Daily American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1852, 1852-04-01
AMERICAN TELEGRAPH.
Lotters from the Capital.
WASHINGTON, March p, 1885,
- - -.....L -, a. :.

Tvered in the Senate on Monday last This
effort had for some time been looked forward
TO with unusual interest. The character of
this brilliant Southron, the peculiar dramatic
style of his oratory his position in his party as
regards some of the great, exciting questions of
the time-the questions themselves-all con-
spired to render his coming out /" an event of
moment.
At an early hour the Senate was crowded,
as | only remember it to have been during
the great Compromise struggle. Mr. Soule
rose, and began speaking with that quiet, de-
liberate dignity that somewhat elaborate grace,
so peculiar to him. His voice was pitched on
u low key, and its foreign accent was for time
more than usually apparent. This quietude of
manner, this elegance of word and gesture,
would have puzzled one then first looking on
his strong Frcnch-Spanish face, and meeting
the flash of his intensely dark eyes. Such
tones, such action, seem no true interpreters of
powerful and passionate nature and we can
but believe them the artistic result of long
study and resolute practice. In Mr.. Soule we
can see that will is ever supreme over impulse,
and that the artist has mastered the genius
And is not this wise? for, with the conscious
ness Of the power which genius gives, he escapes
all it's disagreeable liabilities. If he denies
himself the wild JOY Of a full and fearless aban-
don to impulse and inspiration, he is spared
those miserable imputations Of madness and
folly, poured upon the enthusiast and the poet.
He does not build, with his genius, radiant
cloud-palaces in the far heavens; he does not
bridge with its aerial structures the shadowy
chasms and infinite deeps OF thought; he but
erccts here and there along his way, slender
Grecian column, or throws over it fair, orna-
mented arches, beneath which he walks grace
fully, as to slow and somewhat solemn music
Towards the close of his speech, the manner
of Mr.. Soule became more imprisoned, his
tones grew clear and ringing, and his dark,
tragic face was Illuminated with enthusiasm;
yet through all there was not one indignantly
energetic action There must be u primal
:" law in his members Of unerring grace, or
he is a finished artist in this respect
The tone of this speech is brave and gener-
ous and it contains passages of rare strength
and beauty. have never heard anything finer
in the Senate Chamber than that portion of
this speech beginning with these eloquent SEN
fences:
Sir, let us not be lulled into sumber by the
idea that we arc too distant from Europe to be
affected by her political commissions Know
you not that violence and oppression are con-
tagious, and that their triumph, in any point of
time, or on any point of the globe, reacts on the
moral. world
why, Mr.. President, speak of isolation,
when you can lride your floating palaces from
continent to continent in less time than it
took your fathers, fifty years ago. to travel
from Buffalo to New York, from Boston to
Philadelphia when every wave of the ocean
brings you swift messengers, blown over to
these shores by the same breeze that waited |
them from the Eastern hemisphere when |
low as 1T beats, you can hear every pulsaton
of the European heart beneath the iron hands
that strive to compress and stife its languid
and agonizng energies :"
In manner singularly impressive, Mr. Soule
gave most extraordinary, beautiful and
solemn prophecy of Lord Pownall. But the
reverent hush which succeeded its sublime
close, Mr. Cass may his shadow henceforth be |
less and lessD had the bad taste to break, by |
the exclamation, 9 He lcGs On old fogy after ma
oun heart" ! half expected to hear the cry,
"Put him OUT" The courtly and somewhat
fastidious speaker looked staggered at first
but he turned the interruption TO account in a
very characteristic manner, actually compli-
menting the General stretch Of Parliament
airy courtesy if not of Christian charity. Mr.. |
Soule's peroration struck me as rather abrupt |
as not so well rounded 50 perfectly finished as
| had expected; but it was very fine, the last
sentence in especial.
Last night Ole Bulls concert came off with |
immense eclGt. There was the most brilliant
audience ever recollect to have seen in Wash
ington.
Ole Bull and his music arc one and indi- |
VISIBLE 1t is the fullest expression Of his |
soul-the perfect utterance, the strong and ju- |
bilant outpouring of his nature. He seems to |
create sounds absolutely new to every ear
sounds you never hope to hear elsewhere on
earth from the tender or terrible harmonies of
Nature, from the most wondrous of human
voices, or from any instrument by the cunning
of man contriyed Won receive them NJ tho
peculiar, sole, inimitabe language Of rare
and most individual genius. His genius to the
imagination takes all forms and suggests all
images of vitality, power, passion, mirth. joy
ance, and whim Sometimes, when in full ca
reer, it seems to dash along like a bold rider
on a fiery steed-now it seems the surge of
waves, now the rush Of fame-now the silvery
shout or low gurgle Of mountain streams-now
the dainty carol Of birds, or the frolicsome
come and go" Of the night winds at play
with the summer leaves
1t Is not always his grandcst and most bril-
liant passages which move one most deeply
and thoroughly There are notes which he
filings from him as Of little worth-small sepa
rate melodies--single pebbles Of sound, which
90 ringing down into the deeps of the soul
while the slumbering emotions they disturbed
circle on circle, 20 widening into the infinite
All that marvellous violin close quarters
indeed, in which to compress such countless
wonders and dclights--as rare marvel as
the miraculous pitcher Of Jove or that petite
boite of Pandora, which once imprisoned all
the woes and pestilences Of the world
That magic bow you cannot believe it in
the hand of Ole Bull, a mere thing Of wood
and -hair-more like it seems to the wand
Of an enchanter, with which he charms and
coniures forth the obedent music The look
4 ..xFn Dill H..