Daily Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1854-1855, 1855-06-16
from The Presbyterian Quarterly for June,

from the Presbyterian 0Jsrferly LOT sene.l
The Character Of Henry CiAy's Eloausnce.
1t was our good fortune to hear the psro-
ration of Henry Gays great speech on the
removal of the deposits. He was West
On msa of this Westesn Hemisphere; a
Kind of incarnasion Of Amsrican genius.
ssli-,auaAt, with little cultivation of any
Mind fro6 books, ike one Of the magnificent
trees of9his own Ksntucky, on outgrowth
Of nature. II we had not heard him, we
feel quite sure that we should have gone TO
the grave without the knowledge OF the
amazing superiority Of spoken words over
the silent elequence OF the printed page.
We never before knew the meaning OF the
word oratory. But it was not at all like our
Imagination of it.-There was not syilaoie
OF rant, there was not one tone OF vociies-
alton. Our readers, who never heard AIR.
CLAY, will hardly believe US when we say
that, in the very tempest, torrent and ~hiri-
wind of his passion. he spoke slowly, de-
! liberately every tone about the weight OF
a taieut
We will tell the reader Of our fancy, not
quite sure that he will understand IL; il put
ms in the mind of the trained horses of
Apollo. who drew the chariot to the Sun.
brilliant workmanship. the harness Of divine
fabric, and the s;eeds were demi-gods. Their
inconceivabe strength snd velocity was
perfectly even and musical balance; they
kept pace TO an inch. and every trace was
Of precisely the same traction, and never
overstsained Mr.. Clay tone. when ltsunS
nearly TO whisper, was as distinctly au
oble as distant running water ut midnlght,
aud his caipauring OF denunciatien was as
slow and steady as the tread Of Nemesis.
Every syllable, we had alnust said every
letter, was distinctly audible, and as mu-
steal as the fall OF wster in marble foun-
tain the very lightning that scathed TO the
bone, curled first beautiful around his arm,
like that the Phidian Joye, and was laIn-
ched, not as By stealth, bat with q deliher-
alton tina, would exceed belief.
His language had, by the instinct Of .
wonderful genius, a classic polish, which Is
usually only learned BY slow and sedulous
| cultivation there was indeed no richness
1 of quotation or sllnsion. no bubbling UP from
concealed fountains or learning, no faint
\ odors OF the flowers long ere while plucked
/ in the haunis of the Muses., but, instead, a
! kind Of creative power, as one who had
interviewer In his nature and essence. all
/ that he could have learned Of the force OF
language il be had studied, as Of one who
had been 10 the peneirslia of the temple,
and did not need to hearken to its priests,
The result was, of course, not Ike Web
ster 0, Cicero, bot it was like Chatham, and
still more like the Grafton for the Crown,
and the traditions we have ofDemosthenes
Our coRclusioa is, that If, in this greatest
Of orators, consummate genius led not 10
wildness or eccentricity, not TO dislocation
/ or moderation, not to anything rough or
/ inelegant, but TO native beauty, balan.
ced symmetry, yelled glory, and subl-
nifty which yet had in il noble simplicity
I that we who have not this wondrous gifts,
must seek BY cultivation what he possesses
as his birth right; and ifhe did not think j,
well or wise to throw himself out of har-
mony with nature, or the models of art
which have appropriated nature and most
nearly, it is scarcely becoming in US to act
differently. II the master keep within
/ tempered bounds might not this also be
well for the scholar.