. No exaggeration can exceed, and within the time assigned for this discourse it is impossible fully to repre- sent them. This trial, too, is attended with another singularity. In other causes it is usual to ask the accusers : "What is your resentment against the defendants ? " But here you must ask the defendant : ' ' What was your resentment against your country ? What malice did you bear your fellow-citizens ? Why did you rage with unbridled fury against the State itself? " The time has now indeed come, Athenians, when, insensible to pity and tenderness, you must be armed with just severity against Kratos- thenes and his associates. What avails it to have conquered them in the field, if you be overcome by them in your councils ? Do not show them more favor for what they boast they will perform, than resentment for what they have already committed. Nor, after having been at so mucL pains to become masters of their persons, allow them to escape without sufiFeringthat punishment which you once sought to inflict ; butprc^- yourselves worthy of that good fortune which has given you power over your enemies. The contest is very unequal between Eratosthenes and you. Formerly he was both judge and accuser ; but we, even while we accuse, must at the same time make our defense. Those who were innocent he put to death without trial. To those who are guilty we allow the benefit of law, even though no adequate punishment can ever be inflicted. For should we sacrifice them and their children, would this compensate for the murder of your fathers, your sons, and your brothers ? Should we deprive them of their property, would this indemnify the individuals whom they have beggared, or the State which they have plundered ? Though they cannot suffer a punishment adequate to their demerit, they ought not, surely, on this account, to escape. Yet how matchless is the effrontery of Eratos- thenes, who, being now judged by the very persons whom he formerly injured, still ventures to make his defense before the witnesses of his crimes ? What can show more evidently the contempt in which he holds you, or the confidence which he reposes in others ? 400 LY8IAS Let me now conclude with laying before you the miseries to which you were reduced, that vou may see the necessity of taking punishment on the authors of them. And first, you who remained in the city, con- sider the severity of their government. You were reduced to such a situa- tion as to be forced to carry on a war, in which, if you were cc quered. you partook indeed of the same liberty with the conquerors ; but if you proved victorious, you remained under the slavery of your magistrates. As to you of the Pirxus,* you will remember that though you never lost your arms in the battles which you fought, yet you suffered by these men what your foreign enemies could never accomplish, and at home, in times of peace, were disarmed by your fello v-citizens. By them you were ban- ished from the country left you by your fathers. Their rage, knowing no abatement, pursued you abroad, and drove you from one territory to another Recall the cruel indignities which you suffered ; how you were dragged from the tribunal and the altars ; how no place, however sacred, could shelter you against their violence. Others, torn from their wives, their children, their parents, after putting an end to their miserable lives, were deprived of funeral rites ; for these tyrants imagined their govern- ment to be so firmly established that even the vengeance of the gods was unable to shake it. . , ^ But it is impossible for one, or in the course of one trial, to enumerate the means which were employed to undermine the power of this State, the arsenals which were demolished, the temples sold or profaned, the citizens banished or murdered, and those whose dead bor.ies were impiously left unirterred. Those citizens now watch your decree, uncertain whether you will prove accomplices of their death or avengers of their murder. I shall desist from any further accusations. You have heard, you have seen, you have experienced. Decide then 1 •The port of Athou. f < I ISOCRATES (436-338 R C) ATHENS' SILVER-TONGUED ORATOR m SOCRATES lived nt the same time with Lysias and rivalled him in fame, his stylo rescmhiinj,' that of Lysias in piiiity and comctnoss, though it is more round ami full in its ixriods, w-hile his orntions havo a iwwor in their full stream of harmonious diction which is found in no earlier work of rhetoric. The ancient estimate of his powers is shown by the statue of a siren erected in his tomb, in indication of his sweetness. Like his follow orators, his siH'echos were not extemjwraneous, but were elaborated with ^reat care. He is said to have spent ten years in comirosiiig and polishing one oration. Of his productions, twenty-one are e.xtant. He ojjened a school of oratory at Athens, and numbered among his pupils many men of later prominence. He lived to he ninety -eight years of age, and died then from voluntary .starvation, occasioned by his grief at the fatal battle in which Philip of Macedon overthrew the power of Atiiens. FLATTERY MORE POWERFUL THAN TRUTH [The orations of lacerates may be classified as didactic, persuasive, laudatory, and forensic. We select from Dinsdale's translation, a passage illustrative of his method. It may be said further that his weak voice and natural timidity prevented him from bccomiog a public speaker himself, his orations being written for others, or for delivery by chosen speakers on important political occasions. J Those who come hither are tised to say that those things which they are going to speak of are of the noblest nature, and worthy the city's utmost attention ; but if there ever was a time when this might be said of any affairs, methinks that I now handle deserves such an exordium. We are assembled to deliberate about peace and war, which are of the highest importance in human life ; and those who consult maturely are more suc- cessful than others. The importance, therefore, of our present subject is of this high nature. ^ 401 40'.' 180CRATES Now I have frequently observed that yon make a great difference between orators, and are attentive to »ome but cannot «uffer the voice of otheiB. This is in reality no just wonder, for in former tin.e« yo« "a«l to reject all such as did not flatter your inclinations ; which, I think, deserves an impartial blame ; for. though you know many private houses have been entirely ruined by flatteries, and detest such persons as in their private affairs conduct themselves in this manner ; yet you are not dis- posed yourselves in the same manner in regard of the public amendment, but. finding fault with the censor, and taking pleasure in flatteries, you seem to put more confidence in such than in other citizens. And you your- selves have been a cause that the orators study and meditate not so much what will be iK-neficial to the State, as what will please your hope and expectation, tor which a crowd of them is now flocked together ; as it is c ^denv to all that you take more pleasure in those who exhort you to .^'a■ ihan to such as give you more peaceable counsels. You have met to choose, as it becomes you, the wisest measures ; and though you do not know what is best to be done, yet you will hear none but such as flatter you. But if you truly have the State's good at heart, you ought rather to be attentive to those who oppose your sentiments, than to such as fall in with your humors and weaknesses ; for you cannot be ignorant that those who practice such artifices are the most likely to deceive you. since artful flattery easily closes the eye to truth and sincerity. But you can never suffer such prejudice from those who speak the plain, naked truth, for such cannot persuade you but by the clear demonstrations of utility. THE PRINCIPLES OF GOOD GOVERNMENT rXhe " Areopagiticus" is one of the public discourses of Isocrate. in which he deals with the home affairs of Athens. Wc offer the following extract, in which the good government of the past is offered as an example for the future.] Such was the authority to which, as I have said, they entrusted the maintenance of good order, which considered that those were in error who imagined that a community in which the laws were framed with the greatest exactness produced the best men. For, if this were so, there could be nothing to prevent all the Hellenes* being on the same level, so far as the facility of adopting one another's written laws is concerned. They on the contrary, knew that virtue is not promoted by the laws, but by the habits of daily life, and that most people turn out men of like character to those in whose midst they have severally been brought up. For. where there are a number of laws drawn up with great exactitude, it '.The Gir «l»-»° clltd becu.. they .re believed to be descended >rom . .uylbkal ^.~ua«e named Hellen. r • / ISOCKATK8 409 i« a proof that the city jh badly a.lministere.1, for the i^ihabitaiiU are com- pelled to frame laws in great nunit)er» as a Urrier ajjaiiist ofTctises. Those, however, who are rightly governed should not cover the walls of the porticfHS with copies of the laws, but preserx-e justice in their hearts ; for It IS not by decrees l.iu by manners that cities are well governed, and while those who have l>een badly brought np will venture to transgress laws drawn ii even with the greatest exactitude, tti(».e who have l)een wdl educated vv 11 be ready t.. abide by law^ frameiiduct.J In the first place show your gratitude to Heaven, not only by sacri- fices, but by a steady veracity and sacred observance of all leagues and oaths. The first indeed shows splendor and gratitude, but the latter only a truly noble, godlike mind. Be such toward your parents as vou would hope your children should \^ toward you. Use exercise rather 'for health than strength and beauty. You will !^t attain these if you leave it off before nature is fatigued. Be not austere and gloomy, but serene and brave. By the first be- havior you would be thought proud ; but by the latter will lie esteemed a man of worth and credit. Nexer imagine you cua conceal a bad action • for though you hide it from others, your own conscience will condemn you . Be good , and ha ve your own approbation . Be persuaded that every base action will at la> take air. It is the duty oi every man to improve his knowledge, will and under- standing. It is as grent a shame to hear nationnl, instructive discourse and not be attentive to ir as it is to reject with scorn a valuable gift! Think philosophy a greate reasure than immense sums of gold, for gold is apt to take wings an : fl iway, but philosophy and virtue are inalien- able possessions. Wisdou the only immortal inheritance. DEMOSTHENES (382-322 B.C) THE PARAGON OF ORATORS |hEN Greece, as a laiul of independent states, the nursery of liberty and freedom of speech, was on the verge of falling before the arts and arms of Philip of Macedon, Demosthenes, a native of Athens, arose, and in a succession of orations of unequalled eloquence exposed the designs of the enemy of Grecian liberty, and sought to arouse his countrymen to meet their now focman as they had met the Persians of ol.l. Several other oratoi-. of Athens were bribed by Philip's gold, but the patriotism of Demosthenes was proof against venalitv. With watchful sagacity he i)enetrated t he designs of the cunning Macedonian, and if ihe generals of Athens had been equal in ability to their orator, the freedom of Greece would have been pre- served ' There were eleven or twelve of these great patriotic orations ; of which four ai-e esi,ecially known as " Philippics." The i^ersistent opposition of Demosthenes against the foes of (ireece. m the end led to his death. His last effort for literty failing, he was pursued by his enemies and sought an asylum in the temple of Neptune on the island of Calaurea. There, still followed, he took poison and died As an orator Demostl.enes was superb. Yet his first efibrt at public speaking was an utter failure. Feeble in frame, weak in voice, shy and awkward in maimer, and ungraceful in gesture, he seemed strikingly ill-fitted for success uix)n the forum. But he had industry, intelligence and determination, and success came to him. He strength- ened his lungs and his voice by declaiming while climbing steep hills or seeking to raise his voice above the roar of the sea. His natural defect in deHverv was overcome by the practice of speaking with peb- bles in his mouth. He learned the art of graceful gesture by prac- ticing before a mirror. Constant study, composition of orations, and 404 DEMOSTHENES 4(» m re 1 •x. memorizinjT niado him ready and fluent in speech. Never trusting to facility in e.\teinj)oraneous delivery, lie carefully prepared ill his ora- tions, and then delivered them with the utmost force and effective- ness. They remain to-day models of oratory, closely studied by all who would excel in the art. " His style," .sa}s Flume, " is rapid harm- ony exactly adjusted to the .sense ; it is vehement reasoninj; without any api)earance of art ; it is di.«ilaiii, anger, holdness, freedom, involved in a continued stream of argument; and of all human productions his orations present the models which approach the nearest to jierfec- tion." Fenelon says: " We think not of his words ; we think only of the things he say.s. He lightens, he thunders, he is a torrent which sweeps everything before it. We can neither criticise nor admire, l)ecause we have not the command of our own faculties." Lord IJrougham says : " There is not any long or close train of reasoning in Demosthenes; still less any profound observations or ingenious allusions; but a constant succession of remarks bearing immediately upon the matter in hand, perfectly plain, and as readily admit- ted as easily understood. These are intermingled with most striking appeals : some to feelings which we are all con.scious of and deeply agitated by, though ashamed to own ; .«ome to sentiments, which every man was i)anting to utter, and delighted to hear thundered forth ; bursts of oratory, therefore, which either overwhelmed or delighte I the audience. .Such A(V^ if we may use a homely phrase, are the principal glory of the great combatant." PHILIP THE ENEMY OF ATHENS [As an example of the Philippics wc offer the following brief extract, in which the orator strongly points out the position of Athens, as affected by the designs of its artful enemy.] There are persons among you, O Athenians, who think to confound a speaker by asking, ' ' What, then, is to be done ? " To which I might answer: "Nothing that you are doing — everything that you leave undone ! " And it would be a just and a true reply. But I will be more explicit ; and may these men, so ready to question, be equally ready to act ! In the first place, Athenians, admit the incontestable fact, that Philip has broken your treaties, that be has declared war against you. Let us have no more crimination and recrimination on this point ! And, then, recognize the fact that he is the mortal enemy of Athens, — of its very soil, of all within its walls, ay, of those even who most flatter them- selves that they are high in his good graces. 400 DEMOSTHENES What Philip most dreads and abhors is our liberty, our Democratic system For the destruction of that all his snares are laid, all h.s projecte are shaped. And in this is he not consistent? He is well aware that^ though he should subjugate all the rest of Greece h.s conquest wouW be insecure while your Democracy stands. He knows that, should he Experience one of those reverses to which the lot of humanity .s so liable Twould be into your arms that all those nations now forcibly heW und r his yoke, would rush. Is there a tyrant to be driven back ?-Athen3 is in the field ! Is there a people to be enfranchised ?-Lo, Athens, prompt o ail ' What wonder, then, that Philip should be impatient while Athenian liberty is a spy upon his evil days ! Be sure. O my countiy- ^ n. that he is your irreconcilable foe ; that it s against Athens that he musters and disposes all his armaments; against Athens that all his "''w'aMien.oughtyou, as wise men. convinced of these truths, to do? You ought to shake off your fatal lethargy, contribute according to your means, tummon your allies to contribute, and take measures to retain the troops already under arms ; so that, if Philip has an army prepared to a tack and subjugate all the Greeks, you may also have one ready to succor and to save tltni. Tell me not of the trouble and expense which this will involve I grant it all. But consider the dangers that menace you. and how much you will be the gainers by engaging heartily, at once, in the Zeral cause. Inu. He flatters himself that the Athenians are simpletons enough to belie\ c him ; as if in him they cherished the very genius of persuasion , instead of a vile calum- niator. But when, at the close of his defense, he shall summon to his aid his accomplices in corruption, imagine then, O Athenians, that you behold at the foot of this tribune, from which I now address you, the great benefactors of the Republic arrayed against them. Solon, who environed our liberty with the noblest institutions - Solon, the philosopher, the mighty legislator,— with that benign > so characteristic, implores you not to pay more regard to the ho. .yed phrases of Demosthenes than to your own laws. Aristides, who fixed i'or Q^eece the apportionment of her contribution, and whose orphan daugh- ters were dowered by the people, is moved to indignation at this prostitu- tion of justice, and exclaims: "Think on your fathers ! Arthmius of Zelia brought gold from Media into Greece, and, for the act, barely escaped death in banishment ; and now Demosthenes, who has not merely 413 A8CHINE8 brought gold, but who received it as the price of treachery, and still retains it, — Demosthenes it is unblushingly proposed to invest with a golden crown ! ' ' From those who fell at Marathon and at Plat^ea ; from Them- istocles ; from the very sepulchres of your ancestors, issues the protesting groan of condemnation and rebuke ! . . . . I neither envy the habits of Demosthenes nor blush for my own ; nor would I retract the speeches I have spoken among you ; nor, had I spoken as he has, would I be content to live ; for my silence, Demosthenes, has been occasioned by the simplicity of my life. I am satisfied with little: and covet not the dishonest acquisition of more ; so that I can be silent, and can speak advisedly, and not when constrained by innate extrava- gance; while you, I should say, are silent when your hand is full, and clamorous when it is empty, and speak, not when you choose, nor what you please, but whenever your employers instruct you, — for you are never ashamed of exaggerations which are immediately detected. You censure me for coming before the city not continuously, but at intervals, and flatter yourself that you can' escape detection in propound- ing this principle, which is not of democracy but a different form of government ; for under an oligarchy not he who would, but he who has power, prefers indictments ; but under a democracy, whoever chooses, and whenever he thinks proper. Besides, to appear occasionally in public is an indication of a policy suggested by opportunity of advantage ; but to make no intermission, even of a day, is the proof of a traitor and a hireling. And yet, by the Gods of Olympus, of all that I understand Demos- thenes intends to say, I am most indignant at what I am going to men- tion. He compares my talents, it seems, to the Sirens, for their bearers (he says) are ..ot S'' much enchanted as lured to destruction — and hence the evil reputation of their minstrelsy. In like maancr my rhttorical skill and abilities prove the ruin of my hearers. And, although I believe no man whatever is justified in any such assertion respecting me — for it is discreditable for an accuser not to be able to prove the truth of his alle- gations — yet if the assertion must be made, it should not have been by Demosthenes, V at by some military commander who had rendered impor- tant services to the state and was deficient in eloquence ; and who there- fore envied the talents of his adversaries because he was conscious of bis inability to proclaim his achievement; »ile he saw an adversary capable of representing to his audience what / ad never performed as though they were actual achievements. Yet wlu.i a man made up altogether of words — bitter and superfluously elaborate words — comes back to the sim- plicity of facts, who can tolerate it ? A .nan whose lougue, like that of the flageolet, if you remove, the rest is nothing. K iBi MARCUS POROUS CATO (234-149 B. C) AN EMINENT ROMAN ORATOR i i jF the omtors of Rome, there is only one, the far-famed Cicero, •whose productions have come down to us in assured form. Of the others, inckiding Cicsar, and the two Catos, we l»ave what purjwrt to Ix) orations spoken by them, in the pages of Livy, Sallust and other historians. These, while jx-rhaps not their exact words, may closely approach orations actually delivereil by them. There were two Catos, eminent as orators, who lx)re the alnjvo name, Cato, the Elder, or the Censor, and his great grandson, Cato, tlie Younger. It is with the former that we are here concerned. Poor by birth and a farmer by profession, his ability as an orator, and his eminence as a model of the severer virtues, raised him through various positions to the office of consul, and finally to that of censor. In the latter, his severity in correcting abuses and enforcing his principles of economy and sobriety made him many enemies. As a senator he became noted, in the third Punic war, for the famous phrase, Ddetvla ed Carthago (" Carthage nmst be destroyed "). VOMEN IN POLITICS [Livy gives Cato credit for the following specimen of oratory, of interest for its peculiar subject, the political activity of women. It is certainly a surprise, with the ideas usually entertained of the seclusion of women in ancient times, to find them as active in their efforts to take part in public affairs as the advocates of women's rights of to-day, while Cato played the part of the modem opponents of these " rights."] If, Romans, every individual among us had made it a rule to maintain the prerogative and authority of a husband with respect to his own wife, we should have less trouble with the whole sex. But now, our privileges, overpowered at home by female contumacy, are, even here in the forum, 4U 414 MARCUS PORCIU8 CATO spurned and trampled under foot ; andfiecnuse we are unable to withstaml each separately, we now dread their collective body. I was lu lustometl to consider it a fabulous and fictitious tale, that in a certain island the whole race of males was utterly extirpated by a conspiracy of the women. But the utmost danger may be apprehended etpully from either sex, if you suffer cabals and secret consultations to l»e held ; scarcely, indeed, can I determine, in my own mind, whether the act itself, or the precetlent which it affords, is of more pernicious teiidtticy. Tlie latter of these more particularly concerns us consuls and other magistrates ; the former, you my fellow-citizens : for whether the measure proposed to your consideration be profitable to the State or not is to be determined by you, who are to vote on the occasion. As to the outrageous behavior of these women, whether it lie merely an act of their own, or owing to your instigations, Marcus I'undanius and Lucius Valerius, it unquestionably implies culpable conduct in magis- trates. I know not whether it reflects greater disgrace on you, tribunes, or on the consuls ; on you, certainly, if you have brought these women hither for the purpose of raising tribunitian sedition ; on us, if we suffer laws to be imposed upon us by a secession of women, as was done for- merly by that of the common people. It was not without painful emotions of shame that I, just now, made my way into the forum through the midst of a band of women. Had I not been restrained by respect for the modesty and dignity of some indi- viduals among them, rather than of the whole number, and been unwill- ing that they should be seen rebuked by a consul, I should not have refrained from saying to them : " What sort of practice is this of running out into the public, besetting the streets, and addressing other women's husbands. Could not each have made the siinie request to her husband at home? Are your blandishments more seducing in public than in pri vate, and with other women's husbands than with your own ? Although, if females would let this modesty confine them within the limits of their own rights, it did not become you, even at home, to concern yourselves about any laws that might be passed or repealed here." Our ancestors thought it not proper that women should perform any, even private business, without a director ; but that they should b^ ever under the control of parents, brothers, or husbands. We, it seems, suffer them now to interfere in the management of State affairs, and to thrust themselves into the forum, into general assemblies, and into assemblies of election ; for what are they doing at this moment in your streets and lanes ? What, but arguing, some in support of the motion of tribunes, others con- tending for the repeal of the law. M CAIUS GRACCHUS (159-121 B.C) ROME'S MOST ELOQUENT TRIBUNE Mi c ?. " '"■" '^"""'"'•^*i»f' »•'<' «tory tul.l of Cornelia, tho mother IJ ofCa.»san.lTilK)rius (Jracchu.. A Ca.npania., la.l wisitirnr her, boasted of her jewels, and aske.j to see tl....... of" h.-r host- ess. In reply Cornelia presente.1 hersons, saving, "These are theonlv jewels of which I ean lK>ast.-' Thest. jewels of sons ^re.- n,, to Ik- leaders of the iK.o,,Ie in their struggle against the aristocrats. TilH-r- lus.a valiant soldier, was elected tribune of the i^-ople, and enacted laws by which .s,.,m),is abus<.s were reformed. He sustained his iK,si. tion with great elo.iuence, but in a secon.I election was altacke.l a.i.l nuLssaered by the partisansof the aristocratic party. Caius, his vounger bn.ther, in time succeeded him in tho tribunate," an.l two vea'rs after- wanl was. hko him. murdered. They lived when the liU-rties of Rome were near their o\erthrow. THE PEOPLE'S RIGHTS ABOVE PRIVILEGE It is now ten years. O Romans, since my brother. Tiberius Gracchus waselected your tribune. In what a condition did he find you ! Thegr^t mass of the people pined in abject poverty. Thousands, eager to work without a clod of dirt they could call their own, actually wanted da^ bread. A few men, calling t ..selves ' "he aristocracy,'' having ent mous wealth gotten by extortion and fraud, lorded it over you wUh remoreeless ngor. The small land proprietors had disappeared. Mercen ary idlers, their fingers actually itching for bribes, U^T. demagoru« insatiate usurers, desperate gamblers, all the vilest abettors oflaw^ 4i5 ..•*.^«' 416 CAIUS GRACCHUS power, had H*urp«l the places of men who had been the glory and strength of the Republic. What a state of things ! infinite wretchednew to the millions, but riches and proiS(.,l „f gonius in cdiiton as well ax in civil and military alliiii-s. Ft is not with liiM niarvi'IouH aciii.vcniinlM in warfaiv, nor liis <5n'al jH)litical y\ il ami ul)i|i»v ifnit wvan- la iv .on,-,. riif.l, hiil simply with iii.sstand- iV'X IV. oi;.i.irv, il, whicli hi- supivniacy was siMnriy sfcoml to that in th. ottu- fields i,f cHoil in which he cxccU.mI. As an orator ricero was liht only l; (iiaii wlio oxccMcd him, and many think tliat, if Casir had dc\otc.l himself si.ccially to tills art, ho ini;,'hl iiavc riv- alled or excllcd Cicero himself. .Nfacanltv. coniparinj,' him with Cnmiwell and llonaparle, says that he w: .'•wi'-r of what neither of the others j-ossess..!, '• I.earninfr, tast. . ui;^ i.w|"....,.e, the sentiments and the manners of an aecomplis!' ' ^!',;lj.' oratory, indeed, that lie piined his ji-sl ..-;.'; wliii'h ojKjned the way to his ' . i.' classed witli the <,'reatest orators o- '.,': ,•.,.;•'- I'ri'vioiis to Caesar's era of jw, ,-, >; .. Ucpuhlie had Ix'en tlireatened hy two irii : .' Sulla. It was to the triumvirate funi.. . i ..,,., „,^^., „„,, f'rassiis that it owed its final overthrow, the ,..iiitary jK)wer gaining supremacy over the civil. The war with I'omiH.y ai'.d his defeat and death left Ca-sar at the head of the Roman state, imperial in station, though the name of emiH'i-or was not assumed hy him, he accepting that of dictator instead. At his death he was dictator-elect for life. THE PUNISHMENT OF CATILINE'S ASSOCIATES [Casar held hiKh office in the Rouian state « licii tlie dangerous conspiracy of Cattltne broke out, an organir-ntion of profligate aad disaifcctcd citi^eus, whose -' 417 Ft was through the civil jxjsition • may Ik- justly »f the Roman I '■- Marias And ii.-ai'. I'()mj)t.y and rt 4IK CAIUS JULIUS CiGSAR purpose wa. the overthrow of the republic. Cicero, who wag then cousul, discovered the plot, and denounced Catiline so vehemently in the Senate that the baffled con- •pirator hastily left Rome. A battle followed between the amiy of his partisans and that of the Senate, in which Catiline's forces were defeated, and he. with so.ne three thousand of his followers, was killed. Ca-sar was suspected of complicity in this plot afld when a number of captive conspirators were tried in the Senate, his voice wa^ the only one that did not demand for them tlie sentence of death. He proposed impn-sonment instemi, saying that n.en of their birth and dignity should not be put to death without an open trial. Cato the Younger followed with a speech in whicli he accused Caesar of connection with the conspiracy, and their advocate narrowl v escaped being include were highly pleased at this, and applauded the justice of such executions. But when they had by degrees established their law- less authority, thev' wantonly butchered both good and bad without dis- tinction ; and thus kept the State in awe. Such was the severe punishment which the people, oppressed with slavery, suffered for their fooliJi joy. In our own times, when Sulla, after his success, ordered Damasippus, and others of the like character, who raised themselves on the misfortunes of the State, to be put to death, who did not commend him for it ? All agreed that such wicked and factious instruments, who were constantly embroiling the commonwealth, were justly put to death. Yet this was an introduction to a bloody massacre ; lor whoever coveted his fellow-citi- zen's hou.se, either in town or country, nay, even any curious vase or fine raiment, took care to have the possessor of it put on the list of the pro- scribed. Thus they who had rejoiced at the punishment of Damasippus were soon after dragged to death themselves ; nor was an end put to this butchery till Sulla had glutted all his followers with riches. I do not CAIUS JULIUS C«SAR 4^9 indeed, apprehend any such proceedings from Marcus Cicero, nor from th«e times. But in so great a city as ours there are various characters and dispositions. At another time, and under another consul, who may also have an army under his command, any falsehood may pass for fact • and when, on this precedent, the consul shall, by decree of the Senate' draw the sword, who is to set bounds to it ? who to moderate the fury ? Our ancestors, Conscript Fathers, never wanted conduct nor courage- nor did they think it unworthy of them to imitate the customs of other nations, if these were useful and praisewoithy. From the Samnites they learned the exercise of arms, and borrowed from them their weapons of war ; and most of their ensigns of magistracy from the Tuscans— in a word, they were very careful to practice whatever appeared useful to them, whether among their allies or their enemies; choosing rather to imitate than envy what was excellent. In those days, in imitation of the custom of Greece, they inflicted stripes on guilty citizens, and capital punishment on such as were condemned ; but when the commonwealth became great and powerful and the vast number of citizens gave rise to factions : when the inno- cent began to be circumvented, and other such inconveniences to take place; then the Porcian and other laws were made, which provided no higher punishment than banishment for the greatest crimes These considerations. Conscript Fathers, appear to me of the greatest weight against our pursuing any new resolution on this occasion ; for surely their share of virtue and wisdom, who from so small beginnings raised so mighty an empire far exceeds ours, who are scarce able to preser^'e what they acquired so gloriously. " What ! Shall we discharge the conspir- atora," you will say. " to reinforce Catiline's army ? • ' By no means • but my op..,.on is this ; that their estates should be confiscated ; their persons closely confined in the most powerful cities of Italv ; and that no one move the Senate o, the people for any favor towards them, under the penalty of l)eing declared by the Senate an enemy to the State and the welfare of its meml)ers. ■■-■#. m 1 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO (J 06-43 B. C) ROME'S NOBLEST ORATOR eEXT in fame to Demosthenes among ancient orators stands Cicero, one of Rome's noblest and ablest sons. While excel- ling in several branches of literature, in oratory he was supreme, and few men of the past come to us with broader fame and hands freer from guile than this eloquent citizen of the "eternal city." Cicero was born in times of troul)le and turmoil. The founda- tions of the old republic were breaking up; the leaders of the army were Ijecoming the autocrats of the State ; the freedom of the people was near its end and the Empire was at hand. There were two events of the time which especially aroused the indignation of the great orator. One of these was the cruelty and outrages of the infa- mous Caius Verres, prosecuted by the Sicilians for atrocious acts of inhumanity and rapine while governor of their island. Cicero con- ducted the prosecution and arraigned Verres in such overwhelming terms that tliC culprit fled into exile. The orations against Verres were seven in number. Later, while one of the Roman consuls, he detected and exposed the treasonable designs of Catiline, a political leader, wiio had conspired to seize the chief jwwer in the State by burning the city and massacring his opiiononts. His designs were foiled by Cicero, who assailed him in a .splendid bui-st of indignant eloquence, so arousing the Senate against him that Catiline fled in dismay from the city. Other orations of equal eloquence followed, and the whole scheme of treason and outrage fell through. These are tiie most famous of Cicero's numerous orations, the effect of which was such as to give him unbounded influence in the city. His final outburst of oratory was against the ambitious designs of Mark Antony. There were fourteen of these orations in ail, the 420 MARTIN LUTHER THE PULPIT ORATOR This picture represenls the Ureal Refin-mer cxpounjine from tlK BiWe the greai Irulhn which iiarteJ the Reformatlun, and introJuceJ Prolestanlism. ris^j^safisfi^fsmsmBr:^. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO •J-.'l first of them one of his nmstorpiecos. His words swayed Rome, hut his onomios liold tlio sword, and Antony rid hinutlfof his assailant by having him murdered. In oratory Cicero combined tlie powers of the celebrated orators of Athens, nnitini; the force of Demosthenes with the eloquence of I.^ocrates. Tlicir elussic reticence, iiowever, was replaced by him with a florid exul)erance of style which sometimes offends af^ainst good taste; hut it is atoned for by his melody of language, brilliancy of e.\]>ression ami thorough familiarity with human nature. These give his speeches a charm which still [HJi-sists, despite tho passage -)f the centuries. THE TREASON OF CATILINE [Cicero, as is above said, saved Rome from ruin l>y denouncing Catiline in the Senate with such bitterness as to drive him in dismay from the city. He roused the people against the army which the traitor had collected without by equally eloquent denunciations. We append two extracts from these masterpices of the oratory of indignation.] How far, O Catiline, wilt thou abuse our patience ? How long shalt thou baffle justice in thy mad career ? To what extreme wilt thou carry thy audacity ? Art thou nothing daunted by the nightly watch, posted to secure the Palatium ? Nothing, by the city guards ? Nothing, by the rally of all good citizens ? Nothing, by the assembling of the Senate in this fortified place ? Nothing, by the averted looks of all here present ? Seest thou not that all thy plots are exposed ? — that thy wretched con- spiracy is laid bare to every man's knowledge, here in the Senate? — that we aie well aware of thy proceedings of last night ; of the night before ; — the place of meeting, the company convoked, the measures concerted ? Alas, the times ! Alas, the public morals ! The Senate understands all this. The Consul sees it. Yet the traitor lives ! Lives ? Ay, truly, and confronts us here in council ; takes part in our deliberations ; and, with his measuring eye. marks out each man of us for slaughter? And we, all this while, strenuous that we are, think we have amply discharged our duty to the State, if we but shun this madman's sword and fury ! Long since, O Catiline, ought the Consul to have ordered thee to execution, and brought upon thy own head the ruin thou hast been medi- tating against others. There was that virtue once in Rome, that a wicked citizen was held more execrable than the deidiiest foe. We have a law still, Catiline, for thee. Think not that we are powerless, because forbearing. We have a decree, — though it rests among our archives like a sword in its scabbard, — a decree, by which thy life would be made to i! >>r "iSii^/fc;^ .ii^>' '■'■i^.-^-t 4J-' MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO pay the forfeit of thy crimes. And, should I order thee to be instantly seized and put to death, I make just doubt whether all good men would not think it done rather too late than any man too cruelly. But, for good reasons, I will yet defer the blow long since deserved. Then will I doom thee, when no man is found, so lost, so wicked, nay, so like thyself, but shall confess that it was justly dealt. While there is one man that dares to defend thee, live ! But thou shalt live so beset, so surrounded, so scrutinized by the vigilant guards that I have placed around thee, that thou shalt not stir a foot against the Repub- lic without my knowledge. There shall be eyes to detect thy slightest movement, and ears to catch thy wariest whisper, of which thou shalt not dream. The darkness of night shall not cover thy treason— the walls of privacy shall not stifle its voice. Bafiled on all sides, thy most secret counsels clear as noonday, what canst thou now have in view ? Proceed, plot, conspire, as thou wilt ; there is nothing you can contrive, nothing you can propose, nothing you can attempt, which I shall not know, hear and promptly understand. Thou shalt soon be made aware that I am even more active in providing for the preservation of the State than thou in plotting its destruction. [The following is from a second of the orations against Catiline.] Conscript Fathers, a camp is pitched against the Roman Republic within Italy, on the very borders of Etruria. Every day adds to the number of the enemy. The leader of those enemies, the commander of that encampment, walks within the walls of Rome, and, with venomous mischief, rankles in the inmost vitals of the commonwealth. Catiline, should I, on the instant, order my lictors to seize and drag you to the stake, some men might, even then, blame me for having pro- crastinated punishment ; but no man could criminate me for a faithful exe- cution of the laws. They shall be executed. But I will neither act, nor will I suffer, without full and sufiBcient reason. Trust me, they shall l)e executed, and then, even then, when there shall not be found a man so flagitious, so much a Catiline, as to say you were not ripe for execution. Was not the night before the last sufficient to convince you that there is a good genius protecting that republic, which a ferocious demoniac is laboring to destroy ? I aver, that on that same night you and your com- plotters assembled. Can even your own tongue deny it ?— Yet secret ! Speak out, man ; for, if you do not, there are some I see around me who shall have an agonizing proof that I am true in my assertion. Good and great gods, where are we? What city do we inhabit? Under what government do we live? Here — here, Conscript Fathers, MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 4:-i mixed and mingled with us all, in the centre of this most grave and venerable assembly— are men sitting, quietly incubating a plot against my life, against all your lives, the life of every virtuous Senator and citizen ; while I, with the whole nest of traitors brooding beneath my eyes, am parading in the petty formalities of debate, and the very men appear scarcely vulnerable by my voice who ought long since to have been cut down by the sword. Proceed, Catiline, in your meritorious career ! Go where destmy and desire drive you. Evacuate the city for a season. The gates stand open. Begone ! What a pity that the Maulian army should look so long for their general ! Take all your loving friends along with you ; or, if that be a vain hope, take, at least, as many as you can, and cleanse the city for some short time. Let the walls of Rome be the mediators between me and thee ; for, at present, yon are much too near. I will not suffer you, I will not longer endure you ! Lucius Catiline, away ! Begin as soon as you can this shameful and unnatural war. Begin it, on your part, under the shade of every dreadful omen ; on mine, with the sure and certain hope of safety to my country, and glory to myself; and, when this you have done, then do thou, whose altar was first founded by the founder of our State— thou, the establUherof this city— pour out thy vengeance upon this man, and all his adherents ! Save us from his fury, our public altars, our sacred temples, our houses and household goods, our liberties, our lives ! Pursue, tutelar god, pur- sue them, these foes, to the gods and to goodness, these plunderers of Italy, these assassins of Rome ! Erase them out of this life, and in the next let thy vengeance follow them still, insatiable, implacable, immortal. THE CRUELTY OF VERRES [From the arraignmcut of Verres wc select Guthrie's transUtion of a passage in which Cicero announces, with words of burning indignation, his outrage against a Roman liti/.eu— the claim of citizenship being held as a secure protection against stripes and torture] As it happened Verres came on that very day to Messana. The matter was brought before him. He was told that the man was a Roman citizen; was complaining that at Syracuse he had been confined in the stone quarries, and hosv he, when he was actually embarking onboard ship and uttering violent threats against Verres, had been brought back by them, and reserved in order that he might himself decide what should be done with him. He thanks the men, and praises their good-will and diligence m his behalf. He himself, inflamed with wickedness and frenzy, came into the «l MARCUS TULUUS CICERO tonim. His eye« glared ; cruelty wu visible in his whole countenance ; all men waited to see what steps he was going to take ; what he was going to do ; when all of a sudden he orders the man to be seized, and to be stripped and bound in the middle of the forum, and the rods to be got ready. The miserable man cried out that he was a Roman citizen ; a citizen also of the municipal town of Cosa ; that he had served with Lucius Pretius, a most illustrious Roman knight, who was living as a trader at Panormus, and from whom Verres might know that he was speaking the truth. Then Verres says that he has ascertained that he was sent into Sicily by the leaders of the runaway slaves in order to ajt as tt spy ; a matter as to which tliere was no evidence, no trace, nor even the slightest suspicion in the mind of any one. Then he orders the man to be most violently scourged on all sides,— in the middle of the forum of Messana a Roman citizen, O judges, was beaten with rods ! while, in the meantime, no groan was heard, no other expression was hfard from the wretched man, amid all his pain, and between the sounds of the blows, except these words: " I am a citizen of Rome." He fancied that by this one statement of his citizenship he could ward oflF all blows and remove all torture from his person. He not only did not succeed in averting by his entreaties the violence. of the rods, but as he kept on repeating his entreaties, and the assertion of his citizenship a cross— a cross, I say— was got ready for that miserable man, who had never witnessed such a stretch of power. O the sweet name of Liberty ! O the admirable privileges of citizen- ship ! O Porcian law ! O Sempronian laws ! O power of the tribunes, bitterly regretted by and at last restored to the Roman people !— in a town of our confederate allies— a Roman citizen should be bound in the forum and beaten with rods, by a man who bid only the fasces and axes through the kindness of the Roman people ! If the bitter entreaties and the miserable cries of that man had no power to restrain you ; were you not moved even by the weeping and loud cries of the Roman citizens who were present at the time ? Did you dare to drag any one to the cross who said that he was a Roman citizen ? MARK ANTONY (83-30 RC) THE AVENGER OF CAESAR |ARCrS ANTONIUS, or Mark Antony, as he is usually called, a bidve and able general and the friend and lioutcimnt of Cwsar, became his avenger after his death at the hands of Brutus and his fellow-conspirators. By his artful and eloquent funeral oration over the Iwdy of the slain dictator he roused the fury of the populace against the conspiratore, who were forced to flee from Rome. In the war that succeeded, Antony commanded the army by which that of Brutus and Cassius was defeated, Brutus killing himself on the battlefield. The remainder of the story of Antony has to do with the triumvirate (the three-man power) formed by Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, — by which the freedom of Rome was again overthrown, — his fatal love for Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, his war with and defeat by Octavius, and his final suicide. BRUTUS DENOUNCED [Brutus, the leader vf the conspirators, made a brief oration in h i -i^ip^. \t we were ob- liged to go to thenages of the anrient historians fur our < vaninka oi ''-e speeches of several Greek and Roman orators, we seem equally ;i..i>!iii.il ju >«-I»tiing those of Brutus aud Antony from the great modem dramatist -j Friends, Romans, countrymen 1 Lend me your - ins. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them ; The good is oft interred with their bones : So let it be with Caesar ! The noble Brutus Hath told you, Caesar was ambitious. 436 MARK ANTONY If it were so, It was a grievous fault ; And grievously h«th Ca-sar answered it. Here, under leave of Bratus and the rest (For Brutus is an honorable man, So are tliey all, all honorable men) , Come I to speak in Ciesar's funeral. He was my friend, faithful and just to me ; But Brutus says he was ambitious ; And Brutus is an honorable man. He hath brought many captives home to Rome, Whose ransoms did the getu rnl coffers fill ; Did this in Caesar seem ambitious ? When that the poor hath crieil, Ca»ar hath wept ! Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. Yet Brutus says he was ambitious ; And Brutus is an honorable man. You all did see that, on the Lnpercal, I thrice presented him a kingly crown ; Which he did thrice refuse : Was this atnbition ? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious ; And sure he is an honorable man. I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke ; But here I am to speak what I do know. You all did love him once ; not without cause : What cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him ? O judgment ! thou art fled to brutish beasts. And men have lost their reason . Bear with me ; My heart is in the coffin there, with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me. But yesterday, the word of Caesar might Have stood against the world ; now lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence. masters ! if I were disposed to stir Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, 1 should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, Who, you all know, are honorable men. I will not do them wrong. I rather choose To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, Than I will wrong such honorable men. But here's a parchment, with the seal of Caesar ; I found it in his closet ; 'tis his will. MARK ANTONY 4J7 I.]uenct' i)f St. BernarJ muveJ the Catholic nations of Europe to undertake theseconJ crusaie. This picture shuw^ »e famous orator anJ his great audience. JOHN KNOX THE SCOTCH REFORMER This eloquent Preshyienan Preacher is represented as earnesilv exhorting Mary. Queen of the Scots, to richteousness He was the mo-,1 eloquent of all Scotch orators. K"'*""^""^"- "« was ^s* BOOK IL Pulpit Orators of Mediseval Europe IT is a long journey through time from the period of the decadence of classic oratory to the revolu- tionary era at the close of the eighteenth century, in 'vhich the Demosthenes and Cicero of the far past first found their rivals upon the stage of modern eloquence. In this lapse of nearly eighteen centu- ries, though the art of oratory survived, its field of exercise was greatly narrowed. In Europe, the home of such civilization as e.xisted, free speech in political affairs was almost a thing unknown. The hand of the autocrat lay heavily upon the neck of the nations, and secular thought was "cabined, cribbed, con- fined." Only in England, in those periods when the people rose in revolt against the tyranny of their kings, was there any freedc . of speech in parliamen- tary halls. During the e ended era in question oratory, as a rule, was restricted to the clergy, to whom the broad domain of morals and religion lay freely open, and to whose care was left such education and philosophy as existed. It is, therefore, in the Church that we must seek the leadinij: orators of mediaeval times. During most of the age in ques- tion, learning and thought drifted very largely into the cloister and monastery, while the ignorance and immora'ity of the people called for strenuous efforts on the part of the keepers of the public conscience, and the leaders in thought and education. All this go-'o rise to an abundance of ecclesiastical oratory, of V . a considerable sum is still in evidence, while secular oratory during the period in question is almost unknown. 429 I ST. AUGUSTINE (354-430) AN ILLUSTRIOUS FATHER OF THE CHURCH s If all the Fathers of the Latin Church," says Villemain, " Saint Augustine manifested the most imagination in theo- logy ; the most eloquence, and even sensibility, in scholasti- ci'-m." Bom at Tagasta, in Numidia, h^ studied Greek, rhetoric and philosophy, at Carthage and Madaura, while his mother, Monica, a devout Christian, instructed him in religion. He taught grammar and rhetoric, and in 384 became professor of rhetoric and philosophy at Milan. His career up to this time had been one of immorality, but, affected by the sermons of Saint Ambrose, he became devoutly religious, joined the Church, and was thenceforth a preacher and writer of the highest ability among the early theologians. His repu- tation as an eloquent preacher was very great. His life, as preacher and author, was passed in Africa, where he died at ilippo in 430, during the siege of that city by the Vandals. THE LORiyS PRAYER [The following is the opening portion of a sermon by Saint Angnstine, on the subject of " The Lord's Prayer," which he analyzes throughout in the manner here presented. It is ac excel'ent example of his oratorical method.] The Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, hath taut,at us a prayer; and though He be the Lord himself, as ye have heard and repeated in the Creed, the only Son of God, yet He would not be alone. He is the Only Son, and yet would not be alone ; He hath vouchsafed to have brethren. For to whon. doth He say, " Say, our Father, which art in Heaven? " Whom did He wish ns f" call our Father, save His own Father ! Did He grudge us this ? Pa.ents sometimes, when they have gotten one, two, or three children, tear to give birth to any more, lest they reduce the rest to beggary. But because the inheritance which He 430 mm 1 ST. AUGUSTINE 431 r « 1 f # *? e W- w '^^ » 'X n s e V e B n 1 n ■ 'e I it K [e fl promised us is such as many may possess, and no one cat: be straitened, therefore hath He called into His brotherhood the peoples of the nations ; and the Only Son hath nunil)erless brethren, who say, "Our Father, which art in Heaven. " So said those who have t^een before us ; and so shall say those who will come after us. See how many brethren the Only Son hath in His grace, sharing His inheritance with those for whom He suffered death. We had a father and mother on earth, that we might lie born to labors and to death ; but we have found other parents, God our father and the Church our mother, by whom we are born into life eter- nal. Let us then consider, beloved, whose children we have begun to be ; and let us live so as becomes those who have such a father. See how our Creator hath condescended to be mr Father ! We have heard whom we ought to call upon, and with what hope of an eternal inheritance we have begun to have a Father in Heaven ; let us now hear what we must ask of him, Of such a father what shall we ask? Do we not ask rain of Him, to-day, and yesterday, and the day before ? This is no great thing to have asked of such a Father, and yet ye see with what sighings, and with what great desire, we ask for rain, when deatli is feared— when that is feared which none can escape. For sooner or later every man must die, and we groan, and pray, and travail in pain, and cry to God, that we may die a little later. How much more ought we to cry to Him, that we may come to that place where we shall never die I Therefore it is said, " Hallowed be Thy name." This, we also a.sk of Him that His name may be hallowed in us ; for holy is it always. And how is His name hallowed in as, except while it makes us holy ? For once we were not holy, and we are made holy in His name ; but He is always holy, and His name always holy. It is for ourselves, not for God, that we pray. For we do not wish well to God, to whom no ill can ever happen. But we wish what is good for ourselves, that His holy name may be hallowed in us. Thy kingdom come. " Come it surely will, whether we ask or no. Indeed, God hath an eternal kingdom. For when did He not reigi' ? When did He begin to reign ? For His kingdom hath no beginning, nor shall it have any end. But that ye may know that in this prayer also we pray for ourselve., and not for God, we shall be ourselves His kingdom, if believing in Him we make progress in this faith. All the faithful,' redeen ed by the blood of His only Son, will be His kingdom, and this His kingdom will come when the resurrection *of the dead shall have taken place ; for then He will come Himself. ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM (347-407) JOHN OF THE GOLDEN MOUTH mHE title " goMen-mouthed " was given to Chrysostom as a tribute to the splen-lor of liis eloquence. Horn at Antioch, Syria lie studied oratory to enter the h'gal profe^^sion ; but instead beeame a monk, and a preacher of such elo.iuence. earnestness and '...actical sense that lie was accounted the greatest orator of the ancient church. ApiK^intod Archbishop of Constantinople in 398, he became an cm rnest reformer, denouncing the vice.s of the court and employing the revenues of the Church so largely in chanty th t, he Ny.,s called -John the Almoner." This course did rot j.lease the parties in power, and he was deposed and banished to a desert region. Here he continued to preach with his old /.eal. Again he was ban- ished to a more remote region, being made to travel on foot with his bare hea.l exposed to a burning sun. This cruelty proved fatal, and he died on the journey, blessing God with his dying lips. DEATH A BLESSED DISPENSATION rChrysostom was an active writer, and many of his works exist the mo.t valu- able being his ••Homilies," the best of their kind in ancient Chnst.an htcrature. He. tn the words of the historian Sozomen. was " mighty to speak and to convince, snr- passing all the orators of his time."] Believe me, I am ashamed and blush to see unbecoming groups of women pass along the mart, tearing their hair, cutting their arms and cheeks-and all this under the eyes of the Greeks. For what will they not say ' What will they not utter concerning us ? Are these the men who phUosophize about a resurrection? Indeed! How poorly their actions agree with their opinions ! In words, they philosophize about a resurrection : but they act just like those who do not ack- -jwledge a resurrection. If they fully believed in a r .urrectiou, they would not act 4:i2 ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTO.i 433 thus ; if they had really persuiuk-d themselves that a deceased friend had departed to a better state, they would not thus mourn. These things, and more than these, the unljelievers say when they hear those lamentations. Let us then be ashamed, and be no more moderate, and not occasion so much harm to ourselves and to those who are looking on us. For on what account, tell me, do you thus weep for one departed ? Because he was a bad man ? You ought on that very account to be thankful, since the occasions of wickedness are now cut off. Because he was good and kind ? If so, you ought to rejoice ; since he has been soon removed, before wickedness had corrupted him : and he has gone away to a world where he stands ever secure, and there is no room even to mis- trust a change. Because he was a youth ? For that, too, praise Him who has taken him, because He has speedily called him to a lietter lot. Because he was an aged man ? On this account, also, give thanks and glorify Him that has taken him. Be ashamed of your manner of burial. The singing of psalms, the prayers, the assembling of the (spiritual) fathers and brethren— all this is not that you may weep and lament and afflict yourselves, but that you may render thanks to Him who has taken the departee drawn to follow this wonderful [lersuader. As Al)l)ot of t'lairvaux he exer- cised a iHJwerful influence upon the ecclesiastical atfairs of EuroiHJ. He made Irniocent II. iKjp, indu( ing the emin-ror to take up arms in his supi)ort; and was greatly instrunn ntal in the condenniation of Ak'lard's writings, causing the poi>e to silence the heretical author. While thu-^ influential he lived a very simple an'sl in his pica for tl'C deliverance of the Holy Land from the Iwnds of the infidel. At t!:e council of Vczclai he spoke before the king and nobles of France like one inspired, and with his own hand gave them their crosses. He also by his oratory persuaded the German Emperor Conrad to join the crusade. We give a brief example of his arguments. They were of a kind likely to be very effective in that age.] You cannot but know that we live in a period of chastisement and ruin ; the enemy of mankind has caused the b eath of corruption to fly 434 SAINT BERNARD over all re>jioiis ; we behold iioiiiinK hut unimnishevl wickwlncs-.. The lawH of men or the laws ol reli,;ioii have no loi-i,.-r sufficient power to check depravity of inaii'!-.;>, :im! th.- triumph of the wicked. The demon of heresy has Inkcn pusscssiou of "i • chair of truth, and God has gent forth his maledicticm upon his sant lar; . () ye who listen to me, hasten then fo appease tlie an^t-r of Heave i, Imt no longcrimpiore His goodness l)yv:> in complaints; clothe not yourselves ii. sackcloth, hut cover your^ selves with your impei.etrahle hucklers ; the din of a-ms, the danger^ the lahors, the fati-ues of war are tlie peiiancts that Cud now imposes upon you. Hasten then to expiate your sins hy victories o\er the infidels, ar.d let the deliverance of holy places he the reward of your repentance. If 'it svere announced to you that the eiuiny had invaded your cities, your castles, yoi.r lands ; had ravished your wives and your daughters,' and profaned your temples, which among you would not (ly to arms? Well, then, all these damities, and calamities still greater, have fallen upon your brethreti. upon the family of Jesus Christ, which is yours. Why do you hesitate to repair so many evils ; to revenge so many out- rages ? Will you allow the infidels to contemplate in peace the rava- ges thf y have committed on Christian people ? Remember that their triumph will be the subject for grie^to all ages, and an eternal opprobrium upon the generation that has endured it. Yes. the living God has charged me to announce to you that He will punish them who shall not have defended Him against his enemies. Fly then to arms ; let a holy lage animate you in the fight, and let the Christian world resound with these words of the prophet, " Cursed be he who does not stain his sword with blood ! " If the Lord calls you to the defense of His heritage, think not that His hand has lost its power. Could He not send twelve legior-^ of ■ on , "cr ::;rp;::s srr, -r "i """'"■ r "•"•''"" -• s.re,cl„l f„„„ nfyhanl, '™ ;'"""'''"■■'••'''' '■«'»1'.' I,ave DflviM Tj. • , «ay loan unbelieving people " Ami I)av ul, They pie-^ed my hands and my feet • I miv tell «n . , And St. Jerome savs " uv „.o • .u " ^^ "'' "'>' '-^nes." understand the liStv of thT- '" ! '^'f^'"".'' ^-th of His hands, ask lovinglv ; wlT :^ or^ ielltl^T:'*; ^ '""f ""^'''"^ ^'^ "-^ ^'-» enlightened him that^^^tu':'^, ^h t J^ t\rr^' '' ""^ "™ = in .he wilderness.- And again 1 e sLs - S '^.r^ ll''""^'^ '""'"'"''^ the kindness of the parent uhoH ^''^ ''^^^'*^''«'-o"t hands denote '-St.- AndthitirtvL^rHetoiChrrtot^^^^ \^'-^ mavest be able to sav " Mv «n«i .• , ''^"<^"«t out to the poor thr 'hou »o«l lo memorv, who crries it .. i, ■ ^ '^ ^ """' "> « h» opinion ,h., „, roon "veo n" Hr;'; d " '"'".* """'''' "" S""" heart might be cleanse met it fearlessly, disdainful of death or dangt iu face of the mi.ssion of his life. DEFENCE BEFORE THE DIET AT WORMS [The cliarge against LuUicr was that he had written and disseminated fals doctrines and virulent attacks on tlie Church, the pricsthocKl, and the pope, and li was summoned to Worms with the demand that he should retract his heretic writings. He defended him_^if with tact and prudence, but with no yielding.] 438 MARTIN LUTHER 439 Most Serbnb Emperor, IrxtsTRiorg Priwcks, Gracious Lords- In obedience to your commands given me yesterday, I stand here beseeching you, as God is merciful, so to deign mercifully to listen to thi^ cause ; which is, as I believe, the cause of justice and of truth. And if through inexperience, I should fail to apply to any his proper title o^ offend in any way against the manners of courts, I entreat vou to pardon me as one not conversant with courts, but rather with the cells of monks and claiming no other merit than that of having spoken and written with that simplicity of mind which regards nothing but the glory of God and the pure instruction of the people of Christ. .u J'r ''"^*'''"« ^^^'^ been proposed to me : Whether I acknowledge the books which are published in my name, and whether I am determin«i to defend o- disposed to recall them. To the first of these I have given a ^'^\ZT'' '" ''•''"'' ^ '''^" ''''' P^"^'^'- "^^t these books are mine and published by me, except in so far as they may have been altered or interpo- ^ted by the craft or officiousness of rivals. To the other I am now about to reply ; and I must first entreat your Majesty and your Highnesses to deign to consider that my books are not all of the same description For there are some in which I have treated the piety of faith and morals with simp icity so evangelical that my verj^ adversaries confess them to be profitable and harmless, and deserving the perusal of a Christian Even the pope s bull, fierce and cruel as it is, admits some of mv books to be innocent; though even those, with a monstrous perversity of judg- ment, it includes in the same sentence. If. then. I should think of retracting these, should I not stand alone in my condemnation of that truth which IS acknowledged by the unanimous confession of all, whether friends or foes ? ""cmci The second species of my publications is that in which I have inveighed against the papacy and the doctrine of the papists, as of men who by their iniquitous tenets and examples have desolated the Christian world, both with spiritual and temporal calamities. No man can deny or dissemble this. The sufferings and complaints of all men are my wit- nesses that, through the laws of the pope and the doctrines of men the consciences of the faithful have been ensnared, tortured, and torn in pieces ; while, at the same time, their property and substance have been devoured l,y an intolerable tyranny, and are still devoured without end and by degrad.r.g means ; and that too, most of all. in this noble nation of Germany. Yet it is with them a perpetual statute, that the laws and doctnnes of the pope be held erroneous and reprobate when they are con- trary to the Gospel and the opinion? of the Fathers. If, then, I shall retract these books. I shall do no other than add 440 MARTIN LUTHER strength to tyranny, and throw open doors to this great impiety, which will then stride forth more widely and licentiously than it hath dared hitherto ; so that the reign of iniquity will proceed with entire impunity, and , notwithstanding its intolerable oppression upon the suffering vulgar, be further still fortified and established ; especially when it shall be pro- claimed that I have been driven to this act by the authority of your serene Majesty and the whole Roman Empire. What a cloak, blessed Lord, should I then become for wickedness and despotism ! In a third description of my writings are those which I have pitb- lished against individuals, against the defenders of the Roman tyranny and the subverters of the piety taught by men. Against these I do freely confess that I have written with more bitterness than was becoming either my religion or my profession ; for, indeed, I lay no claim to any special sanctity, and argue not respecting my own life, but respecting the doctrine of Christ. Yet even these writings it is impossible for me to retract, seeing that through such retraction despotism and impiety would reign under my patronage, and rage with more than their former ferocity against the people of God. Yet since I am but man and not God, it would not become me to go farther in defence of my tracts than my Lord Jesus went in defence of His doctrine ; who, when he was interrogated before Annas, and received a blow from one of the officers, answered : " If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil : but if well, why smitest thou me ? " If, then, the Lord himself, who knew His own infallibility, did not disdain to require arguments against His doctrine even from a person of low condition, how much rather ought I , who am the dregs of the earth and the very slave of error, to inquire and search if there be any to bear witness against my doctrine! Wherefore, I entreat you, by the mercies of God, that if there be any one of any condition who has that ability, let him overpower me by the sacred writings, prophetical and evangelical. And for my own part, as soon as I shall be better instructed I will retract my errors and be the first to cast my books into the flames. I! i I! [It being demanded that he should return a simple answer to a simple question, whether he would retract or not, he said :] I cannot but choose to adhere to the Word of God, which has posses- sion of my conscience ; nor can I possibly, nor will I, ever make any recantation, since it is neither safe nor honest to act contrary to conscience. Here I stand ; I cannot do otherwise ; so help me God ! Amen I JOHN CALVIN fJ509-J564) THE FAMOUS REFORMER AND PREACHER rTJFTER Lutlior, tlio loador of tho Protectant Rpforination, Calvin |/\| '*'^s t*'C grcati-st of tlio^e who I.roko away from the Cliureh of Rome, proaoliod now doctrint-s and establisliod a now Churoli. Do.stine.1 for the Roman clergy, and appointed euro of Martevillo France, when oidy .sixteen years of a-e, he early dissento.l fmm th.' theology of his Church, and began to preadi the new doctrines of the Protestant faitli. Soon he made Franco too hot for him, an oitght to believe him ; for in tb state he then was, he owed to the world nothing but truth. " But," added he, " I doubt them less than ever. May these truths," he continued, "reveal and develop themselves more and more clearly in my mind. Yes ! " says he, " we shall see God as He is, face to face ! " With a wonderful relish he repeated in Latin those lofty words — " As He is — face to face ! " Nor could those around him grow weary of seeing him in so sweet a transport. What was then takinj^r place in that soul ! What new light dawned upon him ? What sudden i-'v pierced the cloud, and instantly dissipated, not only all the darkness of sense, but the very shadows, and, if I dare to say it, the sacred obscurities of faith ? What then became of those UL JACQUES BENIQNE BOSSUET 44,, splendid titles by which our pride isflattered? On the very verge of glory aivd m the dawning of a light so beautiful, how rapidly vanish the phan^ TL ' V '' ■ r "°" ''"^ "Pf'""^ ^'" ^P^-''"^ °f »'- " -t glorious Zn7 .T^ profoundly we despise the glory .f the world, and how deep y regret that our eyes were ever dazzled by its radiance. Come, ve people, come now-or rather ye princes and lords, ye judges of the earth, and ye who open to man the porUls of heaven ; and more than all others >e princes and princesses, nobles descended from a long line of kings lights of France, but to-day in gloom, and covered with your grie?,^; with a clouds-come and see how little remains of a birth so a^gus . a grandeur so high, a glory so dazzling ! Look around on all sides, and see all that magnificence and devotion can do to honor so great a hero • titles and inscriptions, vain signs of that which is no more-shadows 'which weep around a tomb, fragile images of a grief which time sweeps away with everything else; columns which appear as if they would bear to hea^•en the magnificent evidence of our emptiness; nothing, indeed, is wanting in all these honors but he to whom they are render«l ! Vv4p then oyer these feeble remains of human life; weep over that mournful immortality we give to heroes. But draw near, especir^iy ye who run. with such ardor, the career of glory, intrepid and warrior spirits ! Who was more worthy to command you and in whom did ye find command more honorable ? Mourn then that great Captain . and weeping, say : ■ ' Here is a man that led us through all hazards, under whom were formed so many renowned captains, raised by his example to the highest honoi. of war ; his shadow might yet gam battles ; and lo ! in his silence his very name animates us. and at the ^me time warns us. that to find, at death, some rest from our toils, and not arrive unprepared at our eternal dwelling, we must, with an earthly kmg. yet serve the King of Heaven." Serve, then, that immortal and ever merciful King, who will value a sigh, or a cup of cold wZ given m His nan-.v nore than all others will value the shedding of your bTood And begin to reckon the time of your useful services ffom the day on which you gave yourselves to so beneficent a Master. Will not ye too come ye whom he honored by making you his friends? To whatever extent you enjoyed this confidence, come all of you, and surround' this tomb. Mingle your prayers with your tears ; and while admiring, in so great a prince, a friendship so excellent, an intercourse so sweet, preserve theremembranceof a hero whose goodness equaled his courage Thus maybe ever prove your cherished instructor: thus may you profit by his virtues ; and may his death, which you deplore, serve you at once for cuiisoiatiou and example. li ill il Hi li > i; it i l! I i LOUIS BOURDALOUE (J 632-1 704) THE COURT PREACHER OF LOUIS XIV. mHE rel^'ti of Louis XIV. of France was dif-tinguishea by a trio of et)>iiu'ut pulpit orators, among whom liourdalouo was one of tiic most esteemed. Louis was so charmed by his ser- mons tliat he said, he " loved better to hear the reinHitions of Hourda- louo than the novelties of any other preachc r." And Madame de Sevigne, in her inimitable letters, speaks of " his Ijeautiful, his noble, his astonishing sermons." Api)ointod court-preacher at Paris in 1009, for i..jre than twenty years he preached during Lenl and Advent. THE PASSION OF CHRIST [One of the most famous of the sermons preached by Bourdaloue before King T^onis, was that on the Passion of Christ. From this we select a passage sufficient to show how aptly and effectively he applied this topic to the prevailing sins of the court and the world.] The Passion of Jesus Christ, however sorrowful and ignominious it may appear to us, must nevertheless have been to Jesus Christ himself an object of delight, since this God-man, by a wonderful secret of His wisdom and love, has willed that the mystery of it shall be continued and solemnly renewed in His Church until the final consummation of the world. For what is the Eucharist but a perpetual repetition of the Saviour's Passion, and what has the Saviour proposed in institating it, but that whatever passed at Calvary is not only represented but consrnmated on our altars ? That is to say, that He is still performing the functions of the victim anew, and is every moment virtually sacrificed, as though it were not sufficient that He should have suffered once. At least that His love, as powerful as it is free, has given to His adorable sufferings that character of perpetuity which they have in the Sacrament, and which renders them so salutary to us. Behold, Christians, what the love of a God has devised ; but behold, 44U LOUIS BOURDALOUE ^^• l8o wl.. has happene :«.r.! A Redeemer reviled and mocked in the palace of Herod by the impi- ous creatures of his court ! This was. without doubt, one of the most Lns We in^lts which Jesus Christ received. But do not suppose. Chris^ Uan . that this act of impiety ended there. It has passed f-- the court of H^rod. from that prince destitute of religion, into those even of Chris- UaiVprinces And is not the Saviour still a subject of ridicule to the Me spirits which compose them? They worship Him externally, ^t en ally how do they regard His maxims? What idea have they of H^shumil ty of His poverty, and of His sufferings? Is not virtue dtfe unknown or despired ? It is not a rash zeal which induces me t. peak r this manner ; U is what you too often witness. Christians ; it is what you perhaps feel in yourselves ; and a little reflection upon the man- Te^of the courrwiU convince you that there is nothing that I say which "not confirmed by a thousand examples, and that you yourselves are sometimes unhappy accomplices in these crimes. FRANCOIS FENEx-ON (J65J-J7J5) THE MASTER OF FRENCH ELOQUENCE ERANCK has produced no more roiisumiiiate iiuiHtcr of the iirt of Uracflul oratory than Friin<;ois ()pnlar works in the French lan- guage. ApjKjinted by I^uis XIV. preceptor to his grand.son, the I)uk"e of Hurgundy and heir lo the throne, F.'nelon wrote several works for the benefit of Ips pupil, one of them iK'ing "Telemaque." This brought him into disgrace with Louis, who regarded it as a satire on his despotic rule. But F.'nelon, though banishe.l from court, made himself felt from liis archbishopric of Cand)ray, and was honored for virtue and wisdom throughout EuroiH'. La BruyiVe says: "Wo feel the {Kjwer and ascendency of his rare genius, whether he preaches without preparation, or pronounces a studied discourse, or explains his thoughts in conversation." Mathews says of his eloquence: " Wliat cultivated man needs to Ije told of the sweet persuasions that dwelt uixm the tongue of the Swan of C'ambray?" 'jOD REVEALED IN NATURE [From one of Finelon's discourses we copy the following treatment of the oft- handled subject that the system of Nature yields indubitable evidence of the hand of a Creator. There is nothing original in his argument, but the subject is efifectively handled] 29 449 ii ' 4M FRANCOIS FENELON 1 1 I cannot open my eyes without ilirtcovering the skill that everytb'ig in nature displays. A single glance enables nie to T>erceive the hand that has made all things. Men accustomed t > meditate upon alwtract truths, and recur to first principles, recogiii/e the Divinity by the idea of Him they find in their minds. But the more direct tl'.is road is, the more it is untrodder and neglected by conunon uien, who follow their own imagina- tion. It i so simple a demonstration, that from this very cause it escapes those minds incapable of a purely iijtellectual operation. And the more perfect this way of discovermg the Supreme Heing is, the fewer are the minds that can follow it. But there is another methot that this proposition has been always and will continually and eternally be true." Let man then admire wliat he understands, and let him be silent when he cannot comprehend. Tlitre is nothing in tlie universe that does not etiually bear these two opposite characters, the stamp of the Creator and the mark of the nothingness from whicli it is drawn, and into which it may at any moment be resolved. I !i JEAN BAPTISTE MASSILLON (1663-J742) THE FAMOUS BISHOP OF CLERMONT JiH G ill. ' ; m ,1 mA rTjMONG the pulpit orators of France, Massillou holds a place of \f\\ high celehrity. A native of Provence, his life was chiefly ' ' sfjent in Paris, where, after the death of Bossuet and Bour- daloue, he was esteemed the ablest of preachers. He preached before Louis XIV., delivered the funeral sermon of the great monarch, and in 1715, after being made Bishop of Clermont, preached before the new king what is considered his masterpiece, the Lent sermon, called " Petit-Cartnie." Massillon's diction was simple and unaifected, while he was a master of pathos and knew how to i)enetrate to the depths of the human heart. Voltaire kept a volume of his sermons constantly on his desk, as a model of eloiiuence, and thought him "the preacher who best understood the world." Louis XIV. gave strong testimony to the power and indei)endence of spirit of Massil- lon in his remark : "Other preachers make me pleased with them, but Massillou makes me displeased with myself." THE INIQUITY OF EVIL SPEAKING [As an example of Massillon's style we offer the following brief extract from one of his sermons, in which the harm of which the human tongue is capable, when turned to evil speech, is vividly portrayed.] The tongue, says the Apostle James, is a devouring fire, a world of iniquity, an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. And behold what I would have applied to the tongue of the evil speaker, had I undertaken to give you a just and natural idea of all the enormity of this vice ; I would have said that the tongue of the slanderer is a devouring fire which tarnishes whatever it touches : which exercises its fury on the good grain, equally as on the chaff; on the profane, as on the sacred; which, wherever it 462 JEAN BAPTISTS MASSILLON 4t» passes, leaves only desolation and ruin ; digs even into the bowels of the earth, and fixes itself on things the most hidden ; turns into vile ashes what only a moment before had appeared to us so precious and brilliant ; acts with more violence and danger than ever in the time when it is apparently smothered up and almost extinct ; which blackens what it cannot consume, and sometimes sparkles and delights before it destroys. I would have told you that evil speaking is an assemblage of iniquity ; a secret pride, which discovers to us the mote in our brother's eye, but hides the beam which is in our own ; a mean envy, which, hurt at the talents or prosperity of others, makes them the subject of its censures, and studies to dim the splendor of whatever outshines itself; a disguised M hatred, which sheds, in its speeches, the hidden venom of the heart ; an unworthy duplicity, which praises to the face and tears to pieces behind the back ; a shameful levity, which has no command over itself or its words, and often sacrifices both fortune and comfort to the imprudence of an amusing conversation ; a deliberate barbarity, which goes to pierce your absent brother ; a scandal, where you become a subject of shame and sin to those who listen to you ; an injustice, where you ravish from your brother what is dearest to him. I should have said that slander is a restle-ss evil, which disturbs society, spreads dissension through cities and countries, disunites the strictest friendships ; is the source of hatred and revenge ; fills, wherever it enters, with disturbances and confusion, and everywhere is an enemy to peace, comfort and Christian good breeding. Lastly, I should have added that it is an evil full of deadly poison ; that whatever flows from it is infected, and poisons whatever it approaches ; that even its praises are empoisoned, its applauses malicious, its silence criminal, its gestures, motions, and looks, have all their venom, and spread it each in their way. Behold what in this discourse it would have been my duty, more at large, to have exposed to your view, had I not proposed to paint to you only the vileness of the vice which I am now going to combat ; but as I have already said, these are only general invectives, which none apply to themselves. The more odious the vice is represented, the less do you per- ceive yourselves concerned in it ; and though you acknowledge the prin- ciple, you make no use of it in the regulation of your manners ; because, in these general paintings, we always find features which do not resemble ourselves. I wish, therefore, to confine myself at present to the single object of making you feel all the injustice of that description of slander which you think the more innocent; and, lest you should not feel your- self connected with what I shall say, I shall attack it only in the pretexts which you continually employ in its justification . . . . 454 JEAN BAPTISTE MASSILLON I ''i ; • i! ■ iiii i.ii I- ;■ m il' t I know that it is, above all, by the innocencj- of the intention that you pretend to justify yourself; that you continually say that your design is not to tarnish the reputation of your brother, but innocently to divert yourself with faults which do not dishonor him in the eyes of the world. You, my dear hearer, to divert yourself with his faults ! But what is that cruel pleasure which carries sorrow and bitterness to the heart of your brother ? Where is the innocency of an amusement whose source springs from vices which ought to inspire you with compassion and grief? If Jesus Christ forbids us in tlie Oospel to invigorate the languors of conver- sation by idle words, shall it be more permitted to you to enliven it by derisions and censures ? If the law curses him who uncovers the naked- ness of his relatives, shall you who add raillery and insult to the discovery be more protected from that malediction ? If whoever call his brother fool be wortli> , according to Jesus C'ltist, of eternal fire, shall he who renders him the contempt and laughingstock of the profane assembly escape the same punishment ? You, to amuse yourself with his faults ! But does charity delight in evil ? Is that rejoicing in the Lord, as com- manded by the apostle? If you love your brother as yourself, can j'ou delight in what afflicts him ? Ah ! the Church formerly held in horror the exhibition of gladiators, and denied that believers, brought up in the tenderness and benignity of Jesus Christ, could innocently feast their eyes with the blood and death of these unfortunate slaves, or form a harmless recreation of so inhuman a pleasure. But you renew more detestable shows to enliven your languor ; you bring upon the stage not infamous wretches devoted to death, but members of Jesus Christ, your brethien ; and then you entertain the spectators with wounds which you inflict on persons rendered sacred by baptism. Is it then necessary that your brother should suffer to amuse you ? Can you find no delight in your conversa- tions unless his blood, as I may say, is furnished toward your iniquitous pleasure ? il BOOK III British Orators of the Middle Period FROM the clays of the decadence of chissic ora- tory to those of the famous orators of K nor- land, France and the United States who ^^ave lustre to the latter part of the nineteenth century, a period elapsed of many centuries in duration, during which the voice of the orator was, no doubt, abund- antly heard, yet few examples of what he had to say we •' put upon record, and these much more largely in che Church than in legislative or judicial halls. That in so extended a time many orators of marked ability must have arisen can scarcely be questioned, though we do not possess many animated examples of tlfe art. One important occasion for its exercise was the Puritan Revolution in England, when the halls of Parliament rang with the voices of such ardent patriots as Eliot, Pym and their fellows. Some of the speeches of these have been preserved, and forensic oratory also has left us some interesting examples. While, as above said, the great sum of the oratory of the long period in question has van- ished, some of it has found a foothold in lit^r.^ture. In England these examples chietly extend f»' 'a the Elizabethan reign down to the great renaissance of oratory after the middle of the ( ighteenth century. The records are not extensive. We have not a word, for instance, from an orator of the fame of Lord Bolingbroke. Yet others have been more for- tunate in the preservation of their speeches, and selections from some of the more notable of these may be fitly given, as specimens of the driftwood of oratory which has reached us from the past cen- turies. 466 lia Pi I r." H if. 3 a FRANCIS BACON (J56I-J626) THE FOUNDER OF MODERN SCIENCE mllAT Bacon was the author of the plays of Shakespeare has hiH'ii iterated and reiterated, witli no small array of argu- ments, hut with nothing that is likely to be aceeptc] as proof. If Bacon's future fame was to depend upon the outcome of this con- tention, it would l)e small indeetl. Or, if it depended on his jwlitical reputation, it would he the reverse of desirahle, since liis craving for power and place, and his greed of money, ended in liis; heing con- victed of accei)ting hrihes and perverting Justice, and sentenced to be fined i:4n,onn, imprisoned du-ing the king's pleasure, and banished from Parliament and the court. A sad ending this to what might, but for the faults stated, have heeti a great and noble career, Aside from all this, Bacon was intellectually one of the greatest men of his age, a philo.sopher, a scientist, an essayi.st of the highest type. Most important among his works is the "Novum Organum, or Indications Respecting the Interpretations of Nature," in whicli the inductive system of science — the observation of facts and drawing of coticlu.«ions from them alone— is first advanced. Best known and most read among his works is his " Essays," concise in language, pithy in style, marked by keenness and accuracy of observation, and full of practical wisdom. Of the al)le writers of that great age. Bacon stands next to Shakespeare in intellectual power and elevation, and in modern appreciation. THE EVILS OF DUELING [A contemporary of Bacon speaks of liiin as " tlic cloquentcst man in England." Those who read such cvaniples of his oratory as exist will scarcely agree with this, or admit that his Star Ch:imber arguments are in any sense eloquent. For the latter quality we should rather seek his essays than his speeches. We append a brief example cf his style ] 450 FRANCIS BACON 457 My lords, I thought it fit for my place, and for these times, to bring to bearing before your lordships some cause touching private duels, to see if this Court can do any good to claim and reclaim that evil, which seems unbridled. And I could have wished that I could have met with some greater persons, as a subject for your censure ; both because it had been more worthy of this presence, and also the better to have shown the reso- lution I myself have to proceed without respect of persons in this busi- ness. But finding this cause on foot in my predecessor's time, I thought to lose no time in a mischief that groweth every day ; and, besides, it passes not amiss sometimes in government, that the greater sort be admonished by an example made in the meaner, and the dog to be eaten before the lion. Nay, I should think, my lords, that men of birth and quality will leave the practice, when it begins to be vilified and to come so low as to barber-surgeons and butchers, and such base mechanical per- sons. And for the greatness of this piesence, in which I take much com- fort, both as I consider it in itself, and much more in respect it is by his Majesty's direction, I will supply the meanness of the particular cause by handling of the general point ; to the end that by the occasion of this present cause, both my purpose of prosecution against duels and the opinion of the court — without which I am nothing — for the censure of them may appear, and thereby offenders of that kind may read their own case, and know what they are to expect ; which may serve for a warning until example may be made in some greater person, — which I doubt the times will but too soon afford. Therefore, before I come to the particular, whereof your lordships are now to judge, I think the time best spent to speak somewhat (i) of the nature and greatness of this mischief : ( 2) of the causes and remedies ; (3) of the justice of the law of England , which some stick not to think defec- tive in this matter ; (4) of the capacity of this Coi-rt, where certainly the remedy of this mischi-^f is best to be found ; (5) touching mine own pur- pose and resolution, wherein I shall humbly crave your lordships' aid and assistance. For the mischief itself, may it plen Littli'ton," wliiili is of the hitriust authority in Kii.^iisli law and a rich mine of h'^al U'aniiu^'. IMatkstonc, another noted le-al author, says of it : "He hath tliiown toj,'ellier an infinite treasure of learninii in a loose, desultory maimer." Adoi-tinji the law as his profession. Coke rapidly aei)ointed Sdieitor-Ceneral in l')9:2 and Attorney -(ieneral in 1594, and was chosen Speaker of the House of C'onuuons in lo9:{. In Kil.'J he became Chief-Justice of the Kin.t,''s T'.ench, from which he was n'luoved in KUO, hecause lie was not suirieiently olyse.jious to the court or kiu^'. In 1022, he was imprisoneore sent to pri.n t^h;^:<;ianess. Her., as he refused to retract, he wa. conhned u, H dark and cheerless apar.n.ent which rmned h.s health ^^ \s an orator Eliot had remarkahle powers. He had, says Forster '• so.ne of tl.e highest qualities as an orator-sn.gu ar iK,wer of St Uen.ent. clearness and facility in handling detuds ,K„nted classi- c!rallulns;keenan.l logical argun.ent, forcible and nch declama- ^'""■" THE PERILS OF THE KINGDOM , f I .n,. ifiiS KHot delivered a bold speech in the House of Com- [On U>e 3d ° J^f/. Jtiif^tf R ght." in which he brought severe and daring T"*'"^"TsruL delinju y of the Goverument, attacking it in a strenuou. t?nrr,:Ss\rlVy«»^^^ The exchequer, you ktiow. is empty, and the reputation thereof gone ; the aldenriands are sold ; the jewels pawned ; the plate engaged ; the dS.t still g eat ; almost all charges, both ordinary and extraordinary, borLupbyTroects! What poverty can be greater ? What necessity so git? Wha't perfect English heait is not almost dissolved into sorrow '" 'por'Sfoppression of the subject, which, as I re-ember, is the next particular I proposed, it needs no demonstration. The whole kingdom is aproof anS. L the exhausting of our treasures, that very oppression ^ 401 ::i «» SIR JOHN EL. »I»«ik» it. What wa«te of our provisions, what consumption of our Hhips, what destruction of our men there hatli been ? Witness tliat expedition to Algiers ; witness that with Mansfeldt ; witness that to Cadiz ; witness the next— witness that to Rhe ; witness the last ( I pray Co.1 we may never have more such witnesses I)— witness, likewise, the Palatinate: witness Denmark, witness the Turks, witness the Dunkirkers, witness all ! What losses we have sustained ! How we are impaired in munitions, in ships, in men ! It is beyond contradiction that wo were never so weakened, nor ever had less hope how to be restored. These. Mr. vSpeaker, are our dangers, these are they who do threaten us, and these are, like the Trojan horse, brought in cunningly to surprise us. In these do lurk the strongest of our enemies, rea 'y to issue on us ; and if we do not speedily expel them, these are the sigrs, these are the invitations to others ! These will so prepare their entrance that we .shall have no me-ans left of refuge or defence ; for i!'we have these enemies at home, how can we strive with those that are abroad ? If we be free from these, no other can impeach us. Our ancient luiglish virtue (like the old Spartan valor) cleared from these disorders— our being in sincerity of religion and once made friends with Heaven ; having maturity of councils, sufficiency of generals, incormption of officers, opulency in the King, liberty in the peop'. repletion in treasure, plenty of provisions, reparation of ships, preservi on of men — our ancient English virtue, I say, thus recti- fied, will secure us ; and unless there be a speedy reformation in these, I know not what hopes or expectations we can have. These are the things, sir, I shall desire to have taken into considera- tion ; thp' as we are the great council of the kingdom, and have the apprehension of these dangers, we may truly represent them unto the King, which I conceive we are bound to do by a triple obligation— of duty to (lod, of duty to his Majesty, and of duty to our country. And therefore I wish it may so stand with the wisdom and judgment of the House that these things may be drawn into the body of remon- strance, and in all humility expressed, with a prayer to his Majesty that, for the safety of himself, for the safety of the kingdom, and for the safety of religion, he will be pleased to give us time to make perfect inquisition thereof, or to take them into his own wisdom, and there give them such timely reformation as the necessity and justice of the case doth import. And thus, sir, with a large affection and loyalty to his Majesty, and with a firm duty and service to my country, I have suddenly (and it may be with some disorder) expressed the weak apprehensions I have ; wherein if I erred, I humbly crave your pardon, and so submit myself to the cen- sure of the House. JOHN PYM f J 584- J 643) THE ELOQUENT CHAMPION OF RIGHT |llE\ I'yiii, as a loader in tlif riirliaiiKiitiirv o]i]>ositi<)n. wont with somt! It'llow-iin'mlMTH to pri'-iciil a |>»'liti()ii tu .ianii's I., tliis ScDtch Kiiiji^ of Kiij;lainl crifil out in liis natuH! dialect, "Cliairs! eliairsl lure l)e twal kyiijjfs comiu." And a> Kin;; I'vni lie was known till the ilav of liis death. In the ravliinienls of Charles I. Pyin was one of tiie nu.^^t ai-tive of the nienilMTs in o|i|M)sition !;» tin- arhitra-y acts of the king. In lt)2H he ahly supimited Sir .Fohn Kliot in the dehate on the Petition of liight.and in the Short i'arlianient of mw he opt iiegan •■;• died, and was buried with great pom j> and magnitieenee hi Westminster Ahliey. When Charles II. came to th«- tliroiie his remains were taken n|t and cast into a churchyard i)it — a pitiful piece of inctlcctivo vengeance. LAW THE BASIS OF LIBERTY [Pyni, the leader of Parli.iment in llic revolution against the Stuarts, was the support and successor of Eliot in this movement, and much the ablest orator in the l^ong Parliament. John Hampden, whose name is almost a synonym for I'linlish liberty, was no orator, but was an eanicst seconder of Pym in the proceedings ajjaiiist StralTord, who had acted as the chief agent of Charles I. in his arbitrary acts, and paid for this on tlie scaffold. \Vc give the opening of the reply to Stratford in the Parlia- ment of 1641.] Many days have been spent in maintenance of the iinpeachineiit of the Earl of Strafford by the House of Commons, whereby he stands charged with high treason ; and your lordships have heard his defence 4m li^BU 4M JOHN PYM 1 r^ m with patience, and with as much favor as justice will allow. We have passed through our evidence, and the result is that it remains clearly proved that the Earl of Strafford hath enileavored. by his words, actions, and counsels, to subvert the fundaniemal laws of England and Ireland, and to introduce an arbitrary and tyrannical government. This will best appear if the quality of the offense be examined by that law to which he himself appealed, that universal, that supreme law,— m/«j pofiuH,— the welfare of the people ! This is the element of all laws, out of which they are derivetl ; the end of all laws to which they are designed, and in which they are perfected. The offense comprehends all other offenses. Here you shall find several treasons, murders, rapines, oppressions, perjuries. The t .rth hath a seminary virtue, whereby it doth produce all herbs and plants and other vegetables ; there is in this crime a seminary of all evils hurtful to the State ; and if you consider the reason of it, it must needs be so. The law is that which puts a difference betwixt good and evil; betwixt just and unjust. If you take away the law, all things will fall into a confusion. Kver>' man will become a law to himself, which, in the depraved condition of human nature, must needs produce many great enormities. Lust will become a law, and envy will become a law ; covet- ousness and ambition will become laws ; and what dictates, what deci- sions, such laws will produce may easily lie discerned in the late govern- ment of Ireland ! The law hath a power to prevent, to restrain, to repair evils ; without this, all kind of mischief and distempers will break in upon a State. It is the law that doth entitle the King to the allegiance and service of his people ; it entitles the people to the protection and justice of the King. It is Gotl alone who subsists by Himself, all other things s...>sist in a mutual dependence and relation. He was a wise man who said that the King subsisted by the field that is tilled ; it is the labor of the people that supports the Crown ; if you take away the protection of the King, the vigor and cheerfulness of allegiance will be taken away, though the obligation remains. The law is the boundary, the measure between the King's preroga- tive and the people's liberty. While these move in their own orbs, they are a support and a security to one another— the prerogative a cover and defence to the liberty of the people, and the people by their liberty are enabled to be a foundation to the prerogative,— but if these bounds be so removed that they enter into contention and conflict, one of these mis- chiefs must ensue:— if the prerogative of the King overwhelm the liberty of the people, it will be turned into tyranny ; if liberty undermine the prerogative, it will grow into anarchy. JOHN PYM «t» The doctrine of the I'apists, // «<»« ../ ur; ■<»>/e added to make the third no less mi- hievous and di-structive to human society than either of the rest. That the King is not liound by that oath which he hath taken to olwerve the laws of tlie kinjjduin ; but may, when he sees cause, lay taxes and burdens upon them witliout their consent, contrary to the laws and lilwrties of the kinxdis hath l)een preached and published by divers i>ersons, and this is that which hath l>een prac- ticed in Ireland by the Ivarl of Strafford, in his go\ernment there, and endeavored to l)e brought into luigland by his counsel here It is the end of government tliat all accidents and events, all counsel* and designs, should be improved to the public gut this arbitrary power is apt to dispose all to the maintenance of itself The wisdom of the council-table, the authority of the courts of justice, the industry of all the officers of the Crown, have been most carefully exercisetl in this ; the leaniing of our divines, the jurisdiction of our bishops have been molded and disposed to the same effect, which though it were begun before the Earl of Strafford's employment, yet it hath been exceedingly furthered and advanced by him. Under this color and pretence of maintaining the King's power and prerogative, many dangerous practices against the peace and safety of the kingdom have been undertaken and promoted. The increase of popery and the favors and encouragement of papists have been, and still are, a great grievance and danger to the kingdom : the innovation, in matters of religion, the usurpations of the clergy, the manifold burdens and taxa- tions upon the people, have been a gre:it cause uf ^•.■r present distempers and disorders : and yet those who have been chief furtherers and actors of such mischiefs have had their credit and authority from this that they were forward to maintain this power. Tlie Ivarl of Strafford had the first rise of his greatness from tliis, and in his apology and defense, as your lordships have heard, this hath had a main part. The royal power and majesty of kings is most glorious in the pros- perity and happiness of the people ; the perfection of all things consists in the end for which they were ordained ; God only is his own -'nd ; all other things have a further end lieyond themselves, in attaining \,rhereof their own happiness consists. If the means ar.d end be set in opposition to one another, it must needs cause impotency and defect of both. • Vou ought not to ketp faith wiih h*Tetica. IH ■# 30 .«(■ OLIVER CROMWELL (1599-J658) THE LORD PROTECTOR OF ENGLAND I r mil E story of Cromwcirs life is too well known to need any record liere, where we luivc to do with him in the one aspect of orator. For this role the groat soldier was not well equipped by nature. He was nuich l)etter adapte.l to face an army in the field than an audience from the rostrum. C'arlyle says that his sj^eches "excel human belief in their unlikeness to all other .speeches, in their utter disregard of all standanls of oratory and logical sequence of thought. .". . But the time was when they had as nnich weight in England as the most polislied orations of Demosthenes in Athens." But as this might coMO less from the character of the speeches than from the position of the speaker we nuist sufHce oui-selves with a brief example of his style. THE KINGLY TITLE [We quote from Cromwell's speech in 1657 l>cfore the Committee of Ninety- nine nt Whitehftll. It is characteristic in its careful avoidance of sentiments that would commit him to a fixed conclusion. As in the older case of Ca;sar, the Puritan conqueror was offered the title of kins. vSo-iie of his reasons for refusing it arc here indicated. He declined less from his own inclination, than from the hostility to the name of king nmong the Puritan soldiery.] I will now say something for myself. As for my own mind, I do pro- fess it, I am not a man scrupulous about words, or names, or such things. I have not hitherto clear direction, but as I have the Word of God, and I hope I shall ever have, for the rule of my conscience, for my information and direction, so truly, if men have been led into dark paths through the providence and dispensations of God— why surely it is not to be » )jected to a man. For who can love to walk in the dark ? But Providence doth often so dispose, and though a man may impute his own folly and blind- ness to Providence sinfully, yet this must be at a man's own peril. The OLIVER CROMWELL 467 case may be that it is the providence of (lOtl that doth ' 'd men in dark- ness. I nmst needs say I have had a great deal of exiiciience of provi- dence ; and thouj^h sucli experience is no rule without or against the Word, yet it is a very good expounder of the Word in many cases. Truly the providence of God has laikl aside this title of king provi- dentially Jc facto ; and that not by sudden luuuor or i):'.ssion ; hut it hath heen by i.ssue of as great d ■li!)eration as ever was in a nation. It hath been by issue of ten or hvrl'. • ycu;.' civi' war, wherein much l>lood hath been shed. I will not iispute thejus'l ■ ■ of it when it was done, nor need I tell you what ray of.'ia; was in l'._- case were it de novo to be done. But if it is at all dispu I'l e ani' j n in come and find that God in His severity hath not only eradicated u .hole family, and thrust them out of the land, for reasons best known to Himself, hut also hath made the issue and close of that to be the very eradication of a name and title ! Which de Jacto is the case. It was not done by me, nor by them that tendered me the govern- ment I now act in ; it was done by the Long Parliament, — that was it. And God hath seemed providential, not only in striking at the fiimily, but at the name. And, as I said Ix-fore, it is blotted out ; it is a thing cast out by an Act of Parliament ; it h iih l>een kept out to this day. And as Jude saith in another case, speaking of aboniiaable sins that should be in the latter times, — he doth farther say, when he comes to exhort the saints, he tells them they should " hate even the garments spotted with the flesh." I beseech you think not I bring this as an argument to prove any- thing. God hath seemed so to deal with the person and the family that He blasted the very title. And you know when a man comes, a parte post, to reflect, and see this done, this title laid in the dust, — I confess I can come to no other conclusion. The WVo of this may make a strong impression upon such weak men as I am ; — and perhaps upon weaker men, if there lie any such, it will make a stronger. I will not seek to set up that which Providence hath destroyed and laid in the dust ; I would not build Jericho again I have now no more to say. The truth is, I did indicate this to you as ray conclusion at the first, when I told you what method I would speak to you in. I may say I cannot, with conveniency to myself, nor good to this service which I wish so well to, speak out all my arguments as to the safety of j-our proposal, as to its tendency to the effectual carrying out of this work. I say I do not think it fit to use all the thoughts I have in raj' mind as to that point of safety. But I shall pray to God Almighty that He will direct you to do what is .according to His will. And this is the poor account I am able to give of myself in this thing. 1 i f .It '■ ^iljii EARL OF CHESTERnELD fJ694-I773) THE ORATOR OF WIT AND SARCASM I A 1 I'^^^^IOUS mail was riiilip Dormer Stanliopo, Earl of Chester- ifW field, in his time and season, posing at once as wit, orator, and * ' author, and for a long time serving as an aetive memher of Parliament and Cabinet oiticial. lie sat in the House of Commons from 1716 to 1726, wlieji he was given his title and promoted to the House of Lords. ■ He entered the I'eliiam Cabinet in 1744, and retire!) Luxury, my lords, is to be taxed, but vice prohibited, let the diffi- culties in executing the law be what they will. Would you lay a tax on the breach of tlte Ten Comniaiidnients ? Would not such a tax be wicked and scandalous because it would imply an indulgence to all those who could pay the tax ? Is not this a reproach most justly thrown by the Protestants upon the Church of Rome ? Was it not the chief cause of the Reformation ? And will you follow a precedent which brought reproach and ruin upon those that introduced it ? This is the very case now before you. You are going to lay a tax, and consequently to indulge a sort of drunkeiniess, which almost necessarily produces a breach of every one of the JTen Commandments. Can you expect the reverend bench will approve of this. I am convinced they will not ; and therefore I wish I had seen it full upon this occasion. We have already, my lords, several sorts of funds in this nation, so many that a man must have a good deal of learning to be master of them. Thanks to his Majesty, we have now among us the most learned man of the nation in this way. I wish he would rise up and tell us what name we are to give this new fund. We have already the Civil List p-und, the Sinking Fund, the Aggregate Fund, the South Sea Fund, and God knows how many others. What name we are to give this new fund I know not, unless we are to call it the Drinking Fund. It may, perhaps, enable the people of a certain foreign territory [Hanover] to drink claret, but it will disable the people of this kingdom from drinking anything else but gin ; for when a man has, by gin drinking, rendered himself unfit for labor or business, he can purchase nothing else ; and then the best thing for him to do is to drink on <^i" he dies. Surely, my 1 -on of such unbounded benevolence as our present ministers deserve iiors as were never paid before ; they deserve to bestride a butt upc every signpost in the city, or to have their figures exhibited as tokens where this liquor is to be sold by the license which they have procured. They must be at least remembered to future ages as the " happy politicians '' who, after all expedients for raising taxes had been employed, discovered a new method of draining the last relics of the public wealth, and added a new revenue to the Government. Nor will those who shall hereafter enumerate the several funds now established among us, forget, among the benefactors of their country, the illustrious authors of the Drinking Fund The noble lord has been pleased kindly to inform us that the trade of distilling is very extensive ; that it employs great numbers ; and that they have arrived at an e.vquisite skill, and therefore — note well the conse- quence—the trade of distilling is not to be discouraged. 470 EARL OF CHESTERFIELD ir I Once more, my lords, allow me to wonder at the different conceptions of different understandings. It appears to me that since the spirits which the distillers produce are allowed to enfeeble the limbs and vitals of the blood, to pervert the heart and obscure the intellect, that the number of distillers should be no argumen' in their favor ; for I never heard that a law against theft was repealed or delayed because thieves were numerous. It appears to me, my lords, that if so formidable a body are confederated against the virtue or the lives of their fellow-citizens, it is time to put an end to the havoc, and to interpose while it is yet in our power to stop the destruction. So little, my lords, am I afflicted with the merit of this wonderful skill which the distillers are said to have attained, that it is, in my opin- ion, no faculty of great use to mankind to prepare palatable poison ; nor shall I ever contribute my interest for the reprieve of a murderer, because he has, by long practice, obtained great dexterity in his trade. If their liquors are so delicious that the people are tempted to their own destruction, Jet us at length, my lords, secure them from these atal diaughts by bursting the vials that contain them. Let us crush at once these artists in slaughter, who have reconciled their countrj-men to sick- ness and to ruin , and spread over the pitfalls of debauchery such baits as cannot be resisted. This bill, therefore, appears to be designed only to thin the ranks of mankind, and to disburden the world of the multitudes that inhabit it; and is perhaps the strongest proof of political .sagacity that our new min- isters have yet exhibited. They well know, my lords, that they are uni- versally detested, and that, whenever a Briton is di.-stroyed, they are freed from an enemy ; they have therefore opened the flood gates of gin upon the nation, that, when it is less numerous, it may be more easily governed. Other ministers, my lords, who had not attained to so great a knowl- edge in the art of making war upon their country, when they found their enemies clamorous and bold, used to awe them with prosecutions and pen- alties, or destroy them like burglars, with prisons and with gibbets. But every age, my lords, produces some improvement ; and every nation, how- ever degenerate, gives birth, at some happy period of time, to men of great and enterprising genius. It is our fortune to be witnesses of a new discovery in politics. We may congratulate ourselves upon being con- temporaries with those men who have shown that hangmen and halters are unnecessary in a State, and that ministers may escape the reproach of destroying their enemies by inciting them to destroy themselves. 1 ' --^-lim »sm BOOK IV. The Golden Age of British Oratory TH E oratory of Great Britain reached its cul- minating period in tlic latter (lu .rter of the eighteenth century, in the eloquent and in- spired utterances of such masters of the art as Chatham, Burke, Fox, Sheridan, Pitt, Grattan, Cur- ran, and others well known to fame. The incite- ment to earnest and vigorous oratory then existed in large measure, and the response was not wanting. The first great inciting cause was the effort to coerce the colonists in America, and the war for indepen- dence that followed. During this period the British Parliament thundered with vehement harangues, it being a somewhat remarkable fact that the greatest orators of that era— Chatham, Burke, Fox, and Wilkes — were all strongly on the side of the colon- ists, assailing the administration in language whose fearlessness testifies to the freedom of speech then existing in England. There were important oppor- tunities also for forensic oratory, especially the famous Warren Hastings trial, which led to some of the most splendid examples of the oratory of invective and accusation on record, especially those of Burke and Sheridan, which rank highly among oratorical triumphs. In the final decade of the century came another great occasion for parliamentary debate, in the French Revolution and the opening of the Napo- leonic wars. In all, the period was one full of food for oratory, and there arose in the British kingdom a greater number of orators of superior powers than in any other period of its history. 471 THE EARL OF CHATHAM (1 708- J 778) THE GREAT COMMONER SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, for twenty years Prime Minister of Enjihind, was faiily terrified wlien he first lieard the voice of — ^ young William Pitt in the House of Commons, and exclaimed, " We must muzzle that terril,l,i cornet of horse ! " lie tried to do so in 1741, in a sarcastic speech, in which he referred to Pitt's fluency of rhetoric and vehemence of gesture, " jwmpous diction and theatrical emotions." He went on to say that " Excursions of fancy and flights of oratory are pardonable in young men, but in no others." Pitt's reply — beginning, " The atrocious crime of In'ing a young man, which the honorable gentleman has, with such spirit and decency, charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny " — effectually settled the old Conservative, and showed the memlx^rs of Parliament that they had a new force to deal with. In the years that followed Pitt took rank as one of the g-eatest orators of modern times. About 1760 he was idolized by the; populace, who called him "The Great Commoner," but six years afterward he sacrificed his popularity by acceptnig a peerage, with the title of Earl of Chatham. He was now growing old, and was affected both physically and mentally, but recovered sufficiently to raise his voice in earnest protest agahist the acts of the King and his ministers before and during the American Revolution. His eloquent appeals in behalf of fhe colonists have endeared him to the people of the United States, as their most ardent friend in their days of mortal need. As an orator, the name of Chatham ranks among the few supreme in this noble art. We ix)ssess but fragments of his si)eeches, but these serve to indicate the character of the eloquence to which he owed his great rainc. But w ith hiiii words w-ere not all ; manner told as well. 472 ■ifp! WHH iHHiltalii THE EARL OF CHATHAM 47:i Harlitt says, "The piiiuiplc hy whiiii tlio Karl of Chatliam pxprtod his influoiifo over others was sympathy. He liiiiisolf ovi(hMitly had a strong jiossossion of his siilijcct, a tliorouf^h conviction, an intense interest ; and tliisconnnunicaled itself from iiis manner, from the tones of his voice, from ins connnandinj^ attitudes, and eager gestures, instinctivelv and nnavoidahlv. to his liearcrs." :tr !i , REMOVE THE BOSTON GARRISON [No stronger w< ••:1s could luivc bcpii spoken in defense of the Anierican colonists on their own shores than those which the aged Chatham uttered in the British House of Lords. In 1774 he denounced tlie measure for (juartcring troops on the people of Boston, and in January, 1775, made the notable speech from which we (|uote.] When your lordships look at the papers transmitted to us from Amer- ica, when you consider their firnniess, decency, and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause and wish to make it your own. For myself, I must affirm, declare, and avow that, in all my reading and observation Cand it has been my favorite study, for I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired the master states of the world), I say, I nuwt declare that, for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclu- sion, under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the General Congress at Philadel- phia. I trust it is obvious to your lordships that all attempts to impose servitude upon such men, to establish despotism over such a mighty conti- nental nation, must be vain, must be fatal. We shall be forced, ultimately, to retract. Let us retract while we can, not when we must. I say we must necessarily undo these violent, oppressive acts. They miis/ be repealed. You a/// repeal them. I pledge myself for it that you will, in the end, repeal them. I stake my reputation on it. I will consent to be taken for an idiot if they are not finally repealed. [Speaking of the state of affairs in Boston, and the prepirations for resistance, he said ;] Had the early situation of the people of Boston been attended to, things would not have come to this. But the infant complaints of Boston were literally treated like the capricious squalls of a child, who, it was said, did not know whether it was aggrieved or not. But full well I knew, at that time, that ihis child, if not redres,sed, would soon assume the courage and voice of a man. Full well I knew that the sons of ancestors, born under the same free constitution and once breathing the same liberal air as Englishmen, would resist upon the same principles and on the same occasions. jgm . 474 THE EARL OF CHATHAM What has Government done ? They have sent an armed force, con- sisting of seventeen thousand men, to dragoon the Bostonians into what is called their duty ; and, so far from once turning their eyes to the policy and destructive consequence of this scheme, are constantly sending out more troops. And we are told, in the language of menace, that if seven- teen thousand men won't do, fifty thousand shall. It is true, my lords, with this force they may ravage thecountr>', waste and destroy as they march ; but, in the progress of fifteen hundred miles, can they occupy the places they have passed ? Will not a country which can produce three millions of people, wronged and insulted as they are, start up like hydras in every corner, and gather fresh strength from fresh opposition ? Nay, what dependence can you have upon the soldiery, the unhappy engines of your wrath? They are Englishmen, who must feel for the privileges of Englishmen. Do you think that these men can turn their arms against their brethren ? Surely no. A victory must be to them a defeat, and carnage a sacrifice. But it is not merely three millions of people, the produce of America, we have to contend with in this unnatural struggle ; many more are on their side, dispersed over the face of this wide empire. Every Whig in this country and in Ireland is with them. In this alarming crisis I come with this paper in my hand to offer you the best of my experience and advice ; which is, that a humble petition be presented to his Majesty, beseeching him that, in order to open the way towards a happy settlement of the dangerous troubles in America, it may graciously please him that immediate orders be given to General Gage for removing his Majesty's forces from the town of Boston. Such conduct will convince America that you mean to try her cause in the spirit of freedom and inquiry, and not in letters of blood. There is no time to be lost. Every hour is big with danger. Per- haps, while I am now speaking the decisive blow is struck which may involve millions in the consequence. And, believe me, the very first drop of blood which is shed will cause a wound which may never be healed. THE WAR IN AMERICA [On November t8, 1777, Chatham, a few months only before his death, made a notable speech on the same subject. He spoke with impassioned eloquence against the employment of Indians in the war with the colonists, alluded to the probability of an alliance between the United States and France, and continued as follows.] The people whom they (the ministers) affect to call rebels, but whose growing power has at last obtained the name of enemies : the people with THE EARL OK CHATHAM 47r, whom they have ciigajjed thi.. country in war, and against whom they now command our implicit support in every measure of desperate hos- tility ; this people — despised as rebels — are ackuowleilged as enemies, are abetted against you, supplied with every military store, their interests consulted, and their ambassadors entertained by your inveterate enemy. And our ministers dare not interpose with dignity and effect. Is this the honor of a great kingdom ? Is this the indignant spirit of England, who but yesterday gave law to the House of liourbon ? The dignity of nations demands a decisive conduct in a situation like this. The desperate state of our arms abroad is in part known. I love and I honor the Englis'' troop . No man thinks more highly of them than I do. I know they van achieve anything except impossibilities ; and I know that the conquest of English America is an impossibility. You can- not, I venture to say, you caitnoi coni[VieT Americn. Your armies in the last war effected everything that could be effected, and what was it? It cost a numerous army, under the command of a most noted general, now a noble lord in this House, a long and laborious campaign, to c.xpel five thousand Frenchmen from French America. My lords, you cannot conquer America ! What is your present situation there ? We do not know the worst, but we know that in the three cam- paigns we have done nothing and suffered much. We shall soon know, and in any event have reason to lament, what may have happened since. As to conquest, my lords, I repeat, — it is impossible ! You may swell every expense and every effort still more extravagantly ; pile and accumulate every assistance you can buy or borrow ; traffic and barter with every little, pitiful German prince who will sell his subjects to the shambles of a foreign power ! Your efforts are forever vain and impotent; doubly so from this mercenary aid on which you rely. For it irritates, to an incurable resentment, the minds of your enemies, to overrun them with the mercenary sons oi spine and plunder, devoting them and their pos- sessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty. If I were an American, as I am an FInglishman, while a foreign troop remained in my country I never would lay down my arms ; never, never, never ! iu % EDMUND BURKE ( 1 730-1 797) THE SHAKESPEARE OF ENGLISH ORATORS SS ,1, i,. ll,,. ,l.ys ,.f ,1,.. «,....< slnvorv \\el..Kh.r Clay and Call.oun, so Kn..!...,.,! was ...h..,! i„ U.c 0X0, ., ays ,,,... A. H..anWa,.,.i,,.t.u on.,... .^ sin.il;: . N ■a KS-( hatlK.M, Murk, an-l Fox. (Mvat.-s. a.non.tlu.so, i„ certain of tl.e nK.st Mn,K.r.ant .Inu.u^s of oratory, was lU.rko. I, l.a, .- .n.,,ot„o.,,s an.l spl.n.lid do^wencc. of Chathan., nor tl.o rcn u' «r..at tl.o„,.l, s ... tl.e „,ost ai.,.,.o,.,.iat. . onls. L\ of ,.,-o.i.,<.i ?. iMU th, y u..ro when ..uvore.l, l.o tar s.,rj.asse,l thnn l,oth. Ma^.u- iriu^ "■'' " '" "^'""''^ "' <->-...v..onsio.. an.I rie.; ^f ■magn.at.o,. sui.o,,or to every orator, a.,ei,...t or n.o.Ier..." t.I...„n, I{„,ko, while of Nor.,.an ,les..e,.t, wa.s of Irish hirth his t at o.ue took an aet.ve part ... the disc.ssio., on AnxTi.-a,. a(lai,-s -l — t.„ue.l ,t th,.oughout the s„hso.,.K...t wa,, joi..i.,,M 'hatha,., n ln-'l.H„.., s„p,,ort of the cause of the colonists. U. ^.s Z^ ! , " S -,d his utn.os, inmer. of .ntellect ue.e exerted .n the ettbrt to hnn«. n.,ril„.,io„ u,>on" EDMUND BURKE ill a % t. tin- culiirit. tltiriii^ llic ut'iivly d ii ytiir- ovir wliirli tlio ca-'t'cxlciicl. d. I)Urk(''s tiiiiil \\iiik ii>< an in.itui- wa-i liis Invi'l <>|i|i(>*itii)ii in tin' iJcvo- lutioii ill l''iaiiri , whose ic-ult- lif tm-.-aw \\itli what lia> htcii i-allcd " till' iiiiisl inaiiiiitiniit |M(liti lon>{ for our space, and we confine our selection to Hurkc's vijjorous impeachment of the great culprit.] Ill tlu' name of the Commons of iMigLind , I cliarKO all this villainy upon Warrtn Hastings, in this last tnoment of my application to you. My Lords, what is it tliat wi- want here to a great act of national jus- tice ? Do we want a cause, my Lords ? Von have the cause of oppressed princes, of undone .vomeii of the first rank, of desolated j)n)vinces, and of wasted kini;doms. Do you want a criminal, my Lords? When was there so much inifiuity ever laid to thu charge of any one ? No, my Lords, you must not look to jmnish any other such delituiuent from India. Warren Hast- ings has not Icftsu.jstance enough in India to nourish such another delin- quent. My Lords, is it a prosecutor you want ? You have before you the Commons of Great Britain as prosectitors, and I believe, my Lords, that the sun, in his beneficent progress round the world, does not behold a more glorious sight than that of men, separated from a remote people by the material bonds and barriers of nature, united by the bond of a social and moral community — all the Commons of I-^ngland resenting, as their own, the indignities and the cruelties that are offered to the people of India. Do we want a tribunal ? My Lords, no e.xaniple of anti(iuity, nothing in the modern world, nothing in the range of human indignation, can supply us witli a tribunal like this. My Loids, here we see virtually, in the mind's eye, thai sacred majesty of the Crown, under who.se authority you sit and whose power you exercise. We have here all the branches of the royal family, in a situation between majesty and subjection, between the sovereign and tlie subject — offering a pledge, in that situation, for Uie support of the rights of the Crown and the liberties of the people, V>oth of which extremities they touch. «7t EDMUND BURKE My rx)rds. wo Jmvc a great herctlit.iry pcerapo here ; those who have their own honor, tlie honor of tlieir aiucstors, auil of tluir postirity, to Kuanl, and who will jitstity, as tlity always have justifud, thai provision in the Coiistitntion l>y which juHticc is made an hereditary ofBce. My Lords, we have h<>re a new nobility, wlio have risen, and exalted theniselvi-s by varions merits, by jjreat civil and military services, which have extended the fame of this country from the risinj? to the setting sun. My r.ords, you have here, also, the lights of our religion ; you have the bishops of Ijinland. My Lords, you have that true ima^'e of the primiti%-e Church in its ancitnt form, in its ancient ordinances, purified from the superstitions and the view which a long succession of ages will bring upon the best institutions. My Lords, these arc the securities which wc have in all the constitu- ent parts of the body of this House. We know them, we reckon, we rest upon them, and commit safely the interests of India and of humanity into your hands. Therefore, it is with confidence, that, onkred by the Com- mons, I impeach Warren Hastings. Ivsriuire, of high crimes and niisde- metuiors. I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great Hritain. in I'ar- liament assend)led, whose parliamentary trust he has betrayed. I impeach him in the name of all the Commons of Great Britain, whose national character he has dishonored. I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose laws, rights, and liberties he has subverted, whose projierty he has destroyed, whose country he has laid waste and desolate. I impeach him in the name, and by virtue of those eternal laws of justice which he has violated. I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, which he has cruelly outraged, injured and oppressed, in both se.xes, in every age, rank, situation, and condition of life. My Lords, at this awful close, in the name of the Commons, and surrounded by them, I attest the retiring. I attest the advancing, genera- tions, between which, as a link in the great chain of eternal order, we stand. We call this nation, and call this world, to witness, that the Com- mons have shrunk from no labor ; that we have l)een guilty of no prevari- cation, that we have made no compromise with crime, that we have not feared any odium whatsoever in the long warfare which we have carried on with the crimes, with the vices, with the exorbitant wealth, with the enormous and overpowering influence of Ivistern corruption. EDMUND BUKKE 47:t % My I^.nls, it li:is i.leaHf.1 I'n.vi.lnu-i- to [.laco iw in suoli a efore the worl.l. a.ul will survive the fabric of the world itself, - I mean justice; that justice which, emanating from the Divinity, has a place in the hreasl of every one of u>, Kiven us for our Rui-le with re^anl to ourselves ami with regard toothers; ami which will stand, after tins KJohe is burned to ashi'S, our adv.)cate or our accuser, l)efore the Rrcat Jml^e, when He comes to call ui.oii us for the tenor of a well-spent life. My Lor- fate with your l.of.'-hips; there is nothing sinister which can liappen to you. in which we shall not Jh? involved; and. if it shoul.l so happen, that we shall he suhjecUd to some of those friKlnlul changes which we have seen ; if it shoul.l hai.peii that vour Lordships, strippe.l of all the decorous .listinctioiis ol human society, should, by hands at once base an.l cruel, be led to those scatTolds and machines of murder upon which ^real kin^s and Kloriuus vhich they admniistered-a great and glorious exit, mv Lords, of a great and glorious body ! My Lords, if you must fall, may you so fall ! Hut if you stand, and I trust you will, together with the fortunes of this ancient monarchy, together with the ancient laws and liberties of this great and illustrious kingdom, mav vou stand as unimpeached in honor as in power ; may you stand, not as a substitute for virtue, but as an ornament of virtue, as a I- "WZA 480 EDMUND BURKE security for virtiu- ; may yon stand long, ajid long stand the terror of tyrants ; may yim stand tlie refuge of afflicted nations ; may you stand a sacred temple, for the perpetual residence of'an inviolable justice ! MARIE ANTOINETTE [Burke had seen the Queen of France in 1772, while still Dauphiness, and a vision of youth and beauty. After her cruel fate, he gave the following memorable description of the unhappy viclim, in tones of the deepest emotional earnestness.] It is now sixteen or .seventeen years since I saw the Queen of France, then the Dauphiness, at Versailles ; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like the morning star, full of life and splendor and joy. O, what a sudden revolution ! and what a heart must I have, to contemplate without emotion that elevation and that fall ! Little did I dream, when she added titles of veneration to those of enthu- siastic, distant, respectful love, that she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom ; little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers ! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone ; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded, and the glory of Europe is extinguished for- ever. Never, never more shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that subordina- tion of the heart, which kept alive, e en in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom ! The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise is gone. It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honor, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness. CHARLES JAMES FOX (1 749- J 806) THE FAMOUS PARLIAMENTARY DEBATER SMONG the British statesmen who were on the sionents. As regards his powers as an orator he had a phenomenal fluency of extemiwraneous speech, and we may quote Burke's opinion that he was " the greatest debater the world ever saw," and that of Mackintosh, who called him " the most Demosthenian speaker since Demosthenes." THE TYRANNY OF THE EAST INDIA COMPAlvrV [On the 1st of December, 1783, Fox arraigned in a vigorous speech the repre- hensible conduct of the irresponsible East India Company. It was a preliminary step towards the subsequent trial of Warren Hastings for his cruel and rapacious acts] The honorable gentleman charges me with abandoning that cause, which, he says, in terms of flattery, I had once so successfully asserted. 31 ^»1 CHARLES JAMES POX I tell him in reply, that if he were to search the history of my life, he would find that the period of it, in which I struggled most for the real, substantial cause of liberty is this very moment I am addressing you. Freedom, according to my conception of it, consists in the safe and sacred possession of a man's property, governed by laws defined and certain ; with many personal privileges, natural, civil, and religious, which lie can- not surrender without ruin to himself; and of which to be deprived by any other power is despotism. This bill, instead of subverting, is des- tinetl to give stability to these principles ; instead of narrowing the basis of freedom, it tends to enlarge it ; instead of suppressing, its object is to infuse and circulate the spirit of liberty. What is the most odious species of tyranny ? Precisely that which this bill is meant to annihilate. That a handful of men, free themselves, should execute the most base and abominable despotism over millions of their fellow-creatures ; that innocence should be the victim of oppression ; that industry should toil 'or rapine ; that the harmless laborer should sweat, not for his own benefit, but for the luxury and rapacity of tj'rannic depredation ; in a word, that thirty millions of men, gifted by Providence with the ordinary endowments of humanity, should groan under a system of despotism unmatched in all the histories of the world. What is the end of all government ? Certainly the happiness of the governed. Others may hold other opinions, but this is mine, and I pro- claim it. What are we to think of a government whose good fortune is supposed to spring from the calamities of its subjects, whose aggrandize- ment grows out of the miseries of mnukind ? This is the kind of goveni- raent exercised under the East India Company upon the natives of Hindo- Stan ; and the subversion of that infanious government i.s the main object of the bill in question. But in the progress of accomplishing this end, it is objected that the charter of the company should not be violated ; and upon this point, sir, I shall deliver my opinion without disguise. A charter is a trust to one or more persons for some given benefit. If this trust be abused, if the benefit be not obtained, and its failure arise from palpable guilt, or (what in this case is fully as bad) from palpable ignorance or mismanagement, will any man gravely say that that trust should not be resumed and delivered to other hands ; more especially in the case of the East India Company, whose manner of executing this trust, whose laxity and languor have produced, and tend to produce consequences dia- metrically opposite to the ends of confiding that trust, and of the institu- tion for which it was granted ? I beg of gentlemen to be aware of the lengths to which their argu- ments upon the intangibility of this charter may be carried. Every syllable CHARLES JAMES FOX 4ffl I 1 virtually impeaches the establishment by which we sit in this House, in the enjoyment of this freedom, and of every other blessing of our Government. These kinds of arguments are batteries against the main pillar of the British Constitution. Some men are consistent with their own private opinions, and discover the inheritance of family maxims, when they question the principles of the Revolution ; but I have no scru- ple in subscribing to the articles of that creed which produced it. Sover- eigns are sacred, and reverence is due to every king; yet, with all my attachments to the person of a first magistrate, had I lived in the reign of James II. I should most certainly ha%'e contributed my efforts, and borne part in those illustrious struggles which vindicated an empire from heredi- tary ser%'itude, and recorded this valuable doctrine, "that trust abused is revocable. " No man, sir, will tell me that a trust to a company of merchants stands upon the solemn and sanctified ground by which a trust is com- mitted to a monarch ; and I am at a loss to reconcile the conduct of men who approve that resumption of violated trust, which rescued and re-es- tablished our unparalleled and admirable Constitution with a thousand valuable improvements and advantages at the Revolution, and who, at this moment, rise up the champions of the East Indi Company's charter, although the incapacity and incompetency of that company to a due and adequate discharge of the trust deposited in them by that charter are themes of ridicule and contempt to the world ; and although in conse- quence of their mismanagement, connivance, and imbecility, combined with the wickedness of their ser\'ants, the very name of an Englishman is detested, even to a proverb, through all Asia, and the national character is become degraded and dishonored. To rescue that name from odium and redeem this character from disgrace are some of the objects of the present bill ; and, gentlemen should, indeed, gravely weigh their opposi- tion to a measure which, with a thousand other points not less valuable, aims at the attainment of these objects. Those who condemn the present bill as a violation of the chartered rights of the East India Company, condemn, on the same ground, I say again, the Revolution as a violation of the chartered rights of King James II. He, with as much reason, might have claimed the proj)erty of domin- ion : but what was the language of the people? " No ; you have no property in dominion ; dominion was vested in you, as it is in every chief magistrate, for the benefit of the community to be governed ; it was a sacred trust delegated by compact ; you have abusetl that trust ; you have exercised dominion for the purposes of vexation and tyranny, not of com- fort, protection and good order ; and we, therefore, resume the power lili IH'J m ^^ CHARLES JAMES FOX which was originally ours ; we recur to the first principles of all govern- ment—the will of the many ; and it is our will that you shall no longer abuse your dominion." The case is the same with the East India Com- pany's government over a territory, as it has been said by my honorable friend (Mr. Burke), of two hundred -nd eighty thousand square miles in extent, nearly equal to all Christian Europe, and containing thirty millions of the human race. It matters not whether dominion arise from conquest or from compact. Conquest gives no right to the conqueror to be a tyrant; and it is no violation of right to abolish the authority which is mis- used. _ LIBERTY IS STRENGTH AND ORDER [Fox, a supporter of the French Revolution, uttered in 1797 the following vigorous words in advocacy of liberty.] Liberty is order ! Liberty is strength ! Look round the world and admire, as you must, the instructive spectacle. You will see that liberty not only is power and order, but that it is power and order predominant and invincible, that it derides all other sources of strength. And shall the oreposterous imagination be fostered that men bred in liberty— the first of t. man kind who asserted the glorious distinction of forming for them- selv.-A their social compact— can be condemned to silence upon their rights ? Is it to be conceived that men who have enjoyed , for such a length of days, the light and happiness of freedom, can be restrained and shut up again in the gloom of ignorance and d.-gradation ? As well, sir, might you try, by a miserable dam, to shut up the flowing of a rapid river. The rolling and impetuous tide would burst through every impediment that man might throw in its way ; and the only consequence of the impotent would be, that, having collected new force by its temporary suspension, in forcing itself through new channels, it would spread devastation and ruin on every side. The progress of liberty is like the progress of the stream. Kept within its bounds, it is sure to fertilize the country through which it runs ; but no power can arrest it in its passage ; and short- sighted, as well as wicked, must be the heart of the projector that would strive to divert its course. ] LorJ Brougham, a JistinguisheJ orutur of EnglanJ In the iqth CfDturv. uJ^i'caicJ lEic (.au.sc ^-t I'opuUr L^u^ation an.! Rcrorir. and opposition tct the Slave TraJe. I » H ^^'—i Graltan lived in the iSth Centurv anJ was next tii Chslham, the m')5t fam.i-.is tif BritKh nratnr^. His ..rati..!) uii the " Riirhts ut is a magnificent effort. Ireland nniaaifiiaBiaiMMMl •"- •• 'iriinitfjiiiiiiitfiiiii LORD THOMAS ERSKINE (J 750- J 823) THE CELEBRATED FORENSIC ORATOR n mN 1774, Thomas Kiskiiie, son of the Scottish Karl of Rurhiin, happoned to enter the court presided over by tiie famous Lord Nhiustield, and was invited hv him to sit hy his side. lie listened to the trial with the re«ult that, eonvineed that he eould easily surjiass any speech he had heanl, he resolved to adopt the law as his profession. Leaving the fa.shitmahle world of London, where his charming social jH)wers had made him a marked success, ho entered Lincoln's Inn as a stuilent, and was called to the bar in 1778. In his first case, in which his client was on trial for libel on the Earl of Sandwich, a member of the Cabinet, Krskine showed such remark- able powers a.s to astonish all his hearers, and to bring him.self at a iM>und into the highest rank of his profession. P'rskine subse(|iiently entered Parliament, but political debate was not to his taste, and he failed to make any high mark in the House of Commons. In the legal arena, however, his success con- tiiuied, high authorities looking ufton him as uncipialled, either in ancient or modern times, as an advocate in the forum. In the defence of right against might he was one of the most consj)icuous examples in English history. He was the successful defender of Lord (Jeorge (iordon, of Thomas I'aine, of Slockdale, of John Home Tooke, and of others who had dared to RD THOMAS BRSKINB complaint ; and that whatever intrinsic merit parts of the book may be supposed or even admitted to possess, such merit can afford no justifica- tion to the selected passages, some of which, even with the context, carry the meaning charged by the information, and which are indecent animad- versions on authority. To this I would answer (still protesting as I do against the application of any one of the innuendos) that if you are firmly persuaded of the singleness and purity of the author's intentions, you are not hound to subject him to infamy, because, in the zealous career of a just and animated composition, he happens to have tripped with his pen into an intemperate expression in one or two instances of a long work. If this severe duty were binding on your consciences, the liberty of the pre^s would be an empty sound, and no man could venture to write on any subject, however pure l.is purpose, without an attorney at one elbow and a counsel at the other. From minds thus subdued by the terrors of punishment, there could issue no works of genius to expand the empire of human reason, nor any masterly compositions on the general nature of government, by the help of which the great commonwealths of mankind have founded their estab- lishments ; much less any of those useful applications of them to critical conjectures, by which, from time to time, our own Constitution, by the exertion of patriotic citizens, has been brought back to its standard. Under such terrors all the great lights of science and civilization must be extinguished, for men cannot communicate their free thoughts to one another with a lash held over their heads. It is the nature of everything that is great and useful, both in the animate and inanimate world, to be wild and irregular, and we must be contr ited to take them with the alloys which belong to them, or live without them. Genius breaks fror the fetters of criticism, but its wanderings are sanctioned by its majes nd wisdom when it advances in its path ; subject it to the critic, ai you tame it into dullness. Mighty rivers break down their banks in tht /inter, sweeping away to death the flocks which are fattened on the soil that they fertilize in the summer ; the few may be saved by embankments from drowning, but the flock must perish from hunger. Tempests occasionally shake our dwellings and dissipate our commerce ; but they scourge before them the lazy elements, which, without them, would stagnate into pesti- lence. In like manner, liberty herse.i', the last and best gift of God to his creatures, must be taken just as she is ; you might pare her down into bashful regularity, and s- pe her into a perfect model of severe, scrupu- lous law, but she would tnen be liberty no longer ; and you must be con- tent to die under the lash of this inexorable justice which you have exchanged for the banners of freedom. HENRY GRATTAN U 750-1820) AN EMINENT IRISH STATESMAN AND ORATOR mRELANI) is eminent anions nations for tlio nuinlxT of funiouH orators who havo In'on 1k»iii ihkiii lar soil. Wo may name men of sueh eelcbrity as Bnrieetle svovxl, and panellas, and the » >ort of wixilens atin, and providence of the present moment, to tell us the rule by v .,ic' we shall go, — assert the law of Ireland — declare the lilKTty of the land. I will not be answered by a public lie, in the shape of an ar.i>.ndnient ; neither, speaking for the subject's freedom, am I to he;i.r sf faction I wish for nothing Imt to breathe, in this our island, in common with iny fellow-subjects, the air of liberty. I have no ambition, unless it be the ambition to break your chain and contemplate your glory. I never will be satisfied so lonir as the meanest cottager in Ireland has a link of the British chain clanking to his rags ; he may be naked, h< shall not be in 492 HENRY GRATTAN iron; and I do see the time is at hand, the spirit is gone forth, the declar- ation is planted ; and though great men shall apostatize, yet the cause will live ; and though the public speaker should die, yet the immortal fire shall outlast the organ which conveyed it ; and the breath of liberty, like the word of the holy man, will not die with the prophet, but sur\-ive him. THE EPITAPH OF ENGLAND [Hroin Cirattan's speeches in the British House o{ Coiiiiiions , we offer the fol- lowing brief l)ut telling example of fervent elo' before a glass, declaiming celebrated orations and otlier means. Antonv's oration over the dead l)ody of Ca-sar was ids favoritt- model of eloquence. THE PENSION SYSTEM [As an example of Curraii's sarcasm, we api)en(l a brief extract from his remarks in I780 on the Pension System.] This polyglot of wealth, this mwseitm of curiosities, the Pension List, embraces every link in the human chain, every description of men, women, and children, from the exalted excellence of a Hawke or a Rodney, to the debased situation of the lady who humhleth herself that she may be exalted. Hut the lessons it inculcates form its greatest perfection; it teacheth that Sloth and Vice may eat that bread which Virtue and Honesty may starve for after they have earned it. It teaches the idle and dissolute to look up for that support which they are too proud to stoop and earn. It directs the minds of men to an entire reliance on the ruling Power of the State, who feeds the ravens of the Royal aviary, that cry 4H.'t «i JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN continually for food. It teaches them to imitate those saints on the Pen- sion List that are like the lilies of the field ; they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet are arrayed like Solomon in his glory. In fine, it teaches a les:3on, which, indeed, they might have learned from Epictetus, that It IS sometimes good not to be over-virtuons ; it shows that, in pro portion as our distresses increase, the munificence of the Crown increases also ; in proportion as our clothes are rent, the , oyal mantle is extended over us. THE MARCH OF THE MIND [From a speech in the Irish Parliament in 1796 we clioose the followinfi; brief extract, m which Curran replaces satire and humor by eloc,uence, and strikinelv delineates the march of the human mind.J Gentlemen say the Catholics have got everything but seats in Parlia- ment. Are we really afraid of giving them thai privilege ? Are we seri- ously afraid that Catholic venality might pohate the immaculate integrity of the House of Commons?- that a Catholic member would be more accessible to a promise, or a pension, or a bribe, than a Protestant ? Lay your hands upon your hearts, look in one another's faces, and say Yes and I will vote against this amendment. But is it the fact that they have everything ? Is it the fact that they have the common benefit of the Con- stitution, or the common protection of the law ? Another gentleman has said, the Catholics have got much, and ou^ht to be content. Why have they got that much ? Is it from the minister ? Is It from the Parliament which threw their petition over its Bar > No ' they got it by the great revolution of human afi-airs ; by the astonishing march of the human mind; a march that has collected too much momentum, in its advance, to be now stopped in its progress. The bark is still afloat ; she is freighted with the hopes and liberties of millions of men ; she is already under way ; the rower may faint, or the wind may sleep, but, rely upon it, she has already acquired an energy of advance- ment that will support her course and bring her to her destination ; rely upon it, • , ether much or little remains, it is now vain to withhold if rely upon it, you may as well stamp your foot upon the earth, in order to prevent its : evolution. You cannot stop it 1 You will only remain a siHy gnomon upon its surface, to measure the rapidity of rotation, until you are forced round and b jried in the shade of that body whose irresistible course you would endeavor to oppose ! THE EVIDENCE OF MR. OBRIEN [The following is an example of Cumin's metho.1 of presenting the evidence of a witness to a jury.] JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN 49.> What is the evidence of O'Brien ? what has he stated ? Here, gentle- men, let me claim the benefits of that great privilege which distinguishes trial by jury in this country from all the world. Twelve men, not emerg- ing from the must and cobwebs of a study, abstracted from human nature, or only acquainted with its extravagances: but twelve men, conversant with life, and practised in those feelings which mark the common and necessary intercourse between man and man. Such are you, gentlemen; how, then, does Mr. O'Brien's tale hang together? Look to its com- mencement. He walks along Thomas Street, in the open day (a street not the least populous in the city), and is accosted by a man, who, with- out any preface, tells him he'll be murdered before he goes half the street, unless he becomes a United Irishman ! Do you think this a probable story ? Suppose any of you, gentlemen, be a United Irishman, or a Free- mason, or a Friendly Brother, and that you met me walking innocently along, just like Mr. O'Brien, and meaning no harm, would you say, " Stop, sir, don't go further, you'll be murdered before you go half the street, if you do not become a United Irishman, a Freemason, or a Friendly Brother?" Did you ever hear so coaxing an invitation to felony as this? " Sweet Mr. James O'Brien, come in and save your precious life; come in and take an oath, or you'll be murdered before you go half the street! Do, sweetest, dearest, Mr. James O'Brien, come in and do not risk your valuable existence." What a loss had he been to his king, whom he loves so marvelously ! Well, what does poor Mr. O'Brien do? Poc., dear man, he stands petrified with the magnitude of his danger ; all his members refuse their office ; he can neither run from the danger, nor call for assistance ; his tongue cleaves to his mouth, and his feet incorporate with the paving stones : it is in vain that his expressive eye silently implores protection of the passenger; he yields at length, as greater men have done, and resignedly submits to his fate: he then enters the house, and being led into a room, a parcel of men make faces pt him ; but mark the metamor phosis— well may it l>e said, that " miracles will never cease, "—he who feared to resist in the open air. and in the face of the public, becomes a bravo, when pent up in a room, and environed by sixteen men ; and one is obliged to bar the door, while another swears him : which, after some resistance, is accordingly done, and poor Mr. O'Brien becomes a United Irishman, for no earthly purpose whatever, but merely to save his sweet Ufel RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN (J75J48J6) THE CELEBRATED ORATOR AND DRAMATIST JUBLIN has the honor of bniig the birthplace of two of Great Britain's most famous orators— Edmund Burke and Ricliard Brinsley Sheridan, though both of tliem spent their lives and won their fame in Enghtnd. Sheridan was a man of double or triple, i)owers ; the greatest of modern English dramatists; a wit of the fn-st water; and an orator of striking ability. Studying in Dublin and at Harrow, he wasted his time in indolence, and left school with the reputation of "an impenetrable dunce." There never was a greater mistake. He might have graduated with a splendid record if he had chosen to study. ' Sheridan first showed his powers in the dramn. The " Rivals," first played in 177",, soon l>ecame very i^pular. The " Duenna " met with brilliant success, and the "School for Scandal " established his reputation as a dramatic genius of the highest order. It also showed his great iK)wers as a wit, it scintillating with wittv sayings from end to end. His ivputation made in the drama, in 1780 Sheridan entered Parliament, where he was destined to make his mark brilliantly in oratory. It was especially in the trial of Warren Hastings, in which Sheridan, Burke, Fox and others represented the House of Commons before the House of Lords, sitting as a court of imiieachment, that he established his fame, his Begum speech creating an extraordinary sensation at the time, and being still regarded as one of the most splendid examples of eloquence extant. THE ARRAIGNMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS [Sheridan made two famous speeches in the Hastings trial. The followinir txbraci gives an excellent idea of his power,. It is a fine example of ironical oratory ending with an earnest appeal to the principles of honor and virtue.] 4»ti RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 4'.)7 I trust your Lordships will not believe that, because something is necessar\' to retrieve the British character, we call for an example to In: made without due and solid proof of the guilt of tin- person whom we pursue : — no, my Lords, we know well that it is the glory of this Consti- tution, that net the general fame or character of any man ; not the weight or power of any prosecutor ; no plea of moral or i)olitical expediency ; not even the secret consciousness of guilt which may live in the bosom of the Judge ; can justify any British court in passing any sentence to touch a hairof thehead.or anatoni, in any respect, of the property, of the fame, of the liberty of the poorest or meanest subject that breathes the air of this just and free land. We know, my Lords, that there can be no legal guilt without legal proof, and that the rule which defines the evidence is as much the law of the land as that which creates the crime. It is upon that ground we mean to stand. Major Scott comes to your Bar ; describes the shortness of time ; repre- sents Mr. Hastings as it were contracting for a character, putting his memory into commission, making departments for his conscience. A number of friends meet together, and he, knowing (no doubt) that the accusation of the Commons had been drawn up by a Committee, thought it necessary, as a point of punctilio, to answer it by a Committee also. One furnishes the raw material of fact, the second spins the argument, and the third twines up the conclusion, while Mr. Ha.stings, with a mas- ter's eye, is cheering and looking over this loom. He says to one, " You have got my good faith in your hands ; you, my veracity to manage. Mr. Shore, I hope you will make me a good financier. Mr. Middleton, you have my humanity in commission.' ' When it is done, he brings it to the House of Commons, and says, " I was equal to the task. I knew the diflBculties, but I scorn them ; here is the truth, and if the truth will convict me, I am content myself to be the channel of it! " His friends hold up their heads, and say, " What noble magnanimity ' This must be the effect of conscious and real int.ocence." Well, it is so received, it is so argued upon ; but it fails of its effect. Then says Mr. Hastings : " That my defence ! no, mere journeyman work — good enough for the Commons, but not fit for your Lordships' consideration." He then calls upon his counsel to save him: "I fear none of my accusers' witnesses. I know some of them well : I know the weakness of their memory, and the strength of their attachment ; I fear no testimony but my own— save me from the peril of my own panegyric; preserve me from that, and I shall be safe." Then is this plea brought to your Lordships' Bar, and Major Scott gravely asserts that Mr. Hast- in<^ did, at the Bar of the House of Commons, vouch for facts of which he was ignorant, and for arguments of which he had never read. S2 4W RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN After such an attempt, we certainly are left in doubt to decide to which set of his friends Mr. Hastings is the least obliged, those who assisted him in making his defence, or those who advised him to deny it. I am perfectly convinced that there is one idea which must arise m your lordships' minds as a subject of wonder : how a person of Mr. Hast- lings- reputed abilities can furnish such matter of accusation against him- ' self He knows that truth must convict him, and concludes a convcrso, that falsehood will acquit him ; forgetting that there must be some connec- tion, some svstem, some co-operation, or, otherwise, his host of falsities fall without an enemy, self-discomfited and destroyed. But of this he never seems to have had the slightest apprehension. He falls to work, an artificer of fraud, against all the rules of architecture; he lays his orna- mental work first, and his massy foundation at the top of it ; and thus his whole building tumbles upon his head. Other people look well to their ground, choose their p«?sition, and watch whether they are likely to l>e surprised there ; but he, as if in the ostentation of his heart, builds upon a precipice, and encamps upon a mine, from choice. He seems to have no one actuating principle, but a steady, persevering resolution not to speak the truth or to tell the fact. It is impossible, almost, to treat conduct of this kind with perfect seriousness ; yet I am aware that it ought to lie more seriously accounted for • because I am sure it has been a sort of paradox, which must have stnick your Lordships, how any person having so many motives to con- ceal • having so many reasons to dread detection ; should yet go to work so clumsily upon the subject. It is possible, indeed, that it may raise this doubt, whether such a person is of sound mind enough to be a proper object of punishment ; or at least it may give a kind of confused notion that the guilt cannot be of so deep and black a gi In, over which such a thin veil was thrown, and so little trouble taken to avoid detection. I am aware that, to account for this seeming paradox, historians, poets, and even philosophers— at least of ancient times— have adopted the supersti- tious solution of the vulgar, and said that the gods deprive men of reason whom they devote to destruction or to punishment. But to unassuming o- unprejudiced reason there is no need to re.Jit to any supposed super- natural interference ; for the solution will be found in the eternal rules that formed the mind of man. and gave a quality and nature to e^-ry passion that inhabits it. An honorable friend of mine, who is now, I believe, near me. . told you that Prudent, the first of virtues, never can be used in the cau.e of vice. But I should doubt whether we can read the history of a Philip of Macedon, a Csesar, or a Cromwell, witliout confessing that there have i i RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 400 n been evil purposes, baneful to the peace anil to the rights of men, con- ducted — if I may not say, witli prudence or with wisdom — yet with awful craft and most successful and commanding subtlety. If, however, I might make a distinction. I should say that it is the proud attempt to mix a variety of lordly crimes that unsettles the prudence of the mind and breeds this distraction of the brain. One master-passion, doir 'ueriiig in the breast, may win the faculties of the understanding to ..avance its purpose, and to direct to that object everything that thought or human knowletlge can effect ; but, to succeed, it must maintain a solitary desfjot- ism in the mind — each rival profligacy must stand aloof, or wait in abject vassalage upon its thrc.ie. For the Power that has not forbade the entrance of evil passions into man's mind, has, at least, forbade their union ; — if they meet they defeat their object ; and their conquest, or their attempt at it, is tumult. To turn to the Virtues — how different the decree ! Formed to connect, to blend, to associate, and to co-operate ; bearing the same course, with kindred energies and harmonious sympathy; each perfect in its own lovely sphere ; each moving in its wider or more contracted orbit with different, but concentering powers ; guided by the same influence of reason, and endeavoring at the same blessed end — the happiness of the individual, the harmony of the species, and the glory of the Creator. In the Vices, on the other hand, it is the discord that insures the defeat ; each clamorous to be heard in its own barbarous language ; each claims the exclusive cunning of the brain ; each thwarts and reproaches the other ; and even while their full rage assails with common hale the peace and virtue of the world, the civil war among their own tumultuous legions defeats the purpose of the foul conspiracy. These are the Furies of the mind, my Lords, that unsettle the understanding ; these are the Furies that destroy the virtue. Prudence ; while the distracted brain and shivered intellect proclaim the tumult that is within, and bear ;heir testimonies, from the mouth of God himself, to the foul condition of the heart. : 1 WILLIAM WILBERFORCE (1759-1833 THE SLAVE'S ELOQUENT ADVOCATE f7\lF William \VillH>rforcc it ha-s l)cc>n m.i.l : "With talonts ot ttu- I I hi-host order, un.l i-lo.,uence surpassed by few, he ent.-red ui-.n Uil pul.lic life possessed of the Inst personiil conn.rtions in hi.s intimate frien.lship with Mr. I'itt." Knterin« Parliament n. 1 7H(), his tirst movement toward the supi.ression of the slave-trade was taken ni 1787, in conjunction with Thomas ("larkson an.l several others. 1- ro,n that time forward the abolition <.f slavery was the great object n. W .1- bi'riorce's life. His bills defeate* to the fullest nu'asureof j>nri*, iiiitnixed, unsophistioiittil \vickt*artM)ii, it >>taiicnse more geiu-rall-- and uncnuivocally than in any instance wherein they have ever Injfore interfereil. I s'.iouM in vain attempt to ex|tre>%s ti> you the satisfaction with which it ha«. filled my mind to see so ^reat and jjlorions a >t ourseh'es been in this resjn-ct Kss distinguished or k-ss honor- able. Ii, has raised the character of I nr'innient. Whatever may have Iteen thought or said concerning tlu- iiurest'.ained prevalency of our politi- cal divisions, it has taught surro..n liii,; nations, it iias taught our admir- ing country, that there are subjei t.-^ still ! ■ yoml the reacn of | arty. There is a point of elevation where we gtt above the i;iring oi' tiie discordant elements that ruffle and agitate Hit- \.ile »lo\i' In our oiiliii.iry atmos- phere, clouds and vapors obscure the aii , lu. 1 we nie the spot! of a thou- sand conflicting winds and adverse currents : L.it here we move in a higher region, where all is pure, and clear, and serene, free from perturba- tion and discomposure — "As sumc tall cliff that lifts its awful fonu, Swells from the vale and iiiiilway leaves the storm ; Tho' round its breast the rolling; clouds ire spread, Ktcm.il sunshine settles on its heiirl." Here, then, on this august eminence, let us build the temple of benevolence; let us lay its foundation deej) in truth and justice, and let the inscription on its gates Iw, " Peace and good-will towards men." Here let us offer the first-fruits of our prosperity : here let us devote our- selves to the service of these wretched men, and go forth burning with a generous ardor to compensate, if possible, for the injuries we have hitherto brought on them. Let us heal the breaches we have made. Let us rejoice in Ijecoming the happy instruments of arresting the progress of rapine and desolation, and of inttoducing into that immense country the blessings of Christianity, the comforts of civilized, the sweets of social life. I am persuaded, sir, there is no man who hears me, who wou d not join with me in hailing the arrival of this happy period ; who does not feel his mind cheered and solaced by the contemplation of those delightful scenes. WILLIAM PITT (J 759 1806) NAPOLEONS GREAT ADVERSARY mN William Pitt, the younger, we j^ssess an example of which thtie are few in^^tances in his-tory, that of a great orator inherit- ing his iK)wer from a father famous in the same field. The fame of the younger Pitt ecjuals, though it does not cclii>8e, that of his father, the eelehrated Lord Cliathain. They could, indeed, scarcely be .spoken of as rivals^ their style of oratory Imwg radically difil'ercMit. " Viewing the forms of the two Pitts, father and son," says a bio- graphical writx-r, "as they stand in history, what diHerent emotions their images call forth ! The impassioned and romantic father seems like a hero of chivalry ; the stately and classical son, as a Roman dictator, comi>elled into the dimensions of an Kngli.sh ministi>r." P>rougham ranks the younger I'itt with the v\ ;: .s great oratoi-s, crediting him, wliile itossessing little ornament in rli<-toric, variety in lityle or grace in maimer, with unbroken fluency and fine declama- tion, liy which he was able to seize and hold the attention of his audience till he chose to let it go. He is admitted to have In-en a eonsonunate debater, and almost une(iualed in sarcasm, yet, as Hroughani says, "The last effect of the highest elotjuence was for tlie most i>art wanting; we seldom forgot tiie s^^eaker or lost the artist in his work." THE PERIL FROM FRANCE [The occasion which called fortli the oratory of the younger Pitt was the excesses of the Trench Revolution, with the military triumphs of Napoleon thut fol- lowed, and his strong ami often unscrupulous measures ior weakcuing the opposition of the hostile i-Uatcs. Against this I'itt fought with all his strength while his life husted. The cxampli-of his oratory given is from his speech of Jtine 7, 1799, on the question of grantiu); 11 subsidy to the Russian army, " for the deliverance of Europe."] 502 WILLIAM PITT fiOli The honorable gentleman says he wishes for peace, and that he approved more of what I said on this subject towards the close of my speech, than of the opening Now what I said was that, if by power- fully seconding the eflForts of our allies, we could only look for peace with any prospect of real-zing our hopes, what'.n er would enable us to do so promptly and effectually would be true economy. I must, indeed, be much misunderstood, if generally it was not perceived that I meant that whether the period which is to carry us to peace be shorter or longer, what we have to look to is not so much when we shall make peace, as whether we shall derive from it complete and solid security ; and that whatever other nations may do, whether they shall persevere in the contest, or untimely abandon it, we have to look to ourselves for the means of defence ; we are to look to the means to secure our Constitution, preserve our character, and maintain oui independence, in the virtue and persever- ance of the people. There is a high spiritcl pride, an elevated loyalty, a generous warmth of heart, a nobleness of spirit, a hearty, manly gaiety, which distinguish our nation, in which we are to look for the best pletlges of general safety, and of that security against an aggressnig usurpation, which other nations in their weakness or in their folly have yet nowhere found. With respect to that which ap|)ears so much to embarrass certain gentlemen, — the deliverance of Europe,— I will not say particularly what it is. Whether it is to l)e its deliverance under that which it suffers, or that from which it is in danger ; whether from the infection of fa'se principles, the corrod- ing cares of a period of distraction and dismay, or that dissolution of all . governments and that death of religion and social order which are to signalize the triumph of the French republic — if unfortunately for man- kind she should, in spi'e of all opposition, prevail in tlie contest : — from whichsoever of these l%uroi>e is to be delivered, it will not lie difficult to prove that what she suffers and what is her danger are the power and existence of the French Government. If any man says that the Govern- ment is not a tyranny, he miserably mistakes the character of that body. It is an insupportable and odious tyranny, holding within its grasp the lives, the characters, and the fortunes oi all who are forced to own its sway, and only holding these that it may at will measure out to each the portion which from time to time it sacrifices to its avarice, its cruelty, and injustice. The French Republic is diked and fenced round with crime, and owes much of its present security to its being reganied with a horror which appals men in their approaches to its impious battlements. . . In the application of this principle I have no doulit but the hon- orable gentleman admits the security of the country to be the legitimate I' 004 WILLIAM PITT object of the contest ; and I must think I am sufficiently intelligible on this topic. But, wishing to be fully understood, I answer the honorable gentleman when he asks : ' ' Does the right honorable gentleman mean to prosecute the war until the French Republic is overthrown ? Is it his determination not to treat with France while it continues a republic ? " I answer : I do not confine my views to the territorial limits of France ; I contemplate the principles, character, and conduct of France ; I consida* what these are ; I see in them the issues of distraction, of infamy and ruin, to every State in her alliance ; and, therefore, I say that until the aspect of that mighty mass of iniquity and folly is entirely changed ; until the character of the Government is totally reversed ; until, by common consent of the general voice of all men, I can with truth tell Parliament, France is no longer terrible for her contempt of the rights of every other nation ; she no longer avows schemes of universal empire ; she has set- tled into a state whose government can maintain those relations in their integrity, in which alone civilized communities are to find their security, and from which they are to derive their distinction and their glory, — until in the situation of France we have* exhibited to us those features of a wise, a just, and a liberal policy, I cannot treat with her. The time to come to the discussion of a peace can only be the time when you can look with confidence to an honorable issue ; to such a peace as shall at once restore to Europe her settled and balanced constitution of general polity, and to every negotiating power in particular that weight in the scale of general empire which has ever been found the best guarantee and pledge of local independence and general security. Srch are my sentiments. I am not afraid to avow them. I commit them to the thinking part of mankind, and if they have not been poisoned by the stream of French sophistry, and prejudiced by her falsehood, I am sure they will approve of the determination I have avoTcd for those grave and mature reasons on which I found it. I earnestly pray that all the Powers engaged in the contest may think as I do, and particularly the Emperor of Russia, which, indeed, I do not doubt ; and, therefore, I do contend that with that Power it is fit that the House should enter into the engagement recommended in his Majesty's message. I ROBERT EMMET (J 780- 1803) THE ELOQUENT MARTYR TO IRISH LIBERTY i" )BERT EMMET, as an orator, was practically " a man of ono speech," but that was a g'oat si»cecli, n.ti extraordinary effort for a man of only twenty-three years of age. lie was fighting for his life and his country, two causes ahundantly well calculated to rouse a man to the supreme exercise of his faculties, and as a master- piece of extemporaneous eloquence this impassioned sjieech has no sui)erior in any language. Emmet, was one of the chiefs of tl-e " United Irishmen." Inspired by the misguided fervor of yout'i,, he put himself at the head of a party of the rabble of Dublin, who killed a number of people, including the Chief Justice. The party was quickly dispersed, and Emmet.*— who missed the opix)rtunity to escape by lingering to bid farewell to his lady-love, a daughter of Curran, the orator — was arrested, put on trial, found guilty of high treason, and executeC the next day. A PATRIOT'S PLEA [After the verdict of guilty was rendered, Emmc. was asked, in the usuij form, " What have you, therefore, uow to say, why judgment of death and execution should not be awarded against you according to law?" He, rose and delivered an extended address to the Court, interrupted at intervals by Lord Norbury, chief among his judges, who permitted himself to be incensed by the condemned man's remarks. From this death plea we select some of the more thrilling passages.] What have I to say, why sentence of death should not be pronounced on me, according to law ? I have nothing to say which can alter your predeteimination, or that it would become me to say with any view to the mitigation of that sentence which you are here to pronounce, and which I must abide. But I have that to say which interests me more than life, and which you have labored — as was necessarily your office in the present 605 rm ROBERT EMMET circumstances of this oppressed country— to destroy. I have much to say, why my reputation should be rescued from the load of false accusa- tion and calumny which has been heaped upon it. I do not imagine that, seated where yon are, your minds can be -so free from impurity as to receive the least impression from what I am going to utter. I have no hope that I can anchor my character in the breast of a Court constituted and trammelled as this is. I only wish, and it is the utmost I expect., that your Lordships may suffer it to float down your memories, untainted by the foul breath of prejudice, until it finds some more hospitable harbor, to shelter it from the rude storm by which it is at present buffeted. Were I only to suffer death, after being adjudged guilty by jour tri- bunal, I should bow in silence, and meet the fate that awaits me without a murmur. But the sentence of the law which delivers my body to the executioner will, through the ministry of that law, labor, in its own vin- dication, to consign my character to obloquy : for there must be guilt somewhere,— whether in ine sentence of the Court, or in the catastrophe, posterity must determine. A man in my situation, my I.,ords, has not only to encounter the difficulties of fortune, and the force of power over minds which it has corrupted or subjugated, but the difficulties of estab- lished prejudice. The man dies, but his memorj' lives. That mine may not perish, that it may live in the respect of my countrymen, I seize upon this opportunity to vindicate myself from some of the charges alleged ' eainst me. When ray spirit shall be wafted to a more friendly port ; T> aen my shade shall have joined the bands or those martyred heroes who have shed their blood, on the scaffold and in the field, in defence of their country p.nd of virtue ; this is my hope : I wish that my memory and name may animate those who survive me, while I look down with com- placency on the destruction of that perfidious Government which upholds its dominion by blasphemy of the Most High; which displays its power over mm as over the beasts of the forest ; which sets man upon his brother, and lifts his hand, in the name of God, against the throat of his fellow, who belicvcB or doubts a little more, or a little less, than the Gov- ernment standard,— a Government which is steeled to barbarity by the cries of the orphans and the tears of the widows which it has made. I appeal to the immaculate God,— to the throne of Heaven, before which I must shortly appear,— to the blood of the murdered patriots who have gone before,— that my conduct has been, through all this peril, and through all my purposes, governed only by the convictions which I have uttered, nnd by no other view than that of the emancipation of my country from the superinhuman oppression under which she has so long and too patiently travailed ; and that I confidently and assuredly hope that, wild ROBERT EMMET 507 and cliimerical as it may appear, there is still itnion and strength in Ireland to accomplish this noblest enterprise. Of this I speak with the confidence of intimate knowledge, and with the consolation tliat appertains to that confidence. Think not, my Lords, I say this for the petty gratification of giving you a transitory uneasiness ; a man who never yet raised his voice to assert a lie will not hazard his character with posterity by asserting a faiaehood on a subject so important to his countr>', and on an occasion like this. Yes, my Lords; a man who does not wish to have his epitaph written until his country is liberated will not leave a weapon in the power ut envy, nor a pretence to impeach the probity which he means to preserve eren in the grave to which tyranny consigns him. [In the succeeding part of his speech Emmet' Was severe in his arraignment of t>ie British Government, and was frequently interrupted by Lord Norbury, whose remarks he answered witli feivent indignation. He concluded with the following words :] I have been charged with that importance, in the efforts to emancipate my coantrj', as to be considered the keystone of the combination of Irishmen, or, as your Lordship expressed it, " the life and blood of the conspiracy." You do me honor overmuch . Yoo have given to the subaltern all the credit of a superior. There are men engaged in this con- spiracy who are not only superior to me, but even to your own concep- tions of yourself, my Lord ;— men, before the splendor of whose genius and virtue.i I should bow with respectful deference, and who would think themselves dishonored to be called your friends, — who would not dis- grace themselves by shaking your blood stained hand ! [This so exasperated Lord Norbury that he attempted to stop the speaker, but the entiiusiasm was so great that he dared not insist, and Emmet proceeded, shaking his finger at Lord Norbury.] What, my Lord, shall you tell me, on the passage to the scaffold which that tyranny, of which you are only the intermediate minister, has erected for my murder, that I am accountable for all the blood that has been and will be shed, in this Struggle of the oppressed against the oppressor ? Shall you tell me this, and must I be so very a slave as not to repeat it? I, who fear not to approach the Omnipotent Judge to answer for the conduct of my short life, — am I to be appalled here, before a mere remnant of mortality ?— by you, too, who, if it were possible to col- lect all the innocent blood that you have caused to be shed, in your unhal- lowed ministry, in one great reservoir, your Lordship might swim in it ! [fhis invective was so severe that the judge interfered, insisting that Emmet be less personal. After a moment's pause the speaker composed himself and proceeded as follows :] 508 ROBERT EMMET Let no man dare, when I am dead, to charge me with dishonor. Let no man attaint my memory by believing that I could have engaged in any cause but that of my country's liberty and independence, or that I could have become the pliant minion of power in the oppression and the miseries of my countrymen. The proclamation of the Provisional Government speaks for my views. No inference can be tortured from it to counten- ance barbarity or debasement at home, or subjection, humiliation or treachery from abroad. I would not have submitted to a foreign oppressor, for the same reason that I would resist the domestic tyrant. In the dignity of freedom T would have fought upon the threshold of my country, and its enemy should enter only by 'passing over my lifeless corpse. And am I, who lived but for my country — who have sub- jectetl myself to the dangers of the jealous and watchful oppressor, and now to the bondage of the grave, only to give my countrymen their rights, and my country her independence, — am I to be loaded with calumny, and not suffered to resent it ? No. God forbid ! [At this point Lord Norbury told Emmet tliat his principles were treasonable, that his father would not have countenanced such sentiments, that his language was unbecoming, to which Emmet rcplieil with feeling :] If the spirits of the illusjtrious dead participate in the concerns and cares of those who were dear to them in this transitorj' life, O, ever dear and venerated shade of my departed father, look down with scrutiny upon the conduct of your suffering son, and see if I have, even for a moment, deviated from those principles of morality and patriotism which it was your care to instill into my youthful mind, and for which I am now to offer up my life ! 'My Lords you seem impatient for the sacrifice. The blood for which yoi. *■ ;r.' t is not congealed by the artificial terrors which surround your victim ;— it circulates, warmly and unruffled, through the channels which God created for nobler purposes, but which you are bent to destroy, for purposes so grievous that they cry to Heaven. Be ye patient ! I have but a few words iiiore to say. I am going to my cold and silent grave. My lamp of life is nearly extinguished. My race is run. The grave opens to receive me, — and I sink into its bosom ! I have but one request to ask at my departure from this world ; — it is the charity of its silence. Let no man write my epitaph : for, as no man who knows my motives dare wOTf vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them and me repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until other times and other men can do justice to my character. When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, —then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written ! I have done. . I BOOK V. If C V Orators of the Victorian Reign GREATEST of all the ccnturits in scvf-ral |)romincnt nspccis of luunan pm.i^n'ss nas the ninc'toenth. (ireatcst in stitiicf, j^rcatt-st in invention, j^^rratcst in industrial evolution, it was, whiK: not i^rtatcst in oratory, a j^n-at lirid for tlu- outpouring of rioijucnce. And this Mas co'.iph.-d with the fact that the art of stcno^^raphy had so advanced that tlu; pnsersation of the spoken words of the alor became an easy feat. In former centu- ries only those orators who carefully wrote; out their speeches, and published them as litenitur*;, could count ujion their transmission to posterity. The impromptu antl e.\tempore spc^aker could never look for a faithful preservation of his words. Much of the so-called oratory which remains to us from ancient times consists of speeciies written by historians and attril)uted to their leading characters. In some cases these may have closely reproduced the actual speeches ; in others they were probably largely or wholly imaginary. The loss of oratory in mediaval times must have been large, but the difficulty of pre- serving it had been fully overcome by the nineteenth century, and there are mon; speeches put :!pf)n permanent record now in a year than there were in centuries of the past. The century in qu(.'stion has been prolific in British orators of line powers, those of supreme elocjuttnce being fewer, indeed, than those of the preceding century, yet such names as those of Gladstone, Bright, Brougham, ()' Connell and some others give a high standing to the oratory of the Victorian age. 5^19 i: GEORGE CANNING (J 770- J 827) A DISTINGUISHED ENGLISH ORATC» AND TIT SAXNING'S distinction as a wit was duo to Jiis contril)Utions to the '* Anti-.Tai'ol)iii," a famous series of jwliticai satin-s, i>sii(Ml weekly, which some eminent critics consider ono of the wittiest boolcM in the hmguage. Canning's bi'st known contrihiition to it is "The Needy Knife-grinder," one of his happicj-t oflVirls. As a hroad- minded legishitor he is k^st ktiown through his able administration of the ollice of Secretary for Foreign Alfairs, in the ("astlereagh Cabinet, from 1822 to 1827. Under him (Jroat Britain stotid out against the "Holy Alliance" of the des{wts of Euro|)e and favored tlje American "Monroe Doctrine"; the indei>endeuce of the Houth American Repuljlics was recognized; Catholic emancipation was aided, and other imi»ortant reform and diplomatic movements were carrieil out. Canning, entering Parliament in 1794, won u reimtation in 1798 by his 8i)eeches against the slave-trade and the effort to make j)eaeo with the French Directory. He was an earnest sup]tc»rter of I'itt in his hostility to Najwleon, and a member of his cabinet and of the suc- ceeding Portland cabinet, in which ho planned the seizure of tiie Danish fleet, which did so nmch to check the schemes of Napoleon. His oratory was marked by acuteness, wit and picturesque expression, and as a debater he was very forcible. IN REPOSE YET IN READINESS [In Canning's address at Plymouth in 182,?, when presented with the freedom of the town, occurs the happy romparison of a fleet at rest yet ready for action to a nation in repose, which has been admired as his happiest otatorical hit. We give that part of his speech which includes this comparison.] Our ultimate object must be the peace of the world. That object may sometimes be btst attained by prompt exertions ; sometimes by absti- nence from interposition in contests which we cannot prevent. It is upon oiu GEOROE CANNINO Ml these principle!* that, as hai l>een niwt truly observed by my worthy frifiid, it did not apjiear to the government of thm country to lie tucessary that Great Britani should mingle in the recent contest between l-runce and Spain. Your worthy Recorder has accurately c!assees not now see what would have been the extent of burdens that would have been cast upon this country ? Is there any one who does not acknowledge that under such circumstances the enteri)rise would have been one to 1>e characterized only by a term borrowed from that part of the Spanish literature with which we are most familiar— Quixotic ; an enterprise romantic in its origin, and thankless in the end ? But while we thus control even our feelings by our duty, let it not be said that we cultivate ^leace either liecause we fear, or l)ecause we are unprepared for,-\var ; on the contr-.ry. if eight months ago the Goveniment did not hesitate to proclaim that the country was preparetl for war, if war should be unfortunately necessary, every montli ui peace that has since passed has but made us so much the more capable o( t.Kortion. The resources created by peace are means of war. In cherishing those resources, we but accumulate those means. Our present repose is no MICtOCOTY RESOIUTION TKT CHART (ANSI ond ISO TEST CHART No. 2) ^ APPLIED IM/1GE I ^^ 1653 East Ma.n Street I^^S Rochester. Ne* York U609 USA ''^S (716) 482 - OJOO - Phone ^S (''^) 288 - 5989 - Fax 613 GEORGE CANNING more a proof of inability to act, than the state of inertness and inactivity in which I have seen those mighty masses that float in the waters above your town is a proof that they are devoid of strength and incapable of being fitted out for action. You well know, gentlemen, how soon one of those stupendous masses, now reposing on their shadows in perfect still- ness, — how soon, upon any call of patriotism or of necessity, it would assume the likeness of an animated thing, instinct with life and motion, — how soon it would ruffle, as it were, its swelling plumage, — how quickly it would put forth all its beauty and its bravery, collect its scattered ele- ments of strength, and awaken its dormant thunder. Such as is one of these magnificent machines when springing from inaction into a display of its might, such is England herself — while apparently passive and motion- less, she silently concentrates the power to be put forth on an adequate occasion. But God forbid that tiiat occasion should arise ! After a war sustained for nearly a quarter of a century — sometimes single-handed, and with all Europe arrayed at times against her or at her side — England needs a period of tranquillity, and may enjoy it without fear of miscon- struction. Long may we be enabled, gentlemen, to improve the blessings of our present situation, to cultivate the arts of peace, to give to com- merce, now reviving, greater extension and new spheres of employment, and to confirm the prosperity now generally diffused throughout this island. Of the blessing of peace, gentlemen, I trust that this borough, with which I have now the honor and happiness of being associated, will receive an ample share. I trust the time is not far distant when that noble structure of which , as I learn from your Recorder, the box with which you have honored me, through his hands, formed a part, that gigantic barrier against the fury of the waves that roll into your harbor, will protect a commercial marine not less considerable in its kind than the warlike marine of which your port has been long so distinguished an asylum, when the town of Plymouth will participate in the commercial prosperity as largely as it has hitherto done in the naval glories of Eng- land. SYDNEY SMITH (177J4845) ENGLANiyS FAMOUS ORATOR OF HUMOR mHE fact that he was in holy orders was not enough to check SvJney Smith's irresistible ten.lency to wit and iuunor, which broke out on every occasion, an.l some of his amusm^' sayings seem destined to remain among the bright small-cMn of the world forages to come. He could be serious oMough, iu.leed, when need demanded, but it was no easy matter for him to talk long without some witticism cropping out. A friend of JetlVeys and BrouMh^"". he joineecause the beings whom you govern are changed. After all, and to l)e short, I must say that it has always appeared to me to be the most abso- lute nonsense that we cannot be a great or a rich and happy nation with- out suffering ourselves to be bought and sold every five years like a pack of negro slaves. I hope- 1 am not a very rash man, but I would launch boldly into this experiment without any fear of consequences, and I believe there is tiot a man here present who would not cheerfully embark with me. As to. the enemies of tlie bill, who pretend to be reformers, I know them, I believe, better than you do, and I earnestly caution you against them. You will have no more of reform than they are compelled to grant, you will have no reform at all, if they can avoid it ; you will be hurried into a war to turn your attention from reform. They do not under- stand you ; they will n* believe in the improvement you have made ; they think the English the present day are as the English of the times of Queen Anne or George I. They know no more of the present state of their own country than of the state of the Esquimaux Indians. Gentle- men, I view the ignorance of the present state of the country with the most serious concern, and I believe they will one day or another waken into conviction v^ith horror and dismay. [The iniquitous borough system of England, which had no excuse but custom and antiquity for its absurdities, was further satirized by Smith in the following lud- icrous comparison.] They tell you, gentlemen, that you have grown rich and powerful with these rotten boroughs, and that it would be madness to part with them, or to alter a constitution which had produced such happy effects. There happens, gentlemen, to live near my parsonage a laboring man of very superior character and understanding to his fellow-laborers, and who has made such good use of that superiority that he has saved what is — for his station in life — a very considerable sum of money, and if his existence is extended to the common period he will die rich. It happens, however, that he is — and long has been — troubled with violent stomachic pains, for which he has hitherto obtained no relief, and which really are the bane and torment of his life. Now, if my excellent laborer were to send for a physician and to consult him respecting this malady, would it not be very niii SYDNEY SMITH Singular language if our doctor were to say to him : "My good friend you surely will not t rash as to attempt to get rid of these prins in your stomach. Have u not grown rich with these pains in you- stomach ? Have you not risen under them from poverty to prosperity ? Has not your situation since you were first attacked been improving every year ? You surely will not be so foolish and so indiscreet as to part with the pains in your stomach ?- Why. what would be the answer of ihe rustic to this nonsensical monition ? ' ' Monster of rhubarb, ' ' he would say ," I am not rich in consequence of the pains in my stomach, but in spite of the pains in my stomach ; and I should have been ten times richer, and fifty times happier, if I had never had any pains in my stomach at all. " Gentlemen these rotten boroughs are your pains in the stomach. TAXES THE PRICE OF GLORY ♦ .., [There is another pithy example of Smith's amusing, way of presenting serious truths which has been quoted a thousand tin.es, and is likeiy to he quoted many thom^nd times more. Here is one of its thousand presentations to the rcnZg John Bull can inform Jonathan what are the inevitable consequences of being too fond of glory !-Taxes ! Taxes upon every article which enters into the mouth, or coven* the back, or is placed under the foot • taxes upon everything which it is pleasant to see, hear. feel, smell or taste ; taxes upon warmth, light and locomotion ; taxes on everything on earth, and the waters under the earth ; on everything that comes from abroad, or is grown at home ; taxes on the raw material ; taxes on everv fresh value that is added to it by th» industry of men ; taxes on the sauce which pampers mans appetite, and the drug which restores him to health • on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal ; cu the poor man's salt, and .Le rich man's spice ; on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribbons of the bride ;-at bed or board, couch- ant or levant, we must pay. The schoolboy whips his taxed top ; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse, with a taxed bridle, on a taxed road ; and the dying English- man, pounng his medicine, which has i-aid seven per cent, into a spoon that has paid fifteen per cent., flings himself back upon his chintz bed which has paid twenty-two per cent., makes his will on an eight-pound stamp and expires in the arms of an apothecary, who has paid a license of a hindred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. Hiswhole propenv is then immediately taxed from two to ten per cent Besides the probate, large fees arv Jemanded for burying him in the chancel ; his vir- tues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble ; and he is then gath- ered to his fathers.— to be taxed no more. ' JAMES FOX DELIVERING HIS GREAT SPEECH In 1774 this Famous Orator JelivereJ an eloquent speech in Par- liament advising concihatory measures tuwarJs the Citlnnies. This illustration y^tirtravs the scene. I DANIEL O'CONNELL (J 775-1 847) THE FIRST ORATOR OF EUROPE mT is to John Knndolph tliat O'Coimoll owes tin- titli" of " Tho Fir!»t Orator (if Kut()i)C," \vlii( h we have allixcil to his naiuo. It was as " Tlio LilxTator" that ho was i .id flex- ible." While often .'^lovenly in style, his jKiwers of moving an audi- ence — an Irish audience in particular — was irresistible. In the great 517 fllR DANIEL O'CONNELU struggle of hJH life, tliiit for the rights of Iroliuxl, ho was o, ,. ..le most t'OtTtive jiopular IcadtTs of inoih'rn times. Am examples of liis hitternoss in epithet inuy Ix) giveji his coiupurisoii of the smile f 8ir KolM^rt Peel to the shine of a silver plate on a coffin, and his designation of Disraeli as " heir-at-law of the blasphemous thief who died uj)on the cro."- . ' THE CHARMS OF KILDARE [The following extract '•* from b speech of O'Connell at MullaKhtnast, County Kildare, in September, 1843, during the campaign of agitation for Repeal of the Union.] I wish to live long enotJ^h to have perfect justice administered to Ireland and liberty procl'-imed throughout the land. It will take mesuuie iime to prepare ray pla- "or the formation of the new Irish House of Commons ; that plan which we will yet subml. to her Majesty for her approval, when she gets rid of htr present paltry Administration and has one which I can suppoi You may be sure of this, — and I say it in the presence of Him who will judge me, — that I never will willfully deceive you. I have but one wish undtr heaven, and that is for the liberty and prosperity of Ireland. I am for leaving En. 'land to the Eng- lish, Scotland to the Scotch but we must hav- Ireland for the Irish. I will not be content until I see not a single man in any office, from the lowest constable to the lord chancellor, but Irishmen. This is our land, and we must have it. We will be obedient to the Queen, joined to Eng- land by the golden link of the crown, but we must have our own parlia- ment, our own bench, our own maj 'strates, and we will give some of the shonccns who now occupy the bench leave to retire, such as those "1y appointed by Sugden. He is a pretty boy, sent here from England ; bnt I ask, did you ever hear such a name as he has got ? I remember, in Wexford, a man told me he l.ad a pig at home which he was so fond of that he would call it Sugden. No ; we will get judicial independence for Ireland. It is lor this purpose we are assembled here to-day, as every countenance I see around me testifies. It there is any one here who is not for the Union let him say so. Is there anybody here for the repeal ? [Cries of "All, all !"] Yes, my .riends, the Union vas begot in iniquity, it was perpetuated in fraud and crutHy. It was no compact, no bargain, but it was an act of the most decided t5rranny and corruption that was ever yet perpetrated. Trial by jury was suspended ; the right of personal protection was at an end ; courts-martial sat throughout the land, and the county of Kildare, among others, flowed with blood. Oh, my friends, listen now to the man of peace, who will never expose you to the power of your enemies. In DANIEL O-CONNELL ftm 1798 there were mme bmve men, some valiant men, fit ! jwl of the i>cople at large ; but thtre were many traiton, who left ttie })eople in the p ''-e ballot from the agent or landlord. I will see labor protected and c . ery title to possession recog- nized, when you are industrious ana honest. I will see prosperity again throughout your land ; the busy hum of the shuttle and the tinkling of the smithy shall be heard again. We shall see the nailer employed even until the middle of the night, and the carpenter covering himself with his chips. I will see prosperity in all its gradations spreading through a happy, contented religious land. I will hear the hymn of a happy people go forth at sunrise to God in praise of His mercies, and I will see the evening sun set amongst the uplifted hands of a religions and free population. Every blessing that man can bestow and religion can confer upon the faithful heart shall spread throughout the land. Stand by me — join with me— I will say be obedient to me, and Ireland shall be free. LORD HENRY BROUGHAM (1 779- 1 8681 THE CHA I'lON OF POPULAR UBERTIES s mHK ;ic ivc cairt'i' of 15i()ii;;li;iiii lovcn'il tin- jk rioil IkIwccii llic up ■ tlic onitoiyot' tlu' Frcncli licvoliitioiiiiiy fxiitciiiciit and tliiit of Ciladstoiu- ami l)ifrai'li, iM'^'iiiiiiiij,' with opiHi^ition to tiio jiolity of IMtt and cxteuiling to tlio Krcncli Hcvulntion of IH tH, of which ho HO hiphly approved that he wIsIiimI hf wtre naturalized as a French citizen. In his (hiy lie was the jjreatest of Liln'ra! orators, a man eminent in jiassionate invective and vcdiemence of declamation. It was as a commoner lie was Kreat, a man of tlie |H'ople, and the acceptance of a title in IK.KI rohU-d him of much of his strength. \ native of F^dinhur;^ii, and early distin;,'uislied for his Icarninii a d versatility, he was one of the foum' 'is of tlic l-jliiihiny/i Iti-rlnn and of its leadinj^ early coiitrihutors. ( i w^ tiic law as his piofes- sion, he had wo'i fame us a forensic orat< K-fore he enteivd Parlia- ment in IHIO. Here he w)on reached the front rank as a dehater. THE INDUSTRIAL PERU. OF WAR WITH AMERICA [III the elccliun canvass of 1S12 Brougham was a camticlatc for Parliament, aiiecame a member of the Cabinet as Secretary of War in 1S09, and held this portfolio until 1S28, under five different Tory ministers.' Joining now the Whig party, he l)ecame Secretary of Foreign Aflairs under Earl (irey in 1830. He resigned in 1841, on the question of free trade in corn, but resumed his office in 184«. In 18o5 he was made Prime Minister, and vigorously j.rosecuted the Crimean War. With slight intermission he lield the premiership until his death in 1865. Palmerston made numerous enemies abroad and at home. His self-asserting character, brusqueness of speech, and interferences in foreign aft'airs, were little calculated to soften party animosity in Eng- lani], while his arbitrary manner won him foes abroad. " Firebrand Palmerston " was the name his quickness of temper brought him. One example of his haste was his approval of the eoiip d\lat of Louis Napoleon in 18.j1, without consulting the C^ueen or the Prime Min- ister. Yet withal he was a national rather than a party leader, and won genuine acceptance of his course from the jH'ople. He had great business ability and political tact, was dexterous in parliamentary tac- tics, and a ready, witty, and often brilliant debater. CIVIL WAR IN IRELAND [It was the question of Catholic emancipation in Ireland, which Lord Palmerston favored, that caused him, in i82,S, to resign from Wellington's cabinet, and turn from Tory to Whig principles. His opinion of forcible coercion in Ireland is well expressed in a speech made in the House of Commons in 1829.] 624 EDMUND BURKE Macaulay the creat English Historian says that Burke was 'j superiiir to every orator, ancient anJ moUern in richness <»f im- , aninatiiin anJ power of e.xpression. VISCOUNT PALMER8TON 625 I Then comcve to the last remedy— civil war. Some gentlemen say that, sooner or later, we must fight for it, and the sword must decide. They tell us that, if blood were but shed in Ireland, Catholic emancipa- tion might be avoided. Sir, when honorable gentlemen shall be a little deeper read in the history of Ireland, they wil'. find that in Ireland blood has been shed,— that in Ireland leaders have been seized, trials have lieen had, and punishment has been inflicted. They will find, indeed, almost every page of the history of Ireland darkened by bloodshed, by seizures, l)y trials, and by punishments. But what has been the effect of these measures ? They have, indeed, been successful in quelling the disturb- ances of the moment ; but they never have gone to their cause, and have only fixed deeper the poisoned barb that rankles in the heart of Ireland. Can one believe one's ears when one hears respectable men talk so Mghtly— nay. almost so wishfully— of civil war ! Do they reflect what a countless multitude of ills those three sho:i syllables contain ? It is well, indeed, for the gentlemen of England, who live secure under the protect- ing shadow of the law, whose slumbers have never been broken by the clashing of angry swords, whose harvests have never been trodden down by the conflict of hostile feet— it is well for them to talk of civil war as if it were some holiday pastime, or some sport of children. " They jest at scire who never felt a wound." But ihat gentlemen from unfortunate and ill-starred Ireland, who have seen with their own eyes, and heard with their own ears the miseries which civil war produces ; who have known, by their own experience, the bar- barism, aye, the barbarity, which it engenders ;— that such persons should look upon civil war as anything short of the last and greatest of national calamities, is to me a matter of the most unmixed astonishment. I will grant, if you will, that the success of such a war with Ireland would be as signal and complete as would be its injustice. I will grant, if you will, that resistance would soon be extinguished with the lives of those who resisted. I will grant, if you will, that the crimsoned banner of England would soon wave in undisputed supremacy over the smoking ashes of their towns and the blood-stained solitude of their fields. ' •:.: I tell you that England herself never would permit the achievet. jf such a conquest ; England would reject in disgust laurels that wen ed in fraternal blood ; England would recoil with loathing and abhorrence from the bare contemplation of so devilish a triumph 1 SIR ROBERT PEEL (J 788-1 850) A LEADING CONSERVATIVE ORATOR mllE oldest son of a Itadin^' cotton nuinufacturc-r, who had amassed a f,'reat fortune in tliis <,'ro\vin{,' industry, l^ir Kobert I'eel made liis niari< in i>olities as his father had done in nianufaeturo, ^'raihiaily rising; in reputation and inlluenee, until in 1841, he became Prime Minister of the British Realm. The Irish constabulary, founded by him, arc still known as " Peelers,"in recogni- tion of their origin. But the most important political (juestion in his (idininisiration was that of the repeal of the Corn Laws. This he had at first opiX)sed, but in 184''>» »•)■ -PPly your h».m noble c^^f heZ, , T "■''"'''■ '"'^''"8 """ »'"™»° to the nobie end of benefiting mankmd, and teaching you hnmble reliance on w^.U..^nd.Mn"rLr^rtrarnrda;°o;]:d^r?.Z comfort you with the hope of deliverance. juagment, may LORD JOHN RUSSELL (J 792- J 878) THE ORATOR OF REFORM QREATEST iiinong the advocatfs of parliainontary reform, year afUT year Lord Joliii liusscll iinuU- mot ions in Parliament for the sm)pre>Jsion of "rotten borouylis " at first exciting the con- tempt of the Conservatives, and afterward their dismay, for he was the principal author of the greai Heform Bill of 1H30, which, after a fight which wa.s little short of a revolution, l)ecame a 1 iw in 1832. All his life Russell was a pei'sistet't Whig, and a thorn in the side if the Tories. Jn 1H4.") lie hecanie an advocate of the reiK>ul of the Com Laws, and was called to tlie oftlce of Prime Minister in ly K'^'"K >■«"• ""<-■ «>•■ two iiislaiK'ts, than I slioiiiil U-atilt- to do \>y proct-pt and explanalion. A pott of wry «riat culchrity in tlie last icntnry. and wlio certainly was a p(«t tlis'Jngnishtil for much fancy and xrc-at power of jathos, hut who hail n( . .m- merit of Ik-iii); ahvay> as triu- as he is pointed in the poetry li • lias written, I mean Vciin^, -lias said, at tlie coui- niencemeiit, I thir.n, of one »{ liis ' Nij;hts ' • " Sleep, liUo the wmlil, liis rcaily visit pavs Wlicre Forluiic miiilei ; the wrctclicil he fursakcs. Ami lijjlns on lids uusiillnil with a tcur." Now, if you will study that seiUence. yon will see there jire two thing;-- which the poet has confouiuleil together. He has confounded together those who a^e f irtuiiate in their peace of nund, those who are fortunate in the possession of health, and those wlio are fortunate in worldly advantages Now, it frequently happens that the man who is worst off in his worldly circumstances, to whom the world will pay no homage, on whom it would not he said that Fortune died, enjoys sweeter and more regular sleep tlian those who are in the possession of the high- est advantages of rank atul wealth. Vou will all rememl)er no douht, that in a passage I need not ipiote, another poet, one always true to nature, Shakcspeaii . has descrihed the shipboy amidst the storm, notwithstanding all the perils of his position on the mast, as enjoying a (juiet sleep, while he describes the king as unable to rest. That is tiie jwet true to nature ; and you will thus, by following otwervations of this kind, by applying that test to poetry as well as to history and to reasoning, obtain a correct judgment as to whether what you are reading is really worth your atten- tion and worth your admiration, or whether it is faulty and is not so tleserving. I may give another instance, and I conkl hardly venture to do so if my friend and your friend. I.,ord Carlisle, were here, because the want of truth I am going to point out is in the writings of Pope. There is a very beautiful ode of Horace, in which, e.valting the merits of piK-try, he says that many brave men lived before Agamennion ; that there were many great sieges before the si-ge of Troy ; that before Achilles and Hector existed, there were brave men and great battles ; but that, as they had no poet, they died, and that it required the genius of poetry to give immortal existence to the bravery of armies and of chiefs. Pope has copied this ode of Horace, and in some respects has well copied and imitated it in some lines which certainly are w"-'" - of admiration, beginning : Kv> LORD JOHN RUSSELL •' L*»t you should think that verne aball die, WhicL aount! • the «il ver Thaincii aloog. ' ' But in the instanceH which he gives he metitions* Newton, and wiyH that not only brave men hml lived and fought, but that other NewtonH " sys- tems fram'd. " Now, here he has not kept to the merit and truth of hin original ; for, though it may l)e ('uite true that there were distinguishecl armies and wonderful sieges, and that their memory has passe»l into o»)liv- ion, it is not at all prolmble that any manlike Newton followeil by mathe- matical roads the line of discovery, at>d that those great truths which he discovered should have pc-ished and fallen into oblivion. I give you these two instances of want of truth even in celebrated poets, and I think it is a matter you will do well to keep in view, because there is a remarkable difference between the history of science and the history of literature. In the history of Bcience t e progress of discovery is gradual. Those who make these discoveries sometimes commit great errors. They fall into many alwurd mistakes, of which I could give you numerous instances ; but these blunders and these errors disappear— the discoveries alone remain ; other men afterwards make these discoveries the elements and groundwork of new investigations, anll-lK)uii, !,,.£.; alw.,, „„st ,». s„pe,fici.,. Wha,, ,h'e„. is "he t^a'p t"'. " same two years together In any countrj- ? Is it the same at tt moment, in any two countries .- Is i. no', notorious LtlprLfa'diry of one nation ,s the shallowness of a neighboring nation ' R»™„k t pa««i. among Hindoos, for a man of pLonndViter , leafni^ T ff would have been but a very superiieial member of"S "«„ ? ' ^Lt wasjnstly entitled to be ealled a profound geographer egh'ee„h„!^ dre.. yeu, ago, but a teaeher of ge„g,aphy^v?o Ld neverTard'f 63.S THOMAS BABINOTON MACAULAY America would now he laughed at by the girls of a boarding school What would now be thought of the greatest chemist of 1746 or of the greatest geologist of 1746 ? The truth is that, in all experimental science, mankind is, of necessity, constantly advancing. Every generation, of course, has its front rank and its rear rank ; but the rear rank of a later generation occupies the ground which was occupied by the front rank of a former generation. You remember Gullive-'s adventures. First he is shipwrecked in a country of little men, and he is a Colossus among them. He strides over the walls of their capital ; he stands higher than the cupola of their great temple ; he tngs after him a royal fleet ; he stretches his legs, and a royal army, with drums beating and colors flying, marches through the gigantic arch ; he devours a whole granary for l)reakfast, eat« a herd of cattle for dinner, and washes down his meal with all the hogsheads of a cellar. In his next voyage he is among men sixty feet high. He who in Lillii > used to take people up in his hand in order that he might be able to hear them, is himself taken up in the hands and held to the ears of his masters. It is all that he can do to defend himself with his hanger against the rats and mice The court ladies amuse themselves with seeing him fight wasps and frogs ; the monkey runs off with him to the chimney top : the dwarf drops him into the cream jug and leaves hini to swim for his life. Now, was Gulliver a tall or a short man ? Why, in his own house at Rother- hithe, he was thought a man of the ordinary stature. Take him to Lilli- put, and he is Quinbus Flestrin, the Man Mountain. Take him to Brob- dingnag, and he is Grildig, the little Manikin. It is the same in science. The pigmies of one society would have passed for giants in another. It might 't)e amusing to institute a comparison between one of the profoundly learned men of the thirteenth century and one of the superficial students who will frequent our library. Take the great philosopher of the time of Henry III. of England, or Alexander III. of Scotland, the man renowned all over the island, and even as far as Italy and Spain, as the first of astronomers and chemists. What is his astronomy ? He is a firm believer in the Ptolemaic system. He never heard of the law of gravita- tion. Tell him that the succession of day and night is caused by the turning of the earth on its axis. Tell him that in consequence of this motion, the polar diameter of the earth is shorter than the equatorial dia- meter. Tell him that the succession of summer and winter is caused by the revolution of the earth round the sun. If he does not set you down for an idiot, he lays an information against you before the Bishop and has you burned foralieretic. To do him justice, however, if heis ill-informed on these points, there are other points on which Newton uud Laplace THOMAS BABINOTON MACAULAY 5o0 were mere children when compared with hin. He can cast vonr nauvuy He knows what will happen when Saturn is in the Hon e of o trai z ""' '''T r'^" ''^'^ '^ "' ^-•^■"-^'«" with the S-:; cln r '^f>V "^''^ '^'-''-ve^t will be plentiful; which of yonr ?T nn m""'^ "'""''' '" "'"^"^^'^' ^'"'^ -hic'^ will be lost at se" Happy the State, happy the fanuly, which is«rided by the counsels of To pro^und a n.an ! And what but mischief, public L pri" ^ ^ w^ expect from the temerity and conceit of sciolists who Low , o more abou the heavenly bodies than what they have learned frl Sir Jllm truth better than a great deal of falsehood ? Is not the man who in he evenn^gs of a tortnight, has acquired a correct notion of the sotr ' em a nu>re profound astronomer than the man who has passed thTr ™^ hi readmg lectures about the primum mobile. i„ drawLg schenS hor" litest '' ''''• ^'^" '" ''''''""■ '*" '' ^"" ''^" •" literature. Compare the wSr'^'Tf °' ''^ ""'■^^"'^^^ ''"'^^y -'^'^ those which wi 1 1^ wthm the reach of „,any who will frequent our reading room As to Greek learning, the profound man of the thirteenth century was Tlsolute ^ on a par wUh the superficial man of the nineteenth In ife mldet s rfeld LTb"''' '7 '""'"' ''^'^ ^'^' ^ ^'"^^- volume":: e" ^i:^;-;^/--rL;^i;^^^^ heh^es were filled with treatises on school divinity and canon hw com posed by writers whose names the world hn^ very wiselv forgotte ' But even if we suppose him to have possessed all that is mo^t vafuab lein the tera ure of Rome, I say with perfect confidence that, both in re p ^t tf uitellectual iinj^rovement and in respect of intellectual pleasures Lias ia less favorably situated than a man who now, knowing only the iC l.^h anguage, has a bookcase tilled with the best Englifh works Our great men of the Middle Ages could not form a conception ofTv ra.^H approaching " Mac lah " or " T o-xr » ^r ^f "'-''P"'^" ot any tragedy IV '- or 4wMfth nL " ThTh ^'-^f^-'y comedy equal to "lienor f.,r • ' ■ r M 7 ^^ ^ ^^^^ ^P'^ Po^*" that he had read was f«r ,n,er,or to the " Paradise Lost: " andall the tomes of his philosophic v.er. not «orth a page of the " Novum Organum." P'^^'osopherg e^ RICHARD COBDEN (J804-I865) THE OHATOR OF FBEE TRADE mT was the contest aL^aiust the Corn Laws — which, !)y imposing a high Juty on inqiortcd grain, greatlj' increased tlie cost of food in Knghind, favoring tlie land-holding gentry at tlie expense of the poor — that made J^ichard Cobdon famous. Conservatism, and the political influence of the gentry, preserved these laws with little change, and Cohden was the first to make a determined assault U[)on them. In 18.J9 the Anti-Corn Law League was formed, with him for its . lincipal champion and orator. Elected to Parliament in 1?<41, he kept up tlie fight actively and earnestly in the House and before the people, with tlie result that the obnoxious laws were repealed in 1846. An able orator and a born reformer, Mr. Cobdeii was a powerful ally of Bright and Gladstone in their I^iberal campaign. Ho favored electoral reform, vote by ballot, and a pacific foreign policy, and was the autiior, in 1860, of an important commercial treaty with France, which greatly increased the trade between the two countries. THE GENTRY AND THE PROTECTIVE SYSTEM [From Cobden's many eloquent speeches on the subject of his great freccom conflict, we select the following example, in which he clearly points out to the land- holders of England the selfish character of their course, and the perils they ran in opposing the demand for cheap food from the grea<: industrial population.] I tell you that this " Protection," as it has been called, is a failure. It was so when you had the prohibition up to 80s. You know the state of yor- farming tenantry in 182 1. It was a failure when you had a pro- tection price of 60s.; for you know what was the condition of your farm tenantry in 1835. It is a failure now with your last amendment, for you have admitted and proclaimed it to us ; and what is the condition of your agricultural population at this time ? I ask, what is your plan ? I hope 640 I RICHARD COBDEN cians. There a e polhi "ns i Z^ 'S'""^""^ "^ "^^^ «— ?«''*" anibition-probahlvi -fi!.! ^'^^ ' ""■"" ^^''" '««k with an »- n,en who' wiu' Lrty y' -^s of o'V'" '''^ '""" "'°'«"- ^here .nay into a groov. ^^:ZXt^::':::^ --•-. -having,. en pre^seJ ;.olclin. office, high office, ruIZ:^'^:^^^ T:;T'~"''' "^ their present convictions, which do not . f 'J*'""^'''* • "^ ^''^ expense of early opinions. I ,„ake allow.^c^ f^ ,, ^^rurr" "'^"."''' ""'^ honorable gentlen.en opposite camtrto th ' i ^"^' ^^ °^ ^'^'^ l'"t as the farmers' friends anl ? ""•''^' "*"' "'^ Politicians, Well, whatdo/J^^pr" "i'i^d'^'T T°^''" ^^^'"'•'"^«' '"^"-t- declare that, if he couM rLore . I I°" ' '^"'''^ '^' ^"'"^ M'">"**ter that protection wouTdlfottrmlgt^rrirTr; '"" t^ ''^^• so, why not proclaim it ? and if it I nntJ ''°"'' '^'•^^- ^^ falsified your mission in thl M , '? '^^''^''^tio"- VO" will have baronet ont int" hTobby a' d o^n""' ' ""°"'"^ '""^ "^''^ ^^^^^e very men who sent ^^t he're '^ '' ""^"""^ '"*" "'^ ^°"^'''- "^ the n^otir i^-iSt;!- L^:-:^;:-^ r-^ ^" - a Preponderan l: t'lra^JuTtu'th'^r'r'''^"^^' ^"'^ ^■- >— h publishedandsentfotto'ewL" as "'"'"'"" *'^ """■«°"'^ '« cles of information your s ^ten. f ""' """ "°^ '""^ '*' ^^ «"'• v*^'"" opinionfortwojea;safLS I P rr*"''"" '*''*'•" "«* ^'^^ '" P"Wic of protection har^een a v'^t nve^ :n^ T ^'T ''''■ '''^^ ^^ of protection carried the cL.uLs ' 1 ^ ' 7 P«''t>'^''»"«- The cry gained honors, emolun.ents "nd p Je , ' U / "''r' "'' P^"''*^'^"'^ of protection, tarnished and t^f i 2 ready t^ Lri^^'f ?""^' "^^ in the counties for the benefit of n,i;V '"^''^'^y' *° ^^ '^^Pt hoisted still honestly and , airly to nXLtoth":-"' *';""' ^"" '^"'"^ '"^-^ the gentry of Enind^rS mad ter^dtmL d Tk"' '^"^^'^ "'^^ '.y a Prime Minister to give forth unml '1'""^"^'^" '° ^^^ «"""ded upon have no articulate voiceTtlfe o^ T' ^^^/^Pf -""^^^ »-> to land, who represent the counties L ^,^°" .^^^ "le gentry of Eng- Vour fathers ed our fathers "r" ? T "'" ^^'^^ocracy of England. But, although you lave r"l;.fed "' '-1 "' '' ^°" "'" «° "^ "g^t way. than any otherlaris ocrlcH has :rb" T"" ""' '''^ ^''""*^>' ^-^- or by setting yourselves J^:^:j:^:^l^!^"^ ^^^"'^^ °P^"^°"- in other days, when the battle and the hunti^ng-fields were the tests Mi RICHARD COBDEN of manly vigor, your fathers were first and foremost there. The aristoc- racy of Kngland were not like the noblesse of France, the mere minions of a court ; nor were they like the hidalgos of Madrid, who dwindled ir. o pigmies. Vou have been ICnglishmen. You have not shown a want of courage and firnuiess when any call has In.-eii made upon you. This is a new era. It is the age of iniprovemeut, it is the age of social advancement ; not the age for war or for feudal sports. Yim live in a mercantile ag'.-, when the whole wealth of the world is poured into your lap. You caiuiot have the advantages of commercial rents and feudal privileges ; but you may be wliat you always have been, if you will idontify yourselves with the spirit of the age. The ICnglish people look to the gentry and aristocracy of their country as their leaders, I, who am not one of you, have no hesitation in telling you that there is a deep rooted, an hereditary prejuilice, if I may so call it, in your favor in this country. But you never got it, and you will not keep it, by obstructing the spirit of the age. If you are indifferent to enlightened means of finding employ- ment to your own peasantry ; if you are found obstructing that advance which is calculated to knit nations more together in the bonds of peace by means of commercial intercourse ; if you are found fighting against the discoveries which have almost given breath and life to material nature, and setting up yourselves as obstructives of that which destiny has decreed shall go on, — why, then, you will be the gentry of ^ vngland no longer, and others will be found to take your place. And I have no hesitation in saying that you stand just now in a very critical position. There is a wide-spread suspicion that you have been tampering with the best feelings and with the honest confidence of your constituents in this cause. pAerywhere you are doubted and suspected. Read your own organs, and you will see that this is the case. Well, then, this is the time to show that you are not the mere party politicians which you are said to be. I have naid that we shall be opposed in this measure by politicians ; they do not want inquiry. But I ask you to go into this committee with me. I will give you a majority of county members. You shall have a majority of the Central Society in that committee. I ask you only to go into a fair inquiry as to the causes of the distress of your own population. I only ask that this matter be fairly examined. Whether you estal)lish my principle or yours, good will come out of the inquiry ; and I do, therefore, beg and entreat the honorable independent country gentlemen of this House that they will not refuse, on this occa- sion to go into a fair, a full, and an impartial inquiry. i BENJAMIN DISRAELI (1 805- J 88 1) GLADSTONE'S RIVAL IN ORATORY AND OmCH ffl^sl...kin.of l)i.nu.Iin.a rival ..f fJla-Mono i„ oratorv.it is '''''^'7/'"'>- •■•'■'''-'<•■ ^'-t ,lu... Wi>,iM,Misl,..., ....... ..ainV Av! o» I .snu.i.. .. ,n al,.,..st .wry tl.i,., 1... ..„ tl„. v..,.- o....,"; ! of ^ .;va a.lv..rsa,^,M,.. ,;ia.,s....... H. was a ...as...,. ..f;,.]!;,., 1 ^ 1^1 .I.l>.to,.. rati,..,. ,l.a.. a,, o.a.or; 1... ,ossos..,l tLat'^; -r^: , ' .^iti. of .statoci-aft, lack of /(„! - Ilj, ,„ , , , '^ 'I"'- in cl,.v,....w.s V . "i.'i.k.., .Kj.,.,.di wa.s not \Vi.i.ii,.ir i cUv.....,s. y,.t was so la...o ],. ,|,Iivo,v tl...t it nv..s .rn.,.t.,| i.^ .•>ri,a.ne..t w. sl.o,„s of la.,,|.,..,.. JK-c.-i.;! o,.t i,. n.^po..^. " .. 7';;; ^^r ; r^ t' '""•^- "■"' '--' "'^•" ---'^^ « ^• ".T .... 1.0 t„..e U..I....1 c-a„.o. IMo,... .,.a„v v,.,rs J, „.,s a l..-...n..,.t .1. ,..t..r zn tl.o House of Co„.,„o.,s, a,.,l \l.; 1....I Lco, " Mwvat.v.. ora o,. ,„ tl... Co,... Law ..itaHo,.. while Lv i.is tal...^ a" siK.aker a,..l .^ si.„..t a..,I ,„.,.is,....oy u-.-lor .leA.at l^, ,...,.,,...11, 1 U.o •1= l^t.M.e lor the l..,la.st o.iiee u..,ler the British (Joven.n.eut In '=• >-ar he h..ea,.,e IVi...e Minister. ..,.., a!.......ate,l with (H. tone ■. tl.si-ostot honor an.l power till his .lead., his U-nns of Pre,, k •sh.p h,.„.., Ls.iH ,0 I8(i9, an.l f....... 1,,74 lo l,s,s... .Af.nv of 11.7 Zt ;i"y^'.«-ofp.,h,i. policy ana the ...a..a,en.ent of th 'e: ji ^ befor.. pa,.I,a,......t and in their .liseuss.ons J)is,.aeli shone ..s s Jkc r o ra,-e powers. In 1S75 he conferred on the Qneen th. title of E.npre ss In ad.ht,on to h,s parhan.en.ary lahors. 1... fo,„.d ti.,... to devote 1. ,n ..If somewhat to htorature, writing several novels which attracted ...nd; • ^ r' ^^ BENJAMIN DISRAELI ,„,„„..„ at tho tmu-. alikoln.ui tlu-ir lifrarv ,h. wo rami thoiruulhor- Hl.in Wl.il. out ofolHn. iM IHTi. l.- wrote his uov.l of - Lot uur. a wo'kwl.i.-h wu. v.ry wi.l.ly na.l.au.lwa...NiK,s,..' to nu.-h Hov.re crilicisiii. THE DANGERS OF DEWCX31ACY rrUe auction of clcct-ral rcfonu an.l cxtc.iHi..,. of Ihc mtfTraKC. which ha.ll«en ^ pro'lVntTn Hn«,a„.l „.,out ,S,o. w.« rone wet „U. ,..tcr <'^-- -;;« -3;: ^ .^^ ilSiiifi?^ Z^A S::. Wc «ivc .cnc of h.s rcasonn for opposing .uffragc. fro.u u n-ch niailc ')>■ liim i" i!>64.1 That tremendous reckless opposition to the right honorable gentU^ man which allowetl the bill to lie read thesecond time, seems to have^ d Te Government prostrate. If he ha.l succeeded in throwing out the biU^ "e right honorable gentleman and his friends would have been rehev«l ..om great en,barrassn,ent. But the bill, having l>een read a second t me he "-Government were quite overcome, and it appears they never have r^'overe^l from the paralysis up to this tinn . The right honorable gentle- Tanwas goo' .„„ ^ut the most remarkable speech, which " killed cock robm, wa.s absolutely delivered by one who might be described as almost a member of the Goveniment-the chairman of ways and means (Mr. Massey ) who I Wieve, spoke from immediately behind the Prime Minister. /^'^ ^h^C^- e^rment express any disapprobation of such conduct? They have pro- no^ him to a great post, and have sent him to India with an income of ?abut«s amount. And now they are astonished they cannot carry a Reform Bm. If they removed all those amongtheir supporters who oppose fuch b llTby preferring them to posts of great confidence and great lucre how can they suppose that they will ever carry one? Looking at the ^Ucy of the Government, I am not .t all astonished at the speech which BENJAMIN DISRAELI r>4A the right honorable gentleniftn, the Secretary of State, has made this even- ing. Of which speech I may observe, that althongh it was remarkable for many things, yet there were two conclusions t-.t which the right honor- able gentleman arrived. First, the repudiation of the rights of man. and next, the repudiation of the ^6 franchise. The first is a great relief; and — remembering what the feeling of the House was only a year ago, when, by the dangerous but fascinating eloquence of the Chancellor of tlif Exchequer, we were led to believe that the days of Tom Paine had retnrin.-d, and that Rous.seau was to lie rivaleil by a new social contract — it nni,-t l>e a great relief to every respectable man here to find that not otdy are ve not to have the rights of man, but we are not even to have the 1862 fran- chise But I think it is possible to increase the electoral boalni cuHtoms and represent the law. And, with this, what have you done ? You have createil the greatest empire that ever existed in modern times. You have amassed a capital of fabulous amount ; you have devised and sustainetl a system of credit still more marvelous; and, above all, you have established and maintained a scheme so vast and complicated, of lalwr and industry, that the history of the world offers no parallel to it. And all these mighty creations are out of all proportion to the essential and indige-ious elements and resources of the country. If you destroy that state of society, remem- ber this — England cannot begin again. There are countries which have been in great peril and gone through great suffering. There are the United States, which in our own immedi- ate day have had great trials. You have had — perhaps even now in the States of America you have — a protracted and fratricidal civil war which has lasted for fonr years. But if it lasted for four years more, vast as would be the disaster and desolation, when ended the ITnited States might be^in again, because the United States would be only in the same condi- tion that England was at the end of the War of the Roses, when probably she had not even 3,000,000 of jwpulation, with vast tracts of virgin soil and mineral treasures, not only undeveloptd, but undiscovered. Then you have France. France had a real revolution in onr days and those of our p-edecessors — a real revolution, not merely n 't-V "al atid '-ocijil revo- lution. You had the institutions of the country uprooted, the orders of society abolished — you had even the landmarks and local names removed and erased. But France could begin again. France h.id the greatest spread of the most exuberant soil in Europe ; she had, and always had, a very limited population, living in a most simple manner. I'rance, therefore, could begin again. But England — the England we know, the England we live in, the England of which we are proud — could not begin again. I don't mean to say that after great troubles England would become a howling wilderness. No doubt the good sense of the people would to some degree prevail, and some fragments of the national char- acter would survive ; but it would not l)e the old F^ngland — the England of power and tradition, of credit and capital, that now exists. That is not in the nature of things, and, under these circum.stances, I hope the House will, when the question before us is one impeaching the character of our constitution, sanction no step that has a preference for democracy, but that they will maintain the ordered state of free England in which we live. WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE < 1 809- J 898) ENGLAND^ PEERLESS NINETEENTH CENTIJRY ORATOR mUK hi.sli.rv of (Jhulstoiif CmIIm little sli.iit of htinLC Hi" lii-lie «|iic siinn iiio-e on u liich Ik- liinl not Mniictliin^' of wei^rlit im,! iiieiit to s;i\ , .ni.l IVom tlie tiiiiMIe of IhtM'enliirv to lii^ death lie was a controlliiiir ]H>\ver in veiv niiieh of the iiii|K.rtaiit li^islation that tocik |.lace. it was his hum viilled |«>wfr MS an otaiof, his siiptih staleMiiaii-hi|.. and Ins eani.st lidiois fur tli<' Im'sI interests of the jliitish |H'o|de that f,rave him this HUpivinaey ; while in the closing; yeais of his lite Ireland hailed him lis her ehampioii in the lon<;-soimlit-for caii.-e nf llmne Itul,.. (Jiad.-tone was a niaii of immi'nse menial aetivily. The intervals l>'t"een his rarely ondiiiji: parliaineotary lal«)is wviv tilled with l.u>v •:iilliorshi|i. IJnt his fame will rest .mi Ins lerord as state-man ami orator, and especially his work foriiioral pro-iessaiid praelical ivfoim. It would he impossil.le to name any other liritish minister witli so lon^ and siieeessfiii a record in |iractical and iiroj^ressiv e le;:islation. As a |>ailiaiiieiitary dehater lie never iiad a superior — it is doiil.ttiil if he ever had an e.|iial— in his eomitry's iiistory. (iil'U'd with an e.\(|iii- site voice — sweet, powerful, ponelratini,', vihratiiiji to every emotion— iii.s lonjr trainint; in the House of Coiniuoiis di vel,.ped his natural .Uifts to the fullest extent. His Ihieiiey was j;reat— almost ti.o exu- U'lant, since liis eloi|Uenie often carried him to too ;rivat len>'tlis hut liis liearers never seiavfr\. Ho was an associate of Fox, Pitt and Burke in opposition to the American war. I i WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 549 2 na have been in the more advanced periods of human history. Why, what is the case with a war ? It is a case in which both cannot be right, but in which both may be wrong. I believe if the impartiality of the historian survey a very large proportion of the wars that have desolated the world- some, indeed, there may be, and undoubtedly there have been, in which the arm of valor has been raised simply for the cause of freedom and jus- tice — that the mast of them will be found to belong to that less satisfac- tory category in which folly, passion, greediness, on both sides, have led to effects which afterwards, when too late, have been so much deplored. We have had in the history of the world religious wars. The period of these wars I trust we have now outlived. I am not at all sure that there was not quite as much to be said for them as for a great many other wars which have been recorded in the page of history. The same folly which led to the one led, in another form, to the other. We have had dynastic wars— wars of succession, in which, for long periods of years, the heads of rival families have fought over the bleeding persons of their people, to dttertnine who should govern them. I trust we have overlived the period of wars of that class. Another class of wars, of a more dan- gerous and yet a more extensive description, have been territorial wars. No doubt it is a very natural, though it is a very dangerous and a very culpable sentiment, which leads nations to desire their neighbors' prop- erty, a- ' ' am very sorry to think that we have had examples— perhaps we h: xample even at this moment before our eyes— to show that even most civilized parts of the world, even in the midst of the oldest Lwilization upon the continent of Europe, that thirst for territorial acquisition is not yet extinct. But I wish to call your attention to a peculiar form in which, during the latter part of human history, this thirst for territorial acquisition became an extensive cause of bloodshed. It was when the colonizing power took possession of the European nations. It seems that the world was not wide enough for them. One would have thought, upon looking over the broad places of the eartJi, and thinking how small a portion of them is even now profitably occupied, and how much smaller a portion of them a century or two centuries ago, one would have thought there would have been ample space for all to go and help themselves; but, not- withstanding this, we found it necessary, in the business of planting col- onies, to make those colonies the cause of bloody conflicts with our neighbors ; and there was at the bottom of that policy this old lust of ter- ritorial aggrandizement. When the state of things in Europe had become so far settled that that lust could not be as freely indulged as it might in barbarous times, we then carried our armaments and our passions across the 550 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 11 : Atlantic, and we fought upon American and other distant soils for the triCtension of our t-rritory. That was one of the most dangerous and plausible, in my opinion, of all human errors ; it was one to which a great portion of the ware of the last century was due ; but had our forefathers then known, as we now know, the blessings of free commercial intercourse, all that bloodshed would have been spared. For what was the dominant idea that governed that policy ? It was this, that colonizing, indeed, was a great function of European nations, but the purpose of that colonization was to reap the profits of extensive trade with the colonies which were founded, and, con- sequently, it was not the error of one nation or another— it was the error of all nations alike. It was the error of Spain in Mexico, it was the error of Portugal in Brazil, it was the error of France in Canada and Louisiana, it was the error of England in her colonies in the Wes Indies, and her possessions in the East ; and the whole idea of colonization, all the bene- fits of colonization, were summfed up in this, that when you had planted a colony on the other side of the ocean, you were to allow that colony to trade exclusively and solely with yourselves. But from that doctrine flowed immediately all those miserable wars, because if people believed, as they then believed, that the trade with colonies must, in order to be beneficial, necessarily be exclusive, it followed that at once there arose in the mind of each country a desire to be possessed of the colonies of other countries, in order to secure the extension of this exclusive trade. In fact, my Lord Provost, I may say, such was the perversity of the misguided ingenuity of man, that during the period to which I refer he made commerce itself, which ought to be the bond and link of the human race, the cause of war and blootished, and wars were justified both here and elsewhere— justified when they were begun, and gloried in when they had ended— upon the ground that their object and effect had been to obtain from some other nation a colony which previously had been theirs, but which now was curs, and which, in our folly, we regarded as the sole means of extending the intercourse and the industry of our countrymen. Well, now, my Lord Provost, that was a most dangerous form of error, and for the very reason that it seemed to abandon the old doctrine of the un- restricted devastation of the worid, and to contemplate a peaceful end ; but I am thankful to say that we have entirely escaped from that delusion. It may be that we do not wisely when we boast ourselves over onr fathere. The probability is that as their errors crept in unperceived upon them^ they did not know their full responsibility ; so other errors in directions 3fi yet undetected may be creeping upou us. Modesty bids us in our comparison, whether with other ages or with other countries, *o be thankful WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE Ml —at least, we ought to be— for the downfall of every form of error; and determined we ought to be that nothing shall be done by us to give countenance to its revival, but that we will endeavor to assist those less fortunate than ourselves in emancipating themselves from the like delus- ions. I need not say that as respects ou colonies, they have ceased to be— I would almost venture to say a possible— at any rate, they have ceased to be a probable cause of war, for now we believe that the great- nees of our country is best promoted in its relations with our colonies by allowing them freely and largely to enjoy every privilege that we possess ourselves ; and so far from grudging it, if we find that there are plenty of American ships trading with Calcutta, we rejoice in it; because it con- tributes to the wealth and prosperity of our Indian empire, and we are perfectly assured that the more that wealth and prosperity are promoted, the larger will be the share of it accruing to ourselves through the legiti- mate operation of the principles of trade. HOME RULE FOR IRELAND [The final great effort of Gladstone's career was to restore to Ireland that prin- ciple of Home Rnle, -the privilege of making its own laws by its own Parliament,— which it had lost in 1800. It was this he undertook when he returned to the premiership in 1886, and which he succeeded in carrj^ng through the House of Com- mons in 1893, just before his final retirement. The following selection is from a speech made in Parliament in February, i888.] We have evidence before us to show that as regards the great objects which the Government have had in view, of putting down the National League and the Plan of Campaign, their efforts have resulted in total failure. Such is the retrospect. What is the prospect ? There are many things said by the Government in debate ; but I never heard them express a confidence that they will be able to establish a permanent resistance to the policy of Home Rule. You are happily free, at this moment, from the slightest shade of foreign complications. You have, at this moment, the constitutional assent of Ireland, pledged in the most solemn form, for the efficacy of the policy which I am considering. But the day may come when your condition may not be so happy. I do not expect, any • ^re than I desire, these foreign complications, but still it is not wise to shut them wholly out. What I fear is rather this, that if resistance to the national voice of Ireland be pushed too far, those who now guide the mind of that nation may gradually lose their power, and may be supplanted and displaced by ruder and more dangerous spirits. For seven hundred years, with Ireland practically unrepresented, with Ireland prostrate, with the forces of this 662 WILLIAM EWART QLADSTONB H great and powerful island absolutely united, you tried and failed to do that which you are now trying to do, with Ireland fully represented in your Parliament, with Ireland herself raised to a position which is erect and strong, and with the mind of the people so devoted, that, if you look to the elections of the last twelve months, you find that the majority of the people have voted in favor of the concession of Home Rule. If this is to continue, I would venture to ask gentlemen, opposite, under such circumstances as these, and with the experience you have, is your persistence in this system of administration, I will not say just, but is it wise, is it politic, is it hopeful, is it conservative ? Now, at length, bethink yourselves of a change, and consent to administer, and consent finally to legislate for Ireland and for Scotland in conformity with the constitutionally expressed wishes and the profound and permanent convic- tions of the people ; and ask yourselves whether you will at last consent to present to the world the spectacle of a tnily and not a nominally United Empire. 1': JOHN BRIGHT (J8U-J889) THE FAMOUS LBERAL ORATOR |E might Justly cull John Bright the great Quaker ovator and state.smaii. A niemher of the Society of Frienils in religion, and a cotton manufacturer in butiuess, he found time to take a most active part in all the lilx^ral movements of his day. A man of tlie warmest sympathies for the jKwr and oppresse4 JOHN BRIOHT island no less an amount than ;/; 2, 000,000,000. I cannot imagine how much ^2,000,000,000 is, and therefore I shall not attempt to make you comprehend it. I presume it is something like those vast and incomprehensiole astronomical distances with which we have been lately made faniiliar; but however familiar we feel that we do not know one bit more about them than we did before. When I try to think of that sum of ^2, 000,000,000 there is a sort of vision passes before my mind's eye. I see your peasant labor delve and plough, sow and reap , sweat beneath the summerssun, or grow prematurely old before the winter's blast. I see your noble mechanic with his manly countenance and his matchless skill, toiling at his bench or his forge. I see one of the workers in our factories in the North, a woman, — a girl it may be, gentle and good, as many of them are, as your sisters and daughters are, — I see her intent upon the spindle, whose revolutions are so rapid that the eye fails altogether to detect them, or to watch the alternating flight of the unresting shuttle. I turn again to another portion of your population, which " plunged in mines, forgets a sun was made, " and I see the man who brings up from the secret cham- bers of the earth the elements of the riches and greatness of his country. When 1 see all this I have l)efore me a mass of produce and of wealth which I am no more able to comprehend than I am that ^2,ocx5,ooo,ooo of which I have spoken, but I behold in its full proportions the hideous error of your government, whose fatal policy consumes in some cases a half, never less than a third, of all the results of that industry which God intended should fertilize and bless every home in England, but the fruits of which are squandered in every part of the surface of the globe, without producing the smallest good to the people of England. We have, it is true, some visible results that are of a more positive character. We have that which some people call a great advantage, the national debt, — a debt which is now so large that the most prudent, the most economical, and the most honest have given up all hope, not of its being paid off, but of its being diminished in amount. We have, too, taxes which have been during many years so onerous that there have been times when the patient beasts of burden threatened to revolt ; so onerous that it has been utterly impossible to levy them with any kind of honest equality, according to the means of the people to pay them. We have that, moreover, which is a standing wonder to all foreigners who consider our condition, — an amount of apparently immov- able pauperism which to strangers is wholly irreconcilable vvith the fact that we, as n nation, produce more of what would make us all comfortable than is produced by any other nation of similar numbers on the face of the JOHN BRIGHT Mft globe. Let us likewise reiiienilH.T that during the period of those great and so-called j-lorioiis contests on the continent of ICurope, every descrip- tion of home reform was not only delayed, hut actually trusiied out of the minds of the great bulk of the people. There caa be no doubt whatever thatiti 1793 luigland was about to realize political changes and reforms, nuchas did not appear again until 1S30, and during the period of that war, whidi now almost all men agree to have been wholly unnecessary, we were passing through a period which may be described as the dark age of Engli. !i polit.cs ; when there was no more freedom to write or speak, or politically to act, than there is now in the most despotic country of Europe. The more j'ou examine this niatto', the more you will come to the con- clusion which I have arrived at, that this foreign policy, this regard for the " liberties of Kurope,'' this care at one time for " the Protestant interests," this excessive love for " the balance of power," is neither more nor less than a gigantic system of out door relief for the aristocracy of Great Britain. (Loud laughter.) I observe that you receive that declaration as if itwere some new and important discovery. In 1815, when the great war with France was ended, every Lilieral in Engla!id whose politics, whose hopes, ttid \ -hose faith liad not been crushed out of him by the tyranny of the time of that war, was fully aware of this, and i>penly admitted it; and up to 1S32, and for some years afterward, it was the fi.xed and undoubted creed of the gieat Lilx-ral jjarty. But somehow all is changed. We who stand upon tlie old huulmarks, who walk in the old paths, who would conserve what is wise and prudent, are hustled and shoved about as if we were come to turn the world upside down. The change which has taken place seems to confirm the opinion of a lamented friend of iiine, who, not having succeeded in all his hopes, thought that men made no progress whatever, but went round and round like a squirrel in a cage I believe there is no permanent greatness to a nation except 't be based upon morality. I do not care for military greatness or military renown. I care for the condition of the people among whom I live. There is no man in linglaiid who is less likely to speak irreverently of the Crown and Monarchy of England than I am; but crowns, coronets, mitrt-S, military display, the pomp of war, wide colonies, and a huge empire are, in my view, all trifles, light as air, and not worth considering, unless with them you can have a fair share of comfort, contentment, and happiness among the great body of the people. Palaces, baronial ca.stles, grt'it h:\]h, stately mansions, do not make a nation Tbc nation in every country dwells iu cottages , and unless the light of your constitution can 608 JOHN BRIOHT 1: I ll: shine there, unless the beauty of your h gislatioii niul the excellence of your statesmanship are impressed there on the feelings and condition of the people, rely upon it, you have yet tc learn the duties of govern- ment The most ancient of profane historians has told us that the Scythians of his time were a very warlike people, and that they elevated an old scimeter upon a platform as a synil>ol of Mars ; for to Mars alone, I believe, they built altars and offered sacrifices. To this scimeter they offered sacrifices of horses and cattle, the main wealth of the country, and more costly sacrifices than to all the rest of their gcxls. I often ask myself whether we are at all advanced in one respect beyond those Scythians. What are our contributions to charity, to education, to morality, to reli- gion, to justice, and to civil government, when compared with the wealth we expend in sacrifices to the old scimeter ? Two nights ago I addressed in this hall a vast assembly, composetl to a great extent of your countrymen who have no political power, wlu> are at work from the dawn of day to the evening, and who have, there- fore, limited means of informing themselves on those great subjects. Now, I "HI privileged to speak o a somewhat different audience. You represent , se of your great community who have a more complete edu- cation, w.iu have on some points greater intelligence, and ii. whose hands reside the power and influence of the district. I am speaking, too, within the hearing of those whose gentle nature, whose fine instincts, whose purer minds, have not suffered as some of us have suffered in the turmoil and strife of life. You can mold opinion, you can create political power; — you caiuiot think a good thought on this subject and commutiicate it to good neighbors, you cannot make these points topics of discussion in your social circles and more general meetings, without affecting sensibly and speedily the course which the government of your coimtry will pursue. May I ask you then to l)elieve, as 1 do most devoutly believe, that the n- iral law was not written for men alone in their individual character, but that it was written as well for nations, and for nations great as this of which we are citizens. If nations reject and deride that moral law, there is a penalty that will inevitably follo-.v. It may not come at once; it may not come in our lifetime ; but rely upon it, the great Italian is not a poet only, but a prophet, when he says : " The sword of Heaven is not in haste to smite. Nor yet doth linger." BISMARCK GERMANY'S GREAT STATESMAN !!r£HSSSS5£iS&^^ 11 ! t; EMILIO CASTELAR SPANISH ORATOR DistineuisheJ In his cointrv betause he espoused the Jemi)- cratic or popular cause. He was considereJ the most illuslrious orator of his time. 7% CHARLES STEWART PARNELL U 846- J 89 1) THE "UNCROWNED KING" OF IRELAND mHK jvirt whicli tho umit CyConnoll t*t h.\\( of Iho iiiiu'ttfiitli (viiturv as tlu' " hil)e!it to iail in Ixsl for 1 1 i« forcible opiM.H I ion to (ila.lstones niellioilsof .lealin^' with Ire- land, yet in 1«Htt, when dladstoii.' i«';,'aii lo work earnestly for lloine Kule.Vaniell heeanie his elose ally. I'arnell's iK)wer vanished in lH9(>'and after, as the result of a divorn. suit sean.lal, and soon after- ward he suddenly died. As an orator I'an.ell was ready and tunihle; less tliient and rlu'torieal than his famous predeeess.u', y<'t with nuieli p(.wer of h.s own. In IXSO he traversed the Inited St:,t.- a- I'resi- ,l,.|it of the Irish Land l.ea- 1-" •'^^ J '^- torv of C.reat Britain of recent years is that of Joseph t liam- I.riain, .hose work in bringing on the Boer war won hun praise at home, hut repmhation-leep and ahnost un.versal-ahroa.l. Ye in the facJ of praise and hhin.e alike Chaml>erhun went on, work- h,; ;:: what seeni. to him the proper cou.e to V^^^^^^^^^ est' of (ireat Britain with a strenuous energy and -'^ ^ ^^"^^^ which assimih.tes him with Uoosevelt m America. .^^ '"^^ ' .^'^^ "^ Birmin.diam politics, ChamV>erhun did not enter Parliament till 1 87b a r U^vears of age. There he soon made his mark as a Liberal ::r;.;d::i.and ganu. wide influence outside the H^s.^ing re^nirded as the lea.ler of the extreme Radical party. At fil.t a to btver of Gladstone, he l.ecamc strongly hostile to his Home Rule Bill nlHHG. In 189l'he made himself the leader of t^o Ld.nd Ln.on- i«ts in the House of Commons, and in the Salisbury Cab.ne of 1 ^5 ^Is chosen as Secretary for the Colonies. It was this iK,s.Uon that g ; e im the controlling hand in the .Jameson raid an tbe Boer - and brought him into such unsavory prominence In the Ba fon ^i.;; oFl902, Chainberlain was looked upon '^^ tb^ " P-- ^ehni. the throne," the premier in all but the name. As a publi siaaku It is ^gor^us and plausible in manner, with mu= the address from which we quote.] 6tS0 JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN 5«1 In 1858 Mr. Bright told ws that one-sixth of the electors returned half the House of Commons. At this moment, in 1883, one-fifth of the electors do the same. A population of 6,000,000 in the United Kingdom in 85 counties returns 136 members, and a similar population of exactly the same number in 217 boroughs returns 290 members, and a third popu- lation, also of 6,000,000, but residing in 16 great constituencies, only returns 36 members. The lasc of these 6,000,000 has only one-eighth of the political power which is conferred upon the 6,000,000 in the other boroughs ; it has only about one-fourth of tue political power which is conferred upon the 6,000,000 in the counties. And why is this last population singled out and its representation minimized in this way ? You know that it is the most active, the most intelligent part of the whole population of the Kingdom. The people who live in these great centres of the population enjoy an active political life which is not known elsewhere. They manage their own affairs with singular aptitude, discretion and fairness. Why should not they be allowed to have their proportionate share in managing the affairs of the nation ? Well, do you not think that the '^ime has come when we should strive to substitute a real and honest representation of the people for this fraudulent thing which is called representation now ? I will give you only one more illustration, and I will sit down ; I will not go out of our own county. Warwick is an interesting place. It is generally in rather a dead-alive condition ; but, twice a year, when Birmingham and its vast population is at great expense and inconvenience to carry on its legal business, it awakens into a delusive animation. Warwick has a popula- tion of under 12,000 souls, less than the population of any one of the wards of this great borough. Warwick returns two members to Parlia- ment, and if strict proportion were observed there are enough people in this hall to return six members to Parliament. As for Birmingham, our population is 400,000, and the annual increment of tliat population is so great that every two years we add another Warwick to our immber. We return three members, and, lest you should be surfeited with this generous distribution of political power, you are only permitted to give two votes apiece, and so it happens that an elector of Warwick has thirty-four times the political power of every elector of Birmingham. I have a great respect for the electors of Warwick ; they seem to me to lie modest and humble-minded men. They appear to feel they cannot lay claim to being six times as good, as virtuous, as intelligent as the electors of Birmingham, and consequently they return one I.iberal and one Con- servative, and so they deprive themselves of political power. Well, that is very public-spirited, and verj- self-denying ; but why should they be 36 ggg JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN forced to this alternative, which is very creditable to their good feeling, hut verv oreiudicial to their political interests ? I ne^ not dwell further upon these anomalies. If they were only anomaJ^I should not much care, but they are real obstacles to the leg.s- aTn St is required in th^ interests of the people^ "^^r^T^ ' sum up the situation. What does our Constitution do for us ? First it excludes from all political rights more than half the adult male popula- tronrndrlemL, the class which is excluded is the most numerou class'- but it is all one class, and every other class is represented in its last man ' Wd , then, in the next place, of the remainder our-fifths are out- vot^ broLfifth aad so it happens that one-twelfth of -;^^t "Ught to be the whole constituency of the Kingdom returns a majonty of the House of Commons, if the one-twelfth really represented the free voice of the IprUwould not be of so much consequence ; but you know, m many S;t an events, it only represents the influences of some great tern- tonal family, or some local magnate. Among the numerous discoveries which we owe to science, I was nauch ^terLed some time ago in reading of one which I think was called r mLlphone Its province was to expand and develop the sounds whicrwereTntrusted'to it. By its means a whisper becomes a roan Well aT every general election you hear the roar of the parliamentary ^pLntativ7system. and some people are deceived they thmk it the twderous voice of the people to which they are listening. But if they tuld onirtrace °t to itT source they would find it was the whisper of Tr^e few privileged individuals swollen and expanded by the ingenious political megaphones which I have described to you. BOOK VI. The Pulpit Orators of Great Britain IN our series of European pulpit orators, extend- int^ from Auijustine and Chrysostom, of the early Church, down to the famous preachers of the reijrn of Louis XIV'., none of Hritish liirth were included. Yet the island of Great Britain has hvx-n by no means lackinij in pulpit orators of fame. Among those of the earlier age, for (example, may be included the stern and inflexible leader of the Scot- tish Reformation, John Knox, who did not hesitate to speak the unvarnished truth to Queen Mary in her palace halls, and Hugh Latimer, the ardent and elo- quent Protestant preacher, who died heroically for his faith at the slake. In the eighteenth century we meet with Wesley, the founder of Methodism, whose principles he eloquently disseminated for many years, speaking in the open air to audiences of vast propor- tions and intent interest ; and Whitefield, the origi- nator of Calvinistic Methodism, a man of equal elo- quence. The oratory of these men was not classic in form. It represented the unpolished outpourings of their minds to uncultured hearers. But it was eloquent with earnestness and zeal, and reached the hearts of those to whom they spoke. In the nine- teenth century the pulpits of England were filled by many orators of fine powers of thought and eloquent rendering. If we should attempt to give all those of graceful oratory, we should run far beyond our limits, and it is necessary to confine our selections to a few of the more famous of these recent preachers. HUGH LATIMER (U72- 1555) A MARTYR TO CONSCIENCE mHE persecution against the Protestants of England by "Bloody (Jucen Mary" found its most distinguished victuns in Bishops Latimer of Worcester, and Ridley, of London, and Archbishop Cranmer, of Canterbury. Of those eminent sufferers Latimer showed the highest courage. When bound to the stake, side by side with Bishop Kidlev, to be burned to death for conscience sake, he said : " Be of goodV-heer, Master Ridley, and play the man ; for we shal this dav kindle such a torch, by (Jod's grace, in England as I trust shall never \^e put out." In less than a century his word was made good in the givat Puritan Revolution. Hugh Latimer was through- out his life distinguished for courage, zeal and piety, and eav\y gained distinction as an eloquent preacher of the Reformed faith. THE SERMON OF THE PLOW rT^timer tanks among the earliest of pulpit orators who won fame in England, wUeri W "Sn nee w^ I'ng unsurpassed. Of his existing sermons ^ZT SZ. Tble exlmpW his powers is that in which he neatly compares the labon, of the p'eac^r and the ploLan, and draws a salutary lesson from the comparison.] Preaching of the Gospel is one of Gods plow-works, and the preacher is onVof God's plowmen. Ye may not be offended with my simditude, u that I compare preaching to the labor and work of plowing, and the preacher to a plowman. Ye may not be offended with this my simditude, for itve been slandered of some persons for such things. But as preachy eri must be wary and circumspect, that they give not any just occasion to ^sllndeml an^ iU-spoken of by the hearers, so must not the auditors be ^ffetde^ without cauL For Heaven is in the OospeU.ken^ to a mus- tard seed : it is compared also to a piece of leaven ; and Christ saith that a" the last day he will come like a thief. And what dishonor is this to 564 HUGH LATIMER rt«rt Cod ? Or what derogation is this to Heaven ? Vc may not, then, I say, be offen.lt-d with my similitude for because I liken preaching to a plow- man's lalHjr, and a prelate to a plowman. But now you will ask me whom I call a pre'ate. A prelate is that man, whatever he be, that hath a flock to l)e taught of him ; whosoever hath any spiritual charge in the faithful congregation, and whosoever he lie that hath cure of souls. And well may the preacher and the plowman be likened together ; 1-irst, for their labor at all sea.sons of the year ; for there is no lime of tiie year iti which the plowman hath not some special work to do— as ill my country, in Leicestershire, the plowman hath a time to set forth, and to assay his plow, and other times for other necessary works to be done. And then they als me • So that he must at all ti.nes conve.nent preach diligently ; th re- fLresaith^ie : " Who trow ye is a faithful servant ? ' ' He speaketh U as hough t were a rare thing to find such a one. -d as though he should sav there be but few of them to find in the world. And how few of them Sre "th oughout this world that give meat to their flock - they sh..dd do the visitors can best tell. Too few. too few. the more ,s the pUy. and ""Tt^rrMtappeareth that a prelate, or any that hath cure of souls LttdUgently and sul«,tantially work and lal,or. Therefore saUh PaultrTi nothy : 'He that desiretb .o have the office of a b.shop. or a pSate.^atmandesirethagoodwork.- Then if it be l^'^^^^^^' fework • ye can but make a work of it. It is God's work God a plow, rnlthat' plow God would have still going. Such. then, as o.ter and hve Wly are not good prelates or ministers. And of such as do no preach a'dt^chanSdot'heirduties. G6d saith by his prophet Jeremy • ^Cursed ZTm.n that doeth the work of God fraudulently . gu.efuUy or de .t- fuUv" someWks have it nejrli^cnicr, "negligently, or slackly. How many such prelates, how many such bishops. Lord, for thy mercy "eThrdw in England ! And what shall we in this case do ? bhall :: om;a„y with them ? O Lord, for thy mercy ! ShaU - "o ^ny with them ? O Lord, whither shall we flee from them ? But cu sed be he that doeth the work of God negligently or guilefully. A sore word for them that are iieglige-.c in discharging their office or have done it fraudulently ; for there is the thing that maketh the r pie ill. . . • • " Id ow I would ask a strange question : Who .he most diligent bishop aJd prelate in all England that passeth a" -'-f '"^^^-S^- offic!^ I can tell, for 1 know him who he is; I aiow him well. But nmv I th nk I see you listening and hearkening that I should name him. Thire s one that passeth all the others, and is the most diligent prelate Td pr-cher in afl England. And will ye know who it is I wUl te vou it is the devil. He is the most diligent preacher of all others , he sL; r outof his dicese; he is never from his cure; ye shall ne..r find him unoccupied ; he is ever in his parish ; he keepeth residence at aU Ume ye i" -ver find him out of the way ; call for him when you will e s ever ..home ; the diligentest preacher in all the realm ; he is ever at £ s plow ;i.o lording nor loitering can hinder him; he is ever applying his business ; ye shall never find him idle. I warrant you 1 JOHN KNOX a 505-1 572) THE FATHER OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH mS his short fuiipral oration over the cU'iul IkhIv of John Knox, Miirmy, the KcKi-nt of Scothind, .said, " Here lies ho who never feared tlie faee of n>an." These words fitly in Protestant doctrines, till then hardly known in Scotland. He sulfered for his faith. A.s.sa.ssins were employed to take his life. A castle in which he took refuse was aissailed and cap- tured, and for nineteen months he was held captive in the French j,'alleys. When (iueen Mary came to the English throne, his friends induced him to leave Scotland, and he retiR'd to (Jeneva, where he U'canie a friend of John Calvin. In 1559 he returned to .Scotland, and here became .. j master-spirit of the growing body of Protestants, sustaining their courage by his own indomitable resolution, and his vehement harangues against what he designated the idolatries of the Romish Church. Few of the religious reformers of that age were his equals in courage and sagacity and in the inflexible austerity of his I)rinciples. Froude says that ho was "jierhaps in that extraordinary age its most extraordinary man, whoso character Injcame the mould in which the later fortunes of his country were cast." GOD'S POWER ABOVE THAT OF KINGS [The hardiness of John Kuox did not flinch in the face of kindly power, and he thundered aiainst tyranny as boldly as against any fomi of impiety. The following extract is from his Edinburgh sermon of .\ugust 19, 1565, its text being Isai-i xxvi, 13-16. Its tone was not a safe one in those autocratic days, but Knox had ao fear of living men.] ott7 jjj JOHN KNOX The first thing, then, that Gal requires of him who i» called to the honor of a king, is the knowledge of His will reveale,l in His Word. The second is an upright and willing mind, to put in execution such things as God commands in His law, without declining to the right or to the left hand. , . , . » Kings, then, have not an absolute power to do in their government what pleases them, but their power is limited by God's Word ; so that ,f they strike where God has not commanded, they are but murderers ; and if thev spare where God has commanded to strike, they and their thrones are criminal and guilty of the wi< keihuss which alnjuiiUs upon the face of the earth, for lack of punishment. . uni Oh that kings and miK-i.-^ would consider what account shall 1« craved of them, as wtii i'.r ibeir ignorance and misknowledge of Gods will as for the neglecting ot their office ! ,. . • • Wouldst thou. O Scotland ! have a king to reign over thee in justice, equity, and mercy ? Subject thou thyself to the Lord thy God. ol,ey His commandments, and magnify thou the Word that calleth unto thee. •' This is the way, walk in it ; - and if thou wilt not. Hatter not thyself; the same justice ren.nins this day in God to punish thee. Scotland and thee Edinburgh, especially, which l.efore punished the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. Every realm ornation. saith the prophet Jeremiah, that likewise offendeth shall l>e likewise punished, but if thou shalt see impiety placed in the seat of justice above thee, so that in the throne of G(^ (as Solomon complains) reigns nothiiiK »Hit fraud and violence, accuse thine own ingratitude and rebellion against God; for that is the only cause why God takes away " the strong man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, the prudent and the aged, the captain and the honorable, the counselor and the cunning artificer ; and I will appoint, saith the Lord, children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. Children are extortioners of my people, and women have rule over them." , ,, . . . If these calamities. I say. apprehend us, so that we see nothing but the oppression of good men and of all godliness, and that wicked men without God reign above us, let us accuse and condemn ourselves, as the only cause of our own miseries. For if we had heard the voice of the Lord our God. and given upright obedience unto the same God would have multiplied our peace, and would have rewarded our ol^ience before the eyes of the world. But now let us hear what the prophet saith further- "The dead shall not live." saith he, " neither shall the tyrants nor the dead arise, because thou hast visited and scattered them, and destroyed all their memory." ii JOHN WESLEY (J 703- J 791 THE ZEALOUS ORATOR OF METHODISM H'l' llu' Euf,'li>*li riiiv»'i>iity of Oxford, iii"iiii 17"J'», ;i ;;roii[. of tciigioiiM eiitliusiiiHls aiiioiij; the stu, iiKludiii;,' .lolm atiil Cliarli's Wcsloy, (i»'oi>;f Wliitt tiilil, .lamt- llcrvt.v, and otlurs, associated thoni.iflvfs into an assoiiation w striit ami iiutliodical in its habits, tliat tht-y won) givi-ii \hv nam<' of Metlitxlis-ts, and \v»iv also talkd, in ridicule, liil.le ^^otli-. the (Jodly Chih, and \\\]>\v l;i-(.ls. Jolin W'esU'y was recognized as their leader, and almost luin. .| lii^ liealth hy fasting and austerity. In 17M5 he rmd his hiotln r < 'haries went on a mission to fieorgia, htit were not vt-ry siieeessfiil th. !.■. It was not until after Iiis return to Knghiml that he hroke IVum th. eere- nionies of the Knglish Church and founded the sect sin.e known as Methodists. The clergy of the Estahlished Ciiureh tli. ii dnscl (li.ir churches against him, and he followeil Whiteliel.!- example of preaching in the open air. This he continued with cxtraonliiiary success. For half a century he conlimied tl se out-door mim-tra- tions, at times from 10,000 to ;J0,()00 people uiiling for hours to In ar him. During this time he traveled al)Out the coiintry -J'.O.O'X* mi](- and preached 40,000 sermons, doing also a great (,'iantity of literary work. His preaching was chiefly among the v- ..ng classes, and his life was frequently in danger from hostile mo'' Init he es<'aped all jK-rils, and in his old age his journeys l)ecain<' • iimphal proces- sions. Few religious teachers have done so mucli ;.'ood as Weslev, especially among the lowest classes of the {loor, whom he earLpfstly sought to bring into the fold of Chri.st. IRRELIGION AMONG COLLEGE PEOPLE [On August 24, 1744, Wesley preached his last scrniou before the Univer8it>- of Oxford, to a very large audience, composed of the auihoritieo and students of the 569 JOHN WESLEY „,any of hi, hearers. Rave ""P'^'^^^'^^l^^T in taking the professors and studenU I beseech yot^. brethren by the merc^^^^^^ "^'iL utLdt" n^" l\rat a madman or a fool, yet as a ool ^^-'^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^,^ ^ J. it is more some one should t.se great pla-nes. of ^P^^^^^ .^ ^^^^ j^,, , And especially needfnl at this t--/- ^^^ '"^^tfo^ i. even I. will speak. T. T^:^::^:^^ -^- ^- - ^^-^ -^ ^°"' "^" "'"^^ receiving a blessing at my 1^«"^^- ^ ^^ ^1,^ spirit of meekness, Ut me ask yuu, then, m tender ^^^ ^^^^j Christianity, Is this city a Chr,st>an ay? Is ^^n^^^^J^' ,f L„. so filled with found here ? Are we, <^--^^'^^; /r/^^H^H^^^^^ forth in our lives, the the Holy Ghost as to enjoy m our ^'^^^ f ' "^^^^^^^^^ ^u heads and gov- genuine frtuts of that Spj.^^ ? T^^^^^ocL^^^ ("ot to speak ernors of colleges and halls, «"4 t^e'r re^P^ct ^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^.^ ^^ of the ^f^f^^^l^^ °Le":tXpers the same that were in God shed abroad in our nearis . , Christ, and are o'^V'^.i^^e^^^^^^^^^^^ great God, bef.re whom both In the fear and ni the presence oi J »> authority over us, you and I shall shortly appear. I Vr^Y yo-^^-^^^^ .^^^ ^,,^ .^e 'whom I reverence for y--^^" ^^^^^ Tmm whom'ye are appointed Holy Ghost 1 Are ye ^'f ^ P°^- ^'^^^^ ,,iers. are all the thoughts to represent among men ? \ e ™«g'''"^ j^^^le to your high calling ? Is there in all your actions dignity -"^j^^ " ^^ ,^ f,,„ the tender Ye venerable men. -};?^- ^tle Xy Ghi ? with all those fruits minds of youth, are you fi led ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ requires? Do of the Spirit, which your importan offi- - in J,,^ ,„, ,,tional end of you continually remind those «'»'i^Y° ^„i ^.^e God, and Jesus In our studies is to know love and «-- \^; V„, ^ay by day, that Christ whom He hath sent ? Do l2^X^orL., pompous folly, vexa- 11=! !# JOHN WESLEY en ir those who are of some rank and eminence ? Do ye, brethren, abound m the fruits of the Spirit, in lowliness of mind, in self-denial and mortifica- tion in seriousness and composure of spirit, in patience, meekness, sobriety, temperance, and in unwearied, restless endeavors to do good, in every kind, unto all men ? Is this the general character of fellows of col- leges > I fear it is not. Rather, have not pride and haughtiness of spirit, impatience and peevishness, sloth and indolence, gluttony and sensuality, and even a proverbial uselessness, been objected to us ; perhaps not only by our enemies, nor wholly without ground ? . . . . Once more, what shall we say concerning the youth of this place? Have you either the form or the power of Christian godliness ? Are you humble, teachable, advisable? or stubborn, self-willed, heady, and high- minded ? Are vou olietlient to your superiors as to parents ? Or do you despise those to whom you owe the tenderest reverence ? Are you dili- gent in pursuing your studies with all vour strength, crowding as much work into every day as it can contain ? Rather, do you not waste day -ifter day, either in reading what has no tendency to Christianity, or in gaming 'or in— you know not what ? Do you, out of principle, take care to owe no man anything ? Do you remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy '' Do you know how to possess your bodies in sanctification and in honor Are not drunkenness and uncleanness found among you ? Yea, •ire there not of v-ti who glory in their shame? Do not many of you take the name of ( ..d in vain, perhaps habitually, without either remorse or fear > Yea, are there not a multitude of you that are forsworn ? Be not surprised, brethren ; before God a..d this congregation, I own myself to have lieen of that number; solemnly swearing to observe all those customs which I then knew nothing of; and those statutes, which I did not so niucli as read over, either then or for some years after. What is perjury, if this is not ? May it not be one of the consequences of this, that so many of yoii. are a generation of triflers? triflers with God. with one another, and with your own souls ? How few of you spend, from one week to another, a single hour in private prayer ? How few of you have any thought of God in the general tenor of your conversation ? Can you bear, unless now and then in a church, any talk of the Holy Ghost ? Would you not take it for granted, if one began such a conversation, that it was either hypocrisy or enthusiasm ? In the name of the Lord God Almighty, I ask. What religion are you of? Even the talk of Christianity ye cannot, will not, bear. O my brethren ! What a Christian city is this? It is time for Thee, Lord, to lay to Thine hand. GEORGE WHTTEFIELD (J7J4-J770) THE FAMOUS OPEN-AIR PREACHER 0MAN of powerful voice and insi)iritig eloquence, George White- field a(k)i)te.l the hahit of preaching in the open air, drawing audiences so immense thaf it seemed imiiossible for any man to make hin.self heard by th^ni. A fellow-student at Oxford with John and Charles Wesley, he entered into religious fellowshij) with them, and soon k'gan siK-akin- with great power and elo(iuence, crowded congregations listening to him with enthusiastic attention. It was his exclusion from the churches of Brist(d that set him to preaching in the open air. For some five years he maintained the Wesleyan doctrine of Methodism, but alwut 1741 he adopted the Cal- vinisti'c doctrine of predestination, and a break Ix'tween him and Wesley took place. Much of Whitefield's ministrations took place in the American colonies, which he visited on seven different occasions, on some of which he stayed for several years. He died at Newbury- ItoTi, Massachusetts, in 1770, on his seventh visit. A WARNING AGAINST WORLDLY WAYS rit was not the crec-d of the Church of England to whidi Wesley aad Whiteficid obiected.but its methods and ceremonies, and their title of Methodists referred to their methodical strictness rather than to any doctrinal distinction. The sermons from which the following selections are Uken, in which Whitefield openly denounces the Church of English Ministers for encouraging the wicked by their example, excited much feeling when delivered.] My brethren , if we will live godly we must suffer persecution. We must no more expect to go to Heaven without being persecuted, than to be happy without being holy. If you lead godly lives, all the sons of Belial all the scribes and Pharisees, will hate you and have you in reproach. They will point to you and cry. " See, yonder comes another troop of his followers ! There are more of his gang ! " You arc counted as a parcel I DISTINGUISHED PULPITORATORS ^ GREATBRirm ^W" £■■— 's- - -— I a^^ PULPIT ORATORS OF FOUR CENTURIES Hugh Latimer was an ardent and eloquent preac her iif the Pro- testant ri'liKion in 174a. The other four belong to the 19th jfy t-cntur>' and were iistingtiishci yulpil oraltrrs. GEORGE WHITEFIELO 678 of ignorant people, poor rabble, who are deceived by a vain young upstart babbler, by a madman, one who is running into enthusiastic notions, and endeavors to lead all his followers into his mad way of thinking. The Pharisees may wonder what I mean by talking of persecution in a Chris- tian countrj' ; but if they had their will, they would as willingly put our feet in the stocks, shut us up in prison, and take away our lives, as they have thrust us out of their synagogues. But let not that discourage you from hearing the word of God ; for Jesus Christ can meet us as well in a field as between church walls. If you were of the world ; if yoti would conform to' the ways, man- ners, and customs of the world ; if you would go to a play, or ball, or mas<^iuerade ; the world would then love you, because you would be its own. But because you despise their polite entertainments, and go to hear a sermon in the field, and will not rxtn into the same excess of riot as others, they esteem you as methodically mad, as fit only for Bedlam. If you would frequent horse-racing, assemblies, and cock-fighting, then you would be caressed and admired by our gay gentlemen ; but your despising these innocent diversions (as the world calls them), makes them esteem you as a parcel of rabble, of no taste, who are going to destroy yourselves by being over-righteous. If you would join them in singing the song of the drunkard , they would think you a good companion ; but Ijecause you are for singing hymns, and praising the Lord Jc-;us Christ, they tliink you enthusiasts. Indeed, our polite gentry would like religion very well if it did but countenance an assembly, or allow them to read novels, plays and romances ; if they might go a-visiting on Sundays, or to a play or ball whenever they pleased. In short, they would like to live a fashionable, polite life, to take their full swing of pleasures, and go to Heaven when they die. But, if they were to be admitted to Heaven without a purifica- tion of heart and life, they would be unhappy there .... Is it becoming a minister o^ the Church of England to frequen lose places of public entertainment which are condemned by all serio and good men ? Is it not inconsistent with all goodness for ministers to froiuent play-houses, balls, masquerades ? U'^ould it not better become them to visit the poor of their flock, to pray with them, and to examine how it stands with God and their souls ? Would it not be more agreeable to the temper of the blessed Jesus to be going about doing good, than going about setting evil examples ? How freijuent is it for the poor and illiterate people to be drawn away more by example than precept ? How frequent is it for Ihem to say, " Sure there can be no cri^iC- in going to a play, or to an ale-house, — no crime in gaming or drinking, when a minister of our own Church does this." This is the common talk of poor, ignorant _. OEOROB WHITEPIELD ©7* 1. «,l,o «re too willine to follow the examples of their teachem. T^^ the -n who are charging others with making too great a no.^ about religion? innqcENT DIVERSIONS They talk of innocent diversions and recreations. For my part I ■^ fXlr«~»r.»h »^ wS^ wiUtoglyb. found .. against onr ^'^^'^^^'l^^''^^^^ , i^ it not misspending yonr precious trembling ? Do play no^. . ^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^j^ promote the glory of God ? woum yo » ^^^ J ^A^ nfvnn while vou were at one oi tnese piaces r w u«v ^ ZbX .» . - H. ~v» d«,lg.rf «.». to. ' The P>.rl.»«- .« ^T ^l^ifd^^ct on Of the frequenters of them. Is it nothightime Se lo?e of God. and have felt His power upon your souls you would no the love ot o«a ^^^ ^^^^ .^^^ ^ ^^^^^ And more go to a P^^^ ^^^^^ J°"J\^ ^ ^ ^^eh frequented is the clergy's what °«---^J'^J^^:ThI^^ure entertainments them^^^^ They ^"it"l^ h^« -^hey got^ ^orse-races ; they go to balls and assem- jT'^'^tW S^i^S CZ^. and foUow all the entertainments that the blies ; they fr«l"^°* *^^!™' ^ ., ^^^ ^ho should advise their hear- ^^tfSr?rl"ier^e ra^.o disguis^i. for they are a^id S^Wnf^n in their gowns and cassocks ; for their conscience inform t^Z^t is not an elample fit for the ministers of the gospel to set. JOHN HENRY NEWMAN (J80I-J890) A BRITISH CATHOUC ORATOR mN recent times two prominent divines of the English Episcopal Church have been converted to the Roman Catholic faith, and been made cardinals in the Church of Rome. These were Cardinal Manning, of whom we have elsewhere spoken, and Cardinal Newman, with whom we are here concerned. Beginning his pastoral career as vicar of St. Mary's, Oxford, Newman subsequently took a very active part in what was known as " The Oxford Movement," and himself wrote a number of the famous " Tracts for the Times." These tracts, which were in favor of the strictest Anglican orthodoxy, ended in the conversion to the Roman faith of a number of their writers, Newman among them. He resigned from St. Mary's in 1843, and subsequently entered the Catholic Church, being made a cardinal by the Pope in 1879. As a pulpit orator Newman ranked high, winning fame in both his forms of faith. His long series of Oxford sermons contain some of the finest ever preached from an Anglican pulpit, and his Roman Catholic sermons, though less striking for their pathos, are marked by still finer rhetoric and literary finish. Aside from his reputation aa an orator, Newman was an author of fine powers, alike as a logician and in theological controversy. To his prose writings he added many poems of fine touch and finish, most notable among them being the famous hymn, " Lead, Kindly Light." THE EVILS OF MONEY-GETTING [Prom one of Newman's " Oxford Sermons " we make a brief extract in illus- tration of his style of oratory, and also for the salntary lesson it conveys and tbe efiective manner in which the weakness and wickedness of money seeking, for itself alone, is presented. It was preached from the text, " Woe onto ye that are rich, for ye have received yonr consolation."] 675 670 JOHN HENRY NEWMAN I sav then that it is a part of Christian caution to see that our enJeeme'nts do not become pursuits. Kngagetnents are our port.on. X^i Jrsu tfa for the n>ost part of our own choosing, ^e ™ay be «,gag^ TtLe pursu of g" n as by trade and the like. It is the most common :ld widTspread'o a 1 excitements. It is one in which everyone almost and widely spreaa o ^^^ indulging. And X: ^rfug^fif^^^^ the amusements and ple.^ of U^ world which are short-lived and succeed one after another. D.^ - nattiTmlnr which these amusements create, is itself, indeed, miserable Lough buU r worse than this dissipation is the concentration of nnnd upontme worldly object which admits of being constantly pursued ; and -"^:t nt^S^avation of the evil that an.i.y U almost ^ tie h mind nay. to haunt it. till a man finds he can think about no hing w !„drunable to give his mind to religion from the consUnt whirl of else, and is unab e lo give understood. business in which ^e is mvo W d^ " fuif H^Uh was the business of r "Tir^nTC^thll t'^^^^ nature, a man is bound togain alivelihood for hi' family, and that he finds a reward in ^orngs^n innocent and honorable satisfaction-as he adds one sum to anothe . and innoceui tt thevEO on to argue tiiat it is the •^'^""a 7i;"S"lce Adam's air''- mt^^^ sweat of his face." by effort 'Tanxfetv ' o eat br^d " How strange it is that they do not remem- ^r Chri t-rgralus promise, repealing that original curse and obviating Tord 'Be not anxious, saying : What shall we eat, ■ hat shall we drtk o. ae'withal shall we be clo^^^^ For after ah --things do thToe^dirreek ; and your Heavenly father knoweth that ye have need ^'^Thave^nt given the main reason why the pursuit of gain whether i„ , we or a small way. is prejudicial to our spiritual interests-that it fixi, Zmind upon an object of this world. Yet others remain behind JOHN HENRY NEWMAN 577 Money is a sort of creation, and gives the acquirer even more than the possessor an imagination of his own power, and tends to make him idolize self. Again, what we have hardly won, wc are unwilling to part with ; so that a man who has himself made his wealth wil' ummonly l)e penu- rious, or at leiust will not part with it except in exeiiange for what will reflect credit on himself and increase his importance. Kven v/hen hin conduct is most disinterested and amiable (as in spending for the comfort of those who depend on him), still this indulgence of self, of pride, and worldliness, i-.sinuates itself. Very unlikely, therefore, is it that he should be liberal towards God ; for religious offerings are an expenditure withoiit sensible return, and that upon objects for which the very pursuit of wealth has indisposed his mind. Moreover, if it may be added, there is a considerable tendency in occupations connected with gain to make a man unfair in his dealings ; that is, in a subtle way. There are so many conventional deceits and prevarications in the details of the world's business, so much intricacy in the management of accounts, so many perplexed questions about justice and equity, so many plausible subterfuges and fictions of law, so much confusion between the distinct yet approximating outlines of honesty and civil enactment, that it requires a very straightforward mind to keep firm hold of strict conscientiousness, honor, and truth, and to look at matters in which he is engaged as he would have looked on them supposing he now came upon them all at once as a stranger. And if such be the effect of the pursuit of gain on an individual, doubtless it will be the same on a nation. Only let us consider the fact that we are a money-making people, with our Saviour's declaration before MS against wealth, and trust in wealth, and we shall have abundant mat- ter for serious thought. HENRY EDWARD MANNING (J8084892) ROME'S FAMOUS CONVERT IaNNINC, ft Rraduato of Oxford, U-^im his »rcl.-siasticiil ciinvr a 11 rector in tlic Episcopal {'Imrcli of (in-iit Britiiin, in whii-li li wasnmde Archdeacon of Cliiclu'stvr in 1S4(). Kieven year Inter he made a decided sensation l»y ^oin^' over to the Catholi Church. In 1st!") he was ainn.inted Areiihisliopof Westminster, an ten years later was raised to tlie hijiii di;,'nity of ( 'ardinai. He took pai hi the (Fx;umenieal Council at Home in I«(i9-7I\ an.l in it maintaiue the doctrine of tiie intallihility of tlie Pop. As an orator Mannin ranked IukIi amon-? Knjilish puiiut sjic-aker.s, his sermons \mn marked l>y purity of diction, strength of thought and directness ( style. ROME THE ETERNAL [On the two thousand six hundred and fifteenth anniversary of the founding Rome Manning delivered an oration on tlic 9ut)ject of the Ktemal City, especially its aspect as the capital of the Church, whose sentiments seem to solve the proble of his conversion from Protestantism to Catholicism. His promotion to the Can nalate is thought to have been influcnceIislifd for the civilization or tilt- Cliri>liaiiity of the Kust ? If the salt had kept its savor, it would not have lieen cust out and trodden umler the feet of the Ivistern Antichrist. While tlvs was accomplisliinj; in the ICast, in the West a new world was risinfj, in order, unity, and fruitfxduess, under Ihe action of the Pon- tiffs. Ivven the hordes whicjj inundated Italy were ehan>;ed hy them from the wildness of nature to the life of Christian civilizat ion. From St. I.,eo to St. Gregory the (^ireat, Christian luirope may l>e said not to exist ! Kome stood alone under the rule of its pontifTs, while as yet empires and kingdoms had no existence. Thus, little hy little, and one by one, the nations which now make up the unity of Christendom were createtl, trained and formed iuto political Sfnietics. First Lomhardy, then Gaul, then Spain, then C.ermany, then Saxon ICngland ; then tin first germs of lesser States began to appear. Hut to whom did tliey owe the laws, the principles, and the influences which made their existence possible, coherent, and mature ? It was to the Roman PontifTs that they owed the first rudiments of their social and political order. It was the exposition of the Divine law by the lips of the Vicar of Jesus Christ that founded the Christian policy of the world. Thus, the Church has been able to do without the world, and even in spite of it. Nothing can be conceived more isolated, more feeble, or more encompassed with peril, than the line of the Roman PontifTs; neverthe- less, they have maintained inviolate th< 'r independence with their sacred deposit of faith and of jurisdiction through all ages and through all con- flicts, from the beginnnig to this hour. It seemed as if God willed to remove the first Christian emperor from Rome in the early fervor of his conversion, lest it should seem as if the sovereignty of the Church were in any way the creation of his power. God is jealous of His own kingdom and will not suffer any unconsecrated hand to l*e laid upon His ark, even for its support. The " stone cut without hands," which l)ecame a great mountai'' and filled the whole earth, is typical, not only of the expansion and univeisal- ity of the Church, but of its mysterious and supernal il character. No huni.ui hand has accomplished its greatness. The iiand of God alone could bring it to pass. What is there in the history of the world parallel to the Rome of the Christians ? The most warlike and imperial people of the world gave place to a people unarmed and without power. The pacific people arose from the Catacombs and entered upon the possession of Rome as their inheritance. The existence of Christian Rome, both in its formation, and HENRY EDWARD MANNINO nun ,, • 1 c nJtrin*. oower. Gixl alone could next in its perpetuity, is a ""^-^^ ° .^"^^.Hrto them, and them in give it to His people ; Ood "^^^^^""^^ .f^^p^nciscan monk leading ft. What more wonderful s.ght than ^° «^ * 7 p^i„„i,t missiona- the Via Crucis in the Flavian ^njph. h-Uej U^e ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^..^ ries conversing peacefully among the .exes and Christians? Who has beasts from Africa thirsted for the blood «»»»* ^^ foi, back ^vailed upon the world for one ^^^^^^^^''X^^^^ '^ -"' '^"'^ L Attilla did from Christmn Rome ? Who^^as ^ ^^^^ „y thoughts paralyzed its ambitions and *=°"«'^^'"« '"^^^r'o^nded by the princes and L other day when the '^^^'^^^^Cl^^.X of L Resurrection pastors of the Church was celebr^^^^^^^^^^ over the Confession of St Peter. ' t" « j thousands of martyrs fell amphitheatre of Nero, w.thm -"^''^l^^ ^^^ ^^^ pacificus. the Vicar beneath the arms of the heathen And now^ the ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ of the Prince of Peace, there holds h.s ^*^«" .^„ The legions of the Apostle the -bloody sacrifice of our rede«.pt'^ .^^^ ^ ^^^^ .^ Rome have given way before a P~p!^/^^^J^„^^^^^^ .^w it to this day. war. They have taken t^-^Vsu^^oTnT^^the Vicar of Jesus Christ The more than imperial court which su ^^ _^ ^^^ ^.^^^^^ ^^^.^j^ ^^,^^. surpassed the glories of the Empire. ^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ j^ Cometh the worid, even our ^f ;^ J*^^;;;^, ^^^^y favor or by fear =r ^^Si^or:::^ ::ri^So- ..day his.ne. diction upon the city and the world. I ARTHUR PENHRYN STANLEY (J8J5-J881) THE ELOQUENT DEAN OF WESTMINSTER fflUK lift- of l»i .!i ."^tnnlfy wo may briHIy stato. Sm of tlie Hislioji of Norwicli hv 'o\utv<\ a ("aiioii of Christ Cluireli, and in lH(i4 U'canie iHaii of Wc^imin-ter, which ixisition he tilled till his death in 1«h1. Stanley was a man of the hi^'liest spirit of ti>Ieranee ami wide- 1 sympathy, his freedom from i>rejudi(c U-in^' siiown in his eli riU fo; the lieresies of IJishop Colenso and his willingness topreaeh r ' •!Ji Pn-shyterian pulpit.". While true religion and morality w ♦<' f ; saered, for systematie thetdo^'v he had no resjK-et, ami he !• :• t,'< •! - utter inanity the contrf)Versies of the pric -IIkkmI alM)ut |Kj.sti:- , * ',- vestments, etc As a preaeher, he exercised a wiile inlltie.K; ■, •!!.. ■ . an author ho pnxlueed various meritorious works (m theolo^iea ■ • <• other subjects. THE LESSON OF PALMERSTON'S LIFE [On October 29, 1H65, shortly after the death of KnglaiKl's ixjpiilar Premier, Lord Polmerston, Stanley delivered in Westminster Ablicy n iiutalilc discourse upon his life and work. There is no l)ctter example of his powers as iin orator than this eulogistic essay, and we offer from it the foUowiug suggestive extract.] Each human soul gifted above the souls of comtnon men leaves, as it passes away from this lower world, a light peculiar to itself. As in a mountoinous country each lofty peak is illumined with a different hue by the setting sun, so also each of the higher summits of human society is lighted up by the sunset of life with a different color. Whether the difference arises from the materials of which it is composed, or from the jgg ARTHUR PENHRYN STANLEY „U,iv. pcUion U ha, .c«»pie.. . n.« and «^™.. l-o,, i« -f J ^^.'J who has just l>een t^*^^" "^ J^ , .. ^j^^^e is this singular pecuh- 'T't^X whTc^^^be-en^nence of the departed st.tes.an arity that ^^^ J'^s to jn ^«ainment of us all than .s corn- was due were f « f J^,^J' ^-^ „f j^^as Maccabeus, that of all of the monlysupposec thas^l-eeu . J^^^ ^^^^ ,,,,„pHshed the greatest '^'^J:^^^^^^^oU...r.si resources. Of our late duef results with tue sniaue^ political leaders he achieved ^rr:t;rm»iro:;:.,aiid"i!', ,.,»■». uwa,.h..»Ma great success by uie ' example and an encouragement to Wgl, .t,tio,„ ii. »-hicl. he was ™P'''»t,^,;''''r, '",;,„ „,ay he-, who be imitated hy every «nfile person. J''' • "''^^ , ™^, ,„ ^i,e tlrem- J- ..^1 oc CO tii'iiiv voutiE men are in ttie prescm ii.ij' ) ' t, are disposed. ^''^ ^^""J ff"^" ^^^^^ if they can. everything selves up to ease and f^^\'"''3"'. ■ ^„ ^^.i,,^!, deman.ls honest, earnest, which costs continued trouble everjthinj, ^^^ jjie care- hard work-must remember that no -^ ^^^^^^ . ,, [^.^ true end l«.„ess can <^^^ ^^' ^^T^ ^ :r-^, tiSs^ L^ the li.. to come, of any human soul '-"; '"^^^"^^ ,,, ,,,,uing zealously, hon«tly. Letmen. whoever they nay .t,wn ..ealously and and humbly in their several ^'^^^^ ^\^^^Z.or. v^aL on. ^HhMly.onitln^c^^--;e^^-^^^ who was m ^»'- ^ ^^/^^J,; ,,,i „„ the value of work, on the noble- has, in the sight oi (.od set Its sea ^^^^ ^^^ ^^.^^ ^^ ^^^^ ness of toil, on the grandeur of lo^^g <'- ^ ;' ^^„^^^„ ^„„ ^,, ,,,y ding, persevering diligence. Again. ^^'^ ^^^^ ,,^^^^„^^,_ ,^ ,,y i,.,,r graces of K-- -^^^^^^^^^^^ J ^^,, ^,,„^^. „f ,,, „i,H.st characters have i>cen lesser graces, doubtless utvu ^^ ^^^^^ ^^.,^.^,^ ^^.^.,, a.Utute,butg.ces^.^i^-ot^^^^^^ T^,,, .Hu may i„ the house of Cod XNC iXo we. slightest affront ; who by r' ' "^ '"^^ZT:^n rt:;:^er societAney enter : they who '"^TS^^roTh^r^ miserai-le by wounding their keenest sensib.b- make the lives oi oincis i „„,i,;ttHr mntroversv bv pushing '^■- r ""° ':,T: rr::r™"t™i ":d,/«idei«dit. c::^:i:^z::^^^ t,.,. w,. tiu,,. it the,, d„tv.o ».».= >,„ ARTHUR PENHRYN STANLEY 583 worst of every one frojn whom they dissent, and enter a. never-ending protest against those who may have done them wrong: such as these may have higher pretensions, and, it ni;iy be, hi^rher claims to honor and respect, yet they will do well to understand the silent rebuke which arises from the new-made grave, and which God designs for their especial benefit .... If it be true that to follow, not to lead, public opinion must hence- forth be the course of our statesmen, then our responsibilities and the responsibility of the nation are deepenetl further still. Just as in a belea- guered city, where every sentinel knows that on his single fidelity might depend the fate of all, a single resolute mind, loving the truth only, has before now brought the whole mind of a nation around it.self ; a single pure spirit has, by its own holy aspirations, breathed itself into the corrupt mass of a national literature ; and a single voice raised honestly in behalf of truth, justice, and mercy, has blasted forever practices which were once uni- versal. So I would call upon men, in the prospect of the changes and trials, whatsoever they are, which are now before them ; in the midst uf the memories by which they are surrounded ; in the face of that mighty future to which we are all advancing, to forget " those things that are behind ; " to forget in him who is gone all that was of the earth earthy, and reach forward to his character in all that is immortal in his freedom from party spirit, and in his self-devotion to the public weal. I^t men forget, too, in the past and present generations, all that is behind the Ijest spirit of our age ; all that is before in the true spirit of the Gospel ; all that is behind in the retjuirements of the most enlightened and the most Christian conscience; and reach forward, one and all, towards those great things which they trust are still before them— the great problems which our age, if any, might solve; the grePt tasks which our nation alone can accomplish ; the great doctrines of our common faith which they may have opportunities of grasping with a firmer hand than ever they had before ; the great reconciliation of things old with things new, of things human with things sacred, of class with class, of man with man, of nation with nation, of Church with Church, of all with God. This, and nothing less than this, is the high calling of the nineteenth century ; this is the high calling of England ; this is the high calling of every linglish citizen ; and he who answers not to this high call is utterly unworthy of his birthright as a member of this, our kingb' commonwealth CHARLES H. SPURGEON (1834-1892) LONDOISPS FAMOUS PULPIT ORATOR SMONG the Dissenters* of Kn^linul, made notable in the past by such famous oratora as Wesley ami Whitefield, there have l»een many preachers of }?reat iiower in recent times, promi- nent ainons whom niuyhe named Charles H. Spurfjeon, a man of the oratorical type of Taliiia«j:e in America, and resembling him in the great success of his ministrations. His career as a preaciier of tho Gospel began in l«-'>4, when ho was made pastor of the New Park Street Chapel, Ix)ndon; but his i)ower of attracting an audience was so great tiiat, a few years later, was erected for him tho vast Metro- yiolitan TaU'rnacle, capable of seating OoOO jiersons. Connected with this were afterward built almshouses, a i>astor's college and an orphan- age. Spurgeon's sermons were printed weekly from 1855 onward, and had an average issue of ;U),00(J. A member of the Haptist ITnion, he withdrew from that body in 1SH7, through dissatisfaction with certain of its actions. As an orator Spurgeon was highly giftc.l, combining fervor of manner with a (piaint humor; while his voice was mar- velous in clearness and out reach. Ife published in all over a hundred volumes of religious literature. THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE BIBLE [From a sermon of Spurgeon's on Uic subject orthe Bible, we select the follow- ing characteristic example of his eloquent style and emotional power of expression.) First, then, concerning this book, who is the author ? The text says that it is God. "/ have written to him the great things of My law." Here lies ray Bible ; who wrote it ? I open it, and I find it consists of a series of tracts. The first five tracts were written by a man called Moses. • The uatiie .:iveii in Hnulan.! lo lliose ProtcsUnis wl.o absented from the diBclplinr or mode of worship of the Kslabllahed Church, and formed nrw sects, witli doctrinal or olhrr differencw. 6(H CHARLES H. SPURGEON 5H6 I turn on and I find others. Sometimes I see David is the penman, at other times, Solomon. Here I read Micati, then Amos, then Hosea. As I turn further on, to the more luminous pages of the New Testament, I see Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Paul, Peter, Jmnes, and others ; but when I shut up the book, I a.sk myself who is the author of it ? Do these men jointly claim the authorship ? Are they the compositors of this mas- sive volume? Do they between themselves divide the honor? Our holy relijrion answers, " No ! " This volume is the writing of the living God: each letter was pennetl with an Almighty finger : each word in it dropped from the Kverlasting liiw, each sentence was dictated by the Holy Spirit. Albeit, that Moses was employed to write his histories with his fiery pen, God guided that pen. It may be that David touched his harp and let sweet psalms of melody drop from his fingers, but God moved his hand over the living strings of his golden harp. It tnay be that Solomon sang canticles of love, or gave forth words of consummate wisdom, but God directed his lips and made the preacher elocjuent. If I follow the thun- dering Nalium when his horses plough the waters, or Habakkuk when he sees the tents of Cushan in affliction ; if I read Malachi, when the earth is burning like an oven ; if I turn to the smooth page of John, who tells of love, or the nigged, fiery chapters of Peter, who sjieaks of the fire devour- ing God's enemies ; if I turn to Jude, who launches forth anathemas upon the foes of Go' and such mighty language as is to be found in the Scriptures. I might insist upon it that the subjects of which it treats are twyond the human intellect ; that man could never have invented the grand doctrine of a Trinity in the Godhead ; man could not have told us anything of the creation of the universe ; he could never have been the author of the m m 6H.t CHARLES H. SPURGEON majestic idea of Providence, that all things are ordered accoidinK to the will of one great Supreme Being, and work together for good. I might enlarge upon its honesty, since it tells the faults of its writers ; its unity, since it never belies itself ; its master simplicity, that he who runs m*y read it • and I might mention a hundred more things, which would afl prove to a demonstration that the book is of God. But I come not here to prove it. I am a Christian minister, and you are Christians, or pro&as to be so ; and there is never any necessity for Christian ministers to make a point of bringing forth infidel arguments in order to answer them. There may be some one here to-night who has come without faith, a man of reason, a free-thinker. With him I have no argument at all. I profes.' not to stand here as a controversialist, but as a preacher of the things I know and feel. But I. too. have been like him. There was an evil hour when once I slipped the anchor of my faith ; I cut the cable of my belief; I no longer moored myself hard by the coasts of revelation ; I allowed myself to drift before the wind ; I said to Reason. " Be thou my captain "I said to mv own brain. '• Be thou my ruilder ; " and I started on my mad voyage. Thank God it is all over now ; but I will tell you its brief history. It was one hurried sailing over the tempestuous ocean of free-thought. I went on, nnd as I went the skies began to darken ; but to make up for that deficiency, the waters were brilliant with coruscations of brilliancy. I saw sparks flyingupwards that pleased mc, and I thought, "If this be free-thought, it is a happy thing." My thoughts seemed gems and I scattered stars with both my hands. But anon, inst«ad of these' coruscations of glory. I saw grim fiends, fierce and horrible, start up from the waters, and as I dashed on they gnashed their teeth and giinned upon me ; they seized the prow of my ship, and dragged me on, while I, in part, gloried at the rapidity of my motion, but yet shuddered at the terrific rate with which I passed the old landmarks of my faith. As I hurried forward with an awful speed, I began to doubt my very exist- ence ; I doubted if there were a world, I doubted if there were such a thing as myself. I went to the very verge of the dreary realms of unl)eliet. I went to the very bottom of the .sea of infidelity. I doubted everything. But here the Devil foiled himself; for the very extravagance of the doubt proved its abs irdity . Just when I saw the bottom of that sea, there came a voice which said, " And can this doubt be true ? " At this very thought I awoke. I started from that death-dream, which God knows might have damned my soul and ruineil this my body, if I had not awoke. JOSEPH PARKER (1 830- J 902) FAMOUS PULPIT ORATOR BIIOM sl.)ii(iii;i>nii In tlic iiKKt iM)|.iil;ir imlpit in Kiij^laii.l is (lio rcconl (il'oiif who was iuanl aiid ivad li.v iiii>rc of llic woiM's j.c(i|ilf tiiaii any oilier iium ot' tlu" Niiirlcciilli Cfiiliirv. Josfjili I'aikti- \va< tin' son ut' a sloiu'iMasoii, honi in 1 S.'in, c.lii- calccl ihrnUL'li liis own cll'orts, witli Ixit small assistunce t'loiii liis |.;nviits. Win II r-.invcly out of his tci'us in- sliowfil <,'n'at talent as a |.ul.lie speaker in reli-jious in»'elin,us. He road and studied at oild niouients the w..rl.( tlie j^reat IJrilisli Orators, wliieli laiil the toun- diilion for liis iiitnre l.rilliant eareer. V\nni enlerin-,' the ministry, ho rapiiilv sprani,' into |in)Mnnene(', and Ixcame the pastor of the 'i'emple t'hurch, London, from wiiieh ins fame sjiroad the world over. ■ 'i HUMAN FRIVOLITY [Thi> example ef pulpil oralury .-ihows tlie practical nature of Joseph I'.irkcr's sermons. They appealed to the umlliliidc, and his pointed criticism and just indigna- lion aKidnst [wpular errors bore fruit in many lives, in making them betterand nobler.J l-rivolousiiess will ruin any life. No frivoloustiess succeetls in any- great enterprise. No frivolous man suceeeds ni business of a commer- ci.tl kind. Business is not a trick or an amtisement, it is hard work, hard study, daily consideration, incessant planninj,', wakefulness that ought never to go to sleep. If so for a corrnptihle crown, what for an incorrupt- ible ? The danger is that we make light of the Gospel iK'cause of our disregard for the manner in which it is spoken. Were we anxious about the vital matter, we should not care how it was uttered. All mere study of manner, and way of putting familiar truth, is an accommodation to the frivolity of the age. When we are told to tnake our services more inter- esting, our music more lively, our preaching more animated, we are but 587 I'. am JOSEPH PARKER told to stoop to the frivolity of the time, that we may entrap a truant attention and arrest a wandering mind. Given an anxious people, hun- gering and thirsting after righteousness, knocking at the church door, saying, " Open to me the gates of righteousness, I will enter in and be glad; this is the day the Lord hath made," we need not study any mechanical arrangements, or urge ourselves to any unusual animation of manner ; the urgency of our desire, the purity and nobleness of our sym- pathy, would supply all the conditions recjuired by the God of the feast, for the pouring out of heaven 's best wine and the preparation of all the fatlings of the heavens for the satisfaction of our hunger. God makes all the universe contribute to the soul's growth. " My oxen and my fatlings are killed and ready, therefore come to the marriage." He keeps back nothing from the soul, He plucks the highest grapes in the vineyards ot heaven for the soul. He seeks out the goo^'^l^tfll.>^l GABRIEL HONORE RIQUETTI, COUNT DH MIRABEAU(1749479J) THE DEM0STHENF5 OF FRANCE 0MAN mail of passion, of youthful viws, of disorderly habits, of dau^'iTous iutrij,'ui-s, roiR-llious at ouce a^aiust father and State, Miralx-au iniKht have died unknown to fame had not the States (ien.'ral of 17S0 },'iven him an opiKJrtunity for the display of his remarkahie elo(iuenee, and the exerti.m of his j,M{;antic energy ajjainst the system of oppression and injustice which had so lonj? afHicted Frame. It was with ditticulty that he obtained an election to that k)dv, but ouce tliere, " He trod tlu. tribune with the supreme authority of a master aiul the imiK-rial air of a king." One of his critics says : " He was a man who, by his .lualities no les.s than by the sin.mlarity of his fortune, is destined to take his place in history by tbc^id.' of the Demosthenes, the (Jracehi, an-l the other kindred spirits of an anti.iuity whose siK'uUic characteristics he so frequently repro- duced." Vehement and imiH-rious in temiHT, irre.isnMo m his command oyer an audience, h'« swayed the States-Go .er.il al his will, and had he liyed the Ileyolution might have taken quite another form than that hideous one by which it made itself execrable. As concerns the onitorv of Miral)eau, Carlylesays, " His short and pithy .sentences U'came the watchwonls of the Uevolution; his ges- tures were comman.ls, his motions were <-o„{». d'efnL" Ma.aulay thus compares him with Chatham, Englaml's most famous orator: "Su.l- don bursts which seemed tolH3 the Hlect of inspiration, short sentences which came like lightning, dazzling, burning, striking doxvn every- thing before them, in theso chieHy lay the oratorical i)Ower Iwtli ol Chatham an.l Mirak^au. . . . Then- have been far greater sp-ak- ers and far greater statesmen than .■ither of them ; but wo doubt 590 COUNT DE MIRABEAU 5)11 whether any nicii have, in hiimIciii limes, exereiw'tl sneli vast jHTsonnl iiilhicnco over storii.y iiikI ihvii!('iht. The rein fell finni his hands on April "2, IT'U, when he lay<|i>wn in death, his iast wonls a i>n»r poem of ihc materialistic faith : •• Knvfloj. me with |.trhimts and crown nic wiili tloweiN, that I may passawav into I'verlastin;; slcc|(." AND YET YOU DEUBERATE [Of Miral>cnu's orations, one of the most ihaniclcriHlic wnn tliat upon a pruject of Ncckcr, the .listinniiislicd financier, fur tidins over the financial diirinillics whi.-li •roiihlccl alike the Court and the SUlcs-Gcueral. We give the peroration of this faniouN and i>owerful si)cech.] In the tiiidst of this tnnuiltoiis debate can I not bring you back to the question of the dehberation by a few simple (jucstions. Deign, gentle- men, to hear me and to vouchsafe a reply. Have we any other plan to sul)stitute for the one he proposes? " Yes," criefs some one in the assembly ! I conjure the one making this reply of " Yes" to consider that this plan is unknown; that it would take time to develop, examine, and demonstrate it ; that even were it at once submitted to our deliberation, its author may be mistaken ; were he even free of all error, it might be thought he was wrong, for when the whole world is wrong, the whole world makes wrong right. The author of this other project in being right might be wrong against the world, since without the assent of public opinion the greatest talents could not triumph over such circumstances. And I— I myself— do not believe the methinls of M. Necker the very best possible. But Heaven preserve me in such a critical situation from opposing my views to his ! Vainly I might hold them preferable ! One does not in a moment rival an immense popularity achieved by brilliant services ; a long experience, the reputation of the highest talent a«- i financier, and, it can l)e added, a destiny such as has been achieved by no other man ! Let us then return to this plan of M. Necker. But have we the time to examine, to prove its foundation, to verify its calculations ? Xo, no, a thousand times no ! Insignificant questions, hazardous conjectures, douMs and gropings, these are all that at this moment are in our power. What shall we accomplish by rejecting this deliberation ? Miss our deci- sive moment, injure our self-esteem by changing something we neither know nor understand, and diminish by our indiscreet intervention the influence of a minister whose financial credit is, and ought to lie, much COUNT DE MIRABEAU C nor foresight ^/;^^;^; ^The'^ic faith, our horror of the declarations guarantee our J^^P^y^^"! /^^^ ^o scrutinize the secret infamous word •' bankruptcy. I "'^^'^"J^^ ,,t of patriotic „.otives which make us hes.tate « P-^^^J^^^^^^^^ „^^, ^^ f„n confidence. which will be inefficacious '^ ^''\'^°'''''Zl^^i\^^ Nvith the idea of fail- I would say to those who fam.l ar.ze l^J^^^^ ^ ^^.^^j^e sacri- ing to keep the public faith, either by ^^^l^XZ.. iniquitous, the fices: What is bankruptcy '^ ""^ ^^'^ " "f^^' ' mv fri.nds. hear but a most unequal, the most disastrous of .mposts . M. word— a single word : hriMndage have made the chasm Two centuries of ^^^P^^^f ^'^f J"^J'Sr\^ "»«t close this fear- in which the kingdom .s ready to ^"^"^^^^^"p jetors. Chouse among ful abyss. Well, here .s a hst of ^ -^^"^JJ'^'f ^j^.^^,,,. ^nt choos. ! the richest, thus -"^^^/l; ^^ r e\t ma^^ ^ r^" Formustnotasmal numl^rper^hjosa ^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^t^^Mn;.olate with^t^ U^^^^^ ,- tbe abyss untd U ->- ^^^ J^^tt decreeing bankruptcy, or what .s lanimous men ! Do yoii noi .ec without decreeing it. you do still more odious, in ^^-^"'';^ ''^^^^^^^^oXXy X.co.c^v.\.X.-^^^^^^- a deed a thousand tmiesrnor^cnmm^^^ J^^.^^^ ^^^,^ ^^^^^ ,,, ously criminal? tor ^^ J^'^l J^^'^ ^^^^ disappearance of the deficit^ But do yo g^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^.^^.^^^ you will cease to owe ? D° . ^^ nf bv the terrible explosion or its reper- of men. who will lose m an '"^^^ " ^^j^^^^^r "ives. and constituted, per- cussion, all chat made the conscJaUon ojjj-^^-^^ .^^ ,« enjoy haps, the sole means of their support, wo j^y^ .^Hs. which your crime? Stoical contemplators of the . egotists who ?his catastrophe -Id disgo^e ^pon l^^Z^ pass liL so many think tha'. these ^°"^"^X as STre the more violent ! Are you sure others and the >«°'^^/^^P'f ^J^nHe^^^ you tranquilly to the enjoy- that so many men without bread ^v'll ^^J^J j^j^'i ,.„„ ^,^ unwilling „,ent of those dainties, the T^^^^ldtthe ^niversal'conflagration you lllr^State^ liS^:^ - - -^ — ^" - -- ^ '^^'' ^"^ of your detestable enjoyments. ^^ patriotism, and Look where we are going! . . • ^"^ J. / ^h! do not prostitute the elan of patriotism, of invocations to patriotism. COUNT DE MIRABEAU .'.(« the words, "country" ami "patriotism ! It is -«) very iiiaKnani- ,got,A_-the effort to give a i>ortion of one's revemu' to save all of one's possessions ! This, gentlemen, is only simple arithmetic ; and he who hesitates cannot disarm iti.lignation except hy the contempt he inspires through his stupidity. Yes, xentleraen, this is the plainest prudence, the commonest wisdom. It is your k^iss material interest I invoke. I shall not say to you as formerly : Will you l>e the first to exhibit to the nations the spectacle of a peopk- assemhled to ntake default in their public obliga- tions ? I shall not say again : What titles have you to liberty ? What means remain to you to preserv it. if in your first ait you surpass the turpitude of the most corrupt governments; if the first care of your vigilant co-operation is not for the guarantee of your constituticm ? I tell you, you will all be dragged into a universal ruin, and you yourselves have the greatest interests in making the sacrifices the tVovernment asks of you. Vote, then, for this extraordinar>- sulisidy ; and it may \te suffi- cient. Vote for it, -for if you have any doubts on the means adopted (vague and unenlighlciietl doubts), you have none as to its necessity, or our inability to provide an immediate sulwtitute. Vote, then, l)ecause public necessity admits no delay, and we shall l)e held accountable for any delay that occurs. Beware of asking for time ! Misfortune never grants it ! Gentlemen, apropos of a ridiculous disturbance at the Palais Royal, of a laughable insurrection, which never had any importance save in the weak imaginations or perverted designs of a few faith-breakers, you have heard these mad words: "Catiline is at the gates of Rome! And yet yoti deliberate ! " And certainly there has tieen alwut us no Catiline, no jK'ril, no fac- tion, no Rome. But to-day 1 ankruptcy -hideous bankruptcy— is here ; it threatens to consume you, your properties, your honor I And yet you deliberate ! THE PRIVILEGED AND THE PEOPLE [A second l)ricf extract will further serve to show the impetuous and striking character of Minibeiiirs oriitory.] In all countries, in all ages, have aristocrats implacably pursued the friends of the people; and when, by I know not what combination of fortune, such a friend has uprisen from the very bosom of the aristocracy, it has been at him pre-eminently that they have struck, eager to inspire wider terror by the elevation of their victim. So perished the last of the Gracchi by the hands of the Patricians. But. tnortar.y smitten, he flung dust towards heaven, calling the avenging gods to witness: and from ;!s Mictocorr resoiution tbt chart (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No 2) A APPLIED ItVMGE In ^^ 1653 East Mam Stfeel a r-a Rochester. New VorW 1*609 USA ^jSr (""6) *a2 - 0300 - Phone aa^ (716) 288 - 5989 - Fax i1 fe COUNT DE MIRABEAU , . vTorinc — Marius less illustrious for having extermina- '° "Zj-ou, Common., listen to one »ho, unplaced b, y»«' «PI^"-; til of serAove. and never thrust into the balance the md.v.dual agamst '"' "or myself who. in my public career, have had no other fear than that r Iw who eirt with my conscience, and armed with my pnn- 1 • j^ o «,nrH of exoirine prejudices— shall not on me impose. Z^'Z^i:Z^^^^^<^^' course, who. first among all the In of France eVatically proclaimed his opinions on -tional affairs - -ewhencircums^^^^^^^^^^^^^ S rw: mT;tifnr nL ^:, I am. I shan be. even to the to^b. ^ malof tUpublic Liberty, the man ^^ ;;^\^^^^'^}^:'lZ'l^^ such be to become the man of the people rather than of the "obles. then toe t^the p^vileged orders ! Kor privileges shall have an end. but the people is eternal ! PIERRE VERGNIAUD (17594793) THE ORATOR OF THE GIRONDISTS ffl IIK urcMt orator of tho Ciruiulisl sect ion nt' tin' Iti'volulionary .\ss(iiil)ly of Fniiico, VtTLr-iiauil, was too iinlolfut and too indillfniit to iPiit liimscll il tlii' head of tin- party, wliidi iio iiiiulit liavf .lone liad lifcliosfu. He was (|nite content to till tin- post of its orator. He was tlio riost nioil.ratc of tho Ciirondists. lait s\if- Ifrc.l till" tate of liis fellows. \n January, 17!i:5, as President of tlio Convention, he pronounced the sentence of the kinji's death. In Octoher he sulfered the same fate himself. No man of his lime met death more lK)lilly. "In parliamentary elo<|uence," says Macaulay, "no Frenchman of his time can he considered e.|ual to Verj,'niaud. In a forei<,ni coun- try, and after the lapse of half a century, some parts of his siioechcs are still read with mournful admiration." I.amartine says, " His languaj;e had the imap's and harmony of the most heautiful verses." AN APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE [We append two brief examples of Vergniaud's oratory, the first callitiR on tlie tlie people to defcn.l themselves against their foes, internal and external, the second denouncing the terrorism of the club of the Jacobins.] Preparations for war are manifest on our frontiers, and we hear of renewed plots agahist liberty. Our armies reassemble ; mighty move- ments agitate the empire. Martial law having become necessary, it has seemed to us just. But we have succeeded only in brandishing for a moment the thunderbolt in the eyes of rebellion. The sanction of the king has been refuser' to our decrees. The princes of Germany make their territory a retreat for the conspirators against you. They favor the plots of the emigrants. They furnish them an asylum ; they furnish them gold, 5i»d g^ PIERRE VERGNIAUD arms ho«es and munitions. Is not the patience suicidal which tolerate a^this? Doubtle^syou l-e renounced all projects of conquest^ but y^^^^^ have not promised to endure such insolent provocations. You have shiken off the yoke of your tyrants ; but it was not to bend the knee .o '"Tut'Twtre! You are environed by snares. They seek to drive you by kisgX lassitude, to a state of languor fatal to your courage = orfetal to its right direction. They seek to separate you from u. . they or latai to us J . ^^^ National As.sembly ; they mcnm- ZihenobilUy' The counter-revolution-what is it but taxation, feu- daUty he B^tiUe. chains and executioners, to punish the «ubhme a.sp.ra- tnJofTil^ty? What is it but foreign satellites in the midst of the sSefwS.utbankruptcy,cngulfing, with your assignats.yo^^^^^ fortunes and the national wealth ; what, but the funes of fa-^icism and oTvenreance; assassinations, pillage, and incendiansm ; -/1^°'^- ^P?^" otvengeanc , over rivers of blood and htaps of carcasses, the ism and death, aispuung, uvci iiv ,.,■,.,. TViat i« to sav two ™X is»Hhyoa. I.is tkeir »»« which you embrace, m def- -ng you to take up arms ? THE DESPOTISM OF THE JACOBINS li :-j;j»»5a^'"'>**; F PIERRE VERGNIAUD 897 '-' " f ■5>.£ 3 :="». o It: > II- UI 1 Jc tic;; 2 ? :i B it c /> .' f w of men the most vile, and of wretches the most detestable : nnii wiio con- tinue to imagine that the Revolution has been made for themselves alone, and who have sent Louis XVI. to the Temple, in order that //in I — did they not seek to turn them against severa' deputies, and myself among the numl)er ! Were we not denounced to the people as traitors ' Fortunately, it was the people into whose hands we fell. The assa.ssins were elsewhere occupied. The voice of calumny failed of its effect. If »iy voice may yet make itself heard from this i)lace, I call you all to witness it shall not cease to thunder, with all its energy, against tyrants, whether of high or low degree. What to me their ruffians and their poniards? What his own life to the representative of the people, while the safety of the coun- try is at stake ? When William Tell adjusted the arrow which was to pierce the fatal apple that a tyrant had placed on his son's head, he exclaimed, " Perish my name, and perish my memory, provided Switzerland may be free ! " And we, also, — we will say, " Perish the National Assembly and its memory, provided France may be free."* Ay, perish the National Assembly and its memory, so by its death it may save the I Nation from a course of crime that would affix an eternal stigma to the French name ; so, by its action, it may show the Nations of Europe that, despite the calumnies by which it is sought to dishonor F'rance, there is still in the very bosom of that momentary anarchy where the brigands have plu-.iged us — there is still in our countrj' some public virtue, some respect for humanity left! Perish the National Assembly and its memory, if upon our ashes our more fortunate successors may establish the edifice of a Con- stitution, which shall assure the hap'; incss of France, and consolidate the reign of liberty and equality ! * When these words were spoken the deputies rose with intense enthusiasm and repealed tJie words of the orator, while the audience in the galleries added their cries of approval to the tumult on the floor. GEORGE JACQUES DANTON (1759-1794) THE MIRABEAU OF THE SANSCULOTTES EARCIE of fnuno, (lnuiillc!-H of spirit, passionate of teiuiKTaiiient, lK)\vi'rfiil in voiw, Daiitoii was well a-; P;';);^ •^^^^i; , J reason, I have fre signifies inecoun. 1 „„,„«,! „,v^elf to every species of danger , tne t«v«p1f in dunr'ons ; condcainea myseii lu cvcij i^ , „„ . r the scaffold any day of my life. MAIOMIUEN ISIDORE DE ROBESPIERRE (J 758- J 794) THE BLOODHOUND OF THE RE. j^UTlCffi mHKrliiira.tcrcf Kolx'spiom" was one ..f tlir iikM cxlraonliiiary t<)l,c f.Miu.l ill all l.ist..iy. II.- niiiainsuM c-.iijjnia. \W suiiu) 111- is iv-ar.l.Ml as a fanatic, with an h.nu'st .U-vnti.in to Iuh couiitrv at tho?msi.s ot Wm inassa.n-s; by oth.Ts as a .rafly a.i.I fiti- 1..HS .1.'.naj;oj:u.". If wo hIiouM ju-l-.- l.v Jiis utt.iancrs, we n.usl lK-li(.v(! him f-inrm- an.l deeply leiiKious; ifhy his arts, it h .lilli.ull to lin.l wor-ls to .-xpress our ahhnneme. The remark of MiraU aii may help to solve the enigma of his life : " He will p. far, for he believes all he says." He eertain'v went far, for he was the inspirmj; spirit of the friKh'tfiil Heign of T. ', As an orator Roh'spierre laek»-.l native jwwers". Ho had not the "t of exteniiwruneous siK.-och, of fine voice, or of co.nmantling perKojiality. A FINAL APPEAL [If we coul.l judge from Robespierre's speeches, he was a much maligticd Jndi- viJunl,a moralist driven to severity l.y the vices of his eucmies Ho tells us in his speech on the sentence of the king, 'I al.hor U.e punish.nent of death, inflicted «> unsp.iringly by your laws .... but Louis must die, because the country must live. In H later speech, when the guillotine was doing its bloodiest work at his command, he earnestiy. almost pathetically, maintains his belief in a Supreme Being and the imuiortality of the soul. In his final Bpecch. m..,le the day before his death to an assembly thirsting for his blood, he pose, still as the patriot and the maligned moralist.] The enemies of the Republic call me tyrant ! Were I such they would grovel at my feet. I should gorge them with gold, I should grant them impunity for their crimes, and they would be grateful. Were I such, the kings we hp .e vanquished, far from denouncing Robespierre, would lend me their guilty support. There would be a covenant between them 601 MAXIMILIEN ISIDORE DE ROBESPliiRRE and me. Tyranny must have tools. But the «°«™'^ "^ ^^7";;^;" whither does^...V path tend ? To the tomb and to -"-^1'^^ ' ^^^ tyrant is my protector? To what faction do I belong? Yourselves! What faction, since the beginning of the Revolution has crushed -d annihilated so many detected traitors ? You-the people our P"nc.ples Hie that faction ! A faction to which I am devoted, and agaxnst which aU the scoundrelism of the day is banded ! The confirmation of the Republic has been my object ; and I know that the Republic can be established only on the eternal basis of morality Ag inst me' and against those who hold kindred principles tbe league^^ formed My life ? O ! my life I abandon without a regret ! I have .^n hTptt ; and I foresee the future. What friend of his country wou d wfsh to survive the moment he could no longer ser.e it,-wh.n he could TloSerLfend innocence against oppression ? Wherefore shouM I ^^^^^^ Snue in an order of things where intrigue eternally triumphs over truth where Justice is mocked ; where passions the most abject, or fears the most absurd override the sacred interests of humamiv? In witnessing the multitude of vices which the torrent of t^ie Revo- lution has rolled in turbid communion with its '^^^^ .^'^l'^^' ^ '^^^ tSat I have sometimes feared that I should be .nlUed, in the ^X- of PO ' terity by the impure neighborhood of unprincipled men. who had thrust them^lves into association with the sincere friends of humanity ; ana I ScTtL these conspirators against my country have now. by their Slis rage, traced deep tne line of demarcation between themselves and ^' TuSlon history, and learn how all the defenders of liberty, in all times have been overwhelmed by calumny. But their traducers died also. The good and the bad disappear alike from the earth ; ^u m very dif- ferent conditions. O, Frenchmen! O. my countrymen ! Let not yo.r enemirwith their desolating doctrines, degrade your souls, and enerva e youTvTnues ! No. Chaumette,* no ! Death is nol " an eternal sleep ! St" ens'efface from the tomb that motto, graven by sacrilegious hands, which Leads over all nature a funeral crape, takes from oppressed inno Tence £ support, and affronts the beneficent dispensation of death rnSberather'thereon these words: " Death is the commen^eni^^^^^^ immortality ! " I leave to the oppressors of the people a terrible testa Tent which I proclaim with the independence befitUng one whose career is so nearly ended ; it is the awful truth,-" Thou shalt die ! ;^;;;;:;;:;;;7„a,.m.mbe. of th.Co„v«.io„.who.a» opposed ^ th, pubUc „co«-itionof . God and the future st»tr. - -«^^:^iiSi 3ES FOUR FRENCH ORATORS AND STATESMEN Victor Cousin anJ Victor Huro were JislinKuistieJ orators anJ writers, and Louis A. Thiers and Leon (iambetta were aistin- guislied statesmen anJ orators of France in ttie icjth Century BOOK vm Nineteenth Century Orators of France THE history of !•" ranee in recent times has been unique and higlily interesting. Nowhere else in history can be found the record of a coun- try that had four poHtical revohitions, each followed by a transformation in the government, within a cen- tury. Such has been the case in I'Vance. The unjjaralleled revolution of 1789 was followt.'d by feeb- ler copies in 1830. 1848 and 1871, a republic following the monarchy in three of these cases, while a change of dynasty took place in the second. Here was abundant political change, uprooting of old institu- tions, exposure of administrative abuses, radical vari- ations in conditions. In all this there was abun- dant occasion for oratory, and that of the most strenu- ous character. The type of eloquence to which th<; first revolution gave occasion we have already shown. That of the succeeding ones was less vehement. Only one orator of recent France can be named who in any sense compares in character with those of the age of Mirabeau. This is Victor Hugo, whose assaults on "Napoleon the Little" were as cutting and virulent as the most unbridled diatribes of the days of the guillotine. As a rule, however, the nineteenth century oratory of France was in a quieter and more classical vein, some of the most famous and polished orators winning their reputation on non-political issues. As regards the leaders In political oratory — Lamar- tine, Thiers, Gambetta and others — those, while vig- orous and aggressive in tone, were of a far milder type than the fiery orators of tlu; previous century or the indignant and incisive Hugo of their own. ^ >^«!^-,:', '^^^a^'Sm ^ VICTOR COUSIN (17924867) AN EMINENT ORATOR AND PHILOSOPHER mHF Sor>jonne a famous college at Paris of ancient institution, "po^:::" i^ the early pu-t of tl. ^^^f^^f^^^J^Z lecturers of wide fame, Cousin, Cnu/ot and ^ lUc^nam, tl e reason, liis popuunuj' « tliou"h he was other, in the pt^scnl ..sc were H.hHho. , bonk lo^ ^ „,„,„ b..iug 0„ "The T,™ the «-'"" '' " '^^^^^^'J ,,,„„^phv of ,„u, othe. ^-^^':^Z^T.XZ^l U.e a'u.o,. high estiimtrai. *•»'=['■'""'' ,„, „ ,i„,e in 1840, was Minister entcted upon a roi.t.«l --'. »^ - »,'"-; ,,,„„„,;„ ,„„„.,e,, ::;r;r;r:to,.^'"nrro„.no,«Hin ...ie a.,i« a„e. tl)o Ilevolution of 1848. SUPREMACY OF THE ART OF POETRY True, the Beautiful and the Good."] The art P^r .,.,lcn„. .ha. whieh sun—. »" »"-»■ >— "'« " " ouo VICTOR COUSIN mi between the ordinary voice and music— something at once material and immaterial, finite, clear, and precise ; like contours and forms, the most definite, living, and animated ; like color pathetic, pnd infinite like sound. A word in itself, especially a word chosen and transfigured by poetry, is the most energetic and universal symbol. Armed with this taiisnia.;, poetry reflects all the images of the sensible world, like sculpture and painting ; it reflects sentiment like painting and music, with all its varieties, which music does not attain, and in their rapid succession which painting cannot follow, as precise and immobile as sculpture ; and it not only expresses all that, it expresses what is inaccessible to every other nrt :— I mean thought, entirely distinct from the senses and even from sentiment ; thought that has no forms ; thought that has no color, that lets no sound escape, that does not manifest itself in any way ; thought in its highest flight, in its mos«^ refined abstraction. Think of it ! What a world of images, of sentiments, of thoughts at once distinct and confused, are excited within us by this one word— coun- try ! and by this other word, brief and inmiense— (iod ! What is more clear and altogether more profound and vast ! Tell the architect, the sculptor, the painter, even the nuisician, to call forth also by a single stroke all the powers of nature and the soul. They cannot ; and by that they acknowledge the superiority of speech and poetry. They proclaim it themselves, for they take poetry for their own measure ; they esteem their own works, and demand that they should be esteemed, in proportion as they approach the poetic ideal. An.l the human race does as artists do ; a beautiful picture, a noble melody, a living and expressive statue, gives rise to the exclamation, How poetical ! This is not an arbitrary comparison ; it is a natural judgment which makes poetry the type of the perfection of all the arts ; the art parfxcdhnce, which com- prises all others, to which they aspire, which none can reach. When the other arts would imitate the works of poetry, they usually err, losing their own genius without robbing poetry of its genius. But poetry constructs, according to its o\\ i taste, palaces and temples, like architecture ; it makes them simple or magnificent ; ■"'' orders, as well as all systems, obey it ; the different ages of art are thr to it ; it repro- duces, if it please, the Classic or the Gothic, the beat .1 or the sublime, the measured or the infinite. losing has been able, with the exactest justice, to compare Homer to the most perfect sculptor ; witli such precision are the forms which that marvelous chisel gives to all things determined. And what a painter, too, is Homer! And, of a different kind, Dante ! Music alone has something more penetrating than poetry, but it is vague, limited, and fugitive. '*^'- »^> V£.>^»ULV^ ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE (J 7904869) THE ORATOR OF THE J848 REVOLUTION ON the 2r.th of Fol.rnavv, 184S, who., a seditious a».l furious mol. IvLl tho .troets of I..ri.. .h.n.a..di.., the ...1 lla^ of a,.arc.hy i..steaa of the tricolor of the Uoimhlic, Alphonsclo La...a. ...o. a ,..e.«U-r of the revohitio..ary f;over.....e,.t, aHH-ared U-fore the... „ a nassio..ate hur.t of elo.,ue,.ee eah.u.l the.r fc.h..,H a...l Ig t th ... hack to reaso... Never U-forc i.. history ha.l oratory ZX tri..u..,h like this, an.l it place.l La.uarth.e h.,h a,..o.., iK,ht.- ^'^^ "k!::::.. l>efo. as a i.et of splenaid lowers, a..l as ^^^>^^ his bnllia..t "Histo,v of the (;iro,..lists," La...art..,e, .n 1H4H. iK^ca ... the .nster spirit a...i the n.o.lerator of the .evolut.on. repress.ng the teXey to violcce hy achmrahle .lisplays of eloquence courage a 1 magmuLutv, a...! winuh.g a., i.nu.ense iK>pularity, Nvh.ch. howeve was not long live.l. His aeelh.e i.. public estimat.o.. was shown .. The e 'cetion for President in Dece.ul.r, 1848, h. wh.ch he reee.ve.l ddy 8000 votes. During he re...ai..aer of his life he produce.l a nuinl)er of valuable historical works. "«jmAT IS THE FRENCH ..EVOLUTION the following extract from one of his speeches.] What then is the French Revolution? Is it. as the adorers of the 608 ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE (-0!) France ; for a sedition subsides as it rises, and leaves nothing but corpses and ruins behind it. The Revolution has k"f\ scaiTolds and ruins, it is trtie ; therein is its remorse . but it has also left a doctrine; it has left a spirit which will l)e enduring and perpetual so long as human reason shall exist. We are not inspired by the spirit of faction ! No fp.vtious idea enters our thoughts. We do not wish to compose a faction— we compose opinion, for it is nobler, stronger, and more invincible. Shall we have, ni our first struggles, violence, oppression and death ' No, gentlemen ! let us give thanks to our fathers ; it shall be liberty which they have bequeatheti to us. literty which now has its own arms, its pacific arms, to develop itself without anger and excess. Therefore shall we triumph— be sure of it ! and if you ask what is the moral force that shall bend the gov- ernment beneath the will of the nation, I will answer you ; it is the sover- eignty of ideas, the royalty of mind, the Republic, the true Republic of intelligence ; in one word, opinion— that modern power whose very name was unknown to antiquity. Gentlemen, public opinion was born on the v-ry day when Gutenberg, who has been styled the artificer of a new world invented, by printing, the multiplication and indefinite communi- cation of thought and human reason. This incompreb.ensible power of opinion needs not for its sway either the brand of vengeance, the sword of justice, or the scaffold of terror. It holds in its hands the equilibrium between ideas and institutions, tne balance of the human mind. In one of the scales of this balance— understand it well— will l>e for a long time placed mental superstitions, prejudices self-styled useful, the divine right of kings, distinctions of right among classes, international animosities, the spirit of conquest, the venal alliance of Church and scate, the censorship of thought , the silence of tribunes , and the ignoranc id systematic degrada- tion of the masses. In the other scale, we o- ,e'-'es, gentlemen, will place the lightest and most impalpable thing of all that God has created— light a little of that light which the French Revolution evoked at the close' of the last century— from a volcano, doubtless, but from a volcano °^ *"^^^" SAFETY ONLY IN THE REPUBLIC FFrom Lamartine's remarkable speeches of 1S48 we select Ihc following clo- •lueni appeal for the Republic, as the only security against the rogn of anarchy and bloodshed which was threatened in the temper of the populace.] For my part, I see too clearly the series of consecutive catastroph-s I should be preparing for my country, to attempt to arrest the avalanche of such a Revolution, on a descent where no dynastic force could retain it without increasing its mass, its weight, and the ruin of its fall. There is, 39 ^,Q ALPHON8B DE LAMARTINE I repeat to you, a single power capable of preserving the people from the danger with which a revolution, under such social conditions, menaces them, and this is the power of the people ; it is entire liberty. It is the suflFrage, will, reason, interest, the hand and arm of all— the Republic ! Yes, it is the Republic clone which can now save you from anarchy civil and foreign war, spoliation, the scaffold, the decimation of property, the overthrow ot society and foreign invasion. The remedy is heroic, I know, but at crises of times and ideas like these in which we live, there is no effective policy but one as great and audacious as the crisis itself. By giving, tomorrow, the Republic in its own name to the people, you will instantly disarm it of the watchword of agitation. What do I say ? You will instantly change its anger into joy, its fury nto enthusiasm. All who have the Republican sentiment at heart, all wh. have had a dream of the Republic in their imaginations, all who regret, all who aspire, all who reason, all who dream in France,— Republicans of the secret societies, Republicans m'.itant, speculative Republicans, the people, the tribunes, the youth, the schools, the journalists, men of hand and men of head- will utter but one cry, will gather round their standard, will arm to defend it, but will rally, confusedly at first, but in order afterwar Js, to protect the government, and to preserve society itself behind this government of all— a supreme force which may have its agitations, never its dethronements and its ruins ; for this government rests on the very foundations of the nation. It alone appeals to all. This government only cau maintain itself; this alone can govern itself; this only can unite, in the voices and hands of all, the reason and will, the arms and suffrages; necessary to serve not only the nation from servitude, but society, the family relation, property and morality, which are menaced by the cataclysm of ideas which are ferment- ing beneath the foundations of this half-crumbled throne. If anarchy can be subdued, mark it well, it is by the Republic ! If communism can be conquered, it is by the Republic ! If revolution can be moderated, it is by the Republic ! If blood can be spared, it is by the Republic ! If universal war, if the invasion it would perhaps bring ou as the reaction of Kurope upon us, can be avoided, understand it well once more, it is by f".' Republic. This is why, in reason, and in conscience, as a statesman, before God and before you, as free from illusion as from fanaticism, if the hour in which we delibirate is pregnant with a revolu- tion, I will not conspire for a counter-revolution. I conspire for none— but if we must have one, I will accept it entire, and I will decide for the Republic I LOIJIS ADOLPHE THIERS (J797-J877) AN ORATOR OF THE OPPOSITION fflIIIERS WHS oti(' of that patriotic l»aiiil w lio vip'toiisly op|)ns»'ire he ceased to Im' his partisan and heci.nie Ids jK-rsisteiit foe. In liS(J7 tie'inaile a stronj^ .sj)et'cli a<;ainst i>la[K)leoii's fiireii^n policy, and in iHT" tie vif^oroiisly op|K)seil the war witli Prussia, deoh(iii liad coimnit- teil ar'»ther hhinder. When the Krencli Kepuiiiic was or<,'ani/.ed, in 1H"1, lie was elected its i'resident, hut resi«fned in 187:5, after having done much to overcome the e\il eflects of the war. As a historicai author he is known for his " History of the devolution" and " His- tory of the Consulate and Empire," two works that have heen very widely read. As a statesman he was a man of indomitahle courage and of deep and genuine patriotism. THE WASTETULNESS OF THE IMPERIAL FINANCE. [As a favorable example of the oratorical manner of M. Thiers, we offer a selec- tion from his speech in the Huitget of Juoc 2, 1865, in which he points out, with a critical and sarcastic ci->ames8 that must have been very annoying to the administra- tion, the wilful t)lindne8S with which the revenues of the empire were tjoing expended.] Since our new institutions diminished the share which our nation took in managing its own afiairs, it was feared that tkc activity of mind with which I am reproached might be dangerous, unless means should be found to occupy the attention of the country. These means, sometimes dangerous, always odious, have been wars abroad, and enormous expendi- ture and great speculations at home. After great wars come small ones — small, if we consider the number of men engaged, but lerge if we consider 611 \ m „,2 LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS their distance and the serioas complications they may cause. The war in Mexico hos already cost us more than the Italian war, to say nothing of the complications it may entail. The war expenditure, has, of course, been met by loans, and the public debt has conseciuently been consiiier- aWy increased. Next come our ^reat public wor'-s, an excellent employ- ment for the country's savings in times of peace, as every sensible man will acknowledge ; but we ought to proceed prudently. It is a mistake to suppose, as some do, that there need lie no limit to the application of our savings to public works ; agriculture and manufac- tures ought to hav(> t'aeir share, and if only a portion should l)e employed by the State in improvring roads, canals and other means of communica- tion, still less should be devoted to the mere embellishment of towns. It is certainly necessary to widen the streets and improve the salubrity of cities, but there is no necessity for such vast changes as have been oper- ated in Paris, where, I think, all reasonable limite have l>een exceeded. The contagion of example is to be feared The proverb says that he who commits one folly is wise. If Paris oidy were to be rebuilt I should not have much to say against it, but you know what ha Fontaine wittily says : " Every citizen must build like a lord, Ever>- little prince hive hi* ambassadors, Kv»>ry marquis have his p:ige8.' The glory of the Prefect of the Seine has troubled all the prefects. The Prefect of the Seine has rebuilt the Tuileries, and the Prefect of the Bouches-du- Rhone wants to have his Tuileries also. Last year the Minister of State answered me that only a trifling expenditure was intended, not more than six millions ; but it appears from the debates of the Council-General that the expense will be twelve or fourteen millions, and some persons say as much as twenty millions. I know that the Prefect of the Bouches-du- Rh6ne is a senator ; but if it takes twelve millions to build him a residence, that is a large sum. All the other prefects will be eager to follow his example, as the Prefect of Lisle is already. The sub-prefects, also, will want new residences and new furniture. Where would all this lead to? The Minister of Public Works, full of glory, must have more consideration for the cares of the Minister of Finance. But here we have a new Minister of Public Works, with a new glory to make, and demands for millions multiply. The Minister of Finance defends himself as well as ht can, but appears to be conquered ; he might resist by resigning, certainly ; but that is a means bonowed from past days. A compromise is at least effected. To spare the Treasury, one hundred millions are to be obtained by selling part of the State forests. For this, however, your consent is LOUIS AOOLPHE THIERS ..13 necessary; but the matter is settled in principle ami the public domain will supply the fundH which the Treaaur>' refusw By whom is this tor- rent of expenditure to be arrested ? By yourselves, gentlemen ! Vour w'sdor ourage and patriotism can alone achieve the task. Your resjKiti- sibiiity is great, especially in financial matters ; in politics your powers jiay be contested to a certain extent, but in (j'jestions of finance they are undisputed. In finances you, therefore, are responsible for everything- It is time to halt in this course of expenditure, and not to imitate those sinners who are always txilking of reforming and, after all, die in financial impenitence. We are often told that financial science is ol)Scure, but the assertion is untrue. Sciences are never obscure, except through the dullness of those who expound them, or the charletanism of those who assume a false air oi profundity. I will take my examples from private life. Let us suppose two fathers; one methodical, strict and somewhat morose; the other easy and good natured. The former will regulate his expenditure according to his income, and fix limits which he will not pass ; during the jear this may cause some deprivation to himself and his family, but when settling day comes he has neither anxiety nor embarrassment. The latter takes no such precautions ; he passes quietly through the year, restricting neither his own expenditure nor that of his family ; but when he settles his accounts he finds he has exceeded his income, and is obliged to encroach on his capital to pay his debts ; at:d thus he goes on from year to year, with ever-increasing embarrassment, until ruin stares him in the face. The stern father, meanwhile, has preserved or even incresised his estate, and taught his children that which will be useful to them through life. As in private life, so it is in public affairs. Statesmen have the same passions as other men, and it is only by resisting these passions that they can save the State .... I ask your pardon for speaking so warmly, but it is impossible to treat a graver or more interesting subject. I repeat that you are running toward the double rock, either of failing in you*- engagements, or of ren- dering inevitable the imposition of various ta.xes which may give rise to deplorable divisions. I abjure you to reflect most seriously on this state of aflFairs. You are on the brink of a financial gulf if you persist in the present course. I ask pardon for distressing you, but it is my duty to tell you the truth, and I tell it, whatever the result may be. 1^ VICTOR MARIE HUGO (J802-1885) POET, DRAMATIST, NOVELIST, AND ORATOR B RANGE 1ms imxluwl aii.oiiK lur iimiiy brill iniit omtors, but Olio Victor IluKo, a man " everything by turns " hikI always jireat. As a novelint, many l.K)k ujK.n liiin ns the greatest of the eenturv, an.l re^anl his " Us Miscrables" as a work jH-erless of its kind. As'p<>^"t, as drauiatist, ho hIckxI also in the "-t rank. An.l ns an orator, no rn-nclunan ha*- surpassc.l biin hut MiraU-au. Ho was an orator in grain ; his prose works read like animated s|)etehes. Ho was as fearless as ho was able. He did not hesitate to attack Louis NiiiH)leon with treiKhant bitterness .luring his climb to i)Ower, closing one of bis attacks with tho stin«iii« words: " What ! after Augustus must we have Augiistulus? Ikx-auso we bad a Najwleon the tireat must we now have NaiKjlcon tho Little ? NAPOLEON THE LITTLE rWhen Louis Napoicou seized the throne Vi. tor Hugo went into exile. It wM impoJible for him to keep still with this small usunx:r on the throne of his ^eat tmcle. and he sought a refuse where he c.n.ld speak his nund freely. How f.eely he ,po' c may be seen from the oration we append. He had the art of making viv.d and Idling sentences, and of such this outburst of patriotic pawion is largely made up.] I have entered the lists with the actual ruler of Europe, for it is well for the world that I shou'd exhibit the picture. Louis Bonaparte is the intoxication of tri tmph. He is the incarnation of merry yet savage des- potism He is the mad plentitude of power seeking for limits, but finding them not. neither in men nor facts. Louis Bonaparte holds France— Urbem Romam hab : ; and h- who holds France holds the world. He is master of the votes, master of consciences, master of the people; he names his successor, does away with etrrnity, and places the future in a sealed envelope. His Senate, his Legislative Body, with lowered heads, 014 VICTOR MARIE HUOO (i|'> creep »-l.lr.'» him and lick hi» heel.v He uk« up or dropn the bwhop. and cardinal* : he trample* upon justice which cume* him. and upon iudire. who worship him. Thirty eager new*pa|>er correspondent* .nform the world that he ha.H frowne*!. and every electric wire nu.vcr* .f he ru.se. hi* little finger. Around him i. heard the clank.ng of the *ahre and the roll of the drum. He in seated in the shadow of eagles, In^gtrt by ram- parts and bayonets. Free people tremble and conceal the.r Liberty lest Te ho'd rob Ihem of it. The great erican Republic even h^.taU. before him. and dares not withdraw her ambassador kmgs look at l.n Sth a smile from the midst of their armies, though the.r lu.rts »,e full of dread. Where will he In^gin ? Belgium, Switzerland, or Piedmont ? Europe a-vaiU his invasion. He is able to do as he wishes, and he dreams of impossibilities Well, this master, this triumphant conqueror th~ vanquishTthis dictator, this emperor, this all-powerful man one oiely n^n. robbed and ruined, dares to rise up and attack. Louis Napo- Sn has ten thousand cannons and five hundred thousand soldien.; I hTve btt a pen .and a bottle of ink. I am a mere nothing, a gram of dust a shadow, an ex,le wiMiout a home, a vagrant without even a passport ; but I Cve at my si.le two mighty auxiliaries.-God. who is invincible. ""' cI^niT P;:,^d3SU have chosen a more illustrious champion forthi due o^: death; some stronger athlete-but what matters the man when it is the c.use that fights ? However it may l>e. it is good for Te wor d to gnz. upon this spectacle. For what is it but .ntelligence striking against brute force ' I have but one stone for my sling : but it ' ' r:^Z^n^^L:^ when he is at the height and .enith of hit power at th'e hou- when all bend before him. All the better ; this " ^vriXck'touis Bonaparte ; I attack him openly, l^fore all the world I attack him before God and man. I atUck him lM,ldly ai d TeckLly for love of the people and for love of France. He is going to h^an'mperor. Ut him S one ; but let him remember that though you may secure an empire, you cannot secure an easy conscience ! '^is is the man by whom France is governed ! Governed, do I say ? -possessed in supreme and sovereign sway ! And every day .and every mor^.rby his decrees, by his messages, by all the incredible dnvel XcTh"; pLades in the MoniUur, this emigrant who knows not France r^ hes France her lesson ; and this ruffian tells France he has saved her! Tnd from whom? From herself! Before him, Providence committed onlj ZJ. God was waiting for him to reduce everything to order : at VICTOR MARIE HUGO ftl6 last he has come ! For thirty-six years there had been in France all sorts oTpern'Tous things.-the tribune, a vociferous thing ; the pr^s^ an obstreperous thing; thought, an insolent thing; and hterty. the most cm'n/Ibuse of all. But he came, and for the tribune he has substituted the Senate for the press, the censorship; for thought, imbecility ; and for itrty the sabre ; and by the sabre and the Senate, by imbecility and censorship, France is saved. i,„„„ir T?nr Saved, bravo! And from whom, I repeat? From herself. For what has tWs France of ours, if you please ? A herd of marauders and rWevi ; of anarchists, assassins, and demagogues. She had to be mana- cled, had this mad woman. France ; and it is Monsieur Bonaparte Lou. who puts the handcuffs on her. Now she is in a dungeon on a diet o bread'and water, punish.d.humiliatedgarroted safely J-d for. Be no disturbed, Monsieur Bonaparte., a policeman stationed at the Elysee is answerab e for her in Europe. He makes it his business to be so ; this wTeTched France is in the strait-jacket, a-nd if she stirs-Ah. what is this Tpitacle before our eyes ? Is it a dream ? Is it a nightmare ? On one s?de a nation, the firsc of nations, and on the other, a man. the last of ment and this is what thic man does to this nation. What ! he tramples her under his feet, he laughs in her face, he mocks and taunts her, he 5 sowns iitlts, ;nd flout? her ! What ! he says. " I alone am worthy of consideration ! - What ! in this land of France, where none w-ould dare to slap the face of his fellow, this man can slap the face of the n' ion ? Oh. the abominable shame of it all ! Every time tha Monsieur Bonaparte spits, every face must be wiped ! And this can last ! and you tell me it will last ! No ! No ! by every drop m every vein no ! It shall not last ! Ah, if this did last, it would be in very truth because there would no longer be a God in heaven, nor a France on earth ! THE HEROISM OF VOLTAIRE [On the ccntcnniKl anniversary of Voltaire's death. May 30, .«7.S. Hugo made at Paris the following eloquent address.] One hundred years ago to-day a man died ! He died immortal, laden with years, with labors, and with the most illustrious and formidable of responsibilities-the responsibility of the human conscience informed ITco^el^ted. He departed amid the curses of the past and the blessings of the future-and these are the two superb forms of glory !-dying amid theacclamations of his comtemporaries and of posterity, on the one hand, and on the other with the hootings and hatreds bestowed by the implac- able past on those who combat it. He was more than a man-he was an epoch! He had done his work; he had fulfilled his mission evidently n VICTOR MARIE HUGO tU7 chosen for him by the Supreme Will, ^vhich manifests itself as visibly in heTw^of desti'nyasin'thelaws of nature ^^^ eighty- our >-^rs he had lived bridge over the interval ^^'^^^^^^ '^%'^^.%°[:'''^^^^^ and the dawn of the Revolution. At h.s b.rth Lon.s XI\ - st, 1 re.^ned at his death Louis XVI. had already n,ounted the ^'^l^^'l^'Z cradle saw the last rays of the great throt.e and Ins coffin the first beams "°^tr;:!;s^;nof feslivities; Versailles - ;f -. P.is was ignorant ; and meanwhile, through religious ferocty, judges ^f^^^t' In on the wheel and tore out a child's tongue or a song ^-fj"^^ by this frivolous and dismal society. Voltaire alone, sens.ble of all Uk ?orct marshaled against him-court. nobility, finance ; that u-'onscto porr, the blind nfultitude ; that terrible magistracy, so oppress, ve fo t e suS so docile for the n.aster, crushing and flattering, kneehng on the ; ,d „d U, t . o ,„„„de,l»U- n pen. With .hn. »«po„ Vol.n.r. :r hetand -vnr 'f n,i„d a„,,.,»> .naUcr, of «,„,, '■l^"'}^;^; ::S;!r:M">^nt byiro,,v, ob«i.,.cy .,■ ,«-«-»--, i...»-« by truth ! '2S^i^^M#«5Cl mmmm LEON MICHEL GAMBETTA (J838-J882) THE ADVCXLATE OF FRENCH DEMOCRACY mN October, 1871, Leon Gambetta, one of the makers of the ncW French Republic, made, a most sensational escai^e from Paris, then closely invested by the German arm' He passed not through, but over the lines, sailing through the aii .a a balloon, and landing far beyond the reach of the foes of France. At his call, all southern France rose in arms, and for five months he was the Dictator of his country. Army after army rose from farm and city and fought the foes of France, and even after Paris had fallen, he demanded that the war should go on to the bitter end. His colleagues failing to sup- i)ort him, he resigned his leadersdip and retired into Spain. Before the war with Germany, Gambetta had been a member of the Paris bar, and a deputy of advanced liberal opinions, representing the " Irreconcilahles" of Marseilles and Belleville. In the new Par- liament he became the chief of the advanced Republicans, and later came into determined conflict with those who sought to restore the monarchy. The contest between him and Marshal MacMahon led to his being imprisoned and fined for libel, but it ended in the resigna- tion of MacMahon and the triumph of Gambetta. He subsequently became premier, but resigned in 1882, and soon after died from an accidental wound in the hand from a revolver. THE REGENERATION OF FRANCE rcambetta was an orator of fine powers, and the "ablest French Republican of the nineteenth century." Keeping alive his faith in France and its powers of recupera tion. after the terrible losses of the war with Germany, he sought to arouse a like feeling in the people, calling on the peasantry and the educated alike to arouse for the regeneration oHheir beloved native land. We offer a translation of oneof his appeals for this purpose] (ilH LEON MICHEL GAMBETTA 61» The peasantry is intellectually several centuries behind the enlightened and educated classes of the country. Yes. the distance is immense between them and us. who have received a classical or scientihc educat.on-even the imperfect one of our day. We have learned to read our h. story to speak our language, while (a cruel thing to say) so many of our country- m'S can only balfble ! Ah ! that peasant, bound to the tillage o the sod who bravely carries the burden of his day, with no other consolation than That of leaving to his children the paternal fields, perhaps increased an acre in extent f All his passions, joys, fears, are concentrated on the :ate of hi patrimony. Of the external world, of the society in which he lives be apprehends but legends and rumors ; he is the prey of tlie cunnmg and the fraudulent. He strikes, without knowing it. the bc«om of «»« R^;° ution.his benefactress; he gives loyally his taxes --^^^^^^^'^^'l^ s^iet; for which he feels fear as much as respect. But there his role ends and if you speak to him of principles, he knows nothing of them^ t is to he peasantry, then, that we must address ourselves They are the ones we must raise and instruct. The epithets the parties have bantdof "rurality and " rural chamber ' ' must -^ bejhe ^u^^ injustice It is to be wished that there were a rural chamber in the p ofound and true sense of the term, for it is not with hobble-de-hoy a Carchamber" can be made, but with enlightened and free peasants able to r pr^ nt themselves. And instead of being the cause of raillery^ this reproach of a " rural chamber" would be a tribute rendered to the progr" o?the civilization of the masses. This new social force could be u S for the general -v ; are. Unfortunately, we have not yet reached "ha ptint, and Uiis progress will be denied us as long as the French lemrrlc; fail to demonstrate that if we would remake our country if t "rouTd 1 urn her to her grandeur, her power, and her genius it is the vitaUnterest of her superior classes to elevate, to emancipate his people o workers, who hold in reserve a force still virgin and able to develop inexhaustible treasures of activity and aptitude. We must learn and then teach the peasant what he owes to s^iety and what he has the right to '''' of the day when it will be well understood that we have no grander or more pressing work ; that we should put aside and postpone al other reforms- that we have but one task, the instruction of the people, the d Sn o?edration. the encouragement of science,-^n that day a^reat step will have been taken in your regeneration. But our -fon needs to be a double one, that it may bear upon the body as well as ^e tnind. To Z exact, each man should be intelligent, trained not only to think read, re^on but able also to act, to fight. Everywhere bes.de the teacher we i ^ LEON MICHEL QAMBETTA 620 * on^ tVie soldier to the end that our children, should place the gymnast and ^^e soldier, to ^^ ^^^ our soldiers, our f^ll--^^^' ^ ^^ '^^^^^^^^ stars, to support a gun on a long march, to sleep ""^er the anopy ^^ ^^^^ valiantly all the hardships ^^-^J;j^:^^ ^cess ofletters. but front these two educations, umerwise yuu do not create a bulwark of patriots. . ^^ Yes, gentlemen, if they ^-e outclassed u. ou had t^ ^^ ^^^^ the supreme agony of seeing the I''^-"^^ ^J^^^''^^^'^, ^„,e the military. ^-° -'■ rlndt^r^lllnd^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^ t" rzrc:;iir"rcondition. To-d. -;-- -Yo^To command us to speak no imprudent -°f ^J^^f ,!„7^', J^^^ ^ork of the bottom of our hearts our --;-;^^,; ^^ Jf^ it may be national -^^^-^^::^:;:^^^:r:Z. ye/r;, then wemust a lasting work. ^^ '* "f \*f °5^%' ^^ „,ust commence at once, that serves it with his reason and his arm. therefore cure We have been educated in a rough school. JV e mu^t ourselves of the vanity which has -"^^^^^^^^ ^f"^^^^^ seeing the also realize conscientiously where ^^^'^^^^^^^'Xr^mXl^^^ reconsti- remedy, sacrifice all to the object to b^^^^^^f-J^JHt good- -«d -- tute France ! For that, ^^^^^.f .t'delnTr^^^^^^^^ education shall ask nothing before this. ^^rfi^\f^^ ^o human intelligence, as complete from base to summit ^ ^ f ^^^"J^i^,^,^ ,„d approvecl. Naturally, merit must be recogmzed, ^f^^^^J^'^^.i, feUow citizen., and honest and impartial judges ^^^^^'^^^l will open the door, deciding publicly in -^^ f .^J';:^"^ ^ purworL^ ^ pl- of ing the accomplices of his crimes. BCXDK DC. Orators of Southern and Central Europe T di: fi ■at countries of Lurope aside from ritain and France— with which wc havt- su ..i. - cnietly Jealt— have had their orators ; men equipped by nature and education to amtrol the opinions and move the feeHn.iis of mankui- ; but. seemingly, in no great numbers. Certamly the pau- city of names of distinguished pubhc speakers leads to the concUision that oratory of a high order has not flourished in those countries. Greece in modt^rn times has produced no rival of Demosthenis. nor Italy of Cicero, nor ev(-n any orators wortl- to he compared with those of minor fame in classic The same is the case with the remainder of Europe Take Germany, for instance, that land of thinkers and philosophers-where are its Burk.s and Gladstones its Mirabcaus and Hugos, its W ebsters and Clays The fact would seem to be that the long division of Germany into minor kingdoms has checkt^d th.: growth of forensic or political oratory in that country, there being little opportunity afforded for the cultivation of the art of eloquence. The same may be said of Italy Moreover, despotic institutions have certainly had a limiting effect upon oratory wherever they have existed, and' the fine oratory of the world is 1 muted to the republics of Greece and Rome, the revolution- ary periods of England. I< ranee and the I nited States, and the free institutions of thes.: countries in the nineteenth century. As a result, modern Europe outside of brance. has not been rich in oratory, and we are not able to present an extended or very notable list. «21 k«V!i -. asSSiS^^^^^-i LOUIS KOSSUTH (1802-1894) THE ELOQUENT ADVOCATE OF HUNGARY kvKH was there a more vigorous eirort nm.le ibr national m.k- pon.kMue than that of, HunRary, un.lor the lea.lersh.i. ot her , - Lreat patriot, Louis Kossuth, in the revolutionary years o 1848 and 1 849. The .le vote.1 struggle for liln^rty went down ni hloo,l .„.l horror when Russia came to the aid of In^aten Aus na. he ;:nd of the allied autocrats fell with erne, we.ght on the crush d n-ition and Ilungarv seen.ed fallen never to rise agan. \it tlu Hu S. aus still und'auntedly wrought for their ancient hberty, and the 'uu.uished patriots ha.l the satisfaction of seen.g w.thjn twen > 'ars their l^lovLl country virtually independent, the e,ual associate of Austria in the combined kingdom of Austria-IIungary. Kossuth, though an exile from his native land, wrough earnes I to win for it the sympathy of foreign ^^'-f'^-^'^^:';; "^i^, ,' " utmost in keeping up its unyielding demand f-/-"-. " ^ '^^^e refuge in Turkey, he was released from prison there niSol b> the united etlbrt of Englan.l an.l the United States, and afterward tia- vei^d those countries, making si^^eches in the Knghsh language. THE HAVEN OF THE OPPRESSED Washington on January ii, 1852.] Sir us once Cyneas, the Epirote. stood among the Senators of Rome, .ho ^^b "r^rnit word of self-conscious majesty, controlled the condi- tion oTtbe world and arrested mighty kings in their ambitious marching. 622 LOUIS KOSSUTH v,z\ thus, full of admiration and of reverence. I stand before yon leg«laton» of 'he new capitol-that glorions hall of yonr peoples collective majesty. The capL of old yet stands, but the spirit has departed from U and come over to'^yours. purified by the air of liberty. The old stands a mournfu monument o the fragility of human things; yours as a sanctuary- of ™ernaTrights. The old beamed with the red lustre of comiuest now darkened by oppression's gloomy night; yours l>eams w,th freedoms b^htray. Theold absorbed the world by its own "nt^lued glory : yours protects your own nation against absorption, even by itself The od wa'sawfu/with irresistible power; yours is f-ouswUh having restricted it. At the view of the old, nations trembled ; a. the v ew of ;tr:r. humanity hopes. To the old. misfortune was o-b' .ntr^uced^u h Ltered hands to kneel at the triun,phant conqueror s heels . to >ours, the triumph of introduction is granted to unfortunate -''^-' '^'rU a eir honor of a seat, and where kings and C.-sars w.l never ^ ^^-^^'^ ^^^^^j^ powers, might and wealth, there the persecuted clnef of a down trodden naUon s welcomed as your great Republics guest, precisely because he « Sauted, helpless and poor. In the old. the ternble :v. ./r/» w.,^ the J^rt yours protection to the oppres.sed, malediction to ambitious oppr™ and consolation to the vanquished in a just cause. And whd ^u? of the old a conquered world was ruled, you in yours P--^e for t^ common confederative interests of a territory larger tliau the conque ed world of the old. There sat men boasting their will to be sovereign of the To d here lit men whose glory is to acknowledge the laws of iiature and of nature's God. and to do what their sovereign, the people, ^v.ll.. Sr there is history in these parallels. History of past ages ar^ history of future centuries may be often recorded in a few words ^ The Si particulars to which the passions of living men cling with fervent zTal-as if the fragile figure of men could arrest the rotation of desfny s "l el - hese particulars die away. It is the i.sue which makes history^ r,dthat issue is always logical. There is a necessity of consequence wherever the necessity of position exists. Principles are the Alpha ; they r^t finish with the Omega ; and they will. Thus history ma,- be told often in a few words. Before yet the heroic strugg e of Greece first engag d your country's sympathy for the fate of freedom in Europe, then so far Stant, and now so near. Chateaubriand happened to be m Athens, and he h^rd f om a minaret laised upon the Propylcean ruins a Turkish priest fn Arabic language announcing the lapse of hours to the Christians of Mine'astowr What immense history in the small fa^ . of a Turkish Imaum crying out : - Pray. man. the hour is running fast, and the judg- ment draws near." *"^^*r.',je:;^ AM LOUIS KOSSUTH Sir. there is equally a history of future age* written in the honor bestowed by you to my humble self. The first governor of independent Hungary, driven from his native land by Russian violence ; J" «'1« °° Turkish soil protected by a Mohammedan SuUan against the blooofM WHS cluo tlu' rovolntinimry niovo- iiifiit tliat made Italy \i iinit.d nation, Mazziiii [.lavid a Ifad- iii^' part. He joined to some extent in niilitarv niovi'inents, as wlien lie, as master sj.irit of tlie i;e|.nlilieans, defended Home again, and took part in llarihaldi's vietorions invasion of Sicily in lS(i(). Hut his work was doin' more Iarj;ely with tlie pen tlian with the sword. In exile orted the eause hy his writings. Mazziid has hccn characterized as "One of those rare men, ninnerahle, unfortunately, hut as units in this world, who are worthy to he called martyr-souls." For fifty years he worked for the great ohject of his life, and lived to see Italy a united kini,'dom, laying down his life oidy after Rome hud heeome the capital of United Italy. THE MARTYRS OF COSENZA [Mazzini'a power of oratory and loftiness of spirit arc best shown in liis oration at Milan on July 25, l84«. to the young men of Italy, its inspiring subject l>cing the "Martvrsof Coscnza," fellow-patriots who were deprived of their lives by the oppressors of their country.] When I was coramissioned by you, young men, to proffer in this temple a few words sacred to the memory of tlie brothers Bandiera and their fellow-martyrs at Cosenza, I thought that some of those who heard me might exclaim with noble indignation: '• Wherefore lament over the dead ? The martyrs of lil>erty are only worthily honored by winning the battle they have begun ; Cosenza, the land where they fell, is enslaved; Venice, the city of their birth, is begirt by foreign foes. Let us emancipate them, and until that moment let no words pass our lips save words of war," ?^^?S'^I?S5?S?S^ ton 0IU8BPPB MAZZINl But another thought arose: V/hy have we not conquered? W 13 it that, while we are fighting for independence in the north of Ita liberty in perishing in the South? Why Ih it that a war « "^-^ J^o, have sprung to the Alps with the bound of a lion, has dragged itself ak for four months, with the slow uncertain motion of the scorpion s- rounded by a circle of fire ? How has the rapid and powerfuV intu.t.on a people newly arisen to life been converted into the weary helpless eff of rtie sick man turning from side to side ? Ah ! had we all «"**«"> sanctity of the idea for which our martyrs died ; had the holy standard their faith preceded our youth to battle : had we reached that unity of which was in them so powerful, and made of our every action a thoug and of our every thought an action : had we devout'.y gathered up tl last words in our hearts, and learned from them that Liberty and Indep dence are one, that dod and the People, the Fatherland and Human are the two inseparable terms of the device of every people striving become a nation ; that Italy can have no true life till she be One hoi; the equality and love of all her children, great in the worship of etei truth, and consecrated to a lofty mission, a moral priesthood among peoples of Europe.-we should now have had, not war, but victc Cosenza would not be compelled to venerate the memory of her mar in secret, nor Venice be restrained from honoring them with a monum. and we, gathered here together, might gladly invoke their sacred nat without uncertainty as to our future destiny, or a cloud of sadness on brows, and say to those precursor souls: ' Rejoice! lor your spii incarnate in your brethren, and they are wort»^y of you. The idea which they worshipped, young men, does not as yet s forth in its full purity and integrity upon your banner. The sub program which they, dying, bequeathed to the rising Italian generat.o yours; but mutilated, broken up into fragments by the false doctr which, elsewhere overthrown, have taken refuge among us. 1 around, and I see the struggles of desperate populations, an alternatu generous rage and unworthy repose; of shouts for freedom and of mul* of servitude, throughout all parts of our peninsula ; but the so the country, where is it ? What unity is there in this unequal and n fold movement ? Where is the Word which should dominate the hur diverse and opposing counsels which mislead or seduce the multitude hear phrases usurping the national omnipotence- The Italy o North-the league of the States-Federative compacts between Prin< but Italy, where is it ? Where is the common country, the country v the Bandiera hailed as thrice Initiatrix of a new era of F iropean civ tio GIUSEPPE MA2ZINI «27 ed? Why li of Italy, ich should itself along irpion 8ur- intuition of pless effort risen in the standard of unity of life 1 a thought, red up their nd Indepen- Humanity, striving to )ne, holy in p of eternal among the )Ut victor>- ; her martyrs monument ; icred names, iness on our our spirit is 18 yet shine The sublime ;eneration, is se doctrines, us. I look dternation of 1 and of for- it the soul of lal and mani- ! the hundretl lultitude ? 1 Italy of the ^■n Princes," ountry which pean civiliza- Inioxicated with our first victories, improvident for the future, we forgot the idea revealed by C.oean world. Hut lu-ither l>olitical fictions, nor dynastic ag>;ran
  • *-■■■-;,;;*;;',,,;;,,„ i„ U «orkof (laribul.li«ns8iicour»Bo,l M limi, ui.l in i ^ I Then, worn out by the siraui, at mc , life work was completed. ROME THE CAPITAL OF ITALY :rs^:;^::s J^sri^r^- .c ........... . .. fo'lowing remarks.] •..1 fTtoW There can bene solution ot tne Rome should be the capital of Italy. There can^ Roman question without the acceptance ^ ''^l^'^^.Z,,, ^y degree an Europe. If any one could -0^^-^^^^^^ ^^l^lX the^RoLn of stability, and without Rome f°/f ^'^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^nd why have we the ngnt, luc uuijr , ., , .r T^-1,. Italy cannot exist, without Rome as the capital uf Italy , iwiy tau 628 f /♦«" COUNT CAMIULO Dl C .VOUR t1.''.t 'I'hiH truth »H-nig M{ iimtinctivt-ly Ly all Italians. l^-iiiR aH!«.-rt«l abroa.l hy all who jiulRt- lUilian affiiirs ...nmriiully, nct-th. no dcinonstru- tioti but is upluia hy thf ju«lKm«-'»t of the nation. An.l yet. Kentknien, this truth is ^usceptihle t.. a ver>' simple pr.H.f, Italy has still much to .lo liefore it will rest upon a stable Imsis ; nimh to ,lo in solving the grave problems raised by her unification ; nuich to do m overcoming all the obstacles which time honor.' this great undertaking. An.l if this end must U- conii.us.sed, it is es,sentml that there be no cause- of dissidence, of failure. Until the .luwtion ol the capital of Italy is determineil, there will Ije endless discords among the different provinces. It is easy to understand how persons of goocl faith, cultured and tal- enteil are now suggesting, some on historical, some on artistic groiiiuls ■uid also for many other reasons, the advisability of establishing thecapital in s.>me other city of Italy. Such a .liscussion i.s -luitc comprehensible now but if Italy already had her capital in Rome do you think this this, hut to form an empire cmiHne.l to the (Jerman States. Appointed Prune- minister -n 18(i2, he brought al)out the war with Denmark m ls(,4, .,„d with Austria in 18Gfi, followed by allian.rs Ix^tween Prussia and the other large (Jerman States, and the North (Jerman CVmfederation, eomiK,sed of twcntv-two States. TIumi, in 1870, came the war with France, followed hv the union of all the (ierman States un.ler King William of Prussia, who was crowne.l Emperor of CJermany at \ er- ^liUes in 1871. Such was the great work of Bismarcks life. Created IMnce and Chancellor in 186(5, he remaincl Chancellor of the Empire till 1890 But the new Emperor, William II., was not the man to submit to a dictator, and Bismarck resigne.l, t.. .Iwell in private life for a numlior of years, a caustic critic of the imperial "'easures A formal reconciliation between the Emi>eror and the " Man of Blood and Iron " took place in 1894. LOYALTY TO PRUSSIA rThe Imperial crtmn had been offere.ary (icrwK.n l>arl,a„.ont wa.s l.y no „,ea„B^It,sfactory to Bis.na'cW, who did not hesitate to express h>s opinion of it in plain words.] Gentlemen, it has pained me to see Prussians here and not only nom- inal Prussians, who adhere to this Constitution and warmly c efem i^^ t has been humiliating to me, as it would have been to thoti^ands and hou sands of my countrymen, to see the representatives of ^'^^^^^'J^l^^^ honor in their lawful sphere, but who are not my sovereign ^^^^'^^^ them invested with supreme power; and the b.tterness of t'- f-h 'g -^^ not softened at the opening of this Assembly by my seeing the eats on which we sit adorned with colors which were never the colors of he Ger- man I-mpire, but, for the last two years, rather the badge of rebellion and barricade^-<:olors which, in my native country, apart from the democrats areTnlv worn in sorrowful obedience by the .soldier. Gentlemen, if you do not make more concessions to the Prussian, to the old Prussian spint.- caU it what you will,-than you have hitherto done in this Constitution, then I do not believe in its realization ; and if you attempt to impose this Constitution on this Prussian spirit, you will find in it a Bucephdus ;^^^^^^^ carries his accustomed lord and rider with daring joy, but wdl fling to t a earth the presuming Cockney horseman, with all his trappings of sab e ed and gJd. But I am comforted in my fear of these eventualities by it firm belief that it will not be long before the parties come to regard hs Constitution as the two doctors in Ufontaines fable did the patie.i whose corpse they had just left. " He is dead ; said one, I said he would die all along." " Had he taken my advice," quoth the other, he would be still alive." .The war horse of Alexander .he Gre.t, -hich none but he could mount or ride. ^^^^S^A FRANCESCO CRISPI (J819-J90J) AN ITALIAN STATESMAN AND PREMIER ERANCESCO CRISPI filled the double role of statesman and soldier la 184S he wa^ concerned in the revolution at Palermo and had to flee for his life. In 1809 he organized a new and successful movement, and went as major under Garibaldi in his invasion of Sicilv. In the new Italian kingdom he became deputy and minister/and was prime minister of the kingdom 1887-91 and 1894-9<) ; the Italian disasters in Abyssinia finally forcing him to resign. His powers as a statesman and his talent in oratory gave him great weight in the Italian governmental affairs. THE RELATION OF THE POPE TO THE STATE TAt the unveiling of the Garibaldi monument at Rome during U»e fetes of 1895, Crispi delivered the principal oration. In his remarks he diverged from the mam subject to define the relation of the Pope to the State.] The enemies of Italian unity have endeavored to prove that tU present celebration is an insult to the head of the Catholic Church. Their object is to excite conscientious scruples against our country. Bui the common sense of the people is proof against such tricks, because w. all know that Christianity is a divine institution, which is not dependen upon earthly weapons for its existence. The religion of Christ preache( by Paul and Chrysostom was able to subdue the world without the aid o temporal arms, and we cannot conceive that the Vatican should persist n wishing for temporal sovereignty to exercise its spiritual mission. Th Gospel, as we all believe, is truth. If it has been disseminated by apos tolic teachings, such teachings are sufficient for its existence. It is not really for the protection and prestige of religion that ou advei-saries demand the restoration of the temporal power of the Holy Set but for worldly reasons, from lust of power and from earthly covetousnesi 6.S4 FRANCESCO CRISPI •kW i -3 1 They do not consi-kr that temporal sovereigntv cannot be saintly and above sin; that it cannot aspire to celestial perfection in th.s NvorUL Material weapons and legal violence, justii.ed by reasons of State, should not belong to the Vicar of Christ on earth, who is to preach peace, to pray and to pardon. Religion is not, and it cannot be. an affair of State. Its mission is to console believers with the hope of everlasting life and to uphold the spirit of faith ,. i j „ The Italians, by promulgating the law of May, 187., have solved a problem which s.emed incapable of solution. In this country where free- dom of thought and of conscience is acknowledged, unhnnted liberty has been granted to the Head of the Church with reference to h,s sacred office and his irresponsibility and inviolability. In regard to Ins acts, the Pope is subject only to God, and no human potentate can reach him. He exer- cises a sovereign authority over all those who believe ,n him-and they are many millions-while he is surrounded by all the honors and privi- leges of rovalty without the drawbacks of civil po.-er, without the hatred, the resentment, and the penalties inseparable from such power. Noearthly prince is in a similar position or on the same level. H.s position is unique. He has no territory to govern. Indeed, any e.xtent of terntorv would l>e inade AMERICAN ORATORS Adams, Charlw Francis 3»7 Adams, John Quincy 94 Adams, Samuel '9 Ames, Fisher *i Anthony, Susan B 339 Beechcr, Lyman '54 Beecher, Henry Ward 2°3 ; Benton, Thomas H "* i Beveridge, Albert J '99 ] Blaine, James G '°4 ^ Brooks, Phillips '70 i Brown, George ^33 Brown, Henry Armitt 3^' Browiilow, William G »73 Bryan, William J »"» Calhoun, John C. . 90 ChanniuR, William Ellery .... 250 Chapin, Edwin H ^°7 Choate, Rufus ^°^ Choate, Joseph H ^3 Clay, Henry . 73 Clemens, Samuel L 37" Cleveland, Grover 33" 3°" 157 CoUyer, Robert *76 aklinR, Roscoe >°^ .... 109 ; 185 112 P*OF. Cockran, Bourke Colfax, Schuyler Conkling Cook, Joseph . . Corwin, Thomas Cox, Samuel S. . Crittenden, John J. ... Curtis, George W 3°» Daniel, John W '°° Davin, Nicholas F ^30 Davis, Henry Winter >5« Davis, Jefferson . '3^ Depew, Chauncey M 35° Dickinson, Anna E 35^ Douglas, Stephen A. Douglass Frederick Emerson, Ralph Waiui/ Evarte, William M '54 Everett, Edward 9° Foraker, Joseph B ^12 Garfield, James A "°° Gough, John B 3i4 3y, Henry W if^ Guniulus, I?rank W '85 Hale, Edward Everett 302 Hamilton, Alexander 3^ Harrison, Benjamm '9' Hayne, Robert Y '"* Henry, Patrick ' Hill, Benjamin H 638 NAU'i Hoar, George F «7^ Howe, Joseph »»" Ingalls,JohnJ '79 Ingersoll, Robert J 3«7 Jefferson, Joseph 37" Knott, James Proctor 3»3 Lamar, Lucius g. C «73 Laurier, Sir Wilfrid a44 Ue, Fitzhugh 307 Lee, Henry 47 Lincoln, Abraham '**> Livertnorc, Mary A 34» Lockwoorl, Bclva Ann 34» Lodge, Henry C '°9 Lowell, James Russell 3"^ Macdonald, Sir John A no Madison, James 3° Marshall, John 57 Marshall, Thomas F "5 McKinley, William «94 Mitchell, John 39° Moody, Dwight L '°9 Morris, Gouverneur . . Otis, James Parker, Theodore . . • Phillips, Wendell . . Porter, Horace . . . • Potter, Henry Cmlman Prentiss, Sergeant S. • Quincy, Josiah " Randolph, John °° Reed, Thomas B *J5 Reid, Whitelaw 3«> Roosevelt, Theodore «2i Schurz, Carl •»» Seward, William H '45 Smith, Goldwin »4i Smith, Charles Emory 37» Stanton, Elizabeth Cady ... • • 33° Stephens, Alexander H '35 53 23 259 301 373 382 297 62 Douglas, Stephen *• • ■ ' ' • ■ "§ Douglass Frederick '40 1 gj^-g-s Thaddeus "9 Emerson, Ralph Waldo 305 | |«^^ ^'^^^ 294 Sumner, Charles >4i Talmage, Thomas DcWitt 279 Thompson, Sir John ^49 Toombs, Robert '3" Tupper, Sir Charles 230 Warren, Joseph ^° Washington, Booker T 3^.* Watterson, Henry 3^3 Webster, Daniel °3 Willard, Frances E 345 Wirt. William ?9 171 1 Wu Ting Fang 3°7 EUROPEAN ORATORS 176 32H •79 376 383 «73 344 367 47 1 30 34J 348 309 364 330 38 57 "5 194 390 389 53 23 . 259 • 301 . 373 . 382 . 297 . 62 . 66 • 215 . 360 . 331 . 188 ■ 145 . 241 . 378 • 336 • 135 . 129 . 294 . I4« . 279 - 249 . I3« . 238 26 • 332 • 323 . 83 ■ 345 . 69 . 387 Namb P*ok ■ iB»chinc« 4io Antony, Mark 4*5 Bacon, Francis 456 Beaconsficld, Earl of 543 Bismarck, Prince Otto von .... 632 Bossuet, Jac(|ucs Bi^nignc 443 Bourdaloue, Louis 44* Bright, John 55,^ Brougham, Lord Henry 52> Burke, Edmund 47^ Cxsar, Caiusjulius 4'7 Calvin, John 44' Canning, George 5'" Casteliir, Einilio 637 Cato, Marcus Porcius 4'3 Cavour, Count Camillo di 629 Chamberlain, Joseph 560 Chatham, Earl of 472 Chesterfield, Earl of 46S Cicero, Marcus Tullius 420 Cobden, Richard 54" Coke, Sir Edward 459 Cousin, Victor 607 Crispi, Francesco 635 Cromwell, Oliver 466 Curran, John Philpot 493 Danton, George Jacnues S98 Demosthenes 404 Eliot, Sir John 4^1 Emmet, Robert 505 Erskine, Lord Thomas 485 Finelon, Francois 449 Fox, Charles James 481 Gambetta, L«on 619 Gladstone, William Ewart 547 Gracchus, Caius 4«5 Gratton, Henry 489 Hugo, Marie Victor 6i6 Isocrates 401 NAME Paoi Knox, John 567 Kossuth, Louis 622 Lamartine, Alphonse de 610 Lalinicr, Hugh 5^4 Luther, Martin 438 Lysias 398 Macaulay, Thomas Babi.igton . . 536 Magnus, Al!x!rtu» 43* Manning, Henry Kilward 578 Marat, Jean Paul 6o3 Massillon, Jean Paptiste 452 Mazzini. Giuseppe 625 Mirabeau, Count Honorc dc . . . . 590 Newman, John Henry 575 O'ConnclI, Daniel 5'7 Palmerston, Viscount 524 Parker, Joseph 587 Parnell, Charles S 557 Peel, Sir Rol)crt 526 Pericles 395 Pitt, William 502 Pyui,John 4*3 Roljespierre, Maximilicn Isidore de 604 Russell, Lord John 5^9 Saint Augustine 43° Saint Bernard 434 Saint Chrysostom 452 Sheil, Richard L 533 Sheridan, Richard Brinsley ... 49° Smith, Sydney 5'3 Spurgeon, Charles H 584 Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn .... 58: Thiers, Louis Adolphe 613 Vergniaud, Pierre 595 Weslcv, John 5*9 White'field, George 57'' Wilberforce, William 50° •ui. „„i,.m. Th» .iitv four fulloaKe halftone illustration* ahould be There are 704 pages in this volume, rtie sixiy lour '"" h^k^ added tothe iMtfoliS number indicated (640) giving a total of 704 pages. '2£^?£>