Classical Learning: Hugh Swinton Legaré versus Thomas S. Grimké [pp. 368-375]

Clsical Learning.
,Then a long week of glory and agony came Of mute supplication and yearning and dread:
,,When day uto dayday gave the record of fame,
And night unto night gave the list of its dead.
We hald triumphed-the foe had fled back to his ships
His standards in rags and his legions a'wreckBut alas! the stark faces and colourless lips
Of our loved ones gave triumph's rejoicings a check.
Not yet, oh not yet, as a sign of release,
Had the Lord set in mercy his bow in the cloud,
Not yet had the Comforter whispered of peace
To the hearts that around us lay bleeding and bowed.
But the promise was given-the beautiful arc,
With its brilliant confusion of colours, that spanned
The sky on that exquisite eve, was the mark
Of the Infinite Love overarching the land:
And that Love, shining richly and full as the day,
Though the tear-drops that moisten each martyr'sapro, d pala,
On the gloom of the past the bright bow shall display
Of Freedom, Peace, Victory bent over all. e
RIC.iMOND, 20 JULY, 1862.
CLASSICAL LEARNING.
HUGH- SWINTON LEGARE versus THOMAS S., GRIMKE.
the Latin and Greek languages, withhold from him no longer their tribute of
thanks for his immortal'defence of:the
momentous cause,orfclassical -education,
his powerful vi di:ation and lucid state.
nient of its claims to public attention.
Justly confiding in his invulnerable panoply, he rejoicingly threw himself into
the lists of controversy, an-d seemed to
concentrate all the vigorof his intellectin this, the most triumphant effo,t of his
life.
The opponents were' not unevenli
matched. Mr. Grimlike, through tinct, red
by eccentricities which' often aimoulted
to absurdity, possessed a mind; emirnetl t ly
original in its theories and indep)e~i,d,:nt
in its cTn~.lusions, but not evlnciri,:,. by
impartial development, the same dive,s -
fidld cultuire with,that of Mr. Le,,-ie.
Fli,h tly, -(ften errone,us in his pre,,,}s,
and r apid in his generalization... lie
It belonga to South Carolina to have
produced a jurist from whose exte\,s.ive
legal acquirements-as scholar from who,se
varied learning and refined accomplishments-an orator from whose grandeur
of thought and eloquence of speech, a
higher plae in the esteem of his countrynien would seem to have been merited
than has in fact been accorded. The
clue to this injustice may be found in the
political differences that separated him
from the dominant party of his native
State; that engendered intolerant disparagement and blinded inany to a true
appreciation of the services he rendered
in the purer arena of literary fame,- t
prevcnting due recognition of the.splendid talenits, the catliolicity of attaitiment,
tlhat,tInde lII,gh Swinton Legare the
wtonlde' (f hlis time. I,et those, lhowever,
wh,! know, to the,r enjoyments,;t( have i
enj,, ed, to tch'i benefit, the cltrn a rms iof
.-368
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