the dignity with which he filled it. I have been appointed to succeed him. My first duty is, to bear testimony to the accomplishments of my predecessor; to his eloquence, his disinterestedness, and his address. My next duty regards myself; and calls upon me to declare my seuse of the honor I enjoy, in having been appointed to this station My last duty-and one that I discharge with great diffidence-is, to present you with a few observations that have reference to the occasion of your being assembled. You are assembled, gentlemen, to discuss the merits of a man, whose actions are connected with some of the most interesting events in Roman story. You have given the subject due consideration. You come prepared for the contest; and I shall not presume to offer any opinion, respecting the ground which either side ought to take. My remarks shall be confined to the study of Oratory; and, allow me to say, I consider Oratory to be the second end of our academic labors, of which the first end is, to render us enlightened, useful, and virtuous. The principal means of communicating our ideas are two-speech and writing. The former is the parent of the latter; it is the more important, and its highest efforts are called Oratory. dozen men-men of education, erudition-ask them to read a piece of animated composition; you will be fortunate if you find one in the dozen, that can raise, or depress, his voiceinflect or modulate it, as the variety of the subject requires. What has become of the inflections, the cadences, and the modulation, of the infant? They have not been exercised; they have been neglected; they have never been put into the hands of the artist, that he might apply them to their proper use; they have been laid aside, spoiled, abused; and, ten to one, they will never be good for any thing! Oratory is highly useful to him that excels in it. In common conversation, observe the advantage which the fluent speaker enjoys over the man that hesitates, and stumbles in discourse. With half his information, he has twice his importance; he commands the respect of his auditors; he instructs and gratifies them. In the general transactions of business, the same superiority attends bin. He communicates his views with clearness, precision, and effect; he carries his point by his mere readiness; he concludes his treaty, before another kind of man would have well set about it. Does he plead the cause of friendship? how happy is his friend! Of charity? how fortunate is the distressed? Should he enter the Senate of his country, he gives strength to the party which he espouses, should he be independent of party, he is a party in himself. If he advocates the cause of liberty, he deserves to be the people's champion; if he defends their rights, he If we consider the very early period at which we begin to exercise the faculty of speech, and the frequency with which we exercise it. it must be a subject of surprise, that so few excel in Oratory. In any enlight-approves himself the people's bulwark! ened community, you will find numbers who are highly skilled in some particular art or science, to the study of which they did not apply themselves, till they had almost arrived at the stage of manhood. Yet, with regard to the powers of speech-those powers which the very second year of our existence generally calls into action, the exercise of which goes on at our sports, our studies, our walks, our very meals; and which is never long suspended, except at the hour of refreshing sleep; with regard to those powers, how few surpass their fellow-creatures of common information and moderate attainments! how very few deserve distinction! how rarely does one attain to eminence! That you will persevere in the pursuit of so useful a study, as that of Oratory, I confidently hope. That your progress has been, hitherto, considerable, I am about to receive a proof. Gentlemen, the question for debate, is-WAS CASAR A GREAT MAN? J. G. Sir, to bespeak your indulgence, is a duty, in posed, no less, by a knowledge of your desert, than by a consciousness of my deficiency. I am unpractised in the orator's art; nor can I boast that native energy of talent, which asks not the tempering of experience; but, by its single force, effects what seems the proper achievement of labors, and of years. Let me, then, hope, that you will excel in favor, as much as I shall fall short in merit. Let me presume, that the performance of what I undertake with difli dence, will be regarded by you with allowance. Let me anticipate, that failure will not be imputed as a crime, to him, who dares not hope success. The causes are various; but we must not attempt, here, to investigate them. I shall simply state, that one cause of our not generally excelling in Oratory, is, our neglecting to cultivate the art of speaking-of speaking our own language. We acquire the power of expressing our ideas, almost insensibly; we consider it as a thing that is natural to us; we do not regard it as an art: it is an art-a difficult art-an intricate art-government of the universe; what new and and our ignorance of that circumstance, or our omitting to give it due consideration, is the cause of our deficiency. In the infant, just beginning to articulate, you will observe every inflection that is recognized in the most accurate treatise on elocution; you will observe, further, an exact proportion in its several cadences, and a speaking expression in its tones. Select a Was Cæsar a great man?" What revo lution has taken place in the first appointed opposite principle has begun to direct the operations of nature; what refutation of their long established precepts, has deprived Reason of her sceptre, and Virtue of her throne, that a character, which forms the noblest theme that ever Merit gave to Fame, should now become a question for debate? No painter of human excellence, if ho would draw the features of that hero's . an He character, needs study a favorable light, or eking attitude majesty; and the lineaments of its beauty are In every posture, it has prominent in every point of view. Do you ask me, " Had Cæsar genius?" He was an orator! "Had Caesar judgment?" He was a politician! "Had Caesar valor ?" a conqueror! Had Cesar feeling?" He was was a friend! It is a generally received opinion, that un common circumstances make uncommon men. Caesar was uncommon man, in common circumstances. The colossal mind commands your admiration, no less in the pirate's captive, than in the victor of Pharsalia. Who, but the first of his race, could have made vassals of his savage masters, mocked them into reverence of his superior nature, and threatened, with impuguity the power that held him at its mercy? Of all the striking incidents of Cresar's life, had history preserved for as but this single one, it would have been sufficient to make us fancy all the rest; at least, we should have said, "Such a man was born to conquest, and to empire!" To expatiate on Cæsar's powers of oratory, would only be to add one poor eulogium to the testimony of the first historians. himself, grants him the palm of almost preCicero, eminent merit; and seems at a loss for words to express his admiration of him. was musical, his delivery energetic, his His voice language chaste and rich, appropriate and peculiar. And it is well presumed, that, had he sta lied the art of public speaking, with as mach industry as he studied the art of war, he would have been the first of orators. Quintilian says, he would have been the only man, capable of combatting Cicero; but, granting them to have been equal in ability, what equal contest could the timid Cicero whose nerves fail him, and whose tongue falters, when the forum glitters with arms -what equal contest could he have held with the man, whose vigor chastised the Belge, and annihilated the Nervi, that maintained their ground, till they were hewn to pieces on the spot! His abilities, as a master of composition, were, undoubtedly, of the first order. How admirable is the structure of his Commentaries! what perspicuity and animation are there in the details! You fancy yourself upon the field of action! development of his plans, with the liveliest You follow the curiosity! You look attention, as he fortifies his camp, or invests on with unwearied his enemy, or crosses the impetuous torrent! You behold his legions, as they move forward, from different points, to the line of battle; you hear the shout of the onset, and the crash of the encounter; and, breathless with suspense, mark every fluctuation of the awful tide of war! As a politician, how consummate was his address! How grand his projections! How happy the execution of his measures! He compels the vanquished Helveti to rebuild their towns and villages; making his enemies the guards, as it were of his frontier. He captivates, by his clemency the Arverni, and DRONSON, 21 321 the Edui. winning to the support of his arms, the strength that had been employed to oversuch equity, and wisdom, as add a milder, but power them. He governs his province with a fairer lustre to his glory; and, by their fame, prepare the Roman people for his happy yoke. Upon the very eve of his rupture with Pompey, he sends back, on deinand, the borrowed legions, covering with rewards the soldiers that may no longer serve him; and whose weapons, ou the morrow, may be turned against his breast-presenting, here, a noble example of his respect of right; and of that magnanimity, which maintains that gratitude should not cease, though benefits are discontinued. When he reigns scle is his triumph! how scrupulous his respect master of the Roman world, how temperate for the very forms of the laws! He discounte endeavors to preserve the virtue of the nances the profligacy of the patricians, and state, by laying wholesome restraints upon luxury. He encourages the arts and sciences, patronizes genius and talent, respects religion that can contribute to the welfare, the happiand justice, and puts in practice every means ness, and the stability of the empire. page of history, it must be unnecessary to To you, sir, who are so fully versed in the recount the military exploits of Cæsar. Why him, for the hundredth time, through hostile should I compel your attention myriads, yielding, at every encounter, to the to follow force of his invincible arms. have your calculations hesitated to credit the celerity of his marches; your belief recoiled Full often, sir. wonder re-perused the detui of his successive at the magnitude of his operations; and you victories, following upon the shouts of one another. warriors; nor were his valor and skill more As a captain, he was the first of admirable, than his abstinence and watchfulof labor; his moderation and his mercy. ness; his disregard of ease and his endurance Perhaps, indeed, this last quality forms the most prominent feature in his character; and proves, by the consequences of its excess, its proper bounds, which it ought not to that virtue itself requires restraint, and has exceed; for Cesar's moderation was his ruin? friendship, and alive to the finest touches and fell-as the BARD expresses it-van- talents for war, with the most sacred love of mab. F. M. Sir. I come to the discussion of this 1 of his domestic honor: sheltered the incen question, with something more than the diary! abetted treason! flattered the people anxiety and hesitation, with something less into their own undoing! assailed the liberties than the ardor and the hope, of a novice. of his country, and bawled into silence every When the man that has not proved his virtuous patriot that struggled to uphold them! strength, is brought to the test, how much He would have been a greater orator than Boever he may seem to doubt himself, he still Cicero! I question the assertion; I deny feels a secret trust that he shall succeed; and, that it is correct; I revolt from it; I will not even while he apparently shrinks from the suffer it! He would have been a greater trial, views himself, in the anticipating mirror orator than Cicero! Well! let it pass; he of expectation, crowned with the meed of might have been a greater orator, but he never could have been so great a applause. Besides, his very inexperience is way soever he had directed his a source of confidence; for, in the eye of the Which severest judge, he shall not merit condemna- talents, the same inordinate ambition would tion, who fails upon his first attempt. From have led to the same results; and, had he what source shall I derive the hope, that I devoted himself to the study of oratory, his shall not expose myself to the contempt, tongue had produced the same effects as his which the man, who fails in the performance sword; and equally desolated the huma kingdom. your of what he undertakes, deserves? From Yes, sir; allow me to presume torbearance? upon that, as a source of confidence; allow me to trust, that you will not exercise a rigorous judgment with respect to him, who, if he answer not the expectation which the chairman of this assembly has a right to form of those who aspire to his notice, possesses, still, the humble merit of acknowledging his liability to that misfortune, and the prudence to guard you against disappointment. No change, sir. has taken place in the first appointed government of the universe. The operations of nature acknowledge, now, the same principle that they did in the beginning. Reason still holds her sceptre, Virtue still fills her throne, and the epithet of great does not belong to Cesar! be But Caesar is to be admired as a politician! I do not pretend to define the worthy speaker's idea of a politician; but I shall attempt, Mr. Chairman, to put you in possession of mine. By a politician, I understand a man who studies the laws of prudence and of justic., as they are applicable to the wise and happy government of a people, and the reciprocal obligations of states. Now, sir, how far was Casar to be admired as a politician! He suffer from makes war upon the innocent Spaniards, that his military talents may not inaction. This was a ready way to preserve That he may the peace of his province, and to secure its loyalty and affection! recorded as the first Roman that had ever crossed the Rhine, in a hostile manner, o I would lay it down, sir, as an unquestion-invades the unoflending Germans, lays waste able position, that the worth of talents is to be estimated, only by the use we make of them. If we employ them in the cause of virtue, If we employ them in their value is great. the cause of vice, they are less than worth less-they are pernicious and vile. Now, sir, let us examine Cesar's talents by this principle, and we shall find, that, neither as an orator, nor as a politician-neither as a warrior, nor as a friend-was Casar a great man. "What was the first, the If I were asked, second, and the last principle of the virtuous mind?" I should reply, "It was the love of country." Sir, it is the love of parent, brother, friend! the love of MAN! the love of honor, wirtue, and religion! the love of every good I say, sir, if I were and virtuous deed! asked, "What was the first, the second, and the last principle of the virtuous mind?" I should reply, It was the love of country!" Without it, man is the basest of his kind! a elfish, cunning, narrow speculator! a trader in the dearest interests of his species! reckless of every tie of nature, sentiment, affection! a Marius; a Sylia; a Crassus; a Cataline; a Cæsar! What, sir, was Cæsar's oratory? How far did it prove him to be I'll tell Actuated by the love of country? you, sir; I'll show you this great Cæsar in such a light and posture, as shall present no air of majesty, or lineament of beauty. How far, I say, sir, did Caesar's oratory prove him ? It to be actuated by the love of country Ju tified, for political interest, the invader their territories with fire, and plunders and moment. But Caesar's munificence, his clemency, his o leration, and his affectionate nature, constitute him a great man! What was his mauilicence, his clemency, or his moderation? Toe automaton of his ambition! It knew no aspiration from the Deity. It was a thing from the hands of a mechanician! an ingenious mockery of nature! Its action seemed spon tineous--its look argued a soul-but all the virtue lay in the finger of the operator. He could possess no real munificence, moderation, or clemency, who ever expected his gifts to be doubled by return; who never abstained, but with a view to excess; nor spared, but for the indulgence of rapacity. Of the same nature, sir, were his affections. He was, indeed, a man of exquisite artifice; but the deformity of his character was too prominent; no dress could thoroughly hide it; nay, sir, the very attempt to conceal, served only to discover the magnitude of the distortion. He atones to the violated and murdered laws, by doing homage to their ames; and expiates the massacre of thousands, by dropping a tear or two into an ocean of blood! R. P. Sir, if it is necessary for talent and desert to bespeak indulgence, what shall encourage him. who cannot boast of talent and desert? With how much diffidence did the gentlemen that have preceded me, present themselves to your notice; how cautious were they to prepare you for something that might exercise your patience, and stand in need of your forbearance; and yet, with how much enerzy, ease, and address, have they acquitted themselves! I must confess, I hardly think it just to profess a deficiency, which we do not feel; it exhausts, needlessly, the stock of benevolence, and leaves the really necessitous without assistance or relief; it is like a rich man's assuming the garb of a mendicant, and drawing upon the treasury of commisera tion for those sighs, and that solace, which are the proper alms of penury and distress. For my part, sir, I shall so far profit by the example of those gentlemen, as not to bespeak your excuse, lest I should thereby excite your expectation; and shall, accordingly, proceed to consider the question, without apology, or further preface. To form an accurate idea of Cæsar's character, it is necessary that we should consider the nature of the times in which he lived; for the conduct of public men cannot be duly estimated, without a knowledge of the circumstances under which they have acted. The happiness of a community resembles the health of the body. As it is not always the same regimen that can preserve, or the same medicine that can restore, the latter; so, the former is not always to be maintained by the same measures, or recovered by the same corrections. There was a time, when kingly power had grown to so enormous an excess, as rendered its abolition necessary for the salvation of the Roman people. Let us examine whether the times, in which Caesar lived, did not call for, and justify, the measures which he adopted; whether the liberty of the republic had not degenerated into such a state of anarchy, as rendered it expedient, that the power of the empire should be vested in one inan, whose influence and talents could command party, and control faction. The erroneous ideas that we have formed concerning Roman liberty, have induced us to pass a severe judgment on the actions of many an illustrious man. The admirers of that liberty will not expect to be told, that it was little better than a name. True liberty, sir, could never have been enjoyed by a people, who were the slaves of continual tamults and cabals; whose magistrates were the mere echoes of a crowd, and among whom, virtue itself, had no protection from popular caprice, or state intrigue. By the term liberty, I understand a freedom from all responsibility, except what morality, virtue, and religion impose. That is the only liberty, which is consonant with the true interests of man; the only liberty, that renders his association with his fellows permanent and happy; the only liberty, that places him in a peaceful, honorable, and prosperous community; the only liberty that makes him the son of a land, that he would inhabit till his death, and the subject of a state, that he would defend with his property and his blood' All other liberty is but a counterfeit the stamp a cheat, and the metal base-turbulence, insolence, licentiousness, party ferment, selfish domination, anarchy-such anarchy as Leeded more than mortal talents to restrain it; and found them in a Cæsar. sion. I hold it to be an unquestionable position that they, who duly appreciate the blessings of liberty, revolt as much from the idea of exercising, as from that of enduring, oppres How far this was the case with the Romans, you may inquire of those nations that surrounded them. Ask them, "What insolent guard paraded before their gates, and invested their strong holds?" They will answer. A Roman legionary." Demand of them, "What greedy extortiouer fattened by their poverty, and clothed himself by their nakedness? They will inform you, "A Roman Questor. Inquire of them, "What imperious stranger issued to them his mandates of imprisonment or confiscation, of banishment or death?" They will reply to you, "A Roman Consul.” Question them, What haughty conqueror led, through his city, their nobles and kings in chains, and exhibited their countrymen, by thousands, in gladiators' shows, for the amuse ment of his fellow citizens ?" They will tell you, "A Roman General." Require of them. What tyrauts imposed the heaviest yoke? enforced the most rigorous exactions? inflicted the most savage punishments, and showed the greatest gust for blood and torture?" They will exclaim to you, "The Roman people." Yes, sir, that people, so jealous of what they called their liberties, to gratify an insa tinte thirst for conquest, invaded the liberties of every other nation; and on what spot soever they set their tyrant foot, the fair and happy soil of the freeman withered at their stamp! But the retributive justice of Heaven ordained, that their rapacity should be the their duty, the soldiers whom he commanded, means of its own punishment. As their disobeyed the order of the senate, from whom territories extended, their armies required to, he held his power; he, who seduced from be enlarged. and their campaigns became protracted. Hence, the citizen lost, in the camp, that independence which he had been tangut in the city: and, being long accustomed to obey, implicitly, the voice of his general, from having been sent forth the hope, returned the terror of his country. Hence, siz, their generals forgot, in foreign parts, the republican principles which they had imbibed in the forum; and, long habituated to unlimited command, from being despots abroad, learned to be traitors at home. Hence, sir, Marius returned the salutations of his fellow-citizens with the daggers of assassins; and, with cool ferocity, marched to the Capitol, amidst the groans of his butchered countrymen, expiring on each side of him; hence, Sylla's bloody proscription, that turned Rome into shambles; that tore its victims from the altars of the gods; that made it death for a man to shelter a person proscribed, though it were his son, his brother, or his father; and never suffered the executioners to take breath, till senators, knights, and citizens, to the number of nine thousand, had been inhumanly murdered! Such, sir, were the events that characterized the times in which Caesar lived. To such atrocities were the Roman people subject, while the rivalry of their leading men was at liberty to create divisions in the state. Had you, sir, lived in those times, what would you have called the man, that would have stepped forward to secure your country against the repetition of those horrid scenes. Would you not have styled him a friend to his Country-a benefactor to the world-a great mata demi-god? Was not Cæsar such a character? Observe what use he makes of his power. He does not employ it to gratify revenge, or to awe his countrymen; on the contrary, the whole of his conduct encourages confidence and freedom; while he reforms the government, and enacts the wisest laws, for the preservation of order, and for the happiness of the community. They who object to the character of Cæsar, condemn it, principally, upon the score of his having Erected himself into the sole governor of the republic; but. let it be remembered, that the happiness of a state does not depend so much upon the form of its government, as upon the manner in which that government is administered. A country might be as prosperous and free, under what was anciently called a tyranny, as where the chief power was vested in the people, In short, sir, when Cæsar created himself dictator, and thereby destroyed, virtually, the republican form of government, he usurped no more than the people did. when they erected themselves into a republic, and thereby destroyed the monarchy; and the existing circumstances, which rendered the act of the latter expedient, were not more urgent than those, which gave rise to the conduct of the former. Cesar, sir, was a great man! man. to prevent the recurrence of the effects, which those measures produced! He keeps his eye steadfastly fixed upon them; follows them in the same track; treads in their very foot prints? Why? That he may arrive at a different point of destination! What flimsy arguments are these! What were Sylla and Marius, that Cæsar was not? If they were ambitious, was not he ambitious? If they were treacherous, was not he treacherous? If they rebelled, did dot he rebel? If they usurped, did not he usurp? If they were tyrants, was not be a tyrant? You were told, the people, from their long continued service in the army, gradually lost the spirit of independence, and that the calamities of the state arose from that cause. Granted; it follows, then, that a spirit of independence was necessary for the prosperity of the state; and, consequently, that the way to put a stop to its calamities, was to revive that spirit. Did Caesar do this? The gentle. man says, he had the happiness of his country at heart. From his own argument, it follows, that this was the way to secure the happiness of his country. Did Cosar adopt it? Was it to revive, in his countrymen, the spirit of independence, that he audaciously stopped from the rank of their servant, to that of their innster? Was it to preserve the integrity, which fosters that spirit, that he corrupted the virtue of all that came in contact with him, and that he dared to tempt? Was it for the regeneration of the republic, that he converted it into a tyranny? Was it to restore the government to its ancient health and soundness, that he filled all the offices of the state with his own creatures-the instruments of his usurpation? Was it to re-animate the people with the sense of their own dignity, that he called them Bruta and Cumai-that is, beasts and fools-when they applauded the tribunes, for having stripped his statues of the royal diadems, with which his flatterers had dressed them? These were the acts of Cæsar. Did they tend to restore tho ancient virtue of the Roman people? No, sir; they tended to annihilate the chance of its restoration; to sink the people into a viler abasement; to rob them of the very names of men. But the gentleman has brought forward a very curious argument, for the purpose of |