Living orators in America

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Chapter I. * Daniel Webster, The Logician. It

EDWARD EVERETT, THE RHETORICIAN.

IIT.

HENRY CLAY, THE POLITICIAN.

IV.

JOHN C. CALHOUN, THE METAPHYSICIAN.

V.

GEORGE McDUFFIE, THE IMPETUOUS.

VI.

LEWIS CASS, THE COURTEOUS.

al ¢ CONTENTS.

y VI y

THOMAS H. BENTON, THE MAGISTERIAL.

VI.

WILLIAM C. PRESTON, THE INSPIRED DECLAIMER.

IX.

TH

MAS CORWIN, THE NATURAL ORATOR.

Preface

On last September was published the “Orarors or THE American Revouution.” 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 scrutiny 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 a Vill “a PREFACE.

to read. But, Gufortanately, 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 i. one’s eloquence. The author may have failed in this respect, as in other important particulars; 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-

» isis ¥ 1X 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 succeeding page. ! '

In dedicating this work to the Yourttiifen 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 lawless violence of every ruffian.”’

Cincinnati, Feb. 22, 1849.

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CHAPTER I. .

THE LOGICIAN. ae : R - ves

Aut honor to “ The Old Granite State!” The contracted 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 literature 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 inimitable shapes of savage grandeur, tinged with the hues of untold centuries, and over which awe-inspiring storms often sweep with thunders in their train. Thisis the influence 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 fuly to relish the best qualities of their works.

In the present discussion, we propose to consider the

2 . LIVING ORATGRS 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 iii elements 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 exemplified 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 giao of Common Pleas, for the State.

Salisbury, to this sia is a retired, aholigh flourishing 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 temperature of the mountainous region of his advent, it is eee that we should employ the language of Milton in | Says he: “ The north parts of this

“orn a thousand miles, and so cold in winter, that the 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 _ se down as it were stifled.” ‘

The best commentary to the genius of a people is a visit to the scenery encompassed by 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 times, and the thrilling conceptions 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 onall 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 spade so dense and uniform, infuse into. the breast the of a divinity ;’ and thus the ancients, struck with the.

living magnificence of nature, which they could not

=. 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 preset i we only glance at the circumstances

" attending his birth which were calculated nobly to imbue 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 Switzerland of America. It was fitting that 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 aglorious 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 augmentation of knowledge hereafter, for weal or woe. Above, beneath, and around us, open the avenues of infinite progression, 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 experience many*vicissitudes, may pass through many transitions, oe can never terminate. The soul, vivified wer to think, will outlive the universe which ds its thought, and will be still practising its juvenile excursions at the mere outset of its opening career,

Me - si DANIEL WEBSTER. 5 cs « e 2 while suns and systems, shorn of their glories, shall sink, in shattered ruins, to the caverns of ot oblivion

But the soul of man, : a

‘* Vital in every ‘part, "

Cannot, but by annihilation

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 indicate 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 Alexander 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 of rugged adventure they love to occupy. ‘This is an univeral rule. The Foulahs dwelling on the high Alps of Africa, are as superior to the tribes living ben aay as the natives of Cashmere are above the Hind as the Tyrolese are nobler than the Arab race. The cha-

racter of individuals and of nations is in a great mea-

*

‘ae tek sure influenced by their local position, eicouinatances 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 bo.d 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 refined education. But, ever since the first free school was established es wilderness-covered peninsula of Boston, in 1686, 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 intellectual powers, and gave direction to his splendid career. Had it not been for the wise policy of our fathers, in

_ openi ig 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 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, hesaid:— = |

“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 principle, 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 question, 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 to 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: increasing 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 ani We hope for a security beyond the law, an d a law, in the prevalence of enlightened and wel

-p rin-

Me 8 LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. e e e « cip] oral sentiment. We hope to continue and to prol g the time, when, in the villages and farm-houses of New England, there may be undisturbed sleep, nbarred doors. And knowing that our governdirectly on the public will, that we may preserve it, we endeavor to give a safe and proper direction to that publ ¢ will. .We do not, indéed, 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 fabrie may be secure, as well against open violence and overthrow, as against the slow but sure undermining of licentiousness.”

“T 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 blessings of religious instruction, and the elements of knowledge. 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 preparation, 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 hereafter. _ es

Mr. Webster finished the study of his profession in Boston, and was there admitted to the bar.in 1805. Mr. Gore, in whose office he had read law, ventured, on presenting him, to make a predictior court respecting his pupil’s future eminence, w 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 struggled 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 noholiday work. Let us inquire into the effects produced by severe and protracted 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 education, are said to be among the most remarkable achievements of even his remarkable life. It would seein as if he was determined to act for himself, as he advised the government to act in . ae 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 diligent. One of his classmates has attested with the liveliest interest to the generous and magnanimous spirit he showed among his early competitors, in the midst of 1*

10 LIVING s. 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 fregently 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. | pied

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 definition, is as good as any that can be given.

To educate is to develop ; not to make one man all

*

; * DANIEL WEBSTER. ll 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. i.

One of the renowned philosophers of an Bity beautifully 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 proportion 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 pencil, the creative chisel, and the Prcn: 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 attained, is not the tame passivity of the pupil to pedantic -dogmatizings. “low many young men,” said Coleridge, “are anxiously and expensively be-schoolmastered, 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 nature herself, to the simple truth, that as the forms of all ® i i - organized existence, so must all true and living knowledge, proceed from within ; that it may be trained, supported, fed, excited, but can never be infused nor impressed.”

This is a luminous statement of what we should never forget. Weare 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 sending thought out. The human soul is not a mere depot, 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 Wrearefully placed in such relations to appropriate aliment, as to excite the latent, original power that craves only such knowledge as it can appropriate to itself, and caf re-produce in shapes and excellence 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 giveneto 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, and does not admit of being developed in fragments. Man must grow up harmoniously, if he would rise to usefulness, with simultaneous expansion in trunk, branch and Lf

; a a foliage, as grows a tree; the sap of immortal energy must circulate without hindrance in every fibre, maturing fruits perennial and divine.

Two laws are manifest in the constitution of our nature, a due regard to which cannot but conduce to our welfare and elevate our conceptions of the Supreme Brine. In the first place, in proportion as the physical nature of a man is healthfully developed by suitable discipline, winning the greatest vigor of limb, and the greatest 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 beautified, gives strength and elegance to the body, and enlarges the sphere of action and enjoyment. These laws have been recognized and observed by the best educators 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, porticoes, 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 associations 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 a a ie ee geld LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. *

: ; education began with life and constantly augmented its force. Every festival of childhood was made enchanting 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 sacred enclosure of the gods. The games thereon practiced, among other uses, promoted manly education, by teaching that the body has its honors as well as the intellect. They felt that vast importance belongs to physical 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 virtues.. 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 /®neid,. 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 te

DANIEL WEBSTER. 155. i “i Ay every where arrested his attention, gave him the traveller’s “thirsty eye,” filled his mind with thrilling reminiscences, 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 Panathenza, as the name im- - ports, all the people of Atticatengaged i in the celebration, wearing their chaplets of flowers. The sports began early in the morning, with races on the banks of the IIlissus, in which the sons of the most distinguished citizens 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 presented to the competitors was the eulogy of Hermodius, Aristogeiton, 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 a LIVING ORATORS IN AMERICA. ay

- 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 different classes of citizens, adorned with garlands, among whom were seen old men of majestic mien, bearing Jpapches of olive; others of middle age, armed with

nces and bucklers as if ready to engage in war, Byonths, who sang hymns in honor of Minerva; beautiful boys, clad in a graceful tunic; and lastly girls, selected 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. Jt 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 inspiring 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-