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the diguity with which he filled it. I have been appointed to succeed him.

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My first duty is, to bear testimony to the accomplishments of my predecessor; to his eloquence, his disinterestedness, and his address. My next duty regards myself; and calls upon me to declare my sense of the honor enjoy, in having been appointed to this station. My last duty-and one that I discharge with great diffidence-is, to present you with a few observations that have reference to the occasion of your being assembled.

You are assembled, gentlemen, to discuss the merits of a man, whose actions are connected with some of the most interesting events in Roman story. You have given the subject due consideration. You come prepared for the contest; and I shall not presume to offer any opinion, respecting the ground which either side ought to take. My remarks shall be confined to the study of Oratory; and, allow me to say, I consider Oratory to be the second end of our academic labors, of which the first end is, to render us enlightened,

useful, and virtuous.

dozen men-men of education. erudition—ask them to read a piece of animated composition; you will be fortunate if you find cne in the dozen, that can raise, or depress, his voiceinflect or modulate it, as the variety of the subject requires. What has become of the inflections, the cadences, and the modulation, of the infant? They have not been exercised; they have been neglected; they have never been put into the hands of the artist, that he might apply them to their proper use; they have been laid aside, spoiled, abused; and, ten to one, they will never be good for any thing! Oratory is highly useful to him that excels in it. In common conversation, observe the advantage which the fluent speaker enjoys over the man that hesitates, and stumbles in discourse. With half his information, he has twice his importance; he commands the respect of his auditors; he instructs and gratifies them. In the general transactions of business, the same superiority attends him. He communicates his views with clearness, precision, and effect; he carries his point by his mere readiness; he concludes his treaty, before another kind of man would have well set about it. Does he plead the cause of friendship? how happy is his friend! Of charity? how fortunate is the distressed? Should he enter the Senate of his country, he gives strength to the party which he espouses; If we consider the very early period at should he be independent of party, he is a which we begin to exercise the faculty of party in himself. If he advocates the cause speech, and the frequency with which we of liberty, he deserves to be the people's exercise it, it must be a subject of surprise, champion; if he defends their rights, he that so few excel in Oratory. In any enlight-approves himself the people's bulwark! ened community, you will find numbers who are highly skilled in some particular art or science, to the study of which they did not apply themselves, till they had almost arrived at the stage of manhood. Yet, with regard to the powers of speech-those powers which the very second year of our existence generally calls into action, the exercise of which goes on at our sports, our studies, our walks, our very meals; and which is never long suspended, except at the hour of refreshing sleep; with regard to those powers, how few surpass their fellow-creatures of commo information and moderate attainments! how very few deserve distinction! how rarely does one attain to eminence!

The principal means of communicating our ideas are two-speech and writing. The former is the parent of the latter; it is the more important, and its highest efforts are called Oratory.

The causes are various; but we must not attempt, here, to investigate them. I shall simply state, that one cause of our not generally excelling in Oratory, is, our neglecting to cultivate the art of speaking-of speaking our own language. We acquire the power of expressing our ideas, almost insensibly; we consider it as a thing that is natural to us; we do not regard it as an art: it is an art-a difficult art-an intricate artand our ignorance of that circumstance, or our omitting to give it due consideration, is the cause of our deficiency.

In the infant, just beginning to articulate, you will observe every inflection that is recognized in the most accurate treatise on elocution; you will observe, further, an exact proportion in its several cadences, and a speaking expression in its tones. Select a

That you will persevere in the pursuit of so useful a study, as that of Oratory, I confidently hope. That your progress has been, hitherto, considerable, I am about to receive a proof.

Gentlemen, the question for debate.is-WAS CESAR A GREAT MAN?

J. G. Sir, to bespeak your indulgence, is a duty, imposed, no less, by a knowledge of your desert, than by a consciousness of my deficiency. I am unpractised in the orator's art; nor can I boast that native energy of calent, which asks not the tempering of experience; but, by its single force, effects what seems the proper achievement of labors, and of years. Let me, then, hope, that you will excel in favor, as much as I shall fall short in merit. Let me presume, that the performance of what I undertake with diffi dence, will be regarded by you with allowance. Let me anticipate, that failure will not be imputed as a crime, to him, who dares not hope success.

Was Cæsar a great man?" What revo lution has taken place in the first appointed government of the universe; what new and opposite principle has begun to direct the operations of nature; what refutation of their long established precepts, has deprived Reason of her sceptre, and Virtue of her throne, that a character, which forms the noblest theme that ever Merit gave to Fame, should now become a question for debate?

No painter of human excellence, if he would draw the features of that hero's

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character, needs study a favorable light, or striking attitude. In every posture, it has majesty; and the lineaments of its beauty are prorainent in every point of view. Do you Esk me, Had Caesar genius?" He was an orator! Had Cæsar judgment?" He was a politician! Had Cesar valor ?" He was a conqueror! "Had Caesar feeling?" He was a friend!

It is a generally received opinion, that un common circumstances make uncommon men. Caesar was an uncommon man, in common circumstances. The colossal mind commands your admiration, no less in the pirate's captive, than in the victor of Pharcalia. Who, but the first of his race, could have made vassals of his savage masters, mocked them into reverence of his superior nature. and threatened, with impugnity the power that held him at its mercy? Of all the striking incidents of Caesar's life, had history preserved for us but this single one, it would have been suflicient to make us fancy all the rest; at least, we should have said, "Such a man was born to conquest, and to empire!"

To expatiate on Caesar's powers of oratory, would only be to add one poor eulogium to the testimony of the first historians. Cicero, himself, grants him the palm of almost preeminent merit; and seems at a loss for words to express his admiration of him. His voice was musical, his delivery energetic, his anguage chaste and rich, appropriate and peculiar. And it is well presumed, that, had he studied the art of public speaking, with as mach industry as he studied the art of war, he would have been the first of orators. Quintilian says, he would have been the only man, capable of combatting Cicero; but, granting them to have been equal in ability, what equal contest could the timid Cicero whose nerves fail him, and whose tongue falters, when the forum glitters with arms -what equal contest could he have held with the man, whose vigor chastised the Belgo, and annihilated the Nervii, that maintained their ground, till they were hewn to pieces on the spot!

His abilities, as a master of composition, were, undoubtedly, of the first order. How admirable is the structure of his Commentaries! what perspicuity and animation are there in the details! You fancy yourself upon the field of action! You follow the development of his plans, with the liveliest curiosity! You look on with unwearied attention, as he fortifies his camp, or invests his enemy, or crosses the impetuous torrent! You behold his legions, as they move forward, from different points, to the line of battle; you hear the shout of the onset, and the crash of the encounter; and, breathless with suspense, mark every fluctuation of the awful tide

of war!

As a politician, how consummate was his address! How grand his projections! How happy the execution of his measures! He compels the vanquished Helvetii to rebuild their towns and villages; making his enemies ine guards, as it were, of his frontier. He captivates, by his clemency, the Arverni, and BRONSON. 21

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the Edui, winning to the support of his arms, the strength that had been employed to overpower them. He governs his province with such equity, and wisdom, as add a milder, but a fairer lustre to his glory; and, by their fame, prepare the Roman people for his happy yoke. Upon the very eve of his rupture with Pompey, he sends back, on demand, the borrowed legions, covering with rewards the soldiers that may no longer serve him; and whose weapons, on the morrow, may be turned against his breast-presenting, here, a noble example of his respect of right; and of that magnanimity, which maintains that gratitude should not cease, though benefits are discontinued. When he reigns sole master of the Roman world, how temperate is his triumph! how scrupulous his respect for the very forms of the laws! He discountenances the profligacy of the patricians, and endeavors to preserve the virtue of the state, by laying wholesome restraints upon luxury. He encourages the arts and sciences, patronizes genius and talent, respects religion and justice, and puts in practice every means that can contribute to the welfare, the happiness, and the stability of the empire.

To you, sir, who are so fully versed in the page of history, it must be unnecessary to recount the military exploits of Cæsar. Why should I compel your attention to follow him, for the hundredth time, through hostile myriads, yielding, at every encounter, to the force of his invincible arms. Full often, sir, have your calculations hesitated to credit the celerity of his marches; your belief recoiled at the magnitude of his operations; and your wonder re-perused the detail of his successive victories, following upon the shouts of one another. As a captain, he was the first of warriors; nor were his valor and skill more admirable, than his abstinence and watchfulness; his disregard of ease and his endurance of labor; his moderation and his mercy. Perhaps, indeed, this last quality forms the most prominent feature in his character; and proves, by the consequences of its excess, that virtue itself requires restraint, and has its proper bounds, which it ought not to exceed; for Cæsar's moderation was his rain!

That Caesar had a heart susceptible of friendship, and alive to the finest touches of humanity, is unquestionable. Why does he attempt, so often, to avert the storm of civil war? Why does he pause so long upon the brink of the Rubicon? Why does he weep when he beholds the head of his unfortunate rival? Why does he delight in pardoning his enemies; even those very men that had deserted him?

It seems as if he lived the lover of mankind. and fell-as the BARD expresses it-vanquished, not so much by the weapons, as by the ingratitude, of his murderers.

If. sir, a combination of the most splendid talents for war, with the most sacred love of peace-of the most illustrious public virtue, with the most endearing private worth-of the most unyielding courage, with the most accessible moderation, may constitute a great man-that title must be Caesar's!

F. M. Sir, I come to the discussion of this | of his domestic honor: sheltered the incen question, with something more than the diary! abetted treason! flattered the people anxiety and hesitation, with something less into their own undoing! assailed the liberties than the ardor and the hope, of a novice. of his country, and bawled into silence every When the man that has not proved his virtuous patriot that struggled to uphold them! strength, is brought to the test, how much He would have been a greater orator than soever he may seem to doubt himself, he still Cicero! I question the assertion; I deny feels a secret trust that he shall succeed; and, that it is correct; I revolt from it; I will not even while he apparently shrinks from the suffer it! He would have been a greater trial, views himself, in the anticipating mirror orator than Cicero! Well! let it pass; he of expectation, crowned with the meed of might have been a greater orator, but he applause. Besides, his very inexperience is never could have been so great a man. a source of confidence; for, in the eye of the Which way soever he had directed his severest judge, he shall not merit condemna- talents, the same inordinate ambition would tion, who fails upon his first attempt. From have led to the same results; and, had he what source shall I derive the hope, that I devoted himself to the study of oratory, his shall not expose myself to the contempt, tongue had produced the same effects as his which the man, who fails in the performance sword; and equally desolated the human of what he undertakes, deserves? From your kingdom. forbearance? Yes, sir; allow me to presume upon that, as a source of confidence; allow me to trust, that you will not exercise a rigorous judgment with respect to him, who, if he answer not the expectation which the chairman of this assembly has a right to form of those who aspire to his notice, possesses, still, the humble merit of acknowledging his liability to that misfortune, and the prudence to guard you against disappointment.

No change, sir, has taken place in the first appointed government of the universe. The operations of nature acknowledge, now, the same principle that they did in the beginning. Reason still holds her sceptre, Virtue still fills her throne, and the epithet of great does not belong to Cæsar!

I would lay it down, sir, as an unquestionable position, that the worth of talents is to be estimated, only by the use we make of them. If we employ them in the cause of virtue, their value is great. If we employ them in the cause of vice, they are less than worth less-they are pernicious and vile. Now, sir, let us examine Caesar's talents by this principle, and we shall find, that, neither as an orator, nor as a politician-neither as a warrior, nor as a friend-was Cæsar a great man..

If I were asked, "What was the first, the second, and the last principle of the virtuous mind?" I should reply, "It was the love of country." Sir, it is the love of parent, brother, friend! the love of MAN! the love of honor, virtue, and religion! the love of every good and virtuous deed! I say, sir, if I were asked, "What was the first, the second, and the last principle of the virtuous mind?" I should reply, "It was the love of country!" Without it, man is the basest of his kind! a selfish, cunning, narrow speculator! a trader in the dearest interests of his species! reckless of every tie of nature, sentiment, affection! a Marius; a Sylla; a Crassus; a Cataline; a Cæsar! What, sir, was Cæsar's oratory? How far did it prove him to be actuated by the love of country? I'll tell you, sir; I'll show you this great Cæsar in such a light and posture, as shall present no air of majesty, or lineament of beauty. How far, I say, sir, did Cæsar's oratory prove him to be actuated by the love of country? It justified, for political interest, the invader

But Cæsar is to be admired as a politician! I do not pretend to define the worthy speaker's idea of a politician; but I shall attempt, Mr. Chairman, to put you in possession of mine. By a politician, I understand a man who studies the laws of prudence and of justice, as they are applicable to the wise and happy government of a people, and the reciprocal obligations of states. Now, sir, how far was Cesar to be admired as a politician? He makes war upon the innocent Spaniards, that his military talents may not suffer from inaction. This was a ready way to preserve the peace of his province, and to secure its loyalty and affection! That he may be recorded as the first Roman that had ever crossed the Rhine, in a hostile manner, he invades the unoffending Germans, lays waste their territories with fire, and plunders and sacks the country of the Sicambri and the Suevi. Here was a noble policy! that planted in the minds of a brave and formidable people, the fatal seeds of that revenge and hatred. which finally assisted in accomplishing the destruction of the Roman Empire! In short, sir, Cæsar's views were not of that enlarged nature, which could entitle him to the name of a great politician; for he studied, not the happiness and interest of a community, but merely his own advancement, which be accomplished, by violating the laws, and destroying the liberties, of his country.

That Caesar was a great conqueror, I do not care to dispute. His admirers are welcome to all the advantages that result from such a position. I will not subtract one victim from the hosts, that perished for his fame; nor abate, by a single groan, the sufferings of his vanquished enemies, from his first great battle in Gaul, to his last victory under the walls of Munda; but I will avow it to be my opinion, that the character of a great conqueror does not necessarily constitute that of a great man; nor can the recital of Caesar's many victories produce any other impression upon my mind, than what proceeds from the contemplation of those convul sions of the earth, which, in a moment, inundate, with ruin, the plains of fertility an! the abodes of peace; or, at one shock, convert whole cities into the graves of their living population.

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But Caesar's munificence, his clemency, moderation, and his affectionate nature, constitate him a great man! What was his nificence, his clemency, or his moderation? The automaton of his ambition! It knew no aspiration from the Deity. It was a thing trom the hands of a mechanician! an ingenious mockery of nature! Its action seemed spontaneous-its look argued a soul-but all the virtue lay in the finger of the operator. He could possess no real munificence, moderation, or clemency, who ever expected his gifts to be doubled by return; who never abstained, but with a view to excess; nor spared, but for the indulgence of rapacity.

Of the same nature, sir, were his affections. He was, indeed, a man of exquisite artifice; but the deformity of his character was too prominent; no dress could thoroughly hide it; nay, sir, the very attempt to conceal, served only to discover the magnitude of the distortion. He atones to the violated and murdered laws, by doing homage to their names; and expiates the massacre of thou sands, by dropping a tear or two into an ocean of blood!

R. P. Sir, if it is necessary for talent and desert to bespeak indulgence, what shall encourage him, who cannot boast of talent | and desert? With how much diffidence did the gentlemen that have preceded me, present themselves to your notice; how cautious were they to prepare you for something that might exercise your patience, and stand in need of your forbearance; and yet, with how much energy, ease, and address, have they acquitted themselves! I must confess, I hardly think it just to profess a deficiency, which we do not feel; it exhausts, needlessly, the stock of benevolence, and leaves the really neceseitous without assistance or relief; it is like a rich man's assuming the garb of a mendicant, and drawing upon the treasury of commiseration for those sighs, and that solace, which are the proper alms of penury and distress.

For my part, sir, I shall so far profit by the example of those gentlemen, as not to bespeak your excuse, lest I should thereby excite your expectation; and shall, accordingly, proceed to consider the question, without apology, or further preface.

To form an accurate idea of Caesar's character, it is necessary that we should consider the nature of the times in which he lived; for the conduct of public men cannot be duly estimated, without a knowledge of the circumstances under which they have acted. The happiness of a community resembles the Lealth of the body. As it is not always the same regimen that can preserve, or the same medicine that can restore, the latter; so, the former is not always to be maintained by the same measures, or recovered by the same corrections. There was a time, when kingly power had grown to so enormous an excess, as rendered its abolition necessary for the salvation of the Roman people. Let us examine whether the times, in which Cæsar lived. did not call for, and justify, the measures which he adopted; whether the liberty of the republic had not degenerated into such a state

of anarchy, as rendered it expedient, that the power of the empire should be vested in one man, whose influence and talents could command party, and control faction.

The erroneous ideas that we have formed concerning Roman liberty, have induced us to pass a severe judgment on the actions of many an illustrious man. The admirers of that liberty will not expect to be told, that it was little better than a name. True liberty, sir, could never have been enjoyed by a people, who were the slaves of continual tumults and cabals; whose magistrates were the mere echoes of a crowd, and among whom, virtue itself, had no protection from popular caprice, or state intrigue. By the term liberty, I understand a freedom from all responsibility, except what morality, virtue, and religion impose. That is the only liberty, which is consonant with the true interests of man; the only liberty, that renders his association with his fellows permanent and happy; the only liberty, that places him in a peaceful, honorable, and prosperous community; the only liberty that makes him the son of a land, that he would inhabit till his death, and the subject of a state, that he would defend with his property and his blood! All other liberty is but a counterfeit-the stamp a cheat, and the metal base-turbulence, insolence, licentiousness, party ferment, selfish domination, anarchy-such anarchy as needed more than mortal talents to restrain it; and found them in a Cæsar.

I hold it to be an unquestionable position, that they, who duly appreciate the blessings of liberty, revolt as much from the idea of exercising, as from that of enduring, oppression. How far this was the case with the Romans, you may inquire of those nations that surrounded them. Ask them, "What insolent guard paraded before their gates, and invested their strong holds?" They will answer, “A Roman legionary." Demand of them, "What greedy extortioner fattened by their poverty, and clothed himself by their nakedness!" They will inform you, "A Roman Quæstor." Inquire of them, "What imperious stranger issued to them his mandates of imprisonment or confiscation, of banishment or death?" They will reply to you, "A Roman Consul." Question them, "What haughty conqueror led, through his city, their nobles and kings in chains, and exhibited their countrymen, by thousands, in gladiators' shows, for the amusement of his fellow citizens?" They will tell you, "A Roman General." Require of them, "What tyrants imposed the heaviest yoke? enforced the most rigorous exactions? inflicted the most savage punishments, and showed the greatest gust for blood and torture?" They will exclaim to you, "The Roman people."

Yes, sir, that people, so jealous of what they called their liberties, to gratify an insa tiate thirst for conquest, invaded the liberties of every other nation; and on what spot soever they set their tyrant foot, the fair and happy soil of the freeman withered at their stamp! But the retributive justice of Heaven ordained, that their rapacity should be the

As their means of its own punishment. territories extended, their armies required to be enlarged, and their campaigns became protracted. Hence, the citizen lost, in the camp, that independence which he had been taught in the city: and, being long accustomed to obey, implicitly, the voice of his general, from having been sent forth the hope, returned the terror of his country. Hence, sir, their generals forgot, in foreign parts, the epublican principles which they had imbibed in the forum; and, long habituated to unlimited command, from being despots abroad, learned to be traitors at home. Hence, sir, Marius returned the salutations of his fellow-citizens with the daggers of assassins; and, with cool ferocity, marched to the Capitol, amidst the groans of his butchered countrymen, expiring on each side of him; hence, Sylla's bloody proscription, that turned Rome into shambles; that tore its victims from the altars of the gods; that made it death for a man to shelter a person proscribed, though it were his son, his brother, or his father; and never suffered the executioners to take breath, till senators, knights, and citizens, to the number of nine thousand, had been inhumanly murdered!

Such, sir, were the events that characterized the times in which Caesar lived. To such atrocities were the Roman people subject, while the rivalry of their leading men was at liberty to create divisions in the state. Had you, sir, lived in those times, what would you have called the man, that would have stepped forward to secure your country against Would the repetition of those horrid scenes. you not have styled him a friend to his country a benefactor to the world-a great man-a demi-god? Was not Cæsar such a character? Observe what use he makes of his power. He does not employ it to gratify revenge, or to awe his countrymen; on the contrary, the whole of his conduct encourages confidence and freedom; while he reforms the government, and enacts the wisest laws, for the preservation of order, and for the happiness of the community. They who object to the character of Cæsar, condemn it, principally, upon the score of his having erected himself into the sole governor of the republic; but, let it be remembered, that the happiness of a state does not depend so much upon the form of its government, as upon the manner in which that government is administered. A country might be as prosperous and free, under what was anciently cailed a tyranny, as where the chief power was vested in the people,

In short, sir, when Cæsar created himself dictator, and thereby destroyed, virtually, the republican form of government, he usurped no more than the people did, when they erected themselves into a republic, and thereby destroyed the monarchy; and the existing circumstances, which rendered the act of the latter expedient, were not more urgent than those, which gave rise to the conduct of the former.

Cesar, sir, was a great man!

R G., Sen. Cæsar. sir, was not a great
He, who. for his own private views,

man

disobeyed the order of the senate, from whom he held his power; he, who seduced from. their duty, the soldiers whom he commanded. in trust, for the republic; he, who passed the Rubicon, though, by that step, he knew ne must inundate his country with blood; he who plundered the public treasury, that he might indulge a selfish and rapacious ambition; he, against whom the virtuous Cato ranked himself, whose very mercy the virtuous Cato deemed a dishonor, to which death was preferable-was not a great man.

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Cæsar erected himself into a tyrant, that he might prevent a repetition of those atrocities which had been committed by Marius and Sylla!" What does the gentleman mean by such an assertion? Cæsar pursues the same measures that Marius and Sylla did-Why? to prevent the recurrence of the effects, which those measures produced! He keeps his eye steadfastly fixed upon them; follows them in the same track; treads in their very foot-prints? Why? That he may arrive at a different point of destination! What flimsy arguments are these! What were Sylla and If they Marius, that Cæsar was not? If they were ambitious, was not he ambitious? were treacherous, was not he treacherous? If they rebelled, did dot he rebel? If they usurped, did not he usurp? If they were tyrants, was not be a tyrant?

You were told, the people, from their long continued service in the army, gradually lost the spirit of independence, and that the calamities of the state arose from that cause. Granted; it follows, then, that a spirit of independence was necessary for the prosperity of the state; and, consequently, that the way to put a stop to its calamities, was to revive that spirit. Did Cæsar do this? The gentleman says, he had the happiness of his country at heart. From his own argument, it follows, that this was the way to secure the happiness of his country. Did Cæsar adopt it? Was it to revive, in his countrymen, the spirit of independence, that he audaciously stepped from the rank of their servant, to that of their Was it to preserve the integrity, master? which fosters that spirit, that he corrupted the virtue of all that came in contact with him, and that he dared to tempt? Was it for the regeneration of the republic, that he converted it into a tyranny? Was it to restore the government to its ancient health and soundness, that he filled all the offices of the state with his own creatures-the instruments of his usurpation? Was it to re-animate the people with the sense of their own dignity, that he called them Bruti and Cumai-that is, beasts and fools-when they applauded the tribunes, for having stripped his statues of the royal diadems, with which his flatterers had dressed them? These were the acts of Cæsar.

Did they tend to restore the ancient virtue of the Roman people? No. sir; they tended to annihilate the chance of its restoration; to sink the people into a viler abasement; to rob them of the very names of

men.

But the gentleman has brought forward a very curious argument, for the purpose of

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