ggressive boldness of statement,
finally in equality to all audiences and readiness for all occasions,
Wendell Phillips is certainly the first orator in America,--and that we
esteem much the same as saying that he is first among those whose
vernacular is the English tongue. That no speeches are made of equal
_value_ with his, that he has an intellectual superiority to all
competitors in the forum, we do not assert; but his preeminence in pure
oratorical genius may now be considered as established and
unquestionable. Ajax has the strength, perhaps more than the strength,
of Achilles; but Achilles adds to vigor of arm incomparable swiftness of
foot. The mastiff is stout, brave, trusty, intelligent, but the hound
outruns him; and this greyhound of modern oratory, deep-chested,
light-limbed, supple, elastic, elegant, powerful, must be accredited
with his own special superiorities. Or taking a cue from the tales of
chivalry, we might say that he is the Sir Launcelot of the platform, in
all but Sir Launcelot's sin; and woe to the knight against whom in full
career he levels his lance!

And yet one is half ashamed to praise his gifts, so superbly does he
himself cast those gifts behind him. He is not trying to be eloquent: he
is trying to get a grand piece of justice done in the world. No engineer
building a bridge, no ship-master in a storm at sea, was ever more
simply intent on substantive results. It is not any "Oration for the
Crown" that he stands here pronouncing: it is service, not distinction,
at which he aims, and he will be crowned only in the gladness of a
redeemed race. The story of his life is a tale of romance; he makes real
the legends of chivalry. He might have sat at meat with Arthur and the
knights of the Round Table, and looked with equal unabashed eyes into
theirs; and a thousand years hence, some skeptic, reading the history of
these days, will smile a light disdain, and say, "Very well for fiction;
but _real_ men are selfish beings, and serve themselves always to the
sweetest and biggest loaf they can find."

We praise his gifts and his nobility, not always his opinions. He was
once the apostle of a doctrine of disunion; he fervently believes in
enforcing "total abstinence" by statute; he is the strenuous advocate of
woman-suffrage. We have stood by the Union always; we have some faith in
pure wine, notwithstanding the Maine Law; and believing that women have
a right to vote, we believe also that they ha