down it went. God said to the house of Bourbon, "Remodel France, and establish equity." It would not do it. Down it went. God said to the house of Stuart, "Make the people of England happy." It would not do it. Down it went. He said to the house of Hapsburgh, "Reform Austria, and set the prisoners free." It would not do it. Down it went. He says to men now, "Reform abuses, enlighten the people, make peace and justice to reign." They don't do it, and they tumble down. How many wise men will go to the polls high with hope, and be sent back to their firesides! God can spare them. If he could spare Washington before free government was tested; Howard, while tens of thousands of dungeons remained unvisited; Wilberforce,1 before the chains had dropped from millions of slaves,-then Heaven can spare another man. The man who for party forsakes righteousness, goes down, and the armed battalions of God march over him. WENDELL PHILLIPS. 93.- Washington. It matters very little what spot may have been the birthplace of Washington. No people can claim, no country can appropriate him. The boon of Providence to the human race, his fame is eternity, and his residence creation. Though it was the defeat of our arms, and the disgrace of our policy, I almost bless the convulsion in which he had 1 Howard Wilberforce. philanthropists living in the early Names of distinguished English part of the present century. his origin. If the heavens thundered, and the earth rocked, yet, when the storm had passed, how pure was the climate that it cleared! How bright, in the brow of the firmament, was the planet which it revealed to us! In the production of Washington, it does really appear as if Nature was endeavoring to improve upon herself, and that all the virtues of the ancient world were but so many studies preparatory to the patriot of the new. Individual instances, no doubt, there were, splendid exemplifications of some singular qualification. Cæsar was merciful, Scipio was temperate, Hannibal1 was patient; but it was reserved for Washington to blend them all in one, and, like the lovely masterpiece of the Grecian artist, to exhibit, in one glow of associated beauty, the pride of every model, and the perfection of every master. As a general, he marshaled the peasant into a veteran, and supplied by discipline the absence of experience; as a statesman, he enlarged the policy of the cabinet into the most comprehensive system of general advantage; and such was the wisdom of his views, and the philosophy of his counsels, that to the soldier and the statesman he almost added the character of the sage! A conqueror, he was untainted with the crime of blood; a revolutionist, he was free from any stain of treason for aggression commenced the contest, and his country called him to the command. Liberty unsheathed his sword, necessity stained, victory returned it. If he had paused here, history might have 1 Scipio . . Hannibal. Scipio | ginian commander, who invaded. Africanus, a celebrated Roman gen- Italy, but was finally overthrown eral. Hannibal, the famous Cartha- by Scipio. doubted what station to assign him, whether at the head of her citizens or her soldiers, her heroes or her patriots. But the last glorious act crowns his career, and banishes all hesitation. Who, like Washington, after having emancipated a hemisphere, resigned its crown, and preferred the retirement of domestic life to the adoration of a land he might almost be said to have created? "How shall we rank thee upon Glory's page, Thou more than soldier, and just less than sage? Such, sir, is the testimony of one not to be accused of partiality in his estimate of America. Happy, proud America! The lightnings of heaven" yielded to your philosophy. The temptations of earth could not seduce your patriotism. CHARLES PHILLIPS. 94. - Emmet's last Speech. — Part I. This and the following extract form the principal parts of the splendidly impassioned impromptu speech made by the Irish patriot Robert Emmet (born March 4, 1778), who, on account of his efforts for Irish independence, was tried Sept. 19, 1803, for high treason, and was executed the next day. The following by Washington Irving, on the character of Emmet and the circumstances of his death, will help the pupil to an understanding of these selections: “Every one 1 "How ... be!" From a poem | lusion to Franklin's discoveries in by Thomas Moore. electricity. (See Lesson 69 of this 2 lightnings of heaven. An al-Reader.) must recollect the tragical story of young Emmet, the Irish patriot: it was too touching to be soon forgotten. During the troubles in Ireland, he was tried, condemned, and executed, on a charge of treason. His fate made a deep impression on public sympathy. He was so young, so intelligent, so brave, so everything that we are apt to like in a young man; his conduct under trial, too, was so lofty and intrepid; the noble indignation with which he repelled the charge of treason against his country, the eloquent vindication of his name, and his pathetic appeal to posterity in the hopeless hour of condemnation, — all these entered deeply into every generous bosom." My lords, "what have I to say why sentence of death should not be pronounced on me, according to law?" I have nothing to say that can alter your predetermination, nor that it will become me to say with any view to the mitigation of that sentence which you are here to pronounce, and by which I must abide.. But I have that to say which interests me more than life, and which you have labored, as was necessarily your office in the present circumstances of this oppressed country, to destroy. I have much to say why my reputation should be rescued from the load of false accusation and calumny which has been heaped upon it. Were I only to suffer death, after being adjudged guilty by your tribunal, I should bow in silence, and meet the fate that awaits me without a murmur: but the sentence of law which delivers my body to the executioner will, through the ministry of that law, labor in its own vindication to consign my character to obloquy; for there must be guilt somewhere, whether in the sentence of the court, or in the catastrophe, posterity must determine. A man in my situation, my lords, has not only to encounter the difficulties of fortune, and the force of power over minds which it has corrupted or subjugated, but the difficulties of established prejudice. The man dies, but his memory lives. That mine may not perish, that it may live in the respect of my countrymen, I seize upon this opportunity to vindicate myself from some of the charges alleged against me. When my spirit shall be wafted to a more friendly port, when my shade shall have joined the bands of those martyred heroes who have shed their blood on the scaffold and in the field in defense of their country and virtue, this is my hope: I wish that my memory and name may animate those who survive me, while I look down with complacency on the destruction of that perfidious government, which upholds its domination by blasphemy of the Most High; which displays its power over man as over the beasts of the forest; which sets man upon his brother, and lifts his hand, in the name of God, against the throat of his fellow who believes or doubts a little more or less than the government standard, a government which is steeled to barbarity by the cries of the orphans, and the tears of the widows, which its cruelty has made. I swear by the throne of heaven, before which I must shortly appear, by the blood of the murdered patriots who have gone before me, that my conduct has been, through all this peril, and all my purposes, governed only by the conviction which I have uttered, and by no other view than that of the emancipation of my country from the superhuman oppression under which she has so long and too patiently travailed; and I confidently and assuredly hope that (wild and chimerical as it may appear) there is still union and strength in Ireland to accomplish this noble enterprise. |