American Eloquence, Volume 1: Studies In American Political History (1896)
History
American Eloquence, Volume 1: Studies In American Political History (1896)
Speeches, addresses, etc., American; United States -- History; United States -- Politics and government
dipped in that which would have caused rankling if they had reached
their destination, there was not, as it happened, quite strength enough
in the bow to bring them to their mark. If he wishes now to gather up
those shafts, he must look for them elsewhere; they will not be found
fixed and quivering in the object at which they were aimed.
The honorable member complained that I slept on his speech. I must have
slept on it, or not slept at all. The moment the honorable member sat
down, his friend from Missouri rose, and, with much honeyed commendation
of the speech, suggested that the impressions which it had produced were
too charming and delightful to be disturbed by other sentiments or other
sounds, and proposed that the Senate should adjourn. Would it have been
quite amiable in me, Sir, to interrupt this excellent good feeling? Must
I not have been absolutely malicious, if I could have thrust myself
forward, to destroy sensations thus pleasing? Was it not much better and
kinder, both to sleep upon them myself, and to allow others also the
pleasure of sleeping upon them? But if it be meant, by sleeping upon his
speech, that I took time to prepare a reply to it, it is quite a
mistake. Owing to other engagements, I could not employ even the
interval between the adjournment of the Senate and its meeting the next
morning, in attention to the subject of this debate. Nevertheless, Sir,
the mere matter of fact is undoubtedly true. I did sleep on the
gentleman's speech, and slept soundly. And I slept equally well on his
speech of yesterday, to which I am now replying. It is quite possible
that in this respect, also, I possess some advantage over the honorable
member, attributable, doubtless, to a cooler temperament on my part;
for, in truth, I slept upon his speeches remarkably well.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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