The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1893-01-28
THE LIBERAT0
An Estimate Of Daniel OConnen
by Wendell Phillips, the Sill
ver-Tongued American. /.
5 MAJESTIC PRESENCE
An Honest Man, and an Orator Un-
equalled Since the Days of
Demosthenes.

Demosthenes.
The following passages from the lee
ture on Daniel O'Counell by the late
Wendell Phillips, the silver-toDgued ora
tor of America, will give an idea Of the
manner of man the Irish Liberator was.
The version here given is somewhat uif.
ferent in language from that given in his
published speeches, but it ls substanti-
ally the same:
l do not think exaggerate when [ say
that never since God made Demosthenes
has He made man better fitted for a
great work than He did O'Connell.
You may say tn t { am partial to my
hero; but John Randolph of Roanoke,
who hated an Irlshman almost as much
as he did Yankee, when he got to Lon
don and heard O'Connell, the old slave
holder threw up his hands and exclaimed,
''This is the man, those are the lips, the
most eloquent that speak English in my
day" and think he was right.
Webster could address a bench of
judges; Everett could charm college;
Choate could deluxe jury; Clay could
magnetlze senate, and Tom Corwin
could hold the mob in his right hand,
but no one OF these mon could do more
than this one thing. The wonder about
OConnell was that he could out-talk
Corwin, he could charm college better
than Everett, and leave Henry Clay
himself far behind in magnetizing a een-
ate.
It has been my privilege TO have heard
all the great orators of America who
have become singularly famed about the
worlds circumference. / know what was
the ma esty of Webster; I know what it
was TO melt under the magnetism OF
Henry Clay; I have seen eloquence in
the iron logic Of Calhoun, but all three
of these men never surpassed and no one
of them ever equalled the great Irishman.
I have hitherto been speaking Of his
ability and success; I will now consider
his character.
To show you that he never took leaf
from our American gospel of compro
mise, that he never filed his tongue to
silence on one truth fancying so to help
another, let me compare him to Kossuth,
whose only merits were lis eloquence
and his patriotism. When Kossuth was
in Faneuil Hall, he excla med, 'Here is a
flag without stain, nation without a
crime" We Abolitionists appealed to
him, 20 eloquent son of the Magyar, come
to break chains, have you no word, no
pulse beat for four millions of negroes
bending under yoke ten times heavier
than that of Hungary" He exclaimed,
Il would forget anybody, I would praise
anything, to help Hungary" O'Connell
never said anything like that.
HE WAS AN HoNEsR MAN.
When I was in Naples I asked Sir
Thomas Foxwell Buxton, us Daniel
O'Connell an honest man?'' "As honest a
man as ever breathed," said he, and then
he told me- the following story: "When
in 1880, O'Cornell first entered parlia-
ment, the anti slavery cause Was SO weak
that it had only Lushinghton and my
self to speak for ii, and we agreed that
when he spoke should cheeer him up,
and when I spoke he should cheer nae,
and these were the only cheers we ever
got. O'Connell came with one Irish
member to support him. A large party
OF memb-rs Il think Buxton said TWEEN
ty-seven) whom We called the West In
dia interest, the Bristol party, the slave
party, went to him saying, 'O'Connell, at
last you are in the House with one
helper-.if you will never go down to
Freemason's Hall with Buxton and
Brougham, here are twenty-aeven votes
for you on every Irish question. I you
work with those Abolitionists, count us
always against YOU 1t was a terrible
How many so-called
statesman would have yielded! O'Con-
nell said, "Gentlemen, God knows
speak for the saddest people the sun
secs; but may my right hand forget its
cunning and my tongue cleave to the
root Of my mouth, il to help Ireland =
even Ireland forget the negro one
single hour. Z
From that day" said Buxton, .Luah-
ington and never went into the lobby
that O'Connell did not follow us.''
q And then besides his irreproachable
character, be had what is half the power
Of 8 popular orator, he bad : majestic
presence. IN youth he had the brow 81
9 Jupiter or Jove, and the stature d