Historical and biographical sketches/13 Henry Armitt Brown
Mr. President: — It was my fortune to have been
nearer to Mr. Brown, than perhaps, any other of his
friends among the young bar, during the preparation of
his last, and probably, his greatest work. After he had
been invited to deliver the oration at Valley Forge, he
came to me, because of my acquaintance with the locality.
Together, only four months ago, we examined the
intrenchments there, and rode to the Paoli and the Warren
tavern, and following the track of the British army,
crossed the Schuylkill at Gordon's Ford. Together, a
little over two months ago, we read over the completed
oration. The assistance I was able to give him was little
indeed, but the opportunity it afforded me of getting
a closer insight into his character, I shall always cherish
among the happiest memories of my life. He was
ambitious, but ambition with him was almost entirely devoid
of that illness which usually attends it. He was honest,
but his integrity was not of that sort which sits aloft amid
luxury and ease, above the reach of temptation, and takes
no thought of what may be below. The consciousness of
great abilities made him entirely self reliant, but his confidence never degenerated into vanity. The successes he
had achieved, numerous as they were, never made him
forget that courtesy which becomes a gentleman. The
culture he had received, did not enervate him, and
applause had failed to lead him astray. Feeling the impulse that came perhaps unwittingly from the possession
of unusual power, when the occasion called him forth, he
was always ready, and no one could be long in his
presence without forecasting for him a future limitless in its
possibilities. As an orator, and it was in oratory that he
loved to excel, my own deliberate judgment is, that there
is no man now living in America who was his equal.
And surely, an opinion which I have often expressed
while he was alive, it will not be considered adulation for
me to repeat now that he is dead. Some are elocutionists,
some have the trick of words, some are comprehensive
and some are clear and quick in thought, but he was
all combined, and the wonder of it is that one whose
delivery was so effective should have been so careful in his
preparation. The Valley Forge oration, beyond question
the finest which the Centennial Anniversaries called forth,
as an artistic production is a marvel. With patient
industry and a determination born of enthusiasm, he
thoroughly mastered the subject topographically and
historically. With clear insight, he caught the true
inspiration of the scenes of that dreary winter. A more
beautiful picture than his contrast between the ragged
Continentals upon the bleak hills, and the Royalists amid
the luxury of the city, could not be limned, and for two
hours and a-half the people, at the close of a wearisome
day of exercises, stood up and listened. A very capable
historical critic has said to me, that there is no more that
can be added to the story of Valley Forge. And
hereafter, in the ages to come, when men look back with
veneration toward the heroes who suffered and died there,
the young orator, whose earnestness to do justice to their
memories so sadly shortened his own career, cannot be
forgotten. Surely some of their renewed glory belongs
to him.
The sorrow which I feel in his early death is partly a selfish grief, partly regret at his broken hopes now forever ended here, but beyond all the loss to my native State. We have many men in public life from Pennsylvania, but they are chiefly of the earth. We have many men who are capable and pure, but they have eaten of the Lotos, and the spear has dropped from their nerveless hands. With his strength and his ambition he could not have been kept from the national councils, but he is dead, and the fruits we were promised we shall never gather. Why Sumner was spared to Massachusetts until his work was done, why Calhoun was permitted to grow gray in the service of South Carolina, and our Brown, the peer of either, and more liberal than both, was snatched away in the green wood, is a question beyond our ken, but which repeats itself the more sadly, because we look in vain for one to fill his place.
- ↑ Address at the meeting of the Bar of Philadelphia, August 24th, 1878.