In concluding, I would remark that the more I have studied Mr. Preston's life, the more highly I have admired him. It is im possible not to be charmed with some of the noble qualities he displayed. What a manly, independent man he was! He dared to support Harrison for President, even though the great majority of the people of his State were opposed to him. On a number of public questions, he opposed Calhoun when opposition to him meant political death in Carolina. In the later years of his life, he arrayed himself against nullification and secession when these were the burning issues of the day and when those who opposed them were severely criticised and fiercely assailed. And then, too, although an aristocrat by birth and breeding, see how progressive and demo cratic he was in his ideas of government! We find him away back, in the years before the war, advocating the election of the Presi dent directly by the people. We find, too, that he was president of the South Carolina College, when its roll of students was the longest it has ever been, either before or since. And what a splendidly educated man he was! Then think of his broad statesman ship and his magnificent oratorical powers. Enter the Senate chamber of the United States and hear h im, as in eloquent terms — with powerful logic, splendid imagery, and charming rhetoric — he pleads the cause of the South, and in clarion note bids jarring discord cease, lest the Union be rent in twain and fraticidal war ensue. Or, if you would see him again at his best, go with him to the court-room, watch him as he rises to defend the prisoner at the bar, hear him as he progresses in his argument and rises from height to height, and finally as he reaches the culminating scene — the climax of oratorical splendor — hear him as he utters that pathetic, soul-stirring, heartmoving appeal that electrifies both court and jury — those burning words of eloquence: "Gentlemen of the jury, won't you save the
boy?" No wonder that he won for himself the soubriquet, "the silver-tongued"; no wonder that he should have introduced a style of oratory that is dubbed " Prestonian; " no wonder that he is known in the pages of history as " the Inspired Declaimer "! With one or two practical lessons I will close. In the first place, I would remark, that Mr. Preston believed in the gospel oT work and practiced what he preached. He was no advocate of one's trusting in his genius and native ability. Those bright young men and talented young women who waste their time at school and think that they can get along without study and work, will find no encouragement in studying the life and character of Mr. Preston. If there ever was any one who might have depended on his genius for success in life it was he, and yet he was an indefatigable worker all his life. And not only did he toil, but he counseled all those with whom he was as sociated in the capacity of teacher and friend that success is the reward of effort. And he maintained that this rule held good even in the department of oratory and rhet oric, where we are sometimes tempted to believe that work counts for but little and native talent for everything. In the second "place, he had a hopeful, sunshiny disposition. He looked on the bright side. He had no patience with croakers and no sympathy for them. He was charitable in his ideas and broadly sympathetic in his life and character. Old men and old women, and young men and maidens delighted to be in his company and were helped along in the battle of life by his companionship. That is the kind of man we like to meet. He sheds on those around him light, hope and sympathy. In the third place, as I have said before, he was an independent style of man. He did his own thinking. He acknowledged no man as his master. He thought and acted for himself. He had his own convictions
