Sumner, Charles - Continued

injunction, "Know thyself," still speaks to an ignorant world from the distant letters of gold at Delphi; know thyself; know that the moral nature is the most noble part of man; transcending far that part which is the seat of passion, strife, and war; nobler than the intellect itself. Suppose war to be decided by force, where is the glory? Suppose it to be decided by chance, where is the glory? No; true greatness consists in imitating, as near as is possible for finite man, the perfections of an Infinite Creator; above all, in cultivating those highest perfections, justice and love; justice, which like that of St. Louis, shall not swerve to the right or to the left; love, which like that of William Penn, shall regard all mankind of kin. «God is angry," says Plato, "when anyone censures a man like himself, or praises a man of an opposite character. And the Godlike man is the good man." And again, in another of those lovely dialogues, vocal with immortal truth: "Nothing resembles God more than that man among us who has arrived at the highest degree of justice." The true greatness of nations is in those qualities which constitute the greatness of the individual. It is not to be found in extent of territory; nor in vastness of population, nor in wealth; not in fortifications, or armies, or navies; not in the phosphorescent glare of fields of battle; not in Golgothas, though.covered by monuments that kiss the clouds; for all these are the creatures and representatives of those qualities of our nature which are unlike anything in God's nature.

Nor is the greatness of nations to be found in triumphs of the intellect alone, in literature, learning, science, or art. The polished Greeks, the world's masters in the delights of language and in range of thought, and the commanding Romans, overawing the earth with their power, were little more than splendid savages; and the age of Louis XIV., of France, spanning so long a period of ordinary worldly magnificence, thronged by marshals bending under military laurels, enlivened by the unsurpassed comedy of Molière, dignified by the tragic genius of Corneille, illumined by the splendors of Bossuet, is degraded by immoralities that cannot be mentioned without a blush, by a heartlessness in comparison with which the ice of Nova Zembla is warm, and by a succession of deeds of injustice not to be washed out by the tears of all the recording angels of heaven.

The true greatness of a nation cannot be in triumphs of the intellect alone. Literature and art may widen the sphere of its influence; they may adorn it; but they are in their nature but accessories. The true grandeur of humanity is in moral elevation, sustained, enlightened, and decorated by the intellect of man. The truest tokens of this grandeur in a state are the diffusion of the greatest happiness among the greatest number, and that passionless Godlike justice, which controls the relations of the state to other states, and to all the people who are committed to its charge.

But war crushes with bloody heel all justice, all happiness, all that is Godlike in man. (From the "World's Best Orations.» 1845.)

Freedom Above Union-Not that I love the Union less, but freedom more, do I now, in pleading this great cause, insist that freedom, at all hazards, shall be preserved. God forbid that for the sake of the Union, we should sacrifice the very thing for which the Union was made. (From a speech at Faneuil Hall, Boston, November 2d, 1855.)

Swing, David (American, 1830–1894.)

Apothegms-Let us learn to be content with what we have, with the place we have in life. Let us get rid of our false estimates, let us throw down the god money from its pedestal, trample that senseless idol under foot, set up all the higher ideals, a neat home, vines of our own planting, a few books full of the inspiration of genius, a few friends worthy of being loved, and able to love us in return; a hundred innocent pleasures that bring no pain or remorse, a devotion to the right that will never swerve, a simple religion empty of all bigotry, full of hope and trust and love, and to such a philosophy this world will give up all the joy it has.

Thinkers alone cannot make a great period. The glory of Christ was not that he knew much, but that he loved much.

As the sky has a higher dome than St. Peter's, so has nature a greater architect than Angelo.

When a man pursues money only, his features become narrowed; his eyes shrink and converge; his smile, when he has any, hardens; his language fails of poetry and ornament; his letters to a friend dwindle down to a telegraphic dispatch; he seems to have no time for anything, because his heart has only one thing for which it wishes time.

Talfourd, Sir Thomas Noon (England, 17951854.)

Shelley's Genius as an Evidence of God's Creative Order-Here is a spectacle which angels may admire and weep over! Here is a poet of fancy the most ethereal,- feelings the most devout,-charity the most Christian,-enthralled by opinions the most cold, hollow, and debasing! Here is a youth endowed with that sensibility to the beautiful and the grand which peoples his minutes with the perceptions of years, who, with a spirit of self-sacrifice which the eldest Christianity might exult in if found in one of its martyrs, is ready to lay down that intellectual being,-to be lost in loss itself,-if by annihilation he could multiply the enjoyments and hasten the progress of his species,- and yet, with strange willfulness, rejecting that religion in form to which in essence he is imperishably allied! Observe these radiant fancies,- pure and cold as frostwork,- how would they be kindled by the warmth of Christian love! Track those "thoughts that wander through eternity," and think how they would repose in

their proper home! And trace the inspired, yet erring youth, poem after poem,-year after year, month after month,- how shall you see the icy fetters which encircle his genius gradually dissolve; the wreaths of mist ascend from his path; and the distance spread out before him peopled with human affections and skirted by angel wings! See how this seeming atheist begins to adore,- how the Divine image of suffering and love presented at Calvary, never unfelt, begins to be seen,-and in its contemplation the softened, not yet convinced poet exclaims in his "Prometheus," of the followers of Christ :

"The wise, the pure, the lofty, and the just, Whom thy slaves hate-for being like to thee!"

And thus he proceeds,- with light shining more and more towards the perfect day, which he was not permitted to realize in this world. As you trace this progress, alas! Death veils it,-veils it, not stops it,-and this perturbed, imperfect, but glorious being is hidden from us -"Till the sea shall give up its dead!" What say you now to the book which exhibits this spectacle, and stops with this catastrophe? Is it a libel on religion and God? Talk of proofs of Divine existence in the wonders of the material universe, there is nothing in any-nor in all-compared to the proof which this indicted volume conveys! What can the telescope disclose of worlds, and suns, and systems, in the heavens above us, or the microscope detect in the descending scale of various life, endowed with a speech and a language like that with which Shelley, being dead, here speaks? Not even do the most serene productions of poets, whose faculties in this world have attained comparative harmony, strongly as they plead for the immortality of the mind which produced them,afford so unanswerable a proof of a life to come, as the mighty embryo which this book exhibits;

as the course, the frailty, the imperfection, with the dark curtain dropped on all! It is, indeed, when best surveyed, but the infancy of an eternal being; an infancy wayward but gigantic; an infancy which we shall never fully understand, till we behold its development "when time shall be no more "-when doubt shall be dissolved in vision-"when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and when this mortal shall have put on immorfality!"-(Queen against Moxon in 1841, detending Shelley's publisher against an indictment for publishing blasphemies.)

Taylor, Jeremy (England, 1613-1667.)

The Punishment of Tyranny - When God takes away all comfort from us, nothing to support our spirit is left us; when sorrow is our food, and tears our drink; when it is eternal night, without sun, or star, or lamp, or sleep; when we burn with fire without light, that is, are laden with sadness without remedy, or hope of ease; and that this wrath is to be expressed and to fall upon us, in spiritual, immaterial, but most accursed, most pungent, and dolorous emanations; then we feel what it is to lose a soul.

We may guess at it by the terrors of a guilty conscience, those verbera et laniatus, those secret "lashings and whips" of the exterminating angel, those thorns in the soul, when a man is haunted by an evil spirit; those butchers -which the soul of a tyrant, or a violent or a vicious person, when he falls into fear or any calamity, does feel - are the infinite arguments, that hell-which is the consummation of the torment of conscience, just as manhood is the consummation of infancy, or as glory is the perfection of grace- is an infliction greater than the bulk of heaven and earth.

The Foolish Exchange-A soul, in God's account, is valued at the price of the blood, and shame, and tortures of the Son of God; and yet we throw it away for the exchange of sins that a man is naturally ashamed to own; we lose it for the pleasure, the sottish, beastly pleasure of a night. (From a sermon in the "World's Best Orations.")

Taylor, Robert L. (American, Contemporaneous.)

Irish Heroism-If I were a sculptor, I would chisel from the marble my ideal of a hero. I would make it the figure of an Irishman sacrificing his hopes and his life on the altar of his country, and I would carve on its pedestal the name of Robert Emmet.

If I were a painter, I would make the canvas eloquent with the deeds of the bravest people who ever lived, whose proud spirit no power can ever conquer and whose loyalty and devotion to the hopes of free government no tyrant can ever crush. And I would write under the picture "Ireland."

If I were a poet, I would melt the world to tears with the pathos of my song. I would touch the heart of humanity with the mournful threnody of Ireland's wrongs and Erin's woes. I would weave the shamrock and the rose into garlands of glory for the Emerald Isle, the land of martyrs and memories, the cradle of heroes, the nursery of liberty.

Tortured in dungeons and murdered on scaffolds, robbed of the fruits of their sweat and toil, scourged by famine and plundered by the avarice of heartless power, driven like the leaves of autumn before the keen winter winds, this sturdy race of Erin's sons and daughters have been scattered over the face of the earth, homeless only in the land of their nativity, but princes and lords in every other land where merit is the measure of the man.

Thiers, Louis Adolphe (France, 1797-1877.)

Foreign War and Domestic Abuses - Since our new institutions have diminished the share which our nation took in managing its own affairs, it was feared that the activity of mind with which I am reproached might be dangerous, unless means should be found to occupy the attention of the country. These means, sometimes dangerous, always odious, have been wars abroad, and enormous expenditure and great speculations at home. After great wars came

small ones, small, if we consider the number of men engaged, but large if we consider their distance and the serious complications they may cause. The war in Mexico has already cost us more than the Italian War, to say nothing of the complications it may entail. The war expendi

ture has, of course, been met by loans, and the public debt has consequently been considerably increased. (1865.)

Thurman, Allen G. (American, 1813-1895.)

Vested Rights and Sovereignty - It has been said that we have no right to destroy vested rights, and decisions have been read of courts in these very words, or words of similar import, where a reservation of right to amend, alter, or repeal a charter is involved, and the courts have said there is some limitation to this power. What limitation have they put upon it? That in the exercise of the power you must not destroy vested rights that have been created under the charter, nor impair the obligation of contracts that have been created under it. When the courts said you are not to destroy vested rights created under the charter, or impair an obligation of contracts created under it, did they mean that you are not to touch the contract between the government and the corporation itself, its charter? No, sir, nothing of the kind; there was no such idea as that. They never intended it. When a charter is passed and contains this reserved right to alter, amend, or repeal, and the company accepts the charter with that reservation in it, it is an assent beforehand on the part of the company that the government may exercise that right, although in so doing it does alter the charter or does modify it, so long at least as the general objects of the charter are observed.-(1877.)

Tooke, John Horne (England, 1736-1812.)

"What Is the Best Government ? »—I have been more concerned in my room than I have with the commerce of men in the world; and I read there when I was very young that when Solon was asked which was the best government, he answered: "Where those who are not personally injured, resent and pursue the injury or violence done to another, as he would if done to himself." That, he said, was the best kind of government; and he made a law empowering men to do so. Now, gentlemen, we are happier, we are under a better government; for our laws enjoin us to do what he only empowered men to do. By our laws the whole neighborhood is answerable for the conduct of each; our laws make it each man's duty and interest to watch over the conduct of all. This principle and motive has been represented in me as malice. It is the only malice they will ever find about me.-(At his trial for libel. 1777.) Toombs, Robert (American, 1810-1885.)

The Sword as a Title to Territory-Our next and last acquisition was California and New Mexico. They are the fruits of successful We have borne our full share of its burdens, we demand an equal participation in its

war.

benefits. The rights of the South are consecrated by the blood of her children. The sword is the title by which the nation acquired the country. The thought is suggestive; wise men will ponder upon it, brave men will act upon it. I foresaw the dangers of this question; I warned the country of these dangers. From the day that the first gun was fired upon the Rio Grande, until the act was consummated by all the departments of this government, I resisted all acquisitions of territory. My honorable colleague before me [Mr. Stephens] and myself, standing upon the ground taken by the Republican party in 1796 against Jay's Treaty, voted against appropriating the money to carry out the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. We had no support from the South, and but half a dozen votes from the North. I saw no good prospect of adjusting fairly the question which the acquisition would present. I therefore resisted a policy which threatened the ruin of the South or the subversion of the government. to-day, men of the North, these are the alternatives you present us. We demand an equal participation in the whole country acquired, or a division of it between the North and the South. (1850.)

Tyler, John (American, 1790-1862.)

And

The Flag of Yorktown-I regard union, next to freedom, as the greatest of blessings. Yes, sir, "the Federal Union must be preserved. But how? Will you seek to preserve it by force? Will you appease the angry spirit of discord by an oblation of blood? Suppose that the proud and haughty spirit of South Carolina shall not bend to your high edicts in token of fealty? that you make war upon her, hang her governor, her legislators, and judges, as traitors, and reduce her to the condition of a conquered province,- have you preserved the Union? This Union consists of twenty-four States; would you have preserved the Union by striking out one of the States,- one of the old thirteen ? Gentlemen have boasted of the flag of our country with its thirteen stars. When the light of one of these stars shall have been extinguished, will the flag wave over us under which our fathers fought? If we are to go on striking out star after star, what will finally remain but a central and a burning sun, blighting and destroying every germ of liberty? The flag which I wish to wave over me is that which floated in triumph at Saratoga and Yorktown. It bore upon it thirteen States, of which South Carolina was one. Sir, there is a great difference between preserving union and preserving government: the Union may be annihilated, yet government preserved; but under such a government no man ought to desire to live.-(From the debate in the U. S. Senate on the Revenue Collection Bill of 1833.)

Tyndall, John (England, 1820-1893.)

America's Most Difficult Problem-De Tocqueville evidently doubts the capacity of a democracy to foster genius as it was fostered in the ancient aristocracies. "The future," he

says, "will prove whether the passion for profound knowledge, so rare and so fruitful, can be born and developed so readily in democratic societies as in aristocracies. As for me," he continues, "I can hardly believe it." He speaks of the unquiet feverishness of democratic communities, not in times of great excitement, for such times may give an extraordinary impetus to ideas, but in times of peace. "There is, then," he says, "a small and uncomfortable agitation, a sort of incessant attrition of man against man, which troubles and distracts the mind without imparting to it either animation or elevation." It rests with you to prove whether these things are necessarily so,-whether the highest scientific genius cannot find in the midst of you a tranquil home. I should be loath to gainsay so keen an observer and so profound a political writer, but, since my arrival in this country, I have been unable to see anything in the constitution of society to prevent a student with the root of the matter in him from bestowing the most steadfast devotion on pure science. If great scientific results are not achieved in America, it is not to the small agitations of society that I should be disposed to ascribe the defect, but to the fact that the men among you who possess the endowments necessary for scientific inquiry are laden with duties of administration or tuition so heavy as to be utterly incompatible with the continuous and tranquil meditation which original investigation demands. It may well be asked whether Henry would have been transformed into an administrator, or whether Draper would have forsaken science to write history, if the original investigator had been honored as he ought to be in this land. I hardly think they would. Still I do not think this state of things likely to last. In America there is a willingness on the part of individuals to devote their fortunes, in the matter of education, to the service of the commonwealth, which is without a parallel elsewhere; and this willingness requires but wise direction to enable you effectually to wipe away the reproach of De Tocqueville.

Your most difficult problem will be not to build institutions, but to make men; not to form the body, but to find the spiritual embers which shall kindle within that body a living soul.-(1873.)

Uhlman, D.

(American, Contemporaneous.)

The Sovereignty of Individual Manhood -The great truth which was promulgated by the Declaration of Independence, and established by the War of the Revolution, and made the distinguishing characteristic of our nationality, was that all legitimate power resides in, and is derived from, the people. This sublime truth, to us so self-evident, so simple, so obvious, was before that time measurably undeveloped in the history of the world. Philosophers, in their dreams, had built ideal governments; Plato had luxuriated in the happiness of his fanciful republic; Sir Thomas More had reveled in the bright visions of his "Utopia »; the immor

tal Milton had uttered his sublime views on freedom; and the great Locke had published his profound speculations on the true principles of government; but never, until the establishment of American independence, was it, except in very imperfect modes, acknowledged by a nation, and made the corner stone and foundation of its government, that the sovereign power is vested in the mass. - (From a speech in 1855-)

Vallandigham, Clement L. (American, 18201871.)

What Will Preserve the Union - Devoted as I am to the Union, I have yet no eulogies to pronounce upon it to-day. It needs none. Its highest eulogy is the history of this country for the last seventy years. The triumphs of war and the arts of peace,-science; civilization; wealth; population; commerce; trade; manufacture; literature; education; justice; tranquillity; security to life, to person, to property; material happiness; common defense; national renown; all that is implied in the "blessings of liberty"; these, and more, have been its fruits from the beginning to this hour. These have enshrined it in the hearts of the people; and, before God, I believe they will restore and preserve it. (House of Representatives, 1861. From the "World's Best Orations.»

"Money, Money, Sir, Was at the Bottom »— For a good many years parties were organized upon questions of finance or of political economy. Upon the subjects of a permanent public debt, a national bank, the public deposits, a protective tariff, internal improvements, the disposition of the public lands, and other questions of a similar character, all of them looking to the special interests of the moneyed classes, parties were for a long while divided. The different kinds of capitalists sometimes also disagreed among themselves,-the manufacturers with the commercial men of the country; and in this manner party issues were occasionally made up. But the great dividing line at last was always between capital and labor,-between the few who had money and who wanted to use the government to increase and "protect it, as the phrase goes, and the many who had little but wanted to keep it, and who only asked government to let them alone. Money, money, sir, was at the bottom of the political contests of the times; and nothing so curiously demonstrates the immense power of money as the fact that in a country where there is no entailment of estates, no law of primogeniture, no means of keeping up vast accumulations of wealth in particular families, no exclusive privileges, and where universal suffrage prevails, these contests should have continued, with various fortune, for full half a century.-(1861.)

Van Buren, Martin (American, 1782-1862.)

"Expansion » Before the Mexican and Civil Wars-Certain danger was foretold from the extension of our territory, the multiplication of States, and the increase of population. Our system was supposed to be adapted only to

boundaries comparatively narrow. These have been widened beyond conjecture; the members of our Confederacy are already doubled; and the numbers of our people are incredibly augmented. The alleged causes of danger have long surpassed anticipation, but none of the consequences have followed. The power

and influence of the republic has risen to a height obvious to all mankind; respect for its authority was not more apparent at its ancient than it is at its present limits; new and inexhaustible sources of general prosperity have been opened; the effects of distance have been averted by the inventive genius of our people, developed and fostered by the spirit of our institutions, and the enlarged variety and amount of interests, productions, and pursuits have strengthened the chain of mutual dependence, and formed a circle of mutual benefits too apparent ever to be overlooked. - (From his first annual message, 1837.)

Vane, Sir Henry (England, 1612–1662.)

Repudiating the Cromwells as a Dynasty -Mr. Speaker, among all the people of the universe, I know none who have shown so much zeal for the liberty of their country as the English at this time have done;-they have, by the help of Divine Providence, overcome all obstacles, and have made themselves free. We have driven away the hereditary tyranny of the House of Stuart, at the expense of much blood and treasure, in hopes of enjoying hereditary liberty, after having shaken off the yoke of kingship; and there is not a man among us who could have imagined that any person would be so bold as to dare to attempt the ravishing from us that freedom which cost us so much blood and so much labor. But so it happens, I know not by what misfortune, we are fallen into the error of those who poisoned the Emperor Titus to make room for Domitian; who made away Augustus that they might have Tiberius; and changed Claudius for Nero. I am sensible these examples are foreign from my subject, since the Romans in those days were buried in lewdness and luxury, whereas the people of England are now renowned all over the world for their great virtue and discipline; and yet,-suffer an idiot, without courage, without sense,-nay, without ambition, to have dominion in a country of liberty! One could bear a little with Oliver Cromwell, though, contrary to his oath of fidelity to the Parliament, contrary to his duty to the public, contrary to the respect he owed that venerable body from whom he received his authority, he usurped the government. His merit was so extraordinary, that our judgments, our passions, might be blinded by it. He made his way to empire by the most illustrious actions; he had under his command an army that had made him a conqueror, and a people that had made him their general. But, as for Richard Cromwell, his son, who is he? what are his titles? We have seen that he had a sword by his side; but did he ever draw it? And what is of more importance in this case, is he fit to get obedience

from a mighty nation, who could never make a footman obey him? Yet, we must recognize this man as our king, under the style of protector!a man without birth, without courage, without conduct! For my part, I declare, sir, it shall never be said that I made such a man my master! (Complete. British Parliament. 1659.)

"I Have Otherwise Learned Christ »—No, my lords, I have otherwise learned Christ, than to fear them that can but kill the body, and have no more that they can do. I have also taken notice, in the little reading that I have had of history, how glorious the very heathen have rendered their names to posterity in the contempt they have showed of death, when the laying down of their lives has appeared to be their duty,-from the love which they have owed to their country.

Two remarkable examples of this give me leave to mention to you upon this occasion. The one is of Socrates, the divine philosopher, who was brought into question before a judgment seat, as now I am, for maintaining that there was but one only true God, against the multiplicity of the superstitious heathen gods; and he was so little in love with his own life upon this account, wherein he knew the right was on his side, that he could not be persuaded by his friends to make any defense, but would choose rather to put it upon the conscience and determination of his judges, to decide that wherein he knew not how to make any choice of his own as to what would be best for him, whether to live or to die; he ingenuously professing that for aught he knew it might be much to his prejudice and loss to endeavor longer continuance in this bodily life.

The other example is that of a chief governor, Codrus, that, to my best remembrance, had the command of a city in Greece, which was besieged by a potent enemy, and brought into unimaginable straits. Hereupon the said gov. ernor made his address to the Oracle to know the event of that danger. The answer was: "That the city should be safely preserved if the chief governor were slain by the enemy.» He understanding this, immediately disguised himself and went into the enemy's camp, amongst whom he did so comport himself that they unwittingly put him to death; by which means, immediately, safety and deliverance arose to the city as the Oracle had declared. So little was his life in esteem with him when the good and safety of his country required the laying down of it.(At his trial for high treason. 1662.)

Vergniaud, Pierre Victurnien (France, 17531793.)

"Then I Am a Moderate"-I know that liberty is ever as active as a blazing flame,— that it is irreconcilable with the inertia that is fit only for slaves! Had we tried but to feed that sacred fire which burns in my heart as ardently as in that of the men who talk incessantly about "the impetuosity" of their character, such great dissensions would never have arisen