there was grouped around him a score of men, mostly of pure negro blood, who ably seconded his efforts. They were able in war and skillful in civil affairs, but not, like him, remarkable for that rare mingling of high qualities which alone makes true greatness, and insures a man leadership among 5 those otherwise almost his equals. Toussaint was indisputably their chief. Courage, purpose, endurance, - these are the tests. He did plant a state so deep that all the world has not been able to root it up.

I would call him Napoleon, but Napoleon made his way to 10 empire over broken oaths and through a sea of blood. This man never broke his word. "No Retaliation " was his great motto and the rule of his life; and the last words uttered to his son in France were these: " My boy, you will one day go back to St. Domingo; forget that France murdered your 15 father." I would call him Cromwell, but Cromwell was only a soldier and the state he founded went down with him into his grave. I would call him Washington, but the great Virginian held slaves. This man risked his empire rather than permit the slave-trade in the humblest village of his 20 dominions.

You think me a fanatic to-night, for you read history not with your eyes, but with your prejudices. But fifty years hence, when Truth gets a hearing, the Muse of History will put Phocian for the Greek, and Brutus for the Roman, 25 Hampden for England, Fayette for France, choose Washington as the bright consummate flower of our earlier civilization, and John Brown the ripe fruit of our noonday [thunders of applause], then, dipping her pen in the sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them all, the name 30 of the soldier, the statesman, the martyr, Toussaint L'Ouverture. [Long continued applause.]

COMMEMORATION

OF AN

HISTORICAL OCCASION.

No. I shows that even the speech which is usually perfunctory, the introduction of a speaker, may itself be made memorable. No. II illustrates a brief grappling, apparently extemporaneous, but very successful, with a difficult persuasive problem, - cf. its introductory material. No. III exemplifies the prepared address which seeks to emphasize some of the possible significance of the occasion in question. No. IV is noteworthy, especially, for its descriptive emotional passages.

I.

CHARLES W. ELIOT.

Heroes of the Civil War.1

Sander's Theatre, Harvard University, Memorial Day, May 30, 1896.

The personal heroism of the men we commemorate here —of those who survived as well as of those who fell - had two elements which are especially affecting and worthy of remembrance.

5 In the first place, these men went through all the squalor, wretchedness and carnage of war without having any clear vision of their country's future. They did not know that victory was to crown the Union cause; they did not know that the nation was to come out of the four years' struggle 10 delivered from slavery, united as never before, and confident as never before in its resources and its stability. One of the worst horrors in 1860-61, before the war opened, was the sickening doubt whether we really had any country.

Civil war is immeasurably worse than any other war, 15 because it inevitably creates just this terrible doubt about the national future. It was not until 1864-5 that it became plain that the North would ultimately win military success; and even then all men saw that after military success would come immense civil difficulties. The heroism of the soldiers 20 on both sides, and the pathos of their suffering and sacrifices, are greatly heightened by their inability to forecast the future. Like all devoted souls they walked by faith, and not by sight. Most of the men whose names are written on these walls died with no shout of victory in their ears, or 5 prospect of ultimate triumph before their glazing eyes.

1 Reprinted by permission of Charles W. Eliot and of the Century Co. from American Contributions to Civilization, p. 367.

console them in their mortal agony, in their supreme sacrifice, they had nothing but their own hope and faith.

Secondly, the service these men rendered to their country was absolutely disinterested. No professional interest in war influenced them. No pay, or prize money, or prospect 5 of pension had the least attraction for them. They offered their services and lives to their country just for love, and out of determination that, if they could help it, the cause of freedom should take no harm. On the spur of the moment they abandoned promising civil careers, dear homes, and the 10 natural occupations of men who had received a collegiate training, for the savage destructions and butcheries of war. No mercenary motive can be attributed to any of them. This disinterestedness is essential to their heroic quality. The world has long since determined the limits of its occa- 15 sional respect for mercenary soldiers. It admires in such men only the faithful fulfilment of an immoral contract. The friends we commemorate here had in view no outward rewards near or remote.

To these heroes of ours, and to all the soldiers of like 20 spirit in the Civil War, we owe debts which can never be paid except in respect, admiration and loving remembrance. We owe to them the demonstration that out of the hideous losses and horrors of war, as out of pestilences, famines, shipwrecks, conflagrations, and the blastings of the tornado, 25 noble souls can pluck glorious fruits of self-sacrifice and moral sublimity. And further, we owe them a great uplifting of our country in dignity, strength and security.