I shall rejoice. I call my countrymen to witness if in that business I compromised the claims of my country, or temporised with the power of England; but there was one thing which baffled the effort of the patriot and defeated the wisdom of the senate: it was the folly of the theologian’ (Speeches, iv. 75–6). After the union Grattan devoted his energies chiefly to the question of Roman catholic emancipation. Short in figure and unprepossessing in appearance, with a thin, sharp voice and an extraordinary delivery, Grattan possessed none of the natural gifts of an orator. Yet few speakers have equalled him in fervidness or originality. Like Chatham he could fire an educated audience with an intense enthusiasm, and like Burke his speeches abound with profound maxims of political wisdom. His style was remarkable for its terseness and epigrammatic force. Though without wit and humour, his speeches are full of felicitous expressions and passages of poetic beauty. ‘He was almost unrivalled,’ Mr. Lecky says, ‘in crushing invective, in delineations of character, and in brief, keen arguments. In carrying on a train of sustained reason he was not so happy. Flood is said to have been his superior; and none of his speeches in this respect are comparable to that of Fox on the Westminster scrutiny’ (Leaders of Public Opinion, pp. 109–110). Grattan's great integrity of character, both in public and in private life, as well as the remarkable consistency of his political conduct, added much to his influence as an orator. His popularity had many vicissitudes, but Grattan never swerved aside from the course of action upon which he had once determined. Though a zealous whig, Grattan was no revolutionist, and though opposed to the union he always insisted upon the importance of preserving the connection between the two countries. As a statesman Grattan's views were broad and judicious, ‘showing himself most conspicuously above the mean and narrow spirit that would confine a statesman's exertions to the questions which interest one portion of the empire, or with which his own fame in former times may have been more particularly entwined’ (Lord Brougham, Statesmen of the Time of George III, 1st ser. p. 263).
A portrait of Grattan, copied by Sir Thomas Jones from the portrait by Ramsay ‘in the possession of the Grattan family,’ is in the Dublin National Gallery (Catalogue, No. 123). Another portrait, by Gilbert Charles Stuart, was exhibited at the Loan Collection of National Portraits in 1867 (Catalogue, No. 741). A third, representing Grattan moving the Declaration of Rights in the Irish House of Commons on 16 April 1782, painted by Nicholas Kenny, was exhibited at the Loan Collection of National Portraits in 1868 (Catalogue, No. 871); and a fourth, painted by Francis Wheatley, R.A., was presented to the National Portrait Gallery in 1888. An engraving, by F. C. Lewis, of the portrait belonging to Trinity College, Dublin, forms the frontispiece to the first volume of Grattan's ‘Life,’ by his son. There is a statue of Grattan by Carew in Westminster Hall, and another by Chantrey in the City Hall, Dublin, bearing the following inscription on the pedestal: ‘Filio optimo carissimo Henrico Grattan, Patria non ingrata, 1829.’
In the autumn of 1782 Grattan married Henrietta Fitzgerald. She was descended on her father's side from the Desmonds, and on her mother's from the family of Stevenson of the county of Down. There were two sons and two daughters of the marriage, viz. James, who was born in 1783, and served in the 9th light dragoons in the Walcheren expedition and in the Peninsula. He represented the county of Wicklow in parliament from February 1821 to June 1841, and was sworn a member of the Irish privy council after his defeat at the general election in the latter year. He married on 7 Aug. 1847 Lady Laura Maria Tollemache, youngest sister of Lionel, seventh earl of Dysart, and died without issue at Tinnehinch on 21 Oct. 1854. Henry, who was born in 1789, and was member for the city of Dublin from June 1826 to July 1830, and for Meath from August 1831 to July 1852, and died on 16 July 1859. By his wife, Mary O'Kelly, daughter of Philip Whitfield Harvey of Grove House, Portobello, Dublin, whom he married on 5 Oct. 1826, he had a numerous family, but left no male issue. Mary Anne, who married, first John Blachford of Altadore, county Wicklow, and secondly, on 9 Sept. 1834, Thomas, eighth earl of Carnwath, and died 22 Sept. 1853. Harriet, who married on 6 April 1836 the Rev. Richard William Wake, rector of Courteenhall, Northamptonshire, and died, aged seventy-nine, on 2 Jan. 1865.
There have been three collections of Grattan's speeches, viz.: 1. ‘The Speeches of the Right Honourable Henry Grattan, with prefatory observations,’ &c., Dublin, 1811, 8vo. 2. ‘The Speeches of the Right Honourable Henry Grattan in the Irish and in the Imperial Parliament, edited by his son,’ London, 1822, 8vo. This is by far the best and most complete collection, several of the speeches which it contains having been revised and corrected by Grattan himself. 3. ‘The Speeches of the Right Hon. Henry Grattan,
