Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-04-08
Unspoke,s Speeches
Philaedelphia Ledger.

nrm root IN the nlino OF the reaGlng PUBIC tnat
till the end Of time they will probably be re-
peated with their respective Inscriptions to the
men who should have spoken the words, even
il they did not. To cite four instances which
spring to mind-al it so happens, from the
French-Francis | will continue to inform his
Edgeworth will continue to say to Louis XVI
as the knife descends, "Son of St. Louis, ascend
to heaven Button will continue to declare to
the French academy that THE style is the
man" and Cambronne will continu to hurl at
the British troops at Waterloo his defiance,
sThe Old Guard dies, but does not surrender"
Yet what Francis really wrote was different
and more diffuse and the other three sentences
were in all probability never spoken by their
reputed authors.
Somewhat analogous to these unspoken re-
but still exist, or that were made without a
written copy or verbatim record and have
been filled in from memory and imperfect
transcrpts-the former. class purely fictitious.
the latter largely conjectural. Of the purely
fictitious class examples are thick. There is
rather, of their Instructors in declamaton-in
which Rev. Elijah Kellogg impersonated Spar
taeus at Capua and adjured the gladiators:
"Ye stand here now like giants as We are!
The strength of brass is in your frightened
sinews; but tomorrow some Roman Adonis,
breathing sweet perfume from his curly locks,
shall with his lily fingers pat your red Drawn
and bet his secterces upon your blood. Hark!
Hear you yon lion roaring in his den? Tis
three days since he tasted flesh, but tomorrow
meal for him you will be. If we are beasts
then stand here like fat oxen, waiting for the
butchers knifel 1t We are men, follow me!
Oh, comrades, warriors, Thracians
If we must fight, let US fight for ourselves! If
we must slaughter, lie tus slaughter our oppres-
6iA 81 ho ec1aa
battle!"
There is that fourteenth century Roman
tribune, Cola di Rienzi. alias Edward George
Earle Lytton, Buwer-Lytton Baron Lytton
who, on the verge of downfall, thus reproached
the populace of Rome:
What! and is it ye who fosake me--ye for
whose cause alone man dares to hurl against
me the thunders Of his God3 Is it not for you
that l am declared hereto and rebele What
are my imputed crimes? That / have made
Rome and asserted Italy to be free; that have
subdued the proud magnates who were the
scourge both of pope and people. And you-
you upbraid me with what l have dared and
done for -you Men, with you have fought,
yourselves in forsaking me, and since l no
longer rule over brave men, / resign my power
to the tyrant you prefer. Seven months l have
ruled over you, prosperous in commerce. stain
less in justice, victorious in the held. l have
shown you what Rome would be; and since
abdicate the government We gave me, when l
am gone strike for your freedom. 1t matters
not who is the chief OF brave and great people
Prove that Rome hath many Rienzi, but of
brighter fortunes"
Or, to come nearer home, there is that ia
miar speech on the Declaration of 1ndepend-
ence that John Adams made in the person of
Daniel Webster when he declared, Sink or
SWIM live or die, survive or perish, give my
hand and my heart to this vote" and concluded
my judgment approves this measure, and
my whole heart is in it. Ali that have, and all
that am and all that hope, in this life, am
now ready here to stake upon it; and leave
of as / began that live or die, survive or per-
ish. am for the Declaration. It is my living
sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall
be my dying acknowledgements now and
independence foreverw
James Otis, too, once, spoke through the
medium Of Lydia Maria Child and periodically
vaunted that:
England may as we'll dam up the waters of
the Nile with bullrushes as to fetter the step of
freedom, more proud and firm in this youthful
land than where it treads the sequestered glens
of Scotland or touches herself among the mag
nihcent mountains of Switzerland"
Among speeches not absolutely fictitious but
largely so, a classic instance is the one that
Samuel Johnson in his capacity of parliament
tary reporter put into the mouth of the elder
Pitts
1.-THE atrocious crime of being young man,
which the honorable gentleman has with such
spirit and decency charged upon me, shall
neither attempt to palliate nor deny, but content
myself with wishing that may be one Of those
whose follies may cease with their youth, and
not OF the number who are ignorant in spite
of experience"
Macaulay had doubtless much fuller reports
of the speeches made by the illustrious par
liamentary counsel who took part in the i'm
parchment of Warren Hastings; but these re-
ports were not verbatim; there are more yer
sions than one Of the orations, and it is prob
able that there is some Macaulay as we'll as
some Burke in the peroration of the greatest of
the speeches as he gives it in his essay on Hast
ings:
Therefore hath 1t with all confidence been
ordered by the Commons of Great Britain that
l impeach Warren Hastings of high crimes and
misdemeanors. l. impeach him in the name of
the Commons House of Parliament, whose
trust he has Betrayed impeach him in the name
of the English nation, whose ancient honor he
has sullied. I impeach him in the name OF the
people of India, whose rights he has tradden
under foot and whose country he has turned
into desert. Lastly, in the name of human
nature itself, in the name of both sexes, in the
name of every age / impeach the common en-
envy and oppressor of all"
|(7oTA V