The gods, the
destinies, seem to have concentrated upon him.
PRESIDENT HAYES'S SPEECHES
_Sept. 30_.--I see President Hayes has come out West, passing quite
informally from point to point, with his wife and a small cortege
of big officers, receiving ovations, and making daily and sometimes
double-daily addresses to the people. To these addresses--all
impromptu, and some would call them ephemeral--I feel to devote a
memorandum. They are shrewd, good-natur'd, face-to-face speeches,
on easy topics not too deep; but they give me some revised ideas of
oratory--of a new, opportune theory and practice of that art,
quite changed from the classic rules, and adapted to our days, our
occasions, to American democracy, and to the swarming populations of
the West. I hear them criticised as wanting in dignity, but to me they
are just what they should be, considering all the circumstances, who
they come from, and who they are address'd to. Underneath, his
objects are to compact and fraternize the States, encourage their
materialistic and industrial development, soothe and expand their
self-poise, and tie all and each with resistless double ties not only
of inter-trade barter, but human comradeship.
From Kansas City I went on to St. Louis, where I remain'd nearly three
months, with my brother T.J.W., and my dear nieces.
ST. LOUIS MEMORANDA
_Oct., Nov., and Dec., '79_.--The points of St. Louis are its
position, its absolute wealth, (the long accumulations of time and
trade, solid riches, probably a higher average thereof than any city,)
the unrivall'd amplitude of its well-laid-out environage of broad
plateaus, for future expansion--and the great State of which it is the
head.
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