Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    History's Greatest Speeches - Volume IV
    History's Greatest Speeches - Volume IV
    History's Greatest Speeches - Volume IV
    Ebook82 pages1 hour

    History's Greatest Speeches - Volume IV

    By Benjamin Franklin, Mohandas K. Gandhi and Nelson Mandela

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The most profound and important speeches ever delivered are here collected in this anthology, featuring some of the most influential figures in world history. From ancient times to the American Revolution to as recently as this past century, Fort Raphael Publishing has here collected seven of the most important and iconic speeches of all ti

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFt. Raphael Publishing Company
    Release dateFeb 14, 2021
    ISBN9781949661439
    History's Greatest Speeches - Volume IV
    Author

    Benjamin Franklin

    Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was an American writer, printer, politician, postmaster, scientist, and diplomat. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Franklin found success at a young age as editor and printer of the Pennsylvania Gazette, a prominent Philadelphia newspaper. From 1732 to 1758, Franklin published Poor Richard’s Almanack, a popular yearly pamphlet that earned Franklin much of his wealth. An influential Philadelphian, Franklin founded the Academy and College of Philadelphia, which would become the University of Pennsylvania, in 1751. In addition, Franklin founded the Library Company of Philadelphia, as well as the city’s first fire department. As revolutionary sentiment was on the rise in the thirteen colonies, Franklin traveled to London to advocate on behalf of Americans unhappy with British rule, earning a reputation as a skilled diplomat and shrewd negotiator. During the American Revolution, his relationships with French officials would prove essential for the war effort, the success of which depended upon munitions shipments from France. Over the next few decades, he would serve as the first postmaster general of the United States and as governor of Pennsylvania while maintaining his diplomatic duties. A dedicated and innovative scientist, Franklin is credited with important discoveries regarding the nature of electricity, as well as with inventing the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove. A slaveowner for many years, Franklin eventually became an abolitionist. Although he failed to raise the issue during the 1787 Constitutional Convention, he led the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society and wrote essays on the subject of slavery, which he deemed “an atrocious debasement of human nature.”

    Read more from Benjamin Franklin

    Related to History's Greatest Speeches - Volume IV

    Titles in the series (9)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Celebrating The Cycle Of Life

      May 26, 2022

      “Not all the water in the rough rude sea Can wash the balm from the anointed King.” RICHARD II. Not the best king to model the indelibility of kingship, you might think. But Shakespeare uses this line to frame not only his play about the doomed child

      3 min read

    • Article

      Cicer-no

      May 30, 2022

      Cicer-no
      8 min read

    • Article

      Caesar Vs The Senate

      Sep 12, 2019

      Caesar Vs The Senate
      12 min read

    • Article

      Make A Spectacle Of Oneself

      Oct 27, 2022

      AWARE THAT QUEEN Elizabeth I said to Robert Cecil, a much greater man than I, “Little man, little man: must is not a word to be used to princes,” I am hesitant to address my new Sovereign Lord with the word “must”. But the Coronation must not be a se

      3 min read

    • Article

      ‘A Sickening Sight’

      Aug 15, 2023

      ‘A Sickening Sight’
      11 min read

    • Article

      John Ashbery

      Mar 15, 2019

      He could understand the things at home.—Wallace Stevens, “Things of August” Scribbled on the expansive mist, the desireof many dwindles to usand our “activities,” wholesomeor otherwise. Soon it becomes apparentthat neither they nor I have any prise o

      4 min read

    • Article

      Pray For The Republicans

      Apr 27, 2023

      BRACE YOURSELVES. While the rest of the country are enjoying the Coronation on 6 May, that small perpetually outraged huddle of Republicans and Secularists are going to go on the rampage. If the procession — with its bands, soldiers, golden carriages

      3 min read

    • Article

      Letter from Wartime

      Sep 24, 2020

      What I’m writing about is what it feels like to be living through the blood-red dusk of a nation. The post Letter from Wartime appeared first on The Millions.

      12 min read

    • Article

      Georges Clemenceau

      Aug 2, 2023

      Georges Clemenceau
      7 min read

    • Article

      Fallen idols

      Jun 11, 2021

      Fallen idols
      15 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Jan 27, 2022

      Alexander Larman (“Sacred Cows”, Dec/Jan) is quite wrong to date “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night” and “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” to the Tudor period. The former first appeared in 1700 and the latter is not found in any printed sou

      3 min read

    • Article

      Making Athens Great Again

      Mar 11, 2017

      Making Athens Great Again
      13 min read

    • Article

      The Devil’s Dictionary

      Jul 6, 2021

      Select entries from Ambrose Bierce’s lexicon of cynicism, bitterness, and humor, produced over a 30-year period beginning in 1881. APOLOGIZE, v.i. To lay the foundation for a future offence. BARD, n. A person who makes rhymes. The word is one of the

      4 min read

    • Article

      Everything Is Different Now

      Jan 11, 2021

      Everything Is Different Now
      8 min read

    • Article

      Old Statues, New Maps

      Jun 24, 2020

      Old Statues, New Maps
      3 min read

    • Article

      Godly Butchery

      Jun 10, 2022

      In 1241, a man named William Marise, the son of an English nobleman, was convicted of piracy. His punishment was to be publicly ripped apart into four pieces. It was known then as ‘godly butchery’ or ‘three deaths’. Today, we recognise this gruesome

      3 min read

    • Article

      When In Rome!

      Nov 17, 2022

      When In Rome!
      7 min read

    • Article

      Godly Butchery

      Jun 10, 2022

      In 1241, a man named William Marise, the son of an English nobleman, was convicted of piracy. His punishment was to be publicly ripped apart into four pieces. It was known then as ‘godly butchery’ or ‘three deaths’. Today, we recognise this gruesome

      3 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Mar 1, 2024

      Table Talk
      9 min read

    • Article

      ‘Have We Come To This?’

      Jan 17, 2023

      ‘Have We Come To This?’
      5 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Sep 30, 2021

      Anniversaries
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for History's Greatest Speeches - Volume IV

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      History's Greatest Speeches - Volume IV - Benjamin Franklin

      cover-image, History's Greatest Speeches - Vol. IV - Draft #1

      FORT RAPHAEL PUBLISHING CO.

      OAK PARK, ILLINOIS

      www.AudiobooksChicago.com

      Copyright © 2020 by Ft. Raphael Publishing Company

      All Rights Reserved.

      Edited by Kevin Theis, Ft. Raphael Publishing Company

      Front Cover Artwork and Graphics by Paul Stroili,

      Touchstone Graphic Design, Chicago

      HISTORY’S GREATEST

      SPEECHES

      VOLUME IV

      CONTENTS

      ANCIENT TIMES THROUGH 1700

      Cicero - The First Oration Against Catiline - 63BC

      St. Francis of Assisi- Sermon for the Birds - 1220

      18th CENTURY

      Benjamin Franklin - Address to the Federal Convention - 1787

      19th CENTURY

      Robert Emmet - Speech from the Dock - 1803

      Jane Addams - The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements - 1892

      20th CENTURY

      Mohandas K. Gandhi - Banaras Hindu University Speech - 1916

      Nelson Mandela - I Am Prepared to Die - 1964

      CICERO

      THE FIRST ORATION AGAINST CATILINE

      Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) was a Roman statesman, scholar, lawyer, writer, orator and Academic Skeptic who had an unparalleled influence on the legacy of ancient Rome. Fully three quarters of the surviving Latin literature of this period consists of his prose; Cicero’s extensive collection of written works influenced countless writers who followed him. 

      In 63 BC, Cicero uncovered what he believed to be a plot by Roman senator Lucius Sergius Catilina (Catiline) to overthrow the Senate itself; as one of Rome’s two chief executives, Cicero attacked Catiline in four blistering speeches; the first of these appears below. Catiline met his death in battle outside Rome and his followers faced execution.

      After Mark Antony declared him an enemy of the state twenty years later, Cicero met his end at the hands of the very Roman citizens whom he had spent his life trying to defend.

      * * * * * * * *

      When, O Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now? Do not the nightly guards placed on the Palatine Hill — do not the watches posted throughout the city — does not the alarm of the people, and the union of all good men — does not the precaution taken of assembling the senate in this most defensible place — do not the looks and countenances of this venerable body here present have any effect upon you? Do you not feel that your plans are detected? Do you not see that your conspiracy is already arrested and rendered powerless by the knowledge which every one here possesses of it? What is there that you did last night, what the night before — where is it that you were — who was there that you summoned to meet you — what design was there which was adopted by you, with which you think that any one of us is unacquainted? 

      O tempora! o mores! The senate is aware of these things; the consul sees them; and yet this man lives. Lives! aye, he comes even into the senate. He takes a part in the public deliberations; he is watching and marking down and checking off for slaughter every individual among us. And we, gallant men that we are, think that we are doing our duty to the republic if we keep out of the way of his frenzied attacks. You ought, O Catiline, long ago to have been led to execution by command of the consul. That destruction which you have been long plotting against us ought to have already fallen on your own head.

      What? Did not that most illustrious man, Publius Scipio, the Pontifex Maximus, in his capacity of a private citizen, put to death Tiberius Gracchus, though but slightly undermining the constitution? And shall we, who are the consuls, tolerate Catiline, openly desirous to destroy the whole world with fire and slaughter? For I pass over older instances, such as how Caius Servilius Ahala with his own hand slew Spurius Maelius when plotting a revolution in the state. There was — there was once such virtue in this republic, that brave men would repress mischievous citizens with severer chastisement than the most bitter enemy. For we have a resolution of the senate, a formidable and authoritative decree against you, O Catiline; the wisdom of the republic is not at fault, nor the dignity of this senatorial body. We, we alone — I say it openly — we, the consuls, are waiting in our duty. 

      The senate once passed a decree that Lucius Opimius, the consul, should take care that the republic suffered no injury. Not one night elapsed. There was put to death, on some mere suspicion of disaffection, Caius Gracchus, a man whose family had borne the most unblemished reputation for many generations. There was slain Marcus Fulvius, a man of consular rank, and all his children. By a like decree of the senate the safety of the republic was entrusted to Caius Marius and Lucius Valerius, the consuls. Did not the vengeance of the republic, did not execution overtake Lucius Saturninus, a tribune of the people, and Caius Servilius, the praetor, without the delay of one single day? But we, for these twenty days have been allowing the edge of the senate's authority to grow blunt, as it were. For we are in possession of a similar decree of the senate, but we keep it locked up in its parchment — buried, I may say, in the sheath; and according to this decree you ought, o Catiline, to be put to death this instant. You live — and you live, not to lay aside, but to persist in your audacity. I wish, O conscript fathers, to be merciful; I wish not to appear negligent amid such danger to the state; but I do now accuse myself of remissness and culpable inactivity. 

      A camp is pitched in Italy, at the entrance of Etruria, in hostility to the republic; the number of the enemy increases every day; and yet the general of that camp, the leader of those enemies, we see within the walls — yes, and even in the senate — planning every day some internal injury to the republic. If, O Catiline, I should now order you to be arrested, to be put to death, I should, I suppose, have to fear lest all good men should say that I had acted tardily, rather than that any one should affirm that I acted cruelly. But yet this, which ought to have been done long since, I have good reason for not doing as yet; I will put you to death, then, when there shall be not one person possible to be found so wicked, so abandoned, so like yourself, as not to allow that it has been rightly done. 

      As long as one person exists who can

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1