Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1895-04-03
uNcoLN's cETTYsB0ke SPEECH.
sublime and immortal. Though Matthew
Arnold Rad Never Heard of II

sublime and immortal. Though Mattbev
AFn"ld Had Never Heard Of 1t.
stood close by and heard that speech
delivered. 1t came upon us after the
ponderous and elaborate rhetoric Of Ed.
ward Everett like o blaze of real fire
after matchless picture Of FIRE. Il
uprang, like the strophes Of old, out Of
ehastened heart almost broken with
the weight Of conquest but still daunt.
less In It's American faith, and the man
VINO spoke the words was, for the mo.
ment transfigured for us, and his fur.
rowed face and gaunt form took on
the light that never was on land or
sea, so that he became the archetype of
the people themselves, uttering better
than he knew the great prayer Of that
liner and better humanity that our IA
theirs and we believed was to come with
liberty and equality out Of storm and
stress and an mistaken confidence in
man.
But l don't think any Of us then
knew how masterful is the speech Of
tho human heart when 1t comes through
the furnace to these great occasions and
plants its sad sincerity by the side Of
mere scholarship and the grooved thun.
der Of rhetoric.
We had to live on for quatey OF
century and 500 that brief speech burn.
Ing with unquenehRble fame IA our
scheolbooks and standing ont with mod.
est majesty on our page Of recorded
history to comprehend how God can
touch with living coal the lips Of a
rail splitter just as he touched the lips
of tentmakef OF Tarsus and lifted the
tlhtntored heart OF the shoemaker, Bun.
yam, into communion with the immor-
tails.
Turn 1t every way you can, the Get
tysburg speech stands unique as a brief
literary and patriotic composition. 1t is
the noblest condensation into the flttest
words of all the emotions, aspirations
and sentiments that millions of mute
people wanted at that moment to utter
So inwrought ia that speech with the
heart OF the occasion, and so majestic
ally does IL sweep over into the time to
come, that l should think all men every
where would discern its intrinsic quail
ty. But that Is not the case.
/ remember talking with Matthew
Arnold when he was in this country
about Abraham Lincoln-you will re-
member that he said of Lincoln that he
had no distinction "-and l called his
attention to the Gettysburg speech.
shall never forget the imperturbable
Saturday Review stare with which he
asked, "Ah. what is the Gettysburg
speech?"
He had never heard Of It. believe
when he went back he asked Professor
Bryce what it was about, and when 1t
was hunted up i'll an American school.
book and shown to him he read it hasti-
ly and put it away with commiserating
reticence.
Suppose you ask NJ. Bourget, who is
looking into the American heart by the
way of the American bodice and on
space rates, if he has read the Gettys-
burg speech. happen to know of my
own knowledge that Robert Louis
Stevenson had not beard of il when he
was exploring our continent. and Sir
Lepel Griffin and Rudyard Kpling had
an idea that it was newspaper fake.
The current number of The Saturday
Review lies open before me, and this is
what my eye falls on;
"The common American delusiop
that there have been a number Of great
American poets. that there is indeed
such thing as American literature,
disports itself with unusual pomposity."
II is impossible for these literary
prigs of . special cult to understand
that there may be stimulant condi-
tions of national life that wake into
tumultuous activity all the higher and
better functions of the soul prior to the
formulation of them into an
art, and that IL is in these periods Of
awakening and not in the after repose
of an elaborate nsthetieism the most
precious heartbeats of the race have
made themselves heard and felt, some
times In half nrticulate tones, but often
er in organ blasts which have sot the
key OF liberty and fixed the vocabulary
of hope and victory.
Before eloquonce or poetry was an art
il was a burning soul and fetched its
style from the agonios and mysteries OF
an untutored nature.
Let us by all means confer distinc-
tion on deathless utterance by mold
ing it in bronze, II we add metal enough
and surround IL with the arabesque OF
Oxford, future Matthew Arnolds may
Join the pilgrims and throw the English
tribute Of we'll turned phrase upon
the tablet, which, after all, is but a
weak hieroglypb Of the record In 70,
600. 600 hearts. Andrew q. Wheeler