Burlington tri-weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1852-1855, 1855-04-23
Firth nav Of Henry Clay.

Birth Day Of Henry Clay.
A grand festal banquet was held in New
York at the Metropolitan Hotelon the 18th
Of April, the seventy-eighth anniversary
Of the birth. of Henry Clay, which was en-
livened by songs, toasts and speeches
Among the published proceedings, which
we find in the New York Democrat, is an
eloquent response to the third regular toast
by Rev. SAMUEL OsGooD.
The third-The Memory Of Henry Clay
10 solemn silence.
Responded to BY the Rev. Samuel Osgood
who said that he was quite unexpectedly
called upon to occupy position which he
had hoped some person Of greater merit
would have more worthily filed. Every man
must b. fool who seeks to sustain . char
acter that dees not belong to him. Mary
spent lifetime 10 such an experiment who
failed at last. He was not politician and
would not try to be. [Applause.1 How mu-
slcylly came homo 70 every heart the sounds
he had heard there tonight How they tro't
back the fres' and Joyous associations of
youth! How they recalled to him the hap
py hours Of his college years, with their
freaks and merry m ,kings-there warm I'M
pulses and their halcyon hopes! their songs
too, when ne and his fellow students met
where they had no fear Of the grim tutor who
prescribed their wild mirth! He would re-
call not only the sentiments Of that great
man whose birthday those he saw around
him had assembled to COMMEMORATIVE
that great man whose words were the histo-
ry of our country set to the music of bis own
magnifcen, voice. (Applaus. And in this
connection he would refer to American elo-
quence. We had good pictures, good statu-
airy, good poets, but the great American art
was OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES, the voice of our
great work as a nation.
Our orators have not only told US what
to do, but how to do those things which be-
long to our grand destiny. We have our
home, we have our liberty, We have our part
in religion to sustain and defrnd, but more
than all this, We have cause to plead; and
in this free land every man his schools; he
has bis oppor unities Of self culture; he can
plead his own institutions, his own Jaws; he
can stan upon his own feet ard freely ex-
press his own opinions. Such were the priv
ilges and such the principles defended by
our great commoner, our noble orator, Henry
Cay, and as years roll on, such W IL be the
guiding light to Il ose who follow his pre-
cept>; such the beacon Of our country in uns
fold ng our giant capacities aud realizing
It's gloriou, destinies. (Long appau-e.]
II has be "a d that poets are born but
orators are made. II poets are born such,
the orator too has much poetry within him.
You may dose man with books and rules;
he may resort to all til arts of elecution and
the graces Of rhetor 6, but if the holy. f o be
not within him, if tn electric spark be want
ing, wo ds fail him and his efforts are vast
cd in the void. Clay was the or nor born;
The orator esdow d with speach and mirn by
Heaven itself. TO b m the great events Of
his country's his DRY, the magniicence of It's
sc nrrv w.re inspiration; It's very surface
was fac beam ng into his own with ln,eil-
igence and prom.s.; it's noble rivers were tb .
arteries, Its noun ain ridges the vertab q,
its winds anu currents tn breath of l,v ng
DO " hat hs Low d, and from their gr ,ndeur
hIs own lips gathered the utterance of sub
limhy. He saw not merely It's ron and its
gold, its cotton and its corn, but in tn Splen-
did scene on which he gazed monarch of
intellect, he brhsld the grand school and
the arena of the nations growth and progress.
[Applause. And when the timn has !. ONE
when tie gold of California calls on the iron
of the Alleghanlcs, and the prairies, of tie
West call to the workshops of the East:
Come, let w see what can be dope for our
national industrial glory! then Tie g'nius of
Henry Clay triumphs, transcendent above
al her fame. As an Ahk-rican citizen; in
the Senate of his country; OF in the foreign
courts surrounded by the pride AMI state of
royal control, he stood in that character no.
pier than all. (Applsuse. am not ashsm-
cd of my country; | am not ashamed to call
myself an American citixen-thoss named
Samuel may lay some claim to the title!
Great LAUGHTER and applause.l My fathers
house stands on Bunker hill, and never
heard the notes Of the national ditty that so
stir the heart Of every American, without
feeling. that there was something more
in it than mus alone-that it was fraught
with duties that - it led US in other DAYS 90
should lead 10 on now, to the rejection of
influences foreign to our Institutions and our
liberties.
Tho eloquent speaker then alluded to the
character OF true orator, and illustra-
ted it by saying that Clay's outbursts of ora
tory were the more sublime from the con-
trast they bore to his usually calm oolIoquial
style. This, with his rare personal gifts,
united to . majesty of his presence and the
charm OF his winning voice, were the attri-
hutes that commanded the ear of listening
, Senates! (enthusiasm.1
Referring, then to the inspiring strains of
Yankee doodl,, the speaker did not mean to
denouEce any man or set of men, but might
the wings of our glorious old eagle never be
piercrd out with the black feathers from the
night raven Of Jesuisism! All no askei v -
fair play, open and above board. in An open
& Id with our Star Spanylod Banner for our