Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society (Volume 14)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870 Excerpt: ...Pendleton is a lawyer of eminence, of easy and cheerful countenance, polite in address, and elegant if not eloquent in style and elocution. Mr. Henry is also a lawyer, and the completest speaker I ever heard. If his future speeches are equal to the small samples he has hitherto given us, they will be worth preserving; but in a letter I can give you no idea of the music of his voice, or the highwrought yet natural elegance of his style and manner. Col. Lee is said to be his rival in eloquence, and in Virginia and to the southward they are styled the Demosthenes and Cicero of America?' God grant they may not, like them, plead in vain for Duane says the Virginians speak in raptures about Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry, one the Cicero, and the other the Demosthenes of the age. John Adams's Diary Aug. 28, 1774, (Works, ii. 357.) the Liberties of their Country! These last gentlemen are now in full life, perhaps near fifty, and have made the Constitution and history of G. Britain and America their capital study ever since the late troubles between them have arisen. Sunday. We dined yesterday with Mr. Wharton, a plain hospitable Quaker family, of great connections in this City, and on this Continent, as well as in Europe; but I think has as much of the Serpent as the Dove in his composition. He treated us with the utmost politeness, and carried us in his coach after dinner to his country seat, and about ten miles south of this City, to view the country, which is fine and rich almost beyond comparison. The industry of this city exceeds anything you can have an idea of. The Delaware naturally overflowed at every tide a large tract of land on which consequently nothing grew but alders and rushes. This they enclosed with a dyke for miles in le...