glo-Saxon countries the torch of liberty seemed to burn low, the
breath of the orator has fanned it into flame. It fired the
eloquence of Sheridan pleading against Warren Hastings for the
down-trodden natives of India in words that have not lost their
magnetic charm:--

"My Lords, do you, the judges of this land and the expounders of its
rightful laws, do you approve of this mockery and call that the
character of Justice which takes the form of right to execute wrong?
No. my Lords, justice is not this halt and miserable object; it is
not the ineffective bauble of an Indian pagoda; it is not the
portentous phantom of despair; it is not like any fabled monster,
formed in the eclipse of reason and found in some unhallowed grove
of superstitious darkness and political dismay. No, my Lords! In the
happy reverse of all this I turn from the disgusting caricature to
the real image. Justice I have now before me, august and pure, the
abstract ideal of all that would be perfect in the spirits and
aspirings of men--where the mind rises; where the heart expands;
where the countenance is ever placid and benign; where the favorite
attitude is to stoop to the unfortunate, to hear their cry, and help
them; to rescue and relieve, to succor and save; majestic from its
mercy, venerable from its utility, uplifted without pride, firm
without obduracy, beneficent in each preference, lovely though in
her frown."

This same spirit fired the enthusiasm of Samuel Adams and James Otis
to such a pitch of eloquence that "every man who heard them went
away ready to take up arms." It inspired Patrick Henry to hurl his
defiant alternative of "liberty or death" in the face of unyielding
despotism. It inspired that great-hearted patriot and orator, Henry
Clay, in the first quarter of this century, to plead, single-handed
and alone, in the Congress of the United States, session after
session before the final victory was won, for the recognition of the
provinces of South America in their struggle for independence.

"I may be accused of an imprudent utterance of my feelings on this
occasion. I care not: when the independence, the happiness, the
liberty of a whole people is at stake, and that people our
neighbors, our brethren, occupying a portion of the same continent,
imitating our example, and participating in the same sympathies with
ourselves. I will boldly avow my feelings and my wishes in their
behalf, even at the hazard of such an imputa