A Collection of the Writings of John James Ingalls; Essays, Addresses, and Orations (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER VIII. "My library was dukedom large enough." The student of human nature would wish for a clever pen when he writes of this ablest son of Kansas, and the lover of literature finds a delightful task in the consideration of the most illustrious phases of his character. The print shop of public opinion sets up his name only in large capitals when the mentality of the man is put into type for history. "He was an emperor in the realm of expression." Beyond the senator of whom we have written, is the writer; and above and beyond that is the man himself. Ingalls had three text-books: nature, humanity, and the dictionary. The first two gave him material and the third furnished him with implement or weapon according as his work was pacific or belligerent. . Ingalls was essentially an orator and a rhetorician. His whole inclination was toward a literary life. Was he therefore a misfit in politics? There are not lacking those who mourn that he did not devote himself to literature. It is easy enough to declare that a man has been a success or a failure in any field, but to assert that he would have been successful somewhere else is an assurance born of folly. There is not an over-production of literary ability to-day; whoever possesses it in a marked degree is assured of gracious hearing and an influence, especially in the halls of Congress. Ingalls was formidable. His power of invective was something tremendous. Before his fierce words an enemycould do nothing but writhe. Nobody who knew him ever walked carelessly or insolently on his preserves without regretting it. Of all degrees from mild ridicule -to utter annihilation he was a cunning master. And with his keenness and originality one could never fore-judge where or how he would launch his weapon. Ingalls' m...