The Portland daily press., 1875-02-13
The Eloauent Young Kentuckian.

lucky is peculiarly favorable to the growth Of
whiskey. There is now somewhere in the blue
grass region, dragging out in sickness,p pain and
obscurity the last years of premature
old age, a man who was once widely known
by the fattering title which heads this arti-
Gle. He made national reputation in 1851,
at the age of thirty, by eulogy in the House
of Representatives on the greatest of Ken
tucky's orators, whose brilliant career, began
at an earlier age than that of Breckenridge
himself, had just ended. Both of these elo-
quent men had reason to curse the spirit of
caste that pervaded the society in which they
were born. Clay, indeed, in his generous
and enthusiastic youth attempted to rise
above it as every man must who would cul-
tiyate and sustain the glorious faculty of pop
ular eloquence. But slavery filled his last
days with bitterness and disappointment, and
left blight upon his memory. 1t made
Breckenridge Vice President before he was
thrty-six, but it dragged him into the gulf
of treason before he was forty, and thus de-
prved him OF all power to obtain the lasting
fame which his ability would otherwise have
brought him. Breckenridge is now merely
one of the phantoms that fitted over the
stage in the terrible year '61. He might
have been great historical figure. He is al
ready of the past. He is as dead as Clay
himself without ever having reached any
thing like Clay's altitude. ..-
And now comes third eloquent young
Kentuckian" than either of his
illustrous predecessors at the time of their
first appearance on the public stage. The
same curse rests upon him. At the very
start he finds his inspiration'in the exclusive
ness, the rancor, the pride and the treason
which make Kentucky the black spot on the
map of the Union. Though slavery is gone
he cings to its traditions and keeps alive its
reactionary and vindictive spirit. Otherwise
he probably might become an orator. His
attack on Butler, though in the last degree
impertinent and accompanied by circum-
stances of aggravation, was certainly highly
rhetorical. He chose to assail his antagonist
in reference to almost the only point in his
career which is regarded as creditable by the
majority of his cOuntrymen, his description
was in many respects accurate and his in
vective so powerful as to recall to mind Burke
and Sheridan against Hastings, Cicero against
Catiline. and especially the pregnant sem
tences in which Tacitus made the profigate
Roman emperors objects of execration and
hatred forever. .... ta.f3 4
But Browns career will be short. He "pre-
varica.es." At least that is the parliament
ary euphemism for what he does. Asked if he
means member of the House he says "No"
plumply and squarely. In ten seconds more
he names Butler. This is 'prevaricatingY -
straddling on before and so getting around
something that is TO be avoided-a very vivid
and suggestive word, but not so precisely
descriptive of Browns conduct as another
which is in more common use and has only
one syllable. But whatever it is that Brown
does, when he deliberately falsiies, he dis
closes intellectual qualities that will cut him
off from the career to which he evidently as
pires. The man who begins by 'prevari-
eating" in the interest of privileged class
and in opposition to the progressive spirit of
the age cannot expect to gain high place in
the esteem of his countrymen. But Con-
gress will not very much regret the suicidal
tendencies of man who exhibits the abb lty
to be eloquent, for that is virtue not much
priced there of late. In the Senate it is toll
Grated, but while the late Senator Fessenden
was there he made the life of an orator in
that body extremely unpleasant by the short
work he made of tropes and other oratorical
trumpery. His keen insight and practical,
unimasinative temperament made him scOrn-
mental IN diction, and the influence and sue
cess he achieved by the use of qualities more
directly useful in the dispatch of public bus-
ness tended strongly to bring oratory into
disrepute. So there will be few to mourn
because Brown chooses to sink the orator in
the blackguard and ''prevaricator."
The grounds on which Brown saw fit TO at
tack Butler are unfortunately such that good
men, who have most cordial detestation of
the essex statesman" ''his tricks and his
manners" are compelled to come to his de-
fense-on general principles and we have the
curious spectacle of the Hoars and many 9TH
ers of that stripe engaging in the champion
ship of their special bette noir. While Butler
presents such an infnity of vulnerable points
for attack it is lamentable that he should be
strengthened in prestige by an assault on his
only invulneratle side. Had Brown selected
more wisely he might have had the sympathy
and plaudits of nation for his magnificent
invective, and might easily have been right
as well as eloquent.