The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1871-08-24
A Singular Speech.

Colonel ]. w. Forney, in his interesting re-
miniscences of the great men with whom his
official duties at Washington brought him in
contact, brings to light singular speech de-
livered in the United States Senate by the late
Senator McDougall. The occasion that called
out this classic tribute to Bacchus, was reso-
luton introduced by Senator Wilson to prohib-
it the sale of Intoxicating liquors in the Capt.
tol The fact that the polished orator died
wretched, rum-demented pauper, in one of
the interior towns of New York, year or two
afterwards, is sad commentary on his Bach
analian philosophy Here is the speech:
Mr.. PREsIDENT-It was once said that there
are as many minds as men, and there is no end
to wrangling. had occasion some years since
to discourse with reverend Doctor of Divini-
ty from the State which has the honor to be the
birthplace, I think, of the President of this
body. While was dscoursing with him, a lot
of vile rapscallions invited me to join them at
the bar. I declined, out of respect to the rev.
erend gentleman in whose presence | then was:
AS soon as the occasion had passed remarked
to the reverend doctor: "Do not understand
that decline to 60 and join those young men
at the. bar because l have any objections to that
thing, for it is my habit to drink always in the
'front.' and not behind the door" He looked
at me with certain degree of Interrogation.
1 l. SAiSo
miracle worked by our great Master?" He
hesitated, and I said to him, "Was it not at
Cana, in Galilee, where he converted the water
into wine at marriage feast?" He assented.
I asked him then "After the ark had foated
on the tempestuous seas for forty days and
nights and as it decended upon the dry land,
what was the first thing done by Father Noah ?"
He said he did not know that exactly. "Well,"
said I, "did he not plant vine" Yes, he re-
membcred it then.
I asked him, "Do you remember any great
poet that ever illustrated the higher fields Of
humanity that did not dignity the Use of wine,
from old Homer down? ?" He did not. ask
ed, "Do you know any great philosopher that
did not use it for the eXaltation OF his intelll-
gence ?" "Do you think, Doctor that man
who lived upon pork, and beef, and corn bread,
could get up into the superior regions-into the
ethereal?" No. he must
| Take nectar on high olympus
And mighty mead in Valhalla
said to him again: doctor, you are a
scholarly man, of course-a doctor of divinity,
a graduate of Yalc do you remember Plato's
Symposium ?" Yes, he remembered that. l
referred him to the occasion when Agatho, hay
ing won the prize of Tragedy at the Olympic
games at Corinth, on coming back to Athens
was feted by the nobility and aristocracy of
that city, for it was proud triumph to Athens
to win the prize of Tragedy. They got togeth-
er, at the house of Phodrus, and they said,
"Now we have been every night for these last
six nights drunk let us be sober tonight, and
we will start a theme, which they passed
around the tables as the sun goes round, or as
they drank their wine, or as men tell story.
They started a theme, and the theme was love
not love in the vulgar sense, but in its high
| &c hot ioh fi1
had gone through, and after Socrates had pro-
nounced his Judgment about the true and beau
tiful, in came Alcibiades with q drunken body
of Athenian boys, with garlands around their
heads, to crown Agatha and crown old Socra-
tes, and they said to those assembled: "This
will not do we have been drinking, and you
have not" and after Alcibiades made his talk
in pursuance of the argument, in which he un-
dertook to dignity Socrates as / remember it,
they required latter the party had agreed to
drink, it being quite late in the evening, and
they had finished their business in the way OF
discussion) that Socrates should drink two
measures for every other mans one because he
was better able to stand it, And so, one after
another, they were laid down on the lounges III
the Athenian style, all excep tan old physician
named Aristodemus and Plato makes him the
hardest-headed fellow except Socrates. he and
Socrates stuck at it until the gray OF morning,
and then Socrates took his bath and went down
to the groves and talked academic knowledge.
After citing this incident said to this di-
vine: "Do you remember that Lord Bacon
said that man should get drunk once month,
and that DIontaigne the French philosopher,
endorsed the propositions p
These exaltants that bring us up above the
common measure of the brute-wine and oil
clevates us, enable us to seize great facts inspi-
rations which once possessed, are ours forever ;
and those who never go beyond mere beastly
means of animal support never live in the high
planes of life, and cannot achieve them.
believe in women, wine, whiskey and war.