The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1888-07-05
FOWLE AS AN ORATOR.
l. r. T. b. Kingsbury Described Hin
Years Ago and he Repeats his De.
scription To-Day.

Years Ago and he Repeats his De-
scription To-day.
Judge Fowle is man of force
and is eloquent in the true sense of
that word when at his best. This
writer heard him once when be was
surprisingly magnetic, happy in con-
ception and expression, intensely in
earnest and splendidly eloquent We
will 60 hack to 1876, and reproduce
what we wrote soon after while the
speech was fresh in our mind and
when we were near enough to the oc-
casion to remember the impression.
We were-fas cnoughsremoved to have
got sufficiently from under the fasci-
mating power of the orator not to let
our rhetorical steeds take the bit and
run away with us. Here is what we
wrote, and it has never appeared in
the Star:
Those who heard the remarkable
speech of Judge Fowle before the Ma
tional Hotel in Raleigh in June last,
will scarcely fail to remember it
through life. 1t was indeed remark
able speech-remarkable for its in
tense passion, its sustained power, its
classic tone, its sweeping eloquence.
1t was the most fervent, glowing, mag
netic speech / ever heard. When he
drew the picture of Governor Vance
protecting the citizens and upholding
the majesty Of the law in time of
revolution, and contrasted it with the
sickening subserviency and grovelling
timidity of the Supreme Tribunal in
time of peace, when the Judge. clothed
in ermine and holding the. scales of
justice with bandaged eyes, descend
ing from his high place, and tearing
away the fillet and throwing down the
scales, knelt at the footstool of Tyran-
ny fawning and cringing like whip
| ped spaniel, what North Carolinian
did not glory in the one and feel
ashamed of the other? 1t was vivid
portraiture, limned with few bold
strokes in which liberty, right and
vindicated law stood forth in bright
and radiant colors, all typified by the
great Governor who kept his hands
clean from official stain and upheld
the supremacy of the civil power and
in which depotism, revenge and uiOlat-
ed law were symbolized by that other
disgraced Governor, who found his
ready instrument in Tennessee cut
throat and strong coadjutors in syc-
ophantic, cowardly, Frustrated Judi
ciary. If the historian, who is to be,
shall fail to describe the fidelity, puri-
ty and boldness of the War Governor,
and the utter meanness, duplicity and
incompetency of the Judiciary of 1853
70, he will leave unwritten an impor-
tant, saddening, humiliating chapter.
No man of elevated soul could gaze
upon the picture which Judge Fowle
drew with so much severity of outline,
and filled up with so much felicity of
detail, without admiration for the un-
common gifts of the artist
Whilst / stood enthralled in the
presence of the eloquent orator, | was
reminded of Cicero's remarks concern
ing Esop, the great Roman actor,
whose name has descended to modern
times along with that of Roscius Said
the most illustrious of Roman orators
and lawyers in his defence of Sestius
referring to the actor who was his
friend, and, who secured his recall
from banishment by his masterly rem
dering of some lines in the andre.
mache of Ennius: He pleaded my
cause before the Roman people with
far more might of eloquence than
could have pleaded it myself 1t oc
Cured to me as l listened to the
thoughts that breathed and the words
that burned that Governor Vance
might have gratefully and truthfully
used on that occasion the words of the
noble Roman, and applied them to his
impassioned and earnest advocate"
| That was the high water mark o
Fowle's achievement as public
speaker He may do as we'll in the
campaign of 1888, as he for the frs
time makes canvass for himself. Ii
other years he has canvasse1 for 9th
ers. He is fully able to meet the Re
publican nominee, as Col. Decker,
will find
By the way, this Col. Dockery wa
thoroughly identified with the recon
struction horrors in North Carolina
He never raised his voice in protes
against Holden's tyranny, the Supreme
Courts obsequiousness and faccidness
the robberies perpetrated by the cor
rupt Legislature in 186S-'69, and th'
abuses and expressions so meanly Wis
tied upon comparatively helples
people. Col. Dockery should be hel'
up sternly to his past record, be j
what it is.