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Show IRISH DEMOSTHENES. DANIEL O'CONNELL, FOREMOST OF IRELAND'S ORATORS. Xntnre Showered on Him Her Most Frecioas Gifts His Splendid Presence Pres-ence Supplemented His iVusar-pnssed iVusar-pnssed Eloquence. On the 6th of August, in the memorable memora-ble year of 1775, but a few weeks after aft-er the proclamation had gone forth from Bunker Hill telling the British ministry that their policy of tyranny and injustice would be resisted by all lovers of human rights in America, a child was born at Carhen, near Cahir-civeen, Cahir-civeen, in the county of Kerry, Ireland, who was destined to become In later years the leader and animating spirit of a struggle for liberty which was to shake the British empire to Its foundations founda-tions by the force of his consummate genius and energy and the justice of the cause which he represented, says The Irish World. That child was none other than Daniel Dan-iel O'Connell, the "liberator" of Ireland, Ire-land, who is described by the world's historians and statesmen as one of the I very greatest reformers the world has ever produced. Congenial as Is the j theme we have not the space to dwell upon his brilliant career, already familiar, fa-miliar, but recall the date and circumstances circum-stances of his birth. His father was Morgan O'Connell and his mother Kate O'Mullane of Whitechurch, near Cork. His parents were poor, and Daniel was adopted by his uncle, Maurice O'Connell, O'Con-nell, who owned the estate of Darry-nane Darry-nane and eventually inherited it from his admiring uncle. The O'Connells were of an old and patriotic family, dating back for centuries, and figured in the government records in the reigns of James I and Charles II. General Count O'Connell, born at Darrynane In 1743, was a distinguished officer in the army of France, and others of the family had likewise won continental reputations. D3s first public speech was in 1800 at a meeting in the Royal Exchange in Dublin to protest against the union, and for nearly half a century he fought that battle with unceasing persistence and devotion. Speaking of his wonderful eloquence, it may be interesting to quote the opinion opin-ion of America's most polished orator, Wendell Phillips. "Don't you think," said Phillips, "that I am partial? I will vouch for John Randolph of Roanoke, the Virginia slaveholder who hated an Irishman almost as much as he hated 11 n I I o'cottnell's mootment. . ! n Yankee, himself an orator of no mean level. Hearing O'Connell, he exclaimed, exclaim-ed, 'This is toe man, these are the lips, the most eloauent that speak the English Eng-lish tongue in my day.' I think he was right I remember the solemnity of Webster, the grace of Everett the rhetoriq of Choate. I know the eloquence elo-quence that lay hid in the iron logic of Calhoun. I have melted beneath the magnetism of Seargent S. Prentiss of Mississippi, who wielded a power few men ever had. It has been my fortune to sit at the feet of the great speakers of the English tongue on the other side of the ocean, but I think all of them together never surpassed and none of them ever equaled O'Connell. "Nature intended him for our Demosthenes. De-mosthenes. Never since the great Greek has she sent forth any one so lavishly gifted for his work as a tribune trib-une of the people. In the first place, he had a magnificence presence, im pressive in bearing, massive, like that of Jupiter. Webster himself hardly outdid him in the majesty of his proportions. pro-portions. To be sure, he had not Webster's Web-ster's craggy face and precipice of : brow nor his eyes glowing like anthra- I cite coal, nor had he the lion roar j of Mirabeau. But his presence filled the eye. A small O'Connell would hardly have been an O'Connell at all. These physical advantages are half the battle. There was something majestic in his presence before he spoke, and he added to it what Webster had not, but what Clay might have lent grace. "lie had a voice that covered the gamut I heard him once say. T send my voice across the Atlantic, careering like the thunderstorm against the ! breeze, to tell the slaveholder of the Carolinas tha God's thunderbolts are hot and to remind the bondman thai the dawn of his redemption is already breaking.' tTou seem to bear the tones coming back to. London from the Rocky mountains. Then, with the slightest Irish brogue, he would tell a story, and Exeter hall shook with laughter. The next moment tears in his voice like a Scotch song. 5.000 men wept, nis marvelous voice, Its almost ' Incredible power and sweetness, charmed millions." |