Channing, William Ellery - Continued

The Greatest Man - The greatest man is he who chooses the right with invincible resolution; who resists the sorest temptations from within and without; who bears the heaviest burdens cheerfully; who is calmest in storms, and most fearless under menace and frowns; and whose reliance on truth, on virtue, and on God, is most unfaltering.

Religion against Arbitrary Power- It was religion which armed the martyr and patriot in England against arbitrary power; which braced the spirits of our fathers against the perils of the ocean and wilderness, and sent them to found here the freest and most equal state on earth.

Books Are the True Levelers-Books are the true levelers. They give to all who faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence of the best and greatest of our race. Chapin, Edwin Hubbell (American, 18141880.)

Labor Directed by Intelligence - Mountains have been leveled and valleys have been exalted before it. It has broken the rocky soil into fertile glades; it has crowned the hill tops with verdure, and bound round the very feet of ocean, ridges of golden corn. Up from the sunless and hoary deeps, up from the shapeless quarry, it drags its spotless marbles and rears its palaces of pomp. It steals the stubborn metals from the bowels of the globe, and makes them ductile to its will. It marches steadily on over the swelling flood and through the mountain clefts. It fans its way through the winds of ocean, tramples them in its course, surges and mingles them with flakes of fire. Civilization follows in its path. It achieves grander victories, it weaves more durable trophies, it holds wider sway than the conqueror. His name becomes tainted and his monuments crumble; but labor converts his red battlefields into gardens and erects monuments significant of better things. It rides in a chariot driven by the wind. It writes with the lightning. It sits crowned as a queen in a thousand cities, and sends up its roar of triumph from a million wheels. It glistens in the fabric of the loom; it rings and sparkles in the steely hammer; it glories in shapes of beauty; it speaks in words of power; it makes the sinewy arm strong with liberty, the poor man's heart rich with content, crowns the swarthy and sweaty brow with honor, and dignity, and peace.

The Source of Modern Progess-The great element of reform is not born of human wisdom, it does not draw its life from human organizations. I find it only in Christianity. "Thy kingdom come!" There is a sublime and pregnant burden in this prayer. It is the aspiration of every soul that goes forth in the spirit of reform. For what is the significance of this prayer? It is a petition that all holy influences

would penetrate and subdue and dwell in the heart of man, until he shall think, and speak, and do good, from the very necessity of his being. So would the institutions of error and wrong crumble and pass away. So would sin die out from the earth; and the human soul living in harmony with the divine will, this earth would become like heaven. It is too late for the reformers to sneer at Christianity, it is foolishness for them to reject it. In it are enshrined our faith in human progress,- -our confidence in reform. It is indissolubly connected

with all that is hopeful, spiritual, capable, in man. That men have misunderstood it, and perverted it, is true. But it is also true that the noblest efforts for human melioration have come out of it,- have been based upon it. Is it not so? Come, ye remembered ones, who sleep the sleep of the Just,-who took your conduct from the line of Christian philosophy,-come from your tombs, and answer!

The Handwriting on the Wall-Nature is republican. The discoveries of science are republican. Sir, what are these new forces, steam and electricity, but powers that are leveling all factitious distinctions, and forcing the world on to a noble destiny? Have they not already propelled the nineteenth century a thousand years ahead? What are they but the servitors of the people, and not of a class? Does not the poor man of to-day ride in a car dragged by forces such as never waited on kings, or drove the wheels of triumphal chariots? Does he not yoke the lightning, and touch the magnetic nerves of the world? The steam engine is a democrat. It is the popular heart that throbs in its iron pulses. And the electric telegraph writes upon the walls of despotism, Mené, mené, tekel upharsin!

Chase, Salmon P. (American, 1808-1873.)

Jefferson and the West- Mr. President, if a stranger from some foreign land should ask me for the monument of Jefferson, I would not take him to Virginia and bid him look on a granite obelisk, however admirable in its proportions or its inscriptions. I would ask him to accompany me beyond the Alleghanies, into the midst of the broad Northwest, and would say to him :

"Si monumentum quæris, circumspice! ▾

Behold, on every side, his monument. These thronged cities, these flourishing villages, these cultivated fields; these million happy homes of prosperous freemen; these churches, these schools; these asylums for the unfortunate and the helpless; these institutions of education, religion, and humanity; these great States, great in their present resources, but greater far in the mighty energies by which the resources of the future are to be developed; these, these are the monument of Jefferson. His memorial is over all our Western land

"Our meanest rill, our mightiest river,
Rolls mingling with his fame forever."
— (U. S. Senate. 1850.)

Chase, Salmon P.- Continued

Indestructible Union of Indestructible States The Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States.- (From the decision in Texas versus White, 7 Wallace 725.)

Châteaubriand, Francois René, Vicomte de (France, 1768-1848.)

"There Is a God!"-There is a God! The herbs of the valley, the cedars of the mountain, bless him; the insect sports in his beam; the bird sings him in the foliage; the thunder proclaims him in the heavens, the ocean declares his immensity;-man alone has said there is no God! Unite in thought at the same instant the most beautiful objects in nature. Suppose that you see, at once, all the hours of the day, and all the seasons of the year: a morning of spring, and a morning of autumn; a night bespangled with stars, and a night darkened by clouds; meadows enameled with flowers; forests hoary with snow; fields gilded by the tints of autumn, then alone you will have a just conception of the universe! While you are gazing on that sun, which is plunging into the vault of the west, another observer admires him emerging from the gilded gates of the east. Py what inconceivable power does that aged star, which is sinking fatigued and burning in the shades of the evening, reappear at the same instant fresh and humid with the rosy dew of the morning? At every hour of the day, the glorious orb is at once rising, resplendent as noonday, and setting in the west; or, rather, Our senses deceive us, and there is, properly speaking, no east or west, no north or south, in the world.

Chatham, William Pitt, Earl of (England, 1708-1778.)

The Crime of Being a Young Man - Sir: The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honorable gentleman has, with such spirit and decency, charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny; - but content myself with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience. Whether youth can be imputed to any man as a reproach I will not, sir, assume the province of determining ;- but surely age may become justly contemptible if the opportunities which it brings have passed away without improvement, and vice appears to prevail when the passions have subsided. The wretch who, after having seen the consequences of a thousand errors, continues still to blunder, and whose age has only added obstinacy to stupidity, is surely the object of either abhorrence or contempt, and deserves not that his gray hairs should secure him from insult. Much more, sir, is he to be abhorred who, as he has advanced in age has receded from virtue, and becomes more wicked with less temptation; — who prostitutes himself for money which he cannot enjoy, and spends the remains of his life in

the ruin of his country.- (Replying to Walpole. 1741.)

"If Not, May Discord Prevail Forever » I thank God, my lords, for having thus long preserved me, inconsiderable as I am, to take a part upon this great occasion, and to contribute my endeavors, such as they are, to restore, to save, to confirm the constitution. My lords, I need not look abroad for grievances. The grand capital mischief is fixed at home. It corrupts the very foundation of our political existence, and preys upon the vitals of the state. The constitution has been grossly violated. The constitution at this moment stands violated. Until that wound is healed, until the grievance is redressed, it is in vain to recommend union to Parliament, in vain to promote concord among the people. If we mean seriously to unite the nation within itself, we must convince the people that their complaints are regarded, that their injuries shall be redressed. On that foundation, I would take the lead in recommending peace and harmony to them; on any other, I would never wish to see them united again.

If the breach in the constitution is effectually repaired, the people will of themselves return to a, state of tranquillity; if not, may discord prevail forever! (1770.)

"God and the Host of Miters » Whenever you attempt to establish your government, or your property, or your church, on religious restrictions, you establish them on a false foundation, and you oppose the Almighty; and, though you had a host of miters on your side, you banish God from your ecclesiastical constitution, and freedom from your political.- (On enfranchising Catholics.)

On the Expulsion of Wilkes- My lords, let us be cautious how we admit an idea that our rights stand on a footing different from those of the people. Let us be cautious how we invade the liberties of our fellow-subjects, however mean, however remote; for, be assured, my lords, that in whatever part of the empire you suffer slavery to be established, whether it be in America or in Ireland, or here at home, you will find it a disease which spreads by contact, and soon reaches from the extremities to the heart. The man who has lost his own freedom becomes, from that moment, an instrument in the hands of an ambitious prince, to destroy the freedom of others.

These reflections, my lords, are but too applicable to our present situation. The liberty of the subject is invaded, not only in provinces, but here at home. The English people are loud in their complaints; they proclaim, with one voice, the injuries they have received; they demand redress; and, depend upon it, my lords, that one way or other they will have redress. They will never return to a state of tranquillity until they are redressed. Nor ought they; for, in my judgment, my lords, and I speak it boldlv,- it were better for them to perish in a glorious contention for their rights,

Chatham, William Pitt, Earl of- Continued than to purchase a slavish tranquillity at the expense of a single iota of the constitution.(1763.)

"If I Were an American» - You cannot, I venture to say it, you cannot conquer America. What is your present situation there? We do not know the worst ; but we know that in three campaigns we have done nothing, and suffered much. You may swell every expense, and strain every effort still more extravagantly; accumulate every assistance you can beg or borrow; traffic and barter with every little pitiful German prince that sells and sends his subjects to the shambles of a foreign country; your efforts are forever vain and impotent,doubly so from this mercenary aid on which you rely; for it irritates to an incurable resentment the minds of your enemies, to overrun them with the sordid sons of rapine and of plunder, devoting them and their possessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty! If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms!-never! never! never!

On Lord North-Such are your well-known characters and abilities, that sure I am that any plan of reconciliation, however moderate, wise, and feasible, must fail in your hands. Who, then, can wonder that you should put a negative on any measure which must annihilate your power, deprive you of your emoluments, and at once reduce you to that state of insignificance for which God and nature designed you?

Whig Spirit of the Eighteenth Century — The spirit which now resists your taxation in America is the same which formerly opposed loans, benevolences, and ship money in England; the same spirit which called all England on its legs, and by the Bill of Rights vindicated the English constitution; the same spirit which established the great fundamental essential maxim of your liberties, that no subject of England shall be taxed but by his own consent. This glorious Whig spirit animates three millions in America who prefer poverty with liberty to gilded chains and sordid affluence, and who will die in defense of their rights as men, as freemen.

Bayonets as Agencies of Reconciliation How can America trust you with the bayonet at her breast? How can she suppose that you mean less than bondage or death? I, therefore, move that an address be presented to his Majesty, advising that immediate orders be dispatched to General Gage for removing his Majesty's forces from the town of Boston. The way must be immediately opened for reconciliation.

Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl

of (England 1694-1773. )

Taxing Vice for Revenue-The specious pretense on which this bill is founded, and,

indeed, the only pretense that deserves to be termed specious, is the propriety of taxing vice; but this maxim of government has, on this occasion, been either mistaken or perverted. Vice, my lords, is not properly to be taxed, but suppressed; and heavy taxes are sometimes the only means by which that suppression can be attained. Luxury, my lords, or the excess of that which is pernicious only by excess, may very properly be taxed, that such excess, though not strictly unlawful, may be made more difficult. But the use of those things which are simply hurtful, hurtful in their own nature, and in every degree, is to be prohibited. None, my lords, ever heard, in any nation, of a tax upon theft or adultery, because a tax implies a license granted for the use of that which is taxed to all who shall be willing to pay it. (1743.)

Choate, Joseph Hodges (American, 1832-) Farragut's Greatness-In the first year of the century, at the very time when the great English admiral was wearing fresh laurels for winning in defiance of orders the once lost battle of the Baltic, the bloodiest picture in the book of naval warfare, there was born on a humble farm in the unexplored wilderness of Tennessee a child who was sixty years afterwards to do for Americans what England's idol had just then done for her, to rescue her in an hour of supreme peril, and to win a renown which should not fade or be dim in comparison with that of the most famous of the sea kings of the old world. For though there were many great admirals before Farragut, it will be hard to find one whose life and fortunes combine more of those elements which command the enduring admiration and approval of his fellowHe was as good as he was great; as game as he was mild, and as mild as he was game; as skillful as he was successful; as full of human sympathy and kindness as he was of manly wisdom, and as unselfish as he was patriotic. So long as the Republic which he served and helped to save shall endure, his memory must be dear to every lover of his country; and so long as this great city continues to be the gateway of the nation and the centre of its commerce, it must preserve and honor his statue, which to-day we dedicate to the coming generations. (1881.)

men.

Choate, Rufus (American, 1799-1859 )

On the Death of Webster-My heart goes back into the coffin there with him, and I would pause. I went, it is a day or two since, alone, to see again the home which he so dearly loved, the chamber where he died, the grave in which they laid him, a!l habited as when—

"His look drew audience still as night, Or summer's noontide air."

till the heavens be no more.

Throughout that spacious and calm scene, all things to the eye showed at first unchanged. The books in the library, the portraits, the table at which he wrote, the scientific culture of the

Choate, Rufus - Continued

land, the course of agricultural occupation, the coming in of harvests, fruit of the seed his own hand had scattered, the animals and implements of husbandry, the trees planted by him in lines, in copses, in orchards, by thousands, the seat under the noble elm on which he used to sit to feel the southwest wind at evening, or hear the breathings of the sea, or the not less audible music of the starry heavens, all seemed at first unchanged.

The sun of a bright day, from which, however, something of the fervors of midsummer were wanting, fell temperately on them all, filled the air on all sides with the utterances of life, and gleamed on the long line of ocean. Some of those whom on earth he loved best, were still there. The great mind still seemed to preside; the great presence to be with you. You might expect to hear again the rich and playful tones of the voice of the old hospitality. Yet a moment more, and all the scene took on the aspect of one great monument, inscribed with his name, and sacred to his memory.

And such it shall be in all the future of America! The sensation of desolateness, and loneliness, and darkness with which you see it now, will pass away; the sharp grief of love and friendship will become soothed; men will repair thither, as they are wont to commemorate the great days of history; the same glance shall take in, and the same emotions shall greet and bless the harbor of the Pilgrims and the tomb of Webster.

were

cast themselves, with the fierce gladness of mountain torrents, headlong on that brief revelry of glory?

I acknowledge the splendor of that transaction in all its aspects. I admit its morality, too, and its useful influence on every Grecian heart, in that greatest crisis of Greece.

And yet, do you not think, that whoso could, by adequate description, bring before you that winter of the Pilgrims, its brief sunshine; the nights of storm, slow waning; the damp and icy breath, felt to the pillow of the dying; its destitutions, its contrasts with all their former experience in life; its utter insulation and loneliness; its deathbeds and burials; its memories; its apprehensions; its hopes; the consultations of the prudent; the prayers of the pious; the occasional cheerful hymn, in which the strong heart threw off its burden, and, asserting its unvanquished nature, went up, like a bird of dawn, to the skies; - do ye not think that whoso could describe them calmly waiting in that defile, lonelier and darker than Thermopylæ, for a morning that might never dawn, or might show them, when it did, a mightier arm than the Persian, raised as in act to strike ; would he not sketch a scene of more difficult and rarer heroism? A scene, as Wordsworth has said, "melancholy, yea, dismal, yet consolatory and full of joy"; a scene, even better fitted to succor, to exalt, to lead the forlorn hopes of all great causes, till time shall be no more!

I have said that I deemed it a great thing for a nation, in all the periods of its fortunes, to be able to look back to a race of founders, and a principle of institution, in which it might rationally admire the realized idea of true heroism. That felicity, that pride, that help, is ours. Our past, with its great eras, that of settlement, and that of independence, should announce, should compel, should spontaneously evolve as from a germ, a wise, moral, and glowing future. Those heroic men and women should not look down on a dwindled posterity. That broad foundation, sunk below frost or earthquake, should bear up something more permanent than an encampment of tents, pitched at random and struck when the trumpet of march sounds at next daybreak. It should bear up, as by a natural growth, a structure in which generations may come, one after another, to the great gift of the social life.

Glittering Generalities - The glittering and sounding generalities of natural right, which make up the Declaration of Independence.- (To the Maine Whig Committee, 1856.)

Step to the Music of the Union-We join ourselves to no party that does not carry the flag and keep step to the music of the Union.- (To the Whig Convention, October 1st, 1855.) Christy, David (American, nineteenth century.)

Cotton Is King-Cotton is king; or, slavery in the light of political economy.

Cicero, Marcus Tullius (Rome, 106-43 B. C.) "Quousque Catilina?" — How long, 0 Catiline, wilt thou abuse our patience? How long also shall thy madness elude us? Whither will thy ungovernable audacity impel thee? Could neither the nightly garrison of the citadel, nor the watch of the city, nor the general consternation, nor the congress of all good men, nor this strongly-fortified place where the senate is held, nor the enraged countenances of those senators, deter thee from thy impious designs? Dost thou not perceive that thy counsels are all discovered? Thinkest thou that there are any of us ignorant of thy transactions the past night, the place of rendezvous, thy collected associates? (Exordium of the first oration against Catiline. Free Translation.)

"O Tempora! O Mores!»--- The senate understands all this. The consul sees it, yet the traitor lives! Lives? Aye, and truly confronts us here in council-takes part in our deliberations-and, with his measuring eye, marks out each man of us for slaughter! And we all this while, strenuous that we are, think that we have amply discharged our duties to the state if we but shun this madman's sword and fury!

Long since, O Catiline, ought the consul to have ordered thee to execution, and brought upon thine own head the ruin thou hast been meditating against others! There was that virtue once in Rome, that a wicked citizen was held more execrable than the deadliest foe. We have a law still, Catiline, for thee! Think not that we are powerless because forbearing. We have a decree though it rests among our archives, like a sword in the scabbarda decree by which thy life would be made to pay the forfeit of thy crimes.-(Continuation of the above exordium.)

He Is Gone. He Is Fled. He Is EscapedAt length, Romans, we are rid of Catiline! We have driven him forth, drunk with fury, breathing mischief, threatening to revisit us with fire and sword. He is gone; he is fled; he has escaped; he has broken away. No longer, within the very walls of the city, shall he plot her ruin. We have forced him from secret plots into open rebellion. The bad citizen is now the avowed traitor. His flight is the confession of his treason! Would that his attendants had not been so few!

Be speedy, ye companions of his dissolute pleasures; be speedy and you may overtake him before night, on the Aurelian road. Let him not languish, deprived of your society. Haste to join the congenial crew that compose his army; his army, I say,- for who doubts that the army under Manlius expect Catiline for their leader? And such an army! Outcasts from honor, and fugitives from debt; gamblers and felons; miscreants, whose dreams are of rapine, murder, and conflagration!

Against these gallant troops of your adversary, prepare, O Romans, your garrisons and

armies; and first, to that maimed and battered gladiator oppose your consuls and generals; next, against that miserable outcast horde, lead forth the strength and flower of all Italy!

On the one side chastity contends; on the other, wantonness: here purity, there pollution; here integrity, there treachery; here piety, there profaneness; here constancy, there age; here honesty, there baseness; here continence, there lust; in short, equity, temperance, fortitude, prudence, struggle with iniquity, luxury, cowardice, rashness; every virtue with every vice; and, lastly, the contest lies between well grounded hope and absolute despair. In such a conflict, were every human aid to fail, would not the immortal gods empower such conspicuous virtue to triumph over such complicated vice?- (From the second oration against Catiline. Free translation.)

Against Verres-I ask now, Verres, what have you to advance against this charge? Will you pretend to deny it? Will you pretend that anything false, that even anything exaggerated is alleged against you? Had any prince, or any state, committed the same outrage against the privileges of Roman citizens, should we not think we had sufficient reason for declaring immediate war against them? What punishment, then, ought to be inflicted on a tyrannical and wicked prætor, who dared, at no greater distance than Sicily, within sight of the Italian coast, to put to the infamous death of crucifixion that unfortunate and innocent citizen, Publius Gavius Cosanus, only for his having asserted his privilege of citizenship, and declared his intention of appealing to the justice of his country against a cruel oppressor, who had unjustly confined him in prison at Syracuse, whence he had just made his escape? The unhappy man, arrested as he was going to embark for his native country, is brought before the wicked prætor. With eyes darting fury, and a countenance distorted with cruelty, he orders the helpless victim of his rage to be stripped, and rods to be brought; accusing him, but without the least shadow of evidence, or even of suspicion, of having come to Sicily as a spy. It was in vain that the unhappy man cried out, "I am a Roman citizen, I have served under Lucius Pretius, who is now at Panormus, and I will attest my innocence." The bloodthirsty prætor, deaf to all he could urge in his own defense, ordered the infamous punishment to be inflicted. Thus, fathers, was an innocent Roman citizen publicly mangled with scour ging; whilst the only words he uttered amidst his cruel sufferings were, "I am a Roman citizen!" With these he hoped to defend himself from violence and infamy. But of so little service was this privilege to him, that while he was asserting his citizenship, the order was given for his execution-for his execution upon the cross!

O liberty! O sound once delightful to every Roman ear! O sacred privilege of Roman citizenship! once sacred, now trampled upon!