I have been stumping it on a grand scale, no less than that of the Union."

Having swept around the Western and Northern arch, he arrived at his native home, and there delivered a speech. For the first time in his life he had among his auditors his mother and his sisters. True, they had heard of him, but they had never before heard him. Their presence served only to subdue and concentrate his inspiration to a more fervid glow. Says a

writer in the "Memoirs":

"The meeting was held in front of the City Hall. Long before the hour had arrived the windows of the hotels, stores, dwelling-houses near by, upon Congress and Middle Streets, were lined with ladies; the high steps, too, fronting the hall, with the adjoining rooms and every accessible door-way and window, were crowned with the beauty, fashion, and matronly worth of the city. The mass of the people were in front of the rostrum erected for the speaker, immediately before the hall. The lights were scattered all around, and the illumination gave a brilliant appearance to the scene. The effect of the lights upon the platform, which only grew brighter and disclosed the speaker more distinctly to the multitude as the early evening darkened into night, was peculiarly fine.

"Mr. Prentiss, conducted by his old friends, made his appearance just as the sun was going down. The instant he was seen ascending the rostrum (for by his lameness he was at once recognized) there was a shout of joyous and heartfelt welcome from every part of the assembly. His college friend, Colonel J. D. Kinsman, introduced him, and again he was hailed with three affectionate cheers, for the feeling which pervaded the vast concourse was something far deeper and more cordial than that of mere admiration for oratorical talent. It betokened a warm personal interest, as well as pride in the man. When the cheering had subsided he looked around upon his audience, his countenance radiant with emotion, and then like a man inspired' spoke right on for three hours."

I here transform the speech from the obliquo to the directo form:

"I thank you, fellow-citizens, for your cordial welcome. I rejoice that I find myself once more among my old friends. The thirteen years which have elapsed since I went forth from you to seek my fortune seems to me but a few days, and in the midst of the pleasant and thronging associa tions of the past I can hardly recall my thoughts to the weighty errand that has summoned us together. Gladly would I here rest like the knight, and forget for a while that war is raging between the Christian and the infidel. But I must turn away alike from the grateful associations of the past and

the friendly courtesies of the present to remind you of that public opinion which is now weighing in its scales the political destiny of the republic."

He here went into an elaborate exposition of the nature, laws, and effects of the credit system, and continued:

"I admit that the system is liable to serious abuse, but contend that under wise limitations it is a most beneficent system, and has been an inexhaustible mine of wealth to the United States. It is the twin influence of credit and confidence which has built up the great West to its height of power and industrial grandeur. Armed with these peaceful implements, American industry and enterprise has subdued the wilderness and caused it to rejoice and blossom as the rose."

From this he passed to the currency, capital, labor, and their practical relations:

"There are demagogues among us who tell the poor man, in the very spirit of the arch-fiend, that the rich man is your enemy, and yet how often do we see the employer of to-day become the laborer of to-morrow, and the laborer changed into the employer. This is the legitimate result of our free institutions, and how, in the face of such facts, dare any man to inflame the bad passions of the different classes of society by teaching that there is a natural hostility between them! The sons of the poor man have actually the better chance in the race of wealth. As a general thing, they first reach the golden eminence. Stephen Girard began life a poor boy, and so did John Jacob Astor. They were the architects of their own fortunes. They acquired their wealth by their superior enterprise. The son of the poor man is more likely to prosper, because honest industry, perseverance, and hope are most likely to be his portion, and these are the mainsprings of success in life.

"The party in power address the 'toiling millions,' as the cant phrase 18, just as if poverty in this country were their destiny, a sort of fate from whose decree there is no escape. But poverty is in this country no such Procrustean bed, nor is labor here subject to any such hard necessity. Our institutions are illustrated in the race-course, where every horse is put upon his own mettle. The slowest cannot win the prize; it belongs to the fleetest. We train our sons like young eagles, to soar aloft, not to flutter about like owls. I say to the laboring man, you have the same chance before you that Benjamin Franklin had. The path of success is as free to you as it ever was to the thousands and tens of thousands whose industry and enterprise have raised them to affluence, independence, station, and honor in the community.

"I never hear these infamous appeals to popular envy and prejudice without being reminded of Satan tempting our mother Eve. As the archfiend

866 'Squat like a toad at the ear of Eve,
Assaying by his devilish art to reach
The organs of her fancy,'

so do the Loco-foco demagogues approach the laboring man, inspiring venom' and raising 'distempered, discontented thoughts, vain hopes, vain aims, inordinate desires.' Nor can I ever witness these attempts of passion and satanic cunning without wishing that I possessed the spear of Ithuriel, that I might touch and unmask the monster."

From the currency and labor questions he passed to the alarming encroachments of Executive power and patronage:

"The time has come when the foreign missions of the republic, and even the highest judicial stations, are given in reward of mere partisan services. Unworthy servants, whom the people have cast off and consigned to political graves, rise again in newness of life at the touch of Executive favor. The rights of the States are falling a prey to Executive influence. The elective franchise has been trodden under foot at his behest. Look at the outrage recently perpetrated upon the Congressional delegation from New Jersey, a State which has shed her best blood in the Revolutionary struggles for our liberty. The Whig members were sacrificed without a hearing, without evidence, without trial, and this by direct interference of the Executive with the legislative branch of the government. Heaven forbid that such violent measures should ever be repeated. The Union itself could not long survive them.

"It is my deliberate opinion that Loco-focoism has done more to break asunder the connecting links, the ties of honor, interest, and affection, which bind together the States of the Union than all other causes since the formation of the government. But here, let me say, I draw a wide distinction between Democracy and Loco-focoism. I believe the great mass of those who have supported this administration are honest men and suppose themselves to be genuine Democrats. But for the guides who have misled and deceived them I have no such respect. They have concocted a system of politics which I term Loco-focoism. It is politics boiled down, so to speak, and distilled into a poisonous drug. They have labelled it Democracy, but I regard it as the very essence of political evil.

"Behold, for illustration, the outrage just consummated in my own glorious State. There, where these apples of Sodom are already ripe, the Loco-foco governor has declared to the world that Mississippi, the home of my heart, repudiated her public obligations and would not pay the State debt, principal nor interest. This same governor has encouraged forgery by recommending a repeal of the law prohibiting the issue of spurious bank paper. True, the body of the administration party in Mississippi do not sustain these ultra and immoral principles, but the most of their leaders do in act if not by word. They are like the Cornish

wreckers, who hang out false lights to allure and deceive the ill-fated mariner. So do these selfish demagogues delude the people by their false and wicked doctrines. Look not, then, at mere profession. The devil does not always show the cloven foot, but he's nevertheless the devil for a' that. There are false prophets now as there; always have been in the world; take heed, therefore, when men hold up before your eyes the sparkling goblet of Democracy; bewaré lest there be poison in the draught."

Mr. Prentiss then passed a beautiful eulogy upon General Harrison, his homespun farmer-like virtues, and excoriated the fierce hell-hounds of the administration press for their unwarranted attacks upon the old patriot.

Cheer upon cheer fol-
Three cheers followed

He closed amidst rapturous applause. lowed, till the welkin rang with twelve. for Mississippi, three for Maine, and, to cap the cheering climax, three more followed for S. S. Prentiss.

A few weeks after this, at Newark, he made another speech, which he thought the best of this Northern campaign. It is described by Governor Pennington and Judge Hornblower in the "Memoirs." Both of these gentlemen were men of high culture and great distinction; the one was the then governor of New Jersey, the other was then chief justice of the State; neither, therefore, was apt to be imposed upon by the mere pyrotechnic display of fancy.

"Five thousand people were present. The place was the military common east of the Episcopal church, under the shade of the elm-trees, which completely protected the speaker from the rays of the descending sun. The day was one of those mild, serene, and genial days which often mark the close of a Northern summer. Prentiss's main argument was to point out, in connection with the tariff, the true characteristics of a republican government, and to demonstrate that industry here has its reward and the man of labor his just position.

"While speaking earnestly in favor of the protection of American industry, with his face turned toward his audience on the right, a voiceperhaps of some honest inquirer, possibly of some hostile politician-loudly asked, from the left, if that system would not make the rich richer and the poor poorer. The orator instantly but courteously turned toward the interrogator and said, 'I thank the gentleman for putting the question ;' then slowly turning his gaze, with an appropriate and corresponding motion of his arm, as if surveying the stately edifices surrounding the park, continued: My friend, I am informed that, much to the honor of your city, those elegant dwellings that adorn this park, and the glittering

equipages standing before some of their doors or now rolling through your streets, belong almost exclusively to mechanics or the sons of mechanics. It is a splendid testimony to the enterprise, skill, and industry of Newark, and enough to gladden the heart of every patriot. But let me tell you that but for the blessed influence of that protection which the government has hitherto afforded our manufactures you who have heretofore worked in your shops would be doing so now, and you whose sires-to their credit be it spoken-were blacksmiths and shoemakers would be mending the old axes and shoes that they made instead of occupying the palace-like dwellings that surround us.' He then quietly changed his position, and, addressing the audience at large, resumed the course of the argument he was pursuing when interrupted by the interrogatory put to him, and finished his address amid the loud and long-continued plaudits of the enlightened and admiring multitude.

"He spoke for three or four hours. The audience stood in solid ranks, and during the whole period every man kept his place, intent only on the orator and joining in the frequent shouts of applause. When he began to speak he appeared to falter and hesitate, but after some twenty minutes this passed away, and from that time to the close it was one continued outburst of manly eloquence. His manner was fine, his language strong and expressive, and he could carry an audience farther with him than any man I ever heard. It seemed as if he held the very hearts of the immense columns before and around at his command. When he rose in the majesty of his noble thought the whole assembly appeared to rise with him, for, after all, the power of the speech was in the sentiments and views presented. There was no tinsel about it, no clap-trap, but it seemed as if the man had an inexhaustible mine of thought from which he could draw at pleasure."

"It was the first and only time," says Judge Hornblower, "that I ever heard him speak, and I expected much from what public fame had said of his professional and intellectual power, but the half had not been told me. I had witnessed many exhibitions of eloquence and mental power in the forum and on the political arena that did honor to the hearts and heads of the speakers, but I have no hesitation in saying, after making every allowance for the excitement of the occasion and my sympathy with his political sentiments, that I never listened with such interest and delight to any other public speaker. Nor was I alone in my admiration, for every one who heard him, however they differed from him in their political affinities, seemed anxious to give him the meed of applause."

Such were the encomiums given by these two great critics, as drawn from memory fifteen years after the delivery of the closing speech of this Northern campaign.

The reader will note that here, for the first time, it began to appear that Prentiss's physical powers were showing signs of yield