Washington telegraph., 1855-11-07
NO. 45.
Tie Character of clay's Eloouence

1t was good fortune to hear the perorat;o,
OF Henry Clay's great speech on the removal Q,
the deposits. He was a Western man. of this
Western hemisphere a kind of incarnation CT
American genius, seli-taught; with little cultiva:
oil any Kind from books like one of the magniti-
cent trees OF his own Kentucky, an out-growth ot
nature. If had not heard him. we feel quito
sure that we should have gone TO the grave with
out the knowledge of the amazing superiority oi
~ioken words over the silent eoquence of the
printed page We never before knew the mean
ing OF the word oratory. There was not sy.
liable ot rant there was not one tone of vocfera-
ton Our readers who never heard Mr.. Ciay
Will hardly believe Us when we say that in thu.
very tempest, torrent and whirlv-ind OF his mas
son. he spoke slowly, delIberately-every tone
4 about the weight of talent We will tell the
reader Oh our fancy, not quite sure that he will
understand 1t; 1t put us in the mind of the train
ed horses of Apollo. who drew the chariot of the
Sun. The chariot was of the richest and most
brilliant workmanship, the harness of divine fab
ric. and the steeds were demigods. The incon-
celvable strength and velocity perfectly
even and musical balance: they kept pace to an
inch. and every trace was of precisely the same
I traction, and never overstrained.
Mr.. Clays tone, when its sunk nearly to
whisper, was distinctly audible as distant
running water at midnight. and his outpourng o,
denunciation was slow and steady as the tread OF
Nemesis Every syllable, We had almost said
every letter. was distinctly audible and as musi-
y
very lightning tbat scathed to the bone, curled
frs: beautifully around his arm, like that of Phi
dian Jove, and launched, not by STEALTH
bat with deiiberation that would exceed the be-
lief. His language had, by the instinct of won
dsriul genius, a classic polish which is usually
" learned 10y slow and sedulous cultivation: there
as, indeed, no richness OF quotation ausion,
no bubbi:ng up from concealed fountains of learn
ing. TO faint odors of the flowers long erewhile
plucked in the haunts OF Muses., but instead, 4
Kind OF creative power, as one who had interwov-
en- iu his nature ard essence all that he could have
learned of the force OF language If he had stndied
as of one who had been to the peEetralia ct the
temple. aud did not need TO hearken to its priests.
The result was, not like Webster, or Burke, or
Cicero, but it was like Chatham, and still more
like the oration OF the Crown and the traditions
we have OF Demosthenes
Our conclusion is that if, in the greatest OF ora;
tors. consumate genius led not to widness
centricity. nor to dislocaton vcciferaton, nor
to anything rough inelegant, but to a native
beauty, a balanced symmetry, yelled glory, and
a sublimity which'yet had in it noble simplicity
that we who have not his wondrous gifts. must
seek by cultivation what he possessed as his birth
right and if he did not think it well or wise to
throw himself out of harmony with nature OF the
great model arts which have approXimated nature
most nearly it is scarcely becoming in us to act
differently. If the master kept within temperate
bounds, might not this alone be well for the
scholar!