Northern prowess or Southern courage, but of the heroism, fortitude, and courage of Americans in war of ideas, — a war in which each section sig nalized its consecration to the principles, as each understood them, of American liberty, and of the Constitution received from their fathers. "Charles Suraner, in life, believed that all occa sions for strife and distrust between the North and South had passed away. Are there not many of us who believe the same thing? Is not that the common sentiment, or, if it is not, ought it not to be, of the great mass of our people, North and South? Bound to each other by a common Con stitution, destined to live together under a common government, forming unitedly but a single member of the great family of nations, shall we not now at last endeavor to grow toward each other once more in heart as we are already indissolubly linked to each other in fortunes? "The South — prostrate, exhausted, drained of her life-blood as well as her material resources, yet still honorable and true — accepts the bitter reward of the bloody arbitration without reservation, reso lutely determined to abide the result with chival rous fidelity; yet, as if struck dumb by the magni tude of her reverses, she suffers on in silence. "The North, exultant in her triumph and elated by success, still cherishes, as we are assured, a heart full of magnanimous emotions towards her disarmed and discomfited antagonist; and yet, as if mastered by some mysterious spell, silencing her better impulses, her words and acts are the words and acts of suspicion and distrust. "Would that the spirit of the illustrious dead whom we lament to-day could speak from the grave to both parties to this deplorable discord, in tones which would reach each and every heart throughout this broad territory, ' My countrymen, know one another, and you will love one another.'"
Lamar foresaw that the temper of public feeling among his constituents was not in consonance with his utterances. In a letter dated June 15, 1874, he wrote to a friend : "My recent speeches have not been prompted by self-seeking motives. It was necessary that some Southern man should say and do what I said and did. I knew thai if I did it I would run the risk of losing the confidence of the Southern
people, and that if that confidence was once lost it could never be fully recognized. Keenly as I would feel such a loss, — and no man would feel it more keenly — yet I loved my people more than I did their approval. I saw a chance to convert their enemies into friends, and to change bitter animosities into sympathy and regard. If I had let the opportunity pass without doing what I have, I would never have got over the feeling of selfreproach."
But in the campaign that followed, he was sustained. Doubtless it was as a pacificator that Lamar's greatest service to the country was rendered. As an orator, Lamar stood in the front rank. He had that subtle power called magnetism, which enabled him to command the applause of, and to exert a mastery over, popular assemblies. It required a momen tous occasion to arouse his great powers; but the greatness of the man was evidenced by the impression he made upon his contem poraries that he would measure up to the demands of any occasion. His style had »one of that efflorescence of verbiage and metaphor whioh Northern audiences (who would not tolerate it in a speaker of their own section) seem disposed to applaud in a Southern orator as being characteristic, — in the same way that France condones the ex cesses of the Gascon. His style was pol ished, but severely chaste and simple. What John Bright called " the physical basis of oratory," Lamar lacked. He visited Paris in 1859, to consult physicians there in reference to cerebral disease with which he was threatened. He had frequent attacks of vertigo, — premonitory of a threatened paral ysis. This contingency hung over his head like the sword o/ Damocles. The excite ment of every speech was incurred at the risk of life. A weak man would have been unnerved by this tormenting consciousness; but Lamar acted upon the noble motto: Nee propter vitam perdere causas vivendi. His mode of preparation for his speeches was peculiar. Referring to a statement in the press that all his speeches were written
