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Tliе Green Bag.
came down with applause; the galleries joined, and old Vance clapped his fat hands. I saw in stantly that was the place to stop, and with a great effort I resisted the temptation to bring out any more "sticks" and sat down.' "To appreciate the recital it must have been heard; it cannot be written or repeated so as to give any correct idea of its graphic interest. How few men could so control themselves as to resist such a temptation! "Once when I had declined to speak after him on the hustings (stating that I was not prepared), Mr. Lamar said to me: 'You were wise not to attempt to speak. You are a young fellow just starting out; let me give you a piece of advice : never attempt to speak when you are not prepared.' •' I thanked him for the advice and asked him, ' Do you mean to intimate that you never speak without preparation, and do you mean by being prepared that you write your speeches?' 'No,' he said, 'I try not to speak unless I am prepared. I don't write my speeches; my practice is, when preparing a speech, after having determined what subjects to discuss, to frame my sentences in my mind; to turn each sentence over and over until I get it in shape to suit me, and then to repeat it to myself until it is thoroughly impressed on my mimi, and then to go on to the next sentence; so that when I am through with my preparation, I not only know what I am going to say, but the very gesture that will accompany every word of it. You will find it difficult at first to do that, but you can soon train yourself to it.' "His own statement was quite sufficient, but it was corroborated by the fact that in that campaign he made the very same speech a great number of limes. — verbatim ct literatim et punctimtim."
In 1877 Lamar took his seat in the United States Senate. In the Senate he had an opportunity to display his sense of the duty of a representative not to be bound by the instructions of his constituents (upon an issue not involved in his election), when these were contrary to his own judgment and conscience. On the Silver Bill he said : "MR. PRESIDENT, — Having already expressed my deliberate opinions at some length upon this
very important measure now under consideration, I shall not trespass upon the attention of the Senate further. I have, however, one other duty to perform, — a very painful one, I admit, but one which is none the less clear. I hold in my hand certain resolutions of the Legislature of Mississippi, which I ask to have read." (Mr. Lamar then sent to the Clerk's desk, and had read the resolutions of the Mississippi Legislature, instructing their Senators to vote for the Silver Bill.) Mr. llamar, continuing, said : " Mr. President, between these resolutions and my convictions there is a great gulf. I cannot pass it. Of my love to the State of Mississippi, I will not speak : my life alone can tell of that; my gratitude for the honor her people have done me no words can express. I am best proving it by doing to-day what I think their true instincts and their characters require me to do. During my life in that State it has been my privilege to assist the education of more than one generation of her youth; to have given im pulse to wave after wave of the young manhood that has passed into the troubled sea of her social and political life; upon them I have always en deavored to impress the belief that truth was better than falsehood, honesty than policy, courage better than cowardice. "To-day my lessons confront me. To-day I must be true or false, honest or cunning, faithful or unfaithful to my people, even in this hour of their legislative displeasure and disapprobation. I cannot vote as these resolutions direct. I cannot and will not shirk the responsibility which my position imposes. My duty, as I see it, I will do. and I will vote against this bill. When that is done, my responsibility is ended. My reasons for my vote shall be given to my people : then it will be for them to determine if adherence to my honest convictions has disqualified me from repre senting them. Whether a difference of opinion upon a difficult and complicated subject, to which I have given patient, long-continued, conscientious study, to which I have brought entire honesty and singleness of purpose, and upon which I have spent whatever ability God has given me, is now to separate us, — whether this difference is to over ride that complete union of thought, sympathy, and hope which on all other, and, as I believe, even more important subjects bind us together. Before them I must stand or fall; but be their present decision what it may, I know that the time
