The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-05-19
Vance'S Illustration.

II is plain that very few people know
what figure of speech is. We have had
this fact "illustratsd" over and over again
since the appearance OF our little paragraph
claiming for Ex-Governor VANCE the credit
of having originated that figure Of speech
which likens the Jews as 4 people to the
Guli-stream. 1t is useless to argue with a
blind man as to colors, or with deaf man
as to sounds. 1t is evident that our North
Carolina correspondent is an educated gen.
tleman. His note bears evidence to this
fact. Yet he quotes in good faith, rs being,
the same used by VANCE, figure Of speech
which is as different from the one employed
by him as one figure OF speech could
be from another, and SO inappropriate, so
far-Yetched. and so strained, that it is not
worthy OF repetition. 1t would be fruit
LEGS task for us to undertake to convince
these people that they are totally in error.
II they cannot sec for themselves, no human
power can open their eyes to the difference
between one figure OF speech and another.
They lack the faculty Of detecting resent
DldtlCCs. ~, w dll uuC 1SopISe w Jul
correspondent, we give his note Us proving
Just the reverse Of what he intended to
prove by it. The moon has been compared
to hundred things. But if IN. c." and
his coadjutors are right, the man who first
compared it to anything, no matter what,
originated all the SMILES OF subsequent date
in which the queen of night is likened to
any other thing.
NEW BERNE, n. c., May II, 1876.
To the Editors Of the Dispatch:
Sirs,-Iu recent article in your paper
you mention several gentlemen, among them
Governor Vance and DR.. Campbell, who,
in their public speeches or writings, have
made use Of "the Gulf-stream" as simile
or illustrations; and, rs there seems to be
doubt who originated the figure, you ask il
it can be traced farther than Governor
Vance. Without doubt it can, as is shown
below.
Major John Hughes delivered in this place
OH the~~3d Of November, 1870, a eulogy on
General Robert Z. Lee-then recently de-
ceased-in which the simile occurs, rs may
be seen by the following extract taken from
tic Wilmington On. c. Journal OF Noycm-
Der 8, 1870, in which the address was pub
lished. This antedates by some time Gov
ernor Vance's lecture Oh the "Scattered
Nation,'' and is probably the first time the
simile was used:
s'Thine is a glory that will not dic-thine
name that cannot perish-thinc Il fame that
even the all-destroying hand OF time cannot
obliterate. But like that grand and mystic
r;ouS stream that .tlouS along our coast,
which though surrounded by the cold and
chilling waves Of ocean, yet still flows on,
warm and genial, and distinct in its course,
bearing wealth, and health, and lie, and
| happiness in its bosom,-a perpetual source
OF wonder and admiration to all mankind
SO shall thy fame be the GULF-sTREAM to the
human ocean, ever to survive so long as
man exists, and only ceasing when time
shall be no more"
| 1t is not insinuated in the remotest way
that the other gentlemen you mention are
plagiarists. The figure is an apt one, and
was no doubt original with each OF them in
his particular use OF it. n. c.