Atlantic Monthly | Page 5

public affairs, when they
observe the disproportionate advantage suddenly given to oratory over
the most solid and accumulated public service. In a Senate or other
business committee, the solid result depends on a few men with
working talent. They know how to deal with the facts before them, to
put things into a practical shape, and they value men only as they can
forward the work. But some new man comes there, who has no
capacity for helping them at all, is insignificant, and nobody in the
committee, but has a talent for speaking. In the debate with open doors,
this precious person makes a speech, which is printed, and read all over
the Union, and he at once becomes famous, and takes the lead in the
public mind over all these executive men, who, of course, are full of
indignation to find one who has no tact or skill, and knows he has none,
put over them by means of this talking power which they despise.
Leaving behind us these pretensions, better or worse, to come a little
nearer to the verity, eloquence is attractive as an example of the magic
of personal ascendency;--a total and resultant power,--rare, because it
requires a rich coincidence of powers, intellect, will, sympathy, organs,
and, over all, good-fortune in the cause. We have a half-belief that the
person is possible who can counterpoise all other persons. We believe
that there may be a man who is a match for events,--one who never
found his match,--against whom other men being dashed are
broken,--one of inexhaustible personal resources, who can give you any
odds and beat you. What we really wish for is a mind equal to any
exigency. You are safe in your rural district, or in the city, in broad
daylight, amidst the police, and under the eyes of a hundred thousand
people. But how is it on the Atlantic, in a storm? Do you understand
how to infuse your reason into men disabled by terror, and to bring
yourself off safe then?--how among thieves, or among an infuriated
populace, or among cannibals? Face to face with a highwayman who
has every temptation and opportunity for violence and plunder, can you
bring yourself off safe by your wit, exercised through speech?--a
problem easy enough to Caesar, or Napoleon. Whenever a man of that
stamp arrives, the highwayman has found a master. What a difference
between men in power of face! A man succeeds because he has more
power of eye than another, and so coaxes or confounds him. The
newspapers, every week, report the adventures of some impudent

swindler, who, by steadiness of carriage, duped those who should have
known better. Yet any swindlers we have known are novices and
bunglers, as is attested by their ill name. A greater power of face would
accomplish anything, and, with the rest of their takings, take away the
bad name. A greater power of carrying the thing loftily, and with
perfect assurance, would confound merchant, banker, judge, men of
influence and power, poet, and president, and might head any party,
unseat any sovereign, and abrogate any constitution in Europe and
America. It was said, that a man has at one step attained vast power,
who has renounced his moral sentiment, and settled it with himself that
he will no longer stick at anything. It was said of Sir William Pepperel,
one of the worthies of New England, that, "put him where you might,
he commanded, and saw what he willed come to pass." Julius Caesar
said to Metellus, when that tribune interfered to hinder him from
entering the Roman treasury, "Young man, it is easier for me to put you
to death than to say that I will"; and the youth yielded. In earlier days,
he was taken by pirates. What then? He threw himself into their ship;
established the most extraordinary intimacies; told them stories;
declaimed to them; if they did not applaud his speeches, he threatened
them with hanging,--which he performed afterwards,--and, in a short
time, was master of all on board. A man this is who cannot be
disconcerted, and so can never play his last card, but has a reserve of
power when he has hit his mark. With a serene face, he subverts a
kingdom. What is told of him is miraculous; it affects men so. The
confidence of men in him is lavish, and he changes the face of the
world, and histories, poems, and new philosophies arise to account for
him. A supreme commander over all his passions and affections; but
the secret of his ruling is higher than that. It is the power of Nature
running without impediment from the brain and will into the hands.
Men and women are his game. Where they are, he cannot be