BUNKER HILL ORATIONS. The first of the so-called Hill Orations) of Daniel Webster was pronounced 17 June 1825, the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, when the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument was laid. The second was delivered 18 years later at the exercises to commemorate the completion of the monument. The earlier address is, justly, the better known, and ranks as one of the most notable examples of Ameri can oratory, if indeed it is not the greatest occasional oration delivered in America during the first half of the last century. Though Webster substituted a weighty dignity of utter ances and sheer personal force for the more exuberant figures, the classical allusions and quotations which were in vogue In the public speaking of his day, he belonged after all to the old school, which regarded oratory as some thing apart from the simple expression of natural thought and feeling. A comparison of
the 'First Bunker Hill Oration) with Lincoln's (Gettysburg Address) will make this plain; and it may help in explaining why, notwithstanding the clearer recognition of Webster's honesty and ability, his orations are less read and ad mired now than they were in his day. The most valuable part of the 'First Bunker Hill Ora tion) is the discussion of the American gov ernment and the ideals for which the fathers fought— a feeling exposition which seems to have renewed pertinency, in each new national crisis; but the most popular passage is perhaps the moving address to the veteran survivors of the battle, who were seated on the platform. The second oration is filled with 'felicitations and compliments, and contains no very notable passage, though the tribute to Washington has often been quoted.