The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-04
BOOKS OF THE TIME.
Daniel w. voorhees, ''FOrty Years OF
OratOry'' Critically Considered.

No one will see in all things as Mr.. Vor-
hees saw, of course. Life would be insuf-
ferably dull If all men saw alike, and IL
Is particularly to be desired that the larger
number should be oftenest not fully in ac-
cord with the opinions of Mr.. voorhees,.
But no matter how far his view differs
from yours, you will enjoy Mr.. voorhees,
book. Though his resounding phrases Will
often picture you against the sky tall
figure on tall stump tearing passion to
tatters, you will enjoy him, and find your
self much in sympathy with him. and glow,
and thrill a bit, and often softly laugh
and sometimes not SO softly. and not IN
derision If you are good oSd stalWart
Republican who will not believe that there
lis any evil where you know there is SO
much good, your dormant warm blood Will
grow hot again sometimes and you'll get up
and take turn or two around your room
to cool yourself down little. And you Will
reflect that you got through then without
Mr.. Voorhees, aid not only, but in spite
of him and his friends, and that certainly
he could not then have known, and that
he who knows not the law is not sub
ject to the law; and you will go back to
your book. You will find there--maybe had
already found but had for the moment for
gotten-that before he died Mr.. voorhees,
forgave many things that from his point of
view were wrong, many men whom in his
earlier years he had antagonized. You Will
reflect that often no one could know what
was best to be done in the new, grave,
perplexing emergencies that confronted us;
that whatever action was taken must be
in great measure experimental and proved
often to be not the best that could have
been adopted, while it rraversed all the
traditions and theories of the politics and
craftsmanship of Mr. Voorhees, and his
friends; that his eye of distrust could see
faults in men whom you trusted that only
the logic of events could make YOU See
and the graciouSnesS of charity will warm
your heart, and you will feel disposed to
forgive as never before you had felt you
could.
To approach these volumes from the out
Sde-they are beautiful books. The writer
OF the American Letter in recent num-
Der of Literature makes the ridiculous
statement that good bookmaking cannot be
done in Indianapolis He cannot have seen
these volumes recently produced from the
press OF Carbon q Hollenbeck for the Bow
en-Merr1l! Company. Handsomer books, not
in an edition de luxe, have hardly been
made by anybody. To one who is acquainted
Champlain edition of Parkman's works, this
may seem hasty judgment. 1t is a ques-
tlon OF taste. One person may prefer one
or the other, and so on, but every one must
lind the lettering and color combinations on
the back Of the Parkman a trial to the
eye, while the plain elegance of the Voor-
nees book Is entirely gratifying to the
sight And If it falls short somewhat in
richness IS, and finish of Mr. Englshs Con
whole, more comfortable feel to the
nand while the page, lacking the glaze of
inc e., other does not REQUIRE such nice ad-
are mere exterAals, it is true. But yet one
likes better to read a beautiful and COM
Portable book; and certainly these books
are both beautiful and comfortable.
Mr.. Voorheess treatment of his various
SUBJECTS differs greatly in quality. His
work his best, as they have given it the
foremost place in the first volume This
may have been shrewdness, however, bust
ness shrewdness, on their part. The three
lectures on 1.-The Holy Sepulcher' Thomas
Jefferson" and THE Public Men of My Own
times were prepared for delivery under an
Bureau, chiefly, if not altogether, in the
South, it may be assumed. Now the first
of these subjects THE Holy Sepucher," is
dangerous one for public man to handle
except in the conventional way, and as a
title of lecture by Mr.. Voorhees, is at first
glance bit disquieting. Mr.. Voorhees, was
d lawyer whose primary object was success,
a politician under unrelenting compulsion
10 please, statesman nearly all his life IN
opposition He may or may not have hoped
Tor further political perferment at the time
Wnen this lecture was composed, but he had
in view, at any rate as his editors tell us.
another purpose, the accomplishment of
winch required him to please his auditors,
while in so doing he was but following; the
course dictated by the habits of his life
time And so we find him handling this
SUBJECT IN the popular, conventional, hack
nneyed way best calculated to please his
southern auditors, amongst whom the
SmallS and the JOneSeS still flourish and his
religion is truest who makes the Ioudest
noise. But we need not, therefore charge
MIN with insincerity as maybe our first i'm
pulse IS 10 do. For certainly Grand Old
Gladstone is here quite at one with Mr..
voorhees,, and no one would venture to
enarge Mr. Gladstone with insincerity. But
Mr.. Huxley has shown us that Mr. Glad
stone is lacking in learning when he comes
TO the New Testament and so, we may
conclude, was Mr.. Voorhees,. And a lack
or fuIl knowledge of a subject a little out
Of ones line is certainly less henous fault
than hypocrisy.
But these reflections will, no doubt. be re-
garoed by all good people as mere captious
carplngs. All such will find comfort and
edlfication in this lecture. AS for those who
cannot admit its premises nor find its state
ments conclusive, they will find it sugges-
1--WE and entertaining, while he must be a
learned man who will gather no instruction
from 1t.
A greater mass Of matter Of absorbing IN
terest for genuine American could not well
De crowded into a like space than that
which is embodied in the lecture on Jeffer-
son. Whether% ones turn is for historical.
or political, or social, or religious questions.
t II VIII pc the same; he, will find himself
neess exposition of the career of Thomas
JEFFERSON. Familiar as that name Jeffer-
son, Is to all of us, there are few it is safe
to say, who realize how extraordinary a
character ne was, and how remarkable his
career: Tine social, property and govern
mental relationship of Virginia were mod
eled upon those of Great Britain but he
was born with the Declaration Of Independ-
ence in embryo in his heart, and they could
not poison it, The law of primogenifure
prevailed, the church and state were one,
the few were all, the many nothing: but
JEFFERSON, petted, cajoled and battered by a
society rich. cultivated and loyal to the
crown, would not be spoiled, and, saws Voor-
neeS, as he stood at the door of the House
or BurgeSses, on the 30th of May, 1885, lis
tening to the flaming eloquence of Patrick
written upon a blank leaf torn from an old
Coke upon Littleton,' his mind was already
upon an easy level with the, daring tone
of the immortal orator. He simply heard
Tor the first time a full expression of his
own natural convictions"
But no abridgment can do Justice to Voor-
hees on Jefferson. Every man should read
for himself and so do justice to both Voor-
hees and himself So of his eulogy of Lin.
tlon hlling no more space could be finer. OF
more just, or more generous. 1t is most
| comforting sign of the times that Mr.. Voor-
neeS, in a lecture prepared for popular de-
livery to the people of the South could sc
unheSitatingly speak in terms of such un.
4ualned commentator of the character and
public life of Abraham Lincoln.
In this same lecture Mr.. Voorhees, does
Grant full justice, too, even little more
| his Army of the Tennessee alone fight ON
| the first daV of Shiloh That is wrong Nal.