The hearts of the listeners would beat faster as the
declaimer continued:--
"Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous
ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still
full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original
luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured...."
When the irrepressible conflict came, it would be difficult to estimate how
many this great oration influenced to join the army to save the Union. The
closing words of that speech, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and
inseparable!" kept sounding like the voice of many thunders in the ear of
the young men, until they shouldered their muskets. His _Seventh of March
Speech_ (1850), which seemed to the North to make compromises with slavery,
put him under a cloud for awhile, but nothing could stop youth from
declaiming his _Reply to Hayne_.
Although the majority of orators famous in their day are usually forgotten
by the next generation, it is not improbable that three American orations
will be quoted hundreds of years hence. So long as the American retains his
present characteristics, we cannot imagine a time when he will forget
Patrick Henry's speech in 1775, or Daniel Webster's peroration in his
_Reply to Hayne_, or Abraham Lincoln's _Gettysburg Address_ (p.
Pages:
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231