Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1857-03-04
=. From the Boston Post February 49, -
LECTURE BY HON. RUFUS CHOATE ON DE.
3 LlBERAIIVE ELOQUENCE. .

X
Hon. Rufus Choate His subject, The Times Of
National Revolutions, as affecting Deliberatve Elo-
quence" was one well calculated to call the dis
tinguished orators marvellous rhetorical powers and
was handled in mastery manner. The Temple
filled by an audience who testified, by frequent
and hearty applause, to the delight with which the
lecture was heard. go g.-.. = T..
MIR. Choate commenced by saying that if we con-
sidered delberatve eoquence in its higher form and
noble exertion the utterance of of genius be-
fore large assemblies and in great conjunctures Of
public affairs, it quite plain that those largest
conJunctures of public affairs, which were properly
called times Of revolution, must demand special de-
Lucrative eloquence of their own In such age,
all genius is moulded by it. and none is spiritual
none sef-nourshcd, none 50 individualizcd, none
SO absorbed in its own sefconsciousness, not to
bow before the omnipresent spirit of the age
Goethe Byron Alfieri, and the far mightier Milton
were illustrations that would readily occur to every
one of this fact. Take the extraordinary case of
Milton-that England of the great civil war-that
England OF the Commonwealth and of Oliver Crom
well-tlat England which saw king discrowned
aud beheaded, the House of Lords abolished, Puri-
tanism triumphant on the bloody days of Worcester
and Dunbar-and how does the spirit of that age
haunt you in Sampson Agonistes, Paradise Lost
i'll the peace of the world beyond the grave, ages
after death. M'lton's soul was il any ever was, "a
star, and dwel apart" yet everywhere in the jar of
battle on the plains of heaven, in the tremendous
conception of that spirit of self-will and seftrust
which rises in rebellion against the Highest in the
deliberations Of the fallen dcngods- where
you seem to meet the Puritan republican, the de-
fender of the claims of the people of England to be
flee, the apolosst the advocate Of the execution of
kings, the champion, in all lands and ages ofiiberty
OF conscience ofspeech, and of the press the secre-
tsry and counsellor Of Cromwcll-the child and me-
NORA! OF his age. That mighty individuality Of his,
what was it, but certain hardy. original and de-
velopcd nature, moulded and changed by the grand
project and sharp realities Of time Of national rev.
olution and these characteristics seem to 60 with
him every where bearing the impress of this double
origin in the paths of Eden, on the perous edges
OF battle waged for the throne of God in reporting
the counses of the Infinite in the vast eternity. In
Goethe, Byron, Alfcri-thc spirit Of the times is
equally strong in these minor and yet respondent
names as in the young Napoleon. They showed its
fire. its passion, its longing, its free thinking, its
deep insight "ts dark unrest" as fully as he did,
and they gave their voice in those wonderful, une.
qualied songs he did in the hunders Of his first
victory over the Austrians.
Mr.. Choate then referred to that "most consum-
mate production Of the Latin genius, the Georges
OF Virgil, as another in illustration. What
was all that but the long sigh OF the people Of Rome
and Italy, the people Of the world, for rest and
peace?
But if that kind of genius the genius of art and
poetry, whose nature is delight, takes its bias from
the events of the age in which it lives, how much
by speech by earnes, appeals TO strong feelings, by
thrilling eloquence, to communicate with the people
at such an hour, upon the emotions it exccS upon
the hoeS It inspires upon the duties 1t imposes, up
on the tremendous alternatives it holds out! How
inevitable it is that that which properly call rev.
olution should create its own tore and style and
type OF public speech? Revolution he should call
that agency through which a new nation is sudden
ly born old nation dies or by which, preserv-
ing its life and its identity nation, it changes
from government of freedom, and becomes cnslav-
ed, or puts OFT constitution of slavery and becomes
free government b. itself.
Illustrations of these different types of revolution
the orator cited In the case Of Greccc-giand sad
and memorable forever-whcn Philip and his sue
cessor struck down that radiant forehead for
ever IN that instance, bloodcr and more instructive
far, when republican Rome became the Rome Of the
Caesars; in the case Of France, in so, when gov
eminent OF slavery was exchanged for one of free
dom; and OF Ireland in 1872, and Of our own coun.
Try IN 1856, when new nations sprang into being.
Differing as these revolutions did in their causes,
and in the lessons which they teach, and differing,
IN some particulars in the eloqucnce which they
scveraiiy demand, there were yet certain PECULIAR.
ties OF the cloQuence common to them all by which
it's essentially Disseminated from the public speech
OF times question: happier less grand and more glo-
rious.
lift was borne in mind that The general aim of all
such elcqucnce was to persuade to action by appeal
ing to the passions of men, which the springs Of
action-to some love Of our own happiness love OF
country, love of man, love of honor-to some ap-
provai OF our own conscenccS-to some fear or some
love of God-thcy would see that cloIucncc is dis
eliminated by the nature of the actions to which it
persnadeS, the nature of the passions to which it
appeals IN order 10 persuade to those actions and
then, ho would say, the popularity for which the
eIoqucnce of all revolutions is distinguished is this,
that the actions to which persuades arc the high
est, the most heroic that man do, and the pas
sions to which it appeals the loftiest that man
can feel. "Ilgh actions through and by high pas
sions," says Milton, these the ends and these
the means If the orator of revolution" Hence are
his topics large simple, ineligible, affecting; hence
are his views broad, comprehens We, popular. 1t is
not the small things Of minor politics at men como
together at such times to speak of and to hear. 1t
is not to speak of the freedom Of an Athenlan to
change his tribe, about the freedom of Roman
knights to share in the trial of partly or COM
petely wi the Senate, it is not about allowing
tenpound householder to vote for a member of par
lament, it is not about a tax upon onion seeds, or
even a tax upon tea, that men come together. "7o
b.: not to be- that is the question of that hour.
Shall the children of the men Of Marathon stoop to
be the slaves of Philip? Shall the Roman Senate
bow down their heads to take the letters forging by
the military servants of Julius Caesar? Shall the
assembled representatives of France dispense at the
orders Of the king, their work not done, shall the
messenger be bid in the thunder tones of Mirabcau,
Go back, ard 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 baYonetg" Shall Ireland rise
Fl ON her long prostraton, shall she " advance from
injuries to arms, from arms to liberty from liberty
to gory?" Shall the thirteen colonies become free
and Independent states, and be admitted, unabash.
ed, unterried, equal, into the majestic temple of
the nations? These the thoughts that fill and
distend all breasts at such time revolution The
people come together hungering for the bread of
life, and then the orator of the revolution. meets
them kindling with their fire, sympathsing with