The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-04-02
POWER OF ELoQuENcE.


As Displayed In the Achievements of
Daniel O'Connell.
Now that the season Of st. Patrick
is on it is gratifying to recall noble
tribute of praise given by a gifted
American to one of the brightest and
most patriotic sons of st. Patrick's
Isle. 1t is the panegyric of an orator
by an orator, of lover Of freedom by
lover of freedom-of Daniel O'Con-
nell, the great Celt, by Wendell Phil
lips, the great American. Here is an
extract from Phillips glowing grafton
delivered at the O'Connell celebration
in Boston nearly thirty-four years ago:
Broadly considered, the eloquence
of Daniel O'Connell has never been
equaled in modern times. Do you
think am partial? will vouch John
Randolph, Of Roanoke, the Virginia
Shareholder, who hated an Irishman
almost as much as he hated Yankee
himself an orator Of no mean level.
Hearing O'Connell, he exclaimed:
This is the man, these are the lips, the
most eloquent that speaks English in
my day And 1 think he was right.
l remember the solemnity of Webster,
the grace Of Everett, the rhetoric Of
Choate. l know the eloquence that
lay hid in the iron logic of Calhoun.
l have melted beneath the magnetism
of Sergeant S. Prentiss, of Mississippi,
who welded a power few men ever
had. But l think all Of them together
never surpassed and no one of them
eN"; e1ualed O'Connell.
webster could awe a Senate, Ever
cit could charm college and Choate
cheat jury; Clay could magnetic
the million and Corwin could lead
them captive. O'Connell was Clay,
Corwin, Choate, Everett and Webster
in one. Before the courts, logic; at
the bar Of the Senate, unanswerable
and dignified; on the platform, grace,
wit and pathos; before the masses
whole man. Carlyle says: Gle is
Gods own anointed king, whose sim
gle word melts all Wills into his This
describes O'Connell. Emerson says:
There is no true eloquence unless
there is man behind the speech
Daniel O'Connell was listened to be-
cause all England and all Ireland
knew that there was man behind the
speech-one who could be neither
bought, bullied or cheated. He held
the masses free but willing subjects in
his hand.
ITO show you that he never took a
leaf from our American gospel of
compromise, that he never defiled his
tongue to silence on one truth, fancy
ing so to help another, that he never
sacrificed any race to save even Ire
land, let me compare him with Kos
suth, whose only merits were his elo-
uuence and his patriotism. When
Kossuth was in Faneuil Hall he ex-
claimed: Here is flag without a
stain, a nation without crime We
abolitionists appealed to him: % elo-
quent son of the Magyar, come to
break the chains! Have you no word,
no pulse beat for four millions Of
negroes bending under the yoke ten
| times heavier than that of Hungary?'
He answered: 4 would forget any
body, would praise anything to help
Hungary O'Connell never said any
thing like that.
when I was in Naples asked Sir
Thomas Fowell Buxton, a Tory: rs
O'Connell an honest man?' AS honest
a man as ever breathed,' said he, and
then he told me this story: When, in
1880. O'Connell entered Parliament, the
anti-slavery cause was so weak that it
had only Washington and myself to
speak of it. And we agreed that when
he spoke should cheer him, and when
l spoke he should cheer me; and these
were the only cheers we ever got.
O'Connell came, with one Irish mem
Der to support him. A large number
of members, whom we called the West
India interest, the slave party, went ia
him saying: 'O'Connell, Mt last you
are in the House, with one helper. If
YOU will never go down to Freemason's
Hall with Buxton and Broughton, here
are twenty-seven votes for you on
every Irish question. If you work
with these Abolitionists, count us al.
ways against you
! "'It was terrible temptation. How
many so-called statesman would
have yielded? O'Connell said: "Gen.