Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1860-05-09

speech that consummate orator and statesmen
ever made produced the impression made by
Sheridan in his celebrated Grafton on the i'm
peachment of Warren Hastings; no speech of
Mr.. Clay's may be compared with the great
oration of Mr.. Webster in reply to Mr.. Hayne
but Tor a series of parliamentary speeches and
parliamentary triumphs, no British orator may
be compared with Pitt, and no American with
Clay. To a very high order of intellect, they
both united bold Temperament, indomitable
resolution, the faculty of command-the high
est faculty of all. Mr.. Webster, with brilliant
genius,with wit less studied, if not so spark
ling as Mr.. Sheridan, and with oratorical gifts
not surpassed in ancient or modern times, was
OF convivial, not of resolute temperament,
and was deficient in nerve and firmness. The
want of these was felt throughout his career,
and enabled others to succeed when he should
have triumphed. As a companion, especially
after dinner, he most delightful; at
other times he was saturnine and repulsive.
Mr.. Clay was naughty, and only cordial to his
friends. Colonel Benton was stiff with every
one.
Mr.. Calhoun was affable and conciliating, and
never failed to attract the young. But for
grace of manner, for the just medium of dig
nifty and affability, and for the capacity of in
Huenclng men, no one of these great men, not
all of them together, may be compared with
Gen. Jackson. The untutored savage regard
backwOodsman followed him with fearless co.,
fidence, the theories of politicians and juris-
consuls fell before his intuItive perceptions !;
systems and statesmen were extinguished to
gether; no measure and no man survived his
opposition and the verdict of mankind awards
him precedence over all. He had faults, but
they were lost in the lustre of his character ;
he was too arbitrary and passionate, and too
apt to embrace the cause of his friends without
n re hpr :
incidental, perhaps, to his frontier life and
military training, and to the injustice he had
experienced from his opponents.
/ saw Blair, of the Globe, Amos Kendall, and
Col. Zoe Gales, of the National MtelHgencer.
Blair had the hardest face l ever inspected
The late Gen. Glasscock, of Augusta, one of
the noblest men that ever lived, told me that
a mess of Georgia and Kentucky members,
dining together day, ordered an oyster
supper for thirty, to be paid for by the mess
that produced for the occasion, the ugIiest
man from their respective States. The even
ing came, and the company assembled, and
Georgia presented fellow, not naturally
ugly, but who had the knack of throwing his
features all on one side. Kentucky was in a
peck of trouble. Their man, whom they had
cooped up for a week, SO hopelessly
drunk that he could not stand on his legs.
At the last moment, a happy thought occurred
to Albert G.. Haws. He jumped into a hack
and drove to the Globe office, and brought
Blair as an invited guest. Just as he entered
looking his prettiest, Haws sung out, &c Blair,
loot as Nature made you, and the oysters are
ours 20
1t is hardly necessary to add that Georgia
paid for the oysters.
The first time 1 saw Blair, about IL O'Clock
at night, he was writing an editorial on his
knee. He read it to Col. King and myself.
1t was laundering attack on Mr.. Calhoun
hat iS col led a sSla Shar for hat
had been said that morning in the Senate.
Col. King begged him to soften it. &C No."
said Blair, ss let it tear his insides out.' With
all this concealed fire, he was man of singu-
lar mildness of manners. He invited me to
an elegant dinner at his splendid mansion,
crowded with distinguished guests. He enter
tanned literally and without affectation, and |
was charmed with the beauty and the kindness
of his fascinating wife.
Amos Kendall, of whom I had heard SO
much, as the champion of the Democracy, l
found little, stooped-up man, cadaverous as
corpse, rather taciturn, unpretendiEg in
manner, but of most wonderful resources and
talent.
Col. Joe Gales is a John Bull, they tell me,
by birth and in sentiment, and he has the
hearty look of one. But if SO, how came the
Bulls to burn his Office during the war? The
InteItigencer, well remember, stood up man.
fully for the country, and often have and my
comrades, in 1S13-'14, when hungry and des-
pondipg, and beset with dangers, been cheer
ed up by a stray fragment of this paper. Col.
Gales shook me cordially by the hand, and
invited me to dine with him. Being compel
led to decline, he insisted on my taking a
drink out of his canteen-the very best old
rye ever tasted. The same evening he sent
dozen to my quarters-large, honest, square
sided, gh-shouldered bottles, that we rarely
see now-a-d days.
The printers at Washington all live in
prncely style; spacious dwellings, paintings,
statuary, Partisan furniture, sumptuous tables.
choice wines! Nothing in the metropolis
tonished me so much. printer in the South
usually lives in little box of house, not big
enough for furniture his pictures and statues
are his wife and children his Office is mere
shanty stuck full of glue paste, ard all sorts of
traps he works in his coat sleeves. with the
assistance, sometimes, of ragged, turbulent,
dare devil of a boy; he tolls night and day,
often never paid, and half-starved, making
great men out of small subjects, and often re-
ceives for it abuse and ingratitude; the most
generous fellows in the world-ready to give
you the half they have, though they seldom
get much to give. In Washington, they drink
Port, Madeira, and Old Rye; with us, they
seldom got higher than rot-gut!" e
t
The TIDE TuRNING.-The famous Faench
Lamoriciere has gone to Rome to take part
with the Pope against "aggression." This
we look upon as a most significant fact. If
all the dissatisfied chiefs of France fall off
into sides after this fashion, Napoleon may
begin to count his days. The Legitimists are
in high hope, and the little court of the exiles
at Claremout, in England, is beginning to fill
with anxious mobiles who see the tide turning.
-4~>~-r---
No other men are SO intOlerant as those
who have just reformed, just as no other roads
are so rough as those that have just been men
ded.
Let youth, who stands at the bar with a