The Savannah morning news., 1901-07-22

less oratory was but an instrument
and incident Choate was a great win
| rer of cases, and as relaxation he gave,
in the brief vacations of an overworked
/ professional life Che once defined Il
! LAWYERS vacation as the time after
! he has put a question to witness
while he is waiting for an answer, a
few wonderful literary and historical
/ addresses. He gave a brief period of
| brilliant but most unwilling service in
| each house of Congress. He made
some powerful political speeches to
| popular audiences. But his heart was
always in the court house. No gambler
ever hankered for the feYerish delight
of the gaming tables as Choate did for
| that absorbing game, half chance, half
skill. where twelve human dice must
all turn up together one way or there
is no victory. But Everett is always
the orator. He was a clergyman a lit
tie while. He was a Greek professor
little while. He was a college president
a little while. He was minister to
England a little while. He was repre-
sentative in Congress and senator. He
was a governor of the commonwealth.
In these places he did good service
enough to make a high reputation for
any other man. Little of these things
is remembered now"
Senator Hoar also considers him the
foremost American orator in one class
There is one function of the orator
peculiar to our country and almost
wholly unknown elsewhere. That is the
giving utterance to the emotion of the
people. whether of joy or sorrow. on
the occasions when its soul is deeply
stirred-when some great man dies, or
there is a gerat victory or defeat, or
some notable anniversary is celebrated
This office was filled by other men. on
some few occasions by Daniel Web
ster himself, but by no man better
than by Everett. A town or city Or
state is very human. In sorrow 1t
must utter it's cry of pain; in victory,
its note of triumph AS events pass
it must pronounce its judgment. It's
constant purpose must be fixed and
made more steadfast by expression. 1t
must give voice to its love and it's ap-
probation and its condemnation. 1t
must register the high and low water
mark of its tide, its rising and it's
sinking in heat and cold This Office
Edward Everett, for nearly so years,
performed for Massachusetts, and for
the whole country. In his orations are
preserved and recorded everything of
the emotion of the great hours of our
peoples history. The camera of his
delicate photography has preserved for
future generations what passed in the
soul of his own in the times that tried
the souls of men"
If one would really appreciate the
beauty of Everett's style, Senator
Hoar makes this suggestion; Read
the welcome to Lafayette or the CLOSE
of the matchless eulogy on that illus
trious object of the peoples love. Read
the close of the Grafton on Washing
ton. Read the contrast of the grafton
on Washington and Marlborough.
Read the beautiful passage where, just
before the ocean cable was laid, the
rich fancy of the speaker describes
The thoughts that we think up here
on the earth's surface in the cheerful
light of day-clothing themselves with
elemental sparks and shooting with
fiery speed in a moment. in the twink
ling of an eye. from hemisphere TO
hemisphere, far down among the un-
couth monsters that wallow in the
neither seas, along the wreck paved
floor, through the oozy dungeons of
the rayless deep; the last Intelligence
of the crops, whose dancing tassels will
in few months be coquetting with the
west wind on those boundless prairies
flashing along the Shiny decks of old
sunken galleons which have been rot
ting for ages; messages of friendship
and love. from warm, living bosoms
burn over the cold green bones of men
and women, whose hearts, once as fond
as ours, burst as the eternal CULTS
closed and roared over them, centuries
ago." ID .-t .-a."