Not too long ago, a colleague was commenting on how much Americans revere political quotations– sound bites, others might say– to the point of carving them in stone, not to mention placing them on the inevitable bumper stickers.
Many of these come from our Old Testament texts, of course—the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We also honor the language of our New Testament prophets. In Washington, DC, you can find a monument filled with words from one who worked to fulfill the more cheerful prophecies of the Declaration, while pushing the three-fifths compromise onto the back shelf next to the famous bits of Deuteronomy. All before being murdered on Good Friday, 1865.
But the original question was: why not Edmund Burke, the famous British parliamentarian? Or other pre-Revolutionary figures, many of whom made important contributions to what eventually became American law and society?
A related question might be when Americans started ossifying sound bites from our heritage. Perhaps that habit began with Washington’s death in 1800, although that is only a semi-educated guess.
Going back to the original question, Gallison’s journals do add a little color to Burke’s posthumous fame in America. He put Burke on his self-imposed reading list, even in his very first entry, when he was just coming to grips with how little Harvard was teaching him. He revisited Burke’s speech on reconciliation with America several times, showing signs of having memorized some of the juicier passages a few years later. (Memoriter = from memory, as for a school assignment.) Interestingly, the other speech he saw fit to memorize concerned the Nabob of Arcot’s debts.
Focusing more on Burke’s speaking voice than his language or politics, President Adams’s recollection is a pleasant byway in a memorable luncheon just one month before Gallison’s death in 1820.
All of this suggests that Burke was well-known to Gallison’s educated circle. If nothing else, Burke’s oratory would have provided a useful model for debate and public speaking to a young law student, even one who didn’t share Gallison’s patriotism and conservative Whiggish temperament.
Nevertheless, the lengths of the later journal entries, in comparison to their mentions of Burke, show that even though Burke’s reputation remained solid, he wasn’t necessarily at the top of everyone’s mind.