1862, in opposition to the policy of the Ad ministration, is considered a model of Con gressional oratory. Voorhees had a great hold upon the masses of the people. Reared on a farm, and having a deep insight into human na ture, he was able to appeal with great force to the electors of Indiana, nine-tenths of whom were of the country and small towns. Although a remarkably successful politician, so far as to keep himself before the people and in office, he yet was not a great polit ical general. Others did the. planning, and he carried the plan through by his appeals to the electorate from the public rostrum. He was always counted upon to wield a cer tain amount of influence; and he did it without fail. He was greatly beloved by those in the ranks of his own party, and had not a few admirers in the ranks of the opposition, so much so that not a few sup ported him quietly in his races for the lower House of Congress. In 1876 his party im posed upon him a great task. It had nom inated James D. Williams for Governor. Williams always wore in public life a suit of blue " jeans," and was popularly known throughout the canvass and while Governor as " Blue Jeans Williams." He was no speaker, had none of the graces of an ora tor, or, indeed, of a public man. Benjamin Harrison, against his will, made the race against him. Voorhees was selected to ac company Williams in his canvass, and to make the speech of the day. It was an adroit combination. The Granger craze was yet in the air, and Williams appealed to it strongly; while Voorhees knew well how to hold it in line and instil enthusiasm into the ranks of its votaries. His canvass of the State was a magnificent one, leading his party to a triumphant victory. Senator Voorhees delivered a number of addresses upon subjects not of a political or
legal character, — such as the " Holy Sepulcher," "Thomas Jefferson," "Public Men of my own Time " (never delivered, in course of preparation at his death), " Influence of the Physical Sciences on the Progress of Civilization," " Magna Charta" (before the State Bar Association of South Carolina, in 1892), "The Flag of the Sea" (at the un veiling of Farragut's statue in Washington, 188 1), "The Louisiana Purchase, and the South-land of the Republic " (at Memphis, 1892), "The American Citizen" (at Vir ginia University, 1860), "A Tribute to Judge Huntington " (of Indiana).1 These addresses fall far below the other speeches referred to in this article. Senator Voorhee^ was not a phrase maker, like Samuel J. Tilden or Benjamin Harrison. Harrison's speeches abound in many sentences that are quotable; but a compiler of a book of quotations will find few sentences at his hand in Voorhees' speeches and addresses. He was eminently a rhetorician. A quotation from his speeches must usually and necessarily be a page or a half page in length, and often more. Occa sionally, however, one meets with a striking short sentence. As for instance : " The possession of power is like the tiger's taste of blood, it is not to be permitted." Or, "Liberty is said to be brightest in dun geons, for there its habitation is the human heart." Or, " Each one of these homes is a beacon-light of civilization." Or, " Death is no calamity, if we die with a good name; but let dishonor once come to follow us over the world like a hissing serpent, and neither in life nor in death is there peace or 1 There are two collections of Senator Voorhees's ad dresses and orations, one published by Robert Clark & Company, Cincinnati, edited by his son, Charles S. Voor hees; and the other (two volumes) by the Bowen-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, 1898, compiled and edited by his three sons and his daughter, Harriet Cecilia Voorhees. The latter work contains some orations inserted in the first volume.
