The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-01-22

overwhelming personality, the prophetic
vision Of the man who was most alive n
the tremendous issue and who had al.
ready heard the "clanking Of chains and
the clash of resounding arms but noL
with fear. The loss Of liberty, not death
was to be feared. OF all this the tradl.
lions only remain. which have been gath
cred up as ashes in the urn of history.
Nevertheless there was a day 125 years
ago when heroic thought, arrayed in
words of power, swept the doubtful AND
fearful along with the hopeful and conf.
dent in the single purpose to find liberty
or death. Therefore these potent words;
Of the foremost orator of his time will
always be ranked with the best renem-
pered utterances in all the record of THAI
literature which moves and inspires.
There were ether orators in the South
who would have had greater fame IF
Henry had not outshone them. Richard
Henry Lee was ranked with him by soma
who considered Lees harmonious voice
and choice diction matched only by the
formers natural gift of persuasive
sreech In a measure the same might
have been said of John Ruuedge, Ed
mund Randolph, George Mason, Edmund
Pendleton and the broad-minded South
Carolinian, Christopher Gadsden, who
voiced the sober sentiment of the great
est number when he said eve should
stand up on the broad common ground
of those natural rights that we all feel
AID know as men and as descendants Of
Epglishmen. There ought to be no New
England man, no New Yorker known on
the continent, but all Of us Americans"
George Washington was almost the only
mar Of eTninence in the South who did
lot distinguish himself at one time or
another in the discussions which culmi-
mated in the war Of independence. His
part in that could excuse him from con-
tributing to the forensic literature OF
the TIM.
While this was growing luxuriantly in a
region always favorable to it's develop
ment a similar outburst occurred in the
North. The efficiency Of James Otis and
Samuel Adams as writers was supple
mented by their oral discourse. Adams
was the most frequent speaker in Boston
town meetings He spoke as a man Of
affairs, whose opinions were Of more con
sequence to himself and others than to
phrases in which they were clothed. On
ordinary topics his manner was business
like, but under the stress or great oc-
caSion he rose to the emergency and the
opportunity. With Otis the occasion was
made great by the brilliance of his treat
ment He made clear the character of
colonial rights and asserted them with
daring. In his early speech against rights
of assistance John Adams called him "a
flame Of fire." His torrent Of impetiIous
eloquence bore all before HIM American
independence was then and there born.
Every man went away ready to take
oratory placed him at the head Of the
popular party and won for him TIE title
land"
AS in the South, so in the North, there
were other speakers whose eloquence has
been forgotten in the greater splendor OF
their craftsmanship. Hamilton Jay, John
Adams Madison, Quincy, Livingston
Morris and Clinton were able to main
tain their views with voice and pen, or
sword, If necessity required. There is
less need to call attention to their legacy
to TIE literature Of oratory because it Is
known to every youth who has had to
declaim in school For this reason the
best portion of our colonial production
may be passed lightly over and dismissed
with the remark that, at least in this
respect, as in another, the leaders of
opinion were able to stand before kings
and contend with parliaments.
As the close of the colonial period is
reached With the recognition Of independ-
ence by the treaty of Paris in 1888, a.
literature through which we have passed
has its cOmpenSations. A varying prog
ress is observable from the barrenness
OF a diar1age through the narrowness of
a dogmatic and the virulcnce Of contro-
veTsial and polemic periods in the broader
and more generous SympathieS of outer
world ideas, and at length into a higher
sphere of independence in political
thought and its expression Cruden&ss
and affectation, pedantry and contortion
had their day, and finally yielded to moro
sensible methods ip prose, and the begin
ming Of true poetic spirit in verse How
much more might have been accomplish
ed, and how much earlier if the forefath-
ers had not persistently turned tEeir
backs upon contemporary letters in Eng
land and followed home-spun patterns
with exclusive devotion, is question
which may be discussed elsewhere, but
for which there Is no room here. No one
than nTpSGnt
to grant all that can be claimed for the
foundation work which was done by the
colonial age, although its later periods
are sometimes reverse. But in literature.
at least, the rough substructure need
not be mistaken for the edifice which is
built upon it. The century for credita-
BILE literature in this country was to
come with the growth and larger life of
the new nation, and it Is by reviewing
its achievements rather than those OF
provincial centuries that better reasons
for complacency may be discovered.
Copyright 1897