Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-09-01
O'COnneu as an Orator.

O'COnnell as an Orator.
In Wendell Phillips lecture on Dan
lei O'Connell the following tribute Is
paid to the eloquent Irish patriot:
40 not think I should exagge-ate if
l said that God, since He made Demos
ohenes, never made man SO fit for the
great work as He did O'Connell. You
may think | am partial to nv hero. very
naturally. But John Randolph Of
Roanoke, who hated an Irishman al
most as much as he did a Yankee
when he got to London and heard
O'Ccnnell the old Shareholder held nm
his hands and said: .sThis is the man an
those are the lips the most eloonent
that speak English in my day." And
think he was right. Webster could ad-
dress bench of judges; Everett con1ld
charm college; Choate could delude q
jury; Clay could magnetic senate:
Tom Corwin could hold the mob in his
right hand; but no one of Their
could do more than that one
thing. The wonder of O'Connel
was, that he could out-talk Corwin: he
could charm college better than Ever
EFT; delude jury better than Choate,
nd leave Clay himself far behind in
magnetizing senate. I have heard all
the grand and majestic orators of Amer
lea, who are singularly famed on the
worlds circumference. [ know what
Was the majesty of Webster: I know
what it was to melt under the magnet
ism of Henry Clay; I have seen elo-
quence in the iron logic of Calhoun: but
all three together never surpassed. and
no one of them ever equaled. the great
lrisEman. In the fist place he had
what is half the power with popular
orator-a majestic presence. God put
that royal soul into body as royal. He
had, in early youth, the brow OF Joveor
Jupiter, and the statue of Apollo; lit
tie O'Connell would have been no
OConnell at all. Sydney Smith said of
Lord John Russells five feet, when he
went down to YorS shire after the reform
bill had been called, the stalwart hunt
ers of Yorkshire said: ''That little
shrimp What, he carried the reform
bill 2" ono, no, said Sydney; "no; he
was large man, but the labors of the
bill shrunk him. Renewed laughter
Do you remember the story of Web
ster, that Russell Lowell tells when we,
in Massachusetts, were about to break
up the Wing party? Webster came
home to Faneuil Hall to protest; and
q, 900 Wings went to meet him. He
lifted up that majestic presence before
the sea of human faces, his brow
charged with thunder, and he said: 81
am Whig-a Massachusetts Whig-
a revolutionary Whig-a constitutional
Wing "a Fanueil Hall Wing. and, if
you break up the party, where am I to
go?" And Russell Lowell says: "We
held orr bre aths, thinking where he
could CO." s'But if he had been five
feet five" said Lowell, eve would have
said: We'll, hang it, who cares where
you go?'" Well, O'Connell had all
that Then he had, beside, what Web
ster never had, and what Clay had, the
and grace that merits a
million souls into his. When [ saw him
he was 66-lithe as boy; his every
attitude was beauty; every gesture was
grace. Macready or Booth never equaled
him. Why, it would have been de-
lightful even to look at him, if he had
not spoken at all; and all that you
thought Of was grey-h hound
Then he had-what so few Ameri-
can speakers have-a voice that sound
I'd the gamut. I heard him once in
Exeter Hall say: Americans, I send
ny voice careering, like the thunder
storm, across the Atlantic, to tell South
Carolina that Gods thunderbolts are
not, and to remind the negro that the
lawn Of their redemption is breaking"
And seemedto hear the answer come re-
schoing back to London from the Rocky
Mountains. And then, with the slight
sst possible flavor of an Irish brogue,
ne would tell story shat would make
all Exeter Hall laugh. And the next
tears were In his voice, like an
Did song, and five thousand men would
De in tears. And he never made an ef-
sort. You would go out of this hall,
after hearing Mr.. Sumner, or any ora
;or, and you would say, "What a mag
1ificent effort % Well, no man would
ever say the word effort with O'Connen.
heard him twenty times, and 1 never
saw him more than three times at the
ull sweep of his power. You would
get provoked that he did not and you
would say: ''Oh, what magnificent
creature he would be if he would only
out try !" But he would not g try"