Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-08-14
CONGRESSIONAL OEAroR4.
Specimens of Rhetoric Which Would Make
Webster Turn Green with Envy.

uAC~9--- --A--- ~aA zen VIII L1EEs
Those who have neglected to subscribe |
for that Weli-printed and consistent Jour
nal, The Congressional Record, are missing
a great many good things nowadays, says: /
The st. Louis GLObe-DeR1Ocrdt. AS a rule, /
The Record is nOta very thrilling periodi-
cal, nor Is 1t generally admired on &C
count Of It's humOr; but for the last few
weeks 1t has been decidedly amusing.
The orators have been getting In their
work, and it is impossible to read the re-
port Of their speeches, some of tthem, at
least, without a feeling that life is not,
alter all, a WEAKNESS and a mOckery
when 1t Is still our privilege to get so
much enjoyment out of current states
manshIp. There is an opinion abroad
that oratory is declining in our halls of
legislation; but that is an error, the same
as that other idle impression that we
have reached point where the fOot-kill-
er may be dispensed with. There are no
Websters and Clays in Congress, of course,
but their are orators who would have
made men of that kind take their hats
and walk out to avoid comparison, and
to wonder what would come next.
We have already furnished copious
extracts from the fervent and dazzling,
not to beWildering, funeral Grafton pro-
nOunced by Mr.. Williams, Of Alabama
in memory of the late Mr.. Herndon, who,
there can be no doubt, Should have
died hereafter" There has probably
never been another instance where a
dead man was so thoroughly and circum-
stantially set forth, beginning with his
eagle beaming eyes, gems of natures
royalty" and proceeding in turn to every
detail of his person, every factor of his
grand assemblage of facial features and
of parts, a being "enstamped with the
richest and rarest prOfussiOn of natures
unbOunded hberality, andsWeetly Undue
ing the conviction that none was ever
more fashioned, favored, and finished
after the divine creative image of his
Maker" We have no idea that the de-
ceased ever dreamed that he would be
talked about like that after he was gone;
and perhaps it was just as we'll that he
didn't, as it would only have made it
harder for him to leave world that he
must have loved very dearly.
While Mr.. Williams is undoubtedly
entitled to first mention among the com
plicated and overwhelming masters of
expressions in Congress, he is pressed
very closely by Mr.. Warner, of Tennes-
see. Warner is not so profound as Will
liams, but his fancy is nimbler, and he
has wider range as a metaphor. He
took occasion a few days ago to bring
himself to bear upon the familiar and
venture to say that never before was
that issue presented in such a glittering
and picturesque light. Mr.. Warner is OPP
posed to a tariff, and to the levying of
duties and charges of almost every de-
scription, particularly those known as
internal revenue taxes. It was that kind
of interference with the rights Of the
people, he declares, that caused the RevO-
| luton, and Opened the f1ood-gates of
\
| weary years, and sprinkled blood over
our noble land-at the end of which
time the clouds passed away, and liberty
was born, the lovely babe perched upon
the nations brow, dressed in swaddiing-
clothes, and child of the finest pedigree
of the known world, save our Lord and
/ Savior, its faith er's brave blood, its moth
eT's hard toll" IF there is another such
an apostrophe as that in the English Ian
guage, we do not knowit; and yet there are
people who think that the tariff is a dull
and fatiguing topic.
! Mr.. Warner might have stopped with
this, sure of his victory; but he isnOt that
sort of an orator. And so, having perch
ed the baby on the nations brow, he
/ proceeded to show that the United States
| Government, with her giant arms and
massive body, is raising the huge dagger
of consolidation" and the eve must re-
!
! dying swan that never utters a syllable
till deaths truthful arrow has pierced his
breast, will sing his farewell song as he
passes into the arms of the angel of ami
/ hilation." There is clearly no answer to
/ be made to such a statement of the case
as that; and nobody has so far had the
temerity to attempt it. Other phases of
the subject were presented by Mr.. War
ner in an equally graphic and felicitous
manner; but we have quoted sufficient of
his points to demonstrate his general
style, and to inform those who do not
take The Congressional Record what fund
of richness they are denying themselves.
The efforts of Williams and Warner
are again worth the price Of a years sub
! scription; and they are by no means the
only orators who make the present Con-
gress exceptional. There are several
others Of similar quality whom we have
not space TO dwell upon. Hardly a day
passes that some robust and pyrotechni-
cal person does not cleave the atmosphere
of the House or Senate with elOquence
/ of this extraordinary kind.
The Oldest Mason.
1 Albany Journal.
Simon Knowles, of Meredith, Della