The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-01-15
ORATORS IN THE SENATE.

Senate one OF the really great ora.
tors of the Republic passed from the
arena into quasi retirement. He was
most formidable debater because OF
his eminent attainments and exper.
ieace. He had no superior as an
orator. because OF many gifts OF
person and intellect. Many Of his
speeches were imPromptu, and it was
wonderful what aptness there was in
his selection of words, and with what
dexterous art be marshaled his argu.
ments. His set speeches, barring a
dramatic surrounding, were models
of their kind.
A prodigous memory, Quincinan
calls "the treasury OF eloquence"
stood him in good stead, and the
most intricate STATISTICS were rolled
as trippingly from the tongue as the
flowers OF poetry or the gladiatorial
phrases OF rhetoric. His voice was
deep, resonant, tull-throated and
under perfect control. The last
whisper. as we'll as the most strident
ejaculation, penetrated every nook Of
the chamber. There was st times .
morotony OF what may be called the
statuesqus in bis delivery, and some.
times stately verbosity that made Us
regret the crisp ferceness and can
dor of Zachariah Cnsndler. But, as
Judge Davis said, be was "the best
equipped orator in public life," and.
beyond ell comparison, the most
remarkable OF Republican Senators.
His retirement from the chamber
left al untitled gap on that aide.
and there is no one to fill his
place.
Next to Mr.. Conkling 10 readiness
but not IN oIoquence. is the grim
Vermomter. Judge Esmunds, whose
learning is fonIy equsled by his intee.
rity.
The speeches of Mr.. Edmnnds are
more like plain talk than anything
else, but they read admirably and
are delivered without manuscript
aids. Even Mr.. Blaine, toward the
last, resorted TO reading from written
or printed sllps, and Oonkling and
Eimnuds were about ths only Re-
publIoADs who did not follow that
plan. Now Mr.. Edmunds stands the
solitary orator of the republican sens-
tors-An orator without eloquence.
What the new men may do we Uan-
not say; but the chances are that
they will follow the fashion OF the
majority.
On the democratic side the two
Georgia senators are extemporspeous
speakers. Nothing could be finer, in
old days. than Mr. Hills speeches,
whether on the spur of the moment
or prepared. Hs was alongside Mr..
COnkling as the great orator of the
senate, and superior to the New
Yorker on ordinary occasions. They
had deserVedly great respect for each
others intellectual strength. Though
their encounters we're many. neither
transcribed the courtesy OF debate.
sharp, hard blows we're given and
taken, out always within psrlIamen
tHry limits, leaving no sting behind.
What effsct the wound upon Mr..
Hills tongue may have upon his
eloqueDce We can only conjecture.
II will, for come time TO come, i'm
pair .hs rotundity and symmetry Of
his articulation, bnt some OF his more
recent utterspces have, from com.
mon report, been in no sense inferior
to the splendid exhibitions OF the
past. Senator Brown has made
many speeches and none from manu-
script His series of addresses 10 the
extra session last spring were the
the most memorable OF that time, ex-
cept Hills terrible srrsignment of
MAhone. Gu. OF that conquest the
junior Georgia senator came as the
coDquering hero. The champions OF
reDublicanism met him and were
sorry for it Logan illustrated the
state OF feeling when, having been
asked "Shy ne did not pitch irto
Joe Brown2" retorted that he had
"been in and was not going sgsin."
During the extraordinary term our
senator deprecated msking 90 many
speeches, and 30 stated to Senator
Butler OF South Carolina. But But
Ter saw that he was jus. the man to
make Dawes and Hoar and Hawley
and Logan sick of the encounter, and
90 encouraged him to keep up the
heartburn" (which be did. An old
officer OF the senate. who had been in
place for fifty years, told the writer
that OF all the senators he had known
Gov. Brown, in an intellectual COM
bat on the chamber floor, carried
away more OF his opponents cuti-
ole."
Voorhees, reads his speeches, so
does Pendleton, go does David Davis,
80 does Hampton. Mr.. Lamar
hardly trusts himself without manu-
script, even when it would not take
five inmates &c deliver what be COM
posed.
Even Vance, the wonder of the
huetiugs, sticks to MS essays before
him, and sacrifices the flavor of bis
oratorical fuenoy. Mr.. Beck is in the
same category.
The rising orator of the senate ia
George Vest OF Missouri. He is a
genius. His figure is as short and un-
heroic as that of Edmund Ksan was
said to be. But, like the famous
l 80 l., L