In the long list of powers and endowments, we can select no faculty or
attainment more useful and ennobling than that of eloquence.
Brightening the gloom of intellect, and awakening the energies of
feeling, it holds reason mute at its will and enkindles passion with
its touch. The soldier on the tented field is incited to the charge,
and animated in the conflict, and his last moments sweetened, by the
magic of its influence. The cries of injured innocence it converts into
notes of gladness, and the tears of sadness and sorrow into smiles of
pleasure and rejoicing. The miser, gazing on the beauty of his coin,
and living on the manna of its presence, and kneeling to its power as
his idol, is taught to weep over his error, bow to his Creator, and
despise the degrading destroyer of his peace. The infidel, unswayed by
the voice of divinity, and ignorant of its attributes, and doubtful of
its existence, enraptured with the glowing efforts of ethereal
eloquence, is convicted of his depravity, and yields to the resistless
current, which swelling in its onward course, dispels the cloud that
obscures the mind, and leaves it pure and elevated. In the courts of
justice, the criminal, his heart imbittered with torturing despair, and
his soul torn with agonizing anguish, beholds his arms unshackled, his
character unsullied by even suspicious glance, and futurity studded
with honors, station and dignity. In the halls of legislation,
corruption is unmasked, intrigue is exposed, and tyranny overthrown.
Where is its matchless excellence inapplicable? The rich and the poor
experience its effects. The guilty are living monuments of its
exertion, and the innocent hail it as the vindicator of its violated
rights and the preserver of its sacred reputation. In the cause of
mercy it is ever omnipotent; bold in the consciousness of its
superiority, and fearless and unyielding in the purity of its motives,
it destroys all opposition and defies all power. The godlike Sheridan,
unequalled and unrivalled, swayed all by its electric fire, charmed and
enthralled the weak and the timid, and chained and overpowered the
profound and the prejudiced. Burke, the great master of the human
heart, deeply versed in its feelings and emotions, "struck by a word,
and it quivered beneath the blow; flashed the light'ning glance of
burning, thrilling, animated eloquence"--and its hopes and fears were
moulded to his wish. Curran, whose speeches glitter with corruscations
of wit, and sentiment, and genius, and whose soul burned with kindred
feelings for its author, and teemed with celestial emanations,
astonished, elevated and enraptured. Pitt, and Fox, and Henry, and Lee,
and other great and gifted spirits of that golden age, have all
unfolded the grandeur of its sublimity, the richness of its
magnificence, and the splendor of its sparkling beauties.
At a later period, when the rising generation caught the living spark
as it fell from the lips of their giant fathers; a Phillips has pleased
and fascinated by the grace and vigor of his action, the strength and
fervor of his imagination, and the dignity and suavity of his manner;
by the warmth of his feelings and the quickness of his perceptions. A
Canning, by the brilliance of his mind, beaming with gems of classic
literature; the perspicuity of his diction, rich in the beauties of our
language; and the commanding force of his voice, now surpassing in its
deep sternness the echoing thunder, and now, soft, and sweet, and
mellow as the dying cadence of a flute, has never failed to arouse, and
enliven, and convince. And a Brougham, with a profound and
comprehensive intellect, deep and capacious as ocean's channels, with
great powers of close and sound reasoning; with an extensive knowledge
of the past and the present, with untiring energies and unremitted
industry, wields a concentrated mass of overwhelming argument, and
hurls a thunderbolt of eloquence, subduing and crushing in its
impetuous course. In our own country, so fertile in the highest orders
of mind, and so successful in nurturing, and expanding, and
invigorating its faculties, we may point to Calhoun, and Webster, and
Clay, and McDuffie, as the master spirits of the age. Their varied
endowments; their chaste language; their pure and sublime style; their
bitter and withering irony; their keen and searching sarcasm; their
vast range of thought and unequalled condensation of argument, command
the admiration and excite the wonder of men.
That eloquence has been productive of immense good, no one can deny or
doubt. From the earliest ages it has been assiduously cultivated, and
ranked among the highest attainments of the human mind. So great and
elevated was it deemed by the Athenians--so grand the results of its
application, and so distinguished in their councils were those who
possessed it--that the young Demosthenes, inspired with quenchless
ardor for its acquisition, bent all the energies of his gifted
intellect to the task--opposed and triumphed over every obstacle that
nature presented to his advancement--heeded not the scoffs and hisses
of the multitude on the decided failure of his first endeavors--and at
length as the recompense for his toils, reached the pinnacle of
renown--received the gratulations of an admiring age, and beheld his
brow encircled with the wreath of victory, immortal as his glory, and
unfading as the memory of his deeds. While language continues to exist,
and breathe in beauty and vigor the conceptions of mind, his
phillippics, rich in forcible and magnificent expression, in sublime
thought, and bold and resistless eloquence, will survive. And the
fervent, and holy, and incorruptible patriotism that speaks in every
line, must elicit unbounded veneration. His matchless powers, never
exerted but for the public good, inspired his enemies with respect and
fear, and forced the mighty Philip to acknowledge, "that he had to
contend against a great man indeed." Cicero too, entitled by a
contemporary philosopher and orator,[1] one by no means addicted to
flattering or giving even unnecessary praise, "The Father of his
Country," has proved by a long and active career of usefulness and
honor, the beneficial effects of this inestimable power. Who can
conceive any thing more thrilling and overwhelming than his orations
against Cataline? We can see the patriot orator, sternly bold, from the
magnitude of his cause--for the lives of millions depended upon his
success--hatred and abhorrence depicted in his face; indignation
flashing from his eye--for love of country was his impelling motive;
energy and passion in his every action, and the living lava bursting
from his lips;--and the victim, shrinking awe-stricken away--his
baseness exposed--his treacherous schemes unfolded to public gaze; he
flies a blasted and withering thing--a reckless and degraded outlaw.
This is but one of his numerous triumphs, which, stamped with the seal
of immortality, have secured to him a fame as imperishable as time
itself. It was by eloquence that the apostle of christianity so aroused
the apprehensions and pierced the hardened conscience of the heathen
Agrippa, that in the fulness of contrition he exclaimed, "thou almost
persuadest me to be a christian." With it, the fisherman[2] of Naples
declared to the populace the sanctity of their rights--explained the
violation of their chartered privileges, and pointed out the means of
securing justice--denounced their rulers as tyrants, and swore upon the
altar of his country to revenge them. The multitude, through
instinctive esteem for intellectual capacities, however humble the
station of their possessor, and urged by the enthusiasm he had excited,
obeyed his every word. Passive in his hands, he guided them to the
maintenance of their freedom and the expulsion of domestic foes. To its
influence we may ascribe the commencement of our Revolution, and the
tameless spirit which animated our fathers in the struggle. Even now
its effects are visible every where around us. We see that the seducer
is lashed into remorse and contrition, and the traitor has received the
reward for his crime. In the chambers of congress its fire burns with
increasing lustre, and sheds unending sparks of brilliancy and
strength. When properly directed, it is the inseparable companion of
liberty; and so long as it continues thus--so long as its efforts are
characterized by purity and patriotism, the prosperity, union, and
above all, the freedom of these states, will remain secure.
[Footnote 1: Cato of Utica.]
[Footnote 2: Massaniello.]