drama : " Accursed, thrice accursed is that fell spirit of party which desecrates the noblest sentiments of the human heart, and which, in the accomplishment of its unholy purposes, hesitates at no violence of assault on all which is held sacred by the wise and good. . . . Mr. President, in olden times a viper gnawed a file." ^^ . In both the graces and the defects of Benjamin's ora- tory it is interesting to note the riches of a well-stored mind. He was a reader all his life, a lover of Shakespeare and the great poets, quoted them and filled his thoughts with them ; and this, too, although he was self-educated and had to fight hard for book hours, perhaps all the sweeter when thus purchased.
The strongest feature of Benjamin's speaking is a sin- gular frankness and directness. Now and then he comes out with an abrupt sentence that must have struck the Senate like cold water. ** I did not think I could be pro- voked to say another word on this subject, of which I am heartily sick." 12 << If the object [of a certain bill] is to pro- vide for friends and dependents, let us say so openly." ^^ " For you cannot say two words on this floor on any subject w^hatever that Kansas is not thrust into your ears." ^^
If the test of professional ability is success, Benjamin has been surpassed by few. His income, for America of the fifties, was very large, and when, an old man, he rebuilt his fortunes in London, it climbed again from nothing to seventy or eighty thousand dollars a year. I
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