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5. Matches and overmatches! Those terms are more appli- 105 cable elsewhere than here, and fitter for other assemblies than this. Sir, the gentleman seems to forget where and what we are. This is a Senate, a Senate of equals, of men of individual honor and personal character, and of absolute independence. We know no masters, we acknowledge no dictators. This is a 116 hall for mutual consultation and discussion; not an arena for the exhibition of champions. I offer myself, sir, as a match for no man; I throw the challenge of debate at no man's feet. But then, sir, since the honorable member has put the question in a manner that calls for an answer, I will give him an answer; and 115 I tell him that, holding myself to be the humblest of the members here, I yet know nothing in the arm of his friend from Missouri, either alone or when aided by the arm of his friend from South Carolina, that need deter even me from espousing whatever opinions I may choose to espouse, from debating whenever 120 I may choose to debate, or from speaking whatever I may see fit to say, on the floor of the Senate. Sir, when uttered as matter of commendation or compliment, I should dissent from nothing which the honorable member might say of his friend. Still less do I put forth any pretensions of my own. But when put 125

to me as matter of taunt, I throw it back, and say to the gentleman that he could possibly say nothing more likely than such a comparison to wound my pride of personal character. The anger of its tone rescued the remark from intentional irony, which otherwise, probably, would have been its general accepta- 130 tion. But, sir, if it be imagined that by this mutual quotation and commendation; if it be supposed that, by casting the characters of the drama, assigning to each his part, to one the attack, to another the cry of onset ; or if it be thought that, by a loud and empty vaunt of anticipated victory, any laurels are to 135 be won here, if it be imagined, especially, that any or all these things will shake any purpose of mine, I can tell the honorable member, once for all, that he is greatly mistaken, and that he is

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-105-148. In paragraph 5, notice the fine combination of the different types of sentence-simple, complex, and compound; periodic and loose; long and short.-Point out examples of words used figuratively; examples of words used in a particularly felicitous manner.

dealing with one of whose temper and character he has yet much to learn. Sir, I shall not allow myself, on this occasion, 140 I hope on no occasion, to be betrayed into any loss of temper: but if provoked, as I trust I never shall be, into crimination and recrimination, the honorable member may perhaps find that, in that contest, there will be blows to take as well as blows to give; that others can state comparisons as significant, at least, 145 as his own; and that his impunity may possibly demand of him whatever powers of taunt and sarcasm he may possess. I commend him to a prudent husbandry* of his resources.

II.

6. Mr. President, I have thus stated the reasons of my dissent to the doctrines which have been advanced and maintained. 150 I am conscious of having detained you and the Senate much too long. I was drawn into the debate with no previous deliberation, such as is suited to the discussion of so grave and important a subject. But it is a subject of which my heart is full, and I have not been willing to suppress the utterance of its spontane- 155 ous sentiments. I cannot, even now, persuade myself to relinquish it, without expressing, once more, my deep conviction that, since it respects nothing less than the Union of the States, it is of most vital and essential importance to the public happiness.

7. I profess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in 160 view the prosperity and honor of the whole country, and the preservation of our Federal Union. It is to that Union we owe our safety at home, and our consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union that we are chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. That Union we reached 165 only by the discipline of our virtues in the severe school of ad

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-150. to.

Query as to this preposition.-advanced

and maintained. What is the distinction between these words? 152, 153. deliberation. Etymology?

160-162. Substitute equivalent terms for the following italicized words: “I profess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the prosperity and honor of the whole country, and the preservation of our Federal Union.”

165. That Union. Notice the rhetorical order of the word "Union," and the effect of this position in preserving the unity of the subject under exposition.

Under its benign influawoke, as from the dead,

versity. It had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. ences, these great interests immediately and sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings; and, although our territory has stretched out wider and wider, and our population spread further and further, they have not outrun its protection or its benefits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and personal happiness.

170

175

8. I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see 180 whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below; nor could I regard him as a safe counsellor in the affairs of this government whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the Union may be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it shall 185 be broken up and destroyed. While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that, in my day at least, that curtain may not rise! God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind! When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let 195 their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous

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175. national, etc. How is the climax made effective here? 176–207. I have... inseparable! What words are used figuratively in this paragraph?-Give examples of majestic diction.

189-207. God grant... inseparable! What is the figure of speech? (See Def. 24, i.)—In this peroration the Anglo-Saxon words are in the proportion of eighty per cent. Select the classical words, and commit the passage to

memory.

190

*

ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured; bearing for its motto, no such miserable inter- 200 rogatory as "What is all this worth?" nor those other words of delusion and folly, "Liberty first, and Union afterwards;" but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other 205 sentiment, dear to every true American heart - Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!

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Wackington Irving.

CHARACTERIZATION BY THACKERAY.

1. Irving was the first ambassador whom the New World of letters sent to the Old.' He was born almost with the repub

1 Irving preceded nearly all the authors whose works we think of as constituting American literature-Bryant, Cooper, Longfellow, Channing, Emerson,

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