Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-04-13
SENATOR CARPENTERS ELoQUENCE.

SENATOR CARPENTERS ELooUENCE.
[From the Evening Wisconsin, April 81
1t is one of the shining traits of human
nature that men instinctively render just
credit to the dead Out of this instinc-
tive veneration for the dead heroes of
men, comes the mythology of the race
The gods were from the earth, translated
by the magic hand of death, through
this veneration of man for the attributes
of Immortality, thus showing that genius
and true greatness cannot die. The dead
body of our senator is now being brought
by tender hands to our midst
again. That manly form lies low;
that silver voice is hushed. His
magic eloquence and his tender
pathos will move us no more from his
ready lips. With the knowledge of this
inevitable loss we call to mind some of
the occasions on which Matt. Carpenter
has moved his fellow men by the genius
of his eloquence. He was prodigal of
his gifts, and frightened all occasions
with the sparkle of his wit, and made
music by his hghtest words. The genius
of eloquence is not the offspring of the
closet, nor the result of study, but
leaps, like water from foun-
tain, from the lips Of the speaker.
Eloquence may, in part, bedefned as the
power to move the nearer by the genius
of words fifty spoken. Matt. Carpenter
was versatile in his endowments, and
could be eloquent on widely different oc-
casions. This faculty of Selling the op-
perfume moment was not the result of
Judgment, but of his intuitive genius
But, for any commensurate conception
of given passages of eloquence, we must
have the living voice and the very occa-
sion. Printed words cannot convey the
just conception to the mind, any more
than painting can give the silver music
of waterfall.
Many readers will remember the great
war meeting of our citizens after the
firing upon Fort Sumter by the rebels.
That was time for strong and stirring
words. Matt. Carpenter was the princi-
pal speaker upon the occasion of raising
the national flag over the chamber of
commerce, and he made brief but most
magically eloquent speech. Those who
remember the occasion will at once cali
to mind the effect of his eloquence. We
here reproduce his opening and closing
sentences:
.sNearly forty years of profound public tran
GUILTY. have passed over and blessed our land.
We have forgotten TO use the weapons of war,
and have cultivated the arts of peace. We have
engrossed our thoughts and enlisted our hearts
in the pursuits of agriculture, manufactures
and commerce, and in advancing the arts and
sciences must useful to man. No nation has
been so blessed-none has SO prospered. While
we have been thus improving all our mutual
interests amassing wealth at home and accu-
mulating honors abroad, other nations have
been vexea and worried with the dogs of war;
the war cloud has darkened the sunny sky Of
Italy; armies have rampled the vine-clad fields
of France. and the recruiting drum has been
heard on the green hills and In the sweet valleys
Of merry England. 1t has seemed that we alone
were to be exempt from the terrible calamltles
which have desolated the hearth and wrung the
heart in other lands. Our remote situation,
the circumstances of our nationality, and the
habits of our people, and above all, our rever-
ence for the hereditary policy of our country
seemed sufficient to insure our continued peace
and prosperity. But now, when we were least
looking for it, our trial has come. Our pros.
perity has debauched our people and corrupted
our government. We have grown rich, have
waxed fat; and as nation have become proud
and wicked.
for swinish gluttony
Meier locks to heaven amid his gorgeous feasts,
But with besotted, base ingratitude,
Grams, and blasphemes his FEEDER"
He then proceeded to discuss the
heresy of secession, in which he said
"secession is not remedy for evils. but
is the sum of all evils" Turning to the
flag which f1oated from the hall, he said:
"We hang out our banner; no dustyrag repre-
senting the twilight of seven stars, but the old
banner that has foated triumphantly in every
breeze; the banner Decatur unfurled to the
Barbary States; that Jackson held over New
Orleans; that Scott carried to the halls of the
Montezumas; and thereby we mean to say, IN no
spirit of defiance, but with the hrnness OF
manly resolution, this flag shall wave while an
American lives to protect 1t. And God grant it
may float over a peaceful land, long after the