There are two forms of eminent talent which are kindred in effect, each producing instant impression, each holding crowds in suspense, and each kindling enthusiastic admiration: I mean the talent of the orator and the talent of the soldier.

Perhaps he carried into war something of the confidence inspired by the conscious sway of great multitudes, as he surely brought into speech something of the ardor of war.

Call him, if you will, the Rupert of battle; he was also the Rupert of debate.

His success in life attests not only a remarkable genius, but the benign hospitality of our institutions.

Born on a foreign soil, he was to our country only a step-son; but, were he now alive, I doubt not he would gratefully declare that the country was never to him an ungentle step-mother.

Ideas, illustrations, words, seemed to come unbidden and range in harmonious forms,--as in the walls of ancient Thebes each stone took its proper place of its own accord, moved only by the music of a lyre.

But his speech on this floor in reply to a slaveholding conspirator, now an open rebel, showed that his matter was as good as his manner, and that, while master of fence, he was also master of ordnance.

His oratory was graceful, sharp, and flashing, like a cimeter; but his argument was powerful and sweeping, like a battery.

Perhaps the argument against the sophism of Secession was never better arranged and combined, or more simply popularized for general apprehension.

The times have been, That, when the brains were out, the man would die, And there an end; but now they rise again.

That speech passed at once into general acceptance, while it gave its author an assured position in this body.

He died with his face to the foe,--and he died so instantly, that he passed without pain from the service of his country to the service of his God.

Such a death, sudden, but not unprepared for, is the crown of the patriot soldier.

But the question is painfully asked, Who was author of this tragedy, now filling the Senate Chamber, as already it has filled the country, with mourning?

That great criminal is easily detected,--still erect and defiant, without concealment or disguise.

It is the power behind all, saying, “The State, it is I,” that took this precious life; and this power is Slavery.

The nine balls that slew our departed brother came from Slavery.

Every gaping wound of his slashed bosom testifies against Slavery.

Every drop of his generous blood cries out from the ground against Slavery.

The brain so rudely shattered has its own voice, and the tongue so suddenly silenced in death speaks now with more than living eloquence.

To hold others responsible is to hold the dwarf agent and dismiss the giant principal.

Nor shall we do great service, if, merely criticizing some local blunder, we leave untouched that fatal forbearance through which the weakness of the Rebellion is changed into strength, and the strength of our armies is changed into…

May our grief to-day be no hollow pageant, nor expend itself in this funeral pomp!

The protest against Slavery and the cry for Emancipation were not lost.

Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.