The Indian Advocate. (Sacred Heart Mission, Okla. Terr.), Vol. 10, No. 2, Ed. 1, Friday, April 1, 1898 Page: 3 of 32
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THE INDIAN ADVOCATE.
35
sistonce in the heritage ofBritish liter-
ature endeared to them by a community
of language and historical association.
And when a few of the busy denizens
of a new republic ventured to give
expression to their thoughts it was
equally natural that the spirit and the
principles of their ancestral literature
should reappear. Scenery border-life
the vicinity of the aborigines and a
great political experiment were the only
novel features in the now world upon
which to found anticipations of origi-
nality; in academic culture habitual
reading moral and domestic tastes and
cast of mind the Americans were iden-
tified witli the mother country; and in
all essential particulars would naturally
follow the style thus inherent in their
natures and confirmed by habit and
study. At first therefore the literary
development of the United States was
imitative; but with the progress of the
country and her increased leisure and
means of education the writings of the
people became more and more charac-
teristic; and theological disputations
as manifested among the various sects
of Protestanism gradually ceased to be
the exclusive moulds of thought.
The groat defect of our literature in
the beginning has been a lack of inde-
pendence and too exclusive a deference
to hackneyed models; there has been
and is no deficiency of intellectual life:
it has thus far however often proved
too diffusive for great results. Oratory
is ominently the literature of republics.
Political freedom gives both occasion
and impulse to thought on public inter-
ests; and its expression is a requisite
accomplishment to every intelligent and
patriotic citizen. American eloquence
although not unknown in the profes-
sional sphores of colonial life devel-
oped with originality and richness at
the epoch of the revolution. Indeed
the question that agitated the country
naturally induced popular discussions
and as a sense of wrong and a resolve
to maintain the rights of freemen took
the place of remonstrance and argu-
ment a race of orators seems to have
sprung to life whose chief traits con-
tinue evident in a long and illustrious
roll of names identified with our states-
men legislators and divines. From
the Most Rev. Archbishop Carroll who
by his writings in defence of truth and
justice has endeared himself to all
lovers of liberty to the stripling Ham-
ilton who in July 1774 held a vast
concourse in breathless excitement in
the fields near New York while he
demonstrated the right and necessity
of resistance to British oppression
there has been a series of remarkable
public speakers who have nobly illus-
trated this branch of literature in the
United States. The fame of American
eloquence is in part traditionary. War-
ren Adams Charles Carroll of Carroll-
ton and Otis in Boston and Patrick
Henry in Virginia by their spirit-
stirring appeals roused the land to the
assertion and defence of its just rights;
and Alexander Hamilton Morris Pink-
ney Jay Rutledge and other firm and
gifted men gave wise and effective di-
rection to the power thus evoked by
their logical and earnest appeals At
the time the contest began there were
in each colony some men already hon-
ored by their fellow citizens already
well known in the defence of public
liberty influential by their property
talent or character; faithful to the an-
cient virtues yet friendly to modern
improvement; sensible to the splendid
advantages of civilization and yet at-
tached to simplicity of manners; high-
toned in their feelings but of modest
minds at the same time ambitious and
prudent in their patriotic impulses.
Foremost among these remarkable men
was Alexander Hamilton by birth a
West Indian by descent uniting the
Scotch vigor and sagacity of character
with the accomplishment of the French.
While" a collegian in New York his
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The Indian Advocate. (Sacred Heart Mission, Okla. Terr.), Vol. 10, No. 2, Ed. 1, Friday, April 1, 1898, newspaper, April 1, 1898; Sacred Heart Mission, Oklahoma Territory. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc69770/m1/3/: accessed April 18, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.