He Went On From One Soft
Platitude To Another, And Uttered Words From Which I Would Defy Any
One Of His Audience To Carry Away With Them Anything.
And yet it
seemed to me that his audience was satisfied.
I was not satisfied,
and managed to escape out of the room.
The next lecturer to whom I listened was Mr. Everett. Mr.
Everett's reputation as an orator is very great, and I was
especially anxious to hear him. I had long since known that his
power of delivery was very marvelous; that his tones, elocution,
and action were all great; and that he was able to command the
minds and sympathies of his audience in a remarkable manner. His
subject also was the war - or rather the causes of the war and its
qualification. Had the North given to the South cause of
provocation? Had the South been fair and honest in its dealings to
the North? Had any compromise been possible by which the war might
have been avoided, and the rights and dignity of the North
preserved? Seeing that Mr. Everett is a Northern man and was
lecturing to a Boston audience, one knew well how these questions
would be answered, but the manner of the answering would be
everything. This lecture was given at Roxbury, one of the suburbs
of Boston. So I went out to Roxbury with a party, and found myself
honored by being placed on the platform among the bald-headed ones
and the superlatively wise.
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