The true Democrat., 1857-03-24
MORNING. MARCH
Lecture of Hon. Rufus Choate.

Times of National Revelations. as affcctipo Deliberative Eloquence," was one we'll ca,cu- lated to call out the distinguished orators mar. vellous rhetorical powers and was handled in a master'y manner The Temple was said to be filled ny an audience who testified, by freouen, and hearty applause, to the delight with which the lecture was heard.
 MT. Choate commenced by saying that i we considered deliberative eoquence in its higher form and noble exertion as the utterance of men of genious before large assemblies and in great con niunCtnres of public affairs, it was quite plain that those largest coniunctures of public affairs, which were properly called times of revolution, must demand special delbera tive elonuence of their own. In such an ace all genius is moulded bv it. and none is so spiri- tual, none so .elf-nourshed, none so individual izpd, none so absorbed in self-consciousness as not to how before the omnpresent spirit of the age Goethe, Byron, Alferi, ard the fal mighter Milton, were illustrations that would readily occur to every one of this fact. Take the extraordinary case of Milton,-that Eng land of the great civil war.-that England of the Commonwealth and of Oliver Crnmwell- that England which saw a king diScrowned and heheaded, the house of lords abolished. Puritanism triumphant on the bloody days of W orcester and Dunhar,-and how does the spirit of that age haunt you in Simpson Ar gonstes Paradise Lost, and Paradise Regained "a memory of earth, revived in the peace of the worl beyond the grave, ages after death, Milton'S soul was, if ever any was, {" a star. and dwct apart" vet everywhere in the far of battle on the plains of heaven, in the tremen- douS concepti1n of that spirit of self.wil and selftruSt which rises in rebellion against the Highest, in the deliberations of the fallen lcmi- gods-evprv where you seem to meet the Pur- itan republican, the defender of the claims of the people of England to be free, the aponsst, the advocate of the execution of kings, the champion in all lands and ages, of liberty of consciercc of speech, and of the press, the sc- cretarv and counsellor of Cromwell the chil! and memorial of his age. That mighty iudi- vidunlitv of his, what il, but a certain hardy. original and developed nature, moulle.l l and charged hv the grand prof ct and shalp re- atips of time of national revolutions; and these characteristics seem to gp with him every wlerr bearing tho impress of this double ori- gin in the paths of E lcn on the prrilouS elges of battle wa.el for the throne of Grl in re- porting the couns"ls of the Infinite in the vast eternity h Goethe, Byron, AIieri, LII the spirit of inc 'meiS c1raly strong in thesemin,r and vctresnlendent names aS in the v"un, Nj. poeon. They showed it's fire, is passion. its longng its frnn- thinking, it's deep ius ght. its "dark rrrest," as fully as he ,lId and they gave their voi"n in those wonderful, uue lullled songs as he lil in the thunlers of his first vic tory over the AuStrians,
 Mr. Choate then referred to that "most con nf ba I,ti IL Georgios of Virgil" as another Case in illu,tra. ton. What was all that but the long sigh of the peorle of Rome and Italy, the people ol the wo H. for rest and peacr?
 Rnt # that kind of genius, the genius of art ana poetry whose nature is delight, takes ifs bias from the events of the are in which it lives, how much more must this be true of tl,at genius whose art it is by speech, by earnest ap pealS tn.strong feelings by thrilling enquence, to communicate with the people al such an hour, uron the emotions 1t eNciteS, upon the hopes it inspires, upon the duties it imposes uron the tremendous alternatives it holds out? ? How inevitable 1t is that that which we pro- prrv call revolution shoull create it's own tone and style aud tyne of public speech? Revo lntion he sh0ull call that sencv throu sh which new nation is suddenly born or an old nation dies: or bv which, preserving its Ienti tv aS naion 1t changes from government of freedom and becomes enslaveA or puts of constitution of slavery and becomes d free government hv it>ef
 Illustrations of these different types of revo- lntinn the orator cited in the case of Greece grand, sad and memorable forever-when Phil ip and his successor struck down that once r.- dient forehead forever; in that instance booder and more instructive far, when republican Rome hecame the Rome of the CaSarS; in the case of Frarce, in 'S9 when government of sa- was cXchangel for one of freedom; and of Ireland in 1782 and of our own country in llS6, when new nations sprang into being.-- D fering as these revolutions did in their Causes and in the lessons which they teach, and diff trrng Tn some particulars, in the enQuence which they scverrallv demand there were vet certain rrrnliaritieS of the elnqueuce common to them all hv which 1t is essentially di>crim mated frdmthe public Spe 'ch of times question, happier, less grand, and more glorious
 If 1t Wls borne in mind that the general aim ot all surh elo1uence to persuade to ac. ton by appealing to the passions of men, which are the sf rnLS "t action-to some love of our own happiness, love of country, love of man. love ct honor-to some approval of our own consciences-to some fear or some love of God
 
 ted by the nature of the actions to which 1t perSuades, the nature of the passions to which 1t appeals in order to per:uade to those actions: and then he would say, the peculiartv for which the eloquenccs of all revolutions IS dis tnguishcd is this, that the actions to which it persuaaes are the highest the most heroic that man can do, an1 the passions tr which it ap- pralS are he loftieSt that man can feel. "lIigh actions through and by high passions" says Milton. "these are the enls a"d these the means of the orator of revolution" Hence are his topics large, simple, ntcllisible. affect, lng; hence are his views broad. comprehensive popular. It iS not the small thing of minor politics thHt mon come together al such times to speak of and to her. It is not 10 speak of the freedom of an Athenian 10 change his tribe ab"nt the freedom of Roman kri thtS to share Tn the tlial of cases partly or completely with the seraie. It Is not ahont allowing ten pound house hoi!er to vote for member of para ment, It is not abont the tax upon the oaion seeds or even tax upon t"a that men come together " 7o be, O. noito De-" that is the rnes ton of that hour. Shall the children of the men ct Marathon st"np to be the slaves of Philip? Shall the Roman senate bow down their heals to take the fettnrS forging hv the military servants of Julius Crsar? Shall the assembled representatives of France disperSe at the orders of the king, their work not done or shall the messenger be bl in thunder tones of Miraheau, Go back, and tell your master we sit here to do the will of our constituents: to bring back liberty to France. and shall not move from these seats but at the point of the bavonet"? Shall Ireland rise from her long rrostraton, shall she " advance from injuries to arms, from arms to liberty, from liberty to glo- ry"? Shall the thirteen colonies become free and independent states, and be admitted, una hashed nnterrfed equal in the majestic tenn pie of the nations? These are the thoughts that fill and distend all breasts at such time as revolution. The people come together hun gcring for the bred of life, and then the orator Of the revolution meets them, kindlng with their hre svmpathvzng with their great beat ing heart lifted up by a sublime and rare mo- ment of history made real to his consciousness. The last evil Of men and states impending. oc ID