Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-05-04

In lecture at New York John SWiutOn
gave his views Of prominent men he had
met. He first spoke of Z group of poets,
mentioning Bryant and Joaquin Miller
The three revolutionists receiving his at
tention were Karl Marks, Leo Hartmann
and Victor Hugo, all of whom he had been
intimately acquainted with. Abraham
Lincoln he saw for the first time in Cooper
institute, New York, where he made his
first abolition speech in the East, and
which more than anything else helped to
secure his nomination for the presidency.
MIR. Lincoln was then an uncouth, gawky-
looking individual, much more so than in
later years, after being brought up in
Washington corruption. The speaker
thought that the first speech of MrLincoIn
in Cooper institute was one of the greatest
productions of his life. 1t surpassed his
effort at Gettysburg. He was a powerful
speaker, carrying conviction with every
thing he said. lie had wonderful power
OF repetition, repeating over and over
again the same sentence, but always with
tremendous force, and in a way that did
not appear monotonous. OF John Brown
Mr.. Swinton spoke in high terms.
1t was new policy, he said,
that John Brown brought into play
against American slavery-the policy of
meeting it upon its own terms and it's own
field, confronting with force a system
based upon force and establishing human
rights by the weapons that upheld public
wrongs. He assailed it by the only means
that gave any hope of destroying it.
John Browns way was justified by the
event-jutsifed amid flame and smoke by
Abraham Lincoln's proclamation of aboli-
ton. He said that the man who goes
highest in his estimate of the immediate,
the far off and the permanent efficacy of
John Browns influence is most nearly
right. He was prophet, hero, martyr
and victor. AS Sampson in his death
brought down the temple of Dagon, as
John Brown in his death shivered the bull
warks of chattel slavery, so every martyr
hastens the end of the system under which
he is sacrificed. Mr.. Swinton said he
heard Wendell Philips thirty years ago
in the old Broadway Tabernacle, New,
York, when he had to speak amid showers
of rotten eggs, fish, tin cans and the like.
He was one of the finest looking men, the
pleasantest speakers and ablest logicians
that he ever listened to. true
refor,1er IN every sense of the word;
man who gave up fortune, fame,
Beacon Hill and Boston to serve his fellow
men and right the wrongs that have exist
ed in our government The speaker brief
ly referred to three editors whom he was
personally acquainted with - Raymond,
Greedy and Bennett. For ten years he
worked side by side with Raymond in the
Times Office. He was one of the most re-
mdrkable men he ever knew. He was not
genius, but he had such we'll poised
mind and even temper that he was admira-
bly, fitted for the position of editor of
great paper. He wrote with great rapidity.
Daniel Webster selected him, though
long hand writer, to report his addresses
in preference to stenographers. Mr..
Swinton in speaking, of the pecu-
iarities and characteristics of Horace
Greeley, said that he and another gentle
man called on Mr.. Greedy soon after his
nomination for President. They found
him in his Office, writing an editorial on
the tariff question. Mr.. Swinton asked
him if he had heard of his nomination,
and Mr.. Greeley merely replied that he
had, as if it was of no account whatever,
and went on to discuss the tariff as if.
nothing had happened. It was not gener-
ally known that James Gordon Bennett
had great passion for speech-making.
Such was the case, but it was always to
an audience of one. He would invite a
man to his house, feed him well, and then
talk to him by the hour.