The independent press. (Abbeville C.H., S.C.) 1853-1860, 1859-08-26
EVERETT ON THE CHARACTER AND EL0.
QUENCE OF CHOATE.

eulogy on Mr.. Choate, at the Public Meeting
in Boston is one of those productions which
are drunk in by the mind and heart
which an avidity that never tires. We make
the following extract, and need not COM
mend it to the attention of our renders:
IF ever there was truly disinterestod
patriot Rufus Choate was that man. In his
political career there WAS no shade of selfish.
ness. Had he been willing to purchase
advancement at the price often paid for it,
there was never moment, from the time
he first made himself felt and known, that
he could not have commanded anything
which any party could bestow. But be desir-
ed none of the rewards or honors of success.
On the contrary, he not only for his
individual sell, regarded office as burden
An obstacle in the way of the cultivation
Of his professional and literary taste-but
he held that of necessity, and parties to as
sumo sectional character, conservative
opinions seeking to moderate between the
extremes which agitate the country must of
necessity be in the minority; that it was the
mission of men who hold such opinions, not
to I'll honorable and lucrative posts which
are unavoidably monopolized by active
leaders but to seek prudent words on great
occasions, which would command the re
spect if they do not enlist the sympathies
of both the conflicting parties and insensi-
bly, influence the public mind. He compre.
hended and accepted the position; lie knew
that it was one liable to be misunderstood,
and sure to be misrepresented at the time
but not less sure to be justified when the
interests and passion Of the day are buried
beneath the clods of the valley.
But this ostracism, to which his con-
servative opinions condemned him, produced
not shade ofbitterness' in his feelings. His
patriotism was AS cheerful as it was intense.
He regarded our confederate Republic will,
his wonderful adjustment of State and Fed
eral organization the State bearing the
burden and descending to the details of local
administration, the General Government
moulding the whole into one general
nationality, and representing in the family of
natons,-as the most wonderful phenom-
enon in the political history Of the world.
Too much of statesman to join the
unrefectiug disparagement with which
other great forms of national polity are
often spoken of in this country, he yet
considered the Oldest, wisest and the most
successful Of them, the British Constitution,
sas far less wonderful political system than
our confederate Republic. The territorial
extent of the country; the beautiful play
into each other of its great commercial,
agricultural, and manufacturing interest the
material prosperity, the advancement in
arts, and letters, and manners already made,
the capacity for further indefinite progress
in this vast theatre Of action, in which
Providence has placed the Anglo American
ce-stretching from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, from the Arctic circle to the tropics
but he could dwell and he believed that
with patience, with mutual forbearance.
with willingness 10 think that our brethren,
however widely we may differ from them
may be honest and patriotic as ourselves
our common country would eventually reach
height of prosperity Of which the world
as yet has seen 20 example.
With such gifts suck attachments and such
a spirit, he placed himself, as matter of
course, not merely at the head Of the jurists
and advocates, but of the public speakers
OF the country. After listening to him at
the bar, in the Senate, or upon the academic
or popular platform, you felt that you had
heard the best that could be said in either
place. That mastery which he displayed at
the forum and in the deliberative assembly
was not less conspicuous in every other
form Of public address.
As happens in most cases of eminent
jurists and statesmen, possessing brilliant
imagination and able to adorn severe
course of reasoning with the charms of a
glowing fancy or sparkling style,.it was
sometimes said of him, as it Has said before
him of Erskine, of Ames and Pinckney
that he was more rhetorioisp, chan
logician. that he dealt 10 words aud figures
Of speach more than in facts or arguments
These are the inyidiops comments, by which
dull or prejudiced men seek to disparsae
those gifts which are fursherest from their
own reach.
1t is perhaps BY his di.seses Oh
aoadsmieal and paaaar occasions that be
kisaaet extensively known in the com
6d6sH, % it " these which vsrs listened
to with delighted admiration by the largest
audience. He loved, to sresf a pdsglitersry
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