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 -CONTAINING- 
 
 The Lives of the Greatest Orators and their 
 Best Orations from Earliest Times to Present 
 Day with an Account of Place and Time of/ 
 Delivery of Each Oration and Explanatory 
 Notes on Obscure Passages. 
 
 ▲nUM C» Off nCllTIDf atlAT ep®«u m B9«C| 
 
 By Charles Morris, 
 
 Author of " Manual of Classical Literature" " Half-Hours with Best American 
 Authors," "History and Triumphs of the Nineteenth Century," Etc., Etc., Etc 
 
 Profusely Illustrated with Great Historic Scenes and 
 Portraits of Brilliant Orators^ 
 
 THE JOHN C WINSTON Ca 
 
 PHILADELPHIA CHICAGO TORONTO 
 
<^^ 
 
 SENERAL O-^r-fl^ 
 
 Entered according to Act of 
 Congress in tKe year 1902 by 
 W, E. SCULL, in the office 
 of the Lib rarian of Congress, 
 at Washington, D. C. 
 
 All Rights 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 oratory 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 rhetorical 
 expedients, and much of what is known as personal magnetism. 
 
ii THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ORATORY 
 
 the ability to sway the feehngs of hearers by sympathetic 
 warmth of utterance. To these there must be added, for emi- 
 nent success upon the rostrum, rich and full powers of voice, 
 large training in the effective use of language, graceful and 
 commanding attitudes and gestures, and all those personal 
 qualities which give a living force to spoken words. The orator 
 should have the art of the poet as well as the force of the 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 which language is susceptible, all the 
 attraction of which the voice and person are capable, and all the 
 powers of thought with which the intellect is furnished. 
 
 THE EFFECT OF ORAHORY 
 
 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 controlling 
 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 as a 
 product of the 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 apparent. No longer taken captive by the 
 speaker's manner and the external aids to eloquence, the 
 reader can calmly measure and weigh Lis words and thoughts, 
 with competence 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 iii 
 
 should be judged from such a point of view. An orator is 
 essentially a partisan. He takes sides almost necessarily, and 
 is apt to employ any means at his command to give the suprem- 
 acy to his own side of the question at issue. He is the counter- 
 part, not of the judge — who calmly and logically weighs the 
 two sides of the case to be decided and seeks to avoid preference 
 to either — but of the advocate, whose aim it is to convince the 
 jury that his own side is the correct one, and who does this by 
 employing every sophistry, every trick of speech and argument, 
 every device to add to the strength of his client's case and 
 lessen 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 himself and his hearers than is usually 
 to be found in a jury trial. Though it may be his purpose 
 rather to convince than to prove, and though he may not hesi- 
 tate to help his side of the argument by oratorical devices and 
 skillful 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 ring 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 the 
 merit of no oration can be justly decided upon until it has been 
 put to the test 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 correct. There are two things to be considered in 
 judging every oration ; the real quality and merit of the thought 
 expressed, and the effect of delivery — the speaker's powers of 
 elocution and the magnetic influence of voice and personality. 
 The latter has often an immense effect, and the hearer fre- 
 quently leaves the presence of the orator convinced against the 
 
iv THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ORATORY 
 
 decision of his own intellect, taken captive by the 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 PURPOSE OF THIS WORK 
 
 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 selections 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 the instance of each 
 orator of the qualities and circumstances to 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 fully 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 deli^fery. 
 
 Aside from the endeavor here indicated, it is the purpose 
 of the editor of this work to offer 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 
 
 m 
 
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ORATORY V 
 
 of lesser yet considerable brilliancy. It need scarcely be-said 
 that oratorical efforts of the finest quality exist in several of the 
 leading fields of human thought, such as those of the parliament- 
 ary chamber, the political rostrum the bar, the pulpit, the lecture 
 platform and the social hall. But many of these lack interest to 
 the general reader. In making selections 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 goes on, however effective they may 
 have seemed when the occasion served. The legal oration, for 
 example, is usually of passing interest, rarely appealing even 
 at the time to more than a few persons, and seldom having a 
 message to deliver to the world. The parliamentary oration, 
 on the contrary, which deals with the great questions of govern- 
 ment, political and national relations and the 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 extremes between which it is necessary to 
 choose. 
 
 A DISTINCTIVE FEATURE OF THIS BOOK 
 
 It may further be said that in many cases the orator owes 
 his fame largely to some one supreme effort, some grand dis- 
 play of his powers which throws all others into 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. 
 
dq^Nri^^;®- 
 
 -s^ 
 
 PART I. 
 AMERICAN ORAXORS 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 REVOLUTIONARY ORATORS OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 ■ PAGE 
 
 ^ Patrick Henry 19 
 
 An Appeal to Arms 20 
 
 James Otis 23 
 
 The Writs of Assistance 24 
 
 Joseph Warren 26 
 
 The Boston Massacre 27 
 
 Samuel Adams 29 
 
 The Struggle for Independence 30 
 
 Alexander Hamilton 32 
 
 The New Constitution 33 
 
 The Stability of the Union 36 
 
 James Madison 38 
 
 The American Federal Union 39 
 
 Fisher Ames 43 
 
 The Obligation of Treaties 44 
 
 Henry Lee 47 
 
 The Father of His Country 48 
 
 Gouverneur Morris 53 
 
 The Free Use of the Mississippi 54 
 
 John Marshall 57 
 
 The Defence of Nash 58 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN ORATORY 
 
 Josiah Quincy 62 
 
 The Evils of the Embargo Act 63 
 
 John Randolph ' 66 
 
 The Tariff and the Constitution 67 
 
 vi 
 
CONTENTS VU 
 
 PAGE 
 
 William Wirt "69- 
 
 Burr and Blennerhassett 70 
 
 Henry Clay 73 
 
 The American System 74 
 
 The Horrors of Civil War 76 
 
 Robert Y. Hayne 79 
 
 South Carolina and the Union 80 
 
 Daniel Webster 83 
 
 The Reply to Hayne . . ' 84 
 
 The Secret of Murder 88 
 
 John 0. Calhoun 90 
 
 South Carolina and the Union 91 
 
 John Quincy Adams 94 
 
 A Eulogy of Lafayette 95 
 
 Edward Everett 98 
 
 The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Declaration 99 
 
 Rufus Choate 102 
 
 A Panegyric of Webster 103 
 
 Thomas H. Benton 106 
 
 Spanning the Continent . . . . • 107 
 
 Thomas Oorwin 109 
 
 The Dismemberment of Mexico no 
 
 John J. Crittenden ....112 
 
 The Strong Against the Weak 113 
 
 Thomas F. Marshall . 115 
 
 The States and the Central Government 116 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 ORATORS OF THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 120 
 
 John Brown and Republicanism 121 
 
 The Gettysburg Address 122 
 
 The Second Inaugural 123 
 
 Stephen A. Douglas . 125 
 
 Slavery in the Territories 126 
 
 Thaddeus Stevens 129 
 
 Fanaticism and Liberty 130 
 
 Jefiferson Davis 132 
 
 Relations of North and South 133 
 
 Alexander H. Stephens 135 
 
 Separate as Billows, but One as the Sea ....... 136 
 
 Robert Toombs 138 
 
 The Creed of Secession 139 
 
 Charles Sumner . . . . 141 
 
 The True Grandeur of Nations 142 
 
 Wilham H. Seward 145 
 
 America's True Greatness 146 
 
viii CONTENTS 
 
 FAGB 
 
 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. Garfield 160 
 
 The Evil Spirit of Disloyalty 161 
 
 James G. Blaine 164 
 
 A Eulogy of Garfield 165 
 
 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. 0. 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. Choate . 203 
 
 Farragut at Mobile 204 
 
 Our Pilgrim Mothers 205 
 
 Henry W. Grady 206 
 
 The New South 207 
 
 Henry C. Lodge 209 
 
 A Party on Live Issues 210 
 
 Joseph B. Foraker 212 
 
 The United States under McKinley 213 
 
CONTENTS ^^_____ix 
 
 PAGR 
 
 Thomas B. Reed 215 
 
 Gifts to Liberal Institutions 216 
 
 William J. Bryan 218 
 
 The Cross of Gold 219 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt 221 
 
 The Strenuous Life 222 
 
 National and Industrial Peace 224 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 THE ORATORS OF CANADA 
 
 Joseph Howe 228 
 
 Canada and the United States 229 
 
 Sir John A. MacDonald 230 
 
 The Treaty of Washington ... 231 
 
 George Brown 233 
 
 The Greatness and Destiny of Canada 234 
 
 Nicholas F. Davin 236 
 
 The British Colonial Empire 237 
 
 Sir Charles Tupper 238 
 
 The Protection of the Fisheries 239 
 
 Goldwin Smith 241 
 
 God in the Universe 242 
 
 Sir Wilfrid Laurier 244 
 
 Gladstone's Elements of Greatness 245 
 
 Riel and the Government . 246 
 
 Sir John Thompson 249 
 
 The Execution of Riel 250 
 
 BOOK VI. 
 
 FAMOUS PULPIT ORATORS 
 
 Lyman Beecher 254 
 
 The Sacredness of the Sabbath 255 
 
 William Ellery Ohanning 256 
 
 The Rights of the Individual 257 
 
 The Power that Moves the Age 258 
 
 Theodore Parker , . . 259 
 
 The Greatness and the Weakness of Daniel Webster . . . 260 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher 263 
 
 lyincoln Dead and a Nation in Grief 264 
 
 A Corrupt Public Sentiment . 265 
 
 Edwin H. Chapin . 267 
 
 Christianity the Great Element of Reform 267 
 
 The Triumphs of Labor 268 
 
 The Handwriting on the Wall 269 
 
 Phillips Brooks 270 
 
 The Evil that Men do Lives after Them 271 
 
X CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 William G. Brownlow 273 
 
 The Union and the Constitution 273 
 
 Tribulations in Tennessee 274 
 
 Robert OoUyer 276 
 
 Stopping at Haran 277 
 
 Thomas DeWitt Talmage . . . • 279 
 
 The Upper Forces in American History 280 
 
 Henry Oodman Potter 282 
 
 The Heroism of the Unknown 283 
 
 Frank W. Gunsaulus 285 
 
 The Tapestry of Anglo-Saxon Civilization 286 
 
 Dwight L. Moody 289 
 
 God is Love . . . , 290 
 
 BOOK VII. 
 
 LEADERS IN THE LECTURE FIELD 
 
 Joseph Story 294 
 
 The Destiny of the Indian 295 
 
 Hasty Work is 'Prentice Work 296 
 
 Sergeant S. Prentiss 297 
 
 The Pilgrims 298 
 
 Wendell Phillips . 301 
 
 John Brown and Liberty 302 
 
 Clear Vision versus Education 304 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson 305 
 
 Man the Reformer 306 
 
 George W. Ciirtis ..... 308 
 
 Wendell Phillips and his Life Labor 309 
 
 Joseph Cook 311 
 
 Efficient but not Sufficient . 312 
 
 John B. Gough 314 
 
 The Temperance Cause 315 
 
 Rob-9rt J. IngersoU ^ 317 
 
 Blaine the Plumed Knight 318 
 
 At his Brother's Grave 319 
 
 Henry Armitt Brown 321 
 
 Men's Progress and Problems 322 
 
 Henry Watterson 323 
 
 A Vision of American History 324 
 
 The Puritan and the Cavalier 325 
 
 Charles Francis Adams 327 
 
 The Veterans of Gettysburg 328 
 
 Grover Cleveland 330 
 
 Manual Training for the Colored Race 331 
 
 Booker T. Washington . 332 
 
 Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are 333 
 
CONTENTS xi 
 
 BOOK VIII. 
 
 NOTABLE WOMEN ORATORS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Elizabeth Cady Stanton 336 
 
 A Plea for Equal Rights 337 
 
 An Appeal to the Law Makers 338 
 
 Susan B. Anthony * .... 339 
 
 Woman's Right to the Suffrage 340 
 
 Mary A. Livermore 342 
 
 The Battle of Life 343 
 
 Frances E. Willard 345 
 
 Safeguards for Women 346 
 
 Belva Ann Lockwood 348 
 
 The Political Rights of Women 349 
 
 Anna E. Dickinson 352 
 
 Why Colored Men should Enlist 353 
 
 BOOK IX. 
 
 SPEAKERS ON FESTIVE OCCASIONS 
 
 Chauncey M. Depew 356 
 
 The New Netherlands 357 
 
 Our English Visitors 358 
 
 Liberty Enlightening the World 359 
 
 Whitelaw Reid 360 
 
 The Press — Right or Wrong 361 
 
 Edward Everett Hale 362 
 
 New England Culture 363 
 
 James Russell Lowell 364 
 
 The Kinship of England and America . 365 
 
 Fitzhugh Lee 367 
 
 Harmony under the Old Flag 368 
 
 Samuel L. Clemens 370 
 
 Unconscious Plagiarism XI i^ 
 
 Horace Porter . 373 
 
 The Humor and Pathos of Lincoln's Life ....'... 374 
 Joseph Jefferson 376 
 
 My Farm in Jersey . 377 
 
 Charles Emory Smith 378 
 
 The Advantages of the Pilgrim Fathers 379 
 
 W. Bourke Oockran 380 
 
 The Soldier and The Lawyer .... 381 
 
 James Proctor Knott 383 
 
 The Mystery of Duluth 384 
 
 Wu Ting Fang 387 
 
 A Wonderful Nation 388 
 
 John Mitchell , 390 
 
 An Appeal for the Miners 391 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART II. 
 EUROPEAN ORATORS 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 ORATORS OF GREECE AND ROME 
 
 PAGE 
 
 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 
 
 iEschines 410. 
 
 Against Ctesiphon . ; 411 
 
 "^Marcus Porcius Cato .... 413 
 
 Woman in Politics 414 
 
 ~^=Oaius Gracchus 415 
 
 , The People's Rights above Privilege 416 
 
 Oaius Julius Caesar 417 
 
 The Punishment of Catiline's Associates 418 
 
 4' Marcus Tullius Cicero 420 
 
 The Treason of Catiline 421 
 
 The Cruelty of Verres 423 
 
 1 Mark Antony 425 
 
 Brutus Denounced 426 
 
 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 xiii 
 
 -~ EAOE 
 
 John Calvin 441 
 
 The Courage of a Christian 442 
 
 Jacques Benigne Bossuet 443 
 
 The Death of the Prince of Conde 444 
 
 Louis Bourdaloue 446 
 
 The Passion of Christ 447 
 
 Francois Fenelon 449 
 
 God Revealed in Nature 450 
 
 Jean Baptiste Massillon 452 
 
 The Iniquity of Kvil Speaking 453 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 ENGLISH ORATORS OF THE MIDDLE PERIOD 
 
 Francis Bacon , 456 
 
 The Evils of Dueling . 457 
 
 Sir Edward Coke 459 
 
 The Charges in Raleigh's Case 460 
 
 Sir John Eliot 461 
 
 The Perils of the Kingdom 462 
 
 John Pym 463 
 
 Law the Basis of Liberty 464 
 
 Oliver Cromwell 466 
 
 The Kingly Title 467 
 
 Earl of Chesterfield 468 
 
 The Drinking Fund T . . . . 469 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE OF BRITISH ORATORY 
 
 Earl of Chatham 472 
 
 Remove the Boston Garrison 473 
 
 The War in America 474 
 
 Edmund Burke 476 
 
 The Impeachment of Warren Hastings 477 
 
 Marie Antoinette , 480 
 
 Charles James Fox txt^-^>txtx$x^>4 481 
 
 The Tyranny of the East India Company 482 
 
 Liberty is Strength and Order 484 
 
 Lord Thomas Erskine 485 
 
 The Governing of India 486 
 
 Henry Grattan « . . 489 
 
 The Rights of Ireland 490 
 
 The Epitaph of England 492 
 
 John Philpot Curran 493 
 
 The Pension System 493 
 
 The March of the Mind 494 
 
 The Evidence of Mr. O'Brien 495 
 
XIV CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Richard Brinsley Sheridan 496 
 
 The Arraignment of Warren Hastings 496 
 
 William Wilberforce , 500 
 
 Abolition of the Slave Trade 501 
 
 WiUiam Pitt 502 
 
 The Peril from France 503 
 
 Robert Emmet 505 
 
 A Patriot's Plea 506 
 
 BOOK V. 
 ORATORS OF THE VICTORIAN REIGN 
 
 Greorge Canning 510 
 
 In Repose Yet in Readiness 511 
 
 Sydney Smith 513 
 
 The Opponents of Reform . 514 
 
 Taxes the Price of Glory 516 
 
 Daniel O'Oonnell 517 
 
 The Charms of Kildare 518 
 
 Lord Henry Brougham 521 
 
 The Industrial Peril of War in America 522 
 
 Viscount Palmerston 524 
 
 Civil War in Ireland 525 
 
 Sir Robert Peel 526 
 
 The Importance of Classical Education 527 
 
 Lord John Russell ... 529 
 
 The " Rotten Boroughs " of England 530 
 
 Importance of I^iterary Studies 531 
 
 Richard L. Sheil 533 
 
 Irish Aliens and English Victories 534 
 
 The Horrors of Civil War 535 
 
 Thomas Babington Macaulay 536 
 
 Superficial Knowledge 537 
 
 Richard Oobden 540 
 
 The Gentry and the Protective System 541 
 
 Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield 543 
 
 The Dangers of Democracy 544 
 
 William Ewart Gladstone 547 
 
 Warfare and Colonization 548 
 
 Home Rule for Ireland 55 1 
 
 John Bright 553 
 
 The Crushing Weight of Militarism 553 
 
 Charles S. Parnell 557 
 
 Evictions and Emigration 558 
 
 Joseph Chamberlain » - 560 
 
 The Anomalies of the Suffrage 561 
 
CONTENTS XV 
 
 BOOK VI. 
 THE PULPIT ORATORS OF GREAT BRITAIN 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Hugh Latimer 564 
 
 The Sermon of the Plow 565 
 
 John Knox 567 
 
 God's Power Above that of Things 568 
 
 John Wesley 569 
 
 Irreligion Among College People 570 
 
 Greorge Whitefield 572 
 
 A Warning Against Worldly Ways 573 
 
 Innocent Diversions 574 
 
 John Henry Newman 575 
 
 The Evils of Money Getting ... ^76 
 
 Henry Edward Manning 578 
 
 Rome the Eternal 579 
 
 Arthur Penrhyn Stanley 581 
 
 The Lesson of Palmerston's Life 582 
 
 Charles H. Spurgeon 584 
 
 The Authorship of the Bible 585 
 
 Joseph Parker , 587 
 
 Human Frivolity 588 
 
 BOOK VII. 
 
 ORATORS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 
 
 Count Honore de Mirabeau 590 
 
 V And yet you Deliberate 591 
 
 The Privileged and the People 593 
 
 Pierre Vergniaud 595 
 
 An Appeal to the People 596 
 
 The Despotism of the Jacobins 597 
 
 Greorge Jacques Danton 598 
 
 Let France be Free 599 
 
 To Dare; Always to Dare .... 600 
 
 Jean Paul Marat 601 
 
 A Defense from Impeachment 602 
 
 Maximilien Isidore Robespierre 603 
 
 A Final Appeal 604 
 
 BOOK VIII. 
 
 NINETEENTH CENTURY ORATORS OF FRANCE 
 
 Victor Cousin 606 
 
 Supremacy of the Art of Poetry 607 
 
 Alphonse de Lamartine . . . , 608 
 
 What is the French Revolution? 609 
 
 Safety only in the Republic 6io 
 
xvi CONTENTS 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Louis Adolphe Thiers 6ii 
 
 The Wastefulness of the Imperial Finance 613 
 
 Victor Marie Hugo 614 
 
 Napoleon the Little 615 
 
 Voltaire 617 
 
 Leon Gambetta 618 
 
 The Regeneration of France 620 
 
 BOOK IX. 
 
 ORATORS OF SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE 
 
 Louis Kossuth 622 
 
 The Haven of the Oppressed 623 
 
 Giuseppe Mazzini 625 
 
 The Martyrs of Cosenza 626 
 
 Count Camillo di Cavour 628 
 
 Rome the Capital of Italy 630 
 
 Prince Otto von Bismarck 631 
 
 Loyalty to Prussia 632 
 
 Prussia and the New Constitution 633 
 
 Francesco Orispi ' 634 
 
 The Relations of the Pope to the State 635 
 
 Emilio Castelar 636 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 637 
 
 
American Orators 
 
 Book I. Revolutionary Orators of the United 
 States 
 
 Book II. The Golden Age of American Oratory 
 
 Book III. Orators of the Civil War Period 
 
 Book IV. Recent Political Orators 
 
 Book v. Distinguished Orators of Canada 
 
 Book VI. Famous Pulpit Orators 
 
 Book VII. Leaders in the Lecture Field 
 
 Book VIII. Notable Women Orators 
 
 Book IX. Speakers on Festive Occasions 
 
 17 
 
BOOK L 
 
 Orators of the American Revolution 
 
 GREAT occasions bring forth great men and lead 
 to great events. What would have been 
 known of Washington but for the struggle for 
 American Independence, of Napoleon but for the 
 French Revolution, of Grant but for the American 
 Civil War? Men like these would, no doubt, have 
 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 
 
 f other branches of human effort, its great triumphs have 
 been dependent upon great exigencies in human affairs. 
 While orators have been as numerous almost as 
 I autumn leaves, world-famous orations seem as few 
 as the planets of our solar system. The orator who 
 would win fame must have, not only fine powers of 
 / thought and expression, but the impulse of momentous 
 ^events, some vast stir in the tide of history to call 
 forth his genius to the uttermost and to give his words 
 a living force and a permanent vitality. 
 
 The first such occasion in American history was 
 that exciting era which 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 
 
PATRICK HENRY (J 736= J 799) 
 
 THE BEACON-LIGHT OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
 LET us view a great historical picture. Its scene is the Assembly 
 hall of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, its date the year 
 — — ^ 1765, its occasion the effort of the King and Parliament of Eng- 
 land to tax the American colonies without their consent. The Bur- 
 gesses had met in protest and talked weakly about the Stamp Act, 
 which was stirring up America to its depths, but were on the point of 
 adjourning without taking any action, when a tall and slender man 
 whom few of them knew arose in their midst. It was a new member, 
 a lawyer from Louisa County, Patrick Henry by name. The old and 
 influential members looked with displeasure on the raw newcomer, 
 who ventured to address them on a topic which they had feared to 
 deal with themselves. They were the more annoyed and amazed 
 when he offered a set of resolutions setting forth that the Stamp Act 
 and all acts of Parliament affecting the Colonies were contrary to 
 the Constitution, and therefore null and void, and that the Burgesses 
 and Governor alone had the right to levy taxes upon the people of 
 Virginia. 
 
 This daring declaration startled the more timid members and a 
 storm of protests arose, but they failed to silence the young orator, who 
 quickly showed himself master of the situation. Never had the old 
 walls of Virginia's legislative hall rung with such mighty words as 
 those by which he supported his resolution, and his address ended 
 with a thunderbolt of defiant eloquence that startled the world. His 
 vibrant voice rang out with "Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First 
 his Cromwell, and George the Third" — Loud cries of ^'Treason ! Trea- 
 son ! " from the frightened Burgesses interrupted the speaker. Heed- 
 less of them he completed his sentence, ^'may profit by their example. 
 
 19 
 
20 PATRICK HENRY 
 
 If this be treason, make the most of it." Plis 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 Governor of Virginia and again from 1784 to 1786, poverty 
 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 1795 President Washington 
 offered him the position of Secretary of State, which he declined. The 
 following year he was again elected Governor of Virginia, which posi- 
 tion he also declined. During the exciting events of 1798 and 1799 
 he once more entered the political field, made his final public address, 
 and was elected to the Assembly. He died before he could take his seat. 
 
 AN APPEAL TO ARMS. 
 [As Patrick 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,! hope it -will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen, i^ 
 entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I 
 shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reser^.^*^ This is no 
 "Hme'^for ceremonj^. The question before the House is one of awful moment 
 to this country. C For my-own part, I consider it as nothing less than a ques- 
 tion of freedom or slavery l^and in proportion to the magnitude of the sub- 
 ject ought to 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, jjshould I keep back my opinions at 
 such a time, through fear of giving offence, I should consider myself a^ 
 guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward 
 the Majesty of Heaven/ which I revere above all earthly kings.) 
 
PATRICK HENRY'S GREAT SPEECH 
 
 The Orator electrifies his audience by boldly declaring that the 
 Colonists would not endure the oppression of the Home Govern- 
 ment and boldly declares for Independence. 
 
PATRICK HENRY 21 
 
 Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope, 
 wl^e-trt^-apt ta shut our ey^a against a painful truth, and listen.-to the song 
 elthat-sif^n, till she transforms us into beasts. ^Is this the part of wise 
 men, engaged in 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, I 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 
 lately received ? Trust it not, sir ; it will prove a snare to your feet. 
 S«#!rrT2ot yourscl-ves4o~be beti^.yed-with'^ k Ask yourselves 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 ? v Have we shown 
 o.urse-lv€«-aou,.tt« willing to be reconciled that force must be called in to 
 win back our love? ;1<et us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the 
 implements of war and subjugation ; the last arguments to which kings 
 resort. I ask gentlemen, sfer, what means this martial array, if its purpose 
 be not to force us to submission ? Gaa^^eatl^aea-aem gn a ny ot hgr possi*^^ 
 ble- mefeive-«fof-ife'? (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 upjaa us those chains which the . 
 British ministry have been so long forgin^^i_. 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 offer 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 ^7 
 Let us not, I beseech you, sk, deceive ourselves longer. Stb:, we have 
 done everything 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 
 
22 PATRICK HENRY 
 
 we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne ! In 
 vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and recon- 
 xiliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free — 
 |if we ymean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we 
 ifav^been so long con^endtttg-^^^f-W^ me^n notlSasely f 6 abandon the nobl«^ 
 struggle in which we have been sd long engaged ^ and which we havepledged 
 ourselveSJiJ£5?e^^-t®^«ba:nd<5n, iiTntil the glorious object of our contest shall 
 be obtaine^;:^fve must fight ! I repcr.t it, sir, we must fight ! An appeal 
 to arms and lo the God of Hosts is all that is left us ! 
 
 They tell us, Wf, 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 be 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 effectual 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? 9fr, we 
 are not weak, if we make the proper use of those means which the God 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, 
 -iif , we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides 
 over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our 
 battles for us. The battle, Jl^-, is not to the strong alone; it is to the 
 vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, t^, 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 course others 
 may take ; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death ! 
 
JAMES OTIS (17254783) 
 
 FREEDOM'S PIONEER ADVOCATE 
 
 TATJE cannot more effectively introduce James Otis than in the 
 11 1 words of President John Adams, who thus describes his famous 
 speech on the " Writs of Assistance." *' Otis was a flame of fire. 
 With a promptitude of 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, ready to take 
 arms against Writs of Assistance. Then and^ there was the first scene 
 of the first act of opposition 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 as well as spoke ably. When opposition to the tyranny 
 of 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 lawyers on the legality of the Writs of 
 Assistance. This was 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 to see 
 the end of the Revolution. 
 
 THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE. 
 
 [Hardly had George the Third come to the throne in 1760 when acts of oppres- 
 sion against the Colonies began. The severe and unjust commercial laws had roused 
 much opposition, and smuggling had become so common that the duties on imports 
 yielded little to the crown. The new king issued orders that gave the revenue ofl&cers 
 
 23 
 
24 JAMES OTIS 
 
 I 
 
 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 PI.KASK Your Honors : 
 
 I was desired by one of the Court to look into the books, and con- 
 sideAi 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 found 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 are 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 throne. 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' sake ; 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 25 
 
 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, sheriffs, 
 constables, and all other officers and subjects; " so that, in short, it is 
 directed to every subject in the King's dominions. Bvery 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 (J 7414 775) 
 
 THE MARTYR OF BUNKER HILL 
 
 AMONG the pathetic events of the Revolutionary War there are 
 none that have appealed more to the sympathy of the American 
 •—^ people than the death of Dr. Joseph Warren, one of the patriots, 
 at the battle of Bunker Hill. Warren, a native of Roxbury, Massachu- 
 setts, had made himself eminent as 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 brilliant was that delivered in Boston on March 6, 1775, 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 displayed 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 
 be slain,'' said Elbridge Gerry 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 commander, 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 and turned 
 to retreat, Warren was one of the very last to leave the field. As he 
 
 26 
 
JOSEPH WARREN 27 
 
 reluctantly retired a bullet struck him in the head, and he^fett,~the 
 first illustrious victim to the patriots' cause. His death was mourned 
 with the deepest sorrow, and added to the determination of the colon- 
 ists to fight to the end for their liberties. 
 
 THE BOSTON MASSACRE 
 
 [All readers of history are probably familiar with the event of March 6, 1770, 
 when a body of British soldiers, irritated by the taunts of a throng of Bostonians, fired 
 upon them, a number falling dead and wounded. This event, which became known 
 as the '* Boston Massacre," produced an intense sensation in city and country. Dr. 
 Warren delivered two anniversary orations on it, one in 1772 and the other in 1775. 
 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 
 South Church an impassioned address, from which we make the following selection.] 
 
 Could it have been conceived that we should have seen a British army 
 in our land, 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 country, have prevailed upon a gracious prince to clothe his 
 countenance with 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 
 of 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 not 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 as have com- 
 manded the applause and reverence of an admiring world. Our country 
 
28 
 
 JOSEPH WARREN 
 
 loudly calls you to be circumspect, vigilant, active and brave. Perhaps 
 (all gracious 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. Her arms, 'tis true, 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 your 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 innocent. 
 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 those more 
 dangerous engines, luxury and corruption, ever be brought into a state of 
 vassalage, Britain must lose her freedom alscf. 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 
 difficult 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 increase 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 t5nranny is trodden under foot, and 
 you have fixed your adored goddess Liberty on the American throne. 
 
SAMUEL ADAMS (t 7224 803) 
 
 LEADER OF THE BOSTON PATRIOTS 
 
 BROM 1760 to 1775 Boston was the hotbed of resistance to British 
 oppression. On it the hand of George III. descended with crush- 
 ing weight, and a stalwart group of patriots defied the efforts of 
 those whom they deemed their mortal enemies. Foremost among 
 these was Samuel Adams, who led in all the movements against *' tax- 
 ation without representation/^ and by his fervid oratory kept the 
 spirit of resistance alive. Poor though he was, he could not be. bought, 
 though more than once an effort to bribe him to desert the cause of 
 the people was made. " Come, friend Samuel," said to him Mather 
 Byles, a Tory clergyman of Boston, " let us relinquish republican 
 phantoms and attend to our fields." " Very well," he replied, " you 
 attend to the planting of liberty and I will grub up the taxes. Thus 
 we shall have pleasant places." 
 
 He was the leading spirit in the celebrated " Boston Tea Party." 
 On December 16, 1773, when the tea-ships lay in the harbor, a great 
 town meeting was held, in which Adams and others took prominent 
 part. When night had fallen he rose and said : '' This meeting can 
 do nothing more to save the country." These words seemed a signal, 
 a war-whoop was heard at the door, and a party of men disguised as 
 Indians rushed impetuously to the wharf, boarded the ships, and 
 flung the tea to the fishes of the harbor. This event and the action 
 of the king in response thereto, had a great deal to do with precipi- 
 tating the Revolution. 
 
 Adams became a member of the Continental Congress and was 
 one of the most earnest and unflinching of those who labored for the 
 Declaration of Independence. The signing of the Declaration gave 
 occasion for the delivery of the only example we possess of his fervent 
 
 29 
 
80 SAMUEL ADAMS 
 
 oratory. Adams continued in Congress during the war, and after- 
 wards remained a prominent figure in Massachusetts politics, being 
 Governor from 1795 to 1797. 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 living 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 ignominious 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, has 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 your 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 to 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. 
 
SAMUEL ADAMS 31 
 
 Our Union is now complete ; our Constitution composed, established, 
 and approved. You are now the guardians of your own liberties. We 
 may justly address you, as the Decemviri did the Romans, and say — 
 " Nothing that we propose can pass into a law without your consent. Be 
 yourselves, O Americans, the authors of those laws on which your hap- 
 piness depends." 
 
 You have now in the field armies sufficient to repel the whole force 
 of your enemies and their base and mercenary auxiliaries. The hearts of 
 your soldiers beat high with the spirit of freedom — they are animated 
 with the justice of their cause, and, while they grasp their swords, can 
 look up to Heaven for assistance. Your adversaries are composed of 
 wretches who laugh at the rights of humanity, who turn religion into deri- 
 sion, and would, for higher wages, direct their swords against their leaders, 
 or their country. Go on, then, in your generous enterprise, with grati- 
 tude to Heaven for past success, and confidence of it in the future. For 
 my own part, I ask no greater blessing than to share with you the com- 
 mon danger and common glory. If I have a wish dearer to my soul than 
 that my ashes may be mingled with those of a Warren and Montgomery 
 — it is, that these American States may never cease to be free and 
 independent. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON (J 757- J 804) 
 
 THE CREATOR OF THE AMERICAN REVENUE 
 
 I T JN" a noble speech by Daniel Webster we read the following pass- 
 I I I ^S^ ' " How he fulfilled the duties of such a place, at such a 
 time, the whole country perceived with delight and the whole 
 world saw with admiration. He smote the rock of the national 
 resources and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched 
 the dead corpse of the public credit, and it sprang upon its feet. The 
 fabled birth of Minerva, from the brain of Jove, was hardly more 
 sudden and more perfect than the financial system of the United 
 States, as it burst forth from the conceptions of Alexander Hamilton." 
 
 We can add little to this splendid outburst of poetic oratory. In 
 1789, when the Government of the United States under the Constitu- 
 tion was organized and Alexander Hamilton was made Secretary of 
 the Treasury by President Washington, the finances of the new republic 
 were in a deplorable state. The country was drowned in debt and 
 practically bankrupt. The expenses of the Revolution had been 
 mainly met 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 needed, and it often 
 begged in vain. The new government began with an empty purse 
 and a ruined credit. All this was reversed 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. This 
 is the work which Webster so highly eulogized. Its details may be 
 found in the financial history of the United States. 
 
 Alexander Hamilton was a man brimful of talents, in his way 
 as remarkable as Washington himself Coming from his birthplace 
 32 
 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON 33 
 
 in the West Indies to the United States in 1772, a boy of fifteen, he 
 soon began to make his power felt, and in 1774, still a small, slender 
 lad, he made a striking speech before a great meeting in New York, in 
 which he denounced Great Britain, 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 her glory." 
 
 This wonderful boy 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 fight. At Yorktown he was in 
 arms again, and made a brilliant attack on the British works. The 
 war ended, he took an active part in striving to adjust the wrecked 
 finances of the country, aiding Robert 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 new Consti- 
 tution, and no man aided it more with voice and pen. His papers, 
 published in the Federalist, are the most valuable parts of our Consti- 
 tutional history. His speeches on the same subject are welcome 
 additions to our oratory. His work as a member of Washington's 
 cabinet was beyond praise. As a lawyer, he was among the ablest 
 the country possessed. And when, in 1804, he fell a victim to the 
 bullet of Aaron Burr, the whole land put on sackcloth and ashes for 
 the loss of its ablest statesman and financier. His name will always 
 stand high in the list of those eminent citizens to whom this country 
 owes its greatness and its prosperity. 
 
 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, fighting 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 its foes. From 
 his many speeches on this subject we are obliged to content ourselves with a brief 
 extract in illustration of his style.] 
 
 3 
 
34 ALEXANDER HAMILTON 
 
 Mr. Chairman : The honorable member, who spoke yesterday, went 
 into an explanation of a variety 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 fields 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 of our 
 country, and 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 country 
 may be, I hope we shall never sacrifice our liberties. If, therefore, on a 
 full 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 trulii 
 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 those 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 only executed them so 
 far as answered their particular convenience or advantage. Hence there 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON 35 
 
 have ever been thirteen different bodies to judge of the measures of 
 Congress — and the operations of government have been distracted 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 of our Union, 
 and incited to vigorous exertions, we felt many distressing effects of the 
 impotent system 
 
 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 requisitions and they are 
 not complied 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 influence 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 
 Ibrming 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 by the sword ? Every such war 
 must involve the innocent with the guilty. This single consideration 
 should be sufiicient 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 
 
36 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 
 [The following extract bears upon the same general subject, but is from a speech 
 delivered in Februar}^, 1787, before the Constitutional Convention met. The Con- 
 gress of the Confederacy, being dependent for funds upon the small sums doled out 
 to it by the seperate States, wished to lay an impost or general tax to supply it with 
 the much needed funds. This the States opposed. The speech from which we quote 
 was delivered before the Assembly of New York. It depicts strongly the weakness and 
 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 t^yo 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, must produce an equal, or nearly 
 equal, effect everywhere, and oblige all the States to share the common 
 burthen ? 
 
 If the impost is granfed to the United States, with the power of levying 
 it, it must have a proportionate eflfect 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 longer ? 
 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. • • • • 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON 87 
 
 Having now shown, Mr. Chairman, that there is no constitntional. 
 impediment to the adoption of the bill ; that there is no danger to be 
 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 attention to the 
 other side of this important subject. Let us ask ourselves, what will be 
 the consequence of rejecting the bill ? What will be the situation of our 
 national affairs if they are 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 we 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 pas- 
 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 the event of a rupture with them , what is to hinder our 
 metropolis from becoming a prey to our neighbors ? Is it even suppos- 
 able that they would suffer it to remain the nursery of wealth to a distinct 
 community ? 
 
 These subjects are delicate, but it is necessary to contemplate them, 
 to teach us to form a true estimate of our situation. Wars with each 
 other would beget 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 therefractory 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 country, 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 own power- 
 
JAMES MADISON (t 7514 836) 
 
 THE FATHER OF THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 OUR national title, the United States of America, has been in use 
 since the Declaration of Independence. But this title meant 
 — ^ very little until after the adoption of the Constitution in 1788. 
 Before that date the Union of the States was a very disjointed affair. 
 The old Confederacy was as weak as a string of beads held together by a 
 spider's web. Congress had almost no power and the Union was 
 simply a temporary league of independent States. Washington told 
 the exact truth when he said, ''We are one nation to-day and thirteen 
 to-morrow." Congress had no money except what the States chose to 
 give it; if it needed an army it had to ask the States for soldiers; it 
 could make treaties, but could net enforce them; it could borrow 
 money, but could not repay it; it could make war, but could not enlist 
 a man to fight its battles. 
 
 A change was necessary if the whole affair was not to f\ill to 
 pieces. There must be a stronger union or soon there would be none 
 at all. Hamilton and Madison were among the first to see this, and 
 Madison had so much to do in bringing about the Constitutional Con- 
 vention, called to form a real Union of the States, that he is spoken 
 of as ''The Father of tlie Constitution." And we know of what took 
 place in that Convention mainly by the notes which Madison took 
 while it went on, and which he left to be published after his death. 
 
 James Madison was born near Port Royal, Virginia, in 1751. 
 He grew to be one of those active and able statesmen of whom Vir- 
 ginia gave so many to the service of the country at the critical period 
 of the birth of the new nation. Feeble health prevented him from 
 fighting for his country, but he was active in legislative service and 
 afterwards was one of the ablest members of the Convention that 
 3S 
 
JAMES MADISON 39 
 
 framed the Constitution, which he aided Hamilton in supporting in 
 that splendid series of essays published under the title of '^ The 
 Federalist." After serving in Congress and in the Virginia Legislature, 
 Madison became Secretary of State under Jefferson, and in 1809 took 
 his seat as President. He continued in this high office for eight years, 
 of which three were years of war. The remainder of his life was 
 spent in rest and quiet. 
 
 Madison was one of the most illustrious of the early American 
 statesmen, an able thinker, a skillful writer, and a brilliant orator. 
 He took an active part in the debates on the Constitution, and after- 
 wards in the Virginia Convention called to ratify it. Here he had to 
 contend against the vehement oratory of Patrick Henry and the per- 
 suasive eloquence of George Mason ; yet he gained his cause, the 
 Constitution was adopted, and Virginia entered the Union. 
 
 THE AMERICAN FEDERAL UNION 
 
 [While Hamilton in New York was delivering that brilliant series of speeches 
 on the Constitution from which we have given an extract, and which carried New 
 York for the Union, his colleague, Madison, was engaged in the same good work in 
 Virginia. Hamilton had the able party leader George Clinton, to contend against, 
 and Madison had the brilliant orator Patrick Henry, yet they both carried their point. 
 They had much the stronger side of the argument, and were able to show the people 
 that there was no middle course between the Constitution and anarchy. To reject it 
 would have been the death of the Union and the ruin of the States. This is what 
 Madison sought to demonstrate in his series of speeches given in June, 1788. We 
 offer from these an illustrative extract describing the character of the proposed new 
 government.] 
 
 Give me leave to say something of the nature of the government, 
 and to show that it is perfectly vSafe and just to vest it with the power of 
 taxation. There are a number of opinions ; but the principal question 
 is, whether it be a federal or a consolidated government. In order to 
 judge properly of the question before us, we must consider it minutely, in 
 its principal parts. I myself conceive that it is of a mixed nature ; it is, 
 in a manner, unprecedented. We cannot find one express prototype in 
 the experience of the world ; it stands by itself. In some respects it is a 
 \ government of a federal nature ; in others, it is of a consolidated nature. 
 Even if we attend to the manner in which the Constitution is investigated, 
 ratified and made the act of the people of America, I can say, notwith- 
 standing what the honorable gentleman [Patrick Henry] has alleged, that 
 this government is not completely consolidated ; nor is it entirely federal. 
 Who are the parties to it ? The people ; not the people as composing 
 
40 JAMES MADISON 
 
 one great body, but the people as composing thirteen sovereignties. 
 Were it, as the gentleman asserts, a consolidated government, the assent 
 of a majority of the people would be sufficient for its establishment, and 
 as a majority have adoped it already, the remaining States would be 
 bound by the act of the majority, even if they unanimously reprobated it. 
 Were it such a government as is suggested, it would be now binding on 
 the people of this State, without having had the privilege of deliberating 
 upon it ; but, sir, no State is bound by it, as it is, without its own con- 
 sent. Should all the States adopt it, it will be then a government estab- 
 lished by the thirteen States of America, not through the intervention of 
 
 the legislatures, but by the people at large 
 
 But it is urged that .its consolidated nature, joined to the power of 
 direct taxation, will give it a tendency to destroy all subordinate authority; 
 that its increasing influence will speedily enable it to absorb the State 
 governments. I cannot bring myself to think that this will be the case. 
 If the general government were wholly independent of the governments 
 of the particular States, then, indeed, usurpation might be expected to the 
 fullest extent ; but, sir, on whom does this general government depend ? 
 It derives its authority from these governments, and from the same sources 
 from which their authority is derived. The members of the federal 
 government are taken from the same men from whom those of the State 
 legislatures are taken. If we consider the mode in which the federal 
 representatives will be chosen, we shall be convinced that the general 
 never will destroy the individual governments ; and this conviction must 
 be strengthened by an attention to the construction of the Senate. The 
 representatives will be chosen, probably under the influence of the mem- 
 bers of the State legislatures ; but there is not the least probability that 
 the election of the latter will be influenced by the former. One hundred 
 jand sixty members representing this commonwealth in one branch of the 
 legislature, are drawn from the people at large, and must ever possess 
 more influence than the few men who will be elected to the general legis- 
 lature. Those who wish to become federal representatives must depend 
 on their credit with that class of men who will be the most popular in 
 their counties, who generally represent the people in the State govern- 
 ments ; they can, therefore, never succeed in any measure contrary to the 
 wishes of those on whom they depend. So that, on the whole, it is almost 
 certain that the deliberations of the members of the Federal House of Repre- 
 sentives will be directed to the interests of the people of America. As to 
 the other branch, the senators will be appointed by the legislatures, and, 
 though elected for six years, I do not conceive they will so soon forget 
 the source from whence they derive their political existence- This 
 
 I 
 
JAMES MADISON 41 
 
 election of one branch of the Federal by the State legislatures, secures an 
 absolute dependence of the former on the latter. The biennial exclusion 
 of one-third will lessen the facility of a combination, and preclude all 
 likelihood of intrigues. I appeal to our past experience, whether they 
 will attend to the interests of their constituent States. Have not those 
 gentlemen who have been honored with seats in Congress often signalized 
 themselves by their attachment to their States ? Sir, I pledge myself that 
 this government will answer the expectations of its friends, and foil the 
 apprehensions of its enemies. I am persuaded that the patriotism of the 
 people will continue, and be a sufficient guard to their liberties, and that 
 the tendency of the constitution will be, that the State governments will 
 counteract the general interest, and ultimately prevail 
 
 If we recur to history, and review the annals of mankind, I undertake 
 to say that no instance can be produced by the most learned man, of any 
 confederate government that will justify a continuation of the present 
 system ; or that will not, on the contrary, demonstrate the necessity of 
 this change, and of substituting to the present pernicious and fatal plan 
 the system now under consideration, or one equally energetic. The 
 uniform conclusion drawn from a review of ancient and modern confeder- 
 acies is, that instead of promoting the public happiness, or securing 
 public tranquillity, they have, in every instance, been productive of 
 anarchy and confusion — ineffectual for the preservation of harmony and 
 a prey to their own dissensions and foreign invasions. 
 
 The Amphictyonic league * resembled our confederation in its nominal 
 powers ; it was possessed of rather more efficiency. The component 
 States retained their sovereignty, and enjoyed an equality of suffrage in 
 the federal council. But though its powers were more considerable in 
 many respects than those of our present system, yet it had the same 
 radical defect. Its powers were exercised over its individual members in 
 their political capacities. To this capital defect it owed its disorders and 
 final destruction. It was compelled to recur to the sanguinary coercion 
 of war to enforce its decrees. The struggles consequent on a refusal to 
 obey a decree, and an attempt to enforce it, produced the necessity of 
 applying to foreign assistance ; by complying with that application and 
 employing his wiles and intrigues, Philip of Macedon acquired sufficient 
 influence to become a member of the league ; and that artful and insidious 
 prince soon after became master of their liberties. 
 
 The Achaean league t, though better constructed than the Amphicty- 
 onic in material respects, was continually agitated with domestic dissen- 
 sions, and driven to the necessity of calling in foreign aid ; this also 
 
 * An early form of Grecian confederacy. f A league formed in l^ter Grecian days. 
 
42 JAMES MADISON 
 
 eventuated in the demolition of their confederacy. Had they been more 
 closely united, their people would have been happier ; and their united 
 wisdom and strength would not only have rendered unnecessary all foreign 
 interpositions in their affairs, but would have enabled them to repel the 
 attack of any enemy. If we descend to more modern examples, we shall 
 find the same evils resulting from the same sources. 
 
 The Germanic system ^ is neither adequate to the external defence or 
 internal felicity of the people ; the doctrine of quotas and requisitions 
 flourishes here. Without energy, without stability, the empire is a nerve- 
 less body. The most furious conflicts, and the most implacable animosi- 
 ties between its members, strikingly distinguish its history. Concert and co- 
 operation are incompatible with such an injudiciously constructed system. 
 
 The Republic of the Swiss is sometimes instanced for its stability; 
 but even there dissensions and wars of a bloody nature have been fre- 
 quently seen between the cantons. A peculiar coincidence of circum- 
 stances contributes to the continuance of their political connection. Their 
 feeble association owes its existence to their singular situation. There is 
 a schism in their confederacy, which, without the necessity of uniting for 
 their external defence, would immediately produce its dissolution. The 
 confederate government of Holland is a further confirmation of the char- 
 acteristic imbecility of such governments. From the history of this govern- 
 ment, we might derive lessons of the most important utility 
 
 These radical defects in their confederacy must have dissolved their 
 association long ago, were it not for their peculiar position — circumscribed 
 in a narrow territory ; surrounded by the most powerful nations in the 
 world ; possessing peculiar advantages from their situation ; an extensive 
 navigation and a powerful navy — advantages which it was clearly the in- 
 terest of those nations to diminish or deprive them of. The late unhappy 
 dissensions were manifestly produced by the vices of their system. We 
 may derive much benefit from the experience of that unhappy country. 
 Governments, destitute of energy, will always produce anarchy. These 
 facts are worthy the most serious consideration of every gentleman here. 
 Does not the history of these confederacies coincide with the lessons drawn 
 from our own experience ? I most earnestly pray that America may have 
 sufficient wisdom to avail herself of the instructive information she may 
 derive from a contemplation of the sources of their misfortunes, and that 
 she may escape a similar fate, by avoiding the causes from which their 
 infelicity sprung. 
 
 * The league, then existing, of independent German States 
 
p 
 
 FISHER AMES (J 7584 808) 
 
 RHETORICIAN AND ORATOR 
 
 BISHER AMES, not the least among the distinguished orators of. 
 the era of the Constitution, was, in the words of Dr. Charles Cald- 
 well, "Decidedly one of the most splendid rhetoricians of the age. 
 Two of his speeches, that on Jay's treaty and that usually called his 
 'Tomahawk' speech (because it included some resplendent speeches on 
 Indian massacres) are the most brilliant and fascinating specimens of 
 eloquence I have ever heard, yet I have listened to some of the most 
 celebrated speakers in the British Parliament." Dr. Priestly also said 
 that " The speech of Ames, on the British Treafy, was the most 
 bewitching piece of parliamentary oratory I have ever listened to." 
 
 The orator thus highly eulogized was of Massachusetts birth and 
 training, Harvard College being his alma mater. He became widely 
 familiar with the best literature, studied law, and wrote ably on the 
 political problem of 1784 and later, in papers signed Brutus and 
 Camillm. These gave him wide renown, and won him election to the 
 first Congress in 1789. He continued a member of the House until 
 1797, when failing health obliged him to withdraw from political 
 labors. In 1804 he was chosen President of Harvard College, but 
 declined on the plea of wasting strength. Four years afterward, in 
 1808, he died, shortly after the completion of his fiftieth year. 
 
 THE OBLIGATION OF TREATIES 
 
 [The treaty with Great Britain in 1783, which was the final event in the Amer- 
 ican Revolution, was, unfortunately, not fully carried out in the States. Trouble 
 arose about the harsh treatment of the Tories, who were forced by thousands to leave 
 the country. Also the old debts due British merchants were not paid. England 
 looked on this as bad faith, and refused to give up Detroit and other posts on the lakes. 
 And as a result of its war with France, it began to seize American ships trading with 
 that country, and to take seamen from American vessels on the pretense that they were 
 
 43 
 
44 FISHER AMES 
 
 British subjects. An effort to adjust these difficulties led in 1795 to a new treaty, 
 negotiated by John Jay, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. 
 This treaty settled all the questions in dispute except that of the seizure of American 
 sailors. But some of its features, this one in particular gave rise to intense excite- 
 ment and determined opposition. Jay was burned in effigy, the British minister was 
 insulted, and Hamilton, who spoke in favor of the treaty, was stoned. But Washing- 
 ton also favored it and it was carried through Congress against all opposition. With 
 all its defects, no better could be had at the time, and it averted a possible war. Ames 
 spoke earnestly in favor of the appropriation for the treaty, his address being full of 
 such pathos and eloquence, that at its close one member moved to adjourn, on the 
 ground that the House was in too great a state of excitement to consider the question 
 impartially. We quote some telling passages from this celebrated speech.] 
 
 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 our 
 engagements to France. If we listen to the clamor of party intemperance, 
 the evils are of a number not to be counted, and of a nature not to be 
 borne, even in idea. The language of passion and exaggeration may 
 silence that of sober reason in other places, it has not done it here. The 
 question here is, whether the treaty be really so very fatal as to oblige the 
 nation to break its faith. I admit that such a treaty ought not to be exe- 
 cuted. I admit that self-preservation is the first law of society, as well as 
 of individuals. It would, perhaps, be deemed an abuse of terms to call 
 that a treaty which violates such a principle 
 
 The undecided point is, shall we break our faith? And while our 
 country and enlightened Europe await the issue with more than curiosity, 
 we are employed to gather piecemeal, and article by article, from the 
 instrument a justification for the deed by trivial calculations of commer- 
 cial profit and loss. This is little worthy of the subject, of this body or of 
 the nation. If the treaty is bad, it will appear to be so in its mass. Evil to 
 a fatal extreme, if that be its tendency, requires no proof; it brings it. 
 Extremes speak for themselves and make their own law. What if the 
 direct voyage of American ships to Jamaica with horses or lumber might 
 net one or i^o per ceyitum more than the present trade to Surinam ; would 
 the proof of the fact avail anything in so grave a question as the violation 
 pf the public engagements ? 
 
 It is in vain to allege that our faith, plighted to France, is violated by 
 this new treaty. Our prior treaties are expressly saved from the opera- 
 tion of the British treaty. And what do those mean who say, that our 
 honor was forfeited by treating at all, and especially by such a treaty? 
 Justice, the laws and practice of nations, a just regard for peace as 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 the effect 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 Europe 
 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 heart. 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 governments. It is observed by barbarians — a 
 whiff of tobacco smoke, or a string of beads, gives not merely binding 
 force, but sanctity to treaties. Even 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 together 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 they would, therefore, soon pay some respect 
 themselves to the obligations of good faith. 
 
46 FISHER AMES 
 
 It is painful, I. hope it is superfluous, to make even the supposition 
 that America should furnish the occasion of this opprobrium. No, let 
 me not even imagine that a republican government, sprung, as our own 
 is, from a people enlightened and uncorrupted, a government whose 
 origin is right, and whose daily discipline is duty, can, upon solemn 
 debate, make its option to be faithless — can dare to act what despots dare 
 not avow 
 
 Let us^not hesitate, then, to agree to the appropriation to carry it into 
 faithful execution. Thus we shall save the faith of our nation, secure 
 its peace, and diffuse the spirit of confidence and enterprise that will aug- 
 ment its prosperity. The progress of wealth and improvement is wonder- 
 ful, and, some will think, too rapid. The field for exertion is fruitful and 
 vast, and, if peace and good government should be preserved, the acquisi- 
 tions of our citizens are not so pleasing as the proofs of their industry as 
 the instruments of their future success. The rewards of exertion go to 
 augment its power. Profit is every hour becoming capital. The vast 
 crop of our neutrality is all seedwheat, and is sown again to swell, almost 
 beyond calculation, the future harvest of prosperity . And in this progress, 
 what seems to be fiction is found to fall short of experience. 
 
 I rose to speak under impressions that I w^ould have resisted if I could. 
 Those who see me will believe that the reduced state of my health has 
 unfitted me, almost equally, for much exertion of body or mind. Unpre- 
 pared for debate, by careful reflection in my retirement, or by long atten- 
 tion here, I thought the resolution I had taken to sit silent was imposed 
 by necessity, and would cost me no effort to maintain. With a mind thus 
 vacant of ideas, and sinking, as I really am, under a sense of weakness, I 
 imagined the very desire of speaking was extinguished by the persuasion 
 that I had nothing to say. Yet when I come to the moment of deciding 
 the vote, I start back with dread from the edge of the pit into which we 
 are plunging. In my view, even the minutes I have spent in expostula- 
 tion have their value, because they protract the crisis, and the short period 
 in which alone we may resolve to escape it. 
 
 I have thus been led by my feelings to speak more at length than 
 I had intended. Yet I have, perhaps, as little personal interest in the 
 event as any one here. There is, I believe, no member who will not think 
 his chance to be a witness of the consequences greater than mine. If, 
 however, the vote should pass to reject, and a spirit should rise, as it will, 
 with public disorders, to make confusion worse confounded, even I, slen- 
 der and almost broken as my hold upon life is, may outlive the Govern- 
 ment and Constitution of my country. 
 
HENRY LEE (1 75648 J 8) 
 
 LIGHT 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- 
 plies 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, becoming prominent both as asoldier and statesman. 
 But we are here concerned with the first famous representative of the 
 family, Henry Lee, the father of Robert Edward, 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 became one of the 
 two great commanders 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 and 
 brilliant, especially in 1780 and 1781, when he commanded a cavalry 
 corps under General Greene in the Carolinas. Of his later career it 
 must suffice to say that he 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 the latter field he was selected 
 by Congress to pronounce the funeral oration upon Washington, whom 
 he designated by the famous aphorism, "First in war, first in peace, 
 and first in the hearts of his country-men." 
 
 THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY 
 
 [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-sacrificing patriotism and unselfish devotion to the best interests of his country. 
 
 47 
 
48 HENRY LEE 
 
 There are many, alike in America and Europe, who regard Washington as pre* 
 eminently the greatest man of that century. Such was the sentiment of the people 
 who, on learning of his death, mourned him as if they had lost not only the "Father 
 of his country," but the immediate father of each of them as well. One of his 
 warmest friends and ablest companions in arms, Henry I,ee, was chosen by Congress 
 to voice its sense of the country's loss. We give below Lee's eloquent tribute to his 
 great commander's memory, spoken at the German Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, 
 on the 26th of December, 1799.] 
 
 In obedience to your will I rise your humble organ, with the hope of 
 executing a part of the system of public mourning which you have been 
 pleased to adopt, commemorative 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 you 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, 
 in our finite view of Omnipotent wisdom, the heartrending privation for 
 which our nation weeps. When the civilized world shakes to its centre ; 
 when every moment gives birth to strange and momentous changes ; when 
 our peaceful quarter of the globe, exempt as it happily has been from any 
 share in the slaughter of the human race, may yet be compelled to abandon 
 her pacific,* policy, and to risk the doleful 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 
 in 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 young and far-spreading empire shall have perished, still will our 
 
 * The speaker here refers to the disturbed condition of Europe at that peFiod, and especially to 
 the imminent peril of war with France, due to French interference with American commerce. 
 
^£ ^> 
 
 HENRY LEEVC4, , '^'■' 49 
 
 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 your view a char- 
 acter throughout sublime ? Shall I speak of his warlike achievements, 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 Washington, supporting, in the dismal hour of Indian victory, 
 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 
 love of country ; or shall I carry you to the painful scenes of L<ong 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, unnerving 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 ; he 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 remaining 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 ears, when he, who had been our shield, 
 our sword, was called forth to act a less splendid, but more important part. 
 4 
 
50 HENRY LEE 
 
 Possessing a clear and penetrating mind, a strong and sound judgf- 
 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 unvarying 
 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 birth, 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 difl&culty, 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 their 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 common 
 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 ofiice 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 61 
 
 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 nimium, sua si bona norint ! ** 
 
 Leading through the complicated diflBculties 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 ofiice 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 
 
52 HENRY LEE 
 
 unexpected summons with mingled emotions of indignation at the unmeri- 
 ted ill-treatment of his country, and of a determination once more to risk 
 his all in her defence. The annunciation of these feelings, in his affecting 
 letter to the President, accepting the command of the army, concludes 
 his official conduct. 
 
 First in war, first in pkack and first in thk hearts of his 
 COUNTRYMEN, 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 his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand ; 
 the purity of his private character gave effulgence 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. ' ' 
 
GOUVERNEUR MORRIS (1 752- J 816) 
 
 THE ONE-LEGGED STATESMAN 
 
 mHE early period of United States history brought distinction to 
 two men of the name of Morris, especially to Robert Morris, the 
 financier of the Revolution. The second, Gouverneur Morris, 
 while less distinguished, made himself prominent among the states- 
 men and orators of that era. He began to win credit for oratory in his 
 college career. He became a lawyer in 1771, and in this profession 
 soon gained reputation for unusual eloquence. During the Revolu- 
 tion he was a member of the Continental Congress. In 1780, after 
 he had resumed the practice of the law, he had the misfortune to be 
 thrown from his carriage, and was so injured that the amputation of 
 his leg became necessary, a loss which he bore with remarkable 
 fortitude. 
 
 In 1781 he was appointed assistant to Robert Morris in adjust- 
 ing the finances of the country, and remained his aid for three years. 
 In 1787 he became a member of the Convention that framed the 
 Constitution of the United States, of which, as ■ Madison says, '' he 
 was an able, an eloquent, and an active member. . . . The finish 
 given to the style and arrangement of the Constitution fairly belongs 
 to the pen of Mr. Morris." He was sent as Minister to France in 
 1792, and in 1800 was elected United States Senator from New York. 
 While in Paris, he wore an ordinary wooden leg, in preference to any 
 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 aristocrat? Yes; who lost his leg in the cause of American 
 liberty ? " This apt reply turned the temper of the mob ; they 
 
 53 
 
54 GOUVERNEUR MORRIS 
 
 cheered the man they had been eager to hang, and the quick-witted 
 American proceeded triumphantly on his way. 
 
 • THE FREE USE OF THE MISSISSIPPI 
 
 [In the opening years of the nineteenth century, when emigrants from the 
 Eastern States were pouring rapidly into the valley of the Mississippi, the freedom of 
 navigation of that great artery of the West became a burning question, and the obsta- 
 cles which the Spanish at New Orleans put in the way of free river commerce stirred 
 up the high-spirited pioneers almost to the point of war. In 1802 it was learned that 
 France, by a secret treaty with Spain, had become the owners of the I^ouisiana 
 territory, and the irritation which had existed in the country deepened into alarm. 
 Napoleon, then First Consul of France, was a different character to deal with than 
 the weak monarch of Spain, and it was impossible to conjecture to what critical con- 
 ditions his restless ambition might lead. The difficulty was soon to be settled by the 
 diplomacy of Jefferson and his ministers, who purchased the whole vast traot from 
 Napoleon ; but it was a burning question on the 24th 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 passages 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 ceded 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 Luneville, 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 another a dangerous neighbor without her 
 consent. This is not like the case of private citizens, for there, when a 
 man is injured, he can resort to the tribunals for redress ; and yet, even 
 there, to dispose of property to one who is a bad neighbor, is always con- 
 sidered as an act of unkindness. 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 forms 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 
 
 I 
 
GOUVERNEUR MORRIS 55 
 
 empty compliment, which, established without use, may be omitted"with- 
 out offence. But this is not so. If these be ceremonies, they are not vain, 
 but of serious import, and are founded on strong reason. He who means 
 me well, acts without disguise. Had this transaction been intended 
 fairly, it would have been told frankly. But it was secret because it was 
 hostile. The First Consul, in the moment 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 under the domination of Napoleon, and 
 the value of the territory bordering 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 gentleman 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 have no hope from fondling attentions and 
 soothing sounds, what have you to offer in exchange? Have you any- 
 thing to give which he will take ? He wants power : you have no power. 
 He wants dominion : you have no dominion — at least none that you can 
 grant. He wants influence 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 habeas corpus act, or a trial by jury ? Do you 
 estimate their power, discuss their interior police ? No ! The question 
 is, How many battalions have they ? What train of artillery can they 
 bring into the field ? How many ships can they send to sea ? These are 
 the important circumstances which command respect and facilitate nego- 
 tiation. Can you display these powerful motives ? Alas ! Alas ! To 
 
56 GOUVERNEUR MORRIS 
 
 all these questions you answer by one poor word — confidence — confidence 
 — confidence — yea, verily, we have confidence. We have faith and hope: 
 aye, and we have charity, too. Well— go to market with these Christian 
 virtues, and what will you get for them ? Just nothing 
 
 Look at the conduct of America in her infant years. When there 
 was no actual invasion of right, but only a claim to invade, she resisted 
 the claim ; she spurned the insult. Did we then hesitate ? Did we then 
 wait for foreign alliance? No ! animated with the spirit, warmed with 
 the soul, of freedom, we threw our oaths of allegiance in the face of our 
 sovereign, and committed our fortunes and our fate to the God of battles. 
 We then were subjects. We had not then attained to the dignity of an inde- 
 pendent republic. We then had no rank among the nations of the earth. 
 But we had the spirit which deserved that elevated station. And now 
 that we have gained it, shall we fall from our honor ? 
 
 Sir, I repeat to you that I wish for peace : real, lasting, honorable 
 peace. To obtain and secure this blessing, let us, by a bold and decisive 
 conduct, convince the powers of Europe that we are determined to defend 
 our rights ; that we will not submit to insult ; that we will not bear degra- 
 dation. This is the conduct which becomes a generous people. This 
 conduct will command the respect of the world. Nay, sir, it may rouse 
 all Europe to a proper sense of their situation. They see that the balance 
 of power, on which their liberties depend, is, if not destroyed, in extreme 
 danger. They know that the dominion of France has been extended by 
 the sword over millions who groan in the servitude of their new masters. 
 These unwilling subjects are ripe for revolt. The empire of the Gauls is 
 not, like that of Rome, secured by political institutions. It may yet be 
 broken. But whatever may be the conduct of others, let us act as becomes 
 ourselves. I cannot believe, with my honorable colleague, that three- 
 fourths of America are opposed to vigorous measures. I cannot believe 
 that they will meanly refuse to pay the sums needful to vindicate their 
 honor and support their independence. Sir, this is a libel on the people 4 
 of America. They will disdain submission to the proudest sovereign on 
 earth. They have not lost the spirit of '76. But, sir, if they are so base 
 as to barter their rights for gold, if they are so vile that they will not 
 defend their honor, they are unworthy of the rank they enjoy, and it is no. 
 matter how soon they are parcelled out among better masters. 
 
JOHN MARSHALL (J75J-J83J) 
 
 AMERICA'S GREATEST JURIST 
 
 mHERE important careers are rarely embraced in the life of a single 
 man, yet in John Marshall we find ourselves in the presence 
 at once of a brave soldier, an able statesman, and an eminent 
 jurist. Born in Virginia, the foster-home of statesmen, Marshall was 
 a soldier in the Revolution, taking part in the battles of Brandy wine, 
 Germantown and Monmouth and enduring the terrible winter at 
 Valley Forge. His duties as a statesman began in the Virginia Con- 
 vention called to ratify the Constitution, where he ably supported 
 Madison. He served afterward in the Virginia Legislature and for 
 a term in Congress, also for a brief period as Secretary of State under 
 President Adams. In his profession, that of the law, he manifested 
 unusual ability, and in time won such wide recognition that on the 
 resignation of Chief- Justice Ellsworth in 1801 he was appointed to 
 the high position of Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States. For thirty-four years, until his death, he performed the duties 
 of this office with a learning, wisdom, and brilliancy as a jurist and 
 expounder of the Constitution which have never been equalled. 
 Judge Story thus speaks of his able decisions on Constitutional law : 
 ''If all others of the Chief Justice's judicial arguments had perished, 
 his luminous judgments upon these occasions would have given an 
 enviable immortality to his name." 
 
 THE DEFENCE OF NASH 
 [Of the examples of Marshall's powers of oratory, the most famous is the ^- 
 logical argument which he made in Congress on March 4, 1800, defending President .-+~ 
 Adams for the surrender of a sailor named Thomas Nash, who was claimed by the ^ 
 British government as a fugitive from justice. This speech settled for all time the \a 
 
 question whether such cases should be decided by the executive or the judiciary. v 
 
 Griswold says, in his "Prose Writers of America," "That argument deserves to be ^ 
 
 67 
 
 ^ 
 
58 JOHN MARSHALL 
 
 ranked among the most dignified displays of the human intellect." As a close judicial 
 study and decision, resembling those for which Marshall afterward became famous, its 
 strength and balance could be shown only by giving it in full. While this cannot be 
 done here, its character will be indicated by our extracts.] 
 
 The case stated is, that Thomas Nash, having committed a murder on 
 board of a British frigate, navigating the high seas under a commission from 
 His Britannic Majesty, had sought an asylum within the United States, 
 and on this case his delivery was demanded by the minister of the King of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 It is manifest that the case stated, if supported by proof, is within the 
 letter of the article, provided a murder committed in a British frigate, on 
 the high seas, be committed within the jurisdiction of that nation. 
 
 That such a murder is within their jurisdiction, 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 citizens in 
 every part of the world. The laws of a nation are rightfully obligatory on 
 its own citizens in every situation, where those laws are really extended 
 to them. This principle is founded on the nature of civil union. It is 
 supported everywhere by public opinion, and is recognized by writers on 
 the law of nations. Rutherforth, in his second volume, p. i8o, says : 
 " The jurisdiction which a civil society has over the persons of its members, 
 affects them immediately, whether they are within its territories or not." 
 
 This general principle is especially true, and is particularly recog- 
 nized, with respect to the fleets of a nation on the high seas. To punish 
 offences committed in its fleet is the practice of every nation in the uni- 
 verse ; and consequently the opinion of the world is that a fleet at sea is 
 within the jurisdiction of the nation to which it belongs. Rutherforth, 
 volume 2, p. 491, says: ''There can be no doubt about the jurisdiction 
 (Df a nation over the persons which compose its fleets, when they are out 
 at sea, whether they are sailing upon it or are stationed in any particular 
 part of it. ' ' 
 
 The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Gallatin), though he has not 
 directly controverted this doctrine, has sought to weaken it by observing 
 that the jurisdiction of a nation at sea could not be complete even in its 
 own vessels ; and, in support of this position, he urged the admitted prac- 
 tice of submitting to search for contraband — a practice not tolerated on 
 land, within the territory of a neutral power. The rule is as stated ; but 
 is founded on a principle which does not affect the jurisdiction of a nation 
 over its citizens or subjects in its ships. The principle is, that in the sea 
 itself no nation has any jurisdiction. All may equally exercise their 
 lights, and consequently the right of a belligerent power to prevent aid 
 
JOHN MARSHALL 69 
 
 being given to his enemy is not restrained by any superior right of a neu- 
 tral in 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 committed on board of a British 
 frigate 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, and the nation may at will stop that prosecu- 
 tion. In this respect the President expresses constitutionally the will of 
 the nation ; and may rightfully enter a nolle prosequi, or direct that the 
 criminal be prosecuted no 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 power 
 
 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 be considered by 
 the gentleman who made it as belonging to the argument. 
 
 The subject introduced by this observation, however, is so calcu- 
 lated to interest the public feelings, that I must 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 
 
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 British 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 Hermione 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. 
 
BOOK IL 
 
 The Golden Age of American Oratory 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 O' 
 
 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 
 
JOSIAH QUINCY (J 772-1 864) 
 
 A FAMOUS FATHER AND SON 
 
 mHE name of Josiah Quincy appertains to two orators, father 
 and son ; one belonging to the eighteenth and the other to 
 the nineteenth century ; the father distinguished before the 
 first war with Great Britain, the son before the second war. A man 
 of fervid and powerful eloquence, of warm patriotism yet of high sense 
 of justice, was Josiah Quincy, the elder. While ardent for independ- 
 ence, he was as earnest in defence of human rights, as is shown in his 
 defence of the soldiers who took part in the so-called " Boston Mas- 
 sacre," and against whom the people of Massachusetts were incensed 
 beyond the bounds of reason. In this work of charity he was aided 
 by John Adams, another patriot w^ho set justice above expediency. 
 
 The son became as able and famous an orator as the father. He 
 represented Boston in Congress from 1804 to 1813 as a Federalist, and 
 opposed the party in power with great energy and ability. " He was 
 equal to the emergency," says Griswold, ^'and sustained himself on all 
 occasions with manly independence, sound argument, and fervid 
 declamation." While the orations of the father are traditional, those 
 of the son are on record, some of his ablest speeches being in opposi- 
 tion to the Embargo Act of 1807, the admission of Louisiana in 1811, 
 and the war of 1812. After leaving Congress, Mr. Quincy served as 
 a senator and a judge in Massachusetts, Mayor of Boston from 1823 
 to 1829 and president of Harvard College from 1829 to 1845. He 
 died in 1864 at ninety- two years of age, having lived through both 
 the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. 
 
 THE EVILS OF THE EMBARGO ACT 
 
 [The early years of the nineteenth century were signalized by the tremendous 
 conflict between Europe and France, in which England was Napoleon's deadliest foe. 
 The United States could not help being affected by this stupendous warfare. Sailors 
 62 
 
JOSIAH QUINCY 63 
 
 were taken from her merchant ships by British war vessels, and proclamations by 
 England and France in 1806 and 1807 almost put an end to her ocean trade. England 
 seized vessels sailing to ports under French influence. France seized those sailing to 
 British ports. Between the two no commerce was safe. Congress retaliated by pass- 
 ing an Embargo Act, which forbade American merchant vessels to leave port for 
 foreign lands at all, and prohibited foreign vessels from loading in American ports. 
 It was thought this would seriously injure England and France ; but it injured 
 America more, practically putting an end to its commerce. The law was not repealed 
 until there became danger of New England, the centre of commerce, seceding from 
 the Union. This danger was strongly indicated by Josiah Quincy, November 28, 
 1808, in a speech on the following resolution : " Resolved, that the United States can- 
 not, without a sacrifice of their rights, honor and independence, submit to the late 
 edicts of Great Britain and France." We give some extracts from this fervidly elo- 
 quent speech.] 
 
 When I enter on the subject of the embargo, I am struck with 
 wonder at the very threshold. I know not with what words to express 
 my astonishment. At the time I departed from Massachusetts, if there 
 was an impression which I thought universal, it was that, at the com- 
 mencement of this session, an end would be put to this measure. The 
 opinion was not so much, that it would be terminated, as that it was then 
 at an end. Sir, the prevailing sentiment, according to my apprehension, 
 was stronger than this — even that the pressure was so great, that it could 
 not possibly be endured ; that it would soon be absolutely insupportable. 
 And this opinion, as I then had reason to believe, was not confined to 
 any one class, or description, or party ; that even those who were friends 
 of the existing administration, and unwilling to abandon it, were yet 
 satisfied that a sufficient trial had been given to this measure. With 
 these impressions I arrive in this city. I hear the incantations of the 
 great enchanter. I feel his spell. I see the legislative machinery begin 
 to move. The scene opens. And I am commanded to forget all my 
 recollections, to disbelieve the evidence of my senses, to contradict what 
 I have seen, and heard, and felt. I hear, that all this discontent is mere 
 party clamor — electioneering artifice ; that the people of New England 
 are able and willing to endure this embargo for an indefinite, unlimited 
 period ; some say for six months ; some a year ; some two years. The 
 gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Macon) told us, that he preferred 
 three years of embargo to a war. And the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. 
 Clopton) said expressly, that he hoped we should never allow our vessels 
 to go upon the ocean again, until the orders and decrees of the belligerents 
 were rescinded ; in plain English, until France and Great Britain should, 
 in their great condescension, permit. Good heavens ! Mr. Chairman, are 
 men mad ? Is this House touched with that insanity which is the never- 
 failing precursor of the intention of Heaven to destroy ? The people of 
 
64 JOSIAH QUINCY 
 
 New England, after eleven months' deprivation of the ocean, to be com- 
 manded still longer to abandon it, for an undefined period ; to hold their 
 unalienable rights at the tenure of the will of Britain or of Bonaparte ! 
 A people, commercial in all aspects, in all their relations, in all their 
 hopes, in all their recollections of the past, in all their prospects of the 
 future ; a people whose first love was the ocean, the choice of their child- 
 hood, the approbation of their manly years, the most precious inheritance 
 of their fathers; in the midst of their success, in the moment of the 
 most exquisite perception of commercial prosperity, to be commanded to 
 abandon it, not for a time limited, but for a time unlimited ; not until 
 they can be prepared to defend themselves there (for that is not pretended), 
 but until their rivals recede from it ; not until their necessities require, 
 but until foreign nations permit ! I am lost in astonishment, Mr. Chair- 
 man. I have not words to express the matchless absurdity of this attempt. 
 I have no tongue to express the swift and headlong destruction which a 
 blind perseverance in such a system must bring upon this nation. 
 
 But men from New England, representatives on this floor, equally 
 with myself the constitutional guardians of her interests, differ from me 
 in these opinions. My honorable colleague (Mr. Bacon) took occasion, 
 in secret session, to deny that there did exist all that discontent and dis- 
 tress, which I had attempted, in an humble way, to describe. He told us 
 he had traveled in Massachusetts, that the people were not thus dissatisfied, 
 that the embargo had not produced any such tragical effects. Really, sir, 
 my honorable colleague has traveled — all the way from Stockbridge to 
 Hudson ; from Berkshire to Boston ; from inn to inn ; from county court 
 to county court ; and doubtless he collected all that important informa- 
 tion which an acute intelligence never fails to retain on such occasions. 
 He found tea, sugar, salt. West India rum and molasses dearer ; beef, 
 pork, butter and cheese cheaper. Reflection enabled him to arrive at this 
 difficult result, that in this way the evil and the good of the embargo 
 equalize one another. But has my honorable colleague traveled on the 
 seaboard ? Has he witnessed the state of our cities ? Has he seen our 
 ships rotting at our wharves, our wharves deserted, our stores tenantless, 
 our streets bereft of active business ; industry forsaking her beloved 
 haunts, and hope fled away from places where she had from earliest time 
 been accustomed to make and fulfil her most precious promises ? Has he 
 conversed with the merchant, and heard the tale of his embarrassments — 
 his capital arrested in his hands ; forbidden by your laws to resort to a 
 market ; with property four times sufficient to discharge all his engage- 
 ments, necessitated to hang on the precarious mercy of moneyed institu- 
 tions for that indulgence which preserves him from stopping payment, 
 
 1 
 
JOSIAH QUINCY 65 
 
 the first step towards Dankruptcy ? Has he conversed with our mechan- 
 ics ? That mechanic, who, the day before this embargo passed, the very 
 day that you took this bit, and rolled it like a sweet morsel under your 
 tongue, had more business than he had hands, or time, or thought to 
 employ in it, now soliciting, at reduced prices, that employment which 
 the rich, owing to the uncertainty in which your laws have involved their 
 capital, cannot afford ? I could heighten this picture. I could show you 
 laboring poor in the almshouse, and willing industry dependent upon 
 charity. But I confine myself to particulars which have fallen under my 
 own observation, and of which ten thousand suffering individuals on the 
 seaboard of New England are living witnesses that here is nothing ficti- 
 tious 
 
 It is in vain to say that if the embargo was raised there would be no 
 market. The merchants understand that subject better than you ; and the 
 eagerness with which preparations to load were carried on previous to the 
 commencement of this session, speaks, in a language not to be mistaken, 
 their opinion of the foreign markets. But it has been asked in debate, 
 ''Will not Massachusetts, the cradle of liberty, submit to such priva- 
 tions? " An embargo liberty was never cradled in Massachusetts. Our 
 liberty was not so much a mountain as a sea-nymph. She was free as 
 air. She could swim, or she could run. The ocean was her cradle. 
 Our fathers met her as she came, like the goddess of beauty, from the 
 waves. They caught her as she was sporting on the beach. They courted 
 her whilst she was spreading her nets upon the rocks. But an embargo 
 liberty ; a hand-cuffed liberty ; a liberty in fetters ; a liberty traversing 
 between the four sides of a prison and beating her head against the walls, 
 is none of our offspring. We abjure the monster. Its parentage is all 
 inland .... 
 
 However, suppose that the payment of this duty is inevitable, which 
 it certainly is not, let me ask — Is embargo independence ? Deceive not 
 yourselves. It is palpable submission. Gentlemen exclaim. Great Britain 
 "smites us on one cheek." And what does administration? " It turns 
 the other also. ' ' Gentlemen say * * Great Britain is a robber ; she takes our 
 cloak." And what say administration ? " Let her take our coat also." 
 France and Great Britain require you to relinquish a part of your com- 
 merce, and you yield it entirely. Sir, this conduct may be the way to 
 dignity and honor in another world, but it will never secure safety and 
 independence in this. 
 
JOHN RANDOLPH (1 7734833) 
 
 ROANOKE^S FIERY SON 
 
 A VERITABLE '' Son of Satan " was John Randolph of Roanoke, 
 a firebrand upon the floor of Congress, which few could handle 
 "^ without being burned. "He was like an Ishmaelite," says 
 Garland, *' his hand against every man, and every man's hand against 
 him." His native skill in oratory, his ready and often stinging 
 wit, his mastery of the weapons of sarcasm and invective, rendered 
 him ever a formidable opponent in debate. He voted against the 
 Missouri Compromise bill of 1820, because it placed a northern limit 
 to the extension of slavery, and he stigmatized the Northern members 
 who voted for it as " doughfaces," a term of contumely which came 
 afterward into general use. In 1826 he grossly insulted Henry Clay, 
 speaking of him as a '•' combination of the Puritan with the blackleg," 
 and using other insulting language. Clay challenged him, a duel 
 was fought. Clay fired without effect, and Randolph then fired into 
 the air. Born before the Revolution, he entered Congress in 1799, 
 and continued a member for nearly thirty years. Jackson appointed 
 him minister to Russia in 1830, but in 1832 we find him a bitter 
 opponent of Jackson, on account of his proclamation against the South 
 Carolina nullifiers. He called this " the ferocious and bloodthirsty 
 proclamation of our Djezzar Pacha." He died the following year. 
 His will gave freedom to his three hundred slaves. 
 
 THE TARIFF AND THE CONSTITUTION 
 [The tariff of i8i6 was supported by many Southerners and opposed by many 
 of the merchants of New England. But by 1824 manufacture had grown greatly in 
 New England and protection was demanded, while the South wished for free trade as 
 best suited to its cotton and farming industries. Randolph was, in consequence, 
 bitterly opposed to the advance in rates in the new tariff bill, and handled the subject 
 in his most strenuous fashion. In a letter in 1818 he had said, " When I speak of 
 66 
 
 1 
 
JOHN RANDOLPH 67 
 
 my country I mean the Commonwealth of Virginia," and his sentiments about the 
 Union accorded with this remark, as may be seen in the intemperate language of our 
 extract from his speech of April 15, 1824.] 
 
 I am very glad, Mr. Speaker, that old Massachusetts Bay and the 
 province of Maine and Sagadahock, by whom we stood in the days of 
 the Revolution, now stand by the South, and will not aid in fixing on us 
 this system of taxation, compared with which the taxation of Mr. Gren- 
 ville and lyord North was as nothing. I speak with knowledge of what I 
 say, when I declare that this bill is an attempt to reduce the country south 
 of Mason and Dixon's line, and east of the Alleghany mountains, to a 
 state of worse than colonial bondage ; a state to which the domination of 
 Great Britain was, in my judgment, far preferable ; and I trust I shall 
 always have the fearless integrity to utter any political sentiment which 
 the head sanctions and the heart ratifies ; for the British Parliament never 
 would have dared to lay such duties on our imports, or their exports to 
 to us, either " at home" or here, as is now proposed to be laid upon the 
 imports from abroad. At that time we had the command of the market 
 of the vast dominions then subject, and we should have had those which 
 have since been subjected to the British empire ; we enjoyed a free trade 
 eminently superior to anything we can enjoy if this bill shall go into 
 operation . It is a sacrifice of the interests of a part of this nation to the 
 ideal benefit of the rest. It marks us out as the victims of a worse than 
 Egyptian bondage. It is a barter of so much of our rights, of so much 
 of the fruits of our labor, for political power to be transferred to other 
 hands. It ought to be met, and I trust it will be met, in the southern 
 country as was the Stamp Act, and all those measures which I will not 
 detain the House by recapitulating, which succeeded the Stamp Act, and 
 produced the final breach with the mother country, which it took about ten 
 years to bring about ; as I trust, in my conscience, it will not take as long 
 to bring about similar results from this measure, should it become a law. 
 
 All policy is very suspicious, 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 /ernments only are tolerable where, by the necessary 
 construction of the political machine, the interests of all the parts are 
 obliged to be protected by it. Here is a district of country extending 
 from the Patapsco to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Alleghany to the 
 Atlantic ; a district which, taking in all that part .of Maryland lying south 
 of the 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 
 statements which prove it — but which I will not weary the Houes by 
 reading — in all this country, yes, sir, and I bless God for it ; for with all 
 
68 JOHN RANDOLPH 
 
 * 
 
 the fantastical and preposterous 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 power 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, secundu^n 
 arieniy 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 w^hatever 
 motive, shall maintain the afiirmative, like the animal whose fleece forms 
 so material a portion of this bill, quietly lie down and be shorn ? . . 
 
 I 
 
|, J;^w 9^^^^l^ In American History commanded more attention 
 ' SwtstS'and'fc "'"^^ "^"^ " '"^'"^^^'^ ^^^^-^^^ 
 
WILLIAM WIRT (J 7724 834) 
 
 THE DEFENDER OF BLENNERHASSETT 
 
 SARON BURR, a skillful political leader of the early years of the 
 American Union, whose shrewdness had made him Vice-Presi- 
 dent during Jefferson's first term, afterwards ruined his reputa- 
 tion by his intrigues, and won the detestation of the public by killing 
 Alexander Hamilton in a duel. His political career in the East 
 ended, he devised new schemes for the West, organizing an expedi- 
 tion whose supposed purpose was to wrest Texas from Mexico and 
 form an independent nation, with New Orleans for its capital and 
 himself as the arbiter of its diestinies. Whatever may have been his 
 actual design, the project failed, and he was arrested on a charge of 
 high treason. Put on trial in Richmond for this offence, lack of 
 evidence led to his acquittal, though there remained a strong popular 
 conviction of his guilt. 
 
 In this celebrated trial the highest legal talent of the land was 
 enlisted, alike in the prosecution and the defence. Among those 
 engaged on the side of the Government was William Wirt, a lawyer 
 of distinguished ability and an orator of the finest powers. The 
 learning and eloquence displayed by him in the trial made his repu- 
 tation as an orator, his arguments were read with delight, and his 
 name was enrolled among those of America's ablest men. Of the 
 speeches made at this trial, that of Wirt alone survives as a brilliant 
 example of eloquence. 
 
 Mr. Wirt had long been famous as a lawyer; his reputation 
 increased after this famous trial until, in 1817, he was made 
 Attorney-General of the United States. This position he held dur- 
 ing the eight years of Monroe's administration, and was reappointed 
 in 1825 by President Adams, who had been his associate in Monroe's 
 
70 WILLIAM WIRT 
 
 Cabinet. In 1832 he was nominated for the Presidency by the Anti- 
 Mason party, but carried only one State. He won reputation as a 
 writer also ; especially by his '' Life of Patrick Henry," which many 
 consider a piece of biographical writing of unrivalled merit. 
 
 BURR AND BLENNERHASSETT 
 
 [In Wirt's arraignment of Burr, the most famous passage is his word picture of 
 the earthly paradise of Blennerhassett's dwelling, on an island in the Ohio, into which 
 Burr entered as the serpent of temptation. Though a highly exaggerated picture, it 
 is a most engaging one. The counsel for the defendant had advanced the theory that 
 Blennerhassett 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 eloquence.] 
 
 Will any man say that Blennerhassett was the principal, and Burr but 
 an accessory ? Who will believe that Burr, the author and projector of 
 the plot, who raised the forces, who enlisted the men, and who procured 
 the funds for carrying it into execution, was made a cat's-paw of? Will 
 any man believe that Burr, who is a soldier, bold, ardent, restless and 
 aspiring, the great actor whose brain conceived, and whose hand brought 
 the plot into operation, that he should sink down into an accessory, and 
 that Blennerhassett should be elevated into a principal ? He would startle 
 at once at the thought. Aaron Burr, the contriver of the whole conspir- , 
 acy, to every body concerned in it was as the sun to the planets which 
 surround him. Did he not bind them in their respective orbits and give 
 them their light, their heat and their motion ? Yet he is to be considered 
 an accessory, and Blennerhassett is to be considered the principal ! 
 
 I^et us put the case between Burr and Blennerhassett. I^et us com- 
 pare the two men and settle this question of precedence between them. It 
 may save a good deal of troublesome ceremony hereafter. 
 
 Who Aaron Burr is, we have seen in part already. I will add that, 
 beginning his operations in New York, he associates with him men whose 
 wealth is to supply the necessary funds. Possessed of the mainspring, his 
 personal labor contrives all the machinery. Pervading the continent from 
 New York to New Orleans, he draws into his plan, by every allurement 
 which he can contrive, men of all ranks and descriptions. To youthful 
 ardor he presents danger and glory ; to ambition, rank and titles and 
 honors ; to avarice, the mines of Mexico. To each person whom he ad-^ 
 dresses he presents the object adapted to his taste. His recruiting ofl5certH 
 are appointed. Men are engaged throughout the continent. Civil life is^ 
 indeed quiet upon its surface, but in its bosom this man has contrived 
 deposit the materials which, with the slightest touch of his match, produo 
 an explosion to shake the continent. All this his restless ambition h 
 
WILLIAM WIRT 71 
 
 contrived ; and in the autumn of 1 806 he goes forth for the last time to 
 apply this match. On this occasion he meets with Blennerhassett. 
 
 Who is Blennerhassett ? A native of Ireland, a man of letters, who 
 fled from the storms of his own country to 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 
 furnishing 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 quiet and solitude in the bosom of our 
 western forests. But he carried with him taste and science and wealth ; 
 and lo, the desert smiled ! Possessing himself of a beautiful island in the 
 Ohio, he rears upon it a palace, and decorates it with every romantic em- 
 bellishment of fancy. A shrubbery that Shenstone might have envied 
 blooms around him. Music that might have charmed Calypso and her 
 nymphs is his. An extensive library spreads its treasures before him. A 
 philosophical apparatus offers to him all the secrets and mysteries of nature. 
 Peace, tranquillity and innocence shed their mingled delights around him. 
 And, to crown the enchantment of the scene, a wife, who is said to be 
 lovely even beyond her sex, and graced with every accomplishment that 
 can render it irresistible, had blessed him with her love, and made him the 
 father of several children. 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 feast 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 him of the ruin that is coming upon 
 him. A stranger presents himself. Introduced to their civilities by the 
 high rank which he had lately held in his country, he soon finds his way 
 to their hearts by the dignity and elegance of his demeanor, the light and 
 beauty of his conversation, and the seductive and fascinating power of 
 his address. 
 
 The conquest 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, and all who choose it enter. Such was the state of 
 Eden when the serpent entered its bowers. The prisoner, in a more en- 
 gaging form, winding himself into the open and unpracticed heart of the 
 unfortunate Blennerhassett, found but little difficulty in changing the 
 native character of that heart and the objects of its affection. By degrees 
 he infuses into it the poison of his own ambition. He breathes into it the 
 
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 unspeakable, 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 of 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 deliberately 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. 
 
HENRY CLAY (J 777- J 852) 
 
 THE PEOPLE^S FAVORITE 
 
 I T In those days of tariff and slavery agitation, when all seemed at 
 I I I risk in the great Republic of the West, the noble figure of Henry 
 Clay stood in the front rank of the patriots who fought 
 against the forces of disunion ; not towering, like Webster, in heroic 
 defiance of the foes of the Union, but healing its wounds, allaying the 
 violence of the combat, and winning by mild measures what could 
 not be attained by violence. Where other men made themselves 
 admired. Clay made himself loved. His gentleness and courtesy won 
 him an abiding place in the hearts of his countrymen. He was 
 everywhere the favorite of the people. " Who ever," says Parton, 
 "heard such cheers, so hearty, distinct and ringing, as those which 
 his name evoked ? Men shed tears at his defeat and women went to 
 bed sick from pure sympathy with his disappointment. He could not 
 travel during the last thirty years of his life, he only made progresses; 
 the committee of one State passing him on to the committee of 
 another, the hurrahs of one town dying away as those of the next 
 caught his ear." 
 
 How did this man win such high esteem ? He began life hum- 
 bly enough, working on a Virginia farm to aid his widowed mother, 
 and riding barefoot to mill for the family flour — whence his familiar 
 title, " The Mill-boy of the Slashes." A clerk in Richmond at four- 
 teen, he was admitted to the bar at twenty, and by signal fortune 
 became a member of the United States Senate before reaching the 
 constitutional limit of thirty years of age. His rapid progress was 
 due to his fine native powers of oratory, his skill in debate, and his 
 controlling influence in political measures. Endowed by nature with 
 a voice of wonderful compass and rich harmony, fluent in delivery 
 
 73 
 
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 . 
 him that high rank, for posterity will not hear that matchless voice, 
 will not see those large gestures, those striking attitudes, that grand 
 manner, which gave to second-rate composition first-rate effect/' 
 While excelled as a reasoner by Webster, and surpassed in fiery earn- 
 estness by Calhoun, none were his equals in grace of oratory and 
 charm of manner. His speeches do not all read well. Many dull 
 passages are met with. They lack that splendor of delivery which 
 gave them such winning effect. Yet they present, even on the 
 printed page, hundreds of admirable passages, and will long be 
 perused with pleasure and profit by students and lovers of oratory. 
 
 In the several critical periods of American history which came 
 while Clay w^as in Congress, his broad spirit of conciliation went far 
 to tide the Union over the danger points in its career. Three great 
 compromise measures were engineered by him — the Missouri Compro- 
 mise of 1820, the Tariff Compromise of .1833, and the Territorial 
 Compromise of 1850, the latter two being initiated and carried 
 through by him. By these noble services he smoothed the waves of 
 discontent and stayed the spirit of disunion until death removed him 
 from the scene. His own words form the true motto of his character : 
 "I would rather be right than be President.'* 
 
 THE AMERICAN SYSTEM 
 
 [Clay, who had argued strongly in favor of a protective tariff during the spirited 
 discussion in 1824, took different ground in 1832 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 1832, 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 allay 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 the people were then oppressed and borne down by an 
 enormous 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 
 
HENRY CLAY 75 
 
 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. Hayne), I believe, thought that the tariff of 1824 would operate a 
 reduction of revenue to the large amount of eight millions of dollars. 
 2nd. The destruction of our navigation. 3rd. The desolation of commercial 
 
76 HENRY CLAY 
 
 cities. And 4th. The augmentation of the price of objects of con- 
 sumption, 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 I^ouisiana, 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 United States would consent to the destruction o'f a 
 policy believed to be indispensably necessary to their prosperity — 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 circulation of the products of home manufactures and home 
 industry throughout all their great arteries. But let that be checked ; let 
 them feel that a foreign system is to predominate, and the sources of their 
 subsistence and comfort dried up ; let New England 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 Union, one of the greatest 
 was the Compromise of 1850, which he erected as a dam against 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 ultimatum of secession, a war of frightful dimen- 
 sions would be, in his opinion, an inevitable consequence. He was justified in his 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
DANIEL WEBSTER 
 
HENRY CLAY ORATOR AND STATESMAN 
 
 Henry Clay's rank as an orator has increased with time. His 
 position was attained by painstal<ing: effort. Clay, Webster and 
 Calhoun are ranked together as the greatest American Orators. 
 
HENRY CLAY ^ ^ 77 
 
 I 
 prediction ; the war came, and while it lasted its horrors were as lurid as he had 
 painted them. Fortunately its duration and its consequences were widely different 
 from his depressing prediction. As for himself, his wish was granted.. He did not 
 survive to witness the "heart-rending spectacle." We give this prediction from his 
 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 safeguard of the Union. I am for vindicating these 
 rights, but not by being driven out of the Union rashly and unceremoni- 
 ously by any portion of this confederacy. Here I am within it, and here 
 I mean to stand and die — as far as my individual purposes or wishes can 
 go ; within it to protect myself, and to defy all power upon earth to expel 
 me or drive me from the situation in which I am placed. Will there not 
 be more safety in fighting within the Union than without it ? 
 
 Suppose your rights to be violated ; suppose wrongs to be done you, 
 aggressions to be perpetrated upon you ; cannot you better fight and vin- 
 dicate them , if you 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 j^ou, 
 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, undefined, 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 another 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 allowed to refer to this 
 same example in private life, let us say what man and wife say to each 
 other : ' * We have mutual faults ; nothing in the form of human beings 
 can be perfect. lyCt 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 war, too, as that would be, following the dissolution of the 
 Union ! Sir, we may search the pages of history, and none so furious, so 
 
78 HENRY CLAY 
 
 bloody, so implacable, so exterminating, from the wars of Greece down, 
 including those of the Commonwealth of England and the revolution of 
 France — none of them raged with such 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 termination ? 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 Caesar 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 modern ; 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 1 have 
 suggested ; and I ask you if it is possible for you to doubt that j:he 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 you, Mr, President, lightly contemplate the conse- 
 quences ? Can you yield yourself to a torrent of passion, amidst dangers 
 w^hich 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 disastrous 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-rending spectacle. 
 
 I 
 
 J 
 
ROBERT Y. HAYNE (J 792- J 839) 
 
 THE CHAMPION OF SOUTH CAROLINA 
 
 I 
 
 mN 1830 a resolution, innocent in appearance but momentous in 
 consequences, was introduced into the United States Senate by 
 Mr. Foot, a member of that body. It related to the 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 the right 
 of a State to withdraw from the Union w^as brought prominently 
 forward, and which drew forth from Daniel Webster his noblest and 
 most famous speech. His opponent 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 a thinly- 
 veiled doctrine of disunion. He became an open supporter 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 General Government, even at the bayonet's point. 
 
 79 
 
80 ROBERT Y. HAYNE 
 
 Twelve thousand volunteers were called 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 the passage of 
 Clay's Compromise Tariff Act removed the subject of dispute ; and in 
 a subsequent convention, over which Governor Hayne presided, the 
 Nullification measure was repealed. Hayne 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 called 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 lands 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 broadened 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 famous 
 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. lyittle 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, instea( 
 of making up his issue with the gentleman from Missouri, on the charge 
 which he had preferred, chooses to consider me as the author of thoj 
 charges; and, losing sight entirely of that gentleman, selects me as hij 
 adversary, and pours all the vials of his mighty wrath upon my devot< 
 head. Nor is he willing to stop there. He goes on to assail the institti^ 
 tions and policy of the South, and calls in question the principles an< 
 
ROBERT Y. HAYNE 81 
 
 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 Senator ? 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 Ban quo, 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 rescue the Bast from 
 the contest it has provoked with the West, he shall not be 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 they stand pledged) must be 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 the 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 ot 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 power. If the Federal Gov- 
 ernment, in all or any of its departments, is to prescribe the limits of 
 6 
 
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 steadily 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 measures 
 of the Federal Government have, it is true, prostrated her interests, and 
 will soon involve the whole South in irretrievable ruin. 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, in the language of Burke, to exclaim, '' You must pardon some- 
 thing to the spirit of liberty ! " 
 
 \ 
 
DANIEL WEBSTER (J 7824 852) 
 
 THE BULWARK OF THE UNION 
 
 lyj EVER was there witnessed in the Congress of the United States 
 \ a greater and more impressive scene than that of a memorable 
 * ^ day in January, 1830, when Daniel Webster delivered his 
 world-famed " Reply to Hayne." Standing, a giant in debate, before 
 the assembled Senate, he rent into fragments Hayne's neatly woven 
 plea for disunion — fragments which no hand, however great its skill, 
 could join together again. 
 
 Daniel Webster became prominent in three fields of effort, as lawyer, 
 orator and statesman. He had won wide distinction for his legal 
 powers before he entered Congress in 1804. There his fame was ten- 
 fold enhanced. Of his many speeches, the most famous were the 
 Plymouth Rock address of 1820, the Bunker Hill oration of 1825, 
 the Reply to Hayne in 1830, and the speech on Clay's Compromise 
 Bill in 1850. This last, spoken little more than two years before his 
 death, is regarded as one of the noblest efforts of his career. 
 
 *' Of the effect of Mr. Webster's manner in many parts,'^ says 
 Edward Everett, " it would be in vain to attempt to give any one not 
 present the faintest idea. It has been my fortune to hear some of the 
 ablest speeches of the greatest living orators, on both sides of the 
 water, but I must confess I never heard anything which so completely 
 realized my conception of what Demosthenes was when he delivered 
 the oration for the Crown.'' 
 
 W^ebster's speeches bear another relation to those of Demosthenes, 
 they 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 noteless than was their value as oratory. The 
 
84 DANIEL WEBSTER 
 
 name of Webster will always live as one of the few supreme orators 
 
 of the world. 
 
 THE REPLY TO HAYNE 
 [Of Daniel Webster's Congressional orations, that which stands first on the roll 
 of fame is his magnificent address of January 30, 1830. The occasion for this famous 
 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, assailed New 
 England, and made caustic remarks about Mr. Webster himself. From this speech 
 we have 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 narrow limits. In 
 their day and generation they served and 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 sufferings, 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 exhibit 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 spirit which is able to raise 
 mortals to the skies, I have yet none, as I trust, of 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 cause, the homage due tol 
 American talent, to elevated patriotism, to sincere devotion to liberty and| 
 the country ; or, if I see an uncommon endowment of Heaven, if I S€ 
 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 roof of my mouth ! 
 
 [ 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 they 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, unnatural 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 yourselves. 
 There is her history ; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is 
 secure. There is Boston, and Concord, and I<exington, 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 strife 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 of 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 Constitution. In it he vigorously denied the power of any State legislature to 
 set aside a provision of the Constitution, or to annul an Act of Congress passed in 
 accordance therewith. His peroration is one of the most magnificent examples of 
 eloquence on record.] 
 
 Let it be remembered that the Constitution of the United States is not 
 unalterable. It is to continue in its present form no longer than 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 distribution 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 
 
86 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 their responsibility to them — ^just as the 
 people of a State trust their own State governments with a similar power. 
 Secondly, they have reposed their trust in the efl&cacy of frequent elections, 
 and in their own power to remove their own servants and agents, when- 
 ever they see cause. Thirdly, they have reposed trust in the judicial 
 power ; which, in order that it might be trustworthy, 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 out 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 less 
 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 must 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 direct assault, it cannot be ; evadedi 
 undermined, nullified, it will not be, if we, and those who shall succeec 
 Uo here, as agents and representatives of the people, shall couscientiousl] 
 
DANIEL WEBSTER 87 
 
 and vigilantly discharge the two great branches of our public trvist — 
 faithfully to preserve, and wisely to administer it. 
 .' _^ Mr. President, I have thus stated the reasons of my dissen t to the 
 ^^^doctrines which have been advanced and maintained. I am conscious of 
 having detained you and the Senate much too long. I was drawn into 
 >^ the debate, with lib previous deliberation such as is suited to the discussion 
 of so grave and important a subject. But it is a Object of which my 
 he^t is full, and I have rfot been willing to suppress the utterance of its 
 spontaneous sentiments. I cannot, even now, pervade 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 our 
 Federal Union. It is to th^ Union we owe our gaiety 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 virtues 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, soci'al and pefsonaj/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 the 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 thi^ government whose thoughts should be 4nainly bent 
 on considering, not how the Union should be best preserv^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 hign, exciting, gratifying prospects 
 spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyc^nd t^t 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 
 
88 DANIEL WEBSTER 
 
 sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored 
 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 and lingering glance, rather, behold 
 the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout 
 the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in 
 their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star 
 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 ev^y wind under ^e whol^heavens, tl;ra.t other 
 sentiment, de^r to ev^ry trtfe American heart — Lioerty and Union, now 
 
 THE SECRET OF MURDER 
 
 and forever, one and inseparable ! 
 
 [As an example of Webster's forensic oratory we offer a selection from his cele- 
 brated argument in the trial for murder of John K. Kuapp. In the passage given he 
 soars far above the dry level of legal oratory, and depicts the effect of conscience on 
 the mind of the murderer in sentences of thrilling intensity.] 
 
 He has done the murder. 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 corner 
 where the guilty can bestow it and say it is safe. Not to speak of that eye 
 which pierces through all disguises, and beholds everything as in the 
 splendor 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 must come, and will come, sooner or later. A 
 thousand eyes turn at once to explore every man, everything, every cir- 
 cumstance, connected with the time and place ; a thousand ears catch 
 every whisper ; a thousand excited minds intensely dwell on the scene, 
 shedding all their light and ready to kindle the slightest circumstance 
 into a blaze of discovery. Meantime the 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 89 
 
 which it dares not acknowledge to God or man. A vulture is devouring 
 it, and it can ask no sympathy or assistance either from heaven or earth. 
 The secret which the murderer possesses soon comes to possess him ; 
 and, like the the spirits of which we read, it overcomes him, and leads 
 him whithersoever it will. He feels it beating at his heart, rising to his 
 throat, and demanding disclosure. He thinks the whole world sees it in 
 his face, reads it in his eyes, and almost hears its workings in the very 
 silence of his thoughts. It has become his master. It betrays his discre- 
 tion, it breaks down his courage, it conquers his prudence. / When sus- 
 picions from without begin to embarrass him, and the net of circum- 
 stances to entangle him, the fatal secret struggles with still greater 
 violence to burst forth. It must be confessed, it will be confessed ; there 
 is no refuge from confession but suicide, and suicide is confession. 
 
 [His argument closed with a most impressive appeal to the jury. In these 
 words of weight and wisdom Duty stands before us in the grand proportions of the 
 inexorable figure of Fate in the mythology of ancient Greece.] 
 
 Gentlemen, your whole concern should be to do your duty, and leave 
 consequences to take care of themselves. You will receive the law from 
 the Court. 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, beyond all reasonable 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 prisoner at the bar. You cannot presume to be wiser than the law. 
 Your duty is a plain, straightforward one. Doubtless, we would all judge 
 him in 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 duty, no conse- 
 quences can harm you. There is no evil that we cannot either face or fly 
 from, but the consciousness of duty disregarded. 
 
 A sense of duty pursues us ever. It is omnipresent, like the Deity. 
 If we take to ourselves the wings of the morning and dwell in the utmost 
 parts of the seas, duty performed, or duty- violated, is still with us, for our 
 happiness, or our misery. 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 from their presence. They are with us in this life, will 
 be with us at its close ; and in that scene of inconceivable solemnity which 
 lies yet farther onward, we shall 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. 
 
JOHN C CALHOUN (J 782- J 850) 
 
 THE STATE RIGHTS' LEADER 
 
 i 
 
 |F the parliamentary orators of the American '' golden age " 
 three stand decidedly above their fellows, Webster, Clay and 
 Calhoun, all of them men of genius and orators of remarkable 
 power. " The eloquence of Mr. Calhoun," says Webster, '' was part of 
 his intellectual character. It grew out of the qualities of his mind. 
 It was plain, strong, terse, condensed, concise ; sometimes impassioned 
 — still always severe. Rejecting ornament, not often seeking far for 
 illustration, his power consisted in the plainness of his propositions, 
 in the closeness of his logic, and in the earnestness and energy of his 
 manner.'' Born in the same year as Webster (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 devoting his highest powers to this question 
 pro and con. Throughout his later career Calhoun continued a disun- 
 ionist. One of the most ardent advocates for the institution of slavery, 
 it was he who led in the agitation on this subject from 1835 to 1850. 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA AND THE UNION 
 [Among the efifects of the South Carolina Nullification Ordinance of 1832 was a 
 bill, commonly called the Force Bill, introduced into Congress in 1833, its purpose 
 being to give the President special powers in the collection of the revenue. This 
 measure called forth Mr. Calhoun's vigorous protest of the 15th and i6th of February, 
 from which the following selections are made. Speaking of the Nullification 
 Ordinance, he says :] 
 
 It has been objected that the State has acted precipitately. What ! 
 precipitately ! after making a strenuous resistance for twelve years — by 
 discussion here and in the other House of Congress; by essays in all forms; 
 by resolutions, remonstrances, and protests on the part of her legisla- 
 ture ; and, finally, by attempting an appeal to the judicial power of the 
 90 
 
JOHN C. CALHOUN 91 
 
 United States? I say attempting, for they have been prevented from 
 bringing the question fairly before the court, and that by an act of that 
 very majority in Congress who now upbraid them for not making that 
 appeal ; of that majority, who, on a motion of one of the merhbers in the 
 other House, from South Carolina, refused to give to the act of 1828 
 its true title — that it was a protective and not a revenue act. The 
 State has never, it is true, relied upon that tribunal, 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 constitutionality of protection, had they not been 
 deprived of the means of doing so by 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, gravely pronounced that the State has acted pre- 
 cipitately — that her conduct has been rash ! That such should be the 
 language of an interested majority, who, by means of this unconstitutional- 
 and oppressive 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 as 
 rash and precipitate ; and had South 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 sufi^ering 
 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 be oppressive, unconstitutional, and ruinous, after so long a 
 struggle — a struggle longer than that which preceded the separation of 
 these States from the mother country — longer than the 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 unequal 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 enabling the President to regulate 
 
92 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 on 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 declares war against South Carolina. No. It 
 decrees a massacre 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 the order of Providence that it 
 should be permitted for that very purpose. But this bill declares no war 
 — except, indeed, it be that which savages wage — a war, not against the 
 community, but the citizens of whom that community is composed. But 
 I regard it as worse than savage warfare ; as an attempt to take away life 
 under the color of law, without the trial by 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 the 
 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 State, 
 by awing her into an abandonment of the exercise of every power which 
 constitutes her a sovereign community. It is to South Carolina a ques- 
 tion of self-preservation ; 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 great principles of constitutional liberty for 
 which she is contending. God forbid that this should become necessary ! 
 
 I 
 
JOHN C. CALHOUN 93 
 
 It never can be, unless this government is resolved to bring the question 
 to .extremity, when her gallant sons will stand prepared to perform the 
 
 last duty — to die nobly 
 
 In the same spirit we are told that the Union must be preserved, 
 without regard to the means. And how is it proposed to preserve the 
 Union ? By force ? Does any man in his senses believe that this beauti- 
 ful structure — this harmonious aggregate of States, produced by the con- 
 sent of all — can be preserved by force ? Its very introduction will be 
 certain destruction to this Federal Union. No, no ! You cannot keep 
 the States united in their constitutional and federal bonds by force. 
 Force may, indeed, hold the parts together, but such union would be the 
 bond between master and slave — a union of exaction on one side and of 
 unqualified obedience on the other. That obedience which, we are told 
 by the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Wilkins), is the Union! Yes, 
 exaction on the side of the master ; for this very bill is intended to collect 
 what can be no longer called taxes — the voluntary contribution of a free 
 people — but tribute — tribute to be collected under the mouths of the can- 
 non ! Your customhouse is already transferred to a garrison — and that 
 garrison with its batteries turned, not against the enemy of your country, 
 but on subjects (I will not say citizens), on whom you propose to levy 
 contributions. Has reason fled from our borders ? Have we ceased to 
 reflect ? It is madness to suppose that the Union can be preserved by 
 force. I tell you plainly that the bill, should it pass, cannot be enforced. 
 It will prove only a blot upon your statute-book, a reproach to the year, 
 and a disgrace to the American Senate. I repeat, it will not be executed ; 
 it will rouse the dormant spirit of the people, and open their eyes to the 
 approach of despotism. The country has sunk into avarice and political 
 corruption, from which nothing can arouse it but some measure, on the 
 part of the government, of folly and madness, such as that now under 
 consideration. Disguise it as you may, the controversy is one between 
 power and liberty ; and I tell the gentlemen who are opposed to me, that, 
 as strong as may be the love of power on their side, the love of liberty is 
 still stronger on ours. 
 
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS (J 767-1 848) 
 
 THE OLD MAN ELOQUENT 
 
 mHE Adams family has played a great part in American public 
 life. Through four generations it has given us orators and 
 statesmen of prominence and ability. Political opponents 
 have declared that no member of the family ever showed more than 
 respectable natural talent, but certainly it was talent of the kind that 
 the American people recognized and appreciated, since they raised 
 two members of the family to the highest position in their gift. John 
 Adams, while not ranking with our most capable orators, did so with 
 our leading patriots. His standard of Americanism is fitly expressed 
 in his memorable words of 1774 : ^'Sink or swim, live or die, survive 
 or perish with my country, is my unalterable determination." The 
 standing of his son, John Quincy Adams, as an orator, is indicated by 
 the title of " Old Man Eloquent," given him in his later days ; while 
 his grandson and great-grandson, Charles Francis and Charles Francis, 
 Jr., possessed rich gifts in the same field. 
 
 Omitting selections from the elder Adams, we here deal with his 
 accomplished and able son, who, like him, became President of the 
 United States. His subsequent career differed from that of our other 
 ex-presidents. Instead of withdrawing from political life, he returned 
 to Congress in 1831, and remained a member of the House until his 
 death in 1848. 
 
 *'In every respect," says Seward, ^^he was a model legislator. 
 He was constantly at his post, and few members surpassed him in 
 strict attention to duty and power of endurance." His most memora- 
 ble service was his continued presentation to Congress of petitions for 
 the abolition of slavery, offered by members of the Anti-slavery party. 
 Efforts to check him in this were in vain. He persistently maintained 
 94 
 
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 95 
 
 and exercised the right of petition. The House adopted a rule 
 that no petition relating to slavery should be read, printed, or debated, 
 but Adams was not thus to be defeated. Pie held his ground with 
 unwavering firmness against the bitterest opposition, presenting the 
 petitions one by one, sometimes to the number of two hundred a day, 
 and insisting that the House should act on each separate petition. He 
 died in harness. On the 21st of February, 1848, he was stricken with 
 paralysis while in his seat at the Capitol. He died on the 23d, with 
 these notable last words : " This is the last of earth. I am content." 
 
 A EULOGY OF LAFAYETTE 
 
 [Lafayette, the distinguished French noble who came to the struggling Ameri- 
 can colonies while still in boyhood to fight with them for freedom, who was the friend 
 and confident of Washington, who commanded the National Guard of France in the 
 Revolution of his own country, and who in 1824 was received with the highest honor 
 and enthusiasm in the United States, came to his last day on May 20, 1834. In Con- 
 gress at that date there was none who knew him better or was more fitted to speak for 
 America in his memory than John Quincy Adams. From his oration on this subject, 
 delivered in Congress on December 31, 1834, we give the eloquent peroration.] 
 
 Pronounce him one of the first men of his age, and you have not yet 
 done him 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 clime — 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- 
 dence of Lafayette ? 
 
 There have doubtless been in all ages men whose discoveries or 
 inventions, in the world of matter or of mind, have opened new avenues to 
 the dominion of man over the material creation ; have increased his means 
 or his faculties of enjoyment ; have raised him in nearer approximation 
 to that higher and happier condition, the object of his hopes and aspira- 
 tions in his present state of existence. 
 
 Lafayette discovered no new principle of politics or morals. He 
 invented nothing in science. He disclosed no new phenomenon in the 
 laws of nature. Born and educated in the highest order of feudal nobility, 
 under the most absolute monarchy of Europe, in possession of an affluent 
 fortune, and master of himself and of all his capabilities at the moment of 
 attaining manhood, the principle of republican justice and of social 
 equality took possession of his heart and mind, as if by inspiration from 
 
96 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, I^afayette found the most perfect form 
 of government. He wished to add nothing to it. He would gladly 
 have abstracted nothing from it. Instead of 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 principles 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 concerned 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, however 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, 
 from 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 burdensome 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 development 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. 
 
iEDWARD EVERETT (1794-1865) 
 
 THE RESCUER OF THE HOME OF WASHINGTON 
 
 mHE title we have given 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 Vernon. Resigning his 
 seat in Congress in 1854 on account of failing health, he began, the 
 moment returning health permitted, one of the most active efforts of 
 his life, the collection of money by writing and lecturing for the pur- 
 chase of this historic estate, that it might be kept for all future time 
 as a place of pilgrimage for patriotic Americans. The sum raised by 
 him, about one hundred thousand dollars, sufficed for this noble pur- 
 pose, and Mount Vernon became the property of the American people. 
 As an orator Everett stands very high among Americans, his lec- 
 tures and speeches being rarely surpassed in value, if we consider at 
 once the information they contain, and the grace and elegance of 
 their style. Edward Everett may be said to have gone to school to 
 Daniel Webster, for he was prepared for college by Ezekiel Webster, 
 who w^as replaced for a week in the school by his brother Daniel. 
 Thus began the acquaintance of these two distinguished orators. 
 Many years afterward, in 1852, the pupil succeeded his temporary 
 teacher as Secretary of State. 
 
 Everett studied divinity and was for a short time a minister in 
 Boston, leaving the church to become Greek professor at Harvard. He 
 was elected to Congress in 1824 and remained there for ten years, only 
 quitting the House of Representatives to become Governor of Massa- 
 chusetts. In 1841 he was appointed, through the influence of Webster, 
 Minister to Great Britain, a diplomatic post which has never been 
 more creditably and ably filled. In 1845 he was elected President of 
 Harvard University. In 1845, as above said, he was for a brief period 
 
EDWARD EVERETT 99 
 
 Secretary of State, leaving this position to enter the Senate. This seat 
 he soon resigned, on account of ill health. Conservative by tempera- 
 ment, he favored a conciliatory policy on the part of the North, with 
 the hope of averting the threatened war, and became the nominee for 
 Vice-President of the party of compromise and conciliation, on the 
 ticket headed by John Bell of Tennessee. But when war became 
 inevitable, he used all his energy towards the support of the Gov- 
 ernment. He survived till near the end of the conflict, dying on 
 January 15, 1865. 
 
 THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION 
 
 [The year 1S26, which completed the fiftieth anniversary ot American Inde- 
 pendence, was one that gave occasion for much stirring oratory, and for general cele- 
 bration in honor of the thrilling days and heroic men of '76. Most famous among 
 the patriotic addresses is that of Daniel Webster, delivered at the laying of the comer- 
 stone of the Banker Hill Monument on June 17th. On July 4th, the anniversary of 
 the signing of the Declaration, Edward Everett delivered at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
 a notable oration, with the Declaration for its subject. From this long and eloquent 
 address we select some illustrative passages.] 
 
 Fellow Citizens : It belongs to us, with strong propriety, to cele- 
 brate this day. The town of Cambridge, and the county of Middlesex, are 
 filled with the vestiges of the Revolution ; whithersoever we turn our eyes 
 we behold some memento of its glorious scenes. Within the walls in which 
 we are now assembled, was convened the first provincial congress, afler 
 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 I^exington 
 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 
 sons pursued the foe. Here the first American army was formed ; from 
 this place, on the 17th of June, was detached the Spartan band that 
 immortalized the heights of Charlestown, and consecrated that day, with 
 blood and fire, to the cause of American liberty. Beneath the venerable 
 elm which still shades the southwestern comer of the common, General 
 Washington first unsheathed his sword at the* head of an American army, 
 and to that seat* was wont every Sunday to repair, to join in the suppli- 
 cations which were made for the welfare of his country. 
 
 * The first wall pew, to the ris^ht of the pulpit of the diorch in whidh the oration was delivered. 
 
100 EDWARD EVERETT 
 
 How changed is now the scene ! The foe is gone ! The din and the 
 desolation of war are passed ; 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 militia held the flower of the 
 British army blockaded : the plough has done what 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 praise due to those who took part in the struggle for inde- 
 pendence, the orator continues :] 
 
 This meed of praise, substantially accorded at the time by Chatham, in 
 the British Parliament, may well be 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 lyces and the Henries, Otis, Quincy, Warren, and Samuel Adams, 
 the men who spoke those words of thrilling power which raised 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 them 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 ot 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 which 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 the respect which the 
 nation bears to you both ; and each has been so happy as to exchange 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 
 
EDWARD EVERETT 101 
 
 of our independence, is paid to the gray hairs of the venerable survivor in 
 our neighborhood. "*= let it not less heartily be sped to himf whose hand 
 traced the lines of that sacred charter, which, to the end of time, has 
 made this day illustrious. And is an empty profession of respect all that 
 we owe to the man who can show the original draft of the declaratioii 
 of the independence of the United States of America, in his own handwrit- 
 ing ? Ought not a title-deed, like this to become the acquisition of the 
 nation ? Ought it not to be laid up in the archives of the people ? Ought 
 not the price at which it is bought to be the ease and comfort of the old 
 age of him who drew it ? Ought not he who, at the age of thirty, 
 declared the independence of his country, at the age of eighty to be 
 secured by his country in the enjoyment of his own ? J 
 
 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 
 stor\- of their exploits. The efforts of a life would scarce suffice to padnt 
 out this picture, in all its astonishing incidents, in all its mingled colors 
 of sublimity and woe, of agony and triumph. But the age of commemora- 
 tion is at hand. The voice of our fathers' blood begins to cry to us, firom 
 beneath the soil which it moistened. Time is bringing forward, in th^ 
 proper relief, the men and the deeds of that high-souled day. The genera- 
 tion of contemporary worthies is gone ; the crowd of unsignalized. 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 the embattled clifis of Abraham ; they start from the 
 heaving sods of Bunker's Hill ; they gather from the blazing lines of Sara- 
 toga and York town, from the blood-dyed waters of the Brandywine, from 
 the dreary snows of Yalley 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 cherisli 
 the memon,' 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. 
 
 * John Adams. 
 
 t Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 t It is a circumstance of striking interest that Adam? and Tefierson, the two men SDcfcen of in 
 this passage, both died on the day ia which the cration w.m> de'.i'.-ered. departing trom life, by oa<e cf 
 the most remarkable coincidences in history, on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the greal 
 Declaration of which they were the joint aathcns. 
 
RUFUS CHOATE ft 7994 858) 
 
 AMERICA'S ABLEST ADVOCATE 
 
 JUFUS CHOATE was not alone the great light of the bar of 
 New England, but may fairly be given place as the most 
 eminent legal adv ocate America has ever produced. 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 varied 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 speech, and an instinctive knowledge of the methods by which the 
 mind can best be moved. Whether he addressed the dozen men of a 
 jury or a thronging multitude, he had the power of controlling their 
 minds and bending their thoughts to his will, while his gracious and 
 winning manners and amiable character won him hosts of friends. 
 Alike as an advocate and as a public orator he may claim place among 
 the masters of modem eloquence. 
 
 A PANEGYRIC OF WEBSTER 
 
 [The death in 1852 of the giant of American oratory, the fer-famed Daniel 
 Webster, called forth many earnest oratorical tributes to his public and private char- 
 acter and his eminent statennanship. Of these none are of more interest than the 
 wotdB of prsiwe and encomium of his distinguished friend and co-laborer, Rufus 
 Oioate. This address wa« delivered at Dartmouth College, the alma mater of both 
 Webster and Cboate, on the 27th of July, 1853. We select from this fine eulogy a 
 pissfflgr in which Webster's life-long services to his country are summed up in cul- 
 itfifaattng strength in a single sentence, certainly one of the longest in the literature 
 of our language.] 
 102 
 
RUFUS CHOATB 
 
 It was wfafle Mr. Wrfster w«s m'* t mliw^ tikroqBJk Ihe 
 of the legal p mfrsrion to its hi^Kst nnk, dnt, hy a paniki 
 display on > stage, and inpaits tntafly distiwi, by 
 and actions^ he rose also to be at his deadi die ficst of 
 men. The last of the mighty rivals was dead bc&ve, and he stood 
 Give this a^iect also of his greatness a p a swiwg gjanre. ffis pahlic fife 
 began in Bfiay. 1813, in the Hoose of ScpRseaiatives in C ougms , to 
 which this State had ^ected him. It ended when he died. Ifjoacscsept 
 the interval between his xemoval finoai New TTiM£fihin and his Section 
 in Massadrasetts, it was a public life <rf^ fbcty yeacs. ^ what pofiticd 
 mocality, and by what cnlaEged patriotism, fhrariag the 
 that life was guided, I ^nll covider hemfter. IjA wm 
 attention xatiier on the nagniUid e and l aii e Ay and actnal value <if ^he 
 service. Consider that» firom tiie d^ he wcut upam the O f i M iilu. of 
 F(»reign Rdations. in 1S13, l>^ tinK of war, and smxc and aaone tihe 
 l<xiger he lived and tibe hi^^er he rose, he was a nnn whose great 
 talents and devotion to public dnibf pinoed and hept Ima in a positiowof 
 associated or sole co u inMad ; ooannand m the political **■»■—*»»«■ to 
 which he beloi^ged, command in opposition, coanmnd in power; and 
 i^ipteciate the le^Mmsibilities which that implifs, what caxe, what prud- 
 ence, what mastery of tiie vrtiole goun d vem tiug fcr tibe cnmh a rt of a 
 paity, as (^bbon says oi Fox, ahiKtifs and civil disiTrtio n equal to the 
 conduct!^ an empire. Co n s i de r the work he did In ttat life of forty yeas; 
 the lange of subjects investigated and disfWfd nitwri ng the 
 theory and practice of our organic and administiative 
 domestic ; the vast body of instructive th ou^ ght he p rod u ce d and put In 
 possession €^ the country ; how umkA he achieve d in O uugi e hb as well as 
 at the bar ; to fix the true int e rpre t ation, as wdl as to ia i p re ss Ae traas- 
 cendent value of the Constitution itsdlf, as amch altogether 
 or statesman ance its adoption ; how anach to esJaWish in tibe 
 mindtifee great doctrine that the Govefaement of the IMled Sfc^esisa 
 government pif^KT, established by tiie people of the States, 1 
 between sovereign coanaumties ; ttuit vnddn its Hants it is 
 that whether it is vrittdn its ihnils or not, in any given exertkm of itseiC 
 is to be determined by tiie S up r em e Court €ii the United States — the aiti- 
 mate aibiter in the last resort, from vrhii^ theare is no appeal hut to 
 levt^tkMi: how amidi he did in the course of the discussions whack grew 
 ont of the proposed nussion to Panama, and, at a later day, out of the 
 tenwval <^ die deposits, to place the Bxecntive Departoaent of the Govern- 
 UKnt on its true basis and under its true fiBaitatnas; to secure to ttmt 
 deportment all its just powers ontheqne hand, and, <m Ae 
 
104 RUFUS CHOATE 
 
 vindicate to the Legislative Department, and especially to 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 which 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 any 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 difiicult of all tasks, the ordering of the foreign affairs 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 for the right ordering of the foreign affairs of such a State — 
 aiming in 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. 
 
RUFUS CHOATE IO5 
 
 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 w^orld, 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 affiscted 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 7824 858) 
 
 ''OLD BULLION'^ 
 
 r T It was in the days of unlimited paper money, issued almost 
 III at random by every wildcat bank throughout the land, that 
 * ' Thomas H. Benton won his sobriquet of " Old Bullion," by 
 his urgent advocacy of a currency of the precious metals, issued by 
 the government alone. But perhaps Benton's most prominent claim to 
 distinction was in the part he bore in one of the greatest parliament- 
 ary debates of modern times, that between Hayne and Webster in 1832. 
 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 which precipitated the mighty 
 contest which has been already dealt with in our sketches of Webster 
 and Hayne. 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 supporter of Jackson, whom he earnestly sustained in 
 his suppression of the United States Bank and in other radical issues. 
 
 In earlier years Benton was as decided an enemy of Jackson as 
 he afterward became a friend. He quarrelled with him in 1812, 
 when in command of a regiment under him. In 1813 Jackson 
 attempted to horsewhip him at Nashville, and was severely wounded 
 by a pistol shot fired by Benton's brother. But all this was forgiven 
 in later years, and the former enemies became close friends. 
 
 Born in North Carolina, Benton began to practice law at Nash- 
 ville in 1811, and founded a political newspaper at St. Louis in 1815. 
 In 1820 he was elected to the Senate from Missouri, and remained a 
 member of this body for thirty years. He was defeated in 1851, and 
 afterward served for some years in the House of Representatives. 
 
 1 
 
THOMAS HART BENTON 107 
 
 Benton rendered a service of the greatest value to Congress and the 
 country by his voluminous work, entitled " A Thirty Years' View, or 
 a History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty 
 Years, from 1820 to 1850/' This most excellent history of Congress 
 was supplemented for the succeeding twenty years in a similar work 
 by James G. Blaine, the two photographing 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 brief address on a different topic, an eloquent prevision 
 of a great work that was to be realized twenty years afterward. In 1849, when this 
 address was delivered, the railroad in this country had not reached its twentieth year 
 of age, and the country west of the Mississippi was a vast unknown land, the home of 
 the Indian and the buffalo. Our almost utter ignorance of it is indicated in the maps of 
 that period, in which a mighty territory, now the home of innumerable farms, is desig- 
 nated as ' * The Great American Desert. ' ' Yet Benton's prophetic vision already saw the 
 railroad 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 the sea was a barrier to 
 the intercourse of nations. It separated nations. Mediaeval genius 
 invented the ship, which converted the barrier into a facility. Then land 
 . and continents became an obstruction. The two Americas intervening 
 prevented Europe 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 communication, a convey- 
 ance being invented which annihilates both time and space. We hold the 
 
108 THOMAS HART BENTON 
 
 intervening land ; 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. Let 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 great road 
 upon the great national line which unites Europe and Asia ; 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." 
 
THOMAS CORWIN (1 794- J 865) 
 
 THE OHIO CAMPAIGN SPEAKER 
 
 mHERE are men who need a great occasion to rouse them to a 
 great action. Of such was Thomas Corwin, a man who, when 
 stirred to his depths by some strong impelling cause, was capa- 
 ble of a fine outburst of oratory, yet who usually lacked the sustain- 
 ing force to keep him long at a high level of speech and thought. 
 He lived at a time when the gifted public speaker rose rapidly into prom- 
 inence and exercised the greatest influence among his constituency. 
 His greatest effort by far was his speech on the Mexican War, which 
 one writer characterizes as " one of the most memorable speeches ever 
 delivered in America," and as the basis of his reputation as an orator. 
 Corwin, born in Kentucky in 1794, was admitted to the bar in Ohio 
 about 1818, and soon gained celebrity as a lawyer and orator. He 
 was elected to Congress in 1830, became Governor of Ohio in 1840, 
 and was a United States Senator from 1845 to 1850. In 1840 he 
 actively supported General Harrison for the Presidency by numerous 
 speeches at mass-meetings, to which his popular 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 member 
 of Congress from 1858 to 1861, and Minister to Mexico from 1861 to 
 1864. He returned home to die in December, 1865. 
 
 THE DISMEMBERMENT OF MEXICO 
 [The Mexican War was essentially a Southern measure, and was strongly- 
 opposed by many of the people of the North. One of its chief purposes was the 
 acquirement of new territory for the extension of slavery, a purpose which was not 
 disguised in the South. The new territory was acquired, but slavery failed to obtain 
 a footing in it. Among those who opposed the war Corwin was one of the most 
 ardent and earnest, and his celebrated speech of February ii, 1847, was much the 
 ablest effort made by the opposition. From this we select his views concerning the 
 proposed acquisition of Mexican territory.] 
 
 109 
 
no THOMAS CORWm 
 
 What is the territory, Mr. President, which -you propose to wrest from 
 Mexico ? It is consecrated to the heart of the Mexican by many a well- 
 fought battle with his old Castilian master. His Bunker Hills and Sara- 
 togas and Yorktowns are there ! The Mexican can say, " There I bled 
 for liberty ! and shall I surrender that consecrated home of my affections 
 to the Anglo-Saxon invaders ? What do they want with it ? They have 
 Texas already. They have possessed themselves of the territory between 
 the Nueces and the Rio Grande. What else do they want ? To what 
 shall I point my children as memorials of that independence which I 
 bequeath to them, when those battlefields shall have passed from my pos- 
 session ? ' ' 
 
 Sir, had one come and demanded Bunker Hill of the people of Massa- 
 chusetts, had England's lion ever showed himself there, is there a man 
 over thirteen and under ninety who would not have been ready to meet 
 him ? Is there a river on this continent that would not have run red with 
 blood ? Is there a field but would have been piled high with unburied 
 bones of slaughtered Americans before these consecrated battlefields of 
 liberty should have been wrested from us ? But this same American goes 
 into a sister Republic, and says to poor, weak Mexico, " Give up your 
 territory, 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 Senator 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 have the Bay of 
 San Francisco ! Why ? Because it is the best harbor in the Pacific ! It 
 
 i 
 
^y^'j^^ 
 
 THOMAS CORWm V 111 
 
 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 you can't 
 keep our people from going there. I don't desire to prevent them. I^et 
 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 been 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 skulls, 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 plains 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 significant 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 history long ; long, too, upon man, his nature, 
 and true destiny. Montesquieu did not think highly of this way of 
 "waking up." " Happy," says he, "is that nation whose annals are 
 tiresome..' ' 
 
JOHN I CRITTENDEN (J 7874 863) 
 
 THE EULOGIST OF HENRY CLAY 
 
 mENRY CLAY did not live without an apostle and did not die 
 without an eulogist. Without many such, we might say, but 
 we are concerned here with one in particular, like him a Ken- 
 tucky Senator, through life his warm friend and ardent supporter, and 
 after death his most eloquent extoller. Among the oratorical efforts 
 of John Jordan Crittenden, his eulogy of Henry Clay is usually 
 looked upon as the finest example of his powers, though it was by 
 no means the only time he rose to a high level of dignified eloquence. 
 Crittenden, a native of Kentucky, early gained distinction as a 
 legal advocate of unusual powers, and became so prominent in the 
 political field that he was elected to the United States Senate at 
 thirty years of age. He was appointed Attorney-General of the United 
 States by President Harrison in 1841, and by President Fillmore in 
 1850, and was elected Governor of Kentucky in 1848. In 1861 he 
 attempted to mediate between North and South, offering a series of 
 resolutions known as the Crittenden Compromise. 
 
 THE STRONG AGAINST THE WEAK 
 [On the I5tli of February, 1859, Mr. Crittenden made in the Senate one of his 
 ablest and most eloquent speeches, its subject being the proposed acquisition of Cuba 
 by the United States. It was not the first movement in that direction. President 
 Polk had made an offer to Spain in 1848 to purchase Cuba for the sum of $1,000,000. 
 Ten years later President Buchanan made a similar proposition to the Senate, the sum 
 now named being $30,000,000. It led to an animated discussion, which ended in its 
 withdrawal. One of the most earnest opponents of the scheme, and of the message 
 of the President, in connection therewith, was Senator Crittenden. We subjoin an 
 extract from his speech, in which he strongly assails the arbitrary methods of our 
 government dealings with the weaker States of America.] 
 
 At the close of the great wars of Europe, when Spain solicited assist- 
 ance to resubjugate her South American colonies, when their menacing 
 reached the ears of the rulers of this country, what was done^ It was 
 112 
 
JOHN j. CRITTENDEN 113 
 
 the mightiest question that had been presented to the world in this cen- 
 tury, whether South America should be europeanized and fall under the 
 European system of government and policy, or whether it should be 
 americanized according to the American system of republics. What a 
 mighty question was it ! By kindness, by encouragement, by offers of 
 unlimited kindness and protection, we won their hearts, and they fell into 
 our system. They gave us all their sympathy ; but now, where has it 
 gone ? Read the last message of the President, and consider the troubled 
 state of our relations with these states which it depicts. There is not a 
 state where we do not find enemies, where our citizens are free from vio- 
 lence, where their property is not taken from them. It seems that the 
 persons and property of our citizens are exposed continually to daily vio- 
 lence in every State of South America with which we have relations. It 
 is so, too, in Mexico and Guatemala and Costa Rica and the various 
 States of Central America. 
 
 How has it been that this state of things has been brought about? 
 How has it been that we have lost that mighty acquisition, — an acquisition, 
 not of territory, but an acquisition of the hearts of men ; an acquisition 
 of the hearts of nations, ready to follow our lead, to stand by us in a com- 
 mon cause, to fight the world, if it were necessary ? That great golden 
 chain that bound freemen together from one end of the North to the end 
 of the South American continent has been broken in a thousand pieces ; 
 and the message tells us the sad tale that we are everywhere treated with 
 enmity and hostility, and that it is necessary for us to avenge it. 
 
 We are gathering up little accounts with these nations ; we are mak- 
 ing quarrels with them. They have done us some wrong ; practiced some 
 enmity against our citizens ; taken some property that they ought not to 
 have taken ; and, besides, we have claims against them. From the Fiji 
 Islands to the Spanish throne we have demands to be urged ; and I 
 think we are coming to a very summary process of collection, where no 
 Congress is to sit to examine into the casus belli, but a ship of war, better 
 than all the constables in the world, is to go around collecting, from the 
 cannibals and others, whatever she is commissioned to say is due to us. 
 
 What peace can we have, what good-will can we have among men, if 
 we are to depart from the noble course which governed our forefathers, 
 who had no quarrels but those which they could make a fight out of, and 
 ought to have made a fight out of, directly and at once, and be done with 
 them ? Do all these little clouds or specks of war that darken our horizon 
 promise additional prosperity, or an increase of revenue to meet our debts ? 
 No, sir. If they portray anything, they portray the contrary — increased 
 
 expenditures 
 
 8 
 
,114 JOHN J. CRITTEiSIDEN 
 
 Here, in view of all this, we propose to let the President make w^ar 
 as he pleases. The Constitution says the Congress of the United States 
 shall have the power to make war. Has anybody else the power to make 
 war but we and the House of Representatives ? Is it a littk inferior 
 jurisdiction that we can transfer and delegate to others ? Did the Consti- 
 tution intend that the President should exercise it ? No ; it gave it to us, 
 and in the balance of powers just as much denied it to the President as it 
 gave it to us. We subvert the whole system of our Government ; the 
 whole constitutional framework of it is a wreck if you take this most 
 dangerous and most important of all powers and put it in the hands of the 
 President of the United States. Can you abdicate this power which the 
 people have given you as their trustees ! You cannot do it. Does this 
 bill do it ? 
 
 To be sure, it will be observed that the right of summary redress is 
 limited to weak States. There seems to be some saving understanding 
 upon the part of the framers of this policy that it would not be applicable 
 to large States. Some trouble, some resistance, might be anticipated from 
 them ; but you can safely thunder it over the heads of these poor little 
 South American states ; you can make them tremble ; you can settle the 
 accounts, and make them pay your own balances. Sir, what sort of hero- 
 ism is that for your country and my country, to triumph over the small 
 and the weak ? The bill on which I am commenting does not suppose 
 that war is to require formal debate, but proposes, whenever it shall be 
 made to appear to the President that an American citizen, in any of these 
 countries, has been the subject of violence or depredation in his property, 
 to allow the President, at his ipse dixit, to make w;ar. Unheard, unques- 
 tioned, at once the will of a single man is to let loose the dogs of war 
 against these small, weak nations. It is a violation of the spirit of the 
 Constitution ; and, besides, there is a pettiness about it that does not 
 belong to our country. Surely it was in a thoughtless moment that the 
 President intimated the necessity of such a measure, or that it was intro- 
 duced into the Senate. There is nothing in it that can stand investiga- 
 tion. It is not more uncongenial to the Constitution of the United States 
 than it is, I trust, to the magnanimous character of my countrymen, that 
 they should be willing to hunt out the little and the weak and chastise 
 them, and let the great go free, or leave them to ordinary solemn course 
 of proceeding, by treaty or by congressional legislation. No, sir ; far 
 better is the maxim of the old Roman — debellare super bos y to put down 
 the proud. 
 
THOMAS R MARSHALL (J 800- J 864) 
 
 A KENTUCKY WIT AND ORATOR 
 
 B 
 
 |LD KAINTUCK," to give the blue-grass State its vernacular 
 appellation, can boast at least three orators of national fame 
 belonging to the period under consideration —Henry Clay, 
 Thomas F. Marshall, and John J. Crittenden, the last two native 
 sons of the soil. Marshall, the one of this trio with whom we are at 
 present concerned, was gifted with unusual fluency and command of 
 language, equalling in this respect, in his best efforts, Henry Clay 
 himself. He was distinguished alike for wit and oratory, and though 
 his Congressional career was very brief — from 1841 to 1843 — it was 
 embellished by numerous speeches of remarkable brilliancy. His 
 power of oratory made him very successful at the bar and in the 
 political campaign field, and on his efforts in the latter his reputation 
 as an orator largely rests. In his days the method of Congressional 
 reporting was not of the best, and he in particular was so aggrieved 
 by the way in which his remarks were mangled, that he rose in the 
 House and indignantly demanded that his speeches should not be 
 reported at all. His legal career was passed at Louisville, where for 
 a time he served as judge of the Circuit Court, and where he died, 
 September 22, 1864. 
 
 THE STATES AND THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT 
 [Of Marshall's Congressional speeches, the only one that seems to have been 
 adequately reported was that of July 6, 184 1, on a Bill to dispose of the Proceeds of 
 Sales of Public Lands. His remarks on the relations of the States to the Central Gov- 
 ernment, and their 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 naturally and 
 
 115 
 
116 THOMAS F. MARSHALL 
 
 necessarily hostile and dangerous to the States and the people. The 
 powers with which it is armed are considered but as so many instruments 
 of destruction. It is represented as a great central mass, charged 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 corruption. 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, independence, freedom 
 — all at a stroke ? And who the auctioneer ? Who the purchaser ? Their 
 own representatives, freely chosen and entirely responsible? Nay, sir, 
 they are doubly represented in this government, so bent upon their 
 destruction. We come fresh from the hands of the people themselves, 
 soon to return our account for 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 common head ? Are we most to dread the national authority 
 when exerted most beneficially 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, but 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 Federalist, feeling an overwrought 
 jealousy of the State sovereignties, and dreading the uniform tendency of 
 confederated republics to dismemberment and separation, should 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 
 
 The famous "Gettysburg Speech" and the equally famous 
 ?• Debates with Stephen A. Douglas won for Abraham Lincoln a 
 high rank in American Oratory, 
 
THOMAS F. MARSHALL 117 
 
 corporations of their own creation and invested in perpetuity with the 
 revenues in future to be derived from this vast and most profitable 
 expenditure, shall swell into populous, opulent and potent nations, the 
 people waking up to them as the source from whence the facilities of com- 
 merce have been derived, — 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 bodies 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 revenue to be derived from it ; concede, what is manifest, that, as the 
 revenue increases, the burdens on commerce will diminish ; and tell rue — 
 no, sir, you will not tell me — that 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 policy of this country, 
 and this policy is likely to be strengthened rather than invalidated by the increase in 
 power and wealth. He refers to the demand of Mr. Wise, of Virginia, that New York 
 should protect itself against certain Canadian encroachments upon its territory by 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 questions touching the safety of 
 either, in their collision with other countries, whether by negotiation or 
 
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 
 doubt. Her rights, her honor, her territory, are the rights, the honor, 
 the 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 lor 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 
 in this Union is inflicted upon the whole and upon each. To submit to 
 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 IIL 
 
 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 of 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, during 
 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 the 
 conditions of their restoration, the principles upon 
 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. 
 
 119 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN (J 809- J 865) 
 
 THE MARTYR OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 mHE two vital periods of American history, that in which the 
 people were struggling 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 their 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 the 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 topmost summit of our politi- 
 cal structure while remaining so near 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 bottom 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 him the Republican nomination for President. 
 The versatility, the depth, the comprehensiveness of Lincoln's mind 
 were first fully revealed in this oratorical contest, and his position as 
 the natural leader of the anti-slavery hosts became assured. '^A house 
 divided against* itself cannot stand," he said. ''I believe this country 
 cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. It will become 
 all one thing or all the other." The march of events soon made his 
 words good. The country went to war to make it ''all the one thing 
 or all the other," and Abraham Lincoln was selected as the banner- 
 bearer in the great struggle. He lived to see the country all free, a 
 consummation he did more than any other man to bring about; and 
 then he died, a martyr in the great cause to which he devoted his life. 
 Abraham Lincoln had the mind of a great statesman and the 
 powers of a great orator. His gift of expression Avas equalled by the 
 lucidity of his thoughts and the majesty to which he could rise 
 upon a fitting occasion. His Gettysburg speech is a sublime effort 
 which will never be forgotten by his countrymen ; and of his second 
 inaugural speech it has been said : •' This was like a sacred poem. 
 No American President had ever spoken words like these to the 
 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 the early mouths of i860, and on the 
 27th of February he made a speech at Cooper's Institute, New York, which' struck 
 with surprise and filled with admiration his fellow- Republicans of that city. It may 
 be said that but for this oratorical journey in the Bast he probably 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 ! 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. 
 
122 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 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 we live. 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 belief 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 cast 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 subhme level, and never was more deep and 
 significant thought compressed within a few sentences, than in Lincoln's world- 
 famous remarks at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, on 
 November 9, 1863.] 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 123 
 
 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 equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil 
 war, testing whether 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 that we should do this. But in a large sense we cannot 
 dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The 
 brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far 
 above our power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long 
 remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. 
 It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work 
 that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here 
 dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored 
 dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave 
 the last full measure of devotion ; that we here highly resolve that these 
 dead shall not have died in vain ; that this nation, under God, shall have 
 a new, birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people 
 and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 
 
 SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 [On the 4th of March, 1865, Abraham I^incoln spoke his last words to the 
 American nation. These words will remain for centuries to come a classic of Ameri- 
 can oratory, their closing words inscribed upon the hearts of our people as the true 
 motto of the great Western Republic] 
 
 FkIvLOw-Countrymen : At this second appearing to take the oath 
 of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address 
 than at the first. Then, a statement somewhat in detail of the course to 
 be pursued seemed very fitting and proper ; now, at the expiration of four 
 years, during which public declarations have constantly been called forth 
 concerning every point and place of the great contest which still absorbs 
 attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could 
 be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly 
 depends, is as well known to the public as to myself. It is, I trust, 
 reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With a high hope for the 
 future, no prediction in that regard is ventured. 
 
 On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts 
 were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it. All 
 sought to avoid it. While the Inaugural Address was being delivered 
 from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without w^ar, the 
 
124 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war, — 
 seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide the effects by negotiating. 
 Both parties depreca t£d.:syar , but one of them would make war rather than 
 let it perish, and war came. One-eighth of the whole population were 
 colored slaves, not distributed generally 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, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the 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. Each looked for an 
 easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astonishing. Both read 
 the same Bible and pray to the same God. Each 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 purposes. "Woe unto the world because of 
 offenses, for it must needs 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 
 to both North and South this terrible war, as was due to those by whom 
 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, and 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 Eord 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. 
 
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS (J8I3=J86J) 
 
 THE LITTLE GIANT 
 
 HORT in stature but great in mental power was the man whom his 
 admirers fitly named ''The Little Giant/' the diversity of his 
 physical and his mental stature being signified in this familiar 
 title. A man of great fluency of language and quickness of thought, 
 Stephen A. Douglas became one of the most famous orators of the West. 
 He may justly be classed with his country's leading men. In orator- 
 ical skill few surpassed him, and he was a prominent actor in the pro- 
 logue to that great tragic drama of American history, the Civil War, 
 though in the latter he took no part, dying in June, 1861, shortly 
 after the armies met in actual conflict. In his famous contest with 
 Lincoln he was on the losing side. Brilliant and specious, he lacked 
 the deep insight of his antagonist, and weakly permitted himself to 
 be drawm on to attempt to answer a series of subtle questions pro- 
 pounded by his shrewd opponent. His answer had its share in win- 
 ning him the Senatorship. It proved fatal to him in his higher 
 aspiration, that of being made President of the United States. 
 
 As an orator Douglas first gained high distinction in the canvass 
 for President in 1840. Elected a Judge of the Supreme Court of Illi- 
 nois in 1841, he became a member of the House of Representatives in 
 1843 and of the Senate in 1847. His candidacy for a third term in 
 the Senate led to the debate spoken of in the sketch of Lincoln's 
 career. In the Senate he supported Clay's Compromise Bill of 1850, 
 and was the author of the doctrine which became known as "Popular 
 Sovereignty," this being that the people of each Territory should de- 
 cide whether it should be admitted as a free or slave State. In 1854 
 he reported the bill by which the Missouri Compromise was repealed. 
 But when war actually began Douglas ranged himself on the side of 
 
 125 
 
l26 STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS 
 
 the government, making a patriotic speech at Springfield, Illinois, on 
 
 April 25, 1861. He died while the first sounds of the conflict were 
 
 in the air. 
 
 SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES 
 
 [It was at Freeport, Illinois, on the lytU of June, 1858, that Douglas made the 
 eflfort, 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 as 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. lyincoln 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 Chese 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 n€xt 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 
 
STEPHEisr A. DOUCjLaS 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 the people are opposed to slavery, 
 they will elect representatives to that body who will by unfriendly legisla- 
 tion effectually 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 affect 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 they prefer. 
 
128 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, increase 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." Any one 
 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, with 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, Famsworth, and Fred Douglass, he will frame and propound others. 
 
THADDEUS STEVENS (J 7934 868) 
 
 THE FRIEND OF FREEDOM AND EDUCATION 
 
 IHADDEUS STEVENS, a native of Vermont, but identified with 
 Pennsylvania, made himself notable in two ways. It was his 
 powerful advocacy of popular education in 1835 that gave 
 Pennsylvania her common school system. And his unrelenting 
 hostility to slavery placed him in rank with such men as Garrison, 
 Phillips, Parker, and their fellow friends of human freedom. Nearly 
 half his life was spent in the ser \ ice 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 opponent 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, 
 
 FANATICISM AND LIBERTY 
 
 [Stevens did not mince language in dealing with the slavery question and its 
 advocates. His feeling on the subject was intense, and he denounced it with burning 
 eloquence. Those Northern statesmen who supported the Compromise of 1850, includ- 
 ing Webster, were handled by 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 in 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 
 difierence 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 a 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 corner of the lake 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 maybe, 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 the cause of rational, universal liberty — the liberty of the Declaration 
 of Independence. 
 
 This 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 vSlaveholder 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 slavery. 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, 
 as 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 
 referred. I^ast 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 liberty. She is offered 
 up a sacrifice to propitiate Southern tyranny ; to conciliate treason. 
 
JEFFERSON DAVIS (18084889) 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY 
 
 mHAT young man, gentlemen, is no ordinary man ; he will 
 make his mark yet.'' Such was the opinion of John 
 Quincy Adams, after hearing Jefferson Davis make his first 
 speech in the Senate. Make his mark he did, in two ways ; first, as 
 orator and statesman ^f the Slavery and State Rights party ; second, 
 as President of the Souths -n Confederacy during the Civil War. The 
 soldiers of the Federal army, in their songful wish to " Hang Jeff 
 Davis on a sour apple tree," w^ere eager to have him make his mark 
 in a different way, and would perhaps have quickly ended his career 
 if he had fallen into their hands. 
 
 As an orator Davis possessed much fluency and ability. 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 aggrandizement and a pseudo-philanthropy, 
 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 daj^ 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- 
 ern 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 off, 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 
 
134 JEFFERSON DAVIS 
 
 held among us. I am willing, however, to take my share 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 from 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. Grass 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 R STEPHENS (J8J2-J883) 
 
 THE CONFEDERATE VICE-PRESIDENT 
 
 WHEN, in the early days of 1861, the secession convention of 
 Georgia, was considering the perilous purpose which most of 
 ■^ its members had strongly in view, Alexander H. Stephens 
 earnestly combatted its suicidal course. In this he was strongly sus- 
 tained by another statesman of the convention, Benjamin H. Hill. 
 But when the ordinance of secession was passed against their advice, 
 they yielded their own opinions and went with their State, Hill becom- 
 ing a Confederate Senator, and Stephens Vice-President of the Con- 
 federacy during its four eventful years. He had been a member of 
 the National House of Representatives for sixteen years before the 
 war, and entered this body again in 1874, serving for several terms. 
 In 1882 he was elected Governor of Georgia. Alike as orator and 
 statesman, Stephens was a man of unusual powers. 
 
 SEPARATE AS BILLOWS, BUT ONE AS THE SEA 
 
 [As an example of Mr. Stephens's oratory, we offer the following extract from 
 his address of February 12, 1878, at the unveiling of Carpenter's picture illustrating 
 the signing of the Proclamation of Emancipation by President Lincoln. It is of 
 interest alike for its eulogy of Lincoln, and its views on the effect of emancipation and 
 the reunion of the country.] 
 
 I knew Mr. Lincoln well. We met in the House in December, 1847. 
 We were together during the Thirtieth Congress. I was as intimate with 
 him as with any other man of that Congress, except perhaps my colleague, 
 Mr. Toombs. Of Mr. Lincoln's general character I need not speak. He 
 was warm-hearted ; he was generous ; he was magnanimous ; he was 
 most truly, as he afterwards said on a memorable occasion, *' with malice 
 toward none, with charity for all." He had a native genius far above his 
 fellows. Every fountain of his heart was overflowing with the '' milk of 
 human kindness . ' ' From my attachment, to him , so. much deeper was the 
 
 1S5 
 
136 ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 
 
 pang iu my own breast, as well as of millions, at the horrible manner of 
 his ** taking off." This was the climax of our troubles, and the spring 
 from which came unnumbered woes. But of those events, no more, now! 
 As to the great historic event which this picture represents, one thing 
 should be duly noted. Let not History confuse events. It is this : that 
 Emancipation was not the chief object of Mr. Lincoln in issuing the Procla- 
 mation. His chief object, the ideal to which his whole soul was devoted, 
 was the preservation of the Union. Pregnant as it was with coming events, 
 initiative as it was of ultimate emancipation, it still originated, in point of 
 fact, more from what was deemed the necessities of war than from any 
 purely humanitarian view of the matter. Life is all a mist, and in the 
 dark our fortunes meet us. This was evidently the case with Mr. Lincoln. 
 He, in my opinion, was, like all the rest of us, an instrument in the hands 
 of that Providence above us, that ** divinity which shapes our ends, rough- 
 hew them as we will.'' I doubt very much whether Mr. Lincoln, at the 
 time, realized the great result. The Proclamation did not declare free all 
 the colored people of the Southern States, but applied only to those parts 
 of the country then in resistance to the Federal authorities. Mr. Lincoln's 
 idea as embodied in his Proclamation of September 22, 1862, as well as 
 that of January i, 1863, was consummated by the voluntary adoption, by 
 the South, of the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United 
 States. That is the charter of the colored man's freedom. Without 
 that, the Proclamation had nothing but the continuance of the war to 
 sustain it. Had the States, then in resistance, laid down their arms by 
 the ist of January, 1863, the Union would have been saved, but the 
 condition of the slave, so called, would have been unchanged. 
 
 Before the upturning of Southern society by the Reconstruction Acts, 
 the white people, there, came to the conclusion that their domestic insti- 
 tution, known as slavery, had better be abolished. It has been common to 
 speak of the colored race as the wards of the nation. May I not say with 
 appropriateness and due reverence, in the language of Georgia's greatest 
 intellect, " They are rather the wards of the Almighty " ? Why, in the 
 providence of God, their ancestors were permitted to be brought over here 
 it is not for me to say ; but they have a location and habitation here, 
 especially at the South ; and, though the changed condition of their sta 
 was the leading cause of the late terrible conflict between the States 
 venture to affirm that there is not one within the circle of my acquaint 
 ance, or in the whole Southern country, who would wish to see the 
 relation restored. 
 
 This changed status creates new duties. Men of the North, and men 
 of the South, of the East, and of the West, I care not of what party, I 
 
 1 
 
 oldl 
 
ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 137 
 
 would, to-day, on this commemorative occasion, urge upon every one 
 within the sphere of duty and humanity, whether in public or private life, 
 to see to it that there be no violation of the divine trust. 
 
 During the conflict of arms I frequently almost despaired of the 
 liberties of our country, both North and 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, faithfully performing, each 
 for itself, its own constitutional obligations under 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 
 pavSsions 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 all nations and entangling alliances with none, may not 
 enter upon a new career, exciting increased wonder in the Old World, by 
 grander achievements hereafter 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, instead 
 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 light up earth no more." 
 
ROBERT TOOMBS (1 8 10-1885) 
 
 THE ORATOR OF SECESSION 
 
 WHILE Phillips and Parker were vehemently denouncing slavery 
 in the North, Robert Toombs, with equal force and equal elo- 
 "* quence, was advocating and sustaining it in the South and in 
 the Senate of the United States, of which he was a member from 1853 
 to 1861. A man of deep political insight, he discerned the coming 
 war at a long distance, and spoke in favor of secession from 1850 
 onward. The acquisition of territory from Mexico he looked upon as 
 " a policy which threatened the ruin of the South and the subversion 
 of this Government." In his opinion this movement pointed to con- 
 flict and would end in war. A leader in the secession movement in 
 Georgia, he resigned from the Senate when that State left the Union, 
 and was afterward a Confederate Secretary of War, Senator and 
 brigadier-general. 
 
 THE CREED OF SECESSION 
 [As an orator Toombs was a man of remarkable readiness and fluency. His 
 daring was as great as his eloquence was fervent. His speech, on resigning from the 
 Senate to cast in his lot with his State, was one of the most audacious examples of 
 oratory ever heard in that body. He fairly flung down the gauntlet of war on the 
 floor of the Senate chamber before leaving it. We give the leading portions of this 
 farewell speech.] 
 
 Senators, the Constitution is a compact. It contains all our obliga- 
 tions and duties of the Federal Government. I am content, and have 
 ever been content, to sustain it. While I doubt its perfection ; while I 
 do not believe it was a good compact ; and while I never saw the day 
 that I would have voted for it as a proposition de novo, yet I am bound to 
 it by oath, and by that common prudence which would induce men to 
 abide by established forms, rather than to rush into unknown dangers. 
 
 I have given to it, and intend to give to it, unfaltering support and 
 allegiance ; but I choose to put that allegiance on the true ground, not 
 138 
 
ROBERT TOOMBS 139 
 
 on the false plea that anybody's blood was shed for it. I say that: the 
 Constitution is the whole compact. All the obligations, all the chains 
 that fetter the limbs of my people, are nominated in the bond, and they 
 wisely excluded any conclusion against them by declaring that the 
 powers not granted by the Constitution to the United States, or forbidden 
 by it to the States, belonged to the States respectively or to the people. 
 Now I will try it by that standard ; I will subject it to that test. 
 
 The law of nature, the law of justice, would say — and it is so 
 expounded by the publicists — that equal rights in the common property 
 shall be enjoyed. Even in a monarchy, the king cannot prevent the sub- 
 jects from enjoying equality in the disposition of the public property. 
 Even in a despotic government this principle is recognized. It was the 
 blood and the money of the whole people (says the learned Grotius, and 
 say all the publicists) which acquired the public property, and therefore 
 it is not the property of the sovereign. This right of equality being, then, 
 according to justice and natural equity, a right belonging to all States, 
 when did we give it up ? You say Congress has a right to pass rules and 
 regulations concerning the Territory and other property of the United 
 States. Very well. Does that exclude those whose blood 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 himself of the mode 
 and manner of redress. But you deny us that privilege, and finally 
 reduce us to accepting your judgment. We decline it. You say you 
 will enforce it by executing laws ; that means your judgment of what the 
 laws ought to be. Perhaps you will have a good time of executing your 
 judgment. The Senator from Kentucky comes to your aid, and says he 
 can find no constitutional right of secession. Perhaps not ; but the Con- 
 stitution is not the place to look for State rights. If that right belongs to 
 independent States, and they did not cede it to the Federal Government, 
 it is reserved to the States, or to the people. Ask your new commentator 
 where 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 says he does not care what 
 the Supreme Court decides, he will turn us out anyhow. He says this in 
 
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 3^ourselves, not only discard the Court, discard our 
 construction, discard the practice of the Government, but you 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 to 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 these 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 j 
 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 banners the glorious words, " Liberty and 
 equality," we will trust to the blood of the brave and the God of battles, 
 for security and tranquillity. 
 
CHARLES SUMNER (J8U-J874) 
 
 "WEBSTER'S FAMOUS SUCCESSOR 
 
 i 
 
 |N the 22d of May, 1856, took place an event which formed the 
 legitimate climax of the long and virulent slavery contest in the 
 Congress of the United States. On that day Preston S. Brooks, a 
 South Carolina Representative, attacked Charles Sumner, a Massachu- 
 setts Senator, in his seat in the Senate chamber, beating him on the 
 head with a heavy cane till he became insensible, and injuring him so 
 seriously that it was years before he fully recovered. It was the appeal 
 to violence ; the first blow in the Civil War. It indicated that the 
 conflict was passing the limits of 'debate and argument, and entering 
 the arena of physical force. Injured as he was, Sumner was not 
 disarmed. On his return to the Senate in 1859, his unrelenting 
 hostility to the *' peculiar institution '' was again manifested in a 
 speech on '' The Barbarism of Slavery,'' which produced an immense 
 effect. Sumner's career in the Senate began in 1850, when he was 
 elected to succeed Daniel Webster, then made Secretary of State. He 
 continued there during the remainder of his life, taking an active 
 part in the debates during the war and the reconstruction period that 
 followed. He was chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations 
 from 1861 to 1870, and lived to witness the triumph of the principles 
 for which he so long and strenuously contended. Among his impor- 
 tant services was the production of the Freedman's Bureau Bill. 
 
 Sumner holds rank with Webste^ and Everett, as one of the three 
 greatest orators of New England. In oratory he was a notable repre- 
 sentative of the academic method. Eloquence with him was not 
 native, but acquired ; the result of special study and mental cultiva- 
 tion. Superior to Webster in scholarship, he was not his equal in 
 native powers of oratory, or in the art of moving men's minds. Yet 
 
 141 
 
142 CHARLES SUMNER 
 
 his influence in the councils of the nation was great, the more so as 
 his honor continued unimpeachable and his moral dignity was elevated 
 far above that of many of his Congressional associates. 
 
 THE TRUE GRANDEUR OF NATIONS 
 
 [Sumner first won fame as a great orator on the 4th of July, 1835, when he 
 delivered in Boston an oration on " The True Grandeur of Nations," which was very 
 widely read, attracting much attention not alone in the United States and Canada, 
 but in Europe as well. Its purpose was the promotion of the cause of peace. We 
 select from this fine example of his eloquence its effective deprecation of the worship 
 of military glory and the horrors of war, and its statement of the elements of true 
 national greatness.] 
 
 In our age there can be no peace that is not honorable ; there can be 
 no war that is not dishonorable. The true honor of a nation is to be 
 found only in deeds of justice, and in the happiness of its people, all of 
 which are inconsistent with war. In the clear eye of Christian judgment 
 vain are its victories ; infamous are its spoils. He is the true benefactor 
 and alone worthy of honor who brings comfort where before was wretch- 
 edness ; who dries the tears of sorrow ; who pours oil into the wounds of 
 the unfortunate ; who feeds the hungry and clothes the naked ; who 
 unlooses the fetters of the slave; who does justice ; who enlightens the 
 ignorant ; who enlivens and exalts, by his virtuous genius, in art, in liter- 
 ature, in science, the hours of life ; who, by words or actions, inspires a 
 love for God and for man. This is the Christian hero ; this is the man of 
 iionor in a Christian land. He is no benefactor, nor deserving of honor, 
 whatever may be his worldly renown, whose life is passed in acts of force; 
 who renounces the great law of Christian brotherhood ; whose vocation is 
 blood ; who triumphs in battle over his fellow-men. '■ Well may old Sir 
 Thomas Browne exclaim : * * The world does not know its greatest men ; ' ' 
 for thus far it has chiefly discerned the violent brood of battle, the armed 
 men springing up from the dragon's teeth sown by Hate, and cared little 
 for the truly good men, children of Love, Crom wells guiltless of their 
 country's blood, whose steps on earth have been as noiseless as an Angel's 
 wing^. . . . 
 
 Thus far mankind has worshiped in military glory an idol compared 
 with which the colossal images of ancient Babylon or modern Hindostan 
 are but toys ; and we, in this blessed day of light, in this blessed land of j 
 freedom, are among the idolaters. The heaven-descending injunction, .■ 
 " Know thyself," still speaks to an ignorant world from the distant letters 
 of gold at Delphi— know thyself ; know that the moral nature is the most 
 noble part of man ^ t^ftfiseending far that part which is the seat of passion, 
 
 
 1 
 
CHARLES SUMNER 148 
 
 strife, and war; nobler than the intellect itself. Suppose war to be 
 decided by force, where is the glory ? Suppose it to be decided by chance, 
 where is the glory ? No ; true greatness consists in imitating, as near as 
 possible for finite man, the perfections of an Infinite Creator; above all, 
 in cultivating those highest perfections, justice and love — justice, which 
 like that of St. Louis, shall not swerve to the right hand or to the left ; 
 love, which like that of William Penn, shall regard all mankind of kin. 
 " God is angry," says Plato, " when anyone censures a man like himself, 
 or praises a man of an opposite character. And the Godlike man is the 
 good man. " And again, in another of those lovely dialogues, vocal with 
 immortal truth, *' Nothing resembles God more than that man among us 
 who has arrived at the highest degree of justice.'* The true greatness of 
 nations is in those qualities which constitute the greatness of the individ- 
 ual. It is not to be found in extent of territory, nor in vastness of popu- 
 lation ; nor in wealth ; not in fortifications, or armies, or navies ; not in 
 the phosphorescent glare of fields of battle ; not in Golgothas, though 
 covered by monuments that kiss the clouds : for all these are the creatures 
 and representatives of those qualities of our nature which are unlike any- 
 thing in God's nature. 
 
 Nor is the greatness of nations to be found in triumphs of intellect 
 alone ; in literature, learning, science or art. The polished Greeks, the 
 world's masters in the delights of language, and in range of thought ; 
 and the commanding Romans, overawing the earth with their power ; 
 were little more than splendid savages ; and the age of Louis XIV., of 
 France, spanning so long a period of ordinary worldly magnificence, 
 thronged by marshals bending under military laurels, enlivened by the 
 unsurpassed comedy of Moliere, dignified by the tragic genius of Comeille, 
 illumined by the splendors of Bossuet, is degraded by immoralities that 
 cannot be mentioned without a blush, by a heartlessness in comparison 
 with which the ice of Nova Zembla is warm, and by a succession of deeds 
 of injustice not to be washed out by the tears of all the recording angels 
 ofjieaven. 
 
 ) The true greatness of a nation cannot be in triumphs of the intellect 
 alone. Literature and art may widen the sphere of its influence ; they 
 may adorn it ; but they are in their nature but accessories. The true 
 grandeur of humanity is in moral elevation, sustained, enlightened, and 
 decorated by the intellect of man. The truest tokens of this grandeur in a 
 state are the diffusion of the greatest happiness among the greatest num- 
 ber, and that passionless, Godlike justice, which controls the relations of 
 the state to other states, and to all the people who are committed to its 
 charge 
 
144 CHARLES SUMNER 
 
 / 
 
 As we cast our eyes over the history bf nations, we discern with hor- 
 ror the succession 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 >h"e 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 ! 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 accomplished ; in the tri- 
 umphs of benevolence and justice ; in the establishment of perpetual peace. 
 t ^"FiS 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. 
 
 A^nd peace has its own peculiar victories, in comparison with which 
 Marathb^j and Bannockburn and Bunker Hill, fields held sacred in the his- 
 tory of human freedom, shall lose their lustre. 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 by the side 
 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 be 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 need 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 shall be one of the links in the golden chain by which 
 humanity shall connect itself with the throne of God. ^ . 
 f^ 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 higher 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. \ 
 
WILLIAM H. SEWARD (t80t-J872) 
 
 THE WAR-TIME SECRETAEY OF STATE 
 
 i 
 
 |N that fatal April day in 1865, when Lincoln fell victim to the 
 bullet of an assassin, William H. Seward, his Secretary of 
 State, then on a bed of sickness, narrowly escaped a similar 
 fate, he being stabbed in several places, and only saved 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 important a figure 
 in the government as Lincoln himself. Five years before, when Lin- 
 coln was first nominated for the Presidency, Seward was really the 
 most prominent man in the party — too prominent, as it appeared, to 
 receive the nomination in the face of the enemies he had made. 
 Deeply disappointed as he undoubtedly was, he did not permit his 
 private feeling to conflict with his public duty, but did his utmost to 
 check the schemes of the conspirators in Buchanan's cabinet, and 
 smooth the way for the new President. Chosen as Secretary of State 
 by Lincoln, he doubtless accepted the office with the idea that he would 
 be " the power behind the throne," and exert a controlling influence 
 over the inexperienced Westerner. Disappointed in this again, he fell 
 gracefully into his true vocation, that of a faithful counsellor of the 
 President. In his sphere of duty jio man could have been more 
 efficient and his skillful handling of the Trent affair and the French 
 occuption of Mexico, saved the country from dangerous foreign com- 
 plications at a time when it needed all its energies at home. The war 
 ended, Seward, who remained Secretary of State under Johnson, 
 quickly cleared Mexico of the French invaders. Another great service 
 he did and one for which he was then severely criticised, was the pur- 
 chase of Alaska, whose actual value he was one of the first to perceive. 
 10 146 
 
146 WILLIAM H. SEWARD 
 
 While in the Senate he took an advanced position among the 
 opponents to slavery, a position which he firmly held throughout 
 the troublous times that followed, despite all criticism and abuse. 
 During this period his oratory made him a power in the Senate, while 
 the views expressed by him formed a declaration of principles upon 
 which all sections of anti-slavery men could agree. As regards his 
 powers, a marked example of them was shown in 1846, when he 
 defended a negro murderer against whom a bitter popular feeling 
 existed, greatly endangering his popularity by his persistence in this 
 charitable action, though he much enhanced his reputation by his 
 treatment of this case. Mr. Gladstone said to Charles Sumner, " 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. 
 
 AMERICANS TRUE GREATNESS 
 
 [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 mankim 
 from a state of servitude to the exercise of self government ; from undei 
 the tyranny of physical force to the gentle sway of opinion ; from unde 
 subjection to matter to dominion over nature. 
 
 It was ours to lead the way, to take up the cross of republicanism an< 
 bear it before the nations, to fight its earliest battles, to enjoy its earliest 
 triumphs, to illustrate its purifying and elevating virtues, and by oi 
 courage and resolut'on, 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 be 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 I^acedae- 
 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 oflering 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. 
 
FREDERICK DOUGLASS (181 74895) 
 
 THE SLAVE-BORN ORATOR 
 
 AMONG those who spoke for the rights of man and the freedom 
 of the slave in the period " before the war,'' there is one to 
 "^ whom we must accord peculiar 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 oppo- 
 nents of human slavery. He stood alone, the first and foremost Ameri- 
 can orator of his race, a fact which in itself gave him marked 
 prominence. Yet it was not solely as a prodigy that he won reputa- 
 tion, for he had true power in oratory ; being a man of intellect and 
 feeling, with fine powers 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 1845 his earnest and fluent 
 eloquence drew large audiences. He edited a newspaper. The North 
 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 
 
 [In 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 in , 
 views with the multitude, but addresses in favor of slavery abolition were tabooed, and^ 
 those who indulged in them did so at imminent peril. The anti-slavery doctrine, 
 which was to grow so immensely in the two following decades, was still in its infancy, j 
 and Boston itself was a strong seat of the pro-slavery element. In the following wore 
 Douglass scores it for its lack of liberal sentiment.] 
 
 Boston is a great city — and Music Hall has a fame almost as exten- 
 sive as that of Boston. Nowhere more than here have the principles ol 
 14S 
 
FREDERICK DOUGLASS 149 
 
 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, even if cor- 
 rectly apprehended, find but limited support in this hour of trial. The 
 world moves 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 assemble and to express their opin- 
 ion was secure. Dr. Channing had defended the right, Mr. Garrison had 
 practically asserted 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 P'aneuil 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 was in their eyes, as in the eyes of all 
 thoughtful men, the great moral renovator of society and government. 
 Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opin- 
 ions has ceased to exist. That, of 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 block 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 
 that the meeting was ill-timed, and the parties to it unwise. 
 
 Why, 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 
 
150 
 
 FREDERICK DOUGLASS 
 
 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 freely 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 the right — and there let it rest forever. 
 
HENRY WINTER DAVIS (I8t 74865) 
 
 A SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 mN 1859, when Henry Winter Davis, a Baltimore Representative 
 in Congress, voted for the Republican candidate for Speaker, 
 he gave high offence to the Maryland legislators, who passed 
 resolutions declaring that he had forfeited the confidence of the peo- 
 ple. Their wrathful action failed to rouse alarm in the breast of its 
 subject. In a speech before the House Davis disdainfully bade them 
 to take their message back to their masters, the people, to whom alone 
 he was responsible. The people justified his trust in them by re-elect- 
 ing him as their servant in Congress. 
 
 Davis was a man of much eloquence ; of an intellect keen, inven- 
 tive and capable of sustained effort. A Whig in politics, he joined 
 the American Party after the demise of the Whigs, and in 1861 
 became an ardent Republican, earnestly loyal to the Union. In a 
 speech in February of that year he denounced the supineness of the 
 Buchanan administration. This stand he firmly and zealously main- 
 tained throughout the war, and after its end, in 1865, made an impor- 
 tant and eloquent speech in Chicago in favor of Negro suffrage. He 
 died in December of the same year. 
 
 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 strongly declared > to come out in such 
 ardent advocacy of the preservation of the Union as Henry Winter Davis did in his 
 notable speech of February 2, i86i. He had been opposed to forcing the issue 
 between North and South, but no sooner was secession decreed than he took as firm a 
 stand for the supremacy of the National Government as any member from the most 
 extreme anti-slavery district could have done, and criticised the senile weakness of 
 the Buchanan administration in words that must have stung like adders. We give 
 the pith of this vigorous address.] 
 
 151 
 
152 HENRY WINTER DAVIS 
 
 We are at the end of the insane revel of partisan license, which, for 
 thirty years, has in the United States worn the mask of government. We 
 are about to close the masquerade by the dance of death 
 
 Within two months after a formal, peaceful, regular election of the 
 Chief Magistrate of the United States, in which the whole body 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 been 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 repealing 
 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 be 
 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 public 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 153 
 
 Republic, still muttering, *' Not in my time, not in my time; after me 
 the deluge ! " . . . . 
 
 Mr. Speaker, we are driven to one of two alternatives ; we must 
 recognize what we have been told more than once upon this floor is an 
 accomplished fact — the independence of the rebellious States — or we must 
 refuse to acknowledge it, and accept all the responsibilities that attach to 
 that refusal. Recognize them ! Abandon the Gulf and coast of Mexico; 
 surrender the forts of the United States ; yield the privilege of free com- 
 merce and free intercourse ; strike down the guarantees of the Constitu- 
 tion for our fellow-citizens in all that wide region ; create a thousand 
 miles of interior frontier to be furnished with internal custom-houses, and 
 armed with internal forts, themselves to be a prey to the next caprice of 
 State sovereignty ; organize a vast standing army, ready at a moment's 
 warning to resist aggression ; create upon our southern boundary a perpet- 
 ual foothold for foreign powers, whenever caprice, ambition, or hostility 
 may see fit to invite the despot of France or the aggressive power of 
 England to attack us upon our undefended frontier ; sever that unity of 
 territory which we have spent millions and labored through three genera- 
 tions to create and establish ; pull down the flag of the United 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 thrones 
 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 ! We must not coerce a State engaged in the 
 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 ! 
 
 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. 
 
WILLIAM M. EVARTS (J8J8-J90J) 
 
 MANHATTAN'S MOST FAMOUS ADVOCATE. 
 
 mN the judicial history of the United States, the most imposing 
 spectacle was that which took place in 1868, when President 
 Johnson was put on trial, impeached for " high crimes 
 and misdemeanors,'' the Senate of the United States sitting as the 
 Court, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presiding. Prom- 
 inent among those who took part and chief counsel for the President, 
 was William Maxwell Evarts, the most brilliant legal light of the 
 New York bar, and a man of national reputation in the field of forensic 
 eloquence. We need scarcely repeat the well-known fact that the 
 President was acquitted, and that his advocate aided in the result 
 through his legal acumen and deep knowledge of Constitutional law. 
 The services of Evarts were rewarded by his appointment as Attorney- 
 General of the United States, which he filled during the brief 
 remainder of President Johnson's term. He subsequently severed as 
 Secretary of State under President Hayes. 
 
 A WEAK SPOT IN THE AMERICAN SYSTEM 
 [As a legal orator Mr. Evarts had great ability. An excellent example of his 
 powers in this respect was his able argument for the defendant in the great impeach- 
 ment trial. As evidence, we give an extract from this very fine forensic effort.] 
 
 There are in the Constitution but three barriers against the will of a 
 majority of Congress within the terms of their authority. One is, that it 
 requires a two-thirds vote to expel a member of either House ; another, 
 that a two-thirds vote is necessary to pass a law over the objections of the 
 President ; and another, that a two-thirds vote of the Senate, sitting as a 
 court for the trial of impeachment, is requisite to a sentence. And now how 
 have these two last protections of the Executive office disappeared from 
 the Constitution in its practical working by the condition of parties that has 
 154 
 
WILLIAM M. EVARTS 165 
 
 given to one the firm possession — by a three-fourths vote, I think, in both 
 Houses — of the control of the action of each body of the Legislature ? 
 Reflect upon this. I do not touch upon the particular circumstance that 
 the non-restoration of the Southern States has left your numbers in both 
 Houses of Congress less than they might under other circumstances be. 
 I do not calculate whether that absence diminishes or increases the dispro- 
 portion that there would be. Possibly their presence. might even aggra- 
 vate the political majority which is thus arrayed and thus overrides 
 practically all the calculations of the presidential protection through the 
 guarantees of the Constitution. For what do the two-thirds provisions 
 mean ? They mean that in a free country, where elections were diffused 
 over a vast area, no Congressman having a constituency of over seventy 
 or eighty thousand people, it was impossible to suppose that there would 
 not be a somewhat equal division of parties, or impossible to suppose that 
 the excitements and zeal of party could carry all the members of it into 
 any extravagance. I do not call them extravagances in any sense of 
 reproach ; I merely speak of them as the extreme measures that parties 
 in politics, and under whatever motives, may be disposed to adopt. 
 
 Certainly, then, there is ground to pause and consider, before you 
 bring to a determination this great struggle between the co-ordinate 
 branches of the Government, this agitation and this conclusion, in a 
 certain event, of the question whether the co-ordination of the Constitu- 
 tion can be preserved. Attend to these special circumstances, und deter- 
 mine for yourselves whether under these influences it is best to urge a 
 contest which must operate upon the framework of the Constitution and 
 its future, unattended by any exceptions of a peculiar nature that govern 
 the actual situation. Ah, that is the misery of human affairs, that the 
 stress comes and has its consequence when the system is least prepared to 
 receive it. It is the misery that disease — casual, circumstantial — invades 
 the frame when health is depressed and the powers of the constitution 
 to resist it are at the lowest ebb. It is that the gale rises and sweeps the 
 ship to destruction when there is no sea-room for it and when it is upon a 
 lee shore. And if, concurrent with that danger to the good ship, her 
 crew be short, if her helm be unsettled, if disorder begin to prevail, and 
 there come to be a final struggle for the maintenance of mastery against 
 the elements and over the only chances of safety, how wretched is the 
 condition of that people whose fortunes are embarked in that ship of 
 state ! . . . . 
 
 The strength of every system is in its weakest part. Alas, for that 
 rule! But when the weakest part breaks, the whole is broken. The 
 chain lets slip the ship when the weak link breaks, and the ship founders. 
 
156 WILLIAM M. EVARTS 
 
 The body fails when the weak function is vitally attacked. And so with 
 every structure, social and political, the weak point is the point of danger ; 
 and the weak point of the Constitution is now before you in the main- 
 tenance of the co-ordination of the departments of the Government, and 
 if one cannot be kept from devouring another, then the experiment of our 
 ancestors will fail. They attempted to interpose justice. If that fails, 
 what can endure ? 
 
 We have come all at once to the great experiences and trials of a full- 
 grown nation, all ofwhich we thought we should escape. We never dreamed 
 that an instructed and equal people, with freedom in every form, with a 
 Government yielding to the touch of popular will so readily, ever would 
 come to the trials of force against it. We never thought that the remedy 
 to get rid of a despotic ruler, fixed by a Constitution against the will of 
 the peo'ple, would ever bring assassination into our political experience. 
 We never thought that political differences under an elective presidency 
 would bring in array the departments of the Government against one 
 another to anticipate by ten months the operation of the regular election. 
 And yet we take them all, one after another, and we take them because 
 we have grown to the full vigor of manhood, when the strong passions 
 and interests that have destroyed other nations, composed of human nature 
 like ourselves, have overthrown them. But we have met by the powers 
 of the Constitution these great dangers — prophesied when they would 
 arise as likely to be our doom — the distractions of civil strife, the 
 exhaustions of powerful war, the interruption of the regularity of power 
 through the violence of assassination. We could summon from the people 
 a million of men and inexhaustible treasure to help the Constitution in its 
 time of need. Can we summon now resources enough of civil prudence 
 and of restraint of passion to carry us through this trial, so that, whatever 
 result may follow, in whatever form, the people may feel that the Consti- 
 tution has received no wound ? . To this court, the last and best resort for 
 this determination, it is to be left. And oh, if you could only carry your- 
 selves back to the spirit and the purpose and the wisdom and the courage 
 of the framers of the Government, how safe would it be in your hands ! 
 How safe is it now in your hands, for you who have entered into their labors 
 will see to it that the structure of your work comports in durability and 
 excellency with theirs. 
 
 Act, then, as if, under this serene and majestic presence, your deliber- 
 ations were to be conducted to their close, and the Constitution was to 
 come out from the watchful solicitude of these great guardians of it as if 
 from their own judgment in this High Court of Impeachment. 
 
SCHUYLER COLFAX (J 8234 885) 
 
 GRANT'S HRST VICE-PRESIDENT 
 
 I A It the head of Washington's life-guards throughout the Revo- 
 I /\ I lutionary War was General William Colfax, the grandfather of 
 the statesman with whom we are now concerned, and who 
 served his country in its councils during its second great war as his 
 soldier grandfather had done in arms during the first. Colfax's early 
 political service was as editor of an able organ of the Whig party, the 
 St. Joseph Valley Register. Born in the city of New York, he removed 
 when young to Indiana, and for many years conducted this party 
 journal at South Bend. He was otherwise active in party services, 
 became a member of Congress in 1854, and continued to serve in the 
 House until he gave up his seat to assume the duties of the Vice- 
 President, in March, 1868. Made Speaker of the House in 1863, he 
 was twice re-elected, his majority each time increasing. After four 
 years' service as Vice-President under President Grant, he retired from 
 political life. Colfax was a Republican statesman of much ability 
 and an able orator. Of an eloquent speech made by him soon after 
 entering Congress, on the Kansas question, five hundred thousand 
 copies are said to have been printed and distributed. 
 
 THE CONFISCATION OF SLAVE PROPERTY 
 [The Civil War had not proceeded far before the question of depriving the South- 
 erners of the property in human beings which they had made a cause of v/ar became a 
 subject of debate. The time was not ripe yet for emancipation, but General Butler 
 settled the difficulty in his military district by putting them to work as " contrabaml 
 of war," and on April 23, 1862, Colfax made a vigorous speech, in which he strongly 
 advocated their oonfiscation as a means of reducing the power of the opponents of 
 the Union. W^e append a selection from his speech.] 
 
 The engineers of this rebellion — the Catilines who sat here in the 
 council chambers of the Republic, and who, with the oath on their lips 
 
 167 
 
158 SCHUYLER COLFAX 
 
 and in their hearts to support the Constitution of the United States, 
 plotted treason at night, as has been shown by papers recovered in Florida, 
 particularly the letter of Mr. Yulee, describing the midnight conclaves of 
 these men to their confederates in the Southern States — should be pun- 
 ished by the severest penalties of the law, for they have added to their 
 treason perjury, and are doubly condemned before God and man. Never, 
 in any land, have there been men more guilty and more deserving of the 
 extremest terrors of the law. The murderer takes but a single life, and 
 we call him infamous. But these men wickedly and wilfully plunged a 
 peaceful country into the horrors of a civil war, and inaugurated a regime 
 of assassination and outrage against the Union men in their midst, hang- 
 ing, plundering and imprisoning in a manner that throws into the shade 
 
 the atrocities of the French Revolution The blood of our soldiers 
 
 cries out from the ground against them. Has not forbearance ceased 
 longer to be a virtue ? We were told a year ago that leniency would 
 probably induce them to return to their allegiance and to cease this unna- 
 tural war ; and what has been the result ? Let the bloody battle-fields of 
 this conflict answer. 
 
 When I return home I shall miss many a familiar face that has looked 
 in past years with the beaming eye of friendship upon me. I shall see 
 those who have come home with constitutions broken down by exposure 
 and wounds and disease to linger and to die. I shall see women whom I 
 have met Sabbath after Sabbath leaning on beloved husbands' arms, as 
 they went to the peaceful sanctuary, clothed now in widows' weeds. I 
 shall see orphans destitute, with no one to train their infant steps into 
 paths of usefulness. I shall see the swelling hillock in the graveyard — 
 where, after life's fitful fever, we shall all be gathered — betokening that 
 there, prematurely cut off by a rifle ball aimed at the life of the Republic, 
 a patriot soldier sleeps. I shall see desolate hearthstones and anguish and 
 woe on every side. Those of us here who come from Indiana and Illi- 
 nois know too painfully the sad scenes that will confront us amid the cir- 
 cles of our constituents. 
 
 Nor need we ask the cause of all this suffering, the necessity for all 
 these sacrifices. They have been entailed on us as part of the fearful cost 
 of saving our country from destruction. But what a mountain of guilt 
 must rest upon those who, by their efforts to destroy the Government and 
 the Union, have rendered these terrible sacrifices necessary. 
 
 Standing here between the living and the dead, we cannot avoid the 
 grave and fearful responsibility devolving on us. The people will ask us 
 when we return to their midst : ' ' When our brave soldiers went forth to 
 the battlefield to suffer, to bleed, and to die for their country, what did you 
 
SCHUYLER COLFAX 159 
 
 civilians in the Halls of Congress do to cripple the power of the rebels 
 whom they confronted at the cannon's mouth ? What legislation did you 
 enact to punish those who are responsible, by their perjury and treason, 
 for this suffering, desolation and death ? Did you levy heavy taxes upon 
 us and our property to pay the expenses of a war into which we were 
 unwillingly forced, and allow the men who are the guilty and reckless 
 authors of it to go comparatively free ? Did you leave the slaves of these 
 rebels to plant, and sow and reap, to till their farms, and thus support 
 their masters and the armies of treason, while they, thus strengthened, 
 met us in the field ? Did you require the patriots of the loyal States to 
 give up business, property, home, health, life and all for the country, and 
 yet hesitate about using the law-making power of the Republic to subject 
 traitors to the penalties as to property and possesions which their crimes 
 deserve ? I would feel as if worthy of the severest condemnation for life 
 if I did not mete out to those who are the cause of all this woe and anguish 
 and death, by the side of which all the vast expenses of the war dwindle 
 into insignificance, the sternest penalties of the law, while they still remain 
 in arms in their parricidal endeavor to blot this country from the map of 
 the world. 
 
 Why do we hesitate ? These men have drawn the sword and thrown 
 away the scabbard. They do not hesitate in punishing Union men within 
 their power. They confiscate their property, and have for a year past, 
 without any of the compunctions that trouble us here. They imprison 
 John M. Botts for silently retaining a lingering love for the Union in his 
 desolate home. They hang Union men in east Tennessee for bridge- 
 burning, refusing them even the sympathy of a chaplain to console their 
 dying hours. They persecute Brownlow because, faithful among the 
 faithless, he refused, almost alone, in his outspoken heroism, to bow the 
 knee to the Baal of their worship. Let us follow his counsel by stripping 
 the leaders of this conspiracy of their possessions and outlawing them 
 hereafter from the high places of honor and of trust they have heretofore 
 enjoyed. 
 
JAMES A^ GARFIELD ( J 83 14 88 1) 
 
 THE MARTYR TO CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 
 
 EOR nearly three months during the summer and early fall of 
 1881 the people of the United States waited in an agony of 
 sympathetic grief and apprehension, as the life of the head of 
 the nation slowly ebbed away in pain. Patiently the exalted sufferer 
 awaited the end, and with the deepest sorrow the citizens of the coun- 
 try vibrated between hope and despair. On the 2d of July he had 
 been laid low by the bullet of an insensate assassin in Washington. 
 On the 19th of September came the sad day that ended his career, 
 within touch of the fresh sea breezes at Elberon, on the New Jersey 
 coast, where the deep bass of the breaking waves sounded the requiem 
 of his brave soul. 
 
 It is rare that a great stress in national events passes away with- 
 out its martyr ; and too often it is the greatest and best of the nation 
 that falls as a sacrifice to the Moloch of passion and revenge. So it 
 was in 1865, when Lincoln fell as the last victim to the terrible mental 
 strain of the Civil .War. xA.nd so it was in 1881, when Garfield fell a 
 similar victim to the passions aroused by the struggle for Civil Ser- 
 vice Reform. Taking the Presidential chair in March of that year, 
 his evident purpose of making this reform a ruling policy of his 
 administration, and the controversy which, in consequence, arose 
 betw^een him and the Senators from New York, gave rise to a highly 
 excited feeling among the partisans of the old system, office-giving 
 Congressmen and office-seeking political workers alike. The fatal 
 result of this excitement came on July 2d, when a worthless office- 
 seeker, half-crazed by disappointment, shot the President in the rail 
 road station at Washington, inflicting what proved to be a fat 
 wound. Such is one of the fatalities of revolutionary movements" 
 160 
 
 1 
 
JAMES A. GARFIELD 161 
 
 Garfield began life as a poor boy, even working for a time as a 
 driver on the tow-path of a caDal. But by innate energy he made his 
 way through college and to the position of a college professor and 
 State Senator. He served in the war, becoming a major-general. 
 The remainder of his life was passed as a Congressman, in which he 
 won great influence as an orator and statesman, becoming speaker of 
 the House in 1877, Senator in 1880, and President in the same year. 
 
 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 aroused to severe denunciation. 
 Such was the case on the 8th of March, 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 if 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 of men 
 dressed in the uniform of the rebel Confederacy, 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, still 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 conquering 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 
 
162 JAMES A. GARFIELD 
 
 But, sir, I will forget States. We have something greater than 
 States and State pride to talk of here to-day. 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 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 not propose to enter into the argument. I have 
 expressed myself hitherto on State 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 ajffairs 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 ask you, Mr. Chairman, 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 ? 
 
JAMES A. GARFIELD 163 
 
 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 the 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 be done. 
 
 Suppose the policy of the 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 every 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 decisive issue 
 between us and the rebellion is, whether they shall revolutionize and 
 destroy, or we shall subdue and preserve. We take the latter ground- 
 We take the common weapons of war to meet them ; and, if these be not 
 sufiicient, I would take any element which will overwhelm and destroy ; 
 I would sacrifice the dearest and best beloved ; I would take all the old 
 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 ruin. 
 
JAMES G. BLAINE (18304893) 
 
 THE "PLUMED KNIGHT" OF POLITICS 
 
 i 
 
 |OBERT G. INGERSOLL'S ringing words, spoken before the 
 Republican National Convention of 1876, wlien he rose to 
 present the name of James G. Blaine as a candidate for the 
 Presidency, have never been surpassed for effectiveness on such an 
 occasion, Blaine had been bitterly assailed by his political foes, and 
 had routed them in a speech of striking vigor. It was to this defense 
 that IngersoU alluded when he electrified the convention with the fol- 
 lowing words : '* 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 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 uponihe field of battle.'^ 
 
 Yet Blaine failed to receive the nomination. A. sunstroke which 
 prostrated him, and of which his enemies took advantage 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 1884, but every one knows of the ludicrous incident which 
 then made Cleveland President, and robbed Blaine of his well-fought- 
 for honors. The result of the election turned upon the vote of the 
 State of Kew 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 a| 
 incident had so momentous a result. 
 
 As an orator Blaine had finely marked ability, and as a statesmai 
 his influence was unsurpassed during his career. Depew says of him, 
 164 
 
JAMES G. BLAINE 165 
 
 " He will stand in our history as the ablest parliamentarian and^most 
 skillful debater of our congressional history. ... No man during his 
 active career has disputed with him his hold upon the popular imagi- 
 nation and his leadership of his party." 
 
 A EULOGY OF GARHELD 
 
 In February, 1882, Blaine delivered, in the hall of the House of Representatives, 
 a pathetic eulogy on the martyred Garfield. 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 great numbers of distinguished men and 
 women. The touching words in which he bore tribute to his dead friend held spell- 
 bound 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 efforts.] 
 
 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, 
 and not before 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 he was going to his alma 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 triumphs 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 
 
166 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 
 less 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, manhood's 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 
 youth, whose whole life lay in his ; the little boys not yet emerged from 
 childhood's day of frolic ; the fair, young daughter ; the sturdy young 
 sons just springing into 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 sympathy. 
 Masterful in his mortal weakness, he became the center of a nation's love, 
 enshrined in the prayers of a world . But all the love and all the sympa- 
 thy could not share with him his suffering. He trod the wine press 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. 
 
^- 
 
 Recent Political Orators 
 
 WITH the passing of the Civil War and the 
 period of reconstruction of the Union that 
 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 differed ; 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. 
 
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 Upper House of Con- 
 gress, we herewith present John Warwick Daniel to our readers. 
 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 politician soon led him to the Virginia legislature, in w^hich 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 
 
 [lyoftiest among the architectural 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 Representatives, 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 of 
 168 
 
JOHN W- DANIEL 169 
 
 his country and its 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 of 
 praise. So clear was he in his great office that no ideal 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 
 j ustly 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, Caesar, 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 heaven-sent herald of friendship ; and no 
 country has given him greater honor than that which he defeated ; for 
 England has been glad to claim him as the scion of her 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 destructive hand can only multiply the forms of 
 immortality. 
 
 Grand and manifold as were its phases, there is yet no difficulty in 
 understanding the character of Washington. He was no Veiled Prophet. 
 He never acted a part. Simple, natural, and unaffected, 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, the consummate tact of direct attention. Looking 
 ever to the All- Wise Disposer 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. 
 
170 JOHN W. DANIEL 
 
 A true son of nature was George Washington — of nature in her 
 brightest intelligence and noblest mold ; and the difl5culty, if such there 
 be, in comprehending him, is only that of reviewing from 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 difiiculty 
 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 ; and 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 memorable 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 their 
 Judges do crown to-day with the grandest crown that veneration has ever 
 lifted to the brow of glory, him whom Virginia gave to America, whom 
 America has given to the world and to the ages, and whom mankind with 
 universal suffrage has proclaimed the foremost of the founders of the 
 empire in the first degree of greatness ; whom liberty herself has anointed 
 as the first citizen in the great Republic of Humanity. 
 
BENJAMIN HARVEY HILL (18234882) 
 
 A BRILLIANT LAWYER AND ORATOR 
 
 TITJHEN', in 1861, the advocates of secession grew active in their 
 If I efforts to drag Georgia out of the Union of the States, chief 
 
 ' ' among those who stood firm for the old flag, and fought seces- 
 sion boldly in the convention, as at once a wrong and a blunder, was 
 Benjamin Harvey Hill, one of the mosjb brilliant legal advocates in the 
 State. In this he was sustained by Alexander H. Stephens, the sub- 
 sequent vice-president of the Confederacy. Hill followed Stephens in 
 support of the measure after it had been carried, and spent the four 
 years of the war at Richmond, as a member of the Confederate 
 Senate. The war ended, he was among those fully ready to accept 
 the new conditions, and in 1873 entered the United States Senate as a 
 member from the reconstructed State of Georgia. 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 
 eifect 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 be 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 very 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 
 
 171 
 
172 BENJAMIN HARVEY HILL 
 
 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. Then the Northern people said — a large number of 
 the leaders and the Republican party said — that if secession was desired 
 to be accomplished, it should be accomplished in peace. Mr. Greeley 
 said that they wanted no Union pinned together by bayonets. Here is 
 the condition in which the South was placed ; they believed 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 was 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 ; and 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 ! 
 
 1 
 
LUCIUS Q. C LAMAR (18254893) 
 
 AN ELOQUENT SON OF THE SOUTH 
 
 A NATIVE of Georgia, and a lawyer of Mississippi, Lucius 
 Lamar represented the latter State in Congress during the 
 "^ exciting period from 1856 to 1860, when vehement eloquence 
 had abundant opportunity for its display. Casting his fortunes with 
 the South, he served during the war as a Confederate officer and a 
 commissioner to Russia. The war ended, for six years he was a pro- 
 fessor in the University of Mississippi, leaving it to enter the United 
 States Congress in 1872. Four years later he was elected to the Sen- 
 ate, remaining there till 1885, when he became Secretary of the 
 Interior under President Cleveland. In 1888 he was made a Justice 
 of the Supreme Court of the United States. During his term in Con- 
 gress that body had no more eloquent and effective speaker. 
 
 SUMNER AND THE SOUTH 
 
 [While maintaining that the South had committed no moral or legal wrong 
 in its attempted secession, Lamar was earnest in his desire to heal the wounds of feel- 
 ing remaining from the war. In his graceful eulogy of Charles Sumner, after the 
 death of the latter in 1874, he dealt with moving eloquence upon the need of burying 
 sectional strife and forming a union in heart as well as in hand. We append this 
 effective appeal.] 
 
 It was certainly a gracious act on the part of Charles Sumner toward 
 the South, though unhappily it jarred on the sensibilities of the people at 
 the other extreme of the Union, to propose to erase from the banners of 
 the national army the mementoes of the bloody internal struggle which 
 might be regarded as assailing the pride or wounding the sensibilities of 
 the Southern people. The proposal will never be forgotten by that 
 people so long as the name of Charles Sumner lives in the memory of 
 man. But while it touched the heart and elicited her profound gratitude, 
 
 173 
 
174 LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR 
 
 her people would not have asked of the North such an act of self-renun- 
 ciation. Conscious that they themselves were animated by devotion to 
 constitutional liberty, and that the brightest pages of history are replete 
 with evidences of the depth and sincerity of that devotion, they can but 
 cherish the recollection of the battles fought and the victories won in 
 defence of their hopeless cause ; and respecting, as all true and brave 
 men must respect, the martial spirit with which the men of the North 
 vindicated the integrity of the Union, and their devotion to the principles 
 of human freedom, they do not ask, they do not wish the North to strike 
 the mementoes of heroism and victory from either records or monuments 
 or battle-flags. They would rather that both sections should gather up 
 the glories won by each section, not envious, but proud of each other, 
 and regard them as a common heritage of American valor. L<et us hope 
 that future generations, when they remember the deeds of heroism and 
 devotion done on both sides, will speak, not of Northern prowess or 
 Southern courage, but of the heroism, courage and fortitude of the 
 Americans in a war of ideas ; a war in which each section signalized its 
 consecration to the principles, as each understood them, of American 
 liberty and of the Constitution received from their fathers. 
 
 Charles Sumner in life believed that all occasion for strife and dis- 
 trust between the North and South had passed away, and there no longer 
 remained any cause for continued estrangement between those two sec- 
 tions of our common country. Are there not many of us who believe the 
 same thing? Is not that the common sentiment, or if not, ought it not 
 to be, of the great mass of our people, North and South ? Bound to each 
 other by a common Constitution, destined to live together under a com- 
 mon Government, forming unitedly but a single member of the great 
 family of nations, shall we not now at last endeavor to grow toward each 
 other once more in heart, as we are indissolubly linked to each other in 
 fortunes ? Shall we not, while honoring the memory of this great cham- 
 pion of liberty, this feeling sympathizer with human sorrow, this earnest 
 pleader for the exercise of human tenderness and heavenly charity, lay 
 aside the concealments which serve only to perpetuate misunderstandings 
 and distrust, and frankly confess that on both sides we most earnestly 
 desire to be one — one not merely in political organization ; one not 
 merely in community of language, and literature, and traditions, and 
 country ; but more and better than all that, one also in feeling and in 
 heart ? Am I mistaken in this ? Do the concealments of which I speak 
 still cover animosities which neither time nor reflection nor the march of 
 events have yet sufi&ced to subdue? I cannot believe it. Since I have 
 been here I have scrutinized your sentiments, as expressed not merely in 
 
LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR 176 
 
 public debate, but in the abandon of personal confidence. I know~well 
 the sentiments of these my Southern friends, whose hearts are so infolded 
 that the feeling of each is the feeling of all ; and I see on both sides only 
 the seeming of a constraint which each apparently hesitates to dismiss. 
 
 The South — prostrate, exhausted, drained of her life-blood as well as 
 her material resources, yet still honorable and true — accepts the bitter 
 award of the bloody arbitrament without reservation, resolutely deter- 
 mined to abide the result with chivalrous fidelity. Yet, as if struck 
 dumb by the magnitude of her reverses, she suffers on in silence. The 
 North, exultant in her triumph and elevated by success, still cherishes, as 
 we are assured, a heart full of magnanimous emotions towards her dis- 
 armed and discomfited antagonist ; and yet, as if under some mysterious 
 spell, her words and acts are words and acts of suspicion and distrust. 
 Would that the spirit of the illustrious dead, whom we lament to-day, 
 could speak from the grave to both parties to this deplorable discord, in 
 tones which would reach each and every heart throughout this broad ter- 
 ritory. My countrymen ! know one another and you will love one 
 another. 
 
GEORGE R HOAR (1826 ) 
 
 THE ELOQUENT ADVOCATE OF ANTI-IMPERIALISM 
 
 mHE war between the United States and Spain, and the new ter- 
 ritorial acquisitions of the United States to which it led, brought 
 this country face to face with fresh governmental problems, 
 some of which were very difficult to solve. This was especially the case 
 with the Philippine acquisition, our new island group in the Pacific, 
 with its varied and restless inhabitants, many of them unmanageable 
 from a noble cause, that of the desire for independence. In this they 
 found many sympathizers in the United States, who accused the Re- 
 publican party leaders of a tendency to imperialism in their endeavor 
 to subject the Filipino insurrectionists. Prominent among these was 
 Senator George F. Hoar, who from his seat in the Senate and on the 
 lecture platform earnestly advocated the rights of the "under dog" 
 in this Asiatic fight. Hoar has long been acknowledged as a man of 
 fine statesmanship and of unimpeachable integrity, his high moral char- 
 acter giving weight to all his utterances. 
 
 THE ORDINANCE OF J 787 
 [As a good example of Senator Hoar's oratory we offer an extract from his address 
 at Marietta, Ohio, in 1888, during the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the 
 settlement of the Buckeye State, of which Marietta was the pioneer town. Many 
 readers, indeed, may ask what was the Ordinance ** that is here placed on an equality 
 with the Declaration of Independence." In answer it may be stated that this cele- 
 brated ordinance was that establishing the Northwestern Territory, — north of the Ohio 
 and east of the Mississippi, — its significant feature being the declaration that slavery 
 should be forever excluded from that Territory. It was this decree which Senator 
 Hoar had in mind when he stated that the two declarations in question ' * devote the 
 nation to Equality, Education, Religion, and Liberty."] 
 
 We are not here to celebrate an accident. What occurred here was 
 premeditated, designed, foreseen. If there be in the universe a Power 
 which ordains the course of history, we cannot fail to see in the settlement 
 176 
 
GEORGE F. HOAR 177 
 
 of Ohio an occasion when the human will was working in harmony 
 with its own. The events move onward to a dramatic completeness. 
 Rufus Putnam lived to see the little colony, for whose protection against 
 the savage he had built what he described as " the strongest fortification 
 in the United States," grow to nearly a million of people, and become 
 one of the most powerful States of the confederacy. The men who came 
 here had earned the right to the enjoyment of liberty and peace, and they 
 enjoyed the liberty and peace they had earned. The men who had helped 
 win the war of the Revolution did not leave the churches and schools of 
 New England to tread over again the thorny path from barbarism to 
 civilization ; or from despotism to self-government. When the appointed 
 time had come, and 
 
 " God uncovered the land 
 
 That He hid, of old time, in the West, 
 As the sculptor uncovers the statue 
 When he has wrought his best," — 
 
 then, and not till then, the man, also, was at hand. 
 
 It is one of the most fortunate circumstances of our history that the 
 vote in the Continental Congress was substantially unanimous. Without 
 the accompaniment of the Ordinance, the Constitution of the United States 
 itself would have lost half its value. It was fitting that the whole country 
 should share in the honor of that act which, in a later generation, was to 
 determine the fate of the whole country. 
 
 We would not forget, to-day, the brave men and noble women who 
 represented Connecticut, and Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, in the 
 band of pioneers. Among them were Parsons, and Meigs, and Varnum, 
 and Greene, and Devol, and True, and Barker, and the Gilmans. Con- 
 necticut made, a little later, her own special contribution to the settle- 
 ment of Ohio. Both Virginia and Massachusetts have the right to claim, 
 and to receive, a peculiar share of the honor which belongs to this occa- 
 sion. They may well clasp each other's hands anew, as they survey the 
 glory of their work. The two States, the two oldest of the sisterhood, 
 — the State which framed the first written Constitution, and the State 
 whose founders framed the compact on the Mayflower ; the State which 
 produced Washington, and the State which summoned him to his high 
 command ; the State whose son drafted the Declaration of Independence, 
 and the State which furnished its leading advocate on the floor ; the 
 mother of John Marshall, and the mother of the President who appointed 
 him ; the State which gave the General, and the State which furnished 
 the largest number of soldiers to the Revolution ; the State which gave 
 the territory of the Northwest, and the State which gave its first settlers, 
 12 
 
178 GEORGE F. HOAR 
 
 — may well delight to remember that they share between them the honor 
 of the authorship of the Ordinance of 1787. When the reunited country 
 shall erect its monument at Marietta, let it bear on one side the names of 
 the founders of Ohio, on the other side the names of Jefferson and Richard 
 Henry Lee, and Carrington and Grayson, side by side with those of Nathan 
 Dane and Rufus King and Manasseh Cutler, beneath the supreme name 
 of Washington. Representatives of Virginia and Massachusetts, them- 
 selves in some sense representatives of the two sections of the country 
 which so lately stood against each other in arms, they will bear witness 
 that the estrangements of four years have not obliterated the common and 
 tender memories of two centuries. 
 
 Forever honored be Marietta, as another Plymouth ! The Ordinance 
 belongs with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It 
 is one of the three title-deeds of American constitutional liberty. As the 
 American youth, for uncounted centuries, shall visit the capital of his 
 country, — strongest, richest, freest, happiest of the nations of the earth, — 
 from the stormy coast of New England, from the luxurious regions of the 
 Gulf, from the prairie and the plain, from the Golden Gate, from far 
 Alaska, — he will admire the evidences of its grandeur and the monuments 
 of its historic glory. He will find there rich libraries and vast museums, 
 which show the product of that matchless inventive genius of America 
 which has multiplied a thousand-fold the wealth and comfort of human 
 life. He will see the simple and modest portal through which the great 
 line of the Republic's chief magistrates have passed, at the call of their 
 country, to assume an honor surpassing that of emperors and kings, and 
 through which they have returned, in obedience to her laws, to take their 
 place again as equals in the ranks of their fellow-citizens. He will stand 
 by the matchless obelisk which, loftiest of human structures, is itself but 
 the imperfect type of the loftiest of human characters. He will gaze 
 upon the marble splendors of the Capitol, in whose chambers are enacted 
 the statutes under which the people of a continent dwell together in peace, 
 and the judgments are rendered which keep the forces of States and nation, 
 alike, within their appointed bounds. He will look upon the records of 
 great wars and the statues of great commanders. But, if he know his 
 country's history, and consider wisely the sources of her glory, there is 
 nothing in all these which will so stir his heart as two fading and time- 
 soiled papers whose characters were traced by the hand of the fathers one 
 hundred years ago. 
 
 They are the original records of the Acts which devoted this nation, 
 forever, to Equality, to Education, to Religion, and to Liberty. One is 
 the Declaration of Independence, the other is the Ordinance of 1787. 
 
JOHN I INGALLS (1 833-1 900) 
 
 THE FERVID UPHOLDER OF AMERICAN PRINCIPLES 
 
 lyTJEVER had our country faced a more serious and difficult prob- 
 l\| lem than that which arose before it after the close of the 
 ^ ^ Civil War, when the question of reconstruction of the subject 
 States, and their restoration to their old place in the National Union, 
 demanded a solution. For four years Congress wrestled vigorously, 
 almost desperately, with this problem, the difficulty being tenfold 
 enhanced by the deadlock which existed between the President and 
 the legislative bodies. In the country as in Congress a great diversity 
 of opinion existed, some favoring an unpledged return of the seceded 
 States, others being far more severe in their demands. Among the 
 latter was John James Ingalls of Kansas, who was so bitter in his 
 views of reconstruction, that he was denounced for " shaking the 
 bloody shirt." Yet by nature he was genial and sympathetic, charac- 
 teristics which are strongly indicated in the selection which we 
 append. A fluent orator and an able debater, he became a State 
 Senator of Kansas in 1861, and in 1873 was elected to the United 
 States Senate, in which he sat for three successive terms. From 1887 
 to 1891 he officiated as president pro tempore of the Senate. 
 
 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY 
 
 [Few eulogies in the halls of Congress have been abler and more suggestive 
 than that which Senator Ingalls pronounced upon his late associate, Benjamin H. 
 Hill, in the Senate chamber, January 25, 1883. Its opening reference to '* the undis- 
 covered country," is especially beautiful. The oration has won fame as a noble 
 example of eloquence.] 
 
 Ben Hill has gone to the undiscovered country. Whether his jour- 
 ney thither was but one step across an imperceptible frontier, or whether 
 an interminable ocean, black, unfluctuating, and voiceless, stretches 
 
 179 
 
180 JOHN J. INGALLS 
 
 between these earthly coasts and those invisible shores — we do not know. 
 
 Whether on that August morning after death he saw a more glorious 
 sun rise with unimaginable splendor above a celestial horizon, or whether 
 his apathetic and unconscious ashes still sleep in cold obstruction and 
 insensible oblivion — we do not know. 
 
 Whether his strong and subtle energies found instant exercise in 
 another form, whether his dexterous and disciplined faculties are now 
 contending in another senate than ours for supremacy, or whether his 
 powers were dissipated and dispersed with his parting breath — we do not 
 know. 
 
 These are the unsolved, the insoluble problems of mortal life and 
 human destiny, which prompted the troubled patriarch to ask that momen- 
 tous question for which the centuries have given no answer, — " If a man 
 die, shall he live again ? " 
 
 Every man is the centre of a circle whose fatal circumference he can- 
 not pass. Within its narrow confines he is potential, beyond it he 
 perishes ; and if immortality is a splendid but delusive dream, if the 
 incompleteness of every career, even the longest and most fortunate, be 
 not supplemented and perfected after its termination here, then he who 
 dreads to die should fear to live, for life is a tragedy more desolate and 
 inexplicable than death. 
 
 Of all the dead whose obsequies we have paused to solemnize in this 
 Chamber, I recall no one whose untimely fate seems so lamentable and 
 yet so rich in prophecy as that of Senator Hill. He had reached the 
 meridian of his years. He stood upon the high plateau of middle life, in 
 that serene atmosphere where temptation no longer assails, where the 
 clamorous passions no more distract, and where the conditions are most 
 favorable for noble and enduring achievement. His upward path had 
 been through stormy adversity and contention such as infrequently falls 
 to the lot of men. Though not without the tendency to meditation, 
 reverie, and introspection which accompanies genius, his temperament 
 was palestric. He was competitive and unpeaceful. He was born a pol- 
 emic and controversialist, intellectually pugnacious and combative, so 
 that he was impelled to defend any position that might be assailed or to 
 attack any position that might be intrenched, not because the defence or 
 the assault was essential, but because the positions were maintained and 
 that those who held them became by that fact alone his adversaries. This 
 tendency of his nature made his orbit erratic. He was meteoric rather 
 than planetary, and flashed with irregular splendor rather than shone with 
 steady and penetrating rays. His advocacy of any cause was fearless to 
 the verge of temerity . He appeared to be indifferent to applause or censure 
 
JOHN J. INGALLS 181 
 
 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 
 trenches, and sap and mine. His method was the charge and the onset. 
 He was the Murat of senatorial debate. Not many men of this genera- 
 tion have been better equipped for parliamentary warfare than he, with 
 his 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 succumbed, 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. 
 
ROSCOE CONKLING (J 8294 888) 
 
 GENERAL GRANT'S ELOQUENT CHAMPION 
 
 mN 1881, when President Garfield took his seat as Executive of the 
 American nation, he did so in large measure as the representa- 
 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 official positions in the gov- 
 ernment had been filled from the partisans of the ruling party, instead 
 of from those adapted by training and education properly to perform 
 the duties confided to them. Garfield made a vigorous effort to effect 
 a reform in this system, with the result of arousing an energetic resist- 
 ance in Congress, whose members had been accustomed to use the 
 offices of the nation to reward the controllers of votes. This resist- 
 ance came to a head when Roscoe Conkling and Thomas C. Piatt 
 resigned from the Senate through anger at being unable to control the 
 appointments in New York City. The lamentable result of the 
 excitement thus produced is well known, for the assassination of the 
 President by a disappointed office-seeker may fairly be ascribed to it. 
 As for Conkling, the legislature and people of New York failed to 
 support him in his recusant action, and his political career ended with 
 his retirement from the Senate in 1881. I^eJi ad been a member of 
 Congress from New York State since 1858, and of the Senate since 1867. 
 His4at©Hiffe"was passed in the practice of the Jaw^> He was an effec- 
 tive speaker both in and out of the Senate Hall. ^ 
 
 THE NOMINATION OF GRANT 
 
 [What many look upon as the most effective nomination speech ever made 
 at a party convention was that made by Roscoe Conkling in i88o before the National 
 Republican Convention, when nominating Bx-President Grant for a third term. This 
 182 
 
ROSCOE CONKLING ' 183 
 
 strenuous effort failed, through the ineradicable objection of our people tor-a ^hird 
 tenn President, yet Conkling's address will live among the telling examples of 
 American oratory. We append its most striking portions.] 
 
 When asked whence comes our candidate, we say, from Appomattox. 
 Obeying instructions I should never dare to disregard ; 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 Republican 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 *' Republican or Cossack." The need of the hour is a candidate who 
 can carry the doubtful States, North and South ; and, believing that he 
 more surely than any other can carry New York against any opponent, 
 and carry not only the North, but several States of the South, New York 
 is for Ulysses S. Grant. He alone of living Republicans has carried New 
 York as a presidential candidate. Once he carried it even 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 vain in the past, for any other on 
 whom the nation leans with such confidence 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 common 
 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 had ' ' a policy to enforce against the will of the peo- 
 ple," he never betrayed a cause or a friend, 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 imperishable star in the diadem of the Republic when those 
 
184 ROSCOE CONKLING 
 
 who have tried to tarnish it will have moldered in forgotten graves and 
 
 their memories and epitaphs have vanished utterly 
 
 There is no field of human activity, responsibility, or reason in which 
 rational beings object to Grant, because he has been weighed in the 
 balance and not found wanting, and because he has had unequalled 
 experience, making him exceptionally competent and fit. Prom 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 official 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 he is struck 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 disqualification 
 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 manufacture 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 Party, 
 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 guerrillas who from time to time deploy between the lines 
 and forage on one side or the other. 
 
SAMUEL S- COX (J 824- J 889) 
 
 AN ORATOR OF PEACE AND GOOD WILL 
 
 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX, popularly known as "Sunset Cox/' 
 was a man of duplex mind, being at once instinct with the spirit 
 — ^ of fun and capable of the deepest intensity of utterance and feel- 
 ing. Those from whose lips wit flows easily, in whose thoughts humor 
 shines like winter sunbeams, are apt to find it difficult to win a repu- 
 tation for gravity and earnestness, yet Cox, while he could at will 
 send ripples of laughter through an audience, could, when occasion 
 demanded, be as elevated in tone as any of his fellow-Congressmen. 
 He was able, alike as a speaker and a writer. His Congressional 
 career is depicted in his " Eight Years in Congress,'' and his varied 
 travels in *' The Buckeye Abroad,"'* Search for Winter Sunbeams," 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 giveu 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 
 globe. 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 the Roman world. I have been amid the Alps, where the spirit of Tell 
 
 185 
 
186 SAMUEL S. COX . 
 
 and liberty is always tempered with mercy, and whose mountains are a 
 monument through a thousand of years of Republican generosity. I have 
 been among the Sierras of Spain, where 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 
 of patriotism 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 
 monument was erected by the Thebans to celebrate their victory over the 
 I^acedsemonians, but it was regarded as a memento of civil 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 conquests and not of domestic calamities ; and that 
 Rome, with her imperial grace, believed that it was wisest to erect a 
 bridge of gold, that civil insurgents should pass back to their allegiance. 
 From the Acropolis at Athens, there is the story of the herald at the 
 Olympic games, who announced the clemency of Rome to the conquered, 
 who had long been subjected to the privations and calamities imposed by 
 the conqueror. The historian says that the Greeks, when the herald 
 announced such unexpected deliverance, wept for joy at the grace which 
 had been bestowed. 
 
 All these are but subordinate lights around the central light, which 
 came from the mountain whence the great sermon was spoken. Its name 
 is unknown ; its locality has no geography. All we know is that it was 
 "se^tjapart." 
 r ' The mountains of our Scriptures are full of inspiration for our 
 / guidance. Their teachings may well be carried into our political ethics. 
 But it was not from Ararat, which lifted its head first above the flood and 
 received the dove with its olive branch ; not from Sinai, which looks 
 proudly upon three nations and almost three countries and overlooks our 
 kind with its great moral code ; not from Horeb, where Jehovah with his 
 fearful hand covered his face that man might not look upon his bright- 
 ness ; not from Tabor, where the great transformation was enacted ; not 
 from Pisgah, where Moses made his farewell to the people he had deliv- 
 ered and led so long ; not from Carmel, where the prayer of Elijah was 
 answered in fire ; not from Lebanon, whose cedars were the beauty 
 of earth ; not from the Mount of Olives, which saw the agony of the 
 Saviour ; not from Calvary, at whose great tragedy nature shuddered and 
 the heavens were covered with gloom ; not from one or all of these secu- 
 lar or sacred mountains that our best teaching for duty comes. It comes 
 
SAMUEL S. COX 187 
 
 from that nameless mountain, set apart, because from it emanated the 
 great and benignant truths of Him who spake as never man spake, j iiefe- 
 is th e ■ feubl tnrg'tgad'ftag : 
 
 '* Ye have heard in the aforetime, that it hath been said, Thou shalt 
 love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. 
 
 " But I say unto you, I^ove your enemies, bless them that curse you, 
 do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use 
 you and persecute you. 
 
 ** That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven : 
 for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth 
 rain on the just and on the unjust. " 
 
 The spirit of this teaching has no hospitality for test oaths, and asks 
 no compensation for grace. Along with this teaching and to the same 
 good are the teachings of history, patriotism, chivalry, and even economic 
 selfishness. Yet these teachers are often blind guides to duty. They are 
 but mole-hills compared with the lofty mountain whose spiritual grandeur 
 brings peace, order and civilization ! 
 
 When these principles obtain in our hearts, then our legislation will 
 conform to them. When they do obtain their hold in these halls, there 
 will arise a brilliant day-star for America. When they do obtain recogni- 
 tion, we may hail a new advent of that Prince of Peace, whose other 
 advent was chanted by the angelic choir ! 
 
 In conclusion, sir, let me say that, in comparison with this celestial 
 code, by which we should live and die, how little seem all the contests 
 here about armies, appropriations, riders and coercion, which so exaspe- 
 rate and threaten ! Let our legislation be inspired by the lofty thought 
 from that Judean mountain, and God will care for us. In our imperfec- 
 tions here as legislators let us look aloft, and then His greatness will flow 
 around our incompleteness, and round our restlessness, His rest ! " 
 Then, measures which make for forgiveness, tranquillity and love, like 
 the abolition of hateful oaths and other reminders of our sad and bloody 
 strife, will rise in supernal dignity above the party passions of the day ; 
 and that party which vindicates right against might, freedom against 
 force, popular will against Federal power, rest against unrest, and God's 
 goodness and mercy around and above all, in that sign, conquer. 
 
 To those in our midst who have the spirit of violence, hate, and 
 unforgiveness, and who delight in pains, penalties, test oaths, bayonets 
 and force, and who would not replace these instruments of turbulence 
 with love, gentleness and forgiveness, my only curse upon such is^ that 
 God Almighty, in His abundant and infinite mercy, may forgive them, for 
 " they know not what they do." \ 
 
CARL SCHURZ (1829 ) 
 
 THE ABLE ADVOCATE OF CIVIL SERVICE REFORM 
 
 MORE than half a century has passed since the European Revo- 
 lution of 1848, which spread throughout the continent, and 
 "^ ended with the exile of many of its ablest and most progressive 
 sons. Prominent among those from Germany who sought the land of 
 liberty beyond the seas was Carl Schurz, who came to the United States 
 in 1852, finding a new home in Wisconsin. In this country he has 
 been free to express his progressive sentiments, and has been very 
 active in political labors. His career here began in 1 856, with speeches 
 in German in favor of Fremont. In 1860, having learned English, 
 he canvassed several States for the election of Lincoln, and w^on a high 
 reputation as an orator. He was rewarded by being appointed Min- 
 ister to Spain, and in 1862 he entered the army as brigadier-general, 
 and fought through two years of the w^ar. Removing to St. Louis in 
 1868, Missouri sent him to the United States Senate, and under Presi- 
 dent Hayes he served in the Cabinet as Secretary of the Interior. As 
 a public speaker Mr. Schurz is plain and direct in style, not given to 
 ornamental language, yet strong and effective. He is an able writer, 
 his "Life of Henry Clay'^ in especial being regarded as a classic of 
 its kind. He has also written a " Life of Abraham Lincoln.'^ 
 
 AMNESTY FOR THE CONQUERED 
 
 [The orations of Carl Schurz cover a wide range of time and subjects. Old as he 
 has grown to-day, he preserves his fluency as a speaker. In selecting from his many 
 speeches, however, we go back to that period after the war, when the question of 
 amnesty for the South was before Congress, and give Schurz's eloquent and humane 
 views upon this subject. The contrast which he pictures between the conditions of 
 the two sections is animated and striking, and his plea for mercy to the subjected one 
 of the most forcible that could be made.] 
 188 
 
CARL SCHURZ 189 
 
 Sir, I have to say a few words about an accusation which Eas~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 b}^ 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 ; slavery 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 may jject 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 innocent. 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 
 
190 CARL, SCHUR^ 
 
 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 put 
 upon the course 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 
 of their homes, all the distress that stares them in the face, all the wreck 
 and ruin they see around them — all for nothing, all for a wicked folly, all 
 for a disastrous infatuation ; the very graves of their slain nothing but 
 monuments of a shadowy delusion ; all their former hopes vanished for- 
 ever ; and the very magniloquence which some of their leaders are still 
 indulging in, nothing but a mocking 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. 
 
 1 
 
BENJAMIN HARRISON (I830490J) 
 
 THE EXEMPLAR OF CHRISTIAN STATESMANSHIP 
 
 I T IT may be supposed that Benjamin Harrison, twenty-third Presi- 
 I I I dent of the United States, attained this high position through 
 the fact that his grandfather, General William Henry Harri- 
 son, was President before him. Doubtless that fact had its influence 
 in suggesting his name as a suitable one for the presidency. But the 
 leading politicians of the United States are seldom carried away by 
 sentiment. They are too hard-headed for that. They seek to select 
 the man that the people 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 the 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 polished speakers 
 in public life. 
 
 INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 [President Harrison was very ready as an orator, a fact which he conclusively 
 proved during the presidential campaign, his versatility in the numerous speeches 
 made by him being 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 ofl&ce in the presence of the people, but there is so 
 
 191 
 
192 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 whose 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 combinations shall be able to evade their just penalties or to wrest 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 citizen 
 his equal 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 
 righteousness 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 
 organization of Congress and the canvass of the electoral vote. Our 
 people have already worthily observed the centennials of the Declaration 
 of Independence, of the Battle of Yorktown, and of the adoption of the 
 Constitution, and will shortly celebrate in New York the institution of 
 the second great department of our constitutional scheme of government. 
 When the centennial of the institution of the judicial department, by the 
 organization of the Supreme Court, shall have been suitably 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 
 second century of organized existence under the Constitution and that 
 weak but wisely ordered young nation that looked undauntedly down the 
 first century, when all its years stretched out before it. 
 
 Our people will not fail at this time to recall the incidents which 
 accompanied the institution of government under the Constitution, or to 
 
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. L,et 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 hurtful and evanescent, even from 
 a party standpoint. We should hold our differing opinions in mutual 
 respect, and, having 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 land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon, and so full 
 of generous 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 of 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 cattle 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. 
 
 13 
 
WILLIAM McKINLEY (18434901) 
 
 THE ELOQUENT EXPONENT OF THE AMERICAN TARIFF 
 
 mN 1865 Abraham Lincoln, forty days after his second inaugura- 
 tion as President of the United States, fell the victim of an 
 assassin's bullet. In 1881, James A. Garfield, four months after 
 his first inauguration as President, met with a similar fate. In 1901, 
 William McKinley, 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 in this way 
 more severely than any of the homes of monarchy beyond the seas. 
 In the case of McKinley there was far less incitement to the murder- 
 ous act than in those of Lincoln and Garfield, whose violent deaths 
 were due to the passions excited by war and reform. But McKinley 
 fell in 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 the end of the war. Taking afterward an 
 active part in Republican politics, he was elected to Congress, where 
 he became noted as a leading advocate of protective tariff. His efforts 
 led to the high tariff bill of 1890, which is known by his name. He 
 was subsequently Governor of Ohio, and was nominated and elected 
 194 
 
WILLIAM Mckinley 195 
 
 President of the United States in 1896, and again in 1900, the Spanish- 
 American War and the PhiHppine insurrection making his adminis- 
 tration a notably exciting one. The fatal deed which closed his career 
 took place during a visit to the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, 
 N. Y., death coming to him on September 14, 1901, a week after the 
 anarchist's deadly act. 
 
 THE AGENCIES OF MODERN PROSPERITY 
 
 [On September 5, 1901, the day before his fatal wound was received, Presi- 
 dent McKinley delivered before an assembled multitude at the Buffalo Exposition an 
 address which attracted attention throughout the nation, alike from the fact that it 
 was his final one, and that it suggested the growing need of a change in the tariff 
 policy which he had for many years upheld. In view of these facts we give here the 
 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 the 
 people, and quicken human genius. They go into the home. They 
 broaden and brighten the daily life of the people. They open mighty 
 storehouses of information to the student. Every exposition, great or 
 small, has helped to some onward step. Comparison of ideas is always 
 educational, and as such instructs the brain and hand of man. Friendly 
 rivalry follows, which is the spur to industrial improvement, the inspira- 
 tion to useful invention and to high endeavor in all departments of human 
 activity. It exacts a study of the wants, comforts, and even the whims 
 of the people, and recognizes the efficacy of high quality and new prices to 
 win their favor. 
 
 The quest for trade is an incentive to men of business to devise, invent, 
 improve and economize in the cost of production. Business life, whether 
 among ourselves, or with other people, is ever a sharp struggle for suc- 
 cess. It will be none the less so in the future. Without competition 
 we would be clinging to the clumsy and antiquated processes of farming 
 and manufacture and the methods of business of long ago, and the twen- 
 tieth would be no further advanced than the eighteenth century. But, 
 though commercial competitors we are, commercial enemies we must 
 not be 
 
 After all, how near one to the other is every part of the world. 
 Modern inventions have brought into close relation widely separated peo- 
 ples and made them better acquainted. Geographic and political divisions 
 will continue to exist, but distances have been effaced. Swift ships and 
 fast trains are becoming cosmopolitan. They invade fields which a few 
 years ago were impenetrable. The world's products are exchanged as 
 
196 WILLIAM McKINLEY 
 
 never before, and with increasing transportation facilities come increasing 
 knowledge and larger trade. Prices are fixed with mathematical precision 
 by supply and demand. The world's selling prices are regulated by 
 market and crop reports. We travel greater distances in a shorter space 
 of time, and with more ease, than was ever dreamed of by the fathers. 
 
 Isolation is no longer possible or desirable. The same important 
 news is read, though in different languages, the same day in all Christen- 
 dom. The telegraph keeps us advised of what is occurring everywhere, 
 and the press foreshadows, with more or less accuracy, the plans and pur- 
 poses of 'nations. Market prices of products and of securities are hourly 
 known in every commercial mart, and the investments of the people 
 extend beyond their own national boundaries into the remotest parts of 
 the earth. Vast transactions are conducted and international exchanges 
 are made by the tick of the cable. Every event of interest is immediately 
 bulletined. 
 
 The quick gathering and transmission of news, like rapid transit, are 
 of recent origin, and are only made possible by the genius of the inventor 
 and the courage of the investor. It took a special messenger of the Gov- 
 ernment, with every facility known at the time for rapid travel, nineteen 
 days to go from the city of Washington to New Orleans, with a message 
 to General Jackson that the war with England had ceased and a treaty of 
 peace had been signed. How different now ! . . . . 
 
 At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was not a mile of 
 steam railroad on the globe. Now there are enough miles to make its 
 circuit many times. Then there was not a line of electric telegraph ; 
 now we have a vast mileage traversing all lands and all seas. God and 
 man have linked the nations together. No nation can longer be indiffer- 
 ent to any other. And, as we are brought more and more in touch with 
 each other, the less occasion is therefor misunderstanding and the stronger 
 the disposition, when we have differences, to adjust them in the court of 
 arbitration, the noblest form for the settlement of international disputes. 
 
 My fellow-citizens, trade statistics indicate that this country is in a 
 state of unexampled prosperity. The figures are almost appalling. They 
 show that we are utilizing our fields and forests and mines, and that we 
 are furnishing profitable employment to the millions of workingmen 
 throughout the United States, bringing comfort and happiness to their 
 homes, and making it possible to lay by savings for old age and dis- 
 ability. , 
 
 That all the people are participating in this great prosperity is seen 
 in every American community, and shown by the enormous and unprece- 
 dented deposits in our savings banks. Our duty is the care and security 
 
WILLIAM McKINLEY 197 
 
 of these deposits, and their safe investment demands the highest inlegrity 
 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 has 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 developed 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 commercial 
 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. Reciprocity 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. 
 
198 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 
 coasts of Mexico and Central and South America. These should be fol- 
 lowed up with direct steamship lines between the eastern coast of the 
 United States and South American ports. 
 
 One of the needs of the times is direct commercial lines from our vast 
 fields of production to the fields of consumption that we have but barely- 
 touched. Next in advantage to having the thing to sell is to have the 
 convenience to carry it to the buyer. We must encourage our mer- 
 chant marine. We must have more ships. They must be under the 
 American flag, built and manned and owned by Americans. These will 
 not only be profitable in a commercial sense ; they will be messengers of 
 peace and amity wherever they go. 
 
 We must build the Isthmian Canal, which will unite the two oceans 
 and give a straight line of water communication with the western coasts 
 of Central and South America and Mexico. The construction of a Pacific 
 cable cannot be longer postponed 
 
 Who can tell the new thoughts that have been awakened, the ambi- 
 tions fired and the high achievements that will be wrought through this 
 Exposition ? Gentlemen, let us ever remember that our interest is in 
 accord, not conflict, and that our real eminence rests in the victories of 
 peace, not those of war. We hope that all who are represented here may 
 be moved to higher and nobler effort for their own and the world's good, 
 and that out of this city may come, not only greater commerce and trade 
 for us all, but, more essential than these, relations of mutual respect, con- 
 fidence and friendship which will deepen and endure. 
 
 Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity, 
 happiness and peace to all our neighbors, and like blessings to all the peo- 
 ples and powers of earth. 
 
ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE (J 862 ^^) 
 
 THE BRILLIANT INDIANA ORATOR 
 
 HMONG the younger men who have attained the honor of member- 
 ship in the United States Senate may be named Albert Jeremiah 
 Beveridge, whose elevation to a seat in that distinguished body 
 was a suitable reward for his brilliant oratorical powers and statesman- 
 like abilities. Like so many of our leading legislators, Mr. Beveridge 
 was essentially a self-made man. Born on an Ohio farm, he obtained 
 an education by working his way through DePauw University, for 
 which laudable purpose he took up the honorable calling of a book- 
 agent. His adopted profession was that of the law, in which he became 
 an advocate in many important cases in the courts of Indiana. While 
 still a boy, he had shown himself a ready and eloquent speaker in col- 
 lege contests, and he now employed his skill in oratory in the field of 
 Republican politics, winning so high a position in his party as to be 
 elected to the Senate from Indiana for the term beginning March, 
 1899. In the summer of 1899, Mr. Beveridge visited Eastern Asia, 
 where he made a thorough study of the relations of the Russians 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 np 
 
 199 
 
200 ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE 
 
 political home for Young Americans except in the Republican party. 
 Young Americans are believers in the Republic's future. They do not 
 think that all the great work has been done. 
 
 Last year the Superintendent of a great railway system that enters 
 Chicago — himself a penniless, friendless boy w^ho started as a freight 
 handler at 50 cents a day, and who is now only 50 years of age — told me 
 that among the 10,000 men under him he was searching for an Assistant 
 Superintendent equal to the work required. Said he: '' The question is 
 not, Shall I take Brown or Jones 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 modern society. And 
 the Republican party would have you say : * 'I am he by virtue of my good 
 right hand ! I am he by virtue of days of toil and nights of study ! " Dem- 
 ocracy would have you say in answer : **I am not he, and he does not live. 
 You ask too much You ask for equipment ; I offer you complaint. You 
 ask industry ; I offer you words." 
 
 Greater America and Republicanism ; little America and Democracy. 
 It is no new story. In the history of every expanding race, its advance 
 has been opposed within itself. In England there were and are little Bng- 
 landers who saw ruin in every forward march of the British Empire that 
 circles the world with civilization. In Russia there were little Russians 
 who resisted the instinct of expansion and held in check for half a cen- 
 tury the flight of the Russian eagles. In Germany there were little Ger- 
 mans who fought the consolidation of the German people. Where are all 
 of them now ? History has efiaced their names from the chronicles of 
 time, as nature destroys all trace of resistance to her fecund and produc- 
 tive forces. So shall it be in America, and the children's children of 
 those who now declare that imperialism is our death, and not our life, 
 will refuse to admit that their fathers advocated such a doctrine ; and 
 they will refuse successfully, because the world will have forgotten the 
 names of those who at the beginning of the twentieth century resisted 
 the Republic's world advance. 
 
 You cannot name the men who fought Jefferson's purchase of Louisi- 
 ana ; they are forgotten. You cannot name the men who declared that 
 the seizure of Texas and California was the Republic's doom ; they are 
 forgotten. You cannot name the men who declaimed against the folly of 
 taking Alaska; they are forgotten. Yet, when Jefferson's works shall 
 have grown dim, his capture for the Republic of the vast territory which 
 is now the Republic's heart will be his immortal monument. When 
 Seward's irrepressible conflict shall have become a curious phrase, his 
 
ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE 201 
 
 acquisition of Alaska will be his justification. When William McKinley's 
 
 name remains but a beautiful memory, and his internal counsels shall have 
 
 lost their interest under changing conditions, the empire of the Pacific 
 
 and the Gulf which his statesmanship gave us will lift larger and larger as 
 
 one of the few mountain peaks of permanent and world-wide American 
 
 statesmanship. 
 
 THE REPUBLIC NEVER RETREATS 
 
 [We add, from a recent speech of Senator Beveridge, an eloquent tribute of 
 praise to the great American Republic] 
 
 The Republic nevei: retreats. Why should it retreat ? The Republic 
 is the highest form of civilization, and civilization must advance. The 
 Republic's young men are the most virile and unwasted of the world, and 
 they pant for enterprise worthy of their power. The Republic's prepara- 
 tion has been the self discipline of a century, and that preparedness has 
 found its task. The Republic's opportunity is as noble as itsstength, and 
 that opportunity is here. The Republic's duty is as sacred as its oppor- 
 tunity is 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. 
 They precede 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 be 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 
 
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 England ? 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. And 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 American history have 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 be 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 
 name 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 R CHOATE (1832 — -) 
 
 THE DISTINGUISHED BEARER OF A FAMOUS NAME 
 
 JUFUS CHOATE, the greatest of American legal orators, has a 
 close rival for his fame in a second of his name, Joseph H. 
 Choate, like him a native of New England, though New York 
 City has been the scene of his triumphs at the bar. Hailing from 
 Salem, Massachusetts, for many years he played a leading part in im- 
 portant cases in the courts of New York, where his standing as a faith- 
 ful citizen made him one of the Committee of Seventy that broke up 
 the infamous Tweed Ring. His deep learning in Constitutional law 
 raised him, in 1894, to the responsible position of President of the 
 New Y'ork State Constitutional Convention, and in 1899 he was ap- 
 pointed Ambassador to England, a post which he has filled with dis- 
 tinguished ability, and graced by his fine social and oratorical quali- 
 ties. 
 
 FARRAGUT AT MOBILE 
 
 [Choate for years past has been called into service in New York, on all occasions 
 where graceful and telling oratory was desired. One of these was the unveiling of 
 the Saint-Gaudens statue of Farragut, May 25, 1S81, when he thus eloquently pictured 
 our naval hero's gallantry at Mobile.] 
 
 The battle of Mobile Bay has long since become a favorite topic of 
 history and song. Had not Farragut himself set an example for it at 
 New Orleans, this greatest of all his achievements would have been pro- 
 nounced impossible by the military world, and its perfect success brought 
 all mankind to his feet in admiration and homage. As a signal instance 
 of one man's intrepid courage and quick resolve converting disaster and 
 threatened defeat into overwhelming victory, it had no precedent since 
 Nelson at Copenhagen, defying the orders of his superior officer and 
 refusing to obey the signal to retreat, won a triumph that placed his name 
 9,niong the immortals. 
 
204 JOSEPH H. CHOATE 
 
 When Nelson's lieutenant on the Elephant pointed out to him the 
 signal to recall by the commander-in-chief, the battered hero of the Nile 
 clapped his spyglass with his only hand to his blind eye and exclaimed : 
 "I really do not see any signal. Keep mine for closer battle flying. 
 That's the way to answer such signals. Nail mine to the mast ! ' ' and so he 
 went on and won the great day. 
 
 When the Brooklyn hesitated among the fatal torpedoes in the terrible 
 jaws of Fort Morgan, at the sight of the Tecumseh exploding and sinking 
 with the brave Craven and his ill-fated hundred in her path, it was one of 
 those critical moments on which the destinies of battle hang. 
 
 Napoleon said it was always the quarters of an hour that decided the 
 fate of a battle ; but here a single minute was to win or lose the day, for 
 when the Brooklyn began to back, the whole line of Federal ships were 
 giving signs of confusion ; while they were in the very mouth of hell 
 itself, the batteries of Fort Morgan making the whole of Mobile Point a 
 living flame. It was the supreme moment of Farragut's life. If he 
 faltered all was lost. If he went on in the torpedo -strewn path of the 
 Tecumseh he might be sailing to his death. It seemed as though Nelson 
 himself were in the maintop of the Hartford. ' * What's the trouble ? ' ' was 
 shouted from the flagship to the Brooklyn, ' ' Torpedoes ! ' ' was the reply. 
 " Damn the torpedoes ! " said Farragut. " Four bells. Captain Drayton ; 
 go ahead full speed." And so he led his fleet to victory 
 
 Van Tromp sailed up and down the British Channel in sight of the 
 coast with a broom at his masthead, in token of his purpose to sweep his 
 hated rival from the seas. The greatest of English admirals, in his last 
 fight, as he was bearing down upon the enemy, hoisted on his flagship a 
 signal which bore these memorable words : " England expects every man 
 to do his duty ' ' — words which have inspired the courage of Englishmen 
 from that day to this ; but it was reserved for Farragut, as he was bearing 
 down upon the death-dealing batteries of the rebels, to hoist nothing less 
 than himself into the rigging of his flagship, as the living signal of duty 
 done, that the world might see that what England had only expected 
 America had fully realized, and that every man, from the rear-admiral 
 down, was faithful 
 
 The golden days of peace have come at last, as we hope, for many 
 generations. The great armies of the Republic have long since been dis- 
 banded. Our peerless navy, which at the close of the war might have 
 challenged the combined squadrons of the world, has almost ceased to 
 exist. But still we are safe from attack from within and from without. 
 The memory of the heroes is "the cheap defense of the nation, the nurse 
 of manly sentiments and heroic enterprises forever." Our frigates may 
 
JOSEPH H. CHOATE 205 
 
 rot in the harbor. Our ironclads may rust in their dock. Butrif-ever 
 again the flag is in peril, invincible armies will swarm upon the land, and 
 steel- clad squadrons leap forth upon the sea to maintain it. If we only 
 teach our children patriotism as the first duty and loyalty as the first 
 virtue, America will be safe in the future as in the past .... When the 
 War of the Rebellion came suddenly upon us, we had a few ancient frigates, 
 a few unseaworthy gunboats, but when it ended our proud and triumphant 
 navy counted seven hundred and sixty vessels of war, of which seventy 
 were ironclads. We can always be sure then of fleets and armies enough. 
 But shall we always have a Grant to lead the one and a Farragut to inspire 
 the other ? Will our future soldiers and sailors share, as theirs almost to 
 the last man shared, their devotion, their courage, and their faith? Yes, 
 in this one condition ; that every American child learns from his cradle, 
 as Farragut learned from his, that his first and last duty is to his country, 
 that to live for her is honor, and to die for her is glory. 
 
 OUR PILGRIM MOTHERS 
 
 [In an after-dinner speech made by Mr. Choate in 1880, before the New Eng- 
 land Society in New York, he made a happy response to the toast **Our Pilgrim 
 Mothers," of which we give the most effective and humorous passage.] 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I believe you said I should say something about the 
 Pilgrim mothers. Well, sir, it is rather late in the evening to venture 
 upon that historic subject. But, for one, I pity them. The occupants of 
 the galleries will bear me witness that even these modern Pilgrims — these 
 Pilgrims with all the modern improvements — how hard it is to put up 
 with their weaknesses, their follies, their tyrannies, their oppressions, 
 their desire of dominion and rule. But when you go back to the stern 
 horrors of the Pilgrim rule, when you contemplate the rugged character 
 of the Pilgrim fathers, why you give credence to what a witty woman of 
 Boston said — she had heard enough of the glories and virtues and suffer- 
 ings of the Pilgrim fathers ; for her part she had a world of sympathy for 
 the Pilgrim mothers, because they not only endured all that the Pilgrim 
 fathers had done, but they also had to endure the Pilgrim fathers to boot. 
 
HENRY W. GRADY (I85J4889) 
 
 THE ORATOR OF THE ^^ NEW SOUTH'' 
 
 EEW recent oratiocs have had so great an effect in the North as 
 those dehvered by Henry W. Grady, Georgia's young orator, 
 at New York, on " The New South," and at Boston, on " The 
 Future of the Negro.'' Here was a voice from the South which the 
 North was glad to hear, new light shed on two of the greatest problems 
 of the country, and a hand held out for all true patriots to grasp. 
 Unfortunately death carried off this able orator before his powers had 
 reached their prime. Born at Athens, Georgia, in 1851, Grady, on 
 reaching manhood, made journalism his profession, and in 1880 
 became editor of the Atlanta Constitution^ in whose management he 
 soon gained the reputation of being one of the ablest of American 
 editors. Though he died nine years afterward, he lived long enough 
 to win a fame that extended through all sections of the land, and his 
 speeches did much to allay prejudice and draw the North and 
 South into a closer union. 
 
 THE NEW SOUTH 
 [The address, from the closing part of which we offer a selection, was delivered 
 in 1887, at the annual banquet of the New England Club in New York. The banquets 
 of this club have often been made the occasion for speeches upon topics of national 
 importance, but none of these have attracted more attention than Grady's eloquent 
 presentation of the new conditions in the South.] 
 
 There was a South of secession and slavery — that South is dead. 
 There is a South of union and freedom — that South is living, breathing, 
 growing every hour. 
 
 I accept the term, '' The New South," as in no sense disparaging to 
 
 the Old. Dear to me is the home of my childhood and the traditions of 
 
 my people. There is a New South, not through protest against the Old, 
 
 but because of new conditions, new adjustments, and, if you please, new 
 
 206 
 
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, and 
 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 away, 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 
 
208 HENRY W. GRADY 
 
 New South presents a perfect democracy, the oligarchs leading in the 
 popular movement — a social system compact and closely knitted, less 
 splendid on the surface but stronger at the core — a hundred farms for 
 every plantation, fifty homes for every palace ; and a diversified industry 
 that meets the complex needs of this complex age. 
 
 The new South is enamored of her work. Her soul is stirred with 
 the breath of a new life. The light of a grander day is falling fair in her 
 face. She is thrilling with the consciousness of growing power and pros- 
 perity. 
 
 As she stands full-statured and equal among the people of the earth, 
 breathing the keen air and looking out upon an expanding horizon, she 
 understands that her emancipation came because in the inscrutable wis- 
 dom of God her honest purpose was crossed and her brave armies were 
 beaten. This is said in no spirit of time-serving and apology. The South 
 has nothing to take back ; nothing for which she has excuses to make. 
 In my native town of Athens is a monument that crowns its central hills — 
 a plain white shaft. Deep cut into its shining sides is a name dear to me 
 above the names of men, that of a brave and simple man who died in 
 brave and simple faith. Not for all the glories of New England, from 
 Plymouth Rock all the way, would I exchange the heritage he left me in 
 his patriot's death. But, sir, speaking from the shadow of that memory, 
 which I honor as I do nothing else on earth, I say that the cause in which 
 he suffered and for which he gave his life was adjudged by higher and 
 fuller wisdom than his or mine, and I am glad that the omniscient God 
 held the balance of battle in His almighty hand and that the American 
 Union was saved from the wreck of war. 
 
 I stand here, Mr. President, to profess no new loyalty. When General 
 Lee, whose heart was the temple of our hopes and whose arm was clothed 
 with our strength, renewed his allegiance to the' government at Appo- 
 mattox, he spoke from a heart too great to be false, and he spoke for every 
 honest man from Maryland to Texas. From that day to this, Hamilcar 
 has nowhere in the South sworn young Hannibal to hatred and vengeance 
 — but everywhere to loyalty and to love. Witness the soldier standing at 
 the base of a Confederate monument above the graves of his comrades, 
 his empty sleeve tossing in the April wind, adjuring the young men about 
 him to serve as honest and loyal citizens the government against which 
 their fathers fought. This message, delivered from that sacred presence, 
 has gone home to the hearts of my fellows ! And, sir, I declare here, if 
 physical courage be always equal to human aspirations, that they would 
 die, sir, if need be, to restore this Republic their fathers fought to dissolve ! 
 
 1 
 
 / 
 
HENRY CABOT LODGE (J850- 
 
 HISTORIAN, ORATOR AND STATESMAN 
 
 EOR many years the name of Henry Cabot Lodge has been known 
 to the American public as that of a versatile and able historian, 
 on the subjects of English and American history. Some of his 
 books are, " Land-Law of the Anglo-Saxons," " English Colonies in 
 America," " Studies in History," and " The Spanish-American War." 
 He was also the well known editor, for a number of years, of the *' North 
 American Heview," and the " International Review." He has long 
 been a prominent political orator in Massachusetts, and was elected to 
 Congress in 1887. In 1893 he was elected to the United States Senate, 
 in which he still ably represents Massachusets by oratory 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 National Convention of 1900, Senator Lodge was chosen as 
 permanent chairman, and 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 illustrative 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 darkness of a 
 just oblivion is creeping fast over the low grounds where lie forgotten the 
 14 209 
 
210 HENRY CABOT LODGE 
 
 trivial and unimportant things, the criticisms and the fault-findings, which 
 seemed so huge when we still lingered among them. Here they are, 
 these great facts : 
 
 A war of a hundred days, with many victories and no defeats, with 
 no prisoners taken from us and no advance stayed, with a triumphant out- 
 come startling in its completeness and in its world-wide meaning. Was 
 evera war more justly entered upon, more quickly fought, more fully won, 
 more thorough in its results? Cuba is free. Spain has been driven from 
 the Western Hemisphere. Fresh glory has come to our arms and crowned 
 our flag. It was the work of the American people, but the Republican 
 party was their instrument. Have we not the right to say that, here too, 
 even as in the days of Abraham Lincoln, we have fought a good fight, we 
 have kept the faith, we have finished the work ? 
 
 War, however, is ever like the sword of Alexander. It cuts the 
 knots. It is a great solvent and brings many results not to be foreseen. 
 The world forces unchained in war perform in hours the work of years of 
 quiet. Spain sued for peace. How was that peace to be made ? The 
 answer to this great question had to be given by the President of the 
 United States. We were victorious in Cuba, in Porto Rico, in the Philip- 
 pines. Should we give those islands back to Spain ? Never ! was the 
 President's reply. Would any American wish that he had answered 
 otherwise ? Should we hand them over to some other power ? Never ! 
 was again the answer. Would our pride and self-respect as a nation have 
 submitted to any other reply ? Should we turn the islands, where we had 
 destroyed all existing sovereignty, loose upon the world to be a prey to 
 domestic anarchy and the helpless spoil of some other nation ? Again the 
 inevitable negative. Again the President answered as the nation he repre- 
 sented would have him answer. He boldly took the islands ; took them 
 knowing well the burden and the responsibility ; took them from a deep 
 sfense of duty to ourselves and others, guided by a just foresight as to our 
 future in the East, and with entire faith in the ability of the American 
 people to grapple with the new task. When future conventions point to 
 the deeds by which the Republican party has made history, they will pro- 
 claim with especial pride that under a Republican Administration the 
 war of 1898 was fought, and that the peace with Spain was the work of 
 William McKinley. 
 
 So much for the past. We are proud of it, but we do not expect to live 
 upon it, for the Republican party is pre-eminently the party of action, and 
 its march is ever forward. We are not so made that we can be content to 
 retreat or to mark time. The traditions of the early days of our party are 
 sacred to us, and are hostages given to the American people that we will 
 
HENRY CABOT LODGE 211 
 
 not be unworthy of the great leaders who have gone. The deeds~of^yes- 
 terday are in their turn a proof that what we promise we perform, and 
 that the people who put faith in our declarations in 1896 were not deceived, 
 and may place the same trust in us in 1900. 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 capital 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 capital, 
 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 country 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 wages of the workingman 
 and the enterprise of the man of business free frora 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 country in 1861 , 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. 
 
JOSEPH B. FORAKER (J 846 ) 
 
 OHIO'S POPULAR ORATOR STATESMAN 
 
 mHE life of Governor Foraker has been an active and distinguished 
 one. While a mere boy he fought through the Civil War, 
 entering as private in an Ohio regiment, and leaving as brevet 
 captain. Leaving the army still a boy, he entered college, graduating 
 at Cornell in 1869. Adopting the legal profession, in two years' time 
 he raised himself to the position of Judge of the Superior Court at 
 Cincinnati. He became early known as a prominent Republican poli- 
 tician and orator, and ran four times as candidate for Governor of 
 Ohio. He was twice elected, in 1885 and 1887. In 1897 he was sent 
 to Congress as United States Senator for Ohio. In the Republican 
 National Convention of 1900, at Philadelphia, Senator Foraker, as 
 representing Ohio, McKinley's native State, renominated William 
 McKinley for the Presidency, amid a universal burst of applause. 
 
 THE UNITED STATES UNDER McKINLEY 
 
 [In nominating President McKinley for a second term, Senator Foraker took 
 occasion to depict the progress of the country during the preceding McKinley admin- 
 istration, his address full of an appreciative eloquence of which we give the follow- 
 ing illustrative example.] 
 
 From one end of the land to the other in every mind only one and the 
 same man is thought of for the honor which we are now about to confer, and 
 that man is the first choice of every other man who wishes Republican 
 success next November. 
 
 On this account it is that it is not necessary for me or any one else to 
 speak for him here or elsewhere. He has already spoken for himself, and 
 to all the world. He has a record replete with brilliant achievements, a 
 record that speaks at once both his performances and highest eulogy. It 
 comprehends both peace and war, and constitutes the most striking 
 212 
 
JOSEPH B. FORAKER 213 
 
 illustration possible of triumphant and inspiring fidelity, and success in 
 the discharge of public duty. 
 
 Four years ago the American people confided to him their highest and 
 most sacred trust. Behold, with what results. He found the industries 
 of the country paralyzed and prostrated ; he quickened them with a new 
 life that has brought to the American people a prosperity unprecedented 
 in all their history. He found the labor of this country everywhere idle ; 
 he has given it everywhere employment. He found it everywhere in des- 
 pair ; he has made it everywhere prosperous and buoyant with hope. He 
 found the mills and shops and factories and mines everywhere closed ; they 
 are now everywhere open. 
 
 And while we here deliberate, they are sending their surplus products 
 in commercial conquest to the very ends of the earth. Under his wise 
 guidance our financial standard has been firmly planted high above and 
 beyond assault, and the wild cry of sixteen to one, so full of terror and 
 long hair in 1896, has been put to everlasting sleep alongside of the lost 
 cause, and other cherished Democratic heresies in the catacombs of Ameri- 
 can politics. With a diplomacy never excelled and rarely equaled, he has 
 overcome what at times seemed to be insurmountable difficulties, and has 
 not only opened to us the door of China, but he has advanced our interests 
 in every land. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, we are not surprised by this, for we anticipated it all. 
 When we nominated him at St. Louis four years ago, we knew he was 
 wise, we knew he was brave, we knew he was patient, we knew he would 
 be faithful and devoted, and we knew that the greatest possible triumphs 
 of peace would be his ; but we then little knew that he would be called 
 upon to encounter also the trials of war. That unusual emergency came. 
 It came unexpectedly — as wars generally come. It came in spite of all 
 he could honorably do to avert it. It came to find the country unprepared 
 for it, but it found him equal to all its extraordinary requirements. 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 
 Spain from the Western 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 long 
 suffering patriots of Cuba, and complete protection, education, enlighten- 
 ment, uplifting and ultimate local self-government, and the enjoyment of 
 all the blessings of liberty to the millions of Porto Rico and the Philippines. 
 
214 JOSEPH B. FORAKER 
 
 What we have so gloriously done for ourselves we propose most gener- 
 ously to do for them. We have so declared in the platform we have 
 adopted. A fitting place it is for this party to make such a declaration. 
 Here in this magnificent City of Philadelphia, where the evidences so 
 abound 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 adopted and our Constitution formed ; 
 where Washington and Jefi'erson and Hancockand John Adams, and their 
 illustrious associates, wrought their immortal work ; here where center so 
 many historic memories that stir the blood and flush the cheek, and excite 
 the sentiments of human liberty and patriotism, is indeed a most fitting 
 place for the party of I^incoln and Grant and Garfield and Blaine, the 
 party of union and liberty for all men, to formally dedicate themselves to 
 this great duty. 
 
 We are now in the midst of its discharge. We could not turn back 
 if we would, and would not if we could. We are on trial before the 
 world, and must triumphantly meet our responsibilities, or ignominiously 
 fail in the presence of mankind. 
 
 These responsibilities speak to this convention here and now, and 
 command us that we choose to be our candidate and the next President — 
 which is one and the same thing — the best fitted man for the discharge of 
 this great duty in all the Republic. 
 
 On that point there is no difference of opinion. No man in all the 
 nation is so well qualified for this trust as the great leader under whom the 
 work has been so far conducted. He has the head, he has the heart, he 
 has the special knowledge and the special experience that qualify him 
 beyond all others. And, Mr. Chairman, he has also the stainless reputa- 
 tion and character, and has led the blameless life, that endear him to his 
 countrymen and give to him the confidence, the respect, the admiration, 
 the love and the affection of the whole American people. 
 
THOMAS B. REED (1 839-1 902) 
 
 THE FAMOUS ''SPEAKERS' AND DEBATER 
 
 mN January, 1890, Congress was treated to a decidedly new sensa- 
 tion. It had long been the custom to block important busi- 
 ness by declaring no quorum, opposing members declining to 
 vote and only those who voted being counted as present. It needed 
 a man of strength and decision to combat this time-honored evil, and 
 Thomas Brackett Reed, the Speaker of the House, proved the man for 
 the occasion. On a bill before the House the Democrats refused to 
 vote on roll call, but Speaker Reed solved the difficulty by counting- 
 enough of them as " present but not voting " to constitute a quorum. 
 The uproar was tremendous, the Democratic members hotly protesting 
 and declaring the proceeding unconstitutional, but Reed held coolly to 
 his point, and his revolutionary action was sustained by the Supreme 
 Court and became an established rule of the House. One result was 
 that Reed obtained the title of the ''Czar" of the House. Four years 
 later, when a Democratic House found itself in a similar dilemma, it 
 escaped by adopting Speal^er Reed's rule. 
 
 Reed, a native of Portland, Maine, early made himself highly 
 popular by his eloquence as a public speaker, and the logic, sarcasm 
 and humor of his speeches. No man was his superior in repartee, 
 and as a debater he was unsurpassed. He served in the House of Rep- 
 resentatives for over twenty years, being elected Speaker in 1889, and 
 again in 1895 and 1897. In 1896 he was the choice of New England 
 for the Presidency, but on the nomination of McKinley he supported 
 him by some of the ablest speeches of the campaign. He resigned from 
 Congress in 1899 to enter upon the practice of the law in New York 
 City. Henry Hall has said of him : " He is in many respects the 
 greatest all-around man in the United States to-day, of saintless record 
 
 215 
 
216 THOMAS B. REED 
 
 and unimpeachable integrity, bold but safe, brilliant but wise, master- 
 ful but heeding counsel, and a fighter without fear." 
 
 GIFTS TO LIBERAL INSTITUTIONS 
 
 [As an example of Thomas B. Reed at his best in oratory we cannot do better 
 than to offer a selection from his address in 1898, on the semi-centennial of Girard 
 College, Philadelphia. Reed's method did not usually reach this elevation in senti- 
 ment and breadth of view, being rather controversial than dignified, and we therefore 
 present this as showing the heights of thought and lucidity of expression of which he 
 was capable.] 
 
 Six hundred and fifty or seventy years ago, England, which, during 
 the following period of nearly seven centuries, has been the richest nation 
 on the face of the globe, began to establish the two universities which, 
 from the banks of the Cam and the Isis, have sent forth great scholars and 
 priests and statesmen, whose fame is the history of their own country, 
 and whose deeds have been part of the history of every land and sea. 
 During all that long period, reaching back two hundred and fifty years, 
 before it was even dreamed that this great hemisphere existed ; before the 
 world knew that it was swinging in the air and rolling about the sun ; 
 kings and cardinals, nobles and great churchmen, the learned and the 
 pious, began bestowing upon those abodes of scholars their gifts of land 
 and money ; and they have continued their benefactions down to our 
 time. What those universities, with all their colleges and halls teeming 
 with scholars for six hundred years, have done for the progress of civiliza- 
 tion and the good of men, this whole evening could not begin to tell. 
 Even your imaginations cannot, at this moment, create the surprising 
 picture. Nevertheless, the institution at which most of you are, or have 
 been, pupils is at the beginning of a career with which those great univer- 
 sities and their great history may struggle in vain for the palm of the 
 greatest usefulness to the race of man. One single fact will make it evi- 
 dent that this possibility is not the creation of imagination or the product 
 of that boastfulness which America will some day feel herself too great to 
 cherish, but a simple and plain possibility which has the sanction of 
 mathematics, as well as of hope. 
 
 Although more than six centuries of regal, princely, and pious 
 donations have been poured into the purses of those venerable aids to 
 learning, the munificence of one American citizen to-day afibrds au 
 endowment income equal to that of each university, and, when the full 
 century has completed his work, will afibrd an income superior to .the 
 income of both. When Time has done his perfect work, Stephen Girard, 
 mariner and merchant, may be found to have come nearer immortality 
 
THOMAS B. REED 217 
 
 than the long procession of kings and cardinals, nobles and statesmen, 
 whose power was mighty in their own days, but who are only on their 
 way to oblivion. I am well aware that this college of orphans, wherein 
 the wisdom of the founder requires facts and things to be taught rather 
 than words and signs, can as yet make no claim to that higher learning so 
 essential to the ultimate progress of the world ; but it has its own mission 
 as great and as high, and one which connects itself more nearly with the 
 practical elevation of mankind. 
 
 Whether the overruling Providence, of which we talk so much and 
 know so little, has each of us in His kindly care and keeping, we shall 
 better know when our minds have the broader scope which immortality 
 will make possible. But, however men may dispute over individual care, 
 His care over the race as a whole fills all the pages of human history. 
 Unity and progress are the watchwords of the Divine guidance, and no 
 matter how harsh has been the treatment by one man of thousands of 
 men, every great event, or series of events, has been for the good of the 
 race. Were this the proper time, I could show that wars — and wars 
 ought to be banished forever from the face of the earth ; that pestilences 
 — and the time is coming when they will be no more ; that persecutions 
 and inquisitions — and liberty of thought is the richest pearl of life ; that 
 all these things — wars,' pestilences, ajid persecutions — were but helps to 
 the unity of mankind. All things,' including our own natures, bind us 
 together for deep and unrelenting purposes. 
 
 Think what we should be, who are unlearned and brutish, if the 
 wise, the learned, and the good could separate themselves from us ; were 
 free from our superstitions and vague and foolish fears, and stood loftily 
 by themselves, wrapped in their own superior wisdom. Therefore hath it 
 been wisely ordained that no set of creatures of our race shall be beyond 
 the reach of their helping hand, so lofty that they will not fear our 
 reproaches, or so mighty as to be beyond our reach. If the lofty and the 
 learned do not lift us up, we drag them down. But unity is not the only 
 watchword ; there must be progress also. Since, by a law we cannot 
 evade, we are to keep together, and since we are to progress, we must do 
 it together, and nobody must be left behind. This is not a matter of 
 philosophy ; it is a matter of fact. No progress which did not lift all, 
 ever lifted any. If we let the poison of filthy diseases percolate through 
 the hovels of the poor, death knocks at the palace gates. If we leave to 
 the greater horror of ignorance any portion of our race, the consequences 
 of ignorance strike us all, and there is no escape. We must all move, 
 but we must all keep together. It is only when the rearguard comes up 
 that the vanguard can go on. 
 
M^ 
 
 WILLIAM J. BRYAN (I860 —) 
 
 THE KNIGHT OF FREE SILVER 
 
 IN the Democratic National Convention at Chicago in 1896, one 
 of the most remarkable events in the history of Conventions 
 ■^ took place. A young reformer, hardly known in the party, 
 not known at all to the country, rose before the delegates, and in a 
 speech of the most stirring eloquence so carried them from their feet 
 that they lost sight of the claims of all the old and seasoned leaders 
 of the party, and chose this orator of thirty-six as their standard- 
 bearer in the coming campaign. Free silver was a prominent plank 
 in their platform, and free silver was the informing spirit of his oration. 
 It was its closing words that took the convention captive and made 
 William Jennings Bryan the inevitable candidate of the party. 
 
 During the month that followed its delivery this speech was 
 perhaps more widely read and debated than any other ever made in 
 the United States. Who is this new candidate for the greatest place 
 in the gift of the nation? was asked. The answer was that he was a 
 native of Illinois, born in 1860, who graduated at Illinois College in 
 1881, studied law in Chicago, and had since practiced in Illinois and 
 Nebraska. He was a member of Congress from 1891 to 1895, was a 
 Democratic nominee for the Senate in 1894, and was the author of the 
 " Silver plank" in the Democratic platform. 
 
 The People's party nominated him on the same basis, but he was 
 decisively defeated in the election, the indication being that free silver 
 was not w^anted by the majority of the people. In the war of 1898, 
 Bryan raised the Third Nebraska Regiment and became its colonel. 
 In 1900 he again received the nomination of the Democratic and 
 People's parties, and was once more pitted against his old antagonist, 
 William McKinley. As before, Bryan '^stumped" the country, 
 218 
 
WILLIAM J. BRYAN 219 
 
 making a large number of effective speeches, in which the principles 
 and practices of the party in power were severely scored. But his 
 labors proved of no avail, he was defeated by a greater number of 
 electoral votes than before, and once more retired to private life. 
 
 THE CROSS OF GOLD 
 
 [" Free Silver," we have said, was the Democratic and Populist battle-cry in 
 1896, The platform read : " We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both silver 
 and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to i, without waiting for the aid and consent 
 of any other nation." This declaration of financial principles, penned by Bryan, was 
 in direct opposition to the Republican financial plank, which stated: "We are 
 opposed to the free coinage of silver, except by international agreement." Such was 
 the issue upon which the campaign was fought. The speech with which Bryan 
 defended his side of the argument was an acknowledged masterpiece. The burning 
 eloquence, earnestness, zeal and magnetic power of the orator were irresistible. 
 When the closing words were spoken the great audience rose as one man, and he was 
 borne from the stage in a burst of the wildest enthusiasm. His plank in the platform 
 was adopted by a large majority, and carried with it his nomination for the Presi- 
 dency.] 
 
 And now, my friends, let me come to the paramount issue. If they 
 ask us why it is that we say more on the money question than we say 
 upon the tarijGf question, I reply that, if protection has slain its thousands, 
 the gold standard has slain its tens of thousands. If they ask us why we 
 do not embody in our platform all the things that we believe in, we reply 
 that when we have restored the money of the Constitution all other neces- 
 sary reforms will be possible ; but that until this is done there is no other 
 reform that can be accomplished. 
 
 Here is the line of battle, and we care not upon which issue they 
 force the fight ; we are prepared to meet them on either issue or on both. 
 If they tell us that the gold standard is the standard of civilization, we 
 reply to them that this, the most enlightened of all the nations of the 
 earth, has never declared for a gold standard and that both the great par- 
 ties this year are declaring against it. If the gold standard is the standard 
 of civilization, why, my friends, should we not have it ? If they come to 
 meet us on that issue we can present the history of our nation. More 
 than that ; we can tell them that they will search the pages of history in 
 vain to find a single instance where the common people of any land have 
 ever declared themselves in favor of the gold standard. They can find 
 where the holders of fixed investments have declared for a gold standard, 
 but not where the masses have. 
 
 Mr. Carlisle said, in 1878, that this was a struggle between " the idle 
 holders of idle capital ' ' and ' ' the struggling masses who produce the 
 
220 WILLIAM J. BRYAN 
 
 wealth and pay the taxes of the country; " and, my friends, the ques- 
 tion we are to decide is : Upon which side will the Democratic party 
 fight ; upon the side of ' ' the idle holders of idle capital ' ' or upon the 
 side of * * the struggling masses ? ' ' That is the question which the party 
 must answer first, and then it must be answered by each individual here- 
 after. The sympathies of the Democratic party, as shown by the platform, 
 are on the side of the struggling masses who have ever been the founda- 
 tion of the Democratic party. There are two ideas of government. 
 There are those who believe that, if you will only legislate to make the 
 well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below. 
 The Democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the 
 masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way through every class 
 which rests upon them. 
 
 You come to us, and tell us, that the great cities are in favor of 
 the gold standard ; we reply that the great cities rest upon our broad and 
 fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your 
 cities will spring up again as if by magic ; but destroy our farms and the 
 grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country. 
 
 My friends, we declare that this nation is able to legislate for its own 
 people on every question, without waiting for the aid or consent of any 
 other nation on earth ; and upon that issue we expect to carry every State 
 in the Union. I shall not slander the inhabitants of the fair State of 
 Massachusetts, nor the inhabitants of the State of New York, by saying 
 that, when they are confronted with the proposition, they still declare 
 that this nation is not able to attend to its own business. It is the issue 
 of 1776 over again. Our ancestors, when but three millions in number, 
 had the courage to declare their political independence of every other 
 nation ; shall we, their descendants, when we have grown to seventy 
 millions, declare that we are less independent than our forefathers ? No, 
 my friends, that will never be the verdict of our people. Therefore, we 
 care not upon what lines the battle is fought. If they say bimetallism is 
 good, but that we cannot have it until other nations help us, we reply 
 that, instead of having a gold standard because England has, we will 
 restore bimetallism, and then let England have bimetallism because the 
 United States has it. If they dare to come out in the open field and 
 defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the utter- 
 most. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and of the 
 world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests, and 
 the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard 
 by saying to them : You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this 
 crown of thorns ; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. 
 

 THEODORE ROOSEVELT (1858^) 
 
 FORCEFUL ADVOCATE OF THE STRENUOUS LIFE 
 
 HUNTER, Rancher, Cabinet Official, Rough Rider, Governor, 
 Vice-President and President — such is the record of Theo- 
 — ^ dore Rooseyelt's life within the past two decades. Nor is this 
 the whole story. He has been a New York legislator, a candidate for 
 Mayor of New York City, a Civil Service Commissioner, and the head 
 of the New York Police Board. This is a remarkable record for any 
 man within so brief a period ; but it is the record of a remarkable 
 man, of an American in whom the principle of '' Americanism " has 
 reached an extraordinary development. Sleepless energy is the 
 Roosevelt characteristic. With him rest fills only the chinks of life ; 
 while there is anything to be done he is up 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 commissioner in the slums of New York, or President 
 of the United States, his innate characteristic of strenuous 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 physical 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 expediency which have 
 too often marked the careers of many leaders of public opinion in 
 America and other countries. The true spirit of the Western civiliza- 
 tion has one of its fullest exemplars in Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 221 
 
222 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 There is much that is remarkable in the recent story of Roosevelt's 
 life. We find him, when the Spanish-American war broke out, resign- 
 ing his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy to take part, as leader 
 of the Hough Riders, in the Santiago campaign. The reputation for 
 unflinching courage and daring made there won him the governor- 
 ship of New York. Breaking here through all the harness of ring 
 methods, he was nominated and elected Vice-President to get rid of 
 him, to " shelve'' him in the Senate chamber. Destiny favored him ; 
 President McKinley was slain and he succeeded to the Presidential 
 office. In this elevated position he pledged himself to carry out the 
 policy of the McKinley administration. This he has faithfully sought 
 . to do, but at the same time has developed a decided n^w policy of his 
 own, one in which party interests have no share, the best good of the 
 whole country being seemingly his overruling thought. Of all the 
 Presidents Theodore Roosevelt promises to be the hardest to control 
 by the leaders of his party. Fortunately he is controlled by integrity, 
 earnestness and public virtue in its highest sense. 
 
 THE STRENUOUS LIFE 
 « [lu addition to his activity as an official, Theodore Roosevelt has developed 
 into an orator of striking readiness and ability. He has no hesitation in expressing 
 himself openly on all the subjects in which the people of the country are interested, 
 and all he says has in it the pith of thought and judgment. His ideal of administra- 
 tion is not of the silent sort. He does not hesitate to take the nation into his confi- 
 dence. As for his principle of action, it is clearly defined in his work on "The 
 Strenuous Life," a book which has aroused the widest interest, alike on account of 
 its source and its subject. In his address at the Appomattox Day celebration of the 
 Hamilton Club, of Chicago, April lo, 1899, he expressed himself to the same effect. 
 We give the more significant portion of these suggestive remarks.] 
 
 Gentlemen : In speaking to you, men of the greatest city of the 
 West, men of the State which gave to the country Lincoln and Grant, men 
 ^^ who pre-eminently aijd distinctly embody all that is most American in the 
 American character;! wish to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease but 
 \^ the doctrine of the strenuous life ; the life of toil and effort ; of labor and 
 strife ; to preach that highest form of success which comes not to the 
 man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink 
 from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these 
 wins the splendid ultimate triumph. 
 
 A life of ignoble ease, a life of that peace which springs merely from 
 lack either of desire or of power to strive after great things, is as little 
 worthy of a nation as of an individual. I ask only that what every 
 
 ^ 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 223 
 
 self-respecting American demands from himself, airid from his sons, shall be 
 demanded of the American nation as a wholef,/ Who among you would 
 teach your boys that ease, that peace, is to be the first consideration in 
 your eyes ; to be the ultimate goal after which they should strive ? You 
 men of Chicago have made this city great ; you men of Illinois have done 
 your share, and more than your share, in making America great ; because 
 you neither preach nor practice such a doctrine. You work yourselves, 
 and you bring up your sons to work. If you are rich, and are v^orth 
 your sale, you will teach your sons that, though they may have leisure, it 
 is not to be spent in idleness ; for wisely used leisure merely means that 
 those who possess it, being free from the necessit^r of working for their 
 livelihood, are all the more bound to carry on some kind of non-remunera- 
 tive work in science, in letters, in art, in exploration, in historical 
 research — work of the type we most need in this country, the successful 
 carrying out of which reflects most upon the nation. 
 
 We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who 
 embodies victorious effort ; the man who never wrongs his neighbor ; who 
 is prompt to help a friend, but who has those virile qualities necessary to 
 win in the stern strife of actual life. It is hard to fail ; but it is worse 
 never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort. 
 Freedom from effort in the present, merely means that there has beerk 
 stored-up effort in the past. A man can be freed from the necessity of 
 work only^by the fact that he or his fathers before him have worked to 
 good purpose. If the freedom thus purchased is used aright, and the 
 man still does actual work, though of a different kind; whether as a 
 writer or a general ; whether in the field of politics or in the field of 
 exploration and adventure ; he shows that he deserves his good fortune. 
 But if he treats this period of freedom from the need of actual labor as a 
 period not of preparation but of mere enjoyment, he shows that he is sim- 
 ply a cumberer of the earth's surface ; and he surely unfits himself to hold 
 his own with his fellows if the need to do so should again arise. A mere 
 life of ease is not in the end a satisfactory life, and above all it is a life 
 which ultimately unfits those who follow it for serious work in the world. 
 
 As it is with the individual, so it is with the nation. It is a base un- 
 truth to say that happy is the nation that has no history. Thrice happy 
 is the nation that has' a glorious history. Far better it is to dare mighty 
 things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than 
 to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer 
 much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory 
 nor defeaLJ If in 1861 the men who loved the Union had believed that 
 peace was the end of all things and war and strife the worst of all things, and 
 
224 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 had acted up to their belief, we would have saved hundreds of thousands 
 / of lives ; we would have saved hundreds of millions of dollars. More- 
 ; over, besides saving all the blood and treasure we then lavished, we 
 would have prevented the heart-break of many women, the desolation of 
 many homes ; and we would have spared the country those months of 
 gloom and shame when it seemed as if our armies marched only to defeat. 
 We could have avoided all this suffering simply by shrinking from strife. 
 And if we had thus avoided it we would have shown that we were weak- 
 lings and that we were unfit to stand among the great nations of the 
 j earthjf Thank God for the iron in the blood of our fathers, the men who 
 upheld the wisdom of Lincoln and bore sword or rifle in the armies of 
 Grant ! Let us, the children of the men who proved themselves equal to 
 the mighty days; let us, the children of the men who carried the great 
 Civil War to a triumphant conclusion ; praise the God of our fathers that 
 the ignoble counsels of peace were rejected, that the suffering and loss, the 
 blackness of sorrow and despair, were unflinchingly faced and the years 
 of strife endured ; for in the end the slave was freed, the Union restored, 
 and the mighty American Republic placed once more as a helmeted queen 
 among the nations. 
 
 We of this generation do not have to face a task such as that our 
 fathers fe^ed, but we have our tasks, and woe to us if we fail to perform 
 them U We cannot, if we would, play the part of China, and be content 
 to rot by inches in ignoble ease within our borders, taking no interest in 
 I what goes on beyond them ; sunk in a scrambling commercialism ; heed- 
 less of the higher life, the life of aspiration, toil and risk ; busying our- 
 selves only with the wants of our bodies for the day ; until suddenly we 
 j should find, beyond a shadow of question, what China has already found, 
 1 that in this world the nation that has trained itself to a career of unwar- 
 like and isolated ease is bound in the end to go down before other nations 
 which have not lost the manly and adventurous qualities ._j If we are to 
 be a really great people, we must strive in good faith to play a great part 
 in the world. We cannot avoid meeting great issues. All that we can 
 determine for ourselves is whether we shall meet them well or ill. 
 
 NATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL PEACE 
 
 [New York is the greatest port of entry for the United States. The Chamber of 
 Commerce of New York — an association of the merchants who have given that city its 
 commercial prominence — is a body whose influence is felt in the industrial relations of 
 the entire people. On the nth of November, 1902, this association dedicated to its 
 purposes a new and splendid edifice, the ceremony being witnessed by high dignitaries 
 of the nation and representatives of foreign governments. Chief among the partici- 
 pants was the President of the United States, and his remarks on that occasion were so 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 225 
 
 significant of his attitude towards nations abroad and his people at home, that we~take 
 pleasure in quoting from them. They bear the same characteristics of earnestness 
 and fairness that are found in all his utterances.] 
 
 
 This body stands for the triumphs of peace both abroad and at home. 
 We have passed that stage of national development when depreciation of 
 other peoples is felt as a tribute to our own. We watch the growth and 
 prosperity of other nations, not with hatred or jealousy, but with sincere 
 and friendly good will. I think I can say safely that we have shown by 
 our attitude toward Cuba, by our attitude toward China, that as regards 
 weaker powers our desire is that they may be able to stand alone, and that 
 if they will only show themselves willing to deal honestly and fairly with 
 the rest of mankind we on our side will do all we can to help, not to hin- 
 der them. With the great powers of the world we desire no rivalry that 
 is not honorable to both parties. We wish them well. We believe that 
 the trend of the modern spirit is ever stronger toward peace, not^war; 
 toward friendship, not hostility ; as the normal international attitude.] We 
 are glad, indeed, that we are on good terms with all the other peoples of 
 mankind, and no effort on our part shall be spared to secure a continuance 
 lof. these relations. And remember, gentlemen, that we shall be a potent 
 factor for peace largely in proportion to the way in which we make it evi- 
 dent that our attitude is due, not to weakness, not to inability to defend 
 ourselves, but to a genuine repugnance to wrongdoing, a genuine desire 
 for self-respecting friendship with our neighbors. The voice of the weak- 
 ling or the craven counts for nothing when he. clamors for peace ; but the 
 voice of the just man armed is potent. fWe need to keep In a condition 
 of preparedness, especially as regards our navy, not because we want war ; 
 but because we desire to stand with those whose plea for peace is listened 
 __to with respectful attention. 
 
 Important though it is that we should have peace abroad, it is even 
 more important that we should have peace at home.^jl You, men of the 
 Chamber of Commerce, to whose efforts we owe so much of our industrial 
 well being, can, and I believe surely will, be influential in helping toward 
 that industrial peace which can obtain in society only when in their various 
 relations employer and employed alike show not merely insistence each 
 upon his own rights, but also regard for the rights of others, an d a full 
 acknowledgment of the interests of the third party — the public. Pit is no 
 easy matter to work out a system or rule of conduct, whether with or 
 without the help of the lawgiver, which shall minimize that jarring and 
 clashing of interests in the industrial world which causes so much indi- 
 vidual irritation and suffering at the present day, and which at times 
 threatens baleful consequences to large portions of the body politic. But 
 16 
 
226 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 fnthe importance of the problem cannot be overestimated, and it deserves to 
 ( receive the careful thought of all m,en such as those whom I am address- 
 ing to-night. There should be no yielding to wrong ; but there should 
 most certainly be not only desire to do right, but a willingness each to try 
 to understand the viewpoint of his fellow, with whom, for weal or for woe, 
 his own fortunes are indissolubly bound. 
 
 No patent remedy can be devised for the solution of these grave pro-, 
 blems in the industrial world, but we may rest assured that they can be 
 solved at all only if we bring to the solution certain old time virtues, and 
 if we strive to keep out of the solution some of the most familiar and 
 most undesirable of the traits to which mankind has owed untold degra- 
 dation and suffering throughout the ages. Arrogance, suspicion, brutal 
 envy of the well to do, brutal indifference toward those who are not well 
 to do, the hard refusal to consider the rights of others, the foolish refusal 
 to consider the limits of beneficent action, the base appeal to the spirit 
 of selfish greed, whether it take the form of plunder of the fortunate or 
 of oppression of the unfortunate — from these and from all kindred vices 
 this nation must be kept free if it is to remain in its present position in 
 the forefront of the peoples of mankind .\ On the other hand, good will 
 come even out of the present evilsr if w e' face them armed with the old 
 homely virtues ; if we show that we are fearless of soul, cool of head 
 and kindly of heart ; if, without betraying the weakness that cringes 
 before wrong-doing, we yet show by deeds and words our knowledge 
 that in such a government as ours each of us must be in very truth his 
 
 brother's keeper 
 
 r The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he 
 snail be able and willing to pull his weight — that he shall not be a mere 
 passenger, but shall do his share in the work that each generation of us 
 finds ready to hand ; and, furthermore, that in doing his work he shall 
 show not only the capacity for sturdy self-help, but also self-respecting 
 regard for the rights of others^ I 
 
BOOK V^ 
 
 The Distinguished Orators of Canada 
 
 THE finer examples of oratory In the American 
 countries have been confined to those inhab- 
 ited by EngHsh-speaking peoples. No citizen 
 of the Spanish-American republics seems to have 
 won a world-wide reputation in this art. Though 
 many of them may have breathed *' words that burn," 
 their thoughts have not flamed high enough to be 
 visible afar. In our selections, therefore, we are 
 confined 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 same may be said 
 of the latter. The history of the Dominion, indeed, 
 has been wrought out with no such mighty conflicts 
 as that of the slavery question, leading to civil war ; 
 but it has not passed without its conflicts, internal 
 and external ; its strenuous struggles, which were 
 none the less vital from being confined to parliamen- 
 tary halls, were fought out by able statesmen and 
 orators instead of by the heroes of the 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 influences. Fortunately, the voice of 
 the orator, the wise counsel of the statesman, have 
 healed 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 
 
JOSEPH HOWE (1 804- J 873) 
 
 THE BRILLIANT ORATOR OF NOVA SCX)TIA 
 
 EOR many years the maritime province of Nova Scotia was the 
 abiding place of an orator of striking ability and power. Of 
 Joseph Howe it is justly said, ^' None 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 
 equal in these respects." His powers were most effectively shown in 
 the merciless invective with which he assailed Sir Colin Campbell 
 and Lord Falkland, two Governors of arbitrary methods — fairly driv- 
 ing them from the province. In 1863, after long legislative service, 
 Howe was made Premier of Nova Scotia. In the subsequent Dominion 
 confederation he led a movement of secession on the part of Nova 
 Scotia, whose people claimed that they had been carried 'into the 
 Union by a trick and had been given no opportunity 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 Lieutenant-Governor of 
 Nova Scotia. 
 
 CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES 
 
 [As a favorable example of Howe's oratorical powers — not of the sarcasm and 
 invective in which he excelled — we append the following eloquent extract, in which 
 is clearly 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 
 
JOSEPH JEFFERSON ACTOR AND ORATOR 
 
 Winkle." from Washington Irving's GreatSto^y. ^^ ^^" 
 
JOSEPH HOWE 229 
 
 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 
 and 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 common interest. 
 
 On this side of the sea we have been largely reinforced both by the 
 Germans and French ; there is strength in both elements. The Germans 
 gave to us the sovereigns who established our freedom, and they give to 
 you industry, intelligence and thrift ; and the French, who have distin- 
 guished themselves 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. ' ' 
 
SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD (J8J5-I89I) 
 
 THE *' PERPETUAL PREMIERS' OF THE DOMINION 
 
 NO other man has played so great a part in Canada as Sir John 
 Alexander Macdonald, in a measure before and notably since 
 -^ the confederation of its provinces. It was the leading pur- 
 pose of his life to found on the vast Canadian domain a mighty and 
 powerful state, by the union of its peoples and provinces, and this 
 union he succeeded in accomplishing. From 1844 to the end of his 
 career he was the most conspicuous figure in the Canadian Assembly 
 and the Dominion Parliament. The united Canada of to-day is very 
 largely the fruit of his labors. The first government for the new 
 Dominion was formed by him in 1867, and from that time until his 
 death, with only a five years' intermission, he retained the 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 \vorld, and which has aided w^onderfully 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 Macdonald had to fight his 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 Iscariot 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 
 
SIR JOHN MACDONALD 231 
 
 I shall now move the first reading of this bill, and I shall simply sum 
 up my remarks by sajdng 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 calmly 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 his speech to the Young 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 
 impregnable 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. 
 
232 SIR JOHN MACDONALD 
 
 I hope to live to see the day, and if I do not that my son may be 
 spared to see Canada the right arm of England, to see Canada a powerful 
 auxiliary to the empire, — not as now a cause of anxiety and a source of 
 danger. And I think that if we are worthy to hold that position as 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 difl&culties 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 can 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 (J8t84880) 
 
 JOURNALIST, STATESMAN AND DIPLOMAT 
 
 DIKE many of the Canadian leaders, George Brown was born on 
 the island of Great Britain, Edinburgh being his natal home. 
 He became a journalist in New York in 1838, and from there 
 drifted to Canada, where, in 1844, he founded the Toronto Globe. 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 began in the Parliament of Upper Canada, of which 
 for a short time in 1857 he was the premier. In 1873 he was elected 
 to the Dominion Senate, and in the following year served at Wash- 
 ington as a plenipotentiary from Canada. Politically he was one of 
 the principal leaders of the Reform or Liberal party, whose principles 
 he advocated with voice and pen. 
 
 THE GREATNESS AND DESTINY OF CANADA 
 
 [Hopkins's ** Story of the Dominion " in speaking of the conference of the 
 "Fathers of Confederation " at Quebec, in 1864, tells us that " George Brown, the 
 energetic, forceful personality, the honest lover of his country, the bitter antagonist 
 of French or Catholic supremacy in its affairs, was present with 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 monument to the 
 generosity of British rule ? And it is not in Canada alone that this scene 
 
 233 
 
234 GEORGE BROWN 
 
 has been 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 best discharge the great duty entrusted to their 
 hands, and give their aid in developing the teeming resources of these 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 noble river that almost cuts our continent in 
 twain, is equal in extent to the Kingdom of Portugal. Cross the straits 
 to the mainland, 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 British Columbia, the land of golden 
 promise — equal in ektent 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 the British American Confederation. 
 Well, sir, the bold scheme in your hands is nothing less than to gather all 
 these countries into one ; to organize them under one government, with 
 the protection of the British flag, and in heartiest sympathy 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 admirably adapted 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 was not a third of what ours has 
 already reached, I think they will see that the fulfilment of our hopes may 
 
GEORGE BROWN 235 
 
 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. Heave 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. 
 
NICHOLAS FLOOD DAVIN (J 8434 90 J) 
 
 EDITOR, AUTHOR AND ORATOR 
 
 elCHOLAS F. DAVIN, connected in his later years with the 
 journalism of Assiniboia, owed his birth to Ireland, while his 
 early career, as a lawyer and journalist, was spent in London. 
 During the Franco-German War he served as war correspondent for 
 the Irish Times and the London Standard. Seeking Canada, he was 
 called to the Ontario bar in 1874, and later to that of the Northwest 
 province, being created Queen's Counsel by the Earl of Derby in 
 1890. In 1893, he established at Regina the Leader, the pioneer 
 newspaper of Assiniboia. His powers as an orator made him promi- 
 nent in political life, and from 1887 to 1890 he represented Assini- 
 boia in the Dominion House of Commons, being noted as one of the 
 most scholarly men in that body. 
 
 THE BRITISH COLONIAL EMPIRE 
 [In 1897, 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 ttere 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 Empire'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 calling itself a lion 
 of the air ; and, as we know from a hundred battlefields, 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 
 236 
 
 I 
 

 I||:holA5 flood myinI 
 
 5IRJ0HNAMACD0NALD 
 
 SIR WILFRID LAUl 
 
 DISTINGUISHED CANADIAN ORATORS 
 
 These are representative orators of the igth and 20th Centuries, 
 V distinguished both for Parliamentary debates and popular dis- 
 cussions of great national questions. 
 
 SIR JOHN THOMPSON 
 
NICHOLAS FLOOD DAVIN 237 
 
 lean white bear, in the light of the midnight sun, under torrid skies every- 
 where in the civilized world — nay, in its uncivilized corners also — wherever 
 British energy and pluck, fortitude and indomitable tenacity have carried 
 British commerce and arms — and where have they not? — everywhere in 
 the civilized world the same feast is held ; in city and jungle ; on mountain 
 and plain ; in lonely remote deserts, or in far-off isles and seas. There ts 
 no clime so inhospitable, there is no tract so dangerous, no isle so little, no 
 sea so lone, but over tower and turret and dome, over scud and sand and 
 palm tree, at this hour, the flag bearing the three crosses of the three great 
 nations of the two heroic isles rises with solemn splendor and sublime signi- 
 ficance ; where it is day the winds of heaven reverently caress its immortal 
 folds, and where it is night the stars salute it as a fellow star 
 
 Macaulay, led away by a love for effect, pictured a traveler from New 
 Zealand sitting on a broken arch of St. Paul's ; and the great Daniel Web- 
 ster in one of his addresses reflected that if England should pass into 
 decay, the great Republic which was her child, born in storm and bitter- 
 ness and fated to greatness, would preserve her memory, her arts, her 
 language, her love of freedom. England's time cannot come unless her 
 Empire's time should come. Where is the nation, or combination of 
 nations, which could meet this world-wide Empire united to fight ? 
 Instead of the New Zealander sketching the ruins of St. Paul's, we 
 should have the Maori swelling the Imperial army. The men living in 
 the two heroic isles show no decay, and as for their colonial children and 
 brethren, our Toronto Highlanders beat the regulars the other day. In 
 earlier hours of danger we sent the looth regiment to the Imperial camp. 
 We guided the Imperial troops up the Nile. Australia sent her sons to 
 fight, and had arranged for her own naval contingent. South Africa has 
 followed suit. What I see is more and fuller life everywhere. 
 
 It may be that we shall see despotism and tyranny and barbarism, 
 civilized only in the art of war, combined against this Empire with its 
 fifty millions of English-speaking men and millions of loyal subject races. 
 It may be that we may have to face an Armageddon in which the oceans 
 and seas of the round world will be purple with blood and flame, and it 
 may be that this is not beyond the bounds of possibility — it may be we 
 should succumb. If so, we would, to use language which my gallant 
 friend and his marines and bluejackets will understand, we should fall as 
 they fall and die as our fathers died, with the jack still floating nailed to 
 the mast, leaving a name without a parallel and which never could have a 
 parallel. Much more likely we should send tyranny skulking to its hold, 
 cooped up in narrower bounds, and make the three-crossed flag still more 
 the world's flag of ireedom. All the signs are signs of life ; of expanding 
 material, moral and spiritual power. This Empire will go forward, 
 becoming greater in power and a still greater blessing to mankind. 
 
SIR CHARLES TUPPER (I82J - 
 
 A DISTINGUISHED DOMINION STATESMAN 
 
 AMONG the statesmen of the Dominion of Canada Sir Charles 
 Tupper has long held a foremost place. Born, the son of a 
 — ^ Baptist minister, at Amhurst, Nova Scotia, he studied medi- 
 cine, and for years practiced as a physician. Entering the field of 
 politics in 1855, his powers as an orator and his statesmanlike ability 
 soon gave him high standing, he becoming Premier of his native 
 province in 1864, President of the Privy Council in 1870, and for 
 years afterward holding various ministries in the Macdonald Cabinet. 
 For a number of years he was High Commissioner for Canada in Eng- 
 land, and in April, 1896, he became Conservative Premier of the 
 Dominion. His term of office was a brief one. In the general elec- 
 tion that followed the Liberals won, and Sir Wilfred Laurier succeeded 
 as Premier. 
 
 ON THE PROTECTION OF THE FISHERIES 
 
 [As a strenuous and aggressive orator, of excellent powers of logical argument, 
 Sir Charles Tupper won popular favor and has long been much esteemed. The selec- 
 tion here given is from a speech made by him in the House of Commons, Ottawa, 
 May 12, 1887, in the protection of the Fisheries, which was at that time a matter 
 of controversy between Canada and the United States. After introducing the sub- 
 ject, he continued as follows.] 
 
 I had the honor of being sent on a confidential mission to Washing- 
 ton by the Governor- General previous to assuming my duties in England 
 in 1884, and had a long and interesting conversation with the late Secre- 
 tary Frelinghuysen on that subject. I may say I regard it is a misfortune 
 that the administration of which he was a member was not returned to 
 power, and that his life had not been spared to carry out what I am certain 
 he was prepared to carry out. The result was that a Democratic President 
 was elected in the United States, and a Democratic administration was 
 238 
 
 i 
 
SIR CHARLES TUPPER 239 
 
 framed ; but that administration had not, as the honoraole gentlemen know, 
 a majority in the Senate ; and although the Government of the United 
 States in good faith carried out the engagement with the Government of 
 Canada, and sent down a proposal to dispose of this matter by an inter- 
 national commission, their proposal was rejected by the Senate. It was 
 for that reason, and not because I wish to express any preference for one 
 party or the other in the United States, that I said I think it was a mis- 
 fortune that the recommendation of the Democratic President and Gov- 
 ernment had to be acted upon by a Republican Senate. 
 
 That proposal was rejected, and Canada was forced, as you know, ex 
 necessitate ret, to adopt the policy of temperately and judiciously, but 
 firmly, protecting the rights of Canadian fisherman in Canadian waters ; 
 and I am glad to be able to state that during my term of ofl&ce as High 
 Commissioner in London, where I had constant and frequent intercourse 
 with the great statesmen of both of the political parties in that country 
 in relation to this question, — whatever party was in power, or whatever 
 might be representing the Government — I met the firm and unqualified 
 desire, on the part of Her Majesty's Government, to study carefully what 
 were the undoubted rights of Canada and the Empire ; and I speak of the 
 Governments which represented both the great parties in England, when 
 I say I found on their part the steady and uniform desire and determi- 
 nation firmly to maintain Canada in the assertion of her just 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 slightest cause 
 of difference with the United States — the time is 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 a 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 appeal 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 commission. The fish 
 have all turned south ; they are coming into our waters ; we do not require 
 to go into Canadian waters 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 
 
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 commercial 
 relations which exist between this country and the United States ; but I 
 cannot forget that, if this policy of non-intercourse were adopted, it would 
 lead to the development of the channels of communication between our- 
 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 be 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. 
 
GOLDWIN SMITH (t823 ) 
 
 THE DISTINGUISHED LECTURER AND WRITER 
 
 [OLDWIN SMITH has dwelt and made his mark in three separ- 
 ate soils. Born in England and educated at Oxford, he was 
 made Professor of Modern History at that university in 1858. 
 Coming to the United States in 1864, he was for four years Professor 
 of English History at Cornell University. His life in Canada began 
 in 1871. Here he made his home in Toronto, engaged in editorial 
 work, authorship and lecturing. As a lecturer Smith ranks high 
 among modern speakers, evincing much breadth and depth of thought 
 and felicity in expression. He was in England an advanced Liberal 
 in politics, and a champion of the American Union during the Civil 
 War. In addition to his productions as an orator, his written works 
 are numerous and valuable. 
 
 GOD IN THE UNIVERSE 
 
 [Goldwiu Smith is not among those who think that science has probed to the 
 bottom the mystery of things. Ambitious as are its efforts, and far and deep as it has 
 reached, it still stands only on the threshold of the secret of time and space, with the 
 creative Deity looming in impenetrable vastness beyond its ken. Such is the text of 
 the extract we select from his eloquent and suggestive address delivered at Oxford 
 on the Study of History.] 
 
 What is the sum of physical science ? Compared with the compre- 
 hensible universe and with conceivable time, not to speak of infinity and 
 eternity, it is the observation of a mere point, the experience of an instant. 
 Are we warranted in founding anything upon such data, except that 
 which we are obliged to found on them, the daily rules and processes 
 necessary for the material life of man ? We call the discoveries of science 
 sublime ; and truly. But the sublimity belongs not to that which they 
 reveal, but to that which they suggest. And that which they suggest is, 
 that through this material glory and beauty, of which we see a little and 
 16 241 
 
242 GOLDWIN 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 its 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, are 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 efibrt, 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 wisdom in an 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 Ne\^^tons, but the animal which possessed 
 that organ would not be higher than the moral being. 
 
GOLDWIN SMITH 243 
 
 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 demand of proof. Facts are not the less 
 facts because they 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 reason, to doubt 
 whether the great secret of the moral world is likely to be 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 origip of man. 
 
SIR WILFRID LAURIER (1 84 1 
 
 THE GREAT LIBERAL REFORMER 
 
 mHE Dominion of Canada, as is well known, has a population 
 made up of two distinct races, the French and the British, 
 representing to-day the successive ownership of that great 
 area. Though these are amalgamated to a considerable extent, their 
 original diversity has by no means disappeared, the French stratum 
 of the population retaining its old language and many of its old ideas. 
 In 1896 the Canadian French became more, intimately affiliated with 
 the Government than ever before, when Wilfrid Laurier, a statesman 
 of their race, was appointed to the high dignity of Premier of the 
 Dominion, the first of his people to hold that position. He was 
 invested with the honor of knighthood in the following year. For 
 many years the Conservative party had been predominant in Canada. 
 With Laurier the Liberals came into power, after a long interregnum. 
 They could not have done so under an abler leader than Sir Wilfrid, 
 who is considered by many as the ablest orator Canada has ever known, 
 and is distinguished " not more by the finished grace of his oratory 
 than by the boldness and authority with which he handled the deep- 
 est political problems " in the Dominion House of Commons. He 
 designates himself " A Liberal of the English school, a pupil of 
 Charles James Fox, Daniel O'Connell, and William Ewart Gladstone." 
 
 GLADSTONE'S ELEMENTS OF GREATNESS 
 [Laurier's political orations are numerous, and many of them evince great abil- 
 ity. We append 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, strikinjg^ 
 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 attention 
 
 244 
 
SIR WILFRID LAURIER 245 
 
 of the world at large; but of the men who have illustrated this age, it 
 seems to me 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 magnitude of the results obtained, compared with the exiguity 
 of the resources 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 Cavour was undoubtedly a statesman of marvelous skill and pre- 
 science. Abraham Lincoln, unknown to fame when he was elected to 
 the presidency, exhibited a power for the government of men which has 
 scarcely been surpassed in any age. He saved the American Union, he 
 enfranchised the 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 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
246 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 my 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 bemg, 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 1886 an acri- 
 monious debate took place, in which Mr. Laurier and Mr. Blake took the ground that 
 in the execution for treason of I^ouis Kiel, the half breed insurgent, the Government 
 was seriously culpable, having knowingly and deliberately goaded the half-breeds to 
 desperation and revolt. Sir John Thompson and others as vigorously defended the 11 
 Government in its action. Mr. Laurier's speech on this subject, delivered March 16, || 
 1886, is looked upon by many as his best effort and the finest oration ever heard in 
 Canadian Parliament. We give its opening and closing passages.] 
 
 Mr. Speaker : Since no one on the other side of the House has the 
 courage to continue this debate, 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 j 
 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 j 
 themselves and the country. Under the uniform of a soldier there is gen- 
 erally to be found a warm and merciful heart. Moreover, our soldiers are 
 citizens who have an interest in this country ; but when they are on duty 
 they know nothing but duty. At the same time it can fairly be presumed 
 
SIR WILFRID LAURIER 247 
 
 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 he 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 stern 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 the court, which had convicted him, strongly 
 recommended 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, when mercy 
 was suggested instead, the verdict has 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. 
 
248 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 to-day, not to speak of those who have lost their lives, our 
 prisons are full of men who, despairing ever to get justice by peace, 
 sought to obtain it by war ; who, despairing of ever being treated 
 like freemen, took their lives in their hands, rather than be treated as 
 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 prisons 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 chainless mind ! 
 Brightest in dungeons, Liberty thou art ! 
 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 dayless gloom, 
 Their country conquers with their martyrdom. 
 
SIR JOHN THOMPSON (18444894) 
 
 A NOVA SCOTIAN PREMIER AND ORATOR 
 
 SIR JOHN THOMPSON, a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, began 
 his political career in 1877, in the legislature of that province. 
 ' Subsequently entering the Dominion Parliament, he became 
 a prominent and active Conservative member of that body. An 
 earnest and able orator, and a statesman of excellent powers, he won a 
 position of leadership in his party, and in 1892 was called upon to 
 form a Cabinet, and accept the post of Prime Minister of Canada. 
 He died two years later, at Windsor, while on a visit to England. 
 
 § THE EXECUTION OF RIEL 
 
 Hk [On March 22, 1886, Thompson made a long and able speech before the House 
 
 ^^K Commons, in response to those of Laurier and Blake on the subject of the execu- 
 ^™lon of Louis Riel, the half-breed leader of insurrection. As a favorable example of 
 his 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 judge's charge, it would have been laid open by the 
 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 question 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 not. Louis Riel was not in that position. He 
 
 249 
 
250 SIR JOHN THOMPSON 
 
 had the right to bring before the Bench in Manitoba every question of 
 the law or fact that arose on his trial , and when he took that appeal, he 
 was represented by the best counsel, I suppose, that this Dominion could 
 have given him, and yet not a single exception was taken to the fairness- 
 of the trial, or the rulings of the judge. The prisoner took this addi- 
 tional step, which is a verj^ rare one in connection with the criminal jus- 
 tice in this country ; he applied to Her Majesty to exercise the prerogative 
 by which Her Majesty, by the advice of Her Privy Council, is able toll 
 entertain an appeal in a case connected with the criminal j urisdiction from i| 
 any one of her subjects in the Empire ; and how is it that in the petition I 
 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 Dominions — how is it that neither the prisoner's counsel 
 nor himself, nor the petition, nor anything said on trial in his favor, urged j 
 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 have given him 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 that they did not exist. 
 
 And yet, sir, because we administered in the case of Louis 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 ashamed to repeat, but which I 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 have been accused of inconsistency in advo- 
 cating Riel's execution beforehand, and taking the opposite ground after- 
 wards, but after his execution the Winnipeg Free Press said : " Riel was 
 fairly tried, honestly convicted, laudably condemned, and justly exe- 
 cuted." 
 
 But, sir, if our confidence in the tribunals themselves be not sufficient, 
 if the fact that the courts of appeal before which the case was taken, ruled 
 
SIR JOHN THOMPSON 251 
 
 that the trial was fair, and tbat justice had been done, be not sufEclent, I 
 ask honorable gentlemen opposite if, with any sense of candor or fair 
 play, they can ask that this government should be condemned for not 
 changing the sentence on the ground that the trial had been unfair, when 
 there has not been down to this hour a petition or request presented to 
 the Government, either from Louis Riel, from his counsel, from his eccle- 
 siastical superiors, or from any of the advisers or sympathizers he has 
 had throughout this country, for the commutation of the sentence on the 
 ground that the trial was in any sense unfair. And j^et, sir, after the deci- 
 sion of the jury, and the decision of the judge ; after the decision of the 
 Court of Queen's Bench in Manitoba, where, as I have said, he had an 
 extraordinary advantage; and after the disposal of his case before the 
 judiciary committee of the Privy Council ; and without a single utterance 
 from anybody, either himself or any sympathizers, that anything was 
 unfair, this House is asked to carry this resolution on the ground that his 
 trial was unfair, and give what Riel never asked, redress on the ground 
 that he had been unfairly tried. 
 
 [In regard to the plea of insanity which had been brought forward in Kiel's 
 trial. Sir John, after considering it at some length, concluded as follows :] 
 
 Upon that subject I might cite at some length, but I refrain from 
 doing so. The celebrated case which was tried in the United States a few 
 years ago, and with relation to which the man who was condemned, if the 
 evidence is to be believed, had a tenfold stronger case on which to base a 
 plea of insanity than Louis Riel. I refer to the case of Guiteau. The 
 treatment which he received at the hands of the law and of the Executive, 
 notwithstanding his strong political and religious delusions, is well known, 
 and met with very slight, if any, condemnation, either in the United States 
 or here. On the 24th of January, 1882, a journal which exercises a great 
 influence in this country, and speaks, or professes to speak, for a political 
 party in this country — the journal which I heard an honorable member 
 declare the other night, penetrated to the utmost recesses of the earth — 
 used this language with regard to the case of Guiteau, and I cite it because 
 it is peculiarly applicable to the case of Riel, although the conductors of 
 the journal do not seem to think so now. Speaking of the comments 
 which an observer might make in Guiteau 's case, they said, and honor- 
 able gentlemen will see as I progress : 
 
 " If sufficiently credulous to accept the murderer's asseverations as 
 anything more than a piece of arrant hypocrisy, an artifice of his cunning 
 little mind to save his neck from the gallows ; if he could bring himself 
 to credit the wretch with sincerity, he could not resist the inference that 
 the inspiration was from beneath and not from above, and that having done 
 
SDt JOHN THOMPSON 
 
 of tte gaatt advccaoj on eutlu be Ind better be sent as 
 
 as a doe R;gud Ibrfbe faaas oi hummn jistioe would pennit to 
 
 of 
 
 like the IVmnAo GMrwonld 
 
 in GuitnuBi's sitoation because 
 
 r, and tieat Kid on a dif fer e nt prin- 
 
 be a fmdtar in the poiitics of tliis 
 
 to •^■"^^M^ point in dds btanch of the sub- 
 to Ibc §tA ttat the Indians whom this mar: 
 way cxnd mnidas at Frog Lake, winch 
 qf tigwindloodly farftee ae c ttU onof the supiem e 
 OelawiqEBiKt tbc JmSaas it nM. -eiia?*! in that massacre, not 
 
 bnt on otlier ground on winch 
 
 anvlj, that it is abso- 
 
 bf making a great CEam^ by the inflidioa of sach pun 
 
 people disfHWHl to dime &om oonmutting it. How 
 
 id fhe Fkog I«ake inavai re have been punished, if 
 
 to idbd — and Ae nntssaciewas to them the 
 
 of ndbcffioB — had csLap ed ? How ooold tiie ptmishment of 
 
 or any delcncnt effect have been achieved . 
 
 the " aich tndtnr,"— if tiie " tiidster," as he 
 
 £d dKm tiieir best seivioe, — was allowed to 
 
 nntil he c^iose to get lid of bis tem- 
 
 ', as I haw^e said, to show to 
 
 to eveiy section of the coontiy, and to 
 
 ttat the power of the GoTemment in 
 
 cafy to pnitect, bat to punish. In the 
 
 of jnslioewifliregjaid tothose tenitodes in partictdar, it 
 
 of capital pnnishment 
 be called intoplay. ¥< —lii ■ \ Ibil h iiitnTii", Imiix^ i " tin iirrri 
 sitr is Sar-ngoams gum^mma it there, and through the eniorcement of 
 evay laanib of tte law, I ant not ^i g pniWi to be inhumane, or nnmerci- 
 fid, in tbt tmSaasemoA of fkt penalty wfaidi tiie law p rono un ces, bnt in 
 to nMn of tins dass, who time and again have been candidates 
 pcqaUy of tiK law, who have despised mercy wheji it was 
 I would give die Ausmur to ^ipeals for mercy which 
 p roposed to abofiah capital pumshment in France, 
 Vaywdl^letflK 
 
BOOK VL 
 The Famous Pulpit Orators of America 
 
 AMONG the many fidck for oratcmcal ^sphj, 
 none has been nearly so prolific as die pn^Mt, 
 in whidi weekly thousands oC sefmoos aie 
 delivered by men trained to the fullest and most 
 effective powers of expression in this art. In this 
 multitude of cultivated orators it wooki be strange; 
 indeed, if there were not many of superior powers. 
 And their subject, the salvation <^ man, is one that 
 lends itself to fervid and vehenKJit examples of 
 oratory. The pulpit orator who is thoronglily in 
 earnest has a theme not surpassed in its inspiring 
 force by the most revoluti<Miary and exdting oi pcdi- 
 tical conditions^ As a rule, however, the incessant 
 repetition of pulpit orations is apt to cjoendi die fire 
 of eloquence in the most earnest of speakers* and 
 leave a tameness from niiich few escape in the end. 
 Their ^orts beanne forced. They are not chie to 
 single stirring occasions^ of passing moment, bat to 
 permanent conditions against which it is not easy to 
 maintain an in^iring indignation. And the sermoov 
 to be fully interesdng, needs to be heard ; widi all the 
 aids of solemn surroondings* elevation c^ sentimoit, 
 and the grace and pow^- of ^mken words. When 
 read, its fine aroma is ^>t to dis^^ear. In <^erin^ 
 selections from the leading pulpit orators^ therefore; 
 it seems best to take them, as a rule, firom the seen- 
 lar efforts of these ^oquent men. The nHxal force 
 and the trained oratory remain, and with these is 
 associated a living interest in the subject which does 
 not always inhere in that of the printed sermoii. 
 
LYMAN BEECHER ( J 775- J 863) 
 
 ORATOR AND FATHER OF ORATORS AND WRITERS 
 
 mHE doctrine of heredity in genius finds warrant in the history 
 of the Beecher family, in which the children of a father of 
 distinguished powers in oratory inherited his mental grasp 
 and surpassed him in fame, in oratory and literature. In the first 
 half of the nineteenth century Lyman Beecher was one of the most 
 popular pulpit orators in the land, a zealous and highly successful de- 
 fender in New England of the orthodox faith against the Unitarianism. 
 He was an active and earnest promotor of temperance and other moral 
 issues, and was distinguished for boldness and energy of character. 
 His sermons on temperance had an immense circulation. 
 
 THE SACREDNESS OF THE SABBATH 
 [As an orator Lyman Beecher was vigorous and at times rose to high exaltation 
 of style. He strongly opposed any weakening of the old bonds of religious observ- 
 ance, as is evinced in the following selection, in which the growing secularization of 
 the Sabbath and other moral delinquencies are eloquently denounced.] 
 
 The crisis has come. By the people of this generation, by ourselves 
 probably, the amazing question is to be decided, whether the inheritance 
 of our fathers shall be preserved or thrown away ; whether -our Sabbaths 
 shall be a delight or a loathing ; whether the taverns, on that holy day, 
 shall be crowded with drunkards, or the sanctuary of God with humble 
 worshippers ; whether riot and profaneness shall fill our streets, and pov- 
 erty our dwellings, and convicts our jails, and violence our land, or 
 whether industry, and temperance, and righteousness shall be the sta- 
 bility of our times ; whether mild laws shall receive the cheerful submis- 
 sion of freemen , or the iron rod of a tyrant compel the trembling homage 
 of slaves. Be not deceived. Human nature in this state is like human 
 nature everywhere. All actual difference in our favor is adventitious, 
 and the result of our laws, institutions, and habits. It is a moral 
 254 
 
LYMAN BEECHER ^ 255 
 
 influence which, with the blessing of God, has formed a state of society so 
 eminently desirable. The same influence which has formed it is indis- 
 pensable to its preservation. The rocks and hills of New England will 
 remain till the last conflagration. But let the Sabbath be profaned with 
 impunity, the worship of God abandoned, the government and religious 
 instruction of children neglected, and the streams of intemperance be per- 
 mitted to flow, and her glory will depart. The wall of fire will no more 
 surround her, and the munition of rocks will no longer be her defence. 
 
 If we neglect our duty, and suffer our laws and institutions to go 
 down, we give them up forever. It is easy to relax, easy to retreat, but 
 impossible, when the abomination of desolation has once passed over New 
 England, to rear again the thrown-down altars, and gather again the 
 fragments, and build up the ruins of demolished institutions. Another 
 New England nor we nor our children shall ever see, if this be destroyed. 
 All is lost irretrievably when the landmarks are once removed and the 
 bands which now hold us are once broken. Such institutions, and such 
 a state of society, can be established only by such men as our fathers were, 
 and in such circumstances as they were in. They could not have made a 
 New England in Holland. They made the attempt, but failed. 
 
 The hand that overturns our laws and altars, is the hand of death 
 unbarring the gate of Pandemonium and letting loose upon our land the 
 crimes and the miseries of hell. If the Most High should stand aloof, 
 and cast not a single ingredient into our cup of trembling, it would seem 
 I to be full of superlative woe. But He will not stand aloof. As we shall 
 have begun an open controversy with Him, He will contend openly with 
 us. And never, since the earth stood, has it been so fearful a thing for 
 nations to fall into the hands of the living God. The day of vengeance 
 is in His heart, the day of judgment has come : the great earthquake 
 which sinks Babylon is shaking the nations, and the waves of the mighty 
 commotion are dashing upon every shore. Is this, then, a time to remove 
 foundations, when the earth itself is shaken ? Is this a time to forfeit the 
 protection of God, when the hearts of men are failing them for fear, and 
 for looking after those things which are coming on the earth ? Is this a 
 time to run upon His neck and the thick bosses of His buckler, when the 
 nations are drinking blood, and fainting, and passing away in His wrath ? 
 Is this a time to throw away the shield of faith, when His arrows are 
 drunk with the blood of the slain ? To cut from the anchor of hope, when 
 the clouds are collecting, and the sea and the waves are roaring, and 
 :hunders are uttering their voices, and lightnings blazing in the heavens, 
 .nd the great hail is falling from heaven upon men, and every mountain, 
 , and island is fleeing in dismay from the face of an incensed God ? 
 
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING (J 780- J 842) 
 
 THE GREAT UNITARIAN ORATOR AND WRITER 
 
 mN William Ellery Channing, Rhode Island contributed to the 
 American pulpit one of the most brilliant figures that have 
 ever occupied it. To the Unitarian Church he came as a 
 revelation, a leader of unsurpassed eloquence and influence. Not 
 alone as a pulpit orator, did he win distinction, but as a writer 
 as well, his merit in this field being of a very high order. His style, 
 always clear, forcible and elegant, rises at times into strains of the 
 loftiest eloquence. In this direction no American has ever surpassed 
 him. Of his pulpit orations, that on the fall of Napoleon is regarded 
 as the most splendid, while his lectures on Self Culture had a wide 
 circulation. His oratory always charmed his audience, alike for its 
 winning manner and its moral force. 
 
 THE RIGHTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL 
 
 [From Channing's works we select two brief examples, as illustrations of his 
 breadth of thought and power of expression ; the first clearly showing the true rela- 
 tions of men to the State ; the second indicating in what respects military genius falls 
 below the highest mental power.] 
 
 It seems to be thought by some that a man derives all his rights from 
 the nation to which he belongs. They are gifts of the State, and the 
 State may take them away if it will. A man, it is thought, has claims 
 on other men, not as a man, but as an Englishman, an American, or a 
 subject of some other State. He must produce his parchment of citizen- 
 ship before he binds other men to protect him, to respect his free agency, 
 to leave him the use of his powers according to his own will. Local, 
 municipal law is thus made the fountain and measure of rights. The 
 stranger must tell us where he was born, what privileges he enjoyed at 
 home, or no tie links us to one another. 
 256 
 
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING ^257 
 
 In conformity to these views it is thought that when one community 
 declares a man to be a slave, other communities must respect this decree ; 
 that the duties of a foreign nation to an individual are to be determined by 
 a brand set on him on his own shores ; that his relations to the whole 
 race may be affected by the local act of a community, no matter how 
 small or how unjust. 
 
 This is a terrible doctrine. It strikes a blow at all the rights of 
 human nature. It enables the political body to which we belong, no 
 matter how wicked or weak, to make each of us an outcast from his race. 
 It makes a man nothing in himself. As a man, he has no significance. 
 He is sacred only as far as some State has taken him under his care. 
 Stripped of his nationality, he is at the mercy of all who may incline to 
 lay hold on him. He may be seized, imprisoned, sent to work in galleys 
 or mines, unless some foreign State spreads its shield over him as one of 
 its citizens. 
 
 The doctrine is as false as it is terrible. Man is not the mere crea- 
 ture of the State. Man is older than nations, and he is to survive nations. ' 
 There is a law of humanity more primitive and divine than the law of the 
 land. He has higher claims than those of a citizen. He has rights which 
 date before all charters of communities ; not conventional, not repealable, 
 but as eternal as the powers and laws of his being. 
 
 This annihilation of the individual by merging him in the State lies at 
 the foundation of despotism. The nation is too often the grave of the 
 man. This is the more monstrous because the very end of the State, of the 
 organization of the nation, is to secure the individual in all his rights, 
 and especially to secure the rights of the weak. Here is the fundamental 
 idea of political association. In an unorganized society, with no legisla- 
 tion, no tribunal, no empire, rights have no security. Force predomi- 
 nates over rights. This is the grand evil of what is called the state of 
 nature. To repress this, to give right the ascendency of force, this is the 
 grand idea and end of government, of country, of political institutions. I 
 repeat it, for the truth deserves iteration, that all nations are bound to 
 I respect the rights of every human being. This is God's law, as old as 
 the world. No local law can touch it. 
 
 MILITARY GENIUS— FROM THE ESSAY ON NAPOLEON 
 
 i The chief work of a general is to apply physical force ; to remove physi- 
 jcal obstructions ; to avail himself of physical aids and advantages ; to act on 
 matter; to overcome rivers, ramparts, mountains, and human muscles; 
 md these are not the highest objects of mind, nor do they demand intelli- 
 gence of the highest order ; and accordingly nothing is more common than 
 17 
 
258 WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING 
 
 to find men, eminent in this department, who are wanting in the noblest 
 energies of the soul ; in habits of profound and liberal thinking, in 
 imagination and taste, in the capacity of enjoying works of genius, and 
 in large and original views of human nature and society. The office of a 
 great general does not differ widely from that of a great mechanician, 
 whose business it is to frame new combinations of physical forces, to 
 adapt them to new circumstances, and to remove new obstructions. 
 Accordingly great generals, away from the camp, are often no greater 
 men than the mechanician taken from his workshop. In conversation 
 they are often dull. Deep and refined reasonings they cannot comprehend. 
 We know that there are splendid exceptions. Such was Caesar, at once 
 the greatest soldier and the most sagacious statesman of his age, whilst in 
 eloquence and literature, he left behind him almost all, who had devoted 
 themselves exclusively to these pursuits. But such cases are rare. The 
 conqueror of Napoleon, the hero of Waterloo, possesses undoubtedly 
 great military talents; but we do not understand, that his most partial 
 admirers claim for him a place in the highest class of minds. We will 
 not go down for illustration to such men as Nelson, a man great on the 
 deck, but debased by gross vices, and who never pretended to enlargement 
 of intellect. To institute a comparison in point of talent and genius 
 between such men and Milton, Bacon and Shakespeare, is almost an insult 
 to these illustrious names. Who can think of these truly great intelli- 
 gences ; of the range of their minds through heaven and earth ; of their ' 
 deep intuition into the soul ; of their new and glowing combinations of 
 thought ; of the energy with which they grasped, and subjected to their 
 main purpose, the infinite materials of illustration which nature and life 
 afford, — who can think of the form of transcendent beauty and grandeur 
 which they created, or which were rather emanations of their own minds ; 
 of the calm wisdom and fervid imagination which they conjoined ; of the 
 voice of power, in which ^'though dead, they still speak,'* and awaken 
 intellect, sensibility, and genius in both hemispheres, who can think of 
 such men, and not feel the immense inferiority of the most gifted warrior, 
 whose elements of thought are physical forces and physical obstructions, 
 and whose employment is the combination of the lowest class of objects 
 on which a powerful mind can be employed. 
 
THEODORE PARKER ( J 8 1 0= J 860) 
 
 THE FERVENT ORATOR OF EMANCIPATION 
 
 SIDE by side with Phillips and Garrison in opposition to African 
 slavery should be placed Theodore Parker, to whom the 
 Southern system appeared a tissue of abominations, and who 
 gave all the great powers of his ardent and emotional mind to the 
 advocacy of emancipation of the slaves. A heretic to the prevailing 
 sentiment in this respect, he was equally heretical in his religious 
 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. Entering the Unitarian ministry, 
 he began to preach in 1836. But his studies of German rationalism 
 caused important changes in his theological belief, changes which he 
 made no effort 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 Melodeon, in Boston, where he 
 continued to disseminate what many criticised as plain heresy for the 
 remainder of his life. While performing his duties as a minister, he 
 [Jwas a deep student and for years a highly popular lecturer. But 
 the subject to which he gave the most attention was the iniquity of 
 human slavery, against which for years he fought with all his great 
 [powers of mind, and died on the verge of the success of his opinions. 
 
 THE GREATNESS AND THE WEAKNESS OF DANIEL WEBSTER 
 
 [The public life and private character of Webster has never been so set forth, 
 
 like in its greatness and its weakness, as in the memorable attack made by Parker on 
 
 le mighty orator after he had passed away. Webster's course of action in regard to 
 
 ivery the ardent abolitionist could not forgive, and while giving him full credit for 
 
 259 
 
260 THEODORE PARKER 
 
 his wonderful powers of mind and body, he dissected and laid bare the defects of his 
 character and attainments in a remarkably effective manner. It would be difficult to 
 point to a more complete analysis of a human character in a brief space than in the 
 selection here given from Parker's address.] 
 
 Do men mourn for him, the great man eloquent ? I put on sack- 
 cloth long ago. I mourned for him when he wrote the Creole letter 
 which surprised Ashburton, Briton that he was. I mourned when he 
 spoke the speech of the seventh of March. I mourned when the Fu'gitive 
 Slave Bill passed Congress, and the same cannon that have fired *' minute 
 guns " for him fired also one hundred rounds of joy for the forging of a 
 new fetter for the fugitive's foot. I mourned for him when the kidnap- 
 pers first came to Boston — hated then — now respectable 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 England. I mourned when Ellen Craft fled to my house 
 for shelter and for succor ; and for the first time in all my life, I armed 
 this hand. I mourned when the courthouse was hung in chains ; when 
 Thomas Sims, from his dungeon, sent out his petition for prayers and the 
 churches did not dare to pray. I mourned when I married William and 
 Ellen Craft, and gave them a Bible for their soul, and a sword to keep 
 that soul living and in a living frame. I mourned when the poor outcast 
 in yonder dungeon sent for me to visit him, and' when I took him by the 
 hand that Daniel Webster was chaining in that house. I mourned for 
 Webster when we prayed our prayer and sung our song on L,ong Wharf 
 in the morning's gray. I mourned then ; I shall not cease to mourn. 
 The flags wUl be removed from the streets, the cannon will sound their 
 other notes of joy ; but for me I shall go mourning all my days. I shall 
 refuse to be comforted, and at last I shall lay down my gray hairs with 
 weeping and with sorrow in the grave. Oh, Webster ! Webster ! would 
 God that I had died for thee ! 
 
 He 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 aisles of Christian Rome ' ' — 
 
 he who sculptured Day and Night into such beautiful forms, — he looked 
 them in his face before he chiseled them 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 
 
THEODORE PARKER 261 
 
 he walked as if he felt himself a king. Men from the country, who 
 knew him not, stared at him as he passed through our streets. The coal- 
 heavers and porters of I^ondon looked on him as one of the great forces of 
 the globe ; they recognized a native king. In the Senate of the United 
 States he looked an emperor in that council. Even the majestic Calhoun 
 seemed common compared with him. Clay looked vulgar, and Van 
 Buren but a fox. What a mouth he had ! It was a lion's mouth. Yet 
 there was a sweet grandeur in his smile, and a woman's sweetness when 
 he would. What a brow it was ! What eyes ! like charcoal fire in the 
 bottom of a deep, dark well. His face was rugged with volcanic fires, 
 great passions and great thoughts : 
 
 ' ' The front of Jove himself ; 
 And eyes like Mars, to threaten and command." 
 
 Divide the faculties, not bodily, into intellectual, moral, affectional, 
 and religious ; and try him on that scale. His late life shows that he had 
 little religion — somewhat of its lower forms — conventional devoutness, 
 formality of praj^er, " the ordinances of religion " ; but he had not a great 
 man's all-conquering look to God. It is easy to be "devout." The 
 Pharisee was more 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 was 
 religious, and in proof declare that he read the Bible ; 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 affections 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 unrelated love, there are two chief forms : friendship 
 and philanthropy. Friendship he surely had ; all along the shore men 
 loved him. Men in Boston loved 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. P'ree to give as 
 to grasp, he was charitable by instinct, not disinterested on principle. 
 
 His strength lay not in the religious, nor in the affectional, nor in the 
 
 moral part of man. His intellect was immense. His power of compre- 
 
 |hension was vast. He methodized swiftly. But if you look at the forms 
 
 of intellectual action , you may distribute them into three ^reat modes of 
 
262 THEODORE PARKER 
 
 force: the understanding, the imagination, and the reason — the under- 
 standing, dealing with details and methods ; the imagination, with beauty, 
 with power to create ; reason, with first principles and universal laws. 
 
 We must deny to Mr. Webster the great reason. He does not belong 
 to the great men of that department, — the Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, 
 Leibnitz, Newton, Descartes, and the other mighties. He seldom grasps 
 a universal law. His measures of expediency for to-day are seldom bot- 
 tomed on universal principles of right which last forever. 
 
 I cannot assign to him a large imagination. He was not creative of 
 new forms of thought or of beauty ; so he lacks the poetic charm which 
 gladdens the loftiest eloquence. But his understanding was exceedingly 
 great. He acquired readily and retained well ; arranged with ease and skill ; 
 and fluently reproduced. As a scholar he passed for learned in the Senate, 
 where scholars are few ; for a universal man with editors of political and 
 commercial prints. But his learning was narrow in its range, and not 
 very nice in its accuracy. His reach in history and literature was very 
 small for a great man seventy years of age, always associating with able 
 men. To science he seems to have paid scarcely any attention at all. It 
 is a short radius that measures the arc of his historic realm. A few Latin 
 authors whom he loved to quote make up his meagre classic store. He 
 was not a scholar, and it is idle to claim great scholarship for him. 
 
 As a statesman his lack of what I call the highest reason and imagin- 
 ation continually appears. To the national stock he added no new idea, 
 created out of new thought ; no great maxim, created out of human his- 
 tory and old thought. The great ideas of the time were not born in his' 
 bosom. He organized nothing. There were great ideas of practical 
 value seeking lodgment in the body ; he aided them not. 
 
 What a sad life was his ! At Portsmouth his house burned down, all 
 uninsured. His wife died, — a loving woman, beautiful and tenderly 
 beloved ! Of several children, all save one have gone before him to the 
 tomb. Sad man ; he lived to build his children's monument ! Do you 
 remember the melancholy spectacle in the street when Major Webster, a 
 victim of the Mexican War, was by his father laid down in yonder tomb, 
 — a daughter, too, but recently laid low ! How poor seemed then the 
 ghastly pageant in the street, — empty and hollow as the muffled drum. 
 For years he has seemed to me like one of the tragic heroes of the Grecian 
 tale, pursued by fate, and latterly — the saddest sight in all this Western 
 World, — widowed of so much he loved, and grasping at what was not only 
 vanity, but the saddest vexation of the heart. I have long mourned for him 
 as no living or departed man. He blasted us with scornful lightning. 
 Him, if I could, I would not blast, but only bless continually and evertnore, 
 
HENRY WARD BEECHER (t8I3-I887) 
 
 PLYMOUTH'S FAMOUS PASTOR AND ORATOR 
 
 mHE eloquence of the modern pulpit reached its culmination in 
 Henry Ward Beecher, who for forty years made Plymouth 
 Church, Brooklyn, the central point of a great weekly pilgrim- 
 age of the lovers of fine pulpit oratory. In breadth of mind, origin- 
 ality of thought, racy and often humorous expression, underlined with 
 a deep moral and spiritual earnestness, Beecher dwelt unsurpassed. 
 His fame as an orator was not confined to the pulpit. On the lecture 
 platform he was equally great and popular. Impelled by his train- 
 ing, environment, and hatred of all things evil, he entered earnestly 
 into the crusade against slavery, and won the reputation of being one 
 of the greatest, if not distinctively the greatest, orators of the Civil 
 War period. Certainly, no more splendid bursts of oratory than those 
 of Beecher were called forth by the events of this dread conflict. In 
 the cause of temperance he was also noted, and no reform, social or 
 political, was left without his powerful support. 
 
 LINCOLN DEAD AND A NATION IN GRIEF 
 
 [Of Beecher's secular orations may especially be named, as among his ablest 
 and most striking efforts, 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 as one of the finest examples of elegiac oratory,] 
 
 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 
 
 263 
 
264 HENRY WARD BEECHER 
 
 uttermost of joy ; it was the uttermost of sorrow — noon and midnight, 
 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 some 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 unburied 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 firmness 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 
 
 f 
 
HENRY WARD BEECHER 265 
 
 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 
 whom 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. When, 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 where 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 muffled 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 themselves 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 
 
266 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 with 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 ,f 
 citizens resisting their own officers ; officers resigning at the bidding of the fi 
 electors ; the laws of property paralyzed ; bankrupt laws built up, and stay- i; 
 laws unconstitutionally enacted, upon which the courts look with aversion, [j 
 yet fear to deny them lest the wildness of popular opinion should roll back M 
 disdainfully upon the bench to despoil its dignity and prostrate its power, [j 
 General suffering has made us tolerant of general dishonesty, and the gloom [] 
 of our commercial disaster threatens to becon;e the pall gf our morals, ' 
 
 il 
 
EDWIN R CHAPIN (J8J4-J880) 
 
 A GREAT ADVOCATE OF GREAT THEMES 
 
 as a popular and eloquent preacher Chapin was unrivaled among 
 the ministers of Unitarianism, and there were few who sur- 
 passed him among those of any denomination in our coun- 
 try. As a public lecturer he was equally popular, being accounted 
 one of the ablest and most attractive of this class. He stood on a par 
 with such famous speakers as Beecher, Phillips and Parker, and made 
 his themes much the same — temperance, abolition, universal peace, 
 and the like. In 1850 he was a member of the Peace Convention at 
 Frankfurt-on-the-Main, and made there a highly effective address. In 
 1848 he took charge of a church in New York, which grew, by suc- 
 cessive stages, from one of modest size to a great erection, capable 
 of holding the immense congregations that flocked to hear him. He 
 published several volumes of sermons and other works, and in 1872 
 became editor of the Christian Leader. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY THE GREAT ELEMENT OF REFORM 
 
 [From Chapin 's numerous addresses we select some brief passages as illustra- 
 tions of his style and eloquent handling of any subject touched by him. There is an 
 element of picturesqueness in all he says, and his delivery was so effective as to give 
 him great infliience 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 sotil 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 
 
 267 
 
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 hopeful, 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 good 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 
 
 H 
 
EDWm H. CMAPIN 269 
 
 stubborn metals from the bowels of the globe, and makes them ductile to 
 its will. It marches steadily on over the swelling flood and through the 
 mountain clefts. It fans its way through the winds of ocean, tramples 
 them in its course, surges and mingles them with flames of fire. Civiliza- 
 tion follows in its path. It achieves grander victories, it weaves more 
 durable trophies, it holds wider sway than the conqueror. His name 
 becomes tainted and his monuments crumble ; but labor converts his 
 red battlefields into gardens and erects monuments significant of better 
 things. It rides in a chariot driven by the wind. It writes with the 
 lightning. It sits crowned as a queen in a thousand cities, and sends up 
 its roar of triumph from a million wheels. It glistens in the fabric of the 
 loom ; it rings and sparkles in the steely hammer ; it glories in the shapes 
 of beauty ; it speaks in words of power ; it makes the sinewy arm strong 
 with liberty, the poor man's heart rich with content, crowns the swarthy 
 and sweat J'- brow with honor, and dignity, and peace. 
 
 THE HANDWRITING ON T^E WALL 
 
 Nature is republican. The discoveries of Science are republican. 
 Sir, what are these new forces, steam and electricity, but powers that are 
 leveling all factitious distinctions and forcing the world on to a noble des- 
 tiny ? Have they not already propelled the nineteenth century a thousand 
 years ahead ? What are they but the servitors of the people, and not of 
 a class ? Does not the poor man of to-day ride in a car dragged by forces 
 such as never waited on kings, or drove the wheels of triumphal chariots ? 
 Does he not yoke the lightning, and touch the magnetic nerves of the 
 world ! The steam engine is a democrat. It is the popular heart that 
 throbs in its iron pulses. And the electric telegraph writes upon the 
 walls of despotism, menimeni tekel upharsin I 
 
PHILLIPS BROOKS (18354893) 
 
 BOSTON'S EMINENT BISHOP-ORATOR 
 
 mN a high rank among America's eminent ecclesiastical orators 
 must be placed Phillips Brooks, who for ten years was one of 
 Philadelphia's favorite speakers, and for nearly a quarter of a 
 century preached the Gospel to highly appreciative audiences in Bos- 
 ton. For the last two years of his life he was the Episcopal Bishop 
 of Massachusetts. Brooks had not the wide-spread popularity of 
 Beecher. He lacked the strongly emotional spirit, the raciness, and 
 verbal originality to which the latter owed much of his effect on the 
 public, yet he was one of the most admired pulpit orators of the coun- 
 try during the greater part of his career. He was more polished in 
 style than Beecher, his language of striking simplicity yet always 
 artistic in treatment ; a man of restrained force yet of earnest senti- 
 ment and elevated thought. 
 
 ^ THE EVIL THAT MEN DO LIVES AFTER THEM *' 
 
 [Phillips Brooks did not win fame as a great secular orator, as Beecher did. 
 His eminence was won in the pulpit, and confined to the pulpit. We give an exam- 
 ple of his pulpit oratory in which is shown at once his simplicity of style, and the 
 cumulative power by which he made his thoughts effective, and held his audiences in 
 rapt attention.] 
 
 Tell me you have a sin that you mean to commit this evening that 
 is going to make this night black;' What can keep you from commit- 
 ting that sin ? Suppose you look into its consequences. Suppose the 
 wise man tells you what will be the physical consequences of that sin. 
 You shudder and you shrink, and perhaps you are partially deterred. 
 Suppose you see the glory that might come to you, physical, temporal, 
 spiritual, if you do not commit that sin. The opposite of it shows itself 
 to you — the blessing and the richness in your life. Again there comes a 
 270 
 
 i 
 
PHILLIPS BROOKS 271 
 
 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 as 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 be 
 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 temptation 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 them 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 of 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 soul 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 soul years ago with some miserable sneer of yours, 
 with some cynical and skeptical disparagement of God and of the man 
 
272 PHILLIPS BROOKS 
 
 who is the utterance of God upon the earth. You taught the soul that 
 was enthusiastic to be full of skepticisms and doubts. You 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 bowed 
 yourself, it may be, in dust and ashes. You have entered upon a new 
 life. You are pure to-day. But where is the skeptical soul ? Where is 
 the ruined woman whom you sent forth into the world out of the shadow 
 of your sin years ago ? You cannot touch that life. You cannot reach 
 it. You do not know where it is. No steps of yours, quickened with all 
 your earnestness, can pursue it. No contrition of yours can draw back 
 its consequences. Remorse cannot force the bullet back into the gun 
 from which it once has gone forth. 
 
 It makes life awful to the man who has ever sinned, who has ever 
 wronged and hurt another life because of this sin, because no sin was ever 
 done that did not hurt another life. I know the mercy of our God, that 
 while He has put us into each other's power to a fearful extent. He never 
 will let any soul absolutely go to everlasting ruin for another's sin ; and 
 so I dare to see the love of God pursuing that lost soul where you cannot 
 pursue it. But that does not for one moment lift the shadow from your 
 heart, or cease to make you tremble when you think of how your sin 
 has outgrown itself and is running far, far away where you can never 
 follow it. 
 
 Thank God the other living thing is true as well. Thank God that 
 when a man does a bit of service, however little it may be, of that, too, he can 
 never trace the consequences. Thank God that that which in some better 
 moment, in some nobler inspiration, you did ten years ago, to make your 
 brother's faith a little more strong, to let your shop-boy confirm and not I 
 doubt the confidence in man which he had brought into his business, to 
 establish the purity of a soul instead of staining it and shaking it, thank 
 God, in this quick, electric atmosphere in which we live, that, too, runs 
 forth. 
 
 I 
 
WILLIAM a BROWNLOW (t 805- J 877) 
 
 THE HGHTING PARSON OF TENNESSEE 
 
 mENNESSEE can boast of two citizens who were among the 
 most remarkable products of our frontier civilization — David 
 Crockett, the great hunter, and William G. Brownlow, the 
 fighting parson. For energy and aggressiveness Brownlow was 
 unsurpassed among our pioneer population. A Methodist minister in 
 his early life, he became editor of a Knoxville paper, and with pen 
 and voice made himself a power in that sention of the South. Though 
 opposed to the abolition of slavery, the outbreak of war found him an 
 uncompromising adherent ol the old flag, which he kept flying over 
 his house in defiance of all threats to pull it down. He was impris- 
 oned for several months by the secessionists, but his voice could not 
 be hushed, though it was raised in unrestrained energy in 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 the 
 United States. 
 
 THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 [The 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, 
 
 I thrice-happy America ! The home of the oppressed, the asylum of the eini 
 
 '! grant ! where the citizen of every clime, and the child of every creed, roam 
 
 free and untrammelled as the wild winds of heaven ! Baptized at the 
 
 fount of Liberty in fire and blood, cold must be the heart that thril s not 
 
 at the name of the American Union ! 
 
 When the Old World, with "all its pomp, and pride, and circurri- 
 stance, ' ' shall be covered with oblivion, — when thrones shall have crumbled 
 18 273 
 
274 WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW 
 
 and dynasties shall have been forgotten, — may this glorious Union, 
 despite the mad schemes of Southern fire-eaters and Northern abolition- 
 ists, stand amid regal ruin and national desolation, towering sublime, like 
 the last mountain in the Deluge — majestic, immutable, and magnificent ! 
 In pursuance of this, let every conservative Northern man, who loves 
 his country and her institutions, shake ofi" the trammels of Northern fanati- 
 cism, and swear upon the altar of his country 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 the Supreme Court. Then we shall see every 
 heart a shield, and a drawn sword in every 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 like some 
 lofty and stupendous Apennine, while the earth rocks at its feet, and the 
 thunder peals above its head ! 
 
 iTRIBULATIONS IN TENNESSEE 
 
 [The following remarks were made by Parson Brownlow at Nashville in 1862 
 They tell their own story, and give in plain language the fighting Parson's opinion o 
 the secessionists.] 
 
 \ 
 
 Gentlemen : Last December I was thrust into an uncomfortable and 
 disagreeable jail, — for what? Treaso7i ! Treason to the bogus Confed 
 eracy ; and the proofs of that treason were articles which appeared in th 
 Knoxville Whig in May last, when the 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 men kept 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 invita- 
 tion 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. 
 
 t 
 
 I 
 
WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW 275 
 
 When I started on this perilous journey I was sore distressed both in 
 mind and body, being weak from disease and confinement. I expected to 
 meet with insults and indignities at every point from the blackguard 
 portion of the rebel soldiers and citizens, and in this I was not disap- 
 pointed. It was fortunate, indeed, that I was not mobbed. This would 
 have been done but for the vigilance and fidelity of the officers having me 
 in charge. These were Adjutant -General Young and I^ieutenant O'Brien, 
 clever men, high minded and honorable ; and they were of my own selec- 
 tion. They had so long been Union men that I felt assured they had not 
 lost the instincts of gentlemen and patriots, afflicted as they were with the 
 incurable disease of secession. 
 
 But, gentlemen, some three or four days ago I landed in this city, as 
 you are aware. Five miles distant I encountered the Federal pickets. 
 Then it was that I felt like a new man. My depression ceased, and 
 returning life and health seemed suddenly to invigorate my system and to 
 arouse my physical constitution . I had been looking at soldiers in uniform 
 for twelve months, and to me they appeared as hateful as their Confeder- 
 acy and their infamous flag. But these Federal pickets, 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 all 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, and they and their 
 ancestors were all slaveholders. Let me assure you that the South has 
 suffered no infringement upon her institutions ; 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 forefathers, 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 unswore it at night. 
 
ROBERT COLLYER (J 823 ) 
 
 THE BLACKSMITH EXPOUNDER OF THE GOSPEL 
 
 FIFTY years or more ago a country blacksmith, working at his 
 trade in a rural district in Pennsylvania, surprised those who 
 ^"^ knew him by unusual powers of natural eloquence. A man 
 of devout feelings, he exhorted his neighborhood audiences to a Chris- 
 tian life. Some of his hearers, desirous that his eloquence should have 
 a better opportunity, aided him in the study of theology, and he be- 
 came a Methodist preacher while still working at his trade. Robert, 
 Collyer, the person in question, was of English birth, and had learned 
 the blacksmith trade there in his youth. He was not long in America] 
 before the forge was abandoned for the pulpit, in which he proved 
 himself as good a preacher as he had been a blacksmith. He did not 
 long continue a Methodist, however, but adopted Unitarianism, and 
 from 1859 to 1879 was pastor of a Unitarian church in Chicago. Sincej 
 the latter date he has had the pastoral care of a church in New York, 
 Mr. Collyer is an orator of much eloquence and ability, and alike as 
 preacher and lecturer is highly esteemed in his adopted country. 
 
 STOPPING AT HARAN 
 
 [The following selection is from a sermon on Genesis ix : 31, 32, in which we 
 learn that old Terah, the father of Abraham, setting out from Edessa to go to Canaan, 
 stopped at Haran, and saw fit to halt and spend the remainder of his life there, instead 
 of pressing on to his goal. From this stopping by the way. Dr. Collyer draws some 
 useful lessons, in an eloquent manner of his own.] 
 
 And so this man's life touches yours and mine, and opens out toward 
 some truths we may well lay to our hearts, and this is the first : That, if 
 I want to do a great and good thing in this world, of any sort, while the 
 best of my life lies still before me, the sooner I set about it the better. 
 For, while there is always a separate and special worth in a good old age, 
 276 
 
Samuel M. Clemens ("Mark Twain") is telling a story to 
 ' Thomas B. Reed, Rufus Choate, Captain White and Andrew 
 Carnegie in an after dinner speech. 
 
DISTINGUISHED AFTER-DINNER SPEAKERS 
 
 Robert G Ingersoll, great public lecturer ; Henry W. Watterson, 
 distinguished Kentucky editor; Henry Grady, of the New South ; 
 Fitzhugh Lee, statesman and orator. 
 
ROBERT COLLYER 277 
 
 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 if 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 only blame them when, with the vision of a nobler 
 life haunting the heart, they tell me that Haran is good enough for any- 
 body, and 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 they may 
 go only the one day's march, I can still bare my head in reverence before 
 such men. 
 
 I know what it is to leave these Hdessas 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. So, 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 
 jbelong to them the one day's march and, setting their faces toward the 
 ^reat fair land of promise, leave God to see to it, that this which may be 
 
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 
 desire to fly preceded the wings. Something within the creature 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, through what 
 would seem to us to 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 life 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. li 
 tell you again, the good intention goes to pave the way to Heaven, if it bej 
 an honest and true intention. There is a pin-feather of the eagle's win^ 
 started somewhere in our starting — a soaring which goes far beyond ourl 
 stopping. We may only get to the edge of the slough, but those who] 
 come after us will soar 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' 
 earth, but still a bird." And Robertson, of ;^righton, saj^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 you 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 you 
 have done your best, you have fallen far below your dream, and the 
 Canaan of your heart's desire lies still in the far distance. All great and 
 grand things lie in the heart of our strivings. 
 
T. DeWITT TALMAGE (18324902) 
 
 THE TRUMPET BLAST OF THE PULPIT 
 
 mRUMPET 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 orator and lecturer Talmage 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 of thoughts. His popularity is shown in the wide circulation of 
 his sermons, 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 
 [From 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 events 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 King 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- 
 tj 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 whole army has come to destroy you ! We must die ! Alas, we 
 must die ! " But Elisha was not frightened, for he looked up &nd 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 
 
 279 
 
280 T. DEWITT TALMAGE 
 
 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 Elish a." . . . . 
 
 How do I know that this divine equipage is on the side of our insti- 
 tutions ? I 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, and the most distin- 
 guished commanders, with resources almost inexhaustible, and with nearly 
 all nations to back them up in the fight. Nothing against immensity. 
 
 The cause 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 predecessors in depths of snow and horrors of congealment. Klisha, 
 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 secular 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 like, 
 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. mM 
 
 Again, in 1861, when our Civil War opened, many at the North an^^ 
 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 
 
 i 
 
T. DEWITT TALMAGE 281 
 
 of the North against the prayer of the South, one-half of the nation in 
 armed wrath meeting the other half of the nation in armed 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 its 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 
 driver not to jolt too much. During the most of the four years of the 
 contest the commander on the Southern side was a man in midlife, who 
 had in his veins the blood of many generations of warriors, himself one 
 of the heroes of Cherubusco and Cerro Gordo, Contreras and Chapultepec. 
 As the years rolled on and the scroll of carnage unrolled, there came out 
 from both sides a heroism and a strength and a determination that the 
 world had never seen surpassed. What but extermination could come 
 where Philip Sheridan and Stonewall Jackson led their brigades, and 
 Nathaniel Lyon and Sydney Johnston rode in from the North and South, 
 and Grant and Lee, the two thunderbolts of battle, clashed ? Yet we are 
 still a nation, and we are at peace. Earthly courage did not decide 
 the contest. It was the upper forces that saved 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. 
 The result of the election was in dispute, and revolution, not between two 
 or three sections, but revolution in every town and village and city of the 
 United States, seemed imminent. It looked as if New York would throttle 
 New York ; and New Orleans would grip New Orleans ; and Boston, 
 Boston ; and Savannah, Savannah ; and Washington, Washington. Some 
 said that Mr. Tilden was elected ; others said that Mr. Hayes was elected ; 
 and how near we came to universal massacre some of us guessed, but God 
 only knew. I ascribe our escape not to the honesty and righteousness of 
 infuriated politicians, but I ascribe it to the upper forces, the army of 
 divine rescue. The chariot of mercy rolled in, and though the wheels 
 were not heard and the flash was not seen, yet through all the mountains 
 of the North and the South, and the East and the West, though the hoofs 
 did not clatter, the cavalry of God galloped by. God is the friend of this 
 nation. In the awful excitement of the massacre of Lincoln, where there 
 was a prospect that greater slaughter would come upon us, God hushed 
 the tempest. In the awful excitement at the time of Garfield's assassina- 
 tion, God put his foot on the neck of the cyclone. 
 
HENRY CODMAN POTTER (t835 ) 
 
 THE ELOQUENT EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF NEW YORK 
 
 mHE Potter family is highly distinguished in the Episcopal 
 Church in the United States, it having furnished three bishops 
 to that Church within the nineteenth century. These include 
 Alonzo Potter, consecrated Bishop of Pennsylvania in 1845 ; Horatio 
 Potter, his brother, Bishop of New York in 1861 ; and Henry Cod- 
 man Potter, his son, who was consecrated Bishop of New York in 
 1887. The last named had previously held various rectorships, the 
 most noteworthy being at Grace Church, New York. He is the 
 author of a number of valuable works of literature, and is a pulpit 
 orator of fine powers and high estimation. 
 
 THE HEROISM OF THE UNKNOWN 
 
 [As a fitting example of the warmth and effectiveness of Bishop Potter's elo- 
 quence, we give the following extract from an address made by him at the dedication 
 of a monument in commemoration of the men of New York who fell at the battle of 
 Gettysburg. A-fter speaking of ithe seemingly inevitable character of the Civil War, 
 and the great moral problem which it solved, he offered the following tribute to 
 the unknown heroes who gave their lives at Gettysburg in their country's cause.] 
 
 Thirty 5^ars ago to-day these peaceful scenes were echoing with the 
 roar and din of what a calm and unimpassioned 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 gathered 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, as though the very throats of the mighty 
 guns were tired ; but only for a little. Not for one day, nor for two, but 
 for three, raged the awful conflict, while the Republic gave its best life to 
 282 
 
 i 
 
HENRY CODMAN POTTER ^ 283 
 
 redeem its honor, and the stain of all previous blundering and faltering 
 was washed away forever with the blood of its patriots and martyrs. How 
 far away it 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 it greets us now ! The graves that cluster around us here, the 
 peaceful resting-places of a nation's heroes, are green and fair ; and, 
 within them, they who fell here, after life's fierce and fitful fever, are 
 sleeping peacefully the sleep of the brave 
 
 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- 
 ing supremacy of just and equitable government, and so for the liberties 
 of a united and law-abiding people. 
 
 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 individuality of 
 grief. These are our unknown dead. Out of whatever homes they came 
 we cannot tell. What were their names, their lineage, we are ignorant. 
 One thing only we know. They wore our uniform. And that is enough 
 for us. 
 
 We need to know no more. From the banks of the Hudson and the 
 St. lyawrence ; from the wilds of the Catskills and the 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 alike, they came 
 here and fought and fell — and shall never, never be forgotten. Our great 
 unknown defenders ! Ah, my countrymen, here we touch the founda- 
 tions of a people's safety — of a nation's greatness. We are wont 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." 
 Yes, verily, that is 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 
 to-day. All the more are they the fitting representatives of you and of 
 me — the people. Never in all history, I venture to afiirm, was there a war 
 
284 HENRY CODMAN POTTER 
 
 whose 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 seer 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, el^ct 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, and 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- 
 ence 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 crowne 
 in the Salle des Glaces at Versailles, on the ceiling of the great hall i 
 which that memorable ceremony took place, there were inscribed tb 
 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 see so plainly now, that it was not 
 they who saved the country, but the host of her great unknown. 
 
 3. 
 
 ] 
 
CAMPAIGN ORATORY 
 
 William J. Bryan making a Campaign Speech from the rear end 
 of a train As a political orator, he is distinguished, being well 
 equipped by nature and training for public speaking. 
 
FRANK W. GUNSAULUS (1856- 
 
 CHICAGO'S FAVORITE PULPIT ORATOR 
 
 AMONG the pulpit orators of the West, Dr. Gunsaulus, whose 
 ministrations for many years past have been confined to the 
 "^ metropolitan city of the lakes, has long held a high place in 
 public estimation. Born at Chesterville, Ohio, and educated for the 
 ministry at the Ohio Wesleyan University, he passed the first four years 
 of his ministerial life as a Methodist preacher. Subsequently entering 
 the Congregational Church, he filled the pastorate of the Eastwood 
 Church at Columbus, Ohio, from 1879 to 1881, preached during the suc- 
 ceeding four years at Newtonville, Massachusetts, and for two years at 
 Baltimore, and became pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church, 
 of Chicago, in 1887. In 1899, he removed to the Central Church, 
 Chicago. In addition he has been a lecturer at the Yale Theological 
 Seminary, and a professorial lecturer at the University of Chicago. 
 Aside from his pulpit duties, he has been somewhat active as an author, 
 especially in the field of poetry, his poems embracing several volumes 
 of graceful and thoughtful verse. As a pulpit orator, Dr. Gunsaulus 
 -is highly esteemed, and is looked upon as one of the leading lights in 
 the Western ministry. 
 
 THE TAPESTRY OF ANGLO-SAXON CIVILIZATION 
 
 [Among the many memorial sermons and addresses delivered after the death 
 of Britain's esteemed Queen, that spoken by Dr. Gunsaulus in the Auditorium at 
 Chicago, February, 1901, is certainly one of the most elevated and appreciative, alike 
 in its estimate of the character of Victoria and its lofty conception of Anglo-Saxon 
 progress during her reign, as compared with that of the age of Elizabeth, England's 
 former great Queen. From this fine address we select the portions in which this view 
 of modern progress is most picturesquely set forth.] 
 
 Wonderful and rich is that tapestry known as Anglo-Saxon civiliza- 
 Ition. The pattern, all beautiful, was seen in vision by him who relaid the 
 
 23s 
 
286 FRANK W. GUNSAULUS 
 
 foundations of society on the tnith of the Fatherhood of God and the Bro- 
 therhood of Man . Poets and priests have not been alone in catching glimp- 
 ses of its glory from time to time. As they have climbed reverently up the 
 altar steps of Calvary, kings like Charlemagne, Alfred and Gustavus 
 Adolphus, in spite of limitations and the ignorance of their times, have 
 looked now and then upon the external plan of God in the redemption of 
 man by man. So far as they have obeyed the vision, they have been the 
 truly 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 the uncrowned kings of time, such as Hampden, Lin- 
 coln and Cavour, each of them in the light of this vision has become great. 
 They have come into a growing supremacy over men's hearts, not so much 
 because of might of mental endowment or that wit or wisdom which springs 
 from unique prowess of brain, as because of the fact that each of them, 
 after the manner of his own character, loyally seized upon the purpose of 
 the Infinite One and compelled himself and all things attaching themselves 
 to him, to enter into the achieving of the will of God in human history. 
 
 Some of these, like Victoria, have the distinction of being less appar- 
 ently illustrious than others, especially in the possession of military and 
 civil genius, in those abilities which manifest themselves in consummate 
 strategy or comprehensive organization. This very fact, however, enables 
 us to see the true foundation and manner of their greatness. If these less 
 magnetic leaders of the race wrote as inspiring pages of history, or if they 
 also trained the forces of an age till they met in orderly battalions around 
 their thrones, it was not because of the greatness of humanity displayed 
 at fortunate moments, but because of the greatness of God revealed in 
 humanity. A little child mounting reverently and obediently upon the 
 vast shoulders of the Infinite God, and living his life there at the high 
 level to which the uplifting God has raised him, is taller far than the 
 mightiest of giants. He gets the sublime point of view, he travels with 
 the gait of the swift, sure and on-marching Jehovah. When he is weak- 
 est, he is strongest. His cry is, '' The Almighty is my defense," " Yea, 
 Lord, Thy gentleness hath made me great." Such was the greatness of 
 Victoria, Queen of England. With her hand on these Scriptures and 
 their like, she answered an Indian prince, who inquired of her the secret 
 of England's greatness: "This," and she gave him a Bible — "this is 
 the secret of England's greatness." 
 
 She approached her throne at a time when a totally opposite view of 
 what constitutes greatness had well-nigh bewildered Europe, but at length 
 had been torn into tatters in the name of humanity at Waterloo. Its bril- 
 liant incarnation was dying an exile on the English island of St. Helena^ 
 
 
FRANK W. GUNSAULUS 287 
 
 When Wellington defeated Napoleon on that memorable day, it was not 
 so much England gaining a victory over France, as the civilization of 
 Europe rising to behold the idea of duty struggling triumphantly against 
 the illusion of glory. 
 
 ** Not once or twice in our rough island story, 
 The path of duty is the way to glory.** 
 
 So sings the Englishman to-day. After sixty years of duty doing, 
 the accomplished sovereignty of Victoria has flung its warm light upon 
 the history of our times. No other kind of greatness, save the greatness 
 allied with the on-going process of God's plan, realizing itself in the 
 development and education of man, would have been equal to the 
 demands of our age. No greatness is equal to the demands and oppor- 
 tunities of any time which is not true to the heart of eternity. Taine 
 says that Napoleon was a Caesar thrust upon the eighteenth century. Let 
 us add that Victoria, who had visited in her worship and hope the cross 
 of Jesus once lifted up upon a hill-top in one of Caesar's dependencies, 
 was a Christian possessing that statesman-like vision which shall make 
 Csesarism impossible. Her era was to be an era devoted to the scientific 
 method. It was to be conscious of indubitable facts. Within the efful- 
 gence of every movement of its course there was to be discerned a plain 
 and often too hard reality. The greatness, therefore, which should both 
 reign and rule, was that whose eyes saw not glory, but duty, as the 
 " Stern daughter of the voice of God. " Like her own earliest poet-lau- 
 reate, Wordsworth, who gave to England this happy phrase, the realm 
 over which Victoria was to rule had put aside the fever-haunted dream 
 sympathetic with the French Revolution ; and the best hope of civiliza- 
 tion was ready for a time when public duty should obey the dictates of 
 lofty personal morality, while freedom, *' broadening slowly down, from 
 precedent to precedent," would win new triumphs throughout all the 
 world, along with such achievements of literature and art, and especially 
 trade and commerce, manufacture, invention and discovery, as would 
 dazzle the eye of the student of history 
 
 What are called the "spacious times of great Elizabeth" were 
 spacious indeed, as compared with those confined and narrow days before 
 England experienced her true renaissance. When Edmund Spenser 
 accompanied Raleigh to London in the winter of 1589, stopping on his 
 way to add to the first three books of " The Fairie Queen," England .was 
 almost a fairy land given over to the fresh romances which filled the Eng- 
 lish imagination. Her heroic sailors came back with tales that expanded 
 the fancy and stimulated the enterprise of an age whose poet was the 
 
288 FRANK W. GUNSAULUS 
 
 greatest dramatist of all time, whose philosopher championed the method 
 of modern science whose courtiers, like Leicester and Sydney, whose 
 singers, like Ben Johnson and Fletcher, vied with men of equal under- 
 standing and talent to create an era of marvels in literature, discovery and 
 thought, making it as worthy of renown as the era of Pericles in Greece 
 or that of Augustus in Rome. 
 
 Not less of the wonderful has characterized Victoria's time. The 
 lyrics of the time of Elizabeth and those of the era of Victoria are full of 
 the same smell of the brine and billowy sweep of the waves which the 
 spirit of England has met in storm and shine, as the insularity of the Eng- 
 lishman has given way to the proud realization that the island is not too 
 small to produce political and literary impulses whose dominion girdles 
 the planet. As Italian song gave form to the finer products of Eliza- 
 bethan literature, so Elizabethan verse has communicated its strength and 
 richness to Victorian poetry. But the greatness of Victoria abides in this, 
 that whatever be the origin of the literature and art, of the commerce and 
 politics, or of the astonishing movement in science and invention, hers 
 has been the privilege of beholding and even influencing with a genial sky 
 that newly-discovered sea of thought whose currents are longer and deeper 
 than any observed by an Elizabethan sea-rover, an ocean, indeed, whose 
 waves are subservient to tides mightier than any which crushed the 
 Spanish Armada. There has been something so vast, enchanting, and 
 truly romantic in the swift enlargement of human life as these strange 
 seas of thought upon which modern minds have voyaged, have come into 
 view, that man turns the pages of history in vain to find a parallel. The 
 Drake of Elizabeth's day, sailing over the nameless solitudes of the 
 Pacific, is surpassed by the genius of Charles Darwin finding the new 
 coasts of truth against which all waters roll. Bacon's gives place to the 
 vaster induction of Herbert Spencer. Sir Walter Raleigh's amazing 
 tales of Golcondas and Eldorados, newly disclosed, are far less wonder- 
 ful than the realities, definitely labeled, or daily put to use in the labor- 
 atory of the physicist or engineer of to-day. As truly as the Elizabethan 
 spirit stimulated the vigorous efforts which resulted in the glory of her 
 age, so has the Victorian spirit quickened and inspired the more sub- 
 lime movements whose fruition has given this age its imperishable 
 renown. The very personality of Victoria has been a genial climate in 
 which countless and fair blossoms have come to be. She herself has 
 been the most pervasive and important fact and factor in her own coun- 
 try and time, and thus the importance and splendor of no movement in 
 her day eclipses the brightness of the Queen. 
 
 * 
 
DWIGHT L MOODY (18374899) 
 
 THE ELOQUENT EVANGELIST 
 
 BOR many years Dwight L. Moody was immensely popular as an 
 evangelist, preaching to vast crowds both in the United States 
 and Great Britain. In both countries he had remarkable suc- 
 cess, and exerted a powerful influence for good on various classes of 
 the people. The success of his ministrations was very greatly 
 enhanced by the sweet voice and fine native powers of song of Ira D. 
 Sankey, who accompanied him in his wanderings, singing the familiar 
 ** Ninety and Nine " and various other hymns, original and striking 
 in music and words. 
 
 Mr. Moody was born in Massachusetts, but went to Chicago in 
 1856, where, while engaged in business, he carried on an active mis- 
 sionary work. He was joined by Mr. Sankey in 1870, and for years 
 afterward he was engaged in evangelical labors. As an orator Mr. 
 Moody depended largely on his power of working on the emotions of 
 li an audience, his sermons manifesting little original thought and being 
 by no means examples of classic English. 
 
 GOD IS LOVE 
 
 [From one of Mr. Moody's sermons, with the above title, we select an interest- 
 ing and very well told anecdote, which will serve as a favorable example of his 
 powers.] 
 
 My text is taken from the ist epistle of John, and it is one of those 
 : texts the world does not believe. If I could make every one in this build- 
 1 ing believe this text, I would not preach a sermon. If we all believed it, 
 j we would not need a sermon. "God is love." That is one of the texts 
 j the devil would like to blot out of the Bible. For six thousand years he 
 has been going up and down the world trying to make men believe that 
 I God is not love. Love begets love, and hate begets hate. Let me tell 
 19 289 
 
290 DWIGHt L. MOODY 
 
 any one of you that I heard a man say this week that you were one of th^ 
 meanest men in town, and you will soon come to the conclusion that the 
 man who said that was the meanest man you ever heard of. Let me tell 
 you that I heard a man say he thought more of you than of any other man 
 in the city, and, though you may not have thought about him before, your 
 love will spring up and you will say, "I think a great deal of that man." 
 
 Now, men are believing the devil's lies when they don't believe God 
 is love. A few years ago, when we built a church in Chicago, a friend 
 put up over the pulpit in gas-jets the words, * 'God is love. " We thought, 
 if we couldn't preach it into the hearts of the people, we would burn it in. 
 A man happened to see that text up there, and he said to himself: "God is 
 not love ; God does not love me ;" and he came around into the church, 
 not to hear the sermon, but to see the text as it was burning there upon 
 the wall. The arrow reached its mark. He went into the inquiry meet- 
 ing. I inquired what it was impressed him. He said it was not the ser- 
 mon ; it was those words that had burned into his soul. He was weeping, 
 and he wanted to know what he should do to be saved. 
 
 * ' God is love. ' ' I hope this text will find its way into every heart 
 here. I want to prove it from Scripture. The great trouble with men is, 
 they are all the time trying to measure God by their own rule, and from 
 their own standpoint. A man is apt to j udge others from his own standard. 
 If a man is covetous, he thinks every one else is covetous. If he is a self- 
 ish man, he thinks every one else is selfish. If a man is guilty of adul- 
 tery, he thinks every other man is. If a man is dishonest, he thinks every 
 other man is. Many are trying to bring God down to their own level. 
 They don't know that between human love and divine love there is as 
 much difference as there is between darkness and light. God's love is 
 deep and high ; Paul says it passeth knowledge. We love a man as long 
 as he is worthy of our love, and when he is not we cast him off; but we 
 don't find in the Word of God that God casts off those who are not 
 worthy of His love. If He did, there would be no one in the kingdom of 
 God except Jesus himself. 
 
 A poor woman came into the inquiry room, and said she had no 
 strength. I said: ''Thank God for that, Christ died for us when we 
 were without strength." Christ died for the ungodly. There was a timei 
 when I preached that God hated the sinner, and that God was after every 
 poor sinner with a double-edged sword. Many a time have I represented 
 that God was after every poor sinner, ready to hew him down. But I 
 have changed my ideas upon this point. I will tell you how. 
 
 In 1867, when I was preaching in Dublin, in a large hall, at the closer 
 of the service a young man, who did not look over seventeen, though he' 
 
DWIGHT L. MOODY 291 
 
 was older, came tip to me and said he would like to go back to America 
 with me and preach the gospel. I thought he could not preach it, and I 
 said I was undecided when I could go back. He asked me if I would 
 write to him when I went, and he would come with me. When I went I 
 thought I would not write to him, as I did not know whether I wanted 
 him or not. After I arrived at Chicago I got a letter saying he had just 
 arrived at New York, and he would come and preach. I wrote him a 
 cold letter, asking him to call on me if he came West. A few days after, 
 I got a letter stating he would be in Chicago next Thursday. I didn't 
 know what to do with him. I said to the officers of the church : " There 
 is a man coming from England, and he wants to preach. I am going to 
 be absent on Thursday and Friday. If you will let him preach on those 
 days, I will be back on Saturday, and take him off your hands." 
 
 They did not care about him preaching, being a stranger ; but at my 
 request they let him preach. On my return on Saturday I was anxious 
 to hear how the people liked him, and I asked my wife how that young 
 Englishman got along. " How did they like him ? " She said, " They 
 liked him very much. He preaches a little different from what you do. 
 He tells people God loves them. I think you will like him." I said he 
 was wrong. I thought I could not like a man who preached contrary to 
 what I was preaching. I went down Saturday night to hear him, but I 
 had made up my mind not to like him because he preached different 
 from me. He took his text, — and I saw everybody had brought their 
 Bibles with them. "Now," he says, ** if you will turn to the third 
 chapter of John and the sixteenth verse, you will find my text." He 
 preached a wonderful sermon from that text. " For God so loved the 
 world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
 Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." My wife had told me 
 he had preached the two previous sermons from that text, and I noticed 
 there was a smile over the house when he took the same text. Instead of 
 preaching that God was behind them with a double-edged sword to hew 
 l^ them down, he told them God wanted every sinner to be saved, and He 
 jfi loved them. I could not keep back the tears. I didn't know God 
 ^r. thought so much of me. It was wonderful to hear the way he brought 
 .. i out Scripture. He went from Genesis to Revelation, and preached that in 
 .. all ages God loved the sinner. 
 
 .^ On Sunday night there was a great crowd came to hear him. He 
 
 j»;:i took for his text the third chapter of John and sixteenth verse, and he 
 ^ • preached his fourth sermon from that wonderful text, ' ' For God so loved 
 ,^ the world," &c., and he went from Genesis to Revelation to show that it 
 , .. jwas love, love, love that brought Christ from Heaven, that made Him 
 
292 DWIGHT L. MOODY 
 
 step from the throne to lift up this poor, fallen world. He struck a 
 higher chord that night, and it was glorious. The next night there was 
 an immense crowd, and he said : '* Turn to the third chapter and sixteenth 
 verse of John," and he preached his fifth sermon from that wonderful text. 
 He did not divide his text up into firstly, secondly, and thirdly, but he 
 took the whole text and threw it at them. I thought that sermon was 
 better than ever. I got so full of love that I got up and told my friends 
 how much God loved them. The whole church was on fire before the 
 week was over. Tuesday night came, and there was a greater crowd than 
 ever. The preacher said : ' ' Turn to the third chapter of John and the 
 sixteenth verse and you will find my text," and he preached his sixth 
 sermon from that wonderful text, " God so loved the world," &c. They 
 thought that sermon was better than any of the rest. It seemed as if 
 every heart was on fire, and sinners came pressing into the kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 On Wednesday night people thought that probably he would change 
 his text now, as he could not talk any longer on love. There was great 
 excitement to see what he was going to say. He stood before us again, 
 and he said : " My friends, I have been trying to get a new text, but I 
 cannot find any as good as the old one, so we will again turn to the third 
 chapter of John and the sixteenth verse." He preached his seventh ser- 
 mon from that wonderful text. I have never forgotten those nights. I 
 have preached a different gospel since, and I have had more power with 
 God and man since then. In closing up that seventh sermon he said : * ' For 
 seven nights I have been trying to tell you how much God loved you, but 
 this poor stammering tongue of mine will not let me. If I could ascend 
 Jacob's ladder and ask Gabriel, who stands in the presence of the 
 Almighty, to tell me how much love God the Father has for this poor 
 lost world, all that Gabriel could say would be ' That God so loved the 
 world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
 Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' " 
 
 When he got through preaching in Chicago we had to get the largest 
 building there, and then thousands went away because they could not get 
 in. He went to Europe, and returned again. In the meantime our 
 church had been burned, and you people of Philadelphia put us up a 
 temporary building. When he came there he preached in this temporary 
 building, and he said : " Although the old building is burnt up, the old 
 text is not burnt up, and we will preach from that." So he preached 
 from where he had left off" preaching about the love of God. 
 
BOOK VIL 
 
 Leaders in the Lecture Field 
 
 IT is not alone in the legislative hall or the pulpit 
 that oratory flourishes. It is also to be found in 
 the field of forensic argument, and the lecture 
 field. In the former of these, while rare displays of 
 eloquence are ot times given, their subject is usually 
 one of local and passing interest, which fact renders 
 them unsuitable for popular reading. In the latter, 
 while the topic is usually of an educational character, 
 this is by no means always the case. The lecturer's 
 purpose may not be to teach, but to convince and 
 reform. Of such character are the many addresses on 
 the subjects of temperance, woman's suffrage, Indus- 
 trial oppression, and numerous other topics in which 
 some wrong Is to be righted, some evil to be over- 
 come. At the present day the lecture is a widely-pre- 
 vailing form of the oration. In the absence of stirring 
 causes for legislative eloquence, even the political 
 speech verges towards this form. In a nation that 
 is entirely peaceful and prosperous, with no vital dif- 
 ference of opinion between its citizens, the oration 
 will become more and more of the lecture character, 
 its purpose being to instruct, interest or amuse, 
 rather than to cure the political or social evils of the 
 age. In the past many lecturers of fine powers have 
 appeared, and English and American literature con- 
 tains numerous readable and inspiring examples in this 
 field. We shall here give extracts from some of the 
 more eloquent and famous of these public favorites. 
 
 293 
 
JOSEPH STORY (1779=1845) 
 
 JURIST AND COLLEGE LECTURER 
 
 mUDGE STORY, appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of 
 the United States in 1811, when thirty-two years of age, had 
 the honor of being the youngest man who had ever held so 
 high a judicial position either in America or England. He continued 
 to hold that office until his death in 1845. He had previously been a 
 member of the Legislature of Massachusetts, and of Congress, and for 
 many years during his judicial term was at the head of the Law School 
 of Harvard University. Throughout his life he pursued an active 
 literary career, beginning as a jurist and devoting himself after 1804 
 to legal study. His subsequent treatises upon the law were of the 
 most profound character, his writings being more voluminous than 
 those of any other lawyer of great eminence. " For learning, indus- 
 try, and talent,'^ says Chancellor Kent, " he is the most extraordinary 
 jurist of the age." 
 
 As an orator Judge Story won wide esteem, and his lectures upon 
 the dry themes of the law were delivered with such an enthusiasm, and 
 were so richly embellished with anecdotes and illustrative episodes, 
 that they gained the piquancy of literary lectures. No educator ever 
 had a stronger hold upon his students or a more unbounded influence 
 over their minds, and he w^as great and popular alike in the college 
 hall and on the judicial bench. 
 
 THE DESTINY OF THE INDIAN 
 
 [Of Judge Story's oratory, the best known and most picturesque example ]| ^ 
 the often quoted passage npon the melancholy fate of the American Indians. Thii 
 formed part of his discourse, before the Essex Historical Society, upon the first settled 
 ment of Salem, Massachusetts. No nobler specimen could be chosen of his oratorical 
 Style, it being a gem of literary finish and sympathetic eloquence.] 
 294 
 
 \ 
 
JOSEPH STORY 295 
 
 There is, indeed, in the fate of these unfortunate beings, much to 
 awaken our sympathy, and much to disturb the sobriety of our judgment; 
 much, which may be urged to excuse their own atrocities ; much in their 
 characters which betrays us into an involuntary admiration. What can 
 be more melancholy than their history ? By a law of their nature, they 
 seem destined to a slow but sure extinction. Everywhere, at the approach, 
 of the white man, they fade away. We hear the rustling of their footsteps 
 like that of the withered leaves of autumn, and they are gone forever. 
 They pass mournfully by us, and they return no more. Two centuries 
 ago, the smoke of their wigwams and the fires of their councils rose in 
 every valley, from Hudson's Bay to the farthest Florida, from the ocean 
 to the Mississippi and the lakes. The shouts of victory and the war-dance 
 rang through the mountains and the glades. The thick arrows and the 
 deadly tomahawk whistled through the forests ; and the hunter's trace and 
 the dark encampment startled the wild beasts in their lairs. The warriors 
 stood forth in their glory. The young listened to the songs of other days./ 
 The mothers played with their infants, and gazed on the scene with warm 
 hopes of the future. The aged sat down; but they wept not. They 
 should soon be at rest in fairer regions, where the Great Spirit dwelt, in a 
 home prepared for the brave, beyond the Western skies. Braver men 
 never lived ; truer men never drew the bow. They had courage, and 
 fortitude, and sagacity, and perseverance, beyond most of the human race. 
 They shrank from no dangers, and they feared no hardships. If they had 
 the vices of savage life, they had the virtues also. They were true to their, 
 country, their friends, and their homes. If they forgave not injury, nei- 
 ther did they forget kindness. If their vengeance was terrible, their 
 fidelity and generosity were unconquerable also. Their love, like their 
 hate, stopped not on this side of the grave. 
 
 But where are they? Where are the villages and warriors and 
 youth ; the sachems and the tribes ; the hunters and their families ? They 
 have perished. (They are consumed. The wasting pestilence has not 
 alone done the mighty work. No — nor famine, nor war. There has been 
 a mightier power, a moral canker, which hath eaten into their heart- 
 cores, a plague which the touch of the white man communicated, a 
 poison which betrayed them into a lingering ruin. The winds of the 
 Atlantic fan not a single region which they may now call their own. 
 Already the last feeble remnants of their race are preparing for their jour- 
 ney beyond the Mississippi. I see them leave their miserable homes — the 
 aged, the helpless, the women and the warriors — ** few and faint, yet fear- 
 less still." The ashes are cold on their native hearths. The smoke no 
 longer curls round their lowly cabins. They move on with a slov^^i 
 
296 JOSEPH STORY 
 
 unsteady step. The white man is upon their heels, for terror or despatch; 
 but they heed him not. They turn to take a last look of their deserted 
 villages. They cast a last glance upon the graves of their fathers. They 
 shed no tears ; they utter no cries ; they heave no groans. There is 
 something in their hearts which passes speech. There is something in 
 their looVs, not of vengeance or submission, but of hard necessity, which 
 stifles both ; which chokes all utterance ; which has no aim or method. 
 It is courage absorbed in despair. They linger but for a moment. Their 
 look is onward. They have passed the fatal stream. It shall never be 
 repassed by them — no, never. Yet there lies not between us and them an 
 impassable gulf. They know and feel that there is for them still one 
 remove farther, not distant nor unseen. It is to the general burial-ground 
 of their race. 
 
 HASTY WORK IS PRENTICE T^ORK 
 
 It was a beautiful remark of Sir Joshua Reynolds that "Great works, 
 which are to live and stand the criticism of posterity, are not performed 
 at a heat." ** I remember," says he, *' when I was at Rome, looking at 
 the Fighting Gladiator in company with an eminent sculptor, and I 
 expressed my admiration of the skill with which the whole is composed, 
 and the minute attention of the artist to the change of every muscle in 
 that momentary exertion of strength. He was of opinion that a work so 
 perfect required nearly the whole life of man to perform." 
 
 What an admonition ! What a melancholy reflection to those who 
 deem the literary fame of the present age the best gift to posterity ! How 
 many of our proudest geniuses have written, and continue to write, with a 
 swiftness which almost rivals the operations of the press ! How many are 
 urged on to the ruin of their immortal hopes by that public favor which 
 receives with acclamation every new offspring of their pen ! If Milton 
 had written thus, we should have found no scholar of our day, no Chris- 
 tian Examiner ^ portraying the glory of his character with the enthusiasm 
 of a kindred spirit. If Pope had written thus, we should have had no 
 fine contests respecting his genius and poetical attainments by our Byrons 
 and Bowleses and Roscoes. If Virgil had written thus, he might have 
 chanted his verses to the courtly Augustus ; but Marcellus and his story 
 would have perished. If Horace had written thus, he might have 
 enchanted gay friends and social parties ; but it would never have been 
 said of his composition : decies repetita placebit. 
 
 \ 
 
SERGEANT S. PRENTISS (J 8084 85 J 
 
 THE aCERO OF THE SOUTH 
 
 AMONG the natural orators of America, the men to whom the 
 gift of fluent speech is part of their very being, there have 
 *— ^ been none to surpass Sergeant S. Prentiss, a son of Maine, but 
 for many years a resident of the South. In the words of one of his 
 contemporaries : " His most striking talent was his oratory. We have 
 never known nor read of a man who equalled Prentiss in the faculty 
 of thinking on his legs, or of extemporaneous eloquence. He required 
 no preparation to speak on any subject, and on all he was equally 
 happy. We have heard from him, thrown out in a dinner speech, or 
 at a public meeting, when unexpectedly called on, more brilliant and 
 striking thoughts than many of the most celebrated poets and orators 
 ever elaborated in their closets." 
 
 Born at Portland, Maine, an opportunity for a lucrative tutor- 
 ship took him from college to Natchez, Mississippi, and it was in this 
 city and in New Orleans that he afterward resided, obtaining in each 
 a very large legal practice. Elected to Congress in 1837, his seat was 
 contested, and he addressed the House in support of his claim in a 
 most admirable burst of oratory. His reputation as an orator had 
 preceded him, and the House was crowded with those who desired to 
 test the quality of his eloquence. Rarely has Congress heard 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 
 \^s not to his taste. But his brief stay there was one of brilliancy 
 anU.success, his few speeches winning him public applause and firmly 
 ^gtablishing his iame as a statesmanlike orator. He continued, how- 
 
 297 
 
298 • SERGEANT S. PRENTISS 
 
 ever, to take part in political movements, and became widely known 
 as a most effective campaign speaker. In 1845 he removed from 
 Vicksburg to New Orleans, in which city he died in 1851. 
 
 THE PILGRIMS 
 
 [One of Mr. Prentiss' best known orations is the address delivered before the 
 New England Society of New Orleans, on December 22, 1845. His eulogy of the Pil- 
 grims was a most effective bit of word painting, especially in his contrast of their 
 character and aims with those of the Spanish adventurers of the South.] 
 
 Two centuries and a quarter ago, a little tempest- tost, weather- 
 beaten bark, barely escaped from the jaws of the wild Atlantic, landed 
 upon the bleakest shore of New England. From her deck disembarked 
 a hundred and one care-worn exiles. To the casual observer no event 
 could seem more insignificant. The contemptuous eye of the world 
 scarcely deigned to notice it. Yet the famous vessel that bore Caesar and 
 his fortunes, carried but an ignoble freight compared with that of the 
 Mayflower . Her little band of Pilgrims brought with them neither wealth 
 nor power, but the principles of civil and religious freedom. They 
 planted them, for the first time, in the Western Continent. They cher- 
 ished, cultivated and developed them to a full and luxuriant maturity ; 
 and then furnished them to their posterity as the only sure and permanent 
 foundations for a free government. Upon those foundations rests the 
 fabric of our great Republic ; upon thDse principles depends the career of 
 human liberty. Little did the miserable pedant and bigot who then 
 wielded the sceptre of Great Britain imagine that from this feeble settle- 
 ment of persecuted and despised Puritans would arise a nation capable of 
 coping with his own mighty empire in arts and arms. . . 
 
 How proudl}'- can we compare their conduct with that of the adven- 
 turers of other nations who preceded them. How did the Spaniard colo- 
 nize ? Let Mexico, Peru and Hispaniola answer. He followed in the 
 train of the great Discoverer, like a devouring pestilence. His cry was 
 gold ! gold ! ! gold ! ! ! Never in the history of the world had the sacra 
 fames aurz exhibited itself with such fearful intensity. His imagination 
 maddened with visions of sudden and boundless wealth, clad in mail, he 
 leaped upon the New World, an armed robber. In greedy haste he 
 grasped the sparkling sand, then cast it down with curses, when he found 
 the glittering grains were not of gold. 
 
 Pitiless as the blood-hound by his side, he plunged into the primeval 
 forests, crossed rivers, lakes, and mountains, and penetrated to the very 
 heart of the continent. No region, however rich in soil, delicious in 
 climate, or luxuriant in production, could tempt his $tay. In vain th$ 
 
SERGEANT S. PRENTISS 299 
 
 soft breeze of the tropics, laden with aromatic fragrance, wooed him to 
 rest ; in vain the smiling valleys, covered with spontaneous fruits and 
 flowers, invited him to peaceful quiet. His search was still for gold : the 
 accursed hunger could not be appeased. The simple natives gazed upon 
 him in superstitious wonder, and worshipped him as a god ; and he 
 proved to them a god, but an infernal one — terrible, cruel and remors- 
 less. With bloody hands he tore the ornaments from their persons, and 
 the shrines from their altars : he tortured them to discover hidden trea- 
 sure, and slev/ them that he might search, even in their wretched throats, 
 for concealed gold. Well might the miserable Indians imagine that a 
 race of evil deities had come among them, more bloody and relentless than 
 those who presided over their own sanguinary rites. 
 
 Now let us turn to the Pilgrims. They, too, were tempted ; and had 
 they yielded to the temptation how different might have been the destinies 
 of this continent — how different must have been our own ! Previous to 
 their undertaking, the Old World was filled with strange and wonderful 
 accounts of the New. The unbounded wealth drawn by the Spaniards 
 from Mexico and South America, seemed to afford rational support for 
 the wildest assertions. Bach succeeding adventurer, returning from his 
 voyage, added to the Arabian tales a still more extravagant story. At 
 length Sir Walter Raleigh, the most accomplished and distinguished of 
 all those bold voyagers, announced to the world his discovery of the 
 province of Guiana, and its magnificent capital, the far-famed city of El 
 Dorado. We smile now at his account of the " great and golden city," 
 and "the mighty rich and beautiful empire." We can hardly imagine 
 that any one could have believed, for a moment, in their existence. At 
 that day, however, 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 more lively prospects; 
 hills so raised here and there over the valleys — the river winding into 
 divers branches — the plains adjoining, without bush 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 fresh, 
 with a gentle easterly wind ; and every stone that we stopped to take up 
 promised either gold or silver by its complexion. For health, good air, 
 pleasure, and riches, I am resolved it cannot be equalled 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, which 
 
300 SERGEANT S. PRENTISS 
 
 seemed to invite to pious contemplation and peaceful labor. Well might 
 the green grass, the pleasant groves, the tame deer, and the singing birds 
 allure them to that smiling land beneath the equinoctial line. But while 
 they doubted not the existence of this wondrous region, they resisted its 
 tempting charms. They had resolved to vindicate, at the same time, 
 their patriotism and their principles — to add dominion to their native 
 land, and to demonstrate to the world the practicabilty of civil and relig- 
 ious liberty. After full discussion and mature deliberation, they deter- 
 mined that their great objects could be best accomplished by a settlement 
 on some portion of the northern continent which would hold out no 
 temptation to cupidity, no inducement to persecution. Putting aside, 
 then, all considerations of wealth and ease, they addressed themselves 
 with high resolution to the accomplishment of their noble purpose. In 
 the language of the historian, "trusting to God and themselves," they 
 embarked upon their perilous enterprise. 
 
 As I said before, I shall not accompany them on their adventurous 
 voyage. On the 2 2d day of December, 1620, according to our present com- 
 putation, their footsteps pressed the famous rock which has ever since 
 remained sacred to their venerated memory. Poets, painters, and orators 
 have tasked their powers to do justice to this great scene. Indeed, it is 
 full of moral grandeur ; nothing can be more beautiful, more pathetic, 
 or more sublime. Behold the Pilgrims, as they stood on that cold Decem- 
 ber day — stern men, gentle women, and feeble children — all uniting in 
 singing a hymn of cheerful thanksgiving to the good God, who had con- 
 ducted them safely across the mighty deep, and permitted them to land 
 upon that sterile shore. See how their upturned faces glow with a pious 
 confidence, which the sharp winter winds cannot chill, nor the gloomy 
 forest shadows darken : 
 
 " Not as the conqueror comes, 
 
 They, the true-hearted came ; 
 Not with the roll of the stirring drum, 
 
 Nor the trumpet, that sings of fame ; 
 Nor as the flying come. 
 
 In 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. Your 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. 
 
 II 
 
WENDELL PHILLIPS (18114884) 
 
 SLAVERY^S RELENTLESS FOE 
 
 »<r\J'J0U are looking for a man who is all art and thunder. Lo I a 
 I I I (l^iet man glides upon the platform and begins talking in a 
 simple, easy, conversational way. Presently he makes you 
 smile at some happy turn, then he startles you by a rapier-like thrust, 
 then electrifies you by a grand outburst of feeling. You listen, believe 
 and applaud. And that is Wendell Phillips. That also is oratory — 
 to produce the greatest effect by the simplest means." 
 
 We cannot better present Wendell Phillips in his role as an orator, 
 than by this quotation from one of his admirers. As an uncompromis- 
 ing foe to human slavery, he was one of the group of which Parker 
 and Garrison were other conspicuous members. The assault by a 
 Boston mob, led by gentlemen, on William Lloyd Garrison, in which 
 the latter barely escaped with life, made Phillips an abolitionist. He 
 took his stand publicly in a memorable speech at Faneuil Hall in 1837, 
 which Dr. Channing designated as '' morally sublime.'^ So bitter did 
 Phillips become in his hatred of the slavery system, that he refused to 
 practice law under a Constitution which recognized it, and was ready 
 to welcome a dissolution of the Union as an effectual method of free- 
 ing the slaves. He was president of the Anti-Slavery Society till its 
 dissolution in 1870, and was also a w^arm advocate of woman suffrage, 
 prohibition, prison reform, and greenback currency, on all of which 
 he made eloquent speeches. 
 
 JOHN BROWN AND LffiERTY 
 
 [The growing sentiment in the North in favor of the abolition of slavery, rapid 
 as it was, moved too 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 
 
302 WENDELL PHILLIPS 
 
 great heroes of humanity, and could scarcely find words strong eiiough to express 
 his appreciation of the old man's effort. In November, 1859, while Brown laj' under 
 sentence of death, his defender eulogized him in the following exaggerated but vigor- 
 ous style, in an address at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. It is an excellent example of 
 his oratory.] 
 
 There are two kinds of defeat. Whether in chains or in laurels, 
 Liberty knows nothing but victories. Bunker Hill, soldiers call a defeat ! 
 But Liberty dates from it, though Warren lay dead on the field. Men say 
 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 in 
 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 anti-slavery 
 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 looked 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 1835 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 
 had 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 
 to be governed by a mob ; Boston saw its mayor suppliant and kneeling 
 to the chief 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 
 who get half-awaked and use the first weapons that appear to them. The 
 first developing and unfolding of national life were the mobs of 1835 
 People said it served us right ; we had no right to the luxury of speaking 
 our own minds; it was too expensive : these lavish, luxurious persons 
 walking about here and actually saying what they think ! Why it was 
 like 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 circumstances ; we 
 
 i 
 
WENDELL PHILLIPS 303 
 
 have been mobbed out of great cities and pelted out of little ones "T 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 of 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 
 gathered 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 Washingtons 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 to-night 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 are no 
 
304 WENDELL PHILLIPS 
 
 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 cowards 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's own conscience. He had been there many years, and, like 
 that terrific scene which Beckworth has 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 be 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. 
 
 (XEAR VISION VERSUS EDUCATION 
 
 Some men seem to think that our institutions are necessarily safe 
 because 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 secured 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 (18034882) 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHER, POET AND ORATOR 
 
 AMERICA has produced only one Emerson, one to whom all 
 nature was a song of beauty and use, to whom flower and weed 
 ' alike told the story of uplifting, who looked through the veil 
 of the future and saw man growing ever higher and nobler, wrong 
 ever giving way to right, and glory replacing gloom. Emerson was 
 an evolutionist by nature. He offered no theory of means and 
 methods, but endless progress was to him the inherent law of the 
 universe. He was at once essayist, poet and orator ; but in all 
 these he was one, the social optimist and philosopher. His essays read 
 like strings of verbal gems, epigrams and apothegms linked together 
 by one common significance. The same may, in a measure, be 
 said of his orations. His was the eloquence of the ideal. His sen- 
 tences are crowded with striking thoughts, and only thinkers could 
 justly appreciate him — the deepest thinker of his times. 
 
 MAN THE REFORMER 
 
 [We subjoin an extract from one of Emerson's lectures which will serve as a 
 fair example of his method of speech and field of thought. Whatever he said was of 
 an elevating tendency, and all his thoughts rang true to the spirit of love and aspira- 
 tion that inspired him.] 
 
 What is man born for but to be a Reformer ; a re-maker of what man 
 has made ; a renouncer of lies ; a restorer of truth and good, imitating 
 that great Nature which embosoms us all, and which sleeps no moment 
 on an old past, but every hour repairs herself, yielding ns every hour a 
 new day, and with every pulsation a new life? Let him renounce every- 
 thing which is not true to him, and put all his practices back on their first 
 thoughts, and do nothing for which he has not the whole world for his 
 reason. If there are inconveniences, and what is called ruin, in the way, 
 20 305 
 
30G RALPH WALDO EMERSON 
 
 because we have so enervated and maimed ourselves, yet it would be like 
 dying of perfumes to sink in the effort to reattach the deeds of every day 
 to the holy and mysterious recesses of life. 
 
 The power which is at once spring and regulator in all efforts of 
 reform, is the conviction that there is an infinite worthiness 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 if they were as obsolete as Selah and Amen. And 
 yet they have the broadest meaning, and the most cogent application i 
 Boston in 1841. The Americans have no faith. They rely on the powe; 
 of a dollar ; they are deaf to a sentiment. They think you may talk th 
 north wind down as easily as raise society ; and no class more faithl 
 than the scholars or intellectual men 
 
 Every triumph and commanding moment in the annals of the worl 
 is the triumph of some enthusiasm. The victories of the Arabs aftei 
 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 Jerusalem, 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 on our politics, on our modes of living,. 
 a nobler morning than that Arabian faith, in the sentiment of love. This 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
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 
 
 L<et our affection flow 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 hira. 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 equitable 
 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 history 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. 
 
GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS (1 8244892; 
 
 THE EASY-CHAIR PHILOSOPHER 
 
 mT was in the National Republican Convention of 1884 that 
 George William Curtis decisively declared himself on the 
 subject of party politics. On a proposition being made that 
 all delegates should bind themselves to support the nominee of the 
 Convention, Curtis rose and firmly said : " Gentlemen of the Conven- 
 tion : A Republican and a free man I came into this Convention ; 
 by the grace of God, a Republican and a free man will I go out of this 
 Convention." This ringing declaration checked the movement to 
 bind the minds of the members, and gave rise to the independent Repub- 
 lican movement of that year. A graceful and often a brilliant writer, 
 Curtis also won a high reputation as a lecturer and public speaker, and 
 was long a favorite with American audiences. 
 
 WENDELL PHILLIPS AND HIS LIFE LABOR 
 [Wendell Phillips, looked upon by many as an unmanageable agitator, had a 
 highly moral "method in his madness," as an uncompromisiug foe of human slavery 
 and of the 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, 1884, was one of the finest tributes to the 
 memory of the famous abolitionist. We give the most 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 doubt 
 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 
 
 I 
 I 
 
GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 309 
 
 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. " I<et 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 and 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 v/ould 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, bvit 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 
 
310 GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 
 
 Thomas JeiFerson ? I may truly say what the historian says of the Sara- 
 cen mothers and Richard Coeur 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 Jeiferson 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 American patriot ; and no American life — 
 no, not one — offers to future generations of 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 I 
 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 sacred 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 must be the sublime 
 moral courage, the all-embracing humanity, the spotless integrity, the 
 absolutely unselfish devotion of great powers to great public ends, whi< 
 were the glory of Wendell Phillips. 
 
 I 
 
JOSEPH COOK (J838-J90J) 
 
 THE BOSTON MONDAY LECTURER 
 
 ryrjMONG men who seem born with the capability of handling 
 iJW every subject, and treating all with a fair degree of effective- 
 ^ ' ness, may he named Joseph Cook, the famed Monday lecturer. 
 Educated at Yale and Harvard Universities and in Germany, he gave 
 four years to study at Andover Theological Seminary, which he left 
 with a license to preach, and spent four years in the pulpit. He 
 subsequently became of great repute as a lecturer, speaking to great 
 audiences on Mondays, at Boston, for twenty years, and lecturing 
 widely in all English-speaking countries. His Monday lectures 
 have been published in ten volumes covering such diverse subjects 
 as ''Biology," "Orthodoxy," "Transcendentalism," "Conscience," 
 " Heredity," etc. As an orator Mr. Cook was fluent and facile, 
 with fine powers of description and a warm imagination. 
 
 EFnaENT BUT NOT SUFFICIENT 
 
 [From Mr. Cook's very numerous addresses we choose a striking extract from 
 one of the best, a lecture delivered in New York on July 4, 1884, its subject, " Ulti- 
 mate America." In it he gave a prophetic vision of the forces upon which national 
 greatness is based. This highly-imaginative conception is given below.] 
 
 Once in the blue midnight, in my study on Beacon Hill, in Boston, I 
 fell into long thought as I looked out on the land and on the sea ; and 
 passing through the gate of dreams, I saw the angel having charge of 
 America stand in the air, above the continent, and his wings shadowed 
 either shore. Around him were gathered all who at Valley Forge and at 
 Andersonville and the other sacred places suffered for the preservation of a 
 virtuous Republic ; and they conversed of what was and is and is to be. 
 There was about the angel a multitude whom no man could number, of 
 all nations and kindreds and tribes and tongues, and their voices were as 
 
 311 
 
312 JOSEPH COOK 
 
 the sound of many waters. And I heard thunderings and saw lightnings 
 and the majesty of his words above that of the thunders. 
 
 Then came forth before the angel three spirits whose garments were 
 as white as the light ; and I saw not their faces, but I heard the ten thou- 
 sand times ten thousand call them by names known on earth, — Washing- 
 ton and Lincoln and Garfield. And behind them stood Hampden and 
 Tell and Miltiades and Leonidas and a multitude who had scars and 
 crowns. And they said to the angel : "We will go on earth and teach 
 the diffusion of liberty. We will heal America by equality." And the 
 angel said : '* Go. You will be efficient, but not sufficient." 
 
 Meanwhile, under emigrant wharves, and under the hovels of the 
 perishing poor, and under crowded factories, and under the poisonous 
 alleys of great cities, I heard, far in the subterranean depths, the black 
 angels laugh. 
 
 Then came forward before the angel three other spirits, whose gar- 
 ments were white as the light ; and I saw not their faces, but I heard the 
 ten thousand times ten thousand call them by names known on earth, — 
 Franklin and Hamilton and Irving. And behind them stood Pestalozzi 
 and Shakespeare and Bacon and Aristotle and a multitude who had scrolls 
 and crowns. And they said to the angel: "We will go on earth and 
 teach the diffusion of intelligence. We will heal America by knowledge," 
 And the angel said : "Go. You will be efficient, but not sufficient." 
 
 Meanwhile, under the emigrant wharves and crowded factories, and 
 under Washington, and under scheming conclaves of man acute and 
 unscrupulous, and under many newspaper presses, and beneath Wall 
 Street, and under the poisonous alleys of great cities, I heard the black 
 angels laugh. 
 
 Then came forward before the angel three other spirits whom I heard 
 the ten thousand times ten thousand call by names known on earth, — 
 Adams and Jefferson and Webster. And behind them stood Chatham 
 and Wilberforce and Howard and the Roman Gracchi and a multitude 
 who had keys and crowns. And they said to the angel : " We will go on. 
 earth and teach diffusion of property. We will heal America by the self- 
 respect of ownership. " And the angel said, " Go. You will be efficient,, 
 but not sufficient." 
 
 Meanwhile, under emigrant wharves and crowded factories, and 
 beneath Wall Street, and under the poisonous alleys of suffocated great 
 cities, I heard yet the black angels laugh. 
 
 Then came, lastly, forward before the angel three other spirits, with 
 garments w^hite as the light ; and I saw not their faces, but I heard the 
 ten thousand times ten thousand call them by names known on earth,- 
 
JOSEPH COOK 323 
 
 Edwards and Dwight and Whitefield. And behind them stood Wicklifife 
 and Cranmer and Wesley and Luther and a multitude who had harps and 
 crowns. And they said to the angel ; " We will go on earth and teach the 
 diffusion of conscientiousness. We will heal America by righteousness." 
 Then the angel arose, and lifted up his far-gleaming hand to the heaven 
 of heavens, and said? " Go. Not in the first three, but only in all four 
 of these leaves from the tree of life, is to be found the healing of the 
 nations, — the diffusion of liberty, the diffusion of intelligence, the diffu- 
 sion of property, the diffusion of conscientiousness. You will be more 
 than ever efiBcient, 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 beneath 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 upon 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 about the globe ; 
 and I heard a voice, after which there was no laughter : "Ye are efficient, 
 but I am sufficient r" 
 
JOHN B. GOUGH (J817-J886) 
 
 THE FAMOUS TEMPERANCE ADVCXIATE 
 
 |E who can best make himself felt on any subject is he who has 
 gone through the fire of experience. Thus it was with John 
 B. Gough, the eminent temperance lecturer. While learning 
 the bookbinding trade in New York he fell into the habit of drinking, 
 and for ten years was such a slave to intemperance that he sank into 
 the lowest depths of poverty and wretchedness. About 1840 he was 
 induced to sign the total- abstinence pledge, and from that time forward 
 devoted his life to the reclamation of the intemperate. Gifted by nature • 
 with fine powers of emotional oratory, and combining with this the I 
 qualities of an actor, he soon distinguished himself as the most elo- 
 quent and successful advocate of the temperance cause. Oratory, 
 anecdote, impersonation, impassioned relations of his own degrada- 
 tion, combined in him to yield a wonderful effect upon his audiences. 
 He lectured for many years widely through the English speaking 
 world, and doubtless was the happy instrument for saving myriads 
 from the curse of drink. 
 
 THE TEMPERANCE CAUSE 
 
 [Gough's orations on his chosen subject were multitudinous. The utmost we 
 can do here is to offer an extract showing his manner of speech. But few orators 
 depended more than he upon the manner, rather than the matter, of his addresses 
 for his effect upon an audience. He acted as well as spoke, and his orations were in 
 their way examples of histrionic ability.] 
 
 Our enterprise is in advance of the public sentiment, and those who 
 carry it on are glorious iconoclasts, who are going to break down the drunken 
 dragon worshipped by their fathers. Count me over the chosen heroes of 
 this earth, and I will show you men that stood alone — ay, alone, while 
 those they toiled, and labored, and agonized for, hurled at them contumelyi 
 314 
 
 
JOHN B. GOUGH 3^5 
 
 scorn, and contempt. They stood alone ; they looked into the future 
 calmly, and with faith ; they saw the golden beam inclining to the side of 
 perfect justice ; and they fought on amid the storm of persecution. In 
 Great Britain they tell me when I go to see such a prison : * ' Here is such 
 a dungeon, in which such a one was confined ; " <' Here, among the ruins 
 of an old castle, we will show you where such a one had his ears cut off, 
 and where another was murdered." Then they will show me monuments 
 towering up to the heavens. " There is a monument to such a one ; there 
 is a monument to another. " And what do I find ? That the one genera- 
 tion persecuted and howled at these men, crying, " Crucify them ! crucify 
 them ! " and danced around the blazing fagots that consumed them ; and 
 the next generation busied itself in gathering up the scattered ashes of the 
 martyred heroes, and depositing them in the golden urn of a nation's his- 
 tory. O, yes ! the men that fight for a great enterprise are the men that 
 bear the brunt of the battle, and '* He who seeth in secret " — seeth the 
 desire of his children, their steady purpose, their firm self-denial — "will 
 reward them openly, ' ' though they may die and see no sign of the triumphs 
 of their enterprise. 
 
 Our cause is a progressive one. I read the first constitution of the 
 first temperance society formed in the State of New York, in 1809, and 
 one of the by-laws stated, " Any member of this association who shall be 
 convicted of intoxication shall be fined a quarter of a dollar, except such 
 act of intoxication shall take place on the Fourth of July, or any other 
 regularly appointed military muster. " We laugh at that now ; but it was 
 a serious matter in those days : it was in advance of the public sentiment 
 of the age. The very men that adopted that principle were persecuted ; 
 they were hooted and pelted through the streets, the doors of their houses 
 were blackened, their cattle mutilated. The fire of persecution scorched 
 some men so that they left the work. Others worked on, and God blessed 
 them. Some are living to-day ; and I should like to stand where they 
 stand now, and see the mighty enterprise as it rises before them. They 
 worked hard. They lifted the first turf — prepared the bed in which to lay 
 the corner-stone. They laid it amid persecution and storm. They worked 
 under the surface ; and men almost forgot that there were busy hands lay- 
 ing the solid foundation far down beneath. By-and-by they got the foun- 
 dation above the surface, and then commenced another storm of persecu- 
 tion. Now we see the superstructure — pillar after pillar, tower after 
 tower, column after column, with the capitals emblazoned with " lyOve, 
 truth, sympathy, and good-will to men." Old men gaze upon it as it 
 grows up before them. They will not live to see it completed, but they 
 see in faith the crowning cope-stc*** set upon it. Meek-eyed women weep 
 
316 
 
 JOHN B. GOUGH 
 
 as it grows in beauty ; children strew the pathway of the workmen with 
 flowers. We do not see its beauty yet — we do not see the magnificence of 
 its superstructure yet — because it is in course of erection. Scaffolding, 
 ropes, ladders, workmen ascending and descending, mar the beauty of the 
 building ; but by-and-by, when the hosts who have labored shall come up 
 over a thousand battle-fields, waving with bright grain, never again to be 
 crushed in the distillery ; through vineyards, under trellised vines, wdth 
 grapes hanging in all their purple glory, never again to be pressed into 
 that which can debase and degrade mankind — when they shall come 
 through orchards, under trees hanging thick with ^ golden, pulpy fruit, 
 never to be turned into that which can injure and debase — when they shall 
 come up to the last distillery and destroy it ; to the last stream of liquid 
 death, and dry it up ; to the last weeping wife, and wipe her tears gently 
 away ; to the last little child, and lift him up to stand where God meant 
 that man should stand ; to the last drunkard, and nerve him to burst the 
 burning fetters and make a glorious accompaniment to the song of freedom 
 by the clanking of his broken chains — then, ah ! then will the cope-stone 
 be set upon it, the scaffolding will fall with a crash, and the building will 
 start in its wondrous beauty before an astonished world. The last poor 
 drunkard shall go into it, and find a refuge there ; loud shouts of rejoic- 
 ing shall be heard, and there shall be joy in Heaven, when the triumphs 
 of a great enterprise shall usher in the day of the triumphs of Christ. I 
 believe it ; on my soul, I believe it. Will you help us ? That is the 
 question. We leave it with you. Good-night. 
 
ROBERT a INGERSOLL (J833-I899) 
 
 A MASTER OF THE POETRY OF PROSE 
 
 mNGERSOLL was an orator among orators, a man of extraordi- 
 nary eloquence and unsurpassed control over his audience. His 
 sentences breathe music and read like poetry. So rythmical 
 I is his language that it might almost be divided up into epic verse. 
 ! Many deplored his power, for it was exerted in what was, to the 
 I Christian "World, a wrongful cause. He was best known as an oppo- 
 ; nent of Biblical interpretation, — the cultured Tom Paine of modern 
 times, — while his remarkable powers in oratory enabled him to win 
 far more converts to his views than Paine ever did. Yet our language 
 does not contain a more truly religious oration than that spoken by 
 him over his brother's grave ; a eulogy more instinct with tender 
 feeling and lofty sentiment. Ingersoll was a lawyer by profession, a 
 cavalry colonel in the Civil War, and later was Attorney-General of 
 
 Illinois. 
 
 BLAINE, THE PLUMED KNIGHT 
 
 [Ingersoll's oratory was not confined to religious — or irreligious — subjects. He 
 
 won fame as a political orator as well. And in this field his most notable efibrt was 
 
 his speech before the Republican Convention of 1876, in which he rose to nominate 
 
 I James G. Blaine for the Presidency. We have already spoken of this splendid effort 
 
 in our notice of Blaine. We need only say further that Ingersoll shares with Conk- 
 
 ij ling the honor of delivering the two most effective nominating speeches on record.] 
 
 jj Massachusetts may be satisfied with the loyalty of Benjamin H. Bris- 
 
 1} tow ; so am I ; but if any man nominated by this convention cannot 
 )[ carry the State of Massachusetts, I am not satisfied with the loyalty of 
 )i that State. If the nominee of this convention cannot carry the grand old 
 1 Commonwealth of Massachusetts by seventy-five thousand majority, I 
 M would advise them to sell out Faneuil Hall as a Democratic headquarters. 
 i . I would advise them to take from Bunker Hill that old monument of 
 
 1 glory. 
 
 I 317 
 
318 ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 
 
 The Republicans of the United States demand as their leader in the 
 great contest of 18 76 a man of intelligence, a man of integrity, a man of 
 well-known and approved political opinions. They demand a statesman ; 
 they demand a reformer after, as well as before, th6 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 hour, 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 chimneys filled with eager fire — greeted and 
 grasped by the countless sons of toil. This money has 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 qualifications is 
 the present grand and gallant leader of the Republican party — ^James Qfll 
 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 
 
 I 
 
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 Freedom 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. 
 
 lyike 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 defamers of his 
 country and the maligners of his honor. For the 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 lyibby, 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. 
 
 ORATION AT HIS BROTHER^S GRAVE 
 
 [A discourse with the deep feeling and pathos of this is one that would hardly 
 be looked for from a man with the reputation of a contemner of religion. It shows 
 that, despite his 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 
 Ij do for me. 
 
 Ij h^^^ loved and loving brother, husband, father, friend died, where 
 ni manhood's morning almost touched noon, and while the shadows still 
 ■J^jwere falling toward the West. 
 
320' ROBERT G. INGERSOLL 
 
 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 pillow, fell into that dreamless sleep that kisses 
 down his eyelids still. While in love with nfe and raptured with the 
 world, he passed to silence and pathetic dust. 
 
 Yet, after all, it may 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 the 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 far below, 
 while on his forehead fell the golden dawning of the grander day. 
 
 He loved the beautiful, and was with color, 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 quote 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 religion, 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 beyond 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, and 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, whispered with his latest breath : ** I am bette 
 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 
 ^he loved, to do the last sad office for the dead, we give his sacred dust. 
 
HENRY ARMITT BROWN (J 8444 878) 
 
 THE ORATOR OF MUNICIPAL REFORM 
 
 AMONG the promising orators of the latter half of the nineteenth 
 century must be named Henry Armitt Brown, a young lawyer 
 *--^ of Philadelphia, gifted by nature with rare eloquence, yet cut 
 down by fate before he reached the zenith of his powers. His reputa- 
 tion, which had grown widely before his death, was gained as a politi- 
 cal orator in presidential campaigns and in the service of municipal 
 reform in Philadelphia. His early decease was a serious loss to the 
 latter cause, whicTi has moved backward decidedly in the years that 
 have since followed, though it can hardly be hoped that oratory 
 would have materially shaken the retrograde movement. 
 
 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 given is 
 full of suggestive truth as to the life of man and 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 begun to win most extraordinary victories in 
 the domain of science. One by one he has dispelled the 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 fire his steed, the 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 has raised his head above the clouds, and made the impalpable 
 21 321 
 
822 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 
 dark 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, wonderingly, 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, preserved 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. 
 
HENRY WATTERSON (1840 ) 
 
 THE POPULAR ORATOR AND EDITOR OF KENTUCKY 
 
 AMONG the phrases widely current in the American political 
 world is that of '^ Tariff for revenue only,'^ a Democratic 
 ' ' slogan which has formed the war-cry in more than one hard- 
 fought battle for the Presidency, and which is credited to the fertile 
 brain of Henry Watterson, one of the ablest among Western editors. 
 As a counterpoise against tariff for protection, this phrase has had a 
 telling effect in political and economical argument. . Watterson began 
 hir career as a newspaper writer in Washington, returning to his 
 paternal home in Tennessee at the outbreak of the Civil- War, and 
 serving in the Confederate army. Since 1868 he has been known as 
 the able and trenchant editor of the Cowrie?- Journal, of Louisville. 
 An old-line Democrat of the Jefferson and Jackson school, he has 
 steadily worked for this wing of his party. Watterson is eloquent 
 and popular as an orator, both in the political and lecture field, and 
 in the lighter vein of the " after-dinner" speech. 
 
 A VISION OF AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 [One of Watterson 's choicest efforts in oratory is his oration delivered October 
 21, 1892, at the dedication of the Columbian 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 
 
824 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 dauntless 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, snatched from the 
 ashes to rise in splendor 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 that I have gained access here on fal 
 pretences ; for I am no Cavalier at all ; just plain Scotch-Irish ; on*^ 
 
 I 
 
HENRY WATTERSON 325 
 
 those Scotch- Irish Southerners who ate no fire in the green leaf and has 
 eaten no dirt in the brown, and who, accepting, for the moment, the terms 
 Puritan and Cavalier in the sense an effete sectionalism once sought to 
 ascribe them — descriptive labels at once classifying and separating North 
 and South ; verbal redoubts along 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 impossible 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 
 liad 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, born 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 from New England ancestors. 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 
 
326 HENRY WATTERSON 
 
 mother arrived there from Connecticut. The Ambassador who serves our 
 Government near the French Republic was a gallant Confederate soldier 
 and is a representative Southern statesman ; but he owns the estate in 
 Massachusetts where his father was born, and where his father's fathers 
 lived through many generations. 
 
 And the Cavaliers, who missed their stirrups, somehow, and got into 
 Yankee saddles? The woods were full of them. If Custer was not a 
 Cavalier, Rupert was a Puritan. And Sherwood and Wadsworth and 
 Kearny, and McPherson and their dashing companions and followers ! 
 The one typical 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 every one? 
 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 facts, I don't mind telling you — 
 in confidence — that it was we Scotch-Irish who vanquished both of you ; 
 some of us in 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 
 its intellectual and moral emancipation from frivolity and pharisaism, its 
 rescue from the Scarlet Woman and the mailed hand, and its crystalliza- 
 tion into a national character and polity, ruling by force of brains and not 
 by force of arms. 
 
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JR. (J 835 ) 
 
 THE POLISHED EXPONENT OF HIGH IDEALS 
 
 mHE Adams family, as was said in a former sketch, has been 
 notable in the history of oratory and patriotism. It has two 
 Presidents to its credit, John Adams, and John Quincy 
 Adams, father and son, both famous statesmen and ardent patriots. 
 Later in the line we meet with Charles Francis Adams, the able states- 
 man and diplomatist, and his son, of the same name ; the latter a cav- 
 alry soldier in the war, later on a railroad commissioner and arbitrator, 
 and always a true scion of his patriotic ancestry. He was elected 
 president of the Union Pacific Railway in 1884, and became presiding 
 officer of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1895. While all the 
 distinguished men of the family have won reputation as orators, the 
 one now under consideration is certainly not the least eloquent among 
 them. In 1883, 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 4th of July, 1869, the sixth anniversary of the greatest battle of the 
 Civil War, Mr. Adams delivered an oration at Quincy, Massachusetts, on this subject, 
 which is looked upon as his masterpiece, though he has other eloquent speeches to 
 his credit. We give the patriotic peroration 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 McMahon appeared 
 with his corps upon the field of battle, his men having run for seven miles. 
 We need not go abroad for examples of endurance and soldierly bearing. 
 The achievement of Sedgwick and the brave Sixth Corps, as they marched 
 upon the field of Gettysburg on that second day of July, far excels the 
 vaunted efforts of the French Zouaves. 
 
 327 
 
328 CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JR. 
 
 Twenty-four hours later we stood on that same ground. Many dear 
 friends had yielded up their young lives during the hours which had elapsed, 
 but, though twenty thousand fellow-creatures were wounded or dead 
 around us, though the flood-gates of heaven seemed opened, and the tor- 
 rents fell upon the quick and the dead, yet the elements seemed electrified 
 with a certain magic influence of victory, and as the great army sank down 
 over- wearied in its tracks, it felt that the crisis and danger were passed — 
 that Gettysburg was immortal. 
 
 May I not, then, well express the hope that never again may we or 
 ours be called upon so to celebrate this anniversary ? And yet, now that 
 the passionate hopes and fears of those days are all over, now that the 
 grief which can never be forgotten is softened and modified by the sooth- 
 ing hand of time, now that the distracted doubts and untold anxieties are 
 buried 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, " Happy is 
 the people which has no history. ' ' Not so ! As it is better to have loved 
 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 passed a long 
 life 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 ourselves 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, if 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 ourselves 
 to the death, if need be, in her service. When we were blackened by the 
 smoke of Antietam, we did not ask or care whether those who stood 
 shoulder to shoulder beside us, whether he who led us, whether those who 
 sustained us, were Democrats or Republicans, Conservatives or Radicals; 
 we asked only that they might prove as true as was the steel we grasped, 
 and as brave as we ourselves would fain have been. When we stood like 
 a wall of stone vomiting fire from the heights of Gettysburg, — nailed to 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JR. 329 
 
 our position through three long days of mortal hell, — did we ask each 
 other whether that brave ofl&cer who fell while gallantly leading the 
 counter-charge ; whether that cool gunner steadily serving his piece before 
 us amid the storm of shot and shell ; whether the poor wounded, mangled, 
 gasping comrades, crushed and torn, and dying in agony around us, had 
 voted for Lincoln or Douglas, for Breckenridge or Bell ? We then were 
 full of other thoughts. We prized men for what they, were worth to the 
 common country of us all, and recked not of empty words. Was the 
 man true, was he brave, was he earnest, was all we thought of then ; — 
 not, did he vote or think with us, or label himself with our party name? 
 This lesson let us try to remember. We cannot give to party all that we 
 once offered to country, but our duty is not yet done. We are no longer, 
 what we have been, the young guard of the Republic ; we have earned 
 an exemption from the dangers of the field and camp, and the old musket 
 or the crossed sabres hang harmless over our winter fires, never more to 
 be grasped in these hands henceforth devoted to more peaceful labors ; 
 but the duties of the citizen, and the citizen who has received his baptism 
 in fire, are still incumbent upon us. Though young in years, we should 
 remember that henceforth, as long as we live in the land, we are the 
 ancients, the veterans of the Republic. As such, it is for us to protect in 
 peace what we preserved in war ; it is for us to look at all things with a 
 view to the common country and not to the exigencies of party politics ; 
 it is for us ever to bear in mind the higher allegiance we have sworn, and 
 to remember that he who has once been a soldier of the motherland 
 degrades himself forever when he becomes the slave of faction. Then, at 
 last, if through life we ever bear these lessons freshly in mind, will it be 
 well for us, will it be well for our country, will it be well for those whose 
 names we bear, that our bones also do not molder with those of our brave 
 comrades beneath the sods of Gettysburg, or that our graves do not look 
 down on the swift-flowing Mississippi from the historic heights of Vicks- 
 burg. 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND (1837 ) 
 
 THE ORACLE OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 mHE career of Grover Cleveland has been a remarkable one. All 
 previous American Presidents had been chosen on the basis 
 either of military service or of reputation as orators and states- 
 men. Cleveland was known neither as general nor orator, and it 
 would appear to have been chiefly his record for inflexible integrity in 
 office that raised him rapidly through the offices of District Attorney, 
 Sherifl*, Mayor of Buffalo and Governor of New York, to that of 
 President of the United States. Such reputation as he possesses as an 
 orator has been made principally since the expiration of his two terms 
 in the Executive office, in his earnest upholding of the basic princi- 
 ples of the Democratic party, and in words of calm wisdom and judi- 
 cious advice on other subjects of interest. 
 
 I 
 
 MANUAL TRAINING FOR THE COLORED RACE 
 
 [As an example of Bx-President Cleveland's addresses on public occasions, we w 
 offer the following selection from his remarks of December ii, 1902, at the opening 
 in Philadelphia of the Berean Manual Training and Industrial School, for the purpose 
 of giving an industrial education to people of the colored race. ] 
 
 It has often occurred to me that ever since we have become a natio: 
 the American people have almost constantly been confronted with lar 
 problems, more or less perplexing, and directly affecting the political 
 industrial and social phases of our national welfare. This experience, in 
 so far as it has accustomed us to difficulties, has made us a strong and 
 strenuous people. I think it must be admitted, however, that our succ 
 in 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-j 
 tented notion that, whatever dangers press upon us, and whatever obstacl 
 830 
 
 i 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 331 
 
 are to be surmounted , we ' * are able because we seem to be able, " and tliat-, 
 because we have thus far escaped threatening perils, a happy-go-lucky- 
 reliance on continued 'good fortune will avail us to the end of the chap- 
 ter. I plead guilty as the chief among sinners in the vanity of my Ameri- 
 canship. I have a suspicion, however, that our serene self-confidence 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 
 
 Unquestionably 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 body 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 manual training and industrial schools, 
 conducted either independently or in connection with ordinary educa- 
 tional institutions. I place so 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 usefulness. 
 
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON (J 858 
 
 THE EVANGEL OF THE NEGRO RACE 
 
 TATJE have before us to-day a significant example of an American 
 11 1 nobleman, in a man of black skin, born to slavery and degra- 
 dation, who has raised himself, by force of character, to be an 
 honored citizen and the admired of all generous-hearted people every- 
 where. Booker T. Washington, whose very name is borrowed, is in 
 the most absolute sense a self-made man. No one could have been 
 more destitute of advantages or more completely have made his own 
 way. Fairly forcing himself into Hampton Institute, with nothing to 
 help him but eagerness 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 school for colored people at 
 Tuskegee, Alabama, he found himself obliged to begin absolutely on 
 the ground floor, without land, buildings or apparatus, and without 
 money to obtain them with. In the short period of twenty years he had 
 obtained buildings and land worth over $300,000, with an endow- 
 ment fund in additionoff 215,000; his pupils had increased from thirty 
 to eleven hundred, and the graduates of the institution, with an excel- 
 lent literary and industrial education, were spread widely over the 
 South. Such are the results which a man can attain with character, 
 energy and ability to back him, and sustained by the force of a gre 
 humanitarian idea. 
 
 CAST DOWN YOUR BUCKET WHERE YOU ARE 
 
 I 
 
 [Booker T. Washington is a natural orator. It is largely to the effect of his ora- 
 tory that he owes his success. His method is of the simplest ; there is nothing ornate 
 in his language, his words being those of every day speech ; rhetoric and flights of 
 fancy are not thought of; a child could understand him, and yet his influence over 
 grown men and women has been great. Indeed, his address at the opening of the 
 Atlanta Exposition of 1895, was one of the most effective bits of natural oratory of 
 332 
 
 I 
 
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 333 
 
 the age ; less, however, from the eloquence of the speaker than from what he had to 
 say, his pointing out how the whites and blacks could live together in harmony in the 
 South. The Boston Transcript said of this speech: "It seems to have dwarfed all 
 the other proceedings and the Exposition itself. The sensation that it has caused in 
 the press has never been equalled." We give the main portions of this address.] 
 
 Mr. President and Genti^emen of the Board of Directors 
 AND Citizens : One-third of the population of the South is of the Negro 
 race. No enterprise seeking the material, civil, or moral welfare of this 
 section can disregard this element of our population and reach the highest 
 success. I but convey to you, Mr. President and Directors, the sentiment 
 of the masses of my race when I say that in no way have the value and 
 manhood of the American Negro been more fittingly and generously recog- 
 nized than by the managers of this magnificent Exposition at every stage 
 of its progress. It is a recognition that will do more to cement the friend- 
 ship of the two races than any occurrence since the dawn of our freedom. 
 
 Not only this, but the opportunity here afforded will awaken among 
 us a new era of industrial progress. Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not 
 strange that in the first years of our new life we began at the top instead 
 of at the bottom ; that a seat in Congress or the State Legislature was 
 more sought than real estate or industrial skill ; that the political conven- 
 tion or stump speaking had more attractions than starting a dairy farm 
 or truck garden. 
 
 A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. 
 From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal, "Water, 
 water ; we die of thirst ! ' ' The answer from the friendly vessel at once 
 came back, " Cast down your bucket where you are." A second time the 
 signal, " Water, water ; send us water ! " ran up from the distressed ves- 
 sel, and was answered, " Cast down your bucket where you are." And a 
 third and fourth signal for water was answered, " Cast down your bucket 
 where you are. ' ' The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the 
 injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling 
 water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of my race who 
 depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land, or who underestimate 
 the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white 
 man, who is their next-door neighbor, I will say: ''Cast down your 
 bucket where you are," — cast it down in making friends in every manly 
 way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded. 
 
 Cast it down in agriculture, in mechanics, in commerce, in domestic 
 service, and in the professions. And in this connection, it is well to bear 
 in mind that whatever other sins the South may be called to bear, when it 
 comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the Negro is 
 
334 BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 
 
 given a man's chance in the commercial world, and in nothing is this 
 Exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance. Our greatest 
 danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook 
 the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands, 
 and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to 
 dignify and glorify common labor, and put brains and skill into the com- 
 mon occupations of life ; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw 
 the line between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gew- 
 gaws of life and the useful. No race can prosper till it learns that there 
 is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the 
 bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. Nor should we permit 
 our grievances to overshadow our opportunities. To those of the white 
 race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue 
 and habits for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted I would repeat 
 what I say to my own race, '' Cast down your bucket where you are." 
 Cast it down among the eight millions of negroes whose habits you know, 
 whose fidelity and love you have tested in days when to have proved 
 treacherous meant the ruin of your firesides. Cast down your bucket 
 among those people who have, without strikes and labor wars, tilled your 
 fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads and cities, and brought 
 forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, and helped make possible 
 this magnificent representation of the progress of the South. Casting 
 down your bucket among my people, helping and encouraging them as 
 you are doing on these grounds, and to education of head, hand, and 
 heart, you will find that they will buy your surplus land, make blossom 
 the waste places in your fields, and run your factories. 
 
 While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as in the past, that 
 you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, 
 law-abiding and unresentful people that the world has seen. As we have 
 proved our loyalty to you in the past, in nursing your children, watching 
 by the sick-bed of your mothers and fathers, and often following thei 
 with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, so in the future, in our humbU 
 way, we shall stand by you with a devotion that no foreigner can approach] 
 ready to lay down our lives, if need be, in defence of yours, interlacing oi 
 industrial, commercial, civil and religious life with yours in a way tl 
 shall make the interests of both races one. In all things that are pure 
 social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all thin| 
 essential to mutual progress. 
 
BOOK VIIL 
 
 Notable Women Orators 
 
 THE advent of woman into the field of oratory 
 belongs in great measure to the latter half 
 of the nineteenth century. Kept for ages 
 from any active participation in the political affairs 
 of the nations, deprived of all opportunity of attain- 
 ing the higher education, and confined as closely as 
 possible to domestic duties and social interests, it is 
 not surprising that the appearance of woman upon 
 the rostrum in the past was almost a thing unknown. 
 The greater freedom and broader education which 
 came to her within the nineteenth century caused a 
 marked change in this situation of affairs. And this 
 was especially the case in the United States, whose 
 republican institutions favored free thought and 
 untrammeled action among all classes of the com- 
 munity. Naturally such great moral issues as those 
 of the abolition of slavery and the development of 
 the temperance cause came early to the front, and 
 enlisted the active co-operation of many women of 
 broad thought and warm sympathies. But while 
 woman was encouraged in giving her most earnest 
 attention to these evils, the field of politics w^as firmly 
 closed against her; it not being opened until 1848; 
 when the first Woman's Rights Convention was 
 called. In the succeeding period the voice of woman 
 has been often and effectively heard, dealing with the 
 varied subjects of woman suffrage, temperance reform, 
 slavery abolition, and other moral and political issues. 
 Woman as an orator has come to stay, and fairly 
 claims a place in our record of the world's oratory. 
 
 335 
 
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON (1815=1902) 
 
 THE DISTINGUISHED ADVOCATE OF WOMAN^S RIGHTS 
 
 ELIZABETH CADY STANTON passed a life spent in forceful 
 displays of oratory, and in active labors for the political and 
 ^-^ legal advancement of her sex, organizing movements in favor 
 of the rights of women, and literary labors directed to the same end. 
 The daughter of Judge Daniel Cady, of Johnstown, New York, she 
 early displayed marked intelligence, and her indignation at being 
 refused admittance to the college in which her brother was educated 
 had much to do with the trend of her later life labors. She, however, 
 studied Latin and Greek and stored her mind with much useful infor- 
 mation. In everything she undertook she proved that she had the 
 courage and ability displayed by her brothers. Marrying Henry 
 B. Stanton, a prominent orator and writer on anti-slavery subjects, in 
 1840, she entered actively into the abolitionist movement, and was a 
 delegate to the World's Anti-Slavery Convention held in 1841 in 
 London. The AVoman'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, New York. She was the soul of the conven- 
 tion, and all her life afterward worked actively for the cause thus 
 instituted. In 1895 her eightieth birthday was celebrated in New 
 York by three thousand delegates from women's societies. As an 
 orator Mrs. Stanton was forceful, logical, witty, sarcastic and eloque: 
 
 A PLEA FOR EQUAL RIGHTS 
 
 [On the assembling of the first Woman's Rights Convention, July 19, 1848 
 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 charitable and 
 reform organizations are all in operation ; but still the tide of vice 
 
 fl 
 
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON 337 
 
 swelling ; and threatens the destruction of everything, and the battlements 
 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 love. The voice of woman has been 
 silenced in the state, the church, and the home, but man cannot fulfill his 
 destiny alone, he cannot redeem 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 nerved 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. 28 : 
 ** 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 from 
 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 
 22 
 
338 ELIZABETH CADY STANTON 
 
 gale, for we know that the storm cannot rend from it a shred, that the 
 electric flash will but more clearly show to us the glorious words inscribed 
 upon it, * * Equality of Rights. ' ' 
 
 AN APPEAL TO THE LAWMAKERS 
 
 [From Mrs. Stanton's address to the Legislature of New York, under the sanc- 
 tion of the State Woman's Rights Convention, February 14, 1854, we quote as follows.] 
 
 The tyrant, Custom, has been summoned before the bar of Common 
 Sense. His majesty no longer awes the multitude ; his sceptre is broken ; 
 his crown is trampled in the dust ; the sentence of death is pronounced 
 upon him. All nations, ranks and classes have, in turn, questioned and 
 repudiated his authority ; and now, that the monster is chained and caged, 
 timid woman, on tiptoe, comes to look him in the face, and to demand of 
 her brave sires and sons, who have struck stout blows for liberty, if, in 
 this change of dynasty, she too shall find relief. 
 
 Yes, gentlemen, in republican America, in the nineteenth century, 
 we, the daughters ol the revolutionary heroes of '76, demand at your 
 hands the redress of our grievances — a revision of your State Constitution 
 
 — a new code of laws We demand the full recognition of all our 
 
 rights as citizens of the Empire State. We are persons ; native, free-born 
 citizens ; property- holders, tax-payers, yet we are denied the exercise of 
 our right to the elective franchise. We support ourselves, and, in part, 
 your schools, colleges, churches, your poor-houses, jails, prisons, the 
 army, the navy, the whole machinery of government, and yet we have no 
 voice in your councils. We have every qualification required by the Con- 
 stitution, necessary to the legal voter, but the one of sex. We are moral, 
 virtuous and intelligent, and in all respects quite equal to the proud white 
 man himself, and yet by your laws we are classed with idiots, lunatics and 
 negroes. 
 
 In fact, our legal position is lower than that of either ; for the negro 
 can be raised to the dignity of a voter if he possess himself of $250 
 lunatic can vote in his moments of sanity, and the idiot, too, if he be| 
 male one, and not more than nine- tents a fool ; but we, who have guid< 
 great movements of charity, established missions, edited journals, pul 
 lished works on history, economy and statistics; who have govern* 
 nations, led armies, filled the professor's chair, taught philosophy ai 
 mathematics to the savants of our age, discovered planets, piloted shij 
 across the sea, are denied the most sacred rights of citizens, because, foJ 
 sooth, we came not into this republic crowned with the dignity of ms 
 hood! 
 
SUSAN B. ANTHONY (t820 — 
 
 THE NOTED WOMAN REFORM ADVOCATE 
 
 EEW women in the nineteenth century were so widely known 
 as Susan B. Anthony. Long derided for her opinions, in time 
 she won the respect and admiration of all who were capable 
 of appreciating earnest effort, and the devotion of all who were con- 
 cerned in the woman suffrage movement. She continued a worker all 
 her life, first laboring for higher wages and equal rights for women 
 teachers, and in the cause of temperance, and subsequently in that of 
 woman suffrage. She was also an active abolitionist. In 1892 she 
 was elected president of the National Woman's Suffrage Association, 
 a post which Mrs. Stanton had held for many years. 
 
 WOMAN^S RIGHT TO THE SUFFRAGE 
 [A dramatic event in Miss Anthony's life was her arrest and trial for voting at the 
 Presidential election of 1872. She was fined $100 and costs, but she vowed she would 
 never pay this fine, and she never did. The charge against her of illegal action called 
 forth the following forensic argument.] 
 
 Friends and Fki.i.ow-Citizkns : I stand before you to-night, under 
 indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last Presidential 
 election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this 
 evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no 
 crime, but, instead, simply exercised vo^y citizen'' s rights, guaranteed to me 
 and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the 
 power of any State to deny 
 
 The preamble of the Federal Constitution says : 
 
 " We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
 union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com- 
 mon defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty 
 to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution 
 for the United States of America." 
 
 839 
 
340 SUSAN B. ANTHONY 
 
 It was we, the people ; not we, the white male citizens ; 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 mockery to talk 
 to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are 
 denied the use of the only means of securing them provided 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 confederation, the very first article 
 which became the subject of discussion was that respecting equality of 
 suffrage. Article IV. said : '* The better to secure and perpetuate mutual 
 friendship and intercourse between the people of the different States of the 
 Union, the free inhabitants of each of the States (paupers, vagabonds and 
 fugitives from justice excepted), shall be entitled to all the privileges and 
 immunities of the free citizens of the several States." 
 
 Thus, at the very beginning, did the fathers see the necessity of the 
 universal application of the great principle of equal rights to all ; 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 United States Coi 
 stitution guaranteed to' them equal rights — the right to vote and to 
 voted for 
 
 Article I of the New York State Constitution says : 
 
 * * No member of this State shall be disfranchised or deprived of the 
 rights or privileges secured to any citizen thereof, unless 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 
 sons who have been or may be convicted of bribery, larceny or any infa- 
 mous crime." .... 
 
 fthe 
 
 •nstiM 
 
 per* 
 
 i 
 
SUSAN B. ANTHONY 341 
 
 ** The law of the land " is the United States Constitution, and there 
 is no provision in that document that can be fairly construed into a per- 
 mission to the States to deprive any class of their citizens of their right toj 
 vote. Hence, New York can get no power from that source to disfran- 
 chise one entire 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 be judge or juror, and none but dis- 
 franchised persons 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 
 ballot-box in the State of New York. No barriers whatever stand to-dayl 
 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- 
 der, or an ex post facto law, 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 derived from the consent of the governed. To them this govern- 
 ment is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristo- 
 cracy ; a hateful oligarchy of sex ; the most hateful aristocracy ever 
 established on the face of the globe ; an oligarchy of wealth, where the 
 rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated 
 govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules 
 the African, might be endured ; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes 
 father, brothers, husband, sons the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, 
 the wife and daughters of every household ; which ordains all men sover- 
 eigns, all women subjects ; carries dissension, discord and rebellion into 
 every home of the nation . 
 
 Webster, Worcester and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in \ 
 the United States, entitled to vote and hold ofiice. 
 
 The only question left to be settled now is : Are women persons ? And 
 I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they 
 are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens, and no State has a 
 right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their 
 privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in 
 the constitutions and laws of the several States is to-day null and void, 
 precisely as in every one against negroes. J 
 
MARY A. LIVERMORE (1 82 J 
 
 A DISTINGUISHED PUBLIC SPEAKER 
 
 DIKE most of the noted woman orators, Mary A. Livermore 
 early in life became deeply interested in the various reform 
 movements of the time. Born, the daughter of Timothy Rice, 
 at Boston, Massachusetts, she spent three years of her early woman- 
 hood on a Southern plantation, where there were some five hundred 
 slaves. The scenes she beheld there made her one of the most radical 
 of abolitionists, and she actively aided every movement for the freeing 
 of the slaves. Marrying a Universalist minister, she became active in 
 church work, writing many hymns and organizing a flourishing tem- 
 perance society of boys and girls. During the Civil War she was a 
 valuable worker in the Sanitary Commission service, and after the 
 war became an ardent supporter of the Woman's Suffrage movement. 
 The first Woman's Suffrage Convention in Chicago was organized by 
 her, and she became an editor, author and lecturer on this subject. 
 As a lecture orator she was highly esteemed. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF LIFE 
 
 [Mrs. Livermore 's lecture entitled " The Battle of Life," was first delivered in, 
 her husband's pulpit, on an occasion when he was too ill to officiate, and has since 
 been given some two hundred and fifty times before audiences from Maine to Califor- 
 nia. The following selection is from this very popular lecture.] 
 
 When it is declared that life is a battle, a statement is made that appe 
 to every one who has reached adult life ; aye, and to a great multitude 
 who are only a little way across the threshold. As our experience deepi 
 ens we realize that the whole world is one vast encampment, and thaj 
 every man and woman is a soldier. We have not voluntarily enlisted int< 
 this service with an understanding of the hardness of the warfare, and ar 
 acceptance of its terms and conditions, but have been drafted into tl 
 342 
 
MARY A. LIVERMORE 343 
 
 conflict, and cannot escape taking part in it. We were not even altow^^d 
 to take our place in the ranks, but have been pushed into life, to our 
 seeming, arbitrarily, and cannot be discharged until mustered out by 
 death. Nor is it permitted us to furnish a substitute, though we have 
 the wealth of a Rockefeller at our command, and the powerful and far- 
 reaching influence of the Czar of all the Russias. We may prove desert- 
 ers, or traitors, and straggle to the rear during the conflict, or go over to 
 the enemy and fight under the black flag of wrong. But the fact remains 
 that we are all drafted into the battle of life, and are expected to do our 
 duty according to the best of our ability. 
 
 Do you ask : ' ' Why should life be packed so full of conflict ? Why 
 was it not planned to be harmonious and congenial ? " I am unable to 
 answer that question, and do not propose to discuss the '' origin of evil," 
 which has vexed the various schools of philosophy. I accept the fact 
 that the whole world has been a scene of conflict as far back as we know 
 anything about it. The literature of every nation resounds with it, and 
 the poets, teachers, philosophers, and historians of all languages bear 
 uniform and universal testimony to the effect that * ' the whole creation 
 has always groaned, and travailed in pain." Victory has alternated with 
 defeat, and every experience of development in the animal creation has 
 been purchased with a sharp emphasis of pain. For the world has many 
 lives poured into it which are sustained only as ' * each living thing is up 
 with bill, or beak, or tooth, or claw, or toilsome hand, or sweating brow, 
 to conquer the means of a living. ' ' 
 
 The fact that we are obliged to provide for our physical needs, and 
 for those who are dependent upon us, makes of life a perpetual struggle. 
 Nature has not dealt with us as with her brute children. For them, in 
 the habitat to which they are native, there is food, water, clothing, and 
 shelter. Everything is provided for them. But with us, nature has dealt 
 otherwise. She has given us light to our eyes, air for our lungs, earth 
 from which to win food, clothing and shelter, and water for our thirst. 
 Everything else that we need or wish we must win by the hardest effort. 
 As civilization has progressed we have lost two of our natural rights, 
 possession of land and water, and must pay the price demanded for them. 
 And if men by business combination could take possession of air and 
 light, we should lose these also, and be allowed only so much air to 
 breathe, and light for our eyes, as we were able to pay for. 
 
 In our battle for physical existence there are times when the elements 
 of nature seem arrayed against us. The farmer plows and harrows his 
 fields, and with bountiful hand sows his carefully selected seed, and 
 prophecies a harvest. But the clouds withhold their rain, the heavens 
 
344 MARY A. LIVERMORE 
 
 become brass, and the earth iron, and a fierce drought parches the soil of a 
 whole kingdom, and burns the growing grain to stubble, — and there is a 
 famine. The accidental upsetting of a lamp starts a tiny fire. Combus- 
 tibles feed it, winds fan it, and it becomes a roaring conflagration, in 
 which granite and iron melt like lead, a city is consumed by the devour- 
 ing flames, and hundreds of thousands are rendered homeless and helpless. 
 We launch our proud ship into which have gone the strength of oak, the 
 tenacity of iron, and the skillful workmanship of honorable men. We 
 give to its transportation an argosy of wealth, and to its passengers we 
 gladly toss a " good-by," confident of their speedy arrival at their des- 
 tination. But days pass by, then weeks and months, and no message 
 reaches us from this traveler of the sea, and its fate is a matter of con- 
 jecture alone. Some iceberg of the North has crushed it, or it has 
 succumbed to the fury of the tempest, or some unrevealed weakness of 
 construction has betrayed it to destruction in mid ocean. Volcanoes and 
 earthquakes, cyclones, storms, and tempests — how helpless are we when 
 overtaken by their wrath, and how heedless they are of human suffering. 
 When we enter the world of trade and commerce, the business world, 
 to use the vernacular of the daj^ we find the battle of life raging fiercely. 
 We find competition that leads one man to tread down others that he may 
 rise on their ruin ; the financial panics, which arise decade after decade, 
 of whose cause and cure the wisest and shrewdest are ignorant ; the busi- 
 ness dishonesty, which at times threatens to make dishonesty and business 
 interchangeable terms ; the insane and vulgar greed for riches that actuates 
 corporations, monopolies, trusts, and other like organizations, whose ten- 
 dency is to deprive the wage-earner of a fair share of the wealth which he 
 helps create, that their gains may be larger and increase more rapidly — all 
 these, and many other practices, which obtain in the money-making 
 world, embitter the struggle for existence, and render the failure of the 
 majority inevitable. 
 
 I 
 
FRANCES K WILLARD (18394898) 
 
 THE WOMEN^S CRUSADE ORATOR 
 
 I T In 1873 began in Ohio the memorable "Women's Crusade" 
 I X I ^g^i^st the liquor sellers. For months together bands of 
 devoted women besieged the saloons, entreating their keepers 
 to give up their soul-destroying business, praying and singing hymns 
 in bar-rooms or on the sidewalks, and with such effect that many of 
 the dealers closed their saloons, and some of them emptied barrels of 
 liquor into the gutters. This movement enlisted the heart-felt sym- 
 pathy of Frances E. Willard, then president of a college for women at 
 Evanston, Illinois. She studied thoroughly the history of the temper- 
 ance cause, consulted with Neal Dow and other prohibition advocates, 
 and joined in the crusade in Pittsburgh, kneeling in prayer on the 
 sawdust-covered saloon floors, and leading the crusaders in singing 
 " Rock of Ages," and other hymns. 
 
 This crusade movement was a temporary one, but in Miss Wil- 
 lard it had found an organizing head and an energetic spirit. There 
 were separate bands of women temperance workers over the country. 
 These she determined to combine into one organization, and this was 
 done in 1874 in the formation of that great body, the National 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union. From that time forward 
 Miss Willard devoted herself, heart and soul, to the furtherance of 
 this noble temperance organization. Under her leadership it spread 
 to all parts of the country, with main and subordinate branches, it 
 built the great " Temperance Temple " at Chicago, it organized an 
 extensive publishing business, and its work for good was extraor- 
 dinary. Throughout, its energetic president aided it with voice and 
 pen, until, worn out with her labors, death took her work from her 
 hands, leaving it for others to carry on with her resolute spirit. No 
 
 345 
 
346 FRANCES E. WILLARD 
 
 woman in the nation has done more for the good of her fellows than 
 Frances E. Willard, and her name should be honored in our memories. 
 
 SAFEGUARDS FOR WOMEN 
 [Miss Willard's voice was often heard in telling appeals for the cause she had 
 most at heart, and for its sister cause, woman suffrage, since she looked to the pos- 
 session of the ballot by women as an efficient aid in Dromoting the cause of temper- 
 ance. From an address delivered in Philadelphia in 1876 we make the following 
 characteristic selection.] 
 
 Longer ago than I shall tell, my father returned one night to the far- 
 off Wisconsin home where I was reared, and, sitting by my mother's chair, 
 with a child's attentive ear I listened to their words. He told us of the 
 news that day had brought about Neal Dow, and the great fight for Pro- 
 hibition down in Maine, and then he said: ''I wonder if poor, rum- 
 cursed Wisconsin will ever get a law like that ! ' ' And mother rocked 
 awhile in silence, in the dear old chair I love, and then she gently said : 
 ''Yes, Josiah, there'll be such a law all over the land some day, when 
 women vote." 
 
 My father had never heard her say as much before. He was a great 
 conservative ; so he looked tremendously astonished, and replied in his 
 keen, sarcastic voice : " And pray, how will you arrange it so that women 
 shall vote ? " Mother's chair went to and fro a little faster for a minute, 
 and then, looking not into his face, but into the flickering flames of the 
 grate, she slowly answered : " Well, I say to you, as the Apostle Paul 
 said to his jailor : ' You have put us into prison, we being Romans, and 
 you must come and take us out.' " 
 
 That was a seed -thought in a girl's brain and heart. Years passed 
 on, in which nothing more was said upon the dangerous theme. My 
 brother grew to manhood, and soon after he was twenty-one years old he 
 went with father to vote. Standing by the window, a girl of sixteen 
 years, a girl of simple, homely fancies, not at all strong-minded, and alt< 
 gether ignorant of the world, I looked out as they drove away, my fath( 
 and brother, and as I looked I felt a strange ache in my heart, and teal 
 sprang to my eyes. Turning to my sister Mary, who stood beside me, 
 saw that the dear little innocent seemed wonderfully sober, too. I saidj 
 " Don't you wish that we could go with them when we are old enough? 
 Don't we love our country just as well as they do ? " and her little fright- 
 ened voice piped out : " Yes, of course we ought. Don't I know that 
 but you mustn't tell a soul — not mother, even ; we should be called stronj 
 minded." 
 
 In all the years since then, I have kept those things, and many othei 
 like them, and pondered them in my heart ; but two years of struggle 
 
FRANCES E. WILLARD 347 
 
 this temperance reform have shown me, as they have ten thousand other 
 women, so clearly and so impressively my duty, that I have passed the 
 Rubicon of Silence, and am ready for any battle that shall be involved in 
 this honest declaration of the faith that is within me. "Fight behind 
 masked batteries a little longer," whisper good friends and true. Sol 
 have been fighting hitherto ; but it is a style of warfare altogether foreign 
 to my temperament and mode of life. Reared on the prairies, I seemed 
 pre-determined to join the cavalry force in this great spiritual war, and I 
 must tilt a free lance henceforth on the splendid battlefield of this reform ; 
 where the earth shall soon be shaken by the onset of contending hosts ; 
 where legions of valiant soldiers are deploying ; where to the grand 
 encounter marches to-day a great army, gentle of mien and mild of utter- 
 ance, but with hearts for any fate ; where there are trumpets and bugles 
 calling strong souls onward to a victory which Heaven might envy, and 
 
 *' Where, behind the dim Unknown, 
 Standeth God within the shadow, 
 Keeping watch above His own." 
 
 I thought that women ought to have the ballot as I paid the hard- 
 earned taxes upon my mother's cottage home — but I never said as much 
 — somehow the motive did not command my heart. For my own sake, I 
 had not courage ; but I have for thy sake, dear native land, for thy neces- 
 sity is as much greater than mine as thy transcendent hope is greater than 
 the personal interest of thy humble child. For love of j^ou, heart-broken 
 wives, whose tremulous lips have blessed me ; for love of you, sweet 
 mothers, who in the cradle's shadow kneel this night, beside your infant 
 sons; and you, sorrowful little children, who listen at this hour, with 
 faces strangely old, for him whose footsteps frighten you ; for love of you 
 have I thus spoken. 
 
 Ah, it is women who have given the costliest hostages to fortune. Out 
 into the battle of life they have sent their best beloved, with fearful odds 
 against them, with snares that men have legalized and set for them on 
 every hand. Beyond the arms that held them long, their boys have gone 
 forever. Oh ! by the danger they have dared ; by the hours of patient 
 watching over beds where ihelpless children lay ; by the incense of ten 
 thousand prayers wafted from their gentle lips to Heaven, I charge you 
 give them power to protect, along life's treacherous highway, those whom 
 they have so long loved. Let it no longer be that they must sit back 
 among the shadows, hopelessly mourning over their strong staff broken, 
 and their beautiful rod ; but when the sons they love shall go forth to 
 life's battle, still let their mothers walk beside them, sweet and serious, 
 and clad in the garments of power. 
 
BELVA ANN LOCKWOOD (t830 
 
 LECTURER AND FORENSIC ORATOR 
 
 EOR unflinching perseverance, intellectual power, logic, and elo- 
 quence few women have surpassed Belva Ann Lockwood. 
 After the death of her second husband, Rev. Ezekiel Lockwood, 
 in 1877, she entered the Syracuse University, New York, from which 
 she w^as graduated with the degree of A.M. She had previously studied 
 law in Washington, graduating in 1873, and gaining admission to prac- 
 tice in the highest Court of the District. In 1875, she applied for ad- 
 mission to the Court of Claims, and was refused on the ground that she 
 was a woman ; and afterward, that she was a married woman. In 1876 
 she applied for admission to the Supreme Court of the United States. 
 This was denied her on the plea that there was no English precedent. 
 Not to be put down in this way, she drafted a bill, which was passed by 
 Congress in 1879, admitting women to the Court. Since then she has 
 enjoyed an active and lucrative practice. The bill giving women 
 employees of the Government the same pay as men was originated by 
 her. She has always been active in the cause of women, of temper- 
 ance and labor reform, and in 1884, and 1888, was nominated for 
 President of the United States by the Equal Rights party of San 
 Francisco. 
 
 THE POLITICAL RIGHTS OF WOMEN 
 
 [Mrs. Lockwood has often appeared before Congressional Committees in the 
 
 cause of women, her arguments always declaring for the full enfranchisement of her 
 
 fellow women. We append an extract from one of these addresses, in favor of woman 
 
 suffrage.] 
 
 Gentlemen of the Committee : We come before you to-day, not 
 with any studied eloquence, far-fetched erudition, or new theories for the 
 metamorphosis of our government, or the overthrow of our social econ 
 omy and relations, but we come, asking for our whole commonwealth, for 
 348 
 
BELVA ANN LOCKWOOD 349 
 
 the fathers who begat us, and the brothers at our side ; for the mothers 
 who bore us, and the sisters who go hand in hand with us ; for the orphan 
 and the widow unprotected ; for the wretched inebriate and the outcast 
 Magdalene ; for the beggars who throng our streets, and the inmates of 
 our jails and asylums : for these we ask you that we too may have a hand 
 and a voice, a share in this matter which so nearly concerns not only our 
 temporal but even our eternal salvation. We ask you that we may have 
 an interest that shall awaken from its apathy fully one-half of the moral 
 and intellectual resources of the country, fully one-half of its productive 
 interest — an interest which contains in the germ the physical power and 
 vital force of the whole nation. Weakness cannot beget power, ignorance 
 cannot beget wisdom, 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 them 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 w4sh to 
 prove to-day, the countless numbers of women who have participated 
 creditably in government from the days of our Saviour until the present 
 time. You know that Victoria rules in England ; and 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 the audience, composed 
 partly of Englishmen, were asked to sing " God Save the Queen." The 
 wisdom of the reign of Elizabeth, " good Queen Bess," as she has been 
 called, gave to England her prestige — the proud pre-eminence which she 
 holds to-day among the nations of the earth. Isabella I. of Spain, the 
 patron saint of America, without whose generosity 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, and will 
 pledge my jewels to raise the necessary funds." Maria Theresa, of Aus- 
 tria, who assumed the reins of government with her kingdom divided and 
 disturbed, found herself equal to the emergency, brought order out of 
 chaos, and prosperity to her kingdom. Christine, of Sweden, brought 
 jthat kingdom to the zenith of its power. Eugenie, Empress of the 
 French, in the late disastrous revolution, assumed the regency of the 
 
360 BELVA ANN LOCKWOOD 
 
 Empire in defiance of her ministry, and when forced to flee, covered her 
 flight with a shrewdness that would have done credit to Napoleon himself. 
 Florence Nightingale brought order and efficiency into the hospitals of the 
 Crimea ; and Clara Barton, with her clear head and generous heart, has 
 lifted up the starving women of Strasburg, and made it possible for them 
 to be self-sustaining. I need not cite to you Catharine of Russia, Cleo- 
 patra, or the Queen of Sheba, who came to admire the wisdom of Solo- 
 mon ; or the Roman matrons, Zenobia, Lucre tia, Tullia ; or revert to the 
 earliest forms of government when the family and the church were law- 
 givers ; remind you of Lydia, the seller of purple and fine linen, who 
 ruled her own household, called to the church ; of Aquilla and Priscilla, 
 whom Paul took with him and left to control the church at Ephesus, after 
 they had been banished from Rome by the decree of Claudius ; or of 
 Phoebe, the deaconess. It is a well-known fact that women have been 
 sent as ministers and ambassadors, the latter a power fuller than our coun- 
 try 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. France, since the beginning of the reign of 
 lyouis XIV., through the period of the ascendency of Napoleon I. down 
 to the reign of Napoleon III., has employed women in diplomacy. Instan- 
 ces maybe found recorded in a work entitled *' Napoleon and His Court," 
 by Madame Junot, and also in our own consular works. The late Empress 
 of France has been said to be especially gifted in this respect. It has 
 been 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 often 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 commanding ships. 
 They are admitted to law schools, medical schools, and the higher order 
 of colleges, and are knocking at Amherst and Yale. Yea, more, they are 
 admitted to the practice of law, as in Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Wyoming 
 and Utah ; admitted to the practice of medicine everywhere, and more 
 recently to consultation. One hundred women jireachers are alread;^ 
 ordained and are preaching throughout the land. Women are elected 
 engrossing and enrolling clerks in Legislatures, as in Wisconsin, Missoi 
 and Indiana ; appointed as justices of the peace, as in Maine, Wyoming 
 and Connecticut : as bankers and brokers, as in New York and St. Loui 
 They are filling as school teachers three-fourths of the schools of the lane 
 
 This is more than true of our own city. Shall we not then ha'' 
 women school trustees and superintendents ? Already they are appoints 
 
BELVA ANN LOCKWOOD 351 
 
 in the East and in the West, and women are permitted to vote at Llie 
 school elections. Who has a deeper interest in the schools than the 
 mothers. 
 
 Look at the hundreds of women clerks in the government depart- 
 ments. They are all eligible, since the passage of the Arnell bill, to the 
 highest clerkships. Look at the postmistresses throughout the land. 
 Each one a bonded officer of the government, appointed by the President 
 and confirmed by the Senate, the highest executive power in t;he land. 
 " The power of the President to appoint, and of the Senate to confirm, has 
 never been questioned by our highest Courts. Being bonded officers, they 
 must necessarily qualify before a judicial of&cer." 
 
 And now, gentlemen of the Committee on Laws and Judiciary, what- 
 ever may be your report on these bills for justice and equality to women, 
 committed to your trust, I hope you will bear in mind that you have 
 mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, who will be affected by your decision. 
 They may be amply provided for to-day, and be beggared to-morrow. 
 Remember that " life is short and time is fleeting," but principles never 
 die. You hold in your hands a power and an opportunity to-day to 
 render yourselves immortal — an opportunity that comes but once in a life- 
 time. Shakespeare says : '' There is a tide in the affairs of men which, 
 taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." Gentlemen, the flood-tide is 
 with you ! Shall this appeal be in vain ? I hold in my hands the names 
 of hundreds of men and women of our city pledged to this work, and 
 they will not relax their efibrts until it is accomplished. 
 
 ' * Truth crushed to earth will rise again ; 
 
 The eternal years of God are hers ; 
 But Error, wounded, writhes in pain 
 
 And dies, amid her worshipers." 
 
ANNA E. DICKINSON (J 842 
 
 THE ELOQUENT VOMAN ORATOR 
 
 i 
 
 F the many women orators in the United States, it is doubtful 
 if any have equalled Anna E. Dickinson in powers of oratory. 
 In 1861, when only nineteen years of age, she entered the 
 arena of political and reform oratory, astonishing all who heard her 
 by her fervid eloquence and rare elocutionary powers. When a child 
 of fourteen she had written an article against slavery, which was pub- 
 lished in the Liba-ator, and at fifteen she made her first appearance as 
 a public speaker, in answer to a man who had delivered a tirade 
 against women. From that time her voice was often heard on the 
 subjects of slavery and temperance. Dismissed in 1861 from a posi- 
 tion in the United States Mint, because in a speech at West Chester she 
 had charged General McClellan with causing the disaster at Ball's Bluff, 
 she entered upon her true vocation, that of a lecturer. At the request of 
 William Lloyd Garrison, who had heard her, and named her " The 
 Girl Orator,'^ she delivered a memorable address in Music Hall, Bos- 
 ton, on " The National Crisis." From there she spoke widely, and 
 with the most flattering success, through the East. The war ended, 
 she took up woman's suffrage and other themes, delivering in Utai 
 lier famous lecture on *' Whited Sepulchres." 
 
 In 1877, Miss Dickinson made the serious -©ffor of deserting t 
 platform for the stage. She lacked the histrionic faculty, and all 
 as an actress, a dramatic reader, and a playwright she proved a fail- 
 ure. Her plays were *' Marie Tudor" and ''Anne Boleyn," in both of 
 which she played the leading part, without previous training as 
 actress. Several novels written by her also failed to achieve succei 
 and the later period of her life was one of mistakes and misfortun 
 Her principaTEooks were *' A Paying Investment " and "A Kaggi 
 352 
 
 .d, 
 
 I 
 
ANNA E. DICKINSON 353 
 
 Register of People, Places and Opinions." As an orator she had singu-" 
 larly fine powers, being a mistress of sarcasm, pathos and wit, and 
 possessing excellent judgment and faculty of logical analysis, com- 
 bined with that dramatic fervor of eloquence which is necessary to 
 successful oratory. 
 
 WHY COLORED MEN SHOULD ENLIST 
 
 [At a meeting held at Philadelphia in 1863, to promote the enlistment of colored 
 men in the army, speeches were made by Judge Kelley and Frederick Douglass. But 
 the oratorical feature of the occasion was the stirring appeal of Anna Dickinson. The 
 warrantlor"tfie enthusiasm it aroused is evident in the following e xtrac t from her 
 speech.] — 
 
 True, through the past we have advocated the use of the black man. 
 For what end ? To save ourselves. We wanted them as shields, as bar- J 
 
 riers, as walls of defence. We would not even say to them, fight beside j^iljLr 
 us. We would put them in the front — their brains contracted, their souls^^^^l ^> 
 dwarfed, their manhood stunted — mass them together; let them die!"^ 
 That will cover and protect us. Now we hear the voice of the people, 
 solemn and sorrowful, saying, '' We have wronged you enough ; you Lr 
 
 have suflfered enough ; we ask no more at your hands ; we stand aside, v ^f 
 and let you fight for your own manhood, your future, your race. ' ' Anglo- L fj^ 
 Africans, we need you ; yet it is not because of this need that I ask you 
 to go into the ranks of the regiments forming to fight in this war.«f_^My 
 ebeek^' would ^imson with shame, while my lips put the request that 
 QOuM be ans.^ered , "Your soldiers? why don't you give us the same 
 JjSl^ty, an^the same pay as the rest? " I have no replj^to that./ ^But 
 foV yourselves ; because, after ages of watching and agony, your day 
 is breaking ; because your hour is come ; because you hold the ham- 
 mer which, upheld or falling, decides your destiny for woe or weal; 
 because you have reached the point from which you must sink, genera- 
 tion after generation, century after century, into deeper depths, into more 
 absolute degradation ; or mount to the heights of glory and fame.j 
 
 The cause needs you. This is not our war, not a war for territory ; 
 not a war for martial power, for mere victory ; it is a war of the races, of j\ ^' 
 the ages ; the Stars and Stripes is the people's flag of the world ; the 
 world must be gathered under its folds, the black man beside the white. 
 
 Thirteen dollars a month and bounty are good ; liberty is better. 
 Ten dollars a month and no bounty is bad, slavery is worse. The two 
 alternatives are before you ; you make your own future. The tlFbe witl, 
 
 in-a little while, do you justice. Soldiers will be proud to welcome as f\ 
 
 comrades, as brothers, the black men of Port Hudson and Milliken's JJ 
 
 23 ^ 
 
 r 
 
354 ANNA E. DICKINSON 
 
 Bend. Congress, next winter, will look out through the fog and mist of 
 Washington, and will see how, when Pennsylvania was invaded and Phil- 
 adelphia threatened, while white men haggled over bounty and double 
 pay to defend their own city, their own homes, with the tread of armed 
 rebels almost heard in their streets ; black men, without bounty, without 
 pay, without rights or the promise of any, rushed to the beleaguered 
 capital, and were first in their offers of life or of death. Congress will 
 say, " These men are soldiers ; we will pay them as such ; these men are 
 marvels of loyalty, self-sacrifice, courage ; we will give them a chance of 
 promotion." History will write; *' Behold the unselfish heroes ; the eager 
 martyrs of this war. ' ' 
 
 You hesitate because you have not all. Your brothers and sisters of 
 the South cry out, ** Come to help us, we have nothing." Father ! you 
 hesitate to send your boy to death ; the slave father turns his face of dumb 
 entreaty to you, to save his boy from the death in life ; the bondage that 
 crushes soul and body together. Shall your son go to his aid ? Mother ! 
 you look with pride at the manly face and figure, growing and strength- 
 ening beside you ! He is yours; your own. God gave hinar- to you. 
 From the lacerated hearts, the wrung souls, of other mothers, comes the 
 wail, " My child, v^r^ild ; give me back my child ! " The slave- 
 master heeds not ; the Government is tardy ; mother ! the prayer comes 
 to you ; will you falter ? 
 
 Young man, rejoicing in the hope, the courage, the will, the thews 
 and muscles of young manhood ; the red glare of this war falls on the 
 faces and figures of other young men, distorted with suffering, writhing 
 in agony, wrenching their manacles and chains, shouting with despairing 
 voices to you for help — shall it be withheld ? 
 
 The slaves will be freed — with or without you. The conscience am 
 heart of the people have decreed that./. Xerxes scourging the Hellespont 
 Canute commanding the waves to roll back, are but types of that follj^ 
 which stands up and says to this majestic wave of public opinion, " Thus 
 tax^ The black man will be a citizen only by stamping his right to it 
 in blood. Now or never ! You have not homes ! — gain them. You 
 have not liberty ! — gain it. You have not a flag ! — gain it. You have 
 not a country ! — be written down in history as the race who made one for 
 themselves, and saved one for another. 
 
BOOK IK 
 
 Speakers on Festive Occasions 
 
 AMONG the various incitements to oratory, we 
 cannot neglect that of the social hall — the 
 banquet, or other occasion of high festivity— 
 in which those capable of ''speaking on their feet" 
 are often called upon to add to the enjoyment of the 
 assembled guests. While ceremonial banquets are 
 frequently made the occasion for sober pronounce- 
 ments on topics of national interest, the after-dinner 
 speech, as a rule, is of a light and amusing character. 
 Even if the speaker has a lesson to teach, an opinion 
 to promulgate, he seeks to interlard his serious sen- 
 tences with sauce for laughter. The covert satire, 
 the open jest, the merry anecdote are then much in 
 evidence, and the most admired speaker on such an 
 occasion is he who has the art of illuminating his 
 moral with words of mirth, and is best capable of 
 sharpening with wit or mellowing with humor the 
 points of serious intent which he may desire to make. 
 In the following selections of social oratory we have 
 sought to conform to the ruling spirit of such occa- 
 sions, that of the light touch and the mirthful allu- 
 sion. Oratory in its more famous examples appeals 
 to the deeper strata of human thought. In the 
 present section, therefore, we have confined our 
 choice to speakers admired for mirth-provoking lan- 
 guage, as a foil to the gravity and weight of much of 
 the other material offered. While these, as a rule, 
 cannot justly be classed among the world's great 
 orators, they occupy a distinct and interesting place 
 in the oratorial domain. 
 
 355 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW (1834 
 
 THE ORACLE OF HUMOR 
 
 as the pioneer in our list of social orators we cannot do better 
 than select one who ranks as the most famous of them all, 
 Chauncey M. Depew, a man whose unctious humor and rollick- 
 ing anecdotes have probably set more men roaring with laughter 
 than any other public speaker of the last years of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury and the openning of the twentieth. Depew can be serious upon 
 proper occasion. He would scarcely, for instance, be guilty of a joke 
 within the decorous Senate chamber. 
 
 Depew, a native of New York State, and a graduate of Yale, be- 
 came a railroad lawyer, a railroad vice-president, and a railroad presi- 
 dent in succession. Since 1885 he has controlled the destinies of the 
 New York Central and the West Shore roads. His public duties have 
 included the office of Secretary of State for New York, and of Minister 
 to Japan. He refused a United States Senatorship offered him by the 
 New York legislature in 1884, had the honor of receiving one hun- 
 dred votes for the presidential nomination in the National Republican 
 Convention of 1888, and in 1899 was elected to the Senate of the 
 United States from New York. His rich gift of oratory has, doubtless 
 much to do with his successes in the political field. 
 
 THE NEW NETHERLANDERS 
 [The New England Society, an association founded in honor of the landing of 
 the Pilgrims, has spread itself widely over the United States, wherever the sons of| 
 the Pilgrims and Puritans have migrated from their native soil. New York boasts 
 flourishing outgrowth from the parent society; Philadelphia has its representative j 
 branch ; and various other cities, even as far south as New Orleans, are thus honored. 
 The main public evidence of the existence of the Society is its annual banquet, given 
 on the 22d of December. The Pilgrims, the date of whose landing is thus honored, 
 set foot on Plymouth Rock on December nth. But this date belongs to the old stylej 
 
 366 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 357 
 
 chronology. To change it to New Style ten days need to be added, making the date 
 December 21st. But through some mistate in counting, "Forefather's Day" is 
 usually kept on December 226. in New England, and the Society holds its anniversary 
 on the same date elsewhere. Its meetings have long been favorite occasions for 
 humorous speeches by orators of note, in which the Pilgrims and Puritans are made 
 the victims of many witty and satirical allusions. We select an example from 
 Depew's remarks at the sixth annual festival of the New England Society of Pennsyl- 
 vania, at Philadelphia, December 22, 1886. He responded to the toast: "The New 
 Netherlanders ; the Pilgrim Fathers of Manhattan."] 
 
 It is a most extraordinary thing that one should come from New York 
 to Philadelphia for the purpose of attending a New England dinner. It 
 is a most extraordinary thing that a New England dinner should be held 
 in Philadelphia. Your chairman to night spoke of the hard condition of 
 the Puritans who landed on Plymouth Rock. I^et me say that if the 
 Puritans had come up the Delaware, landed here and begun life with terra- 
 pin and canvassback duck, there never would have been any Puritan story 
 to be retailed from year to year at Forefather's dinners. If William Penn 
 had ever contemplated that around his festive board would sit those Puri- 
 tans with whom he was familiar in England, he would have exclaimed : 
 " I,et all the savages on the continent come, but not them." 
 
 It is one of the pleasing peculiarities of the Puritan mind, as 
 evinced in the admirable address of Mr. Curtis here to-night (and when 
 you have heard Mr. Curtis you have heard the best that a New Englander, 
 who has been educated in New York, can do) that when they erect a 
 monument in Philadelphia or New York to the Pilgrim or Puritan, they 
 say : ' ' See how these people respect the man whom they profess to revile. ' ' 
 But they paid for them and built the monuments themselves ! The only 
 New Englanders of Philadelphia whom I have met are the officials of the 
 Pennsylvania Railroad. When I dine with them, enjoy their hospitality, 
 revel in that glorious sociability which is their characteristic and charm, 
 I think that they are Dutchmen. When I meet them in business, and am 
 impressed with their desire to possess the earth, I think that they came 
 over in the " Mayflower." 
 
 There is no part of the world to-night, whether it be in the Arctic 
 zone, or under the equatorial sun, or in monarchies, or in despotisms, or 
 among the Fiji Islanders, where the New Englanders are not gathered for 
 the purpose of celebrating and feasting upon Forefather's Day. But there 
 is this peculiarity about the New Englander, that,^if he cannot find any- 
 body to quarrel with, he gets up a controversy with himself, inside of him- 
 self. We who expect to eat this dinner annually — and to take the conse- 
 quences — went along peacefully for years with the understanding that the 
 22nd of December was the day, when it suddenly broke out that the New 
 
358 CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 
 
 Knglander, within himself, had got up a dispute that the 21st was the day. 
 I watched it with interest, because I always knew that when a Yankee 
 got up a controversy with anybody else, it was for his profit ; and I won- 
 dered how he could make anything by having a quarrel with himself. 
 Then I found that he ate both the dinners with serene satisfaction ! But 
 why should a Dutchman, a man of Holland descent, bring " coals to New- 
 castle ' ' by coming here among the Pennsylvania Dutch for the purpose of 
 attending a New England dinner ? It is simply another tribute extorted 
 by the conqueror from the conquered people, in compelling him not only 
 to part with his possessions, his farms, his sisters, his daughters, but to 
 attend the feast, to see devoured the things raised upon his own farm, 
 and then to assist the conqueror to digest them by telling him stories. 
 My familiarity with the Boston mind and its peculiarities was when I 
 was a small boy, in that little Dutch hamlet on the Hudson where I was 
 born, when we were electrified by the State Superintendant of Massachu- 
 setts coming to deliver us an address. He said : " My children, there was 
 a little flaxen-haired boy in a school that I addressed last year ; and when 
 I came over this year he was gone. Where do you suppose he had gone ?' ' 
 One of our little Dutch innocents replied, " To heaven." " Oh, no, my 
 boy," the Superintendent said, " he is a clerk in a store in Boston." 
 
 OUR ENGLISH VISITORS 
 
 [The selection here given is from a speech by Mr. Depew at a dinner given by 
 the Lotus Club, of New York, January 10, 1885, in honor of George Augustus Sala, 
 who had stopped in that city on his way to a lecture in Australia.] 
 
 A modern Briton , when he feels that he has a mission to reveal to the 
 world, goes out, not to the country which needs it most, his own, but comes 
 over here and in the spirit of the purest philanthropy lets us have it at 
 $200 a night. And that is the reason why Mr. Sala, notwithstanding his 
 modest declaimer that he is a traveler sojourning through the land, goes 
 to San Francisco by way of Portland and Boston. Now, then, the present 
 commercial difl&culties in this country — lack of prosperity, the closing of 
 the mills and all that which we are accustomed to ascribe to the fact 
 that a Democratic Administration has come into power — are due to this 
 horde of English lecturers. But like the Chinaman who comes here, to 
 accumulate and not to stay, he carries away with him all our surplus and 
 leaves nothing but ideas. 
 
 I well remember, as do you, Mr. President, when this system of insid-' 
 ious English attack upon our institutions was begun. Thackeray, that] 
 grand- hearted and genial critic, began it ; Dickens, with his magnificent 
 dramatic talent, continued it, and then what have we suffered since 
 
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 359 
 
 Look at Sergeant Ballantyne, who brought to us jokes so old that they 
 fall within the provisions of the penal act, and carried away stories which 
 have since convulsed the British Empire. Look at Herbert Spencer, the 
 dyspeptic — lean, hungry, sleepless, emaciated, prostrated with nervous 
 prostration — he appeared before us looking for all the world like Pickwick 
 gone to seed, and lectured us upon overwork. Look at Matthew Arnold, 
 that apostle of light and sunshine, who came here and had an experience 
 which might excite the compassion of all. He found himself in that 
 region from which Mr. Pulitzer hails, in the midst of what is termed a 
 lecture corpse. The lecture manager made this introductory speech : 
 *' Ladies and gentlemen, next week we shall have here those beautiful 
 singers, the Johnson sisters ; two weeks from to-night Professor Force- 
 Wind will give us magnificent views of Europe upon the magic lantern ; 
 and to-night I have the pleasure of introducing to you that distinguished 
 philosopher who has passed most of his life in India, who is the author 
 of that great poem, * The Light of Asia.' " 
 
 LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD 
 
 [As an example of Depew's graver vein, we select the following extract from 
 his remarks in 1886, during the dedication of the famous statue in New York harbor.] 
 
 American liberty has been for a century a beacon light for the nations. 
 Under its teachings and by the force of its example, the Italians have 
 expelled their petty and arbitrary princelings and united under a parlia- 
 mentary government ; the gloomy despotism of Spain has been expelled^ 
 by the representatives of the people and a free press ; the great German 
 race has demonstrated its power for empire and its ability to govern itself. 
 The Austrian monarch who, when, a hundred years ago, Washington 
 pleaded with him across the seas for the release of Lafayette from the dun- 
 geon of Olmutz, replied that " he had not the power," because the safety 
 of his throne and his pledges to his royal brethren of Europe compelled 
 him to keep confined the one man who represented infranchisement of the 
 people of every race and country, is to-day, in the person of his successor, 
 rejoicing with his subjects in the limitations of a constitution which guar- 
 antees liberties, and a congress which protects and enlarges them. Magna 
 Charta, won at Runnymede for Englismen, and developed into the prin- 
 ciples of the Declaration of Independence with their descendants, has 
 returned to the mother country to bear fruit in an open parliament, a free 
 press, the loss of royal perogative, and the passage of power from the 
 classes to the masses. 
 
WHITELAW REID (1837 ) 
 
 AN EXPONENT OF EDITORIAL ORATORY 
 
 mHE New York Tribune has for many years been a power in 
 Republican politics and a weight in national affairs, and its 
 destinies, since its establishment more than sixty years ago, 
 have remained in the hands of two men; Horace Greeley, who made it 
 what it is, and Whitelaw Reid, who has faithfully maintained the 
 policy of his able former chief. During and after the Civil War Reid 
 was a correspondent of the Gazette, of Cincinnati, and for several years 
 served as librarian of the House of Representatives. He joined the 
 staff of the Tribune in 1868, and made such notable progress in this 
 new field of labor that in 1872, on the death of Greeley, he succeeded 
 him as chief editor and principal proprietor. Since then he has 
 played some part in national politics and diplomacy. From 1889 to 
 1892 he was United States Minister to France. After the war with 
 Spain, in 1898, he was a member of the Peace Commission which 
 handled the aftermath of that brief conflict. 
 
 THE PRESS-RIGHT OR WRONG 
 
 [On the occasion of the one hundred and eighth annual banquet of the Cham- 
 ber of Commerce of the State of New York, — May 4, 1876 — Mr. Reid was one of the 
 guests and orators, responding to the toast, "The Press — right or wrong ; when, 
 right, to be kept right ; when wrong, to be set right." We quote from his remarl 
 on this appropriately placed topic] 
 
 Mr. President: The Press is without clergymen or counsel; and yottj 
 doubtless wish it were without voice. At this hour none of you have the} 
 least desire to hear anything or to say anything about the press. There 
 are a number of very able gentlemen who were ranged along that platfoi 
 — I utterly refuse to say whether I refer to Presidential candidates or not' 
 — but there were a number of very able gentlemen who were ranged along 
 860 
 
WHITELAW REID 361 
 
 that table, who are very much more anxious to know what the press 
 to-morrow morning will have to say about them, and I know it because I 
 saw the care with which they handed up to the reporters the manuscript 
 copies of their entirely unprepared and extempore remarks. 
 
 Gentlemen, 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 you 
 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 pronounced 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 ofi&ce-holder who did not steal. 
 
 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 be 
 set right." Gentlemen, this is your affair. A stream will not rise 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 have 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 will remain what it is. 
 
 If, for instance, the venerable leader of your Bar, conspicuous through 
 a long life for the practice of every 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 
 cau^ 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 anyone who 
 runs over in his memory the course of our municipal history for the last 
 •Clozen years, but there is no time to repeat or even refer to them here. 
 
EDWARD EVERETT HALE (J 822 
 
 AUTHOR, LECTURER AND PULPIT ORATOR 
 
 mN 1861, the openiag year of the Civil War, a decided sensation 
 was produced by the appearance of a remarkable work, entitled 
 " The Man Without a Country." It came at an opportune 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 the United States was that he 
 should thenceforth live in utter oblivion of the land of his birth and 
 allegiance. As worked up by the skillful pen of the writer, the Rev. 
 Edward Everett Hale, the fate of this exile was most vividly 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 same quality. As a guest 
 of the New England Society in the City of New York, on the occasion of its seventy- 
 first annual banquet, December 22, 1876, he responded as follows to the toast: *' New 
 England Culture — the Open Secret of Her Greatness."] 
 
 Mr. President and 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 onee to 
 express the thanks and congratulations of the invited guests here for thej 
 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 William Bradford, and Carver, anc 
 Winslow could not have done better than this in Plymouth ; and indeed,] 
 as I ate my pork and beans just now, I felt that the Gospel of New Eng- 
 land is extending beyond the Connecticut to other nations, and that wjif 
 
EDWARD EVERETT HALE 363 
 
 is good to eat and drink in Boston, is good to eat and drink even here on 
 this benighted point 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 squib that I read in the late election campaign — and as 
 the President says, gentlemen, I am going to respect the proprieties of the 
 occasion. It was sent to one of the journals from the Western Reserve ; 
 and the writer, who, if I have rightly guessed his name, is one of the 
 most brilliant of our younger poets, was descanting on the Chinook 
 vocabulary, in which a Chinook calls an Englishman a Chinchog to this 
 day, in memory of King George. And this writer says that when they 
 have a young chief 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 cheeks, 
 but who never took a scalp, never fired an arrow, and never smelled powder, 
 but was always found at home whenever there was anything that scented of 
 war, he says the Chinooks called that man by the name of ' ' Boston Cultus. ' ' 
 
 Well now, gentlemen, what are you laughing at ? Why do you 
 laugh ? Some of you had Boston fathers, and more of you had Boston 
 mothers. Why do you laugh ? Ah ! you 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 campaign in the late war, 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 emigration, 
 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 foreigner. 
 We have those people in Boston. You may not have them in New York, 
 and I 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 existed, and 
 those are the years between Plymouth Rock and the day when some unfor- 
 tunate men, not 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 England, which is born of God, and which it is our 
 mission to carry over the world. 
 
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (J 9894 89 J) 
 
 THE ROSEA BIGLOW OF ORATORY 
 
 AMONG American authors there are none more versatile, none on 
 whose shoulders motley sits more gracefully, than Lowell, the 
 ■^ poet, essayist, critic, and humorist, the man who could be 
 everything for every occasion, who could wear the cap and bells of the 
 mirth-maker, flourish the sharp prod of the critic, bring sweet music 
 from the harp strings of the poet, or walk with grave dignity in the 
 cloak of the essayist and professor. They who love laughter cannot 
 do better than read Lowell's inimitable " Biglow Papers," or take in 
 the genial fun of his " Courtin'.'^ For the patrons of poetry he has 
 set out many toothsome morsels ; while in the line of the essay we 
 can name no finer example of classical satire than his '' On a Certain 
 Condescension in Foreigners." 
 
 Lowell did not confine himself to the production of literature. 
 For a number of years he lectured on this subject at Harvard, and 
 then for other years he edited the Atlantic Monthly, and after that the 
 North Amencan Review. Political honors also came to him. He wf 
 Minister to Spain under President Hayes, and afterward Minister 
 England, where be made the whole country his friend and admirei 
 As an orator he distinguished himself by numerous public addresses 
 which brought him high praise. As an example of his manner, w< 
 present a brief specimen of his after-dinner speech-making. 
 
 THE KINSHIP OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA 
 
 [The inciting cause of the following remarks was a banqnet to Henry Irvinj 
 the celebrated actor, at London, on July 4, 1883. On this, the natal day of the Unite 
 States, Lowell, then Minister to England, represented and spoke for the great Republi^ 
 of the West. Among the guests was Lord Coleridge, Lord Chief Justice of Englam 
 himself a forceful speaker, whom Lowell especially addressed in the following grac 
 ful fragment of social oratory.] 
 364 
 
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL 366 
 
 I may be allowed to make one remark as to a personal experience. 
 Fortune has willed it that I should see as many — perhaps more — cities and 
 manners of men as Ulysses ; and I have observed one general fact, and 
 that is, that the adjectival epithet which is prefixed to all the virtues is 
 invariably the epithet which geographically describes the country that I 
 am in. For instance, not to take any real name, if I am in the kingdom 
 of Lilliput, I hear of the Lilliputian virtues. I hear courage, I hear com- 
 mon sense, and I hear political wisdom called by that name. If I cross to 
 the neighboring republic Blefusca — for since Swift's time it has become 
 a republic — I hear all these virtues suddenly qualified as Blefuscan. 
 
 I am very glad to be able to thank Lord Coleridge for having, I 
 believe for the first time, coupled the name of the President of the United 
 States with that of her Majesty on an occasion like this. I was struck, 
 both in what he said, and in what our distinguished guest of this evening 
 said, with the frequent recurrence of an adjective which is comparatively 
 new — I mean the word " English-speaking." We continually hear now- 
 adays of the " English-speaking race," of the " English-speaking popu- 
 lation." I think this implies, not that we are to forget, not that it would 
 be well for us to forget, that national emulation and that national pride 
 which is implied in the words " Englishman " and " American," but the 
 word implies that there are certain perennial and abiding sympathies between 
 all men of a common descent and a common language. 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 the 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 
 
866 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL 
 
 came out of churcli she said, " Oh, dear doctor, I have always listened 
 to your sermon with the greatest edification and comfort, but now that 
 the wig is gone all is gone." I have thought I have seen some signs of 
 encouragement in the faces of my English 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, I am sure, in after-dinner oratory, and that is brevity ; and 
 as to that I am reminded of a story. The Lord Chief Justice has told 
 you what are the ingredients of after-dinner oratory. They are the joke, 
 the quotation, and the platitude ; and the successful platitude, in my judg- 
 ment, requires a very high order of genius. I believe that I have not 
 given you a quotation, but I am reminded of something which I heard 
 when very young — the story of a Methodist clergyman in America. He 
 was preaching at a camp-meeting, and he was preaching upon the miracle 
 of Joshua, and he began his sermon with this sentence : " My hearers, 
 there are three motions of the sun. The first is the straightforward or 
 direct motion of the sun ; the second is the retrograde or backward 
 motion of the sun ; the third is the motion mentioned in our text — * the 
 sun stood still.' " 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I don't know whether you seethe application of the 
 storj' — I hope you do. The after-dinner orator at first begins and goes 
 straight forward — that is the straightforward motion of the sun . Next he 
 goes back and begins to repeat himself — that is the backward motion of 
 the sun. At last he has the good sense to bring himself to the end, and 
 that is the motion mentioned in our text, as the sun stood still. 
 
FITZHUGH LEE (J835- 
 
 A SOLDIER ON THE FORUM 
 
 aMONG the men who have bravely upheld the dignity of the 
 United States under trying circumstances we must name 
 General Fitzhugh Lee, who was United States Consul at 
 Havana during the period preceding the Spanish War, and in whose 
 hands — ex-Confederate that he was — the honor of the old flag proved 
 safe. Grandson of one of the soldier heroes of the Revolution, and 
 nephew of the soldier hero of the South in the Civil War, the part 
 played by himself as a cavalry leader in the Confederate ranks was 
 no unimportant one, he being chief in command of the cavalry of the 
 army in Virginia at the end of the war. During the years of peace 
 that followed, General Lee was called upon to fill important posts. 
 In 1886, Virginia chose him for her Governor. From 1893 to 1898 
 he served as Consul-General at Havana, and he was a Major-General 
 of Volunteers in the war with Spain. He subsequently, for a time, 
 held the post of Military-Governor of the Province of Havana, con- 
 trolling with firm hand the excited patriots of Cuba litre during the 
 early days of their new importance as citizens of an independent 
 nationality. His popularity 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- 
 8hip.] 
 
 367 
 
368 fitzhugh lee 
 
 Mr. Chairman, and Gentlemen 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 here 
 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 tc 
 them that he could not make that soap. "Why not," he was asked,] 
 ''haven't you all the materials?" "Yes," he replied, "but there ij 
 something wrong." The old folks proceeded to investigate, and the} 
 found they had actually got the ashes of the little cherry tree that Georj 
 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 it 
 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 behinc 
 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 
 
FITZHUGH LEE 369 
 
 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 the people 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 
 
 a NY man who attempts to introduce " Mark Twain " to an 
 American audience might as well write himself down as a 
 promising candidate for a lunatic asylum. Everybody knows 
 the genial "Mark," — that is, everybody who reads and has been 
 blessed by mother Nature with an appreciative taste for humor. His 
 books, from " The Innocents Abroad " to the latest 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 frequentiy made his mark as an after-dinner orator. One 
 of his efforts was at a dinner given by the publishers of the Atlantic 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 Gbnti.emen : — I would have traveled 
 a much greater distance than I have come to witness the paying of honors 
 to Dr. Holmes ; for my feeling towards him has always been 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 after ware 
 to obliterate that one, or dim the memory of the pleasant surprise it was^ 
 and the gratification it gave you. Lapse of time cannot make it common- 
 place or cheap. 
 870 
 
SAMUEL L. CLEMENS 371 
 
 Well, the first great man who ever wrote me a letter was our guest — 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes. He was also the first great literary man I ever 
 stole anything from, and that is how I came to write to him and he to me. 
 When my first book was new, a friend of mine said to me, " The dedica- 
 tion is very neat." Yes, I said, I thought it was. My friend said : ** I 
 always admired it, even before I saw it in the * Innocents Abroad '." I 
 naturally said, ' ' What do you mean ? Where did you ever see it before ?" 
 ''Well, I saw it first some years ago as Dr. Holmes' dedication to his 
 'Songs in Many Keys.' " Of course, my first impulse was to prepare 
 this man's remains for burial, but upon reflection I said I would reprieve 
 him for a moment or two, and give him a chance to prove his assertion 
 if he could. We stepped into a bookstore and he did prove it. I had 
 really stolen that dedication, almost word for word. I could not imagine 
 how this curious thing had happened ; for I knew one thing, — that a cer- 
 tain amount of pride always goes along with a teaspoonful of brains, and 
 that this pride protects a man from deliberately stealing other people's 
 ideas. That is what a teaspoonful of brains will do for a man; — and 
 admirers had often told me I had nearly a basketful, though they were 
 rather reserved as to the size of the basket. 
 
 However, I thought the thing out and solved the mystery. Two 
 years before I had been laid up a couple of weeks in the Sandwich 
 Islands, and had read and re-read Dr. Holmes' poems till my mental 
 reservoir was filled up with them to the brim. The dedication lay on the 
 top and handy, so, by and by, I unconsciously stole it. Perhaps I uncon- 
 sciously stole the rest of the volume, too, for many people have told me that 
 my book was pretty poetical, in one way or another. Well, of course, 
 I wrote Dr. Holmes and told him I hadn't meant to steal, and he wrote 
 back and said in the kindest way that it was all right and no harm done ; 
 and added that he believed we all unconsciously worked over ideas gath- 
 ered in reading and hearing, imagining they were original with ourselves. 
 He stated a truth, and did it in such a pleasant way, and salved over my 
 sore spot so gently and so healingly, that I was rather glad I had com- 
 mitted the crime, for the sake of the letter. I afterward called on him 
 and told him to make perfectly free with any ideas of mine that struck 
 him as being good protoplasm for poetry. He could see by that that 
 there wasn't anything mean about me; so we got along right from the 
 start. I have not met Dr. Holmes many times since ; and lately he said 
 — however, I am wandering wildly away from the one thing which I got 
 on my feet to do ; that is, to make my compliments to you, my fellow- 
 teachers of the great public, and likewise to say I am right glad to see 
 that Dr. Holmes is still in his prime and full of generous life ; and as age 
 
372 SAMUEL L. CLEMENS 
 
 is not determined by years, but by trouble and infirmities of mind and 
 body, I hope it may be a very long time yet before any one can truthfully 
 say, "He is growing old/' 
 
 THE DRESS OF CIVILIZED WOMAN 
 
 A large part of the daughter of civilization is her dress — as it should 
 be. Some civilized women would lose half their charm without dress ; 
 and some would lose all of it. The daughter of modern civilization 
 dressed at her utmost best is a marvel of exquisite and beautiful art and 
 expense. All the lands, all the climes, and all the arts are laid under 
 tribute to furnish her forth. Her linen is from Belfast, her robe is from 
 Paris, her lace is from Venice, or Spain, or France, her feathers are from 
 the remote regions of Southern Africa, her furs from the remoter region 
 of the iceberg and the aurora, her fan from Japan, her diamonds from 
 Brazil, her bracelets from California, her pearls from Ceylon, her cameos 
 from Rome. She has gems and trinkets from buried Pompeii, and others 
 that graced comely Egyptian forms that have been dust and ashes now for 
 forty centuries. Her watch is from Geneva, her card-case is from China, 
 her hair is from — from — I don't know where her hair is from ; I never 
 could find out. That is, her other hair — her public hair, her Sunday hair ; 
 I don't mean the hair she goes to bed with .... 
 
 And that reminds me of a trifle ; any time you want to you can glance 
 round the carpet of a Pullman car, and go and pick up a hairpin ; but 
 not to save your life can you get any woman in that car to acknowledge 
 that hairpin. Now, isn't that strange ! But it's true. The woman who 
 has never swerved from cast-iron veracity and fidelity in her whole life 
 will, when confronted with this crucial test, deny her hairpin. She will 
 deny that hairpin before a hundred witnesses. I have stupidly got into 
 more trouble and more hot water trying to hunt up the owner of a hair- 
 pin in a Pullman than by any other indiscretion of my life. 
 
N 
 
 HORACE PORTER (J837 — 
 
 A BRILLIANT AFTER-DINNER SPEAKER 
 
 |ENERAL HORACE PORTER was well qualified from personal 
 experience to describe the stirring events of war times under 
 Grant, for he served as Brigadier-General under that famous 
 commander during the Civil War, and came very near to him as his 
 private secretary durmg the eight years of his Presidency. A gradu- 
 ate of West Point in 1860, General Porter served in the field through- 
 out the Civil War, holding in succession every commissioned grade 
 up to that of Brigadier-General. In 1897 he was appointed United 
 States Ambassador to France by President McKinley, holding this 
 important diplomatic post throughout McKinley's term and continuing 
 to represent this country at the French court under President Roosevelt. 
 He has been prominent in business, being president of several railroad 
 corporations. As an orator General Portei; delivered the address at the 
 Grant memorial ceremonies, and at the inauguration of the Washing- 
 ton Arch at New York, in 1897. He is especially capable in after- 
 dinner speech-making, 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 fondness 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 he is master of the element of pathos as well.] 
 
 V 
 
 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 
 
374 HORACE PORTER 
 
 air ; but I hope that in this sort of ballooning I may not be interruped by 
 the remark that interrupted 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 aloft 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 the first speech as well, you may 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 refused 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 common 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 hiSi 
 entire life in chopping down acorn trees and the other in splitting them up. 
 into rails. Washington could not tell a story. Lincoln always could. 
 
HORACE PORTER 375 
 
 And Lincoln's stories alwaj^s possessed the true 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 chords were often 
 set to strains of sadness. Yet throughout all his trials he never lost the 
 courage of his convictions. When he was surrounded on all sides by 
 doubting Thomases, by unbelieving Saracens, by discontented Catilines, 
 his faith was strongest. As the Danes destroyed the hearing of their war- 
 horses in order that they might not be 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 Thermopylae 
 every child in the public schools of Greece was required to recite from 
 memory the names of the three hundred martyrs who fell in the defence 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 memory of a good name, the inheritance of a great 
 example. 
 
JOSEPH JEFFERSON (1829 ) 
 
 THE RIP VAN WINKLE OF DRAMATIC ORATORY 
 
 rOR many decades of the past the lovers of the theatre have 
 feasted full on one oft served repast, Jefferson's " Rip Van 
 ""^ Winkle," which is growing to be a tradition even while it 
 remains a living tenant of the stage. Jefferson has so thoroughly 
 identified himself with " Old Rip " that the two have fairly become 
 one. He is growing especially like him in one particular, old age is 
 classing him among its veterans ; but he is unlike him in another, he 
 has not slept away his years. In fact, no man has kept more vitally 
 alive and more fully in the eyes of the people than Joseph Jefferson. 
 He is protean in his changes. We see him now as "Rip," again as 
 " Bob Eccles," next in some other form ; but in none of them does he 
 obliterate himself. Through all these variations something of the 
 genial-hearted Joe Jefferson shows out. Born of a family of actors, 
 he came to his profession by hereditary right, and has abundantly 
 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 trageg 
 dian, bought a farm near Philadelphia, and it is a positive fact that he ij 
 the first man who ever owned a fast trotting horse in America. He us 
 376 
 
JOSEPH JEFFERSON 877 
 
 to drive from the farm to rehearsal at the theatre, and I believe 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 my 
 part. But I allude to my farm in New Jersey. I have not been so suc- 
 cessful as Mr. Burroughs, but I was attracted by a tov/nsmanand 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 me 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 the 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 summer time, it became quite unnecessary in New Jersey 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 Alderney 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 chafiing 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 
 
 mHE distinguished member of President McKinley's Cabinet 
 with whom we have now to deal, has kept himself long and 
 fully in the public eye, alike as journalist, as diplomat, and as 
 Cabinet official. A native of Connecticut, he was an editor in Albany 
 for the fifteen years from 1865 to 1880, and since the latter date has 
 been the ruling spirit of the Philadelphia Press, the oldest and ablest 
 exponent of the Republican party in the Quaker City. In his diplo- 
 matic service Mr. Smith was Minister to Russia 1890-92. In 1898 he 
 was appointed Postmaster-General, resigning in 1902, in consequence 
 of the demands of his editorial duties. As a Cabinet officer he won 
 high praise for the merited efficiency of the postal service. The free 
 rural delivery was developed during his administration of the postoffice 
 department. Mr. Smith is ready and capable as an orator, alike on 
 social occasions and in cases of graver demands. 
 
 THE ADVANTAGES OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 
 
 [Mr. Smith can, on occasion, be very amusing as an after-dinner orator, as 
 evidence of which we make the following selection from his remarks at the 
 thirteenth annual dinner — in 1893 — of the New England Society of Pennsylvania, of 
 which he was then the president. He very neatly contrasts the hardships of the \ 
 Pilgrim Father and the modern legislator.] j 
 
 If the Pilgrim Fathers were not the sweetest warblers, they at least 
 never wobbled. They always went direct to their mark. As Kmersoi^| 
 said of Napoleon, they would shorten a straight line to get at a point.™! 
 They faced the terrors of the New England northeast blast and starved in 
 the wilderness in order that we might live in freedom. We have literally 
 turned the tables on them, and patiently endure the trying hardships of^ 
 this festive board in order that their memories may not die in forgetfulnessj 
 378 
 
 I 
 
CHARLES EMORY SMITH 379 
 
 We can never forget the hardships which they were forced to endure, 
 but at the same time we must recognize that they had some advantages 
 over us. They escaped some of the inflictions to which we have been 
 compelled to submit. They braved the wintry blast of Plymouth, but 
 they never knew the everlasting wind of the United States Senate. They 
 slumbered under the long sermons of Cotton Mather, but they never 
 dreamed of the fourteen consecutive hours of Nebraska Allen or Nevada 
 Stewart. They battled with Armenian dogmas and Antinomian heresies, 
 but they never experienced the exhilarating delights of the Silver debate 
 or throbbed under the rapturous and tumultuous emotions of a Tariff 
 Schedule. 
 
 They had their days of festivity. They observed the annual day 
 of Thanksgiving with a reverent, and not infrequently with a jocund, 
 spirit ; but advanced as they were in many respects, they never reached 
 that sublime moral elevation and that high state of civilization which 
 enable us in our day to see that the only true way to observe Thanksgiving 
 is to shut up the churches and revel in the spiritual glories of the flying 
 wedge and the triumphal touchdown. Their calendar had three great 
 red-letter days of celebration : Commencement day, which expressed and 
 emphasized the foremost place they gave to education in their civil and 
 religious polity ; Training or Muster day, which illustrated the spirit and 
 the skill which gave them victory over the Indians and made them stand 
 undaunted on Bunker Hill under Warren and Putnam until above the 
 gleaming column of red-coats they could look into the whites of the 
 enemies' eyes ; and Election day, upon which, with its election sermon 
 and its solemn choice of rulers, they acted out their high sense of patriotic 
 duty to the Commonwealth. 
 
 We are deeply concerned in these days about the debasement of the 
 ballot-box. Perhaps we could find a panacea in the practice of our 
 Pilgrim Fathers. They enacted a law that the right of suffrage should be 
 limited to church members in good standing. Suppose we had such a 
 law now, what a mighty revolution it would work either in exterminating 
 fraud or in promoting piety ! * * Men and Brethren ! ' ' said the colored 
 parson, " two ways are open before you, the broad and narrow way which 
 leads to perdition, and the straight and crooked way which leads to dam- 
 nation." We have before us now the two ways of stuffed ballot-boxes 
 and empty pews, and our plan is to change the stuffing from the ballot- 
 boxes to the pews. I am not altogether sure which result would be 
 accomplished ; but it is quite clear that if the law of our Fathers did not 
 destroy corruption in politics, it would at least kindle a fresh interest in 
 the church. 
 
JOSEPH B. COGHLAN (J 844 ) 
 
 AN ORATOR FROM DEWEY'S FLEET 
 
 |N0WN as a sea-captain, and not at all as an orator, Joseph B. 
 Coghlan, one of Dewey's officers at the great naval battle of 
 Manila Bay, won a degree of prominence in the domain of 
 after-dinner oratory at New York, in 1899 ; his telling story of how 
 Dewey taught a lesson to the German admiral spreading like wildfire 
 through the country. This one speech is well worth preserving both 
 for its intrinsic interest and as an example of the style adapted to a 
 speech which includes a good story. Captain Coghlan, born at 
 Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1844, graduated from the Naval Academy 
 at Annapolis, in 1863, and saw service on the Sacramento during the 
 remainder of the war. Subsequently he rose slowly in rank, being 
 made commander in 1882, and captain in 1896. As such he was in 
 command of the Raleigh, which was a part of Commodore Dewey's 
 squadron at Hong Kong, when the war with Spain began, and played 
 his part in the memorable, most effective and, illustrious affair in the 
 waters of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. 
 
 The event referred to in the following brief speech was one that 
 for the time being excited as much irritation in the United States as 
 in the fleet before Manila. Germany sent to Manila Bay after Dewey's 
 victory a far larger fleet than any other nation, and the actions of the 
 admiral gave rise to the suspicion that an intention was entertained 
 of interfering in the settlement of the Philippine question. This was 
 especially the case after the German gunboat Irene prevented the 
 insurgents from attacking the Spaniards on Grande Island, in Subic 
 Bay. This was considered by many in the United States as little 
 short of an act of war. Throughout the blockade of Manila the Ger 
 man admiral acted with what seemed discourtesy to the American 
 380 
 
 I 
 
JOSEPH B. COGHLAN S81 
 
 and Admiral Dewey, though he bore it with seeming disregard, was 
 
 no doubt irritated by it. This is evident in the cuhninating incident, 
 
 as described below. 
 
 DEVEY AT MANILA 
 
 [Captain Coghlan's one appearance as an oratorwasatthebanquet given April 21, 
 1899, at the Union League Club of New York, to himself and the other officers of the 
 Raleigh, then in port at that city. His racy and telling story of the interview between 
 Dewey and the messenger of the German Admiral von Diedrichs, was read with 
 much interest and amusement throughout the country, and helped to enhance the 
 reputation of the gallant Dewey.] 
 
 Mk. President and Genti^emen of the Union League : I thought 
 I came here on the condition that I was to do no talking. I get scared to 
 death when called upon to speak, and sometimes I don't say what I want 
 to. So you will excuse me for everything out of the way that I say to- 
 night. I was almost breathless as I listened to your president's speech. 
 The more he spoke the more I thought : " For God's sake, can he mean 
 us ? " As he went on I recognized the name of our beloved chief, Admiral 
 Dewey; I knew he was simply patting the admiral over our shoulders, and 
 I thought to myself: " He can't do too much of that to suit me." We 
 feel that we may be congratulated on our home-coming ; not for what we 
 have done, but for having served under Admiral Dewey. We love him 
 and give him all the credit for what was done by the American fleet at 
 Manila. If we thought it was possible by accepting this kind reception 
 to-night to take away from him one iota of this credit, we would feel that 
 we were doing wrong. 
 
 We were with Dewey from the start to the finish, and on each day we 
 learned more to love and respect him, that the honor was safe in his hands, 
 and that nothing in which he was engaged but would redound to the 
 credit of our country. During the days after the great fight was over, he 
 suffered the most outrageous nagging ; on, on it went, day after day, rub- 
 bing clean through the flesh to the bone, but he always held himself and 
 others up. I tell you it was magnificent. I must tell you of an incident 
 which I think will be of interest. Our German friend. Admiral von 
 Diedrichs, sent an ofiScer to complain of the restrictions placed upon him 
 by Admiral Dewey. I happened to be near by at the time, and I over- 
 heard the latter part of the conversation between this ofi&cer and our chief. 
 I shall never forget it, and I want the people of the United States to know 
 what Admiral Dewey said that day. 
 
 *' Tell your admiral," said he, *' his ships must stop where I say," 
 " But we fly a flag, ' ' said the ofiicer. ' ' Those flags can be bought at half 
 a dollar a yard anywhere," said the Admiral, and there wasn't a bit of fun 
 
382 JOSEPH B. COGHLAN 
 
 in his face when he said it either. ** Any one can fly that flag,'" he con- 
 tinued. * * The whole Spanish fleet might come on with those colors if they 
 wanted to. Therefore, I must and will stop you. Tell your admiral I 
 am blockading here. I am tired of the character of his conduct. I have 
 made it as lenient as possible for him. Now the time has arrived when he 
 must stop. Listen to me. Tell your admiral that the slightest refraction^ 
 of these orders by himself or his officers will mean but one thing. Tell 
 him what I say — it will mean war. Make no mistake when I say it will 
 mean war. If you people are ready for war with the United States, you 
 can have it in five minutes." 
 
 I am free to admit that the admiral's speech to that officer took my 
 breath away. As that officer left to go back to his ship, he said to an 
 American officer w^hose name I do not recall : " I think your admiral 
 does not exactly understand." **0h, yes he does," said the American 
 officer. " He not only understands, but he means every word he says." 
 That was the end of that bosh. After that the Germans didn't dare to 
 breathe more than four times in succession without asking the admiral's 
 permission. 
 
 The North and the South fought together at Manila Bay, as they did 
 in Cuba ; and, I tell you, together they are invincible. Not only is our 
 country one to-day, but I tell" you the English-speaking race is one also.* 
 The English people are with us heart and soul, and they were with us 
 before we went to Manila, as I will show you. On the wharves at Hong 
 Kong, before we started for Manila, strange officers met us and introduced 
 themselves, which you will agree is a very un-English proceeding. They 
 wished us all manner of luck. One said to me : * * By Jove, if you fellows 
 don't wipe them out, don't come back to us, because we won't speak to 
 you." Afterward, when we went back to Hong Kong, one of those 
 English officers said to me : "By Jove, we never gave you credit for style ; 
 but my ! you can shoot ! ' ' 
 
 And now that is all that I have to say, except to ask a favor. I want 
 you to join me in drinking the health of our chief, Admiral Dewey. 
 
JAMES PROCTOR KNOTT (1830 
 
 A STATESMAN AND HUMORIST 
 
 mT is not often that Congress, and the country at large, is captured 
 by a single speech, but this was accomplished in 1871, by J. 
 Proctor Knott, then Representative from Kentucky, in perhaps 
 the most irresistibly humorous speech ever delivered before the national 
 law-makers. Duluth survived the satire of his speech, and in thirty 
 years has grown from a name on the map into a flourishing commer- 
 cial city. But Knott became the victim of his speech. He could be 
 sober and earnest enough on occasion, but Congress thereafter refused 
 to take him seriously, everything he uttered being dissected for the 
 possible spirit of fun, which might lurk somewhere within its sen- 
 tences. So we may designate Knott as the man of one speech. Mr. 
 Knott is a Kentuckian by birth, though part of his life was passed in 
 Missouri, where he was elected to the Legislature in 1858, and was 
 Attorney-General for the State 1859-62. He served in Congress as a 
 member from Kentucky 1867-83 and was Governor of Kentucky 
 1885-87. He was professor of civics and economics at Centre College 
 
 from 1892 to 1894. 
 
 THE MYSTERY OF DULUTH 
 
 [Early in 1871 a bill was introduced into the House of Representatives for the 
 construction of what was entitled the St. Croix and Bayfield Railroad, for the develop- 
 ment of a virgin northern corner of Minnesota, its proposed terminus being a newly 
 settled place on Lake Superior named Duluth. The country seems to have been one 
 of barren pine forest, which was being "developed" apparently for some personal 
 interest. We offer a sample selection of the ridicule with which Mr. Knott riddled 
 the project. Though not made on a social occasion, the speech is best fitted for this 
 section of our work.] 
 
 No, sir, I repeat I have been satisfied for years that if there was any 
 portion of the inhabited globe absolutely in a suffering condition for want 
 of a railroad, it was those teeming pine barrens of the St. Croix. At 
 
 383 
 
SU James proctor knott 
 
 what particular point on that noble stream such a road should be com- 
 menced I knew was immaterial, and so it seems to have been considered 
 by the draughtsman of this bill. It might be up at the spring, or down 
 at the foot-log, or the water-gate, or the fish-dam, or anywhere along the 
 bank, no matter where. But in what direction it should run, or where it 
 should terminate, were always to my mind questions of the most painful 
 perplexit3^ I could conceive of no place on " God's green earth " in 
 such straightened circumstances for railroad facilities as to be likely to 
 desire or willing to accept such a connection. I knew that neither Bay- 
 field nor Superior City would have it, for they both indignantly spurned 
 the munificence of the Government when coupled with such ignominious 
 conditions, and let this very same land-grant die on their hands years and 
 years ago, rather than submit to the degradation of a direct communica- 
 tion by railroad with the piny woods of the St. Croix ; and I knew that 
 what the enterprising inhabitants of those giant young cities would refuse 
 to take would have few charms for others, whatever their necessity or 
 cupidity might be. 
 
 Hence, as I have said, sir, I was utterly at a loss to determine where 
 the terminus of this great and indispensable road should be, until I acci- 
 dentally overheard some gentleman the other day mention the name of 
 * ' Duluth. ' * Duluth ! The word fell upon my ear with peculiar and 
 indescribable charm, like the gentle murmur of a low fountain stealing 
 forth in the midst of roses ; or the soft, sweet accents of an angel's whisper 
 in the bright, joyous dream of sleeping innocence. Duluth ! 'Twas the 
 name for which my soul had panted for years, as the hart panted for the 
 water-brooks. But where was Duluth ? Never, in all my limited read- 
 ing, had my vision been gladdened by seeing the celestial word in print. 
 And I felt a profounder humiliation in my ignorance that its dulcet sylla- 
 bles had never before ravished my delighted ear. I was certain the 
 draughtsmen of this bill had never heard of it, or it would have been 
 designated as one of the termini of this road. I asked my friends about 
 it, but they knew nothing of it. I rushed to the library and examined all 
 the maps I could find. I discovered in one of them a delicate, hair-like 
 line, diverging from the Mississippi near a place marked Prescott, which 
 I suppose was intended to represent the river St. Croix, but I could 
 nowhere find Duluth. 
 
 Nevertheless, I was confident it existed somewhere, and that its dis- 
 covery would constitute the crowning glory of the present century, if not 
 of all modern times. I knew it was bound to exist, in the very nature of 
 things ; that the symmetry and perfection of our planetary system would 
 be incomplete without it ; that the elements of material nature would long 
 
 I 
 
JAMES PROCTOR KNOTT 386 
 
 since have resolved themselves back into original chaos if there had been 
 such a hiatus in creation as would have resulted from leaving out Duluth. 
 In fact, sir, I was overwhelmed with the conviction that Duluth not 
 only existed somewhere, but that, wherever it was, it was a great and 
 glorious place. I was convinced that the greatest calamity that ever befell 
 the benighted nations of the ancient world was in their having passed 
 away without a knowledge of the actual existence of Duluth ; that their 
 fabled Atlantis, never seen save by the hallowed vision of inspired poesy, 
 was, in fact, but another name for Duluth ; that the golden orchard of the 
 Hesperides was but a poetical synonym for the beer-gardens in the vicinity 
 of Duluth. I was certain that Herodotus had died a miserable death, 
 because in all his travels, and with all his geographical research, he had 
 never heard of Duluth. I knew that if the immortal spirit of Homer 
 could look down from another heaven than that created by his own celes- 
 tial genius, upon the long line of pilgrims from every nation of the earth 
 to the gushing fountain of his poesy opened by the touch of his magic 
 wand ; — if he could be permitted to behold the vast assemblage of grand 
 and glorious productions of the lyric art called into being by his own 
 inspired strains, he would weep tears of bitter anguish that, instead of 
 lavishing all the stores of his mighty genius upon the fall of Ilion, it had 
 not been his more blessed lot to crystallize in deathless song the rising 
 glories of Duluth. Yes, sir, had it not been for this map, kindly fur- 
 nished by the Legislature of Minnesota, I might have gone down to my 
 obscure and humble grave in an agony of despair, because I could nowhere 
 find Duluth. Had such been my melancholy fate, I have no doubt that 
 with the last feeble pulsation of my breaking heart, I should have whispered 
 Where is Duluth?" 
 
 But, thanks to the beneficence of that band of ministering angels who 
 have their bright abodes in the far-ofi" capital of Minnesota, just as the 
 agony of my anxiety was about to culminate in the frenzy of despair, this 
 blessed map was placed in my hands ; and as I unfolded it a resplendent 
 scene of ineffable glory opened before me, such as I imagine burst upon 
 the enraptured vision of the wandering peri through the opening of Para- 
 dise. There, there for the first time, my enchanted eye rested upon the. 
 ravishing word, ' ' Duluth. ' ' 
 
 This map, sir, is intended, as it appears from its title, to illustrate the 
 position of Duluth in the United States ; but if gentlemen will examine 
 t, I think they will concur with me in the opinion that it is far too modest 
 n its pretentions. It not only illustrates the position of Duluth in the 
 United States, but exhibits its relations with all created things. It even 
 joes further than this. It lifts the shadowy veil of futurity, and affords 
 25 
 
S86 JAMES PROCTOR KNOTT 
 
 US a view of the golden prospects of Duluth far along the dim vista of 
 ages yet to come. 
 
 If gentlemen will examine it, they will find Duluth, not only in the 
 centre of the map, but represented in the centre of a series of concentric 
 circles one hundred miles apart, and some of them as much as four thou- 
 sand miles in diameter, embracing alike, in their tremendous sweep, the 
 fragrant savannas of the sunlit South, and the eternal solitudes of snow 
 that mantle the ice-bound North. How these circles were produced is, 
 perhaps, one of the most primordial mysteries that the most skillful paleo- 
 logist will never be able to explain. But the fact is, sir, Duluth is pre- 
 eminently a central place, for I am told by gentlemen who have been 
 so reckless of their own personal safety as to venture into those awful 
 regions where Duluth is supposed to be, that it is so exactly in the centre 
 of the visible universe that the sky comes down at precisely the same dis- 
 tance all around it 
 
 Sir, I might stand here for hours and hours, and expatiate with rap- 
 ture upon the gorgeous prospects of Duluth, as depicted upon this map. 
 But human life is too short and the time of this House far too valuable to 
 allow me to linger longer upon the delightful theme. I think every gen- 
 tleman on this floor is as well satisfied as I am that Duluth is destined to 
 become the commercial metropolis of the universe, and that this road 
 should be built at once .... Nevertheless, sir, it grieves my very soul 
 to be compelled to say that I cannot vote for the grant of lands provided 
 for in this bill. Ah, sir, you can have no conception of the poignancy of" 
 my anguish that I am deprived of that blessed privilege ! There are two 
 insuperable obstacles in the way. In the first place my constituents, for 
 whom I am acting here, have no more interest in this road than they have 
 in the great question of culinary taste now perhaps agitating the public 
 mind of Dominica, as to whether the illustrious commissioners who 
 recently left this capital for that free and enlightened republic would be 
 better fricasseed, boiled or roasted ; and in the second place these lands, 
 which I am asked to give away, alas, are not mine to bestow. My relation 
 to them is simply that of trustee to an express trust. And shall I ever 
 betray that trust ? Never, sir ! Rather perish Duluth ! Perish the para- 
 gon of cities. Rather let the freezing cyclones of the bleak Northwest 
 bury it forever beneath the eddying sands of the raging St. Croix ! 
 
WU TING FANG 
 
 A TWENTIETH CENTURY ORATOR FROM CHINA 
 
 |E are almost daily learning something new about the great silent 
 empire of Eastern Asia, the " Celestial Kingdom " of the far 
 East. No one, for instance, would have thought of crediting 
 any of the Chinese with powers of oratory. There is nothing, so far 
 as we know, in the conditions of China to develop the art of public 
 speaking — either political, legal, religious or educational. Yet in Wu 
 Ting Fang, late Chinese Minister to the United States, we have had an 
 orator of excellent powers, a living prooi that the Chinaman only needs 
 opportunity to develop oratorical ability. Minister Wu, indeed, was 
 educated in Western lands, is proficient in the English language and 
 literature, and has native powers of thought and fluency in expres- 
 sion associated with a sense of humor which gives piquancy 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, and 
 proved himself an entertaining and popular orator — not an especially 
 talented speaker, but one capable of interesting an American audience. 
 
 A WONDERFUL NATION 
 
 [In 1900 the Chinese Minister delivered a brief address at a club dinner in New 
 York, in which he highly eulogized the United States, alike for the progressive spirit 
 of its institutions, the honor and ability of its officials, and its greatness and rare 
 promise as a nation. We append this testimonial to the American spirit.] 
 
 Gentlemen, from my boyhood I have learned in the classics of Con- 
 fucius that in your dealings with others your words should be sincere. I 
 can conscientiously say that I have always acted up to that injunction. 
 It is sometimes said that a diplomatic representative is a gentleman sent 
 abroad to lie for the good of his country. Perhaps that would do two or 
 \ 387 
 
388 WU TING FANG 
 
 three centuries ago, but I firmly believe that diplomats as well as men in 
 other professions should act straightforwardly and honestly, because while 
 the use of falsehood may temporarily secure an advantage, sooner or later 
 the truth will be found out, and the consequences would be very serious. 
 So therefore I believe in the maxim, " Honesty is the best policy." I 
 might compare the profession of a diplomat in a foreign country somewhat 
 to that of a lawyer pleading a case before a Court. It would not do for 
 the lawyer in advocating the interest of his client to quote an obsolete law 
 or statutes which have been repealed, or to distort facts with a view of 
 deceiving the Court and the jury. No respectable lawyer, I am sure, 
 would stoop to do such a thing. 
 
 In saying this, gentlemen, I do not insinuate that the lawyers in this 
 country are not honest. I believe they are all honest. I would be the 
 last man to slander the legal profession, to which I have the honor to 
 belong. So a diplomat, although he is acting for the interest of his coun- 
 try, should be straightforward and do his best, and while doing his best 
 for the interests of his country, he ought to be a gentleman and act hon- 
 estly ; but without a just tribunal, however able a lawyer may be, his case 
 may be defeated ; but in my case if is with gratitude and pleasure that I 
 acknowledge that I have a fair and just tribunal before whom I plead the 
 interests of my country. The potent, wise, and moderate policy of your 
 government, and the fairness and straightforwardness of the administra- 
 tion, headed by your President, assisted in a great measure by your Secre- 
 tary of State — to them is due the credit, rather than to me, for what has 
 been done in the last summer ; and credit is also due to the press generally 
 in this country, which shapes public opinion, and to the people of this 
 country, because as far as I can find out they have almost unanimously 
 endorsed the humane and wise policy 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. 
 
DISTINGUISHED WOMEN ORATORS 
 Temperance, Equal Rights for Women and Reform in the Moral 
 and Pohticai World have been the themes advocated bv these 
 distinguished women orators. 
 
WU TING FANG 389 
 
 Opening address, if I remember 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 history dates from the life of Washington, and 
 is enriched by the noble achievements of Lincoln and Grant 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 far 
 thus to refer to my colleagues, who are more learned than I am — but, 
 speaking for myself, I do not understand your politics. Your politics are 
 too complicated 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 you remain the 
 people who form this administration, headed by that noble, 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 speech, 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 course 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 
 (Jone me. 
 
JOHN MITCHELL (1869 ) 
 
 THE COAL MINER'S ADVOCATE 
 
 OF the representatives of the workingmen at the opening of the 
 twentieth century none was more zealous for the advancement 
 
 ' of his fellow-artisans, or more widely known to the people alike 
 of America and Europe, than John Mitchell, President of the United 
 Mine Workers, and leader in the great strike of the anthracite coal 
 miners in 1902, the most famous event of the new century in the 
 world of industry. A miner himself — he entered the mines of Illinois 
 at the age of thirteen — Mitchell early joined the Knights of Labor, 
 studied at night to gain what education he could, read all the books 
 he could find on sociological subjects and, in every way available, 
 fitted himself for his future career. His native powers and genius for 
 organization told. Joining the United Mine Workers in 1890, when 
 twenty-one years of age, he was made vice-president of the organiza- 
 tion in January, 1892, and president in the following January. This 
 presidency which he has held for so many years is of an organization of 
 over 300,000 members. He led the soft coal miners successfully 
 through the great strike of 1897, and the hard coal miners through 
 that of 1892, and is looked upon 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 by popular leaders, but confines him 
 self to logical treatment of the question at issue, expressed in languag 
 so simple that even the breaker boys of the mine can follow him wit 
 interest and understanding. He is always cool and self-possessed 
 never permits himself to become flustered or thrown into a passio 
 and in all the difficult situations arising from the great coal strik 
 
JOHN MITCHELL 391 
 
 conducted himself m a manner to win the respect and admiration of 
 his adversaries. Mr. Mitchell's oratory scarcely appertains to the 
 present section of our work, but as the youngest of American public 
 speakers who has won a reputation, 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, 1902, John Mitchell addressed an immense audi- 
 ence of workingmen at Washington Park, a place of public resort near Philadelphia. 
 As a favorable example of his oratorical manner, we append his address on 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 struggle of the workers that stands out 
 conspicuously. This year it happens that the coal miners of Pennsyl- 
 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 
 
392 JOHN MITCHELL 
 
 the wrong is righted. If my reception in Philadelphia and here represents 
 the sentiment throughout this country, and I believe it does, then, my 
 friends, the coal miners cannot lose. I am not 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 this 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 ho^ 
 to solve this problem. I am free to say that my own views have beenj 
 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 
 
 Book I. Orators of Greece and Rome 
 
 Book II. Pulpit Orators of Medieval Europe 
 
 Book III. English Orators of the Middle Period 
 
 Book IV. The Golden Age of British Oratory 
 
 Book V. Orators of the Victorian Reign 
 
 Book VI. The Pulpit Orators of Great Britain 
 
 Book vn. Orators of the French Revolution 
 
 Book VIII. Nineteenth Century Orators of France 
 
 Book ix. Orators of Southern and Central Europe 
 
 ed a 
 ., as r 
 
 39.S 
 
BOOK L 
 
 Orators of Greece and Rome 
 
 THE history of oratory is as old as the written 
 history of the human race. But 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 only 
 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 existence which were written out carefully 
 by the orators themselves. Of extemporaneous 
 speakers, 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, 
 ^schines, 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 ^.^ ,ors. Many of these 
 have come down, in their oi , . nal form to the present 
 time, and translations of therix ,r/e been made which 
 closely preserve the spirit of the original. Our selec- 
 tions are made from these translations. 
 
 39i 
 
PERICLES (495-429 B. C) 
 
 FOUNDER OF THE SPLENDOR OF ATHENS 
 
 EIRST in time and one of the foremost in ability of the great 
 orators of Athens stands the famous Pericles, whose silver 
 voice and rare eloquence gave him the mastery of the Athe- 
 nian populace during his life. Under 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 his conceptions. As an orator he had no rival in the Athens of 
 his day, his graceful figure, mellifluous voice, and complete self-com- 
 mand enabling him to sway his audiences at will. Supreme as was 
 his power, he used it solely for the benefit of the city and its populace, 
 being sober and recluse in habit, -' while the tenderest domestic attach- 
 ment bound him to the engaging and cultivated Aspasia." 
 
 THE DEAD WHO FELL FOR ATHENS 
 
 [Of the oratory of Pericles we possess only the famous example which Thucy- 
 dides, the historian, has preserved for us, the long funeral oration over those who died 
 in battle in 431 B. C, the first year of the destructive Peloponnesian War. How closely 
 this repeats the words of the orator it is now impossible to tell. The speech opens with 
 a laudation of the glory and progress of Athens, for which the soldiers are given 
 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 all enjoy the same general equality our laws are 
 fitted to preserve; and superior honors just as we excel. The public 
 admiration is 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. 
 
 396 
 
396 PERICLES 
 
 The ofl&ces 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 offend 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 Homer to 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 in such a cause. And for this reason have I enlarged so much oi 
 national points, to give the clearest proof that in the present war w< 
 have more at stake than men whose public advantages are not so valua-j 
 ble, and to illustrate, by actual evidence, how great a commendation 
 due to them who are now my subject, and the greatest part of which the] 
 have already received. For the encomiums with which I have celebrate 
 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-1 
 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 theii^Hj 
 lives to fighting for their country, though inferior to others in every virtue 
 but that of valor. 
 
 I 
 
WU TING FANG AMBASSADOR AND ORATOR 
 A most polished speaker greatly in demand by large audiences. 
 Until recently he was Ambassador from China to the United 
 States. He is most versatile in his intellectual powers. 
 
PERICLES 897 
 
 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 in fighting 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 
 
 mHERE was abundant oratory before the days of Lysias, but he 
 stands first among the ancient orators whose works still exist, 
 otherwise than in fragments. Thucydides gives us in his his- 
 tory orations attributed to Pericles and others, but these may have 
 been largely the work of his 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 Lysias thirty-five still 
 exist — some perhaps 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 developed 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 persuasion, rather than in vigor of declamation ; though this 
 is not the case in the example quoted. Lysias was born at Athens, the] 
 most celebrated city of Greece, about 458 B. C. He traveled amon^ 
 other Grecian cities and the Grecian colonies of the Mediterranean. 
 During his travels he studied rhetoric and oratory. 
 
 THE CRIMES OF ERATOSTHENES 
 
 [The great sum of the orations of Lysias relate to private matters. Of those [ 
 extant only one is on 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 \ 
 he returned to Athens and became a composer of orations for others. Eratosthenes, 
 
 398 
 
LYSIAS 399 
 
 One of the expelled tyrants, returned and asked amnesty from the court. During 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 first broke from the stilted manner previously existing into his natural later 
 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 much 
 pains to become masters of their persons, allow them to escape without 
 suffering that punishment which you once sought to inflict ; but prove 
 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 LYSIAS 
 
 Let me now conclude with laying before you the miseries to which 
 you were reduced, that you 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 conquered, 
 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 Piraeus,* 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 fellow-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 bodies were impiously left 
 uninterred. 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 Athens. 
 
 4 
 
ISOCRATES (436-338 B. C) 
 
 ATHENS' SILVER-TONGUED ORATOR 
 
 m SOCRATES lived at the same time with Lysias and rivalled 
 him in fame, his style resembling that of Lysias in purity and 
 correctness, though it is more round and full in its periods, 
 while his orations have a power 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 fellow orators, his 
 speeches were not extemporaneous, but were elaborated with great 
 care. He is said to have spent ten years in composing and polishing 
 one oration. Of his productions, twenty-one are extant. He opened 
 a school of oratory at Athens, and numbered among his pupils many 
 men of later prominence. He lived to be 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 Athens. 
 
 FLATTERY MORE POWERFUL THAN TRUTH 
 
 [The orations of Isocrates 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 
 
 I him from becoming 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 used 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. 
 J 26 401 
 
402 ISOCRATES 
 
 Now I have frequently observed that you make a great difference 
 between orators, and are attentive to some but cannot suffer the voice of 
 others. This is in reality no just wonder, for in former times you used 
 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 beneficial to the State, as what will please your hope and 
 expectation, for which a crowd of them is now flocked together ; as it is 
 evident to all that you take more pleasure in those who exhort you to 
 war than 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 
 
 [The " Areopagiticus " is one of the public discourses of Isocrates in which he 
 deals with the home affairs of Athens. We 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 wh^ 
 imagined that a community in which the laws were framed with 
 greatest exactness produced the best men. For, if this were so, thei 
 could be nothing to prevent all the Hellenes* being on the same level, 
 far as the facility of adopting one another's written laws is concerns 
 They, on the contrary, knew that virtue is not promoted by the laws, bi 
 by the habits of daily life, and that most people turn out men of lil 
 character to those in whose midst they have severally been brought upl 
 For, where there are a number of laws drawn up with great exactitude, ij 
 
 *The Greeks — so called because they are believed to be descended from.' a mythical persons 
 named Hellen. 
 
 I 
 
ISOCRATES 403 
 
 is a proof that the city is badly administered, for the inhabitants are com- 
 pelled to frame laws in great numbers as a barrier against offenses. 
 
 Those, however, who are rightly governed should not cover the walls 
 of the porticoes with copies of the laws, but preserve justice in their hearts ; 
 for it is not by decrees but by manners that cities are well governed, and 
 while those who have been badly brought up will venture to transgress 
 laws drawn up even with the greatest exactitude, those who have been 
 well educated will be ready to abide by laws framed in the simplest terms. 
 With these ideas, they did not first consider how they should punish the 
 disorderly, but by what means they should induce them to refrain from 
 committing any offense deserving of punishment, for they considered that 
 this was their mission, but that eagerness to inflict punishment was a 
 matter of malevolence. 
 
 THE BASIS OF A VIRTUOUS LIFE 
 
 [The following extract is from the oration or letter to a young man, named 
 Demonicus. It has been much admired for its high standard of conduct.] 
 
 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 you would 
 hope your children should be toward you. Use exercise rather for health 
 than strength and beauty. You will best 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 be esteemed a 
 man of worth and credit. Never imagine you can conceal a bad action ; 
 for though you hide it from others, your own conscience will condemn 
 you. Be good, and have your own approbation. Be persuaded that every 
 base action will at last take air. 
 
 It is the duty of every man to improve his knowledge, will and under- 
 standing. It is as great a shame to hear national, instructive discourse, 
 and not be attentive to it, as it is to reject with scorn a valuable gift. 
 Think philosophy a greater treasure than immense sums of gold, for gold 
 is apt to take wings and fly away, but philosophy and virtue are inalien- 
 able possessions. Wisdom is the only immortal inheritance. 
 
DEMOSTHENES (382-322 B.C) 
 
 THE PARAGON OF ORATORS 
 
 WHEN Greece, as a land 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 new foeman as they 
 had met the Persians of old. Several other orators of Athens were 
 bribed by Phihp's gold, but the patriotism of Demosthenes was proof 
 against venality. With watchful sagacity he penetrated the designs of 
 the cunning Macedonian, and if the 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 are especially known as '' Philippics." The persistent 
 opposition of Demosthenes against the foes of Greece, in the end led 
 to his death. His last effort for liberty failing, he was pursued b^ 
 his enemies and sought an asylum in the temple of Neptune on tl 
 island of Calaurea. There, still followed, he took poison and died. 
 
 As an orator Demosthenes was superb. Yet his first effort at publi 
 speaking was an utter failure. Feeble in frame, weak in voice, shj 
 and awkward in manner, and ungraceful in gesture, he seem( 
 strikingly ill-fitted for success upon the forum. But he had industi 
 intelligence and determination, and success came to him. He strengtl 
 ened his lungs and his voice by declaiming while climbing steep hil] 
 or seeking to raise his voice above the roar of the sea. His natui 
 defect in delivery was overcome by the practice of speaking with pel 
 bles in his mouth. He learned the art of graceful gesture by pra« 
 ticing before a mirror. Constant study, composition of orations, ai 
 
 404 
 
DEMOSTHENES 405 
 
 memorizing made him ready and fluent in speech. Never trusting 
 to facility in extemporaneous delivery, he carefully prepared all 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 Hume, " is rapid harm- 
 ony exactly adjusted to the sense; it is vehement reasoning without 
 any appearance of art ; it is disdain, anger, boldness, freedom, involved 
 in a continued stream of argument ; and of all human productions 
 his orations present the models which approach the nearest to perfec- 
 tion. '^ Fenelon says: " We think not of his words ; we think only of 
 the things he says. He lightens, he thunders, he is a torrent which 
 sweeps everything before it. We can neither criticise nor admire, 
 because we have not the command of our own faculties." Lord 
 Brougham 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 conscious of and deeply 
 agitated by, though ashamed to own ; some to sentiments, which 
 every man was panting to utter, and delighted to hear thundered 
 forth ; bursts of oratory, therefore, which either overwhelmed or 
 delighted the audience. Such hits, 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 we 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 he has declared war against you. 
 L,et 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. 
 
406 , DEMOSTHENES 
 
 What Philip most dreads and abhors is our liberty, our Democratic 
 system. For the destruction of that all his snares are laid, all his projects 
 are shaped. And in this is he not consistent ? He is well aware that, 
 though he should subjugate all the rest of Greece, his conquest would be 
 insecure while your Democrac}^ stands. He knows that, should he 
 experience one of those reverses to which the lot of humanity is so liable, 
 it would be into your arms that all those nations, now forcibly held under 
 his yoke, would rush. Is there a tyrant to be driven back ? — Athens is 
 in the field ! Is there a people to be enfranchised ? — Lo, Athens, prompt 
 to aid ! What wonder, then, that Philip should be impatient while 
 Athenian liberty is a spy upon his evil days ! Be sure, O my country- 
 men, that he is your irreconcilable foe ; that it is against Athens that he 
 musters and disposes all his armaments ; against Athens that all his 
 schemes are laid. 
 
 What, then, ought you, as wise men, convinced of these truths, to do ? 
 You ought to shake off your fatal lethargy, contribute according to your 
 means, summon your allies to contribute, and take measures to retain the 
 troops already under arms ; so that, if Philip has an army prepared to attack 
 and subjugate all the Greeks, you may also have one ready to succor and 
 to save them. 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 th< 
 general cause. Indeed, should some god assure you that, however inac^ 
 tive and unconcerned you might remain, yet, in the end, you should noj 
 be molested by Philip, still it would be ignominious, — be witm 
 Heaven ! — it would be beneath you, beneath the dignity of your State 
 beneath the glory of your ancestors, to sacrifice, to your own selfisl 
 repose, the interest of all the rest of Greece. 
 
 Rather would I perish than recommend such a course ! Let some 
 other man urge it upon you, if he will ; and listen to him, if you can. 
 But, if my sentiments are yours; if you foresee, as I do, that the more we 
 leave Philip to extend his conquests, the more we are fortifying an enemy, 
 whom, sooner or later, we must cope with ; why do you hesitate ? What 
 necessity do you wait ? Can there be a greater for freemen than the pros- 
 pect of dishonor ? Do you wait for that ? It is here already ; it presses,} 
 it weighs on us now. Now, did I say ? Long since, long since, w£ 
 it before us, face to face. True, there is still another necessity in reserve^ 
 the necessity of slaves, blows and stripes ! Wait you for the77if The 
 gods forbid ! The very words, in this place, are an indignity ! 
 
 — (The most famous oration of Demosthenes was one that had 
 personal origin, it being called forth by a controversy with ^Eschineg 
 
DEMOSTHENES 407 
 
 an able rival orator who had been suborned by Philip, and was a bitter 
 enemy of Demosthenes. We append below a selection from this 
 celebrated speech.) — 
 
 ON THE CROWN 
 
 [The occasion of this speech on the crown may be briefly stated. In 338 B.C., 
 was fought the disastrous battle of Chseronea, in which the Athenians met the Mace- 
 donians in arms and were decisively defeated. Among the fugitives from the field 
 was Demosthenes, who had fought as well as talked against Philip. On his return to 
 Athens he found himself the ruling power in the state, and Ctesiphon, one of his 
 admirers, proposed that the people should reward him for his eminent services by a 
 crown of gold.* The giving of this crown was opposed by ^schines in a speech of 
 great power and vehemence. Demosthenes' answer was the supreme effort of his 
 life, the most perfect masterpiece of oratory ever produced.] 
 
 lyCt me begin, Men of Athens, by imploring of all the Heavenly 
 Powers, that the same kindly sentiments which I have, throughout my 
 public life, cherished towards this country and each of you, may now by 
 you be shown towards me in the present contest ! In two respects my 
 adversary plainly has the advantage of me. First, we have not the same 
 interests at stake ; it is by no means the same thing for me to forfeit your 
 esteem, and for ^schines, an unprovoked volunteer, to fail in his impeach- 
 ment. My other disadvantage is, the natural proneness of men to lend a 
 pleased attention to invective and accusation, but to give little heed to 
 him whose theme is his own vindication 
 
 A wicked thing, Athenians, a wicked thing is a calumniator, ever ; — 
 querulous and industrious in seeking pretense of complaint. But this 
 creature is despicable by nature, and incapable of any trace of generous 
 and noble deeds ; ape of a tragedian, third-rate actor, spurious orator ! 
 For what, ^schines, does your eloquence profit the country? You now 
 descant upon what is past and gone — as if a physician, when called to 
 patients in a sinking state, should give no advice, nor prescribe any course 
 by which the disease might be cured ; but, after one of them had died, and 
 the last officers were performing to his remains, should follow him to the 
 grave, and expound how the poor man never would have died had such 
 and such things only been done. Lunatic ! is it now that at length 
 you too speak out ? . . . . 
 
 As to the defeat, that incident in which you so exult (wretch ! who 
 should rather mourn for it), — look through my whole conduct, and you 
 shall find nothing there that brought down this calamity on my coun- 
 try. Consider only, Athenians : Never, from any embassy upon which you 
 
 * The crown here indicated (Latin, corona) was a wreath, garland, or any ornamental fillet encircl- 
 ing the head, bestowed as a reward for distinguished public services.— Here, probably, a laurel 
 wreath of gold is indicated. 
 
408 DEMOSTHENES 
 
 sent me, did I come off worsted by Philip's ambassadors ; not from Thes- 
 saly, not from Ambracia, not from Illyria, not from the Thracian kings, 
 not from the Byzantians., nor from any other quarter whatever, — nor fin- 
 ally, of late, from Thebes. But wheresoever his negotiators were over- 
 come in debate, thither Philip marched, and carried the day by his arms. 
 Do you, then, exact this of me, and are you not ashamed, at the moment 
 you are upbraiding me for weakness, to require that I should defy him 
 single-handed, and by force of words alone ! For what other weapons had 
 I? Certainly not the lives of men, nor the fortune of warriors, nor the 
 military operations of which you are so blundering as to demand an account 
 at my hands. 
 
 But whatever a minister can be accountable for, make of that the 
 strictest scrutiny, and I do not object. What, then, falls within this 
 description ? To descry events in their first beginnings, to cast his look 
 forward, and to warn others of their approach. All this I have done. 
 Then, to confine within the narrowest bounds all delays, and backward- 
 ness, and ignorance, and contentiousness, — faults which are inherent and 
 unavoidable in all States ; and, on the other hand, to promote unanimity, 
 and friendly dispositions, and zeal in the performance of public duty : — 
 and all these things I likewise did, nor can any man point out any of 
 them that, so far as depended on me, was left undone. 
 
 If, then, it should be asked by what means Philip for the most part 
 succeeded in his operations, every one would answer, By his army, by his, 
 largesses, by corrupting those at the head of affairs. Well, then, I neithe 
 had armies, nor did I command them ; and therefore the argument respect-] 
 ing military operations cannot touch me. Nay, in so far as I was inacces- 
 sible to bribes, there I conquered Philip ! For, as he who purchases an; 
 one overcomes him who has received the price and sold himself, so he 
 who will not take the money, nor consent to be bribed, has fairly 
 conquered the bidder. Thus, as far as I am concerned, this country 
 Stands unconquered 
 
 Under what circumstances, O Athenians ought the strenuous and 
 patriotic orator to appear ? When the State is in jeopardy, when the people 
 are at issue with the enemy, then it is that his vehemence is timely. But 
 now, when I stand clear on all hands, — by prescription, by judgments 
 repeatedly pronounced, by my never having been convicted before the pe 
 pie of any offense, — and when more or less of glory has of necessil 
 resulted to the public from my course — now it is that ^schines turns uj 
 and attempts to wrest from me the honors which you propose to bestow] 
 Personal spite and envy are at the bottom of all his trumped-up chargesj] 
 my fellow -citizens ; and I proclaim him no true man. 
 
DEMOSTHENES 409 
 
 Consider, ^schines, whether you are not in reality the country's 
 enemy, while you pretend to be only mine. I^et us look at the acts of the 
 orator rather than at the speech. He who pays his court to the enemies of 
 the State does not cast anchor in the same roadstead with the people. He 
 looks elsewhere than to them for his security. Such a man — mark me ! 
 am not I. I have always made common cause with the people, nor have I 
 shaped my public course for my individual benefit. Q,2inyou say as much ? 
 Can you ? You, who, instantly after the battle, repaired as ambassador to 
 Philip, the author of all our calamities ; and this after you had declared 
 loudly, on previous occasions, against engaging in any such commission, 
 as all these citizens can testify ! 
 
 What worse charge can anyone bring against an orator than that his 
 words and his deeds do not tally ? Yet you have been discovered to be 
 such a man ; and you still lift your voice and dare to look this assembly 
 in the face ! Think you they do not know you for what you are ? or that 
 such a slumber and oblivion have come over them all as to make them forget 
 the speeches in which, with oaths and imprecations, you disclaimed all deal- 
 ings with Philip, and declared that I falsely brought this charge against 
 you from personal enmity ? And yet, no sooner was the advice received 
 of that fatal — O ! that fatal — battle, than your asseverations were forgotten, 
 your connection publicly avowed ! You affected to have been Philip's 
 friend and guest. Such were the titles by which you sought to dignify 
 your prostitution. 
 
 But read here the epitaph inscribed by the State upon the monument 
 of the slain, that you may sqq yourself in it, ^schines, — unjust, calumni- 
 ous, and profligate. Read ! 
 
 " These were the brave, unknowing how to yield, 
 Who, terrible in valor, kept the field 
 A-gainst the foe ; and, higher than life's breath 
 Prizing their honor, met the doom of death, 
 Our common doom — that Greece unyoked might stand, 
 Nor shuddering crouch beneath a tyrant's hand. 
 Such was the will of Jove ; and now they rest 
 Peaceful enfolded in their country's breast. 
 The immortal gods alone are ever great, 
 And erring mortals must submit to Fate." 
 
 Do you hear, ^schines ? It pertains only to the gods to control for- 
 tune and command success. To them the power of assuring victory to 
 armies is ascribed, — not to the statesman , but to the gods. Wherefore, 
 then, execrable wretch, wherefore upbraid me with, what has happened? 
 Why denounce against me what the just gods reserve for the heads of 
 you and yours ? 
 
AESCHINES (389-314 B.C) 
 
 THE RIVAL OF DEMOSTHENES 
 
 i 
 
 |NE of the famous orators of Greece, ^schines by name, who 
 especially came into reputation through his controversy with 
 his great rival, began his career, like Demosthenes, as a violent 
 opponent of Philip of Macedon. But, after a visit to Philip's court, 
 a change took place, and he became a zealous opponent to war with 
 Macedonia. This brought the two orators into a violent verbal con- 
 test, which began with a charge by Demosthenes that ^Eschines pre- 
 ferred the gold of Philip to the good of Greece. The final event in 
 this quarrel of oratorical giants was a vigorous speech by JEschines 
 against Ctesiphon for voting Demosthenes a crown of gold, and the 
 overwhelming answer of Demosthenes. As a result of his defeat, 
 jEschines went into voluntary exile to the island of Rhodes, where he 
 founded a very successful school of oratory. 
 
 AGAINST CTESIPHON 
 
 [As an orator ^schines possessed a sonorous voice and vigorous manner, witl 
 fine rhetorical powers and great felicity of diction. His orations have much of the 
 force and fire displayed by his rival, and closely approximate those of Demosthenes 
 in general character. Of his extant speeches the best is that *' Against Ctesiphon." 
 On one occasion he read this to his pupils at Rhodes, who were much surprised that 
 so powerful a speech could fail of success. He replied, "You would cease to 
 astonished if you had heard Demosthenes."! 
 
 When Demosthenes boasts to you, O Athenians, of his Democratic 
 zeal, examine, not his harangues, but his life ; not what he professes t< 
 be, but what he really is ; — redoubtable in words, impotent in deeds ; plaus^j 
 ible in speech, perfidious in action. As to his courage — has he not himi 
 self, before the assembled people, confessed his poltroonery ? By the la^ 
 of Athens, the man who refuses to bear arms, the coward, the deserter oi 
 his post in battle, is excluded from all share in the public deliberations,] 
 410 
 
 I 
 
^SCHINES 411 
 
 denied admission to our religious rites, and rendered incapable of 
 receiving the honor of a crown. Yet now it is proposed to crown a 
 man whom your laws expressly disqualify ! 
 
 Which, think you, was the more worthy citizen — Themistocles, who 
 commanded your fleet when you vanquished the Persian at Salamis, or 
 Demosthenes the deserter ? — Miltiades, who conquered the Barbarians at 
 Marathon, or this hireling traitor? — Aristides, surnamed the Just, or 
 Demosthenes, who merits a far different surname? By all the gods of 
 Olympus, it is a profanation to mention in the same breath this monster 
 and those great men ! Let him cite, if he can, one among them all to 
 whom a crown was decreed. And was Athens ungrateful ? No ! She 
 was magnanimous ; and those uncrowned citizens were worthy of Athens. 
 They placed their glory, not in the letter of a decree, but in the remem- 
 brance of a country of which they had merited well, — in the living, imper- 
 ishable remembrance ! 
 
 And now a popular orator — the mainspring of our calamities — a 
 deserter from the field of battle, a deserter from the city, claims of us a 
 crown, exacts the honor of a proclamation ! Crown him 9 Proclaim his 
 worth ? My countrymen, this would not be to exalt Demosthenes, but to 
 degrade yourselves ; to dishonor those brave men who perished for you 
 in battle. Crown htm ! Shall his recreancy win what was denied to 
 their devotion ? This would indeed be to insult the memory of the dead, 
 and to paralyze the emulation of the living ! 
 
 When Demosthenes tells you that, as ambassador, he wrested Byzan- 
 tium from Philip ; that, as orator, he roused the Acarnanians, and sub- 
 dued the Thebans ; let not the braggart impose on you. He flatters 
 himself that the Athenians are simpletons enough to believe 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 benignity so 
 characteristic, implores you not to pay more regard to the honeyed 
 phrases of Demosthenes than to your own laws. Aristides, who fixed for 
 Greece 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 
 
412 iESCHINES 
 
 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 Plataea ; 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 hearers, 
 (he says) are not so much enchanted as lured to destruction — and hencel 
 the evil reputation of their minstrelsy. In like manner my rhetorical] 
 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 itj 
 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, but 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 his| 
 inability to proclaim his achievements, while he saw an adversary capable 
 of representing to his audience what he had never performed as though 
 they were actual achievements. Yet when 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 man whose tongue, like that of th< 
 flageolet, if you remove, the rest is nothing. 
 
MARCUS PORCIUS CATO (234-J49 B. C) 
 
 AN EMINENT ROMAN ORATOR 
 
 i 
 
 |F the orators of Rome, there is only one, the far-famed Cicero, 
 whose productions have come down to us in assured form. 
 Of the others, including Caesar, and the two Catos, we have 
 what purport to be orations spoken by them, in the pages of Livy, 
 Sallust and other historians. These, while perhaps not their exact 
 words, may closely approach orations actually delivered by them. 
 There were two Catos, eminent as orators, who bore the above name, 
 Cato, the Elder, or the Censor, and his great grandson, Cato, the 
 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 moclel 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, Delenda 
 est Carthago (" Carthage must be destroyed ^'). 
 
 WOMEN IN POLITICS 
 
 [I/ivy 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 modern 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, 
 
 413 
 
414 MARCUS PORCIUS CATO 
 
 spurned and trampled under foot ; and because we are unable to withstand 
 each separately, we now dread their collective body. I was accustomed 
 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 equally from either 
 sex, if you suifer cabals and secret consultations to be held ; scarcely, 
 indeed, can I determine, in my own mind, whether the act itself, or the 
 precedent which it affords, is of more pernicious tendency. The 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 be merely 
 an act of their own, or owing to your instigations, Marcus Fundanius and 
 lyUcius 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 same 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 yourselv< 
 about any laws that might be passed or repealed here." 
 
 Our ancestors thought it not proper that women should perform an] 
 even private business, without a director ; but that they should be eve 
 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. 
 
 I 
 
CAIUS GRACCHUS (J 59- J2t B.C) 
 
 ROME'S MOST ELOQUENT TRIBUNE 
 
 MOST of us are familiar with the story told of Cornelia, the mother 
 of Caius and Tiberius Gracchus. A Campanian lady visiting 
 "^ her, boasted of her jewels, and asked to see those of her host- 
 ess. In reply Cornelia presented her sons, saying, " These are the only 
 jewels of which I can boast. ^' These jewels of sons grew up to be 
 leaders of the people in their struggle against the aristocrats. Tiber- 
 ius, a valiant soldier, w^as elected tribune of the people, and enacted 
 laws by which serious abuses were reformed. He sustained his posi- 
 tion with great eloquence, but in a second election was attacked and 
 massacred by the partisans of the aristocratic party. Caius, his younger 
 brother, in time succeeded him in the tribunate, and two years after- 
 ward was, like him, murdered. They lived when the liberties of Rome 
 were near their overthrow. 
 
 THE PEOPLE'S RIGHTS ABOVE PRIVILEGE 
 
 [Caius Semprouius Gracchus was endowed with great talents and excelled in elo- 
 quence. In the words of Plutarch, he was *' a noble specimen of every virtue." We 
 have no direct example of his oratory, but extract from Livy what professes to be one of 
 his speeches to the people when a candidate before them for the oflBce of tribune.] 
 
 It is now ten years, O Romans, since my brother, Tiberius Gracchus, 
 was elected your tribune. In what a condition did he find you ! The great 
 mass of the people pined in abject poverty. Thousands, eager to work, 
 without a clod of dirt they could call their own, actually wanted daily 
 bread. A few men, calling themselves " the aristocracy," having enor- 
 mous wealth gotten by extortion and fraud, lorded it over you with 
 remorseless rigor. The small land proprietors had disappeared. Mercen- 
 ary idlers, their fingers actually itching for bribes, tricky demagogues, 
 insatiate usurers, desperate gamblers, all the vilest abettors of lawless 
 
 415 
 
416 CAIUS GRACCHUS 
 
 power, liad usurped the places of men who had been the glory and strength 
 of the Republic. What a state of things ! infinite wretchedness to the 
 millions, but riches and prodigality to the hundreds. The rich could 
 plunder the poor at will, for your rulers and judges were corrupt, cowardly 
 and venal, and money could buy them to do anything. Bribery at elec- 
 tions, open, unblushing, flagrant, kept the very men in power who were 
 sucking the life-blood of the country . Do I exaggerate ? Oh , no ! It 
 is too faint a picture of the woe and degradation of the people, and of the 
 rapacity, arrogance, and depravity of their oppressors. 
 
 At such a time my brother, Tiberius Gracchus, presented himself, and 
 was elected tribune. His heart had been wrung by your distresses. He 
 resolved to rescue the oppressed and down -trodden people. He defied 
 your tyrants. He swiftly ended the fraud which had robbed you of your 
 lands. No shelter of wealth, no rank or place, could shield from his fiery 
 wrath. In vain did they hurl at him the cheap words "demagogue," 
 " factionist," " anarchist." There was that truth in his tones, that sim- 
 plicity and nobility in his bearing, that gentle dignity in his very rage at 
 the wrongs done, that carried conviction of his sincerity to every heart. 
 
 Oh ! how pale with anger were those " aristocrats," as they styled 
 themselves, as their power melted away, as they saw the people resume 
 their rights under the resistless eloquence of that young, devoted spirit ! 
 But he must be silenced, this audacious tribune, this incorruptible critic 
 of the privileged class, this friend and saviour of the people. A bloody 
 revenge must quiet their fears, lest they should lose their illegal plunder. 
 
 Alas ! the foul deed was done ! In a tumult instigated for the pur- 
 pose, your tribune — champion of the poor, and friend of the friendless — was 
 slain. Even his body was refused to his friends ; but the sacred Tiber 
 was made more sacred by receiving to its bosom all of Tiberius Gracchus 
 that could perish. 
 
 And now, men of Rome, if you ask, as those who fear me do ask, 
 why I left my qusestorship in Sardinia without leave of the Senate, here 
 is my answer : I had to come without leave or not at all. Why, then, 
 did I come at all ? To offer myself for the ofiSce my brother held, and for 
 serving you in which he was brutally murdered. I have come to vindi- 
 cate his memory, to re-inaugurate his policy, to strip the privileged class 
 of its privileges, to restore popular rights, to lift up the crushed, to break 
 down the oppressor. And, O Romans, I come with clean hands, with no 
 coffers filled with gold wrenched from desolated provinces and a ruined 
 people. I can offer no bribe for votes. I come back poor as I went ; poor 
 indeed in all but hatred of tyrants and zeal to serve my country. Shall I 
 be your tribune ? 
 
 
CAIUS JULIUS CAESAR (100-44 B.C) 
 
 A GREAT CONQUEROR AND FAMOUS ORATOR 
 
 JULIUS C^SAR, one of the greatest generals and greatest men 
 the world has ever known, proved lumself possessed of genius 
 — ^ in oratory as well as in civil and military affairs. It is not 
 with his marvelous achievements in warfare, nor his great political 
 skill and ability that we are here concerned, but simply with his stand- 
 ing in oratory, in which his supremacy was scarcely second to that in 
 the other fields of effort in which he excelled. As an orator Cicero 
 was the only Roman who excelled him, and many think that, if 
 Csesar had devoted himself specially to this art, he might have riv- 
 alled or excelled Cicero himself. Macaulay, comparing him with 
 Cromwell and Bonaparte, says that he was master of what neither of 
 the others possessed, " Learning, taste, wit, eloquence, the sentiments 
 and the manners of an accomplished gentleman." It was through 
 oratory, indeed, that he gained his first distinction, the civil position 
 which opened the way to his later career, and he may be justly 
 classed with the greatest orators of the world. 
 
 Previous to Caesar's era of power, the stability of the Roman 
 Republic had been threatened by two ambitious generals, Marius and 
 Sulla. It was to the triumvirate formed by Csesar, Pompey and 
 Crassus that it owed its final overthrow, the military power gaining 
 supremacy over the civil. The war with Pompey and his defeat and 
 death left Csesar at the head of the Roman state, imperial in station, 
 though the name of emperor was not assumed by him, he accepting 
 that pf dictator instead. At his death he was dictator-elect for life. 
 
 THE PUNISHMENT OF CATILINE^S ASSOCIATES 
 
 [Csesar held high office in the Roman state when the dangerous conspiracy of 
 Catiline broke out, an organization of profligate and disaffected citizens, whose 
 
 27 417 
 
418 CAIUS JULIUS C-^SAR 
 
 purpose was the overthrow of the republic. Cicero, who was then consul, discovered 
 the plot, and denounced Catiline so vehemently in the Senate that the baffled con- 
 spirator hastily left Rome. A battle followed between the army of his partisans and 
 that of the Senate, in which Catiline's forces were defeated, and he, with some three 
 thousand of his followers, was killed. Caesar was suspected of complicity in this plot, 
 and when a number of captive conspirators were tried in the Senate, his voice was 
 the only one that did not demand for them the sentence of death. He proposed 
 imprisonment instead, saying that men of their birth and dignity should not be put to 
 death without an open trial. Cato the Younger followed with a speech in which he 
 accused Caesar of connection with the conspiracy, and their advocate narrowly escaped 
 being included in the death sentence passed against the men on trial. Of Caesar's 
 speech we possess only the version given by Sallust, in his "History of the Con- 
 spiracy of Catiline." We append an extract from this version.] 
 
 But, you will say, "Who will find fault with any punishment decreed 
 against traitors to the State ? " I answer, time may, so may sudden con- 
 jectures ; and fortune, too, that governs the world at pleasure. What- 
 ever punishment is inflicted on these parricides will be justly inflicted. 
 But take care. Conscript Fathers, how your present decrees may affect 
 posterity. All bad precedents spring from good beginnings, but when the 
 administration is in the hands of wicked or ignorant men, these prece- 
 dents, at first just, are transferred from proper and deserving objects to 
 such as are not so. 
 
 The Lacedaemonians, when they had conquered the Athenians, 
 placed thirty governors over them ; who began their power by putting to 
 death, without any trial, such as were remarkably wicked and universally 
 hated. The people were highly pleased at this, and applauded the justice 
 of such executions. But when they had by degrees established their law- 
 less authority, they 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 foolish 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 ; for whoever coveted his fellow-citi- 
 zen's house, 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, 
 
 i 
 
CAIUS JULIUS C^SAR 419 
 
 indeed, apprehend any such proceedings from Marcus Cicero, nor from 
 these 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 praiseworthy. 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 
 I 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 
 J mighty an empire, far exceeds ours, who are scarce able to preserve what 
 j> they acquired so gloriously. " What ! Shall we discharge the conspir- 
 ators," you will say, " to reinforce Catiline's army ? " By no means : but 
 my opinion is this ; that their estates should be confiscated ; their persons 
 closely confined in the most powerful cities of Italy ; and that no one 
 move the Senate or the people for any favor towards them, under the 
 penalty of being declared by the Senate an enemy to the State and the 
 welfare of its members. 
 
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO (J 06-43 B. C) 
 
 ROME^S NOBLEST ORATOR 
 
 NEXT 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 trouble and turmoil. The founda- 
 tions of the old republic were breaking up ; the leaders of the army 
 were becoming 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 o: 
 inhumanity and rapine while governor of their island. Cicero con- 
 ducted the prosecution and arraigned Verres in such overwhelming 
 terms that the culprit fled into exile. The orations against Yerres 
 were seven in number. Later, while one of the Roman consuls, he 
 detected and exposed the treasonable designs of Catiline, a political 
 leader, who had conspired to seize the chief power in the State by 
 burning the city and massacring his opponents. His designs were 
 foiled by Cicero, who assailed him in a splendid burst 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 the 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 all, the 
 
 420 
 
 I 
 
MARTIN LUTHER THE PULPIT ORATOR 
 
 introduced Protestantism ^^^ Reformation, and 
 
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 421 
 
 first of them one of his masterpieces. His words swayed Rome, but 
 
 his enemies held the sword, and Antony rid himself of his assailant 
 
 by having him murdered. 
 
 In oratory Cicero combined the powers of the celebrated orators 
 
 of Athens, uniting the force of Demosthenes with the eloquence of 
 
 Isocrates. Their classic reticence, however, was replaced by him with 
 
 a florid exuberance of style which sometimes offends against good 
 
 taste ; but it is atoned for by his melody of language, brilliancy of 
 
 expression and thorough familiarity with human nature. These give 
 
 his speeches a charm which still persists, despite the passage of the 
 
 centuries. 
 
 THE TREASON OF CATILINE 
 
 [Cicero, as is above said, saved Rome from ruin by 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 are 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 ! I,ives ? 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 ! 
 
 I,ong 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 deadliest 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 
 
422 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. Baffled 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 
 wdthin Italy, on the very borders of Ktruria. 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 jl 
 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 sufficient reason. Trust me, they shall be 
 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. I 
 
 Good and great gods, where are we? What city do we inhabit? 
 Under what government do we live ? Here — here. Conscript Fathers, 
 
 i 
 
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO _ _423 
 
 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 destiny and 
 desire drive you. Evacuate the city for a season. The gates stand open. 
 Begone ! What a pity that the Manlian 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 ! 
 
 lyucius 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 establisher of 
 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 arraignment of Verres we select Guthrie's translation of a passage 
 in which Cicero announces, with words of burning indignation, his outrage against a 
 Roman citizen — 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 how he, when he was actually embarking on board 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 in his 
 behalf. He himself, inflamed with wickedness and frenzy, came into the 
 
424 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO 
 
 forum. His eyes glared ; cruelty was 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 Luciusr 
 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 act as a spy ; a matter as 
 to which there 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 heard 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 
 ofif all blows and remove all torture from his person. He not only di 
 not succeed in averting by his entreaties the violence* of the rods, but 
 he kept on repeating his entreaties, and the assertion of his citizenship 
 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 I,iberty ! 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 tow: 
 of our confederate allies — a Roman citizen should be bound in the foru 
 and beaten with rods, by a man who had 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 ? 
 
 I 
 
MARK ANTONY (83-30 B. C) 
 
 THE AVENGER OF CAESAR 
 
 MARCUS ANTONIUS, or Mark Antony, as he is usually called, 
 a brave and able general and the friend and lieutenant of 
 "^ Csesar, became his avenger after his death at the hands of 
 Brutus and his fellow-conspirators. By his artful and eloquent funeral 
 oration over the body of the slain dictator he roused the fury of the 
 populace against the conspirators, 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 of the conspirators, made a brief oration in his own defense 
 over the dead body of Caesar. He was followed by Mark Antony, as above stated. From 
 Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," we extract Antony's skillful and insidious reply, one of 
 the most famous examples of oratorical composition in all literature. As we were ob- 
 liged to go to the pages of the ancient historians for our examples of the speeches of 
 several Greek and Roman orators, we seem equally justified in selecting those of 
 Brutus and Antony from the great modern dramatist.] 
 
 Friends, Romans, countrymen ! Lend me your ears. 
 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. 
 
 425 
 
426 MARK ANTONY 
 
 If it were so, it was a grievous fault ; 
 And grievously hath Caesar answered it. 
 Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest 
 (For Brutus is an honorable man , 
 So are they all, all honorable men). 
 Come I to speak in Caesar'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 general coffers fill ; 
 Did this in Caesar seem ambitious ? 
 When that the poor hath cried, Caesar 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 Lupercal, 
 I thrice presented him a kingly crown ; 
 Which he did thrice refuse : Was this ambition ? 
 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 cofi&n 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 427 
 
 Let but the commons hear this testament 
 
 (Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read), 
 
 And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds, 
 
 And dip their napkins in his sacred blood, 
 
 Yea, beg a hair of him for memory, 
 
 And dying, mention it within their wills, 
 
 Bequeathing it as a rich legacy. 
 
 Unto their issue. — 
 
 Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it; 
 
 It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you. 
 
 You are not wood, you are not stones, but men, 
 
 And, being men, hearing the will of Caesar, 
 
 It will inflame you, it will make you mad. 
 
 'Tis good you know not that you are his heirs. 
 
 For if you should, O ! what would come of it? 
 
 If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. 
 You all do know this mantle ; I remember 
 The first time ever Caesar put it on ; 
 'Twas on a summer's evening, in his tent, — 
 That day he overcame the Nervii. — 
 Look ! in this place ran Cassius' dagger through ; 
 See, what a rent the envious Casca made ; 
 Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabbed ; 
 And, as he plucked his cursed steel away, 
 Mark how the blood of Caesar followed it ; 
 As rushing out of doors, to be resolved 
 If Brutus so unkindly knocked, or no ; 
 For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel ; 
 Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him I 
 
 This, was the most unkindest cut of all. 
 For when the noble Caesar saw him stab , 
 Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms. 
 Quite vanquished him ! Then burst his mighty heart 
 And, in his mantle muffling up his face, 
 Even at the base of Pompey's statue 
 (Which all the while ran blood) , great Caesar fell. 
 
 O, what a fall was there, my countrymen ! 
 Then I, and you, and all of us fell down, 
 Whilst bloody treason flourished over us ! 
 O, now you weep ; and I perceive you feel 
 The dint of pity. These are gracious drops. 
 
428 MARK ANTONY 
 
 Kind souls ! What ! weep you when you but behold 
 Our Caesar's vesture wounded ? Look you here ! 
 Here is himself, marred, as you see, by traitors. 
 
 Good friends ! Sweet friends ! Let me not stir you up 
 To such a sudden flood of mutiny ! 
 They that have done this deed are honorable ! 
 What private griefs they have, alas, I know not, 
 That made them do it ! They are wise and honorable 
 And will, no doubt, with reason answer you. 
 
 I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts ; 
 I am no orator, as Brutus is. 
 But, as you know me all, a plain, blunt man, 
 That love my friend, and that they knew full well 
 That gave me public leave to speak of him ! 
 For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth. 
 Action, nor utterance, nor power of speech, 
 To stir men's blood. 
 
 I only speak right on. 
 I tell you that which you yourselves do know, 
 Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor, poor, dumb mouths, 
 And bid them speak for me. But were I Brutus, 
 And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony 
 Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue 
 In every wound of Caesar, that should move 
 The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny. 
 
The eloquence of St. Bernard moved the Catholic nations of 
 Europe to undertake the second crusade. This picture shows the 
 famous orator and his great audience. 
 
JOHN KNOX THE SCOTCH REFORMER 
 
 This eloquent Presbyterian Preacher is represented as earnestly 
 exhorting Mary, Queen of the Scots, to righteousness. He was 
 the most eloquent of all Scotch orators. 
 
BOOK IL 
 
 Pulpit Orators of Mediaeval 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 which 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 existed, 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 freedom of speech in parliamen- 
 tary halls. During the extended 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 leading 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 
 immorality 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 
 gave rise to an abundance of ecclesiastical oratory, of 
 which a considerable sum is still in evidence, while 
 secular oratory during the period in question is 
 almost unknown. 
 
 429 
 
ST. AUGUSTINE (354-430) 
 
 AN ILLUSTRIOUS FATHER OF THE CHURCH 
 
 i 
 
 |F 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- 
 cism." Born at Tagasta, in Numidia, he 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 Hippo 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 Augustine, on the 
 subject of '* The Lord's Prayer," which he analyzes throughout in the manner here 
 presented. It is an excellent example of his oratorical method.] 
 
 The Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, hath taught 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 whom doth He say, " Say, our Father, which art in 
 Heaven ? ' ' Whom did He wish us to call our Father, save His own 
 Father ! Did He grudge us this ? Parents sometimes, when they have 
 gotten one, two, or three children, fear to give birth to any more, h 
 they reduce the rest to beggary. But because the inheritance which H( 
 430 
 
ST. AUGUSTINE 431 
 
 promised us is such as many may possess, and no one can be straitened, 
 therefore hath He called into His brotherhood the peoples of the nations ; 
 and the Only Son hath numberless brethren, who say, " Our Father, 
 which art in Heaven." So said those who have been 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 
 be 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 our 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 death 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 ! 
 
 Therefore it is said, " Hallowed be Thy name." This, we also ask 
 of Him that His name may be hallowed in us ; for holy is it always. 
 And how is His name hallowed in us, 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 reign? 
 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 ourselves, and not for God, we shall be ourselves His kingdom, 
 if believing in Him we make progress in this faith. All the faithful, 
 redeemed 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. 
 
SX JOHN CHRYSOSTOM (347407) 
 
 JOHN OF THE GOLDEN MOUTH 
 
 mHE title " golden-mouthed " was given to Chrysostom as a 
 tribute to the splendor of his eloquence. Born at Antioch, 
 Syria, he studied oratory to enter the legal profession ; but 
 instead became a monk, and a preacher of such eloquence, earnestness 
 and practical sense that he was accounted the greatest orator of the 
 ancient church. Appointed Archbishop of Constantinople in 398, he 
 became an earnest reformer, denouncing the vices of the court and 
 employing the revenues of the Church so largely in charity that he 
 was called ''John the Almoner." This course did not please the 
 parties in power, and he was deposed and banished to a desert region. 
 Here he continued to preach with his old zeal. Again he was ban- 
 ished to a more remote region, being made to travel on foot, with his 
 bare head 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 
 
 [Chrysostom was an active writer, and many of his works exist, the most valu- 
 able being his "Homilies," the best of their kind in ancient Christian literature. He, 
 in the words of the historian Sozomen, was " mighty to speak and to convince, sur- 
 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 mei 
 who philosophize about a resurrection ? Indeed ! How poorly th( 
 actions agree with their opinions ! In words, they philosophize about 
 resurrection : but they act just like those who do not acknowledge 
 resurrection. If they fully believed in a resurrection, they would not 
 432 
 
ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM 433 
 
 thus ; if they had really persuaded themselves that a deceased friend had 
 departed to a better state, they would not thus mourn. These things, and 
 more than these, the unbelievers 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 better 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 
 j may render thanks to Him who has taken the departed. For as when 
 I men are called to some high office, multitudes with praises on their lips 
 J assemble to escort them at their departure to their stations, so do all with 
 ■ abundant praise join to send forward, as to greater honor, those of the 
 pious who have departed. Death is rest, a deliverance from the exhaust- 
 ] ing labors and cares of this world. When, then, thou seest a relative 
 j departing, yield not to despondency ; give thyself to reflection ; examine 
 { thy conscience ; cherish the thought that after a little while this end awaits 
 i| thee also. Be more considerate ; let another's death excite thee to salu- 
 tary fear ; shake off all indolence ; examine your past deeds ; quit your 
 sins, and commence a happy change. 
 
 We differ from unbelievers in our estimate of things. The unbeliever 
 I surveys the heavens and worships it, because he thinks it a divinity ; 
 1 he looks to the earth and makes himself a servant to it, and longs for the 
 [ things of sense. But not so with us. We survey the heaven, and admire 
 i Him that made it ; for we believe it not to be a god, but a work of God. 
 *j I look on the whole creation, and am led by it to the Creator. He looks 
 I on wealth, and longs for it with earnest desire ; I look on w^ealth and con- 
 temn it. He sees poverty, and laments; I see poverty, and rejoice. I 
 see things in one light ; he in another. Just so in regard to death. He 
 sees a corpse, and thinks it is a corpse ; I see a corpse, and behold sleep 
 rather than death. 
 
 28 
 
SAINT BERNARD (10914153) 
 
 THE FAMOUS ABBOT OF CLAIRVAUX 
 
 '^TjO man of his period had a greater influence through his elo- 
 l\| quence than the famous Saint Bernard, whose persuasiveness 
 * ' was such that he could almost move the world. When he, in 
 his early years, entered the Cistercian monastery of Citeaux, his five 
 brothers — two of whom were in the army — and a number of others 
 were drawn by his eloquence from their occupations to embrace the 
 monastic life. It is said that " Mothers hid their sons, wives theifj 
 husbands, and companions their friends,'^ lest they should be draw 
 to follow this wonderful persuader. As Abbot of Clairvaux he exer- 
 cised a powerful influence upon the ecclesiastical affairs of Europe. 
 He made Innocent II. pope, inducing the emperor to take up arms i 
 his support; and was greatly instrumental in the condemnation o 
 Abelard's writings, causing the pope to silence the heretical author. 
 While thus influential he lived a very simple and ascetic life. In 
 1146 he preached earnestly in advocacy of the second crusade, which 
 was largely due to his efforts. As an orator Saint Bernard ranks high^ 
 his eloquence being of that type the force of which holds good through 
 the centuries, — simple, comprehensible; inspiring, and effective. 
 
 THE DELIVERANCE OF THE HOLY LAND 
 
 [Bernard was perhaps at his best in his plea for the deliverance of the Holy Land 
 from the bands of the infidel. At the council of Vezelai 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 breath of corruption to fly 
 434 
 
 le 
 
 i 
 
 J 
 
SAINT BERNARD 435 
 
 over all regions ; we behold nothing but unpunished wickedness. The 
 laws of men or the laws of religion have no longer sufficient power to 
 check depravity of manners and the triumph of the wicked. The demon 
 of heresy has taken possession of the chair of truth, and God has sent 
 forth his malediction upon his sanctuary. O ye who listen to me, hasten 
 then to appease the anger of Heaven, but no longer implore His goodness 
 by vain complaints ; clothe not yourselves in sackcloth, but cover your- 
 selves with your impenetrable bucklers ; the din of arms, the dangers, 
 the labors, the fatigues of war are the penances that God now imposes 
 upon you. Hasten then to expiate your sins by victories over the infidels, 
 and let the deliverance of holy places be the reward of your repentance. 
 
 If it were announced to you that the enemy had invaded your cities, 
 your castles, your lands ; had ravished your wives and your daughters, 
 and profaned your temples, which among you would not fly to arms ? 
 Well, then, all these calamities, and calamities still greater, have fallen 
 upon your brethren, 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 they have committed on Christian people ? Remember that their 
 triumph will be the subject for grief 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 rage 
 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 
 1 that His hand has lost its power. Could He not send twelve legions of 
 angels, or breathe one word, and all His enemies would crumble away 
 into dust ? But God has considered the sons of men, to open for them 
 the road to His mercy. His goodness has caused to dawn for you a day 
 of safety, by calling on you to avenge His glory and His name. Chris- 
 tian warriors. He who gave His life for you, to-day demands yours in 
 . return. These are combats worthy of you, combats in which it is glori- 
 i ous to conquer and advantageous to die. Illustrious knights, generous 
 \\ defenders of the cross, remember the example of your fathers who con- 
 quered Jerusalem, and whose names are inscribed in Heaven; abandon 
 .then the things that perish, to gather unfading palms and conquer a king- 
 idom which has no end. 
 
ALBERTUS MAGNUS ( J 200- 1 280) 
 
 ALBERT THE GREAT, SCHOLASTIC LECTURER 
 
 ALBERTUS MAGNUS (or "Albert the Great"), a celebrated pro- 
 ' fessor of Scholasticism — the theological philosophy of the 
 ' Middle Ages — was born in Bavaria about 1200, the exact year 
 of his birth being in doubt. Becoming a Dominican friar, he lectured 
 on theology for three years at Paris, and for a long period at Cologne. 
 For a few years he was Bishop of Ratisbon, but resigned that office, 
 which he had never desired. Among the theologians and philoso- 
 phers of his period he stood in the first rank, and was distinguished 
 alike for an ardent love of knowledge, for modesty, and for an earnest 
 and disinterested spirit. His works, which are numerous, treat of 
 logic, theology, physics, and metaphysics, as these w^ere understood in 
 mediaeval times. 
 
 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHRIST'S CRUCIHXION 
 
 [From one of the theological discourses of Albertus we make the following 
 selection, which possesses a living interest to-day, in the lessons which are drawn 
 from the incidents of the suffering of the Saviour.] 
 
 It was surrounded by the thick wreath of thorns even to the tender 
 brain. Whence in the Prophet, — "the people hath stirrounded me with 
 the thorns of sin." And why was this, save that mine own head might 
 not suffer, thine own conscience might not be wounded ? His eyes grew 
 dark in death ; and those lights, which give light to the world, were for a 
 time extinguished. And when they were clouded, there was darkness 
 over all the earth, and with them the two great lights of the firmament 
 were moved ; to the end that thine eyes might be turned away, lest they 
 should behold vanity ; or, if they chance to behold it, might for His sake 
 condemn it. Those ears, which in heaven unceasingly hear "Holy, 
 Holy, Holy," vouchsafed on earth to be filled with : "Thou hast a devil, 
 436 
 
 I 
 
ALBERTUS MAGNUS 437 
 
 Crucify Him ! Crucify Him !"— to the intent that thine ears might not be 
 deaf to the cry of the poor, nor, open to idle tales, should readily receive 
 the poison of distraction or of adulation. That fair face of Him that was 
 fairer than the children of men, yea, than thousands of angels, was 
 bedaubed with spitting, afflicted with blows, given up to mockery, to the 
 end that thy face might be enlightened, and, being enlightened, might be 
 strengthened, so that it might be said of thee, " His countenance is no 
 more changed." That mouth, which teaches angels and instructs men, 
 "which spake and it was done," was fed with gall and vinegar, that thy 
 mouth might speak the truth, and might be opened to the praise of the 
 Lord ; and it was silent, lest thou shouldst lightly lend thy tongue to the 
 expression of anger. 
 
 Those hands, which stretched abroad the heavens, were stretched out 
 on the cross and pierced with most bitter nails ; as saith Isaiah, *' I have 
 stretched forth my hands all the day to an unbelieving people." And 
 David, *' They pierced my hands and my feet ; I may tell all my bones." 
 And St. Jerome says, " We may, in the stretching forth of His hands, 
 understand the liberality of the giver, who denieth nothing to them that 
 ask lovingly ; who restored health to the leper that requested it of Him ; 
 enlightened him that was blind from his birth ; fed the hungry multitude 
 in the wilderness. ' ' And again he says, ' ' The stretched-out hands denote 
 the kindness of the parent, who desires to receive his children to his 
 breast." And thus let thy hands be so stretched out to the poor that thou 
 mayest be able to say, "My soul is always in my hand." For that which 
 is held in the hand is not easily forgotten. So he may be said to call his 
 soul to memory, who carries it, as it were, in his hands through the good 
 opinion that men conceive of it. His hands were fixed, that they may 
 instruct thee to hold back thy hands, with the nails of fear, from unlawful 
 or harmful works. 
 
 That glorious breast, in which are hidden all the treasures of wisdom 
 and knowledge, is pierced with the lance of a soldier, to the end that thy 
 j heart might be cleansed from evil thoughts, and being cleansed might be 
 sanctified, and being sanctified might be preserved. The feet, whose foot- 
 stool the prophets commanded to be sanctified, were bitterly nailed to the 
 cross, lest thy feet should sustain evil, or be swift to shed blood ; but, 
 running in the way of the Lord, stable in his path, and fixed in his road, 
 might not turn aside to the right hand nor to the left. What could have 
 been done more ? 
 
MARTIN LUTHER (U834546) 
 
 THE FATHER OF THE REFORMATION 
 
 I T In the year 1521, when Martin Luther agreed to attend the 
 j I I diet (or national assembly) of the German Empire at Worms, 
 with the safe-conduct of the Emperor Charles V. in his pocket, 
 his friends did their best to dissuade him from entering that city. 
 Luther's reply is significant of the indomitable character of the man : 
 " Were there as many devils in Worms as tiles upon the roofs of the 
 houses, still would I enter/' Fortunately for Luther, Charles was a 
 man of honor, and although Luther defended his position and refused 
 to retract, he was permitted to leave W^orms — though the empero 
 decreed that he should be seized as soon as his safe-conduct had ex- 
 pired. But before that happened he was safely concealed in the 
 solitary castle of Wartburg, under guard of a party of friendly knights. 
 When he left that place of refuge the peril had passed away. 
 
 Luther was a man of strong zeal and intrepidity. His being called 
 to Worms was due, not to his attacks upon the priesthood, but to his 
 denial of the authority of the pope, whom he had assailed with all the 
 fierce invective and vituperation which were common in the contro- 
 versies of that age. A provocation of this kind the Church w^as not 
 likely to let pass, and Luther's visit to Worms was attended with 
 imminent peril. He met it fearlessly, disdainful of death or danger 
 in face of the mission of his life. 
 
 DEFENCE BEFORE THE DIET AT WORMS 
 
 [The charge against lyuther was that he had written and disseminated false 
 
 doctrines and virulent attacks on the Church, the priesthood, and the pope, and he 
 
 was summoned to Worms with the demand that he should retract his heretical 
 
 writings. He defended himself with tact and prudence, but with no yielding.] 
 
 438 
 
 a 
 
 I 
 
 fl 
 
martin luther 439 
 
 Most Skrknk Emperor, Illustrious Princbjs, 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 this 
 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, or 
 offend in any way against the manners of courts, I entreat you 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. 
 
 Two questions have been proposed to me : Whether I acknowledge 
 the books which are published in my name, and whether I am determined 
 to defend or disposed to recall them. To the first of these I have given a 
 direct answer, in which I shall ever persist, that these books are mine and 
 published by me, except in so far as they may have been altered or interpo- 
 lated 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 simplicity so evangelical that my very 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 my 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 ? 
 
 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 by an intolerable tyranny, and are still devoured without end 
 and by degrading 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 
 doctrines of the pope be held erroneous and reprobate when they are con- 
 trary to the Gospel and the opinions 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 pub- 
 lished against individuals, against the defenders of the Roman tyranny 
 and the subverters of the piety taught b}'' 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 oflBcers, 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. 
 
 [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 p( 
 sion of my conscience ; nor can I possibly, nor will I, ever make ai 
 recantation, since it is neither safe nor honest to act contrary to conscienc 
 Here I stand ; I cannot do otherwise ; so help me God ! Amen ! 
 
JOHN CALVIN (J 5094564) 
 
 THE FAMOUS REFORMER AND PREACHER 
 
 AFTER Luther, the leader of the Protestant Reformation, Calvin 
 was the greatest of those who broke away from the Church of 
 ^ Rome, preached new doctrines and established a new Church. 
 Destined for the Roman clergy, and appointed cure of Marteville, 
 France, when only sixteen years of age, he early dissented from the 
 theology of his Church, and began to preach the new doctrines of the 
 Protestant faith. Soon he made France too hot for him, and fled from 
 place to place, until he finally found a refuge in Geneva, Switzerland, 
 where he founded a church and developed a sectarian faith which has 
 since made its way throughout the Christian world. 
 
 Calvin was exceptionally clear and exact as a theological writer 
 and acutely logical as a reasoner. Beza, one of his admirers, speaks 
 in high terms of his oratory, saying that he " taught the truth, not 
 with affected eloquence, but with such solid gravity of style that there 
 was not a man who could hear him without being ravished with 
 admiration/' 
 
 THE COURAGE OF A CHRISTIAN 
 
 [As an example of Calvin's style of preaching we offer a brief extract from a 
 sermon on the necessity of enduring persecution, and the reasons for doing so with 
 courage and fortitude.] 
 
 A heathen could say that * ' It was a miserable thing to save life by 
 giving up the only things which made life desirable ! " And yet he, and 
 others like him, never knew for what end men are placed in the world, 
 and why they live in it. It is true they knew enough to say that men 
 ought to follow virtue, to conduct themselves honestly and without 
 reproach ; but all their virtues were mere paint and smoke. We know 
 far better what the chief aim of life should be ; namely, to glorify God, 
 
 441 
 
442 JOHN CALVIN 
 
 in order that he may be our glory. When this is not done, woe to us ! 
 And we cannot continue to live for a single moment upon the earth with- 
 out heaping additional curses on our heads. Still, we are not ashamed 
 to purchase some few days to languish here below, renouncing the eternal 
 kingdom by separating ourselves from Him by whose energy we are sus- 
 tained in life. 
 
 Were we to ask the most ignorant, not to say the most brutish, per- 
 sons in the world why they live, they would not venture to answer simply, 
 that it is to eat, and drink, and sleep ; for all know that they have been 
 created for a higher and holier end. And what end can we find if it be 
 not to honor God, and allow ourselves to be governed by Him, like chil- 
 dren by a good parent ; so that after we have finished the journey of this 
 corruptible life, we may be received into His eternal inheritance! Such 
 is the principal, indeed the sole end. When we do not take it into 
 account, and are intent on a brutish life, which is worse than a thousand 
 deaths, what can we allege for our excuse ? To live and not know why, 
 is unnatural. To reject the causes for which we live, under the influence 
 of a foolish longing for a respite of some few days, during which we are 
 to live in the world, while separated from God — I know not how to name 
 such infatuation and madness ! . . . . 
 
 It were easy, indeed, for God to crown us at once, without requiring 
 us to sustain any combats ; but as it is His pleasure that until the end of 
 the world Christ shall reign in the midst of His enemies, so it is also His 
 pleasure that we, being placed in the midst of them, shall suffer their 
 oppression and violence till He deliver us. I know, indeed, that the flesh 
 kicks when it is to be brought to this point, but still the will of God must 
 have the mastery. If we feel some repugnance in ourselves, it need not 
 surprise us ; for it is only too natural for us to shun the cross. Still let 
 us not fail to surmount it, knowing that God accepts our obedience, pre 
 vided we bring all our feelings and wishes into captivity, and make thei 
 subject to him 
 
 In ancient times, vast numbers of people, to obtain a simple crowi 
 of leaves, refused no toil, no pain, no trouble ; nay, it even cost them 
 nothing to die, and yet every one of them fought for a perad venture, not 
 knowing whether he was to gain or lose the prize. God holds forth to 
 the immortal crown by which we may become partakers of His glory^j 
 He does not mean us to fight at haphazard, but all of us have a promis 
 of the prize for which we strive. Have we any cause then to decline 
 struggle ? Do we think it has been said in vain, " If we die with Jest 
 Christ we shall also live with Him ? ' ' Our triumph is prepared, and 
 we do all we can to shun the combat. 
 
JACQUES BENIGNE BOSSUET (16274704) 
 
 FRANCE^S GREATEST PULPIT ORATOR 
 
 [-T^JHREE great contemporary orators graced the reign of Louis XIV., 
 I A I Bossuet, Fenelon and Bourdaloue, followed by a fourth, Mas- 
 ^ ' sillon, in the later years of the reign of the "Grand Monarque." 
 Of these, Bossuet has by some been ranked with Mirabeau as the 
 greatest of French orators, though to-day he does not find as many 
 readers as his rival, Fenelon. Bossuet became the recognized champ- 
 ion in France of the Romish Church, converting many Protestants 
 by his sermons at Metz, and numbering the Marshal de Turenne among 
 his converts at Paris. He was distinguished not alone for eloquence, 
 but made himself famous also by his writings. His "Discourse on 
 Universal History," says Hallam, " is perhaps the greatest effort of 
 his wonderful genius." . . . Among his most admired productions are 
 six funeral orations, those on Henrietta Maria, Queen of England, and 
 on the Prince dcConde being especially famous as models of eloquence. 
 
 THE DEATH OF THE PRINCE OF CONDE 
 
 [We cannot give a better example of Bossuet's powers than by selecting from 
 his noble address in memory of his friend, the great Conde. It is highly eulogistic 
 throughout, and in this style of oratorical composition remains unsurpassed. We 
 append the closing section of this admirable address, in which the story of a great life 
 is supplemented by that of a noble death.] 
 
 The Prince of Cond6 grew weaker, but death concealed his approach. 
 When he seemed to be somewhat restored, and the Duke d'Enghien, ever 
 occupied between his duties as a son and his duties as a subject, had 
 returned by his order to the king, in an instant all was changed, and his 
 approaching death was announced to the prince. Christians, give atten- 
 tion, and here learn to die, or rather learn not to wait for the last hour 
 to begin to live well. What I expect to commence a new life when, seized 
 
 . 443 
 
444 JACQUES BENIGNE BOSSUET 
 
 by the freezing grasp of death, ye know not whether ye are among the 
 living or the dead ? Ah ! prevent, by penitence, that hour of trouble and 
 darkness ! Thus, without being surprised at that final sentence communi- 
 cated to him, the Prince remained for a moment in silence, and then all at 
 once exclaimed : *'Thou dost will it, O my God, thy will be done ! Give 
 me grace to die well ! ' ' What more could you desire ? In that brief 
 prayer you see submission to the will of God, reliance on His Providence, 
 trust in His grace, and all devotion. 
 
 From that time, such as he had been in all combats — serene, self- 
 possessed, and occupied without anxiety, only with what was necessary 
 to sustain them — such also he was in that last conflict. Death appeared 
 to him no more frightful, pale, and languishing, than amid the fires of 
 battle and in the prospect of victory. While sobbings were heard all 
 around him, he continued, as if another than himself were their object, to 
 give his orders ; and if he forbade them weeping, it was not because it 
 was a distress to him, but simply a hindrance. At that time he extended 
 his cares to the least of his domestics. With a liberality worthy of his 
 birth and of their services, he loaded them with gifts, and honored them 
 still more with mementos of his regard 
 
 Tranquil in the arms of his God, he waited for His salvation, and 
 implored His support until he finally ceased to breathe. And here our 
 lamentations ought to break forth at the loss of so great a man. But for 
 the love of the truth, and the shame of those who despise it, listen once 
 more to that noble testimony which he bore to it in dying. Informed by 
 his confessor that if our heart is not entirely right with God, we must, in 
 our addresses, ask God himself to make it such as he pleases, and address 
 Him in the affecting language of Davjd, " O God, create in me a clean 
 heart." Arrested by these words, the prince pauses, as if occupied by 
 some great thought ; then calling the ecclesiastic who had suggested the 
 idea, he says : '' I have never doubted the mysteries of religion, as some 
 have reported." Christians, ye ought to believe him ; for in the state he 
 then was, he owed to the world nothing but truth. ' * But, " added he, 
 doubt them less than ever. May these truths," he continued, " reves 
 and develop themselves more and more clearly in my mind. Yes ! " saj 
 he, " we shall see God as He is, face to face ! " With a wonderful relis 
 he repeated in Latin those lofty words — " As He is — face to face ! " N< 
 could those around him grow weary of seeing him in so sweet a transpoi 
 
 What was then taking place in that soul ! What new light dawne 
 upon him ? What sudden ray pierced the cloud, and instantly dissipate 
 not only all the darkness of sense, but the very shadows, and, if I dare 
 say it, the sacred obscurities of faith ? What then became of th< 
 
 I 
 
JACQUES BENIGNE BOSSUET 445 
 
 splendid titles by which our pride is flattered ? On the very verge of glory, 
 and in the dawning of a light so beautiful, how rapidly vanish the phan- 
 toms of the world ! How dim appears the splendor of the most glorious 
 victory ! How profoundly we despise the glory of the world, and how 
 deeply regret that our eyes were ever dazzled by its radiance. Come, ye 
 people, come now — or rather ye princes and lords, ye judges of the earth, 
 and ye who open to man the portals of heaven ; and more than all others, 
 ye princes and princesses, nobles descended from a long line of kings, 
 lights of France, but to-day in gloom, and covered with your grief, as 
 with a cloud, — come and see how little remains of a birth so august, 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 
 heaven the magnificent evidence of our emptiness ; nothing, indeed, is 
 wanting in all these honors but he to whom they are rendered ! Weep 
 then over these feeble remains of human life ; weep over that mournful 
 immortality we give to heroes. 
 
 But draw near, especially 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 honors of war ; his shadow might yet 
 gain battles ; and lo ! in his silence his very name animates us, and at the 
 same 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 
 king, yet serve the King of Heaven." Serve, then, that immortal and 
 ever merciful King, who will value a sigh, or a cup of cold water, given 
 in His name, more than all others will value the shedding of your blood. 
 And begin to reckon the time of your useful services from 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 
 the remembrance of a hero whose goodness equaled his courage. Thus 
 may be ever prove your cherished instructor ; thus may you profit by 
 his virtues ; and may his death, which you deplore, serve you at once for 
 consolation and example. 
 
LOUIS BOURDALOUE (J 632-1 704) 
 
 THE COURT PREACHER OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 mHE reign of Louis XIV. of France was distinguished by a 
 trio of eminent pulpit orators, among whom Bourdaloue was 
 one of the most esteemed. Louis was so charmed by his ser- 
 mons that he said, he *' loved better to hear the repetitions of Bourda- 
 loue than the novelties of any other preacher." And Madame de 
 Sevigne, in her inimitable letters, speaks of " his beautiful, his noble, 
 his astonishing sermons." Appointed court-preacher at Paris in 1669, 
 for more than twenty years he preached during Lent and Advent. 
 
 THE PASSION OF CHRIST 
 
 [One of the most famous of the sermons preached by Bourdaloue before King 
 Louis, 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 ai 
 object of delight, since this God-man, by a wonderful secret of His wisdoi 
 and love, has willed that the mystery of it shall be continued and solemnl] 
 renewed in His Church until the final consummation of the world. F( 
 what is the Eucharist but a perpetual repetition of the Saviour's Passion^ 
 and what has the Saviour proposed in instituting it, but that whatev€ 
 passed at Calvary is not only represented but consummated on our altars 
 That is to say, that He is still performing the functions of the victim ane> 
 and is every moment virtually sacrificed, as though it were not suflSciei 
 that He should have suffered once. At least that His love, as powerft 
 as it is free, has given to His adorable sufferings that character of perpetuitj 
 which they have in the Sacrament, and which renders them so salutary 
 us. Behold, Christians, what the love of a God has devised ; but beholc 
 446 
 
 I 
 
LOUIS BOURDALOUE 447 
 
 also, what has happened through the malice of men ! At the same time 
 that Jesus Christ, in the sacrament of His body, repeats His holy Passion 
 in a manner altogether mysterious, men, the false imitators, or rather base 
 corruptors, of the works of God, have found means to renew this same 
 Passion, not only in a profane, but in a criminal, sacrilegious, and horrible 
 manner. 
 
 Do not imagine that I speak figuratively. Would to God, Christians, 
 that what I am going to say to you were only a figure, and that you were 
 justified in vindicating yourselves to-day against the horrible expressions 
 which I am obliged to employ ! I speak in the literal sense ; and you 
 ought to be more affected with this discourse, if what I advance appears 
 to you to be overcharged ; for it is by your excesses that it is so, and not 
 by my words. Yes, my dear hearers, the sinners of the age, by the disor- 
 der of their lives, renew the bloody and tragic Passion of the Son of God 
 in the world ; I will venture to say that the sinners of the age cause the 
 Son of God, even in the state of glory, as many new passions as they have 
 committed outrages against Him by their actions ! Apply yourselves to 
 form an idea of them ; and in this picture, which will surprise you, 
 recognize what you are, that you may weep bitterly over yourselves ! 
 What do we see in the Passion of Jesus Christ ? A Divine Saviour 
 betrayed and abandoned by cowardly disciples, persecuted by pontiffs and 
 hypocritical priests, ridiculed and mocked in the palace of Herod by 
 impious courtiers, placed upon a level with Barabbas, and to whom 
 Barabbas is preferred by a blind and inconstant people, exposed to the 
 insults of libertinism, and treated as a mocking by a troop of soldiers 
 equally barbarous and insolent ; in fine, crucified by merciless execu- 
 tioners. Behold, in a few words, what is most humiliating and most cruel 
 in the death of the Saviour of the world ! Then tell me if this is not 
 precisely what we now see, of what we are every day called to be witnesses. 
 L<et us resume ; and follow me. 
 
 Betrayed and abandoned by cowardly disciples : such, O Divine 
 
 Saviour, has been Thy destiny. But it was not enough that the Apostles, 
 
 the first men whom Thou didst choose for Thine own, in violation of the 
 
 most holy engagement, should have forsaken Thee in the last scene of 
 
 Thy life ; that one of them should have sold Thee, another renounced 
 
 ; Thee, and all disgraced themselves by a flight which was, perhaps, the 
 
 most sensible of all the wounds that Thou didst feel in dying. This 
 
 wound must be again opened by a thousand acts of infidelity yet more 
 
 1 scandalous. Even in the Christian ages we must see men bearing the 
 
 I character of Thy disciples, and not having the resolution to sustain it ; 
 
 In Christians, prevaricators, and deserters from their faith; Christians 
 
448 LOUIS BOURDALOUE 
 
 ashamed of declaring themselves for Thee, not daring to appear what 
 they are, renouncing at least in the exterior what they have professed, 
 flying when they ought to fight ; in a word. Christians in form, ready to 
 follow Thee, even to the Supper, when in prosperity and while it required 
 no sacrifice, but resolved to abandon Thee in the amount of temptation. 
 It is on your account, and my own, my dear hearers, that I speak, and 
 behold what ought to be the subject of our sorrow. 
 
 Remember, but with fear and horror, that the greatest persecutors of 
 Jesus Christ are not lay libertines, but wicked priests ; and that among the 
 wicked priests those whose corruption and iniquity are covered with the 
 veil of hypocricy are His most dangerous and cruel enemies. A hatred 
 disguised under the name of zeal, and covered with the specious pretext 
 of observance of the law, was the first movement of the persecution 
 which the Pharisees and the priests raised against the Son of God. L,et 
 us fear lest the same passion should blind us ! " Wretched passion," 
 exclaims Saint Bernard, ** which spreads the venom of its malignity even 
 over the most lovely of the children of men, and which could not see a 
 God upon earth without hating Him ! " A hatred not only of prosperity 
 and happiness, but what is yet more strange, of the merit and perfec- 
 tion of others ! A cowardly and shameful passion, which, not content 
 with having caused the death of Jesus Christ, continues to persecute Him 
 by rending His mystical body, which is the Church ; dividing His mem- 
 bers, which are believers ; and stifling in their hearts that charity which 
 is the spirit of Christianity ! Behold, my brethren, the subtle temptation || 
 against which we have to defend ourselves, and under which it is but 
 too common for us to fall ! 
 
 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 
 sensible insults which Jesus Christ received. But do not suppose, Chri§- . 
 tians, that this act of impiety ended there. It has passed from the cou^HI 
 of Herod, from that prince destitute of religion, into those even of Chris- 
 tian princes. And is not the Saviour still a subject of ridicule to the 
 libertine spirits which compose them ? They worship Hiin externally, 
 but internally how do they regard His maxims ? What idea have they 
 of His humility, of His poverty, and of His sufferings ? Is not virtue 
 either unknown or despised ? It is not a rash zeal which induces me to 
 speak in this manner ; it is what you too often witness. Christians ; it is 
 what you perhaps feel in yourselves ; and a little reflection upon the man- 
 ners of the court will convince you that there is nothing that I say which 
 is not confirmed by a thousand examples, and that you yourselves a: 
 sometimes unhappy accomplices in these crimes. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
FRANCOIS FENELON (J65J47J5) 
 
 THE MASTER OF FRENCH ELOQUENCE 
 
 B RANGE has produced no more consummate master of the art of 
 graceful oratory than Francois de Salignac de la Motte Fene- 
 lon, Archbishop de Cambray, to give him his full title. He 
 shared with Bossuet and Bourdaloue the honor of being one of the 
 three great orators of the classic age of Louis XIV. Though an 
 ecclesiastic and a pulpit orator of the finest powers, as an author he 
 occupied largely the secular field, producing a number of works, of 
 which much the most famous is the admirable " Les A ventures de 
 Telemaque," still one of the most popular works in the French lan- 
 guage. Appointed by Louis XIV. preceptor to his grandson, the 
 Duke of Burgundy and heir to the throne, Fenelon wrote several 
 works for the benefit of his pupil, one of them being " Telemaque." 
 This brought him into disgrace with Louis, who regarded it as a satire 
 on his despotic rule. But Fenelon, though banished from court, made 
 liimself felt from his archbishopric of Cambray, and was honored for 
 \irtue and wisdom throughout Europe. La Bruy^re says : " We feel 
 the power 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: 
 ' What cultivated man needs to be told of the sweet persuasions that 
 dwelt upon the tongue of the Swan of Cambray?'' 
 
 GOD REVEALED IN NATURE 
 
 [From one of Fenelon '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 effectively 
 handled.] 
 
 29 449 
 
460 FRANCOIS FENELON 
 
 I cannot open my eyes without discovering the skill that everything 
 in nature displays. A single glance enables me to perceive the hand that 
 has made all things. Men accustomed to meditate iipon abstract truths, 
 and recur to first principles, recognize the Divinity by the idea of Him 
 they find in their minds. But the more direct this road is, the more it is 
 untrodden and neglected by common men, who follow their own imagina- 
 tion. It is so simple a demonstration, that from this very cause it escapes 
 those minds incapable of a purely intellectual operation. And the more 
 perfect this way of discovering the Supreme Being is, the fewer are the 
 minds that can follow it. But there is another method less perfect, but more 
 nearly adapted to the capacity of all. Those who exercise their reason 
 the least, those who are the most affected by their senses, may, at a single 
 glance, discover Him who is represented in all His works. The wisdom 
 and power that God has manifested in everything He has made reflect the 
 name as in a mirror of Him whom they have not been able to discover in 
 their own minds. This is a popular philosophy addressed to the senses, 
 which every one, without prejudice or passion, is capable of acquiring. 
 
 A man whose heart is entirely engaged in some grand concern might | 
 pass many days in a room, attending to his affairs, without seeing either 
 the proportions of the room, the ornaments on the chimney, or the pic- 
 tures that surrounded him. All these objects would be before his eyes, 
 but he would not see them, and they would make no impression upon 
 him. Thus it is that men live. Everything presents God to them, but 
 they do not see Him. He was in the world, and the world was made by 
 Him ; and, nevertheless, the world has not known Him. They pass their 
 lives without seeing this representation of the Deity, so completely do the 
 fascinations of life obscure their vision. Saint Augustine says that the 
 wonders of the universe are lowered in our estimation by their repetition. 
 Cicero says the same thing : ' ' Forced to view the same things every day, 
 the mind as well as the eye is accustomed to them. It does not admire 
 nor take any pains to discover the cause of events that it always observes 
 to take place in just the same way ; as if it were the novelty rather than 
 the grandeur of a thing that should lead us to this investigation." But 
 all nature shows the infinite skill of its author. I maintain that accident, 
 that is, a blind and fortuitous succession of events, could never have pro- 
 duced all we see. It is well to adduce here one of the celebrated compari- 
 sons of the ancients. 
 
 Who would believe that the " Iliad " of Homer was not composed by 
 the efforts of a great poet, but that the characters of the alphabet, being 
 thrown confusedly together, an accidental stroke had placed the letters 
 precisely in such relative positions as to produce verses so full of harmony 
 
FRANCOIS FENELON ^ —451 
 
 and variety, painting each object with all that was most noble, most 
 graceful, and most touching in its features ; in fine, making each person 
 speak in character and with such spirit and nature ? Let any one reason 
 with as much subtlety as he may, he would persuade no man in his senses 
 that the *' Iliad " had no author but accident. Why, then, should a man 
 possessing his reason believe with regard to the universe, a work unques- 
 tionably more wonderful than the " Iliad," what his good sense will not 
 allow him to regard of this poem ? 
 
 [The speaker draws some other illustrations from nature and the works of man, 
 and then considers the soul of man and the mystery of its action and effect upon the 
 body. He concludes as follows :] 
 
 The power of the soul over the body, which is so absolute, is at the 
 same time a blind one. The most ignorant man moves his body as well 
 as the best instructed anatomist. The player on the flute who perfectly 
 understands all the chords of his instrument, who sees it with his eyes and 
 touches it with his fingers, often makes mistakes. But the soul that 
 governs the mechanism of the human body can move every spring without 
 seeing it, without understanding its figure, or situation, or strength ; and 
 never mistakes. How wonderful is this ! My soul commands what it 
 does not know, what it cannot see, and what it is incapable of knowing, 
 and is infallibly obeyed ! How great its ignorance and how great its 
 power ! The blindness is ours, but the power — where is it ? To whom 
 shall we attribute it, if not to Him who sees what man cannot see, and 
 gives him the power to perform what passes his own comprehension. 
 
 Let the universe be overthrown and annihilated, let there be no 
 inds to reason upon these truths, they will still remain equally true ; as 
 he rays of the sun would be no less real if men should be blind and not 
 ee them. "In feeling assured," says Saint Augustine, ''that two and 
 o make four, we are not only certain that we say what is true, but we 
 ave no doubt that this proposition has been always, and will continually 
 nd eternally be true." 
 
 Let man then admire what he understands, and let him be silent 
 
 hen he cannot comprehend. There is nothing in the universe that does 
 
 ot equally bear these two opposite characters, the stamp of the Creator 
 
 nd the mark of the nothingness from which it is drawn, and into which 
 
 may at any moment be resolved. 
 
JEAN BAPTISTE MASSILLON (J 663- J 742) 
 
 THE FAMOUS BISHOP OF CLERMONT 
 
 aMONG the pulpit orators of France, Massillon holds a place 
 high celebrity. A native of Provence, his life was chiefly 
 spent in Paris, where, after the death of Bossuet and Boui 
 daloue, he was esteemed the ablest of preachers. He preached before 
 Louis Xiy., 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-Car^me." Massillon's diction was simple and unaffected, 
 while he was a master of pathos and knew how to penetrate to the 
 depths of the human heart. Voltaire kept a volume of his sermons 
 constantly on his desk, as a model of eloquence, and thought him 
 " the preacher who best understood the world. ^' Louis XIV. gave 
 strong testimony to the power and independence of spirit of Massil- 
 lon in his remark : '' Other preachers make me pleased with tliem, 
 but Massillon 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 
 452 
 
JEAN BAPTISTE MASSILLON 453 
 
 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 
 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 restless 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 pretext;s 
 which you continually employ in its justification . . . . 
 
464 JEAN BAPTISTE MASSILLON 
 
 I know that it is, above all, by the innocency 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 the Gospel 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 worthy, according to Jesus Christ, 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 L<ord, as com- 
 manded by the apostle ? If you love your brother as yourself, can you 
 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 eyesB 
 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 brethren; 
 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 j 
 pleasure ? 
 
BOOK III 
 
 British Orators of the Middle Period 
 
 FROM the days of the decadence of classic ora- 
 tory to those of the famous orators of Eng- 
 land, France and the United States who gave 
 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 
 were put upon record, and these much more largely 
 in the 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 the 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 literature. 
 In England these examples chiefly extend from the 
 Elizabethan reign down to the great renaissance of 
 oratory after the middle of the eighteenth 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. 
 
 46li 
 
FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626) 
 
 THE FOUNDER OF MODERN SCIENCE 
 
 mHAT Bacon was the author of the plays of Shakespeare has 
 been iterated and reiterated, with no small array of argu- 
 ments, but with nothing that is likely to be accepted as proof. 
 If Bacon's future fame was to depend upon the outcome of this con- 
 tention, it would be small indeed. Or, if it depended on his political 
 reputation, it would be the reverse of desirable, since his craving for 
 power and place, and his greed of money, ended in his being con- 
 victed of accepting bribes and perverting justice, and sentenced to b^ 
 fined £40,000, imprisoned during the king's pleasure, and banished 
 from Parliament and the court. A sad ending this to what might, 
 but for the faults stated, have been a great and noble career, 
 
 Aside from all this. Bacon was intellectually one of the greatest 
 men of his age, a philosopher, a scientist, an essayist of the highest 
 type. Most important among his works is the " Novum Organum, or 
 Indications Respecting the Interpretations of Nature," in which the 
 inductive system of science — the observation of facts and drawing of 
 conclusions 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 able writers of that great age. Bacon 
 stands next to Shakespeare in intellectual power and elevation, and 
 in modern appreciation. 
 
 THE EVILS OF DUELING Sj 
 
 [A contemporary of Bacon speaks of him as " the eloquentest man in Englan^^^ 
 Those who read such examples of his oratory as exist will scarcely agree with this, or 
 admit that his Star Chamber arguments are in any sense eloquent. For the latter 
 quality we should rather seek his essays than his speeches. We append a brief example 
 of his style.] 
 
 456 
 
FRANCIS BACON 457 
 
 My lords, I thought it fit for my place, and for these times, to bring 
 to hearing 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 presence, 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- 
 i tive in this matter ; (4) of the capacity of this Court, where certainly the 
 j remedy of this mischief 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 please your lordships to take into your 
 consideration that, when revenge is once extorted out of the magistrate's 
 hands, contrary to God's ordinance, mihi vifidicta, ego retribua?n ; and 
 every man shall bear the sword, not to defend, but to assail, and private 
 men begin once to presume to give law to themselves and to right their 
 own wrongs : no man can foresee the danger and inconveniences that may 
 arise and multiply thereupon. It may cause sudden storms in Court to 
 the disturbance of his Majesty and unsafety of his person. It may grow 
 from quarrels to bandying, and from bandying to trooping, and so to 
 
458 FRANCIS BACON 
 
 tumult and commotion ; from particular persons to dissention of families 
 and alliances ; yes, to national quarrels, according to the infinite variety 
 of accidents, which fall not under foresight. So that the state by this 
 means shall be like to a distempered and imperfect body, continually sub- 
 ject to inflammations and convulsions. 
 
 Besides, certainly both in divinity and in policy, offenses of presump- 
 tion are the greatest. Other offenses yield and consent to the law that it 
 is good, not daring to make defense, or to justify themselves ; but this 
 offense expressly gives the law an affront, as if it were two laws, one a 
 kind of gown law and the other a law of reputation, as they term it. So 
 that Paul's and Westminister, the pulpit and the Courts of justice, must 
 give place to the law, as the King speaketh in his proclamation, or ordin- 
 ary tables, and such reverend assemblies^ the yearbooks and statute 
 books must give place to some French and Italian pamphlets, which 
 handle the doctrines of duels, — which, if they be in the right, transeamus 
 ad ilia, let us receive them, and not keep the people in conflict and dis- 
 traction between two laws. 
 
 Again, my lords, it is a miserable effect, when young men full of 
 towardness and hope, such as the poets call " Aurorce filii,'' sons of the 
 morning, in whom the expectation and comfort of their friends consisteth, 
 shall be cast away and destroyed in such a vain manner. But much more 
 it is to be deplored when so much noble and genteel blood should be spilt 
 upon such follies, as, if it were adventured in the field in service of the 
 King and realm, were able to make the fortune of a day and change the 
 future of a kingdom. So your lordships see what a desperate evil this is : 
 it troubleth peace ; it disfurnisheth war ; it bringeth calamity upon private 
 men, peril upon the State, and contempt upon the law. 
 
SIR EDWARD COKE (15524633) 
 
 THE EMINENT ENGLISH JURIST 
 
 mHE name of Sir Edward Coke is one of the most famous in 
 English legal lore, through his inestimable work, '' Coke upon 
 Littleton,'^ which is of the highest authority in English law 
 and a rich mine of legal learning. Blackstone, another noted legal 
 author, says of it : " He hath thrown together an infinite treasure of 
 learning in a loose, desultory manner/' Adopting the law as his 
 profession, Coke rapidly acquired a very extensive practice, was 
 appointed Solicitor-General in 1592 and Attorney-General in 1594, 
 and was chosen Speaker of the House of Commons in 1593. In 1613 
 he became Chief-Justice of the King's Bench, from which he was 
 removed in 1616, because he was not sufficiently obseqious to the 
 court or king. In 1622, he was imprisoned for months in the Tower 
 for his opposition to the court party, and, subsequently, as a member 
 of Parliament, he zealously opposed the arbitrary measures of the 
 court, and was a leader of the popular party. He has been severely 
 censured for his insolence to Raleigh when on trial before him, and 
 for his cruelty in applying torture to persons charged with crime. 
 
 THE CHARGES IN RALEIGH^S CASE 
 [Coke's oratory was chiefly legal, of which we give a brief example from his 
 charge in the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh for high-treason. Raleigh was accused in 
 i6o2 of taking part in what was known as Lord Cobham's conspiracy against the king. 
 Tried in 1603, he was convicted without satisfactory proof, his demeanor during the 
 trial — in which Coke assailed him with great severity — being such as to change the 
 public hostility to sympathy and admiration. In the following Coke marshals against 
 him various intended deliuqueneies with which Raleigh had nothing to do.] 
 
 My speech shall chiefly touch these three points : imitation, supporta- 
 tion, and defence. The imitation of evil ever exceeds the precedent; as, 
 on the contrary, imitation of good ever comes short. Mischief cannot be 
 supported but by mischief; yea, it will so multiply that it will bring all 
 
 459 
 
460 SIR EDWARD COKE 
 
 to confusion. Mischief is ever underpropped by falsehood or foul prac- 
 tices ; and because all these things did occur in this treason, you shall 
 understand the ruin, as before ye did the bye. 
 
 The treason of the bye consisteth in these points : First, that the 
 Lords Grey, Brooks, Markham, and the rest intended by force in the 
 night to surprise the King's Court, which was a rebellion in the heart of 
 the realm, — yea, in the heart of the heart, in the Court. They intended to 
 take him that is a sovereign to make him subject to their power ; pur- 
 posing to open the doors with muskets and cavaliers, and to take also the 
 Prince and the Council ; then, under the King's authority, to carry the 
 King to the Tower, and to "make a stale of the admiral. 
 
 When they had the King there to extort three things from him : First, 
 a pardon for all their treasons ; second, a toleration of the Roman super- 
 stition — which their eyes shall sooner fall out than they shall ever see ; 
 for the King has spoken these words in the hearing of many : * ' I will 
 lose the crown and my life before ever I will alter religion." And, third, 
 to remove counselors. 
 
 In the room of the Lord Chancellor they would have placed one 
 Watson, a priest, absurd inhumanity and ignorant in divinity. Brook, of 
 whom I will speak nothing, was to be Lord Treasurer. The Great Secre- 
 tary must be Markham, oculus patricB. A hole must be found in my Lord 
 Chief-Justice's coat. Grey must be Earl-Marshal and Master of the 
 Horse, because he would have a table in the Court ; marry, he would 
 advance the Earl of Worcester to a higher place. 
 
 All this cannot be done without a multitude ; therefore, Watson, the 
 priest, tells a resolute man that the King was in danger of Puritans and 
 Jesuits, so as to bring him in blindfold into the action, saying, "That 
 the King is no king until he be crowned ; therefore, every man might 
 right his own wrongs." But he is rex natus, his dignity descends as well 
 as yours, my lords. 
 
 Then Watson imposeth a blasphemous oath, that they should swe 
 to defend the King's person ; to keep secret what was given them i^ 
 charge ; and seek all ways and means to advance the Catholic religioi 
 Then they intend to send for the Lord Mayor and the alderman, in th^ 
 King's name, to the Tower, lest they should make any resistance, an( 
 then to take hostages of them, and to enjoin them to provide for thei 
 victuals and munition. Grey, because the King removed before midsum** 
 mer, had a further reach ; to get a company of swordsmen to assist th( 
 action ; therefore he would stay till he had obtained a regiment froi 
 Ostend or Austria. So you see these treasons were like Sampson's foxesj 
 which were joined in their tails though their heads were severed. 
 
SIR JOHN ELIOT (J590-t632) 
 
 A MARTYR TO ENGLISH LIBERTY 
 
 i 
 
 IMONG the famous statesmen and orators of the Parliaments of 
 Charles I. Sir John Eliot occupied a high position, and was a 
 leader among those who protested against the arbitrary acts of 
 the King. The impeachment of the Duke of Buckingham was due to 
 a powerful speech made by him, and for this he was imprisoned for a 
 time in the Tower. Again, in 1629, he offended the King by remon- 
 strating against his acts of tyranny, and was once more sent to prison 
 for his boldness. Here, as he refused to retract, he was confined in 
 a dark and cheerless apartment which ruined his health. 
 
 As an orator Eliot had remarkable powers. "He had," says 
 Forster, '^ some of the highest qualities as an orator — singular power 
 of statement, clearness and facility in handling details, pointed classi- 
 cal allusions, keen and logical argument, forcible and rich declama- 
 tion." 
 
 THE PERILS OF THE KINGDOM 
 
 [On the 3d of June, 1628, Kliot delivered a bold speech in the House of Com- 
 mons, in support of the ** Petition of Right," in which he brought severe and daring 
 charges against the delinquency of the Government, attacking it in a strenuous 
 manner, which strongly recalls that of Demosthenes. We give his eloquent peroration.] 
 
 The exchequer, you know, is empty, and, the reputation thereof gone ; 
 the ancient lands are sold ; the jewels pawned ; the plate engaged ; the 
 debt still great ; almost all charges, both ordinary and extraordinary, 
 borne up by projects ! What poverty can be greater ? What necessity so 
 great ? What perfect English heart is not almost dissolved into sorrow 
 for this truth ? 
 
 For the oppression of the subject, which, as I remember, is the next 
 particular I proposed, it needs no demonstration. The whole kingdom is 
 a proof; and, for the exhausting of our treasures, that very oppression 
 
 461 
 
462 SIR JOHN ELIOT 
 
 Speaks it. What waste of our provisions, what consumption of our ships, 
 what destruction of our men there hath been ? Witness that expedition 
 to Algiers ; witness that with Mansfeldt ; witness that to Cadiz ; witness 
 the next — witness that to Rhe ; witness the last (I pray God we may never 
 have more such witnesses !) — 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 we were never so weakened, nor 
 ever had less hope how to be restored. 
 
 These, Mr. Speaker, 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, ready to issue on us ; 
 and if we do not speedily expel them, these are the signs, these are the 
 invitations to others ! These will so prepare their entrance that we shall 
 have no means left of refuge or defence ; for if 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 English 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, incorruption of officers, opulency in the King, liberty 
 in the people, repletion in treasure, plenty of provisions, reparation of 
 ships, preservation 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 ; that 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 God, 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 sue] 
 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 maj 
 be with some disorder) expressed the weak apprehensions I have ; whereii 
 if I erred, I humbly crave your pardon, and so submit myself to the cei 
 sure of the House. 
 
JOHN PYM (J 584= J 643) 
 
 THE ELOQUENT CHAMPION OF RIGHT 
 
 WHEN Pym, as a leader in the Parliamentary opposition, went with 
 some fellow-members to present- a petition to James I., this 
 "^ Scotch King of England cried out in his native dialect, 
 " Chairs ! chairs ! here be twal kyngs comin." And as King Pym he 
 was known till the day of his death. In the Parliaments of Charles I. 
 Pym was one of the most active of the members in opposition to the 
 arbitrary acts of the king. In 1628 he ably supported Sir John Eliot 
 in the debate on the Petition of Right, and in the Short Parliament of 
 1640 he opened the session in a short and sharp summing up of the 
 unsupportable state of affairs. In the Long Parliament that followed, 
 Pym was the leader in the movement which led to the impeachment 
 and execution of the Earl of Strafford, and in all the other crises of 
 the times till war became inevitable. Before it began he died, and 
 w^as buried with great pomp and magnificence in Westminster Abbey. 
 AVhen Charles II. came to the throne his remains were taken up and 
 cast into a churchyard pit — a pitiful piece of ineffective vengeance. 
 
 LAW THE BASIS OF LIBERTY 
 
 [Pym, the leader of Parliament in the revolution against the Stuarts, was the 
 support and successor of Kliot in this movement, and much the ablest orator in the 
 Long Parliament. John Hampden, whose name is almost a synonym for Knglish 
 liberty, was no orator, but was an earnest seconder of Pym in the proceedings against 
 Strafford, who had acted as the chief agent of Charles I. in his arbitrary acts, and paid 
 ■ for this on the scaffold. We give the opening of the reply to Strafford in the Parlia- 
 Iment of 1641.] 
 
 Many days have been spent in maintenance of the impeachment Of 
 the Earl of Strafford by the House of Commons, whereby he stands 
 charged with high treason ; and your lordships have heard his defence 
 
 463 
 
464 JOHN PYM 
 
 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 Karl of Strafford hath endeavored, by his words, actions, 
 and counsels, to subvert the fundamental 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, — salus populi, — the 
 welfare of the people ! This is the element of all laws, out of which they 
 are derived ; 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 earth 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. Every 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 be 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 God alone who subsists by Himself, all other things subsist 
 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 takeaway 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. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
JOHN PYM _ _465 
 
 The doctrine of the Papists, Fides no7i est servanda cum hereticis^, is an 
 abominable doctrine ; yet that other tenet, more peculiar to the Jesuits, is 
 more pernicious, whereby subjects are discharged from their oath of 
 allegiance to their prince, whensoever the Pope pleaseth ; this may be 
 added to make the third no less mischievous and destructive to human 
 society than either of the rest. That the King is not bound by that oath 
 which he hath taken to observe the laws of the kingdom ; but may, when 
 he sees cause, lay taxes and burdens upon them without their consent, 
 contrary to the laws and liberties of the kingdom — this hath been preached 
 and published by divers persons, and this is that which hath been prac- 
 ticed in Ireland by the Earl of Strafford, in his government there, and 
 endeavored to be brought into England by his counsel here. . . . . 
 
 It is the end of government that all accidents and events, all counsels 
 and designs, should be improved to the public good ; but 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 exercised in this ; the 
 learning 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 
 I 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 
 I kingdom have been undertaken and promoted. The increase of popery 
 I 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 great cause of our 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. The Earl of Strafford had the first 
 rise of his greatness from this, 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 end ; all 
 other things have a further end beyond themselves, in attaining whereof 
 their own happiness consists. If the means and end be set in opposition 
 to one another, it must needs cause impotency and defect of both. 
 
 I 
 
 * You ought not to keep faith with heretics. 
 30 
 
OLIVER CROMWELL (t 599- J 658) 
 
 THE LORD PROTECTOR OF ENGLAND 
 
 mHE story of Cromwell's life is too well known to need any record 
 here, where we have to do with him in the one aspect of 
 orator. For this rdle the great soldier was not well equipped 
 by nature. He was much better adapted to face an army in the field 
 than an audience from the rostrum. Carlyle says that his speeches 
 ** excel human belief in their unlikeness to all other speeches, in their 
 utter disregard of all standards of oratory and logical sequence of, 
 thought. . . . But the time was when they had as much weight in] 
 England as the most polished orations of Demosthenes in Athens."] 
 But as this might come less from the character of the speeches than 
 from the position of the speaker we must suffice ourselves with a brief 
 example of his style. 
 
 THE KINGLY TITLE 
 
 [We quote from Cromwell's speech in 1657 before the Committee of Ninety- 
 nine, fit Whitehall. It is characteristic in its careful avoidance of sentiments thai 
 would commit him to a fixed conclusion. As in the older case of Csesar, the Puritai 
 conqueror was offered the title of king. Some of his reasons for refusing it are hen 
 indicated. He declined less from his own inclination, than from the hostility to th( 
 name of king -imong the Puritan soldiery.] 1 
 
 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 objected 
 to a man. For who can love to walk in the dark ? But Providence doth 
 often so dispose, and though a man maj'' impute his own folly and blind- 
 ness to Providence sinfully, yet this must be at a man's own peril. The 
 466 
 
 m 
 
OLIVER CROMWELL ~467 
 
 case may be that it is the providence of God that doth lead men in dark- 
 ness. I must needs say I have had a great deal of experience of provi- 
 dence ; and though such 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 laid aside this title of king provi- 
 dentially de facto ; and that not by sudden humor or passion ; but it hath 
 been by issue of as great deliberation as ever was in a nation. It hath 
 been by issue of ten or twelve years' civil war, wherein much blood hath 
 been shed. I will not dispute the justice of it when it was done, nor need 
 I tell you what my opinion was in the case were it de novo to be done. 
 But if it is at all disputable, and a man come and find that God in His 
 severity hath not only eradicated a whole family, and thrust them out of 
 the land, for reasons best known to Himself, but also hath made the issue 
 
 and close of that to be the very eradication of a name and title 1 
 
 Which de facto 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 family, but 
 at the name. And, as I said before, it is blotted out ; it is a thing cast out 
 by an Act of Parliament ; it hath been kept out to this day. And as Jude 
 jsaith in another case, speaking of abominable sins that should be in the 
 latter times, — he doth further 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 
 tost, to reflect, and see this done, this title laid in the dust, — I confess I 
 2an come to no other conclusion. The like of this may make a strong 
 impression upon such weak men as I am ; — and perhaps upon weaker 
 men, if there be any such, it will make a stronger. I will not seek to set 
 ip that which Providence hath destroyed and laid in the dust ; I would 
 
 lot build Jericho again 
 
 I have now no more to say. The truth is, I did indicate this to you 
 IS my conclusion at the first, when I told you what method I would speak 
 o you in. I may say I cannot, with conveniency to myself, nor good to 
 his service which I wish so well to, speak out all my arguments as to the 
 jafety of your proposal, as to its tendency to the effectual carrying out of 
 his work. I say I do not think it fit to use all the thoughts I have in my 
 aind as to that point of safety. But I shall pray to God Almighty that 
 ie will direct you to do what is according to His will. And this is the 
 >oor account I am able to give of myself in this thing. 
 
EARL OF CHESTERFIELD (t 694-1 773) 
 
 THE ORATOR OF WIT AND SARCASM 
 
 I A I FAMOUS man was Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chester- 
 \t\\ field, in his time and season, posing at once as wit, orator, and 
 author, and for a long time serving as an active member of 
 Parliament and Cabinet official. He sat in the House of Commons 
 from 1716 to 1726, when he was given his title and promoted to the 
 House of Lords. He entered the Pelham Cabinet in 1744, and retired 
 from public life in 1748. Two things have helped to keep alive th( 
 memory of Chesterfield. One was Dr. Johnson's famous letter, ii 
 which he hotly scorched the politic Earl for withholding his patronag^ 
 until after the publication of his great dictionary, and then offering 
 it when it was no longer needed. The other was his well-known 
 " Letters to his Son," which have gained a permanent place in English 
 literature. They contain a good deal of shrewd and solid observe 
 tion, but many of their teachings are those of a man of fashion 
 that age, and are by no means in accord with the code of social moral 
 now prevailing. As an orator Chesterfield had marked ability, 
 and sarcasm adding their force to the more solid characteristics 
 his method of speech. Until 173.0 he was a Whig in politics an^ 
 supported Walpole, but, ousted from office in the king's household by 
 that minister, he joined the opposition and became one of his bitterest 
 antagonists. 
 
 THE DRINKING FUND 
 
 [Of Chesterfield's oratory the most effective existing example is his speech 
 made in the House of Lords, February 21, 1743, on the Gin Act ; a measure propos- 
 ing to increase the revenue by licensing the sale of gin. In this powerful speech he 
 antedated by a century the Prohibition movement, using the same arguments against 
 the sale of ardent spirits as were employed by the nineteenth century advocates, and 
 with equal effectiveness. We append a characteristic selection from this address.] 
 
 468 _ 
 
EARL OF CHESTERFIELD 469 
 
 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 the Ten Commandments ? 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 
 drunkenness, which almost necessarily produces a breach of every one 
 of the Ten 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 Fund, 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 efse 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 till he dies. 
 
 Surely, my lords, men of such unbounded benevolence as our present 
 ministers deserve such honors as were never paid before ; they deserve to 
 bestride a butt upon 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 exquisite skill, and therefore — note well the consie- 
 quence—- the trade of distilling is not to be discouraged. 
 
470 EARL OF CHESTERFIELD 
 
 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 argument 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, let us at length, my lords, secure them from these fatal 
 draughts by bursting the vials that contain them. I,et us crush at once 
 these artists in slaughter, who have reconciled their countrymen 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 destroyed, 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. 
 
BOOK IV^ 
 
 The Golden Age of British Oratory 
 
 THE oratory of Great Britain reached its cul- 
 minating period in the latter quarter 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 (J 708-1 778) 
 
 THE GREAT COMMONER 
 
 SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, for twenty years Prime Minister of 
 England, was fairly terrified when he first heard the voice of 
 
 ' young William Pitt in the House of Commons, and exclaimed, 
 " We must muzzle that terrible cornet of horse ! " He tried to do so 
 in 1741, iiji a sarcastic speech, in which he referred to Pitt's fluency of 
 rhetoric and vehemence of gesture, ^' pompous 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 being 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 members of Parliament 
 that they had a new force to deal with. In the years that followed 
 Pitt took rank as one of the greatest 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 
 accepting 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 against 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 possess but fragments of his speeches, but these 
 
 serve to indicate the character of the eloquence to which he owed his 
 
 great fame. But with him words w-ere not all ; manner told as well. 
 
 472 
 
 i 
 
THE EARL OF CHATHAM 473 
 
 Hazlitt says, " The principle by which the Earl of Chatham exerted 
 his influence over others was sympathy. He himself evidently had 
 a strong possession of his subject, a thorough conviction, an intense 
 interest ; and this communicated itself from his manner, from the tones 
 of his voice, from his commanding attitudes,, and eager gestures, 
 instinctively and unavoidably, to his hearers." 
 
 REMOVE THE BOSTON GARRISON 
 
 [No stronger words could have been spoken in defense of the American colonists 
 on their own shores than those which the aged Chatham uttered in the British House 
 of Lords. In 1774 he denounced the measure for quartering troops on the people of 
 Boston, and in January, 1775, made the notable speech from which we quote.] 
 
 When your lordships look at the papers transmitted to us from Amer- 
 ica, when you consider their firmness, decency, and wisdom, you cannot 
 but respect their cause and wish to make it your own. For myself, I 
 I must affirm, declare, and avow that, in all my reading and observation 
 (and 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 must 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 must be repealed. You will 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 preparations 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 
 Iwere 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 this child, if not redressed, 
 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. 
 
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 the country, 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. j 
 
 THE WAR IN AMERICA l 
 
 [On November i8, 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 
 
 I 
 
THE EARL OF CHATHAM 475 
 
 whom they have engaged this 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 acknowledged 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 Bourbon ? 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 English troops. No man thinks more highly of them than I 
 do. I know they can achieve anything except impossibilities ; and I 
 know that the conquest of English America is an impossibility. You can- 
 not, I venture to say, you cannot conquer America. 
 
 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 expel 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 everv 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 of rapine and plunder, devoting them and their pos- 
 sessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty. If I were an American, as I 
 am an Englishman, while a foreign troop remained in my country I never 
 would lay down my arms ; never ^ never ^ never I • 
 
EDMUND BURKE (J 730-1 797) 
 
 THE SHAKESPEARE OF ENGLISH ORATORS 
 
 i 
 
 |S the United States possessed, in the days of the great slavery 
 and revenue agitation, three orators of the finest powers, 
 Webster, Clay and Calhoun, so England was graced, in the 
 exciting days of the American War, with three orators of similar bril- 
 liancy, — Chatham, Burke and Fox. Greatest among these, in certain 
 of the most important elements of oratory, was Burke. He had not 
 the impetuous and splendid eloquence of Chatham, nor the remarka- 
 ble skill in debate of Fox, but in learning, in the power of clothing 
 great thoughts in the most appropriate words, and of producing 
 speeches which are even more interesting and effective when read 
 than they were when delivered, he far surpassed them both. Macau- 
 lay speaks of him as, ** In aptitude of comprehension and richness of 
 imagination, superior to every orator, ancient or mocfern." 
 
 Edmund Burke, while of Norman descent, was of Irish birth, his 
 native place being the city of Dublin. Entering Parliament in 1766, 
 he at once took an active part in the discussion on American affairs, 
 and continued it throughout the subsequent war, joining Chatham in 
 his eloquent support of the cause of the colonists. He was especially 
 distinguished for his thorough mastery of American affairs and his 
 intelligent foresight of the probable result of the attempt to force 
 taxation on the colonists. 
 
 Perhaps the most brilliant part of his career was that devoted to 
 affairs in India, the oppression and cruelty of Warren Hastings and 
 other East India officials having filled his soul with the deepest indig- 
 nation. The prosecution of Warren Hastings, the most remarkable 
 of English trials, was due to his denunciations, and his utmost 
 powders of intellect were exerted in the effort to bring retribution upon 
 476 
 
 ii 
 
EDMUND BURKE - 477 
 
 the culprit, during the nearly ten years over which the case extended. 
 Burke's final work as an orator w^as his fervid opposition to the Revo- 
 lution in France, whose results he foresaw with what has been called 
 " the most magnificent political prophecy ever given to the world." 
 He lived long enough to see his prophecy fulfilled. 
 
 w 
 
 THE IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS 
 [Rarely has any orator had a greater effect upon an audience than that of Burke 
 in the speech in which he depicted the cruelties inflicted upon the victims of the 
 irresponsible Governor General of India. Hastings himself afterward said of it : 
 "For half an hour I looked upon the orator in a reverie of wonder, and actually 
 thought myself the most culpable man in the world." This speech is far too long for 
 our space, and we confine our selection to Burke's vigorous impeachment of the 
 great culprit.] 
 
 In the name of the Commons of England, I charge all this villainy 
 upon Warren Hastings, in this last moment of my application to you. 
 
 My Lords, what is it that we want here to a great act of national jus- 
 tice ? Do we want a cause, my Lords ? You have the cause of oppressed 
 princes, of undone women of the first rank, of desolated provinces, and of 
 wasted kingdoms. 
 
 Do you want a criminal, my Lords? When was there so much 
 iniquity ever laid to the charge of any one ? No, my Lords, you must 
 not look to punish any other such delinquent from India. Warren Hast- 
 ings has not left substance 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 prosecutors, 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 England 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 example of antiquity, nothing 
 in the modern world, nothing in the range of human indignation, can 
 supply us with a tribunal like this. My Lords, here we see virtually, in 
 the mind's eye, that sacred majesty of the Crown, under whose 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 the subject— 
 
 I offering a pledge, in that situation, for the support of the rights of the 
 
 I Crown and the liberties of the people, both of which extremities they 
 
 ■ touch. 
 
478 * EDMUND BURKE 
 
 My lyords, we have a great hereditary peerage here ; those who have 
 their own honor, the honor of their ancestors, and of their posterity, to 
 guard, and who will justify, as they always have justified, that provision 
 in the Constitution by which justice is made an hereditary office. 
 
 My Lords, we have here a new nobility, who have risen, and exalted 
 themselves by various merits, by great civil and military services, 
 -which have extended the fame of this country from the rising to the 
 setting sun. 
 
 My Lords, you have here, also, the lights of our religion ; you have 
 the bishops of England. My Lords, you have that true image of the 
 primitive Church in its ancient form, in its ancient ordinances, purified 
 from the superstitions and the vices which a long succession of ages will 
 bring upon the best institutions. 
 
 My Lords, these are the securities which we 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, ordered by the Com- 
 mons, 
 
 I impeach Warren Hastings, Esquire, of high crimes and misde- 
 meanors. 
 
 I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great Britain, in Par- 
 liament assembled, 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 property 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 hi 
 cruelly outraged, injured and oppressed, in both sexes, in every age, rani 
 situation, and condition of life. 
 
 My Lords, at this awful close, in the name of the Commons, an( 
 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, w^ 
 stand. We call this nation, and call this world, to witness, that the Comj 
 mons have shrunk from no labor ; that we have been guilty of no prevarij 
 cation, that we have made no compromise with crime, that we have n( 
 feared any odium whatsoever in the long warfare which we have carri( 
 on with the crimes, with the vices, with the exorbitant wealth, with tl 
 enormous and overpowering influence of Eastern corruption. 
 
EDMUND BURKeV -O^^^:^ - 479 
 
 My Lords, it has pleased Providence to place us in such a state that we 
 appear every to be moment upon the verge of some great mutations. There 
 is one thing, and one thing only, which defies all mutation ; that which 
 existed before the world, and will survive the fabric of the world itself, — 
 I mean justice; that justice which, emanating from the Divinity, has a 
 place in the breast of every one of us, given us for our guide with regard 
 to ourselves and with regard to others ; and which will stand, after this 
 globe is burned to ashes, our advocate or our accuser, before the great 
 Judge, when He comes to call upon us for the tenor of a well-spent life. 
 
 My Lords, the Commons will share in every fate with your Lordships; 
 there is nothing sinister which can happen to you, in which we shall not 
 be involved ; and, if it should so happen, that we shall be subjected to 
 some of those frightful changes which we have seen ; if it should happen 
 that your Lordships, stripped of all the decorous distinctions of human 
 society, should, by hands at once base and cruel, be led to those scaffolds 
 and machines of murder upon which great kings and glorious queens have 
 shed their blood, amidst the prelates, amidst the nobles, amidst the magis- 
 trates who supported their thrones, — may you in those moments feel that 
 consolation which I am persuaded they felt in the critical moments of 
 their dreadful agony ! 
 
 My Lords, there is a consolation, and a great consolation it is, which 
 often happens to oppressed virtue and fallen dignity ; it often happens 
 that the very oppressors and persecutors themselves are forced to bear 
 testimony in its favor. The Parliament of Paris had an origin very, very 
 similar to that of the great Court before which I stand ; the Parliament of 
 Paris continued to have a great resemblance to it in its Constitution, even 
 to its fall ; the Parliament of Paris, my Lords, — was ; it is gone ! It has 
 passed away ; it has vanished like a dream ! It fell pierced by the sword 
 of the Compte de Mirabeau. And yet that man, at the time of his inflict- 
 I ing the death- wound of that Parliament, produced at once the shortest 
 and the grandest funeral oration that ever was or could be made upon the 
 departure of a great Court of magistracy. When he pronounced the death 
 sentence upon that Parliament, and inflicted the mortal wound, he declared 
 that his motives for doing it were merely political, and that their hands 
 were as pure as those of justice itself, which they administered — a great 
 and glorious exit, my Lords, of a great and glorious body ! 
 
 My Lords, if you must fall, may you so fall ! But 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, may you 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 
 
480 EDMUND BURKE 
 
 security for virtue; may you stand long, and long stand the terror of 
 tyrants ; may you stand the refuge of afflicted nations ; may you stand a 
 sacred temple, for the perpetual residence af 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 victim, 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 deligiitful 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, even 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 ( J 749- 1 806) 
 
 THE FAMOUS PARLIAMENTARY DEBATER 
 
 AMONG the British statesmen who were on the side of the Ame- 
 rican colonists in their Revolutionary War, Fox ranks high, 
 "* being still more radical in his views than the great Lord 
 Chatham. Chatham urged conciliation of the rebellious colonists, 
 but Fox favored complete separation, and foresaw and foretold its 
 advantages. Throughout the war he was the most vigorous advocate 
 of the claims of the colonists. At a later date the Warren Hasting's 
 trial, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic wars gave him an 
 abundant field for the exercise of his rare talents, and he played a 
 very active part in Parliament. The leader of the opposition to Pitt, 
 he strenuously opposed the war with France, and advocated non-inter- 
 ivention views. He was on the point of introducing a bill for the 
 abolition of the slave-trade when he died in 1806. Fox, despite the 
 vicious irregularity of his life, was a man of genial and kindly 
 instincts, generous and devoid of malignant feelings towards his 
 {Opponents. As regards his powers as an orator he had a phenomenal 
 fluency of extemporaneous speech, and we may quote Burke's opinion 
 :liat he was *' the greatest debater the world ever saw," and that of 
 jlVIackintosh, who called him " the most Demosthenian speaker since 
 Pemosthenes." 
 
 I THE TYRANNY OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY 
 
 [On the 1st of December, 1783, Fox arraigned in a vigorous speech the repre- 
 lensible conduct of the irresponsible Kast India Company. It was a preliminary 
 5tep towards the subsequent trial of Warren Hastings for his cruel and rapacious 
 icts.] 
 
 I The lionorable gentleman charges me with abandoning that cause, 
 Vhich, he says, in terms of flattery, I had once so successfully asserted. 
 3X 481 
 
482 CHARLES JAMES FOX 
 
 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 bylaws defined and certain; 
 with many personal privileges, natural, civil, and religious, which he 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- 
 tined 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 for rapine ; that the harmless laborer should 
 sweat, not for his own benefit, but for the luxury and rapacity of tyrannic 
 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 th 
 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 mankind ? This is the kind of govern- 
 ment exercised under the East India Company upon the natives of Hindo- 
 stan ; and the subversion of that infamous government is the main object 
 of the bill in question. But in the progress of accomplishing this enw 
 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 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
CHARLES JAMES FOX ^ _ 483 
 
 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 have contributed my efforts, and borne 
 part in -those illustrious struggles which vindicated an empire from heredi- 
 tary servitude, 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 Bast India 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 
 i"; 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 servants, 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. 
 Ijt Those who condemn the present bill as a violation of the chartered 
 ji rights of the East India Company, condemn, on the same ground, I say 
 :jjagain, the Revolution as a violation of the chartered rights of King James 
 }jll. He, with as much reason, might have claimed the property of domin- 
 jiion ; 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 abused that trust ; you hav6 
 exercised dominion for the purposes of vexation and tyranny, not of com- 
 fort , protection and good order ; and we, therefore, resume the power 
 
484 ■ 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 Bast India Com- 
 pany's government over a territory, as it has been said by my honorable 
 friend (Mr. Burke), of two hundred and 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.] 
 
 lyiberty 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 preposterous imagination be fostered that men bred in liberty — the first 
 of human kind who asserted the glorious distinction of forming for them- 
 selves 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 degradation? As well, sir, might Jl 
 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 j 
 stream. Kept within its bounds, it is sure to fertilize the country through 1 
 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. 
 
 I 
 
LORD BROUGHAM 
 
 Lord Brougham, a distinguished orator of England in the 19th 
 Century, advocated the Cause of Popular Education and Reform 
 and opposition to the Slave Trade. 
 
LORD THOMAS ERSKINE (J 7504823) 
 
 THE CELEBRATED FORENSIC ORATOR 
 
 I T In 1774, Thomas Erskine, son of the Scottish Earl of Buchan, 
 III happened to enter the court presided over hy the famous Lord 
 ' ^ Mansfield, and was invited by him to sit by his side. He 
 listened to the trial with the result that, convinced that he could 
 easily surpass any speech he had heard, he resolved to adopt the law 
 as his profession. Leaving the fashionable world of London, where 
 his charming social powers had made him a marked success, he 
 entered Lincoln's Inn as a student, 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, Erskine showed such remark- 
 able powders as to astonish all his hearers, and to bring himself at a 
 bound into the highest rank of his profession. 
 
 Erskine subsequently 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- 
 tinued, high authorities looking upon him as unequalled, 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 conspicuous examples 
 in English history. He was the successful defender of Lord George 
 Gordon, of Thomas Paine, of Stockdale, of John Home Tooke, and 
 of others who had dared to defend the rights of the people against 
 the acts of the great. He became Lord Chancellor in 1806, and was 
 raised to the peerage as Baron Erskine, retiring from office in 1807. 
 
 THE GOVERNING OF INDIA 
 
 [Burke's articles of impeachment against Warren Hastings, were published and 
 widely spread in advance of their delivery before the House of I^ords, and prejudiced 
 the case against the defendant. This unfair act of the House of Commons was 
 
 485 
 
486 LORD THOMAS ERSKINE 
 
 sharply criticised in a pamphlet published by the Rev. Mr. Logan. The author was 
 put on trial for libel, and engaged Erskine to defend him. Brskine's speech at this 
 trial, from which we give a select passage, was one of the ablest and most eloquent 
 displays of his powers of oratory.] 
 
 It may and must be true that Mr. Hastings has repeatedly offended 
 against the rights and privileges of Asiatic government, if he was the 
 faithful deputy of a power which could not maintain itself for an hour 
 without trampling upon both. He may and must have offended against 
 the laws of God and nature if he was the faithful viceroy of an empire 
 wrested in blood from the people to whom God and nature had given it. 
 He may and must have preserved that unjust dominion over timorous and 
 abject nations by a terrifying, overbearing, insulting superiority, if he 
 was the faithful administrator of your Government, which, having no 
 root in consent or affection, no foundation in similarity of interest, nor 
 support from any one principle which cements men together in society, 
 could only be upheld by alternate stratagem and force. The unhappy 
 people of India, feeble and effeminate as they are from the softness of 
 their climate, and subdued and broken as they have been by the knavery 
 and strength of civilization, still occasionally start up with all the vigor 
 and intelligence of insulted nature. To be governed at all, they must be 
 governed with a rod of iron ; and our empire in the Eastern World long 
 since must have been lost to Great Britain, if civil skill and military 
 prowess had not united their efforts to support an authority which Heaven 
 never gave, by means which it never can sanction. 
 
 Gentlemen, I think I can observe that you are touched with this way 
 of considering the subject, and I can account for it. I have not been 
 considering it through the old medium of books, but have been speaking 
 of man and his nature, and of human dominion, from what I have seen 
 of them myself amongst reluctant nations submitting to our authority. 
 I know what they feel, and how such feelings can alone be repressed. ^| 
 have heard them in my youth from a naked savage, in the indignant cha^H 
 acter of a prince, surrounded by his subjects, addressing the governor of 
 a British colony, holding a bundle of sticks in his hand as the notes of 
 his unlettered eloquence. " Who is it ? " said the jealous ruler over the 
 desert, encroached upon by the restless foot of English adventure ; ' * who 
 is it that causes this river to rise in the high mountains and to empty 
 itself in the ocean ? Who is it that causes to blow the loud winds of 
 winter, and that calms them again in the summer ? Who is it that rears 
 up the shade of those lofty forests, and blasts them with the quick light- 
 ning at his pleasure ? The same Being who gave to you a country on the 
 other side of the waters, and gave ours to us ; and by this title we will 
 
LORD THOMAS ERSKINE 487 
 
 defend it," said the warrior, throwing down his tomahawk upon the 
 ground, and raising the war-sound of his nation. These are the feelings 
 of subjugated man all round the globe ; and depend upon it, nothing but 
 fear will control where it is vain to look for affection. 
 
 These reflections are the only antidotes to those anathemas of super- 
 human eloquence which have lately shaken these walls that surround Us, 
 but which it unaccountably falls to my province, whether I will or no, a 
 little to stem the torrent of, by reminding you that you have a mighty 
 sway in Asia, which cannot be maintained by the finer sympathies of life 
 or the practice of its charities and affections — what will they do for you 
 when surrounded by two hundred thousand men with artillery, cavalry, 
 and elephants, calling upon you for their dominions which you have rob- 
 bed them of? Justice may, no doubt, in such case, forbid the levying of 
 a fine to pay a revolting soldiery ; a treaty may stand in the way of increas- 
 ing a tribute to keep up the very existence of the government ; and deli- 
 cacy of women may forbid all entrance into a zenana for money, whatever 
 may be the necessity for taking it. All these things must ever be occur- 
 ring. • But under the pressure of such constant difficulties, so dangerous 
 to national honor, it might be better, perhaps, to think of effectually 
 securing it altogether, by recalling our troops and our merchants, and 
 abandoning our Oriental empire. Until this be done, neither religion nor 
 philosophy can be pressed very far into the aid of reformation and punish- 
 ment. If England, from a lust of ambition and dominion, will insist on 
 maintaining despotic rule over distant and hostile nations, beyond all com- 
 parison more numerous and extended than herself, and gives commission 
 to her viceroys to govern them with no other instructions than to preserve 
 I them, and to secure permanently their revenues — with wha.t color of con- 
 1 sistency or reason can she place herself in the moral chair, and affect to 
 I be shocked at the execution of her own orders ; advertising to the exact 
 measure of wickedness and injustice necessary to their execution, and 
 complaining only of the excess as the immorality ; considering her author- 
 ity as a dispensation for breaking the commands of God, and the breach 
 of them as only punishable when contrary to the ordinances of man ? 
 
 Such a proceeding, gentlemen, begets serious reflection. It would be 
 better, perhaps, for the masters and the servants of all such governments 
 to join in a supplication that the great Author of violated humanity may 
 not confound them together in one common j udgment .... 
 
 It now only remains to remind you that another consideration has 
 been strongly pressed upon by you, and, no doubt, will be insisted on in 
 reply. You will be told that the matters which I have been justifying as 
 legal, and even meritorious, have therefore not been made the subject of 
 
488 LORD THOMAS ERSKINE 
 
 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 bound 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 
 press would be an empty sound, and no man could venture to write on any 
 subject, however pure his 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 contented to take them with the alloys 
 which belong to them, or live without them. Genius breaks from the 
 fetters of criticism, but its wanderings are sanctioned by its majesty and 
 wisdom when it advances in its path ; subject it to the critic, and you 
 tame it into dullness. Mighty rivers break down their banks in the winter, 
 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 pestj 
 lence. In like manner, liberty herself, the last and best gift of God 
 his creatures, must be taken just as she is ; you might pare her down in^ 
 bashful regularity, and shape her into a perfect model of severe, scrup^ 
 lous law, but she would then be liberty no longer ; and you must be cc 
 tent to die under the lash of this inexorable justice which you ha^ 
 exchanged for the banners of freedom. 
 
HENRY GRATTAN (J 7504 820) 
 
 AN EMINENT IRISH STATESMAN AND ORATOR 
 
 mRELAND is eminent among nations for the number of famous 
 orators who have been born upon her soil. We may name 
 men of such celebrity as Burke, Sheridan, Sheil, Emmet, Cur- 
 ran, Grattan, and O'Connell. Among these Grattan stands high. Of 
 his eminence in oratory it is difficult to say too much. Lecky says 
 of him : " No British orator except Chatham had an equal power of 
 firing an educated audience with an intense enthusiasm, or of animat- 
 ing and inspiring a nation,^' and Mackintosh asserts that, '^ The purity 
 of his life was the brightness of his glory. Among all the men of 
 genius I have known, I have never found such native grandeur of 
 soul accompanying all the wisdom of age and all the simplicity of 
 genius." 
 
 THE RIGHTS OF IRELAND 
 
 [Of Grattan's speech in 1780, on " lyiberty as an Inalienable Right," it has been 
 said: " Nothing equal to it had ever been heard in Ireland, nor probably was its 
 superior ever delivered in the British House of Commons. Other speeches may have 
 matched it in argument and information, but in startling energy and splendor of style 
 it surpassed them all." His eloquence on this subject is vividly displayed in the fol- 
 lowing extract.] 
 
 England now smarts under the lesson of the American War ; the 
 doctrine of imperial legislation she feels to be pernicious ; the revenues 
 and monopolies annexed to it she has found to be untenable ; she has lost 
 the power to enforce it ; her enemies are a host, pouring upon her from 
 all quarters of the earth ; her armies are dispersed ; the sea is not hers ; 
 she has no minister, no ally, no admiral, none inVhom she long confides, 
 and no general whom she has not disgraced ; the balance of her fate is in 
 the hands of Ireland ; you are not only her last connection, you are the 
 only nation in Europe that is not her enemy. Besides, there does, of late, 
 
 439 
 
490 HENRY GRATTAN 
 
 a certain damp and spurious supineness overcast her arms and councils, 
 miraculous as that vigor which has lately inspirited yours. For with you 
 everything is the reverse ; never was there a Parliament in Ireland so pos- 
 sessed of the confidence of the people ; you are the greatest political assem- 
 bly now sitting in the world ; you are at the head of an immense army — 
 nor do we only possess an unconquerable force, but a certain unquench- 
 able public fire, which has touched all ranks of men like a visitation. 
 
 Turn to the growth and spring of your country, and behold and 
 admire it. Where do you find a nation which, upon whatever concerns the 
 rights of mankind, expresses herself with more truth or force, perspicuity 
 or justice — not the set phrase of scholastic men, not the tame unreality 
 of court addresses, not the vulgar raving of a rabble, but the genuine 
 speech of liberty, and the unsophisticated oratory of a free nation ? 
 
 See her military ardor, not only in forty thousand men, conducted by 
 instinct as they were raised by inspiration, but manifested in the zeal and 
 promptitude of every young member of the growing community. Let 
 corruption tremble ; let the enemy, foreign or domestic, tremble ; but let 
 the friends of liberty rejoice at these means of safety and this hour of 
 redemption. Yes, there does exist an enlightened sense of rights, a young 
 appetite for freedom, a solid strength, and a rapid fire, which not only 
 put a declaration of right within your power, but put it out of your power 
 to decline one. Eighteen counties are at your bar ; they stand there with 
 the compact of Henry, with the character of John, and with all the pas 
 sions of the people. ** Our lives are at your service, but our liberties — 
 we received them from God ; we will not resign them to man." 
 
 I read from Lord North's proposition ; I wish to be satisfied, but 
 am controlled by a paper — I will not call it a law — it is the 6th of George 
 I. [The paper was read.] I will ask the gentlemen of the long robe : 
 Is this the law ? I ask them whether it is not practice. I appeal to the 
 judges of the land whether they are not in a course of declaring that the 
 Parliament of Great Britain, naming Ireland, binds her. I appeal to the 
 magistrates of justice whether they do not, from time to time, execute 
 certain acts of the British Parliament. I appeal to the officers of the army 
 whether they do not fine, confine, and execute their fellow subjects by 
 virtue of the Mutiny Act, an Act of the British Parliament ; and I appeal 
 to this House whether a country so circumstanced is free. Where is the 
 freedom of trade ? Where is the security of property ? Where is the 
 liberty of the people ? I here, in this Declaratory Act, see my country 
 proclaimed a slave ? I see every man itl this House enrolled a slave. I 
 see the judges of the realm, the oracles of the law, borne down by an 
 unauthorized foreign power, by the authority of the British Parliament 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 ii 
 
HENRY GRATTAN 491 
 
 against the law ! I see the magistrates prostrate, and I see Parliament 
 witness of these infringements, and silent — silent or employed to preach 
 moderation to the people, whose liberties it will not restore ! I therefore 
 say, with the voice of three million people, that, notwithstanding the 
 import of sugar, beetle-wood, and panellas, and the export of woolens and 
 kerseys, nothing is safe, satisfactory, or honorable, nothing except a 
 declaration of right. 
 
 What ! are you, with three million men at your back, with charters 
 in one hand and arms in the other, afraid to say you are a free people ? 
 . Are you, the greatest House of Commons that ever sat in Ireland, that want 
 I but this one act to equal that English House of Commons that passed the 
 ' Petition of Right, or that other that passed the Declaration of Right, — 
 , are you afraid to tell the British Parliament you are a free people ? Are 
 ! the cities and the instructing counties, which have breathed a spirit that 
 would have done honor to old Rome when Rome did honor to mankind — 
 are the}^ to be free by connivance ? Are the military associations, those 
 bodies whose origin, progress, and deportment have transcended, or equaled 
 at least, anything in modern or ancient story — is the vast line of the 
 northern army, — are they to be free by connivance ? What man will set- 
 tle among you ? Where is the use of the Naturalization Bill ? What man 
 will settle among j^ou ? Who will leave a land of liberty and a settled 
 government for a kingdom controlled by the Parliament of another coun- 
 ! try, whose liberty is a thing by stealth, whose trade a thing by permission, 
 I whose judges deny her charters, whose Parliament leaves everything at 
 1 random ; where the chance of freedom depends upon the hope that the 
 j jury shall despise the judge stating a British Act, or a rabble stop the 
 I magistrate executing it, rescue your abdicated privileges, and save the 
 , j Constitution by trampling on the Government, — by anarchy and confu- 
 ! I sion ! . . . . 
 
 I might, as a constituent, come to your bar, and demand my 
 
 liberty. I do call upon you, by the laws of the land and their violation, 
 
 j by the instruction of eighteen counties, by the arms, inspiration, and 
 
 ' providence of the present moment, to tell us the rule by which we shall 
 
 RO, — assert the law of Ireland — declare the liberty of the land. 
 
 I will not be answered by a public lie, in the shape of an amendment ; 
 neither, speaking for the subject's freedom, am I to hear of faction. I 
 wish for nothing but to breathe, in this our island, in common with my 
 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 long as the meanest cottager in Ireland has a link of the 
 British chain clanking to his rags ; he may be naked, he 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 survive him. 
 
 THE EPITAPH OF ENGLAND 
 
 [From Grattan's speeches in the British House of Commons , we offer the fol- 
 lowing brief but telling example of fervent eloquence.] 
 
 The Kingdom of Ireland, with her imperial crown, stands at your 
 Bar. She applies for the civil liberty of three-fourths of her children. 
 Will you dismiss her without a hearing ? You cannot do it ! I say you 
 cannot finally do it ! The interest of your country would not support 
 you ; the feelings of your country would not support you : it is a proceed- 
 ing that cannot long be persisted in. No courtier so devoted,, no politician 
 so hardened, no conscience so capacious ! I am not afraid of occasional 
 majorities. A majority cannot overlay a great principle. God will guard 
 His own cause against rank majorities. In vain shall men appeal to a 
 church-cry, or to a mock thunder ; the proprietor of the bolt is on the 
 side of the people. 
 
 It was the expectation of the repeal of Catholic disability which car- 
 ried the Union. Should you wish to support the minister of the crown 
 against the people of Ireland, retain the Union, and perpetuate the dis- 
 qualification, the consequence must be something more than alienation. 
 When you finally decide against the Catholic question, you abandon the 
 idea of governing Ireland by affection, and you adopt the idea of coercion 
 in its place. You are pronouncing the doom of England. If you ask 
 how the people of Ireland feel towards you, ask yourselves how you woul 
 feel towards us if we disqualified three-fourths of the people of Knglan 
 forever. The day you finally ascertain the disqualification of the Cath 
 lie, you pronounce the doom of Great Britain. It is just it should bl 
 so. The king who takes away the liberty of his subjects loses his crown ; 
 the people who take away the liberty of their fellow-subjects lose their 
 empire. The scales of your own destinies are in your own hands ; and if 
 you throw out the civil liberty of the Irish Catholic, depend on it, old 
 England will be weighed in the balance, and found wanting : you w 
 then have dug your own grave, and you may write your own epita 
 thus : — * ^England died because she taxed America^ and disqualified Ireland 
 
 I 
 
 sis: 
 
 i 
 
JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN (I750-J8J7) 
 
 THE HUMOROUS ORATOR OF THE IRISH BAR 
 
 NEVER had Ireland another legal orator like Curran. He was a 
 member of the Irish Parliament after 1783, but his career 
 — ^ there was quite eclipsed by that at the Bar. His eloquence, 
 humor and sarcasm brought him an extensive practice. In cross- 
 examination he was inimitable ; *' he argued, he cajoled, he ridiculed, 
 i he mimicked, he played off the various artillery of his talent upon the 
 witness," Charles Philips says. " There never lived a greater advo- 
 cate ; certainly never one more suited to the country in which his lot 
 was cast. His eloquence was copious, rapid and ornate, and his power 
 of mimicry beyond all description." He began his career with a 
 defect in speech, the school-boys calling him " Stuttering Jack Cur- 
 j ran." Like Demosthenes, he overcame this by earnest effort, practic- 
 I ing before a glass, declaiming celebrated orations and other means. 
 I Antony's oration over the dead body of Csesar was his favorite model 
 
 of eloquence. 
 ! THE PENSION SYSTEM 
 
 [As an example of Curran's sarcasm, we append a brief extract from his remark's 
 in I780 on the Pension System.] 
 
 This polyglot of wealth, this museum of curiosities, the Pension lyist, 
 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 hurableth herself that she may be 
 exalted. But 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 
 
 493 
 
494 JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN 
 
 continually for food. It teaches them to imitate those saints on the Pen- 
 sion lyist 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 lesson, which, indeed, they might have learned from Kpictetus, 
 that it is sometimes good not to be over-virtuous ; 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 royal mantle is extended 
 
 over us. 
 
 THE MARCH OF THE MIND 
 
 [From a speech in the Irish Parliament in 1796 we choose the following brief 
 extract, in which Curran replaces satire and humor by eloquence, and strikingly 
 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 that privilege ? Are we seri- 
 ously afraid that Catholic venality might pollute 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 ought 
 to be content. Why have they got that much ? Is it from the minister ?1 
 Is it from the Parliament which threw their petition over its Bar ? No ! 
 they got it by the great revolution of human afiairs ; 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 oi 
 men ; she is already under way ; the rower may faint, or the wind may 
 sleep, but, rely upon it, she has already acquired an energj^ of advance- 
 ment that will support her course and bring her to her destination ; rely 
 upon it, whether much or little remains, it is now vain to withhold it; 
 rely upon it, you may as well stamp your foot upon the earth, in order to 
 prevent its revolution. You cannot stop it ! You will only remain a silM 
 gnomon upon its surface, to measure the rapidity of rotation, until yott 
 are forced round and buried in the shade of that body whose irresistible 
 course you would endeavor to oppose ! 
 
 THE EVIDENCE OF MR. O'BRIEN 
 
 [The following is an example of Curran 's method of presenting the evidence of 
 a witness to a jury.] 
 
JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN 495 
 
 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? Poor, 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 at him ; but mark the metamor- 
 phosis — well may it be 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 
 life! 
 
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN (I75I-J8t6 
 
 THE CELEBRATED ORATOR AND DRAMATIST 
 
 i 
 
 n 
 
 i 
 
 UBLIN has the honor of being the birthplace of two of Great 
 Britain's most famous orators — Edmund Burke and Richard 
 Brinsley Sheridan, though both of them spent their lives 
 and won their fame in England. Sheridan was a man of double, or 
 triple, powers ; the greatest of modern English dramatists ; a wit of 
 the first 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 
 greater mistake. He might have graduated with a splendid record,' 
 if he had chosen to study. 
 
 Sheridan first showed his powers in the drama. The " Rivals/j 
 first played in 1775, soon became very popular. 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 powers as a wit, it scintillating with witty sayings from end 
 to end. His reputation 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 impeachment, 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 follow 
 extract gives an excellent idea of his powers. It is a fine example of ironical ora 
 ending with an earnest appeal to the principles of honor and virtue.] 
 496 
 
 wi^« 
 
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 497 
 
 I trust your Lordships will not believe that, because something is 
 necessary to retrieve the British character, we call for an example to be 
 made without due and solid proof of the guilt of the person whom we 
 pursue : — no, my Lords, we know well that it is the glory of this Consti- 
 tution, that not the general fame or character of any man ; not the weight 
 or power of any prosecutor ; no plea of moral or political 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 hair of the head, or an atom, 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. Hastings, 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 difl&culties, 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 innocence." 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- 
 ings 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. 
 82 
 
498 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 in 
 your Lordships' minds as a subject of wonder : how a person of Mr. Hast- 
 (ings' reputed abilities can furnish such matter of accusation against him- 
 self. He knows that truth must convict him, and concludes a co7iverso, 
 that falsehood will acquit him ; forgetting that there must be some connec- 
 tion, some system, some co-operation, or, otherwise, his host of falsities 
 fall without an enemy, self-discomfited and destroyed. But of this he I 
 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 position, and watch whether they are likely to be 
 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 be more seriously accounted 
 for ; because I am sure it has been a sort of paradox, which must have 
 struck 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 grain, 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 
 or unprejudiced reason there is no need to resort 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 every 
 passion that inhabits it. 
 
 An honorable friend of mine, who is now, I believe, near me, has 
 told you that Prudence, the first of virtues, never can be used in the cause 
 of vice. But I should doubt whether we can read the history of a Philip 
 of Macedon, a Caesar, or a Cromwell, without confessing that there have 
 
 I 
 
 li 
 
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 499 
 
 been evil purposes, baneful to the peace and to the rights of men, con- 
 ducted — if I may not say, with 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, domineering in 
 the breast, may win the faculties of the understanding to advance its 
 purpose, and to direct to that object everything that thought or human 
 knowledge can effect ; but, to succeed, it must maintain a solitary despot- 
 ism in the mind — each rival profligacy must stand aloof, or wait in abject 
 vassalage upon its throne. 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 
 hate 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 L,ords, 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 
 their testimonies, from the mouth of God himself, to the foul condition of 
 the heart. 
 
WILLIAM WILBERFORCE (17594833) 
 
 THE SLAVE'S ELOQUENT ADVOCATE 
 
 OF William Wilberforce it has been said : ** With talents of the 
 highest order, and eloquence surpassed by few, he entered upon 
 ' public life possessed of the best personal connections in his 
 intimate friendship with Mr. Pitt." Entering Parliament in 1780, his 
 first movement toward the suppression of the slave-trade was taken in 
 1787, in conjunction with Thomas Clarkson and several others. From 
 that time forward the abolition of slavery was the great object in Wil- 
 berforce's life. His bills defeated again and again, and bitter opposi- 
 tion to his purpose shown, he unyieldingly persisted, and at length, 
 in 1807, had the satisfaction of seeing his bill passed in the House of 
 Commons with a great majority. He had gradually educated the 
 House and the nation to that point. About 1818 he began to agitate 
 for the emancipation of the slaves in the British West Indies. This 
 he followed up in his old, inflexible manner, till the day of his death, 
 his bill for the abolition of slavery passing its second reading only 
 three days before the demise of its great projector. 
 
 ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE-TRADE 
 
 I 
 
 [From one of Wilberforce 's many speeches on the subject of his most earnest 
 attention, we select a brief passage in illustration of his style of oratory and the char- 
 acter of his appeals to his fellow-members.] 
 
 I cannot but persuade myself that, whatever difference of opinion 
 there may have been, we shall this day be at length unanimous. I can- 
 not believe that a British House of Commons will give its sanction to the 
 continuance of this infernal traffic, the African slave-trade. We were for 
 a while ignorant of its real nature ; but it has now been complet 
 developed, and laid open to view in all its horrors. Never was th 
 500 
 
 ifor 
 
 1 
 
ROBERT PEEL 
 
 England's greatest orator of the first half of the igth Century, 
 and very popular on account of his great opposition to the 
 " Corn Laws" by which the poor were oppressed. 
 
WILLIAM WILBERFORCE 501 
 
 indeed, a system so big with wickedness and cruelty ; it attains to the 
 fullest measure of pure, unmixed, unsophisticated wickedness ; and, scorn- 
 ing all competition and comparison, it stands without a rival in the secure, 
 undisputed possession of its detestable pre-eminence. 
 
 But I rejoice, sir, to see that the people of Great Britain have stepped 
 forward on this occasion and expressed their sense more generally and 
 unequivocally than in any instance wherein they have ever before interfered. 
 I should in vain attempt to express to you the satisfaction with which it has 
 filled my mind to see so great and glorious a concurrence, to see this great 
 cause triumphing over all lesser distinctions, and substituting cordiality 
 and harmony in the place of distrust and opposition. Nor have its effects 
 amongst ourselves been in this respect less distinguished or less honor- 
 able. It has raised the character of Parliament. Whatever may have, 
 been thought or said concerning the unrestrained prevalency of our politi- 
 cal divisions, it has taught surrounding nations, it has taught our admir- 
 ing country, that there are subjects still beyond the reach of party. There 
 is a point of elevation where we get above the jarring of the discordant 
 elements that ruffle and agitate the vale below. In our ordinary atmos- 
 phere, clouds and vapors obscure the air, and we are the sport of a thou- 
 sand conflicting winds and adverse currents ; but here we move in a 
 higher region, where all is pure, and clear, and serene, free from perturba- 
 tion and discomposure — 
 
 "As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form. 
 Swells from the vale and midway leaves the storm ; 
 Tho' round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
 Eternal sunshine settles on its head. ' ' 
 
 Here, then, on this august eminence, let us build the temple of 
 benevolence; let us lay its foundation deep in truth and justice, and let 
 the inscription on its gates be, ''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. I,et us heal the breaches we have made. I^et us 
 rejoice in becoming the happy instruments of arresting the progress of 
 rapine and desolation, and of introducing 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 (1 759-1 806) 
 
 NAPOLEON'S GREAT ADVERSARY 
 
 mN 'William Pitt, the younger, we possess an example of which 
 there are few instances in history, that of a great orator inherit- 
 ing his power from a father famous in the same field. The 
 fame of the younger Pitt equals, though it does not eclipse, that of 
 his father, the celebrated Lord Chatham. They could, indeed, scarcely 
 be spoken of as rivals, their style of oratory being radically different. 
 ** Viewing the forms of the two Pitts, father and son,^' says a bio- 
 graphical writer, " as they stand in history, what different 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, compelled into the dimensions of an English minister." 
 Brougham ranks the younger Pitt with the world's great orators, 
 crediting him, while possessing little ornament in rhetoric, variety in 
 style or grace in manner, with unbroken fluency and fine declama- 
 tion, by 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 been a 
 consummate debater, and almost unequaled in sarcasm, yet, as 
 Brougham says, '' The last effect of the highest eloquence was for the 
 most part wanting; we seldom forgot the speaker or lost the artist in. 
 his work.^' 
 
 THE PERIL FROM FRANCE 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 [The occasion which called forth the oratory of the younger Pitt was the 
 excesses of the French Revolution, with the military triumphs of Napoleon that fol- 
 lowed, and his strong and often unscrupulous measures for weakening the opposition 
 of the hostile States. Against this Pitt fought with all his strength while his life 
 lasted. The example of his oratory given is from his speech of June 7, 1799, on the 
 question of granting a subsidy to the Russian army, ' ' for the deliverance of 
 Evirope."] 
 
 602 
 
 i 
 
WILLIAM PITT 603 
 
 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 efforts of our allies, we could only look for peace with 
 any prospect of realizing our hopes, whatever 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 our independence, in the virtue and persever- 
 ance of the people. 
 
 There is a high-spirited 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 pledges of general safety, 
 and of that security against an aggressing usurpation, which other nations 
 in their weakness or in their folly have yet nowhere found. With respect 
 to that which appears so much to embarrass certain gentlemen, — the 
 deliverance of Europe, — I will not say particularly what it is. Whether 
 it is to be its deliverance under that which it suffers, or that from which 
 it is in danger ; whether from the infection of false 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 spite of all opposition, prevail in the contest ; — from 
 whichsoever of these Kurope is to be delivered, it will not be 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 of 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 regarded with a horror 
 which appals men in their approaches to its impious battlements. . . 
 
 In the application of this principle I have no doubt but the hon- 
 < lable gentleman admits the security of the country to be the legitimate 
 
604 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 consider 
 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 peac 
 as shall at once restore to Europe her settled and balanced constitution o 
 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. St^ch 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 th« 
 stream of French sophistry, and prejudiced by her falsehood, I am sure 
 they will approve of the determination I have avowed for those grave 
 and mature reasons on which I found it. I earnestly pray that all thejl 
 Powers engaged in the contest may think as I do, and particularly the 
 Kmperor 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. 
 
 f 
 
ROBERT EMMET (J 780-1 803) 
 
 THE ELOQUENT MARTYR TO IRISH LIBERTY 
 
 |OBERT EMMET, as an orator, was practically ''a man of one 
 speech/' but that was a great speech, an extraordinary effort 
 for a man of only twenty-three years of age. He was fighting 
 for his life and his country, two causes abundantly well calculated to 
 rouse a man to the supreme exercise of his faculties, and as a master- 
 piece of extemporaneous eloquence this impassioned speech has no 
 superior in any language. Emmets was one of the chiefs of the 
 '' United Irishmen.'^ Inspired by the misguided fervor of youth, 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 opportunity 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 executed the next day. 
 
 A PATRIOT'S PLEA 
 
 [After the verdict of guilty was rendered, Emmei was asked, in the usual 
 fomi, " What have you, therefore, now 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 
 "1 predetermination, 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 
 
506 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 you 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 your 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 the sentence of the Court, or in the catastrophe, 
 posterity must determine. A man in my situation, my Lords, has not 
 only to encounter the difficulties of fortune, and the force of power over 
 minds which it has corrupted or subjugated, but the diflSculties of estab- 
 lished prejudice. The man dies, but his memory 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 
 against me. When my spirit shall be wafted to a more friendly port ; 
 when 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 and 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 man 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 believes 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, and 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 
 
 I 
 
ROBERT EMMET 507 
 
 and chimerical as it may appear, there is still union and strength in Ireland 
 to accomplish this noblest enterprise. Of this I speak with the confidence 
 of intimate knowledge, and with the consolation that 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 
 falsehood on a subject so important to his country, 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 
 of envy, nor a pretence to impeach the probity which he means to preserve 
 even in the grave to which tyranny consigns him. 
 
 [In the succeeding part of his speech Emmet' \vas severe in his arraignment of 
 the British Government, and was frequently interrupted by Lord Norbury, whose 
 remarks he answered with fervent indignation. He concluded with the following 
 words :] 
 
 I have been charged with that importance, in the efforts to emancipate 
 my country, 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. You 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 virtues 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 enthusiasm 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 ! 
 
 [This 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 
 38 follows :] 
 
>r 
 
 I 
 
 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 I would have fought upon the threshol 
 of my country, and its enemy should enter only by ["passing over m 
 lifeless corpse. And am I, who lived but for my country — who have sub 
 jected 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 that his principles were treasonable, 
 that his father would not have countenanced such sentiments, that his language was 
 unbecoming, to which Emmet replied with feeling :] 
 
 If the spirits of the illuGtrious dead participate in the concerns and 
 cares of those who were dear to them in this transitory 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 i 
 offer up my life ! ' 
 
 My Lords, you seem impatient for the sacrifice. The blood for 
 which you thirst 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 more 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 now 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^ 
 
 Orators of the Victorian Reign 
 
 GREATEST of all the centuries in several 
 prominent respects of human progress was 
 the nineteenth. Greatest in science, greatest 
 in invention, greatest in industrial evolution, it was, 
 while not greatest in oratory, a great field for the 
 outpouring of eloquence. And this was coupled 
 with the fact that the art of stenography had so 
 advanced that the preservation of the spoken words 
 of the orator became an easy feat. In former centu- 
 ries only those orators who carefully wrote out their 
 speeches, and published them as literature, could 
 count upon their transmission to posterity. The 
 impromptu and extempore speaker 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 speeches written by historians and 
 attributed 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 mediaeval 
 times must have been large, but the difficulty of pre- 
 serving it had been fully overcome by the nineteenth 
 century, and there are more speeches put upon 
 permanent record now in a year than there were in 
 centuries of the past. The century in question has 
 been prolific in British orators of fine powers, those 
 of supreme eloquence being fewer, indeed, than those 
 of the preceding century, yet such names as those 
 of Gladstone, Bright, Brougham, O' Connelland some 
 others give a high standing to the oratory of the 
 Victorian age. 
 
 509 
 
GEORGE CANNING (J 7704 827) 
 
 A DISTINGUISHED ENGLISH ORATOR AND WIT 
 
 QANNING'S distinction as a wit was due to his contributions 
 the '^ Anti- Jacobin/' a famous series of political satires, issue 
 weekly, which some eminent critics consider one of the wittie 
 books in the language. Canning's best known contribution to it is 
 " The Needy Knife-grinder,'' one of his happiest efforts. As a broad- 
 minded legislator he is best known through his able administration of 
 the office of Secretary for Foreign Affiiirs, in the Castlereagh Cabinet, 
 from 1822 to 1827. Under him Great Britain stood out against the 
 "Holy Alliance" of the despots of Europe and favored the American 
 "Monroe Doctrine'"; the independence of the South American 
 Republics was recognized ; Catholic emancipation was aided, and 
 other important reform and diplomatic movements were carried out. 
 Canning, entering Parliament in 1794, won a reputation in 1798 
 by his speeches against the slave-trade and the effort to make peace 
 with the French Directory. He was an earnest supporter of Pitt in 
 his hostility to Napoleon, and a member of his cabinet and of the suc- 
 ceeding Portland cabinet, in which he planned the seizure of the 
 Danish fleet, which did so much to check the schemes of Napoleon. 
 His oratory was marked by acuteness, wit and picturesque expression. 
 and as a debater he was very forcible. 1 
 
 IN REPOSE YET IN READINESS 
 [In Canning's address at Plymouth in 1823, when presented with the freedom 
 of the town, occurs the happy comparison of a fleet at rest yet ready for action to £ 
 nation in repose, which has been admired as his happiest oratorical hit. We give thfi' 
 part of his speech which includes this comparison.] 
 
 Our ultimate object must be the peace of the world. That objeci 
 may sometimes be best attained by prompt exertions ; sometimes by absti 
 nence from interposition in contests which we cannot prevent. It is upor 
 510 
 
GEORGE CANNING 511 
 
 these principles that, as has been most truly observed by my worthy 
 friend, it did not appear to the government of this country to be necessary . 
 that Great Britain should mingle in the recent contest between France, 
 and Spain. 
 
 Your worthy Recorder has accurately classed the persons who would 
 have driven us into that contest » There were undoubtedly among them 
 those who desired to plunge this country into the difficulties of war, partly 
 from the hope that those difficulties would overwhelm the administration ; 
 but it would be most unjust not to admit that there were others who were 
 actuated by nobler principles and more generous feelings, who would have 
 rushed forward at once from the sense of indignation at aggression, and who 
 deemed that no act of injustice could be perpetuated from one end of the 
 universe to the other but that the sword of Great Britain should leap from 
 its scabbard to avenge it. But as it is the province of law to control the 
 excess even of laudable passions and propensities in individuals, so it is 
 the duty of Government to restrain within due bounds the ebullition of 
 national sentiment and to regulate the course and direction of impulses 
 which it cannot blame. Is there any one among the latter class of per- 
 sons described by my honorable friend (for to the former I have nothing 
 to say) who continues to doubt whether the Government did wisely in 
 declining to obey the precipitate enthusiasm which prevailed at the com- 
 mencement of the contest in Spain ? Is there anybo'dy who does not now 
 think that it was the office of the Government to examine more closely 
 all the various bearings of so complicated a question ; to consider whether 
 they were called nipon to assist a united nation, or to plunge themselves 
 into the internal feuds by which that nation was divided ; to aid in repel- 
 ling a foreign invader, or to take part in a civil war ? Is there any man 
 who does 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 enterprise would have 
 been one to be characterized only by a term borrowed from that part of 
 . Ithe Spanish literature with which we are most familiar — Quixotic ; an 
 Ijenterprise romantic in its origin, and thankless in the end ? 
 f\ But while we thus control even our feelings by our duty, let it not be 
 ' -said that we cultivate peace either because we fear, or because we are 
 unprepared for, war ; on the contrary, if eight months ago the Government 
 did not hesitate to proclaim that the country was prepared for war, if war 
 should be unfortunately necessary, every month of peace that has since 
 passed has but made us so much the more capable of exertion. The 
 ' jresources created by peace are means of war. In cherishing those 
 resources, we but accumulate those means. Our present repose is no 
 
512 
 
 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 that 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, td 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 diff"used 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 witl 
 which you have honored me, through his hands, formed a part, thai 
 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 ai 
 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. 
 
 1 
 
SYDNEY SMITH (J77J4845) 
 
 ENGLAND'S FAMOUS ORATOR OF HUMOR 
 
 mHE fact that he was in holy orders was not enough to check 
 Sydney Smith's irresistible tendency to wit and humor, which 
 broke out on every occasion, and some of his amusing sayings 
 seem destined to remain among the bright small-coin of the world 
 for ages to come. He could be serious enough, indeed, when need 
 demanded, but it was no easy matter for him to talk long without 
 some witticism cropping out. A friend of Jeffreys and Brougham, 
 he joined with them in the enterprise of publishing the Endinburgh 
 Review, of which he was the first editor, and to which he contributed 
 for years. Among his contributions to the cause of reform was his 
 anonymous work entitled, '' Letters on the Subject of the Catholics to 
 My Brother Abraham, by Peter Plymley." This had a very large 
 circulation, and greatly promoted the cause of Catholic emancipation. 
 In fact, Smith was a man of large and liberal mind, and not one to 
 be governed by partisan prejudice. 
 
 THE OPPONENTS OF REFORM 
 
 [Smith was not alone a wit and essayist, and a famous conversationalist, but he 
 was an orator as well, and this not only in the pulpit, but on secular subjects. His 
 finest effort in this direction was his famous address at Taunton on the Reform Bill, 
 October 12, 1831. This is especially notable for the inimitable Mrs. Partington illus- 
 tration, which stands among the world's finest examples of the humorous anecdote.] 
 
 Mr. BaiIvIFF : I have spoken so often on this subject, that I am sure 
 both you and the gentlemen here present will be obliged to me for saying 
 but little, and that favor I am as willing to confer as you can be to receive 
 it. I feel most deeply the event which has taken place, because, by put- 
 ting the two houses of Parliament in collision with each other, it will 
 impede the public business and diminish the public prosperity. I feel it 
 as a churchman, because I cannot but blush to see so many dignitaries of 
 33 513 
 
614 SYDNEY SMITH 
 
 
 the Church arrayed against the wishes and happiness of the people, 
 feel it more than all, because I believe it will sow the seed of deadly hatred 
 between the aristocracy and the great mass of the people. The loss oj' 
 the bill I do not feel, and for the best of all possible reasons — because I 
 have not the slightest idea that it is lost. I have no more doubt, before 
 the expiration of the winter, that this bill will pass, than I have that the 
 annual tax bills will pass ; and greater certainty than this no man can have, 
 for Franklin tells us there are but two things certain in this world — death 
 and taxes. As for the possibility of the House of Lords preventing ere 
 long a reform of Parliament, I hold it to be the most absurd notion that 
 ever entered into human imagination. 
 
 I do not mean to be disrespectful, but the attempt of the lords to stop 
 the progress of reform reminds me very forcibly of the great storm of 
 Sidmouth, and of the conduct of the excellent Mrs. Partington on that 
 occasion. In the winter of 1824, there set in a great flood upon that 
 town ; the tide rose to an incredible height ; the waves rushed in upon 
 the houses, and everything was threatened with destruction. In thei| 
 midst of this sublime and terrible storm, Dame Partington, who lived 
 upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with mop and pattens? 
 trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea- water, and vigorously pushing, 
 away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused. Mrs. Partington'} 
 spirit was up ; but I need not tell you that the contest was unequal. Th(,' 
 Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington. She was excellent at a slop or { 
 puddle, but she should not have meddled with a tempest. Gentlemen, hif 
 at your ease — be quiet and steady. You will beat Mrs. Partington, j 
 
 They tell you, gentlemen, in the debates by which we have bee»| 
 lately occupied, that the bill is not justified by experience. I do no, 
 think this true, but if it were true, nations are sometimes compelle«ii 
 to act without experience for their guide, and to trust to their owi^j 
 sagacity for the anticipation of consequences. The instances where thi' 
 country has been compelled thus to act have been so eminently successful! 
 that I see no cause for fear, even if we were acting in the manner impute) i 
 to us by our enemies. What precedents and what experience were ther 
 at the Reformation, when the country, with one unanimous effort, pushe' I 
 out the pope and his grasping and ambitious clergy ? What experience \ a 
 when, at the Revolution, we drove away our ancient race of kings, ani 
 chose another family more congenial to our free principles ? And yet t; - 
 those two events, contrary to experience, and unguided by precedents, w : 
 owe all our domestic happiness and civil and religious freedom — and ha\i 1 
 ing got rid of corrupt priests and despotic kings by our sense and on: 
 courage, are we now to be intimidated by the awful danger of extinguishin 
 
 11 
 
SYDNEY SMITH 615 
 
 lioroughmongers, and shaking from our necks the ignominious yoke 
 which their baseness has imposed upon us ! 
 
 Go on, they say, as you have done for these hundred years last past. 
 I luiswer, it is impossible — five hundred people now write and read where 
 one hundred wrote and read fifty years ago. The iniquities and the enor- 
 mities of the borough system are now known to the meanest of the peo- 
 ple. You have a diiferent sort of men to deal with : you must change 
 l)ecause the beings whom you govern are changed. After all, and to be 
 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 suifering ourselves to be bought and sold every five years like a pack 
 of negro slaves. I hope I am not a very rash man, but I would launch 
 boldly into this experiment without any fear of consequences, and I 
 believe there is not a man here present who would not cheerfully embark 
 with me. As to. the enemies of the bill, who pretend to be reformers, I 
 know them, I believe, better than you do, and I earnestly caution you 
 ngainst 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 not believe in the improvement you have made ; 
 they think the English of 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 
 jtnost serious concern, and I believe they will one day or another waken 
 into conviction with horror and dismay. 
 
 [The iniquitous borough system of England, which had no excuse but custom 
 111(1 antiquity for its absurdities, was further satirized by Smith in the following lud- 
 oious comparison.] 
 
 They tell you, gentlemen, that you have grown rich and powerful 
 vith these rotten boroughs, and that it would be madness to part with 
 hem, or to alter a constitution which had produced such happy effects, 
 ["here happens, gentlemen, to live near my parsonage a laboring man of 
 ^ery superior character and understanding to his fellow-laborers, and who 
 las made such good use of that superiority that he has saved what is — for 
 Us station in life — a very considerable sum of money, and if his existence 
 ^ extended to the common period he will die rich. It happens, however, 
 bat he is — and long has been — troubled with violent stomachic pains, for 
 > yhich he has hitherto obtained no relief, and which really are the bane 
 |nd torment of his life. Now, if my excellent laborer were to send for a 
 I'hysician and to conjiult him respecting this malady, would it not be very 
 
616 SYDNEY SMITH 
 
 singular language if our doctor were to say to him : "My good friend, you 
 surely will not be so rash as to attempt to get rid of these pains in your 
 stomach. Have you not grown rich with these pains in your 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 the 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 times, and is Hkely to be quoted many 
 thousand times more. Here is one of its thousand presentations to the reading 
 public. 1 
 
 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 covers 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 ;Kaxes on the raw material ; taxes on every i 
 fresh value that is added to it by the industry of men ; taxes on the sauce | 
 which pampers man's appetite, and the drug which restores him to health ; 
 on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the | 
 criminal ; on the poor man's salt, and the rich man's spice ;Von the brass i 
 nails of the coffin, and the ribbons of the bride ; — at bed- or board, couch- j 
 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, pouring his medicine, which has paid 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 hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole 
 property is then immediately taxed from two to ten per cent. Besides the 
 probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel ; his vir- 
 tues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble ; and he is then gaUi- 
 ered to his fathers, — to be taxed no more. 
 
JAMES FOX DELIVERING HIS GREAT SPEECH 
 
 In 1774 this Famous Orator delivered an eloquent speech in Par- 
 liament advising concihatory measures towards the colonies. 
 This illustration portrays the scene. 
 
EDMUND BURKE AT HASTINGS' TRIAL 
 I The trial of Warren Hastings for misrule in India brought forth 
 r*[ many eloquent orators, of whom Burke was the foremost. 
 
DANIEL O^CONNELL (J 775-1 847) 
 
 THE HRST ORATOR OF EUROPE 
 
 I T It is to John Randolph that O'Connell owes the title of " The 
 I X I ^i^s^ Orator of Europe/' which we have affixed to his name. 
 It was as " The Liberator '^ that he was known at home, as a 
 tribute to his strenuous efforts to free Ireland from the supremacy of 
 1 jiglish rule. The history of the great agitator we must deal with 
 \"ery briefly. A native of County Kerry, he studied law and was 
 called to the Irish bar in 1798, and for twenty-two years enjoyed an 
 ( uormous practice in the Munster circuit. During this time he was a 
 \ehement advocate of the rights of the Catholics. Catholic emanci- 
 pation came in 1828, and he entered Parliament in 1830, where he 
 agitated for the repeal of the Union of Ireland with Great Britain, and 
 lor ten years and more stirred up the members by his wit, irony, vehe- 
 mence and invective. Yet he kept the Irish from violent outbreaks 
 until 1843, when the Young Ireland party threatened to break loose 
 iVom his dictation. He now traversed Ireland in an agitation for 
 repeal, monster meetings being held — that on the Hill of Tara, on 
 August 15th, numbering three-quarters of a million. Asa result he 
 was arrested on a charge of conspiracy to raise sedition, and sentenced 
 to fine and imprisonment — lying three months in prison before his 
 release by the House of Lords. With this began the breakdown of 
 his health and great strength, he dying in 1847 while on his way to 
 Home. 
 
 As an orator O'Connell was gifted with remarkable natural pow- 
 ers. Disraeli, one of his active opponents, says that " his voice was 
 the finest ever heard in Parliament, distinct, deep, sonorous, and flex- 
 il)le." While often slovenly in style, his powers of moving an audi- 
 ence — an Irish audience in particular — was irresistible. In the great 
 
 617 
 
618 DANIEL O'CONNELL 
 
 struggle of his life, that for the rights of Ireland, he was one of the 
 most effective popular leaders of modern times. As examples of his 
 bitterness in epithet may be given his comparison of the smile of 
 Sir Robert 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 upon the cross." 
 
 THE CHARMS OF KILDARE 
 
 [The following extract is from a speech of O' Conn ell at MuUaghmast, County 
 Kildare, in September, 1843, during the campaign of agitation for Repeal of the Union.] 
 
 I wish to live long enough to have perfect justice administered to 
 Ireland and liberty proclaimed throughout the land. It will take me some 
 time to prepare my plan for the formation of the new Irish House of 
 Commons ; that plan which we will yet submit to her Majesty for her 
 approval, when she gets rid of her present paltry Administration and has 
 one which I can support .... 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 under heaven, and that is for the 
 liberty and prosperity of Ireland. I am for leaving England to the Eng- 
 lish, Scotland to the Scotch, but we must have 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 magistrates, and we will give some of the 
 s/ioneens who now occupy the bench leave to retire, such as those lately 
 appointed by Sugden. He is a pretty boy, sent here from England ; but 
 I ask, did you ever hear such a name as he has got ? I remember, in 
 Wexford, a man told me he had 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 for this 
 purpose we are assembled here to-day, as every countenance I see around \ 
 me testifies. If 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 friends, the Union was begot in iniquity, it was perpetuated ; 
 in fraud and cruelty. It was no compact, no bargain, but it was an act 1 
 of the most decided tyranny 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 ig 
 
DANIEL O'CONNELL 519 
 
 1798 there were some brave men, some valiant men, at head of the people 
 at large ; but there were many traitors, who left the people in the power 
 of their enemies. The Curragh of Kildare afforded an instance of the 
 fate which Irishmen were to expect, who confided in their Saxon enemies. 
 Oh, it was an ill-organized, a premature, a foolish, and an absurd insur- 
 rection ; but you have a leader now who never will allow you to commit 
 any act so foolish or so destructive. 
 
 How delighted do I feel with the thorough conviction which has 
 come over the minds of the people, that they could not gratify your ene- 
 mies more than by committing a crime. No ; our ancestors suffered for 
 confiding in the English, but we never will confide in them. They suf- 
 fered for being divided among themselves. There is no division among 
 us. They suffered for their own dissensions — for not standing man to man 
 by each other's side. We shall stand peaceably side by side in the face of 
 every enemy. Oh, how delighted was I in the scenes which I witnessed 
 as I came along here to-day ! How my heart throbbed, how my spirit 
 was elevated, how my bosom swelled with delight at the multitude which 
 I beheld, and which I shall behold, of the stalwart and strong men of 
 Kildare ! I was delighted at the activity and force that I saw around 
 me ; and my old heart grew warm again in admiring the beauty of the 
 dark- eyed maids and matrons of Kildare. Oh, there is a starlight spark- 
 ling from the eye of a Kildare beauty, that is scarcely equaled, and could 
 not be excelled, all over the world. And remember that you are the sons, 
 the fathers, the brothers, and the husbands of such women, and a traitor 
 or a coward could never be connected with any of them. 
 
 Yes, I am in a county remarkable in the history of Ireland for its 
 
 bravery and its misfortune, for its credulity in the faith of others, for its 
 
 people judged of the Saxon by the honesty and honor of its own natures. 
 
 I am in a country celebrated for the sacredness of its shrines and fanes. 
 
 I am in a country where the lamp of Kildare 's holy shrine burned with 
 
 its sacred fire, through ages of darkness and storm ; that fire which for 
 
 six centuries burned before the high altar without being extinguished, 
 
 ! being fed continuously, without the slightest interruption ; and it seemed 
 
 I to me to have been not an inapt representation of the continuous fidelity 
 
 ; and religious love of country of the men of Kildare. Yes, you have those 
 
 ' high qualities — religious fidelity, continuous love of country. Even your 
 
 ! enemies admit that the world has never produced any people that exceeded 
 
 I the Irish in activity and strength. The Scottish philosopher has declared, 
 
 and the French philosopher has confirmed it, that number one in the 
 
 I human race is, blessed be Heaven ! the Irishman. In moral virtue, in 
 
 I religion, in perseverance, and in glorious temperance, you excel. Have 
 
520 DANIEL O'CONNELL 
 
 I any teetotalers here ? Yes, it is teetotalism that is repealing the 
 Union. I could not afford to bring you together, I would not dare to 
 bring you together, but that I had the teetotalers for my police. 
 
 Yes, among the nations of the earth, Ireland stands number one in 
 the physical strength of her sons and in the beauty and purity of heff 
 daughters. Ireland, land of my forefathers, how my mind expands, and 
 my spirit walks abroad in something of majesty, when I contemplate the 
 high qualities, inestimable virtues, and true purity and piety and religious 
 fidelity of the inhabitants of our green fields and productive mountains. 
 Oh, what a scene surrounds us ! It is not only the countless thousands 
 of brave and active and peaceable and religious men that are here assem- 
 bled, but Nature herself has written her character with the finest beauty 
 in the verdant plains that surround us. Let any man run round the hori- 
 zon with his eye, and tell me if created Nature ever produced anything 
 so green and so lovely, so undulating, so teeming with production. The 
 richest harvests that any land can produce are those reaped in Ireland ; 
 and then here are the sweetest meadows, the greenest fields, the loftiest 
 mountains, the purest streams, the noblest rivers, the most capacious har- 
 bors, and her water-power is equal to turn the machinery of the whole 
 world. 
 
 Oh, my friends, it is a country v/orth fighting for ; it is a countr^ 
 worth dying for ; but above all, it is a country worth being tranqui! 
 determined, submissive, and docile for ; disciplined as you are in obedi 
 ence to those who are breaking the way, and trampling down the barriers 
 between you and your constitutional liberty, I will see every man of you 
 having a vote, and every man protected by the ballot from the agent or 
 landlord. I will see labor protected, and every title to possession recog- 
 nized, when you are industrious and honest. I will see prosperity again |! 
 throughout your land ; the busy hum of the shuttle and the tinkling of n 
 the smithy shall be heard again. We shall see the nailer employed even P 
 until the middle of the night, and the carpenter covering himself with his j 
 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 thj 
 evening sun set amongst the uplifted hands of a religious and frei 
 population. Every blessing that man can bestow and religion can confar 
 upon the faithful heart shall spread throughout the land. Stand by me-^' jj c 
 join with me — I will say be obedient to me, and Ireland shall be free. I' 1 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
LORD HENRY BROUGHAM (1779-1868) 
 
 THE CHAMPION OF POPULAR LIBERTIES 
 
 mHE active career of Brougham covered the period between the 
 age of the oratory of the French Revolutionary excitement and 
 that of Gladstone and Disraeli, beginning with opposition to 
 the policy of Pitt and extending to the French Revolution of 1848, of 
 which he so highly approved that he wished he were naturalized as a 
 French citizen. In his day he was the greatest of Liberal orators, a 
 man eminent in passionate invective and vehemence of declamation. 
 It was as a commoner he was great, a man of the people, and the 
 acceptance of a title in 1830 robbed him of much of his strength. 
 A native of Edinburgh, and early distinguished for his learning 
 and versatility, he was one of the founders of the Edinburgh Remew 
 and of its leading early contributors. Choosing the law as his profes- 
 sion, he had won fame as a forensic orator before he entered Parlia- 
 ment in 1810. Here he soon reached the front rank as a debater. 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL PERIL OF WAR WITH AMERICA 
 
 [In the election canvass of 1812 Brougham was a candidate for Parliament, and 
 did not hesitate to denounce in vigorous language the governmental policy of war 
 with America, and also to hold Pitt very severely to account for the miseries arising 
 from the war with France. The selection given from his speech at Liverpool during 
 this campaign is an excellent example of his vigor and vehemence.] 
 
 I trust myself once more in your faithful hands ; I fling myself again 
 on you for protection ; I call aloud to you to bear your own cause in your 
 hearts ; I implore of you to come forth in your own defense, for the sake 
 of this vast town and its people, for the salvation of the middle and lower 
 orders, for the whole industrial part of the whole country ; I entreat you 
 by your love of peace, by your hatred of oppression, by your weariness of 
 
 521 
 
522 LORD HENRY BROUGHAM 
 
 burthensome and useless taxation, by yet another appeal to whicb those 
 must lend an ear who have been deaf to all the rest ; I ask it for your 
 families, for your infants, if you would avoid such a winter of horrors as 
 the last. It is coming fast upon us ; already it is near at hand ; yet a few 
 more weeks and we may be in the midst of those unspeakable miseries, 
 the recollection of which now rends your very souls. If there is one free- 
 man amongst this immense multitude who has not tendered his voice, and 
 if he can be deaf to this appeal, if he can suffer the threats of our antag- 
 onists to frighten him away from the recollection of the last dismal winter, 
 that man will not vote for me. But if I have the happiness of addressing 
 one honest man amongst you, who has a care left for his wife and chil- 
 dren, or for other endearing ties of domestic tenderness (and which of us 
 is altogether without them?), that man will lay his hand on his heart 
 when I now bid him do so, and with those little threats of present spite 
 ringing in his ear, he will rather consult his fears of greater evil by listen- 
 ing to the dictates of his heart, when he casts a look towards the dreadful 
 season through which he lately passed, and will come bravely foward to 
 place those men in Parliament whose whole efforts have been directed 
 towards the restoration of p'eace and the revival of trade. 
 
 Do not, gentlemen, listen to those who tell you the cause of freedom is 
 desperate ; they are the enemies of that cause and of you ; but listen to me, 
 — and I am one who has never yet deceived you, — I say, then, that it will 
 be desperate if you make no exertions to retrieve it. I tell you that your 
 language alone can betray it, that it can only be made desperate through 
 your despair. I am not a man to be cast down by temporary reverses, let 
 them come upon us as thick and as swift and as sudden as they may. I 
 am not he who is daunted by majorities in the outset of a struggle for wor- 
 thy objects, — else I should not now stand here before you to boast of tri- « 
 uniphs won in your cause. If your champions had 5delded to the force of '• 
 numbers, of gold, of power, if defeat could have dismayed them, then ;' 
 would the African slave-trade never have been abolished ; then would the ■^> 
 cause of reform, which now bids fair to prevail over its enemies, have been h 
 long ago sunk amidst the desertions of its friends ; then would those pros- f 
 pects of peace have been utterly benighted, which I still devoutly cherish, 
 and which even now brighten in our eyes ; then would the Orders in 
 Council, which I overthrew by your support, have remained a disgrace to 
 the British name, and an eternal obstacle to our best interests. I no more 
 despond now than I have done in the course of those sacred and glorious 
 contentions, but it is for you to say whether to-morrow shall not make it 
 my duty to despair. To-morrow is your last day ; your last efforts must 
 then be made ; if you put forth your strength the day is your own ; if you 
 
LORD HENRY BROUGHAM 623 
 
 desert it, it is lost. To win it, I shall be the first to lead you on and the 
 last to forsake you. 
 
 Gentlemen, when I told you a little while ago that there were new 
 and powerful reasons to-day for ardently desiring that our cause might 
 succeed, I did not sport with you ; yourselves shall now judge of them. 
 I ask you, — Is the trade with America of any importance to this great and 
 thickly-peopled town? [Cries of "Yes, yes!"] Is a continuance of 
 the rupture with America likely to destroy that trade ? [lyoud cries of 
 ** It is, it is ! "] Is there any man who would deeply feel it, if he heard 
 that the rupture was at length converted into open war ? Is there a man 
 present who would not be somewhat alarmed if he supposed that we should 
 have another year without the American trade ? Is there any one of 
 nerves so hardy, as calmly to hear that our government has given up all 
 negotiation, abandoned all hopes of speedy peace with America? Then I 
 tell that man to brace up his nerves ; I bid you all be prepared to hear 
 what touches you all equally. We are by this day's intelligence at war 
 with America in earnest ; our government has at length issued letters of 
 marque and reprisal against the United States. [Universal cries of " God 
 help us, God help us ! "] Aye, God help us ! God of His infinite com- 
 passion take pity on us ! God help and protect this poor town, and this 
 whole trading country ! . . . . 
 
 Gentlemen, I stand up in this contest against the friends and fol- 
 lowers of Mr. Pitt, or, as they partially designate him, the "immortal states- 
 man," now no more. Immortal in the miseries of his devoted country ! 
 Immortal in the wounds of her bleeding liberties ! Immortal in the cruel 
 wars which sprang from his cold miscalculating ambition ! Immortal in 
 the intolerable taxes, the countless loads of debt which these wars have 
 flung upon us, which the youngest man among us will not live to see the 
 end of! Immortal in the triumph of our enemies, and the ruin of our 
 allies, the costly purchase of so much blood and treasure ! Immortal in 
 the afflictions of England, and the humiliations of her friends, through the 
 whole results of his twenty years' reign, from the first rays of favor with 
 which a delighted court gilded his early apostasy, to the deadly glare 
 which is at this instant cast upon his name by the burning metropolis of our 
 last ally. But may no such immortality fall to my lot ; let me rather live 
 innocent and inglorious ; and when at last I cease to serve you, and to 
 feel for your wrongs, may I have an humble monument in some nameless 
 Stone, to tell that beneath it there rests from his labors in your service 
 ** an enemy of the 'immortal statesman' — a friend of peace and of the 
 people." 
 
VISCOUNT PALMERSTON (1784- J 865) 
 
 A MASTER OF PARLIAMENTARY TACTICS 
 
 EOR some fifty years Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston, 
 played a leading part in British politics, being lord and master 
 in the management of foreign affairs for the greater part of 
 that period. Succeeding his father as third Viscount in 1802, he 
 entered Parliament in 1806, and remained there to the end of his life. 
 He became a member of the Cabinet as Secretary of War in 1809, 
 and held this portfolio until 1828, under five diff'erent Tory ministers. 
 Joining now the Whig party, he became Secretary of Foreign Aff'airs 
 under Earl Grey in 1830. He resigned in 1841, on the question of 
 free trade in corn, but resumed his office in 1846. In 1855 he was 
 made Prime Minister, and vigorously prosecuted the Crimean War. 
 With slight intermission he held 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 affkirs, were little calculated to soften party animosity in Eng- 
 land, w^hile 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 coup d'etat of Louis 
 Napoleon in 1851, without consulting the Queen 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 people. 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 1828, 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.] 
 524 
 
 II 
 
'.M4« 
 
 , EDMUND BURKE 
 
 i Macaulay the great English Historian says that Burke was 
 \ superior to every orator, ancient and modern in richness of im- 
 agination and power of expression. 
 
VISCOUNT PALMERSTON 526 
 
 Then come we 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 will find that in Ireland blood 
 has been shed, — that in Ireland leaders have been seized, trials have been 
 had, and punishment has been inflicted. They will find, indeed, almost 
 every page of the history of Ireland darkened by bloodshed, by seizures, 
 by 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 
 lightly — nay, almost so wishfully — of civil war ! Do they reflect what a 
 countless multitude of ills those three short 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 scars who never felt a wound." 
 
 But that 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. But I 
 tell you that England herself never would permit the achievement of 
 such a conquest ; England would reject in disgust laurels that were dyed 
 in fraternal blood ; England would recoil with loathing and abhorrence 
 from the bare contemplation of so devilish a triumph ! 
 
SIR ROBERT PEEL (J 7884 850) 
 
 A LEADING CONSERVATIVE ORATOR 
 
 mHE oldest son of a leading cotton manufacturer, who had 
 amassed a great fortune in this growing industry, Sir Robert 
 Peel made his mark in politics as his father had done in 
 manufacture, gradually rising in reputation and influence, until in 
 1841, he became Prime Minister of the British Healm. The Irish 
 constabulary, founded by him, are still known as " Peelers/'in recogni- 
 tion of their origin. But the most important political question in his 
 administration was that of the repeal of the Com Laws. This he had 
 at first opposed, but in 1846 he made an eloquent speech in its favor, 
 and, by the aid of his followers and the Liberals, those oppressive laws 
 were removed from the English statutes. This action made Peel very 
 popular, but his career was suddenly ended by a fatal fall from his 
 horse in July, 1850. 
 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION 
 
 [On the nth of January, 1837, on the occasion of his installation as Lord Rector 
 of the University of Glasgow, Peel made an eloquent address to the students on the 
 benefits of the higher education. We select a passage from this in preference to his 
 political speeches, as possessing a broader and more enduring interest.] 
 
 " It is very natural," says Sir Joshua Reynolds, " for those who are 
 unacquainted with the cause of anything extraordinary, to be astonished 
 at the effect and to consider it as a kind of magic. 
 
 * ' The travelers into the East tell us that when the ignorant inhabit- 
 ants of those countries are asked concerning the ruins of stately edifices 
 yet remaining among them, the melancholy monuments of their former 
 grandeur and long-lost science, they always answer that they were built 
 by magicians. The untaught mind finds a vast gulf between its own 
 powers and those works of complicated art which it is utterly unable to 
 526 
 
 
SIR ROBERT PEEL 527 
 
 fathom, and it supposes that such a void can be surpassed only by super- 
 natural powers." 
 
 We have, in the instance of Cicero, the stately edifice, the monument 
 of intellectual grandeur ; but we have also the evidence of the illustrious 
 architect to prove to us by what careful process the foundations were 
 securely laid and the scaffolding gradually erected. Our wonder at the 
 perfection of the work may be abated, but what can abate our admiration 
 and respect for the elevated views ; the burning thirst for knowledge and 
 for fame ; the noble ambition which " scorned delights, and lived labori- 
 ous days " — which had engraven on the memory the paternal exhortation 
 to the hero in Homer, the noblest, says Dr. Johnson, that can be found in 
 any heathen writer. 
 
 The name, the authority, the example of Cicero, conduct me natu- 
 rally to a topic which I should be unwilling to pass in silence. I allude 
 to the immense importance to all who aspire to conspicuous stations in 
 any department of public or learned professional life, the immense impor- 
 tance of classical acquirements, of imbuing your minds with a knowledge 
 of the pure models of antiquity and a taste for their constant study and 
 cultivation. Do not disregard this admonition from the impression that 
 it proceeds from the natural prejudice in favor of classical learning, which 
 an English university may have unconsciously instilled, or that it is 
 offered presumptuously by one who is ignorant of that description of 
 knowledge which is best adapted to the habits and occupations of society 
 in Scotland. 
 
 Oh, let us take higher and more extensive views ! Feel assured that 
 a wider horizon than that ofi Scotland is opening upon you ; that you are 
 candidates starting with equal advantage for every prize of profit or 
 distinction which the wide circle of an empire extended through every 
 quarter of the globe can include. 
 
 Bear in mind, too, that every improvement in the means of commu- 
 nication betwen distant parts of that empire is pointing out a new avenue 
 to fame, particularly to those who are remote from the great seat of gov- 
 ernment. This is not the place where injustice should be done to that 
 mighty discovery which is effecting a daily change in the pre-existing 
 relations of society. It is not within the college of Glasgow that a false 
 and injurious estimate should be made of the results of the speculations 
 of Black and of the inventive genius of Watt. The steam engine and the 
 railroad are not merely facilitating the transport of merchandise, they are 
 not merely shortening the duration of journeys, or administering to the 
 supply of physical wants. They are speeding the intercourse between 
 mind and mind ; they are creating new demands for knowledge ; they are 
 
528 SIR ROBERT PEEL 
 
 fertilizing the intellect as well as the material waste ; they are removing 
 the impediments which obscurity, or remoteness, or poverty, may have 
 heretofore opposed to the emerging of real merit. 
 
 They are supplying you, in the mere facility of locomotion, with a 
 new motive for classical study. They are enabling you with comparative 
 ease to enjoy that pure and refined pleasure which makes the past pre- 
 dominate over the present, when we stand upon the spots where the 
 illustrious deeds of ancient times have been performed, and meditate on 
 monuments that are associated with names and actions that can never 
 perish. They are offering to your lips the intoxicating draught that is 
 described with such noble enthusiasm by Gibbon : "At the distance of 
 twenty-five years I can neither forget nor express the strong emotions 
 which agitated my mind as I first approached and entered the Eternal 
 City. After a sleepless night I trod with a lofty step the ruins of the 
 Forum ; each memorable spot where Romulus stood, or Tully spoke, or 
 Caesar fell, was at once present to my eye ; and several days of intoxica- 
 tion were lost or enjoyed before I could descend to a cool or minute 
 investigation." .... 
 
 By every motive which can influence a reflecting and responsive 
 being, — ** a being of large discourse, looking before and after," — by the 
 memory of the distinguished men who have shed a lustre on these walls ; 
 by regard for your own success and happiness in this life ; by the fear of 
 future discredit ; by the hope of lasting fame ; by all these considerations 
 do I conjure you, while you have yet time, while your minds are yet flexible, 
 to form them on the models which approach the nearest to perfection. 
 Sursum corda ! By motives yet more urgent ; by higher and purer aspira- 
 tions ; by the duty of obedience to the will of God ; by this awful 
 account you will have to render, not merely of moral actions, but of facul- 
 ties intrusted to you for improvement ; by these high arguments do I 
 conjure you so "to number your days that you may apply your hearts 
 unto wisdom " — unto that wdsdom which, directing your ambition to the 
 noble end of benefiting mankind, and teaching you humble reliance on 
 the merits and on the mercy of your Redeemer, may support you ' ' in the 
 time of your tribulation ; ' ' may admonish you * ' in the time of your 
 wealth ; " and " in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment," may 
 comfort you with the hope of deliverance. 
 
 11 
 
LORD JOHN RUSSELL (t 7924 878) 
 
 THE ORATOR OF REFORM 
 
 GREATEST among the advocates of parliamentary reform, year 
 after year Lord John Russell made motions in Parliament for 
 — "^ the suppression of "rotten boroughs," at first exciting the con- 
 tempt of the Conservatives, and afterward their dismay, for he was 
 the principal author of the great Reform Bill of 1830, which, after a 
 light which was little short of a revolution, became a law in 1832. 
 All his life Russell was a persistent Whig, and a thorn in the side of 
 the Tories. In 1845 he became an advocate of the repeal of the Corn 
 Laws, and was called to the office of Prime Minister in 1846, holding 
 office till 1852. In 1865 he was again called to this position, with 
 Gladstone as one of his principal colleagues, and again brought in a 
 Reform Bill — destined to be defeated then, but to bring about a great 
 increase in the suffrage two years later. As an orator Russell played 
 a prominent part, his political speeches being numerous and import- 
 ant. 
 
 THE '^ ROTTEN BOROUGHS'' OF ENGLAND 
 
 [Various references have been made in this work to the great reform movement 
 of 1830-32, and it has just been said that Ivord Russell was one of the most persistent 
 advocates of reform. Some fuller account of the state of affairs is here in place. 
 During the preceding two centuries there had been great changes in the distribution 
 of population in Kngland, but the distribution of seats in Parliament remained the 
 same. Flourishing towns had decayed, and ancient boroughs had become practically 
 extinct, yet they were still represented in Parliament. "Pocket boroughs" these 
 were called, and were well named, since their membership was practically in the 
 pocket of the owner of the land, who could give it to whom he pleased. On the other 
 hand, great manufacturing cities had sprung up, whose hundreds of thousands of peo- 
 ple did not send a single member to Parliament. This was the desperately corrupt 
 system against which Russell vigorously protested, and which he earnestly sought to 
 reform. We give his picturesque description of the state of affairs from a speech by 
 him in 183 1. 
 
 34 529 
 
630 LORD JOHN RUSSELL 
 
 A Stranger who was told that this country was unparalleled in wealth 
 and industry, and more civilized and enlightened than any country was 
 before it ; that it is a country which prides itself upon its freedom, and 
 which once in seven years elects representatives from its population to 
 act as the guardians and preservers of that freedom — would be anxious 
 and curious to see how that representation is formed, and how the people 
 choose their representatives. 
 
 Such a person would be very much astonished if he were to be taken 
 to a ruined mound, and told that that mound sent two representatives to 
 Parliament ; if he were taken to a stone wall, and told that these niches in it 
 sent two representatives to Parliament ; if he were taken to a park, where 
 no houses were to be seen, and told that that park sent two representatives 
 to Parliament. But he would be still more astonished if he were to see 
 large and opulent towns, full of enterprise and industry, and intelligence, 
 containing vast magazines of every species of manufacture, and were then 
 told that those towns sent no representatives to Parliament. 
 
 Such a person would be still more astonished if he were taken to 
 lyiverpool, where there is a large constituency, and told, ** Here you will 
 have a fine example of a popular election. ' ' He would see bribery 
 employed to the greatest extent, and in the most unblushing manner ; he 
 would see every voter receiving a number of guineas in a bag as the price 
 of his corruption ; and after such a spectacle he would be, no doubt, much 
 astonished that a nation, whose representatives are thus chosen, could per- 
 form the functions of legislation at all, or enjoy respect in any degree. 
 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF LITERARY STUDY 
 
 [Of Russell's speeches aside from politics, one of the most interesting is his 
 address at the Leeds Mechanics Institute in 1852. The following selection is taken 
 from this fine oration.] 
 
 I will now turn for a short time to the subject of literature. That 
 subject again is so vast that if I were to attempt to go over any one of its 
 numerous fields I should not find the time sufficient to enable me to do 
 so ; but there is one leading remark which I will venture to make, and 
 which, I think, it is worth while for any person who studies literature to 
 keep in view. There are various kinds of productions of literature, of 
 very diffierent forms, and of very different tastes ; some grave and some 
 gay, some of extreme fancy, some rigorously logical, but all, as I think, 
 demanding this as their quality, that truth shall prevail in them. A 
 French author has said that nothing is beautiful but truth ; that truth 
 alone is lovely, but that truth ought to prevail even in fable. I believe 
 that remark is perfectly correct ; and I believe that you cannot use a 
 
 i 
 
LORD JOHN RUSSELL 531 
 
 better test, even of works of imagination, than to see whether they be true 
 to nature. Now, perhaps I can better explain what I mean in this respect 
 by giving you one or two instances, than I should be able to do by precept 
 and explanation. " A poet of very great celebrity in the last century, and 
 who certainly was a poet distinguished for much fancy and great power of 
 pathos, but who had not the merit of being always as true as he is pointed 
 in the poetry he has written, — I mean Young, — has said, at the com- 
 mencement, I think, of one of his " Nights " • , 
 
 " Sleep, like the world, his ready visit pays 
 Where Fortune smiles ; the wretched he forsakes, 
 And lights on lids unsullied with a tear." 
 
 Now, if you will study that sentence, you will see there are two 
 things which the poet has confounded together. He has confounded 
 together those who are fortunate in their peace of mind, those who are 
 fortunate in the possession of health, and those who 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 be said that Fortune smiled, enjoys sweeter 
 and more regular sleep than those who are in the possession of the high- 
 est advantages of rank and wealth. You will all remember no doubt, that 
 in a passage I need not quote, another poet, one always true to nature, 
 Shakespeare, has described the shipboy amidst the storm, notwithstanding 
 all the perils of his position on the mast, as enjoying a quiet sleep, while 
 he describes the king as unable to rest. That is the poet true to nature ; 
 and you will thus, by following observations 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 
 deserving. 
 
 I may give another instance, and I could hardly venture to do so if 
 my friend and your friend, Lord 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, exalting the merits of poetry, he says 
 that many brave men lived before Agamemnon ; that there were many 
 L;reat sieges before the siege of Troy ; that before Achilles and Hector 
 existed, there were brave men and great battles ; but that, as they had no 
 ipoet, they died, and that it required the genius of poetry to give immortal 
 xistence to the bravery of armies and of chiefs. Pope has copied this 
 jde of Horace, and in some respects has well copied and imitated it in 
 j^ome lines which certainly are worthy of admiration, beginning : 
 
532 LORD JOHN RUSSELL 
 
 *' Lest you should think that verse shall die, 
 Which sounds the silver Thames along." 
 
 But in the instances which he gives he mentions Newton, and says that 
 not only brave men had lived and fought, but that other Newtons ' ' sys- 
 tems fram'd." Now, here he has not kept to the merit and truth of his 
 original ; for, though it may be quite true that there were distinguished 
 armies and wonderful sieges, and that their memory has passed into obliv- 
 ion, it is not at all probable that any man like Newton followed by mathe- 
 matical roads the line of discovery, and that those great truths which he 
 discovered should have perished 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 science the progress of discovery] 
 is gradual. Those who make these discoveries sometimes commit great 
 errors. They fall into many absurd 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, and thus the progress 
 of science is continual ; but truth remains, the methods of investigation] 
 even are shortened, and the progress continually goes on. 
 
 But it is not so with regard to literature. It has, indeed, happened] 
 often in the history of the world, among nations that have excelled in 
 literature, after great works had been produced which brought down the 
 admiration of all who could read them, that others, attempting to go fur- 
 ther, — attempting to do something still better, — have produced works 
 written in the most affected and unnatural style, and, instead of promoting 
 literature, have corrupted the taste of the nation in which they lived. Now, 
 this is a thing against which I think we should always be upon our guard, 
 and, having those great models of literature which we possess before us, 
 —having Shakespeare, and Milton, and Pope, and a long list of illustrious 
 poets and authors, — we should always study to see that the literature of 
 the day is, if not on a par with, at least as pure in point of taste as that 
 which has gone before it, and to take care that we do not, instead of advanc- 
 ing in letters, fall back and decay in the productions of the time. 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL (J 793- J 851) 
 
 IRISH DRAMATIST AND ORATOR 
 
 i 
 
 |M0NG the famous orators of Irish birth and inspired by Irish 
 patriotism must be named Richard Lalor Sheil, a native of 
 -Dublin and a friend and associate of O'Connell, whom he 
 most nearly approached in oratory. Elected to Parliament in 1829, 
 ho soon became conspicuous there for his brilliant eloquence. He was 
 made Master of the Mint in Russell's Cabinet of 1846, and was British 
 Minister at Florence in 1850. As an orator, his enunciation was 
 quick and impetuous, his gesture rapid and continuous, while his 
 ^^•ealth of illustration and unrivalled power in the use of words held 
 spell-bound all who heard him. 
 
 IRISH ALIENS AND ENGLISH VICTORIES 
 
 [Shell's most brilliant speech, and one of the most eloquent known in British 
 oratory, was instigated by an expression made by Lord Lyndhurst in the House of 
 Lords, in which he spoke of the Irish as "aliens, in blood and religion." Sheil took 
 the opportunity to reply, while speaking, February 22, 1837, on the Irish Municipal 
 Bill. Never had the House of Commons heard a finer burst of indignant oratory.l 
 
 I should be surprised, indeed, if, while you are doing us wrong, you 
 did not profess your solicitude to do us justice. From the day on which 
 Strongbow set his foot upon the shore of Ireland, Englishmen were never 
 wanting in protestations of their deep anxiety to do us justice ; even Straf- 
 ford, the deserter of the People's cause, — the renegade Wentworth, who 
 gave evidence in Ireland of the spirit of instinctive tyranny which predom- 
 inated in his character, — even Strafford, while he trampled upon our 
 : rights, and trod upon the heart of the country, protested his solicitude to 
 do justice to Ireland ! What marvel is it, then, that gentlemen opposite 
 should deal in such vehement protestations ? There is, however, one man, 
 of great abilities, — not a member of this House, but whose talents and 
 
 533 
 
534 RICHARD LALOR SHEIL 
 
 whose boldness have placed him in the topmost place in his party, — who, 
 disdaining all imposture, and thinking it the best course to appeal directly 
 to the religious and national antipathies of the people of this country; 
 abandoning all reserve, and flinging off the slender veil by which his 
 political associates affect to cover, although they cannot hide, their 
 motives ; dislinctly and audaciously tells the Irish people that they are 
 not entitled to the same privileges as Englishmen ; and pronounces them, 
 in any particular which could enter his minute enumeration of the cir- 
 cumstances by which fellow-citizenship is created, in race, identity and 
 religion, to be aliens : — to be aliens in race, to be aliens in country, aliens 
 in religion ! Aliens ! good God ! was Arthur, Duke of Wellington, in 
 the House of Lords, and did he not start up and exclaim : " Hold ! I 
 
 HAVE SEKN THE ALIENS DO THEIR DUTY ? ' ' 
 
 The Duke of Wellington is not a man of an excitable temperament. 
 His mind is of a cast too martial to be easily moved ; but, notwithstand- 
 ing his habitual inflexibility, I cannot help thinking that, when he heard 
 his Roman Catholic countrymen (for we are his countrymen) designated 
 by a phrase as offensive as the abundant vocabulary of his eloquent con- 
 federate could supply, — I cannot help thinking that he ought to have 
 recollected the many fields of fight in which we have been contributors to 
 his renown. 
 
 ''The battles, sieges, fortunes that he has passed," ought to have 
 come back upon him. He ought to have remembered that, from the ear- 
 liest achievement in which he displayed that military genius which has 
 placed him foremost in the annals of modern warfare, down to that last 
 and surpassing combat which has made his name imperishable, — from 
 Assaye to Waterloo, — the Irish soldiers, with whom your armies are filled, 
 were the inseparable auxiliaries to the glory with which his unparalleled 
 successes have been crowned. 
 
 Whose were the arms that drove your bayonets at Vimiera through 
 the phalanxes that never reeled in the shock of war before ? What des- 
 perate valor climbed the steeps and filled the moats at Badajos ? 
 
 All his victories should have rushed and crowded back upon his 
 memory — Vimiera, Badajos, Salamanca, Albuera, Toulouse, and, last of 
 
 all, the greatest . Tell me, — for you were there, — I appeal to the 
 
 gallant soldier before me (Sir Henry Hardinge) , from whose opinions 
 differ, but who bears, I know, a generous heart in an intrepid breast ; 
 tell me, — for you must needs remember, — on that day when the destinies 
 of mankind were trembling in the balance, while death fell in showers, 
 when the artillery of France was levelled with a precision of the most 
 deadly science ; when her legions, incited by the voice and inspired by 
 
 he 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
RICHARD LALOR SHEIL 535 
 
 the example of their mighty leader, rushed again and again to the onset, 
 — tell me if, for an instant, when to hesitate for an instant was to be lost, 
 the ' ' aliens ' ' blenched ? 
 
 And when, at length, the moment for the last and decided movement 
 had arrived, and the valor which had so long been wisely checked was, at 
 last, let loose, — when, with words familiar, but immortal, the great cap- 
 tain commanded the great assault, — tell me if Catholic Ireland with less 
 heroic valor than the natives of this your own glorious country precipi- 
 tated herself upon the foe ? 
 
 The blood of England, Scotland, and of Ireland flowed in the same 
 stream, and drenched the same field. When the chill morning dawned, 
 their dead lay cold and stark together ; in the same deep pit their bodies 
 were deposited ; the green corn of spring is now breaking from their 
 commingled dust ; the dew falls from heaven upon their union in the 
 grave. Partakers in every peril, in the glory shall we not be permitted to 
 participate ; and shall we be told, as a requital, that we are estranged 
 from the noble country for whose salvation our life blood was poured out? 
 
 THE HORRORS OF CIVIL WAR 
 
 War in Ireland would be worse than civil. A demon would take 
 possession of the nation's heart,— every feeling of humanity would be 
 extinguished, — neither to sex nor to age would mercy be given. The 
 country would be deluged with blood ; and when that deluge had subsided, 
 it would be a sorry consolation to a British statesman, when he gazed 
 upon the spectacle of desolation which Ireland would then present to him, 
 that he beheld the spires of your Established Church still standing secure 
 amidst the desert with which they would be encompassed. You have 
 adjured us, in the name of the oath which we have sworn on the gospel 
 of God, — I adjure you, in the name of every precept contained in that 
 holy book ; in the name of that religion which is the perfection of human- 
 ity ; in the name of every obligation, divine and human ; as you are men 
 and Christians, to save my country from those evils to which I point, and 
 to remember, that if you shall be the means of precipitating that country 
 into perdition, posterity will deliver its great finding against you, and that 
 you will not only be answerable to posterity, but responsible to that Judge, 
 in whose presence, clothed with the blood of civil warfare, it will be more 
 than dreadful to appear. 
 
THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY 
 (J 800- J 859) 
 
 THE BRILLIANT ORATOR, HISTOIUAN AND ESSAYIST 
 
 mHE whole story of Macaulay's life is too broad for us to detail 
 here^ our concern being simply with his record as an orator. 
 Whatever he touched he adorned. There are no essays with 
 the glowing charm of those of Macaulay. There is no history which 
 holds its readers so entranced. There are no poems with the gal- 
 loping swing of his " Lays of Ancient Rome " and his '' Battle of 
 Ivory/' and in oratory his marvelous power in the use of language is 
 equally displayed. While a student at Cambridge he won distinc- 
 tion as an orator, and on entering Parliament in 1830 he fulfilled the 
 highest expectations of his friends. His speeches on the Reform Bill 
 and on the renewal of the charter of the East India Company were 
 among the finest examples of his powers. His rapidity of speech, how- 
 ever, detracted from the effect of his orations, and they are among 
 those that are more effective when read than they were in delivery. 
 Of his style as writer and orator it is said, " Its characteristics are 
 vigor, animation, copiousness, clearness, above all, sound English, 
 now a rare excellence." 
 
 SUPERFICIAL KNOWLEDGE 
 
 [We cannot offer a more interesting example of Macaulay's oratorical style and 
 method of handling than in the following extract from the speech delivered by him at 
 the opening of the Edinburgh Philosophical Institute, in 1846. Its lucid picturing of 
 the superficiality of all human knowledge is marked by his most effective lucidity 
 and interest of statement and charm of manner.] 
 
 Some men, of whom I wish to speak with great respect, are haunted, 
 as it seems to me, with an unreasonable fear of what they call superficial 
 knowledge. Knowledge, they say, which really deserves the name, is a 
 536 
 
THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY 637 
 
 great blessing to mankind, the ally of virtue, the harbinger of freedom. 
 But such knowledge must be profound. A crowd of people who have a 
 smattering of mathematics, a smattering of astronomy, a smattering of 
 chemistry, who have read a little poetry and a little history, is dangerous 
 to the commonwealth. Such half knowledge is worse than ignorance. 
 And then the authority of Pope is vouched : " Drink deep or taste not ;'* 
 shallow drafts intoxicate ; drink largely and that will sober you. I must 
 confess that the danger which alarms these gentlemen never seemed to me 
 very serious ; and my reason is this, that I never could prevail upon any 
 person who pronounced superficial knowledge a curse and profound knowl- 
 edge a blessing to tell me what was his standard of profundity. The 
 argument proceeds on the supposition that there is some line between pro- 
 found and superficial knowledge similar to that which separates truth 
 from falsehood, I know of no such line. When we talk of men of deep 
 science, do we mean that they have got to the bottom or near the bottom of 
 science ? Do we mean that they know all that is capable of being known ? 
 Do we mean even that they know, in their own special department, 
 all that the smatterers of the next generation will know ? Why, if we 
 compare the little truth that we know with the infinite mass of truth 
 which we do not know, we are all shallow together, and the greatest philo- 
 sophers that ever lived would be the first to confess their shallowness. If 
 we could call up the first of human beings, if we could call up Newton 
 and ask him whether, even in those sciences in which he had no rival, he 
 considered himself as profoundly knowing, he would have told us that he 
 was but a smatterer like ourselves and that the difference between his 
 knowledge and ours vanished when compared with the quantity of truth 
 still undiscovered, just as the distance between a person at the foot of 
 Ben Lomond and one at the top of Ben Lomond vanishes when compared 
 with the distance of the fixed stars. 
 
 It is evident, then, that those who are afraid of superficial knowledge, 
 
 do not mean by superficial knowledge knowledge which is superficial 
 
 when compared with the whole quantity of truth capable of being known. 
 
 For, in that sense, all human knowledge is, and always has been, and 
 
 always must be, superficial. What, then, is the standard ? Is it the 
 
 same two years together in any country ? Is it the same, at the same 
 
 moment, in any two countries ? Is it not notorious that the profundity of 
 
 I one nation is the shallowness of a neighboring nation ? Ramohun Roy 
 
 [passed, among Hindoos, for a man of profound Western learning ; but he 
 
 \ would have been but a very superficial member of this institute. Strabo 
 
 I was justly entitled to be called a profound geographer eighteen hun- 
 
 jdred years ago ; but a teacher of geography who had never heard of 
 
538 THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY 
 
 America would now be 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 Gulliver'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 tugs 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 breakfast, eats 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 Lilliput 
 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 him 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 be 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 manj 
 renowned all over the island, and even as far as Italy and Spain, as th< 
 first of astronomers and chemists. What is his astronomy ? He is a fin 
 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 bs^i 
 the revolution of the earth round the sun. If he does not set you dowgBI 
 for an idiot, he lays an information against you before the Bishop and has ' 
 you burned for a heretic. To do him justice, however, if he is ill-informed 
 on these points, there are other points on which Newton and L<aplace 
 
 il 
 
THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY 539 
 
 were mere children when compared with him. He can cast your 
 nativity. He knows what will happen when Saturn is in the House of 
 Life, and what will happen when Mars is in conjunction with the Drag- 
 on's Tail. He can read in the stars whether an expedition will be suc- 
 cessful ; whether the next harvest will be plentiful ; which of your 
 children will be fortunate in marriage, and which will be lost at sea. 
 Happy the State, happy the family, which is guided by the counsels of so 
 profound a man ! And what but mischief, public and private, can we 
 expect from the temerity and conceit of sciolists who know no more 
 about the heavenly bodies than what they have learned from Sir John 
 Herschel's beautiful little volume ? But, to speak seriously, is not a little 
 truth better than a great deal of falsehood ? Is not the man who, in the 
 evenings of a fortnight, has acquired a correct notion of the solar system, 
 a more profound astronomer than the man who has passed thirty years in 
 reading lectures about the primum mobile, in drawing schemes of horo- 
 scopes ? 
 
 As it has been in science, so it has been in literature. Compare the 
 literary acquirements of the thirteenth century with those which will be 
 within the reach of many who will frequent our reading room. As to 
 Greek learning, the profound man of the thirteenth century was absolutely 
 on a par with the superficial man of the nineteenth. In the modern 
 languages, there was not, six hundred years ago, a single volume which 
 is now read. The library of our profound scholar must have consisted 
 entirely of Latin books. We will suppose him to have had both a large 
 and a choice collection. We will allow him thirty, nay forty manuscripts, 
 and among them a Virgil, a Terence, a Lucan, an Ovid, a Statins, a great 
 deal of Livy, a great deal of Cicero. In allowing him all this, we are 
 dealing most liberally with him ; for it is much more likely that his 
 shelves were filled with treatises on school divinity and canon law, com- 
 posed by writers whose names the world has very wisely forgotten. But 
 even if we suppose him to have possessed all that is most valuable in the 
 literature of Rome, I say with perfect confidence that, both in respect of 
 intellectual improvement and in respect of intellectual pleasures, he was 
 far less favorably situated than a man who now, knowing only the Eng- 
 lish language, has a bookcase filled with the best English works. Our 
 great men of the Middle Ages could not form a conception of any tragedy 
 approaching '' Macbeth '* or '* Lear,** or of any comedy equal to '* Henry 
 IV." or '* Twelfth Night.*' The best epic poem that he had read was 
 far inferior to the * ' Paradise Lost : " and all the tomes of his philosophers 
 were not worth a page of the ** Novum Organum.** 
 
RICHARD COBDEN (1 804-1 865) 
 
 THE ORATOR OF FREE TRADE 
 
 mT was the contest against the Corn Laws — which, by imposing a 
 high duty on imported grain, greatly increased the cost of food 
 in England, favoring the land-holding gentry at the expense 
 of the poor — that made Richard Cobden famous. Conservatism, and 
 the political influence of the gentry, preserved these laws with little 
 change, and Cobden was the first to make a determined assault upon 
 them. In 1839 the Anti-Corn Law League was formed, with him for 
 its principal champion and orator. Elected to Parliament in 1841, he 
 kept up the fight actively and earnestly in the House and before the 
 people, with the result that the obnoxious laws were repealed in 1846. 
 An able orator and a born reformer, Mr. Cobden was a powerful ally 
 of Bright and Gladstone in their Liberal campaign. He favored 
 electoral reform, vote by ballot, and a pacific foreign policy, and was 
 the author, 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 free-corn 
 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 great 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 So^. You know the state 
 of your farming tenantry in 182 1. It was a failure when you had a pro- 
 tection price of 60^.; for you know what was the condition of your fan 
 tenantry in 1835. It is a failure now with your last amendment, for yoi 
 have admitted and proclaimed it to us ; and what is the condition of yot 
 agricultural population at this time ? I ask. what is your plan ? I hoj 
 540 
 
RICHARD COBDEN 541 
 
 it is not a pretense ; a mere political game that has been played through- 
 out the last election, and that you have not all come up here as mere politi- 
 cians. There are politicians in the House ; men who look with an 
 ambition — probably a justifiable one — to the honors of oflSce. There may 
 be men who, with thirty years of continuous service, — ^^having been pressed 
 into a groove from which they can neither escape nor retreat, — may be 
 holding ofl&ce, high ofl&ce, maintained there, probably, at the expense of 
 their present convictions, which do not harmonize very well with their 
 early opinions. I make allowances for them ; but the great body of the 
 honorable gentlemen opposite came up to this House, not as politicians, 
 but as the farmers' friends, and protectors of the agricultural interests. 
 Well, what do you propose to do ? You have heard the Prime Minister 
 declare that, if he could restore all the protection which you have had, 
 that protection would not benefit agriculturists. Is that your belief? If 
 so, why not proclaim it? and if it is not your conviction, you will have 
 falsified your mission in this House, by following the right honorable 
 baronet out into the lobby, and opposing inquiry into the condition of the 
 very men who sent you here. 
 
 With mere politicians I have no right to expect to succeed in this 
 motion. But I have no hesitation in telling you that, if you give me a 
 
 i committee of this House, I will explode the delusion of agricultural pro- 
 tection. I will bring forward such a mass of evidence, and give you such 
 
 \ a preponderance of talent and of authority, that when the Blue- Book is 
 published and sent forth to the world, as we can now send it, by our vehi- 
 cles of information, your system of protection shall not live in public 
 opinion for two years afterward. Politicians do not want that. This cry 
 of protection has been a very convenient handle for politicians. The cry 
 of protection carried the counties at the last election, and politicians 
 gained honors, emoluments, and place by it. But is that old tattered flag 
 of protection, tarnished and torn as it is already, to be kept hoisted still 
 in the counties for the benefit of politicians ; or will you come forward 
 honestly and fairly to inquire into this question ? I cannot believe that 
 the gentry of England will be made mere drumheads to be sounded upon 
 by a Prime Minister to give forth unmeaning and empty sounds, and to 
 have no articulate voice of their own. No ! You are the gentry of Eng- 
 land, who represent the counties. You are the aristocracy of England. 
 Your fathers led our fathers ; you may lead us if you will go the right way. 
 But, although you have retained your influence with this country longer 
 
 tthan any other aristocracy, it has not been by opposing popular opinion, 
 or by setting yourselves against the spirit of the age. 
 In other days, when the battle and the hunting-fields were the tests 
 
642 RICHARD COBDEN 
 
 of manly vigor, your fathers were first and foremost there. The aristoc- 
 racy of England were not like the noblesse of France, the mere minions 
 of a court ; nor were they like the hidalgos of Madrid, who dwindled 
 into pigmies. You have been Englishmen. You have not shown a want 
 of courage and firmness when any call has been made upon you. This 
 is a new era. It is the age of improvement, it is the age of social 
 advancement ; not the age for war or for feudal sports. You live in a 
 mercantile age, when the whole wealth of the world is poured into your 
 lap. You cannot have the advantages of commercial rents and feudal 
 privileges ; but you may be what you always have been, if you will identify 
 yourselves with the spirit of the age. The English 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 prejudice, 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 England 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. Everywhere you are doubted and suspected. 
 Read your own organs, and you will see that this is the case. Well, then, H 
 this is the time to show that you are not the mere party politicians which 
 you are said to be. I have said that we shall be opposed in this measure 
 by politicians ; tbey 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 establish 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. 
 
BENJAMIN DISRAELI (1 8054 88 J) 
 
 GLADSTONE'S RIVAL IN ORATORY AND OFnCE 
 
 I T, In speaking of Disraeli as a rival of Gladstone in oratory, it is 
 I I I meant only to indicate that these distinguished men came fre- 
 quently into conflict in speech-making, not that there was any 
 equality or resemblance between them as orators. As one writer says 
 of Disraeli, " In almost every thing he was the very opposite of his 
 great adversary, Mr. Gladstone. He was a master of epigram, a splen- 
 did debater, rather than an orator ; he possessed that first-rate requi- 
 site of statecraft, lack of zeal.'' His maiden speech was not wanting 
 in cleverness, yet was so lame in delivery that it was greeted in 
 Parliament with shouts of laughter. He cried out in response, *'I have 
 begun several things many times, and have often succeeded at last ; 
 ay, and though I sit down now, the time will come when you will 
 hear me." The time indeed came. Before many years he was a 
 prominent debater in the House of Commons, and the leading Con- 
 servative orator in the Corn Law agitation, while by his talent as a 
 speaker and his spirit and persistency under defeat he compelled the 
 admiration of his opponents. From 1868 onward he was the rival of 
 Gladstone for the highest office under the British Government. In 
 that year he became Prime Minister, and alternated with Gladstone 
 in this post of honor and power till his death, his terms of Premier- 
 ship being 1868 to 1869, and from 1874 to 1880. Many of the great 
 questions of public policy and the management of the Empire were 
 beforo parliament and in their discussions Disraeli shone as a speaker 
 of rare powers. In 1875 he conferred on the Queen the title of Empress 
 of India, and was himself rewarded by the rank of Earl of Beaconsfield. 
 In addition to his parliamentary labors, he found time to devote him- 
 self somewhat to literature, writing several novels which attracted much 
 
 543 
 
544 BENJAMIN DISRAELI 
 
 attention at the time, alike from their literary power and their author- 
 ship. While out of office in 1870 he wrote his novel of "Lothair/' a 
 work which was very widely read, and was exposed to much severe 
 criticism. 
 
 THE DANGERS OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 [The question of electoral reform and extension of the suffrage, which had been 
 so prominent in England about 1830, was renewed at a later date, being supported by 
 Gladstone and Russell, and opposed by Disraeli and Derby. Yet in 1867, finding that 
 the people were thoroughly in earnest, Disraeli changed front suddenly, posed as a 
 reformer, and brought in a suffrage reform bill which conceded all that Gladstone had 
 demanded, giving the right to vote to every householder in a borough, every forty- 
 shilling freeholder, etc. He had shrewdly accepted that which he had bitterly 
 opposed before. We give some of his reasons for opposing suffrage, from a speech 
 made by him in 1864. 1 
 
 That tremendous reckless opposition to the right honorable gentle- 
 man, which allowed the bill to be read the second time, seems to have laid 
 the Government prostrate. If he had succeeded in throwing out the bill, 
 the right honorable gentleman and his friends would have been relieved 
 fiom great embarrassment. But the bill, having been read a second time, 
 the Government were quite overcome, and it appears they never have 
 recovered from the paralysis up to this time. The right honorable gentle- 
 man was good enough to say that the proposition of his Government was 
 rather coldly received upon his side of the House, but he said " nobody 
 spoke against it." Nobody spoke against the bill on this side, but I 
 remember some most remarkable speeches from the right honorable gen- 
 tleman's friends. There was the great city of Edinburgh, represented by 
 acute eloquence of which we never weary, and which again upon the 
 present occasion we have heard ; there was the great city of Bristol, repre- 
 sented on that occasion among the opponents, and many other constitu- 
 encies of equal importance. 
 
 But the most remarkable speech, which ''killed cock robin," was 
 absolutely delivered by one who might be described as almost a member of 
 the Government — the chairman of ways and means (Mr. Massey,) who I 
 believe, spoke from immediately behind the Prime Minister. Did the Gov- 
 ernment express any disapprobation of such conduct ? They have pro- 
 moted him to a great post, and have sent him to India with an income of 
 fabulous amount. And now they are astonished they cannot carry a 
 Reform Bill. If they removed all those among their supporters who oppose 
 such bills by preferring them to posts of great confidence and great lucre, 
 how can they suppose that they will ever carry one ? I^ooking at the 
 policy of the Government, I am not at all astonished at the speech which 
 
 ii 
 
BENJAMIN DISRAELI 545 
 
 the right honorable gentleman, the Secretary of State, has made this even- 
 ing. Of which speech I may observe, that although it was remarkable 
 for many things, yet there were two conclusions at which the right honor- 
 able gentleman arrived. First, the repudiation of the rights of man, and 
 next, the repudiation of the £^ 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 the 
 Exchequer, we were led to believe that the days of Tom Paine had returned, 
 and that Rousseau was to be rivaled by a new social contract — it must be 
 a great relief to every respectable man here to find that not only are we 
 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 body of the country 
 by the introduction of voters upon principles in unison with the principles 
 of the constitution, so that the suffrage should remain a privilege, and 
 not a right — a privilege to be gained by virtue, by intelligence, by indus- 
 try, by integrity, and to be exercised for the common good of the country. 
 I think if you quit that ground ; if you once admit that every man has a 
 right to vote whom you cannot prove to be disqualified ; you would change 
 the character of the constitution, and you would change it in a manner 
 which will tend to lower the importance of this country. Between the 
 scheme we brought forward, and the measure brought forward by the 
 honorable member of I^eds, and the inevitable conclusion which its 
 principal supporters acknowledge it must lead to, it is a question between 
 an aristocratic government in the proper sense of the term — that is, a 
 government by the best men of all classes — and a democracy. I doubt 
 very much whether a democracy is a government that would suit this 
 country ; and it is just as well that the House, when coming to a vote on 
 this question, should really consider if that be the real issue between 
 retaining the present constitution — not the present constitutional body, — 
 but between the present constitution and a democracy. 
 
 It is just as well for the House to recollect that what is of issue is of 
 some price. You must remember, not to use the word profanely, that we 
 are dealing really with a peculiar people. There is no country at the 
 present moment that exists under the circumstances and under the same 
 conditions as the people of this realm . You have, for example, an ancient, 
 powerful, richly -endowed Church ; and perfect religious liberty. You 
 .have unbroken order and complete freedom. You have estates as large as 
 the Romans. You have a commercial system of enterprise such as Car- 
 thage and Venice united never equalled. And you must remember that this 
 peculiar country, with these strong contrasts, is governed not by force; 
 35 
 
646 BENJAMIN DISRAELI 
 
 it is not governed by standing armies ; it is governed by a most singular 
 series of traditionary influences, which generation after generation cherishes 
 and preserves because they know that they embalm customs and represent 
 the law. And, with this, what have you done ? You have created the 
 greatest empire that ever existed in modern times. You have amassed a 
 capital of fabulous amount ; you have devised and sustained a system of 
 credit still more marvelous ; and, above all, you have established and 
 maintained a scheme so vast and complicated, of labor 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 indigenous 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 througl 
 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 th^ 
 States of America you have — a protracted and fratricidal civil war whici 
 has lasted for four years. But if it lasted for four years more, vast aj 
 would be the disaster and desolation , when ended the United States migh 
 begin 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 population, with vast tracts of virgin sot 
 and mineral treasures, not only undeveloped, but undiscovered. Thei 
 you have France. France had a real revolution in our days and those on 
 our predecessors — a real revolution, not merely a political and social 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 had 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. France, 
 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 be the old England — the England 
 of power and tradition, of credit and capital, that now exists. That is 
 not in the nature of things, and, under these circumstances, 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. 
 
 I 
 
WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE (J 8094 898) 
 
 ENGLAND'S PEERLESS NINETEENTH CENTURY ORATOR 
 
 THE history of Gladstone falls little short of being the history of 
 England in the nineteenth century. From 1830 onward to 
 — ^ near the end of the century no public question arose on which 
 he had not something of weight and moment to say, and from the 
 middle of the century to his death he was a controlling power in very 
 much of the important legislation that took place. It was his unri- 
 valled power as an orator, his superb statesmanship, and his earnest 
 labors for the best interests of* the British people that gave him this 
 supremacy ; while in the closing years of his life Ireland hailed him 
 as her champion in the long-sought-for cause of Home Rule. 
 
 Gladstone was a man of immense mental activity. The intervals 
 between his rarely ending parliamentary labors were filled with busy 
 authorship. But his fame will rest on his record as statesman and 
 orator, and especially his work for moral progress and practical reform. 
 It would be impossible to name any other British minister with so long 
 and successful a record in practical and progressive legislation. As a 
 parliamentary debater he never had a superior — it is doubtful if he 
 ever had an equal — in his country's history. Gifted with an exqui- 
 site voice — sweet, powerful, penetrating, vibrating to every emotion — 
 his long training in the House of Commons developed his natural 
 gifts to the fullest extent. His fluency was great — almost too exu- 
 berant, since his eloquence often carried him to too great lengths — 
 but his hearers never seemed to tire of listening. He takes rank, 
 indeed, as one of the greatest orators, and we may say distinctively 
 the greatest debater that the British Parliament has ever known. 
 
 As respects Gladstone's deep sympathy with all mankind, we 
 may instance his passionate arraignment in 1851, of the shameful 
 
 547 
 
548 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 
 
 cruelties of the King of Naples, and at a later date of the terrible Turk- 
 ish barbarities in Bulgaria. These are two instances of the warm feel- 
 ing that inspired him on a hundred occasions during his career. 
 
 WARFARE AND COLONIZATION 
 
 [Of Gladstone's oratory we might select innumerable striking examples. But 
 leaving his parliamentary speeches, we make the following extract from the speech of 
 November i, 1865, at the City Hall, Glasgow, on the presentation to him of the freedom 
 of that city. Many look on this as the most representative example of his eloquence. 
 We choose that portion of it in which he makes war and its effects his theme.] 
 
 It is quite unnecessary before this audience — I may venture to say it is 
 unnecessary before any audience of my countrymen — to dwell at this per- 
 iod of our experience upon the material benefits that have resulted from 
 free trade, upon the enormous augmentation of national power which it 
 has produced, or even upon the increased concord which it has tended so 
 strongly to promote throughout the various sections of the community. 
 But it is the characteristic of the system which we so denominate, that while 
 it comes forward with homely pretensions, and professes, in the first 
 instance, to address itself mainly to questions of material and financial 
 interests, yet, in point of fact, it is fraught and charged throughout with 
 immense masses of moral, social, and political results. I will not no^ 
 speak to the very large measure of those results which are domestic, bu^ 
 I would ask you to consider with me for a few moments the effect of th« 
 system of unrestricted intercourse upon the happiness of the human familj 
 at large. 
 
 Now, as far as that happiness is connected with the movements 
 nations, war has been its great implement. And what have been thegre 
 causes of wars ? They do not come upon the world by an inevitable neces-* 
 
 sity, or through a providential visitation. They are not to be compared 
 
 with pestilences and famines even — in that respect, though, we hav^Hj 
 learned, and justly learned, that much of what we have been accustome^T 
 to call providential visitation is owing to our neglect of the wise and pru- 
 dent means which man ought to find in the just exercise of his faculties 
 for the avoidance of calamity — but with respect to wars, they are the direct 
 and universal consequence of the unrestricted, too commonly of the un- 
 bridled, passions and lusts of men. 
 
 If we go back to a very early period of society, we find a state of 
 things in which, as between one individual and another, no law obtained 
 a state of things in which the first idea almost of those who desired toj 
 better their condition was simply to better it by the abstraction of theii 
 neighbor's property. In the early periods of society, piracy and unre 
 strained freebooting among individuals were what wars, for the most 
 
WILLIAM WILBERFORCE 
 
 The name of Wilberforce is lovingly associated with the first 
 efforts to suppress African slavery. He was an associate of 
 Fox, Pitt and Burke in opposition to the American war. 
 
WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 549 
 
 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 most 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 determine 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, and I am very sorry to think that we have had examples — perhaps 
 we have an example even at this moment before our eyes — to show that 
 even in the most civilized parts of the world, even in the midst of the 
 oldest civilization 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 earth, 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 
 |?arbarous times, we then carried our armaments and our passions across the 
 
550 WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 
 
 Atlantic, and we fought upon American and other distant soils for the 
 extension of our territory. 
 
 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 wars 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 West Indies, and her 
 possessions in the East ; and the whole idea of colonization, all the bene- 
 fits of colonization, were summed 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 bloodshed, 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 ours, 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 world, and to contemplate a peaceful end ; but 
 I am thankful to say that we have entirely escaped from that delusion 
 may be that we do not wisely when we boast ourselves over our fathe 
 The probability is that as their errors crept in unperceived upon them 
 they did not know their full responsibility ; so other errors in directions 
 as yet undetected may be creeping upon us. Modesty bids us in our 
 comparison, whether with other ages or with other countries, to be thankful 
 
 1 
 
 
WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 651 
 
 — 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 our 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- 
 iiees 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 carrying 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, 1888.] 
 
 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 efiicacy 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 more 
 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 GLADSTONE 
 
 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 truly and not a nominally United 
 Empire. 
 
JOHN BRIGHT (18114889) 
 
 THE FAMOUS LIBERAL ORATOR 
 
 Tir|E might justly call John Bright the great Quaker orator and 
 jf 1 1 statesman. A member of the Society of Friends in religion, 
 and a cotton manufacturer in business, he found time to take a 
 most active part in all the liberal movements of his day. A man of 
 the warmest sympathies for ther poor and oppressed, and unflinching 
 devotion to the right as above all questions of political expediency, 
 he was the right hand of Gladstone in all movements for reform, and 
 was by many given the credit of being his superior in eloquence. " He 
 is endowed," says the Saturday Review^ " with a voice that can dis- 
 course most eloquent music, and with a speech that can equally sound 
 the depths of pathos or scale the heights of indignation." 
 
 THE CRUSHING WEIGHT OF MILITARISM 
 
 [We cannot offer a more interesting example of John Bright's eloquence than his 
 earnest arraignment of the military establishment of Great Britain, in his address on 
 the Duties of Government, at Birmingham, in 1858. Under its satire and irony there 
 is the pathetic note of deep feeling for the people, crushed to earth by the weight 
 laid on them by the advocates of military conquest and glory.] 
 
 We all know and deplore that at the present moment a larger number 
 of the grown men of Europe are employed, and a larger portion of the indus- 
 try of Europe is absorbed, to provide for and maintain the enormous 
 armaments which are now on foot in every considerable continental State. 
 Assuming, then, that Europe is not much better in consequence of the 
 sacrifices we have made, let us inquire what has been the result in Eng- 
 land, because, after all, that is the question which it becomes us most to 
 consider. I believe that I understate the sum when I say that, in pursuit 
 of this will-' o '-the- wisp (the liberties of Europe and the balance of power), 
 there has been extracted from the industry of the people of this small 
 
 553 
 
664 JOHN BRIGHT 
 
 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 incomprehensible 
 astronomical distances with which we have been lately made familiar ; 
 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 summer's sun, 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 I see all this I have before me a mass of produce and of wealth 
 which I am no more able to comprehend than I am that ;^ 2, 000, 000, 000 
 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 with the fact 
 that we, as a 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 655 
 
 globe. lyCt us likewise remember that during the period of those great 
 and so-called glorious contests on the continent of Europe, every descrip- 
 tion of home reform was not only delayed, but actually crushed out of the 
 minds of the great bulk of the people. There can be no doubt whatever 
 that in 1793 England was about to realize political changes and reforms, 
 such as did not appear again until 1830, and during the period of that 
 war, which 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 
 English politics ; 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 you examine this matter, the more you will come to the con- 
 clusion which I have arrived at, that this foreign policy, this regard for the 
 ' ' liberties of Europe,' ' 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 it were some new and important discovery. In 18 15, when the great 
 war with France was ended, every Liberal in England whose politics, 
 whose hopes, and whose faith had not been crushed out of him by the 
 tyranny of the time of that war, was fully aware of this, and openly 
 admitted it; and up to 1832, and for some years afterward, it was the 
 fixed and undoubted creed of the great Liberal party. But somehow all 
 is changed. We who stand upon the old landmarks, 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 mine, who, not having succeeded in all his hopes, thought that 
 men made no progress whatever, but went round and round like a squirrel 
 ill a cage 
 
 I believe there is no permanent greatness to a nation except it be 
 Ixised 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 England who is less likely to speak irreverently of the 
 Crown and Monarchy of England than I am; but crowns, coronets, 
 mitres, 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 castles, 
 great halls, stately mansions, do not make a nation. The nation in every 
 country dwells in cottages ; and unless the light of your constitution can 
 
656 JOHN BRIGHT 
 
 shine there, unless the beauty of your legislation and the excellence of 
 your statesmanship are impressed there on the feeling& and condition of 
 the people, rely upon it, you have yet to 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 symbol 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 gods. 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, composed 
 to a great extent of your countrymen who have no political power, who 
 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 am privileged to speak to a somewhat different audience. You- 
 represent those of your great community who have a more complete edu- 
 cation, who have on some points greater intelligence, and in 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 cannot think a good thought on this subject and communicate itj 
 to good neighbors, you cannot make these points topics of discussion 
 your social circles and more general meetings, without affecting sensibl} 
 and speedily the course which the government of your country wil 
 pursue. 
 
 May I ask you then to believe, as I do most devoutly believe, that 
 the moral 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 oj 
 which we are citizens. If nations reject and deride that moral law, the! 
 is a penalty that will inevitably follow. It may not come at once ; i^ 
 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 
 
 No man in modern history stands out so boldly as orator and 
 statesman as the German Prince Bismarck. This picture repre- 
 sents him delivering an address to the German Parliament. 
 
EMILIO CASTELAR SPANISH ORATOR 
 
 Distinguished in his country because he espoused the demo- 
 cratic or popular cause. He was considered the most illustrious 
 orator of his time. 
 
CHARLES STEWART PARNELL ( J 846- 1 89 J) 
 
 THE '^UNCROWNED KDSTG^' OF IRELAND 
 
 pT^HE part which the great O'Connell took in the first half of the 
 I I I nineteenth century as the "Liberator" of Ireland, was taken 
 ^ * by Charles Parnell in the last half. During the decade from 
 1880 to 1890, when the questions of Irish rights and Home Rule 
 lod in British politics, Parnell, as leader of the Home Rule party, was 
 little short of a dictator in parliamentary affairs. Entering Parlia- 
 ment in 1875, for several years he pursued the policy of obstruction 
 with an audacity that caused great annoyance, and made him highly 
 l»opular at home. In 1880 the method of "boycotting" landlords 
 and agents was put into effect by him. He was sent to jail in 1881 
 for his forcible opposition to Gladstone's methods of dealing with Ire- 
 land, yet in 1886, when Gladstone began to work earnestly for Home 
 Rule, Parnell became his close ally. ParnelPs power vanished in 
 1 'S90 and after, as the result of a divorce suit scandal, and soon after- 
 ward he suddenly died. As an orator Parnell was ready and forcible; 
 less fluent and rhetorical than his famous predecessor, yet with much 
 i)ower of his own. In 1880 he traversed the United States as Presi- 
 iit of the Irish Land League, making there some of his best speeches, 
 lie collected on this visit $350,000 for the good of the cause. 
 
 EVICTION AND EMIGRATION 
 
 [The selection here given is from Parnell 's speech of March 4, 1880, delivered at 
 St. Ivouis, during his tour of the United States.] 
 
 I thank you for this magnificent meeting — a splendid token of your 
 Isympathy and appreciation for the cause of suflfering Ireland. It is a 
 remarkable fact that, while America, throughout the length and breadth 
 of her country, does her very utmost to show her sympathy and send her 
 
 557 
 
558 CHARLES STEWART PARNELL, 
 
 practical help to our people ; while there is scarcely any hand save Amer- 
 ica's between the starvation of large masses of the western peasantry ; 
 England alone of almost all the civilized nations does scarcely anything, 
 although close behind Ireland, to help the terrible suffering and famine 
 which now oppress that country. I speak a fact when I say that if it had 
 not been for the help which has gone from America during the last two 
 months among these, our people would have perished ere now of star-_ 
 vation 
 
 We are asked : ' * Why do you not recommend emigration to Amer- 
 ica ?" and we are told that the lands of Ireland are too crowded. They 
 are less thickly populated than those of any civilized country in tlu 
 world ; they are far less thickly populated — the rich lands of Ireland— 
 than any of your western States. It is only on the barren hillsides o: 
 Connemara and along the west Atlantic coast that we have too thick 
 population, and it is only on the unfertile lands that our people are allowec 
 to live. They are not allowed to occupy and till the rich lands ; these 
 rich lands are retained as preserves for landlords, and as vast grazing tract! 
 for cattle. And although emigration might be a temporary alleviation o: 
 the trouble in Ireland, it would be a cowardly step on our part ; it woulc 
 be running away from our difficulties in Ireland, and it would be acknowl 
 edgment of the complete conquest of Ireland by England, an acknowledg 
 ment which, please God, Ireland shall never make. 
 
 No ! we will stand by our country, and whether we are exterminatec 
 by famine to-day, or decimated by English bayonets to-morrow, the people 
 of Ireland are determined to uphold the God-given right of Ireland to 
 take her place among the nations of the world. Our tenantry are engaged 
 in a struggle of life and death with the Irish landlords. It is no use to 
 attempt to conceal the issues which have been made there. The landlords 
 say that there is not room for both tenants and landlords , and that the people 
 must go, and the people have said that the landlords must go. But it 
 may — it may, and it undoubtedly will — happen in this struggle that some 
 of our gallant .tenantry will be driven from their homes and evicted. In 
 J;hat case we will use some of the money you are entrusting us with in this 
 country for the purpose of finding happier homes in this far western land 
 for those of our expatriated people, and it will place us in a position of 
 great power, and give our people renewed confidence in their struggle, if 
 they are assured that any of them who are evicted in their attempts to 
 stand by their rights will get one hundred and fifty good acres of land in 
 Minnesota, Illinois, or some of your fine Western States. 
 
 Now the cable announces to us to-day that the Government is about 
 to attempt to renew the famous Irish Coercion Act<5 which expired this 
 
CHARLES STEWART PARNELL 559 
 
 year. I,et me explain to you what these Coercion Acts are. Under them 
 the IvOrd-Iyieutenant of Ireland is entitled to proclaim at any time, in any 
 Irish county, forbidding any inhabitant of that county to go outside of 
 his door after dark, and subjecting him to a long term of imprisonment 
 with hard labor, if he is found outside his door after dark. No man is 
 permitted to carry a gun, or to handle arms in his house ; and the farmers 
 of Ireland are not even permitted to shoot at the birds when they eat the 
 seed corn on their freshly-sowed land. Under these acts it is also possible 
 for the Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland to have any man arrested and consigned 
 to prison without charge, and without bringing him to trial ; to keep him 
 in prison as long as he pleases ; and circumstances have been known where 
 the Government has arrested prisoners under these Coercion Acts, and has 
 kept them in solitary confinement for two years, and not allowed them to 
 see a single relative or to communicate with a friend during all that period, 
 and has finally forgotten the existence of the helpless prisoners. And 
 this is the infamous code which England is now seeking to re-enact. 
 
 I tell you, when I read this dispatch, strongly impressed as I am with 
 the magnitude and vast importance of the work in which we are engaged 
 in this country, that I felt strongly tempted to hurry back to Westminster 
 in order to show this English Government whether it shall dare, in this 
 year 1880, to renew this odious code with as much facility as it has done 
 in former years. We shall then be able to put to a test the newly-forged 
 gagging rules that they have invented for the purpose of depriving the 
 Irish members of freedom of speech. And I wish to express my belief, 
 my firm conviction, that if the Irish members do their duty, it will be 
 impossible that this infamous statute can be re-enacted ; and if it again 
 finds its place upon the statute-book, I say that the day upon which the 
 royal assent is given to that Coercion Act will sound the knell of the poli- 
 tical future of the Irish people. 
 
JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN (J 836 ) 
 
 THE BRITISH ADVOCATE OF THE '* STRENUOUS LIFE'' 
 
 mHE name which has been most prominent in the political his- 
 tory of Great Britain of recent years is that of Joseph Cham- 
 berlain, whose work in bringing on the Boer war won him 
 praise at home, but reprobation — deep and almost universal — abroad. 
 Yet in the face of praise and blame alike Chamberlain went on, work- 
 ing for what seemed to him the proper course to pursue in the inter- 
 ests of Great Britain with a strenuous energy and single-mindedness 
 which assimilates him with Roosevelt in America. While active in 
 Birmingham politics, Chamberlain did not enter Parliament till 1876, 
 at forty years of age. There he soon made his mark as a Liberal 
 orator and worker, and gained wide influence outside the House, being 
 regarded as the leader of the extreme Radical party. At first a fol- 
 lower of Gladstone, he became strongly hostile to his Home Rule Bill 
 in 1886. In 1891 he made himself the leader of the Liberal Union- 
 ists in the House of Commons, and in the Salisbury Cabinet of 1895 
 was chosen as Secretary for the Colonies. It was this position that 
 gave him the controlling hand in the Jameson raid and the Boer war, 
 and brought him into such unsavory prominence. In the Balfour 
 Cabinet of 1902, Chamberlain was looked upon as the " power behind 
 the throne,'' the premier in all but the name. As a public speaker 
 he is vigorous and plausible in manner, with much natural eloquence. 
 
 THE ANOMALIES OF THE SUFFRAGE 
 
 [Reform of the suffrage was one of the great battle cries of the people of Great 
 Britain during the nineteenth century. In the 1830-32 campaign, and again, a third 
 of a century later, it almost led to revolution. Yet with all the "reform " accom- 
 plished, it remained in a very unreformed state in 1883, when Chamberlain delivered 
 the address from which we quote.] 
 560 
 
 I 
 
JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN 561 
 
 In 1858 Mr. Bright told us 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 last 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 the 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 
 Avho 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 time 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 that population is so 
 great that every two years we add another Warwick to our number. 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 
 be 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 Liberal ^nd one Con- 
 servative, and so they deprive themselves of political power. Well, that 
 is very public-spirited, and very self-denying ; but why should they be 
 36 
 
662 JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN 
 
 forced to this alternative, which is very creditable to their good feeling, 
 but very prejudicial to their political interests ? 
 
 I need not dwell further upon these anomalies. If they were only 
 anomalies I should not much care, but they are real obstacles to the legis- 
 lation that is required in the interests of the people. Now, just let me 
 ^ 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- 
 tion ; and remember, the class which is excluded is the most numerous 
 class; but it is all one class, and every other class is represented in its last 
 man. Well, then, in the next place, of the remainder four-fifths are out- 
 voted by one-fifth, aiid so it happens that one- twelfth of what ought to be 
 the whole constituency of the Kingdom returns a majority of the House 
 of Commons. If the one-twelfth really represented the free voice of the 
 people, it would not be of so much consequence ; but you know, in many 
 cases at all events, it only represents the influences of some great terri- 
 torial family, or some local magnate. 
 
 Among the numerous discoveries which we owe to science, I was 
 much interested some time ago in reading of one which I think was called 
 the megaphone. Its province was to expand and develop the sounds 
 which were intrusted to it. By its means a whisper becomes a roar. 
 Well, at every general election you hear the roar of the parliamentary 
 representative system, and some people are deceived ; they think it the 
 thunderous voice of the people to which they are listening. But if they 
 would only trace it to its source they would find it was the whisper of 
 some 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- 
 ing from Augustine and Chrysostom, of the 
 early Church, down to the famous preachers of 
 the reign of Louis XIV., none of British birth were 
 included. Yet the island of Great Britain has been 
 by no means lacking 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 stake. 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. 
 
 663 
 
HUGH LATIMER (t472-J555) 
 
 A MARTYR TO CONSCIENCE 
 
 mHE persecution against the Protestants of England by ^' Bloody 
 Queen Mary'' found its most distinguished victims in Bishops 
 Latimer, of Worcester, and Ridley, of London, and Archbishop 
 Cranmer, of Canterbury. Of these eminent sufferers Latimer showed 
 the highest courage. When bound to the stake, side by side with 
 Bishop Ridley, to be burned to death for conscience sake, he said : 
 "Be of good cheer. Master Ridley, and play the man ; for we shall 
 this day kindle such a torch, by God's grace, in England, as I trust 
 shall never be put out." In less than a century his word was made 
 good in the great Puritaii Revolution. Hugh Latimer wa& through- 
 out his life distinguished for courage, zeal and piety, and early gained 
 distinction as an eloquent preacher of the Reformed faith. 
 
 THE SERMON OF THE PLOW 
 
 [I/atimer ranks among the earliest of pulpit orators who won fame in England, 
 where his eloqnence was long unsurpassed. Of his existing sermons, the most favor- 
 able example of his powers is that in which he neatly compares the labors of the 
 preacher and the plowman, and draws a salutary lesson from the comparison.] 
 
 Preaching of the Gospel is one of God's plow-works, and the preacher 
 is one of God's plowmen. Ye may not be offended with my similitude, 
 in 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 similitude, 
 for I have been slandered of some persons for such things. But as preach- 
 ers must be wary and circumspect, that they give not any just occasion to 
 be slandered and ill-spoken of by the hearers, so must not the auditors be 
 offended without cause. For Heaven is in the Gospel likened to a mus- 
 tard seed ; it is compared also to a piece of leaven ; and Christ saith that 
 at the last day he will come like a thief. And what dishonor is this to 
 564 
 
kUGH LATIMER 565 
 
 God ? Or what derogation is this to Heaven ? Ye may not, then, I say, 
 be offended with my similitude for because I liken preaching to a plow- 
 man's labor, and a prelate to a plowman. 
 
 But now you will ask me whom I call a prelate. A prelate is that 
 man, whatever he be, that hath a flock to be taught of him ; whosoever 
 hath any spiritual charge in the faithful congregation, and whosoever he 
 be that hath cure of souls. And well may the preacher and the plowman 
 be likened together : First, for their labor at all seasons of the year ; for 
 there is no time of the year in which the plowman hath not some special 
 work to do — as in my country, in I,eicestershire, 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 also may be likened together for" the 
 diversity of works and variety of offices that they have to do. For as the 
 plowman first setteth forth his plow, and then tilleth his land, and breaketh 
 it in furrows, and sometimes ridgeth it up again ; and at another time har- 
 roweth it and clotteth it, and sometimes dungeth it and hedgeth it, dig- 
 geth it and weedeth it, purgeth it and maketh it clean ; so the prelate, the 
 preacher, hath many diverse offices to do. He hath first a busy work to 
 bring his parishioners to a right faith, as Paul calleth it ; and not a swerv- 
 ing faith, but to a faith that embraceth Christ, and trusteth to his merits ; 
 a lively faith ; a justifying faith ; a faith that maketh a man righteous 
 without respect of works ; as ye have it very well declared and set forth 
 in the homily. He hath then a busy work, I say, to bring his flock to a 
 right faith, and then to confirm them in the same faith — now casting them 
 down with the law, and with threatenings of God for sin ; now ridging 
 them up again with the Gospel, and with the promises of God's favor; 
 now weeding them by telling them their faults, and making them forsake 
 sin ; now clotting them, by breaking their stony hearts, and by making 
 them supple-hearted, and making tliem to have hearts of flesh — that is, 
 soft hearts, and apt for doctrine to enter in ; now teaching to know God 
 rightly, and to know their duty to God and their neighbors ; now exhort- 
 ing them when they know their duty that they do it, and be diligent in it ; 
 so that they have a continual work to do. 
 
 Great is their business, and, therefore, great should be their hire. 
 They have great labors, and, therefore, they ought to have good livings, 
 that they may commodiously feed their flock — for the preaching of the 
 Word of God unto the people is called meat. Scripture calleth it meat, 
 not strawberries, that come but once a year, and tarry not long, but are 
 soon gone — but it is meat ; it is no dainties. The people must have meat 
 that must be familiar and continual, and daily given unto th^m to feed 
 upon. Many make a strawberry of it, ministering it but once a year ; 
 
666 HUGH LATIMER 
 
 but such do not the office of good prelates. For Christ saith : ** Who 
 think you is a wise and faithful servant? He that giveth meat in due 
 time." So that he must at all times convenient preach diligently ; there- 
 fore, saith he : " Who trow ye is a faithful servant ? ' ' He speaketh it as 
 though it were a rare thing to find such a one, and as though he should 
 say there be but few of them to find in the world. And how few of Ihetii 
 there be throughout this world that give meat to their flock as they should 
 do, the visitors can best tell. Too few, too few, the more is the pity, and 
 never so few as now. 
 
 By this, then, it appeareth that a prelate, or any that hath cure of 
 souls, must diligently and substantially work and labor. Therefore saith 
 Paul to Timothy : " He that desireth to have the office of a bishop, or a 
 prelate, that man desireth a good work." Then, if it be a good work, it 
 is work ; ye can but make a work of it. It is God's work, God's plow, 
 and that plow God would have still going. Such, then, as loiter and live 
 idly are not good prelates or ministers. And of such as do not preach 
 and teach and do their duties, God saith by his prophet Jeremy : ' ' Cursed 
 be the man that doeth the work of God fraudulently, guilefully, or deceit- 
 fully ; " some books have it iiegligenter^ ''negligently," or " slackly." 
 How many such -prelates, how many such bishops, Lord, for thy mercy, 
 are there now in England ! And what shall we in this case do ? Shall 
 we company with them ? O Lord, for thy mercy ! Shall we not company 
 with them ? O Lord, whither shall we flee from them ? But " cursed be 
 he that doeth the work of God negligently or guilefully." A sore word 
 for them that are negligent in discharging their office or have done it 
 fraudulently ; for there is the thing that maketh the people ill. . , . . 
 
 And now I would ask a strange question : Who is the most diligent 
 bishop and prelate in all England that passeth all the rest in doing his 
 office? I can tell, for I know him who he is; I know him well. But 
 now I think I see you listening and hearkening that I should name him. 
 There is one that passeth all the others, and is the most diligent prelate 
 and preacher in all England. And will ye know who it is ? I will tell 
 you ; it is the devil. He is the most diligent preacher of all others ; he 
 is never out of his diocese ; he is never from his cure ; ye shall never 
 find him unoccupied ; he is ever in his parish ; he keepeth residence at 
 time ; ye shall never find him out of the way ; call for him when you will, 
 he is ever at home ; the diligentest preacher in all the realm ; he is ever at 
 his plow ; no lording nor loitering can hinder him ; he is ever applyi 
 his business ; ye shall never find him idle, I warrant you ! 
 
 1 
 
 \ 
 
JOHN KNOX (t 5054 572) 
 
 THE FATHER OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH 
 
 IN his short funeral oration over the dead body of John Knox, 
 Murray, the Regent of Scotland, said, '' Here lies he who 
 "■^ never feared the face of man/' These words fitly indicate the 
 character of the hardy and indomitable religious reformer of Scot- 
 land. A Roman Catholic until 1542, he became after that year a 
 zealous preacher of the Protestant doctrines, till then hardly known 
 in Scotland. He suffered for his faith. Assassins were employed to 
 take his life. A castle in which he took refuge was assailed and cap- 
 tured, and for nineteen months he was held captive in the French 
 galleys. When Queen Mary came to the English throne, his friends 
 induced him to leave Scotland, and he retired to Geneva, where he 
 became a friend of John Calvin. In 1559 he returned to Scotland, 
 and here became the 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 
 principles. Froude says that he was " perhaps in that extraordinary 
 age its most extraordinary man, whose character became the mould 
 in which the later fortunes of his country were cast." 
 
 GOD^S POWER ABOVE THAT OF KINGS 
 
 [The hardiness of John Knox did not flinch in the face of kingly power, and he 
 thundered against tyranny as boldly as against any form of impiety. The following 
 extract is from his Edinburgh sermon of August 19, 1565, its text being Isaiah xxvi, 
 13-16. Its tone was not a safe one in those autocratic days, but Knox had no fear of 
 living men.] 
 
 567 
 
668 JOHN KNOX 
 
 The first thing, then, that God requires of him who is called to the 
 honor of a king, is the knowledge of His will revealed 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 if 
 they strike where God has not commanded, they are but murderers ; and 
 if they spare where God has commanded to strike, they and their thrones 
 are criminal and guilty of the wickedness which abounds upon the face of 
 the earth, for lack of punishment. 
 
 Oh that kings and princes would consider what account shall be 
 craved of them, as well for their ignorance and misknowledge of God's 
 will as for the neglecting of their office ! 
 
 Wouldst thou, O Scotland ! have a king to reign over thee in justice, 
 equity, and mercy ? Subject thou thyself to the I^ord thy God, obey His 
 commandments, and magnify thou the Word that calleth unto thee, 
 '' This is the way, walk in it ; " and if thou wilt not, flatter not thyself; 
 the same justice remains this day in God to punish thee, Scotland, and 
 thee, Edinburgh, especially, which before punished the land of Judah and 
 the city of Jerusalem. Every realm or nation, saith the prophet Jeremiah, 
 that likewise offendeth shall be likewise punished, but if thou shalt see 
 impiety placed in the seat of justice above thee, so that in the throne of 
 God (as Solomon complains) reigns nothing but 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 L<ord, 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 
 lyord our God, and given upright obedience unto the same, God would 
 have multiplied our peace, and would have rewarded our obedience 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." 
 
JOHN WESLEY (1 7034 79 1) 
 
 THE ZEALOUS ORATOR OF METHODISM 
 
 I A JT the English University of Oxford, about 1729, a group of 
 I /A I religious enthusiasts among the students, including John and 
 Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, James Hervey, and others, 
 associated themselves into an association so strict and methodical in 
 its habits, that they were given the name of Methodists, and were 
 also called, in ridicule, Bible Moths, the Godly Club, and Bible Bigots. 
 John Wesley was recognized as their leader, and almost ruined his 
 liealth by fasting and austerity. In 1735 he and his brother Charles 
 went on a mission to Georgia, but were not very successful there. It 
 was not until after his return to England that he broke from the cere- 
 monies of the English Church and founded the sect since known as 
 ^lethodists. The clergy of the Established Church then closed their 
 til arches against him, and he followed Whitefield's example of 
 preaching in the open air. This he continued with extraordinary 
 success. For half a century he continued these out-door ministra- 
 tions, at times from 10,000 to 30,000 people waiting for hours to hear 
 liim. During this time he traveled about the country 250,000 miles 
 and preached 40,000 sermons, doing also a great quantity of literary 
 w ork. His preaching was chiefly among the working classes, and 
 his life was frequently in danger from hostile mobs; but he escaped 
 all perils, and in his old age his journeys became triumphal proces- 
 sions. Few religious teachers have done so much good as Wesley, 
 esi)ecially among the lowest classes of the poor, whom he earnestly 
 sought to bring into the fold of Christ. 
 
 IRRELIGION AMONG COLLEGE PEOPLE 
 
 [On August 24, 1744, Wesley preached his last sermon before the University cJf 
 Oxford, to a very large audience, composed of the authorities and students of the 
 
 569 
 
570 JOHN WESLEY 
 
 University, and others of note. This celebrated sermon, while deeply impressing 
 many of his hearers, gave unpardonable offense to the authorities. The reasons for 
 this sentiment, and the courage of the preacher in taking the professors and students 
 so severely to account, are sufl&ciently evident in the extract here given.] 
 
 I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, if ye do account me 
 a madman or a fool, yet as a fool bear with me. It is utterly needful that 
 some one should use great plainness of speech towards you. It is more 
 especially needful at this time ; for who knoweth but it is the last ? And 
 who will use this plainness, if I do not ? Therefore I, even I, will speak. 
 And I adjure you, by the living God, that ye steel not your hearts against 
 receiving a blessing at my hands. 
 
 Let me ask you, then, in tender love, and in the spirit of meekness, 
 Is this city a Christian city ? Is Christianity, Scriptural Chris tianityj 
 found here? Are we, considered as a community of men, so filled with 
 the Holy Ghost as to enjoy in our hearts, and show forth in our lives, the| 
 genuine fruits of that Spirit ? Are all the magistrates, all heads and gov- 
 ernors of colleges and halls, and their respective societies, (not to speak] 
 of the inhabitants of the town) of one heart and soul ? Is the love of] 
 God shed abroad in our hearts ? Are our tempers the same that were in | 
 Christ, and are our lives agreeable thereto ? 
 
 In the fear and in the presence of the great God, before whom both! 
 you and I shall shortly appear, I pray you that are in authority over us, 
 whom I reverence for your office sake, to consider, Are you filled with the 
 Holy Ghost ? Are ye lively portraitures of Him whom ye are appointed 
 to represent among men ? Ye magistrates and rulers, are all the thoughts 
 of your hearts, all your tempers and desires, suitable to your high calling? 
 Are all your words like unto those which come out of the mouth of God ? 
 Is there in all your actions dignity and love ? 
 
 Ye venerable men, who are more especially called to form the tender 
 minds of youth, are you filled with the Holy Ghost ? with all those fruits 
 of the Spirit, which your important ofiBce so indispensably requires ? Do 
 you continually remind those under your care that the one rational end of 
 all our studies is to know, love and serve the only true God, and Jesus 
 Christ whom He hath sent ? Do you inculcate upon them, day by day, that 
 without love all learning is but splendid ignorance, pompous folly, vexa- 
 tion of spirit ? Has all you teach an actual tendency to the love of God, 
 and of all mankind for His sake ? Do you put forth all your strength in 
 the vast work you have undertaken ; using every talent which God hath 
 lent you, and that to the uttermost of your power ? 
 
 What example is set them [the youth] by us who enjoy the bene 
 cence of our forefathers ; by fellows, students, scholars ; more especij 
 
UNIVERSITY 
 
 Of 
 
 JOHN WESLEY^g^UFORN^,^^ 671 
 
 those who are of some rank and eminence ? Do ye, brethren, abound in 
 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 
 1)y 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 you obedient 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 your strength, crowding as much 
 work into every day as it can contain ? Rather, do you not waste day 
 after 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, 
 are there not of you who glory in their shame ? Do not many of you 
 take the name of God 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 and this congregation, I own myself to 
 have been of that number ; solemnly swearing to observe all those customs 
 which I then knew nothing of; and those statutes, which I did not so 
 much 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 you 
 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 WHITEFIELD (J7J4-I770) 
 
 THE FAMOUS OPEN-AIR PREACHER 
 
 A MAN of powerful voice and inspiring eloquence, George White- 
 field adopted the habit of preaching in the open air, drawing 
 audiences so imrhense that it seemed impossible for any man 
 to make himself heard by them. A fellow-student at Oxford with 
 John and Charles Wesley, he entered into religious fellowship with 
 them, and soon began speaking with great power and eloquence, 
 crowded congregations listening to him with enthusiastic attention. 
 It was his exclusion from the churches of Bristol that set him to 
 preaching in the open air. For some five years he maintained the 
 Wesleyan doctrine of Methodism, but about 1741 he adopted the Cal- 
 vinistic doctrine of predestination, and a break between 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- 
 port, Massachusetts, in 1770, on his seventh visit. 
 
 A WARNING AGAINST WORLDLY WAYS 
 
 [It was not the creed of the Church of England to which Wesley and Whitefield 
 objected, 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 taken, in which Whitefield openly denounce 
 the Church of English Ministers for encouraging the wicked by their example, excite 
 much feeling when delivered.] 
 
 My brethren, if we will live godly we must suffer persecution. Wc 
 must no more expect to go to Heaven without being persecuted, than 
 be happy without being holy. If you lead godly lives, all the sons oi| 
 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 are counted as a parcel 
 572 
 
^3^^ 
 
 distinguished pulpit orators 
 ^ Great Britain 
 
 PULPIT ORATORS OF FOUR CENTURIES 
 
 Hugh Latimer was an ardent and eloquent preacher of the Pro- 
 testant religion in 1742. The other four belong to the igth 
 Century and were distinguished pulpit orators. 
 
 
GEORGE WHITEFIELD 573 
 
 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 country ; 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 you would conform to the ways, man- 
 ners, and customs of the world ; if you would go to a play, or ball, or 
 masquerade ; 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 run 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 because you 
 are for singing hymns, and praising the I^ord Jesus Christ, they think you 
 enthusiasts. Indeed, our polite gentry would like religion very well if it 
 (lid 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 
 w henever 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 of the Church of England to frequent those 
 places of public entertainment which are condemned by all serious and 
 good men ? Is it not inconsistent with all goodness for ministers to frequent 
 play-houses, balls, masquerades? Would 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 frequent is it for the poor and illiterate 
 people to be drawn away more by example than precept ? How frequent 
 is it for them to say, " Sure there can be no crime 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 
 
674 GEORGE WHITEFIELD 
 
 people, who are too willing to follow the examples of their teachers. 
 The examples of the generality of the clergy occasion many persons, com- 
 mitted to their charge, to run to the devil's entertainments. Good God 
 are these the men who are charging others with making too great a nois« 
 about religion? 
 
 INNOCENT DIVERSIONS 
 
 They talk of innocent diversions and recreations. For my part, 
 know of no diversion but that of doing good. If you can find any diver- 
 sion which is not contrary to your baptismal vow, of renouncing th 
 pomps and vanities of this wicked world ; if you can find any diversion, 
 which tends to the glory of God ; if you can find any diversion which you 
 would be willing to be found at by the Lord Jesus Christ, I give you my 
 free license to go to them. But if, on the contrary, they are found to 
 keep sinners from coming to the Lord Jesus Christ ; if they are a means 
 to harden the heart, and such as you would not willingly be found in 
 when you come to die, then, my dear brethren, keep from them. Many 
 of you may think I have gone too far, but I shall go a great deal farther 
 yet. I will attack the devil in his strongest holds, and bear my testimony 
 against our fashionable and polite entertainments. What pleasure is there 
 in spending several hours at cards ? Is it not misspending your precious 
 time, which should be spent in working out your salvation with fear and 
 trembling ? Do play-houses, horse-racing, balls, and assemblies tend to 
 promote the glory of God ? Would you be willing to have your souls 
 demanded of you while you were at one of these places ? What good can 
 come from a horse-race, from abusing God Almighty's creatures, and 
 putting them to a use He never designed them for ? The play-houses are 
 nurseries of debauchery, and the supporters of them are encouragers and 
 promoters of all the evil that is done there. They are the bane of the age, 
 and will be the destruction of the frequenters of them. Is it not high time 
 for the true ministers of Jesus Christ to lift up their voices as a trumpet, 
 and cry aloud against the diversions of the age ? If you have tasted of 
 the love of God, and have felt His power upon your souls, you would no 
 more go to a play than you would run your heads into a furnace. And 
 what occasions these places to be so much frequented is the clergy's 
 making no scruple to be at these polite entertainments themselves. They 
 frequent play-houses ; they go to horse-races ; they go to balls and assem- 
 blies ; they frequent taverns, and follow all the entertainments that the 
 age affords; and, yet, these are the persons who should advise their hear- 
 ers to refrain from them. They always go disguised, for they are afraid 
 of being seen in their gowns and cassocks ; for their consciences inform 
 them that it is not an example fit for the ministers of the gospel to set. 
 
 
\ 
 
 JOHN HENRY NEWMAN (J 801= 1 890) 
 
 A BRITISH CATHOLIC 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 w^hom 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 
 l)y 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 
 Tatholic sermons, though less striking for their pathos, are marked by 
 still finer rhetoric and literary finish. Aside from his reputation as 
 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 
 
 [From one of Newman's " Oxford Sermons " we make a brief extract in illus- 
 tration of his style of oratory, and also for the salutary lesson it conveys and the 
 eflfective manner in which the weakness and wickedness of money seeking, for itself 
 alone, is presented. It was preached from the text, ** Woe unto ye that are rich, for 
 iye have received your consolation."] 
 
 676 
 
676 JOHN HENRY NEWMAN 
 
 I say, then, that it is a part of Christian caution to see that our 
 engagements do not become pursuits. Engagements are our portion, but 
 pursuits are for the most part of our own choosing. We may be engaged 
 in worldty business without pursuing worldly objects. *' Not slothful in 
 business," yet "serving the Lord." In this, then, consists the danger 
 of the pursuit of gain, as by trade and the like. It is the most common 
 and widely spread of all excitements. It is one in which everyone almost 
 may indulge, nay, and will be praised by the world for indulging. And 
 it lasts through life — in that differing from the amusements and pleasures 
 of the world, which are short-lived and succeed one after another. Dissi- 
 pation of mind, which these amusements create, is itself, indeed, miserable 
 enough ; but far worse than this dissipation is the concentration of mind 
 upon some worldly object which admits of being constantly pursued : an 
 such is the pursuit of gain. 
 
 Nor is it a slight aggravation of the evil that anxiety is almost sure 
 to attend it. A life of money-getting is a life of care. From the first 
 there is a fretful anticipation of loss in various ways to depress and unset- 
 tle the mind, nay, to haunt it, till a man finds he can think about nothing 
 else, and is unable to give his mind to religion from the constant whirl of 
 business in which he is involved. It is well this should be understood. 
 You may hear men talk as if the pursuit of wealth was the business of 
 life. They will argue that, by the law of nature, a man is bound to gain 
 a livelihood for his family, and that he finds a reward in doing so — an 
 innocent and honorable satisfaction — as he adds one sum to another, and 
 counts up his gains. And, perhaps, they go on to argue that it is the 
 very duty of man, since Adam's fall, '' in the sweat of his face," by effort 
 and anxiety, " to eat bread." How strange it is that they do not remem- 
 ber Christ's gracious promise, repealing that original curse and obviating 
 the necessity of any real pursuit after "the meat that perisheth." In 
 order that we might be delivered from the bondage of corruption, He has 
 expressly told us that the necessaries of life shall never fail His faithful 
 follower any more than the meal and oil the widow woman of Sarepta ; 
 that while he is bound to labor for his family, he need not be engrossed 
 by his toil ; that while he is busy, his heart may be at leisure for the 
 Lord. " Be not anxious, saying : What shall we eat, or what shall we 
 drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed ? For after all these things do 
 the Gentiles seek ; and your Heavenly father knoweth that ye have need 
 of these things." 
 
 I have now given the main reason why the pursuit of gain, whe 
 in a large or a small way, is prejudicial to our spiritual interests — tha' 
 fixes the mind upon an object of this world. Yet others remain behi 
 
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN 677 
 
 Money is a sort of creation, and gives the acquirer even raore than the 
 possessor an imagination of his own power, and tends to make him idolize 
 self. Again, what we have hardly won, we are unwilling to part with ; 
 so that a man who has himself made his wealth will commonly be penu- 
 rious, or at least will not part with it except in exchange for what will 
 reflect credit on himself and increase his importance. Even when his 
 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, insinuates itself. Very unlikely, therefore, is it that he 
 should be liberal towards God ; for religious offerings are an expenditure 
 without 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 
 us against wealth, and trust in wealth, and we shall have abundant mat- 
 ter for serious thought. 
 
 37 
 
HENRY EDWARD MANNING (J 8084 892) 
 
 ROME'S FAMOUS CONVERT 
 
 MANNING, a graduate of Oxford, began his ecclesiastical career as 
 a rector in the Episcopal Church of Great Britain, in which he 
 "^ was made Archdeacon of Chichester in 1840. Eleven years 
 later he made a decided sensation by going over to the Cathohc 
 Church. In 1865 he was appointed Archbishop of Westminster, and 
 ten years later was raised to the high dignity of Cardinal. He took part 
 in the CEcumenical Council at Rome in 1869-70, and in it maintained 
 the doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope. As an orator Manning 
 ranked high among English pulpit speakers, his sermons being 
 marked by purity of diction, strength of thought and directness of 
 style. 
 
 ROME THE ETERNAL 
 
 [On the two thousand six hundred and fifteenth anniversary of the founding of 
 Rome Manning delivered an oration on the subject of the Eternal City, especially in 
 its aspect as the capital of the Church, whose sentiments seem to solve the problem 
 of his conversion from Protestantism to Catholicism. His promotion to the Care 
 nalate is thought to have been influenced by this sermon. We append an ext 
 showing its character.] 
 
 I know of no point of view in which the glory of Rome is more coi 
 spicuons than in its civil mission to the races of the world. When tl 
 seat of empire was translated from Rome to Constantinople, all the cultui 
 and civilization of Italy seemed to be carried away to enrich and adora^ 
 the East. It seemed as if God had decreed to reveal to the world what 
 His Church could do without the world, and what the world could not do 
 without the Church. A more melancholy history than that of the Byzan- 
 tine Empire is nowhere to be read. It is one long narrative of the 
 usurpation and insolent dominion of the world over the Church, whicl 
 becoming schismatical and isolated, fell easily under its imperial maste 
 578 
 
HENRY EDWARD MANNING 579 
 
 With all its barbaric splendor and imperial power, what has Constanti- 
 nople accomplished for the civilization or the Christianity of the East ? 
 If the salt had kept its savor, it would not have been cast out and trodden 
 under the feet of the Eastern Antichrist. 
 
 While this was accomplishing in the East, in the West a new world 
 was rising, in order, unity, and fruitfulness, under the action of the Pon- 
 tiffs. Even the hordes which inundated Italy were changed by them from 
 the wildness of nature to the life of Christian civilization. From St. Leo 
 to St. Gregory the Great, Christian Europe may be said not to exist ! 
 Rome stood alone under the rule of its pontiffs, while as yet empires and 
 kingdoms had no existence. Thus, little by little, and one by one, the 
 nations which now make up the unity of Christendom were created, 
 trained and formed into political societies. First lyombardy, then Gaul, 
 then Spain, then Germany, then Saxon England ; then the first germs of 
 lesser States began to appear. But to whom did they owe the laws, the 
 principles, and the influences which made their existence possible, 
 coherent, and mature ? It was to the Roman Pontiffs 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 Pontiffs ; neverthe- 
 less, they have maintained inviolate their independence with their sacred 
 deposit of faith and of jurisdiction, through all ages and through all con- 
 flicts, from the beginning 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 be laid upon His ark, even 
 for its support. 
 
 The " stone cut without hands," which became a great mountain and 
 filled the whole earth, is typical, not only of the expansion and universal- 
 ity of the Church, but of its mysterious and supernatural character. No 
 human hand has accomplished its greatness. The hand 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 
 
580 HENRY EDWARD MANNING 
 
 next in its perpetuity, is a miracle of Divine power. God alone could 
 'give it to His people ; God alone could preserve it to them, and them in 
 it. What more wonderful sight than to see a Franciscan monk leading 
 the Via Crucis in the Flavian Amphitheatre, or the Passionist missiona- 
 ries conversing peacefully among the ilexes and the vaults where the wild 
 beasts from Africa thirsted for the blood of the Christians ? Who has 
 prevailed upon the world for one thousand five hundred years to fall back 
 as Attilla did from Christian Rome ? Who has persuaded its will, and 
 paralyzed its ambitions and conflicting interests ? Such were my thoughts 
 the other day when the Sovereign Pontiff, surrounded by the princes and 
 pastors of the Church, was celebrating the festival of the Resurrection 
 over the Confession of St. Peter. I thought of the ages past, when, in the 
 amphitheatre of Nero, within which we stood, thousands of martyrs fell 
 beneath the arms of the heathen. And now, the Rex Pacificus, the Vicar 
 of the Prince of Peace, there holds his court and offers over the tomb of 
 the Apostle the unbloody sacrifice of our redemption. The legions of 
 Rome have given way before a people who have never lifted a hand in 
 war. They have taken the city of the Caesars, and hold it to this day. 
 The more than imperial court which surrounded the Vicar of Jesus Christ 
 surpassed the glories of the Empire. " This is the victory which over- 
 cometh the world, even our faith." The noblest spectacle upon earth is 
 an unarmed man whom all the world cannot bend by favor or by fear.^ 
 Such a man is essentially above all worldly powers. And such, eminei 
 among the inflexible, is he, the Pontiff and King, who, in the midst of the 
 confusions and rebellions of the whole earth, bestowed that day his bene 
 diction upon the city and the world. 
 
 h 
 
ARTHUR PENHRYN STANLEY (I8J5-J88J) 
 
 THE ELOQUENT DEAN OF WESTMINSTER 
 
 mHE life of Dean Stanley we may briefly state. Son of the 
 Bishop of Norwich, he studied at Rugby under the famous 
 Dr. Arnold, whose '' Life " he afterward wrote — a work which 
 was very widely read. Graduating later at Oxford, he became chap- 
 lain to Prince Albert, and in 1856 Professor of Ecclesiastical History 
 at Oxford. Two years later he was appointed a Canon of Christ 
 Church, and in 1864 became Dean of Westminster, which position he 
 filled till his death in 1881. 
 
 Stanley was a man of the highest spirit of tolerance and widest 
 sympathy, his freedom from prejudice being shown in his charity for 
 the heresies of Bishop Colenso and his willingness to preach in Scotch 
 Presbyterian pulpits. While true religion and morality were to him 
 sacred, for systematic theology he had no respect, and he regarded as 
 utter inanity the controversies of the priesthood about postures, lights, 
 vestments, etc. As a preacher, he exercised a wide influence, and as 
 an author he produced various meritorious works on theological and 
 other subjects. 
 
 THE LESSON OF PALMERSTON'S LIFE 
 [On October 29, 1865, shortly after the death of England's popular Premier, 
 Ivord Palmerston, Stanley delivered in Westminster Abbey a notable discourse upon 
 his life and work. There is no better example of his powers as an orator than this 
 eulogistic essay, and we offer from it the following suggestive extract.] 
 
 Each human soul gifted above the souls of common men leaves, as it 
 passes away from this lower world, a light peculiar to itself. As in a 
 mountainous 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 
 
 681 
 
582 ARTHUR PENHRYN STANLEY 
 
 relative position it has occupied, a new and separate lesson is taught by it 
 of truth or of duty, of wisdom or of hope. What, then, are the special 
 lessons which we learn from the life and character of the remarkable man 
 who has just been taken away from us, and to whose memory so great a 
 national tribute has just been paid ? First, there is this singular peculi- 
 arity, that the gifts to which the eminence of the departed statesman 
 was due were gifts far more within the attainment of us all than is com- 
 monly supposed. It has been said of Judas Maccabeus, that of all of the 
 military chiefs of his time he was the one who accomplished the greatest 
 results with the smallest amount of external resources. Of our late chief 
 it might no less truly be said, that of all political leaders he achieved 
 great success by the most homely and ordinary means. It was that which 
 made his life in so many respects an example and an encouragement to 
 all. The persevering devotion of his days and nights to the public service, 
 and the toil and endurance of more than half a century in the various 
 high stations in which he was employed ; these are qualities which might 
 be imitated by every single person. They, whoever they may be, who 
 are disposed, as so many young men are in the present day, to give them- 
 selves up to ease and self-indulgence — avoiding, if they can, everything 
 which costs continued trouble, everything which demands honest, earnest, 
 hard work — must remember that not by much faint-hearted, idle care- 
 lessness can either God or man be served to any purpose ; or the true end 
 of any human soul be attained for either this life or the life to come. 
 
 lyCt men, whoever they may be, who are working zealously, honestly, 
 and humbly in their several stations, work on the more zealously and 
 faithfully from this day forward, reflecting that in the honors paid to one 
 who was in this respect but a fellow-laborer with themselves, the nation 
 has, in the sight of God, set its seal on the value of work, on the noble- 
 ness of toil, on the grandeur of long days of labor, on the dignity of plod- 
 ding, persevering diligence. Again, the departed statesman won his way 
 not so much by eloquence, or genius, or far-sighted greatness, as by lesser 
 graces of good humor, gaiety and kindness of heart, tact, and readiness — 
 lesser graces, doubtless, of which some of the highest characters have been^ 
 destitute, but graces which are not the less gifts of God, and which evei 
 in the house of God we do well to reverence and admire. They who ma] 
 think it of little moment to take oifense at the slightest affront ; who b] 
 their presence throw a chill over whatever society they enter ; they wh( 
 make the lives of others miserable by wounding their keenest sensibili- 
 ties ; they who poison discussion and embitter controversy by pushing 
 particular views on to the extremest consequences, and by widening dif- 
 ferences between man and man ; they who think it their duty to make the 
 
ARTHUR PENHRYN STANLEY 683 
 
 worst of every one from 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 may be, higher 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 deepened 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 itself ; 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 of 
 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. Let men 
 forget, too, in the past and present generations, all that is behind the best 
 spirit of our age ; all that is before in the true spirit of the Gospel ; all 
 that is behind in the requirements 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 great 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 English 
 citizen ; and he who answers not to this high call is utterly unworthy of 
 his birthright as a member of this, our kingly commonwealth 
 
CHARLES RSPURGEON (J 834- J 892) 
 
 LONDON^S FAMOUS PULPIT ORATOR 
 
 aMONG the Dissenters * of England, made notable in the past by 
 such famous orators as Wesley and Whitefield, there have 
 been many preachers of great power in recent times, promi- 
 nent among whom may be named Charles H. Spurgeon, a man of the 
 oratorical type of Talmage in America, and resembling him in the 
 great success of his ministrations. His career as a preacher of the 
 Gospel began in 1854, when he was made pastor of the New Park 
 Street Chapel, London; but his power of attracting an audience was 
 so great that, a few years later, was erected for him the vast Metro- 
 politan Tabernacle, capable of seating 6000 persons. Connected with 
 this were afterward built almshouses, a pastor's college and an orphan^ 
 age. Spurgeon's sermons were printed weekly from 1855 onward, and 
 had an average issue of 30,000. A member of the Baptist Union, he 
 withdrew from that body in 1887, through dissatisfaction with certain 
 of its actions. As an orator Spurgeon was highly gifted, combining; 
 fervor of manner with a quaint humor; while his voice was mar-j 
 velous in clearness and outreach. He published in all over a hundred^ 
 volumes of religious literature. 
 
 THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE BIBLE 
 
 [From a sermon of Spurgeon's on the subject of the 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 my 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 name given in England to those Protestants who dissented from the discipline or mode < 
 worship of the Established Church, and formed new sects, with doctrinal or other differences. 
 
 584 
 
CHARLES H. SPURGEON 685 
 
 I turn on and I find others. Sometimes I see David is the penman, at 
 other times, Solomon. Here I read Micah, then Amos, then Hosea. As 
 I turn further on, to the more luminous pages of the New Testament, I 
 see Matthew, Mark, lyuke, and John, Paul, Peter, James, and others ; but 
 when I shut up the book, I ask 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 
 religion answers, " No ! " This volume is the writing of the living God; 
 each letter was penned with an Almighty finger ; each word in it dropped 
 from the Everlasting lips, 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 may be that Solomon sang 
 canticles of love, or gave forth words of consummate wisdom, but God 
 directed his lips and made the preacher eloquent. If I follow the thun- 
 dering Nahum 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 rugged, fiery chapters of Peter, who speaks of the fire devour- 
 ing God's enemies ; if I turn to Jude, who launches forth anathemas upon 
 the foes of God, — everywhere I find God speaking : it is God's voice, not 
 man's ; the words are God's, the words of the Eternal, the Invisible, the 
 Almighty, the Jehovah of this earth. The Bible is God's Bible ; and 
 when I see it I seem to hear a voice springing up from it, saying, * * I am 
 the book of God ; man, read me. I am God's writing ; open my leaf, for 
 I was penned by God ; read it, for He is my author, and you will see 
 Him visible and manifest ever5^where." "I have written to him the 
 great things of my law." 
 
 How do you know that God wrote the book ? That is just what I shall 
 not try to prove to you. I could, if I pleased, do so to a demonstration, 
 for there are arguments enough, there are reasons enough, did I care to 
 occupy your time to-night in bringing them before you ; but I shall do no 
 such thing. I might tell you, if I pleased, that the grandeur of the style 
 above that of any mortal writing, and that all the poets who ever 
 isted could not, with all their works united, give us* such sublime 
 [)oetry and such mighty language as is to be found in the Scriptures. I 
 ight insist upon it that the subjects of which it treats are beyond the 
 Luman intellect ; that man could never have invented the grand doctrine 
 f 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 
 
586 CHARLES H. SPURGEON 
 
 majestic idea of Providence, that all things are ordered according 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 may 
 read it ; and I might mention a hundred more things, which would all 
 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 profess 
 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 
 profess 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 my own brain, " Be thou my rudder ; " 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, and 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 fly ing'up wards that pleased me, 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, instead of ^| 
 these coruscations of glory, I saw grim fiends, fierce and horrible, start 1 
 up from the waters, and as I dashed on they gnashed their teeth -and 
 grinned 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 unbelief. 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 absurdity. Just when I saw the bottom of that sea, th^Hl 
 came a voice which said, " And can this doubt be true ? " At this vei^ 
 thought I awoke. I started from that death-dream, which God knows^ 
 might have damned my soul and ruined this my body, if I had not awol 
 
 1 
 
I JOSEPH PARKER (t 8304 902) 
 
 FAMOUS PULPIT ORATOR 
 
 rROM stonemason to the most popular pulpit in England is the 
 record of one who was heard and read by more of the world's 
 ""^ people than any other man of the Nineteenth Century. 
 
 Joseph Parker was the son of a stonemason, born in 1830, edu- 
 cated through his own efforts, with but small assistance from his 
 ])arents. When scarcely out of his teens he showed great talent as a 
 [)ublic speaker in religious meetings. He read and studied at odd 
 moments the works of the great British Orators, which laid the foun- 
 dation for his future brilliant career. Upon entering the ministry, he 
 rapidly sprang into prominence, and became the pastor of the Temple 
 Church, London, from which his fame spread the world over. 
 
 HUMAN FRIVOLITY 
 
 [This example of pulpit oratory shows the practical nature of Joseph Parker's 
 sermons. They appealed to the multitude, and his pointed criticism and just indigna- 
 tion against popular errors bore fruit in many lives, in making them better and nobler.] 
 
 Frivolousness will ruin any life. No frivolousness succeeds in any 
 great enterprise. No frivolous man succeeds in business of a commer- 
 cial kind. Business is not a trick or an amusement, it is hard work, bard 
 study, daily consideration, incessant planning, wakefulness that ought 
 never to go to sleep. If so for a corruptible crown, what for an incorrupt- 
 ible ? The danger is that we make light of the Gospel because 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 make our services more inter- 
 esting, our music more lively, our preaching more animated, we are but 
 
 587 
 
688 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 required 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 goodliest and choicest of His pos- 
 sessions and treasures that the soul may be satisfied ; He has kept back 
 nothing ; last of all He sent His Son, saying, '' They will reverence my 
 Son." In that fact, see the symbol of all that can be crowded into the 
 suggestions that God withholds no good thing that can minister to the 
 soul's development, and the soul's growth in truth and love and grace. 
 
 Nor does the human condition in relation to the divine offer conclude 
 itself under the limitation of mere frivolity. Light-mindedness in this 
 matter does not complete itself. * ' The remnant took his servants and 
 entreated them spitefully, and slew them," This is true frivolity. Fri- 
 volity is followed by rebellion, blasphemy, high crime and misdemeanor 
 before the eye of heaven. You who laugh to-day may slay to-morrow, we 
 who do make but gibes and sneers in relation to the Gospel offers now, 
 will by and by sit with the scornful and in deliberate blasphemy mock the 
 King of the feast. Easy is the descent towards this pit of rebellion, hard- 
 heartedness, and utter defiance of divine goodness. To defy the good — 
 there might be some courage of a wild kind in defying power, in setting 
 oneself in defiant attitude against thunderbolts, but to defy goodness, to 
 mock an offer of hospitality, to scorn the call to a divine delight — let % 
 man once become frivolous in that direction, and the whole substance ^^Bj 
 his character will be depleted of everything that can be ennobled, and^^' 
 will speedily sink to irremediable viciousness and baseness. Call it not a 
 light thing to laugh at sacred words, and religious opportunities and 
 engagements ; it may seem at the time to be of small account, but it is an 
 indication of character, it is the beginning of a descent which multipHes 
 its own momentum, and he who but laughs fluently and lightly to-day at 
 the preacher's earnestness, may in an immeasurably short space of time be 
 reckoned with the scorners, and be the chief companion of fools. 
 
BOOK VIL 
 
 Orators of the French Revolution 
 
 NEVER within the history of mankind has there 
 been a more unbridled outburst of human pas- 
 sion than in the great Revolution that over- 
 turned the feudal establishment of France, putting an 
 end to a long era of cruelty and oppression. Terri- 
 ble as was the Revolution, the sum of misery it occa- 
 sioned was inconsiderable as compared with that 
 caused by the system of which it was the legitimate 
 termination. The former was dramatically centred 
 within a few years ; the latter had pursued its slow 
 course through many centuries. We can well com- 
 prehend the fiery vehemence of the oratory to 
 which the Revolution gave rise. In the veins of the 
 orators burned the same intense flame of hatred which 
 was shown in the frightful excesses of the people. 
 First and greatest of them, Mirabeau, — a member of 
 the titled class, but a democrat in grain, — poured 
 forth his thoughts in a torrent of fiery eloquence 
 that has rarely been equaled. Vehemence was his 
 forte, and his verbal blows fell as sudden and swift as 
 the knife of the guillotine upon the necks of its vic- 
 tims. Those who followed him were of the same 
 type. Danton, with his sledge-hammer sentences ; 
 Vergniaud, with his more polished but equally 
 implacable speeches ; Marat, in whom thirst for blood 
 permeated his very words; Robespierre, uttering plati- 
 tudes about God and the hereafter while his hands 
 are reeking with the blood of his late friends and asso- 
 ciates. The Revolution was a phenomenal event, 
 and its orators were not the least of its phenomena. 
 
 689 
 
GABRIEL HONORE RIQUETTI, COUNT DE 
 MIRABEAU(J749-J79J) 
 
 THE DEMOSTHENES OF FRANCE 
 
 HMAN man of passion, of youthful vices, of disorderly habits, o: 
 dangerous intrigues, rebellious at once against father anc 
 State, Mirabeau might have died unknown to fame had no 
 the States General of 1789 given him an opportunity for the display 
 of his remarkable eloquence, and the exertion of his gigantic energy 
 against the system of oppression and injustice which had so Ion 
 afflicted France. It was with difficulty that he obtained an electio 
 to that body, but once there, " He trod the tribune with the supreme 
 authority of a master and the imperial air of a king." One of hi 
 critics says : " He was a man who, by his qualities no less than by th 
 singularity of his fortune, is destined to take his place in history by 
 the side of the Demosthenes, the Gracchi, and the other kindred spirits 
 of an antiquity whose gigantic characteristics he so frequently repro- 
 duced." Vehement and imperious in temper, irresistible in his 
 command over an audience, he swayed the States-General at his will, 
 and had he lived the Revolution might have taken quite another form 
 than that hideous one by which it made itself execrable. 
 
 As concerns the oratory of Mirabeau, Carlyle says, " His short and 
 pithy sentences became the watchwords of the Revolution ; his ges- 
 tures were commands, his motions were coups d'etaV^ Macaulay thus 
 compares him with Chatham, England's most famous orator : " Sud- 
 den bursts which seemed to be the effect of inspiration, short sentences 
 which came like lightning, dazzling, burning, striking down every- 
 thing before them, in these chiefly lay the oratorical power both of 
 Chatham and Mirabeau. . . . There have been far greater speak- 
 ers and far greater statesmen than either of them ; but we doubt 
 590 
 
COUNT DE MIRABEAU 591 
 
 whether any men have, in modern times, exercised such vast personal 
 influence over stormy and divided assemblies/' Mirabeau did not 
 live till the whirlwind of the Ee volution reached its height. The 
 rein fell from his hands on April 2, 1791, when he lay down in death, 
 his last words a prose poem of the materialistic faith : " Envelop me 
 with perfumes and crown me with flowers, that I may pass away into 
 everlasting sleep." 
 
 AND YET YOU DELIBERATE 
 
 [Of Mirabeau's orations, one of the most characteristic was that upon a project 
 of Necker, the distinguished financier, for tiding over the financial difiiculties which 
 troubled alike the Court and the States-General. We give the peroration of this 
 famous and powerful speech.] 
 
 In the midst of this tumultous debate can I not bring you back to 
 the question of the deliberation by a few simple questions. Deign, gentle- 
 men, to hear me and to vouchsafe a reply. 
 
 Have we any other plan to substitute for the one he proposes? 
 '* Yes," cries 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 methods 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 as a 
 financier, and, it can be added, a destiny such as has been achieved by no 
 other man ! 
 
 I,et us then return to this plan of M. Necker. But have we the time 
 to examine, to prove its foundation, to verify its calculations ? No, no, 
 a thousand times no ! Insignificant questions, hazardous conjectures, 
 doubts 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 be, much 
 
592 COUNT DE MIRABEAU 
 
 greater than our own. Gentlemen, there assuredly is in this neither wis- 
 dom nor foresight. Does it even show good faith ? If no less solemn 
 declarations guarantee our respect for the public faith, our horror of the 
 infamous word ''bankruptcy," I might dare to scrutinize the secret 
 motives which make us hesitate to promulgate an act of patriotic devotion 
 which will be inefl&cacious if not done immediately and with full confidence. 
 
 I would say to those who familiarize themselves with the idea of fail- 
 ing to keep the public faith, either by fear of taxes or of excessive sacri- 
 fices : What is bankruptcy, if not the most cruel, the most iniquitous, the 
 most unequal, the most disastrous of imposts ? My friends, hear but a 
 word — a single word : 
 
 Two centuries of depredations and brigandage have made the chasm 
 in which the kingdom is ready to engulf itself. We must close this fear- 
 ful abyss. Well, here is a list of French proprietors. Choose among 
 the richest, thus sacrificing the least number of citizens. But choose ! 
 For must not a small number perish to save the mass of the people ? Well, 
 these two thousand notables possess enough to make up the deficit. 
 This will restore order in the finances and bring peace and prosperity to 
 the kingdom. 
 
 Strike, immolate without pity these wretched victims, cast them into- 
 the abyss until it is closed ! You recoil in horror, inconsistent and pusil- 
 lanimous men ! Do you not see that in decreeing bankruptcy, or what i{ 
 still more odious, in rendering it inevitable, without decreeing it, you dc 
 a deed a thousand times more criminal, and — folly inconceivable — gratuit 
 ously criminal ? For at least this horrible sacrifice would cause the 
 disappearance of the deficit. But do you imagine that in refusing to pay, 
 you will cease to owe ? Do you believe that the thousands, the millionj 
 of men, who will lose in an instant, by the terrible explosion or its reper 
 cussion, all that made the consolation of their lives, and constituted, per- 
 haps, the sole means of their support, would leave you peaceably to enjoj 
 your crime ? Stoical contemplators of the incalculable evils, which 
 this catastrophe would disgorge upon France ! Impassive egotists who 
 think that these convulsions of despair and misery shall pass like so many 
 others, and the more rapidly as they are the more violent ! Are you sure 
 that so many men without bread will leave you tranquilly to the enjoy- 
 ment of those dainties, the number and delicacy of which you are unwilling 
 to diminish ! No ! you will perish, and in the universal conflagration you 
 do not hesitate to kindle, the loss of your honor will not save a single one 
 of your detestable enjoyments. 
 
 lyook where we are going ! . . . I hear you speak of patriotism, and 
 the elan of patriotism, of invocations to patriotism. Ah! do not prostitute 
 
 I 
 
COUNT DE MIRABEAU 693 
 
 the words, ** country" and "patriotism"! It is so very magnani- 
 mous — the effort to give a portion of one's revenue to save all of one's 
 possessions ! This, gentlemen, is only simple arithmetic ; and he who 
 hesitates cannot disarm indignation except by the contempt he inspires 
 through his stupidity. Yes, gentlemen, this is the plainest prudence, the 
 commonest wisdom. It is your gross material interest I invoke. I shall 
 not say to you as formerly : Will you be the first to exhibit to the nations 
 the spectacle of a people assembled to make default in their public obliga- 
 tions ? I shall not say again : What titles have you to liberty ? What 
 means remain to you to preserve it, if in your first act 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 constitution ? I tell 
 you, you will all be dragged into a universal ruin, and you yourselves 
 have the greatest interests in making the sacrifices the Government asks 
 of you. Vote, then, for this extraordinary subsidy ; and it may be suffi- 
 cient. Vote for it, — for if you have any doubts on the means adopted 
 (vague and unenlightened doubts), you have none as to its necessity, or 
 our inability to provide an immediate substitute. Vote, then, because 
 public necessity admits no delay, and we shall be held accountable for 
 any delay that occurs. Beware of avSking 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 
 you deliberate ! '* 
 
 And certainly there has been about us no Catiline, no peril, no fac- 
 tion, no Rome. But to-day bankruptcy — hideous bankruptcy — is here; 
 it threatens to consume you, your properties, your honor ! And yet you 
 deliberate ! 
 
 THE PRIVILEGED AND THE PEOPLE 
 
 [A second brief extract will further serve to show the impetuous and striking 
 I character of Mirabeau's oratory.] 
 
 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, 
 
 I 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, mortally smitten, he flung 
 
 dust towards heaven, calling the avenging gods to witness: and from 
 
 38 
 
594 COUNT DE MIRABEAU 
 
 that dust sprang Marius ; — Marius, less illustrious for having extermina- 
 ted the Cimbri than for having beaten down the despotism of the nobility 
 in Rome. 
 
 But you, Commons, listen to one who, unseduced by your applause, 
 j'^et cherishes them in his heart. Man is strong only by union ; happy 
 only by peace. Be firm, not obstinate ; courageous, not turbulent ; free, 
 not undisciplined ; prompt, not precipitate. Stop not except at difficul- 
 ties of moment ; and be then wholly inflexible. But disdain the conten- 
 tions of self-love, and never thrust into the balance the individual against 
 the country 
 
 For myself, who, in my public career, have had no other fear than that 
 of wrong-doing; who, girt with my conscience, and armed with my prin- 
 ciples, would brave the universe ; whether it shall be my fortune to serv* 
 you with my voice and my exertions in the National Assembly, or whether 
 I shall be enabled to aid you there with my prayers only, be sure that the 
 vain clamors, the wrathful menaces, the injurious protestations — all the 
 convulsions, in a word, of expiring prejudices — shall not on me impose! 
 What ! shall he now pause in his civic course, who, first among all th( 
 men of France, emphatically proclaimed his opinions on national affairs, 
 at a time when circumstances were much less urgent than now, and the 
 task one of much greater peril ? Never ! No measure of outrages shall 
 bear down my patience. I have been, I am, I shall be, even to the tomb, 
 the man of the Public Liberty, the man of the Constitution. If to be 
 such be to become the man of the people rather than of the nobles, then 
 woe to the privileged orders ! For privileges shall have an end, but the 
 people is eternal ! 
 
PIERRE VERGNIAUD (J 7594 793) 
 
 THE ORATOR OF THE GIRONDISTS 
 
 mHE great orator of the Girondist section of the Revolutionary 
 Assembly of France, Vergniaud, was too indolent and too 
 indifferent to put himself at the head of the party, which he 
 might have done had he chosen. He was quite content to fill the post 
 of its orator. He was the most moderate of the Girondists, but suf- 
 fered the fate of his fellows. In January, 1793, as President of the 
 Convention, he pronounced the sentence of the king's death. In 
 October he suffered the same fate himself. No man of his time met 
 death more boldly. 
 
 "In parliamentary eloquence," says Macaulay, "no Frenchman 
 of his time can be considered equal to Vergniaud. In a foreign coun- 
 try, and after the lapse of half a century, some parts of his speeches 
 are still read with mournful admiration.'^ Lamartine says, "His 
 language had the images and harmony of the most beautiful verses." 
 
 AN APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE 
 
 [We append two brief examples of Vergniaud's oratory, the first calling on the 
 the people to defend 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 against 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 refused 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, 
 
 695 
 
596 PIERRE VERGNIAUD 
 
 arms, horses and munitions. Is not the patience suicidal which tolerates 
 all this ? Doubtless you have renounced all projects of conquest ; but you 
 have not promised to endure such insolent provocations. You have 
 shaken off the yoke of your tyrants ; but it was not to bend the knee to 
 foreign despots. 
 
 But, beware ! You are environed by snares. They seek to drive 
 you, by disgust or lassitude, to a state of languor fatal to your courage ; 
 or fatal to its right direction. They seek to separate you from us ; they 
 pursue a system of calumny against the National Assembly ; they incrim- 
 inate your Revolution in your eyes. O ! beware of these attempts at panic ! 
 Repel, indignantly, these impostors, who, while they affect a hypocritical 
 zeal for the Constitution, cease not to urge upon you the monarchy ! The 
 monarchy ! With them it is the counter-revolution ! The monarchy ? It 
 is the nobility ! The counter-revolution — what is it but taxation, feu- 
 dality, the Bastille, chains and executioners, to punish the sublime aspira- 
 tions of liberty ? What is it but foreign satellites in the midst of the 
 State ? What , but bankruptcy, engulfing, with your assignats, your private 
 fortunes and the national wealth ; what, but the furies of fanaticism and 
 of vengeance ; assassinations, pillage, and incendiarism ; in short, despot- 
 ism and death, disputing, over rivers of blood and heaps of carcasses, the 
 dominion of your wretched country ? The nobility ! That is to say, two 
 classes of men ; the one for grandeur, the other for debasement ! — the one 
 for tyranny, the other for servitude ! The nobility ! Ah ! the very wordll 
 is an insult to the hu7na7i race ! 11 
 
 And yet, it is in order to secure the success of these conspiracies that 
 Europe is now put in motion against you. Be it so ! By a solemn declar- 
 ation must these guilty hopes be crushed. Yes, the free representatives 
 of France, unshaken in their attachment to the Constitution, will be buried 
 beneath its ruins, before they consent to a capitulation at once unworthy 
 of them and of you. Rally ! Be reassured ! They would raise the 
 nations against you ; they will raise only princes. The heart of every 
 people is with you. It is their cause which you embrace, in defending 
 your own. Ever abhorred be war ! It is the greatest of the crimes of 
 men ; it is the most terrible scourge of humanity ! But, since you are 
 irresistibly forced to it, yield to the course of your destinies. Who can 
 foresee where will end the punishment of the tyrants who will have driven_ 
 you to take up arms ? 
 
 THE DESPOTISM OF THE JACOBINS 
 
 The blinded Parisians presume to call themselves free. Alas ! it is 
 they are no longer the slaves of crowned tyrants ; but they are the slave 
 
 i 
 
PIERRE VERGNIAUD 597 
 
 of men the most vile, and of wretches the most detestable ; men who 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 they may be 
 enthroned at the Tuileries ! It is time to break these disgraceful chains — 
 to crush this new despotism. It is time that those who have made honest 
 men tremble should be made to tremble in their turn. 
 
 I am not ignorant that they have poniards at their service. On the 
 night of the second of September — that night of proscription ! — did they 
 not seek to turn them against several deputies, and myself among the 
 number ! Were we not denounced to the people as traitors ! Fortunately, 
 it was the people into whose hands we fell. The assassins were elsewhere 
 occupied. The voice of calumny failed of its effect. If my voice may yet 
 make itself heard from this place, 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 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 France, there is still in the 
 very bosom of that momentary anarchy where the brigands have plunged 
 us — there is still in our country 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 happiness of France, and consolidate the 
 reign of liberty and equality ! 
 
 * When these words were spoken the deputies rose with intense enthusiasm and repeated the 
 words of the orator, while the audience in the galleries added their cries of approval to the tumult on 
 the floor. 
 
1** 
 
 GEORGE JACQUES DANTON (J 7594 794) 
 
 THE MIRABEAU OF THE SANS-CULOTTES . 
 
 DARGE of frame, dauntless of spirit, passionate of temperament,] 
 powerful in voice, Danton was well adapted for political ora- 
 tory and revolutionary times. In quiet days he would not] 
 have shone, but in the whirlpool of the French Revolution he was at 
 home, while his fervid and splendid oratory made him the favorite oi 
 the Parisian populace. " Nothing was wanting to make Danton 
 great man — except virtue," said Lamartine, and this well descril 
 him. His famous sayings : *' To dare, again to dare, always to dare," 
 and " Let France be free, though my name be accursed," speak vol- 
 umes for the boldness and patriotism of the man. Before men like 
 him, and sentiments like these, the old institutions could not stand^ 
 The club founded by him, that of the Cordeliers, was more radicf 
 even than that of the Jacobins. For a time, Danton, Marat an< 
 Robespierre ruled the Revolution. Then a break took place betweei 
 them, and while Danton hesitated Robespierre acted. The natun 
 result followed, the guillotine became his fate. 
 
 LET FRANCE BE FREE, 
 
 [The disasters of the French armies on the frontier called out from Danton ini 
 the Convention, March lo, 1793, one of his most impassioned addresses. Of this we 
 give the telling closing portion, in which occurs one of his most famous sentences.] 
 
 The general considerations that have been presented to you are true ; 
 but at this moment it is less necessary to examine the causes of the disas- 
 ters that have struck us than to apply their remedy rapidly. When the 
 edifice is on fire, I do not join the rascals who would steal the furniture,. 
 I extinguish the flames. I tell you, therefore, you should be convinced 
 by the dispatches of Dumouriez that you have not a moment to spare in 
 saving the Republic. 
 598 
 
 i 
 
GEORGE JACQUES DANTON 599 
 
 Dutnouriez conceived a plan which did honor to his genius. I would 
 render him greater justice and praise than I did recently. But three 
 months ago he announced to the executive power, your General Com- 
 mittee of Defence, that if we were not audacious enough to invade Hol- 
 land in the middle of winter, to declare instantly against England the war 
 which actually we had long been making, that we would double the 
 difficulties of our campaign, in giving our enemies the time to deploy 
 their forces. Since we failed to recognize this stroke of his genius, we 
 must now repair our faults. 
 
 Dumouriez is not discouraged ; he is in the middle of Holland, where 
 he will find munitions of war. To overthrow all our enemies, he wants 
 but Frenchmen, and France is filled with citizens. Would we be free ? 
 If we no longer desire it, let us perish, for we have all sworn it. If we 
 wish it, let all march to defend our independence. Your enemies are 
 making their last efforts. Pitt, recognizing he has all to lose, dares spare 
 nothing. Take Holland, and Carthage is destroyed, and England can no 
 longer exist but for liberty ! . . . . 
 
 Expediate, then, your commissioners ; sustain them with your energy; 
 let them leave this very night, this very evening. I^et them say to the 
 opulent classes, *' The aristocracy of Europe must succumb to our efforts 
 and pay our debt, or you will have to pay it ! " The people have nothing 
 but blood, — they lavish it ! Go, then, ingrates, and lavish your wealth ! 
 See, citizens, the fair destinies that await you. What ! You have a 
 whole nation as a lever, its reason as your fulcrum, and you have not yet 
 upturned the world ! To do this we need firmness and character, and of 
 a truth we lack it. I put to one side all passions. They are all strangers 
 to me save a passion for the public good. 
 
 In the most difficult situations, when the enemy was at the gates of 
 Paris, I said to those governing : *' Your discussions are shameful, I can 
 see but the enemy. You tire me by squabbling in place of occupying your- 
 selves with the safety of the Republic ! I repudiate you all as traitors to 
 our country ! I place you all in the same line ! " I said to them : 
 " What care I for my reputation ! Let France be free, though my name 
 were accursed!" What care I that I am called a ''blood-drinker"! 
 Well, let us drink the blood of the enemies of humanity, if needful ; but 
 let us struggle, let us achieve freedom. Some fear the departure of the 
 commissioners may weaken one or the other section of this convention. 
 Vain fears ! Carry your energy everywhere. The pleasantest declaration 
 will be to announce to the people that the terrible debt weighing upon 
 them will be wrested from their enemies or that the rich will shortly have 
 to pay it. The national situation is cruel. The representatives of value 
 
600 GEORGE JACQUES DANTON 
 
 are no longer in equilibrium in the circulation. The day of the working- 
 man is lengthened beyond necessity. A great corrective measure is 
 necessary ! The conquerors of Holland will reanimate in England the 
 Republican party ; let us advance France and we shall go glorified to pos- 
 terity. Achieve these grand destinies ; no more debates, no more quar- 
 rels, and the Farherland is saved. 
 
 TO DARE! ALWAYS TO DARE 
 
 [With this stirring sentence Danton ended his notable speech in defence of the 
 Republic, on September 2, 1792.] 
 
 It seems a satisfaction for the ministers of a free people to announce 
 to them that their country will be saved. All are stirred, all are enthused, 
 all burn to enter the combat. You know that Verdun is not yet in the 
 power of our enemies, and that its garrison swears to immolate the first 
 one who breathes a proposition to surrender. 
 
 One portion of our people will guard our frontiers, another will dig 
 and arm the entrenchments, the third with pikes will defend the interior 
 of our cities. Paris will second these great efibrts. The commissioners 
 of the Commune will solemnly proclaim to the citizens the invitation to 
 arm and march to the defence of the country. At such a moment you 
 can proclaim that the capital deserves the esteem of all France, At such 
 a moment this National Assembly becomes a veritable committee of war. 
 We ask that you concur with us in directing this sublime movement of th^ 
 people, by naming commissioners to second and assist all these great me£ 
 sures. We ask that any one refusing to give personal service or to furnisl 
 arms, shall meet the punishment of death. We ask that proper instrucj 
 tions be given to the citizens to direct their movements. We ask thi 
 carriers be sent to all the departments to notify them of the decrees thj 
 you proclaim here. The tocsin we shall sound is not the alarm signal 
 danger, it orders the charge on the enemies of France. At such a momei 
 this National Assembly becomes a veritable committee of war. We aj 
 that you concur with us in directing this sublime movement of the people 
 by naming commissioners to second and assist all these great measures] 
 We ask that any one refusing to give personal service or to furnish arms^ 
 shall meet the punishment of death. We ask that proper instructions be 
 given to the citizens to direct their movements. We ask that carriers be 
 sent to all the departments to notify them of the decrees that you proclaim 
 here. The tocsin we shall sound is not the alarm signal of danger, it 
 orders the charge on the enemies of France. To conquer we have need fo 
 dare ! to dare again ! always to dare ! And France will be saved ! 
 
 I 
 
JEAN PAUL MARAT (J 743-1 793) 
 
 ''THE FRIEND OF THE PEOPLE '^ 
 
 BERHAPS no man in all history has won the more universal 
 reprobation of mankind than the bloodthirsty Marat, the fero- 
 cious enemy alike of royalists and his political opponents, for 
 whose opinions he had but one cure — the guillotine. In 1789 he 
 stirred up the passions of the mob by his journal, '' The Friend of the 
 People,^' and was long obliged to live in cellars and sewers to escape 
 the officers of the law, charged to arrest him for his incendiary utter- 
 ances. He was elected to the Convention in 1792, and in conjunc- 
 tion with Danton and Robespierre, inaugurated the " Reign of Ter- 
 ror," he acting as a public accuser of all whom he wished to remove 
 by death. Tried on a charge of outrages against the Convention in 
 May, 1793, he was triumphantly acquitted ; but two months after- 
 ward the patriotic hand of Charlotte Corday ended the career of this 
 monster in human form. The only charitable view that can be taken 
 of Marat's conduct is that he was the victim of a diseased mind. Cer- 
 tainly his body was so deeply diseased that the knife of the avenger 
 only shortly anticipated his death from natural causes. 
 
 A DEFENCE FROM IMPEACHMENT 
 
 [Threatened with impeachment for his course, Marat defended himself before the 
 Convention in the following specious words, in which he seemed to indicate that his 
 plan for settling the affairs of the state was to give increased activity to the guil- 
 lotine.] 
 
 I shuddered at the vehement and disorderly movements of the people, 
 when I saw them prolonged beyond the necessary point. In order that 
 these movements should not forever fail, and to avoid the necessity of 
 their recommencement, I proposed that some wise and just citizen should 
 be named, known for his attachment to freedom, to take the direction of 
 
 601 
 
602 JEAN PAUL MARAT 
 
 them, and render them conducive to the great ends of public freedom. If 
 the people could have appreciated the wisdom of that proposal, if they 
 had adopted it in all its plenitude, they would have swept off, on the day 
 the Bastille was taken, five hundred heads from the conspirators. Every- 
 thing, had this been done, would now have been tranquil. For the same 
 reason, I have frequently proposed to give instantaneous authority to a 
 wise man, under the name of tribune, or dictator, — the title signifies 
 nothing ; but the proof that I meant to chain him to the public service is, 
 that I insisted that he should have a bullet at his feet, and that he should 
 have no power but to strike off criminal heads. Such was my opinion ; I 
 have expressed it freely in private, and given it all the currency possible 
 in my writings ; I have afiixed my name to these compositions ; I am not 
 ashamed of them ; if you cannot comprehend them, so much the worse 
 for you. The days of trouble are not yet terminated ; already a hundred 
 thousand patriots have been massacred because you would not listen to 
 my voice ; a hundred thousand more will suffer, or are menaced with 
 destruction ; if the people falter, anarchy will never come to an end. I 
 have diffused these opinions among the. public ; if they are dangerous, 
 let enlightened men refute them with the proofs in their hands. For my 
 own part, I declare I would be the first to adopt their ideas, and to give a. 
 signal proof of my desire for peace, order, and the supremacy of the laws, 
 whenever I am convinced of their justice. 
 
 Am I accused of ambitious views ? I will not condescend to vindi-, 
 cate myself; examine my conduct; judge my life. If I had chosen t( 
 sell my silence for profit, I might have now been the object of favor toj 
 the court. What, on the other hand, has been my fate ? I have buried! 
 myself in dungeons ; condemned myself to every species of danger ; the] 
 sword of twenty thousand assassins is perpetually suspended over me ; ij 
 preached the truth with my head laid on the block. I^et those who arej 
 now terrifying you with the shadow of a dictator, unite with me ; unitel 
 with all true patriots, press the assembly to expedite the great measures] 
 which will secure the happiness of the people, and I will cheerfully mount 
 the scafibld any day of my life. 
 
 t 
 
MAXIMILIEN ISIDORE DE ROBESPIERRE 
 
 (1 758- J 794) 
 
 THE BLOODHOUND OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
 mHE character of Robespierre was one of the most extraordinary 
 to be found in all history. He remains an enigma. By some 
 he is regarded as a fanatic, with an honest devotion to his 
 country at the basis of his massacres ; by others as a crafty and piti- 
 less demagogue. If we should judge by his utterances, we must 
 believe him sincere and deeply religious ; if by his acts, it is difficult to 
 find words to express our abhorrence. The remark of Mirabeau may 
 help to solve the enigma of his life : " He will go far, for he believes 
 all he says.^' He certainly went far, for he was the inspiring spirit of 
 the frightful Reign of Terror, As an orator Robespierre lacked native 
 powers. He had not the gift of extemporaneous speech, of fine voice, 
 or of commanding personality. 
 
 A FINAL APPEAL 
 
 [If we could judge from Robespierre's speeches, he was a much maligned indi- 
 vidual, a moralist driven to severity by the vices of his enemies. He tells us in his 
 speech on the sentence of the king, ' * I abhor the punishment of death, inflicted so 
 unsparingly by your laws .... but Louis must die, because the country must live." 
 In a later speech, when the guillotine was doing its bloodiest work at his command, 
 he earnestly, almost pathetically, maintains his belief in a Supreme Being and the 
 immortality of the soul. In his final speech, made the day before his death, to an 
 assembly thirsting for his blood, he poses 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 have vanquished, far from denouncing Robespierre, would 
 lend me their guilty support. There would be a covenant between them 
 
 603 
 
604 MAXIMILIEN ISIDORE DE ROBESPIERRE 
 
 and me. Tyranny must have tools. But the enemies of tyranny, — 
 whither does their path tend ? To the tomb and to immortality ! What 
 tyrant is my protector ? To what faction do I belong ? Yourselves ! 
 What faction, since the beginning of the Revolution, has crushed and 
 annihilated so many detected traitors ? You — the people, our principles, 
 — are that faction ! A faction to which I am devoted, and against which 
 all 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. 
 Against me, and against those who hold kindred principles, the league is 
 formed. My life ? O ! my life I abandon without a regret ! I have seen 
 the past ; and I foresee the future. What friend of his country would 
 wish to survive the moment he could no longer serve it, — when he could 
 no longer defend innocence against oppression ? Wherefore should I con- 
 tinue 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 humanity ? 
 
 In witnessing the multitude of vices which the torrent of the Revo- 
 lution has rolled in turbid communion with its civic virtues, I confess 
 that I have sometimes feared that I should be sullied, in the eyes of pos- 
 terity, by the impure neighborhood of unprincipled men, who had thrust 
 themselves into association with the sincere friends of humanity ; and I 
 rejoice that these conspirators against my country have now, by their 
 reckless rage, traced deep the line of demarcation between themselves and 
 all true men. 
 
 Question 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 ; but in very dif- 
 ferent conditions. O, Frenchmen ! O, my countrymen ! Let not your 
 enemies, with their desolating doctrines, degrade your souls, and enervate 
 your virtues ! No, Chaumette,* no ! Death is not *' an eternal sleep " ! 
 Citizens ! efface from the tomb that motto, graven by sacrilegious hands, 
 which spreads over all nature a funeral crape, takes from oppressed inno- 
 cence its support, and affronts the beneficent dispensation of death ! 
 Inscribe rather thereon these words : ' ' Death is the commencement of 
 immortality ! " I leave to the oppressors of the people a terrible testa- 
 ment, which I proclaim with the independence befitting one whose career 
 is so nearly ended ; it is the awful truth, — " Thou shalt die ! ' ' 
 
 * Chaumette was a member of the Convention, who was opposed to the public recognition of a 
 God and the future state. 
 
^&ri FOUR FRENCH ORATORS AN D STATESM EN 
 
 Victor Cousin and Victor Hugo were distinguished orators and 
 writers, and Louis A. Thiers and Leon Gambetta were distin- 
 guished statesmen and orators of France in the 19th Century 
 
 m 
 
BOOK VIIL 
 
 Nineteenth Century Orators of France 
 
 THE history of France in recent times has been 
 unique and highly interesting. Nowhere else 
 in history can be found the record of a coun- 
 try that had four political revolutions, each followed 
 by a transformation in the government, within a cen- 
 tury. Such has been the case in France. The 
 unparalleled revolution of 1789 was follow^ed 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 the 
 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 the previous century or 
 the indignant and incisive Hugo of their own. 
 
 005 
 
VICTOR COUSIN (J 7924 867) 
 
 AN EMINENT ORATOR AND PmLOSOPHER 
 
 mHE Sorbonne, a famous college at Paris of ancient institution, 
 possessed in the early part of the nineteenth century three 
 lecturers of wide fame, Cousin, Guizot and Villemain, the 
 former two in especial having a world-wide reputation. Cousin was 
 appointed to the chair of philosophy in 1815, and for a number of years 
 delivered eloquent and popular lectures to large audiences, his lectures 
 displaying an admirable combination of sensibility, imagination and 
 reason.* His popularity was immense, but his liberal opinions caused 
 him to be deprived of his professorship in 1820, though he was 
 replaced in 1828. His lectures, which were prepared with the care of 
 those of Demosthenes and Cicero in the past, of Kuskin, Emerson and 
 others in the present age, were published in book form, one series of 
 them being on " The True, the Beautiful and the Good." He wrote 
 various other works, developing an eclectic system of philosophy of 
 high estimation. After the revolution of 1830, Cousin, like Guizot, 
 entered upon a political career, and for a time, in 1840, was Minister 
 of Public Instruction. His speeches in the Chambers displayed 
 superior powers of oratory. He took no part in public affairs after 
 the Revolution of 1848. 
 
 SUPREMACY OF THE ART OF POETRY 
 
 [The following eloquent passage, in which the claim of poetry to supremacy 
 over its sister arts is effectively presented, is from one of Cousin's lectures on **The 
 True, the Beautiful and the Good."] 
 
 The art par excellence, that which surpasses all others, because it is 
 incomparably the most expressive, is poetry. 
 
 Speech is the instrument of poetry ; poetry fashions it to its use, and 
 idealizes it, in order to make it express ideal beauty. Poetry gives to it 
 the charm and power of measure ; is makes of it something intermediary 
 606 
 
 1 
 
VICTOR COUSIN 607 
 
 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, and 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 talisman, 
 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 
 art : — 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 most 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 immense — God ! What is more 
 clear and altogether more profound and vast ! 
 
 Tell the architect, the sculptor, the painter, even the musician, 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. And 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 par excellence, 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 own taste, palaces and temples, like 
 architecture ; it makes them simple or magnificent ; all orders, as well as 
 all systems, obey it ; the different ages of art are the same to it ; it repro- 
 duces, if it please, the Classic or the Gothic, the beautiful or the sublime, 
 the measured or the infinite. 
 
 Lessing has been able, with the exactest justice, to compare Homer 
 to the most perfect sculptor ; with 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. 
 
ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE (J 790-1 869) 
 
 THE ORATOR OF THE J848 REVOLUTION 
 
 ON the 25th of February, 1848, when a seditious and furious mob 
 traversed the streets of Paris, demanding the red flag of anarchy 
 "— ^ instead of the tricolor of the Republic, Alphonse de Lamartine, 
 a member of the revolutionary government, appeared before them, 
 and in a passionate burst of eloquence calmed their feelings and 
 brought them back to reason. Never before in history had oratory 
 won a triumph like this, and it placed Lamartine high among politi- 
 cal orators. 
 
 Known before as a poet of splendid powers, and as a historian by 
 his brilliant "History of the Girondists," Lamartine, in 1848, became 
 the master spirit and the moderator of the revolution, repressing the 
 tendency to violence by admirable displays of eloquence, courage and 
 magnanimity, and winning an immense popularity, which, however, 
 was not long lived. His decline in public estimation was shown in 
 the election for President in December, 1848, in which he received 
 only 8000 votes. During the remainder of his life he produced a 
 number of valuable historical works. 
 
 WHAT IS THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 
 
 [Lamartine's views of the true character of the French Revolution and of the 
 benefits which remained after its reign of terror had passed away, are well shown in 
 the following extract from one of his speeches.] 
 
 What, then, is the French Revolution ? Is it, as the adorers of the 
 past say, a great sedition of a nation disturbed for no reason, and destroy- 
 ing in their insensate convulsions their church, their monarchy, their 
 classes, their institutions, their nationality, and even rending the map of 
 Europe ? No ! the Revolution has not been a miserable sedition of 
 COS 
 
 1 
 
ALPHOKSE DE LAMARTINE G09 
 
 France ; for a sedition subsides as it rises, and leaves nothing but corpses 
 and ruins behind it. The Revolution has left scaffolds and ruins, it is 
 true ; therein is its remorse ; but it has also left a doctrine ; it has left a 
 spirit which will be enduring and perpetual so long as human reason 
 shall exist. 
 
 We are not inspired by the spirit of faction ! No factious idea enters 
 our thoughts. We do not wish to compose a faction — we compose 
 
 I opinion, for it is nobler, stronger, and more invincible. Shall we have, in 
 our first struggles, violence, oppression and death ? No, gentlemen ! let 
 us give thanks to our fathers ; it shall be liberty which they have 
 bequeathed to us, liberty 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 
 very 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 incomprehensible 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, the balance of the human mind. In one 
 of the scales of this balance — understand it well — will be 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 state, the censorship of 
 thought, the silence of tribunes, and the ignorance and systematic degrada- 
 tion of the masses. In the other scale, we ourselves, 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 
 
 of truth. 
 
 SAFETY ONLY IN THE REPUBLIC 
 
 [From Lamartine's remarkable speeches of 1848 we select the following elo- 
 quent appeal for the Republic, as the only security against the reign of anarchy and 
 [bloodshed which was threatened in the temper of the populace.] 
 
 For my part, I see too clearly the series of consecutive catastrophes 
 jl 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 
 
610 ALPHONSE 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 
 suffrage, will, reason, interest, the hand and arm of all — the Republic ! 
 
 Yes, it is the Republic alone which can now save you from anarchy, 
 civil and foreign war, spoliation, the scaffold, the decimation of property, 
 the overthrow of 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, to-morrow, 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 into enthusiasm. All who 
 have the Republican sentiment at heart, all who 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 militant, 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 afterwards, 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 can 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 on as 
 the reaction of Europe upon us, can be avoided, understand it well once 
 more, it is by the 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 deliberate is pregnant with a revolu- 
 tion, I will not conspire for a counter-revolution. I conspire for non( 
 but if we must have one, I will accept it entire, and I will decide for 
 Republic ! 
 
LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS (1 797- J 877) 
 
 AN ORATOR OF THE OPPOSITION 
 
 mHIERS was one of that patriotic band who vigorously opposed 
 the imperial methods of Louis Napoleon, not, like Victor 
 Hugo, in exile, but on the floor of the French Parliament. 
 He was an orator of the opposition in the latter years of Louis Phil- 
 ippe's reign, and when Napoleon seized the empire he ceased to be his 
 partisan and became his persistent foe. In 1867 he made a strong 
 speech against Napoleon's foreign policy, and in 1870 he vigorously 
 opposed the war with Prussia, declaring that Napoleon had commit- 
 ted another blunder. When the French Republic was organized, in 
 1871, he was elected its President, but resigned in 1873, after having 
 done much to overcome the evil effects of the war. As a historical 
 author he is known for his '' History of the Revolution " and " His- 
 tory of the Consulate and Empire," two works that have been very 
 widely read. As a statesman he was a man of indomitable courage 
 and of deep and genuine patriotism. 
 
 THE WASTEFULNESS OF THE IMPERIAL HNANCE. 
 
 [As a favorable example of the oratorical manner of M. Thiers, we offer a selec- 
 tion from his speech in the Budget of June 2, 1865, in which he points out, with a 
 critical and sarcastic clearness that must have been very annoying to the administra- 
 tion, the wilful blindness with which the revenues of the empire were being expended.] 
 
 Since our new institutions diminished the share which our nation 
 took in managing its own affairs, it was feared that the 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 — 
 email, if we consider the number of men engaged, but large if we consider 
 
 Gil 
 
612 
 
 LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS 
 
 their distance and the serious complications they may cause. The war 
 in Mexico has 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 consequently been consider- 
 ably increased. Next come our great public works, 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 be no limit to 
 the application of our savings to public works ; agriculture and manufac- 
 tures ought to have their share, and if only a portion should be employed 
 by the State in improving 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 limits have been es^ceeded. 
 The contagion of example is to be feared The proverb says that he who 
 commits one folly is wise. If Paris only were to be rebuilt I should not 
 have much to say against it, but you know what I^a Fontaine wittily says : 
 
 '* Every citizen must build like a lord, 
 Every little prince have his ambassadors, 
 Every marquis have his pages.' 
 
 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-Rh6ne 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. AUj 
 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 he can, but 
 appears to be conquered ; he might resist by resigning, certainly ; but 
 that is a means borrowed 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 ADOLPHE THIERS 613 
 
 necessary ; but the matter is settled in principle, and the public domain 
 will supply the funds which the Treasury refuses. By whom is this tor- 
 rent of expenditure to be arrested ? By yourselves, gentlemen ! Your 
 wisdom, courage and patriotism can alone achieve the task. Your respon- 
 sibility is great, especially in financial matters ; in politics your powers 
 may be contested to a certain extent, but in questions 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 talking of reforming and, after all, die in financial 
 impenitence. 
 
 We are often told that financial science is obscure, 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 of 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 year 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 ; and 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 increased 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 your engagements, or of ren- 
 dering inevitable the imposition of various taxes which may give rise to 
 deplorable divisions. I abjure you to reflect most seriously on this state 
 of affairs. 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. 
 
VICTOR MARIE HUGO (J 802-1 885) 
 
 POET, DRAMATIST, NOVELIST, AND ORATOR 
 
 E RANGE has produced, among her many brilliant orators, but 
 one Victor Hugo, a man " everything by turns '^ and always 
 great. As a novelist, many look upon him as the greatest of 
 the century, and regard his ^'Les Miserables" as a work peerless of its 
 kind. As poet, as dramatist, he stood also in the first rank. And as 
 an orator, no Frenchman has surpassed him but Mirabeau. He was 
 an orator in grain ; his prose works read like animated speeches. He 
 was as fearless as he was able. He did not hesitate to attack Louis 
 Napoleon with trenchant bitterness during his climb to power, closing 
 one of his attacks with the stinging words : ^' What ! after Augustus 
 must we have Augustulus ? Because we had a Napoleon the Great 
 must we now have Napoleon the Little ? " 
 
 NAPOLEON THE LITTLE 
 
 [When Louis Napoleon seized the throne Victor Hugo went into exile. It was 
 impossible for him to keep still with this small usurper on the throne of his great 
 uncle, and he sought a refuge where he could speak his mind freely. How freely he 
 spoke may be seen from the oration we append. He had the art of making vivid and 
 telling sentences, and of such this outburst of patriotic passion is largely made up.] 
 
 I have entered the lists with the actual ruler of Europe, for it is well 
 for the world that I should exhibit the picture. lyouis Bonaparte is the 
 intoxication of triumph. 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 habet ; and he who holds France holds the world. He 
 master of the votes, master of consciences, master of the people; he 
 names his successor, does away with eternity, and places the future in a 
 sealed envelope. His Senate, his Legislative Body, with lowered hea 
 614 
 
 f 
 
VICTOR MARIE HUGO 615 
 
 creep behind him and lick his heels. He takes up or drops the bishops 
 and cardinals ; he tramples upon justice which curses him, and upon 
 judges who worship him. Thirty eager newspaper correspondents inform 
 the world that he has frowned, and every electric wire quivers if he raises 
 his little finger. Around him is heard the clanking of the sabre and the 
 roll of the drum. He is seated in the shadow of eagles, begirt by ram- 
 parts and bayonets. Free people tremble and conceal their liberty lest 
 he should rob them of it. The great American Republic even hesitates 
 before him, and dares not withdraw her ambassador. Kings look at him 
 with a smile from the midst of their armies, though their hearts be full of 
 dread. Where will he begin ? Belgium, Switzerland, or Piedmont ? 
 
 Europe awaits his invasion. He is able to do as he wishes, and he 
 dreams of impossibilities. Well, this master, this triumphant conqueror, 
 this vanquisher, this dictator, this emperor, this all-powerful man, one 
 lonely man, robbed and ruined, dares to rise up and attack. Louis Napo- 
 leon has ten thousand cannons and five hundred thousand soldiers ; I 
 have but a pen and a bottle of ink, I am a mere nothing, a grain of dust, 
 a shadow, an exile without a home, a vagrant without even a passport ; 
 but I have at my side two mighty auxiliaries, — God, who is invincible, 
 and Truth, which is immortal. 
 
 Certainly, Providence might have chosen a more illustrious champion 
 for this duel to the death ; some stronger athlete — but what matters the 
 man when it is the cause that fights ? However it may be, it is good for 
 the world to gaze upon this spectacle. For what is it but intelligence 
 striking against brute force ? I have but one stone for my sling ; but it 
 ij^ good one, for its name is Justice ! 
 
 I am attacking Louis Bonaparte when he is at the height and zenith 
 of his power, at the hour when all bend before him. All the better ; this 
 is what suits me best. 
 
 Yes, I attack Louis Bonaparte ; I attack him openly, before all the 
 world. I attack him before God and man. I attack him boldly and 
 recklessly for love of the people and for love of France. He is going to 
 be an emperor. Let him be one ; but let him remember that, though you 
 may secure an empire, you cannot secure an easy conscience ! 
 
 This is the man by whom France is governed ! Governed, do I say ? 
 — possessed in supreme and sovereign sway ! And every day, and every 
 morning, by his decrees, by his messages, by all the incredible drivel 
 which he parades in the Moniteur, this emigrant, who knows not France, 
 teaches France her lesson ; and this ruffian tells France he has saved her ! 
 And from whom? From herself! Before him. Providence committed 
 only follies ; God was waiting for him to reduce everything to order ; at 
 
^.^ VICTOR MARIE HUGO 
 
 bib 
 
 last he has come ! For thirty-six years there had been in France all sorts 
 of pernicious things, — the tribune, a vociferous thing ; the press, an 
 obstreperous thing ; thought, an insolent thing ; and liberty, the most 
 crying abuse of all. But he came, and for the tribune he has substituted 
 the Senate ; for the press, the censorship ; for thought, imbecility ; and 
 for liberty, the sabre ; and by the sabre and the Senate, by imbecility and 
 censorship, France is saved. 
 
 Saved, bravo! And from whom, I repeat? From herself. For 
 what has this France of ours, if you please ? A herd of marauders and 
 thieves ; of anarchists, assassins, and demagogues. She had to be mana- 
 cled, had this mad woman, France ; and it is Monsieur Bonaparte I,ouis 
 who puts the handcuffs on her. Now she is in a dungeon, on a^diet of 
 bread and water, punished, humiliated, garroted, safely cared for.(^ Be not 
 disturbed, Monsieur Bonaparte, a policeman stationed at the Elysee is 
 answerable for her in Europe. He makes it his business to be so ; this 
 wretched France is in the sta'ait-jacket, and if she stirs — Ah, what is this 
 spectacle before our eyes ? j Is it a dream ? Is it a nightmare ? On one 
 side a nation, the first of nations, and on the other, a man, the last of 
 men ; and this is what this man does to this nation. What ! he tramples 
 her under his feet, he laughs in her face, he mocks and taunts her, he 
 disowns, insults, and ; flouts her ! What! he says, *' I alone am worthy 
 of consideration! " What! in this land of France, where none would 
 dare to slap the face of his fellow, this man can slap the face of the 
 nation ? Oh, the abominable shame of it all ! Every time that Monsieur 
 Bonaparte spits, every face must be wiped ! And this can last ! and you 
 tell me it will last ! No ! No ! by every drop in 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 centennial anniversary of Voltaire's death, May 30, 1878, 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 
 and corrected. He departed amid the curses of the past and the blessing 
 of the future — and these are the two superb forms of glory ! — dying amic 
 the acclamations 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 
 
VICTOR MARIE HUGO G17 
 
 , chosen for him by the Supreme Will, which manifests itself as visibly in 
 the laws of destiny as in the laws of nature. The eighty-four years he 
 had lived bridge over the interval between the apogee of the Monarchy 
 and the dawn of the Revolution. At his birth, Louis XIV. still reigned ; 
 at his death Louis XVI. had already mounted the throne; so that his 
 cradle saw the last rays of the great throne and his cofl&n the first beams 
 
 from the great abyss 
 
 The court was full of festivities ; Versailles was radiant ; Paris was 
 ignorant ; and meanwhile, through religious ferocity, judges killed an old 
 man on the wheel and tore out a child's tongue for a song. Confronted 
 by this frivolous and dismal society, Voltaire alone, sensible of all the 
 forces marshaled against him — court, nobility, finance ; that unconscious 
 power, the blind multitude ; that terrible magistracy, so oppressive for the 
 subject, so docile for the master, crushing and flattering, kneeling on the 
 people before the king ; that clergy, a sinister medley of hypocrisy and 
 fanaticism — Voltaire alone declared war against this coalition of all social 
 iniquities — against that great and formidable world. He accepted battle 
 with it. What was his weapon ? That which hath the lightness of the 
 wind and the force of a thunderbolt — a pen. With that weapon Voltaire 
 fought, and with that he conquered ! Let us salute that memory ! He 
 conquered ! He waged a splendid warfare — the war of one alone against 
 all ; the grand war of mind against matter, of reason against prejudice ; 
 a war for the just against the unjust, for the oppressed against the oppressor, 
 the war of goodness, the war of kindness ! He had the tenderness of a 
 woman and the anger of a hero. His was a great mind and an immense 
 heart. He conquered the old code, the ancient dogma ! He conquered 
 the feudal lord, the Gothic judge, the Roman priest. He bestowed on 
 the populace the dignity of the people ! He taught, pacified, civilized ! 
 He fought for the Sirven and Montbailly as for Galas and Labarre. 
 Regardless of menaces, insults, persecutions, calumny, exile, he was inde- 
 fatigable and imovable. He overcame violence by a smile, despotism by 
 sarcasm, infallibility by irony, obstinacy by perseverance, ignorance by 
 truth ! 
 
LEON MICHEL GAMBETTA (I838-t882) 
 
 THE ADVOCATE OF FRENCH DEMOCRACY 
 
 mN October, 1871, Leon Gambetta, one of the makers of the new 
 French Republic, made a most sensational escape from Paris, 
 then closely invested by the German army. He passed not 
 through, but over the lines, sailing through the air in 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-j 
 port 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 '' Irreconcilables " of Marseilles and Belleville. In the new Par-i 
 liament he became the chief of the advanced Republicans, and latei 
 came into determined conflict with those who sought to restore th( 
 monarchy. The contest between him and Marshal MacMahon led toj 
 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 
 
 [Gambetta 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 of their beloved native land. We offer a translation of one of his appeals 
 for this purpose.] 
 618 
 
 i 
 
LEON MICHEL GAMBETTA 619 
 
 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 scientific education — even 
 the imperfect one of our day. We have learned to read our history, to 
 speak our language, while (a cruel thing to say) so many of our country- 
 men can only babble ! Ah ! that peasant, bound to the tillage of the soil, 
 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 ! All his passions, joys, fears, are concentrated on the fate 
 of his patrimony. Of the external world, of the society in which he lives, 
 he apprehends but legends and rumors ; he is the prey of the cunning and 
 the fraudulent. He strikes, without knowing it, the bosom of the Revo- 
 lution, his benefactress ; he gives loyally his taxes and his blood to a 
 society 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. 
 
 It is to the peasantry, then, that we must address ourselves. They 
 are the ones we must raise and instruct. The epithets the parties have 
 bandied of " rurality " and " rural chamber " must not be the cause of 
 injustice. It is to be wished that there were a " rural chamber," in the 
 profound and true sense of the term, for it is not with hobble-de-hoys a 
 "rural chamber" can be made, but with enlightened and free peasants able 
 to represent themselves. And instead of being the cause of raillery, this 
 reproach of a " rural chamber ' ' would be a tribute rendered to the 
 progress of the civilization of the masses. This new social force could be 
 utilized for the general welfare. Unfortunately, we have not yet reached 
 that point, and this progress will be denied us as long as the French 
 democracy fail to demonstrate that if we would remake our country, if 
 we would return her to her grandeur, her power, and her genius, it is the 
 vital interest of her superior classes to elevate, to emancipate this people 
 of 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 society and what he has the right to 
 ask of her. 
 
 On the day when it will be well understood that we have no grander 
 or more pressing work ; that we should put aside and postpone all other 
 reforms; that we have but one task, the instruction of the people, the 
 diffusion of education, the encouragement of science, — on that day a great 
 step will have been taken in your regeneration. But our action needs to 
 be a double one, that it may bear upon the body as well as the mind. To 
 be exact, each man should be intelligent, trained not only to think, read, 
 reason, but able also to act, to fight. Everywhere beside the teacher w^ 
 
620 LEON MICHEL GAMBETTA 
 
 should place the gymnast and the soldier, to the end that our children, 
 our soldiers, our fellow-citizens, should be able to hold a sword, to carry 
 a gun on a long march, to sleep under the canopy of the stars, to support 
 valiantly all the hardships demanded of a patriot. We must push to the 
 front these two educations. Otherwise you make a success of letters, but 
 do not create a bulwark of patriots. 
 
 Yes, gentlemen, if they have outclassed us, if you had to submit to 
 the supreme agony of seeing the France of Kleber and of Hoche lose her 
 two most patriotic provinces, those best . embodying at once the military, 
 commercial, industrial and democratic spirit, we can blame only our infe- 
 rior physical and moral condition. To-day, the interests of our country 
 command us to speak no imprudent words, to close our lips, to sink to 
 the bottom of our hearts our resentments, to take up the grand work of 
 national regeneration, to devote to it all the time necessary, that it may be 
 a lasting work. If it need ten years, if it need twenty years, then we must 
 devote to it ten or twenty years. But we must commence at once, that 
 each year may see the advancing life of a new generation, strong, intelli- 
 gent, as much in love with science as with the Fatherland, having in their 
 hearts the double sentiment that he serves his country well only when he 
 serves it with his reason and his arm. .^ 
 
 We have been educated in a rough school. We must therefore cure 
 ourselves of the vanity which has caused us so many disasters. We must 
 also realize conscientiously where our responsibility exists, and seeing the 
 remedy, sacrifice all to the object to be attained — to remake and reconsti- 
 tute France ! For that, nothing should be accounted too good, and we 
 shall ask nothing before this ; the first demand must be for an education 
 as complete from base to summit as is known to human intelligence. 
 Naturally, merit must be recognized, aptitude awakened and approved, 
 and honest and impartial judges freely chosen by their fellow-citizens, 
 deciding publicly in such a way that merit alone will open the door. 
 Reject as authors of mischief those who have put words in the place of 
 action ; all those who have put favoritism in the place of merit ; all those 
 who made the profession of arms not a means for the protection of France, 
 but a means of serving the caprices of a master, and sometimes of becom- 
 ing the accomplices of his crimes. 
 
BOOK IX^ 
 
 Orators of Southern and Central Europe 
 
 THE countries of Europe aside from Great 
 Britain and France — with which we have so far 
 chiefly dealt — have had their orators; men 
 equipped by nature and education to control the 
 opinions and move the feelings of mankind ; but, 
 seemingly, in no great numbers. Certainly the pau- 
 city of names of distinguished public speakers leads 
 to the conclusion that oratory of a high order has not 
 flourished in those countries. Greece in modern 
 times has produced no rival of Demosthenes, nor 
 Italy of Cicero, nor even any orators worthy to be 
 compared with those of minor fame in classic times. 
 The same is the case with the remainder of Europe. 
 Take Germany, for instance, that land of thinkers and 
 philosophers — where are its Burkes and Gladstones, 
 its Mirabeaus and Hugos, its Websters and Clays? 
 The fact would seem to be that the long division of 
 Germany into minor kingdoms has checked the 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 limited 
 to the republics of Greece and Rome, the revolution- 
 ary periods of England, France and the United States, 
 and the free institutions of these countries in the 
 nineteenth century. As a result, modern Europe, 
 outside of France, has not been rich in oratory, and 
 we are not able to present an extended or very 
 notable list. 
 
 621 
 
LOUIS KOSSUTH (1 802-1 894) 
 
 THE ELOQUENT ADVOCATE OF HUNGARY 
 
 NEVER was there a more vigorous effort made for national inde- 
 pendence than that of Hungary, under the leadership of her 
 
 ' great patriot, Louis Kossuth, in the revolutionary years of 
 1848 and 1849. The devoted struggle for liberty went down in blood 
 and horror when Russia came to the aid of beaten Austria. The 
 hand of the allied autocrats fell with cruel weight on the crushed 
 nation, and Hungary seemed fallen never to rise again. Yet the 
 Hungarians still undauntedly wrought for their ancient liberty, and 
 the vanquished patriots had the satisfaction of seeing within twenty 
 years their beloved country virtually independent, the equal associate 
 of Austria in the combined kingdom of Austria-Hungary. 
 
 Kossuth, though an exile from his native land, wrought earnestly 
 to win for it the sympathy of foreign countries, and aided to his 
 utmost in keeping up its unyielding demand for home rule. Taking 
 refuge in Turkey, he was released from prison there in 1851 by the 
 united effort of England and the United States, and afterward tra- 
 versed those countries, making speeches in the English language. 
 
 THE HAVEN OF THE OPPRESSED 
 
 [Never has a visit by a refugee from the tyranny of Europe excited so much 
 sympathy in the United States as when Louis Kossuth visited its shores and eloquently 
 pictured the wrongs and sufferings of his native land. Everywhere he was received 
 with enthusiastic popular demonstrations and excited the warmest sentiment. The 
 following selection is from his address at a Congressional banquet in his honor atj 
 Washington on January ii, 1852.] 
 
 Sir, as once Cyneas, the Epirote, stood among the Senators of Rome,j 
 who, with an earnest word of self-conscious majesty, controlled the condi- 
 tion of the world and arrested mighty kings in their ambitious marching, | 
 622 
 
LOUIS KOSSUTH 623 
 
 thus, full of admiration and of reverence, I stand before you, legislators 
 of the new capitol — that glorious hall of your people's collective majesty. 
 The capitol of old yet stands, but the spirit has departed from it and come 
 over to yours, purified by the air of liberty. The old stands a mournful 
 monument of the fragility of human things ; yours as a sanctuary of 
 eternal rights. The old beamed with the red lustre of conquest, now 
 darkened by oppression's gloomy night ; yours beams with freedom's 
 bright ray. The old absorbed the world by its own centralized glory ; 
 yours protects your own nation against absorption, even by itself. The 
 old was awful with irresistible power ; yours is glorious with having 
 restricted it. At the view of the old, nations trembled; at the view of 
 yours, humanity hopes. To the old, misfortune was only introduced with 
 fettered hands to kneel at the triumphant conqueror's heels ; to yours, the 
 triumph of introduction is granted to unfortunate exiles, invited to the 
 honor of a seat, and where kings and Caesars will never be hailed for their 
 powers, might and wealth, there the persecuted chief of a down-trodden 
 nation is welcomed as your great Republic's guest, precisely because he is 
 persecuted, helpless and poor. In the old, the terrible vce victis was the 
 rule ; in yours, protection to the oppressed, malediction to ambitious 
 oppressors, and consolation to the vanquished in a just cause. And while 
 out of the old a conquered world was ruled, you in yours provide for the 
 common confederative interests of a territory larger than the conquered 
 world of the old. There sat men boasting their will to be sovereign of the 
 world ; here sit men whose glory is to acknowledge the laws of nature 
 and of nature's God, and to do what their sovereign, the people, wills. 
 
 Sir, there is history in these parallels. History of past ages and 
 history of future centuries may be often recorded in a few words. The 
 small particulars to which the passions of living men cling with fervent 
 zeal — as if the fragile figure of men could arrest the rotation of destiny's 
 wheel, — these particulars die away. It is the issue which makes history, 
 and that issue is always logical. There is a necessity of consequences 
 wherever the necessity of position exists. Principles are the Alpha ; they 
 must finish with the Omega ; and they will. Thus history may be told 
 often in a few words. Before yet the heroic struggle of Greece first 
 engaged your country's sympathy for the fate of freedom in Europe, then so 
 far distant, and now so near, Chateaubriand happened to be in Athens, and 
 he heard from a minaret raised upon the Propylaean ruins a Turkish priest 
 in Arabic language announcing the lapse of hours to the Christians of 
 Minerva's town. What immense history in the small fact of a Turkish 
 Imaum crying out : " Pray, man, the hour is running fast, and the judg- 
 ment draws near. ' ' 
 
624 LOUIS KOSSUTH 
 
 Sir, there is equally a history of future ages 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 ; an exile on 
 Turkish soil protected by a Mohammedan Sultan against the blood-thirst 
 of Christian tyrants ; cast back a prisoner to far Asia by diplomacy ; 
 rescued from his Asiatic prison by America ; crossing the Atlantic, 
 charged with the hopes of Europe's oppressed nations; pleading, a poor 
 exile, before the people of this great Republic, his down-trodden country's 
 wrongs, and its intimate connection with the fate of the European conti- 
 nent*; and with the boldness of a just cause claiming the principles of the 
 Christian religion to be raised to a law of nations ; — and to see, not only 
 the boldness of the poor exile forgiven, but to see him consoled by the 
 sympathy of millions, encouraged by individuals, meetings, cities and 
 States, supported by operative aid and greeted by Congress and by the 
 Government as the nation's guest, honored out of generosity with that 
 honor which only one man before him received — and that man received 
 it out of gratitude, — with honors such as no potentate can ever receive, 
 and this banquet here, and the toast which I have to thank you for — oh, 
 indeed, sir, there is a history of future ages in all these facts 
 
 I dare confidently affirm, that in your great country there exists not 
 a single man through whose brains has ever passed the thought that he 
 would wish to raise the seat of his ambition upon the ruins of your coun- 
 try's liberty. If he could, such a wish is impossible in the United States. 
 Institutions react upon the character of nations. He who sows the wind 
 will reap the storm. History is the revelation of Providence. The 
 Almighty rules by eternal laws, not only the material but the moral 
 world ; and every law is a principle, and every principle is a law. Men, 
 as well as nations, are endowed with free will to choose a principle ; but 
 that once chosen, the consequences must be abided. With self-go verment 
 is freedom, and with freedom is justice and patriotism. With centraliza- 
 tion is ambition, and with ambition dwells despotism. Happy your great 
 country, sir, for being so warmly addicted to that great principle of self- 
 government. Upon this foundation your fathers raised a home to freedom 
 more glorious than the world has ever seen. Upon this foundation you 
 have developed it to a living wonder of the world. Happy your great 
 country, sir, that it was selected by the blessing of the I^ord to prove the 
 glorious practicability of a federated Union of many sovereign States, all 
 conserving their State rights and their self-government, and yet united in 
 one. Every star beaming with its own lustre; but all together one con- 
 stellation on mankind's canopy ! 
 
 I 
 
GIUSEPPE MAZZINI (J 808-1 872) 
 
 THE PIONEER OF UNITED ITALY 
 
 i 
 
 |M0NG those to whose labors was due the revolutionary move- 
 ment that made Italy a united nation, Mazzini played a lead- 
 ing part. He joined to some extent in military movements, 
 [IS when he, as master spirit of the Republicans, defended Rome 
 iigainst the French in 1849, and took part in Garibaldi's victorious 
 invasion of Sicily in 1860. But his work was done more largely 
 with the pen than with the sword. In exile during the greater 
 part of his life, he organized the ^' Young Italy '* association in 1831, 
 and for many years unceasingly supported the cause by his writings. 
 Mazzini has been characterized as " One of those rare men, numerable, 
 unfortunately, but as units in this world, who are worthy to be called 
 martyr-souls." For fifty years he worked for the great object of his 
 life, and lived to see Italy a united kingdom, laying down his life 
 only after Rome had become the capital of United Italy. 
 
 THE MARTYRS OF COSENZA 
 
 [Mazzini's power of oratory and loftiness of spirit are best shown in his 
 oration at Milan on July 25, 1848, to the young men of Italy, its inspiring subject being 
 the •* Martyrs of Cosenza," fellow-patriots who were deprived of their lives by the 
 oppressors of their country.] 
 
 When I was commissioned by you, young men, to proflfer in this 
 temple a few words sacred to the memory of the 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 liberty 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.'* 
 40 625 
 
626 GIUSEPPE MAZZINI 
 
 But another thought arose : Why have we not conquered ? Why 
 is it that, while we are fighting for independence in the north of Italy, 
 liberty is perishing in the South ? Why is it that a war which should 
 have sprung to the Alps with the bound of a lion, has dragged itself along 
 for four months, with the slow uncertain motion of the scorpion sur- 
 rounded by a circle of fire ? How has the rapid and powerful* intuition of 
 a people newly arisen to life been converted into the weary helpless effort 
 of the sick man turning from side to side ? Ah ! had we all arisen in the 
 sanctity of the idea for which our martyrs died ; had the holy standard of 
 their faith preceded our youth to battle : had we reached that unity of life 
 which was in them so powerful, and made of our every action a thought, 
 and of our every thought an action ; had we devoutly gathered up their 
 last words in our hearts, and learned from them that Liberty and Indepen- 
 dence are one, that God and the People, the Fatherland and Humanity, 
 are the two inseparable terms of the device of every people striving to 
 become a nation ; that Italy can have no true life till she be One, holy in 
 the equality and love of all her children, great in the worship of eternal 
 truth, and consecrated to a lofty mission, a moral priesthood among the 
 peoples of Europe, — we should now have had, not war, but victory ; 
 Cosenza would not be compelled to venerate the memory of her martyrs 
 in secret, nor Venice be restrained from honoring them with a monument ; 
 and we, gathered here together, might gladly invoke their sacred names, 
 without uncertainty as to our future destiny, or a cloud of sadness on our 
 brows, and say to those precursor souls: ** Rejoice! for your spirit is 
 incarnate in your brethren, and they are worthy of you." 
 
 The idea which they worshipped, young men, does not as yet shine 
 forth in its full purity and integrity upon your banner. The sublime 
 program which they, dying, bequeathed to the rising Italian generation, isj 
 yours ; but mutilated, broken up into fragments by the false doctrines, 
 which, elsewhere overthrown, have taken refuge among us. I look 
 around, and I see the struggles of desperate populations, an alternation of 
 generous rage and unworthy repose ; of shouts for freedom and of for- 
 mulae of servitude, throughout all parts of our peninsula ; but the soul of 
 the country, where is it ? What unity is there in this unequal and mani- 
 fold movement ? Where is the Word which should dominate the hundred 
 diverse and opposing counsels which mislead or seduce the multitude ? I 
 hear phrases usurping the national omnipotence — "The Italy of the 
 North — the league of the States — Federative compacts between Princes," 
 but Italy, where is it ? Where is the common country, the country which 
 the Bandiera hailed as thrice Initiatrix of a new era of European civiliza- 
 tion ? 
 
GIUSEPPE MAZZINI 627 
 
 Intoxicated with our first victories, improvident for the future, we 
 forgot the idea revealed by God to those who suffered ; and God has pun- 
 ished our forgetfulness by deferring our triumph. The Italian movement, 
 my countrymen, is, by decree of Providence, that of Europe. We arise 
 to give a pledge of moral progress to the European world. But neither 
 political fictions, nor dynastic aggrandizements, nor theories of expedi- 
 ency, can transform or renovate the life of the peoples. Humanity lives 
 and moves through faith ; great principles are the guiding stars that lead 
 Europe towards the future. Let us turn to the graves of our martyrs, and 
 ask inspiration of those who died for us all, and we shall find the secret of 
 victory in the adoration of a faith. The angel of martyrdom and the angel 
 of victory are brothers ; but the one looks up to heaven, and the other 
 looks down to earth ; audit is when, from ^och to epoch, their glance 
 meets between earth and heaven, that creation is embellished with a new 
 life, and a people arises from the cradle of the tomb, — evangelist or 
 prophet .... 
 
 Love, young men, love and venerate the ideal. The ideal is the 
 Word of God. High above every country, high above humanity, is the 
 country of the spirit, the city of the soul, in which all are brethren who 
 believe in the inviolability of thought and in the dignity of our immortal 
 soul ; and the baptism of this fraternity is martyrdom. From that high 
 sphere spring the principles which alone can redeem the peoples. Arise 
 for the sake of these, and not from impatience or suffering or dread of 
 evil. Anger, pride, ambition, and the desire of material prosperity, are 
 arms common alike to the peoples and their oppressors, and even should 
 you conquer with these to-day, you would fall again to-morrow ; but prin- 
 ciples belong to the peoples alone,' and their oppressors can find no arms 
 to oppose them. Adore enthusiasm, the dreams of the virgin soul, and 
 the visions of early youth , for they are a perfume of paradise which the 
 soul retains in issuing from the hands of its Creator. Respect above all 
 things your conscience ; have upon your lips the truth implanted by God 
 in your hearts, and, while laboring in harmony, even with those who 
 differ with you, in all that tends to the emancipation of our soil, yet ever 
 bear your own banner erect and boldly promulgate your own faith. 
 
 Such words, young men, would the martyrs of Cosenza have spoken, 
 had they been living amongst you ; and here, where it may be that, 
 invoked by our love, their holy spirits hover near us, I call upon you to 
 gather them up in your hearts and to make of them a treasure amid the 
 storms that yet threaten you ; storms which, with the names of our mar- 
 tyrs on your lips and their faith in your hearts, you will overcome. 
 God be with you, and bless Italy ! 
 
COUNT CAMILLO DI CAVOUR (J8J0-J86t) 
 
 THE REGENERATOR OF ITALY 
 
 mT is not as an orator that Cavour ranks high, but as a statesman, 
 an able and energetic controller of national affairs. Yet, 
 though not looked on as an eloquent speaker, he could, on 
 occasion, deliver himself pointedly and effectively. As a leader in the 
 movement for the unification of Italy, Cavour was one of the great 
 statesmen of modern times. While the king reigned, the minister 
 ruled — a dictator in position and the power of bending all to his will. 
 The first important step taken by Cavour was to commit Sardinia to 
 the Crimean war. By his management of this he greatly increased 
 the power and prestige of the Sardinian kingdom. The revolutionary 
 work of Garibaldi was encouraged by him, and by taking part in it 
 at the critical moment, he brought about the unity of Italy and the 
 crowning of Victor Emmanuel as the king of the whole country. 
 Then, worn out by the strain, he died, a few months only after his 
 life work was completed. 
 
 ROME THE CAPITAL OF ITALY 
 
 [Cavour's natural inclination would have been to make his native Turin the 
 capital of united Italy. But he felt that, for historic and sentimental reasons, Rome 
 was the only capital to be considered. This conviction he clearly conveyed in the 
 fo -lowing remarks.] 
 
 Rome should be the capital of Italy. There can be no solution of the 
 Roman question without the acceptance of this premise by Italy and by 
 all Europe. If any one could conceive of a united Italy with any degree 
 of stability, and without Rome for its capital, I would declare the Roman 
 question difiScult, if not impossible, of solution. And why have we the 
 right, the duty, of insisting that Rome shall be united to Italy ? Because 
 without Rome as the capital of Italy, Italy cannot exist. 
 628 
 
COUNT CAMILLO DI CAVOUR 629 
 
 This truth being felt instinctively by all Italians, being asserted 
 abroad by all who judge Italian affairs impartially, needs no demonstra- 
 tion, but is upheld by the judgment of the nation. 
 
 And yet, gentlemen, this truth is susceptible to a very simple proof. 
 Italy has still much to do before it will rest upon a stable basis ; much to 
 do in solving the grave problems raised by her unification ; much to do in 
 overcoming all the obstacles which time-honored traditions oppose to this 
 great undertaking. And if this end must be compassed, it is essential 
 that there be no cause of dissidence, of failure. Until the question of the 
 capital of Italy is determined, there will be endless discords among the 
 different provinces. 
 
 It is easy to understand how persons of good faith, cultured and tal- 
 ented, are now suggesting, some on historical, some on artistic grounds, 
 and also for many other reasons, the advisability of establishing the capital 
 in some other city of Italy. Such a discussion is quite comprehensible 
 now, but if Italy already had her capital in Rome do you think this ques- 
 tion would be even possible ? Assuredly not. Even those who are now 
 opposed to transferring the capital to Rome, if it were once established 
 there would not dream of removing it. Therefore it is only by proclaim- 
 ing Rome the capital of Italy that we can put an end to these dissensions 
 among ourselves. 
 
 I am grieved that men of eminence, men of genius, men who have 
 rendered glorious service to the cause of Italian unity, should drag this 
 question into the field of debate, and there discuss it with (shall I say it) 
 with puerile arguments. The question of the capital, gentlemen, is not 
 determined by climate, by topography, nor even by strategical considera- 
 tions. If these things affected the selection, I think I may safely say that 
 London would not be the capital of England, nor, perhaps, Paris of 
 France. The selection of the capital is determined by great moral rea- 
 sons. It is the will of the people that decides this question touching 
 them so closely. 
 
 In Rome, gentlemen, are united all the circumstances, whether histor- 
 ical, intellectual or moral, that should determine the site of the capital of 
 a great State. Rome is the only city with traditions not purely local. 
 The entire history of Rome from the time of Caesar to the present day is 
 the history of a city whose importance reaches far beyond her confines ; of 
 a city destined to be one of the capitals of the world. Convinced, pro- 
 foundly convinced, of this truth, I feel constrained to declare it solemnly 
 to you and to the nation, and I feel bound to appeal this matter to the 
 patriotism of every citizen of Italy, and to the representatives of her most 
 eminent cities, that discussions may cease, and that he who represents the 
 
g30 COUNT CAMILLO DI CAVOUR 
 
 nation before other powers may be able to proclaim that the necessity of 
 having Rome as the capital is recognized by all the nation. I think I am 
 justified in making this appeal even to those who, for reasons which I 
 respect, differ with me on this point. Yet more ; I can assume no Spartan 
 indifference in the matter. I say frankly that it will be a deep grief to 
 me to tell my native city that she must renounce resolutely and definitely 
 all hope of being the seat of government. 
 
 Yes, gentlemen, as far as I am personally concerned, it is no pleasure 
 to go to Rome. Having little artistic taste, I feel sure that in the midst 
 of the splendid monuments of ancient and modern Rome I will lament the 
 plain and unpoetic streets of my native town. But one thing I can say 
 with confidence : knowing the character of my fellow-citizens ; knowing 
 from actual facts how ready they have always been to make the greatest 
 sacrifices for the sacred cause of Italy ; knowing their willingness to make 
 sacrifices when their city was invaded by the enemy, and their promptness 
 and energy in its defence ; knowing all this, I have no fear that they will 
 uphold me when, in their name and as their deputy, I say that Turin is 
 ready to make this great sacrifice in the interests of united Italy. 
 
 I am comforted by the hope — I may even say the certainty — that 
 when Italy shall have established the seat of government in the eternal 
 city, she will not be ungrateful to this land which was the cradle of lib- 
 erty ; to this land in which was sown that germ of independence which, 
 maturing rapidly and branching out, has now reached forth its tendrils 
 from Sicily to the Alps. 
 
 I have said and I repeat : Rome, and Rome only, should be the cap- 
 ital of Italy. 
 
 I 
 
PRINCE OTTO VON BISMARCK (I8J5-J898) 
 
 THE MAN OF BLOOD AND IRON 
 
 "^ T EVER has Europe had a political magnate of more dictatorial 
 \\ disposition, indomitable persistence, and devotion to one idea, 
 * ' than the great German Chancellor, Otto Edward Leopold, 
 Prince Von Bismarck-Schonhausen. We give his full title, but Bis- 
 marck alone is the name by which he is and is destined to be known. 
 His one idea was to revive the German Empire, under the leadership 
 of Prussia. The Holy Roman Empire, once a very powerful organi- 
 zation, under German supremacy, had passed from existence during 
 the Napoleonic period. Bismarck did not wish to revive this, but to 
 form an empire confined to the German States. Appointed Prime- 
 minister in 1862, he brought about the war with Denmark in 1864, 
 and with Austria in 1866, followed by alliances between Prussia and 
 the other large German States, and the North German Confederation, 
 composed of twenty-two States. Then, in 1870, came the war with 
 France, followed by the union of all the German States under King 
 William of Prussia, who was crowned Emperor of Germany at Ver- 
 sailles in 1871. Such was the great work of Bismarck's life. Created 
 Prince and Chancellor in 1866, he remained Chancellor of the Empire 
 till 1890. But the new Emperor, William II., was not the man to 
 submit to a dictator, and Bismarck resigned, to dwell in private life 
 for a number of years, a caustic critic of the imperial measures. A 
 formal reconciliation between the Emperor and the ** Man of Blood 
 and Iron" took place in 1894. 
 
 LOYALTY TO PRUSSIA 
 
 [The Imperial crown had been offered to the King of Prussia at an earlier date, 
 but declined. This was after the revolution of I848, when a German parliament was 
 established and a feeble form of union formed. In the following 3-ear the crowa 
 
 63X 
 
632 
 
 PRINCE OTTO VON BISMARCK 
 
 was offered to Frederick William IV., then the Prussian King. Bismarck, then a 
 member of the Prussian Chambers, opposed the project, unless Prussia, as a king- 
 dom, should benefit by it. We append a characteristic extract from his speech.] 
 
 I am more inclined to believe that Frederick II. would have turned, 
 for a solution of the question, to the most prominent characteristic of the 
 Prussian nation, — its warlike element, — and not without success. For he 
 would have known that now, too, as in the da3^s of our fathers, the sound 
 of the trumpet summoning all to the standard of their sovereign lord 
 has not yet lost its charm for the Prussian ear, be it for the defence of our 
 own frontiers or for the glory and greatness of Prussia. After the rupture 
 with Frankfort he would have had the choice of allying himself with Aus- 
 tria, his old comrade-in-arms, and of assuming the brilliant role played by 
 the Emperor of Russia in assisting Austria to annihilate the common foe, 
 revolution ; or it would have been open to him, after rejection of the 
 Imperial Frankfort crown, by the same right as that by which he had 
 conquered Silesia, to decide for the Germans in the matter of their Con- 
 stitution at the risk of his casting the sword into the scale. That would 
 have been a national Prussian policy. In the former case community with 
 Austria, in the latter her own exertions, would have given Prussia the 
 proper position for helping Germany to be the Power in Europe which it 
 ought to be. But the draft Constitution annihilates specific Prussianism, 
 which has saved the country from the revolution and almost alone sur- 
 vived it It was a Prussian regiment which on the i8th of Sep- 
 tember, 1848, saved us from the Frankfort Parliament conjured up against 
 
 us It was the attachment of the Prussian people to their ruling 
 
 house — it was the old Prussian virtues of honor, loyalty, obedience and 
 bravery, which permeate the army from its framework, the corps of offi- 
 cers, to the youngest recruit. This army cherishes no Tricolor enthusiasm . 
 In it, as among the rest of the people, you will not find any longing for 
 national regeneration. It is content with the name of Prussian, and 
 proud of it, too. These hosts will follow the black and white banner, but 
 not the Tricolor, and under the former gladly die for their country. Nay, 
 since the i8th March, they have come to regard the Tricolor as the badge 
 of their opponents. Familiar to and beloved by them are the strains of 
 the *' Prussian Air," the *' Old Dessauer" and the " Hohenfriedberg " 
 marches, but I have never yet heard a Prussian soldier sing ** What is the 
 German's Fatherland ?" The people from whom this army is drawn, and 
 who are most truly represented by it, have no desire to see their Prussian 
 kingdom melt away in the putrifying ferment of South German anarchy. 
 Their loyalty does not cleave to an imperial paper presidency, nor to a. 
 princely board of six, but rather to a free and living King of Prussia, the 
 
PRINCE OTTO VON BISMARCK 633 
 
 heir of his forefathers ; and what this people wills we also wish with it. 
 We all desire to behold the Prussian eagle spread its protecting and con- 
 trolling pinions from the Memel to the Donnersberg ; but free we wish to 
 see it, not fettered by a new Diet of Ratisbon, and not clipped in the wings 
 by that equalizing hedgehook whereof we well remember that it was first 
 at Gotha converted into an instrument of peace, while but a few weeks 
 previously in Frankfort it was brandished as a threatening weapon against 
 Prussianism and the ordinances of our King. Prussians we are, and Prus- 
 sians we will remain. I know that in these words 1 but express the creed 
 of the Prussian army and of the majority of my countrymen ; and I hope 
 to God that we shall also remain Prussians long after this bit of paper 
 [the German Constitution] has moldered away like a withered autumn 
 leaf. 
 
 PRUSSIA AND THE NEW CONSTITUTION 
 
 [The Constitution adopted by the revolutionary German Parliament was by no 
 means satisfactory to Bismarck, who did not hesitate to express his 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 defend it ; it 
 has been humiliating to me, as it would have been to thousands and thou- 
 sands of my countrymen, to see the representatives of Princes, whom I 
 honor in their lawful sphere, but who are not my sovereign lords, to see 
 them invested with supreme power ; and the bitterness of this feeling was 
 not softened at the opening of this Assembly by my seeing the seats on 
 which we sit adorned with colors which were never the colors of the Ger- 
 man Empire, but, for the last two years, rather the badge of rebellion and 
 barricades — colors which, in my native country, apart from the democrats, 
 are only worn in sorrowful obedience by the soldier. Gentlemen, if you 
 do not make more concessions to the Prussian, to the old Prussian spirit, — 
 call 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 Bucephalus* who 
 carries his accustomed lord and rider with daring joy, but will fling to the 
 earth the presuming Cockney horseman, with all his trappings of sable, 
 red and gold. But I am comforted in my fear of these eventualities by 
 the firm belief that it will not be long before the parties come to regard 
 this Constitution as the two doctors in Lafontaine's fable did the patient 
 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 the Great, which none but he could mount or ride. 
 
FRANCESCO CRISPI (J8J9-I90t) 
 
 AN ITALIAN STATESMAN AND PREMIER 
 
 ERANCESCO CRISPI filled the double role of statesman and 
 soldier. In 1848 he was concerned in the revolution at 
 Palermo and had to flee for his life. In 1859 he organized a 
 new and successful movement, and went as major under Garibaldi in 
 his invasion of Sicily. In the new Italian kingdom he became 
 deputy and minister/and was prime minister of the kingdom 1887-91 
 and 1894-96 ; 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 
 
 [At the unveiling of the Garibaldi monument at Rome during the fetes of 1895, 
 Crispi delivered the principal oration. In his remarks he diverged from the main 
 subject to define the relation of the Pope to the State.] 
 
 The enemies of Italian unity have endeavored to prove that the 
 present celebration is an insult to the head of the Catholic Church. 
 Their object is to excite conscientious scruples against our country. But 
 the common sense of the people is proof against such tricks, because we 
 all know that Christianity is a divine institution, which is not dependent 
 upon earthly weapons for its existence. The religion of Christ preached 
 by Paul and Chrysostom was able to subdue the world without the aid of 
 temporal arms, and we cannot conceive that the Vatican should persist in 
 wishing for temporal sovereignty to exercise its spiritual mission. The 
 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 our 
 adversaries demand the restoration of the temporal power of the Holy See, 
 but for worldly reasons, from lust of power and from earthly covetousness. 
 634 
 
 i, 
 
 I 
 
FRANCESCO CRISPI 635 
 
 They do not consider that temporal sovereignty cannot be saintly and 
 above sin ; that it cannot aspire to celestial perfection in this world. 
 Material weapons and legal violence, justified 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 afifair of State. Its 
 mission is to console believers with the hope of everlasting life and to 
 uphold the spirit of faith 
 
 The Italians, by promulgating the law of May, 187 1, have solved a 
 problem which seemed incapable of solution. In this country, where free- 
 dom of thought and of conscience is acknowledged, unlimited liberty has 
 been granted to the Head of the Church with reference to his sacred ofl&ce 
 and his irresponsibility and inviolability. In regard to his 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 in him — and they 
 are many millions — while he is surrounded by all the honors and privi- 
 leges of royalty without the drawbacks of civil power, without the hatred, 
 the resentment, and the penalties inseparable from such power. No earthly 
 prince is in a similar position or on the same level. His position is 
 unique. He has no territory to govern. Indeed, any extent of territory 
 would be inadequate for his position, and yet all the world is subject to his 
 spiritual power. Were he a temporal prince his authority would be 
 diminished, because it would be equal to that of other rulers, and he 
 would cease to be pre-eminent. He would be exposed to continual strug- 
 gles, as he has struggled for centuries to the detriment of the faith and of 
 his spiritual authority. We have made him an independent sovereign, 
 and as such he is superior to all other princes. In this lies his power. 
 He exercises the office by virtue of authority ; he corresponds with all the 
 world ; he prays ; he protects, without needing protection, because the 
 Italian kingdom is his shield. Consequently, no earthly weapon can reach 
 him; and the outrages inflicted upon Boniface VIII. cannot be repeated. 
 
 Catholics should be grateful to Italy for the services which we have 
 rendered to the Roman pontiff. Before September 20, 1870, he was 
 obliged to bow before the princes of the earth, and concordats were con- 
 cessions of divine right made to the prejudice of the Church. It was only 
 when relieved of his temporal dominion that Pius IX. could cope with 
 Bismarck and make that man feel the power of spiritual arms. All this 
 is our handiwork, the work of our Parliament and our king. I will say 
 more; it was the will of God, because the Almighty willed that Italy 
 should gather her provinces together and become an equal of other 
 nations. 
 
EMILIO CASTELAR (J 8324899) 
 
 THE ORATOR OF THE CORTES OF SPAIN 
 
 mHE life of Castelar was one of adventure and diversity. In 1856, 
 a professor of history and philosophy at Madrid; in 1864, editor 
 of La Democracia — a newspaper whose title tells its character — 
 in 1866, condemned to death as a revolutionist, and fleeing for life; 
 back again in the successful revolution of 1868 ; speaking earnestly 
 against the crowning of King Amadeus, and bringing about his 
 downfall in 1873 ; then made President by the short-lived repub- 
 lic — which was soon overthrown by the opposing elements in the 
 State. In 1874 he was forced to resign and again seek exile, but 
 in 1876 he was back in the Cortes once more, and continued to 
 speak there with all his old fire and eloquence till his withdrawal 
 from public life in 1893. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 [Instead of giving an extract from Castelar's political speeches, we prefer to 
 present his graceful and enthusiastic eulogy of Abraham Lincoln, a man after his own 
 heart, and whose lofty character he could fully appreciate. With a few strokes Cas- 
 telar succeeds in painting a large picture, presenting Lincoln to us as one of those 
 marvels in human history that the centuries rarely bring forth.] 
 
 The Puritans are the patriarchs of liberty ; they opened a new world 
 on the earth ; they opened a new path for the human conscience ; they 
 created a new society. Yet, when England tried to subdue them and they 
 conquered, the republic triumphed and slavery remained. Washington 
 could only emancipate his own slaves. Franklin said that Virginians could 
 not invoke the name of God, retaining slavery. Jay said that all the 
 prayers America sent up to Heaven for the preservation of liberty while 
 slavery continued were mere blasphemies. Mason mourned over the 
 payment his descendants must make for this great crime of their fathers. 
 Jefferson traced the line where the black wave of slavery should be stayed. 
 636 
 
EMILIO CASTELAR 637 
 
 Nevertheless, slavery increased continually. I beg that you will 
 pause a moment to consider the man who cleansed this terrible stain 
 which obscured the stars of the American banner. I beg that you will 
 pause a moment, for his immortal name has been invoked for the perpetua- 
 tion of slavery. Ah ! the past century has not, the century to come will 
 not have, a figure so g^and, because as evil disappears, so disappears hero- 
 ism also. 
 
 I have often contemplated and described his life. Bom in a cabin 
 of Kentucky, of parents who could hardly read ; born a new Moses in the 
 solitude of the 4.esert, where are forged all great and obstinate thoughts, 
 monotonous like the desert, and, like the desert, sublime ; growing up 
 among those primeval forests, which, with their fragrance, send a cloud 
 of incense, and, with their murmurs, a cloud of prayers to Heaven ; a 
 boatman at eight years in the impetuous current of the Ohio, and at seven- 
 teen in the vast and tranquil waters of the Mississippi ; later a woodman, 
 with axe and arm felling the immemorial trees, to open a way to unex- 
 plored regions for his tribe of wandering workers ; reading no other book 
 than the Bible,* the book of great sorrows and great hopes, dictated often 
 by prophets to the sound of fetters they dragged through Nineveh and 
 Babylon ; a child of Nature, in a word, by one of those miracles only 
 comprehensible among free peoples he fought for the country and was 
 raised by his fellow-citizens to the Congress at Washington, and by the 
 nation to the Presidency of the Republic ; and when the evil grew more 
 virulent, when those States were dissolved, when the slaveholders uttered 
 their warcry, and the slaves their groans of despair — the woodcutter, the 
 boatman, the son of the great West, the descendant of Quakers, humblest 
 of the humble before his conscience, greatest of the great before history, 
 ascends the Capitol, the greatest moral height of our time, and strong and 
 serene with his conscience and his thought ; before him a veteran army, 
 hostile Europe behind him ; England favoring the South ; France encour- 
 aging reaction in Mexico, in his hands the riven country ; he arms two 
 million men, gathers a half million of horses, sends his artillery twelve 
 hundred miles in a week, from the banks of the Potomac to the shores of 
 Tennessee ; fights more than six hundred battles ; renews before Rich- 
 mond the deeds of Alexander, of Caesar ; and, after having emancipated 
 three million slaves, that nothing might be wanting, he dies in the very 
 moment of victory — like Christ, like Socrates, like all redeemers, at the 
 foot of his work. His work ! Sublime achievement ! over which humanity 
 shall eternally shed its tears, and God his benediction ! 
 
 * An error due to imperfect information on the part of the speaker. Lincoln read almost every 
 book that came in his way. 
 
 Or T Af 
 
AMERICAN ORATORS 
 
 Name Page 
 
 Adams, Charles Francis 327 
 
 Adams, John Quincy 94 
 
 Adams, Samuel 29 
 
 Ames, Fisher 43 
 
 Anthony, Susan B 339 
 
 Beecher, layman 254 
 
 Beecher, Henry Ward 263 
 
 Benton, Thomas H 1O6 
 
 Beveridge, Albert J 199 
 
 Blaine, James G 164 
 
 Brooks, Phillips 270 
 
 Brown, George 233 
 
 Brown, Henry Armitt 321 
 
 Brownlow, William G 273 
 
 Bryan, William J 218 
 
 Calhoun, John C 90 
 
 Channing, William BUery 256 
 
 Chapin, Edwin H 267 
 
 Choate, Rufus 102 
 
 Choate, Joseph H 203 
 
 Clay, Henry 73 
 
 Clemens, Samuel L 370 
 
 Cleveland, Grover 330 
 
 Cockran, Bourke 380 
 
 Colfax, Schuyler 157 
 
 Collyer, Robert 276 
 
 Conkling, Roscoe 182 
 
 Cook, Joseph 311 
 
 Corwin, Thomas 109 
 
 Cox, Samuel S 185 
 
 Crittenden, John J 112 
 
 Curtis, George W 308 
 
 Daniel, John W 168 
 
 Davin, Nicholas F 236 
 
 Davis, Henry Winter 151 
 
 Davis, Jefferson 132 
 
 Depew, Chauncey M 356 
 
 Dickinson, Anna E 352 
 
 Douglas, Stephen A. ..••... 125 
 
 Douglass Frederick 148 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo 305 
 
 Evarts, William M 154 
 
 Everett, Edward 98 
 
 Foraker, Joseph B 212 
 
 Garfield, James A 160 
 
 Gough, John B 314 
 
 Grady, Henry W 206 
 
 Gunsaulus, Frank W 28$ 
 
 Hale, Edward Everett 362 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander 32 
 
 Harrison, Benjamin 191 
 
 Hayne, Robert Y . 79 
 
 Henry, Patrick 19 
 
 Hill, Benjamin H 171 
 
 638 
 
 Namb 
 
 Page 
 
 Hoar, George F 176 
 
 Howe, Joseph 228 
 
 Ingalls, John J 179 
 
 IngersoU, Robert J 317 
 
 Jefferson, Joseph 376 
 
 Knott, James Proctor 383 
 
 I/amar, I^ucius Q. C 173 
 
 lyaurier, Sir Wilfrid 244 
 
 lyce, Fitzhugh 367 
 
 Ivee, Henry 47 
 
 lyincoln, Abraham 120 
 
 lyivermore, Mary A 342 
 
 Ivockwood, Belva Ann 348 
 
 Ivodge, Henry C 209 
 
 Lowell, James Russell 364 
 
 Macdon aid, Sir John Ao ...... 230 
 
 Madison, James 38 
 
 Marshall, John 57 
 
 Marshall, Thomas F 115 
 
 McKinley, William 194 
 
 Mitchell, John 390 
 
 Moody, Dwight L, 289 
 
 Morris, Gouverneur 53 
 
 Otis, James 23 
 
 Parker, Theodore 259 
 
 Phillips, Wendell 301 
 
 Porter, Horace 373 
 
 Potter, Henry Codman 282 
 
 Prentiss, Sergeant S 297 
 
 Quincy, Josiah 62 
 
 Randolph, John 66 
 
 Reed, Thomas B 215 
 
 Reid, Whitelaw 360 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore ....... 221 
 
 Schutz, Carl 188 
 
 Seward, William H 145 
 
 Smith, Goldwin 241 
 
 Smith, Charles Emory ...... 378 
 
 Stanton, Elizabeth Cady ... • • 336 
 
 Stephens, Alexander H 135 
 
 Stevens, Thaddeus 129 
 
 Story, Joseph 294 
 
 Sumner, Charles 141 
 
 Talmage, Thomas DeWitt 279 
 
 Thompson, Sir John 249 
 
 Toombs, Robert 138 
 
 Tupper, Sir Charles 238 
 
 Warren, Joseph 26 
 
 Washington, Booker T. ...... 332 
 
 Watterson, Henry 323 
 
 Webster, Daniel 83 
 
 Willard, Frances E 345 
 
 Wirt, William 69 
 
 Wu Ting Fang 3^7 
 
EUROPEAN ORATORS 
 
 Name Page 
 
 .'Eschines 410 
 
 Antony, Mark 425 
 
 Bacon, Francis 456 
 
 Beaconsfield, Earl of 543 
 
 Bismarck, Prince Otto von .... 632 
 
 Bossuet, Jacques Benigne 443 
 
 Bourdaloue, I^ouis 446 
 
 Bright, John 553 
 
 Brougham, Lord Henry 521 
 
 Burke, Edmund 476 
 
 Caesar, Caius Julius 417 
 
 Calvin, John 441 
 
 Canning, George 510 
 
 Castelar, Emilio 637 
 
 Cato, Marcus Porcius 413 
 
 Cavour, Count Camillo di 629 
 
 Chamberlain, Joseph 560 J^ 
 
 Chatham, Earl of 472/1^ 
 
 Name 
 
 Page 
 
 Knox, John 567 
 
 Kossuth, Louis 622 
 
 Lamartine, Alphonse de 
 Latimer, Hugh .... 
 Luther, Martin .... 
 Lysias 
 
 Chesterfield, Earl of . 468 
 
 Cicero, Marcus Tullius 420 
 
 Cobden, Richard 540 
 
 Coke, Sir Edward 459 
 
 Cousin, Victor 607 
 
 Crispi, Francesco 635 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver 466 
 
 Curran, John Philpot 493 
 
 Danton, George Jacques 598 
 
 Demosthenes 404 
 
 Eliot, Sir John 461 
 
 Emmet, Robert 505 
 
 Erskine, Lord Thomas 485 
 
 Fenelon, Francois 449 L^mith, Sydney . . . 
 
 48B^^purgeon, Charles H. 
 
 Fox, Charles James 
 
 Gambetta, Leon 619 
 
 Gladstone, William Ewart 547 
 
 Gracchus, Caius 415 
 
 Grattan, Henry 489 
 
 Hugo, Marie Victor 616 
 
 Macaulay, Thomas Babington 
 
 Magnus, Albertus 
 
 Manning, Henry Edward . . 
 
 Marat, Jean Paul , 
 
 Massillon, Jean Baptiste , . . 
 
 Mazzini, Giuseppe 
 
 Mirabeau, Count Honors de . 
 
 610 
 
 564 
 438 
 398 
 
 536 
 436 
 578 
 602 
 452 
 625 
 
 590 
 
 Newman, John Henry 575 
 
 Council, Daniel 517 
 
 Palmerston, Viscount 
 Parker, Joseph . . . 
 Parnell, Charles S. . 
 Peel, Sir Robert . . 
 
 Pericles 
 
 Pitt, William .... 
 Pym, John 
 
 Robespierre, Maximilien Isidore de 
 Russell, Lord John 
 
 Saint Augustine 
 
 Saint Bernard 
 
 Saint Chrysostom 
 
 Shell, Richard L 
 
 Sheridan, Richard Brinsley 
 
 Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn 
 Thiers, Louis Adolphe . . 
 
 524 
 587 
 557 
 526 
 
 395 
 502 
 
 463 
 
 604 
 529 
 
 430 
 
 434 
 452 
 533 
 496 
 513 
 584 
 581 
 
 613 
 
 Vergniaud, Pierre 595 
 
 Wesley, John 569 
 
 Whitefield, George 572 
 
 Wilberforce, William 500 
 
 There are 704 pages in this volume. The sixty-four full-page half-tone illustrations should be 
 added to the last folio number indicated (640) givinga total of 704 pages. 
 
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