Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1871-10-12
THE LATE SENATOR
-a NIcDOUGALA. #a.
a Remarkable Speech and n
Terrible Commentary. i-

McDOUGALA. s--..s s.a....
A Remarkable speech and n
III Terrible Commentary.
The memory of the late Senator Nc
Dougall is doubtless fresh in the minds
of many. Gifted, eloquent, affable and
accomplished, the life and soul of social
parties, he had one falling which clung
to him like Nemesis, and bore him to
his doom. What it was, the following
remarkable speech, delivered in the
United States Senate during a debate on
Senator Wilson's resolution to prohibit
the sale of Intoxicating liquors in the
Capitol, will show; Here is the peech:
Mr.. President:-It was once said that
there are as many minds as men, and
there is no end to wrangling. 1 had oc-
casion some years since to discourse with
a reverend doctor of divinity from the
State which has the honor to be the BIRTH
place, l think, of the President of this
body. While / was discoursing with
him, lot of vile rapscallions invited me
to join them at the bar. l declined, out
of respect to the reverend gentleman in
whose presence then was. AS soon as
the occasion had passed, i remarked to the
reverend doctor: stDo not understand
that L decline to go and join those young
men at the bar because have any OBJ
jections to that thing, for it is my habit
to drink always in the front, and not be-
hind the door" He looked at me with a
certain degree of Interrogation, then
asked him, 'tDoctoT, what was the first
miracle worked by our great Master ?''
He hesitated, and / asked him, sWas it
not at Cana, in Galilee, where he con-
verted water into wine, at a marriage
feast 90 He. assented. asked him then,
'sAfter the ark had foated on the tenn
pestuous seas for forty days and nights,
and as it descended upon the dry land, d,
what was the first thing done by Father
Noah % He said he did not know that
"Well,'' said L, sdid he not
plant vine?" Yes, he remembered 1T
them ..Tf4 If.Ta. - Hga.
! asked him, s'DoIyou., 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. l asked, sDo you know any
great philosopher that did not use it for
the eXaltation of his intelligence ?" "Do
you think, Doctor, that man who lived
upon. pork, and beef, and corn, and
bread, could get up into the superior re-
gions-into the ethereal? No, he must
And mighty mead In Vafhafia.' aEEs L
Isaid to himagain: "Doetor, you are
a scholarly man, of course-a doctor OF
divinity, a graduate of Yale; do you re-
member Plato's Symposium ?'' Yes, he
remembered that. Ireterred him to the
occasion when Agatha, having won the
prize of Tragedy at the Olympic games
at Corinth, on coming back to Athens
was teted by the nobility and aristocracy
of that city, for it was a proud triumph
to Athens to win the prize of Tragedy.
They got together, at the house OF
Phedrus, 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 table as the sun went
down, or as they drank their wine, or as
men tell a story. They started a theme,
and that was loVe-not loVein the vulgar
sense, but in its high sense-love of all
that is beautiful After they had gone
through, and after Socrates had pro-
nounced his judgment about the true and
beautiful, In came Alcibiades with u
drunken body of Athenian boys, with
garlands around their heads to crown
old Socrates, and they said to those as
sembled: This will not do; we have
been drinking, and you have not and
after Alcibiades had made his talk in
pursuance of the argument, in which he
undertook to dignity Socrates, as L re-
member it, they required (after 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 in the Athenian style, all
on n1I nh ric
todemus, 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 instance, 1 said to
this divine: "Do you remember that
Lord Bacon said that a man should get
drunk at least once a month, and that
dorsed the proposition?" .... -..-
These eXultants that bring US up above
the common measure of the brute-wine
and oil-elevate us, enable us to seize
great facts, inspirations which, once pos
sessed, are ours forever; and those who
never go beyond the mere beastly means
of animal support never live in the high
planes of life, and cannot achieve them.
[ believe in woman, wine, whisky and
war. .-
Now comes the commentary on his
Bacchanalian philosophy. A year OF two
after the delivery of this speech, the
brilliant orator and polished statesman
died wretched rum-crazed pauper in
one of the interior towns of the State of
New York. What more is there left to
be said? . ..
Charity.
We are told in classic history that an
old painter was employed to sketch the
Macedonian Emperor. The emperor re-
ceived severe wound upon the right
temple, in one of his famous battles, and
a large scar was left. The artist pro-
ceeded to the work assigned him, and
sketched the monarch leaning upon his
nlhay.. I,.itl, Liz fa,a q