The Irish standard., 1894-07-07
.O'CONNELL's ELOQUENCE.
A Merited Tribute From Americas Gre
Orator, Wendell Phillips.

a. Merited Tribute Fl rom Americas Great
Orator, Wendell Phillips.
The following is Wendell Phillips elo-
quent description of O'Connelrs elo-
quence: Broadly considered, O'Connell's
eloquenoe has never been equalled in
modern times, certainly not in English
speech. Do you think am partial? I
will vouch John Randolph of Roanoke,
the Virginian slave holder, who hated an
Irishman almost as much as he hated a
Yankee, himself an orator of no mean
level. Hearing O'Connell, he exclaimed:
"This is the man, these are the lips, the
most eloquent that speak the English
tongue in my day!" I think he was
right. remember the solemnity of Web
ster, the grace of Everett, the rhetoric of
Choate; know the eloquence that lay
hid in the iron logic of Calhoun; I, have
melted beneath the magnetism of Ser
geant, s. Prentiss of Mississippi, who
welded power few men ever had; it as
been my fortune to sit at the feet of the
great speakers Of the English tongue
on the other side of the ocean;
but / think all of them together never
surpassed and none of them ever equalled
VConnel].
Nature intended him for our Demos
themes. Never, since the great Greek,
has she sent forth any one SO lavishly
gifted for his work as tribune OF the
people. In the first place, he had q mag
niicent presence, impressive in bearing,
massive, like that of Jupiter. Webster
himself hardly outdid him in the majesty
of his proportions, To be sure he had
not Webster's craggy face and precipice
of brow, nor his eyes glowing like an
thracite coal. Nor had he the lion roar
Of Mirabeau. But his presence filed the
eye. A small O'Connell would hardly
have been an O'Connell at all. These
physical advantages are half the battle.
T remember Russell Lowell telling us
that Mr.. Webster came home from Wash
ington at the time the Wing party
thought of dissolution and went down to
Faneuil hall to protest. Drawing him.
self up to his loftlest proportion, his
brow clothed with thunder, before listen
ing thousands, he said: "Well, gentle
men, am a Wing, Massachusetts
WING, Faneuil Hall Wing, a revolu-
tionary Wing, a constitutional Wing; if
you break the Wing party where am I
to go to-" And says Lowell, I'VE held
our breath, thinking where he could go.
IF he had been foot 8 we should have
said who cares where you go?" So it was
with O'Connell. There was something
majestic in his presence before he spoke,
and he added to it what Webster had
not, but what Clay might have lent
grace. 1.-the as boy at 20, every atti-
tude picture, every gesture grace, he
was still all nature, nothing but nature
seemed to speak all over him.
He had voice that covered the gamut
heard him once say: I send my voice
across the Atlantic, careering like the
thunderstorm against the breeze, to tell
the Shareholder of the Carolinas that
Gods thunderbolts are hot and to re-
mind the bondman that the dawn of his
redemption is already breaking" You
seem to hear the tones coming back to
London from the Rocky mountains.
Then, with the slightest possible Irish
brogue, he would tell story and Exeter
Hall shock with laughter. The next mo-
ment, tears in his voice like Scotch
song, 5000 men wept. His marvellous
voice, it's almost incredible power and
sweetness. charmed millions.