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 L I V 1 N 
 
 R A T K S 
 
 IN 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 BY 
 
 E. L. MAGC-ON, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " PROVERBS TOR THE PEOPLE," " ORATORS OF 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION," SfC. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER, 
 
 145 IIAIIAU 1TBEET AND 36 PARK ROW. 
 
 1851.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by 
 
 BAKER & SCRIBNER, 
 
 i the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Sc 
 District of New York. 
 
 C. W. BENEDICT, Stereotyper, 
 
 201 William ttreet, cor. of Frankfort.
 
 /85Y 
 
 TO 
 
 THE YOUNG MEN OP AMEBICA, 
 
 HEIRS OF THE 
 RICHEST DEPARTED WORTH, 
 
 AND 
 EMULATORS OF THE GRANDEST LIVING MERIT, 
 
 THIS WORK 
 IS FRATERNALLY INSCRIBED. 
 
 550449
 
 LIST OF PLATES. 
 
 FACING 
 
 I. DANIEL WEBSTER, . . .... TITLE 
 
 II. HENRY CLAY, . . 'Pj/ ...... 117 
 
 III. JOHN C. CALHOUN, . . /^ . C. f . . . 182 
 
 IV. LEWIS CASS, ........... 271 
 
 Y. THOMAS H. BENTON, . . .'''.' .' .' . . 302 
 
 VI. THOMAS CORWIN, 408
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 DANIEL WEBSTER, 
 
 THE LOGICIAN. 
 II. 
 
 EDWARD EVERETT, 
 
 THE RHETORICIAN. 
 III. 
 
 HENRY CLAY, * 
 
 THE POLITICIAN. 
 
 IV. 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN, 
 
 THE METAPHYSICIAN. 
 
 V. 
 GEORGE McDUFFIE, 
 
 THE IMPETUOUS. 
 
 VI. 
 
 LEWIS CASS, 
 
 THE COURTEOUS.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 VII. 
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON, 
 
 THE MAGISTERIAL. 
 
 VIII. 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON, 
 
 THE INSPIRED DEOLAIMER. 
 
 IX. 
 THOMAS CORWIN, 
 
 THE NATURAL ORATOR.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ON last September was published the "ORATORS OP 
 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION." Very kindly has that 
 book been received in this country and in England. In 
 accordance with the intimation given in the preface 
 to that work, the present publication is made to the 
 world with the hope that, like its predecessor, it may be 
 deemed not altogether unworthy of discriminating scru- 
 tiny and generous regard. 
 
 Of the former volume, some have said that it would 
 be improved if more copious extracts from the respective 
 orators accompanied the author's analytical remarks. 
 At the same time these critics have signified their doubts 
 as to the possibility of procuring many authentic and 
 characteristic specimens from some of the earliest and 
 most efficient patriots of our land. Those doubts would 
 deepen into despair, should the enthusiastic gentlemen 
 referred to attempt to find what all would indeed be glad
 
 to read. But, unfortunately, we have only here and 
 there a torso to remind us of the consummate excellence 
 long since mutilated by revolutions and wasted by time. 
 
 In the present instance, however, there is no such lack 
 of well-authenticated materials. The chief difficulty 
 lies in making a judicious selection therefrom, samples 
 the most characteristic of each master, and calculated 
 to exemplify in the most striking manner the peculiar 
 qualities of each one's eloquence. The author may 
 have failed in this respect, as in other important partic- 
 ulars ; but, as he wished to succeed by doing justice to 
 the subject every way, he has spared no pains. 
 
 The reader will understand that the production before 
 him is not designed to be a book of examples merely, or 
 of precepts alone, but rather of both combined. Taken 
 with the volume referred to above, it is believed that we 
 have arranged a complete circle of oratorical models, 
 each one in his own individuality standing for a class, 
 nearly approximating perfection of its kind, and in the 
 aggregate presenting an array of exalted worthies whom 
 the best talents would do well to emulate, and whom the 
 loftiest genius can only by the most strenuous efforts 
 hope to excel. 
 
 It is perhaps unnecessary to add that it has been the 
 purpose of the author to maintain the strictest impar-
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 tiality in portraying the distinguished personages in this 
 work, in all of whom he recognizes much to admire. 
 If in any instance he has been indiscreet or unjust in 
 what he has presumed to write, he begs pardon of those 
 who may conceive themselves wronged. He believes, 
 however, that a delicate regard to private feelings and 
 personal worth will be found pervading every succeed- 
 ing page. 
 
 In dedicating this work to the Young Men of America, 
 the author would remind them of Cicero's beautiful 
 exhortation to Brutus, after the death of Hortensius : 
 " As you now seem to have been left the sole guardian 
 of an orphan eloquence, let me conjure you to cherish 
 her with a generous fidelity : discourage the addresses 
 of her worthless and impertinent suitors : preserve her 
 pure and unblemished in all her virgin charms; and 
 secure her, to the utmost of your ability, from the law- 
 less violence of every ruffian." 
 
 E. L. M. 
 
 Cincinnati, Feb. 22, 1849.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER, 
 
 THE LOGICIAN. " 
 
 ALL honor to " The Old Granite State !" The con- 
 tracted and tempestuous territory of New Hampshire 
 has given birth to as much refined genius and effective 
 talent, perhaps, as any State on our continent. Nearly 
 all the heroism, moral excellence, and ennobling litera- 
 ture of the world, has been produced . by those who, in 
 infancy and youth were fostered by the inspiration of 
 exalted regions, where the turf is covered with a rude 
 beauty, rocks and wilderness are piled in bold and inimi- 
 table shapes of savage grandeur, tinged with the hues 
 of untold centuries, and over which awe-inspiring storms 
 often sweep with thunders in their train. This is the influ- 
 ence which more than half created the Shakspeares, 
 Miltons, Spencers, Wordsworths, Scotts, Coleridges, 
 Shelleys, Irvings, Coopers, Bryants, and Websters of the 
 world ; and without much personal acquaintance with 
 such scenes it is impossible for a reader to comprehend 
 their highest individuality of character so as fully to 
 relish the best qualities of their works. 
 
 In the present discussion, we propose to consider the 
 1
 
 2 LIVING ORATCRS IN AMERICA. 
 
 leading circumstances of Daniel Webster's youth ; trace 
 the progress -of his preparatory discipline ; sketch his 
 professional career; and portray the chief features of 
 his eloquence. 
 
 In the first place, we remark that there is in the ele- 
 ments of our humanity a perpetual sympathy with the 
 accompaniments of its first development; the mind and 
 deeds of strongly-marked individuals ever assimilate 
 with the nature of their parent soil, and the impressions 
 thereon first received. This rule is strikingly exempli- 
 fied in the life and character of Mr. Webster. He was 
 born in Salisbury, near the "White Hills" of New 
 Hampshire, at the source of the river Merrimack, in 
 1782. His father, who was a farmer, served both in the 
 old French war, and in the War of the Revolution. A 
 company composed mostly of his neighbors and friends 
 was under his command in the battle of Bennington, 
 at White Plains, and at West Point, when Arnold's 
 treason was discovered. He died about the year 1806, 
 having worthily filled several public offices, and, among 
 others, that of Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, for 
 the State. 
 
 Salisbury, to this day, is a retired, though nourishing 
 town, but at the time its distinguished son appeared, the 
 smoke of its few cabins went up amidst the rugged and 
 lonely wilderness of the North. To describe the tempe- 
 rature of the mountainous region of his advent, it is 
 fitting that we should employ the language of Milton in 
 his " Moscova." Says he : " The north parts of this 
 country are st> barren, that the inhabitants fetch their 
 <*orn a thousand miles, and so cold in winter, that the
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 
 
 very sap of their wood-fuel burning on the fire freezes at 
 the brand's end where it drops. The mariners which 
 were left on ship-board in the first English voyage 
 thither, in going up only from the cabins to the hatches, 
 had their breath so congealed by the cold, that they fell 
 down as it were stifled." 
 
 The best commentary to the genius of a people is a 
 visit to the scenery encompassed l?y which they are 
 born and trained. For instance, the mighty gloom of 
 the Hartz Mountains, in Germany ; the robber castles 
 towering over the Rhine ; the impressive remains of 
 antique power scattered profusely over plain, hill, and 
 forest ; the thousand commingled associations rife in 
 every scene ; the imperial Roman, the furious Goth, the 
 graceful cavaliers of feudal limes, and the thrilling con- 
 ceptions of an ideal world long anterior to them all, have 
 alike their record and impulse to the student pilgrim, 
 wandering, or at rest, and stamp their indelible features 
 on all the youth of the land. 
 
 The tendency of wild, broken districts, darkened by 
 mountains and savage forests, to raise in the mind those 
 ideas of solemn, preternatural awe, which are the stamina 
 of the most vigorous eloquence, and the adornment of the 
 best poetry, has been noticed from the earliest ages. 
 " Where is a lofty, and deeply-shaded grove," writes 
 Seneca in one of his epistles, " filled with venerable trees, 
 whose interlacing boughs shut out the face of heaven, the 
 grandeur of the wood, the silence of the place, the shade 
 so dense and uniform, infuse into the breast the notion 
 of a divinity ;" and thus the ancients, struck with the 
 living magnificence of nature, which they could not
 
 4 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 understand, peopled each grove, fountain, or grotto, with 
 some local genius, or god. We shall refer more fully to 
 this point, when we come to speak of the preparatory 
 discipline which fitted Mr. Webster for effective public 
 life. At present we only glance at the circumstances 
 attending his birth which were calculated nobly to im- 
 bue his character and develop its worth. He arose 
 where the two great elements of the universe, beauty 
 and sublimity, are most palpably revealed in the Swit- 
 zerland of America. It was fitting tha-t our greatest 
 statesman should there meet his first struggles, and learn 
 his first lore in the home of virtuous industry, surrounded 
 by scenery so grand. God made the human soul illus- 
 trious, and designed it for exalted pursuits and a glorious 
 destiny. To expand our finite faculties, and afford them 
 a culture both profound and elevating, Nature is spread 
 around us, with all its stupendous proportions, and 
 Divine Revelation speaks to us of an eternal augmenta- 
 tion of knowledge hereafter, for weal or woe. Above, 
 beneath, and around us, open the avenues of infinite pro- 
 gression, through which we must forever advance without 
 pause, and expand in capacity without limit. Here, on 
 this dim arena of earth, an immortal essence throbs at our 
 heart in harmony with the infinite and eternal. The 
 day-star of thought arises on the soul, and, with our first 
 rational exercise, begins an existence which may expe- 
 rience many vicissitudes, may pass through many tran- 
 sitions, but can never terminate. The soul, vivified 
 with power to think, will outlive the universe which 
 feeds its thought, and will be still practising its juvenile 
 excursions at the mere outset of its opening career,
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 5 
 
 while suns and systems, shorn of their glories, shall sink, 
 in shattered ruins, to the caverns of eternal oblivion 
 But the soul of man, 
 
 u Vital in every part, 
 Cannot, but by annihilation, die." 
 
 Its two great faculties, correspondent to the two great 
 natural elements mentioned above the capacity to 
 perceive the beautiful, and feel the sublime are at once 
 the products and proofs of our immortality. They in- 
 dicate endowments which it is bliss to improve, .and a 
 destiny which it will be fearful indeed to neglect. 
 
 Dr. Clarke thought that the lofty genius of Alexan- 
 der was nourished by the majestic presence of Mount 
 Olympus, under the shadow of which he may be said 
 to have been born and bred. If grand natural scenery 
 tends permanently to affect the character of those 
 cradled on its bosom, we need not wonder that New 
 Hampshire is the nursery of patriotism the most firm, 
 and eloquence the most sublime. Elastic as the air 
 they breathe, free and joyous as the torrents that dash 
 through their rural possessions, strong as the granite 
 hills from the scanty soil of which they wring a hardy 
 livelihood, her enterprising sons, noble and high-minded 
 by natural endowment, are like the glorious regions oi 
 rugged adventure they love to occupy. This is an uui- 
 veral rule. The Foulahs dwelling on the high Alps of 
 Africa, are as superior to the tribes living beneath, as 
 the natives of Cashmere are above the Hindoos, or as 
 the Tyrolese are nobler than the Arab race. The cha- 
 racter of individuals and of nations is in a great mea-
 
 6 LI\ING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 sure influenced by their local position, circumstances of 
 climate and education, popular traditions, and the 
 scenery in the midst of which they arise. Popular 
 manners and mental characteristics harmonize with the 
 external objects with which they are surrounded. The 
 transition from the monotonous plains of Lombardy to 
 the bod precipices of Switzerland is, in physical nature, 
 exactly like that, in moral character, from the crouching 
 and squalid appearance of the brutalized peasant, to the 
 independent air and indomitable energy of the free-born 
 and intelligent mountaineer. The athletic form and 
 fearless eye of the latter bespeak the freedom he has won 
 to perpetuate and enjoy, the invigorating elements he 
 buffets in hardy toil, and the daring aspirations he is 
 fearless and fervid to indulge. 
 
 We proceed, secondly, to trace the youthful discipline 
 which prepared Mr. Webster for the functions of public 
 life. In the wild and uncultivated region where he was 
 born, and in that age of savage warfare, it cannot be 
 supposed that many facilities existed for procuring a re- 
 fined education. But, ever since the first free school 
 was established on the wilderness-covered peninsula of 
 Boston, in 1636, New England schoolmasters have 
 everywhere kept pace with the woodman in pioneering 
 the progress of civilized life. Fortunately, the school 
 found Mr. Webster in the wilderness, elicited his. intel- 
 lectual powers, and gave direction to his splendid career. 
 Had it not been for the wise policy of our fathers, in 
 opening free instruction to all classes on their domain, 
 this master-mind of New England would probably have 
 lain dormant and unknown to the present hour. This
 
 i 
 
 DANIEL. WEBSTER. 7 
 
 fact he seems himself ever to have felt, as we may infer 
 from the remarks which, in the maturity of his greatness, 
 he made in the Convention of Massachusetts, when, in 
 reference to popular education, he said : 
 
 " In this particular, we may be allowed to claim a 
 merit of a very high and peculiar character. This 
 commonwealth, with other of the New England States, 
 early adopted, and has constantly maintained, the prin- 
 ciple, that it is the undoubted right, and the bounden 
 duty of government, to provide for the instruction of all 
 youth. That which is elsewhere left to chance, or to 
 charity, we secure by law. For the purpose of public 
 instruction, we hold every man subject to taxation, in 
 proportion to his property, and we look not to the ques- 
 tion, whether he, himself, have, or have not children to 
 be benefitted by the education for which he pays. We 
 regard it as a wise and liberal system of police, by which 
 property, and life, and the peace of society are secured. 
 We seek lo prevent, in some measure, the extension of 
 the penal code, by inspiring a salutary and conservative 
 principle of virtue, and of knowledge, in an early age. 
 We hope to excite a feeling of respectability, and a 
 sense of character, by enlarging the capacity, and in- 
 creasing the sphere of intellectual enjoyment. By 
 general instruction, we seek, as far as possible, to purify 
 the whole moral atmosphere ; to keep good sentiments 
 uppermost, and to turn the strong current of feeling and 
 opinion, as well as the censures of the law, and the 
 denunciations of religion against immorality and crime. 
 We hope for a security beyond the law, and above the 
 law, in the prevalence of enlightened and well-prin-
 
 8 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 cipled moral sentiment. We hope to continue and to 
 prolong the time, when, in the villages and farm-houses 
 of New England, there may be undisturbed sleep, 
 within unbarred doors. And knowing that our govern- 
 ment rests directly on the public will, that we may pre- 
 serve it, we endeavor to give a safe and proper direction 
 to that public will. We do not, indeed, expect all men 
 to be philosophers, or statesmen ; but we confidently 
 trust, and our expectation of the duration of our system 
 of government rests on that trust, that by the diffusion 
 of general knowledge, and good and virtuous sentiments, 
 the political fabric may be secure, as well against open 
 violence and overthrow, as against the slow but sure 
 undermining of licentiousness." 
 
 "I rejoice, Sir, that every man in this community 
 may call all property his own, so far as he has occasion 
 for it, to furnish for himself and his children the bless- 
 ings of religious instruction, and the elements of know- 
 ledge. This celestial and this earthly light he is entitled 
 to by the fundamental laws. It is every poor man's 
 undoubted birth-right, it is the great blessing which this 
 Constitution has secured to him, it is his solace in life, 
 and it may well be his consolation in death, that his 
 country stands pledged, by the faith which it has 
 plighted to all its citizens, to protect his children from 
 ignorance, barbarism, and vice." 
 
 When sixteen years old, after a very imperfect prepa- 
 ration, he entered Dartmouth College, and graduated 
 there in 1801. The industry of his pursuits, and the 
 tokens he gave of coming fame, we shall notice here- 
 after.
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 9 
 
 Mr. Webster finished the study of his profession in 
 Boston, and was there admitted to the bar in 18Q5. 
 Mr. Gore, in whose office he had read law, ven- 
 tured, on presenting him, to make a prediction to the 
 court respecting his pupil's future eminence, which, san- 
 guine as it was, all the world knows has been more than 
 fulfilled. His first practice in his profession was in 
 Boscawen, a small village near the place of his birth ; 
 but in 1807, he removed to Portsmouth, where he strug- 
 gled for some time, was finally burned out, and moved 
 to Boston, with the hope of bettering his fortunes. 
 
 Up to this period, his perpetual strife with penury, 
 obscurity, and misfortune, was no holiday work. Let us 
 inquire into the effects produced by severe and pro- 
 tracted discipline upon his mental character and public 
 influence. The circumstances of his family compelled 
 him to rely on his own exertions mainly for support. 
 The labors he performed, and the sacrifices to which he 
 submitted, for the sake of his own and a brother's edu- 
 cation, are said to be among the most remarkable 
 achievements of even his remarkable life. It would 
 seem as if he was determined to act for himself, as he 
 advised the government to act in reference to the war 
 of 1812; " if need be, to accompany your own flag 
 throughout the world, with the protection of your own 
 cannon" 
 
 The first thing to be remarked under this head, is, 
 that as a student, Mr. Webster was exceedingly dili- 
 gent. One of his classmates has attested with the live- 
 liest interest to the generous and magnanimous spirit he 
 showed among his early competitors, in the midst of 
 1*
 
 10 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 whom, he at the outset manifested aspirations entirely 
 beyond his condition, and which soon enabled him to 
 leave all rivalship far in his rear. He possessed too 
 much native force to rely implicitly on any master, but 
 at the same time profited by all the resources the most 
 diligent study could command, and wrought them into 
 his own type of excellence, as Michael Angelo broke 
 the marble with his chisel, and thence elicited the ideal 
 colossus first projected within his own soul. Said that 
 great sculptor to a promising pupil, " Learn to sketch 
 before you attempt to finish." This was Webster's 
 practice. He incessantly cultivated the habit of distinct 
 conception, and clearly defined thought in diversified 
 composition. The greatest faculties are much more 
 freqently "evaporated in indolence than in exertion ; 
 while it is the latter only that confers true happiness, 
 and guarantees permanent success. The luxury which 
 young genius enjoys in contemplating its own outlines 
 vigorously conceived, creates the strongest passion for 
 elaborated execution, and prompts to the most untiring 
 efforts after a graceful finish of its own magnificent 
 plans. 
 
 Another important matter to mention under this head 
 is, that Mr. Webster has always labored to attain a 
 manly, as well as a mental education. Milton said : "I 
 call a complete and generous education that which fits 
 a man to perform justly, skillfully, and magnanimously, 
 all the offices, both private and public, of peace and 
 war." This is comprehensive, and as a general defini- 
 tion, is as good as any that can be given. 
 
 To educate is to develop ; not to make one man all
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. H 
 
 Latin, another all mathematics ; it is to unfold a man 
 indeed, himself all developed. A pupil is educated 
 when he is made a hero in his own individuality ; a soul 
 powerful in acts, fruitful in grand results ; an adult in 
 intellect, a rational creature well trained, who will, who 
 can, who does. 
 
 One of the renowned philosophers of antiquity beau- 
 tifully said of the intellectual faculties, " I call them not 
 mine but me. It is these which make the man ; which 
 are the man." Now, that system of education which 
 most effectually reaches the latent powers of mankind, 
 and brings them out in vigorous discipline, is the most 
 manly and the best. Men are valuable, not in propor- 
 tion to what they know, but to what they can do. 
 Every.youth has a can do in him. It is the office of 
 education to reach that, and impart to it the potency of 
 practical exercise. The versatile pen, the delicate pen- 
 cil, the creative chisel, and the eloquent tongue seem 
 wonderful to one contemplating their facility and power. 
 But everything about them is perfectly simple and easy 
 to him who possesses and has cultivated his own can do. 
 
 The process by which an efficient education is attain- 
 ed, is not the tame passivity of the pupil to pedantic 
 dogmatizings. " How many young men," said Cole- 
 ridge, "are anxiously and expensively be-schoolmas- 
 tered, be-tutored, be-lectured, anything but educated; 
 who have received arms and amunition, instead of skill, 
 strength, and courage ; varnished rather than polished ; 
 perilously over-civilized, and most pitiably uncultivated. 
 And all from inattention to the method dictated by na- 
 ture herself, to the simple truth, tjiat as the forms of all
 
 12 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 organized existence, so must all true and living know- 
 ledge, proceed from within ; that it may be trained, sup- 
 ported, fed, excited, but can never be infused nor im- 
 pressed." 
 
 This is a luminous statement of what we should 
 never forget. We are not to shape the mind by external 
 pressure, paint it over with artificial hues, or mechanize 
 its powers ; but to start its germs by genial teaching, 
 and prompt its natural and majestic growth from the 
 centre outward, as the acorn expands into an oak. The 
 main thing is to awaken the principle and method of 
 self-development, not so much by conveying information 
 into the mind as to invigorate in it the power of send- 
 ing thought out. The human soul is not a mere dep6t, 
 a passive receptacle for all sorts of trumpery that may 
 therein be stowed by the arbitrary will of some mental 
 baggage-master; but it is a living and self- producing 
 agent, which is to be carefully "placed in such relations 
 to appropriate aliment, as to excite the latent, original 
 power that craves only such knowledge as it can appro- 
 priate to itself, and can re-produce in shapes and excel- 
 lence all its own. Now to attain this end, due attention 
 must be paid to our physical, mental, and moral culture. 
 
 First of all, good heed must be given to the education 
 of the body ; a kind of cultivation as imperious as any 
 other, since the body is as susceptible of improvement 
 as the mind. Our person, with all its complicated and 
 diversified faculties, physical and mental, is an unit, ar.d 
 does not admit of being developed in fragments. Man 
 must grow up harmoniously, if he would rise to useful- 
 ness, with simultaneous expansion in trunk, branch an^
 
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 13 
 
 foliage, as grows a tree ; the sap of immortal energy 
 must circulate without hindrance in every fibre, matur- 
 ing fruits perennial and divine. 
 
 Two laws are manifest in the constitution of our na- 
 ture, a due regard to which cannot but conduce to our 
 welfare and elevate our conceptions of the Supreme 
 BEING. In the first place, in proportion as the physical 
 nature of a man is healthfully developed by suitable dis- 
 cipline, winning the greatest vigor of limb, and the great- 
 est acuteness of sense, he will derive important aids to 
 the intellect and moral powers from the perfections of 
 his outward frame. Moreover, by a delightful re-action, 
 the mind, in proportion as it is invigorated and beauti- 
 fied, gives strength and elegance to the body, and en- 
 larges the sphere of action and enjoyment. These laws 
 have been recognized and observed by the best educa- 
 tors of the world. At Athens, the gymnasia became 
 temples of the Graces. They were not merely places 
 of exercise for the young, but drew to their halls, porti- 
 coes, baths, and groves, the most distinguished votaries 
 of every art and science. The scenes of this kind most 
 celebrated were the Academy where Plato taught, the 
 Lyceum where Aristotle lectured, and the Kynosargy. 
 In these the refined Greek could gratify his fondness for 
 the beautiful, by the sight of the finest figures, in the 
 prime of youth, exercising amidst objects and associa- 
 tions of the greatest elegance. Surrounded on every 
 hand by the combined charms of nature and art, the 
 young men were seen exhilarated with athletic sports, 
 and the old imparting wisdom in the presence of the 
 most splendid ideal forms. Then and there physical
 
 14 LIVING ORATOK8 IN AMERICA. 
 
 education began with life and constantly augmented its 
 force. Every festival of childhood was made enchant- 
 ing with flowers and music ; the barge, as it was pushed 
 in boyish sport on the lake, was crowded with garlands ; 
 the oars were moved to the sound of " sweet recorders," 
 and the patriotic mother at home sang an inspiring lul- 
 laby, as she rocked her infant to sleep in the broad shield 
 of its father. There were wrestlings in the open palaes- 
 tra, as well as races and heroic games ; there were gay 
 revels on the mountain sides, and moonlight dances in 
 the groves. 
 
 The field of Olympia was to the Greeks the most sa- 
 cred enclosure of the gods. The games thereon prac- 
 ticed, among other uses, promoted manly education, by 
 teaching that the body has its honors as well as the in- 
 tellect. They felt that vast importance belongs to phy- 
 sical agility and strength, not only that the mind may be 
 thus aided in energetic action, but that a firm basis 
 be laid in a sound body for the exercise of manly vir- 
 tues. Without physical vigor, the feeble flickerings of 
 the mind are only " a gilded halo hovering round 
 decay.'' 
 
 The national games described in the twenty-fourth 
 book of the Iliad, the eighth of the Odyssey, and by Virgil 
 in the fifth book of the ./Eneid, all relate to important 
 elements in a manly education. Those ancient festi- 
 vals had the finest influence upon the inhabitants of the 
 metropolis, and upon those who dwelt the most remote. 
 Every pilgrim through such lands, to such shrines, be- 
 came Briareus-handed and Argus-eyed : the beautiful 
 scenes, full of patriotic and refined associations which
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 15 
 
 everywhere arrested his attention, gave him the travel- 
 ler's "thirsty eye," filled his mind with thrilling reminis- 
 cences, and caused him to return to his home glowing 
 with brilliant descriptions and burdened with exalted 
 thoughts. It was thus that the youthful Greek mingled 
 with his studies pedestrian exercise and acute observa- 
 tion, formed his body to fatigue, while he stored his 
 mind with lofty ideas, and became equally skilled in 
 handling a sword, building a temple, or subduing a 
 horse. 
 
 In the festival of the Panathenaea, as the name im- 
 ports, all the people of Attica engaged in the celebration, 
 wearing their chaplets of flowers. The sports began 
 early in the morning, with races on the banks of the II- 
 lissus, in which the sons of the most distinguished citi- 
 zens contended for the palm. Next came the wrestling 
 and gymnastic contests in the Stadium, succeeded by 
 still more refined competitions in the Odeum, where the 
 most exquisite musicians executed rival pieces on the 
 flute or cithara, while others sang and accompanied their 
 voices with the sweetest instruments. The theme present- 
 ed to the competitors was the eulogy of Hermodius, Aristo- 
 geiton, and Thrasybulus, who had rescued the republic 
 from the yoke of tyranny. Thus the popular pastimes 
 of the Athenians tended to commemorate the patriots 
 who had served their country, as well as to excite the 
 spectators to an emulation of their virtues. Painters 
 exhibited the fruits of their skill ; sculptors adorned the 
 road-side, the groves, and the temples of the gods ; poets 
 contended for the dramatic prize, each being allowed to
 
 16 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 produce four pieces ; and the eloquence of history fired 
 with rapture thousands of exulting hearts. 
 
 The procession to the temple of Pythian Apollo, which 
 closed the day with religious rites, was composed of dif- 
 ferent classes of citizens, adorned with garlands, among 
 whom were seen old men of majestic mien, bearing 
 branches of olive ; others of middle age, armed with 
 lances and bucklers as if ready to engage in war ; 
 youths, who sang hymns in honor of Minerva ; beauti- 
 ful boys, clad in a graceful tunic ; and lastly girls, se- 
 lected from the first families in Athens, attracting every 
 eye by their unequalled charms. 
 
 At night there was a torch-race of the most agile 
 youth, stationed at equal distances, the first of whom, on 
 a signal given by the shout of the multitude, lighted his 
 flambeau at the altar of Prometheus, and at the top of his 
 speed handed it to the second, who trasmitted it in the 
 same manner to the third, and so on in rapid succession 
 to the last. He who suffered his torch to be extinguished 
 was excluded from the lists, and they who slackened in 
 their pace were exposed to the railleries and blows of 
 the populace. It was necessary to pass through all the 
 stations with success, in order to gain the prize. How 
 hard it is to over-estimate the amount of vigor, bodily 
 and mental, which was won from such chaste and in- 
 tpiring recreations ! 
 
 The ludicrous remark of Frederick the Great, that 
 man " seems more adapted by nature for a postillion 
 than a philosopher," is not without foundation ; but there 
 is no necessary incompatibility between great mental 
 activity and habitual good health, provided proper atten-
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 17 
 
 tion is paid to physical culture. The old maxim that 
 " all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," is quite 
 true. There is health of mind in innocent hilarity. 
 There is health in bodily sports which combine ani- 
 mated exercise with amusement. There is health of 
 soul in the contemplation of nature, when he who con- 
 templates, adores, and early learns to " look through na- 
 ture up to nature's GOD." The benefit of moderate ex- 
 citement is often very great on the moral constitution and 
 physical frame, and should be temperately indulged in 
 by all, according to the predispositions of each. Some 
 inherit a passion for the gun, and others for the angle ; 
 some are fond of equestrian excursions, while others 
 love to foot it along the quiet shores of lakes, and on 
 sublime mountain tops. Shakspeare gave us a maxim 
 of wisdom in literary pursuits, when he said, " Study 
 what you most affect ;" and in our recreations we 
 should pursue what is most congenial to native tastes. 
 Hard study should be succeeded by hardy exercise in 
 some appropriate form. The foot-ball at Rugby, and the 
 regatta at Eaton, bowling at Harrow, and cricket at 
 Westminster, succeeded by all those invigorating exer- 
 cises in constant practice at Oxford and Cambridge, 
 give lo England the most elegant and able-bodied 
 scholars in the world. 
 
 But vigorous mental development is a prime quality 
 in a manly education. Man is not all soul, therefore he 
 is not conditioned as an angel ; neither is he all body, 
 and for this reason he cannot with impunity live as a 
 brute. We have sensibilities as well as senses, spirit as 
 well as flesh. We are a compound of earth and heaven ;
 
 18 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 dust tempered with tears, and quickened with a spark 
 unquenchable ; a spirit exiled in a prison of clay, and 
 both tenant and tabernacle must be cared for. It is 
 ignoble to be, like a wild hunter, all exercise and no 
 thought ; it is equally suicidal to dignified excellence to 
 be, like too many votaries of science, all thought and 
 no exercise. A sound mind in a sound body was long 
 since deemed the great desideratum ; and this we should 
 be most strenuous to attain. To be successful, we must 
 " be in eye of every exercise." We must feel that it is 
 belter to have a reed that will do us some service than 
 a pike that we have neither the strength nor skill to 
 heave : 
 
 " Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, 
 Which we ascribe to heaven ; the fated sky 
 Gives us free scope ; only doth backward pull 
 Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull." 
 
 One must not only be a zealous worshipper of know- 
 ledge, but he must learn to pluck the fruit fresh from the 
 tree with a vigorous hand. He must be a devout and 
 active student in the great university of nature, where 
 one can gather materials such as dogmatism and " dried 
 preparations" never afford. Careful scrutiny of the 
 world and profound meditation constitute the most an- 
 cient and infallible road to the soundest learning; he 
 who pursues his manly career therein, will not be of that 
 feeble class whose listless hand "hangs like dead bone 
 within its withered skin," but vigorously will he grow, 
 refreshed by the purest fountains, and enriched with the 
 most valuable stores. Deep and passionate love of
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 19 
 
 knowledge for its own sake indicates the soul of true 
 scholarship. This is the sun of the heaven within us, 
 around which the elements of our mental being gathei 
 in delightful harmony and concentrate their force. 
 Warmed into action by this luminary, and transfigured 
 by its beams, the mind goes forth in action like the son 
 of Tydeus, with glory blazing round it, kindling aston- 
 ishment and emulous delight. The grand object of 
 schooling is never attained until all the priceless powers 
 of our nature are quickened and fortified by the true, the 
 beautiful, the good and the grand; until each faculty, in 
 its own place and proportion, is thoroughly trained, and 
 our physical and mental energies are moulded to a sym- 
 metrical whole, of the purest, holiest and most enchant- 
 ing harmony. 
 
 Education is soul-excitement, and that is the best dis- 
 cipline for spiritual faculties which most effectually stim- 
 ulates their growth, moulds their awakening energies, 
 elicits and augments their strength. The main ques- 
 tion is not what will make youth pedants, or bigots, or 
 partisans, but what will make them men ? This will 
 demand concentration of purpose and liberality of feel- 
 ing. Concentration is essential to profitable acquisition. 
 The stream, divided into many channels, ceases to flow 
 either deep or strong. To waste one's strength in fri- 
 volous endeavors is to covet the transient dazzle of an 
 exploded rocket, rather than the perpetual blaze of the 
 unquenchable sun. Many men of great natural capa- 
 cities, for want of persevering fixedness of purpose, are 
 utterly lost to the world; men whose intellect is emi-
 
 20 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 nently original and creative, competent under suitable 
 discipline to upraise 
 
 41 A WILDERNESS of building, sinking far, 
 And self-withdrawn into a wondrous depth, 
 Far sinking into splendor, without end." 
 
 Unfortunately, however, for themselves and the world, 
 too many neglect wholesome training, and supinely waste 
 their fine energies in "one long day of summer indo- 
 lence." But mental action cannot be intense unless all 
 the faculties are made to play within a narrow range. 
 The electric fluid is as impotent as the unbounded air it 
 sleeps in, until concentrated in a thunder-cloud. Nature 
 has closely confined the muscles in our frame, in order 
 to give them the highest degree of power in combined 
 action ; and in the same way our spiritual capacities, 
 to attain their full force, must be brought to bear on a 
 single point, and work within exclusive limits. It is ne- 
 cessary that even solar heat should be converged to a 
 focus of ten thousand beams ere it will burn. 
 
 Education is not an abstract theory, a lifeless creed, 
 stored away in the torpid brain like obsolete relics de- 
 posited on musty shelves; it is concrete power, generat- 
 ed by the collision of great truths and vital principles, 
 as lightning is elicited by the contact of opposing clouds, 
 and must be brought to bear with instantaneous and ir- 
 resistible fulminations on the intellect and heart of man- 
 kind. Now the source and secret of this master endow- 
 ment is generosity of feeling. Its possessor will seek 
 knowledge and influence, not for personal aggrandize- 
 ment, but for the public good. He is not of that dry,
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 21 
 
 phlegmatic and miserable class of professed scholars, 
 "plunged to *he hilt in musty tomes, and rusted in," who 
 industriously accumulate their petty stores, and are for- 
 ever " bristling up with small facts," but who labor only 
 for self, and consequently win only contempt. An old 
 author has said that "we fatten a sheep with grass, 
 not in order to obtain a crop of hay from his back, but 
 in the hope he will feed us with mutton, and clothe us 
 with wool." We should replenish the mind with sound 
 principles, and seek the discipline of severe study, in or- 
 der more successfully to conquer the chicanery of 
 the bar, the sophistry of the senate, the stupidity of 
 the pulpit, and the sinfulness of the world. Education 
 is the armor of the mind ; but that armor will be worse 
 than none if it be inflexible from rust, or too ponderous 
 for the wearer's use. 
 
 The professed man of letters, who constantly acquires 
 and yet never has the force of genius to produce, acts 
 the ridiculous part of an architect who never executes 
 a plan, or a sculptor who never clips a stone. Of all 
 idjers he is the most contemptible who fritters away tal- 
 ent and existence under such professions. What use is 
 it to be forever familiarizing one's self with books, those 
 " monuments of vanished minds," as D'Avenant well 
 called them, and yet never be vivified with an original 
 thought. This is to resemble Pharaoh's lean kine, con- 
 stantly eating and constantly poor, rather than the more, 
 useful worm that spins from its own bowels the robes of 
 grandest monarchs, transforming every leaf it eats into 
 resplendent and practical usefulness. In national armo- 
 ries we sometimes see large quantities of martial imple-
 
 22 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 ments curiously arranged in fantastic forms. How much 
 more impressive they would be if seen glittering in quick- 
 motion on the field, and how much more potent would 
 be their use when grasped by well-disciplijred legions, 
 rushing to the final charge. A single weapon wielded 
 by a chivalrous and resolute hero would be more effect- 
 ive than the holyday show of all the martial weapons in 
 repose on earth. 
 
 We have mentioned two prominent traits in the early 
 discipline practiced by Mr. Webster, severe mental toil 
 accompanied with vigorous physical exercise. It is im- 
 portant to remark, thirdly, that while he was thus dili- 
 gent in mastering knowledge and acquiring strength of 
 every kind, he was equally critical and constant in 
 watching the conduct of the wise, and in emulating the 
 best professional models. We have been told that, for 
 years before he became distinguished at the bar, and 
 long afterwards, he was constant in his attendance on 
 all business, with his note-book before him, listening at- 
 tentively to the best counsel, and writing down carefully 
 every sagacious remark from the bench. It is a great 
 advantage and auspicious omen for a young man, quiet- 
 ly to listen to his superiors, while in doing so he delibe- 
 rately resolves to emulate their excellence, and, if possi- 
 ble, exceed them in both power and speed. 
 
 At an early day, Mr. Webster formed the habit of 
 .thinking with a pen in his hand, and of inscribing his 
 thought before him, in the simplest and most perspicu- 
 ous form ; in this way, he acquired a wonderful facility 
 in conceiving and expressing his ideas in the most lumi- 
 nous and forcible style. He may have learned from
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 23 
 
 Aristotle, that, of the four elements of education, design 
 is to be placed on a level with grammar. At any rate, 
 more than any other orator living, probably, he has al- 
 ways been most studious. of clearness and accuracy in 
 constructing the basis and outlines of his discourse. Il 
 was thus, that from the beginning he cultivated correct 
 habits of thought, perpetually subdued himself to philoso 
 phical propriety and critical analysis, reined in his mor$ 
 impetuous faculties, made reason supreme, and combined 
 elaborated meditation with logical truth. This spirit of 
 grand conception, habitual research, and fervid enthusi- 
 asm, ambitious only for the execution of loftiest pur- 
 poses, is the sure prognostic of consummate excellence, 
 and the only foundation for lasting fame. The great 
 architect and adorner of the Parthenon possessed it, and 
 hence, " Nothing is more perfect than Phidias," says 
 Cicero: " You cannot praise him enough," says Pliny: 
 " He made gods better than men," says Quintilian; the 
 secret of all which capacity and worth is stated by Plato 
 who testifies that " Phidias was skillful in beauty." AK 
 though he executed figures of the most exalted beings 
 only, and these in gigantic forms, every feature and 
 limb were invested with dignified splendor, because he 
 always wrought in the most valuable materials, accord- 
 ing to the strictest rules and with the greatest care. 
 
 Thus disciplined, we cannot wonder that his law- 
 teacher prophesied for young Webster great success, 
 and that at a subsequent period, in noticing his transla- 
 tion to the highest American forum, the Boston Courier 
 should say : " The election has placed in the Senate of 
 the United Stages a man who will ably defend the mea-
 
 24 LIVING ORATORS IN AMEBICA. 
 
 sures ot the National Administration, so far as they can 
 be justified by a liberal construction of the Constitution, 
 and tend to promote the prosperity of the whole coun- 
 try/' This brings us to our 
 
 Third general point, viz., a sketch of Mr. Webster's 
 professional career. " Great wits in every age," says 
 Lord Bacon, " have been overborne, and in a sort, 
 tyranized over ; whilst men of capacity and comprehen- 
 sion above the vulgar, (yet consulting their own credit 
 and reputation..) have submitted themselves to the over- 
 swaying judgment of time and multitude. Therefore, 
 if in any time and place, more profound contemplations 
 have perchance emerged and revealed themselves, they 
 have been forthwith lost and extinguished by the winds 
 and tempests of* popular opinions." This will hardly 
 apply to our statesman-orator, who has the more tri- 
 umphantly succeeded, because from the beginning he 
 never designed to raise a splendid structure on a quick- 
 sand, but on a solid foundation, acquired by habitual 
 precision of thought, fixedness of purpose, and indomita- 
 ble energy of pursuit. From the time he moved to 
 Portsmouth, in 1807, his career was a steady advance 
 towards the highest functions and the widest influence. 
 The wisest judge in the State, the late Gov. Smith, and 
 the strongest lawyer, Mr. Mason, recently deceased, 
 ivere his professional rivals and admiring friends. 
 Called in early, manhood to antagonize with veterans of 
 ihe amplest resources, and of the quickest penetration ; 
 he battled bravely with men whose comprehensive men- 
 tal grasp, rigid logic, and apt illustration, left no safety 
 or hope, to their young adversary, but in equal vigor,
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 25 
 
 industry, and skill. In this wholesome school of severe 
 and rugged professional practice, Mr. Webster doubt- 
 less acquired much of that intellectual training and 
 power, which subsequently rendered him greatly supe- 
 rior to most advocates, and inferior to none. 
 
 His first political office was the one to which he was 
 elected in 1812, when he was hardly thirty years old, as 
 a member of the thirteenth Congress of the United 
 States. Among the debates in which he distinguished 
 himself, the bill for "encouraging enlistments," in Janu- 
 ary, 1814, drew from him a highly patriotic speech, of 
 which the following is an extract : 
 
 " The humble aid which it would be in my power to 
 render to measures of government, shall be given cheer- 
 fully, if government will pursue measures which I can 
 conscientiously support. If, even now, failing in an 
 honest and sincere attempt to procure- a just and honor- 
 able peace, it will return to measures of defence and 
 protection, such as reason, and common sense, and the 
 public opinion, all call for, my vote shall not be with- 
 holden from the means. Give up your futile projects of 
 invasion. Extinguish the fires that blaze on your in- 
 land frontiers. Establish perfect safety and defence 
 there by adequate force. Let every man that sleeps on 
 your soil sleep in security. Stop* the blood that flows 
 from the veins of unarmed yeomanry, and women and 
 children. Give to the living time to bury and lament 
 their dead, in the quietness of private sorrow. Having 
 performed this work of beneficence and mercy on your 
 inland border, turn and look with the eye of justice and 
 compassion on your vast population along the coast.
 
 26 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Unclench the iron grasp of your embargo. Take mea- 
 sures for that end, before another sun sets upon you. 
 With all the war of the enemy on your commerce, if 
 you would cease to make war upon it yourselves, you 
 would still have some commerce. That commerce 
 would give you some revenue. Apply that revenue to 
 the augmentation of your navy. That navy, in turn, 
 will protect your commerce. Let it no longer be said, 
 that not one ship of force, built by your hands since the 
 war, yet floats upon the ocean. Turn the current of 
 your efforts into the channel, which national sentiment 
 has already worn broad and deep to receive it. A naval 
 force, competent to defend your coast against consider- 
 able armaments, to convoy your trade, and perhaps raise 
 the blockade of your rivers, is'not a chimera. It may 
 be realized. If, then, the war must continue, go to the 
 ocean. If you are seriously contending for maritime 
 rights, go to the theatre where alone those rights can 
 be defended. Thither every indication of your fortunes 
 points you. There the united wishes and exertions of 
 the nation will go with you. Even our party divisions, 
 acrimonious as they are, cease at the water's edge. 
 They are lost in attachment to the national character, 
 on the element where that character is made respectable. 
 In protecting naval interests by naval means, you will 
 arm yourselves with the whole power of national senti- 
 ment, and may command the whole abundance of the 
 national resource. In time you may be enabled to re- 
 dress injuries in the place where they may be offered ; 
 and, if need be, to accompany your own flag throughout 
 the world with the protection of your own cannon."
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 27 
 
 Later, in the same Congress, he contributed very much 
 to the establishment of a sound currency, by the over- 
 throw of the paper-bank system. He was re-elected to 
 New Hampshire for the fourteenth Congress, and sat 
 there during the sessions of 1815-16, and 1816-17. 
 It was during this period that he introduced and carried 
 a Resolution, still a part of the law of the United States, 
 the effect of which was to require the revenue to be re- 
 ceived only in the legal currency of the country, or in 
 bills equal to that currency in value. 
 
 His income at Portsmouth being insufficient to repair 
 the heavy loss he had sustained in the great fire of 1813, 
 Mr. Webster now retired for a season from public life, 
 and, in 1816, removed to Boston, in search of wider 
 practice in his profession and ampler revenues. For six 
 or eight years, he refused to accept office, avoided all 
 political discussion, and gave his entire energies to the 
 business of the bar. He had now distinguished himself 
 as a lawyer in Massachusetts, as well as in his native 
 State, and two terms in Congress had caused him to be 
 widely known as a distinguished statesman, young as he 
 was. But the hour now cajne, when his rank as a jurist, 
 was to be no less clearly determined and widely pro- 
 claimed. On the 10th of March, 1818, before the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States, at Washington, he 
 made his argument in behalf of Dartmouth College. It 
 is said the court-room was excessively crowded, not 
 only with a large assemblage of the most eminent law- 
 yers of the Union, but with many of its leading states- 
 men, drawn there no less by the importance of the 
 cause, and the wide results that would follow its decision,
 
 28 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 than by the known eloquence of Mr. Hopkinson and 
 Mr. Wirt, both of whom were engaged in it. Mr. 
 Webster opened the discussion, on behalf of the college. 
 A spectator describes the scene as follows. " He opened 
 his cause, as he always does, with perfect simplicity in 
 the general statement of its facts ; and then went on to 
 unfold the topics of his argument, in a lucid order, 
 which made each position sustain every other. The 
 logic and the law were rendered irresistible. But, as he 
 advanced; his heart warmed to the subject and the occa- 
 sion. Thoughts and feelings, that had grown old with 
 his best affections, rose unbidden to his lips. He re- 
 membered that the institution he was defending, was the 
 one where his own youth had been nurtured ; and the 
 moral tenderness and beauty this gave to the grandeur 
 of his thoughts; the sort of religious sensibility it im- 
 parted to his urgent appeals and demands for the stern 
 fulfilment of what law and justice required, wrought up 
 the whole audience to an extraordinary state of excite- 
 ment. Many betrayed strong agitation ; many were 
 dissolved in tears. When he ceased to speak, there was 
 a perceptible interval before any one was willing to 
 break the silence ; and, when that vast crowd separated, 
 not one person of the whole number doubted, that the 
 man who had that day so moved, astonished, and con- 
 trolled them, had vindicated for himself a place at the 
 side of the first jurists of the country." 
 
 The Massachusetts Reports, and the Reports in the 
 Circuit and Supreme Courts of the United States, show 
 that at this period, Mr. Webster's professional labors and 
 success were very great. But his fame and usefulness
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 29 
 
 were not confined to the bar. In 1820-21, a convention of 
 delegates was assembled in Boston, to revise the consti- 
 tution of Massachusetts. The venerable John Adams, 
 then eighty-five years old, represented his native vil- 
 lage; Justice Story, of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, was a delegate from Salem; Judge Davis, of the 
 District Court of the United States, and the majority of 
 the judicial officers and most influential citizens of the 
 State were there. It was the most dignified and talented 
 assembly ever collected in New England, in which Mr. 
 Webster bore a distinguished part. Of his eloquence 
 developed therein, we shall speak in the sequel. 
 
 The people of Boston repeatedly urged that such 
 talents and acquirements as Mr. Webster possessed, 
 should again be in the service of the whole country. 
 He had already declined an offer of a seat in the Senate, 
 but, in 1822, he accepted a seat as their Representative 
 in Congress. His labors in the years 1823-4, and his 
 great work of digesting and causing to be adopted the 
 Crimes Act in 1825, can now be referred to only. In 
 1826, by a very large majority of both houses in the 
 Legislature of Massachusetts, he was chosen to fill a va- 
 cancy in the Senate of the United States. Of his career 
 in that body, and of his great diplomatic services re- 
 cently performed, it would be superfluous to give details, 
 as they are all before the world, highly appreciated and 
 everywhere known. We shall have occasion to recur 
 to several of them, while we proceed. 
 
 Fourthly, to portray some of the chief features of Mr. 
 Webster's eloquence. We think that distinct percep- 
 tion, accurate combination, severe deduction, and forci-
 
 30 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 ble illustration, are the chief elements blended in his 
 composition, which we will endeavor to verify by 
 specific analysis, and pertinent examples from his social 
 addresses, congressional speeches, literary productions, 
 and forensic arguments. 
 
 In the first place, let us consider Mr. Webster's dis- 
 tinctness of mental perception. All qualities of orato- 
 rical excellence concur in this one elemental principle, 
 as a focal-point clearness of insight, and facility of 
 execution. No excellence of finish can atone for mean- 
 ness of design ; and he alone can conceive vividly and 
 compose effectively, who sees thg whole of his work 
 before him at the beginning. Mr. Webster's mind is one 
 of that rare class which aspires to the serenest heights, 
 expatiates over the widest and most diversified domain, 
 embracing at once the two poles of human intelligence, 
 imagination the most imperial, and science the most 
 exact. Of perhaps the greatest living French savan and 
 orator, whom our countryman in physical and mental 
 character much resembles, Vericour has said, " Unlike 
 many orators who will speak on all subjects, M. Arago 
 only speaks on subjects that he has studied questions 
 possessing either the interest of political circumstances, 
 or the attraction of science. When he ascends the tri- 
 bune, his noble figure and fine head awe the assembly 
 into attention. If he confines himself to the narration 
 of facts, his eloquence has the natural grace of simpli- 
 city ; when face to face with a question of paramount 
 importance to the liberty of his country, or with one of 
 science, whether in the Chamber or in the professional 
 chair, he contemplates his subject with earnestness,
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 31 
 
 unravels its subtleties, and evinces a power of com- 
 prehension and elucidation which bespeaks the superior 
 mind; proceeding, he begins to employ a splendid phra- 
 seology his voice swells his style grows richer and 
 richer, and his eloquence rises to the grandeur of his 
 theme. M. Arago's speeches have both generality and 
 actuality ; they equally address themselves to the intel- 
 ligence and passions of his audience; when he enters 
 upon any question or matter, whether scientific or poli- 
 tical, he clears it of its difficulties and technicalities, and 
 renders it so precise and perceptible, that the most igno- 
 rant and dull are enabled to comprehend it. He is one 
 of the most luminous intellects of the age." 
 
 This strikingly describes Mr. Webster's mental struc- 
 ture and habits, inasmuch as sublimity of conception, 
 grandeur of outline, breadth of meaning, and a severe 
 classical tone, are the most habitual features of his style, 
 always mighty, and often quite elegant. For instance, 
 in Nov., 1828, he was called upon to open the course of 
 Lectures before the Boston Mechanics' Institution, and 
 surprised all by his profound knowledge of art the most 
 useful and severely grand : " Architecture, I have said, 
 is an art that unites, in a singular manner, the useful 
 and the beautiful. It is not to be inferred from this, 
 that everything in architecture is beautiful, or is to be 
 so esteemed, in exact proportion to its apparent utility. 
 No more is meant, than that nothing which evidently 
 thwarts utility, can, or ought to be accounted beautiful ; 
 because, in every work cf art, the design is to be re- 
 garded, and what defeats that design, cannot be con- 
 sidered as well done. The French rhetoricians have a
 
 32 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 maxim, that in literary composition, " nothing is beauti- 
 ful which is not true." They do not intend to say, thai 
 strict and literal truth is alone beautiful in poetry or 
 oratory ; but they mean that that which grossly offends 
 against probability is not in good taste in either. The 
 same relation subsists between beauty and utility in 
 architecture, as between truth and imagination in poetry. 
 Utility is not to be obviously sacrificed to beauty, in the 
 one case ; truth and probability are not to be outraged 
 for the cause of fiction and fancy, in the other. In the 
 severer styles of architecture, beauty and utility ap- 
 proach, so as to be almost identical. Where utility is 
 more strongly than ordinary the main design, the pro- 
 portions which produce it, raise the sense or feeling of 
 beauty, by a sort of reflection or deduction of the mind. 
 It is said that ancient Rome had, perhaps, no finer 'spe- 
 cimens of the classic Doric, than were in the sewers 
 which ran under her streets, and which were, of course, 
 always to be covered from human observation ; so true 
 is it, that cultivated taste is always pleased with justness 
 of proportion ; and that design, seen to be accomplished, 
 gives pleasure. The discovery, and fast increasing use 
 of a noble material, found in vast abundance, nearer to 
 our cities than the Pentelican quarries to Athens, may 
 well awaken, as they do, new attention to architectural 
 improvement. If this material be not entirely well- 
 suited to the elegant Ionic, or the rich Corinthian, it is 
 yet fitted, beyond marble, beyond perhaps almost any 
 other material, for the Doric, of which the appropriate 
 character is strength, and for the Gothic, of which the 
 appropriate character is grandeur.
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 33 
 
 " It is not more than justice, perhaps, to our ances- 
 tors, to call the Gothic the English classic architecture ; 
 for in England, probably, are its most distinguished spe- 
 cimens. As its leading characteristic is grandeur ; its 
 main use would seem to be sacred. It had its origin, 
 indeed,, in ecclesiastical architecture. Its evident design 
 was to surpass the ancient -orders, by the size of the 
 structure, and its far greater heights ; to excite percep- 
 tions of beauty, by the branching traceries and the gor- 
 geous tabernacles within ; and to inspire religious awe 
 and reverence by the lofty pointed arches ; the flying 
 buttresses, the spires, and the pinnacles, springing from 
 beneath, stretching upwards towards the heavens with 
 the prayers of the worshippers. Architectural beauty 
 having always a direct reference to utility, edifices, 
 whether civil or sacred, must of course undergo different 
 changes, in different places, on account of climate, and 
 in different ages, on account of the different states of 
 other arts, or different notions of convenience. The 
 hypacthral temple, for example, or temple without a roof, 
 is not to be thought of in our latitudes ; and the use of 
 glass, a thing not now to be dispensed with, is also to 
 be accommodated, as well as it may be, to the architec- 
 tural structure. These necessary variations, and many 
 more admissible ones, give room for improvements to 
 an indefinite extent, without departing from the princi- 
 ples of true taste. May we not hope, then, to see our 
 own city celebrated as the city of architectural ex- 
 cellence. May we not hope to see our native granite 
 reposing in the ever-during strength of the Doric, or 
 springing up in the grand and lofty Gothic, in forms 
 2*
 
 34 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 which beauty and utility, the eye and the judgment, 
 taste and devotion, shall unite to approve and to admire?" 
 
 When a public speaker is left to choose his themes, he 
 will be likely to select such as are genial to his own 
 taste, and analogous to the structure of his intellect. 
 The above instance is an apt illustration. As in archi- 
 tecture, the rule is, that the most beautiful should stand 
 on the most firm, such seems to be the law of Mr. Web- 
 ster's mind. We often meet with works whose vigor of 
 execution can be equalled only by their imbecility and 
 incongruity of conception, but such is not the case with 
 the great master now under review. If we mistake not, 
 the most eminent of all his qualities is a clear percep- 
 tion of what he would do, and the best way of doing it. 
 Having invented his stand-point, he accurately estimates 
 its force, expands its power of persuasiveness through 
 all the projected argument, clothes the compact skeleton 
 with the elasticity and symmetrical charms of vigorous 
 life, and sets forth a perfected work, the organ of sub- 
 limity, not less pleasing to the taste than impressive to 
 the understanding. His chief position, once clearly 
 perceived, and stated in the simplest and most rigid 
 terms, he thenceforth becomes the efficient servant of 
 what he himself created ; as Homer, at the very thresh- 
 old of his epic, proclaims himself only the herald of his 
 Zeus, of whose almighty will he is the free and rejoicing 
 bard. 
 
 Mr. Webster early won accuracy of view, and confi- 
 dence of hand, by protracted and careful practice, so that 
 he eventually came with great facility to idealize with 
 exactness and power. He waited for the chance reve-
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 35 
 
 lation of no secret in composition, but the secrets of 
 toilsome meditation ; he employed no tricks, but abstruse 
 investigation without limit, *md practical application of 
 his resources without end. For the basis and perpetual 
 momentum of this excellence, we must revert to the 
 circumstances of his youth, and the habits then formed. 
 He found beauty and strength, physical hardihood and 
 mental acuteness as well as force, in the stern visitations 
 of the wintry regions wherein he was born. His soul 
 was indeed ripened under that northern sky. The best 
 blood of all lowlands, at no remote period, came from 
 higher regions, where the hardy and unvitiated mountain 
 influence and elements for ever remain the source of that 
 invincible strength, which bids defiance to all obstacles, 
 and reduces to subjugation every antagonist. There 
 the stupendous forms of creation are in unison with the 
 swelling thoughts of predestined artists, statesmen, and 
 divines, toiling in the ravines, scaling hills, and strug- 
 gling through drifting snows, to reach the rustic school ; 
 and at night studious by the pine-wood flame, while 
 tempests wildly howl without. In such regions, the 
 finest genius is produced and vigorously tempered, like 
 the most brilliant gems in obscurest caverns, and on 
 stormiest coasts ; or rather like sweetest flowers under 
 Alpine glaciers, the more sensitive but enduring as the 
 cold is more severe. Intellect, thus originating, is never 
 fatally chilled, because the latent spirit of enterprise, 
 generated by salubrious air, and the inspiration of sub- 
 lime scenery, tend perpetually to kindle the soul and 
 keep it in a blaze. The mental eye is rendered piercing 
 as lightning, and the brain, nvghtily vitalized, generates
 
 36 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 thunders which burst with simultaneous peals and add 
 grandeur to every celestial stroke. 
 
 To distinct perception, accurate combination is con- 
 joined, and forms a bold feature in Mr. Webster's mind. 
 Some students begin their career with a theory, beauti- 
 ful, graceful, yet indistinct ; others, with one general and 
 essentially grand without detail, as if attention to mi- 
 nutiae were beneath them ; and others still, with an 
 ambition keen, sagacious, grappling, and on the direct 
 road to sound acquisitions, but lack perseverance in ela- 
 borating and skillfully combining their ideas. They ac- 
 cumulate copious materials, it may be, but where is the 
 solid ground for the machinery of Archimedes? No- 
 thing really powerful is produced, because there is no 
 controlling law positive, clear, and well-defined. Gran- 
 deur of style does not consist in the omission of all de- 
 tails, but in the wise selection and combination of the 
 leading ones. It is only by first ascertaining particulars 
 that are pertinent, that we can discover essentials that 
 are effective. The union of simplicity and variety pro- 
 duces harmony ; while confusion commences where a 
 due blending of these is neglected, or either is allowed 
 too extravagantly to preponderate. In the best style, 
 erudition and illustration are introduced only so far as 
 they can be made subservient to intrinsic excellence 
 and lucid expression. For example, the writer or 
 speaker must obtain a perfect conception of a tree in its 
 entireness, before he proceeds to disentangle its branches 
 or byjojish its leaves. To clear the accidental from the 
 essential, requires the greatest perspicacity of reasoning 
 power, and the habit of perpetually recurring to t^e
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 37 
 
 first principles of things. At every step in the construc- 
 tion of a discourse, knowledge should serve as the basis, 
 judgment as the guide, and cautious taste characterize 
 the selection. In every valuable composition, unity is 
 the soul and key-note ; upon this depends the effective 
 harmony of all subordinate parts, as the tone of the firs' 
 instrument in a concert tunes and governs all the rest 
 This is well exemplified in Mr. Webster, who never suffers 
 the blandishments of his rhetoric to absorb important mean- 
 ing, or supplant logical expression and exactness of form. 
 However succinct and rapid his argument may some- 
 times be, every word is poised by characteristic preci- 
 sion, and can only be the result of deliberate inquiry 
 and minute examination. Every touch of his clear and 
 concentrated mind on the leading points of his subject 
 is a separate thought, each additional one a brighter token 
 of extended genius and predestined triumph. 
 
 " Artificial life 
 Lives in these touches, livelier than life." 
 
 As an example, take the close of Mr. Webster's ora- 
 tion, at the laying of the corner stone of the Bunker Hill 
 Monument, June 17, 1825. " An immense multitude 
 was assembled. They stood on the consecrated spot, 
 with only the heavens over their heads, and beneath 
 their feet the bones of their fathers ; amidst the visible 
 remains of the very redoubt thrown up by Prescott, and 
 defended by him to the very last desperate extremity ; 
 and with the names of Warren, Putnam, Stark, and 
 Brooks, and the other leaders or victims of that great 
 day frequent &^ familiar on their lips. In the midst of
 
 38 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 such a scene and with such recollections, starting like 
 the spirits of the dead from the very sods of that hil\. 
 side, it may well be imagined, that words like the fol- 
 lowing, addressed to a vast audience, composed in no 
 small degree of the survivors of the battle, their children 
 and their grand-children, produced an effect, which 
 only the hand of death can efface." Said the orator : 
 
 "We know, indeed, that the record of illustrious 
 actions is most safely deposited in the universal remem- 
 brance of mankind. We know, that if we could cause 
 this structure to ascend, not only till it reached the skies, 
 but till it pierced them, its broad surfaces could still con- 
 tain but part of that which, in an age of knowledge, 
 hath already been spread over the earth, and which his- 
 tory charges itself with making known to all future 
 times. We know, that no inscription on entablatures 
 less broad than the arth itself, can carry information of 
 the events we commemorate, where it has not already 
 gone : and that no structure, which shall not outlive the 
 duration of letters and knowledge among men, can pro- 
 long the memorial. But our object is, by this edifice, 
 to show our own deep sense of the value and importance 
 of the achievements of our ancestors ; and, by present- 
 ing this work of gratitude to the eye, to keep alive simi 
 lar sentiments, and to foster a constant regard for the 
 principles of the Revolution. Human beings are com- 
 posed not of reason only, but of imagination also, and 
 sentiment ; and that is neither wasted nor misapplied 
 which is appropriated to the purpose of giving right 
 direction to sentiments, and opening proper springs of 
 feeling in the heart. Let it not be supposed that our
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 39 
 
 object is to perpetuate national hostility, or even to cher- 
 ish a mere military spirit. It is higher, purer, nobler. 
 We consecrate our work to the spirit of national inde- 
 pendence, and we wish that the light of peace may rest 
 upon it for ever. We rear a memorial of our convic- 
 tioa of that unmeasured benefit, which has been con- 
 ferred on our own land, and of the happy influences, 
 which have been produced, by the same events, on the 
 general interests of mankind. We come, as Americans, 
 to mark a spot, which must for ever be dear to us and 
 our posterity. We wish, that whosoever, in all coming 
 time, shall turn his eye hither, may behold that the place 
 is not undistinguished, where the first great battle of 
 the Revolution was fought. We wish, that this structure 
 may proclaim the magnitude and importance of that event, 
 to every class and every age. We wish, that infancy may 
 learn the purpose of its erection from maternal lips, and 
 that weary and withered age may behold it, and be 
 solaced by the recollections which it suggests. We 
 wish, that labor may look up here, and be proud, in the 
 midst of its toil. We wish, that, in those days of dis- 
 aster, which, as they come on all nations, must be ex- 
 pected to come on us also, desponding patriotism may 
 turn its eyes hitherward, and be assured that the founda- 
 tions of our national power still stand strong. We wish, 
 that this column, rising towards heaven among the 
 pointed spires of so many temples dedicated to God, 
 may, contribute also to produce, in all minds, a pious 
 feeling of dependence and gratitude. We wish, finally, 
 that the last object on the sight of him who leaves his 
 native shore, and the first to gladden his who revisits it,
 
 40 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 may be something which may remind him of the liberty 
 and glory of his country. Let it rise, till it meet the 
 sun in his coming ; let the earliest light of the morning 
 gild it, and parting day linger and play on its summit." 
 To distinct perception, and accurate combination, we 
 mention, thirdly, severe deduction, as the most promi- 
 nent trait in Mr. Webster's oratorical character. 
 That speaker will succeed most triumphantly, or fail 
 with greatest dignity, who presents the principal feature 
 of his subject in the boldest manner, to the neglect of all 
 subordinates, rather than he who fritters away all his 
 talent upon secondary topics, and retains little or no 
 capacity to execute the chief. Mr. Webster has pro- 
 duced great excellence in every department of elaborate 
 composition ; but the highest order of logical compact- 
 ness in forensic warfare alone unites his various 
 energies in a glorious aggregate ; as the grace of 
 Nireus, the dignity of Agamemnon, the impetuosity of 
 Hector, the magnitude of the great, the furiousness of 
 the lesser Ajax, the perseverance of Ulysses, and the 
 intrepidity of Diomede, are the emanations of the same 
 transcendant intellect, which in the single person of 
 Achilles, find their splendid centre and perfect embodi- 
 ment. He has written occasional orations of the highest 
 merit, but which seem to have been regarded by their 
 author as unworthy of the severer exercise of his 
 faculties ; like the great -secretary and patriot under 
 Cromwell, who, having thrown on the world the mas- 
 terly production of the greatest genius, continued his 
 labors, as if he had given nothing to mankind as if
 
 DA MEL WEBSTER 41 
 
 Paradise Lost was a forgotten pamphlet, about which 
 neither he nor any one else need to care. 
 
 Mr. Webster's eloquence we regard as epic in charac 
 ter, rather than dramatic, lyrical, or historical. It is thai 
 kind which relates to those high and abstract principles 
 which elevate our nature in thought or moral action 
 and which are allied to any power, natural or super-na 
 tural, of elemental or political revolution, the absolute 
 resistance of which is impossible. The highest range 
 which this, the first order of the sublime in speech ever 
 assumes, is when the mind, soaring above the entangle- 
 ments of earth, and vicissitudes of time, defies the de- 
 struction of both, impelled by some all-absorbing affec- 
 tion, noble sentiment, grand public benefit, or great 
 moral principle. Such sublimity is something inde- 
 pendent of material elements ; it is a glory that will sur- 
 vive when these shall melt with fervent heat, and will 
 light the firmament when the sun is shrouded in sack- 
 cloth of hair. 
 
 u His thoughts all great and Solemn and serene, 
 Like the immensest features of an orb, 
 Whose eyes are blue seas, and whose clear broad brow 
 Some cultured continent, come ever round 
 From truth to truth day bringing as they come." 
 
 He who perceives beautiful and majestic thought as 
 an actual substance, and zealously embodies what he 
 sees in clear and substantial language, will naturally be- 
 come the most forcible and enduring orator. A firm 
 and distinct outline is an invariable characteristic of all 
 good composition, and he who can best command this, 
 will be sure to express his ideas with most correctness.
 
 42 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 pleasure and energy. The greatest merit lies not in the 
 elaborate finish of minute, details, but in that enlarged 
 comprehension which contemplates the whole extent 
 and bearings of a subject at the outset, combined with a 
 facility of execution which boldly stamps a definite and 
 adequate expression on every part. As a deep know- 
 ledge of the human form is the basis of the knowledge 
 of all other forms, and the capacity to draw the hu- 
 man frame accurately the foundation of the highest 
 practical skill in every department of artistic excellence ; 
 so is a critical understanding of human language in its 
 philosophical elements and dextrous combinations, a de- 
 partment of the noblest study, and source of the greatest 
 power. Michael A.nge\o spent twelve years in dissect- 
 ing, that he might worthily express the material features 
 of man ; Daniel Webster has spent a whole life in the 
 most earnest analysis of language that he might more 
 effectively express the fairest and boldest features of 
 eloquence, and long since attained a wonderful capacity 
 for embodying ideas the most rich and glowing in forms 
 of sculpturesque severity. He was evidently born to 
 give the world more enlarged and exalted conceptions, 
 
 " And uttered in a sound and homely tongue, 
 Fit to be used by all who think while speaking." 
 
 , Longinus believed that the sublime, as it is the highest 
 excellence to which human composition can attain, 
 abundantly compensates the absence of every other 
 beauty; According to this rule, Mr. Webster never 
 seeks the aid of meretricious ornaments, however ele- 
 gant or graceful, but binds the language he employs
 
 DANIEL WEBSTEB. 43 
 
 strictly within the logical confines of the propositions 
 he would demonstrate. He preserves a senatorial dig- 
 nity throughout, and is by nature and education an 
 orator unrivalled in the skill of unravelling subtleties, 
 and of wielding the weapons of searching and inexorable 
 dialectics. He uses words as the means, not as the end ; 
 language in his hands is the instrument, conviction is 
 the work. No one can doubt the copiousness of his 
 mental resources; but he deals out his abundance with 
 a steady and cautious hand, with that wise reserve which 
 is not ambitious to display either its wealth or its art. 
 His own mental character and habits as an orator are 
 best described in his own well-known language applied 
 to another. Said he : 
 
 . " The eloquence of Mr. Adams resembled his general 
 character, and formed, indeed, a part of it. It was bold, 
 manly, and energetic ; and such the crisis required. 
 When public bodies are to be addressed on momentous 
 occasions, \vhen great interests are at stake, and strong 
 passions excited, nothing is valuable, in speech, farther 
 than it is connected with high intellectual and moral 
 endowments. Clearness, force, and earnestness, are the 
 qualities which produce conviction. True eloquence, 
 indeed, does not consist in speech. It cannot be brought 
 from far. Labor and learning may toil for it, but they 
 will toil in vain. Words and phrases may be marshalled 
 in every way, but they cannot compass it. It must exist 
 in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion. Af- 
 fected passion, intense expression, the pomp of declama- 
 tion, all may aspire after it, they cannot reach 't. It 
 comes, if it come at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain
 
 44 DIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, 
 with spontaneous, original, native force. The graces 
 taught in the schools, the costly ornaments, and studied 
 contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men, when 
 their own lives, and the fate of their wives, their chil- 
 dren, and their country, hang on the decision of the 
 hour. Then words have lost their power, rhetoric is 
 vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even 
 genius itself then feels rebuked and subdued, as in the 
 presence of higher qualities. Then, patriotism is elo- 
 quent ; then self-devotion is eloquent. The clear con- 
 ception, out-running the deductions of logic, the high 
 purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking 
 on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every 
 feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward 
 to his object, this, this is eloquence ; or rather it is 
 something greater and higher than eloquence, it is 
 action, noble, sublime, god-like action." 
 
 This clearness, freshness, and force, which Mr. Web- 
 ster so much valued, he had acquired by a perpetual and 
 profound study of simplicity; knowing that this one 
 element, when pure, is better than a mixture of many 
 of a gaudier tone. The highest merit of the best ora- 
 tions consists mainly in a perfection of the whole, re- 
 sulting from the just proportion of the several component 
 parts. The longer we study such masterpieces, the 
 more admirable traits we discover in them to admire ; 
 as the enthusiastic antiquary exhumes a Phidian statue, 
 and traces images of Olympian athlete thereon. In 
 order to attain a general effect of grandeur, all trifling 
 adjuncts must be avoided, so that the central idea may
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 45 
 
 preponderate throughout, and cause an air of simple 
 dignity to prevail over all the parts, " As the snow- 
 headed mountain rises o'er the lightning, and applies 
 itself to heaven." This unity of purpose, subordinating 
 infinite diversity to its particular aim, and urging for- 
 ward all its auxiliaries to the execution of a single grand 
 design, ordinarily produces the majestic oneness of a 
 shared passion in the audience subjected to its force. 
 They are all filled with one thought, captured and im- 
 pelled by one potent influence, as innumerable billows 
 of the ocean roll, and myriad sons of the forest bend 
 before the same breath of omnipotence. 
 
 We have quoted Mr. Webster's definition of elo- 
 quence, and will here present an illustration of his own 
 rule, from the famous debate on the resolution offered by 
 Mr. Foote, in the Senate, on the 29th of December, 
 1829 ? as follows: 
 
 " Resolved, That the committee on Public Lands be 
 instructed to inquire and report the quantity of public 
 lands remaining unsold within each State and Terri- 
 tory. And whether it be expedient to limit, for a 
 certain period, the sales of the public lands to such 
 lands only as have heretofore been offered for sale, and 
 are now subject to entry at the minimum price. And, 
 also, whether the offices of Surveyor General, and some 
 of the land offices, may not be abolished without detri 
 mfnt to' the public interest ; or whether it be expedient 
 to adopt measures to hasten the sales, and extend 
 more rapidly the surveys of the public lands." 
 
 On the 18th of January, Mr. Benton, of Missouri, 
 addressed the Senate ; and on th 19th,JMr. Hayne, of
 
 46 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA 
 
 South Carolina, proceeded in the debate, and spoke at 
 considerable length. After he had concluded, Mr. 
 Webster rose to reply, but gave way, on the motion of 
 Mr. Benton for an adjournment. When the doors of 
 the Senate-chamber were opened on the morning of the 
 20th, says a spectator, " The rush for admittance was 
 unprecedented. Mr. Webster had the floor, and rose. 
 The first division of his speech is in reply to parts and 
 details of his adversary's personal assault, and is a 
 happy, though severe specimen of the keenest spirit of 
 genuine debate and retort ; for Mr. Webster is one of 
 those dangerous adversaries, who are never so formida- 
 ble or so brilliant, as when they are most rudely pressed ; 
 for then, as in the phosphorescence of the ocean, the 
 degree of the violence urged, may always be taken as the 
 measure of the brightness that is to follow. On the pre- 
 sent occasion, his manner was cool, entirely self-possess- 
 ed, and perfectly decided, and carried his irony as far as 
 irony can go. There are portions of this first day's dis- 
 cussion, like the passage relating to the charge of sleeping 
 on the speech, he had answered ; the one in allusion to 
 Banquo's ghost, which had been unhappily conjured up 
 by his adversary; and the rejoinder respecting "one 
 Nathan Dane, of Beverly, in Massachusetts," which 
 will not be forgotten. The very tones in which they 
 were uttered, still vibrate in the ears of those who heard 
 them. There are, also, other and graver portions of it, 
 like those which respect the course of legislation in 
 regard to the new States ; the conduct of the North in 
 regard to slavery, and the doctrine of internal improve- 
 ments, which are in the most powerful style of parlia-
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 47 
 
 mentary debate. As he approaches the conclusion 
 of this first great division of his speech, he rises to the 
 loftiest tone of national feeling, entirely above the dim, 
 misty region of sectional or party passion and preju- 
 dice : 
 
 " 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 con- 
 currence. I shall not acknowledge that the honorable 
 member goes before me in regard for whatever of dis- 
 tinguished 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 my 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 patriot- 
 ism, or sympathy 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 1 trust, of that other spirit,
 
 48 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 which would drag angels down. When I shall be 
 found, Sir, in my place here, in the Senate, or else- 
 where, 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 to American talent, to ele- 
 vated patriotism, to sincere devotion to liberty and the 
 country ; or, if I see an uncommon endowment of 
 Heaven if I see extraordinary capacity and virtue 
 in any son of the South and if, moved by local preju- 
 dice, or gangrened by State jealousy, I get up here to 
 abate the 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 refreshing remembrance of the past let me 
 remind you that in early times, no States cherished 
 greater harmony, both of principle and feeling, than Mas- 
 sachusetts 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 
 icr and judge for yourselves. There is her history : the 
 ivorld knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. 
 There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and
 
 .DANIEL WEBSTER. 49 
 
 Bunker Hill and there they will remain for ever. The 
 bones of her sons, falling in the great struggle for inde- 
 pendence, now lie mingled with the soil of every State, 
 from New England to Georgia ; and there they will lie for 
 ever. 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 manhood, 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 succeed 
 to separate it from that union, by which alone its exist- 
 ence 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 monu- 
 ments of its own glory, and on the very spot of its 
 origin." 
 
 We have endeavored to describe and exemplify from 
 his own productions, the distinct perception, accurate 
 combination, and severe deduction, which so palpably 
 characterize the oratory of Mr. Webster. We now 
 come to speak of the forcible illustration he so frequently 
 employs. 
 
 The best works in the world" are those wherein rugged 
 vitality and ideal beauty are most harmoniously com- 
 bined. The true master can infuse his sensibility to 
 beauty into reposing and simple subjects, as well as 
 manifest the highest energy and worth in a more exalted 
 range, and knows how in every department he culti- 
 3
 
 50 LIVING ORATOES IN AMERICA. 
 
 vates, to temper and control the passionate outbreak ol 
 impulsive feelings. Without this perpetual sovereignty 
 of reason, public speech sinks to empty declamation, 
 and is " a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 
 signifying nothing." Whenever the verbiage of a work 
 obscures the subject by its opaqueness, or absorbs it in 
 its splendor, the result is degraded to an inferior rank. 
 Mr. Webster seldom or never falls into this fault, but 
 preserves the golden mean between inert solidity and 
 senseless inflation. The decided bias of his great latent 
 power is to create excellence in majestic shapes, trat 
 these are imbued with flexible energy and not the apathy 
 of impotence. Reason and imagination dwell in his 
 mind, and characterize its soarings, " like to a pair of 
 eagles in one nest." His reason, obeying only its own 
 iron force, seems reckless of every obstacle, and shining 
 through a medium translucent as light, yet invincible as 
 the avalanche, is destined, we believe, as long as the 
 English language endures, to subsist unimpaired in the 
 creations of its native grandeur, " as the changeless sea, 
 rolling the same in every age as now." Observe that 
 bis imagination is something more powerful as well as 
 more glorious, than the mere prettiness of puerile fancy; 
 it is elementary fire, half rejoicing in its own permeating 
 and purifying flames, creative of sublimity the most ex- 
 alted, and superbly decorative of the worlds it has 
 formed. The coalition of these two extraordinary attri- 
 butes produces superlative completeness in oratorical 
 po\ver ; that unity which is essential to the most endur- 
 ing excellence, its basis and crowning charm, and is 
 symbolized, not by the butterfly fluttering round a cot-
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 
 
 51 
 
 tage garden, but the eagle soaring above mountains and 
 erenely basking in the sun. 
 
 " Who can mistake great thoughts ? 
 rhey seize upon the mind-arrest, and search, 
 And shake it-bow the tall soul as by wind- 
 Rush over it like rivers over reeds, 
 Which quaver in the current-turn us cold, 
 And pale, and voiceless ; leaving in the brain. 
 A rocking and a ringing." 
 
 As the best illustration of our remarks on Mr Web- 
 *ters Pagination, we subjoin his thrilling apostrophe to 
 Warren on Bunker Hill. It is the more'remarkab.e 
 ,on arnmg a grammatical inaccuracy, produced by pass- 
 ng from the third person ,o he second in the same sen- 
 ence, and at once the most natural consequence of 
 transcendent ardor and the most unequivocal proof of 
 unpremeduated excellence. When the sentence com- 
 enced But,-ah,-him," it wag evidently in L 
 mmd of the orator, to end by saying, , how sha". I com? 
 memorate h,m ? But in the fmgna Q{ ^ s 
 
 unconsc,ous of the words, but inflamed with the thought- 
 beholdmg as he stood near the spot where the hero fell 
 
 the fT. "I , eaUlifUl imSge risin ^ "P *<** Beneath 
 
 fi , s c d 
 
 the fire of hberty in his eye,-the blood of his gallant 
 heart st.H pouring from his wound,"-,he vividness of 
 h.s imagination and the fervor of his patriotic sensibility 
 > onger permit the rap. orator to speak /him; he 
 must speak to hun. Thenceforth he attempts not to tell 
 tu aud.ence what Warren was, but seeing the martyr-
 
 52 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 patriot before him, on the spot where he perished, he 
 portrays what immortal worth is. But the whole pas- 
 sage should be quoted : 
 
 " Venerable men ! You have come down to us from 
 a former generation. Heaven has bounteously length- 
 ened out your lives, that you may behold this joyous 
 day. You are now, where you stood fifty years ago, 
 this very hour, with your brothers and your neighbors, 
 shoulder to shoulder, in the strife for your country. Be- 
 hold, how altered ! The same heavens are indeed over 
 your head ; the same ocean rolls at your feet ; but all 
 else, how changed ! You hear now no roar of hostile 
 cannon. You see no mixed volumes of smoke and 
 flame rising from burning Charlestown. The ground 
 strewed with the dead and dying; the impetuous 
 charge ; the steady and successful repulse ; the loud call 
 to repeated assault ; the summoning of all that is manly 
 to repeated resistance; a thousand bosoms freely and 
 fearlessly bared in an instant to whatever of terror there 
 may be in war and death ; all these you have witnessed, 
 but you witness them no more. All is peace. The 
 heights of yonder metropolis, its towers and roofs, which 
 you then saw filled with wives and children, and country- 
 men in distress and terror, and looking with unutterable 
 emotions for the issue of the combat, have presented 
 you to-day with the sight of its whole happy population, 
 come out to welcome and greet you, with an universal 
 jubilee. Yonder proud ships, by a felicity of position, 
 appropriately lying at the foot of this mourtf, and seem- 
 ing fondly to cling around it, are not means of annoy- 
 ance to you, but your country's own means of distinc-
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 53 
 
 tion and defence. All is peace ; and God has granted 
 you this sight of your country's happiness, ere you 
 slumber in the grave forever. He has allowed you to 
 >ehold and to partake the reward of your patriotic toils - 
 I he has allowed us, your sons and countrymen to 
 et you here, and in the name of the present genera- 
 ion, in the name of your country, in the name of liberty, 
 to thank you ! 
 
 " But, alas, you are not all here ! Time and the sword 
 have thinned your ranks. Prescott, Putnam, Stark 
 Brooks, Read, Pomeroy, Bridge ! Our eyes seek for you 
 m vain amidst this broken band. You are gathered to 
 your fathers, and live only to your country in her grate- 
 il remembrance, and your own bright example. But 
 t us not too much grieve, that you have met the com- 
 mon fate of men. You lived, at least long enough to 
 now that your work had been nobly and successfully 
 comphshed. You lived to see your country's inde- 
 ndence established, and to sheathe your swords from 
 On the light of Liberty you saw arise the light of 
 
 Peace, like 
 
 another morn, 
 Risen on mid-noon;' 
 
 and the sky on which you closed your eyes was 
 cloudless. * 
 
 "But-ah!-Him ! the first great Martyr in this great 
 
 Him ! the premature victim of his own self. 
 
 devoting heart! Him ! the head of our civil councils 
 
 and the destined leader of our military bands ; whom 
 
 nothing brought hither, but the unquenchable fire of his
 
 54 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA; 
 
 own spirit; Him! cut off by Providence, in the hour of 
 overwhelming anxiety and thick gloom ; falling ere he saw 
 the star of his country rise ; pouring out his generous 
 blood, like water, before he knew whether it would fer- 
 tilize a land of freedom or of bondage ! how shall I 
 struggle with the emotions, that stifle the utterance of 
 thy name ! Our poor work may perish ; but thine shall 
 endure ! This monument may moulder away ; the solid 
 ground it rests upon may -sink down to a level with the 
 sea; but thy memory shall not fail! Wheresoever 
 among men a heart shall be found, that beats to the 
 transports of patriotism and liberty, its aspirations shall 
 be to claim kindred with thy spirit!" 
 
 This patriotic ardor, as Mr. Whipple finely remarks, 
 has given intensity to the purposes of the great states- 
 man of New England, and lent the richest glow to "his 
 genius. " It has made his eloquence a language of the 
 heart ; felt and understood over every portion of the 
 land it consecrates. On Plymouth Rock, on Bunker 
 Hill, at Mount Vernon, by the tombs of Hamilton, and 
 Adams, and Jefferson, and Jay, we are reminded of 
 Daniel Webster. He has done what no national poet 
 has yet succeeded in doing, associated his own great 
 genius with all in our country's, history and scenery, 
 which makes us rejoice that we are Americans. He has 
 made the dead past a living present. Over all those 
 events in our history which are heroical, he has cast the 
 hue.s of strong feeling and vivid imagination. He can- 
 not stand on one spot of ground, hallovv.e.d by liberty 
 or religion, without being kindled by the genius of 
 tne place; he cannot mention a name, consecrated by 
 
 - ' * \^^ ** . . * *
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 55 
 
 self-devotion and patriotism, without doing it eloquent 
 homage. Seeing clearly, and feeling deeply, he makes 
 us see and feel with him. 
 
 " That scene of the landing of the Pilgrims, in which 
 his imagination conjures up the forms and emotions of 
 our New England ancestry, will ever live in the national 
 memory. We see with him, the ' little, bark with the 
 interesting group on its deck, make its slow progress to 
 the shore.' We feel, with him, 'the cold which be- 
 numbed/ and listen \vith him, ' to the winds which 
 pierced them.' Carver, and Bradford, and Standish, and 
 Brewster, and Allerton, look out upon us from the pic- 
 tured page, in all the dignity with which virtue and free- 
 dom invest their martyrs ; and we see, too, ' chilled and 
 shivering childhood, houseless but for a mother's arms, 
 couchless but for a mother's breast, till our own blood 
 almost freezes.' 
 
 "The readiness with which the orator compels our 
 sympathies to follow his own, is again illustrated in the 
 orations at Bunker Hill, and in the discourse in honor 
 of Adams and Jefferson. In reading them, we feel 
 proud of our country, and of the great men and great 
 principles it has cherished. The mind feels an unwont- 
 ed elevation, and the heart is stirred with emotions of 
 more than common depth, by their majesty and power. 
 Some passages are so graphic and true, that they seem 
 gifted with a voice, and to speak to us from the page 
 they illumine. The intensity of feeling with which they 
 are pervaded, rises at times with confident hope to 
 prophecy, and lifts the soul as with wings. In that splen- 
 did close to a remarkable passage in the oration on
 
 56 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Adams and Jefferson, what American does not feel as- 
 sured, with the orator, that their fame will be immortal ?" 
 " Although no sculptured marble should rise to their 
 memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, 
 yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land 
 they honored. Marble columns may, indeed, moulder 
 into dust, time may erase all impress from the crumbling 
 stone, but their fame remains ; for with AMERICAN LIB- 
 ERTY it rose, and with AMERICAN LIBERTY ONLY can it per- 
 ish. It was the last swelling peal of yonder choir, ' THEIR 
 
 BODIES ARE BURIED IN PEACE, BUT THEIR NAME LIVETH EVER- 
 MORE.' I catch that solemn song, I echo that lofty strain 
 of funeral triumph, ' THEIR NAME LIVETH EVERMORE.'" 
 
 In reviewing the mental traits and oratorical produc- 
 tions of Mr. Webster, we think that in his eloquence 
 there are three distinct styles, the narrative, the sena- 
 torial, and the impassioned. The first is a slow, delibe- 
 rate manner, employed in stating simple facts, or plain 
 argument ; like an admirable reader, distinct and forcible, 
 but with no display of excited elocution. This is ex- 
 ceedingly beautiful, because it is the nearest approach to 
 sublimity of character, expressed in pure form, independ- 
 ent of all passion or emotion. "Slow seems their speed 
 whose thoughts before them run." 
 
 His second style, is when he is interested in the dis- 
 cussion of some important subject, in the forum of high 
 debate, where by the action of his own aroused mind 
 in conflict with powerful antagonists, he has become 
 warmed and animated. His elocution as well as his 
 reasoning then is often magnificent, presenting alto- 
 gether his best and most powerful manner. Under
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 57 
 
 ordinary circumstances, Mr. Webster may truly say, 
 "My mind my kingdom is," and to the most casual eye, 
 he seems born " to set a throne or chair of state in the 
 understandings of other men." But when popular pas- 
 sions are furiously aroused, and the bravest champions 
 tremble before the deepening storm, he becomes the 
 more serenely self-possessed, and, in the urifoldings of 
 native grandeur, instinctively assumes a look of calm, 
 unalterable energy, " above all pain, all passion, and all 
 pride." Such was his appearance at the opening of 
 the great Nullification debate, when he stood erect and 
 fearless in the general consternation, invincibly armed 
 from head to foot, to defend the Constitution which fled 
 to him for shelter, and palpitated in his breast. 
 
 The greatest effect ever produced by a consum- 
 mate orator is achieved by his preserving the aspect and 
 advantage of repose amidst the tempest in which he is 
 involved, showing that he is at the same time master of 
 the stormy elements which agitate others and swell within 
 himself. This is not the repose of inanition or irresolu- 
 tion, but the repose of magnificent energy disciplined to 
 the most practical use by self-possession. It produces the 
 consciousness of duty performed, when evils are eradicat- 
 ed and victory won, is most diligent in slaying the worst 
 monsters, and stands at length embodied before the 
 world in Hercules leaning on his club. . 
 
 Many collisions and conquests at the Capitol of this 
 nation, justify the allusion here made: Therein Mr. 
 Webster has repeatedly manifested a grasp and potency 
 of mind which, we think, are found in no other living 
 orator in the new world or old. On occasions of the 
 3*
 
 58 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 highest forensic gladiatorship, there is in him, such an 
 impressiveness of countenance, such startling intonations 
 of voice, such depth of argument, lucid and palpable to 
 every entranced faculty of the spell-bound audience, 
 that eloquence seems magical and persuasive to a degree 
 the most divine. The care taken before-hand, skillfully 
 to construct the plan of attack, and arrange in order his 
 diversified forces, adds calmest confidence to the deli- 
 berate execution and all the more certainly insures ulti- 
 mate success ; as Napoleon gained the battle of to-mor- 
 row by spending a sleepless night himself, in projecting 
 his plans before the bivouac fire, while he sent his army 
 to sound repose, well clad, and full of good bread and 
 wine. His arguments, like the Grecian phalanx, are in 
 close array, each one firmly wedged in between its com- 
 panions ; so that the defensive points of his logic, like 
 their spears, present a front impenetrable to all attacks. 
 Each subordinate topic is a link whereby the chain of 
 his thoughts is connected, the articulations of the body 
 of his argument, without which it would be stiff, lame 
 and ungainly. 
 
 " All things within it 
 Are so digested, fitted and composed 
 As it shows Wit had married Order." 
 
 A noble simplicity and spontaneous force are the char- 
 acteristic features of Mr. Webster's eloquence; and 
 nence, though colors fade, and language in time becomes 
 obsolete, the chasteness of its form, and substarrce of im- 
 mortal thought can never decay. His ordinary delivery 
 if "ot the rushing torrent of impetuous declamation,
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 59 
 
 foaming and upturning everything in its course, but the 
 calm and grand flow of a noble, unimpeded stream. By 
 this, it is not meant that our orator is never excited in 
 his higher efforts, no man is more so. But his excite- 
 ment does not so much embody the idea of physical vio- 
 lence, as latent power. Veins may be seen in the breast 
 of a god, for centuries one of the glories of the Parthe- 
 non,, and now in the British Museum. This is by no 
 means absurd, but highly natural. Phidias did not think 
 of deifying a hero by depriving him of his essential hu- 
 man characteristics ; and blood is as requisite to invin- 
 cible force as muscle, bone as mind. The osseous sys- 
 tem is undoubtedly the foundation of all highly organized 
 forms, consolidating and defining the particular shape, 
 but is of itself by no means the perfected being. It is 
 far from producing the rounded symmetry, and graceful 
 finish, which, as the veil and integument of an exalted 
 organization, we call beauty. Webster, first of all, is 
 most careful with respect to the basis of his argument ; 
 but when he has firmly secured all that is fundamental, 
 he is far from being indifferent to whatever is judiciously 
 decorative. He combines in himself not only the bone 
 and muscle of mighty argument, but he has also its 
 throbbing flesh and bounding blood. He is excited, but 
 never distorted, and in this respect, he, of all moderns, 
 most strikingly resembles the best models of classical 
 antiquity. The Apollo is animated ; the Niobe is ab- 
 sorbed ; the Warrior of Agasias is excited ; the dying 
 Gladiator is depressed ; the Laocoon is convulsed ; but 
 in all this variety of exhilaration or suffering, there is a 
 power of self-control manifest and supreme. Even
 
 60 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 when passion or anguish becomes too big for utterance 
 the wisdom of the ancients borrowed a feature of tran- 
 quillity, though not its air. Minds of the order we are 
 now considering, always require great stimulus to deve- 
 lop their best energies, and are most luminous when 
 most exalted. 
 
 " The clouds which hide 
 The mental mountains rising nighest Heaven, 
 Are full of finest lightning, and a breath 
 Can give those gathered shadows fearful life, 
 And launch their light in thunder o'er the world." 
 
 We have spoken of Mr. Webster's narrative style, 
 and of his more exalted forensic manner ; it remains, in 
 conclusion, to notice a third style, sometimes exempli- 
 fied by him, but as unlike the two former as it is possi- 
 ble to conceive. This is seen in him when exasperated 
 by the conduct of others, or by something ungenerous 
 and impertinent which has been drawn into the debate. 
 He then is exceedingly rapid in utterance, and violent in 
 action ; pours forth a torrent of words, on a high key, 
 and with sharp, shrill emphasis, like the percussion of 
 small arms. Now deadly pale with emotion, and anon 
 flushed with deep crimson to the topmost bend of his 
 awful brows, with tones that are the more impressive 
 from a slight trembling of proud scorn, enforced by a 
 visage all inflamed, he hurls defiance at his foes. Then 
 those indescribable eye-balls of his become terrible in 
 their expression, matched only by the compressed lips 
 and impending temples, all combined in suggesting un- 
 speakable contempt, and "Revolving lightnings like
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 61 
 
 world on fire." This, however, is the exception rather than 
 the rule with our orator, and is seen when he not only 
 convinces, but overpowers and oppresses the hearer. 
 This latter style completes a happy variety of manner, 
 suited to every kind of subject, every class of adver- 
 saries, every frame of mind, and undoubtedly is one 
 great secret of his unequalled power, since the mode 
 of his address, always springs naturally out of the sub- 
 ject or occasion, and is most effective because it is 
 never assumed. Eloquent discourse is the convey- 
 ing thoughts in language which most resembles 
 things; the more perfect the thing represented, the 
 more impressive will be the thought conveyed. Mr. 
 Webster is superlatively eloquent in his happier 
 inspirations, because his outward excitement is ex- 
 actly proportioned to the inward ; if he is not aroused 
 by the action of the subject on his own soul, no audience 
 in the world can inflame him, and when he is really im- 
 passioned, it is ever with natural fire and no mortal 
 powers can withstand the fury of its blaze. His imagi- 
 nation permeates and energizes the indomitable arms of 
 his logic, as the' poetry of Cromwell lay only in his facts 
 and in his sword. Close, firm, and irresistibly argu- 
 mentative, the substance of his speech is luminous 
 truth, and his habitual style deep and grave, like history 
 inscribed on monuments. 
 
 Pliny says that Aristonidas, the Theban, mixed 
 metals with the materials of his art ; and Alcon formed 
 a Hercules of iron, to express the strength and dura- 
 bility of the god. Such, we think, is the character of 
 Mr. "Webster's mind. His reasonings are more the
 
 62 LIVING CttATOES IN AMERICA. 
 
 exertions of study than the effects of impulse. A severe 
 and learned simplicity is his most natural tone, in the 
 exercise of which he breathes and creates the graceful 
 majesty of the antique. Disproportion of parts may be 
 an element of hugeness, but only as connected with 
 elaborated proportion does true grandeur exist. Egyp- 
 tian architecture is huge, but the Grecian, alone, is 
 grand. Eloquence of the Websterian order is not 
 something hollow and artificial, but firm and natural ; 
 an etherial and invincible essence, developed in sincere 
 belief and fervid feelings, and which no conventional 
 rules can either analyze, estimate, or produce. The 
 peculiar breadth and potency of his style resembles the 
 movement of a mighty sea ; waves arise, approach, and 
 break on the shore, but in their rise and fall, emerging 
 and bursting into spray, perpetually impress the spec- 
 tator with the image of that omnipotent hand that 
 rouses, impels, and yet controls them. As the two 
 greatest artists that ever lived, Phidias and Michael An- 
 gelo, were painters as well as sculptors, they combined 
 in their best productions the highest measure of force 
 and most perfect knowledge of effect ; thus in magnifi- 
 cence of conception, and poetry of character, in a 
 happy selection of subject, and- fearless execution of 
 hand, they-jremain, to all the world, unsurpassed. Pre- 
 cisely of the same stamp is the mind of Daniel Webster. 
 Nothing in nature, art, history, philosophy, or morals, is 
 foreign to his clear and comprehensive design ; every 
 department of knowledge, mastered by a long and stu- 
 dious life, is made to contribute a beam of truth to the 
 torch which he grasps like a giant, and holds forth to
 
 DANIEL WEBSTER. 63 
 
 irradiate the course of his demonstration, at the same 
 time consummating oratorical excellence and unequalled 
 statesmanship. 
 
 An intelligent English traveller has recorded the fol- 
 lowing personal sketch : 
 
 " The forehead of Mr. Webster is high, broad, and 
 advancing. The cavity beneath the eyebrow is remark- 
 ably large. The eye is deeply set, but full, dark, and 
 penetrating in the highest degree ; the nose prominent 
 and well defined ; the mouth marked by that rigid com- 
 pression of the lips by which the New Englanders are 
 distinguished. When Mr. Webster's countenance is in 
 repose, its expression struck me as cold and forbidding, 
 but in conversation it lightens up ; and when he smiles, 
 the whole impression it communicates is at once 
 changed. His voice is clear, sharp, and firm, without 
 much variety of modulation ; but when animated, it 
 rings on the ear like a clarion." 
 
 To this we may add the remark of another observer, 
 touching his sense of personal propriety: "Mr. Web- 
 ster never appears before an audience without a due 
 preparation. The habits of his mind partake of those in 
 respect to his person. On all occasions when he is to 
 be the chief speaker, he is carefully and tastefully 
 dressed. I have seen him often in the U. S. Senate, 
 and in the Court of the Supreme Judicial Tribunal a 
 glance at his person is sufficient to indicate whether or 
 not he is to speak. A blue coat and buff vest, similar 
 to that worn by Mr. Fox in Parliament, is his favorite 
 dress for great occasions in the Senate; a black suit is 
 chopen for the bar."
 
 64 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 The great writer, statesman, patriot, and orator, whom 
 we have thus considered, is now in the zenith of his 
 fame and strength. Painting has never done justice to 
 his massy figure and impressive features, nor has lan- 
 guage yet adequately portrayed his extraordinary elo- 
 quence. There is a Doric substantiability about all his 
 person, inimitable and unwasting, a loftiness of character 
 in harmony with the divinest art, and which sculpture 
 alone can fitly express. In coming centuries his noble 
 form, wrought by kindred genius in speaking marble, 
 towering from a colossal base of New England granite, 
 and draped in that simple majesty which commands the 
 admiring world, will rise to meet the sun in his coming ; 
 the earliest light of the morning shall gild it, and the 
 parting day of American freedom " linger and play on 
 its summit."
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 EDWARD EVERETT, 
 
 THE RHETORICIAN. 
 
 A RIPE scholar, graceful speaker, and consummate 
 master of rhetorical art, is EDWARD EVERETT, of Massa- 
 chusetts. Before the illustration of these points, we 
 will present a few historical statements. 
 
 He was born in Dorchester, Norfolk County, on the 
 llth of April, 1794. Edward was the fourth in a family 
 of eight children, and lost his father, a highly respecta- 
 ble clergyman, when he was but eight years old. His 
 education, till he was thirteen years of age, was ob- 
 tained almost exclusively at the public schools in Dor- 
 chester and Boston, to which latter place the family 
 removed after his father's decease. In the Academy, at 
 Exeter, N. H., under the tuition of Dr. Abbott, he com- 
 pleted his preparation for college. He entered Harvard 
 University in August, 1807, and graduated in 1811, 
 with the highest honors of his class. 
 
 Under the influence and instruction of Rev. J. S. 
 Buckminster and President Kirkland, he was induced 
 to select the profession of theology. In 1812 he was 
 appointed Latin tutor IB the University. In the
 
 LiviAG OKATORS JN AMERICA. 
 
 autumn of 1813, being then less than, nineteen years 
 of age, he was settled, as the successor of Buckminster, 
 over the Brattle Street Church, in Boston.^ In addition 
 to the ordinary duties of the ministry, he wrote and pub- 
 lished a Defence of Christianity, which was regarded as 
 an elaborate and able work. 
 
 Having been appointed by the Corporation and Over- 
 seers of Harvard University, Professor of Greek Litera- 
 ture, he obtained a dismission from his congregation, 
 and assumed his new functions at Cambridge, when 
 under twenty-one years of age. To improve his health, 
 and perfect his qualifications for the chair to which he 
 had been called, he was permitted and enabled, by the 
 corporation, to travel in Europe, and to reside some 
 time at the principal foreign universities. 
 
 He embarked from Boston in the spring of 1815, im- 
 mediately after the conclusion of peace with Great 
 Britain. On arriving in Liverpool, he heard of the 
 escape of Napoleon from Elba, and was in London 
 when the battle of Waterloo was fought. From Eng- 
 land he went to Germany, passed a few days at Rotter- 
 dam, Amsterdam, Leyden, and the other Dutch cities, 
 and proceeded through Westphalia to Gottingen, in the 
 kingdom of Hanover. 
 
 At this most celebrated German University he spent 
 two years in assiduous study, and employed the vaca- 
 tions in excursions to the principal cities and universi- 
 ties of the North. 
 
 The winter of 1817 he spent in Paris, acquiring the 
 Italian and modern Greek languages. Here he enjoyed 
 the society of many eminent men, and acquainted him-
 
 EDWARD EVERETT. 67 
 
 self with several new branches of knowledge. In 1818, 
 he again visited England, spent some time at Oxford and 
 Cambridge, made excursions to Wales and the Lakes, 
 Edinburgh, and the Highlands, passed a few days with 
 Sir Walter, at Abbotslbrd, and became acquainted with 
 Dugald Stewart, as well as with many other distin- 
 guished characters of England and Scotland. 
 
 In the autumn of 1818, he returned to France, and 
 proceeded to Switzerland and Italy. He passed by the 
 way of Lyons, Geneva, Chamouni, and the glaciers of 
 Mont Blanc ; made a circuit through Lausanne, Berne, 
 Lucerne, Altdorf, and theValais; crossed the Simplon 
 to Milan ; went through Lombardy to Venice, and then 
 back over the Appenines to Florence. The winter was 
 spent in Rome, in antiquarian research, and converse 
 with distinguished men. 
 
 In the spring of 1819, he went to Naples ; and after 
 visiting the most interesting localities in that vicinity, 
 crossed over to Bari, on the Adriatic ; and thence tra- 
 velled on horseback by the way of Lecce to Otranto. 
 Thence he took passage to Corfu, and the coast of Al- 
 bania. Bearing letters to Ali Pacha from Lord Byron, 
 he was received by that famous chieftain, at Yanina, 
 with great kindness. Crossing Mount Pindus, and 
 going north as fat as the Vale of Tempe", he returned 
 through Thessaly to Thermopylae, passing by Pharsalia, 
 over Mount Parnassus to Delphi, Thebes, and Athens. 
 He then made an excursion over the Isthmus of Co- 
 rinth to Sparta, and returning to the north, embarked in 
 the Gulf of Vblo for the Dardanelles, visiting the site of 
 Troy and Constantinople.
 
 68 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 In June, 1819, he passed the Balkan Mountains, and 
 crossing the Danube at Nicopol, went through Wal- 
 lachia to Bucharest, and entered Austria through the 
 great pass in the Carpathian Mountains. After spend- 
 ing some time at Vienna, he traversed Austria, the 
 Tyrol, and Bavaria. Returning by the way of Paris and 
 London, he took passage for America, September, 1819. 
 The record from which we have condensed the above 
 sketch, says, that the whole time spent by Mr. Everett, 
 in his travels and studies in Europe and Asia, was 
 nearly four years and seven months. 
 
 Having thus briefly indicated the fullness and variety 
 of classical attainment received by Mr. Everett, pre- 
 paratory to the duties of his Professorship at Cambridge, 
 we now proceed more particularly to notice his literary 
 career at home. 
 
 Near the close of 1819, he was solicited to assume 
 the editorial charge of the North American Review. 
 Its number of subscribers, at that time, was inconsider- 
 able, but a great change in its style and fortunes imme- 
 diately took place. A new series commenced, in which 
 the miscellaneous department was omitted, and the work 
 conformed throughout to the type of European publica- 
 tions of the same character. Many of its numbers 
 passed into a second and even a third edition. Under 
 the administration of the new editor, its circulation in- 
 creased with so much rapidity that it became necessary 
 to reprint several editions of the first series, in order to 
 supply the augmented demand for the whole. He gave 
 it an American character and spirit, so that it com- 
 manded not. only the admiration and support of his own
 
 EDWARD EVERETT. 
 
 countrymen, but the respectful regards of foreign critics 
 and scholars. His editorship of this leading American 
 Review continued four years ; but he has occasionally 
 contributed to its pages ever since. 
 
 The lectures on Greek literature, delivered by Mr. 
 Everett to the students of Harvard University, says a 
 literary friend, "are remembered with respectful grati- 
 tude by all whose privilege it was to be connected with 
 the college during his continuance in office there. At 
 the same time he delivered two courses of lectures in 
 Boston on ancient art, which, as well as his collegiate 
 lectures, remain still unpublished. When, after having 
 received such corrections and additions as his mature 
 experience and leisure may enable him to bestow upon 
 them, they shall be given to the world, those who heard 
 them are confident that they will be regarded as one of 
 the noblest contributions ever made to our literature. 
 
 " While residing at Cambridge, he kept up a corres- 
 pondence with his learned friends abroad, particularly 
 with the scholars and patriots of Greece ; and by his 
 zealous exertions did much to awaken the interest which, 
 throughout the country, and in the halls of Congress, 
 was expressed in behalf of that renowned people in their 
 long and glorious struggle for liberty and independence. 
 In the discharge of his duties as Professor at Cambridge 
 he was faithful, constant, and eminently successful." 
 
 The publications of Mr. Everett are numerous. 
 His early theological work has been referred to. At a 
 subsequent period, in addition to the eloquent, erudite, 
 and patriotic articles which he contributed to the North 
 American Review, and other periodicals, he prepared a
 
 70 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Greek grammar and a Greek class book for the use of 
 students, while Professor at Cambridge. His various 
 orations we shall have occasion to refer to copiously 
 under another head. 
 
 We have spoken of Mr. Everett as a divine, and as a 
 scholar ; it remains, thirdly, to sketch his progress as a 
 politician. In 1824, a vacancy occurred in the Con- 
 gressional District to which Cambridge belongs ; and 
 Mr. Everett was put in nomination to fill the place. To 
 the astonishment of all, he was elected by a decisive 
 majority. Contrary to his expectation at the time 
 of accepting a nomination, it is said, his connection 
 with the University, as an instructor, ceased on his 
 election to Congress ; but he was immediately chosen 
 by the overseers as a member of their board. 
 
 In December, 1825, Mr. Everett first entered upon 
 his duties at Washington, and was re-elected for five 
 successive Congresses by large majorities. His legisla- 
 tive labors were numerous and effective. For ten years 
 continuously, he was on the committee of Foreign Af- 
 fairs, and much of the time its chairman. Among the 
 many reports which he drew up, that on the Panama 
 mission occupies a conspicuous place. He collected all 
 the facts and arguments in reference to that vexed 
 qustion into a volume; and much of the credit for 
 having finally procured the final adjustment of our 
 claims upon foreign powers for spoliation is undoubtedly 
 due to him. 
 
 " He was chairman of the Select Committee, during 
 Mr. Adams' Presidency, on the Georgia controversy ; 
 and always took a leading part, while in Congress, in
 
 EDWARD EVERETT. 71 
 
 the efforts that were made to protect the Indians from 
 injustice. In the spring of 1827 he addressed a series of 
 letters to Mr. Canning on the subject of the colonial 
 trade, which were extensively re-published. He always 
 served on the Library Committee, and generally on 
 that for the Public Buildings; together with John Ser- 
 geant, he constituted the minority on the famous Re- 
 trenchment Committee. He drew the report for the 
 Committee in favor of the heirs of Fulton. Together 
 with Governor Ellsworth, of Connecticut, he constituted 
 the minority of the Bank investigating Committee, 
 which was despatched to Philadelphia, and wrote the 
 minority report. He wrote the minority report of 
 the Committee of Foreign Relations, in reference 
 to the controversy with France, in the spring of 
 1835; distinguished -himself by the high ground he 
 took on the subject in debate, and supplied, in the 
 last clause of his report, the words of the resolu- 
 tion unanimously passed, in reference to it, by the 
 House of Representatives. He also, at the same ses- 
 sion, prepared a statement on French spoliations prior 
 to 1800, which was printed by order of the House." 
 
 In the spring of 1835, Mr. Everett took his leave of 
 the House of Representatives, having declined a re-elec- 
 tion. On the election of Governor Davis to the Senate 
 of the United States, in the same year, he became his 
 successor in the gubernatorial office. In 1836, and again 
 in 1837, he was re-elected to the same exalted functions. 
 At a subsequent period he became the American Minister 
 at the Court of St. James, which office he held for several
 
 72 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 years. On his return he was chosen President of Har- 
 vard University, which station he has just resigned. 
 
 Having viewed Mr. Everett as a student, divine, pro- 
 fessor, and politician, let us now more deliberately con- 
 template him as an orator. In this exalted sphere, he 
 widely established his fame as early as 1824, when he 
 delivered his oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society 
 at Cambridge. General Lafayette wss among the au- 
 ditors, to whom, at the close, he referred as follows : 
 
 " Meantime, the years are rapidly passing away and 
 gathering importance in their course. With the pre- 
 sent year, will be completed the half century from that 
 most important era in human history, the commence- 
 ment of our revolutionary war. The jubilee of our na 
 tional existence is at hand. The space of time that has 
 elapsed since that momentous date, has laid down in the 
 dust, which the blood of many of them had already hal- 
 lowed, most of the great men to whom, under Provi- 
 dence, we owe our national existence and privileges 
 A few still survive among us, to reap the rich fruits of 
 their labors and sufferings ; and ONE has yielded himself 
 to the united voice of a people, and returned in his age, 
 to receive the gratitude of the nation, to whom he de- 
 voted his youth. It is recorded on the pages of Ameri- 
 can history, that when this friend of our country 
 applied to our commissioners at Paris, in 1776, for a pas- 
 sage in the first ship they should despatch to America, 
 they were obliged to answer him, (so low and abject was 
 then our dear native land) that they possessed not the 
 means nor the credit sufficient for providing a single 
 vessel, in all the ports of France. ' Then/ exclaimed thv
 
 EDWARD EVERETT. 73 
 
 youthful hero, ' I will provide my own ;' and it is a literal 
 fact, that when all America was too poor to offer him 
 so much as a passage to her shores, he left, in his tender 
 youth, the bosom of home, of happiness, of wealth, of 
 rank, to plunge in the dust and blood of our inauspicious 
 struggle ! 
 
 " Welcome, friend of our fathers, to our shores ! Hap- 
 py are our eyes that behold those venerable features. 
 Enjoy a triumph such as never conqueror nor monarch 
 enjoyed, the assurance that throughout America, there 
 is not a bosom, which does not beat with joy and grati- 
 tude at the sound of your name. You have already met 
 and saluted, or will soon meet, the few that remain, of 
 the ardent patriots, prudent counsellors, and brave war- 
 riors, with whom you were associated in achieving our 
 liberty. But you have looked round in vain for the faces 
 of many, who would have lived years of pleasure on a day 
 like this, with their old companion in arms and brother 
 in peril. Lincoln, and Greene, and Knox, and Hamil- 
 ton, are gone ; the heroes of Saratoga and Yorktown 
 have fallen, before the only foe they could not meet. 
 Above all, the first of heroes and of men, the friend of 
 your youth, the more than friend of his country, rests in 
 the bosom of the soil he redeemed. On the banks of 
 his Potomac, he lies in glory and peace. You will re- 
 visit the hospitable shades of Mount Vernon, but him 
 whom you venerated as we did, you will not meet at its 
 door. His voice of consolation, which reached you in 
 the Austrian dungeons, cannot now breaths silence, to 
 bid you welcome to his own roof. But the grateful 
 children of America will bid you welcome in his name 
 4
 
 74 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Welcome, thrice welcome to our shores ; and whitherso- 
 ever throughout the limits of the continent your course 
 shall take you, the ear that hears you shall bless you, the 
 eye that sees you shall bear witness to you, and every 
 tongue exclaim, with heartfelt joy, welcome, welcome 
 La Fayette !" 
 
 Preparatory to a critical analysis of Mr. Everett's 
 eloquence, we will select several specimens from his oc- 
 casional addresses, exemplifying his imagination, his sen- 
 sibility to patriotic associations, and his appreciation of 
 exalted personal worth. In the first place, to illustrate 
 his imagination, we will adduce examples from among 
 his first and last orations. Near the close of his re- 
 marks at Plymouth Rock, December 22d, 1824, Mr. 
 Everett said : 
 
 " Methinks I see it now, that one solitary, adventu- 
 rous vessel, the Mayflower of a forlorn hope, freighted 
 with the prospects of a future state, and bound across 
 the unknown sea. I behold it pursuing, with a thousand 
 misgivings, the uncertain, the tedious voyage. Suns 
 rise and set, and weeks and months pass, and winter 
 surprises them on the deep, but brings them not the 
 sight of the wished-for shore. I see them now scantily 
 supplied with provisions, crowded almost to suffocation 
 in their ill-stored prison, delayed by calms, pursuing a 
 circuitous route; and now driven in fury before the 
 raging tempest, on^the high and giddy waves. The 
 awful voice of the storm howls through the rigging. 
 The laboring^masts seem straining from their base ;- 
 the dismal sound of the pumps is heard -the ship leaps, 
 as it were, madly, from billow to billow; the ocean
 
 EDWARD EVERETT. 75 
 
 breaks, and settles with engulphing floods over the float- 
 ing deck, and beats with deadening weight, against the 
 staggered vessel. I see them, escaped from these perils, 
 pursuing their all but desperate undertaking, and landed 
 at last, after a five months' passage, on the ice-clad rocks 
 of Plymouth, weak and weary from the voyage, 
 poorly armed, scantily provisioned, depending on the 
 charity of their ship-master for a draft of beer on board, 
 drinking nothing but water on shore, without shelter, 
 without means, surrounded by hostile tribes. Shut 
 now the volume of history, and tell me, on any principle 
 of human probability, wh.it shall be the fate of this hand- 
 ful of adventurers. Tell me, man of military science, 
 in how many months were they all swept off by the 
 thirty savage tribes, enumerated within the early limits 
 of New England ? Tell me, politician, how long did 
 this shadow of a colony, on which your conventions 
 and treaties had not smiled, languish on the distant 
 coast ? Student of history, compare for me the baffled 
 projects, the deserted settlements, the abandoned adven- 
 tures, of other times, and find the parallel of this. Was 
 it the winter's storm, beating upon the houseless heads 
 of women and children ; was it hard labor and spare 
 meals ; was it disease, was it the tomahawk, was it 
 the deep malady of a blighted hope, a ruined enterprise, 
 and a broken heart, aching in its last moments at the 
 recollection of the loved and left, beyond the sea ; was 
 it some, or all of these united, that hurried this forsaken 
 company to their melancholy fate? And is it possible, 
 that neither of these causes, that not all combined, were 
 able to blast this bud of hope ? Is it possible, that from
 
 70 LIVING OBATOBS IN AMERICA. 
 
 a beginning so feeble, so frail, so worthy, not so much of 
 admiration as of pity, there has gone forth a progress so 
 steady, a growth so wonderful, a reality so important, a 
 promise yet to be fulfilled, so glorious ?" 
 
 In the address delivered at Bloody Brook, in South 
 Deerfield, Massachusetts, September 30, 1835, in com- 
 memoration of the " Flower of Essex" who fell at that 
 spot, in King Philip's war, September 18, (O. S.) 1675, 
 Mr. Everett began as follows : 
 
 "Gathered in this temple not made with hands, to un- 
 roll the venerable record of our father V history, let our 
 first thoughts ascend to him, whose heavens are spread 
 out, as a glorious canopy, above our heads. As our 
 eyes look up to the everlasting hills which rise before us, 
 let us remember that in the dark and eventful days we 
 commemorate, the hand that lifted their eternal pillars 
 to the clouds, was the sole stay and support of our afflicted 
 sires. While we contemplate the lovely scene around 
 us, once covered with the gloomy forest and the tan- 
 gled swamps, through which the victims of this day pur- 
 sued their unsuspecting path to the field of slaughter, 
 let us bow in gratitude to Him, beneath whose paternal 
 care a little one has become a thousand, and a small one 
 a strong nation. Assembled under the shadow of this 
 venerable 1/ee, let us bear a thankful recollection, that 
 at the period when its sturdy limbs which now spread 
 over us, hung with nature's rich and verdant tapestry, 
 were all folded up within the narrow compass of their 
 seminal germ, the thousand settlements of our beloved 
 country, teeming with the life, energy, and power of 
 prosperous millions, were struggling with unimagined
 
 EDWARD EVERETT. 77 
 
 hardships for a doubtful existence, in a score of feeble 
 plantations scattered through the hostile wilderness. 
 Alas, it was not alone the genial showers, and the gentle 
 dews, and the native richness of the soil, which nour- 
 ished the growth of this stately tree. The sod from 
 which it sprung, was moistened with the blood of brave 
 man who fell for their country, and the ashes of peace- 
 ful dwellings are mingled with the consecrated earth. 
 In like manner, it is not alone the wisdom and the cour- 
 age, the piety and the virtue of our fathers, not alone 
 the prudence with which they laid the foundations of 
 the State, to which we are indebted for its happy growth 
 and all-pervading prosperity. No, we ought never to 
 forget, we ought this day especially to remember, that 
 it was in their sacrifices and trials, their heart-rending 
 sorrows, their ever-renewed tribulations, their wander- 
 ing?, their conflicts, their wants and their woes, that 
 the corner-stone of our privileges and blessings was 
 laid. 
 
 <; As I stand on this hallowed spot, my mind filled with 
 the traditions of that disastrous day, surrounded by these 
 enduring natural memorials, impressed with the touching 
 ceremonies we have just witnessed, the affecting inci- 
 dents of the bloody scene crowd upon my imagination. 
 This compact and prosperous village disappears, and a 
 few scattered log cabins are seen, in the bosom of the 
 primeval forest, clustering for protection around the 
 rude block-house in the centre. A corn-field or two 
 has been rescued from the all-surrounding wilderness, 
 and here and there the yellow husks are heard to rustle 
 in the breeze, that comes loaded with the mournful sigh*
 
 78 LIVING OKATORS IN AMERICA, 
 
 of the melancholy pine woods. Beyond, the intermin- 
 able forest spreads in every direction, the covert of the 
 wolf, of the rattle-snake, of the savage ; and between 
 its gloomy copses, what is now a fertile and cultivated 
 meadow, stretches out a dreary expanse of unreclaimed 
 morass. I look, I listen. All is still, solemnly, 
 frightfully still. No voice of human activity or enjoy- 
 ment breaks the dreary silence of nature, or mingles 
 with the dirge of the woods and water-courses. All 
 seems peaceful and still : and yet there is a strange 
 heaviness in the fall of the leaves in the wood that skirts 
 the road ; there is an unnatural flitting in those shadows ; 
 there is a plashing sound in the waters of that brook, 
 which mykes the flesh creep with horror. Hark ! it is 
 the click of a gun-lock from that thicket ; no, it is a 
 pebble, that has dropped from the over-hanging cliff, 
 upon the rock beneath. It is, it is the gleaming blade 
 of a scalping-knife ; no, it is a sun-beam thrown off 
 from that dancing ripple. It is, it is the red feather of 
 a savage chief, peeping from behind that maple tree : 
 no, it is a leaf, which September has touched with her 
 many-tinted pencil, And now a distant drum is heard ; 
 yes, that is a sound of life, conscious, proud life. A 
 single fife breaks upon the ear, a stirring strain. It is 
 one of the marches, to which the stern warriors of 
 Cromwell moved over the field at Naseby and Wor- 
 cester. There are no loyal ears, to take offence at a 
 puritanical march in a transatlantic forest; and hard by, 
 at Hadley, there is a grey-haired fugitive, who followed 
 the cheering strain, at the head of his division in the 
 army of the great usurper. The warlike note grows
 
 EDWARD EVERETT. 79 
 
 louder ; I hear the tread of armed men : but I run be- 
 fore my story." 
 
 The gentle order of imagination peculiar to Mr. 
 Everett's mind, enables him to excel in picturesque 
 description. A good specimen of history fancifully em- 
 bellished is presented in his " Three Pictures of Boston :" 
 
 " To understand the character of the commerce of our 
 own city, we must not look merely at one point, but at 
 the whole circuit of country, of which it is the business 
 centre. We must not contemplate it only at this pre- 
 sent moment of time, but we must bring before our 
 imaginations, as in the shifting scenes of a diorama al 
 least three successive historical and topographical pic- 
 tures ; and truly instructive 1 think it would be to see 
 them delineated on canvas. We must survey the first 
 of them in the company of the venerable John Win- 
 throp, the founder of the State. Let us go up with him, 
 on the day of his landing, the seventeenth of June, 1630, 
 "to the heights of yonder peninsula, as yet without a 
 name. Landward stretches a dismal forest ; seaward, a 
 waste of waters, unspotted with a sail, except that of his 
 own ship. At the foot of the hill you see the cabins of 
 Walford and the Spragues, who the latter a year be- 
 fore, the former still earlier had adventured to this spot, 
 untenanted else by any child of civilization. On the 
 other side of the river lies Mr. Blackstone's farm. It 
 comprises three goodly hills, converted by a spring-tide 
 into three wood-crowned islets ; and it is mainly valued 
 for a noble spring of fresh water, which gushes from the 
 northern slope of one of these hills, and which furnished 
 in the course of the summer, the motive for transferring
 
 80 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the seat of ihe infant settlement. This shall be the first 
 picture. 
 
 " The second shall be contemplated from the same spot 
 the heights of Charlestown on the same day, the 
 eventful seventeenth of June, one hundred and forty 
 years later, namely, in the year 1775. A terrific scene 
 of war rages on the top of the hill. Wait for a favora- 
 ble moment, when the volumes of fiery smoke roll 
 away, and over the masts of that sixty-gun ship, whose 
 batteries are blazing upon the hill, you behold Mr. 
 Blackstone's farm changed to an ill-built town of about 
 two thousand dwelling houses, mostly of wood ; with 
 scarce any public buildings, but eight or nine churches, 
 the old State House, and Faneuil Hall ; Roxbury be- 
 yond, an insignificant village ; a vacant marsh in all 
 the space now occupied by Cambridgeport and East 
 Cambridge, by Chelsea and East Boston ; and beneath 
 your feet the town of Charlestown, consisting in the 
 morning of a line of about three hundred houses, wrap- 
 ped in a sheet of flames at noon, and reduced at even 
 tide to a heap of ashes. 
 
 " But those fires are kindled on the altar of liberty. 
 American Independence is established. American 
 Commerce smiles on the spot ; and now from the top of 
 one of the triple hills of Mr. Blackstone's farm, a 
 stately edifice arises, which seems to invite us as to an 
 observatory. As we look down from this lofty structure, 
 we behold the third picture a crowded, .busy scene 
 We see beneath us a city containing eighty t>r ninety 
 thousand inhabitants, and mainly built of brick and 
 granite. Vessels of every description are moored al
 
 EDWARD EVERETT. 81 
 
 *" - " 
 
 the wharves. Long lines of commodious and even 
 stately houses cover a space which, within the memory 
 of man, wfcs in a state of nature. Substantial blocks 
 of warehouses and stores have forced their way to the 
 channel. Faneuil Ha41 itself, the consecrated and un- 
 changeable, has swelled to twice its original dimensions. 
 Atheneums, hospitals, asylums, and infirmaries, adorn 
 the streets. The school house rears its modest front in- 
 every quarter of the city, and sixty or seventy churches 
 attest the children are content to walk in the good old 
 ways of their fathers. Connected with the city by 
 eight bridges, avenues, or ferries, you behold a range of 
 to'wns most of them municipally distinct, but all of them 
 in reality forming, with Boston, one vast metropolis, 
 animated by one commercial life. Shading off from 
 these, you see that most lovely back-ground, a succes- 
 sion of -happy settlements, spotted with villas, farm 
 houses, and cottages ; united to Bos-ton by a constant 
 intercourse ; sustaining the capital from their fields and 
 gardens, and prosperous in the reflux of the city's 
 wealth. Of the social life included within this circuit, 
 and of all that in times past has adorned and ennobled 
 it, commercial industry has been an active element, and 
 has exalted itself by an intimate association with every 
 thing else we hold dear. Within this circuit what me- 
 morials strike the eye ! what recollections what insti- 
 tutions what patriotic treasures and names that cannot 
 die! There lie the canonized precincts of Lexington 
 and Concord ; there rise the sacred heights of Dorches- 
 ter and Concord ; there is Harvard, the ancient and 
 venerable, foster-child of pubji-c and private liberality
 
 82 LIVING ORATOB5 IN AMERICA. 
 
 in- every part of the State ; to whose existence Charles- 
 town gave the first impulse, to whose growth and use- 
 fulness the opulence of Boston has at all times minis- 
 tered with open hand. Still farther on than the eye can 
 rtfach, four lines of communication by railroad arrd 
 steam have within our own day united with the capital, 
 by bands of iron, a still broader circuit of towns and 
 villages. Hark to the voice of life and business which 
 sounds along the lines ! While we speak, one of them 
 is shooting onward to the illimitable West, and all are 
 uniting with the other kindred enterprises, to form one 
 harmonious and prosperous whole* in which town and 
 country, agriculture and manufactures, labor and capital, 
 art and nature wrought and compacted into one grand 
 system are constantly gathering and diffusing, concen- 
 trating and radiating the economical, the social, the 
 moral blessings of a liberal and diffusive commerce.'' 
 
 The second strong feature in the mind of Mr. 
 Everett, is his acute sensibility to patriotic associations. 
 He has developed this on several great historical occa- 
 sions. For instance, on laying the corner-stone of the 
 monument at Concord, Massachusetts, April 19, 1825, 
 he described the utility of such memorials in the follow- 
 ing eloquent strain : 
 
 " There is not a people on earth so abject, as to think 
 that national courtesy requires them to hush up the tale 
 of the glorious exploits of their fathers and countrymen. 
 France is at peace with Austria and Prussia; but she 
 does not demolish her beautiful bridges, baptized with 
 the names of the battle fields, where Napoleon annihi- 
 their armies ; nor tear down the columns, moulten
 
 BDWAKD EVEKETT. 83 
 
 out ot the heaps of their captured artillery. England 
 is at peace with France and Spain, but does she sup- 
 press the names of Trafalgar and the Nile; does she 
 overthrow the towers of Blenheim castle, eternal monu- 
 ments of the disasters of France ; does she tear down 
 from the rafters of her chapels, where they have for 
 ages waved in triumph, consecrated to the God of bat- 
 tles, the banners of Cressy and Agincourt ? No ; she is 
 wiser ; wiser, did I say ? she is truer, juster to the 
 memory of her fathers and the spirit of her children. 
 The national character, in some of its most important 
 elements, must be formed, elevated, and strengthened 
 from the materials which history presents. Are we to 
 be eternally ringing the changes upon Marathon and 
 Thermopylae ; and going back to find in obscure texts 
 of Greek and Latin the great exemplars of patriotic 
 virtue ? I rejoice that we can find them nearer home, 
 in our own country, on our own soil ; that strains of 
 the noblest sentiment, that ever swelled in the breast of 
 man, are breathing to. us out of every page of our 
 country's history, in the native eloquence of our mother 
 tongue ; that the colonial and the provincial councils of 
 America, exhibit to us models of the spirit and cha- 
 racter, which gave Greece and Rome their name and 
 their praise among the nation. Here we ought to go 
 for our instruction ; the lesson is plain, it is clear, it is 
 applicable. When we go to ancient history, we are 
 bewildered with the difference of manners and institu- 
 tions. We are willing to pay our tribute of applause to 
 the memory of Leonidas, who fell nobly for his country, 
 in the face of the foe. But when we trace him to his
 
 
 g4 LIVING ORATOfcS IN AxMERICA. 
 
 home, we are confounded at the reflection, that the 
 same Spartan heroism to which he sacrificed himself at 
 Thermopylae, would have led him to tear his only child, 
 it happened to be a sickly babe, the very object for 
 which all that is kind and good in man rise up to plead, 
 from the bosom of its mother, and carry it out to be 
 eaten by the wolves of Taygetus. We feel a glow of 
 admiration at the heroism displayed at Marathon, by the 
 ten thousand champions of invaded Greece ; but we 
 cannot forget that the tenth part of the number were 
 slaves, unchained from the work-shops and door-posts 
 of their masters, to go and fight the battles of freedom. 
 I do not mean that these examples are to destroy the 
 interest with which we read the history of ancient times; 
 they possibly increase that interest, by the singular con- 
 trast they exhibit. But they do warn us, if we need 
 the warning, to seek our great practical lessons of pati i- 
 otism at home ; out of the exploits and sacrifices, of 
 which our own country is the theatre ; out of the cha- 
 racters of our own fathers. Them we know, the high- 
 souled, natural, unaffected, the citizen heroes. We 
 know what happy firesides they left for the cheerless 
 camp. We know with what pacific habits they dared 
 the perils of the field. There is no mystery, no ro- 
 mance, no madness, under the name of chivalry, about 
 them. It is all resolute, manly resistance, for con- 
 science' and liberty's sake, not merely of an over- 
 whelming power, but of all the force of long-rooted 
 habits, and the native love of order and peace. 
 
 " Above all, their blood calls to us from the soil which 
 we tread, it beats in our veins; it cries to us, D^*
 
 EDWARD EVEKETT. 85 
 
 merely in the thrilling words of one of the first victims 
 in the cause, 'My sons scorn to be slaves;' but it 
 cries with a still more moving eloquence, ' My sons, 
 forget not your fathers.' " 
 
 On a like occasion, at Lexington, the 19th (20th) of 
 April, 1835, he expressed himself in a similar strain : 
 
 " And you, brave and patriotic men, whose ashes are 
 gathered in this humble place of deposit, no time shall 
 rob you of the well-deserved meed of praise ! You, too, 
 perceived not less clearly than the more illustrious 
 patriots whose spirit you caught, that the decisive hour 
 had come. You felt with them that it could not, 
 must not be shunned. You had resolved it should not. 
 Reasoning, remonstrance had been tried ; from your 
 own town-meetings, from the pulpit, from beneath the 
 arches of Faneuil Hall, every note of argument, of ap- 
 peal, of adjuration, had sounded to the foot of the throne, 
 and in vain. The wheels of destiny rolled on; the 
 great design of Providence must be fulfilled ; the issue 
 must be nobly met, or basely shunned. Strange it seemed, 
 inscrutable it was, that your remote and quiet village 
 should be the chosen altar of the first great sacrifice. 
 But so it was ; tfoe summons came and found you wait- 
 ing ; and here in the centre of your dwelling places, 
 within sight of the homes you were to enter no more, 
 between the village church where your fathers wor- 
 shipped, and the grave-yard where they lay at rest, 
 bravely and meekly, like Christian heroes, you sealed 
 the cause with your blood. Parker, Munroe, Hadley, the 
 Harringtons, Muzzy, Brown : alas, ye cannot hear my 
 words; no v r > ;<vx but **>** <*f the archangel. shall tvn-
 
 86 LIVING OKATOttS IN AMERICA. 
 
 trate your urns ; but to the end of time your lemem- 
 brance shall be preserved ! To the end of time, the soil 
 whereon ye fell is holy ; and shall be trod with rever- 
 ence, while America has a name among the nations ! 
 
 " And now ye are going to lie down beneath yon sim- 
 ple stone, which marks the place of your mortal agony. 
 Fit spot for your last repose ! 
 
 Where should the soldier rest, but where he fell ! 
 
 " For ages to come, the characters graven in the endu- 
 ring marble shall tell the unadorned tale of your sacri- 
 fice ; and ages after that stone itself has crumbled into 
 dust, as inexpressive as yours, history, undying history, 
 shall transmit the record ! Aye, while the language 
 we speak retains its meaning in the ears of men ; 
 while a sod of what is now the soil of America shall be 
 trod by the foot of a freeman, your names and your 
 memory shall be cherished!" 
 
 Connected with Mr. Everett's imagination and re- 
 fined sensibility to patriotic associations, is a third attri- 
 bute yet more dignified ; it consists of a capacity and 
 disposition to appreciate every form of exalted worth. 
 Numerous instances might be adduced, but we shall 
 quote only two or three. In his address before the Lit- 
 erary Societies of Amherst College, August 25, 1835, 
 he described the death of one great man, and the mental 
 glories of several others, in the following eloquent style : 
 " It is plain that Copernicus, like his great contempo- 
 rary Columbus, though fully conscious of the boldness 
 and the novelty of his doctrine, saw but a part of the 
 changes it was to effect in science. After harboring in
 
 KDWARH EVERETT. 87 
 
 his bosom for long, long years, that pernicious heresy, 
 the solar system, he died on the day of the appearance 
 of his book from the press. The closing scene of his 
 life, with a little help from the imagination, would fur- 
 nish a noble subject for an artist. For twenty-five years, 
 he has resolved and matured iu his mind, his system of 
 the heavens. A natural mildness of disposition, border- 
 ing on timidity, a reluctance to encounter controversy, 
 and a dread of persecution, have led him to withhold his ' 
 work from the press ; and to make known his system but 
 to a few confidential disciples and friends. At length 
 he draws near his end; he is seventy-three years of 
 age, and he yields his work on ' the revolutions of the 
 heavenly orbs' to his friends for publication. The day, 
 at last, has come, on which it is to be ushered into the 
 world. It is the twenty-fourth of May, 1543. On that 
 day, the effect, no doubt, of the intense excitement of 
 his mind, operating upon an exhausted frame, an effu- 
 sion of blood brings him to the gates of the grave. 
 His last hour has come ; he lies stretched upon the couch, 
 from which he will never rise, in his apartment at the 
 Canonry at Frauenberg, in East Prussia. The beam* 
 of the setting sun glance through the gothic windows of 
 his chamber ; near his bed-side is the armillary sphere, 
 which he has contrived, to represent his theory of the 
 heavens, his picture, painted by himself, the amuse- 
 ment of his earlier years, hangs before him ; beneath it 
 is his astrolabe and other imperfect astronomical instru- 
 ments ; and around him are gathered his sorrowing disci- 
 ples. The door of his apartment opens ; the eye of 
 HP ^pr>-,.fi"~ -n/., i s turned to see who enters : it is a
 
 83 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 friend, who brings him the first -printed copy of his im. 
 mortal treatise. He knows that in that book he contra- 
 dicts all that had ever been distinctly taught by former 
 philosophers ; he knows that he has rebelled against the 
 sway of Ptolemy, which the scientific world had acknow- 
 ledged for a thousand years ; he knows that the popular 
 mind will be shocked by his innovations ; he knows, that 
 the attempt will be made to press even religion into the 
 service against him ; but he knows that his book is true. 
 He is dying, but he leaves a glorious truth, as his dying 
 bequest, to the world. He bids the friend who has 
 brought it, place himself between his window and his 
 bed-side, that the sun's rays may fall upon the precious 
 volume, and he may behold it once, before his eye grows 
 dim. He looks upon it, takes it in his hands, presses it 
 to his breast, and expires. But no, he is not wholly 
 gone! A smile lights up his dying countenance; a 
 beam of returning intelligence kindles in his eye ; his 
 lips move ; and the friend, who leans over him, can 
 hear him faintly murmur the beautiful sentiments, which 
 the Christian lyrist, of a later age, has so finely expressed 
 in verse : 
 
 * Ye golden lamps of heaven, farewell, with all your feeble light! 
 Farewell, thou ever-changing moon, pale empress of the night! 
 And thou, refulgent orb of day, in brighter flames arrayed, 
 My soul, which springs beyond thy sphere, no more demands 
 
 thy aid. 
 
 Ye stars are but the shining dust of my divine abode, 
 The pavements of those heavenly courts, where I shall reign 
 with God.' 
 
 " So died the great Columbus of the heavens. His 
 doctrine, at first, for want of a general diffusion ot
 
 EDWARD EVERETT. 
 
 knowledge, forced its way with difficulty against the 
 deep-rooted prejudices of the age. Tycho Brahe at- 
 tempted to restore the absurdities of the Ptolemaic sys- 
 tem ; but Kepler, with a sagacity, which more than 
 atones for all his strange fancies, laid hold of the theory 
 of Copernicus, with a grasp of iron, and dragged it into 
 repute. Galileo turned his telescope to the heavens, and 
 observed the phases of Venus, which Copernicus boldly 
 predicted must be discovered, as his theory required 
 their appearance ; and lastly Newton arose, like a glori- 
 ous sun, scattering the mist of doubt and opposition, and 
 ascended the heavens full orbed and cloudless, establish- 
 ing at once his own renown and that of his predecessors, 
 and crowned with the applauses of the world ; but 
 declaring, with that angelic modesty which marked his 
 character, ' I do not know what J may appear to the 
 world ; but to myself I seem to have been only like a 
 boy, playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in 
 finding now and then a pebble, or prettier shell than or- 
 dinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undis- 
 covered before me.' " 
 
 But of all Mr. Everett's eloquent productions, the one 
 most pertinent to the topic now under consideration, is 
 his eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, delivered at Charles- 
 town, August 1, 1826. In this he said: 
 
 " The jubilee of America is turned into rriourning. 
 Its joy is mingled with sadness ; its silver trumpet 
 breathes a mingled strain. Henceforward and for ever, 
 while America exists among the nations of the earth, 
 the first emotion on the Fourth of July, shall be of joy 
 and triumph in the great event which immortalizes tho
 
 00 LIVI.VG OUATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 day, the second shall be one of chastised and tender 
 recollection of the venerable men, who departed on the 
 morning of the jubilee. This mingled emotion of 
 triumph and sadness has sealed the moral beauty and 
 sublimity of our great anniversary. In the simple com- 
 memoration of a victorious political achievement, there 
 seems not enough to occupy all our purest and best feel- 
 ings. The fourth of July was before a day of unshaded 
 triumph, exultation, and national pride : but the angel 
 of death has mingled in the all-glorious pageant, to teach 
 us we are men. Had our venerated fathers left us on 
 any other day, the day of the united departure of two 
 such men would henceforward have been remembered 
 but as a day of mourning. But now, while their de- 
 cease has gently chastened the exultations of the 
 triumphant festival ; the banner of independence will 
 wave cheerfully over the spot where they repose. The 
 whole nation feels, as with one heart, that since it must 
 sooner or later have been bereaved of its revered 
 fathers, it could not have wished that any other had 
 been the day of their decease. Our anniversary festival 
 was before triumphant; it is now triumphant and 
 sacred. It before called out the young and ardent, to 
 join in the public rejoicings; it now also speaks, in a 
 touching voice, to the retired, to the grey-headed, to the 
 mild and peaceful spirits, to the whole family of sober 
 freemen. With some appeal of joy, of admiration, of 
 tenderness, it henceforth addresses every. American 
 heart. It is henceforward, what the dying Adams pro- 
 nounced it, a great and a good day. It is full of great- 
 ness, and full of goodness. It is absolute and complete.
 
 EDWARD EVERETT. 91 
 
 The death of the men, who declared oui independence 
 their death on the day of the jubilee, was all that was 
 wanting to the fourth of July. To die on that day, and 
 to die together, was all that was wanting to Jefferson 
 and Adams. 
 
 " Think not, fellow citizens, that in the mere formal dis- 
 charge of my duty this day, I would overrate the melan- 
 choly interest of the great occasion. Heaven knows, I 
 do anything but intentionally overrate it. I labor only 
 for words, to do justice to your feelings and to mine. 
 I can say nothing, which does not sound as cold, as 
 tame, and as inadequate to myself as to you. The 
 theme is too great and too Surprising, the men are too 
 great and good to be spoken of, in this cursory manner. 
 There is too much in the contemplation of their united 
 characters, their services, the day and coincidence of 
 their death, to be properly described, Or to be fully felt 
 at once. I dare not come here and dismiss, in a few 
 summary paragraphs, tlie characters of men, who have 
 filled such a space in the history of their age. It would 
 be a disrespectful familiarity with men of their lofty 
 spirits, their rich endowments, their deep counsels, and 
 wise measures, their long and honorable lives, to endea- 
 vor thus to weigh and estimate them. I leave that 
 arduous task, to the genius of kindred elevation, by 
 whom to-morrow it will be discharged.* I feel the 
 mournful contrast in the fortunes of the first and best of 
 men, that after a life in the highest walks of usefulness ; 
 after conferring. benefits, not merely on a neighborhood, 
 
 An Eulogy was delivered on Adams and Jefferson, on the follow* 
 ' ing dav ; n Faneuil Hall, by Daniel Webster. 
 
 '
 
 92 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 a city, or even a state, but on a whole continent, and a 
 posterity of kindred men ; after having stood in the 
 first estimation for talents, services, and influence, 
 among millions of fellow citizens, a day should come, 
 which closes all up; pronounces a brief blessing on their 
 memory; gives an hour lo the actions of a crowded 
 life ; describes in a sentence what it took years to bring 
 to pass, and what is destined for years and ages to con- 
 tinue and operate on posterity ; forces into a few words 
 the riches of busy days of action and weary nights of 
 meditation ; passes forgetfully over many traits of char- 
 acter, many counsels and measures, which it cost per- 
 haps years of discipline and effort to mature ; utters a 
 funeral prayer ; chants a mournful anthem ; and then 
 dismisses all into the dark chambers of death and 
 forgetfulness. 
 
 " But, no, fellow citizens, we dismiss them not to the 
 chambers of forgetfulness and death. What we ad- 
 mired, and prized, and venerated in them, can never die, 
 nor dying, be forgotten. I had almost said that they are 
 now beginning to live ; to live that life of unimpaired 
 influence, of unclouded fame, of unmingled happiness, 
 for which their talents and services were destined. 
 They were of the select few, the least portion of whose 
 life dwells in their physical existence ; whose hearts have 
 watched, while their senses have slept ; whose souls 
 have grown up into a higher being ; whose pleasure is 
 to be useful ; whose wealth is an unblemished reputa- 
 tion ; who respire the breath of honorable fame ; who 
 have deliberately and consciously put what is called life 
 to hazard, that they may live in the hearts of those who
 
 EDWARD EVERETT. 93 
 
 come after. Such men do not, cannot die. To be cold, 
 and motion)ess : and breathless ; to feel not and speak, 
 not ; this is not the end of existence to the men who have 
 breathed their spirits into the institutions of their coun 
 try, who have stamped their characters on the pillars of 
 the age, who have poured their hearts' blood into the 
 channels of the public prosperity. Tell me, ye, who 
 tread the sods of yon sacred height, is Warren dead ? 
 Can you not still see him, not pale and prostrate, the 
 blood of his gallant heart pouring out of his ghastly 
 wound, but moving resplendent over the field of honor, 
 with the rose of heaven upon his cheek, and the fire of 
 liberty in his eye ? Tell me, ye, who make your pious 
 pilgrimage to the shades of Vernon, is Washington in- 
 deed shut up in that cold and narrow house ? That 
 which made these men, and men like these, cannot die. 
 The hand that traced the charter of independence is 
 indeed motionless, the eloquent lips that sustained it are 
 hushed ; but the lofty spirits that conceived, resolved, 
 matured, maintained it, and which alone to such men, 
 ' make it life to live/ these cannot expire ; 
 
 ' These shall resist the empire of decay, 
 When time is o'er, and worlds have passed away : 
 Cold in the dust, the perished heart may lie, 
 But that, which warmed it once, can never die.' " 
 
 Having presented the foregoing outlines of Mr. 
 Everett's professional career, with diversified extracts 
 from his works to exemplify the more prominent traits 
 of his mind, we come now to the more delicate task of 
 projecting a specific analysis of his eloquence. We
 
 94 LIVING OBATORd IN AMERICA. 
 
 have endeavored to show What he has been and is as a 
 scholar, divine, professor, politician, and popular writer: 
 it remains to inquire into his merits as an orator. If 
 we mistake not, they will be found to consist mainly in 
 natural taste, cultivated talent, and consummate art. 
 
 In the first place, it is evident that Mr. Everett was 
 naturally endowed with acute and discriminating taste. 
 This quality highly refined, and grace of conception, are 
 among his best elements of oratorical character ; and, 
 as we shall see in the sequel, these go hand in hand 
 with elaborate execution and delicate finish. They are 
 attributes both elegant and appropriate, " like to those 
 hanging locks of young Apollo." 
 
 He may have more of that taste which is skillful to 
 use, than of the genius which is powerful to originate ; 
 but this regulating faculty is doubtless of great value ; 
 indeed, without it genius itself is but sublime madness. 
 It is an attribute which, in its perfection, is as uncom- 
 mon as it is useful ; since, as Chateaubriand remarks, 
 "the sure touch which draws from the lyre the exact 
 tone it ought to render, is more rare than even the fa- 
 culty that creates." Talent and genius, diversely dif- 
 fused, latent and unrecognized, as Montesquieu says, 
 " frequently pass through us without unpacking," they 
 exist in equal proportions in all ages, but in the course 
 of those ages, it is only among certain natures, and at 
 certain periods of time, that taste is developed in its 
 purity. Before this period arrives, and after its conclu- 
 sion, all will be imperfect through deficiency or excess. 
 Hence the reason why finished productions are so rare ; 
 for they must necessarily emanate from the happy union
 
 EDWARD EVEEETT. 95 
 
 of taste and genius. But this rare concurrence, like 
 the concurrence of certain stars, seems to require the 
 revolution of ages for its consummation, and then its 
 duration is but momentary." 
 
 Suppose a clear and gentle stream flowing through a 
 cultivated glade, on a bed of the purest gravel; its bank 
 generally smooth and level, sometimes indented and 
 varied in height, but with all rudeness concealed by 
 tufts of flowers, fragrant shrubs, elegant trees, and trail- 
 ing plants hanging over the clear waters ; while all the 
 delicious objects are rendered yet more soft and enchant- 
 ing by the clear mirror that reflects them, like Milton's 
 limped fountain in Paradise 
 
 "Spread 
 
 Into a liquid plain, then stood unmoved, 
 Pure as the expanse of heaven :" 
 
 and in such a picture we have a fair type of Mr. 
 Everett's mind. Like all his faculties, his taste is doubt- 
 less greatly indebted to intense and protracted cultiva- 
 tion, but its latent source in his own bosom has alw r ays 
 been open, flowing, and cure. His earliest compositions 
 were highly poetical in both spirit and form, and to this 
 day everything from his pen is " veined with gold and 
 dusted o'er with gems." Glancing back through all his 
 brilliant career to its obscure beginning, he undoubt- 
 edly may say : 
 
 u Oh, I remember well ! 
 
 When, like a sea-shell with its sea-born strain, 
 My soul aye rang with music of the lyre ; 
 And my heart shed its love as leaves their dew 
 A honey dew, and throve on what it shed."
 
 96 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 - Secondly, in addition to native taste, it is evident that 
 Mr. Everett possesses a large measure of cultivated tal- 
 ent. He is not only endowed by nature with great 
 acuteness of mental perception and moral sensibility, but 
 he has laboriously acquired that fidelity of hand which, 
 aided by these powers, imparts precision, symmetry, and 
 beauty to all his works. He is an illustrious instance 
 showing what perseverance, study, observation and 
 patronage can achieve to develop genius or supply its 
 spontaneous worth. 
 
 Hazlitt has said that great natural advantages are sel- 
 dom combined with great acquired ones, because they 
 render the labor requisite to attain the last superfluous 
 and irksome. It is only necessary to be admired ; and 
 if we are admired for the graces of our persons, we shall 
 not be at much pains to adorn our minds* To substan- 
 tiate this position, he adds that if Pope had been a beau- 
 tiful youth, he would not have written the Rape of the 
 Lock ; and that a beautiful woman, who has only to 
 show herself to be admired ; and is famous by nature, 
 will be in no danger of becoming a blue stocking, to* at- 
 tract notice by her learning, or to hide her defects. To 
 this it may be replied that Milton was a beautiful youth, 
 and yet he wrote Paradise Lost; moreover, that the 
 greatest poets, artists, scholars and orators of every age, 
 have been the most industrious in acquiring and compo- 
 sing ; however brilliant their imaginations, however in- 
 tense their capacities, or harmonious their expressions, 
 it was the superior power of arranging their materials, 
 which rendered their genius most useful to their fellow- 
 beings. Without the lucidus ordo of Horace, the
 
 EDWARD EVERETT. 97 
 
 superb ideas are of little use to the world. " He hath 
 no power, who hath no power to use," and this master- 
 ship is acquired only by long practice. 
 
 Not that labor alone can produce perfection. Industry 
 will improve mediocrity, but can never elevate it to the 
 highest excellence, by endowing it with the power to in- 
 vent. Susceptibility to the beauty of expression, or the 
 vivid portraiture of the passions, may be keenly felt by the 
 spirit naturally of a delicate tone, but cannot be taught, 
 even if the teacher were an angel from heaven. Still, 
 we think it truly said above, that persons in every exalted 
 sphere who are by native attributes best endowed, are 
 generally the most industrious. No men are more con- 
 scious of the weakness of human nature than they, and 
 none feel more deeply that whatever their latent genius 
 may be, nothing but the most incessant industry and 
 application, can fully reveal it. For instance, to refer 
 to an artist, whom our orator in many respects greatly 
 resembles, Claude never left his pictures, or his studies 
 on the banks of the Tiber, to go in search of meaner en- 
 joyments, or ceased to gaze upon the glittering sunny 
 vales and distant hills ; and while his eye, naturally 
 acute, became still better educated, while he scanned 
 the clear sparkling hues and lovely forms of Nature, his 
 hand delineated them on the lucid canvass in colors that 
 seem destined never to decay. 
 
 The career of Mr. Everett shows that while yet a 
 youth, he comprehended and acted upon the great prin- 
 ciple of Apelles " Nulla dies sine lined ;"* and still more 
 glorious maxim of Napoleon " Une heure perdue est 
 * Not a day without practice.
 
 98 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 une chance pour le malheur de I' avemr."* Thus feel- 
 ing and acting, like all brave souls before him, he has 
 demonstrated in his own person that no force of law, 
 prejudice, or penury can arrest the predestined hero in 
 his strenuous pursuit, or prevent him from gratifying 
 his burning ambition to advance the divine art he was 
 born to honor, and of which he is the impassioned 
 devotee. To such a votary, excellence is truly " a rul- 
 ing passion," and closes his eyes at night with aspira- 
 tions for ultimate success ; haunts his slumbers with 
 dreams of unattained perfection, and flashes invincible 
 energy on his brain at the dawn of every morning 
 thought. It was under this influence that Shakspeare 
 saw the ghost of a king : Puck put a girdle round about 
 the earth in forty minutes ; Ariel drank the air before 
 him ; Homer measured the gigantic stride of the shade 
 of Achilles in hell, when Ulysses told him his son was 
 worthy of his sire. It was when thus inspired, that 
 blind Milton saw and portrayed the effulgent blaze of 
 Satan, in the midst of his astonished council, after his 
 success on earth ; Virgil that glorious vision of Minerva, 
 shouting to the Greeks in the flames of Troy ; and 
 Tasso that exquisite conception of the angel Gabriel 
 tipping the hills as the sun arose with commingled hues 
 of silver and gold. To attain the highest order of suc- 
 cess, undoubtedly a stupendous power must be acquired, 
 and all but insurmountable anxieties, labors and strug- 
 gles, must be overcome. But if the aspirant proceed 
 humbly, and yet firmly, on his upward way, his reward 
 
 * One hour idled away jeopardizes the happinesa of all lh 
 future.
 
 EDWARD EVERETT. 99 
 
 will be both sure and great, for his mind will become 
 impregnated with power, and his hand fearless by prac- 
 tice, so that glorious visions cannot rise more rapidly on 
 his fancy than he will shower them with inspired pro- 
 fusion on the enraptured hearts and understandings of 
 mankind. 
 
 Mr. Everett early began to "hold high converse with 
 the mighty dead ;" and while he aimed to become a 
 finished writer and effective public speaker, he under- 
 stood what were the objects to be promoted, and the 
 duties to be performed, in order to the complete attain- 
 ment of the excellence he desired. He saw what pains 
 were thought due by a Roman statesman and orator, to 
 the acquisition of the art, as he read in his favorite au- 
 thor, the following extract from De Claris Oratoribus : 
 
 " The other chief orators of the day," says Cicero, 
 "being then in the magistracy, were almost daily heard 
 by me in their public discourses. Curio was then tribune 
 of the people, but never spoke, having once been deserted 
 by his audience in a mass. Quintus Metellus Celer 
 though not an orator, was not wholly unable to speak . 
 Varius, Carbo, and Pomponius were eloquent, and they 
 were continually upon the rostrum. Caius Julius, also, 
 the curule sedile, almost daily made a set speech. My 
 passion for listening received its first disappointment 
 when Cotta was banished ; but in diligent attendance on 
 the other orators, I not only devoted a part of each day 
 to reading, writing, and discussing; but extended my 
 studies beyond the exercises of oratory, to philosophy 
 and the law. In the following year, Varius was banished 
 under his own law. In the study of the civil law, I em-
 
 100 LIVING ORATORd IN AMERICA. 
 
 ployea myself under Scsevola, who, although he did not 
 formally receive pupils, was willing to admit those who 
 desired it, to be present while he gave legal opinions to 
 his clients. The next year, Sylla and Pompey were 
 consuls, and I formed an intimate acquaintance with the 
 whole art of public speaking, in listening to the daily 
 harangues of the tribune Sulpicius. At the same time. 
 Philo, the head of the academy, having, with the rest of 
 the aristocracy of Athens, fled to Rome in the Mithrida- 
 tic war, I gave myself wholly up to him and the study 
 of philosophy, not merely from the delight I felt in the 
 variety and magnitude of the subject, but because the 
 career of judicial eloquence seemed for ever shut up. 
 Sulpicius had fallen that year, and in the next, three other 
 orators were most cruelly slain ; Catulus, Antony, and 
 Julius. The same year, I employed myself under the 
 direction of Molo the Rhodian, a consummate pleader 
 and teacher. I mention these things, Brutus, although 
 somewhat aside from our purpose, that you might, as 
 you desired, become acquainted with my course, and 
 perceive the manner in which I followed in the steps of 
 Hortensius. For three years, the city had respite from 
 war, but the orators were deceased, retired, or banished ; 
 even Crassus and the two Lentuli were absent. Hor- 
 tensius then took the lead as counsd ; Antistius daily 
 rose in reputation; Piso spoke often, Pomponius less 
 frequently, Carbo rarely, Philippus once or twice. All 
 this time, I was occupied day and night, in every kind of 
 study. I studied with the stoic Diodotus, who, after hav- 
 ing long lived with me, lately died at my house. By 
 him I was trained, among other things, in logic, itself a
 
 EDWARD EVERETT. 101 
 
 kind of close and compendous eloquence, without which 
 even you, Brutus, have admitted, that the true eloquence* 
 which is but expanded logic, cannot be acquired. \Vith 
 this teacher, in his numerous and various branches, I 
 was so assiduous, that I did not miss a day in oratorical 
 exercises. I had also a declamatory discussion, (to use 
 the present phrase) with Piso often, and with Quinfu* 
 Pompey, or some one .else, every day. This was fre- 
 quently in Latin, but oftener in Greek; both because 
 the Greek language, in itself more adapted to ornament, 
 tended to form the habit of an elegant Latin manner, 
 and because, unless I used the Greek language, I could 
 neither receive instruction nor correction from eminent 
 Greek teachers. Meantime followed the tumults for the 
 restoration of the republic ; the cruel deaths of the three 
 orators, Scaevola, Carbo, and Antistius ; the return of 
 Cotta, Curio, Crassus, the Lentuli, and Pompey; the 
 establishment of the laws and the tribunals ; in a word, 
 the restoration of the Commonwealth. Of the orators, 
 however, Pomponius, Censorinus, and Murena, perished. 
 I then, for the first time, undertook the pleading both of 
 public and private causes ; not, as is commonly done, 
 learning my profession in the practice of it, but, as far 
 as I had been able to effect it, entering the forum 
 with my profession learned. At the same time I 
 studied under Molo, who had come to Rome, in Sylla's 
 dictatorship, on business of the Rhodians. My first 
 public cause, therefore, the defence of Sextus Roscius, 
 was so commended, that there was none which I was not 
 thought competent to undertake. Many causes were
 
 102 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 now put into my hands, which I brought into court, not 
 merely diligently, but laboriously prepared. 
 
 "And now, since you seem to wish to learn my 
 history thoroughly, I will mention some things, which 
 might otherwise seem unimportant. At this period, I 
 labored under extreme emaciation and weakness of body ; 
 my neck was long and slender, and my whole frame and 
 constitution such as are usually thought to render the vio- 
 lent exercise of the lungs fatal. This circumstance was 
 matter of the greater anxiety to my friends, because I was 
 in the habit of speaking everything on a high key, with 
 out variety, with the utmost power of voice and exer- 
 tion of my body. When, therefore, my friends and 
 physicians advised me to abandon pleading, I determined 
 to encounter any danger, rather than give up the re- 
 nown which I hoped to acquire as an orator. Having, 
 however, come to the conclusion, that by reducing and 
 managing the voice, and changing my mode of speaking, 
 T could escape the impending danger, I determined, for 
 the sake of altering my manner, to visit Asia. Accord- 
 ingly, after having been two years in the practice of 
 my profession, and acquiring a standing in the forum, I 
 left Rome. When I came to Athens,*! devoted myself 
 six months, under Antiochus, a most noble and prudent 
 sage of the old academy, to the study of philosophy, a 
 study which I had early cultivated, had never lost sight 
 of, and now renewed under this admirable teacher. At 
 the same time, however, I practised speaking diligently, 
 under Demetrius, the Syrian, an experienced and re- 
 spectable teacher of the art. I afterwards made the 
 tour of Asia, with orators of the first celebrity, under
 
 EinVARL) EVERETT 103 
 
 whom, with their full assent, I regularly exercised 
 myself in speaking. The chief of these was Menippus 
 of Stratonice, in my opinion the most eloquent Asiatic 
 orator of his time, and, if to be free from everything 
 offensive or impertinent be the test of Atticism, not 
 unworthy to be reckoned among Attic orators. I was, 
 also constantly with Dionysius, of Magnesia, ^Eschylus, of 
 Enidus, and Xenocles, of Adramyttium ; the principal 
 rhetoricians at that time in Asia. Not satisfied with 
 these, I repaired to Rhodes, and applied myself to Milo, 
 who had instructed me at Rome, who was not only a 
 pleader himself, in real causes, and an eminent writer, 
 but most discreet in remarking and correcting faults as 
 an instructor. He exerted himself, as far as possible, to 
 reduce my manner, redundant as it was, and overflow- 
 ing with juvenile license and excess; and sought to 
 bring it within proper limits. After spending two years 
 in this way, I returned, not merely trained, but altered. 
 The extreme effort of my voice in speaking was 
 reduced. My style had become temperate, my lungs 
 strong, and my general health tolerable." 
 
 The above description bears a strong resemblance to 
 the taste and studies of the American Cicero, in his 
 early days, and vividly portrays the maturity which he, 
 too, attained by means of his European and Asiatic tour. 
 
 We come now, in the third place, lo consider the 
 consummate art which Mr. Everett displays in all his 
 eloquence, \vritten or spoken. His personal appearance 
 in public is exceedingly neat, appropriate and conciliat- 
 ing. Everything about him is so well arranged that, 
 although an edging of silver marks his hair, and mantles
 
 104 LIVING OEATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 his pensive brow, one cannot but feel that he has not 
 yet entirely dismissed his Lothario recollections. The 
 moment he rises to speak, it is easy to perceive that he 
 is an accomplished gentleman ; and before he has 
 uttered many sentences, the intelligent hearer is equally 
 convinced that he is an accomplished orator. His 
 voice and placid manner of delivery are in harmony 
 with the mild character of his sentiments. A calm 
 richness pervades his style, by means of which he soon 
 throws a spell over the hearts of listeners, leading them 
 inwardly to exclaim, 
 
 "Thy talk is the sweet extract of all speech, 
 And holds mine ear in blissful slavery.- 1 
 
 Mr. Everett's originality is evinced less in the vio- 
 lent outbursts of rugged and irrepressible affluence, than 
 in his artistic power over materials deliberately gathered 
 in his calm command over the resources of language, 
 and in the suavity of his style, which is seldom surpassed. 
 It is not congenial for him to be severe his good taste 
 and labored care will still be manifest. Witness the 
 following memorable extract. Some one in the London 
 Quarterly Review, for January, 1828, had slurringly in- 
 timated that the first emigrants to America were crimi- 
 nals in character, and mercenary in design. To this 
 Mr. Everett replied : 
 
 " A late English writer has permitted himself to say, 
 that the original inhabitants of the United States, and 
 that of the colony of Botany Bay, were pretty nearly 
 modelled on the same plan. The meaning of this slan- 
 derous insinuation is, that the United States were settled
 
 . 
 EDWARD EVERETT. 11 J 
 
 for the wealth of intellect they display, but have not the 
 greatest power to touch the heart or impel the judgment, 
 being deficient alike in soul-stirring thought and depth 
 of feeling. They may be full of labored smoothness 
 and harmonized erudition, but they are, after all, ineffi- 
 cient on the general mind, because they are sterile of 
 genuine pathos and melody. A loftier endowment is 
 requisite to substitute in the place of cold admiration 
 the more ardent sentiments of sympathetic love and re- 
 sistless force. Classical richness, combined with artistic 
 elegance, copious acquisitions embodied in a style pure 
 and mellifluous, sentences abounding in learned rhythm 
 more than in spontaneous vigor, form the main features 
 of this orator's eloquence and his best claims to popular 
 esteem. 
 
 Rhetorical grace is to composition and delivery, what 
 female figures are to history -pictures however exqui- 
 site the color, and perfect the light and shade, however 
 touching the expression, heroical the forms, and full of 
 majestic action, the result will but feebly interest the 
 hearts of mankind, if the rays of beauty do not irradiate 
 at least some portion of the scene. Over this element 
 no one has a more supreme control than Mr. Everett. 
 His is " the soft precision of the clear Vandyke," and 
 he has executed works which, of their kind, are "inimi- 
 table on earth by model, or by shading pencil drawn." 
 But there is danger of being too uniformly placid and 
 smooth. Writers on art have observed that roughness, 
 in its different modes and degrees, is the ornament, the 
 fringe of beauty, that which gives it life and spirit, and 
 preserves it from baldness and insipidity. If the shaft
 
 Ill LIVIXG ORATuRS IX AMERICA. 
 
 of a column is smooth, the more ornamental part, the 
 capita], is rough ; the facing of the smoothest building 
 has a frize and cornice rough and abruptly projecting : 
 it is the same in vases, and in everything that admits of 
 ornament. Hence Dryden, when describing the cup 
 that contained the heart of Guiscard, calls it " a 
 goblet rich with gems, and rough with gold." The per- 
 manent attraction of an oration, like that of a temple or 
 landscape, depends upon the happy union of warm and 
 cool tints, of smooth parts and rough, picturesque and 
 severely graceful, solemn and gay. The most striking 
 effects are produced by bringing together features totally 
 opposite to each other; but these must be skillfully 
 arranged and blended in various degrees, in order to 
 produce that charm of combination, which is manifest 
 in the consummate works of art and nature. 
 
 " Like to some goddess hewn in stone, 
 With blooming garlands bound." 
 
 Too many speakers, like the majority of painters, in 
 modern schools, instead of emulating the great masters 
 of Roman art, ape the Tuscans, the main body of whom, 
 equally inattentive to expression, character, contrast, 
 and propriety of form, it was long ago said contented 
 themselves with giving to tame and puerile ideas, obvi- 
 ous and common-place conceptions, a kind of impor- 
 tance by mastery of execution and a bold but monoto- 
 nous and mannered outline. Here men, like their ex- 
 amples in Holland, finish their works so carefully, be- 
 cause there is a want of substantial and striking worth 
 in thenvand they can only be made interesting by the
 
 EDWARD EVERETT. 115 
 
 accurate delicacy of their execution. This, however, 
 is not the fault of Mr. Everett. True, his language 
 falls softly like a snow-flake, and his sentences are "like 
 autumn leaves distained with dusky gold ;" but his works, 
 if cool, are not absolutely cold, and his style, if subdued, 
 is yet rich with meaning. 
 
 " However bright or beautiful itseli 
 
 The theme he touched, he made it more so by 
 
 His own light, like a fire-fly on a flower." 
 
 True eloquence transports the mind " beyond the 
 ignorant present," to ages past, or ages yet to 
 come. It" leads the willing hearer by turns to the 
 dark antiquity of Egypt, to the tranquillity of Arcadian 
 scenes and fairy lands, or to the environs of the great 
 capitals of Greece and Rome, and depicts the universal 
 objects of literary and heroic worth so precious and 
 thrilling to every enlightened and cultivated taste. This 
 power, also, Mr. Everett possesses to a good degree, but 
 it is as a rhetorician mainly that his charms are wrought. 
 His taste, his learning, and his elocution combine pow- 
 erfully to enchant the organs of his hearers, not for 
 amusement only, but the more effectually to conduct 
 reason and motives to the intellect and heart. His man- 
 ner, like his matter, is elaborated with the greatest care, 
 but it does not divert the public eye from higher beau- 
 ties to be absorbed by its lures; by so doing it would 
 be degraded to a mere vehicle of sensual pleasure, a 
 trifling bauble, or a splendid fault. 
 
 The connection between mere beauty and insipidity, 
 naturalness and deformity, is so very close, that it re- 
 quires *he acutest eye habitually to observe what " thin
 
 116 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 partitions do their bounds divide." It is an interesting 
 fact, that while beauty of the highest kind was attributed 
 by mythological nations to all the superior goddesses, 
 and the ancient artists were required to express it in 
 their representations of them, Venus, the most effemi- 
 nate of that class, was the only one invested with un- 
 substantial blandishments only; whereas Juno, Pallas, 
 Diana, and other deities were characterized with nobler 
 traits, having a mixture of awful majesty, savoring of 
 wisdom, warlike valor, and rigid chastity. Beauty and 
 force coalesce in true eloquence and glow with whole- 
 some strength, like the masculine cheek of Minerva, 
 tinged with maidenly modesty. Such an orator, imbued 
 with elegant thought and tender sensibilities, appears 
 before an audience much as Theseus did before Ariadne. 
 Philostratus represents him as being adorned with a 
 plain purple robe, wearing a garland of roses. His 
 whole air is that of one intoxicated with love, calm in 
 its fullness, and absorbed in the admiration of beauty. 
 Every attribute is laid aside, not perfectly in keeping 
 with the subject and place. He has discarded the florid 
 garment, the soft doe skin, and the thyrsus. In him is 
 seen only the refined and yet impassioned lover. His 
 companions are in harmony with himself. The Bac- 
 chants do not clash their cymbals, the Fauns refrain 
 from their flutes, and Pan moderates his leaps, so as not 
 unnecessarily to alarm the beloved. She already feels 
 the charm of the god's presence, and will soon be con- 
 ducted by him over the rocky plain, to cultivated, fra- 
 grant hills, where, surrounded with readiest service and 
 celestial joys, she will taste of love that will never end.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HENRY CLAY, 
 
 THE POLITICIAN. 
 
 THE facts and events which mark the career of Mr. 
 ( lay have frequently been portrayed. Some of the 
 iiiost important of these it will be necessary to recite at 
 the outset ; though biographical detail forms but quite a 
 subordinate element of our present design. 
 
 The father of our orator was a very respectable 
 Baptist preacher, in the County of Hanover, Virginia, 
 commonly known as " The Slashes," where, on the 12th 
 of April, 1777, his fifth child, Henry, was born. At an 
 early age, he was left without father or fortune to buffet, 
 adverse storms, and to become inured to manual toil. 
 At the age of fourteen he entered a small drug store in 
 Richmond, Virginia, kept by Mr. Richard Denny. His 
 stay there was short, and at the commencement of 1792 
 he entered the office of Mr. Peter Tinsley, clerk of the 
 High Court of Chancery. In this situation he, of 
 course, came into personal contact with the most distin- 
 guished men in the State, and attracted their attention 
 so strongly by his talents and amiable qualities, that 
 some of them,, particularly Chancellor Wythe and
 
 U8 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 GOT ernor Brooke, 
 
 
 character of his maturer eloquence. - > 
 
 Mr. Prentice, "under some emba 7^' *^ n "_ 
 dressed the President of the Society by the t, 
 S of ^ Jury, but he gradually gained confidence 
 frl his own efforts, and, finally, concentrating all h 
 ^Is upon the subject in debate, ^tf^SJ 
 Le with a beauty and compass of vo 1C e, an exuber 
 ance of eloquence, and a force of argument well jrthy 
 of a veteran orator. A gentleman who -heard th s 
 speech has assured us, that it would hardly surTei 
 comparison with the most brilliant efforts made by its 
 author in after life. His reputation as a speaker was 
 course established, and he became immediately a 
 ing champion in all the debates of the Society." 
 
 Mr. Clay entered on the duties of his profession a 
 Lexington, under not the most flattering auspices, ai 
 appears from his speech of June, 1842, made at 1 
 same place. In this, he says he ' was without patron 
 without friends, and destitute of the means of paymj 
 his weekly board. I remember how comfortable
 
 HENRY CLAY. 119 
 
 thought I should be, if I could make 100, Virginia 
 money, per annum, and with what delight I received the 
 first fifteen shilling fee. My hopes were more than 
 realized ; 1 immediately rushed into a lucrative prac 
 tice." 
 
 Mr. Clay's political career began as early as 1797 
 when he openly portrayed the evils of domestic slavery 
 His youthful ardor resisted every restraint upon free 
 dom, as was manifest in the manner of his resistanci 
 to the odious Alien and Sedition laws, enacted in 1798-9 
 In 1803, he was elected to the Legislature of Kentucky, 
 and almost immediately on entering upon the functions 
 of this, his first political office, he won no little notoriety 
 in a severe and successful conflict with Felix Grundy, a 
 forensic antagonist of great force and skill. In 1806, 
 General Adair, one of the Senators of the State in Con- 
 gress, having resigned his place, Mr. Clay was elected 
 to occupy it for the remainder of the term, which was 
 only one year. It was in this capacity that he first ap- 
 peared at Washington. At the moment of his arrival, 
 the Senate was engaged in a debate respecting the 
 expediency of authorizing the construction of a bridge 
 over the Potomac, into which discussion Mr. Clay 
 immediately entered and made a very effective speech. 
 On returning to Kentucky, after the expiration of his 
 term in the Senate, he was immediately re-elected to 
 the State Legislature, and at the opening of the next 
 session was chosen speaker of the General Assembly, 
 which office he held for several successive years. In 
 1809, Mr. Thurston, another Senator in Congress, 
 having resigned his place, Mr. Clay was called upon to
 
 120 LIVING OEATORS JN AMERICA. 
 
 occupy it for the remainder of his term, which was two 
 years, and took his seat accordingly in the Senate, at the 
 close of that year. The leading questions of the two ses- 
 sions of 1810, and 1811, were the occupation of West Flo- 
 rida, and the renewal of the charter of the Bank. On 
 these, and other topics which came before the Senate, Mr. 
 Clay distinguished himself as one of the ablest cham- 
 pions of the party then in power. On the expiration of 
 his term of service in the Senate in 1811, he returned 
 to Kentucky, and was immediately after elected a mem- 
 ber of the House of Representatives of the United 
 States, where he took his seat in the winter of the same 
 year. " Mr. Clay was at this time about thirty-five 
 vears of age, a period of life when the intellectual pow- 
 ers of most men have just attained their full maturity, 
 and are beginning to mark out for them the place whicn 
 they are to occupy in the opinion of the world. So 
 much, however, had Mr. Clay anticipated the usual pro- 
 gress, and such already was the extent of his influence, 
 not merely in his own State, but on the wider theatre 
 of national politics, that, on his first appearance as a 
 new member in the House of Representatives, he was 
 chosen Speaker by a vote of nearly two to one over 
 two opposing candidates. No mark of respect and con- 
 fidence at all equal to this has ever been bestowed by 
 the House of Representatives upon any other person, 
 and the best proof that it was not the result of any com- 
 bination of accidental circumstances or momentary 
 caprice, is to be found in the fact, that the confidence 
 thus bestowed, was never afterwards withdrawn or 
 shaken. During the long period of Mr. Clay's congres-
 
 HENRY CLAY. 121 
 
 sional career, which lasted, with two short intervals, 
 from this time till his entrance into the Department of 
 State, in 1825, he was regularly elected Speaker of each 
 successive House of Representatives, we believe, with- 
 out opposition. It is admitted, in fact, by all, that in 
 discharging the arduous and honorable duties of this 
 place, he was singularly successful. Though eminently 
 prompt, firm, and decisive, the frankness and urbanity 
 of his manner prevented any one from taking offence, 
 and rendered him a general favorite." At the begin- 
 ning of the year 1814, he was appointed one of the 
 Commissioners to treat for peace with Great Britain, 
 and having accepted the trust, retired, of course, from 
 the Speaker's chair. The circumstances attending his 
 resignation, which are stated in the following extract 
 from one of his biographers, strongly evince the extent 
 of his influence over his political associates, and his 
 general popularity with the members of all parties : 
 
 " The official duties which now devolved upon Miv 
 Clay, required him to resign the Speaker's chair. At 
 this time, his influence in the House of Representatives 
 was equal to that which he had exercised, some years 
 before, in the Legislature of his adopted State. His 
 friends and his enemies agree in the remark, that his 
 power was almost unlimited. His party was a majority 
 in the House, and, so unbounded was the confidence 
 which its members reposed in his wisdom and integrity, 
 that he could sway them by a motion of his hand. 
 Whenever the course of a discussion failed to meet his 
 approbation, he descended from the chair, and, by min- 
 gling in the debate, gave, at once, a new character to
 
 122 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the proceedings. His resignation was tendered on the 
 16th of January, and accompanied by a beautiful and 
 affecting speech, which touched every heart in the 
 assembly, and unsealed many a fountain of tears. In 
 the generous feelings of the hour, even the federalists 
 wept freely, that a master-spirit was going out from 
 among them. A resolution, thanking him in fervid lan- 
 guage for the impartiality with which he had adminis- 
 tered the arduous duties of office, was passed almost 
 unanimously ; only eight or nine members voting 
 against it. Probably there was no other man in the na- 
 tion, who, at that stormy period, could have presided 
 with such signal energy over the deliberations of the 
 popular branch of Congress, and yet have commanded 
 the approbation of so vast a majority of both political 
 parties." 
 
 During his absence on the mission to Ghent, Mr. 
 Clay visited several of the most interesting portions of 
 Europe, and was everywhere received with marked at- 
 tention. On his return to the United States, he was 
 greeted with great enthusiasm, particularly in his own 
 State. He was immediately re-elected to Congress, and 
 from this time, until his retirement from public life, in 
 1842, may be regarded as the leading statesman in the 
 councils of the Union. 
 
 From this condensed biographical sketch of Mr. 
 Clay, we turn more particularly to notice his mental 
 adroitness, ardent nationality of spirit, and impressive 
 manner of address. 
 
 In the first place, we remark, a bold and effective 
 quality in the personal character of Mr. Clay, is adroit.
 
 BENRY CLAY. l&J 
 
 ness, or tact, in conducting important business. This is 
 a trait quite prominent in his constitution and career, 
 exemplified by him in a way which verifies the follow- 
 ing pointed description : 
 
 " Talent is something, but tact is everything. Tal- 
 ent is serious, sober, grave and respectable ; tact is all 
 that, and more too. It is not a sixth sense, but it is the 
 life of all the five. It is the open eye, the quick ear, the 
 judging taste, the keen smell, and the lively touch ; the 
 interpreter of all riddles, the surmounter of all difficulties, 
 the remover of all obstacles. It is useful in all places, 
 and at all times. It is useful in solitude, for it shows a 
 man the way into the world ; it is useful in society* for 
 it shows him his way through the world. Talent is 
 power ; tact is skill. Talent is weight ; tact is mo- 
 mentum. Talent knows what to do, tact knows how to 
 do it. Talent makes a man respectable ; tact will make 
 him respected. Talent is wealth ; tact is ready money. 
 For the practical purposes of life, tact carries it against 
 talent, ten to one. There is no want of dramatic tact 
 or talent, but they are seldom together ; so we have suc- 
 cessful pieces which are not respectable, and respectable 
 pieces which are not successful. Take them to the bar, 
 and let them shake their learned curls at each other in 
 legal rivalry ; talent sees its way clearly, but tact is first 
 at iis journey's end. Talent has many a compliment 
 from the bench; but tact touches fees from attorneys 
 and clients. Talent speaks learnedly and logically ; 
 tact, triumphantly. Talent makes the world wonder 
 that it gets along no faster ; tact excites astonishment 
 that it gets along so fast. The secret is, it has no
 
 124 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 weight to carry; it makes no false steps; it hits the 
 right nail on the head ; it takes all hints. 
 
 " Take them into the church. Talent has always 
 something worth hearing ; tact is sure of abundance of 
 hearers. Talent may obtain a living; tact will make 
 one. Talent gets a good name, but tact gets a great 
 one. Talent conceives ; tact converts. Talent is an 
 honor to the profession ; tact gains honor from the pro- 
 fession. 
 
 " Take them to court. Talent feels its way ; tact 
 makes its way. Talent commands ; tact is obeyed. 
 Talent is honored with approbation ; tact is blessed with 
 preferment. 
 
 " Place them in the Senate. Talent has the ear of the 
 house; but tact wins its heart and gains its votes. 
 Talent is fit for employment ; but tact is fitted for it. It 
 has a knack of slipping into place, with a sweet silence 
 and glibness of movement, as a billiard ball insinuates 
 itself into the pocket. It seems to know everything, 
 without learning anything. It wants no drilling. It 
 has no left hand, no deaf ear, no blind side. It puts on 
 no looks of wondrous wisdom, it has no air of profundity ; 
 but plays with the details of place as dexterously as a 
 well taught hand flourishes over the keys of a piano- 
 forte. It has all the air of common place, and all the 
 force and power of genius. Talent calculates clearly ; 
 reasons logically. Tact refutes without contradicting, 
 puzzles the profound without profundity, and without 
 wit, outwits the wise. 
 
 " Set them together on a race for popularity, pen in 
 hand, and tact will distance talent by half the course.
 
 HENRY CLAY. 125 
 
 Talent brings to market that which is needed ; tact pro- 
 duces that which is wished for. Talent instructs ; tact 
 enlightens. Talent leads where no one follows ; tact 
 follows where the humor leads. Talent toils for pos- 
 terity ; tact catches the passion of the passing hour 
 Talent is a fine thing to talk about, and be proud of. 
 but tact is useful, portable, always alive, always market- 
 able. It is the talent of talents, the availableness of re- 
 sources, the applicability of power, the eye of discrimi- 
 nation, the right hand of intellect." 
 
 The adroitness so peculiar to Mr. Clay, was manifested 
 by him from the commencement of his brilliant practice 
 at the bar. We will select a few examples. Two Ger- 
 mans, father and son, were indicted for murder, and 
 were tried in Harrison County. The act of killing was 
 proven by evidence so clear and strong, that it was con- 
 sidered not only a case of murder, but an exceedingly 
 aggravated one. The trial lasted five days, "at the 
 close of which he addressed the jury in the most impas- 
 sioned and eloquent manner, who were so moved by his 
 pathetic appeals that they rendered a verdict of man- 
 slaughter only. After another hard day's struggle he 
 succeeded in obtaining an arrest of judgment, by which 
 his clients were set at liberty. They expressed their 
 gratitude in the warmest terms to their deliverer, in 
 which they were joined by an old ill-favored female, the 
 wife of one and the mother of the other, who adopted a 
 different mode, however, of tendering her thanks, which 
 was by throwing her arms around Mr. Clay's neck and 
 repeatedly kissing him, in the presence of the court and 
 spectators. Respecting her feelings, he did not attempt
 
 126 LIVING Ol.ATORS IN AMERICA 
 
 to repulse her, but submitted with such grace and dig- 
 nity to her caresses as to elicit outbursts of applause." 
 
 This sagacious advocate was equally adroit in dis- 
 covering and turning to his advantage, a technical law 
 point, involving doubt. For instance, a client of his, 
 by the name of Willis, indicted for murder, was put on 
 trial. By a mighty effort, Mr. Clay succeeded, in al- 
 most direct defiance of testimony, in creating a division 
 of the jury, as to the nature of the defendant's crime. 
 The Attorney for the Commonwealth obtained a new 
 trial. When his turn came to speak, " Mr. Clay rose, 
 and commenced with assuming the position, that, what- 
 ever opinion the jury might have of the guilt or inno- 
 cence of the prisoner, it was too late to convict him, for 
 he had been once tried, and the law required that no 
 man should be put twice in jeopardy of his life for the 
 same offence. The Court was startled at this assump- 
 tion, and peremptorily prohibited the speaker from pro- 
 ceeding in the argument to maintain it. Mr. Clay drew 
 himself proudly up, and remarking, that, if he was not 
 allowed to argue the whole case to the jury, he could 
 have nothing more to say, made a formal bow to the 
 Court, put his books into his green bag, and, with 
 Roman dignity, left the hall, followed by his associate 
 counsel. The consequence was as he had foreseen. 
 He had not been at his lodgings more than five or ten 
 minutes, when he was waited on by a messenger from 
 the Court, requesting his return, and assuring him that 
 he should be permitted to argue the case in his own 
 way. Instantly he made his re-appearance in the hall, 
 pressed, with the utmost vehemence, the point he had
 
 HENRY CLAY. 127 
 
 oefore attempted to establish, and, on the ground that his 
 client had once been tried, prevailed on the jury to give 
 him his liberty, without any reference whatever to the 
 testimony against him. Such a decision could not now 
 be obtained in Kentucky, and, at the period in question, 
 was obviously contrary to law." 
 
 Although frequently employed in criminal cases, he 
 was, says his biographer, not less successful in civil suits. 
 The decision and promptitude of his practice are curi- 
 ously illustrated in the following anecdote : 
 
 " In suits that involved the land laws of Virginia and 
 Kentucky, he had no rival. But it would be in vain to 
 attempt even an enumeration of the cases, in which, 
 during the early years of his practice, he gathered a rich 
 harvest of gold and fame. In a short biographical no- 
 tice that was given of him about three years ago, we 
 find mention of an incident in his professional life, 
 which was certainly a striking illustration of the rapidity 
 of his intellectual combinations, and his power of seiz- 
 ing intuitively upon the strong points of a case. We 
 give it as a single specimen of what he could do. In con- 
 junction with another attorney of eminence, whose 
 name we have forgotten, he was employed to argue in 
 the Fayette Circuit Court, a question of great difficulty, 
 one, ki which the interests of the litigant parties were 
 both deeply involved. At the opening of the Court, 
 something occurred to call him away, and the whole 
 management of the case devolved on his associate coun- 
 sel. Two days were spent in discussing the points of 
 law, which were to govern the instructions of the Court 
 to the jury, and on each of these points Mr. Clay's
 
 128 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 colleague "was foiled by his antagonist. At the end ot 
 the second day Mr. Clay re-entered the Court. He had 
 not heard a word of the testimony, and knew nothing of 
 the course which the discussion had taken, but, after 
 holding a very short consultation with his colleague, he 
 drew up a statement of the form in which he wished the 
 instructions of the Court to be given to the jury, and 
 accompanied his petition with a few observations so novel 
 and satisfactory, that it was granted without the least 
 hesitation. A corresponding verdict was instantly re- 
 turned by the jury : and thus the case, which had been 
 on the very point of being decided against Mr. Clay's 
 client, was decided in his favor, in less than half an hour 
 after Mr. Clay entered the Court-House." 
 
 When Mr. Clay began to aspire to the attainment of 
 political distinction, he was obliged, in common with 
 other candidates, to resort to stump speaking, and in the 
 sphere of mental adroitness, showed himself as expert as 
 he had already appeared at the bar. An incident is re- 
 lated, which illustrates his happy tact in seizing and 
 turning to good account trivial circumstances with great 
 effect. Says an acquaintance : " He had been engaged 
 in speaking some time, when a company of riflemen, 
 who had been performing military exercise, attracted by 
 his attitude, concluded to go and hear what that fellow 
 had to say, as they termed it, and accordingly drew 
 near. They listened with respectful attention and evi- 
 dently with. deep interest, until he closed; when one of 
 their number, a man about fifty years of age, who had 
 evidently seen much backwoods service, stood leaning 
 on his rifle, regarding the young speaker with a fixed
 
 HENRY CLAY. 129 
 
 and most sagacious look. He was apparently the Nim- 
 rod of the company, for he exhibited every characteris- 
 tic of a mighty hunter, buckskin breeches and hunting 
 shirt, coon-skin cap, black bushy beard, and a visage 
 which, had it been in juxtaposition with his leathern bul- 
 let pouch, might have been taken for part and parcel of 
 the same. At his belt hung the knife and hatchet, and 
 the huge indispensable powder-horn across a breast bare 
 and brown as the bleak hills he often traversed, yet 
 which concealed as brave and noble a heart as ever beat 
 beneath a fairer covering. He beckoned with his hand 
 to Mr. Clay to approach him, who immediately complied. 
 1 Young man/ said he, ' you want to go to the legislature, 
 I see ?' ' Why, yes,' replied Mr. Clay, '' yes, I should like 
 to go, since my friends have seen proper to put me up 
 as a candidate before the people ; I do not wish to be 
 defeated.' 'Are you a good shot?' 'The best in the 
 country.' ' Then you shall go ; but you must give us a 
 specimen of your skill ; we must see you shoot.' ' I 
 never shoot any rifle but my own, and that is at home.' 
 ' No matter, here is old Bess, she never fails in the hands 
 of a markesman ; she has often sent death through a 
 squirrel's head one hundred yards, and daylight through 
 many a red skin twice that distance ; if you can shoot 
 any gun you can shoot old Bess.' 'Well, put up your 
 mark, put up your mark,' replied Mr. Clay. The target 
 was placed at a distance of about eighty yards, when, 
 with all the steadiness of an old experienced marksman, 
 he drew old Bess to his shoulder and fired. The bullet 
 pierced the target near the cdntre. 'Oh, a chance shot! 
 a chance shot !' exclaimed several of his political oppo- 
 6*
 
 130 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 nents. ' A chance shot ! He might shoot all day and 
 not hit the mark again ; let him try it over, let him try 
 it over.' ' No ; beat that, beat that, and then I will,' 
 retorted Mr. Clay. But as no one seemed disposed to 
 make the attempt, it was considered that he had given 
 satisfactory proof of being the best shot in the county ; 
 and this unimportant incident gained him the vote of 
 every hunter and marksman in the assembly, which was 
 composed principally of that class of persons, as well 
 as the support of the same throughout the county. 
 The most remarkable feature respecting the whole trans- 
 action is yet to be told. Said Mr. Clay, ' I had never 
 before fired a rifle, and have not since.' The result of 
 the election proved Mr. Clay much more popular than it 
 had been supposed he was ; he was elected almost by 
 acclamation. Our astonishment may well be excited, 
 when we consider that this was the first time that he 
 was a candidate for an office, and the circumstances 
 under which it took place. It must be certain that he 
 was esteemed a young man of great promise and ability." 
 
 Another instance is related similar to the above. 
 During a particular canvas, Mr. Clay met an old hun- 
 ter who had previously been his devoted friend, but who 
 now opposed him because of his action on the passage 
 of the Compensation Bill. 
 
 "Have you a good rifle, my friend ?" asked Mr. Clay. 
 " Yes." " Does it ever flash ?" " Once only." " What 
 did you do with it, throw it away?" "No, I picked the 
 flint, tried it again, and brought down the game." 
 " Have I ever flashed but on the Compensation Bill ?" 
 -"No" "Will you throw me away?" "No! no'"
 
 HENRY CLAY. 131 
 
 quickly replied the hunter, nearly overwhelmed by his 
 enthusiastic feelings, " / will pick the flint and try you 
 again !" Ever afterwards he was the unwavering 
 friend of Mr. Clay. 
 
 Under another head, we shall have occasion to refer 
 to our orator's wonderful expertness at management 
 with the loftiest patriotism, in the emergencies when he 
 introduced and carried his several compromise bills. 
 We are now referring in particular to his sagacious self- 
 control, and power of conciliating the most prejudiced 
 foes. Take the following case of his own stating, which 
 occurred in 1828, while he was travelling in Virginia, 
 accompanied by some friends. " We halted," said he, 
 " at night, at a tavern kept by an aged gentleman, who, 
 after supper sat down by me, and, without hearing my 
 name, but understanding that I was from Kentucky, 
 remarked, that he had four sons in that State, and that 
 he was very sorry they were divided in politics, two 
 being for Adams and two for Jackson. He wished 
 they were all for Jackson. Why ? I asked him. 'Be- 
 cause,' he said, 'that fellow Clay, and Adams, had 
 cheated Jackson out of the Presidency' Have you ever 
 seen any evidence, my old friend, said I, of that ? 'No,' 
 he replied, ' none, and he wanted to see none' But, 
 I observed, looking him directly and steadily in the face, 
 suppose Mr. Clay were to come here and assure you, 
 upon his honor, that it was all a vile calumny, and not 
 a word of truth in it, would you believe him ? ' No,' 
 replied the old man, promptly and emphatically. I sajd 
 to him, in conclusion, will fou be good enough to show 
 me to bed, and bade him good night. The next morn-
 
 132 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 ing, having in the interval learnt my name, he came to 
 me full of apologies, but I at once put him at his ease f 
 by assuring him that I did not feel, in the slightest de- 
 gree, hurt or offended with him." 
 
 But it was not so easy for others to repress their feel- 
 ings under Mr. Clay's pungent insinuations, as the fol- 
 lowing example will show : On the 2d of September, 
 1841, Mr. Buchanan took occasion to say that Mr. 
 Tyler had shown himself " a man of mettle," by his veto 
 on the Bank. Mr. Clay replied : 
 
 ' Rumor had said, that a party of the opposition had 
 visited the President's house, the night after the veto. 
 He (Mr. Clay) did not know as to the fact. But he 
 would suppose a case. There, he would imagine, among 
 those gathered for the great congratulation, was the 
 senator from South Carolina, (Mr. Calhoun) looking as 
 if he were deducting the nicest abstraction that had 
 ever issued from his metaphysical brain. There, he 
 presumed, was the senator from Alabama, (Mr. King) 
 ready to settle, in the most positive manner, any ques- 
 tion of order that might arise. He supposed many 
 others were present. There, too, was the senator from 
 Pennsylvania, (Mr. Buchanan) as their distinguished 
 leader, addressing the President in something like the 
 following manner: 
 
 " ' May it please your Excellency, my political friends 
 and myself have come this afternoon to deposit at your 
 Excellency's feet the evidences of our loyalty and devo- 
 tion. We have come more particularly to express to 
 your Excellency the congrafulations to which we think 
 you are entitled, for having relieved the country from
 
 HENRY CLAY. 133 
 
 the danger ot a violation of its constitution, by the es- 
 tablishment of a Barrk of the United States ; and we 
 owe to your Excellency our especial acknowledgments 
 for the veto with which you have favored the country 
 to-day ; and for special reasons, we straggled against your 
 Excellency's friends in both houses of Congress, for days 
 and weeks together ; we exhausted all our powers of 
 logic and arguments to defeat the alarming measure ; 
 but, in spite of that, the friends of your Excellency, 
 in both Houses, proved too strong for us, and carried it 
 against our united exertions; and we come now to 
 thank your Excellency, that you have done that against 
 your friends, which we could not accomplish with all 
 our exertions.' " 
 
 It is said that Mr. Benton came in for his share of 
 this castigation, and that while Mr. Clay was describing 
 his hypothetical part with graphic power, he rose, and 
 denied with great vehemence that he was there. " It 
 was only a supposition," said Mr. Clay. Mr. Buchanan 
 betrayed much feeling when he rose to rejoin. Mr. 
 King colored, and Mr. Calhoun flatly denied. Mr. 
 Clay desired each of them to consider that it was only 
 an hypothesis. Rumor adds that Mr. Buchanan had 
 much trouble to convince his constituents that he did 
 not make that speech to his " Excellency." 
 
 We shall have occasion to witness the mental adroit- 
 ness of Mr. Clay developed in its noblest forms, while 
 we proceed to notice, secondly, his ardent nationality of 
 spirit. 
 
 One of the earliest topics that engrossed this great 
 patriot's attention, was that of the character and influ-
 
 134 LIVING ORATOE3 IN AMERICA. 
 
 ence of American slavery. This matter has frequently 
 been discussed by him in the course of his public life. 
 On Jan. 20, 1827, in a speech delivered at Washington, 
 he said : " If I could be instrumental in eradicating this 
 deepest stain upon the character of our country, and 
 removing all cause of reproach on account of it, by 
 foreign nations ; if I could only be instrumental in rid- 
 ding of this foul blot that revered State that gave me 
 birth, or that not less beloved State which kindly adopted 
 me as her son, I would not exchange the proud satisfac- 
 tion which I should enjoy, for the honor of all the 
 
 triumphs ever decreed to the most successful conqueror" 
 
 ****** 
 
 " We are reproached with doing mischief by the agi- 
 tating of this question (slavery.) Collateral conse- 
 quences we are not responsible for. It is not this 
 society, which has produced the great moral revolution, 
 which the age exhibits. What would they, who thus 
 reproach us, have done ? If they would repress all ten- 
 dencies towards liberty, and ultimate emancipation, they 
 must do more than put down the benevolent efforts of 
 this society. They must go back to the era of our 
 liberty and independence, and muzzle the cannon which 
 thunders its annual joyous return. They must revive the 
 slave trade, with all its train of atrocities. They must 
 blow out the moral lights around us, and extinguish that 
 greatest torch of all, which America presents to a be- 
 nighted world, pointing the way to their rights, their 
 liberties, and their happiness. And when they have 
 achieved all these purposes, their work will yet be in- 
 complete. They must penetrate the human soul, and
 
 HBNRY CLAY. 135 
 
 eradicate the light of reason, and the love of liberty. 
 Then, and not till then, when universal darkness and 
 despair prevail, can you perpetuate slavery, and repress 
 all sympathies, and all humane and benevolent efforts 
 among freemen, in behalf of the unhappy portion of our 
 race doomed to bondage." 
 
 Thus acutely alive to the enormities of slavery of 
 every form, Mr. Clay was not constituted to look with 
 indifference upon British aggression upon our national 
 rights and fame. He witnessed with irrepressible indig- 
 nation the systematic crusade gotten up to extinguish 
 our growing commerce, to resist which infamous pro 
 ceeding occasioned the war of 1812. Great Britain, 
 among other illegalities and cruelties practiced towards 
 us, adopted the execrable custom of impressment, and 
 thus carried seven thousand American freemen into 
 captivity, as appeared from official reports made during 
 a single session of Congress. This barbarous system 
 grew more and more insufferable continually. Scarcely 
 a breeze came across the Atlantic without wafting to 
 our shores news of some fresh enormity. Redress was 
 sought by mild measures, without effect or even respect. 
 Madison, Pinckney, and Munroe, in their correspond- 
 ence with the British government, had remonstrated 
 again and again, but only to embolden the aggressor in 
 his outrageous proceedings. Mr. Clay, and those who 
 sympathized with him, felt that there was no alternative 
 left the United States but to arm in righteous defence, 
 and chastise the insolence of an overbearing foe. But 
 there were some who stood in awe of the maritime 
 "orce of England, and who deemed it impossible that
 
 136 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 our young nation, with feeble munitions of war, and no 
 navy, could compete with an antagonist then haughtily 
 careering over every sea, and blockading all the ports of 
 Europe. These affected to believe that the interests of 
 the country would not be subserved, whether the war 
 eventuated in her, or that of her enemy ; they could see 
 nothing to be gained by it ; to whom Mr. Clay said, " 1 
 will ask what are we not to lose by peace ? commerce, 
 character, a nation's best treasure and honor ! If pecu- 
 niary considerations alone are to govern, there are suffi- 
 cient motives for the war. Our revenue is reduced by 
 the operation of the belligerent edicts to about six mil- 
 lions of dollars. The year preceding the embargo, it 
 was sixteen. Take away the orders in council, it will 
 again mount up to sixteen millions. By continuing, 
 therefore, in peace if the mongrel situation in which 
 we are deserves that denomination we lose annually, 
 in revenue alone, ten millions of dollars. Gentlemen 
 will say, repeal the law of non-importation. If the 
 United States were capable of that perfidy, the revenue 
 would not be restored to its former state, the orders in 
 council continuing. Without an export trade, which 
 these orders prevent, inevitable ruin will ensue if we 
 import as freely as we did prior to the embargo. A 
 nation that carries on an import trade without an export 
 trade to support it, must in the end be as certainly bank- 
 rupt, as the individual would be who incurred an annual 
 expenditure without an income." 
 
 Mr. Clay contended that England, in assigning the 
 cause of her aggressions to be the punishment of France,
 
 HENRY CLAY. 137 
 
 with whom she was at war, was practicing a deceptive 
 part ; that this was her ostensible and not real course. 
 It was her inordinate desire of supremacy on the seas, 
 which could not brook any appearance of rivalry, that 
 prompted her hostilities. She saw in your numberless 
 ships which whitened every sea, in your hundred and 
 twenty thousand gallant tars, the seeds of a naval force, 
 which, in thirty years, ^vould rival her on her own ele- 
 ment. She therefore commenced the odious system of 
 impressment, of which no language can paint my exe- 
 cration ! She DARED to attempt the subversion of the 
 personal freedom of your mariners !" 
 
 He closed by expressing his decided conviction of the 
 justice of the undertaking, and hoping that unless re- 
 dress was obtained by peaceable means speedily, war 
 would be resorted to before the close of the session. 
 
 In subsequent speeches, he expressed himself con- 
 vinced that the declaration of war was the most provi- 
 dent measure that could under the then existing circum- 
 stances be adopted, and advocated it with the greatest 
 energy and zeal. He demonstrated its necessity, not 
 only to the Atlantic States, but to the vast west. " If," 
 said he, " there be a point more than any other in the 
 United States, demanding the aid of naval protection, 
 that point is the mouth of the Mississippi. The popu- 
 lation of the whole western country are dependent on 
 this single outlet for their surplus productions. These 
 productions can be transported in no other way. Close 
 the mouth of the Mississippi, and their export trade is 
 annihilated. Abandon all idea of protecting by mari- 
 time force the . mouth of the Mississippi, and we shall
 
 138 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 hold the inestimable right of the navigation of that river 
 by the most precarious tenure. The whole commerce of 
 the Mississippi, a commerce that is destined to be the 
 richest that was ever borne by a single stream, is placed 
 at the mercy of a single ship lying off the Balize ! Can 
 gentlemen, particularly from the western country, con- 
 template such possible, nay, probable events, without 
 desiring to see at least the corrfmencement of such a 
 naval establishment as will effectually protect the Mis- 
 sissippi?" He showed the intimate connection of com- 
 merce with a navy, by saying that "a marine is the 
 natural, the appropriate guardian of foreign commerce. 
 The shepherd and his faithful dog are not more necessary 
 to guard the flocks that browse and gambol on the neigh- 
 boring mountain. Neglect to provide the one, and you 
 must abandon the other. Suppose the expected war 
 with Great Britain is commenced you enter and sub- 
 jugate Canada, and she still refuses to do you justice 
 what other possible mode will remain to operate on the 
 enemy, but upon that element where alone you can 
 come in contact with her? And if you do not prepare 
 to protect there your own commerce and to assail his, 
 will he not sweep from the ocean every vessel bearing 
 your flag, and destroy even the coasting trade ?" To 
 the argument that foreign trade was not worth protect- 
 ing, he asked, " What is this foreign commerce that has 
 suddenly become so inconsiderable ? It has with very 
 trifling aid from other sources, defrayed the expenses of 
 the government ever since the adoption of the present 
 constitution, maintained an expensive and successful war 
 with the Indians, a war with the Barbary powers, a
 
 HENRY CLAY. 139 
 
 quasi war with France, sustained the charges of sup- 
 pressing two insurrections, and extinguishing upwards 
 of forty-six millions of the public debt. In revenue, it 
 has since the year 1789 yielded one hundred and ninety- 
 one millions of dollars." Alluding to the eminenlWan- 
 ger of our commercial metropolis, he remarked, "Is 
 there a reflecting man in the nation who would not 
 charge Congress with a culpable neglect of its duty, if 
 for the want of such a force a single ship were to bombard 
 one of our cities ? Would not every honorable mem- 
 ber of the committee inflict on himself the bitterest re- 
 proaches, if by failing to make an inconsiderable addition 
 to our gallant little navy, a single British vessel should 
 place New York under contribution ?" 
 
 Interested partisans, overlooking the great and endur- 
 ing advantages won in the war which Mr. Clay did so 
 much to sustain, reflected on his course in relation there- 
 to. To such, on January 29th, 1816, he replied with 
 patriotic triumph as follows : " I gave a vote for the 
 declaration of war. I exerted all the little influence 
 and talents I could command to make the war. The 
 war was made. It is terminated ; and I declare with per- 
 fect sincerity, if it had been permitted to me to lift the 
 veil of futurity, and to have foreseen the precise series 
 of events which has occurred, my vote would have been 
 unchanged. We had been insulted and outraged, and 
 spoliated upon by nearly all Europe ; by Great Britain, 
 by France, Spain, Denmark, Naples, and, to cap the cli- 
 max, by the little contemptible power of Algiers. We 
 had submitted too long and too much We had be-
 
 140 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 come the scorn of foreign powers, and the derision of 
 our own citizens." 
 
 In August, 1814, Mr. Clay with other commissioners 
 on the part of America met Lord Gambier, Henry Goul- 
 born* and William Adamos, on the part of the British 
 government, assembled at Ghent to negociate a peace. 
 In executing this task, our countryman showed his 
 ardent nationality of spirit in every proceeding. For 
 instance, he reciprocated an act of kindness of Mr. 
 Goulborne, who had sent him a British periodical con- 
 taining an account of the taking of Washington by the 
 arms of his Cation, by sending him some American 
 papers which he had recently received, describing a 
 splendid victory won on Lake Champlain or Lake Erie, 
 by the navy of his country over that of the British. 
 
 While he was at London the battle of Waterloo was 
 fought, and he witnessed the public rejoicings on account 
 of its favorable termination to the British. He was one 
 day dining at Lord Castlereagh's house in company with 
 many of the nobility, when the conversation turned on 
 the late victory, and the whereabouts of Napoleon, as 
 it was not known where he had gone. Some intimated 
 that he had sailed for America. " Jf he goes there," said 
 Lord Liverpool to Mr. Clay, " will he not give you much 
 trouble ?" " None whatever," instantly replied Mr. Clay, 
 " we shall be glad to receive such a distinguished, though 
 unfortunate exile, and we shall soon make a good demo- 
 crat of him." 
 
 After the close of the war by the treaty -of Ghent, 
 Mr. Clay took up with great ardor the cause of South 
 American independence. To him undoubtedly belongs
 
 HENRY CLAY. 141 
 
 the credit of having first called the attention of Con- 
 gress and the people to this great subject ; and of having 
 contributed an earlier and a greater share, than any 
 other person, to the weight of argument and the power 
 of persuasion, by which the public sentiment on the 
 subject was eventually fixed. It was in one of the first 
 speeches made on this subject, that he said "he would 
 leave the honorable gentleman from Delaware (Mr. 
 Horsey) to bewail the fallen fortunes of the King of 
 Spain, without stopping to inquire whether their loss 
 was occasioned.by treachery or not, or whether it could 
 be traced to any agency of the American government. 
 He confessed that he had little sympathy for princes, 
 but that it was reserved for the people, the great mass of 
 mankind, and did not hesitate to declare that the people 
 of Spain had it most unreservedly and most sincerely." 
 At a subsequent period Mr. Clay was accused of aim- 
 ing to ferment a war between the colonies of South Amer- 
 ica and Spain. To this he replied, that if the latter ever 
 possessed a legal claim to the allegiance of the former, she 
 had forfeited it by withholding that protection requisite to 
 entitle her to it, and that consequently the people of 
 Spanish America were contending for nothing more 
 than their legal and natural rights. "But," said Mr. 
 Clay, " I take a broader, bolder position. I maintain 
 that an oppressed people are authorized, whenever 
 they can, to rise and break their fetters. This was the 
 great principle of the English revolution. It was the 
 great principle of our own. We must therefore pass 
 sentence of condemnation upon the founders of our 
 liberty, say that they were rebels and traitors, and that
 
 142 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 we are at this moment legislating without competent 
 powers, before we can condemn the course of Spanish 
 America." He contended that if we were justified in our 
 attempts at independence, much more was she, who had 
 writhed beneath the scourge of oppression so long, so 
 much longer than we ; that if they were worthy of suc- 
 cess, if they were entitled to succeed from the justness 
 of their cause, then surely we ought to wish it, especially 
 when we consider the barbarous character of the war. 
 He maintained that we were deeply interested, in recog- 
 nizing their independence. Even the^i our commerce 
 with those provinces was considerable, and would 
 greatly increase after they should become permanently 
 settled as free and independent nations. The act would 
 attach them to us, nay, it would bind them to us, by rela- 
 tions as intimate as those of kindred ; they would be- 
 come our powerful allies. Mr. Clay said he took this 
 ground, not because he desired to force our principles 
 where they were not wished, but simply from feelings 
 of sympathy. We knew by experience how sweet it 
 was to receive that, when we were in circumstances that 
 tried men's souls. There could be no danger, nor objec- 
 tion to stretch out towards their people the hand of 
 friendly sympathy, to present to those abused and op- 
 pressed communities an expression of our good will, to 
 make them a tender of those great principles which we 
 have adopted as the basis of our institutions. Theii 
 ignorance and inability had been brought forward, by 
 those opposing the measure, as completely incapacitating 
 them foi self-government. These, he contended, had 
 been greatly magnified, but admitting them to be as un-
 
 HENRY CLAY. 143 
 
 qualifying as they had been represented to be, the fact 
 ought rather to increase our pity for them, and to urge 
 us to seek the more earnestly, by all reasonable and just 
 means within our reach, their liberation from that detest- 
 able system which chained them to such a servile state. 
 He ridiculed the idea that recognition could be made a 
 just pretext for war. " Recognition," said he, " without 
 aid, is no just cause of war ; with aid, it is not because 
 of the recognition, but because of the aid, as aid with- 
 out recognition is cause of war." Mr. Clay's efforts 
 were not successful at this time ; no minister was de- 
 spatched to South America; the friendly mission was 
 deferred until 1821, when he submitted, on the tenth oi 
 February, a resolution to the house, "declaring that the 
 House of Representatives participated with the people of 
 the United States in the deep interest which they felt 
 for the success of the Spanish provinces of South 
 America, which were struggling to establish their liberty 
 and independence, and that it would give its constitu- 
 tional support to the President of the United States, 
 whenever he might deem it expedient to recognize the 
 sovereignty and independence of those provinces." 
 
 On the 28th of March, 1822, the vote of recognition 
 which Mr. Clay had so long struggled for, was passed 
 with but one dissenting voice. Thus, after a long strug- 
 gle on the part of this palrioCc statesman, his efforts 
 were crowned with success as complete as they had been 
 persevering. It is said, that during the forensic strife, 
 his speeches were frequently read at the head of the 
 patriot army, and the effect was always to increase their 
 intrepidity and valor. The name of Clay became associ-
 
 144 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 ated with everything dear and valuable in freedom, and 
 was pronounced by both officer and soldier with rever- 
 ence ; and many were the epistolary notices which he 
 received, of the high estimation in which his services 
 were held, by that suffering, but successfully struggling 
 people. The following is a specimen : 
 
 BOGOTA, 21st November, 1827. 
 
 "SiR, I cannot omit availing myself of the opportu- 
 nity afforded me by the departure of Colonel Watts, 
 charge d'affaires of the United States, of taking the 
 liberty to address your Excellency. This desire has long 
 been entertained by me, for the purpose of expressing 
 my admiration of your Excellency's brilliant talents and 
 ardent love of liberty. All America, Colombia, and 
 myself, owe your Execellency our purest gratitude, for 
 the incomparable services you have rendered to us, by 
 sustaining our course with a sublime enthusiasm. Ac- 
 cept, therefore, this sincere and cordial testimony, which 
 I hasten to offer your Excellency and to the government 
 of the United States, who has so greatly contributed to 
 the emancipation of your southern brethren. 
 
 " I have the honor to offer to your Excellency my dis- 
 tinguished consideration. 
 
 " Your Excellency's obedient servant. 
 BOLIVAR." 
 
 The ardent nationality of spirit so predominant in 
 Mr. Clay, was strikingly developed in his action on the 
 Missouri question. He reached Washington on the 
 sixteenth of January, 1821, and found Congress in the
 
 HENRY CLAY. 145 
 
 greatest excitement and confusion. Both political 
 parties were excessively envenomed and belligerent. 
 The services of an adroit and magnanimous peace-maker 
 were requisite, or national disunion threatened to be 
 the inevitable result. The opposition which the peo- 
 ple of Missouri had encountered in their efforts to be 
 admitted as a State had roused their anger; they insert- 
 ed a clause in their constitution which was most ob- 
 noxious to the rest of the Union. It ran as follows : 
 
 " It shall be the duty of the General Assembly, as 
 soon as may be, to pass such laws as may be necessary 
 to prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming to or 
 settling in this State, under any pretext whatsoever." 
 
 On the 10th of February, Mr. Clay reported and sub- 
 mitted the following resolution: 
 
 " Resolved, That the State of Missouri be admitted 
 into the Union on an equal footing with the original 
 States, in all respects whatever, upon the fundamental 
 condition, that the said State shall never pass any law 
 preventing any description of persons from coming to 
 and settling in the said State, who now are, or may 
 hereafter become, citizens of any of the States of this 
 Union." 
 
 The compromise was founded on this resolution, and 
 was mainly effected by the temper, sagacity, and inde- 
 fatigable zeal of Mr. Clay. 
 
 A still more memorable act of pacification, was the 
 Compromise Bill, of February, 1833. The Legislature 
 of South Carolina ratified an ordinance, passed by a State 
 Convention, at Columbia, in November, 1832, declaring 
 the tariff acts unconstitutional, and utterly null and void. 
 7
 
 148 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 President Jackson promptly issued his proclamation, de 
 nouncing the doctrines of nullification, and declared that 
 the entire military force of the United States, if neces- 
 sary, should be employed to put down all opposition to 
 the General Government. His remonstrances, however, 
 were unheeded. Governor Hayne immediately issued 
 a counter proclamation^ and the greatest national perils 
 became more imminent every hour. A bill to enforce 
 the collection of the revenue, was brought before the 
 Senate, directing coercive measures to be employed, in 
 case of resistance. At this critical juncture, when the 
 political heavens gathered in thickest gloom, Mr. Clay 
 stepped forth to disperse the darkness, and wave the 
 olive branch of peace over the distracted nation. 
 Never, perhaps, were greater talent and skill needed, 
 than in this crisis, and never were they more success- 
 fully employed. Those who heard his closing appeals 
 to the Senate, on the subject, will never forget the effect 
 produced by sentiments like the following : 
 
 "Statesmen should regulate their conduct, and adapt 
 their measures to the exigencies of the times in which 
 they live. They cannot, indeed, transcend the limits of 
 the constitutional rule ; but with respect to those sys- 
 tems of policy which fall within its scope, they should 
 arrange them according to the interests, the wants, and 
 the prejudices of the people. Two great dangers 
 threaten the public safety. The true patriot will not 
 stop to inquire how they have been brought about, but 
 will fly to the deliverance of his country. The differ- 
 ence between the friends and the foes of the compromise, 
 under consideration, is, that they would, in the enforcing
 
 HENRY CLAY. 147 
 
 act, send forth alone a flaming sword. We would send 
 out that also, but along with it the olive branch, as a 
 messenger of peace. They cry out, the law ! the law ! 
 the law! Power! power! power! We, too, reverence 
 the law, and bow to the supremacy of its obligation ; 
 but we are in favor of the law executed in mildness, and 
 a power tempered with mercy. They, as we think, 
 would hazard a civil commotion, beginning in South 
 Carolina, and extending, God only knows where. 
 While we would vindicate the Federal Government, 
 we are for peace, if possible, union, and liberty. We 
 want no war, above all, no civil war, no family strife. 
 We want no sacked cities, no desolated fields, no smok- 
 ing ruins, no streams of American blood shed by AmeVi- 
 can arms ! 
 
 "I have been accused of ambition in presenting this 
 measure. Ambition! inordinate ambition ! If I had 
 thought of myself only, I should have never brought it 
 forward. I know well the perils to which I expose my- 
 self; the risk of alienating faithful and valued friends, 
 with but little prospect of making new ones, if any new 
 ones could compensate for the loss of those whom we 
 have long tried and loved ; and the honest misconcep- 
 tions both of friends and foes. Ambition ! If I had 
 listened to its soft and seducing whispers ; if I had 
 yielded myself to the dictates of a cold, calculating, and 
 prudential policy, I would have stood still and unmoved. 
 I might even have silently gazed on the raging storm, 
 enjoyed its loudest thunders, and left those who are 
 charged with the care of the vessel of State, to conduct 
 it as they could: I have been heretofore often unjustly
 
 148 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 accused of ambition. Low, grovelling souls, who are 
 utterly incapable, of elevating themselves to the higher 
 and nobler duties of pure patriotism beings, who, for 
 ever keeping their o\\n selfish aims in view, decide all 
 public measures by their presumed influence on their 
 aggrandizement judge me by the vena} rule which they 
 prescribe to themselves. I have given to the winds 
 those false accusations, as I consign that which now im- 
 peaches my motives. I have no desire for office, not 
 even the highest. The most exalted is but a prison, in 
 which the incarcerated incumbent daily receives his 
 cold, heartless visitants, marks his weary hours, and is 
 cut oft' from the practical enjoyment of all the blessings 
 of'genuine freedom. I am no candidate for any office 
 in the gift of the people of these States, united or sepa- 
 rated ; I never wish, never expect to be. Pass this bill, 
 tranquillize the country, restore confidence and affection 
 in the Union, and I am willing to go home to Ashland, 
 and renounce public service for ever. I should there 
 find, in its groves, under its shades, on its lawns, amidst 
 rny flocks and herds, in the bosom of my family, sincerity 
 and truth, attachment, and fidelity, and gratitude, which 
 I have not always found in the walks of public life. 
 Yes, I have ambition ; but it is the ambition of being 
 the humble instrument, in the hands of Providence, to 
 reconcile a divided people ; once more to revive concord 
 and harmony in a distracted land the pleasing ambition 
 of contemplating the glorious spectacle of a free, united, 
 prosperous, and fraternal people !" 
 
 During the famous debate on the Deposites question 
 in the Senate, near the close of April, 1833, Mr. Leigh,
 
 HENKV CLAY. 149 
 
 of Virginia, paid Mr. Clay a rich and merited compli- 
 ment, for his services in allaying the spirit of Southern 
 nullification. " I cannot but remember," said he, " when 
 all men were trembling under the apprehension of civil 
 war trembling from the conviction, that if such a con- 
 test should arise, let it terminate how it might, it would 
 put our present institutions in jeopardy, and end either 
 in consolidation or disunion; for I am pursuaded that the 
 first drop of blood which shall be shed in a civil strife 
 between the Federal Government and any State, will 
 flow from an irremediable wound, that none may ever 
 hope to see healed. I cannot but remember, that the 
 President, though wielding such a vast power and influ- 
 ence, never contributed the least aid to bring about the 
 compromise that saved us from the evils which all men, 
 I believe, and I, certainly, so much dreaded. The men 
 are not present to whom we are chiefly indebted for that 
 compromise ; and I am glad they are absent, since it 
 enables me to speak of their conduct, as I feel I might 
 not without, from a sense of delicacy. I -.ise my hum- 
 ble voice in gratitude for that service, to ll.-.nry Clay of 
 the Senate, and Robert P. Letcher, of the House of Re- 
 presentatives." 
 
 Before leaving the consideration of Mr. Clay's ardent 
 nationality of spirit, we will subjoin one more extract, 
 which is at once a good specimen of his style, and an 
 admirable exposition of his own character as a politician. 
 It is from an unpremeditated rejoinder to Mr. Rives, in 
 the Senate, August 19th, 1841, in which he gave his 
 famous definition ofpultic virtue. 
 
 " I rose not to say one word which should wound the
 
 150 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 feelings of President Tyler. The senator says that, if 
 placed in like circumstances, I would have been the last 
 man to avoid putting a direct veto upon the Bill, had it 
 met my disapprobation ; and he does me the honor to 
 attribute to me high qualities of stern and unbending in- 
 trepidity. I hope, that in all that relates to personal 
 firmness, all that concerns a just appreciation of the in- 
 significance of human life whatever may. be attempted 
 to threaten or alarm a soul not easily swayed by oppo- 
 sition, or awed or intimidated by menace a stout heart 
 and a steady eye, that can survey, unmoved and un- 
 daunted, any mere personal perils that assail this poor, 
 transient, perishing frame, I may, without disparagement, 
 compare with other men. But there is a sort of courage, 
 which, I frankly confess it, I do not possess, a boldness 
 to which I dare not aspire, a valor which I cannot covet. 
 I cannot lay myself down in the way of the welfare and 
 happiness of my country. That I cannot, I have not 
 the courage to do. I cannot interpose the power with 
 which I may be invested, a power conferred not for my 
 personal benefit, nor for my aggrandizement, but for my 
 country's good, to check her onward march to greatness 
 and glory. I have not courage enough, I am too 
 cowardly for that. I would not, I dare not, in the exer- 
 cise of such a trust, lie down, and place my body across 
 the path that leads my country to prosperity and happi- 
 ness. This is a sort of courage widely different from 
 that which a man may display in his private conduct 
 and personal relations. Personal or private courage is 
 totally distinct from that higher and nobler courage which
 
 HENRY CLAY. 151 
 
 prompts the patriot to offer himself a voluntary sacrifice 
 to his country's good." 
 
 " Nor did I say, as the senator represents, that the 
 President should have resigned. I intimated no per- 
 sonal wish or desire that he should resign I referred to 
 the fact of a memorable resignation in his public life. 
 And what I did say was, that there were other alterna- 
 tives before him besides Vetoing the Bill ; and that it was 
 worthy of his consideration whether consistency did not 
 require that the example which he had set when he had 
 a constituency of one State, should not be followed whan 
 he had a constituency commensurate with the whole 
 Union. Another alternative was, to suffer the Bill, 
 without his signature, to pass into a law under the pro- 
 visions of the Constitution. And I must confess, I see, 
 in this, no such escaping by the back door, no such 
 jumping out of the window, as the senator talks about. 
 Apprehensions of the imputation of the want of firm- 
 ness sometimes impels us to perform rash and inconside- 
 rate acts. It is the greatest courage to be able to bear 
 the imputation of the want of courage. But pride, 
 vanity, egotism, so unamiable and offensive in private 
 life, are vices which partake of the character of crimes, 
 in the conduct of public affairs. The unfortunate vic- 
 tim of these passions cannot see beyond the little, petty, 
 contemptible circle of his own personal interests. All 
 his thoughts are withdrawn from his country, and con- 
 centrated on his consistency, his firmness, himself. The 
 high, the exalted, the sublime emotions of a patriotism, 
 which, soaring toward heaven, rises far above all mean, 
 low, or selfish things, and is absorbed by one soul trans-
 
 152 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 porting thought of the good and the glory of one's 
 country, are never felt in his impenetrable bosom. That 
 patriotism which, catching its inspirations from the im- 
 mortal God, and leaving at an immeasurable distance 
 below all lesser, grovelling, personal interests and feel- 
 ings, animates and prompts to deeds of self -sacrifice, of 
 valor, of devotion, and of death itself that is public 
 virtue ; that is the noblest, the sublimest of all public 
 virtues !" 
 
 Two prominent characteristics in Mr. Clay, we have 
 already considered ; it remains, thirdly, to portray his 
 impressive manner of address. In doing this it will be 
 necessary to describe his person, his elocution, and the 
 chief sources of his eloquence. 
 
 In the first place, we would remark that perhaps the 
 best general description of Mr. Clay's person is found 
 in Uncle Sam's Letters, and is as follows : 
 
 " There is a tall, light-haired, blue-eyed, individual, 
 sixty years old or more, who occupies a seat in the 
 Senate, at the Capitol. He has not what would be 
 called a handsome face, but one of the liveliest, or, if we 
 may so speak, one of the most looking faces that ever 
 fronted a head. It is because he has a looking organi- 
 zation. You catch not him asleep or moping. He 
 seems to see everybody that comes in or goes out, and 
 besides to have an eye on, and an ear for, whatever honor- 
 able senator may occupy the field of debate. If his 
 own marked political game is on foot, he is then NIMROD, 
 a mighty hunter. He can see just what fissure of in- 
 consistency, nook of sophism or covert of rhetoric, is made 
 a hiding-place. At the right moment, he aims a rifle
 
 HENRY C2.AY. 153 
 
 pretty sure to hit, if his powder is good ; and his friends 
 say, that he uses the best. Grand fun it is, to stand by, 
 and see this keen sportsman crack off, and especially to 
 hear him wind "the mellow, mellow horn," which his 
 mother gave him a long while ago, to leave our hunting- 
 ground metaphor, for the plain beaten way, this indi- 
 vidual veteran statesman from Kentucky. Now just 
 come and look at his head, or seek his portrait, at least. 
 You will see how his perceptives put themselves forth in 
 front, as if they were reaching after their objects, as it were, 
 for a long pull, and a strong pull, to fetch them into keeping. 
 Then, in speech, with what ease, grace, order, and effect, 
 he can fling forth his gatherings. His mind has been 
 developed by the exciting circumstances of active life, 
 rather than by the speculations of quiet books. Henry 
 Clay is therefore a practical man. He is pre-eminently 
 perceptive. He knows the whom, the what, the where, 
 the when, the which first, and the how many, as well, 
 perhaps, as any public man living. A very long political 
 life has put him to the test. We do not aver that he never 
 made mistakes, or that he is politically and positively 
 right ; we intimate, moreover, nothing to the contrary 
 We would simply convey, that of all the great states- 
 men of our country, he particularly illustrates the facul 
 ties just had under review." 
 
 From this general statement, let us descend to more 
 particular detail. Mr. Clay is reported to be exactly 
 six feet one inch high ; he is not stout, but the op- 
 posite ; has long arms, and small hands; is always up- 
 right in standing, walking, or talking ; and is particu- 
 7*
 
 154 LIVING OUATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 larly erect when engaged in debate. Seen in front, his 
 countenance is impressive ; his profile is very striking. 
 His visage is spare, mouth large, lips compressed, nose 
 prominent, forehead retreating, hair light and thin, eyes 
 rather small, blue, and, when kindled, sparkling with 
 electric fire. Other traits will be more fully portrayed 
 as we notice 
 
 Secondly, his elocution. Mr. Clay is less graceful, than 
 earnest, impressive and unrestrained ; free and wild as 
 the elk of the forest, it is said all his gestures were in 
 early manhood. A manifest harmony existed between 
 the suggestions of his mind and the movements of his 
 limbs, and this imparted an indescribable charm to his 
 action. He did not vociferate with weary lungs and 
 sweating brow, at the same time standing with listless 
 hands, and elbows turned to his hips. Whenever he is 
 in earnest, he talks all over, and there is a language in 
 liis limbs which says as clearly as that of the lips, " these 
 were given to clasp the beautiful and cleave the 
 wave." He seerns exhilarated, like one mounted on a 
 high-mettled courser; not that he seeks display, but a 
 little curvetting accords well with his native spirits, and 
 withal he is a little proud of his glorious steed. Its 
 snort, its whinny, its impatient pawing of the earth, 
 the elasticity of all its motions, and the full confidence 
 the excited rider feels in its speed and force, elate him. 
 He knows the steed beneath him will carry him any- 
 where leap any barrier, however formidable will dis- 
 tance any competitor, however fleet. In this orator 
 especially, free will is bi't necessity in play.
 
 HENRY CLAY. 155 
 
 " The clattering of the golden reins which guide 
 The thunder-footed couriers of the sun." 
 
 Mr. Clay's voice has prodigious power, compass, and 
 richness ; all its variations are captivating, but some of 
 its base tones thrill through one's whole frame. To 
 those who have never heard the living melody, no 
 verbal description can convey an adequate idea of the 
 diversified effect of those intonations which in one strain 
 of sentiment fall in whispering gentleness, "like the 
 first words of love upon a maiden's lips," and anon, in 
 sterner utterances, " ring with the maddening music of 
 the main." The magician is well . aware of the seduc- 
 tive power of his voice, and employs it with great effect 
 in the moderate, as well as the more impassioned por- 
 tions of his speeches. Such is its fascination, that the 
 most familiar expressions take from it an air of novelty 
 and dignity, and the more excitable in the audience, 
 waiting for an eloquential pause, would say : 
 
 11 Thy sweet words drop upon the ear as soft 
 As rose leaves on a well : and I could listen, 
 As though the immortal melody of Heaven 
 Were wrought into one word that word a whisper, 
 That whisper all I want from all I lore." 
 
 Consummate eloquence is the rarest, as well as the 
 most valuable of gifts, because it is so uncommon to 
 meet with one who has no less oratory in the tones of 
 his voice, in the language of his eyes, and in the gene- 
 ral air of his person, than in the profusion of his wis- 
 dom and the choice of his words. In such rare in- 
 stances, every sentiment will have an intonation
 
 156 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 peculiar to itself, and both gestures and looks will be in 
 exact keeping with what in language is expressed. It 
 is this relation, true or false, that makes all the difference 
 between the agreeable and disagreeable, pleasing and 
 displeasing, among public speakers. Fortunate indeed 
 is he who has received from nature an engaging face 
 and figure, a strong memory, vivid imagination, and 
 sonorous tones of voice capable of being modulated 
 with varied compass, so as to stimulate and excite an 
 audience with the indescribable effects which have often 
 been produced by Mr. Clay. His look and action 
 vividly interpret his thought while he speaks, as Mi- 
 chael Angelo found in the depth of his own mind and 
 grandeur of conception, the means of rendering the 
 immediate effect of will and power intuitive in the crea- 
 tion of Adam, by darting life from the finger of Omni- 
 potence in an effulgent ray ; and as the coalition of 
 light and darkness opened to the entranced eye of Cor- 
 reggio the means of embodying the Mosaic sentence 
 " Let there be light," in that stream of glory which, 
 issuing from the Divine Infant in his Notte, proclaims a 
 God. 
 
 Natural expression is the luminous .image of actual 
 passion, its spontaneous language and speaking portrait, 
 always composed of simplicity, propriety, and energy, 
 as its three invariable and most intelligent elements. 
 This is a great forte with Mr. Clay ; he can " light 
 at will expression's brightest blaze." Mental vivacity 
 animates the features, attitudes, and gestures, which 
 nature has prompted, and long practice improved. 
 Beep emotions, whose inward energy penetrate and
 
 ' ' HENRY CLAY. 157 
 
 invest his supple form, render him exceedingly com- 
 manding in action, and forcible in speech. Nothing 
 can be more captivating than the smiles that some- 
 times light up his countenance while speaking, not un- 
 frequently succeeded by frowns as impressive, which 
 outward language is as intimately mixed and strikingly 
 expressed as the latent emotions of his mind. It pre- 
 sents a pleasing series of effects, constituting diversified 
 transitions and perpetual progress, each gleam, when its 
 end is attained, giving place to another, and leaving no 
 trace behind : 
 
 " Brief as the lightning in the collied night, 
 That in a spleen unfolds both heaven and earth ; 
 And ere a man has time to say, behold ! 
 The jaws of darkness do devour it up." 
 
 Hazlitt has finely discriminated between nature 
 elevated by genius and nature literally copied by talent, 
 in his parallel between Raphael and Hogarth. The 
 figures of the former, he says, are sustained by ideas ; 
 those of the latter are distorted by mechanical habits 
 and instincts. " It is elevation of thought that gives 
 grandeur and delicacy of expression to passion. The 
 expansion and refinement of the soul are seen in the 
 face, as in a mirror. An enlargement of purpose gives 
 corresponding enlargement of form. The mind, as it 
 were, acts over the whole body, and animates it equally, 
 while petty and local interests seize on particular parts, 
 and distract it by contrary and mean expressions. Now, 
 if mental expression has this superior grandeur and 
 grace, we can account at once for the superiority of
 
 158 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Raphael. For there is no doubt, that it is more difficult 
 to give a whole continuously and proportionally than to 
 give the parts separate and disjointed, or to diffuse the 
 same subtle but powerful expression over a large mass 
 than to caricature it in a single part or feature. The 
 actions in Raphael are like a branch of a tree swept by 
 the surging blast ; those in Hogarth like straws whirled 
 and twitched about in the gusts and eddies of passion." 
 What the great Italian was among artists, we hold 
 Henry Clay to be among orators. He has a fine per- 
 son, striking features, and, as we have said, a most fas- 
 cinating manner of address ; but these are far from 
 being his only or chief attributes. There is a mind in 
 him, a moral power far more valuable to a statesman 
 than all the vaunted arts of elaborated grace or affected 
 elocution. Nature has given him a strong and clear 
 understanding, which he has vigorously exercised on a 
 great variety of political and moral topics. He has 
 read many valuable authors, and pondered much on 
 their principles. And yet he has never carried the 
 habits of private meditation so far as to render him pro- 
 fessional and didactic in his public life has ever main- 
 tained the freedom and force of an energetic leader, 
 without assuming the part of an astute essayist or tire- 
 some pedant. His speeches are more in conformity 
 with the prevailing spirit and characteristics of the 
 American people than any other extant ; wildly beau- 
 tiful and earnestly grand, yet alternately gay and so- 
 lemnly compressed to an extraordinary degree. When- 
 ever he appears on the rostrum to discuss a great and 
 exciting question, there is such clearness in his thought
 
 HENRY CLAY. 159 
 
 and witchery in his manner that the entranced listener 
 is inclined to say, 
 
 " I love that voice 
 
 Dipping more sofly on the subject ear 
 Than that calm kiss the willow gives the wave < 
 A soft, rich tone, a rainbow of sweet sounds, 
 Just spanning the soothed sense." 
 
 This leads us, in the third place, to consider some of 
 the chief sources of Mr. Clay's eloquence. These are, 
 we think, native enterprise, an ardent temperament, 
 sagacious patriotism, and indomitable perseverance. 
 We will illustrate these points in the order named. 
 
 And first, had not Mr. Clay come into the world with 
 a soul thoroughly imbued with the spirit of enterprise, 
 he would have perished in the deep obscurity of his 
 origin, unhonored and unsung. In a touching piece of 
 auto-biography, contained in a speech delivered by him 
 at Lexington, June 9, 1842, on the occasion of his re- 
 tirement from public life, Mr. Clay puts this matter in 
 a strong light. Said he : 
 
 "In looking back upon ray origin and progress 
 through life, I have great reason ,to be thankful. My 
 father died in 1781, leaving me an infant of too tender 
 years to retain any recollection of his smiles or endear- 
 ments. My surviving parent removed to this State in 
 1792, leaving me a boy of fifteen years of age, in the 
 office of the High Court of Chancery, in the city of 
 Richmond, without guardian, without pecuniary means 
 of support, to steer my course as I might or could. A 
 neglected education was improved by my own irregular
 
 160 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA 
 
 exertions, without the benefit of systematic instruction. 
 I studied law principally in the office of a lamented 
 friend, the late Governor Brooke, then Attorney Gene- 
 ral of Virginia, and also under the auspices of the vene- 
 rable and lamented Chancellor Wythe, for whom I had 
 acted as an amanuensis. I obtained a license to practice 
 the profession from the Judges of the Court of Appeals, 
 of Virginia, and established myself in Lexington, in 
 1797, without patrons, without the favor or countenance 
 of the great or opulent, without the means of paying 
 my weekly board, and in the midst of a bar uncom- 
 monly distinguished by eminent members. I remember 
 how comfortable I thought I should be, if I could make 
 one hundred pounds Virginia money, per year, and 
 with what delight I received the first fifteen shillings fee. 
 My hopes were more than realized. I immediately 
 rushed into a successful and lucrative practice. 
 
 " In 1803 or 4, when I was absent from the county of 
 Fayette at the Olympian Springs, without my knowledge 
 or previous consent, I was brought forward as a candi- 
 date, and elected to the general assembly of this State. 
 I served in that body several years, and was then trans- 
 ferred to the senate, and afterwards to the House of Re- 
 presentatives of the United States. I will not dwell on 
 the subsequent events of my political life, or enumerate 
 the offices which I have filled. During my public ca- 
 reer, I have had bitter, implacable, reckless enemies. 
 But if I have been the object of misrepresentation and 
 unmerited calumny, no man has been beloved or hon- 
 ored by more devoted, faithful, and enthusiastic friends. 
 I have no reproaches, none, to make towards my coun-
 
 HNRY C1AY. 101 
 
 try, which has distinguished and elevated me far beyond 
 what I had any right to expect. I forgive my enemies, 
 and hope they may live to obtain the forgiveness of their 
 own hearts." 
 
 Intimately associated with this native spirit of mag- 
 nanimous enterprise in Mr. Clay, is his ardent tempera- 
 ment. These are qualities which happily unite in him, 
 
 " Like rays of stars that meet in space, 
 And mingle in a bright embrace.'* 
 
 The ardor of Mr. Clay's nature was strongly developed, 
 and foretokened his fame, from the time he emigrated to 
 Kentucky, " now nearly forty-five years ago," as he said 
 on a memorable occasion. " I went as an orphan boy 
 who had not yet attained the age of majority ; who had 
 never recognized a father's smile, nor felt his warm ca- 
 resses; poor, penniless, without the favor of the great, 
 with an imperfect and neglected education, hardly suffi- 
 cient for the ordinary business and common pursuits of 
 life ; but scarce had I set my foot upon "her generous 
 soil, when I was embraced with parental fondness, ca- 
 ressed as though I had been a favorite child, and patron- 
 ized with liberal and unbounded munificence. From 
 that period the highest honors of the State have been 
 freely bestowed upon me ; and when, in the darkest hour 
 of calumny and detraction, I seemed to be assailed by 
 all the rest of the world, she interposed her broad and 
 impenetrable shield, repelled the poisoned shafts that 
 were aimed for my destruction, and vindicated my good 
 name from every malignant and unfounded aspersion. 
 I return with indescribable pleasure to linger a while
 
 102 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 longer, and mingle with the warm-hearted and whole- 
 souled people of that State ; and, when the last scene 
 shall for ever close upon me, I hope that my earthly re- 
 mains will be laid under her green sod with those of her 
 gallant and patriotic sons." 
 
 The Alien and Sedition Laws occasioned one of his 
 earliest and most brilliant popular harangues. It is re- 
 lated that on a certain occasion, the people were assem- 
 bled in large numbers in a grove near Lexington, to 
 listen to a discussion to come off between the advocates 
 and opposers of these laws. The greatest interest had 
 been awakened, extensive preparation made by the com- 
 batants, and with the most inflammatory zeal they en- 
 tered the lists. The historian of the scene goes on to 
 say: 
 
 " The assemblage was first addressed by Mr. George 
 Nicholas, a gentleman of distinguished ability and com- 
 manding eloquence. His effort is represented as having 
 been one of great vigor, and characterized by that 
 logical and philosophical acumen, for which he was so 
 celebrated. When he ceased, the populace, wrought up 
 to the highest degree of enthusiasm, poured out their 
 rapturous applause. 'Clay,' 'Clay,' was now loudly 
 called from all directions, and as he ascended the stand, 
 it was clearly perceptible by his eagle eye and com- 
 pressed lips, that no ordinary emotions were struggling 
 in his bosom. As the spirit of the tempest finds the 
 ocean when he descends in his mightiest energy, so he 
 found the boisterous mass swelling to and fro like the 
 surges of the deep. But he was at home, doing his legiti- 
 mate work, pouring the oil of eloquence over a turbulent
 
 HENRY CLAT. 163 
 
 sea of passion, until its tumultuous heavings subsided 
 and left one quiet, calm, and unruffled surface. The 
 subject in his hands, appeared in a new light, and he 
 soon succeeded in securing for it that attention which is 
 accompanied with feelings too deep for utterance ; like 
 those experienced by one standing on the edge of a cra- 
 ter, gazing down into its fiery abyss. His predecessor 
 had poured a flood of sunshine over the multitude, 
 which caused those heartfelt, spontaneous out-gushings 
 of joyful emotion, which are its usual concomitants. 
 But his office was that of the lightning's flash and thun- 
 der peal, hushing, awing, and subduing. When he 
 closed there were no clamorous expressions, no deafen- 
 ing shouts of applause, but something far more signifi- 
 cant, he read in the quivering lips, indignant looks, and 
 frowning brows around him ; and heard, in the deep 
 low growl that came up, a much more flattering tribute 
 to his talents. He was followed by Mr. William Mur- 
 ray, an orator of great popularity, and well qualified to 
 exhibit acceptably the merits of those laws, if indeed 
 they possessed any. His efforts, however, were futile. 
 The conviction of their pernicious tendency had been 
 planted too deep in the minds of the people by Mr. 
 Clay, to permit them to listen to their merits, or to al- 
 low them to believe that they had any. He would not 
 have been suffered to proceed had not the previous 
 speakers urgently solicited permission. Another attempt 
 was made to reply, but the people could be restrained 
 no longer, and made a furious rush towards the place 
 occupied by the speaker, who was compelled to make a 
 prpp.i'~ : *-te retreat to escape personal violence. They
 
 164 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 now seized Nicholas and Clay, bore them on their 
 shoulders to a carriage, and amid the most enthusiastic 
 cheering, drew them through the streets of Lexington. 
 A proud day was this for Mr. Clay ; a day in which he 
 earned a far more glorious title than any that royal 
 hands could confer upon him, that of the ' great com- 
 moner/ It \vas the first of the bright days of the years 
 of his fame the sure precursor of that unfading chaplet 
 which time was destined to bind about his brow." 
 
 While yet young, Mr. Clay's eloquence partook of the 
 warmth of his blood ; his speech was the fire of passion, 
 tinged by the imagination of the South. When he en- 
 tered the State Legislature, he immediately became a 
 notable star. The fixed gaze of antagonists, excited 
 crowds in the galleries, and earnest attention every- 
 where, attested the advent of one of those grand actors 
 in the political drama of the world, destined powerfully 
 to agitate all parties, be applauded to the echo by mil- 
 lions, and at the same time, the penalty of all true great- 
 ness, be the object of most malignant hate. This is the 
 result of extraordinary native force, the first look or 
 syllable of which in a moment elevates its possessor im- 
 mensely above all common men. The mode in which 
 this truth was exemplified by Mr. Clay while in the 
 Legislature of Kentucky, is forcibly described by one 
 intimately acquainted with him. ' He appears to have 
 been the pervading spirit of the whole body. He never 
 came to the debates without the knowledge necessary to 
 the perfect elucidation of his subject, and he always had 
 the power of making his knowledge so practical, and 
 lighting it so brightly up with the fire of eloquence, and
 
 HENRY CLAY. 165 
 
 the living soul of intellect, that without resorting to the 
 arts of insidiousness, he could generally control the 
 movements of the Legislature at will. His was not an 
 undue influence ; it was the simple ascendancy of mind 
 over mind. The bills which originated with him, in- 
 stead of being characterized by the eccentricities and 
 ambitious innovations which are too often visible in the 
 course of young men of genius suddenly elevated to 
 power and influence, were remarkable only for their 
 plain common sense, and their tendency to advance the 
 substantial interests of the State. Though he carried 
 his plans into effect by the aid of the magical incanta- 
 tions of the orator, he always conceived them with the 
 coolness and discretion of a philosopher. No subject 
 was so great as to baffle his powers, none so minute as 
 to elude them. He could handle the telescope and the 
 microscope with equal skill. In him the haughty dema- 
 gogues of the Legislature found an antagonist who 
 never failed to foil them in their bold projects, and the 
 intriguers of lower degree were baffled with equal cer- 
 tainty whenever they attempted to get any petty mea- 
 sure through the house for their own personal gratifica- 
 tion or that of their friends. The people, therefore, 
 justly regarded him as emphatically their own." 
 
 In some of the debates he conducted in those days, he 
 must have been very effective. A gentleman who was 
 present, describes his speech, as having been a perfect 
 model. " Every muscle of the orator's face was at 
 work; his whole body seemed agitated, as if each part 
 was instinct with a separate life ; and his small white 
 hand, with its blue veins apparently distended almost to
 
 166 MVING OKATOKS IV AMERICA. 
 
 bursting, moved gracefully, but with all the energy of 
 rapid and vehement gesture. The appearance of the 
 speaker seemed that of a pure intellect, wrought Up to 
 its mightiest energies, and brightly glowing through the 
 thin and transparent veil of flesh that enrobed it. His 
 control over his auditory was most absolute and astonish- 
 ing now bathing them in tears, and now convulsing 
 them with laughter, causing them to alternate between 
 hope and fear, love and hate, at his bidding. When, he 
 concluded, scarcely a vestige of opposition remained, 
 and the amended resolution was adopted, almost by ac- 
 clamation." 
 
 This talismanic power, so manifest in the eloquence 
 of Mr. Clay, is not to be accredited to any one great 
 faculty, but to the skillful use of many. In him no " life- 
 less heap of embryo knowledge rests," but instead 
 thereof, there is a great fund of practical wisdom, satu- 
 rated with acute emotion, by which in the most power- 
 ful manner, he is ever ready " passion to paint, and 
 sentiment unfold." He neither indulges in long strains 
 of vapid declamation, nor wearies with dry and insuffera- 
 ble details, but sagaciously mingles the two, knowing 
 "that vice alike resides in each extreme." He thus 
 most admirably conforms to nature, and in the progress 
 of an extended demonstration banishes all tedium, by 
 alternately painting " her midnight shadow, her meri- 
 dian glow." 
 
 When we .ook out on the mighty landscape, we see 
 that rich, ample, and flowing robe which nature should 
 wear on her throned eminence, hill united to hill, with 
 sweeping train of forest, with prodigality of shade, aa
 
 HENRY CLAY- 167 
 
 she stands revealed in primitive magnificence, and not 
 curtailed of her fair proportions, pinched and squeezed 
 into artificial shapes by the contracted and prim notions 
 of man. And so the spirit of true eloquence, adapting 
 itself to different occasions and diversified styles, sub- 
 dues by simplicity, commands by dignity, persuades by 
 propriety, assuages by repose, charms by contrast, en- 
 livens by emotion, and renovates by truth. Reason is 
 the potent leader, and all subordinates are imbued with 
 the light and force that emanate from this centre, en- 
 rapturing all with a cheerful gleam, and sometimes 
 startling with a fearful flash. Nothing is beautiful and 
 effective in popular speech that is not allied to light and 
 shadow in the physical world, and is united to color and 
 form. 
 
 " 'Tis still one principle through all extends, 
 And leads through different ways to different ends. 
 Whate'er its essence, or whate'er its name, 
 Whate'er its modes, 'tis still in all the same : 
 'Tis just congruityof parts combined, 
 To please the sense and satisfy the mind." 
 
 Mr. Clay's eloquence, like the firm trunk of a gnarled 
 oak, adorned and half concealed by honeysuckles and 
 wild roses, reverses the image of lole dressed in the 
 Lion's skin it is the club of Hercules adorned by her 
 with wreaths of flowers. His style is of a new order, 
 conceived and executed in a very bold and difficult man- 
 ner, the aggregated beauty and magnificence of Gre- 
 cian symmetry, Gothic picturesqueness, and the irregu- 
 lar firmness of a feudal castle. Some of his speeches
 
 168 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 suggest the idea of easy and rapid motion, like Milton's 
 battle of the angels : 
 
 "Light as the lightning glimpse they ran, they flew. 
 From their foundations loos'ning to and fro, 
 They pluck'd the seated hills with all their load, 
 flocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy tops, 
 Uplifting, bore them in their hands." 
 
 Others impress with the grandeur of massiveness, re- 
 sistance to motion, if not absolute immobility, as is fine- 
 ly marked in the same book : 
 
 "Under his burning wheels 
 The steadfast empyrean shook throughout, 
 All but the throne itself of God." 
 
 Sagacious patriotism was the third element which we 
 mentioned as a prolific source of Mr. Clay's eloquence. 
 From his first entrance upon political life, he seems 
 strongly and habitually to have felt the power of reason 
 upon the masses, and always to have treated the popular 
 judgment with profound respect. Hence he has been 
 frank and fearless in avowing his principles on all occa- 
 sions, to all men. All his faculties were early trained 
 for popular discussion: even his enthusiasm was ren- 
 dered skillful and reflective in dealing out arguments 
 and appeals indiscriminately to those who came in his 
 way. He is said to have been the first man who went 
 through a stumping campaign with unwavering dignity. 
 
 Mr. Clay has ever been true to his own conceptions ; 
 and such a speaker, if he is not always -right, is certair 
 to be always strong. Of all Americans, he is the orator
 
 HENRY CLAY. 169 
 
 of political actualities; never dreamy or metaphysical; 
 seldom embodying the largest or the highest philosophical 
 Jogmas, but applying the simplest principles to the most 
 eomprehensive concerns of his countrymen in their 
 slashing interests, and continual conflicts, and in these 
 patriotic efforts working out, with a power rarely sur- 
 passed, the objects which he aimed to accomplish. Con- 
 template him, for instance, when he braved the arro- 
 gance of England, in the beginning, progress and end " 
 of the war of 1812. His chivalrous bearing, patriotic 
 indignation, and diplomatic skill, remind one of Michael, 
 chief of the heavenly warriors, sent to banish the guilty 
 pair from Paradise. 
 
 " Not in his shape celestial, but as man 
 Clad to meet man : over his lucid arms 
 While military vest of purple flow'd ; 
 His starry helm unbuckled show'd him prime 
 In manhood, where youth ended ; by his side, 
 As in a glist'ning zodiac, hung the sword, 
 Satan's dire dread, and in his hand the spear." 
 
 Moreover, Mr. Clay never underrates the connection 
 between words and deeds, nor forgets the power which 
 speech ever exercises on the common rnind, and that 
 most extensively in times of great excitement and na- 
 tional convulsion. As he had introduced into congres- 
 sional affairs an element of high moral enthusiasm, 
 springing from his own ardent and magnanimous spirit, so 
 was he in turn acted upon by the kindled passions of the 
 people at large as well as by his dignified associates, and 
 in a few years attained the dizzy height whereon he was 
 recognized by all the world as the sagacious patriot who,
 
 170 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 in a pre-eminent degree, impersonated the cause of 
 America. Reliance on exalted principles, and resomte 
 action guided by them, had conferred on him a glory 
 and a name, " known, sun like, in all nations." This 
 well-earned reputation he not only preserved but en- 
 hanced when, to allay the consternation kindled by South 
 Carolina, with a bold and masterly hand he sketched the 
 outlines of an honorable compromise, and colored the 
 design with the most soothing hues of loftiest patriotism. 
 
 But the hour when Mr. Clay seems most to have felt 
 that the eyes of the world were upon him, when he most 
 unfolded the native majesty of his character, and stood 
 serenely on the sublimest height, was the memorable 
 scene when he took leave of the Senate, March 31, 
 1842. Art and eloquence have made that event historical 
 and attractive for ever. The closing paragraphs of Mr. 
 Clay's address were as follows : 
 
 " That my nature is warm, my temper ardent, my dis- 
 position, especially in relation to the public service, en- 
 thusiastic, I am ready to own ; and those who suppose 
 that I have been assuming the dictatorship, have only 
 mistaken for arrogance or assumption that ardor and 
 devotion which are natural to my constitution, and which 
 I may have displayed with too little regard to cold, cal- 
 culating, and cautious prudence, in sustaining and zeal- 
 ously supporting important national measures of policy 
 which I have presented and espoused. 
 
 " In the course of a long and arduous public service, 
 especially during the last eleven years in which I have 
 neld a seat in the Senate, from the same aidor and en- 
 thusiasm of character, I have no doubt, in the heat of
 
 HENRY CLAY. 171 
 
 debate, and in an honest endeavor to maintain mv 
 opinions against adverse opinions alike honestly entei 
 tained, as to the best course to be adopted for the pub 
 lie welfare, I may have often inadvertently and unintei? 
 tionally, in moments of excited debate, made use of Ian 
 guage that has been offensive, and susceptible of injuri 
 ous interpretation toward my brother Senators. L 
 there be any here who retain wounded feelings of injury 
 or dissatisfaction produced on such occasions, I beg to 
 assure them that I now offer the most ample apology for 
 any departure on my part from the established rules ot 
 parliamentary decorum and courtesy. On the other 
 hand, I assure the Senators, one and all, without excep- 
 tion and without reserve, that I retire from this chamber 
 without carrying with me a single feeling of resentment 
 or dissatisfaction to the Senate or any one of its mem- 
 bers. 
 
 " I go from this place under the hope that we shall 
 mutually consign to perpetual oblivion whatever personal 
 collisions may at any time unfortunately have occurred 
 between us ; and that our recollections shall dwell in 
 future only on those conflicts of mind with mind, those 
 intellectual struggles, those noble exhibitions of the 
 powers of logic, argument, and eloquence, honorable to 
 the Senate and to the nation, in which each has sought 
 and contended for what he deemed the best mode of ac- 
 complishing one common object, the interests and happi- 
 ness of our beloved country. To these thrilling and 
 delightful scenes it will be my pleasure and my pride to 
 ook back in my retirement with unmeasured satisfaction 
 
 " May the most precious blessings of Heaven rest
 
 172 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 upon the whole Senate, and each member of it, and may 
 the labors of every one redound to the benefit of the 
 nation and the advancement of his own fame and re- 
 nown. And when you shall retire to the bosom of your 
 constituents, may you receive that most cheering and 
 gratifying of all human rewards their cordial greeting 
 of, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.' 
 
 " And now, Mr. President, and Senators, 1 bid you all 
 a long, a lasting, and a friendly farewell." 
 
 In delineating the sources of Mr. Clay's eloquence, 
 we have spoken of his enterprising spirit, his ardent 
 temperament, and sagacious patriotism. In conclusion, 
 let us glance at the fourth, and " a fundamental quality, 
 his indomitable perseverance. 
 
 Confidence or courage is conscious ability the sense 
 of power which it is often difficult to attain, but which 
 is a quality indispensable to eminent success. A well 
 known anecdote commemorates the timidity natural to 
 genius in its first efforts, and under which Mr. Clay was 
 embarrassed in the commencement of his public career. 
 In a debating society of which he for sometime had been 
 an observant but silent member, a question had been dis- 
 cussed at considerable length and apparently with much 
 ability, on which the customary vote was about to be 
 taken, when he observed in an under tone to a person 
 seated by him, " the subject does not seem to be ex- 
 hausted." The individual addressed, exclaimed, "do 
 not put the question yet, Mr. Clay will speak." The 
 chairman by a smile and nod of the head signified his 
 willingness to allow the discussion to be continued by 
 him, who thereupon arose under every appearance of
 
 HENRY CLAY. 173 
 
 trepidation and embarrassment. The first words that 
 fell from his lips were, " Gentlemen of the jury." His 
 embarrassment now was extreme; blushing, hesitat- 
 ing, and stammering, he repeated the words, "Gen- 
 tlemen of the jury." The audience evinced gen- 
 uine politeness and good breeding, by seeming not 
 to notice his peculiarly unpleasant and trying con- 
 dition. Suddenly regaining his self-possession, he 
 made a speech of such force and eloquence, as to 
 carry conviction and astonishment at once to the 
 hearts of his hearers. Subsequently he took a promi- 
 nent part in the debates of the society, and became one 
 of its most efficient members. 
 
 An adept is not afraid of undertaking what he knows 
 he can do better than any one else, but it requires no 
 little practice to acquire this habitual self-possession. 
 Even the most experienced veterans are often discon- 
 certed, when out of their own sphere, they are sum- 
 moned to the most familiar and easy tasks. Garrick 
 was once subpoenaed on a friend's trial ; when he appear- 
 ed before the court, though he had for thirty years been 
 in the habit of speaking with the greatest self-reliance in 
 the presence of thousands, yet the instant he appeared 
 in an unusual situation, he became so perplexed and 
 confused, that he was actually sent from the witness' 
 box by the judge, as a man from whom no evidence 
 could be gotten. Charles Fox felt no diffidence in ad- 
 dressing the House of Commons, but was reserved and 
 silent in company, having no confidence in his own col- 
 loquial "powers, or talent for writing. As a man is 
 strong, so is he bold ; but his confident strength is at
 
 174 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 ease only in a walk which impulse or necessity has ren- 
 dered most familiar. In the case of young Clay, as 
 with Fox, the torrent of eloquence rushed upon him 
 from his knowledge of the subject and his interest in it, 
 as soon as he was once fairly on his feet in spontaneous 
 speech, and he went on to the amazement of his audi- 
 ence, unchecked and unbidden, without once thinking 
 of himself, or his initiatory blunder. Subsequent prac- 
 tice, severe and unremitting, fortified Mr. Clay with 
 self-possession, which no finite power could disturb. He 
 became foremost among 
 
 " The men that glorious law who taught, 
 
 Unshrinking liberty of thought, 
 And roused the nations with the truth sublime.'" 
 
 The persevering efforts made by Mr. Clay to preserve 
 and transmit to future generations the invaluable insti- 
 tutions we enjoy, were finely indicated by him on the 
 15th of August, 1824, when, as Speaker of the House 
 of Representatives, he received General Lafayette, with 
 an apposite and beautiful address, of which the following 
 is an extract : 
 
 " The vain wish has been sometimes indulged, that 
 Providence would allow the patriot, after death, to return 
 to- his country, and to contemplate the intermediate 
 change that had taken place, to view the forests felled, 
 the cities built, the mountains levelled, the canals cut, 
 the highways constructed, the progress of the arts, the 
 advancement of learning, and the increase of population. 
 General, your present visit to the United States, is a 
 realization of the consoling object of that wish. You are
 
 HENRY CLAY. 175 
 
 in the midst of posterity. Every where you must have 
 been struck with the great changes, physical and moral, 
 which have occurred since you left us. Even this city, 
 bearing a venerated name, alike endeared to you and to 
 us, has since emerged from the forest which then cov- 
 ered its site. In one respect you find us unaltered, and 
 that is, in the sentiment of continued devotion to liberty, 
 and of ardent affection and profound gratitude to your 
 departed friend, the father of his country, and to you, 
 and to your illustrious associates in the field and the 
 cabinet, for the multiplied blessings which surround us, 
 and for the very privilege of addressing you, which I now 
 exercise. This sentiment, now fondly cherished by more 
 than ten millions of people, will be transmitted with una- 
 bated vigor, down the tide of time, through the countless 
 millions who are destined to inhabit this continent, to the 
 latest posterity." 
 
 That Mr. Clay designs to persevere to the last mo- 
 ment of existence on earth in his patriotic course, is evi- 
 dent from his character, and the declaration he made at 
 a complimentary dinner, given him when about to re- 
 turn home finally from Washington. In a speech on 
 that occasion, he alluded to his public career, and the 
 duties of citizenship, in the following beautiful language : 
 " Whether I shall ever hereafter take any part in the 
 public councils or not, depends upon circumstances be- 
 yond my control. Holding the principle that a citizen, 
 as long as a single pulsation remains, is under an obliga- 
 tion to exert his utmost energies in the service of his 
 country, if necessary, whether in a public or private sta- 
 tion, my friends here and everywhere may res' assured,
 
 170 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 that, in either condition, I shall stand erect, with a spirit 
 unconquered, while life endures, ready to second their 
 exertions in the cause of liberty, the union and the na- 
 tional prosperity." 
 
 In summing up what we have to say on the charac- 
 ter and eloquence of Mr. Clay, we remark that he pos- 
 sesses the richest facility of fluent and sonorous speech, 
 an imposing elocution, a deep and melodious voice, a 
 fine, commanding figure, perfect familiarity with parlia- 
 mentary forms, and an adroit potency in debate which 
 can rarely or never be either disconcerted or overcome. 
 His sensibility is acute, and this is supported by equal 
 comprehension, elevation of mind and dignity of action ; 
 his sentiments are draped with propriety and enforced 
 with reason. His style is levelled to his subject, and he 
 preserves it both equally remote from grovelling inanity 
 and transcendental bombast. 
 
 Possessed naturally of an impetuous temperament and 
 glowing imagination, he early disciplined himself into 
 oratorical habits admirably suited to a mind of keen 
 social perception, and not less adapted to the rapturous 
 expression of exquisite emotion. In his eloquence, wit 
 emerges from and blends with wisdom, as is symbolized 
 by the natural parks of oak which abound on his estate ; 
 the old foliage forms a dark background, on which the 
 new appears, relieved and detached in all its freshness 
 and brilliancy it is spring engrafted on summer. His 
 nature is genial, full of the acutest sensibility to emotion, 
 and this through all his life has been combined with a 
 profusion of creative political genius in a great variety 
 of public manifestations. This is a power not imbibed
 
 IIENRY CI<AY. 177 
 
 from without, but evolved directly from his own soul. 
 Not that he has grown up isolated from the world and 
 its tumultuous scenes ; no man has been more influenced 
 by the active age, whose practical development and uti- 
 lity he has contributed so much to promote. It is clear 
 that from early youth to maturest manhood, at each 
 tep, 
 
 " He drew his light from what he was amidst, 
 As doth a lamp which hath itself 
 Matter of light, although it show it not. His 
 Was but the power to light what might be lit." 
 
 Mr. Clay's method of artistic execution resembles that 
 of Reubens, who did not keep pictures by him for years 
 to dwell on, muse on, and dream of, but sketched, co- 
 lored and perfected them at once. This, however, is the 
 result of patient practice, and not a substitute for it. 
 From early youth, Mr. Clay's application has been in- 
 tense and perpetual ; each pursuit with him, every new 
 effort and success, being only another step toward a yet 
 higher achievement. However affluent in original en- 
 dowments, he knew full well that the best powers of his 
 mind could be developed only by incessant practice. 
 Thus did he come at length to bear down all opposition 
 by his breadth, brightness, and depth of eloquence, qua- 
 lities which, in him, defy all successful rivalship in polit- 
 ical discussion. 
 
 In the rigid forms of argument which set foward the 
 
 most .convincing proofs of the justice of a cause, Mr. 
 
 Clay may be excelled by more than one of his coternpo- 
 
 raries ; but, in his happier efforts, he surpasses them all 
 
 8*
 
 178 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 in splendor and pungency of appeal, based on disci- 
 plined vehemence of spirit. He not only convinces, but 
 dazzles and inflames. If the mere effervescence of 
 " ission sometimes appears in blinding copiousness, it as 
 suddenly sinks like foam into the mighty billows which 
 bore it, and clear reason, like a fresh-blown trumpet, 
 moves severely on. It is a rare compound of the lighter 
 and sterner attributes of speech, which, because it is the 
 excellence of natural power, equally affects all. The 
 oak, as lily, feels the lighter breeze ; and minds above, 
 as well below, medium range, are swayed alike by the 
 truthful utterances of an excited soul. When fully 
 aroused in collision with worthy antagonists, every fibre 
 of this orator vibrates under the action of his mighty 
 mind, "as heaven quakes under its own thunders." Not 
 that he loses the power of self-control, or becomes in any 
 way distorted ; he is never more symmetrical and capti- 
 vating than when winging the swiftest darts and tri- 
 umphing over the fiercest foes. In the noblest statue of 
 Apollo which has been preserved, dignity is intimately 
 connected with beauty ; the union has produced the 
 highest exemplification of masculine charms, of which 
 we have any model, and is an admirable type of Henry 
 Clay. His mind blends and reproduces the elements of 
 truth and power in natural eloquence, as a mirror im- 
 parts a peculiar freshness and tenderness to the diversi- 
 fied hues it reflects. 
 
 It is vain to look for much literary excellence in 
 the tumultous scenes wherein Mr. Clay has all his life- 
 time been compelled to move. Instead of reclining idly 
 in the peaceful valleys which poets love to celebrate, he
 
 HENRY CLAY. 179 
 
 lias grown old in battling bravely in the dusty arena 
 where politics ascend the tripod, transformed into a 
 Sibyl unromantic to the last degree. Mr. Randolph, in 
 a strain of most scorching irony, in debate indulged in 
 some personal taunts towards Mr. Clay, commiserating 
 his ignorance and limited education, to whom Mr. Clay 
 replied by saying, '-Sir, the gentleman from Virginia 
 was pleased to say, that in one point, at least, he coin- 
 cided with me in an humble estimate of my gramma- 
 tical and philological acquirements. I know my defi- 
 ciences. I was born to no proud patrimonial estate 
 from my father. I inherited only infancy, ignorance, 
 and indigence ; I feel my defects ; but so far as my 
 situation in early life is concerned, I may without pre- 
 sumption say, they are more my misfortune than my 
 fault- But, however I deplore my inability to furnish 
 to the gentleman a better specimen of powers of verbal 
 criticism, I will venture to say my regret is not greater 
 than the disappointment of this committee, as to the 
 strength of his argument." This retort is highly honor- 
 able to its author, inasmuch as it is at once courteous, 
 caustic, and true. He is the architect of his own for- 
 tunes, and however numerous may be his defects, his 
 undoubted excellences would do honor to the most 
 favored man. 
 
 Mr. Clay's eloquence is pre-eminently that of exalted 
 statesmanship, exercising which in diffusing light and 
 liberty throughout the world, he rejoices, as does the 
 brave in his " keen, flashing sword, and his strong arm's 
 swift swoop." Strongly imbued with the sentiment of 
 country, among all our public men many think him the
 
 180 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 most American. This is undoubtedly his highest merit. 
 Abounding little in learned quotation, classical erudi- 
 tion, or literary decoration, he is studded all over with 
 the richest vestiges of patriotic genius, " racy of the 
 soil." He is eminently the orator of humanity ; less 
 logical and less elevated than one or two of his com- 
 peers, but more insinuating, more potent on our hearts 
 as we listen, the warm and invincible master of the 
 sympathies. He has measured weapons with the migh- 
 tiest, and proved himself equal to any arm. Once, in 
 particular, in defending a favorite bill, he had to en- 
 counter much and strong opposition, at the head of 
 which stood Daniel Webster. The collision of these 
 eloquent and intellectual giants, is said to have been 
 inconceivably grand. Says a gentleman who witnessed 
 it, " the eloquence of Mr. Webster was the majestic 
 roar of a strong and steady blast, pealing through the 
 forest; but that of Mr. Clay was the tone of a god-like 
 instrument, sometimes visited by an angel touch, and 
 swept anon by all the fury of the raging elements." Mr. 
 Clay, aware that he was contending for the very vital- 
 ity of his country, had nerved himself up to one of his 
 mightiest efforts, one which would demolish every op- 
 posing obstacle, and plant his foot in complete triumph 
 on the ruins of the strongest holds of his assailants. He 
 turned aside every weapon directed against his system, 
 and entirely disarmed all opposition. 
 
 We know that this great statesman of the West is bold 
 and indomitable; perhaps he has too ardently aspired 
 after both power and popularity, but in the main it must 
 be confessed that he has tnade his personal ambition sub-
 
 HENRY CLAY. 181 
 
 servient to purposes the most magnanimous and grand. 
 In debating talent he has been but very rarely equalled. 
 In moral enthusiasm, practically employed in political 
 and forensic warfare, he has never been excelled. A 
 fiery splendor flows naturally from his ardent heart, and 
 as it spreads over listening multitudes, the effect upon 
 all who catch his tones, or comprehend his words is 
 prodigious. The whole nation listens, and the millions 
 everywhere who speak our vernacular, with thrilled 
 bosoms attest the potency of his genial style. Others 
 can reason dryly, or declaim vapidly, but it has been his 
 peculiar prerogative more than once to raise the spirit 
 of America far beyond the height to which any other 
 hero has carried it, imbuing all classes with the firmest 
 and most impassioned patriotism. 
 
 " Thou raised'st thy voice, and the people, awaking, 
 
 Beheld the foul source of corruption display'd ; 
 And, loyal stupidity quickly forsaking, 
 
 They found themselves plunder'd, oppress'd, and betray'd , 
 Then, loud as the storm in its fury out-rushing, 
 
 "The shouts of the thousands for freedom arose ; 
 And liberty only shall soothe them to hushing, 
 
 And liberty only shall lull to repose."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN, 
 
 THE METAPHYSICIAN. 
 
 CONSIDERED in respect to his natural ability, acquired 
 talents, past career, and present position, one of the 
 most interesting and historical characters of our land, is 
 John Caldwell Calhoun. He was born in Abbeville 
 District, South Carolina, March 18th, 1782. His grand- 
 father emigrated with his family from Ireland, and set- 
 tled, in 1733, in Pennsylvania. His father was then six 
 years old. At a subsequent period, the family removed 
 to Western Virginia ; but upon Braddock's defeat, the 
 settlement was broken up, and, in 1756, they went to 
 South Carolina. 
 
 John C. was the third son in a family of five children. 
 (< Both parents were exemplary for piety and virtue. 
 The father was a hardy and enterprising pioneer ; but 
 unlike most of that class, he placed a high value upon 
 education. Though he was entirely self-taught, and 
 lived the greater part of his life on the frontier, surrounded 
 by danger, he made himself an excellent English scholar, 
 and an accurate and skillful surveyor, which profession 
 he long followed. He was the first member ever elected
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 183 
 
 to the Provincial Legislature, from the interior of South 
 Carolina. Of this body, and the State Legislature, after 
 the Revolution, he continued a member for thirty years, 
 without intermission, except for a single term, until his 
 death, in 1796. He was a zealous whig, and a disin- 
 terested patriot." The son seems to have become the 
 vindicator of " State Rights," very legitimately, for it is 
 recorded that his conscientious father opposed the 
 adoption of the Federal Constitution, on the ground that 
 it conferred rights on Congress incompatible with the 
 sovereignty of the States. Who can estimate the force 
 of hereditary character, and early prepossessions ? 
 
 At thirteen years of age, young Calhoun was placed 
 at the Academy of his brother-in-law, Rev. Dr. Waddel, 
 one of the most distinguished teachers in the South. 
 Here he prosecuted his studies for some time, and made 
 ample use of a circulating library, especially in the de- 
 partment of history. In the course of fourteen weeks, 
 he is said to have read Rollin's Ancient History, Robert- 
 son's Charles V. and America, Voltaire's Charles XII., 
 the large edition of Cooke's Voyages, the first volume of 
 Locke on the Human Understanding, and several other 
 works. Neglecting his meals and rest, with such avidity 
 did he engage in literary pursuits, his countenance grew 
 pallid, his eyes were injured, and his whole frame be- 
 came emaciated. His widowed mother, fearing the 
 consequences of such application, took him home, and 
 the ardent student, forgetting his books, soon became as 
 passionately fond of agricultural labors and rural sports. 
 Though the progress of his mental education was thus 
 for some years arrested, his rugged pursuits laid the
 
 .84 LIVING ORATORS JN AMERICA. 
 
 foundation of a hardy constitution, and gave him a fund 
 of practical knowledge of the greatest value. 
 
 In 1800, at the earnest importunity of his older 
 brother, John turned his attention once more to a classi- 
 cal education, and placed himself again under the tuition 
 of Dr. Waddel, who had re-opened his Academy in Co- 
 lumbia County, Georgia. He was then eighteen years 
 old ; and his progress was so rapid, that in two years 
 time, he was enabled to join the junior class at Yale Col- 
 lege, in the Autumn of 1802. 
 
 It is said that in that institution he took a high grade 
 in all the studies ; being greatly distinguished for depth 
 and sagacity of intellect. In political opinions, he dif- 
 fered widely from the president, Dr. Dwight, with whom 
 he had frequent discussions, but always of a friendly 
 character. Once in the course of a recitation in Paley's 
 Philosophy, the Doctor expressed a doubt, " whether the 
 consent of the governed, was the only just origin of le- 
 gitimate government?" This caused an animated de- 
 bate between him and his pupil, which held the class in 
 delighted suspense till dinner, jn the course of which, 
 the student evinced such depth of thought, and such 
 power of argument and eloquence, that his dignified and 
 wise antagonist unequivocally predicted his future fame. 
 Said he to a friend, " That young man has talents 
 enough to be President of the United States." 
 
 Such an encomium was justified not only by moral 
 habits remarkably correct, for one of his age and tem- 
 perament, but by those native and acquired powers 
 of mind, which enabled him, in just four years after 
 commencing the Latin Grammar, to graduate with the
 
 JOHN C. CALHDUN. 185 
 
 highest honors, at the head of a large and talented class. 
 The oration prepared for that occasion was on " The 
 qualifications necessary to a perfect statesman." 
 
 On his return home, he enrolled himself a student of 
 law, with H. W. Desaussure, but soon after went again 
 to New England, and entered the Litchfield law school, 
 where for eighteen months under the Judges Reeve 
 and Gould, he made great advancement. "The morn- 
 ing was devoted to law, the rest of the day to gene- 
 ral literature and political science, and he cultivated, 
 with especial care, extemporaneous speaking. It was 
 in the debating society of this place, where the most 
 agitating political topics of the day were discussed be- 
 fore crowded meetings, that Mr. Calhoun who was ever 
 the champion of the republican side, first developed his 
 great powers of parliamentary debate. It was his 
 custom, even then, to prepare by reflection, and not by 
 arranging on paper, what he meant to say, nor by taking 
 notes of the arguments of others. A good memory pre- 
 served the order of his own thoughts, and a wonderful 
 power of analysis and classification enabled him to digest 
 rapidly, and distribute in their proper places, the answer 
 and refutation of all the arguments of the speakers, 
 however numerous, whom he followed. In 1806, he 
 returned to South Carolina, and in 1807 commenced, in 
 his native district, a lucrative practice, ranking, from 
 the very outset, with the most eminent lawyers in his 
 circuit," 
 
 The above details throw sufficient light, perhaps on 
 the preliminary training of Mr. Calhoun. Let us, in the 
 next place, contemphte him as he enters more prominent-
 
 186 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 ly on political life. The affair of the Chesapeake was 
 the occasion of his first being brought into distinguished 
 notice. A public meeting was called at Abbeville Court 
 House, and Mr. Calhoun was one of the committee 
 appointed to draft an address and resolutions. By re- 
 quest also he was expected to make a speech. When 
 the day and hour arrived, a great assembly of the people 
 were in attendance. It was his first appearance before 
 the public in the form of popular address, but, trying aa 
 the situation was, he acquitted himself in a manner that 
 excited enthusiastic approbation. Soon after, he was 
 proposed as a candidate for the next legislature, and de- 
 spite popular prejudice against the election of a lawyer, 
 he was chosen by a large majority. He remained in 
 this office two sessions, and distinguished , himself for 
 that mental force and political sagacity, for which he 
 has since proved himself so remarkable. 
 
 Having been elected by a vast majority to represent 
 the district composed of Abbeville, Newbury, and Lau- 
 rens, he took his seat in Congress in the autumn of 1811, 
 at the commencement of the first session of the twelfth 
 Congress. His reputation had preceded him, and imme- 
 diately after he first entered the Capitol, Mr. Calhoun 
 was appointed on the Committee of Foreign Relations, 
 in conjunction with Mr. Peter B. Porter and Mr. Grundy. 
 of the administration side, and Mr. Randolph and Mr. 
 Key, of the opposition. That Committee made an able 
 report, on which the discussions of the session chiefly 
 turned, and which recommended an immediate appeal to 
 arms against the aggressions of England. John Ran- 
 dolph made an able and eloquent speech against the
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 187 
 
 measures proposed. Mr. Calhoun's first effort in Con- 
 gress was a reply to the powerful antagonist of Roanoke, 
 and in defence of immediate redress for the injuries our 
 commerce had received. Public excitement, says a 
 historian, was strong, the house crowded, and the orator, 
 rising with the greatness of the occasion, delivered a 
 sj>eech, which for lofty patriotism, cogent reasoning, and 
 soul-stirring eloquence, has seldom been equalled. It 
 met unbounded and universal applause. He was com- 
 pared to " one of the old sages of the old Congress, with 
 the graces of youth," and the " young Carolinian" was 
 hailed as "one of the master spirits, who stamp their 
 name upon the age in which they live." 
 
 The speech referred to above has been preserved, ana 
 it is worthy of observation how strongly the logical 
 peculiarities of the orator appear therein, at a time, too, 
 when there was every temptation to rhetorical excess. 
 For example, take the passage wherein he replies to Mr- 
 Randolph's statement of the financial impracticability 
 of the war : 
 
 " Before I proceed to answer the gentleman particu- 
 larly, let me call the attention of the house to one cir- 
 cumstance ; that is, that almost the whole of his argu- 
 ments consisted of an enumeration of evils always 
 incident to war, however just and necessary ; and that, 
 if they have any force, it is calculated to produce un- 
 qualified submission to every species of insult and 
 injury. <I do not feel myself bound to answer arguments 
 of the above description ; and if I should touch on them, 
 it will be only incidentally, and not for the purpose of 
 serious refutation. The first argument of the gentleman
 
 188 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 which I shall notice, is the unprepared state of th* 
 country. Whatever weight this argument might have, 
 in a question of immediate war, it surely has little in 
 that of preparation for it. If our country is unprepared, 
 let us remedy the evil as soon as possible. Let the gen- 
 tleman submit his plan ; and if a reasonable one, I doubt 
 not it will be supported by the house. But, sir, let us 
 admit the fact and the whole force of the argument ; 1 
 ask whose is the fault ? Who has been a member for 
 many years past, and has seen the defenceless state of 
 his country even near home, under his own eyes, with- 
 out a single endeavor to remedy so serious an evil r 
 Let him not say, " I have acted in a minority." It is no 
 less the duty of the minority than a majority to endeavor 
 to serve our country. For that purpose we are sent 
 here, and not for that of opposition. We are next told 
 of the expenses of the war, and that the people will not 
 pay taxes. Why not ? Is it a want of capacity ? 
 What, with one million tons of shipping ; a trade of 
 near one hundred million dollars ; manufactures of one 
 hundred and fifty million dollars, and agriculture of 
 thrice that amount, shall we be told the country 
 wants capacity to raise and support ten thousand or fif- 
 teen thousand additional regulars? No; it has the 
 ability, that is admitted ; but will it not have the disposi- 
 tion ? Is not the course a just and necessary one ? 
 Shall we then utter this libel on the nation ? Where 
 will proof be found of a fact so disgraceful ? It is said, 
 in the history of the country twelve or fifteen years ago. 
 The case is not parallel. The ability of. the country 
 rms greatly increased since. The object of that tax was
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 189 
 
 unpopular. But on this, as well as my memory and al- 
 most infant observation at that time serve me, the objec- 
 tion was not to the tax, or its amount, but the mode of 
 collection. The eye of the nation was frightened by 
 the number of officers ; its love of liberty shocked with 
 the multiplicity of regulations. We, in the vile spirit of 
 imitation, copied from the most oppressive part of Euro- 
 pean laws on that subject, and imposed on a young and 
 virtuous nation all the severe provisions made necessary 
 by corruption and long-growing chicane. If taxes 
 should become necessary, I do not hesitate to say the 
 people will pay cheerfully. It is for their government 
 and their cause, and would be their interest, and duty to 
 pay. But it may be, and I believe was said, that the 
 nation will not pay taxes, because the rights violated are 
 not worth defending ; or that the defence will cost more 
 than the profit. 
 
 " Sir, I here enter my solemn protest against this low 
 and 'calculating avarice' entering this hall of legisla- 
 tion. It is only fit for shops and counting-houses, and 
 ought not to disgrace the seat of sovereignty by its 
 squalid and vile appearance. Whenever it touches 
 sovereign power, the nation is ruined. It is too short- 
 sighted to defend itself. It is an unpromising spirit, 
 always ready to yield a part to save the balance. It is 
 too timid to have in itself the laws of self-preservation. 
 It is never safe but under the shield of honor. Sir, I 
 only know of one principle to make a nation great, to 
 produce in this country not the form but real spirit of 
 union, and that is, to protect every citizen in the lawful 
 pursuit of his business. He will then feel that he is
 
 |90 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 backed by the government that its arm is his arms, and 
 will rejoice in its increased strength and prosperity. 
 Protection and patriotism are reciprocal. This is the 
 road that all great nations have trod. Sir, I am not 
 versed in this calculating policy, and will not, therefore, 
 pretend to estimate in dollars and cents the value ot 
 national independence or national affection. I cannot 
 dare to measure in shillings and pence the misery, the 
 stripes and the slavery of our impressed seamen ; nor 
 even to value our shipping, commercial and agricultural 
 losses under the orders in council and the British system 
 of blockade. I hope I have not' condemned any pru- 
 dent estimate of the means of a country, before it enters 
 on a war. This is wisdom, the other folly." 
 
 On the retirement of General Porter from Congress 
 early in the session of 1811, Mr. Calhoun was placed at 
 the head of the Committee on Foreign Relations, which 
 committee, in addition to their other appropriate duties, 
 were called upon to report bills to carry into effect the 
 military preparations they had recommended. Thus, by 
 circumstances, as well as by natural competency, was 
 he at this early period in the front rank of the brave 
 party, which sustained the war with England. 
 
 When we come more particularly to analyze the elo- 
 quence of Mr. Calhoun, we shall point out more spe- 
 cifically his short and pregnant sentences, disregard of 
 oratorical conventionalities, and bold directness of die 
 tion. But we cannot help remarking in view of hii 
 earliest efforts, the marked and characteristic features of 
 his most mature productions. In the former, as in the 
 atter, are displayed those remarkable powers of reason-
 
 JOHN C. CALHODN. 191 
 
 ing which ha\ e made his speeches to take a place among 
 the most admirable political literature of the age. His 
 independent self-reliance equals the clearness of his 
 perception, and imparts a singular force to his style. 
 Thus when the embargo was greatly relied on, and the 
 enthusiastic South greatly praised the scheme, the young 
 statesman had the hardihood to oppose it in the follow- 
 ing terms : 
 
 " The restrictive system, as a mode of resistance, or 
 as a means of obtaining redress, has never been a favorite 
 one with me. I wish not to censure the motives which 
 dictated it, or attribute weakness to those who first re- 
 sorted to it for a restoration of our rights. But I object 
 to the restrictive system, because it does not suit the 
 genius of the people, or that of our Government, or the 
 geographical character of our country. We are a 
 people essentially active ; I may say we are pre- 
 eminently so. No passive system can suit such a people ; 
 in action superior to all others, in patient endurance 
 inferior to none. Nor does it suit the genius of our 
 Government. Our Government is founded on freedom, 
 and hates coercion. To make the restrictive system 
 effective, requires the most arbitrary laws. England, 
 with the severest penal statutes, has not been able 
 to exclude prohibited articles ; and Napoleon, with all 
 his power and vigilance, was obliged to resort to the 
 most barbarous laws to enforce his Continental system." 
 
 After showing how the whole mercantile community 
 must become corrupt by the temptations and facilities 
 for smuggling, and how the public opinion of the com- 
 mercial community (upon which the system must depend
 
 192 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 for its enforcement), becomes opposed to it, and gives 
 sanction to its violation, he proceeds 
 
 "But there are other objections to the system. It 
 renders Government odious. The farmer inquires why 
 he gets no more for his produce, and he is told it is owing 
 to the embargo, or commercial restrictions. In this he 
 sees only the hand of his own Government, and not the 
 acts of violence and injustice which this system is intend- 
 ed to counteract. His censures fall on the Government. 
 This is an unhappy state of the public mind ; and even, 
 I might say, in a Government resting essentially on pub- 
 lic opinion, a dangerous one. In war it is different. Its 
 privation, it is true, may be equal or greater ; but the 
 public mind, under the strong impulses of that state of 
 things, becomes steeled against sufferings. The differ- 
 ence is almost infinite between the passive and active 
 state of the mind. Tie down a hero, and he feels the 
 puncture of a pin ; throw him into battle, and he is al- 
 most insensible to vital gashes. So in war. Impelled 
 alternately by hope and fear, stimulated by revenge, de- 
 pressed by shame, or elevated by victory, the people 
 become invincible. No privation can shake their forti- 
 tude; no calamity break their spirit. Even when 
 equally successful, the contrast between the two sys- 
 tems is striking. War and restriction may leave the 
 country equally exhausted ; but the latter not only leaves 
 you poor, but, even when successful, dispirited, divided, 
 discontented, with diminished patriotism, and the morals 
 of a considerable portion of your people corrupted. 
 Not so in war. In that state, the common danger unites 
 all, strengthens the bonds of society, and feeds the
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 193 
 
 flame of patriotism. The national character mounts to 
 energy. In exchange for the expenses and privations ot 
 war, you obtain military and naval skill, and 'a more per- 
 fect organization of such parts of your Administration 
 as are connected with the science of national defence. 
 Sir, are these advantages to be counted as trifles in the 
 state of the world ? Can they be measured by moneyed 
 valuation ? I would prefer a single victory over the 
 enemy, by sea or land, to all the good we shall ever 
 derive from the continuation of the Non-importation Act. 
 I know not that a victory would produce an equal pres 
 sure on the enemy ; but I am certain of what is of 
 greater consequence, it would be accompanied by moa 
 salutary effects on ourselves. The memory of Saratop*, 
 Princeton, and Eutaw are immortal. It is there you 
 will find the country's boast and pride the inexhausti- 
 ble source of great and heroic sentiments. But what 
 will history say of restriction ? What examples worthy 
 of imitation will it. furnish to posterity? What pride, 
 what pleasure, will our children find in the events of 
 such times ? Let me not be considered romantic. This 
 nation ought to be taught to rely on its courage, its for 
 titude, its skill and virtue, for protection. These are the 
 only safe-guards in the hour of danger. Man was en- 
 dued with these great qualities for his defence. There is 
 nothing about him that indicates that he is to conquer 
 by endurance. He is not incrusted in a shell ; he is not 
 taught to rely upon his insensibility, his passive suffering, 
 for defence. No, sir ; it is on the invincible mind, on a 
 magnanimous nature, he ought to rely. Here is the 
 superiority of oui kind ; it is these that render man the 
 9
 
 194 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 lord of the world. It is the destiny of his condition that 
 nations rise above nations, as they are endued in a great- 
 er degree with these brilliant qualities." 
 
 It will not be expected that in the brief biographical 
 sketch requisite to our present purpose, that we should 
 attempt to trace the numerous and invaluable services 
 of Mr. Oalhoun during the war. During the gloom of 
 that period, calculated to overwhelm and appal every 
 heart not fortified with patriotism of the purest stamp, 
 he never faltered, never despaired of a glorious triumph 
 over all opposition ; but by his genius and wisdom, he 
 rose conspicuous in the constellation of talents which 
 distinguished the parties both for and against the mea- 
 sures he chiefly drafted and perpetually sustained, and 
 in the popular branch of Congress, signalized himself as 
 the main support of the " second war of independence." 
 At a subsequent session, Mr. Calhoun was placed at 
 the head of the committee on currency, in which capa- 
 city he originated and sustained with great success mea- 
 sures which materially benefitted the financial condition 
 of the whole country. It was while struggling in this 
 sphere of usefulness that he had pronounced in his pre- 
 sence the following encomium by Mr. Grosvenor, a 
 strong political opponent. " Mr. Speaker, I will not be 
 restrained no barrier shall exist, which I will not leap 
 over, for the purpose of offering to that gentleman my 
 thanks for the judicious, independent, and national 
 course which he *as pursued in the House for the last 
 two years, and particularly on the subject now before 
 us. Let the honorable gentleman continue with the 
 same independence, aloof from party views and local
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 195 
 
 prejudices, to pursue the great interests of his country, 
 and fulfill the high destiny for which it is manifest he 
 was born. The buz? of popular applause may not 
 cheer him on the way, but he will inevitably arrive at a 
 high and happy elevation in the view of his country and 
 the world." 
 
 After a brilliant career in Congress of six years, a 
 new and yet more exalted theatre was opened for the 
 display of his talents. In December, 1817, Mr. Calhoun 
 was appointed by Mr. Monroe to to the office of Secre- 
 tary of War. He entered this department under the 
 most adverse circumstances, but only the more to devel- 
 op his sagacity and practical skill. He found upwards 
 of forty millions of dollars of unsettled accounts, which 
 ne speedily reduced to three millions. In addition to 
 this great liquidation of the public debt, it is said he con- 
 ferred upon the republic a still greater service, by the 
 exactness of accountability which he introduced into 
 every branch of the disbursements, and in consequence 
 of which he was enabled to report to Congress in 1823, 
 that of the entire amount of money drawn from the 
 Treasury in 1822, for the military service, amounting to 
 four, millions five hundred thousand dollars, and over, 
 although it passed through the hands of nearly three 
 hundred disbursing agents, there had not been a single 
 defalcation, nor the loss of a cent to the government ; 
 and by various other retrenchments he had saved to the 
 country annually more than one million three hundred 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 It is well known that Mr. Calhoun was twice elected 
 Vice President of the United States, upon which office
 
 196 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 he conferred a dignity and character every way worthy 
 of himself and the station. 
 
 On Mr. Hayne's election as Governor of South Caro- 
 lina, Mr. Calhoun, then Vice-President, was chosen to 
 fill his seat in the Senate of the United States. Says 
 a writer, " It had been intimated that he was to have 
 been arrested on his road to Washington ; and with the 
 single exception which was presented by Mr. O'Connell's 
 initiation into the British Parliament, after the passage 
 of the Catholic Emancipation Bill, there never was a 
 moment when the swearing in of a new member was 
 awaited with expectation so anxious and curious. When 
 he entered the Senate Chamber, where- for the seven last 
 years he had presided, over which he then held authority 
 as representative of the collected Union, and in which 
 he now appeared as the delegate of a State, which the 
 federal authorities had pronounced to be in open rebel- 
 lion, all eyes were turned upon him, and every ear was 
 open to catch the slightest whisper, as he was called 
 upon to take the constitutional oath. Very different is 
 the impression left on the mind by the swaggering air 
 with which the great Irish agitator tossed off, as it were, 
 a dose which he would soon take means to get rid of, 
 the oath of allegiance to the British crown, and the oath 
 of disregard to papal supremacy; and that created by 
 the calm and religious tone with which the southern 
 chief repeated those solemn words which called God and 
 his country to witness his fidelity to the Federal Consti- 
 tution. When the ceremony was over, and he had 
 taken his seat among his old political friends, now, with 
 but few exceptions/ arranged in hostile array against
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 197 
 
 him, it was impossible but that the hard feelings of party 
 should have become a little softened. No one who 
 knew his purity of character or purpose, who recollected 
 that twenty years had passed since he entered into the 
 political arena, and that, in that long period, there had not 
 been a speck on his fair and honorable fame, no one who 
 had stood by him in the calamities of the war of 1812, or 
 the perils of the re-action of 1816, could then believe that 
 he harbored in his heart, for an instant, a reservation to 
 the oath he had taken. There were many who may have 
 looked upon him as an ambitious and dangerous man, 
 but we question whether there were any who knew his 
 character, and knew his history, who doubted, no matter 
 how mistaken they might have considered his notions of 
 the unconstitutionality of the tariff of 1828, the full sin- 
 cerity of his attachment to the limited constitution 
 under which the Union exists." 
 
 It was said in the outset that Mr. Calhoun's political 
 life should be divided into three great eras. We have 
 described the first, and the opening session of Congress, 
 to "which we have just alluded, marks the second. It 
 was then that the great battle of State-Rights was 
 fought, Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Webster being the leading 
 champions. We subjoin two passages from that stage 
 in the debate in which the two great statesmen examine 
 the interpretation given by the Constitution itself, of 
 the question whether the Constitution is a compact or 
 otherwise. 
 
 ME. WEBSTER. 
 
 "Whether the Constitution be a compact between 
 States in their sovereign capacities, is a question which
 
 
 
 198 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 must be mainly argued from what is contained in the 
 instrument itself. We all agree that it is an instrument 
 which has been in some way clothed with power. We 
 all admit that it speaks with authority. The first ques- 
 tion then is What does it say of itself? What does it 
 purport to be ? Does it style itself a league, confederacy, 
 or compact between sovereign States ? It is to be re- 
 membered, that the Constitution began to speak only 
 after its adoption. Until it was ratified by nine States, 
 it was but a proposal, the mere draft of an instrument. 
 It was like a deed drawn but not executed. The Con- 
 vention had framed it ; sent it to Congress then sitting 
 under the Confederation : Congress had transmitted it to 
 the State Legislatures ; and by the last, it was laid be- 
 fore the Conventions of the people in the several States. 
 All this while it was inoperative paper. It had received 
 no stamp of authority: it spoke no language. But when 
 ratified by the people in their respective Conventions, 
 then it had a voice and spoke authentically. Every 
 word in it had then received the sanction' of the popu- 
 lar will, and was to be received as the expression of that 
 will. What the Constitution says of itself, therefore, is 
 as conclusive as what it says on any other point. Does 
 it call itself a 'compact?' Certainly not. It uses the 
 word compact but once, and that is when it declares 
 that the States shall enter into no compact. Does it 
 call itself a ' league,' a ' confederacy,' a ' subsisting treaty 
 between the States ?' Certainly not. There is not a 
 particle of such language in all its pages. But it de- 
 clares itself a CONSTITUTION. What is a Constitution ? 
 Certainly not a league or confederacy, but a funda-
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. I'j'J 
 
 ~\. -X* 
 
 mental law. That fundamenta 1 regulation which de- 
 termines the manner in which the public authority is to 
 be executed, is what forms the Constitution of a State. 
 Those primary rules which concern the body itself, 
 and the very being of the political society, the form of 
 government and the manner in which power is to be 
 exercised all, in a word, which form together the Con- 
 stitution of a State these are fundamental laws. This 
 is the language of the public writers. But do we need 
 to be informed in this country what a constitution is ? 
 Is it not an idea perfectly familiar, definite and well 
 settled ? We are at no loss to understand what is 
 meant by the Constitution of one of the States and 
 the Constitution of the United States speaks of itself as 
 being an instrument of the same nature. It says, this 
 Constitution shall be the law of the land, anything in 
 State Constitutions to the contrary, notwithstanding. 
 And speaks of itself, too, in plain contradistinction from 
 a confedeuation : for it says, that all debts contracted, 
 and all engagements entered into by the United States 
 shall be as valid under this Constitution as under the 
 Confederation. It does not say, as valid under this com- 
 pact, or this league, or this confederation, as under the 
 former confederation, but as valid under this Constitu- 
 
 ti.M," 
 
 MR. CALHOUN. 
 
 " It now remains to consider the third and last propo- 
 sition contained in the resolution that it is a binding 
 and a subsisting compact between the States. The Sena- 
 tor was not explicit on this point. 1 understand him, 
 however, as asserting that though formed by the States,
 
 '* . V* 
 
 Jl V * 
 
 200 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the Constitution was not binding between the States as 
 distinct communities, but between the American people 
 in the aggregate, who, in consequence of the adoption 
 of the Constitution, according to the opinion of the 
 Senator, became one people, at least to the extent of 
 the delegated powers. This would, indeed, be a great 
 change. All acknowledge, that previous to the adoption 
 of the Constitution, the States constituted distinct and 
 independent communities in full possession of their sove- 
 reignty; and surely, if the adoption of the Constitution 
 was intended to effect the great and important change 
 in their condition which the theory of the Senator sup- 
 poses, some evidence of it ought to be found in the in- 
 strument itself. It professes to be a careful and full 
 enumeration of all the powers which the States dele- 
 gated, and of every modification of their political 
 condition. The Senator said, that he looked to the Con- 
 stitution in order to ascertain its real character; and 
 surely he ought to look to the same instrument in order 
 to ascertain what changes were in fact made in the 
 political condition of the States and the country. But 
 with the exception of 'We, the people of the United 
 States,' in the preamble, he has not pointed out a single 
 indication in the Constitution of the great change which 
 he conceives has been effected in this respect. Now, 
 sir, I intend to prove that the only argument on which 
 the gentleman relies on this point, must utterly fail him. 
 I do not intend to go into a critical examination of the 
 expression of the preamble to which I have referred. I do 
 not deem it necessary ; but were it, it might easily be shown 
 that it is at least as applicable to my view of the Consti-
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 201 
 
 tution as to that of the Senator, and that the whole 
 of his argument on this point rests on the ambiguity of 
 the term thirteen United States; which may mean 
 certain territorial limits comprehending within them 
 the whole of the States and Territories of the Union. 
 In this sense the people of the United States may 
 mean all the people living within these limits, with- 
 out reference to the States or Territories in which 
 they may reside, or of which they may be citizens, and 
 it is in this sense only that the expression gives the least 
 countenance to the opinion of the Senator. But it may 
 also mean the States united, which inversion alone, 
 without further explanation, removes the ambiguity to 
 which I have referred. The expression in this sense, 
 means no more than to speak of the people of the seve- 
 ral States in their united and confederated capacity, and 
 if it were requisite, it might be shown that it is only in 
 this sense that the expression is used in the Constitu- 
 tion. But it is not necessary. A single argument will 
 for ever settle this point. Whatever may be the true 
 meaning of this expression, it is not applicable to the 
 condition of the States as they exist under the Constitu- 
 tion, but as it was under the old confederation before its 
 adoption. The Constitution had not yet been adopted, 
 and the States in ordaining it could only speak of them- 
 selves in the condition in which they then existed, and 
 not in that in which they would exist under the Consti- 
 tution. So that if the argument of the Senator proves 
 anything, it proves, not, as he supposes, that the Consti- 
 tution forms the American people into an aggregate 
 9*
 
 202 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 mass of individuals, but that such was their political 
 condition before it was adopted under the old confede- 
 ration, directly contrary to his argument in the previous 
 part of the discussion. 
 
 " But I intend not to leave this important point, the last 
 refuge of those who advocate consolidation, even on 
 this conclusive argument. I have shown that the Con- 
 stitution affords not the least evidence of the mighty 
 change of the political condition of the States and the 
 country, which the Senator supposed it effected ; and I 
 intend now, by the most decisive proof drawn from the 
 constitutional instrument itself, to show that no such 
 change was intended, and that the people are united 
 under it as States, and not as individuals. On this point 
 there is a very important part of the Constitution en- 
 tirely and strangely overlooked by the Senator in this 
 debate, as it is expressed in the first resolution, which fur- 
 nishes the conclusive evidence, not .only that the Consti- 
 tution is a compact, but a subsisting compact, binding 
 between the States. I allude to the 7th article, which 
 provides that 'the ratification of the Convention of 
 ni-ne States shall be sufficient for the establishment of 
 the Constitution between the States so ratifying the same.' 
 Yes, between the States these little words mean a vol- 
 ume compacts, not laws, bind beticeen the States, and 
 it here binds, not between individuals, but between the 
 States, tlie States ratifying imply, as strong as lan- 
 guage can make it, that the Constitution is what I have 
 asserted it to be a compact ratifying the States, and a 
 subsisting compact binding the States ratifying it. 
 " But, sir, I sh'all not leave this point, all-important in
 
 JtDHV C. CALHOUN. 203 
 
 establishing the true theory of our government,-.on this 
 argument alone demonstrative and conclusive as I hold 
 it to be. Another, not much less powerful, but of a 
 different character, may be drawn from the 12th amend- 
 ed article, which provides that ' the powers not delegated 
 to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited 
 to it by the States, are reserved to the States respect- 
 ively or to the people.' The article of ratification which 
 I have just cited, informs us that the Constitution which 
 delegates powers, was ratified by the States, and is bind- 
 ing between them. This informs us to whom the powers 
 are delegated, a most important fact in determining the 
 point at issue between the Senator and myself. Ac- 
 cording to his views, the Constitution created a union 
 between individuals, if the solecism may be allowed, 
 and that it formed, at least to the extent of the powers del- 
 egated, one people, arid not a Federal Union of the States, 
 as I contend ; or to express the same idea differently, that 
 the delegation of powers was to the American people in 
 the aggregate (for it is only by such delegation that they 
 could be made into one people); and not to the United 
 States, directly contrary to the article just cited, which 
 declares that the powers are delegated to the United 
 States. And here it is worthy of notice, that the Sena- 
 tor cannot shelter himself under the ambiguous phrase 
 'to the people of the United States,' under which he 
 would qertainly have taken refuge, had the Constitu- 
 tion so expressed it; but fortunately for the cause of 
 truth, and for the great principles of constitutional liber- 
 ty, for which I am contending, ' people' is omitted ; thus 
 making the delegation of power clear and unequivocal
 
 204 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 to the United States as distinct political communities, 
 and conclusively proving that all the powers delegated 
 are reciprocally delegated by the States to each other, 
 as distinct political communities." 
 
 To this same period belongs Mr. Calhoun's speech 
 against the Force Bill, in which he defended himself 
 against the accusations of General Jackson. Said he : 
 
 "Here I must pause for a moment to repel a charge 
 which has been so often made, and which even the Pre- 
 sident has reiterated in his proclamation ; the charge 
 that I have been actuated in the part which I have taken 
 by feelings of disappointed ambition. I again repeat 
 that I deeply regret the necessity of noticing myself in 
 so important a discussion ; and that nothing can induce 
 me to advert to my own course but the conviction that 
 it is due to the cause at which a blow is aimed through 
 me. It is only in this view that I notice it. 
 
 " It ill became the Chief Magistrate to make this 
 charge. The course which the State took, and which 
 led to the present controversy between her and the Gen- 
 eral Government was taken as far back as 1828, in the 
 very midst of that severe canvass which placed him in 
 power, and in that very canvass Carolina openly avow- 
 ed and zealously maintained those very principles which 
 he, the Chief Magistrate, now officially pronounces to be 
 treason and rebellion. That was the period at which he 
 ought to have spoken. Having remained silent then, 
 and having, under his approval, implied by that silence, 
 received the support and vote of the State, I, if a sense 
 of decorum did not prevent it, might recriminate with 
 the double charge of deception and ingratitude M v
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 205 
 
 object, however, is not to assail the President, but to 
 defend myself against a most unfounded charge. The 
 time alone at which the course upon which this charge 
 of disappointed ambition is founded, will of itself repel 
 it, in the eye of every unprejudiced and honest man. 
 The doctrine which I now sustain, under the present 
 difficulties, I openly avowed and maintained immedi- 
 ately after the act of 1828 ; that " bill of abominations," 
 as it has been so often and properly termed. Was I at 
 that period disappointed in any views of ambition which 
 I might be supposed to entertain ? I was Vice Presi- 
 dent of the United States, elected by an overwhelming 
 majority. I was a candidate for re-election on the 
 ticket with General Jackson himself, with a certain pros- 
 pect of a triumphant success of that ticket, and with a 
 fair prospect of the highest office to which an American 
 citizen can aspire. What was my course under these 
 prospects ? Did I look to my own advancement, or to 
 an honest and faithful discharge of my duty ? Let 
 facts speak for themselves. When the bill to which I 
 have referred came from the other House to the Senate, 
 the almost universal impression was, that its fate would 
 depend upon my casting vote. It was known that, as 
 the bill then stood, the Senate was nearly equally divi- 
 ded ; and as it was a combined measure, originating 
 with the politicians and manufacturers, and intended as 
 much to bear upon the Presidential election as to pro- 
 tect manufactures, it was believed that, as a stroke of 
 political policy, its fate would be made to depend on 
 my vote in order to defeat General Jackson's election, 
 as well as my own. The friends cf General Jackson
 
 206 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 were alarmed, and I was earnestly entreated to leave the 
 chair, in order to avoid the responsibility, under the 
 plausible argument that, if the Senate sho'uld be equally 
 divided, the bill would be lost without the aid of my cast- 
 ing vote. The reply to this entreaty was, that no con- 
 sideration, personal to myself, could induce me to take 
 such a course ; that I considered the measure as of the 
 most dangerous character, and calculated to produce the 
 most fearful crisis ; that the payment of the public debt 
 was just at hand ; and that the great increase of reve- 
 nue which it would pour into the treasury would accele- 
 rate the approach of that period, and that the country 
 would be placed in the most trying of situations, with 
 an immense revenue, without the means of absorption 
 upon any legitimate or constitutional object of appro- 
 priation, and would be compelled to submit to all the 
 cprrupting consequences of a large surplus, or to make 
 a sudden reduction of the rates of duties, which would 
 prove ruinous to the very interests which were then 
 forcing the passage of the bill. Under these views, I 
 determined to remain in the chair, and if the bill came 
 to me to give my casting vote against it, and in doing 
 so, to give my reasons at large ; but at the same time, 
 I informed my friends that I would retire from the 
 ticket, so that the election of General Jackson might not 
 be embarrassed by any act of mine. Sir, I was amazed 
 at the folly and infatuation of that period. So com- 
 pletely absorbed was Congress in the game of ambition 
 and avarice, from the double impulse of the manufac- 
 turers and politicians, that none but a few appeared to 
 anticipate the present crisis, at which now all are'
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 207 
 
 alarmed, but which is the inevitable result of what was 
 then done. As to myself, I clearly foresaw what has 
 since followed. The road of ambition lay open before 
 me I had but to follow the corrupt tendency of the 
 times : but I choose to tread the rugged path of duty." 
 
 After having corrected, as he believed, some of the 
 prominent misrepresentations as to the nature of the 
 controversy with South Carolina, and giving a rapid 
 sketch of the movements of that State in reference to it, 
 he next proceeds to notice some objections connected 
 with the ordinance, and the proceedings under it : 
 
 " The first and most prominent of these is directed 
 against what is called the Test Oath, which an effort has 
 been made to render odious. So far from deserving the 
 denunciation which has been levelled against it, I view 
 this provision of the ordinance as but the natural result 
 of the doctrines entertained by the State, and the posi- 
 tion which she occupies. The people .of that State be- 
 lieve that the Union is a union of States, and not of 
 individuals ; that it was formed by the States, and that 
 the citizens of the several States were bound to it through 
 the acts of their several States ; that each State ratified 
 the Constitution for itself, and that it was only by such 
 ratificatioa of a State that any obligation was imposed 
 upon the citizens : thus believing, it is the opinion of the 
 people of Carolina that it belongs to the State which has 
 imposed the obligation to declare, in the last resort, the 
 extent of this obligation, as far as her citizens are con- 
 cerned ; and this upon the plain principles which exist 
 in all analagous cases of compact between sovereign 
 bodies. On this principle the people of the State, acting
 
 208 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 in their sovereign capacity in convention, precisely as 
 they adopted their own and the Federal Constitution, 
 have declared by the ordinance, that the acts of Congress 
 which imposed duty under the authority to lay imposts 
 are acts not for revenue, as intended by the Constitu- 
 tions, but for protection, and therefore null and void, 
 The ordinance thus enacted by the people of the State 
 themselves, acting as a sovereign community, is as obli- 
 gatory on the citizens of the State as any portion of the 
 Constitution. In prescribing, then, the oath to obey the 
 ordinance, no more was done than to prescribe an oath 
 to obey the Constitution. It is, in fact, but a particular 
 oath of allegiance, and in every respect similar to that 
 which is prescribed under the Constitution of the United 
 States, to be administered to all the officers of the State 
 and Federal Governments ; and is no more deserving 
 the harsh and bitter epithets which have been heaped 
 upon it than that, or any similar oath. It ought to be 
 borne in mind, that, according to the opinion which pre- 
 vails in Carolina, the right of resistance to the uncon- 
 stitutional laws of Congress belongs to the State, and not 
 to her individual citizens ; and that, though the latter 
 may, in a mere question of meum and tuum, resist, 
 through the courts, an unconstitutional encroachment 
 upon their rights, yet the final stand against usurpation 
 rests not with them, but with the State of which they 
 are members ; and such act of resistance by a State 
 binds the conscience and the allegiance of the citizen. 
 But there appears to be a general misapprehension as to 
 the extent to which the State has acted under this part of 
 the ordinance. Instead of sweeping every officer by a
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 209 
 
 general proscription of the minority, as has been repre- 
 sented in debate, as far as my knowledge extends, not a 
 single individual has been removed. The State, has, in 
 fact, acted with the greatest tenderness, all circum- 
 stances considered, towards citizens who differed from 
 the majority ; and, in that spirit, has directed the oath to 
 be administered only in cases of some official act 
 directed to be performed, in which obedience to the 
 ordinance is involved. 
 
 " It has been farther 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 Legislature ; and, finally, by attempt- 
 ing an appeal to the judicial power of the 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 ma- 
 jority who, on a motion of one of the members 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, re- 
 lied 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 constitution- 
 ality 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
 
 210 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 years, under this continued encroachment of the Gov- 
 ernment; we now hear it on all sides, by friends and foes, 
 gravely pronounced that the State has acted precipi- 
 tately 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 be-= 
 stowed 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 quar- 
 ter the same language ; but it is really surprising that 
 those who are suffering in common with herself, and who 
 have complained equally loud of their grievances, who 
 have pronounced the very acts which she has 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 Tro- 
 jan war should now complain df precipitancy ! No, 
 it is not Carolina 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, a case of monopoly. 
 It is the very nature of monopolies to grow. If we 
 take from one side a large portion of the proceeds of its
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 211 
 
 labor, and give it to the other, the side from which we 
 take must constantly decay, and that to which we give 
 must prosper and increase. Such is the action of the 
 protective system. It exacts from the South a large 
 portion of the proceeds of its industry, which it bestows 
 upon the other sections, in the shape of bounties to 
 manufactures, and appropriations in a thousand forms, 
 pensions, improvements of rivers and harbors, roads and 
 canals, and in every shape that wit or ingenuity can 
 devise. Can we, then, be surprised that the principle of 
 monopoly grows, when it is so amply remunerated at the 
 expense of those who support it?" 
 
 The closing paragraphs of this great speech are 
 very impressive. The orator continues: 
 
 " The controversy is only as to the means by which our 
 citizens may be protected against, the acknowledged en- 
 croachments on their rights. This being the point at 
 issue between the parties, and the very object of the 
 majority being an efficient protection of the citizens 
 through the State tribunals, the measures adopted to 
 enforce the ordinance of course received the most 
 decisive character. We were not children to act by 
 halves. Yet for acting thus efficiently the State is 
 denounced, and this bill reported to overrule, by military 
 force, the civil tribunals and civil process of the State ! 
 Sir, I consider this bill, and the arguments which have 
 been urged on this floor in its support, as the , most tri- 
 umphant acknowledgment that Nullification is peaceful 
 and efficient, and so deeply intrenched in the principles 
 of our system, that it cannot be assailed but by prostrat- 
 ing the Constitution, and substituting the supremacy
 
 212 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 of military force in lieu of the supremacy of the 
 laws. In fact, the advocates of this bill refute their 
 own argument. They tell us that the ordinance is un- 
 constitutional ; that they infract the Constitution of 
 South Carolina, although to me the objection appears 
 absurd, as it was adopted by the very authority which 
 adopted the Constitution itself. They also tell us that 
 the Supreme Court is the appointed arbiter of all con- 
 troversies between a State and the General Government. 
 Why then, do they not leave this controversy to that 
 tribunal ? Why do they not confide to them the abroga- 
 tion of the ordinance and the laws made in pursuance 
 of it, and the assertion of that supremacy which they 
 claim for the laws of Congress ? The State stands 
 pledged to resist no process of the court. Why, then, 
 confer on the President the extensive and unlimited 
 powers provided in this bill ? Why authorize him to 
 use military force to arrest the civil process of the State ? 
 But one answer can be given : That, in a contest be- 
 tween the State and the General Government, if the 
 resistance be limited on both sides to the civil process, 
 the State, by its inherent sovereignty, standing upon its 
 reserved powers, will prove too powerfuHn such a con- 
 troversy, and must triumph over the Federal Govern- 
 ment, sustained by its delegated and limited authority ; 
 and in this answer we have an acknowledgment of the 
 truth of those great principles for which the State has 
 so firmly and nobly contended. 
 
 " Having made these remarks, the great question is 
 now presented : Has Congress the right to pass this
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 213 
 
 bill ?* which I will next proceed to consider. The de- 
 cision of this question involves the inquiry into the pro- 
 visions of the bill. What are they ? It puts at the dis- 
 posal of the President the army and navy, and the entire 
 militia of the country ; it enables him, at his pleasure, 
 to subject every man in the United States, not exempt 
 from militia duty, to martial law : to call him from his 
 ordinary occupation to the field, and under the penalty 
 of fine and imprisonment, inflicted by a court martial, 
 to compel him to embrue his hand in his brother's blood. 
 There is no limitation on the power of the sword, and 
 that over the purse is equally without restraint ; for, 
 among the extraordinary features of the bill, it contains 
 no appropriation, which, under existing circumstances, 
 is tantamount to an unlimited appropriation. The Pres- 
 ident may, under its authority, incur any expenditure, 
 and pledge the national faith to meet it. He may create 
 a new national debt, at the very moment of the termi- 
 nation of the former a debt of millions, to be paid out 
 of the proceeds of the labor of that section of the coun- 
 try whose dearest constitutional rights this bill prostrates ! 
 Thus exhibiting the extraordinary spectacle, that the 
 very section of the country which is urging this mea- 
 sure, and carrying the sword of devastation against us, 
 are, at the same time, incurring a new debt, to be 
 paid by those whose rights are violated; while those 
 who violate them are to receive the benefits, in the 
 shape of bounties and expenditures. 
 
 "And for what purpose is the unlimited control of the 
 purse and of the sword thus placed at the disposition of 
 * The Force Bill.
 
 214 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the Executive? To make war against one of the 
 free and sovereign members of this confederation, 
 which the bill proposes to deal with, not as a State, but 
 as a collection of banditti or outlaws. Thus exhibiting 
 the impious spectacle of this Government, the creature 
 of the States, making war against the power to which 
 it owes its existence. 
 
 " The bill violates the Constitution, plainly and palpa- 
 bly, in many of its provisions, by authorizing the Presi- 
 dent, at his pleasure, to place the different ports of this 
 Union on an equal footing, contrary to the provision 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 im- 
 pose cash duties on one port while credit is allowed in 
 others ; by enabling the President to regulate commerce, 
 a power vested in Congress alone; and by drawing 
 within the jurisdiction of the United States' courts, 
 powers never intended to be conferred on them. As 
 great as these objections are, they become insignificant 
 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 an integral part of the Union; having no 
 more right to resist the encroachments of the Govern 
 ment than a county has to resist the authority of a State
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUlf. 215 
 
 and treating such resistance as the lawless acts of so 
 many individuals, without possessing sovereignty or po- 
 litical 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, intellectual 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 
 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 vio- 
 lated, 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 .abandon- 
 ment of the exercise of every power which constitutes 
 her a sovereign community. It is to South Carolina a 
 question 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
 
 216 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 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 de- 
 fence of the State, and the great principles of constitu- 
 tional liberty for which she is contending. God forbid 
 that this should become necessary! 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." 
 
 The third remarkable era in Mr. Calhoun's political 
 career began with the agitation of the sub-treasury 
 question, in 1837. The general suspension of the banks 
 occasioned the call of an extra session of Congress, at 
 the opening of which Mr. Van Buren presented a mes- 
 sage which not a little confounded both parties in both 
 wings of the Capitol. On learning the course which the 
 President intended to pursue, Mr. Calhoim at once re- 
 solved to sustain him. In defence of the leading finan- 
 cial bill, reported to meet the exigencies of the country, 
 he made three speeches, which are justly ranked among 
 the most distinguished of his life. We quote three short 
 extracts, which present an agreeable variety, each one 
 containing sentiments worthy of the gravest considera- 
 tion. In the first, the orator alludes to the influence of 
 banking on the intellect : 
 
 " But its most fatal effects originate in its bearing on 
 the moral and intellectual development of the community. 
 The great principle of demand and supply governs 
 the moral and intellectual world no less than the business 
 and commercial. If a community be so organized as to
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 217 
 
 cause a demand for high mental attainments, they are 
 sure to be developed. If its honors and rewards are 
 allotted to pursuits that require their development ; by 
 creating a demand for intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, 
 justice, firmness, courage, patriotism, and the like, they 
 are sure to be produced. But, if allotted to pursuits 
 that require inferior qualities, the higher are sure to 
 decay and perish. I object to the banking system, be- 
 cause it allots the honors and rewards of the commu- 
 nity, in a very undue proportion, to a pursuit the least 
 of all others favorable to the development of the higher 
 mental qualities, intellectual or moral, to the decay of 
 the learned professions, and the more noble pursuits of 
 science, literature, philosophy, and statesmanship, and 
 the great and more useful pursuits of business and in- 
 dustry. With the vast increase of its profits and influ- 
 ence, it is gradually concentrating in itself most of the 
 prizes of life wealth, honor, and influence to the 
 great disparagement and degradation of all the liberal 
 and useful and generous pursuits of society. The 
 rising generation cannot but feel its deadening influence. 
 The youths that crowd our colleges, and behold the 
 road to honor and distinction terminating in a banking- 
 house, will feel the spirit of emulation decay within 
 them, and will no longer be pressed forward by generous 
 ardor to mount up the rugged steep of science, as the 
 road to honor and distinction* when, perhaps the highest 
 point they could attain in what was once the most 
 honorable and influential of all the learned professions, 
 would be the place of attorney to a bank." 
 10
 
 218 LIVING ORATORS IN- AMERICA. 
 
 The second quotation relates to the question, Is the 
 deposite scheme constitutional? 
 
 "I have not yet exhausted my constitutional objec- 
 tions. I rise to higher and to broader, applying directly 
 to the very essence of this substitute. I deny your 
 right to make a general deposite of the public revenue 
 in a bank. More than half of the errors of life may be 
 traced to fallacies originating in an improper use of 
 words; and among not the least mischievous is the ap- 
 plication of this word to bank transactions, in a sense 
 wholly different from its original meaning. Originally 
 it meant a thing placed in trust, or pledged to be safely 
 and sacredly kept till returned to the depositor, without 
 being used by the depository, while in his possession. 
 All this is changed when applied to a deposite in bank. 
 Instead of returning the identical thing, the bank is un- 
 derstood to be bound to return only an equal value ; and 
 instead of not having the use, it is understood to have 
 the right to loan it out on interest, or to dispose of it as 
 it pleases, with the .single condition, than an equal 
 amount be returned, when demanded, which experience 
 has taught is not always done. To place, then, the pub- 
 lic money in deposite, in bank, without restriction, is to 
 give the free use of it, and to allow them to make as 
 much as they can out of it, between the time of depo- 
 -site and disbursement. Have we such a right ? The 
 money belongs to the people collected from them for 
 specific purposes in which they have a general interest, 
 and for that only ; and what possible right can we have 
 to give such use of it to certain selected corpo- 
 rations ? I ask for the provision of the Constitution
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 219 
 
 that authorizes it. I ask, if we could grant the use, for 
 similar purposes, to private associations or individuals ? 
 Or if not to them, to individual officers of the Govern- 
 ment i for instance, to the four principal receivers under 
 this bill, should it pass ? And if this cannot be done, 
 that the distinction be pointed out." 
 
 In what follows, Mr. Calhoun explains the meaning of 
 sub-treasury : 
 
 " I regard this measure, which has been so much de 
 nounced, as very little more than an attempt to carry 
 out the provisions of the joint resolution of 1816, and 
 the deposite act of 1836. The former provides that no 
 notes but those of specie paying banks shall be received 
 in the dues of the Government ; and the latter, that 
 such banks only shall be the depositories of the public 
 revenues and fiscal agents of the Government ; but it is 
 omitted to make provisions for the contingency of a gen- 
 eral suspension of specie payments, such as is the present. 
 It followed, accordingly, on the suspension in May last, 
 which totally separated the Government and the banks, 
 that the revenues were thrown into the hands of the 
 Executive, where they have since remained under its 
 exclusive control, without any legal provision for their 
 safe-keeping. The object of this bill is to supply this 
 omission ; to take the public money out of the hands of 
 the Executive, and place it under the custody of the 
 laws, and to prevent the renewal of a connection which . 
 has proved so unfortunate to both the Government and 
 the banks. But it is this measure, originating in an exi- 
 gency caused by our own acts, and that seeks to make 
 the most of a change affected by the operation of law,
 
 220 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 instead of attempting to innovate, or to make another 
 experiment, as has been erroneously represented, which 
 has been denounced under the name of the Sub-Trea- 
 sury with such unexampled bitterness." 
 
 Mr. Walsh, writing from Paris, remarked that Mr. 
 Calhoun's speech on the Ashburton treaty was regarded 
 by some of the best French critics, as one of the most 
 classical and cogent arguments of modern times. The 
 same may be said of his Oregon speech, and other great 
 efforts of still more recent date. He is to-day full of 
 vivacious intellect, force of logic, and fervor of patriot- 
 'sm, as in 1814 when he battled undismayed against 
 Great Britain. The following extract vividly portrays 
 his own indomitable character, and with it we must close 
 our list of examples : 
 
 " This country is left alone to support the rights of 
 neutrals. Perilous is the condition, and arduous 
 the task. We are not intimidated. We stand op- 
 posed to 'British usurpation, and by our spirit and 
 efforts, have done all in our power to save the last 
 vestiges of neutral rights. Yes, our embargoes, non- 
 intercourse, non-importation, and finally, war, are 
 all manly exertions to preserve the rights of this and 
 other nations from the deadly grasp of British maritime 
 policy. But (say our opponents) these efforts are lost 
 and our condition hopeless. If so, it only remains for 
 us to assume the garb of our condition. We must sub- 
 mit, humbly submit, crave pardon, and hug our chains. 
 It is not wise to provoke where we cannot resist. But 
 first let us be well assured of the hopelessness of our 
 state before we sink into submission. On whjt do our
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 221 
 
 opponents rest their despondent and slavish belief? On 
 the recent events in Europe ? 1 admit they are great, 
 tmd well calculated to impose on the imagination. Our 
 enemy never presented a more imposing exterior. His 
 fortune is at the flood. But I am admonished by uni- 
 versal experience, that such prosperity is the most pre- 
 carious of human conditions. From the flood, the tide 
 dates its ebb. From the meridian the son commences 
 his decline. Depend upon it, there is more of sound 
 philosophy than of fiction in the fickleness which 
 poets attribute to fortune. Prosperity has its weak- 
 ness,, adversity its strength. In many respects our 
 enemy has lost by those very changes which seem so 
 very much in his favor. He can no more Claim to be 
 struggling for existence; no more to be fighting the 
 battles of the world in defence of the liberties of man- 
 kind. The magic cry of 'French influence' is lost. In 
 this very hall we are not strangers to that sound. Here, 
 even here, the cry of ' French influence,' that baseless 
 fiction, that phantom of faction now banished, often re- 
 sounded. I rejoice that the spell is broken by which it 
 was attempted to bind the spirit of this youthful nation. 
 The minority can no longer act under cover, but must 
 come out and defend their opposition on its own intrin- 
 sic merits. Our example can scarcely fail to produce 
 its effects on other nations interested in the maintenance 
 of maritime rights. But if, unfortunately, we should 
 be left alone to maintain the contest, and if, which may 
 God forbid, necessity should compel us to yield for the 
 present, yet our generous efforts will not have been lost. 
 A mode of thinking and a tone of sentiment have gone
 
 222 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 abroad which must stimulate to future and more success- 
 ful struggles. What could not be affected with eight 
 millions of people will be done with twenty. The greai 
 cause will never be yielded ; no, never, never ! Sir, 1 
 hear the future audibly announced in the past in the 
 splendid victories over the Guerriere, Java, and Mace- 
 donian. We, and all nations, by these victories, are 
 taught a lesson never to be forgotten. Opinion is power. 
 The charm of British naval invincibility is gone." 
 
 The foregoing biographical sketch, followed by copi- 
 ous and diversified specimens of his premeditated as 
 well as extemporaneous compositions, will have prepared 
 the way for a more specific examination into the char- 
 acter of Mr. Calhoun's eloquence. Clearness, direct- 
 ness, and energy, we consider its three most marked 
 characteristics. 
 
 In the first place, note the remarkable clearness of 
 Mr. Calhoun's mind. We have already traced the cir- 
 cumstances attending the commencement of that noble 
 career in which he has signalized himself as the most 
 philosophical orator in America. By nature and pro- 
 tracted culture he is a consummate metaphysician. By 
 this we do riot mean that he is accustomed to reason 
 himself into frigid reveries and Platonic dreams concern- 
 ing some ideal Atlantis or impossible- Utopia. Political 
 and psychological speculations with him are not hard, 
 dry dogmas, but living realities actualized and verified 
 by the profound earnestness of the speaker. His 
 argument is not the "thwarted growth of starveling 
 labor and dry sterility ;" but with spontaneous force, 
 and unaffected simplicity, he reveals the inward gran-
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 223 
 
 deur of a vivid and energetic mind. It is not inap- 
 propriate to apply to his speeches what Hazlitt has said 
 of the works left us- by the greatest master of graphic 
 aK. "Not to speak it profanely^ they are a sort of reve- 
 lation of the subjects of which they treat ; there is an 
 ease and freedom of manner about them which brings 
 preternatural characters and situations home to us with 
 the familiarity of common every-day occurrences; but 
 while the figures fill, raise and satisfy the mind, they 
 seem to have cost the painter nothing. They are mere 
 intellectual, or rather visible abstractions of truth and 
 nature. Everywhere else we see the means ; here we 
 arrive at the end apparently without any means. There 
 is a spirit at work in the divine creation before us." 
 
 Mr. Calhoun flaunts in no gaudy rhetorical robes of 
 scarlet and gold, but comes into the forum clothed in 
 the simplest garb, with firm hands grasping the reins of 
 fancy, and intent only on giving a reason for the faith 
 that is in him. The embellishment he sparingly employs 
 never obscures or encumbers that manly strength and 
 luminous energy, which constitute the prominent fea- 
 tures of his style. His language is exceedingly choice 
 and most fit to be used by all who think while speaking. 
 In characterizing Mr. Calhoun as the metaphysician 
 among American orators, we design to say that he is 
 full of clear-spirited and substantial significance, and 
 not that his intellect is "woven of pure thought and the 
 airy films of the imagination Arachne's web not finer !" 
 In him that mental acutewess which is skillful in taking 
 up the points of solid atoms, coalesces with a subtlety 
 equally sensitive- in feeling the delicate atmosphere of
 
 224 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 truth. There are many pseudo philosophers who are 
 adroit only in "defining night by darkness, tteath by 
 dust," the type of whose debating power could be found 
 in nothing but " what the shadow of the wind might be." 
 Do the best ypu can to trace their flight or comprehend 
 their meaning, and after all you feel that the attempt is 
 as fruitless as if you should " hunt half a day for a for- 
 gotten dream." 
 
 Not so with Mr. Calhoun. His is incontestably 
 superior to most of his contemporaries in profound and 
 valuable philosophical accomplishments. Evidently he 
 has great fondness for speculations the most abstract, 
 the fruits of which he can with uncommon facility 
 render directly applicable to common pursuits ; he loves 
 to soar into realms not often explored by metaphysical 
 politicians, but at the same time is expert in the dis- 
 charge of duties the most trite. While he has an eye 
 to perceive, and a hand to grasp, shadowy abstractions, 
 "pure in the last recesses of the mind," he is an adept in 
 all sorts of practical affairs, one whom the most literal 
 proser can hardly excel. His piercing intellect is often 
 illuminated by the brightest imagination, but this latter 
 faculty ever contents itself with the office of minister- 
 ing only to reason. From this relation of the two 
 grand powers of his mind, it has resulted, that his elo- 
 quence", illustrated by axioms more than adorned by 
 imagery, holds the strongest supremacy over those who 
 are best qualified to reflect. The thinking power, promi- 
 nent in his speeches, together with the earnest spirit per- 
 vading them, form their distinctive characteristics, and 
 stamp their superior worth. Their author seems to
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 
 
 have learned from Albericus, that "to the knowledge of 
 history, must be added that part of philosophy which 
 treats of morals and politics ; for this is the soul of 
 history, which explains the causes of the actions and 
 sayings of men, and of the events which befall them." 
 At any rate, more than any other politician of the day, 
 he has learned to explore, 
 
 " The bearings of men's duties and desires ; 
 To note the nature and the laws of mind ; 
 To balance good with evil ; and compare 
 The nature and necessity of each." 
 
 In the second place, look at the directness so charac- 
 teristic of Mr. Calhoun's style. We have before said 
 that he is highly philosophical, but not subject to meta- 
 physical paroxysms. Habitually dealing in very precise 
 discrimination, no man more than he, is free from schol- 
 astic barbarism. The remark made by Dugald Stewart 
 on Barrow is not less true of Calhoun. " As a writer, 
 he is equally distinguished by the redundancy of his 
 matter, and by the pregnant brevity of his expression; 
 but what more peculiarly characterizes his manner, is 
 a certain air of powerful and of conscious facility in the 
 execution of whatever he undertakes." fn this respect 
 our American metaphysician differs widely from. those 
 learned Thebans who employ much science to inform 
 the world, " that ships have anchors, and that seas are 
 green." 
 
 Mr. Calhoun is one of those men whom Providence 
 
 sends upon earth at remote intervals, to do the chief 
 
 thinking of their age, to sift the particles of truth from the 
 
 heap of rubbish under which they have long been 
 
 10*
 
 226 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 buried, fuse them into practical shape, and give them 
 universal currency. Sparing of words, but teeming 
 with ideas, they coin great principles in the precious 
 mintage of their mind, and hurl them into profuse and 
 popular circulation. Their thought and execution are 
 as intimately allied and effective, as the etherial flash 
 \vhichprecedesthethunder. The words of such men 
 contain the life or death of many generations ; and they 
 were born to act in crises that powerfully affect the en- 
 tire future of the human race. They seem to contain 
 the master thought of all, to mould and to express it. 
 If they are truly patriotic, their service will be of inesti- 
 mable value, for they will say, with William Tell, as he 
 drew the arrow designed to pierce the fatal apple from 
 the head of his boy : "Perish my name and my memory, 
 provided my country may be free !" 
 
 Feeling from his youth that the fundamental princi- 
 ples of moral and political philosophy are realities of 
 the greatest importance, he never has- fallen dnto the 
 indolent habit pf declaiming about them, as if they were 
 nonentities, incapable of being either seen or under- 
 stood. These matters he has examined critically and 
 analytically for metaphysical purposes, but he has drawn 
 the scalpel through living subjects rather than dead. 
 The beauty, health, freshness, and animation of the 
 human frame, have departed ere it is submitted to the 
 knife of the anatomist, and it is in something of the 
 same condition that the human mind is considered by 
 most philosophers. But the case is different with Mr. 
 Calhoun. He has ever studied mankind in their vital 
 energies and natural promptings, and has thus learned
 
 JOftN C. CALHOUN. 227 
 
 skillfully to touch the springs of their action and control 
 its use. Compelled by necessity and disposition to 
 speak in terms intelligible and agreeable to hearers of 
 every grade, he has happily learned both to adapt the 
 object of his inquiries, and his mode of reasoning, to 
 the general understanding and sentiments of his coun- 
 trymen. As Erasmus said of Sir Thomas More, " His 
 eloquent tongue so well seconds his fertile invention, 
 that no one speaks better when suddenly called forth. 
 His attention never languishes, his mind is always before 
 his words ; his memory has all its stock so turned into 
 ready money, that without hesitation or delay it supplies 
 whatever the occasion may require." 
 
 The test of true oratorical merit lies in thought, and 
 not in words. Take away language from Homer, and 
 however much you have removed, the epic poet is left 
 unimpaired ; but make the same draft upon Virgil, 
 strip him of the- majesty, glow, and fascination of his 
 diction, and the merit that remains will be nearly re- 
 duced to what he borrowed from Homer's plan. It is 
 the same with many speeches which abound in gor- 
 geous passages, captivating images, pathos, fancy, fervid 
 invective, and stinging sarcasm, but which are little im- 
 bued with the intense energy of substantial argument, 
 " An indignant fiery purity" pervades Calhoun's phrase- 
 ology, like heat and resistance- in glowing steel. Ordi- 
 nary composition called metaphysical by virtue of a 
 multitude of artificial technicalities, resembles an incon- 
 gruous assemblage of obsolete dilapidations, rather than 
 a natural distribution of practical materials. But the 
 matter and spirit of Mr. Calhoun's eloquence are not
 
 228 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 embodied in hyperbole, nor violence, nor frivolity, nor 
 pedantry, but come forth simply in clear, forcible, la- 
 conic truth. It is the incarnation and expression of 
 mind, and therefore transcends in worth the flippant 
 nothings of ordinary speakers, as the factitious lustre of 
 the Aphrodite is dull compared with the brow of 
 Raphael's Madonna, and the fantastic carving of a stone 
 mason is stupid beyond endurance beside the divine 
 form of the Greek god. 
 
 The accuracy and depth of Mr. Calhoun's knowledge 
 are rendered practically evident by a rapid but distinct 
 and fearless expression. Having fixed his eye steadily on 
 the goal he would attain, he advances towards it with a 
 speed and directness which it requires the utmost care 
 to follow. He requires the undivided attention of the 
 reader or listener, and is sure to reward it. Awed and 
 penetrated by his power, we are compelled to acknow- 
 ledge that true argumentation is no mere skirmishing or 
 idle sport, but, on the contrary, it is deeply to feel and 
 earnestly to think. 
 
 " While thought is standing thick upon the brain 
 As dew upon the brow for thought is brain sweat j 
 And gathering quick and dark, like storms in summer, 
 Until convulsed, condensed, in lightning sport, 
 It plays upon the heavens of the mind, 
 Opens the hemisphered abysses here, 
 And we become revealers to ourselves." 
 
 We have spoken of the mental clearness and moial 
 directness so strongly marked in the eloquence of Mr. 
 Calhoun. Let us now, in the third place, notice more 
 particularly his logical force.
 
 JOHN C. OALHOUN. 229 
 
 Lord Bacon, laying down the theory of the advance- 
 ment of fortune, in a singular passage, directs " that 
 there be not anything in being or action which should not 
 be drawn and collected into contemplation and doctrine." 
 Our distinguished countryman seems ever to have acted 
 on this principle, since every day of his mature life has 
 been devoted to the diligent acquisition of knowledge 
 by study and observation the most untiring and diversi- 
 fied. He seems never to have met a man, witnessed an 
 incident, or mingled in a scene, without in some way 
 augmenting his stores of wisdom thereby. His erudi- 
 tion, however, has resulted more from solitary medita- 
 tion, than from social converse, scientific research, or 
 literary recreation. 
 
 Descartes, writing to a friend, said, " I study here in 
 tensely without a book ;" and it was the well-known 
 saying of Hobbes, " that if he had read as much as 
 others, he might have been as ignorant." But such 
 unreading philosophers, who avoid books, lest they might 
 stand between them and the natural development of 
 inherent force, do not abound in our day. Perhaps the 
 best example extant among our public men is now under 
 consideration, and yet he, we repeat, is no mere idealist. 
 He knows very well that however high and refined the 
 orator's head may be, his feet must rest firmly on com- 
 mon earth, with all its gross imperfections, if he wishes 
 to excite popular sympathies, and command belief. He 
 is habitually contemplative, but values time too highly 
 to sit with the long and "passionful unwinking gaze, 
 which beats itself at last, and sees air only." His is no 
 mere mirage of mind, but the clearest vision on the
 
 230 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 most solid ground. The busy idlers who waste life in 
 doating upon " dreams and dim atomic truths," as little 
 resemble him in temperament and taste, as it is possible 
 to conceive. The effects he designs to produce, are the 
 sensations of power and the delights of conviction. To 
 attain this end, he wastes nothing, not one moment or 
 topic could be spared without irreparable loss, and the 
 hearer feels that the process has been timed and con- 
 summated in a manner as bold as it has been perse- 
 vering. 
 
 Genius we hold to be that power which enlarges the 
 circle of human knowledge, discovers new materials, and 
 gives the air of novelty to what is already known ; while 
 talent arranges, elaborates, and renders practical the 
 discoveries of genius. Thus defined, we think that Mr. 
 Calhoun is largely endowed with both these attributes. 
 The talents which succeeded the genius of the ancients, 
 applied their potency and polish to instruct and adorn 
 the world by diffusing the refinements of taste, grace, 
 and sentiment, embodied in masculine beauty, mental 
 grandeur and eloquent expression. Such is our states- 
 man philosopher, full of metaphysical subtlety and moral 
 though tfulness. Neither before nor since his entrance 
 into the American Senate, has there been such a union 
 of the orator and sage. His acquired talents are rich 
 and multifarious, and these are mighty auxiliaries to his 
 native capacity, instead of being impediments ; in all 
 their . wealthy profusion, there is " naught cumbrous 
 more than new down to a wing." Profuse divisions 
 diminish, and all superfluous expletives impair, the sim- 
 plicity and clearness of natural expression. Orators
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 231 
 
 dealing largely in such pedantic artificialness resemble 
 those artists, who have wasted existence in abstract 
 theories on proportion, who have measured the antique 
 in all its forms and characters, compared it learnedly 
 with nature, and mixed up dubious amalgams of both, 
 yet never made one figure stand or move. The specific 
 gravity of such dullness is awful, and will cause its pos- 
 sessor to "drop down oblivion like a pebble in a pit." 
 
 The form of Mr. Calhoun's eloquence is circumscribed 
 by premeditated lines, characterized by clear, practical 
 sense, and substantiated by a genial enthusiasm, which 
 is to the body of his argument, what the breath of the 
 Almighty was to the yet unvitalized Adam. Taste and 
 elocution not only recommend his speaking to the ear 
 and eye, but the perspicuity of his thought, impressed 
 with a lofty moral import, causes him to be equally in- 
 telligible and captivating to both head and heart. He 
 does not " pit the brain against the bosom, and plead 
 wit before wisdom," but combining the spontaneous 
 and forcible action of all his powers, he touches the 
 sensibilities and sways the judgments of all. His 
 mighty mind, when aroused in debate, is quick with the 
 thunder thought and lightning will, rendering it as im- 
 possible for ordinary antagonists to avert or resist his 
 influence, as for an oak to clasp in ifs arms the tempest 
 that beats upon it. 
 
 The subjoined sketch was drawn in the .winter of 
 1837-8, by a political and personal friend, and is valua- 
 ble for its graphic truth": 
 
 " Mr. Calhoun has evidently taken Demosthenes for 
 his model as- a speakeror rather, I suppose, he has
 
 232 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 studied, while young, his orations with great admiration, 
 until they produced a decided impression upon his mind. 
 His recent speech in defence of himself against the 
 attacks of Mr. Clay, is precisely on the plan of the fa- 
 mous oration De Corona, delivered by the great Athe- 
 nian, in vindication of himself from the elaborate and 
 artful attacks of ^Eschines. While the one says : 
 1 Athenians! to -you I appeal, my judges and my wit- 
 nesses !' the other says : ' In proof of this, I appeal to 
 you, Senators, my witnesses and my judges on this oc- 
 casion !' JEschines accused Demosthenes of having 
 received a bribe from Philip, and the latter retorted by 
 saying that the other had accused him of doing what he 
 himself had notoriously done. Mr. Clay says that Mr. 
 Calhoun had gone over, and he left it to time to disclose 
 his motives. Mr. Calhoun retorts : ' Leave it to time 
 to disclose my motives for going over ! I, who have 
 changed no opinion, abandoned no principle, and de- 
 serted no party I, who have stood still and maintained 
 my ground against every difficulty, to be told that it is 
 left to time to disclose my motive ! The imputation 
 sinks to the earth with the groundless charge on which 
 it rests. I stamp rt down in the dust. I pick up the 
 dart which fell harmless at my feet. I hurl it back 
 What the Senator charges on me unjustly, he has ac- 
 tually done. He went over on a memorable occasion and 
 did not leave it to time to disclose his motive.' In the 
 conception and arrangement of the whole speech, in 
 fact, there is a remarkable similarity to the speech of 
 the great Athenian. And where could any man find a 
 nobler model ? For withering sarcasm burning invec-
 
 JOHN C. (MLHOUN. 233 
 
 live lofty declamation for all that is spirit-stirring 
 and glorious in eloquence, there is not on record, in any 
 language, as noble and perfect a specimen as this ora- 
 tion for the crown. 
 
 " Mr. Calhoun, in the simplicity and brevity of his 
 sentences, throughout all his speeches, shows the model 
 he has studied. In fact, his whole character and life 
 are eminently Greek. His striking and grand concep- 
 tions with his unassuming and plain manners his 
 calm dignity and composure his. sternness and exem- 
 plary purity in private and public life, all show that he 
 has bathed deep in the fountains of antiquity. 
 
 "In one faculty of the mind he surpasses any public 
 man of the age, and that is in analysis. His power to 
 examine a complex idea, and exhibit to you the simple 
 ideas of which it is composed, is wonderful. Hence it 
 is that he generalizes with such great rapidity, that ordi- 
 nary minds suppose, at first, he is theoretical ; whereas, 
 he has only reached a point at a single bound, to which 
 it would require long hours of sober reflection for them 
 to attain. It is a mistake to suppose that he jumps at 
 his conclusions without due care and consideration; 
 No man examines with more care, or with more intense 
 labor, every question upon which his mind is called 'to 
 act. The difference between him and others is, that he 
 thinks constantly, with little or no relaxation. Hnce 
 the restless activity and energy of his mind always 
 place him far in advance of those around him. He has 
 reached the summit, while they have just commenced 
 to ascend, and cannot readily discover the path which 
 has lead him to his lofty and extensive view.
 
 231 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 "Mr. Calhoun evidently has studied our system of 
 government very profoundly and philosophically, on the 
 leading ideas of the school of Jefferson. His great 
 speech in reply to Mr. Webster, on the federative prin- 
 ciple of the Constitution, and the sovereignty of the 
 States, is one of the most profound and finished com- 
 mentaries upon that noble instrument and its formation, 
 that has ever been produced by the genius of man. On 
 that remarkable occasion, he simplified the points of 
 controversy with his distinguished antagonist to such a 
 degree, that he compelled him to deny that our system 
 of government was a constitutional compact ; and 
 finally forced him to the position, that the Government 
 itself had substantive and independent rights, as if the 
 Government was not made by the Constitution, and had 
 no existence, in a single attribute without it. This de- 
 bate was managed with great power and ability on both 
 sides. Both speakers saw that the whole argument 
 turned upon the point whether the Constitution was a 
 compact or . not. If it was admitted, the wit of man 
 could not avoid the conclusion, that each party to the 
 compact must of necessity judge of its provisions and 
 infractions, or surrender up their original character as 
 sovereign contracting parties, to a government with 
 power to define its own limitations, and, of necessity, to 
 make and unmake the compact at the will and pleasure 
 of those who might chance to give it impulse and vital- 
 ity. This subject eminently suited Mr. Calhoun's mind 
 and habits of thought, and he consequently exhibited a 
 power of argument a distinctness of analysis and a 
 luminous investigation of the attributes and nature ol
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 235 
 
 government which will stand a monument to his fame, 
 as long as the American eagle shall present to the world 
 that bright constellation of independent States which 
 now glitter and blaze around its brow. No human 
 being can read that speech without feeling that it con- 
 tains the same doctrines which were proclaimed in the 
 Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of '98, and in the 
 immortal report of Mr. Madison, around which the 
 Republican party rallied with the devotion of those who 
 felt the liberties of their country to be involved. 
 
 " As a public speaker and debater, Mr. Calhoun is 
 energetic and impressive to the highest degree. With- 
 out having much of the action of an orator, yet his 
 compressed lip his erect and stern attitudes his iron 
 countenance, compressed lip, and flashing eye all make 
 him, at times, eloquent in the full sense of the word. No 
 man can hear him without feeling. His power is in 
 clear analysis suppressed passion, and lofty earnest- 
 ness. As to the great questions connected with the 
 currency of the present day, it is vain and idle to con- 
 tend with him. It has been the subject of his daily 
 thoughts for more than twenty years. He is before his 
 age, but he will triumph, and posterity will be aston- 
 ished at the profoundness and the sagacity of his views. 
 Many suppose that he has an absorbing ambition ; but 
 this is a hiistake, and it arises from the natural activity of 
 his mind on all questions of much interest, and his con- 
 stant and ardent patriotism. Devotion to the honor and 
 iberties of his country is his consuming passion, and his 
 ardent pursuit of what he conceives to be her interests 
 is mistaken by -the superficial observer for overweening
 
 236 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 ambition. Ambition he has, but it is high and noble, 
 and like the Roman's, identified with love for Rome. 
 His nullification, so much misunderstood and misrepre- 
 sented, was with him a pure and enthusiastic devotion 
 to the true spirit of the Constitution, and the permanent 
 interest of the whole Union, according to his under- 
 standing of them. His greatest weakness, if weakness 
 it can be called, is his free and unreserved confidence 
 in those who are not his friends. This arises from the 
 natural integrity and unsuspecting character of his heart. 
 Another weakness, perhaps, is, that he talks too much, 
 forgetting that there is often dignity and power in im- 
 pressive silence, particularly after a man has acquired 
 fame. This arises, however, from the simplicity of 
 character and great love of truth, which makes him 
 eager to present her to others, that they may receive and 
 love her, too, with veneration equal to his own." 
 
 To the above, we may add a few remarks respecting 
 Mr. Calhoun's person and character. 
 
 Strangers, judging only by his external appearance, 
 are liable to form very unjust conceptions of this extra- 
 ordinary man. His countenance, so marked by deci- 
 sion and firmness ; and his eyes, so large, dark, brilliant, 
 and penetrating : leave no doubt for a moment of a high 
 order of intellect. Still, the contemplator feels like 
 Adam, who, when perceiving Michael, chief of the hea- 
 venly warriors, approaching from afar, says to Eve : 
 
 "Majesty 
 
 Invests his coming ; yet not terrible 
 That I should fear, not sociably mild 
 As Raphael."'
 
 JOHN C. CALftOUN. 237 
 
 There is at first a mixed emotion of respect and fear, 
 as if the individual in question is indeed to be revered 
 for his intellectual capacity, but not to be esteemed for 
 his social worth. How completely does actual acquaint- 
 ance correct such a falsity of view ! Perhaps there is 
 not a man iji the world whose colloquial fascination and 
 endearing social qualities exceed those of Mr. Calhoun. 
 It is true, that while engaged in public functions, he 
 appears as one in whom "the intellectual life is quick in 
 all its parts," and his iron features repel all thoughts of 
 fond and childish glee. But in private, with the harness 
 of forensic warfare laid aside, while he still maintains 
 the dignity of true greatness, no one is more easy of 
 access, more cordial and kind. 
 
 The genial goodness native to his head and heart are 
 manifest in the spirit of his public conduct. Every- 
 where he is as full of thought as ocean is of brine, but 
 there is no bitterness in his written or living speech. 
 He deals very sparingly in invective ; and never requires 
 the veil of public spirit to be thrown over bis personal 
 antipathies and inordinate self-esteem. He may seem 
 to be "full of obstinate questionings," nice discrimina- 
 tions, and the keen observance of dialectic rules ; but 
 when soaring highest " into that wide and uricircum- 
 scribed sphere wherein spirits excursive and philosophi- 
 cally modest take their range," and gathering there, "if 
 not certain and irrefragable conclusions, at least scat- 
 tered particles of wisdom, which he more highly esteemed 
 than all the stamped coinage whereof dogmatism makes 
 its boast," he never , appears malicious in thought or 
 deed. His loftiest abstractions are embodied in that
 
 238 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 athletic good sense which disdains to stab in the dark, 
 and is equally unambitious of enlarging its apparent 
 magnitude by looming through a fog. He amalgamates 
 an artless angular elocution and rigid mental precision, 
 with perpetual suavity of spirit, in language the most 
 lucid and choice. However specious at firt the system 
 may look which he rises to maintain, he delivers in its 
 defence a prodigious number of pointed observations, 
 which at once are regarded as parliamentary axioms, 
 universal and profound. 
 
 What in particular is to be observed with regard to 
 Mr. Calhoun is, that, in a pre-eminent degree, his is the 
 eloquence of character. There is a moral power in his 
 life which imparts authority to his speech, and com- 
 mands respect. Nothing in man is valuable that is not. 
 characteristic. Without character, all language is empty 
 and insignificant ; since it is only from this quality that 
 beauty can be developed and truth enforced. A speaker 
 may be hard in his style, severe and dry, and yet not 
 fail to please, provided he is imbued with courteous but 
 decided independence of character and undoubted integ- 
 rity. As this is the only ground of personal worth, so 
 is it the only guarantee of public safety. Talent is 
 always but too readily worshipped ; but, if it be divorced 
 from rectitude of purpose, it is characterized more by 
 the attributes and influence of a demon than a god. It 
 is well, therefore, that " the splendor of corruption hath 
 no power nor vital essence." Honesty is a great part of 
 eloquence. We persuade others most by being sincerely 
 earnest ourselves. This is a virtue that redeems many 
 faults. All magnanimous persons, however much they
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 239 
 
 differ from Mr. Calhoun in belief, will grant that he 
 is manifestly less a deceiver than deceived. If he errs 
 in judgment, it is his misfortune rather than his crime. 
 Hence his great influence over all parties, and hence, as 
 has been strikingly proved, their anxiety to trust the 
 highest national welfare to his supervision in the darkest 
 hour. Without exaggeration, may we apply to our 
 great fellow-citizen, thus trained and trusted, what was 
 eloquently said of Lord Chatham : " The secretary stood 
 alone. Modern degeneracy had not reached him. Origi- 
 nal and unaccommodating, the features of his character 
 had 1,he hardihood of antiquity ; his august mind over- 
 awed majesty ; and one of his sovereigns thought roy- 
 alty so impaired in his presence, that he conspired to 
 remove him, in order to be relieved from his superiority. 
 No state chicanery, no narrow systems of vicious poli- 
 tics, no idle contest for ministerial victories sunk him to 
 the vulgar level of the great; but, overbearing, persuasive, 
 and impracticable, his object was England, his ambition 
 was fame ; without dividing, he destroyed party ; with- 
 out corrupting, he made a venal age unanimous ; France 
 sunk beneath him ; with one hand he smote the house 
 of Bourbon, and wielded in the other the democracy of 
 England. The sight of his mind was infinite, and his 
 schemes were to affect, not England, not the present 
 age only, but Europe and posterity. Wonderful were 
 the means by which these schemes were accomplished, 
 always seasonable, always adequate, the suggestions of 
 an understanding animated by ardor, and enlightened 
 by prophecy. 
 
 " The ordinary feelings which make life amiable and
 
 240 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 indolent, --those sensations which soften, and allure, and 
 vulgarize, were unknown to him ; no domestic difficul- 
 ties,, no domestic weakness reached him ; but, aloof from 
 the sordid occurrences of life, and unsullied by its inter- 
 course, he came occasionally into our system to counse 1 
 and decide. 
 
 '"A character so exalted, so strenuous, so various, so 
 authoritative, astonished a corrupt age, and the Trea- 
 sury trembled at the name of Pitt through all her classes 
 of venality. Corruption imagined, indeed, that she had 
 found defects in this statesman, and talked much of the 
 inconsistency of his glory, and much of the ruin of his 
 victories but the history of his country, and the calami- 
 ties of the enemy, answered and refuted her. 
 
 "Nor were his political abilities his only talents; his 
 eloquence was an era in the Senate, peculiar and sponta- 
 eous, familiarly expressing gigantic sentiments and in- 
 stinctive wisdom not like the torrent of Demosthenes, or 
 the splendid conflagration of Tully: it resembled, some* 
 times the thunder, and sometimes the music of the spheres. 
 Like Murray, he did not conduct the understanding 
 through the painful subtilty of argumentation ; nor was 
 he, like Townshend, for ever on the rack of exertion, 
 but rather lightened upon the subject, and reached the 
 point by the flashings of his mind, which, like those of 
 his eye, were felt, but could not be followed. 
 
 " Yet he was not always correct or polished ; on 
 the contrary, he was sometimes ungrammatical, neg- 
 ligent and unenforcing, for he concealed his art, and was 
 superior to the knack of oratory. Upon many occasions
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 241 
 
 he abated the vigor of his eloquence ; but even then, 
 like the spinning of a cannon ball, he was still alive with 
 fatal, unapproachable activity. 
 
 " Upon the whole, there was in this man something that 
 could create, subvert, or reform an understanding, a 
 spirit, and an eloquence to summon mankind to society 
 or to break the bonds of slavery asunder, and rule the 
 wildness of free minds with unbounded authority; some- 
 thing that could establish or overthrow empire, and 
 strike a blow in the world that should resound through 
 its history." 
 
 The bard of Eden said that a poet " ought himself 
 to be a true poem ;" that is a model of the best and most 
 honorable qualities. We do not hesitate to claim such 
 for the distinguished subject of this sketch. It is not a 
 primary ambition with him to exemplify the words of 
 old Puttenham : " Ye shall know that we may dissemble 
 in earnest as well as in sport, under covert and dark 
 terms, and in learned and apparent speeches, in short 
 sentences, and by long ambage and circumstance of 
 words, and finally, as well when we lie, as when we tell 
 truth." He is not one of those 
 
 " Men of that large profession that an speak 
 To every cause, and things mere contraries, 
 Till they are hoarse again, yet all be law ! 
 That with most quick agility can turn 
 And re-return ; can make knots and undo them, 
 Give forked counsel, take, provoking gold 
 On either hand, and put it up." 
 
 Mr. Calhoun is a philosophical statesman, whom it is 
 11
 
 242 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 impossible for those who prize true eloquence, not to 
 admire whom it is impossible for those who justly ap- 
 preciate a generous nature and untarnished worth, not 
 only to respect but love. Perhaps he was never sur- 
 passed for the union of metaphysical acumen and ora- 
 torical energy. He is firm and yet flexible, having little 
 of that granite style, that scholastic stiffness, which, 
 under the abused name of classical correctness, often 
 exhibit all the chilling repulsiveness that belongs to 
 fictitious solidity and affected pomp, pedantic antiqua- 
 rians who have garnered nothing from departed ages but 
 obsolete formulas, and attitudes of stone. Reason is 
 supreme in Mr. Calhoun, but it is not alone ; it is asso- 
 ciated with imagination, and all the gentler attributes. 
 " There is passion enough, but like the steam in a well- 
 regulated engine, it displays itself not in wreaths and 
 puffs of vapor, but in the rapid and methodical action 
 of the machinery it impels. The mind of the student is 
 heated, not by sparks applied to his prejudices, his 
 tastes, to his sense of the ridiculous, or his sense of the 
 sublime, but by the fire which has been raised by the 
 vehement electric rapidity with which the reasoning 
 process has been conducted." In him, argumentation 
 is limited to no single and hackneyed form, but becomes 
 like the princess of the Arabian tale, sword, eagle, 01 
 flame, according to the war it wages, sometimes pierc- 
 ing, sometimes soaring, sometimes illumining, in every 
 useful form, retaining no fixed image of itself, except 
 that of almost supernatural power. No arch is so beau- 
 tiful as the ancient Roman arch, and, like that of Doric 
 architecture, its beauty arises from its perfect substau-
 
 JOHN C. CALHOUN. 243 
 
 liability, and the ideas it suggests of strength and use- 
 fulness. And such is a fit type of the eloquence of John 
 C. Calhoun. 
 
 His features are very striking, invested as they are 
 with thought, expression, sympathy, and passion the 
 undisguised consciousness of intellectual power. His 
 vocabulary is adequate to express all the refinements of 
 analytical distinctions : his countenance is equally ade- 
 quate to convey all the minute subtleties of feeling, 
 when the vocal organs are too much oppressed by emo- 
 tion to speak. He has real greatness, dignity, and force, 
 can inspire a trifle with importance, and wield every 
 forensic implement with effect. Impotency itself be- 
 comes strength in the hands of genius, while the 
 greatest abilities are dwarfed into impotency by the 
 touch of mediocrity. The shepherd's staff of Paris 
 would have been a deadly weapon in the grasp of 
 Achilles ; but the ash of Peleus could only have fallen 
 unused from the dainty fingers of the perfumed and 
 effeminate archer. Only that majesty is truly imposing 
 which is tempered by emanations of intelligence, adorn- 
 ed with honor and softened into love. Such is the cha- 
 racter of Mr. Calhoun, prominent among the 
 
 " Men whose great thoughts possess us like a passion 
 Through every limb and the whole heart ; whose words 
 Haunt us as eagles haunt the mountain air ; 
 Thoughts which command all coming times and minds, 
 As from a tower a warden."
 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 GEORGE McDUFFlE, 
 
 THE IMPETUOUS. 
 
 IN the subjoined remarks on the eloquence of Mr. 
 McDuffie, we shall endeavor to depict him, not as he is 
 now, in his infirm and emaciated condition, but as he 
 was in the days of his physical firmness and mental 
 glory. Then, his strong memory, expressive physiogno- 
 my, powerful voice, and excited action, gave to him 
 extraordinary weight as a speaker. He broke into the 
 political arena with the fury of a competitor too late for 
 the combat ; and, as if to redeem lost time, or to annihi- 
 late as soon as possible the antagonist who had sum- 
 moned him to the fight, he amazed all by the eloquent 
 violence, the unexampled impetuosity, and fierce ear- 
 nestness with which he smote down his foes. In his 
 best days there was in him an impetuous and concen- 
 trated grandeur, a scornful energy, which was rendered 
 exceedingly effective by spontaneous fervor and a com- 
 prehensive mind. 
 
 <c His voice blew like the desolating gust 
 Which strips the trees, and strews the earth with death.
 
 GEOR6E MCDUFFIE. 245 
 
 His words were ever like a wheel of fire, 
 Rolling and burning this way now, now that : 
 Now whirling forth a blinding beam, now soft 
 And deep as Heaven's own luminous blue and now 
 Like to a conqueror's chariot wheel they came, 
 Sodden with blood and slow, revolving death : 
 And every tone fell on the ear and heart, 
 Heavy and harsh and startling, like the first 
 Handful of mould cast on the coffined dead, 
 As though he claimed them his." 
 
 In every department of high endeavor, we occasion- 
 ally meet with heroes who always appear in a tempest, 
 as if generated by its fury. They are insubordinate but 
 illustrious, braving defeat and attempting the apparently 
 impossible, with disordered garments, dishevelled hair, 
 and extended arms, smiting in every direction, but with 
 an eye unblenching and a heart undismayed. Such was 
 Kleber at Heliopolis ; Danton in the French assembly, 
 Diderot among militant philosophers, and McDuffie in 
 the American Congress. This Jupiter Tonans was 
 e,ver armed with thunders which he launched against 
 his foes, without showing them the anvil on which they 
 had been forged, and without revealing the slow and 
 laborious process by which they were prepared. Sud- 
 denly he would appear, without any previous intimation 
 of his design, to smite down what he regarded as the 
 monster Consolidation, and victoriously fight the battles 
 of Free Trade and State Rights. 
 
 All great questions are raised and settled by men in 
 earnest men who have bound invaluable principles 
 about their hearts which t'aey feel are " part and parcel"
 
 
 246 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 of their being, and in the defence of which they will 
 sacrifice everything dear rather than let them go. Such 
 earnestness is very sure to make tremble, if not entirely 
 to overthrow, the systems to which it shall corne in full 
 force to be opposed. It is not dainty in its means, nor 
 obscure in its opposition. It levels against them wit, 
 satire, persuasion, argument. It heeds not, in this mat- 
 ter, the decisions of the powers that be. It is not afraid 
 of being taunted as treasonable. Truth is its aim ; error 
 is in its way ; and with a view to one, it cannot afford 
 to be delicate towards the other. A lie is called a lie, 
 shown to be a lie, denounced as a lie, and men are told 
 to reject it or perish.- 
 
 Mr. McDuffie has distinguished himself both as a 
 writer and speaker. Of his elaborated political writings 
 we need adduce but a single specimen. It is taken 
 from a work entitled " National and State Rights Con- 
 sidered," Was written in his early maturity, and is the 
 more noticeable as being somewhat antagonistic to his 
 subsequent opinions and action. We quote it as a fair 
 sample of the earnest discrimination and condensed 
 force peculiar to this author. Says he : 
 
 " You assert, that when any conflict shall occur be- 
 tween the General and State Governments, as to the 
 extent of their respective power% ' each party has a right 
 to judge for itself.' I confess I am at a loss to know, 
 how such a proposition ought to be treated. No climax 
 of political heresies can be imagined, in which this might 
 not fairly claim the most prominent place. It resolves the 
 Government at once into the elements of physical 
 force, and introduces us directly into a scene of anarchy
 
 GEORGE MCDUFFIE. 217 
 
 and blood. There is not a single power delegated to the 
 General Government, which -it would not be in the 
 power of every State Government to destroy, under the 
 authority of this licentious principle. It will be only 
 necessary for a State Legislature to pass a -law, forbid- 
 ing that which the Federal Legislature enjoins, or en- 
 joining what the Federal Legislature forbids, and the 
 work is accomplished. Perhaps you would require the 
 State Judiciary to pronounce the State law constitu- 
 tional. I will illustrate by a few examples : 
 
 " Suppose Congress should pass a law ' to lay and col- 
 lect taxes, imposts and excises,' and that a State Legis- 
 lature should pass another, declaring the objects for which 
 the revenue was intended were unconstitutional, and 
 therefore prohibiting the officers of the General Govern- 
 ment, by severe penalties, from collecting the taxes, 
 duties, imposts and excises. Suppose Congress should 
 pass a law ' to raise an army' for a national war, and a 
 State Legislature pass another, declaring the war 
 ' wicked, unrighteous and unconstitutional,' and there- 
 fore prohibiting the officers of the General Government, 
 under heavy penalties, from recruiting soldiers, within 
 the limits of the State. Suppose Congress should pass 
 a law ' for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities 
 and current coin of the United States,' and a State 
 Government should pronounce it unconstitutional, and 
 provide heavy penalties against all officers, judicial or 
 ministerial, who should attempt to enforce it. I need 
 not multiply cases ; for if you will duly consider these, 
 you will find enough to satiate your keenest relish for 
 anarchy and disorder. In all the above cases, you
 
 248 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 would say ' each party has a right to judge for itseU 
 and of course to enforce its judgment. You might theft 
 behold a revenue officer of the United States confined 
 in a State dungeon, for obeying the revenue laws of 
 Congress, &c. And all this would unavoidably result 
 in giving the State rulers a right to resist the General 
 Government, or in a civil war to establish its legitimate 
 authority ; consequences, either of which is incompati- 
 ble with the very notion of government. To suppose 
 that the General Government has a constitutional right 
 to exercise certain powers, which must operate upon 
 the people of the States, and yet that the Government 
 of each State has the right to fix and determine its own 
 relative powers and by necessary consequence to limit 
 the powers of the General Government, is to suppose 
 the existence of two contradictory and inconsistent 
 rights. In all governments, there must be some one 
 supreme power ; in other words, every . question that 
 can arise, as to the constitutional extent of the powers 
 of different classes of functionaries, must be susceptible 
 of a legal and peaceable determination, by some tribunal 
 of acknowledged authority, or force must be the inevita- 
 ble consequence. And where force begins, government 
 ends. 
 
 " And it is the more astonishing, that you have as- 
 sumed positions, involving such tremendous conse- 
 quences, when we consider tha* they are in direct oppo- 
 sition to the ' strict letter ' of the Constitution, your 
 favorite test of the extent of delegated powers. It is 
 therein provided ' that the Constitution and the laws of 
 the United States, which shall be made in pursuance
 
 GEORGE MCDUFFIE. 349 
 
 thereof/ ' shall be the supreme law of the land, and the 
 judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything 
 in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary 
 notwithstanding.' And again, ' the judicial power (of 
 the United States) shall extend to all cases in law and 
 equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the 
 United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, 
 under their authority.' Nothing can be more plain than 
 that the ' strict letter ' of the Constitution does make the 
 laws of Congress supreme, enjoining obedience upon the 
 State functionaries, and making void the laws of a State 
 if contrary thereto. And to give the provision a sanc- 
 tion of a nature peculiarly impressive, ' the members of 
 the several State Legislatures, and all executive and 
 judicial officers, both of the United States and of the 
 several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to 
 support the Constitution of the United States." 
 
 " It is not less evident, that it belong^ to the National 
 Judiciary, to pronounce upon the constitutionality or 
 unconstitutionally of the laws of the National Legisla- 
 ture. Its jurisdiction extends to all cases rising under 
 them ; and it is hard to conceive how in any possible 
 case a federal judge can decide a case, arising under a 
 law, without pronouncing upon the constitutionality of 
 that law. In fact, it would be vain and idle to make the 
 laws of Congress supreme, if the National Judiciary had 
 not the power of enforcing them. For you can hardly 
 be ignorant, that a law is a dead letter, without an organ 
 to expound, and an instrument to enforce it. I should 
 suppose, therefore, that no professional man could hesi- 
 tate in saying, that a forcible opposition to the judgment 
 11*
 
 250 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 of the federal court, founded upon an act of Congress, 
 by whatever State authority that opposition might be au- 
 thorized, would be the very case, which the Convention 
 had in view, when they made provision, for ' calling 
 forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union.' But 
 I sincerely hope, that your licentious doctrines will never 
 have the effect of misleading the State authorities so far, 
 as to render this terrible resort unavoidable. I trust the 
 farewell address of Washington, admonishing his fellow- 
 citizens to 'frown indignantly' upon those who preach 
 up doctrines tending to disunion, is not yet forgotten." 
 
 As a brief specimen of his indignant ardor, and adroit 
 energy in retort, take the following. Replying to the 
 charge of federalism, made by his State Right opponents 
 to the administration of Mr. Monroe, Mr. McDuffie says : 
 
 " Presuming upon the ignorance of the people, you 
 have vainly imagined, they could be carried away, by 
 the ' magic of a \iame.' Hence your continual strain- 
 ing, your ridiculous twisting, to associate with every 
 measure of Mr. Monroe's administration the term fede- 
 ral; a. term which you suppose will awaken so many 
 odious associations, as to make the people forget, that, as 
 a party word, so far from applying to Mr. Monroe's ad- 
 ministration, it properly belongs to its opponents. And 
 as among these, you may claim a distinguished situation, 
 having preached pretty much the same doctrines in 
 peace, which former opponents advocated in war, you 
 could scarcely have deserved more credit, had a defence 
 of the famous Hartford Convention and an accomplish- 
 ment of their views, so similar to your own, been the 
 avowed object of your labors."
 
 GEORGE MCDUFFIE. 251 
 
 In bringing before the reader a few paragraphs from 
 Mr. McDuffie's pen, however redolent of meaning and 
 forcible in style they may be, we are deeply conscious of 
 the inadequacy of all written language to express the 
 full import and energy of his living speech. Much of 
 the matter and spirit of eloquence may be enshrined in 
 books ; but that which is best in the soul of the gifted, 
 which is most impressive, spontaneous, vital and godlike 
 in his nature and yearnings, meditations and sympathies, 
 attributes which are adapted to move and regenerate 
 the earth, gladdening the dwellers thereof, cannot be 
 stereotyped in leaden plates and laid away in musty 
 libraries. It is a gleaming and unsheathable potency, 
 double-edged and invincible, burning one moment in the 
 brain and heart of a true orator, and at the next as quiclc- 
 ly becoming the inspiration of all brains' and hearts 
 listening around. 
 
 The- passions are often the most eloquent persuaders. 
 He who is least learned, if ardently aroused, will be 
 more effective than the most erudite, whose language is 
 as frigid as it is polished. Like a wintry sun, the phrase- 
 ology of sophisticated artificialness may dazzle, but it has 
 little power to melt. Feeling is often not less efficient 
 than wisdom, but it is always when they coalesce with 
 each other and strike with simultaneous blows. Fanci- 
 ful images may possess transient charms, but it is only 
 fervid sentiment imbued with persuasive reason that 
 permanently interests and subdues. Otherwise the cloud 
 is cold, "although ablaze with lightning though it 
 shine at all points like a constellation." Thoughts and 
 words really eloquent are the ebullitions of radical heat,
 
 232 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the indicators of life and health ; not spasmodic contor- 
 tions of disease, the cadaverous symptoms of approach- 
 ing dissolution. Nature gave Mr. McDuffie 
 
 " A heart that like a Geyser spring, 
 
 Amidst its bosomed snows, 
 May shrink, not rest but with its blood 
 Boils even in repose." 
 
 To illustrate what we have already said, and to pre- 
 pare the way for analytical remarks yet to follow, we 
 will quote a few examples of Mr. McDuffie's spoken style. 
 In the first, he characterizes political corruption in these 
 terms : 
 
 " Sir, We are apt to treat the idea of our own cor- 
 ruptibility as utterly visionary, and to ask, with a grave 
 affectation of dignity what ! do you think a member of 
 Congress can be corrupted ? Sir, I speak what I have 
 long and deliberately considered, when I say, that since 
 man was created, there never has been a political body 
 on the face of the earth, that would not be corrupted 
 under the same circumstances. Corruption steals upon us 
 in a thousand insidious forms, when we are least aware 
 ef its approaches. Of all the forms in which it can pre- 
 sent itself, the bribery of office is the most dangerous, 
 because it assumes the guise of patriotism to accomplish 
 its fatal sorcery. We are often asked, where is the evi- 
 dence of corruption ? Have you seen it ? Sir, do you 
 expect to see it ? You might as well expect to see the 
 embodied forms of pestilence and famine stalking before 
 you, as to see the latent operations of this insidious 
 power. We may walk amidst it and breathe its conta-
 
 GEORGE MCDUFFIB 253 
 
 gion, without being conscious of its presence. All expe- 
 rience teaches us the irresistible power of temptation, 
 when vice assumes the form of virtue. The great enemy 
 of mankind could not have consummated his infernal 
 scheme for the seduction of our first parents, but for the 
 disguise in which he presented himself. Had he appeared 
 as th devil, in his proper form ; had the spear of Ithuriel 
 disclosed the naked deformity of the fiend of hell, the 
 inhabitants of Paradise would have shrunk with horror 
 from his presence. But he came as the insinuating ser- 
 pent, and presented a beautiful apple, the most delicious 
 fruit in all the garden. He told his glowing story to the 
 unsuspecting victim of his guile. ' It can be no crime to 
 taste- of this delightful fruit. It will disclose to you the 
 knowledge of good and evil. It wili raise you to an equa- 
 lity with the angels.' Such, sir, was the process ; and in 
 tbis simple but impressive narrative, we have the most 
 beautiful and philosophical illustration of the frailty of 
 man, and the power oC-temptation, that could possibly be 
 exhibited. Mr. Chairman, I have been forcibly struck 
 with the similarity between our present situation and 
 that of Eve, after it was announced th,at Satan was on 
 the borders of Paradise. We, too, have been warned 
 that the enemy is on our borders. God forbid that the 
 similitude should be carried any farther. Eve, conscious 
 of her innocence, sought temptation and defied it. The 
 catastrophe is too fatally known to us all. She went, 
 " with the blessings of heaven on her head, and its purity 
 in her heart," guarded by the ministry of angels she- 
 returned, covered with shame, under the heavy denun.r 
 ciation of heaven's everlasting curse.
 
 254 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 "Sir, it is innocence that temptation conquers. If 
 our first parent, pure as she came from the hand of God, 
 was overcome by the seductive power, let us not imitate 
 her fatal rashness, seeking temptation when it is in our 
 power to avoid it. Let us not vainly confide in our own 
 infallibility. We are liable to be corrupted. To an 
 ambitious man, an honorable office will appear as beau- 
 tiful and fascinating as the apple of Paradise. 
 
 " I admit, sir, that ambition is a passion, at once the 
 most powerful and the most useful. Without it, human 
 affairs would become a mere stagnant pool. By means 
 of his patronage, the President addresses himself in the 
 most irresistible manner, to this, the noblest and strong- 
 est of our passions. All that the imagination can desire 
 honor, power, wealth, ease, are held out as the temp- 
 tation. Man was not made to resist such temptations. 
 It is impossible to conceive, Satan himself could not 
 devise, a system which would more infallibly introduce 
 corruption and death into our political Eden. Sir, the 
 angels fell from heaven with less temptation." 
 
 The next quotation is even more striking. It is taken 
 from a speech delivered by Mr. McDuffie on a memora- 
 ble occasion in vindication of South Carolina: 
 
 " Mr. Chairman, A great and solemn crisis is evi- 
 dently approaching, and I admonish gentlemen, that it is 
 the part of wisdom, as well as of justice, to pause in this 
 course of legislative tyranny and oppression, before they 
 have driven a high-minded, loyal and patriotic people 
 to something bordering on despair and desperation. Sir, 
 if the ancestors of those who are now enduring too 
 patiently enduring the oppressive burdens unjustly im-
 
 GEORGE MCDUFFIE. 255 
 
 posed upon them could return from their giaves, and 
 witness the change which the federal government, in 
 one quarter of a century, has produced in the entire 
 aspect of the country, they would hardly recognize it as 
 the scene of their former activity and usefulness. Where 
 all was cheerful, and prosperous, and flourishing, and 
 happy, they would behold nothing but decay, and gloom, 
 and desolation, without a spot of verdure to break the 
 dismal continuity, or even 
 
 ' A rose of the wilderness left on its stalk, 
 To tell where the garden had been.' 
 
 " Looking upon this sad reverse in the condition of 
 their descendants, they would naturally inquire what 
 moral or political pestilence had passed over the land, to 
 blast and wither the fair inheritance they had Jeft them. 
 And, sir, when they should be told, that a despotic power 
 of taxation infinitely more unjust and oppressive than 
 that from which the country had been redeemed by their 
 toils and sacrifices, was now assumed and exercised over 
 us by our own brethren, they would indignantly exclaim, 
 like the ghost of the murdered Hamlet, when urging his 
 afflicted son to avenge the tarnished honor of his house, 
 
 ' If you have nature in you, bear it not.' 
 
 " Sir, I feel that I am called upon to vindicate the mo- 
 tives and the character of the people of South Carolina, 
 from imputations which have been unjustly cast upon 
 them. There is no State in this Union distinguished by 
 a more lofty and disinterested patriotism, than that which 
 I have the honor, in part, to represent. I can proudly 
 and confidently rppeal to history for proof of this asser-
 
 256 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 tion. No State has made greater sacrifices to vindicate 
 the common rights of the Union, and preserve its integ- 
 rity. No State is more willing to make those sacrifices 
 now, whether of blood or treasure. 
 
 " But, sir, it does.not belong to this lofty spirit of patri- 
 otism, to submit to unjust and unconstitutional oppres- 
 sion, nor is South Carolina to be taunted with the charge 
 of treason and rebellion, because she has the intelligence 
 to understand her rights, and the spirit to maintain them. 
 God has not planted in the breast of man a higher and 
 a holier principle, than that by which he is prompted to 
 resist oppression. Absolute submission and passive 
 obedience to every extreme of tyranny, are the charac- 
 teristics of slaves only. 
 
 " The oppression of the people of South Carolina has 
 been carried to an extremity, which the most slavish 
 population on earth would not endure without a struggle. 
 Is it to be expected, then, that freemen will patiently 
 bow down, and kiss the rod of the oppressor ? Freemen, 
 did I say ? Why, sir, any one who has the form and 
 bears the name of a man nay, " a beast that wants dis- 
 course of reason," a dog, a sheep, a reptile the vilest 
 reptile that crawls upon the earth, without the gift of 
 reason to comprehend the injustice of its injuries, would 
 bite, or bruise, or sting the hand by which they were 
 inflicted. 
 
 " Is it, then, for a sovereign State to fold her arms and 
 stand still in submissive apathy, when the loud clamors 
 of the people, whom Providence has committed to her 
 charge, are ascending to heaven for justice? Hug not 
 this delusion to your breast, I piay you.
 
 GEORGE MCDUFFIE. 257 
 
 " It is not for me to say, in this place, what course 
 South Carolina may deem it her duty to pursue, in this 
 great emergency. It is enough to say, that she perfectly 
 understands the ground which she occupies; and be 
 assured, sir, that whatever attitude she may assume, in 
 her highest sovereign capacity, she will firmly and fear- 
 lessly maintain it, be the consequences what they may. 
 The responsibility will not rest upon her, but upon her 
 oppressors.. 
 
 " I will say in conclusion, Mr. Chairman, that in all I 
 have uttered, there has not been mingled one feeling of 
 personal unkindness to any human being, either in this 
 house or out of it. I have used strong language, to be 
 sure, but it has been uttered " more in sorrow than in 
 anger," I have felt it to be a solemn duty^ which I owed 
 to my constituents, and to this nation, to make one more 
 solemn appeal to thfe justice of their oppressors. 
 
 " Let me, then, sir, beseech them, in the name of our 
 common ancestors, whose blood was mingled together 
 as a common offering, at the shrine of our common lib- 
 erty let me beseech them, by all the endearing recol- 
 lections of our common "history, and by every considera- 
 tion that gives value to liberty and the union of thes& 
 States, to retrace their steps as speedily as possible, and 
 to relieve a high-minded and patriotic people from an 
 unconstitutional and oppressive burden, which they can- 
 not longer bear." 
 
 In the great debate which took place in the Senata 
 on Foot's Resolution, in January, 1830, an incident 
 occurred which indicated the appreciation put by Mr 
 Webster upon the talents of Mr. McDuffie, and al
 
 258 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the same time brought into prominent notice the skill 
 which the latter possesses of mingling graphic descrip- 
 tion and pungent appeals in forensic argument. 
 
 Said the orator from Massachusetts : 
 
 " In the course of these remarks, Mr. President, I have 
 spoken of the supposed desire, on the part of the Allan- * 
 tic States, to check, or at least not to hasten, Western 
 emigration, as a narrow policy. Perhaps I ought to 
 have qualified the expression ; because, sir, I am now 
 about to quote the opinions of one, to whom I would 
 impute nothing narrow. I am now about to refer you 
 to the language of a gentleman of much and deserved 
 distinction, now a member of the other House, and oc- 
 cupying a prominent situation there. The gentleman, 
 sir, is from South Carolina. In 1825, a debate arose in 
 the House of Representatives, on the subject of the 
 Western road. It happened to me to take part in that 
 debate ; I was answered by the honorable gentleman to 
 whom I have alluded, and I replied. May I be pardon- 
 ed, sir, if I read a part of this debate ? 
 
 " ' The gentleman from Massachusetts has urged,' 
 said Mr. McDuffie, ' as one tedding reason why the 
 government should make roads to the West, that these 
 roads have a tendency to settle the public lands ; that 
 they increase the inducements to settlement, and that 
 this is a national object. Sir, I differ entirely from his 
 views on the subject. I think that the public lands 
 are settling quite fast enough ; that our people need no 
 stimulous to urge them thither; but -want rather a 
 check, at least, on that artificial tendency .to the west- 
 ern settlement, which we ha rr e created by our own laws.
 
 GEORGE MCDUFFIE. 259 
 
 " 'The gentleman says, that the great object of Gov- 
 ernment, with respect to those lands, is not to make 
 them a source of revenue, but to get them settled. 
 What would have been thought of this argument in the 
 old thirteen States ? It amounts to this, that those 
 States are to offer a bonus for their own impoverish- 
 ment, to create a vortex to swallow up our floating 
 population. Look, sir, at the present aspect of the 
 southern States. In no part of Europe will you see 
 the same indications of decay. Deserted villages 
 houses falling to ruin impoverished lands thrown out 
 of cultivation ! Sir, I believe that if the public lands 
 had never been sold, the aggregate amount of the na- 
 tional wealth would have been greater at this moment. 
 Our population, if concentrated in ^he old States, and 
 not ground down by tariffs, would have been more pros- 
 perous and more wealthy. But every inducement has 
 been held out to them to settle in the West, until our 
 population has become sparse, and then the effects of this 
 sparseness are now to be counteracted by another artifi- 
 cial system. Sir, I say if there is any object worthy the 
 
 attention of this Government, it is a plan which shall 
 r 
 
 limit the sale of the public lands. If those lands were 
 sold according to their real value, be it so. But while 
 the Government continues, as it now does, to give them 
 away, they will draw the population of the older States, 
 and still farther increase the effect which is already 
 distressingly felt, and which must go to diminish the 
 value of all those States possess. And this, sir, is held out 
 to us as a motive for granting the present appropriation.
 
 260 LIVING ORATORS IW AMERICA. 
 
 I would not, indeed, prevent the formation of roads on 
 these considerations, but I certainly would not en- 
 courage it. Sir, there is an additional item in the ac- 
 count of the benefits which this Government has con- 
 ferred on the western States. It is the sale of the pub- 
 lic lands at the minimum price. At this moment we 
 are selling to the people of the West lands at one dollar 
 and twenty-five cents, which are worth fifteen, and 
 which would sell at that price if the markets were not 
 glutted/ '' 
 
 In Professor Wilson's Noctes Ambrosiance, after an 
 exceedingly unfavorable portraiture of the great living 
 Irish orator, Shield's exterior, Tickler says : " But never 
 mind wait a little and this vile machinery will do 
 wonders. To make some amends for her carelessness 
 in all other external affairs, nature, has given him as fine 
 a pair of eyes as ev.er graced human head large, deep- 
 ly-set, dark, liquid, flashing like gems, and these fix you 
 presently, like a basilisk, so that you forget everything 
 else about him ; and though it would be impossible to 
 conceive anything more absurdly ungraceful than his 
 action, sharp, sudden jolts, and shuffles, and right-about 
 twists and leaps, all set to a running discord of grunts 
 and moans, yet, before he has spoken ten minutes, you 
 forget all this, too, and give yourself up to what I have 
 always considered a pleasant sensation the feeling, I 
 mean, that you are in the presence of a man of genius !" 
 
 This applies admirably to Mr. McDuffie, who, in the 
 best days of his strength, possessed those endowments 
 which were calculated beyond most of his contempora- 
 ries, to inspire that noblest of all kinds of eloquence
 
 GBORGE MCDUFFIE. 261 
 
 incomparably superior to the disciplined and elaborate 
 oratory which too much abounds the " logic set on 
 fire," which flows from those lofty sources of emotion 
 which nature supplies in an elevated and earnest heart. 
 " Sursam corda" seems ever to have been in hisv ritual 
 as an orator, if not as a religionist ; impelled as he was 
 by that exaltation of the feelings, which is the glory of 
 devotion as of eloquence, and without which nothing 
 great or good was ever accomplished. 
 
 A clerical friend, well acquainted with Mr. McDuffie 
 at home, once described to the writer a scene which 
 throws much light on his remarkable character. A 
 public dinner was given him by his political friends. 
 Our informant, wishing to hear the great speech antici- 
 pated, was provided with a privileged seat by the orator 
 himself, so that he could come in after the less otherial 
 festivities were over, and enjoy the more desirable 
 " feast of reason and flow of soul." 
 
 A great crowd was in attendance. The preliminary 
 toasts and harangues being passed, the great man of the 
 occasion arose. He stood above medium height, was in 
 vigorous health, had a piercing look, profuse hair man- 
 tled a full countenance, and his general aspect, every way 
 striking, was rendered still more noble iby his prominent 
 Roman nose. The opening of his speech was far from 
 being elegant or even fluent. Without grace of elocu- 
 tion, and without anything like originality or force of 
 expression, he labored through a succession of stumbling, 
 awkward sentences. Strangers who were present 
 began to look sorely disappointed, and wondered how 
 such a speaker cou/d have acquired sucl i a reputation.
 
 262 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 " But this was only v/ing-flapping not flight ; 
 The pawing of the courser ere he win." 
 
 The speaker began to warm into increased speed and 
 force, when suddenly his whole aspect changed, and a 
 splendid train of ideas gushed from his fulminating 
 eyes and lips. Then, like one possessed, he seemed to 
 have become insensible to everything but the momen- 
 tous subject that rose on his view and demanded the 
 full exercise of all his powers. A wine-glass full of the 
 "generous beverage" stood before him. This, with one 
 of his violent gestures, he inadvertently knocked yards 
 down the table, and dashed on in a torrent of eloquence 
 perfectly irresistible. 
 
 This occurred just before the outbreak of " Nullifica- 
 tion," a subject upon which Mr. McDuffie had not yet 
 acted with the same sentiments and form fti which he 
 afterwards appeared. At this period, his scheme was 
 to resist the tariff by " non-consumption." On this 
 topic he dilated with great splendor and power. His 
 speech became scathing and insufferably bright, " like 
 the white lightning of a day too hot." The listening 
 and excited multitude bent forward with parted lips and 
 impassioned looks, as if fearful of losing a single word. 
 At the moment when the spell was complete over the 
 entranced mass when enthusiasm had become accu- 
 mulated to its utmost height and every passion and 
 fibre in every listener seemed to move in exact sympa- 
 thy with the almost frenzied orator, he grasped the 
 front'of his black broadcloth coat with his two hands 
 convulsively, raising them as high as possible for a mo-
 
 GEORGE MCDUFPIE. 263 
 
 ment, and then bringing them down with an energy 
 that threatened to rend the garment in tatters, he ex- 
 claimed, " Doff this golden tissue !" Our clerical friend, 
 who fired up mightily as he recounted the reminiscences 
 of that memorable day, protested that, had Mr. McDuf- 
 fie gone one step further, and thrown his coat clean off, 
 he, and every other man present, would, in an instant, 
 and unconsciously, have done the same. This is quite 
 probable, since, in two months' time not a fine coat was 
 to be seen in all the region. Clergymen, judges, gov- 
 ernor, and all, mounted coarse, home-spun, and, sure 
 enough, all had doffed the golden tissue. 
 
 " Never were bliss and beauty, love and woe, 
 Ravelled and twined together into madness, 
 As in that one wild hour," 
 
 Ordinarily, Mr. McDuffie is reserved, sombre, and 
 taciturn ; but when the social fit is on him, intellectual 
 rays break from his person, like flashes through a thun- 
 der cloud. When once thoroughly aroused, his con- 
 ceptions are not unfrequently terrific and grand ; not 
 the mere paroxysms of a fever, given forth in sonorous 
 rhapsodies, but the well sustained flights of a vigorous 
 understanding. It is his highest glory to be " a man of 
 mind, above the run of men."- In the sudden transi- 
 tions from morbid listlessness to impassioned energy, so 
 common to him, ideas the most startling, to use the bold 
 figure of Dante, are showered into his mind. Undei 
 their influence, his action and utterance are rapid, and 
 sometimes become more violent than energetic. In 
 such instances, there is more boisterousness than
 
 264 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 grandeur, more passion than majesty. If his speech re- 
 sembles "the ocean heaped into a^single surge," it does 
 not always have the mellow thunder of the seas ; nor, 
 when most impetuous, does it seem "immortal as their 
 ceaseless music.'' It is true that jutting peaks, craggy 
 shores, fathomless depths, profuse foam, and furious mo- 
 tion characterize the great deep. But these are not its 
 only traits, nor does sublimity constitute its only attrac- 
 tion. The infinitely varied forms of the waves, their 
 light and shadow, the gay transparency of their spray, 
 and, above all, the perpetual change of color -and action, 
 amuse the contemplator in detail, as much as the gran- 
 deur'of the united aftributes is calculated to awe his mind. 
 The popular heart needs to be soothed as well as 
 stimulated, and in this respect, as in many others, there 
 is a strong analogy between eloquence and music; both, 
 wnen perfect, produce a pleasing repose a calm, sober 
 delight which, if not relieved by skillful variety, soon 
 chafes into weariness or sinks into sleep. As the prin- 
 ciple of harmony must be preserved in the wildest and 
 most eccentric music, wherein sudden, and quickly 
 varying emotions of the soul are expressed, so must im- 
 perturbable self-control attend the speaker in scenes of 
 the greatest excitement and confusion. Johnson, who 
 was not only a sincere and discriminating admirer of 
 Shakspeare, but who did much to restore his glory, cor- 
 rectly observes that, with all his beauties, he has faults, 
 and faults which could obscure any other writer than 
 nimself ; that his effusions of passion, when the situation 
 naturally calls them forth, are in the highest degree 
 striking and energetic : but that, when he puts his in-
 
 GEORGE MCDUFFIE. 265 
 
 vention and his faculties to the rack, the fruits of his 
 ambitious toil are bombast, meanness, tediousness, and 
 obscurity. 
 
 As in graphic or plastic art, the wildest and most 
 frenzied fancy is obliged to appropriate to itself the com- 
 mon laws of matter as the means of developing its mean- 
 ing, so in oratory the simplest ideas and most natural 
 elocution must be the chief instruments employed, 
 " Light over strong, and darkness over long, blind equal- 
 ly alike." Care should be taken that the hearer is not 
 perplexed and distracted by a confusion of incongruous 
 parts, or offended by inharmonious tones. The truth of 
 this observation has been rendered most evident by the 
 great teacher of almost every rule of excellence, when, 
 on a parallel occasion, he made Hamlet recommend to 
 the players the comprehensive precept, never to offend 
 eye or ear : " In the very torrent, tempest, and whirl- 
 wind of your passion," says he, "you must acquire and 
 beget a temperance that may give it smoothness." And 
 yet, at the same time, he observes most justly, " The end 
 of playing, both at the first, and now, was and is, to hold, 
 as 't were, the mirror up to nature ; to show virtue her 
 own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and 
 body of the time, his form and pressure." No oratorical 
 maxims can be truer or more practical than these. " Be 
 not too tame neither," continues Hamlet : " suit the 
 action to the- word, the word to the action : with this 
 special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of 
 nature." 
 
 We should never mistake violence for strength, grim- 
 ace for forcible expression, or blood and horror for the true
 
 Ji ,. 
 
 206 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 sublime. Perfect oratorical action combines the strength 
 of the Hercules with the activity of the gladiator, and the 
 grace of the Apollo. Such an amalgamation is not em- 
 bodied in " glittering masses of portentous incongruities 
 and colossal baubles," but in a simple and lucid gran- 
 deur of style which verifies the saying, that " terror hath 
 a beauty even as mildness." It is not in the gross and 
 tumultuous manifestations of fierce elemental energies, 
 not in the clash of the hail, nor the blast of the whirl- 
 wind, that the noblest features of the sublime are devel- 
 oped. God is not in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but 
 in the still small voice. " They are but the blunt and 
 the low faculties of our nature, which can only be ad- 
 dressed through lampblack and lightning, It is in quiet 
 and subdued passages of unobtrusive majesty, the deep, 
 and the calm, and the perpetual that which must be 
 sought ere it is seen, and loved ere it is understood 
 things which the angels work out for us daily, and yet 
 vary eternally, which are never wanting, and never 
 repeated, which are to be found always, yet each found 
 but once ; it is through these that the lesson of devotion 
 is chiefly taught, and the blessing of beauty given." 
 We should remember that passion is not absolutely and 
 in itself great or violent, but only in proportion to the 
 weakness of the mind it has to deal with ; to increase 
 its flame is necessarily to decrease the fund of substan- 
 tial strength on which it subsists : 
 
 " The fire that mounts the liquor, till it run o'er, 
 In seeming to augment it, wastes it. 1 ' 
 
 When a fondness for the sensations of power in a
 
 GEORGE MCDUFFIE. 267 
 
 public speaker becomes intrusive and attractive, in 
 itself, instead of being subordinated to the results it 
 would attain, and lost in them, it is undoubtedly a 
 fault of the most vitiating character. Hence the exam- 
 ple of an orator like Mr. McDuffie is liable to be a dan- 
 gerous one to aspiring youth, naturally inclined to be 
 led astray by what is merely dazzling, daring and impet- 
 uous. In the master himself, it is a style of oratory 
 which approaches the highest order of merit, because it 
 is natural ; but, when imitated, it is sure to degenerate 
 into action the most extravagant and expressions the 
 most ferocious. Such corruscations of fancy and super- 
 ficial passion are to true eloquence, what the incessant 
 flashings of a tempestuous night are to daylight. It may 
 be difficult to say, whether they are the height of the sub- 
 lime, or the superlatively ridiculous : perhaps we should 
 more truly say, that in every such case, it is not a dubi 
 ous point to decide as to which category they belong. 
 Disgust ever dwells near the line that separates legiti- 
 mate terror and pity from horror and aversion, as if sta- 
 tioned there on purpose to guard against all extravagance. 
 Great energy of thought and expression is perfectly natu- 
 ral to persons of a certain temperament, and in them is 
 the ground and guarantee of the highest excellence, but 
 is exceedingly offensive when affected or assumed. 
 Such coarseness of verbiage and furiousness of manner 
 is inspired by that false Bacchus, whose influence is 
 quite too prevalent in our day. 
 
 In his peculiar style, Mr. McDuffie is without a rival 
 His voice resembles the harsh terrific blast of the trum- 
 pet, rather than the tender, mellifluous harmony of the
 
 268 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 flute or jEolian harp, and breaks on the trembling air 
 " like ocean's tongue in Staffa's stormy cave.'' By the 
 spontaneous energy of his perspicuous reason, winged 
 in the burning beams of truth, he has power to force 
 open the eyes of men, and when open, he can illuminate 
 or blind them. His elocution smites on the popular 
 heart like the club of Hercules ; the stroke bears a crush- 
 ing force, but its sweep is both irregular and awkward, 
 illustrating energy rather than elegance. He is the im- 
 personation of that convulsive power which agitates the 
 masses and impels them to action. Seen when the 
 crowded pack of his passions are in full chase, he is, 
 indeed, a mighty hunter, whose course no ordinary arm 
 can for a moment oppose. At other times he is moody 
 and sad, and appears as if he could be aroused only by 
 the sympathetic action of that ^popular phrenzy which 
 crouches ever in the dark cavern of the future, to spring 
 upon us like a tropical tornado, 
 
 "Which, hushed in grim repose, awaits his evening prey." 
 
 Men like Mr. McDuffie are not to be subjected to the 
 ordinary canons of criticism. If you require a colossus 
 to force his feet into tiny Chinese slippers, he will burst 
 such impediments like a lion breaking his chains. There 
 is too much life and agility in him for vassalage so dis- 
 graceful to great inborn strength. Some one compared 
 the genius of Racine to the Apollo Belvidere, and the 
 genius of Shakspeare to the equestrian statue of Philip 
 IV. in Notre Dame at Paris. ^ Be it so," replied Dide- 
 rot '' but what would you th : nk, were the wooden statue
 
 GEORGE MCDUFFIE. 269 
 
 to draw down his helmet, shake his gauntlet, brandish 
 his sword, and prance about the cathedral ?" 
 
 In Mr. McDuffie there is abundance of force ; if he 
 had been endowed with a larger measure of easy grace 
 and diversified naturalness, perhaps he would have been 
 a better model. Says Chateaubriand : "The great poet 
 of Albion, endowed with creative power, animates even 
 inanimate objects. The scenes, the stage, a branch of 
 a tree, a blade of grass, the bones in a churchyard, all 
 speak : under his magic touch there is nothing dead, not 
 even death itself. 
 
 " Shakspeare makes great use of contrasts : he loves 
 to mingle diversions and acclamations of joy with 
 funeral pomp and the wailings of grief. Thus, for ex- 
 ample, the musicians summoned to the nuptials of Juliet 
 arrive just in time to attend her remains to the grave ; 
 and, indifferent to the grief which prevails in the house 
 of mourning, they indulge in jests, and discourse of 
 matters the most foreign to the catastrophe. Who does 
 not recognize in this the reality of life ? who does not 
 feel all the bitterness of the picture, and who is there 
 that has not witnessed similar scenes? These effects 
 were not unknown to the Greeks. We find in Eurip- 
 ides those simple touches of nature which Shakspeare 
 intermingles with his loftiest tragic sublimity. An ex- 
 ample' of this occurs in Phaedra, where the princess has 
 just expired, and the chorus know not whether they 
 shall enter her apartment. In Alceste, Death and 
 Apollo exchange pleasantries, Death wishes to seize Al- 
 ceste while she is young, because he is not anxious to 
 have a wrinkled victim. These contrasts verge on the
 
 270 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 terrible : but then a single shade too strong or too faint 
 in the expression renders them senseless or ridiculous." 
 The mild sentiments have their eloquence as well as 
 the vehement passions, but it is the latter only, or at 
 least chiefly, that we meet with in Mr. McDuffie. Too 
 often the symmetry of his thought and the beauty of his 
 expression is dimmed by extravagance or deformity. 
 But, when all his faults are subtracted, there still re- 
 mains the extraordinary merit of being neither insipid 
 or equivocal. He resembles a mighty stream, sometimes 
 flowing in a full and limpid current, and oftener, per- 
 haps, turbid and encumbered with rubbish, but there is 
 always a mighty volume of meaning and force in him 
 which it is much easier to criticise than excel. What 
 \\e are most anxious to impress on the young reader is, 
 that neither uncouthness nor impetuosity is necessarily 
 allied to great strength. In Laocoon, as Goethe has 
 suggested respecting that master-piece of antiquity, we 
 contemplate nature in full revolt and desperation. The 
 last choking pang, the desperate struggle, the maddening 
 convulsion, the working of the corroding poison, the 
 vehement fermentation of his blood, the stagnating cir- 
 culation, suffocating pressure, and paralytic death, yet 
 over the utmost violence is thrown the mantle of ma- 
 jestic grace. We see it, feel it thrillingly in that pre- 
 sence, and in a moment understand what the great poet 
 meant when he celebrated the 
 
 " Still greatness of simplicity and repose."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 LEWIS CASS, 
 
 THE COURTEOUS. 
 
 IT is an invigorating exercise, to attempt the ana- 
 lytical portraiture of great logical powers ; and it is an 
 exhilarating one, to describe adroit talents employed in 
 splendid declamation. But, to many persons, it is not 
 less pleasing to contemplate simple statesmanship habitu- 
 ally adorned with decided good nature. 
 
 We propose to sketch the career of General Cass as a 
 civilian, military chieftain, and patriotic statesman. 
 
 He was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, Oct. 9th, 
 1782. His ancestors were among the first settlers of 
 that part of the country. It is said that his father bore 
 a commission in the revolutionary army, which he 
 joined the day after the battle of Lexington, and in which 
 he continued until the close of the war, having borne a 
 part in the battles of Bunker Hill, Saratoga, Trenton, 
 Princeton, Monmouth, and Germantown. In 1799, he 
 moved with his family to Ohio, and settled in the vicinity 
 of Zanesville. where, after a life of honor an.d usefulness, 
 he died, August, 1830. 
 
 The son of whom we ale speaking, was educated
 
 272 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 "He was elected a member of the Ohio Legislature in 
 
 ,806 About this time the movements of Colonel 
 
 h Van oreatlv to alarm the country. Mr. Cass was ap- 
 
 ! 
 
 M, Cass 
 
 
 '"'Thus have we arrived at the period when his military
 
 LEWIS CAS3. 273 
 
 should turn back in discouragement. Colonel Cass was 
 among the most urgent for an invasion of the Canadian 
 province, immediately after the army arrived at Detroit ; 
 but General Hull did not cross the river, until after the 
 lapse of several days, and thereby lost all the advan- 
 tages of a prompt and decisive movement. The ad- 
 vanced detachment was commanded by Colonel Cass, 
 and he was the first man who landed, in arms, on the 
 enemy's shore after the declaration of war. On enter- 
 ing Canada, General Hull distributed a proclamation, 
 among the inhabitants, which, at the time, had much 
 notoriety, and was generally ascribed to Colonel Cass : 
 it is now known that he wrote it. Whatever opinions 
 may have been entertained of the inglorious descent from 
 promise to fulfillment, it was generally regarded as a high 
 spirited and eloquent document. Colonel Cass soon dis- 
 lodged the British posted at the bridge over the Canards. 
 There he maintained his ground, in expectation that the 
 army would advance and follow up the success, by 
 striking at Maiden; but he was disappointed by the in- 
 decision of the general, who ordered the detachment to 
 return," 
 
 Immediately after this disastrous movement, Colonel 
 Cass repaired to Washington, and reported the proceed- 
 ings to Government. In the following spring his posi- 
 tion was changed, being appointed colonel of the 27th 
 regiment of infantry, and soon after he was promoted 
 to the rank of brigadier general. He joined General 
 Harrison, at Seneca, and crossing Lake Erie with him, 
 after Perry's victory, was present in the pursuit of Proc- 
 tor, and participated in the triumph at the Moravian 
 12*
 
 274 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 towns. The north-western campaign being brought to 
 a successful close, General Cass was left in command of 
 Michigan and the upper province of Canada. His head- 
 quarters were at Detroit, and he thus became the mili- 
 tary guardian of a people over whom he was soon called 
 to preside in the highest civil functions. 
 
 What follows will unfold the character of General 
 Cass more particularly as a patriotic statesman. On 
 October 9th, 1813, he was appointed governor over the 
 territory just alluded to. In 1814, he was associated 
 with General Harrison in a commission to treat with 
 the Indians, who had acted as enemies during the war. 
 A treaty of pacification was formed, and a large body of 
 influential Indians accompanied Governor Cass to Detroit, 
 as auxiliaries. So great an influence had he already 
 obtained over the most savage natures, by blended cour- 
 tesy and decision, that many were transformed into the 
 most efficient friends. At one period, Michigan was left 
 with a single company of regular soldiers for its defence, 
 and that at the time consisted of only twenty-seven men. 
 Yet, with this inadequate force, and the local militia, 
 the governor, more by personal persuasion than martial 
 compulsion, was able to defend the territory against 
 all of its foes. 
 
 After the termination of the war, Governor Cass 
 moved his family to Detroit. 'History records the con- 
 dition of affairs at that time. " Michigan had suffered 
 greatly during the war; Detroit exhibited a scene of 
 devastation. Scarcely a family, when it resumed its 
 domestic establishment, found more than the remnants 
 jf former wealth and comforts. Laws had become si-
 
 LEWIS CASS. 275 
 
 lent, and morals had suffered in the genera] wreck, and 
 it required great prudence and an uncommon share of 
 practical wisdom to lead back a people thus disorganized, 
 to habits of industry and order. The civil government 
 was established, and such laws enacted as could be most 
 easily carried into effect. The legislative power being 
 placed in the hands of the governor and judges, rendered 
 it a delicate task to aid in the enactment of laws which 
 were to be enforced by the same will ; but it was per- 
 formed with decision and enlightened discrimination. 
 
 "The Indian relations were likewise to be readjusted 
 throughout the western frontier. War had ruptured or 
 weakened every tie which had previously connected 
 the tribes with our government. By decisive, but kind 
 measures, the hollow truce which alone existed, was con- 
 verted mto a permanent peace, and they returned by de- 
 grees, to their hunting grounds and usual places of resort, 
 with a general disposition to live in amity and quiet." 
 
 During the year 1816, Governor Cass was associated 
 with General M' Arthur to treat with the Indians at 
 Fort Meigs. The north-western portion of Ohio was 
 acquired at this time. The following year he was en- 
 gaged in the same duty at Fort Mary's, and secured 
 the acquisition of a large tract of land in Indiana. In 
 1819, he assisted in the treaty held at Sagano, by which 
 extensive relinquishments were obtained from the In- 
 dians in Michigan. In all these negotiations, Governor 
 Cass succeeded most effectually by his courteous frank- 
 ness and disposition to act on the principle of fair reci- 
 procity. In the same year, he exerted himself with suc- 
 cess, in securing the election of a delegate to Congress ;
 
 276 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA 
 
 and in promoting the sale of the public lands within the 
 territory. It is believed that the prosperity of Michi- 
 gan was greatly promoted by these measures. 
 
 In 1820, under the sanction of Mr. Calhoun, then 
 Secretary of War, an expedition was planned by Gov- 
 ernor Gass, the object of which was to pass through 
 Lake Superior, cross the country to the Mississippi, ex- 
 plore the sources of that river, and establish an inter- 
 course with the Indians, on that extensive route. The 
 party combined persons eminent for their military and 
 scientific accomplishments. A preliminary object was, 
 to inform the Indians at the Sault de St. Marie of the 
 intention of government to establish a military post at 
 that point, and to determine a suitable site. Connected 
 with this undertaking, the following published incident 
 will be read with interest : " On his arrival there, Gov~- 
 ernor Cass assembled the Indians and made known the 
 object in view. Being under the influence of a chief 
 who was notoriously disaffected towards the United 
 States, they heard the proposition with evident ill-will, 
 and broke up the council with every appearance of 
 hostile intentions. They returned to their encampment, 
 immediately transported their women and children over 
 the river, and raised a British flag, as if in token of defi- 
 ance. Governor Cass at once adopted the only course 
 suited to the emergency. Taking only an interpretei 
 with him, he advanced to the Indian encampment and 
 pulled down, with his own hands, the Anglo-Savage flag, 
 directing the interpreter to inform the Indians that they 
 were within the jurisdiction of the United States, and 
 that no other flag than theirs must be allowed to w iTT/
 
 LEWIS CASS. 277 
 
 over it. Having given this bold and practical rebuke, 
 he returned to his party, taking with him the flag, and 
 leaving the Indians to further reflection. The moral 
 influence of this opportune and seemingly perilous step, 
 was immediately seen ; new overtures were made by the 
 Indians, which- led to an amicable and satisfactory ad- 
 justment. The course of the expedition, and most of its 
 scientific results, have been published in Mr. School- 
 craft's interesting journal." 
 
 It would probably weary the reader, should we pre- 
 sent full details of all- the important treaties with the 
 various Indian tribes which were mainly conducted by 
 Governor Cass: in 1821, at Chicago; in 1823, with 
 the Dela wares ; in 1825, at Prairie du Chien ; in 1827, 
 and again in the following year, at St. Joseph's and Green 
 Bay. These treaties occasioned him an incredible 
 amount of fatigue in long and dangerous journeys, but 
 were most fruitful in their results. In his rarious treaties, 
 Governor Cass has acquired for the 'United States, and 
 rescued from the wilderness, for great and practical agri- 
 cultural purposes, many millions of acres of land ; and 
 by a kindness of manner, as well as uprightness of nego- 
 tiation, which it is believed never aggravated the lot of 
 a single Indian or tribe. 
 
 In 1822, the Council of Michigan held its first session. 
 This body relieved the governor and judges of their 
 legislative duties, and gave the government a more 
 republican form. The messages which Governor Cass 
 sent to the several councils, convened under his admin- 
 istration, are said to have been written in a chaste and 
 dignified style: indeed, all the documents that came
 
 278 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 from his pen, while governor of the territory, may be 
 regarded as good models of executive composition, and 
 exhibit a cultivated literary taste of a high order. 
 
 In addition to his gubernatorial writings, General 
 Cass has given to the world several important publica- 
 tions. In the fiftieth and fifty-fifth numbers of the North 
 American Review, he discussed the Indian character, 
 language, and condition, in a style uncommonly ear- 
 nest and eloquent. These articles, full of graphic his- 
 tory, discriminating analysis, and statistical accuracy, 
 attracted general attention, and imparted much gratifi- 
 cation to the public mind. 
 
 A historical society was formed in Michigan, in 1828, 
 before which General Cass delivered the first address in 
 1829, embodying the early history of Michigan, and 
 bringing it down to the period when the United States 
 came into possession of it. It was deemed of great 
 value for its copious historical matter, and by its publi- 
 cation much permanent information was secured. 
 
 A still more elaborate production was occasioned by 
 a request, in 1830, for an address before the alumni of 
 Hamilton College, New York, at their anniversary 
 meeting. The production delivered on that occasion 
 displayed an affluence of reading and reflection which 
 proved the author's acquaintance with most of the de- 
 partments of knowledge, and doubtless did much to 
 secure for him the honorary degree of LL.D., which he 
 afterwards received from that college. He had before 
 received literary honors from several of the leading his- 
 torical and philosophical societies of the land. 
 
 In July, 1831, General Cass was, by President Jack-
 
 LEWIS CASS. 279 
 
 son, appointed Secretary of War. On being placed in 
 this office, he resigned that of Governor of Michigan, in 
 which he had officiated eighteen years. Says a writer 
 in allusion to the event : " When he began his adminis- 
 tration, he found the country small in population, with- 
 out resources, and almost sunk under the devastations 
 of war. He left it with a wide-spread population, and 
 thriving with unprecedented prosperity. This auspi- 
 cious condition may not all be attributed to executive 
 instrumentality : but an administration, impartial, vigi- 
 lant, pervading, and intelligent, may be fairly supposed 
 to have shed a happy influence on all around. It will 
 long be remembered in Michigan, where its termination 
 is universally regretted. In the important station which 
 he now holds, his sphere of usefulness is enlarged, and 
 none of his predecessors ever enjoyed a greater share of 
 public confidence. 
 
 "Strict and punctual in his business habits, plain and 
 affable in his manners, with powers of mind which 
 grasp, as it were, by intuition, every subject to which 
 they are applied united to various and extensive ac- 
 quirements, we feel that we hazard nothing in the de- 
 claration, that the measure of his fame is not yet full." 
 
 Having performed very efficient service as Secretary 
 of the War Department, General Cass was appointed 
 Minister at the Court of France. The fidelity with 
 which he performed this mission, maintaining the honor 
 of his country with his pen as well as personal dignity, 
 and his particular courtesy to all Americans, are well 
 known. Tho'se who have been abroad much, know 
 painfully, that the latter quality is not always signalized
 
 280 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 by our functionaries, who, too often, find it more conve- 
 nient to ape contiguous kingcraft, than pay the atten- 
 tions to their republican countrymen for which their 
 office is held. But General Cass was a noble exception, 
 and so was his successor, Mr. King, as from agreeable 
 experience we can testify. Mrs. Sigourney, on being 
 presented to the late royal family, the first day of 1841, 
 wrote a poem in which she alluded to this " kind ambas- 
 sador." The foot-note she appends to that expression 
 embodies the sentiment of many hundreds. Says she, 
 " How justly is this adjective applied to General Cass, 
 and all his family. His unwearied attention to travel- 
 lers from his native country, during the whole time that 
 he has represented its interests at the Court of France, 
 are deeply felt and fervently acknowledged. Without 
 reference to political creed, or other adventitious dis- 
 tinction, he not only gathers them around him with 
 liberal and elegant hospitality, but, aided by his whole 
 household, strives to teach them the luxury of home- 
 feeling in a foreign land." 
 
 This high office, which he had so long and worthily 
 filled, General Cass relinquished in October, 1842, and 
 arrived in Boston, Dec. 6th. On the day previous to his 
 departure a public dinner was given him by his fellow 
 citizens then in Paris, as .a testimonial of their high re- 
 spect and warm esteem. 
 
 The dinner went off with great eclat, and the com- 
 pany separated at an early hour, bearing with them the 
 recollection of. a most delightful and agreeable evening, 
 and with but one circumstance to modify their pleasure 
 the necessity of bidding adieu to him whose guests
 
 LEWIS CASS. 281 
 
 they had so often been, and who now and for the last 
 time was theirs. 
 
 On July 4th, 1843, the completion of the Wabash and 
 Erie Canal was celebrated. After a prayer had been 
 made by the chaplain, and the Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence read, General Cass rose and delivered an oration 
 from which we make the following selection. After an 
 appropriate exordium, he says: 
 
 " It is profitable in the career of life, occasionally to 
 pause to withdraw ourselves from the very busy scenes, 
 with which we mingle, and to look back upon the pro- 
 gress we have made, and forward, as far as it is given to 
 us to look forward upon the prospect before us. These 
 are high places in the journey of life, whence the region 
 around is best contemplated and understood. In all 
 time great events have been thus commemorated. The 
 principle has its foundation in human nature, though 
 perverted in its application by power or superstition 
 And many a monument which has survived its own 
 history and the objects of its founders, yet looks out 
 upon the silence around it, the solitary evidence of 
 some great, but forgotten event in the fitful drama of 
 life. And we have come up to-day to one of these 
 high places to commune together. We have met from 
 many a portion of our common country, and this great 
 assemblage testifies, not less by its numbers, than by the 
 imposing circumstances which surround it, that there 
 is here passing one of those scenes which mark the pro- 
 gress of society, and which form its character, and 
 oftentimes its destiny. And so it is, and it is good for 
 us to be here. We have not come to fight a battle, nor
 
 282 LIVING ORATOU3 IN AMERICA. 
 
 to commemorate one we have not come to worship 
 at the shrine of power, to celebrate the birth or the 
 death of some unworthy ruler, the last step in political 
 degradation. Nor have we come to commence, to 
 complete, nor to commemorate some useless but im- 
 posing structure, erected by pride, but paid for by pov- 
 erty. 1 would not, however, be misunderstood. Far 
 be it from us to censure or to check those feelings of 
 love of country, or of religion, which seek their out- 
 pourings in the erection of memorials upon spots which 
 have drank the blood of the patriot or of the martyr. It 
 is a tribute of virtue, which honors the dead and the 
 living. But let it be voluntary. Then it will neither 
 be unjust in its object, nor oppressive in its accomplish- 
 ment. It will teach a lesson to after ages, which may 
 stimulate virtue to action, and give fortitude to endure 
 till the day of deliverance comes with its struggle and 
 its reward. Look at the mighty Pyramids, which rise 
 over the Arabian and the Libyan wastes, and which 
 cast their shadow far in the desert, mocking the re- 
 searches and the pride of man. They tell no tale but 
 the old tale of oppression. They speak in their very 
 massiveness, of pride and power on the one side, and 
 misery and poverty on the other. One of the little 
 channels which the Fellah has diverted from the great 
 river at their base, and which spreads verdure and fer- 
 tility over the valley, that owes so much to God, and so 
 little to man, is far dearer to the oppressed population, 
 than these useless and mighty structures. 
 
 " Our eastern brethren, with the characteristic liber- 
 alitv and patriotism, which make the descendants of the
 
 LEWIS CASS. 2S3 
 
 pilgrims proud of the land of their ancestors, have just 
 completed and dedicated a monument to mark the site 
 of the battle, which opened the greatest contest between 
 a powerful empire and her young and distant provinces, 
 and whose influence, if it did not give to the Revolution 
 its fortunate issue, impressed its character upon the 
 whole struggle. We have no such place to hallow ; but 
 we have the people to do the deeds by which places are 
 sanctified, and where the pilgrims of liberty come, not 
 to worship but to reflect. We have not the wealth nor 
 those ' appliances,' by which the long and imposing pro- 
 cession, and the gorgeous pageantry, which a great city 
 can arrange and display, affect, and almost subdue, the 
 imagination. We have not the chief magistrate of the 
 republic, with his official counsellors, to mark, as it 
 were, with a national character, the occasion of our as- 
 semblage. Nor have we constructed an obelisk, simple 
 and severe in its style, but lasting as the deeds it com- 
 memorates, whose foundation is laid in the graves of 
 martyred patriots, but whose summit rises towards the 
 heavens, telling the story of their fall, and proclaiming 
 the gratitude of their countrymen. But there are here 
 stout hearts and strong hands ; thousands, who would 
 devote themselves, as did the men of Bunker Hill, to 
 the cause of freedom, and who would fight as they 
 fought, and die as they died, should their country de- 
 mand the sacrifice. On the face of the globe, liberty 
 has no more zealous defenders, nor patriotism more 
 ardent votaries, than is this great assembly, the convo- 
 cation of a people, who have made this region their own 
 by all the ties that bio.d a man to his home, and who
 
 284 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 will defend it, and the institutions which belong to it, 
 by all the means that energy and intelligence and de- 
 votedness have ever brought to the great day of trial, 
 and by which they have made it a day of triumph. 
 
 "We have come here to join in another commemo- 
 ration. To witness the union of the lakes and of the 
 Mississippi. To survey one of the noblest works of 
 man in the improvement of that great highway of na- 
 ture, extending from New York to New Orleans, whose 
 full moral and physical effects it were vain to seek 
 even to conjecture. 
 
 "And fitly chosen is the day of this celebration. 
 This work is another ligament, which binds together 
 this great confederated Republic. Providence has given 
 us union, and many motives to preserve it. The sun 
 never shown upon a country abounding more than ours 
 does, in all the elements of prosperity. It were need- 
 less to enumerate the advantages we enjoy, and which 
 give us so distinguished a position among the nations 
 of the world. They are seen and felt in all those evi- 
 dences of prosperity and improvement, which greet the 
 traveller wherever he passes through our country. 
 And still more striking are they when we contrast our 
 situation with that of the older regions of the world. I 
 shall not enter into the comparison. I could speak of it 
 from personal knowledge, but the task would not be a 
 pleasant one, for it would recall many a cause of dis- 
 content, and many a scene of misery, which meet the 
 eye of the most careless observer, who exchanges the 
 new hemisphere for the old. An American, who does 
 not return to his own country a wiser man and a better
 
 LEWIS CASS. 285 
 
 citizen, and prouder, and more contented, for all he has 
 seen abroad, may well doubt his own head or heart, 
 and may well be doubted by his countrymen. 
 
 " Still, it is" not to be disguised that, from the very 
 constitution 'of human nature causes may occasionally 
 exist, tending to weaken, though they cannot sever, the 
 bonds which unite us ; and happy is it that these causes 
 may be counteracted, and ultimately, we may hope, 
 rendered powerless, by measures now in progress, which 
 will add the ties of interest to the dictates of patriotism. 
 Our railroads and canals are penetrating every section 
 of our territory. They are annihilating time and space. 
 They %re embracing in their folds the ocean and the 
 lake frontiers, and the great region extending from the 
 Alleghany to the Rocky Mountains, through which the 
 mighty Mississippi and its countless tributaries find their 
 way to the Gulf of Mexico. Once let this work be 
 completed, and we are bound together by cords which 
 no strength can sunder. The moral and political effect, 
 therefore, of the great work before us, is even more im- 
 portant than the physical advantages it promises. It 
 will bear upon its bosom the products of a thousand 
 fertile valleys, and it will spread gladness and prosperity 
 over regions which have just been rescued from the In- 
 dians, and frorn^ the animals, his co-tenants of the forest, 
 which minister to his wants. But it will do more than 
 this. It will make glad the heart of the patriot. As he 
 sails along it, he will see, not merely the evidences and 
 the cause of wealth and prosperity, but one of the ties 
 which knit us together. By a process more fortunate 
 than alchyrnist ever imagined, the feeblest element will
 
 286 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 be converted into the strongest bond. It will bear the 
 boat and its freight to a market, where products may be 
 interchanged and wealth acquired. But it will inter- 
 change interests and feelings which no wealth can pur- 
 chase, and for which no price can pay. Well, then, 
 may we rejoice upon this day. The occasion and the 
 time are in unison together. And while we thank God 
 for the services and sacrifices which he enabled our 
 fathers to make in the acquisi* : ^n of freedom and inde- 
 pendence, let us thank him, also, that we are able to 
 strengthen their work, and to transmit to our children, 
 as they transmitted to theirs, the noblest inheritance 
 that belongs to man. The ark of the Constitution is yet 
 untouched. Withered be the hand that would pollute it." 
 
 After a graphic and eloquent sketch of what had 
 transpired on that spot within less than two centuries, 
 he proceeds with some statements which are interesting 
 from their auto-biographical, as well as historical char- 
 acter. Says he : 
 
 " It is now forty-three years since I landed upon the 
 northern shore of Ohio, a young adventurer seeking the 
 land of promise ; which has been to him, as to many 
 others, the land of performance. At that time, the 
 Territory of Indiana was not organized, and the States 
 of Ohio, of Indiana, of Illinois, and of Michigan, and the 
 Territory of Wisconsin, formed one government, under 
 the name of the North- Western Territory." 
 
 Passing over a vivid description of the horrors of In- 
 dian warfare, we come to the following description : 
 
 " Nature has been prodigal of her favors to the val- 
 ley of the Maumee. I can never forget the first time it
 
 LEWIS CAS8. 287 
 
 met my eye. It was at the commencement of the late 
 war, when the troops, destined for the defence of De- 
 troit, had passed through the forest from Urbanna, to 
 the Rapids. The season had been \vet, and much of 
 the country was low, and the whole of it unbroken by 
 a single settlement, and we had cut our road, and trans- 
 ported our provisions and baggage, with great labor and 
 difficulty. We were heartily tired of the march, and 
 were longing for its termination, when we attained the 
 brow of the table land, through which the Maumee has 
 made a passage for itself, and a fertile region for those 
 who have the good fortune to occupy it. Like the 
 mariner, we felt that we had reached a port; like the 
 wanderer, a home. I have since visited the three other 
 quarters of the globe, and passed over many lands and 
 seas. But my memory still clings to the prospect which 
 burst upon us, in a bright day in June, from the valley 
 of the Maumee ; to the river, winding away beyond 
 our view ; to the rapids, presenting every form of the 
 most picturesque objects ; to the banks, clothed with 
 deep verdure ; and to the rich bottoms, denuded of tim- 
 ber, as though inviting the labor and enterprise of the 
 settler." 
 
 He proceeds to give interesting details of the weary 
 modes of travelling to which the early inhabitants were 
 subjected, passes a fine encomium on the enterprise 
 which had opened such improved facilities through the 
 new canal, and forcibly illustrates the feasibility and im- 
 portance of such improvements. 
 
 The progress of great American enterprises, and the
 
 288 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 impressions they produce on European nations, are 
 well stated in the following extract : 
 
 " It is but a few years since our attention was sys- 
 tematically turned to the improvement of our means of 
 internal communication. The first impulse was given 
 by the State of New York, in the projection and com- 
 mencement of her great work, an evidence alike of her 
 energy and wisdom, and an enduring monument of her 
 perseverance, and of which the whole country is now 
 gathering the fruits. Since then, many other States, 
 unwilling to be left behind in the career of advance- 
 ment, have followed the same route, and everywhere 
 canals and railroads have sprung into existence, facili- 
 tating the communication between the most distant parts 
 of the country, and ministering to those wants of inter- 
 course, which are at once the cause and the effect of 
 active exertion and of commercial prosperity. Our 
 social and political institutions and our national charac- 
 ter, alternately operating upon each other, have never 
 achieved a prouder triumph, nor furnished a more irre- 
 fragable proof of their tendency to promote human hap- 
 piness, than in this peaceful victory over the natural 
 impediments which divided, though they could not sepa- 
 rate us, and which has increased our capacity for de- 
 fence, as much as it has added to our stock of wealth. 
 The fate of republican institutions is in our hands. If 
 the great experiment, as it is elsewhere and tauntingly 
 called, but which every American knows is no longer 
 an experiment, that is in progress among us, of the 
 power of man to govern himself should fail, ages may 
 pass away before the rights and safety of all are again
 
 LEWIS CASS. 280 
 
 .' '-"./ (''"'.' ' '. . .. *' V.JP-. 
 
 committed to the custody of all. Fortunate it is, there- 
 fore, when the operation of Our system can be pre- 
 sented to the old world in a point of view, in which it 
 can be examined and appreciated, by being brought into 
 comparison with the effects of the institutions that 
 prevailed there. No effort of this country, in its onward 
 march, has awakened more attention, or excited more 
 admiration, than the successful progress we have made 
 in this great enterprise this greatest of enterprises in 
 the history of internal improvement. The geographical 
 maps make known the gigantic features of our confede- 
 ration, and the statistical tables and the reports of trav- 
 ellers made known the communications, natural arid 
 artificial, by which it is knit together. 
 
 " The works, both of nature and of man, are oil a 
 scale of proportion unknown in that part of the world. 
 Rivers traversing the earth from the artic to the tropi- 
 cal' regions; lakes, or rather seas, where navies have 
 rode, and victories been gained ; railroads extending 
 from the Atlantic to Lake Erie, a distance of five hun- 
 dred miles, and intersecting the country in all important 
 directions ; and canals penetrating our valleys, and as- 
 cending our mountains, and forming one after another; 
 great lines of communication which Would circumscribe 
 many a European kingdom. And before these works 
 the forest gives way. They are not confined to the 
 more densely peopled portions of our country, but like 
 the hardy settler, they are marching with giant strides 
 towards the remote frontier. Already they have passed 
 the cabin of the pioneer of improvement, d"jd the hut of 
 the Indian. They remove from their pa.ft the lofty and
 
 290 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 primeval trees, the relics of a former age, and the con- 
 temporaries, perhaps, and witnesses of strange events 
 forever lost to the knowledge of the world ; and before 
 them our primitive people are receding, and seeking a 
 new home, where the approach of the white man may 
 be delayed, but cannot be prevented. It is a popular 
 remark with the Indians, that when the bee comes 
 among them, it is soon, followed by the big knives. But 
 there is now another precursor, which announces to the 
 secluded village that the civilized stranger is at hand, 
 propelled by some monster, whose fearful sound precedes 
 him, and which, ascending the solitary stream, pene- 
 trates the recesses of the forest, and proclaims to its 
 tenants, that ere long their council houses will become 
 desolate, and the plough will pass over the graves of 
 their fathers. 
 
 " In Europe this is a rate of progress utterly un- 
 known, and comprehended with difficulty. There they 
 deliberate, while here we act. If more caution would 
 give more certainty of success, it would take from the 
 energy of purpose, and of action, which has carried us 
 forward in our career, both physically and morally, with 
 a rapidity unknown in the history of the world, and 
 which opens to a future, cheering to the heart of the 
 patriot, and encouraging to the lover of humanity. It is 
 that energy which, if it commit faults, can repair them 
 which always operating, is never discomfitted ; ac- 
 complishing its projects when practicable, and turn- 
 ing to others with equal confidence and perseverance, 
 when checked by insuperable difficulties." 
 
 The closing portion of this admirable oration we
 
 LEWIS CASS. 291 
 
 quote at length. It is a fair specimen of the author's 
 style, and is too good to be abbreviated. 
 
 " We come here to rejoice together. Memorable 
 deeds make memorable days. There is a power of asso- 
 ciation given to man, which binds together the past and 
 the present, aud connects both with the future. Great 
 events hallow the sites where they pass. Then return- 
 ing anniversaries, so long as these are remembered, are 
 kept with sorrow or joy, as they were prosperous or 
 adverse. To-day a new work is born a work of peace 
 and not of ^war. We are celebrating the triumph of 
 art, and not of arms. Centuries hence, we may hope 
 that the river you have made, will still flow east and 
 west, bearing upon its bosom the riches of a prosperous 
 people, and that our descendants will come to keep the 
 day, which we have come to mark, and that as it returns 
 they will remember the exertions of their ancestors 
 while they gather the harvest. Associations are power- 
 ful in the older regions of the eastern continent, and 
 strongly affect the imagination. They belong, however, 
 to the past. Here, they are strong and vigorous, and 
 belong to the future. There, hope is extinct, and history 
 has closed its record. Time has done its work. Here 
 we have no past; all has been done within the mem- 
 ory of man. Our province of action is the present, of 
 contemplation, the future. No man can stand upon the 
 scene of one of those occurrences which has produced 
 a decisive effect upon the fate of nations, and which 
 history has rendered familiar to us from youth, without 
 being withdrawn from the influence of the present, and 
 carried back to the period of conflict, of doubt, and of
 
 292 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 success, which attend some mighty struggle. All this 
 is the triumph of mind, the exertion of intellect, which 
 elevates us in the scale of being, and furnishes us with 
 another and pure source of enjoyment. Even recent 
 events, around which time has not gathered its shadows, 
 sanctify the places of their origin. What American 
 can survey the field of battle at Bunker Hill, or at New 
 Orleans, without recalling the deeds which will render 
 these names imperishable ? Who can pass the islands 
 of Lake Erie, without thinking upon those who sleep 
 in the waters below, and upon the victory which broke 
 the power of the enemy, and led to the security of an 
 extensive frontier? There no monument can be 
 erected, for the waves roll, and will roll over them. 
 But he who met the enemy and made them ours, and 
 his devoted companions, will live in the recollections of 
 the American people, while there is virtue to admire, 
 patriotism or gratitude to reward it. I have stood upon 
 the plain of Marathon, the battle-field of liberty. It is 
 silent and desolate. Neither Greek nor Persian is there, 
 to give life and animation to the scene. It is bounded 
 by sterile hills on one side, and lashed by the eternal 
 waves of the Egean Sea on the other. But Greek and 
 Persian were once there, and that dreary spot was alive 
 with hostile armies, who fought the great fight which 
 rescued Greece from the yoke of Persia. 
 
 " And I have stood also upon the hill of Zion, the city 
 of Jerusalem, the scene of our Redeemer's sufferings 
 and crucifixion, and ascension. But the sceptre has 
 departed from Judah, and its glory from the capital ot 
 Solomon. The Assyrian, the Egyptian, the Greek, the
 
 LEWIS CASS. 293 
 
 Roman, the Arab, the Turk, and the Crusader, have 
 passed over this chief place of Israel, and have reft it of 
 its power and beauty. Well has the denunciation of 
 the prophet of misfortunes been fulfilled, when he de- 
 clared that ' the Lord had set his face against this city 
 for evil and not for good ;' when he pronounced the 
 words of the Most High, ' I will cause to cease from the 
 city of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the 
 voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of 
 the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride ; for the land 
 shall be desolate.' 
 
 "In those regions of the east where society passed its 
 infancy, it seems to have reached decrepitude. If the 
 association, which the memory of the past glory excites, 
 are powerful, they are melancholy. They are without 
 joy for the present, and without hope for the future. 
 But here we are in the freshness of youth, and can look 
 forward, with national confidence, to ages of progress 
 in all that gives power and pride to man, and dignity to 
 human nature. No deeds of glory hallow this region. 
 But nature has been bountiful to it in its best gifts, and 
 art and industry are at work to extend and improve 
 them. You cannot pierce the barrier which shuts in 
 the past, and separates you from the great highway of 
 nations. You have opened a vista to the Atlantic and 
 the Gulf of Mexico. From this elevated point, two seas 
 are before us, which your energy and perseverance have 
 brought within reach. It is better to look forward to 
 prosperity than back to glory. To the mental eye no 
 prospect can be more magnificent than here meets the 
 vision. I need not stop to describe it. It is before us
 
 294 LtVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 in the long regions of fertile land, which stretch off to 
 the east and west, to the north and south, in all the ad- 
 vantages that Providence has liberally bestowed upon 
 them, and in the changes and improvements which 
 man is making. The forest is fading and falling, and 
 towns and villages are rising and flourishing. And bet- 
 ter still, a moral, intelligent, and industrious people are 
 spreading themselves over the whole face of the country, 
 and making it their own and their home. And what 
 changes and chances await us? Shall we go on 
 increasing and improving, and united ? or shall we add 
 another to the list of republics, which have preceded 
 us, and which have fallen the victims of their own fol- 
 lies and dissentions ? My faith in the stability of our 
 institutions is enduring, my hope is strong; for they rest 
 upon public virtue and intelligence. There is no por- 
 tion of our country more interested in their preserva- 
 tion than this, and no one more able and willing to main- 
 tain them. We may here claim to occupy the citadel 
 of freedom. No foreign foe can approach us ; and while 
 the west is true to itself and its country, its example will 
 exert a powerful influence upon the whole confedera- 
 tion, and its strength, if need be, will defend it." 
 
 Since the above oration was delivered, General Cass 
 has for some time been a member of the United States 
 Senate. The reputation he has -born therein, and be- 
 fore the country, as a sagacious, patriotic and eloquent 
 debater is of a high order. But our limits will not ad- 
 mit any more examples. In what remains, we shall 
 submit a few remarks on the particular trait in this ora 
 tor, his courtesy.
 
 LEWIS CA8S. 295 
 
 In all his private intercourse with men, and deport- 
 ment towards nations, our distinguished countryman 
 has rarely been accused of being severe, and then it was 
 evidently from patriotic considerations, and not from 
 personal disrespect. 
 
 We have seen what a large number of difficult treaties 
 with western savages General Gass had occasion to ne- 
 gociate, and with what success he performed the task. 
 In the war department, in executive functions and 
 foreign diplomacy, he has ben equally efficient and suc- 
 cessful. This is to be explained, in a great measure, by 
 the fact, that his kindness of manner is calculated to 
 conciliate an honorable concurrence not less than his 
 firmness tends to command respect. This is the quality 
 so justly celebrated by Cicero, in his offices, at the opening 
 of the fourteenth section of the second book : " But of 
 speaking or discourse there are two sorts ; the one proper 
 only for common conversation, the other, for pleadings 
 and debates in public. Of these two, the latter, which 
 is what we call eloquence, is apparently more powerful 
 towards the attainment of glory ; but yet it is inexpressi- 
 ble of what influence courtesy and affability are, in the 
 business of obtaining men's love and affections. There 
 are extant letters of Philip to Alexander, Antipater to 
 Cassander, and Antigonus to Philip; in which these 
 most wise and prudent princes (for such we are told they 
 really were) advise each his son to speak kindly to the 
 multitude, and try to win the hearts of both them and 
 the soldiers by gentle words and familiar appellations." 
 
 A public man will be likely to succeed in his 
 career, just so far as he practices that kind of demea-
 
 296 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 nor, which benevolence dictates, ana prudence con- 
 firms. By being cautious of insulting the weakest, 
 and ever ready to oblige the lowest, he will exemplify a 
 generosity that is sure to engross the good will of all bo 
 neath him, while he at the same time attains habits of 
 forbearance and fortitude which constitute the best safe- 
 guard against all the malice of the ignoble great. He 
 who, from native generosity, would not bruise a worm, 
 will be the slowest to incur the venom of a serpent ; and 
 when maliciously stung, will find no small mitigation of 
 his pangs in the sympathies of all the magnanimous and 
 good. Says old Bishop Hall, " There is an affable fami- 
 liarity that becometh greatness. It is not good for emi- 
 nent persons to stand always upon the height of their 
 state; but so to behave themselves, that as their social 
 carriage may not breed contempt, so their over-highness 
 may not breed a servile fearfulness in their people. Cer- 
 emonies of respectfulness, though they be in themselves 
 slight and arbitrary, yet the neglect of them, in some 
 cases may undergo a dangerous construction. How 
 well it becomes the great to stoop unto a courteous affa- 
 bility, and to exchange words of respect, even with 
 their humble vassals !" 
 
 To cultivate a disposition to please and oblige our 
 fellow creatures is to conform to the scriptural injunc- 
 ti0, " be courteous" " be gentle to all men," and in 
 this respect, especially, General Cass is worthy of being 
 emulated by every public or private individual. He has 
 learned that to refuse graciously what he cannot grant 
 honestly, and to conciliate those whom it is impossible 
 or unjust to subdue, is the instrument of best service and
 
 LEWIS cAsa. 297 
 
 :*4 * 
 the means of most good. To many persons it doubtless 
 
 seemed ludicrous in the citizens of obscure Megara, 
 when they offered the freedom of their city to Alexan- 
 der, who had conquered the world; but it was a mark 
 of true sagacity, as well as true nobility, in him, to 
 receive this tribute of their respect with complacency, on 
 being told that they had never offered it to any but to Her- 
 cules and himself. Hollow trees are always the stiffest ; 
 but the mightiest oak, if sound, can bend. The more 
 exalted a man is by station, the more powerful should he 
 be by kindness; in life and in death, he should strive to 
 deserve the encomium pronounced on Patroclus by the 
 great Atrides :. 
 
 " How skilled he was in each obliging art ; 
 The mildest manners, and the gentlest heart." 
 
 Nothing, however, can constitute good breeding that 
 has not good nature for its foundation, and comprehen- 
 sive goodness for its main design. The courtesy it em- 
 ploys is real, and not superficial ; it is the deep and pro- 
 lific source of refined manners, polite action, kind words 
 and beneficent deeds- It has a potent influence in the 
 ~'orld. Though it cannot of itself alone create a good 
 name, nor absolutely supply the want of it; yet it is a 
 quality which strongly attracts to its possessor the. 
 confidence and esteem of all classes of mankind. There 
 is no policy like politeness, since a good manner often 
 succeeds where the best logic has failed. Moreover 
 this is an attribute which may be employed as effect- 
 ively to correct the unworthy as it is most useful to 
 inspire confidence in the timid and encourage the de- 
 13*
 
 ^yo LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 serving. "Nothing sharpens the arrow of sarcasm sc 
 keenly, as the same courtesy that polishes it, and noth- 
 ing exposes and arrests impertinence so efficaciously as 
 the contrast presented by amenity. No reproach is like 
 that we clothe with a smile and present with a bow." 
 A fine illustration of this truth is presented in the fourth 
 book of Paradise Lost. The reproof which the devil 
 most keenly felt, was that which was most respectfully 
 oresented : 
 
 " So spake the cherub ; and his grave rebuke, 
 Severe in youthful beauty, added grace 
 Invincible ; abash'd the devil stood, 
 And felt how awful goodness is, and saw 
 Virtue, in her shape how lovely; saw and pin'd 
 His loss; but chiefly to find here observ'd 
 His lustre visibly impaired ; yet seem'd 
 Undaunted." 
 
 It should be particularly observed that gentleness is 
 not weakness. A mind that is addicted only to fawning 
 and flattery will never honor truth and duty by an alle- 
 giance based on principle and adorned by true noble- 
 ness of spirit. Such an unsubstantial character can no 
 more be made to assume the aspect of real politeness, 
 than a sponge, or a fungus of any sort can be polished 
 like a diamond or gold. Lead may be heavy enough for 
 many useful purposes, but it is too unsubstantial and' 
 worthless to be coined into the currency of a nation ; and 
 so of the public men it symbolizes, they are too stupid 
 to be trusted, and too uncouth to be admired. But true 
 greatness is always sympathetic and generous. Homer, 
 that just observer of nature, makes no scruple to repre-
 
 LEWIS CASS. 299 
 
 sent Ulysses his best of men; and Achilles his 
 bravest of men, frequently in tears. Jonathan and 
 David were the most heroical men of their age ; yet 
 they wept on each other's neck, till, each exceeded. 
 And what a lesson do we learn at the grave of Lazarus ! 
 He whose disposition is most favorable to the produc- 
 tion of happiness within himself, is of necessity and nat- 
 urally most agreeable to others ; and these common qual- 
 ities of pleasing and being pleased mutually react upon 
 and generate each other. " The great boast of polished 
 life," says Jeffry, " is the delicacy, and even the gen- 
 erosity of its hostility that quality which is still the 
 characteristic, as it furnishes the denomination, of a 
 gentleman that principle which forbids us to attack the 
 defenseless, to strike the fallen, or to mangle the slain 
 and enjoins us, in forging the shafts of satire, to increase 
 the polish exactly as we add to their keenness or their 
 weight." In his letter to the Duke of Ormond, Dryden 
 speaks on this topic in his own rich, characteristic style. 
 Says he, " Gold, as it is the purest, so it is the softest and 
 most ductile of all metals. Iron, which is the hardest, 
 gathers rust, corrodes itself, and is therefore subject to 
 corruption : it was never intended for coins and medals, 
 or to bear the faces and inscriptions of the great. In- 
 deed, it is fit for armor, to bear off insults, and preserve 
 the wearer in the day of battle ; but the danger once 
 repelled, it is laid aside by the brave, as a garment too 
 rough for civil conversation a necessary guard in war, 
 but too harsh and cumbersome in peace, and which 
 keeps off the embraces of a more humane life.'
 
 300 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 The mild courtesy of a truly generous heart, r reduces 
 gracious manners, as genial sunshine and dew elicit the 
 verdure and odors of earth, imparting alike to opening 
 flower and benignant character, a most captivating 
 charm. But when urbanity is separated from religious 
 charity, it is rather the law of strife than a treaty of 
 peace between men ; since, without that divine virtue, 
 a man may appear courteous at times, while, as St. 
 Bernard said of Peter Abailard, he is unlike himself 
 externally a John, and within a Herod. Even his appa- 
 rent kindness will be employed habitually with the inten- 
 tion of injuring more deeply. Don Alonzo, king of 
 Naples, hearing one day a certain man praising his ene- 
 my, " remark," said he " the artifice of the man, and 
 you will see that his praises are only for the purpose of 
 doing him more harm." The event verified the predic- 
 tion. Indeed, along with native generosity of heart, 
 nothing but the love of God and the direction of the 
 secret purpose to his glory in the general welfare, can 
 be the source of real, sincere and lasting courtesy. It 
 was set forth in no mean light by Homeric Nestor, who 
 received the two strangers with such kindness, although 
 he thought in his mind that thev might be robbers who 
 passed over the watery ways, bearing evil to men of 
 other nations. But the great apostle of the Gentiles pre- 
 sents a much higher and better example when, writing 
 to Philemon concerning his poor servant Onesimus, he 
 says, " If he hath wronged thee, or oweth the aught, put 
 that on mine account. I, Paul, have written it with 
 mine own hand, I will repay it." This is the gracious-
 
 LEWIS CASS. 301 
 
 ness which is practically useful, and which all should 
 exemplify. 
 
 " Then only shows of kindness have their worth, 
 When outward courtesies truly declare 
 The heart that keeps them.*
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON, 
 
 THE MAGISTERIAL. 
 
 ABOUT ten years since, a sketch of THOMAS HART 
 BENTON was presented to the public through the medium 
 of the Democratic Review. From that work we extract 
 the subjoined biographical remarks, preparatory to a 
 yet more particular survey of the mental and oratorical 
 character of our distinguished countryman. 
 
 " On the seventeenth of January, 1837, at the close 
 of the long debate which had taken place in the Senate 
 of the United States, on the famous ' expunging resolu- 
 tion,' shortly before the vote was to be tajcen, of which 
 the issue had not been left doubtful by the previous im- 
 perative decision of public opinion, Col. Benton, of 
 Missouri, rose in his place, and, addressing himself to 
 the Vice President in the chair, in the course of a brief, 
 but emphatic speech, referring back to the scene whicn 
 had been enacted on the same spot three eventful years 
 before, on the adoption of Mr. Clay's memorable reso- 
 lution of condemnation of the late President for the re- 
 moval of the deposites, and to his own prophecy, then 
 fearlessly hazarded, that that resolution should oe ' ex-
 
 .-Jk < 
 
 J*', * 
 
 
 S5T
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 303 
 
 punged' by the people of the United States from the 
 journal of the Senate, uttered the following well-known 
 words, which have become imperishably associated with 
 his name: 
 
 " ' Solitary and alone I set this ball in motion !' " 
 " This is the moment that the artist has selected as the 
 most strikingly illustrative of the character of the Sena- 
 tor from Missouri ; and no one who has ever seen and 
 heard Col. Benton, will hesitate in recognizing the fea- 
 tures, air, and attitude of the ' Great Expunger.' 
 
 " Col. Benton is about fifty-four (64) years of age. 
 His senatorial life dates from the year 1820, when he 
 was elected by the Legislature of Missouri, before the 
 formal admission of that State into the Union by Con- 
 gress. He had removed to Missouri about five years 
 before, from Tennessee ; where he had immediately 
 arisen to distinction at the bar. It will be remembered 
 that the Representatives from that State were not ad- 
 mitted to their seats in Congress till the succeeding year. 
 The interval Col. Benton devoted to study, in prepara- 
 tion for the career which a worthy ambition had already, 
 doubtless, marked out before him, in public life. Within 
 that time he made himself master, in particular, of the 
 Spanish language, and, to a considerable extent, of its 
 literature. 
 
 " He early rose to a prominent position in the* Sen- 
 ate ; and his speech at the session of 1823-4, on the bill 
 which (as chairman of a select committee) he intro- 
 duced, to amend the Constitution with respect to the 
 mode of the Presidential election, was one of remarka- 
 ble ability and force. It contained but one erroneous
 
 304 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 position, of which experience was not long in demon- 
 strating the fallacy. Though he was opposed to the 
 practice of choosing the Presidential electors by general 
 ticket, or by the legislatures of the States, as he was, in 
 fact, to the whole system of an intermediate electoral 
 body between the people themselves, and the object of 
 their choice for that high dignity, yet he was in favor 
 of the umpirage of Congress, in the case of a failure to 
 elect a majority candidate by the people on the first trial, 
 with a single equal vote to every State, without refer- 
 ence to population. This was, in our opinion, carrying 
 the State-Rights' principle (our sheet anchor, when not 
 abused,) to an improper extreme, and implied a confi- 
 dence in Congress, for the exercise of that dangerous 
 power, neither justified by first principles, nor by subse- 
 quent experience. On this latter point he found him- 
 self in natural opposition to Mr. Van Buren, being re- 
 presentatives, the one from one of the largest, and the 
 other from one of the least populous States in the Union. 
 Mr. Van Buren was then, as he has ever since been, in 
 favor of a second appeal to the popular vote. In the 
 course of his speech, however, Col. Benton paid a 
 handsome personal tribute to his eminent opponent. 
 Col. Benton sat on the same committee (Military Affairs) 
 with General Jackson, of which they were both very 
 industrious and valuable members, the latter being the 
 chairman. Here was necessarily renewed some portion 
 of that intercourse which had in former years been of 
 the most friendly and intimate character, but which had 
 received an unhappy interruption from an occurrence 
 too well known to the public to need further allusion.
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 305 
 
 It was still many years, however, before it did, or could 
 resume a tone at all resembling its former character ; 
 and, in fact, no personal explanation of that occurrence, 
 nor allusion to it, ever passed between them until one 
 or two evenings before President Jackson's departure 
 from this city to the Hermitage, last March. That con- 
 versation was of a very solemn and affecting character. 
 Long since, indeed, had every trace disappeared from 
 the bosom of each, of that hostile feeling which had had 
 its origin, on Col. Benton's part, only in the exasperated 
 affections of a brother, and the pernicious influence of 
 that pest of society mischief makers; and which, on 
 the part of General Jackson, the frank, manly, warm- 
 hearted soldier, may be said never to have had an exist- 
 ence ; and its place had been resumed by the memory 
 of early friendship, mutual services, and the equal con- 
 fidence of each in the honor and integrity of the other. 
 " Col. Benton continued a determined member of the 
 opposition during the term of Mr. Adams, as he has 
 been one of the main pillars of support to the democratic 
 administration which succeeded it. It is not necessary 
 to specify the particular occasions on which he has dis- 
 tinguished himself in his parliamentary life. The events 
 are so recent, as they were striking, that they are doubt- 
 less fresh within the memory of most of our readers. 
 The panic session cannot be passed, however, without a 
 brief notice. In this Col. Benton sustained, unaided, 
 except by the support of two or three gallant friends, 
 (of whom the present Secretary of State was, perhaps, 
 the most effective in impromptu debate,) the whole 
 brunt of the tremendous attack with which the admiu-
 
 306 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 istration was then assailed, with a fury and powerful 
 array of talent and eloquence never before witnessed in 
 any legislative body. His services then rendered to the 
 democratic cause can never be forgotten, and never re- 
 paid, except by the proud consciousness of the eventual 
 triumph by which they have been so signally crowned. 
 His controversy with Mr. Clay, in the famous Veto de- 
 bate in 1832, affords, perhaps, as striking a specimen of 
 his powers in this kind of gladiatorial encounter, as any 
 that could be selected. If, on that famous field, either 
 party may be said to have been borne worsted to the 
 ground, it certainly was not the democratic orator, whose 
 panache rode proudly, like that of Henri IV., above the 
 tide of the battle, unbowed and unsullied. 
 
 "Col. Benton is by birth a North Carolinian, being a 
 native of the county of Orange, and sprung emphati- 
 cally from the people of that sound republican State. 
 In fact, North Carolina has been singularly illustrious in 
 the number of great men that she has contributed to 
 the young States of the South and West. At various 
 periods within the history of the Government, she has 
 been able to claim as her native sons more than half a 
 dozen of the Senators in Congress ; and at this time she 
 has on the same floor not less than eight members, 
 who may be fairly estimated as among the first men of 
 the day. Even Ohio, in the person of the youngest Sen- 
 ator, has sent a North Carolinian ; and Alabama, Mis- 
 sissippi and Tennessee would seem almost to believe that 
 none other than a native of that State can do justice to 
 the dignified functions of an American Senator. The 
 ancestors of Col. Benton were among the leaders of the
 
 THOMAS H, BENTON. 307 
 
 Revolution of 1775, and contributed in every way to 
 the service of their country. The family of the Harts, 
 from which he is descended on the mother's side, was 
 one of the most active in the State, in furtherance* of 
 the settlement of Kentucky, which was originallv com- 
 menced in North Carolina, under the name of the Tran- 
 sylvania Colony; and it is sometimes cited by North 
 Carolinians, with no little pride, that the people of that 
 State (and among them the Harts) were the real back- 
 ers of the famous Daniel Boone. Col. Benton may 
 thus claim to be a hereditary defender of the liberties 
 and the rights of the people; and for this purpose a 
 reference back to ^ man's ancestry may be not only 
 proper, even for a democrat, but praiseworthy, as an 
 honorable incentive to zeal and devotion to the same 
 good old cause. He is, and has ever been, most emphati- 
 cally a democrat. He has been faithful to this princi- 
 ple from the outset of his public life, as it will prove 
 faithful to him before its close. He has been a deep 
 student of the history of our government, as of all 
 ancient and modern times, for the great purpose of sus- 
 taining the popular cause against all aristocratic usur- 
 pation, under whatever form disguised. He is no parlor 
 politician. He does not come from the palaces of 
 cities, or the elegantly furnished chambers of ' Offices^ 
 of Discount and Deposited His constituency is to be 
 found among the hardy and true-hearted pioneers of 
 civilization, in the farthest South and West. 
 
 " His earliest sympathies are with the ploughman and 
 planter of the land, and his political creed is embued 
 with the honesty and simplicity of their lives. His elo-
 
 808 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 quence in debate he caught from the strong native feel- 
 ing and sagacity of those who till the soil, and substan- 
 tially produce all the annual wealth of the nation, 
 and not from the specious sophistry which so many 
 of our American statesmen imbibe, insensibly, from 
 the legions of speculators of every hive, and variety 
 subsisting, in reality, on that great producing mass 
 with which our cities swarm. We repeat that it 
 is this arduous devotion to the service of the democratic 
 cause, in opposition to all encroachments on the plain 
 original principle of equality of rights, which has gradu- 
 ally raised the Missouri Senator to his present com- 
 manding position, and has given such distinguished 
 eclat to his name throughout the whole American 
 Union. 
 
 " Perseverance, that attribute of all truly great and 
 powerful minds, has through life been a remarkable, 
 trait of Col. Benton's character. Establishing his prin- 
 ciples at the outset, basing them all on an unwavering 
 faith in the intelligence and integrity of the people, and 
 guiding his course by the single polar star of the demo- 
 cratic principle, he goes fearlessly forward in his own 
 path, equally unmindful who may oppose, or who may 
 follow. He reaches his position, and takes his stand 
 there, waiting for public opinion to come up to him, 
 however far distant it may seem to lag behind ; he does 
 not go back and linger and hesitate with it, but devotes 
 himself, with all his energies and industry, to hasten it 
 forward and quicken its development: Such a man 
 must necessarily for a long time stand alone ; and it 
 requires a high degree of moral courage, firmness of pur-
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 309 
 
 pose, and conscientious belief of the truth of his princi- 
 ples, to maintain such a position. He is for a long time 
 regarded, even by the great body of his own friends, as 
 a visionary ultra as a theorist whose views are too 
 wild for practicability ; enemies will doubtless christen 
 him and his ideas as a stupendous ' humbug ;' but in 
 the end, the progress of events and of public opinion 
 will probably come up to his position, and the conse- 
 quence will be that he will then stand forward as its most 
 prominent representative. 
 
 " Such are the men that work great revolutions and 
 reforms ; though whether, when they have achieved 
 that, their mission, they are found to combine with that 
 impulsive energy which has thus far been their leading 
 attribute, those other qualities suitable to the regulation 
 and conduct of affairs afterwards, on which alone a per- 
 fect and safe public confidence can be based, remains a 
 question to be dispassionately considered, and on which 
 we do not pretend to pass an opinion. It is very cer- 
 tain that the authors of revolutions have not unfre- 
 quently been those on whom the public confidence 
 would be the last to fix, as the most suitable persons to 
 preside over the action of the new state of things estab- 
 lished by them ; and many instances might be pointed 
 to in which, after having been so selected by the gene- 
 rous impulse of popular gratitude, they have proved far 
 from competent to this new and widely different duty. 
 Of this, however, the public opinion, the vox populi, is 
 the best and the only proper judge, and it would ill be- 
 come us to attempt to forestall it in the slightest degree. 
 
 " There is a great deal of popular misapprehension of
 
 310 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Col. Benfon's views of financial science, at present the 
 principal question on which the two great parties of the 
 country stand at issue. 
 
 They have been so long and so loudly denounced as 
 violent and absurd, in the extremes to which they go, 
 that, notwithstanding our repeated experience of the 
 rule, that opposition party clamor, against a prominent 
 man ought to work by inverse proportion, some con- 
 siderable effect has certainly been produced unfavorable 
 to the distinguished Senator, even upon his own party. 
 This effect is somewhat analogous to the cases of Jef- 
 ferson, whom some good people were honestly made to 
 imagine all that was unprincipled, both in his public and 
 private capacity of General Jackson, whom many ac- 
 tually supposed an illiterate ignorant dotard, whose stub- 
 born honesty was his only good quality of the present 
 incumbent of the same elevated office, whom not a few, 
 even of his own party and friends, have been made by 
 dint of reiteration and positive assertion, in the very face 
 of repeated facts, to believe a rather timid and time- 
 serving politician, forgetful that moral courage is most 
 contracted when calmest, deepest when most quiet. 
 Col. Benton's views, though much misrepresented, have 
 never pointed to a compulsory abolition of all paper 
 money, or the destruction of banks. The disconnection 
 of the Government from the banking interest the restric- 
 tive influence which would be exerted by confining the 
 fiscal action of the Government to the currency con- 
 templated by the Constitution, to moderate the constant 
 tendency of paper money to excess and abuse and the 
 reform of the anti-republican monopoly feature of the
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 811 
 
 system, as it has hitherto existed comprise the sub- 
 stance of the views which have often been denounced 
 as ultra and impracticable, as entertained by Col. Ben- 
 ton. The constitutional currency for the minor pur- 
 poses of life credit paper for the larger operations of 
 commerce, for those who choose to use its facilities with 
 their eyes open, and the privilege of choice is ac- 
 knowledged by all the divisions of the democratic party 
 who have followed united under the flag of reform of 
 the late administration, as the common creed; the only 
 difference of opinion is as to the mode of carrying it into 
 effect a difference of opinion which need not, and can- 
 not, long remain a subject of serious party divisions." 
 
 From these general remarks on Mr, Benton's personal 
 history and political character, let us pass to the con- 
 sideration of his published sentiments, that we may veri- 
 fy their worth. The first specimen we adduce is taken 
 from a speech made by him in the Senate, Dec. 23, 
 1828, on the Public Debt. Herein will be seen, what 
 has ever been a prominent trait in this patriot, a firm re- 
 sistance to all great nominal monopolies. Having urged 
 many considerations against the proposed measure, he 
 proceeds, near the close of his argument, to say : 
 
 " I am for the abolition, because the wielding of ten 
 millions of surplus revenue would dangerously increase 
 the patronage of the Federal Government. It is now 
 mortgaged to the public debt, and its application to that 
 object being fixed and regular, involves the exercise of 
 but little patronage. Released from the mortgage, it 
 would be applicable to innumerable objects, and subject 
 to the annual appropriation of Congress. Its distribu-
 
 512 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 tion would attract all eyes, and excite universal cupidi- 
 ty. It would draw deputations from cities, towns and 
 villages, from companies, and corporations, from coun- 
 ties, states arid districts, to the feet of the Federal Gov- 
 ernment, all clamorous for their share of the spoil, and 
 neglecting their own business to obtain it ; all becoming 
 less independent in proportion as they received it, like 
 the degenerate Romans who began to lose the spirit of 
 independence from the moment they began to look to 
 the public granaries, instead of their own cribs, for a 
 supply of corn. . ",*r 
 
 " I am for the abolition, because an annual scramble 
 on the floors of Congress for ten millions of dollars would 
 fill our halls with bargains, combinations, intrigues and 
 corruption. The effect would be inevitable. Help my 
 State to half a million, and I will help yours to another 
 half. Such would soon be the secret, and before long, 
 the open and unblushing language. A majority might 
 even meet beforehand, and divide the whole among their 
 own States. They might even do worse, they might in- 
 sert appropriations for roads and canals in States whose 
 representatives denied the constitutionality of such ap- 
 propriations, and thus subject them to the censure of all 
 their constituents who admitted the power, or denying 
 it, still thought they ought to have their share while it 
 was going. In this way the delegation of a State might 
 be rendered obnoxious to their constituents, and broken 
 down at home by a manoeuvre here. Is this fancy, or 
 is it fact ? exclaimed Mr. B. It is fact, and the history 
 of our legislation proves it. Within the last three years, 
 the manoeuvre was tried. A bill came up from the H.
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 313 
 
 R. with appropriations lor internal improvement for a 
 majority of the States, including some whose delegations 
 could not vote for such objects. The bill passed through 
 this chamber, and became a law ; but the design against 
 the members failed. A kindly feeling prevailed. The 
 yeas and nays were not called. The bill went through 
 without noise, and the obnoxious voters were not point- 
 ed out to their constituents. This thing may be at- 
 tempted again upon a greater scale, and with a more 
 determined intent, if ten millions are to be annually 
 divided out. 
 
 "I am for the abolition, because the annual division of 
 
 ten millions of dollars would fill this Union with discord 
 and violence. The division of money and property is 
 the fruitful source of dissension all over the world, and 
 throughout all ranks and classes of people. It is the 
 bane of partnerships, the rock on which the peace of 
 families is split, and the signal for strife and contention 
 amongst confederates and conquerors. So sung the 
 
 Poet of nature 
 
 41 
 
 Friends now fast sworn, 
 
 Whose double bosoms seem but one heart to bear, 
 Who 'twine as 't'were in love inseparable, 
 Shall, within this hour, upon dissension of a doit, 
 Break out to bitterest enmity.' 
 
 " Yes, upon dissension of a farthing ! With how mucn 
 greater bitterness then must this enmity break out when 
 the dissension is for millions, when the parties are 
 sovereign communities, their passions inflamed by asso- 
 ciation, no common superior to decide between them, 
 14
 
 
 314 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 and all sense of shame lost in the mass of undistinguish- 
 able multitudes? The last thing that any friend to the 
 peace, the harmony, the stability of this Union would 
 wish to see, would be an annual scramble on the floor 
 of Congress for ten millions of dollars. We shall have 
 heart burnings enough in distributing the two or three 
 millions of surplus which will remain without these ten 
 millions, and in contending for the countless millions of 
 the public lands. 
 
 "I am for the abolition, because it will be the means 
 of restoring the harmony of this Union, now greatly 
 impaired by a tariff which sits hard upon the navigating 
 and planting interests of the country. An abolition of 
 ten millions of duties upon the principles stated in this 
 resolution, will relieve these interests, without injuring 
 any other interests, and thus an angry question will 
 drop from our discussions, and a heavy cloud of discon- 
 tent will vanish from our political horizon." 
 , ' An English barrister once undertook to speak while 
 an express went twenty miles to bring back a witness 
 whom it was necessary to produce upon the trial. Be- 
 yond the sea that was deemed quite an exploit, but it 
 was nothing to what we often see in this land of wordy 
 wars. For instance, take the great debate on Foot's 
 resolution in 1829-30. Mr. Benton had at least his 
 fourth day in that memorable contest, and mightily did 
 he annoy the bravest champions he was called to face. 
 
 On the second day, Jan. 29, "The Senator from Mis 
 souri," submitted the following remarks which occa- 
 sioned a well-known reply. 
 
 "The Senator from Massachusetts, (Mr. Webster,)
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 315 
 
 has since occupied the floor two days, ana has taken no 
 notice of facts so highly authenticated, drawn from 
 sources so wholly unimpeachable, and so pointedly con- 
 flicting with the denials and assertions which he 'has 
 made on this floor. It is not for me to^ccount for this 
 neglect, or forbearance. Rhetoricians lay down two 
 cases in which silence upon the adversaries' arguments 
 is the better part of eloquence ; first, where they are too 
 insignificant to merit any notice ; secondly, where they 
 are too well fortified to be overthrown. In such cases 
 it is recommended as the safest course, to pass them by 
 without notice, and, as if they had not been heard. I 
 do not intimate which, or if either of these rules 
 governed the conduct of the Senator from Massachu- 
 setts. I can very well conceive of a third, and very dif- 
 ferent reason for this inattention a reason which was 
 seen in the fullness of the occupation which the Senator 
 from South Carolina (GEN. HAYNE) had given him. 
 True, the Senator from Massachusetts tells us that he 
 felt nothing of all that that the arrows did not pierce 
 and makes a question whether the arm of the. Senator 
 from South Carolina was strong enough to spring the 
 bow ? This he repeated so many times, and with looks 
 so well adjusted to the declaration, that we all must have 
 been reminded of what we have read in ancient books, 
 of the brave gladiator who, receiving the fatal thrust 
 which starts the cry of "hoc habet" from the whole am- 
 phitheatre, instead of displaying his \vound, and beseech- 
 ing pity, collects himself over his centre of gravity, as- 
 sumes a graceful attitude, dresses his face in smiles, bows
 
 316 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 to the ladies, and acts the unhurt hero in the agonies of 
 death. 
 
 " But admitting that the arrows did not pierce : What 
 then ? Is it proof of the weakness of the arm that sprung 
 the bow, or of the impenetrability of the substance that 
 resisted the shaft ? We read in many books of the 
 polished brass that resists, not only arrows, but the iron- 
 headed javelins, thrown by gigantic heroes. But, 
 pierced or not pierced, we have all witnessed one thing ; 
 we have seen the Senator from Massachusetts occupy 
 one whole day in picking these arrows out of his body ; 
 and to judge from the length and seriousness of this occu- 
 pation, he might be supposed to have been stuck as 
 full of them as the poor fellow whose transfixed effigy 
 on the first leaf of our annual almanacs attracts the 
 commiseration of so many children." 
 
 At a subsequent stage of the same speech, Mr. Ben- 
 ton referred to most interesting facts, as follows : 
 
 " Let us pause, Mr. President, and reflect for a mo- 
 ment, upon the consequences to the West, and to the 
 Union ; if President Jefferson had not seized the oppor- 
 tunity of purchasing Louisiana ; or, having purchased 
 it, the Senate or House of Representatives should have 
 rejected the acquisition. In the first place, it is to be 
 remembered that France, emerging from the vortex of 
 her re\^>lution, overflowing with warriors and governed 
 by the conqueror, who was catching at the sceptre of 
 the world, was then the owner of Louisiana. The First 
 Consul had extorted it from the King of Spain in the 
 year 1800 ; and the violation of the right of deposite at 
 New Orleans, was the first act of ownership over the
 
 THOMAS K BENTON 317 
 
 new possession, and the first significant intimations to us 
 of the new kind of neighbor that we had acquired. Con- 
 temporaneously with this act of outrage upon us, was 
 the concentration of twenty-five thousand men, under 
 the general of division, afterwards Marshal Victor, in 
 the ports of Holland, for the military occupation of Louis- 
 iana. So far advanced were the preparations for this 
 expedition, that the troops were ready to sail ; and com- 
 missaries to provide for their reception, were engaged in 
 New Orleans and St. Louis, when the transfer of the 
 province was announced. Now, sir, put it on either 
 foot : Louisiana remains a French, or becomes a British 
 possession. In the first contingency, we must have be- 
 come the ally or the enemy of France. The system of 
 Bonaparte admitted of no neutrals ; and our alternatives 
 would have been, between falling into the train of his 
 continental system, or maintaining a war against him 
 upon our own soil. We can readily decide, that the 
 latter would have been most honorable ; but it is hard 
 to say, which would have been most fatal to our pros- 
 perity, and most disastrous to our republican institu- 
 tions. In the second contingency, and the almost 
 certain one, we should have had England established on 
 our western, as well as on our northern frontier ; and I 
 may. add, our southern frontier also ; for Florida, as the 
 property of the ally of France, would have been a fair 
 subject of British conquest in the war with France and 
 Spain, and a desirable one, after the acquisition of 
 Louisiana, and as easily taken as wished for ; the vessel 
 that brought home the news of the victory at Trafalgar, 
 being sufficient to summon and reduce the places of
 
 318 LIVING ORATORS IN AFRICA. 
 
 Mobile, Pensacola, St. Marks, and St. Augustine. This 
 nation, thus established upon three sides of our territory, 
 the most powerful of maritime powers, jealous of our 
 commerce, panting for the dominion of the seas, unscru- 
 pulous in the use of savage allies, and nine years after- 
 wards to be engaged in a war with us ! The results of 
 such a position would have been, the loss, for ages and 
 centuries, of the navigation of the Mississippi ; the per- 
 manent occupation of the Gulf of Mexico by the British 
 fleet; the consequent control of the West Indies; and 
 the ravage of our frontiers by savages in British pay. 
 These would have been the permanent consequences, to 
 say nothing of the fate of the late war, commenced with 
 our enemy encompassing us on three sides with her 
 land forces, and covering the ocean in front with her 
 proud navy, victorious over the combined fleets of 
 France and Spain, and swelled with the ships of all na- 
 tions. From these calamitous results, the acquisition of 
 Louisiana delivered us ; and the heart must be little 
 turned to gratitude and devotion, which does not adore 
 the Providence that made the great man President, who 
 seized this gift of fortune, and overthrew the political 
 party that would have rejected it." 
 
 On the third day of this famous gladiatorial contest, Mr. 
 Benton showed that " there were blows to give as well as 
 blows to take." Referring to the sacred and secular 
 patriots of the South in colonial and revolutionary times, 
 he proceeded to say : 
 
 " Time and my ability would fail in any attempt to 
 perform this task ; to enumerate the names and acts ot 
 those generous friends in the South, who then stood forth
 
 THOMAS H. BENTOV. 319 
 
 our defenders and protectors, and gave Us men ancTmo- 
 ney, and beat the domestic foe in the capitol, while we 
 beat the foreign foe in the field. Time and my ability 
 would fail to do them justice ; but there is one State in 
 the South, the name and praise of which, the events of 
 this debate would drag from the stones of the West, if 
 they could rise up in this place and speak ! It is the 
 name of that State upon which the vials, filled with the 
 accumulated wrath of years, have been suddenly and 
 unexpectedly emptied before us, on a motion to postpone 
 a land debate. That State, whose microscopic offence 
 in the obscure parish of Colleton, is to be hung in equi- 
 poise with the organized treason and deep damnation of 
 the Hartford Convention ; that State, whose present 
 dislike to a tariff which is tearing out her vitals, is to be 
 made the means of exciting the West against the -whole 
 South ; that State, whose dislike to the tariff laws is to 
 be made the pretext for setting up a despotic authority 
 in the Supreme Court ; that Stale, which, in the old 
 Congress in 1785, voted for the reduction of the price of 
 public lands to about one- half the present minimum ; 
 which, in 1786, redeemed after it was lost, and carried 
 by its single vote, the first measure that ever was 
 adopted for the protection of Kentucky that of the two 
 companies sent to the Falls of Ohio ; that State, which, 
 in the period of the late war, sent us a LOWNDES, a 
 CHEVES, and a CALHOUN, to fight the battles of the West 
 in the Capitol, and to slay the Goliahs in the North ; 
 that State which at this day has sent to this chamber, 
 the Senator (GEN. HAYNE) whose liberal and enlight- 
 ened speech on the subject of the puiSlic lands, has been
 
 320 LIVIVG ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 seized upon and made the pretext for that premeditated 
 aggression upon South Carolina, and the whole South 
 which we have seen met with a promptitude, energy, 
 gallantry, and effect, that has forced the assailant to cry 
 out an hundred times, that he was still alive, though we 
 all could see that he was most cruelly pounded. 
 
 " Memory, Mr. President, is the lowest faculty of the 
 human mind the irrational animals possess it in com- 
 mon with man the poor beasts of the field have mem- 
 ory. They can recollect the hand that feeds, and the 
 foot that kicks them ; and the instinct of self-preserva- 
 tion tells them to follow one and to avoid the other. 
 Without any knowledge of Greek or Latin, these mute, 
 irrational creatures " fear the Greek offering presents ;" 
 they shun the food offered by the hand that has been 
 lifted to take their life. This is their instinct ; and shall 
 man, the possessor of so many noble faculties, with all 
 the benefits of learning and experience, have less mem- 
 ory, less gratitude, less sensibility to danger, than these 
 poor beasts ? And shall he stand less upon his guard, 
 when the hand that smote is stretched out to entice ? 
 Shall man, bearing the image of his Creator, sink thus 
 low? Shall the generous son of the West fall below his 
 own dumb and reasonless cattle, in all the attributes of 
 memory, gratitude, and sense of danger ? Shall his 
 " Timeo Danaos " have been taught him in vain. Shall 
 he forget the things which he saw, and part of which he 
 was the events of the late war the memorable scenes 
 of fifteen years ago ? The events of former times, of 
 forty years ago, may be unknown to those who are born 
 since. The attempt to surrender the navigation of Ine
 
 THOMAS If. BENTON. 321 
 
 Mississippi ; to prevent the settlement of the West ; the 
 refusal to protect the early settlers of Kentucky and 
 Tennessee, or to procure for them a cession of Indian 
 lands ; all these trials, in which the South was the savior 
 of the West, may be unknown to the young generation 
 that has come forward since ; and with respect to these 
 events, being uninformed, they may be unmindful and 
 ungrateful. They did not see them ; and, like the second 
 generation of the Israelites, in the land of promise, who 
 knew not the wonders which God had done for their 
 forefathers in Egypt, they may plead ignorance and go 
 astray after strange gods after the Baals and the Asta- 
 roths of the heathen ; but not so of the events of the 
 last war. These they saw ! The aid of the South they 
 felt ! The deeds of a party in the north-east they felt 
 also. Memory will do its office for both ; and base and 
 recreant is the son of the West, that can ever turn his 
 back upon the friends that saved, to go into the arms of 
 the enemy that mocked and scorned him, in the season 
 of dire calamity. 
 
 " I proceed to a different theme. Among the novel- 
 ties of this debate, Mr. President, is that part of the 
 speech of the Senator from Massachusetts which dwells, 
 with such elaboration of argument and ornament, upon 
 the love and blessings of union, the hatred and horror of 
 disunion. It was a part of the Senator's speech which 
 brought into full play the favorite Ciceronian figure of 
 amplification. It was up to the rule in that particular. 
 But it seemed to me that there was another rule, and a 
 higher and a precedent one, which it violated. It was the 
 rule of Propriety ; that rule which requires the fitness of 
 14*
 
 322 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 things to be considered ; which requires the time, the 
 place, the subject, and the audience to be considered ; 
 and condemns the delivery of the argument, and all its 
 flowers, if it fails in congrument to these particulars. I 
 thought the essay upon union and disunion had so failed. 
 It came to us when we were not prepared for it, when 
 there was nothing in the Senate, nor in the country, to 
 grace its introduction ; nothing to give, or to receive, 
 effect to or from the impassioned scene that we wit- 
 nessed. It may be, it was the prophetic cry of the dis- 
 tracted daughter of Priam, breaking into the council, 
 and alarming its tranquil members with vaticinations of 
 the fall of Troy ; but to me, it all sounded like the sud- 
 den proclamation for an earthquake, when the sun, the 
 earth, the air, announced no such prodigy ; when all 
 the elements of nature were at rest, and sweet repose 
 pervading the world. There was a time, Mr. President, 
 and you, and I, and all of us, did see it, when such a 
 speech would have found, in its delivery, every attri- 
 bute of a just and rigorous Propriety ! It was at the 
 time when the five-striped banner was waving over the 
 land of the North ! when the Hartford Convention was 
 in session ! when the language in the Capitol ^was, 
 "Peaceably, if we can ; forcibly, if we must !" when the 
 cry, out of doors, was, " the Potomac the boundary ; 
 the Negro States by themselves! The Alleghanies 
 the boundary, the western savages by themselves ! 
 The Mississippi the boundary, let Missouri be gov- 
 erned by ? Prefect, or given up as a haunt for wild 
 beasts!" That time was the fit occasion for this 

 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 323 
 
 speech ; and if it had been delivered then, either in 
 the Hall of Representatives, or in the Den of the Con- 
 vention, or in the highway, among the bearers and fol- 
 lowers of the five-striped banner, what effect must it not 
 have produced ? What terror and consternation among 
 the plotters of disunion! But, here, in this loyal and 
 quiet assemblage, in this season of general tranquillity 
 and universal allegiance, the whole performance has lost 
 its effect for want of affinity, connection, or relation, to 
 any subject depending, or sentiment expressed in the 
 Senate ; for want of any application, or reference, to 
 any event impending in the country." 
 
 On the 2d of Feburary, 1831, Mr. Benton delivered 
 his most celebrated speech against the renewal of the 
 charter of the Bank of the United States. It is char- 
 acterized throughout by severe argument and that copi- 
 ousness of statistical information for which this speaker 
 is distinguished. The following is the closing portion : 
 
 " I have said that the charter of the Bank of the 
 United States cannot be renewed. And in saying this, 
 f wish to be considered, not as a needless denunciator, 
 supplying the place of argument by empty menace, but 
 as a Senator, considering well what he says, after hav- 
 ing attentively surveyed his subject. I repeat, then, 
 that the charter cannot be renewed !' And, in coming 
 to the conclusion of this peremptory opinion, I acknow- 
 ledge no necessity to look beyond the walls of this Capi- 
 tol, bright as may be the consolation which rises on 
 the vision from the other end of the avenue ! I confine 
 my view to the halls of Congress, and joyfully exclaim, 
 k is no longer the year 1816 ! Fifteen years have gone .
 
 .,24 
 
 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 by ; times have changed, and former arguments havo 
 lost their application. We were then fresh from war, 
 loaded with debt, and with all the embarrassments 
 which follow in the train of war. We are now settled 
 down in peace and tranquillity, with all the blessings 
 attendant upon quiet and repose. There is no longer a 
 single consideration urged in favor of chartering the 
 Bank in 1816, which can have the least weight or ap- 
 plication, in favor of re-chartering it now. This is my 
 assertion ! a broad one it may be ; but no less true than 
 broad. Let us see! What were the arguments in 
 1816 ? Why, first, 'to pay the public creditors' I an- 
 swer this is no longer anything, for before 1836 that 
 function will cease; there will be no more creditors to 
 pay. 2. ' To transfer the public moneys.' That will 
 be nothing ; for, after the payment of the public debt, we 
 shall have no moneys to transfer. The twelve millions 
 of dollars which are now transferred annually to the 
 North-East, to pay the public creditors, will then remain 
 in the pockets of the people, and the reduced expendi- 
 tures of the government will be made where the money 
 is collected. The army and the navy, after the ex- 
 tinction of the debt, will be the chief objects of expendi- 
 ture ; and they will require the money, nearer on the 
 frontiers, convenient to the land forces, or on the sea- 
 board, convenient to the custom-houses. Thus will 
 transfers of revenue become unnecessary. 3. ' To 
 make loans to the General Government' That is noth 
 ing ; for the General Government will want no loans in 
 time of peace, not even out of its own deposites ; for 
 the prospect of war is rather too distant at present to
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 325 
 
 make new loans-on that account. 4. ' To pay the Pen- 
 sioners.' That is something, I admit, when the pay- 
 ments exceed a million per annum. But what will it 
 be after 1836? When the hand of death, and the 
 scythe of time, shall have committed five years more 
 of ravages in their senile ranks. The mass of these 
 heroical monuments are the men of the Revolution. 
 They are far advanced upon that allegorical bridge so 
 beautifully described in the vision of Mirza. They 
 have passed the seventy arches which are sound and 
 entire, and are now treading upon the broken ones, 
 where the bridge is full of holes, and the clouds and 
 darkness setting in. At every step some one stumbles 
 and falls through, and is lost in the ocean beneath. In 
 a few steps more the last will be gone. Surely it can- 
 not be necessary to keep up for twenty years, the vast 
 establishment of the Federal Bank to pay the brief sti- 
 pends of these fleeting shadows. Their country can 
 do it, can pay the pensions as well as give them and 
 do it for the little time that remains with no other 
 regret than that the grateful task is to cease so soon. 
 5. ' To regulate the currency.' I answer ; the joint 
 resolution of 1816 will do that, and will effect the regu- 
 lation without destroying on the one hand, and without 
 raising up a new power, above regulation, on the other. 
 Besides, there is some mistake in this, phrase, currency. 
 The word in the Constitution is coin. It is the value 
 of coin which Congress is to regulate; and to include 
 bank notes under that term is to assume a power, not 
 of construction for no construction can be wild and 
 boundless enough to construe coin, that is to say, me-
 
 826 LIV NO ORATORS IV AMERICA. 
 
 tallic money melted, cast and stamped into paper 
 notes printed and written but it is to assume a power 
 of life and death over the Constitution ; a power to de- 
 throne and murder one of its true and lawful words, 
 and to set up a bastard pretender in its place. I invoke 
 the spirit of America upon the daring attempt ! 6. ' To 
 equalize exchanges, and sett bills of exchange for the 
 half of one per cent! This is the broker's argument ; 
 very fit and proper to determine a question of broker- 
 age; but very insufficient to determine a question of 
 great national policy, of State rights, of constitutional 
 difficulty, of grievous taxation, and of public and pri- 
 vate subjugation to the beck and nod of a great money- 
 ed oligarchy. 7. ' A bonus of a million and a half of 
 dollars.' This, Mr. President is Esau's view of the 
 subject ; a very seductive view to an improvident 
 young man, who is willing to give up the remainder of 
 his life to chains and poverty, provided he can be so- 
 laced for the present with a momentary and insignifi- 
 cant gratification. But what is it to the United 
 States ? to the United States of 1836! without a shil- 
 ling of debt, and mainly occupied with the reduction of 
 taxes ! Still this bonus is the only consideration that 
 can now be offered, and surely it is the last one that 
 ought to be accepted. We do not want the money ; 
 and, if we did, the recourse to a bonus would be the 
 most execrable form in which we could raise it. What 
 is a bonus ? Why, in monarchies, it is a price paid to 
 the king for the privilege of extorting money out of his 
 subjects ; with us, it is a price paid to ourselves for the 
 privilege of extorting money out of ourselves. The 
 
 ** ^ - jfc* * ^. r*Tlr *tf <
 
 THOiMAS H. BENTON. 327 
 
 more of it the worse ; for it has to be paid back to the 
 extortioners, with a great interest upon it. It is related 
 by the English historian Clarendon, who cannot be sus- 
 pected of overstating any fact, to the prejudice of the 
 Stuart kings, that for 1,500 advanced to Charles the 
 First in bonuses, no less than 200,000 were extorted 
 from his subjects : being at the rate of 133 taken from 
 the subject for l advanced to the king. What the 
 Bank of the" United States will have made out of the peo- 
 ple of the United States, in twenty years, in return for 
 its bonus of $1,500,000, (which, I must repeat, has been 
 advanced to us out of our own money,) has been shown 
 to be about sixty-six millions of dollars. What, it 
 would make in the next twenty years, when secure 
 possession of the renewed charter should free the insti- 
 tution from every restraint, and leave it at full liberty 
 to pursue the money, goods and lands of the people in 
 every direction, cannot be ascertained. Enough can 
 be ascertained, however, to show that it must be infi- 
 nitely beyond what it has been. There are some. data 
 upon which some partial and imperfect calculations can 
 be made, and let us essay them. In the first place, the 
 rise of the stock, which cannot be less than that of the 
 Bank of England, in its flourishing days, (probably 
 more, as all Europe is now seeking investments here,) 
 may reach 250 per cent., or 150 above par. This, upon 
 a capital of thirty-five millions, would give a profit of 
 $42,500,000 : a very pretty sum to be cleared by opera- 
 tion of law ! to be added to the fortunes of some indi- 
 viduals, aliens as well as citizens, by the mere passage 
 of an act of Congress !
 
 328 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 In the next place, the regular dividends, assiimihg 
 them to equal those of the Bank of England in its meri- 
 dian, would be ten per cent, per annum. This would give 
 $3,500,000 for the annual dividend ; and $70,000,000 
 for the aggregate of twenty years. In the third place, 
 the direct expenses of the Institution, now less than 
 $400,000 per annum, would, under the new and mag- 
 nificent expansion which the operations of the Bank 
 would take, probably exceed half a million per annum ; 
 say $10,000,000 for the whole term. Putting these 
 three items together, which is as far as data in hand will 
 enable us to calculate, and we have $122,500,000 of 
 profits made out of the people, equal to a tax of $6,000,- 
 000 per annum. How much more may follow, is 
 wholly unascertainable, and would depend upon the 
 moderation, the justice, the clemency, the mercy and 
 forbearance, of the Supreme Central Directory, who, 
 sitting on their tripods, and shaking their tridents over 
 the moneyed ocean, are able to raise, and repress, the 
 golden waves at pleasure : who being chief purchasers 
 of real estate, may take in towns and cities, and the 
 whole country round, at one fell swoop ; who, being 
 sole lenders of money, may take usury, not only at 46, 
 but at 460 per cent. : who being masters of all other 
 banks, and of the Federal Government itself, may compel 
 these tributary establishments to ransom their servile 
 existences with the heavy, and repeated exactions of 
 Algerine cupidity. The gains of such an institution 
 defy calculation. There is no example on earth with 
 which to compare it. The Bank of England, in its 
 proudest days, would afford but an inadequate and imper-
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 329 
 
 feet exemplar; for the power of that Bank was counter 
 poised, and its exactions limited, by the wealth of the 
 landed aristocracy, and the princely revenues of great 
 merchants and private bankers. But with us, there 
 would be no counterpoise, no limit, no boundary, to the 
 extent of exactions. All would depend upon the will ot 
 the Supreme Central Directory. The nearest approach 
 to the value of this terrific stock, which my reading has 
 suggested, would be found in the history of the famous 
 South Sea Company of the last century ; whose shares 
 rose in leaps from 100 to 500, and from 500 to 1000 per 
 cent.; but, with this immeasurable and lamentable differ- 
 ence, that that was a BUBBLE! this, a REALITY! And 
 who would be the owners of this imperial stock? 
 Widows and orphans, think you ? as ostentatiously set 
 forth in the report of last session ? No, sir ! a few great 
 capitalists; aliens, denizens, naturalized subjects; and 
 some native citizens ; already the richest of the land ; 
 and, who would avail themselves of their intelligences, 
 and their means, to buy out the small stockholders on the 
 eve of the renewal. These would be the owners. And 
 where would all this power and money centre ? In the 
 great cities to the north-east, which have been for forty 
 years, and that by force of federal legislation, the Lion's 
 den of southern and western money; that den into 
 which all the tracks point inwards ; from which the 
 returning track of a solitary dollar has never yet been 
 seen! And, this is the institution for which a renewed 
 existence is sought for which, the votes of the people's 
 representatives are claimed! But, no! Impossible ! It 
 cannot be ! The Bank is done. The arguments of
 
 330 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 will no longer apply. Times have changed ; and 
 the policy of the Republic changes with the times. The 
 war made thj^Blluk ; peace wi)I unmake it. The bale- 
 ful planet (JFfirvand blood,.and every human woe did 
 bring tha^ pestilence upon us; the benignant star of 
 peace shall chase it away." 
 
 One of the most instructive of Mr. Benton's speeches 
 was that on the Oregon question, delivered in the Senate 
 in May, 1846. The following is a fair sample : 
 
 " The value of the country, I mean the Columbian 
 River and its valley, (I must repeat the limitation every 
 time, lest I be carried up to 54 40) has been questioned 
 on this floor and elsewjiere. It has been supposed to be 
 of little value, hardly worth the possession, much less 
 the acquisition, and treated rather as a burden to be got 
 rid of, than as a benefit to be preserved. This is a great 
 error, afid one that only prevails on this side of the 
 water ;' the British know better, afcd if they held the 
 tithe of our title they would fi^ht the world for what we 
 depreciate. It is not a worthless country, but one of 
 immense value, and that under many aspects, and will 
 be occupied by others, to our injury and annoyance, if 
 not by ourselves for our own benefit and protection. 
 Forty years ago it was written by Humboldt that the 
 banks of the Columbia presented the only situation on 
 the north-west coast of America fit for the residence of 
 a civilized people. Experience has confirmed the truth 
 of this wise remark. 
 
 It is valuable, both as a country to be inhabited and 
 as a position to be held and defended. I speak of it, 
 first, as a position, commanding the North Pacific Ocean,
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 331 
 
 and overlooking .the eastern coast of Asia. The North 
 Pacific is a rich sea, and is already the seat of a great 
 commerce; British, French, American, Russian, and 
 ships of other nations frequent it. Our whaling ships 
 cover it, our ships of war go there to protect our 
 interest, and, great as that interest now is, it is only the 
 beginning. Futurity will develop an immense and va- 
 rious commerce on that sea, of which the far greater 
 part will be American. That commerce, neither in 
 the merchant ships which carry it on, nor in the 
 military marine which protects it, can find a port to 
 call its own, within twenty thousand miles of the field 
 of its operations. The double length of the two 
 Americas has to be run, a stormy and tempestuous cape 
 to be doubled, to find itself in a port of its own country, 
 while here lies one in the very edge of its field, ours by 
 right, ready for use, and ample for every purpose ot 
 refuge and repair, protection and domination. Can we 
 turn our back upon it? and, in turning the back, 
 deliver it up to the British ? Insane and suicidal would 
 be the fatal act ! 
 
 To say nothing of the daily want of such a port in 
 time of peace, its want in time of war becomes ruinous. 
 If we abandon, England will retain ! And her wooden 
 walls, bristling with cannon, and issuing from the mouth 
 of the Columbia, will give the law to the North Pacific, 
 permitting our ships to sneak about in time of peace 
 sinking, seizing, or chasing them away in time of war. 
 As a position, then, and if nothing but a rock or desert 
 point, the possession of Columbia is invaluable to us ; 
 and if becomes our duty to maintain it at all hazards.
 
 332 LIVING ORATORS IN AMER/CA. 
 
 " Agriculturally the value of the country is great ; 
 and, to understand it in all its extent, this large country 
 should be contemplated under its different divisions 
 the threefold natural geographical divisions under which 
 it presents itself: the maritime, the middle, and the 
 mountain districts. 
 
 Mr. Benton then proceeds to speak of the agricultural 
 nature of the country, under these three natural geogra- 
 phical divisions and discovers an intimate acquaintance 
 with the nature of the soil, and a familiarity with statisti- 
 cal information which show him to be a master of his 
 subject, and which forcibly exhibit his reasons for con- 
 sidering "the region, drained by the waters of the 
 Columbia as one of the valuable divisions of the North 
 American Continent." 
 
 We omit this portion of his speech, and pass to the 
 considerations by which he illustrates the commercial 
 importance of Oregon. He says: 
 
 "Commercially, the advantages of Oregon will be 
 great far greater than any equal portion of the Atlantic 
 States. 'The eastern Asiatics, who will be their chief 
 customers, are more numerous than our customers in 
 western Europe, more profitable to trade with, and less 
 dangerous to quarrel with. Their articles of commerce 
 are richer than those of Europe ; they want what the 
 Oregons will have to spare, bread and provisions, and 
 have no systems of policy to prevent them from pur- 
 chasing these necessaries of life from those who can sup- 
 ply them. The sea which washes their shores is every 
 way a better sea than the Atlantic ; richer in its whale 
 and other fisheries ; in the fur regions which enclose it
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 333 
 
 to the north ; more fortunate in the tranquillity of its 
 character, in its freedom from storms, gulf streams and 
 icebergs; in .its perfect adaptation to steam naviga- 
 tion ; in its intermediate or half way islands and its 
 myriad of rich islands on its further side; in its freedom 
 from maritime powers on its coasts, except the Ameri- 
 can, which is to grow up at the mouth of the Columbia. 
 As a people to trade with, as a sea to navigate, the Mon- 
 golian race of eastern Asia, and the North Pacific 
 Ocean, are far preferable to the European and the At- 
 lantic. 
 
 " It would seem that the White race alone received 
 the divine command to subdue and replenish the earth! 
 for it is the only race that has obeyed it the only one 
 that hunts out new and distant lands, and even a New 
 World, to subdue and replenish. Starting from western 
 Asia, taking Europe for their field, and the sun for their 
 guide, and leaving the Mongolians behind, they ar- 
 rived, after many ages, on the shores of the Atlantic, 
 which they lit up with the lights of science and reli- 
 gion, and adorned with the useful and the elegant arts. 
 Three and a half centuries ago, this race, in obedience 
 to the great command, arrived in the New World, and 
 found new lands to subdue and replenish. For a long 
 time it was confined to the border of the new field (I 
 now mean the Celtic Anglo-Saxon division) ; and even 
 forescore years ago the philosophic Burke was considered 
 a rash man because he said the English colonists would 
 top the Alleghanies, and descend into the valley of the 
 Mississippi, and occupy without parchment, if the Crown
 
 334 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 refused to make grants of land. What was considered 
 a rash declaration eighty years ago, is old history, in 
 our young country, at this day. Thirty years ago, I 
 said the same thing of the Rocky Mountains and the 
 Columbia : it was ridiculed then ; it is becoming history 
 to-day. The venerable Mr. Macon has often told me 
 that he remembered a line low down in North Carolina, 
 fixed by a royal governor as a boundary between the 
 Whites and the Indians : where is that boundary now ? 
 The van of the Caucasian race now top the Rocky 
 Mountains, and spread down to the shores of the Pacific. 
 In a 'few years a great population will grow up there, 
 luminous with the accumulated lights of European and 
 American civilization. Their presence in such a posi- 
 tion cannot be without its influence upon eastern Asia. 
 'The sun of civilization must shine across the sea : so- 
 cially and commercially the van of the Caucasians and 
 the rear of the Mongolians must intermix. They must 
 talk together, and trade together, and marry together. 
 Commerce is a great civilizer, social intercourse as great, 
 and marriage greater. The White and Yellow races 
 can marry together, as well as eat and trade together. 
 Moral and intellectual superiority will do the rest ; the 
 White race will take the ascendant, elevating what is 
 susceptible of improvement, wearing out what is not. 
 The Red race has disappeared from the Atlantic coast : 
 the tribes that resisted civilization met extinction. This 
 is a caus of lamentation with many. For my part, 1 
 cannot murmur at what seems to be the effect of Divine 
 law. f I cannot repine that this Capitol has replaced the 
 wigwam this Christian people replaced the savages
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 335 
 
 white matrons the red squaws, and that such men as 
 Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson have taken the 
 place of Powhattan, Opechonecanough, and other red 
 men, howsoever respectable they may have been as 
 savages. Civilization or extinction has been the fate 
 of all people who have found themselves in the track of 
 the advancing Whites, and civilization, always the pre- 
 ference of the Whites, has been pressed as an object 
 while extinction has followed as a consequence of its 
 resistance. The black and the red races have often 
 felt their ameliorating influence. The yellow race, nexl 
 to themselves in the scale of mental and moral excellence, 
 and in the beauty of form, once their superiors in the 
 useful and elegant arts, and in learning, and stiil respecta- 
 ble though stationary ; this race cannot fail to receive a 
 new impulse from the approach of the Whites, improved 
 so much since so many ages ago they left the western 
 borders of Asia. The apparition of the van of the Cau- 
 casian race, rising upon them in the east after having 
 left them on the west, and. after having completed the 
 circumnavigation of the globe, must wake up and re- 
 animate the torpid body of old Asia. ,Our position and 
 policy will commend us to their hospitable reception: 
 political considerations will aid the action of social and 
 commercial influences. Pressed upon by the great 
 Powers of Europe- -the same that press upon us they 
 must in our appr^tu :. see the advent of friends, not of 
 foes; of benefactors, not of invaders. The moral and 
 intellectual superiority of the White race will do the 
 rest; and thus, the youngest people, and the newest
 
 
 336 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 land, will become the reviver and the regenerator of the 
 oldest. 
 
 " It is in this point of view, and as acting upon the 
 social, political, and religious condition of Asia, and 
 giving a new point of departure to her ancient civiliza- 
 tion, that I look upon the settlement of the Columbia 
 river by the van of the Caucasian race as the most mo- 
 mentous human event in the history of man since his 
 dispersion over the face of the earth." 
 
 It would be easy to multiply a great variety of sam- 
 ples from Mr. Benton's speeches, but the above are suffi- 
 cient for our purpose, and we have room for no more. 
 We proceed to speak more particularly of his character 
 as an orator. He is, we think eminently laborious, 
 imperious, and democratic in his habits, spirit, and 
 style. 
 
 In the first place, Mr. Benton is uncommonly indus- 
 trious in preparing for public discussions, and in the 
 discharge of professional duties. It has been said of 
 Macaulay, that he is one of the great guns of debate, 
 one which it takes a long time to load, and still more to 
 bring into position : when fired it makes a great noise, 
 hurts some of the enemy, perhaps, and frightens more : 
 but the action is always decided before the gun can be 
 reloaded. Not so with Benton, since he is ever sup- 
 plied with a great amount of ammunition fitted to every 
 mode of warfare, and which he can bring into effective 
 use in the most sudden and momentous crisis. The 
 foregoing specimens exhibit the affluence of his statis- 
 tical information, gathered from all reliable sources, and 
 fitted to aid the attainment of all practical designs.
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 337 
 
 When it is calm in the Senate, he is busy in the 
 archives of the nation, exploring our history and study- 
 ing our wants, that whenever a political storm arises 
 he may rush to the arena fully equipped and "ready for 
 any fate." 
 
 It is only by perpetual industry that one can acquire 
 adequate resources, and use them with pleasure as well 
 as with effect. The less we confine ourselves to limited 
 fields and particular models, the more we shall profit by 
 universal excellence, and the nearer we shall approxi- 
 mate in our habitual execution to the great general 
 rules of exalted nature and elaborate art. 
 
 In the second place, all who have heard Mr. Benton 
 much, know that he habitually bears an imperious aspect, 
 and is not unfrequently betrayed by strong feeling into 
 imperious action, in public speech. He carries the con- 
 sciousness of high station, and the air of high talent ; a 
 portable treasure of confidence, which it is difficult to 
 fathom and dangerous to offend. Generally he is busy 
 at his desk, with heaps of books and papers all around, 
 and with pen in hand, ready to transcribe a precedent, 
 note a blunder, or project an argument. But when 
 there is no important business going forward, he still 
 preserves a magisterial dignity of deportment, throwing 
 back his head and forming with his chin an obtuse angle 
 with the horizon, as if to repel all familiarity and make 
 the most of every moment as it flies. 
 
 Mr. Benton is not one of those who " let I dare not 
 
 wait upon I would," like the poor cat in the adage. He 
 
 is resolute and daring in debate, sometimes to a reckless 
 
 degree. The manner in which he recently conducted 
 
 15
 
 338 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the defence of his son-in-law illustrates what we mean 
 by the magisterial element of his nature. It is hard for 
 him to endure restraint, and when too much chafed he 
 fiercely acts the part of a hero, like Macbeth, who " un- 
 seemed a man from the nave to the chaps." Anger, we 
 know it has been said, is one of the sinews of the soul : 
 he that wants it hath a maimed mind. But there is 
 danger that this element may so much prevail as to dis- 
 figure its possessor rather than fortify or ennoble him. 
 Moderation is the silken string running through the 
 pearl- chain of all virtues, without which the orator 
 suffers more than any other man, since he can command 
 others only so far as he commands himself. 
 
 The utility of high mettle is found in being docile to 
 the curb while it needs not the spur. A man must have 
 spirit or he cannot hope to have influence. Tamely to 
 shrink from a collision with his equals or superiors, will 
 inevitably and speedily lead him to sink below himself. 
 He who is afraid to express a strong opinion, or to strike 
 a hard blow, for. fear that the word or the blow may be 
 retaliated, is a mental coward of the most abject type. 
 Such persons soon form the base habit of throwing them- 
 selves on the forbearance of their antagonists, and find 
 impunity in their insignificance. So long as they are 
 thus afraid of making enemies they never deserve to 
 have true friends and seldom find them. 
 
 In saying that Mr. Benton is laborious as a student, 
 
 and magisterial in attitude and manner as an orator, we 
 
 should particularly observe, thirdly, that he is democratic 
 
 in purpose and humane in spirit. He professes to seek 
 
 - the greatest good of the greatest number, and this i>
 
 THOMkS H. BENTON. 339 
 
 doubtless the source of his most palpable faults and fair- 
 est virtues. It is said that he is sometimes too fractious 
 for a dignified Senator ; but it is quite probable that his 
 energy is that of deep, conscientious conviction, rather 
 than .ephemeral passion. He is too egotistical, say 
 others, not sufficiently remembering, perhaps, that one 
 may seem to be most guilty in this respect, when in 
 reality he is least blameworthy The speaker who 
 sees a grand principle most clearly, and- feels its value 
 most acutely, will for this very good reason be most like- 
 to say, /assert this or / believe that. This kind of ego- 
 tism is infinitely more praiseworthy than the .too com- 
 mon iuism which, with crafty circumlocution, affects a 
 modest air in order the more basely to secrete a cow- 
 ardly and selfish aim. The orator in question has ever 
 been free and independent in his habits of thought and 
 action, evidently sincere in his convictions, and bold, 
 but not pertinaciously impertinent, in enforcing them. 
 Whatever may be thought of his doctrines, or his mode 
 of stating them, it is certain no honest antagonist will 
 accuse him of duplicity or servility of spirit. Just as 
 the slavery of the body causes the moral sensitiveness 
 to languish, so intellectual vassalage enervates the imag- 
 ination and deadens the 'soul. The mind, in its daring 
 excursions and fearless expressions, mnst explore the 
 realms of thought and fancy with a native and enthusi- 
 astic freedom, like Sinbad in the Valley of Diamonds, 
 and while thus surrounded by invaluable riches, the ad- 
 venturer, at liberty to choo?e and use for himself, will 
 disdain all but the most resplendent gems. 
 
 Mr. Benton has long been u:i apostle of republican-
 
 340 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 ism, and sometimes his constitutional ardor may have 
 hurried him to the verj' verge of demagogical fury, 
 but we are not aware that this has ever been prompted 
 by an ambition either to obtain office or increase worldly 
 emoluments. For many years he has been accustomed 
 to observe the dragon reed of cunning and powerful 
 monopolists swarming thick around the masses of their 
 countrymen to deprive them of lawful rights, 
 
 "And not content the fruits to gather free, 
 He lends the crowd his arm to shake the tree." 
 
 In our- day the people at large are rapidly growing 
 indisposed longer to tolerate great wrongs, whether of 
 regal or republican stamp. What is most needed is a 
 class of bold, brave, and good leaders, who dare, by 
 precept and example, to " speak the truth and do the 
 right,'' patriots who in the most exalted sphere will 
 shrink from no browbeating and tyrannical aristocrat, 
 
 " Although his ancient but ignoble blood 
 Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood." 
 
 The purest eloquence is always democratic in spirit, 
 because it has public utility for its aim, and human hap- 
 piness for its inspiration. It always leads, and mainly 
 sustains the great contention of the many against the 
 few, for the recovery of their rights and the assertion of 
 their interests. True eloquence is essentially demo- 
 cratical, since it deals with the universal, appeals to the 
 common heart of man, and labors to promote the wel- 
 fare of all mankind. Its chief ingredients are feeling,
 
 THCMAS H. BENTON. 341 
 
 thought, and -passion, and not external rank, glitter, or 
 station. It is not a power only, but beneficent goodness 
 also. The finest displays of moral grandeur, such as 
 those which portray Prometheus, blessing the human 
 race and defying the thunder of Jove, even when 
 chained to the barren rock, with the vulture gnashing 
 at his heart, are but the principles which in every age 
 have animated the heroes who have struck for freedom, 
 braving the dungeon, the stake, and the scaffold, in their 
 devotion to. liberty, and their determination to emanci- 
 pate themselves and their fellow- creatures from every 
 iniquitous bond. The noblest times of free government 
 have ever been the grandest eras of oratorical develop- 
 ment. " Thus it triumphed in ancient Greece ; its revi- 
 val in modern days was when mind first broke loose 
 from the superstition of ages, heaved off the authority 
 of the church and the schools, and entwined itself with 
 the feeling and the tendencies of human life. It ever 
 has an affinity, not with the few in their distinctions, 
 but with the many in their common properties, passions, 
 fears, sorrows, rejoicings, and triumphs. It invites man 
 as it were, to a great feast, of which nature is the pro- 
 vision in all its diversity for eloquence, like poetry, is 
 the reflection of nature in the human soul ; and there it 
 offers him, not unsubstantial fare in gilded dishes, but 
 angels' food, and nectar of the gods. Imagination is the 
 truth-seeing and beauty-seeing power ; it is that which 
 appreciates sublimity and loveliness, whether physical 
 or moral ; and by it man grows up into like order and 
 harmony, and in similar loveliness ; he aspires towards
 
 842 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 an affinity of grandeur, and realizes the purposes of his 
 own existence in this majestic world." 
 
 Every orator really inspired, and who moulds his pub- 
 lic life according to the promptings of his better nature, 
 will instinctively plead the native rights of the many 
 rather than prostitute his talents to promote the unna- 
 tural immunities of the few. It is riot uncommon that 
 we see even the veteran in partisan warfare, if really 
 well endowed, yield to the nobler promptings of his soul, 
 and breathe a magnanimous strain which at once sur- 
 prises and delights both friends and foes. We may re- 
 gard such a man as in the position of the old prophet 
 Balaam; when he intends to curse democracy, he is 
 obliged, from the power of truth within him, to bless it. 
 He is like the soothsayer, sent for from a far country 
 the seven altars erected for sacrifice the incense rising 
 in clouds ; but when the inspiration comes, instead of 
 malediction upon the people, he begins : " How goodly 
 are thy tents. O Jacob! and thy tabernacles, O Israel!" 
 
 We live in an age which demands the services oi 
 men as industrious, resolute, and magnanimous as Mr. 
 Benton, or any other public functionary can be. We 
 need master-spirits in every exalted sphere, whose dig- 
 nity is inherent and not assumed, a natural nobility of 
 soul which commands spontaneous reverence ; and not 
 that pompous and arrogant grandeur as vulgar as it is 
 mean, the incarnation of insolence and utterly unwor- 
 thy of respect. What the great commonality wants is 
 moral force, soul, manliness. These qualities, united 
 with sound judgment and fertile imagination, contribute 
 perpetual delight and admiration to the uneducated,
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 343 
 
 as well as to the most highly cultivated minds. The; 
 multitude prefers rugged naturalness in an inferior order 
 of eloquence, to feebleness and insipidity in the highest. 
 Even manifest defects become a man, when they 
 are of natural growth, and the bold elements of an 
 original character. Of this truth we have a striking in- 
 stance in Mirabeau. 
 
 We are to bear in mind, however, that the most 
 mighty champions have ever been the gentlest. The 
 greatest geniuses on earth, in all their grandest and most 
 beautiful conceptions, never overstep the modesty of 
 nature, however wild their fancy, or fervid their feelings. 
 Dignified and effective passion never expresses itself in 
 violence and grimace. 
 
 All extraordinary excellence is produced not by any 
 one quality, but by the combined influence of many ; it 
 is not exclusive sublimity of conception, the most acute 
 discrimination of character, the widest sphere of com- 
 prehension, the most judicious and elaborate composi- 
 tion, nor the greatest pungency of expression: it is 
 rather the union and simultaneous action of all these 
 kindred powers. Energy of conception, and refinement 
 of taste are the leading elements, so that grace of exe- 
 cution and perfection of finish go hand in hand ; but the 
 result when complete is many-sided, .comprising diver- 
 sified elements, each one admirable in itself. The ele- 
 gance and truth of the details equal the intrinsic worth 
 and symmetrical giandeur of the whole. 
 
 How much of this excellence Mr. Benton possesses, 
 we leave the reader to infer from the specimens adduced 
 above, and the traits portrayed. That he may be much
 
 344 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 more fully prepared to form a just conception of the pri- 
 vate worth, as well as public usefulness of the distin- 
 guished subject of our own very imperfect sketch, we 
 subjoin the following conclusion of the biographical no- 
 tice with which we began : 
 
 " In all the domestic relations of life, Col. Benton is a 
 remarkably exemplary man ; he is highly fortunate and 
 happy in his family. He mixes little in general society, 
 being but rarely tempted by any of its attractions from 
 his own fireside, his family, studies, and the public busi- 
 ness to which his zealous attention is unremitting. In 
 person he is large, robust, of florid complexion, and 
 powerful frame, capable of enduring fatigue, both men- 
 tal and physical, under which but few other men could 
 bear up. His reputation has been frequently assailed, 
 with reference to his early youth, with slanders utterly 
 false and base, of which he has never condescended to 
 take the slightest notice imitating, in this self-confident 
 scorn of such unworthy assailants, the example of the 
 great founder of his political school, Jefferson. 
 
 " One remarkable trait of his public life deserving ot 
 notice, is the elevation of his ambition above the attrac- 
 tions of office. No one can doubt that during the late 
 administration, his wish could have readily commanded 
 from Gen. Jackson to whom he rendered a support, 
 made, by their peculiar personal relation, so honorable to 
 both almost any such gratification within the gift of the 
 latter. He has always, however, preferred to any other 
 the seat which he has so long occupied in the Senate of 
 the United States, as the post (during all that time) of
 
 THOMAS H. BENTON. 315 
 
 the highest usefulness to the cause of his principles, and 
 therefore of the highest honor. 
 
 " In the style of his oratory, Col. Benton is forcible 
 and very effective in the powerful struggle of debate. 
 His manner is rhetorical, and he is at times too diffuse. 
 He is often singularly happy in his metaphorical illus- 
 trations, in which he is very abundant, though he is 
 sometimes hurried, in the flow of his language, into 
 metaphors, which once entangled in them, it is not easy 
 to manage very gracefully. A progressive improve- 
 ment in his oratory has, however, been very evident 
 within the last few years, his taste being purified 
 from some bad habits of style, by which it was for- 
 merly disfigured. He may be said literally, according 
 to the well-known maxim of Cicero, to have made 
 himself an orator, having had to struggle against the 
 apparently natural disadvantages of an incorrect and 
 false taste. We have heard the remark made by one 
 of his friends, that his best speech will not be delivered 
 for ten years yet to come, and that he will have attained 
 the age at which Cicero achieved his highest triumph, 
 before he will have brought out all the capacity of elo- 
 quence within him. He is laborious in preparation of 
 his materials, as he is usually luminous and forcible in 
 their arrangement and use. Some of his best efforts 
 have, however, been entirely extemporaneous. He 
 has that faculty indispensable to greatness, a strong 
 memory ; and his extensive reading, and particularly 
 his familiarity with all ancient and modern history, 
 often supplies him with happy and striking illustrations 
 of his positions. But his great strength consists in the 
 15*
 
 346 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 sincere force of his own convictions ; in his unhesitating 
 confidence in the eventual support of his opinions by 
 the verdict of the public judgment ; in the firmness and 
 earnestness of his own will ; in the accumulation of 
 facts which he brings to bear upon his subject, driving 
 his nail home with repeated blows of a hammer that 
 tells whenever it strikes. He is not generally esteemed 
 a pleasing speaker, we believe, by the frequenters of the 
 Senate galleries ; but in that body itself he often carries 
 great weight, and there can be no doubt that his 
 speeches within the last six or eight years have told 
 with a more abiding effect on the mind of the country 
 at large than those of any other individual." 
 
 **- *
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON, 
 
 THE INSPIRED DECLAIMER. 
 
 WE loVe good speaking, and will make almost any 
 sacrifice to enjoy the best. Ten years ago, we per- 
 formed a lon]| imd expensive journey to Washington, on 
 purpose to hear the lions roar. At that time, what an 
 array of talent-there was in Congress! The morning 
 after our arrival, we hurried to the Capitol, glanced at 
 the works of art and the elegant grounds, waiting for 
 the doors to open, when we immediately ensconced 
 qurself in the Senate gallery. The dignitaries soon be- 
 gan to drop into their seats. Some of them we had 
 seen elsewhere, and the most were recognized at once> 
 from prints or verbal descriptions. But there was. one 
 in particular whom we were anxious to see and hear. 
 Newspaper accounts of his matter and manner had ex- 
 cited the liveliest curiosity, and we had come a weary 
 way to seek its gratification 
 
 "Pray, sir," said we to a reporter, "which is Mr. 
 Preston ?" 
 
 " That's him," was the reply, pointing to a somewhat 
 large and decidedly heavy-looking personage, with brown
 
 348 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 coat and a little switch cane, round-shouldered, yellow- 
 ish wig, and florid complexion, trudging about with 
 good-natured greetings to all in a kind of whining tone 
 and careless air, everywhere met with smiles, and with 
 everybody cracking a joke. This was a poser, indeed. 
 We were looking for a prim, scholastic dignitary, with 
 a most refined aspect and reserved manner, stooping to 
 small talk only in selectest circles, and then always in 
 ore rotunda style. 
 
 Business began at length, and it was worse still. This 
 great orator of South Carolina, of whom our friend 
 James C. Brooks had written so vividly, arose to second 
 a resolution. He stood in a most unclassical position, 
 bending forward, with his hands resting on two desks 
 beneath him, his face expressionless, and his whole de- 
 livery as devoid of our preconceived notions as it could 
 possibly be. Had he not more than once responded to 
 the call of his name, we should have doubted his iden- 
 tity. 
 
 But, wait a bit. An expected debate was postponed, 
 and a bill came up suddenly for final action, in which 
 Mr. Preston was a good deal interested. It was a criti- 
 cal moment for the measure involved, and he rose again 
 to speak. How different! Not three minutes had 
 passed before we saw a new man there. He insensibly 
 assumed an erect position, as elastic as it was command- 
 ing ; his countenance changed its aspect as palpably as 
 the landscape is changed by the sun bursting through 
 sombre clouds ; his muscles rounded out in a fuller and 
 fairer symmetry ; and the veins of his forehead swelled 
 with the heated currents of almost preternatural energv
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 349 
 
 his voice was suddenly changed into deep and mellow 
 tones, with now and then a slight trembling that indi- 
 cated intense emotion ; those short, significant sentences, 
 so peculiar to his higher efforts, shot out in every direc- 
 tion like hissing bolts ; every eye and ear of a rapidly 
 gathered throng seemed entranced before the speaker as 
 he fulmined like one truly inspired. 
 
 Since that day of unexpected disappointment and 
 unequalled gratification, we have heard a great deal of 
 debating in Washington, London, and Paris, but have 
 never met a second WILLIAM C. PRESTON. There 
 may be others who are sounder logicians, more finical 
 rhetoricians, shrewder politicians, or abstruser meta- 
 physicians ; but where is a competitor, who can excel 
 him in lucid, fiery, and captivating declamation ? 
 
 It is not our purpose, in the present instance, to en- 
 cumber ourselves with biographical details. We have 
 more genial matter in hand, and shall proceed at once 
 to select several examples of our orator's composition, 
 preparatory to an analysis of his peculiarly pungent elo- 
 quence. We begin with extracts from the speech de- 
 livered by Mr. Preston in the Senate, March 1, 1836 
 on the Abolition question : 
 
 " Mr. President : I deeply regret the course which 
 this discussion has taken. I have remarked its progress 
 with much pain, with a feeling of anxiety and depres- 
 sion, which I find great difficulty in expressing. It has 
 been mixed up with all those small topics of party and 
 personal bitterness which, whether properly or not, 
 enter so largely into the ordinary debates of the Senate, 
 but which are altogether misplaced, and dangerous
 
 350 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 when connected with the consideration of those deep 
 and vital interests involved in any discussion of the 
 institution of slavery. It is very desirable, as has been 
 well suggested by the Senator from Massachusetts, that, 
 if we must deliberate on this subject, we do so with all 
 the calmness possible, and with a deliberate and com- 
 bined effort to do what is best under the perilous cir- 
 cumstances which surround us, uninfluenced by the 
 paltry purposes of party. In whatever temper you may 
 come to it, the discussion is full of danger. The fact 
 that you are deliberating on this subject of slavery, 
 inspires my mind with the most solemn thoughts. No 
 matter how it comes before you ; no matter whether the 
 question be preliminary or collateral, you have no juris- 
 diction of it in any of its aspects. These doors should 
 be closed against it ; for you have no right to draw .into 
 question here an institution guaranteed by the Constitu- 
 tion, and on which, in fact, the right of twenty-two 
 Senators to a seat in this body is founded and, em- 
 phatically, you have no right to assail, or to permit to 
 be assailed, the domestic relations of a particular section 
 of the country, which you are incapable of appreciating 
 of which you are necessarily ignorant which the 
 Constitution puts beyond your reach, and which a fair 
 courtesy, it would seem, should exempt from your dis- 
 cussion. It exacts some patience in a southern man, to 
 sit here and listen, day after day, to enumerations of the 
 demoralizing effects of his household arrangements con- 
 sidered in the alstract to hear his condition of life 
 lamented over, and to see the coolness with which it is 
 proposed to admit petitioners who assail, and vilify, and
 
 ^ WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 351 
 
 pity him, on the ground that it would hurt their feelings 
 if we do not listen to them. We sit here and hear all 
 this, and more than this. We hear ourselves accused 
 of being agitators, because we ask the question, is it the 
 pleasure of the Senate to hear those who thus assail us? 
 As yet, Mr. President, the incendiaries are but at your 
 door, demanding admittance, and it is yet within your 
 power to say to them, that they shall not throw their burn- 
 ing brands upon this floor, or propagate the conflagration 
 through this Government. Before you lend yourself to 
 their unhallowed purposes, I wish to say a word or two 
 upon the actual condition of the Abolition question ; for 
 I greatly fear, from what has transpired here, that it is 
 very insufficiently understood ; and that the danger of 
 the emergency is by no means estimated as it ought to 
 be. God forbid that I should permit any matter of tem- 
 porary interest or passion to enter into what I am about 
 to tell you of the real dangers which environ us. My 
 State has been assailed. Be it so. My peculiar principles 
 have been denounced. I submit to it. Sarcasms, intended 
 to be bitter, have been uttered against us. Let them pass. 
 I will not permit myself to be disturbed by these things, 
 or, by retorting them, throw any suspicion on the tem- 
 per in which I solemnly warn both sections of this 
 Union of the impending dangers, and exhort this Senate 
 to do whatever becomes its wisdom and patriotism under 
 the circumstances. Let us not shut our eyes, sir, on our 
 condition. Some gentlemen have intimated that there 
 is a purpose to get up a panic. No, no, sir. I have no 
 such purpose. A panic on this subject is a disaster, 
 The stake is too great to play for under a panic. In
 
 352 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the presence of so much danger as I solemnly oelieve 
 exists, I would rather steady every mind to the coldest 
 contemplation of it, than endeavor to excite my own, or 
 the feelings of others, by adventitious stimulants. If I 
 over-estimate the magnitude of the dangers which 
 threaten us, it is in spite of myself, against my wishes, 
 and after the most deliberate consideration. 
 
 " Look round, then, sir, on the circumstances under 
 which these numerous and daily increasing petitions are 
 sent to us. They do not come, as heretofore, singly. 
 and far apart, from the quiet routine of the Society of 
 Friends, or the obscure vanity of some philanthropic 
 club ; but they are sent to us in vast numbers, from 
 soured and agitated communities, poured in upon us 
 from the overflowing of public sentiment, which every- 
 where, in all Western Europe and Eastern America, has 
 been lashed into excitement on this subject. Whoever 
 has looked at the actual condition of society, must have 
 perceived that the public mind is not in its accustomed 
 state of repose, but active, and stirred up, and agitated 
 beyond all former example. The bosom of society 
 heaves with new and violent emotions. The general 
 pulse beats stronger and quicker than at any period 
 since the access of the French Revolution. Public 
 opinion labors, like the priestess on her tripod, with the 
 prophecy of great events. In Germany, in France, and 
 in England, there is a great movement party organized 
 upon the spirit of the times, whose tendency is to over- 
 turn established institutions, and remodel the organic 
 forms of society, for whose purposes the process of ex- 
 periment is too slow, and the action of reason too
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON 353 
 
 cold ; whose infuriated philanthropy goeth about seeking 
 whom it may devour. To these ethical or political en- 
 thusiasts the remote and unsustained institution of sla- 
 very offers at once a cheap and fruitful subject. Ac- 
 cordingly, it is known that the doctrinaire and juste 
 milieu party of France, and its leading paper, the Jour- 
 nal des Debats, conducted with much ability, is devoted 
 to the purposes of abolitionism. The Due de Broglie, 
 Prime Minister of France, with St. Domingo before his 
 eyes, is president of an abolition society, having in view 
 the manumission of the slaves in the French West Indies 
 But the state of feeling in England has a much more 
 direct influence upon us, and is therefore of more import- 
 ant investigation." 
 
 Mr. Preston then proceeds to speak of the state of 
 the public mind in England, in relation to the slave 
 question of the act of emancipation by the British Par- 
 liament of the West India slaves, which he traces to 
 the individual efforts of Wilberforce and Clarkson, and 
 remarks on the morbid sensibility everywhere prevalent 
 in relation to the African race a sensibility pervading 
 the literature, politics, and whole organization of society, 
 and shows, from the intimate sympathies existing be- 
 tween England and America, how great an influence 
 must be excited on public opinion in this country, and 
 hence warns the Senate of the result. 
 
 Passing over this and other portions of this speech, 
 we come to the close which we give entire. Let the 
 reader conceive, if he can, the perpetual corruscation of 
 flashing bolts with which it fell from the impassioned 
 orator.
 
 354 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 " The honorable Senator, (Mr. Prentiss) with his 
 characteristic earnestness, and with the weight commu- 
 nicated to everything he says, by the high estimate of his 
 worth and ability, and the known gravity of his mode 
 of thinking, has informed us that amongst these peti- 
 tioners are men of as much worth and patriotism as are 
 to be found anywhere ; and the . honorable gentleman 
 himself vindicates the petitioners by the authority of 4iis 
 co-operation, when he declares here in his place that 
 Congress is constitutionally endowed with the power ot 
 manumitting the slaves in this District, and that it is ex- 
 pedient to exercise this power. But a short time since 
 the Legislature of the State which the gentleman repre- 
 sents passed resolutions that the matter of slavery ought 
 not to be agitated. Now, the Senator things it expedi- 
 ent to #ct. His colleague, too, assures us that the pro- 
 gress of the agitation in Vermont is greatly accelerated ; 
 that seven societies have been recently organized in one 
 county; and that he hears of societies springing up in 
 quarters, remote neighborhoods, where he had supposed 
 that abolition had scarcely been heard of. Is there no- 
 thing in these facts ? 
 
 " Five hundred societies are now organized, and in 
 active operation, and daily increasing in numbers. Is 
 there nothing in this? In these wide-spread associa- 
 tions are there none but the weak and base, a noisy and 
 impotent rabble, which will fret itself into exhaustion ? 
 Or are they composed, as all such popular movements 
 are, of a mixed multitude of all those whom wild enthu- 
 siasm, mistaken piety, perverted benevolence, and blind 
 zeal, hurry and crowd together, to swell the torrent of
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 355 
 
 public enthusiasm, when it sets strongly towards a fa- 
 vorite object ? However humbly I may think of the 
 wisdom of these people, I do place a high estimate upon 
 their zeal and enterprise. We have seen what these 
 qualities effected in England on this subject, and they 
 are not less efficacious here. There is at this moment 
 in New York an association of twenty -five men of wealth 
 and high standing, who, with a spirit worthy of a better 
 cause, have bound themselves to contribute $40,000 a 
 year to the propagation of abolition doctrines through 
 the press. Five of these pay $20,000 a year, and one 
 8,1000 a month. Such is the spirit, and such the means 
 to sustain it. 
 
 " Again, I demand, sir, do these things indicate no- 
 thing ? The press is subsidized societies for mutual 
 inflammation are formed men, women, and children, 
 join in the petitions rostrums are erected itinerant 
 lecturers pervade the land, preaching up to nightly 
 crowds a crusade against slavery. The pulpit resounds 
 with denunciations of the sin of slavery, and infuriate 
 zealots unfurl the banner of the cross the standard to 
 which the abolitionist is to rally. The cause of anti- 
 slavery is made identical with religion, and men and 
 women are exhorted, by all that they esteem holy, by all 
 the high and exciting obligations of duty to man and to 
 God, by all that can warm the heart or inflame the ima- 
 gination, to join in the pious work of purging the sin of 
 slavery from the land. Gentlemen have told us of the 
 array of the reverend clergy on these petitions. In- 
 fatuated and deluded men ! In the name of charity, 
 they lay a scene of blood and massacre ; in the bias
 
 356 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 phemed name of the religion of peace, they promote a 
 civil and servile war ; they invoke Liberty to prostrate 
 the only Government established for its preservation. 
 But what voice can penetrate the deafness of fanaticism ? 
 It neither hears, nor sees, nor reasons, but feels, and 
 burns, and acts with a maniac force. 
 
 " Nor are the all-exciting topics of religion the only 
 sources from which this turbid and impetuous stream is 
 swollen. All the sympathies of the American heart for 
 liberty, (the word itself has a magic in it,) achieved 
 through war and revolution, are perverted into it. 
 When the war-cry is 'God and Liberty' when it is 
 thundered from the pulpit, and re-echoed from the press, 
 and caught up and shouted forth by hundreds of socie- 
 ties, until the whole land rings with it, shall we alone not 
 hear it, or, hearing it, lay the flattering unction to our 
 souls that it portends nothing ? Be not deceived, I en- 
 treat, gentlemen, in regard to the power of the causes 
 which are operating upon the population of the non- 
 slaveholding States. The public mind in those States 
 has long been prepared for the most favorable reception 
 of the influences now brought to bear upon it. It has 
 been lying fallow for the seed which is now sown broad- 
 cast. A deep anti-slavery feeling has always existed in 
 the Northern and Middle States ; it is inscribed upon 
 their statute books. Each, in succession, impelled by 
 this feeling, has abolished slavery within its own juris- 
 diction ; and what has been effected there, without as 
 yet any fatal consequences, unreflecting ignorance will 
 readily suppose may be effected everywhere under all 
 circumstances. The spirit of propagandism is in pro-
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 357 
 
 portion to the distance of the object, and the ignorance 
 of the propagandist. Of the whole population of those 
 States, ninety-nine hundredths regard the institution 
 with decided disapprobation, and scarcely a less propor- 
 tion entertain some vague desire that it should be 
 abolished, in some way, at some time, and believe that 
 the time will come, and the mode be devised. They 
 believe that slavery is bad in the abstract, and not in- 
 curable as it exists. The remoteness of it from them- 
 selves makes them at once more ignorant of its actual 
 condition, and bolder in suggesting remedies. It is to 
 such a temper of mind that the inflammatory appeals I 
 have spoken of are addressed. 
 
 " But there is still another element of power, scarcely 
 less than either of those I have adverted to, which the 
 incendiaries will not be slow to avail themselves of. 
 Cast your eyes, sir, over the States where they have 
 already gained foothold, and mark the eagerness and 
 equality with which two great political parties are 
 struggling for ascendency. Animated by the utmost 
 intenseness of party spirit, and in the very height of a 
 contest of life and death, they will be willing to snatch 
 such arms as fury may supply, and avail themselves of 
 such auxiliaries as chance may offer. A third party, 
 even were it less numerous than the abolitionists, occu- 
 pying for a time a neutral position, will of course be 
 able to decide the controversy. Each party will dread 
 its accession to the other, and each may, perhaps in 
 turn, court its influence. Thus its consequence is 
 enhanced, and, deriving strength from position, it ac- 
 quires a new principle of augmentation, until it becomes
 
 358 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 sufficiently powerful to absorb one or the other of the 
 contending parties, and become itself the principal in 
 the controversy. Then are added party spirit, political 
 ambition, local interests ; and, with all this aggregation 
 of strength and power, think you, sir, that abolitionism, 
 at your next session, will pause at your door, waiting to 
 see if it be your pleasure to ask it in ? Even now, sir, 
 candidates for popular favor begin to feel the influence 
 of this new power. The very fact of the reluctance 
 which we all feel to agitate this matter here, bespeaks 
 our fears of exasperating the strength which we instinc- 
 tively know resides in the abolitionists. Gentlemen say 
 we must tread softly, lest we wake the giant ; we must 
 not breathe upon the spark, lest it burst into a blaze ; we 
 must bow down before the coming storm until it blows 
 over, for. fear that it will prostrate us if we stand up: 
 and while the policy of such a course is urged, we are 
 told there is no danger. 
 
 "No gentleman will suppose that J take pleasure in 
 indicating the cause of growth, or the present strength 
 of the abolitionists, or would willingly exaggerate them. 
 It is not, I confess, without the deepest apprehensions 
 that I contemplate them ; but my chief fears arise from 
 the supineness with which they are regarded here, on 
 both sides of the House. We repose in a false and 
 fatal security. I am amazed and dismayed at the view 
 which my friends have taken of these matters. I know 
 well that their interest is identical with mine. I know 
 their honor and candor; and" most willingly would I 
 indulge in their soothing hopes, if the deepest sense of 
 the most imperious duty did not exact of me to call
 
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 359 
 
 upon them to awake to a sense of the danger, and be 
 prepared to meet it with a thorough comprehension of 
 its import ; and as a member of the Senate of the 
 United States, I warn and exhort gentlemen to take 
 early and decided counsel as to what is fit to be done. 
 The occasion concerns us all, not perhaps in an equal 
 degree, but it deeply concerns all who feel, as I do, a 
 profound veneration for the Constitution, and an ardent 
 love for the Union. I conjure the Senators from the 
 non-slaveholding States to approach this subject with a 
 steady regard and unfaltering step ; to come to the task 
 at once, before it is too late ; to interpose all the au- 
 thority of this Government between the incendiaries 
 and their fatal purposes; and to pledge the moral 
 weight of their individual characters against it. 
 
 " I heartily approve the sentiments which have been 
 generally avowed in the Senate, and appreciate the pa- 
 triotic feelings which gentlemen have expressed in 
 regard to the abolitionists. I have read with unfeigned 
 pleasure, the wise communication of the Governor of ' 
 New York to his Legislature, and am gratified to be- 
 lieve that there is a mass of intelligence and worth in 
 that great State, as well as in others of the Northern 
 and Middle States, which deeply disapproves these pro- 
 ceedings. But what I fear is, that neither here nor 
 elsewhere is there a sufficient perception of the immi- 
 nence of the danger, or the potency and permanency of 
 those causes which create it. Even honorable gentle- 
 men from the South, who have all at stake ; arf lie 
 whose hearths, and in whose bed-chambers, the cry'^ 
 thousands is invoking murder, in the name of God an-
 
 360 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 liberty-:-with the example of Jamaica and St. Domingo 
 before them, even they are not sufficiently aroused to 
 the emergency. I entreat them to awake : I invoke 
 gentlemen from all quarters, of all parties, to unite at 
 once, to combine here, in the adoption of the strongest 
 measures of which this Government is capable, and thus 
 to enter into mutual pledges to oppose, by all possible 
 means, and to the last extremity, the destructive and 
 exterminating doctrines of these terrible incendiaries. 
 Signalize your opposition by the most decided action. 
 Stamp their nefarious propositions with unqualified 
 reprobation. Throw the whole authority of this Gov- 
 ernment against them. Pledge the authority of each 
 Senator in his own State. Say to the abolitionists that 
 this Government will in no event be made an instru- 
 ment in your hands. Say to the South that this pes- 
 tilential stream shall not be poured upon you through 
 these halls. Give us the strongest measures. If you 
 cannot adopt the proposition of my colleague, let us 
 know what you can do. The matters before us are of 
 the deepest consequence, and it may, perhaps, not be 
 within the competence of this Government to effect an 
 entire remedy of the evil. Something, however, can be 
 done ; you may, at least, save yourselves from becoming 
 either passively or actively accessory to the result. 
 Erect yourselves into a barrier between the opposing 
 sections. Save the Union if you can. 
 
 " If things go much farther, you may find this no easy 
 their :er Recent experience has, thank God, demon- 
 ind %ted that this Government is not strong enough to 
 ^produce disunion. Will it be strong enough to prevent
 
 WILLIAM C. PREfeTON. 361 
 
 it it proceedings go on, 'which inevitably make two peo- 
 ple of us, warring on a question which, on the one side, 
 involves existence, and on the other, arrays all the fury 
 of fanaticism ? Think you, sir, that, if you have not 
 the spirit or power to trample out the brand that is 
 thrown amongst us, you can yet bring help when the 
 whole land is wrapped in conflagration ? If, however, 
 in your judgment it is not competent or expedient to 
 act decisively, tell us so. Let us know what you can 
 or. will do, and we will consider it, and bring to the 
 consideration of it a candid and conciliatory temper, 
 anxious to find safety for the Constitution in your mea- 
 sures. Our own safety is in our own keeping. I will 
 not more than allude to it for fear of misconstruction ; 
 but while with the most painful emotions I have ad- 
 verted to the dangers of our situation, while with the 
 most profound solicitude I entreat the Senate to guard 
 against them, I know that the South has the power and 
 the will to vindicate its rights and protect itself. Even 
 if it were destitute of the high spirit which characterizes 
 it, if it were without the resources which abound there, 
 it would be forced into a position of self-defence by the 
 inexorable necessities of self-preservation. The South 
 has drawn deep lessons of instruction from the colonial 
 history of France and England. St. Domingo and 
 Jamaica were colonies subject to the dominion of a for- 
 eign power, and perished because they were colonies. 
 Their disastrous history is not recorded in vain. I will 
 not pursue this topic. I am here a member of the 
 Senate of the United States, impressed with a sense of 
 my federal duties, and in discharge of them, have felt 
 16
 
 362 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 myself compelled to state my conception of the perilous 
 circumstances in which ws are, because I fear there is 
 a fatal misconception in regard to them. It is possible, 
 sir* that I may have conceived them too strongly. I 
 wish it may turn out so. It is erring on the safe side 
 to magnify the strength of the enemy, if you intend to 
 encounter him with fortitude and just preparation. 
 Many friends near me see nothing on the horizon but a 
 floating cloud, which the summer breeze will drive 
 away. I see, or think I see, the gathering of a tempest 
 surcharged with all the elements of devastation. If 
 they be right, it is happy for us all ; but if they be 
 wrong, and I right, and the blessed moments of pre- 
 paration are thrown away until the storm bursts, they 
 incur an awful responsibility." 
 
 The happy versatility of which Mr. Preston is capa- 
 ble in public speech, is indicated by the following extract 
 from the account given of the famous Whig Conven- 
 tion, held in Baltimore on the first week of May, 1840 : 
 
 " The Hon. Wm. C. Preston, the eloquent and dis- 
 tinguished Senator from South Carolina, next responded 
 to the call of the Convention. ' This/ said he, ' is 
 the happiest day of my life. I see here the consumma- 
 tion of almost all that I had hoped for from the earliest 
 day I entered public life. I hate tyranny, and from my 
 infancy was taught to despise a Tory. I was born a 
 Whig, and am yet a Whig. The Whigs have met here,' 
 continued Mr. Preston, ' to bring peace and prosperity 
 to the land, and I take pleasure in expressing the belief 
 that the man of their choice will maintain and consoli-
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 
 
 date the great national institutions and enterprises of 
 the country.' Continuing his remarks, 
 
 "Mr. Preston alluded to the self-denying, magnanimous, 
 and patriotic conduct of Henry Clay. The eulogium 
 was the most eloquent we have heard, and the audience 
 heard it with interest and delight, Returning to Gen- 
 eral Harrison, he said, 'I will devote to him my labor, my 
 thoughts, my person, and my purse. I regard the Ohio 
 farmer as a true and devoted patriot, and I would the 
 news of this day's meeting could be borne to him upon 
 the wings of the wind.' 
 
 " Mr. Preston, in concluding his remarks, said, he 
 was a Southern man, and happily in connection with 
 this subject did he allude to the recent demonstration of 
 opinion from the 'Old Dominion.' Harrison, too, he 
 was proud to say, was a Virginian born, and a son of 
 a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He 
 sprung, too, from the best of the Anglo-Saxon blood. 
 He was a (descendant of that Harrison who, in the'reign 
 of the tyrant Charles, said that, ' as he was a tyrant, I 
 slew him.' Who, said Mr. Preston, can boast of better 
 blood in his veins than this descendant of the king-de- 
 stroying, despot-killing, tyrant-hating Harrison ? 
 
 "Mr. Preston, in a manner peculiar to himself, after 
 exhorting the Whigs to use their anticipated triumph as 
 not abusing it, left the grave a moment for the gay. 
 Alas, poor Democrats, farewell, dear Loco Focos ! you 
 have had your day. Every dog has his day ! It is 
 necessary, Mr. Van Buren, that you should go for dimin- 
 ished wages, and the country says you shall go for 
 diminished wages ! Again, Mr. Preston drew a happy
 
 364 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 picture of the 4th of March, 1841. He supposed that 
 prince of Democrats, Martin Van Buren, to be here in 
 his coach and four horses. Following him comes Amos 
 Kendall, and succeeding him, Levi Woodbury with 
 his empty bags, and still behind these worthies the 
 head of the war department, Mr. Poinsett, the author of 
 the system for two hundred thousand militia, and thirty- 
 four bloodhounds. I see them now, said Mr. Preston, 
 in my mind's eye. They come from Washington are 
 seen at Fell's Point, now at Canton and some one 
 says to the party there is the race course where met the 
 National Convention in May last. 
 
 " Again, Mr. Preston changed his manner, and in a 
 burst of eloquence which electrified his hearers, ex- 
 horted them to go into the possession of the adminis- 
 tration of the public affairs with clean hands and honest 
 hearts ; and first of all to proscribe the system of pro- 
 scription which had dishonored the country. Let us 
 wash the ermine and purify the seats of government. 
 Mr. Preston also made a happy allusion to Cincinnatus 
 the ploughman, citizen, and general. In many respects 
 Harrison was like him, but the spectacle of selecting the 
 humble American citizen to rule over the nation was of 
 the moral sublime, and far eclipsed anything in Grecian 
 or Roman history, 
 
 " In General Harrison, said Mr. Preston, in conclusion, 
 I believe in after time we may be able to say, that the 
 country has a second Washington in the second Harri- 
 son. When this day comes, and God speed the time, 
 for one I will be content rest satisfied leave the field 
 of labor, and say like one of oH ' Now, Lord, lettest
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 305 
 
 thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have 
 seen thy glory.' " 
 
 On January 13th, 1841, Mr. Preston delivered in the 
 Senate his famous speech on the Pre-emption Bill. That 
 effort was in a more subdued tone than is usual with 
 him, and presented a vast amount of statistical informa- 
 tion. The following continuous passage, taken from the 
 main body of the speech, will best exemplify his most 
 substantial manner in the forum. Having submitted a 
 long array of numerical facts to substantiate foregoing 
 positions, he proceeds to say : 
 
 " This account does not include the heavy disburse- 
 ments for Indian wars, which, swelled by the recent 
 enormous expenses in Florida, may be safely set down 
 at forty millions of dollars. With this very large bal- 
 ance standing against the land yet in possession of the 
 United States, if the calculation of the value of that 
 residue made by the Senator from South Carolina be cor- 
 rect, the whole will not reimburse us, much less the 65 
 per cent, which he proposes to reserve. And thus we 
 shall have squandered not only what Virginia and the 
 other States gave us, but also a large sum of money 
 contributed by the old States in the form of taxes upon 
 their citizens before the States now proposed to be bene- 
 fitted were in existence. In this most obvious view of 
 the case, we give out of the treasury, to a few favored 
 States, 35 per cent, of many millions of dollars collect- 
 ed from the other States. By this operation, Virginia 
 will not only have given her lands, but her money also 
 She will have transferred her property, and paid a sum 
 to those who take it. The quantity of land proposed
 
 166 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 to be surrendered by this act of cession is, according to 
 the report of the select committee, one hundred and 
 fifty-four millions of acres, lying in various portions of 
 the nine selected States. Thirty-five per cent, upon this 
 quantity is upwards of fifty millions of acres, certainly 
 a munificent donation. The average annual income 
 from the sale of public lands for the last twenty years is 
 about five millions of dollars. Assuming this ratio, the 
 annual grant in money to these nine States is more 
 than a million and a half of dollars. It is equal to the 
 civil lists of those States. It is the assumption of the 
 public debts of those States. It is the distribution of 
 the whole nett proceeds of the public lands amongst 
 nine States. 
 
 " It seems to me that the mode of calculation by which 
 the mover of this amendment brings down the value oi 
 the public lands is erroneous ; but, whatever that value 
 may be, we have no power to cast it away. One thing 
 is certain, that the sales yield an income of five millions, 
 and that, in all human probability, they will continue to 
 do so for the next thirty years. Their value for a sum 
 in hand, therefore, is correctly estimated by a very ob- 
 vious process. The annual receipts should cover the 
 annual interest, and provide a sinking fund for the capi- 
 tal. By this mode of calculation, then, allowing the in- 
 come from the public lands to terminate at the end of 
 thirty years, the present value in hand would be 
 upwards of fifty millions ; and the proposition thus re- 
 duced results in a donation, in presenti, of seventeen 
 millions of dollars to the nine States. The eagerness 
 manifested by the Senators representing those States is
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 36T 
 
 natural. There is a grandeur in this munificence which 
 subdues the imagination, and casts into shade the vast 
 donation of Virginia differing from that, too, in this : 
 that, whereas Virginia gave to all the States, herself in- 
 cluded, this proposition gives to one-third of the States, 
 containing less than one-sixth of the population. 
 
 " That the average of the last twenty years is a just, 
 or at least a sufficiently low, criterion of the proceeds of 
 the public lands for the future, will be apparent from the 
 consideration of the great increase of the population, 
 which furnishes the demand for new lands. The Uni- 
 ted States now contain 18,000,000 of inhabitants, an 'in- 
 crease at the rate of about 700,000 a year. The de- 
 mand for new settlements will increase in a correspond- 
 ing ratio with the population. It may be safely put 
 down as- increasing at the rate of four per cent. Expe- 
 rience, heretofore, has shown that the rate of purchase 
 does not diminish, as the land has been picked and 
 culled; but on the contrary, those lands which have 
 been longest in market are most freely sold, in pro- 
 portion to the quantity in market. Thus, lands are 
 more rapidly taken up in Ohio, than in Arkansas, for the 
 obvious reason that a dense population makes inferior 
 land more valuable in the midst of it, than more fertile 
 districts in an uninhabited country. There is but a 
 million of acres of United States land now remaining 
 unsold in Ohio, and even this is diminishing with an ac- 
 celerated ratio. It therefore may be well assumed that 
 from this source the United States may enjoy a revenue 
 of five millions, until very much the largest portion of 
 the domain within the nine States is disposed of, and
 
 368 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 long before that period Florida, Iowa, and Wisconsin will 
 have brought their contributions to the general fund, 
 and extended ^jie period .^f^this, income to future gene- 
 rations. R^asoningjpon data known to be correct, in 
 ^ thirty years from this .time the demand for<the public 
 tends will'be in proportion, to a population increasing 
 at the rate of two, millions-g, year. .; ' - : ' v 
 . *':But lijere aYe otffer ^erious objectiohs-to^this amend- 
 mentj and I invoke the. attention of Senators from every 
 quarter. & the* Uniowto that, ^hich I a^n nc^w about- to 
 ,.. $t$,teV ;;T^e i ; pjpROsed mo.de *of disposing of the public 
 lauAs^s altogether, and to. . an enognaoul extent,, unequal 
 in it$ operation. What I msfst on, is, that there shall 
 be a.t any rate, a^perfect equality ; that there shall not be 
 on" and bounties in faaror of one Slate and 
 
 .against another; 'but here there is 1 a degfee 6/ jneqdality 
 x \v^re there no other objections, would be suffi- 
 
 rffcnt to corApel my decided dissent, li ie proposed to 
 cc-d^he public dohiain to eeych of the,States respectively, 
 within v whose* territorial limits they lie. It is^iveii to 
 {the States, not to individuals. It js. given to them, not 
 '%* ' tfting <z?/Vthe States, but as -being part only of the. 
 States of the^ Union. SljoufcTit bfe ceded. to all the 
 ^States, it >yould be a violation of the original cession,' 
 jand/of the Constitution, as the advocates of this measure 
 Contend It is to be ceded to the States, not in propor- 
 tfpti to. tneir contriWition^ 1o the public burdens, or in 
 "pi$>porti'on 1p thir size Of population, but.'simply as 
 ^Stales. . And'what will be the result, as between one of 
 *lhe 'States and another ? Ohio exceeds Missouri in pop- 
 ulation four to one; and how does this amendment pro-
 
 WILLIAM :. PRESTON. 369 
 
 pose to distribute the public lands between these two 
 States ? The share of Missouri is to the share of Ohio 
 as more than twenty-eight to one, making the popula- 
 tion of Missouri receive over the population of Ohio 
 more than one hundred to one. Can Ohio stand by and 
 see the public domain given away in this proportion ? 
 Nor is this all ; for the one million of acres which Ohio 
 gets, is of lands which have been in market for more 
 than forty years, and have been picked and culled during 
 all that time, while the thirty millions which are given to 
 Missouri consist of fresh and fertile lands but recently 
 surveyed. Now let me ask, what will Virginia get? 
 She contributes to the public burdens six times as much 
 as Missouri. Missouri is to get thirty-five per cent, of 
 thirty millions. How much does Virginia get ? No- 
 thing ! This is not thirty millions to one ; it is thirty 
 millions to nothing. Besides, Ohio has now passed her 
 chrysalis condition. She has now become one of the 
 old States of the Union. A million of acres is nothing 
 to her. But this amendment gives her her dividend 
 but of one million of old and refuse land, while it gives 
 Missouri her dividend of thirty millions of new land of 
 the very best quality. 
 
 " Let us now look a little at the operation of this scheme 
 in its details. I have here the report of the learned Com- 
 mittee on Public Lands, made at the last session, stating 
 the quantity of public lands within the various States. 
 Ohio, it appears, contains one million of acres of sec- 
 ond, third, and fourth-rate lands, while Arkansas has 
 forty-three millions of acres. 
 
 [Mr. Sevier, across Yes, and it is rich]. 
 16*
 
 370 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 " Yes, Arkansas is rich ; and this is one of the schemes 
 to make the rich richer, and the poor poorer. Arkansas 
 has forty-three times as much of the public land as Ohio ; 
 at the same time Ohio has a million and a half of inhab- 
 itants, while Arkansas has one hundred thousand. Thus, 
 one hundred thousand people are to be benefited at the 
 rate of forty-three millions of acres of land rich land, 
 as the Senator tells us while a million and a half of 
 people in another State "are benefitted at the rate of one 
 million of refuse land. Arkansas is to get two hundred 
 and fifteen acres to each inhabitant, and Ohio one-third 
 of one acre ! being a difference of six hundred and 
 forty-five in favor of Arkansas. Each inhabitant of 
 Arkansas, therefore, will get six hundred and forty-five 
 times as much as each inhabitant of Ohio. And so of 
 the rest. Michigan has thirty-one millions of acres to 
 Ohio's one million. Yet she has less than one hundred 
 thousand inhabitants. The proportions are enormous. 
 The original cession said that the avails of the public 
 domain were to be shared among the States according 
 to their several portions of the general charge and ex- 
 penditure. Yet, here an inhabitant of Arkansas is to 
 get six hundred and forty-five times as much as an 
 inhabitant of Ohio ; or, if you regard the two as States, 
 one gets forty-three times as much as the other. 
 
 But it does not stop here. New States of the Union 
 are selected as beneficiaries : are they, then, to be con- 
 fined to the avails of the land they receive ? Not at 
 all : after receiving that, they are then to come in and 
 be common sharers with the rest of the States. We are 
 to give them all their own lands, and a portion in ours
 
 WILLIAM C. PttESTON. 371 
 
 besides! Virginia is to get one twenty-sixth part of 
 one-half of these lands, and Arkansas, after having got 
 her own thirty-one millions, is to share this one twenty- 
 sixth part with Virginia. I should really hope, if the 
 land must be given away, it will be at some rate more 
 reasonable than this. The entire quantity of lands 
 remaining unsold within the States enumerated in the 
 Senator's amendment is 154,000,000 acres : one-half of 
 this will be 77,000,000, one-third is 50,000,000. And 
 the bill gives these 50,000,000 to nine States, the other 
 States to get no portion of it. 
 
 " I could run out this illustration yet further : but I 
 refrain. Ex pede, Herculem. These are sufficient. 
 These are to me striking views, but they are not the 
 considerations which weigh most heavily upon my 
 mind, and which I should be most glad to see removed 
 if this amendment is to be adopted, and is ever to be- 
 come a law. In arguing this whole question I feel the 
 difficulty of our situation as arguing against the wishes 
 and expectations of those who are to receive the benefit. 
 The nine States who are to get this magnificent dona- 
 tion have eighteen Senators among those whom I am 
 addressing, who have, of course, a more direct interest 
 in the adoption of the amendment than any of the rest 
 of us. This, of itself, presents a powerful motive to 
 secure their support to the measure : and this fact alone 
 ought to make us pause before we hastily adopt the 
 plan. The benefit to be granted is not common to us 
 all, but peculiar to them it is exclusive as to us. They 
 are to be benefited : we are to be injured. In alluding 
 to the strength of the motive here presented as likely to
 
 372 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 band together eighteen Senators in support of this 
 scheme, I mean to make no personal or offensive refer- 
 ence to those Senators : it is a motive likely to act on 
 all men placed in their circumstances. They desire, 
 very naturally, and very properly, to benefit their con- 
 stituents ; and, under the pressure of that desire, with 
 such an opportunity for its gratification, the understand- 
 ing even of the strongest is very likely to be warped in 
 its conclusions, -and seduced to believe that the measure 
 is perfectly just and proper. We must entreat gentle- 
 men so situated, as I do now entreat them, to raise their 
 views from the immediate interest of their constituents, 
 in such a cession as is now proposed, to a just adminis- 
 tration of the sacred trust which has been confided to 
 them for the benefit of the entire Union. Is it right is 
 it just is it generous to find their own peculiar 
 interest in our loss and sacrifice ? I throw myself upon 
 them, that they will consider this subject in an enlarged 
 point of view. Especially do I wish Ohio to do this, 
 who is passing out of her state of minority and becom- 
 ing of ripe age. Will Ohio consent thus to squander our 
 common patrimony ? I put it to Indiana, who is soon 
 about to become the third State in this Union : and I 
 ask her whether, to promote a transient interest to-day, 
 she will be willing to sacrifice the permanent and 
 abiding interest of to-morrow? and whether she will 
 lend herself to the delusion that it is just to deprive the 
 old States of the inheritance they have received from 
 our ancestors ? 
 
 "The amendment will produce a state of things 1 
 earnestly deprecate. In the administration of this <*n-
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 373 
 
 main something is due to our past experience. We all 
 remember the large amount of debt which was once ac- 
 cumulated under the credit system of sale of the public 
 lands ; you remember that the debtors declared that they 
 could not pay, and would not. The very same spirit 
 which prompts men to take the land without a legal 
 right prompts them to stand out for the money they 
 ought to pay for it. Circumstances made it difficult, 
 perhaps impossible, for them to pay ; and I well recollect 
 the terror with which the politicians of that day looked 
 to the results of such a state of things. I remember with 
 what anxiety, not to say terror, Mr. Monroe con- 
 templated a debt of nineteen millions owed by one sec- 
 tion of the Union. Congress looked with dismay at the 
 mass of debt due from settlers on the Lower Missis- 
 sippi ; and in contemplation of the mischievous effects 
 arising from the credit system, in relation to the public 
 lands, you determined to alter your terms of sale ; and 
 it was wisely decided to sell, in future, for cash alone. 
 But if a scattered debt, due from individuals, be an evil 
 of so dangerous a character as to excite their terrors, 
 how fearful will it become when this debt, instead of be- 
 ing dispersed among a number of individual settlers, is 
 consolidated inta one mass, and owed by a section which 
 has already, from time to time, made claim to an inde- 
 feasible title in all this land ! Can you collect it ? You 
 cannot drive your debtors from the land. Will you call 
 out the force of the country send your army sell 
 the land under them, and take possession of it for the 
 United States ? It cannot be done. To individuals, in 
 such a case, you can afford to yield, and make a com
 
 374 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 promise ; but how will you stand when you have made 
 States your debtors ? The amendment establishes the 
 relation of debtor and creditor between this Government 
 and entire States with neighboring, with contiguous 
 States with a mass of States, all having one common 
 interest in the question, one common character, and one 
 common debt. Do you expect from a debtor like this 
 to collect your debt by any process ? The thought is 
 idle. I estimate the honor and fidelity of the States 
 as much as any man ; but what have we heard for the 
 last few years, from the other side of the Senate, but 
 wild denunciations of State extravagance State profli- 
 gacy and the dear, blessed people to be taxed to pay 
 State debts ? Suppose there comes a short crop, or an 
 Indian war, or any other of the like contingencies, would 
 it not be urged as an excuse for not paying the State 
 debt? And would you venture, under such circum- 
 stances, to call upon them for your money ? You dare 
 not. Gentlemen have told you, in one breath, that you 
 cannot protect your land from the squatters either by 
 your tipstaves or by soldiers ; and in the very next breath 
 they say you can force whole States to comply with 
 their contracts by the power of the judiciary ! Your 
 army cannot remove a handful of individuals, and yet you 
 are going to drive the States by your judiciary ! You 
 cannot turn off a poor squatter, who has no sort of title, 
 or evidence or pretence of title ; and yet you are, by the 
 most nugatory provisions of this bill, to oust a citizen of 
 a State, having a deed from the State in his pocket, and 
 the whole State power interposed between him and you ! 
 If a State shall declare that they will not pay you, do
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 375 
 
 you expect that individuals of that State will ? God 
 forbid that 1 should ever see the day when this comes to 
 be tried, or that I should contribute to the possibility of 
 superinducing it. You place the man between two 
 fires. The State tells him to hold his land ; the General 
 Government orders him to give it up. He is to be hung 
 by the State if he disobeys the State Government ; and 
 if he obeys the State, then he is to be hung by the 
 General Government ! You never can enforce your 
 contract; the judiciary is utterly incapable of it. The 
 remedy which the amendment provides for the case is 
 utterly inefficient. It is, that, if the States refuse to pay, 
 then the deeds made by the States to individuals shall 
 be vacated. Pshaw! Why, as I have said, with no 
 deed at all, the settlers have stood out against you, and 
 you have been forced to yield, over and over again ; 
 think you that, with a State deed to show, and the State 
 authority to shield them, they are going to march offtheir 
 farms at the bidding of your marshall ? He would be a 
 bold man who would carry a process there. I say, then, 
 that there is great danger in your establishing the pecu- 
 niary relation of debtor and creditor with the States. If 
 they cannot pay, what will you do ? They will resist 
 in masses. They have eighteen Senators on this floor ; 
 and it is already their boast that in ten years from this 
 time they will hold the balance of power, and that they 
 will take the land upon their own terms. The remedy 
 proposed by the amendment is altogether fallacious. It 
 proposes to divert a vested right, and to drive a man 
 from lands that he has bought and paid for." 
 
 One of the very latest and most finished productions
 
 * yE&x 
 
 376 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 given to the public by Mr. Preston, was the eulogy he 
 pronounced upon his early associate, literary rival, and 
 political friend, Hugh S. Legare. The following brief 
 extract, it is believed, applies to the eulogist as well as to 
 his friend : 
 
 " He mainly devoted himself to the departments of 
 classical literature and philosophy ; and he zealously en- 
 gaged in the discussions of the debating societies, to 
 practice himself in the art of speaking. These studies 
 were a passion with him. His attention to the exact 
 sciences, however, seemed to be stimulated rather by 
 an ambition of excellence and a sense of duty. His re- 
 citations in mathematics, chemistry, and natural philo- 
 sophy were always good equal to the best in his class- 
 but his heart was in the classics. There he was not 
 only learning, but feasting. He was not only making 
 stages on a journey, butJured on from height to height, 
 enraptured with the glowing scene, until all the glorious 
 creations of Greek and Roman genius lay like a land- 
 scape beneath him." 
 
 Further on, he describes the career prosecuted by Mr. 
 Legare after he left college : 
 
 "He did not fall into the fatal error of supposing 
 that the college course completed his education, or that 
 the distinction acquired by it entitled him to repose or 
 indolence. He had learned enough no inconsiderable 
 knowledge to know his ignorance, and did not believe 
 that he had even laid a foundation, but had merely been 
 collecting materials for an education. He left the col- 
 lege, therefore, for the deeper seclusion of his own libra- 
 ry, and entering on the study of law, rather added to
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 377 
 
 than changed his former labors. The study of his pro- 
 fession was the base line of very multifarious reading, 
 and was in the beginning, and for many years after-* 
 wards, regarded as subsidiary to other objects requiring 
 also other attainments." 
 
 Having mentioned the fact that his lamented friend 
 went to Paris in 1818, Mr. Preston proceeds to describe 
 his occupations there, and the facilities he found for 
 cultivating his most genial tastes : 
 
 "The most attractive objects to him, were the galle- 
 ries of fine arts and the theatres. The former, some- 
 what shorn of their beams, in 1818, were yet glorious 
 with the rich, though diminished spoils of Italy and Hol- 
 land. His cultivated imagination found the counterparts 
 of its images on the canvas or in marble : and while they 
 filled him with delight, furnished him with more exalted, 
 and at the same time with more definite, conceptions of 
 grace, beauty, and sublimity. The theatres were then 
 in the highest state of perfection, and Mr. Legare, being 
 well acquainted with the French drama as a literature 
 studied and enjoyed its representations on the stage 
 with intense delight. Talma and Duchenois had 
 brought tragic acting to perfection, and Mars was inimi- 
 table in polite comedy. To Mr. Legare, their represent- 
 ations was not only amusement, but a study. The thea- 
 tre was. to him what it was when Bolingbroke ap- 
 plauded a play of Addison, or Johnson the acting of 
 Garrick." 
 
 These quotations are not only good' specimens of 
 Mr. Preston's narrative style, but, the last one in par- 
 ticular they are very significant of the author's own
 
 378 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 mental predilections and most genial habitudes. He, 
 too, was an early proficient and ardent votary in the 
 classics, sojourned sometime in Europe, everywhere 
 cultivated literary enthusiasm, studied all the elegant 
 arts with fervid zeal, and was a passionate admirer of 
 the drama. He has just told us about his friend's fond- 
 ness for tragedy ; and what he immediately adds 
 thereto looks even more like a description of his own 
 temperament and taste than those of Legare. Of the 
 latter he says : " It was, however, illustrative of a 
 trait in his character, that he frequently sought and 
 enjoyed the rich farce of Potier, or the naivete and 
 idiomatic finesse of the vaudeville for although his 
 general demeanor was grave, and sometimes even aus- 
 tere, yet there was a vein of fun running through his 
 character ; with a keen perception of the ludicrous, 
 which not unfrequently manifested itself in the presence 
 of his intimate friends. At such moments his joyous- 
 ness, his entire abandon, and the rich play of a riotous 
 imagination over the vast field of his varied associa- 
 tions, afforded an amusing and not unpleasing contrast 
 with his habitual reserve." 
 
 There is a graceful, negligent, though animated, air 
 about Mr. Preston's mode of public address which is 
 exceedingly captivating. His language "thrills in each 
 nerve, and lives along the line," with pre-eminent beauty 
 and force. There is an exuberance of thought and 
 imagery throughout his productions, and a copious ex- 
 penditure of both, which seems as fearless of exhaus- 
 tion, as it is prolific of delight. The reader in a good 
 degree, and the hearer much more, feels that either him-
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 379 
 
 self or the magician before him had "eaten of the 
 insane root that takes the reason prisoner," such strange 
 elevations of spirit are produced, alternately glowing 
 and shivering through the bosom. This result is pro- 
 duced in a great degree by the extraordinary dramatic 
 power in this orator. Deep emotion, pervading the 
 whole form of an impassioned speaker, and investing him 
 as with preternatural light, often has the most strikingly 
 beautifying effect. Thus Baron de Grimm says of the 
 great French actor Le Kain, that, off the stage, he was 
 more than usually ugly, with coarse, unpleasing fea- 
 tures, a heavy, unwieldy form, a hoarse and disagree- 
 able voice, and manners entirely destitute of elegance. 
 But on the stage, and really excited, so as to be wholly 
 absorbed in his part, he was indeed a hero, a king, with 
 features the most noble, or the most touching, a mein 
 the most imposing and the most graceful, a voice the 
 most tenderly pathetic, and that rare combination of 
 irresistible perfections, which often drew from women 
 who were convinced of his ugliness, involuntary excla- 
 mations upon his beauty. Witness the Marquise de 
 Pompadour, who, an hour after she found him frightful 
 in a gallery of the Palace of Versailles, exclaimed, on 
 seeing him appear upon the stage under the turban of 
 Orasman : "Great God! how handsome this man is! 
 how sublime! how admirable !" 
 
 But this kind of effect was produced,, as is always the 
 case, by real feeling, and not by mere mouthing or 
 mawkish affectation. La Harpe testifies that " the play 
 of Le Kain's features was not owing merely to the 
 action of his muscles ; it arose from the agitation of a
 
 380 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 soul moved to its very depths, yet revealing but a part 
 of its torture, repressing far more than it displayed on 
 the surface. His cries and his tears were the result of 
 real sufferings ; the gloomy, fearful fire of his glances, the 
 stamp of grandeur impressed upon his brow, the fright- 
 ful contraction of his muscles, the tremor of his lips, 
 and the wild disorder of his features, all testified to a 
 heart full to overflowing a heart impatient of restraint 
 impatient to pour forth its griefs, which, when re- 
 vealed, found no relief. We heard the echo of the 
 inward storm, and we felt that the unhappy man, like 
 the ancient priestess, was crushed by the divinity 
 which had descended upon his bosom. It is necessary, 
 therefore, to have seen the effect that he produced, in 
 order t6 imagine it and to credit it. One could never 
 conceive that profound terror, that appalling sHence, 
 interrupted at times by the accents of grief, which re- 
 sponded to those of the actor, by the sobs which testi- 
 fied to the agitation of every heart, by the tears which 
 had need to flow, to relieve the suffocated bosom. 
 What a moment ! What a spectacle ! From the weep- 
 ing that was heard on every side of the house, from 
 the multiplied signs of general desolation, one would 
 have thought that he beheld a people who had just 
 been smitten with some great calamity." 
 
 To be coarse is a vulgar error ; but to be mono- 
 tonous, is a no less fatal fault. Everything strongly 
 marked in eloquent speech, good or bad, is the sponta- 
 neous product of its author his genius, his energy, his 
 character. Those who are the most elaborately uni- 
 / brm are far from being the most effective. It is those
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 381 
 
 that strue by their natural inequalities, their character- 
 istic individuality, and whose faults and excellencies 
 keep up perpetual expectation, who produce the greatest 
 influence. The speaking of some men appears to be 
 faultless, and this is all that is ever said about them. 
 They are never approved or condemned earnestly, be- 
 cause in character they are intrinsically tame. But 
 other men agitate and almost convulse the public mind 
 by contrary extremes ; and these, because they are full 
 of character, produce much fierce discussion as to their 
 merits, while by all parties they continue to be listened 
 to with delight. It has been questioned whether Ra- 
 phael would have acquired so great a name, if his 
 coloring had been equal to his drawing or expression. 
 As it is, " his figures stand out like a rock, severed from 
 its base : while Correggio's are lost in their own beauty 
 and sweetness." Whatever has not a mixture of strong 
 contrasts, amounting often to manifest imperfection, in 
 it, soon grows insipid, or seems "stupidly good." 
 
 It is impossible to hide nature in artificial robes, and 
 thus manufacture a lay figure which will command 
 the sympathy and raptures of mankind. The great 
 desideratum is, to impress character on whatever one 
 attempts in speech. It is not coldly to recite sen- 
 timent, but earnestly to act it. He who can best do 
 this, exemplifies most agreeably an intellectual style. 
 Listening to them we are carried along so delightfully 
 with the deep and powerful current of their naturalness, 
 that, like Partridge in Tom Jones, when he saw Gar- 
 rick personate Hamlet, all seems so spontaneous, so 
 completely without effort, that we feel sure, there is
 
 382 LrVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 neither artifice nor mystery, extraordinary power nor 
 genius, in the whole matter. The elder Kean was 
 mighty, because he was his own great original, with aii 
 his errors and excellencies " not the copyist of any 
 other not the pupil of a school not a mannerist, but 
 an actor who found all his resources in nature, who 
 delineated his passions' only from the expression that 
 the soul gives to the voice and features of man not 
 from the images that have before him been represented 
 on the stage. It is from the wonderful truth, energy, 
 and force with which he strikes out, and presents to the 
 eye this natural working of the passions of the human 
 frame, that he excites the emotions, and engages the 
 sympathy of his spectators and auditors." 
 
 To those who know Mr. Preston, are familiar with 
 his mental tastes, style of thought, and manner of ex- 
 pression, the propriety of these dramatic allusions will 
 be seen at once. Not that our accomplished and elo- 
 quent countryman is a mere mannerist in any sense. 
 We have adduced copious proofs of his admirable ver- 
 satility in composition, and all the world knows that he 
 can most skillfully adapt his elocution to every form and 
 shade of thought. The Tatler says there was a man in 
 his day who could play nothing but the Apothecary in 
 Romeo and Juliet. He succeeded so well in this, that 
 he grew fat upon it, when he was set aside ; and having 
 then nothing to do, pined away till he became qualified 
 for his part again, and had another run in it. But Mr. 
 Preston is not thus dependent upon any one occupation 
 or style. Whenever he is roused, on whatever theme 
 01- occasion, there is a gre*at deal of stage effect in his
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 883 
 
 figure, voice, and general bearing, but it seems little in- 
 debted to study. He was unmistakably created to pro- 
 duce great oratorical effects. His claim to admiration is 
 in his boiling blood and flashing brain the generous 
 ardor of his temperament, and his brilliant mental 
 power. He is undoubtedly the Roscius of the Ameri 
 can forum, but he is equally great in many othei 
 spheres. He is by nature and habit gorgeously armed 
 with the splendid excellence of passionate vigor ; but he 
 is none the less potent and attractive in the quiet shades 
 of literary research and domestic joy. 
 
 We have presented a variety of written samples, 
 showing the diversified features of Mr. Preston's mind 
 as a cultivated statesman ; and have stated what we 
 believe to be his predominant quality of temperament 
 and general style. It remains now definitely to portray 
 the characteristics of his extraordinary eloquence. 
 
 We have said that his manner is highly dramatic ; and 
 this is true, because it habitually embodies and exempli- 
 fies deep human devotion by feature, form, and action. 
 In the first place, the expression, physical and mental, as 
 exhibited by Mr. Preston, is remarkable. Some orators, 
 like Rembrandt, possess the full empire of light and 
 shade, and of all the tints that float between them ; they 
 can tinge their pencil with equal success in the cool of 
 dawn, in the noon-day ray, in the livid flash, in evanes- 
 cent twilight, and render darkness visible, if they like. 
 Such masters are men inspired, be their sphere of devel- 
 opment and creative power what it may. To them 
 nature discloses all the varied light of rising, meridian, 
 and setting suns. Height, depth, solitude, convulsion,
 
 384 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 strike, terrify, absorb, or bewilder them by turns, and 
 under the action of these diversified views and emo- 
 tions, they cause us to see what they see, feel as they 
 feel, and traverse mournfully or joyously with them 
 through classic, romantic, or sacred regions. The se- 
 date, the severe, the solemn, the gay, the pleasing, the 
 placid, the awful, and the sublime, are depicted by turns ; 
 each touch in harmony with the subject, and all 
 invested with the greatest propriety and force. Of this 
 stamp is William C. Preston. He can speak the world's 
 one tongue, in tone, feature, and action, with simulta- 
 neous and irresistible effect that language which, when- 
 ever and wherever it is truly expressed, always " trem- 
 bles towards the inner founts of feeling," and produces 
 the most pleasing as well as most potent results. "With 
 gleaming plumes, that might o'ercome an air of ada- 
 mantine denseness, pranked with fire," his appearance 
 before an audience is the signal for universal admira- 
 tion and profound respect. He possesses in full measure 
 that "winged power" which Pindar praises in Homer, 
 and which whirls incident on incident with such rapid- 
 ity, that, absorbed by the whole, we are drawn from the 
 imperfection of single parts, and are enthralled as. by 
 the fantasies of a vision. 
 
 This orator commands within his own bosom the 
 source of deep pathos, as well as the more fiery foun- 
 tains of passion and pungent wit. In this versatility 
 lies the secret of his greatest powdr. He who can best 
 delineate the suffering side of human nature can like- 
 wise represent the gay side ; because he who can attain 
 the greater has already reached the less. Mr. Preston
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 385 
 
 is an admirable painter of the florid school ; but, perhaps, 
 is not so expert in severe reasoning and analytical 
 thought. He can defend any favorite system with the 
 flowers of rhetoric much more effectively than with the 
 inflexible and inodorous weapons of syllogistic form. 
 Without injustice, it is believed, we may apply to him the 
 critical judgment which Broussais pronounced before the 
 Institute of France, on the historian Mignet, wherein he 
 sums up the character of that extraordinary man as 
 follows: "His mind, which was quick, penetrating, 
 strong, and creative, was deficient in the essential of 
 rigor ; he did not always propound his problems well, and 
 often contented himself with imperfect solutions, be- 
 cause he observed shrewdly, but concluded hastily. To 
 inquire and believe, to affirm and contend, were with 
 him necessities ; he knew not what it was either to doubt 
 or to hesitate. Thence arose at once his imperfections, 
 his talent, his power, his success ; he thence derived a 
 style beautifully animated and free, glowing, copious, 
 unequal, vigorous ; he thence drew the inspiration of 
 those works which interested not only as the expo- 
 sition of his ideas, but as the echo of his feelings, for 
 he threw into them both his views and himself." Not 
 that our gifted countryman is incapable of severe argu- 
 ment, but he superabounds in other qualities which, if 
 they are less rigid, are often more captivating. He 
 knows himself, and can make his audience deliciously 
 comprehend the poet's meaning when he exclaims 
 
 " How sweet to feel the sun upon the heart ! 
 To know it is lighting up the rosy blood, 
 17
 
 386 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 And with all joyous feelings, prison-hued, 
 Making the dark breast shine like a spar grot." 
 
 Again, the form which Mr. Preston's eloquence in- 
 stinctively assumes is as remarkable as its expression, 
 and contributes much to its peculiar force. As has 
 been already estimated, his style is beautiful, graceful, 
 exuberant, and sometimes undefined. When one's 
 fancy borders on phrensy, he will be most likely to de- 
 spise the drudgery of minute detail. His reasoning is 
 less composed by laborious skill than grouped by in- 
 stinctive emotion ; this teaches him at once to grasp his 
 subject, stamp his character, and arrange its costume. 
 He does not, like Calhoun, draw from the resources of 
 matchless dialectics ; but he pours forth without stint the 
 effusions of a glowing and resolute sensibility. His 
 speech, " looking as woven in a loom of light," unlike 
 the frigid and opaque products of pedantic cloisters, is 
 lucid to the eye and genial to the heart. For this rea- 
 son is he heard on popular occasions with much more 
 interest than are those who are colder and more method- 
 ized. He has read enough in every department of 
 science, literature, art, and morals, to be habitually in- 
 structive, and is especially distinguished for the ability to 
 express what he does know in language at once clear, 
 fervid, and emphatic. The depth of his emotion, and 
 the violence of his mental action, permeating and im- 
 pelling his physical powers, are expressed in a glowing 
 eloquence, well calculated to enrapture men, and win 
 extended popularity. It is a style which combines 
 many attractive qualities. The mirror of feeling and 
 generosity, it is the translucent organ of . imagination
 
 ***' r 
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 387 
 
 and reason, political philosophy, and impassioned poetry. 
 Its common aim and chief success consists in the deline- 
 ation of emotion ; but it also possesses a good deal of 
 artistic precision atid intellectual force. In dealing with 
 familiar topics, he often gives much clearness, regularity/ 
 and power to his expressions. Hence it is that 
 
 " He rules, like a wizard, the world of the heart, 
 To call up its sunshine, or draw down its showers." 
 
 When imagination predominates in a speaker, we 
 should expect to find in him much contrast and display, 
 apparently artificial exuberance, and melo dramatic com- 
 binations. Mr. Preston sometimes appears to strain too 
 much after effect ; this, however, is produced more by 
 nature than affectation, since persons of his stamp, 
 more than they themselves are usually aware, have their 
 reason a good deal enthralled by imagination and the 
 passions. The native warmth of our orator tinges all 
 his words in the higher forms of speech, " like gold-hued 
 cloud-flakes on the rosy morn." Instead of congealing 
 his eloquence through arbitrary combinations, he imbues 
 it with the fire of a soul naturally acute and invincibly 
 free. He abounds in that emotion which instantly be- 
 comes conviction in the masses ; and is persuasive, 
 because his spirit, sensitive and versatile, bears always 
 in its accent the true impression of the moment, and the 
 distinct expression of his actual design. In his gentler 
 mood and ethereal musing, he resembles, 
 
 " That snow-like fall of feeling which overspreads 
 The bosom of the youthful maiden's mind, 
 More pure and fair than even its outward type."
 
 388 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 That is the most powerful speech which in the direct- 
 est manner addresses all our perceptions, not only by 
 arguments which we are bound to hear, but through 
 that higher language of the heart to which it is bliss to 
 listen. It is this that chains the feelings and the imagina- 
 tion, convinces while it exhilarates, and holds us enthrall- 
 ed for a season in spite of ourselves, that thereby it may 
 more effectually exalt our conceptions and ennoble their 
 worth. It is the sentiments of a discourse that should 
 claim our chief solicitude, and not its language or form, 
 the work and not the instrument, as " 'twas not by words 
 Apelles charm'd mankind." Eloquence is a central 
 glory, a blazing focus, around which all the rays of 
 knowledge, experience, and science, all the ideal as well 
 as all the practical of our nature, arrange themselves in 
 one harmonious whole to irradiate and adorn every 
 kingdom of mind. 
 
 But this grand principle of mental unity in oratorical 
 efforts by no means excludes variety, it rather impe- 
 riously demands it. For example, of all writers that 
 ever lived, Homer, in his epic, impresses one particular 
 idea the generic one of war. But in doing this, his 
 heroes and heroines are delineated by the most con- 
 trasted and striking individualities of character. Aga- 
 memnon and Achilles, Thersites and Ulysses, Diomed 
 and Nestor, Helen and Andromache, are most widely 
 different in tone, form, and style. The efficient ora- 
 tor must have wisdom, therefore, and if it is imbued with 
 practical flexibility, he cannot have too much of it ; 
 since he will be able to appreciate and produce the per- 
 fect, only so far as he is qualified to discern and avoid
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 389 
 
 the defective. Rhetorical artificialness is an appearance, 
 but eloquence is a substance ; the former bears the same 
 relation to the latter, that a skeleton does to a living man. 
 Only as the orator penetrates into the depths of his own 
 soul, will he be able to take the accurate measure and 
 truthful hues of appropriate materials, and thus give to his 
 productions an import and symmetry that seem at once 
 natural and supernatural. He appropriates to his use 
 whatever in the universe around him is most signifi- 
 cant, pertinent, and interesting ; and having constructed 
 an organic whole of the richest matter and most grace- 
 ful form, he breathes into it the highest value, even the 
 breath of life. To aspire constantly after the truly na- 
 tural, is to soar to the highest pinnacle of worth ; but 
 to be content with the mere appearance of naturalness 
 is to sink to the lowest depth. Not only must there be 
 knowledge founded on theory and matured by practice, 
 a mass of select and well-digested materials, perspicuity 
 of method and fluency of utterance, but there must also 
 be imagination to place these things in bold and brilliant 
 points of view, presence of mind, conscious vigor, and 
 daring resolution. Dry reason is rendered but the more 
 repulsive by an alliance with a cloudy, formless, . and 
 nerveless fancy ; but vivid and creative imagination is 
 an auxiliary of the greatest beauty and use : the first 
 being the torpid chrysalis, the latter the butterfly set 
 free on unwearied wings to soar in flowery fields, on 
 lofty hills, or through azure heavens. 
 
 " Hence, all-majestic on th' expanding soul, 
 In copious tide, the bright ideas roll:
 
 390 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Fill it with radiant forms unknown before, 
 Forms such as demigods and heroes wore." 
 
 We have spoken of the expressive features and pecu- 
 liar form of Mr. Preston's eloquence, and shall conclude 
 our portraiture of him by a notice of his remarkable 
 action. 
 
 Says an English writer, " There are two aspects in 
 which language may be viewed as a medium of com- 
 municating admiration, wisdom, delight, to others ; 
 one would be speech. Then how astonishing to think 
 that you can stand in the centre of a mighty congrega- 
 tion of learned or ignorant, thoughtful or reckless men 
 all the elements of the understanding cast together in 
 tumultuous disorder and knock at every one of their 
 minds in succession. Think how this has been done, 
 by Demosthenes, waving the multitude into repose from 
 his mound of turf, on some Grecian hill-side ; by Plato 
 subduing the souls of them who listened to him undei 
 the boughs of a dim plane ; by Cicero, in the stern si- 
 lence of the forum ; by our own Chatham, in the 
 chapel of St. Stephen. Think how each and all not 
 only knocked, but entered ; wandered over the hearts 
 of their hearers ; traced the. secret and winding circuits 
 of feeling ; roused the passions in their darkest recesses 
 of concealment, knocking, entering, searching. This 
 was much, but they did more. In every heart they set 
 up a throne ; they gave laws; they wielded over it the 
 sceptre of intellectual royalty. Thus the Athenian 
 crowd start up with one accord and one cry to march 
 against Philip ; and the Senate throbs with the convul- 
 sie agony of indignant patriotism, rushing upon Cata-
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 391 
 
 line ; and the vast assembly of genius and power in 
 our own parliament is dissolved for a season as hap- 
 pened after an address of Sheridan that it might re- 
 cover from the benumbing wand of the enchanter. 
 And this is the working of language under the aspect of 
 speech. 
 
 " But it is in the second shape of language, that of 
 literature, in which the most wonderful faculty resides. 
 The power of persuasion is mighty, but perishable ; its 
 life, for the most part, passes with the life of the speaker. 
 It darkens with his eye ; it stiffens with his hand ; it 
 freezes with his tongue. The swords of these cham- 
 pions of eloquence are buried with them in the grave. 
 Where is the splendid declamation of Bolingbroke? 
 Vanished as completely as the image of his own form 
 from the grass-plots of Twickenham ! But in that 
 speech, which is created by the printing-press into lite- 
 rature, dwells a principle never to be quenched. Lite- 
 , rature is the immortality of speech. -Here, however, as 
 under the former aspect, the medium of communication 
 effects, in the strongest manner, the object conveyed. 
 Hence it has been ever found, that those books are the 
 most admired and the most enduring which, reflect the 
 thoughts with the most lucid simplicity. Thus it 
 is in Homer, Plato, Livy, and Ariosto. The trans- 
 parency of the diction preserves every feature of 
 thought unbroken. And this transparency is always 
 the result of intense fervor of C9nception. That exqui- 
 site material through which, from our sunny chambers, 
 we gaze out on the scenery of woods and gardens, has 
 received its crystalline purity only through the fiery pro-
 
 392 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 cesses of the furnace. It was melted by the flame 
 before the rough particles of sand disappeared in that 
 cloudless surface of beauty, through which the minutest 
 fibre of the leaf, or the purple streak upon the 'tulip, is 
 conspicuous. It is the same with language. The harsh 
 ingredients have been blended and fused by the ardent 
 flame of an excited imagination, before it brightens into 
 that surface of mild beauty upon which the physiogno- 
 my of the faintest emotion may be distinctly traced. 
 Pope has not omitted to notice this peculiarity in the 
 Homeric poems, and to attribute it to this cause." 
 
 The above remarks are strikingly, and yet in a de- 
 gree mournfully appropriate to the subject of this 
 sketch. Their pertinency consists in the vivid manner 
 in which they describe the process which has produced 
 the transparent force of his style ; and the only sad asso- 
 ciation they suggest is that connected with the fact that 
 when he can be no longer seen in the full splendors of 
 his living speech, nTuch of his oratorical influence will 
 have become forever eclipsed. His written eloquence 
 is not devoid of admirable traits, but it is his spoken 
 excellence as heard, felt, seen, in himself alone, that is 
 so rarely excelled. 
 
 There is a vast superiority in those inspirations of 
 vitality and action .which enlist themselves at cnce on 
 the side' of truth with a fearlessness of argument and 
 enthusiasm which bear .down all opposition. In the 
 greatest .emergency /Mr. Preston does not fear to aban- 
 don himself to his -own sensations, and depend upon 
 them. Like the Scythian warrior, he is -most deadly in 
 his aim when moving at the fleetest pace. This is at
 
 WILLIAM C, PRESTON. 393 
 
 the same time the source of great practical power and 
 the cause of much popular admiration. There is some- 
 thing very fascinating in seeing that done with careless 
 ease, which most persons attempt only with laborious 
 difficulty ; to witness the performance, causes the spec- 
 tator to share somewhat in that general animation with 
 which the masterly adept seems to be inspired. Though 
 at the moment we may not reflect on the great pains 
 which have been taken beforehand to secure the facility 
 we witness, our pleasure is undivided in feeling, as well 
 as seeing, the results produced. It is only as the mind 
 is free and spontaneous that it can be pleasing and im- 
 pressive. Whatever is undertaken by a reluctant un- 
 derstanding, and executed with a servile hand, cannot 
 be characterized by any high degree of excellence. 
 Extemporaneous speech is our orator's great forte, and 
 in this department he is without a superior in this land 
 or age. " Lighting himself, where'er he soars or dives, 
 with his own bright brain," his inspired declamation 
 occupies the very first rank of its kind. He has more 
 power to astonish, perhaps, than ability to inform ; and 
 yet in this latter quality he is not ordinarily excelled. 
 He has learned to generalize his ideas, and verify their 
 worth in perpetual practice, effective and appropriate. 
 It is thus that he has acquired the only true criterion of 
 oratorical worth, exemplified by him ; while with a wise 
 care, 
 
 " Judge of his art, through beauty's realms he flies, 
 Selects, combines, improves, diversifies." 
 
 Every great mind is endowed with a prevailing cha 
 17*
 
 394 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 acteristie, to which all other qualities minister without 
 being absorbed ; and this prevailing trait, like the key- 
 stone of an arch, unites and fortifies all lesser powers. 
 Agility does not destroy- firmness, nor strength crush 
 ?gility ; elegance does not degenerate into effeminacy, 
 nor is hugeness mistaken for grandeur. Dignity, grace, 
 and valor, when combined in the greatest and most per- 
 fect degree, Jose none of their primary features, but 
 blend in harmonious excellence, and present an aggre- 
 gate of most delightful charms. Thus the Hercules of 
 Glycon, though the symbol of absolute, uniform, and 
 irresistible strength, is swift as a stag, elastic as a ball, 
 and in his rugged might graceful like Apollo. So in 
 eloquence, perfection does not destroy truth, or deface 
 elegance. Racine, in all the refinement of his art is 
 more natural than Victor Hugo ; just as the Python- 
 slayer, in all his divinity, is more human in his form 
 and motion than an Egyptian colossus. 
 
 Nothing tends more to destroy oratorical effect than 
 insane profusion : while, on the other hand, the entire 
 absence of adornments is not so much simplicity, as 
 poverty. There may sometimes appear to be much 
 beauty when there is no force ; as Milton's fine dark 
 eyes continued to sparkle when they were stone blind. 
 But this is not often the case with Preston, whose pre- 
 vailing power lies in profuse and vital enthusiasm. 
 He is familiar with classical learning, and is a sincere 
 devotee at the shrine of all the elegant arts. Ever in- 
 dustrious to transfer the best and most enduring 
 beauties to oratory, he has, by aid of his vivid imagina- 
 tion, imparted to the language of the forum charms
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTOtf. 395 
 
 which neither painting nor music had the ability to 
 express. It is this quality that renders him habitually 
 energetic, but seldom extravagant. As Titian, in the 
 dreadful familiarity with which he causes the guardian 
 snake of the Boeotian well to approach the companions 
 of Cadmus, touched the true vein of terror and marked 
 its limits, so Preston can with a bold hand suggest the 
 horrible in a few significant lines, and yet control him- 
 self with a sagacious taste that seldom offends. In him, 
 this is the inspiration of nature, rather than the dictate 
 of art, and is at once the basis and crowning charm of 
 his fervid eloquence. But 
 
 " Thy last, thy noblest task remains untold, 
 Passion to paint, and sentiment unfold." 
 
 To the question, What are the chief sources of Mr. 
 Preston's eloquence ? we would mention three love of 
 the beautiful, native enthusiasm, and patriotic devotion. 
 
 In the first place, the inspiring, beautifying, and 
 ennobling influence of plastic, pictorial, and dramatic 
 art are loved by few, and appreciated by nope, with a 
 more discriminating and ardent zeal than by the ex- 
 Senator from South Carolina. From early manhood he 
 has been their devoted admirer and munificent patron. 
 At home and abroad he has sought out the best models, 
 and imbued his soul with their consummate charms. 
 Their inarticulate melody has become the vernacular 
 of his heart, and this perpetual paean resounding within, 
 has delicately attuned more earthly organs, and perpet- 
 ually coins language kindred to itself, and most palpable 
 to common sense.
 
 396 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 The elegant arts occupy a very important place in 
 the education of every man destined for the functions 
 of public life. Aristotle, in the Third Chapter of the 
 Eighth Book of his Politics, speaking of the statesmen 
 of his day, says : " All men taught grammatta or lit- 
 erature, gymnastics and" music, and many teen graphi- 
 keen, or the art of design, as being useful, and abun- 
 dantly useful, to the purposes of life ; but mainly be- 
 cause it enables us to appreciate the merits of distin- 
 guished artists, and carries us to the contemplation of 
 real beauty ; as letters, which are the elements of cal- 
 culation, terminate in the contemplation of truth." 
 
 .To the same purpose, Castiligione, the friend of 
 Raphael, in his Cortigiano, says : " Before I undertake 
 this, there is one thing I desire to speak of, which, 
 because in my judgment it appears of importance, 
 ought by no means to be omitted in the character of 
 our perfect statesman, and that is skill in drawing, and 
 a competent knowledge in the very art of painting: 
 nor think it strange that I require this skill in a states- 
 man, which in these days is looked upon as mechanical, 
 and little becoming a gentleman." 
 
 If in all our higher institutions of learning there were 
 galleries and competent professors of art, as well as li- 
 braries and literary disquisitions, it would be well for the 
 genius of the present generation, and auspicious of the 
 best cultivation in all future time. The bases of the 
 arts touch each other : the same principles govern all, 
 and they are especially serviceable to those who would 
 perfect themselves in eloquence. The ancients -were 
 convinced of this, and have transmitted to us the name
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 397 
 
 of Theon the Samian, as owing his celebrity to that 
 intuition into the secret and sudden movements of 
 nature, which the Greeks called fantasias, the Romans 
 msiones, and which are better understood among our- 
 selves by the phrase of "unpremeditated conceptions," 
 or the re-production of associated ideas. Quintilian ex- 
 plains this principle in the following passage in his- rhe- 
 toric. Says he : " We give the name of visions to what 
 the Greeks called fantasies; that power by which the im- 
 ages of absent things are represented by the mind with 
 the energy of objects moving before our eyes : he who 
 conceives these rightly will be a master of passions ; his 
 is that well-tempered fancy which can imagine things, 
 voices, acts, as they really exist, a power, perhaps, in a 
 great measure dependent on our will. For if these 
 images so pursue us when our minds are in a state of 
 rest, or fondly fed by hope, or in a kind of waking dream, 
 that we seem to travel, to sail, to fight, to harangue in 
 public, or to dispose of riches we possess not, and all 
 this with an air of reality, why should we not turn to 
 use this vice of the mind ? Suppose I am to plead the 
 case of a murdered man, why should not every supposable 
 circumstance of the act float before my eyes ? Shall 
 I not see the murderer, unawares, rush in upon him ? 
 In vain he tries to escape see how pale he turns hear 
 you not his shrieks, his entreaties ? Do you not see him 
 flying, struck, falling? Will not his blood, his ashy sem- 
 blance, his groans, his last expiring gasp, seize on my 
 mind ?" 
 
 Observation, meditation, scientific research, and his- 
 torical lore furnish the chief substratum of eloquence.
 
 398 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 These transplant us into diversified regions and remotest 
 times ; empires and revolutions of empires pass before 
 us with memorable facts and actors in their train the 
 legislator, the philosopher, the discoverer, the warrior, 
 the artist, the divine, the grand agents of Providence and 
 the beneficent polishers of life, are the personages which 
 learning may collect, and the materials which reason 
 may employ. But there are other, and often mightier 
 faculties of the mind, in popular address, which demand 
 other implements for their effective use. We refer to 
 dramatic invention, the legitimate employment of which 
 is seen in the exhibition of character, in the conflict of 
 passions with the rules and prejudices of society, the 
 rights and wrongs of the world. It is this that inspires, 
 agitates us by reflected self-love, with pity, terror, hope 
 and fear, joy and remorse ; whatever makes thoughts 
 and events, time and place, the instruments of charac- 
 ter and pathos, let the tissue be actual or fictitious, is its 
 legitimate claim, and may be subordinated to the most 
 profitable designs. Such is the invention of Sophocles, 
 Shakspeare, and Raphael ; and such is the character 
 most marked in, Mr. Preston's style. This imparts to 
 him, in his happier inspirations, a grace which is beauty 
 in motion ; it regulates the air, the attitudes, and move- 
 ments of his body and mind 
 
 " The nameless graces which no methods teach, 
 And which a master-hand alone can reach." 
 
 Minds of pure Attic taste love the Hybla heather more 
 for its sweet hives than its purple hues ; but they only 
 become more attractive when delicately tinge:! with the
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 399 
 
 last. Still we should never, forget that natural beauty 
 is more desirable than the most consummate art, as a 
 fair forehead outshines the diamond diadem thereon. 
 Mere prettiness cannot long absorb attention in the 
 presence of native majesty, any more than the transient 
 sparkle of a cascade can withdraw the eye of refined 
 taste from the mountain soaring above its source and 
 sublimely reposing in its evening silence. 
 
 Some men seem to have dreamed of an angel's face 
 in early youth, and spent their whole subsequent life in 
 trying to embody, in every word they utter, something 
 of its loveliness. " In act most graceful and humane, 
 their tongue drops manna." Mr. Preston is of this 
 order in eloquence, inasmuch as he abounds in fervid 
 imagery, genial sentiments, and elegant variety. There 
 is less frigid simplicity than animated propriety in his 
 composition. His language often resembles that of the 
 Norman troubadour who compared the object of his 
 love with a bird whose plumage assumes the hues of 
 every flower and precious stone. He habitually .de- 
 pends almost entirely on the circumstances of the occa- 
 sion or the excitement of th%Jiour ; and such men suc- 
 ceed admirably, or universally fail. They never drudge 
 along with the uniform calmness of stupid mediocrity. 
 They speak well only when they are manifestly inspired, 
 and then they appear like an oriental sun, announced 
 by no dawn and succeeded by no twilight. 
 
 The second source of Mr. Preston's eloquence, and 
 a very prolific one, is his native enthusiasm. The rea- 
 son why great excellence is so rare on the rostrum, or 
 in forensic debate, results from the necessity of com-
 
 400 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 bining qualities the most diverse, as a pre-requisite to 
 its attainment. To a sound head there must be united 
 a warm and magnanimous heart. There is truth in the 
 saying, that "something in fires depends upon the 
 grate :" it is not an exaggerated assertion that almost 
 everything in eloquence' depends upon the peculiar tem- 
 perament of the orator. If he is by nature frigid and 
 formal, his speech will necessarily be barrenner than 
 ice ; but if an ardent and affectionate spirit throbs in 
 his bosom, it is probable that a corresponding pulse and 
 power will characterize the language he employs. 
 Examine all great orators, and you will invariably find 
 them 
 
 " Rich in invisible treasures, like a bud 
 Of inborn sweets, and thick about the heart 
 With ripe and rosy b.eauty full to trembling." 
 
 Says an agreeable writer, "There are some persons in 
 the world who are special favorites among all who 
 know them, who find or make friends everywhere ; 
 whose company every one enjoys, and from whom 
 every one is loath to sepat'ate. Their frank and easy 
 manners inspire confidence at first sight, and one num- 
 bers them as friends almost as soon as one has made 
 their acquaintance. No one is ever ' not at home ' to 
 them ; their visit is anticipated as a pleasure ; and no 
 one feels disposed to part with them without the cordial 
 inquiry, ' When shall we see you again ?' There is 
 an exuberance of pleasureable life about them which 
 seems to diffuse itself among all around, and their pre- 
 sence is felt to be an addition to the general amount of
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 401 
 
 happiness in the circle privileged with their company. 
 In selecting a party of friends, their name always sug- 
 gests itself first, and the absence of any two others 
 would be a less disappointment than theirs. Every one 
 seeks their side at the dinner-table, and he deems him- 
 self fortunate whose chair in the social circle is next to 
 theirs. Innocent childhood loves to sit on their knee 
 and prattle its earnest nonsense in their ear; impetuous 
 youth finds in them cordial companions ; and old age 
 values them as pleasant and estimable friends. And 
 yet it is not to their personal comeliness that they are 
 indebted for their popularity, for their exterior is often 
 far from prepossessing ; nor to their intellect, for even 
 their best admirers do not imagine them Byrons, nor do 
 they themselves turn down their shirt-collars to be 
 thought such. They have no remarkable vein of 
 humor to boast of, never made a pun, perhaps, in their 
 lives, scarcely know what an epigram is, are quite inca- 
 pable of setting the table in a roar, and are distinguished 
 neither for their fine clothes nor their long purses. 
 One quality, however, they possess, which proves an 
 over-match for every other distinction, namely, a trans- 
 parent kindly nature, a desire to promote the happiness 
 of all around them, a generous warmth of feeling, a 
 frank cordial bearing, a universal sympathy in one 
 word, 'heart.'" 
 
 Every sentence of this description applies very ap 
 propriately to Mr. Preston, barring what is said about 
 punning and setting the table in a roar. He is no 
 bungler at that ! Otherwise the portrait is correct of 
 our enthusiastic countryman in whom the dew-drops
 
 402 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 that gemmed the morning of life were not " parched 
 and dried up in manhood's noon." The confiding trust, 
 and uncalculating generosity of youth, were not merged 
 into the cold suspicious selfishness common to our ma- 
 turer days. His head has not been disciplined at the 
 expense of the heart ; and the boasted wisdom of age 
 has not been made the poor substitute for that freshness 
 of feeling which it is the unhappy tendency of artificial 
 education to depress if not entirely to eradicate. Car- 
 rying the frank buoyancy and indomitable enthusiasm 
 of early boyhood along with his maturing growth 
 through its every stage, Mr. Preston may now say, in 
 the full meridian of his powers, " I live in all things and 
 am closed in none." 
 
 This native generosity, or quality of heart of which 
 we have spoken, creates the best writers and most 
 popular orators in the world. It was this that made 
 Shakspeare, Goldsmith, Cowper, and Burns what they 
 were with the pen ; and it was this that endowed Chat- 
 ham, Sheridan, Patrick Henry, and his distinguished 
 relative, William C. Preston, with their great power in 
 public speech. Such men gleam not in the cold and 
 lifeless radiance of the moon, but with the genial and 
 vitalizing splendors of the sun. The enthusiasm glow- 
 ing in their own bosom has an affinity for all affection, 
 and inclines all hearts to itself as the magnet draws 
 steel. It is a power grounded on the broad base of hu- 
 man nature, and vibrates upon the feelings, not of this 
 or that conventional class of persons, but in the breast 
 of our common humanity. Herein lies the magical 
 influence of some men in the pulpit, at the bar, and in
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 403 
 
 the senate ; they are actualities and not shams, have 
 soul-leverage about them and can heave the world, 
 calling forth smiles and tears, shouts and sobs at will. 
 Every word they speak 
 
 " Doth seek its way into the list'ning heart, 
 As will a bird unto her secret nest, 
 Then sit and sing." 
 
 The orator under consideration is not one of those 
 apathetic beings who never feel themselves enlarged and 
 ennobled by those inspirations which elevate the person 
 in whom they swell above the ordinary forces of dull 
 humanity in the full fruition of pure and exalted joys. 
 On the contrary, his soul teems with that native and en- 
 thusiastic imagination which has been the fortune of 
 each great poet, painter, and orator that has ever lived. 
 Every character moulded by such creators as ^Eschylus, 
 Homer, Dante, or the Bard of Avon, is energized by 
 them in and through the heart. In the language of a 
 powerful living author : " Every circumstance 01 sen- 
 tence of their being, speaking, or seeming, is seized by 
 process from within, and is referred to that inner secret 
 spring of which the hold is never lost for an instant; so 
 that every sentence, as it has been thought out from the 
 heart, opens for us a way down to the heart, leads us to 
 the centre, and then leaves us to gather what more we 
 may ; it is the open sesame of a huge, obscure, endless 
 cave, with inexhaustible treasure of pure gold scattered 
 in it: the wandering about and gathering the pieces 
 may be left to any of us, all can accomplish that; but
 
 404 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 the first opening of that invisible door in the rock is of 
 the imagination only. 
 
 It will easily be inferred from what we have said con- 
 cerning this particular trait that it is far from preserving 
 its possessor from every fault. Of all men, he will be 
 inclined to muse more than meditate, dictate to an 
 amanuensis rather than handle his own pen. He would 
 prefer riding with Ariosto on winged horses through the 
 air, instead of sitting down with Milton to help " waste a 
 sullen day with neat repast of Attic taste and wine." 
 Mr. Preston, by natural endowments, if not by habitual 
 preference, is of that class who " rather love a splendid 
 failing than a petty good;" and whose spontaneous 
 potency enables them to sway the masses of mankind as 
 they list, now " leading them with Tyrtaean fire," now 
 singing them to rest with gentlest murmurings. A mind 
 thus impregnated with the flames of oratorical genius, 
 though it may be greatly wanting in certain attributes, 
 will surely in the end crown itself with the brightest 
 honors, despite the cavils of envy or the sneers of mal- 
 ice. That is a very inferior style which is character- 
 ized by no manifest defects and no striking beauties. 
 Such speakers must be classed with them who, as the 
 great poet of character says, are " men of no mark or 
 likelihood." But to this category our orator does not 
 belong. He deals not in "the fantastic visions of fruit- 
 ful mediocrity," but with more valuable materials 
 expended in a more glorious career. Homer's descrip- 
 tion of Venus approaching Anchises, and her influence 
 on the woods, the birds, the sea, the fiercest animals even, 
 may be taken as a fit symbol of the power which the
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 405 
 
 fervidly beautiful eloquence of Mr. Preston exerts on all 
 classes everywhere. 
 
 We remark, in conclusion, that his patriotic devotion, 
 based on and blended with his native enthusiasm and 
 love of the beautiful, is to him the third, and perhaps 
 most prolific source of oratorical power. 
 
 At the outset, we arranged before the reader a variety 
 of examples showing the versatility of which Mr. Preston 
 is capable in composition. His elocution accords exactly 
 thereto. In his medium manner, he is all ease, frank- 
 ness, and bland familiarity ; brilliant in expression, lively, 
 even animated to a high degree often, but not too much 
 so, to make a very agreeable impression on his audience, 
 whatever may be the theme. Then, his language is 
 "soft as a feathed-footed cloud in heaven," and his lucid 
 demonstration is " full of all-sparkling sparry loveliness." 
 He often falls into this careless, colloquial style, in a 
 modulated tone, clear, distinct enunciation, and with a 
 rich exuberance of unpremeditated sentiment, addressing 
 the mind and heart of the delighted audience, and letting 
 the ear glean after what it can. 
 
 On occasions of greater importance, he indicates 
 more care in preparation, and presents more elabo- 
 rated thought. When he sets himself earnestly at work 
 with all his energies to meet a great emergency, the in- 
 telligent witness of the result feels that, as Zeuxis col- 
 lected all the beauties of Agrigentum to compose a per- 
 fect model, so Preston, when he wishes, can lay every 
 department of excellence under contribution to com- 
 pose his argument and adorn it with unequalled charms. 
 From his place in the Senate, he poured molten gold
 
 406 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 into the crucible of politics, with gems gathered from 
 every glittering grotto, and fragrance distilled from 
 every blooming field ; and, lo ! there issued from the 
 fusion, many substantial and splendid formulas, beside 
 much excellence that was palpable only to the most 
 delicate sense. 
 
 But the best strength of this enthusiastic patriot is never 
 taxed to the utmost except when he feels that real and 
 fearful dangers threaten the welfare of his own State or 
 me Union at large. He loves his country deeply, pas- 
 sionately, and we sincerely believe that no man is more 
 willing to make greater sacrifices for the general weal, or 
 more competent to promote it. Few excel him in gen- 
 tler strains, " the sway of social, sovereign peace ;" but 
 absolutely none like him can effectively command that 
 more fiery eloquence that rings on the startled world 
 like a clarion, and is "swift, in use diverse, as is a war- 
 rior's spear." He then breathes all the firm resolute- 
 ness of the martial-god, while "his red shield drips 
 before him." He who is not sincerely patriotic, lacks a 
 fundamental private virtue, and is as unworthy of pub- 
 lic confidence as he will be certainly destitute of popular 
 power. Practical experience and undoubted love ot 
 country are essential to inspire respect and excite affec- 
 tionate sympathy. Thus qualified, the orator will speak 
 instinctively and exactly as all true men would feel, 
 speak, and act in the circumstances he anticipates or 
 describes. In all inspired eloquence, the results will be 
 identical in kind, but diversified in degree, tinged with 
 the individuality of the orator, and measured as to 
 its influence by the depth and durability of his actual
 
 WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 407 
 
 emotions. For instance, ^Eschylus was a Marathonian 
 hero Sophocles a philosopher ; and their works exactly 
 comport with their respective characters. 
 
 Webster and Preston used to sit close to each other 
 in the American Senate. How unlike ! Listening to 
 one, is like going from solemn, swelling music, into a 
 stately sculpture-gallery, where you are surrounded with 
 god-like forms, which give you (he impression of dis- 
 tinct proportion and severest beauty, and which yet, by 
 their majesty, bend you low in awful reverence. The 
 other resembles an Italian parterre in full bloom, melo- 
 dious with sparkling fountains, embellished with graceful 
 vases and dancing fawns, redolent of sweet odors, and 
 resounding with happy voices chatting and singing 
 near, while the volcano burns on the view, and a fear- 
 ful thunder-gust is beginning to obscure the sun.
 
 -& 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THOMAS CORWIN, 
 
 THE NATURAL ORATOR. 
 
 To sketch the life of Mr. Corwin, analyze his mind, 
 and describe his person, constitute the general purpose 
 of this chapter, the execution of which will be attempt- 
 ed under these three general heads. 
 
 In the first place, it will be desirable to present such 
 biographical facts as are requisite to elucidate the public 
 career of the distinguished orator of Ohio, and in doing 
 this, we shall rely mainly on the accuracy and refined 
 taste of William Green, Esq. of Cincinnati. An article 
 from his pen contributed to the American Review, Sept. 
 1847, gives the following details : 
 
 " Thomas Corwin was born in Bourbon county, Ken- 
 tucky, July 29th, 1794. At the age of four years, he 
 was made a permanent resident of Ohio, by the removal 
 of his parents to Warren county, in that State, in the 
 year 1798. His father, for many years, was one of the 
 most respectable and honored men of Ohio. For a 
 long time a member of the legislature of the State, he 
 was distinguished for the dignity and impartiality with 
 which he presided, for several years, over its upper 
 
 -
 
 'TV 
 
 & 
 
 ::A| ? 
 
 
 *% 

 
 THOMAS COEWIN. 409 
 
 branch. The son was, and is worthy of the father 
 The early pursuits of the former were of the humble 
 kind; suited to a position entirely unpretending, and 
 admirably calculated, under the influence of the consist 
 ent presence of a virtuous example, to establish in the 
 early character the foundations of the highest future 
 usefulness. As might be supposed, from the influence 
 of such early associations, instantly acting upon a 
 strong and sensitive mind, it is not surprising that 
 uncompromising firmness, and integrity of character, 
 should everywhere be associated with his name, among 
 the companionships and neighborhoods of his early life. 
 "The community in which he was educated, and 
 where are to be found his warmest friends, because there 
 he is best known, were not less sensible of his talents 
 than of his virtues. His mind was early accustomed 
 to habits of thought ; and thus fitted him, at an early 
 day, to exert a decided influence upon those around 
 him, in concerns of a general public interest. It may 
 be said of him, as of but few others, comparatively 
 speaking, that he was grounded and formed in the prin- 
 ciples calculated to render a public man eminently 
 useful, before he became one. Instead of waiting for 
 public life to teach him lessons, he thoroughly learned in 
 private life what could not fail to fit him for a public 
 one. This learning in him was associated with a uni- 
 form and unyielding adherence to abstract truth ; and, 
 therefore, doubtless it is, that in a public career of 
 some twenty-two or three years, he has always been on 
 the same side of principle, whenever, in occasional 
 issues with political friends, it has been supposed to be 
 18
 
 410 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA 
 
 in conflict with expediency. Such a character in Mr. 
 Corwin, which made him an early object -of attention to 
 the people of his neighborhood, is happily destined to do 
 credit to a political career; and he had passed but a 
 short period the constitutional age of eligibility, when he 
 was elected to the House of Representatives of Ohio. 
 
 " His career as a Representative in the State Legisla- 
 ture, though short, was characterized by the marks of 
 independence, uprightness, and eloquence, which have 
 given him so much distinction since. Those who knew 
 him intimately twenty years ago, express no surprise at 
 his course on the Mexican question, at the last session 
 of Congress. Nor were they surprised that that course 
 was vindicated by an effort of argument and eloquence 
 such as the country or the world has rarely witnessed. 
 On a smaller theatre, the same sort of power, both 
 moral and intellectual, had been seen before, and with 
 something of the same effort ; for, if we remember 
 rightly, his high tone in vindication of a great and car- 
 dinal abstract right, in the Legislature of the State, 
 placed him for a short season in a sort of cloud with 
 the friends with whom he generally acted. But his 
 election to Congress, a short time after, showed that the 
 cloud was only a passing one, and that he was all the 
 stronger with a discriminating people ; that he had 
 dared, in the honest conviction that he was right, to 
 brave the ordeal of a temporarily-opposing public senti- 
 ment. 
 
 " Mr. Corwin's career in Congress was of nine years' 
 continuance. He resigned his seat after the first session 
 of the last term, in consequence of being made the can-
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 411 
 
 didate for Governor of Ohio. His course in Congress, 
 was that of a careful, thoughtful, conscientious man. 
 His appearance in debate was rare, but always effec- 
 tive. The announcement of his name*was an assur- 
 ance of profound stillness in the House. That stillness 
 continued while he occupied the floor, except as it was 
 sometimes broken by demonstrations of excitement, 
 such as wit, argument, and eloquence like his must oc- 
 casionally produce. 
 
 " Mr. Corwin's career as Governor of Ohio was limited 
 to a single term of two years. His position, under the 
 Constitution, which makes the executive office merely 
 nominal, was one rather of dignity than of power ; and 
 afforded him but little opportunity for the exhibition of 
 those talents for which his course in other positions has 
 shown him so remarkable. 
 
 " His election to the Senate of the United States, by 
 the Whig party, against a competition in its own ranks, 
 which was, of itself, high honor, was perhaps the truest 
 and highest expression that could have been given of 
 the estimation in which he was held by the people of 
 Ohio, and especially by the Whig party." 
 
 From this brief biographical review, we proceed, 
 secondly, to portray Mr. Corwin's mental character, and 
 remark that his mind appears to be eminently unso- 
 phisticated by pedantry, unshackled by prejudice, and 
 unterrified by power. 
 
 In the first place few minds have been developed in 
 public life, adorning the highest functions with learning 
 exact and varied, that have so constantly maintained an 
 air entirely foreign to everything like pedantic display.
 
 412 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 His erudition is copious, but unostentatious ; and his task is 
 all the more infallible, because it is the legitimate offspring 
 of nature, educated by propriety. Learning is used by 
 him as means,*hot as an end ; moral grandeur, native 
 and indestructible, rises spDntaneously from his soul, and 
 this is as superior to all pedantic artificialness, as the 
 perfected temple is superior to the chippings that lie 
 about, or the scaffolding soon to be thrown down. If 
 man is constantly seen in his work, what he produces 
 will be of little value. He cannot have too much sci- 
 entific accuracy or literary embellishment, but these 
 should be felt rather than seen. When scholastic 
 phrases abound more than the spirit of wisdom, they 
 are the signs of a debased, mistaken, and false style of 
 eloquence. " The skill of the artist, and the perfection 
 of his art, are never proved until both are forgotten." 
 Only that which is true to the structure and wants of 
 the soul is potent and perpetual in its influence thereon ; 
 since, as Cicero intimates, time obliterates the conceits 
 of opinion or fashion, and establishes the verdicts of 
 nature. 
 
 He who is destined to become a great and beneficent 
 orator, will early learn not only to see minutely the 
 general laws which govern the human mind, but by 
 critical observations in the outward world, and profound 
 self- analysis, he becomes master of those nice traits by 
 which different classes are individualized, and hence can 
 palpably portray the hopes and feelings of all bosoms, 
 like the Arabian Magician, he holds a polished mirror to 
 our gaze, wherein we behold not ourselves and the pre- 
 sent only, but the thought? and emotions of the past,
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 413 
 
 scenes the most remote, and characters the most diver- 
 sified. Men thus endowed will touch most sensibly a 
 mixed audience, as well as interest, to the greatest de- 
 gree, the most refined. Not only his graver productions 
 will the erudite enjoy, but, in common with the unso- 
 phisticated masses, they will keenly relish his lighter 
 and more homely strains, according to the account 
 given of such works by the inimitable master of wisdom 
 and naturalness : 
 
 " They were old and plain, 
 The spinsters and the knitters in the sun, 
 And the free maids that weave their thread with bones 
 Did use to chaunt them." 
 
 Candidates for public life are often very solicitous to 
 obtain at the outset a bold position suitable for the dis- 
 play of their fine acquirements ; but those are sure to 
 be most successful who seek rather to deserve popular 
 favor than to forestall it. " Do not trouble yourself too 
 much about the light on your statue," said Michael An- 
 gelo to the young sculptor; "the light of the public 
 square will test its value." It is not in proportion to 
 the dry shells of knowledge gathered in the isolated clois- 
 ter that a public character is to be estimated, but by the 
 living and practical energies he has cultivated in actual 
 conflicts with opposing elements and impetuous mankind. 
 Let the aspirant strive most of all to be somebody, in 
 head and heart, and there is no danger but the world 
 will soon appreciate his real worth. Whatever is 
 natural, true, and good, never long fails of being sincerely 
 and universally esteemed. Why is it that admiration fo
 
 414 LIVWG ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 works of consun mate excellence is undiminished by dis- 
 tance or time ; that masterpieces excite the same feelings 
 now as when they were first created, and are regarded 
 with the same rapture on the banks of the Seine, the 
 Thames, the Hudson, or the Ohio, as when they sancti- 
 fied the temples of Athens, ennobled the martial trophies 
 of Rome, or adorned the gardens of Florence ? It is 
 because they are imbued with those elements of truth 
 which pervade the human soul and the universe of God. 
 Works of this stamp are scarce, but they are never 
 trite. For instance, the frequent mention of most wri- 
 ters soon palls on the mind, but the world has not yet 
 grown tired of Shakspeare's name or thoughts. His 
 volumes are like that of nature, and we can turn to them 
 perpetually without weariness or disgust : 
 
 11 Age cannot wither, nor custom stale 
 His infinite variety." 
 
 Sydenham has beautifully said, whosoever describes 
 a violet exactly as to its color, taste, smell, form, and 
 other properties, will find the description agree in most 
 particulars with all the violets in the world. It is the 
 same in eloquence : he who can most lucidly express a 
 truthful emotion from his own heart will most strongly 
 affect the largest audience. Men differ less in sense 
 than in sentiment; he who draws from his intellect 
 only may be understood by a limited class whose 
 mental conceptions correspond ; but he who embodies 
 in plain language his own naturally excited sensibilities, 
 will be immediately felt and appreciated by all mankind.
 
 THOMAS CORW1N. 415 
 
 If one would be perpetually interesting he must be 
 perpetually varied. Certain medicines tend to produce 
 immediate and- profuse perspiration, but if continued 
 too long, they relax the system and fatally congeal the 
 fountain of life. It is the same with unnatural excite- 
 ment or insipid monotony. It is necessary to be neat 
 without being fantastic, and free without carelessness. 
 Simplicity of diction is a grand merit, infinitely trans- 
 cending all artificial trickery, or stately, stilted march of 
 language. Johnson well observed that Cato's Soliloquy 
 is an instance to prove that the most solemn and 
 elevated thought may be, in the most impressive man- 
 ner, conveyed in language of the utmost simplicity. 
 Pedantic ostentation, and assumed grimace are super- 
 latively contemptible when compared with real wisdom 
 and honest passion. When the tragedian of Athens 
 moved all hearts as he clasped the burial urn and burst 
 into broken sobs, there were few, perhaps, who knew 
 that it held the ashes of his own son, but all were 
 thrilled by his real emotion thus produced. When the 
 feeling is that of nature, and tones are truthful, all kin- 
 dred natures melt, and tears are spontaneously com- 
 mingled from all hearts. 
 
 In the second place, Mr. Corwin's mind is unshackled 
 by prejudice, as well as unsophisticated by pedantry. 
 Truthfulness to his own premeditated convictions 
 seems to constitute its presiding principle and prolific 
 force. His chief volume is man, his teacher truth, his 
 school society at large : therein he has learned to draw 
 the subtle discriminations of mental action in every 
 stage of life, and amongst every class of mankind. In
 
 416 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 those happy inspirations in which Mr. Corwin does not 
 so much come to nature, as nature comes to him, he 
 transmits her features like a lucid glass, unmodified by 
 factitious tints or stains. He is powerful because he is 
 true, expressing frankly and fearlessly what he distinctly 
 sees and acutely feels: hence his sentiments wind 
 resistlessly through the wards of human hearts, stealing 
 their incarnate strength to conquer passion and ignoble 
 prejudice. Spontaneous energy and instinctive grace oi- 
 manner poise his language and exalt his argument, in a 
 mode peculiar to himself, and which equally surprises 
 the fancy, persuades the judgment, and affects the heart. 
 He is less skilled in the refinements of art, than in the 
 power of catching the passions as they rise in the 
 breast, or escape from the lips of nature herself. This 
 is the grand talisman of oratorical mastership 
 
 " Which, like the fahled stone, conceived of fire, 
 Son of the sun, transmutes all seen to soul." 
 
 Mr. Corwin has ever cherished large and inspiring 
 views of life. His mind, in its philosophical excursions, 
 is not manacled by a wretched faith in obsolete formu- 
 las; but believes in the moral progress of the human 
 race, possesses a strong sympathy with all its lofty aspi- 
 rations, and is consecrated to the beneficent task of 
 crushing great evils, and mitigating acute pangs. The 
 heaven-strung chords of man's immortal soul are all 
 "free within him, to vibrate at the slightest sigh breathed 
 from sorrowing hearts, and it is from this inimitable and 
 inexhaustible source within that he draws those diversi- 
 fied chains of thrilling power which so strikingly charac-
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 417 
 
 terize his living speech. Man is not a being of thought 
 only, but also of feeling ; he is a whole, composed of 
 various related powers, and to this susceptible unity, 
 the aggregate of multifarious variety, the orator must 
 speak with correspondent tones, if he would hope to 
 persuade. Then words, like enchanting hieroglyphics, 
 interpreted by the flames kindled at the chief source of 
 passion, glide through the eye, strike charmingly on the 
 ear, stir up the mind, take captive the imagination, 
 besiege the understanding, and conduct the listener 
 through delicious conviction to confirmed belief. Mr. 
 Cor win's mind may be symbolized by the bee, not when 
 cramped and cringing in his self-built, narrow cell; but 
 pursuing a bright and brave life upon the wing among 
 flowers. Conventionalities never cripple him in the 
 presence of duty, but he darts forward natural and free. 
 
 " As morning wind, with wing fresh wet, 
 Shakes dew out of the violet." 
 
 No great and lasting reputation was ever gained in 
 any department of mental excellence, but by a close 
 and correct representation of reality. Great artists, 
 writers, and speakers are universally admired only as 
 they penetrate to the deep substratum of natural charac- 
 ter, which, however disguised and modified by local 
 circumstances, is in essence everywhere the same. It 
 is only as the voice of nature, the vernacular tongue of 
 all our race, speaks through mental creations, that they 
 are endowed with the highest and most attractive 
 worth ; as it was only when the Spirit of God moved 
 upon the face of the deep, that order, beauty, and sub- 
 18*
 
 418 LIVING OEATOR8 TO AMERICA. 
 
 limity stood revealed to the world. Homer pleases, 
 wherever the springs of social life are pure ; and is 
 read with delight by all classes, in almost every culti- 
 vated language, because he is true to the emotions of 
 all. He takes us at once into the Grecian councils ; 
 walks directly on the banks of Scamander ; deals in 
 real armies and real heroes. We see Paris going out 
 to battle like the war-horse prancing to the river side ; 
 the wife, the mother, in natural anxiety ; or, most 
 touching of all, the aged and mourning father a sup- 
 pliant at the feet of the youthful hero who destroyed 
 his son. And how did the greatest bard of modern 
 times people the fancies of his readers, and guarantee 
 to himself perpetual influence but, as Jeffrey suggests, 
 " in the delicate sensibility with which he has traced, 
 and the natural eloquence with which he has pointed 
 out that fond familiarity with beautiful forms and im- 
 ages that eternal recurrence to what is sweet or ma- 
 jestic in the simple aspects of nature that indestruct- 
 ible love of flowers and odors, and dews and clear 
 waters, and soft airs and sounds, and bright skies, and 
 woodland solitudes, and moonlight bowers, which are 
 the material elements of poetry and that fine sense of 
 their undefinable relation to mental emotion, which is 
 its essence and vivifying soul and which, in the midst 
 of Shakspeare's most busy and atrocious scenes, falls 
 like gleams of sunshine on rocks and ruins contrast- 
 ing with all that is rugged and repulsive, and reminding 
 us of the existence of purer and brighter elements ! 
 which HE ALONE has poured out from the richness of 
 his own mind, without effort or restraint; and contrived
 
 THOMAS CORIVIN. 419 
 
 to intermingle with the play of all the passions, and the 
 vulgar course of this world's affairs, without deserting 
 for an instant the proper business of the scene, or ap- 
 pearing to pause or digress, from the love of ornament 
 or need of repose ! HE ALONE, who, when the object 
 requires it, is always keen and worldly and practical 
 and who yet, without changing his hand, or stopping 
 his course, scatters around him, as he goes, all sounds 
 and shapes of sweetness and conjures up landscapes 
 of immortal fragrance and freshness, and peoples them 
 with spirits of glorious aspect and attractive grace 
 and is a thousand times more full of fancy, and imagery, 
 and splendor, than those who, in pursuit of such en- 
 chantments, have shrunk back from the delineation of 
 character or passion, and declined the discussion of 
 human duties and cares. More full of wisdom, and 
 ridicule, and sagacity, than all the moralists and satirists 
 that ever existed he is more wild, airy, and inventive, 
 and more pathetic and fantastic, than all the poets of 
 all regions and ages of the world : and has all those 
 elements*so happily mixed up in him, and bears his high 
 faculties so temperately, that the most severe reader can- 
 not complain of him for want of strength or of reason 
 nor the most sensitive for defect of ornament or inge- 
 nuity. Everything in him is in unmeasured abundance, 
 and unequalled perfection but everything so balanced 
 and kept in subordination, as not to jostle or disturb 
 or take the place of another. The most exquisite 
 poetical conceptions, images, and descriptions, are 
 given with such brevity, and introduced with such 
 skill, as merely to adorn, without loading the sense
 
 420 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 they accompany. Although his sails are purple and 
 perfumed, and his prow of beaten gold, they waft him 
 on his voyage not less, but more rapidly and directly, 
 than if they had been composed of baser materials. All 
 his excellencies, like those of Nature herself, are thrown 
 out together ; and, instead of interfering with, support 
 and recommend each other. His flowers are not tied up 
 in garlands, nor his fruits crushed into baskets but 
 spring living from the soil, in all the dew and freshness 
 of youth ; while the graceful foliage in which they lurk, 
 and the ample branches, the rough and vigorous stem, 
 and the wide-spreading roots on which they depend, 
 are present along with them, and share in their places, 
 the equal care of their Creator." 
 
 Boileau compressed much meaning in his memorable 
 verse, that " nothing is beautiful but what is natural." 
 The way to write and speak in words and tones that 
 will effectively and universally impress, is to write and 
 speak sincerely. That alone can impel which God has 
 made powerful truth and honesty. Life Qnlv imparts 
 life, and by true utterances alone are indelible impres- 
 sions produced. An eye that can see, an ear that can 
 hear, a heart that can feel, and a resolution that dares 
 follow the convictions of truth in the path of nature ; 
 these are the grand characteristics of true eloquence, 
 and its chief creators. He who makes nature his con- 
 stant and intimate companion, will thereby take all the 
 world into a delighted companionship, and will have 
 power to sway them when or where his purposes 
 may lead. It is the blending of theory and practice, 
 abstract reason and simole sense, oroducing consummate
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 421 
 
 worth ; to which union in the highest eloquence, we 
 may apply the answer of Polixenes, in the Winter's 
 Tale, to Perdita's neglect of the streaked gilly-flowers, 
 because she had heard it said, 
 
 " There is an art which in their piedness shares 
 With great creating nature. 
 
 Pol. Say there be : 
 Yet nature is made better by no mean, 
 But nature makes that mean. So ev'n that art, 
 Which you say adds to nature, is an art 
 That nature makes ! You see, sweet maid, we many 
 A gentler scion to the wildest stock : 
 And make conceive a bark of ruder kind 
 By bud of nobler race. This is an art, 
 Which does mend nature change it rather; but 
 The art itself is nature." 
 
 The bases of the arts touch each other, and the same 
 fundamental principle presides over all. History deli- 
 neated on canvas, and eloquence speaking from the 
 printed page or fervid lips, are governed by the same 
 general rules. Burke, who best felt and in a good de- 
 gree exemplified this truth, said, " The painter who 
 wishes to make his pictures (what fine pictures ought 
 to be), nature elevated and improved, must first gam a 
 perfect knowledge of nature as she is : before he makes 
 men as they ought to be, he must know how to make 
 them as they are ; he must acquire an accurate know- 
 ledge of all the parts of the body and countenance. To 
 know anatomy will be of little use, unless physiology 
 and physiognomy are joined to it." Again 
 
 "Works of real merit are produced by a laborious
 
 422 LIVING ORATORS IN A MERICA. 
 
 and accurate investigation of nature upon the princi- 
 ples observed by the Greeks first, to make themselves 
 thoroughly acquainted with the common forms of na- 
 ture, and then, by selecting and combining, to form 
 compositions according to their own elevated concep- 
 tions. 
 
 " This is the true principle of poetry and painting. 
 Homer and Shakspeare had perhaps never seen charac- 
 ters so strongly marked as Achilles and Lady Macbeth, 
 and yet we feel those characters are drawn from nature ; 
 the limbs and features are those of common nature, but 
 elevated and improved!" 
 
 The greatest masters have one great decided beauty 
 in their works. Their figures, whether in action, or 
 repose, or expression, always appear to be the uncon- 
 scious agents of an impulsion they cannot help ; the 
 spectator is never drawn aside from what they are 
 doing by any artificial ness in them, as if they labored 
 most to show how grand or graceful they are. They 
 seem impelled by an impulse they cannot control ; their 
 heads, hands, feet, and bodies, instinctively put them- 
 selves into positions the best adapted to execute the 
 spontaneous intentions of the mind. All studied grace 
 is unnatural, as. is seen in children who are naturally 
 graceful until they learn to dance. 
 
 True genius is geniality, a power universally felt, 
 though happily expressed but by few. Its voice is al- 
 ways recognized, and its humblest whisper is heard wide 
 over all the world in a thousand thrilling airs. This 
 spirit of genuine eloquence is not the work of intellect 
 merely, but the finer breath of the soul, roused and radi-
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 423 
 
 ant with the hopes, fears, and joys wnich lend this mor- 
 tal life its greatest passion and power. Thus Cowper 
 through his " Task," Burns through his ballads, and 
 Corwin through his popular addresses, find an immedi- 
 ate echo in every human bosom, because they indite 
 things pertaining to humanity in a human manner. 
 Their meaning always dwells in their language, in secret 
 sanctity and unobscured charms, "like a golden toy mid 
 Beauty's orbed bosom," and vet, simple as are the words, 
 from the innate nobility of the ideas, how gracefully 
 dignified are the sentiments, how powerful in their in- 
 fluence on both head and heart. Therein is most 
 strikingly verified the saying, that " One touch of Nature 
 makes the world of kin." The highest types of charac- 
 ter are always marked by honest, unpretending, manly 
 simplicity of genius, and habits of life, which not only 
 excite admiration, but confidence and love. True 
 power is always real, and not artificial. When men 
 labor hard to appear like simple, humble, and honest 
 people, their affectation immediately betrays the paucity 
 of their talents and the hypocrisy of their purpose. 
 The result is something which, as Ninon de 1'Enclos 
 said of the young Marquis de Sevigne, has very much 
 the character of fricasseed snow, and is utterly destruc- 
 tive of all effective eloquence. In the following lines, 
 Faust gives excellent counsel to every public speaker : 
 
 "Good sense and truth are good enough for men. 
 Hast anything to say ? Out with it, then ! 
 And the more natural the style, the better. 
 Your pompous words, your phrases nicely join'd, 
 Will find the people deaf as any adder
 
 424 LIVING ORATORS IN AM iRICA. 
 
 They're but dry leaves, that rustle in the wind, 
 No comfcrt for the soul ; peas in a bladder." 
 
 We have said that the mind of Mr. Corwin is neither 
 sophisticated by pedantry, nor shackled by prejudice ; 
 we remark, thirdly, that it is eminently unterrified by 
 power. His mental independence is his most prominent 
 trait. It was this that early and rapidly led him to dis- 
 tinction. He did not wait for the pedantic routine 
 usually deemed indispensable for admission to the temple 
 of fame, but boldly forged his own keys, entered, and at 
 once took possession of a conspicuous niche. From 
 the outset he scorned to appear as the tame imitator of 
 the veterans- he encountered, but was first their mag- 
 nanimous emulator, and then speedily a triumphant rival. 
 Mr. Corwin is habitually neither fawning nor fierce ; he 
 is true. In his speech, there is never arrogant assump 
 tion, no flourish of trumpets as if to introduce some- 
 thing splendid, but all is calmly resolute and moves on in 
 an easy, natural course. It is a style which tends to ex- 
 cite healthfully and purify our common human nature 
 and elevate it, by working on the instincts and tenden- 
 cies co-extensive with the race. He bears a transparent 
 bosom, is courteous to all adversaries, but never fails to 
 call things by their right names. Most orators are people 
 who talk, and not prophets divinely inspired. But true 
 eloquence is not a body merely ; it is a soul so vital and 
 creative, that it does not so much take a form as make 
 one, and adorns the world it has come to move. It is 
 the pungent expression of those thoughts to which the 
 universe is nearest allied, and most clearly celebrates, 
 not in symbols only but substance, n^it in showy forms
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 425 
 
 but serene al mightiness. Every sentiment and the lan- 
 guage in which it is clothed, is fresh as a new morn, 
 grand like the soul whence it arose, and luminous as the 
 meridian sun. 
 
 We will here present some specimens which will ex- 
 emplify the three points mentioned above, in the analy- 
 sis of Mr. Corwin's mind. The first abounds in pure 
 wit, and occurs in the author's vindication of the ven- 
 erated Harrison from the attack of Gen. Crary, of Mich- 
 igan. That gentleman, on the 14th of February, 1840, 
 in a debate on the Cumberland Road in Congress, seized 
 the occasion to enlighten mankind with his views of 
 Gen. Harrison's deficiencies as a military commander, 
 his mistakes at Tippecanoe, &c. &c. &c. Mr. Corwin 
 replied in a torrent of humor, sarcasm, and ridicule, which 
 completely overwhelmed his victim, and led John 
 Quincy Adams a few days after to refer to him as 
 " the late Mr. Crary." The following passage will give 
 some idea of the scathing wit which prevails through 
 the whole speech : 
 
 "In all other countries, and in all former times, a gen- 
 tleman who would either speak or be listened to on the 
 subject of war, involving subtle criticisms and strategy, 
 and careful reviews of marches, sieges, battles, regular 
 and casual, and irregular onslaughts, would be required 
 to show, first, that he had studied much, investigated 
 fully, and digested the science and history of his subject. 
 But here, sir, no such painful preparation is required : wit- 
 ness the gentleman from Michigan ! He has announced 
 to the House that he is a militia general on the peace 
 establishment ! That he is a lawyer we know, tolerably
 
 426 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 well read in Tidd's Practice and Aspinasse's Nisi Prius 
 These studies, so happily adapted to the subject of war, 
 with an appointment in the militia in time of peace, fur- 
 nish him at once with all the knowledge necessary to 
 discourse to us, as from high authority, upon all the mys- 
 teries of the ' trade of death. ' Again, Mr. Speaker, it must 
 occur to every one, that we, to whom these questions are 
 submitted and these military criticisms are addressed, be 
 ing all colonels at least, and most of us, like the gentle- 
 man himself, brigadiers, are, of all conceivable tribunals, 
 best qualified to decide any nice points connected with 
 military science. I hope the House will not be alarmed 
 with the impression that I am about to discuss one or 
 the other of the military questions now before us at length, 
 but I wish to submit a remark or two, by way of prepar- 
 ing us for a proper appreciation of the merits of the dis- 
 course we have heard. I trust as we are all brother-of- 
 ficers, that the gentleman from Michigan, and the two 
 hundred and forty colonels or generals of this honorable 
 House, will receive what I have to say as coming from 
 an old brother in arms, and addressed to them in a spirit 
 of candor, 
 
 'Such as becometh comrades free, 
 Reposing after victory. ' 
 
 "Sir, we all know the military studies of the military 
 gentleman from Michigan before he was promoted. I 
 take it to be beyond a reasonable doubt that he had pe- 
 rused with great care the title-page of 'Baron Steuben.' 
 Nay, I go further ; as the gentleman has incidentally as- 
 sured us that he is prone to look into musty and neglected
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 427 
 
 volumes, I venture to assert, without vouching in the least 
 from personal knowledge, that he has prosecuted his re- 
 searches so far as to be able to know that the rear 
 rank stands right behind the front. This I think is fairly 
 inferable from what I understood him to say of the two 
 lines of encampment at Tippecanoe. Thus we see, Mr. 
 Speaker, that the gentleman from Michigan, being a 
 militia general, as he has told us, his brother officers, in 
 that simple statement has revealed the glorious history 
 of toils, privations, sacrifices, and bloody scenes, through 
 which, we know from experience and observation, a 
 militia officer, in time of peace, is sure to pass. We all 
 in fancy, now see the gentleman from Michigan in that 
 most dangerous and glorious event in the life of a militia 
 general on the peace establishment a parade day ! That 
 day, for which all the other days of his life seem to have 
 been made. We can see the troops in motion umbrellas, 
 hoes, and axe handles, and other like deadly implements 
 of war, overshadowing all the field : when, lo ! the leader 
 of the host approaches ! 
 
 ' Far off his coming shines : ' 
 
 " His plume which, after the fashion of the great Bour- 
 bon, is of awful length, and reads its doleful history in the 
 bereaved necks and bosoms of forty neighboring hen- 
 roosts. Like the great SuwarofF, he seems somewhat 
 careless in forms or points of dress ; hence his epaulettes 
 may be on his shoulders, back, or sides, but still 
 gleaming, gloriously gleaming, in the sun. Mounted he 
 is, too, let it not be forgotten. Need I describe to the 
 colonels and generals of this honorable House, the steed
 
 428 LIVING (.RATORd IN AMERICA. 
 
 which heroes bestride on these occasions? No ! 1 see 
 the memory of other days is with you. You see before 
 you the gentleman from Michigan, mounted on his crop- 
 eared, bushy-tailed mare, the singular obliquity of 
 whose hinder limbs is best described by that most 
 expressive phrase, ' sickle hams' for height just four- 
 teen hands, ' all told ;' yes, sir : there you see his 
 'steed that laughs at the shaking of the spear;' that 
 is his war horse ' whose neck is clothed with thunder.' 
 Mr. Speaker, we have glowing descriptions in history 
 of Alexander the Great and his war-horse Bucephalus, 
 at the head of the invincible Macedonian phalanx; but, 
 sir, such are the improvements of modern times that 
 every one must see that our militia general, with his crop- 
 eared mare, with bushy tail and sickle ham, would 
 totally frighten off a battle-field a hundred Alexanders. 
 But, sir, to the history of the parade-day. The general, 
 thus mounted and equipped, is in the field, and ready for 
 action. On the eve of some desperate enterprise, such 
 as giving order to shoulder arms, it may be, there occurs 
 a crisis, one of those accidents of war, which no sagacity 
 could foresee nor prevent. A cloud rises and passes 
 over the sun ! Here is an occasion for the display of 
 that greatest of all traits in the history of a commander 
 the tact which enables him to seize upon and turn to good 
 account unlocked for events as they arise. Now for 
 the caution wherewith the Roman Fabius foiled the 
 skill and courage of Hannibal ! A retreat is ordered, 
 and troops and general, in a twinkling, are found safely 
 bivouacked in a neighboring grocery. But even here 
 the general still has room for the execution of heroic
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 420 
 
 deeds. Hot from the field, and chafed with the heroic 
 events of the day, your general unsheathes his trenchant 
 blade, eighteen inches in length, as you will remember, 
 and with energy and remorseless fury he slices the 
 water-melons that lie in heaps around him, and shares 
 them with his surviving friends. Others of the sinews 
 of war are not wanting here. Whiskey, Mr. Speaker, 
 that great leveller of modern times, is here also, and the 
 shells of the water-melons are filled to the brim. Here 
 again, Mr. Speaker, is shown how the extremes of bar- 
 barism and civilization meet. As the Scandinavian 
 heroes of old, after the fatigues of war, drank wine from 
 the skulls of their slaughtered enemies, in Odin's halls, 
 so now our militia general and his forces, from the 
 skulls of the melons thus vanquished, in copious draughts 
 of whiskey assuage the heroic fire of their souls, after a 
 parade-day. But, alas for this short-lived race of ours ! 
 all things will have an end, and so it is even with 
 the glorious achievements of our general. Time is on 
 the wing, and will not stay his flight; the sun, as if 
 frightened at the mighty events of the day, rides down 
 the sky, and ' at the close of the day, when the hamlet 
 is still,' the curtain of night drops upon the scene, 
 
 ' And Glory, like the phoenix in its fires, 
 Exhales its odors, blazes and expires.' " 
 
 To this we may subjoin an extract which exemplifies 
 the effective combination of severe attributes with the 
 lighter graces of oratory. Oratorical power of the first 
 order exists only when the serious and the sportive are 
 symmetrically joined. In suci a consummation, as
 
 430 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 in the bard of Avon, we find a strong, unostentatious 
 master, who is able, with, perfect ease and certainty, 
 without formal reasoning, subtilizing and classifying his 
 ideas, to seize with confident hand, whatever is true 01 
 false in man, and express it in a manner the most natural, 
 forcible, and just. His attitudes, motions, and sentiments 
 will be graceful and effective, because they are poised by 
 nature and impelled by truth. Fresh as a spouting 
 spring among the hills, his heart leaps out to life, and his 
 accents are everywhere greeted with delight, because he 
 speaks the world's one tongue. What he utters is of 
 "nature's flow not art's; a fountain's^ not a pump's." 
 
 No man can long command an attentive hearing, who 
 has not the power of captivating the imagination. This 
 he will best accomplish by commingling an official, 
 elaborated, Ciceronian, admirative style, with one more 
 conversational, anecdotical, and jocular. The aggregate 
 will be conceived and fashioned according to popular 
 ideas and tastes, and speaks at once to the senses and 
 understandings of the great commonality. Such a style 
 assumes a lyric flexibility, and becomes the very mirror 
 and echo of the human soul. The charm arises not so 
 much from the originality inherent in eternal ideas, as 
 from the simple earnestness they develop, the exalted 
 sentiments they breathe, and the exquisite naturalness of 
 their expression. No composition can be beautiful or 
 natural without variety, or even without contrast ; but 
 care must be taken to prevent variety from degenerating 
 into inconsistency, and contrast into contradiction. 
 With this precaution each distinguished part will make 
 a separate impression, and while all bear the same stamp,
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 431 
 
 concurring towards the same end, every portion is an 
 additional support and adornment to the prevailing idea. 
 Such alternations of smoothness and ruggedness, form- 
 ing a picturesque naturalness of style, affects an audience 
 much like the excitement produced by the intricacies of 
 wild romantic mountainous scenes, wherein curiosity, 
 while it prompts us to scale every rocky promontory, 
 and explore every new recess, by its salubrious exercise 
 keeps the fibres of the body excited to their full tone, 
 and the mind perpetually on the stretch. Thus exer- 
 cised, the enraptured observer drinks in all that in na- 
 ture is brilliant or pure, all that in feeling is sacred 
 or sublime. This in turn produces eloquence, which no 
 more palls on the popular taste, than the mountainous 
 billows of the sea in their playfulness grow weary of 
 the wind. It is this coquetry of nature which makes 
 her beauty more amusing, more varied, and more playful, 
 but also not " less winning soft, less amiably mild." It is 
 the spirit of mightiest conquests, as attractive as it is 
 potent : 
 
 " Like the blush of love upon the cheek, 
 Or the full feeling lightening through the eye, 
 Or the quick music in the chords of harps." 
 
 But to the extracts we promised. The following are 
 from the great speech against the Compromise Bill, 
 which Mr. Corwin delivered in the United States Sen- 
 ate, July 24th, 1848 ; and which the reporter said " swept 
 like a consuming fire through the dry grass, under a high 
 wind, destroying in its flames arguments, appeals, au- 
 thorities, compromises .easing the whole question in the
 
 432 LIVING OEATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 naked form of the admission or exclusion of slavery." 
 We have to regret that our limits will not admit the 
 whole production. 
 
 " You say this land was conquered by the common 
 blood of the country ; you trace back the consideration 
 which you have paid for this country to the blood and 
 the bones of the gallant men that you sent there to be 
 sacrificed ; and pointing to the unburied corpses of her 
 sons who have fallen there, the South exclaims: 
 ' These these constitute my title to carry my slaves to 
 that land ! It was purchased by the blood of my sons.' 
 The aged parent, bereft of his children, and the widow 
 with the family that remains, desire to go there to bet- 
 ter their fortunes, if it may be, and pointing to the 
 graves of husband and children, exclaim : ' There there 
 was the price paid for our proportion of this territory !' 
 Is that true ? If that could be made out if you dare put 
 that upon your record if you can assert that you hold 
 the country by the strong hand, then you have a right 
 to go there with your slaves. If we of the North have 
 united with you of the South in this expedition of piracy, 
 and robbery, and murder, that oldest law known among 
 men ' honor among thieves' requires us to divide it 
 with you equally. [Laughter and subdued applause.] 
 Nay, more, it is only a fitting finale to that infernal 
 tragedy, that after having slaughtered fifty thousand hu- 
 man beings, in order to extend your authority over these 
 one hundred and fifty thousand, the murder should be 
 followed by the slavery of every one that can be made 
 subject to the law of power. 
 "Sir, if it be true that you hold this territory by con-
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 433 
 
 quest, you hold it precisely by the same right that the 
 Virginian holds his slave to-day, and by no other. You 
 have stolen the man, and with the strong hand torn him 
 from his own home part of his family you have killed, 
 and the rest you have bound in chains and brought to 
 Virginia! Then, in accordance with the brand which 
 it seems the Almighty has. impressed upon poor woman 
 partus sequitur ventremyou condemn to Slavery, to 
 the remotest posterity, the offspring of your captive! 
 It is the same right originally in both cases. This right 
 of conquest is the same as that by which a man may 
 hold another in bondage. You may make it into a law 
 if you please : you may enact that it may be so : it may 
 be convenient to do so : after perpetrating the original 
 sin, it may be better to do so. But the case is not aT- 
 tered ; the source of the right remains unchanged. 
 What is the meaning of the old Roman word Servus ? 
 I profess no great skill in philological learning, but I can 
 very well conceive how somebody looking into this 
 thing, might understand what was the law in those days. 
 The man's life was saved when his enemy conquered 
 hini in battle. He became servus the man preserved 
 by his magnanimous foe ; and perpetual slavery was then 
 thought to be a boon preferable to death. That wag the 
 way in which slavery began. Has anybody found out on 
 the face of the earth a man fool enough to give himself up 
 to another, and beg him to make him his slave ? I do not 
 know of one such instance under heaven. Yet it may 
 be so. Still I think that not one man of my complexion 
 of the Caucasian race could be found quite willing to do 
 that! 
 
 19
 
 434 LIVING ORATORS OF AMERICA. 
 
 " This right, which you are now asserting to .his coun- 
 try, exists in no other foundation than the law of force, 
 and that -was the original law by which one man appro- 
 priated the services and will of another to himself. Thus 
 far we have been brought after having fought for this 
 country and conquered it. The solemn appeal is made 
 to us ' Have we not mingled our blood with yours in. 
 acquiring this country ?' Sure, my brother ! But did 
 we mingle our blood with yours for the purpose of wresi- 
 ing this country by force from this people ? That is the 
 question. You did not say so six months ago. You 
 dare not say so now ! 
 
 " You may say that it was purchased, as Louisiana or 
 as Florida was, with the common treasure of the coun- 
 try ;.and then we come to the discussion of another pro- 
 position : What right do you acquire to establish slave- 
 ry there ? But I was about to ask of some gentleman 
 the Senator from S. C. for instance, whose eye at 
 a glance has comprehended almost the history of the 
 world what he supposes will be the history of this, onr 
 Mexican war, and these our Mexican acquisitions, if 
 we should give it the direction which he desires? I do 
 not speak of the propriety of slave labor being carried 
 anywhere. I will waive that question entirely. What 
 is it of which the Senator from Vermont has told us this 
 morning, and of which we have heard so much during 
 the last three weeks ? Every gale that floats across the 
 Atlantic comes freighted with the death groans of a 
 King; every vessel that touches our shores bears with 
 her tidings that the captives of the Old World are at 
 iast becoming free that they are seeking, through blood 
 
 V
 
 THOMAS JORWIN. 435 
 
 and slaughter blindly and madly, it may be, but never- 
 theless resolutely deliverance from the fetters that 
 have held them in bondage. Who are they? The 
 whole of Europe. And it is only about a year ago, I 
 believe, that that officer of the Turkish Empire who 
 holds sway in Tunis, one of the old slave markets of the 
 world, whose prisons formerly received those of our peo- 
 ple taken upon the high seas and made slaves to their 
 captors announced to the world that everybody should 
 there be free. And, if I am not mistaken, it will be 
 found that this magic line which the Senator from S. C. 
 believes has been drawn around the globe which we in- 
 habit, with the vtew of separating Freedom and Slave- 
 ry 36 30, brings this very Tunis into that region in 
 which by the ordinance of God men are to be .held in 
 bondage! All over the world the air is vocal with the 
 shouts of men made free. .What does it all mean ? It 
 means that they have been redeemed from political ser- 
 vitude ; and in God's name I ask, if it be a boon to man- 
 kind to be free from political servitude, must it not be 
 accepted as a matter of some gratulation that they have 
 been relieved from absolute subjection to the arbitrary 
 power of others ? What do we say of them ? I am 
 not speaking of the propriety of this thing ; it may be all 
 wrong, and these poor fellows in Paris, who have stout 
 hands and willing hearts; anxious to earn their bread, 
 may be very comfortable in fighting for it. It may be 
 all wrong to cut off the head of a King or send him 
 across the Channel. The problem of Free Government, 
 as we call it, is not, it seems, yet solved. It may be 
 highly improper and foolish in Austria and Germany to
 
 436 LIVING ORATOR3 IN AMERICA. 
 
 send away Metternich and say, ' We will look unto this 
 business ourselves.' According to the doctrine preached 
 in these halls -in free America instead of sending 
 shouts of congratulation across the water to these people, 
 we should send to them groans and commiseration for 
 their folly, calling on them to beware how they take this 
 business into their own hands informing them that 
 universal liberty is a curse ; that as one man is born 
 with a right to govern an Empire, he and his posterity 
 (as Louis Philippe of Orleans maintained when he an- 
 nounced that his son should sit on the throne when he 
 left it) must continue to exercise that power, because in 
 their case it is not exactly partes sequitur ventrum, 
 but partes sequitur pater that is all the difference. 
 [Laughter.] The Crown follows the father! Under 
 your law the chain follows the mother! [Subdued 
 manifestations of feeling.] 
 
 " It was a law in the Colonies about '76 that Kings 
 had a right to govern us. George Guelph then said 
 ' partes sequitur par My son is born to be your ruler. 
 And at the very time when Virginia lifted up her hand 
 and appealed to the God of justice the common father 
 of all men to deliver her from that accursed maxirn and 
 its consequences, that one man was born as Jefferson 
 said booted and spurred to ride another, it seems that 
 by the Senator's account of it, she adhered to another 
 maxim, to wit : that another man should be born to serve 
 Virginia. I think this maxim of Kings being born to 
 rule, and others being born only to serve, are both of 
 the same family, and ought to have gone down to the 
 same place ; hence, I imagine, they came, long ago, to-
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 437 
 
 gether. I do not think that your partus sequitur ven- 
 trem had much quarter shown it at Yorktown on a cer- 
 tain day you may remember. I think that when the 
 lion of England crawled in the dust, beneath the talons 
 of your eagles, and Cornwallis surrendered to George 
 Washington, that maxim, that a man is born to rule, 
 went down, not to be seen among us again forever, and 
 I think that partus sequitur ventrem, in the estimation of 
 all sensible men, disappeared along with it. So the men 
 of that day thought. And we are thus brought to the 
 consideration of the proper interpretation of that lan- 
 guage of those men which has been somewhat criticized 
 by the Senator from South Carolina. What did they 
 mean when they said in the Declaration oi* Independ- 
 ence, that all men are born equally free? They had 
 been contending that, if we on this side of the water 
 were to be taxed by the Imperial Parliament of England, 
 we had a right to say who should represent us in that 
 Parliament. I need not refer gentlemen to the argu- 
 ments then advanced. I need not refer the Senator 
 from Virginia to his own local history, which informs 
 him that, throughout the whole Revolutionary period, 
 the people in all the shires and towns were meeting and 
 passing resolutions, as that book of American Archives 
 that you have authorized to be perpetuated, will show 
 you, complaining to the Crown of England of the im 
 portation of slaves into this country. And why did they 
 complain ? Let their own documents tell their own story 
 Then men in that generation, in Virginia, in Connecti 
 cut as the Senator before me will see by referring tc 
 that book in MS. everywhere throughout the Colo-
 
 438 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 nies, said ' While we are contending for the common 
 rights of humanity, against the Crown of England, it does 
 not become us to enslave men and hold them in slavery.' 
 They objected to the introduction of slaves into this 
 country through the intervention of the slave-trade, be- 
 cause it was a wrong perpetrated upon the slave himself, 
 and especially because it prevented the settlement of the 
 country by artizans, mechanics, and laboring husband- 
 men. I venture the assertion that not three counties in 
 the State of Virginia can be named in which resolutions 
 of that character were not passed. 
 
 " In 1784, not far from this Capitol, where we are now 
 engaged in talking about the transfer of the slave-trade 
 to the shores of the Pacific ocean, there was a meeting 
 in Fairfax, at which one George Washington, Esq., pre- 
 sided. Some young gentlemen may know something of 
 him. He was a tobacco-planter, sir, at Mount Vernon. 
 The resolutions passed on that occasion declared the in- 
 tention of the meeting to refrain from purchasing any 
 slaves, and their determination to have nothing to do 
 with the slave-trade because the introduction of slaves 
 into this country prevented its settlement by free whites. 
 This, then, was the opinion in Virginia at that time ; and 
 it was the opinion in Georgia too." 
 
 Farther on, he remarks : 
 
 " Thank God, though all should fail, there is an infalli- 
 ble depository of truth, and it lives once a year for three 
 months in a little Chamber, below us! We can go 
 there. Now I understand my duty here to be, to ascer- 
 tain what constitutional power we have, and when we 
 have ascertained that, without reference to what the Su-
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 439 
 
 preme Court may do for they have yet furnished no 
 guide on the subject we are to take it for granted that 
 they will concur with us If the Court does not concur 
 with us, I agree with gentlemen who have been so lost in 
 their encomiums upon that Court, that their decision 
 whether right or wrong, controls no action. But we have 
 not hitherto endeavored to ascertain what the Supreme 
 Court would do. I wish then to ascertain in what mode 
 this wonderful response is to be obtajned-^-not from that 
 Delphic Oracle, but from that infallible divinity, the Su- 
 preme Court. How is it to be done ? A gentleman 
 starts from Baltimore, in Maryland, with a dozen black 
 men who have been paries sequitur ventrum burnt into 
 their skins and souls all over ; he takes them to Califor- 
 nia, three thousand miles off. Now I don't know hov/ 
 it may be in other parts of the world, but I know that in 
 the State of Ohio it is ordained that the law is carried to 
 every man's door. What then is the admirable contri- 
 vance in this bill by which we can get at the meaning 
 of the Constitution ? We pray for it, we agonize for it, 
 we make a law for it, and that it may be speedily 
 known for, if not speedily known, it may as well never 
 be known ; if slavery goes there and remains there for 
 one year, according to all experience, it is eternally. Let 
 it but. plant its roots there, and the next thing you will 
 hear of will be the earnest appeals about the rights of 
 property. It will be said : ' The Senate did not say we 
 had no right to come here. The House of Representa- 
 tives, a body of gentlemen elected from all parts of the 
 country on account of their sagacity and legal attain- 
 ments, did hot prohibit us from coming here. I thought
 
 440 LIVINB ORATORS OF AMERICA. 
 
 I had a right to come here: the Senator from South 
 Carolina said I had a right to come ; the Hon. Senator 
 from Georgia said I had a right to come here ; his col- 
 leagues said it was a right secured to me somewhere 
 high up in the clouds and not belonging to the world ; 
 the Senator from Mississippi said it was the ordinance 
 of Almighty God ; am I not then to enjoy the privileges 
 thus so fully secured to me ? I have property here ; 
 several of my women have borne children, who have 
 partus sequitur ventrem born with them ; they are my 
 property.' Thus the appeal will be made to their fellow- 
 citizens around them ; and it will be asked, whether you 
 are prepared to strike down the property which the set- 
 tler in those territories lias thus acquired ? That will 
 be t.he case unless the negro from Baltimore, when he 
 gets there and sees the Peons there slaves not by 
 partus sequitur ventrem, but by a much better title a 
 verdict before a Justice of the Peace should determine 
 to avail himself of the admirable facilities afforded him 
 by this bill for gaining his freedom. 
 
 " Suppose my friend from New Hampshire when he 
 goes home, gets up a meeting and collects a fund for the 
 purpose of sending a missionary after these men ; and 
 when the missionary arrives there he proposes to hold a 
 prayer meeting, he gets up a meeting as they used to do 
 in Yankee times, 'for the improvement of gifts.' He 
 goes to the negro quarter of this gentleman from Balti- 
 more, and says : ' Come, I want brother Cuffee ; it is true 
 he is a son of Ham, but I want to instruct him that he 
 is free.' I am very much inclined to think that the mis- 
 sionary would fare very much as one did in South Caro- 
 
 ' -
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 41 J 
 
 lina, at the hands of him of Baltimore. S;>, you see, the 
 negro is to start all at once into a free Anglo-Saxon in 
 California; the blood of Liberty flowing in every vein, 
 and its divine impulses throbbing in his heart. He is 
 to say : ' I am free ; I am a Californian ; I bring the right 
 of habeas corpus with me.' Well, he is brought up on 
 a writ of habeas corpus before whom ? Very likely 
 one of those gentlemen who have been proclaiming that 
 slavery has a right to go there ; for. such are the men 
 that Mr. Polk is likely to appoint. He has prejudged 
 the case. On the faith of his opinion the slave has been 
 brought there : what can he do? There is his recorded 
 judgment printed in your Congressional Report; what 
 will he say ? ' You are a slave. Mr. Calhoun was right. 
 Judge Berrien, of Ga., a profound lawyer, whom I 
 know well, was right. I know these gentlemen well? 
 their opinion is entitled to the highest authority, and in 
 the face of it, it does not become me to say that you are 
 free. So, boy, go to your master ; you belong to the class 
 partus sequitur ventrem : you are not quite enough of a 
 Saxon.' What then is to be done by this bill ? Oh ! a 
 writ of error or appeal can come to the Supreme Court 
 of the United States. How ? The negro, if he is to be 
 treated like a white, taking out an appeal, must give 
 bonds in double the value of the subject matter in dis- 
 pute. And what is that ? If you consider it the mer- 
 cantile value of the negro, it may be perhaps $1,000 or 
 $2,000. But he cannot have the appeal according to 
 this bill, unless the value of the thing in controversy 
 amounts to the value of $2,000. But, then, there comes 
 in this ideality of personal liberty: what is it worth? 
 19* *
 
 442 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Nothing at all says the Senator from South Carolina 
 to this fellow, who is better without it. And under all 
 this complexity of legal quibbling and litigation, it is ex- 
 pected that the negro will stand there and contend with 
 his master, and coming on to Washington, will prosecute 
 his appeal two years before the Supreme Court, enjoy- 
 ing the opportunity of visiting his old friends about Bal- 
 timore!" 
 
 One more quotation from this admirable speech must 
 suffice : 
 
 " I had almost believed, after hearing the beautiful, 
 romantic, sentimental narration of the Senator from 
 Mississippi; that God had indeed, as he said, made this 
 people in Africa to come over here and wait upon us, 
 till the Senator from Florida waked me up to a recollec- 
 tion of the old doctrines of Washington and Jefferson, 
 by assuring that wherever that patriarchal institution 
 existed, a rigid police should be maintained, in order to 
 prevent the old women from cutting the throats of 
 somebody! It is then a very 'peculiar' institution! 
 Those who live under it cannot exist a day without 
 caresses ; and on the next, they must provide scores 
 of constables with clubs in their hands, to keep them 
 from cutting each other's throats ! 
 
 " I do not wish to extend that institution into these 
 Territories. Is it pretended that Slave labor could be 
 profitable in Oregon or California. Do we expect to 
 grow cotton and sugar there ? I do not know that it 
 may not be done there ; for as the gentleman from New 
 York has told us, just as you go west upon this conti- 
 nent, the same line of latitude changes very much, so
 
 THOMAS CORWW. 443 
 
 that you may have a very different isothermal line as 
 you approach the Pacific Ocean. But I do not care so 
 much about that ; my objection is a radical one to the 
 institution everywhere. I do believe, if there is 
 any place on the globe which we inhabit where a white 
 man cannot work, he has no business there. If that 
 place is fit only for black men to work, let black men 
 alone work there. I do not know any better law for 
 man's good than that old one which was announced to 
 man after the first transgression, that by the sweat of 
 his brow he should earn his bread. I don't know what 
 business men have in the world unless it is to work. If 
 he is only to sleep and eat, he is reduced to the level of 
 the hog the only gentleman I know ! 
 
 " When you ask me, then, not to prohibit slavery in 
 these territories, with my view of the institution itself, 
 and of our power, I must assert the power to exclude 
 slavery forever. In your States where you have made 
 slavery property, you may protect it as you please, and 
 I will aid you in giving it that security which the Con- 
 stitution affords ; but, with God's help, not one inch 
 beyond shall this institution go. I may be mistaken in 
 all this ; but of one thing I am satisfied of the honest 
 conviction of my own judgment and no supposed 
 interruption of the ties which bind the various sections 
 of the Confederacy shall induce me to shrink from 
 these convictions, whenever I am called upon to carry 
 them out into law." . 
 
 Shakspeare may well be excused for seeking in the 
 Roman senate what he knew all senates could furnish 
 a buffoon. By this remark, we do not imply that Mr
 
 444 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Corwin bears that character. No man mingles more 
 dignity with his wit, and no one can be more courteous 
 in his severity. He is the incarnation of humor enno- 
 bled by reason, and more than any other orator alive, 
 abounds in those happy hits that "snatch a grace 
 beyond the reach of art," as in the froth formed on the 
 mouth of Jalysus' hound by a lucky dash from the 
 sponge of Protogenes. His productions flow with a 
 freedom and prodigality, as if they cost him nothing ; 
 and this air of original animation is attended by a cor- 
 respondent spirit of facile but accurate execution. 
 Such properties will always attract attention, and com- 
 mand admiration, despite palpable faults. It is of neces- 
 sity a popular style. The freedom of its flow, the 
 vividness of its colors, and energy of signification, 
 contribute to excite and keep alive the most eager in- 
 terest. The speaker appears to have perfect confidence 
 in himself, and at once inspires his audience with the 
 assured expectation of being regaled with both novelty 
 and wisdom. 
 
 The subjoined specimen is after Mr. -Corwin's more 
 dignified and classical manner. It teems with the 
 results of much reading, is imbued with high moral 
 principle, and radiates with the most impressive elo- 
 quence. It is taken from an early and famous speech 
 he made in the Senate on the Mexican war : 
 
 "Mr. President, this uneasy desire to augment our 
 
 territory has deprared the moral sense, and blighted the 
 
 otherwise keen sagacity of our people. What has been 
 
 the fate of all nations who have acted upon the idea 
 
 they must advance ? Our young orators cherish
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 445 
 
 this notion with a fervid, but fatally mistaken zeal. 
 They call it by the mysterious name of ' destiny.' ' Our 
 destiny/ they say, ' is onward ;' and hence they argue, 
 with ready sophistry, the propriety of seizing upon any 
 territory and any people, that may lie in the way of our 
 * fated' advance. Recently these progressives have 
 grown classical ; some assiduous student of antiquities 
 has helped them to a patron saint. They have wan- 
 dered back into the desolated Pantheon, and there, 
 among the Polytheistic relics of that ' pale mother of 
 dead empires,' they have found a god, whom these Ro- 
 mans, centuries gone by, baptized ' Terminus.' 
 
 " Sir, I have read much, and heard somewhat of this 
 gentleman, 'Terminus. Alexander, of whom I have 
 spoken, was a devotee of this divinity. We have seen 
 the end of him and his empire. It was said to be an 
 attribute of this god, that he must always advance and 
 never recede. So both republican and imperial Rome 
 believed. It was, as they said, their destiny ; and for a 
 while it did seem to be even so. Roman Terminus did 
 advance. Under the eagles of Rome, he was carried 
 from fils home on the Tiber, to the farthest East on one 
 hand, and to the far West, among the then barbarous 
 tribes of Western Europe, on the other. But at length 
 the time came when retributive justice had become 'a 
 destiny.' The despised Gaul calls out to the contemned 
 Goth, and Attila, with his Huns, answers back the 
 battle-shout to both. The 'blue-eyed nations of the 
 North,' in succession of united strength, pour forth their 
 countless hosts of warriors upon Rome and Rome's, 
 always advancing god, Terminus. And now the battle-
 
 446 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 axe of the barbarians strikes down the conq nering eagle 
 of Rome. Terminus at last recedes ; slowly at first, 
 but finally he is driven to Rome, and from Rome to By- 
 zantium. Whoever would know the farther fate of this 
 Roman deity, so lately taken under the patronage of 
 American Democracy, may find ample gratification of 
 his curiosity in the luminous pages of Gibbon's Decline 
 and Fall. Such will find that Rome thought as you 
 now think, that it was her destiny to conquer provinces 
 and nations, and, no doubt, she sometimes said as you 
 say, ' I will conquer a peace.' And where now is she 
 the mistress of the world ? The spider weaves his web 
 in her palaces; the owl sings his watch-song in her 
 lowers. Teutonic power now lords it over ' the servile 
 remnant, the miserable memento of old and once om- 
 nipotent Rome. Sad, very sad, are the lessons which 
 time has written for us. Through and in them all, I 
 see nothing but the inflexible execution of that old law, 
 which ordains as eternal the cardinal rule, ' Thou shalt 
 not covet thy neighbor's goods, nor anything which is 
 his.' Since I have lately heard so much about the dis- 
 memberment of Mexico, I have looked back to see how, 
 in the course of events, which some call ' Providence,' 
 it has fared with other nations, who engaged in this 
 work of dismemberment. I see that in the latter half 
 of the eighteenth century, three powerful nations, Rus- 
 sia, Austria, and Prussia, united in the dismemberment 
 of Poland. They said, too, as you say, 'It is our des- 
 tiny.' They ' wanted room.' Doubtless each of these 
 thought, with his share of Poland, his power was too 
 strong e v er to fear invasion or even insuU. One had
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 447 
 
 his California; another his New Mexico; and a third 
 his Vera Cruz. Did they remain untouched and incap- 
 able of harm ? Alas! no; far, very far from it. Ret- 
 ributive justice must fulfil its destiny, too. A very few 
 years pass off, and we hear of a new man, a Corsican 
 Lieutenant, the self-named ' armed soldier of Democra- 
 cy,' Napoleon. He ravages Austria, covers her land 
 with blood, drives the Northern Caesar from his capital, 
 and sleeps in his palace. Austria may now remember 
 how her power trampled upon Poland. Did she not pay 
 dear, very dear, for her California ? 
 
 " But has Prussia no atonement to make ? You see 
 this same Napoleon, the blind instrument of Providence, 
 at work there. The thunders of his cannon at Jena 
 proclaim the work of retribution for Poland's wrongs ; 
 and the successors of the Great Frederick, the drill- 
 sergeant of Europe, are seen flying across the sandy 
 plains that surround their capital, right glad if they 
 may escape captivity and death. But how fares it 
 with the Autocrat of Russia ? Is he secure in his share 
 of the spoils of Poland? No; suddenly we see, Sir, 
 six hundred thousand armed men marching to Moscow. 
 Does his Vera Cruz protect him now? Far from it. 
 Blood, slaughter, desolation, spread abroad over the 
 land, and finally, the conflagration of the old commer- 
 cial metropolis of Russia closes the retribution she 
 must pay for her share in the dismemberment of her 
 weak and impotent neighbor. Mr. President, a mind 
 more prone to look for the judgments of Heaven in the 
 doings of men than mine, cannot fail in this to see the 
 rovidence of God. When Moscow burned, it seemed
 
 448 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 as if the earth was lighted up, that the nations might 
 behold the scene. As that mighty sea of fire gathered 
 and heaved and rolled upward, and yet higher, till its 
 flames licked the stars, and fired the whole heavens, it 
 did seem as though the God of the Nations was writing 
 in characters of flame on the front of his throne, that 
 doom that shall fall upon the strong nation which tram- 
 ples in scorn upon the weak. And what fortune awaits 
 him, the appointed executor of this work, when it was 
 all done? . He, too, conceived the idea that his destiny 
 pointed onward to universal dominion. France was 
 too small Europe, he thought, should bow down before 
 him. But as soon as this idea took possession of his 
 soul, he, too, became powerless. His Terminus must 
 recede, too. Right there, while he witnessed the humil- 
 iation, and, doubtless, meditated the subjugation of Rus- 
 sia, He who holds the winds in His fist, gathered the 
 snows of the North, and blew them upon his six thou- 
 sand men ; they died they froze they perished. And 
 now the mighty Napoleon, who had resolved on uni- 
 versal dominion, he, too, is summoned to answer for the 
 violation of that ancient law, ' Thou shalt not covet 
 anything which is thy neighbor's.' How are the mighty 
 fallen ! He, beneath whose proud footsteps Europe 
 trembled, he is now an exile at Elba, and now finally a 
 prisoner on the rock of St. Helena and there on a 
 barren island, in an unfrequented sea, in the crater of 
 an extinguished volcano, there is the death-bed of the 
 mighty conqueror. All his annexations have come to 
 that ! His last hour is now come ; and he, the man of 
 destiny, he who had rocked the world as with the throes
 
 THOMAS CDRVVIN. 449 
 
 of an earthquake, is now powerless still even as the 
 beggar, so he died. On the wings of a tempest that 
 raged with unwonted fury, up to the throne of the 
 only Power that controlled him while he lived, went the 
 fiery soul of that wonderful warrior, another witness to 
 that eternal decree, that they who do not rule in right- 
 eousness shall perish from the earth. He has found 
 ' room ' at last. And France, she, too, has found ' room.' 
 Her eagles now no longer scream along the banks oJ 
 the Danube, the Po, and the Borysthenes. They have 
 returned home to their old eyrie, between the Alps, the 
 Rhine, and the Pyrenees. So shall it be with yours. 
 You may carry them to the loftiest peaks of the Cor- 
 dilleras they may wave in insolent triumph in the Halls 
 of the Montezumas the armed men of Mexico may 
 quail before them ; but the weakest hand in Mexico, 
 uplifted in prayer to the God of justice, may call down 
 against you a power, in the presence of which the iron 
 hearts of your warriors shall be turned into ashes. 
 
 " Mr. President, if the history of our race has estab- 
 lished any truth, it is but a confirmation of what is 
 written, ' The way of the transgressors is hard.' Inor- 
 dinate ambition, wantoning in power, and spurning the 
 humble maxims of Justice has ever has and ever 
 shall end in ruin. Strength cannot always trample 
 upon weakness the humble shall be exalted the bowed 
 down will at length be lifted up. It is by faith in the 
 law of strict justice, and the practice of its precepts, 
 that nations alone can be saved. All the annals of the 
 human race, sacred and profane, are written over with 
 this great truth, in characters of living light. It is my
 
 450 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 fear, my fixed belief, that in this invasion, this war with 
 Mexico, we have forgotten this vital truth. Why is it 
 that we have been drawn into this whirlpool of war ? 
 How clear and strong was the light that shone upon the 
 path of duty a year ago! The last disturbing question 
 with England was settled our power extended its 
 peaceful sway from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; from 
 the Alleghanies we looked out upon Europe, and from 
 the tops of the Stony Mountains we could descry the 
 shores of Asia ; a rich commerce with all the nations of 
 Europe poured wealth and abundance into our lap on 
 the Atlantic side, while an unoccupied commerce of 
 three hundred millions of Asiatics waited on the Pacific 
 for our enterprise to come and possess it. One hundred 
 milions of dollars will be wasted in this fruitless war. 
 Had this money of the people been expended in making 
 a railroad from our Northern Lakes to the Pacific, as 
 one of your citizens has begged of you in vain, you 
 would have made a highway for the world between 
 Asia and Europe. Your capital then would be within 
 thirty or forty days' travel of any and every point on 
 the map of the civilized world. Through this great 
 artery of trade, you would have carried through the 
 heart of your own country the teas of China, and the 
 spices of India, to the markets of England and France. 
 Why, why, Mr. President, did we abandon the enter- 
 prises of peace, and betake ourselves to the barbarous 
 achievements of war ? Why did we forsake this fair 
 and fertile field to batten on that moor ? 
 
 " But, Mr. President, if further acquisition of terri- 
 tory is to be the result either oi conquest or treaty, then
 
 THOMAS COR WIN. 451 
 
 I scarcely know which is to be preferred, eternal war 
 with Mexico, or the hazards of internal commotion 
 at home, which last, I fear, may come, if another pro- 
 vince is to be added to our territory. * * * We 
 stand this day on the crumbling brink of that gulf we 
 see its bloody eddies wheeling and boiling before us 
 shall we not pause before it be too late? How plain 
 again is here the path, I may add the only way of duty, 
 of prudence, of true patriotism ! Let us abandon all 
 idea of acquiring farther territory, and, by consequence, 
 cease at once to prosecute this war. Let us call home 
 our armies, and bring them at once within our own 
 acknowledged limits. Show Mexico that you are sin- 
 cere when you say that you desire nothing by con- 
 quest. She has learned that she cannot encounter you 
 in war ; and if she had not, she is too weak to disturb 
 you here. Tender her peace, and, my life upon it, she 
 will then accept it. But whether she shall or not, you 
 will have peace without her consent. It was your 
 invasion that made war, your retreat will restore peace. 
 Let us, then, close forever the approaches to internal 
 feud, and so return to the ancient concord and the old 
 ways of national prosperity and permanent glory. Let 
 us here, in this temple consecrated to the Union, per- 
 form a solemn lustration ; let us wash Mexican blood 
 from our hands, and on these altars, in the presence of 
 that image of the Father of his Country that looks down 
 upon us, swear to preserve honorable peace with all the 
 world, and eternal brotherhood with each other." 
 
 We have presented a biogi aphical sketch of Thomas 
 Corwin, and attempted to anaiyze his oratorical charac-
 
 452 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 ter. It remains, briefly to describe his person, and this 
 \ve will do by glancing first at his physical form, and 
 then at his moral constitution. 
 
 It is of great advantage for a public speaker to be en- 
 dowed with what is called presence a commanding 
 form and conciliating demeanor ; and this Mr. Corwin 
 possesses to an eminent degree. " The eye is made the 
 fool of the other senses, or else worth all the rest." An 
 audience loves to repose its gaze upon him who ad- 
 dresses them, reading dignity in his aspect as well as 
 catching inspiration from his lips. Unfortunately many 
 a fine intellect is shrouded in an uncouth body, looking 
 "as if some of nature's journeymen had made them 
 and not made them well." But not so with our orator. 
 The graceful magnitude of his outer man comports 
 with the compact and yet flexile firmness of the soul 
 within. He is above medium height, of muscular make, 
 agile limbs, and erect attitude. His features are full, 
 ingenuous in their habitual expression, and not abso- 
 lutely black. His brows are broad, open, and massy, 
 the fit throne of mighty thought. Like his hair, his 
 eyes are dark, clear, and piercing ; generally mild in 
 their look, but sometimes filled with a deadly irony, 
 which it is impossible to describe. In some burlesque 
 lines on- the treatment of Regulus by the Carthagenians, 
 the rhymester comes nearest to an exact description of 
 Mr. Corwin's look when it is assumed : 
 
 ' His eyelids they pared ; 
 : how he stared !" 
 
 In common conversation, and ip ordinary debate,
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 453 
 
 Mr. Corvvin wears an aspect cheerful and attractive to 
 the last degree ; but when dealing in fiery argument or 
 stinging sarcasm, the language of his features exactly 
 corresponds with his avowed sentiments and adds a 
 fearful significancy to their force. A flash of exulta- 
 tion often plays over his countenance when he observes 
 how the winged shaft has taken effect, and with what 
 tenacity it sticks to his writhing victim. The quiver or 
 curl of his lip, the dropping of his chin, the fantastic 
 rolling of his eyes, and the mock pathos of his tones 
 as he utters some mortal sneer, is comical beyond con- 
 ception except to those who have seen him speak. It is 
 really astonishing with what distinctness he can say a 
 given sentiment and look directly the opposite, and 
 the side glance of his twinkling eye the unmistakable 
 interpretation given by his facial muscles will contra- 
 dict with overpowering drollery and emphatic eloquence 
 the words that instant on his lips. In all such instances 
 the effect is designed, and is a trait of power in this 
 orator which no living master can approach. It is easy 
 to perceive the triumph of sagacious humor in his look, 
 even before he speaks : feats of exquisite sportiveness, 
 in which pleasantry and utility are felicitously combined, 
 and executed by the most perfect master of forensic 
 mirth, creating roars of merriment in which all gravity 
 is overwhelmed and the most demure risibtes convulsed. 
 He will enunciate ridicule in a dry laugh, multiply it in 
 a thousand extemporized wrinkles all over his sombre 
 visage, suggest it in every form and direction through 
 sardonic chuckles and twinkling looks, darting from his 
 speaking face more fatal jests than are clothed m words,.
 
 454 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 and yet embodying downright sarcasm in the plainest 
 language enough to scarify any common skin. And 
 yet, what is still more strange, there is no appearance 
 of malice in all this. Mr. Corwin seeks no noisy ap- 
 plause by his occasional bitterness, and the plaudits 
 which continually attend the popular appreciation of 
 his grotesque wit, as well as sterling argument, appear 
 to afford him gratification only so far as comprehensive, 
 beneficent, and enduring results are achieved. He 
 seldom exasperates, though he always keenly excites ; 
 there is so much courtesy mingled in all his severity, 
 that the subject of his lash is obliged to laugh while he 
 smarts. His pangs are mitigated, however, by the re- 
 flection that they are inflicted by superior talent as 
 magnanimous as it is keen, and not by harsh and un- 
 couth imbecility. This is a grand consolation, since it 
 is much more dignified and tolerable to endure the paw 
 of a lion than the hoof of an ass. 
 
 It should not be inferred from the above remarks, that 
 Mr. Corwin's greatest forte lies in the use of small arms 
 in forensic warfare. He is never so great as when he 
 addresses himself to analytical reasoning and severe 
 deduction. It is true he can play at will his virgin fan- 
 cies wild ; he has mastered the great secret of nature, 
 having learned her manner, and with rapture tasted her 
 style; his bold imagination can skillfully touch the very 
 limits which it dares not pass, careering with supreme 
 dominion over all kingdoms of emotion and thought ; 
 yet is he the most powerful and self-possessed when in 
 the forum of rigid debate, dealing logic on fire all around. 
 One of the first lawyers in Ohio has frequently assured
 
 THOMAS CORWIV. 455 
 
 the writer that Mr. Corwin excels all his acquaintances 
 in the knowledge of mental philosophy and the science 
 of legitimate argument. With Promethean power he 
 can give life to the cumbrous mass of precedents accu- 
 mulated by plodders, throw an intellectual splendor over 
 images opaque to ordinary minds, and at the same time 
 lay bare the soul of passion, as well as rivet conviction 
 on the most stubborn understanding. His wit is that 
 of a manly, independent spirit ; his cheerfulness that of a 
 generous; feeling heart. His natural vitality of soul, 
 Diogenes turn of dialectics, and inexhaustible humor, 
 sustain his energy in all toils and render him fearful to 
 all foes. He is a man "replete with mocks, full of com- 
 parisons and wounding flouts ;" but the chief reason 
 why -his protection is courted by the weak and dreaded 
 by the mighty is, that behind lighter skirmishing, he 
 plies mental artillery of the largest calibre and most 
 destructive force. Alternate action and repose, playful 
 squibbing and irresistible broadsides, afford their adroit 
 possessor a versatility of power which few can either 
 anticipate or resist. And yet nothing is more foreign 
 from artificialness. His speech takes a natural growth, 
 and his oratorical triumph is perfected much as Milton 
 described : 
 
 "So from the ground 
 
 Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves 
 More airy, last the bright consummate flower. " 
 
 Having already passed in our description from the 
 physical attributes of Mr. Corwin, to his intellectual and 
 moral character, we will dwell yet a little longer on this
 
 456 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 last point. In his mental productions we see traits that 
 correspond to the appearances of material elements and 
 natural scenes, striking contrasts in form, color, light, and 
 shadow ; sunbeams bursting through a small opening in a 
 dark wood, a rainbow against a stormy sky, meadows 
 fragrant and lovely with flowers on one hand, groves 
 prostrated by tempests, and mountain peaks scathed by 
 lightnings on the other. His style is insinuating and 
 pungent, not abrupt or petulant, but full of those capti- 
 vating transitions, which, while they surprise into more 
 absorbing curiosity, seldom repel by acrimonious denun- 
 ciation, but keep up an increasing interest, insensibly 
 wind round the heart, and lead the judgment to convic- 
 tion and repose. Having witnessed the effects of his 
 address on a popular audience, you feel that his task 
 was not executed by mechanical means, that he not 
 only has taste, but genius and invention, and that his 
 spirit, like Hotspur's, had "lent a fire e'en to the dullest 
 peasant." 
 
 That orator will have the greatest public power who 
 lives nearest to infinity by throwing wide open all the 
 avenues of his being to whatever is beautiful, and true, 
 and grand around him. If ethereal tides swell and circu- 
 late through every artery and vein, energizing his soul 
 and clarifying his vision, his thoughts will be vivid like 
 the fulminations of heaven, and his expressions will re- 
 verberate in thunder tones, startling and distinct to 
 every ear. Of this stamp is Thomas Corwin. He excels 
 most statesmen, in this respect among many others he 
 knows when to speak and when to be silent. That is the 
 wisest of men, who not only can create superior works,
 
 THOMAS CORYV1N. <i^7 
 
 but can perceive when his task is done. The knowledge 
 when to stop, left Scylla nothing to fear, though disarm- 
 ed ; the want of this knowledge, gave Ceesar to the dag- 
 ger of Brutus. The great orator of Ohio says plainer 
 things, and does bolder deeds, than any other senator ; 
 yet is he the last to violate any rule of propriety, offend 
 any one of true dignity, wink at any private injustice or 
 public wrong. Such a man can neither be praised nor 
 insulted; he is above the fulsomeness of the selfish and 
 the malignity of the mean. 
 
 Says the excellent judge of character, from whom we 
 quoted in the beginning of this chapter, "Mr. Corwin's 
 private life, from boyhood up, has been marked by the 
 strictest virtue and the most stainless honor. His pro- 
 fessional career, as a part of it, has been distinguished 
 for benevolence and justice. His social qualities are of 
 the highest order, and impart the happiest influence upon 
 all who are so fortunate as to enjoy the advantages of 
 them. Few men excel him in colloquial power, or in 
 the range of intelligence to make it the most attractive. 
 His life has been one of laborious study, and his mind 
 is highly charged with useful learning and well-digested 
 principles. He has read much, and with careful dis- 
 crimination "-applying the most careful thought of his 
 own mind in the speculations of others. However, his 
 opinions on all subjects are uniformly his own. No 
 man is more unpretending in his attainments, or more 
 modest in exhibiting them ; but, at the same time, no 
 man can be more decided in resisting the prescriptions of 
 mere authority. His mind, in its philosophic spirit, is 
 formed mainly on the principle of self-reliance ; and he 
 2Q
 
 458 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 values and uses learning rather as a means to help him 
 think than to supply him with thoughts. It is, however, 
 high proof in favor of the principles of any party or 
 category with which he may sympathize and act, that 
 they have been thoroughly thought out by him from their 
 simplest elements, and finally adopted by him as ascer- 
 tained truths. He allows no mere party reasons for his 
 convictions, and wants no party aid for their support. 
 
 " As a public speaker, Mr. Corwin is gifted far above 
 the ordinary standard of parliamentary experience. 
 His manner is perfectly self-possessed his thoughts 
 flow forth in the most lucid forms : his language is in 
 the purest taste always strong, though frequently in a 
 high degree erratic. In all his efforts, whether of the 
 more elaborate or of the lighter kind, he fixes attention 
 in the outset, and holds it, unbroken, to the end. It is, 
 evidently, one of the secrets of his power, that he 
 knows when he has exhausted a subject, and where to 
 stop. He is so clear in his conceptions, and exact in 
 his arrangement of them, that he never repeats himself; 
 and hence never offends, as do many of the best speak- 
 ers, by occasional indications of a want of thorough 
 understanding of their own minds. 
 
 " In the mixed walks of eloquence, when under the 
 excitement of a great subject, and a grand and respon- 
 sible occasion for the discussion of it, Mr. Corwin often 
 exhibits powers which could hardly be excelled. He 
 has moments of intense strength, in which he seems to 
 rise, unconsciously, high above his own ordinary level, 
 and to wield with almost superhuman power the grand- 
 est thoughts ; setting them forth in the sublimest images,
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 459 
 
 and clothing them in the most beautiful forms of speech. 
 On occasions that properly admit of the application of 
 the higher powers of wit, his efforts are unrivalled. 
 His quick perception of the weak points of an adver- 
 sary's position, and, if open to ridicule, his ready asso- 
 ciation of them with the most grotesque forms of ex- 
 posure, give often, even to his grave speeches, a force 
 and influence which the severest logic would utterly 
 fail to give. The amiable and gentlemanly temper, 
 moreover, with which he exerts these high and even 
 dangerous powers, saves him from all hazard of giving 
 personal offence in the application of them, and it is 
 proverbially said of him, that the object of his satire is 
 usually among the most entertained of those who listen 
 to it. The treat is too rich to be quarrelled with, even 
 by the victim whom it would annihilate. 
 
 " But, after all, the most striking and captivating fea- 
 ture in his speaking, is, that he allows no doubt in his 
 auditory of the entire sincerity of what he is saying, 
 It is a man uttering great and important truths under 
 the impulses of deep conviction, and not a mere de- 
 claimer or advocate, who would produce effect for an 
 occasion. And this great feature of Mr. Corwin's 
 speaking, which stands out so prominently in every 
 speech he makes, no matter what the audience, the 
 place, or the occasion, is the necessary result of that self- 
 culture, which, in his habitual studies, keeps the watches 
 of an honest and conscientious heart in constant com- 
 pany with the labors of a clear, serene, and self-poised 
 mind. 
 
 " As a writer, Mr. Corwin's pursuits have never
 
 460 LIVING 3RATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 required of him to make any especial exhibitions 
 though those who enjoy the privilege of his correspond 
 en'ce know that his occasional discussions in the exact 
 forms of writing, are not inferior to his more accus- 
 tomed efforts of the forensic kind. He writes as he 
 speaks ; in a style of the purest taste and most direct 
 expression, with all the earnestness of deep conviction, 
 and the consciousness that he has something to say. 
 
 " Mr. Corwin is not an ambitious man, in any low or 
 vulgar sense. His whole life has proved his aspirations 
 to be of the loftiest and purest kind. The high places 
 he has so long occupied in public affairs, seem to come 
 to him as a matter of course. He has been no seeker 
 after them ; and has submitted to none of the com- 
 promises of self-respect, so sadly common in our coun- 
 try, to obtain them. Deeply studied in the institutions 
 of his country, and profoundly animated with the sen- 
 timent of patriotism that would administer and maintain 
 them in their true strength and purity, he has occupied 
 such positions in relation to them as were perfectly na- 
 tural, and such as it would have been a kind of moral trea- 
 son, in a man of his gifts, to have declined. His ambition 
 is to be eminently useful ; and if the marks of public 
 confidence which have been so lavishly bestowed upon 
 him, are to be regarded as proofs, his ambition has not 
 been without success. 
 
 " We have thus spoken of Mr. Corwin, and in no 
 spirit of adulation, nor with any purpose of gaining to 
 him any artificial or fictitious importance before the na- 
 tion. We have spoken, because that such a man 
 should be talked and written about, and made known to
 
 THOMAS CORWIN. 4gJ 
 
 the nation. It is quite obvious that his position as a 
 man, and as an American statesman, is now high. It 
 is destined to be higher not, perhaps, in outward rank, 
 but in that depth and universality of public esteem and 
 
 eKance, which are the fruit of many and arduous trials, 
 and a long life of single-hearted devotion to principle. 
 Be these trials ever so many or so arduous, they will 
 leave unsullied the lofty name, unspotted the steadfast 
 soul, of THOMAS CORWIN." 
 
 The " Queen City" will long remember that after- 
 noon of Monday, Oct. 9th, 1848, when the announce- 
 ment that " Tom Corwin" was to speak in a large open 
 space in one of the suburbs, had an effect in emptying 
 the busiest quarters very like the approach of the fasci- 
 nating queen of Egypt : 
 
 " The city cast 
 
 Her people out upon her; and Antony, 
 Enthron'd in the market-place, did sit alone, 
 Whistling to the air ; which, but for vacancy, 
 Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too, 
 And made a gap in nature." 
 
 The vast area of seats arranged for the audience was 
 filled by ladies alone, while beyond, in every direction 
 further than the most powerful voice could reach, 
 crowds were compactly standing in rapt attention, lis- 
 tening from carriages, peering through windows, bend- 
 ing from balconies and roofs, or clinging to trees and 
 flag-staffs, while banners waved above, eyes sparkled, 
 and irrepressible cheers resounded all around. 
 
 Mr. Corwin spoke for a long time, and more than 
 once was on the point of closing when the multitudes
 
 462 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. 
 
 compelled him still to proceed. The scene was every 
 way exceedingly impressive. There was no filmy 
 cloud to break the softness of the west, where the sun 
 sank like a globe of molten gold, radiating to the 
 zenith, flashing from cloud to cloud, and blending in 
 one massy sheet over the vast and glowing concave 
 The beautiful coronet of hills which encompass Cincin 
 nati, gloriously tinted with autumnal foliage, were then 
 doubly resplendent in the evening glow, while numer- 
 ous villas studding their sides and summits, smitten by 
 the setting sun, were illuminated by harmless conflagra- 
 tions. Every moment grew more pensive and solemn 
 in the amber hues of declining day ; and the orator, as 
 if inspired by the hour, rose to a most exalted strain of 
 the moral sublime in picturing the evils which many 
 feared and which he came there to deprecate. At that 
 moment we gazed intently upon his noble form raised 
 by popular enthusiasm upon a rustic pyramid in full 
 view of enraptured throngs. He bore the aspect of a, 
 prophet, condensing the utmost measure of solicitude 
 and meaning in language prompted by the approach of 
 a fearful crisis. The last gleam of day played on his 
 brow ; his lips quivered and burned with their last elo- 
 quent appeal ; he bowed his silent homage to the ex- 
 cited thousands ; and repeated shouts, half drpw^jjig tlie 
 salvos of cannon, shook the heavens.
 
 
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