145
P.\PEns OF ?l[rn.\DEAU Bt:OXAPARTE LA:\un
tion, able, eloquent, and ever_v way.worthy the man and the occasion, clelivered by Judge \\'. 'I'. Colquitt. The company then returned to the Oglethorpe House, where a splcnclicl Dinner, given in honor of l\L B. Lamar, Vice-President of Texas, was furnished. When the hour of sparkling wine came round, the following Regular and Volunteer Toasts were conferred: . . . . . . . . "4-. Om· esteemed friend aucl ,listinguished Guest, Gen'l ?IL B. Lamar. The pricle of his native State; the IJOast of his adopted country; en- denred to both by the purity of his character, ancl his chivalrous and enthusiastic devotion to the cause of freedom." At'ter the immense cheering that succeecled the annunciation of the above 'I'oast, had subsided so that he could be heard, Gen'l Lamar rose and responded to it in a speech, which, for vivid and descripth·e elo- quence, poetic imagery, and patriotic sentiment, was unsurpassed by any similar effort which the cause of freedom has exacted from its acl~·oeates, in this or any other country. Poor antl powerless would be a description of it here. A man must have heard the Orator, must hnve seen the countenance of the patriot, and listeued to the burst of warm ennobling, Generous feelings from the bosom of ihe friend. 'rexas and Libert:v wns his theme. The wrongs of the one, and the triumph of the other; the causes which impelled the citizens of the ".Paradise of the World" to take up arms, ancl the timely assistance afforded by our countrymen enabling those arms to triumph; the beauty of the co1111tr_v, the oppressiou aml chivalry of its inhabitants, calliug for the sympathy and aicl or Freedom:i-: i;:ons, ancl the glorious, soul-d1eering 11ews in the hour of that peril, "The_v come! they come!" the beautiful, yet serious allusion to the melancholy fate of the Georgia Battalion, commanded by the chiYalrous and lamented Fannin; the baseness and perfidy of the .Mexicans; the deep, indignant, bitter de- nunciation pronounced on the infamous Santa. Auna; the fearful look- ing forward to the last solemn aud sublime J uclgrnent, when the spirits of the s7>eal.-e·r and tlH' murrf,,rril l,r,,<:/s i;:hould confront thr gnilt_v 1111cl blood-stained wretch at the Tribunal of the )lost High, bearing wit- ness iu tones of thunder, and weighing down his blackened soul to the deeper blackness of ultimate despair: these things are beyond all present description. Lamar alone could clescribr. them. Ile d·id portray them in all-subduing and animating strains that can mo,·e the heart to loYe, or arouse the soul to hatred. The applause that followed was long. deep loud, real. The speech was from the heart; the response from the inmost soul. A kind of fearful silence was at length restored, when Gen'l Lamar proposed the following sentiment: "The blood of Goliad and the Alamo! The hand that spilt it, wrote 'Tekel' on the walls of )Iexico." . . . . . . . . . . rEnclorsecl :] Account of Celebration of Fourth of July in Columbus Gn- 1837- Description of public dinnC'l' in Vice Pres- Lnnrnrs honor-
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