n for them to confer with in order to facilitate this work. Lee
and I then separated as cordially as we had met, he returning to his own
lines, and all went into bivouac for the night at Appomattox.

HENRY GRATTAN

(1746-1820)

[Illustration: HENRY GRATTAN]

Henry Grattan, eminent among Irish orators and statesmen, was born in
Dublin, July 3d, 1746. He graduated from Trinity College in 1767, became
a law student of the Middle Temple, London, and was admitted to the bar
in 1772. He soon became drawn into open political life, entering the
Irish Parliament in 1775.

In Parliament he espoused the popular cause. His memorable displays of
oratory followed fast and plentifully. On April 19th, 1780, he attacked
the right of England to legislate for Ireland. With that address his
reputation was made. He became incessant in his efforts to remove
oppressive legislation. By his eloquence he quickened into life a
national spirit, to culminate in a convention at Dungannon on February
15th, 1782, where resolutions in favor of legislative independence were
stormily adopted. Presently, after a speech of surpassing power from
him, the Declaration of Rights Bill was passed unanimously by both
houses, with an unwilling enactment from England. The idol now of
Ireland, Grattan was voted by its Parliament a grant of L50,000 "as a
testimony of national gratitude for great national services." The next
eighteen years saw him resolute to secure for Ireland liberal laws,
greater commercial freedom, better conditions for the peasantry, the
wiping out of Parliamentary corruption, and especially the absolute
emancipation of the Roman Catholics. After the Union he lived in
retirement, devoting himself to the study of the classics and to the
education of his children until 1805. Then at the request of Fox he
entered the imperial Parliament, making his first speech in favor of
Fox's motion for a committee on the Roman Catholic Petition, an address
described as "one of the most brilliant speeches ever made within the
walls of Parliament." In 1806 he was elected a member for Dublin, which
city he represented until his decease. His last speech was made on May
5th, 1819, in favor of Roman Catholic emancipation. It is to be noted
that he was by profession and conviction a Protestant. He died in 1820.
He was buried in Westminster Abbey, near the graves of Chatham and Fox.

In spite of great natural drawbacks, Grattan achieved the highest rank
a