The Jeffersonian Democrat. [volume] (Chardon, Ohio) 1854-1865, 1860-02-17
Everett on the Lawrence Catastrophe
and the Death of Macauley.

At tho celebration Of the Franklin Typo
graphical Society at Boston. last Tuesday
cvcning.Mr. Everett repeated bis oraton On
The Early Days Of Franklin" prefacing it
with the following remarks:
sho'd do injustice to tho audience before
which have tho honor TO appear, and to
myself. II could begin to address YOU on
any subject without first giving utterancc,
on your behalf and my own, to tho feelings
of amazemcnt and grief caused by the re.
cent calamity ut Lawrence. While our first
emotions are those of uuayailIng sorrow at
tho sacrifice Of life (torrfc in amount, and
doubly so for the cruel agonie5 with which
in many cases it must have been acconpan-
iod } aud of Christian sympathy with suffer
ing survivors and boreavcd friends. it is our
duty TO cherish sentiments of devout thank
tulncss to the gracious Providence bv which
limits were placed to tho work of dostruc-
ton, and hundred were snatchod from the
very Jaws Of death. Nor can We fail to take
melancholy pleasure in rejecting that the
indcscribabie horrors of tho scene were re.
lowed by displays of Christian resignation
and saint.lkO huro;sm, in the humber walks
Of life, not to be surpassed in tEo history of
our lgco The poor child, who, cheerful
and unselfsh, refused to bo rescued ill Mr..
Nash was saved, and who was crushed before
her turn camc-:he littlc girl, who, when she
perceived that her own escape was impossi-
bic, held out her due bill to her more turtu-
nate campanion, amid the scorching flames,
saying You will bo sayed--l shall rot /;
carry this to my poor father -nCodCd no
further preparation for the company of the
angels, to which. like the prophet Of old, they
were caught up in chariot OF fire. Nor
will you blame mo if, in connection wiki
this cnlamity at our door, allude to the
melancholy tidings which have just reached
US from abroad, of the death Of tho moat
brilliant writer of our own or any age whose
works for thirty years have been the wonder
and the delight of all who read the EngIsh
language beneath the circuit OF the sun /; an
author who, as it seems to me, more than
any other, ancient or modern, was clothed
with the magic power of re. e.creating the
dead past, and giving to the mon and things
of other times the form and color Of an
actual reviving presence; writer eminent
not among ordinary associates, but uusur-
passed, ii not uncqualed in a company OF
hstorans-soverai of them Our honored
countrymun-two of them with himself
mourniully signaiizng the year that has just
| closed any ono of whom would have CON
ferrcd sufficient honor on the age in which
he lived That in the intensity with which
he threw himself into the scenes described
by him; aud took part, so to say in the
great contentious OF tho times, he never fell
into an error of judgment or made false
estimate of character, need not be majr.
tanned; ono such has been keenly felt il
this country. An honest and fearless thinker
and writer, ho could not avoid collision Of
opinion and feeling with those who differed
from him. But his errors were spots on the
noontido sun. Better than this, in Lord
MacauIay (truiy a noblcman by Heaven 5
| pa;enD the writer was less admirable than
tho man the splundor Of bis page was cx,
ccled, if possible. by the brilliaDcy Of his
conversation and tho charm OF his personal
intercourse. All the world admired his COR.
geous Imagination, the magnificenco of his
diction, his miraculous range Of memory
which graspod tho literature OF every Ian
gungc and every age, and held all its stores
of illustration prompt at command; but
those who knew him loved for the unaffected
mookness with which ho bore his transcend.
ent honors, the sunny cheertuness of his
disposition, the generous warmth OF his
] hulrk.