Legare,  and  others,  famed  as  debaters,  have  united  to  this  distinction
the  renown  of  able  rhetoricians  on  literary  and  historical  occasions ;
and  to  these  we  may  add  the  names  of  Verplanck,  Chief  Justice  Story,
Chancellor  Kent,  Rufus  Choate,  Randolph,  Winthrop,  Burgess,
Preston,  Benton,  Prentiss,  Bethune,  Bushnell,  Dewey,  Birney,  Hill-
house,  Sprague,  Wayland,  A. H. Everett,  Horace  Binney,  Dr. Francis,
Sumner,  Whipple,  Hillard,  and  other  authors  of  occasional  addresses,
having,  by  their  scope  of  thought  or  beauty  of  style,  a  permanent
literary  value. The  most  voluminous  writer  in  this  department,  how-
ever, is  Edward  Everett. His  two  large  and  elegant  volumes  not
only  exhibit  the  finest  specimens  of  rhetorical  writing,  but  they
more  truly  represent  the  cultivated  American  mind  in  literature  than
any  single  work  with  which  we  are  acquainted. Oratory  has  always
flourished  in  republics :  it  is  a  form  of  intellectual  development  to
which  free  political  institutions  give  both  scope  and  inspiration ;  and
we  hesitate  not  to  declare  that  Edward  Everett's  Orations  are  as  pure
in  style,  as  able  in  statement,  and  as  authentic  as  expressions  of  popular
history,  feeling,  and  opinion  in  a  finished  and  elegant  shape,  as  were
those  of  Demosthenes  and  Cicero  in  their  day. Let  not  the  frequencj'
of  public  addresses,  and  the  ephemeral  character  they  so  often  possess,
blind  our  countrymen  to  the  permanent  and  intrinsic  merits  of  these
Orations. They  embody  the  results  of  long  and  faithful  research  into
the  most  important  facts  of  our  history;  they  give  "  a  local  habitation
and  a  name  "  to  the  most  patriotic  associations ;  their  subjects,  not  less
than  their  sentiments,  are  thoroughly  national;  not  a  page  but  glows
With  the  most  intelligent  love  of  country,  nor  a  figure,  description,  or


488  A  SKETCH  OF  [Chap. L

appeal  but  what  bears  evidence  of  scholarship,  taste,  and  just  senti-
ment. If  a  highl_y-cultivated  foreigner  were  to  ask  us  to  point  him  to
any  single  work  which  would  justly  inform  him  of  the  spirit  of  our
institutions  and  history,  and,  at  the  same  time,  afford  an  adequate  idea
of  our  present  degree  of  culture,  we  should  confidently  designate  these
Orations. 