Page images
PDF
EPUB

WITH the dissolution of Roman liberty, and the decline of Roman taste, the reputation and the excellency of the oratorical art fell alike into decay. Under the despotism of the Cæsars, the end of eloquence was perverted from persuasion to panegyric, and all her faculties were soon palsied by the touch of corruption, or enervated by the impotence of servitude. Then succeeded the midnight of the monkish ages, when with the other liberal arts she slumbered in the profound darkness of the cloister.

They have not erected to themselves colos- ANCIENT AND MODERN ELOQUENCE. sal statues upon pedestals of human bones, to provoke and insult the tardy hand of heavenly retribution. But theirs was the better fortitude of patience and heroic martyrdom. Theirs was the great temper of Christian kindness; the rigorous observance of reciprocal justice; the unconquerable soul of conscious integrity. Worldly fame has been parsimonious of her favour to the memory of those generous champions. Their numbers were small; their stations in life obscure; the object of their enterprise unostentatious; the theatre of their exploits remote: how could they possibly be favorites of worldly fame? That common crier, whose existence is only known by the assemblage of multitudes: that pander of wealth and greatness, so eager to haunt the palaces of fortune, and so fastidious to the houseless dignity of virtue: that parasite of pride, ever scornful to meekness, and ever obsequious to insolent power: that heedless trumpeter, whose ears are deaf to modest merit, and whose eyes are blind to bloodless, distant excellence. Preserve in all their purity, refine, if possible, from all their alloy, those virtues which we this day commemorate as the ornament of our forefathers. Adhere to them with inflexible resolution, as to the horns of the altar; instil them with unwearied perseverance into the minds of your children; bind your souls and theirs to the national union as the chords of life are centred in the heart, and you shall soar with rapid and steady wing to the summit of human glory. Nearly a century ago one of those rare minds to whom it is given to discern future greatness in its seminal principles, upon contemplating the situation of this continent, pronounced in a vein of poetic inspiration,

[ocr errors][merged small]

At the revival of letters in modern Europe, eloquence, together with her sister muses, awoke, and shook the poppies from her brow. But their torpors still tingled in her veins. In the interval her voice was gone; her favourite languages were extinct; her organs were no longer attuned to harmony, and her hearers could no longer understand her speech. The discordant jargon of feudal anarchy had banished the musical dialects, in which she had always delighted. The theatres of her former triumphs were either deserted, or they were filled with the babblers of sophistry and chicane. She shrunk intuitively from the forum, for the last object she remembered to have seen there was the head of her darling Cicero, planted upon the rostrum. She ascended the tribunals of justice; there she found her child, Persuasion, manacled and pinioned by the letter of the law; there she beheld an image of herself, stammering in barbarous Latin, and staggering under the lumber of a thousand volumes. Her heart fainted within her. She lost all confidence in herself. Together with her irresistible powers, she lost proportionably the consideration of the world, until, instead of comprising the whole system of public education, she found herself excluded from the circle of science, and declared an outlaw from the realms of learning. She was not however doomed to eternal silence. With the progress of freedom and of liberal science, in various parts of modern Europe, she obtained access to mingle in the deliberations of their parliaments. With labour and difficulty she learned their languages, and lent her aid in giving them form and polish. But she has never recovered the graces of her former beauty, nor the energies of her ancient vigour.

EDWARD EVERETT.

Born 1794.

THREE PICTURES OF BOSTON.

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 beyond, 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, wrapped in a sheet of flames at noon, and reduced at eventide to a heap of ashes.

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 We must not contemplate it only at this present moment of time, but we must bring before our imaginations, as in the shifting scenes of a diorama at least three success ve historical and topographical pictures; and truly instructive I think it would be to see them delineated on canvas. We But those fires are kindled on the altar must survey the first of them in the com- of liberty. American Independence is estapany of the venerable John Winthrop, the blished. American Commerce smiles on the founder of the State. Let us go up with spot; and now from the top of one of the him, on the day of his landing, the seven- triple hills of Mr. Blackstone's farm, a stateteenth of June, 1630, to the heights of yon- ly edifice arises, which seems to invite us der peninsula, as yet without a name. Land- as to an observatory. As we look down ward stretches a dismal forest; seaward, a from this lofty structure, we behold the third waste of waters, unspotted with a sail, ex- picture a crowded, busy scene. We see cept that of his own ship. At the foot of beneath us a city containing eighty or ninety the hill you see the cabins of Walford and thousand inhabitants, and mainly built of the Spragues, who the latter a year be- brick and granite. Vessels of every descripfore, the former still earlier had adven- tion are moored at the wharves. Long lines tured to this spot, untenanted else by any of commodious and even stately houses cover child of civilization. On the other side of a space which, within the memory of man, the river lies Mr. Blackstone's farm. was in a state of nature. Substantial blocks comprises three goodly hills, converted by of warehouses and stores have forced their a spring-tide into three wood-crowned islets; way to the channel. Faneuil Hall itself, and it is mainly valued for a noble spring the consecrated and unchangeable, has swellof fresh water, which gushes from the noth-ed to twice its original dimensions. Atheern slope of one of these hills, and which neums, hospitals, asylums, and infirmaries, furnished in the course of the summer the adorn the streets. The school house rears motive for transferring the seat of the in- its modest front in every quarter of the city, fant settlement. This shall be the first and sixty or seventy churches attest the picture. children are content to walk in the good The second shall be contemplated from old ways of their fathers. Connected with the same spot the heights of Charles- the city by eight bridges, avenues, or fertown on the same day, the eventful sev- ries, you behold a range of towns most of enteenth of June, one hundred and forty them municipally distinct, but all of them years later, namely, in the year 1775. A in reality forming, with Boston, one vast terrific scene of war rages on the top of the metropolis, animated by one commercial life. hill. Wait for a favorable moment, when Shading off from these, you see that most the volumes of fiery smoke roll away, and lovely back-ground, a succession of happy over the masts of that sixty-gun ship, whose settlements, spotted with villas, farm housbatteries are blazing upon the hill, you be- es, and cottages; united to Boston by a hold Mr. Blackstone's farm changed to an constant intercourse; sustaining the capital

-

It

--

from their fields and gardens, and prosper- led emotion of triumph and sadness has sealous in the reflux of the city's wealth. Of ed the moral beauty and sublimity of our the social life included within this circuit, great anniversary. In the simple commemand of all that in times past has adorned oration of a victorious political achieveand ennobled it, commercial industry has ment, there seems not enough to occupy all been an active element, and has exalted it- our purest and best feelings. The fourth of self by an intimate association with every July was before a day of unshaded triumph, thing else we hold dear. Within this circuit exultation, and national pride; but the angel what memorials strike the eye! what re- of death has mingled in the all-glorious pacollections what institutions - what pageant, to teach us we are men. Had our triotic treasures and names that cannot die! venerated fathers left us on any other day, There lie the canonized precincts of Lexing- the day of the united departure of two such ton and Concord; there rise the sacred men would henceforward have been rememheights of Dorchester and Concord; there bered but as a day of mourning. But now, is Harvard, the ancient and venerable, foster- while their decease has gently chastened the child of public and private liberality in every exultations of the triumphant festival; the part of the State; to whose existence Char- banner of independence will wave cheerfully lestown gave the first impulse, to whose over the spot where they repose. The whole growth and usefulness the opulence of Bos- nation feels, as with one heart, that since ton has at all times ministered with open it must sooner or later have been bereaved hand. Still farther on than the eye can of its revered fathers, it could not have reach, four lines of communication by rail- wished that any other had been the day of road and steam have within our own day their decease. Our anniversary festival was united with the capital, by bands of iron, a before triumphant; it is now triumphant and still broader circuit of towns and villages. sacred. It before called out the young and Hark to the voice of life and business which ardent, to join in the public rejoicings; it sounds along the lines! While we speak, now also speaks, in a touching voice, to the one of them is shooting onward tothe illim- retired, to the grey-headed, to the mild and itable West, and all are uniting with the peaceful spirits, to the whole family of soother kindred enterprises, to form one har- ber freemen. With some appeal of joy, monious and prosperous whole, in which admiration, of tenderness, it henceforth adtown and country, agriculture and manufac- dresses every American heart. It is hencetures, labor and capital, art and nature forward, what the dying Adams pronounced wrought and compacted into one grand it, a great and a good day. It is full of system are constantly gathering and dif- greatness, and full of goodness. It is absofusing, concentrating and radiating the eco- lute and complete. The death of the men, nomical, the social, the moral blessings of who declared our independence their a liberal and diffusive commerce. 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.

[blocks in formation]

of

Think not, fellow citizens, that in the mere formal discharge of my duty this day, I would overrate the melancholy 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 pro

perly described, or to be fully felt at once. I dare not come here and dismiss, in a few summary paragraphs, the 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 endeavor thus to weigh and estimate them. I leave that arduous task to the genious 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, 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 to 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 continue 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 character, many counsels and measures, which it cost perhaps 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 admired, 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

*) An Eulogy was delivered on Adams and Jefferson, on the following day in Faneuil Hall, by Daniel Webster.

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 reputation; 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 come after. Such men do not, cannot die. To be cold, and motionless, and breathless; to feel not and speak not; this it not the end of existence to the men who have breathed their spirits into the institutions of their country, 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 indeed 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;

[ocr errors]

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."

JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN. Born 1782. Died 1852.

REPLY TO MR. RANDOLPH'S STATEMENT OF THE FINANCIAL IMPRACTICABILITY OF THE WAR.

BEFORE I proceed to answer the gentleman particularly, let me call the attention of the house to one circumstance; that is, that almost the whole of his arguments 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 unqualified 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 which I shall notice, is the unprepared state of the 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 gentleman 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; I 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, without a single endeavor to remedy so serious an evil? 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 fifteen thousand additional re

gulars? No; it has the ability, that is admitted; but will it not have the disposition? 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 has greatly increased since. The object of that tax was unpopular. But on this, as well as my memory and almost infant observation at that time serve me, the objection 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 European laws on that subject, and imposed on a young and virtuous nation all the severe provisions made necessary by corruption and longgrowing 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 legislation. 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 shortsighted 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

« EelmineJätka »