The Irish standard., 1897-05-29
His Celebrated Grafton Upon Daniel
O'Connell.
A GEM OF PUREST EL0QUENCE.
The Greatest Man the Irish Race
Has Produced
WAS THE "UNCR0WNED KING"

A Fine Defamation for Our Y0nth-
full Readers.
Many of the young readers of the Irish
Standard will be delighted to read for
the first time in these columns the
famous Grafton of Wendell Phillips on
Daniel O'Connell, which was delivered
in Boston on August 6, 1870. The fol-
lowing extended extract is taken from
an esteemed contemporary, the North
western Catholic, of Sioux City, Iowa:
The foremost Catholic of his age, the
most stalwart champion of the Church,
he was also broadly and sincerely
tolerant Of every faith. His toll
Grafton had no limit, and no
qualification. That every man should
be allowed freely to worship God ac-
cording to his conscience, that no mans
civil rights should be affected by his re-
ligfous creed, were both cardinal prtn-
ciples of O'Connell. He had no fear
that any doctrine of his faith could be
endangered by the freest possible dis
cussion. He had sympathy with every
race, and every form of oppression.
No matter who was the sufferer, or
what the form of misunderstanding
Yorkshire peasant, imprisoned Charttst,
prosecuted Protestant, or negro slave;
no matter Of what right, personal or
civil, the victim had been robbed; no
matter what religious pretext or politi-
cal juggle alleged necessity" as an ex-
cuse for his oppression; no matter with
what solemnities he had been devoted
on the altar of slavery-the moment
O'Connell saw him the altar and tha
god sank together in the dust, the VIC
tim was acknowledged a man and a
brother, equal in all rights and entitled
to all the aid the great Irishman could
give him.
have no time to speak of his success
at the bar; of that profound skill in the
law which enabled him to conduct such
an agitation, always on the verge of IL
jecting himself or his followers to legal
penalty-an agitation under a code of
which Brougham said: "No Catholic
could lift his hand under it without
breaking the law" have no time to-
speak of his still more remarkable suc-
cess in the House Of Commons. OF
Floods failure there, Grattan had said:
"He was an oak Of the forest, too old
and too great to be transplanted at
fifty" Grattan's own success there was
but moderate. The power OConnell
welded against varied, bitter and un-
scrupulous opposition was marvellous.
I have no time to speak of his personal
independence, his deliberate courage,
moral and physical, his unspotted pri-..
vate character, his unfailing hope, the
versatility of his talents, his power Of !.
tireless work, his ingenuity and bound
less resource, his matchless self-posses-
sion in every emergency, his ready and
inexhaustible wit. But any reference
to O'Connell that omitted his eloquences
would be painting Wellington in the
House of Lords without mention Of Tor
res Vedras or Waterloo.
Broadly considered, his eloquence has
never been equaled In modern times,
certainly not in English speech. Do
you think am partial? will vouch
John Randolph. of Roanoke, the Vtr-
ginia STAKEHOLDER, who hated an 1rish-8
man almost as much as he hated g.
Yankee, himself an orator Of no mean
level. Hearing O'Connell he exclaimed: 81
''This is the man, these are the lips, the
most eloquent that speak English In my
day" think he was right. remem-g
ber the solemnity Of Webster, the grace
Of Everett, the rhetoric Of Choate;
know the eloquence that lay hid II tho
iron logic Of Calhoun; ! have msated
beneath the magnetism Of serSednt s.
Prentiss. of Mississippi. who Welded az
power few men ever had. It has been
my fortune to sit at the feet Of the
great speakers Of the English tongue on
the other side Of the ocean. But u
think all Of them together newer Suxs
passed, and no one Of them ever equaled.s
OiConnell. Nature intended him Tor,
our Demosthenes. Never since thsa
great Greek has she sent forth any on4a
90 lavishly gifted for his work g asI
tribune Of the people. In tho 'hrst pleeea
ha had q maxniicent presence. imrl6qp4a