The Making of An Oration Ulilllii f the thought expressed in the proposition. The propo- sition is the germ; the discussion is the outgrowth of :hat germ. It bears a relation to the proposition analo- gous to that which a full-grown tree bears to the seed From which the tree sprung. In the proposition is the leart of the speech; the discussion is the body of the speech, through every fiber of which the heart's blood Deats to give character and vitality. When once the proposition is settled upon and stated n words, then comes the work of so developing this proposition as to give it the desired significance and -equisite weight with the hearers. What the develop- ment shall be will depend upon the nature of the propo- sition and the attitude toward it held and desired on :he part of the hearers. The discussion may expound, infold, amplify, illustrate, exemplify, prove, apply, or n any way develop the attitude of the speaker toward :he thought contained in essence in the proposition. It is easy to be seen that the discussion constitutes the :>ulk of the discourse, and that it lays the heaviest burden apon the inventive powers of the speech maker. At the cutset of his preparation he must solve the problem is to what shall be the method of his discussion. Shall it be mainly illustrative, or argumentative, or hortatory, Dr a combination of all these? Involving this problem, be must estimate the value of a number of factors : such is the nature of the subject itself, the character of his prospective audience, the demands of the occasion, his own taste and acquirements. All these elements are The Parts of an Oration 27 prerequisites of a successful discussion. Yet they are prerequisites only; they simply aid the speaker in reach- ing a conclusion as to his method of procedure. There still remains the task of following out the method to a successful issue in the prepared and spoken address. Although the discussion is simply the amplification of the thought contained in the proposition, it by no means follows that it is a mere dilution of that thought. Instead it offers opportunity for and, indeed, demands sound and rigid reasoning, compact thought, solid and stern intellectual labor. Perhaps someone will ask, Why is the discussion necessary? If the proposition contains the essence of the entire thought, why not give it to the hearers in that simple form and leave them to ruminate over and amplify it for themselves? (1) In reply to the above query it may be said in the first place that the discussion is necessary because, with- out it, the hearers will not grasp the real limits of the idea, much less its true significance. They need to have its metes and bounds surveyed for them, so that they may know how much it means and especially what it does not mean. A mere statement of the theme without amplification is not likely to suggest to the hearer all that it includes. (2) Again, the discussion enables the speaker to give such bulk to his thought as will compel the hearer to have a just appreciation of its value. The real impor- tance of an idea may not be grasped unless it is so 28 The Making of an Oration amplified as to make it loom large in the mental vision. By thus dwelling upon it, showing its various applica- tions, its fundamental truth, its general importance, he allows time for his hearers to take it in, and gives it body by which they can grasp and hold it. (3) Still further, the discussion affords the speaker opportunity to impart to his thought the requisite force the impulse and impetus necessary for the accom- plishment of his purpose. His ultimate object, as we have seen, is to move the will of his hearers. In order to attain this object, he must appeal to their intellect by expounding or demonstrating his thought, or by estab- lishing its truth; or he must move their sensibilities by stirring their emotions or quickening their imaginations; or more likely he must both appeal to their intellect and move their sensibilities. In a word, he must present his thought so fully and so attractively as to play upon the whole gamut of their souls in order to move them ultimately to a response that shall be in harmony with his final purpose. He can accomplish this purpose only as he has time to give his idea all the qualities that it possesses in his own mind. So only can he make his thought lay hold of and control his hearers as it lays hold of and controls him. 4. The Conclusion. The conclusion may be explained as that part of the oration in which the thoughts, argu- ments, emotions, appeals, and general significance of the entire discourse are gathered together and so used with reference to the audience, occasion, and purpose, as to The Parts of an Oration 29 make upon the minds, hearts, and determination of those that hear, a single, definite, profound, and indelible im- pression. Thus the conclusion is the focus of all that precedes, in which the various elements of effective oratory are centered and where they glow and burn with their greatest intensity. The conclusion bears to the discussion a relation some- what similar to that which the proposition bears to the introduction. The proposition is the essence of the intro- duction. As the introduction centers the attention upon the idea expressed in the proposition, so the conclusion gathers together the various lines of treatment contained in the discussion and fuses them into a harmonious unit in keeping with the spirit and purpose of the whole speech. It is what some of the old preachers called the " application." It is that part of the discourse in which, as it were, a burst of splendor smites the hearer and a compelling voice speaks to him, causing him to cry: "What wilt thou have me to do?" and answering the cry. Such being the function of the conclusion, it is obviously of prime importance to the speech. Indeed, rhetorically, it is the end for which the speech is made. If the proposition is the seed and the discussion the full- grown tree, then the conclusion may be regarded as the fruit for which the seed was planted and the tree grown to maturity. To make the purpose of the speech effective, therefore, it needs no argument to show that in the strength and nobleness of its sentiments; in the clear- 30 The Making of an Oration ness, energy, and beauty of its language; in all the qualities that go to make true eloquence, the conclusion should be preeminent. Suggestions as to the means of securing these qualities need not now concern us. The present purpose is to set forth in as simple, clear, and definite a manner as possible the nature and functions of the essential parts of an oration. PART II THE PLAN OF AN ORATION CHAPTER IV THE PLAN OF AN ORATION HAVING considered the nature and kinds of oratory and the main rhetorical divisions into which an oration is separated, let us now give attention to the subject of The Plan. What the plan is needs little explanation. The name itself defines it. It is simply the framework on which the production is built. Its purpose is to insure clear- ness, unity, comprehensiveness, order, symmetry, logical coherence, progress, and climax to the whole work, in a word, it covers the work of " invention," so far as invention has to do with the selection and arrangement of material. It includes the logic of discourse, and is as essential in making the speech effective in accomplishing its chosen end as is the language in which the speech is pronounced. I NECESSITY OF A PLAN It would seem as if the importance of the plan would be sufficiently apparent to obviate the necessity of empha- sizing its value ; yet, as a matter of fact, the inexperienced writer and speaker seems to have an inborn aversion to working from a skeleton. Students almost invariably 33 34 The Making of an Oration question at first its advantages and yield reluctantly to its demands. " Why restrict/' they ask, " the free opera- tion of the mind? Why shackle the feet of genius or clip its wings ? " Adherence to a rigid plan, they claim, hinders invention, robs composition of ease and grace, if not, indeed, of power, and makes the entire work stiff and mechanical. Although these sentiments are based on mistaken notions, such objections are so prevalent that it is worth while to consider, briefly, some of the reasons for insist- ing on a carefully wrought-out plan. The objection to working from a plan, so far as it has any validity, is a confession on the part of the speaker of a lack of skill in making and using a plan, not an objection to the plan itself. If it makes the speech seem mechan- ical, it is because the speaker is not yet a good mechanic. It is not any proof that a tool is not a good tool because it cuts the workman's fingers. It may be an indication that the workman has not learned how to handle the tool. It may mean, simply, that he needs more practice. Ease and grace of style, when writing or speaking to a plan, are largely a matter of skillful transition and of command of one's materials. For the orator to speak without a plan and expect the highest success is as irrational as it would be for the architect to build a cathedral without a plan. i. In the first place, a carefully wrought-out skeleton is a great help both to the speaker and to the hearer. It aids the speaker in perspicuity of thought and of dis- The Plan of an Oration 35 cussion. Clear mental action of necessity involves orderly mental action. The writer or speaker clarifies his own mind on a subject by putting an outline of his thinking and reading on that subject in definite, exact, logical, and climacteric form his own thoughts are more lucid for the exercise. 2. Secondly, such analysis is an aid to composition. By giving a concreteness to the treatment, it suggests lines of reasoning and illustration that would altogether elude the mind without such device. When the outline is well worked out, the orator can devote all his energies to the work of composition. 3. Still further, a good plan is a help to the memory. It answers the purpose of a system of mnemonics, one division suggesting another as its supplement or correl- ative, as the case may be, and each part serving to remind the speaker of the subordinate topics that are marshaled under its leadership. 4. Once more, a thorough analysis also promotes com- prehensiveness of treatment. Instead of hindering, it helps the work of invention. By the classification of materials demanded by his plan, the degree of the com- pleteness of his discussion is revealed to the maker of a speech at a glance. Is an argument defective? A good outline will reveal the fact. Is an illustration needed to enforce or vivify the thought? A well-made plan will show the need of illumination. Is some point of the discussion left unguarded? The plan will indicate the fact and point out the place that demands further forti- 36 The Making of an Oration fication. Is an appeal made to wrong motives ? Or is it not legitimately drawn from the discussion that precedes? The plan will call attention to the fallacy and direct to the right path. Whatever be the defect in the discussion, a well ordered plan will reveal the deficiency and suggest measures for remedying it. 5. Another reason for insisting on a careful plan is that it promotes unity. As the proposition insures a center of thought, so the plan promotes a development on the basis of that center. He must, indeed, be a wild thinker who can deliberately make a plan wander inco- herently over the surface of a subject, until his produc- tion is a mere crazy quilt of logic, beginning somewhere in the region of the nowhere and ending at the same place. To classify materials in the plan is to unify those materials in the discussion. 6. Again, a well ordered plan is a promoter of progress. It aids the speaker in getting on in his work. At every step he feels, and his hearers are made to feel, that he is advancing by a chosen route. He is not, as someone has well said, perpetually " marching round the periphery of a treadwheel ; not a top, spinning on its own axis but never advancing." He can realize at every division of his plan that so much is done : he has finished that, he is ready to consider this ; he is so far along toward his goal. 7. The last advantage of a good plan that needs here to be mentioned is that it promotes permanence of impres- sion. If it is a help to the memory of the orator in pronouncing his speech, it is no less a help to the memory The Plan of an Oration 37 of the listener in retaining that speech. A well articulated discourse is the one that best fixes the attention and that consequently pierces deepest the recollection of an audi- ence. The various divisions of his speech are the nails with which the speaker fastens his leading thoughts into the minds of those that hear. They serve to give weight, dignity, force, velocity to his thought and style, and consequently the listeners are more deeply and lastingly moved than could otherwise be the case. SUMMARY Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. It is this: in every way a thorough outline is a great advan- tage. Indeed, it is not too much to say that upon it depends the prosperity of the speech. It promotes clear- ness, helps in the composition, aids the memory of both speaker and hearer, secures unity of treatment, gives comprehensiveness to the discussion, and promotes per- manence of impression. It is well named the " skeleton/' A skeleton is not in itself a " thing of beauty," but it is that which gives beauty and flexibility, strength and life to the whole structure. It is the skeleton that enables the speech to struggle and toil, to dance and run. Now the question arises, to what extent the skeleton should appear in the finished work. Enough has already been said to suggest the rational answer. The young writer and speaker is ordinarily too fearful of making his production mechanical by announcing the divisions of his discourse. Doubtless this dread is unwarranted. We 38 The Making of an Oration may set it down as a principle that a discussion which seems to a speaker unnecessarily rigid and formal will ordinarily impress the hearer as only carefully and help- fully constructed. The speaker is familiar with the plan and its development; the hearer meets the skeleton for the first time in the spoken address, clothed with flesh and blood. Consequently the hearer is not unduly im- pressed with the bones of the discourse; he is, rather, conscious of its symmetry and strength. It is a law of the mind that whatever has been found helpful to the speaker, in exploring his way through the discourse, will be found equally helpful to the listener in following the same track of thought. Is it not rational to conclude, therefore, that the wise speaker will state, as he proceeds, the main divisions of his plan so clearly that the audience will be keenly alive to the progress he is making and to the corners he turns? Such state- ments have well been called both mileposts and finger posts on the way they show how far the speaker has come and point out the road he intends to follow. With- out them, the line of thought, especially if it be at all profound or intricate, may be as obscure as a journey through an African wilderness. The hearer is in danger of losing his way and becoming utterly lost in the wilds of an erratic logic. The degree to which the plan should appear in the finished discourse will depend partly upon the subject and the audience. Some propositions are so familiar, or have been so clearly presented by a previous speaker The Plan of an Oration 39 or by the occasion itself, and some audiences are so intelligent, that there will be no great difficulty in following the speech ; but in even such a rare combination of favoring circumstances, it will usually be an advan- tage to have the principal points of discussion announced clearly and sharply. Hearers always have a feeling of satisfaction in knowing substantially what is before them. It will be noticed that emphasis is laid upon the impor- tance of stating the main divisions of the speech, as that speech is pronounced. It may be assumed that the orator will use many details of outline, in preparing his speech, that he will not point out in the delivery as parts of the skeleton. CHAPTER V THE CHOICE OF A THEME ONE of the most perplexing problems for the inex- perienced speaker is to make a wise choice of a theme. The young orator sees before him an occasion when he will be expected to make a speech. It may be a commencement oration, or a class-day speech, or a student's oration in a contest or as a class exercise, or an address on education, or a speech on some political or social occasion, or a sermon, or a memorial address, or a reunion speech, or a convention harangue, or an address on any one of a thousand occasions, that is desired. The first question that he naturally asks himself is, "What shall I speak about?" This question may be substantially answered for him by the occasion itself, or he may be left free to choose, within such limits as are dictated by the canons of good taste. In any case the question is one of supreme importance. Success or failure will depend largely upon the answer it receives. Of course every speech maker must, in the last analysis, be the one to decide what he shall take as the precise topic of his discourse. If he have a particle of the orator- ical instinct, he knows better than any other his own tastes and powers, the themes that stir him most pro- 40 The Choice of a Theme 41 foundly, the topics with which he is most familiar. Consequently no one can dictate to him the choice of a theme, if he is to do his best. But, while no specific directions can be given as to this matter in any particular case, certain general principles may be laid down, which may always be wisely observed by him who would be a successful speaker. I. Perhaps the first qualification that a theme should possess is that it should be practical that is, capable of calling for action, a course of action, or a positive decision of the will. It should not be a subject " in the air," or in the upper ether of an erratic imagination ; it should stand with its feet upon the solid ground of substantial thought or concrete fact or sincere conviction. It should have something to do with real life as men have to meet and solve the questions of life from day to day. This does not mean that it has necessarily to deal with material things alone ; but with opinions, with ideals, with aspira- tions, with all those questions that go to make up great character and great civilization. The possible range of topics is as broad as human interests: but they must be more than the speculations of dreamers on mere abstrac- tions. Those medieval ecclesiastics who disputed as to how many angels could stand at once on the point of a needle, or who argued fiercely as to whether a man that inadvertently swallowed a prematurely cooked spring chicken while eating an egg on Friday had .violated a law of the church which forbids meat on that day, were hard pressed for a subject. Had they assailed, instead, 42 The Making of an Oration the corruptions of the contemporary clergy and preached a crusade of reform, they would have had a far more tangible, if less agreeable, subject of discourse. And that, because it would have been real and capable of prac- tical application in actual life. Jesus Christ was doubt- less the greatest orator that the world has seen; and it will be noticed that his sermons dealt with the affairs of everyday life as he saw them in the world around him, and yet that they contained such universal truths that they have to do with human character and human life of all ages. In this particular as well as in others they may well be studied as models. 2. In the second place the theme chosen should possess the quality of originality. That is, it should be suggested by the speaker's own thinking and studies. This does not necessarily mean that the subject in itself is new, nor necessarily that the speaker's ideas of it are new; he may not develop a thought that has not been treated by others ; but it is his own thought, treated in his own way ; consequently it will lay hold of him more powerfully, and he will present it to others more effectively than would otherwise be possible. It will stir him with all the en- thusiasm of a new discovery, and so he will discuss it with an energy that he could not manifest with regard to a theme toward which he is indifferent or that possesses for him but a languid interest. 3. The preceding remark suggests as a third principle to be regarded in choosing a theme the idea that it should be attractive. The Choice of a Theme 43 (1) Attractive to the speaker himself. A subject that draws him with a resistless appeal, that quickens his intel- lect, kindles his feelings, stirs his imagination, strengthens his convictions with the sense of its profound and press- ing importance, will be far more fruitful in rugged think- ing and eloquent presentation than will be any other subject, equally good in itself, that is not to him so attractive. He that speaks con amore may always be trusted to set forth the truth, the beauty, the nobility, the importance, the persuasive force of his thought to the full extent of his powers. (2) Still further, the theme should, so far as may be, be attractive to the audience. A commonplace subject, at least a commonplace statement of a subject, will labor under a disadvantage with an audience and will be greeted with inattention or at least with listless attention. Care should be taken, therefore, that the subject either be fresh or that it be so clothed in new attire as to seem fresh to the audience. Thus the stimulus of novelty will be administered to their interest. A familiar truth ap- proached from a new angle will take on unexpected beauty by being seen in a new light. Shakspere rarely invented a new plot; his stories were stories that were well known among the traditions, legends, and literature of his own and earlier days all through western Europe. But he gave to these familiar stories such freshness of statement and such new combinations that they had all the freshness to the people of his own time and subse- 44 The Making of an Oration quent times of new ideas. So must the orator aim to put the old wine of his thought into new bottles of expres- sion, if he would make it appeal to his hearers. 4. In the fourth place, the speaker, in choosing a theme, should seek one that has the quality of adapt- ability. By this we mean: (1) First that it should be suited to the prospective audience. The orator should take into account the habits of thought, interests, intellectual capacities, and tastes of those that are to listen to him. A theme that would re- quire an argument suited in thought and style to the Supreme Court of the United States would hardly be appropriate to a jury of average day laborers. A topic that demands the closest thought and the most extended and vigorous discussion is not wisely chosen for a brief address before the infant class of a Sunday school. Xor will his speech be received with favor if the theme be distasteful to the audience. The wise speaker will con- sult both their tastes and their capacities. A theme adapted to a company of " society ladies " from Fifth Avenue must be different, or at least must be couched in different language, from one appropriate for a gang of thugs from the Bowery. (2) By "adaptability" we mean, further, that the theme should be suited to the speaker himself. This principle has already been partially implied by the sug- gestion that the speaker should choose a theme that he likes: (a) But, while it should be adapted to his aesthetic The Choice of a Theme 45 capacities, it should be no less carefully adjusted to his physical capabilities. A proposition that calls for a half day's vigorous argument is not well suited to a sickly speaker with puny frame and squeaky voice. Webster was peculiarly fortunate in this respect. In his profes- sional and political career he had to wrestle with great questions and had to discuss those questions before great audiences. So with Beecher and that prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon. These great men stood in the front rank among the orators of the nineteenth century, each without a peer in his particular field. Each of them had to discuss majestic themes. They doubtless discussed those themes with the highest success partly because each of them was possessed of a robust physical nature capa- ble of great endurance and of a magnificent organ voice whose music could be made to reach and sway vast mul- titudes. Probably no more splendid triumphs of real eloquence were ever won than those of Mr. Beecher, already alluded to, in which he wrested victory from the reluctant hands of hostile British mobs during our Civil War; but it is doubtful if he could ever have gained those brilliant victories had he not possessed a physical nature in harmony with the noble themes he had to defend and the almost appalling conditions he had to face. Or, to reverse the statement, he undertook to discuss themes that he was physically able to handle, (b) Still more, by " adaptibility " we mean that for the highest success the speaker must choose themes suited to himself intellectually. The orator needs to know himself 46 The Making of an Oration and his powers on the one hand and the demands and pos- sibilities of a subject on the other, in order to make the most of his subject as he presents it to his audience. The precept of Horace, as given in the Ars Poetica, still holds : Examine well, ye Pisoes, weigh with care What suits your genius, what your strength will bear. He that follows this precept will not labor with a theme beyond his strength nor stoop to one beneath it. A pigmy cannot do the work of a Titan, nor should a Titan dawdle over the task of a pigmy. Michael Angelo can do better than make snow images. (c) Finally his theme should be adapted to the speaker morally. Audiences are justly exacting in this particular. They demand a consistency between the orator and his theme. The argumentum ad hominem is with them very important and far-reaching. A man that has a reputa- tion for penuriousness will not be a very effective speaker on generosity. One of known or even reputed immorality will not shine very brilliantly as a preacher of the Christian virtues. Several years ago a great religious convention was in session in New York City. At one of the evening sessions a tremendous audience had assembled to hear a distinguished speaker, who had a national reputation for eloquence as a political orator. But when the hour came the orator did not appear, much to the disappointment of the gathering. No reason was given for the failure of the speaker. A few months afterward the delinquent orator was publicly accused and convicted of gross wickedness. He knew at the time of his failure to keep his appointment of the charges that were The Choice of a Theme 47 about to be made, and recognized the tmfitness of his at- tempting to speak on such an occasion and on such a subject when he was conscious of the lack of harmony between his theme and his own moral character. If the speaker can not treat well a subject that he him- self knows is adverse to his own character, how much less can he treat it adequately if the audience likewise thinks him ethically unfit! CHAPTER VI THE OBJECT AFTER the orator has settled upon his theme and decided what he intends to persuade his hearers to do, he will find it an advantage to state his purpose in the form of a brief imperative sentence. This imperative is primarily for his own guidance in accumulating material, in formulating his plan, and, indeed, in the entire work of invention. This imperative we may call the "Object." It has already been shown that the most distinctive characteristic of oratory is persuasion. It is this element, more than anything else, that differentiates this form of discourse from all other types. The speaker must never lose sight of the fact that he aims to induce his hearers to do something, immediately or mediately. That is why he must choose an object rather than a subject for an oration. The orator is a speaker with a mission. He finds the end of his labor not in the discourse itself, but in the audience. The object, then, as the ultimate end of the oration is of supreme importance to the orator's success. It should permeate, pervade, dominate the entire discourse, from the first word of the exordium to the last word of the peroration. Its supremacy in the speech, then, demands 48 The Object 49 for its statement in the plan the most perfect form pos- sible. Experience has shown that the best form, as already stated, is the briefest, clearest, most precise im- perative. Any other form exposes the speaker to the danger of missing the appeal to the will. Suppose the student is making a plan for a class oration. He writes : " My object is to prove " But you may prove and not persuade. To convince the intellect falls far short of moving the will. He tries again. " Object: To induce my hearers to believe " But they may believe and not do. " Devils believe." Once more. "Object: To induce my hearers to feel " But feeling is by no means synonymous with doing. "Well, then object: To induce my hearers to do so and so." Very well ! Why not say, then : " Do so and so " ? Instead of saying : " My object is to induce my hearers to oppose unrestricted immigration," why not write : " Oppose unrestricted im- migration ! " Such a form is simple, and, more than that, it indicates directly and unmistakably the appeal to the will. Thus it serves as a rudder to the speaker's mental action, to hold him steadily to his chosen goal. The im- perative is a command, and as such is a bugle call to thrill and brace, and marshal to action the entire production. The object is really the test of all the orator's work. By it he tries the matter that comes to his hand ; all that will not aid in the furtherance of his purpose he rejects. The object is the divining rod that he passes over the mass of material collected, in order to test the value of that material for his purpose. It is the mercury, which dis- 50 The Making of an Oration covers and attracts to itself the gold. In gathering ma- terial for his speech let the orator put himself through an oratorical catechism with a series of questions some- thing like this: " What, exactly, is my object? " With the answer clearly in mind, let him continue the catechism with the question: "Will this further my object?" If it will, then he will have use for that material. If not, however attractive the thought or fact in question may be in itself, he must reject it. It is not of value for his present purpose. It may be of value for some other occa- sion, but not for this. Keep it for that other occasion. In arranging material, in like manner, let the speaker ask himself the question : " Will this best further my object here?" " W 7 here will this best further my ob- ject ? " His response to such questions will determine the relative position that each chosen item should occupy in the discourse. By rigid and faithful observance of this method, the important quality of logical climax will be secured. Still further, the object will determine the relative prominence to be given to each item of the speaker's material. Let him ask himself: "How im- portant is this necessary idea or fact to the furtherance of my object?" The answer to this query will determine the emphasis that he should lay upon that item. Thus he will secure logical perspective, and in the development of his work he will secure, also, literary or oratorical perspective. Since the object is for the speaker's own guidance, it is usually wise not to state it, at least in the form men- The Object 51 tioned, to the audience. Human nature is so constituted that if you tell a man that you intend to induce him to do a certain thing, or adopt a certain course of life, or pursue a particular line of action, you arouse at once his oppo- sition, and he mentally says : " Do it if you can," and shuts his teeth hard in the determination not to be moved. ^Command him : " Do so and so," and his pug- nacity makes him say to himself and probably to you: " I won't." Consequently, it is ordinarily better not to announce the object as an imperative, but so to use it as to lead the hearers to act in accordance with its behest, without a thought that they are not acting from their own unprompted desires. In those cases where the desired action is revealed at the outset, as in addresses to juries or legislatures, if the position of the orator is formally announced it should be stated as his own attitude, or as the proposition, but not as an imperative. To take such a course would endanger the very purpose of the speech. He may say, " I take this position," or " This seems to me the true attitude," or " We should act thus on this question," or, " I appeal to you to do so and so," when it would not do to say, " Do this," or " You must do this." To his audience, as it exists in his imagination while pre- paring his speech, he says : " Do ! " To his audience as it actually exists before him while delivering his speech, he says : " Do n't you think it best to do ? " " These are the considerations on which I urge you to do." " In view of these facts, what shall we do ? " That is, the orator must use tact and common sense in 52 The Making of an Oration bringing his audience to his object. Sometimes he will have one professed, but quite another real object. By this is not meant that the speaker deals unfairly or dis- honestly with his audience, but simply that he uses good judgment in dealing with men and does not betray him- self into the hands of his enemies before he has had a chance to fortify himself for their possible opposition. Thus he will take them by guile. For illustration, Shak- spere makes Mark Antony, in his speech over the dead body of Caesar, say, " If you have tears, prepare to shed them now ; " that is, after the introduction, he avows in the body of his speech, as his object, to make his hearers feel the pathos of " Caesar's fall." His real purpose is revealed after the mob, to whom he has been speaking, rushes off with the frenzied cries : " Revenge ! burn ! kill ! " when he says with great satisfaction : " Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot." That is, his avowed object was, " Weep; " his real object, " Riot." CHAPTER VII HOW TO GATHER MATERIAL AFTER he has settled upon his general theme, and has formulated that theme in an imperative sentence, the first thing to be done by the orator who has to pre- pare a speech is the accumulation of material. There are three especial processes to be pursued in accomplishing this work. I. The first of these processes to be mentioned is thought. This is placed first, because chronologically it should precede everything else in the work of specific preparation. Usually, likewise, it is first in importance. Was it Richter who said : " Never read till you have thought yourself empty " ? By such reflection the maker of a speech will insure an originality of theme and of treatment that otherwise would hardly be possible. His way of looking at his subject will be, above all, his own way. There must be some reasons why he has chosen a given subject and why he holds a given attitude toward that subject. Let him write out those reasons in the briefest possible form. What does he know of the sub- ject? What does he think of it of its relations to truth, to society, to the state, to mankind, to the highest ideals, and of his prospective audience in relation to these questions? Let him write out all his thoughts, all 53 54 The Making of an Oration his information, all his convictions, as they come to his mind, without special reference to logical order except such as will occur to any clear thinker whose ideas will have a tendency to fall into line even though no conscious attempt be made to marshal them in regular order. Neither need any special effort be made in this prelimi- nary work to secure literary qualities. If a good illustra- tion, or a happy metaphor, or a felicitous expression flashes before him during this process, as probably it will, let him note it with sufficient fullness to enable him to recall and reproduce it when he returns to examine the products of his thinking after they have become cold. Thus he takes snapshots at the mental visions that flit be- fore him, and fixes impressions which he can subsequently develop at his leisure and place in the proper framework of his plan when completed for use. This process of rumination aids the speaker in digest- ing and assimilating his knowledge, makes his thought definite, shows him how much he knows of the subject and, especially, how little he knows. His mind may be so full and his knowledge be so extensive and definite and well digested that further accumulation of material will be unnecessary and undesirable. The story of Webster's remark with reference to his preparation for his speech known as the " Reply to Hayne " is well known. A friend expressed surprise that the great expounder of the constitution could make such a speech without oppor- tunity for preparation. " Sir," Webster replied, " I have been preparing that speech forty years." In other words, How to Gather Material 55 he had been, from boyhood, studying the doctrine of nulli- fication and meditating on the constitution as the supreme law of the land, until the whole question saturated every fiber of his being. When the occasion arose, therefore, all that was needed was for him to put his abundant material in proper order. But that was a rare occasion as Webster was a rare orator. With most speakers and for most subjects, more than thought is needed for the high- est success. When that process is completed there must follow the second process of gathering material. 2. This second process in the accumulation of material is reading. If Richter laid down the maxim : " Never read till you have thought yourself empty," he also said : " Never write till you have read yourself full." How minute and how extensive this reading should be will depend largely upon the nature of the subject. Reading, moreover, that is a mere cramming process will be of little value to the orator. However broad it be, it must be dis- tilled in the alembic of his own mind before he can make its essence his own. The order of reading should be, usually, first of a general nature, such as cyclopedia articles. Thus will be gained a comprehensive understanding of the subject. Then should come, say, review articles, and afterward the treatises and original authorities. For strictly oratorical work minute and exhaustive study on the subject of discourse may not always be an advantage. If it be not thoroughly assimilated, instead of furnishing intellectual and oratorical pabulum it will 56 The Making of an Oration clog the free operation of the mind and induce mental dyspepsia. Howsoever complete the reading, it should be, above all things, suggestive and stimulating, setting the speaker's own mind and imagination in motion and arous- ing the oratorical spirit to action. No more remarkable illustration of vast and exact learning, made available for oratorical purposes, can be found in the literature of eloquence than is furnished by some of the speeches of Edmund Burke, particularly those on " The Nabob of Arcot's Debts/' " The East India Bill," and all those on the impeachment of Warren Hastings. But these subjects were exceptional in the nature of their themes as Edmund Burke was himself exceptional among men. He had read, and so every orator should read, broadly enough to cover the ground to be traversed by the speech and thoroughly enough to make him master of the par- ticular phase of the subject to be discussed. Such read- ing not only increases the speaker's knowledge and supplements his thinking, but modifies or confirms, as the case may be, his views by the results of the labors of others. In any case it gives him greater confidence in the correctness of his conclusions and helps him to feel that he " speaks as one having authority," a consciousness which one must always have if he would speak with power. 3. A third important process in the work of gathering material is found in conversation. Richter might wisely have added to his aphorism : " Never pronounce your speech till you have talked yourself clear." Discussion How to Gather Material 57 is a wonderful clarifier of thought. One does not know how muddy his ideas are till he has passed them through the filter of conversation. Let him, then, who has " thought himself empty " and " read himself full," pre- paratory to making a speech, talk with some intelligent and sympathetic friend. By " sympathetic " is not meant, necessarily, one that takes the same view of the subject as the speaker himself. Indeed it may be an advantage that the listener disagree ; for then the speaker will better learn his weak points than might otherwise be possible. By sympathetic is rather meant one who is interested in the subject and in the speaker. Nor is it necessary that the conversation be with one as well informed as himself; the very effort of conversing on the matter enables him to put his ideas in definite language and thus deliver his soul, and also place him in a position to use to advantage any suggestions that are offered. So will his thought and his treatment of it be made lucid. Daniel Webster, when speaking of the value of con- versation to the orator, said to Charles Sumner : In my education, I have found that conversation with the intelligent men I have had the good fortune to meet has done more for me than books ever did; for I learn more from them in a talk of half an hour than I could possibly learn from their books. Their minds, in their conversation, come into intimate contact with my own mind; and I absorb certain secrets of their power, whatever be its quality, which I could not have detected in their works. Converse, converse, CONVERSE with living men, face to face, and mind to mind, that is one of the best sources of knowledge. CHAPTER VIII THE ORDERING OF MATERIAL A FTER the work of gathering material has been com- ** pleted, the speech maker must solve the problem of putting the material so accumulated into proper form for advantageous use. In other words, he must make, on the basis of his gathered material, a framework or skele- ton of the structure he purposes to build. The various steps of this process may be intimated as follows : i. A Provisional Analysis. After he has thoroughly thought through his subject, as before explained (p. 53 sq.), and has taken notes covering the results of his thinking, the maker of a speech should pass these notes under the closest scrutiny. As a result of such examina- tion, he will find that his knowledge and ideas, as thus indicated, can be combined into a few more or less homogeneous and clearly defined groups. Let him formu- late for these groups general statements, under which the various items can be included. They will constitute an outline for the main parts of his speech. Under each one of them, as the work proceeds, may be gathered the various subdivisions that indicate the line of development of these several main divisions. When this work is com- pleted he will have gone far toward building up a plan of his discussion that will be of great value, indeed 58 The Ordering of Material 59 altogether essential to the highest success, in the sub- sequent labor of further accumulation of material and development of his discourse. The plan as thus made will be, of course, provisional, subject to modification as the result of the further work of reading and conversation. After these processes are completed the plan should be put into final form, and stated so fully and suggestively that the speaker can then give his powers wholly to the work of composition. Then let him hold to the plan thus formulated from beginning to end. If this work be adequately done, no helpful ideas will be likely to crowd upon him in the heat of the discourse that may not be appropriately included some- where in this plan. 2. Statement of the Proposition and Object. The na- ture of the proposition has already been discussed, as has also the proper form for what we have called " the ob- ject," or proposition turned into the form of an impera- tive. This object is to dominate the entire work, from the accumulation of material, through the introduction, the discussion, and the conclusion, to the delivery of the speech. Since it is desired to make our work as prac- tical as possible, it may be helpful to choose a subject, and illustrate the process of plan making by actually working out a plan on that subject. As a working basis, then, for the development of a plan, let us assume a subject already suggested, "The College Settlement." From this subject was derived the theme : " The College Settlement as a Sphere of Useful- 60 The Making of an Oration ness for Educated Men." This theme, turned into proper form for the "object," would be, say, "Let Educated Men Engage in College Settlement Work." As it is ordinarily better to plan the introduction after it is clearly known what is to be introduced, it will be best to wait for that until the rest of the plan is put in order. (3) Plan of the Discussion. The next step, then, in our work is to plan the discussion. The final result of this process will be developed in response to the question: " How may I, out of the material gathered in the processes of thought, reading, and conversation, so expound, estab- lish, illuminate, and enforce my proposition as best to accomplish my object? The answer to this question will have been partially reached in the provisional analysis already considered. A fuller answer must now be found. Returning to our proposition we begin to question it: Sphere of Usefulness? Usefulness to whom? And we conclude that it would be " useful " to those among whom such work was done useful to them as individuals, as members of society, and as citizens. So, likewise, it would be " useful " to the community and to the state. But " useful " in what particulars ? And we reason that it would be beneficial to the poor, in teaching them industry, in teaching by both precept and example the principles of economy and thrift, in doing away with certain preju- dices, in making them intelligent and more moral, in leading them to help themselves and one another ; that it would help the community and the state as a result of thus elevating the people so affected. But we conclude, The Ordering of Material 61 likewise, that such work would be " useful " to those that engaged in it, as well as to others, because it would bring them into personal and practical relations to and sym- pathy with the poor, the ignorant, the vicious and would thus broaden and ennoble their own character by cultivating the spirit of unselfish devotion to the uplift- ing work of helpfulness to others. Thus, in every way, such service would help bring them to an altruistic, ex- perimental appreciation of the great truth of human brotherhood. We reason, further, that such service would be " useful " in honoring God in its spirit, in its pur- poses and in its results. But why a " Sphere of Usefulness for Educated Men " ? And we answer, because college settlement work was especially designed by and for such men ; because it needs men of large intelligence and training to appreci- ate and help solve the problems with which such work has to deal; and because, by thus bringing the extremes of culture and ignorance into common interests, the pur- poses for which the enterprise was inaugurated will be best subserved. By examining these and other results of thought and study concerning our proposition, we find that they can be grouped under three or four general classes of motives. There are motives of personal advantage, or duty to self ; of duty to others in their individual as well as associated capacities ; motives of duty toward God ; and there is the motive arising from the fact that education fits one for the appreciation of and usefulness in this kind of work. 62 The Making of an Oration A little further analysis enables us to combine all these motives in the following divisions : Discussion. College Settlement Work. 1. Promotes social and political reform (a) by dimin- ishing poverty and encouraging thrift ; (b) by diminishing crime; (c) by increasing intelligence; (d) by elevating the standard of morals; (e) by promoting the spirit of brotherhood; (f) by developing high ideals of patriotism. 2. Encourages the highest aims and cultivates the noblest character (a) in those with whom such work is done; (b) in the workers themselves. 3. Appeals especially to educated men because the power and possibilities for usefulness which education gives impose peculiar obligations. It will be noticed that the divisions of the above dis- cussion are the result of several processes, which may be stated in the following maxims : (i.) Write down briefly, as the result of all your labor of gathering material, the facts and ideas that seem at first thought to promote your object; (2.) Examine the value of each of these facts and thoughts by asking if it will really promote your object; (3.) Combine the ideas that you select, by the preced- ing process, as promotive of your object, into expres- sions that are coordinate in both substance and form ; (4.) Arrange these coordinate statements in the order of climax, so as to secure the most effective accomplish- ment of your object. These processes should secure for the discussion : The Ordering of Material 63 (a) Unity on the basis of the "object"; (b) Divisions of equal rank as related to the object and clearly distinct one from another; (c) Climax of effect in attaining the object. 4. Planning the Conclusion. The nature and purpose of this part of the oration have already been considered. The substance of this part should always be indicated in the plan. There are various forms that the conclusion may take. It may consist of : (i.) A summary of the several divisions that make up the discussion. If this method be pursued, the recapit- ulation should not be so formal as to involve loss of interest and thus weaken the effect. As the design is to persuade, the conclusion should be the strongest, the most impressive, the most moving part of the speech. (2.) The conclusion may consist of an amplification of the final point of the discussion. As in some respects the most important division, this part of the discussion may very properly be emphasized, illustrated, and enlarged upon for the closing impression. (3.) The conclusion may take the form of an excita- tion of emotion as the outcome of what has preceded. This is called the impassioned conclusion or peroration, and is very effective when it has been preceded by an earnest, thoughtful, closely reasoned, elevated discussion. (4.) Further, the final words may take the direction of an incitement to action as an outcome of what has been presented in the body of the speech. The appeal to the will, however, in this degenerate age, may better saturate 64 The Making of an Oration and pervade the speech from the beginning than come formally at the end as was once the custom. Now and then, nevertheless, when the audience is aroused or when circumstances favor and it may be demand action, it is advisable to press the thought home to the hearts, con- sciences, and decision of hearers, and ask them face to face, " What are you going to do about it ? " with the assurance that self-interest, or shame, or duty, or indig- nation, or pity, or some other sentiment will constrain them to do something. (5.) Another common method is to combine two or even more of the foregoing forms of conclusion. Now, if we return to our sample plan, we discover that a full discussion of the points outlined would be weighty and possibly extended. If so, it will be advantageous to refresh the memory of the hearers by a brief recapitula- tion. Likewise, since the college settlement affords a field for such noble service, it is important that many of those that have had the advantages of a college training enter such service. Thus we reach as the plan of our Conclusion. A recapitulation, followed by an expres- sion of the hope that every institution of learning will send out men and women to engage in college settlement work. 5. Planning the Introduction. The introduction should ordinarily be the last part of the discourse to be planned. This does not mean that if the speech is writ- ten this part should be written last. That is a different matter. But before the opening can be planned the The Ordering of Material 65 speaker must know what he is to open; in order grace- fully and with directness to introduce his speech he must have a very clear idea of what it is that is to be introduced. To survey the best path through the wilderness, the en- gineer must know the objective point. We have already seen that the purpose of the introduc- tion is to lead the hearers as directly as possible to a docile consideration of the proposition, and that to ac- complish this purpose it may consist of an effort to make the audience (a) familiar with all that is necessary to an understanding of the discussion; (b) well disposed toward the speaker and the theme. On examining the discussion that has been planned above, we discover that it is about a subject that may not be particularly familiar to the average student. Hence the introduction may properly include an explanation of col- lege settlement work. The question also arises : " Why has such service been instituted?" This question war- rants a reference to the evils that result from the condi- tions of the poor and vicious in large cities, and so renders the hearers " well disposed " toward any effort designed to mitigate those evils. So we have, as the outline of our introduction leading to the proposition or object, a brief reference to the existing evils and a brief explanation of the proposed remedy. Thus we have traced the general processes of prepar- ing a speech up to the completion of a plan. The result appears as follows : 66 The Making of an Oration I. INTRODUCTION 1. Evils of poverty in large cities. 2. Explanation of College Settlement Work as a proposed remedy for these evils. II. PROPOSITION. The College Settlement as a sphere of usefulness for educated men. III. OBJECT. Let educated men engage in College Set- tlement Work. IV. DISCUSSION. 1. College Settlement Work promotes social and political reform: a. By diminishing poverty and encouraging thrift ; b. By decreasing crime ; c. By promoting intelligence; d. By elevating morals ; e. By cultivating the spirit of brotherhood. 2. College Settlement Work encourages the highest aims and cultivates the noblest character: a. In those among whom such work is done ; b. In those by whom such work is done. 3. College Settlement Work appeals especially to edu- cated men: a. Education gives power; b. Education opens possibilities ; c. Education imposes peculiar obligations toward those that are less fortunate. V. CONCLUSION. 1. Summary and appeal; 2. May all institutions of learning soon send out men and women to this noble work. The Ordering of Material 67 The foregoing is the plan actually prepared by a stu- dent. It is given not as an ideal plan, but rather to illustrate, in as informal a way as can well be on paper, the general processes of gathering and selecting material and of putting that material in form as a guide to the speaker in the work of composition. The plan is, of course, primarily for the use of the speaker himself. The question as to how much of it should appear in the finished production when spoken to the audience has already been considered. Since it is mainly for the use of the speaker, he should go carefully through the general outline and note in their appropriate places, with fulness sufficient to guide him, all illustra- tions, examples, striking phrases, allusions and figures, arguments, and ideas, as they occur to him, that he may retain them for the most effective use when developing his outline. It should be said that since the " object " is simply the proposition put into the imperative form, it is not essen- tial to write both in the completed plan as is done above, although there is sometimes an advantage in having both forms before the eye. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS i. As a most valuable practice in logical and oratorical training, the student should regularly practice choosing subjects suitable for oratorical treatment and develop plans of speeches according to the methods heretofore suggested. 68 The Making of an Oration 2. Constant class, as well as individual, practice in the work of making and criticising plans will be found of inestimable value as a means of developing the logical and inventive powers as applied to oratorical discourse. Every member of a class should present a plan of an oration on an assigned subject at an appointed date be- fore the class for discussion. Without shrinking, he who would become expert in this greatest of all arts must put the results of his labors to the test, must subject the products of his mining to the crucible of the most pitiless criticism. Is the subject in itself a good one? Is.it fresh, appro- priate, interesting, important? Is the proposition legiti- mate? Is the "object" properly stated? Are the divi- sions of the discussion relevant? Do they further the object? Are they mutually exclusive? Are they co- ordinate with one another as related to the object? Are they coordinate in form? Are they well stated? Are they so arranged as to be cumulative in effect? Do they include all they should? Do they exclude all they should? Is the introduction brief, natural, graceful, pleasing, interesting ? Is the conclusion effective ? How may the plan be improved ? Such are some of the ques- tions that the speech maker should ask himself and such are questions that others should ask, in criticising plans. Half the time devoted to this subject in the classroom, may well be devoted to such criticism. Such exercises develop both the critical and constructive powers, and The Ordering of Material 69 serve to quicken and enlarge wonderfully what may be termed the logical and oratorical instinct. The motives set forth in the discussion of the plan already outlined are, of course, not to be considered as including all possible motives. Oratory, as the all-inclu- sive and most complex literary type, is not confined to one form. Rational beings, presumably, will not act with reference to a given question until they understand that question. They must be enlightened. But they must also be satisfied that the proposed action is true, or wise, or right, or advantageous, or a duty. That is, they must be convinced. But they may be convinced and yet not moved to action. Their emotions may need to be stirred, their imaginations awakened, their passions aroused. In other words, they must be excited. That is, the orator may need to use all the motives of enlightenment, conviction, and excitation in order to persuade his hearers. He plays upon the whole gamut of human nature, covering the entire range of intellect and sensibilities, that he may awaken the will to action. Consequently he may have occasion to employ all forms of discourse exposition, description, narration, argumentation, as well as persua- sion proper. It is not the province of the present discussion to enter into details and give many specific rules for the employ- ment of these various types of discourse. The purpose is, rather, to present general principles, point out funda- mental processes and make practical suggestions that are invaluable in the actual work of making speeches. PART III THE COMPOSITION OF AN ORATION CHAPTER IX THE COMPOSITION OF AN ORATION THE term " composition " as here used applies equally well whether the oration is written in full or whether it is pronounced without being written. In either case the style of the oration differs in many particulars from that of the essay, which is written for leisurely reading rather than for hearing once for all. The reasons for these differences are twofold. First come such differences as naturally belong to spoken as distinguished from written discourse. Second, the causes of these differences are found mainly in the all-important fact that oratory aims at the accomplishment of an object rather than the discussion of a subject and must attain that object in a single utterance, without opportunity, on the part of an audience, of a second reading, of careful analysis, of leisurely consideration, and of nice discrimination and appreciation of the fine distinctions. Since the oration must accomplish its purpose in a sin- gle impression, the orator has laid upon him a peculiarly heavy burden. His speech must be convincing, but not stiff and cold ; it must be vivid, but never gaudy ; fervid, but never tearful ; sincere, but without cant ; straightfor- ward, but courteous; imaginative, but never bombastic. 73 74 The Making of an Oration It must be impressive and weighty, but not heavy ; vigor- ous and virile without being brutal in a word it must be in all ways artistic, but must never be or seem to be artificial. The orator must marshal all his forces and march them, as Webster truly says, " onward, right on- ward to his object." In a brief speech he has laid upon him, perhaps, the responsibility of changing and directing into new channels the whole current of his hearers' thoughts and lives. Surely, no task heavier than his, no' victory more glorious! But if special difficulties beset the orator, so, likewise, peculiar advantages are his. He meets his hearers face to face, rather than through the cold, pitiless medium of the printed page. He meets them, also, together, rather than as segregated, separate, unsympathetic individuals. He has the advantage of the flashing eye, the expressive countenance, the thrilling voice, the animated gesture, all of those advantages arising from what, to conceal our ignorance, we term " personal magnetism." Until human nature shall change, there need be no fear that oratory will lose its power. The public school and the daily paper cannot destroy or even materially limit its proper field. Books cannot steal its charms. The preacher, the lawyer, the legislator who must advocate measures before parliamentary bodies, the agitator, the reformer, and others whose business it is to set the world to rights, need not be anxious lest increased diffusion of knowledge shall deprive them of their kingdom, or trem- ble lest they shall be dethroned and left to mourn because, Composition of an Oration 75 like Othello, " their occupation's gone." So long as men need to change their actions, or, at least, so long as men are not of one opinion as to what action should be in every case, so long will there be opportunity for the ex- ercise of persuasive speech. A common opinion, it is to be feared, among students and others who have ambition for public speaking, is that orators are born not made. Now this theory sounds well and, within certain limits, it has an element of truth. No one can become a Demosthenes unless he has the gifts of Demosthenes. But there is also in the notion a large factor of error. Those that hold this opinion argue that one who has the true oratorical spirit, the " divine afflatus," will, when occasion arises, speak effectively and eloquently, whether he have studied the maxims of the rhetoricians or not; while he who has not this heaven- born spirit can never become an orator, though he know the rules of the books from title page to " finis." This idea is based upon a radical misconception of the nature and purposes of oratorical precepts. These pre- cepts are not arbitrary inventions in which the rhetoricians insist that the would-be speaker shall wrap himself until he is only a mummy of his real self before they will allow him to be called an orator. On the contrary, they are statements of principles which the masters of assem- blies of all ages throughout the world have, consciously or unconsciously, exemplified in their speeches. The statements of the principles have been formulated, in other words, because they have been found actually ap- 76 The Making of an Oration plied and illustrated in the great oratory of the world. These principles must be observed likewise by all who would attain success in this noblest of all arts, and they that do not learn such principles from others must strug- gle up to them through the great tribulation of personal experience and probably of humiliating failures. As a matter of fact, orators are both born and made. Call the roll of the immortals among them and you will find that, with hardly an exception, they have been not only men of native genius but equally men of developed power. The story of the long continued study of Demosthenes that he might perfect himself in his art is proverbial. Likewise Aeschines and the other masters of Athenian eloquence gave years of assiduous study in preparation for their art. So with Cicero, the greatest name in the palmy days of Roman eloquence. Among the moderns may be mentioned Burke, Fox, Sheridan, Lord Chatham, Pitt, Bolingbroke, Grattan, Curran; and in America, Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Phillips, Sumner, Seward, Everett, among parliamentary orators; while among preachers shine such names as Beecher, Spurgeon, Alexander Maclaren, Phillips Brooks, Bishop Simpson, and a host of others almost as great. These all " obtained a good report " through a combination of native genius and assiduous toil. They did not despise, they did not consider it wise to ignore, the principles of oratory as set forth in the books. All of them studied, some of them for years, the precepts of effective speech, and everything else that would help to success in making speeches them- Composition of an Oration 77 selves. In other words, they supplemented their own natural aptitude by taking advantage of the wisdom and experience of others. If such men thought it worth their while to learn the art of oratory by study, surely no one can safely hope to be beyond the need of such study. CHAPTER X QUALITIES OF THE INTRODUCTION TN ESTIMATING the qualities that are particularly L useful in developing the different parts of an oration, it is appropriate to consider, first, the features that are peculiarly appropriate to the introduction. i. The first thing to be said of the introduction is that it should possess the quality of brevity. The young writer and speaker always labors under the temptation to extend this part of his discourse beyond reasonable limits. Whether this fault is because of the fear that he will not find enough to say within the prescribed limit, or whether it is because he thinks he has so much to say, he is in danger of saying more than is necessary or useful in this part of his discourse. It must be remembered that an oration is a work of art and, like other works of art, it must possess the qualities of symmetry and pro- portion. Otherwise it can have no beauty and little power. The oration should not be a polywog all head. It may, rather, be likened to a building. The introduc- tion is the front porch; the discussion, with its various divisions, constitutes the body of the house divided into its several rooms ; while the conclusion is the back porch. The length suitable for the introduction, in any given 78 Qualities of the Introduction 79 case, will be properly determined by the dignity, nature, and proposed limits of the discourse as a whole. Let no one make the mistake of assuming in this part of his speech that he will " be heard because of his much speaking." Such an assumption would be fatal to suc- cess. In proportion to the entire speech, the introduction should be as brief as is consistent with perfect lucidity and with its prime purpose of preparing the audience to listen with intelligence, fairness, and interest to the pres- entation and amplification of the theme. The front porch should never be larger than the house itself. It should lead as directly, as easily and as charmingly as possible into the main body of the building. It is not made for its own sake, but for the sake of what is to follow. In harmony with this principle, it follows that the opening sentence of the introduction, that is of the whole speech, should be brief. Blair well says : " A first sen- tence should seldom be a long, and never an intricate one." As a rule, let this sentence be a simple, declarative, un- pretentious statement of a fact or a principle. If the idea is common, the statement of it should not be com- monplace. Triteness here may prove disastrous. His opening words give the speaker an opportunity to put himself on good terms with an audience and to convey to them the impression of his good sense, genial spirit, inherent manliness, and perhaps his mastery of the sit- uation and of whatever subject he may have to present. Let him not dissipate the opportunity by frivolousness. It is safe to assume that an audience is comparatively 80 The Making of an Oration indifferent to both the speaker and his theme. It is not wise, therefore, to lay a heavy burden upon the attention or the understanding of one's hearers. A brief, modest opening sentence will give them little to do by way of grammatical interpretation, and will help gain their re- spect for the speaker's sincerity and good sense. 2. The introduction should also possess the quality of simplicity. Good taste requires that this part of the discourse be neither too forcible, too figurative, or too highly illustrated. These qualities are always liable to seem bombastic, and of all places the semblance of bom- bast in the introduction is ridiculous and repulsive. Only when the circumstances are such that the interest of the audience in the subject is already aroused will very energetic or highly figurative language be an advantage, i Attention has already been called to this principle in the Y discussion of the nature of the introduction, but further j emphasis may well be laid upon it in this connection. When a previous speaker has presented the theme, so that it is already in some aspect in the minds of the hearers, or when the course of events has centered the thoughts of the people upon it, so that their interest is kindled and their feelings are excited, the speaker may appropriately in his introduction make use of more picturesque and more impassioned speech than would otherwise be permissible. In a way his theme is already introduced, and what would ordinarily be extravagant is now appropriate. Examples. ( i ) An interesting illustration of a simple Qualities of the Introduction 81 yet figurative exordium is found in Webster's famous speech on the Foot Resolution, better known as " The Reply to Hayne " : Mr. President: When the mariner has been tossed for many days in thick weather, and on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the first pause in storm, the earli- est glance of the sun, to take his latitude and ascertain how far the elements have driven him from his true course. Let us imitate this prudence, and before we float farther on the waves of this debate, refer to the point from which we de- parted, that we may at least be able to conjecture where we now are. I ask for the reading of the resolution. So he brought his hearers back to the point of de- parture, and especially to the point which he wished them to occupy. He chose his own question rather than let his antagonist choose it for him. The introduction might, possibly, have seemed too figurative had it been pro- nounced under ordinary conditions ; but Webster did not pronounce it under ordinary conditions. When he arose, the debate had been in progress for days. Colonel Hayne, senator from South Carolina, had made a brilliant speech, characterized by all the fervid eloquence, grace of diction, and intensity of spirit peculiar to some of the southern orators of those days. The admirers of Hayne and the sympathizers with his cause were jubilant. They boasted that he had won a great victory and claimed that he could not be successfully answered. The friends of Webster and the Union, on the other hand, were depressed with anxiety, and feared that even the " God- like Daniel " might not prove equal to the task of 82 The Making of an Oration adequately replying to the brilliant southerner. Public excitement was at white heat. The senate chamber was crowded; every nerve was tense; every whisper was hushed to silence ; every eye was fixed upon the speaker ; every ear strained to catch the first swelling note of that mighty organ voice. In a word, the conditions under which he spoke were such that no metaphor, no illustra- tion, no amount of energy would have seemed extrava- gant, if, indeed, it could equal the demands of the occa- sion. Thus, good taste not only allowed but required such an introduction in order to satisfy the excited feel- ings of the audience. The analogy, moreover, that he used was so fitting, so illuminating, so beautiful and yet so sincere, that at once there must have come a feeling of confidence in the thought that the speaker was master of the situation. (2) Compare with this glowing exordium the introduc- tory sentences of Webster's masterpiece as a dedicatory orator, delivered at the laying of the corner stone of the Bunker Hill monument : This uncounted multitude before me and around me proves the feeling which the occasion has excited. These thousands of human faces, glowing with sympathy and joy, and from the impulses of a common gratitude turned rever- ently to Heaven in this spacious temple of the firmament, proclaim that the day, the place, and the purpose of our assembling have made a deep impression on our hearts. Less picturesque, less figurative, less passionate than the preceding example, but straightforward, dignified, Qualities of the Introduction 83 and calm, these introductory words were, likewise, in per- fect harmony with the occasion on which they were uttered. The multitudes to whom they were spoken were not, as on the other occasion, quivering with the passions excited by a sectional debate ; they were rather assembled to commemorate a great event in our history and to do honor to those who had offered their lives as a sacrifice to liberty. Consequently, the great orator's opening sen- tences were simple and unimpassioned. In harmony with the demand for simplicity, good taste forbids the use of exclamations, rhetorical interrogations, apostrophe and other striking figures in opening sentences. Such expressions at the outset give too great a shock to the hearers. They jar on the nerves. A premature explosion is never pleasant and may be dangerous. Dyna- mite in a speech is a good thing, someone has wisely remarked, but dynamite in the wrong place and set off at the wrong time is a dangerous plaything. It may blow into pieces him that applies the torch and at the same time destroy the spectators. 3. Another quality that should characterize the intro- duction is that of being interesting. Winning an audience is, in some respects, like fishing for trout. One must " get a rise " at the first cast of the fly, or he may find it difficult to get any rise at all in that place. Hearers are exceedingly wary, and he that would " put his hook in their nose" must present them an attractive lure. That lure is the introduction. The speaker must aim, therefore, to make this part of his speech above all things 84 The Making of an Oration interesting and attractive. By charm of manner, by felic- ity of phrase, by earnestness of spirit, by aptness and appropriateness of thought by every honest means, let him seek at the outset to win the attention, the respect, the confidence, the sympathy, the favor of the audience. If he succeed in this attempt, the victory is half won. Thenceforward he can march straight onward to his goal. 4. In its method the introduction should be direct and conciliatory. To be direct is not always difficult, but to be at the same time conciliatory is sometimes a task. One may be altogether opposed to the opinions of most of his audience, or he may know that they are opposed to him and his opinions. To secure their courteous attention under such conditions without sacrificing in any measure one's own convictions or changing one's own attitude re- quires all the tact and good judgment of which the speaker is possessed. This is peculiarly true when the speaker has not only convictions but also strong feeling with reference to the matter in hand. The Apostle Paul exhibited rare skill in introducing his famous speech on Mars Hill at Athens. He wished to preach not only a new faith but a faith that was diametrically opposed in its fundamental tenets to the religious system of those to whom he proclaimed it. His feelings were profoundly excited at what he saw. On every hand, wherever he turned his eyes, he beheld monuments and shrines, tem- ples and altars, erected in honor of heathen deities. Luke's account in the " Acts of the Apostles " informs us that " his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the Qualities of the Introduction 85 city wholly given to idolatry." Had the hot-headed, im- pulsive, belligerent Peter been the speaker, he would probably have burst forth in a flame of denunciation. But Paul had better judgment than that. Although he was stirred in spirit, he wanted a hearing. Therefore, instead of denouncing, he conciliated. The King James version is not a good rendering of the passage. The apostle did not say : " Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious." Such an introduction would have given offense and have defeated his purpose. He rather said in substance : " I perceive that in all things ye are much given to religious matters. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. What therefore ye worship without knowing, that de- clare I unto you." Thus he approached them on their own ground and by so doing secured an opportunity to proclaim his doctrine of one God as distinguished from the Greek polytheism. Further along in the same ad- dress, he exemplified the same rhetorical skill, when he appealed to one of their own poets as furnishing a basis for his proclamation of the idea of the brotherhood of man. CHAPTER XI THOUGHT AND STYLE OF THE CONCLUSION THE general nature of the conclusion and its relations to the other parts of the speech have already been considered. It remains to call attention to some of the more distinctly rhetorical qualities that distinguish this part of the oration. The conclusion is at once the easiest and the most diffi- cult part to compose of the whole work. Rhetorically, it is that for which all the rest of the speech is composed. A failure here is a failure wholly ; for in the conclusion are focused and applied all the elements of thought, ar- gument, feeling, imagination, intensity of conviction, and force of presentation of all that has preceded. In all par- ticulars of thought as well as of style, it is the outcome and fruitage of all that has gone before. Like the column of water that leaps from the nozzle of the pipe in hy- draulic mining, plunging with terrific force into the mountain side, washing out soil, gravel, and solid rocks, and tearing the everlasting hills from their foundations in order to free the gold from its secret places for the use of man, so is the conclusion to the oration. The column of water has power because it has behind it all the super- incumbent weight of the lake high up in the mountains, 86 Thought and Style of the Conclusion 87 and all the impetus of the rush through the flume down the declivity, there to be narrowed and condensed into that single stream forced against the hillside with the velocity of a cannon ball to do the work of a hundred men. So the conclusion has power, because it has be- hind it the weight and velocity of all that precedes. Here is where the gold of decision is to be uncovered in the hard and, sometimes, stubborn wills of the hearers. Here is where, preeminently, the application of the subject is made. i. Just what the form and style of the conclusion should be will depend, largely, upon the type of the speech as a whole. If the oration be mainly intellectual in its nature for example, an argument before a bench of judges, or a serious address before a lyceum the conclusion may consist of a summary of the arguments presented, with an application of the truth established to a single action or to a course of action. An illustration of such a summary and application is furnished in the conclusion of Ruskin's lecture on " Con- ventional Art " : Make, then, your choice, boldly and consciously, for one way or another it must be made. On the dark and danger- ous side are set the pride which delights in self-contempla- tion, the indolence which rests in unquestioned forms, the ignorance that despises what is fairest among God's crea- tures, and the dullness that denies what is marvelous in his working. There is a life of monotony for your souls, and of misguiding for those of others. And, on the other side, is open to your choice the life of the crowned spirit, moving 88 The Making of an Oration as a light in creation, discovering always, illuminating always, gaining every hour in strength, yet bowed down every hour into deeper humility; sure of being right in its aim, sure of being irresistible in its progress; happy in what it has securely done; happier in what, day by day, it may serenely hope; happiest at the close of life, when the right hand begins to forget its cunning, to remember that there never was a touch of the chisel or the pencil it wielded but has added to the knowledge and quickened the happiness of mankind. 2. The conclusion may sometimes consist of the closing argument of the discussion, expanded, intensified, and applied as the climax and crown, both in thought and style, of the entire discourse. For the intellectual type of oratory, no more effective method than this can be found. In this form of conclusion, the speech, as it approaches the close, sweeps onward with constantly accelerating speed and augmented power, gathering weight and momentum as it proceeds, concentrating, as it were, into its closing paragraph all the thought, reason- ing, and conviction of the whole discourse, thus making of that paragraph the most impressive part of all. Thus it seems to be, indeed, " logic set on fire," blazing and blistering its way through the reason to the wills of men. This kind of conclusion, while less formal, has also the advantage of being more natural than a recapitulation. It impresses one as the normal outgrowth and climax of the whole discourse. 3. In the more impassioned types of oratory, the conclusion properly partakes of the style pertaining to Thought and Style of the Conclusion 89 the entire production; except that it is more intense, more elevated, more nearly akin to poetry than the main body of the speech. By the time he comes to this part of his address, if ever, the speaker has succeeded in bringing his hearers into full sympathy with his own thought and emotion. All their powers are in harmony with him, and, like the chords of a harp, quiver in re- sponse to his every touch. Like one of the old min- strels, he plays upon the whole gamut of their souls and brings forth what music he will. 4. Because he has, presumably, won the understanding, interest, and sympathy of his audience, the speaker may appropriately use in the conclusion longer and more complex sentences than would be advisable in the open- ing of a speech. His hearers will then have less difficulty in understanding him, less hesitation in following him, less objection to acceptance of his reasoning. They have been led, step by step, to follow his logic until his judg- ment with reference to the object to be sought has become their judgment, and the fires that burn in his heart have been likewise kindled in their hearts. They have the momentum of all that has gone before to carry them triumphantly through. Naturally, also, this part of the discourse will be more full of force and fire than would be pleasing in the intro- duction. When he reaches the conclusion, the speaker's aim is to drive home the truth he has been presenting in such a way that his hearers will be moved to adopt that truth as a motive to action. It is the place for what 90 The Making of an Oration the older preachers termed " the rousements." Conse- quently there is room for the loftiest flights of the imagination, for the boldest figures of speech, for the most brilliant illustrations, for the expression of the noblest aspirations, for the most impassioned appeals. Here, if ever, the orator may pull out every stop and pour forth, without restraint, the music of his soul. Examples. (i) One of the best illustrations, known to every American schoolboy, of the impassioned con- clusion, in the form of aspiration or the expression of a wish, is the magnificent peroration of Webster's justly famous " Reply to Hayne." It would be hard to find, at least outside of pulpit oratory, a more splendid burst of eloquence in any language : I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might be hidden in the dark recess beyond. * * * "While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us and our children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that, in my day at least, that curtain may not rise! God grant that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind! When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on states dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fra- ternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high ad- vanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star Thought and Style of the Conclusion 91 obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interroga- tory as " What is all this worth ? " nor those other words of delusion and folly, " Liberty first and Union afterwards " ; but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heaven, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, " Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable ! " (2) The following, from Sumner's speech on " The Crime Against Kansas," is well worthy of study as an illustration of the impassioned conclusion that takes the form of an appeal: The contest, which, beginning in Kansas, has reached us, will soon be transferred from congress to a broader stage, where every citizen will be not only spectator, but actor; and to their judgment I confidently appeal. To the People, now on the eve of exercising the electoral franchise, in choosing a chief magistrate of the Republic, I appeal, to vindicate the electoral franchise in Kansas. Let the ballot box of the Union, with multitudinous might, protect the ballot box in that territory. Let the voters everywhere, while rejoicing in their own rights, help to guard the equal rights of equal fellow citizens; that the shrines of popular institutions, now desecrated, may be sanctified anew; that the ballot box, now plundered, may be restored ; that the cry, " I am an American citizen," may not be sent forth in vain against outrage of every kind. In just regard for free labor in that territory, which it is sought to blast by unwelcome association with slave labor ; in Christian sympathy with the slave, whom it is proposed to task and sell there; in stern condemnation of the crime which has been consummated on that beautiful soil; in rescue of fellow-citizens now subjected 92 The Making of an Oration to a tyrannical usurpation; in dutiful respect to the early fathers whose aspirations are now ignobly thwarted; in the name of the Constitution, which has been outraged, of the laws trampled down, of justice banished, of humanity de- graded, of peace destroyed, of freedom crushed to earth; and in the name of the Heavenly Father, whose service is perfect freedom, I make this last appeal. (3) A famous example of the impassioned conclusion is found in Burke's opening speech at the trial of Warren Hastings. The concluding sentences furnish a fine example of the impassioned climax: I impeach Warren Hastings, Esquire, of high crimes and misdemeanors. I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great Britain, in Parliament assembled, whose parlia- mentary trust he has betrayed. I impeach him in the name of all the Commons of Great Britain, whose national char- acter he has dishonored. I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose laws, rights, and liberties he has sub- verted, whose property he has destroyed, whose country he has laid waste and desolate. I impeach him in the name and by virtue of those eternal laws of justice which he has vio- lated. I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, which he has cruelly outraged, injured, and oppressed, in both sexes, in every age, rank, situation, and condition of life. (4) A frequent and important type of the impassioned conclusion takes the form of prophecy or vision. A modern illustration of this type is chosen from a speech delivered in the national house of representatives by Hon. Frank H. Hurd, on " A Tariff for Revenue Only " : Thought and Style of the Conclusion 93 With the opportunity of unrestricted exchange of these products, how limitless the horizon of our possibilities ! Let American adventurousness and genius be free, upon the high seas, to go wherever they please and bring back whatever they please, and the oceans will swarm with American sails, and the land will laugh with the plenty within its borders. The commerce of the Venetian Republic, the wealth-pro- ducing traffic of the Netherlands, will be as dreams in contrast with the stupendous reality which American enter- prise will develop in our own generation. Through the humanizing influence of the trade thus encouraged, I see nations become the friends of nations, and the causes of war disappear. I see the influence of the great republic in the amelioration of the condition of the poor and the oppressed in every land, and in the moderation of the arbitrariness of power. Upon the wings of free trade will be carried the seeds of free government, to be scattered everywhere to grow and ripen into harvests of free peoples in every nation under the sun. The conclusion of William Jennings Bryan's famous " Cross of Gold " speech contains at once the qualities of argument, vision, and appeal, presented with such impassioned eloquence as to arouse in the convention to which it was spoken a frenzy of enthusiasm and at the same time secure for the political "platform" which it advocated the support of that convention and for the speaker, himself, the nomination for the presidency: This nation is able to legislate for its own people on every question, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation on earth ; and upon that issue we expect to carry every State in the Union. I shall not slander the fair State of Massachusetts nor the inhabitants of the State of New York 94 The Making of an Oration by saying that, when they are confronted with the proposi- tion, they will declare that this nation is not able to attend to its own business. It is the issue of 1776 over again. Our ancestors, when but three millions in number, had the cour- age to declare their political independence of every other nation; shall we, their descendants, when we have grown to seventy millions, declare that we are less independent than our forefathers? No, my friends, that will never be the verdict of our people. Therefore, we care not upon what lines the battle is fought. If they say bimetallism is good, but that we cannot have it until other nations help us, we reply that instead of having a gold standard because England has, we will restore bimetallism, and then let England have bimetallism because the United States has. If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests, and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. The preceding examples will serve to illustrate some of the qualities of style that belong to oratory of the noblest type. CHAPTER XII GENERAL QUALITIES OF ORATORICAL STYLE HAVING thus noted some of the qualities of style that are especially appropriate to the introduction and the conclusion, it now remains to consider some of the qualities of oratory as a whole. For, while there are certain characteristics that peculiarly pertain to the opening and closing portions, there are likewise qualities that belong to this type of discourse in all its parts. These qualities are necessitated by the nature of the art itself. It must be remembered that oratory is popular dis- course. It is preeminently to and for the people. In its highest and best sense, it is not for any exclusive grade of culture and condition in life. It is, rather, adapted to the understanding, tastes, motives, and interests of the great mass of men who, in their general average of intelligence, training, passions, and purposes are termed " the people." It is to such an audience, made up of men of both high and low degree, of men swayed by sudden impulses or long cherished prejudices, by likes and dis- likes, by hopes and fears, by ambitions, selfishness, large- 95 96 The Making of an Oration heartedness, and meannesses, and all the mighty and seemingly self -contradictory motives that make up what we call human nature, but nevertheless an underlying basis of fairness and a substructure of common sense, it is to an audience made up of such men that the orator must address himself and his speech. Since oratory is popular discourse, it must possess those characteristics that fit it to the populace. These characteristics have to do with the three elements of thought, structure, and expression. I. In the first place, then, the thought and the expres- sion of the thought must be adapted to the popular mind. This does not mean that an audience must agree with the speaker at the outset. Indeed, the presumption is that the contrary is true. If there were such agree- ment there would be little need for speaking. Oratory is persuasion, and, if all agree, persuasion is not always called for by circumstances. Some of the greatest triumphs of oratory have been won over hostile audi- ences; as witness the speeches of Henry Ward Beecher in England during the Civil War and those of Alexander Hamilton in the long struggle over the question whether New York would adopt the Constitution of the United States, by which he changed a very large majority against adoption to a majority in its favor. What is meant, rather, is that the thought should be presented in so plain, so direct, so simple a manner, and must show that the details of each idea have such an obvious bearing upon the main question, that its significance and appro- General Qualities of Style 97 priateness will be grasped at once by the average mind. This demand precludes complex lines of thought and especially long, intricate, and involved sentences, that can hardly be understood when they are examined by a reader much less when they must be grasped by a hearer who must be carried along with the speaker, if carried at all, with no time or opportunity to examine them at leisure. The best arguments for the orator, then, are those in which the conclusion is reached from the premises directly with no important and distracting discussions between. Arguments from example and analogy are especially valuable for the uses of public speech. When the speaker can point to one situation or idea or truth that may be new or not easily understood as, in its rela- tions, like something else that is familiar, he goes far toward making that for which he is pleading not only clear but forcible. He must be careful that the analogy be a true one, so that neither he nor his audience be mis- led by an apparently similar but actually unlike relation. Since the oration is for oral delivery, rather than for leisurely reading, and must produce its designed effect by a single utterance, both its thought and language must proceed on broad and general lines. The style and the thought are one. The arguments advanced should usually be the main divisions of the discussion, explained, ampli- fied, exemplified, illustrated, vivified, and enforced with all the earnestness and eloquence of which the speaker 98 The Making of an Oration is possessed. This much the hearers will grasp, and it will, likewise, grasp them. More than this is vanity. A multiplicity of detail is both confusing and wearisome. The only way in which a speaker who indulges in great minutiae of thought will move an audience, will be to move it toward the door. Aristotle (Rhet, Book I, Ch. 2) says: "Your hearer is supposed to be a man of merely ordinary understanding," and for that reason will not be won by intricate reasonings. Lord Ches- terfield, somewhat cynically, expressed the same reason for the principle. " The receipt to make a speaker," he writes in one of his letters, " and an applauded one too, is short and easy. Take common sense, quantum sufficet; add a little application to the rules and orders of the House ; throw obvious thoughts in a new light, and make up the whole with a large quantity of purity, correctness, and elegance of style. Take it for granted that by far the greatest part of mankind neither analyze nor search to the bottom; they are incapable of penetrating deeper than the surface" As the speech is made not for excep- tional, but for average hearers, the speaker will be wise, therefore, who proceeds on broad and general lines, so as not to lay upon those hearers the burden of " pene- trating deeper than the surface." An oration is a picture. It is an oral reproduction and representation of the visions that stir the speaker's own soul. The artist, when he paints a landscape, does not try to portray upon the canvas every blade of grass and every leaf of the tree. Are we, therefore, to assume General Qualities of Style 99 that the artist does not faithfully depict the grass and the trees? Does he not, indeed, more truly represent the landscape by omitting confusing details and painting those large and general objects to which he desires to call especial attention, while all the rest are made sub- ordinate to serve as background? In other words, does the observer see the individual leaves, when he looks at the tree ? It is not art to paint a forest so that one " can- not see the woods because of the trees." The same principle that controls the painter governs the orator governs him, too, in the choice of the thoughts he shall advance as well as in the language with which he shall clothe those thoughts. He chooses some great, ruling idea, as his theme, and then sets forth some impor- tant truths, pulsing with the crimson blood of that theme which truths, taken together, serve to center the atten- tion upon that ruling idea, establish its truth, and give it power. 2. From the nature of its thought and its underlying purpose, it follows that the oration should be simple in structure. The orator aims to accomplish one thing and one thing only: to gain the assent and cooperation of his hearers with regard to his " object." That " object " is the focus to which everything centers and from which everything radiates. Whatever does not conduce to that one end is, for him, irrelevant. Every division of the discourse, therefore, must have a direct, unmistakable, intimate bearing upon the main question. A single prin- ciple runs through them all and tests their oratorical 100 The Making of an Oration value; consequently, in structure as in language and thought, everything makes for simplicity and unity. 3. In expression, oratory, in common with other forms of discourse, must exemplify the three great qualities of style clearness, energy, and beauty. If any difference is to be recognized, it is that oratory, more than any other form of literature, is dependent upon the first two of these qualities. As oratory is popular in its aims and consequently in its processes, it must be understood by the average audience in a single utterance. It is not for dreaming metaphysicians, speculating on the ques- tion, " whether a chimera ruminating in a vacuum devoureth second intention," and other equally etherial abstractions; it is for plain, every-day men of average intelligence and culture. Neither is it for the leisurely study and meditation of those \vho read the printed page ; it is rather for the understanding and appreciation of those that must receive their full impression at a momentary glance as the orator marches by to his goal. The public speaker must, therefore, be on his guard, lest while laboring to be profound he become turbid and find himself floundering in the muddy waters of scholastic language, the meaning of whose sesquipe- dalian words and centipedal sentences no man can fathom. Dr. Austin Phelps, in his book on " English Style in Public Discourse," quotes a sentence from an essay of George Brimley, formerly librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge, which will illustrate this fault. " Brimley is discoursing," says Dr. Phelps, " upon the General Qualities of -Style 101 nature of poetry, and he soliloquizes thus : ' A poetical view of the universe is an exhaustive view of all phenomena, as individual phenomenal wholes, of ascend- ing orders of complexity, whose earliest stage is the organization of single coexisting phenomena into con- crete individuals, and its apotheosis the marvelous picture of the infinite life, no longer conceived as the oceanic pulsation which the understanding called cause and effect/ " Clear as mud ! Surely this tangled jargon illus- trates in an " ascending order of complexity " one of the phenomena of expression which a presumably rational mind will sometimes display, when it allows itself to con- found incomprehensibleness with profundity. If this sentence mean anything in particular, it is safe to say that its meaning is safely concealed from everyone but its author by the jungle of words in which he has so adroitly hidden it. Now if such learned obscurity is inexcusable in the essay, how much more is it inexcusable in the speech ! The orator may be ever so scholarly, but let him never be scholastic. True learning and exhaustive thought on his part are desirable; pedantic affectation of learning and of thought strutting under the mask of big words and turgid phrases is execrable. The orator must deliver his soul in one utterance. Therefore, let him speak so clearly, so directly, so unequivocally that his hearers cannot mistake his meaning if they would. How else can he accomplish his purpose? How else can he arouse their attention, quicken their interest, convince their intellects, stir their sensibilities, gain their adher- 102 The Making of an Oration ence? In a word, how else shall he make his speech successful ? (A) MEANING AND METHODS OF CLEARNESS If we were called upon to state one maxim that more, perhaps, than any other expresses the secret of success in oratorical composition, we could hardly do better than say, " Make yourself understood." In oratory, preeminently, must be exemplified the pre- cept of the Latin rhetorician, Quintilian : " Non ut intel- legere possit, sed ne omnino possit non intellegere, curan- dum" ; that is, the speaker must take care not simply that it may be possible to understand him, but that it be absolutely impossible to misunderstand him. We are not speaking now, of course, from the pessimistic stand- point of those who agree with Talleyrand, that language is a device for concealing thought. It may be conceded that the politician may have occasion, now and then, to speak in "glittering generalities," which seem to be the last utterance of concentrated wisdom, but which in reality may mean anything in general or nothing in par- ticular; or to utter high-sounding phrases, that appear to express very definite ideas, but that, on analysis, are found to apply equally well to notions wholly antago- nistic in meaning. We are speaking, rather, from the standpoint of those who have positive opinions and are sincerely desirous of expressing those opinions. Such men would speak without prevarication or intentional General Qualities of Style 103 ambiguity. Consequently they must seek, first of all, the great quality of clearness. (i) Clearness of style manifests itself in two direc- tions: In the first place, the speaker, to be effective, must fit his expression to his thought. This element of clearness is called precision. The speech should be a perfect mirror of the orator's ideas, reflecting precisely what he means no more, no less, no other. So should he brood over his choice of words; so should he shape and mold his sentences, until both words and sentence structure bend so to his thought that they cannot fairly be interpreted in any way different from that intended. In the second place, the speaker, to be effective, must fit the expression of his thought to his audience. That is, he must not only say what he means, but he must make his hearers know what he means. This element of clearness is called perspicuity. It is possible to be faith- ful to the thought and still not be understood. The speaker has, therefore, a twofold problem to solve. He must say what he means, and he must make his hearers know what he means. To accomplish both purposes is not always so easy. He should make his style so simple and transparent that his language may be a perfect vehicle for his sentiment, to convey that sentiment to the minds and hearts of others. There is a lake in Michigan whose waters are so clear that a boat resting on its sur- face seems to be poised like a bird in the air, while fishes and pebbles can be plainly seen upon the bottom fifty feet below. Like that lake, glowing like a jewel on 104 The Making of an Oration the bosom of earth, should be the language of the orator, so limpid as to attract no attention to itself, but serving simply as a medium in which his thought floats, without obstruction, before the mental vision of the hearer. " But," someone may argue, " it is well enough to say to the orator, * Be precise/ and ' Be perspicuous/ but how shall he fulfill the demand? What are the conditions ? " In response to this challenge, it may be said in general, that clear speaking necessitates clear thinking. It is a fundamental truth that " No man can say plainly what he has not first thought plainly." If his language is hazy, probably his thought is foggy. On the other hand, he who has thought through his subject from beginning to end will be pretty likely to speak of that subject, when the time comes, with accuracy and in such a way as to make himself understood. He will march confidently and directly through the mazes of utterance because his mind has first explored the course and blazed the way. The first question, then, that the speaker should ask himself, in aiming for clearness in this twofold aspect, is this: " What is my thought? " not, " What is nearly my thought ? " not, " What is approximately my idea ? " not, "What will do?" but, "Precisely what is my thought?" Anything short of this is inadequate. Not until this question is answered is the speaker pre- pared to discuss his subject luminously and, therefore, effectively. After he has settled this matter satisfactorily, the General Qualities of Style 105 speaker is ready to put to himself the second question of his oratorical catechism; namely, "Does this precisely express my thought? " In finding an affirmative answer to this question he will illustrate a twofold process the process of choosing words that shall exactly fit his idea, and the process of constructing sentences that shall exactly express that idea. The former of these processes may necessitate a long and perhaps painful search a browsing, it may be, through the dry pastures of lists of synonyms, or a dragging of the net through the deep sea of ponderous dictionaries. But let not the explorer give over his search or withhold his hand till he has exhausted the resources of the language to find the one word that alone will fit his thought. The word is there; let him fish till he catch it. The latter process, that of clear sentence structure, may necessitate a casting and recasting, a modeling and remodeling, a turning upside down and inside out, of his sentences, before they are so shaped as most lucidly to express his thought. This may seem a slow process, but the end in this case justifies the means indeed demands the means the means themselves as well as the end are of value. Such painful toil is the price of excellence. Edmund Burke, it is said, rewrote some of his speeches no less than fifty times before they took the form in which he was willing that they should finally rest as the perfect expression of his thought. Thus through the long agony of persistent toil he endured the penalty that 106 The Making of an Oration must be paid if he would make of his works the noblest body of political philosophy in all the world, and at the same time carve his own name high in the temple of fame. The importance of care in the construction of sentences on the part of the speaker will be discussed more in detail in another place; just now the problem has to do with the choice of words, as an element of clearness, rather than specifically with the structure of sentences. The importance of care in the choice of words can- not be too strongly insisted upon. Without such care precision is out of the question. Ours is a composite vocabulary. It would seem as if the sons of men, that were scattered abroad " upon the face of all the earth " by the confusion at Babel, must have met in convention on the shores of Britain and, each contributing his own speech, had formed the English language. And when, on the Day of Pentecost, " Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Lybia about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians " heard " every man in his own tongue, wherein he was born," one can almost believe that the apostles secured that marvelous result simply by speaking English. Our language derives its wealth and power from a multiplicity of sources. In addition to its deep soil of Saxon words, its vocabulary is enriched by multitudes of derivations from the Latin and Greek, General Qualities of Style 107 from Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Ethiopian, Russian, North American Indian, French, Italian, Spanish, Ger- man, Danish, Scandinavian, Chinese, Japanese, and many other tongues. Consequently our language is ex- ceedingly rich in synonyms. We have many terms nearly alike in sense, yet with slightly different shades of mean- ing. Accurate command of the language requires careful study of such words in their derivation, history, and their use by standard authors. Precision in the use of language demands that there be no confusion of synonyms. To illustrate : suppose we wish to express some quality of soundness. Shall we say that the thing is " sound/' "perfect," "firm," "strong," "safe," "healthy," "se- cure," "trustworthy," "dependable," "reliable," "hon- orable," " honest," " orthodox," " legal," " valid," " thorough," or " complete " ? There is one word and only one that precisely fits the case. Until that one word is found the task is not ended. Want of precision is not infrequently due to the inac- curate choice of words that indicate a condition for those that tend to produce that condition. For instance, when the reformer proclaims very loudly and very persistently that cigarettes are " unhealthy," he probably means that smoking them is unhealthful. The cigarettes themselves may be in perfect health. Great care should, also, be exercised in avoiding expressions peculiar to one district but not recognized as good English wherever the language is spoken. We Americans are frequent offenders in this particular. For 108 The Making of an Oration example, the word " clever," as used by the best writers, signifies " skillful," " sagacious," " adroit." On this side of the Atlantic, however, it is frequently used as syn- onymous with "good-natured," "generous," "accom- modating." Thus, one may speak of his friend as an exceeding " clever fellow," when all he means is simply that his friend is liberal with his possessions. Another common and gross illustration of provincialism is found in the expression, " Where are we at? " This is so atrocious, that it would hardly seem worth mentioning here, were it not for the fact that a presumably expe- rienced speaker in the national house of representatives, a few years ago, attracted much attention to himself by using the phrase. A somewhat analogous provincialism is one often heard in a large section of the United States. This is the misuse of certain adverbs of place after the verb " want," without the corresponding infinitive be- tween. Thus we hear " Do you want in ? " " Do you want out?" ("on," "off," "up," "down"), and so on to the end of the list for " Do you want to come in ? " " go out? " " get on? " and the like. Students who have always lived in that part of the country where these expressions are common, often find difficulty in realizing that the expressions are not good English. How the pro- vincialism crept into the speech is uncertain, although it may have come from the German with whose idiom it precisely harmonizes. It is not necessary here to discuss at length the value to the speaker who would accurately express his thought General Qualities of Style 109 of a critical study of the meaning of words. The few illustrations above given sufficiently show that such study has supreme value. Dr. Austin Phelps thus emphasizes the importance of this patient groping for the right word. " Do we not," he asks, " often fret for the right word, which is just outside the closed door of memory? We know that there is such a word ; we know that it is pre- cisely the word we want ; no other can fill its place ; we saw it mentally a short half hour ago; but we beat the air for it now. The power we crave is the power to store words within reach, and hold them in mental reserve till they are wanted, and then restore them by the mental vibration of a thought. Nothing can give it to us but study and use of the language in long continued and critical practice." Again he says : " By such studies, when combined with scholarly use of language of a laborious profession, a man masters words singly, words in combinations, words in varieties of sense, words in figurative uses, and those forms of expression which always lie latent in original uses of one's mother tongue." Precision of style depends in no small measure upon the position of words and phrases. In an uninflected language like ours, the form of words is nothing; place is everything. This is peculiarly true of modifying expressions. Though seemingly not very important in themselves, a wrong position of one of these modifiers may render the meaning doubtful or even impart an unintentional meaning to an entire sentence. This law applies both to words and to collections of words. 110 The Making of an Oration Especially open to the danger of ambiguity are the words " also " and "only." In the line from Milton's sonnet on his blindness, " They also serve who only stand and wait," there is not precision, although one clause helps explain the other. The saying is so familiar that we rarely question its meaning, and of course some allowance must be made for the exigencies of poetry. Does the former clause mean, " They as well as others serve," or " They serve as well as perform some other act " ? In the latter clause, is the meaning, " Who are the only ones that stand and wait," or " Who stand and wait, but do nothing else " ? Equal care needs to be exercised in the use of phrases and clauses. When the young lawyer says, " I hear the assertion that my client should be fined with contempt," he evidently says what he does not mean. When the political orator proclaims that " the state should build a monument to every one of its dead soldiers made of shining brass or solid granite," he is not so complimentary as he intends to be. Want of precision is due more frequently, perhaps, to the ambiguous employment of personal pronouns than to any other single cause. A distinguished English lecturer said : " He was careful to speak of everyone with due reverence for their position." Mrs. Gaskill writes : " Each of the girls went up into their separate rooms to rest and calm themselves"; and even Addison has this sentence : " Each of the sexes should keep within its proper bounds, and content themselves to exult General Qualities of Style 111 within their respective districts." If such blunders can be made by the writer, how much more liable to commit them must be the speaker, and, consequently, how much more need has he of exercising that " eternal vigilance " which is the price of freedom from such errors ! Certain hastily edited newspapers are peculiarly susceptible to such faults. Even independent sentences may some- times be placed in such close relations to each other as to convey meanings altogether different from those intended by the writers. For illustration, a rural editor in giving an account of a religious convention got his description of the church building and the proceedings somewhat mixed when he wrote : " The convention was held in the beautiful audience room of the new Baptist church; and the opening sermon was preached by the Rev. Ebenezer White. It was eighty feet long and sixty- four wide, tinted in rich shades of brown, and heated with hot air." A similarly startling statement was that made by a good clergyman in Iowa, who advertised the Sunday services in this way: * * * " The subject of the morning sermon will be ' Hell.' Miss Jones and Miss Smith will sing that appropriate duet, ' Tell Mother, I '11 Be There.' " To meet the demands of clearness as related to his audience, the maker of a speech needs to ask himself one other question : " Do I so express my thought that my hearers must understand it as I wish them to under- stand it ? " Until he can answer this question in the affirmative, his work is not done. By every necessary 112 The Making of an Oration device, therefore, let him set forth his thought until he is sure that it is laid hold of by those that hear. So let him hold it up as a jewel, turning its various facets toward them at different angles of vision, that they may catch its full significance and see it scintillate and glow in all its splendor. (2) Some of the Means of Securing Perspicuity. Want of perspicuity is not infrequently due to an excessive proportion of classical derivations. These are valuable for purposes of precision, and for those fine distinctions that precision demands. But we need to remind ourselves again that oratory is preeminently popular discourse. It is for the plain people. The basis of the people's language is the homely, straightforward, virile Saxon. Consequently they will apprehend and appreciate more readily a speech whose vocabulary is largely Saxon. It is their native tongue. The King James version of the Bible comes as near to being the language of the common people, so far as its vocabulary is concerned, as any book which is the work of scholars that can be named. It is doubtless this reason, partly, that makes this version the hand- book of the English-speaking world. Take for illus- tration its rendition of the Lord's Prayer: Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for thine is the king- dom, and the power, and the glory forever. General Qualities of Style 113 Of the different words that make up this most beau- tiful of prayers, ten out of eleven are of Saxon vocabu- lary. This is probably about a fair proportion of Saxon words found in the speech of the average English- speaking people. Let anyone attempt to put the same thoughts and impressions into equivalent words of Latin or Greek origin, and note how much the passage loses of compactness, force, simplicity, sincerity, and music. Try the same experiment with the Twenty-third Psalm or with the Thirteenth Chapter of First Corinthians, and observe how the lifeblood has been drained from them so that these sublime passages are pale and flabby in comparison. It is especially desirable that the emphatic words be of Saxon origin. These are the terms to which atten- tion is particularly directed. Consequently they should be such that no effort will be needed on the part of the hearers to grasp their meaning. The connecting words and the modifying terms may then be safely left to interpret themselves from their connection in the sen- tences where they appear. Among American orators of the first rank, no one stands higher than Webster for the supreme qualities of transparency, majesty, and force of style. For these qualities, his speeches depend in no small measure upon the preponderance of Saxon words in his vocabulary. As an example of this power-giving quality take a pas- sage from his most famous speech, the immortal " Reply to Hayne " : 114 The Making of an Oration I shall not acknowledge that the honorable member goes before me in regard for whatever of distinguished talent, or distinguished character, South Carolina has produced. I claim part of the honor, I partake in the pride, of her great names. I claim them for countrymen, one and all, the Laurenses, the Rutledges, the Pinckneys, the Sumpters, the Marions, Americans all, whose fame is no more to be hemmed in by state lines, than their talents and patriotism were to be circumscribed within the same narrow limits. In their day and generation, they served and honored the coun- try, and the whole country. Him whose honored name the gentleman himself bears does he esteem me less capable of gratitude for his patriotism, or sympathy for his suffer- ings, than if his eyes had first opened upon the light of Massachusetts, instead of South Carolina? Does he suppose it in his power to exhibit a Carolina name so bright as to produce envy in my bosom? Increased gratification and delight, rather. I thank God, that, if I am gifted with little of the spirit which is able to raise mortals to the skies, I have yet none, as I trust, of that other spirit, which would drag angels down. Other passages might easily be found containing a still larger percentage of Saxon derivatives, and without exception such passages will be effective with an average hearer largely because they are presented in the every- day speech of the average hearer. Among English orators John Bright has no superior for the homely virility, the directness, the eloquent sim- plicity, of his style. These qualities are mostly due to the fact that he was one of the common people and spoke the language of the common people that is the plain Saxon of the great middle class of Englishmen. A General Qualities of Style 115 brief selection from one of his speeches, a speech delivered in Birmingham on the " Relation of Morality to Military Greatness," will show how large an element of his vocabulary was of Saxon origin: May I ask you, then, to believe, as I do most devoutly believe, that the moral law was not written for men alone in their individual character, but that it was written as well for nations, and for nations great as this of which we are citizens. If nations reject and deride that moral law, there is a penalty which will inevitably follow. It may not come at once, it may not come in our lifetime; but rely upon it, the great Italian poet is not a poet only, but a prophet, when he says: " The sword of Heaven is not in haste to smite, Nor yet doth linger." We have experience, we have beacons, we have landmarks enough. We know what the past has cost us, we know how much and how far we have wandered, but we are not left without a guide. It is true we have not, as an ancient people, had Urim and Thummim those miraculous gems on Aaron's breast from which to take counsel, but we have the unchangeable and eternal principles of the moral law to guide us, and only so far as we walk by that guidance can we be permanently a great nation, or our people a happy people. Of the different words in the above passage only about sixteen per cent are of foreign origin. The rest are of sturdy Saxon blood ; and to this fact is due much of the lucidness as well as the vigor and beauty of its style. The foregoing remarks by no means imply that the Greek and Roman derivations are to be banished from 116 The Making of an Oration oral discourse. Precision can sometimes be attained by their help alone. Yet while this is true, it must likewise be admitted, even insisted upon, that faithfulness to the hearer requires a preponderating proportion of Saxon terms. Such words must form, as already emphasized, the groundwork of speech. The Saxon element of our language has the sturdy and virile robustness of the northern people to whose lips it was the native speech; the Greek and Latin elements have the grace and sparkle of the southern nations, and contribute to our speech the ease, exactness, and brilliancy that were needed to supplement the stolidity of the Teutonic blood. Both elements are essential to make of English the greatest language for all purposes spoken by civilized nations today. Neither can be ignored by him who would use articulate speech as an instrument for controlling the wills of men. Daniel Webster has been mentioned as an orator whose speeches contained a large proportion of Saxon words. In striking contrast to Webster stands that other Massachusetts statesman and orator, Charles Sumner. Sumner was an excellent classical scholar, and not unnaturally his speeches were greatly influenced by that fact. Not only did he introduce frequent allusions to classical themes, but a large percentage of his vocabulary was of Greek and Latin origin. As a result, while his style is polished and precise, it sometimes lacks in ease of interpretation and thus violates the great principle of Herbert Spencer that the best style is that which lays General Qualities of Style 117 the least burden upon the hearers' interpreting power. The following extract from Sumner's speech on the " Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law " will serve to show what a large proportion of his words were of Greek and Latin origin: A severe law giver of early Greece vainly sought to secure permanence for his imperfect institutions by provid- ing that the citizen who at any time attempted their repeal or alteration should appear in the public assembly with a halter about his neck, ready to be drawn, if his proposition failed. A tyrannical spirit among us, in unconscious imita- tion of this antique and discarded barbarism, seeks to sur- round an offensive institution with similar safeguard. In the existing distemper of the public mind, and at this present juncture, no man can enter upon the service which I now undertake, without personal responsibility, such as can be sustained only by that sense of duty which, under God, is always our best support. That personal responsibility I accept. Before the senate and the country let me be held accountable for this act and for every word which I shall utter. Of the words in this extract at least one-third are of foreign derivation. While they are not technical terms, they are from the vocabulary of the scholar. They do not constitute the plain, simple speech of the man of every-day thought and association. What they gain in exactness, they fail to gain in robustness and ease of understanding on the part of the unlearned. (3) Relation of Clearness to the Speaker. In addi- tion to the immediate use for which they are pursued, the processes involved in the search for precision and 118 The Making of an Oration perspicuity are of inestimable value to the speaker him- self in their reactionary effect upon all his intellectual and literary habits. His powers grow by what they feed upon. (a) For one thing, such habits store the mind with a choice and copious vocabulary. Words are the orator's weapons, and every new word that he makes his own is an additional shaft in his quiver. Every search he makes in the dictionary for a synonym; every effort he makes to express his thought lucidly and effectively, adds some- thing to his linguistic possessions and to the readiness with which he can draw on his resources. (b) Another result of such methods will be found in the orator's command of a flexible style. In seeking expression that has the twofold virtue of precisely fitting the thought and of being at the same time adapted to the hearer, he has gained a familiarity with and a ready command of sentence forms, with the order of words and phrases, and with the figures and other devices by which clearness is attained, a familiarity such as will be of increasing service to him with every speech he makes. Whatever be the nature of the thought in hand, he knows almost instinctively, as a result of long and rigorous practice, what form of expression is best suited for the best utterance of that thought, for the given audience and occasion. (c) Perhaps the greatest value to the speaker of this dogged mining for clearness of expression is found in its reactionary effect upon his own mental habits. As General Qualities of Style 119 already noticed, clear speech necessitates clear thought. By persistent search for clear speech, therefore, one will of necessity acquire the habit of clear thinking. Speak- ing clearly will impel even compel him to think clearly, until, in time, clearness of thinking will grow into a sort of second nature will become to him almost as spontaneous as the act of breathing. (4) Some Aids to Clearness. It is not the present purpose to expound in detail all the devices that may be used for securing clearness. There are, however, certain forms, figures, and processes of such special advantage in this particular, and so peculiarly helpful to the public speaker, that attention may appropriately be called to them. Sometimes the first utterance of a thought may not be understood, even when the expression perfectly fits the idea. The thought itself may be difficult to grasp, it may be new to the audience, or it may be stated in so general or so abstract a manner that its meaning may be lost, unless that meaning be reinforced and illuminated in some way. In such cases the wise speaker will seek to make his ideas plain and interesting by every device in his power. He will set forth the meaning of his general statements by particular illustrations; will explain his abstract declarations by concrete exemplifications; will amplify and vivify the expression of his thought until it is so tangible and luminous that it cannot fail of being understood in all its significance. Good illustrations of the foregoing methods of securing 120 The Making of an Oration clearness may be found in the works of any of the great speech makers of the world. The more impassioned types, especially, are full of examples. Almost any speech of that " great agitator," Wendell Phillips, will furnish abundant evidence. It was a common practice of Mr. Phillips to proclaim what he regarded as an important thought in the form of a short, perhaps startling, epigram- matic statement of a general truth, and then, in a series of brief, striking sentences, give concrete applications of that truth, mingled with simile and allusion, and impart a definiteness and meaning to his thought, until it would glow and burn before the minds of his hearers with a brilliancy and significance that could not be obscured. Example I. In the course of his speech in Faneuil Hall, on the eight-hour movement, in 1865, he said : We are ruled by brains. You might as well try to roll back Niagara, as to try to rule New England against her ideas. In this quotation, if the speaker had stopped with the brief, general statement of the truth without enlargement or figure, its importance would have passed unnoticed; but to make sure that its significance would be appre- hended he gave it concreteness and force by the striking analogy of Niagara. 2. In another place he says : You need not despair if truth is on your side. You must have the truth, and must work for it. There are three sorts of men, those who have the truth, but lock it up ; those who have it not, but work like the devil against it; and those who have it, and force it on the willing conscience of the nation. General Qualities of Style 121 It is an important truth that the speaker affirms in this example, but if he were to stop with its bare assertion, its full importance would not be grasped by the average hearer; so the speaker applies the truth by his classifi- cation of men in order to show that those who battle for truth will win a way for it in spite of even cowardly indifference and fiendish opposition. 3. In his discourse on " Christianity a Battle, not a Dream," the same speaker declares: The religion today has too many pulpits. Men say we have not churches enough. We have too many. Two hun- dred thousand men in New York never enter a church. There is not room. Thank God for that ! * * * Of these fifty or sixty pulpits in this city, we don't need more than ten or twenty. They will accommodate all who should hear preaching. The rest should be in the state prison talking to the inmates; they should be in North Street, laboring there among the poor and depraved. Their worship should be put- ting their gifts to use, not sitting down and hearing for the hundredth time a repetition of arguments against theft. There will never be any practical Christianity until we cease to teach it and let men learn to practice. It is not the present purpose to discuss the truth or falseness of Wendell Phillips' idea; the only purpose is to show how he made the utterance of that idea effective. Beginning with a startling and apparently heretical affirmation, he gains at once the attention of his hearers. He then proceeds to explain his meaning with concrete illustrations and applications of his thought, and closes with an aphorism in which the speaker's whole idea is 122 The Making of an Oration strikingly set forth in a new form. Thus did one of the most eloquent orators of modern times exemplify the maxim of South, that it is the business of the orator to set forth his thought so as to make it " strike and stick." What has been said with reference to concrete expres- sion as an aid to clearness, suggests another method that is perhaps of equal value in promoting the same end. This is the quality of copiousness. Terse, condensed, epigrammatic sentences are striking and sparkling, but a speech made up of such sentences would not be a good speech. Its effect would be like that of riding over a corduroy road. It would be lacking in ease. When there is a jolt in every sentence, the style cannot fail to be wearisome. It would be lacking also in transparency, and especially in impressiveness ; and would thus defeat its own purpose. What is good, used in moderation, is destructive when employed to excess. In accordance with this principle, an epigram may be useful to an orator by illuminating his thought with its electric gleam, but a speech made of epigrams, by its very brilliancy, would be blinding and confusing. The meaning in its fullness would not be grasped by the hearer, and if the speaker's whole thought and feeling be not sympathetically realized, what is the use of his speaking at all? Therefore, it frequently happens that the orator must so expand and expound his thought, so amplify and enlarge upon every important idea that it cannot fail to attract the notice of the hearer and fill as large an angle of his vision as its relative importance demands. The speeches and other General Qualities of Style 123 writings of Edmund Burke abound in illustrations of this principle. Not infrequently he would begin a passage with a brief, sententious statement of a general truth expressive of an important political principle, or with a far-reaching maxim of practical philosophy, and then would proceed to amplify, illustrate, and apply the prin- ciple until its meaning and importance could not fail to be apprehended and felt by the hearers. Sometimes, on the other hand, he would pursue the inductive method, and, after setting forth his facts and ideas in detail, would then gather up the whole discussion into a single brilliant epigram, through whose lightning flash flamed his whole thought, burning its truth upon the imagination and memory, or hurtling like a thunderbolt over the battlefield of debate to the confusion of his adversaries. But whatever order was observed, the process illustrates the value of copious development. In his speech before the electors of Bristol, Burke begins one passage of his justification in this way: " Gentlemen, the condition of our nature is such that we buy our blessings at a price." Had he stopped with this statement, the importance of the truth enunciated or its application to the case then in hand would not have been appreciated by his auditors. But he does not stop there. He goes on: The Reformation, one of the greatest periods of human improvement, was a time of trouble and confusion. The vast structure of superstition and tyranny which had been for ages in rearing, and which was combined with the inter- 124 The Making of an Oration est of the great and of the many; which was molded into the laws, the manners, and civil institutions of nations, and blended with the frame and policy of states, could not be brought to the ground without a fearful struggle; nor could it fall without a violent concussion of itself and all about it. So he proceeds to illustrate and apply the great truth enunciated in the first sentence, until the importance of that truth occupies its full place in the hearers' minds, looming high and large till its rugged peaks prick their sky and fill the horizon of their thought. Closely akin to copiousness of expression as a method of securing clearness may be mentioned the device of repetition. By repetition, as Professor Genung well says, " is not meant mere reiteration." It is rather the expansion of a thought by expressing its different phases and shades of meaning in other language than that em- ployed in its first utterance, by turning it this way and holding it that way so as to let the hearers view it in its various aspects. Thus each repetition not only repeats the idea but adds something to the idea, so that its mean- ing and significance, with every step, becomes more definite and more luminous. This device serves both to impart clearness by setting forth the real nature of the thought and to add force by giving that thought weight and concreteness. Skillfully managed, this is one of the most useful implements of the orator's art. The speeches of the elder Pitt furnish many illustra- tions of such oratorical repetition. Thus, in his speech " On Removing Troops From Boston," the " Great Com- General Qualities of Style 125 moner," as Lord Chatham was called by his admirers, said: But it is not repealing this act of parliament, it is not I 2 repealing a piece of parchment, that can restore America i to our bosom. You must repeal her fears and her resent- 2 ments, and you may then hope for her love and gratitude. Further along in the same speech he says : i i We shall be forced ultimately to retract; let us retract 2 while we can, not when we must. I say we must necessarily i i undo these violent, oppressive acts. They must be repealed. i 2 You will repeal them. I pledge myself for it, that you will I 2 in the end repeal them. I stake my reputation on it. I will 2 consent to be taken for an idiot if they are not finally i repealed. In his speech " On an Address to the Throne," the same orator has this passage : Who is the man, that in addition to these disgraces and mischiefs to our army, has dared to authorize and associate i to our arms the tomahawk and scalping knife of the savage? i to call into civilized alliance the wild and inhuman savage of the woods ? to delegate to the merciless Indian the defense 126 The Making of an Oration of disputed rights and to wage the horrors of barbarous war against our brethren? Webster frequently made use of repetition as a means of amplification and clearness. In a great speech deliv- ered at New York, where he was the guest of honor, he used this language : i I would not willingly be a prophet of ill. I most devoutly I 2 wish to see a better state of things; and I believe the repeal of the treasury order would tend very much to bring about i that better state of things. And I am of opinion, gentlemen, 2 2 that the order will be repealed. I think it must be repealed. 2 I think the east, west, north, and south will demand its repeal. But, gentlemen, I feel it my duty to say, that, if I should be disappointed in this expectation, I see no immediate relief i to the distresses of the community. I greatly fear, even, i i that the worst is not yet. I look for severer distresses; for i i i extreme difficulties in exchange; for far greater inconven- i iences in remittance, and for a sudden fall in prices. Our condition is one which is not to be tampered with, and the 2 repeal of the treasury order, being something which govern- ment can do, and which will do good, the public voice is 2 2 right in demanding that repeal. It is true that, if repealed 2 2 now, the repeal will come late. Nevertheless its repeal or General Qualities of Style 127 abrogation is a thing to be insisted on, and pursued, till it shall be accomplished * * * It should be the constant 2 demand of all true Whigs " Rescind the illegal treasury order, etc." In all the immediately preceding illustrations, the repe- titions serve not only to make evident what the orator means, but to give that meaning added effectiveness and power. (B) THE USE OF FIGURES AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIVE EXPRESSIONS In those indirect forms of expression called tropes or figures of speech we have a treasury of oratorical riches, whose value can hardly be overstated. From its very nature as oral discourse, whose purpose is to move the will on a particular occasion, the speech must be grasped in all its significance at a single hearing. Much of its effectiveness depends upon the extent and direction with which it kindles and guides the emotions and the imagi- nation. In no less degree than poetry, therefore, must it be luminous, interesting, and picturesque. Whatever other qualities it possess, it must be vivid. Consequently, perspicuity may justify and even demand a freer use of those figures that promote such qualities than the strict needs of precision alone would warrant. Although the nature of oratory justifies and finds valuable the free use of figures, care should be taken to use them only when they will promote some legitimate purpose for which the speech is given. They should 128 The Making of an Oration never be employed for their own sake. The mere fact that a figure is good and attractive in itself should never lead the speaker to go out of his way in order to find a chance to use it. Never " lug in " a figure. Never let it obtrude itself upon the attention and by so doing obscure the real thought or proper feeling with reference to the " object." These are good maxims to observe. If the figure will help you on your way, make use of it. More than this is vanity. The underlying principle of those figures that promote clearness is found in the quality of comparison. By placing a relatively unfamiliar idea alongside one that is better known, or by measuring an abstract or general truth with a concrete or particular one, the speaker im- parts a definiteness to his expression that otherwise might be impossible. He thus throws a searchlight upon his thought in whose splendor that thought stands out sharp and luminous before the hearers' mental vision. It was a recognition of this principle, whether she knew it or not, that led a devout old Scotch woman to say to the eloquent Dr. Guthrie : " Pastor, I like the likes o' your sermons best, for I can understan* them a'." It goes almost without saying that the figures which promote clearness, at the same time add force and beauty, while the figures peculiarly adapted to secure these latter qualities are likewise promotive of clearness. Of all the figures that help the acquisition of clearness it is not necessary now to speak. It will be important General Qualities of Style 129 to refer to a few only which are peculiarly useful to the public speaker. Among these the first that merits attention is the simile. If the orator is not sure that he is understood, he may liken his thought to a more familiar idea belonging to a different category. Granting that the comparison is truly and skillfully drawn, the hearer at once says to him- self : " If that is what he means, I now understand him," and not improbably there will also come into his con- sciousness the admission : " The speaker is right ; I agree with him." For conviction not infrequently has enlightenment for its chief cornerstone. Daniel Webster was very skillful in his use of this figure. By it he would sometimes draw a picture glowing with all the radiance of a painter's imagination. So he not only gave to his expression increased beauty, but he imparted to his thought a new significance. In his eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, he says : Like the mildness, the serenity, the continuing benignity of a summer's day, they have gone down with slow-descend- ing, grateful, long-lingering light; and now that they are beyond the visible margin of the world, good omens cheer us from the bright track of their fiery car. Sometimes, on the other hand, he makes this figure serve not only to illumine his thought but to have all the effectiveness of an argument. Thus in his " Reply to Hayne," by the use of a comparison of a lower order than that to which the object itself belongs, he made clear his own thought and in doing so he at the same time 130 The Making of an Oration utterly demolished and made contemptible the argument of his antagonist. He is referring to Colonel Haynes' genealogy of the Federal party. He says : He traced the flow of federal blood down through suc- cessive ages and centuries till he brought it into the veins of the American tories * * * From the tories he fol- lowed it to the federalists; and as the federal party was broken up, and there was no possibility of transmitting it farther on this side of the Atlantic, he seems to have discov- ered that it has gone off collaterally, though against all the canons of descent, into the ultras of France, and finally become extinguished, like exploded gas, among the adhe- rents of Dom Miguel. The great pulpit orator, Henry Ward Beecher, was also very skillful in the use of the simile. In his famous speech at Manchester, England, during the Civil War, when speaking of the abolition of slavery in the state of New York, he said : The slaves were emancipated without compensation, on the spot, to take effect gradually, class by class. But after a trial of half a score of years the people found this gradual emancipation was intolerable. It was like gradual amputa- tion. Later in the same speech he said : It (the constitution) does not recognize the doctrine of slavery in any way whatever. It was a fact ; it lay before the ship of state, as a rock lies in the channel of the ship when she goes into harbor; and because a ship steers round a rock, does it follow that the rock is in the ship? Thus he gave to his thought a luminous significance General Qualities of Style 131 and concreteness that could, perhaps, have been so well attained in no other way. Even more than simile is the metaphor an aid to clear- ness and concreteness. This is, perhaps, the most com- mon figure in the language. Our speech is full of it; indeed so common and spontaneous is it that someone has said that language itself is but a collection of faded metaphors. It is a figure common to all grades of cul- ture, all classes of people, all walks of life. It is used and appreciated by the scholar in the closet and the hoodlum in the street; by the preacher in the pulpit and the criminal in the prison ; by the patriarch full of years and of wisdom and the child prattling to his mother or screaming to the heedless ears of his playmates at their games. Like the simile, the metaphor is based on the principle of comparison; but, unlike the simile, this figure implies the comparison rather than expresses it. It is not only equally promotive of clearness, but it has the added virtue of greater strength and attractiveness. Various reasons for this have been suggested. For one thing, of course, it is briefer than the related figure, and brevity always tends to strength. But still more is the figure forcible and suggestive because it lifts the material into the region of the spiritual, or gives to the spiritual the definiteness and concreteness of the material. Thus it imparts to the abstract, qualities that appeal to the mind through the senses, and gives to ideas that otherwise would seem gross and commonplace, a meaning and picturesqueness 132 The Making of an Oration that make them appeal at once to the understanding and the imagination. To the orator, especially, is this figure of great value. It helps him to reveal his whole thought and feeling in a single utterance. It is a lightning flash which serves at once to illumine and intensify an idea that otherwise might be obscure and insignificant in the cloudy dullness of literal statement. That brilliant southerner, Henry W. Grady, was a master of metaphor. In his great speech " The New South " we find examples, only one or two of which may be quoted here. When speaking of the results of the Civil War, he said : We fought hard enough to know that we were whipped, and in perfect frankness accept as final the arbitrament of the sword to which we appealed. The South found her jewel in the toad's head of defeat. Again he said : We have sowed towns and cities in the place of theories. And again: We have smoothed the path to the southward, wiped out the place where Mason and Dixon's line used to be, and hung out our latchstring to you and yours. And again: We have let economy take root. Now it will be noticed that in all these cases the figures are so closely connected with the sentiment as to seem a part of it. Indeed they are a part of it, and spring General Qualities of Style 133 from it so naturally and inevitably that one does not think of them as figures at all until he scans them with more than customary closeness. Webster used this figure, also, with much skill as well as with great frequency. In his address on " The Char- acter of Washington," he said : Washington had attained to his manhood when that spark of liberty was struck out in his own country which has since kindled into a flame and shot its beams over the earth. If one would realize the value of the figure let him put the thought of this sentence into plain and unfigured language, and he will realize that all the life and luminous- ness are gone. We find other illustrations in the speeches of George William Curtis, who employed this figure with great felicity. In his address before the alumni of Brown University at the commencement in 1882, entitled "The Leadership of Educated Men," we find such examples as the following: Leadership is the power of kindling a sympathy and trust which will eagerly follow. It is the genius that molds the lips of the stony Memnon to such sensitive life that the first sunbeam of opportunity strikes them into music. In the latter part of this example we have, of course, the principle of allusion introduced, a most valuable figure that usually involves the metaphor. In the same discourse, Mr. Curtis has occasion to allude to Cavour, the statesman of Italian unification, and speaks of him in this way: 134 The Making of an Oration His enthusiasm of conviction made no calculation of defeat, because while he could be baffled he could not be beaten. It was a stream flowing -from a mountain height, which might be delayed or diverted, but knew instinctively that it must reach the sea. In all such cases the value of the metaphor is threefold : it not only makes clear by identifying an idea that might not otherwise be very obvious with one well known, but at the same time it makes the thought striking and attrac- tive by appealing to the imagination. While figures are very useful in giving clearness, at- tractiveness, and force to language, the speaker needs to emphasize the caution against the danger of confusing them. Mixed figures are as intoxicating to the mind as mixed drinks are said to be to the body. Sometimes a sentence may be grammatically correct and rhythmically attractive but utterly nonsensical because of the confusion resulting from this fault. For illustration, a student once, in a college exercise, gave utterance to this startling declaration : " This evil invades every department of society, and its upas shade blights the state at its fountain, while its evil machina- tions strike at the very tap root of our social life." Surely any evil that would do all those things must be horrible indeed ! Another student declared : " Wendell Phillips had placed his hand to the plow and would not turn back till the last gun was fired." What a strange mixture of agriculture and military science! Still another student in the same institution conveyed to his greatly interested, General Qualities of Style 135 if not enraptured, audience the information that " Our influence has tended to make them arise and desire to yoke their slow steed of conservatism to our fast flying bird of progress." That would make a strange team. It would drive better, however, if the young man whose genius invented it were to pluck a few feathers out of the tail of his bird and make of them wings for his horse, although it might be doubtful whether even so he could make of his steed a Pegasus capable of soaring to as great heights as would his harnessed bird. His " bird of progress " must have been a goose, and a wild one at that. Such a grotesque confusion of language is due of course to an equally grotesque confusion of thought. As al- ready remarked, the first secret of clear speaking and clear writing is clear thinking. The one law that the speaker needs to enforce with reference to himself when using metaphor is the homely old maxim : " Have your thoughts about you." The habit of mixing metaphors is frequently illustrated in a certain type of cheap discourse that seems to mis- take the bombastic speech of demagogues and the swelling paragraphs of sensational newspapers for eloquence. When such a paper says : " We see now that old war- horse of Democracy waving his hand from the deck of the sinking ship," we cannot help feeling that it would be more consistent to represent him as flirting his tail or kicking up his heels as the ship goes down ; and when the socialist orator shouts : " The chariot of Revolution is 136 The Making of an Oration rolling and gnashing its teeth as it rolls/' we are con- strained to wonder what sort of a mongrel wild beast Revolution has harnessed. This atrocious habit is closely related to and almost identical with the common fault of indulging in " fine writing." Such bombast, however, may correct itself by its very extravagance. When a very young writer, in at- tempting to instruct the world with reference to the atrocities of war, says, " We think of the monstrous engine of destruction, which with one awful belch may mow a path through a company of men ten miles in the distance, built to destroy God's masterpiece on earth, man," we can forgive the young genius not only because he is young but because he has made a sentence so bad rhetorically as to make criticism unnecessary. The metaphor is likewise a great promoter of force as well as of clearness. Various reasons have been advanced in explanation of this fact. For one thing the metaphor is briefer than the simile, and other things being equal brevity always conduces to vigor. The form also in this figure is more closely identified with the thought, so that it flashes the whole conception before the mind as a sur- prise ; while the simile, by the use of the word or phrase of comparison prepares the mind for the idea. The metaphor gives concreteness to the idea and imparts to it a picturesqueness that makes what in itself is abstract and intangible actual and material so as to appeal to the mind through the senses. It thus makes the unseen visible, the abstract concrete; it gives to ideas form and General Qualities of Style 137 solidity and speed, so that they strike the minds of the hearers as with the suddenness and impact of a projectile to make those ideas " strike and stick." Still further, a metaphor has force, because it reaches out, as it were, and lifts the merely material out of the realm of the visible world into that of the spiritual. Thus it appeals to the imagination as well as to the understanding. So, like the work of the poet, this figure lifts the imagination of both speaker and hearer above its usual level and makes them live " in worlds unrealized." Metaphor is often involved in other forms of indirect speech, and its effectiveness is enchanced by the added force it receives through the union of its own virtues with the virtues of some other idea to which it is wed. This fact is frequently exemplified in the use of allusion. When Webster said of Alexander Hamilton, in referring to that statesman's service as Secretary of the Treasury in Washington's cabinet : " He smote the rock of the na- tional resources, and the abundant stream of revenue gushed forth; he touched the dead corpse of the public credit, and it sprang to its feet," how much more forcible and suggestive the idea is, not only because of the con- creteness imparted by the metaphor but because of the beauty and aptness due to the allusion ! As if lighted up by a blaze of midday splendor the intervening centuries are illumined and at one stride the imagination leaps beyond them and has a vision of the prophet smiting the dry rock of the desert and bringing forth thence a fountain of water for the salvation of a perishing people. 138 The Making of an Oration The foregoing example suggests the value of allusion to the orator. Not only beauty but clearness and force are added to the plain expression by such indirect presen- tation of the thought. The law of comparison either similarity or contrast is involved in allusion as well as in the figures of simile, metaphor, and antithesis. When Tennyson makes the soul, in his poem, " The Palace of Art," say : O God-like isolation which art mine, I can but count thee perfect gain, What time I watch the darkening droves of swine That range on yonder plain. In filthy sloughs they roll a prurient skin, They graze and wallow, breed and sleep; And oft some brainless devil enters in, And drives them to the deep he enhances both the meaning and the vigor of the expression by the figure likening the people to swine and by the allusion to the miracle. Another example of the same principle occurs a little further on in the same poem, in the stanza: When she would think, where'er she turned her sight, The airy hand confusion wrought, Wrote " Mene, mene," and divided quite The kingdom of her thought. Wendell Phillips was exceedingly happy in his use of allusion. A single illustration will be sufficient to show not only his skill, but also to exemplify the value of this figure. The quotation is from Mr. Phillips' speech on General Qualities of Style 139 " Public Opinion " delivered before the Antislavery So- ciety of Massachusetts in January, 1852. The anti- slavery party, including Mr. Phillips, was greatly incensed at Daniel Webster for his "Seventh of March Speech," that they believed was a bid for the nomination to the presidency by seeking to curry favor of the slave holders. In the speech Mr. Phillips paid his respects to Webster, loading him with obloquy and contumely. In the course of the passage in which he especially refers to the great statesman and orator he says: He (Webster) gave himself up into the lap of the Delilah of slavery, for the mere promise of a nomination, and the greatest hour of the age was bartered away, not for a mess of pottage, but for the promise of a mess of pottage, a promise, thank God ! which is to be broken. I say, it is not often that Providence permits the eyes of twenty millions of thinking people to behold the fall of another Lucifer, from the very battlements of Heaven, down into that " lower deep of the lowest deep" of hell. On such a text, how effective the sermon! In this passage there are no less than four allusions including the quotation. The value of allusion depends, of course, upon its source being understood. When an orator refers to a corrupt city government as an Augean stable that needs to be cleansed, the allusion is without significance unless the hearers are familiar with the Greek myth of Hercules and the mighty task that was assigned him. So unless the reader readily recalls the dramatic story of Belshazzar's feast, the force of the reference in the last stanza quoted 140 The Making of an Oration above from " The Palace of Art " will not only be lost but will be positively confusing. It is often wise, there- fore, for the orator to introduce enough explanation of the original story or event to make sure that the basis of the allusion is understood and its application to the par- ticular matter in hand is apprehended and appreciated. Antithesis is a figure that makes use of the law of com- parison by way of contrast or opposites. When one idea is placed over against another not only unlike but an- tagonistic to itself and better understood than itself, its meaning is not only made clear but emphasized. The peculiar quality of each member of the comparison is intensified by standing it over against its opposite. An- tithesis may find exemplification in words that are placed in contrast, or in sentences so constructed as to make op- posite ideas emphasize each other by the very fact of their juxtaposition. The mountain seems higher when it is viewed from the valley at its foot. The law of antithesis is much broader, however, in its application than in the case of single words. It ex- tends, as well, to sentences, entire paragraphs and even whole productions. It is the underlying principle of the balanced sentence, in which part of speech contrasts with part of speech, phrase balances phrase, and clause cor- responds to clause. Macaulay dearly loved a good antithesis. In his pas- sion for clearness and vividness of language he often found this principle of great service, although his liking for the figure sometimes led him to say a little more General Qualities of Style 141 than strict adherence to his thought would justify. For instance when he said, in his famous description of the Puritans : " The Puritans hated bear-baiting, not be- cause it gave pain to the bear but because it gave pleasure to the spectators," he made a very striking sentence, but at the same time he condemned the Puritans too strongly and also, without intending it, praised them for objecting to brutalizing the spectators by torturing the brute. The same fundamental principle of contrast underlies the fol- lowing characterization of the Puritans, in which Macau- lay sets forth another quality of their attitude toward mankind. This passage shows the advantages of con- trast without the disadvantages such as the sentence quoted above reveals : " On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked down with contempt: for they esteemed themselves rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language, nobles by right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposi- tion of a mightier hand." In this splendid sentence the writer not only secures emphasis for his idea by the con- trast he institutes between the first clause of the passage and all that follows, but he quickens the imagination by the same device and at the same time satisfies the ear by the cadence and music of the sentence as a whole. Lincoln frequently made use of the principle of con- trast, and some of his most famous passages depend for their effectiveness, so far as the mere manner of expres- sion is concerned, largely upon the skillful employment of this law. A striking example of this fact is found in 142 The Making of an Oration the Gettysburg address ; and it will be a profitable study for the student to examine this remarkable piece of ora- tory in detail and to note the extent to which its signif- icance depends upon the way in which the speaker in this immortal address makes word stand over against word and idea against idea. A few of the more prominent illustrations will be seen from the following arrangement in parallel lines: Four score and seven now Our fathers we We have come to dedicate. . . .those who gave their lives We cannot . . consecrate the brave men . . have consecrated The world will little note but it can never forget nor long remember What we say here what they did here We have come to dedicate a portion of that field .... . . . . It is for us to be dedicated and so on in much more intricate and subtile relations, the whole wonderful speech is permeated, saturated, made emphatic and beautiful not only by the thought but by the way in which the thoughts in their varying aspects are made to help one another by thus being marshaled over against one another as if in contrasting columns. The value of contrast as a means of both clearness and force can hardly be overemphasized. Burke often, es- pecially in his more impassioned moments, freely availed himself of the advantage of this construction. In his first speech in the trial of Warren Hastings, after giving General Qualities of Style 143 an account of the offenses for which the accused is brought to trial before the House of Lords, he bursts into the following terrific invective : He is never corrupt, but he is cruel; he never dines with comfort, but where he is sure to create a famine. He never robs from the loose superfluity of standing greatness; he devours the fallen, the indigent, the necessitous. His extor- tion is not like the generous rapacity of the princely eagle, who snatches away the living, struggling prey; he is a vul- ture, who feeds upon the prostrate, the dying, and the dead. Wendell Phillips often used the law of contrast with tremendous effect, especially in his antislavery speeches 'Used it sometimes as a lash to sting and flay his an- tagonists for what he regarded as their shortcomings, sometimes as a trumpet to rouse and quicken his follow- ers and fellow abolitionists to action. At a meeting in Boston in 1861, just after the attack upon Fort Sumter, he made a great speech in which he urged support of the war, because he saw in the war the promise of freedom for the negro. In the beginning of his address he said : I rejoice before God today for every word that I have spoken counseling peace; but I rejoice also with an espe- cially profound gratitude, that now, the first time in my anti- slavery life, I speak under the stars and stripes, and welcome the tread of Massachusetts men marshaled for war. No matter what the past has been or said; today the slave asks God for a sight of this banner, and counts it the pledge of his redemption. Hitherto it may have meant what you thought, or what I did; today it represents sovereignty and justice. 144 The Making of an Oration Further along he said, " The North thinks * * * The South dreams ; " again he said : " The cannon shot against Fort Sumter has opened the only door out of this hour. There were but two. One was compromise; the other was battle." And so he went on with a speech of great, almost surpassing eloquence ; and all through it he made frequent use of contrast to give light and point to his ideas. One of the most effective devices for securing desirable qualities of style is found in the rhetorical question. This is a question given under such conditions and in such re- lations that it carries with it its own answer. The speaker is so confident of his position, so certain of its impreg- nability, that he is willing to challenge opposition. It is a strong and striking method of affirming; and like all really strong forms of speech it is at the same time an aid to clearness. The value of the question as a means of giving movement and adding interest to the discourse is not always, apparently, appreciated. A whole para- graph, an entire speech, is often saved from dullness and failure by the insertion at the right place and in the right manner of a question. A long series of affirmations may become " stale, flat, and unprofitable," tending to mental drowsiness and defeat, which may be redeemed from their stolidity by a question or two, and be given life and power by simply changing the sentence from an asser- tion to an interrogation. This is an attractive form of speech, but for this very reason it should be used with moderation and only when the thought and feeling justify. General Qualities of Style 145 In impassioned speech, in the expression of strong con- viction, in vigorous and intense reasoning this figure is an invaluable possession. Senator Hoar, in his speech on the Philippine Ques- tion, made frequent and effective use of interrogation so effective that each query had the force of an argu- ment. He said: There were no public lands in the Philippine Islands, the property of Spain, which we have bought and paid for. The mountains of iron and the nuggets of gold and the hemp- bearing fields do you propose to strip the owners of their rightful title? * * * Will any man go to the Philip- pine Islands to dwell, except to help govern the people, or to make money by a temporary residence? * * * Is it credible that any American statesman, that any American senator, that any intelligent American citizen anywhere, two years ago, could have been found to affirm that a proceeding like that of the Paris treaty could give a valid title to sov- ereignty over a people situated as were the people of those islands? * * * International law has something to say about this matter. Will the American people, for the first time in their history, disregard its august mandates? So it will be noticed that all through this great speech, the distinguished orator made use of the interrogation to quicken interest, to drive home his arguments, to enforce his appeals. In a speech, likewise on the Philippine Question, but on the opposite side from that assumed by Senator Hoar, we find Senator Beveridge also using many examples of the rhetorical question. In one place he said: 146 The Making of an Oration What shall history say of us? Shall it say that we re- nounced that holy trust, left the savage to his base condition, the wilderness to the reign of waste, deserted duty, aban- doned glory, forgot our sordid profit even, because we feared our strength and read the charter of our powers with the doubter's eye and the quibbler's mind? Shall it say that, called by events to captain and command the proudest, ablest, purest race of history's noblest work, we declined the great commission ? In another place we find this passage : Do you tell me that it will cost us money? When did Americans ever measure duty by financial standards? Do you tell me of the tremendous toil required to overcome the vast difficulties of our task? What mighty work for the world, for humanity, even for ourselves, has ever been done with ease? One cannot help feeling that there is a little of the " spread eagle " type of oratory in the passages from Mr. Beveridge's speech, but even so, such a method of ex- pressing his thought with its sharp series of questions, is tremendously effective. Even if we grant it to be bun- combe, it is buncombe of a rather high class ; and it also illustrates the value of the rhetorical question to the orator. Patrick Henry used interrogation very skillfully. His most famous oration that closing with the words, " give me liberty or give me death ! " may well be declaimed by every American schoolboy. Mr. Henry's biographer, William Wirt, is authority for the accuracy of this cele- brated speech. The following quotations will serve to General Qualities of Style 147 illustrate at once the skill with which the great orator of the Revolution employed the question as an instrument of both argument and persuasion, and the savage vigor and almost superhuman eloquence with which he made the appeal to the will. It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal sal- vation ? * * * Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? * * * What means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? * * * Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have ? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death ! In Patrick Henry's speech on " The Adoption of the Constitution " we find another passage which well illus- trates his habit of making an argument telling by the use of the interrogation : Is there a disposition in the people of this country to revolt against the dominion of the laws? Has there been a single 148 The Making of an Oration tumult in Virginia? Have not the people of Virginia, when laboring under the severest pressure of accumulated dis- tresses, manifested the most cordial acquiescence in the execution of the laws? What could be more awful than their unanimous acquiescence under general distresses? Is there any revolution in Virginia ? Whither is the spirit of America gone? Whither is the genius of America fled? Whatever may be the opinion of the passage quoted from the address of Senator Beveridge, one can not help believing that the interrogations from the speeches of Patrick Henry sprung from profound convictions, from intense feeling and purpose, and from an overflowing heart. There is a genuineness about them that is unmis- takable ; they ring true, and so they are effective. Epigram is another figure that some speakers have em- ployed with great effectiveness. This may be generally defined as the expression of an important idea in a brief, striking form, that may also contain an element of sur- prise or a seeming contradiction. It has, therefore, un- derlying it the principle of antithesis or contrast, and it thus gives vigor and meaning to the thought. When one describes a good woman, who finds her work in deeds of service for the relief of suffering, by saying that " she is never happy unless she is miserable," he gives point to his idea by this epigrammatical way of expressing him* self. The force of epigram may sometimes be given to an expression in which an unexpected turn is given to the thought by the employment of a word or phrase different from what is naturally anticipated. An instance would be the following definition : " A college professor is a General Qualities of Style 149 man with a vast store of rare and useless knowledge which he employs for the purpose of making the lives of col- lege students miserable." Edmund Burke often made use of the epigram as a climax to a passage of close reasoning or of detailed ex- position, thus summing up the substance of a whole para- graph in a single sparkling sentence and making his idea striking and rememberable by the novelty and suggestive- ness of its expression. Sometimes, on the other hand, he would attract attention and arouse curiosity by beginning a passage with the epigrammatic statement, and then pro- ceed to expound and elaborate that statement in detail to show its application to the case under consideration. Wendell Phillips, also, was much given to this form of speech. He was preeminently a controversialist among the orators of modern days. He was never quite at his best unless he was assailing some abuse or attacking some evil or flaying some antagonist or pleading for some re- form. Then his language blazed with an intensity of conviction that made it a consuming fire, scorching, with- ering, burning to ashes the logic of the falsehood that he opposed. And, yet, he was not a brutal fighter; he was, rather, a scholarly gentleman a graduate of Harvard, embodying in his own person the polish and culture of that modern Athens. He did not use the bludgeon of a barbarian, nor even the great sword of a Richard, whose effectiveness depended upon the main strength of the hand that grasped it; he wielded, rather, a Damascus blade, that glittered and flashed and scintillated with 150 The Making of an Oration dazzling brilliancy, and whose razor edges cut so keenly and smoothly that his adversary hardly realized that he was wounded, until he attempted to defend himself, when at the first movement he discovered that he was decap- itated and his severed head rolled bleeding at his own feet. It was the language, rather than the manner of speaking, that gave to the oratory of Wendell Phillips its appalling intensity. When thoroughly aroused and at his best, his thoughts often came in short, snappy, piercing sentences, with a sting like that of a whip. Then he often spoke in epigram. The following examples taken almost at random from some of his speeches will illustrate his skill in the use of this figure and, at the same time, the value of the figure itself as a device for making thought clear and vigorous : 1. I cannot help God govern His world by telling lies, or doing what my conscience deems unjust. 2. Free thought in the long run strangles tyrants. 3. Whether in chains or in laurels, LIBERTY knows nothing but victory. 4. God gives us great scoundrels for texts to antislavery sermons. 5. Cannon think in this nineteenth century. Because epigram is a striking and valuable aid to the public speaker, let no one make the mistake of supposing that a speech made up of epigrams would be a good speech. This is an artificial form of expression, and while it is brilliant and helpful now and then when there is need of a condensed and striking expression of a General Qualities of Style 151 thought, its frequent use would rob it of its force and genuineness. The law of climax as related to the logic of discourse has already been noticed. In the matter of style, also, this law is to be obeyed. It is hardly too much to say that it is to be observed in every sentence. That is, every sentence should be so constructed as to fulfill the requirements of this law it should grow in interest from the first word to the last. Still further, the sen- tences in a paragraph should be so arranged that the last sentence should be the best in the paragraph. In the arrangement of the paragraphs the same principle should prevail, so that the final paragraph in a message should be the best, the most convincing, the most elevated, the most eloquent in the division to which it belongs. And finally the whole speech should be so constructed and so presented as to make it in all ways the summit of the en- tire discourse. Almost any production that is properly called ora- tory will furnish illustrations of climax. Webster was especially skillful in his mastery of this principle. The following examples are taken from his masterpiece as a commemorative orator, " The Character of Wash- ington," delivered on the centennial anniversary of Washington's birth. I. While the hundreds whom party excitement, and tem- porary circumstances, and casual combinations, have raised into casual notoriety, sink again, like thin bubbles, bursting and dissolving into the great ocean, Washington's fame is 152 The Making of an Oration like a great rock which bounds that ocean, and at whose feet its billows are destined to break harmlessly forever. 2. The ingenuous youth of America will hold up to them- selves the bright model of Washington's example, and study to be what they behold; they will contemplate his character till all its virtues spread out and display themselves to their delighted vision; as the earliest astronomers, the shepherds on the plains of Babylon, gazed at the stars till they saw them form into clusters and constellations, overpowering at length the eyes of the beholders with the united blaze of a thousand lights. In Macaulay's characterization of the Puritan, as given in his essay on Milton, we find an admirable example of the climax, that at the same time well illustrates Macau- lay's liking for contrast : t Events which short-sighted politicians ascribed to earthly causes, had been ordained on his (the Puritan's) account. For his sake empires had risen, and flourished, and decayed. For his sake the Almighty had proclaimed his will by the pen of the Evangelist, and the harp of the prophet. He had been wrested by no common deliverer from the grasp of no common foe. He had been ransomed by the sweat of no vulgar agony, by the blood of no earthly sacrifice. It was for him that the sun had been darkened, that the rocks had been rent, that the dead had risen, that all nature had shuddered at the sufferings of her expiring God. A marked example of climax as applied to the whole speech is the eloquent peroration, already quoted, of Webster's " Reply to Hayne." Whether the orator always constructs his language so as to make every sentence a marked climax or not, he General Qualities of Style 153 does need to be on his guard lest by carelessness he weaken his thought by allowing its development to proceed from a stronger to a relatively weaker expression. An anti- climax is likely to make, not only the idea, but the man that utters it absurd. A good rule is, Let the strong ideas be expressed in strong words, and let these words be put in the correspondingly strong places. The debili- tating effect of anticlimax will be seen in the following sentence from Dr. Marsh's Lectures on the English Language : Language can inform them (words) with the spiritual philosophy of the Pauline epistles, the living thunder of Demosthenes, or the material picturesqueness of Russell. When it is desired to give a touch of humor to an expression the anticlimax may be justifiable and even helpful ; as when Thackeray says : We cannot expect to be loved by a relative whom we have knocked into an illuminated pond, and whose coattails, pan- taloons, nether limbs, and best feelings we have lacerated with ill treatment and broken glass. Intentional anticlimax for the purpose of humorous absurdity is well illustrated in DeQuincey's essay, " Mur- der Considered as One of the Fine Arts " : Never tell me of any special work of art you are medi- tating I set my face against it in toto. For, if a man once indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drink- ing and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begin upon this downward path, you never know where you are to stop. Many a man has dated 154 The Making of an Oration his ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought little of at the time. All good prose has an agreeable rhythm as truly as has all good poetry. The voice of the orator rising and fall- ing, swelling and subsiding with the rising and falling of the sentiment, is as truly musical as is the voice of the singer interpreting the verse of the poet and the art of the musician. There is, however, this difference between the language of the orator and that of the poet : in poetry the alternation of accented and unaccented syllables is regular according to some stated law; in prose there is no law except the law of variety. With every sentence, with every clause, the intervals between accents change. It must not be supposed, however, that mere variety is sufficient. The language must be agreeable ; the sentences must satisfy the demands of a cultivated ear. Nor this alone: they must harmonize with the thought. If the sentiment is harsh, the language must be correspondingly harsh ; if the idea is beautiful, or picturesque, or elevated, or full of passion, the construction of the language in which that idea is expressed must correspond. It is hardly too much to say that every emotion of the heart has its own language, its own music. In a large and true sense all oratory is onomatopoetic. The language of anger is different in sound from the language of appeal ; that of pathos from that of sarcasm. Beyond, then, the mere dictionary definition of its terms, language has a significance and suggestiveness of its own. Even if the hearer do not understand -the language of the orator, he General Qualities of Style 155 may be able from the very sound of that language to determine with considerable confidence the nature of the sentiments that the orator is presenting. This, of course, on the assumption that the orator is skillful in his choice of words and in his use of those words. Pope's assertion that, When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line too labors, and the words move slow ; Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn and skims along the main, applies as truly to the orator as to the poet. The prin- ciple of rhythm, therefore, demands that the orator shall exercise constant care and cultivate a correct taste in giv- ing to his speech qualities that will make it agreeable to the ear and at the same time expressive in its rhythm to the sentiments presented. It must be " speakable." The speeches of any great orator will furnish abundant exemplification of the use and value of the principle under discussion. Some notable illustrations are furnished by the speeches of Webster. Webster combined the im- agination and musical ear of the poet with the sturdy good sense and inexorable logic of the thinker. And he so used his poetic powers as to make them both enforce and illumine his logic. When standing on the Heights of Abraham at Quebec one early morning hour, he heard the drumbeat in the British fort there calling the garrison to the duties of the day. The thought suggested itself to him that England was so extensive a power that at every hour of the day a drumbeat would be heard from 156 The Making of an Oration some British garrison to welcome the rising of the sun, until again it would be heard at Quebec. Afterward in a speech on President Jackson's Protest he had occasion to refer to the idea that the colonies engaged in war with England over a theory rather than because of any violence that had been suffered from the mother country. He spoke of the difference in resources between the com- batants, and alluded to England as a great military power. Then the thought that had come to him on the heights of Quebec flashed into his mind and he described England as, A power, which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drumbeat, following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England. In the music of this passage, with its irregular succes- sion of iambic and anapaestic feet, we have a rhythm not only pleasing to the ear, but quickening to the imagination by its echo of the stirring roll and thunder of the drum. Another passage from Webster, almost Miltonic in its organ-like music as well as in the sublimity of its thought, is taken from the oration commemorative of the lives of Adams and Jefferson. These two statesmen had passed away within a few hours of each other, on the fourth day of July, 1826 the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the Declaration of Independence, which significant docu- ment the hand of Jefferson had penned and the adoption of which Adams had done so much to secure. The com- General Qualities of Style 157 mon council of Boston arranged to hold memorial services, and Mr. Webster was asked to pronounce the address. The oration was given at Faneuil Hall, August 2, 1826. After portraying the characters and reciting the public services of the illustrious dead, the great orator burst into the following strain of almost prophetic eloquence : It is not my voice, it is not the cessation of ordinary pur- suits, this arresting of all attention, these solemn ceremonies, and this crowded house, which speak their eulogy. Their fame, indeed, is safe. That is now treasured up beyond the reach of accident. Although no sculptured marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored. Marble columns may, indeed, moulder into dust, time may erase all impress from the crumbling stone, but their fame remains; for with AMERICAN LIBERTY it rose, and with AMERICAN LIBERTY ONLY can it perish. It was the last swelling peal of yonder choir, " THEIR BODIES ARE BURIED IN PEACE, BUT THEIR NAME LIVETH EVERMORE." I catch that solemn song, I echo that lofty strain of funeral triumph, " THEIR NAME LIVETH EVERMORE." So the swelling music of his speech, like the pealing harmonies of a mighty organ, fill and uplift the soul with a majesty altogether suitable to the solemnity of the occasion that called it forth. Perhaps the first thing to rely upon in acquiring a rhythmical style is the instinct of a cultivated ear. Does the sentence, does the passage, sound well? Does its sound fit the idea? These are questions that the orator needs to ask himself when formulating his language so as 158 The Making of an Oration to make it the fullest expression of his thought and feel- ing. In addition to these questions should come the ques- tion, Is the sentence, is the passage, speakable? An affirmative answer to these inquiries will go far toward satisfying the demands of rhythm and euphony. Conse- quently if the thought is harsh, the sound of the expres- sion of that thought may be harsh. Constant variety in sentence structure will be necessary to secure that rhythm, that music, that euphony which good oratory must have, a succession of long and short, of periodic and loose, of balanced, interrogative, and declarative sentences. Still further, this quality can be secured and sureness of touch can be acquired only as the orator is willing to pay the price of constant, thorough, and patient self- criticism of his own work. Such self-criticism, however, for this purpose as well as for the purpose of attaining force, is well repaid by the results that attend and follow it. Further still: the study of those writers and speakers whose style is conspicuous for their euphony will be of great value as a means of acquiring similar excellence. Many of Lincoln's speeches as well as his state papers show a keen appreciation of euphony. He had the rare gift of writing in a style suitable for the speaker, and of speaking in a style suitable for the writer, without injury to his oratory. Both of his inaugural addresses and his Gettysburg speech were written with the greatest care, and yet they stand today among the most splendid ex- amples of American oratory. They were anything but >n- in- General Qualities of Style 159 exteniporaneous or even spontaneous. It will be well for the student of oratory to study his speeches as well as those of Webster, Wendell Phillips, and other masters of eloquence, for the purpose of noting how largely the effectiveness of their oratory is enhanced by their mastery of the music of spoken discourse, and also as models whose excellence in this particular is to be emulated. The work of the orator, like that of the poet, is con- crete. He dreams dreams and sees visions, and he carnates his visions and dreams so as to make them " live and move and have a being " in the minds and hearts of his hearers. He does not speak abstract truth ; he makes truth concrete by the terms in which it is presented. The philosopher speaks in abstractions and generalizations, with the purpose of making the idea stand forth in the " dry light," uncolored by the imagination or the emotion. The orator, on the contrary, labors to present the idea as a living, concrete reality, clothed in flesh and blood, standing upon its feet, and operant in the lives of the men and women around him and in the world to which he be- longs. His thought is as profound as that of the philoso- pher, but with him the thought is not " unclothed, but clothed upon," as a visible and practical fact in human society. This principle furnishes the justification for the free employment by the orator of illustrations, short stories, incidents, concrete examples, and the like. They serve, if wisely introduced, to make the thought clear and definite, to keep up the interest of the audience in the sub- 160 The Making of an Oration ject of discussion, to avoid dullness, to give point and reality to the speech. Sometimes an audience may need to be amused even, in order that it may not lose alert- ness and so become indifferent to the theme. It was to give concreteness to his theme that Edmund Burke, in his speech in the trial of Warren Hastings, en- titled "The Nabob of Arcot's Debts," introduced the famous passage known as " Hyder Ali's Invasion of the Carnatic." A mere statement to the effect that Hyder AH caused suffering and devastation by that invasion would have had little power to move his hearers. But they were moved with indignation and horror when he pictured the scourge of war in concrete language. He said: When at length Hyder AH found that he had to do with men who * * * were the determined enemies of human intercourse itself, he decreed to make the country possessed by these incorrigible and predestinated criminals a memor- able example to mankind. He resolved to leave the whole Carnatic an everlasting monument of vengeance. He drew from every quarter whatever a savage ferocity could add to his new rudiments in the arts of destruction ; and compound- ing all the materials of fury, havoc, and desolation into one black cloud, he hung for awhile on the declivities of the mountains. Whilst the authors of all these evils were idly and stupidly gazing on this menacing meteor, which black- ened all their horizon, it suddenly burst, and poured down the whole of its contents upon the plains of the Carnatic. Then ensued a scene of woe, the like of which no eye had seen, no heart conceived, and which no tongue can ade- quately tell. All the horrors of war before known or heard General Qualities of Style 161 of were mercy to that new havoc. A storm of universal fire blasted every field, consumed every house, destroyed every temple. The miserable inhabitants, flying from their flaming villages, in part were slaughtered; others, without regard to sex, to age, to the respect of rank or sacredness of function, fathers torn from children, husbands from wives, enveloped in a whirlwind of cavalry, and amidst the goading spears of drivers, and the trampling of pursuing horses, were swept into captivity in an unknown and hostile land. Those who were able to evade this tempest fled to the walled cities; but escaping from fire, sword, and exile, they fell into the jaws of famine. * * * For eighteen months, without inter- mission, this destruction raged from the gates of Madras to the gates of Tanjore; and so completely did these masters of their art, Hyder Ali and his more ferocious son, absolve themselves of their impious vow, that, when the British armies traversed, as they did, the Carnatic for hundreds of miles in all directions, through the whole line of their march they did not see one man, not one woman, not one child, not one four-footed beast of any description whatever. One dead, uniform silence reigned over the whole region. The introduction of illustration, incident, anecdote is permissible only when they help and are needed by the thought and will further the object. They should never be introduced for their own sake. A good story, an in- teresting incident, or a laughable joke, should never be re- lated simply because it is good or interesting or laughable. It must have a bearing that is obvious as used upon the matter in hand. Otherwise, instead of helping to make the speech a good one, by so much it tends to make it a bad one by distracting the attention from the question at issue. 162 The Making of an Oration This caution needs to be especially emphasized with reference to the use of amusing stories. It is almost fatal to the effectiveness of any speaker to have the repu- tation of being a " funny man." A laugh at the witticism of a speaker is sweet to his vanity, but if he pampers his vanity by feeding it too much on this kind of pabulum, he may discover when too late that men have come to regard him as a joker without serious purpose, and may finally think of him not only as a joker but as a joke. An amusing story now and then is allowable and, if it sharpens the point of an argument or illumines an idea, it may be helpful to the task of the orator, but he may easily indulge in so many stories of this nature as to make men think that he is a mere story-teller, that he speaks mainly to amuse. To tell funny stories is easy, but even those that laugh loudest at them may soon come to lose respect for the opinions of him who peddles the stories, and thus conveys the impression that they are his chief stock in trade. CHAPTER XIII ESSENTIAL QUALITIES OF ORATORICAL STYLE IN GENERAL, it may be said that effective oratory has those qualities appropriate to strong, vigorous think- ing, and manly, straightforward presentation of that thinking so as to drive it home to the apprehension and acceptance of the hearer. This means that its style must not be so elaborate as to be difficult to interpret offhand, while the speaker and, with him, the audience march on to the chosen goal. Consequently, its words will, as al- ready noted, be mainly Saxon, short, clear, the vocab- ulary of everyday speech, the language of the common people. Of course, the nature of the vocabulary, the con- struction, all the qualities of style will be determined largely by the kind of audience its culture, habits, in- terests, and by the nature of the subject of discourse But any audience, even an audience of scholars, will ap- preciate the simple, virile, homely language of everyday life, that wrestles with the thought and with them, like an athlete who, stripped of unnecessary clothing, strug- gles with them to make them see his thought as he sees it, and act accordingly. Nouns and verbs are the strong words of language; 163 164 The Making of an Oration adjectives and adverbs are merely modifiers, to give shade and direction and limitation to the thought. A good rule for the user of language, then, is to cut out all such words not essential to the thought. For vigor, never use an adjective or an adverb, if you can help it. The mul- tiplication of modifiers, instead of strengthening, weakens the style. Another good law to observe is to seek suggestive words. The study of the derivation and history of words is very helpful to him who would use them with power. Make the vocabulary picturesque, robust, appealing to the imagination. Sometimes a single word will bring before the mind a whole event, a scene, a history, an argument. All types of discourse will be found in oratory, and the language of all forms should be made familiar. De- scription, narration, exposition, argumentation, the simplest prose, the sublimest poetry all are tools of the orator, with which he needs to be familiar. The main types of discourse that the orator will use are argument and exposition. But whatever the particular form at any place in the speech, the language should suit the thought. The argument of the orator is not the ar- gument of the mathematician, who is satisfied with the mere intellectual demonstration of the truth of his prop- osition. It is not enough for him to show that two and two make four. He must make his two and two stand for something beyond the mere fact ; it must mean something in life. It is not an end in itself, sought for Essential Qualities of Style 165 its own sake. The orator's logic is logic set on fire, or as someone has defined it, " oratory is the fusion of reason and passion." So, even when he speaks the language of argumentation, it is argumentation quickened, made alive. A good style for the orator is based first of all upon strong, vigorous thinking, and is the outcome of such thinking. It does not exist for its own sake, but for the sake of the " object " for which the speech is made. Only as it furthers that " object " is it a good style. In the advancement of his controlling purpose, the orator is like an athlete running a race. He casts off every weight and runs with diligence the race that is set before him, and presses toward the goal the end to which he desires to lead his hearers. Every legitimate device, therefore, which will help him on his way is allowable. His lan- guage, consequently, will be so direct, so intense, so glow- ing with the force and fire of a man with a message that his whole mental, moral, and even physical attitude will give the impression that he has something to say, and that it is a matter of prime importance that he say it, and say it in such a way as to make his hearers see the truth as he sees it. It is hardly too much to say that any style that makes his thought clear and convincing to the under- standing of his hearers, that moves their feeling, and that finally arouses and directs their wills, is, for him, a good style. This, of course, always on the assumption that his English is correct. PART IV GIFTS AND HABITS OF THE ORATOR CHAPTER XIV INBORN GIFTS A TTENTION has already been called to the fact that *V the orator is both " born and made." No man can become an orator of a high type unless he is born with certain qualities, that cannot be learned, although they may be developed and directed to efficient use. 1. For one thing, the orator must be gifted with a keen and logical mind. Mere words, high-sounding phrases do not and cannot constitute eloquence. Oratory im- plies insight into truth, a power of reason, ability to fol- low a course of thought to a chosen end. 2. The real orator has, also, by virtue of birth a quick and responsive imagination. He observes and thinks in the concrete. He has the power of vision and of express- ing his visions in speech. He " realizes " ideas. With- out this quality, to become an orator of the highest type is beyond human experience, and so far as we know, beyond human possibility. Imagination may, to be sure, be cultivated, may be chastened, may be stirred by cir- cumstances; but fundamentally it must be in the man's soul. It cannot be created. It cannot be manufactured. This quality underlies the fine fancies, the telling meta- phors, the illuminating similes, all those forms of 169 170 The Making of an Oration speech that serve to uplift the mind above the sordid and commonplace thoughts of everyday, matter-of-fact ex- periences. It is this, partly, that allies the orator to the poet ; it is this that makes him, also, move about " in worlds not realized." 3. Another quality essential to eloquence is that of feel- ing. In this matter as well as in moral and spiritual ex- periences, it is fundamentally true that " out of the heart are the issues of life." Only as he has a sensitive emo- tional system, feelings that kindle into a flame at the slightest contact with the torch of reason, can he speak with power. It has been well said that " the man who can't put fire into his speeches should put his speeches into the fire." Feeling in speech is something that cannot be a matter of artifice. No man can speak with the deadly earnest- ness that carries conviction and action with it, who does not himself feel to the bottom of his soul the truth, the importance, the overwhelming necessity of the "object" he is urging. How can he hope to move others, unless he, himself, is moved? He needs to be stirred to the depths of his being with the feeling that his subject is not only for him but for his hearers the most important, the most vital subject that can engage their attention. He must be so filled with his subject that he has no room for anything else until he has delivered himself of that subject. It must " possess " him, bubbling in his heart, taking possession of his mind, controlling his tongue, in- spiring his whole speech. When he so feels, he will Inborn Gifts 171 speak with such earnestness, with such " unction " as the old preachers called it that he will arouse similar feelings in the hearts of his hearers. Horace's advice to poets is equally applicable to orators : "If you wish me to weep, you yourself must first be filled with grief." Now this does not mean that the speaker must give way to the unrestrained expression of his feelings. It means rather that he must have genuineness of feeling, before he can speak with that sincerity, that earnestness, that deep conviction which alone lays hold of the hearts and moves the wills of men. But such feeling must be under the mastering control of him that speaks. Hamlet spoke very good advice to the players, when he said, " In the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness." He knew that the expres- sion of passion would be more effective if it conveyed the impression that it was held in leash by the will. But let no one who would be an effective orator venture to speak before he has brooded over his theme until it becomes to him the most important matter and occupies the largest angle of his mental and spiritual vision. Then he can speak earnestly, sincerely, from the heart to the heart. Then he will speak with power. CHAPTER XV READING FOR THE ORATOR A FEW words on the relation of reading to the style of the reader himself, may not be out of place as preliminary to some specific suggestion as to reading for the orator. The English language and English literature are one flesh, and cannot be safely divorced. He, therefore, who would use the language effectively must know how it has been used by others who have used it effectively. He must read the great literature of the world. The union of such reading, with constant writing in emulation of the masters, is the true laboratory method. It is the in- ductive process applied to the work of ascertaining the facts of the language at first hand and the application of the knowledge so acquired to the process of attaining power in speech on the part of the investigator himself. If we read the history of our great writers, we shall find that a surprisingly large proportion of them learned their art by seeing that art exemplified in real literature. Call the long roll of the immortals whose names make luminous the literary history of the world. So far as they revealed the secret of their power, almost without exception, they claim to have acquired their magic of 172 Reading for the Orator 173 speech through the study and conscious imitation of the great writers that have gone before them. Time would fail to tell of Ben Franklin and Stevenson, and Bur- roughs, of Tennyson and Burns and Lamb, of Ruskin and Coleridge, of Edmund Spenser and Milton and Pope, of Ben Jonson and Sir Philip Sidney, of Wordsworth also, and Addison and DeQuincey and Irving, and many others whose names shine with conspicuous brilliancy in the firmament of the world's great writers. These have all gained a good reputation through the splendor with which their messages to men have been expressed. And they learned how to clothe those messages with beauty and power, because their own minds were enriched and their own style given form and impulse through absorp- tion, as it were, of the very heart's blood of the masters who went before them. So their works do follow them. So they have learned how to work " by watching the masters' work," thus gaining Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play. One may know the rules of good writing by heart, and violate every one of them. We are all unconscious as well as conscious imitators. We catch from our asso- ciates habits of thought, tricks of manner, forms of speech. If the boy is so wise as to choose a father and a mother that speak good English, and select a home of culture where books are his daily companions, it is reason- ably certain that he will speak and write correctly, though he never learn a formal rule of grammar and though he 174 The Making of an Oration would not recognize a law of rhetoric, as such, were he to meet it face to face. He uses the language as he hears and reads it as used by others. On the other hand, the boy that is brought up amid illiterate surroundings will commit linguistic murder with every sentence he utters. If, then, we would counteract the corrupting effects of evil associations as applied to this subject, we must see to it that all opportunity and all encouragement be given to read sympathetically the works of those that have ob- tained a place among the world's great writers. The preceding remarks are as applicable to the orator as to him who would use language effectively with the pen. He, too, must saturate his mind with the eloquent speech of the masters of assemblies, if he would himself become a master of assemblies. He cannot safely trust to un- trained genius, even on the assumption that he has genius. He needs to read not only for the immediate occasion, but as a means of general oratorical culture; not simply for information, but for inspiration. In general, it may be said that all reading, if of the right kind, will be of value to the speaker. All books should add something to his store from which he can draw as occasion offers. The more knowledge he has, the wider will be his stock of supplies and the greater will be his range of vision, the richer his resources. While all good books are of real value to the public speaker, certain lines of reading are especially important. For one thing the speaker should give much attention to History. A knowledge of the ancient peoples and their Reading for the Orator 175 civilizations, the great works they have accomplished, the deeds they have done, the ideas for which they have stood, all this will be of value in furnishing the mind with material from which the orator may draw as occa- sion offers. The great movements of the world, also crises in the progress of the nations should be familiar to his mind. The fall of the Roman Empire, the Refor- mation in the various countries of Europe, the French Revolution, the Magna Charta in England, the growth of constitutional government during the last hundred years, some knowledge of the great religions that have shaped the course of history, at least a general familiarity with the development of modern science, all these things will be of value to him who would make of himself a well finished speaker. As of value in his work, also, the speaker should keep in touch with the great questions of his time. The great political movements of his day, not only in his own coun- try but in other lands ; great religious movements ; great missionary undertakings ; education ; reforms ; benevolent efforts; economic and sociological discussions, with these great tides of human thought as they ebb and flow in the world around him, the speaker must be familiar; and he can best gain familiarity with them not only through first-hand contact, but through the reading of books and discussions. Thus will his thinking be kept abreast of the march of progress. Still further, he who would be an orator will do well to read much of biography. The history of the race is 176 The Making of an Oration little more than the record of the great men that have led the race. The most interesting object on earth is a human being; the most instructive, suggestive, inspiring truths are those illustrated in the lives of human beings. The closer contact one that aspires to be a speaker can have with the great men of all ages, the more likely he is himself to become great. Many a boy has been in- spired to high endeavor, many a youth has been encour- aged to noble effort, many a man has found helpful ma- terial and lofty ideals, in the experiences, character, and achievements of other men, who have done something and been something in the world. Once more, the orator will find it of advantage to read much of the best general literature. From those produc- tions that require hard, close thinking, the fiber of his own mind is made tough and flexible, his own mental processes are quickened and lifted, his imagination is given a broader range, and his emotional nature a greater re- sponsiveness. The reading of the best poetry, especially, has this value. Attention has already been called to the fact that the work of the orator is in many particulars analogous to that of the poet. His mind is of the same cast. In powers of thought, in reach of imagination, in sensitiveness of emotion, orator and poet are of the same cast. The main difference in their work is that the work of the poet is in verse, while that of the orator is in prose, and that the poem is written to be read, while the oration is prepared and spoken to be heard. The wide reading of literature is valuable because it Reading for the Orator 177 brings the student of oratory into intimate association with great men. We all know something of the inspira- tion a life may receive from contact with a strong personality. A college, for illustration, does not consist mainly of its great buildings, or its spacious grounds, or its splendid equipment. Its greatness is measured, rather, by the men that occupy its chairs and by the quality of the material with which they have to deal. Garfield was right when he said that a log with Mark Hopkins at one end and an eager student at the other would make a good college. Our life does not consist of the things that are seen. It consists of all subtle influences, those unseen forces, those strong though underground currents, that unite to make us what we are. How important, then, that the orator come into as close contact as possible with the great men of past ages! Every civilized being is what he is, civilization itself is what it is, largely be- cause of the great books that have had the vitality to endure through the ages. Real literature persists because those who produced it put into it their own selves. Those that have had the genius to write great books or to make great speeches are the leaders of the world's thought and life today, whether we know it or admit it, or not. Almost thirty centuries have passed since Homer sang, yet Homer through all these ages has been influencing the thought and ideals of men, and will go on as a refining and inspiring force in life and character generations after those who make it their business to sneer at him have been forgotten and whose only claim to gratitude in the 178 The Making of an Oration future will be that they have turned to clay and, it may be, then " stop a hole to keep the wind away." Great books are of value, because they are revelations of the great men that have made them. Next, therefore, to the privilege of sitting at the feet of the prophets who have poured out their own souls in their books, is that of coming in touch with those inspired teachers at second- hand through the medium of their writings. If, then, the would-be orator acquires a genuine love for literature and saturates his own mind with the noble ideals and language of such literature, the vitalizing energy of the men and women that put their own lives into their books will quicken as an informing force in his life to bear fruit- age in noble speech. Language, until it is thrilled into life by the magic touch of some creative power, is dead. Only when some genius breathes into it the breath of his own life, does it become a living soul. Then it is vital, dynamic, able to quicken, inspire, uplift others, as by indwelling contact of a dominating personality. Not only because of its effect upon his own intellectual and spiritual character, should the orator read much of the best literature, but also because he thus stores up a valuable source of oratorical material. This is peculiarly true of the study of poetry. Such study enlarges his powers of speech and provides him an invaluable source of quotable help. He whose mind is well stored with passages from the thinkers and poets of the world, need never be at a loss for quotations that will aid him in furthering his thought. Reading for the Orator 179 By this is not meant that the orator is to be a mere re- peater of fine phrases ; but rather that when he needs to strengthen, or illustrate, or idealize, or beautify his own presentation of a thought and can best do so by appeal- ing to the authority of another, if his mind is stored with rich passages from the great writers of the world, he has at his command those passages. He can thus reinforce his own conclusions by appealing to the words of others, of recognized ability or authority. It goes without saying that he who would learn how to bring things to pass through the power of speech should make a constant study of the speeches of others who have moved men to action by oral address. The great speeches of the world should not only be read but analyzed. Plans of them should be made; their words should be studied; sentence structure should be exam- ined; the length and kinds of sentences should be con- sidered; their figures of speech should be given atten- tion ; passages should be committed to memory. Such study of oratory, of course, should not be con- j fined to one channel ; it should rather be as broad as the subject itself. It should cover all times and all nations, extending from Demosthenes to William Jennings Bryan ; all types, historical, legal, political, educational, ethical, religious; all men who have won a permanent place for themselves in the list of the eloquent, not only among the ancient, but among the mediaeval and modern orators. Chatham, Sheridan, Fox, Burke, Webster, Phillips, Er- skine, Beecher, Spurgeon, Maclaren, Lincoln, George 180 The Making of an Oration William Curtis, Bryan, John Bright, Charles Sumner, Gladstone, these are some of the modern English-speak- ing orators, whose speeches may profitably be studied by the student of oratory. It will be noticed that in this list are the names of some preachers. These names are included because some of the most eloquent orators that the world has known are found among preachers. And there is reason for this : in ability, in training both general and special, in the incen- tive that springs from the subjects with which they deal, in the inspiration that comes from a sympathetic au- dience, in all those conditions that conspire to produce the highest eloquence, the leading preachers of the world, both past and modern, are peculiarly fortunate. The ser- mons of Charles Spurgeon, Henry Ward Beecher, Phillips Brooks, and Alexander Maclaren are to be especially com- mended as models of homiletical construction and style that may profitably be studied with great care by him who would learn the art of oratory. A marked example of the value of the right kind of reading upon the style of him who would learn to use language effectively is found in the oratory of Lincoln. It is hardly too much to say that for certain high qualities of prose expression no American writer has surpassed, if, indeed, any has rivaled him. Among these qualities may be mentioned, especially, a homely simplicity and straight- forwardness that goes directly to the thought and feeling. There can be no mistaking his meaning, and there can be no doubt in any mind that behind and in the language Reading for the Orator 181 is a genuineness of conviction and a depth of emotion that show the language to be the expression not only of the head but of the heart. His vocabulary is largely Anglo- Saxon; his words are those of the common people and of everyday life. This is one secret, not only of his simplicity but of that rugged strength so characteristic of his speech. His sentences have, also, a rare musical quality. Many passages in his speeches have a music that affect one like the swelling harmonies of a great organ under the hand of a master. The quality just alluded to finds splendid exemplifica- tion in the concluding words of his first inaugural ad- dress. Those words sound like the solemn admonitions of one of the old prophets : I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic bonds of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the union when again touched, as they surely will be, by the better angels of our nature. Where did this man get his marvelous style the plain and homely vocabulary, the translucent simplicity, the rugged energy, the soul-stirring music of his speech? The answer to this question is to be found first, of course, in the man himself. He spoke the language of the common people, because he was one of the common people. But it was that language ennobled, refined, puri- fied, glorified, because it had passed through the alembic 182 The Making of an Oration of a great soul upon whom had been laid a mighty and inspiring responsibility. He had a great style because, primarily, he was a great man, living at a great crisis, speaking on great themes. But, in addition to what he owed to his inborn gifts and to the conditions of his life, Lincoln's style was due in no small measure to his early reading. He did not read many books, but he read a few until they were his own. But those few were Shakespeare, Milton, Bunyan, the English Bible. With these masters of speech as his models, furnishing the very pabulum of his early thought and life, it is not surprising that when he spoke he should speak their language. The influence of biblical thought and imagery upon his style is especially noticeable. Read, for illustration, the second inaugural. In one place he says: The Almighty has his own purposes. Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. And again: If God wills that the war continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said that the. judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. What has been said about Lincoln's reading suggests that there are some books that every public speaker will find it of advantage to make himself familiar with. Reading for the Orator 183 The very first that should be named is the English Bible. Many reasons for this statement might be ad- vanced, only one or two of which need here be empha- sized. For one thing, it should be read because of the splendor of its language. One who would acquire com* mand of a strong, simple, beautiful style can do no better than to read in the King James English, until its language is his own, this book of all books. This translation was made by the scholars of the time, and yet it was made for the use of the common people. Consequently it blends the speech of the masses with that of the cultured people of that time. From Shakespeare's day to our own this has been the one book which everybody has known more or less. One whose style is influenced by the lan- guage of this book, therefore, is certain to use language suited to all ranks of men, both the learned and the unlearned. Another reason why the orator will find it an advan- tage to know the Bible is found in the fact that no other book is the source of so many quotations and allusions as this. It is hardly too much to say that no man can understand and appreciate the great literature of our tongue who is not familiar with the thought, stories, teachings, language, characters of the Bible. Our whole literature is saturated with it. Because of this fact, without reference to its religious teachings, this book ought to be a required study in every public school. More quotations, more allusions are drawn from this than from any other source, whose meaning cannot be understood, 184 The Making of an Oration or whose beauty and force appreciated oy the reader, unless he is acquainted with the original as found in the Old or New Testament. Such quotations and allusions are so common in literature, partly because they are more likely to be understood and enjoyed by the reader than if they were drawn from obscure sources which the average reader or hearer would probably not be familiar with. Another reason is that this book is so full of wisdom and suggestion that it is a more prolific source of helpful and applicable sayings than any other book that can be named. Consequently, the orator should study the Bible both as a training in the best and most sug- gestive language and at the same time as furnishing an inexhaustible treasury of wisdom from which he may draw more effectively than from any other one source. Perhaps next to the Bible, the orator will find it to his advantage to know the works of Shakespeare. This, mainly because this greatest of English poets let the plummet down deeper into the mysteries of the human soul than any other uninspired man that has ever lived. The orator must know human nature, and a great help to the acquisition of such knowledge is always accessible in the plays of the Bard of Avon. In these plays, also, we find one of the best means of attaining power in the use of language. Shakespeare, it is said, employed a larger vocabulary than any other writer of the language. The speaker, therefore, who would gain a large and flexible mastery of speech, may wisely study the works of this master of speech. Reading for the Orator 185 But time and space would fail to present, even briefly, reasons for reading books that the orator will find it an advantage to know for training in his art. It may be helpful, however, to name a few more that he will find beneficial and inspiring. Among these should be included a copy of Plutarch's Lives, The Arabian Nights, a book on classic mythology, The Pilgrim's Progress, Paradise Lost, Homer, Virgil, Don Quixote, Goethe's Faust, Burns' poems, Dante's Divina Comedia; with these at least the orator will find it an advantage to be fairly familiar. Such works he should have upon his own bookshelves, as standard and tried friends, to which he may always resort, with confidence that they will never fail him. There will be, of course, many other books that he will read for information, or recreation, or inspi- ration, or all these purposes combined. CHAPTER XVI TWO LINES OF PREPARATION HPOO much emphasis cannot be placed upon the im- 1 portance to the speaker of careful and untiring preparation, and hence in, i, Practice in Writing. This is especially true if he is gifted with readiness of utterance. The fluent man, the man who is never at a loss for words, who speaks readily even without preparation, needs in particular to be on his guard. Such fatal fluency is a delusion and a snare. The one that possesses such readiness is always subject to the temptation of depend- ing on his glibness of tongue at the expense of that patient, full, and thorough preparation which alone will insure steady and permanent growth and a high measure of excellence. If genius is the infinite capacity for taking pains, as someone has declared it to be, surely he who has ability, ambition, high ideals, unfaltering determination, and unending industry may hope to succeed and even ob- tain some measure of prominence in the art of persuading men. The main question is whether he is willing to pay the price. The story of Demosthenes speaking by the roaring sea, with pebbles in his mouth to correct weakness and defects of voice, is both a lesson and an inspiration. Because he was willing to pay the price, because he had 186 Two Lines of Preparation 187 infinite capacity for taking pains, his name for more than two thousand years has stood at the head of the list of the world's eloquent men. If Edmund Burke, with his superior ability and broad learning, was not satisfied until he had written his orations through from ten to fifty times, as some of his biographers tell us was his habit, any aspirant for oratorical preeminence may well emulate his example. He paid the price ; he received the reward. 2. Training in Elocution. It is not the purpose of this manual to teach elocution. It is, however, within its province to emphasize the importance of having a good elocution. This word, elocution, has been so abused and its use has been so distorted that we have a prejudice against the term itself. It is so identified in the popular mind with the distortions and contortions of speech per- petrated a number of years ago by the half-trained young people who traveled about the country murdering Shake- speare and other defenseless writers, that many educated people have gone to the other extreme and condemn the thing itself, because it has been so wofully misused by many of its would-be exemplars. There is, doubtless, a reaction toward a more rational attitude toward this matter at present, but even now there is room for a wiser understanding and saner recognition of the place of this subject in every scheme of education and especially in the preparation of the orator for the highest success. The instrument by which the orator communicates his speech to the audience is the voice. That he have full command of this instrument is of supreme importance, 188 The Making of an Oration if he would attain the highest success. Many a man who had ideas and who could express those ideas in good English has failed or only moderately succeeded because of a weak, or squeaky voice, or nasal tone ; or who did not know how to speak his words so as to make them effective; or who had a faulty articulation; or who " mouthed " his words in a way that would be a discredit to " the town crier." On the other hand, there have been men who have been able to sway multitudes by their power of speech, whose ideas and language have been hardly above the commonplace, simply because they have had good voices and have known how to use those voices with effect. The speeches of Henry Clay today are not particularly interesting, and the reader of those speeches may wonder why Clay was so popular as an orator. The chief explanation is found in the elocution of Clay. He had a voice sweet and powerful, w r hich he used as skill- fully as a musician trained to play upon his instrument, and he had a person that, in its attitudes and gestures, was grace itself. It is the fashion in many places and of many people to depreciate vocal training for the speaker to sneer at it as childish and to grumble at elocutionary training as artificial and a bar to all genuineness in public speech. He that takes this attitude is as unreasonable in his prejudice as is the one that assumes oratory to consist merely in declamation. An oration is to be spoken. Until it is " delivered " it has no just claim to the title. To be effective, then, it should be spoken well. If the voice is Two Lines of Preparation 189 strident, harsh, squeaky, inflexible, weak, heady, or throaty, how can the orator expect to accomplish by it the best results ? It would be just as reasonable to antici- pate for a Jenny Lind or a Melba the highest triumphs of song without thorough and long continued vocal cul- ture. One may or may not have a good voice by nature, but good or bad, he needs to train that voice to give it smoothness, clearness, power, resonance, sharpness of enunciation and articulation, richness, and all those quali- ties which he must have for the best results in his noble art. If the athlete, who would win contests in his arena, must subject himself to long months of self-denying practice, how much more must the contestant in this far more difficult arena submit to years of toil and to never- ending effort in order to keep himself in prime form for these harder tests! Let him daily practice those vocal exercises, and they are not so very many, that are adapted to make the most of the voice that has been given him by nature but that probably he has greatly abused until that mighty instrument is in good condition and is the servant of his mental processes and his trained will ; then by constant care let him keep it in good form, and it will be a faithful servant and minister to his thought and will. Reference has already been made to the fact that Henry Clay owed so much of his success to his voice and his graceful bearing. Let no one suppose, however, that these were his by inborn gifts. On the contrary, he practiced assiduously that he might perfect his elocution. 190 The Making of an Oration For years, when a young man, he devoted himself to practice that he might make the most of all his powers. These efforts, he himself said, " were sometimes made in a cornfield, at others in the forest, and not infrequently in some distant barn, with the horse and ox for my auditors. It is to this early practice in the great art of all arts, that I am indebted for the primary and leading impulses that stimulated me forward, and shaped and molded my subsequent entire destiny." So he made that voice an instrument by which, when he came into public life, he swayed the multitudes that listened entranced to its music. He learned how to speak on real occasions by practicing for years on fictitious occasions. So when the real occasions came he was ready to make the most of them. We might cite the experience of any of the great orators of history, and almost without exception their evidence would be of a similar tenor. The biographers of Charles Sumner tell us that when he was about to make a speech in the senate, he was discovered declaim- ing that speech before a mirror in his room at the hotel where he lived. Some of Webster's finest passages were carefully wrought out beforehand and practiced, so that when opportunity came they were given with great effect. It was a habit of Lord Chatham, also, to toil terribly that he might perfect himself in all the arts of oratory. If ever man was a born orator, that distinction could be ascribed to him; but trusting not to natural gifts, he showed by his diligence and labor in declamation as well Two Lines of Preparation 191 as in the practice of the laws of rhetoric, that in his case at any rate the orator was made as well as born. His distinguished son, the younger Pitt, toiled even more strenuously that he might perfect his natural gifts. We might add to these the names of such masters as Brough- am, Erskine, Curran, " stuttering Jack Curran," as he was called by his associates in a debating club when he began his practice, Grattan, Gladstone, the eloquent Wil- liam Wirt, Edward Everett, and hosts of others who have attained distinction in this greatest of the arts. These great speakers thought it worth their while to supplement their natural gifts by the most diligent and prolonged practice, that all their powers might be made the most of and be at their call whenever occasion de- manded. They trained not only their voices but all their powers, so that they became real elocutionists in the best sense of that much-abused term. Not only the voice, but the body, should be trained if the speaker would make the most of his powers. It is surprising how few people without training know how to stand; fewer still who realize the difference between standing correctly and standing incorrectly. The mere difference between resting the weight of the body upon the heels or upon the balls of the feet, often spells the difference between failure and success in a speech. Many think they are standing, when others think they are sprawling, or loafing, or lounging. Many a man has been born with brains in his head, but with awkwardness in every other part of his body. Knowing this he is shy, 192 The Making of an Oration self-conscious, blundering. He is ever falling over his own feet as well as over other people's. He does not know what to do with his hands. If he so far forgets himself as to attempt gestures, those gestures have about as much grace and significance as the contortions of a jumping jack. Now, why is it not the most reasonable course for one with conscious talent and ambition, but with such physical defects, to take training from a repu- table teacher of elocution and learn how to correct his shortcomings? His very awkwardness may, wisely treated, become the basis of positive power in gesture and attitude. And, surely, without correction it will prove a handicap and hindrance to the highest success. The value of culture in elocution was well illustrated in the experience of Henry Ward Beecher. If any man could afford to depend wholly upon native powers for success in public speech, it would seem that he was such a man. The son of a distinguished preacher, brought up amid cultured surroundings, hearing eloquent sermons and addresses every week from childhood, with extraor- dinary talent and remarkable physical powers to begin with, what need had he for learning the tricks of the elocutionist? Why should he spend his labor for that which satisfieth not? The inquiry put in such a way is, after all, a begging of the question. He thought such training well worth his while. The mere fact that he had advantages beyond those of most men, instead of furnishing an excuse for neglect, was to him an added incentive and obligation to increased exertion. He real- Two Lines of Preparation 193 ized that to whom much was given of him much would be required. So what do we find him doing? He placed himself, when at college, under a skillful teacher, and for three years was drilled incessantly, he says, in posturing, gesture, and voice culture. Not long after, at the theo- logical seminary, Mr. Beecher continued his drill. There was a large grove between the seminary and his father's house, and it was the habit, he tells us, of his brother Charles and himself, with one or two others, to make the night, and even the day, hideous with their voices, as they passed backward and forward through the wood, exploding all the vowels from the bottom to the very top of their voices. And what was the result of all these exercises? Was it a stiff, cramped style of speak- ing? "The drill that I underwent," says this many- sided orator, " produced, not a rhetorical manner, but a flexible instrument, that accommodated itself readily to every kind of thought and every shade of feeling, and obeyed the inward will in the outward realization of the results of rules and regulations." Now, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. What do such examples teach us ? As another well says, " They prove conclusively, we think, that the great orators, of ancient and modern times, have trusted, not to native endowments, but to careful culture ; that it was to the infinitus labor et quotidiana meditatio, of which Tacitus speaks, that they owed their triumphs ; that mar- velous as were their gifts, they were less than the ignorant rated them; and that even the mightiest, the 194 The Making of an Oration elect natures, that are supposed to be above all rules, condescended to methods by which the humblest may profit." This discussion may well be closed with the words of Salvini, the great actor, to students in eloquence : " Above all, study, study, STUDY. All the genius in the world will not help you along with any art, unless you become a hard student. It has taken me years to master a single part." 3. Another habit of great importance to the orator is that he cultivate the oratorical spirit. He who can con- ceive of his audience as always present while he is pre- paring his speech will have an advantage that otherwise would be impossible. His imagination will then be stirred, and if his imagination is vivid he will have something of the same spirit and inspiration that would stir him in the actual presence of an audience. As a help to him in preparation, also, it will be wise to pronounce his sen- tences aloud so as to test them, as it were, before actually deciding upon them. Not an uncommon thing was it for the most striking passages of the great orators, that seemed to spring spontaneously from the inspiration of the moment, to be wrought out with all care and diligence word for word days before they came so elo- quently from the orator's apparently inspired lips. Such preparation cannot be criticised as deceit ; it is only good sense applied to the presentation of a theme with recog- nition of the demands of the prospective audience. Care in preparation, cultivation of the oratorical Two Lines of Preparation 195 imagination, thoroughness and finish of diction, must not be interpreted as meaning that these are the chief things to be sought. Figures, incidents, beauties of language should not be chosen for their own sake. There may be such a thing as too great finish. A production may be so polished and become so slick that the thought it bears may slip through the memory. It needs to have barbs, which, even though they irritate, will also penetrate and hold fast to the minds of the hearers. An illustration, a figure, a splendid passage that does not at the same time help on the purpose for which the speech is pronounced is as sounding brass. A CHAPTER XVII THE DELIVERY OF THE ORATION Methods of Delivery. However great the care and skill in preparation on the part of the orator, his work is not done until he has delivered himself of his message to the actual, living audience. Rhetorically, such deliverance is the end for which his speech has been prepared. Unless he succeed in this final deliverance, his labor has been in vain. He may have spent days, weeks, months, even years, in getting ready for an occasion that will be passed by in a brief hour or two. Such being the case, how vastly important that he be prepared to make the most of the occasion when it comes! Attention has already been called to the importance of having a well trained voice and a well disciplined body, that will aid him in making the most of his opportunity. There are various methods of delivery. Each has its champions. Each has its advantages and its difficulties. Shall the speaker write his speech and then read it from the manuscript ? Shall he write it and memorize ? Shall he write, and, without attempting to remember the words, follow the line of thought and the main methods of de- velopment in such detail as may come to him in the glow of delivery ? Shall he speak from notes, with no attempt 196 The Delivery of the Oration 197 to memorize anything? Shall he memorize the main headings of his plan, and trust to the occasion to fill in the details ? Or shall he speak with no attempt to memo- rize anything, but out of the fullness of his information, thinking, and enthusiasm, on his subject, speak as with- out special premeditation regarding the language that he shall use? i. Some of the great speeches, that have marked epochs in the history of movements, have been carefully written and read word for word. Those tremendous ser- mons of Jonathan Edwards, which moved his Puritan hearers to cling to the pews and pillars of the church and cry out for mercy, were read without a gesture and almost without a glance of the eye away from the manuscript. But those sermons were delivered under peculiar circum- stances, to an audience accustomed to follow long and intricate lines of theological reasoning, by a man who, perhaps, was the greatest theologian yet produced in America. Such a combination of conditions is not likely to come again. Lincoln's Gettysburg speech was, like- wise, carefully written and read from the manuscript. The advantages of writing in full and reading what is written when the speech is pronounced are somewhat obvious. The speaker has the advantage of accuracy. He does not say in the haste of composition what he would not intend to say and be willing to abide by after the occasion has passed. There is, also, the analogous advantage of correctness of grammar. There are few that use the English language with precision in unpre- 198 The Making of an Oration meditated speech. He that writes with deliberation and care is less likely to divorce his relatives from their antecedents, to put his modifiers next to the wrong gov- erning words, to violate the laws of unity, and to trans- gress the principles of coherence, than is the man that trusts to what he calls " inspiration." Preliminary per- spiration is more reliable for these qualities than occa- sional inspiration. If he must do one or the other, it is better for the speaker to read sense than to roar nonsense. The one that reads, also, is spared the anxiety and uncertainty, the fear of saying what he does not mean, the terror of making an utter failure. He may not rise to the loftiest heights of eloquence, but neither will he descend to the lowest depths of inane platitudes. He knows precisely what he is going to say to his audience, regardless of the state of his digestion or the direction of the wind. On the other hand, the reader loses much of that free- dom and dash, that magnetic touch, that play and inter- play of sympathy which should exist between the speaker and his audience, and which the man that speaks without the intervention of a manuscript between him and his hearers may possess. If the speaker decides to use the manuscript, some suggestions may be made that if followed will be of value, (i.) Let him write on single sheets (not folded) of paper, so that when he reads he can slip these sheets to one side without being obliged to turn them over and thus obtrude the manuscript upon the attention of his audi- The Delivery of the Oration 199 ence. (2.) Do not use a typewriter but a pen. The machine makes smaller letters and the lines are rather close together, and do not catch the eye as readily as writing. Use a stub pen, or some kind that will make a heavy mark. Write, also, with a large, clear hand, with the lines far apart to enable the eye to catch the words and even the lines at a glance. Make no flourishes, but write so plainly that he that runs may read. (3.) Be perfectly familiar with the manuscript. One who pre- pares his manuscript in the way indicated above, and has it well in hand, will not find the paper a serious hindrance to him in speaking. With such preparation, and with good eyes, a speaker can see his manuscript from three to six feet away and thus be able to speak with all the enthusiasm of the " off-hand " speaker as well as with the accuracy of the writer. 2. Some advocate the method of writing and commit- ting the speech to memory. There are undoubtedly some advantages to this method. It secures the accuracy of the written production and, theoretically, the freedom and ease of the unwritten one. A disadvantage is, that one who follows this method is likely to become declamatory in his style of speaking. It is too obviously studied. And it is not quite honest with the audience in that it pretends to be what it is not. Few can speak so naturally by this method as to convey the impression of spontaneity, of actual face to face conversation with an audience. A still further disadvantage is due to the burden such a method lays upon the memory. It is a slavish method, 200 The Making of an Oration and few are willing to undergo the kind of toil demanded by it. There are some that have been extraordinarily successful speakers who have spoken from memory. For students, perhaps, this is the best method. There is, of course, always danger that the memorized production will be partly forgotten that a transitional expression, or the order of thought will escape the memory, and that the speaker will be thrown entirely off his course by the failure. One needs self-control, readiness of resource, abundant assurance, in such a contingency. He must " keep the sound going," or he is lost. If he lose grip on his speech, he will soon lose grip on himself and on his audience. One, however, who can successfully pursue this method may well follow it. 3. There have been men, who have been accustomed to write fully and then, without attempting to remember the language of their speech, have practically repeated it word for word. A few years ago, when Dr. T. Harwood Pattison was professor of homiletics in the Rochester Theological Seminary, he was talking to a small group of students regarding his own methods. Dr. Pattison was a brilliant preacher, fluent, eloquent, impressive. He said, in substance : " I write my sermons in full, usually at one sitting. Or rather I write standing at a high desk. Saturday evening I read my morning sermon with great care. Sunday morning I read it again. When the hour for service comes, I put the sermon in my pocket, and, often, during the opening services I glance through the manuscript again. Then I lay the sermon aside, and The Delivery of the Oration 201 preach with no conscious effort to remember; but prac- tically give the sermon word for word as it was written." Perhaps such a method would become possible for almost any well trained man, with natural talent, and with the persistency of effort requisite to make the most of that talent. 4. Some speakers do their best work by speaking from notes, carefully prepared and used as a guide while pro- nouncing their speech. The notes of those who employ this method are usually full enough to include not only the outline of the plan but enough of the details of development to furnish a somewhat complete synopsis of the minor details as well as the larger groups of thought. Unless one prefers this method, it is not commended as a good one to cultivate. It has neither the accuracy and fullness of writing nor the freedom of the off-hand production. Whatever method of presentation is adopted, it should be a help and not a bondage. 5. Some of the most successful speakers advocate and practice the habit of using a bare outline of the prepared speech and not using any other guide in the delivery. If this method is followed, the outline should contain little more than the main headings of the plan, with, at the most, only the principal subdivisions. Then, if the speaker is fearful that he may forget or that he may not present his thought in the best order, he has his plan at hand as a guide. Thus he is sure of his logic, sure of presenting his speech in what seems to him the best 202 The Making of an Oration order, whatever be the excellences or deficiencies of the language in which that thought is expressed. This method has also the virtue of giving confidence to the speaker. He may never have occasion to refer to his outline, but he knows it to be within reach if he needs it. 6. There is no question that the great majority of hearers prefer to hear the orator speak who uses no visible helps in the form of manuscript or even the briefest out- line. That is, if he speaks with equal excellence, so far as the thought and the language are concerned. And why is it not just as easy to speak in this way as it is to have a written outline, as well as more effective? Surely, to commit the plan to memory is not so very difficult, and such a practice will serve as a guide, a framework, on which to hang the thought, as well as the same frame- work would serve if it were committed to paper. If the speaker is as thoroughly master of his theme as he is presumed to be, and has done the thorough work in preparation that he should have done, he will be so in command of his subject and of himself that on the basis of the plan that he holds completely in his mind, he can speak, at last, with all freedom and with all the exactness of which he is capable. Whatever manner of delivery the orator adopts, it must be his own. Let him choose that which best suits his own temperament, his own tastes, his own habits of thought. And then let him make the most of that method. What- ever method he follow, he can attain all the success The Delivery of the Oration 203 within his powers if he is willing to pay the price of the hard labor that is the measure of success. But whether the speaker use a manuscript or even write his speech and pronounce it without reading, he should constantly practice writing. Thus he will develop habits of using language accurately. Nothing is easier than for one to acquire slovenly and incorrect habits of speech, especially if he speaks much without a corre- sponding amount of writing. To counteract such a tend- ency, therefore, he should let no day pass without some practice in serious composition. Whether this writing be the composition of speeches or of something quite distinct in nature, makes little difference, so far as the question of its effect upon his style is concerned. Care- ful and regular practice in writing is his security from looseness and incorrectness. B. Spirit of the Delivery. When the time arrives for the orator to deliver himself of his message, then let him speak with all boldness. Let him speak as one having authority, because he knows more, probably, about the subject in hand than any one of his hearers. So, let him speak with confidence. Let him speak, also, with all earnestness, with an intensity of conviction arising from the feeling that his subject is the most important theme that can then engage the attention of mankind. Let him speak as if his own life, the safety of his country, and the progress of the world depend upon the acceptance and adoption of his " object " by his hearers. So his speaking cannot be 204 The Making of an Oration cold-blooded and studied. When he is preparing his speech is the time for the exercise of such a spirit; but in the task of actual speaking, he must " let himself go." Then is the time for abandon. Then is the time for him to speak with enthusiasm, with the spontaneousness of a fountain bursting from the hillside and dashing down to the valley of great waters, because it has the weight of conviction behind, urging it on, and the gravitation of purpose calling it. *************** IS THE NEED OF ORATORY DECLINING? Something has already been said upon this question, but a few more words may not be out of place. We not infrequently hear it remarked that in these days of books and newspapers there is no room and no need for oratory, that men read and form their opinions from their reading, and do not depend upon the spoken address for the impulse that shall give direc- tion to their will and its resultant act or course of action. Plausible as this statement may seem, we may confi- dently appeal to facts for its refutation. From a hundred thousand Christian pulpits throughout the world, the voice of the preacher of righteousness refutes it every Sunday. And these preachers do not speak to empty pews. If statistics are to be believed, the attendance on the oratory of the pulpit is greater than ever before in the history of the world. From every court of justice, the voice of the advocate refutes it. From every legis- The Delivery of the Oration 205 lative assembly, and from the halls of congress for months every year, the voices of our lawmakers refute it. While these words are being written, the political parties of our country are preparing for the nomination of can- didates for president and for other public officers, and already the followers of the various aspirants are heard speaking in behalf of their respective leaders. After the nominations shall have been made, from every public hall, under the open sky, from almost every schoolhouse throughout the land, the voice of the political orator will rise every day for weary months to refute the assertion. Is it conceivable that the shrewd men who are managing these " campaigns " would send out these hundreds of speakers at a vast expenditure of energy and money, did not these men know that votes are to be won through presentation of their cause by the living advocate? Is is conceivable that Christian churches would establish schools for the training of preachers and would pay millions for the support of pastors did they not still believe that men are to be won through " the foolishness of preaching " ? So, we may confidently appeal to facts for evidence of the truth of the assertion that the occupation of the orator is not gone. It is a condition, not a theory, that we may depend upon. There seems to be no ground for doubt that there is a growing interest, an increasing atten- tion to the subject of public speaking in the schools and colleges of our country. During the last few years, in some portions of the country particularly west of the 206 The Making of an Oration Alleghany mountains this revival of interest has been quite marked. This fact is an indication of the belief among students and school authorities that there is always a need of men who can persuade others by the power of oratory. So long as men do not see eye to eye, or march side by side ; so long as reforms are needed ; so long as laws are to be made and enforced ; so long as truth and righteousness need to be brought home to the minds and consciences and wills of men ; so long will there be a call for the eloquent voice, the strong per- sonality, the magnetic presence, the persuasive speech of the orator to appeal to men. PARTY I. SPEECHES FOR CAREFUL STUDY II. A LIST OF SPEECHES FOR FURTHER STUDY III. A LIST OF SUBJECTS SUITABLE FOR ORATORICAL TREATMENT LIBERTY OR DEATH BY PATRICK HENRY (Judged from the standpoint of effective oratory, probably no man in the history of American eloquence has surpassed, if indeed any has equalled, Patrick Henry. He was not trained in the schools, but he was endowed with those natural gifts that the schools cannot impart, the gifts of genius that are a law unto themselves. The following famous speech, as reported by his biographer, was delivered March 23, 1775, in the Second Revolu- tionary Convention at Richmond, Virginia. It was in support of a resolution that Virginia be "put into a posture of defense." An account of the speech and the speaker, showing Henry's man- ner and the immediate effect of the speech, will be found in the volume on Patrick Henry, in the American Statesmen Series, pp. 140-151.) MR. PRESIDENT: No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentle- men who have just addressed the house. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen, if, entertaining as I do, opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and with- out reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the house is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery ; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our coun- 209 210 The Making of an Oration try. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason toward my country, and an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings. Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illu- sions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly con- cern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever an- guish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided ; and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past. And, judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British min- istry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which men have been pleased to solace themselves and the house? Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, Sir. It will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed * with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies neces- sary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, Sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, Sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter Speeches for Careful Study 211 of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, Sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains, which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable ; but it has all been in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find, that have not already been exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir, we have done everything, that could be done to avert the storm that is now coming on. We have petitioned 2 ; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposi- tion to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and parlia- ment. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplica- tions have been disregarded ; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne ! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and recon- ciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free if we mean to preserve inviolate those ines- timable privileges for which we have been so long contend- ing if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon, until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight ! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us ! They tell us, sir, that we are weak ; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year ? Will it be when 212 The Making of an Oration we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard is stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction ? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resist- ance, by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong 3 alone ; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat, but in submission and slav- ery ! Our chains are forged ! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come! It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, peace but there is no peace. The war is actu- ally begun ! The next gale, that sweeps from the north, will bring to our ears the clash * of resounding arms ! Our brethren are already in the field ! Why stand we here idle ? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery ? Forbid it, Almighty God ! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death ! NOTES ON " LIBERTY OR DEATH " BY PATRICK HENRY I. Luke XXII: 47-48. Why are Scriptural allusions so effective? Speeches for Careful Study 213 2. Note how the brevity of these clauses, and the meaning of the words as arranged, add to the climacteric effect. 3. Eccl. IX:ii. 4. Try to substitute some other word for "clash," and see if there is any loss of effect. 5. A very large proportion of the sentences is interrogative. Try the effect of changing these sentences to the declarative form. FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN (Before this address was delivered Lincoln was a compar- atively unknown man to the country at large, although he had recently been elected president. From that day, however, there was no doubt in the minds of the people at large that he was equal to the high trust that had been placed in his hands. Thenceforth there was no ground for doubt regarding his attitude toward the great questions that were agitating the country. His words are clear, definite, and positive. The student will find it profitable to study this and others of Lincoln's speeches for the clearness and cogency of their reasoning, for his precision in the choice of words and the construction of sentences, and for the simplicity and music of his style. He should also read carefully what is said of Lincoln's style in the text.) Fellow-Citizens of the United States: In compliance with a custom as old as the government itself, I appear before you to address you briefly and to take in your presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be taken by the President " before he enters on the execution of his office." I do not x consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those matters about which there is no present nor especial anxiety or excitement. Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican admin- istration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence 214 Speeches for Careful Study 215 to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the public speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that " I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no incli- nation to do so." Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declara- tions and had never recanted them ; and more than this, they placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read: "Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend ; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes-." I now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so I only press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, and security of no section are to be in anywise endangered by the now incoming administration. I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the constitution and the laws, can be given will be cheerfully given to all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause as cheer- fully to one section as to another. There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as any other of its pro- visions: 216 The Making of an Oration "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and the intention of the lawgiver is the law. All members of Congress swear their support to the whole Constitution to this provision as much as to any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves, whose cases come within the terms of this clause, " shall be delivered up," their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort in good temper, could they not with nearly equal unanimity frame and pass a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous oath? There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be enforced by national or by State authority; but surely that difference is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be of but little consequence to him or to others by which authority it is done. And should anyone, in any case, be content that his oath should be unkept ori a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept? Again 2 : In any law upon this subject ought not all the safeguards known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a free man be not in any case surren- dered as a slave ? And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees that "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States " ? I take the official oath today with no mental reservations and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or the laws by any hypercritical rules ; and while I do not choose now to Speeches for Careful Study 217 specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed than to violate any of them trust- ing to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional. It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under our National Constitution. During that period fifteen different and greatly distinguished citizens have in succession administered the executive branch of the govern- ment. They have conducted it through many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope of pre- cedent, I now enter upon the same task for the brief consti- tutional term of four years under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted. I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual. 3 Per- petuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express pro- visions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself. Again : If the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in the nature of a contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it? One party to a contract may violate it break it so to speak but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it? Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual, confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and 218 The Making of an Oration continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establish- ing the Constitution was " to form a more perfect Union/' But if destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity. It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union ; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any State or States against the authority are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circum- stances. I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution still expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, and I shall perform it so far as practicable unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall 4 be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government and to collect the duties and imposts ; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people any- where. Where hostility to the United States in any interior Speeches for Careful Study 219 locality shall be so great and universal as shall prevent com- petent resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. While the strict legal right may exist in the government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating and so nearly impracticable withal that I deem it better to forego for the time the uses of such offices. The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of the Union. So far as possible the people every- where shall have that sense of perfect security which is favorable to calm thought and reflection. The course here indicated will be followed unless current events and experience shall show a modification or change to be proper, and in every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised, ac- cording to circumstances actually existing and with a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of the national troubles and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections. That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy the Union at all events and are glad of any pre- text to do it, I will neither affirm nor deny ; but if there be such, I need address no word to them. To those, however, who really love the Union may I not speak? Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruc- tion of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you fly from, will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake? All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right plainly written in the Constitution has been denied? I think not. Happily, the human mind is so constituted that no party 220 The Making of an Oration can reach to the audacity of doing this. Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might in a moral point of view justify revolution; certainly would if such a right were a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and negations, guarantees and pro- hibitions, in the Constitution, that controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate nor any document of reasonable length contain express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or by State authority ? The Constitution does not expressly say: May Congress prohibit slavery in the territories ? The Constitution does not expressly say: Must Congress protect slavery in the terri- tories? The Constitution does not expressly say. From questions of this class spring all our constitutional controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. If the minorities will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the government must cease. There is no alternative, for continuing the government is acquiescence upon one side or the other. If a minority 5 in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them, for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a new confederacy a year or two hence arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it? All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper of doing this. Speeches for Careful Study 221 Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States to compose a new union as to produce harmony only and prevent renewed secession? Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible. The rule of a minority, as a permanent ar- rangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left. I do not forget the position assumed by some that consti- tutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, nor do I deny that such decisions in any case are binding upon the parties to a suit as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments of the Govern- ment. And while it is obviously possible that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect fol- lowing it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled and never become a prece- dent for other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice. At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before 222 The Making of an Oration them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes. One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dis- pute. The fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave trade are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a com- munity where the moral sense of the people imperfectly sup- ports the law itself. The great body of the people abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured, and it would be worse in both cases after the separation of the sec- tions than before. The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived without restriction in one section, while fugitive slaves, now only partially sur- rendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other. Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respective sections from each other nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face, and inter- course, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more ad- vantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you can not fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions, as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you. This country with its institutions belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the Speeches for Careful Study 223 existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the Na- tional Constitution amended. While I make no recommenda- tions of amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself ; and I should, under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems pref- erable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others, not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a pro- posed amendment to the Constitution which amendment, however, I have not seen has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision now to be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable. The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the States. The people themselves can do this also if they choose, but the Executive as such has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present Government as it came to his hands and transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor. Why 6 should there not be a patient confidence in the ulti- mate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope 224 The Making of an Oration in the world? In our present differences, is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people. By the frame of the Government under which we live this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom pro- vided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no Administration by any extreme of wickedness and folly can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years. My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any one of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sen- sitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new Administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there is still no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are still competent to adjust in the best way our present difficulty. In your hands, my dissatisfied 7 fellow-countrymen, and not in mine is the momentous issue of civil war. The Govern- ment will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while / shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it." Speeches for Careful Study 225 I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be by the better angels of our nature. NOTES ON THE "FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS," BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN 1. Observe how definitely at the outset the speaker limits the range of his address. 2. The steps of the points discussed should be noted. Make an outline naming the steps in order. 3. This is the same interpretation of the nature of the Consti- tution advocated by Webster. 4. Observe the skill, and yet kindness, with which he places responsibility for bloodshed if it should come. 5. Could any argument be homelier or more conclusive upon this question? 6. The student should note the conciliatory attitude of the whole speech, especially from this point onward nothing to offend, everything to appeal to the patriotism and best feelings of the people. 7. As first written the final paragraph read as follows : " My dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, you cannot forbear the assault upon it; I cannot shrink from the defense of it. With you, and not with me, is the solemn question of, Shall it be peace or a sword?" Secretary Seward, the scholar in the cabinet, when the document was submitted to him, suggested that there should be "some words of affection some of calm and cheerful con- fidence," and proposed the following : " I close. We are not, we must not be, aliens or enemies, but fellow-countrymen and breth- ren. Although passion has strained our bonds of affection too hardly, they must not, I am sure they will not, be broken. The mystic chords which, proceeding from so many battlefields and so many patriot graves, pass through all the hearts and all the hearths in this broad continent of ours, will yet again harmonize in their ancient music when breathed upon by the guardian angel of the nation." How does the final form improve on both Seward's sentence and Lincoln's own first draft both in felicity of words, in precision of phrase, in suggestiveness of association, and in rhythm ? SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN * Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and ded- icated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remain- ing before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. *The foregoing text is, in its wording, a copy of the speech, made by Mr. Lincoln himself, for a fair given in Baltimore for the benefit of soldiers and sailors. 226 SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN : At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted to saving the Union without war, the insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war seeking to dis- solve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came. One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the whole Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar 227 228 The Making of an Oration and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was some- how the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own pur- poses. " Woe unto the world because of offenses, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall sup- pose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the Providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He now gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bonds- man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said " the judg- ments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." Speeches for Careful Study 229 With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firm- ness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. UNDER THE FLAG BY WENDELL PHILLIPS (The following speech was delivered by Mr. Phillips In the Music Hall, Boston, April 21, 1861, just after the outbreak of the Civil War by the attack upon Fort Sumter. It was delivered before the Twenty-eighth Congregational Society. Previously Mr. Phillips, in his ardent abolitionism, had expressed the idea that the Constitution of the United States, because it was the Constitution of a government that recognized slavery, laid no obligations upon any man to obey it. When, however, the war was actually begun, he supported the government, because he interpreted the war as destined to do away with American slavery. The student should study this and other orations of Wendell Phillips, as among the best examples of American elo- quence. Phillips was preeminently an agitator and reformer. As such he was, of course, an extremist. Sentence structure, choice of words, directness, picturesqueness, intensity of convic- tion, richness of allusion and illustration, epigrammatic assertion, all these and other qualities that help to illumine and give force to the thought are found in abundance in these addresses.) " Therefore thus saith the Lord : Ye have not hearkened unto me in proclaiming liberty everyone to his brother, and every man to his neighbor ; behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith ^the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine." Jer. XXXIV: 17. Many times this winter, here and elsewhere, I have coun- seled peace, urged, as well as I know how, the expediency of acknowledging a Southern Confederacy, and the peaceful separation of these thirty- four states. One of the journals announces to you that I come here this morning to retract those opinions. No, not one of them ! [Applause.] I need them all, every word I have spoken this winter, every 230 Speeches for Careful Study 231 act of twenty-five years of my life, to make the welcome I give this war hearty and hot. Civil war is a momentous evil. It needs the soundest, most solemn justification. I rejoice before God today for every word that I have spoken counsel- ing peace; but I rejoice also with an especially profound gratitude, that now, the first time in my anti-slavery life, I speak under the stars and stripes, and welcome the tread of Massachusetts men marshalled for war. [Enthusiastic cheer- ing.] No matter what the past has been or said; today the slave asks God for a sight of this banner, and counts it the pledge of his redemption. [Applause.] Hitherto it may have meant what you thought, or what I did; today it represents sovereignty and justice. [Renewed applause.] The only mistake that I have made, was in supposing Massachusetts wholly choked with cottondust and cankered with gold. [Loud cheering.] The South thought her patience and generous willingness for peace were cowardice; today shows the mis- take. She has been sleeping on her arms x since '83, and the first cannonshot brings her to her feet with the warcry of the Revolution on her lips. [Loud cheers.] Any man who loves either liberty or manhood must rejoice at such an hour. [Applause.] Let me tell you the path by which I at least have trod my way up to this conclusion. I do not acknowledge the motto, in its full significance, " Our country, right or wrong." If you let it trespass on the domain of morals, it is knavish. But there is a full, broad sphere for loyalty ; and no warcry ever stirred a generous people that had not in it much of truth and right. It is sublime, this rally of a great people to the defense of what they think their national honor ! " A noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man from sleep, and shaking her invincible locks." Just now we saw her " reposing, peaceful and motionless ; but at the call of patriotism, she ruffles, as it were, her swelling plumage, col- 232 The Making of an Oration lects her scattered elements of strength, and awakens her dormant thunders." But how do we justify this last appeal to the God of bat- tles? Let me tell you how I do. I have always believed in the sincerity of Abraham Lincoln. You have heard me ex- press my confidence in it every time I have spoken from this desk. I only doubted sometimes whether he were really the head of the government. Today he is at any rate commander- in-chief. The delay in the action of government has doubtless been necessity, but policy also. Traitors within and without made it hesitate to move till it had tried the machine of govern- ment just given it. But delay was wise, as it matured a public opinion definite, decisive, and ready to keep step to the music of the government march. The very postponement of another session of Congress till July 4th plainly invites discussion, evidently contemplates the ripening of public opinion in the the interval. Fairly to examine public affairs, and prepare a community wise to cooperate with the government, is the duty of every pulpit and every press. Plain words, therefore, now, before the nation goes mad with excitement, is every man's duty. Every public meeting in Athens was opened with a curse on any one who should not speak what he really thought. " I have never defiled my conscience from fear or favor to my superiors," was part of the oath every Egyptian soul was supposed to utter in the Judgment-Hall of Osiris, 2 before admission to heaven. Let us show today a Christian spirit as sincere and fearless. No mobs in this hour of victory, to silence those whom events have not converted. We are strong enough to tolerate dissent. That flag which floats over press and mansion at the bidding of a mob, disgraces both victor and victim. All winter long, I have acted with that party which cried for peace. The anti-slavery enterprise to which I belong Speeches for Careful Study 233 started with peace written on its banner. We imagined that the age of bullets was over ; that the age of ideas had come ; that thirty millions of people were able to take a great ques- tion, and decide it by the conflict of opinions; that without letting the ship of state founder, we could lift four millions of men into Liberty and Justice. We thought that if your statesmen would throw away personal ambition and party watchwords, and devote themselves to the great issue, this might be accomplished. To a certain extent it has been. The North has answered to the call. Year after year, event after event, has indicated the rising education of the people, the readiness for a higher moral life, the calm, self-poised confidence in our own convictions that patiently waits like master for a pupil for a neighbor's conversion. The North has responded to the call of that peaceful, moral, intellectual agitation which the antislavery idea has initiated. Our mis- take, if any, has been that we counted too much on the intelli- gence of the masses, on the honesty and wisdom of statesmen as a class. Perhaps we did not give weight enough to the fact we saw, that this nation is made up of different ages; not homogeneous, but a mixed mass of different centuries. The North 3 thinks, can appreciate argument, is the nine- teenth century, hardly any struggle left in it but that be- tween the working class and the money kings. The South dreams, it is the thirteenth and fourteenth century, baron and serf, noble and slave. Jack Cade 4 and Wat Tyler loom over its horizon, and the serf, rising, calls for another Thierry 5 to record his struggle. There the fagot still burns which the Doctors 6 of the Sorbonne called, ages ago, "the best light to guide the erring." There men are tortured for opinions, the only punishment the Jesuits were willing their pupils should look on. This is, perhaps, too flattering a pic- ture of the South. Better call her, as Sumner does, "the Barbarous States." Our struggle, therefore, is between bar- 234 The Making of an Oration barism and civilization. Such can only be settled by arms. [Prolonged cheering.] The government has waited until its best friends almost suspected its courage or its integrity; but the cannon shot against Fort Sumter has opened the only door of this hour. There were but two. One was compromise ; the other was battle. The integrity of the North closed the first; the generous forbearance of nineteen states closed the other. The South opened this with cannon shot, and Lincoln shows himself at the door. [Prolonged and enthusiastic cheering.] The war, then, is not aggressive, but in self- defense, and Washington has become the Thermopylae of Liberty and Justice. [Applause.] Rather than surrender that capital, cover every square foot of it with a living body [loud cheers] ; crowd it with a million men, and empty every bank vault at the North to pay the cost. [Renewed cheering.] Teach the world once for all, that North America belongs to the Stars and Stripes, and under them no man shall wear a chain. [Enthusiastic cheering.] In the whole of this con- flict, I have looked only at Liberty, only at the slave. Perry entered the Battle of the Lakes with " Do n't give up the ship ! " floating from the masthead of the Lawrence. When with his fighting flag he left her crippled, heading north, and, mounting the deck of the Niagara, turned her bows due west, he did all for one and the same purpose, to rake the decks of the foe. Steer north or west, acknowledge secession or cannonade it, I care not which ; but " Proclaim 7 liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." [Loud cheers.] I said, civil war needs momentous and solemn justification. Europe, the world, may claim of us, that, before we blot the nineteenth century by an appeal to arms, we shall exhaust every concession, try every means to keep the peace ; other- wise, an appeal to the God of battles is an insult to the civi- lization of our age; it is a confession that our culture and Speeches for Careful Study 235 our religion are superficial, if not a failure. I think that the history of the nation and of the government both is an ample justification to our own times and to history for this appeal to arms. I think the South is all wrong, and the administra- tion is all right. [Prolonged cheering.] Let me tell you why. For thirty years the North has exhausted conciliation and compromise. They have tried every expedient, they have relinquished every right, they have sacrificed every interest, they have smothered keen sensibility to national honor, and Northern weight and supremacy in the Union ; have forgotten that they were the majority in numbers and in wealth, in education and strength; have left the helm of government and the dictation of policy to the Southern States. For all this, the conflict waxed closer and hotter. The administra- tion which preceded this was full of traitors and thieves. It allowed the arms, ships, money, military stores of the North to be stolen with impunity. Mr. Lincoln took office, robbed of all the means to defend the constitutional rights of the government. He offered to withdraw from the walls of Sumter everything but the flag. He allowed secession to surround it with the strongest forts which military science could build. The North offered to meet in convention her sister states, and arrange the terms of peaceful separation. Strength and right yielded everything, they folded their hands, waited the returning reason of the mad insurgents. Week after week elapsed, month after month went by, wait- ing for the sober second-thought of the two millions and a half of people. The world saw the sublime sight of nineteen millions of wealthy, powerful, united citizens, allowing their flag to be insulted, their rights assailed, their sovereignty defied and broken in pieces, and yet waiting, with patient, brotherly, magnanimous kindness, until insurrection, having spent its fury, should reach out its hand for a peaceful ar- rangement. Men began to call it cowardice, on the one hand ; 236 The Making of an Oration and we, who watched closely the crisis, feared that this effort to be magnanimous would demoralize the conscience and the courage of the North. We were afraid that, as the hour went by, the virtue of the people, white-hot as it stood on the fourth day of March, would be cooled by the tempta- tions, by the suspense, by the want and suffering which it was feared would stalk from the Atlantic to the valley of the Mississippi. We were afraid the government would wait too long, and find at last, that instead of a united people, they were deserted, and left alone to meet the foe. All this time, the South knew, recognized, by her own knowledge of constitutional questions, that the government could not ad- vance one inch towards acknowledging secession ; that when Abraham Lincoln swore to support the Constitution and the laws of the United States, he was bound to die under the flag on Fort Sumter, if necessary. [Loud applause.] They knew, therefore, that the call on the administration to acknowl- edge the commissioners of the Confederacy was a delusion and a swindle. I know the whole argument for secession. Up to a certain extent, I accede to it. But no administration that is not traitor can acknowledge secession until we are hopelessly beaten in fair fight. [Cheers.] The right of a state to secede, under the Constitution of the United States, it is an absurdity; and Abraham Lincoln knows nothing, has a right to know nothing, but the Constitution of the United States. [Loud cheers.] The right of a state to secede, as revolutionary right, is undeniable; but it is the nation which is. to recognize that ; and the nation offered, at the suggestion of Kentucky, to meet the question in full convention. The offer was declined. The government and the nation, therefore, are all right [Applause.] They are right on constitutional law; they are right on the principles of the Declaration of Independence. [Cheers.] Let me explain this more fully, for this reason ; because Speeches for Careful Study 237 and I thank God for it, every American should be proud of it you cannot maintain a war in the United States of America against a constitutional or a revolutionary right. The people of these States have too large brains and too many ideas to fight blindly, to lock horns like a couple of beasts in the sight of the world. [Applause.] Cannon think in this nineteenth century; and you must put the North in the right, wholly, undeniably, inside of the Constitution and out of it, before you can justify her in the face of the world; be- fore you can pour Massachusetts like an avalanche through the streets of Baltimore, [great cheering,] and carry Lex- ington on the I9th of April 8 south of Mason and Dixon's line. [Renewed cheering.] Let us take an honest pride in the fact that our Sixth Regiment made a way for itself through Baltimore, 9 and were the first to reach the threatened Capital. In this war Massachusetts has a right to be the first in the field. I said I knew the whole argument for secession. Very briefly let me state the points. No government provides for its own death; therefore there can be no constitutional right to secede. But there is a revolutionary right. The Declara- tion of Independence establishes what the heart of every American acknowledges, that the people mark you, THE PEOPLE, have always an inherent, paramount, inalienable right to change their governments, whenever they think whenever they think that it will minister to their happiness. That is a revolutionary right. Now, how did South Carolina and Massachusetts come into the Union? They came into it by a convention representing the people. South Carolina alleges that she has gone out by convention. So far, right. She says that when the people take the state rightfully out of the Union, the right to forts and national property goes with it. Granted. She says, also, that it is no matter that we bought Louisiana of France, and Florida of Spain. No bar- 238 The Making of an Oration gain made, no money paid, betwixt us and France or Spain, could rob Florida or Louisiana of her right to remodel her government whenever the people found it would be for their happiness. So far, right. THE PEOPLE, mark you ! South Carolina presents herself to the administration at Washing- ton, and says, " There is a vote of my convention, that I go out of the Union." " I cannot see you," says Abraham Lin- coln. [Loud cheers.] " As president, I have no eyes but constitutional eyes; I cannot see you." [Renewed cheers.] He could only say, like Speaker Lenthal before Charles the First, " I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak but as the Constitution is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am." He was right. But Madison said, Hamilton said, the Fathers said, in 1/89, " No man but an enemy of liberty will ever stand on technicalities and forms, when the essence is in question." Abraham Lincoln could not see the commission- ers of South Carolina, but the North could; the nation could; and the nation responded, " If you want a constitutional se- cession, such as you claim, but which I repudiate, I will waive forms; let us meet in convention, and we will arrange it.'* [Applause.] Surely, while one claims a right within the Constitution, he may, without dishonor or inconsistency, meet in convention, even if finally refusing to be bound by it. To decline doing so is only evidence of intention to pro- voke war. Everything under that instrument is peace. Everything under that instrument may be changed by a na- tional convention. The South says, " No ! " She says, " If you don't allow me the constitutional right, I claim the revo- lutionary right." The North responds, " When you have torn the Constitution into fragments, I recognize the right of THE PEOPLE of South Carolina to model their government. Yes, I recognize the right of the three hundred and eighty- four thousand white men, and four hundred and eighty-four thousand black men to model their Constitution. Show me the Speeches for Careful Study 239 one that they have adopted, and I will recognize the revolu- tion. [Cheers.] But the moment you tread outside of the Constitution, the black man is not 10 " three-fifths of a man, he is a whole one." [Loud cheering.] Yes, the South has the right of revolution; the South has a right to model her government; and the moment she shows us four million of black votes thrown even against it, and balanced by five million of other votes, I will acknowledge the Declaration of Independence is complied with [loud applause], that the people south of Mason and Dixon's line have'remodeled their government to suit themselves; and our function is only to recognize it. Further than this, we should have the right to remind them, in the words of our Declaration of Independence, that " gov- ernments long established are not to be changed for light and transient causes," and that, so long as government fulfills the purposes for which it was made, the liberty and happi- ness of the people, no one section has the right capriciously to make changes which destroy joint interests, advantages bought by common toil and sacrifice, and which division necessarily destroys. Indeed, we should have the right to remind them that no faction, in what has been recognized as one nation, can claim, by any law, the right of revolution to set up or to preserve a system which the common con- science of mankind stamps as wicked and infamous. The law of nations is only another name for the common sense and average conscience of mankind. It does not allow itself, like a county court, to be hoodwinked by parchments or con- fused by technicalities. In its vocabulary, the right of revo- lution means the right of the people to protect themselves, not the privilege of tyrants to tread under foot good laws, and claim the world's sympathy in riveting weakened chains. I say the North had a right to assume these positions. She did not. She had a right to ignore revolution until these 240 The Making of an Oration conditions were complied with ; but she did not. She waived it. In obedience to the advice of Madison, to the long history of her country's forbearance, to the magnanimity of nineteen States, she waited; she advised the government to wait. Mr. Lincoln, in his inaugural, indicated that this would be the wise course. Mr. Seward hinted it in his speech in New York. The London Times bade us remember the useless war of 1776, and take warning against resisting the princi- ples of popular sovereignty. The Tribune, whose unflinching fidelity and matchless ability make it in this fight " the white plume of Navarre," has again and again avowed its readiness to waive forms and go into convention. We have waited. We said, " Anything for peace." We obeyed the magnani- mous statesmanship of John Quincy Adams. Let me read you his advice, given at the " Jubilee of the Constitution," to the New York Historical Society, in the year 1839. He says, recognizing this right of the people of a State, mark you, not a State : the Constitution in this matter knows no States ; the right of revolution knows no States; it knows only the people. Mr. Adams says: " The people of each State in the Union have a right to secede from the confederated Union itself. " Thus stands the right. But the indissoluble link of union between the people of the several States of this confederated nation is, after all, not in the right, but in the heart. "If the day should ever come (may heaven avert it!) when the affections of the people of these States shall be alienated from each other, when the fraternal spirit shall give way to cold indifference, or collisions of interest shall fester into hatred, the bands of political association will not long hold together parties no longer attracted by the mag- netism of conciliated interests and kindly sympathies; and far better will it be for the people of the disunited States to part in friendship from each other, than to be held together Speeches for Careful Study 241 by constraint. Then will be the time for reverting to the precedents which occurred at the formation and adoption of the Constitution, to form again a more perfect union, by dissolving that which could no longer bind; and to leave the separated parts to be reunited by the law of political gravi- tation to the center." The North said " Amen " to every word of it. They waited. They begged the States to meet them. They were silent when the cannonshot pierced the flag of the Star of the West. They said " Amen " when the government offered to let nothing but the bunting cover Fort Sumter. They said " Amen " when Lincoln stood alone, without arms, in a de- fenseless capital, and trusted himself to the loyalty and for- bearance of thirty-four States. The South, if the truth be told, cannot wait. Like all usurpers, they dare not give time for the people to criticise their power. War and tumult must conceal the irregularity of their civil course, and smother discontent and criticism at the same time. Besides, bankruptcy at home can live out its short term of possible existence only by conquest on land and piracy at sea. And, further, only by war, by appeal to popular frenzy, can they hope to delude the border states to join them. War is the breath of their life. Today, therefore, the question is, by the voice of the South, " Shall Washington or Montgomery own the continent ? " And the North says, " From the Gulf to the Pole, the Stars and Stripes shall atone to four millions of negroes whom we have forgotten for seventy years ; and, before you break the Union, we will see that justice is done to the slave." [Enthu- siastic and long-continued cheers.] There is only one thing those cannonshot in the harbor of Charleston settled, that there never can be a compromise. [Loud applause.] We Abolitionists have doubted whether this Union really meant justice and liberty. We have doubted 242 The Making of an Oration the intention of nineteen millions of people. They have said, in answer to our criticism : " We believe that the Fathers meant to establish justice. We believe that there are hidden in the armory of the Constitution weapons strong enough to secure it. We are willing yet to try the experi- ment. Grant us time." We have doubted, derided the pre- tence, as we supposed. During these long and weary weeks we have waited to hear the Northern conscience assert its purpose. It comes at last. [An impressive pause.] Massa- chusetts blood has consecrated the pavements of Baltimore, and these stones are now too sacred to be trodden by slaves. [Loud cheers.] You and I owe it to these young martyrs, you and I owe it, that their blood shall be the seed of no mere empty triumph, but that the negro shall teach his children to bless them for centuries to come. [Applause.] When Massa- chusetts goes down to that Carolina fort to put the Stars and Stripes again over its blackened walls [enthusiasm], she will sweep from its neighborhood every institution which hazards their ever bowing again to the palmette. [Loud cheers.] All of you may not mean it now. Our fathers did not think in 1775 of the Declaration of Independence. The Long Parliament never thought of the scaffold of Charles the First, when they entered on the struggle; but having begun, they made thorough work. [Cheers.] It is an attribute of the Yankee blood, slow to fight, and fight once. [Renewed cheers.] It was a holy war, that for Independence; this is a holier and the last, that for LIBERTY. [Loud applause.] I hear a great deal about constitutional liberty. The mouths of Concord and Lexington guns have room only for one word, and that is LIBERTY. You might as well ask Niagara to chant the Chicago platform, as to say how far war shall go. War and Niagara thunder to a music of their own. God alone can launch the lightnings, that they may Speeches for Careful Study 243 go and say, Here we are. The thunderbolts of His throne always abase the proud, lift up the lowly, and execute justice between man and man. Now let me turn one moment to another consideration. What should the government do ? I said " thorough " should be its maxim. When we fight, we are fighting for justice and an idea. A short war and a rigid one is the maxim. Ten thousand men in Washington ! it is only a bloody fight. Five hundred thousand men in Washington, and none dare come there but from the North. [Loud cheers.] Occupy St. Louis with the millions of the West, and say to Missouri, " You cannot go out ! " [Applause.] Cover Maryland with a million of the friends of the administration, and say : " We must have our capital within reach. [Cheers.] If you need compensation for slaves taken from you in the convulsion of battle, here it is. [Cheers.] Government is engaged in the fearful struggle to show that '89 u meant justice, and there is something better than life, holier than even real and just property, in such an hour as this." And again, we must re- member another thing, the complication of such a struggle as this. Bear with me a moment. We put five hundred thousand men on the banks of the Potomac. Virginia is held by two races, white and black. Suppose those black men flare in our faces the Declaration of Independence. What are we to say ? Are we to send Northern bayonets to keep slaves under the feet of Jefferson Davis? [Many voices, "No!" " Never ! " ] In 1842, Governor Wise of Virginia, the sym- bol of the South, entered into argument with Quincy Adams, who carried Plymouth Rock to Washington. [Applause.] It was when Joshua Giddings offered his resolution stating his constitutional doctrine that Congress had no right to interfere, in any event, in any way, with the slavery of the Southern States. Plymouth Rock refused to vote for it. Mr. Adams said [substantially] : " If foreign war comes, 244 The Making of an Oration if civil war comes, if insurrection comes, is this beleaguered capital, is this besieged government, to see millions of its subjects in arms, and have no right to break the fetters which they are forging into swords? No; the war power of the government can sweep this institution into the Gulf." [Cheers.] Ever since 1842, that statesman-like claim and warning of the North has been on record, spoken by the lips of her wisest son. [Applause.] When the South cannonaded Fort Sumter the bones of Adams stirred in his coffin. [Cheers.] And you might have heard him, from that granite grave at Quincy, proclaim to the nation : " The hour has struck ! Seize the thunderbolt God has forged for you, and annihilate the system which has troubled your peace for seventy years ! " [Cheers.] Do not say this is the cold-blooded suggestion. I hardly ever knew slavery to go down in any other circumstances. Only once, in the broad sweep of the world's history, was any nation lifted so high that she could stretch her imperial hand across the Atlantic, and lift by one peaceful word a million of slaves into liberty. God granted that glory only to our motherland. You heedlessly expected, and we Abolitionists hoped, that such would be our course. Sometimes it really seemed so, and we said confidently, the age of bullets is over. At others the sky lowered so darkly that we felt our only exodus would be one of blood; that, like other nations, our Bastile would fall only before revolution. Ten years ago I asked you, How did French slavery go down? How did the French slavetrade go down? When Napoleon came back from Elba, when his fate hung trembling in the balance, and he wished to gather around him the sympathies of the liberals of Europe, he no sooner set foot in the Tuilleries than he signed the edict abolishing the slavetrade, against which the Abolitionists of England and France had protested for Speeches for Careful Study 245 twenty years in vain. Ana the trade went down, because Napoleon felt he must do something to gild the darkening hour of his second attempt to clutch the sceptre of France. How did the slave system go down? When, in 1848, the provisional government found itself in the hotel de ville, obliged to do something to draw to itself the sympathy and liberal feeling of the French nation, they signed an edict it was the first from the rising republic abolishing the death-penalty and slavery. The storm which rocked the vessel of state almost to foundering snapped forever the chain of the French slave. Look, too, at the history of Mexican and South American emancipation; you will find that it was in every instance, I think, the child of convulsion. That hour has come to us. So stand we today. The Abolitionist who will not now cry, when the moment serves, " Up, boys, and at them ! " is false to liberty. [Great cheer- ing. A voice, " So is every other man." ] Yes, today Aboli- tionist is merged in citizen, in American. Say not it is a hard lesson. Let him who fully knows his own heart and strength, and feels, as he looks down into his child's cradle, that he could stand and see that little nestling borne to slavery, and submit, let him cast the first stone. But all you, whose blood is wont to stir over Naseby and Bunker Hill, will hold your peace, unless you are ready to cry with me, Sic semper tyrannis ! " So may it ever be with tyrants ! " [Loud applause.] Why, Americans, I believe in the might of nineteen mil- lions of people. Yes, I know that what sewing machines and reaping machines and ideas and types and schoolhouses can- not do, the muskets of Illinois and Massachusetts can finish up. [Cheers.] Blame me not that I make everything turn on liberty and the slave. I believe in Massachusetts. I know that free speech, free toil, schoolhouses, and ballot- boxes are a pyramid on its broadest base. Nothing that does 246 The Making of an Oration not sunder the solid globe can disturb it. We defy the world to disturb us. [Cheers.] The little errors that dwell upon our surface, we have medicine in our institutions to cure them all. [Applause.] Therefore there is nothing left for a New England man, nothing but that he shall wipe away the stain which hangs about the toleration of human bondage. As Webster said at Rochester, years and years ago : " If I thought that there was a stain upon the remotest hem of the garment of my country, I would devote my utmost labor to wipe it off." [Cheers.] Today that call is made upon Massachusetts. That is the reason why I dwell so much on the slavery ques- tion. I said I believed in the power of the North to conquer ; but where does she get it? I do not believe in the power of the North to subdue two millions and a half of Southern men, unless she summons justice, the negro, and God to her side [cheers] ; and in that battle we are sure of this, we are sure to rebuild the Union down to the Gulf. [Renewed cheering.] In that battle, with that watchword, with those allies, the thirteen States and their children will survive, in the light of the world, a nation which has vindicated the sincerity of the Fathers of '87, that they bore children, and not 12 peddlers, to represent them in the nineteenth century. [Repeated cheers.] But without that, without that, I know also we shall conquer. Sumter annihilated compromise. Nothing but victory will blot from history that sight of the Stars and Stripes giving place to the palmetto. 13 But with- out justice for inspiration, without God for our Ally, we shall break the Union asunder; we shall be a confederacy, and so will they. This war means one of two things, Emancipation or Disunion. [Cheers.] Out of the smoke of the conflict there comes that, nothing else. It is impos- sible there should come anything else. Now, I believe in the future and permanent union of the races that cover this con- Speeches for Careful Study 247 tinent from the Pole down to the Gulf, one in race, one in history, one in religion, one in industry, one in thought, we never can be permanently separated. Your path, if you forget the black race, will be over the gulf of Disunion, years of unsettled, turbulent, Mexican and South American civilization, back through that desert of forty years to the Union which is sure to come. But I believe in a deeper conscience, I believe in a North more educated than that. I divide you into four sections. The first is the ordinary mass, rushing from mere enthusiasm to A battle whose great aim and scope They little care to know, Content, like men-at-arms, to cope Each with his fronting foe. Behind that class stands another, whose only idea in this controversy is sovereignty and the flag. The seaboard, the wealth, the just-converted Hunkerism 14 of the country, fill that class. Next to it stands the third element, the people ; the cordwainers of Lynn, the farmers of Worcester, the dwellers on the prairie, Iowa and Wisconsin, Ohio and Maine, the broad surface of the people who have no leisure for technicalities, who never studied law, who never had time to read any further into the Constitution than the first two lines, " Establish Justice and secure Liberty" They have waited long enough ; they have eaten dirt long enough ; they have apologized for bankrupt statesmen enough; they have quieted their consciences enough ; they have split logic with their Abolition neighbors long enough; they have tired of trying to find a place between the forty-ninth and forty-eighth corner of a constitutional hair [laughter] ; and now that they have got their hand on the neck of a rebellious aristocracy, in the name of the people, they mean to strangle it. That I believe is the body of the people itself. Side by side with 248 The Making of an Oration them stands a fourth class, small, but active, the Aboli- tionists, who thank God that he has let them see his 15 salvation before they die. [Cheers.] The noise and dust of the conflict may hide the real ques- tion at issue. Europe may think, some of us may, that we are fighting for forms and parchments, for sovereignty and a flag. But really the war is one of opinions; it is Civiliza- tion against Barbarism; it is Freedom against Slavery. The cannonshot against Fort Sumter was the yell of pirates against the Declaration of Independence, the warcry of the North is the echo of that sublime pledge. The South, defy- ing Christianity, clutches its victim. The North offers its wealth and blood in glad atonement for the selfishness of seventy years. The result is as sure as the throne of God. I believe in the possibility of justice, in the certainty of union. Years hence, when the smoke of this conflict clears away, the world will see under our banner all tongues, all creeds, all races, one brotherhood, and on the banks of the Potomac, the Genius of Liberty, robed in light, four and thirty stars for her diadem, broken chains under feet, and an olive branch in her right hand. [Great applause.] NOTES ON THE SPEECH, " UNDER THE FLAG," BY WENDELL PHILLIPS 1. " Since '85," the date of the close of the Revolutionary War. 2. " Osiris," a god of the Egyptians. 3. The frequent use of antithesis and its effect should be considered. 4. "Jack Cade and Wat Tyler," English rebels. 5. "Thierry," French historian. 6. " Doctors of the Sorbonne," teachers of theology in France under the " old regime." 7. The quotation is from " Liberty Bell " that rang from the tower of Liberty Hall in Philadelphia, when the Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776. Note the peculiar appropri- ateness of the words as used here. Speeches for Careful Study 249 8. " The igth of April," the date of the battle of Lexington and Concord in the Revolutionary War. 9. Washington was threatened and the sixth Massachusetts regiment, on its way to the relief of the capital, had to fight its way through the streets of Baltimore against a mob that opposed its passage. 10. Under the Constitution as originally adopted, five slaves counted in estimating representation in Congress as equivalent to three white men. 11. "'89 meant justice." The Constitution went into operation in 1789. 12. Some secessionists are said to have spoken of New England as a people of traders. 13. The flag of South Carolina. 14. What is the origin and meaning of " Hunkerism " ? 15. Luke 11:30. SPEECH AT LIVERPOOL IN 1863 BY HENRY WARD BEECHER (When Henry Ward Beecher went to England in the summer of 1863, he did not intend to make any speeches during his visit. He went solely for his health. On reaching England, however, he discovered the attitude of the government and the drift of popular sentiment, and realized the great danger that the English government would formally recognize the independence of the Southern Confederacy. That would mean war between the United States and England ; and the United States had all the war it wanted just then. To avert such a calamity, Mr. Beecher consented to do what he could to counteract the influence of the Confederate emissaries, who were conducting a very active prop- aganda in the interests of the Confederacy. He made five speeches at Manchester, at Glasgow, at Edinburgh, at Liverpool, and at London. It is not too much to say that these speeches did more to change the tide of public opinion in England with refer- ence to the real meaning of the Civil War than did any other one influence. They saved England from declaring for the independ- ence of the South and from war with the North. They were almost, if not altogether, the greatest triumphs of oratory in the history of eloquence. Every student should study them all in the order in which they were pronounced.) For more than twenty-five years I have been made per- fectly familiar with popular assemblies in all parts of my country except the extreme South. There has not for the whole of that time been a single day of my life when it would have been safe for me to go south of Mason x and Dixon's line in my own country, and all for one reason; my solemn, earnest, persistent testimony against that which I consider to be the most atrocious thing under the sun the 250 Speeches for Careful Study 251 system of American slavery in a great free republic. [Cheers.] I have passed through that early period, when right of speech was denied to me. Again and again I have attempted to address audiences that, for no other crime than that of free speech, visited me with all manner of contumeli- ous epithets ; and now since I have been in England, although I have met with greater kindness and courtesy on the part of most than I deserved, yet, on the other hand, I perceive that the Southern influence prevails to some extent in England. It is my old acquaintance; I understand it perfectly [laughter] and I have always held it to be an unfailing truth that where a man had a cause that would bear exami- nation he was perfectly willing to have it spoken about. [Applause.] And when in Manchester I saw those huge 2 placards, "Who is Henry Ward Beecher?" [laughter, cries of " Quite right," and applause] and when in Liver- pool I was told that there were those blood-red placards, pur- porting to say what Henry Ward Beecher had said, and calling on Englishmen to suppress free speech I tell you what I thought. I thought simply this "I am glad of it." [Laughter.] Why? Because if they had felt perfectly secure, that you are the minions of the South and the slaves of slavery, they would have been perfectly still. And, there- fore, when I saw so much nervous apprehension that, if I were permitted to speak when I found they were afraid to have me speak [hisses, laughter, and " No, no " ] when I found that they considered my speaking damaging to their cause [applause] when I found that they appealed from facts and reasonings to mob law, I said: no man need tell me what the heart and secret counsel of these men are. They tremble and are afraid. [Applause, laughter, hisses, " No, no," and a voice : " New York mob." ] Now, person- ally, it is a matter of very little consequence to me whether I speak here tonight or not. [Laughter and cheers.] But, 252 The Making of an Oration one thing is very certain if you do permit me to speak here tonight you will hear very plain talk. [Applause and hisses.] You will not find a man [interruption] you will not find me to be a man that dared to speak about Great Britain three thousand miles off, and then is afraid to speak to Great Britain when he stands on her shores. [Immense applause and hisses.] And if I do not mistake the tone and the temper of Englishmen, they had rather have a man who opposes them in a manly way [applause from all parts of the hall] -than a sneak that agrees with them in an unmanly way. [Applause and " Bravo." ] Now, if I can carry you with me by sound convictions, I shall be immensely glad; but if I cannot carry you with me by facts and sound arguments, I do not wish you to go with me at all; and all that I ask is simply 3 fair play. [Applause, and a voice : " You shall have it, too." ] Those of you who are kind enough to wish to favor my speaking and you will observe that my voice is slightly husky, from having spoken almost every night in succession for some time past those who wish to hear me will do me the kindness simply to sit still, and to keep still ; and I and my friends the Secessionists will make all the noise. [Laughter.] There are two dominant races in modern history the Germanic and the Romanic races. The Germanic races 4 tend to personal liberty, to a sturdy individualism, to civil and political liberty. The Romanic race tends to absolutism in government; it is clannish, it loves chieftains, it develops a people that crave strong and showy governments to sup- port and plan for them. The Anglo-Saxon race belongs to the great German family, and is a fair exponent of its pecu- liarities. The Anglo-Saxon carries self-government and self -development with him wherever he goes. He has popu- lar government and popular industry; for the effects of a generous civil liberty are not seen a whit more plain in the Speeches for Careful Study 253 good order, in the intelligence, and in the virtue of a self- governing people, than in their amazing enterprise and the scope and power of their creative industry. The power to create riches is just as much a part of the Anglo-Saxon virtues as the power to create good order and social safety. The things required for prosperous labor, prosperous manu- factures, and prosperous commerce are three : First, liberty ; second, liberty; third, liberty. Though these are not merely the same liberty as I shall show you. First, there must be liberty to follow those laws of business, which experience has developed, without imposts or restrictions, or govern- mental intrusions. Business simply wants to be let alone. Then, secondly, there must be liberty to distribute and ex- change products of industry in any market without burden- some tariffs, without imposts, and without vexatious regula- tions. There must be these two liberties liberty to create wealth, as the makers of it think best according to the light and experience which business has given them; and then liberty to distribute what they have created without unneces- sary vexatious burdens. The comprehensive law of the ideal industrial condition of the world is free manufacture and free trade. [A voice : " The Morrill tariff." Another voice : " Monroe." ] I have said there were three elements of liberty. The third is the necessity of an intelligent and free race of customers. There must be freedom among produ- cers; there must be freedom among the distributors; there must be freedom among the customers. It may not have occurred to you that it makes any differ- ence what one's customers are, but it does in all regular and prolonged business. The condition of the customer deter- mines how much he will buy, determines of what sort he will buy. Poor and ignorant people buy little and that of the poorest kind. The richest and the intelligent, having the more means to buy, buy the most, and always buy the best. 254 The Making of an Oration Here, then, are the three liberties liberty of the producer; liberty of the distributor ; and liberty of the consumer. The first two need no discussion, they have been long thoroughly and brilliantly illustrated by the political economists of Great Britain, and by her eminent statesmen; but it seems to me that enough attention has not been directed to the third ; and, with your patience, I will dwell on that for a moment, before proceeding to other topics. It is a necessity of every manu- facturing and commercial people that their customers should be very wealthy and intelligent. Let us put the subject before you in the familiar light of your own local experience. To whom do the tradesmen of Liverpool sell the most goods at the highest profit? To the ignorant and poor, or to the educated and prosperous? [A voice: "To the Southerners." Laughter.] The poor man buys simply for his body; he buys food, he buys clothing, he buys fuel, he buys lodging. His rule is to buy the least and the cheapest that he can. He goes to the store as seldom as he can, he brings away as little as he can, and he buys for the least he can. [Much laugh- ter.] Poverty is not a misfortune to the poor only, who suffer it, but it is more or less a misfortune to all with whom he deals. On the other hand, a man well off, how is it with him? He buys in far greater quantity. He can afford to do it; he has the money to pay for it. He buys in far greater variety, because he seeks to gratify not merely physical wants, but also mental wants. He buys for the satisfaction of sentiment and taste, as well as of sense. He buys silk, wool, flax, cotton ; he buys all metals iron, silver, gold, platinum; in short he buys for all necessities and of all sub- stances. But that is not all. He buys a better quality of goods. He buys richer silks, finer cottons, higher grained wools. Now, a rich silk means so much skill and care of somebody's that has been expended upon it to make it finer and richer; and so of cotton, and so of wool. That is, the Speeches for Careful Study 255 price of the finer goods runs back to the very beginning, and remunerates the workman as well as the merchant. Now, the whole laboring community is as much interested and profited as the mere merchant, in this buying and selling of the higher grades, in the greater varieties and quantities. The law of price is the skill; and the amount of skill ex- pended in the work is as much for the market as are the goods. A man comes 5 to market and says, " I have a pair of hands," and he obtains the lowest wages. Another man comes and says, "I have something more than a pair of hands; I have truth and fidelity;" he gets a higher price. Another man comes and says, " I have something more ; I have hands, and strength, and fidelity, and skill." He gets more than either of the others. The next man comes and says, " I have got hands, and strength, and skill, and fidelity ; but my hands work more than that. They know how to create things for the fancy, for the affections, for the moral sentiments"; and he gets more than either of the others. The last man comes and says, " I have all these qualities, and have them so highly that it is a peculiar genius " ; and genius carries the whole market and gets the highest price. So that both the workman and the merchant are profited by having purchasers that demand quality, variety, and quantity. Now, if this be so in the town or the city, it can only be so because it is a law. This is the specific development of a general or universal law, and therefore we should expect to find it as true of a nation as of a city like Liverpool. I know it is so, and you know that it is true of all the world; and it is just as important to have customers educated, intelligent, moral, and rich out of Liverpool as it is in Liverpool. They are able to buy ; they want variety, they want the very best ; and those are the customers you want. The nation is the best customer that is freest, because freedom works prosperity, industry, and wealth. 256 The Making of an Oration Great Britain, 6 then, aside from moral considerations, has a direct commercial and pecuniary interest in the liberty, civilization, and wealth of every people and every nation on the globe. You have also an interest in this, because you are a moral and religious people. You desire it from the highest motives; and godliness is profitable in all things, having the promise of the life that is, as well as of that which is to come; but if there were no hereafter, and if a man had no progress in this life, and if there were no question of civi- lization at all, it would be worth your while to protect civilization and liberty, merely as a commercial speculation. To evangelize has more than a moral and religious import it comes back to temporal relations. Whenever a nation that is crushed, cramped, degraded under despotism is struggling to be free, you, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Paisley, all have an interest that that nation should be free. When de- pressed and backward people demand that they may have a chance to rise Hungary, Italy, Poland it is a duty for humanity's sake, it is a duty for the highest moral motives, to sympathize with them; but beside all these there is a material and an interested reason why you should sympathize with them. Pounds and pence join with conscience and with honor in this design. Now, Great Britain's chief want is what? They have said that your chief want is cotton. I deny it. Your chief want is consumers. [Applause and laughter.] You have got skill, you have got capital, and you have got machinery enough to manufacture goods for the whole population of the globe. You could turn out fourfold as much as you do, if you only had the market to sell in. It is not so much the want, therefore, of fabric, though there may be a temporary obstruction of it; but the principal and increasing want increasing from year to year is, where shall we find men to buy what we can manufacture so fast? [Interruption, and a voice, " The Morrill tariff," and ap- Speeches for Careful Study 257 plause.] Before the American war broke out, your ware- houses were loaded with goods that you could not sell. You had over-manufactured; what is the meaning of over- manufacturing but this, that you had skill, capital, machinery, to create faster than you had customers to take goods off your hands? And you know, that, rich as Great Britain is, vast as are her manufactures, if she could have fourfold the present demand, she could make fourfold riches tomorrow ; and every political economist will tell you that your want is not cotton primarily, but customers. Therefore, the doctrine, how to make customers, is a great deal more important to Great Britain than the doctrine how to raise cotton. It is to that doctrine I ask from you, business men, practical men, men of fact, sagacious Englishmen to that point I ask a moment's attention. [Shouts of "Oh, oh," hisses, and ap- plause.] There are no more continents to be discovered. The market of the future must be found how? There is very little hope of any more demand being created by new fields. If you are to have a better market there must be some kind of process invented to make the old fields better. [A voice, "Tell us something new," shouts of "Order," and interruption.] Let us look at it, then. You must civilize the world in order to make a better class of purchasers. If you were to press Italy down again under the feet of despotism, Italy, discouraged, could draw but very few supplies from you. But give her liberty, kindle schools throughout her valleys, spur her industry, make treaties with her by which she can exchange her wine, and her oil, and her silk for your manufactured goods ; and for every effort that you make in that direction there will come back profit to you in increased traffic with her. If Hungary asks to be an unshackled nation if by freedom she will rise in virtue and intelligence, then by freedom she will acquire a more multifarious industry, which she will be willing to exchange for your manufactures. 258 The Making of an Oration Her liberty is to be found where? You will find it in the Word of God, you will find it in the code of history; but you will also find it in the Price Current; and every free nation, every civilized people every people that rises from barbar- ism to industry and intelligence, becomes a better customer. A savage is a man of one story, and that one story a cellar. When a man begins to be civilized, he raises another story. When you Christianize and civilize the man, you put story upon story, for you develop faculty after faculty; and you have to supply every story with your productions. The savage is a man one story deep; the civilized man is thirty stories deep. Now, if you go to a lodging house, where there are three or four men, your sales to them may, no doubt, be worth something; but if you go to a lodging house like some of those which I saw in Edinburgh, which seemed to contain about twenty stories [ " Oh, oh," and interruption] every story of which is full, and all who occupy buy of you which is the best customer, the man who is drawn out, or the man who is pinched up? [Laughter.] Now, there is in this a great and sound principle of political economy. [ " Yah ! yah ! " from the passage outside the hall, and loud laughter.] If the South should be rendered independent [at this juncture mingled cheering and hisses became im- mense ; half the audience rose to their feet, waving hats and handkerchiefs, and in every part of the hall there was the greatest commotion and uproar.] You have had your turn now; now let me have mine again. [Loud applause and laughter.] It is a little inconvenient to talk against the wind ; but, after all, if you will just keep good-natured I am not going to lose my temper ; will you watch yours ? Besides all that, it rests me, and gives me a chance, you know, to get my breath. [Applause and hisses.] And I think that the bark of those men is worse than their bite. They do not mean any harm they don't know any better. [Loud laughter, applause, hisses, and continued uproar.] Speeches for Careful Study 259 I was saying, when these responses broke in, that it was worth our while to consider both alternatives. What will be the result if this present struggle shall eventuate in the sep- aration of America, and making the South [loud applause, hisses, hooting, and cries of " Bravo ! " ] a slave territory exclusively, [cries of " No, no," and laughter] and the North a free territory, what will be the first result? You will lay the foundation for carrying the slave population clear through to the Pacific Ocean. That is the first step. There is not a man that has been a leader of the South any time within these twenty years, that has not had this for a plan. It was for this that they engaged in the Mexican War itself, by which the vast territory reaching to the Pacific was added to the Union. Never have they for a moment given up the plan of spreading the American institutions, as they call them, straight through towards the West, until the slaver, who has washed his feet in the Atlantic, shall be carried to wash them in the Pacific. [Cries of " Question/' and up- roar.] There ! I have got that statement out, and you cannot put it back. [Laughter and applause.] Now let us consider the prospect. If the South becomes a slave empire, what relation will it have to you as a customer? [A voice: " Or any other man." Laughter.] It would be an empire of 12,000,000 of people. Now, of these, 8,000,000 are white and 4,000,000 are black. [A voice : " How many have you got ? " applause and laughter. Another voice : " Free your own slaves." ] Consider that one-third of the whole are the miserably poor, unbuying blacks. [Cries of " No, no," " Yes, yes," and interruption.] You do not manufacture much for them. [Hisses, " Oh ! " " No." ] You have not got machin- ery coarse enough. [Laughter and " No." ] Your labor is too skilled by far to manufacture bagging and linsey-woolsey. [Southerner: "We are going to free them every one/'] Then you and I agree exactly. [Laughter.] One other third 260 The Making of an Oration consists of a poor, unskilled, degraded white population ; and the remaining one-third, which is a large allowance, we will say, intelligent and rich. Now here are twelve million of people, and only one-third of them are customers that can afford to buy the kind of goods that you bring to market. [Interruption and uproar.] My friends, I saw a man once, who was a little late at the railway station, chase an express train. He did not catch it. [Laughter.] If you are going to stop this meeting, you have got to stop it before I speak ; for after I have got the things out, you may chase as long as you please you would not catch them. [Laughter and in- terruption.] But there is luck in leisure ; I 'm going to take it easy. [Laughter.] Two-thirds of the population of the Southern States today are non-purchasers of English goods. [A voice : " No, they are not," " No, no," and uproar.] Now you must recollect another fact namely, that this is going on clear through to the Pacific Ocean ; and if by sym- pathy or help you establish a slave empire, you sagacious Britons [ " Oh, oh," and hooting] if you like it better, then, I will leave the adjective out [laughter, " Hear," and applause] are busy in favoring the establishment of an empire from ocean to ocean that should have fewest custom- ers and the largest non-buying population. [Applause, " No, no." A voice : " I think it was the happy people that popu- lated fastest." ] Now, for instance, just look at this, the difference between free labor and slave labor to produce cultivated land. The State of Virginia has 15,000 more square miles of land than the State of New York; but Vir- ginia has only 15,000 square miles improved, while New York has 20,000 square miles improved. Of unimproved land Virginia has about 23,000 square miles, and New York only about 10,000 square miles. Now, these facts speak volumes as to the capacity of the territory to bear population. The smaller is the quantity of soil uncultivated, the greater is the Speeches for Careful Study 261 density of the population and upon that, their value as customers depends. Let us take the States of Maryland and Massachusetts. Maryland has 2,000 more square miles of land than Massachusetts; but Maryland has about 4,000 square miles of land improved, Massachusetts has 3,200 square miles. Maryland has 2,800 unimproved square miles of land, while Massachusetts has but 1,800 square miles un- improved. But these two are little states, let us take greater states. Pennsylvania and Georgia. The State of Georgia has 12,000 more square miles of land than Pennsyl- vania. Georgia has only about 9,800 square miles of im- proved land, Pennsylvania has 13,400 square miles of improved land, or about 2,300,000 acres more than Georgia. Georgia has about 25,600 square miles of unimproved land, and Pennsylvania has only 10,400 square miles, or about 10,000*000 acres less of unimproved land than Georgia. The one is a Slave State and the other is a Free State. I do not want you to forget such statistics as those, having once heard them. [Laughter.] Now, what can England make for the poor white population of such a future empire, and for her slave population? What carpets, what linens, what cottons can you sell to them? What machines, what looking- glasses, what combs, what leather, what books, what pic- tures, what engravings ? [A voice : " We '11 sell them ships." ] You may sell ships to a few, but what ships can you sell to two-thirds of the population of poor whites and blacks? A little bagging and a little linsey-woolsey, a few whips and manacles, are all that you can sell for the slave. [Great applause, and uproar.] This very day, in the Slave States of America there are eight millions out of twelve millions that are not, and cannot be your customers from the very laws of trade. [A voice : " Then how are they clothed?" and interruption.] THE CHAIRMAN: If gentlemen will only sit down, those who are making the disturbance will be tired out. 262 The Making of an Oration MR. BEECHER resumed: There are some apparent draw- backs that may suggest themselves. The first is that the in- terests of England consist in drawing from any country its raw material. [A voice : " We have got over that." ] There is an interest, but it is not the interest of England. The in- terest of England is not merely where to buy her cotton, her ores, her wool, her linens, and her flax. When she has put her brains into the cotton, and into the linen and flax, and it becomes the product of her looms, a far more important question is, " What can be done with it ? " England does not want merely to pay prices for that which brain labor pro- duces. Your interest lies beyond all peradventure ; therefore, if you should bring ever so much cotton from the slave em- pire, you cannot sell back again to the slave empire. [A voice: "Go on with your subject; we know all about England." ] Excuse me, sir, I am the speaker, not you ; and it is for me to determine what to say. Do you suppose I am going to speak about America except to convince English- men? I am here to talk to you for the sake of ultimately carrying you with me in judgment and in thinking and, as to this logic of cat-calls, it is slavery logic, I am used to it. [Applause, hisses, and cheers.] Now, it is said that if the South should be allowed to be separate there will be no tariff, and England can trade with her; but if the South remain in the United States, it will be bound by a tariff, and English goods will be excluded from it. Now, I am not going to shirk any question of that kind. In the first place, let me tell you that the first tariff ever proposed in America was not only supported by Southern interests and votes, but was originated by the peculiar structure of Southern society. The first and chief difficulty after the Union was formed under our present Constitution the first difficulty that met our fathers was, how to raise taxes to support the govern- ment; and the question of representation and taxes went to- Speeches for Careful Study 263 gether; and the difficulty was, whether we should tax the North and South alike, man for man per caput, counting the slaves with whites. The North having fewer slaves in com- parison with the number of its whites ; the South, which had a larger number of blacks, said, " We shall be over-taxed if this system be adopted." They therefore proposed that taxes and representation should be on the basis of five black men counting as three white men. In a short time it was found impossible to raise these taxes in the South, and then they cast about for a better way, and the tariff scheme was submitted. The object was to raise the revenue from the ports instead of from the people. The tariff therefore had its origin in Southern weaknesses and necessities, and not in the Northern cities. Daniel Webster's first speech was against it; but after that was carried by Southern votes [which for more than fifty years determined the law of the country] , New England accepted it, and saying, " It is the law of the land," conformed her industry to it; and when she had got her capital embarked in mills and machinery, she became in favor of it. But the South, beginning to feel, as she grew stronger, that it was against her interest to con- tinue the system, sought to have the tariff modified, and brought it down; though Henry Clay, a Southern man him- self, was the immortal champion of the tariff. All his life- time he was for a high tariff, till such a tariff could no longer stand; and then he was for moderating the tariffs. And there has not been for the whole of the fifty years a single hour when any tariff could be passed without them. The opinion of the whole of America was, tariff, high tariff. I do not mean that there were none that dissented from that opinion, but it was the popular and prevalent cry. I have lived to see the time when, just before the war broke out, it might be said that the thinking men of America were ready for freetrade. There has been a steady progress throughout 264 The Making of an Oration America for freetrade ideas. How came this Morrill tariff? The Democratic administration inspired by Southern coun- sels, left millions of unpaid debts to cramp the incoming of Lincoln; and the government, betrayed to the Southern States, found itself unable to pay those debts, unable to build a single ship, unable to raise an army; and it was the exigency, the necessity, that forced them to adopt the Morrill tariff, in order to raise the money which they re- quired. It was the South that obliged the North to put the tariff on. Just as soon as we begin to have peace again, and can get our national debt into a proper shape as you have got yours [laughter] the same cause that worked before will begin to work again ; and there is nothing more certain in the future than that the American is bound to join with Great Britain in the worldwide doctrine of freetrade. [Applause and interruption.] Here then, so far as this argument is concerned, I rest my case, saying that it seems to me that in an argument addressed to a commercial people it was per- fectly fair to represent that their commercial and manufac- turing interests tallied with their moral sentiments; and as by birth, by blood, by history, by moral feeling, and by every- thing, Great Britain is connected with the liberty of the world, God has joined interest and conscience, head and heart; so that you ought to be in favor of liberty everywhere. There ! I have got quite a speech out already, if I do not get any more. [Hisses and applause.] Now then, leaving this for a time, let me turn to some other nearly connected topics. It is said that the South is fighting for just that independence of which I have been speaking. The South is divided on that subject. [" No, no." ] There are twelve millions in the South. Four mil- lions of them are asking for their liberty. [ " No, no," hisses, "Yes," applause, and interruption.] Four millions are ask- ing for their liberty. [Continued interruption, and renewed Speeches for Careful Study 265 applause.] Eight millions are banded together to prevent it. [ " No, no," hisses, and applause.] That is what they asked the world to recognize as a strike for independence. [ " Hear, hear " and laughter.] Eight million white men fighting to prevent the liberty of four million black men, challenging the world. [Uproar, hisses, applause, and continued interrup- tion.] You cannot get over the fact. There it is; like iron, you cannot stir it. [Uproar.] They went out of the Union because slave property was not recognized in it. There were two ways of reaching slave property in the Union; the one by exerting the direct Federal authority; but they could not do that, for they conceived it to be forbidden. The second was by indirect influence. If you put a candle under a bowl it will burn so long as the fresh air lasts, but it will go out as soon as the oxygen is exhausted; and so, if you put slavery into a state where it cannot get more states, it is only a ques- tion of time how long it will live. By limiting slave terri- tory you lay the foundation for the final extinction of slav- ery. Gardeners say that the reason why crops will not grow in the same ground for a long time together, is that the roots excrete poisoned matter which the plants cannot use, and thus poison the grain. Whether this is true of crops or not, it is certainly true of slavery,- for slavery poisons the land on which it grows. Look at the old slave states, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and even at the newer State of Missouri. What is the condition of slavery in those states? It is not worth one cent except to breed. It is not worth one cent so far as productive energy goes. They cannot make money by their slaves in those states. The first reason with them for maintaining slavery is, because it gives political power ; and the second, because they breed for the Southern market. I do not stand on my own testimony alone. The editor of the Virginia Times, in the year 1836, made a calculation that 120,000 slaves were sent out of the 266 The Making of an Oration state during that year; 80,000 of which went with their own- ers, and 40,000 were sold at the average price of six hundred dollars, amounting to 24,000,000 dollars in one year out of the $tate o f Virginia. Now, what does Henry Clay, himself a slave owner, say about Kentucky? In a speech before the Colonization Society, he said : " It is believed that nowhere in the farming portion of the United States would slave labor be generally employed, if the proprietary were not com- pelled to raise slaves by the high price of the Southern market," and the only profit of slave property in Northern farming slave states is the value they bring. [A voice: " Then if the Northerners breed to supply the South, what 's the difference? " ] So that if you were to limit slavery, and to say, it shall go so far and no further, it would be only a question of time when it should die of its own intrinsic weak- ness and disease. Now, this was the Northern feeling. The North was true to the doctrine of constitutional rights. The North refused, by any Federal action within the states, to violate the com- pacts of the Constitution, and left local compacts unimpaired; but the North, feeling herself unbound with regard to what we call the territories, free land which has not yet state rights, said there should be no more territory cursed with slavery. With unerring instinct the South said, "The gov- ernment administered by Northern men on the principle that there shall be no more slave territory, is a government fatal to slavery," and it was on that account that they seceded [ " No, no," " Yes, yes," applause, hisses and uproar] and the first step which they took when they assembled at Mont- gomery, was, to adopt a constitution. What constitution did they adopt? The same form of constitution which they had just abandoned. What changes did they introduce? A trifling change about the Presidential term, making it two years longer; a slight change about some doctrine of legis- Speeches for Careful Study 267 lation, involving no principle whatever, but merely a ques- tion of policy. But by the constitution of Montgomery they legalized slavery; and made it the organic law of the land. The very constitution which they said they could not live under when they left the Union they took again immediately afterwards, only altering it in one point, and that was, mak- ing the fundamental law of the land to be slavery. Let no man undertake to say in the face of intelligence let no man undertake to delude an honest community, by saying that slavery had nothing to do with the Secession. Slavery is the framework of the South; it is the root and the branch of the conflict with the South. Take away slavery from the South, and she would not differ from us in any respect. There is not a single antagonistic interest. There is no dif- ference of race, no difference of language, no difference of law, no difference of constitution; the only difference be- tween us is, that free labor is in the North and slave labor is in the South. [Loud applause.] But I know that you say, you cannot help sympathizing with a gallant people. They are the weaker people, the minority; and you cannot help going with the minority who are struggling for their rights against the majority. Nothing could be more generous, when a weak party stands for its own legitimate rights against imperious pride and power, than to sympathize with the weak. But who ever yet sympathized with a weak thief, because three constables got hold of him? And yet the one thief in three policemen's hands is the weaker party. I suppose you would sympathize with him. [Laughter, and applause.] Why, when that infamous king of Naples, Bomba, was driven into Gaeta by Garibaldi with his immortal band of patriots, and Cavour sent against him the army of Northern Italy, who was the weaker party then? The tyrant and his minions; and the majority was with the noble Italian patriots, struggling for liberty. I never 268 The Making of an Oration heard that Old England sent deputations to King Bomba, and yet his troops resisted bravely there. [Laughter and inter- ruption.] Today the majority of the people of Rome is with Italy. Nothing but French bayonets keeps her from going back to the kingdom of Italy, to which she belongs. Do you sympathize with the minority in Rome or the majority in Italy? [A voice: "With Italy."] Today the South is the minority in America, and they are fighting for independence! For what ? [Uproar. A voice : " Three cheers for inde- pendence," and hisses.] I could wish so much bravery had had a better cause, and that so much self-denial had been less deluded; that that poisonous and venomous doctrine of State rights might have been kept aloof; that so many gallant spirits, such as Jackson, might still have lived. [Great ap- plause and loud cheers, again and again renewed.] The force of these facts, historical and incontrovertible, cannot be broken, except by diverting attention by an attack upon the North. It is said that the North is fighting for union, and not for emancipation. A great many men say to ministers of the Gospel " You pretend to be preaching and working for the love of people. Why, you are all the time preaching for the sake of the church." What does the minister say? " It is by means of the church that we help the people," and when men say that we are fighting for the Union, I too say we are fighting for the Union. But the motive determines the value ; and why are we fighting for the Union ? Because we never shall forget the testimony of our enemies. They have gone off declaring that the Union in the hands of the North was fatal to slavery. There is testimony in court for you. [A voice : " See that/' and laughter.] We are fighting for the Union, because we believe that preamble which ex- plains the very reason for which the Union was constituted. I will read it. " We " not the States " We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect nation " Speeches for Careful Study 269 [uproar] I do n't wonder you do n't want to hear it [laughter] " in order to form a more perfect nation, establish justice, assure domestic tranquility [uproar] provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty [ " oh, oh " ] to ourselves and our posterity, ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America." [A voice : " How many States?"] It is for the sake of that justice, that common welfare, and that liberty for which the National Union was established, that we fight for the Union. [Interruption.] Because the South believed that the Union was against slav- ery, they left it. [Renewed interruption.] Yes. [Applause, and " No, no."] Today, however, if the North believed that the Union was against liberty, they would leave it. [" Oh, oh," and great disturbance.] Gentlemen, I have traveled in the West ten or twelve hours at a time in the mud knee-deep. It was hard toiling my way, but I always got through my journey. I feel, tonight, as though I were traveling over a very muddy road ; but I think I shall get through. [Cheers.] Well, next it is said, that the North treats the negro race worse than the South. [Applause, cries of " Bravo ! " and uproar.] Now, you see I do n't fear any of these disagreeable arguments. I am going to face every one of them. In the first place I am ashamed to confess that such was the thought- lessness [interruption] such was the stupor of the North [renewed interruption] you will get a word at a time ; tomorrow will let folks see what it is you do n't want to hear that for a period of twenty-five years she went to sleep, and permitted herself to be drugged and poisoned with the South- ern prejudice against black men. The evil was made worse, because, when any object whatever has caused anger between political parties, a political animosity arises against that object, no matter how innocent in itself; no matter what were the original influences which excited the quarrel. Thus the col- 270 The Making of an Oration ored man has been the football between the two parties in the North and has suffered accordingly. I confess it to my shame. But I am speaking now on my own ground, for I began twenty-five years ago, with a small party, to combat the unjust dislike of the colored man. [Loud applause, dissen- sion, and uproar. The interruption at this point became so violent that the friends of Mr. Beecher throughout the hall rose to their feet, waving hats and handkerchiefs, and renew- ing their shouts of applause. The interruption lasted some minutes.] Well, I have lived to see a total revolution in the Northern feeling I stand here to bear solemn witness of that. It is not my opinion; it is my knowledge. [Great up- roar.] Those men who undertook to stand up for the rights of all men black as well as white have increased in num- ber; and now what party in the North represents those men that resist the evil prejudices of past years? The Republi- cans are that party. [Loud applause.] And who are those men in the North that have oppressed the negro? They are the Peace Democrats; and the prejudice for which in Eng- land you are attempting to punish me, is a prejudice raised by the men who have opposed me all my life. These pro- slavery Democrats abused the negro. I defended him, and they mobbed me for doing it. Oh, justice ! [Loud laughter, applause, and hisses.] This is as if a man should commit an assault, maim and wound a neighbor, and a surgeon being called in, should begin to dress his wounds, and by-and-by a policeman should come and collar the surgeon and haul him off to prison on account of the wounds which he was healing. Now, I told you I would not flinch from anything. I am going to read you some questions that were sent after me from Glasgow, purporting to be from a working man. [Great interruption.] If those pro-slavery interrupters think they will tire me out, they will do more than eight millions in Speeches for Careful Study 271 America could. [Applause and renewed interruption.] I was reading a question on your side, too : " Is it not a fact that in most of the Northern States laws exist precluding negroes from equal civil and political rights with the whites? That in the State of New York the negro has to be the possessor of at least two hundred and fifty dollars' worth of property to entitle him to the privileges of a white citizen? That in some of the Northern States the colored man, whether bond or free, is by law 'excluded altogether, and not suffered to enter the State limits, under severe penalties; and is not Mr. Lin- coln's own State one of them ; and in view of the fact that the $20,000,000 compensation which was promised to Missouri in aid of emancipation was defeated in the last Congress [the strongest Republican Congress that ever assembled], what has the North done towards emancipation ? " Now then, there 's a dose for you. [A voice : " Answer it." ] And I will address myself to the answering of it. And first, the bill for emancipation in Missouri, to which this money was denied, was a bill which was drawn by what we call "log rollers," who inserted in it an enormously disproportioned price for the slave. The Republicans offered to give them $10,000,000 for the slaves in Missouri, and they outvoted it because they could not get $12,000,000 for what was not worth ten millions, nor even ei^ht millions. Now as to those States that had passed " black " laws, as we call them; they are filled with Southern emigrants. The southern parts of Ohio, the southern part of Indiana, where I myself lived for years, and which I knew like a book, the southern part of Illinois where Mr. Lincoln lives [great uproar] these parts are largely settled by emigrants from Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina, and it was their vote, or the Northern votes pandering for political reasons to theirs, that passed in those states the in- famous "black" laws; and the Republicans in these states 272 The Making of an Oration have a record, clean and white, as having opposed these laws in every instance as " infamous." Now as to the State of New York, it is asked whether a negro is not obliged to have a cer- tain freehold property, or a certain amount of property, before he can vote. It is so still in North Carolina and Rhode Island for white folks it is so in New York State. [Mr. Beecher's voice slightly failed him here, and he was interrupted by a person who tried to imitate him ; cries of " Shame " and " Turn him out." ] I am not undertaking to say that these faults of the North, which were brought upon them by the bad example and influence of the South are all cured; but I do say that they are in a process of cure which promises, if un- impeded by foreign influence, to make all such odious distinc- tions vanish. " Is it not a fact that in most of the Northern States laws exist precluding negroes from equal civil and political rights with the whites?" I will tell you. Let me compare the condition of the negro in the North and the South, and that will tell the story. By express law the South takes away from the slave all attributes of manhood, and calls him " chattel," which is another word for " cattle." [Hear, hear, and hisses.] No law in any Northern State calls him anything else but a person. The South denies the right of legal permanent marriage to the slave. There is not a State of the North where the marriage of the slave is not as sacred as that of any free white man. [Immense cheering.] Throughout the South, since the slave is not permitted to live in anything but in concubinage, his wife, so-called, is taken from him at the will of his master, and there is neither public sentiment nor law that can hinder most dreadful and cruel separations every year in every county and town. There is not a state, county, or town, or school district in the North, where, if any man dare to violate the family of the poorest black man, there would not be an indignation that would overwhelm him. [Loud applause. A voice : " How about Speeches for Careful Study 273 the riots? " ] Irishmen made that entirely. In the South by statutory law it is a penitentiary offence to teach a black to read and write. In the North not only are hundreds and thousands of dollars expended of state money in teaching colored people, but they have their own schools, their own academies, their own churches, their own ministers, their own lawyers. In the South, black men are bred, exactly as cattle are bred in the North, for the market and for sale. Such dealing is considered horrible beyond expression in the North. In the South the slave can own nothing by law, but in the single City of New York there are ten million dollars of money belonging to freed colored people. [Loud applause.] In the South no colored man can determine [uproar] no colored man can determine in the South where he will work, nor at what he will work ; but in the North, except in the great cities, where we are crowded by foreigners, in any country part the black man may choose his trade and work at it, and is just as much protected by the laws as any white man'in the land. I speak with authority on this point. [Cries of " No." ] When I was twelve years old, my father hired Charles Smith, a man as black as lampblack, to work on his farm. I slept with him in the same room. [ " Oh, oh." ] Ah, that don't suit you. [Uproar.] Now, you see, the South comes out. [Loud laughter.] I ate with him at the same table, I sang with him out of the same hymn-book - [ " Good." ] ; I cried, when he prayed over me at night; and if I had serious impressions of religion early in life, they were due to the fidelity and example of that poor humble farm laborer, black as Charles Smith. [Tremendous uproar and cheers.] In the South, no matter what injury a colored man may receive, he is not allowed to appear in court nor to testify against a white man. [A voice: " That 's a fact." ] In every single court of the North a respectable colored man is as good a witness as if his face were white as an angel's robe. 274 The Making of an Oration [Applause and laughter.] I ask any truthful and considerate man whether, in this contrast, it does not appear that, though faults may yet linger in the North uneradicated, the state of the negro in the North is not immeasurably better than any- where in the South? And now, for the first time in the his- tory of America [great interruption], for the first time in the history of the United States a colored man has received a commission under the broad seal and signature of the President of the United States. This day [renewed inter- ruption] this day, Frederick Douglas, of whom you all have heard here, is an officer of the United States [loud applause] a commissioner sent down to organize colored regiments on Jefferson Davis's farm in Mississippi. [Uproar and applause, and a voice. " You put them in the front of the battle, too." ] There is another fact that I wish to allude to not for the sake of reproach or blame, but by way of claiming your more lenient consideration and that is, that slavery was entailed upon us by your action. Against the earnest protests of the colonists the then Government of Great Britain I will concede not knowing what were the mischiefs ignorantly, but in point of fact, forced slave traffic on the unwilling colonists. [Great uproar, in the midst of which one individual was lifted up and carried out of the room amidst cheers and hisses.] THE CHAIRMAN : If you would only sit down no disturb- ance would take place. The disturbance having subsided, MR. BEECHER said: I was going to ask you, suppose a child is born with hereditary disease; suppose this disease was entailed upon him by parents who had contracted it by their own misconduct, would it be fair that those parents, that had brought into the world the diseased child, should rail at that child because it was diseased? ["No. no."] Would not the child have a right to turn round and say, "Father, Speeches for Careful Study 275 it was your fault that I had it, and you ought to be pleased to be patient with my deficiencies." [Applause and hisses, and cries of " order '' ; great interruption and great disturb- ance here took place on the right of the platform; and the chairman said that if the persons around the unfortunate individual who had caused the disturbance would allow him to speak alone, but not assist him in making the disturbance, it might soon be put an end to. The interruption was con- tinued until another person was carried out of the hall.] MR. BEECHER continued: I do not ask that you should justify slavery in us, because it was wrong in you two hundred years ago; but having ignorantly been the means of fixing it upon us, now that we are struggling with mortal struggles to free ourselves from it, we have a right to your tolerance, your patience, and charitable construction. I am every day asked when this war will end. I wish I could tell you ; but remem- ber slavery is the cause of the war. Slavery has been working for more than one hundred years, and a chronic evil cannot be suddenly cured; and war is the remedy. You must be patient to have the conflict long enough to cure the inveterate hereditary sore. [Hisses, loud applause, and a voice : " We '11 stop it." ] But of one thing I think I may give you assurance this war won't end until the cancer of slavery is cut out by the roots. [Loud applause, hisses, and tremendous up- roar.] I will read you a word from President Lincoln. [Renewed uproar.] It will be printed whether you hear it or hear it not. [Hear, and cries of " Read, read." ] Yes, I will read. " A talk with President Lincoln revealed to me a great growth of wisdom. For instance, he said he was not going to press the colonization idea any longer, nor the grad- ual scheme of emancipation, expressing himself sorry that the Missourians had postponed emancipation for seven years. He said, ' Tell your anti-slavery friends that I am coming out all right/ He is desirous that the border states shall 276 The Making of an Oration form free constitutions, recognizing the proclamation, and thinks this will be made feasible by calling on loyal men." [A voice: "What date is that letter?" and interruption.] Ladies and gentlemen, I have finished the exposition of this troubled subject. [Renewed and continued interruption.] No man can unveil the future ; no man can tell what revolutions are about to break upon the world ; no man can tell what des- tiny belongs to France, nor to any of the European powers; but one thing is certain, that in the exigencies of the future there will be combinations and re-combinations, and that those nations that are of the same faith, the same blood, and the same substantial interests, ought not to be alienated from each other, but ought to stand together. I do not say that you ought not to be in the most friendly alliance with France or with Germany; but I do say that your own children, the offspring of England, ought to be nearer to you than any people of strange tongue. [A voice : " Degenerate sons," applause and hisses; another voice: "What about the Trent?" ] If there had been any feelings of bitterness in America, let me tell you they had been excited, rightly or wrongly, under the impression that Great Britain was going to intervene between us and our own lawful struggle. [A voice : " No," and applause.] With the evidence that there is no such intention all bitter feelings will pass away. We do not agree with the recent doctrine of neutrality as a question of law. But it is past, and we are not disposed to raise that question. We accept it now as a fact, and we say that the utterance of Lord Russell at Blairgowrie [Applause, hisses, and a voice : " What about Lord Brougham ? " ] together with the declaration of the government in stopping 7 war-steamers here [great uproar, and applause] has gone far toward quieting every fear and removing every ap- prehension from our minds. [Uproar and shouts of applause.] And now in the future it is the work of every good man and Speeches for Careful Study 277 patriot not to create divisions, but to do the things that will make for peace. On our part it shall be done. [Applause and hisses, and " No, no." ] On your part it ought to be done; and when in any of the convulsions that come upon the world, Great Britain finds herself struggling single-handed against the gigantic powers that spread oppression and dark- ness [applause, hisses, and uproar] there ought to be such cordiality that she can turn and say to her first-born and most illustrious child, " Come ! " [ " Hear, hear," applause, tremen- dous cheers, and uproar.] I will not say that England cannot again, as hitherto, single-handed manage any power [ap- plause and uproar] but I will say that England and America together for religion and liberty [A voice : " Soap, soap," uproar, and great applause] are a match for the world. [Applause; a voice: "They don't want any more soft soap." ] Now, gentlemen and ladies, [A voice: "Sam Slick"; and another voice : " Ladies and gentlemen, if you please." ] when I came I was asked whether I would answer ques- tions, and I very readily consented to do so, as I had in other places; but I will tell you it was because I expected to have the opportunity of speaking with some sort of ease and quiet. [A voice : " So you have." ] I have for an hour and a half spoken against a storm, and you yourselves are witnesses that, by the interruption I have been obliged to strive with my voice, so that I no longer have the power to control this as- sembly. [Applause.] And although I am in spirit perfectly willing to answer any question, and more than glad of the chance, yet I am by this very unnecessary opposition tonight incapacitated physically from doing it. [A voice : " Why did Lincoln delay the proclamation of slavery so long?" Another voice : " Habeas Corpus." A piece of paper was here handed up to Mr. Beecher.] I am asked a question. I will answer this one. " At the auction of sittings in your church, 278 The Making of an Oration can the negroes bid on equal terms with the whites ? " [Cries of " No, no." ] Perhaps you know better than I do. But I declare that they can. [ " Hear, hear," and applause. ] I declare that, at no time for ten years past without any rule passed by the trustees, and without even a request from me no decent man or woman has ever found molestation or trouble in walking into my church and sitting where he or she pleased. [ " Are any of the office-bearers in your church negroes ? " ] No, not to my knowledge. Such has been the practical doctrine of amalgamation in the South that it is very difficult now-a-days to tell who is a negro. Whenever a majority of my people want a negro to be an officer, he will be one ; and I am free to say that there are a great many men that I know who are abundantly capable of honoring any office of trust in the gift of our church. But while there are none in my church there is in Columbia county a little church where a negro man, being the ablest business man, and the wealthi- est man in that town, is not only a ruler and elder of the church, but also contributes about two-thirds of all the ex- penses of it. [ Voice : " That is the exception, not the rule." ] I am answering these questions, you see, out of gratuitous mercy ; I am not bound to do so. It is asked whether Pennsyl- vania was not carried for Mr. Lincoln on account of his advocacy of the Morrill tariff, and whether the tariff was not one of the planks of the Chicago platform, on which Mr. Lincoln was elected. I had a great deal to do with that elec- tion ; but I tell you that whatever local [Here the interrup- tions became so noisy, that it was found impossible to proceed. The Chairman asked how they could expect Mr. Beecher to answer questions amid such a disturbance. When order had been restored, the lecturer proceeded.] I am not afraid to leave the treatment I have received at this meeting to the impartial judgment of every fair-playing Englishman. When I am asked questions, gentlemanly courtesy requires that I Speeches for Careful Study 279 should be permitted to answer them [A voice from the farther end of the room shouted something about the inhabi- tants of Liverpool.] I know that it was in the placards re- quested to give Mr. Beecher a reception that should make him understand what the opinion of Liverpool was about him. [ " No, no," and " Yes, yes." ] There are two sides to every question, and Mr. Beecher's opinion about the treatment of Liverpool's citizens is just as much as your opinion about the treatment of Mr. Beecher. Let me say, that if you wish me to answer questions you must be still; for if I am interrupted, that is the end of the matter. [ " Hear, hear," and " Bravo." ] I have this to say, that I have no doubt the Morrill tariff, or that which is now called so, did exercise a great deal of influ- ence, not alone in Pennsylvania, but in many other parts of the country, because there are many sections of our country those especially where the manufacture of iron or wool are the predominating industries that are very much in favor of protective tariffs ; but the thinking men and the influential men of both parties are becoming more and more in favor of f reetrade. " Can a negro ride in a public vehicle in New York with a white man ? " I reply that there are times when politicians stir up the passions of the lower classes of men and the foreigners, and there are times just on the eve of an election when the prejudice against the colored man is stirred up and excited, in which they will be disturbed in any part of the city; but taking the period of the year throughout, one year after another, there are but one or two of the city horse- railroads in which a respectable colored man will be molested in riding through the city. It is only on one railroad that this happened, and it is one which I have in the pulpit and press always held up to severe reproof. At the Fulton Ferry there are two lines of omnibuses, one white and the other blue. I had been accustomed to go in them indifferently ; but one day I saw a little paper stuck upon one of them, saying 280 The Making of an Oration " Colored people not allowed to ride in this omnibus." I instantly got out. There are men who stand at the door of these two omnibus lines, urging passengers into one or the other. I am very well known to all of them, and the next day, when I came to the place, the gentleman serving asked " Won't you ride, sir ? " " No," I said, " I am too much of a negro to ride in that omnibus." [Laughter.] I do not know whether this had any influence, but I do know, that after a fortnight's time I had occasion to look in, and the placard was gone. I called the attention of every one I met to that fact, and said to them, " Do n't ride in that omnibus, which violates your principles, and my principles, and common decency at the same time." I say still further, that in all New England there is not a railway where a colored man cannot ride as freely as a white man. In the whole city of New York, a colored man taking a stage or railway will never be incon- venienced or suffer any discourtesy. Ladies and gentlemen, I bid you good evening. NOTES ON BEECHER'S SPEECH AT LIVERPOOL 1. The boundary line between Pennsylvania and Virginia. Taken as standing for the boundary between slave and free states. 2. In the towns where Mr. Beecher spoke such placards were scattered broadcast by the friends of secession for the purpose of hindering the speaker from having a hearing. 3. The skill with which the speaker wrestled with the mob, packed with rowdies determined to break up the meeting, has rarely been equalled. Without compromising, with perfect cour- tesy, with unfaltering patience, he struggled for a hearing, appeal- ing to the traditional admiration of Englishmen for fair play. And at last he conquered. 4. Notice how the speaker prepares for his specific application bv laying down certain general principles. 5. How are these concrete illustrations more effective than would be merely the general statement of the principle? 6. It will be suggestive to study the skill with which the speaker in much of his argument appeals at once to both the interests and the spirit of liberty of his hearers. 7. Steamers that were building for the use of the Confederacy, thus violating the laws of neutrality. 8. This oration should be studied and a plan made of it. THE PUBLIC DUTY OF EDUCATED MEN BY GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS (The following speech was an oration pronounced at the com- mencement exercises of Union College, Schenectady, New York, June 27 1877. Mr. Curtis was one of the most popular speak- ers of his day, and in the theme of this speech he found a subject congenial to his own mind and one upon which he often spoke. This address should be carefully studied in both its plan and its style, as an example of the type that appeals to the practi American mind of today.) It is with diffidence that I rise to add any words of mine to the music of these younger voices. This day, gentlemen of the graduating class, is especially yours. It is a day of high hope and expectation, and the counsels that fall from older lips should be carefully weighed, lest they chill the ardor of a generous enthusiasm or stay the all-conquering faith of youth that moves the world. To those who, constantly and actively engaged in a thousand pursuits, are still persuaded that educated * intelligence moulds states and leads mankind, no day in the year is more significant, more inspiring, than this of the college commencement. It matters not at what college it may be celebrated. It is the same at all We stand here, indeed, beneath these college walls, beautiful for situa- tion girt at this moment with the perfumed splendor of mid- summer, and full of tender memories and joyous associa- tions to those who hear me. But on this day, and on other days at a hundred other colleges, this summer sun beholds the same spectacle of eager and earnest throngs. 281 282 The Making of an Oration that we hold, they also cherish. It is the same God that is worshipped at different altars. It is the same benediction that descends upon every reverent head and believing heart. In this annual celebration of faith in the power and the re- sponsibility of educated men, all the colleges in the country, in whatever state, of whatever age, of whatever religious sympathy or direction, form but one great Union University. But the interest of the day is not that of mere study, of sound scholarship as an end, of good books for their own sake, but of education as a power in human affairs, of edu- cated men as an influence in the commonwealth. " Tell me," said an American scholar of Goethe, the many-sided, " what did he ever do for the cause of man?" The scholar, the poet, the philosopher, are men among other men. From these unavoidable social relations spring opportunities and duties. How do they use them? How do they discharge them? Does the scholar show in his daily walk that he has studied the wisdom of ages in vain? Does the poet sing of angelic purity and lead an unclean life ? Does the philosopher peer into other worlds and fail to help this world upon its way? Four years before our Civil War the same scholar it was Theodore Parker said sadly, "If our educated men had done their duty, we should not now be in the ghastly condition we bewail. " The theme of today seems to me to be prescribed by the occasion. It is the festival of the depart- ure of a body of educated young men into the world. This company of picked recruits marches out with beating drums and flying colors to join the army. We who feel that our fate is gracious which allowed a liberal training, are here to welcome and to advise. On your behalf, Mr. President and gentlemen, with your authority, and with all my heart, I shall say a word to them and to you of the public duty of educated men in America. I shall not assume, gentlemen graduates, for I know that Speeches for Careful Study 283 it is not so, that what Dr. Johnson says of the teachers of Rasselas and the princes of Abyssinia can be truly said of you in your happy valley " The sages who instructed them told them of nothing but the miseries of public life, and described all beyond the mountains as regions of calamity where discord was always raging, and where man preyed upon man." The sages who have instructed you are Ameri- can citizens. They know that patriotism has its glorious opportunities and its sacred duties. They have not shunned the one, and they have well performed the other. In the sharpest stress of our awful conflict, a clear voice of patriotic warning was heard from these peaceful academic shades, the voice of the 2 venerated teacher whom this University still freshly deplores, drawing from the wisdom of experience stored in his ample learning a lesson of startling cogency and power from the history of Greece for the welfare of America. This was the discharge of a public duty by an educated man. It illustrated an indispensable condition of a progress- ive republic, the active, practical interest in politics of the most intelligent citizens. Civil and religious liberty in this country can be preserved only through the agency of our political institutions. But those institutions alone will not suffice. 3 It is not the ship so much as the skilful sailing that assures the prosperous voyage. American institutions pre- suppose not only general honesty and intelligence in the peo- ple, but their constant and direct application to public affairs. Our system rests upon all the people, not upon a part of them, and the citizen who evades his share of the burden betrays his fellows. Our safety lies not in our institutions, but in our- selves. It was under the forms of the republic that Julius Caesar 4 made himself emperor of Rome. It was while pro- fessing reverence for the national traditions that James II. was destroying religious liberty in England. To labor, said the old monks, is to pray. What we earnestly desire we 284 The Making of an Oration earnestly toil for. That she may be prized more truly, heaven-eyed 5 Justice flies from us, like the Tartar maid from her lovers, and she yields her embrace at last only to the swiftest and most daring of her pursuers. By the words public duty I do not necessarily mean official duty, although it may include that. I mean simply that con- stant and active practical participation in the details of politics without which, upon the part of the most intelligent citizens, the conduct of public affairs falls under the control of selfish and ignorant, or crafty and venal men. I mean that personal attention which, as it must be incessant, is often wearisome and even repulsive to the details of politics, attendance at meetings, service upon committees, care and trouble and expense of many kinds, patient endurance of re- buffs, chagrins, ridicules, disappointments, defeats in a word, all those duties and services which, when selfishly and meanly performed, stigmatize a man as a mere politician ; but whose constant, honorable, intelligent, and vigilant per- formance is the gradual building, stone by stone and layer by layer, of that great temple of self-restrained liberty which all generous souls mean that our government shall be. Public duty in this country is not discharged, as is so often supposed, by voting. A man may vote regularly and still fail essentially- of his political duty, as the Pharisee, who gave tithes of all that he possessed and fasted three times in the week, yet lacked the very heart of religion. When an American citizen is content with voting merely, he consents to accept what is often a doubtful alternative. This, which was formerly less necessary, is now indispensable. In a rural community such as this country was a hundred years ago, whoever was nominated for office was known to his neigh- bors, and the consciousness of that knowledge was a con- servative influence in determining nominations. But in the local elections of the great cities of today, elections that Speeches for Careful Study 285 control taxation and expenditure, the mass of the voters vote in absolute ignorance of the candidates. The citizen who supposes that he does all his duty when he votes places a premium upon political knavery. Thieves welcome him to the polls and offer him a choice, which he has done nothing to prevent, between Jeremy Diddler 6 and Dick Turpin. 7 The party cries for which he is responsible are, " Turpin and Hon- esty," " Diddler and Reform." And within a few years, as a result of this indifference to the details of public duty, the most powerful politician in the Empire State of the Union was Jonathan Wild the Great, 8 the captain of a band of plunderers. I know that it is said that the knaves have taken the honest men in a net, and have contrived machinery which will inevitably grind only the grist of rascals. The answer is, that when honest men did once what they ought to do always, the machine was netted and their machine was broken. To say that in this country the rogues must rule, is to defy history and to despair of the Republic. It is to repeat the imbecile executive cries of sixteen years ago, " Oh, dear ! the States have no right to go ! " and " Oh, dear ! the nation has no right to help itself." Let the Union, stronger than ever and unstained with national wrong, teach us the power of patriotic virtue and Ludlow Street jail console those who suppose that American politics must necessarily be a game of thieves and bullies. If ignorance and corruption and intrigue control the primary meeting and manage the convention and dictate the nomination, the fault is in the honest and intelligent workshop and office, in the library and the parlor, in the church and the school. When these are as constant and faithful to their political rights as the slums and the grogshops, the poolrooms and the kennels; when the educated, industrious, temperate, thrifty citizens are as zealous and prompt and unfailing in political duty as the ignorant and venal and mischievous, or 286 The Making of an Oration when it is plain that they cannot be roused to their duty, then, but not until then if ignorance and corruption always carry the day there can be no honest question that the Republic has failed. But let us not be deceived. While good men sit at home, not knowing that there is anything to be done, nor caring to know; cultivating a feeling that politics are tire- some and dirty, and politicians vulgar bullies and bravoes; half persuaded that a republic is the contemptible rule of a mob, and secretly longing for a splendid and vigorous despot- ism then remember it is not a government mastered by ignorance, it is government betrayed by intelligence; it is not a victory of the slums, it is the surrender of the schools ; it is not that bad men are brave, but that good men are in- fidels and cowards. But, gentlemen, when you come to address yourselves to these primary public duties, your first surprise and dismay will be the discovery that, in a country where education is declared to be the hope of its institutions, the higher educa- tion is often practically held to be almost a disadvantage. You will go from these halls to hear a very common sneer at college-bred men; to encounter a jealousy of education, as making men visionary and pedantic and impracticable; to confront a belief that there is something enfeebling in the higher education, and that self-made men, as they are called, are the sure stay of the state. But what is really meant by a self-made man? It is a man of native sagacity and strong character, who was taught, it is proudly said, only at the plough or the anvil or the bench. He was schooled by adver- sity, and was polished by hard attrition with men. He is Benjamin Franklin, the printer's boy, or Abraham Lincoln, the rail splitter. They never went to college, but nevertheless, like Agamemnon, they were kings of men, and the world blesses their memory. So it does ; but the sophistry here is plain enough, although Speeches for Careful Study 287 it is not always detected. Great genius and great character always make their own career. But because Walter Scott 9 was dull at school, is a parent to see with joy that his son is a dunce? Because Lord Chatham was of a towering con- ceit, must we infer that pompous vanity portends a compre- hensive statesmanship that will fill the world with the splendor of its triumphs? Because Sir Robert Walpole gambled and swore and boozed at Houghton, are we to suppose that gross sensuality and coarse contempt of human nature are the es- sential secret of a power that defended liberty against Tory intrigue and priestly politics? Was it because Benjamin Franklin was not college-bred that he drew the lightning from the heaven and tore the scepter from the tyrant? Was it because Abraham Lincoln had little schooling that his great heart beat true to God and man, lifting him to free a race and die for his country? Because men naturally great have done great service in the world without advantages, does it fol- low that lack of advantage is the secret of success? Was Pericles a less sagacious leader of the state, during forty years of Athenian glory, because he was thoroughly accom- plished in every grace of learning? Or, swiftly passing from the Athenian agora to the Boston town-meeting, behold Sam- uel Adams, tribune of New England against Old England, of America against Europe, of liberty against despotism. Was his power enfeebled, his fervor chilled, his patriotism relaxed, by his college education ? No, no ; they were strength- ened, kindled, confirmed. Taking his Master's degree one hundred and thirty-four years ago, thirty-three years before the Declaration of Independence, Samuel Adams, then twenty- one years old, declared in a Latin discourse the first flashes of the fire that afterwards blazed in Faneuil Hall and kindled America that it is lawful to resist the supreme magistrate if the commonwealth cannot otherwise be preserved. In the very year that Jefferson was born, the college boy, Samuel 288 The Making of an Oration Adams, on a commencement day like this, struck the key- note of American independence, which still stirs the heart of man with its music. Or within our own century, look at the great modern states- men who have shaped the politics of the world. They were educated men; were they therefore, visionary, pedantic, im- practicable? Cavour, whose monument is United Italy one from the Alps to Tarentum, from the lagoons of Venice to the gulf of Salerno; Bismarck, who has raised the German Empire from a name to a fact ; Gladstone, today the incarnate heart and conscience of England they are the perpetual refutation of the sneer that higher education weakens men for practical affairs. Trained themselves, such men know the value of training. All countries, all ages, all men are their teachers. The broader their education, the wider the horizon of their thought and observation; the more affluent their resources, the more humane their policy. Would Samuel Adams have been a truer popular leader had he been less an educated man? Would Walpole less truly have served his country had he been, with all his capacities, a man whom England could have revered and loved? Could Gladstone so sway England with his fervent eloquence, as the moon the tides, were he a gambling, swearing, boozing squire like Walpole ? There is no sophistry more poisonous to the state, no folly more stupendous and demoralizing, than the notion that the purest character and the highest education are incom- patible with the most commanding mastery of men and the most efficient administration of affairs. Undoubtedly a practical and active interest in politics will lend you to party association and cooperation. Great public results the repeal of the corn laws in England, the aboli- tion of slavery in America are due to that organization of effort and concentration of aim which arouse, instruct, and inspire the popular heart and will. This is the spring of Speeches for Careful Study 289 party, and those who earnestly seek practical results instinct- ively turn to this agency of united action. But in this tend- ency, useful in the state as the fire upon the household, lurks, as in that fire, the deadliest peril. Here is our Republic it is a ship with towering canvas spread, sweeping before the prosperous gale over a foaming and sparkling sea; it is a lightning train darting with awful speed along the edge of dizzy abysses and across bridges that quiver over unsounded gulfs. Because we are Americans, we have no peculiar charm, no magic spell, to stay the eternal laws. Our safety lies alone in cool self-possession, directing the forces of wind and wave and fire. If once the madness to which the excitement tends usurps control, the catastrophe is inevitable. And so deep is the conviction that sooner or later this madness must seize every republic that the most plausible conviction of the per- manence of the American government is the belief that party spirit cannot be restrained. It is indeed a master passion, but its control is the true conservatism of the Republic and of happy human progress ; and its men are made familiar by education with the history of its ghastly catastrophe, men with the proud courage of independence, who are to temper by lofty action, born of that knowledge, the ferocity of party spirit. The first object of concerted political action is the highest welfare of the country. But the conditions of party associa- tions are such that the means are constantly and easily sub- stituted for the end. The sophistry is subtle and seductive. Holding the ascendency of his party essential to the national welfare, the zealous partisan merges patriotism in party. He insists that not to sustain the party is to betray the country, and against all honest doubt and reasonable hesitation and reluctance he vehemently urges that quibbles of conscience must be sacrificed to the public good ; that wise and practical men will not be squeamish; that every soldier in the army 290 The Making of an Oration cannot indulge his own whims; and that if the majority may justly prevail in determining the government, it must not be questioned in the control of a party. This spirit adds moral coercion to sophistry. It denounces as a traitor him who protests against party tyranny, and it makes unflinching adherence to what is called regular party action the condition of the gratification of honorable political ambition. Because a man who sympathizes with the party aims refuses to vote for a thief, this spirit scorns him as a rat and a renegade. Because he holds to principles and law against party expediency and dictation, he is proclaimed as the betrayer of his country, justice, and humanity. Because he tranquilly insists upon deciding for himself when he must dissent from his party, he is reviled as a popinjay and a vis- ionary fool. Seeking with honest purpose only the welfare of his country, the hot air around him hums with the cry of "the grand old party," "the traditions of the party," "loy- alty to the party," " the future of the party," " servant of the party " ; and he sees and hears the gorged and portly money- changers 10 in the temple usurping the very divinity of the God. Young hearts, be not dismayed ! If ever any one of you shall be the man so denounced, do not forget that your own individual convictions are the whip 10 of small cords which God has put into your hands to expel the blasphemers. The same party spirit naturally denies the patriotism of its opponents. Identifying itself with the country, it regards all others as public enemies. This is substantially revolution- ary politics. It is the condition of France, where in its own words the revolution is permanent. Instead of regarding the other party as legitimate opponents in the English phrase, His Majesty's opposition lawfully seeking a different policy under the government, it decries that party as a conspiracy plotting the overthrow of the government itself. History is lurid with the wasting fires of this madness. We need not Speeches for Careful Study 291 look for that of other lands. Our own is full of it. It is painful to turn to the opening years of the Union, and see how the great men whom we are taught to revere, and whose fostering care the beginning of the Republic was in- trusted, fanned their hatred and suspicion of each other. D< not trust the flattering voices that whisper of a Golden Age behind us and bemoan our own as a degenerate day. castles of hope always shine along the horizon. Our fathers saw theirs where we are standing. We behold ours where our fathers stood. But pensive regret for the heroic past, like eager anticipation of the future, shows only that t vision of a loftier life forever allures the human soul. We think our fathers too have been wiser than we, and their day more enviable. But eighty years ago the Federalists abhorred their opponents as Jacobins, and thought Robespierre and Marat no worse than Washington's secretary of state, opponents retorted that the Federalists were plotting to es- tablish a monarchy by force of arms. The New England pulpit anathematized Tom Jefferson as an atheist and a satyr Jefferson denounced John Jay as a rogue, and chief newspaper of the opposition, on the morning that Washington retired from the presidency, thanked God the country was now rid of the man who was the source of all its misfortunes. There is no mire in which party spirit wallows today with which our fathers were not 1 and how little sincere the vituperation was, how shallow a fury appears when Jefferson and Adams had retired from public life. Then they corresponded placidly and familiarly each at last conscious of the other's fervent patriotism; and when they died, they were lamented in common by those who in their names had flown at each other's throats, as the patr archal Castor and Pollux " of the pure age of our poht cs, now fixed as a constellation of hope in our heaven. The same brutal spirit showed itself at the time of Andrew 292 The Making of an Oration Johnson's 12 impeachment. Impeachment is a proceeding to be instituted only for great public reasons, which should, presumptively, command universal support. To prostitute the power of impeachment to a mere party purpose would readily lead to the reversal of the result of an election. But it was made a party measure. The party was to be whipped into its support ; and when certain broke the party yoke upon their necks, and voted according to their convictions, as hon- orable men always will whether the party whips like it or not, one of the whippersin exclaimed of the patriotism, the strug- gle of obedience to which cost one senator, at least, his life, " If there is anything worse than the treachery, it is the cant which pretends that it is the result of conscientious conviction ; the pretense of a conscience is quite unbearable." This was the very acridity of bigotry, which in other times and countries raised the cruel tribunal of the Inquisition and burned opponents for the glory of God. The party madness that dictated these words, and the sympathy that approved them, were treason not only to the country, but to well ordered human society. Murder may destroy great statesmen, but corruption makes great states impossible, and this was an attempt at the most insidious corruption. The man who at- tempts to terrify a senator of the United States into casting a dishonest vote, by stigmatizing him as a hypocrite and devoting him to party hatred, is only a more plausible rascal than his opponent who gives Pat O'Flanigan a fraudulent naturalization paper or buys his vote with a dollar or a glass of whiskey. Whatever the offenses of the President may have been, they were as nothing when compared with the party spirit which declared that it was tired of the intolerable cant of honesty. So the sneering Cavalier was tired of the cant of the Puritan conscience ; but the cant of which proved in- justice and coroneted privilege were tired, has been for three centuries the invincible bodyguard of civil and religious liberty. Speeches for Careful Study 293 Gentlemen, how dire a calamity the same party spirit was preparing for the country within a few months we can now perceive with amazement and with hearty thanksgiving for our great deliverance. The ordeal 13 of last winter was the severest strain yet applied to republican institutions. It was a mortal strain along the very fiber of our system. It was not a collision of sections, nor a conflict of principles of civiliza- tion. It was a supreme and triumphant test of American patriotism. Greater than the declaration of independence by colonies hopelessly alienated from the crown and already in arms, greater than emancipation, as a military expedient, amid the throes of civil war, was the peaceful and reason- able consent of two vast parties in a crisis plainly fore- seen and criminally neglected, a crisis in which each party asserted its solution to be indisputable to devise a lawful settlement of the tremendous contest, a settlement which, through furious storms of disappointment and rage has been religiously respected. We are told that our politics are mean that already, in its hundredth year, the decadence of the American Republic appears and the hope of the world is clouded. But tell me, scholars, in what high hour of Greece, when, as DeWitt Clinton declared, "the herb-woman of Athens could criticise the phraseology of Demosthenes, and the meanest artisan could pronounce judgment upon the works of Appelles and Phidias," or at what proud epoch of imperial Rome, or millennial moment of the fierce Italian republics, was ever so momentous a party difference so wisely, so peace- fully, so humanely composed? Had the sophistry of party prevailed; had each side resolved that not to insist upon its own claim at every hazard was what the mad party spirit of each side declared it to be a pusilanimous surrender; had the spirit of Marius mastered one party and that of Sylla the other, this waving valley of the Mohawk would not today murmur with the music of industry, these tranquil 294 The Making of an Oration voices of scholars blending with its happy harvest song; it would have smoked with fraternal war, and this shuddering river would have run red through desolated meadows and by burning homes. It is because these consequences are familiar to the knowl- edge of educated and thoughtful men that such men are con- stantly to assuage this party fire and to take care that party is always subordinated to patriotism. Perfect party disci- pline is the most dangerous weapon of party spirit, for it is the abdication of the individual judgment: it is the appli- cation to political parties of the Jesuit principle of implicit obedience. It is for you to help break this withering spell. It is for you to assert the independence and the dignity of the indi- vidual citizen, and to prove that party was made for the voter, not the voter for party. When you are angrily told that if you erect your personal whim against the regular party behest, you make representative government impossible by refusing to accept its conditions, hold fast by your own con- science and let the party go. There is not an American mer- chant who would send a ship to sea under the command of Captain Kidd, 14 however skillful a sailor he might be. Why should he vote to send Captain Kidd to the legislature or to put him in command of the ship of state because his party directs ? The party which today nominates Captain Kidd will tomorrow nominate Judas Iscariot, and tomorrow, as today, party spirit will spurn you as a traitor for refusing to sell your master. " I tell you," said an ardent and well meaning partisan, speaking of a closely contested election in another state "I tell you it is a nasty state, and I hope we have done nasty work enough to carry it." But if your state has been carried by nasty means this year, success will require nastier next year, and the nastiest means will always carry. The party may win, but the state will have been lost, for there Speeches for Careful Study 295 are successes which are failures. When a man is sitting upon the bough of a tree and diligently sawing it off between him- self and the trunk, he may succeed, but his success will break his neck. The remedy for the constant excess of party spirit and lies alone, in the courageous independent citizen. The only way, for instance, to procure the party nomination of good men, is for every self-respecting voter to refuse to vote for bad men. In the mediaeval theology the devils feared nothing so much as the drop of holy water and the sign of the cross, by which they were exorcised. The evil spirits of party fear nothing so much as bolting and scratching. In hoc signo vinces. If a farmer would reap a good crop, he scratches the weeds out of his field. If we would have good men upon the ticket, we must scratch bad men off. If the scratching breaks down the party, let it break; for the success of the party by such means would break down the country, evil spirits must be taught by means that they can understand. " Them fellers," said the captain of a canal boat of his men "Them fellers never think you mean a thing until you kick 'em. They feel that, and understand." It is especially necessary for us to perceive the vital rela- tion of individual courage and character to the common wel- fare, because ours is a government of public opinion, and public opinion is but the aggregate of individual thought. We have the awful responsibility as a community of doing what we choose, and it is of the last importance that we choose to do what is wise and right. In the early days of the antislavery agitation a meeting was called at Faneuil Hall, in Boston, which a good-natured mob of sailors was hired to suppress. They took possession of the floor and danced breakdowns and shouted choruses and refused to hear any of the orators upon the platform. The most eloquent pleaded with them in vain. They were urged by the memo- 296 The Making of an Oration ries of the Cradle of Liberty, for the honor of Massachusetts, for their honor as our Boston boys, to respect liberty of speech. But they still laughed and sang and danced, and were proof against every appeal. At last a man suddenly arose from among themselves and began to speak. Struck by his tone and quaint appearance, and with the thought that he might be one of themselves, the mob became suddenly still. " Well, fel- low citizens," he said, " I would n't be quiet if I did n't want to." The words were greeted with a roar of delight from the mob, which supposed it had found its champion, and the ap- plause was unceasing for five minutes, during which the orator tranquilly awaited his chance to continue. The wish to hear more hushed the tumult, and when the hall was still he resumed, " No, I certainly would n't stop if I had n't a mind to ; but then, if I were you I would have a mind to ! " The oddity of the remark and the earnestness of the tone held the crowd silent, and the speaker continued : " Not be- cause this is Faneuil Hall, nor for the honor of Massa- chusetts, nor because you are Boston boys, but because you are men, and because honorable and generous men always love fair play." The mob was conquered. Free speech and fair play were secured. Public opinion can do what it has a mind to in this country. If it be debased and demoralized, it is the most odious of tyrants. It is Nero and Caligula multiplied by millions. Can there be a more stringent public duty for every man and the greater the intelligence the greater the duty than to care, by all the influence he can command, that the country, the majority, public opinion, shall have a mind to do only what is just and pure and humane?" Gentlemen, leaving this college to take your part in the discharge of the duties of American citizenship, every sign encourages and inspires. The year that is now ending, the year that opens the second century of our history, has fur- nished the supreme proof that in a country of rigorous party Speeches for Careful Study 297 division the purest patriotism exists. That and that only is the pledge of a prosperous future. No mere party fervor or party fidelity or party discipline could fully restore a country torn and distracted by the fierce debate of a century and the convulsion of civil war; nothing less than a patriotism all-embracing as the summer air could heal a wound so wide. I know no man better how hard it is for earnest men to separate their country from their party, or their religion from their sect. But nevertheless the welfare of country is more precious than mere victory of party, as truth is more precious than the interest of any sect. You will hear this patriotism scorned as an impracticable theory, as the dream of a cloister, as the whim of a fool. But such was the folly of the Spartan Leonidas, staying with his three hundred the Persian horde and teaching Greece the self-reliance that saved her. Such was the folly of the Swiss Arnold von Winkelried, gathering into his own breast the host of Austrian spears, making his dead body the bridge of victory for his country- men. Such was the folly of the American Nathan Hale, gladly risking the seeming disgrace of his name, and griev- ing that he had but one life to give for his country. Such are the beaconlights of a pure patriotism that burn forever in men's memories and answer each other through the illum- inated ages. And of the same grandeur, in less heroic and poetic form, was the patriotism in recent history. He was the leader of a great party and the prime minister of England. The character and necessity of party were as plain to him as to any man. But when he saw that the national welfare de- manded the repeal of the corn-laws which he had always sup- ported, he did not quail. Amply avowing the error of a life and the duty of avowing it foreseeing the probable over- throw of his party and the bitter execration that must fall upon him, he tranquilly did his duty. With the eyes of Eng- land fixed upon him in mingled amazement, admiration, and 298 The Making of an Oration indignation, he arose in the House of Commons to perform as great a service as any Englishman ever performed for his country, and in closing his last speech in favor of the repeal, describing the consequences that its mere prospect had produced, he loftily exclaimed : " Where there was dis- satisfaction, I see contentment; where there was turbulence, I see there is peace; where there was disloyalty, I see there is loyalty. I see a disposition to confide in you and not to agitate questions that are the foundations of your institu- tions." When all was over, when he had left office, when his party was out of power and the fury of party execration against him was spent, his position was greater and nobler than it had ever been. Cobden said of him, " Sir Robert Peel has lost office, but he has gained a country"; and Lord Bailing said of him, what may truly be said of Washington, " Above all parties, himself a party, he had trained his own mind into a disinterested sympathy with the intelligence of his country." A public spirit so lofty is not confined to other ages and lands. You are conscious of its stirrings in your souls. It calls you to courageous service, and I am here to bid you obey the call. Such patriotism may be ours. Let it be your parting vow that it shall be yours. Bolingbroke described a patriot king in England; I can imagine a patriot president in America. I can see him indeed the choice of a party, and called to administer the government when sectional jealousy is fiercest and party passion most inflamed. I can imagine him seeing clearly what justice and humanity, the national law and the national welfare require him to do, and resolved to do it. I can imagine him patiently enduring not only the mad cry of party hate, the taunt of " recreant " and " traitor," of " renegade " and " coward," but what is harder to bear, the amazement, the doubt, the grief, the denuncia- tion, of those as sincerely devoted as he to the common wel- Speeches for Careful Study 299 fare. I can imagine him pushing firmly on, trusting the heart, the intelligence, the conscience of his countrymen, healing angry wounds, correcting misunderstandings, planting jus- tice on surer foundations, and, whether his party rise or fall, lifting his country heavenward to a more perfect union, prosperity, and peace. This is the spirit of a patriotism that girds the commonwealth with the resistless splendor of the moral law the invulnerable panoply of states, the celestial secret of a great nation and a happy people. NOTES ON THE SPEECH OF GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 1. Note the grace and appropriateness with which the speaker approaches his theme, which is clearly stated at the end of the second paragraph. 2. Note how the meaning of the theme is exemplified by the reference to the " Venerated teacher." Taylor Lewis, the teacher alluded to, was a great scholar and professor at Union College, who had died but a few weeks before this oration was pro- nounced. 3. Observe how the epigrammatic figure of the ship gives meaning and force to the thought. 4. What quality of style is promoted by the historical illustra- tions? 5. What thought is emphasized by the personification of justice? Read the text on the use of figures. 6. Jeremy Diddler, the name in English literature of a notori- ous swindler. 7. Dick Turpin, a famous highwayman. 8 Jonathan Wild, a noted English thief and villain. He is likened here to William M. Tweed, an infamous "boss" of New York City, who was arrested for his crimes and died in Ludlow Street jail of that city. 9. Walter Scott, etc. Note how the historical examples are used to show the common prejudice against the scholar in poli- tics, and also to reveal the fallacy against such prejudice. How does the employment of interrogation add to the effectiveness of these examples? , 10. See John II : 14-16. Note the force and suggestiveness of the allusion. 11. Castor and Pollux. What is the allusion, and how is it applied? , 12. Andrew Johnson's impeachment. Read an account of that trial and note the use of the reference to the orator's thought. 300 The Making of an Oration 13. " The ordeal of last winter this is a reference to the con- troversy over the Tilden-Hayes election. Observe how the orator takes advantage of current questions to illumine and give point to his thought. Observe, also, how he amplifies his idea in the paragraph, and by an appeal to the imagination shows what might have been the condition had the partisan spirit prevailed. 14. Captain Kidd, a notorious pirate. PLAN OF THE SPEECH OF GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS /. Introduction: I. Exposition of the term "public duty." (I.) What it is, illustrated by reference to Taylor Lewis. (2.) What it is not, a. Not necessarily holding office; b. Not merely voting. //. "Object": Let educated Americans take an active part in public affairs. ///. Discussion: 1. Educated Americans should participate in primary meetings. (i.) Prejudice against educated men in politics; (2.) Refutation of this objection. 2. Educated Americans should, for effectiveness, act with a party. 3. They should, however, place country before party. (l.) Failure to support party will be denounced as treach- erous not only to party but to country : illustrations from history. (2.) Partisanship denies patriotism to its opponents: il- lustrations from the Tilden-Hayes contest, and from the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson. 4. Educated men should assuage this partisan spirit : (l.) By independence of thought and action; (2.) By recognition of the relation between individual character and national character. IV. Conclusion: Application and appeal to his hearers, with illustrations drawn from history ancient and modern to show that such a lofty public spirit will help to make the country what it ought to be. THE NEW SOUTH BY HENRY W. GRADY (Henry W. Grady, at that time the brilliant editor of the Atlanta Constitution, was the invited guest of The NLw England Society, at its annual dinner, December 22, 1886. The date was near enough to the Civil War to make the stirring scenes of that eventful struggle still fresh in the minds of the people, but far enough removed to mitigate much of the bitterness of the passions that had attended the conflict. The speech that follows was recognized as at once the voice of the New South expressive of loyalty to the nation and as the utterance of a man entitled to be ranked among the very greatest of American orators.) " There was a South of slavery and secession that South is dead. There is a South of union and freedom that South, thank God, is living, breathing, growing every hour." These words, delivered from the immortal lips of Benjamin H. Hill, at Tammany Hall, in 1866, true then, and truer now, I shall make my text tonight. Mr. President and Gentlemen : Let me express to you my appreciation of the kindness by which I am permitted to address you. I make this abrupt acknowledgment advisedly, for I feel that if, when I raised my provincial voice in this ancient and august presence, I could find courage for no more than the opening sentence, in that sentence, I had met in a rough sense my obligation as a guest, and had perished, so to speak, with courtesy on my lips and grace in my heart. Permitted, through your kindness, to catch my second wind, let me say that I appreciate the significance of being the first Southerner to speak at this board, which bears the 301 302 The Making of an Oration substance, if it surpasses the semblance of original New England hospitality, and honors a sentiment that in turn honors you, but in which my personality is lost and the compliment to my people made plain. I bespeak the utmost stretch of your courtesy tonight. I am not anxious about those from whom I come. You re- member the man whose wife sent him to a neighbor with a pitcher of milk, and who, tripping on the top step, fell, with such casual interruptions as the landings afforded, into the basement ; and while picking himself up, had the pleasure of hearing his wife call out : "John, did you break the pitcher?" " No, I did n't," said John, " but I be dinged if I do n't." So, while those who call to me from behind may inspire me with energy, if not with courage, I ask an indulgent hear- ing from you. I beg that you will bring your full faith in American fairness and frankness to judgment upon what I shall say. There was an old preacher once who told some boys of the Bible lesson he was going to read in the morning. The boys, finding the place, glued together the connecting pages. The next morning he read on the bottom of one page : " When Noah was one hundred and twenty years old he took unto himself a wife, who was " then turning the page, " one hundred and forty cubits long, forty cubits wide, built of gopher wood, and covered with pitch inside and out." He was naturally puzzled at this. He read it again, verified it, and then said : " My friends, this is the first time I ever met this in the Bible, but I accept it as an evidence of the asser- tion that we are fearfully and wonderfully made." If I could get you to hold such faith tonight, I could proceed cheerfully to the task I otherwise approach with a sense of consecration. Pardon me one word, Mr. President, spoken for the sole purpose of getting into the volumes that go out annually Speeches for Careful Study 303 freighted with the rich eloquence of your speakers the fact that the Cavalier, 2 as well as the Puritan, was on the conti- nent in its early days, and that he was " up and able to be about." I have read your books carefully and I find no men- tion of that fact, which seems to me an important one for preserving a sort of historical equilibrium, if for nothing else. Let me remind you that the Virginia Cavalier first chal- lenged France on this continent, that Cavalier John Smith gave New England its very name, and was so pleased with the job that he has been handing his own name around ever since, and that while Miles Standish was cutting 3 off men's ears for courting a girl without her parents' consent, and forbade men to kiss their wives on Sunday, the Cavalier was courting everything in sight, and that the Almighty had vouchsafed great increase to the Cavalier colonies, the huts in the wilderness being as full as the nests in the woods. But having incorporated the Cavalier as a fact in your charming little book, I shall let him work out his own salva- tion, as he has always done with engaging gallantry, and we will hold no controversy as to his merits. Why should we? Neither Puritan nor Cavalier survived as such. The virtues and traditions of both happily still live for the inspiration of their sons and the saving of the old fashion. Both Puritan and Cavalier were lost in the storm of the first Revolution, and the American citizen, supplanting both, and stronger than either, took possession of the republic bought by their common blood and fashioned to wisdom, and charged him- self with teaching men government and establishing the voice of the people as the voice of God. My friend, Doctor Talmage, 4 has told you that the typical American has yet to come. Let me tell you that he has already come. Great types, like valuable plants, are slow to flower and fruit. But from the union of these colonist Puri- 304 The Making of an Oration tans and Cavaliers, from the straightening of their purposes and the crossing of their blood, slow perfecting through a century, came he who stands as the first typical American, the first who comprehended within himself all the strength and gentleness, all the majesty and grace of this republic, Abraham Lincoln. 5 He was the sum of Puritan and Cav- alier; for in his ardent nature were fused the virtues of both, and in his great soul the faults of both were lost. He was greater than Puritan, greater than Cavalier, in that he was American, and that in his homely form were first gathered the vast and thrilling forces of his ideal government, charg- ing it with such tremendous meaning, and so elevating it above human suffering, that martyrdom, though infamously aimed, came as a fitting crown to a life consecrated from the cradle to human liberty. Let us, each cherishing the traditions and honoring his fathers, build with reverent hands to the type of his simple but sublime life, in which all types are honored; and in our common glory as Americans there will be plenty and some to spare for your forefathers and for mine. In speaking to the toast with which you have honored me, I accept the term, " The New South," as in no sense dispar- aging to the Old. Dear to me, sir, is the home of my child- hood, and the traditions of my people. I would not, if I could, dim the glory they won in peace and war, or by word or deed take aught from the splendor and grace of their civili- zation, never equaled, and perhaps never to be equaled in its chivalric strength and grace. There is a New South, not through protest against the Old, but because of new condi- tions, new adjustments, and, if you please, new ideas and aspirations. It is to this that I address myself, and to the consideration of which I hasten, lest it become the Old South before I get to it. Age does not endow all things with Strength and virtue, nor are all new things to be despised. Speeches for Careful Study 305 The shoemaker who put over his door, " John Smith's shop, founded in 1760," was more than matched by his young rival across the street who hung out this sign : " Bill Jones. Established 1886. No old stock kept in this shop." Dr. Talmage has drawn for you, with a master hand, the picture of your returning armies. He has told you how, in the pomp and circumstance of war, they came back to you, marching with proud and victorious tread, reading their glory in a nation's eye. Will you bear with me while I tell you of another army that sought its home at the close of the late war? An army that marched home in defeat and not in victory in pathos and not in splendor, but in glory that equaled yours, and to hearts as loving as ever welcomed heroes home? Let me picture to you the footsore Confeder- ate soldier, as, buttoning up in his faded gray jacket the parole which was to bear testimony to his children of his fidelity and faith, he turned his face southward from Appo- mattox in April, 1865. Think of him as ragged, half starved, heavy-hearted, enfeebled by want and wounds, having fought to exhaustion, he surrenders his gun, wrings the hands of his comrades in silence, and, lifting his tear-stained and pallid face for the last time to the graves that dot the old Virginia hills, pulls the old gray cap over his brow and begins the slow and painful journey. What does he find? let me ask you who went to your homes eager to find, in the welcome you had justly earned, full payment for four years' sacrifice what does he find when, having followed the battle-stained cross against overwhelming odds, dreading death not half so much as surrender, he reaches the home he left so prosperous and beautiful? He finds his home in ruins, his farm devastated, his slaves free, his stock killed, his barns empty, his trade destroyed, his money worthless; his social system, feudal in its magnificence, swept away ; his people without law or legal status; his comrades slain, and the burdens of others heavy 306 The Making of an Oration on his shoulders. Crushed by defeat, his very traditions gone. Without money, credit, employment, material training; and besides all this, confronted with the gravest problems tjiat ever met human intelligence the establishment of a status for the vast body of his liberated slaves. What does he do 6 this hero in gray, with a heart of gold? Does he sit down in sullenness and despair? Not for a day. Surely God, who had stripped him of his prosperity, inspired him in his adversity. As ruin was never before so overwhelming, never was restoration swifter. The soldier stepped from the trenches into the furrow; the horses that had charged Federal guns marched before the plow, and the fields that ran red with human blood in April were green with the harvest in June; women reared in luxury cut up their dresses and made breeches for their husbands, and, with a patience and heroism that fit women always as a garment, gave their hands to work. There was little bitterness in all this. Cheerfulness and frankness prevailed. " Bill Arp " struck the keynote, when he said : " Well, I killed as many of them as they did of me, and now I am going to work." Or the soldier going home after defeat and roasting some corn on the roadside, who made the remark to his comrades: " You may leave the South, if you want to, but I am going to Sandersville, kiss my wife and raise a crop, and if the Yankees fool with me any more I will whip 'em again." I want to say to General Sherman 7 who is considered an able man in our parts, though some folks think he is kind of careless about fire that from the ashes he left us in 1864 we have raised a brave and beautiful city; that somehow or other we have caught the sunshine in the bricks and mortar of our homes, and have builded therein not one ignoble prejudice or memory. But in all this what have we accomplished? What is the sum of our work? We have found out that in the general Speeches for Careful Study 307 summing up the free negro counts for more than he did as a slave. We have planted the schoolhouse on the hilltop and made it free to white and black. We have sowed towns and cities in the place of theories, and put business above politics. We have challenged your spinners in Massachusetts and your iron-makers in Pennsylvania. We have learned that the $400,000,000 annually received from our cotton crop will make us rich, when the supplies that make it are home- raised. We have reduced the commercial rate of interest from twenty-four to four percent, and are floating four percent bonds. We have learned that one Northern immi- grant is worth fifty foreigners, and have smoothed the path to the southward, wiped out the place where Mason and Dixon's line used to be, and hung out the latchstring to you and yours. We have reached the point that marks perfect harmony in every household, when the husband confesses that the pies that his wife cooks are as good as those his mother used to bake; and we admit that the sun shines as brightly and the moon as softly as it did "before the war." We have estab- lished thrift in the city and country. We have fallen in love with work. We have restored comforts to homes from which culture and elegance never departed. We have let economy take root and spread among us as rank as the crab grass which sprung from Sherman's cavalry camps, until we are ready to lay odds on the Georgia Yankee, as he manufactures relics of the battlefield in a one-story shanty and squeezes pure olive oil out of his cotton seed, against any down-easter that swapped wooden nutmegs for flannel sausages in the valley of Vermont. Above all, we know that we have achieved " in these piping times of peace," a fuller independence for the South than that which our forefathers sought to win in the forum by their eloquence, or compel on the field by their swords. 308 The Making of an Oration It is a rare privilege, sir, to have had a part, however humble, in this work. Never was nobler duty confided to human hands than the uplifting and upbuilding of the pros- trate and bleeding South, misguided, perhaps, but beautiful in her suffering, and honest, brave, and generous always. In the record of her social, industrial, and political restoration we await with confidence the verdict of the world. But what of the negro? Have we solved the problem he presents, or progressed in honor and equity toward the .solu- tion? Let the record speak to the point. No section shows a more prosperous laboring population than the negroes of the South; none in fuller sympathy with the employing and land-owning class. He shares our school fund, has the full- est protection of our laws, and the friendship of our people. Self-interest, as well as honor, demands that they should have this. Our future, our very existence, depends upon our working out this problem in full and exact justice. We understand that when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, your victory was assured; for he then com- mitted you to the cause of human liberty, against which the laws of man cannot prevail; while those of our statesmen who trusted to make slavery the cornerstone of the Confed- eracy doomed us to defeat as far as they could, committing us to a cause that reason could not defend or the sword maintain in the sight of advancing civilization. Had Mr. Toombs said, which he did not say, that he would call the roll of his slaves at the foot of Bunker Hill, he would have been foolish, for he might have known that whenever slavery became entangled in war it must perish, and that the chattel in human flesh ended forever in New England when your fathers not to be blamed for parting with what did not pay sold their slaves to our fathers, not to be praised for knowing a paying thing when they saw it. The relations of the Southern people with the negro are Speeches for Careful Study 309 close and cordial. We remember with what fidelity for four years he guarded our defenseless women and children, whose husbands and fathers were fighting against his freedom. To his credit be it said that whenever he struck a blow for his own liberty, he fought in open battle, and when at last he raised his black and humble hands that the shackles might be struck off, those hands were innocent of wrong against his helpless charges, and worthy to be taken in loving grasp by every man who honors loyalty and devotion. Ruffians have maltreated him, rascals have misled him, philanthropists established a bank for him, but the South with the North protest against injustice to this simple and sincere people. To liberty and enfranchisement is as far as the law can carry the negro. The rest must be left to con- science and common sense. It should be left to those among whom his lot is cast, with whom he is indissolubly connected, and whose prosperity depends upon their possessing his in- telligent sympathy and confidence. Faith has been kept with him in spite of calumnious assertions to the contrary by those who assume to speak for us, or by frank opponents. Faith will be kept with him in the future, if the South holds her reason and integrity. But have we kept faith with you? In the fullest sense, yes. When Lee surrendered I do n't say when Johnston surrendered, because I understand he still alludes to the time when he met General Sherman last as the time when he " determined to abandon any further prosecution of the struggle" when Lee surrendered, I say, and Johnston quit, the South became, and has been loyal to the Union. We fought hard enough to know that we were whipped, and in perfect frankness accepted as final the arbitrament of the sword to which we had appealed. The South found her jewel in the toad's head of defeat. The shackles 8 that had held 310 The Making of an Oration her in narrow limitations fell forever when the shackles of the negro slave were broken. Under the old regime the negroes were slaves to the South, the South was a slave to the system. The old plantation, with its simple police regulations and its feudal habit, was the only type possible under slavery. Thus was gathered in the hands of a splendid and chivalric oligarchy the substance that should have been diffused among the people, as the rich blood, under certain artificial conditions, is gathered at the heart, filling that with affluent rapture, but leaving the body chill and colorless. The old South rested everything on slavery and agricul- ture, unconscious that these could neither give nor maintain healthy growth. The new South presents a perfect Democ- racy, the oligarchs leading in the popular movement a social system compact and closely knitted, less splendid on the surface but stronger at the core; a hundred farms for every plantation, fifty homes for every palace, and a diversi- fied industry that meets the complex needs of this complex age. The 9 New South is enamored of her new work. Her soul is stirred with the breath of a new life. The light of a grander day is falling fair on her face. She is thrilling with the consciousness of a growing power and prosperity. As she stands upright, full statured and equal among the people of the earth, breathing the keen air and looking out upon the expanding horizon, she understands that her emancipation came because in the inscrutible wisdom of God her honest purpose was crossed and her brave armies were beaten. This is said in no spirit of time-serving or apology. The South has nothing for which to apologize. She believes that the late struggle between the States was war and not rebel- lion, revolution and not conspiracy, and that her convictions were as honest as yours. I should be unjust to the dauntless Speeches for Careful Study 311 spirit of the South and to my own convictions if I did not make this plain in this presence. The South has nothing to take back. In my native town of Athens is a monument that crowns its central hills a plain white shaft. Deep cut into its shining side is a name dear to me above the names of men, that of a brave and simple man who died in a brave and simple faith. Not for all the glories of New England from Plymouth Rock all the way would I exchange the heritage he left me in his soldier's death. To the feet of that shaft I shall send my children's children to reverence him who ennobled their name with his heroic blood. But, sir, speaking from the shadow of that memory, which I honor as I do nothing else on earth, I say that the cause in which he suffered and for which he gave his life was adjudged by higher and fuller wisdom than his or mine, and I am glad that the omniscient God held the balance of battle in His Almighty Hand, and that human slavery was swept forever from American soil the American Union saved from the wreck of war. This message, Mr. President, comes to you from conse- crated ground, every foot of soil about the city in which I live is sacred as a battleground of the republic. Every hill that invests it is hallowed to you by the blood of your brothers who died for your victory, and doubly hallowed to us by the blood of those who died hopeless, but undaunted, in defeat sacred soil to all of us, rich with memories that make us purer and stronger and better, silent but staunch witnesses in its red desolation of the matchless vafor of American hearts and the deathless glory of American arms speaking an elo- quent witness, in its white peace and prosperity, to the indis- soluble union of American states and the imperishable brotherhood of the American people. Now what answer has New England to this message? Will she permit the prejudice of war to remain in the heart 312 The Making of an Oration of the conquerors, when it has died in the hearts of the con- quered? Will she transmit this prejudice to the next genera- tion, that in their hearts, which never felt the generous ardor of conflict, it may perpetuate itself? Will she with- hold, save in strained courtesy, the hand which, straight from his soldier's heart, Grant offered to Lee at Appomattox? Will she make the vision of a restored and happy people, which gathered above the couch of your dying captain, filling his heart with grace, touching his lips with praise and glori- fying his path to the grave; will she make this vision, on which his expiring soul breathed a benediction, a cheat and a delusion? If she does, the South, never abject in asking for comradeship, must accept with dignity its refusal; but if she does not if she accepts with frankness and sincerity this message of goodwill and friendship, then will the prophecy of Webster, delivered in this very Society forty years ago, amid tremendous applause, be verified in its fullest and final sense, when he said: "Standing hand to hand and clasping hands, we should remain united as we have for sixty years, citizens of the same country, members of the same govern- ment, united all, united now, and united forever. There have been difficulties, contentions, and controversies, but I tell you that in my judgment Those 10 opposed eyes, Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven, All of one nature, of one substance bred, Did lately meet in th' intestine shock, Shall now, in mutual, well-beseeming ranks March all one way. Speeches for Careful Study 313 NOTES ON THE SPEECH OF HENRY W. GRADY Make a full plan with all details introduced to show the prog- ress of the speaker's thought and his easy transitions. Note, also, the manly courage and grace of the whole speech. 1. Text, observe the appropriateness in place and form of the quotation. 2. Cavalier and Puritan. The South, especially Virginia, was settled largely by members of the Cavalier party and New England by Puritan immigrants, when these two parties were struggling for the ascendancy in England. 3. What, if any, ground was there for ascribing such laws to the Puritans? Was the charge serious or playful? How did it serve to put the speaker on good terms with his audience? 4. An eloquent preacher who had spoken. 5. How does this characterization of Lincoln harmonize w'th that of James Russell Lowell in the Commemoration Ode and in Lowell's essay on the same theme? Observe how this allusion to Lincoln exemplifies the theme as stated in what the speaker calls his "text." 6. Observe how the speaker uses interrogation to add to both the force and the pathos of his description. Also note the effect- iveness of antithesis, here and elsewhere in the speech. 7. General Sherman was present at the banquet. 8. Note how the vividness and picturesqueness of the language appeal to the imagination. Q. What is the effect of the personification in this paragraph? 10. See Shakespeare's " King Henry the Fourth," Part I, Act I, Scene i. THE " CROSS OF GOLD " BY WILLIAM J. BRYAN (Concluding the debate on the Chicago platform of the Demo- cratic party, adopted at the Convention of 1896. Used by special permission of Mr. Bryan.) Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention l : I would be presumptuous, indeed, to present myself against the distinguished gentlemen to whom you have listened if this were a mere measuring of abilities; but this is not a contest between persons. The humblest citizen in all the land, when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error. I come to speak to you in defense of a cause as holy as the cause of liberty the cause of humanity. When this debate is concluded, a motion will be made to lay upon the table the resolution offered in commendation of the administration, and also the resolution offered in con- demnation of the administration. We object to bringing this question down to the level of persons. The individual is but an atom; he is born, he acts, he dies; but principles are eternal; and this has been a contest over a principle. Never before in the history of this country has there been witnessed such a contest as that through which we have just passed. Never before in the history of American politics has a great issue been fought out, as this issue has been, by the voters of a great party. On the fourth of March, 1895, a few Democrats, most of them members of Congress, issued an address to the Democrats of the nation, asserting that the 314 Speeches for Careful Study 315 money question was the paramount issue of the hour ; declar- ing 1 that a majority of the Democratic party had a right to control the party on this paramount issue; and concluding with the request that the believers in the free coinage of silver in the Democratic party should organize, take charge of, and control the policy of the Democratic party. Three months later, at Memphis, an organization was perfected, and the silver Democrats went forth openly and courageously proclaiming their belief, and declaring that, if successful, they would crystallize into a platform the declaration which they had made. Then began the conflict. With a zeal ap- proaching the zeal which inspired the crusaders who followed Peter the Hermit, our silver Democrats went forth from vic- tory unto victory until they are now assembled, not to discuss, not to debate, but to enter up the judgment already rendered by the plain people of this country. In this contest brother has been arrayed against brother, father against son. The warmest ties of love, acquaintance, and association have been disregarded ; old leaders have been cast aside when they have refused to give expression to the sentiments of those whom they would lead, and new leaders have sprung up to give direction to this cause of truth. Thus has the contest been waged, and we have assembled here under as binding and solemn instructions as were ever imposed upon representa- tives of the people. We do not come as individuals. As individuals we might have been glad to compliment the gentleman from New York [Senator Hill], but we know that the people for whom we speak would never be willing to put him in a position where he could thwart the will of the Democratic party. I say it was not a question of persons ; it was a question of principle, and it is not with gladness, my friends, that we find ourselves brought into conflict with those now arrayed on the other side. 316 The Making of an Oration The gentleman who preceded me [ex-Governor Russell] spoke of the State of Massachusetts; let me assure him that not one present in all this convention entertains the least hostility to the people of the State of Massachusetts, but we stand here representing people who are the equals, before the law, of the greatest citizens in the State of Massachusetts. When you [turning to the gold' delegates] come before us and tell us that we are about to disturb your business inter- ests, we reply that you have disturbed our business interests by your course. We say to you that you have made the definition of a busi- ness man 2 too limited in its application. The man who is employed for wages is as much a business man as his em- ployer ; the attorney in a country town is as much a business man as the corporation counsel in a great metropolis; the merchant at the cross-roads store is as much a business man as the merchant of New York; the farmer who goes forth in the morning and toils all day, who begins in spring and toils all summer, and who, by the application of brains and muscle to the natural resources of the country creates wealth, is as much a business man as the man who goes upon the board of trade and bets upon the price of grain ; the miners who go down a thousand feet into the earth or climb two thousand feet upon the cliffs, and bring forth from their hiding places the precious metals to be poured into the channels of trade are as much business men as the few financial magnates who, in a back room, corner the money of the world. We come to speak of this broader class of business men. Ah, my friends, we say not one word against those who live upon the Atlantic coast, but the hardy pioneers who have braved all the dangers of the wilderness, who have made the desert 3 to blossom as the rose, the pioneers away out there [pointing to the west], who rear their children near to Nature's heart, where they can mingle their voices with the Speeches for Careful Study 317 voices of the birds, out there where they have erected schoolhouses for the education of their young, churches where they praise their Creator, and cemeteries where rest the ashes of their dead these people, we say, are as deserving of the consideration of our party as any people in this country. It is for these that we speak. We do not come as aggressors. Our war is not a war of conquest; we are fighting in defense of our homes, our families, and posterity. We have peti- tioned, 4 and our petitions have been scorned; we have en- treated, and our entreaties have been disregarded; we have begged, and they have mocked when our calamity came. 3 We beg no longer; we entreat no more; we petition no more. We defy them ! The gentleman from Wisconsin has said that he fears a Robespierre. My friends, in this land of the free you need not fear that a tyrant will spring up from among the people. What we need is an Andrew Jackson to stand, as Jackson stood, against the encroachments of organized wealth. They tell us that this platform was made to catch votes. We tell them that changing conditions make new issues ; that the principles upon which Democracy rests are as everlasting as the hills, but that they must be applied to new conditions as they rise. Conditions have arisen, and we are here to meet those conditions. They tell us that the income tax ought not to be brought in here; that it is a new idea. They criticize us for our criticism of the Supreme Court of the United States. My friends, we have not criticized; we have simply called attention to what you already know. If you want criticisms, read the dissenting opinions of the court. There you will find criticisms. They say that we passed an uncon- stitutional law; we deny it. The income tax was not un- constitutional when it was passed ; it was not unconstitutional when it went before the Supreme Court for the first time ; it did not become unconstitutional until one of the judges 318 The Making of an Oration changed his mind, and we cannot be expected to know when a judge will change his mind. The income tax is just. It simply intends to put the burdens of government justly upon the backs of the people. I am in favor of an income tax. When I find a man who is not willing to bear his share of the burdens of the government which protects him, I find a man who is unworthy to enjoy the blessings of a government like ours. They say that we are opposing national bank currency; it is true. If you will read what Thomas Benton said, you will find he said that, in searching history, he could find but one parallel to Andrew Jackson; that was Cicero, who destroyed the conspiracy of Cataline and saved Rome. Benton said that Cicero only did for Rome what Jackson did for us when he destroyed the bank conspiracy and saved America. We say in our platform that we believe that the right to coin and issue money is a function of government. We believe it. We believe that it is a part of sovereignty, and can no more with safety be delegated to private individ- uals than we could afford to delegate to private individuals to make penal statutes or levy taxes. Mr. Jefferson, who was once regarded as good Democratic authority, seems to have differed in opinion from the gentleman who has ad- dressed us on the part of the minority. Those who are opposed to this proposition tell us that the issue of paper money is a function of the bank, and that the government ought to go out of the banking business. I stand with Jeffer- son rather than with them, and tell them, as he did, that the issue of money is a function of government, and that the banks ought to go out of the governing business. They complain about the plank which declares against life tenure in office. They have tried to strain it to mean that which it does not mean. What we oppose by that plank is the life tenure which is built up in Washington, and which Speeches for Careful Study 319 excludes from participation in official benefits the humbler members of society. Let me call your attention to two or three important things. The gentleman from New York says that he will propose an amendment to the platform pro- viding that the proposed change in our monetary system shall not affect contracts already made. Let me remind you that there is no intention of affecting those contracts which, according to present laws, are made payable in gold; but if he means to say that we cannot change our monetary system without protecting those who have loaned money before the change was made, I desire to ask him where, in law or in morals, he can find justification for not protecting the debtors when the act of 1873 was passed, if he now insists that we must protect the creditors. He says he will also propose an amendment which will provide for the suspension of free coinage if we fail to main- tain the parity within a year. We reply that when we advocate a policy which we believe will be successful, we are not compelled to raise a doubt as to our own sincerity by suggesting what we shall do if we fail. I ask him, if he would apply his logic to us, why he does not apply it to him- self. He says he wants this country to try to secure an interna- tional agreement. Why does he not tell us what he is going to do, if he fails to secure an international agreement? There is more reason for him to do that than there is for us to provide against the failure to maintain the parity. Our opponents 5 have tried for twenty years to secure an international agree- ment, and those are waiting for it most patiently who do not want it at all. And now, my friends, let me come to the paramount issue. If they ask us why it is that we say more on the money ques- tion than we say upon the tariff question, I reply that, if protection 3 has slain its thousands, the gold standard has slain its tens of thousands. If they ask us why we do not 320 The Making of an Oration embody in our platform all the things that we believe in, I reply that when we have restored the money of the constitu- tion all other necessary reforms will be possible; but that until this is done there is no other reform that can be accomplished. Why is it that within three months such a change has come over the country? Three months ago when it was confidently asserted that those who believe in the gold standard would frame our platform and nominate our candidates, even the advocates of the gold standard did not think that we could elect a President. And they had good reason for their doubt, because there is scarcely a state here today asking for the gold standard which is not in the absolute control of the Republican party. But note the change. Mr. McKinley was nominated at St. Louis upon a platform which declared for the maintenance of the gold standard until it can be changed into bimetalism by international agreement. Mr. McKinley was the most popular man among the Republicans, and three months ago everybody in the Republican party prophesied his election. How is it today? Why, the man who was once pleased to think that he looked like Napoleon 6 that man shudders today when he remembers that he was nominated on the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo. Not only that, but as he listens he can hear with ever-increasing distinctness the sound of the waves as they beat upon the lonely shores of St. Helena. Why this change? Ah, my friends, is not the reason for the change evident to any one who will look at the matter? No private character, however pure, no personal popularity, however great, can protect from the avenging wrath of an indignant people a man who will declare that he is in favor of fastening the gold standard upon this country, or who is willing to surrender the right of self-government and place the legislative control of our affairs in the hands of foreign potentates and powers. Speeches for Careful Study 321 We go forth confident that we shall win. Why ? Because upon the paramount issue of this campaign there is not a spot of ground upon which the enemy will dare to challenge battle. If they tell us that the gold standard is a good thing, we shall point to their platform and tell them that their plat- form pledges the party to get rid of the gold standard and substitute bimetallism. If the gold standard is a good thing, why try to get rid of it? I call your attention to the fact that some of the very people who are in this convention today and who tell us that we ought to declare in favor of international bimetallism, thereby declaring that the gold standard is wrong and that the principle of bimetallism is better, these very people four months ago were open and avowed advocates of the gold standard, and were then telling us that we could not legislate two metals together, even with the aid of all the world. If the gold standard is a good thing, we ought to declare in favor of its retention and not in favor of aban- doning it; and if the gold standard is a bad thing, why should we wait until other nations are willing to help us to let go? Here is the line of battle, and we care not upon which issue they force the fight; we are prepared to meet them upon either issue or on both. If they tell us that the gold standard is the standard of civilization, we reply to them that this, the most enlightened of all nations of the earth, has never de- clared for a gold standard and that both the great parties this year are declaring against it. If the gold standard is the standard of civilization, why, my friends, should we not have it? If they come to meet us on that issue we can present the history of our nation. More than that; we can tell them that they can search the pages of history in vain to find a single instance where the common people of any land have ever declared themselves in favor of the gold standard. They can find where the holders of fixed investments have declared for a gold standard, but not where the masses have. 322 The Making of an Oration Mr. Carlisle said in 1878 that this was a struggle between " the idle holders of idle capital " and " the struggling masses, who produce the wealth and pay the taxes of the country " ; and, my friends, the question we are to decide is: Upon which side will the Democratic party fight; upon the side of the " idle holders of idle capital " or upon the side of " the struggling masses " ? That is the question which the party must answer first, and then it must be answered by each individual hereafter. The sympathies of the Demo- cratic party, as shown by the platform, are on the side of the struggling masses who have ever been the foundation of the Democratic party. There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that, if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, is that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests upon them. You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the gold standard ; we reply that the great cities rest upon our broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in every city in the country. My friends, we declare that this nation is able to legislate for its own people on every question, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation on earth; and upon that issue we expect to carry every state in the Union. I shall not slander the inhabitants of the fair State of Massa- chusetts nor the inhabitants of the State of New York by saying that, when they are confronted with the proposition, this nation is not able to attend to its own business. It is the issue of 1776 over again. Our ancestors, when but three millions in number, had the courage to declare their political Speeches for Careful Study 323 independence of every other nation; shall we, their descend- ants, when we have grown to seventy millions, declare that we are less independent than our forefathers ? No, my friends, that will never be the verdict of our people. Therefore, we care not upon what lines the battle is fought If they say that bimetalism is good, but that we can not have it until other na- tions help us, we reply that instead of having a gold standard because England has, we will restore bimetalism, and then let England have bimetalism because the United States has it. If they dare come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the labor- ing interests, and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, 3 you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. NOTES ON MR. BRYAN'S " CROSS OF GOLD " SPEECH 1. It will be well for the student to examine the sentence- structure of this famous speech to discover the qualities that helped give it its effectiveness. The sentences are usually short ; they have variety; they^ go directly to the point. ^The whole speech also conveys the impression that the speaker is in deadly earnest. 2. This definition of a business man caused more discussion, perhaps, at the time than any other part of the speech. 3. Some of the most telling passages in Mr. Bryan's oratory are drawn from the Bible. 4. This passage suggests a passage in Patrick Henry's "Liberty or Death " speech the passage beginning " We have done everything that could be done," etc. Compare the two. 5. Notice the hint, more effective than would be a positive assertion, at insincerity on the part of his opponents. 6. Observe the significance of the allusion to Napoleon, Water- loo, and St. Helena, its beauty, its force, its climax. AFFAIRS IN CUBA BY JOHN M. THURSTON (The following speech was delivered in the United States Senate, March 24, 1898. This was soon after the warship, Maine, had been destroyed in Havana harbor. The Cuban people had long been struggling against the oppression of Spain. This fact, with the excitement growing out of the loss of the Maine, had stirred the American people to a white heat of indignation. Senator Thurston had recently visited Cuba to ascertain the con- dition of affairs. During that visit his wife was taken ill and soon died, a fact which added pathos and effectiveness to his words.) Mr. President, I am here by command of * silent lips to speak once and for all upon the Cuban situation. I trust that no one has expected anything sensational from me. God forbid that the bitterness of a personal loss should induce me to color in the slightest degree the statement that I feel it my duty to make. I shall endeavor to be honest, conserva- tive, and just. I have no purpose to stir the public passion to any action not necessary and imperative to meet the duties and necessities of American responsibility, Christian human- ity, and national honor. I would shirk the task if I could, but I dare not. I can not satisfy my conscience except by speaking and speaking now. Some three weeks since, three Senators and two repre- sentatives in Congress accepted the invitation of a great metropolitan newspaper to make a trip to Cuba and person- ally investigate and report upon the situation there. Our invitation was from a newspaper whose political teachings I have never failed to antagonize and denounce, and whose 324 Speeches for Careful Study 325 journalism I have considered decidedly sensational. But let me say, for the credit of the proprietor of the paper in ques- tion, that I believe the invitation extended to us was inspired by his patriotic desire to have the actual condition of affairs in Cuba brought to the attention of the American people in such a way that the facts would no longer remain in con- troversy or dispute. We were not asked to become the representatives of the paper; no conditions or restrictions were imposed upon us; we were left free to conduct the investigation in our own way, make our own plans, pursue our own methods, take our own time, and decide for ourselves upon the best manner of laying the result of our labors before the American people. For myself, I went to Cuba firmly believing that the condi- tion of affairs there had been greatly exaggerated by the press, and my own efforts were directed in the first instance to the attempted exposure of these supposed exaggerations. Mr. President, there has undoubtedly been much sensa- tionalism in the journalism of the time, but as to the con- dition of affairs in Cuba there has been no exaggeration, because exaggeration has been impossible. I have read the careful statement of the Junior Senator from Vermont, and I find that he has anticipated me in almost every detail. From my own personal knowledge of the situation, I adopt every word of his concise, conservative, specific presentation, as my own ; nay, more, I am convinced that he has, in a measure, understated the facts. I absolutely agree with him in the fol- lowing conclusions: After three years of warfare and the use of 225,000 Span- ish troops, Spain has lost control of every foot of Cuba not surrounded by an actual intrenchment and protected by a fortified picket line. She holds possession with her armies of the fortified sea- board towns, not because the insurgents could not capture 326 The Making of an Oration many of them, but because they are under the virtual pro- tection of Spanish war ships, with which the revolutionists can not cope. The revolutionists are in absolute and almost peaceful possession of nearly one-half of the island, including the eastern provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Puerto Principe. In those provinces they have an established form of govern- ment, levy and collect taxes, maintain armies, and generally levy a tax or tribute upon the principal plantations in the other provinces, and, as is commonly believed, upon the entire railway system of the island. In the four so-called Spanish provinces there is neither cul- tivation nor railway operation except under strong Spanish military protection or by consent of the revolutionists in con- sideration of tribute paid. Under the inhuman policy of Weyler 2 not less than 400,000 self-supporting, peaceable, defenseless country people were driven from their homes in the agricultural portions of the Spanish provinces to the cities and imprisoned upon the barren waste outside the residence portions of these cities and within the line of intrenchment established a little way beyond. Their humble homes were burned, their fields laid waste, their implements of husbandry destroyed, their live stock and food supplies for the most part confiscated. Most of these people were old men, women, and children. They were thus placed in hopeless imprisonment, without shelter or food. There was no work for them in the cities to which they were driven. They were left there with nothing to depend upon except the scanty charity of the inhabitants of the cities and with slow starvation their inevitable fate. It is conceded upon the best ascertainable authority, and those who have had access to the public records do not hesi- tate to state, that upward of 210,000 of these people have already perished, all from starvation or from diseases incident to starvation. Speeches for Careful Study 327 The government of Spain has never contributed one dol- lar to house, shelter, feed, or provide medical attention for these its own citizens. Such a spectacle exceeds the scenes of the Inferno as painted by Dante. There has been no amelioration of the situation except through the charity of the people of the United States. There has been no diminution of the death rate among these recon- centrados* except as the death supply is constantly dimin- ished. There can be no relief and no hope except through the continued charity of the American people until peace shall be fully restored in the island and until a humane govern- ment shall return these people to their homes and provide for them anew the means with which to begin again the cul- tivation of the soil. Spain cannot put an end to the existing condition. She can not conquer the insurgents. She can not reestablish her sovereignty over any considerable portion of the interior of the island. The revolutionists, while able to maintain them- selves, can not drive the Spanish army from the fortified sea- coast towns. The situation, then, is not war as we understand it, but a chaos of devastation and depopulation of undefined dura- tion, whose end no man can see. I will cite but a few facts that came under my personal observation, all tending fully to substantiate the absolute truth of the foregoing propositions. I could detail incidents by the hour and by the day, but the Senator from Vermont has absolutely covered the case. I have no desire to deal in hor- rors. If I had my way, I would shield the American public even from the photographic reproductions of the awful scenes that I viewed in all their original ghastliness. Spain has sent to Cuba more than 225,000 soldiers to sub- due the island, whose entire male population capable of bearing arms did not exceed at the beginning that number. These soldiers were mostly boys, conscripts from the Spanish 328 The Making of an Oration hills. They are well armed, but otherwise seem absolutely unprovided for. They have been without tents and practically without any of the necessary supplies and equipment for service in the field. They have been put in barracks, in warehouses, and old buildings in the cities where all sanitary surroundings have been of the worst possible character. They have seen but little discipline, and I could not ascertain that such a thing as a drill had taken place in the island. There are less than 60,000 now available for duty. The balance are dead or sick in hospitals, or have been sent back to Spain as incapacitated for further service. It is currently stated that there are 37,000 sick in hospitals. I do not be- lieve that the entire Spanish army in Cuba could stand an engagement in the open field against 20,000 well disciplined American soldiers. As an instance of the discipline among them, I cite the fact that I bought the machete of a Spanish soldier on duty at the wharf in Matanzas, on his offer, for three dollars in Spanish silver. He also seemed desirous of selling me his only remaining arm, a revolver. The Spanish soldiers have not been paid for some months, and in my judgment they, of all the people on earth, will most gladly welcome any result which would permit them to return to their homes in Spain. The pictures in the American newspapers of the starving reconcentrados are true. They can all be duplicated by the thousands. I never saw, and please God I may never again see, so deplorable a sight as the reconcentrados in the suburbs of Matanzas. I can never forget to my dying day the hope- less anguish in their despairing eyes. Huddled about their little bark huts, they raised no voice of appeal to us for alms as we went among them. There was almost no begging by the reconcentrados them- selves. The streets of the cities are full of beggars of all Speeches for Careful Study 329 ages and all conditions, but they are almost wholly of the residents of the cities and largely of the professional beggar class. The rcconcentrados men, women, and children stand silent, famishing with hunger. Their only appeal comes from their sad eyes, through which one looks as through an open window into their agonizing souls. The present autonomist governor of Matanzas was inaugu- rated in November last. His records disclose that at the city of Matanzas there were 1,200 deaths in November, 1,200 in December, 700 in January, and 500 in February 3,600 in four months, and those four months under the administration of a governor whom I believe to be a truly humane man. He stated to me that on the day of his inauguration, which I think was the I2th of last November, to his personal knowl- edge fifteen persons died in the public square in front of the executive mansion. Think of it, oh, my countrymen ! Fif- teen human beings dying of starvation in the public square, in the shade of the palm trees, and amid the beautiful flowers, in sight of the open windows of the executive mansion ! *************** We asked the governor if he knew any relief for these people except through the charity of the United States. He did not. We then asked him " Can you see any end to this condition of affairs ? " He could not. We asked him, " When do you think the time will come that these people can be placed in a position of self-support?" He replied to us, with deep feeling, "Only the good God or the great government of the United States can answer that question." I believe that the good God by the great government of the United States will answer that question. I shall refer to these horrible things no further. They are there. God pity me; I have seen them; they will remain in my memory forever and this is almost the twentieth cen- tury. Christ died nineteen hundred years ago, and Spain is 330 The Making of an Oration a Christian nation. She has set up more crosses in more lands, beneath more skies, and under them has butchered more people than all the other nations of the earth combined. Europe may tolerate her existence as long as the people of the Old World wish. God grant that before another Christ- mas morning the last vestige of Spanish tyranny and oppres- sion will have vanished from the Western Hemisphere. Mr. President, the distinguished Senator from Vermont has seen all these things; he knows all these things; he has described all these things; but after describing them he says he has nothing to propose, no remedy to suggest. I have. I am only an humble unit in the great government of the United States, but I should feel myself a traitor did I remain silent now. I counseled silence and moderation from this floor when the passion of the nation seemed at white heat over the destruction of the Maine; but it seems to me the time for action has now come. Not action in the Maine case. When the Maine report is received, if it be found that our ship and sailors were blown up by some outside explosive, we will have ample reparation without quibble or delay; and if the explosion can be traced to Spanish official sources there will be such swift and terrible punishment adjudged as will re- main a warning to the world forever. What shall the United States do, Mr. President? I am not here to criticise the present administration. I yield to no man living in my respect, my admiration for, and my confidence in the judgment, the wisdom, the patriotism, the Americanism of William McKinley. When he entered upon his administration he faced a difficult situation. It was his duty to proceed with care and caution. At the first avail- able opportunity he addressed a note to Spain, in which he gave that government notice, as set forth in his message to the Congress of the United States, that the United States Speeches for Careful Study 331 " Could be required to wait only a reasonable time for the mother country to establish its authority and restore peace and order within the borders of the island ; that we could not contemplate an indefinite period for the accomplishment of this result." *************** The situation in Cuba has only changed for the worse. Sagasta is powerless; Blanco is powerless to put an end to the conflict, to rehabilitate the island, or to relieve the suf- fering, starvation, and distress. The time for action has, then, come. No greater reason for it can exist tomorrow than exists today. Every hour's delay only adds another chapter to the awful story of misery and death. Only one power can intervene the United States of America. Ours is the one great nation of the New World, the mother of the American republics. She holds a position of trust and responsibility toward the people and the affairs of the whole Western Hemisphere. It was her glorious example which inspired the patriots of Cuba to raise the flag of liberty in her eternal hills. We cannot refuse to accept this responsibility which the God of the Universe has placed upon us as the one great power in the New World. We must act ! What shall our action be ? Some say the acknowledgment of the belligerency of the revolu- tionists. As I have already shown, the hour and the oppor- tunity for that have passed away. Others say, Let us by resolution or official proclamation recognize the independence of the Cubans. It is too late even for such recognition to be of much avail. Others say, Annexation to the United States. God forbid ! I would op- pose annexation with my latest breath. The people of Cuba are not our people ; they can not assimilate with us ; and be- yond all that, I am utterly and unalterably opposed to any departure from the declared policy of the fathers which would 332 The Making of an Oration start this republic for the first time upon a career of conquest and dominion utterly at variance with the avowed purposes and the manifest destiny of popular government Let the world understand that the United States does not propose to annex Cuba, that it is not seeking a foot of Cuban soil or a dollar of Spanish treasure. Others say, Let us in- tervene for the pacification of the island, giving to its people the greatest measure consistent with the continued sovereignty of Spain. Such a result is no longer possible. It is enough to say that it would be resisted by all classes of the Cuban population, and its attempt would simply transfer the putting down of the revolution and the subjugation of the Cuban patriots to the armies of the United States. There is also said to be a syndicate organization in this country, representing the holders of Spanish bonds, who are urging that the intervention of the United States shall be for the purchase of the island or shall be for the guaranteeing of the Spanish debt incurred in the attempted subjugation of the Cuban revolutionists. Mr. President, it is idle to think for a single moment of such a plan. The American people will never consent to the payment of a single dollar, to the guaranteeing of one bond, as the price paid to Spain in re- sistance of the liberty and the independence of the Cuban people. Mr. President, there is only one action possible, if any is taken ; that is, intervention for the independence of the island ; intervention that means the landing of an American army on Cuban soil, the deploying of an American fleet off Havana; intervention which says to Spain, Leave the island, with- draw your soldiers, leave the Cubans, these brothers of ours in the New World, to form and carry on government for themselves. Such intervention on our part would not in itself be war. It would undoubtedly lead to war. But if war Speeches for Careful Study 333 came it would come by act of Spain in resistance of the liberty and the independence of the Cuban people. Some say these Cubans are incapable of self-government; that they can not be trusted to set up a republic. Will they ever become better qualified under Spanish rule than they are today? Sometime or other the dominion of kings must cease on the Western Continent. The Senator of Vermont has done full justice to the native population of Cuba. He has studied them, and he knows that of all the people on the island they are the best qualified and fitted for government. Certainly any government by the Cuban people would be better than the tyranny of Spain. Mr. President, there was a time when ''jingoism" 4 was abroad in the land; when sensationalism prevailed, and when there was a distinct effort to inflame the passions and preju- dices of the American people and precipitate a war with Spain. That time has passed away. " Jingoism " is long since dead. The American people have waited and waited and waited in patience; yea, in patience and confidence con- fidence in the belief that decisive action would be taken in due season and in a proper way. Today all over this land the appeal comes up to us; it reaches us from every section and from every class. That appeal is now for action. In an interview of yesterday, the Senior Senator from Maine [Mr. Hale] is reported as saying: "Events have crowded on too rapidly, and the President has been carried off his feet." I know of no warrant for such an assertion, but I do know this, that unless Congress acts promptly, meeting this grave crisis as it should be met, we will be swept away, and we ought to be swept away, by the tidal wave of American indignation. The President has not been carried off his feet. The administration has been doing its whole duty. With 334 The Making of an Oration rare foresight and statesmanship it has hastened to make every possible preparation for any emergency. If it be true that the report in the Maine case has been delayed, it has been delayed in order that we might be prepared at all points for defensive and offensive action. There are some who say, but they are mostly those who have procrastinated from the beginning up to the present time, " Let Congress hold its peace, adjourn, go home, and leave the President to act." I, for one, believe that the Congress of the United States is an equal and coordinate branch of the Federal Government, representing the combined judgment and wisdom of the many. It can more safely be depended on than the individual judg- ment and wisdom of any one man. I am a Senator of the United States, and I will never consent to abdicate my right to participate in the determination as to what is the solemn duty of this great republic in this momentous and fateful hour. We are not in session to hamper or cripple the Presi- dent; we are here to advise and assist him. Congress can alone declare war ; Congress can alone levy taxes, and to this Congress the united people of this broad land, from sea to sea, from lake to gulf, look to voice their wishes and to exe- cute their will. Mr. President, against the intervention of the United States in this holy cause there is but one voice of dissent ; that voice is the voice of the money changers. They fear war ! Not because of any Christian or ennobling sentiment against war and in favor of peace, but because they fear that a declara- tion of war, or the intervention which might result in war, would have a depressing effect upon the stock market. Mr. President, I do not read my duty from the ticker; I do not accept my lessons in patriotism from Wall Street. I deprecate war. I hope and pray for the speedy coming of the time when the sword of the soldier will no longer leap from its scabbard to settle disputes between civilized nations. But, it Speeches for Careful Study 335 is evident, looking at the cold facts, that a war with Spain would not permanently depreciate the value of a single Ameri- can stock or bond. War with Spain would increase the business and the earn- ings of every American railroad, it would increase the output of every American factory, it would stimulate every branch of industry and domestic commerce, it would greatly increase the demand for American labor, and, in the end, every certifi- cate that represented a share in an American business enter- prise would be worth more money than it is today. But in the meantime the spectre of war would stride through the stock exchanges, and many of the gamblers around the board would find their ill-gotten gains passing to the other side of the table. Let them go ; what one man loses at the gambling table his fellow-gambler wins. It is no concern of yours, it is no con- cern of mine, whether the " bulls " or the " bears " have the best of these stock deals. They do not represent American sentiment; they do not represent American patriotism. Let them take their chances as they can. Their weal or woe is of but little importance to the liberty-loving people of the United States. They will not do the fighting ; their blood will not flow; they will keep on dealing in options in human life. Let the men whose loyalty is to the dollar stand aside while the men whose loyalty is to the flag come to the front. There are some who lift their voices in the land and in the open light of day insist that the Republican party will not act, for they say it sold out to the capitalists and the money changers at the last national election. It is not so. God for- bid! The seven million freemen who voted for the Repub- lican party and for William McKinley did not mortgage the honor of this nation for a campaign fund, and if the time ever comes when the Republican party hesitates in its course of duty because of any undue anxiety for the welfare of the accumulated wealth of the nation, then let the Republican 336 The Making of an Oration party be swept from the face of the earth and be succeeded by some other party, by whatever name it may be called, which will represent the partiotism, the honesty, the loyalty, and the devotion that the Republican party exhibited under Abraham Lincoln in 1861. Mr. President, there are those who say that the affairs of Cuba are not the affairs of the United States, who insist that we can stand idly by and see that island devastated and de- populated, its business interests destroyed, its commercial in- tercourse with us cut off, its people starved, degraded, and enslaved. It may be the naked, legal right of the United States to stand thus idly by. I have the legal right to pass along the street and see a helpless dog stamped into the earth under the heels of a ruffian. I can pass by and say that is not my dog. I can sit in my comfortable parlor with my loved ones gathered about me, and through my plate glass window see a fiend outraging a helpless woman near by, and I can legally say this is no affair of mine it is not happening on my premises ; and I can turn away and take my little ones in my arms, and, with the memory of their sainted mother in my heart, look up to the motto on the wall and read, " God bless our home." But, if I do, I am a coward, and a cur unfit to live, and God knows, unfit to die. And yet I can not protect the dog nor save the woman without the exercise of force. We can not intervene and save Cuba without the exercise of force, and force means war ; war means blood. The lowly Nazarene on the shores of Galilee preached the divine doc- trine of love, " Peace on earth, good will toward men." Not peace on earth at the expense of liberty and humanity. Not good will toward men who despoil, degrade, and starve to death their fellowmen. I believe in the doctrine of Christ. I believe in the doctrine of peace; but, Mr. President, men must have liberty before there can come abiding peace. Speeches for Careful Study 337 Intervention means force. Force means war. War means blood. But it will be God's force. When has a battle for humanity and liberty ever been won except by force ? What barricade of wrong, injustice, and oppression has ever been carried except by force? Force 5 compelled the signature of unwilling royalty to the great Magna Charta; force put life into the Declaration of Independence and made effective the Emancipation Proclama- tion; force beat with naked hands upon the iron gateway of the Bastille and made reprisal in one awful hour for centuries of kingly crime; force waved the flag of revolution over Bunker Hill and marked the snows of Valley Forge with blood-stained feet; force held the broken line at Shiloh, climbed the flame-swept hill at Chattanooga, and stormed the clouds on Lookout Heights; force marched with Sherman to the sea, rode with Sheridan in the valley of the Shenandoah, and gave Grant victory at Appomattox ; force saved the Union, kept the stars in the flag, made " niggers " men. The time for God's force has come again. Let the impassioned lips of American patriots once more take up the song: In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, For God is marching on. Others may hesitate, others may procrastinate, others may plead for further diplomatic negotiation, which means delay, but for me, I am ready to act now, and for my action I am ready to answer to my conscience, my country, and my God. Mr. President, in the cable 6 that moored me to life and hope the strongest strands are broken. I have but little left to offer at the altar of freedom's sacrifice, but all I have I am glad to give. I am ready to serve my country as best I can in the Senate or in the field. My dearest wish, my most earnest 338 The Making of an Oration prayer to God is this, that when death comes to end all, I may meet it calmly and fearlessly, as did my beloved, in the cause of humanity, under the American flag. [From Vol. 31, Congressional Record, pp. 3162-3165, Part 4] NOTES ON JOHN M. THURSTON's SPEECH 1. See introductory note. 2. Weyler, the general in command at that time of the Spanish forces in Cuba. He was supposed to exercise extreme cruelty in his treatment of the insurgent Cubans. 3. Reconcentrados, the name given to the Cuban people who had been placed under military restrictions; the rural non- combatants, who were usually taken from their homes and held in suburban districts for convenience of government. 4. " Jingoism." This term originated in England as a result of the action of Lord Beaconsfield's (the prime minister) action in 1878 in sending a fleet to Turkish waters to oppose the aggres- sions of Russia. A popular song of the time gave the word currency in this sense : "We do n't want to fight, but by jingo if we do, We 've got the ships, we 've got the men, we 've got the money too." 5. Note the cumulative effect of this paragraph. Note also how the thought is kept perfectly clear through the somewhat long sentence, by the repetition of the subject. 6. A reference to the recent death of his wife. Make a careful plan of the oration. ON THE PHILIPPINE QUESTION BY GEORGE F. HOAR (The following speech was delivered in the United States Senate April 17, 1900. The question at issue was on the adoption of a resolution declaring " That the Philippine Islands are terri- tory belonging to the United States; that it is the intention of the United States to retain them as such and to establish and maintain such governmental control throughout the archipelago as the situation may demand." Senator Hoar's speech was pre- ceded by an address on the other side of the question by Senator Beveridge of Indiana. Although the following speech is argu- mentative in method, its end is plainly persuasion and it belongs to oratory.) Mr. President, I have listened, delighted, as have, I sup- pose, all the members of the Senate, to the eloquence of my honorable friend from Indiana. I am glad to welcome to the public service his enthusiasm, his patriotism, his silver speech, and the earnestness and the courage, with which he has de- voted himself to a discharge of his duty to the Republic as he conceives it. Yet, Mr. President, as I heard his eloquent description of wealth and glory and commerce and trade, I listened in vain for those words which the American people have been wont to take upon their lips in every solemn crisis of their history. I heard much calculated to excite the imag- ination of the youth seeking wealth, or the youth charmed by the dreams of empire. But the words, Right, Justice, Duty, Freedom, were absent, my friend must permit me to say, from the eloquent speech. I could think, as this brave young Republic of ours listened to what he had to say, of but one occurrence : 339 340 The Making of an Oration " Then the Devil J taketh Him up into an exceeding high moun- tain and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. " And saith unto Him, ' All these things will I give Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.' " Then saith Jesus unto him, ' Get thee hence, Satan.' " Mr. President, when on the 8th of July, 1898, less than two years ago, the lamented Vice-President declared the session of the Senate at an end, the people of the United States were at the high-water mark of prosperity and glory. No other country on earth, in all history, ever saw the like. It was an American prosperity and an American glory. We were approaching the end of a great century. From thirteen states we had become forty-five states. From three million people we had become nearly eighty million. An enormous foreign commerce, promising to grow to still vaster proportions in the near future, was thrown into insignificance by an internal commerce almost passing the capacity of num- bers to calculate. Our manufactures, making their way past hostile tariffs and fiscal regulations, were displacing the prod- ucts of the greatest manufacturing nations in their own markets. South of us, from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn, our Monroe Doctrine had banished from the American con- tinent the powers of Europe ; Spain and France had retired ; monarchy had taken its leave; and the whole territory was occupied by republics owing their freedom to us, forming their institutions on our example. Our flag, known and hon- ored throughout the earth, w r as welcomed everywhere in friendly ports, and floated everywhere on friendly seas. We were the freest, richest, strongest nation on the face of the earth strong in the elements of material strength, stronger still in the justice and liberty on which the foundations of our empire were laid. We had abolished slavery within our own borders by our constitutional mandate, and had abolished slavery throughout the world by the influence of our example. Speeches for Careful Study 341 Our national debt has been reduced with unexampled rapid- ity. We had increased it somewhat for the necessary expenses of the war. But if it had all been due, we could have paid it all in a single year by a tax solely upon the luxuries of the rich, which the rich would scarcely have felt, and which would have vexed no manufacturer and no branch of commerce. Rich in all material wealth, we were richer still in a noble history and in those priceless ideals by which a republic must live or bear no life. We had won the glory of a great liberator in both hemi- spheres. The flag of Spain emblem of tyranny and cruelty had been driven from the Western Hemisphere, and was soon to go down from her eastern possessions. The war had been conducted without the loss of a gun or the capture of an American soldier in battle. The glory of this great achievement was unlike any other which history has re- corded. It was not that we had beaten Spain. It was not that seventy-five million people had conquered fifteen million. Not that the spirit of the nineteenth century had been too much for the spirit of the fifteenth century. Not that the young athlete had felled to the ground the decrepit old man of ninety. It was not that the American mechanic and engi- neer in the machine shop could make better ships or better guns; or that the American soldier or sailor had displayed the same quality in battle that he had shown on every field at Bunker Hill, at Yorktown, at Lundy's Lane, at New Orleans, at Buena Vista, at Gettysburg; in every sea fight, on Lake Erie or on the Atlantic. Nobody doubted the skill of the American general, the gallantry of the American admiral, or the courage of the American soldier or sailor. The glory of the war and the victory was that it was a war and a victory in the interests of liberty. The American flag had appeared as a liberator in both hemispheres; when it floated over Havana or Santiago or Manila, there were written 342 The Making of an Oration on its folds, where all nations could read it, the pledge of the resolution of Congress and the declaration of the President. Every true American thanked God that he had lived to be- hold that day. The rarest good fortune of all was the good fortune of President McKinley. He was, in my judgment, the best-loved President who ever sat in the chair of Washington. His name is inseparably connected with two periods of unex- ampled prosperity, made more impressive by the period of calamity which came between them. The people believed that to the great measure 2 called by his name was due a time of happiness and comfort never equaled in this country, and never approached in any other. It was the high-water mark on this planet of every thing that could bring happiness to a people. But high as the tide reached then, it went still higher under the operation of the policies which came in with his administration. He had won golden honors by his patriotic hesitation in bringing on war, and by his interpretation of the purpose with which the people at last entered upon it. When I say that President McKinley was the best-loved President that ever sat in the chair of Washington, I do not mean, of course, to compare the reverence in which any living man is held with that which attends the memory of Washing- ton or Lincoln. But Washington and Lincoln encountered while they were alive a storm of political hostility which President McKinley has fortunately been spared. I repeat, that it seems to me that President McKinley holds a place in the affection of the people at large which no one of his pred- ecessors ever attained in his lifetime. The promise which the President and the Senate made to Cuba we have, so far, done our best to redeem. When the Spanish fleet was sunk and the Spanish flag went down from over Havana, peace and order and contentment and reviving industry and liberty followed the American flag. Some of us had hoped for the same thing in the East. We had hoped that Speeches for Careful Study 343 a like policy would have brought like results in the Philip- pine Islands. No man contemplated for a moment the return of those islands to Spain. One of the apostles would as soon have thought of giving back a redeemed soul to the dominion of Satan. The American people, so far as I know, were all agreed that their victory brought with it the responsibility of protect- ing the liberated peoples from the cupidity of any other power until they could establish their own independence in freedom and in honor. I stand here today to plead with you not to abandon the principles that have brought these things to pass. I implore you to keep to the policy that has made the country great, that has made the Republican party great, that has made the Presi- dent great. I have nothing new to say. But I ask you to keep 3 in the old channels, and to keep off the old rocks laid down in the old charts, and to follow the old sailing orders that all the old captains of other days have obeyed, to take your bearings, as of old, from the north star, Of whose true fixed and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament, and not from this meteoric light of empire. I believe that, if not today or tomorrow, yet at an early day, better knowledge of the facts, the light of experience, the love of liberty and justice which still burns in the hearts of the Republican masses in this country, will bring that party back to the principles and policy upon which it planted itself in the beginning. No, Mr. President, if we subjugate the Filipinos we are, if you have your way, to govern ten million people in the East, and nearly another million in the West Indies without any constitutional restraint. There will be under the flag twenty million of other races, black men at home and brown men abroad, for whom it bears no star of hope. I do not see 344 The Making of an Oration my way clear to hand them over to Mr. Bryan in the Executive Chair, and the Senators from Alabama and South Carolina, in the Senate, or to the party of which, beyond all question, they are to be most powerful and conspicuous leaders. I believe, Mr. President, not only that perseverance in this policy will be the abandonment of the principles upon which our government is founded, that it will change our government into an empire, that our methods of legislation, of diplomacy, of administration must hereafter be those which belong to empires, and not those which belong to republics; but I believe persistence in this attempt will result in the defeat and overthrow of the Republican party. That defeat may not come this year or next year. I pray God it may never come. I well remember when the old Whig party, in the flush of delirium and anticipated triumph, gave up the great doctrines which it had so often avowed, and undertook to abandon the great territory between the Mississippi and the Pacific to its fate. It held its convention at Philadelphia. It selected as its candidate a great military chieftain. Amid the tempest and delirium a quiet delegate from my own state arose and declared to the convention that the Whig party was dead. It seemed that a more audacious, a more foolish, a more as- tounding utterance never fell upon human ears. And what was the result? The party carried the country and elected its President. But within less than four years thereafter Daniel Webster, as he lay dying at Marshfield, said, " The Whig party as a political organization is gone ; and it is well." Let no such fate attend the Republican party. In my judg- ment, if not now, it will retrace its steps in time. In dealing with this question, Mr. President, I do not mean to enter upon any doubtful ground. I shall advance no proposition ever seriously disputed in this country until within twelve months. I shall cite no authority that is not by the common consent of all parties and all men of all shades of Speeches for Careful Study 345 opinion recognized as among the very weightiest in juris- prudence and in the conduct of the state. I shall claim nothing as fact which is not abundantly proven by the evidence of the great commanders who conducted this war ; by evidence com- ing from the President and the heads of department, or persons for whose absolute trustworthiness these authorities vouch. If to think as I do in regard to the interpretation of the Constitution ; in regard to the mandates of the moral law or the law of nations, to which all men and all nations must render obedience, in regard to policies which are wisest for the conduct of the other, or to those facts of recent history in the light of which we have acted or are to act hereafter, be treason, then Washington was a traitor ; then Jefferson was a traitor; then Jackson was a traitor; then Franklin was a traitor ; then Sumner was a traitor ; then Lincoln was a traitor ; then Webster was a traitor; then Clay was a traitor; then Corwin was a traitor; then Kent was a traitor; then Seward was a traitor ; then McKinley, within two years, was a traitor ; then the Supreme Court of the United States has been in the past a nest and hotbed of treason; then the people of the United States, for more than a century, have been traitors to their own flag and their own Constitution. We are presented with an issue that can be clearly and sharply stated as a question of constitutional power, a ques- tion of international law, a question of justice and righteous- ness, or a question of public expediency. This can be stated clearly and sharply in the abstract, and it can be put clearly and sharply by an illustration growing out of existing facts. The constitutional question is: Has Congress the power, under our Constitution, to hold in subjection unwilling vassal states ? The question of international laws is: Can any nation rightfully convey to another sovereignty over an unwilling people who have thrown off its dominion, asserted their inde- 346 The Making of an Oration pendence, established a government of their own, over whom it has at the time no practical control, from whose territory it has been disseized, and which it is beyond its power to deliver ? The question of justice and righteousness is: Have we the right to crush and hold under our feet an unwilling and subject people whom we have treated as allies, whose inde- pendence we are bound in good faith to respect, who had established their own free government, and who had trusted us? The question of public expediency is : Is it for our advan- tage to promote our trade at the cannon's mouth and at the point of the bayonet? All these questions can be put in a way of practical illus- tration by inquiring whether we ought to do what we have done, are doing, and mean to do in the case of Cuba; or what we have done, are doing, and some of you mean to do in the case of the Philippine Islands. It does not seem to me to be worth while to state again at length the constitutional argument which I have addressed to the Senate heretofore. It has been encountered with elo- quence, with clearness and beauty of statement, and, I have no doubt, with absolute sincerity by Senators who have spoken upon the other side. But the issue between them and me can be summed up in a sentence or two, and if, so stated, it cannot be made clear to any man's apprehension, I despair of making it clear by any elaboration or amplification. I admit that the United States may hold property, and may make rules and regulations for its disposition. I admit that, like other property, the United States may acquire and hold land. It may acquire it by purchase. It may acquire it by treaty. It may acquire it by conquest. And it may make rules and regulations for its disposition and government, however it be acquired. When there are inhabitants on the land so acquired it may Speeches for Careful Study 347 make laws for their government. But the question between me and the gentlemen on the other side is this : Is this acqui- sition of property, whether gained by purchase, conquest, or treaty, the constitutional end or only a means to a constitu- tional end? May you acquire, hold, and govern territory or other property as an end for which our Constitution was framed, or is it only a means toward some other and further end? May you acquire, hold, and govern property by con- quest, treaty, or purchase for the sole object of so holding and governing it, without the consideration of any further constitutional purpose? Or must you hold it for a constitu- tional purpose only, such as the making of new states, the national defense and security, the establishment of a seat of government or the construction of forts, harbors, and like works, which, of course, are themselves for the national defense and security? I hold that this acquisition, holding, and governing can be only a means for a constitutional end the creation of new states or some other constitutional purposes to which I have adverted. And I maintain that you can no more hold and govern territory than you can hold and manage cannon or fleets for any other than a constitutional end ; and I main- tain that the holding in subjection an alien people, governing them against their will for any fancied advantage to them, is not only not an end provided for by the Constitution, but is an end prohibited therein. Now, with due respect to the gentlemen who have dis- cussed this matter, I do not find that they have answered this proposition or undertaken to answer it. I do not find that they have understood it. You have, in my judgment, under your admitted power to acquire, own, and govern territory, which is just like your admitted power to govern, own, and control ships or guns, no more right under the Constitution to hold that territory for the sake of keeping in subjection an alien people than you have the right to acquire, hold, and 348 The Making of an Oration manage cannon or fleets or to raise armies for the sake of keeping in subjection and under your control an alien people. All these things are means, and means to constitutional and not to unconstitutional ends. The Constitution of the United States sets forth certain specific objects and confers certain specific powers upon the government it creates. All powers necessary or reasonably convenient for accomplishing these specific objects and exer- cising these specific powers are granted by implication. In my judgment the Constitution should be liberally construed in determining the extent of such powers. In that I agree with Webster and Hamilton and Lincoln and Washington and Marshall, and not with Calhoun or the Democrats of the time of the war of the Rebellion and since. But the most liberal statesman or jurist never went further than the rule I have just stated in claiming constitutional powers for our government. The Constitution says that Congress may make rules and regulations for the government of the territory and other property of the United States. That implies that we may acquire and regulate territory as we may acquire and use other property, such as our ships of war, our cannon, or forts, or arsenals. But territory, like other property, can only be acquired for constitutional purposes. Now, one constitu- tional purpose is to admit new states into the Union. That is one of the objects for which the Constitution was framed. So we may acquire and hold and govern territory with that object in view. But governing subject peoples, and holding them for that purpose, is not a constitutional end. On the contrary, it is an end which the generation which framed the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence declared was unrighteous and abhorrent. So, in my opinion, we have no constitutional power to acquire territory for the purpose of holding it in subjugation, in a state of vassalage or serfdom, against the will of its people. It is to be noted just here that we have acquired no terri- Speeches for Careful Study 349 tory or other property in the Philippine^ Islands, save a few public buildings. By every other acquisition of territory the United States became a great landowner. She owned the public lands as she had owned the public lands in the North- west ceded to her by the old states. But you own nothing in the Philippines. The people own their farms and dwellings and cities. The religious orders own the rest. The Filipinos desire to do what our English ancestors did in the old days when England was Catholic. The laity feared that the Church would engross all the land ; so they passed their statute of mortmain. You have either got to let the people of the Philippine Islands settle this matter for themselves, or you must take upon you the delicate duty of settling it for them. Your purchase or conquest is a purchase or conquest of nothing but sovereignty. It is a sovereignty over a people who are never to be admitted to exercise it or share it. In the present case, we have not, I repeat, bought any property. We have undertaken to buy mere sovereignty. There were no public lands in the Philippine Islands, the property of Spain, which we have bought and paid for. The mountains of ore and nuggets of gold and the hemp-bearing fields do you propose to strip the owners of their rightful title? We have undertaken to buy allegiance, pure and simple. And allegiance is just what the law of nations de- clares you cannot buy. The power of Congress to dispose of territory or other property of the United States, invoked in this debate, as the foundation of your constitutional right, may carry with it in a proper case a right to the allegiance of the occupant of the soil we own. But we have not bought any property there. The mountains of iron, the nuggets of gold, the hemp-bearing fields, the tobacco and sugar and coffee are not ours, unless holding first that we can buy of Spain an allegiance which this people have shaken off, which Spain could not deliver, which does not exist in justice or in right, we can then go on and say that the Constitution of the 350 The Making of an Oration United States does not apply to territory, and that we will proceed to take the private property of this people for public use, without their consent. It is understood that the Filipino people propose to dis- possess the religious orders of their vast real-estate posses- sions. They are Catholics. But they desire to do what Catholic England did long before the Reformation pre- venting the engrossment by the Church of vast and valuable lands needed by the people. As I understand it, our treaty binds us to confirm those titles, and that is one of the things that has provoked this people to their desperate resistance. Upon the question of the justice of their demand I do not now propose to enter. Whether the inestimable and imperishable principles of human liberty are to be trampled down by the American Re- public, and whether its great bulwark and fortress, the American Constitution, impregnable from without, is to be betrayed from within, is our question now. I have been unable to find a single reputable authority more than twelve months old for the power now claimed for Congress to govern dependent nations or territories not ex- pected to become states. The contrary, until this war broke out, has been taken as too clear for reasonable question. Our territories, so far, have all been places where Amer- icans would go to dwell as citizens, to establish American homes, to obtain honorable employment, and to build a state. Will any man go to the Philippine Islands to dwell, except to help govern the people, or to make money by a temporary residence? The men of the Philippines, under the Constitu- tion and the existing laws, may become your fellow-citizens. You will never consent, in the sense of a true citizenship, to become theirs. Mr. President, our friends who take another view of this question like to tell us of the mistakes of the great men of other days who have vainly protested against acquisition of Speeches for Careful Study 351 territory. One worthy and most exuberant gentleman in another place points out to his hearers the folly of Webster and Clay, the delusions of Charles Sumner, and contrasts them with the wisdom of Jefferson and Tyler and Polk. Mr. Jefferson declared that the acquisition of Louisiana was un- constitutional, and wanted a constitutional amendment to justify it. I think the general sense of the American people is that in that particular Mr. Jefferson was in error, and that our power to admit new states clearly involves the power to acquire territory from which new states are to be made. I wonder, however, if there be any man now alive who now holds or who ever did or who ever will hold a seat in either house of Congress, willing to say that, having taken an oath to support the Constitution, he would, for any purpose of public advantage, forswear himself for the sake of a real or fancied good to his country. I hope and believe that the spirit of Fletcher of Saltoun, who said he would die to serve Scotland, but he would not do a base thing to save her, is still the spirit of American statesmanship. That exuberant gen- tleman contrasts the statesmanship of Polk and Tyler with that of Daniel Webster and Henry Clay and Charles Sumner. Somehow or other the names of Webster and Clay and Sum- ner live in the hearts and on the lips of their countrymen, while the men who brought on the Mexican war in the inter- ests of slavery are forgotten. I do not think we hear of men building to those counselors or celebrating their birthdays or writing their lives. In all generations, the statesmen who have appealed to righteousness and justice and freedom have left an enduring place in the loving memory of their country- men, while the men who have counseled them to walk in the path of injustice and wrong, even if it led to empire and even if they were in the majority in their own day, are forgotten and despised. Ah, Mr. President, that gentleman says we are the anointed of the Lord as the Jews were the anointed of the Lord. But the Jewish empire is forgotten. The sands 352 The Making of an Oration of the desert cover the foundations of her cities. The spider spins its thread, and the owl makes its midnight perch, in their palaces. But still those little words, " Thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not covet that which is thy neighbor's; whatever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so again unto them," shine through the ages, blazing and undimmed. Mr. President, you may speculate; you may refine ; you may doubt ; you may deny. But the one foremost action in our history, is the writing upon its pages those simple and sublime opening sentences of the Declaration of Independence. And the men who stand by it shall live in the eternal memory of mankind; and the men who depart from it, however triumphant and successful in their little policies, shall perish only to be forgotten, or shall be remem- bered only to be despised. When hostilities broke out, February 5, 1899, we had no occupancy of and no title of any kind to any portion of the Philippine territory except the town and bay of Manila. Everything else was in the peaceful possession of the inhab- itants. In such a condition of things, Mr. President, inter- national law speaks to us with its awful mandate. It pronounces their proposed action sheer usurpation and rob- bery. You have no better title, according to the law of nations, to reduce this people to subjection than you have to subjugate Mexico or Haiti or Belgium or Switzerland. This is the settled doctrine, as declared by our own great masters of jurisprudence. You have no right, according to the law of nations, to obtain by purchase or acquisition sovereignty over a people which is not actually exercised by the country which under- takes to convey or yield it. It is a familiar principle of the common law that you can- not make a lawful purchase of land of which the seller is disseized, or of a chattel of which he is dispossessed. The reason of this doctrine is to prevent the purchase of lawsuits. Speeches for Careful Study 353 This rule applies with tenfold force to undertaking to pur- chase human beings when their country and the selling power is dispossessed at the time of the sale, and where the title can be enforced only by war. We have not yet completed the acquisition. But at the time we entered upon it, and at the time of this alleged pur- chase, the people of the Philippine Islands, as appears by General Otis's, by Admiral Dewey's report, and the report of officers for whom they vouched, held their entire territory, with the exception of the single town of Manila. They had, as appears from these reports, a full organized government. They had an army fighting for independence, admirably disciplined, according to the statement of ardent advocates of expansion. Why, Mr. President, is it credible that any American statesman, that any American Senator, that any intelligent American citizen anywhere, two years ago could have been found to affirm that a proceeding like that of the Paris treaty could give a just and valid title to sovereignty over a people situated as were the people of those islands? A title of Spain, originally by conquest, never submitted to nor admit- ted by the people of the islands, with frequent insurrections at different times for centuries ; and then the yoke all thrown off, a constitutional government, schools, colleges, churches, universities, hospitals, town governments, a legislature, a cabinet, courts, a code of laws, and the whole island occu- pied and controlled by its own people, with the single excep- tion of one city; with taxes lawfully levied and collected, with any army and the beginning of a navy? And yet the Senate the Congress enacted less than two years ago that the people of Cuba controlling peace- ably no part of their island, levying no taxes in any orderly or peaceable way, with no administration of justice, no cabinet not only of a right ought to be, but were in fact, a free and independent state. I did not give my assent to 354 The Making of an Oration that declaration of fact. I assented to the doctrine that they of right ought to be. But I thought the statement of fact much calculated to embarrass the Government of the United States, if it were bound by that declaration ; and it has been practically disregarded by the administration ever since. But the question now is a very different one. You not only deny that the Filipinos are, but you deny that they of right ought to be, free and independent; and you recognize Spain as entitled to sell to you the sovereignty of an island where she was not at the time occupying a foot of territory, where her soldiers were held captives by the government of the island, a government to which you had delivered over a large number of Spanish prisoners to be held as captives. And yet you come here today and say that they not only are not, but that they of right ought not to be free and inde- pendent ; and when you are pressed you answer us by talking about mountains of iron and nuggets of gold, and trade with China. I affirm that you cannot get by conquest, and you cannot get by purchase, according to the modern law of nations, according to the law of nations as accepted and expounded by the United States, sovereignty over a people, or title to a territory, of which the power that undertakes to sell it, or the power from which you undertake to wrest it, has not the actual possession and dominion. Under municipal law you cannot buy a horse of which the seller is dispossessed; you cannot buy a foot of land of which he is disseized. You cannot purchase a lawsuit. Under international law you cannot buy a people from a power that has no actual domin- ion over them. You cannot buy a war. More than this, you cannot buy a tyrant's claim to subject again an oppressed people who have achieved their freedom. You cannot buy the liberties of a people from a dispos- sessed tyrant, liberties that they have bravely won for themselves in arms. You cannot buy sovereignty like mer- Speeches for Careful Study 355 chandise and men like sheep. The King of England kept, down to 1800, the title of Duke of Normandy and King of France. Could any other country or all Europe together have bought France from King George?! I wonder what would have happened if, instead of acknowledging our inde- pendence, any time before the French treaty, France had bought England out and undertaken to assert her title to the United States. These questions have to be answered, not amid the shouting and applause of a political campaign, not in party platforms, not alone in a single campaign or a single generation. They have got to be answered to history, to the instructed conscience of the civilized world, when the pas- sions and the greed and ambitions of a single generation have gone by and are cold. And there will be to them but one answer. I shall show beyond all question or cavil, from the evi- dence of our own commanders, that this was a people. They were a people who had taken arms for liberty. They had achieved liberty. They had taken arms to establish a repub- lic. They had established a republic the first republic of the Orient. Now, international law has something to say about this matter. Will the American people, for the first time in their history, disregard its august mandate? You gentlemen who desire to hold on to the Philippine Islands are trying to plant the United States squarely upon this doctrine. You must affirm that a people rising for their own liberties against a tyrant, and having got actual posses- sion of territory, and having dispossessed the oppressor, have no rightful title thereto. Not only are we violating our own Constitution, and the great precepts of the Declaration of Independence which, as the Supreme Court of the United States has declared, is to control and interpret, being as the Court says, but the letter of which the Declaration is the spirit, but we are equally 356 The Making of an Oration violating the accepted precepts of the law of nations as expounded by our own great authorities. If there is one thing above others which is the glory of the American Republic, it is the respect and obedience it has ever paid to international law. It is that law, the product of Christianity, which prevents every weak nation on the earth from becoming the prey of the stronger ones. It is to nations what the conscience is to the individual soul. It finds its enforcement and sanction in the public opinion of the civil- ized world, a power, according to Mr. Webster, stronger than armies or navies. No nation escapes the penalty of its infraction. As Mr. Webster says, it pursues the conqueror to the very scene of his ovation, and wounds him with the sting that belongs to the consciousness of having outraged the opinion of mankind. From many authorities I will cite a few. First, President McKinley, in the language so often quoted. When the President said that " Forcible annexation, according to our American code of morals, would be criminal aggression," was he a copperhead? Was he disloyal to the flag? Was not he a Republican? Was there ever an utterance so cal- culated to give courage to Aguinaldo and his people as that? W T hen he said, "Human rights and constitutional privileges must not be forgotten in the race for wealth and commercial supremacy. The government of the people must be by the people and not by a few of the people. It must rest upon the free consent of the governed and all of the governed. Power, it must be remembered, which is secured by oppression or usurpation or by any form of injustice, is soon dethroned. We have no right in law or morals to usurp that which belongs to another, whether it is property or power," was he a traitor ? Speeches for Careful Study 357 I suppose Chancellor Kent is recognized everywhere as the ablest American writer on jurisprudence, unless some of us were to agree with Kent himself, in assigning the superiority to Story. He says: " Full sovereignty cannot be supposed to have passed by the mere words of the treaty without actual delivery. To complete the right of property, the right to the thing and the possession of the thing must be united. This is a necessary principle in the law of property in all systems of jurispru- dence. " The law of property applies to the right of territory no less than to other rights. The practice of nations has been conformable to this principle, and the conventional law of nations is full of instances of this kind." Sumner said in his speech before the Republican State Convention of Massachusetts in 1869: " And he knows our country little, and little also of that great liberty of ours, who supposes that we could receive such a transfer. On each side there is impossibility. Terri- tory may be conveyed, but not a people." But why multiply citations to a Senate who, within two years, affirmed that Cuba of a right ought to be free and independent, and to a Congress and a President that declared war to make that declaration good? You were stating a doctrine of public law, were you not? You were not uttering a lying revolutionary pronunciamento. You were speaking for a great nation on a solemn occasion. You were speaking words of truth and soberness, words you mean to make good with the lives of your sons. The first and the last declara- tion of public law ever made by the American people, the declaration of 1776 and the declaration of 1898, are in full accord and harmony. They both justify the Philippine people and condemn us. The Declaration of Independence is not so much a declara- tion of rights as a declaration of duties. It prescribes a rule 358 The Making of an Oration of conduct for men in the same state to one another, and for the nations of the earth for one another. Like the golden rule, it makes the law of individual right the law also of individual duty. Do Senators reflect how this " imperialism," as they call it, is inaugurating a revolution not only in the law of nations, not only in the fundamental law by which the people of the United States have governed themselves until now, not only in the interpretation of the Constitution, but in the moral law itself? As I hear the utterances of some worthy gentlemen taking the word of God upon their lips, it seems to me as if they thought the balance of the universe itself had changed within this year, and that God had gone over to the side of Satan. There is one question I should like to put to the Repub- lican 4 majority in the Senate and to the Republican party in the country : Is this doctrine true or is it false ? Are you to stand on it any longer, or are you going to whistle it down the wind? Thomas Jefferson declared it, this precise doctrine, now at stake here. John Quincy Adams reaffirmed it again and again. Abraham Lincoln said he was willing to be assassi- nated for it. Charles Sumner was almost assassinated for it in his place in the Senate Chamber. Republican National Conventions in 1856 and 1860 and in later years have re- affirmed it again and again. President McKinley, two years ago, made the most extreme statement of it to be found in literature. Now this thing is true or it is a lying pretense. If it be a lying pretense, the country has stood on a lie during its whole history. If it be true the country is dishonored when we depart from it. For myself, I believe it is true ; I have tried to live by it ; I am contented to die by it ; my love of country rests on it; my pride of ancestry rests on it. To me that is what the flag symbolizes and stands for. I believe that utterance made at Philadelphia in 1776 to Speeches for Careful Study 359 have been the greatest evangel that ever came to mankind since the story of Bethelehem. Like the shot 5 fired at Con- cord, it was heard around the world. It was heard with fear in the palace of the tyrant; it was heard with joy in the huts where poor men dwelt. I reverently believe it was heard with joy in heaven itself. I believe, also, that if the gloss put upon that great declara- tion by the Senator from Connecticut had been uttered then, it would have been heard with a burst of derisive laughter in hell, and Satan himself would have led the chorus. We have had so far some fundamental doctrine, some ideals to which this people have been devoted. Have you anything to give us in their place? You are trying to knock out the corner-stones. Is there any material from your swamp and mud and morass from which you can make a new foundation for our temple? Gentlemen tell us that the bill of the Senator from Wis- consin is copied from that introduced in Jefferson's time for the purchase of Louisiana. Do you claim that you propose to deal with these people as Jefferson meant to deal with Louisiana? You talk of Alaska, of Florida, of California; do you mean to deal with the Philippines as we mean to deal with Alaska and dealt with Florida and California? It was safe to give Jefferson who thought it wicked to govern a people against its will a power with which gen- tlemen who think it is right ought never to be trusted. I have spoken of the Declaration of Independence as a solemn affirmation of public law, but it is more than that. It is a solemn pledge of national faith and honor. It is a bap- tismal vow. It is the bedrock of our republican institutions. It is, as the Supreme Court declared, the soul and spirit of which the Constitution is but the body and letter. It is the light by which the Constitution must be read. The states- man or the party who will not stand by the Declaration and obey it is never to be trusted anywhere to keep an oath to 360 The Making of an Oration support the Constitution. To such a statesman, whenever his ambition or his passion shall incline him, to such a party, whenever its fancied advantage shall tempt it, there will be no constitutional restraint. It will bend the Constitution to its desire, never its desire to the Constitution. There is expansion enough in it, but it is the expansion of freedom and not of despotism; of life, not of death. Never was such growth in all human history as that from the seed 6 Thomas Jefferson planted. The parable of the mustard seed, than which, as Edward Everett said, " The burning pen of inspiration, ranging heaven and earth for a similitude, can find nothing more appropriate or expressive to which to liken the kingdom of God," is repeated again : " Whereunto 7 shall we liken it, or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth. But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches, so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it." This is the expansion of Thomas Jefferson. It has covered the con- tinent. It is on both the seas. It has saved South America. It is revolutionizing Europe. It is the expansion of freedom. It differs from your tinsel, pinchbeck, pewter expansion as the growth of a healthy youth into a strong man differs from the expansion of an anaconda when he swallows his victim. Ours is the expansion of Thomas Jefferson. Yours is the expansion of Aaron Burr. It is destined to as short a life and to a like fate. Until within two years the American people have been wont to appeal to the Declaration of Independence as the foremost state paper in history. As the years go round, the fourth of July has been celebrated wherever Americans could gather together, at home or abroad. To have signed it, to an American, was better than a title of nobility. It was no pas- sionate utterance of a hasty enthusiasm. There was nothing Speeches for Careful Study 361 of the radical in it; nothing of Rousseau; nothing of the French Revolution. It was the sober utterance of the sober- est men of the soberest generation that ever lived. It was the declaration of a religious people at the most religious period of their history. It was a declaration not merely of rights but of duties. It was an act not of revolution but of construc- tion. It was the corner stone, the foundation stone, of a great national edifice wherein the American people were to dwell forevermore. The language was the language of Thomas Jefferson. But the thought was the thought of every one of his associates. The men of the Continental Congress meant to plant their new nation on eternal verities which no man possessed by the spirit of liberty could ever thereafter undertake to challenge. As the Christian religion was rested by its author on two 8 sublime commandments on which hang all the law and the prophets, so these men rested republican liberty on two sublime verities on which it must stand if it can stand at all ; in which it must live, or bear no life. One was the equality of the individual man with every other in political right. The other is that you are now seeking to overthrow the right of every people to institute their own government, laying its foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness, and so to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them. Equality of individual manhood and equality of individual states. This is the doctrine which the Republican party is now urged to deny. To justify that denial the advocates of the policy of im- perialism are driven to the strange affirmation that Thomas Jefferson did not believe and contradicted it when he pur- chased Louisiana; that John Quincy Adams did not believe and contradicted it when he bought Florida; that Abraham Lincoln did not believe it and contradicted it when he put 362 The Making of an Oration down the rebellion ; that 9 Charles Sumner did not believe it and contradicted it when he bought Alaska. They say 10 that because, with the full and practical consent of the men who occupied them, these men bought great spaces of territory occupied by sparse and scattered populations, neither owning it nor pretending to own it, nor capable of occupying it or governing it, destitute of every single attribute which makes or can make a nation or a people, those statesmen of ours, designing to make the territory acquired into equal states, to be dwelt in and governed under our Constitution by men with rights equal to our own that therefore you may get by purchase or by conquest an unwilling people, occupying and governing a thickly settled territory, possessing every attribute of a national life, enjoying a freedom that they themselves have achieved; that you may crush out their national life; that you may overthrow their institutions; that you may strangle their freedom ; that you may put over them govern- ors whom you appoint, and in whose appointment they have no voice; that you may make laws for them in your interest and not in theirs; that you may overthrow their republican liberty, and in doing this you appeal to the example of Thomas Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln and Charles Sumner. Thomas Jefferson comes down in history with the Declar- ation of Independence in one hand and the title deed of Louisiana in the other. Do you think his left hand knew not what his right hand did? Do you think these two im- mortal transactions contradicted each other? Do you think he bought men like sheep and paid for them in gold? It is true the men of the Declaration held slaves. Jefferson felt the inconsistency and declared that he trembled for his country when he felt that God was just. But he lived and died in the expectation that the Declaration would abolish slavery, which it did. Speeches for Careful Study 363 In every accession of territory to this country ever made we recognized fully the doctrine of the consent of the gov- erned and the doctrine that territory so acquired must be held to be made into states. The confusion of the arguments of our friends on the other side comes from confounding the statement in the Declaration of the rights of individuals with the statement of the rights of nations, or peoples, in dealing with one another. The whole Declaration is a statement of political rights and political relations and political duties. First. Every man is equal in political rights, including the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, to every other. Second. No people can come under the government of any other people, or of any ruler, without its consent. The law of nature and of nature's God entitle every people to its separate and equal stati9n among the powers of the earth. Our fathers were not dealing, in this clause, with the doc- trine of the social compact; they were not considering the rights of minorities ; they used the word " people " as equiv- alent to " nation," or " state," as an organized political being, and not as a mere aggregate of persons not collected or associated. They were not thinking of Robinson Crusoe in his desolate island, or of scattered settlers, still less of pred- atory bands roaming over vast regions they could neither own nor occupy. They were affirming the right of each of the thirteen colonies separately, or all together, to throw off the yoke of George III. and to separate itself or themselves from Great Britain. Now you must either admit that what they said was true, or you must affirm the contrary. The question is put with an air of triumph as if it were somehow hard to answer. If this doctrine of yours apply to a million men, why does it not apply to a hundred men ? At what point of the census do men get these God-given rights 364 The Making of an Oration of yours? Well, the answer is easy enough. Our fathers, in the affirmation of the Declaration of Independence you are now denying, were speaking of the equal rights of nations, of their duties to each other. The exact point where a few scattered settlements become a people, or a few nomadic tribes a nation, may not admit of mathematical definition. At what point does a brook become a river? When does a pond become a lake, or a lake a sea, or a breeze a hurricane? You cannot tell me. But surely there are nations and peoples, there is organized national life; and there are scattered habitations and wandering tribes to whom these titles are never applied. Louisiana, Alaska, Florida, New Mexico, California, neither had, nor did their inhabit- ants claim to have, such a national vitality when we acquired them. And if there were anything of that sort when we annexed them, it desired to come to us. And it came to us to become a part of us bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, life of our life, soul of our soul. But I can give you two pretty safe practical rules, quite enough for this day's purpose. Each of them will solve your difficulty, if you have a difficulty and want to solve it. That is a people, that is a power of the earth, that is a nation en- titled as such to its separate and equal station among the powers of the earth by the laws of nature and of nature's God, that has a written constitution, a settled territory, an independence it has achieved, an organized army, a congress, courts, schools, universities, churches, the Christian religion; a village life in orderly, civilized, self-governed municipali- ties; a pure family life, newspapers, books, statesmen who can debate questions of international law, like Mabini, and organized governments, like Aguinaldo; poets like Jose Rizal. The Boer republic is a nation, and it is a crime to crush out its life, though its population be less than Provi- dence, Rhode Island. Each one of our old thirteen states Speeches for Careful Study 365 would have been a nation even if it had stood alone. And the Philippine republic with twenty the number of Boers, a people more than the whole thirteen states who joined in the Declaration put together, is a nation, and it is a greater crime still to crush out its life. There is another rule that will help any Senator out of his difficulties. It must be a comfort to every one of you in his perplexity. Every people is of right entitled to its independ- ence that has got as far as Cuba had in the spring of 1898. You all admit that. Admit ! You all avow, affirm, strenu- ously insist on that. You will all pledge your lives and for- tunes and sacred honor for that. You will go to war and send your sons to war to maintain that. If Spain shall deny it, or any other country but Great Britain, woe be to her. It is n't necessary, according to you, to have a constitution ; it is n't necessary to have courts ; it is n't necessary to have a capital ; it is n't necessary to have a school. The seat of government may be in the saddle. It is n't necessary to occupy a city, or to have a seaport ; it is n't necessary to hold permanently an acre of land. It is n't necessary to have got the invader out of the country ; it is n't necessary to have a tenth part of the claim the Filipinos have, or to have done a tenth part of the things the Filipinos have done. You settled all this for yourselves and for the country long ago March 10, 1898. So I assume you have only put this conun- drum for the pleasure of answering it yourselves. Senators, if there were no Constitution, if there were no Declaration, if there were no international law, if there were nothing but the history of the past two years, the American people would be bound in honor, if there be honor, bound in common honesty, if there be honesty, not to crush out this Philippine republic, and not to wrest from this people its independence. The history of our dealing with the Phil- ippine people is found in the reports of our commanders. 366 The Making of an Oration It is all contained in our official documents, and in published statements of General Anderson, and in the speeches of the President. It is little known to the country today. When it shall be known, I believe it will cause a revolution in public sentiment. There are twelve hundred islands in the Philippine group. They extend as far as from Maine to Florida. They have a population variously estimated at from eight to twelve mil- lion. There are wild tribes that never heard of Christ, and islands that never heard of Spain. But among them are the people of the Island of Luzon, numbering three million five hundred thousand and the people of the Visayan Islands, numbering two million five hundred thousand more. They are a Christian and civilized people. They wrested their independence from Spain and established a republic. Their rights are no more to be affected by the few wild tribes in their own mountains or by the dwellers in the other islands than the rights of our thirteen states were affected by the French in Canada or the Six Nations of New York, or the Cherokees of Georgia, or the Indians west of the Mississippi. Twice our commanding generals, by their own confessions, assured these people of their independence. Clearly and be- yond all cavil we formed an alliance with them. We expressly asked them to cooperate with us. We handed over our prisoners to their keeping; we sought their help in caring for our sick and wounded. We were told by them again, and again, and again that they were fighting for independ- ence. Their purpose was as well known to our generals, to the War Department, and to the President, as the fact that they were in arms. We never undeceived them until the time when hostilities were declared in 1899. The President declared again and again that we had no title and claimed no right to anything beyond the town of Manila. Hostilities were begun by us at a place where we had no right to be, and Speeches for Careful Study 367 were continued by us in spite of Aguinaldo's disavowal and regret and offer to withdraw to a line we should prescribe. If we crush that republic, despoil that people of their freedom and independence, and subject them to our rule, it will be a story of shame and dishonor. Is it right, is it just, to subjugate this people, to substitute our government for their self-government, for the constitu- tion they have proclaimed and established, a scheme of gov- ernment such as we could devise ten thousand miles away? Is it right to put over them officers whom we are to select and they are to obey and pay ? Is it right to make tariffs for our interests and not theirs ? Are the interests of the Manila tobacco growers to be decided upon hearing given to the tobacco raisers of the Connecticut River Valley? Are these mountains of iron and nuggets of gold, and stores of coal, and hemp-bearing fields, and fruit-bearing gardens to be looked upon by our legislators with covetous eyes? Is it our wealth or their wealth these things are to increase? There are other pregnant questions, some of which perhaps require a little examination and a little study of the reports of our commanders. Had they rightfully achieved their independence when hostilities began between us and them? Did they forfeit their independence by the circumstances of the war? On the whole, have they not shown that they are fit for self-government, fit as Cuba, fit as Greece, fit as Spain, fit as Japan, fit as Haiti or San Domingo, fit as any country to the south of us, from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn, was, when with our approval those countries won their liberties from Spain? 368 The Making of an Oration Can we rightfully subjugate a people because we think them unfit for self-government? A little more than fourteen months ago there were pre- sented to the Senate two propositions in sharp contrast with each other. One was a proposition to deal with the Philip- pine Islands as we dealt with Cuba; to assure them of their liberty ; to protect them against foreign ambition and to lend our aid in restoring order; to speed them with our blessing on the pathway of freedom and independence, equal among independent nations, making such treaties with them for future commerce and intercourse as our advantage and theirs would require, and as their goodwill and gratitude might be willing to grant. The other was to buy them like slaves; to pay for them in gold ; to set up against them the dishonored and discredited title of Spain, and to conquer them to a sullen submission and to a future of perpetual hatred and fear. The Senate took its choice. We have had twelve months' experience. We can tell already something of the cost of this thing. It has cost us more than one hundred and fifty millions in money. An increase over 1898 of the cost of the Army more than one hundred and twenty-two millions; of the Navy, of six millions; of the pension list, four millions. But all this is the merest trifle. It has cost us the lives of six thousand men who are dead. It has wrecked the lives of other thousands, victims of disease and of wounds. It compels us to maintain in the future a large and costly mili- tary and naval force. You are to keep, certainly, hereafter, fifty thousand private soldiers, in the flower of their youth, in that tropical clime. What is to be their fate ? Mr. President, worse than the most lavish expenditure, worse than the heaviest burdens of national debt, worse than the loss of precious lives, worse than the reduction of wages, Speeches for Careful Study 369 worse than the overthrow of our settled fiscal policies, is the price, the terrible price, we are to pay, if there be any lesson to be learned, from human experience, in the souls of the young men we are to send as soldiers to the tropics. Have you read the horrible, the unquotable story which comes from the English official reports of the life of the common soldiers of the English army in India? I wonder if our enthusiastic gentlemen, who prate so glibly of dominion and empire I wonder if our well meaning clergymen, who fancy them- selves preaching the gospel of Christ to these yellow congre- gations, have read anything or care anything for the lessons of experience? Hardly a department of the government does not add some items of cost incident to a control or knowledge of the late Spanish possessions. The government of these islands will be a military govern- ment, to be assisted and gradually superseded by civil officers. No sums adequate to the purpose have been asked for, nor has any money been asked to construct and equip coast and harbor defenses necessary to military occupation or for the improvement of harbors and water ways, cleansing cities and towns, construction and maintenance of military and other railroads, relief of the needy, and the many items of expense incident to the occupation of distant and unprotected possessions, peopled by poor and untaught natives, oppressed into insurrection, and at present undisciplined to control at any time. To keep the army of occupation of sufficient strength will involve a fearful drain upon the population of the United States, equal to more than double the loss of an army in a great battle. The cost of administering justice will not be small; the actual and constant rebellions of the natives against our rule is a strong probability, and the sullen opposition of a home-rule element must be faced and met. The islands do not promise to be self-supporting to the extent 370 The Making of an Oration of providing for such contingencies as rebellion, and so the annual cost to the people of the United States must be in- creased, even as an insurance against an uprising. But let us look at the cost other than in money. We are to give up many of the ideals [I had almost said every ideal] of the Republic. We must give up our great, priceless pos- sessions; more precious than jewels or gold, more precious than land or power. The counsels of Washington are for us no longer; the truths of the Declaration of Independence are no longer our maxims of government; the Monroe Doc- trine, to which one hemisphere owes its freedom, is gone. The counsels of Lincoln, to give effect to which he repeatedly de- clared he would welcome assassination itself, are not to be listened to hereafter, or, if listened to, it will be by other ears than ours. Another thing we have lost by last winter's terrible blunder. We lost the right to speak with authority in favor of peace at the Hague. The world took, I hope and believe, a forward step in the great conference. But think what might have been ! We have lost the right to offer our sympathy to the Boer in his wonderful and gallant struggle against ter- rible odds for the republic in Africa. O Freedom, dear, if ever man was free, In all the ages, earned thy favoring smile, This patient man has earned it. In his cause Pleads all the world today all the world except the nation that is engaged in crushing out a republic in the Philippines. We have lost our power to speak with authority in behalf of the disarmament of nations. We must prepare ourselves for a great standing army. We already hear the demand for a large standing army, and a navy equal to that of Eng- land. The American child hereafter must be born with a Speeches for Careful Study 371 mortgage round his neck. The American laborer hereafter must stagger through life with a soldier on his back. It is said that it is not a sordid argument, or a sordid na- tion, that considers the advantage of trade and commercial intercourse, and that is true if the argument be used in its proper place. The consideration becomes a sordid, a base, an ignoble argument when we use it to determine the question whether we shall do justice. When you are tempted to take what belongs to another, to crush out the liberties of a people, then the suggestion that you are to make money by the transaction becomes as sordid and base a suggestion as ever was whispered into a covetous and greedy ear. When you are asked to abandon your cherished principles, your lofty ideals, your benignant influence on mankind, to turn your polar star, your morning star into a comet, the sug- gestion of money-getting seems infinitely pitiful. But we are told that if we oppose the policy of our imperi- alistic and expanding friends we are bound to suggest some policy of our own as a substitute for theirs. We are asked what we would do in this difficult emergency. It is a question not difficult to answer. I, for one, am ready to answer it. 1. I would declare now that we will not take these islands to govern them against their will. 2. I would reject a cession of sovereignty which implies that a sovereignty may be bought and sold and delivered with- out the consent of the people. Spain had no rightful sover- eignty over the Philippine Islands. She could not rightfully sell it to us. We could not rightfully buy it from her. 3. I would require all foreign governments to keep out of these islands. 4. I would offer to the people of the Philippines our help in maintaining order until they have a reasonable opportunity to establish a government of their own. 372 The Making of an Oration 5. I would aid them by advice, if they desire it, to set up a free and independent government. 6. I would invite all the great powers of Europe to unite in an agreement that that independence shall not be inter- fered with by us, by themselves, or by any one of them with- out the consent of the others. As to this I am not sure. I should like quite as well to tell them that it is not to be done whether they consent or not. 7. I would declare that the United States will enforce the same doctrine as applicable to the Philippines that we de- clared as to Mexico and Haiti and the South American republics. It is true that the Monroe Doctrine, a doctrine based largely on our regard for our own interests, is not applicable either in terms or in principle to a distant Asiatic territory. But undoubtedly, having driven out Spain, we are bound, and have the right, to secure to the people we have liberated an opportunity, undisturbed and in peace, to establish a new government for themselves. 8. I would then, in a not distant future, leave them to work out their own salvation, as every nation on earth, from the beginning of time, has wrought out its own salvation. Let them work out their own salvation, as our ancestors slowly and in long centuries wrought out theirs; as Germany, as Switzerland, as France, in briefer periods, wrought out theirs ; as Mexico and the South American republics have accom- plished theirs, all of them within a century, some of them within the life of a generation. To attempt to confer the gift of freedom from without, or to impose freedom from without on any people, is to disregard all the lessons of history. It is to attempt A gift of that which is not to be given By all the blended powers of earth and heaven. 9. I would strike out of your legislation the oath of alle- Speeches for Careful Study 373 giance to us, and substitute an oath of allegiance to their own country. Mr. President, if you once got involved and entangled in this policy of dominion and empire, you have not only to get the consent of three powers House, Senate, and President to escape from it, but to the particular plan and scheme and method of such escape. My friends say they are willing to trust the people and the future. And so am I. I am willing to trust the people as our fathers trusted them. I am willing to trust the people as they have, so far, trusted themselves ; a people regulated, governed, constrained by the moral law, by the Constitution, and by the Declaration. It is the constitutional, not the unconstitutional, will of the American people in which I trust. It is Philip sober and not Philip drunk to whom I am willing to trust the destiny of myself and my children. A people without a con- stitution is, as I have just said, like a man without a con- science. It is the least trustworthy and the most dangerous force on the face of the earth. The utterances of these gen- tlemen, who, when they are reminded of moral and constitu- tional restraints, answer us that we are timid, and that they trust the people, are talking in the spirit of the French, not of the American Revolution; they are talking in the spirit which destroys republics, and not in the spirit that builds them ; they are talking in the spirit of the later days of Rome, and not in the spirit of the early days of any republic that ever existed on this side of the ocean or on the other. I love and trust the American people. I yield to no man in my confidence of the future of the Republic. To me the dear- est blessings of life, dearer than property, dearer than home, dearer than kindred, are my pride in my country and my hope for the future of America. But the people that I trust is the people that established the Constitution and which abides by its restraints. The people that I trust is the people that made 374 The Making of an Oration the great Declaration, and their children, who mean forever to abide by its principles. The country in whose future I have supreme and unbounded confidence is the Republic, not a despotism on the one hand, or an unchecked and unlicensed democracy on the other. It is no mere democracy. It is the indissoluble union of indestructible states. I disavow and spurn the doctrine that has been more than once uttered by the advocates of this policy of imperialism on the floor of the Senate, that the sovereignty of the American people is in- ferior to any other because it is restrained and confined within constitutional boundaries. If that be true, the limited mon- archy of England is inferior to the despotism of Russia; if that be true, a constitutional republic is inferior to an uncon- stitutional usurpation; if that be true, a man restrained by the moral law, and obeying the dictates of conscience, is inferior to the reckless, hardened, unrestrained criminal. I have failed to discover in the speech, public or private, of the advocates of this war, or of the press which supports it and them, a single expression anywhere of a desire to do justice to the people of the Philippine Islands, or of a desire to make known to the people of the United States the truth of the case. Some of them like the Senator from Indiana and the President of the Senate, are outspoken in their pur- pose to retain the Philippine Islands forever, to govern them ourselves, or to do what they call giving them such a share in government as we hereafter may see fit, having regard to our own interest, and, as they sometimes add, to theirs. The others say, " Hush ! We will not disclose our purpose just now. Perhaps we may," as they phrase it, " give them liberty sometime. But it is to be a long time first." The catchwords, the cries, the pithy and pregnant phrases of which all their speech is full, all mean dominion. When a man tells you that the American flag must not be hauled down where it has once floated, or demands of a shouting Speeches for Careful Study 375 audience, " Who will haul it down? " if he mean anything, he means that the people shall be under our dominion forever. The man who says, "We will not treat with them till they submit; we will not deal with men in arms against the flag," says in substance the same thing. One thing there has been, at least, given to them as Americans not to say. There is not one of these gentlemen who will rise in his place and affirm that if he were a Filipino he would not do exactly as the Filipinos are doing; that he would not despise them if they were to do otherwise. So much, at least, they owe of respect to the dead and buried history the dead and buried history, so far as they can slay and bury it of their country. Why, the tariff schemes which are proposed are schemes in our interest and not in theirs. If you propose to bring tobacco from Porto Rico or from the Philippine Islands on the ground that it is for the interest of the people whom you are undertaking to govern, for their best interest to raise it and sell it to you, every imperialist in Connecticut will be up in arms. The nerve in the pocket is still sensitive, though the nerve in the heart may be dumb. You will not let their sugar come here to compete with the cane sugar of Louisiana or the beet sugar of California or the Northwest, and in determining that question you mean to think, not of their interest but of yours. The good government you are to give them is a government under which their great productive and industrial interests, when peace comes, are to be totally and absolutely disregarded by their government. You are not only proposing to do that, but you expect to put another strain on the Constitution to accomplish it. Why, Mr. President, the atmosphere of both legislative chambers, even now, is filled with measures proposing to govern and tax these people for our interest, and not for theirs. Your men who are not alarmed at the danger to con- stitutional liberty are up in arms when there is danger to to- 376 The Making of an Oration bacco. As an eloquent Republican colleague said elsewhere, " Beware that you do not create another Ireland under the American flag." Beware that you do not create many other Irelands another Ireland in Porto Rico ; another Ireland in Cuba ; many other Irelands in the Philippines ! The great com- plaint of Ireland for eight centuries was that England framed her tariff, not for Ireland's interest, but for her own; that when she dealt with the great industry of that beautiful isle she was thinking of the English exchequer and of the English manufacturer and of the English landowner; and she reduced Ireland to beggary. Let us not repeat that process. Certainly the flag should never be lowered from any moral field over which it has once waved. To follow the flag is to follow the principles of freedom and humanity for which it stands. The claim that we must follow it when it stands for injustice or oppression is like claiming that we must take the nostrums of the quack doctor who stamps it on his wares, or follow every scheme of wickedness or fraud, if only the flag be put at the head of the prospectus. The American flag is in more danger from the imperialists than it would be if the whole of Christendom were to combine its power against it. Foreign violence at worst could only rend it. But these men are trying to stain it. It is claimed what I do not believe that these appeals have the sympathy of the American people. It is said that the statesman who will lay his ear to the ground will hear their voice. I do not believe it. The voice of the American people does not come from the ground. It comes from the sky. It comes from the free air. It comes from the mountains where liberty dwells. Let the statesman who is fit to deal with the question of liberty or to utter the voice of a free people lift his ear to the sky not lay it to the ground. Mr. President, it was once my good fortune to witness an impressive 11 spectacle in this chamber, when the Senators Speeches for Careful Study 377 answered to their names in rendering solemn judgment in a great state trial. By a special provision each Senator was permitted, when he cast his vote, to state his reason in a single sentence. I have sometimes fancied that the question before us now might be decided, not alone by the votes of us who sit here today, but of the great men who have been our predecessors in this chamber and in the Continental Congress from the beginning of the Republic. Would that the roll might be called ! The solemn assembly sits silent while the Chair puts the question whose answer is so fraught with the hopes of liberty and the destiny of the Republic. The roll is called. George Washington : " No. Why should we quit our own, to stand on foreign ground ? " Alexander Hamilton : " No. The Declaration of Inde- pendence is the fundamental constitution of every state." Thomas Jefferson : " No. Governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Every people ought to have that separate and equal station among the nations of the world to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them." John Adams : " No. I stood by the side of Jefferson when he brought in the Declaration ; I was its champion on the floor of Congress. After our long estrangement, I came back to his side again." James Madison: "No. The object of the Federal Con- stitution is to secure the union of the thirteen primitive states, which we know to be practicable, and to add to them such other states as may arise in their own bosoms or in their neighbor- hood, which we cannot doubt will be practicable." Thomas Corwin : " No. I said in the days of the Mexican War : ' If I were a Mexican, as I am an American, I would welcome you with bloody hands to hospitable graves ; ' and Ohio today honors and loves me for that utterance beyond all her other sons." 378 The Making of an Oration Daniel Webster : " No. Under our Constitution there can be no dependencies. Wherever there is in the Christian and civilized world a nationality of character, then a na- tional government is the necessary and proper result. There is not a civilized and intelligent man on earth that enjoys satisfaction with his condition if he does not live under the government of his own nation, his own country. A nation cannot be happy but under a government of its own choice. When I depart from these sentiments I depart from myself." William H. Seward : " No. The f ramers of the Constitu- tion never contemplated colonies or provinces at all: they contemplated states only; nothing less than states perfect states, equal states, sovereign states. There is reason, there is sound political wisdom, in this provision of the Constitu- tion excluding colonies, which are always subject to op- pression, and excluding provinces, which always tend to corrupt and enfeeble and ultimately to break down the parent state." John Marshall : " No. The power to declare war was not conferred upon Congress for the purpose of aggression or aggrandizement. A war declared by Congress can never be presumed to be waged for the purpose of conquest or the acquisition of territory, nor does the law declaring the war imply an authority to the President to enlarge the limits of the United States by subjugating the enemy's country." John Quincy Adams : " No. The territories I helped bring into the nation were to be dwelt in by free men and made into free states." Aaron Burr : " Yes. You are repeating my buccaneering expedition down the Mississippi. I am to be vindicated at last ! " Abraham Lincoln : " No. I said in Independence Hall at Philadelphia, just before I entered upon my great office, that I rested upon the truth Thomas Jefferson had just uttered, Speeches for Careful Study 379 and that I was ready to be assassinated, if need be, in order to maintain it. And I was assassinated to maintain it." Charles Sumner : " No. I proclaimed it when I brought in Alaska. I sealed my devotion with my blood also. It was my support and solace through those long and weary hours when the red-hot iron pressed upon my spine, 12 the very source and origin of agony, and I did not flinch. He knows our country little, little also of that great liberty of ours, who supposes that we could receive such a transfer. On each side there is impossibility. Territory may be conveyed, but not people." William McKinley : " There has been a cloud before my vision for a moment, but I see clearly now ! I go back to what I said two years ago : ' Forcible annexation is criminal ag- gression; governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, not some of them, but all of them/ I will stand with the Fathers of the Republic. I will stand with the founders of the Republican party. No." Mr. President, I know how imperfectly I have stated this argument. I know how feeble is a single voice amid this din and tempest, this delirium of empire. It may be that the battle for this day is lost. But I have an assured faith in the future. I have an assured faith in justice and the love of liberty of the American people. The 13 stars in their courses fight for freedom. The Ruler of the heavens is on that side. If the battle today go against it, I appeal to another day, not distant and sure to come. I appeal from the clapping of hands and the stamping of feet and the brawling and the shouting to the quiet chamber where the Fathers gathered in Philadelphia. I appeal from the Spirit of Trade to the Spirit of Liberty. I appeal from the Empire to the Republic. I appeal from the millionaire, and the boss, and the wire- puller, and the manager, to the statesman of the older time, 380 The Making of an Oration in whose eyes a guinea never glistened, who lived and died poor, and who left to his children and to his countrymen a good name, 14 far better than riches. I appeal from the Present, bloated with material prosperity, drunk with the lust of Empire, to another and a better age. I appeal from the Present to the Future and to the Past. NOTES ON SENATOR HOAR'S SPEECH 1. Matt. IV: 8-10. 2. The so-called " McKinley Tariff." 3. Does this appeal to precedent strengthen the argument? 4. It must be remembered, if we would appreciate the whole speech, that Senator Hoar was a Republican, although just then on the question at issue he was opposing the course of a majority of his party. 5. The words were obviously suggested by Emerson's poem on Concord Bridge, " Here the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world." 6. The speaker refers, of course, to the many new states that have been built from the territory acquired by the "Louisiana Purchase." 7. Matt. XIII 131; Mark IV 131; Lk. XIII : 19. 8. Mark XII : 28-31. 9. What were the circumstances attending the purchase of Alaska? What did Sumner have to do with that purchase? 10. Has this sentence unity and clearness ? Improve it if you can, by breaking it up into two or more sentences. 11. An allusion to the voting at the impeachment trial of President Johnson. 12. A reference to his medical treatment after the assault upon Sumner by Preston Brooks. 13. Suggested by the words found in Judges V:20: "The stars in their courses fought against Sisera." 14. See Prov. XXII : i. 15. Make a careful plan of this speech, noting the order and kinds of arguments. Compare especially the sentence forms with those in the speech of Wendell Phillips. Which would be most likely to appeal to a popular audience ? Which is more " speak- able ? " PAUL TO THE JEWS (ACTS XXII) (This speech was made, not to an audience of Greek heathen, nor yet to the royal court of a half oriental monarch, but to a raging mob of Jewish fanatics, howling for the speaker's blood. Rescued from the hands of the rioters by a company of Roman soldiers, he is taken to the castie for safety. As he is going up the stairway to the castle, he obtains permission to speak to the mob that followed him. " Paul, standing on the stairway beckoned with the hand unto the people; and when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue." The student should read the whole account and picture to himself that dramatic scene when Paul silences the tumult by that imperi- ous gesture, and speaks to the mob that had been clamoring for his life. Note how his language spoken to his countrymen dif- fers from his language spoken to the Athenians.) Brethren and fathers, hear ye the defence which I make now unto you. And when they heard that he spake unto them in the Hebrew language, they were the more quiet: and he saith, I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as ye all are this day : and I persecuted this Way unto the death, binding and delivering unto prisons both men and women. As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and journeyed to Damascus, to bring them also which were there unto Jerusalem in bonds, for to be punished. And it came to pass, that, as I made my 381 382 The Making of an Oration journey, and drew nigh unto Damascus, about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me. And I fell onto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, Why persecutest thou me ? And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Naza- reth, whom thou persecutest. And they that were with me beheld indeed the light, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed thee to do. And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus. And one Ananias, a devout man ac- cording to the law, well reported of by all the Jews that dwelt there, came unto me, and standing by me said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And in that very hour I looked up on him. And he said, The God of our fathers hath appointed thee to know his will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from his mouth. For thou shalt be a witness for him unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. And now why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on his name. And it came to pass, that, when I had returned to Jerusalem, and while I prayed in the temple, I fell into a trance, and saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jeru- salem: because they will not receive of thee testimony concerning me. And I said, Lord, they themselves know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee : and when the blood of Stephen thy witness was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting, and keep- ing the garments of them that slew him. And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee forth far hence unto the Gentiles. PAUL'S SPEECH BEFORE THE KING (ACTS XXVI) (The following speech was delivered before King Agrippa and his queen, Bernice, who were on a visit to Festus, governor of the province, at Caesarea. Paul was a prisoner, accused by the Jews of various offenses against both the Jewish and Roman law. He had pleaded not guilty and as a Roman citizen had ap- pealed to the Emperor at Rome. Both Agrippa and Bernice were familiar with the Jewish religion, and on hearing of Paul had expressed a desire to hear him. The speech was given, with the king, queen, " chief captains and the principal men of the city " all in royal pomp as listeners. For a full account of the situation the three preceding chapters should be read. The student should make a careful analysis and plan of the speech, fully to appreciate the skill of the introduction, development, and appeal.) And Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth his hand, and made his defense: I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before thee this day touching all the things whereof I am accused by the Jews: especially because thou are expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews: wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently. My manner of life, then, from my youth up, which was from the beginning among my own nation, and at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; having knowledge of me from the first, if they be willing to testify, how that after the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. And now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers; unto which promise our twelve tribes, 383 384 The Making of an Oration earnestly serving God night and day, hope to attain. And concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, O king ! Why is it judged incredible with you, if God doth raise the dead? I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this I also did in Jerusalem: and I both shut up many of the saints in prison, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death, I gave my vote against them. And punishing them oftentimes in all the synagogues, I strove to make them blaspheme ; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto foreign cities. Whereupon as I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, at midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them that journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying unto me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. But arise, and stand upon thy feet; for to this end have I appeared unto thee, to appoint thee a minister and a witness both of the things wherein thou hast seen me, and of the things wherein I will appear unto thee ; delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me. Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision; but declared both to them of Damascus first, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judaea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance. For this Speeches for Careful Study 385 cause the Jews seized me in the temple, and assayed to kill me. Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand unto this day testifying both to small and great, say- ing nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should come ; how that the Christ must suffer, and how that he first by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles. And as he thus made his defence, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art mad ; thy much learning doth turn thee to madness ! But Paul said, I am not mad most excellent Festus; but speak forth words of truth and soberness. For the king knoweth these things, unto whom also I speak freely : for I am persuaded that none of these things is hidden from him ; for this hath not been done in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. And Agrippa said unto Paul, With but little persuasion thou wouldst fain make me a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God, that whether with little or with much, not thou only, but also all that hear me this day, might become such as I am, except these bonds. PAUL TO THE ATHENIANS (ACTS XVII) (The following is of course but a fragment, since the speaker was interrupted before he had completed his address. It is given here as an example of courtesy and tact in making an approach to a theme that was contrary to all the habits of thought of his hearers. Without in the least compromising his own sturdy fidelity to his message, he prepared the way for that message by approaching his hearers on their own ground. On every hand he saw temples, altars, monuments, and shrines erected in honor of their deities ; and for fear that in their devotion some god might have been overlooked they had erected an altar to him. This altar with its inscription furnished the speaker his theme. In his intro- duction, Paul showed himself to be both a wise speaker and a gentleman.) Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious [very religious]. For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. The God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is wor- shipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us ; for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also 386 Speeches for Careful Study 387 of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assur- ance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. AHAB AND MICAIAH A SERMON BY ALEXANDER MACLAREN (Many of the greatest names in the history of oratory are found among preachers, and the study of good sermons will be found very profitable as a training in oratorical discourse, both as to structure and style. One of the most eloquent preachers of the last century was Alexander Maclaren. For nearly half of that century he stood in the front rank of English preachers, as pastor of a great church in Manchester. Men of all ranks, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, not only from all England but from across the sea, made pilgrimages to Manchester solely to hear Dr. Maclaren. All his sermons were great sermons. The follow- ing was not his greatest, but is an average specimen of the thou- sands that were preached by him and read every week by hundreds of thousands of people in both England and America. The stu- dent's attention is called to the clear and simple but beautiful style, and also to the definite, logical, and progressive plan. Such oratory means something, is easy to follow, is stimulating to thought, appeals to the imagination, and lays hold on the will.) TEXT: I KINGS XXII 17, 8 " And Jehoshaphat * said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that we might inquire of him? And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah, the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." An ill-omened alliance had been struck up between Ahab of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah. The latter, who would have been much better in Jerusalem, had come down to Samaria to join an assault on the kingdom of Damascus; but, like a great many other people, Jehoshaphat first made 388 Speeches for Careful Study 389 up his mind without asking God, and then thought it might be well to get some kind of varnish of a religious sanction for his decision. So he proposes to his ally to inquire of the Lord about this matter. One would have thought that that should have been done before, and not after, the determina- tion was made. Ahab does not at all see the necessity for such a thing, but, to please his scrupulous ally, he sends for his priests. They came, four hundred of them, and they all played the tune, of course, that Ahab called for. It is not difficult to get prophets to pat a king on the back, and tell him, " Do what you like." But Jehoshaphat was not satisfied yet. Perhaps he thought that Ahab's clergy were not exactly God's prophets, but at all events he wanted an independent opinion, and so he asks if there is not in all Samaria a man that can be trusted to speak out. He gets for an answer the name of this " Micaiah the son of Imlah." Ahab had had experience of him, and knew his man ; and the very name leads him to an explosion of passion, which, like other explosions, lays bare some very ugly depths. "I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." That is a curious mood, is it not ? That a man should know another to be a messenger of God, and therefore that his words are true, and that if he asked his counsel he would be forbidden to do the thing that he is dead set on doing, and would be warned that to do it was destruction; and so, like a fool, he will not ask the counsel, and never dreams of dropping the purpose, but simply bursts out in a passion of puerile rage against the counselor, and will have none of his reproofs. Very curious ! But there are a great many of us that have something of the same mood in us, though we do not speak it out as plainly as Ahab did. It lurks more or less in us all; and, dear friends, it largely determines the attitude that some of you take to Christianity and to Christ. So I wish to say a word or two about it. 390 The Making of an Oration I. First, my text suggests the inevitable opposition between a message from God and man's evil. Xo doubt, God is love ; and just because He is, it is abso- lutely necessary that what comes from Him, and is the reflex and cast, so to speak, of His character, should be in stern and continual antagonism to that evil which is the worst foe of men, and is sure to lead to their death. It is because God is love, that "to the froward He shows Himself fro- ward," and opposes that which, unopposed and yielded to, will ruin the man that does it. So this is one of the charac- teristic marks of all true messages from God, that men who will not part from their evil call them " stern," " rigid," " gloomy," " narrow." Yes, of course, because God must look upon godless lives with disapprobation, and must desire by all means to draw men away from that which is drawing them away from him and to their death. Now, I suppose I need not spend time in enumerating or describing the points in the attitude of Christianity towards the solemn fact of human sin, which correspond to Ahab's complaint that the prophet spake always " not good concern- ing him, but evil." The " Gospel " of Jesus Christ proves its name to be true, and that it is " good news," not only by its graciousness, its promises, its offers, and the rich bles~- ing of eternal life with which its hands are full, but by its severity, as men call it. One characteristic of the Gospel is the altogether unique place which the fact of sin fills in it. There is no other religion on the face of the earth thit has so grasped and made prominent this thought : " All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." There is none that has painted human nature as it is in such dark colors, because there is none that knows itself to be able to change human nature into such radiance of glory and purity. The Gospel has, if I might so say, on its palette a far greater range of pigments than any other system. Its blacks are Speeches for Careful Study 391 blacker; its whites are whiter; its golds are more lustrous than those of any other painters of human nature as it is and as it may become. It is a mark of its Divine origin that it unfalteringly looks facts in the face, and will not say smooth things about men as they are. Side by side with that characteristic of the dark picture which it draws of us, as we are of ourselves, is its unhesitat- ing restraint or condemnation of deep-seated desires and tendencies. It does not come to men with the smooth words on its lips, " Do as thou wilt." It does not seek for favor by relaxing bonds, but it rigidly builds up a wall on either side of a narrow path, and says, " Walk within these limits and thou art safe. Go beyond them a hair's breadth and thou perishest." It may suit Ahab's prophets to fling the reins on the neck of human nature ; God's prophet says, " Thou shalt not." That is another of the tests of Divine origin, that there shall be no base compliance with inclinations, but rigid con- demnation of many of our deep desires. Side by side with these two, there is a third characteristic that the Word, which is the outcome and expression of the Divine love, is distinguished by plain and stern declarations of the bitter consequences of evil-doing. I need not dwell upon these, brethren. They seem to me to be far too solemn to be spoken of by a man to men in other words than Scrip- ture's. But I beseech you to remember that this, too, is the characteristic of Christ's message. So a man may say, when he thinks of the dark and solemn things that the Old Testa- ment partially, and the New Testament more clearly, utters as to the death which is the outcome of sin, that these are indeed the very voice of infinite love pleading with us all. Brother, do not so misapprehend facts as to think that the restraints and threatenings and dark pictures which Christ and his servants have drawn are anything but the utterance erf the purest affection. 392 The Making of an Oration II. Now, secondly, let me ask you to look for a moment at the strange dislike which this attitude of Christianity kindles. I have said that Ahab's mental condition was a very odd one. Strange as it is, it is, as I have already remarked, in some degree a very frequent one. There are in us all, as we see in many regions of life, the beginnings of the same kind of feeling. Here, for example, is a course that I am quite sure, if I pursue it, will land me in evil. Does the drunkard take a glass the less, because he knows that if he goes on he will have a drunkard's liver and die a miserable death ? Does the gambler ever take away his hand from the pack of cards or the dicebox, because he knows that play means, in the long run, poverty and disgrace? When a man sets his will upon a certain course, he is like a bull that he has started in its rage. Down goes the head, and, with eyes shut, he will charge a stone wall or an iron door, though he knows it will mash his skull. Men are very foolish animals; and there is no greater mark of their folly than the conspicuous and oft-repeated fact that the clearest vision of the consequences of a course of conduct is powerless to turn a man from it, when once his passions, or his will, or, worse still, his weak- ness, or, worst of all, his habits, have bound him to it. Take another illustration. Do we not all know that honest friends have sometimes fallen out of favor, perhaps with ourselves, because they have persistently kept telling us what our consciences and our common-sense knew to be true, that if we go on by that road we shall be suffocated in a bog? A man makes up his mind to a course of conduct. He has a shrewd suspicion that his honest friend will condemn and that the condemnation will be right. What does he do, there- fore? He never tells his friend, and if by chance that friend should say what was expected of him, he gets angry with his adviser and goes his road. I suppose we all know what Speeches for Careful Study 393 it is to treat our consciences in the style in which Ahab treated Micaiah. We do not listen to them because we know what they will say before they have said it; and we call ourselves sensible people ! Martin Luther once said : " It is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience." But Ahab put Micaiah in prison; and we shut up our con- sciences in a dungeon, and put a gag in their mouths, and a muffler over the gag, that we may hear them say no word, because we know that what we are doing, and we are deter- mined to do, is wrong. But the saddest illustration of this infatuation is to be found in the attitude that many men take in regard to Chris- tianity. There is a great craving today, more perhaps than there has been in some other periods of the world's history, for a religion which shall adorn, but shall not restrain ; for a religion which shall be toothless, and have no bite in it; for a religion that shall sanction anything that it pleases our sovereign mightiness to want to do. We should all like to have God's sanction for our actions. But there are a great many of us that will not take the only way to secure that namely, to do the actions which He commands, and to abstain from that which He forbids. Popular Christianity is a very easy-fitting garment ; it is like 2 an old shoe, that you can slip off and on without any difficulty. But a religion which does not put up a strong barrier between you and many of your inclinations is not worth anything. The mark of a message from God is that it restrains and coerces and forbids and commands. And some of you do not like it because it does. There is a great tendency this day to cut out of the Old and New Testaments all the pages that say things like this, "The soul that sinneth it shall die" ; or things like this, " This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light" ; or things like 394 The Making of an Oration this, " Then shall the wicked go away into outer darkness." Brethren, men being what they are, and God being what He is, there can be no Divine message without a side of what the world calls threatening, or what Ahab called " prophesy- ing evil." I beseech you, do not be carried away by the modern talk about Christianity being gloomy and dark, or fancy that it is a blot and an excrescence upon the pure re- ligion of the Man of Nazareth, when we speak of the death that follows sin, and of the darkness into which unbelief carries a man. III. Once more, let me say a word about the intense felly of such an attitude. Ahab hated Micaiah. Why? Because Micaiah told him what would come to him as the fruit of his own actions. That was foolish. It is no less foolish for people to take up a position of dislike, and to turn away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ because it speaks in like manner. I said that men are very foolish animals; there is surely nothing in all the annals of human stupidity more stupid than to be angry with the word that tells you the truth about what you are bringing down upon your heads. It is absurd, because Micaiah did not make the evil, but Ahab made it ; and Micaiah's busi- ness was only to tell him what he was doing. It is absurd, be- cause the only question to be asked is, Are the warnings true ? Are the threatenings representative of what will really come? Are the prohibitions reasonable? And it is absurd, because, if these things are so if it is true that the soul that sinneth dies, and will die; if it is true that you, who have heard the name and the salvation of Jesus Christ over and over again, and have turned away from it, will, if you continue in that negligence and unbelief, reap bitter fruits here and hereafter therefrom if 3 these things are true, surely the man that tells you, and the gospel that tells you, Speeches for Careful Study 395 deserve better treatment than Ahab's petulant hatred or your stolid indifference and neglect. Would you think it wise for a sea-captain to try to take the clapper out of the bell that floats and tolls above a shoal on which his ship will be wrecked if it strikes? Would it be wise to put out the lighthouse lamps, and then think that you have abolished the reef? Does the signalman with his red flag make the danger that he warns of, and is it not like a baby to hate and to neglect the message that comes to you and says, " Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die ? " IV. So, lastly, I notice the end of this foolish attitude. Ahab was told in plain words by Micaiah, before the inter- view closed, that he would never come back again in peace. He ordered the bold prophet into prison, and rode away gaily, no doubt, to his campaign. Weak men are very often obstinate, because they are not strong enough to rise to the height of changing a purpose when reason urges. This weak man was always obstinate in the wrong place, as so many of us are. So, away he went, down from Samaria, across the plain, down to the fords of the Jordan. But when he had crossed to the other side, and was coming near his objective point, the memories of Micaiah in prison at Samaria began to sit heavy on his soul. So he tried to dodge Divine judgment, and got up an ingenious scheme by which his ally was to go into the fight in royal pomp, and he to slip into it disguised. A great many of us try to dodge God, and it does not answer. The man who " drew a bow at a venture " had his hand guided by a higher hand. Ahab was plated all over with iron and brass, but there is always a crevice through which God's arrow can find its way; and, where God's arrow finds its way, it kills. When the night fell he was lying dead on his chariot floor, and the host was scattered, and Micaiah, the prisoner, was avenged; and his word took hold on the despiser of it. 396 The Making of an Oration So it always will be. So it will be with us, dear brethren, if we do not take heed to our ways and listen to the word which may be bitter in the mouth, but, taken, turns sweet as honey. Nailing the index of the barometer to "set fair" will not keep off the thunder storm, and no negligence or dislike of the Divine threatenings will arrest the slow, solemn march, inevitable as destiny, of the consequence of our doings. Things will be as they will be; believed or un- believed, the avalanche will come. Dear brethren, there is one way to get Micaiah on our side. Listen to him, and then he will speak good to you, and not what you foolishly call evil. Let God's word convince you of sin. Let it bring you to the cross for pardon. Jesus Christ addresses each of us in the Apostle's words: "Am I therefore become thine enemy because I tell you the truth ? " The sternest " threaten- ings " in the Bible come from the lips of that infinite Love. If you will* listen to Him, if you will yield yourselves to Him, if you will take Him for your Savior and your Lord, if you will cast your confidence and anchor your love upon Him, if you will let Him restrain you, if you will consult Him about what He would have you do, if you will accept His prohibitions as well as His permissions, then His word and His act to you, here and hereafter, will be only good and not evil, all the days of your life. Remember Ahab lying dead on the floor of his chariot in a pool of his own blood, and bethink yourselves of what despisings and threatenings, and turning away from the rebukes and prohibitions of the Divine word come to. These threatenings are spoken that they may never need to be put into effect; if you give heed to them they will never be put into effect in regard to you. If you neglect them and " will none of " God's " reproof," they will come down on you like a mighty rock loosed from the mountain, and will grind you to powder. Speeches for Careful Study 397 NOTES ON DR. MACLAREN'S SERMON 1. Read, in connection with the study of this selection, I Kings, XXI and XXII. 2. Observe the homeliness of the figures. Are they less or more effective because they are drawn from the experiences of common life? 3. Observe how the quality of clearness is enhanced by thus gathering the series of conditions of the preceding clauses into this summarizing clause with the word "these" as the summa- rizing word. 4. Note how the periodic sentence gives climax to this sentence. 5. It will be instructive to observe how the element of persua- sion pervades and permeates this entire discourse. This is quite in accordance with the modern use; once it was more common to make the appeal more formal as an application of the truths presented in the argument. INAUGURAL ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON March 4, 1913 (In many respects the following address is, at once, the most significant and the most eloquent speech delivered on a like occa- sion since the time of Lincoln. Indeed, in some respects, it reminds one of both of Lincoln's inaugurals and of the "Gettysburg Speech." It is well worthy of the most careful analysis for its thought and the most intimate study for its style.) There has been a change of government. It began two years ago, when the House of Representatives became Demo- cratic by a decisive majority. It has now been completed. The Senate, about to assemble, will also be Democratic. The offices of President and Vice-President have been put into the hands of Democrats. What does the change mean ? That is the question that is uppermost in our minds today. That is the question I am going to try to answer, in order, if I may, to interpret the occasion. It means much more than the mere success of a party. The success of a party means little except when the nation is using that party for a large and definite purpose. No one can mistake the purpose for which the nation now seeks to use the Democratic party. It seeks to use it to interpret a change in its own plans and point of view. Some old things with which we had grown familiar, and which had begun to creep into the very habit of our thoughts and of our lives, have altered their aspect as we have latterly looked critically upon them, with fresh, awakened, eyes; have dropped their 3 9 8 Speeches for Careful Study 399 disguises and shown themselves alien and sinister. Some new things, as we look frankly upon them, willing to comprehend their real character, have come to assume the aspect of things long believed in and familiar, stuff of our own convictions. We have been refreshed by a new insight into our own life. We see that in many things that life is very great. It is incomparably great in its material aspects, in its body of wealth, in the diversity and sweep of its energy, in the industries which have been conceived and built up by the genius of individual men and the limitless enterprise of groups of men. It is great, also, very great, in its moral force. Nowhere else in the world have noble men and women exhibited in more striking forms the beauty and the energy of sympathy and helpfulness and counsel in their efforts to rectify wrong, alleviate suffering, and set the weak in the way of strength and hope. We have built up, more- over, a great system of government, which has stood through a long age as in many respects a model for those who seek to set liberty upon foundations that will endure against for- tuitous change, against storm and accident. Our life con- tains every great thing, and contains it in rich abundance. But the evil has come with the good, and much fine gold has been corroded. With riches has come inexcusable waste. We have squandered a great part of what we might have used, and have not stopped to conserve the exceeding bounty of nature, without which our genius for enterprise would have been worthless and impotent, scorning to be careful, shamefully prodigal as well as admirably efficient. We have been proud of our industrial achievements, but we have not hitherto stopped thoughtfully enough to count the human cost, the cost of lives snuffed out, of energies overtaxed and broken, the fearful physical and spiritual cost to the men and women and children upon whom the dead weight and burden of it all has fallen pitilessly the years through. The groans 400 The Making of an Oration and agony of it all had not yet reached our ears, the solemn, moving undertone of our life, coming up out of the mines and factories and out of every home where the struggle had its intimate and familiar seat. With the great government went many deep secret things which we too long delayed to look into and scrutinize with candid, fearless eyes. The great government we loved has too often been made use of for private and selfish purposes, and those who used it had forgotten the people. At last a vision has been vouchsafed us of our life as a whole. We see the bad with the good, the debased and decadent with the sound and vital. With this vision we approach new affairs. Our duty is to cleanse, to reconsider, to restore, to correct the evil without impairing the good, to purify and humanize every process of otar common life without weakening or sentimentalizing it. There has been something crude and heartless and unfeeling in our haste to succeed and be great. Our thought has been " Let every man look out for himself, let every generation look out for itself," while we reared giant machinery which made it im- possible that any but those who stood at the levers of control should have a chance to look out for themselves. We had not forgotten our morals. We remembered well enough that we had set up a policy which was meant to serve the humblest as well as the most powerful, with an eye single to the stand- ards of justice and fair play, and remembered it with pride. But we were very heedless and in a hurry to be great. We have come now to the sober second thought. The scales of heedlessness have fallen from our eyes. We have made up our minds to square every process of our national life again with the standards we so proudly set up at the be- ginning, and have always carried at our hearts. Our work is a work of restoration. We have itemized with some degree of particularity the Speeches for Careful Study 401 things that ought to be altered and here are some of the chief items: A tariff which cuts us off from our proper part in the commerce of the world, violates the just prin- ciples of taxation, and makes the government a facile instru- ment in the hands of private interests; a banking and cur- rency system based upon the necessity of the government to sell its bonds fifty years ago and perfectly adapted to con- centrating cash and restricting credits; an industrial system which, take it on all its sides, financial as well as administra- tive, holds capital in leading strings, restricts the liberties and limits the opportunities of labor, and exploits without renewing or conserving the natural resources of the coun- try; a body of agricultural activities never yet given the efficiency of great business undertakings or served as it should be through the instrumentality of science taken di- rectly to the farm, or afforded the facilities of credit best suited to its practical needs; water courses undeveloped, waste places unreclaimed, forests untended, fast disappear- ing without plan or prospect of renewal, unregarded waste heaps at every mine. We have studied as perhaps no other nation has the most effective means of production, but we have not studied cost or economy as we should either as organizers of industry, as statesmen or as individuals. Nor have we studied and perfected the means by which government may be put at the service of humanity, in safe- guarding the health of the nation, the health of its men and its women and its children, as well as their rights in the strug- gle for existence. This is no sentimental duty. The firm basis of government is justice, not pity. These are matters of justice. There can be no equality of opportunity, the first essential of justice in the body politic, if men and women and children be not shielded in their lives, their very vitality, from the consequences of great industrial and social processes which they cannot alter, control, or singly cope with. Society 402 The Making of an Oration must see to it that it does not itself crush or weaken or damage its own constituent parts. The first duty of law is to keep sound the society it serves. Sanitary laws, pure- food laws, and laws determining conditions of labor which individuals are powerless to determine for themselves are intimate parts of the very business of justice and legal efficiency. These are some of the things we ought to do, and not leave the others undone, the old-fashioned, never-to-be-neglected, fundamental safeguarding of property and of individual right. This is the high enterprise of the new day: to lift everything that concerns our life as a nation to the light that shines from the hearth-fire of every man's conscience and vision of the right. It is inconceivable that we should do this as partisans; it is inconceivable that we should do it : n ignorance of the facts as they are or in blind haste. We shall restore, not destroy. We shall deal with our economic system as it is and as it may be modified, not as it might be if we had a clean sheet of paper to write upon; and step by step we shall make it what it should be, in the spirit of those who question their own wisdom and seek council and knowledge not shallow self-satisfaction or the excite- ment of excursions whither they cannot tell. Justice, and only justice, shall always be our motto. And yet it will be no cool process of mere science. The nation has been deeply stirred stirred by a solemn passion, stirred by the knowlege of wrong, of ideals lost, of govern- ment too often debauched and made an instrument of evil. The feelings with which we face this new age of right and opportunity sweep across our heartstrings like some air out of God's own presence, where justice and mercy are recon- ciled and the judge and the brother are one. We know our task to be no mere task of politics, but a task which shall search us through and through, whether we be able to under- Speeches for Careful Study 403 stand our time and the need of our people, whether we be indeed their spokesmen and interpreters, whether we have the pure heart to comprehend and the rectified will to choose our high course of action. This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of dedication. Here muster not the forces of party but the forces of human- ity. Men's hearts wait upon us ; men's lives hang in the bal- ance ; men's hopes call upon us to say what we will do. Who shall live Hp to the great trust? Who dares fail to try? I summon all honest men, all patriotic, all forward-looking men, to my side. God helping me, I will not fail them, if they will but counsel and sustain me. NOTES ON THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF WOODROW WILSON 1. Let the student make a careful plan of this great address, noting the several steps in the thought from the introduction to the conclusion that stirs the blood like a trumpet with its appeal and challenge. 2. Note the choice of words and the appropriateness of the diction. 3. Observe the sentence structure, simple and vigorous, human yet dignified as was befitting the man and the occasion, as well as the topics with which the speaker deals. 4. Note the fervor, yet manliness of the style, and the high spirit and noble ideals that animate the entire discourse. Com- pare the speech in these particulars with Lincoln's inaugurals. ORATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY ***** In addition to the speeches printed in full in preceding pages, the following brief list of great addresses is sug- gested as furnishing examples of oratorical construction and style from which the student may derive helpful illus- trations of oratorical law and practice. It is suggested that each member of a class, or each private student of the subject, be assigned to or take one of these speeches, or another from the multitude within the reach of almost any student, and prepare an essay after a careful study of the production chosen. This essay need not be very long not more, ordinarily than one thousand words, and should cover the following points : (i.) A brief account of the circumstances under which the speech was delivered; (2.) A brief, clear statement of the Theme of the speech ; (3.) A well-constructed Plan of the speech according to the outline given in the text. In this plan the " Ob- ject" should be given the proper form; (4.) A discussion of the Style, including (a) choice of words, (b) diction, (c) figures of speech especially 404 Orations for Further Study 405 those that promote force, (d) construction of sentences, especially as to clearness and force; (illustrate, when necessary, by quoting from the speech itself) ; (e) allu- sions, (f) illustrations, (g) climax not only as to arrangement of material, but as to expression in the di- visions themselves. Give especial attention to the style of the Introduction and the Conclusion. ORATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 1. Speech of William Wirt in the Trial of Aaron Burr. 2. Speech of Edmund Randolph in the Trial of Aaron Burr. 3. The Scholar in a Republic (Wendell Phillips). 4. Make Haste Slowly (Charles Sumner). 5. Speech at Faneuil Hall (Webster). 6. The Bunker Hill Monument (Everett). 7. Speech of Lord Mansfield on Taxing America. 8. Lord Chesterfield against Licensing Ginshops. Q. Mr. Brougham on the Invasion of Spain by France. 10. Speech on the Reform Bill (Macaulay). 11. On the New Army Bill (Henry Clay). 12. The Revolution in Greece (Webster). 13. Machine Politics and the Remedy (G. W. Curtis). 14. Speech on the British Treaty (Madison). 15. Speech on the Oregon Bill (Calhoun). 16. The Working Men's Party (Everett). 17. Case of John Wilkes (Lord Chatham). 18. The Rupture of the Negotiations with France (Pitt). 19. Warren Hastings on the Begum Charge (Sheridan). 20. Conciliation with America (Burke). 21. To the Electors of Bristol (Burke). 22. Parliamentary Reform (Fox). 23. The Russian Armament (Fox). 24. Speech on the American Constitution (Patrick Henry). 25. Speech in the Case of Harry Croswell (Hamilton). 26. On His Nomination to the United States Senate (Lincoln). 27. The True Grandeur of Nations (Charles Sumner). 28. The Murder of Lovejoy (Phillips). 29. Public Offices as Private Perquisites (Carl Schurz). 30. The Mexican Treaty and the Monroe Doctrine (Gerrit Smith. H. of R., June 27. '54). 31. The Irrepressible Conflict (W. H. Seward). 32. The Highest Form of Expression (F. W. Robertson). 406 The Making of an Oration 33. The Immortality of Good Deeds (Thomas B. Reed). 34. Blifil and Black George Puritan and Blackleg (John Randolph). 35. Iscariot in Modern England (Ruskin's Speech at Camber- well). 36. A Plea for Conciliation in 1876 (Thomas F. Bayard). 37- The Battle of Gettysburg (Charles Francis Adams). 38. On the Philippine Question (A. J. Beveridge). 39. Reply to Hayne (Webster). 40. First Settlement of New England (Webster). 41. Second Bunker Hill Monument Speech (Webster). 42. Other Speeches by Henry Ward Beecher in England during the Civil War. 43. Public Opinion (Wendell Phillips). 44. The Abolition Movement (Wendell Phillips). 45. Lincoln's Election (Wendell Phillips). 46. The American Doctrine of Liberty (George William Curtis). 47. The Puritan Spirit (George William Curtis). 48. Oration on Garfield (James G. Blaine). 49- The Impeachment of Warren Hastings (Edmund Burke). ORATION SUBJECTS ***** These lists are given for the purpose of aiding students in choosing subjects suitable for oratorical treatment. They are for the most part stated in a general way, leav- ing of necessity to the student the particular statement or phase of the general topic which he may wish to present. The classification of the topics is only a general one, and some of them might just as well be classified differ- ently. It is hoped that the lists may be sufficiently sug- gestive to be of genuine service. SUBJECTS SUITABLE FOR ORATIONS I. GENERAL OR ETHICAL 1. The Utilitarian Spirit of the Age. 2. Evolution as Related to Christianity. 3. The Power of Public Opinion. 4. The Cultivation of Esthetics as an Ethical and Sociolog- ical Force. 5. The Spiritual and Intellectual Bases of Truth. 6. The Law of Service. 7. The Growth of Toleration. 8. The Perfected Life. 9. Self-realization through Self-sacrifice. 10. The Fruits of Conviction. 11. The Influence of Conflict. 12. The Test of Time. 13. Unity in Diversity. 14. The American Tendency to Accept Authority. 15. The Political Responsibility of Educated Men. 16. Conventional Enthusiasm. 17. Patriotic Cosmopolitanism. 407 408 The Making of an Oration 18. The Influence of Environment and of Heredity on Shakespeare. 19. The College Graduate as a Reformer. 20. The Development of the Religious Element in Man. 21. Character and Culture. 22. An International Court of Arbitration. 23. The Man at the Helm. 24. The Man and the Hour. 25. Patriotism versus Jingoism. 26. The Quest of the Holy Grail. 27. The Brotherhood of Nations. 28. The Aggressive Element in Anglo-Saxon Character. 29. The Scholar's Attitude toward Truth. 30. The Relation of Liberty to Law. 31. Arbitration better than War. 32. Higher Education of Women as a Sign of the Times. 33. " The Evil that Men Do Lives after Them." 34. The Importance of Enthusiasm to Success. 35. Liberty not License. 36. The Proper Relation of the Preacher to Politics. 37. The Mission of Radicalism. 38. Conscience Incarnate in Politics. v 39. The Anglo-Saxon and his Destiny, v 40. Discontent as an Element of Progress. 41. Inquiry as a Road to Truth. 42. Cosmopolitan Patriotism. 43. Oratory as Affected by Civilization. 44. Invention as an Agent to Civilization. 45. The Power of Individual Opinion. 46. Destroyers of Temples. 47. The Relation of the Inner to the Outer Life. 48. Opinions Stronger than Armies. 49. The Debt of Literature to the English Bible. 50. Ueber die Berge sind auch Leute. 51. Ideas Rule the World. 52. " This One Thing I Do." 53. The Brotherhood of Man. 54. The Moral Basis of True Eloquence. 55. Let Every American Boy Have a Chance to Learn a Trade. 56. The Plodder versus the Genius. 57. The Mission of the Iconoclast. 58. A National Conscience. 59. A Political Education for a Political People. 60. The Victories of Peace. 61. The Value of a Discriminating Optimism. Oration Subjects 409 62. Faith in Good Things Essential to the Noblest Manhood. 63. The Market Value of Character. 64. The Strenuous Life. 65. The Personal Equation. 66. Progress of the Saxon Principle. 67. Evolution of Toleration. 68. The Tyranny of Ideas. 69. The Scholar and Social Reform. 70. Self-Realization through Service. 71. Education for Service. 72. Hero Worship. 73. The Progress of Morality. 74. The Conflict of Ideals. 75. Success through Failure. 76. The Test of an Education, the Ability to Bring Things to Pass. 77. The Supremacy of Skill. 78. Cooperation as a Means of Avoiding Industrial Disputes. 7g. The Relation of Freedom of Thought to Progress. 80. Optimism versus Pessimism. 81. Liberty Enlightening the World. 82. The Alleged Decline of American Patriotism. 83. Public Office a Public Trust. 84. The Debt America Owes to Her Educated Men. 85. The Initiative and Referendum. 86. Liberalism an Element of Reform. 87. The Christian Citizen. 88. Government an Index of National Character. 89. The Enforcement of Wise Naturalization Laws. 90. Power of an Educated Minority. 91. The Supremacy of an Aroused Conscience in a Community. 92. Great Leaders Developed by Great Emergencies. 93. The Power of the Press. 94. The Destiny of Africa. 95. Limits of Toleration. 96. The Ideal of Manhood. 97. The Necessity of a Stable Currency to National Pros- perity. 98. Class and Sectional Prejudice a Menace to the State. 99. The Authority of the President to Suppress Disorder in the States. 100. Patriotism before Party. 101. The Duty of the Hour. 102. A National University. 103. Is Change always Progress? 410 The Making of an Oration 104. "New Occasions Teach New Duties." 105. " Peace Hath Her Victories no less Renowned than War." 106. Theoretical Men, the Pioneers of Progress. 107. Is the Workman the Sole Producer of Wealth? 108. The Ultimate Triumph of Goodness. 109. Humor as an Element of Success. no. The Mission of the Small College, in. The Mission of the Large College. 112. Opportunities for Greatness. 113. The Anglo-Saxon Element in American Character. 114. The Spirit of "the Argonauts of '49." 115. What Makes a Good Citizen? 116. The Relation of Labor to Genius. 117. The True Grandeur of Nations. 118. Voices of the Dead. 119. The Ultimate Supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon. 120. Separation of Local and National Politics. 121. Morality in Politics. 122. Our Worst Foes. 123. The New Birth of China. 124. The College Settlement 125. The Need of an Independent Press. 126. Modern Missions One of the Wonders of the World. 127. The American Woman's Citizenship. 128. Progression or Retrogression? 129. America, the Melting Pot of the Nations. 130. Shall We Suffer the Fate of Former Republics? 131. Growth and Evils of Trusts. 132. The Mission of the Modern Pulpit. 133. The Progressive Spirit of the United States. 134. The Men to Make a State. 135. Self-reliance. 136. Controversy Tributary to Progress. 137. Irreverence, a Result of and a Menace to Democracy. 138. Misuse of the Word, " Success." 139. A noble Ambition, a Secret to True Success. 140. Brains and Brawn, the Need of the Times. 141. Has the Demand for Oratory Passed? 142. A Defense of Shakespeare's Shylock. 143. True Sources of Our Nation's Strength. 144. Ideas, not Armies Conquer the World. 145. The Interests of America in the Orient. 146. Ignorance May Do for a Despotism, It Will never Answer for a Republic. 147. The Trend Upward. 148. The Oratory of Revolutionary Periods. Oration Subjects 411 149. The Boasted Liberal Thinker, the most Illiberal of Men. 150. The Relation of the Trans-Siberian Railroad to Twentieth Century Civilization. 151. Individuality, not Eccentricity. 152. The Scholar in Politics. 153. Obedience to Law, the Safeguard to the Republic. 154. Equality before the Law. 155. The Annexation of Cuba. 156. Why Should the State Provide for Higher Education? 157. Russian Despotism the Source of Russian Anarchy. 158. "Do Men Gather Grapes from Thorns?" (Life the Out- come of Character.) 159. " Whatsoever a Man Soweth, that Shall he also Reap." 160. Our Consular Service as a Field for Educated Men. 161. Early Specialization Tends to Narrowness of Mind. 162. The Secret Ballot. 163. The Commission Form of Government for Cities. 164. Our Buried Soldiers. 165. War as a Civilizer. 166. The March of the Centuries. 167. What is a Genius? 168. Necessity of Education in a Republic. 169. The United States as a World Power. 170. " The White Man's Burden." 171. The Influence of Oratory on Civilization. 172. The Law of Service. 173. Puritan and Cavalier. 174. America's Mission in the Orient. 175. The Commission Form of Government. 176. The Third Term Idea. 177. The " Stand-Patter " versus the " Insurgent." 178. Extremists in Politics. II. .POLITICAL 1. Republic or Empire? 2. Russia, the Coming Sovereign of the World 3. The Doctrine of Political Equality. 4. The Decadence of the Monroe Doctrine. 5. Will France Remain a Republic? 6. The Abolition of the English House of Lords. 7. Under the Throne of the Czars. 8. Tendency toward Anarchism in the United States. 9. A Vindication of American Democracy. 10. The Permanency of the Republic. it. Our Consular Service as a Field for Educated Men. 412 The Making of an Oration 12. A Plea for an American National Spirit 13. What Shall We Do with the Indian? 14. The Americans and the Mexicans. 15. The Unspeakable Turk. 16. Reform of our Pension Laws. 17. American Unity. 18. Representation of Minorities. 19. The Monroe Doctrine Today. 20. A Remedy for the Evils of Democracy. 21. Limitations of the Right of Home Rule. 22. The Election of United States Senators. 23. Interoceanic Canals and American Diplomacy. 24. Should Insular Annexation be the National Policy? 25. Municipal Reform Essential to National Stability. 26. Rewards of Political Righteousness. 27. The Control of Trusts in a Representative Government 28. The Victories of Peace. 29. The Initiative and Referendum. 30. The Recall of Judges. 31. England's Colonial Policy. 32. The Rule of the People, but not Anarchy. 33. Effects of Immigration upon the United States. 34. The Restriction of Immigration. 35. America for Americans. 36. Method of Choosing the President, a Useless Form. 37. The United States a World Power. 38. Americans for America. 39. Extension of Civil-service Reform. 40. The Men to Make a State. 41. The Revival of American Shipping. 42. The Australian Constitution. 43. Causes of the Decline of Spanish Power. 44. The Juror or the Jurist? 45. Cardinal Principles of American Democracy. 46. Where is our Nation's Strength? 47. American Citizenship. 48. The Secret Ballot Essential to Pure Elections. 49. Woman and the Ballot. 50. Equality of Taxation. 51. The Federation of the World Foreshadowed. 52. The Dismemberment of China. 53. A Large Standing Army for the United States. 54. Should a Third Term for President Be Made Impossible? 55. The Secret Ballot. 56. Should the Method of Choosing the President Be Changed? Oration Subjects 413 57. Effect of the Recall of Judges upon the Supremacy of the Constitution. 58. Should the Government Guarantee the Safety of Bank Deposits ? 59. The Strength of the Republic not in its Armies. 60. Separation of National and Local Politics. 61. Let Conscience, not the Boss, cast the Ballot. 62. England's Case Against Home Rule for Ireland. 63. China and the Powers. 64. China, the Republic. 65. If Women Had the Ballot, Would Tl.ey Vote more Wisely or Virtuously than Men ? 66. Should the Tariff be Revised Downward? 67. The True Conception of Liberty. 68. Should the President's Term of Office Be Lengthened? 69. Should the People of the Philippines Be Given Self-govern- ment? 70. The Application of the Merit System to the entire Civil- service. 71. The Consular Service, a Sphere of Usefulness for Edu- cated Young Men. 72. Should We Have a National Bank? 73. The Independence of the National Judiciary Essential to National Existence. 74. National Credit a Condition of National Progress. 75. An Educational Test for Citizenship. 76. The Annexation of Cuba. 77. President Taft's Arbitration Policy. 78. The Commission Form of Government. 79. The Enlargement of the Navy. 80. Can Good Mormons be Good Citizens? 81. Public Money for Sectarian Schools. 82. The Relation of the Preacher to Politics. 83. American Unity. 84. Representation of Minorities. 85. The Doctrine of Political Equality. 86. The Restriction of Immigration. 87. Should the United States Be Responsible for Order in Mexico ? 88. Popular Primaries for Presidential Candidates. III. SOCIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL 1. The Relation of the Young Man to Modern Life. 2. The Patriot of the Twentieth Century. 3. The Relation of Christianity to Social Questions. 4. The Tyranny of Extreme Democracy. 5. Nature of the Present Social Tendency. 414 The Making of an Oration 6. Taxation of Church Property. 7. Race Prejudice in America. 8. Discontent as a Condition of Progress. 9. The Foundation of Political Power. 10. The American Boy and American Labor. 11. Precedent and Progress. 12. Are Trades Unions Promoters of Industry? 13. What Is Practical Education? 14. The Altruistic Principle in Socialism. 15. Profit-sharing as a Remedy for Industrial Ills. 16. The " New West " and its Bearing on our National Destiny. 17. Opinions stronger than Armies. 18. The Race Problem in the United States. 19. The Relations of Christianity to Wealth. 20. The Saloon in Politics. 21. The Relation of the American College to American Stability. 22. The Jews in Russia. 23. Economic Disturbances a Condition of Social Progress. 24. The Relation of the Educated Man to Civilization. 25. The American College a Factor of American Stability. 26. The American Spirit of Liberalism. 27. Law and Liberty. 28. The Right of Majorities to Rule. 29. Organization as a Phase of Modern Society. 30. Reform in Marriage Legislation. 31. Destroy Child Labor or Destroy the Child. 32. What the City Owes to the Country. 33. Barbarism in the Twentieth Century. 34. The Mission of the Iconoclast. 35. Advantages of Coeducation. 36. The Invasion of Africa. 37. The " Submerged Tenth." 38. The Power of Civil Law. 39. The Power of Public Opinion. 40. The Political Future of the Negro of the South. 41. The New West and its Bearing on our Future Destiny. 42. What Will be the Effect of Universal Franchise upon our Social Problems? 43. The Morality and Intelligence of the People the Safe- guards of the State. 44. "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle Rules the World." 45. The Indian Problem. 46. The Interests of Employer and Employed not Antagonistic. 47. Railroads as Civilizers. 48. A Nation's Literature an Index of a Nation's Progress, Oration Subjects 415 49. Causes of Social Discontent. 50. Recognition of Human Brotherhood, the Key to the Allevi- ation of Human Ills. 51. The Women of the New South. 52. Science the Handmaid of Literature (or Progress). 53. Profit Sharing. 54. Communism in the United States. 55. Does a College Education Unfit One for Business? 56. Society's Responsibility for the Criminal. 57. Society's Responsibility for the Training of the Child. 58. Should the Government Legislate against all Trusts? 59. The Suppression of Crime. 60. The Salvation Army as a Reforming Agency. 61. The Conflict of Ideals, an Element of Progress. 62. The Demon of Mob Rule. 63. The Preacher and His Mission. 64. The Women of the New South. 65. Christianity the Herald of Business. 66. The Need for Trained Men. 67. The Scholar in Politics. 68. The Importance of Right Ideals. 69. The Controversy of Labor with Ignorance, rather than with Capital. 70. Crises and Causes which Melt together discordant Ele- ments (Title: The Melting Pot). 71. Evolution versus Revolution in Social Progress. 72. The Few who Are a Large and Controlling Part of a Nation's Conscience. 73. Effect upon Classes of " American Barbaric Display." 74. A Compulsory Arbitration Law to Settle Labor Disputes. 75. Is Profit Sharing Feasible and Advisable? 76. Improvement of the Rural Home. 77. Optimism versus Pessimism. 78. Christian Sociology. 79. Relation of the Church to Society. 80. The Debt of Education to Society. 81. The Debt of Education to Christianity. 82. The Important Place of the Small College. 83. The Debt of America to the Denominational College. 84. Woman's True Place in the World. 85. The Need of Moral Courage in Society. 86. The Control of Trusts. 87. Liberty Enlightening the World. 88. Social Evils and their Remedies. 89. The Mission of the Modern Pulpit. 90. Should All Colleges Be Co-educational? 91. The Leveling-up Tendency of the Best Socialism. 416 The Making of an Oration 92. Present Tendencies toward Consolidation of Power and Wealth. 93. Orientals in America. 94. Should Compulsory Arbitration be Adopted as a Means of Settling Disputes between Labor and Capital ? 95. The Attitude of Mormonism toward Society and the State. 96. Some Effects of the Saloon upon Society and Politics. 97. The Evils of Radicalism in a Good Cause. 98. What Should be Done with the Indian? 99. Should there be Separate Schools for Negroes? 100. Dangerous Classes in Large Cities. 101. The Mission of Labor Unions. 102. University Extension in America. 103. Capital the Ally of Labor. 104. Dangers of Child Labor. 105. Should Oriental Workmen be Excluded from the United States ? 106. Should the Boycott be Unlawful ? 107. Society's Responsibility for the Discharged Criminal. 108. Reform of the Jury System. 109. The Relation of Material Prosperity to Christianity, no. The Handwriting on the Wall of Partisan Politics. in. Prison Reform. 112. What Shall I do? (The Life-work Problem). 113. The Student and Society. 114. China as an Industrial Rival of America. 115. The Supremacy of Skill. 116. The Unity of Mankind. 117. Discontent, a Surety of Progress. 118. Should there be a National University? 119. The Altruistic Principle in Socialism. 120. An American Merchant Marine. 121. China, the Republic. 122. Modern Pantheism. 123. The Schokr and Social Reform. 124. The Need of Trade Schools. 125. Reform in Marriage Legislation. 126. Reform in Divorce Laws. 127. Why Should the State Establish and Maintain Schools and Universities? 128. As the Child is Trained the Man is Inclined. 129. Character not Education the Salvation of Society. 130. War not Necessary to Develop the Heroic Spirit. 131. A Plea for an Endowed Press. 132. Should the State Own and Operate Public Utilities? 133. Should Income be a Condition of Citizenship? Oration Subjects 417 134. Education Alone not Sufficient to Make a Good Citizen. 135. The Hope of our Country Rests in its Homes. 136. Should Capital Punishment be Abolished? 137. Should Polar Expeditions be further Encouraged? 138. The Debt of American Civilization to the Farm. 139. The Chinese as Furnishing a Solution of the Domestic Service Problem. 140. What America May Gain from the Inter-oceanic Canal. 141. Is the Franchise a Privilege or a Right? 142. The Things that Are Caesar's. 143. The Handwriting on the Wall for the Political Boss. 144. The Philosophy of Gamaliel. 145. The Economic Impossibility of a Double Standard of Value. 146. The Debt We Owe to Those who Smash our Idols. 147. What Constitutes a Good College? IV. HISTORICAL x. Marston Moor. 2. Bismarck and German Unity. 3. Cavour and Bismarck. 4. The Influence of the Crusades on Civilization, v Was Jefferson's Embargo Policy Wise? 6. The Debt of Liberty to the Netherlands. 7. Results to China of the War with Japan. 8. The American Pioneer. 9. England as a Land Grabber. 10. The Constitution a Compromise. 11. Webster's Seventh of March Speech (1850) not Incon- sistent with his Previous Position. 12. The Puritan Influence in America. 13. The Electoral College. 14. The Influence of Rousseau and Voltaire on the French Revolution. 15. German Unity, a Product of German Literature. 16. Relation of the Huguenots to Religious Liberty. 17. Moses the Lawmaker of Modern Civilization. 18. Divine Providence in American History. 19. The Legacy of Rome to the World. 20. The Poets and Poetry of the Civil War. 21. The Influence of the Pilgrims on American Thought and Life. 22. The New South. 23. The Enfranchisement of the Negroes a Political Blunder. 24. Roger Williams, a Pioneer of Religious and Political Free- dom. 418 The Making of an Oration 25. Martin Luther as a Force in History. 26. The Huguenot in America. 27. The Debt of Literature to the English Bible. 28. Lincoln, as a Man of the People. 29. Lincoln, the Martyr of Liberty. 30. Great Leaders Developed by Great Emergencies. 31. The "Good Old Times," not the Best Times. 32. Byron and the Greek Revolution of 1821. 33. The Spirit of Cromwell's Soldiers. 34. The Battle of Missionary Ridge. 35. Gettysburg, the Crisis of the Civil War. 36. Whittier, the Poet of Freedom. 37. The Political Destiny of Canada. 38. The Armenians and the Turks. 39. The Influence of American Oratory in American Life. 40. Saxon and Slav in Asia. 41. The Hero of Hungary. 42. American Territorial Expansion. 43. Development of Constitutional Interpretation. 44. Charlotte Corday. 45. William the Silent, the Soldier of Liberty. 46. Reaction of the Spanish-American War. 47. Did the United States rightfully Acquire Hawaii? 48. The Idea of Human Unity in the Roman Empire. 49. Christ in History. 50. Melancthon as a Reformer. 51. Military Men of Letters. 52. England's Debt to William the Conqueror. 53. Effect on America of the Capture of Quebec. 54. Andrew Jackson and the Civil Service. 55. Conquering of the West. 56. Grover Cleveland and Civil Service Reform. 57. The Pacific Railroad and the Development of the* West. 58. The Price of the Prairie. 59. The Jew in History. 60. John Milton and the Revolution of 1640. 61. Development of the English Cabinet. 62. Effect of Inventions upon English History. 63. The Pocket Boroughs in England. 64. Significance of the Brook Farm Experiment. 65. The Downfall of Jerusalem. 66. Significance of Napoleon's March to Moscow. 67. Heroism of the Civil War. 68. American Contributions to Civilization. 69. The United States, the Evangel of Religious and Political Liberty. Oration Subjects 419 70. The Heroic Struggle of the Netherlands for Independence. 71. Christendom's Injustice to the Jew. 72. The Minute Men of '76. 73. Neal Dow. 74. The French Revolution, a Messenger of Truth. 75. The Struggle for Kansas. 76. The Eloquence of Revolutionary Periods. 77. Gordon and Havelock as Types of Christian Heroes. 78. The Agitator in American History. 79. George William Curtis and Civil Service Reform. 80. Gladstone and Home Rule in Ireland. 81. Was John Brown a Traitor? 82. The Growth of Democracy in the Nineteenth Century. 83. The Development of Constitutional Government in recent Years. 84. The Spirit of the Abolition Movement. 85. Cavour and the Unification of Italy. 86. Causes of the Civil War. 87. The Treason of Benedict Arnold. 88. Achievements of the American Navy. 89. The Growing Spirit of Independence in Politics. 90. The Presidential Election of 1876, a Revelation of our Country's Respect for Law. 91. Should Cuba be Annexed to the United States ? 92. Was Mrs. Surratt justly Condemned? 93. Should Samuel J. Tilden have been Seated in the Presi- dential Chair? 94. The Jew and his Persecutors. 95. The Debt of our Country to Alexander Hamilton. 96. Providence in History. 97. Significance of the Battle of Tours. 98. The Moors in Spain. 99- What Europe Owes to Gustavus Adolphus. 100. John Brown, a Hero or a Criminal? 101. Turkish Atrocities in the Nineteenth Century. 102. The Debt of Civilization to the French Revolution. 103. Russian Nihilism. 104. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Relation to the Abolition of Slavery. 105. The Scandinavians in Europe. 106. Significance of the Discovery of America. 107. The Service of Wilberforce to British Emancipation. 108. The Purpose of the Civil War not to Abolish Slavery. 109. "The Underground Railroad." no. The Oratory of Revolutionary Periods, in. Significance of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. 420 The Making of an Oration 112. The Dred Scott Decision. 113. U. S. Grant, a Soldier of Peace. 114. The Permanence of Puritan Principles. 115. Christians in Turkey. 1 1 6. Moral Victories in Politics. 117. The Spanish Armada. 118. The Influence upon America of the Louisiana Purchase. 119. Washington at Valley Forge, an Example of True Patriotism. 120. The " Free Quakers " in the Revolutionary War. V. BIOGRAPHICAL 1. The Eloquence of Frances Wayland. 2. Wendell Phillips as a Reformer. 3. The Oratory of Wendell Phillips. 4. William Lloyd Garrison as a Preacher of Abolition. 5. The Statesmanship of William E. Gladstone. 6. The Oratory of John Bright. 7. Webster as The Expounder of the Constitution. 8. The Oratory of Henry Ward Beecher. 9. The Eloquence of Abraham Lincoln. 10. Booker T. Washington. 11. John Brown. 12. Roosevelt as an Agitator. 13. The Statesmanship of Abraham Lincoln. 14. Captain Scott, the Antarctic Hero. 15. Marcus Whitman and Our Northwest. 16. Roger Williams and the Separation of Church and State. 17. Arnold of Rugby. 18. The Oratory of 'Paul the Apostle 19. The Character of Washington. 20. The Statesmanship of Washington. 21. The Statesmanship of Alexander Hamilton. 22. Charles Sumner and the Abolition of War. 23. The Heroic Spirit of Sir Walter Scott. 24. Sherman and von Moltke. 25. The Character of Robert E. Lee. 26. The Debt of the Nation to Daniel Webster. 27. Webster's Oratory as a Model of Oratorical Style. 28. Alexander Maclaren as a Preacher. 29. Frances Willard and Her Work. 30. The Common Sense of Benjamin Franklin. 31. John Greenleaf Whittier as a Poet of Freedom. 32. The Eloquence of Thomas Guthrie. 33. The Political Courage of Grover Cleveland. 34. The Patriotism of James Russell Lowell. Oration Subjects 421 35. Tennyson's Ideal of Manhood. 36. The Political Career of John Bright. 37. The Attitude of Bright and Gladstone toward the United States during the Civil War. 38. Lord Macaulay. 39. Napoleon Bonaparte the Destroyer of Despotism. 40. Edmund Burke as an Orator and Statesman. 41. The Oratory of Sheridan. 42. Frederick Douglas. 43. Savonarola. 44. The Patriotism of Stephen A. Douglas. 45. Salmon P. Chase, the Financier of the Civil War. 46. Charles Sumner, the Scholar in Politics. 47. LaFayette. 48. John Jay, a Political Hero. 49. Henry Ward Beecher in England during the Civil War. 50. Was Aaron Burr a Traitor? 51. Alexander Hamilton, the First United States Treasurer. 52. Horace Greeley, the Editor. 53. Joan of Arc. 54. Brigham Young, the Apostle of Mormonism. 55. William McKinley, the Preacher of Protection. 56. Grover Cleveland, the Advocate of a Tariff for Revenue. t Wendell Phillips as an Agitator. Patrick Henry as an Orator. 59. Leo Tolstoy, the Democrat in a Despotism. 60. Cavour and Bismarck. 61. Roger Williams, the Pioneer of Religious Liberty. INDEX Adaptation of thought and ex- pression, 96-99. Allusion, 138, 139. Amusing stories, danger of, 162 Analysis, provisional, 58, 59. Antithesis, 140-143. Beecher, Henry Ward, 19, 130, 192, 193, 250. Beveridge, Senator, 145. Bible, value of its study, 183, 184. Biography, value of reading, 175, 176. Books, reading essential, 172- 185. Brevity, important for introduc- tion, 78-80. Bright, John, 114. Bryan, William )., 93, 314. Burke, Edmund, 92, 123, 160, 161. Clay, Henry, 188, 189. Clearness, essential quality of style, 100; meaning and meth- ods, 102; and words, 105- 117; aids to, 119-127. Climax, 151-153. Composition of an oration, 73- Conclusion of an oration, 28- 30; purpose of, 29; planning the, 63, 64 ; thought and style, 86-94. Conversation, 56, 57. Copiousness, 122. Curtis, George William, 133, 281. Delivery, methods of, 196-206; reading, 197-199; memorizing, 199, 200; use of notes, 201; no visible helps, 202; spirit of, 203, 204. Directness in introduction, 84, . 8 S- Discussion, part of an oration, 25-28; plan of, 60-63. Elocution, value of, 187-193. Epigram, 120, 121, 148-150. Feeling essential to eloquence, 170, 171. Figures of speech, 127-140. Grady, Henry W., 132, 301. Hayne, Colonel, 81. Henry, Patrick, 146-148, 209. History, value of study, 174. Hoar, Senator, 145, 339. Kurd, Frank H., 92. Imagination, value to orator, 169. Introduction of an oration, 16- 21 ; planning the, 64-67;