Rufus Choate. 1799-1859.
There was a state without king or nobles; there was a church without a bishop;[588:3] there was a people governed by grave magistrates which it had selected, and by equal laws which it had framed.
Speech before the New England Society, Dec. 22, 1843.
We join ourselves to no party that does not carry the flag and keep step to the music of the Union.
Letter to the Whig Convention, 1855.
[589]
Its constitution the glittering and sounding generalities[589:1] of natural right which make up the Declaration of Independence.
Letter to the Maine Whig Committee, 1856.
Footnotes
[588:3] The Americans equally detest the pageantry of a king and the supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop.—Junius: Letter xxxv. Dec. 19, 1769.
It [Calvinism] established a religion without a prelate, a government without a king.—George Bancroft: History of the United States, vol. iii. chap. vi.
[589:1] Although Mr. Choate has usually been credited with the original utterance of the words "glittering generalities," the following quotation will show that he was anticipated therein by several years:—
We fear that the glittering generalities of the speaker have left an impression more delightful than permanent.—Franklin J. Dickman: Review of a Lecture by Rufus Choate, Providence Journal, Dec. 14, 1849.