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But can this be done? Yes, easily; not by the weaker party, for it can of itself do nothing,—not even protect itself, —but by the stronger. The North has only to will it to accomplish it — to do justice by conceding to the South an equal right in the acquired territory, and to do her duty by causing the stipulations relative to fugitive slaves to be faithfully fulfilled, to cease the agitation of the slave question, and to provide for the insertion of a provision in the Constitution, by an amendment, which will restore to the South, in substance, the power she possessed of protecting herself before the equilibrium between the sections was destroyed by the action of this government. There will be no difficulty in devising such a provision — one that will protect the South, and which at the same time will improve and strengthen the government instead of impairing and weakening it.

But will the North agree to this? It is for her to answer the question. But, I will say, she cannot refuse if she has half the love of the Union which she professes to have, or without justly exposing herself to the charge that her love of power and aggrandizement is far greater than her love of the Union. At all events, the responsibility of saving the Union rests on the North, and not on the South. The South cannot save it by any act of hers, and the North may save it without any sacrifice whatever, unless to do justice and to perform her duties under the Constitution should be regarded by her as a sacrifice.

It is time, senators, that there should be an open and manly avowal on all sides as to what is intended to be done. If the question is not now settled, it is uncertain whether it ever can hereafter be; and we, as the representatives of the states of this Union regarded as governments, should come to a distinct understanding as to our respective views, in order to ascertain whether the great questions at issue can be settled or not. If you who represent the stronger portion cannot agree to settle them on the broad principle of justice and duty, say so; and let the states we both represent agree to separate and part in peace.

If you are unwilling we should part in peace, tell us so; and we shall know what to do when you reduce the question to submission

or resistance. If you remain silent, you will compel us to infer by your acts what you intend. In that case California will become the test question. If you admit her under all the difficulties that oppose her admission, you compel us to infer that you intend to exclude us from the whole of the acquired territories, with the intention of destroying irretrievably the equilibrium between the two sections. We should be blind not to perceive in that case that your real objects are power and aggrandizement, and infatuated not to act accordingly.

I have now, senators, done my duty in expressing my opinions fully, freely, and candidly on this solemn occasion. In doing so I have been governed by the motives which have governed me in all the stages of the agitation of the slavery question since its commencement. I have exerted myself during the whole period to arrest it, with the intention of saving the Union if it could be done; and if it could not, to save the section where it has pleased Providence to cast my lot, and which I sincerely believe has justice and the Constitution on its side. Having faithfully done my duty to the best of my ability, both to the Union and my section, throughout this agitation, I shall have the consolation, let what will come, that I am free from all responsibility.

RUFUS CHOATE

Rufus Choate (1799-1859), the foremost forensic orator of America, was a New Englander by birth and an American in the breadth of his sympathies. Few men of his time were his

peers in scholarship and culture. He was prepared for college at Hampton Academy and was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1819. He began the study of law in the Cambridge Law School, and continued his course at Washington in the office and under the tutorship of William Wirt, a man whose reputation at the bar is hardly inferior to that of his great pupil, and hardly less than that of Webster, the other member of the great trio of American forensic ora

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tors. The examples of Pinckney, Wirt, and Webster, especially the brilliant work of Webster in the Dartmouth College Case, fired Choate with a desire to study law.

His years of waiting for clients after he was admitted to the bar were years of acquisition. Law, ethics, philosophy, and history were his favorite studies. He was also fond of

the classics and especially of authors strong in imagination. Love of literature was a passion with him. Every day he would find some time to read from a favorite author. His imagination was so developed and his knowledge of men and affairs so wide that in his speeches one may find passages not unworthy of Edmund Burke. Indeed he was so fond of Burke that no doubt his mind and the character of his imagination were much influenced by Burke's style. We can well believe this when we know that he ranked Burke along with Shakespeare, Bacon, and Milton.

Choate was a thorough student of expression. For vocal practice he read aloud daily. This gave him a voice of singular strength, clearness, and sweetness. Then he was a tireless translator of the classics, with Tacitus as his favorite author. He did this not only for the ideas and the feeling that came from his reading, but for the strength of his diction and the enlargement of his vocabulary. Then he was a great student of the dictionary and was fond of using large and unusual words. A judge of one of the courts before which Choate often appeared was told that a new dictionary had just been issued with several thousand new words in it. "In heaven's name," exclaimed the judge, “don't let Choate get hold of it." Always on the lookout for choice phrases, he stored his prodigious memory with the finest passages of literature, which he would interweave into his speeches. For the purpose of cultivating ideas on the subjects he dealt with, he was constantly using his pen, for he had but to write out a proposition and it was by that process fixed in his mind. His writing was also done for the purpose of getting to the bottom of things. His rule, as he himself states it, was, "Always to prepare, investigate, compose a speech, pen in hand." In the court room he always had a pile of manuscript before him but seldom referred to it. Sometimes he wrote all night

before facing a jury, but had no need to refer to his papers, as the mere writing had stamped the thoughts upon his mind. The written words were so interwoven with the extemporized parts that it was not apparent to the audience, and hardly to himself, where the one ended and the other began.

Choate's style of oratory was of a new and unique variety fervid, imaginative, oriental in its exuberance, yet charged with thought and emotion. His diction was vivid, even gorgeous, with a multiplication of adjectives, abundant analogies, figures and flowers of fancy. Many of his sentences were enormous in length, sometimes covering two 12mo pages, and often so complex and involved that it was difficult for the reporter to straighten them out. Indeed the variety of his style, the singularity of his diction, his Johnsonian verboseness, and his rapidity of utterance made it impossible for the reporters to keep up with him. One of them, who had failed utterly in his efforts to follow him, sat back in openmouthed wonderment and exclaimed, "Who can report chain lightning!"

Notwithstanding his verboseness and the largeness of his words, there was a stateliness and dignity of style that was attractive, and a clearness and force of statement that left no doubt as to his meaning. He showed great skill in the arrangement of his points and in the cleverness with which he met unexpected turns in the opponent's argument, a fact that accounts in great measure for his remarkable success as a lawyer. His kindness, his fairness, and courtesy of manner overcame prejudice, and his overflow of wit and humor, story and repartee, and his oddities of manner kept his jury wideawake and susceptible to his pleas.

Joseph Choate, ex-ambassador to England, and his kinsman and pupil, thus writes of him: "Many of his characteristic utterances have become proverbial, and the flashing of

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