nces, he would be unable to sleep,
so excited was he by what he had heard, and still more by the power
evinced in a single mind moving the wills of thousands. In such hours
he longed to be a great orator, and thought no sacrifice too great to
make in order to achieve success. As his own opportunities for public
speaking multiplied, he became a fluent and convincing speaker, with
clear ideas, picturesque language, and the power of dramatic
antithesis. He had that gift of making pictures to the mind by which a
speaker can turn the ears of his auditors into eyes. His tall form,
luminous face, impressive sincerity, and contagious earnestness made
delighted hearers, especially among the soldiers, who everywhere
hailed him as their defender, their faithful historian, and their
steadfast friend. To take the hand of Carleton, after his address or
lecture, was a privilege for which men and women strove as a high
honor, and which children, now grown men and women, remember for a
lifetime.

Nevertheless, in the sound judgment of the critic, Carleton would not
be reckoned, as he himself knew well, in the front rank of orators.
Neither in overmastering grace of person, in power of unction, in
magnetic conquest of the mind and will, was he preeminent. When,
leaving the flowery meadows of description or rising from the
table-land of noble sentiment and inspiring precepts, he attempted to
rise in soaring eloquence, his oratorical abilities did not match the
grandeur of his thought or the splendor of his diction.

In the course of his career as a speaker, he delivered at least two
thousand lectures and addresses on formal occasions, besides
unnumbered off hand speeches. Being one of those full men, it was of
him that it could be said, _Semper paratus_. On whatever subject he
spoke, he was sure to make it interesting. Besides reports of his
addresses and orations in the newspapers, several of the most
important have been published in pamphlet form. At the centennial
celebration at Boscawen, N. H., on the 4th of July, and at the 45th
anniversary of the settlement of Rev. Edward Buxton, at the 50th
anniversary of the Historical-Genealogical Society of Boston, and at
Nantucket, before the Bostonian Society and at the Congregational
Clubs, before Press Associations, Legislative and Congressional
Committees, on Social and Labor questions, and at the Congress held in
Chicago for the promotion of international commerce between the
countries