vidence in certain localities peopled from the South, might be
given at great length. But enough. We have no wish to reproduce the evil
passions of an evil time further than to make it absolutely clear that
a real danger of disunion existed, and that friend and foe alike
recognized that, under God, the undaunted leader of Union sentiment in
California was none other than Starr King.

A prominent San Francisco paper, indulging in the partizan speech of
the period, calling all friends of the Administration at Washington,
"Abolitionists," gave ungracious testimony to King's standing and
influence as follows:

"The abolitionists are bent on carrying out their plans, and will not
hesitate to commit any act of despotism. If the constitution stands in
their way, they will, to use the words of their champion in this state,
Rev. T. Starr King, drive through the constitution."

"Their champion in this state." The opprobrium rested upon him then; let
the honor be his now. This in simple justice to the truth of history.

It is infinitely to be regretted that what men called "the irresistible
charm of his eloquence" cannot by any manner of speech be here
portrayed. If excuse is necessary let these words from King's lecture on
"Webster" plead for us:

"Alas for the perishableness of eloquence! It is the only thing in the
higher walks of human creativeness that passes away. The statue lives
after the sculptor dies, as sublime as when his chisel left it. St.
Peter's is a perpetual memorial and utterance of the great mind of
Angelo. The Iliad is as fresh today as twenty-five centuries ago.
The picture may grow richer with years. But great oratory, the most
delightful and marvelous of the expressions of mortal power, passes and
dies with the occasion."

Not wholly, for even in "cold type" some measure of the power and
persuasiveness of the orator's argument is suggested. It is easy to
imagine the force and fire of patriotism that must have glowed in such
words as these:

"Rebellion sins against the Mississippi; it sins against the coast line;
it sins against the ballot-box; it sins against oaths of allegiance; it
sins against public and beneficent peace; and it sins, worse than all,
against the cornerstone of American progress and history and hope,--the
worth of the laborer, the rights of man. It strikes for barbarism
against civilization."

The intense fervor of King's loyalty to Union and Liberty is seen in his
righteous indi