Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1875-09-08
O'COnnell's ElOqucnce.
From Wendell Phillips Lecture.

do not think should exaggerate if
said that God, since he made Demosthenes,
never made a man so fit for the great
work as he did O'Connell. You may
think am partial to my hero, very natur-
ally. But John Randolph of Roanoke,
who hated an Irishpan almost rs much
rs he did a Yankee. when he got to Lon
don and heard O 'Connell. the Shareholder
held up his hand and said This is the
man. those are the lips, the most eloquent
that speak English in my day" And
think he was right. Webster could ad-
dress bench of Judges; Everett could
charm a college; Choate could delude 4
Jury; Clay could magnetic senate; Tom
Clay could hold the mob in his right hand ;
but no one of them could do more than
that one thing. The wonder Of O'Connell
was, that he could out-talk Corwin; he
could charm 4 college better than Everett !;
delude jury better than Choate, and
leave Clay himself far behind in magnet
izing senate. Ihave heard all the grand
and majestic orators of America. who are
singularlv famed on the worlds circum-
ference know what was the majesty of
Webster; | know what it was to melt un-
der the magnetism of Henry Clay; have
seen cloquence in the iron logic of Cal
houn but all three togather never sur
passed, and no one of them ever equaled,
the great lrishman. In the first place he
had. what is half the power with u popular
orator. he had II ma ajestic presence. God
put hat royal soul into 4 body rs royal.
He had, in early youth, the brow Of .Jovc
or Jupiter, and the stature of Apollo; a little
| O'Connel would have been no O'Connell at
| all. Sydney Smith said of Lord John
| RuSsell's five feet. when he went down to
Yolk shire. after the reform bill had been
carried, the stalwart hunters of Yorkshire.
said " That little shrimp! What. he car
" the reform bill9' -" No, no" said Sgd
ney; no; he was a large man; but the
labor of the bill shrunk him Rcnewcd
! laughter.) DO You remember the story
of Webster, that Rursell Lowell tells, when
We in Massachusetts,. We're about to break
up the whig party? Webster came home
to Faneuil hall TO protest; and four thou
sand wings went to meet him. lie lifted
up that ma este presence before the sea OF
human faces, his brow charged with thun-
der, and he said: | am a whig. a
Massachusetts whig. a revolutionary
whig. a constitutonary whig. a Faneuil
whig And if YOU break up the whig
party. where am | to go?' And Russell
| Lowell saws: I'VE held breath thinking
where he could 90" I" But if he had been
five feet" said Lowell. I'VE would have
said: .'Well. hang it. who cares where
YOU 20? '" Well, OConnell had all that.
| Then he bad, besides, what Webster never
had. and what Clay had. the magnetism
and grace that melts million souls into
his When saw him be was sixty-six,
1.-the rs a boy; his every attitude was
! beauty, every gesture was grace. Mac
ready or Booth never equaisi him. Why,
it would have been delightful even to
! look at him. if he had not spoken ut all /;
and all You thought of was a gravhound.
/ Then he had, what 50 few Americans
/ speakers have, Il voice that sounded the
| gamut | heard him once in Exeter hall
say: "Amcricans. send my voice career
| inc like the thunder storm, across the
Atlantic To tell South Carolina that Cod
thundcrboltS are hot, and to remind the
negro that the dawn of redemption is
breaking" And seemed to hear the an
swer come re-ochoiny back to London
from the Rocky mountains. And then
with the slightest possible flavor of ar
Irish brogue, he would tell 4 story thai
would MAKE all Exeter hall laugh. And
the next rloment, tears were in his Voice
like an old song. AMI five thousand mcr
would be in tears. And he never mad,
IN effort You would 90 out of this hill
after hearing Mr. Summer. or the orator
and vou would say. " What :; ma@niii
cent ttfort" Well no man would ever u>'
the word effort with OConncll. | hear,
him twenty times ut the full sweep of hi
power You would get provoked that h.
did not, and would say " Oh what a mag
niticent creature he would be. if he woul'
only but trv.'' But he would not try.
cnoy WIRE William