Those now living who best remember Y’an
cey's oratory compare it to the oratory of
xio one i Iso. They remember that by Ids
speech complex things were made smooth and
tlie v.arm blood enthused, while even tamer
natures were transported, but they do not ad
mit that the rules of the school of oratory
were brought much into tile result. His ora
tory was his own—straightforward common
Sense, impassioned. He was ardent rather
<han ingenious. Hi had passion and employed
It, he left no suspicion that he spoke to
please, and never left an audience with the
belief on their minds that ho had exhausted
his ability to discuss tlie subject. He never
approai bed the line of a breakdown in words,
i voice or manner; there was no suggestion of
a lost link in his discourse and never a sign
of drudgery in the effort. * * * When hun
dreds before him swelled to thousands his
marvelous tones followed the widening cir
cle without any apparftit physical labor;
passing over the gamut of his own emotions
i witii* uni erving certainty—“the most perfect
voice t): t over aroused friends to the wild
ness of enthusiasm, or curbed to silence the
tumult of foes.”
The volume is divided into twenty-seven
chapters, each chapter treating some con
spicuous era. Thus we have a clear ac
count of tlie rise of the southern idea or
principle which cuhninaled in secession; tlie
plantation regime and the northern facto
ry system; the progress of tlie abolition
movement, the nullification era. and I lie
long series of offensive and defensive po
litical movements on the part of the two
sections.
Tlie leaders of parties nnd sections ar?
judi'iilly described, ami both men ami
measures are fairly and comprehensively
reported.
