The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1888-03-15
Byron's Sturdy Champions.

The following are extracts from personal
letter received by Prof. l.. G. Isatcman from
Hon. S. l.. Miliiken, under date Feb. 2l-t.
Washington, ID. G. Mr.. Miikcn says:
l returned an hour ago from hearing lee
ture on Byron by Stoddard. 1t was very fine.
doing the great poet fair degree of justice,
and was splendidly illustrated with likene>Se>
of Byron, Tom Moore. Shelley. Murray, Lady
Byron. his daughter Ada, and scenes of BY
rons birth, travels. habtations and death
l assure you it was rich treat to me and
especially SO since it came SO soon after our
correspondence concerning the illustriou> sub
ject. AS the typical Irishman of romance. if
not of fact. would say: ''lf you should hap
pen within dozen miles of it you must hear
The history of Byron was as touching as the
most pathetic language can describe; his life
was as rOmatc as an eastern story ;ans he Suf-
fercd and endured the hard, rigid, cruel. un-
just criticism and relentless hate Of the British
aristocracy, whose boasted virtue consisted in
kicking at the misunderstood and unfortunate
rather than in any qualities of purity possessed
by themselves.
They made Byron pay the penalty Of genius,
the forfeit of being endowed with qualities of
both mind and heart that were unapproachabe
by the common pack that sought to satisfy its
vengeance, because it was powercss to indulge
it in any nObler way, by swapping At his heels
and setting up a simultaneous howl against him.
But while he suffered, as only keenly sensi-
tive man can suffer. from their persecution,
which was as senseless as it was unmeritcd,
out of this very suffering undoubtedly came
the grandest and richest tones Of his wonder
full song. While his countrymen nagged and
maligned him his verse was shedding a literary
lustre upon his country unparalleled in her
annals.
believe that when thousand Years hence
old England's history shall be read, the eye of
the reader will pause and lingcr lovingly, re-
WnprpOn
the matchless verse Of Byron, as the srandcst
and sweetest in all the volume. For he sang
the songs of nature and spoke the voice of h,,-
manity. Though born of noble and even royal
blood and surrounded by ari>tocratic influences
he scOrnfully scathed the pretence Of the divine
right Of kings, he attacked mcrcilessly and
| with irresistible power the hypocrtical sham>
and fraudulent claims of the established dv-
nasties, and when he touched the political
chord of his harp it sang only the grand an
thems of liberty, the tender and fearful strains
of humanity. Nothing finer in the English
language has been said: nothing noblcr
and juster of republics; nothing severer
and more merited Of oppression, than was
sounded over Europe and across the ocean to
the new continent by the powerful and pa
thetic voice of Byron.
1t was fitting that he should die i'm his grand
and generous effort to give liberty to Greece
There where his young genius had received
amid classic ruins its warmest nurture and
| strongest impulse; there where he had rcgill-
ed the lustre of the worlds most famous
achievements and enriched the halo that en-
circed the homes Of its most hallowed heroes.
it was well that he should crown his brief, but
brilliant, earthly career with the most glor-
iolls work of his life. And yet who does not
wish that he could have lived as long as
Shakespeare that the world might have re-
ceived the fruits of the rich endowments of
| his mature years.
But l began to write you letter and fear
| have almost written lecture, so far as its
length is regarded at least Please pardon the
| Intrusion upon your time and believe me al
ways Your sincere friend,
S. l.. MIlIIIEN