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OKATORY AND
BY

0EAT0E8.'

WILLIAM MATHEWS,
author of
" getting on in

LL.D.,

the world," " the great gonvbesers,' "words; their use and abuse,'' etc. etc.

L'dloquence est
rapiditd,

le

talent d'imprimer avec force, et ie faire passer avec

le

dans Tame des autres

sentiment 'profond dont on est p^n^tr^.

D'Alembert.
Criticism
is

nearly useless, unless the critic quotes innumerable examples.

David Hume.

TENTH THOUSAND.

CHICAGO:
S.

C.

GRIGGS AND COMPANY,

1887.

ORNE

UBRARV/

COPTKIQHT,

1878,

By

S. C.

GEIGGS AND COMPANY.

KHISHT & "LEONARD

"

FREE ACE.
saying that his object in writing this book has INbeen to aid in awakening a fresh interest in oratory
in this country, the

author will probably provoke a smile

he hears some one exclaim, "have we not an excess of public speakers already? Is not the flux de bouche, which is said to be the epidemic of

from his readers.

"What!"

republics,

one

of

the

greatest evils

that can

afflict

Does not Carlyle declare that 'silence is the eternal duty of man,' and that England and America are going to nothing but wind and tongue'?" In reply,
country?
'

we would say
troop
of

that

we have no wish
intensely

to let loose

a fresh

shallow declaimers upon

the

country;

on the

contrary,

we

feel

the

social

misery which a

single declaimer, with a powerful

and a fluent tongue, may

iniiict

on the public.
to

memory, leathern lungs, The Roan office-holder

the station

man
at

poet, Horace, speaks of one Novius,

Rome,

a
of

tribune,

who

was elevated

he held, chiefly by the force of his lungs. " Has he not a voice," demanded his supporters, "loud enough to drown
the
noise

meeting in the forum?

two hundred wagons and three funerals It is this that pleases us, and

we have

therefore

made him tribune:

" 'At
hie, 81 plostra diicenta

Concurrantque foro tria funera, magna sonabit Cornua quod vincatque tubas: saltern tenet hoc nos.'

We

the United States has more than one owes his seat in a state legislature, in ConNovius who
fear

that

iv

PKEFACB.
or

even on the bench, to a similar qualification. But shall we, therefore, conclude that the study of oratory The very reverse, we as an art should be discouraged?
gress,

think,
It

is is

the just conclusion.

an unpleasant

conviction, which

we wish
is

the

facts

did

not force upon us, that while there

plenty

of "sijouting,"

of speaking,
to address

if

one pleases,

in

this coun-

It is for try, there is little oratory, and less eloquence. the very reason that the American people are deluged by

their isublic speakers with words,

is

it is

because so

many

of

those

who assume

them from the tribune and

longer than
to,
its whole and most ear-

the platform remind us so unpleasantly of that bird of the parrot tribe whose

tongue
call

body,

that

we would

attention

nestly emphasize, the

value of oratorical studies.

It

is is

because our young

the

men do

not realize that oratory

weapon of an athlete, and can never be wielded effectually by an intellectual and moral weakling, because our colleges unintentionally give currency to this idea by

devoting so insignificant a portion of time to exercises

that so many persons are ready to the public with " mouthfuls of spoken wind." It
in elocution,

afilict
is

be-

they consciously or unconsciously hold the pestilent notion that the finest productions of the mind are
cause
the fruits of sudden inspiration, the chance visitations of

a fortunate moment, the flashings of intuition, that they are ready to mount the rostrum at the slightest provocation

and without any serious preparation. Let them once learn and deeply feel that the most infallible sign
of genius
is

intense conviction of

a prodigious capacity for hard work, and an its necessity; that no man ever has,

or ever can be, a true orator without a long and severe apprenticeship to the art; that it not only demands constant, patient, daily practice in

speaking and reading, but

tKEPACE.

a sedulous culture of the memory, the judgment and the

fancy,

the treasures
use,

a that

ceaseless storing of the cells of the brain with

of literature, history, and science, for

its

one might as well

philosophy to
wield

expect

literally

to

comelo-

mand
as

the lightnings of the tempest without philosophy,

without

the

lightnings

from haranguing their fellow-men, except after a careful training and the most conscientious preparation. So far is it from being true that, if elocution and style were cultivated more, a torrent of empty declamation would be let loose upon the
quence,

and

of

they will

shrink

are confident the very opposite would be Study and high appreciation of an art, by improving the taste, increase fastidiousness and hence they are calculated to check, rather than to increase, loworld, that
the result.
;

we

quacity.

Owing
no easy

to the vast

abundance of the materials, the preits

paration of this work, whatever

task.

shortcomings, has been

it,

Several chapters written for

including
of

one on Military Eloquence, and sketches of a

orators (Curran, Shell, Macaulay, Fisher

number

Wirt), have been excluded, to volume too bulky. For the same and other reasons, only incidental notices have been given of living orators. It was the author's intention to give a list of the works he had consulted; but they are so numerous that he must content himself with a general acknowledgment of his indebtedness to nearly all the writers on oratory, for there are few good ones, he believes, whom he has neglected Especially, would he acknowledge his oblito examine.

liam

Ames, and Wilavoid making the

gations to various articles on the subject in the leading

English reviews and the " North American Review," and

to

several

anonymous writers

suggestions he has profited.

in magazines, by whose For some interesting facts

VI

PEEFACE.

is indebted to Mr. E. Gr. Golden Age of American Oratory." That it will be easy for a logician to point out apparent contradictions in these pages the author is aware; but

coneerning American orators, he

Parker's

work on the

"

been said of another whose shoes he is not worthy to unloose, that these seeming contradictions are, in fact,
he believes
it

will be found, as has

writer, the latchet of

only successive presentations of single sides of a truth, which,

"

existence,

by their union, manifest completely to us its and guide us to a perception of its nature.
writer," says Dr. Bushnell, "
is

No good

who

is

occupied

in simply expressing truth,

tions or inconsistencies
to

ever afraid of contradic-

in his

language.

It is

nothing

him

that

quirk of logic can bring him into an

absurdity.

There is no book that contains so many repugnances, or antagonistic forms, as the Bible." *
Finally, to all persons interested in the subject here dis-

and who do not believe with the author of " Lacon" is the puffing and blustering spoilt child of a semi-barbarous age," or with General Grant, that the art of speech-making is one of little use, but agree with Luther that " he who can speak well is a man," and
cussed,

that " oratory

with Cicero that

that in which
inscribed.

it

is

most glorious

to

excel

men
work

in
is

men
*

excel all other animals, this

" God in Christ," pp.
57, 69.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

I.

The Power and Influence or the Oratoe,

CHAPTER
Is

II.
-

Oeatory a Lost Art?

30

CHAPTER
Qualifications of the Orator,

III.
-

63

CHAPTER

IV.
-

Qualifications of the Orator (continued),

103

CHAPTER
The Orator's Trials,
-

V.

CHAPTER
The Oeator!s Helps,
-

VI.

... ...
.
. -

140

161

CHAPTER
The Tests of Eloquence,

VII.

193

CHAPTER
Personalities in Debate,

....

VIII.

214

viii

COlfTEBrTS.

Political Orators: English,

Political Orators: Irish,

Political Orators: American,

Forensic Orators,

Pulpit Orators,

.... .... .... .... ....

CHAPTER
X.
-

CHAPTEE

IX.

226

268

CHAPTER XL

301

CHAPTER

XII.

346

CHAPTER

XIII.

379

CHAPTER

XIV.
. -

Plea for Oratorical

-

Cttltitre,

407

Index,

447

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

CHAPTER

I.

THE POWER AND INFLUENCE OF THE OEATOK.

rr^O
-'-

estimate the degree in which the orator has infludifficult task.

eneed the world's history, would be a

It

would be hardly too much

to say that, since the

dawn

of civilization, the triumphs of the tongue have rivalled,

if

not surpassed, those of the sword.

There

is

hardly any

man,
he
is

illiterate or educated, so destitute of sensibility that

not charmed by the music of eloquent speech, even

it

though
heart,

affect

his his

senses

rather

than
it
is

his

mind and
elo-

and rouse

blood only as

roused by the

drums and
quence
is

truiiapets

of military bands.

But when
art, or

something more than a trick of

it

a juggle

with words; when

ear, or

has a higher aim than to tickle the

as

to

charm the imagination

scales of the
it

the sparkling

eye

and dazzling
bird;

serpent enchant the hovering

when

has a higher inspiration than that which

" sounding

produces the

brass and tinkling cymbal " of

merely fascinating

speech;

when

it

is

armed with the

estab-

thunderbolt of powerful thought, and winged with lofty

feeling;
lished,

when

the electric current of sympathy

it

is

and the orator sends upon

thrill after thrill of

sentiment and emotion, vibrating and pulsating to the

sensibilities of his hearers, as if their
9

very heart-strings

10

OKATOKY AND ORATORS,

his trembling fingers;

were held in the grasp of

strips

when

it

those to
invests

whom

it

is

addressed of their independ-

ence,

them with
of the

its

own

life,

and makes them

divests

obedient to a strange nature, as

follow the
their

the mighty ocean tides

it

path

moon; when
affections,

men

of

peculiar qualities and

and turns a vast

multitude into one man, giving to them but one heart,

one pulse, and one voice, and that an echo of the speaker's,

then,

indeed,

it

becomes not only a delight, but a

power, and a power greater than kings or military chieftains can

command. The French philosopher, D'Alembert, goes

it

so far as to

say of eloquence, that " the prodigies which

in the

often works,

hands of a single man, upon an entire nation, are

perhaps the most shining testimony of the superiority of

one

man

over another "

and Emerson expresses a simiis

lar opinion

when he
of the

says that eloquence

" the appro-

priate organ of the highest personal energy."

is

As there
a rarer
its loftiest

no

effort

human mind which demands

no human
effort

combination of faculties than does oratory in

flights,

so

there

is

which

is

rewarded

with more immediate or more dazzling triumphs.

philosopher in his
closet,

The

the statesman in his cabinet,

field,

the general in the tented

effects

may produce more

lasting
is

upon human
felt,

affairs,

but their influence

both

more slowly
ancy
it

and

less

intoxicating from the ascendis

confers.

The orator

not compelled

to

wait

through long and weary years

labors.
efforts

to reap the

reward of his

His triumphs are instantaneous; they follow his as the thunder-peal follows the lightning's flash.
is

While he
triumph

in the very act of forming his sentences, his

is

reflected

from the countenances of

his hearers,

tOWEE AND INFLUENCE Ot

and
is

1"HE OEATOK.

11

sounded from their

lips.

To stand up
of the

before a
call-

vast assembly composed of

ings, views, passions,
will;

men

most various

and prejudices, and mould them at

to play

upon

their hearts

and minds

as

a master

upon the keys of a piano;

of the orator;
to

to convince their understand-

ings by the logic, and to thrill their feelings by the art,

see

every eye watching his

face,

and
lips;

every ear intent on the words that drop from his

to
see

indiiference
to

changed to breathless

interest,

and

aversion

rapturous enthusiasm; to hear thunders of

applause at the close of every period; to see the whole

assembly

animated

by the feelings which

in

him are

burning and struggling for utterance; and to think that

all

this

is

the creation of the

moment, and has sprung

instantaneously from his iiery brain and the inspiration

imparted to
perhaps,
is

it

by the circumstances of the hour;

greatest

is

this,

the

triumph of which the human

its

mind
'

is

capable,

and that in which

divinity

most

signally revealed.

The history of every country and of every age teems

with the miracles wrought by this necromantic power.

Eloquence, as every school-boy knows, was the masterspirit of

both the great nations of antiquity,

It

Greece and

Rome.

was not the

fleets

of Attica, though mighty,

nor the valor of her troops, though unconquerable, that

directed her destinies, but the words and gestures of the

men who had

trate,

the genius and the skill to move, to concen-

and

to direct the energies

and passions of a whole

people, as though they

were but one person.

When

the

Commons
it

of

Eome were bowed down

to the dust beneath

the load of debts which they owed their patrician creditors,

was the agonizing appeals of an old man in

rags, pale


12

OKATOKY AKD ORATORS.

citizens that

and famishing, with haggard beard and hair, who told the he had fought in eight and twenty battles, and

yet had been imprisoned for a debt with usurious interest

which he was compelled to contract, but could not pay, that

caused a change of the laws, and a restoration to liberty of
those

who had been enslaved by

it

their creditors.

It

was

not, as

has been well said, the fate of Lucretia, but the

gesture of Brutus waving abroad her bloody knife, and

his long

hidden soul bursting forth in terrible denunciadrove out the Tarquin from Eome, overthrew

tion, that

the throne, and established the Republics "It was a father's cries

and prayers
the

for vengeance, as he rushed

from

the dead body of Virginia,? appealing to his countrymen, that roused

legions of

the Tusculan

camp

to seize

upon the Sacred Mount, and achieve another freedom.

And when

the

Roman Empire was

the world, and trophies

from every people hung in her

capitol, the orator,

whether

in the senate or in the comitia, shook oracles of the fate/

of nations from the folds of his mantle."

Plutarch

tells

us that Thucydides,

when Archidamus, King

of Sparta,

asked him which was the best wrestler, Pericles or he,

"When I throw him, he says he was never down, and persuades the very spectators to believe him." The Athenian populace, roused by the burning words of Demosthenes, started up with one accord and one cry to
replied:

march upon
the orator

Philip;

who had

one of his orations,

persuaded

"Had

baffled

and the Macedonian monarch said of him, on hearing a report of

been there, he would have

up arms against myself" We are was the force of Cicero's oratory, that it not only confounded the audacious Cataline, and silenced
to take

me

told that such

the eloquent Hortensius,

not

only deprived Curio of

all

POWEB AND INFLUENCE OF THE ORATOR.

power of
recollection,

13

when he
rhetoric,

rose to oppose that great

master of enchanting

but
It

made even
was not
till

Caesar

tremble, and, changing his determined purpose, acquit the

man

he had resolved to condemn.

liberty,

the two

champions of ancient
silenced,

Demosthenes and Cicero, were

Despotism in Greece and

that the triumph of

Rome was
exile

complete.

The

fatal

blow

to

Athenian greatness
to

was the defeat by Antipater which drove Demosthenes was that which smote
the head of Tully at Caieta.

and to death; the deadly stroke at Roman freedom

off

In the Dark Ages the earnest tones of a simple private

man, who has

left to posterity

only his baptismal name,

with the modest surname of Hermit, roused the nations

to

engage in the Crusades, drove back the victorious

overthrew feudalism, emancipated the

cres-

cent,

serfs, delivered

the towns from the oppression of the barons, and changed

the moral face of Europe.
of a solitary of

Two

centuries later the voice

monk shook

the Vatican, and emancipated half

Europe from the dominion of Papal Rome.

In later
less

ages the achievements of oratory have

potent.

been hardly
is

What

reader of English history

not familiar

with the story of that "lord of the silver bow," the accomplished Bolingbroke,

whom

the
exile,

Ministry,

when they

permitted him to return from

reenter Parliament,
lest

dared not permit to

they should be pierced by his

deadly shafts?
or

Who

can say what the cause of European,

even the world's history would have been, had the

British Senate never shaken with the thunders of Fox's,

Camden's, or Grattan's eloquence, or had Mirabeau, Vergniaud, Louvet, Barbaroux, and Danton never hurled their
fiery bolts

from the French tribune?

"Who

can doubt,"

says Daniel Webster, "that in our

own

struggle for inde-

14

OEATOEY AND OKATOBS.

pendenee, the majestic eloquence of Chatham, the profound reasoning of Burke, the burning satire and irony of Barr^,

had influence on our fortunes in America?

They tended

to diminish the confidence of the British ministry in their

hopes to subject us.

did not struggle

There was not a reading

for his rights

man who
those

more boldly

when

exhilarating sounds, uttered in the

two houses of Parlia-

ment, reached him across the seas."

To

the effects

wrought
arbi-

by "the fulminating eloquence

orators, history has

" of the first of these great

borne abundant testimony.

The

ter of the destinies of his

.

own

country, he was also the

"

foremost

man

in all the world.

. . .

His august mind over-

awed majesty.

Without dividing, he destroyed party;

without corrupting, he

made a venal age

unanimous;

Prance sunk beneath him; with one hand he smote the

House of Bourbon, and wielded in the other the democracy

of England."

We
in

are told that

when Mirabeau

arose in the National

Assembly, and delivered one of those fiery speeches which,

their

union of reason and passion, so remind us of

Demosthenes, he trod the tribune with the supreme authority of a master, and the imperial air of a king. As he proceeded with his harangue, his frame dilated; his face was wrinkled and contorted; he roared, he stamped;
his hair

whitened with foam

irritability,

his

whole system was seized

as

with an electric

and writhed

under an

al-

most preternatural agitation.

The

effect of his eloquence,

which was of the grandest and most impressive kind, abounding in bold images, striking metaphors, and sudden natural bursts, the creation of the moment, was greatly increased by his " hideously magnificent aspect," the massive frame, the features full of pock-holes and

POWEE AND INFLUENCE OF THE ORATOR.

blotches, the

15

eagle

eye that dismayed with a look, the

voice of thunder that dared a reply, the hair that

like a lion's

waved

mane.

The ruling

spirit of the

French Revo-

lution, he did, while he lived,

more than any other man,

" of that

" to guide the

political
bles

whirlwind and direct the storm

and

social crisis.

When
the

the clergy and the no-

obeyed the royal mandate that the National Assem-

bly should disperse, and

commons remained
was

hesitat-

ing, uncertain, almost in consternation, it

his voice

that hurled defiance at the King, and inspired the Tiers-

Etat with courage.

When

he cried out to the astonished

tell

emissary of Lewis: "Slave, go

your master that we

are here by the will of the people, and that

we

will de-

part

only

at

the

point

of

the
all

bayonet "

the

words

sounded like a thunder-clap to

Europe, and from that

moment
fate

the bondage of the nation was broken, and the

sealed.*

of despotism

Startling

the

critics

of the

Academy by

his bold, straight- forward style of oratory, so

stiff,

opposed to the

conventional manner of the day, he

life

showed them that there was " a power of

rude and startling language,
place ideas could be

" in his

that

the

most commonpower; and,

endowed with

electric

had he not died prematurely, he might, perhaps, have

dissuaded France from plunging into the gulf of anarchy,

and shown a genius for reconstruction only inferior

which he had displayed
as a destroyer.

to that

Among

the most memorable displays of oratory, few

are more familiar to the ordinary reader than those which

took place during the trial of

minster Hall.

It is said

that

Warren Hastings in Westwhen Burke, with an imby Miraheau was

less

* It is pretty certain that the language actually used

(ierse

and audacious than

this:

we

give the current version.

16

ORATOBY AlTD OE^TOES.

as

agination almost as oriental

the

scenes

he depicted,

described, in words that will live as long as the English

language, the cruelties inflicted upon the natives of India

by Debi Sing, one of Hastings's agents, a convulsive shudder ran through the whole assembly. Indignation and
rage
"
filled

the breasts of his hearers; some of the ladies

"
;

swooned away

and Hastings himself, though he had

"

protested his innocence, was utterly overwhelmed.

For

half an hour," he said afterward in describing the scene,

" I looked

up

at the orator in a revery of wonder,

and

actually
earth."

felt

myself to

be

the

most culpable
his

man on
mem-

When Canning, in 1826, closed

"I looked
to

famous speech

on the King's Message respecting Portugal with the

orable passage:

Spain in the Indies; I called

New World
the

into existence to redress the balance of the

Old,"

effect,

we
they

are
as
if

told,

was

terrific.

The whole
had passed
to

House was moved

through them:
him!

an

electric

shock

all

rose for a

moment

look

at

memorable example of the power of eloquence

is

furnished by the speech of Lord Stanley (afterward the

Earl of Derby) on the Irish Coercion

Bill,

brought into the

House of Commons
sell

in 1833.

erful speech in opposition,

(to

made a powand seemed, says Lord RusO'Connell had

whom we

are

indebted for

an account of the

scene),

about to achieve a triumph in favor of sedition

and anarchy.

Lord Derby, in

his

reply, recalled to the

that, at a recent

recollection of the

House of Commons
" In

public meeting, O'Connell had spoken of the

House of
of

Commons

as

658 scoundrels.

tempest

scorn

and indignation," says Lord Russell, "he excited the anger of the

men

thus designated against the author of

POWER AKD INFLUENCE OF THE OBATOB.

the

17

calumny.

The House which

pieces.

for

two hours before was now

al-

seemed about to yield

to the great agitator,

most ready to tear him to

In the midst of the

storm which his eloquence had raised, he (Lord Stanley)

sat

down, having achieved one of the greatest triumphs

of eloquence ever
ers of oratory."

won

in a popular assembly

by the pow-

In our

own country
less

the triumphs of eloquence have

been hardly

marked than those of the Old World.

first

In the night of tyranny the eloquence of the country

blazed up,
like

the lighted signal-fires

of

distracted

border, to startle and enlighten the community.

Every-

where, as the news of some fresh invasion of liberty and

right

was borne on the wings of the wind, men ran

to-

gether and called upon some earnest citizen to address

them.

The eloquence
it

of that period

was not the mere

it

ebullition of feeling;

was the enthusiasm of reason;

was judgment raised into transport, and breathing the

irresistible ardors of

sympathy.
Otis, in a

When
bly,

in 1761

James

Boston popular assemhis hearers his

denounced the British Writs of Assistance,

resistlessly

were hurried away

petuous speech.

on the torrent of

im-

When

he had concluded, every man, we

are told, of the vast audience went

away

resolved to take

arms against the

illegality.

When

Patrick

up Henry pleaded
it
is

the tobacco case "against the parsons" in 1758,

said

that the people might have been seen in every part of the
house, on the benches, in the aisles, and in the windows,

hushed in death-like

stillness,

and bending eagerly

for-

ward
were

to catch the

magic tones of the speaker.

The jury

so bewildered as to lose sight of the legislative enactplaintiffs relied;

ments on which the

the court lost the


18
equipoise of
the people,
its

OBATORY AND OKATORS.

judgment, and refused a new trial; and could scarcely keep their hands off their

who

champion after he had closed his harangue, no sooner saw that he was victorious, than they seized him at the bar,
and, in spite of his

own

efforts,

and the continued cry of

their shoulders, car-

"Order!" from the

ried

sheriff

and the court, bore him out of

the court-house, and, raising

him on

him about

the yard in a kind of electioneering tri-

umph.

When
speech

the same great orator concluded

in

his well-

known

March,

1775,
of

in

behalf of American
followed," says

independence, " no
his biographer;

murmur
effect

applause

"the

was too deep.

of

After the trance

of

a moment, several
seats.

members
cry,

the Assembly started

to quiver

from their
on every

The

To arms! seemed

lip

and glance from every eye."

the Declaration
its

Mr.
in

Jefferson,

who drew up
that John
gress, "

of

Independence, declares

Adams,

ablest advocate on the floor of Con-

poured forth his

passionate

appeals
seats."

language

which moved

his hearers

from their

There are few school-boys who are not familiar with

the famous passage in the great speech of Fisher

Ames

on the British Treaty, in which he depicts the horrors of

the border

its rejection.

war with the Indians, which would result from Even when we read these glowing periods
the dying statesman, that

to-day in cold blood, without the tremulous and thrilling

accents of
pressive,
line.

made them

so im-

we

feel the " fine frenzy " of the

speaker in every
the burn-

An

old

man, a judge

in Maine,

who heard

ing words of Ames, declared that as he closed with the

climax, "

The darkness of midnight

will glitter with the

blaze of your dwellings.

You

are a father,
:

the

blood of

your sons shall fatten your corn-field

you are a mother,

POWER AND INFLUENCE OF THE ORATOR.

the war-whoop shall

19

wake the

sleep of the cradle,"

the

prophecy seemed for a

moment

a reality.

" I

shuddered

and looked a

little

behind me; for I fancied a big Indian

with an uplifted tomahawk over me."

William Wirt, himself an orator,

the "Blind Preacher of Virginia"
trial, crucifixion,

tells

us that

when

drew a picture of the

and death of our Savior, there was such

force

and pathos in the description that the original scene

be, at that

appeared to
eyes.

moment, acting before the hearers'

faces of the Jews: the staring,

"We
my

saw the very

of

frightful
buflfet;

distortions

malice and rage.

We

saw the

soul kindled with a flame of indignation; and

my

hands were involuntarily and convulsively clinched."

faltering voice, he

But when, with

for

came

to touch

on the

patience, the forgiving meekness of the Savior, his prayer

pardon of

his enemies,

"the

efi'ect

was inconceivable.

The whole house resounded with the mingled groans, and

sobs,

and shrieks of the congregation."

effects

The accounts given of the

wrought by some of
voice

Daniel Webster's speeches, seem almost incredible to those

who never have

weighty words.

listened

to

his

clarion-like

and

Yet even now,

stirring passages in his early

realize that

we read some of the discourses, we can hardly

as

we

are not standing by as he strangles the

reluctantes dracones of

upon the scenes

describes.

in

an adversary, or actually looking American history which he so vividly

letters

Prof. Ticknor, speaking in one of his

of the intense excitement with which he listened to

Web-

ster's Plymouth Address, says: "Three or four times I thought my temples would burst with the gush of blood; for, after all, you must know that I am aware it is no

connected and compacted whole, but a collection of won-

20

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

man-

derful fragments of burning eloquence, to which his

ner gave tenfold force.

afraid
to

When
It

came

out,
to

/ was almost
that he was

come near
that

to

him.

seemed

me

like the

mount

might not be touched, and that burned

with

fire."
it

As
ten,

was the eloquence of Hamilton, spoken and writwas the eloquence of Webster that mainly
it:

which, in no small degree, established our political

it

system, so

defended and saved

"

Duo fnlmina

belli,

Scipiadas,

cladem Libyae."

When

the Federal Constitution, the product of so

much
of

sacrifice

and

toil,
it

was
rescue.

menaced

by

the

Nulliflers

South Carolina,
that sprang to

was the great orator of Massachusetts

its

As

the champion of
his

New

Eng-

land

closed

the

memorable peroration of
rested

reply to

Hayne, the silence of death

Senate

upon the crowded

clasped,

Chamber.

Hands remained
could

faces

fixed

and

rigid,

and eyes

tearful, while the

sharp rap of the

President's

hammer

hardly

awaken the audience

Nullification once
for a long

from the trance into which the orator had thrown them.

When,
more

again, over thirty years

its

later.

raised

front,
conflict,

and stood forth armed

it

and desperate

was the ignited

logic

of the

same Defender of the Constitution,

burning and enthusiastic appeals for "Liberty and Union, now and /orever, one and inseparable," which, still echoing in the

the

to resistance.

as by a bugle-blast was because Webster, when livino- had indoctrinated the whole North with his views of the
It

memories of the people, roused them

structure of our government, that,

when

his bones lay

mouldering at Marshfield, the whole North was ready to

POWER
fight as

AlTD INFLUENCE OF

THE OEATOB.

21

one

man

against the heresy of Secession.

The

idol of the

American youth,

at the stage of their culture

when eloquence
ality,

exerts its most powerful fascination, he

had infused into their hearts such a sentiment of nationthat they sprang to

arms with a determination

folds

to

shed the last drop of their blood, rather than see a single
star effaced

from the ample

of the

national

flag.

Who

has

forgotten the
in

potent enchantment worked by

the same voice

Paneuil Hall, after the odious Com-

promise Act of 1850?

as " godlike,"

The orator who had been adored

and whose appearance had been a signal

for a universal outburst of enthusiasm,

the

orator

upon

whom New England had

been proud

to lavish its honors,

was now received with frowning looks and sullen indignation; yet "never," says the poet Lowell, "did

we

en-

counter a harder task than to escape the fascination of

that magnetic presence of the man, which worked so potently to

charm the mind from a

There he
with
his

judicial serenity to an
stood, the

admiring enthusiasm.

lion

at bay;
his

and

that

one

man,

ponderous

forehead,

sharp, cliff-edged
his

brows, his brooding, thunderous eyes,

hair,

Mirabeau mane of

and

all

the other nameless

attributes of his lion-Jike

port, seemed enough to over-

balance and outweigh that great multitude of men,

who

came
grain

as accusers, but remained, so to speak, as captives, to

swayed
is

and fro by

his aroused energy as the facile

turned hither and thither in mimic surges by

the strong wind that runs before the thundergust."

With
to
fill

the triumphs of sacred oratory

it

would be easy

a volume.

Not

to

go back

to

the days of

John

the Baptist, or to those of Paul and Peter, whose words

are the very flame-breath of the Almighty,

nor

even to

22

ORATOET AND ORATORS.

the days of Clirysostom, the golden-mouthed, who, when,

like

another Elijah, or John the Baptist risen from the he

dead,

reappeared among

his

townsmen
which

of

Antioch,

after the austerities in the desert to their licentiousness

his disgust at

had driven him, denounced their bac-

chanalian orgies in words that

made

their cheeks tingle,

and sent them panic-stricken to their homes,

has wrought in

who

is

not familiar with the miracles which christian eloquence

modern times?

Who

has forgotten the

story of " the priest, patriot, martyr," Savonarola, crying

evermore

to the people of Florence, "

Heu

fuge crudelas

terras, fuge littus

avarum

"

Who

is

ignorant of the mighty

changes, ecclesiastic and political, produced by the blunt

words of Latimer, the

denunciations of

fiery appeals of Wyeliffe, the stern

Knox? Or what ruler of men ever subjugated them more effectually by his sceptre than Chalmers, who gave law from his pulpit for thirty years who
;

hushed the

frivolity of the

modern Babylon, and melted

the,

French philosophers in a half-known tongue; who drew tears from dukes and duchesses, and made
souls of the

princes of the blood and bishops start to their feet, and

break out into rounds of the wildest applause?

What
of

cultivated

man

needs to be told of the

the

sweet

persuasion

that

dwelt

upon

tongue

of

the

swan
in-

Cambray, the alternating religious joy and terror spired by the silvery cadence and polished phrase
Massillon,

of

or the resistless

conviction

that

followed the

upon error and

argumentative strategy of Bourdaloue, a mode of attack sin which was so illustrative of the iniperonce, as the Jesuit

atoria virtus of Quintilian, that the great

mounted the

Cond^ cried out pulpit, " Silence, Messieurs

is

void Vennemi!"

What

schoolboy

not familiar with the

POWER

AISTD

INFLUENCE OF THE ORATOR.

23

religious terror with which, in his oraisons funebres, the "

Demosthenes of the pulpit," Bossuet, thrilled the breasts

of seigneurs

and

princesses,

and even the breast of that

ye

King before whom

kings!

other kings trembled and knelt, when,

taking for his text the words, " Be wise, therefore,

be instructed, ye judges of the earth!" he un-

veiled to his auditors the awful reality of

God the Lord

reigning above
principal-

of all

empires, the

chastiser of princes,

the heavens,
ities

making and unmaking kingdoms,

or, again,

and powers;

with the

fire

of a lyric poet

and the zeal of a prophet, called on nations, princes, nobles,

and warriors, to come

raise to

to the foot of the catafalque

which strove to

heaven a magnificent testimony

of the nothingness of

man?

At

the beginning of his dis-

courses, the action of " the eagle of

Meaux," we are
to

told,

was dignified and reserved; he confined himself

notes before him.

the

Gradually " he warmed with his theme,

the

contagion of his enthusiasm seized his hearers; he

watched their rising emotion; the rooted glances of a

thousand eyes
filled

him with

a sort of divine frenzy; his

notes became a burden and a hindrance; with impetuous

ardor he abandoned himself

to.

the inspiration of the mo-

ment; with the eyes of the soul he watched the swelling

hearts of his hearers; their concentrated emotions became
his

own; he

felt

within himself the collected might of

the orators and martyrs whose collected essence, by long

and repeated communion, he had absorbed into himself;

from

flight to flight

he ascended, until, with unflagging

straight

energy, he

towered

upwards, and

dragged the

rapt contemplation of his audience along with him in its At such times, says the Abb6 Le Dieu, ethereal flight."
it

seemed as though the heavens were open, and

celestial

24

OEATOBT AND ORATOKS.

upon these trembling souls, on the day of Pentecost. At other

joys were about to descend

like

tongues of

fire

times, heads

turned faces

bowed down with humiliation, or pale upand streaming eyes, lips parted with broken

ejaculations of despair, silently testified that the spirit of

repentance had breathed on

many

a hardened heart.

There

is

a story told of a French Abb6, that he preached

a sermon, on a certain Sunday, of such power that his

appalled people went home, put

up

the shutters of their

shops, and for three days gave themselves up to utter despair.

Jonathan Edwards, the Calvinistic divine, preached

fiery

sermons of such force that, under the lash of his

denunciation,
in their seats.

men

cried out in agony,

and women rose up

There have been other preachers who, in

moments
and
joy.

of general misery, have

had equal power of turn-

ing the wailing of their people into bursts of thankfulness

"I have heard

it

reported," says Emerson, "of

is

an eloquent preacher whose voice

city (Boston), that,

not forgotten in this

on occasions of death or tragic disaster

which overspread the congregation with gloom, he ascended

the pulpit with more than his usual alacrity, and, turning
to his favorite lessons
ness,
ers,
'

Let us praise the Lord,' carried

of

of devout and jubilant thankful-

audience,

mournall

and mourning along with him, and swept away

private

the

impertinence

sorrow with his hosannas and

songs of praise."

In our

own day

the triumphs of eloquence, though of

less signal
if

a different kind from those of yore, are hardly

than in the ages

grander

past.

We

doubt, on the whole,

laurels,

the

orator was ever tempted

field for

by brighter

or

had a

the exercise of his art.

We

live in

an

age of popular agitation, when, in every free country, the


POWER AND INFLUENCE OF THE OKATOK.
people are becoming

25
all

more and more the source of

by organized and systematic

power, and when

it is

effort,

by " monster meetings," and appeals made to the

that great political changes are

constit-

uencies of the country, rather than to the legislature,

worked

out.

The germs of

great events, the

origin,

first

motive-springs of change, have their

closet, in

no doubt, in the

the brains of

men

of

deep thought and wide observation,

in the strife

who

are not engaged

and turmoil of the arena.

But the people

are the great agency by which all revolutions and changes

are accomplished, and the two great engines for convincing

and moving the people are oratory and the

press.

Nevei

before were the masses of the people appealed to so earnestly

and systematically as now.

England!

The

title,

"Agitator,*
of honor,

once a term of contempt, has

now become one

changes

Look

at

What mighty

have
fifty

been
years

wrought in her

political

system within the last

by the indomitable energy of the Vincents, the Poxes, the

Cobdens, and scores of other speakers,

who have

traversed

the kingdom, advocating Parliamentary Eeform, the Eepeal

of the Corn-Laws, and other measures which were

once

deemed utopian and hopeless!

Scotland, too, has

hardly
its

yet recovered from a convulsion which shook society to

foundations, produced by the eloquence of a few earnest

men, who declared that " conscience should be

can doubt that, in our

free."

Who

own

country,

it

was the vehement

and impassioned oratory of the so-called "anti-slavery the "hare-brained" champions of "the higher fanatics," law," that precipitated the "irrepressible conflict" which

broke the fetters of the slave, and thus removed the most formidable obstacle to the complete union of North and
South, as well as the foulest stain on our escutcheon? 2

26
It
is

ORATORY AND

OEATOEiS.

natural to associate the gift of eloquence with a

few favored lands, and to imagine, especially, that civilized communities only have felt its influence. But there is no
people, except the very lowest savages, to

whom

it

has been

There is, an untutored peasant, who never thought of the magic potency dwelling in this faculty, and who, conse-.
denied.
voice of

doubtless, a vast difference

between the

quently, addresses his fellows in loud and discordant tones,

and that of the

man

who, with an. educated mind and a

cultivated taste, understands

and uses

his voice as

Handel

understood and used the organ; yet there are examples of

eloquence in the speeches of Logan and Red Jacket, and
other aborigines of America, that will live in the story of
that abused race as long as the trees or the winds sigh

wave

in their forests,

among

their mountains.

Sir Francis

Head, in narrating the proceedings of a council of Red

Indians which he attended as Governor of Canada, says:
"

Nothing can be more interesting, or

oifer to the civilized

world a more useful lesson, than the manner in which the

red aborigines of America, without ever interrupting each
other, conduct their councils.

demeanor,

the

scientific

The calm dignity of their manner in which they progress-

ively construct the

framework of whatever subject they

undertake to explain,
connect, as well as

the sound argument by which they support and the beautiful wildit,

flowers of eloquence with which they adorn every portion

of the moral

architecture

they are constructing,

form

altogether an exhibition of grave interest;

orators are

and yet these

men whose lips and gums are, while they are speaking, black from the berries on which they subsist."
As we conclude
self this chapter, a sad

thought presses

it-

upon the mind touching that eloquence whose magic

POWER ASD IKFLUENCE OF THE ORATOR.

effects

27
so perit is

we have
Of
all

so faintly depicted; it is that it

is

ishablec"

the great products of creative art,

the only one that does not survive the creator. a

discourse
it,

We

read

heard
its

which is said to have enchanted all who and how " shrunken and wooden " do we find

image, compared with the conception

we had formed!

The orator who lashed himself

drove on in a fiery sleet of

into a foam,

whose

speech

words and images,

in the storm,"

now
frenzy.

seems
"Dull as the lake that slumbers

and we can scarcely credit the reports of

with age; every year
tints,

his

The picture from the great master's hand may improve

may add
its colors.

to the

mellowness of

its

the delicacy of

The Cupid of The

Praxiteles,

the Mercury of Thorwaldsen, are as perfect as

when they
of

came from
Peter's,

the

sculptor's

chisel.

dome

Saint

the

self-poised

roof of King's Chapel, " scooped

into

ten

thousand

cells,"

the

facade

and sky-piercing
memorial

spire of Strasbourg Cathedral, are a perpetual

of the genius of their builders.

is

Even music,

so far as it

a creation of the composer,

may

live forever.

The
from

aria
its

or cavatina

may have
The

successive

resurrections

dead signs.

delicious melodies of Schubert,

and even

Handel's " seven-fold chorus of hallelujahs and harping

symphonies,"
to age.

may

be reproduced by
its

new

artists

from age

But

oratory, in

grandest or most bewitching

the of Demosthenes, contending the crown, the white heat of Cicero inveighing against Antony, the glaring eye and thunder tones of war, Chatham denouncing the employment of Indians the winged flame of Curran blasting the pimps and the nest of informers that would rob Orr of
manifestations,
for
Setvors^

in

his

life,


28

OEATORY AND ORATOKS.

singing-birds in Prentiss's throat, as he holds spell-bound the thousands in Faneuil Hall, the look, port, and voice
of Webster, as he hurls his thunderbolts at

Hayne,

all

these can no more be reproduced than the song of the

sirens.

The words of a masterpiece of oratorical genius may be

caught by the quick ear of the reporter, and jotted down
with
literal

exactness,

not

preposition

being

out

of

place, not

an interjection wanting; but the attitude and

the look, the voice

and the gesture, are

lost forever.

As

well might you attempt to paint the lightning's flash, as

to paint the

piercing glance which, for an instant, from

the great orator's eyes, darts into your very soul, or to

catch the mystic, wizard tones, which

now bewitch you

the very citadel of
is

with their sweetness, and

now storm

your mind and

delivered,

senses.

Occasionally a great discourse

which seems to preserve in print some of the

In reading Bossuet's
thrill-

chief elements of its power.

ing

sermon on the death of Madame Henriette Anne

d'Angleterre,

we seem
halls

to be

almost living in the seven-

teenth century, and to hear the terrible cry which rings

through

the
est

of

Versailles,

"Madame
the

se

meurt!
sobbing
But, in

Madame
the vast

morte!"

and

to

see

audience

with veiled faces as the words are pronounced. majority of cases,

it
is

but a caput mortuum

which the most cunning stenographer can give us of that

which,
hearer.
in
its

utterance,

so
finer

startled
essences,

or

charmed

the

The aroma, the

have vanished,

only the dead husk remains.

said,

Again, eloquence, as Pitt

and therefore to appreciate a discourse, we must not only have heard it as delivered but when and where it was delivered, with all its accom-

" is in the assembly,"

POWER AND INFLUENCE OF THE ORATOR.

paniments, and with the temper of those to
addressed.

29

We

need the "

fiery life of the

whom it was moment," the

contagion of the great audience, the infectious enthusi-

asm leaping from heart

to hear the

to heart, the shouting thousands

in the echoing minster or senate.

We

need to see and

magician with his wand in his hand, and on

of his
spells.

the theatre
fore,

The country preacher,

electrified

there-

was

right,

who, when he had

his

people

by an extempore discourse preached during a thunderstorm, and was asked to let

them print

it,

replied that

he would do so
along with
it.

if

they would print the thunder-storm

CHAPTER
IS

II.

ORATORY A LOST ART?

we
expressed the opinion that the

the INtriumphs

last

chapter

of eloquence in our

own

day, though of a

different kind from those of yore, are not less signal than

in the ages

past.

We

are aware that

many

persons in

England and America,

temporis
acti,

especially the croakers, laudatores

excellence,

will deny

and believers in the fabled "golden ages" of this statement. Talk to them of the

eloquent tongues of the present day,

tell

them how you

have been thrilled by the music of Gladstone's or Everett's periods, or startled by the thunderbolts of "Webster,

Brougham, or Bright,

and they will

tell

you, with a sigh,

that the oratory of their predecessors

was grander and

say, has

more impressive.
of tare

The golden age of oratory, they

It
is

gone, and the age of iron has succeeded.

an era

and

tret, of

buying and

selling, of

quick returns
taste for fine

and small
phrases.

profits,

and we have no time or

If

we have

perfected the steam-engine, and in-

vented the electric telegraph and the phonograph,

also

we have
idol-

enthroned a sordid, crouching, mammon-worshipping

high places;

spirit in

we have

deified dullness,
till

and

ized cotton-spinning

and knife-grinding,

oratory, which

always mirrors the age, has become timid and formal, dull

and decorous, never daring or caring

flights,

to

soar

in

eagle

but content to creep on the ground, and " dwell

in decencies forever."

Hence we have no masterpieces of

IS

ORATORY A LOST ART?

31

eloquence to-day like those with which Demosthenes, or

Chatham, or Mirabeau, awed and overwhelmed their hearers.

We

have no speeches of marrow and pith, abounding

in great truths felicitously expressed, terse,

epigrammatic

sentences, that stick like barbed arrows in the

memory, and
coin.

magnificent metaphors

which only genius can

We
men

have plenty of able debaters, but no real orators,

"

no

on whose tongue the fiery touch of eloquence has been

laid,

whose

lips the Attic bees

have stung with intensity

of oratory, France, and you

and power."
will

Go

to the

home

hear the same melancholy plaint.

late

French

writer,

mourning over the decay of eloquence

where each one places

in his native

land, declares that the present

little

Chambers are but

his

chapels,

so many own image upon

the altar, chants magnificats, and pays adoration to himself.

The

deputies, devoured with the leprosy of political mate-

rialism, are but manikins, not

men.

Deputies of a parish

or a fraternity; deputies of a harbor, of a railroad, of a

canal, of a vineyard; deputies of sugar-cane or beet- root;

deputies of

oil

or of bitumen; deputies of charcoal, of salt,

of iron, of flax; deputies of bovine, equine, asinine interests,

in

short, of everything except of Prance, they repre-

sent but obsolete opinions,

and are never heard of beyond

the range of their

In every age

own we hear
is,

voice.*

these doleful Jeremiads; evermore

the cry of the present

"there were giants in those days."

We

are all more or less the victims of that illusion which

leads men. to idealize

and

idolize the past.

It

seems almost
escape that

impossible for a

man who

has reached

fifty to

senile querulousness which leads one to magnify the merits of dead actors and singers, sculptors and painters, and
"

The Orators of France."

32

OKATORY AND ORATORS.

"Memory's geese are always

other artists of lang syne.

swans."

We

all

fancy with the old Count in Gil Bias, that

the peaches were

much

larger

when we were

boys.

Burke,
it

who, we

think, lived in an age of giants, spoke of

as

an

age of comparative dwarfs.

There are persons who go even

;

farther than the victims of this hereditary illusion

who not

only claim for the orators of past centuries,

for those of Greece

and Rome,

an immeasurable superiorbut do not hesitate even

a lost art.

and

especially

ity over those of the present age,

to assert that oratory is

now almost

The age
influ-

of great orators, they say, has

gone by, and such have

been the changes in

society,

and in the modes of

encing public opinion, that the Cicero or Demosthenes of

antiquity
is

no more likely

to

return than the rhapsodist

Just as
repeating

of early Greece or the

Troubadour of romance.
the revolver, and the

the improved
rifle,

artillery,

have rendered swords, sabres, and bayonets cumbrous

useless, so the old-fashioned

and

formal harangues of the

to the brief,

British and

American senates have given way

business-like speeches of

modern

times.
this

That many plausible reasons may be urged for

belief,

we

are ready to admit.

Oratory, like satire,

society.

is

fed

by the

vices

and misfortunes of

Long

periods of

peace and prosperity, which quicken the growth of other

some respects fatal to it. Its element is the whirlwind and the storm; and wten society is upheaved
arts, are in

to its foundations,
is

when

the moral and political darkness

thickest, it shines forth

with the greatest splendor.

the science of medicine would be useless

free free

As among a people

disease, so if there were a Utopia in the world from crimes and disputes, from commotions and disturbances, there would be no demand for oratory. As

from


IS

OKATOKY A LOST ART?

else

33

Tacitus, (or

whoever

was the author of the dialogue

the latter only

on the "Corruptions of Oratory,") has observed, peace,

no doubt,
that forms

is

preferable to war, but

it

is

the soldier.

" It is just the

if I

same with
receives;

elo-

quence; the oftener she enters,

of battle;

may

so say, the field

the

more wounds she gives and more ennobled she appears

the

more powerful the adversary with which she contends,

so

much
It is

the

in

the eye

of

mankind."
a significant coincidence that the
its

period

Athenian oratory was at

the

height was the period

when when

Athenian character and the Athenian empire were

Before the Perwars, and while
she was

sunk to the lowest point of degradation.

sian

achieving those victories

elo-

which have made the world ring with her name, the
quence of Athens was in
came.
its

infancy.

At length the
her
fleets,

crisis

Disunion crept into her councils;

her tributaries insulted her;

her provinces

revolted;

which
fled

had won such dazzling triumphs over the barbarians,

before the enemy;

her armies, which had so long been

invincible, pined in the quarries of Syracuse, or fed the

vultures of

jEgospotami;

the

sceptre

passed
at

from her

hand, and the sons of the heroes

who fought

Marathon

were forced to bow to the yoke of a Macedonian king.

It

was now, when the sun of her material prosperity was

setting,

was most degraded,

when her moral, and military character when the viceroy of a foreign despot
political,
its

was giving law to her people, and she was draining the
cup of suffering to
splendid
since has

very dregs,

that

was seen the

dawn

of an eloquence such as the world never

known.

The

history of

Roman

eloquence differs in no essential


34

ORATORY AND ORATOES.

It

particular from that of Greece. of

was not in the days

It

the Scipios,

of

Cincinnatus, and of the Gracchi, that

flashed.

Cicero thundered and Hortensius

was when

"the Eternal City" was convulsed by dissensions, and torn by faction; when the plebeians were arrayed against the

and the patricians against the plebeians; when demagogues and assassins overawed the courts, and the
patricians,

magistrates despaired of the public safety,

that were heard

name
It

the accents of that oratory which has linked the

of

Cicero with that of the conqueror of jEschines.

was

out of the crimes of Catiline, and the outrages of Verres

and Mark Antony, that sprang the

shook the

loftiest

eloquence that
of

Roman

Senate, as

it

was the galling tyranny

Philip that set on fire

the genius of Demosthenes.

Again, besides the revolutionary atmosphere, there was

another circumstance which in the ancient states
lated the growth of eloquence,

stimu-

namely, the
its

simplicity of
extent,

public
plexity,

business, as

compared with
details, in

vast

com-

and fullness of

modern

times.

Living,

in the days of their luxury,

states, instead of

by the spoliation of foreign

by the labor of their own hands, the

Peace

citizens
tions,

had

leisure for the consideration of public ques-

which were generally of the simplest kind.

or war, vengeance for public wrongs, or

trate submission, national honor

mercy

to pros-

and national gratitude,

the themes of Greek
of Demosthenes

topics appealing to the

primal sensibilities of man,

were, as

and Roman oratory.

De Quincey has observed, The speeches

and

the other great orators of antiquity were the expressions

of intense minds on subjects of the deepest

moment, and
was

therefore the distinguishing feature of their oratory

vehemence.

Speaking on questions upon whose decision

IS

ORATORY A LOST ART?

35

hung

the very existence of his country, the orator could

not be expected to speak temperately; he could not believe that there

were two

sides to the question,

and that
patriot-

conflicting views

were equally reconcilable with

ism in those who held them.

To-day the circumstances

is

in which the parliamentary orator

different.

placed are entirely

are
deliberative

The

legislative

assemblies

bodies,

that

have grave and weighty business interests

to deal with,

and hard practical knots

that

to

untie.

Nine-

teen-twentieths of the business

is

comes before them

of a kind that affords

no scope for eloquence.

The

multiplicity

and

detail

of

modern

affairs,
stifle

abounding in
suffocate
it.

particulars and petty items, tend to

and

Go
gress,

into the British Parliament or the

American ConIn
all

and the theme of debate will

bill,

be,

what?
new

probability a road or a bridge

bill

to demonetize

or to remonetize silver, a

bill

to

subsidize a steamship
post-route.
as
if

or railway corporation, or to establish a

A man

who should
life

discuss

these

questions

they

were questions of

and death, would only make him-

self a laughing-stock.

Even in Queen Caroline's case the House of Lords barely refrained from laughing, when

Brougham

knelt to beseech the peers.

The great majorfor decision

fact,

ity of the questions that

political assemblies

now come up

by our

turn on masses of

antecedents in

blue-books, tabulated statistics, which all necessitate not

only elaborate inquiries, but differences of opinion after

the inquiries.

out of place.
dealing with

The Demosthenic vehemence is, therefore, Ingenuity and skill, a happy facility of
tangled

and complicated

facts,

judgment,

quickness, tact,
tic exposition,

and,

along with these, the calm, didac-

the clear, luminous statement, a treatment

36
nearly
like

OEATOEY AND ORATORS.

that
of the
lecturer,

are

more

efficacious

than the "sound and fury" of the ancient orator. The modern speaker feels that on points of detail it would be
ridiculous to be in a passion, that on matters of busi-

ness

it

would be absurd

to be

enthusiastic;

and hence,

except on rare occasions, he deals in facts rather than in

fancies, in figures of arithmetic rather .than in figures of

speech, in

pounds, shillings, and pence, rather than in

poetry.

It

was the opinion of Rufus Choate that even

Clay and Webster, as they did not live in a revolution-

ary age, missed the greatest agony of eloquence.

cient conversation

As

an-

was more or
less

less oratorical, so
its

modern
The

oratory

is

more or

conversational in
spirit

tone.

cold, calculating,
fine speaking,

commercial

of the

age jeers at

and the shrewd speaker, therefore, suggests

rather than elaborates, talks rather than declaims.

light touch of Peel, Palmerston, or

The
is

Wendell

Phillips,

more

effective

than the rounded periods of the formal

rhetorician.

The same
cribed

difference

extends

to

forensic

eloquence.
as-

Mr. Forsyth, the author of " Hortensius," has justly

its

decay in England to the excessive technicality

which pervades the law.

eloquence than
distinctions

Nothing can be more

to

fatal to

attention

the

fine

and hair-splitting
to

which subtle

pleaders

delight

raise

and

pettifoggers to maintain,
tice,

and

to

which the courts of jusStates,

both in Great Britain and the United

are

too prone to lend a ready ear.

The overgrown mass, the

huge, unwieldy body of the law at the present day, is another impediment to oratory, hardly less formidable.

How

can a

man

be eloquent whose best days and hours

are spent in learning and digesting the enormous mass

IS

OEATORY A LOST ART?

37

of statutes, with the

myriad decisions upon them, which

now

fill

the thousand volumes

upon

his shelves?
effect

Talents
to large

of a popular kind, the

power of giving

and comprehensive views, wither under such a treatment

as this.

The modern lawyer has no time

All the
fire,

to gather the

flowers of Parnassus.

energy, and enthusi-

asm

of a

young man with noble impulses,

abilities,

genius and acquired

all his

native

die within him, overlaid

and smothered by the forms and technicalities of a narrow, crabbed, and barbarous legal system.

On
stead

the other hand, Greek and

of relating
to

Roman
to

pleadings, in-

technicalities,

the construction

of a statute, or to facts of an intricate and perplexing nature, were occupied with questions of elementary justice,

large

and

diffusive,

which even the uninstructed

connected
themselves
at

could

understand,

and which

every step with powerful and tempestuous feelings.

judges, instead of being the

The

mere interpreters of the law,

were

also legislators.

Instead of being thwarted by the

cold vigilance of justice or the restraining formalities of

practice,

instead

of being

hampered by

codes,

or

ob-

structed

by precedents,

the

pleader appealed boldly to

the passions and prejudices of his hearers.

To obtain a

verdict of guilt or innocence, by invective or by exaggeration,

by appeals

to

public expediency or by appeals to

to

private hate,
self.

was the only end which he proposed

himspe-

It

was the universal right of accusation, that

cies

of magistracy with which

each citizen was clothed

liberty, that

for the protection of the

common

produced
lu-

under the Csesarg those infamous denunciations, that

crative and sanguinary eloquence, lucrosam lentam eloquentiam, of which Tacitus speaks.
et

sanguino-

38 In
all

OEATOKT AKD ORATOES.

the precepts given by the ancient orators there supposed a violent, partial, unjust, and corrupt magis-

is

trate

who

is

to be

won.

thousand scenes of tumult

intermingled incessantly with the solemnities of justice. The forms and the place in which justice was administered; the character of the accusations, so often of a political

nature; the presence of the opposed parties; the

throng of people present,

orator.

all

excited

and inspired the

modern court-room has little resemblance to that public place in which were pronounced the decrees that abolished the royalties of Asia, where the honors of

Rome were

conferred,

where laws were proposed and

ab-

rogated, and which

dicial debates.

was

also the theatre of the great juit

The

objective genius of antiquity,

has

been well
in
its

said, is

nowhere more vividly

illustrated than

legal proceedings.

"The

contrast between the for-

malities of the Old Bailey or

Westminster Hall and those

of the Areopagus or the Forum, could, if mutually witnessed, have produced in their respective audiences noth-

ing but mutual repulsion.

little

An Englishman

can have but

yields

sympathy with that sentimental justice that

exposure
of a

to

the

beautiful

bosom, and melts into

tears at the sight of a bloody cloak or a gaping

wound.

A Roman

or a Grecian, on the other hand, would have

regarded with supreme disgust the impartial majesty of

that stern judicature children
of
Strafford,

which saw unpitied the weeping

looked

unmoved

at

the

bleeding

loins of Lilburne,

and laughed aloud at the impassioned

dagger of Burke."
Again, not only was the stormy atmosphere of ancient states favorable to the development of eloquence, but the
system of national education was adapted to the same

IS

OEATOKY A LOST ARTf

to

39
di-

end.

The only
was

object

which

it

was apparently

rected,

to create a breed of national orators.

In the

ages

when

the codes of law were comparatively simple,

civil

when every

and

political result

depended on the art

with which the public speaker mastered and impelled the

minds of the audience or the judges, when in

orator was
state, the

fact the

the

most important

political

power in the

study and practice of oratory were more necesin

sary than

epochs of more complex civilization; and

artistic,

hence ancient eloquence was more

far

and demanded

more study than modern.

art regarded by
its

It

was, in fact, a fine art,

an
and

cultivators

and the public

as

analogous to sculpture, to poetry, to painting, to music,

to

acting.

The greatest
first

care, therefore,
all,

was taken

that children should,

of

acquire the language in

the utmost purity, and that an inclination to the forum

should be
It

among

their earliest and strongest preferences.

was not by bending painfully over dog's-eared volumes

It

that the Athenian boy gained most of his knowledge.

was by listening

to oral discussion,

by hearing the great

to the sages
fol-

orators speak from the bema,

by hearkening

and philosophers in the groves of the Academy, by

lowing the rhapsodists in the
of

streets, or seeing the plays

^schylus and Sophocles in the theatre, that the AtheIt

nian citizen was intellectually trained and instructed.

was from

all

these sources, but especially from the early

in public discussion,

habit of engaging

that he derived
of language,

that fertility of resource, that

copiousness

and that knowledge of the temper and understanding of an audience, which, as Macaulay has remarked, are far

more valuable
powers.

to

an orator than the greatest

logical

40

ORATORY AND OEATOES.

Again, modern oratory has been powerfully influenced

by the printing-press, and by the great extension of knowledge which

it

has caused.

When

the only

way

of address-

ing the public was by

orations,

and

all

public measures

were debated in popular assemblies, the characters of Orator,

Author, Politician, and Editor, almost entirely coin-

cided.

Among

the ancients,

it

must be remembered, there

and the
was was

was no Press and no representative system of government.

Owing
limited

to the small territorial area of each state,

numbers of the

free population, each citizen

expected to attend in person at the great popular assemblies,

where

state matters

were debated

and

so great

the importance which was attached to these debates, that,

among

the Greeks, the

word

\aii}yopia,

which etymologically

means "equality of rights

synonymous with
iaovoiua,

in debate,"

was employed
to

as

which was used

express

" equality in the eye of the law."

Indeed, Demosthenes

himself, when, in one of

his orations,
like

he would vividly
as " those

contrast democratic

states

Athens with oligarchies

whose
In times of public

and tyrannies, represents

his

countrymen

government

is

based on speaking."

excitement, a great speech was a great dramatic politiconational event, and multitudes in Athens and

Rome were

drawn
that

to the

bema and
them
to

the rostrum by the same instincts

to the

now

lead

crowd

news-room, and devour

the leading articles and the latest news by electric tele-

graph.

Demosthenes and Pericles were the people's daily

articles.

newspaper, and their speeches the leading

The

orator was at once the " Times," the " Saturday Review,"

the

"Edinburgh Review," and a great deal more; he comcritic,

bined in himself the journalist, the debater, the the preacher, all in one.

and

IS

OBATOKY A LOST ART?

41

In the assembly, the forum, the portico, and the garden,

the ancients stood face to face with their great men, and

drank in their living thoughts

lips.

as

they

fell

warm from

their

"

Look," says Tacitus, in the Dialogue already quoted,

circle of the fine arts,
tell

"look through the

survey the whole

compass of the sciences, and

the professors acquire a

me

in

what branch can

name

to vie with the celebrity of

a great and powerful orator.

His fame does not depend

on the opinion of thinking men, who attend business and

watch the administration of

the youth of

affairs;

he

is

applauded by

Eome,

by

all

who hope
is

to rise

by honorable

means.

The eminent

orator

the

model which every

parent recommends to his children.

Even the common

they pronounce

people stand and gaze as he passes by;

his

name with

pleasure,

and point to him as the object of

his praise.

their admiration.

The provinces resound with

all

The strangers who arrive from

his genius; they
osity
is

parts have

heard of

wish to behold the man; and their curitill

never at rest

they have seen his person and

perused his countenance.

ship.
it

Foreign nations court his friendfor their provinces

The magistrates setting out

their

make

their business to ingratiate themselves with the popular

at

speaker, and

return take care to renew their

homage.

The powerful orator has no occasion to solicit preferment, the offices of praetor and consul stand open

to him,

to those exalted stations he

is

invited.

Even

in

the rank of private citizen his share of

able, since his authority

power

is

consider-

sways at once the senate and the

people."

Greece and

Such were the power and influence of the orator in Rome till the one was conquered and the other
All this has

imperialized, when the art declined in both. 3*

42

ORATOKT AND ORATOES.

effect

been changed in modern times, and the

has been to

destroy, to a considerable extent, the distinction

between

oratory and other productions, and in some degree to diminish the demand for oratory proper. The political
orator

now

speaks less to those

who

are assembled within

the walls of
outside.

Parliament or Congress than to the public

is

His aim, oftentimes,

not so

much

to convince

and move those into whose faces he looks, as those who He knows will peruse his words on the printed page.
that if

a thousand persons hear, him, ten thousand will

read him.

Not only the

legislator,

but the stump orator,

and even the advocate on great occasions, address themselves to the reporters.
different

That the new audience

old,

is

of a
it

complexion and temper from the

that
logic,

weighs the speaker's words more carefully and dispassionately,

less

and

is

influenced

more by
the
is

his facts

and

and

by

his

appeals to

passions,

is

obvious.

The

pugnce quam pompce aptius

the order of the day; and

fist,

men

fight

now

with the clenched

logic

rather than with the

rhetoric.

open hand,

with

more than with

tone,

The

magnetism of personal appearance, the charm of manner,

the

music of the modulated

have

lost

their

old

supremacy; while the .command of

facts,

the capacity for

" cubic thought," the ability to reason, the

power of con-

densed and vivid expression, have acquired a

It is

new

value.

not he

who can

rouse, thrill, or melt his hearers by

his electric appeals, that

now

exercises

the

greatest and

most lasting influence, but he who can make the most forcible and unanswerable statement, who can furnish

the logic of facts, the watchwords of party, the shibboleths

of debate,

who

can crush an adversary in a sentence, or

condense a policy into a .thundering epigram.

thousand

"
I

'

IS

ORATORY A

LOST"

ART?

43

presses reproduce his words,

and they ring in the brain

the

when
orator

the
is

fiery

declamation of

merely impassioned

forgotten.
reporter, a practice un-

The practice of addressing the

known
ham,

in the days of Bolingbroke, Chesterfield, and Chat-

has, in another

way,

still

farther revolutionized the

style of public

speech-making.
accuracy,

As the

best reporters fall

short
their

of

perfect

many
the

speakers

prefer

to

be

own

reporters, in other words, prepare their speeches

in

manuscript;

and

now

custom
to

of

writing
is

out

speeches and committing

that
called

them

memory,

leading to
of the
so-

of reading

them.

A
are

large

proportion

" speeches " that

franked by Congressmen to
in
this

their

constituents, are

" delivered "

way.

Anyfitted

thing more fatal to a speaker's influence,

to stifle every

germ

of eloquence,

cannot

better

be imagined.

As Sydney Smith

asks:

"What

can be more ludicrous

than an orator delivering stale indignation and fervor

of a week old; turning over whole pages of violent passions,

written out in

German
at

text;
is

reading the tropes

and apostrophes into which he

his

hurried by the ardor of

preconcerted
line

mind;

and
he
is is

so

afiected

and

page, that

unable to proceed any further?"

a gain, in such
cases,

Of
It is

course

there

of precision and

accuracy; but the form of the effort has changed.

not a speech or oration, but a dissertation or essay.

reception given

Tco
is

by the House

to

such performances

just that which might

be expected.

As they are not

de-

signed for the ear of that body, but for the speaker's
constituency, the

House abandons
as read
in

to the constituency the

exclusive enjoyment of them.

Indeed, some " speeches Congress, but printed

are not so

much

"by

44

OEATOEY AND ORATORS.

permission"; and during the Impeachment of President Johnson, and the discussion of the Silver Bill, a new
precedent was established in the United States Senate,^
that of "filing" arguments,

a
day

"labor limce" of which

Aristarchus and Horace never dreamed.

So strong are

the tendencies in this direction, that a writer has gone

so far as to predict that the
is

not far distant when

even lawyers will submit printed arguments to judges

and

juries, to be read

and weighed in the chamber and

tedious

jury-room,

and that the practice of making long haand wasteful

of
to

rangues will be abandoned as

time,

and tending

to mystify

and confuse rather than

enlighten and convince.

There

is

still

another

way

in which oratory, especially

press.

legislative oratory, has

been influenced by the

its

century ago, when the newspaper was in

infancy, and

had not yet aspired

to be

an organ of public opinion,

the great leaders in debate had access to sources of intelligence

which were out of the reach of the public, and

even to most members of the legislature.

subject by novel and
original

To illumine a
his

arguments, to startle

hearers by

new and unexpected

if

information, was then

crisis, or

easy for a speaker; and the question was

breathless
interest.

there was a political

listened

a vital one, he was

It
is

to

with

said

that not a
his

little

of the

younger

Pitt's

success

was due to

power of weightto himself, and

ing his speeches with facts

letting out secrets,
as

known only

where needful, which told like shells they drop into an advancing column. It was to the
brought to
light,

facts

and the considerations urged

in

debate, that
rials

many
to

representatives

looked for the mate-

by which

form their judgments and to guide

IS

ORATORY A LOST ART?

its

45

their votes.

All this the press, with

unrivalled means

of

collecting

and

conveying
Disraeli,

information,

has

changed.

The Gladstone or
day, has

the Clay or Calhoun of the

no

facts or statistics

concerning the question of

citizen.

the hour, which

are not

open to the humblest

Weeks

before the final struggle comes, the daily journals

all

have sucked up, from

the facts, arguments,
subject, like so
tricity

the sources of information, all

illustrations

and

pertinent to

the
elec-

many

electrical

machines gathering
All

from the atmosphere into themselves.

the

precedents

and parallel cases which have the remotest

bearing upon the issue, have been preempted by the editors

and their contributors; and when the unfortunate and

senator gets on his legs, he finds his arguments anticipated, his metaphors stale, his " thunder " stolen,
his

subject in the condition of a squeezed orange.

There

is

yet another circumstance which has lessened

the influence of the orator, at least of the political orator, in

modern times,
and renders

especially within the last century.

It is the spirit of party,

which
his

steels

men's minds against

conviction,
ing.

impassioned appeals unavail-

In the days

when

there were no newspapers and

no reporters, the representative in a political assembly

was comparatively independent of

vote

his constituents.

His

upon a measure was determined more or less by the arguments which were marshalled for or against it by
the

leaders in debate.
eff'ect

The orator might then hope

velit,

to

produce that

" mentes
cere."

which Cicero considered

so honorable,
velit

impellere qu6

unde autem

deduis

Now,

the chains of party are so strong, he

his political chiefs, so

so
his

cowed by fear of

hampered by

fear of the electors, that he

has almost ceased to be a

46
free agent.

OEATORY AND ORATORS.

In vain does the orator bring forward the

weightiest, the most unanswerable reasons for a bill; in

vain does he urge

its

adoption by the most passionate

appeals; the Opposition laughs, weeps, applauds, but does

not change
least
till

its

votes.

The men

whom

he addresses, at

many

of them, have held their political sentiments

they have become rooted in the very fibres of their

being.

From

their very childhood, they have

been fed

with the milk of radicalism, or nourished on the strong

meat of conservatism,
of being

till

a change of opinion would inIf,

volve a change in their mental constitution.

instead

thus

steeled

against conviction, they could be

persuaded in a single instance by a hostile orator, they

would
ciples

sacrifice that single instance to the

general prin-

on which their preference

is

founded.

Ferguson

of Pitfour, a Scotch

member

of Parliament, and a sup-

porter of the younger Pitt, was a type of too

resentatives.

many

repar-

He

used to say

"I have heard many

is

guments which convinced

that
influenced

my

judgment, but never one

robbed

my

vote."

The party speaker

is

of half of his eloquence, because he speaks under an evi-

dent restraint.

His tone

not that of a bold, independ-

ent thinker, without which there can be no eloquence of

the highest order, but that of an agent.

He
is

is

shackled

by a consciousness of his responsibility; he

the next.

thinking of

the pledges of the last election, and of the prospects of

That there has been a great change, within a hundred

years, in the oratory of the British Parliament,
to
all. is

known

In the days of Chatham, and of Fox, Pitt, and

Burke, the mere gift of eloquence alone was a passport, as it was almost the only passport, to the highest

IS

ORATORY A LOST ART!

47

offices

in the state.

A man

could not then so readily ride

into office on the shoulders of a

the

mob. But if he could sway House of Commons, the lack of other abilities was

excused.

George the Third used

to

say that

Pitt

knew
state-

nothing of Vattel, and we have the minister's

own

ment that the only history

Shakspeare.
of political economy, lorship of the

of

England he had read was

failed of the Chancel-

Pox led the Opposition in utter ignorance and Sheridan

Exchequer only because he could not master

the mystery of fractions.

The speeches made

in Parlia-

ment were then the

influenced

topics of

common

conversation; they

the

votes

of

the

House; they startled their

hearers into admiration; they calmed or roused the passions of the country.

No

parallel can be cited in later

times to the

eflfect

produced in the House of

Commons
the

by Sheridan's famous harangue upon the "Fourth Charge''

against

Warren

Hastings, or to the
Pitt.

spell

in which

House was bound by the elder

Sir
in

James Mackintosh once observed that the true

to consider

light

which
as
it

speaking in the House of

Commons

was
that

an animated conversation on public business, and

was rare

for

any speech

to succeed

which was raised

on any other
said that the

basis.

Canning held a similar opinion.

He

House was a business assembly, and that the

to its

debates
it

must conform

predominant character; that

they must seem

was particularly jealous of ornament and declamation,

that, if

and

they were employed at

all,

to spring naturally out of the subject.

There must be

method

also,

but this should be

felt

in the effect rather

than seen in the manner,

no

formal divisions, set ex-

ordiums, or perorations, as the old rhetoricians taught,

would

do.

First and last and everywhere

you must aim

48

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

you would be eloquent, you might
at

at reasoning, and, if

any time, but not at an appointed time. Macaulay, in a " the most peculiar letter to Prof. Whewell, calls the House audience in the world. A place where Walpole succeeded, and Addison
failed;
fails;

failed;

where Dundas succeeded, and Burke

where Peel now succeeds, and where Mackintosh where Erskine and Scarlett were dinner-bells; where
Jekyll,

Lawrence and
strange place."

the

two

wittiest

men, or nearly
is

so, of their time,

were thought bores,

surely a very

If in the days of

Mackintosh and Canning the House

bent

hated

rhetoric,

and was

on

transacting

business,

rather than on listening to grand exordiums and studied

perorations, to-day
it is

even more practical, and more

fiercely intolerant of fine speeches

and abstractions.
sciences,

Gov-

ernment now takes

its

rank among the

and mere
The

intellectual cleverness, unallied with experience, information,

and character, has

little

weight or influence.

leaders of Conservatism and Liberalism are no longer

men

who have

the art of manufacturing polished and epigram-

matic phrases, but those

who

are skilled in the arts of

Parliamentary fence and management, and who have made

state-craft the study of their
lives.

These men, though

their

they hem, and

haw and stammer, and can hardly put

sentences together in logical order, take their seats on the

Treasury bench as Secretaries of State, while the mere

orators,

who have no

special experience or information,

sit

on the back benches or below the gangway.

Indeed, acit

cording to the testimony of an able British reviewer,

has

even been the custom of late to decry oratorical powers, as tending to dazzle and mislead, rather than to instruct and
to edify;

and

to praise the dull,

dry harangue of the plod-

IS

ORATORY A LOST ART?

who crams down
facts,

49

ding

man

of business,

the throat of his

to

audience a heap of statistical

iind his hearers

and then wonders

yawning or

asleep, rather than the brilliant

speech of the trained orator,

the sallies of wit, and adorns

who
it

enlivens his theme with

with the graces of imagery.

So great a change has taken place, even within the last

half century, that the place
ness,

where
very

five or six

more than a hundred gentlemen meet to do busiHouse

is

now

little

much

after the fashion of a

board of bank

di-

rectors.

Disraeli, Bright,

and Palmer, indulge in no such

bursts of oratory as shook the senate in the latter half of

the eighteenth century.

tersely,

They

state their views

little

plainly,

with

little

preambling and

embellishment;

and having delivered themselves of what they had to say,

they conclude as abruptly as they began.
speeches of a

Occasionally

more ambitious kind are heard in the House

only the more glaring.
it is it

but they are so few that their contrast to the ordinary

tone of the debates
is

Prom

all these

considerations

evident that oratory

no longer occupies the place which

once did, before the

discovery of " the art preservative of arts," and the general diffusion
effective

of knowledge.

It

is

no longer the only

weapon of the statesman and the reformer.

There

are no potentates
offer

now

that, like Philip of

Macedon, would

a town of ten thousand inhabitants for an orator.

shall

But

we
Is

therefore hastily conclude that eloquence

is

a useless art,

that

time and labor spent in

its

study

is

wasted?
has gone,

it,

indeed, true that the orator's occupation

that

the newspaper has killed him,

that
is

his

speech

is

forestalled

by the daily

editorial, which, flying

on

the wings of steam, addresses fifty thousand men, while he

speaks to five hundred?

3

By no

means.

Eloquence

not,

50

OEATOEY AND OEATOES.

be, a useless art.

and never will

it
is

In one form or another,

immortal, and, so long as there are

human

hearts

beating with hope and fear, love and passionate hatred, can

never perish.

It

may no

longer enjoy a monopoly of influ-

ence, as before the days of

Gutenberg and Fust

the form
styles

and tone of society may change, demanding different

of oratory in different ages; but wherever
exist

human

beings

who have
says,

souls to be thrilled, the public speaker will

"

find scope for the exertion of his powers.

Wherever,"

as

Emerson

" the polarities

meet, wherever the fresh

moral sentiment, the instinct of freedom and duty, comes

in direct opposition to fossil conservatism gain, the spark will pass."

and the

thirst of

Man, in

short, so long as he

is

a social being, will never

cease, in public as well as in private, to talk.

Extend the

empire of the press to whatever point you

treble,

will,

and quadruple

its

power,

and

double,
''

yet the day will can

never come when this " fourth estate of the nation

do the entire work of the orator.

In every civilized com-

munity,

at

least, in

every free country,

it

will

still

be

necessary to cite precedents

and analyze testimony and and move

all,

enforce great principles in the courts, to explain measures

in the halls of legislation, to rouse

men from
which
it is

the platform and the hustings, and, above

to plead with

men

in the house of God.

Not a day passes

in

not in the power of a persuasive tongue to exert some

influence, for

good or

evil,

over the will, judgments, and

is
it

actions

of

men; and

so

far

from being true that

oratorical gifts in this age are comparatively useless, that

there

is

probably no other accomplishment which, when

its

possessed even in a moderate degree, raises

possessor to
is

consideration with equal rapidity, none for which there

"

IS

OKATORY A LOST AETf

senate, at the bar,

51

more constant demand in the

on the

hustings,

and in almost every sphere of professional labor.

all

Even should we admit

that has been claimed regarding

civil

the impoverished condition to which

eloquence has

been reduced in modern times by the complexity of business, it

must

still

be remembered that, as De Quincey has

observed, oratory has received a

new dowry

of power, and

that of the highest order, in the sanctities of our religion, a field

unknown
it

to

antiquity, since the

Pagan

religions

produced no oratory whatever.

Again,
should be remembered that the political plata field of oratory not inferior to any
it

form

offers

has

enjoyed during the world's history.

in the courts,

Chained or muzzled
it

and scorned in the

its

legislature,

may

here
its

spurn the earth with

flight,

broadest pinions, and wing

without

let

or hindrance, to the " highest heaven

of invention."

The Platform, the occasional stage of the

Pourth-of-July panegyrist and the

is

Commencement

orator,

the great theatre of the agitator,

the

stage on which
civil,

reformers and enthusiasts of every kind,

moral,
theories

political,

and

financial,

come

to

present

their

respective

to the people,

and to organize those movements,

without,"
are
those

that

" pressure

from

manufactures

of

public opinion, which

now

relied

upon

as

the great

means of revolutionizing
laws.

legislatures

and changing the

are there ad-

At

the "monster meetings" which

is

dressed, the orator

restricted

by no " Robert's Manual

convulsing them with wit
his
fiery appeals, like

or five-minute rule, but can expatiate at will, convincing

his hearers

by

facts

and

logic,

and humor, or rousing them by

and mutiny."

another Antony " moving the very- stones of

Rome

to rise
still

Besides this, the lecture-room affords

52
another
field field
is

ORATORY
for

A2srD

OBATORS.

almost every species of eloquence,

which

more and more occupied

at each succeeding

year,

and which was altogether unknown to the orators

no schools of rhetoric now, in which

of antiquity.
It is true there are

the entire education of a

young man

is

directed to

make

him an orator. It is which was irresistible

bly

true, also, that the style of speaking

in 'an ancient assembly,

an assemin their

made up

of

men

" educated exactly to that point at

which men are most susceptible of strong and sudden impressions, acute, but not

sound reasoners,

warm

feelings, unfixed in their principles,

and passionate admirers The

of fine composition,"

is

not the most infiuential now.

exclamations and tropes which produced the mightiest

effects

upon the
claimed,

sensitive populace of

Athens or Rome, would now,

with whatever modulation or gesture they might be de-

assembly.

make but little impression upon a legislative The oratorical device by which Scipio Africanus
a charge of peculation, would hardly avail a

shook

off

modern Chancellor of the Exchequer or Secretary of the If President Grant bad been impeached before Treasury. the United States Senate, it would hardly have helped
his case to say, " This

day

last

year I won the battle of

Chattanooga; therefore
by, too,

why debate?"

The day has gone

when

the

mere

objective features of oratory, the

statuary and the millinery, were as potent almost as the

sentiments uttered; and

why?

Nobody can doubt

that, as

another has said,

if

the ancient oratory were in

demand

now,

it

would wake from the sleep of two thousand years

without the aid of the rhetorician.

is

to the

But the truth is, it very superiority of our civilization to that of the
and the apparent

ancients, that the revolution in oratory,

IS

ORATOKY A LOST ART!

53

diminution of
ing,

its

influence, are owing.

Instead, of lamentlive

we should

rejoice

that we no longer

on that

vol-

canic soil which in former ages produced fiery orators in

such abundance.
the

It is

because society

is

no longer under
revolutions,

sway of a few leading men,

because

tumults, and popular commotions, have ceased to be the

chief business of
erally diffused,
life,

because

knowledge has been gen-

men have
state

learned to think for themselves,

and the

free nations of the earth are disposed to rest the

security of

the

and of individuals on the broad

foundations of laws and institutions, and not on popular

caprice or the
able,

power of any one man, however wise or

so as

that
is

modern eloquence has assumed a character

is

different

from the ancient, and

regarded by

many

comparatively cold and tame.

It

one of the proudest distinctions of modern society

that the ancient

power of individuals

is

lessened

that

it is

no longer possible for a great man, by violence or artful

contrivance, to overthrow a state; that he
is

continually
if

taught that the world can do without him, and that,

he

would do the greatest good, he must combine with other

men, rather than be their master or dictator.
absorbing
all

It is

not by

power

into himself,

and becoming at once the

promote the happiness or

brain, the tongue,

and the hand of a whole people, that

is

the

man

of genius to-day

to

the glory of the state to which he belongs, but by an open

influence on public opinion
others,

and a wise cooperation with

who

are jealous of their rights, and will not place

great.

them at the mercy of one man, however wise or

The

orator, therefore,

however rare or dazzling

no longer by
his

his gifts,

can no longer be the despot that he once was, either for

good or for

evil.

It is

agency chiefly that

54
public opinion
cussion,
is

OEATOEY ASTD OKATOES.

formed or expressed, but by private
exchange, and, above
dis-

by the interchange of sentiments at the

all,

fireside,

on the
of

street, at the

by the agency

the press and the telegraph.

public discussions has changed.

Even the character of modern debate, it has

been truly

said, is

not a struggle between a few leading

men
tude;

for

triumph over each other and an ignorant multiis

the orator himself

but one of the multitude,

interests; and,

deliberating with

them upon the common

instead of coming to a raw, unenlightened audience,

who

have never weighed the subjects upon which he

dress them,

is

to ad-

and who are ready

to

be the victims of any

his

cunning and plausible speaker who can blind them by

sophistry, dazzle
his

them by

his rhetoric, or captivate

finds that

them by

honeyed accents, he

he

is

speaking to

men

who have who have

read, thought,

and pondered upon

his eloquence

his theme,

already decided opinions, and care less to hear

his eloquence

than to

know what

can do for

the question.

Prom
is

all this it is

evident that the

demand

for oratory

not

less
is

than in former ages, but that a different style of

oratory

demanded.

Because imagination and passion do

not predominate in modern eloquence, but hold a subordinate place; because the orator speaks to the head as well
as to the heart of his hearers,

and employs facts and logic more than the flowers of fancy; because his most fiery and burning appeals are pervaded with reason and argu-

ment
his

as well as
is

with passion,

power

curtailed.

it by no means follows that As well might we conclude that the

earthquake and the tempest are the mightiest agencies in nature because their results are instantaneous and visible,

and that the gentle

rain, the dew,

and the sunshine are

tS

ORATORY A LOST ART?

work

55
slowly, quietly,

feeble

in comparison, because they

Is it

and unseen.
inflame

a task less noble to convince than to

mankind?

Does a sudden burst of feeling require

a greater

power or intensity of mind than a long chain of

reasoning?

Has not argument

as

well

as explosion its

eloquence, and
illustrations?

may
the

it

not be adorned with as splendid

The truth

is,

modern orator has no

less,

perhaps

even more influence, than the ancient, but he acts more

slowly and by degrees.
tion,

He

wins his triumphs of convic-

not in the very hour he speaks, but in the course of

It is

weeks, and months, and years.

cesses,

not by isolated suc-

but in the aggregate, by reiteration, by accumulahe prevails.

tion, that
said, the

As an English writer has beautifully

is

enchanted spear

not without

its

place

among

the weapons of our oratorical armory;

Ariosto,
it

but, like that of

only

fells

the

enemy

to the ground,

and leaves

him

to start

up again unwounded.

Pine sentiments, well

turned and polished periods, have

old

still

more or

less of their

charm with our deliberative assemblies;

their effects

may
final

be seen in the pleased looks, the profound silence, or

;

the applause of the listeners

but they are not seen in the

enumeration of the ayes and noes.

The great major-

ity of the

members contrive

to

break the enchanter's spell

before they vote.

But though the influence of individual

speeches

may

be comparatively slight, the influence of the

entire eloquence of a leading speaker

may

be uery great.
because
less

The

effects of his

oratory

may

be none the

less real,

they are gradual and

powerful, because
It
it
is

hardly perceived;
a slow
fire,
is

none the

and not a thunderbolt.

for every
is

has been justly said that there

possible of that truth

man

a state-

ment

which he

most unwilling to

56
receive,

ORATOEY AND OEATOKS.

a
it.

statement possible, so broad and so pungent

that he cannot get

or die of

away from

it,

but must either bend to

it

By

dint of perseverance and reiteration the

orator

may produce an

impression which no single blow,

however vigorously struck, would make. Every impression, however faint, leaves the hearer more apt for impression in
future by the same hand.

A lodgment

is

made
it

in his heart,

and

ii

it

be steadily followed

up, though

he cannot be
convenient to

stormed, he
capitulate.

may

be sapped, and at last find

Again, in spite of the party whip, in spite of the utmost

perfection of party drill, there are occasional great crises in public affairs,

extraordinary

periods,

when men

will

away from the ranks, and vote according to their convictions. As well might the sands of the desert expect
burst
to

be unstirred by the winds, and' to remain in a

solid

mass, as parties expect that they will remain unchanged by the tornado of eloquence,
oratory,

the

whirlwind and storm of

that

at such times sweeps over them. in

his
as

More than all, character is an important factor modern eloquence. It is his virtues, his stability, known zeal for the right and the true, that quite

much
his

as

the

magnetism of

his

looks,

his

siren

voice, for

graces of address, and electric periods,

must win

the orator attention

and confidence now.

impression
is

behind the words that must give them

projectile
force.

It is the man momentum and

The

which

every

speaker

makes on

his fellows,

the moral resultant, not only of

that he has

what he
his
ft

says,

but of

all

grown up

to be;

of

manhood, weak or strong, sterling or counterfeit; of funded but unreckoned influence, accumulating uncon-

sciously,

and spending

itself,

as the

man

is

deep or shal-

IS

OEATOKY A LOST ARTf

67

low, like a reservoir, or like a spout or

an April shower.

Especially in times of civil commotion, in great crises,

when

public

interests

are
is

imperilled,
this

when war

or

anarchy

threatens the land,

It is

element of oratory most potent.

no

festival eloquence,

no vain mockery of
sincere,

art,

that

will then

meet the exigency, but the

life
is

heart-felt

appeals of a speaker whose whole

has exemplified the

to

sentiments he enforces, and

to give his life, if

who

known
is

be willing

need be, in defense of his principles.

power,

Thus supported, the faculty of speech

such as no other faculty can give, and
in the
er;

power
say of
it

we may

words of an eloquent writer: "

statesmanship.
its

It is political

pow-

it is

No recommendation
Splendid
it

can supply

the absence of
literary

prestige.

abilities, the

utmost

renown, are without

it,

insufficient

testimonies.

Dissociated from
lingers below the

the historian of the

Assisted by

Roman Empire
it,

gangway.

a cornet of

horse becomes the arbiter of Europe."

Finally,
it

should not be forgotten that while the an-

cient orator enjoyed certain advantages

which are denied

compensated

to his successor at the present day, these are

in a great

measure by the prodigious extension of knowl-

edge,

and the consequently greatly increased number and

variety of ideas and illustrations which are at the com-

mand
to the

of the

modern

orator.

As

far as the world,

we
so

had almost

said, the

universe,

made

known by

science

moderns exceeds that known to the ancients,

far do the facts

and ideas which the speaker of the nine-

teenth century
ety,

may employ,

surpass in multitude, vari-

and grandeur, those which were at the disposal of

the

most brilliant or potent genius of antiquity.

Not

only have the vast additions

made

to

human knowledge

68

OEATORY AND ORATORS.

geol-

by the discoveries of the physical geographer, the

ogist,

the chemist, the botanist, the natural philosopher,

sions,

and the astronomer, furnished a store of new ideas, alluand images, with which to captivate, startle, or enan
assembly,,

lighten

but

history

has

replenished

her

storehouses with myriads of

new

political precedents

and
has

examples

of

heroism

and

virtue;

modern

poetry
its

added
words,
and,

its

gems
to

of thought and expression,

charmed

those which antiquity has bequeathed to us;

all,

more than
fountain
of

the christian religion has opened a

new

inspiration,

and furnished the orator

with a store of thoughts, images, and associations, which,

whether
pal,

fitted

to

please

and

inspire, or to

awe and
moving

ap-

are

more powerful than any others

in

the

human
and

heart.

To conclude, in comparing the influence of ancient modern oratory; we have spoken of some of the changes which have taken place within two centuries in modern British eloquence.
which
it

There

is

still

another change

may
both

not be improper to consider for a few moplace.

ments

in

this

Why

is

it

that

parliamentary
are

speeches,

in

this

country and

England,

now

adorned, (or disfigured, as the reader pleases,) with so few

quotations from the
less

classics?

Is

it

because the age

is

pedantic than formerly? or because the legislators of

this

century have
authors,

less

knowledge of the Greek and Kothem, than the legislators

it
is

man
and

and

less taste for

of the

eighteenth

century?

Certain

that

the apt

telling quotations for

which Horace and Virgil used

to be racked, are
blies.

heard no more in our political assem-

great speech unadorned by a few Latin verses

was a rarity

the days of Pitt; and the English poets,


IS

OKATOBY A LOST ART?

59

too, of

which Mr. Bright has now a monopoly, were never

long neglected.
nal;

Burke quoted Horace, Lucan, and Juvesparkle

in

gems from Virgil

and
to

almost

all

of

his

speeches; of
his

brilliants

borrowed from Milton some

their
effect.

finest

passages

owe half of
most happy

F.ox,

though a
gil;* but

fine classic,

quoted rarely, and then from Vireffects

some of

Pitt's

were produced
speeches " like

by apt quotation.
in
classical

His mind was so thoroughly steeped

that
it

literature,

colors

his

the shifting, varying, yet constantly prevalent hue in shot

silk."

His allusion to the departure of fortune, Laudo

etc.;

manentem,
bill,

his

reply to

Conway on

the East India

in

which he appropriated
et

Scipio's answer, " Si nulld

alia re, modestia certe

temperando linguam adolescens

senem vicero "

his application of the

beams of the rising

sun that shot through the windows of the House, while

he was prophesying a better day for Africa,
"

Nos ubi primus equis Oriens

afflavit anhelis

lUic sera rutaens accendit lumina

vesper";

his application to

Pox of the

lines,

" Stetimus tela aspera contra

Contulimusque manus: experto crede quantus In clipeum assurgat, quo turbine torqueat hastam "

were some of the things that made his fame.

times Canning,

In later

who was

a fine classical scholar, sprinkled

* Lord Lytton, in his admirable essays on " Life, Literature, and Manners," observes that " in the Fox of St. Stephen's, the nervous reasoner from premises the broadest and most popular, there is no trace of the Fox of St. Anne's, the
.

an almost feminine delight in the filigree and trinkets under his apple-blossoms, his predilection in scholarship is for its daintiest subtleties his happiest remarks are on writers very little read. But place the great critic on the floor of the House of Commons, and not a vestige of the fine verbal critic is visible. His classical allusions are then taken from passages the most popularly known. And, indeed, it was a saying of Fox's, that no young member should hazard tn Parliament a Latin quotation not found in the Eton Grammar.' "Caxtmiatm, Vol. I,p S5S.
refining verbal critic, with

of literature.

At

rural leisure,

'

60
his

OEATOBY AND ORATOKS.

speeches with
felicitous

quotations

from

the Latin

poets.

In one of his most luminous and eloquent speeches,

delivered in 1826 in defense of his Portuguese policy, he

likens

England

to

the

ruler of the winds, as

described

by Virgil
" Celsa sedet JSohis arce Sceptra tenens; mollitque animos, temperat iras; Ni faoiat, maria ac terras caelumque protundum Quippe ferant rapidi secum, verrantque per auras."

In the courts of justice

also,

both of England and our

own

country,

striking

effects

used to be

produced

by

well-chosen bits from Virgil, Martial, and Horace.

What

could be happier than the reply of

Law

(afterward Lord

Ellenborough), to an angry explosion of Erskine, to

Chief Justice Kenyon, before

whom

whom

they were pleading,

first

was unduly partial?

then on Kenyon,
trate

Fixing his eye

on Erskine, and

Law

replied in the words of the pros-

Turnus

to
"

^neas:
Dii

Non me

Dicta, ferox!

tua fervida torrent me terrent, et Jupiter hostis."

Not
Wirt,

less

felicitous

was the

skill

with which William

in

the celebrated

"steamboat case" which came

of the United States in 1824,

before the

Supreme Court
from

retorted on his eminent antagonist, Mr.

tion of the latter
interest
Virgil.

Emmet, a quotaThe cause was one of deep

indi-

and importance, not only on account of the

vidual rights involved, but on account of the collisions of

those of the State of

New York

with those of Connecticut

and

it. The chief question was whether the laws of the first-named State, which con-

New

Jersey, which gave rise to

ferred

upon Messrs. Pulton and Livingston the

navigate
its

exclusive

right to

waters with steamboats, were or

were not in violation of the Constitution of the United

IS

ORATORY A LOST ART?

61

States.

Mr. Emmet, who was counsel for

New

York, had

eloquently personified her as casting her eyes over the

ocean, witnessing

everywhere the triumphs of her genius,

and exclaiming, in the language of ^Eneas:

'

Quae

regio in terris, nostri

non plenae laboris!"

Mr. Wirt saw at once the error his opponent had committed, and giving the true sense of the

word

" laboris,"

turned the tables upon him as follows:

" Sir, it was not in tiie moment of triumpli, nor with the feelings of triumph, that jEneas uttered that exclamation. It was when, with his faithful Achates by his side, he was surveying the works of art with which the palace of Carthage was adorned, and his attention had been caught by a representation of the battles of Troy. There he saw the sons of Atreus and Priam, and The whole extent of his fortunes; the loss and desolathe fierce Achilles. tion of his friends; the fall of his beloved country; rushed upon his recollection
:

'

Constitit et lachrymans, quis

jam

locus, inquit, Achate,

Quae
"
Sir,

regio in terris, nostri

non plenae laboris?'

than

the passage may hereafter have a closer application to the cause eloquent and classical friend intended. For it the state of things wliich has already commenced, is to go on; if the spirit of hostility which

my

already exists in three of our states,

among the

rest, as,

is to catch by contagion, and spread from the progress of the human passions, and the unavoidit

able conflict of interests,

will too surely do;

wars, arising from far inferior causes, have desolated

.

what are we to expect? Civil some of the fairest

provinces of the earth. It is the high province of this court to interpose its benign and mediatorial influence. ... If, sir, you do not interpose
. .

your friendly hand, and extirpate the seeds of anarchy which New York has sown, you will have civil war. The war of legislation, which has already commenced, will, according to its usual course, become a war of blows. Your country will be shaken with civil strife. Your republican institutions
will perish in the conflict.

Your

constitution will

fall.

The

last

hope of na-

And what will be the effect upon the rest of the world? Look abroad at the scenes now passing upon our globe, and judge of that effect. The friends of free government throughout the earth, who have been
tions will be gone.

by our example, and have cheerfully cast their glance them through the stormy seas of revolution, will witness our fall with dismay and despair. The arm that is every where lifted in the cause of liberty, will drop unnerved by the w^arrior's side. Despotism will have its day of triumph, and will accomplish the pur pose at which it too certainly aims. It will cover the earth with the mantle of mourning. Tlien^ sir, when New York shall look upon this scene of ruin, if she have the generous feelings which I believe her to have, it will not be with her head aloft, in the pride of conscious triumph, her rapt soul sitting in her eyes.' No, sir, nol Dejected with shame and confusion, drooping
to
it,

heretofore animated

as to their polar star, to guide

'

62

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

under the weight of her sorrow, with a voice euflocated with despair, well

may

she

t!ien

exclaim,
'

Quis jam locus,

Quae

regio in terris, nostri

non plenae laboris!"'

At the present

day, with the exception of Gladstone,

bit of Virgil into

who

introduces a

new

every fresh speech,

no English or American orator adorns his speeches with jewels from the ancient classics. The late Lord Palmerston startled the public a few years ago with a morceau

from Seneca; but the practice has nearly passed away.

The explanation of the change

practical.

is,

that the age

is

intensely

In the early stages of civilization oratory and

but, as society ad-

literature are apt to be confounded;

vances, the distinction between

them becomes more and

writing
in these prosaic, utiliof

more broadly marked.

ceases to be speech-like.

Oratory ceases to talk;

The world,

tarian times,

is

becoming every day more impatient^

pedantry, of rhetorical display, of everything that favors or

savors of long-windedness
orators,
;

and parliamentary and forensic

speak tersely and to the

knowing

this fact, try to

point, avoiding everything that is

is

merely ornamental.

It

said

by a traveler that the wild Indian hunter will some-

times address a bear in a strain of eloquence, and

visible impression

make

on him
it is

but whatever

may

be the

taste

of Indians

and bears,

certain that civilized men, in prois

portion as they increase in culture, will avoid whatever

high-flown in oratory, study brevity and plainness, and

keep to the subject before them.

* Mr. Wirt was a constant student of the Latin classics, and often quoted " In the company of men of them, with great felicity, in the court-room. letters," he used to say, "there is no higher accomplishment than that of readily making an apt quotation from the classics; and before such a body as the Supreme Court these quotations are not only appropriate, but constitute a beautiful aid to argument. They mark the scholar, which is always

agreeable to a bench that

is

composed of scholars."

CHAPTER

III.

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ORATOK.

OPwhich
all

the efforts of the

human mind,
For
its

there

is

no one

demands

for its success so rare a

union of

mental

gifts as eloquence.

ordinary displays the

state-

prerequisites are clear perception,

memory, power of

ment,

logic,

imagination, force of will, and passion; but,

for its loftiest flights, it

demands a combination of the most

faculties.

exalted powers,

a union of the rarest

Unite in
strong

one

man

the most varied and dissimilar gifts,

and masculine understanding with a brilliant imagination;

a nimble wit with a solid judgment;
nacious

a prompt and
fancy
;

te-

memory with

lively,

and

fertile

an eye for

the beauties of nature with a knowledge of the realities

of
life;

a brain stored with the hived wisdom of the ages,

and a heart swelling with emotion,

moral elements of a great orator.
cations,

and

you have the

these qualifiall.

But even

so

seldom harmonized in one man, are not

is

Eloquence
it

a physical as well as an intellectual product;

It is
;

has to do with the body as well as with the mind.

not a cold and voiceless enunciation of abstract truth

truth

it is

warm and

palpitating,
It

reason

"

permeated and_ made

<-

red-hot with passion."

demands, therefore, a trained,

penetrating, and sympathetic voice, ranging through all

the keys in the scale, by which all the motions and agitations, all the
less

shudderings and throbbings of the heart, no

acts, the
63

than the subtlest

nimblest operations of the


64
mind,

OEATOEY AND OEATOES.

in fine, all the modifications of the

moral

life,

may

'find

a tone, an accent.

The eye

as well as the

lips,

the heaving chest and the swaying arm, the whole frame quivering with emotion, have a part; and the speech that
thrills, melts,

or persuades,

is

the result of

them

all

com-

bined.

The orator needs,

as
his

therefore, a stout bodily frame,

is

especially

calling

one that rapidly 'wears the

nerves, and exhausts the vital energy.

A man may
is
it,

have the bow of Ulysses, but of what use

it

if

he has not strength to bend

to his will?

His

arrows

may

be of

silver,

and gold-tipped; they may be

winged with the feathers of the very bird of Paradise;

but
if

he cannot draw them to the head, and send them

to the

home

mark, of what value are they to him?

all ages,

The

most potent speakers, in

for bodily stamina.

have been distinguished

able

exceptions,

men

They have been, with a few remarkof brawny frame, with powerful
of great

digestive

organs, and lungs

aerating

capacity.
sufficient

They have been men

" who, while they

all

had a

thought-power to create

the material needed, had pre-

eminently the explosive power by which they could thrust

their

materials

out at men.
before

They were

catapults, and

men went down men of stalwart

bull,

them."

Burke and Fox were

of a

frame.

Mirabeau had the neck

which
the

and a prodigious chest out of which issued that

of
in

voice

thunder
awe.

before

French

chamber
of
lig-

quailed

Brougham had a
stood

constitution

num-vitse, which
activity
for

the

wear and tear of

years.
it

ceaseless

more than eighty

Daniel Webster's

physique was so extraordinary that

drew

all eyes

upon
as

him; and Sydney Smith could describe him only

steam-engine in breeches."

"a

Chalmers had a large frame,

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE OEATOK.

with a ponderous
brain,

65

and a general massiveness of

great
it

countenance

which

suggested

reserved

strength,

and reminded those who watched

Landseer's
or

in repose of one of

Thorwaldsen's

lions.

Even those
have
had,
at

orators
least,

who have
closely-knit

not

had

giant

frames,

ones,
It

the

bodily

activity

and quickness of
his action

the athlete.

was said of Lord Erskine that

sometimes reminded one of a blood-horse.

When

urging

a plea with passionate fervor, his eye flashed, the nostril

distended, he threw back his head, " his neck

was clothed

with thunder."
mal, as well
as

There was in him the magnificent anithe proud and fiery intellect, and the

whole frame quivered with pent-up excitement.

Curran

could rise before a jury, after a session of sixteen hours,

with a brief intermission,

and make one of the most

his
life.

memorable arguments of
of O'Connell

The massive frames

and John Bright, England's greatest living

orator, are familiar to all.

Besides all these qualifications, there are others hardly

less

essential

to

the

ideal

orator.
is

He must

have the

continuity of thought which

requisite for a prolonged

argument, and the ready wit which can seize and turn
to use

any incident which may occur in the course of

Last,
will,

its

delivery.

but

not

least,
it
is

is

demanded that comand

manding
mental

which, as
is

one of the most valuable

is
still

gifts,

also one of the rarest,

more

rarely found

in

union with the brilliant and dazzling

qualities that are the soul of every art

which

is

to sub-

due or captivate mankind.

In view of the extraordinary qualifications
for the highest eloquence, it is

required
it is

not strange that

so

uncommon.
3*

great

orator,

one

who

has

perfectly


66
grasped
there
is

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

the
in

art

of

bodying

forth
utters

to

eye and ear

accordingly

all

him,

and

who
is

great

thoughts and great feelings,

cent creation

a most rare and magnifi-

of the Almighty.

There

is

a well-known

saw which declares that " the poet is born, the orator is made"; but nothing can be more absurd than this disBoth are born, and both are made. As the tinction. poet, however gifted, requires much and careful selfculture to produce the finest verse, so the orator, how-

ever

Herculean his

industry,

needs

basis

of

native

genius, as well as incessant study and practice, to reach

the

loftiest

heights

of

eloquence.

Without the native

a fluent de-

faculty, the inborn genius,

he

may become
reflection

claimer, but in vain will he covet the grand

triumphs

of the rostrum.

The profoundest

and the most

Nature only

exhaustless knowledge are unavailing here.

it
is

that

can inspire that rapturous enthusiasm, that

that

burning
soul,"

passion,
calls

" furious

pride

and joy of the

orator,
his

which

up the imagination of the

that

makes

his

rhetoric

become a whirlwind, and

most thrilling bursts,

logic, fire.

The grandest

passages, the

in

the annals of eloquence, have been those which have cost

the least trouble;

for

they came as

if

by

inspiration.
of.

Like a chariot-wheel in violent motion, the soul

orator catches fire in the swiftness of
its

the

movement, and

throws

ofi' those divine flashes which fascinate mankind. Chatham's indignant burst in reply to the Duke of Rich-

mond was
its lofty

of this character, and

grandeur?

who does not do homage to Thur low's scathing reply to the Duke
him with the meanoverwhelming denuncia-

of Grafton,

when

the latter had taunted

ness of his extraction, Urattan's

'

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ORATOR.

tion of Flood,

67

Curran's blasting denunciations of the govits

ernment and

bribed informers, amid the clanking of

arms that were pointed at his heart,

of inspiration.

were
if

all

such gushes

Who

that reads Henry's burning speeches

can doubt that his most thrilling appeals were prompted

by a similar flush of feeling?

great orators of antiquity,
fied

And

we go back

to the

how

strikinglj' is this exempli-

in their

most memorable triumphs?

In every case

we
the

find that oratory, like the inspiration of the poet, or brilliant

conceptions
is

of the

painter,

flows

from a

source which

beyond the reach of human ken.

God, and in vain do
it

The
try

essential secret is a gift of

to grasp it

we

and to describe
said,

by seizing

its

mere forms.
toil for it;

As Webster has
but they will
precepts

"labor and learning

It

may

toil

in vain."

was not from rules and

derived that

only that Demosthenes

represented as

eloquence

which

is

lightning, bearing

down every

opposer.

No

study,

no

elaborate

have produced those electric appeals,

" that

preparation,.

could

disdain, anger,

boldness, freedom, involved in a continual stream of argu-

make his orations the most perfect of oratoriTo all such orators the secret of their grandest successes was doubtless as much a mystery as to their hearers. They had arranged nothing, prepared
ment, which
cal

discourses."

nothing.
to the

leading idea,

a central thought,was present

figures,
left

mind; but the distribution of the

colors,

and the
to

harmonious adaptation of the

were

that

wonderful influence which directs genius and consecrates

it

to immortality.

Socrates used to say that " all

men

are sufSciently eloit

quent in that which they understand";^ but

been more correct to say that no

would have

man

can be eloquent on a

68

OEATOEY AND ORATORS.

and
it is

C/ subject which he does not understand;

certain that no

equally

man

can be eloquent
gifts

who
as

has not certain Dr.

mental and physical

as

well

knowledge.

Horace Bushnell
of the eloquent

says, in

one of his lectures, that forty

hundred pulpits are wondering that there are no more

ministers for them.

As well might he
is

wonder that
per, in fresco,
nition,
is

in

every village

there

no

Phidias

or

Eaphael, and on the wall of every church no Last Sup-

by Da Vinci.

Excellence,
it is

by

its

very

defi-

exceptional,

and in oratory

even rarer than

in sculpture or painting.

The names
the

of all the

men

in ancient times, who, by

common

consent of their contemporaries, had reached

the highest pinnacle of eloquence,

fingers of one hand.

may

be counted on the

Greece boasted her three great dra-

matic poets, besides her epic; but she produced but one

Demosthenes.
perides have,

The names
indeed,

of jEschines, Lysias,

and Hy-

survived the wrecks of time; but

they were rather finished rhetoricians than masters of the

'oratorical art.

The fame of Eoman oratory

is

upheid by

Cicero alone.
Caesar, rose

Calvus, Cselius, Curio, Crassus, Hortensius,

one above another; but the most eloquent of

is

these lags so far behind the master, that he

only proxi-

mus, sed longo intervallo.

ideal of his art, that he

Cicero himself had so lofty an

was

dissatisfied

not only with his

Ita
ali-

own
quid

performances, but with those of Demosthenes.

et

sunt avidae

capaces meae aures, says he,

et

semper

great orators

immensum infinitumque desiderant. The number of in modern times is almost equally small.
political

The pulpit and

genius
is

eloquence of Prance, whose Celtic

of but

peculiarly oratorical, boasts

two great

names, Bossuet and Mirabeau, that are comparable with

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ORATOR.

those of her great dramatists
;

65

and

fertile as

Great Britain
of a century,

has been in oratorical genius during

she has never,
atorial contest,

upward

amid

all

her epochs of revolution and sento those of Bright,

from the days of Bacon

produced a single public speaker worthy to rank with

Milton or Shakspeare.

No doubt many
we have named

persons have enjoyed, for a time, great

fame and influence without some of the qualities which

as essential to the perfect orator.

bril-

liant imagination

and a sparkling wit

may

blind us for

a while to the lack

of a solid judgment; and vehement

action or cogent reasoning forget a squeaking voice,

figure.

may make
an ugly

us for the

moment

face, or

a diminutive

John Eandolph had a

legs, so that,

short, small body, perched

upon high crane

not
attention of the

when he

stood up,

you did
the

know when he was

to end;

yet he

commanded

House of Representatives,
his ear-splitting

in spite of his

gaunt figure and

scream; and Wilberforce

was a power in Parliament, though he had but a pigmy

bodyand a voice weak and painfully
shrill.

Boswell,

heard him in 1784 at York, wrote to a friend:

who "I saw

what seemed a mere shrimp mount upon the

as I listened,

table; but,

he grew and grew until the shrimp became

a whale."

Richard Lalor Shell thrilled the Irish people,

notwithstanding his dwarfish frame, his ungraceful action,

and a voice so harsh and violent as often to

positive shriek.

rise to

The most magical

of

American preachers,

Summerfield, the stories of whose oratorical feats read like

a page from the "Arabian Nights," was " femininely feeble,

an invalid

all his

days."

Biography abounds with these

in-

examples of the
deed, there
is

mind triumphing over matter; and

record hardly any positive

on

proof that

70
physical
defects,

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

whether of voice or person, have ever completely neutralized the effect of eloquent thoughts and sentiments, when the spirit that kindles them was really
in the

man,

when

the

elements of oratory were deepit is

seated in his soul.

Nevertheless

certain that few

men

even aspire to eminence as public speakers to

whom

Nature

has been niggard of the proper physical gifts; and, though

one

may sway

the hearts of his fellow-men without a harvoice,

monious or sonorous

an expressive countenance, an

imposing person, and the other bodily attributes which

are essential to the full

charm of eloquence, yet there

is

scarcely an instance of a man's rising to the loftiest heights

of oratory without them.

Again,

it

is

evident that, for temporary success, even

vulgar qualities

may

be the most

efficient,

and the orator

may owe
despises.

his

triumphs to the use of arts which he secretly

influence, not lasting fame,
is
is

As immediate

usu-

ally the object for

which the speaker

striving, he must, of

course, conform, in a certain degree, to the tastes of those

he addresses and to the ruling passions of the hour, and

hence the quality of his appeals must depend, in a great

degree,

upon the

intelligence or ignorance, the nobleness or

vulgarity, of his hearers.

The exigences

of

modern

society,

and especially of modern

political warfare,

have called into

being a class of public speakers whose

efforts fall as far

below those of the ideal orator in grandeur and beauty they excel them, occasionally, in immediate utility. It
excellence, that the speeches of

as
is

not merely in the degree, but also in the nature of their

these

two

classes differ.

While with the one

art,

class oratory is a severe

and exacting

demanding the

closest

application,

and aiming not

merely to excite the passions or sway the judgment for the

QUALIFICATIONS Of THE OKATOE.

71

time being, but also to produce a deep and permanent impression,

perhaps

to

produce models for the deligKt and

admiration of mankind,

the

aim of the other

class

is

simply a temporary
all

effect,

an immediate

result, to

which

other considerations are sacriiiced.

While the former

speak rarely, and at long intervals, during which they saturate their minds with their themes, casting their thoughts
into such
sic

moulds as are best

fitted to

enhance their intrinfacts,

worth or beauty, the

latter are

always ready with

arguments, and real or simulated enthusiasm, to champion

any cause or measure that party interests may require.

While the speeches of the one

their intrinsic

class, at

once charming by

beauty and compelling conviction by their

power, are a study for the intellect and a pleasure to the

imagination, and are read and studied for ages as models
of the oratorical art, as

men

study the poems of Milton or

effu-

Tennyson, or the paintings of Raphael or Titian, the

sions of the other, deriving their interest

from extraneous

causes that cease with the excitement of the hour, produce

an immediate
but, after a

effect,

which

is testified

by applause or

votes,
for-

few days, or months, or years, are forever

gotten.
ence,

It is still true, therefore, that

while great influ-

and even temporary fame,

may

be acquired without
divine art which

the cooperation of all the qualities

yet eloquence of the highest order,

we have enumerated,

the

"harmonizes language

till it

becomes a music, and shapes

the

thought into a talisman,"

gifts

demands

rare union

of

we have named.

a noteworthy fact that while every civilized country and every age of civilization has had its eloquent men, the great speakers have generally appeared in clusters, not
It is

singly,

and at long intervals of time.

By some

mysterious,


72

OEATORY

AJSTD

OEATOES.

inexplicable law, the divine afflatus of genius comes rush-

ing on a particular generation, and a brilliant galaxy of

orators appears in
tries

at once.

some country, perhaps in several counAs the great painters and sculptors ap-

peared together' in the Middle Ages,

composers came in one age,

as the great musical

as

the great dramatists of

English literature belong to one reign,

and

as the great

poets of this century sang together immediately after the

French Revolution,

so the

most illustrious orators have

blazed out in the intellectual heavens, not at long intervals

or as " bright, particular stars," but suddenly and in brilliant constellations.

Of

these, the

most splendid in modern

times have been those which distinguished the age of Lewis

XIV and

the period of the Revolution in France, the age

of George III in England, and in

America the years of the

qualities

Revolution and the second quarter of the present century.

Having thus enumerated the

ones more in detail.

which constitute

the orator, let us proceed to notice some of the principal

Of course,

it is

assumed that he has

proper fund of
in-

the necessary stock of knowledge,-

formation to draw from, both general and particular,

and that with the special information touching his theme

his

mind
to

is

saturated.

There

is

no art that can teach a

man

be eloquent without knowledge, though some de-

claimers,

who

appear, in speaking, to have followed Rous-

seau's receipt for a love-letter,

namely
and

to

begin without

knowing what you are going out knowing what you have
wise.

to say,
said,

to leave off with-

evidently think

other-

Cultivation of the voice, niemory, and imagination,

attention to style, gesture, and all the arts of speech,

can

only render pleasing or impressive the ideas the speaker wishes to communicate; but the materials of his speech,

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE OKATOE.

the facts and ideas themselves,

73

must
is

be supplied from

other sources than rhetoric.

There

no man who may

is

not learn to express, simply and naturally, what

in

him
is

but ten thousand teachers cannot qualify him to express

any more, for " oratory, like painting and sculpture,

only a language;
it
is

painting and sculpture

made

vocal

and

visible."

It is

hardly necessary to say that

among

the physical

gifts of the orator,

no one

is

more important than a good

call

VOICE. There

is

something at once mysterious and marvel-

lous in the

power of that complex structure which we

the vocal organs, to

move and mould the hearts

of men.
strik-

The waves of sound, those vibrating molecules which,

ing the sensitive

membrane

of the ear, travel thence to the

brain, the seat of thought

and passion, have a power

to
its

awaken and compel deep hidden sympathies, which, in

magical
effects,

surpasses any other granted to man.

It is

true that persons skilled in

pantomime can communicate

in the daj's of Augustus,

many

ideas,

and even complicated trains of thought, by ges-

tures alone.

Among

the

Eomans

both tragedies and comedies, which excited tears and laughter,

were acted by pantomime only

and Cicero

tells

us that

there was a dispute between himself and the actor Koscius

whether a sentiment could be expressed in a greater vaTheodore Parker, in reply to a gentleman who, in 1851, asked by letter could acquire an impressive delivery, replied as follows: "That will depend on qualities that lie a good deal deeper than the surface. It seems to me to depend on vigorous feeling and vigorous thinking, In the first place; on natural clearness of statement, in the next place and finally, on a vigorous and mode of speech. Vigorous feeling and thinking depend on the original talent No a man is born with, and on the education he acquires, or his daily habits. man man can ever he permanently an impressive speaker, without being first a mere emotion (feeling) of superior sentiments or superior ideas. Sometimes always commands attention impresses, but it soon wearies. Superiority of ideas
*

how he

and respect."

74
riety of

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

ways by words or by significant gestures. The it is said, express and interchange thought to
however, that such means are
little

Brazilians,

a surprising degree by facial motions and gesticulation.

The

fact,

used among

persons

who can communicate with each

is

other by the

tongue, shows that there

voice.

no eloquence
the

like that of the

The speaking

eye,

apt gesture,

the

written

word, and the sculptured or painted image are comparatively dead things; it is the voice that has life,

that has
to appal.

power

to thrill, to exalt, to melt, to persuade,

and

It is the
is

instrument of passion as well as of thought, and

capable of the most wonderful variety of modulations.

distinct

By

and significant sounds, corresponding to certain

emotions are betrayed; and

signs, the

when

these sounds

reach the ear simultaneously with the appeals of the looks

and gestures
persons

to the eye, the

effect is

irresistible.

Even
deep

who

are unaffected by music, are often subdued

voice, or roused

by the gentle accents of the

intonations.

by

its

Lord Chatham owed

voice as

his

supremacy

in

Parliament to

his

much

as to his other gifts.

William

Pitt, at the
voice.

age of twenty-one, ruled the British nation by his

It

was not the comprehensiveness of

his reasonings, the

power of
the

his sarcasm, the legislative authority of his

manthat
con-

ner, but the sonorous depths of his voice,

filled

House of Commons with its tributed most to give him the lead which

a voice sound, that

his

haughty
loftier

genius

knew how

to

keep.

Burke, with a far

genius, with " an imperial fancy that laid all nature under
tribute," and'a

memory

rich with the spoils of all knowl-

edge, had less infiuence as an orator, because he lacked a

voice.

He

gave utterance to his magnificent conceptions

in

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ORATOK.

a sort of lofty cry, which tended,
it is said,

75
as the

as

much

formality of his discourses, to send his hearers to dinner.

It

has been justly said that the prodigious power of Mira-

beau was in his larynx.

not by
of his

He

ruled tumultuous assemblies,

the lightning of his thought,

throat.

but by the thunder

far

Who

can

tell

how

O'Connell

was

indebted for his power to his wondrous organs of speech?

Eising with an easy and melodious swell, his voice

says Mr. Lecky, the largest building,

filled,

and triumphed over

it

the wildest

tumult, while

at the

same time

conveyed

every inflection of feeling with the most delicate flexibility.

The
in the

late

Earl of Derby, one of the most potent orators

his influence not

House of Commons, owed

more

to

his force of

argument, the exquisite analytical power with

Full
it

which he could discuss a question, than to his voice.

and sonorous when deep themes were to be discussed,

was at other times almost as musical as the notes of an

oboe.

Mr. Gladstone has a voice as silvery as

Belial's.

When

he led the House of Commons, though he spoke

for hours together, yet

his tones,

no hoarseness jarred the music of

as clear

and the closing sentences were

cadence as the
first.

and

bell-

like in their

foreigner,

who heard
had

him speak one night, declared

but

that, until

then, he

never believed that the English was a musical language;

now he was convinced

all living

that

it

was one of the most

all

melodious of

tongues.

Nearly

of our great
gifts.

American orators have been distinguished by similar

Henry

Clay's voice,

had an indescribable charm.

tones,

It could
-41^

ring out in
plaintive

trumpet

or

it

could

plead

low,

which pierced and thrilled the hearer It is said that like the chanting of the Miserere at Eome. " The days that are passed and words utter the to used he
notes,

76

OEAtOEY

AlJ-i)

OEATOES.

gone," with such a melancholy beauty of expression, that

no one could hear them without a

like voice

tear.

Webster's organ-

was a

fit

vehicle equally for his massive, closehis

knit arguments and for

impassioned appeals, and

it

was, quite as

much

as

his
It

majestic presence, one of the

rich, musical, flexible,

secrets of his power.

was deep,
force.

and of prodigious volume and few occasions on which he

clared that no power

In his famous speech

in reply to Senator Dickinson of

New

lost his

one of temper, when he

York,
(to

the
de-

known

to

man

any man but Mr.

Dickinson), not even hydrostatic pressure, could compress

so big a

volume of

lies

into so small a space as the latter

had uttered in a speech which he was even then franking

all

over the country, Webster pronounced the words in

felt,

such tones that one of his hearers declared that he

all

the night afterward, as

ears.

if

a heavy cannonade had been

resounding in his

Again, in his eulogy on Adams

his descrip-

and

Jefferson,

when, coming to the climax of

tion of
his

John Adams's oratory, he raised

his body, brought

to

hands in front of him with a swing, and, stepping

the front of the stage, said, with a broad swell

and an
voice,

imperious surge upward of the gruff tone of his

"He
single

spoke

onward, right onward,"

"

he

threw into

that

word

onward " such a shock

sat

of force, that several of the

stage, found

auditors,

who

directly in

front

themselves involuntarily half rising from their seats with

the start the words gave them.

because exceptional.

The effect was the greater The orator had been speaking calmly,
level of a passionless delivery.*

and rose from the dead

* "

his

The Golden Age of American Oratory," by B. Q. Parker. The French critic, Sainte-Beuve, in a fine paper on Montalembert, describes voice, and adds: "I asli pardon for insisting upon these nuances; but the
and particularly in eloquence, noted them

ancients, our masters in everything,

77

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE OEATOE.

The enormous labor which
upon the cultivation of their
are well
actors

voices,
five,

and

and singers bestow its magic .results,

six years,

known.

Three, four,

and even

was

not thought too long a period for the artists of the golden
" age of song, the eighteenth century, to spend in " making

the organ

by which they were

to

win their triumphs.

Who

has forgotten the story of Caffarelli, who, for five out of

the six years in which he was

under the instruction of

Porpora, practised upon the passages written on a solitary

sheet of music-paper?

M. Legouv^, of the French Acad-

emy, in his amusing and instructive volume on

UArt

de la

Lecture, relates a singular experience of Kachel,

which he

had from her own

lips.

One day she

recited

some tragic

passages in the Potsdam gardens before the

Emperors of
and several
she,

Russia and Germany, the King of

other sovereigns.
" electrified me. "

Prussia,

That parterre of kings," said

I find

Never did

more powerful
Talma.

accents,

my
own

voice enchanted

my

ears "

similar incident, in her

experience,

is

related

by

Madam

She

states in

her Memoirs that one day,

when
all

she was personating

An-

dromache, she
ran, not only

felt

herself so profoundly moved, that tears

from the eyes of

the spectators, but from

her

own

also.

The tragedy

over,

one of her admirers

sprang into her box, and, seizing her hand, said: "Oh!
dear friend, that was admirable!
self.

my
|
i

It

was Andromache her-

I
;

am

sure that you imagined you were in Epirus,

:

minutely and a great modern orator has said ' A man's voice is always an index of his mind.' A mind that is clear, pure, firm, generous, and a little disdainful, betrays all these qualities in its voice. Those persons whose voice of the inner is not the expressive and sensitive organ of these slightest shades man, are not made to produce penetrating impressions as orators." There is no doubt that Thomas Jefferson failed as a speaker simply for lack of voice. He

had
in

all

moments of great excitement, and the consciousness vented him from risking his reputation in debate.

inarticulate the other qualifications but his voice became guttural and of this infirmity pre;

78

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

"I?" she replied /and that you were Hector's widow." "What, then, world!" in the laughing, "not the least

made you weep?"

"My

voice."

"How, your

voice?"

"Yes, iny voice. That which touched me was the expression which my voice gave to the griefs of Andromache, not
those griefs themselves.

That nervous shivering which ran

over

my

body, was the electric shock produced upon

my
and

nerves by
auditress.
It is a

my own
I

accents.

was at once

actress

magnetized myself."
fact that there are actors moderately soul,

remarkable

endowed with mind and

who, once upon the

"

stage,

compel their hearers both to weep and to think.

asks M. Legouv^, "is this?
intelligent for them.
It is

Why,"
is

because their voice

to silence,

Condemn them

and they
It seems

would
wakes

fall

back into their natural nothingness.

as if there

were a

little

sleeping fairy in their throat,

who
his

as soon as they speak,' and, touching

them with
The
voice
is

wand, kindles in them unknown powers.

an

invisible actor concealed in the actor, a mysterious reader

concealed in the reader,

to both."

and which serves as blower

The
is

voice being thus the speaker's chief instrument,

it its

hardly possible for him to take too

It

much

pains with

cultivation.

should be clear, distinct, and full; neither

squeaking nor harsh, neither a whistle nor a growl, and

requiritig

no push by the

will;

but capable, easily and

naturally, of all the inflections

forte to a pianissimo,

and modulations, from a

it

which suit the different sentiments

may
atic

be required to express.

It needs, therefore, a system-

and

scientific drill, as truly as

do the muscles of the

Its quality

athlete

who would

excel in physical exercises.

depends, of course, primarily upon the formation of the

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE OEATOK.

chest, the throat,

79

and the mouth; but, though art can do

it

nothing to change the structure of these organs,

can do
all

much

to facilitate

and strengthen their movements in

voices, renders

that regards breathing, the emission of sound, and pronunciation.

Labor strengthens weak

harsh ones,

hard ones

flexible, softens
er's

acts, in short,

upon the speakupon that

voice as the practice of the art of song does

of the singer.
singer,
vocalist,

By

dint of painstaking a speaker, like a

lacks.

may acquire notes which he Madame Malibran, in singing

r^,

The famous
trill

one day the rondo in

a very high
r4.

the Opera of

La Somnambula, ended with

after having

upon the

begun with the low

She

had embraced three octaves in her vocalism.

concert,

After the
trill:

a friend expressed his

admiration of the
it

"Oh!" was
pursued
dressing
I

the reply, "I have sought for

I

long enough.
it.

For three months

it

have been running after

have

everywhere,
I

while

arranging

my

hair! while

and

found

it

one morning in the bottom of

my

shoes, as I

was putting them on!"

actor,

The example of Kean, the

notably feeble
voice,

shows how much

plished by careful vocal training

who had by nature a may be accomand cultivation. Talma

bestowed incredible pains upon his voice.

he stammered,
his

When young
he

articulation
his

was

indistinct,

was

quickly fatigued, and

chral;

tones were

heavy

an(J

sepul-

but so completely did he overcome these defects,

that

suspected their former existence.

no one who heard him in the maturity of his power When Mr. Walsh, the
at Paris, heard

American consul

him

utter

the words,

"The
it

iron

reign of the people," he was astonished at

their effect.

Every word seemed a link in a chain-bolt, was so hard, and solid, and round. Dr. Porter, of

80

ORATOEY AND ORATORS.

Andover, the author of an excellent work on Elocution,

testifies

that even

in

middle

life

he went to work and

broke up

"a

stiff

and clumsy pair of jaws"; and others

declare that " from an effective

monotony he passed

to a

range and
poses

flexibility of

tone adequate to the highest pur-

of the in

orator."
his
efforts

Demosthenes, we know, was unto

wearied

overcome the defects in

a

his

organs of speech.

He had

weak

voice, he

stammered,

he could not pronounce the

denotes
his
sticks

first letter

of the

word which

own
in

profession, the

r of Khetor,

letter

which

the

throat

of

many Englishmen and

he practiced speak-

Americans.*

To remedy

these, defects,

ing with pebbles in his mouth, ran up-hill as he recited,

and declaimed on the sea-shore amid the noise of waves

*M. Legouve, in his recent worlt on '^VArt de la Lecture^'''' from which we have ah-eady quoted, tells an amusing story of the way in which an actor of his acquaintance conquered this difficult letter. " He was young, he had already some talent as an actor, and he was engaged in two pursuits, unequally dear to him, hut equally difficult; he was laboring at the same time to conquer the rolling r, and the hand of a young girl with whom he was desperately smitten. Six months of toil had been rewarded with no more success in one case than in the other. The r was obstinate in remaining in his throat, and the lady in remaining single. Finally, one day, or rather one evening, after an hour of supplications and of tender protestations, he touches the rebellious heart the lady says yes Drunk with joy, he hurriedly descends the stair-case, and, in passing the porter's lodge, he hurls at him a sonorous and triumphant: ^Cordon., s^il (^ Open, if you please vous plait ! The r of cordon has a pure and vibrat') ing sound, like an Italian r The fear seizes him that perhaps it is hut a happy accident. He repeats it the same success He can no longer doubt it the rolling r is his And to whom does he owe it? To her whom he adores. It is the intoxication of the happy passion which has wrought this miracle And see, he returns home, repeating all along the way, for he is always afraid of losing his conquest: Cordon, sHl vous plait Cordon, s'il vous plait / Cordon, s'U vous plait ! Suddenly a new incident occurs as he turns a street corner, there leaps forth from under his feet, from a hole,- an enormous rat! A rat? Another r He adds it to the other; he joins them together; he shouts them together: 'J7>i rat! (arat) Cordon! Cordon! Un gros rat! (a great rat) Cordon! un gros rat! un gros rat! un gros rat! And the r's roll, and the street resounds with them. He returns home triumphant. He has vanquished the two rebels. He is loved, and he vibrates Let us enKtle this chapter; Of the Influence of Love on Articulation,"
;
I

'

"

.'

'

'

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ORATOR.

and storms.

81

All the ancient orators, indeed, whether be-

cause they had to speak to the multitude, whose senses

must, be struck, and on

whom power and

brilliancy of

voice have a great effect, or, because they bestowed far

more care on
tached
far

all

the branches of the oratorical art, at-

greater

importance
Quintilian

to

vocal

culture

than

modern

speakers.

contemptuously

dismisses

those elocutionists

simple conversational

who advocate the exclusive use of a mode of speaking by saying: "It

was not assuredly in a straight-forward tone of voice

that

Demosthenes swore by the defenders of Marathon

it

and Platsea and Salamis, nor was

strain

in the

monotonous

of daily talk that Jilschines bewailed the fate of

Thebes."

The necessity of careful attention

the voice, even by those
fects,
is

to the cultivation of

who

care only for rhetorical efits

strikingly

shown by

connection with

style.

It

has been justly said that a tenor

it

song, though

you

transpose

a fifth

lower, will

not suit a bass singer;

effective

and

so the style of .speaking

which may be very

voice,

for a

man

with a

shrill,

keen

may

be absolutely
is

grotesque

if

attempted by a

man whose
viol.

voice

rich

and

deep and

full.

You cannot
for

play on the flute a piece of

music written

the

bass

Again,

'a

man who
and low

speaks always in a feeble, low voice,

so feeble

that " each one of his sentences seems like a poor, scared

mouse running
as feebly as

for its hole,"

will

come

at last to write

he speaks.

" Observation," says Professor

H.

N. Day, " abundantly shows

and highly

how a naturally imaginative impassioned style may be gradually changed

is

into one that

dry and tame by the continual influence

of the conviction that

we

are not able appropriately to

82

OKATOKY AND ORATORS.

deliver strongly impassioned discourse.

conscious power

and

skill

to express with effect the

most highly-wrought

discourse will, on the other hand, ever be stimulating to

the production of
of

it."

There are instances, undoubtedly,

weak-lunged speakers, who,

owing

to

hereditary

feebleness of constitution, can

never, by any

vocal culture, attain to great vocal power.

of Gotta,

amount of The example

however, as he

is

described by Cicero, shows

that such need not despair of success in oratory: "As he

very prudently avoided

voice,

every forcible

exertion
his

of

his

on account of the weakness of

lungs, so his
his con-

language was equally adapted to the delicacy of

stitution.

Though he was

scarcely

able,

and therefore

never attempted, to force the passions of his judges by a

strong

and spirited delivery, yet he managed them

so

artfully that the gentle emotions he raised in

them

an-

swered the same purpose and produced the same

as the violent ones

effect

which were excited by Sulpieius."

feeble

The

defects

of a

or

husky voice may be

re-

deemed, to a great extent, by distinct articulation.

The

part which this quality plays in good oratory, as well as

in good reading

and

acting,

is

immense.

Clearness, energy,
less

passion, vehemence, all

lation.

depend more or

upon

articu-

There have been actors of the

first

order who

have had voices as feeble as a mouse's.

Monvel, the

famous French
even teeth!

actor,

had scarcely any voice; he had not

to high

And

yet, according

authority, not

only did his hearers never lose one of his words, but no
artist

had ever more pathos or fascination.

The

secret

of his success was his exquisite articulation.

" The mosi

admirable reader," says M. Legouv^, "

M. Andrieux.

Yet

his voice

I ever knew, wag was more than weak; it was


QUALIPICATIONS OF THE ORATOR.
faint,

83

husky, hoarse.
defects?

How

did
It

he triumph over so

many

By

articulation.

was said that he made

himself understood by dint of making himself heard."

The

same writer adds that there are readers, orators, and

to

actors,

whom

the very richness of their voices

is

an inconvensound

ience.

As they know not how

to

articulate, the

devours the word.

The vowels devour the consonants.

so

Such persons make

much

noise in reading and speaking

that nobody understands them.

It is

remarkable that, dependent as we are upon the

organs of speech for the communication of our ideas and

feelings,

we know

so

little

of the secret of the working

of these organs.
all

Anatomists have dissected and laid bare

the details of their complex

and wondrous structure,

of the
larynx, with
its

they have shown the formation

muscles,
the vocal
cartilages,

membranes, and

tracery,

by which

sounds are modulated,

but

of the connection

of these organs with

the effect produced, they have told

us almost nothing.
are here unavailing.

The researches

of the subtlest science

its

We know
makes

that every voice has

it

natural bell-tone, which

or a soprano,

a bass voice, a tenor,

and that between these are various inter-

mediate gradations;
all these,
is

and there our knowledge ends.

Of

the middle voice or tenor, as Bautain observes,

it

the most favorable for speaking, both because

main-

tains itself the best, and,

when
voice

well articulated, reaches

is

the farthest.

The upper

undesirable because

it

continually tends to a scream.

lectual
gifts,

Only the highest

intel-

with great personal magnetism and other

A bass voice compensations, can atone for this blemish. tends continually and high, is with difficulty pitched
downward.
Grave and majestic at the
outset, it

soon

84

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

monotonous;
to,
it

grows heavy an
but, if

has magnificent chords,

often

long

listened

produces

the

eifect of

drone, and soon tires and lulls to sleep by the medley of

commingling sounds.
ing in which echoes
ating

If

coarse

and

violent,

it

deafens

and stuns the ear; and when thundering in a vast buildexist,

the billows of sound, reverber-

from every
fast,

side,

blend together, should the orator

is

be speaking

and the result

a deafening confusion

and an acoustic chaos.

The middle
middle of the
tion, since it

voice, for the

scale,

very reason that

it

is

in the

has

the largest resources

for inflec-

can

rise or sink

with greater ease than the

greater

other tones, and

thus

allow

play to expression.

Possessing a greater variety of intonations than the other

voices, it is less liable to

monotony, and holds the

is

atten-

tion of the hearer,

who

so

prone to doze.

But what-

ever be the tone of the voice, the most desirable quality

it

can possess for the purposes of the public speaker,

is

to be sympathetic.

The great merit of

it

this voice

is,

that

not only, by

its

siren tones, does

it

propitiate

and win

the hearer in advance, but

exerts a steady fascination,

a magnetic influence, which draws and fastens his attention

to

the

end, as if

by some magic

spell.

"It

is

secret virtue

which

is

in speech, and which penetrates at

once, or little

by

little,

through the ear to the heart

of

those

who

listen,

charms them, and holds them beneath

the charm, to such a degree that they are disposed, not only to listen, but even to admit what is said, and to
receive
it

with

confidence.

It is

an on

affection for

him who

speaks,

a voice which inspires and puts you instinctively

his side, so that his

words

find

an echo in the mind,


QUALIFICATIONS OF THE OEATOE.
repeating there
in the

85
it

what he

says,

and reproducing
to

easily

understanding and heart."*

not our business in this work
point

It is

out the

various faults of speakers in the

management

of the voice,

such as lack of proper modulation, indistinct articulation,

speaking too slowly or too rapidly, or in a constant monotone.

is

All this belongs to a professional treatise.

fault so

But there
speakers,

one

common,

especially with

young

and in our western courts and public assemblies, that we

cannot forbear noticing
it.

The great majority, confoundLike

ing loudness with force, speak in too high a key.

jEschines, as accused
at

by Demosthenes, when the former,

oration
etc.,

the

close

of his

on the crown, bawled and

they seem to consider eloIt is

mouthed H

T^, xai 'HXis,

quence as an

affair of the lungs.

a great mistake to

suppose that he

who

speaks in the loudest tones can be

easily.

heard the farthest or the most

Gardiner, in his

" Music of Nature," notes a curious fact in the history of

sound
"

The loudest notes always perish on the spot where they arc produced,

whereas musical notes will be heard at a great distance. Thus, if we approach within a mile or two of a town or village in which a fair is held, we may hear very faintly the clamor of the multitude, but more distinctly the organs, and other musical instruments which are played for their amusement. If a Cremona violin, a real Amati, be played by the side of a modern fiddle, the latter will sound much louder than the former; but the sweet, brilliant Dr. tone of the Amati will be heard at a distance the other cannot reach. Young, on the authority of Durham, states that at Gibraltar the human voice may be heard at a greater distance than that of any other animal; thus, when the cottager in tlie woods, or the open plain, wishes to call her husband,

who is working at a distance, she does not shout, but pitches her voice to a musical key, which she knows from habit, and by that means reaches his ear. The loudest roar of the largest lion could not penetrate so far."

The same writer

*

states that

when Paganini played

in

The remarks

in this

qualities of voices, are abridged

and the preceding paragraph, upon the different from the admirable work of M. Bautain, on

"The Art of Extempore Speaking."

86

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

seats,

England, the connoisseurs did not seek the nearest

but preferred more retired places, where his exquisite

strumentation overrode the storm of the orchestra.
Besides the difficulty of being

in-

heard distinctly, there

are other objections to using the high notes, except rarely,

in speaking.

Not only do they become

shrill

and harsh by

excessive use, but the very thought of the speaker

affected

may

be

by

it.

The celebrated French advocate, M. Berryer,

an excellent law-case
unconsciously, on too
to his having,

attributes the loss of

begun

his

pleading,

high a key.

The fatigue of
his temples;

his larynx

communicated
it

itself speedily to

from the temples

to

passed to the brain; his

its

mind refused
lawyer

act with vigor, because

organ was

overstrained; his thoughts became confused; and the great

lost the full
it

command

of his intellectual faculties,

and with

of his case, because

he

had not thought of

his

coming down from the

perch to which

voice

had

climbed at the beginning of his speech.

Some years ago

a writer in a public journal, in speak-

ing of an address read

his impressions thus:

by Dr. Orville Dewey, described

reading!
quiet and un-

"And such

pretentious, but with such appropriate feeling and intense

expressiveness!

was not prepared

little

for

such a really
I better

powerfully essay with so

show of power.
the
still

understand the mightiness

recognize
tones,

of

small voice, and

greater

an oratory in condensed feeling and subdued than the most showy rhetoric and the
that

stormiest bluster."

What
that
it
is

a pity
!

it

is

we have

so

few such readers in

is

our pulpits

The besetting

sin of our preaching to-day

too declamatory.

In nine eases out of ten

If

it

needs to be more conversational.

you want

to speak

QUALlJlCATtONS OF THE OllATOE.

well, said

87

Brougham

learn to talk well.

to a young Etonian, you must first Not that the heights of eloquence can

be reached by this style, or that there are not cases where

the preacher

must lighten and thunder

call for

as well as plead.

There are themes which

denunciation and indig-

nant invective, and then only the sharp and ringing tones
that belong to the upper register will do. of mediocre
voice can

Again, a voice

power may captivate

senates, but only a

mighty
flute-

move a multitude.

Of what use would the

like voice of Everett have been to O'Connell in his " hill-

side

stormings?"

Beecher has well said that "there are

cases in

which by a single explosive tone a

as a

man

will drive

home a thought

hammer

drives a nail."

But bursts

of oratory are necessarily the exception, not the rule, in

a sermon; moreover, few have the genius for them; and

therefore

we

believe that there

would be a great gain of would simply

talk to his
rate,

power,

if

ordinarily the preacher

hearers as a

man

talks to his friend.

At any

when

he does pitch his voice on a high key, he should have a

better reason for so doing than old Dr. Beecher
certain Sunday.
his son

had on a
said to

Coming home from church, he

tells

Henry, who

the anecdote: "It seems to

me

never made a worse sermon than I did this morning."

"

Why,

father," said
all

Henry, "

I
is

never heard you preach so

the way," said the Doctor;
to say!"

loud in

my

life."

"That

"I always holloa when I haven't anything

It

has been justly said by some writer, that almost

is

every one

surprised on

first

hearing Wendell Phillips.

is

You

are looking for a

man who

all

art,

all

thunder.

and begins Lo! a quiet he presently way; conversational talking in a simple, easy, you startles he then turn, happy some makes you smile at

man

glides on to the platform,

88

OKATOKT AND ORATOKS.

thrust, then he electrifies

by a rapier-like
that

you by a grand
applaud.

outburst of feeling.
is

"You

listen, believe,

And
can-

"Wendell Phillips.
efiect
:

That

is

also oratory,

to pro-

duce the greatest

not
all

by the quietest means."

all

We

be Phillipses

but we can

copy his naturalness,

earnestness,

and simplicity;

and what a gain even that

Their main

would be
fault
is

to the great majority of preachers!

not that they cannot read Greek and Hebrew, but

that they cannot read English.

played,

As the

best music, badly

makes wretched melody,

so false or spiritless elocu-

tion degrades the finest composition to a level with the

worst.

The celebrated Dr. Laurence, the

so badly, in such
effect

associate of

Burke

and Fox, spoke

as

an unvarying monotone,
which
his

completely to neutralize the

fitted to

thought

and learning were

should

produce.

Fox

said that a

man

listen, if possible, to
it

a speech of the Doctor's, and

it

then speak

over again himself;

it

must, he thought, suc-

ceed infallibly, for

of being

was sure

to be admirable of itself,

and

new know

to the audience.

While such are the

effects

of a languid, drawling delivery, who, on the other hand,

does not

the sorcery that lies in a skillful utterance,

which properly distributes the lights and shadows of a

musical intonation?
cadences,

By

sonorous depth and

articulation,

melodious

by

a distinct

which

chisels

and

engraves the thoughts,

even

the most trivial sentiments

may

be invested with a force and fascination almost irre-

As a good singer cares little for the words of a song, knowing that he can make any words glorious, so the orator can infuse power and pathos into the tamest
sistible.

language. eloquence
est

There

is

hardly any person familiar with pulpit

who

does not

know

that some of the profound-

and most scholarly

discourses,

discourses which, when

QTJALIPICATIONS OF THE OEATOK.

read,

89

seem

full

of

concentrated

thought

and vigorous

expression,

have

fallen

almost powerless from the lips

of their authors, while a single verse of Scripture, or a

line

from an old and familiar hymn, coming from the

lips

of another

man, has acted

like

an

electric shock, " tear-

ing and shattering the heart," to use

De Quincey's

figure,

" with volleying discharges, peal after peal."*

Of

all

the qualifications of the orator which

is

we have
and

named, none

more

essential than energy,

physical

intellectual force.

Cicero

sums up the whole art of speakspeak

ing in four words,

apte, distincte, ornate dicere; to

to the purpose, to

speak clearly and distinctly, to speak

it is

gracefully.

To-day

important also to speak with

force.

This

is

especially requisite to-day, because

the age itself

is full

of force, and therefore impatient of feebleness.

By

force

we mean

the

energy (etymologically, the inward-

workingness,) with which the speaker employs his various

abilities to

make us

see

and
It is

feel that

which he would im-

press

upon our minds.

not a single faculty, but the

It

whole strength of his soul bearing upon ours.

this quality to
* It is a

was

which Demosthenes must have referred in

erroi- to

common

suppose that special attention to elocution leads

to affectation

and mannerism.

The very reverse

is

the fact.

Affectation

is

the

result of untaught efforts at a late age to rid one's self of the vulgarisms, pro-

and other faults of school-boy days. so many persons who study elocution fail to profit by it, is that they begin too late. The rustic who late in life apes the gentleman, is sure to be affected; not so with him who is "to the manner born." Let all persons who are to he public speakers be trained early and scientifically in the management of their voices, as an essential part of their education, let them be drilled and practised for years, till they have acquired the last great art, that of concealing art, and we shall no longer listen to discourses wliich, like Milton's infernal gates, grate on our ears "harsh thunder," or which, like Shelley's waves on the

vincialisms, slovenliness, indistinctness,

The reason why

sea-shore, breathe over the slnmbering brain a dull monotony, but to a pleasing, '' and " sore ; forcible, and effective delivery, " musical as is Apollo's lute

throats," the result of unnatural tones and straining, will disappear from the

catalogue of clerical

ills.

4*


90
his

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

reiterated
laid
-XjivqaiZi

the
and

"'action,

action,

action,"

on
full

which he

such

stress.

speech

may

be packed

of thought, tersely

and

felicitously expressed; its facts

its logic
it

may

be apt,

its style

elegant,

without a flaw; and

be tamely delivered,

yet
it

if it

lack fire and spirit, or if

will

make but

weak impression.

On

the other hand, a

it,

production which
is full

is

intellectually far inferior to

which
is

of bad rhetoric and worse logic,

views, and

which

is

one-sided

in

its

made up

of the

most hackneyed material,

make commonly
will
litical

a powerful impression for the hour (which

the end of speaking), if the orator be energetic,

his

and infuse that energy into

pardoned,
the

performance.

As

in po-

administration errors and even gross blunders are

if

main end

is

attained, so a speech

may

be

full of faults,

and yet be

successful, if it be full of energy.

;

Force
is

is

partly a physical product, and partly mental

of oratory, which gives
it

it

the

life

breath, and

fire,

and

power.

It is

the electrical

element, that which smites,

penetrates, and thrills.

While listening to a speaker who

eloquence,

has this property of

"our minds seem

to be
It

pricked as with needles, and pierced as with javelins."

does not necessarily imply vehemence.
ergy, as

There may be en-

we

shall presently show, in suppressed feeling, in

deep pathos, in simple description, nay, even in silence

is

There is often an appearance of energy where there no reality, a tug and strain to be forcible, without calm inward power. "The aspiration is infinite, but the
itself.

performance

In the highest examples of no appearance of exertion; we see only power "half-leaning on its own right arm," the Athlete
is

infinitesimal."

energy, there

is

conquering without a visible strain or

Guide's picture of
St.

contortion.

In

Michael piercing the dragon, while

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ORATOB.

the gnarled muscles of the

91

arm and hand

attest the

utmost

strain of the strength, the countenance

remains placid and

serene.

Demosthenes,
"

if

we may judge by an
to the

oft-quoted

say-

ing of an enemy, must have had an almost superhuman

force.

What," exclaimed jEschines

Ehodians,

when

they applauded the recital of the speech which caused his

banishment,
self?"
ized

"what
A

if

you had heard the monster him-

Lord Chatham's oratory was strikingly characterforce.

by

large part of his success

was due

to his

imperial positiveness of character.

acute,

Possessing a vigorous,

and comprehensive

intellect,

he saw at a glance what

most men discover by laborious processes of reasoning, and

flashed his thoughts
rapidity,

upon other minds with the vividness,

and abruptness with which they arose in his own.

Scorning the slow, formal methods of the logician, he

crushed together proof and statement in the same sentence,

and reached

his conclusions at a single

bound.

As John
seeing
its

Foster said, " he struck

on the results of reasoning as a

without your
is

cannon-shot strikes the mark,

course through the air."

Lord Brougham
Possessing

a yet more

signal example of this quality in oratory, because he

his victories almost to it alone.
little

owes

personal

magnetism,

at
little

least,

of

the

kind

that

fascinates

and

charms; careless in his statements, inaccurate in his quotations,

lame in

his logic,

and intensely partisan in

his views

displaying
speeches,

literary skill in

the composition of his

which are often involved and sometimes lumber-

ing

in
;

style,

and almost always devoid of elegance or

sometimes
"

polish

addicted to exaggeration and a kind of hyperbolical

iteration in

which there
is

is

power"; he

yet, in spite of these faults,

more potter than one of the most


92

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

potent and successful orators of the century, simply because

of
his

intense,

gladiator-like energy.
life.

All his discourses

throb and palpitate with a robust

Even Chatham and Brougham were,

passed in force,
least,

if

possible,

surin-

tellectual energy,
lution.

at in the union of physical and by the master-spirit of the French Revoall

The orator of

the ages most remarkable for force

was Mirabeau.
his

It seemed, at times, as if the iron chain of

argument were fastened

to

an

electric battery, every

link of which gave

you a shock.

William -Wirt

tells

us

that President Jefferson,

ter to Prance, spoke of

who heard Mirabeau while minishim as uniting two distinct and

whenever he pleased,

perfect characters in himself,

the
and

mere

logician,

with

mind apparently

as desolate

sterile as the

sands of Arabia, but reasoning at such times

resist; and,

with an Herculean force which nothing could

at other

times,

bursting forth with a flood of eloquence

to the

more sublime than Milton ever imputed

and cherubim, and bearing
all

seraphim
force

before him.

The same

characterized the speaking of Chief Justice Marshall,

at the bar.

when

No

matter what the question;

though ten

times more knotty than " the gnarled oak/' he penetrated

at once to its core,

to the point

on which the controversy

depended; and seizing the attention with irresistible energy, he never permitted
it

to elude his grasp, until he

had

forced his convictions on his hearers.

It is to his

energy that the so-called natural orator owes

his fellow-men.
It is in his

his

power over

strength and

intensity of character,

in his

determined

will, his

triumph-

ant self-assertion, his positiveness and overbearingness,

that lurks his magic.

By

the sheer force of enthusiasm

and animal passion,

by

his

glowing periods and "sen-

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE OEATOR.

tences of a venturous edge,"
pitch

93

he
the

rouses audiences to a

of excitement to which

polished

and dainty

rhetorician seeks to uplift

said

them

in vain.

Some one has

species

that

eloquence

is

a sort

of majesty, a

of

kingly power; and

only

men acknowledge

the mastery of those

assertion.

who have in their natures a strong element of selfThe very authority, and even audacity with which they afl5rm a thing, makes half the world believe
it

true.

In like manner, the principal,

if

not the sole

cause of the success of the radical orator of the present

day,
is

his force.

"He
it
is

is

man

of one lone idea, and

it

if this

happens to be a great and fundamental one, as

sometimes does,
only.

apprehended upon one of

is

its

sides

As a consequence, he
this class

an intense man, a forcible

It
is

man.
are

His utterances penetrate.

true that there

among

some of

less

earnest spirit, and less

energetic temper; amateur reformers,

who wish
feeble,

to

make
of

an impression upon the

public

mind from motives

mere
desist

vanity.

Such men are exceedingly

and soon

from their undertaking.

is

For while the common

proceeds

mind

ever ready, too ready, to listen to a really earforcible

nest and

man, even though

sets

his

force

from a wrong source, and

direction,
it

in an altogether

wrong

yet loathes a

lukewarm

earnestness, a coun-

terfeited enthusiasm.

One

of the most telling characters,

is

in one of the most brilliant English comedies,

Forcible

Feeble.

Take away from the man who goes now by the

name
force,

of reformer,

the

half-educated

truth but not the whole truth,

take

man who sees the away from him his

and you take away

his

muscular system.

He

in-

stantaneously collapses into a flabby pulp."

It

was well observed some years ago, by an American


94
orator
Asiatic

OKATOKY AND ORATORS. who had

style

closely studied his art, that the florid

is

and

of eloquence

not the taste of the age.

The

strong, and even the rugged and the abrupt, he as-

serted,

are

far

more

successful.

"Bold
felicite

propositions,

pithy sentences, nervous audax, both strong phrases, the common compacted periods, conception, language and an apt adage in sudden and strong masses of English or Latin, a keen sarcasm, a merciless person a mortal thrust, these are the beauties and deboldly and briefly expressed,
sense,

in

vyell

light,

ality,

formities
ing." *
"

that

now make a
young
friend, "

speaker

the

most

interest-

In your arguments at the bar," he says again,

a
let

addressing
dominate.

argument strongly prelet

Sacrifice

your flowers, and

your columns

be Doric, rather than Composite,

Ionic.

the

better

medium
let

is

Avoid, as you would the -gates of death, the repuof

floridity.

tation

Small

though
stride

your
of a

body,

the

march of your mind be the

giant."

seven-leagued

Energy

is

greatly increased by interrogation.

A hearer

who

is

listless

while assertions only are made, will often

prick up his ears

Cicero

when he
first

is

appealed to by a question.
against
Catiline
in
this

begins his

oration

way, and Demosthenes employs

fect in his

this figure witli great ef-

Philippics,

and in the speech on the Crown:

" Will

you continue

What's the news?

a

man from
to

go about to each other and ask, Can anything be more new than that Macedonia should subjugate Greece? Is
to
is
ill.

Philip dead?
it

you?

No, indeed; but he

to you,

What
Philip?"
1849.

matters
grief,

who,

if

he were to come to

would quickly get yourselves another

* William

Chat-

Wirt, " Memoirs " by

J. P.

Kennedy,

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ORATOR.

ham, in one of
the
to his
.
.

95

superb outbursts, demands, "

has dared to authorize and

Who
of

is

man

that

associate

our arms the

tomahawk and

scalping-knife

the

savage?"
"

Cicero tells us that the very enemies of Grac-

chus could not help weeping,

sage
:

when he
I

delivered this pasI

Whither

shall

such a miserable wretch as

shall

be-

take

myself?

Whither

turn?

To

the Capitol?
Shall I go to

But that swims with

my
I

brother's blood.

my own

house?

Would

not there see

"

my

mother, mis-

erable, wailing,

and degraded ?
very

Exclamation and apostrophe, which suppose great

tensity of

in-

emotion, add

much

to

energy.

To be

effective, the

apostrophe should be brief, and, apparently,

else,

from the impulse of the moment;

There

in the one case,

it

there will be no illusion, or, in the other,

vanish.
so
is

will quickly

hardly any other figure which requires

much

skill to

manage

it,

or in which failure

makes a

speaker
atorical

so

ridiculous.

apostrophes

Among the most celebrated ormay be mentioned that of Demoswho

fell at

thenes to the manes of the heroes

that of .^schines to Thebes, and

Marathon,
in
his

that of Cicero

oration against Verres, in which he describes the crucifixion

of a

Roman

citizen.

There are

also

strilcing

ex-

amples of apostrophe raised to vision in the peroration

of Robert Hall's

Sermon on the Threatened Invasion

of

1803, and in the famous passage in Erskine's defense of

Stockdale, in which he introduces the Indian Chief.

Gestwe

is

almost

essential to energetic

speaking;
speakers

we

say almost, for

we remember
gesture,

that

some

have

made hardly a

and yet have delivered themand passion, and pro-

selves with the greatest excitement

duced a deep and abiding impression.

The history

of

96

OEATOKY AND ORATORS.

is

eloquence shows that gesticulation

a most powerful ex-

ponent of emotion, and may add almost incredible force

to the utterance

of the

tongue.

Who

that has seen a

Kean

or a Siddons, a Clay, a Choate, or a

Gough, can be

ignorant of the increased significance which

may

be given

to words by a glance of the eye, a motion, or a

wave

of

the

hand?

Gavazzi moved English audiences by his looks

and gestures alone.

Some

fifty

years ago there was an

eloquent Lutheran clergyman in Baltimore whose action

was

so impressive, that a highly cultivated Massachusetts

clergyman who heard him preach, but who was wholly

ignorant of the

German language
The hearer
felt

in

which he spoke, was

moved

to tears.

confident that the dis-

course was upon the Prodigal Son, and, church, was told that such was the fact.

upon leaving

the

Daniel Webster

was usually parsimonious of gestures, but those which he

chose to make were often signally apt and telling. In speaking of the Buffalo platform in 1848, he said: " It is so
rickety that
it

will hardly bear the fox-like tread of

Mr.

Van Buren."
palm of
along
his

As he

said " fox-like tread," he held out the

his left hand,

and with the other played

his fingers

extended

arm down
if to

to the hand, with a soft

running motion, as

represent the kitten-like advance

his rickety platform.

of the foxy advocate

upon

shout

of laughter testified to the aptness of this sign-teaching.

The speaker who

his

feels his subject deeply will feel it in

very finger-tips.

Even the

foot, in

giving expression

to violent emotion, or in giving

attitude

and dignity
other

to

the

figure, is

no mean

auxiliary to

the

organs.

Among

the ancients the

supplosio pedis, or stamping of

the foot, was one of the

gestures.

commonest and most moderate

is

Quintilian

even asserts that gesture

com-

QUALIPICATIOIfS OF THE ORATOR.

97

He adds that, monly more expressive than the voice. maimed and feeble. would be delivery hands, the without
Other parts of the body aid the speaker, but the hands
themselves
call,

speak:

"Do we

not with them ask, promise,

threaten, detest, fear, interrogate,

deny?

Do we

not

with them express joy, sorrow, doubt, penitence, moderation,

abundance, number, time?

And, amidst the great

and nations,
is

diversity of tongues, in all races

not this

language

common

to all

men?"*
is

Profound feeling or violent passion

with any expression of
it

rarely satisfied

itself

that

is

possible in

mere words
"
till

feels

itself

to
in

be " cribbed

and confined

it

can

find
acts

an outlet
are

some apt bodily act or emotion.

Such

even more truly than words the language of

nature, though they

may

not be as significant. It
its

is is

for this
so su-

reason that oratory, in

perior
to
all

power of expression,

the

other arts.

Addressing themselves as

they do exclusively to one or the other of " the two artsenses,"

poetry and music

to the ear, painting

and sculpto ora-

ture to the eye, only,

tory,

they must
itself at

yield the

palm

which addresses

once both to the ear and

to the eye,

and has thus a twofold means of impression.

gesture more expressive, in
is

Not only

is

many

cases,

than

words, but

it

also

more rapid and sudden

It has

in its effects

than the aptest language can be.

been truly said

that the sidelong glance, the drooping lid, the expanded

nostril, the

curving

lip,

are

more instantaneously eloquent

of disdain;
tell

than any mere

eye-ball

expression

and the starting

terror

and open mouth

more

.of

than the
le

most abject words.

*

M. Charma, in

his

Essai sur

Lan-

ture,"

For a fnll treatment of this sutject.'see tUe excellent " Manual of Gesby Albert M. Bacon, A.M., published by S. C. Griggs & Co., Chicago.

98

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

gage, tells an anecdote of the actor Talma, that, disgusted at the disproportion of praise

which was attributed

to the

words of the
such thrilling
circle

poets,

by which he produced in the theatre

he one day, in the midst of a gay
step,

effects,

of

friends,

suddenly retreated a

passed

his

hand over

his forehead,

and gave

to his voice

and figure

the expression of the profoundest despair.

The assembly
his

grew

silent, pale,

and shuddering,

as

though (Edipus had

appeared among them, when, as by a lightning-flash,

parricide was revealed to him, or as though the avenging

Furies
torches.

had suddenly startled them with their gleaming Yet the words which the actor spoke with that

aspect of consternation and voice of anguish formed but

the fragment of a nursery song, and the effects of action

triumphed over those produced by words.*

Of
sis,

course, gesticulation
it

may

be overdone, like emphathe thought.

instinctive,

in which case

only enfeebles

To be
easy

effective, it

should be prompt

and

now
it

and and

quiet,

now

strong and animated, but always graceful

single gesture in a passage, if

and natural.

be apt

telling, will

often produce

more
gesture

effect
is

than a dozen
a,s

equally significant.
too

Too

little

as unnatural

much.

It

is

strange

that the happy

medium
is

is

so

rarely observed, considering that every child

tration of
its

an

illus-

proper use, and that we

may

see examples

of the

it

in almost every

man

that talks to his neighbor on

street.

There are few speakers who do not impair

the effect of their gesticulation by some excess or man-

nerism.
chiefly;

One

orator

gesticulates

with

his

left

hand
sides;

another keeps his elbows pinioned to his

another enforces his arguments by pommelling the desk or

"Chapters on Language," by Rev. F.

W.

Farrar, D.D., P.B.S., p. 67-8,

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ORATOR.

table at frequent intervals
;

99
if

another uses his hands " as

he had claws, pawing with them"; another cannot utter a sentence without sawing himself backward and forward,
like the

mast of a yacht at anchor

another folds his arms

over his

chest, a la Pitt; another has a trick of rising

often on tiptoe, as if he
his

had been accustomed to addressing

audience over a high wall; another paces the platform

to

and

fro, like

a wild

beast

in

a cage;

and another,

despairing, after

many
It

attempts, of suiting the action to

action, his hands, into his

the word, thrusts the

means of

breeches pockets.

has been observed that young speakers

are especially apt to overdo in gesture, reminding one, by

the constant motion of their arms, of the flapping of a pair of wings.

At one of the

Intercollegiate Contests in
city,
it

the

Academy

of Music, in

New York
went

was noticed

that some of the students had scarcely advanced to the

front of the stage, before they
" flying all abroad."

Expression of countenance

is

essential to energy.
lips,

Not

only the hands, but the eyes, the

even the nostrils

should speak, for this

is

the universal language of nature,

interpreter.

which needs

no dictionary or

There

is

tradition that the

famous conspiracy of the Sicilian ves-

pers was organized wholly by facial signs, not even the

hands,

the
it,

loquacissimae manus, linguosi digiti, as Cas-

siodorus
expressive

calls

them,
it

being
said

employed.

The eye

is

so

that

is

that gamblers rely upon

the

study of

to discover the state of

an opponent's game,

more than upon any other means.

No

rules can be laid

to

down upon
facial

this

subject;

it

is

enough
to

say that the

expressions

should correspond

the

sentiments

uttered,

and

this,

where there

is

deep feeling,

may

safely

be

left to

nature.

100

ORATORY AlTD ORATORS.

the choice

Energy depends much upon

words.
Cicero,

and number of
us that he
certain
it is

who

loved

a copious style, tells

never heard of a Lacedaemonian orator; and

that a succession of epigrammatic sayings, or aphorisms,

would be a very poor speech.

his subject,

When

an orator

is

full of

and

his

mind

is

swelling with the thoughts,

and
until

his

soul with the feelings which his

is

theme

inspires,

there

a fountain-head of ideas pressing at his he will not express himself in a series

If there
is

lips for utterance,

of curt sentences, however pithy or pointed.

a tide in his soul, there will be a flow in his eloquence,

and he will not dam

Nevertheless,
it
is

it

up

in pools by too frequent periods.

it
is

a rule, as Southey says, that

the

with

words as with sunbeams;

the

more they are condensed

Reynolds says that

deeper they burn.

Sir Joshua

Titian

knew how

to place

upon the canvas the image and

attempted, by a few strokes

character of any object he

of the pencil, and that he thus produced a truer representation than any of his predecessors
hair.

who

finished every

So

the

wrought.

great orators, Henry, Chatham, Erskine, They grouped instead of analyzing, and pro-

duced, by a few master-touches, effects which pre-Raphaelite

minuteness and laborious finish would have marred.

speaking,

This suggestive
subjects

which,

instead

of exhausting

and explaining everything

is

to the imagination,

much demanded now even more imperito death, leaves

ously than in the days of Chatham.

quickly, with
all

Men

think and act

alert;

their

faculties

on the

and the

long-winded speeches and discourses, with endless divisions

and subdivisions,
Let the

centuries ago, would

ble.

which men listened patiently two now be regarded as utterly intolerayoung speaker, then, prune away all redundant
to

QUALItlCATIOS'S OF THE OEATOR.

words,
all parasitical epithets,

101

using only those that double

and
"

triple the force of the substantive.

Be chary
affect those

of words

and phrases; economize them as a miser does

his eagles.

The people," says a French writer, "

thoughts
like

that are formulated in a single word.

expressions as the following,
.

They
a las!
.

such

vive!
.
.

mort!

vengeance!

libert^!

justice!

The harangues
ex-

of Napoleon lasted only a few minutes, yet they electrified

whole armies.

The speech

at

Bordeaux did not

it

ceed a quarter of an hour, and yet

resounded through-

out the world."

An

eloquent preacher* has remarked that energy should

be accrescent.

Nothing

seizes the attention of

an audience

better than a gentle beginning.

Of course, a speaker should

be in earnest from the very start, his looks, action, bearing,

and tones of voice

all

indicating that he has something imis

portant to communicate, and that he

cate
it.

anxious to communi-

Still,

" his energy should gradually rise in thought,

language and manner.

His hearers are not prepared to

and, then, his vehemence

sympathize with him at once;

appears impertinent.
tion

It is far better to

win

their atten-

by a gentler method; nay, even

all

to lull them, hus-

banding
is

our resources of power until their attention

fairly enchained,

and then to sweep them on with

flag.

us,

never suffering their interest to

Some have
it is

the talent

of taking an audience by storm, but

very

difficult to
so,

keep up the excitement, and, in a failure to do

the

thoughts that follow are made to seem weaker than they

really are,

by the contrast.

There should be a continual

ascent to the close, that close being the most impressive

of

all.

... Be

sure that the final sentence leaves every

*

George W. Bethune-DJ).

102

OKATOKY AND OEATOES.

The famous passage

soul vibrating like a swept harp."

on Universal Emancipation in Curran's defense of

is

Rowan

a fine specimen of climacteric energy.

after

As sentence

follows

sentence,

each heightens and deepens the

effect, till

the passage closes with the magnificent climax at

the end, like the swell and crash of an orchestra.

Erskine

was peculiarly happy in thus aggravating and intensifying

the force of his appeals.

As we read

his .jury addresses,

we

see that he never for a

moment
rill,

dissipates or scatters

his force,

but compels

rill

after

stream after stream,

of fact and argument, to flow together, "each small, perhaps, in

itself,

but

all

contributing to swell the mighty

in the cataract of his conclusion."

flood that bursts

It is said of

upon us

an eloquent and successful Boston preacher,

that as he was about to close his discourse, there was no

such visible gathering up of his forces as pointed to a

climax, but the result of all he had said

was

rolled

and

hammered
cleverly

into a few short sentences, shot with the crack

rifle,

and directness of a

and the sermon was ended.

So

was the work done, that the hearer went away

with hardly a thought of the preacher or his performance,

but with a divine thought lodged in his mind, which he

would carry with him to

his grave.

CHAPTER
QUALIFICATIOlfrS OF

IV.

THE OEATOK

(continued).

A MONG
-^-*-

the faculties

demanded by the

orator,

few are

more

essential to high success

than a lively imag-

ination.
fix

He

needs this not only that he

may
it

be able to

his plan well in his

mind and

retain

there, but in

order that he
tions of that
to

may have
his

clear, distinct,

and vivid concep-

which he wishes to
premeditated

say,

and may be able any new

put

both

thought and

thought that occurs to him instantly into language at

the
first

stroke.

It

must not be supposed that the tropes

the

and

illustrations

which

imagination

supplies

are

purely

ornamental.

The

difference

between

languid

speaking and vivid oratory depends largely upon the quality

of the speaker's
it

imagination.

The plumage of the

not by naked, bold

eagle supports

in its flight.

It is

statements of fact, but by pictures that

the facts, that assemblies are moved.
into concrete shape,
^

make them

see

Put an argument

into

a lively image, or into

ball,

"some
is

hard phrase, round and solid as a

see

which men can

and handle and carry home,"

and

your cause

half won.

Rufus Choate used

to

say that no train of

thought

is

too deep, too subtle, or too grand, for a popular

is

audience, if the thought

rightly presented to them.

in

It

should

be conveyed, he

said,

anecdote, or

sparkling

truism, or telling illustration, or stinging epithet,

in a logical, abstract shape.
103

never

104

OKATOET AKD OEATOES.

is

Aristotle has well said that "the metaphor

itor's

the or-

figure,

the simile

is

the

poet's."

He

further ob-

serves that
their

mere names carry

this, for

to the

mind

of the hearer

specific

meaning, and there they end;

they awaken
that metaphors

but metathoughts.
fancy,

phors do more than

new

He might have added

and
the
are,

charm the

therefore,

a great help to the memory.

fix

They
in

deepen the impression of the sentiments, and

affections.

them

The

superiority, in value,

of the

metait is

phor to the simile, for the speaker's

swift

uses, is that

and glancing,

flashing

its

light

instantaneously,

without ever for a moment impeding the flow of the

thought.

Unlike the thoughts, the tropes and figures of

the orator are rarely elaborated, but drop spontaneously

from

his

tongue in moments of inspiration.

He
Of

thinhs

in metaphor.

He

can no more invent them than he can,

to his stature.
all the

by taking thought, add a cubit

orators of ancient or
est

modern

times,

Burke was the

greatto

master of this figure, which he employs sometimes

excess.

Probably no prose style ever went so near to the

verge of poetry without going over, as his; "it

said," says

may

be

Hazlitt, " to pass

yawning
still
it

gulfs

'

on the unrest-

steadfast footing of a spear';

has an actual
it,

ing-place and tangible support under

it

is

not sus-

pended on nothing.
like the chamois

It differs

from poetry,
it

as I conceive,

from the eagle:

climbs to an almost

equal height, touches upon a cloud, overlooks a precipice,

is

picturesque,

sublime,

but
it

all

the while,

instead

of

soaring

through the

air,

stands

upon a rocky
the

cliff,

clambers up by abrupt and intricate ways, and browses

on

the

roughest

bark

or

crops

tender

flower."

What

can be grander than the comparison of the British

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE OKATOE.

constitution to "the

105

proud keep of Windsor, rising in

the majesty of proportion, and girt with the double belt

of
its

kindred

and coeval powers,"

than
the

etc.?

what
of

more

unique or

felicitous

Abbe
his

Sieyes's

far-famed

" pigeon-holes,"

or the

picture of the

Duke

Bedford

as " the Leviathan,

tumbling about

unwieldy bulk in

the

ocean of the royal bounty?"

or

what bolder and

descrip-

more striking than the application of Milton's

tion of Sin, to the
half-bright, half-terrible

phenomena
as
it

of the French Revolution, which

was crowned,

rose,

with

all

the radiance of intellect, but closed in massacre

and horror?

Curran was a great master of metaphor.

The saying

of Pericles that "metaphors are often lamps which light

nothing, and show only the nakedness of the walls against

which they are hung," had no application

his

to

him.

Often
if

reasonings were

so

couched in figures, that

you

took away the one you destroyed the other.

Sometimes he
his

seemed for a moment to soar away from

flights

theme in

of

imagination;
it

but,

however high

he flew, he

always came back to

with additional force, and the im-

ages he employed not only quickened attention, but lent

vividness to the ideas he wished to impress.
force

With what

and splendor

is

the thought in the following passage,

flashed

in his defense of

Rowan,

upon the mind by the

I feel

aptness of the illustration: "This (the origin and object of

government)

is

a kind of subject which

overawed

when
ples

I approach.

There are certain fundamental princi-

which nothing but necessity should expose to public examination. They are pillars, the depth of whose foundation you
strength."

cannot

explore,
is

without
the

endangering their
Shell,

How

felicitous

image used by

106

OEATOKY AKD OKATOKS.

spirit

when, alluding to the

of liberty rising

from the

lower to the upper orders, he says: "At length they have

learned to participate in the popular sentiment; the spirit

by which the great body of the people

risen to the higher classes,

is

actuated has
so long

and the

fire

which has

lain in the lower region of society has burst at length from

its

frozen summits."

Not
is

inferior to this

is

the fine

fig-

ure of Plunket: "Time

the great destroyer of evidence,

titles.

but he

is

the great protector of

He comes

with a

scythe in one hand, to

mow down

the muniments of our

other,

possessions, while he holds

an hour-glass with the

from which he
tion

ir(cessantly

metes out the portions of dura-

which are

to render the

muniments no longer
flowers

nec-

essary."

But none of
the

these

of fancy, however

dazzling or daring, surpass

in

beauty Daniel Webster's

to

imagery, in
Fathers:

famous
to

tribute

the

Revolutionary

"They went

war against a preamble. ... On

was
as yet

this question of principle, while actual sufi'ering

afar

off,

they raised their flag against a power, to which,

for purposes of foreign conquest

and subjugation, Rome,

in the height of her glory,

is

not to be compared,

...

power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe
with her possessions and military posts; whose morning

drum -beat, following

the sun, and keeping

company with

the hours, circles the earth daily with one continuous and

unbroken strain of the martial

airs of

England."

As nothing is more effective in oratory than imagery, so nothing is more dangerous when uncontrolled by good
sense.

Many an

orator, in the very

whirlwind of his

elo-

quence, has convulsed his hearers with laughter by some

incongruous metaphor that has dissipated every serious

feeling,

"bringing

down

the

house" in a way as un-

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ORATOR.

pleasant as unexpected.

107

Curran, in speaking of Phillips's

every form were

oratory, in which tropes of

mixed up

profusely and in inextricable confusion, gave a pregnant

warning
for a

to all speakers: to

"My

dear Tom,

it

will never do

man

turn painter merely on the strength of having

a pot of colors by him, unless he

on."
ness,

knows how

to lay

them
still-

As the imagination works

it
is

best in solitude

and

doubtful whether the din and tumult of the

present age are not unfavorable to some of the higher

forms of oratory.

It has

been said that no

man

can pro-

duce poetry at will; he must wait until from a brooding,

half-idle idleness, it arises, like a gentle mist

from a

lake,

delicately

and of

itself.

So with the

fine fancies, the ex-

quisite imagery, of the great orator; only those

who

are

withdrawn, during long seasons, into the brooding imagination, are favored with

them

and where, in

this restless,

hurried, and impatient age, are such to be found?

For-

tunately good taste does not

demand

that oratory should be

it

profusely decked with flowers.

" the grave

Rather should

be like

and gorgeous
full

foliage of

our resplendent Ameri-

can forest,"

of

richness

and variety, deriving new

beauty from the

chill influences of a materialistic age,

and

admired

less for its scattered

hues and

tints,

than for the

combined
It is a

effect

and splendor of the whole.

not enough for the orator to

truism to say that there can be no eloquence

It is

without deep feeling.

have the ordinary passions of our nature; he

must be a

magazine of

sensibility,

an

electric battery,

a Leyden jar

charged to a plenum.

No

matter

how

rare or ample his

intellectual gifts; unless he

have an abnormal emotional

System united with the mental,

rare depth and

fire

of nature, a capability of being mightily

moved

so as to

108

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

mightily, an inner

move

power of
is

at once

awakening and
main-

controlling emotion, so that he

able agitatus cogitare,

fiery passion, to

and, even in
tain
his

moments of the most

and impetus to

mastery over the inner storm of being, whose

his eloquence,
his oratory.

forces give fervor

he can
rhetoric;

never dominate his fellow

tickle
fine

men by
he

the

ears of his

hearers;

He may may charm men by

and of

displays of imagination,

of logic,

but there will be no electric appeals, no fulminating, bursts

of passion, no melting pathos, no sudden and overwhelm-

ing improvisations in his speeches.

feelings of

The thoughts and

bullets,

a great writer or speaker reach our hearts

his.

because they issue from

The

according to
if

the huntsman's superstition, are sure to hit the mark,

they have

first

been

dipped in

the

huntsman's

blood.

The

cold-blooded, phlegmatic speaker, therefore, whose words issue from a frame that has no more sympathy

with them than has the case of a piano with the music
of which
platform.
it

is

the medium, can have no business on the

can't put fire into his speeches
fire.

The man who

should put his speeches into the

When

a flabby-

minded young preacher, who had discoursed in old Dr. Emmons's pulpit, angling for a compliment, complained
at dinner to the

into his subject,"

the caustic reply,

into you."

"Do "it
it

Doctor that "somehow he couldn't get

is

you know the reason, sir?" was because your subject never got

of the people to-day,

clearly,

The orator who would gain and hold the ear must not only conceive his subject
firmly,
it;

and hold

but his whole soul must be

then, instead of speaking, as

charged and vitalized by

Strafford said,

"from the

teeth outward," he will speak

from

the heart and to the heart;

and, instead of shun-

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ORATOR.

ning
his lips, great

109

thoughts will come to them as Goethe

said that his best thoughts came, " like singing birds, the free children of God, crying,

'Here we are!'"
his

" Josh Billings,"

boil, said that at first

in describing

experience with a
boil,

he knew he had a
boil

but that after

not enough

two days he knew the

had

hitn.

It is

that the speaker have a subject, however momentous, but

the subject must have him,

of his hearers.
alone,

if

he would storm the hearts

said that intellect

Lord Erskine has well

however

exalted, without irritable sensibility,

would
there
" It

be only like an

immense magazine of powder,

fire in

if

were no such element as

is

the natural world.

the heart which

is

the spring and fountain of all elo-

quence."

Pectus

est

quod facit disertum.

Cicero tells us,

in one of his letters, that in his early career the vehe-

mence with which

his intense interest in his

themes led

him

to express himself, shattered his constitution; to

and he

was obliged

spend two years in Greece, exercising in the

gymnasium, before he could engage again in the struggles

of the forum.

Lord Chatham

said that he did not dare to

speak with a state secret lurking in his mind, for in the

Sibylline frenzy of his oratory he

John Wesley once

to

said to his brother Charles, in

knew not what he said. who wished

which some coarse

draw him away from a mob,

and learn how to preach."

women were
Charles,

scolding each other in hot billingsgate: "Stop,

" I go to hear

Rowland

Hill," said Sheridan, " because his ideas come red-hot

the heart."

from
is

The reason why

so

many
is

preachers are unsuccessful

because they do not feel what they preach.

The

first ele-

ment of pulpit power

a face-to-face knowledge of the

truths to be driven home,

vivid

inward experience

110

ORATOEY AND ORATORS.

itself

pouring

out in living, breathing, palpitating words.

Whitefield, in accounting for the feebleness of the generality of preachers, attributed it to their coldness.

They

were not flames, but

icicles.

"I

am

persuaded," said he,

"that they talk of an unknown and unfelt Christ; many

congregations are dead because dead
to

men

are preaching
dullness

them."

Betterton,

the actor,

said that the

and coldness that empty the meeting-house would empty

the play-house, if the players spoke like the preachers;

and he told the Lord Bishop of London that the reason

why
them

the clergy, speaking of things real, affect the people

so little, while the players, speaking of things unreal, affect

so

much,

is

because " the actors speak of things im-

aginary as though they were real; the preachers too often

speak of things real as though they were imaginary."

Nothing can be more

be himself affected.
deeply in earnest.

true.

To be eloquent, a man must

be not only sincere, but

He must
fire

The
his

which he would kindle in other

men's bosoms, must burn in his

force

own

heart.

The magnetic

must saturate

own

spirit before it will flow out

upon those around him.

feeling,

No

hypocritical expressions of

however passionate in appearance, no simulated however clever the imitation,

will

fervors,

work the mag-

ical effects of reality.

The arguments which do not come

lips, will
is

from personal conviction, the words which come from no

deeper source than the
lack a certain indefinable

but potent element which

highest effectiveness.
It

absolutely essential to their

is

not enough that a speaker

utters profound or weighty truths; he

possible forms of expression,

must show by

all

by

voice, looks,

and gesture,

that they are truths, living, vital truths, to

discourses of a logical character,

Mm.

Even

in

where the reasoning ap-


QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ORATOK.
Ill

proaches almost to mathematical demonstration, the hearers

will not

be impressed, they will scarcely listen with pathey are persuaded that the conclusions to

tience, unless

which the speaker would force them are the deliberate,

solemn convictions of his

own mind.

The orator needs

to

of thought and feeling

cess

remember that the communication from mind to mind is not a pro-

which depends on a proper selection of words only.

is

Language

only one of the media through which moral

convictions and impressions are conveyed

to the hearer.

from the speaker by

There

is

another and more spiritual con-

ductor,

a mysterious,

inexplicable

moral

contagion,

means of which, independently of the words, the speaker's

thoughts and feelings are transmitted to his auditory.
quality,
tus, call

This
afila-

it,

call it

personal magnetism, call

it

a divine

with Dr. Bushnell, a person's atmosphere, or what

is

you

will,

the one all-potent element which,

It is

more than

any other, distinguishes the true orator.

influence,
ates

an intangible

an invisible eflux of personal power which radilike heat

from the orator's nature

from iron; which

no mere

attracts

and holds an audience as a magnet draws and

holds steel- filings;

lectual discipline,

and no physical

gifts,

intel-

no intellectual culture, however exquisite

or elaborate, will enable

him

to do without

it.

speaker

who

lacks this quality

may

tickle the ear of his auditors,

and even be praised for his eloquence; but he will never

take the public
to his purposes.

mind by storm,

or

mould and shape men

fire,

He may

copy the very manner of other

orators

whose

lips

have been touched by the divine

he

may

reproduce the very thoughts and language which

on other similar occasions have thrilled men's hearts; but

the

words which, when spoken by the inspired orator,

112

OKATORY AND ORATOBS.

stirred all souls to their depths, will be hollow, powerless,

and vapid.
it is

The rod may be the rod

of an enchanter, but
it

not in the magician's hand, and

will not conjure.

On

the other hand, one

who has

this quality,

though un-

lettered

and rude in speech, will

often,

by a few simple,

earnest words welling from the depths of the soul, thrill

and captivate the hearts which the most labored rhetoric

.

has left untouched.

We

are told that one day a

style of

man went

to Demosthenes,

and in a
gy, that

speaking void of vehemence and enerto a strong accusation, asked

was wholly unsuited

an

him
said,

to

be his advocate against a person from whom, he

suffered
assault.
"

he had
the

Not you,
"

indeed,"

said

orator, in

a cold, indifferent tone,

you have

suffered

no such

thing.''

"What!"
I

cried the

man

pas-

sionately,

raising his voice, " have

not received those

blows?"

"Ay, now," replied Demosthenes, "you speak

been really injured."

like a person that has

field's

Lord Mans-

great lack as a speaker was a want of feeling.

He
well

had every attribute of the orator but genius and

heart.

The intense earnestness

of Charles

James Fox

is

known
the

to all.

When

Sheridan, after passing a night in

was, he

House of Commons, was asked what his impression said that he had been chiefly struck with the

difference of

manner between Pox and Lord Stormont.

in a slow, solemn, drawl-

The

latter

began by declaring

"when he considered the enormity and the unconstitutional tendency of the measures just proposed, he was hurried away in a torrent of passion
ing, nasal tone, that

and a whirlwind of impetuosity,'' pausing between every

word and

syllable; while the first, speaking

pidity of lightning,

with the raand with breathless anxiety and impa-

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ORATOR.

tience, said that "

113

such was the magnitude, such the im-

portance, such the vital interest of this question, that he

could not help imploring, he could not help adjuring the

house to come to
deliberation."

it

with the utmost coolness, the utmost

is

There

a whole treatise on oratory con-

densed in Sheridan's discriminating remark, which

won

him Pox's

friendship.

" I have heard," says Emerson, " an

experienced counsellor say that he never feared the effect

upon a jury of a lawyer who does not believe in

heart that his client ought to have a verdict.

his

If he does

not believe

it,

his

unbelief will appear to the jury, de-

spite of all his protestations,

and

will

become their unbe-

work of art, of whatever kind, sets us in the same state of mind wherein the artist was when he made it. That which we do not believe, we cannot adequately say, though we may repeat
lief

This

is

that law whereby a

the words never so often.

It

was

this conviction

which

Swedenborg expressed, when he described a group of

persons in the spiritual world, endeavoring
articulate a proposition

in

vain to

which they did not believe; but

honor of Daniel Web-

they could not, though they twisted and folded their lips

even to indignation."
ster,

It is to the

that if a cause which he argued

was bad, he saw

its

infirmity so distinctly that his advocacy proved an injury

rather than a help to

it.

But

if it

was good, or hung

with a grip

evenly poised,

no sophistry of counsel, no jugglery of

its

words, could hide

like that of death. It is well

merits.

He

held

it

known

that all great actors,

when they have

succeeded perfectly in their art, have been themselves infected

to

by the passion the contagion of which they wished

to others.

communicate
5*

For the time they

felt as if

114

OEATORT AND OBATOKS.

It
is

they actually were the characters they personated.

said that the tragic enchantress, Mrs. Siddons, from the

moment
the

she stepped into the carriage which was to take

till

her to the theatre,

person

her return home,

felt entirely as

whom

she was to represent, and could not,

feeling.

without pain, admit into her mind any other

John Kemble, her brother,

tells

us that in one of her

grand displays of tragic passion, her sweeping gait and

menacing mien so spoke the goddess, that he was struck

dumb,
from

his

voice

stuck

in

his

throat.

For some mo-

ments he stood paralyzed, and could not force the words

his lips.

The great French tragedian. Baron, who

felt

was naturally timid, always

in Corneille's plays.

as

a hero

for

several

days after he had performed any of the chief characters

All the great productions of literature, all the great

musical compositions which have entranced the souls of

men, have owed their enchantment, in a great measure,

to

the profound feeling of which they were the expression.

When Gray was

"

asked the secret of the inspiration of

like that

The Bard," a poem which has a rush and flow

of Pindar's lyrics, he replied: " the bard."

Why,

I felt

myself to be

On

the other hand, the reason

fails

why Young's

."Night Thoughts"
if

to impress the reader (especially

is

he knows the author's character)

the lack of genuine

feeling in the poem.

The deep gloom which the poet has

is

thrown over
than
the

his pictures

felt to

be a trick of art rather

terrific
;

thunder-cloud,

"the

earthquake
effect is

and

eclipse " of nature

and the diminution of

propor-

tional to

what the impression would have been, had his When Handel was interrogated concerning his ideas and feelings when he composed
exaggerated grief been real.

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE OBATOR.

115

the Hallelujah chorus, he replied in his broken English:

" I did think I did see all

heaven before me, and the great

his ex-

God

himself."

While engaged in the composition

friend

citement often rose to such a pitch that he would burst

into tears.

who

called

upon him

as he

was

set-

ting to music the pathetic words,

rejected of

"He was

despised and
it

men," found him sobbing.

"I have heard

related," says Shield, " that

when Handel's servant used

to

bring him chocolate, he often stood in silent astonishment

to see his master's tears his divine notes."

mixed with the ink as he penned

We

are told that the motion of his pen,

rapid as

it

was, could not keep pace with the rapidity of his

conception.
suflfteient

The mechanical power of the hand was not

which flowed through

for the current of ideas

that volcanic brain.

Prom
to banish

all this it

is

plain, that the

only

way

to speak
is

well in the senate, in the pulpit, or on the platform,

every thought of

self,

to think only of one's

subject.

The triumphs of true eloquence, touching, grand,

been, are

sublime, awful, as they sometimes have

seen

only

when

the

orator stands before you in

the simple

majesty of truth, and, overpowered by the weight of his

convictions, forgets himself

and forgets everything but the

think not of
;

truths he has to utter.

You
is

who speaks,

or

how

he speaks, but of what

spoken

transported by his pathos,

your rapt imagination pictures new visions of happiness;

subdued by the gushes of his tenderness, your tears mingle

with his; determined by the power of his reasoning, you
are prompt to admit,
of his arguments
;

if

not prepared to yield

to,

the force

entering with your whole heart and soul

into the subject of his address,

you sympathize with the

strong emotions which you see are in bis bosom, burning

116

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

for utterance;

and struggling

and soon find yourself movresistless

ing onward with

him on the same impetuous and

" It
is

current of feeling and passion.

amazing," says

Goldsmith, " to what heights eloquence of this kind

reach.

may

This

is

that eloquence which the ancients repre-

sented as lightning, bearing

down every
that
is

opposer;

this is

the power which has turned whole assemblies into aston-

ishment, admiration, and awe;

torrent, the flame,

described by the
irresistible

and every other instance of

impetuosity." *

While deep

sensibility

is

necessary to the orator,

it

must

not be overpowering, so as to prevent his self-control, and

lead to an undignified and theatrical exhibition of himself.
"
Si vis

me

flere,

dolendiim est

Primum
says Horace
;

ipsi tibi,"

that

is,

" if

you would have me weep "

first

(or,

"shed tears," or "bewail"), you must

Bautain observes that

grieve yourself

this precept is true

only for those

who

write in the closet, and does not ajpply to the orator.

In this

we think he

is.

mistaken, for

it

will be noticed that

the poet applies to the emotion of the hearer a stronger

word,

flere,

than to that of the actor or speaker, thus

latter best achieves his

inti-

mating that the

aim by a milder

exhibition of feeling than that which he

breasts of his audience.

would excite in the As the prophets of old were not

some

allowed to lose
ecstatic

all

control of themselves, even in their most

so the orator should preserve
self-

moments,

restraint even in his grandest flights. "

As a
them

rule,
;

he should
and, howat

weep with

his voice,

and not with

restrain

his eyes "

ever intense

his emotions,

sufiBciently,

and a few others in this work, have been transferred, with some changes, from " The Great Conversers, and other Essays," by the
* This paragrapli,

aatbor.

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE OBATOE.

least, for his ideas

117

and sentiments
at once,

to find expression.
little

The
little,

feelings
so as to
It
is

must not explode

but escape

by

animate the whole body of the discourse.

a mistake to suppose that truth to nature re-

quires that, in the artistic reproduction of her material

forms, she
life,

should be servilely

copied.

It

is

the

inner

the hidden spirit, that should be sought for in the

imitation of her mysteries; and therefore the true artist,

in every

attempt to express them, will observe a certain

reverent modesty and delicate reserve.

The Attic

artist
art.

understood this so well, that he

made

it

a law of his

Even

in portraying the

most violent passions, such as the

despair of Niobe and the agony of Laocoon and his sons

writhing in the
avoid
painter
all

coil

of the

serpents, care

is

taken to

offensive

literalness

and

particularity.

The

who

depicted the sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis,

lavished all the resources of his art on the other figures

of the group, but hid the countenance of

Agamemnon
convey.

in

the folds of his robe, leaving to the imagination to conceive

what art was powerless

fully to

So the

great orator of Greece was careful, even in his most im-

passioned bursts, not to " overstep the modesty of nature."

Even

in

the very "torrent, tempest, and whirlwind"

of

his passion,

he always manifested that self-mastery and

reserved force, that temperance of action and utterance,

which are essential to sustained power

It is

in delivery.

natural to suppose that

rather

it

is

the thunderbolt of
voice,"

eloquence,

than

" the

still,

small

which

produces the greatest

as

effects

upon audiences;

but, great

have been the recorded

effects

of some oratorical exall,

plosions, it

may

be doubted whether, after

of conviction

it

is

not

the subdued

expression

and

feeling,

when

118

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

the speaker, instead of giving full vent to his emotions,

is

seen laboring with a strong effort to suppress them,

is
is

that

most

powerful.

There

are

times

when even

silence

eloquent,

more vocal

than utterance, more exof Job and his three

pressive than gesture.

friends

The conduct

down together seven days and seven nights, no one speaking a word to them, was more eloquent of their woe than all their subsequent complainings. There are emotions that mock at all attempts to The Bible refers to a joy ungive them expression.

who

sat

speakable, to groans which cannot

voiceless
praise.
" Grief

be uttered, and to a
its

has
is

no tongue to proclaim
speechless and torpid.

keenest sorrows.
ror
is

Despair

Hor-

dumb.

in nature.''

The rhetorical pause is, therefore, founded But when feeling is not too intense for utit is

terance, the veiled expression of

fective.

often the most

ef-

Who

has not

felt,

at

some time, the power of a

distinctly

whisper or

deejD

low utterance, Talma,

giving

forth
de-

some
clared

earnest
that he

sentence?

the

French

actor,

had studied forty years to be energetic

without noise.
us that
it

The biographer of

P.

W.

Robertson

tells

was because he was not mastered by

his ex-

citement, but, at the very point of being mastered, mas-

tered himself,

because

he was apparently cool while at

a white heat, so that he made his audience glow with

the
fire,

and at the same time respect the self-possessive

power of the speaker,

quering.

that

his

eloquence was so con-

We know
suffers

that in private

life

a speaker who, feeling

deeply upon some subject, veils his emotions in part, and only glimpses of them to be seen, impresses us more powerfully than one who gives loose to a pure and

QUALIFICAllOlJ'S OP

fHE

OftATOR.

119

unsuppressed flow of feeling.

The mourner who allows

he were to break out into

only an occasional broken sob to escape him, touches our

sympathies more deeply than

loud and

if

passionate wailings

and lamentations.

It

has
to

been justly said that the crazy duelist,

who was wont

break away suddenly from any pursuit he was engaged

in,

as if forced

by some demon of passion, and, pacing

floor,

off

a certain distance on the

fire!

repeat the significant

words, "one, two, three,

he's

dead!" then wring his

hands and turn abruptly to his former pursuits, gave a

more touching exhibition of the agony which was preying upon his
spirit,

than

if

he had vented

it

in constant

bowlings of remorse.*
insight
into

Hence Shakspeare, with that keen

characterizes
all

human nature which

his

portraitures,

makes Antony betray but occasional signs

Apologizing for any involun-

of grief for Caesar's death.

tary escape of sorrow, he tells the citizens that he dares

not trust himself to indulge in an adequate expression of

his grief:
'^Bear with me;

My heart
And
I

is

in the coffin there with Caesar;

must pass till it come back to me. if I were disposed to stir Your hearts and minds^to mutiny and rage, 1 should do Brutus wrong and Cassias wrong, Who, you all know, are honorable men I will not do them wrong; I rather choose To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you. Than I will wrong such honorable men."
masters
I

When
mode
thus to

a speaker

who

is

deeply moved, using a gentler

of expression than the facts

stifie

might warrant, appears

to

his

feelings

and studiously

keep them
is

within bounds, the

give

effect of this partial

concealment

to

them an appearance of greater

intensity

and strength.

* See Day's " Rhetoric," 147.

120
In
all

OKATORY AND ORATORS.

such cases of obscure and indirect expression of
is

emotion, the imagination

flame that escape
feeling, as

called into play; the jets of

now and

then,

the partial eruptions of passion,

the suppressed are

bursts of

regarded

but hints or faint intimations of the volcano within.

The studied calmness of the speaker's manner and language

produces a reaction in the hearer's mind, and, rushing into
the opposite extreme, he
is

moved more deeply than by the

There
is

most vehement and passionate declamation.

as it has

also,

been well observed, the further advantage in

this

partial disguising of passion, that the determination being

left to the

imagination of the hearer,

it

can never seem to

him disproportionate, too weak or too strong. The advantage of wit to the orator is obvious.
only does
it

Not

give a passing relief to the tension of the

mind

that has been plied with declamation or reasoning, and

thus prepare

it

for

renewed attention, but

it is

a powerful

weapon of
ment.

attack,

and sometimes in reply a happy wit-

ticism neutralizes the force of a strong

and elaborate arguvolume of reasoning may be condensed into a

and the absurdity of an opponent's statements
be exposed

keen
or

retort,

logic

may

by an impromptu

jest

more

eifectually than

by a

series of syllogisms.

Many

a fallacy

has been pricked to death by the needle of ridicule, which

the club of logic has
orators have
this talent.

thumped in vain. Some of the greatest owed much of their power and influence to

Mr. Francis, the author of "Orators of the Age," goes so far as to say of T. Milner Gibson, M.P., that one witty expression of his, in which he described
the

Whig

ministry, at a certain time, as being

materials, contributed

made

of

" squeezable "

considerably toward

gaining for him the position he held in the estimation

QUALIFICATI03SrS OF
of the

THE ORATOE.

121
of Canning,

House of Commons.

The polished irony

more than his powers of reasoning and declamation, was

dreaded by his antagonists in the British Parliament.
It

was the sarcasm of

brilliant

Pitt,

" at

once keen and splendid,

and

concise,"

which enabled him, while yet a

effectually

youth, to stand

up single-handed, and
"

repel

the assaults of the most powerful opposition ever arrayed

against a

Prime Minister.

He

could dispose of an adver-

sary," says a writer,

or,

"by a

sentence or a single phrase;

without stepping aside, get rid of him in a parenthesis,

object,

and then go forward to his

thus
by

increasing the

contemptuousness of the expression

indifference, as if his victim

its

brevity and

had been too insignificant to

give any trouble."

Good sense and

wit,

we

are told, were the great weapons

in detecting the

of Sheridan's oratory,

shrewdness
and
infinite

weak

points of an adversary,

powers of raillery in

exposing them.

These qualities made him a more formida-

ble antagonist to Pitt

than others who had more learning

and general
retort

ability.

fair

specimen of his happiness in

was

his

answer

to Pitt

when

the latter compared

Sheridan's constant opposition to an eternal drag-chain,

clogging

all

the wheels, retarding the career, and embar-

rassing the

movements of government.
from
this

Sheridan replied

that a real drag-chain differed

imaginary dragit

chain of the minister, in one important essential;

applied only

was

when

the machine

was going down

the hill.

Curran's wit was so keen-edged, and his

humor
for

so rich

and inexhaustible, that he

is

remembered

them even
his coun-

more than

for the pathos with

which he melted

trymen, and the lava of invective which he poured out

upon the authors of their wrongs.

6

The wit and humor

122

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

home upon
his hearers as effectually as

of O'Connell told
his

power of

terse,

nervous, Demosthenic reasoning, his

skill

pathos, and the matchless

with which he condensed

and pointed
It

his case.

was the wit and humor, aided by the good nature of

Lord North, the Tory minister of England, which enabled

him, during the disastrous defeats of the American war, to bear up triumphantly against the ceaseless and furious
attacks of Burke, Fox, Pitt, and the other

Whig

chiefs.

By

a plain,

homely answer, says Lord Brougham, "he

could blunt the edge of the fiercest or most refined sar-

casm; with his pleasantry, never far-fetched, or overdone,

or forced, he could turn
listeners; while,

away wrath, and

refresh the jaded

by

his

undisturbed temper, he made them

believe he had the advantage,

and could turn into a laugh,

which had been
Thus, when Alderman Saw-

at the assailant's expense, the invective

destined to crush himself."

bridge presented a petition from Billingsgate, and accom-

panied

it

with much vituperation of the minister. Lord

his reply:

North began

"I

will not

deny that the worthy

alderman speaks the sentiments, nay, the very language, of

his constituents," etc.

Again, when a vehement declaimer,

calling aloud for his head, turned

round and perceived

his

victim unconsciously indulging in a soft slumber, and, be-

coming
a time,"

still

more exasperated, denounced the minister

as

capable of " sleeping over the ruin of his country,

North only muttered,

dull,

asleep at
I

" I

wish to Heaven

was."

So when a

somniferous speaker manifested a similar

its

indignation, because his speech produced

natural

effect

upon the minister, the

serving

latter contented himself with ob-

how hard

it

natural a release

was that he should be grudged from considerable suflferinar.

so very

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ORATOR.

123

Lord Erskine added the talent of wit to his other forensic gifts
;

and the

effect of his sallies,

we

are told, was not

merely to relieve the dryness of legal discussions, but to

advance his cause.
a

man named

Bolt,

On one occasion, he was counsel for who had been assailed by the opposing

counsel for dishonesty: "Gentlemen," replied Erskine,

learned friend has taken unwarrantable liberties with

client's

"my my
This

good name.

He

is

so

remarkably of an opposite
of Bolt-upright."

character that he goes by the

name

was pure invention.

Again, in an action against a stage-

coach proprietor by a gentleman

upset, Erskine began:
is

who had

suffered

from an
plaintiff

"Gentlemen of the jury, the

Mr. Beverley, a respectable merchant of Liverpool, and

is

the defendant

Mr. Wilson, proprietor of the

Swan with
travel

Two Necks
the
his

in

Lad Lane,

a sign emblematic, I suppose, of

number

of necks people ought to possess

who

by

vehicles."

On

another occasion he was employed to

defend an action brought against the proprietors of a stagecoach by Polito (the keeper of a celebrated menagerie) for
the loss of a trunk.

"

Why," asked Erskine,

" did he not

take a lesson from his

with his trunk before

All the world
is
;

own sagacious him?"

his
hits

elephant, and travel

familiar with the sarcasms of Disraeli

at

(Lord Beacohsfield)
"

Peel as one

who had
the

caught the Whigs bathing, and run away with their

clothes,"

as a politician

who had always "traded on

of

ideas of others,
clause,"
etc.

whose
is it is

life

had been one huge appropriation

the

Wit
is

not merely the handmaid

the right

Premier's genius;
of
its

arm

of his power.

Much

point

due to his by-play,

to the subtle modula-

tions of his voice, his peculiar shrug,

and the

air of icy

coolness

and indifference with which he utters

his sneers

and

124
sarcasms.
it is

OKATOEY AND OKATOES.

Nothing can be more polished than his irony;
Yet, on account

the steeled hand in the silken glove.

of

its

personality and vindictiveness,

for imitation.

it

cannot be com-

mended

As

it

has been well said, the adder

his

lurks under the rose-leaves of

rhetoric;

the golden

arrows are tipped with poison.

good example of the

effect of a witticism in neutral-

izing the force of

an eloquent appeal, was furnished by

George Wood, of the

School and

New York

bar, in the great Old

New

School case, tried some years ago at Phila-

delphia, involving the possession of Princeton Seminary.

The eloquent William

C. Preston, of

South Carolina, ad-

dressed the court and jury for three days, in a speech of

great rhetorical beauty, in behalf of the

it

New School.

"

May

please the court,

and gentlemen of the jury," said Mr.

Wood in reply, "if you propose to follow me, you will come down from the clouds where you have been for the
last three days, and, walk

on the earth."

The

effect

upon

Mr. Preston's pyrotechnics was like a sudden shower upon

Fourth of July fire-works.

It

has been said that no speaker can have

much

influ-

ence
tics,

who merely amuses

All this

his hearers,

that

even in

poli-

the most effective orators are not those

is

who make
if

the

people laugh.

true enough;

but

audiences

do not need to be amused, they need to be kept awake

and

alive;

and for

this

nothing

is

more

effectual than

an

occasional sally of wit.

It is said, again, that

wit

is

danis

gerous, which
energetic.

is

also true;

and

so is everything that
is

The cultivation of science

is

dangerous;
is

the

practice of charity

dangerous; eloquence
is

particularly

dangerous; a dunce

almost as dangerous as a genius;

It is easy

nothing

is

absolutely harmless but mediocrity.

QUALIFICATIONS OF THB ORATOB.

to abstain

125

from excess in the use of

faculties

which Nature

has doled out to us with miserly frugality.

But

that wit

may
its

give an added

charm and

zest to eloquence,

without

needlessly

wounding men's

feelings,

encouraging levity in

possessor, or

mocking at things which should be held

proved by a long line of examples, begin-

in reverence, is

ning long before him of

" His wit in
tlie

whom

it

was

said, that

combat, as gentle as bright, Never carried a heart-stain away on its blade,"

and reaching down to some of the most brilliant speakers

of the present half century.

Some of
insist

the ancient rhetoricians were accustomed to

on virtue as an essential qualiiication of the orator,

on the ground that a good character, which can be established in

no better way than by deserving

This
is

it,

has great

weight with an audience.

evidently incorrect; for,

though

it is

true that a reputation for uprightness adds to

it

a speaker's influence, yet

as such,

no more belongs

to the orator
all

than wealth, rank, or a fine person,

effect.

of which

have manifestly the same

But, though not an indisis

pensable requisite of the orator, there

no doubt that a

reputation for integrity gives to his words a weight and

potency which he cannot afford to despise.

his

M. Droz, in
is

Essai sur VArt Oratoire, justly affirms that there

no people sunk so low in immorality as to make the reputation of

him who addresses them wholly

is

indifferent to them.

There

no deeper law in human nature than that which

compels one

men

to withhold their respect

and confidence from

who

violates or disregards the primary principles of

morality.

Dr. Franklin was so strongly convinced of this

that he regarded a reputation for honesty as more important to a speaker than even the " action " which Demos-

126

OKATOEY AND OKATOKS.

In his Diary, under date

thenes so earnestly emphasized.

of July 27, 1784, he states that Lord Fitzmaurice having come to him for advice, he " mentioned the old story of

Demosthenes' answer to one who demanded what was the

first

point of oratory.
Action.

Action.
T said,

The second?

Action.

The

third?
stood to

Which,

had been generally underetc.,

mean

the action of an orator with his hands,

in speaking; but that I thought another kind of action of

more importance
conduct of

to

an

orator,

who would persuade

people

to follow his advice, viz., such a course of action in the

life

as

would impress them with an opinion

;

of his integrity as well as of his understanding

that, this

opinion once established,

oppositions, usually caused

all

the

difiiculties,

delays,

and

by doubts and suspicions, were

his points

prevented;
speaker,

and

such a man, though a very imperfect

against the most

would almost carry

reason, doubtless,

flourishing orator

who had not the

character of sincerity."
this

The

which suggested

advice in

the present instance, was the character of Lord Pitzmaurice's father.

Lord Shelburne, who, though a man of high

insincere.

talent,

was regarded as
and

There

is

no doubt that

in the long

bitter struggle in the British Parliament

it

between Pitt and Pox,

was the superior integrity of the

his

former that gave him, in spite of the icy hardness of

character,

the

victory over

his

antagonist.

It

was the

influence which his blameless puritj' of life gave to his

words,

that

made them

so potent with the

people, and

enabled him to treat the taunts and reproaches of his ene-

my
was

with haughty silence, and that superb contempt which

so

marked a

trait of his character.

Pox possessed

many amiable
and forgiving

social qualities,

warm

affections, a placable

disposition,

and a sweet and winning temper,

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ORATOE.

which nothing could sour.

127

But, though he was immensely

popular with his associates, his countrymen generally had no

confidence in him; and the effect of his burning
trical

and

elec-

appeals was to a great extent neutralized, because they

looked upon
in drinking

him

as a reckless debauche,

who

spent his days

and gambling with the Prince of Wales.

Even

those who admired everything in his talents and much in

his qualities,

we

are told, regretted that his

name never
and
have aban-

ceased to excite in their minds the idea of gamesters

bacchanals, even after he

was acknowledged

to

doned their

society.

Those who held his opinions were

almost sorry that he should have championed them,

they saw with what malicious exultation those

when

who

rejected

them could

recite his profligate life, in place of

It

an argu-

ment, to invalidate their force.

was in vain that he

gave his days to the serfs in Africa and to the helots in

America, while he gave his
nights to

champagne and

ombre.
be

When

in

1782 he was confidently expecting to

made prime

minister, Dr. Price,

who went beyond him

circulated

in his devotion to liberal principles, protested against his

appointment in

Past

Sermon, which was

throughout the kingdom.

" Can you imagine," he asked,

"that a spendthrift in his

own

concerns will

make an

economist in managing the concerns of others?

that

wild gamester will take due care of the state of a king-

dom?"
It is

often said that the weight and pertinency of a

man's arguments have no necessary connection with his

morals; that the most illogical reasonings
the lips
of a

may come from

the

man

of invulnerable

reputation, and

most triumphant proofs of a proposition be adduced by

one

who

is

profligate

in

morals.

But

daily experience

128

ORATOBT AND OEATOES.

is

shows that the world reasons differently; and nothing

more certain than that one glaring

speaker will sometimes preclude
sonings,
ents.
all

vice

in

a public

confidence in his rea-

and render

futile the strongest efforts of his tal-

"

What

care I

what you
stands over

say," exclaims Emerson,

"

when what you do

my

head, and thunders

in
It

my

ear so loud that I cannot hear

that,

what you say?"

trust-

was said of Sheridan

living

had he but possessed

worthiness of character, he might have ruled the world;

whereas,

only to dazzle

and amuse, he had no

politics

weight or influence either in

other hand, Washington,

or

life.

On

the

who had no

oratorical gifts, had

such weight in the Congress that formed the Constitution, that

when he

delivered his opinion in a few pithy

insignificance.
tells

sentences, the

mere deolaimers sank into

Baxter,

in

a passage quoted by Phillips Brooks

us
ig-

that in the English civil wars " an abundance of the

norant sort of the

flock

common

people which were

civil

did

into

the

Parliament,

and

filled

up

their

armies,

merely because they heard

men
heard

swear for the

Common
were
ac-

Prayer

and

bishops,

and

against them.

quainted

And all the with who were against

men pray sober men that

the

that
I

was

Parliament, were

wont

to say,

Parliament the

'The King hath the better cause, but the better men.'" "I suppose," adds Mr.

Brooks, "that no cause could be so good that, sustained

by bad men, and opposed to any error whose champions were men of spotless lives, it would not fall." Had Luther's words been contradicted by his life, they never would have rung through Germany like a trumpet, and
become, as Eichter said of them, " half battles."*
* See,

on

this subject,

" Words

their

Use and Abuse," by the

author.

QUALIFICATIONS OE THE ORATOR.

129

In thus enumerating the qualifications of the orator,

we would not be understood

scription.
It is

as

implying that the essen-

tial secret of his art can be learned

from any such de-

in vain to attempt to explain his mageffects

netism, the

mighty

which he works, by a catalogue

Eloquence, like a genius for
is

raisonnee of his qualities.

invention, for music or

painting,

primarily a gift of

God, and

we

shall never be able to grasp or describe it

its

by seizing upon

forms.
its

Like that of beauty, music,

is

or a delicious odor,

charm

subtle

and impalpable,
words.

and bafBes

all

our

efforts to explain it in

There
at first

are persons whose

sight;

looks and
to

manner charm us

we

are

drawn

them by an

irresistible fascina-

tion; there is a spell

as

upon us the moment we

it

see

them;

was

said

by Saint-Simon of Fenelon,

requires an

effort to

cease to look at them.

But
faces

in vain

would we

try to

analyze the causes

that

of our

impressions;

we

only

know
smile

there

are

certain

with
all

"a

witching
less

and pawky een," that find us though their shafts

are

more or
so

vulnerable,

shot,

to

speak,
life

from an ambush.
the rose?

Who

can explain the hidden

to

of

The botanist can take the flower

finger

pieces,

and show you the stamens, calyx, and corolla; but he

cannot put his
holds
life

on the

mysterious

thing which
flower.

them together, and makes the living

his

The
the

escapes

grasp.*
is

Who,

again,
it

can

explain

Beauty, saya Goethe, "

inexplicable;
;

we contemplate
tering shadow,

the works of great artists

it is

appears to us as a dream, when a hovering, floating, and glit-

whose outline eludes the grasp

of definition.
it

Mendelssohn and
for inspection.

others tried to catch beauty as a butterfly, and pin

down

They have succeeded in the same way as they are likely to succeed with the butterfly. The poor animal trembles and struggles, and its brightest colors are gone; or, if you catch it without spoiling the colors, you have at best a stiff and awkward corpse. But a corpse is not an entire animal it wants that which is essential in all things, namely, life, spirit, which sheds beauty on everything."
;

130

OEATORY AND OKATORS.

mystery of the musician's art?

plest

Why

is

it

that the sim-

strains
is

sometimes

so

thrill

and melt the heart?

How
sadly

it

that an old song, which

we have heard a
"pluck

thou-

sand times before, can, in certain moods, so joyfully or

touch

our

souls.

heart" of this mystery.

is

We We

cannot
simply

out

the

know

that there

a divine power, an inexplicable sorcery, lodged in this

that by
its

art of arts;

magical airs and melodies

soul,

it

can

open the floodgates of the

bidden tears, or
fill

and wet the eye with untill

the heart with gladness,

its

joy, like

madness, pours out

the eyes.

sparkles from the clear depths of

So with eloquence.

Its subtle spell is alike inexplicable.

To suppose that
ture,

it is

a trick of language, or look, or gesis

which one

man

can learn from another,

principle,

an

illusion.

It acts

by virtue of some hidden

is

some

electric

or magnetic quality, which

utterly eludes analysis.

seen in

its effects,

but which

It is

not an

effect, necessarily, of

scholarship and polished periods.

brilliant rhetoric,
looks, or a

It does

not depend upon

a vivid imagination, or

upon winning
it

commanding physique.

Nor

does

consist of

"something greater and higher than

noble, sublime, godlike action."

all

these,

action,
lis-

Who
felt

that has ever

tened to a mighty orator has not

all

how

inadequate were

attempts to describe him?

In vain does one expatiate

on the beauty or nobleness of his person, his regal carriage,

his speaking eye, his clarion-like voice, the

admirable

ar-

rangement of

his

arguments, his wit, his pathos, the fluency

his language, his exquisite observance

and magnificence of

of the temper of his audience.

All these qualifications he

all these

may
exist

possess,

and we may be sure that

cannot

co-

without constituting a great orator;

but when we

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ORATOR.

have said
all,

131

we

feel that there is

something more,

thing indefinable, and more vital than all the rest,

some which
sig-

we have
Hamlet

left untold.

It

is,

in short, an inventory, rather

than a description; "the play of Hamlet with the part of

left out."

We

have failed as inevitably and

nally as if

we

should attempt to portray the matchless

its

beauty of the Belvidere Apollo by an enumeration of

visible qualities.

We

might extol

its

exquisite proportions,

expressing strength and swiftness, the anatomical truth of

its attitude,

the life-like beauty of

its

features,

and the

in-

imitable delicacy

and fineness of
excellences,

its

workmanship; and the

catalogue of
faultless;

its

so far as it went,

would be

but

would say
and above

who that had ever seen the divine original that we had conveyed even a proximately distinct
all,

impression of the bounding grace, the matchless symmetry,

the air of celestial dignity, which electrifies

every spectator of "the statue that enchants the world,"

a statue whose

constituent qualities can no

more be

de-

scribed than they can be misunderstood

by any beholder

with eyes and intelligence?

Nor can even the orator himself explain the

his art.

secret of

In the work of

all

the great masters there are

certain elements that are a mystery to themselves.

fire

In the

of creation they instinctively infuse into their produc-

tions certain qualities of

zled to give

which they would be utterly puzIt is so in music, in sculpture, in

art.

an account.

painting,

and even in the military

he replied: "Jfo Dieu!
(Bless

When

Napoleon
his

was asked by a
victories,

flatterer of his generalship,

c'est

how he won

ma

nature; je suis

fait

comme pa

me!

it is

natural to me; I was

its

made

so").
acts,

Genius, says a French writer, has

like beauty, like infancy.

unconscious

When

an infant charms

132

ORATOKY AND ORATORS.

its

you by
merely

artless smile, it does not

know

that
is

its

smile

is artless.

The

eifect

which the orator achieves

due not

to his separate gifts,

but to their mystic and inex-

plicable union,

and

to a certain

magic art that works

like

like

an

instinct,

an

art

by which,

the

painter in his
of frenzy, he

moments
flings

of ecstasy, the poet in his

moments

over his work a light " that never was by sea or

land,"

and "leavens

it

all

with the mystical

spirit

of

beauty, and pathos, and power,

like the indefinable light

like

which hovers in the eyes of the Madonna of Raphael,

frescoes of Angelo."

the immeasurable power which seems to threaten in the

The
nite

difficulty

of discovering the secret of eloquence

will appear still farther, if

varieties

we

consider the almost

infi-

of

oratorical

excellence,

the
is

innumerable
kindled.

ways in which the enthusiasm of crowds

eloquence of some speakers, from
its

The

first

small begin-

ning to the broad, grand peroration, reminds you of a

calm and beautiful by the wind,

ing

river, that

winds
its

its

course unruffled

now

pausing on

arrow-like

along,

deep, lake-like pools,

now shootnow widening and swelling into now contracting its deep channel in
pebbly bed,
at last it pours its full
is

some narrow gorge,

into the sea.

till

volume
mountit,

The eloquence of another

like a

ain torrent, which, sweeping all obstacles before

rolls

on with an impetuous, ever swelling

flood,

and a loud
its

and increasing
spends

roar, filling the valleys

its

with

thunders,
till

and overflowing
its

embankments

far

and wide,

it

fury on the plain or in some vast lake.

One

speaker appeals to the reason rather than to the passions,

and seeks

to convince rather

than to persuade; an-

other abounds in startling apostrophes and soul-stirring

QtlAtlFICATiON'S OF
appeals,
his

THE OUATOE.

l33

which the former, in the proud consciousness of

There

argumentative power, seems wholly to disdain.

are profound reasoners, who, by the sheer supremacy of

intellect,

by force of

will

and their own absolute convic-

tion,

implant within us vital sentiments which

we cannot

dislodge,

and which send us away thinking, and reformed

feeling, resolv-

ing;

and, again, there are itinerant preachers, spiritual

inebriates,

tinkers,

who, by the mere force

of personal enthusiasm, of vehement physical passion, raise

us to dizzy heights of excitement and

eyes unused to weep.
all

draw

tears

from

There are speakers who cultivate

the seductive arts of address, and

who

try to propiti-

ate their hearers

by studied exordiums; there are others

great, or even greater, results, by

who accomplish equally

standing
bolt-upright,

disdaining

all

action,

making a

rush at once at the very pith and

tion,

marrow

of the ques-

and

firing off their sentences in short,

quick volleys,

like those of a

steam-gun.
so

The great orator of Greece spent

of the

many weeks and

months upon his speeches that his enemies said they smelt
lamp; Webster prepared his immortal reply to
in a single night.

Hayne

Lord Chatham,
Patrick

to perfect his

use of language, read Bailey's dictionary twice over, and

articulated before a glass
slovenliness of style
;

Henry

affected a greater

and

rusticity of pronunciation than

is

was natural to him, and declared that " naiteral parts

better than
all

the

laming upon yearth."

and
dress
fastidious

The former,
the

an inveterate
fully

actor, his

in

his toilette, care-

adjusted
into

before

speaking;
his

other

slouched

the

legislature

with

greasy

leather-

breeches and shooting-jacket.

Henry

Clay, with the most

his hearers

commonplace thoughts, often charmed

by the


l34

ORAfOET ANi) OSAIOES.

Brougham
electrified his au-

musical tones of his voice;

dience by notes as harsh and hoarse as the scream of the

eagle.

Sheil produced his effects

by rapid,
still

electric sen-

tences, like bolts

fects

from a thunder-cloud;
William
with a

greater

ef-

were produced by the

" drawling, but fiery " senPitt,

stiff

tences of Grattan.

figure and

a solemn posture, like that of a passionless automaton,

swayed the House of Commons with

stately, flowing, sono-

rous sentences, in which " a ccmple of powdered lacqueys

of adjectives waited on every substantive"; Pox, until he

got

warmed with

his subject, hesitated

and stammered,

often kept on for a long time in a

place strain,

tame and commonwith a hurricane of

but

gaining impetus and inspiration as he

last,

proceeded, swept the house, at

eloquence.

Hamilton declared that the oratory of the

that of
bursts
their

former appeared to him "languid eloquence";

the of
latter,

" spirited

vulgarity."

The

greatest

oratory have

generally been

improvised,

and

effects

enhanced by apt and significant gesture; but Dr.

of pulpit orators,

Chalmers, one of the most powerful

spoke from manuscript, and hardly moved a finger.

Mira-

beau, the most stormy, electric, and resistless of French

orators,

pursued a middle course; he took the brief of an

oration, as he

mounted the tribune, from the hand of a

his best passages, short, rapid,

friend;

and many of

and

electrical, flashed

out from between the trains of argulike lightning

ments laboriously prepared for him,

the clouds.

through

Such, doubtless, was the case with his comthe Gracchi,

his

parison

of

celebrated

allusion

to

the

Tarpeian Rock, and his apostrophe to Sieyes.

fore the spectre of the

Burke, behis

French Revolution shot across

path,

was

listened

to as a seer

by the House of Com-


QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ORATOK.
135

mons; but, after that event, his Cassandra-like croakings

bored his hearers, and his rising to speak was a signal
for a

stampede from the benches.

Editor's Chair" of

Some years ago "The

oratory of

"Harper's

Magazine" called attention to the contrast between the

Edward Everett and

that of John B. Gough.

Perhaps no speaker in America has been listened to with

more delight by thousands and tens of thousands that have Year after year he crowded to hear him than Gough. same discourses, with slight changes, from the same platforms; and year after year men laugh at the
repeats the

same "gape-seed"

stories,

weep

at the

same

tales of pathos,

and are thrilled by the same vivid appeals to their

bilities.

sensi-

Yet Gough has neither literary genius nor

cul-

ture, neither personal

magnetism nor a musical

gifts

voice,

indeed, hardly
to the

any of the

which are deemed essential

popular orator.

He
who

has justly been called " an

oratorical actor,

a kind

of Fox-Garrick."
forty years ago

On

the other

hand,

Edward
to

Everett,

was the prince

of rhetoricians, if not the prince of orators in this country,

whose rhythmical and polished periods the schol-

arly audiences of
delight,

New
man

England listened with never-ending

of Attic taste and refinement, the
culture.
Cold, passion-

was

highest product of
less,

New England

undramatic, trusting to old, traditional, time-honored

forms in action and delivery, having no deep convictions,

and consequently abstaining altogether from what Aristotle calls the agonistical or

"wrestling" style of oratory,

elaborated
periods
in

he delivered

his

carefully

tones

modulated with equal care, and with such a uniform perfection of

of mechanism.

manner that the whole seemed like the effect Yet he, too, drew admiring crowds, al-

136

OBATOET AND OEATOES.

though a more marked contrast to Gough could hardly

be named.*

One
lays

of

of the greatest of modern orators, Lord Brougham, down as a test of a great mind in the senate, the power making a vigorous reply to a powerful attack. The

observation appears a just one, for as " iron sharpeneth

iron," the clash of intellect, like the collision of flint
steel,

and

throws out a sparkling stream.

Among

the distin-

guished orators of the United States, there have been

many

striking examples of this power, the most notable, perhaps,

being Webster's reply to Hayne.

Naturally, Mr. Webster

to be

was of a heavy, sluggish ternperament, and required

assaulted by a formidable antagonist,

to

be lashed, and

goaded, and driven to the wall, by another giant like himself,

to

set

his

massive energies in motion.

duello,

For the
of
intel-

ordinary
lectual

parliamentary

that

species

gladiatorship which
little

requires that a

man

should

have a
it,

of the savage in him, to be very successful in

little

he

had

taste.

But give him a great

occasion,

and an adversary worth grappling with,

of his steel,
sion, fiery
tion,

a foeman worthy
intellect, the

and he

rises

with the exigences of the occa-

and displays the giant strength of his

vehemence of
and

his sensibility, his brilliant imagina-

his resistless

might of

will, to terrible

advantage.

When

thus roused and stimulated, his pent-up stores of

passion burst forth with volcanic force; he presses into

his service all the
tries of his

weapons of oratory; the toughest

are

sophis-

adversaries

rent asunder like cobwebs;

denunciation and sarcasm are met with sarcasm and denunciation

*
still

more crushing and incurably wounding;

of " Harper " before na, we give the compariBon with, of course, some changes in the language.

Not having the volume

as nearly as

we can

recoUect

it,

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE OKAlOB.

and
his style has, at times,

137

a Miltonie grandeur and roll

which are rarely surpassed for majestic eloquence.

Among
his

the orators of Great Britain Lord

Brougham

himself was one of the most remarkable illustrations of

own remark.
no

assault,

man

the occasion,

his faculties were stimulated by more readily with the greatness of or poured out a more fearful torrent of

When

rose

scathing invective, with all the peculiarities of look, tone,

and gesture, which drive a pointed observation home.

enunciation was naturally harsh, yet
it

His

was

so modulated,
series

we
of

are told, that the hearer

was carried through a

involved

sentences

without perplexity, until, at the

close, the

orator literally pierced the intellect by the con-

cluding phrase, which was the keynote to the whole.

In

days gone by,

Brougham

and Canning " used to watch each

other across the table, eagerly waiting for the advantage

of reply; the graceful and accomplished orator being

aware

that his rival, by a single intonation, or even a pointing

of a finger, could overwhelm with ridicule the substance of a well-prepared speech."

One

of

the

most

effective

British speakers in reply at a later day,

Peel.

was Sir Robert

His tenacious

memory

preserved every point of his

adversary's argument, and his practical intellect enabled

him

to hit

an objection " between wind and water."

Lord

Macaulay, on the other hand, though he always chained

the attention of the house by his set efforts, could not

speak in reply.

That climate and race have not a

quence,
is is

little

to do with elo-

an obvious
marked,

fact.

The

style called Asiatic, for

example,

like all oriental compositions,

by an
sooner

excess of imagination;

the wings are disproportioned to

the body.

Cicero, in 6*

speaking of

it,

says:

"No

138

ORATOKT AND ORATOKS.

sail

had eloquence ventured to

from the Piraeus, than she

till

traversed all the isles and visited every part of Asia,

last,

at

infected with their manners, she lost all the purity

style, and, indeed,
is

and healthy complexion of the Attic

almost forgot her native language." It

a curious fact

noted by a late writer, that the climatic conditions of

extreme heat and cold have a similar

aginative faculty, causing
as
it

effect
all

on the imthe others,

to

overshadow

may

be seen in the poetry of Arabia and Hindostan

and the Edda of Scandinavia.

are

The

Irish

and the French

born orators

and our own Southern people have a

great advantage over the New-Englanders, who, as Emerson says, live in a climate so cold that they scarcely dare
to

open their mouths wide.

;

Yet the rule has many

ex-

ceptions

and Nature

is

perpetually startling us with her

that ever listened to Eufus

freaks and anomalies.

Who

Choate, so oriental both in his looks and style of speech,

would have

fancied, before

being told, that

soil

he

was a

product of the same rocky

Daniel Webster?

as

Jeremiah Mason and

of find-

Or who would have dreamed

its

ing in a child of Maine a genius as fiery and fervid, an

imagination as tropical in
as

fruitfulness
?

and splendor, Yet such were

any that blooms in oriental climes

Prentiss,

the qualities of Sargent S.

priori, one

whom, reasoning &

would have expected to possess an understandSo,

hills, and a temperament has been happily said, " the

ing as solid as the granite of her

as cold as her climate.
flora of the
it

South

is

more gorgeous and variegated than

;

that of less favored climes

but occasionally there springs

as

up

in the cold

North a flower of as delicate a perfume

tropics.

any within the

The heavens

in

the equatorial

regions are bright with golden radiance, and the meteors

(iUAlIBlCATlONS OF THE ORATOR.

139

shoot with greater effulgence through the air; but even the

snow-clad

hills of

the North flash, from time to time, with

the glories of the

Aurora

Borealis.

Under the

line are

found more numerous volcanoes, constantly throwing up

their ashes

and their flames; but none of them excel in

ice-bound sides."

grandeur the Northern Heela, from whose deep caverns

rolls the

melted lava down

its

If the gifts of the impassioned son of

birth-place, not less, in

Maine belied

his

an opposite manner, did those of

Calhoun.
is

Carolina's child,
gion,

John

C.

Born in a

tropical re-

where a southern sun

apt to ripen

human

passion

into the

rank luxuriance of tropical vegetation, he was as

severely logical, as rigidly intellectual, as if he

had been
the line
life,

reared in
of

Nova Zembla, or any other region above perpetual snow. Dwelling amid the luxuriant

the

magnificence and pomp, the deep-toned harmonies, of the

Southern zones, he was as blind to their beauties, as deaf to

their

melodies, as

if

he had really been "the cast-iron

man "

that he was called,

and had sprung from the bowels

mountain.

of a granite

New Hampshire

CHAPTEE

V.

THE orator's trials.

IF
also,

the orator has his triumphs, which are as dazzling

as

any that are the reward of genius and

toil,

he has
so

by that inexorable law of compensation which

largely equalizes

human

conditions, trials

which are pro-

portional to his successes.

his

greedy ears upon his

lips," little

The hearer who "hangs both dreams of the toils

The
aspir-

and mortifications the speaker has undergone.

ants to oratorical distinction,
influence,

who envy him

his

fame and

have but a faint conception of the laborious days

and

sleepless nights

which

his successes

have cost him,

of

the distracting cares and interruptions, the nervous fears

of failure, or of falling below himself

expectation,

the treacheries
feeling,

of

and below public memory, the exhaustion

and
self-

and collapse of
disgust, with

the

self-dissatisfaction

which the practice of his art has been

"

at-

tended.

Armies are not always cheering on the heights

which they have won.

white limbs at once.
flesh

The statue does not come

to

its

It is

the bronze wrestler, not the

fallen ad-

and blood one, that stands for ever over a

versary with the pride of victory on his face."

It is a rare

intellectual gratification to listen to a finished orator; and

so it is delightful to gaze

upon

tapestry,

and we are
of those

daz-

zled

by the splendor of the

its

colors,

and the cunning

inter-

texture of

purple and gold; but

140

how many

who

THE ORATOK'S trials.

are captivated

141

by

its

beauty turn the arras to see the

jagged ends of thread, the shreds and rags of worsted, and

the unsightly patchwork, of the reverse side of the picture, or

dream of the

toil it
sits

represents?

Yet

it

is

on

this side

that the artificer

and works;

it is

at this picture that

he gazes, until oftentimes the splendor he has wrought

becomes distasteful, and he would fain abandon his

ing for one that exacts less
toil,

callless

even though

it

wins

admiration from the spectator.

There

is

hardly any public speaker of great celebrity

confess that he feels
to speak,

who will not when he rises

more or

less

tremor
it

on a great occasion,

though

be for the hundredth time.

To stand up before a crowded

and perhaps imposing assembly, without a scrap of paper,

without a chair, perhaps, to lean upon, and trusting to
the fertility and readiness of your
brain, to attempt a

speech amid the profoundest silence, while you are the

focus of a thousand eyes,
nize you, that

and

feel, as

they scan or scruti-

you are under the necessity of winning and

all those listeners for

holding the attention of

hours,

an hour, or

is

a trying task, and demands hardly less nerve

critical situation in life.

and self-possession than any other

Those who have often assumed such a task, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, will confess that there are occasions

when

it is

indescribably painful, and that they have

no remission from either physical or mental suffering until

it is

performed.
is

But what

the

cause of this

anxiety and misery?

Why
dred

should

it

be so

much more

difScult to address a

hun-

men than

to address one?

Why

should a

man who

never hesitates or stammers in pouring out his thoughts

to a friend or

a circle of friends, be embarrassed or struck

142

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

if

dumb

he attempts to say the same things, however

suit-

able, to fifty persons ?

Why

is

it

that though he

is

awed

by the presence of no one of them, and even

to

feels himself
faces,

be intellectually superior to every individual he

collectively they inspire
?

yet

him with awe,

sits

if

not with

terror

How

comes

it

that though he has a steady flow

in

of ideas and words

when he

a chair, he cannot

think on his legs; that even a half- reclining posture does

not

check improvisation, but perpendicularity paralyzes

?

him
non,

Whatever may be the explanation of the phenomeare all familiar with

of that
it.

we

If

we have not had

per-

sonal experience

Belshazzarish knocking

of the

knees, and that cleaving of the tongue to the roof of the

mouth, which sometimes

afflicts

the public speaker in the

most unexpected and mysterious manner, we have had

occasion, probably, to witness

painful instances of
is

it

in

the experiences of others.

There

hardly a more

distress-

ing position in which a

human

being can be placed, than

that of the newly-fledged orator,

who

looks

upon "a

sea

of upturned faces " for the first time, and, in a fright,

forgets

what he had

to say.

He may have
woods

repeated his
to the trees, or

speech forty times in his study, in the

or in his garden to the

cabbages, without hesitating

omitting a word; yet the

moment he mounts

the rostrum

and faces an audience,

his intense consciousness of the

human

presence, of
it,

its

reality,

and of the impossibility

all his
tell

of

escaping

petrifies the

mind, paralyzes

powers.

Even the most distinguished orators

first

us that their
;

attempts at public speaking were fiery ordeals

and

not a few broke down

practiced accents in
of their

opprobriously, " throttling their

fears,"

their

and losing the thread

helpless

thoughts

in

excess

of

consternation.

THE okatob's tkials.

The brightest wits have been disgraced
as the dullest.

143

in this

way
is,

as well

The

likelihood of such a result

indeed,

just in proportion to the speaker's oratorical gifts.

of the finest genius

Men

and the most thorough accomplishment

in other respects, often fail as public speakers

from sheer
with
ofi"'

excess of ideas, while a

mere

parrot of a fellow,

little

culture and but a thimbleful of brains, "goes

in a

steady stream of words, like a rain-spout in a thunderstorm.

As a crowded

hall

is

vacated more slowly and with

more

difficulty

than one with a small assembly, so the very

multitude of the thoughts that press to the lips

may

im-

pede their escape.

It is well

known,

too, that

the very

delicacy of perception, the exquisite sensibility to impressions,

and the impulsiveness, which are the soul of

all

eloquence, are
tain degree

almost necessarily accompanied by a cer-

of

nervous tremulousness, just as

a finely-

strung harp vibrates at the slightest touch, or whenever

the faintest breeze passes over
it.
is,

A
sign

certain

amount of
feels

sensibility

of course, absolutely
is,

indispensable to the orator, and

it

therefore, a good

when he

some anxiety before rising to address

feel

an assembly.

The most valiant troops

always more
it is

or less nervous at the first cannon-shot;

that

and
of

said

one of the most famous

generals

the

French

Empire, who was called "the bravest of the brave," was

always obliged to dismount from his horse at that solemn

moment;

after

which he rushed

like

a lion into the fray.

But while the orator must

his feeling

feel deeply

what he has

to say,

must not reach that vehemence which prevents the mind from acting, which paralyzes the expression

from the very fullness of the feeling.

As a

mill-wliflel

may

fail

to

move from an

excess of

water as truly as

144

OEATORY AND OKATOES.

it,

from a lack of
by the

so there

may
It

be a sort of intellectual
it

apoplexy, which obstructs speech, and renders

powerless
for
this

very excess

of

life.

was,

doubtless,

reason that Rousseau could never speak in public, and

that the

Abb6 Lamennais, who wrote with

a pen of

fire,

never ventured to ascend the pulpit, or even to address

a meeting of children.

Kennedy, in

his Life of

William Wirt, speaks with deep

sympathy of the agony of a confused novice,

whom

he

saw

arise a second time to address a jury, after having

first

stuck fast in his

attempt at utterance.

The second

essay proving equally unfortunate, he stood silent for a few

moments, and then was able

clare to Heaven, that I
if I

to say,

" Gentlemen,
I

I de-

had an enemy upon whose head

could wish him
I stand

would invoke the most cruel torture,

fate

no other
ily,

than to stand where

fact is full of

now."

Luck-

ferers,

and the the very

encouragement
this

to other suf-

sympathy which

appeal

won

for

him, seemed
short

almost instantly to give

him

strength..

pause was followed by another

effort,

which was
It is

crowned with complete, and even triumphant,

well

success.

known

that Erskine, the great forensic advocate, was

at first painfully

unready of speech.
efforts that

So embarrassed was
he would have aban-

he in one of his maiden

doned the attempt to harangue

as he tells us, his children

juries,

had he not

felt,

tugging at his gown, and urging

him

on, in spite of his boggling

Disraeli, as all the

and stammering.

Sheriin

dan and

world knows, "hung fire"

their first speeches,

and Curran was almost knocked down

first

by the sound of his own voice when he

his " gentlemen " in a little

addressed

room of a

tavern.

The

first

speech of Cobden,

also,

who became afterward one

of the

THE orator's trials.

145

most powerful champions of the Anti-Corn-Law League,

was a humiliating
It is said that
if

failure.

Canning was sure of speaking

his best

he rose in a great fright.

floor

To

feel his

heart beating

rapidly, to wish the

would open and swallow him,

were signs of an oratorical triumph.

At a Mayor's

din-

ner in Liverpool, he was so nervous before he was called

on to speak, that he twice

his thoughts-

left the

room

in order to collect
feel-

He

has given a graphic narrative of his

ings on

making
those

his

maiden speech

in 1793,

when he

en-

tered the

House of Commons.

It is full

of encourage-

ment

to

who

are trembling in view of the same

to

fiery ordeal:

"I intended

have told you, at

full length,

what were

my

feelings at getting up,

and being pointed

called

at

by the Speaker, and hearing

of the House;

my name
lest I

from

all sides

how

trembled

should hesitate or mis;

place a word in the two or three first sentences

while

all

was dead silence around me, and

my own

voice sounded to
in about

my

ears quite like

some other gentleman's; how,

got

ten minutes or

less, I

warmed

in collision with Fox's

arguments, and did not even care twopence for anybody or

anything;

how

was roused, in about half an hour, from

this pleasing state of self-sufficiency,

by accidentally casting

my

eyes toward the Opposition bench, for the purpose of

paying compliments to Pox, and assuring him of

my
;

respect

and admiration, and there seeing certain members of Opposition

laughing (as I thought) and quizzing

me how
how
those
it

this

accident abashed me, and, together with

breath, rendered
sat

my
;

being out of

me

incapable of utterance

who
was

below

me on

the Treasury bench, seeing

what

that distressed me, cheered loudly, and the

House joined

them- and how in

less

than a minute, straining every

146
nerve in
in

OEATOKT AND ORATOKS.

my

body, and plucking

up every

bit of resolution

my

heart, I

went on more boldly than

ever,

and getting
to the end."

into a part of

my

subject that I liked, and, having the

House with me, got happily and triumphantly

Dr. Storrs, of

New

York, one of the most accomplished

extemporaneous preachers in America, states that when he

delivered his
first

sermon

after his installation in Brooklyn,

he made almost a dead failure.

He

staggered along and

" I

floundered for twenty-five minutes, and then stopped.

sank back on the chair, almost wishing that I had been

with Pharaoh and his hosts when the Red Sea went over

them!"

It is said that a

New Hampshire

legislator,

from

one of the rural districts, having stuck fast in his maiden

speech, abruptly concluded as follows:

"Mr. Speaker;

It is

pretty generally considered, I believe, to be pretty impossible for a

man
of"

to

communicate those ideas whereof

"

he is not

possessed

proposition which Demosthenes himself

would not dispute.

My

lords," said the Earl of Rochester

I I rise this time,

on a certain occasion, " I

I

I I

mf
me

lords,

divide

my

discourse

into four branches."

Here

he came to a
rise

halt,

and then added:

"My

lords, if ever I
off,

again in this house, I give you leave to cut

root

and branch, forever."

Island,

When

Tristam Burgess, of Rhode

his

was making a speech in Congress, he directed

and, in this threatening attitude,

eagle eye, and pointed his forefinger, toward his opponent

on the

floor,

made

a long

and emphatic pause.

"

"That pause was

so terrible as to

terrible," said a

fellow-representative to Mr. Burgess after the debate was

over.

To no one

me," responded the

orator, " for I couldn't think of anything to say."

That a public speaker in the beginning of

his career

should feel more or less of perturbation on rising to ad-


THE orator's trials.
dress a public assembly,
is,

147
said,

as

we bave

no marvel;

the only marvel

is

that such embarrassments are not more

frequent and more disastrous.

is

When we

consider

how

little

required to disconcert, and even to

fly

paralyze him,

on his nose,

headache or heartache,

the

distrac-

tions

which may

assail

him, and divert his attention, such

as an appearance of slight in his audience, a cough, a a sudden failure yawn, a rude laugh, or even a whisper,

of memory, so that part of his plan, perhaps even

division,

its

main

may

be suddenly

lost,

the dullness of his im-

agination,

which may picture feebly and confusedly the

things

it

presents,

the escape of an unlucky expression,

which carries him

a sudden idea, an oratorical inspiration,

far

away from

his theme,

sentence badly begun, into

which he has "jumped with both feet together, without

knowing the way out,"

the

inability, while finishing the

development of one period, to throw forward the view to

the next thought, the link to connect
is

it

with that which

to follow,

when we
may

think, too, that any or all of these

embarrassments
centrated
it

occur to him while all eyes are conhis every look

upon him, watching

and gesture,
that a

seems wonderful that any man,

above

all,

man

with so extreme a sensibility as the orator must have,

should dare to face an assembly.

Even years of practice in public speaking do not

ways extinguish the timidity which
an assemblage of listeners.
is

al-

felt in

confronting

Cicero, notwithstanding his

long experience in oratory, does not hesitate to

confession:

"I

declare that
rise

when

I think of the

make this moment

client,

when
I

I shall

have to

and speak in defense of a

am

not only disturbed in mind, but tremble in every

limb of

my

body."

We

are told by some of the ancient

148

OBATORY AND ORATORS.

writers that he began his speeches in a low, quivering

voice, just like a school-boy afraid of not saying

his les-

son perfectly enough to escape whipping.

Plutarch,

According to

he scarcely

left

off

trembling and quivering

even when he had got thoroughly into the current and

substance of his speech.

This

may have been owing

which
also

to

a naturally weak, nervous constitution, to

we

may

ascribe the timidity of character which, although on a

occasion,

memorable

he could thunder forth,

Contempsi

Catalince gladios, non pertimescam tuos, jet caused him, in

the strife of contending factions, painfully to oscillate be-

tween

his

regards

for

Pompey and
tells

his,

fear

of

Caesar.

An

English reviewer

of

an eminent law-lord, the

very model

of senatorial

and judicial eloquence of the

composed and dignified order, who has been seen to tremble,

when he
Even

rose to address the

first

House of Lords,

like a

thorough-bred racer when

post.

brought to the starting-

the great reviewer, Jeffrey, once stuck in a

speech.

Being chosen by the admirers of John Kemble

to present

him with a

snuft'-box at

a public dinner, Jeffrey,

a small man, found himself so overwhelmed and sunk to

the earth by the obeisances of the tall tragic god, that

he got confused, stopped, and sat down, without

thrusting the box into the actor's hands.

even

Patrick

Henry

often hesitated at

first,

and had the

air

of laboring
timidity,

under a distressing degree of modesty or which continued to characterize his manner

it off

throughout, unless he was led to throw

excitement.

by some great

Dr. Chalmers, though a giant in the pulpit,

never was able to speak extempore in a

to himself,

way

satisfactorily

though the cause was not bashfulness, but the overmastering fluency of his mind. Thoughts and words

THE okator's tkials.

came
like

149

to his lips in a flood,

and thus impeded each other,

all

water which one attempts to pour

at once

out

of a narrow-mouthed jug.
his
sister, says

Lord Macaulay,
"

in a letter to
excite-

of himself:

Nothing but strong

ment and a great occasion overcomes a certain

mauvaise
honte

reserve

and mauvaise honte which I have in public speaking; not

a

which

in

the

least

confuses

makes me

hesitate for a word,

but which keeps

me or me from
it

putting any fervor into

my

tone or

my

action."

If ever a

man

spoke as

if

he never knew fear or modesty,

was

the late Earl of Derby.

Yet he said

to

Macaulay that he
"

never rose without the greatest uneasiness.

My

throat

and
dry

lips,"

he said, "
of a

when

am
is

going to speak, are as going to be

hanged."

as

those

man who

Tiernay,

who was one

of the most ready and fluent deto Stanley's.

baters ever

known, made a confession similar

He

never spoke, he said, without feeling his knees knock

together

when he

rose.

junior counsel once congratu-

lated Sir

William Pollett on his perfect composure in

Sir William asked his friend
anxiety.

prospect of a great case.

merely to

feel

his

hand, which was wet with

famous parliamentary orator said that his speeches cost

sleepless nights,

him two
what

one

in

which he was thinking

to say, the other

in which he

was lamenting what

all

he might have said better.

Mirabeau, with

his fire,

dragged a

little

{^tait

un peu

trainant) at the beginning

of his speeches,

and was sometimes incoherent; but, gainas he proceeded, he

ing

momentum
resistless
rolls

swept onward at

last

with

power.
tosses

Like a huge ship which in a dead

calm
fills

and

on the heavy

swell, but, as the

wind

its sails,

dashes proudly onward, so the great orator

till,

rocked on the sea of thought,

caught by the breath

150
of passion, he

ORATOET AND OEATOES.

moved onward with majestic might and
self'

motion.

William Pinkney was one of the haughtiest, most

confident,

and most vehement of orators;

yet, in

one of

hi?

very

latest efforts at the bar,

when

the occasion had

drawn
to

public expectation toward him, his lips were seen to part

with their color, his cheeks to turn pale, and his knees
shake.

He

often said that he never addressed an audience

without some painful and embarrassing emotions at the

beginning.

As he advanced with

his speech, these boyish

tremors disappeared, and he became bold, erect, and dictatorial.

Gough

is

said to be still troubled with the stage.

fright

which he can mimic so well in his lecture upon

" Oratory,"

though he has faced audiences for more than

thirty years.

Rufus Choate would

often, before beginning

a jury address, look as restless, nervous, and wretched as a

man

on the

scaffold,

momentarily expecting the drop

speakers

to fall

who have no fe.ars of a familiar audience, are yet nervous in a new position. We have seen the Governor of a great State, who was perfectly at home on the stump, quake like a school-boy when standunder him.
ing up before a body of college students
luctantly consented to address.

Many

whom

he had

re-

Lord Eldon once

said that

he was always a
smiths'

little

nervous in speaking at the GoldParliament

cabbage-

dinner, though he could talk before

with as
plants.

much

indifference as if

it

were

so

many
is

Not only courage, but presence of mind, him who

necessary to

aspires to address public assemblies.

Not only

is

he liable to a sudden attack of nervousness, or to have his

thunder "cheeked in mid- volley" for want of a word or

an

illustration,

but he

may

be interrupted by an opponent

"

THE orator's trials.

at the very

151

moment when he

is

seen to be

making

his best

point; "ugly," insinuating questions

may
as

be put to him, for

the purpose of disconcerting

him or
;

concerted effort

may

be made, by those
silence him, or,

who dread the effect of his eloquence, to at least, to drown his voice by " oh! oh!"s,
hisses, calls to order, or

yawns, mock cheers, coughing,

any

of the other devices which disingenuous opponents

so well

know
so

how

to employ.
;

Erskine was morbidly sensitive to

his

such

annoyances

and sometimes

suffering

was

keen as absolutely to paralyze

Croly, in his " History of the

his

great

powers.

Dr.

Eeign of George

III," states

that the smallest appearance of indifference in the great

advocate's audience checked the flow of his impetuous oratory,

and sometimes silenced

of this infirmity, a

his

thunder

" in mid-volley."

Aware

shrewd opposing attorney would

the Judge, and directly
to address the

plant a sleepy-headed
opposite the place
jury.

man beneath

where Erskine was wont

Exactly at the
and,

moment when

the speaker was most

climax,

impassioned,

working up a

thrilling

was
be-

making the deepest impression upon the twelve men

fore him, the sleepy

hind would make a hideous grimace,

and give way to the utmost expression of weariness.

effective

An

pause

would be broken in upon by a fearful

second row, and
the cry of " silence

yawn; and a splendid peroration would be interrupted

by a
titter in the

from the ushers at the too plain indications of a snore.

This would cap the climax of the speaker's misery, and,

unable

to

endure

the

torture,

he

would

abruptly

sit

down.

Not only was Erskine thus

sensitive

touching a lack
distressed

of attention by his audience, but he

was equally

by an apparent lack of interest manifested by the conn-

152

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

him
in a caiase.

sel associated witli

Noticing on one oc-

casion the absent or desponding look of Garrow,

who had

aided

him

in a cause, he whispered:

"Who

do you think

can get on, with that wet blanket of a face of yours

before
spoiled

him?"

His

first

speech in the House of Lords was

Pitt,

by the real or pretended indifference of

who,
as

after listening a
if

few minutes, and taking a note or two

Erskine,

intending to reply, dashed pen and paper upon the

it
is

floor re-

with a contemptuous smile.

said,

never

covered from this expression of disdain; "his voice faltered,

he struggled through the remainder of his speech, and sank

into his seat dispirited
occasion, Pitt
rose

and shorn of

his fame."

On
"I

another
rise to

after

Erskine and began:

reply to the right honorable gentleman (Pox)

last

who

spoke

but one.

As

for the honorable

and learned gentleman

who spoke
fell

last,

he did no more than regularly repeat what

as regu-

from the gentleman who preceded him, and

larly

weaken what he repeated."

anecdote
of a

Addison

tells

an amus-

ing

counsellor

whom

he knew, in West-

minster Hall, who never pleaded without a piece of pack

thread in his hand, which he used to twist about a thumb
or a finger all the while

he was

speaking;
his
it.

the wags of

the day called

it

"the thread of

discourse," because

he could not utter a word without

"One of
it

his clients,

who was more

let
it

merrj' than wise, stole

his pleading;

from him one

day in the midst of

but he had better have

alone, for he lost his cause

said

by his

jest."

It is

that Daniel

Webster once rose

to speak by

request at a poultry show,

floor,

when

a giant Shanghai got the

and burst forth in

so defiant

and

ear-splitting

strain that the orator sat down.

It is

not every orator,

art,

even among the veteran practitioners of the

who can

THE orator's trials.

preserve his self-command in such moments.
are as ready,

153

Few
as

speakers

when momentarily nonplused,

for
is

Curran was
his client's

when he was struggling

innocence.

"It

clear

as
as

an illustration of
"

(at that

moment

the

sun shone into the court) " clear as yonder sunbeam that

now bursts upon us with its splendid coruscations." Not all men have the wit and wisdom of Father Taylor, the
famous preacher to
sailors in Boston.
It is said that

once

getting involved in a sentence, where clause after clause

had been added to each other, and one had branched

in this direction,
lessly entangled, sight,

off

and another

in that,

till

he was hope-

and the starting point was quite out of

he paused, and shook himself free of the perplexity,

I don't exactly

by saying: "Brethren,
in,

know where
I

went

in beginning this sentence,

and

don't in the least

know where I'm coming

I'm

out; but one thing I do know,

bound for the Kingdom of Heaven!"

lying
he,

So he "took

new

departure, and left the broken-backed centipede of

a sentence him."

where

it

might, in

the

track behind

Even

however, was nonplused once.

sinner,

He had

vividly depicted an impenitent

under the figure

and driving madly

of

storm-tossed

vessel,

bowing under the hurricane,

its

every bit of canvas torn from

spars,

toward the rock-bound coast of Cape Ann.

"And how,"

he cried despairingly, at the climax of his skillfully-elaborated metaphor, "oh! how shall the poor sinner be saved?"

At

this

moment an

old salt in the gallery,

lips,

who had hung

spell-bound on the orator's

his

whole soul absorbed

in the scene, could restrain himself

ing to his

feet,

he screamed,

no longer, and, spring-

" Let

him put

his

helm hard

down, and hear away for Squam!"

It is related of the witty Scotch advocate,

Harry Erskine,

154
that once,

ORATORY AKB ORATORS.

when pleading
in

London before the House

of

Lords, he had occasion to speak of certain curators, and

pronounced the word as in Scotland, with the accent on the

first syllable,

cwrators.

One
out, "

of the English judges could not

stand

this,

and cried

We

are in the habit of saying

curator in this country, Mr. Erskine, following the analogy

of the Latin language,
in

which, as you are aware, the

" I
;

penultimate syllable

is

long."

thank your lordship

very much," was Erskine's reply

in Scotland to

"

we

are

weak enough
But
I need

think that in pronouncing the word cwrator,

we

follow the analogy of the English language.

scarcely say that I

bow with

pleasure to the opinion of so

learned a senator and so great an orator as your lordship."

The coolness and readiness of William Pitt in a sudden

emergency was strikingly exemplified in
his masterly speech

made

in February, 1783, in reply to Fox.

In defending

himself from the personal attack of his great adversary, he

began quoting the

(Odes, book
iii.

fine lines of

Horace touching Fortune

Ode

29, lines 53-6):

:

" Laudo manentem si celeres quatit Pennas, resigno quae dedit ^^

"

when suddenly the thought struck him that the next words, et mea virtute me involvo" would appear unbecoming if
(as

taken

they might

be)

for

a self-compliment.

Mr.

Wraxall,
eyes

who was

present, says that he instantly cast his

upon the

floor,

while

momentary
his

silence

elapsed

which turned upon him the attention, of the whole House.

Drawing
over his

his handkerchief
lips,

from

pocket, he passed
as it
his

it

and then, recovering

were from

his

temporary embarrassment, he struck

force

hand with great

upon the

table,

and finished the sentence in the most

to:

emphatie manner, omitting the words referred

THE orator's trials.

" Laudo
Tiriute

155

manentem:

si

celeres

quatL

Pennas, resigno quae dedit

(et

mea

me

involvo)

probamque

Pauperiem sine dote quaero."

The

effect,

we

are told, was electric; and " the cheers with

fol-

which his friends greeted him, as he sat down, were

lowed with that peculiar kind of buzz which
is

a higher

testimony to oratorical merit than the noisier manifestations of applause."

Burke, in his early days, before his brain had been

unhinged by the French Eevolution, was sometimes ready

and happy in

his retorts.

Attacking Lord North in one

of his speeches, for

demanding further supplies amid the

a saying of
Cicero:

most lavish expenditure, he quoted

"

Magnum
first

vectigal est parsimonia," accenting vectigal on

the

syllable.

Lord North, who was a

fine

classical

scholar, cried out, impatiently,

" vectigal, vectigal!"

from the Treasury Bench,

" I thank the right honorable gentlehis

man," retorted Burke, "for

correction; and, that he

may
lost

enjoy the benefit of

it,

I repeat the

words:

'Magnum
he

vectigal est parsimonia.' "

his self-command,

At a

later period of his life

his
irritability of

and by

temper

was placed at a great disadvantage in the " wars of the

giants.''

policy of systematic insult

was employed by
to put

some of
down.

his enemies in the

House of Commons,

him

"Muzzling the lion" was the term applied

to this

treatment of the greatest political philosopher of the age.

Coughing, ironical cheers, affected laughter, assailed him

when he

arose to speak, which, though he generally dis-

dained to notice them at the time,

his temper,

nevertheless
his tongue.

soured

and sometimes paralyzed

George

Selwyn

states that

on one occasion Burke had just arisen

in the House, with

some papers in

his

hand, on the sub-

156
ject of

OEATOEY AND OKATOKS.

which he intended
to

make

a motion,

when

a rough-

hewn country member, who had no taste for his magnificent harangues, started up and said: "Mr. Speaker, I hope the
honorable gentleman does not

mean

to read

that large

bundle of papers, and to bore us with a long speech into

the bargain."

Burke was

so suffocated with rage as to be

incapable of speech, and rushed out of the House.

before," says
lion

" Never

Selwyn, " did I see the fable realized of a

hy the braying of an ass."

put

to flight

There are orators

who have

so perfect a self-command

that hardly anything short of an earthquake can disturb

it.

They seem

to hold their passions in control

by the

turning of a peg, as did the rider of the Tartar horse of

the fairy tale, which at one
air at the rate of a

moment dashed through

the

thousand furlongs an hour, and the

next stood as motionless as the Caucasus.

to

There are others

whom

interruptions and attempts to check the impetu-

ous flow of their speech, appear to be positive blessings.

Taunts, sneers, hisses, which ruifle and confuse
spirits,

less fiery

only put them upon their mettle, stimulate them,

and

call forth their latent

powers.

Like a mountain stream

flood of their elo-

which has been dammed, the swelling

ing through
its

quence acquires increased fury from resistance, and burstall

its

restraints,

overwhelms everything

in

path.

Such an orator was Lord Chatham.

While on
eye,

the one

hand he

often,

by the power of his

cowed

down an antagonist
him

in the midst of his speech,

and threw
or

into utter confusion

by a single glance of scorn

contempt, he himself was only aroused by opposition.

Any

attempt to impede him in the utterance of oifensive wotds

only called forth a more vigorous repetition of the offense.

Some

of his most brilliant oratorical successes originated

THE orator's tbials.

at

157

moments

of overbearing impatience,

fringing on the rules of debate.

Mansfield), on

when he was inMurray (afterward Lord

the

other hand, was greatly wanting in

nerve, and though the ablest man, as well as the ablest

debater, in

the

House of Commons, according

to

Lord

Waldegrave, bore in agitated silence the assaults of Pitt

(afterward Lord Chatham), to which he did not dare to
reply.

Butler states, in his " Reminiscences," that on one

occasion, after

Murray had

suffered for

some time, Pitt

stopped, threw his eyes around, then fixing their whole

power on

his opponent, said:

"I must now address a few

agitated;

words to Mr. Solicitor: they shall be few, but they shall

be daggers."
tinued;

Murray was
agitation

the look

was conex-

the

increased.

"Felix

trembles," other day."

claimed Pitt:
sat
is

"he

shall

hear

me some

He

down; Murray made no

Mirabeau, who

reply,

and a languid debate

said to have

shown the paralysis of the House.

in

physical

gifts

strongly

resembled

Chatham, owed likewise many of his oratorical triumphs

to opposition.
It

has been justly said that in retort, in

that kind of abrupt, indignant, disdainful repartee which

crushes

its

victim as by a blow, he was, like Chatham,

surpassed by none of his contemporaries, and, like Chat-

ham,

too,

he was peculiarly dexterous

in

converting

taunt into a victorious rebuke.

his

Patrick Henry, even in

his
self-posses-

most

fiery

moments, equally retained

under trying

sion.

His

coolness

circumstances,

when

speaking against the Stamp Act in the Virginia House of

Burgesses,
is

familiar

to all Americans.

As he uttered

the celebrated passage: "Caesar had his Brutus, the

First
his

Charles

Cromwell,

and

George the Third"

the

cry of "Treason!" was heard from the speaker, and


158

'

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

"Treason, treason!" was echoed from every part of the

House.
" It

was one of those trying moments," says Mr.

faltered not for

Wirt, Henry's biographer, " which are decisive of character.

Henry

an instant; but rising

to a

loftier attitude,

and

fixing

on the speaker an eye of the

most determined
firmest emphasis,

fire,

he finished his sentence with the

be treason,
retorts

If this 'may profit by their example. make the most of it.' " One of the neatest ever made by a public speaker, was that made
his

by (joleridge to some marks of disapprobation during

democratic lectures at Bristol: "I
that,

am

not at

all

surprised

when

the red-hot prejudices of aristocrats are sud-

denly plunged into the cool element of reason, they should

go

off

with a hiss."*
of the orator's trials

In this account
tioned only some
said

we have men"We have

feeling
to

of the

most obvious ones.

nothing

of

the

ever-varying

moods of
is

which a person of so much sensibility

ject,

inevitably sub-

and which make him more or

There are

less

the

puppet of
feels

circumstances.

moments when he

him-

* Happy as was this reply, it was surpassed in overwhelming effect by a somewhat irreverent one made by that brilliant but erratic orator, the late Thomas Marshall, of Kentucky. Toward the close of his life, when, unfortunately, his oratorical inspiration was too often artificial, he was making a speech to a crowded audience at Buffalo, when he was interrupted by a political opponent, who, pretending not to hear distinctly, tried to embarrass him by putting his hand to his ear and crying out "Louder!" Mr. Marshall, thereupon, pitched his voice several times on a higher and yet higher key; but the only effect on his tormentor was to draw forth a still more energetic cry of " Louder please, sir, louder! " At last, being interrupted for the fourth time and in the midst of one of his most thrilling appeals, Mr. Marshall, indignant at the trick, as he now discovered it to be, paused for a moment, and fixing his eye first on his enemy and then on the presiding officer, said: "Mr. President, on the last
1

day, when the angel Gabriel shall have descended from the heavens, and, placing one foot upon the sea and the other upon the land, shall lift to his lips the golden trumpet, and proclaim to the living and to the resurrected dead that time
shall start

be no more,

have no doubt,

sir,

that

some infernal
"

fool

from Buffalo

will

up and cry

out, 'Louder, please, sir, louder/

THE okatob's trials.

self in

159

quick electrical sympathy with his audience, and

every breath

and current

of

thought and

feeling

by

which

it is

affected,

sweeps through his own soul,

when
if

he feels a stream of mental influence from every person

that he addresses, as

potent and stimulating as

they

were

all

so

many

galvanic batteries, with their wires of

in
feels

communication
are

concentring

his

own bosom.

There

other times

when he

himself so repelled and

chilled

by the

cold,

stern gaze of the faces before him,

that all his faculties are

benumbed.

There are moments

afl&atus,

of inspiration
instead

when he

feels a

kind of divine
to

and,

of

making an
is

effort

speak, he

seems to be

spoken from; his soul

seems to be lifted
off

so flooded with emotion, that

he

his feet,

and

to tread

on

air.

He

speaks at such times in a kind of ecstasy or rapture, and

hours

may

pass without

any consciousness of
his thoughts

fatigue.

There

are other

moments when

and

ideas, instead

of flowing apparently

from an inexhaustible fountain, can

effort;

only be

pumped up with great

when

expression

and
fly

illustration, instead of flocking

to his lips,

seem

to

from them.

Again, how often when he has carefully

prepared a speech, does he have to wait for an opportunity to deliver

its
it,

till

the

fire

and glow that attended

preparation have become extinct!

How
his

often do the
after he

happiest ideas and illustrations flash

upon him

has sat down!

the debate to

He

could

pulverize
his
late.

adversary were

be repeated, but

crushing arguments

have presented themselves too

once an afflicting
others that
victories are

William Wirt had

kind, which, with

experience

of this
to

might be
due
to

cited, tends

show that oratorical

sudden inspirations, to opportunity or

luck, as often as victories in the field.

"Had

the cause

160

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

been to argue over again on the next day," he wrote to

a friend, after having grappled with Pinkney,
" I could

have shivered him, for his discussion revived

gotten topics, and, as I lay in

all

my

for-

my

bed on the following

morning, arguments poured themselves out before

a cornucopia.
I should

me

as

have wept at the consideration of

it

what

had

lost, if I

had not prevented

by leaping out

of bed, and beginning to sing and dance like a maniac."

It will

be seen by these examples that there are

courage,
decision
coolness,

oc-

casions

when
of

presence of mind,
of

and
as

promptness

are

required

the

orator

truly as of the general on the field of battle.

does he require
ellos,

Especially

them on

field-days, in

parliamentary du-

in the hand-to-hand encounter of intellects,

where
times,
intel-

the
it

home
not

thrust

is

often so suddenly given.

to

At such
rarest

is

enough

be endowed with the

is

lectual gifts, unless he

intellectual

able also to

command

his whole
it.

force the

moment he wants
is

to use

We

believe, therefore, that there

no grander manifestation

of the

power of the human mind, than that of an orator

and spreading
his sails to the breeze; coolly

launched suddenly, without warning, on the ocean of improvisation,

yet instantaneously deciding

upon

his course,
it;

and earnestly same moment

and even passionately pursuing

at the

guiding his bark amid the rocks and quicksands on the

way, and forecasting his future course;

from opposition;

now

seemingly

overwhelmed in a storm of interruption, yet rising stronger

now suddenly

collecting his forces in an

interval of applause, battling with

and conquering both

bil-

himself and his audience, and mounting triumphantly

low after billow, until with his auditory he reaches the haven on which his longing eye has been fixed.

CHAPTER

VI.

THE OEATOE'S helps.

AS
-'--*-

language
viction

is

the orator's principal instrument of conit

is

and persuasion,
it
is

evident that a perfect

command
success.

of

absolutely indispensable to the highest

It is evident, too, that

such a

command

does not
dint

come by

instinct or inspiration, but

must be gained by

of study and painstaking.

The power

of speaking in clear,

vigorous, racy, picturesque,

and musical English,

ploying the " aptest words in the aptest places,"

of

of em demands
and per-

him who would

possess himself of

it,

as careful

sistent culture as that of

ics,

sounding the depths of metaphys-

or of solving the toughest mathematical problems.

shall this

But

how WR

power be acquired?

We

answer, partly by

the constant practice of composition with the pen (of which

shall speak

more
viz.,

at length further on),

and partly in

two other ways,

fully reading
poets,

by reading and translation.

is

Next

in

value to the frequent use of the pen,

the practice of care-

and re-reading the best prose writers and

finest passages to

and committing their

memory,

so

as to be able to repeat

them

at

any moment without

effort.

The advantages of this practice are that it not only strengthens the memory, but fills and fertilizes the mind
witH pregnant and suggestive thoughts, expressed in the
happiest language, stores
it

with graceful images, and,

above

all,

forms the ear to the rhythm and number of

7*
161

162

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

much
to its impressiveness

the period, which add so

force.

and

If

we study

the masterpieces of eloquence

we

shall find

that

it is

in a large

measure

to the

rhythmus, the harmony

of the sentences, that

many

of the most striking passages

especial atten-

owe

their effect.

The ancient orators paid

tion to this point.

They bestowed
fall

incredible pains not only

their metrical arrangeear.

upon the

choice of words, but

upon

ment, so that they might

most pleasingly upon the

Cicero quotes half-a-dozen words from a speech of Carbo,

which were so exquisitely selected and collocated that they

almost brought his hearers to their
that so
feet.

It

may be

thought

much

attention to form

may

distract the speaker

from proper attention

and tempt him to

to the substance of his discourse,

sacrifice sense to

sound; and such, indeed,

was the
of the

effect in

the times that succeeded the dissolution Quintilian states that

orators
in
it

Eoman
of

Kepublic.
of

was the

ridiculous boast

certain

the

days of the

declension

genuine

eloquence,
set to

that

their

harangues

were capable of being

stage.

music, and

sung upon the

So far was

this affectation carried

by the younger

Gracchus, that
to

when he harangued

the populace, he used

employ a

skillful flute-player, to

stand behind him in

a position where he could not be observed, and, by the

tones of his instrument, regulate the proper pitch of his
voice!
It

was

this depravity of taste

calls " the

which gave

rise to

what Tacitus

very indecent and preposterous,

though very frequent expression," that such an orator

speaks smoothly, and that such a dancer moves eloquently.

But the abuse of an

tivating the form,

art is no argument against The example of the Prince of Orators shows that,

its use.

in cul-

we need not

separate

it

from the sub-


THE okator's helps.
stance; that
this
is

163
art, less

not true

art,

but the want of

is

since for true art the

most perfect form

nothing

than the clearest and most transparent appearance of the

substance.
It is the
it

melody of a sentence which, so to speak, makes

gives
it

cut,

which
it

speedy entrance into the mind,

deeply,
It is

causes

to

penetrate

and

to

exercise a

magic

power over the heart.

er's

not enough that the speak-

utterances impress

the

mind

of

the hearer;

they

should ring in his ears; they should appeal to the senses,

as well as to the feelings, the imagination,
lect;

and the

intel-

then,

when they
and

seize

at once

on the whole man,

him, he knows

on body,

soul,

spirit,
eyes,''

will they " swell in the heart,

and kindle in the

not why,
to

and constrain
to

believe

and

obey.

Let the student of

oratory, then, brood over the finest passages of English

composition, both prose and poetry, in his leisure hours,

till

his

mind

is

surcharged with them;

let

him read and

and
ca-

re-read the ever-varied verse of Shakspeare, the majestic

and pregnant
denced

lines

of Milton,

the harmonious

compositions

of

Bolingbroke, Grattan,

Erskine,

Curran, and Eobert Hall.

sages and
recite

Let him dwell upon these pasthey almost seem his own, he will " form
find

them

till

and insensibly, without

the
relish of his

effort,

to

theirs

soul,"

and will

himself adopting

their language,

and imitating them instinctively through

to reproduce

a natural love for the beautiful, and the strong desire

which every one

him.
so

feels

what

is

pleasing to

By

this process

he will have prepared in his mind,

to speak,

a variety of oratorical moulds, of the most

exquisite

shape

and pattern, into which the stream of

thought, flowing red-hot and molten, from a mind glow-

164
ing with the

OEATOEY AND ORATORS.

fire

of declamation, will

become

fixed,

as

metal in a foundry takes the form of a noble or beautiful statue.

Will

it

be said
is

that

it

is

the utile and not the pulit

chruin which

the

end of oratory; that

it

turns aside

from

its

purpose when

seeks

to

please, instead of to

convince

and persuade; and that the metrical arrangeis

ment
music,

of words, which
is

one of the principal charms of

poetry,

unfit for prose?

We

answer that prose has

its

its

characteristic melody, as well as poetry, though

;

of a different kind
easily "
free,

not that of the lyre or the lute, which

to

weds

itself

immortal verse," but a wild and

music, like a music like that of the sobbing

an ever-pleasant, though ever-varying

It is

that of Nature.
seas, or of the

whispering winds and falling waters, the

is

wild music which

leafy woods of

heard by mountain streams or in the

summer.

The most

perfect .prose composi-

tion, while it will be devoid of the

complex harmony

of

verse,

and of everything that may suggest the idea of

less

rhyme, will yet no

equable,
its

than poetry have

it

its

gentle and

impetuous and rapid flow;

its full

will take the ear

its

prisoner by

and majestic harmonies and

as

abrupt
its

transitions, as well

by

its

impressive pauses, and

grateful,

though not regularly- recurring cadence.

Now
so

since

all

men, whether educated or uneducated, are

constituted as to enjoy this excellence, which, by giving

pleasure, aids the attention, stimulates the
facilitates the

memory, and
does not see
aid,

admission of argument,

who

that the orator

who

fails

to avail

himself of this

neglects one of the most powerful and legitimate instru-

ments of

his art?

The

practice of storing the

mind with

choice passages

ISE Orator's helps.

165

from the best prose writers and poets, and thus flavoring
it

with the essence of good literatures,

is

one which

is

commanded both by
it

the best teachers and by the example

of some of the most celebrated orators,

who have adopted

with signal success.

Dr. King, author of " Anecdotes

of

My Own Time
and

" (published in 1760), states that, in order

that his pupils

correctness

might acquire the art of speaking with

facility,

he used to advise them to get by

classic,

heart a page of some English

says,

and the method, he

success.

was often attended with complete

till

Chry-

sostom did not begin to preach

he had enriched his

mind with the

spoils

of classic learning.

William

Pitt,

in his youth, read the poets, Greek, Latin

and English,
cells

with the closest attention, and deposited in the

his

of

memory many

fine passages,

which, as

we have

already

seen, he afterward

wove

into his speeches in the happiest

effect.

manner, and with the most telling

advice he read and re-read

By

his father's

Barrow's sermons, to secure

finest

copiousness of language;

and the

parts of Shaksto steep

his

peare he had by heart.

Pox began early

mind
ingly
Ovid,

in classic literature,

and never ceased to linger lov-

over
till

the

pages of Homer, Euripides, Virgil, and

the day of his death.

also

He was

very fond of the

the

Odyssey, and

of Euripides, who,

among

Greek

dramatists, seems to have been his favorite.

He

declares

that of all poets this most argumentative dramatist ap-

pears to him, " without exception, the most useful for a

public

speaker."

Virgil was

the

Latin poet

whom

he

most earnestly and fondly studied; and among the

Ariosto,
his

Italians,

whom

he preferred to Tasso, for the luxuriance of

imagery and the grand sweep of his imagination. In giving advice to others, he dwelt with peculiar em-

166

OKATOKY AND OEATOES.

" I

phasis on this branch of reading.

says,

am

of opinion," he
especially of

" that the study of good authors,

and

poets,

ought never to be imtermitted by any

to speak or write for the public, or, indeed,

man who is who has any

be for argu-

occasion to tax his imagination, whether

it

ment, for illustration, for ornament, for sentiment, or for

any other purpose."

Burke's speeches abound with poetical gems, especially

from Virgil and Milton.

finest

Erskine,

who spoke probably

the

and richest English ever uttered by an advocate,

call to the bar,

devoted himself for two years, before his

to the study of literature.

He committed

a large part of

Milton to memory, and so familiarized himself with Shakspeare, that

it is

said that he could

all

almost, like

Person,

have held conversations on

in the phrases of

subjects for days together

It

the great English dramatist.

was

here that he acquired, not only his rich fund of ideas,

but the

fine choice of

words, the vivid and varied imagery,

that distinguished his style.

Daniel Webster was a pro-

found student of a few great poets, especially the two

just named, and in his reply to

Hayne

brief passages from

both are introduced with signal

felicity

and

effect.

Willhis pol-

iam Pinkney owed

his intellectual affluence

and

ished style to a similar cause.

it

From

his

youth he made
it

a rule never to see a fine idea without committing

to

memory.
" the
I

Rufus Choate says the result of

this practice

was
style

most splendid and powerful English spoken

Choate himself drunk deep at the

ever heard."

fountains not only of science and history, but of philosophy

and

belles-lettres.

To
and

increase his

command

of language,

his copia verborum,

to avoid sinking into

cheap and bald

fluency, as well as to give elevation, energy, sonorousness

THE oeatoe's helps.

and refinement to
his vocabulary,
life,

167

he read aloud daily,

a page or more from
a profound student

during a large part of his

some

fine

English

author.
all

He was

of words,

and made

the realms of literature tributary

literature," he used to say,

to his vocabulary. find

ideas.

"In

"you
stock.

There one should daily replenish his

polite literature should be

The whole range of

thoughts."'

vexed for

Literature, again,

he contended, was neces" All

sary to get intellectual enthusiasm.

the
to

discipline

and customs of
tion

social life, in

our time, tend

is

crush emofeeling.''

and

feeling.

Literature alone

brimful of

Bossuet owed the kingly splendor of his style largely to

classical studies.

The great exemplars of Greece and Rome

eyes.

were always before his

Prom

the freshness and pic-

turesqueness of Homer, the indignant brevity of Tacitus, and

the serried strength of Thucydides, he
style,

drew that vigor

of

which,

when enriched by

the sublime imagery of the

Prophets and the tender pathos of the Evangelists, placed him among the first of Christian orators. The " Hiad " and
" Odyssey " he had
heart.

thumbed

till

he knew them nearly

all

by

His passion for Homer,

whom

he always called " di-

vine,"
It was,

was

so great, that

he recited his verses in his sleep.

chiefly,

however, to the Old Testament,

with his unsurpassed sublimity,

tense pathos,

to Ezekiel, with

to

Isaiah,

to Jeremiah, with his in-

his

gorgeous coloring,

to

Daniel, and

the other lyrical poets of the Bible,

who have

never been surpassed as singers, or as interpreters of the

human

heart and prophets of the conscience,

Fisher

that he was
also

chiefly indebted for his inspiration.

Ames was

a profound student of the Scriptures, especially the Old

Testament, with whose ideas and images his mind was

deeply imbued,

an example which cannot be too earnestly

168

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

to

commended

every public speaker, since the Bible, being

at once the most

human and
any other
of

the most divine of books,

is

better fitted than

to

move

the

common

heart of
of

humanity.

One

the

greatest

oratorical successes

Richard Lalor Sheil was achieved at a great popular meeting, by taking the first chapter of

Exodus

for his theme,

and quoting, with the Bible in and

efi'ect

his hand, "

with a solemnity

electrical

on the sympathies of a religious and

enthusiastic people, the words of the inspired writer, and

founding on them an impassioned appeal to his countrymen

to persevere in their career,

to press

onward

to the goal

appointed for them, heedless of the fears of the timid or

the suggestions of the compromising."

Along with the reading of the best and most idiomatic

English authors, the practice of translation will also be

found invaluable to the young orator.

It is

one of the best

keys with which to unlock the treasures of his

own

tongue.

In hunting for

fit

words for foreign idioms, and

felicities of

expression to match the felicities of the original, he will be

at the

same time enriching

his vocabulary

and taking a
this practice
is

lesson in extempore speech.

In one respect
it

preferable to original composition, for

niceties

gives a clew to
translator
to find in

and elegancies of diction which the

likely to hit

would neither be

upon himself, nor same time

it

any English writer, and

him, of which he
spirit, instead of

at the

saves

him from
life

the servility of being a copyist.

is

He

has a model before

to catch

and reproduce the

and

making a

cold

and mechanical copy; he

while he

paints a similar picture, but with different pigments; and

thus his pride of originality

is

gratified,

is

not

compelled to rely on his

own narrow
is

resources.

We

are aware that there

a growing distaste to-day,

THE oeatok's helps.

especially in the West, for the study of the

169
dead languages

but

we

are persuaded by
is

much
it

experience and observation,

it costs,

that the study

worth

all

the time and toil

simply
can

on account of the

command

gives of language.

Who

estimate the facility of expression, to say nothing of the intellectual discipline

and the acquisition of new

ideas,

which

must accrue from

this constant wrestling

with the thoughts

of the great writers of antiquity in order to understand

and translate them?

Could any better or more ingenious

contrivance be devised to form an artist in words,

to give

one a
guage,

command

of

thought's indispensable tool," lan-

than

this perpetual

comparison of the terms and

idioms of two tongues, to discover those that are equivalent;

this incessant

weighing and measuring of phrases, to find

or, at least,

which will give the exact shade,

the nearest ap-

proach to the divine beauty, of the original?

Above

all,

what aptitude
practice,

for

extempore speech must result from

this

pursued for years, in the decomposition and re-

composition of sentences,
their separate

of combining and recombining

ways, so as to hit upon

words in

all possible

the arrangement which will at once convey the thought

most perfectly, and at the same time give the most exquisite delight to the ear,

and,

again, of balancing one

sentence against another, in order, by a proper mixture of

long ones with short, periodic with loose, to give to the

whole that unity, measure and harmony, which will not

only render
it

luminous with meaning, but make

it

sink

deeply and linger long in the mind ?

There
speakers

is

no doubt that some of the most eloquent

ancient

of

and

modern times have

of words
in
this

acquired
Cicero

their magical

command

way.

thus stocked his vocabulary

8

from the Greek.

Lord Ches-

170
terfield,

OEATORY AND OEATOKS.

one of the most elegant and polished talkers and
of Europe, translated

orators
into

much both from

English
in

French and from French into English.

Owing

part to this practice, a certain elegance of style became

habitual to him, and
ble,
it

would have given him more

trou-

he says, to express himself inelegantly than he had

ever taken to avoid this defect.

Chatham turned and

re-

turned the pages of Demosthenes into English.

Pitt, his

William

son, translated

for years aloud to

himself and

to his tutor.

Following Horace's rule:

" Nee verbnm verbo curabis reddere
Interpres,"
fiduB

he read a pretty long passage in the original, and then

turned
it

at once into regular English sentences, aiming

to give the ideas with great exactness, and, at the same

time, to express himself with idiomatic accuracy and ease,

and pausing, when he was at a

until
it

loss,

for the fitting word,

stop, at first;

came.

Of

course, he

had often to

but by degrees he acquired a greater mastery and readiness;

his

and in

after life he always ascribed to this practice

extraordinary

command

of

language, which enabled

felicitous expression,

him
to

to give every idea its

most

and

pour out an unbroken stream of thought, hour

after

hour, without once hesitating for a word, or recalling a

phrase, or sinking for a

moment

into looseness or inac-

curacy in the structure of his sentences.*

field,

Lord Mansclassic

who

in his youth

had been an enthusiast in

to

study,

and in whose brain, according

"Memory,
like the

Cowper,

bee that's fed

From
Had

Flora's

balmy

store,

The quintessence

of all he read treasured up before,"

* Goodrich's "British Eloquence," 552.

THE orator's helps.

17i

turned every one of Cicero's orations into English a sec-

ond time.

Lord Brougham was an enthusiastic advocate of translation,

tor.

and

also of classic imitation as a help to the ora-

In a letter addressed in 1823, at the mature age of Macaulay's father, he says:

forty- four, to

"I know from

in

experience

that

nothing

is

half

so

successful

these

times (bad though they be) as what has been formed on

the Greek models.
I use a

very poor instance in giving

my own

experience;, but

do assure you that both in

courts of law and Parliament,

and even to mobs,

have

never made so
as

much

play (to use a very modern phrase)

I

when

was almost translating from the Greek.

com-

posed the peroration of

my
and

speech for the queen, in the

House of Lords, after reading and repeating Demosthenes

for three or four weeks,
I

composed

it

twenty times

over at least, and

it

certainly succeeded in a very extraits

ordinary degree, and far above any merits of

own."

Rufus Choate,

too,

was a

tireless translator.

Thff culture

of expression, he held, should be a specific study, distinct

from the invention of thought.

Translation should

be

practiced for the double object of keeping fresh

recollection the

in the

words already acquired, and

to tax

and

torment invention and discovery for additional rich and

expressive terms.
for themselves,

Like Keats and Gautier, he loved words

their look, their aroma, their color,
for the choicest

and

for

was always on the look-out

and

most picturesque phrases.

Tacitus was his chosen author,

life,

and, in the busiest days of his ever busy

he would

always give

five

minutes,

if

no more, to his

task.

One of
brain

his chief objects

was

to stock his

memory with synonyms.

his

For every word he translated he would rack

172

OEATOET AKD OEATORS.

his books till

and search

he had found

five or six corre-

sponding English words.

vocabulary with
spell in

He aimed
words,

also

to

enrich his

suggestive

those
fitly

that

have a

them

for the

memory and

imagination.

He knew

that sometimes even one such word,

sufficient to

spoken, has been

wither an antagonist, or to electrify an audon't

dience.

"

You

want,"

said

he

to

student, " a

diction
air,

gathered from the newspapers, caught from the

unsuggestive
;

common and
is

but you want one whose

Like William Pinkney, he
fertilizer of

every word
ation,

full

freighted with suggestion and associ-

with beauty and jjower."

regarded the study of dictionaries as a great

language, and spent
It is

many hours

in conning their pages.

hardly necessary to say that one of the best helps

is

to the acquisition of skill in oratory

a profound study of
or

the best specimens of eloquence.

sculptor
is

As the young painter

not content with text-books and lectures, but

spends months or years in the galleries of Florence, Rome,

and a score of other

places, in order to learn

how

the great

masters of form and color wrought their miracles, so the

oratorical student should dissect

and analyze the great masso far as possible, to

terpieces of eloquence,

and endeavor,

"pluck out the heart of their mystery,"

secret of their charm.

to

learn the

Let him not confine himself to read-

ing fine passages, such as are to be found in "Academical

Speakers" and treatises on elocution, for the exclusive

reading of these would be misleading, and, on the whole,

more injurious than

lating qualities which

helpful.

speech of the highest

order will always contain. some of those electric and stimu-

we

look for in books of specimens;

but the striking metaphor, the startling appeal, the biting

sarcasm, the bold invective, the daring apostrophe, which

THE orator's helps.

characterize these selected passages,

173
insignifi-

form but an

cant portion of a long discourse, and sometimes they are

wanting altogether to speeches which are models of luminous statement or of powerful and logical reasoning.

The true orator does not

strive

to

be

brilliant;

he

seeks only to convince and persuade,

acquittal,
to

to secure a client's

show the unsoundness of an adversary's

has been justly said that

principles or reasoning, or to obtain a vote for a certain

measure.

It

it

was not with

the shining

the decorated hilt of his sword that the old knight cleaved
in twain the skull of his

enemy; nor was

it

plume on

his

helmet that protected his

own

head.

Often

the pith and

marrow

of a speech

lie

in no part which a

school-boy would choose for declamation, but in the exquisite

arrangement of

its

arguments, in the
the

masterly

clearness of its
its

statements, in

accrescent

energy of

appeals.

It

was

said of

Lord Mansfield, who divided

the honors of oratory in the

House of Lords with Chat-

ham, that he was "eloquent by his wisdom." no

sallies

He

affected

of imagination, or bursts of passion; but seall

cured attention and assent to

he said by his constant

good sense, flowing in apt terms and in the clearest method.

He

excelled,

above

all,

in the statement of a case, arrang-

ing the

facts

in an order so lucid,

and with

so nice

reference to the conclusions to be founded on them, that

the hearer felt inclined to be convinced before he
possession of the arguments.

was

in

A
his

writer

who

often heard

George Wood, the leader of the

thirty years

New York Bar

as free

some

ago, says

that

speech was as plain as

that of a Quaker.
refraction

The thought was

as
is

from the
seen

of

words

the

light

of a

planet

through one of Clark's object-glasses.

174

OEATOKY AND OKATOKS.

orators of the present century,

of British eloquence.

Count Montalembert, one of the most brilliant French was a profound student

He knew

almost by heart the prinof

cipal speeches of the great orators

England and

Ire-

land,

and in

his

youth was wont to relate with impas-

sioned ardor the Parliamentary debates to his schoolmates.

The

fiery

Grattan

and the splendid contest which he

glowing

maintained against the Parliamentary union of England

and Ireland, held a conspicuous place in

tures.

his

pic-

But above

all,

Burke was the hero of

life.

his idolatry,

and the portrait of the great Irishman hung in the

Count's study
against the
till

the last day of his

The speeches

American

War
all

and Warren Hastings,

and
the

even those in which

Burke vehemently denounced

French Revolution, were

analyzed or repeated by Mon-

talembert to an admiring and electrified audience.

Again, besides studying the masterpieces of eloquence

in print, the oratorical aspirant should listen to the best living speakers.
fly,

As

the

young

bird, that is learning to

its

watches
its

its

parents,

and with

eyes fixed on them,

their path,

spreads

unsteady wings, follows in

and

copies their motions, so the

young man who would master

their
his

the art of oratory, should watch closely the veteran practitioners of the art,

and assiduously note and imitate

to cease circling
flights

best methods,
pinions, he

till,

gaining confidence in the strength of

may venture

about his
It

nest,

and boldly essay the eagle

of eloquence.

was

thus, in part, that Grattan's oratorical genius

was trained

and

directed.

Going in

his

youth to London, he was

attracted to the debates in Parliament

by the eloquence
upon
his

of Lord Chatham, which acted with such a spell

mind

as

henceforth to

fix

his

destiny.

To emulate

the


THE orator's helps.
fervid

175

and

electric oratory of

that great leader, repro-

ducing his lofty eoueeptions in

for

new and

original forms,

he was no servile

coijyist,

was
his

henceforth the object

of his greatest efforts

and of

most fervent aspirations.

distinctive as

The genius of Rufus Ohoate, original and

it

unquestionably was, was fired

in a

great degree by

listening,

when he was

a law-student at Washington, to

the

fervid

eloquence of William Pinkney,

whom
is

he not

little

resembled.
all

Among
which he
pen.

the helps of the orator, there

no auxiliary

may employ with

calls
it

greater advantage than the

et

Cicero

optimus

praestantissimus dicendi

effector ac magister.

He

says that in writing on a sub-

ject

we give more than usual attention to it, and thus many things are suggested to us of which we should

otherwise never have thought.

We

choose the best words,

is

and arrange them in the best order, and a habit

formed of employing always the best language;
as

thus
that

so

when the rowers rest upon their oars, will continue to move by the impulse previously given, so a speaker who has been accustomed to use his pen, will, when he is obliged to utter anything extempore, be apt
a boat,
to

do

it

with the same grace and finish as

if it

had been

previously composed.

There can be no doubt that the

frequent use of the pen helps to give not only clearness

and precision, but force and vividness, to the speaker's

thought.
It is not

enough that the speaker's theme has

there should

been profoundly meditated and digested; besides the cogitatio et

commentatio upon which Cicero

insists,

be the assidua ac diligens scriptura.

this

In this way, and in

way only, can the speaker acquire and perpetuate that command and general accuracy of language, that copious-

176

ORATOKX AND OKATOES.

ness in the diction, precision in the selection of terms, and

close articulation

in

the construction,

which

alone can
will not

insure the highest excellence.

By

this

means he

only

make

luminous ideas which,

when shut up
all,

in the

mind, are apt to preserve a certain haziness, but he will

.open richer veins of thought, and, above
to lay will be able

up

in his

memory

a supply of weapons ready for any

care-

emergency.
fully

Important sentences and passages thus

wrought out beforehand in the laboratory of thought,

fail,

can hardly
being

even

if

not delivered exactly verbatim, of

more

effective

ordinarily

than

those

which
there
is

are

thrown

off hastily in

the hurry of debate,

when

no

time to grope about for the most apt and telling words,

and the expression must be

effected at the first stroke.

In thus commending the use of the pen, we would not

counsel a speaker, except in the case of a eulogy or other

formal address, to write out the whole of a speech, and

"learn
cle.

it

by heart," even

to every little beggarly parti-

No

doubt there have been orators

this

with considerable success.

who have done Edward Everett adopted

this methotl;

but though years of practice and an unfailenabled him to give

ing

memory

many

passages of what
in the free,

he had thus "conned and learned

off-hand

by. rote,"

manner

of

impromptu
It

address, yet there

efforts,

was

al-

ways

visible,

even in his happiest

a certain air of

constraint and artificiality.

was rarely that the most

impassioned burst of oratory was delivered with such a

perfection of concealed art, as not to excite a suspicion
in the hearer's mind, that, like

Sheridan's

cut and dry

exclamation

of

been carefully

"Good Go^! Mr. Speaker," it had not studied before-hand. But if this master of
his hearers,

memorized speech did not succeed in cheating

THE- orator's helps.

still

177
of his
disciples,

more

signal

has been

the

failure

most of
frigidity

whom

have succeeded only in reproducing his

to

and monotonous elegance, without being able

fortunate

impart to their recitations the air of

sudden suggestion
as to

which he was occasionally

Tacitus
sicut

so

command.
eloquentia,
et

says, as

truly as

tersely, that

magna

flamma, materid

alitur, et

motibus excitatur,
translated
:

urendo

darescit,

which

William

Pitt

" It

is

with
it,

eloquence as with a flame.

It requires

fuel to feed
it

motion to excite
practice of

it,

and

it

brightens as

burns."

The

memoriter speaking has, unquestionably, some

it

advantages, and the fact that

was the

favorite
it.

method
If

of the ancient orators goes far to

commend

the

speaker has a tenacious memory, and can commit a speech

rapidly, he
is

relieved of all anxiety about

is

his

thought
into the

and

style,

and

left free to

throw

all his force

proper work of delivery.

his

Having the whole speech in

mind, he knows the relations of the several parts to

is

each other, and

force, pitch,

thus " able to graduate the degrees of

and rapidity of movement appropriately to

every part; to return to the key-note and initial

as often as he

movement

may

be required, and to manage his pauses

and transitions so as to produce their true and proper

effect."

On

the other

hand, speaking from memory, in

most

cases,

not only involves a great amount of disagree-

able drudgery,

and almost necessitates a break-down when,

forgotten, but

from interruption or sudden nervousness, a passage which

forms a necessary link in the chain
is it

prevents the speaker from feeling the pulse of his audience, catching

inspiration from their

is

looks or

applause,

meeting objections with which he

ing his address with the varying

interrupted, and vary-

exigences of the hour.

178

OBATOKY AND OEATOKS.

not, except
entire, yet

But while speeches should be written out and memorized

sages,
is

in rare cases,

important pas-

we

think, should be; and, in every case

where one

to

speak

on an important occasion, he should make

completely

himself so

master of his

theme by patient

thought and frequent use of the pen, that the substance

and the method, the matter and the order, of

shall

his ideas
it

be perfectly familiar to him.

Nor

is

enough

that he possess himself of sharply defined thoughts, and

the precise order of their delivery;

he must brood over

them hour by hour

glows with them,

till till

" the fire

burns " and the mind

illus-

not only the arguments and

trations have been supplied to the

felicitous

memory, but the most

pregnant,

terms, the

most

vivid,

and

salient

phrases, have been suggested,

which he will

recall, to

an

extent that will surprise him, by the

matter in which

they are imbedded, and with which they are connected by

the laws of association.

Proceeding in this way, he will

unite, in a great measure, the advantages of the written

and the spoken

of the

styles.

Avoiding the miserable bondage

speaker

who

servilely adheres to manuscript,

procedure which produces, where the effort of memory

has not been perfect, a feeling of constraint and frigidity
in the delivery, and, where
it

has been perfect, an ap-

pearance of

artificiality in the composition,

he

will

weave

into his discourse the passages which he has polished to

the last degree of art, and he will introduce also anything

that occurs during the inspiration of delivery.

He

will

have

all

the electrical power, the freshness,

fire,

and fervor

of the orator

who

does not write, and at the same time

much of him who

the condensation, elegance, and exquisite finish of

coins his phrases in the deliberation of bis study.

THE orator's helps.

There
is

179
of
fact,

no

doubt that,

in

point

almost

every great orator writes passages whicli he commits to

memory.
to

Sheridan prepared his impromptus beforehand

to

an extent which seems incredible

one not familiar

with his habits.

speeches

Indeed, one of the chief defects of his

callida junctura,

was the lack of

the

transitions

from

his

carefully-conned declamation to his extempore

statements being perceptible to everybody.

As he was
and rhetlax.

unable to keep for

an instant on the wing, there was no

gradation, and he suddenly dropped from tropes

oric into a style that

was strangely bald and

One

of the secrets of Canning's

elegance and polish of style

was

his constant practice of

writing in conjunction with

extemporaneous speech.

On

every important debate " he

wrote much beforehand, and composed more in his mind,

which flowed forth spontaneously, and mingled with the

current of his thoughts, in all the
fervor of the most

prolonged and excited discussion.

great ease and variety, he never
fell

Hence while he had

into that negligence

and looseness of style which we always find in a purely

extemporaneous speaker."
sages,

Many
closet.

of Curran's

winged

pas-

which seem born of the inspiration of the moment,

Like Canning, he dove-

were elaborated in the

tailed

them

so skillfully with the others as to

make them
I

appear impromptu.
lips,

"

My

dear fellow," said he to Phil-

"the day of inspiration has gone by.

said,

Everything

ever
esses,

which was worth remembering,

white horses,
as I
call

my

them,

^were

my

de bene
care-

all

fully prepared."

Some

of

the

most

electric

passages of

Brougham's speeches were written and rewritten again

and again.
Indeed, he expressly declares that the perfection of public speaking consists in introducing a prepared

180
passage with

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

eifeot.

" It

is

worthy of note," he

says, " for

the use of the student in rhetoric, that Erskine wrote

down

word

for

word the passage about the savage and

his bundle

of sticks.

His mind having acquired a certain excitement

and elevation, and received an impetus from the tone and

quality of the matured and premeditated composition, re-

tained that impetus

after the impelling

cause had died

away."

The

practice of Plunket, so far as it went,

is

was admira-

ble; he used, it

said, to prepare a few keen, epigram-

matic, or passionate sentences, in which to concentrate the

effect

of extemporaneous

passages that led

up

to them.

Shell,

who spoke always with an

air of passion

and aban-

donment, which nothing, apparently, but the enthusiasm

of the

moment

could inspire, elaborated the great pasfinish.

sages of his

speeches with the utmost nicety and

chiselled,

They were hewn,

effects,

and polished with

all

all

the ten-

der care of a sculptor, rehearsed with

their possible

and kept in reserve

till

the critical

moment when,
forth most

by contrast with other

resplendently.

parts, they

would shine

Montalembert polished and repolished some

parts of his orations, which seemed

less care.*

impromptu, with

cease-

Bossuet, on the other hand, disliked writing,

which only distracted him.

He

dashed down rapidly on

paper, texts, citations, and arguments suitable to the theme

and the occasion; meditated deeply on

this

rough docu-

ment, in the morning of the day he was to preach; and

thus developing his discourse in his mind, he passed men* Sainte-Beuve, speaking of his comtiination of the written with the impro-

vised parts of his speeches, says

"

Le

tout est envelopp6 dans une sorte de

intervalle, et qui fait

cir-

culation vive qui ne laisse apercevoir

moment,
corps."

da pens^es medit^es ou not^s, les morceaux tout faits, se rejoignent, s'enchalnent avec souplesse, et se meuvent comme les membres d'un meme

aucun

que

les jets

les

THE ORATOK'S helps.

tally

181

through his sermon two or three times, reading the

paper before him, and altering and improving, as though

the whole had been written.

famous temperance

lec-

turer used to say of his practice that the

addresses

main body

of his

was in the language of the moment, but that

have declared that he dared not

"special howls" were carefully prepared.

Macaulay

is

said to

write a speech that he was to deliver, on account of the

danger of falling into the style of an essay, which he

deemed altogether unfit

for a public speech.

It is notori-

ous, however, that in his parliamentary eiforts he generally

"talked like a book"; and, indeed, some of his speeches

are but reproductions of his masterly essays.

in 1830, on

His speech

The

Civil Disabilities of the Jews, is the le-

gitimate offspring of the Essay of

life
is

1829.

That in early

he sometimes wrote and conned his eloquent periods

evident from the following incident related in an Eng-

lish

work published about twenty years ago: At the anof the

brilliant orations

nual anti-slavery meeting in 1826, Mr. Macaulay delivered

the
first

which gave him fame

as a public speaker.

At

its

close a

to furnish a report of it for the

cle,''

gentleman asked him London "Morning Chronithe collocation of the

it

saying that he spoke so rapidly, and the excellence

of the speech depended so

much on

words, that only

port.

its

author could do

justice

in a re-

At

first,

Mr. Macaulay hesitated; but, on being

he

pressed, said

that

would think of

it.

On going

to

the ofiBee of the " Chronicle " in the evening, the writer

found, he says, a large packet containing a verbatim re-

port of the speech as spoken.

The

brilliant passages

were

marked

in pencil,

and the whole manuscript had been

over,

evidently well

thumbed

showing

that no school-

182

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

to

boy had ever more laboriously and faithfully committed

memory

his speech in "Enfield's Speaker,''

than had the

first

great historian of the age " learned by heart " his

public oration.

As he advanced in years, this habit grew

strongly,

upon him

so

that

at

last

it

was a

positive
to

pain and embarrassment to

him

to

be called upon

speak even a dozen sentences off-hand.

preparation was essential to him;
aration, he

Long and

careful

and, even with prep-

was nervous, anxious, uneasy, until he had

"

poured out his cogitations.

On

the nights, too, on which

he intended to speak, a child might have discerned the

fact.

He

sat with his

arms crossed;
if

his

head was

fre-

quently thrown back, as

he were attentively surveying

the roof; and though the Speaker of the House of Com-

mons was a

perfectly impartial

man, and

filled his of&ce

to the satisfaction of every

member, one could

scarcely

doubt that he often relieved a poet and an orator from

his uneasiness

by naming Mr. Macaulay at an early period

of the evening."

We

have heard from the

lips of the late

Judge Story
celebrated
con-

a similar and

more striking anecdote of the

of the
arts of

American advocate, William Pinkney.*

Though a

summate master
often

extempore speaking, he
in
be-

wrote out the principal parts of his speeches,

order to preserve a correct and polished diction.

lieved,
tice
is

He

with the great orators of antiquity, that

absolutely
necessary, if one

this prac-

would acquire and

preserve a style at once correct and graceful in public

speaking, which otherwise
is

apt to degenerate into

col-

loquial negligence and tedious verbosity.

ilton,

Alexander Ham-

in a great libel cause which he argued, wrote out

Hours with Men and Books," pp.
105-7, for this anecdote.

* See the author's "

THE orator's helps.

his

183
it

argument the night

before,

and then tore

up.

"Al-

ways prepare, investigate, compose a speech," said Eufus

Choate to a student,

Webster always "pen in hand. reasons which chance." The when he could get a wrote
Mr. Choate assigned for this practice, were that only in

this

way can a speaker be sure

that he had got to the

bottom of his subject, or have the confidence and ease

flowing

from the certainty that he cannot break down.

"

The written matter, he added,

must be well memorized."

In
the court-room he

He

himself acted

on

this

rule.

always spoke before a pile

his cabalistic " pot-hooks," to

of manuscript, covered with

which, however, he only oc-

casionally referred.*

The night before addressing a jury,

It is

he would sometimes write all night.

hardly neces-

sary

to

say that

in

all

cases

where carefully finished

it
is

passages are introduced into an extempore speech,

part of the speaker's art, and one that requires the nicest
skill,

to blend the

impromptu and the prepared parts

in-

to

an indistinguishable whole.

Any

clumsiness that be-

trays the joints,

patches,"

that
destroy

reveals the secret of the "purple

will

the

charm.

An

English writer

advises the

speaker,

who would

conceal his art in such

*In his journal, May, 1843, Mr. Choate wrote: "I am not to forget that I am, and must be, if I would live, a student of forensic rhetoric. ... A wide and anxious survey of that art and that science teaches me that careful, conis the parent of ripe speech. It has no other. But that writing must always be rhetorical writing, that is, such as might in some parts of some speech be uttered to a listening audience. It is to be composed as in and for the presence of an audience. So it is to be intelligible, perspicuous, pointed, terse, with image, epithet, turn, advancing and impulsive, full of generalizations^ maxims^ illustrating the sayings of the wise." In every pari of study, Mr. Choate relied greatly on the pen, which he regarded as the cor rector of vagueness of thought and expression. ''In translating," says Mr E. G. Parker, in his " Reminiscences," "in mastering a difficult book, in pre. paring his arguments, in collecting his evidence, he was always armed with that, to him, potent weapon."

stant writing


184
cases,

OKATORY AND OEATOKS.

to connect the elaborated

part of his speech with

what has incidentally

to that to boggle; catch at

fallen in debate;

"when you come

shall
fall short

premeditated and finest part, hesitate and appear

some expression that

of your idea, and then seem to hit at last

thing.

upon the true

and gives
Lord
say."*

This has always an extraordinary

effect,

the air of extempore genius to

what you
"

Brougham appears
fect

to

have acted, at times, with imperthis.

success,

on a hint like

When

he seemed

to

pause in search of thoughts or words," says Lord Granville,

"

we knew

that he had a sentence ready cut and

dried."
It

may

be objected,

indeed,

it

often has been objected

to speeches thus carefully

prepared,
likely to

that

they are too

elaborate;
simplicity;
oil.

that they are

that,

lack

naturalness and
the

in

short,

they smell of

midnight

If such, in

any

case, is the effect of preparation,

is

if

the orator, in the effort to perfect his speech,

tempted
intro-

to

aim merely at tickling the

ear,

and he thus, by

ducing beauties of thought or expression which have no

relation to the subject,

and no tendency to

facilitate its

comprehension, draws attention not to his theme but to

himself or his rhetorical
fatal.
skill,

the

objection
is

is,

indeed,

The

best style, written or spoken,

not like a

painted

window which transmits the

light of

day tinged
its

with a hundred hues, and diverts the attention from

proper use to the
it
is

pomp and

splendor of the artist's doing;

lets

a transparent, colorless medium, which simply

the thought be seen, without suggesting a thought about the

medium
1798.

itself.

But

if

the elaboration, however great,

"Parliamentary Logic," by the Eight Hon. William Gerard Hamilton,

London,


THE okatob's helps.
be for legitimate ends,
vivid images, the " apt

185

if

the energy and harmony, the

words in apt places," which result

facilitate the

from

it,

aid attention,

and

admission of argu-

ment, at the same time that they delight the hearer, the
delight
purpose,^

being aimed at only for an ulterior and higher

then
much

it

is

hardly possible for the speaker to

take

too
is

pains.

The utmost elaboration of

last

this

kind
ness

not only pardonable but praiseworthy.

Natural-

and simplicity, the

and most excellent graces

which can belong to a speaker, so far from being opposed

to
it,

can be attained in no other way.

in

The utmost
to
to be

art,

art
means
If

the

sense of a

deliberate

effort
is

adapt the

to the ends,

and to do what

done in the

most perfect manner,

is

here the truest nature.*

the Prince of Orators, instead of trusting to

im-

promptu inspiration, was indefatigable in his

efforts to

prepare himself for his public discourses, shall a

modern
That

speaker, of inferior powers, be forbidden to do so?

Demosthenes could speak exteniporaneously,

but
it is

is

well known;

equally well
it;

known

that he never did so

when

he could help

and

so diligent

was

his preparation, that

the very objection

we

are considering was urged by his

enemies against his oratory,

that

it

smelt of the lamp.

Eegarding oratory as an
ficiency can

art,

and as an art in which prolabor, he left nothing to

skill,

come only by intense

chance which he could secure by forethought and

nothing to the inspiration of the moment, which deliberate

industry could

make

certain.

He knew,

doubtless,

what

every great speaker,

what

every writer, indeed,

knows

perfectly well, that even the so-called flashes of inspiration

* '* They came to him too naturally not to have been studied," saya George Sand of the vehement words of one of her heroes.

8*

"

186

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

him who

are the reward, not of the indolent man, but of

is

usually most laborious in his preparation.

It is after

such preparation, due rest having meanwhile been taken,

that, as
felicities,
it

has been happily said, the most unlooked-for

the happiest thoughts and expressions, often sud-

denly flash into unbidden existence under the glow of

speaking,
tion,

felicities

of which, while in the act of prepara-

the

mind may never have caught a glimpse.

all

But

then this happy excitement, this exaltation of

ties, is

the facul-

only possible to the mind

when prolonged
of

preparalikely

tion

has

suggested

all

the

trains

thought

to
it;

stimulate emotion, and has already in part stimulated

and,

above

all,

has

insured that self-possession

in the
in-

treatment of the subject without which the boasted "

spiration " never visits, or
is

likely to visit, the

most

elo-

quent speaker.

"It

is

preparation which piles the wood,

and lays the

have

sacrifice,

and then the

celestial

fire

may

perchance descend.
its

The

entire water in the' vessel must

whole temperature slowly raised to the boiling-

point; and then,

and not

till

then,

it

'

flashes into steam.'

The habit of careful and laborious preparation more rob the orator of his fervor than faithful
robs the soldier of his
fire.

will no
drilling

It is not the

raw

volunteer,

but the soldier who has practiced the exercises of the parade-ground, that will do best in the fight; and we may
add, too, that the sentences which have been carefully knit

together in the closet will often transmit the glow of passion as

the
fire,

solid

and well-trained phalanx burns with

itself like a

martial

and hurls

thunderbolt upon the

enemy.

The question has been asked: "Why

is it

that

men who

have ranked high as writers, have so often miserably

THE orator's helps.

failed as

187

speakers?

Why

is

it

that they

who may

be said

on paper to roar you in the ears of the groundlings an

'twere
like a

any

lion,

aggravate their voice on the platform

sucking dove?

Examples of

this are so

numerous
Addi-

that they will suggest themselves to every reader.

son and Gibbon attempted oratory in the British Senate

only

to

" fall

flat

and shame their worshippers." bad speakers

filled

The
ap-

latter tells us that the

him with

prehension, the good ones with despair.

Sir Philip Francis,

hesi-

who was
tating

so ready

and powerful with the pen, was

and unready in speech.

Pope was tongue-tied in

a large company,
in
his

and Irving was dumb at dinners given

Beranger was elected to the Na-

honor.

When
go again.

tional

Assembly of France, he sat one day under protest,

to

and refused

With the grace

was

of

La Fontaine and
Dominie

the philosophic wit of Voltaire, he

as shy as

Sampson, and declared in a letter to the press from his

garret, that to address
his

more than

six

persons was beyond

power,

Cicero was an exception to the rule, and so

in

modern times have been a few men in England and

but the instances are too few to invalidate it. James Mackintosh," says Macaulay, " spoke essays,

Prance;
" Sir

Mr. Pox wrote debates; his history reads like a powerful

reply thundered
in

from the front Opposition-bench at three

This statement gives,

the

morning."

we

think, even
as a
all

too

favorable

an impression of Mr. Pox's

is

abilities

writer.

So far

he from writing with power, that

the fire

of his genius seems to be extinguished when he

his pen,

takes

up

and we can with

difficulty believe that

the fervid orator

who
is

delivered the speech on the West-

minster Scrutiny
of the Reign of

the same
II.

man who wrote

the History

James

188

OEATORT AND ORATOES.

Bolingbroke both wrote and spoke well; but graceful

and flowing
of one

as

is

his written style, it is not free

from

the faults which

we

are apt to find in the compositions

who
it

declaims on paper.
tires the

Always vivid and

by

ani-

mated,

sometimes

reader with repetitions and

set
off

amplifications to which,

when

his fine person

listen with

and pleasing intonations, an audience might

profit

and

delight.

Brougham was one

if

of the giants of

the senate; but he wrote as

he were speaking from the

woolsack, and his big words

and labyrinthine sentences

Dr. John-

violated the first laws of literary composition.

son wanted to try his hand

in

the

House of Commons;
which made

but though he declared public speaking to be a mere

knack,
it is

possible that the very qualities

him the monarch

an
orator.

of the club-room, and

gave him such

his success as

power with the pen, would have prevented

succession of vivid, pointed, epigrammatic seneffect in the

tences,

which have a telling

of

pauses or quick
speech.

turns

conversation, do
in the

not

Tooke

failed

House of

make a Commons,

Home

in spite of his

tact, talent, self-possession,

and long practice at the hustis

ings.

Even Mr. Gladstone

no exception

to the rule.
to
is

"

Too subtle a thinker and too conscientious a mind

persuade by carrying, as

attain the highest kind of oratory, the object of which

to
it

were by storm, the

feelings

and the passions of the audience, he is yet clear, pointed, and vigorous in debate; but, on the other hand, no one ean deny that he is an obscure and intricate writer.

He seems
mentary
the same

graceful as a swan on the waters

of parliais

strife;

but when he takes up his pen, he

it

like

when

leaves

its

native element and waddles

awkwardly on the ground."

THE okatok's helps.

The explanation of
this

189
is

phenomenon

not

difficult.

moment's

reflection

will

show us that the eloquentia

is

umbratica, at which the writer aims,

of beauty

an elaborate form

which

is

unsuited to the strife of business, and

the tumult of a public assembly.

The language and

The

style

which are most impressive in the drawing-room, are utterly ineffective

upon the platform.

fine tooling

and

delicate tracery of the cabinet artist are lost

upon a

build-

ing of colossal proportions.

It

is

plain, therefore, that

very different, even

required
to

quite

opposite, intellectual gifts are

form a good writer and a good speaker.

unwearied patience in gathering the

Abstraction of mind, seclusion from the din and tumult

of public assemblies,

materials of composition,
satisfied

and exquisite

taste, that will

be

only with the utmost nicety and finish of style,

;

are

demanded by the writer

though not the

while quickness of thought,

in seizing

boundless
available,

self-confidence, tact

upon the most

arguments,
not offended

most

satisfactory,
is

and a certain intellectual coarseness that

by a
slip or

a blunder, are necessary to the orator.

in choosing a word,

Again,

a writer

may spend an hour

and a
the

day in polishing a sentence; he

" as the idle

may watch

for a simile

boy watches for the lurking

place

of

adder"; but, as the author of Lacon has observed, eloquence, to

produce

its

full

effect,

must

start

from the
blot out
it is

head of the orator, as

clad in full panoply.

Pallas

from the brain of Jove,

The

fastidious writer

may

words and substitute

his

new

ones by the hundred, and

is

own
if

fault if the fact

known

to his dearest friend;

but

an orator chances to boggle once with his tongue,

is

the detection

immediate, and the punishment certain.

Great writers, too, having a reputation to support, often

190
suffer

OBATOBY AND OEATOES.

as

speakers
like

from a self-defeating over-anxiety

to
all

do well;

Sheridan,

who was

said to have been

his life afraid of the

author of " The School for Scandal,"

they are frightened at the shadow of their

own

reputation.
is

Among

the

youthful orator's helps, there

no doubt

that conversation

may
is

be made one of the most serviceable.

Of course, there

a material difference between public

is

speaking and private; yet the fact that one

monologue,
latter

and the other dialogue, does not prevent the

self-possession
in

from

being a material aid toward the acquisition of ease and

public
skill

speech,
in

especially

in

debate.

Quickness of thought,

seizing

upon the strong

and general menat

points of a subject, exactness of statement, adroitness in

parry and thrust,

facility of expression,

tal activity, are all cultivated

by conversation, and are most needed in public

the

same time the

address,

qualities

dis-

cussion.

Instead of talking to five or ten persons in a

public

you are talking

to

hundreds or thou-

sands, but " the one exercise has helped for the other, as

singing in a parlor helps to sing in a choir, or as shoot-

ing with

an air-gun, at ten paces, helps one

rifle,

to

shoot

straight with a

at a hundred."

We

cannot conclude this chapter without reminding

is

the student of oratory that there

no calling in which

faith in one's self, so necessary to all successful exertion,

is

more necessary than

in that of the orator.

After he

has

made

all

possible preparation for a public effort, he

should, as far as possible, dismiss all

result.
If,

anxiety about the

dis-

instead of having this self-confidence, he

trusts

his

own

powers, and becomes

self-critical, acting

continually as

a spy upon himself, he will almost

cer-

tainly be embarrassed and crippled

in his speech, if he

THE OKATOR'S helps.

does not break

191

down

altogether.

Suspicion here, as elseis

where, tends to beget the very evil that

deprecated.
its

The

mind

is

apt to avenge any distrust of

faithfulness.

Time, practice, and patience only

ease, coolness,

can give the perfect

and

self-possession

which are essential to

one's
abilities

perfect

success,

that
can

profound faith in
all

which acts as a charm upon

the powers of the mind,

instinct

as

time

only

bestow that practical

of

skill which gives the intuitive law of success, and shows

the only

way

to

reach

it.

And

here

we may speak
is

of of

phenomenon noted by some speakers which

to tyros

full

encouragement
the

in oratory

who

are appalled by

Herculean labors

and the

difficulties

which

" cast

their shadows before " them, as they toil

excellence.

up the

steeps of
its

We

allude to that law of the

mind by which

muscles, like those of the body, becomes autonomic, a law

unto themselves; by which, as an eloquent pulpit orator

has
said,

" the intuition with

which

it

works

is

a safer

and surer guide than precepts, and better and surer success
is

reached than the most laborious

planning could

have gained."

Everybody who has read the physiological

is

works of the day,

called

more

or less familiar with

what

is

"unconscious

cerebration,"

a state

in which

the

brain works unconsciously,

solving

problems or answeris

ing questions at night, while the

baffled
this
all

man

sleeping,

which
like

his

powers in the daytime.

Phenomena

occur in the experience of accomplished and trained

writer in " Harper's Magazine " speaks of a preacher

speakers.

unsurpassed by any living one in extempore power, alike of language, thought, and tone, who affirms that, sometimes, in his best hours, he loses all conscious hold

upon

192
his

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

mind and
speech, and while perfectly sure that all
attic, it
is

going on well in his

else is talking

seems to him that somebody

up

there;

and he catches himself wonderis

ing

who under

the sun that fellow

who

is

driving on

at such a rate.

Examples of

this

unconscious action of
It is this instinct of

the

mind are seen

in every calling.

skill,

the result of years

of practice, self-discipline, and

observation, which enables the funambulist to travel with-

out fear on a wire suspended over the dizzy chasm of

Niagara; which enables the marksman to raise his

and, apparently without aim, to bring
the wing;

rifle,

down

a pigeon on

which enables the painter to give the most

his

delicate touches to

picture while engaged in converpianist his almost miraculous

keys,

sation;

which gives

to the

touch, so that, as his fingers run swiftly over the

they seem to be instinct with thought and feeling oozing

from their

tips.

This automatic action,

it is

evident, must
it

be a great help to the orator, relieving him, as

of

does,

much

care, anxiety,

and

toil,

and carrying him

often-

times triumphantly through

or conscious
it

his

work without

solicitude

effort.

Like

all

other advantages, however,

if

has

its

compensations; and
is

a speaker be naturally

indolent, there

danger

lest,

instead of laboriously pre-

paring himself, he should rely upon this faculty altogether.

The

result of so doing will be, as seen in the melancholy

case of those persons

who

are distinguished for the "

gift

of the gab," that he will speedily lose all true inspiration

and

force,

and sink into a mere machine,

like

a barrel-

organ, that plays over and over ad nauseam the same worn-

out tones.

CHAPTER

VII.

THE TESTS OF ELOQUENCE. "TT

-*-

has been justly said that for

quence,

the triumphs of elo-

for

the loftiest displays of the art,

there

must be something more than an eloquent man; there must be a reinforcing of man from events,
the double force of reason and destiny.
sions

so as to give

For the explocrisis in affairs;

and eruptions, "there must be some

there must be accumulations of heat somewhere, beds of

ignited

anthracite

at

the

centre.

And

in cases

where

profound conviction has been wrought, the eloquent

is

man

he

who

is

no beautiful speaker, but who

belief.

is

inwardly

drunk with a certain

It agitates

and tears him,

and perhaps almost bereaves him of the power of articulation.

Then

it

rushes from him in short, abrupt screams,

in torrents of

meaning."
is

Hence. Goethe has somewhere

said that to write

an abuse of words; that the impresreplaces

it

sion

of a

solitary reading

but sadly the vivid

is

energy of spoken language; that

that

by

his personality

man

acts

upon man, while such impressions are

and the purest.

at

once the

strongest

The immeasurable
is

superiority of oratory spoken over oratory read,

to all.

known
face

When

the contending forces are

is

drawn out

to face, there

the

excitement of a battle, and every

blow which
9

tells

against the
soldiers

same huzzas that

raise
193

enemy is welcomed with the when a well-aimed shot

194

OEATORY AND ORATOKS.

his

makes a chasm in the ranks of the enemy, or demolishes

defenses.

The

effect,

under such circumstances, of an over-

whelming attack or
the blows.

of a scathing retort arises as

much from

the mental condition of the hearers as from the vigor of

" It is because the
is

powder

lights

upon a heated
electric

surface that an explosion

produced."

Again, the

sympathy of numbers deepens the impression, even when

no exciting question
is

up, and no party feeling

is

kindled.

An

audience

is
it.

not a mere aggregate of the individuals

that compose

Their

common sympathy

intensifies the
is

feeling which the speaker produces, as

ajar in a battery

charged with the whole electricity of the battery.

The

speech which would be listened to calmly by ten or a dozen

persons, will thrill
set the

and

electrify a multitude, as a jest will

tables in a roar, which, heard

by one man,

will

scarcely provoke a smile.

ity of

Another secret of the superiorthe delight which

feat.
is

spokeii oratory,
as a

is

felt in

im-

promptu eloquence

mere

The

difficulty of pour-

ing forth extempore beautiful or striking thought in apt

and vivid language, especially

for

an hour or hours,
it,

is so

great that only few can overcome

and the multitude,

who

see

something divine in such mysterious manifestapower, are ready to exclaim, as in the days
It is the voice of

tions of

of

Herod, "

a god "

The readers

of a debate
to

are under no such spell.

The words do not come

them

burning from the

precisely as

lips of

the speaker, but impress them

would the same quantity of printed matter

coolly written for the press.

They read passages which

are

reported to have drawn forth "thunders of applause" with-

out emotion, and sarcasms which provoked "loud laughter"

without being cheated into a single smile.

figure, the voice, the

Besides

this, the

magnetism of the speaker, do mugh

"

THE TESTS OF ELOQUENCE.

to

195
It is

deepen the force and significance of his words.

his lips,

said that Erskine's looks spoke before

his

and that
to

tones

charmed even those who were too remote

the
second,

catch

his words.
it

Demosthenes relied so mnch on action

first,

that he called

and third requisite of

it

an orator.

Cicero declared

that without
it

the greatest

gifts are unavailing,

while with

mediocrity can surpass

genius

itself.

The power how he

says

of the orator lies less in

what he

says than in

it.

provincial actor will deliver

the " farewell" speech of Othello

correctness,

word by word with

literal

and you will be as unmoved as himself; the

it,

great actor speaks

flash

and you " read Shakspeare as by a

It
is

of lightning."
effect

said that

Macready never pro-

duced a greater

than by the words, "

Who

said that?"

Garrick used to say that he would give a hundred guineas

if

he could say " Oh!'' as Whitefield did.

When

Mirabeau's
listen to

friend complained that the

Assembly would not

him, that fiery leader asked for his speech, and the next day

roused the Assembly by uttering as his

own

the words they

had refused to hear from another.

same: the
fire

"

The words were the

and
electric

that

made them

thrilling

were

not his friend's, but his own."

There

is

another cause of the different impression which

a speech produces

when read from what

is

it

produced when

heard;
It

it

lies

in the very nature of the oratorical style.

has been justly said that that

is

good rhetoric for the

Fox,

hustings which

bad for a book.

when
hail,'

told that

a speech read well, said:

speech."
It
is

"Then
secure

it

must have been a bad

" all

not to

the

hereafter
ex-

that the orator aims, but at instant effect.

quisite his skill,

The more

the

more perfect

his

adaptation to his

theme, his audience, and the occasion,

the

more com-

196
pletely
less

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

his

speech
will

is

evolved ex visceribus causae,

the

likely

he be to captivate the general reader,

the lapse of time has worked a revolution

especially

when

in tastes, or obscured his allusions, or robbed the topics

themselves of their interest.

his discourse
is

On

the other hand, the more

to
it

adapted to excite universal interest, and

sympathies of
after
ages,

appeal

to

the

the

more

abounds in thoughts and suggestions of universal

interest,

and gems of expression which are

time,

likely to sparkle for all

the

less exact will

be the adaptation to the audience

and the

occasion.

It

was the very qualities in Demosis

thenes' speeches of

which the modern reader

so

apt to

complain, that

made them

overwhelming
it

in their effect

upon

his

countrymen; and conversely,

was the very

characteristics of Burke's philosophic

his hearers

harangues over which

yawned, that will make them the delight of

all posterity.

The orator who

must not proceed
philosophy, but he

is

haranguing a promiscuous assembly

as if he

were speaking in the

schools.

His oratory must be governed, indeed, by an enlarged

must not formally

philosophize.

The

structure of his argument should be reared on broad and

massy foundations, but in appearance

poised and pensile.

it

should be

self-

While he should reason

through the

logically, he

should

make no parade

of logic; the skeleton of his arguflesh.

ment should not

audience, he

force itself

Except

on rare occasions, when addressing a highly intellectual

dwelling
sion.

must repeat the same

upon and reiterating
is is

ideas in different words,

his thoughts,
till

he

is

sure that he

understood and has made a deep impresa sort of previous lubrication, such as the

There

boa-constrictor applies to the goat or bullock he digests,

THE TESTS OF ELOQUEKCE.

which
is

197

absolutely necessary to familiarize the popular

truth, especially with one that
It
is

mind with any

a start-

ling or complex novelty.

as a late writer says, to

becomes necessary, therefore,

it;

vary the modes of presenting

before the
eye,

putting

it

now

directly

now

obliquely;
is

now
most

in abstract form,
skillful

orator

now in who can

the concrete; and he

the

contrive the most cunning

is

forms for appearing to say something new, when he

really

but echoing himself,

who

can break up massy

chords into running variations, and mask, by slight differences in the manner, a virtual identity in the substance.
It

was well said by Demosthenes that the power of

is

oratory

as

much

in

the

ear as in the tongue.

Fox

advised Komilly, in an important trial, not to be afraid,

in

summing up

the evidence, of repeating

material ob-

servations, as " it

was better that some of the audience

than that any should not understand."
one of Pox's highest merits that he

should observe

it,

Erskine deemed

it

passed and repassed the same topics " in the most unforeseen and fascinating review."

He knew,

adds Lord Stanstated in five

hope, that, by the multitude, one

different forms,
is,

argument

in general, held equal to five different

arguments.

Both Pitt and Brougham justify the practice

add strength to his composition by

of amplification, the latter declaring that the orator often

feels

that he could

compression,

but his hearers would then be unable to

is

keep pace with him, and he

ciseness to clearness.

compelled to sacrifice conin his observations

De Quincey,

upon

Greek literature, remarks that even an orator like Lord

Bacon

(as described

by Ben Jonson) was too weighty, too

orator,

massy with the bullion of original thought, ever to have

realized

the

idea of a great popular

one

who

198

ORATORY AND ORAtORS.

and ploughs up the
strife,

" wields at will a fierce democracy,''

great deeps of public sentiment or party

or national

animosities, like a levanter or a monsoon.

" If such an

orator," says
fect,

De

Quincey, " had labored with no other degift of tautology?

had he the

Could he say the same

for,

thing three times over in direct sequence?

this talent of iteration,

without

in diversified

forms,

a man

of repeating the same thought

may

utter

good heads of

an oration, but not an oration."

It
is

true the Greek orators appear to have adopted

practice

a different but there

is

from the moderns in

this

respect;

strong reason to believe that their harangues

to us as they

have not come down

they condensed them
ing.
It

were delivered,

that
of

when they committed them

to writ-

was the opinion of Burke that not even an

he had uttered them in the concentrated

Athenian audience could have followed the orations

Demosthenes,
if

form in which they have come down to us; and Cicero

objects to the Greeks that they
to the point of obscurity.
tition,

sometimes carried brevity

repe-

But the expansion and

a speech
printed.

which were a merit at the moment of delivery,

defects

become glaring

when
!

is

" Bot-

tom

thou art translated "

it

has been justly said, might

be placed as a motto under most collections of printed

speeches.
to write

Pinkney recognized

this truth

when he began
on paper, threw

out his great speech in the Nereide case, and,

disappointed in the effect

when he saw

it

down
field

his pen.

In reading the sermons of George Whiteeffects

we

are puzzled to account for the prodigious

they produced; but

as

we

forget that the sentiments which,

seen on the quiet page, seem so tame and common-

place,

were

full

of

life,

beauty, and power,

when

illus-

THE TESTS OF ELOQUENCE.

trated
ures,

199

by

his

musical intonation, the play of his feat-

and his apt gestures.

flat,

As printed sermons they are

"
;

" stale,

and unprofitable

but when rushing from

the burning lips of the preacher, they

wrought miracles,

warmed

the fastidious

Hume

and the haughty Bolingbroke

into enthusiasm,

and swept before them such towers of

Sadduceeism as Franklin and Lord Chesterfield.

One of the most eloquent preachers of the day was the

late

Dr.

Guthrie, of Edinburgh; yet the reader of his

discovers
in

sermons hardly
this
fact.

them

adequate
in
his

proofs

of

Much
much

of his

charm lay

illustrations,
lips,
lis-

which were apt and striking as they came from his

but lose
of their impressiveness on paper.

In

tening to his vivid appeals, a metaphor dazzled you and

was gone; in
carefully;
it

his printed page,

is

you examine

it

coolly

and

pinned down for you like a butterfly on

critically finger it

a card, and
it.

you can

and pick holes in

Hence, a reviewer of his published sermons,

their

who would
comillustration,

probably have been captivated by

plains that there
is

delivery,

in

them a great deal of

;

and very

little to illustrate

a very small army, but a most

illustration, he says, " bears

valorous noise of drums.

the

The

same relation

to the

idea

illustrated

that the lion

depicted on the outside of the menagerie,

his royal foot,

a man beneath

a horse flying afar, as with uplifted head

is

and dishevelled mane he

derness quake with fear,
brute, which,

engaged in sending forth his

tremendous roar, which makes every creature of the wil-

bears
enter,

to the ignoble find

and sleepy

when you

you

huddled down in

a corner of his cage, no

side,
'

more

like the

king of beasts out-

which

is

supposed to be his counterfeit presentment,

than I to Hercules.' "

So with many

political

speeches

200 whose reported

printed,

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

effects
it is

seem so incredible; wten they are

true, " the self-same words, but not

we

have,

the self-same tune."

The vehement

gesture, the thunderlip, all

ing voice, the flashing eye, the curling

" those brave

sublunary things that made his raptures clear,"

all,

above
which

the

sympathy and

applause of

his

hearers,

doubled the weight and force of his utterances,

ing.
line,

are want-

In

reading them at our leisure, pausing at every

and reconsidering every argument, we forget that

the hearers were hurried from point to point too rapidly

to

detect the fallacies by which they

were cheated; that

they had

no time

to

disentangle

sophisms, or to notice

contradictions or inaccuracies of reasoning or expression.

We

forget

that

the

sentence

which seems which seems

so

flat

and
pro-

unimpressive
nunciation;
took
all
its

was
that

made emphatic by the ringing

the

sarcasm

so

pointless

venom from

the contemptuous smile that ac-

companied
its

it;

that the figure which stems so tawdry owed

vividness to the glance and the gesture; that the fallacy

so shallow

which looks
air of

derived
it

its

plausibility

from the

candor with which

was uttered.
closet,

Again, in reading a speech in cold blood in the

we make a use

of

it

for

which

it

was not designed.

sought only to permerit of thought

We

seek instruction or amusement, while the orator never

intended to instruct or amuse.

suade.

He

Wit,

logic,

philosophy,

every

or style which did not contribute to the end,

rejected.

he sternly
it.

If repetition, exaggeration, sesquipedalian words,

his purpose,

or bombast even, subserved

he employed
is

As Selden

says, " that rhetoric is best

which

most

sea-

sonable and most catching."

The blunt
at Cadiz,

old English com-

mander who addressed

his

men

was a true

orator,

THE TESTS OF ELOQUEKCE.

if

201
it

not a polished speaker: "

What

a shame will

be,

you
let

Englishmen, that feed upon good beef and beer, to

those
rascally Spaniards
lemons!''''

beat you, that

eat

nothing but

oranges and
his

O'Connell has been ridiculed for

critics, know when he harangued upon

blarney; but did not he, as well as his

that he was talking nonsense

" hereditary

bondsmen

"

and

" the finest peasantry in

Eu-

rope"?

Yet, while

pouring out that nonsense, he was

one of the mightiest, because one of the most successful,

orators

that ever

roused

men

to act.

Nothing can be

more tawdry than a large part of the speech of Sheridan

on the
trial of

Warren Hastings; but we know

effects
it

that

it

was a great speech, not because Burke has told us

but

so,

from

the

produced.

Windham, himself
of
it was man; and the

an orator, declared twenty years afterward that

the greatest speech within the

memory

House of Commons confessed

the ground that
its

judge the case

its power by adjourning on members were too much excited to fairly. On the other hand. Sir James

Mackintosh's "luminous and philosophical" disquisition on

the

Reform
it

Bill

we know was a

failure,

and

why?

Because
it

was spoken to empty benches.

And why was

spoken to empty benches?

Because he spoke to the

he reasoned when

head, and not to the heart,

he should have roused,

solid

because,

because

in fine, his talents

were

and substantial, not those which

enable a speaker

to

produce with rapidity a series of striking but transi-

tory impressions, and to excite the minds of five hundred

men
of

at midnight,

without saying anything that any one

them

will be able to

remember

in the morning.

Hazlitt complains in one of his essays that the most

dashing orator he ever heard, was the

flattest

writer he

202
ever read.

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

" In speaking, he in writing, he

was

like a volcano vomiting

out

lava;

was

like

a volcano burnt out.

shell,

Nothing but the dry cinders, the hard

assembly, he

remained.

The tongues of flame with which, in haranguing a mixed

used
to

illuminate
air,

his subject,

and almost

scorched up the panting

do not appear painted on the

this
to

margin of

his works."
Is it

But ought

have excited
solid

Hazlitt's surprise?

by profound learning and

wisdom, by accuracy, depth, and comprehensive views, that

men become

masters of assemblies?

writer cannot be

too profound, but a speaker

may; and hence Archbishop

Whately, in his " Ehetoric," seriously doubts whether a

first-rate

man

can be a

first-rate orator.

The very

habits

of investigation, of accuracy, of thoroughness, of fastidi-

ousness in the use of terms, which would qualify

science

him

for

and literary composition, would prove

fatal to his

harangue.

Of the

political orator, this is especially true.

The larger
self to the

his views, the

more abundant
it

his

stores

of

knowledge, the more difBcult will

often be to adapt him-

nimble movements of that guerrilla warfare in

chiefly shine.

which debaters
far

Though

his troops

may

be

more numerous than those of another combatant, and more heavily armed, yet because he is too fastidious, be-

cause he must pause to effect the best disposition of his

battalions,

because

his front

and

his rear

must

alike be

eared

for,

before he will move,

he

may

be eclipsed by a

person of far inferior powers,

who

yet can brilliantly mafield.

noeuvre his more manageable forces on a more limited

Superior activity and

command

of weapons

may

often com-

pensate for inferiority in strength.

The

tactics of

Napo-

leon, so irresistible in the field, are not less victorious in

the senate.

We

are told that at an interview which took

THE TESTS OF ELOQUEKCE.

place after the battle of Austerlitz between Savary, his bassador, and the

203

am-

Emperor

of Russia, Alexander paid a just

tribute to the marvellous genius of his conqueror, but con-

tended that the French

army was double

his

own.

"

Your

Majesty

is

misinformed," replied Savary; "our force was

inferior to yours

by at least twenty-five thousand men.

;

But we manoeuvred much

at

and the same division combated

So
is it

many
It is

different points."

oftentimes in debate.

an old but just remark

thd;t

eloquence

is

in the

audience, not in the speaker.

their mental chords

It is a

harmony struck out

To play

of

by a master's hand.

skillfully
feel that

on this instrument he must be sincere.

he has gone to the bottom of his theme.

He must
But

this is precisely

what the deep thinker, trained

racy of investigation,

to the
all

most scruioulous accu-

who sees
for in

the sides of a question,

and

is

fully alive to its difficulties,

it,

cannot
if

do.

He

can-

not be fluent upon

him fluency would be

flippanc}'.

Especially will this be the case, if the subject be a

new one

which he has never considered, or

some new point has

come up suddenly in the course of a debate.

Though he
and
feel

may
how

take a juster view of

it,

on the spur of the moment,

fail to see

than a shallow thinker would, he cannot

impossible
it

must be
and

to

do

full justice to a subject

demanding

reflection
his

investigation;

and,

therefore,

however great

wisdom, he will be unable

to speak

with

the fluency, the easy, unembarrassed confldence of another

who never

looks below the surface of things, and gets his

best views at the flrst glance.*

And

yet

it

is

this fluent

* Hence, as Hazlitt well remarks, " the distinction between eloquence and wisdom, between ingenuity and common sense. A man may be dexterous and able in explaining the grounds of his opinions, and yet may be a mere sophist, because he only sees one half of a subject. Another may feel the whole weight of a question, nothing relating to it may be lost upon him, and yet he may be

204

OEATORT AKD ORATORS.

utterance, with graceful action and elegant diction,

ties that

quali-

speak to the ear, to the eye, and not simply to the

mind,

that
who

most popular assemblies want.

An
is

English

reviewer justly says that true political science

needless in popular assemblies,
it is

not merely

positively distasteful, and

it

those

are masters of

it

can rarely obtain

lofty eloquence of

a hearing.

The gorgeous imagery and

and few men spoke
tells

Burke could
Chesterfield

not atone for the repulsiveness of his legislative wisdom,

to thinner benches.

Lord

us that he entered the House of

iive

Commons

with awe,
sixty

but soon discovered that, of the

hundred and

members, not over thirty could understand reason.

thirty required plain sense in

These
rest

harmonious periods; the

were a mob who were to be moved only by an appeal

their passions,
their seeming interests,

to

and their

senses.

Graceful utterance and action pleased their eyes, elegant

diction tickled their ears, but they could neither penetrate

below the surface, nor follow those who

It

did.

may

be thought that the House of

Commons

of toits

day

is

a more intelligent body, and that, consequently,

requirements are higher.

Not such

is

the judgment of

closest observers. " I find truisms," Mr. Milner Gibson once observed to a friend, " the best things for the

some of the

House of Commons."
Sir

Henry

L. Bulwer,
is

of the matter, "

"A learned man in that body," says who takes an extremely cynical view more likely to be wrong than any other.
amid an assembly of meditative and
manner
in wliicli
it afflects

He

fancies himself

able to give no account of the

reasons

neither a logician nor a rhetorician.

Mm, or to drag his be a wise man, tbongli Goldsmith was a fool to Dr. Johnson in argument; that is, in assigning the specific grounds of his opinion; Dr. Johnson was a fool to Goldsmith in the fine tact, the airy,.intnitive faculty with which he skimmed the surfaces of things, and unconsciously formed his opinions."
from
their silent lurking-places.
Tliis last will

THE TESTS OF ELOQUENCE.

philosophic statesmen; he calls

205

up

all his

deepest thoughts

and most refined speculations; he

the profundity

is

anxious to astonish by
novelty and

and extent of

his views, the

sublimity of his conceptions; as he commences, the listeners are convinced

he

is

a bore, and before he concludes,

. .
.

he
of

is

satisfied

that they are blockheads.

The House

Commons

consists of a

mob

of gentlemen, the greater

part of

whom

are neither without talent nor information.

is

But a mob of well-informed gentlemen

still

a mob,

requiring to be amused rather than instructed, and only

touched by those reasons and expressions, which, clear to

the
dullest as to the quickest
if it

intellect,

vibrate

through
" It

an assembly as

had but one ear and one mind."

would be

as idle," says

Maeaulay, " in an orator to waste

it

meditation and long research on his speeches, as

be in the
courtiers

would

manager of a theatre
and
ladies

to

adorn

all

the crowd of

who

cross over the stage in a proces-

sion with real pearls

and diamonds."

No man

in his

day

had taken a more exact account of the same House than

Sir Robert Peel; yet he tells us that

arguments, to have
nation,

weight with the

" such as

representatives of the

must be
little

are adapted to people

who know very

it,

of

the matter, care not

much about

half of

whom

have

dined or are going to dine, and are forcibly struck only

by that which they can

instantly

comprehend without
per-

much As
of

trouble."

the object of public speaking in most cases

it
is

is

suasion,
skill.

natural to regard success as the highest test

"A

great speech," O'Connell used to say, in speakis

ing of forensic discourses, "

all,

a very fine thing; but, after

the verdict

is

the thing."

There have been

cases,

no

doubt, of triumph over adverse prejudices, where verdicts

206

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

have been wrung from reluctant juries, or votes from

hostile

assemblies,

under circumstances

so

unfavorable,

that

no higher
and
skill.

proof could be

afforded of the orator's

ability

Of

all

the testimonies to Cicero's orais

torical power, the

most convincing

the

fact

already mentioned, that he

made
It

Caesar acquit the

is

we have man
the

he had

resolved

to

condemn.

said

that

gay

and gallant figure of Murat, when in the Eussian campaign he rushed among the bristling lances of the enemy,
as if to grasp

the bloody hand of Death, and lead him

down

the dance, drew from the Cossacks loud cries of ad-

miration.

So when O'Connell, against fearful odds, dashed

into the opposing ranks in the

House of Commons, even

Peel

and Disraeli sometimes dropped their pencils and

his

gazed in fascinated admiration at the orator, with

wondrous
tones.

attitudes,

and

still

more wondrous words and

unwelcome
by
truths, has
fore-

On

the other hand, there have been cases where

the divinest eloquence, enforcing

been powerless against deep-rooted convictions and

gone conclusions, especially when

fortified

self-interest
it
is

and party or sectarian prejudice. and

they

As

in war,

not

always the general who puts forth the highest strategical

tactical skill that is

rewarded with victory in a

battle

or a campaign, because, though his plans

may

be perfect,

may

still

be defeated by any one of a hundred con-

tingencies over which he has

no control, and which no

human
baffled

sagacity could have foreseen,

so

an orator may be

by prejudices against which the most cogent argudirected

ment and the most persuasive appeals may be

in vain. "

jest's

prosperity," says

Shakspeare, "

lies

in

the

ear of

him

that hears it," and the

same may be

said of

THE TESTS OF ELOQUENCE.

the
this

207
legislation in

success

of a

speech.

The history of

country and England shows that there are times of

party
strife,

violent

when

the most convincing

oratory

can avail nothing against the inexorable decrees of party

and
of

" the

dead eloquence of votes."

The burning appeals

Chatham did not prevent Great Britain from taxing

upon the Slave-Trade, the most powerful oratorical
his life, did

and waging war upon her colonies; the great speech of

his son

effort of

not win a majority of votes in the

traffic
;

House of Commons against that iniquitous

the almost

superhuman eloquence with which Burke, Sheridan, and

Fox shook Westminster Hall did not prevent Warren
Hastings from going "unwhipt of justice"; nor did the
Prince of Orators succeed, until after

many

impassioned

and apparently

fruitless appeals, in

rousing his country-

men

to a sense of their

danger from Philip of Macedon.

O'Connell never

made

a finer exhibition of his parliament-

ary powers than when, against fearful odds, and

called " the beastly bellowings " of the

what he

House of Commons,
rights

he resisted the " Coercion

Erskine, in
juries,

Bill,"

introduced by Stanley.
people's

his

advocacy of

the

before

was more successful than Curran;

but in none

of his addresses

was he more eloquent than the brave

Irishman, when, at midnight, in his defense of Bond, he

rebuked the volunteers who clashed their arms as in defiance of his invectives, exclaiming, "

me, but you shall not intimidate

You may me"; nor

assassinate
in

any of

the fearful flashes of scorn with which Erskine scathed

the

band of informers,

is

there to be found a figure

more

striking than that of Curran,

when he declaimed

against

the

spies

brought up after the rebellion from prisons,

" those

catacombs of living death, where the wretch that

208
is

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

buried a

man
is

lies till his

heart has time to fester and

dissolve,

and

then dug up an informer."

Champions

of prisoners in the most remarkable state trials of their

respective countries, they both, as Mr.

Townsend has

said,*

struggled night after night, with

of eloquence; the one radiant of
victory, the

all the resistless

strength
of of
all

triumph and assured

other pale
of

and steadfast in the energy

result,

despair, certain

the

but determined that

the decent rites of defense should be observed.

In both

cases, the populace, enthusiastic in their admiration, took

the horses from their carriages, and by a voluntary degra-

dation drew the orators to their homes.

It is

an interesting question discussed by Archbishop

Whately,
as orators

why

so

few persons have won high reputation

compared with the number of those who have

His conclusion
is
is,

attained eminence in other pursuits. that vanity,

in

the love of admiration, which

it

so

common
impede,
oper-

men
as

of every calling, and which, though

may
The

does not prevent success, in poetry, politics, war,

ates

etc.,

an absolute hindrance in oratory.

is

orator

attains his ends the less he

regarded as an orator.

general

reputation

for

eloquence

but on each individual occasion

may be advantageous; when he speaks, the more

make
all

his hearers think of his eloquence, the less will they think

of the strength of his cause.

believe that he
is

If he can

his hearers
artifice,

not only a stranger to

all

unfair

but even destitute of

persuasive skill whatever, he will

persuade them the more eflectually;

and

if

there ever

could be an absolutely perfect orator, no one would (at

the time, at least)

discover that he

was
his

so.

Hence Shak-

speare makes

Mark Antony begin

*" Lives
of the

famous speech over

Lord Chancellors."

THE TESTS OF ELOQUENCE.

the dead
as

209

body of Csesar by declaring,

" I

am

no orator,

Brutus is"; and hence the "Quarterly Eeview'' finds

the celebrated scene, Jeanie's

fault with

interview with

Queen Caroline, in " The Heart of Mid-Lothian."

Queen, in reply to Jeanie's rhetorical speech,
sented as saying, " This
is
is

The
repre-

eloquence."
it

Had
is

it

been elo-

quence, says the reviewer,

must necessarily have been

any art of which
it

unperceived by the Queen.

celare

" If there
is

artem

is

the basis,

it

this.

The instant

peeps

out, it defeats its

own

object

by diverting our attention

from the subject to the speaker, and that with a suspicion

of his sophistry equal to

our admiration of his ingenuity.

feel-

A man

who, in answer to an earnest address to the

is

ings of his hearer,

feels that

told,

he has

failed.

You have spoken eloquently,' Effie, when she entreats Sharp'

itlaw to allow her to see her sister, is eloquent;

and

his

answer accordingly betrays perfect unconsciousness that

she has been
so.
'

You
tone,

shall see

your

sister,'

he began,

'if you'll tell me,'

then, interrupting
'

himself, he added,
sister,

in

more hurried
tell

No, you shall see your

In listening
to

whether you

me

or no.' "

eloquence

of the highest order,

we

are so occupied with the thoughts

presented to us, and hurried so impetuously toward the

end proposed, that we no more regard the

medium by
the dish in

which we are
which food
startling
is

affected,

than a starving
to

man

offered

him, or than the recipient of

news regards the looks and dress of the mesPenelon, in his " Dialogues of the Dead," repre"

senger.
sents

Demosthenes as saying to Cicero,

'

Thou madest

people say,
'

How

well he speaks
! '

! '

but I made them say,

Jefferson tells us that
his great speeches,

Let us march against Philip

"

when Patrick Henry was making

he

210

OEATORY AND OKATORS.

it

always swept his hearers along with him, and

till

was not

they had

left

the court-room or the legislative hall,

that they found themselves asking,

"What

did he say?"
told

The same principle

of

is

illustrated

by an anecdote

Chief Justice

Parsons, of Massachusetts.

When

he

was practicing at the bar, a farmer

who had

often heard

him
is

speak,

was asked by a stranger what

is

sort of a pleader

he was.

"Oh, he

a great lawyer," was the reply; "he

;

an excellent counsellor
does he not

but he

is

a very poor pleader."

"But
he
is

win most of

his

causes?"

"Yes; but

that's because

he knows the law, and can argue well; but

no orator."

We

were once talking with an

intelli-

gent old gentleman in Massachusetts, a hard-headed bank

president,
case,

who had served

ability of

as

foreman of a jury in a law-

about the

Eufus Choate.

"Mr.

Choate,"

said he, "

was one of the counsel in the

in

case, a,nd,

know-

ing

his

skill

making white appear

tried all his arts, but

black,

and black

white, I

made up my mind

at the outset that he should

it

not fool me.

He

was of no

use;

I just decided according to the

law and evidence."

"Of

course,

you gave your verdict against Mr. Choate's

no;

client."

"Why,
we
his

we gave a
help
It
it;

verdict

for

his

client;

but then

couldn't
side.''''

he had the law

and

the evidence on

had never once occurred

that he had been under a spell

man woven by one who was

to the good

a master of his art.

Mr. Parsons and Mr. Choate were Unlike Parsons,

both distinguished as verdict - getters.

many

orators are tempted to sacrifice the substance to the

shadow, by aiming at the admiration of their hearers,

rather than at their conviction
;

while,

on the other hand,

some, like him,

though they

may have been really persuasive speakers, may not have ranked high in men's opinion,


THE TESTS OF ELOQUENCE.
211

and may not have been known to possess that art of

which they gave proof by
skillful

concealment of

it.

One of the reasons why the very name of rhetoric has

fallen into disrepute in this age, is that the greatest artists strive to conceal their perfection in it; they

endeavor to

make
the

their statements in such a

way
is

that the effect

stated

may

seem to be produced by that which

and not by

manner

in

which

it is

stated.

It

was said of Sir James

Scarlett,

who, though an admirable speaker, indulged in

no great feats of oratory, that his triumphs at the bar were

so easy
all.

and natural that they did not seem triumphs at

The Duke of Wellington declared that when he adA countrydressed a jury, there were thirteen jurymen.

man who had been

Mr. Scarlett had

serving day after day on a jury which

addressed, once

paid

him

the highest

compliment when he was undervaluing his qualifications.

Being asked what he thought of the leading counsel,
" Well," " that

was the reply,

lawyer Brougham be a wonI don't

derful
of
"

man; he can

talk,

he can; but

think nowt
querist,
all

Lawyer

Scarlett."

"Indeed!" exclaimed the

you surprise

me
so

Why, you have been

lucky,

giving him
said

the verdicts."

" Oh, there's nothing in that,"

the

juror;

"he be
Jones."

you
best

see,

he

be always on the

right side."

This reminds one of Partridge, in Fielding's

"Tom

"He
I

the

player!" exclaimed PartI could act as I

ridge after seeing

Gar rick in Hamlet; " why,

well as he myself.

am
for

sure

if

had seen a ghost,

he speaks

should
as

have looked in the same manner, and done just

he did.

The King
see

my money;

all

his

words
body

distinctly, half as

loud again as the others; any-

may

he

is

an actor."
all this, also,

It will

be seen from

that eloquence

is

212
relative term.
it,

OEATOKY AND ORATOKS.

It
is,

as Dr.

Campbell has properly defined

is

"the art by which a discourse

it is

adapted to

its

end";

and therefore

impossible

to
it

say of any discourse,

is

abstractly considered,

whether

or

is

not eloquent,

any more than we can pronounce upon the wholesomeness of a medicine without knowing for whom it is intended.

While there are certain

qualities

which

all

dis-

courses should have in common, yet there are others which

must vary with the varying capacities, degrees gence, tastes, and affections of those who are

of intelliaddressed.

The

style of oratory that

is

fitted to kindle the enthusi-

asm

of Frenchmen,

would often provoke only the mer-

riment of Englishmen.
of-factish,

The English are grave, matterand argumentative

brilliant.
;

sententious,

the

French

ardent,

discursive,

and

The

French speaker

abounds in
lish stands

facial expression

and gesticulation; the Eng-

almost motionless, clenching the desk with his

Again,

hands, or burying them in his breeches pockets.

a speech addressed to an audience of scholars, exacts very

different

qualities
It

from one addressed

to

the

common
dis-

people.

was said of one of John Foster's profound

published, that "
it

courses

when

should have been ad-

dressed to orator

an audience created for the purpose."

The

who throws
would

a congregation of illiterate enthusiasts

into tears,

raise affections of a very different kind,

should he attempt to proselyte an American Senate; and

again, the finest speaker that ever swayed a parliament-

ary assembly, might try in vain

passions of an uneducated mob.

to

rouse or allay the

Indeed,

it

is

a well-known fact that some of the most

persuasive

parliamentary orators

have failed when out

fish

of their proper

element, floundering like a

on dry

THE TESTS OF ELOQUENCE.

land. If

213

we may believe Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield), the of Parliament that ever lived was Sir member greatest Robert Peel; "he played on the House of Commons as
on an old fiddle"; and yet, according to the same authority, "

he could not address a public meeting, or make

speech, without

an after-dinner

being

ill

at

ease,

and

generally saying something stilted or even a

ulous."

little

ridic-

Mr. Cobden says of Lord John Russell:

"On

the

boards of the House of

Commons, Johnny
nothing for him."

is

one of the
off

most subtle and dangerous of opponents; take him

those boards,

and

I care

On

the other

hand, O'Connell was equally at

hustings, or in the

home

in the forum, at the

Before he entered Parliament he was pronounced a mere " mob orator," and

House of Commons.

was predicted by his enemies that in that body he was sure to " find his level." In 1830 he was elected to
it

the

House of Commons, and in 1831 he was listened to

that assembly.
" that
It

as the foremost orator in

was

said of

Murray (Lord Mansfield),

could wrangle too

he refined too much, and

little for

a popular assembly," and hence

he succeeded better in the House of Lords than in the

House of Commons.

The true orator

will

always study
is

the character of his audience,

and whether he

copious

and flowing, or concise and pointed,

speaks " with

whether

he arms

himself with the thunders and lightnings of eloquence,

or

bated breath

and whispering humble-

ness " in the mild tones of insinuation or persuasion,

will

he

at

all

times accommodate
"Orpheus

himself to his situation,

becoming
in silvis, inter delphinas Arion,"

and, if necessary, will, like Sylla, convert even the trees of the

Academy

into martial engines.

CHAPTER
PEESOl^ALlTIES

VIII.

Ilf

DEBATE.

A FOREIGN
-^-*ago,

correspondent of an
the
British

American journal,

who

visited

Parliament a few years

strikingly contrasts

the

courtesy of political oppo-

nents in that body with the personalities which are so

common moment

in

American

legislatures.

He

says

that the

member

rises

to address the

House of Com-

mons, he seems possessed by the most refined and gentle-

manly consideration

for others.

In speaking of antagonists
dis-

he carefully guards against the slightest imputation of

honorable motives; or

if,

in the heat of debate, a

word

of

oblique significance slips from his tongue, he hastens to

withdraw

it,

and

to

express his regret; nay, even in his

is

sarcasms and home-thrusts, he

thing to the credit of
scathe.

careful to mention some-

the very
as

foeman he

is

about

to

Such a thing
and, above

hurling abusive epithets, giving

threatening personal violence,

the

lie,

all,

practices so

common

as scarcely to create a sensation in

our American legislatures,

would
to "

not be tolerated for a

moment. John

When

the Earl of Derby, in an attack on Lord

Russell, likened

him
" the

Bottom the weaver," and

described his policy by

two homely words, meddle and

muddle,"
propriety.

it

was

felt

that he went to the very verge of

Great as was the ascendency of Lord Palmerit

ston in that body,

never enabled him to lord

it

over his

tfiRSOlTALlTlES IS DEBATE.

215

fellow-Commoners so far as to be uncivil to the least popular

members

of the House.

When, on one
the
is

occasion, he

trespassed so far as to say impatiently of the not-over-

popular

Joseph
is

Hume,
obtuse,

" If
it

honorable

gentleman's
he was

understanding

not

my

fault,"

instantly brought to his senses

by the reproachful mur-

murs

of

the

House, and was reminded that even Lord

Palmerston must respect the iine code of legislative chivalry

established there.

What American,
often witnessed
in

unless a politician, will not feel humili-

ated by the contrast between this picture and the scenes

Congress

and our State legislatures?

each other, by our

How

often

are

epithets

applied to

Senators and Representatives, which a fishwoman in Billingsgate might delight to add

to her already sparkling

vocabulary, but which

"A

beggar in his drink

bis

Would not bestow upon

callef
if,

What must
Congress,

be

foreigner's
.

impression,

on visiting

he should

hear

an altercation in which the

vocabulary was exhausted by members for foul epithets

to fling at each other,

and

see this followed,

as

we have

seen

it,

by
fist

one of the pugilists rustling with turned-up

sleeves into the

arena before the Speaker, and shaking his

clenched

at his antagonist?

Not always, however, did

debate with those graceful
lift its dis-

the British Senate transfuse

amenities which

now do

it

honor, and which

cussions so far above the hot

and scurrilous word-brawls

logic.

which politicians so often substitute for facts and

The criminative fury with which Pulteney attacked Walpole,

and Walpole attacked Pulteney,

Nearly

is

well

known

to

the readers of British history.

all

of Lord Chat-


216

OEATORY AND ORATORS.

ham's most telling replies were bitter personalities, such

as

that to Walpole,

when

the

latter twitted

him

of his

youth, and the iierce reply to Lord Holland, when, look-

ing him full in the face, he said: "There are some (persons)

the
it

upon whose faces the hand of Heaven has so stamped mark of wickedness, that it were impiety not to give
Not
less coarse

credit."

were the invectives of Burke,

scurrility.

which sometimes degenerated into positive

wisest

The
philo-

man

of his age,

and possessing a profoundly

sophic

intellect,

he had at the same time so vehement a

sensibility,

temperament, so acute a
imagination,
of

and so excitable an

his aifections

were

so

warm, and

his hatred

that,

wrong so prompt and intense, even to morbidness, when his passions were once roused, they raged
all

with a blind fury which mocked at

control.

Hence,

though naturally generous and forgiving, he pursued an

antagonist as he would a criminal, and, while he thought
like a philosopher, acted like a heated partisan.

Who

has

forgotten

his

picture of Lord North:

"The

noble Lord

who spoke
before his

last,
left,

after extending his right leg a full yard

rolling his flaming eyes, and

moving

his

ponderous frame, has at length opened his mouth."

Again,

who has

forgotten the famous quarrel between

of Grafton's taunt at Thnrassailant

Fox and Burke, or the Duke

low'-s

mean

extraction,

which drew down upon the

such a crushing reply; or

tan's retort

who

is

not familiar with Grat-

upon Flood, the most

artistic

and overwhelming
Flood

invective that has disfigured parliamentary debates?

had taunted him with aping the style of Lord Chatham, and denounced him as " a mendicant patriot, subsisting

upon the public accounts,

a

who, bought by

his country for

sum

of money, then sold his country for prompt pay-


PERSONALITIES IN DEBATE.
ment.'\
acter,

217

Grattan begins by supposing an imaginary char-

and
is

whom he invests in whom he traces

with

all

the faults of his opponent,

his history.

His evident intention

to

keep up the transparent mask to the end of the speech,

and then annihilate his rival by a word,

just
;

as

Broug-

ham, forty years

Canning.

later, directed a

memorable attack upon

the direct hos-

But, in the middle of the speech, the orator can

restrain his pent-up indignation

tility

no longer

which inspires the assault

pretext

is

too powerful to allow the

flimsy

of an

imaginary character, and Grattan

bursts into one of those fiery onsets

which no man ever led

to you,

with more terrible

effect:

"

The merchant may say

to you,

the constitutionalist may say

say to

the American may

to

you, and

I,

I now

say,

and say

your beard,

sir,

ijou are not

an honest

man!''''

"Can you

believe," wrote

General Burgoyne to Charles Fox, that " the House heard

this discussion for

two hours without interfering?

seemed to

On

the

contrary, every one

rejoice as his favorite gladia-

tor gave or parried a stroke."

Even

so late as

1840-41,

we

find

Macaulay, in his Diary, complaining of the bitter

personalities in the

House of Commons.

Speaking of the

debate on Stanley's Irish

Eegistration Bill, he says:

"I

have never seen such unseemly demeanor, or heard such

scurrilous language, in Parliament.
. .

Lord Maidstone
. . .

was
nell
'

so

ill-mannered that 1 hope he was drunk.

so rudely interrupted that

O'Con-

was

he used the expression

beastly bellowings.'

Then

rose such an uproar as no 0.

P.

mob

at

Covent Garden Theatre, no crowd of Chartists

in front of a hustings, ever equaled.

sides,
.

Men
bull.

stood

up on both
voices.
last

shook their

fists,

and bawled at the top of their

O'Connell raged like a

10

mad

... At

the

tumult ended from absolute physical weariness."

218

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield)
is

The name of

associated

with some of the most stinging personalities ever uttered

in the British Legislature.

One

of his

Hebrew

country-

men
less

declares that

"he cannot shine without

offensiveness,

His passages of arms are not worth commemorating, un-

he draws blood."

greater master of cool, polished,

searching irony,

ridicule,

and

invective, probably
It has

never

stood within the walls of St. Stephen.

said of him, that

been truly

when he

is

prepared, not a blow misses;

His

not a sarcasm

is

impeded by a weakening phrase.

add

peculiar tones, with his provoking frigidity of manner, and

affected
hits.

contempt for

his foe,

much

to the eifect of his

In the Maynooth debate of 1845, he made an attack

Peel, in

upon Sir Eobert

which he said that

" with

him

great measures were always rested on small precedents,

that he always traced the steam-engine back to the teakettle;

that

in

fact

all

his

precedents

were
in

tea-kettle

precedents.''

Again, in a speech

made

the House of

Commons

in

1846, Disraeli advised Peel to stick to quo-

tation, because

he never quoted any passage that had not

previously received the

tion"; compared
the fleet confided

meed

of parliamentary " approba-

him
to

to the Turkish admiral

who

steered

termed the
their

him straight into the enemy's port; Treasury Bench " political pedlars that bought
to

party in the cheapest market and sold us in the

;

dearest "

and compared the conversion of the Peelites

''

that of the Saxons by Charlemagne,

chronicle,

who, according

to the in

were converted in
and

battalions,

and baptized

platoons."

Peel was the chief target of Disraeli's sarcasms,

spiritless,

and

so dull

comparatively, were his speeches

after Peel's death, that Sheil

compared him

to a dissecting

surgeon or anatomist without a corpse. Mr. Roebuck, whose

PERSONALITIES IN DEBATE.

219

name

Disraeli associated

with "Sadler's Wells sarcasms"

and " melodramatic malignity," was another of his victims.

One of

his happiest hits

was

in a speech
said:

made

a few years

ago at Manchester,

when he

"As

I sat opposite the

Treasury Bench, the Ministers reminded

rine landscapes not very

me

of those

maNot

unusual on the coast of South

of exhausted volcanoes.
crest.

America.

You behold a range

a flame flickers
is

on a single pallid

But the

situation

still

dangerous.

There are occasional earthquakes, and

ever and anon the dark

rumbling of the sea."

is

The example of Lord John Russell

imitation by debaters.
slightest

well worthy of
it

There was never,

is

said, the

acrimony in his personal allusions.

His

tri-

umphs, won easily by tact and intellectual keenness, unaided

by passion, contrasted strikingly with " the costly

victories of debaters like

Lord Stanley,

Disraeli, or Eoe-

buck."

What

could be happier than his

reply

to

Sir

Francis Burdett,

who had accused him

of indulging in

"the cant of patriotism,"

thing
as

that
the

"there v/as also such a

This mildness of

the

recant of

patriotism"?
raillery,

tone, this

well-bred,

pungent
of

which

is

now

so

generally

characteristic

English

Parliament, has

often proved a

more

effective

weapon of debate than the

" It

most brilliant eloquence or the sharpest wit.

a magic
circle

draws

around the speaker, which only similar

weapons can penetrate."

The reply made many years ago by Mr. Trimble, of

Ohio, to a personal attack

made on him by

the haughty
is

and

fierce

George McDuflfie, of South Carolina,

a happy

illustration of the

way

in

which personalities, when very Mr. McDufiie, then a

exasperating,

may

sometimes, without a great breach of

decorum, be successfully repelled.

220

OBATOET AND OEATOES.

of the

member

that floor,

House of Eepresentatiyes, in a speech upon made a cunning and indirect assault upon Mr.
what course the
to

Trimble, then comparatively obscure, and expectation was

on tiptoe

to see

latter

would

adopt. Every-,
his re-

body who heard Mr. McD. was well aware that

marks were intended

so

have a personal application; but

carefully were

they guarded by skillful phraseology

like fitting to one's back

that to resent

them would seem

a coat not designed for his wearing.

ever,

The next

day, how-

Trimble replied in a speech of precisely the same

Covertly, and

character.

with wonderful ingenuity, he

attacked Mr. McDufiie in the same style, making no application to himself of the speech to which he was replying,

thus

throwing upon

his

opponent

all

the responsibility

of a quarrel.

When

Mr. Trimble had sat down, Mr.

McDufiie arose, and, with looks and tones of vehement

defiance,

demanded a

direct

answer

to the question

whether

the

member from Ohio meant

to be personal

toward himCalmly,

self in the

remarks just submitted to the House.

.

member from Ohio arose, and thus addressed the Speaker: "The member from South Carolina demands of me an answer to his question. I give it to him in a question to himself. Did he mean to be
imperturbably, the
personal toward me, in his remarks of yesterday?
did, If he

then

I did in

mine of
answer!

to-day.

If he did not, I did

not.

He

has

my

If the

gentleman from South

Carolina meant nothing personal toward myself in the

remarks he yesterday submitted

not

to the

House, then

I did

mean

personally to reflect upon him, or

may

never

see the smile of

God!

If the

member from South

Carolina

meant aught personal with regard

to be just as personal

to me, then I

meant

toward him, or may the lightnings

PEESONALITIBS IK DEBATE.
of

221

heaven blast

me where

I stand

"

Mr. McDuffie never

replied.

Who

" took

most by his motion," the reader can

decide.
It

has always appeared strange to us that sagacious,

thoughtful

men

should, in a deliberative assembly,

is

where

a majority of wills

to be obtained, so entirely lose sight

of their interests as to

be discourteous to their associates.

this

No doubt

there

is

something exciting in

species of

intellectual gladiatorship,
as political rivalry

when

private animosity as well

sharpens men's differences, and the comgrapples, shorten their swords

duello,

batants, in fierce personal

for a death-blow.

The parliamentary

when giants

engage, tends to bring out in their perfection all the qualities

of

what

is

then most emphatically " the wrestling

style."

Unquestionably, the sceva indignatio of an enraged

man
" If I

has prompted

many

a burst of eloquence of which

to

his intellectual

power has been supposed

be the source.

wish to compose, or write, or pray, and preach well,"

I

Luther used to say, "

all

must be angry
is

Izornig}.

Then
is

the blood in

my

veins

stirred,

my

understanding

sharpened, and all dismal thoughts and temptations are

dissipated."

Doubtless by
call

"anger"

the great Reformer

it is

meant what we
lofty

indignation, and, where

is

of a

moral character, there

projectile

nothing

which gives a
effect

greater

force

or a

more permanent

to

human
because

thought.

Thackeray's literary faculty was fully

equal to Swift's, but he produced a far feebler impression

he was

devoid

of

the

stern

indignation,

strong capacity for hatred,

which
"

the
the

made
critical

the

Dean
his

most terrible of
to his fiery rage.

satirists.

"Junius

owed half

power
of

Take from certain

journals their
lose half

ill-temper

and impudence, and they would

222
their brilliancy.

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

Persons

to say that those

who recollected Mirabeau used who had not seen him speaking under
that
it

the influence of anger, had not seen him;

in his rages that he

was

was most superb.

mighty anger

gives prodigious force to a speech or book; but for tem-

porary purposes, mere hatred of the lowest

spite,

sort,

pure
exceed-

is

a niost potent literary ingredient.

An

ingly small

amount
of a

of intellectual
effect,

power
if
it

is

sufiicient to

produce a very creditable

be fired by the

gunpowder
all

little

anger.

secret consciousness of
to

this

has,

no doubt, led many a speaker

still,

open the

flood-gates of his wrath;

the true orator will always

elo-

be ready to sacrifice himself, and his reputation for

quence, to gain his end;
forget that to conciliate of debate.
is

and he should, therefore, never

one of the chief arts and ends

The authority
blandishments

of intellect

is

hard enough to maintain,

even with the utmost winningness of manner and the

of.

rhetoric.

Unlike personal majesty, or

the soul-subduing fascination of beauty, which are palpable to the eye,

it
is

an authority founded on opinion,

it
is

the opinion of associates;

an ideal supremacy, which

men

readily deny

when they

choose,

and always acknowl-

edge with reluctance.

A
who

haughty, supercilious speaker

constantly assumes an air and
defiance,

on a legislative

floor,

an attitude of menace or

and who vents on

is

his

opponents a deluge of angry invectives,

to his constituents.

a positive injury

Eeal intellectual blows, logical hard-

hitting, the stern cut-and-thrust of mind,

to;

none will

object
is

but the

effect of these

on a high-minded opponent

very different from that of scorn or ridicule.

effect

So

is

the

of playful wit or humor, as

when

Sir

John Doyle,

PERSOlirALITIES IN DEBATE.
after a speech in the Irish

223

Parliament by Dr. Duigenan,

line, "

a very dark-featured man, against the Catholic claims,

extinguished
est,
its

eiFect

by the Horatian

Hie niger

hunc tu Bomane eaveto," which convulsed the House,

or,

when Lord North,

in reply to a fiery declaimer, who,

after calling for his head, denounced

him

for

sleeping,

complained

how

cruel

it

was

to be denied a solace

which

other criminals so often enjoyed,

rest before execution; or

that of having a night's

dull, tedious
it

when, in reply to a

speaker,

who made a

similar charge, he declared that

was unjust in the gentleman to blame him for taking

.the

remedy which he himself had been so considerate as

administer.
of

to

How

happy

his

answer to an opponent
!

who spoke

him

as " that thing called a Minister "

"

To
'

be sure," he said, patting his portly sides, " I

am
'

'

a thing

when, therefore, the gentleman called

said

me

a thing,' he

what was

true,

and
'

I could not

be angry with him.

But when he added,

called

that

thing

called a Minister,' he

me

that thing which of all others he himself most

it

wished to be, and therefore I took

a?

a compliment."

Such good humor and imperturbability can never be conquered.

For years Lord North carried on the contest,

with the same genial spirit and
false

almost single-handed, against Fox, Burke, Barr6, Dunning,

and sometimes even

jocularity,

Pitt,

which nothing but a scandalous

quantity

by Burke could lessen or disturb, and, when finally driven

from
foes,

ofiice

by a

resistless

combination of misfortunes and

he retired with the politest of bows and the blandest

occasions do sometimes

of smiles.
It

must be admitted, again, that

occur in debate

when

plain, blunt words,

of their shirts," as an old poet calls

" words them, may, nay must,

stript

224
be used; and

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

we must not confound
the just though severe

language of honest indignation, provoked by villainy or

meanness, with that of him
"Unpack

who

is

always ready to

his heart in words,

And

fall

a-curslng like a very drab,

A
There
is

scullion."

a wide difference between the vituperation of a

porter and that of a poet.

of assault, and

The one

recoils

from the

object

impinges upon the assailant; the other

leaves a scar that can never be obliterated.

The

one, as

Christopher North

says, is " like

mud

thrown by a brutal

boor on the gateway of some glorious edifice"; the other

is

a flash of lightning from on high, that brands a Cain-

mark on the forehead, which makes it repulsive forever. After making all deductions, nevertheless, it must be admitted that the discreet speaker, who wishes to convince When a man or persuade, will abstain from personalities.
is

smarting under the stings of a merciless sarcasm, he

as

is

impassive to reason as

if

he were drunk or mad.

For the sake of their own reputation, therefore,

vincing
advopate,
debaters,
to

as con-

say nothing

of

the

interests

they
of

members of

legislative bodies should

beware

rousing to obstinacy their associates, by violating the courtesy

which should mark the

collision,

not less than the

friendly intercourse, of cultivated

and polished minds.

We
whom

might add that the meanest

insect has its sting,

and that

men who wantonly

the

seek to

wound

their inferiors,

they deem incapable

of defending

themselves, often, in

blindness of their insolence, tread on a scorpion in-

stead of a

worm, and

receive a sting

where they only

It is

anticipated the pleasure of seeing a victim writhe.

said of Dr. Priestley that, in all his controversies, verbal

PJEESONALITIES IN DEBATE.
or written, he

225
or a

never gave offense by an allusion

word; and we

may add

that Lord Castlereagh,

who was

so successful in the British Parliament, carried ten points

by his good humor, courtesy, and personal influence, to

every one that he carried

by

his

logic.

These qualities

made him a
he
sorely

favorite with the

its

House of Commons, though

and sometimes tried
its

taxed

patience,

gravity; as

when he spoke

of "the Herculean labor of the

honorable and learned member,

disappointed

who

will find himself quite

when

at last he brings

forth

his Hercules."
elo-

On
the
said

the other hand, O'Connell,

its

mighty as was his

quence, neutralized

influence in a great
his

measure by
It

frequency
of

and bitterness of
his

sarcasms.

was

him that

mind

consisted of

two compart-

ments,

the
vilest

one inhabited by the purest angels, the other

by the

demons,

and

that the occupation of his life

was

to transfer his friends

from the one

to the other.

The

Duke
" a

of Wellington he stigmatized as " a stunted corpo-

ral"; while to other opponents he applied such terms as

mighty big

liar,''

or " a lineal descendant of the impeni-

"a titled buffoon," or "a contumelious cur," or "a pig," or "a scorpion." A speaker who uses such epithets puts himself beyond the pale of courtesy; and we
tent thief," or

are not surprised, therefore, to learn that the great agitator

prejudiced

all

moderate

men

against him, embarfinally

rassed his action in the

House of Commons, and

its

drew down upon himself

formal reprimand.

CHAPTER

IX.

POLITICAL OEATOES: ENGLISH.

" We,

we have seen

the intellectual race

Of giants

stand, like Titans, face to face,

Athos and Ida, with a dashing sea Of eloquence between, which flowed all free, As the deep billows of the -lEgean roar Betwixt the Hellenic and the Pelasgic shore." Btboh.

OF

modern
It

countries,

no one, except perhaps Prance,

though

has been more prolific of great orators than Great

is,

Britain.

however, a remarkable

fact, that,

there were great debaters, there was hardly one preeminent

orator in England
tile
till

the time of the brilliant and versaleft

BoLiNGBKOKE.

Ben Jonson has

us a memorial of
are familiar with

Bacon's

way

of speaking, and those

who

the " Essays " and the "

easily

Advancement of Learning " can

illu-

imagine with what majesty he spoke, and what

orator, he

minations of original thought characterized his addresses.

As an

was

stately,

weighty, and convincing,

the

very opposite of a declaimer.

studied speaker, he affected

;

gravity and wise sententiousness

speaking " leisurely, and

rather drawlingly than hastily," on the principle that " a

slow speech comfirmeth the memory,

addeth a

conceit of

wisdom

to the hearers, besides

a seemliness of speech and

countenance."
ly,

"

No man,"

says Jonson, " spoke

more

pressut-

or suffered less emptiness, less idleness in

what he

tered.

His hearers could not cough, or look aside from

loss.

him without

He commanded where

he spoke, and had

POLITICAL OKATORS
his

BOLINGBROKE.

227

judges angry and pleased at his discretion.

of every one that heard

end."
terests

During the

The fear him was that he should make an Commonwealth, when the highest into

were imperilled, and men's hearts were stirred

put
great orator.

their very depths, neither Cavaliers nor Puritans

for-

ward a

single

Strafford, indeed, defended

himself with genuine eloquence; but in vain shall

we

look

elsewhere for great thoughts conveyed in burning words,

or for

maxims which have become the current coin of the

The speeches
of

realm.

Pym

are able, but tedious and

dreary, and

we wonder that enthusiasm could ever have

spiritless.

found expression in language so cold and

At

the Restoration the style of speaking changed; "the Cavaliers

were men of the world, who talked the language of

the world.

They flung

aside that

heavy scholastic garb

which

stifled

sentiments instead of adorning them, and

made a
It

closer approximation to simplicity

till

and to nature."

was not

Queen Anne's

reign, that parliamentary eloit

quence took the form which

wears to-day, and of that

reign the foremost speaker was Bolingbroke.

To the rare

gifts of this

remarkable

man

all

his con-

temporaries have testified in the most enthusiastic terms.

Nature seems to have lavished upon him nearly

all

the

qualities necessary to a great parliamentary speaker.

Tall,

graceful, with

handsome features

lit

up from time

to time

by the

fire in his eyes,

or his bright, winning smile,

pos-

sessing a rich, musical voice, of

lation

more than ordinary moduimpressive

action,

and power, and an

a
logical

easy,

he
a

added to these advantages an unrivalled quickness of apprehension,

understanding,
taste,

lively

fancy,

sparklincf wit,

an exquisite

and a memory
it

so tena-

cious that he

was wont

to

complain of

as inconvenient.

228

OEATORY AND ORATORS.

it

and to allege
best authors.

as

an excuse for limiting his reading to the

further to qualify him for leadership,
the best Latin authors, had acquired a

Still

he had read

all

thorough knowledge of the best writers in the English and

other

modern languages, had given considerable time

tt

metaphysics, and to an unusual acquaintance with ancient

had added a consummate knowledge of modern history. Besides all these qualifications, he had the fire and energy
which belong
to genius only;

and such, we are

told,

was

his facility of expression, that

even in the abandonment

of familiar conversation, his words would have stood the

test of the severest criticism.

He

spoke with such

taste

and accuracy that

his

language might have been printed,

it fell

without discredit to him, as

from

his lips.

Lastly,

he had, what was a more signal advantage in those days than now, the prestige of high birth and ample fortune. Entering Parliament at the age of twenty-two, he won
almost at a bound the reputation of being the most
liant
bril-

and fascinating orator of

his

time.

His fastidious

contemporaries regarded
natural.
Chesterfield,

his eloquence as almost super-

himself an accomplished speaker,

pronounces him the model ideal orator, and Chatham, the

only Englishman

who could

contest his claim to the palm,

declared that he would

rather win from oblivion Lord

Bolingbroke's unreported speeches than the lost books of

Livy,

an

opinion indorsed by the severer taste of Chat-

ham's son.

Unfortunately not one of the speeches of the

British Alcibiades has

come down
if

to us;

and

therefore,

though we may

criticise,

we

please, the theatrical tone

of Chatham, or the floridity of Sheridan's

Begum

effusion,

we must

accept the uniform traditional reports of Boling-

broke's eloquence, as

we admit

the greatness of Garrick

POLITICAL ORATORS
as

BOLINGBBOKE.

229
beat

an

actor.

yond

dispute,

Of one department of oratory he was, a consummate master. In invective,

once passionate and dignified, furious yet not extravagant, he had no equal.

No

other speaker of his age could bend

that silver bow, or launch those deadly arrows.

Perhaps

the highest tribute ever paid to his oratorical genius

that paid

was

by

his

old

enemy. Sir Eobert Walpole, the

Bolingbroke's attainder was re-

British premier.

When

moved, and he was allowed to return from banishment

and resume

his

family estate in England, he was not

All

allowed to resume his seat in the House of Peers.

else

was restored

to

him, but the sagacious premier dared

privilege of raising his

not restore to his adversary the

voice in Parliament, lest the throne of the

reel before the

Guelph should
tacit

sound of

its

trumpet-peal,

homage
praise.

to his eloquence

which far transcends any spoken

to

Though Bolingbroke's speeches have not come down us, yet his writings have, and from these we can form
idea,

an

not altogether inadequate, of his powers as an

orator.

Generally there

is

a great difference between a

man's styles as a writer and a speaker; but Bolingbroke

was an exception to the

rule.

His style

is

clear, nervous,

flowing, idiomatic, attractively colored,

bellished, manifesting his tameness,

and tastefully em-

much
It

of Addison's elegance without

and the sententious dignity of Johnson withabounds especially in periodical

out his pomposity.

climax, and signally illustrates Quintilian's rule for sentential increase, augere debent sententiae et insurgere.

Few

writers have combined in so happy proportions the Latin and the Saxon elements of our tongue. Chesterfield declared that
till

he read Bolingbroke, he did not

it

know

the

extent and power of the English language;

was not

230
a studied or

ORATORY AST) ORATORS.

labored eloquence, he said, but a flowing

happiness of expression.
" I unhesitatingly place

A
him
*

recent English writer says:

at the

head of
his

all

the prose

writers

of

our language."

Among

most striking

merits are the beauty and propriety of his images and

illustrations,

which are never introduced

for

mere orna-

ment,

but to support the argument they adorn,

like

buttresses, which,

however relieved with tracery, add an

In his Letter
environs us
pilot
is

air of solidity to the building they prop.

to

Windham, he says: "The ocean which an emblem of our government, and the
minister are in similar circumstances.
It

and the

seldom happens

that either of

them can

steer a direct course,

and they both

to

arrive at their port by

means which frequently seem

carry them from

it."

Again, in " The Spirit of Patriotism,"

is

he says: "Eloquence must flow like a stream that

fed

by an abundant spring, and not spout forth a

water on some gaudy day, and remain dry
of the year."

little

frothy

all

the rest

Lord Lytton says truly of Bolingbroke, that

tences "flow loose as
if

his sen-

disdainful

of

verbal

care;

yet

throughout
folds

all

there reigns the senatorial decorum. are

The
the

of

the toga

not

arranged

to

show

off

breadth of the purple hem; the wearer knows too well

that,

however the
It is

folds

may

fall,

the

hem cannot

fail to be
bi-

seen."

an interesting

fact

noted by the latest

ographer of Bolingbroke, that his literary works resemble spoken eloquence far more than those of any other man
that ever wrote.
orator, who, being

They are

clearly the composition of an

prevented from addressing an audi-

ence by word of mouth, uses the pen as his instrument,

* " Memoirs of Eminent Etonians," by Sir

Edward Creasy.

POLITICAL OBATOKS
and writes what
lie

BOLINGBEOKE.
Not only
is

231
his

would have spoken.

method, or rather lack of method, oratorical, discussing

the subject as he does in the first
self,

way

that presents

it-

and handling
of
its

it

skillfully,

earnestly and strikingly

it,

in

many

parts,

but never exhausting

but

the

diction, as

Lord Brougham remarks, "is eminently that

works.
It
is

of

oratorical

bold,

rapid,

animated, yet

pointed and correct, bearing the closest scrutiny of the

critic

when submitted

to the eye in the

fill

hour of calm judgthe ear, and carry

ment, but admiringly calculated to

away the
it is

feelings in the

moment
could

of excitement."

Again,

well

known

that he disliked the mechanical drudgthat

ery of writing;

he

not bear

to

develop his

ideas on paper with the pen, but

employed an amanuensis,
"

and dictated many of

his literary productions.

When

he

wrote," says Mr. Macknight, " he was addressing an imagi-

nary audience, exciting imaginary cheers, and frequently

defying and assailing a hated rival,

who was

not at
St.

all

imaginary; but whether in youth or age,

while

John,

speaking in the House of Commons, or, as Viscount Bolingbroke, composing the letters to the 'Craftsman,'
the same unconquered and unconquerable foe."

still

Lord Brougham,
of Bolingbroke,

at the

end of his well-known sketch

the

expresses

opinion

that

if

the

con-

curring accounts of witnesses, and the testimony to his

speeches borne by his writings,

may

be trusted, "he must

be pronounced to stand, upon the whole, at the head of

modern

orators.

There may have been more measure

Pitt, more fire in the occasional more unbridled vehemence, more intent

and matured power in

bursts of Chatham,

reasoning in Fox, more deep-toned declamation in passages

of Chatham,

more learned imagery

in

Burke, more wit

"

232

OEATOKT AND OEATOES.

in

and humor
all

Canning; but, as a whole, and taking

in

rhetorical gifts,

and

all

the orator's accomplishments,

of several
of them,

no one, perhaps
can match what
in

hardly the union

we

are

taught by tradition to admire

Bolingbroke's spoken eloquence, and what the study

of his works

makes us

easily believe to be true."

Par above Bolingbroke, we think (notwithstanding the

high authority just quoted), and overtopping every other
orator Great Britain has produced, stands
It

was

in

Lord Chatham. 1736 that the voice of " the great Commoner
eliciting

was
from

first

heard within the walls of Parliament,

Sir

Robert Walpole the exclamation, "

We

must

muzzle that terrible cornet of horse."

Pew
so

orators of equal

fame have been, in some

Great as was his genius,
it

respects,

poorly equipped.
well-bal-

was

far

from being

anced and disciplined; there was, indeed, a certain mixture

of splendor and slovenliness in his character.

Dr. King

declared that he had no learning, and Lord Chesterfield that

not only did he have very

little

political

knowledge, but

that his matter was generally flimsy, and his arguments

often weak.
tically that
is

His sister, Mrs. Anne Pitt, used to say sarcashe had read no book but the " Paery Queen." It

well known, however, that, to gain a mastery of language,

he translated the speeches of Demosthenes into English, and

pondered over the weighty periods of Barrow

till

he had
heart.

many of He also
tongue.

his long

and exhaustive sermons almost by

read Bailey's Dictionary twice through, and even

articulated before a glass to perfect the use of his native

But though

his intellectual acquisitions

were com-

paratively slender, few

men have

received from nature so

many

of the outward qualifications of the orator.

In his

POLITICAL OEATOES
best days, before he

CHATHAM.

233
tall

was crippled by the gout, he had a

and striking
features,

figure,

an imposing attitude, aquiline and noble

fire.

and a glance of

His voice was a marvel-

lous combination of sweetness

and strength.

It

had

all

the silvery sweetness of a Clay's or a Phillips's, and was

distinctly

heard even when

it

sank to a whisper;

its

middle
its

notes

were charming and beautifully varied, while

filled

higher tones, which completely

the

House, pealed
"

and

thrilled like the swell of

some majestic organ.

heard him, " except

effect

was awful," says one who

The when

he wished to cheer or animate; then he had spirit-stirring

notes which were perfectly irresistible."

His speeches, as they have come down to

fessedly fragments
;

us, are con-

but even these " shreds of unconnected

eloquence " are without a parallel.

authentic
fire

They

blaze with the

of the imagination,

of the

imagination in

the full sweep of excited

and overmastering

are the masterful words of a great

feeling. They man; haughty and ar-

rogant words sometimes, no doubt, but haughty and arro-

gant because the speaker, in the pride of his integrity,

scorned
baseness,
it

from the depths of

his

soul

all

meanness, and

and

finesse.

Grattan said of his eloquence, that

it

was an era in the Senate; that

resembled sometimes

the thunder,

and sometimes the music, of the spheres

In

purely physical influence over his audience he was never

surpassed.

No

other orator ever approached

him

in the

sway which he exercised over

He. entered the
like

his hearers, while the spell

of his voice, his eye, his tones, his gestures,

lists

was upon them.

fact,

a gladiator.

Seizing on some

stronghold in the
held
it

argument,

some
He

stubborn

he

with a giant's grasp.

10*

did not argue with his

opponents, but asserted; he wrested their weapons out of

234
their hands " I

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

by main
force.

The

ipsi dixi, the " I affirm,"

am

ready to maintain," " I pledge myself to prove,"

constituted all his logic.

In moments of intense passion he was like the Sibyl on her tripod.

The

oldest

member, the hardiest wit

of the

House, quailed before " the terrors of his beak and the
lightning of his eye."
subject,

Having a perfect mastery

intense
his

of his

thorough conviction, an

interest,

he

instinctively

and unavoidably, by

vehemence of man-

ner, his tones, his

tures,

commanding

attitudes

and eager

ges-

conveyed these to his hearers.

all

His will was sur-

charged with electric matter, and

reach
felt

who

stood within

its

the force of the shock.

Employing a

bold, brief,

and pointed mode of expressing daring truths, sometimes

by metaphor, sometimes by
spirit as dauntless as his

antithesis,

and possessing a

language, he defied contradiction,

in-

and any attempt to check him only drew from him an

dignant and defiant repetition of the
offense.

Never was there a more

terrible antagonist,
fierceness

one who

awed
pitch

his opponents

more by the

and boldness

of his invectives, or roused popular enthusiasm to a higher

by the short and vehement sentences in which he

It is said

embodied the feverish passions of the hour.

that once in the

House of Commons he began a speech with

Mr. Speaker,"
audience,

the words, "Sugar, smile

and

then,

seeing a

pervade the

he paused,

glared fiercely

around, and, with a loud voice, rising in his notes, and

swelling
into
!

vehement anger, he pronounced again

"

the
the

word
ter,

"

Sugar

three times.

Having thus quelled

House, and dispelled every appearance of levity or laugh-

he turned round and scornfully asked:

"Who

will

laugh at sugar now?"

Charles Butler states in his "Re-

POLITICAL OKATOKS

CHATHAM.
his

235

miniscences" that on another occasion Lord Chatham rose

and walked out of the House, at

ensued
then a
the door opened to let

usual slow pace,

immediately after he had finished his speech.

till

silence

him

into the lobby; and

member

started up, saying, " I rise to reply to the

honorable

member."

Lord Chatham turned back, and

fixed his eye

on the orator, who instantly sat down

dumb

then his lordship returned to his seat, repeating, as he

hobbled along, the verses of Virgil:

"At Bana^m proceres, Agamemnoniaeque phalanges, TJt videre virum fulgentiaque arma per umbras Ingentt trepidare metu pars vertere terga, Ceu quondam petiere- rates: pars tollere vocem Exiguam: inceptns clamor frustratur Mantes."
;

Then, placing himself in his

let

seat,

he exclaimed:

"Now

me hear what

the honorable

member
if

has to say to me."

When whom
"No,

Mr. Butler asked the person, an eye-witness, from

he obtained this anecdote,
the House did not laugh

at the ridiculous figure of the

sir,

poor member, he replied:

to

we were

all too

awed

laugh.''

Mr. Butler gives another

of the

still

more striking

illustration

manner

in

which the haughty orator overawed his

associates.

Moreton, Chief Justice of Chester, happened to

say in the House, " King, Lords,

at the first Pitt) as

and Commons, or (looking

that right honorable

member would
Pitt called

term them. Commons, Lords, and King."

to order,

him
They
me,"

and desired the words

to be taken

down.

were written down by the

clerk.

" Bring

them

to

said Pitt, in his loftiest tone.

By

this time

Moreton was
out,

frightened out of his senses.

" Sir," he

stammered

addressing the Speaker, " I

am

sorry to have given any

offense to the right honorable

I

member

or to the House.

meant nothing.

King, Lords, and Commons,

Lords,


236

ORatokY akd orators.

Commons, Lords, and King: tria meant nothing; indeed, I meant nothhis error,

King, and Commons,

juncta in uno.
ing." I

Pitt rose: " I don't wish to push the matter further.

The moment a man acknowledges

be guilty.
ber,
I

he ceases to

have a great regard for the honorable mem-

and

as

an instance of that regard, I give him

this

advice:

whenever he means nothing, I recommend him

It

to

say nothing."
his perfect
it,

was the dramatic genius of Chatham,

these victories; without

acting, that achieved

his

some of

most splendid bursts would have been

failures.

So consummate were his gesture and delivery,

that Horace Walpole often calls

Even the

infirmities

of

him " Old Garrick." Chatham were turned to

ac-

count; his flannel bandage aided his touches of pathos, and

even his crutch became a weapon of oratory.

It is true

he was singularly wordy; yet in this very trick of verbal reduplication lies half his strength.
as " I

Such pleonasms

was credulous, I was duped, I was deceived,"

"

It

was unjust, groundless,

and again. and in
peace;

illiberal,

unmanly," occur again

shocked, to hear such
in this

" I

am

astonished, I
;

am

principles confessed

this country."
it

" The country was sold

is

to hear

them avowed

House

at the late
of

France."

"A breach has been made

was sold by the Court of Turin to the Court

in the Constitution,

the battlements are dismantled, the citadel

first

open to the
ten-

invader, the walls totter, the place

is

no longer

able;

what then remains

it,

for us but to stand foremost in

the breach, to repair

tain this principle
is

or to perish in it?"

"To

main-

the

common

cause of the Whigs on

the other side of the Atlantic and on this.

"Tis liberty

to liberty engaged,' that they will defend themselves, their

families,

and their country.

In this cause they are im-


POLITICAL OEATOES
movably

CHATHAM.
God and

237
of nature,

allied: it is the alliance of

immutable, eternal,

fixed

as

tM

firmament of heaven."

Like Danton, he

relied

on Vaudace, as in the famous

passage where he declared, " I rejoice that America has

resisted,"

and when, with even more

King."

defiance, he said:

"I

hope some dreadful calamity will befall the country, that

may open

the

eyes

of

the

Here, according to

Grattan, he introduced an allusion to the figure drawing

the curtains of Priam,

was

called to order,

and gave the quotation, when he but went on: " What I have spoken I
I

have spoken conditionally, and

I

now

retract the condition.

speak

it

absolutely,

and

hope that some signal calamity

will befall the country."

sity,

He

bore

down

all

by his inten-

by reiterating blow upon blow, as upon an anvil.

violent, oppressive

"I say we must necessarily undo these

acts.

They must be repealed.

it

You

ivill

repeal them.

pledge myself for

I stake

that

you
it.

will in the end repeal them.

I will consent to "

my

reputation on

be taken for

an

idiot, if

they are not finally repealed."

Conquer the
think of

Americans!" he exclaimed:
driving

"I might

as well

them before me with

this crutch!"

"I come not

acts of par-

here

armed

at all points with law-cases

and

liament, with the statute-hoole doubled

down

in dogs-ears, to

defend the cause of liberty," he exclaimed with superb scorn,

in

answer to Grenville's argument upon the right to tax

colonies.

the

Again, addressing the Administration

said:

of

Lord North, he
ters

"Such are your well-known charac-

and

abilities,

that sure I

am

that any plan of recon-

however moderate, wise, and feasible, must fail Who, then, can wonder that you should in your hands. put a negative on any measure which must annihilate your
ciliation,

power, deprive

you of your emoluments, and

at

once

238

OEATOBY AND OKATOKS.

reduce you to that state of insignificance for which 'God

and nature designed

you?''''

Never was there an orator who spoke more completely

from the impulse of the moment.
his language,

Bestowing no care on
his

imagery, or illustrations, he poured out

thoughts just as they rose in his teeming and fiery brain;

and'

when he
of

rose, stirred to

anger by some sudden subof tyranny, there

terfuge

corruption

or

device

was

heard an eloquence never surpassed in ancient or modern

times.

Eloquent as he was, however, he impressed every

hearer with the conviction that the

the orator.

man was

greater than

His whole manner was kingly.

He was

one

of nature's autocrats, to
"

whom men

yielded by instinct.

There was a grandeur in his personal appearance," says a writer who speaks of him in his decline, " which produced awe and mute attention; and though bowed by
infirmity and
his body,
lip

age, his

mind shone through the

"

ruins of
his

armed

his eye with lightning,

and clothed
orator,"

with

thunder."

He was born an

says
re-

Wilkes, " and

from nature possessed every outward

quisite to bespeak respect,

and even awe; a manly

figure,

with the eagle eye of the great Cond6, fixed your attention,

and almost commanded reverence the moment he

and the keen lightning of
lips

appeared;

his

eye spoke the

high respect of his soul before his

syllable.

had pronounced a
his

There was a kind of fascination in

askance.

look

when he eyed any one

tered,

Nothing could withstand

fluent

the force of that contagion.

The

Murray has
if

fal-

and even Fox shrunk back appalled from an

'

ad-

versary

fraught with

fire

unquenchable,'

may

bor-

row an expression
lost

of our great Milton."

Even Franklin
" I

his coolness,

when speaking

of Lord Chatham.

POLITICAL OKATOES

PITT.
I

239

have sometimes," said he, " seen eloquence without wisdom,

and often wisdom without eloquence; but in him

seen

have

them united

in the highest possible degree."

As the veteran gladiator was borne away from the

arena,

two youthful athletes appeared upon

it,

Charles
was an
an

James Fox and William Pitt.

orator by art.

If the elder Pitt

orator by nature, the younger Pitt

was no

less truly

Not that he lacked genius,

to

for he

was a

marvel of precocity; but from his earliest youth he was

unwearied in the pains he took

debate.
tive

qualify himself for

instinc-

Even

in childhood he

seemed to have an

perception of the

bent of his talents.

When

only

seven years of age, he told his tutor

how

glad he was at

not being the eldest son, for " he wanted to speak in the

House of Commons
land,

like papa."

year later Lady HolPitt's,

who saw him

"

at

Lady Hester
and

wrote

to

her

husband:

He

is

really the cleverest child

strictly

I ever saw,

and brought up so
words,

so proper, that,

mark

my

that

little

boy will prove a thorn in Charles's*

side as
gifts,

long as he lives."

But great

as

were

his natural

he did not rely upon them, but strove in every

way

to perfect himself in the

accomplishments necessary to the

Earl, his father, watch

orator.

Not only did the gouty

his early education

with jealous care, but he had himself

his father's efforts that, in spite of

so earnestly seconded
his bodily

weakness,

when he went

to

Cambridge in 1773,

a boy of fourteen, he was already, in parts and learning, a

of speech

grown man. From the earliest childhood his powers by had been trained in every possible way,

reciting daily choice passages

* Ciarles

from the best English

aij-

James Fox.

240
thors,

ORATOEY AND ORATOBS.

by rendering aloud pages of some Greek or Roman

orator into choice and nervous English, by studying with

minute attention the works of Bolingbroke and Barrow,

of Polybius and Thucydides, and

by dwelling for hours

together on some striking passage in the masterpieces of

ancient oratory.
caulay,

The debate in Pandemonium,

his

says
his

Maearly

was one of

favorite

passages,

and

friends used to talk together, long after his death, of the

just emphasis and melodious cadence with which they had

heard him recite the incomparable speech of Belial.

Even

after he
at

had taken

his

Master's degree at the

still

University,

the

age of seventeen, he

kept his

terms, and read with his tutor for four more years.

By

the end of this time he had gone through almost every

known Greek and Latin

author, had

made some

progress

in the study of natural philosophy

and

civil law,

and

in

mathematics had gained a proficiency which qualified him

to stand for wrangler's honors.

Though not fond

classic

of com-

position in the

dead languages, he read

authors

with intense delight,

catching

instinctively the

meaning

of the hardest passages, dwelling especially on the niceties of language and the differences of style, and discriminating

the essential from the non-essential in such studies with

almost intuitive quickness and

his

tact.

So complete was
his firm

mastery of the Greek that his tutor declared

belief that
life

no one ever read

study, with

it,

even after devoting a whole

to

its

greater facility than did Pitt at

twenty-one.

Lord Grenville afterward pronounced him

the best Greek scholar he ever conversed with; and Lord

Wellesley said that " with astonishing facility he applied

the whole spirit of ancient learning to his use."
It was,

however, to the orators of antiquity that he turned with

POLITICAL OEATOKS

PITT.

241

the most instinctive fondness; loving, especially, to com-

pare the opposite speeches on the same subject supplied

by Thucydides, Livy, and

Sallust.

Besides these studies,

he familiarized himself with Shakspeare and Milton,

Hume
but

and Robertson, and thoroughly analyzed and mastered the

great Essay of Locke.

Not only

his favorite studies,

other circumstances, indicated the bias of the future orator.

The barber who attended him, on approaching the oak door

of his room, overheard

him declaiming

to himself within.

Before other boys

at the

left school,

he was holding mock debates

"Crown and Anchor," in London, and astonishing men who lived to see his great parliamentary triumphs, and who declared that even these did not surpass the efforts of the amateur. Long before he scandalized the dons of Cambridge by presuming to set up for an M. P. at the
University, the
of

young

athlete

was

to be seen in the gallery

his

the

House of Commons, exercising

memory, and

training himself for his future struggles by hearing and

answering in his own mind the great geniuses of debate.

No wonder
into the

that

when he sprang

into the arena, the

field.

cry arose that a giant had taken the

He

passed
It

front rank of debaters at the first bound.

for

was in support of Burke's motion

that he

Economical Reform

made

his

maiden

eflEbrt;

and though called upon

suddenly to answer an adverse speaker, he arose and made,

on the spur of the moment, a reply that took the whole

House by
the

surprise.

hundred eyes strove

to

trace in

features

and manner of the young orator the old

familiar lineaments of the sire

who

slept in Westminster.

hundred memories recalled the trumpet tones which

so
is

had
"It

often roused

the chivalry of England to action.

is

not a chip of the old block,'' said Burke, "it

11

the

242
old

OKATOEY AND ORATORS.

block
itself."

Earely, however, has a son so gifted

been so unlike his father.

While the elder

resolves,

Pitt

was

fiery

and

impetuous, hasty in his

and moved by

the

suggestions of a vivid imagination, the younger was cold,

formal, and
logical

statuesque, deficient

in

imagination, always

and argumentative, and,

if occasionally roused, so

wary and circumspect, that Mr. Fox declared

ping," and Mr.

that "in a
trip-

twenty years' contest he had never once caught him

Windham

declared that he could at any

moment speak
rapid, electric,
sive.

a king's speech off-hand.

The one was

classic, persua-

vehement; the other chaste,

into acquiescence;

The one awed

the other argued

into conviction.

Instead of the bold, brief, and pointed

manner
father's

of expressing daring truths, sometimes by metaantithesis,

phor and sometimes by

which characterized

his

burning appeals, the younger Pitt spoke what

His sen-

has been happily termed " a state-paper style."

tences,

which

fell

from him

as easily as if he

had been
up

talking,

were

stately, flowing,
level,

and harmonious,

throughout to the same

and
lacked

kept

set off

by a

fine voice

and a dignified bearing; but, though the language was

sonorous, pure, and
clear, it
fire;

his

intonation

was monotonous, and

his

gestures passionless;

and the

dullest reader of his speeches cannot but see that in the

energy and picturesqueness of his brightest

flashes

Lord
Pitt
of

Chatham was
was superior
politics
It

as superior to to

William Pitt

as

William

Chatham

in logic

and the knowledge

and finance.
it is

has been justly said that

only on rare occahas

sions that the true orator of the

to nerve himself

House of Commons
to the

for the heights of his art; his reputafixed

tion

is

more habitually

according

strength

POLITICAL ORATORS
and
facility

PITT.

243
It

with which he moves upon level ground.

was here that Pitt excelled all his rivals.

"In the formal

introduction of a question, in the perspicuity of explanation

like

in detail, in short and apt rejoinder in business-

debate, no
his

man was

so delightful to

listen to;

the

decorum of

bearing, the fluency of his

diction, the
re-

exquisite lucidity of his utterance,

lief
fist,

must have been a

shrill

to

Fox's

preliminary stutter,
action,

key-note,

lifted

and redundant

to Burke's Irish

brogue and

episodical discursions."

Of sarcasm he was a consummate

master;

probablj''

no speaker ever wielded that weapon

with more dexterity and force.

The

chief secret, however,

his

of his weight and influence in the

earnestness,

House was

uniform

the

feeling of all

who

listened to

him

that

he always spoke from conviction, never from love of display or for mere "
at the present day,
efi'ect."

Unlike one of his successors

"the exquisite Hebrew juggler," who

clever and

never seems
even

more than a

gentlemanly actor,

when most animated, and who apparently could

diflj-

transfer " the cold glitter of his rhetoric," with little

culty, to the

advocacy of the cause he

is

attacking, Pitt's

sincerity

says

was never for a moment doubted. " He spoke," Lord North, " like a born minister " and if he failed
;

in wit, playfulness,
it

and the ornaments and graces of

would

style,

was from prudence, not from penury, because he thought

little

that "the spangles

accord with the purple

declares:

hem
"

of

his

toga."

As one who heard him

his speaking

The distinguishing excellence of

corresponded
sys-

to the distinguishing excellence of his

whole mental

tem every part of

;

his speaking, in sentiment, in language,

and in delivery, evidently bore, in stamp of

his character,

our judgment, the

to us a definite

all

communicated

244
yet vivid

OEATORY AND ORATORS.

appearance
of

the

qualities

of

strenuousness

without

effort,

unlabored intrepidity, and serene great-

If the exhibition of deep feeling

is

the test of sincerity,

and the appearance of sincerity the

test of a

great orator,

one of the greatest orators that ever lived was Chakles

James Fox.

The hurried
peculiarity

sentence, the involuntary excla-

mation, the vehement gesture, the sudden start, the agitation,

every

of

his

manner,

indicated

an

eloquence that

came from the very depths of the

hesitating and

soul.

Loose in his arrangement,

his style,

often

neither polished nor exact

stammering
says,

in

at the start,

he exercised a prodigious influence on his hearers, because, as Sir

James Mackintosh

"he

forgot himself
little

and everything around him."

He was

but

more

than a boy in years, when, in flagrant violation of the

rules,
self

he entered the House of Commons, and found him-

at the age of nineteen one of the legislators of the

British Empire.

Educated at Eton and Oxford, he had

for

shown a
classics,

taste

mathematics,

and

especially

for

the
also

which he read with

critical accuracy,

and had

acquired a rare mastery of the French language.

at these seats of learning, he
his masters as
is

While

said

to

have astonished

much by

the levity of his conduct as by

al-

the quickness and

brilliancy of his talents, while he

ready exerted over his school-fellows the fascination which

he exerted in after years over his fellow men.

Devoting

himself with equal earnestness to pleasure and to study,

he wasted the night in dissipation, and then applied himself

fiercely to his

books, spending
Review, August

upon them not

1810,

less

* Quarterly

POLITICAL ORATORS
than nine or ten hours a day.

FOX.

245

The

fruits of this appli-

cation were seen in the passionate love

all his life for

which he manifested

the great authors of antiquity, whose society

he sought in the intervals of the fiercest political conflicts,

and whose inspiration, no doubt, often directed the thunders of eloquence

with which

he

shook the

House of

Commons.
Unfortunately he had early acquired a passion for gaming,

which became at

last so intense, that,

life,

being asked what

was the greatest happiness in

to

he replied, " To play and

win"; and to the question what was the next greatest,

It

he replied, " To play, and to lose."

to Spa,

was during a

visit

when he was hardly fifteen years of age, that he was first drawn into the vortex of play, and it is said that
Lord Holland,
his father, instead of checking,

encouraged

this fatal passion

by allowing him

five

guineas a night to

waste on the amusement.

a tour on the Continent,

On

leaving Oxford, he

made

where he contracted vast debts in

every capital, his liabilities at Naples alone amounting to

16,000.

The purchase of annuities which he had granted

Lord Holland,
" his
it is

to cover his losses at play, cost

said,

more that 140,000.

his father to

When

Fox's

prodigality compelled

summon him home,

blue

chapeau bras, redfashionable

airs,

heeled

shoes,

hair-powder," and

showed,

we

are told, that he had become one of the most

egregious coxcombs in Europe.

pation, he

As an

oflFset

to this dissi-

had acquired a keen

relish for Italian literature,

which prompted him

to write in a letter to

a friend
it

"

For

God's sake, learn Italian as fast as you can, if

to

be only

read Ariosto!
iiL'

There

is

more good poetry

in Italian

than

all

other languages that I "understand put to-

gether.=^

In his youth Fox was also passionately fond of

246

OEATOEY AND ORATOKS.

himself both

private theatricals, where he distinguished

in tragedy

and high comedy

and

it

is

supposed by some

writers that these experiences were useful to him, not only

in helping

him

to

modulate his

voice,

but also in enabling

him

early in life to conquer the terrible impediment to

is

oratory which

Few

orators

known as " stage-fright." who have attained to equal eminence have

gifts

been endowed by nature with so few of the physical

of the great orator.
It is true that

he had in the highest

degree the oratorical temperament, and, as

Bulwer has

remarked, in the union of natural passion with scholastic

reasoning excelled
senate.
"
all others who have dignified the British His feeling," said Coleridge, " was all intellect,

and

his intellect all feeling."

But he had none

of the

beauty of
without an

person which enabled Bolingbroke to please

effort,

nor did his speech have any of that

melody with which Chatham charmed an assembly.

spoke always as
if

He

he was in a passion; his gesticulation

graceless; his whole

was extravagant and

his voice
efforts to
telligible.

manner ungainly;
all his

husky; and his articulation, in spite of

improve

it,

so indistinct as to be at times unin-

When

about to begin a speech, he advanced

air,

slowly, with

a heavy, lumbering

to

the

table,

and

began fumbling awkwardly with

which,

his

fingers

in

way
his

with

his

general coarseness of appearance,

careless, half-buttoned vest, his

crumpled

linen, his almost

for the

slovenly attire,
first

provoked,

in one

who heard him

But

time, a

feeling

of disappointment.
his entangled,

this verj

awkwardness of manner,

broken sentences,

the choking of his voice, and the scream with which he delivered his vehement passages,
terest with

only
to,

deepened the

in-

which he was listened

because they were

POLITICAL OEAtOES

FOX.

247
Moreover,

regarded as proofs of his absolute sincerity.

these defects gave to the merits which redeemed them the

thrilling suddenness of surprise,

and

so

he was " patiently

allowed to splutter and stammer out his

way

into the heart

of his subject, grappling, as it were, with the ideas that

embarrassed his choice by the pressure of their throng,

till,

once selected and marshalled into order, they emerged from

the wildness of a tumult into the discipline of an army."

As he gradually warmed with

tion flowed

his

theme, his declama"

from him in a torrent.

Every sentence,"

says Grattan, "

came

rolling like a

three thousand miles long."

his voice

grew
his

stifled,

wave of the Atlantic, At times his tongue faltered, and his face was bathed in tears.

But though

words escaped from him, rather than were

spoken, they were the vehicle of close and often of subtle

and unanswerable argument.

Argument, which was

was

his

passion in public and in private,

pettiest themes,

upon the greatest and the

It

was

his strongest point.

for this

reason, perhaps,

and because of his

fervid, rapid, copious

manner, that Sir James Mackintosh called him the most

Demosthenic orator since Demosthenes.
orator of Greece,

Unlike the great

who

carefully chose and collocated his

words, and never wasted an epithet, he was careless and

slovenly
in
his
style;

he

abounded in

repetitions,

too,

while the Greek " never came back upon a ground which he had utterly wasted
lire

and withered up by the

it."

tide of

he had rolled over

Beginning
in
this

his

career with

the determination to excel

department of public
his
efforts to perfect

speaking,
himself,
brilliant
"

Pox was indefatigable in

he rose at
last, as

till

Burke

said, to

be the most

and accomplished debater the world ever saw.

five

During

whole sessions," he used

to say, " I

spoke

248

OKATOKY AND ORATORS.

and
I regret that I did not speak

every night but one;

on that night,
attained his

too."

Like every other great orator, he

skill,

in part, at the expense of those

who
when
circle
dis-

heard him.

His power as an orator

is

the more wonderful

we

consider his habits of

life.

He

rose late, and before

he had quitted his bedroom, was surrounded by a

of witty

and accomplished

disciples,

with

whom

he

cussed the questions of the hour.

Wrapped
and
his

in a " foul

linen night-gown " that only partially concealed his black

and

" bristly person," his hair matted,

hands un-

washed, he marshalled the forces of the opposition, and

devised the tactics of the campaign.
the

The day he spent

at

Newmarket
the

races; in the evening he assailed the min-

ister;

night was

consumed

at

Almaok's, where the

youthful aristocracy of England scattered, with a cast of

the dice, the hoarded savings of centuries.

Only the most

vigorous and

elastic constitution could

its

have stood such an

incessant drain of

energies

yet Fox,

who was

ten years

older than Pitt, outlived

him nearly eight months.

old,

When

Pox was

-but

twenty-two years

Horace Walpole, who

had been to hear him in the House of Commons, spoke

" Pox's abilities," of him as " the meteor of those days." he adds, " are amazing at so very early a period, especially

under the circumstances of such a

just

dissolute
sat

life.

He was
drinking
talents

arrived

from Newmarket, and had

up

all night,

and had not been in bed.

at

How

such

make one laugh

in

Tully's

rules for an orator,

and his indefatigable application!

are
puerile

His labored orations

comparison to this boy's manly reason."

Again, at a later day, he exclaims: "

What

man Pox

is!

After his long and exhausting speech on Hastings's

trial,

POLITICAL ORATOKS

FOX.

249
all

he was seen handing the ladies into their coaches with

the gayety and prattle of an idle gallant."*

Though an accomplished scholar and well-grounded

history,

in

Pox had

little

philosophical or economical knowl-

edge.

Adam

Smith's great work he never troubled him-

self to read,

and Montesquieu's " Spirit of the Laws

"

he

deemed
ful

full of nonsense.

His understanding was power-

and sagacious rather than acute and subtle, better

appreciating the actual than for examining the

fitted for

abstract

and speculative.
quick,
instinctive

One

of his

most valuable
of

gifts

was

his

perception

an adversary's
it,

weakness, and the advantage to be taken of

an

ad-

vantage which, according to a modern orator,

is,

in the

war of words, what the coup

is

d'oeil of a practised

general

in the field.
if

Hence he was always happiest in reply;

and

interrupted by cries of " order," pressed

till

home

his

arguments with increasing vehemence

almost overpowered the
checked
all

the redoubled

blows and repeated bursts of extemporaneous declamation

audience, while
It

they effectually

further interruption.

has been justly said

that in his climaxes

he was especially happy; argument

it

was piled upon argument until

whole must
fall

seemed as though the

by

its

own
it.

weight.

But

there was no

danger of that;

for if the

burden was a gigantic one,

In nothing
is

there was a giant to bear

ious

his prodig-

power
fact,

as

a debater more strikingly shown than in

the

that, after

having stated the argument of his

adversary with tenfold more force than his adversary him* Fox's delightful social qualities, his sunny humor, sweetness of temper, and forgiving disposition, which endeared him to his associates, are well known. To a French ahbe, who expressed his surprise that a country so moral as England could submit to be governed by a man so wanting in private character as Fox, Pitt replied: "C< que vous n'avez pas eU sous la baguette du magicien, (It is because you have not been under the wand of the magician)."


250
self

OEATORY AND ORATORS.

had put
fail
it,

so

that

his
it,

friends

were alarmed
it

lest

he should

to

answer

he proceeded to rend
it

in
de-

pieces, thus

making the contrast between

and

its

struction only the

ties

more

vivid.
skill

Another of

his peculiari-

was the consummate

into a defense,

with which he turned an

it

attack

often,
less

has been said, turning

the very wo-rds of his adversaries, like captured artillery,

upon themselves.
sistences, or

Hardly

surprising was his wit,

the wit which holds

up

to ridicule the absurdities, incon-

weak

points

of an

opponent's argument,

which he had in a rare degree.

Both Pitt and Canning

his

pronounced him the wittiest speaker of

times.

Pox
views,

had not the teeming knowledge, the broad-sweeping

the marvellous forecast, the

prophetic vision, of Burke;

but he surpassed him as an orator, because he had more

tact,

and kept

to the topics of

the hour.

His were not

the grand strategic movements of which few have the patience to await the issue.
fights

They were
which were

close,

hand-to-hand

with the adversaries in his front;

and hence the

impressive and

reason

why

his speeches,

so

even irresistible when delivered, are comparatively so cold

and

lifeless

now.
writer

An
style

English

has

thus

vividly

contrasted

the

styles of the

two orators we have

last described:

"Pitt's

was

stately, sonorous, full to

its

abundance, smooth, and

regular in

flow; Pox's, free to carelessness, rapid, rush-

ing, turbid, broken,

but overwhelming in
level,

its swell.

Pitt
his

never sank below his ordinary

declamation, never

never paused in
if

hesitated for a word;

it

interrupted

by a remark or

incident, he disposed of

parenthetically,
his

and held on the even and lofty tenor of

way.

Pox
best

was desultory and

ineffective till

he warmed; he did

POLITICAL OEATOKS

CANNING.

251

when he was provoked

ling

or excited; he required the kind-

impulse, the explosive

spark; or he might be comit

pared to the
Passionately

rock

in

Horeb before
life,

was struck.

enamored of
it

loving

pleasure intensely,

and quitting

with difficulty and regret,

wanting, indeed,
dis-

in the patient courage, foresight,

and energy of the

matchless

ciplined

intellect,

but wielding with

skill

burning eloquence, searchingly argumentative even when

most impetuous,

to us

he recalls the simple and courapopulace,

geous tribune of a degraded

the

old
will

orator,

who

could

weep

for very

shame that they

not

be

stirred, as

high above the crowd he thunders against the

insolent dictator,
stones,

and

casts

down

his fiery words, like hail. . .

upon the upturned

their

faces of the people!

"

They spent

lives

together, and

in death they

were not divided.

Pitt died,

of

old age,

at forty-six;

a few months elapsed,

and Pox was laid by

both the rivals:

his side.

The

noble

lament in Marmion
rest the ashes of
*

was uttered over

the

tomb

where

Now

is the stately column broke, The beacon light is quenched in smoke The trumpet's silver sound is still, The warder silent on the hill "
I

'

Among

the

eminent British orators of

this century,

George Canning stands, undoubtedly,

in the

front rank.

Few public speakers have begun their careers with so many of the outward advantages of an orator. His presence,
in spite of a

somewhat

slight

and wiry

figure,

was

remarkably prepossessing.
countenance, and
his

He had

a highly intellectual cut

features,

finely

and

decisive,

were capable of a subtle play and variety of expression,

which were admirably adapted to the changes of his
elo-

252
quence.

OEATORT AND ORATORS.

"There
is

a lighting up of his features and a

comic play about the mouth," said Wilberforce, " when the
full

force

of the approaching witticism strikes

is

his

own
and

mind, which prepares you for the burst which

His
voice

to follow."

was not

loud, but
it

flexible,

and

so clear

perfectly modulated that

was heard

distinctly in every

part of the House.

other great

Like Fox, Pulteney, and most of the

parliamentary orators, he did not leap by a

of

few bounds to the front rank, but mastered the art

speaking
speech,
dinia,
cold,

slowly
in

and

by persevering

effort.

His

first

made

1794 on a subsidy
failure.

to the
It

King

of Sar-

was a comparative and

also too

was

brilliant

but

refined in argument,

and too methodthe

ical in statement.

His next speech was better, but was

pedantry in
style,

disfigured

by a

classical

which,
Pitt, to

with other defects, led him, by the advice of Mr.

keep silent for three years, in order to correct his

faults

and allow them to be forgotten.

Since the days of

Chatham a great change had taken

House of Commons.

place in the style of speaking in the

Formerly the discussions had turned largely upon personalities

and abstract sentiments, and were compared by Burke

speeches of a vestry meeting or a debating

to the loose

club.

In the time of Pitt and Fox a greater knowledge

still

of the minutiae of a question was demanded, and a

greater in the time of

Brougham and Canning.

By

dint

of continual labor and unsparing self-correction, Canning

gradually reached the perfection of his

own

style, the dis-

tinguishing qualities of which were rapidity, polish, and

ornament.
studied,

It

was

this peculiar polish,

accompanied by a

though apparently natural rapidity, which, accord-

ing to a good judge, becoming more and more perfect as

POLITICAL ORATORS
it

CANNIlfG.
speaking.

258

became apparently more natural, subsequently formed

essential
fluent,
. .

the

excellence
.

of

his

" Quick, easy,

and
light

now
or,

brilliant
if

and ornamental, then again

it,

and playful,

he wished

clear, simple,

and

incisive,

no speaker ever combined a greater variety of

qualities,

though many have been superior in each of the

excellences

which he possessed."

Rarely passionate, when

he did manifest deep feeling, the effect was electrical.

The
pre-

vehemence was the more striking from the contrast

temper, and his habitual reserve.
Nevertheless,
it

it

sented to his ordinarily passionless demeanor, his sarcastic

must be admitted that he was weakest,

and power, that grandeur

on the whole, in his declamatory passages, which are too

often wanting in that robustness

and magnificence, which

thrill

through the mind.

He

did

not, like Pox, dart fire into his audience, or

sweep them

along on the torrent of an impetuous and resistless eloquence.

He had none

of those burning lava-streams with

which Brougham scorches and destroys whatever crosses

his path.

His discourse flows on like the waters of some

calm, majestic river unruffled by the wind;

we hear

noth-

ing of the dash of the torrent, or the roar of the cataract;

there are few of the startling apostrophes or soul-stirring

appeals which sometimes bring an audience to their feet as

one man.
stuff

Having no very deep

convictions,

none of the
seldom

of which martyrs and bigots are made, he

forgets

himself in his subject.

He was

constitutionally

too fastidious, he

had too great a horror of excess in every

There
life,

form, to indulge often in fiery declamation.

doubt, too, that,
of his speeches
cessive
finish,
till

is

no

the latter part of his

the effect

was lessened by the

elaboration,

which

the

ex-

they betrayed.

His

severe and

254
dainty taste,

OKATOKY AND ORATORS.

the extreme
care

with which he lingered

over the rhythm us of a sentence, or even the choice of an

epithet,

sometimes
it

degenerated into prudery.

It is said
till

that, as minister,

he would scan a royal speech

the

faintest tinge of color

was bleached out of

it.

If at the

eleventh hour

was found

to contain a slight
it

grammatical

error, he would not present

to the House until the error

had been removed.

Sir

James Mackintosh pronounces him

orators, of the

" the best model,

;

among our
that he

adorned style "

yet

it is

evident

sometimes over-ornamented his speeches, for the

admits that Mr. Canning's hearers were often
his diction that they did not

same

critic

so dazzled

by the splendor of

perceive the acuteness of his reasoning.

They were

too

often confused, also, by the cross-lights which his wit, of

which there was always a superabundance, shot over the

canvas.

As he advanced

in

years,
till

however, his

taste

became more and more severe,

beauty.
ried,

even the most microto

scopic critic of his speeches found

few specks

dim

their

When

he had time to prepare, not a shot miscar-

not an argument was weakened by a needless phrase.

all

The arrow, stripped of

and steadied
archer's aim.
its flight,

plumage except that which aided

pierced the joints of his oppo-

struck within a hair's breadth of the

it

Whether

nent's harness, or shivered on the shield,

times, a question;

might

be,

someis

but that
it

it

often

wounded

deeply,

proved by the retaliation

provoked.

What
when
the

can be more happy than his allusion to Napo-

leon after the battle of Leipsic and his retreat to Paris,

first

gleams of victory shone over the gloomy

struggle of the Allies for twenty years?

POLITICAL OBATOES
"How
was
1

GASSING.

255

In those countries where, at most, a their prospect changed had been terminated by a result disastrous to their wishes, if not altogether closing in despair, they had now to contemplate a very different aspect of affairs. Germany crouched no longer trembling at the feet of the tyrant, but maintained a balanced contest. The mighty deluge by which the Continent had been overwhelmed, is subsiding. The limits of the nations are again visible, and the spires and turrets of ancient establishments are beginning to reappear above the subsiding waves."
short struggle

It

is

rarely that so brilliant a speaker, one so fond of

ornament, has such a fund of good sense.

familiar

He was

even

with the intricacies of finance, and in one of on the bullion question) " played," says
"

his speeches (that

Horner,

with

its

most knotty

subtleties."

When
it

the

British government, in 1811, undertook to

to

make

penal
offered

buy gold
the

at a

premium, and a resolution was

in

House of Commons declaring that the notes of

of

the

Bank

England had been, and then were, held in

Canning

public estimation "to be equivalent to the legal coin of

the realm, and generally accepted as such," Mr.

exposed the absurdity of the measure in the following

terms, which have as

much
if

pertinency to certain Ameriuttered with direct reference

can financial schemes, as

to

them:
"

When Galileo first promulgated the doctrine that the earth turned round the sun, and that the sun remained stationary in the centre of the universe, the holy fathers of the Inquisition took alarm at so daring an innovation, and forthwith declared the
first

of these propositions to be false and heretical,

and the

other to be erroneous in point of faith.

pledged itself to believe that the earth was stationary, and the sun movable. But this pledge had little effect in changing the natural course of things the sun and the earth continued, in spite of it, to preserve their accustomed relations to each other, just as the coin and the bank-note will, in spite of the right honorable gentleman's resoluoffice
;

The holy

tion."

Another rare merit which Canning

sense of the assembly he addressed.
to speak,

finally

possessed

was that of seizing and giving expression

to the general

Often, before rising

he would make a lounging tour of the House,

listening to the observations

which the previous speeches


256

OKATOEY AND OEATORS.

excited, so that at last,

had

when he himself

spoke, he

seemed to many of his hearers to be merely giving a

striking and impressive utterance to their

own

thoughts.
wit.

The one weapon of which he was most master was

" His irony,"
it is said,

"

was swift and

stealthy,

it

stabhed

like a stiletto."

Unfortunately, he was only too willing

to use

it,

and

as to this

was added a somewhat haughty

no wonder that he often
to convince.

manner, and an apparent indifference to the feelings of

those

whom

he ridiculed,

it

is

exasperated

when he should have sought only

first

During the

ten years of his parliamentary career,

he never made a speech on which he particularly plumed

himself, without likewise

making an enemy

for

life.

comic alliteration,

ludicrous combination of words,

resist.

occurring to him, was a temptation he could not

The
to

alliterative phrase, " revered

and ruptured," applied

de-

an unfortunate person, made Canning more unpopular

than the worst acts of his Administration. His sneering

scription, in 1812, of the
fir

American navy

as " half-a-dozen
heads,''

frigates,

with

bits of

bunting flying at their

exasperated the American people more than the impress-

ment

of their seamen.

As

Sir

Henry Bulwer
form

says:
at

"He
fight-

was always young.

squibbing
'

The head

of the sixth

Eton
;

the doctor,' as Mr. Addington was called

ing with Lord Castlereagh; cutting jokes on Lord Nugent;

flatly contradicting

Lord Brougham; swaggering over the

Holy Alliance

he was in perpetual personal quarrels,

one
is his

of the reasons which created for

him

so

much

personal

interest during the whole of his parliamentary career."

One

of the best specimens of Mr. Canning's wit

celebrated sketch of Lord

the Spanish patriots

Nugent who went out when their cause was nearly

to join
lost:

POLITICAL ORATORS

CANNING.

257

" It was about the middle of last July that the heavy Falmouth coach was observed traveling to its destination through the roads of Cornwall, with more than its wonted gravity. The coach contained two inside passengers, the one a fair lady of no inconsiderable dimensions, the other a gentleman who was conveying the succor of his person to the struggling patriots of Spain.* I am further informed, and this interesting fact, sir, can also be authenticated, that the heavy Falmouth van, (which honorable gentlemen, doubtless, are aware is constructed for the conveyance of cumbrous articles,) was laden, upon the same memorable occasion, with a bos of most portentous magnitude. Now, sir, whether this box, like the flying chest of the conjurer, possessed any supernatural properties of locomotioi, is a point which I confess I am quite unable to determine; but of this I am most credibly informed, and I should hesitate long before I stated it to the House, if the statement did not rest upon the most unquestionable authority, that this extraordinary box contained a full uniform of a Spanish general of cavalry, together with a helmet of the most curious workmanship; a helmet, allow me to add, scarcely inferior in size to the celebrated helmet in the castle of Otranto. Though the idea of going to the relief of a fortress, blockaded by sea and besieged by land, in a full suit of light horseman's equipments was, perhaps, not strongly consonant to modern military operations, yet when the gentleman and his box made their appearance, the Cortes, no doubt, were overwhelmed with joy, and rubbed their hands with delight at the approach of the long promised aid. How the noble Lord was received, or what effects he operated on the councils of the Cortes by his arrival, I do not know. Things were at that juncture moving rapidly to their final issue; and how far the noble lord conduced to the termination by throwing his weight into the sink^

ing scale of the Cortes,

is

too nice a question for

me

just

now

to settle."

The
is

finest. passage,

perhaps, in all Mr. Canning's speeches the ships in ordinary at Ply-

his beautiful picture of

mouth, as

an

etude of peace.
ered at
docks

emblem of England reposing in the quiThe speech in which it occurs was delivin

Plymouth

1823, after he had

inspected the

" Our present repose is no more a proof of our inability to act than the and inactivity in which I have seen those mighty masses that float in the waters above your town is a proof that they are devoid of strength or incapable of being fitted for action. You well know, gentlemen, how soon one of those stupendous masses now reposing on their shadows in perfect stillness how soon, upon any call of patriotism or of necessity, it would assume the likeness of an animated thing, instinct with life and motionhow soon it would ruflEle, as it were, its swelling plumage how quickly it would put forth all its beauty and its bravery, collect its scattered elements Such as is one of those magof strength, and awake its dormant thunders.
state of inertness

Lord Nugent was a remarkably

large,

heavy man, with a head too large

in proportion to his body.

11*

258
nificent

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

such

machines when springing from inaction into a display of its strength, England herself, while, apparently passive and motionless, she silently eauses her power to be put forth on an adequate occasion."
is

when Paganini was asked who was the Europe, he replied: "I do not know; Labinsky is second." Lokd Bbottgham is said to have made a similar evasive reply when asked whom he conIt is said that
first

violinist

of

sidered the greatest orator in England.

If not the Cory-

phaBus

among

the great orators of the present

all

century,

he stands, beyond

dispute, in

the very front rank.

He

appears early to have adopted

Demosthenes

as

his

model; and in one quality he resembles the Greek orator

whose speech he has translated, and some of whose passages

he

has

imitated.

We

refer

to

his

energy,

the

dsivorrjc;

of the Greeks.

Endowed with
is

a tough, lignum-

vitee

frame, he had a mental organism equally robust;

his

and

oratorical

style

the natural
It is

outcome of

his

physical and mental constitution.

not the exercitatio

is

domestica

et

umbratilis, the silvery eloquence which

its

nice

and dainty in

choice of words, and which appeals to

the reason rather than to the feelings, but that impetuous

oratory which rushes

medium

in agmen, in pulverem, in

clamorem, in castra, atque in aciem forensem.

in
it

There

is

a freshness and energy, a rushing force, a declama-

tory vehemence, which

reminds one of the roar of the

In
its

cataract or the dash of the torrent.

passages,
it

most

fiery

comes down with a sustained and tremendous

impetuosity, like a

bombardment with red-hot

If the highest strength

shot from

a whole park of artillery.

His speeches have been called

is

"law papers on
found in repose,

fire."
it

to be

does not belong to

Brougham.

Every
eji-

word, look, and gesture indicate a

restless,

impatient


POLITICAL OKATOKS
ergy.

BROUGHAM.
his

259

Martin Luther said that the reason why

com-

position

was

so

boisterous

and tempestuous, was, that

storms";

he was "born to fight with devils and

and

Brougham might have made

ease

a similar explanation.

Of

and quiet he has apparently no conception.

his

Occasionally
to a scream.
falling tences,

vehemence of tone amounts almost

to hear

One seems

rough and thick

hail

and rattling on the roof as he

"Tam
multa

listens to his sen-

in tectis crepitans salit horrida

grando";

and the
is

effect

upon the nerves

is

far

from pleasant.
is

There

at times a monotony of declamation which

suggestive

of the beating of a gong, or

fault

an oratorical machine;

which

led

an old English judge, who loved dawdling,

and hated the " discomposing qualities " of Brougham's

oratory, to
call

him

the

Harangue.

"

Well, gentlemen,
it

what did
stating
it)

the
;

Harangue say next?

Why,

said this (mis-

but here, gentlemen, the Harangue was wrong,

and not

intelligible."

But though Brougham has plenty

of faults,

they are the faults, not of weakness, but of

power.

He

runs riot in the exuberance of his strength.

in
their

His sentences are interminable

length,

stuffed

with parentheses, and as full of folds as a sleeping boaconstrictor.

He

is

fond of repetition and exaggeration,

clothes his ideas in almost endless forms of words; crowds

qualifying clauses, explanatory statements, hints, insinuations,

and even

distinct thoughts, into a single

sentence;

piles Ossa

upon Pelion; accumulates image upon image, metaphor upon metaphor, argument upon argument, till
thread of the reasoning, and
lost in the labyis

the hearer, perplexed by the multiplicity of ideas, almost

loses the
is

rinth of his periods.

Occasionally, also, he

too theatrical

260

OKATOET AND OEATOES.

when
at the close of his great speech in

for good taste, as

the

House of Lords on Parliamentary Eeform, sinking on

the floor beside the woolsack, he exclaimed:

"By

all

you

hold most dear,

to

by

all

the ties that bind every one of us

our

common

order and our

common
I

country, I solemnly

adjure you,

warn you,

implore you,

bended knees, I supplicate you,

yea, on my
Pas-

reject not this bill."

sages like these, which are better adapted to Southern than

to

Northern

latitudes, are apt to

provoke a sarcasm from

the cold-blooded Briton like that of Sheridan

when Burke

threw down a dagger on the

mons:

floor of the

House of Com-

"The gentleman
is

has brought us the knife, but

where

the fork?"

Again, Brougham has too great a love for big " diction'
ary words.''

He seems either to have no taste for Saxon English, or to know little of its force. His
essentially a spoken style,

simple,
style
is

better

to hear than to read;

that,

and
him,

all
it

who have heard him agree

was impossible
to obtain

without hearing

any but a dim concepDemosthenes, Chat-

tion of his power.

This disadvantage he shares with some

of the greatest orators,

notably with
all

ham, and Pox.

In spite of

drawbacks, however,

we

feel

even in reading his printed speeches, that their have been prodigious, especially when
extraordinary elocution, and that
his

effects

must
his to

we remember
object

was not

please, but to strike hard, to carry the object in hand, to

hit the nail

on the head.

It

is

in personal encounters,
foe,

in close, hand-to-hand
is

fights

with a
"

that his power

most signally displayed.

assault,"

For

fierce.

Vengeful, and

ir-

resistible

says
in

John Poster,
all

"

Brougham

stands

the

foremost

man

this

world."

When

thus enin

gaged, his dialectical

skill,

his quickness

and keenness

fOlilTlCAL OEATORS

BEOUGHAM.
weak

26l

exposing a fallacy or crushing a

pretense, his gall-

ing irony, his flaying sarcasm, his encyclopsedic knowledge,

his
his

rushing resistless declamation, his defiant courage, and

ability to wrest a
its

weapon from the hands of an

edge upon himself,

ad-

versary and turn

rible advantage.

appear

to ter-

Canning was the only member of the

House who could match him on such an occasion, and

some of the encounters which took place between these
intellectual gladiators,

the

Coeur de Lion and the Sala-

din of the Senate, the one

other with the scimitar,

armed with a

battle-axe, the

the

one athletic and powerful,

the other nimble, adroit, and a

consummate master of

fence,

were

among

the most exciting exhibitions of this kind

ever witnessed in the British Parliament.

In speaking of Brougham's attack, Professor Goodrich remarks that " it is usually carried on under the forms of
logic.

For the materials of his argument, he sometimes

but he never

goes off to topics the most remote and apparently alien

from
it

his subject;

fails to

come down upon

is

at last

with overwhelming force."

He

a great mas-

ter of irony

and sarcasm.

Though he has an abundance

is

of wit,

it

never, like Canning's, takes the form of polished

and sparkling pleasantry, but

tempt.

steeped in scorn and con-

Perhaps no orator ever lived whose invective

terrible.

was more

The

effects

he produced were materi-

ally increased

by

his looks

and gestures, which were as

unique and remarkable as his sentiments.

As he
its

adits

vanced in years, his face became like granite, deep in

lines,

strong in

its

individuality, almost fierce in

his forehead, the

power.

The iron massiveness of

nose, half-turned

long twitching
its

up and half square

at

lower end,
full of

the

high cheek bones, the large, restless

mouth,

"

262

ORATORY

a:sX)

orators.
as a hawk's, the

character, the eye, quick

and watchful

saturnine

swarthiness

of his

complexion,

arrested
In
its

the
his

attention of every observer.

The impression made by

oratory was the more remarkable, as he labored under

the disadvantage of an unmusical voice.

highest
said,

tones
like

it

was often harsh and hoarse, sounding,

prey;

it is

the
its

scream of the northern eagle swooping down

but this was compensated in some degree

upon

by his

skill in its

management, modulating

it,

as he did,

with admirable

skill.
is

good specimen of Lord Brougham's manner

on

the

close of his speech

Law

Reform, in 1828:

"You saw
of
ries

the greatest warrior of the age, conqueror of Italy

of the North,

humbler

Germany, terror

saw

him account

all

his matchless victo-

poor compared with the triumph you are now in a condition to win, saw fortune, while in despite of her he could proI shall go down to posterity with the Code in my hand Tou have vanquished him in the field strive now to rival him in the sacred arts of peace Outstrip him as lawgiver whom in arms you overcame The lustre of the Regency will be eclipsed by the more solid and enduring splendor of the Reign. It was the boast of Augustus, it formed part of the glare in which the perfidies of his earlier years were lost,- that he found Rome of brick and left it of marble. But how much nobler will bo the Sovereign's boast, when he shall have it to say, that he found law dear and left it cheap found it a sealed book, left it a living letter fonnd it the patrimony of the rich, left it the inheritance of the poor; found it the twoedged sword of craft and oppression, left it the stafE of honesty and the shield of innocence

him contemn the fickleness of nounce his memorable boast

:
1

'

'

One
felicity
least,

of the chief merits of

in

Brougham's oratory
little

is

its

description.

Having
other

imagination,

in

proportion to his

faculties,

he
an

at

has no
his

poetic

passages,
his
it

no meteoric images flashing across

is
is,

page;
far as
sky, in

light
goes, it

emphatically a "dry light";

as

but, so
Italian
stars,

some one has

said, like

which towers,

trees, temples,

mountains, and

are defined to an almost unearthly sharpness.

A striking

example of his pictorial power

is

the passage in his speech

POLITICAL OEATORS

BROUGHAM.
" the

263

on the Slave Trade, in 1838, when he described the horrors

of the Middle Passage,

and spoke of

shark that

fol-

lows in the wake of the slave-ship," declaring that " her

course
is

literally to

be tracked through the ocean by the

blood of the murdered, with which her enormous crime

stains its waters.''

Hardly

less

noteworthy

is

the invective

against the policy of Mr. Pitt, in a speech in 1812, at the

Liverpool election:
" Gentlemen, I stand up in tMs contest against
tlie

friends and followers of

now no Immortal in the miseries of his devoted country! Immortal in the wounds of her bleeding liberties! Immortal in the cruel wars which sprang Immortal in the intolerable taxes, the from his cold, calculating ambition! countless loads of debt which these wars have ilung upon us, whifch the youngest man among us will not live to see the end of Immortal in the triumphs of our enemies, and the ruin of our allies, the costly purchase of so much blood and treasure! Immortal in the afflictions of England, and the humiliations of her friends, through the whole results of bis twenty years' reign, from the flrst rays of favor with which a delighted court gilded his early apostasy, to the deadly glare which is at this instant cast upon his name by the burning metropolis of our last ally !* But may no such immortality ever fall to my lot, let me rather live innocent and inglorious: and when at last I cease to serve you, and to feel for your wrongs, may I have a humble monument in some nameless stone, to tell that beneath it there rests from his labors in your service an enemy of the immortal statesman, a friend of peace and of the people.' "
Mr.
Pitt, or,

as they partially designate him,

'

the immortal statesman,'

more.

'

It is

easy to imagine the electrical effect of such declamathe following, which breathes defiance in every
It
is

tion

as

word.

from his speech in the House of Lords

in

1838, on the emancipation of

Negro apprentices:

" I have read with astonishment, and I repel with scorn, the insinuation that had acted the part of an advocate, and that some of my statements were colored to serve a cause. How dares any man so to accuse me? How dares any one, skulking under a fictitious name, to launch his slanderous imputations from his covert? I come forward in my own person. I make the charge in the face of day. I drag the criminal to trial. I openly call down justice on his head. I
I

defy his attacks. I defy his defenders. I challenge investigation. How dares any concealed adversary to charge me as an advocate speaking from a brief, and misrepresenting the facts to serve a purpose? But the absurdity of this charge even outstrips its malice."
*

The news of

the burning of

Moscow had reached

Liverpool that very day.

264

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

The following passage from the peroration of a speech

in

the

House

of

Commons,

in 1830, on

Negro Slavery,

will recall to the reader the

memorable burst of eloquence

by Curran on a similar theme:

" Tell
I

me

not of rights,

deny the right I acknowledge not theproperty.

talk not of the property of the planter in his slaves.

is

of our

common

nature, rise in rebellion against

understanding or to the heart, the sentence

The principles, the feelings Be the appeal made to the the same that rejects it. In vain
it.
I

There is a law above all the you tell me of laws that sanction such a claim enactments of human codes, the same throughout the world, the same in all daring genius of Columbus pierced the night such as it was before the times, of ages, and opened to one world the sources of power, wealth, and knowledge to another all unutterable woes such it is at this day. It is the law written in the heart of man by the finger of his Maker; and by that law, unchangeable and eternal, while men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and abhor blood, they will In vain reject the wild and guilty phantasy that man can hold property in man you appeal to treaties, to covenants between nations; the covenants of the Almighty, whether of the old covenant or the new, denounce such unholy pretensions "

That there
ham's displays,

is
is

a dash of charlatanry in
doubtless true, as
it
is

many

of Brougall

true of

such

monsters of power; but as an advocate, he has, in his

peculiar line, very few superiors.
fashion with

For a time

it

was a

men who
as

could not conceive of the possibility

of excellence in
to sneer at

him

more than one department of knowledge, "no lawyer"; but the fact that, in spite
reversed on

of his swift dispatch of business, hardly one of his chan-

cery decisions was

appeal to the

House of

Lords, shows that his place in the most jealous arid exacting of professions was
fairly

won.

Less versed than

many

of his

rivals in the technicalities of his craft, yet

in-

in quick,

keen insight into the bearings of a cause, in

domitable pluck in the most adverse circumstances, in

promptness in meeting a sudden emergency, in the

ful

skil-

worming out

of latent facts, in iriipromptu adroitness

rhetorical
iteration "

in veiling defective evidence with

sa;rcastic- ii'ony

drapery, in
of invective

and

"

damnable

POLITICAL OEATORS

BBOUGHAM.

265

when required against a witness or a prosecutor, he was

unsurpassed.
in the

His speech in defense of Quaen Caroline,

is

House of Lords,

admitted, with

all its faults, to

skill.

have been a masterpiece of dialectical and rhetorical

The rank and sex of

his client, the

malignant and brutal

tyranny of her husband, George IV, the intense interest

felt

by the nation in the

result, the

exalted character of

the tribunal, the great array of hostile talent, learning

and

eloquence,
all

all

conspired, on this occasion, to call forth

the advocate's powers.

We

can give no analysis or

extracts

from

this

great

speech, the
all

most striking pas-

sages of which are familiar to

forensic eloquence.
for the bill

students of modern The power with which the evidence

skill

was shattered; the

with which the

testi-

mony

of Majocchi, the

non mi ricordo Majocchi,

of

De-

ment, 'Hhe Machiavel of waiting-maids," and of Cucchi,

with " that unmatched physiognomy, those gloating eyes,
that
sniifing

nose, that lecherous

mouth,"

was
if

probed,

dissected,

and destroyed; the defiant courage with which he

pronounced the King " the ringleader of the band of perjured witnesses,"
in

have never been surpassed,

Hardly
inferior,

matched,

modern
to

forensic oratory.

perhaps fully

equal,

the

last-mentioned

oratorical

made by Brougham
all

in defense of

effort, was that Ambrose Williams. When

Queen Caroline died in August, 1821, the

the churches of

bells in nearly

England were

tolled in respect to her

silent.

memory, those of Durham only remaining

this silence,

Upon

Mr. Williams, the editor of a newspaper at

severity,

Durham, commented with some

upon indicted
and near the
13
city of

and was there-

for a libel against

"the clergy residing in

Durham."

The

pith of the

libel

was contained in the following passages:

266
"In
this

OBATOKT AND OKATOKS.

Episcopal
city,

containing six churches independently of the

announced the departure of the magnanimous Thus spirit of the most injured of Queens, the most persecuted of women. the brutal enmity of those who embittered her mortal existence pursues her We know not whether any actual orders were issued to in her shroud. prevent this customary sign of mourning; but the omission plainly indicates the kind of spirit which predominates among our clergy. Yet these men profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, to walk in his footsteps, to teach his precepts, to inculcate his spirit, to promote harmony, charity, and Christian love Out upon such hypocrisy 1"
cathedral, not a single bell
. . 1

The prosecution was conducted by Mr.

in his opening
bells

Scarlett, who,

speech contended that the silence of the

respect,

might have been intended as a mark of

that the clergy were not so loud in their grief as others,

because, perhaps, they were

more

sincere,

and sympathized

too deeply with the Queen's fate to give an open expression to their

sorrow.

Brougham, who
prey":

led

the

defense,
it as

saw

at once the fearful blunder,

and " pounced upon

the falcon pounces

" That you

upon

its

the meaning of this passage, it is necessary for you the picture my learned friend was pleased to draw of the clergy of the diocese of Durham, and I shall recall it to your minds almost in his own words. According to him they stand in a peculiarly unfortunate situation they are, in truth, the most injured of men. They all, it seems, entertained the same generous sentiments with the rest of their countrymen, though they did not express them in the old, free, English manner, by openly condemning the proceedings against the late Queen and after her glorious but unhappy life had closed, the venerable the clergy of Durham, I am now told for the iirst time, though less forward in giving vent to their feelings than the rest of their fellow-citizens, though not vehement in their indignation at the matchless and unmanly persecution of the Queen, though not so unbridled in

may understand

me

to set before

their joy at her immortal triumph, nor so loud in their lamentations over her

mournful and untimely end, did, nevertheless, in reality, all the while, deeply sympathize in her sufferings, in the bottom of their reverend hearts When all the resources of the most ingenious cruelty hurried her to a fate without parallel, if not so clamorous, they did not feel the least of all the members of the community; their grief was in truth too deep for utterance, sorrow clung round their bosoms, weighed upon their tongues, stifled every sound and when all the rest of mankind, of all sects and of all nations, freely gave vent to the feelings of our common nature, thbib silence, the contrast which THEY displayed to the rest of their species, proceeded from the greater depth of their affliction; they said the less because they felt the morel Oh
; I

talk of hypocrisy after this

Most consummate of

all

the hypocrites

After

instructing your chosen,

official

advocate to stand forward with such a defence

"

POLITICAL ORATORS

BROUGHAM.
!

267

such an exposition of your motives to dare utter tlie word hypocrisy, and complain of those who charged you with it! This is indeed to insult common sense, and outrage the feelings of the whole human race If you were hypocrites hefore, you were downright, frank, honest hypocrites to what you have now made yourselves, and surely, for all you have ever done, or ever been charged with, your worst enemies must be satiated with the humiliation of this day, its just atonement, and ample retribution!

In his opening speech Mr. Scarlett had expressed his

regret that the clergy had not the

power of defending

themselves through the public press.

To

this
it,

Brougham
and " scur-

replied that they had, in fact, largely used

rilously

and foully libelled" the defendant:

;

wound deeply or injure much bat that is no fault of theirs without hurting, they give trouble and discomfort. The insect brought into life by corruption, and nestled in filth, though its flight be lowly and its sting puny, can swarm and buzz and irritate the skin and offend the nostril, and altogether give us nearly as much annoyance as the wasp, whose nobler nature it aspires to emulate. These reverend slanderers, these pious backbiters, devoid of force to wield the sword, snatch the dagger and destitute of wit to point or to barb it, and make it rankle in the wound, steep it in venom to make it fester in the
;

" Not that they

scratch."

To give an adequate account of Brougham

passages
tea-cup.
is

in a

few

like

trying to compress the

Amazon

into a

In one session of Parliament he made two hun-

dred and thirty speeches, of which he says in an epitaph

which he wrote upon himself,

" Here, reader, turn your weeping eyes. My fate a useful moral teaches;

The hole in which my body lies. Would not contain one-half my speeches."

In

this, as in

many

other things, he was an exception to

as one
is

the ordinary

and recognized laws of success; and,

contemplates his marvellous and meteoric career, he

tempted, in spite of
its

brilliancy,

even

in spite of his

magnificent achievements in behalf of liberty, education,

and charity,
magis."

to exclaim:

"Non equidem

invideo, miror

CHAPTEE

X.

POLITICAL ORATORS /"^ ^-^

IRISH.

EEATER
ferior as

as a thinker than

Chatham

or Pox, but in-

an orator, was Edmund Bubke, who, in the

variety and extent of his powers, surpassed every other orator of ancient or

modern

times.

He was what

he called

Charles Townshend, " a prodigy," and ranks not merely with

the eloquent speakers of the world, but with the Bacons,

Newtons, and Shakspeares.

are saturated with thought
;

His speeches and pamphlets

they absolutely swarm,
like

an

ant-hill, with ideas, and, in their teeming profusion, remind one of the " myriad - minded " author of Hamlet.

To the broadest sweep of

surprising
subtlety,

intellect,

he added the most

and

his almost oriental imagination

was fed by a vast and varied knowledge,

the

stores of

memory man who,

a

that held

everything in
to

its

grasp.

The only
comprein polit-

according

Adam

Smith, at once

hended the
ical

total revolution the latter proposed

economy, he was at the same time the best judge of

a picture that Sir Joshua Reynolds ever knew, and while

his

knowledge was thus boundless,

as
his

his

vocabulary was as

extensive
lived on
tile.

knowledge.

Probably no orator ever

plastic

whose

lips

language was more

his style

and ducages; and

The materials of
spoils of

were gathered from the

of
all

accumulated
it

many tongues and

has been said that even the technicalities and appro-

POLITICAL OEATORS

BUKKB.
and
arts,

269
pro-

priated phraseology of almost all sciences

fessions

and modes of

life,

were familiar to him, and

most emphatic manner the

were ready

to express in the

exhaustless metaphors which his imagination supplied from

these sources.
It
is

told

among

the

miracles of

Mahomet

that

he

enabled his followers

to

for days, not only to subsist,

but

grow

fat

on the sticks and stones of the desert; and,

in like

manner, the imagination of Burke could find nutri-

ment
fact.

in statistics,

the

veriest dry-bones of finance

and

" It could busy itself with the fate of

an empire,
It

or with the condition of the king's kitchen.

brought

before

him the Catholic who groaned in the bogs of Tip-

perary, and the African

who

rotted in the slave factories

of Guinea.

It

entered the royal buttery, and in a

moment

the dry details of cooks

a scene that

and turnspits are wrought into

might have provoked the envy of Sheridan."

his

burning enthusiasm for whatever object engaged

sympathies was one of his leading qualities;

and hence

vehemence, passionate earnestness, and declamatory energy

are

among

the most salient qualities of his speeches.

When

his passions

were

asleep, he

was one of the most sagacious

were roused, he "took
it

of

men; but when

his prejudices

his position like a fanatic

and defended

like a philoso-

pher."
to the

His mind when thus excited has been compared

Puritan regiments of Cromwell, which moved to
with the precision of machines, while burning with

battle

the fiercest ardor of fanaticism.

Burke's speeches abound with examples of the most

solid

and

brilliant

eloquence, argumentative,

emotional,

and descriptive, while they also contain a greater number

of illuminative
ideas,

of

pointed, poignant, and

poetic

270
sentences,

ORATOKY AND ORATORS.

than

those

of

any other orator.

There

is,

indeed, hardly any species of oratorical excellence which

may
and

not be found in them in heaped profusion, and they,

less

needed only to have been

to

profound and

reflective,

have been delivered by a speaker with adequate produced a profound impression.

physical gifts, to have

Unfortunately for his influence as an orator, both his

voice

and

his

manner,
Tall,

his

figure

and

his gesture,

were

against him.

but not robust, awkward in gait and

gesture; with an intellectual but severe countenance, that

rarely relaxed into a smile; speaking a strong and rather

ungainly Irish brogue; having a voice which was harsh

when he was

calm, and which,

when he was

excited,
it is

became

often so hoarse as to be hardly intelligible;

not won-

derful that 'he failed to ravish his hearers, and was nick-

named

"

The Dinner

Bell "

by men who had been

spell-

bound by the imposing

figure, the eagle eye,

and the

pas-

sionate oratory of Chatham.

But the

chief cause of their

weariness was his mode of handling his subject.

of seizing, like Fox,

Instead
case,

on the strong points of a

by

throwing away intermediate thoughts and striking

heart
of his

at the
to

theme,

he stopped to philosophize and

instruct his hearers, and, as Goldsmith says,

"Went
And
thought of convincing while

on

refining.

tiiey

thought of dining."

Johnson

tells

us that his early speeches "filled the town

with wonder"; but he adds that while none could deny

that he spoke well, yet all granted that he spoke "too

often and too long."

Oratory,
lengthiness;

it

has been justly said, like the drama, abhors

abhors,
too,

it

above

all

things, prolonged
to. which it appeals

philosophical discussion.

The passions

POLITICAL ORATORS

BURKE.
in

271

must be those which

arguments which
it

all

men have most

common; the
must be those

addresses to the reason

which can be apprehended by

ily as

men

of plain sense as read-

by hair-splitting casuists or deep-thinking scholars.

if

Even beauties themselves,

they distract the attention

from the main theme, become blemishes. on the part of

Burke, from the

very depth of his understanding, demanded too great an

intellectual effort
" too great his hearers;
little

he exacted

a tension of faculties

exercised by

men

of the world in general, not to create fatigue in an assembly which

men

of the world composed."

As an

orator, he

too often forgot the great objects of oratory, conviction

and

persuasion, and failed in two things which,

it

has been said,

are given but to few, and

sessed alone,

when
"

given, almost always pos-

fierce,

nervous, overwhelming declamation,'

and

close,

rapid argument.

He

can seldom confine him-

self," says

Henry

Eogers, " to a simple business-like

to
close,

view

of the subject

under discussion, or
it.

rapid,

com-

pressed argumentation on

On

the contrary, he makes

boundless excursions into all the regions of

political philosophy; is

moral and
particular

perpetually tracing

up

instances

and subordinate principles to profound and comamplifying and expanding the most

prehensive maxims;

meagre materials into brief but comprehensive dissertations of political science,

and incrusting

(so to

speak) the

nucleus of the most insignificant

fact with the

most ex-

quisite crystallizations of truth; while the

whole composi-

tion glitters

and sparkles again with a rich profusion of and just."

His speeches

moral

reflections, equally beautiful

were, in fact, elaborate political lectures, delivered often

with the air of a pedagogue teaching his pupils.

what Clootz pretended

to

be,

"the orator of the

He was human

272
race,"

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

and while
lie

could harangue

man

eloquently, was

unskilled in the art of

addressing men.

While he was
sym-

expatiating on themes of eternal interest, his hearers were

absorbed in the business of the hour, and had

little

pathy with that broad and high

political philosophy, out of

like

which

his

masculine and thoughtful eloquence sprang

the British oak from the strong black

mould of
his

ages.

So
of

unsuited to the House of

Commons was
Erskine
which,

method
under

expounding
benches
to

his

views,

that

crept

the

escape

a speech

when

published, he
it

thumbed

to rags;

and Pitt and Grenville both decided

to

was not worth while

answer another of

his
it

famous
with ex-

harangues, though Grenville afterward read

treme admiration, and pronounced

efforts.*

it

one of his grandest

less

important fault was a certain lack of refinement

taste,

and delicacy of
her

which Wilkes wittily characterized

said of Apelles' Venus, that

when, in allusion
flesh

to

what was
if

seemed as

she had fed on roses, he declared

that Burke's oratory " would sometimes

make one
In

suspect

that he eats potatoes and drinks whisky."

tives, especially,

his invec-

Burke often indulges

in the most intem-

perate and grossly offensive language, which sometimes

reaches such a degree of violence as to provoke a reaction
in favor of his victim.
ings, he
sty,

In his fury against

" the

Warren

Hast-

compares him to " a sow," to

filth

keeper of a pigrat or a

wallowing in
"

and corruption," and to " a

assimilate
to

weasel."

When we

him

to such contemptible

animals,

we do not mean

convey an idea of their incapa-

*Mr. Rush, the American Minister, relates that Erskine said to him: "I in the House when Burke made his great speech on American conciliation, greatest he ever made, he drove everybody away. When I read it, I read it over and over again; I could hardly think of anything else,"
was

the

POLITICAL ORATORS
bility of

BURKE.
lice,

273

doing injury.

When God

punished Pharaoh and

which,

Egypt,

it

was not by armies, but by locusts and

though small and contemptible, are capable of the greatest

mischiefs."

In his picture of Carnot drinking the

life-

blood of a kingi and " snorting

away the fumes

of indiges-

tion" in consequence, Burke reminds one of the "scolding

of the ancients."

But

let

us not dwell upon these exceptional

passages
taste

of Burke, at which, in his cool

moments,

his

own

must have revolted, but pass

bursts,

to

one of his grand outits

where

his genius shines out in

fullest lustre.

One of the
eloquence

finest specimens,
is

perhaps the

finest,

of Burke's

the

famous passage in the speech on the

is

Nabob
of
it

of Arcot's debts, in which

described the descent

that has once read
into which

Hyder Ali on the Carnatic.

Who

can ever forget " the black cloud "

Hyder
of

Ali

"compounded

all

the materials of fury, havoc^ and

declivities

desolation,"

and " hung for awhile on the

the mountains"; the "storm of universal fire that blasted"

the land; the

crowd of prisoners "enveloped in a whirllike

wind of cavalry" (an illustration

one

of Lucan's,

who
gary,

speaks of

"a storm

of horse"); "the people in begits

a
the

nation that stretched out

hands for food";

the absolution
his yet

"of their impious vow by Hyder Ali and

;

more ferocious son "

British

an absolution so complete
"

that

army, in traversing the Carnatic for

all directions,

hundreds of miles, in
line of their

through the whole

march did not

see one

man, not one woman,

not one child, not one four-footed beast of any description

his

whatever"; and the climax, where the orator bids audience figure to themselves " an equal extent of our

sweet and cheerful country,

from Thames

to

Trent north

274

OKATOKY AND OKATOES.

and south, and from the Irish to the German sea east and
west,

emptied
is

and emboweled (may God avert the omen

The
this

of our crimes!) by so accomplished a desolation?"

best proof of the

intense

vividness

and power of
it
is,

passage,

the fact that, hackneyed as

and worn

to

shreds by schoolboy declamation, no person of taste and

sensibility can read
iive
it,

or hear

it,

for the hundredth or

in

hundredth time, without a tingling of the blood

every vein.
It

would be

diiScult to

name a more

striking

exam-

ple of the force of

what may be

called classical prejudice

than Lord Brougham's comments on this memorable* passage.

Contrasting with
terror

it

the description by Demosthenes

of the

and confusion at Athens, when the news

arrived

that Elateia had been seized by Philip of Macesilence

don, and when, amid the general the proclamation of the

herald,

that

followed

Demosthenes
all

arose, and

suggested

measures that caused

the dangers to pass

says:

away

maiz^p vi^oi;, "like a cloud,"

Lord Brougham

"Demosthenes uses but a single word, and the work is done." True; but what is the work that is done? Is there
a tyro in public speaking
passing

who

could not compare the

of

away

of a great

danger to the passing away

a cloud?

It is the

prerogative of genius to take an old

all

image or metaphor, from which

the beauty and vividit

ness have faded, and, by a few original touches, give

new

brilliancy

and

effect.

In the present case Burke has

taken a hackneyed, worn-out figure, and, by expansion and

elaboration, has transformed
it

into one of the most pic-

turesque images in modern oratory.

Again, Lord Broug-

ham, somewhat hypercritically,

objects to the confusion in

Burke's imagery because he compares Hyder All's army

POLITICAL OKATOKS
first

SHERIDAN.
speech, however,

275

to

"a

black cloud," then to a "meteor," then to a

" tempest."

To the hearers of the

cai-p,

we

have no doubt that this very variation of the imagery,

at

which a pedagogue would

served only to heighten

the vividness and effect of the picture of the terrible warrior

and

his host

advancing from the menacing encampto

ment on the mountain

the

massacre on

the

plain.

So, again, the secondary touches

which

fill

up the

picture,

such as the " blackening of

all

the horizon," the " goading

spears of the drivers," and " the trampling of

pursuing

horses," instead of diminishing the effect, as his Lordship

contends, serve,

we

think, to swell the fearful

grandeur of

the tempest which poured over the plains of the Carnatic.

JHster criticism

is

that of other writers,

who complain

of the visual inaccuracy of a " meteor', blackening all the

horizon,"
lack

and that the

first

two sentences of the passage

simplicity

and directness, being too much clogged

with qualifying thoughts.

Of none of the great orators of Great Britain

difficult at this

is it

more

day to form a just opinion than of that ver-

satile genius,

Eichakd Beinslet Sheridan, of

"Nature formed but one such man. broke the die in moulding Sheridan."
critics

whom Byron

sang,

And

There are acute

orator.

who even deny

that he was a great

His

taste,

they declare, was radically vicious.

florid, if

His

sentiments were clap-trap; his rhetoric

bastic; the apostrophes

not bomso daz-

and the invocations which

fit

zled his hearers,

ries

were only

to be addressed to the galle-

by some hero of a melodrama.

He was

not an eagle

" Sailing in supreme dominion Through the azure deep of air,"

'

276
but only a
kite,

OKATORY AND ORATORS.

with a keen eye and heavy body, labori-

ously beating his

way through

the reluctant ether.

De

Quinoey does not hesitate to

charlatan;

pronounce him an absolute

he was a mocking-bird, he says, through the

entire scale,

from the highest

fact,
it

to

the lowest note of the

gamut,
"

in

the

mere impersonation
in
his

of

humbug.
tetigit

Of Goldsmith

was said

epitaph,

Nil
it

quod non ornavit; of the Drury-Lane rhetorician

be said with equal truth, Nil
teravit."
tetigit

might

quod non fuco adulfor

There

is,

no

doubt,
is

some ground
not whether

these

accusations;

but the question

Sheridan

was an original thinker, or whether he did not sometimes

sin against a fastidious taste, but

how

did he affect those

not, a formidable

who

listened to

him ?

Was
Did

he, or

was he

adversary in debate?
souls of his hearers

he, or did he not, stir

up
Did

the
he,

from their innermost depths?

or did he not, charm, convince, and persuade his auditors?

This

is

the only true criterion of oratory, the great end

it

of which,

must be remembered,
Tried by this

is

to persuade,

and by

carrying captive the passions, to attack through them the

citadel of reason.
test,

Sheridan,

we

think,

must be pronounced a great To begin

a first-rate speaker.

orator.

with, he had naturally

many

of the elements of

He had

a pleasing countenance, a voice

with mellifluous tones and of considerable depth and compass,

a rare versatility of talents, a knowledge of the human

heart and the

way

to touch its chords,

an abundance of

self-

assurance, and
rufile
it.

a temper which defied every attempt

full of
life

to

His manner was theatrical, but

and

energy.

He

delighted especially in antithesis, apostrophes,

and rhetorical exaggeration.

of profound political

Habitually indolent, destitute

knowledge, incapable of projecting

POLITICAL ORATORS

SHERIDAN.
by
his

277

great measures, he yet became one of the champions of

his party,

and was more

fea-red

adversaries than
abili-

were leaders who had far greater knowledge and

ties.

Good sense and

the

wit,
it

we

are told, were the ordinary

to say in

weapons of
excelled,

his oratory;

was hard

which he

instinctive

insight with which

he detected
raillery

the

weak points of an adversary, or the inimitable

"

with which he exposed them.

says Wraxall, "

He wounded

deepest,"

when he

smiled, and convulsed his hearers

with laughter, while the object of his ridicule or animadversion was twisting under the lash."

When

Pitt, still

young man, stung by

to crush

his witticisms,

undertook in that vein

so noted,

of arrogant sarcasm for which he

was afterward

him by a contemptuous allusion

to his theatrical

pursuits, he
" Flattered

was met with a quick and sharp rebuke:

and encouraged by the right honorable gentle-

man's panegyric on

my

talents, if I ever
to, I

again engage in

the composition he alludes

of presumption,

may

be tempted to an act

and attempt an improvement on one of

Ben Jonson's
'

best characters, that of the

"

Angry Boy,

in

The Alchymist.'

When

urged

to speak

on topics which

exacted extensive knowledge, or an appeal to authorities,

he would frankly say:

"You know
me, and

am
do

an ignoramus;

but here

am,

instruct

I'll

my

best.''

Few

persons could have acquitted themselves creditably under

such disadvantages; yet such was the quickness and penetration of his intellect, that he

was able speedily and

to

to

master

the information they provided, a freshness

pour
like

it

forth with

and vivacity that seemed

the results of
acquisition.

long familiarity rather than of

impromptu

During the

first

seven years in Parliament, Sheridan

gave no signal exhibition of his powers as an orator.

278

ORATOKY AND ORATORS.

His short, sharp attacks on Pitt and Kigby, and occasional

bursts of remonstrance against the Tory measures, gave

some idea of

his

mettle;
rival

but he did nothing to stamp

of the

him

as " the

worthy

wondrous Three,"

till

he took part in the impeachment of

Warren
topic

Hastings.

Fortunately for the display of his genius, he was assigned

the charge relating to the Begums,
full

which gave

scope for the exertion of his peculiar powers.

On

this

charge he delivered two speeches,

after in

one in the House

Westminster Hall.
genius,

of

Commons, the other soon

the
first

Of

of these
five

eagle-flights

of full-grown

which occupied

hours and a
It is

half,

no adequate record

has been preserved.

enough

to say that it was, by

universal confession, one of the most dazzling and powerful

eiforts of

oratory in modern times.

Men
"

of all parties
every-

vied with each other in their praise.

One heard

body in the

street," says

Walpole, " raving on the wonders

of that speech."
in
its

author,

win favor

He adds that there must be a witcheiy who had no diamonds, as Hastings had, to with, and that the Opposition may fairly be
Pox, a severe judge, declared that

charged with sorcery.

" all that he ever heard, all that he

had ever read, when

compared with
like

it,

dwindled into nothing, and vanished

Burke,
it

vapor before the sun."

in

Pitt,

Windham
all

and

Wilberforce, agreed

placing

above

other, even

the most wonderful, performances of ancient or modern

times.

Within twenty-four hours from

for the press.

its

delivery, Sheriif

dan was offered a thousand pounds

he could correct
it

for the copyright,

This he never did, and

to us

in the outline that has

faint

come down

we have but

a
its

adumbration of the speech.

A
it

signal proof of

power, was that the House deemed

necessary to adjourn.

"

POLITICAL ORATORS
to give the astonished audience

SEERIDAlf.
its

279
reason,"

time " to collect

and recover from the dazzling enchantments and the excitements

it

had undergone.

One member declared that

" nothing, indeed, but information almost equal to a miracle could

determine him to vote for the charge; but he

the influence

had just felt

of such a miracle, and he could

not but ardently desire to avoid an immediate decision."

But the highest testimony was that of Logan, the defender of Hastings.

After Sheridan had spoken an hour,

"All this
is

Logan
" This

said to a friend:

declamatory assertion

without proof."
is

Another hour passed, and he muttered:

wonderful oration."

a most

third,

and he

confessed:

"Mr. Hastings has acted very

of the fourth, he

unjustifiably."

At the end
is

exclaimed:

"Mr. Hastings

a most atrocious criminal."

At

last,

before the speech

:

was concluded, he vehemently protested

sters of iniquity, the

most enormous

is

" Of all monWarrin Hastings

!

At

a later day Byron, in his "

Monody," wn;h pardonable

poetical exaggeration, sang:

"When

the loud cry of trampled Hindostan Arose to heaven in her appeal to man, His was the thunder, his the avenging rod, The wrath, the delegated voice of God, Which shook the nations through his lips, and blazed Till vanquished senates trembled as they praised."

Among

the epigrammatic parts of the speech, one of

is

the most notable

the denunciation of the sordid spirit

of trade which characterized the operations of the East-

India
*'

Company

as a

government:

There was something in the frame and constitution of the Company which extended the sordid principles of their origin over all their successive operations, connecting with their civil policy, and even with their boldest
achievements, the meanness of a pedler and the profligacy of pirates. Alike in the political and the military line could be observed auctioneering ambassadors and trading generals; and thus wc saw a revolution brought about by affidavits;

an army employed in executing an arrest; a town besieged on a note of hand;

280

OEATOET AND ORATOES.

a prince dethroned for the balance of an account. Thus It was that they exhibgovernment which united the mock majesty of a bloody sceptre and the little traffic of a merchant's counting-house, wielding a truncheon in one hand
ited a

and picking a pocket with the other."

An
drags
of the

acute writer has well observed that there

skill

is

a sin-

gular felicity in the

with which the speaker here

down the governor of a vast empire to the level common herd of profligates and criminals by conand the cut-throat.
"

necting his greatest acts with the same motives which

influence the pick-pocket

By

bring-

ing the large conceptions and benevolent aims which should

characterize a ruler of nations into startling contrast with

the

small

personal

aims

which animate the heroes of

Hounslow Heath, he had an opportunity to play the daz* zling fence of his wit with the most brilliant effect."

When

the

Commons had

voted to impeach Hastings,

Sheridan, as one of the managers, delivered before a more

august assembly another oration on the subject of

his

former masterpiece,
the

viz.

the defendant's ill-treatment of

Benares rajah and the Oude princesses.

The

pro-

ceedings opened in Westminster Hall, the noblest room in

England, on the 13th of Pebraary, 1788.

four of her daughters were
present,

The Queen and

of
fifty peers

and the Prince

Wales walked in
of the realm.

at the

head of a hundred and

Never, perhaps, was public expectation, on

such an occasion, wrought to a higher pitch.

So great

was the eagerness

to obtain seats, that fifty guineas

were

paid for a single ticket.

For four days the great,

noble,

and beautiful of the land hung on the eloquence which

Sheridan's

former great

effort

had not exhausted; and

though

his oration

was disfigured by many extravagances

to

and meretricious ornaments, and was certainly inferior

* " Essays and Eeviews," by Edwin P. Whipple.

POmTICAL OKATOES
that in the

SHERIDAN.
all

281

Hou^e of Commons, yet

agreed in pro-

nouncing

it

a spefech of prodigious power.

Burke went

so far as to say that,

from poetry up to eloquence, there

was not a species of composition of which a complete In and perfect specimen might not be culled from it.
reading the verbatim report of the speech, in cold blood,
to-day,

we

find
its

little to

justify the

homage which

it

re-

ceived on

delivery;

but the same observation, as we

be

have

already seen,

may
that

made
it

of

many

of the

most

eloquent speeches

have ever thrilled an assembly.

Half of the power of eloquence,

consists in its

must be remembered,

adaptation to the time, place, and audience.

for the

Even the great Oration

play of eloquence
to

Crown, the mightiest

dis-

known
in

in the annals of mankind, fails

awaken to-day

the

soul

of the

reader the sentiit

ments of enthusiasm and intense admiration to which

gave birth in the Athenian Agora.

Sheridan's greatest defect as an orator was, apparently,

his lack of

deep convictions.
is

Without these a command-

ing eloquence

impossible.

On

the trial he was

wrought
of

up

to

an unusual pitch of feeling; but commonly he was

best fitted for

bate.

what has been

his

called the

Comedy

De-

Often

when

associates failed with their

heavy

guns

to demolish the

enemy's works, his lighter artillery

effect.

played upon them with telling

adversaries with ridicule, he

Overwhelming

his

was equally successful in deshafts.

fending himself fr.om

their

When
first

Mr. Law, the

counsel for Hastings, ridiculed one of his forced and tumid

metaphors, he replied:
that

"It

is

the

time in

my

life

r have

ever heard of special pleading on a metaphor,

or a bill of indictment against a trope.

But such was

the turn of the learned counsel's mind, that,

13*

when he

at-

282

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

tempted to be humorous, no jest could be found, and when

serious,

no fact was
of

visible."

Sheridan's excellence in
the

all

the departments

oratory, except perhaps

strictly

argumentative,
Inferior to

reminds one of

an ancient pentathlete.

Pitt in dignity of manner, to

to

Pox

in argu-

ment and vehemence, and

Burke

in imagination, depth,
to with

and comprehensiveness of thought, he was listened

more delight than any one of them. Burke, in spite of his gorgeous periods, was often coughed down Pitt wearied his hearers by his starch and mannerisms, and Pox tired them by his repetitions; but Sheridan "won his way by
;

a sort of fascination."

When

he arose

to

speak, a low

murmur

of eagerness ran round the House;

for,

every word

was watched
in a roar.
ing.

and

his pleasantry set the

whole House

In the social circle he was equally bewitchthat his talk was "superb";
the wittiest

Pox,

Byron, who declared who pronounced him

man

he had ever

met with; and Moore,

have deemed

his biographer,

have

all testified to

the brilliancy of his conversation, though none of them

it

possible to do justice

by any

description

to those quick flashes of repartee, that rolling fire of light

raillery, the
flight of

sharp voUies of vivid

satire,

the dropping

epigrams, for which he was so famed.

The

latter

writer has happily portrayed

him

as

**The orator, dramatist, minstrel, wlio ran

Tlirougli eacli mode of the lyre, and was master of all; Whose mind was an essence compounded with art From the finest and best of all other men's powers;

Who
And

ruled like a wizard the world of the heart. could call up its sunshine or bring down its showers."

Probably no orator ever bestowed more labor upon the

preparation of his speeches, even to the pettiest
details,

than Sheridan.

He

never, says his biographer,

made a


POLITICAL OEATOIIS

SHERIDAN.

283

speech of any moment, of which a sketch was not found

in his papers,

with the showy parts written two or three

times over.

His memoranda show that the minutest points

had been carefully considered, even to marking the exact

place
in

which

his

apparently

involuntary exclamation,
to be introduced,

"Good God! Mr. Speaker," was

occasions on which he bursts of passion.
ling,

and the

was

to be hurried into
his wit, so brilliant

impromptu, and spark-

Even

was carefully conned and learned by

it,

rote.

Whole

mornings were secretly given to

to

which were supposed

be spent in the indolent sleep of fashion, and

" improvisations "

many

of

his happiest

were

jests that

had been
thoughts

kept in pickle for months.

in a

Noting down

his best

memorandum-book,

as they occurred to him, he had

always at hand some

tion or speech.

felicities to

weave into a conversa-

Some of these absolutely haunted him, and nothing can be more amusing than to note the various forms through which some of his sarcastic pleasantries passed

from their
"

first

germ
to

to " the bright,

consum-

mate flower

which he gave

the

public.

It

was

in
his

allusion to this practice

jests,

of preparing and

polishing

and waiting for an opportunity to

fire

them
to

off,

of creating

an opportunity when

it

was slow

come,

that Pitt taunted

him with

his

"

hoarded repartees and

matured

jests.''
is

Of these elaborated impromptus the following

ample.
'

an ex-

In his commonplace book he speaks of a person

his fancy in his narrative,

who employs

and keeps

his

recollections for his wit."

This was afterward expanded

into the following:

"

When

he makes his jokes, you apit is

plaud the accuracy of his memory, and

only

when

he states his facts that you admire the flights of his im-

284
agination."

OEATOEY AND ORATOUS.

But
so sparkling a jest

was not

to

be hid-

den in the pages of a note-boot;

will import

so it

was

fired off at a

composer of music who had turned wine-merchant: "You

your music, and compose your wine."

Even
its

this use of the

thought did not satisfy Sheridan, while

capabilities of application
it

were

still

unexhausted; and so

was

fired off

in a seemingly careless parenthesis, in a

speech in reply to Dundas, " a right honorable gentleman

who generally

resorts to his

memory

for his jokes,

and

to his imagination for his facts."

Again, Sheridan was

"

greatly pleased, apparently, with a metaphor he had drawn

from the terms of military

he

science.

true trained wit,"

foresees the cir-

says, " lays his plan like a general,

cumstances of the conversation,

contingences,
the

and

surveys the ground and

draw you
into

detaches a person to

palpable ambuscade of his ready-made joke."

This

idea next appears in a sketch of a lady

ry:

who

affects poet-

"I made regular approaches

to her

by sonnets and

rebuses,

a rondeau of circumvallation, her pride sapped

effusion

by an elegy, and her reserve surprised by an impromptu;

proceeding to storm with Pindarics, she at last saved the
further
of ink
satisfied

by a capitulation."
he

Most wits

would have been

forth in a

with these triumphs; but Sheritill

dan cannot abandon the witticism

of

has
in the

shot

it

more elaborate and polished form

House

Commons.

The Duke

of

Eichmond having
him on
his

introduced,

in the session of 1786, a plan for the fortification of dock-

yards, Sheridan complimented

genius as an

engineer in the following mocking strain:

his

"He

had made
his realogic.

Report an argument of

posts,

and conducted

soning upon principles of trigonometry as well as

There were certain detached data,

like

advanced works.

"

POLITICAL ORATORS
to

SHERIDAN".
No

285

keep the enemy at a distance from the main objects

in debate.
sertions.

Strong provisions covered the flanks of his asHis very queries w^ere in casements. imof

pression, therefore,

was

to

be

made on
and

this
it

fortress

sophistry by desultory observations;

to sit It

was necessary

down

before

it,

and

assail it

by regular approaches.

was fortunate, however, to observe, that notwithstandall

ing

the skill employed by the noble and

literary en-

gineer, his

mode

of defense on

paper was open to the

same objections which had been urged against his other

fortifications, that if

his adversary got possession of

one

of

his

posts,

it

became strength against him, and the

means of subduing the whole line of his arguments."*

It

was unfortunate for Sheridan's reputation as an

orator that he was the son of a player, a dramatist,

and

Because Sheridan thus prepared many of his brilliant sallies, it has been and to infer that he was incapable of improvising a splendid burst of eloquence or a sparkling witticism. The fact is, that nearly all great speakers have elaborated their finest passages, but, luckily, they have not all, like Sheridan, had biographers who have revealed " the secrets of the shop." A sensible writer says truly that most men of genius spend half of their time in day-dreaming about the art or subject in which they are interested or excel. The painter is peopling space with the forms that are to breathe on canvas; the poet is murmuring the words that are to burn along his lines; and the wit who is welcomed at rich men's feasts,
the fashion to scofE at his genius,
is

constantly turning over his jests in his

pression will give

to the use of the

memory, to see what form of exthem the most piquancy and point. There is no objection

utmost art in the preparation of important passages in a is not apparent. It is well known that It was in fishing for trout in Marshfield, that Webster (who ' in bait and debate was equally persuasive''') composed the famous passage on the surviving veterans of the battle for his first Bunker Hill address. "He would pull out a lusty specimen," says Starr King, " shouting venerable men, you have come down to us from a former generation. Heaven has bounteously lengthened out your lives, that you might behold this joyous day.' He would unhook them into his basket, declaiming, You are gathered to your fathers, and live only to your country in her grateful remembrance and your own bright example.' In his boat, fishing for a cod, he composed or rehearsed the passage in it on Lafayette, when he hooked a very large cod, and, as he pulled his nose above water, exclaimed, Welcome all hail and thrice welcome, citizen of two faemispeech,
if

only the art

'

'

'

Bpheres.'

286
the

OKATORY AND OEATOKS.

manager of a theatre. upon him
and a
trickster,

That
as

his

critics

have conto

sequently looked
charlatan

an

actor, not

say a

cannot
it is

be

doubted.

How

much

of his

careless,

procrastinating

way sprang from

secret love of
to say.

natural tendencies, and

how much from a

hard

display and startling surprises,

Though
he could

he hated all needless

and

much needed

labor,

yet toil terribly for special ends.

His practice in great

emergences, was " to rise at four in the morning, light

up a prodigious quantity
toasted

of candles around him, and eat

muffins

while

he

worked."

When, during
for his

the

trial of Hastings,

he was called on to reply to Mr. Law,

and was asked by a brother manager

papers, he

bag and
"

answered that he had none, but would get

through his speech by hook or crook without them.

He

would abuse Mr. Law,

ridicule

Plumer's long orations,

make

the court laugh, please the

antly through the whole."

cellor again insisted

women, and get triumphAs he went on, the Lord Chan-

on the reading of the minutes; and

"

Fox, alarmed lest the lack of them should ruin the speech,

inquired anxiously for the bag.

The man has no

Moore
his
says,

bag,"

whispered Taylor.
contrivance
ability to

The whole
to

scene,

was
by

of Sheridan

astonish

hearers

his

make

a speech without materials, since he had

shut himself up for several days at Wanstead to elaborate

this

very oration, and read and wrote

so

hard that he
eyes.

complained at evening that he had motes before his

" It

was the

fate of

Mr. Sheridan throughout

life," says

his biographer, "

and in a great degree

his policy, to gain

credit for excessive indolence

and

carelessness, while few

persons, with so

much

natural brilliancy of talents, ever

display."

employed more art and circumspection in their

POLITICAL ORATOKS

GKATTAN.

287

In the very front rank of the

whom
tory,
left

Ireland has

many brilliant orators In produced stands Henby Gkattan.

it

his earliest

youth he showed a remarkable taste for oraalmost as soon as he

his

and he began to cultivate

college.

Adopting Bolingbroke and Junius as

models, he committed certain passages of his speeches to

memory, and, revolving them continually

in his

mind

till

he had weeded out every needless word, he brought his

sentences at last to a degree of nervousness, polish,

and

condensation, that has hardly a parallel in oratory.

While

reading law in London, he

fell

under the

spell of Chatelse

ham's eloquence, and from that

moment everything
the

was forgotten in the one great aim of cultivating his

powers as a public speaker.

Among

means he adopted

was that of declaiming in private, of which practice some

amusing anecdotes are preserved.

lady in

It is said that his land-

London wrote

to his friends requesting that he

should be removed, as he was always pacing her garden,

and addressing some person

whom

he called " Mr. Speaker,"

It is

which led her to doubt the sanity of her lodger.

stated,
also,

that

in

one of

his

moonlight rambles in

Windsor Forest, he stopped at a gibbet, and began apostrophizing

its

chains in his usual impassioned strain,

when

he was suddenly tapped on the shoulder by a prosaic person,

who

inquired,

"How

the devil did you get

down?"

About

this

time he took also a prominent part in private

theatricals; but,

owing

to his

vehemence and abruptness

of manner, his

awkwardness and redundancy of gesture,

and the lack of modulation in his voice, he met with but

moderate success.
In hardly one of G rattan's qualities as an actor was
there a prophecy of his

future greatness

as

an orator;

288

OKATOET AND OKATOKS.

it is

and

said

that

in

the

mechanical parts of

public

speaking he was always deficient.

physical and

Laboring under many

short in stature
the
his

intellectual disadvantages;

and unprepossessing in appearance; almost sweeping ground with his gestures, so that the motion of
long arms was compared
to the

rolling of a

ship in a

heavy swell; adding, at the beginning of

his

his speeches, to

awkwardness and grotesqueness of manner a

;

hesitating
little

tone and a drawling emphasis

gifted

by nature with

wit or pathos, and no pleasantry; he, nevertheless, became one of the greatest masters of oratory within the walls of
St.

Stephen.

While he was inferior

to several of his great

contemporaries as a mere debater, he combined two of the

highest qualities of an orator to a degree that was almost
"

unexampled.

No

British orator," says Mr. Lecky, " ex-

cept Chatham, had an equal power of firing an educated

audience with an intense enthusiasm, or of animating and

inspiring a nation.

No

British orator except

his

Burke had

an equal power of sowing

speeches

with profound

aphorisms and associating transient questions with eternal

truths.
his

His thoughts naturally crystallized into epigrams;

force of

arguments were condensed with such admirable

and clearness that they assumed almost the appearance

of

axioms; and they were often interspersed with sentences

concentrated
poetic

beauty,
force of

which flashed upon

the

audience with

all

the

sudden inspiration, and

His element,

which were long remembered and repeated."

in the opinion of another critic,

who
it

often heard

him

in

Parliament, was grandeur.

As

was said of Michael

Angelo that there was

life

in every touch of his chisel, and

that he struck out forms and features from the marble

with the power of a creator, so

it

might be said of Grat-

POLITICAL ORATORS
tan, that there

GRATTAJST.

289
his

was nothing mean or commonplace in

thoughts or images, but everything came fresh from his

mind with the energy and vividness of a new

creation.

He had

the

power of investing the humblest themes with

and even the grievances of a casual
measure of finance, became

a sudden magnitude,

impost, the delinquencies of the police, the artifices of an

election, or the formalities of a

under his hand historic subjects, and were associated with

recollections of intellectual

triumph.

In the invention, choice, and arrangement of arguments,

he shows an originality, sagacity, and copiousness equal

to those of
is

any other British speaker; but

to conduct his hearers

his chief

aim

not so

much

through long trains

results of rea-

of reasoning, as to give

them the concrete

minds

son

itself,

not

to lead their

to the understanding

of a question by the labyrinth of a slow, tedious logical

process, but

by a single
It
is

flash to

fill

them with illuminaimpassioned ardor,

tive conviction.
this

this

brilliant

impetuous movement, which preeminently distinguishes

the oratory of Grattan,

and impresses the reader of

his

speeches

even more, perhaps, than his profound knowl-

edge, his wisdom, his

consummate

art, his

beautiful

imfor

agery, and

his exquisite diction, to admire,

which we know not

what quality most

for its force, eloquence,

and

precision, or for that

wondrous dithyrambic melody, that

exquisite
all

music of cadence, in which Grattan stands among

orators supreme.

The

blaze, the rapidity, the penetraall

tion of

Grattan 's oratory, struck

who heard him.

He

poured out his arguments like a shower of arrows, but they

were arrows tipped with

nous statement;
13

fire.

He was unmatched

in crush-

ing invective, in delineations of character, in terse, lumi-

he delighted in severe, concentrated ar-

290

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

his

gument, in biting sarcasm, and in flashing

the

ideas on

mind with

a sudden, startling, abruptness.

is

In

many

of his sentences there

a condensed energy of expression

which almost equals that of Tacitus.

of feeling
is

What an amount
its

conveyed in that sentence so famous for

touching and concentrated beauty, in which he speaks of

his efforts to establish .the

freedom of the
its

Irish

Parliaits

ment, and says: "I watched by

hearse "
!

cradle; I followed

Grattan, unlike nearly all other orators, seemed to have

the

before

him two
audience

distinct classes of hearers

when he

spoke,

he addressed, and

more enlightened
appreciate the
so as to con-

auditory of the thoughtful few

highest excellences of oratory.
vince and
instruct

who could He spoke

at the

charm

his

hearers, and

same time

to

future

generations.

His chief faults were

his

intense mannerism, his occasional incongruity of metaphor,

and

his excess

of epigram and antithesis.

Occasionally,

though

rarely, he

was
and

obscure, in allusion to which, and

brilliancy, his eloquence has been

to his rapid force

picturesquely characterized as

" a combination of cloud,

whirlwind, and flame."

to

The rhythmus
care.

of his sentences,

whose exceeding beauty we have already alluded, must

have been studied with great

What

can be

finer

than the close of his great speech in 1780, on moving a

declaration of Irish right:
it

"I have no ambition,

unless
glory.

be to break your chain, and to contemplate your

I will never be satisfied so long as the meanest cottager in Ireland has a link of the British chain clanking to his
* In allusion to this passage, O'Connell, at a later day, proudly said: " Grattan sat by the cradle of his country, and followed her hearse it was left for me to sound the resurrection trumpet, and to show that she was not dead, but
:

Bleeping."

POLITICAL OKATOKS
rags.
I

GRATTAK.

291

He may

be naked, he shall not be in irons.

And

do see the time at hand; the spirit has gone forth; the
is

Declaration of Eight

planted;

and though great men

live;

should

fall

off,

yet the cause shall

and though the

fire

public speaker should die, yet the immortal

last

shall out-

the humble organ who conveys

it,

and the breath of

will not die with

liberty, like the

word

of the holy

man,

the

prophet, but will

survive

him."
is

The speech from

finest effort

which

this peroration is

taken

perhaps the
to it

of Grattan's genius.

Nothing equal
its

had ever before

been heard in Ireland, nor was

delivered within the English

superior probably ever

House of Commons.
it

Other
in ar-

speeches on the

same subject may have matched

startling
all.

splendor of style

gument and information; but in it surpassed them

energy and

Grattan did not

in-

merely convince his countrymen, but he dazzled and

flamed them; he raised the question of Irish freedom into

a
loftier

region of thought and sentiment than

it

had
learn

ever before occupied;

that he

and we are not surprised

idol of

to

became from that hour the

his country-

men, and was looked upon as the prophet of Irish Redemption.

In his speech on the Downfall of Bonaparte, he characterizes
sition.

Burke

as " the prodigy of nature

and of acquido justice to

He

read everything, he saw everything, he fore-

saw everything."

Of Pox he

says:

"To
limit

that immortal person,

this
it

you must not

your view

to

country;

his genius was not confined to England,

acted three hundred miles off in breaking the chains

it

of Ireland;

was seen three thousand miles off in communicating freedom to the Americans; it was visible I
far off in

know not how

ameliorating the condition of

"

292
the
in

OKATORY AND ORATOES.

Indian;
it

was discernible on the coast of Africa

accomplishing the abolition of the slave-trade.

You

are to measure, the magnitude of his

latitude."

mind by

parallels of

In the same speech he denounces the tyranny

of Napoleon as " an experiment to universalize throughout

Europe the dominion of the sword;

and religious influences;
alien in
to set

to

relax the moral

heaven and earth adrift

tolerated
dein

from one another; and make God Almighty a

Ms own

creation."

sert her allies, he says:

Warning England not to "In vain have you stopped

your own person the flying fortunes of Europe; in vain

have you taken the eagle of Napoleon, and snatched
vincibility
in-

from

his standard, if

now, when confederated

Europe
sertion,

is

ready to march, you take the lead in the de-

and preach the penitence of Napoleon and the

poverty of England."

One of Grattan's most electric speeches was delivered when he was prostrated with disease, and so feeble that
he could not walk without help.
occurs the memorable passage:
It is in this speech that

"Yet

do not give up
is

my

country.

I see

her in a swoon, but she

lies helpless
life,

not dead.
still

Though
there
is

in her

tomb she
lips

and motionless,

on her

a spirit of

and on her cheek a

glow of beauty:
"'Thou
Is

art not conquered: beauty's ensign yet crimson in thy lips and in thy cheelis, And death's pale flag is not advanced there.'

Grattan was preeminently a born orator.

Eloquence

with him was not simply a means to an end, an instru-

ment

to gain

power

it

was

his native element, a necessity

if

of his existence.

It

has been said that

he had been

born among the backwoodsmen, he would have been an

POLITICAL ORATOES
orator,

O'COKNELL.
of

293

and would have roused the men of the hatchet

rifle.

and the

Wherever the tongue

and

man

could have

won

influence, or impassioned

brilliant appeals could

have given pleasure, he would have been listened to with

admiration and delight.
If he

had not found an audience,

he would have addressed the torrents and the trees; he

would have sent forth

tains,

his voice to the inaccessible

stars.

moun-

and appealed to the inscrutable

Among
possible to

the popular orators of Europe

it

would be im-

name another who

so absolute a

ruled the stormy passions

as

of the

mob with

sway

was exercised by that

giant and athlete of the tribune, Daniel O'Connell.

He
to

won

his first laurels as

an advocate, and rose swiftly

leading

the highest rank in the profession.

vigilance

In managing a cause,
characteristics.
;

and caution were

his

Naturally impulsive, he affected to be careless

yet a

more
his

wary advocate, or one more jealously watchful of

client's interests,

never scanned the looks of a jury.

is

No

great lawyer,

it

said,

ever had a truer relish for the

legal profession:

he had the eye of a lynx and the scent

a legal flaw, and hunted

of a

hound

to detect

down a
duties

cause with all the gusto of a Kerry fox-hunter in pursuit

of a reynard.

Undiverted from attention to

his

by the temptations of idleness or pleasure, O'Connell never

failed to

be prepared for the important

the restless

moment

of trial,

with
life

all

power which a strong mind and a

of industry bestow.

Few were

so intimately acquaint-

ed with the Irish character, and while he keenly enjoyed

baffling the counsel for the prosecution,

and bullying or
of an ad-

perplexing the witnesses against the trembling culprit in

the dock, he was rarely defeated

by the

skill

294

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

In

versary, or the stnbbornness or cunning of a witness.

the criminal

cases
;

he

played the

part of an indignant

lawyer to perfection
fury, and dashed
-;it

caught up his brief-bag in a seeming

against the witness-table,

frowned,

muttered fearfully to himself,

with a horrid scowl on his face;

a
fit

down in a rage, bounced up again, in

sat

of boiling

passion,

and solemnly protested in the

injustice,

face of

heaven against such

out of the

away,

swaggered

court-house,

threw then
and,

his brief

swag-

gered back again,

and wound up by brow-beating and

abusing
real

half-a-dozen

more

witnesses,

without any

grounds whatever,

finally succeeded in

making

half

of the jury refuse to bring in a verdict of " Guilty.''

In
nisi

civil causes, also,

O'Connell stood at the head of the

estates,
is

prius lawyers.

In case of legacies, disputed

and questions springing out of family quarrels, he

ported to have

re-

been unrivalled for his

especially for

tact,

shrewdness,

presence of mind, and

details of business.

understanding the

"

He

was not the match of Wallace,"

inapplica-

says a writer, "in showing the cogency of an

ble reason;

he was not so acute as O'Grady in piercing

to the core of a refractory witness,

and detecting perjury

Pennefather in puz-

or fraud;

he was not so shrewd as

zling the judges

upon some

subtle point, which had been

raked from the dusty

hit

folios

of technical

perplexity, or

upon by long and abstruse speculation; he had not

the unimpassioned but graceful eloquence of North, pour-

ing upon the ear like moonlight upon a marble statue;

but he exhibited in an eminent degree the characteristic

excellences of

them

all."

He had

a profound knowledge

of
tiff

human

nature, and penetrated the motives of a plainskill.

or defendant with matchless

His stores of world-

POLITICAL OEATOES
ly

O'CONKBLL.

295

knowledge and legal

lore, his

keenness and ingenuity,

his off-hand Irish readiness, his

abundant subtlety in the

invention

of topics

to

meet an adversary'^ arguments,

temper and good-natured

united to a penetration that never left one point of his

own

case unexplored,

humor,

his jolly

his biting ridicule

and vehement eloquence,

all

together rendered
O'Connell's
ished
his

him absolutely matchless at the Irish mind was rather strong and fiery than

bar.
pol-

and

delicate.

He was

not a classical speaker, and

knowledge of literature was apparently small.

There

was, at times, a degree of coarseness in his harangues;

and he had, indeed, one of the most venomously sarcastic

tongues ever put into the head of man.
that he

He

used to say
But,

was the best abused man in

most usurious

all

Europe.
repay
all

whoever abused him, he knew how

scores with
interest.

to

such

He

could pound an
invective,

antagonist with denunciatioij, riddle

or roast

him with

him

alive before a slow fire of sarcasm.

is

good

illustration of his style of attack

furnished by the fu-

rious altercation
ter turned Tory,

between him and

Disraeli,

when

the latas one

and was pronounced by O'Connell

" who, if his genealogy could be traced,

to be the lineal descendant

would be found

and true heir-at-law of the imfor his crimes

penitent thief

who atoned

upon the

cross,"

a
this,

touch of genius worthy of Swift or Byron.

Proba-

bly no sarcasm of Disraeli ever

made an enemy writhe

arrow
to the

with a tithe of the anguish which he himself suffered from

which went

like a poisoned

mark, and

rankled like a barbed one.

In nick-names, O'Connell was

especially happy, as in his "Scorpion Stanley"

and "Spin-

ning-jenny Peel."

The smile

of the latter, he said, was

"like the silver plate on a coffin."

296

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

As a popular orator before a miscellaneous audience, John Eandolph, who had good O'Connell had few equals. opportunities of forming a judgment, pronounced him the
first

orator in Europe.

Every chord of the "harp of a

His voice, which Disraeli

thousand strings " lay open to his touch, and he played

upon

it

with a master's hand.

admitted to have been the finest ever heard in Parliament,

was deep, sonorous,

tions

distinct,

and

flexible.

In
it

its transi-

from the higher

All

to

the

lower notes,

was won-

drously effective.
its

who heard him were enchanted by

its

swelling and sinking waves of sound,

quiet and soft

cadences of beauty, alternated with bass notes of grandeur

and even
to its

its

" divinely-managed brogue " added not a little

charm, especially when he indulged in sparkles of

" Easy humor, blossoming Like the thousand flowers of spring."

One of the most marked

utter

traits of his oratory,

was

its

self-abnegation.

He had no

rhetorical

trickery;

he never strove, like his contemporary. Shell, to strike

and

dazzle,

to create

a sensation and be admired.

Of

the thousands

and tens of thousands who heard him,

Senate
or

whether thundering in the

haranguing the

multitude on his route from his coach-roof, not one person probably ever dreamed that a sentence of that flow-

ing stream of words had been pre-studied.

His bursts of

passion displayed that freshness and genuineness which art

can so seldom counterfeit.

"

The

listener," says

Mr. Lecky,

"seemed almost
perceive

to follow the
his

workings of his mind,

to

him hewing

thoughts into rhetoric with a

negligent but colossal grandeur; with the chisel, not of

a Canova, but of a Michael Angelo."

There was no chord of feeling that he could not

strike

POLITICAL ORA.T0ES
with power.

o'cOIfKELL.
moment by
by
his

297
his

Melting his hearers at one

pathos, he convulsed

them

at the next

humor; bearhe would

his

ing them in one part of his speech to a dizzy height on

the elastic

wing of

his imagination, in another

make
logic.

captive their judgments

by the iron links of

No

actor on the stage surpassed

him

in revealing

the workings of the

face.

mind through
only, but

the

windows of the
countenance

Not the tongue

the whole
it

spoke; he looked every sentiment as

fell

from

his lips.

"He

could whine and wheedle, and wink with

It is said that

one eye,

while he wept with the other.''

occasion

on one

a deputation of Hindoo chiefs, while listening

to his recital before

an assembly of the wrongs of India,

off

never took their eyes

him
says

for

an hour and a
intelligible

half,

though
ears.

not one word in

ten was

to

their

His

gesticulation,

an

intelligent

American

writer,

who heard him when

at the height of his fame,

strictly sui generis,

"

was redundant, never commonplace,

far
it

from being awkward, not precisely graceful, and yet

could hardly have been more forcible, and, so to speak,

illustrative.

He threw

himself into a great variety of

attitudes,

all

evidently unpremeditated. a grenadier.

Now

he stands
the

bolt

upright, like

Then he assumes

port and bearing of a pugilist.

Now

he folds his arms

upon

his breast, utters

some beautiful sentiment, relaxes

them, recedes a step, and gives wing to the coruscations

of his fancy, while a winning smile plays over his countenance.

Then he stands

at ease,

and relates an anecdote

with the rollicking air of a horse-jockey at Donnybrook

fair.

Quick as thought, his indignation

is

kindled, and,

before
his

speaking a word, he makes a violent sweep with

if

arm, seizes his wig as

he would tear

it

in pieces,

298
adjusts
it

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

to its
place,

throws his body into the attitude

of a gladiator, and pours out a flood of rebuke and de-

nunciation."

In person, O'Connel]

had many of the

qualifications

of an orator, his appearance corresponding to his mind.

He was
bear.

tall

and muscular, with a broad

the
his strong

chest,

and Herto

culean shoulders as extensive as

burden he had

From

and homely

look,

and

his careless

and independent swing as he walked along, he might

have been taken for a plain, wealthy farmer, had not
face
his

been occasionally enlivened by an eye of

life

fire.

In

private

he was enthusiastically admired.

Warm

and

generous in his feelings, cordial and frank in his manners,

loving a good joke, having an exhaustless supply of wit

and humor, he was every way

that even the veriest

so fascinating in manners,

Orangeman who had drunk knee" Glorious Memory," and strained his throat deep to the in giving one cheer more " for Protestant ascendency,
''

could not

sit

ten minutes by the side of the " Great Agiinto

tator" without being charmed

the confession that

no man was ever better

of his countrymen.

fitted to

win and hold the hearts

He was

a born king

among

his fel-

low-men,

so truly such, that

air.

even his faults and errors

had a princely

His early excesses and sins were His highest glory

is,

royal in their extravagance.

that,

though not a statesman, he was a daring and successful

political agitator; that

he revolutionized the whole

social
its

system of Ireland, and remodelled by his influence

representative, ecclesiastical
that, if

and educational

institutions;

he indulged sometimes in ribaldry and vulgar

abuse, his fury was poured out

upon meanness,

injustice,

and oppression; that he championed the cause of human-

POLITICAL ORATORS
ity

SHEIL.

299

without regard to clime, color, or condition; and that

too,

wherever the moan of the oppressed was heard, there,

was heard the trumpet-voice of O'Connell, rousing the

sympathies of mankind, rebuking the tyrant, and cheering
the victim.

Lack of space forbids us from attempting

the
that of O'Connell, with

to

portray

oratory of Richard Laloe Sheil, so utterly unlike

whom

he was so often associated.

Southern writer, about thirty years ago, thus vividly

"

contrasted the artificial styles of Sheil and Macaulay with

the spontaneous eloquence of Grattan
eaulay's genius
living library
book,'
as the
is
;

and Burke:

Mais

is

the genius of scholasticism.

'

He

and the old vulgarism,

He

talks like a

a literal truth in his case.

We

look upon

him
to

last

of the rhetoricians
facts,

who

considered style of

more importance than

the
is

and paid more attention

manner than

to the

matter of their discourse.

Nor

he even the greatest of that school.

Sheil,

He was
laid

excelled

by Richard Lalor

who had always

by a stock

of good things, pickled and preserved for use.

The

Irish-

man was more

sent

rapid and agile than his Scotch rival, and

catherine-

up rockets while the other was spinning

wheels.

shrewd wit called Sheil

;

'

fly

in amber,'
is

and

the title was appropriate enough

of far greater
radiance.
solidity

but Macaulay

a fossil

and
to

size,

and of

less

immediate
is

Both belong

the artificial school, which

rapidly passing away.

oratory in
to

The palmy days of parliamentary England must be over, when the House is filled
The
slipshod, conversational style,

hear Macaulay.

which

has succeeded the dignified declamation of the last generation,

must be wearisome and worthless indeed, when

his

"

300

ORATOBT AKD ORATORS.

cold correctness and passionless

pomp
his

are hailed as a pleas-

urable

relief.

Oh

for

an hour of Henry Grattan, with

style,

his fierce
his lofty

and flashing

withering sarcasm,

imagery, which flew with the wing of an eagle,

its

and opened

eyes at the sun,

to rouse
like

these prosy cits

and yawning squires into something

Oh! for the words of Burke, so
the jaded

energy and

life!

rich, so rotund, so

many-

hued, which passed before the gaze like a flight of purple

birds,

to

recall

to

Commons

a sense of true

imagination, of genuine eloquence!

called

It is true

Burke was
but the

'The Dinner Bell' by

his contemporaries, for his

;

speeches

were a

little

voluminous sometimes
'

nickname was given in a time when

there were giants

upon the earth

tocsin
;

'

now

his

voice

would be considered a
!

such

is

the degeneracy of British orators

CHAPTER XL
POLITICAL ORATORS: AMERICAN.

A MERICA
-^-*it

has produced several great orators, to

whom

has been permitted " to open the trumpet-stop

on the grand organ of

there
is

human

passion"; and

among them

no greater name than that of Patrick Henry.

Unfortunately we have only a few imperfect fragments of

his speeches,

and

his

fame

rests, therefore,

not on authen-

ticated specimens of his oratory, but

on the tradition of
occasions by

the electrical shocks he produced on great

the glow, the lightning flash, the volcanic fire of genius.

Doubtless there
reports
effects

is

much exaggeration
his

in the traditional

of

his

voice,

manner, and the necromantic

he wrought;
this,

but, after

making every reasonable

that he was one of

deduction for

we cannot doubt

the greatest orators that ever lived.

Like the bones of

an antediluvian giant, the portions of his speeches that

have come down to us are proof of his mental and moral
stature.

Mr. Henry was of Scotch descent, and was born

in Virginia in 1736.

His father, who emigrated to this

country in 1730, was nephew to the great Scotch historian, Dr. to the

William Robertson, and cousin-german,

Probably no

it is said,

mother of Lord Brougham.

man who

rose to eminence, ever gave in his youth so little promise

of distinction as did " the

forest-born
little
301

Demosthenes " of

America.

He

picked up a

Latin and Greek, with a

302

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

but was naturally indolent,

smattering of mathematics;

and manifested a decided aversion to study which he never

fully overcame.
his books, he

When

the hour
to be

came

for application to

was generally

found by the river-side

Often

with his fishing-rod, or in the woods with his gun.

he would wander for days together through the

woods, sometimes
listlessly,

fields

and

with no apparent aim, someor he

times in the pursuit of game;

would

lie

stretched

on the green bank of some sunny stream, watching the

ripples
its

and eddies

as they whirled along, or angling in

sparkling waters.

The same

distaste

for

labor

fol-

lowed him into the pursuits of business, where he only

exchanged the pleasures of hunting and angling, and the
luxury of day-dreaming, for the melodies of the
violin,
fiute

and

and

tales of love

and war.

Becoming a shop-keeper
years'

at sixteen, he
.trial of

was bankrupt within a year; a two

sufficed

farming

to prove his unfitness for that

store,''

pursuit; and another experiment in "keeping

lasted

which

but for a year, ended by making him penniless.

taste for reading,

Meanwhile he had acquired a

and had

turned to account his intercourse with his customers in

a way that enabled him, when he came upon the public
stage, to touch the springs of

human
met

passion with a mas-

ter-hand.

When

these persons

in his store, he seized

as

the opportunity to study

their
peculiarities

human nature
and
it

exhibited in

of

character;

was afterward
talkative,

remembered that
he generally was

as long as they
silent,

were gay and

but whenever the conversation

it

flagged, he adroitly re-began

liarities into play.
ite

so as to

bring those pecu-

One book seems

to

have been a favorhis

with him.

Whilst his farm was going to ruin, or

customers were waiting to be served, he was absorbed in

POLITICAL ORATORS

HENRY.

303
a peculiar

a translation of Livy, whose harangues had

fascination for him.

At length

the thought struck

him that he might make

To the jealous
science

a living by becoming a lawyer.

which, according to Lord Coke, allows of no other mistress,

he paid his attentions, which were not apt to be undivided,

for six weeks,

a high
it

authority says, one month

yet dur-

ing that time he read Coke

laws.
It

upon Littleton and the Virginia

license

was with some difBculty that he obtained a and

to practice,

was only upon the ground that he was

evidently a

man

of genius, and

would be

likely soon to

fill

up the gaps in

his

knowledge.

For the next four years he

this

was plunged into the deepest poverty. During most of

time he lived with his father-in-law, and assisted him in

tavern-keeping.

At

last

an occasion arose for the display

of his latent powers,

celebrity.

and he sprang by one bound into This was the " tobacco case," in which the clergy

of the English church brought a suit to recover their an-

nual stipend, as fixed by law, of sixteen thousand pounds

of
tobacco.

The crop having

failed,

an Act had been

passed by the Legislature allowing the planters to pay the

tax in money, at the rate of 16s 8d per hundredweight,

although the actual value was 50s or 60s.

cided by the Court to be invalid,
to assess the

This Act was de-

and nothing remained but

Mr. Lewis, the

damages by a writ of inquiry.

planters' counsel,

threw up the cause as hopeless, and they

to risk his reputation

therefore applied to Henry, as none of the veteran practitioners

was willing

upon

it.

When
trial

on the appointed day, in 1763, the cause came on for

room, both of the

before the jury, a great crowd had assembled in the court-

common

people and the clergy.

As

this

was Henry's

first

appearance at the bar, curiosity was on

304
tiptoe to

OEATOKY AND OKATOKS.

watch
his bearing

and hear
his

his accents.

Eising

awkwardly, he faltered so in

exordium that

his friends
sly looks

hung

their heads, the clergy

if

began to exchange

with each other, as

father,

confident of their triumph, while his

who was

the presiding judge, almost sank with con-

fusion from his seat.

But the young advocate soon

" like

recov-

ered his self-possession.

his

Gradually his mind warmed with

theme words came,

;

nimble and airy servitors,"

lighted

to

his lips;

his

features were

up with the
lofty;

fire

of

genius;

his attitude

became erect and

his action

became graceful and commanding;

intelligence; all that

his eye sparkled with

was coarse and clownish

in his ap-

pearance vanished, and he underwent " that mysterious

and almost supernatural transformation, which the

his

fire of

own

eloquence never failed to work in him."

The
For

mockery of the clergy was soon turned into alarm.

a short time they listened as
if spell-bound,

but when, in

answer to the eulogy of

his

opponent, the young lawyer

turned upon them, and poured upon them a torrent of

overwhelming invective, they

cipitation
(p. 17),

fled

from the bench in

as

pre-

and

terror.

The jury,

we have

already seen

under the wand of the enchanter,

lost sight of law

and evidence, and returned a verdict

for the planters.

For

generations afterward the old people of the country could

not think of a higher compliment to a speaker than to say

of him:

"He
this

is

almost equal to Patrick

when he

pled

against the parsons."

From

time Henry became the idol of the people,

to the

and a year afterward he was elected

Burgesses.

House

of
in

His

first

grand

effort

in this

body was

support of resolutions which he had

the

introduced against

Stamp Act.

The

old aristocratic

members were

star-

POLITICAL OKATOES
tied

HENKT.

305

by his audacity, and an attempt was made to overawe

the

young and inexperienced member

members, was equal

at the very outset.

in-

But Henry, though almost wholly unsupported by the

fluential
to the occasion,

and dashed

into the ranks, of the veteran statesmen with such steadi-

ness

and power as scattered their trained legions to the

winds.

The contest on the

last

and boldest resolution was,

intensity of the exciteafter the

to use Jefferson's phrase, "

most bloody," but the orator

triumphed by a single vote.

The

ment may be inferred from a remark made

General:

adjournment by Peyton Eandolph, the King's Attorney-

a single
tion,

"I would have given five hundred guineas for The flame of opposition to British taxavote."
as if

which Henry had thus kindled, spread,

on the

wings of the wind, from one end of the land to the other;
his resolutions,

with progressive changes, were adopted by

the other colonies;

itself,

and the whole nation speedily found

as if

by magic, in an attitude of determined hos-

tility to

the mother country.

In 1774
gress,

Henry was
this

elected a

member

of the

first

Con-

and in

august body his superiority was estab-

lished as readily as in the

House of Burgesses.

Though
resist-

the delegates had

met

for the express purpose of

ing the encroachments of the

King and Parliament, they

this hour.
force,

had apparently not fully weighed the fearful responsibility

which they had assumed

till

It

now

pressed
or-

upon them with overwhelming

ganization of the

and when the

House was
if

comp'ieted, a long
first

and solemn
to

pause
Rising

followed,
slowly, as

which Henry was the

break.

borne down by the weight of his

theme, he faltered through an impressive exordium, and then gradually launched forth into a vivid and burning
13*

306
recital

ORATORY AKD ORATORS.

of the
.

colonial wrongs.
;

We
as of

have no space

for

the details of his speech

it

is

sufficient to say that the

wonder-working power of

this,

his other speeches,

of which no exact report has

come down
his

to us,

is

proved

by the very exaggeration of the accounts that are given

of them.

As he swept forward with

his

high argument,

his majestic attitude, the spell of his emphasis, the " almost

eye, the

charm

of

superhuman

lustre of his coun-

tenance,"

impressed even that august assemblage of the

intellects of

most eminent

the nation with astonishment

and awe.
tion,
its;

As he
off

sat

down, a

murmur

of admiration ran
ac-

through the assembly; the convention, now nerved to

shook
the incubus which had weighed on

its spiriirst

and Henry, as he had been proclaimed to be the

speaker in Virginia, was

orator in America.

now admitted

to be the greatest

still

greater speech was the memorable one delivered

on March 20, 1775, when he brought forward in the Virginia Convention his resolutions
for

arming and equipof this effort

ping the militia of the colony.

is

The power

shown by the fact, not only that it has been worn to rags by schoolboys, with whom it has been a favorite
selection for declamation for a century,

and that

it

still

fires

the soul of the hearer

when

listened to for the hun-

dredth time, but that the

measures which it advocated were adopted, although their bare announcement had sent an electric shock of consternation through the assembly.

Some

of the firmest patriots in that body, including sev-

eral of the

most distinguished members of the

the
resolutions with all

late Con-

gress, and, indeed, all the leading

statesmen in the Conthe

vention, opposed
their logic

power of

and

all

the weight of their influence; but in

POLITICAL ORATORS

HENRY.
so

307

vain;

all

objections

were swept away as

many

straws

on the

resistless tide of

Henry's eloquence.*

One

of Henry's best efforts

was

his speech

made

after

the Revolution in behalf of the British refugees.

this class

Against

a bitter and deep-rooted prejudice was cherished,

it

and

to

overcome

was no easy

task.

What

can be finer

than the following appeal both to the reason and pride of

his hearers?

"The population
. . .

of the old world

is

full to
tip-

overflowing.
toe

Sir,

they are already standing upon

upon

their native shores,

and looking

to

your coasts

with a wistful and longing eye.

dices to prevent

... As
us.

have no preju-

my making

use of them,

so, sir, I

have no

fear of

any mischief that they can do

sir," said he, rising to

Afraid of them!
loftiest attitudes,

what,

one of his

and assuming a look of the most indignant and sovereign

contempt,
shall we, who have laid the proud British lion now be afraid of his whelps?" we may judge by the speech in the case of John

"

at our feet, If

Hook, Henry's powers of wit, burlesque, and ridicule were

hardly inferior to his graver faculties.

Hook was

a Scotchto

man, fond of money, and suspected of being unfavorable

the

American

cause.

Two

of his bullocks had been seized

in 1771 for the use of the troops; and, as soon as peace

established, he

was

brought an action against the commissary.

for the defense.

Henry was engaged

Mr. Wirt, Henry's

biographer, states that,

* The famous phrase, "We must flght; I repeat it, sir, we must fight," was suggested to Henry by a letter of Major Joseph Hawley, of Northampton, Mass., to John Adams. This letter, which concluded with the words, "After all, we must fight," was read by Adams to Henry, who listened to it

with great attention, and, as soon as he heard these words, erected his head, and " with an energy and vehemence that I can never forget," says Mr. Adams, "broke out with ^By G I am of that man^s mind/^^^ Mr. Adams adds that he considered this to be, not a taking of the name of God in vain, but a sacred oath upon a very great occasion.

308

OEATOKY AND ORATORS.

'' He painted the distresses of the American army, exposed almost naked to the rigor of a winter's sky, and marking the frozen ground over which they inarched with the blood of their unshod feet. 'Where was the man,' he said, who had an American heart in his hosom, who would not have thrown open his fields, his barns, his cellars, the doors of his house, the portals of his breast, to
'

receive with open

patriots?

arms the meanest

the

Where

is

man?

The7'e

soldier in that little famished band of he stands; but whether the heart of an

American beats in his bosom, you, gentlemen, are to judge.' He then carried the jury, by the powers of his imagination, to the plains round York, the surrender of which had followed shortly after the seizure of the cattle. He depicted the surrender in the most glowing and noble colors of his eloquence the audience saw before their eyes the humiliation and dejection of the British, as they
:

marched out of their trenches they saw the triumph which lighted up every and heard the shouts of victory, and the cry of Washington and Liberty,' as it rang and echoed through the American ranks, and was reverberBut hark what notes ated from the hills and shores of the neighboring river. of discord are these, which disturb the general joy, and silence the acclamations of victory? They are the notes of John Hook, hoarsely bawling through the American camp, beef! beef! beef! "
;

patriot face,

'

'

'

Mr. Wirt
restrain
his

states that the clerk of the court,

unable

to

merriment, and

unwilling to commit
"

any

breach of decorum, rushed out, and rolled on the ground

in a paroxysm of laughter.
devil ails ye,

Jemmy

Steptoe,

what
"

the

mon?" exclaimed Hook,

Hook; "wait
till

the plaintiff.
it.

Mr.

Steptoe could only reply that he could not help

Never

mind

ye," said

Billy

Cowan

gets up; he'll

show him the

la'.". But Billy Cowan's plea was unavailing. The cause was decided by acclamation and a cry of tar and
;

feathers having succeeded to that of heef, the

plaintiff

deemed

it

prudent to beat a precipitate retreat.

In appearance
sessing.

Henry was rather

striking than preposin

Tall, spare,

raw-boned, and slightly stooping

the

shoulders,

dark
till

and sunburnt in complexion, and

he spoke,

having a habitual contraction of the brow which gave

him a harsh look

was roused.

he

gave no indication

of the majesty and grace which he assumed

when

his genius

When

he spoke, his whole appearance under-

went a marvellous transformation.

His person rose

erect;


POLITICAL ORATORS
his head, instead of

HEKET

309

drooping, was thrown proudly aloft;

and he seemed

like

another being.

His eyes, which were

overshadowed by dark, thick eyebrows,

feature.
Brilliant, full of spirit,

were

his

finest

and capable of the most

rapidly shifting and powerful expression, they had at one

time a piercing and terrible aspect which

made an oppoHis
voice,

nent quail beneath their gaze, and, at another, they were

" as soft

and tender as those of Pity

herself."

though not musical, was

compass and power.

clear, distinct,

and of remarkable

Its persuasive accents

were

as mild

and mellifluous as those of a lute; but when rousing his

countrymen
pet.

to

arms,

it

was

like the war-blast of

a trum-

His gesticulation, action, and facial expression, gave

to his

force

most

trivial

observations.

In one of

his

speeches, having occasion to declare that the consent

of

Great Britain was not necessary to create us a nation,

that "
little
it,"

we were

a nation long before the monarch of that

island in the Atlantic ocean gave his

puny

assent to

he

accompanied
impressed

the
all

words with a gesture which

witnessed
eyelids,
it.

strikingly
tiptoe,

who
his

Eising on

and half-closing

as

if

endeavoring

with extreme difficulty to draw a sight on some object

almost too
distance,

microscopic for vision, he pointed to a vast and blew out the words " p-u-n-y assent" with

his lips curled

with unutterable contempt.

In the same

speech, having occasion to

magnify

this dot

on the Atlantic
doing

into a formidable power, he

so
his

found no

difficulty in
It is

by gestures almost equally significant.

pauses

said that

were eminently happy, being followed by a

singular energy and significance of look that drove the

thought home to the mind and heart.

In arguing abstruse and knotty questions of law he

310

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

laurels.

won no

As we have
and he never
His

seen, he acquired little legal

filled

lore in youth,

up the chasms

in his
at

learning in after-life.
the bar were
at

most brilliant successes

won

in jury trials.

In these he was always

home.

No

performer that ever " swept the sounding

its strings,

lyre" ever had a more imperial mastery over

than Henry had over

twelve
" "

all

the chords in the hearts of the

to convince them.

men

in the box,

when he sought

The tones of

his voice," says

an able legal contemporary,

his hearers in

were insinuated into the feelings of

that bafiles description."

manner
ful

His victories were due

partly to this oratorical power, and partly to his wonder-

knowledge of the human heart, and

his

power of putOften

ting his reasoning into clear and pointed aphorisms.

he condensed the substance of a long argument into a

short, pithy question,

which was decisive of the

ease.

British reviewer has called attention to the striking

resemblance which Henry's oratory bears to Lord Chatham's, notwithstanding the startling discrepancy between
their birth, breeding, tastes, habits,

and pursuits: "The

one, a born

member

of the English aristocracy,

the

other,

a son of a Virginia farmer;

the one educated at Eton

and Oxford,

the

other, picking
.

up a

little

Latin gram-

mar

at a day-school;

the

one, so fine a gentleman

and so inveterate an

actor, that, before receiving the most

insignificant visitor, he
settle

was wont to

call for his wig,

and

himself in an imposing attitude,

the

other, slouch-

ing into the provincial parliament with his leather gaiters

and shooting-jacket.
mental points,

But they meet

fire,

in all the grand ele-

in

force, energy,

and intrepidity

the sagacity that works by intuition,

the

faculty of tak-

ing in the entire subject at a glance, or lighting up a

POLITICAL OEATOES
whole question by a metaphor,

CLAY.

311

the

fondness for Saxon

words, short uninverted Saxon sentences, downright assertions,

and hazardous apostrophes,

above

all,

in the singu-

lar tact

and

felicity

with which their dramatic (or rather

melodramatic) touches were brought in."

The greatest speech made in America this century was made by Daniel Webster in reply to Hayne. The greatest
orator of this country,

we
all

Patrick Henry, perhaps, excepted,

Clay.

think was

Henet

In Jantiary, 1840,

it

was

our good fortune to spend nearly two weeks at Washington, mostly

at the capitol,

where we heard speeches by

the leading

men

of the two houses.

We

need not

say that " there were giants in those days."

to c^ll

It is

enough
of

over the names of Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Crittenthe

den, McDufBe, Preston, Douglas, in

Senate, and

John Quiney Adams, Gushing, Hoffman, Evans, and Marshall in the

House, to show that the dwarfs in that Con-

gress

would be giants in the present.

the House, there

The

first

day we

spent in

was a stormy debate on the

so violent that

New

Jersey question.
their

The discussion grew

fists

members shook
the

at each

other;
to

invitations to

"coffee and pistols"

were given; and,

prevent a tumult,

House adjourned.
like the
tall,

This sent us to the Senate chamber,

where our attention was at once arrested by a voice that

seemed
lips

music of the spheres.

It

came from the

of a

well-formed man, with a wide mouth, a

flashing eye,

and a countenance that revealed every change

It

of thought within.

had a wonderful
music

flexibility

and

compass, at one
der-peals,
"

moment

crashing upon the ear in thunas soft as that of

and the next

falling in

summer winds a-wooing

flowers."

It rarely startled the


312

OEATOKT AND ORATOES.

hearer, however, with violent contrasts of pitch, and was

equally distinct and clear

tones,

when

it

rang out in trumpet

and when

it

sank to the lowest whisper.

said,

Every

syllable,

we had almost
and

every

letter,

was perfectly
There was
in the

audible,

as " musical as is Apollo's lute."

not a word of rant, not one tone of vociferation;

very climax of his passion he spoke deliberately, and his

outpouring of denunciation was as slow and steady as the

tread of Nemesis.

He

gesticulated all over.

As he

spoke,

he stepped forward and backward with

effect;

and the
his

nodding of

his head,
feet,

hung on

a long neck,

arms,

hands, fingers,
kerchief, aided

and even
in debate.

his spectacles

and blue handit

him

Who

could

be?

It took
it

but a minute to answer the question.

be no other than

It was,

could

Henry
that

Clay.

He had

just begun an

attack on another giant of the Senate;

intellectual

and the scene of

which they cut
half-

fence

followed, during

and

thrust, lunged at each other

is

and parried, some

a-dozen times,
in the

one of those that root themselves forever

Indeed, their very words have clung like

memory.

burs to our recollection.

Mr. Clay's opponent was a somewhat

ghostly-looking

tall,

slender-built,

man, about

fifty

years of age, erect and

earnest, with an eye like a hawk's,

and hair sticking up

His voice was
motions of a pump-

"like

quills

on the fretful porcupine."

stiff

harsh, his gestures

and

like the

handle.
his

There was no

ease, fiexibility, grace, or his

charm, in

manner; yet there was something in

physiognomy
colorless
lips,

and bearing,

his

brilliant,

spectral

eyes, his

cheek, blanched with thought,

and

his

compressed

that
his

riveted

your attention

as

with hooks of

steel.

As

words struggled for a moment in

his throat,

and then

POLITICAL OKATOES

CALHOUIJ'.

313

rushed out with tumultuous rapidity and vehemence, you

were impressed with his apparent frankness, earnestness, and

it

sincerity.

As you

listened to his plausible statements,

this could

seemed incredible that

America,

be the great polit-

ical sophist of

the

hair-splitting logician

and
told,

arch-nullifier,
it

John

C.

Calhoun.

Yet

he,

you were

was; and, as you scanned his features, you thought of

Milton's lines on the hero of Paradise Lost:

" His face

Deep

scars of thunder

had entrenched; and Care

Sat on his faded cheek; hut under brows

Of dauntless courage."

Calhoun's style of speaking was generally colloquial.

He

talked

like a

merchant

to

his clerks,

and used short

Clay
left

Saxon
taunted
tion

words

and

proverbial

phrases.

had just

him with a rumor that he had

struck
like

the Opposi-

ranks and

hands with the Administration.

to

He

(Mr. Clay) " would

know what compromises

honorable Senator
'

have

been

made between
'

the

from

South Carolina and the

ident
his

Kinderhook fox " (meaning Presreply,

Van Buren).

Calhoun's
to

his

defiant

look,

tones,

are

as vivid

us as

if

we had

seen and

heard him yesterday.

"

No man,"

he began, " ought to be

more tender on the subject of compromises than the honorable Senator

from Kentucky."

Then, alluding to the

crisis

compromise
of
flat

effected

by Clay in the Nullification

repeat

1830,

he

added:
I

"The Senator from Kentucky was

it,

on his back.

sir;

the
I

Senator was flat

on his back, and couldn't move.

friends in

wrote home to
letters,

my

South Carolina half-a-dozen

saying that
flat

the
back,
sion.

honorable Senator

from Kentucky was

I

on his

and couldn't move.

I repeat
it,

was
his

his master

on that occa-

sir; I

was

master on that occasion.

14


314

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

He went to my school. He learned of me." Never shall we forget the consummate grace of manner, the thrilling tones,

the

electric effect of Clay's rejoinder.

The two

antagonists sat nearly at the extreme ends of the semicircular rows of seats,

Calhoun

sitting in the

front row,
his left.

on the President's right; Clay in the rear row, on

As we gazed on
their weapons,

these

giant and

veteran

foes,

both
of

steeped to the eye in fight, cunning of fence, masters of

and merciless in their

use,

we thought

the lines of Milton:

"This day
will

If I conjecture aught,

pour down, no drizzling shower,

arrows barhed with
fire."

But

rattling storms of

"

The honorable senator from South Carolina,"

was
flat

said

Clay, " says that I

on

my

back, and that he wrote

letters

home

to his friends in
flat

South Carolina half-a-dozen

stating that I was

on

my

back, and couldn't move.

Admirable evidence

this in a court of

law!

First
it!

make
But

an assertion, then quote your own

letters to

prove

the honorable senator says that he was

my

master on that

occasion!"

As he

said this, the speaker advanced

down
in

the aisle directly in front of Calhoun, and pointing to him

with his quivering finger, said in tones and with looks

which were concentrated the utmost scorn and

defiance,

"He my master!

He my

master!" he continued in louder

pointed,

tones, with his finger still

and retreating back-

ward, while his air and manner indicated the intensest

abhorrence.

"HE my

master!" he a third time

cried,

raising his voice to a

still

higher key, while he retreated

backward
voice

to the very lobby; then, suddenly

to

changing

his

from a trumpet peal

distinctly audible

almost a whisper, which yet

was

in every

nook and corner of the

POLIlICAl OEAlOBS
Senate chamber, he added,

CLAY.

315

"

Sir, I

would not own him for

my
for

SLAVE

"

For an

instant, there

was a hush of breath-

less silence;

then followed a tempest of applause, which

all

a while checked

further debate, and came near

spectators

causing an expulsion of the

ries.

from the

galle-

The Kentucky Senator then proceeded: "The Senwas not

on

ator from South Carolina further declares that I

only
ster)

flat

my

back, but that another Senator (Mr.

Web-

and the President had robbed

sir, I

me

of

Why,

gloried in

my

strength.

Plat

my strength! on my back as
me
for that

the Senator says I was, he was indebted to

measure which relieved him

threats to arrest

of the difficulties " (Jackson's

and hang him) " by which he was sur-

rounded.

Plat as I was, I was able to carry that

Com-

promise through the Senate in opposition to the gentle-

man "

(Mr. Webster) " who,

the

gentleman from SoutTj

Carolina said, had supplanted me, and against his opposition." In his closing

remarks Calhoun taunted his opponent

with his failure to obtain the Presidential nomination at

the recent convention at Harrisburg (1839), to which the
latter replied as follows:

"As

for me,

Mr. President,

my

sands are nearly run, physically, and,

ically also;
strife,

if

you

please, polit-

but

I shall

soon retire from the arena of public

it

and when

do so withdraw myself,

will be with

the delightful consciousness of having served the best interests of

my

country, a consciousness of which the hon(pointing and shak-

orable Senator from South Carolina

ing his finger at Calhoun) " ivith all his presumptuousness

will never be able to deprive

me."

In the entire roll of distinguished orators, British and

American, there

is

hardly one whose printed speeches give

his

so inadequate

an idea of

powers as do those of Henry

316
Clay.
lar

OKATOET AKD OEATORS.

His eloquence was generally of a

warm and

popu-

ratter

than

of

strictly

argumentative

cast,

and

abound

in just those excellences

which

lose their interest

when

divorced

from the orator's manner and from the

can be pleaded for them that

occasion that produced them, and in those faults that es-

cape censure, only when

it

they are the inevitable overflow of a

mind

too vividly at
It

work

to restrain the

abundance of

its

current.

was

Wirt that no orator could write out a faithful report of a speech which he had pronounced, It must be done, except immediately after its delivery.
the opinion of William

he

said,

while the mind

is

yet tossing with the storm, and

before the waves have lost either their direction or their

magnitude.

But how can the storm and tempest

of elo-

quence, the waves of passion, the lightning of indignation,

be conveyed on paper?

but who can print the

to

Words may be written or printed; air and manner that gave weight
eifect to a

a commonplace observation, and

tawdry

fig-

ure?

Who

can undertake to represent in written forms

lip,

of language, the flashing eye, the quivering

jestic bearing, the graceful gesture, the

the ma-

ever-changing and

impassioned tones that thrill with an almost unearthly

power to the inmost

life

recesses of the soul?

These are the

and

spirit of all eloquence;

all

and
it,

to

judge of a speech
it

which charmed
after the

who heard
is

by reading

in print

charmer's voice

hushed, and at a different

its

time, place, and occasion from those of

delivery,

is

as

absurd as to judge of a beauty by looking at her

ton, or to express

skele-

an opinion of a song without hearing

it

the tune to which

owed nearly

all its

charm.

Few

orators of equal fame have

begun their career with

His

so slender

an intellectual equipment as Henry Clay.

POLITICAL OKATOKS
father having died

CLAY.

317

when he was but

four years old, his

mother,
do but

who was
little

left in

poverty with seven children, could

for his education.

For three years he was

placed under the charge of one Peter Deacon, an English-

man, who taught in a log school-house which had no

floor

but the earth, and which was lighted by the open door
only.

Here he was instructed in reading, writing, and

he was employed in a store at
thence transferred
to

arithmetic, after which

Richmond, Virginia, and

a desk

clerkship in the office of the high court of chancery in

that State.
sis

Shortly after he was employed as an amanuen-

by Chancellor Wythe, who, perceiving his talents and

his fondness for books,

urged him to study law, gave him

So rapidly
it
is

the use of his library and directed his reading.

did he devour

and assimilate

his

mental food, that

said the Chancellor

had only to name a book, and the next

time he met his pupil he found

its

him not only master

of

contents, but " deeply versed in them,

and extending

his

thoughts far beyond his instructors.

The youth did

not invoke the keepers of knowledge to let

secrets,
if

him

into their

but marched straight into their wide domains, as

his

to

the possession of

native

rights."

Many

years

after,

when he had acquired a

dinner:
"

national fame, a plain old

country gentleman gave the following toast at a Pourthof-July

Henkt CLAT,-^He and

Hanover.

were born
bareI;

close to the

Slashes of old
so did I;

He worked
I.

footed,

and

he went to mill, and so did

so

he

was good

to his

mamma, and
like

was

know him

like a book,

and love him

a brother."
Clay removed from

In 1797, at the age of twenty.

Virginia to Lexington,
practice of law.

Kentucky, where
penniless at

he began the
he soon re-

Though

first,


318

AND
OKATORS.

OilATOEY

ceived his first fifteen shillings fee, and then, to use his own words, " immediately rushed into a successful and
lucrative practice."
inal
cases,

He was

especially successful in crim-

often
his

winning verdicts from juries

oratory, in defiance of

by the

magnetism of
evidence.

both law and

Before his admission to the Kentucky bar, he

first

joined a debating club, at a meeting of which, in his

attempt to speak, he broke down.

Beginning

his

speech

with "Gentlemen of the Jury," he was so confused by

the perception of his mistake, that he could

not go on.

Encouraged by the members

of the club, he began again

trial,

with the same words; but, upon a third

he was

more

successful, and, gaining confidence as he proceeded,

diffidence,

he burst the trammels of his youthful

and

clothing his thoughts in appropriate language, was loudly

and warmly cheered.

occasion,

when

his

With the memory proved

lack
of

exception

of

a single

treacherous, a quarter
" checked

of a century later, his thunder

in

was never again

mid

volley," for

thoughts or language.

On

that occasion, as he
ginia, he

was addressing the

legislature of Virlines of Scott,

to

began to quote the well-known

etc.,

" Lives there a man,"

recall the rest.

and suddenly stopped, unable

Closing his eyes, and pressing his forehead

with the palm of his hand, to aid his recollection, he was

fortunately supposed by the audience to be overcome by the

power and intensity of

lines

his feelings.

In a few moments the

in

came

to

his

lips,

and as he pronounced them

thrilling tones, " Lives there a man with soul so dead,

Who
This

never to himself hath said,

is

my

own,

my

native land?

"

a profound sensation pervaded the assembly, which manifested itself, in

many

cases,

by

tears.


POLITICAL ORATORS
In person, Clay was
feet
tall

CLAY.

319
six

and commanding, being

and one inch in stature, and was noted for the

whether standing, walking,
features of his counte-

erect appearance he presented,

or

talking.

The most

striking

nance were a high forehead, a prominent nose, an un-

commonly large mouth, and blue

particularly expressive

eyes, which,

though not
electrical

when

in

repose, had

an

appearance
said,
er.

when

kindled.

His voice, as we have already

was one of extraordinary compass, melody, and pow-

Prom

" the " deep and dreadful sub-bass of the organ of its highest key, hardly

to the

most aerial warblings

a
it

pipe or a stop

was wanting.

Like

all

magical voices,

had the faculty of imparting to the most familiar and

commonplace expressions an inexpressible fascination; and

in listening to its

melting tones an enthusiastic listener

might say:
"Thy sweet words
drop upon the ear as soft

As rose leaves on a well; and I could listen As though the immortal melody of heaven Were wrought into one word, that word a whisper.
That whisper
all I

want from

all I

love."

Probably no orator ever lived who, when speaking on a

great
occasion,

was

more

completely absorbed
it
is

in

his

theme.
said,

" I do not

know how

with

others,''

he once

"but, on such occasions, I seem to be unconscious

of the external world.

Wholly engrossed by the subject

It is

before me, I lose all sense of personal identity, of time,

or of surrounding objects."

no wonder that when an

he becomes
all

orator

is

thus abandoned,

when

feeling,

from the core of

his heart to the surface of his skin,

sole of his foot,

and

from the crown of his head to the

gushing

through every pore and expressed through every organ,

that his

sway over

his hearers should be complete.

320

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

have no space for extracts
as

We

from any of

Glay's

great speeches, such

those on South

American Inde-

pendence, Internal ImproTement, the Sub-Treasury Scheme,

etc. etc.;

and

will, therefore,

conclude this sketch with a

to the citizens of Lexing-

passage from an address

made

ton, Ky., in 1843, after his first retirement

from Congress.
defending

He was

then in

his

sixty-sixth

year, and, in

himself from some attacks

" Fellow citizens
:

made upon
old

his character, said:

now am an

man

quite an old

man."
will

Here he bent himself downward.

stand by

"But

yet

it

be found I

ples, to

am my

not too old to vindicate

my

princi-

friends, or to defend myself,"

rais-

ing his voice louder and louder, at each successive

mem" It
so

ber of the sentence, and elevating his person in a most

impressive

manner.
I

He
an

then proceeded thus

happens that
of

have again located myself in the practice

ofiice

my

profession, in

within a few rods of the

I

one which I occupied, when, more than forty years ago,

first

came among you, an orphan and a stranger, and

I

your fathers took me by the hand, and made me what

am.
I feel like

an old

stag,

which has been long coursed

by the hunters and the hounds, through brakes and briers, and o'er distant plains, and has at last returned himself to his

ancient

lair,

to lay

him down and

die.

And
and

yet the vile curs of party are barking at

my

heels,

the blood-hounds of personal malignity are aiming at

throat.

my

scorn and defy them, as

ever did."

As he

uttered these last words, he raised himself, says an eyewitness, to his most erect posture,

and

lifted

up

his hands

and arms above

his head, till his tall person

its

seemed

to

have nearly doubled

height.

The

effect

was

over-

whelming, beyond

all

power of

description.

POLITICAL OKATOES

CALHOUN.

321

of analysis.

The leading faculty of Calhoun's mind was his power In the ability to examine a complex idea,
its

to resolve it into
rior.

simplest elements, he had

no supe-

Next

to this, his

most striking characteristic was

the depth of his convictions.

Though you
and

differed

from

every word he uttered, you were persuaded of his pro-

found belief in what he

life

said,

his willingness to stake

and honor on each sentence.

No man

ever cared
Intensely

less for

the graces and polish of the schools.

earnest, he

cared only to

make himself understood; and

off

while the periods of Clay glittered " like polished lances

in a
last

sunny

forest,"

Calhoun, in his vehemence, bit

the

syllables,

and sometimes eat up whole sentences in

the fury of his enunciation.

Napoleon said of La Place, when the latter was in

office,

that he

carried

into

the

discharge of his duties

the spirit of infinitesimal quantities;

said

and

so it has been

of

Calhoun, that he never forgot the refinements

and subtleties of his peculiar metaphysics.

his letters, his dissertations,

His speeches,
large vol-

though

filling six

umes, are but repetitions of the same primary ideas put

through the same logical mill.

pulsive, poetic, enthusiastic,

Clay was chivalric, im-

full of coruscations of wit,

and

flashes of fancy; "

Webster, besides the Doric propriety

of his diction, arrested

your attention by the ponderous

ring in his weighty sentences, as they fell like trip-ham-

mers upon the casques of his antagonists; but Calhoun

was always dry,

direct, intensely

ratiocinative,

moving
total,

forward, like Babbage's calculating machine, from one nu-

meral to another,

till

the

net

quotient,

or

sum

was evolved."
subtlety, of

There is an abundance of metaphysical hard reasoning, and " obstinate questionings,''

322

ORATORY ANB ORATORS.

in bis speeches, but no sap, nothing juicy or unctuous,

none of the poetry of eloquence.

speakers

He

is

not one of those

"Whose

thoughts possess us like a passion,

Through every limb and the whole heart; whose words Haunt us as eagles haunt the mountain air,"

suggesting a thousand ideas and sentiments which they

do not express.

One absorbing passion seems

to

have
all

taken possession of his soul, and to have overpowered

the rest.

As Charles Lamb

said of the Quakers, that, if

it

they could, they would paint the universe in drab, so

may

be said of Calhoun, that the ideal of his

statistics of

life

was

to

gather

the United States, and

work them up

into theories of State Rights

Clay's words,

and

Nullification.

when

assailing

an enemy, were usually

fierce, blunt,

courteous and polished, while Calhoun's were

and rudely

terrible.

The one

hit his

man
;

with a keen

rapier, like a courtier of the old

regime

the other knocked

him down with a sledge-hammer,

giant.

like

a Scandinavian
in a

Clay allows you to

die, like

Lord Chester,

becoming attitude; while Calhoun breaks your bones, and

leaves

you sprawling on the

floor.

The one

stabs you

with a smile; the other smashes you with a frown.

is

Clay

even more dangerous than Calhoun, as the graceful

is,

leopard
the

perhaps, an antagonist more to be feared than

bear.

grizzly

To the noble Kentuckian we might

apply, with a slight change, the lines of Bulwer:

"Fierce, haughty, rash, irregularly great, Next Stanley comes, the Rupert of debate;"

and we might add,

too, that, like

the warrior to

whom

Noma

chants her witch-song, seldom

" Lies he

When

still, through sloth or fear. point and edge are glittering near,"

POLITICAL ORATORS

WEBSTER.
lie

323

Many
approach.

great

men "shame

their worshipers"

on a near
to

Their dwarfish bodies give the

their

intellectual pretensions;

their souls are physiognomically

slandered

by their

bodies.

But whoever looked upon

and imperial

Daniel Webstek, with his massive, Herculean frame, his

beetling brows, deep-set, searching black eyes,
port, felt instantaneously that

a Titan stood before him.

In his voice, in his step, and in his bearing, there was a

grandeur that took the imagination by storm.

" Since

Charlemagne," said Theodore Parker, " I think there has

not been such a grand figure in all Christendom."

When
his

Thorwaldsen, the Danish sculptor, saw the cast of

bust in Powers's studio at Rome, he mistook
of Jupiter.
it

for a

head

Sydney Smith was astonished at

this speci-

men

of

"American physical degeneracy."

Carlyle, speak-

ing of his large, dark, and cavernous eyes, overhung by

shaggy brows, said that, when in repose, they were "like

blast furnaces

blown out."

Nature had

set her

seal of

greatness visibly

upon him, and

his achievements in the

Senate and the forum, in the closet and before masses of

his fellow-citizens, did
like

not belie the promise of his god-

physiognomy.
"

Doubtless Calhoun had a more acute

and metaphysical
nicely 'twixt

mind, and could divide a line more

south

and southwest side"; Clay had a

more

electric or

magnetic nature, and showed far keener

sagacity in

divining public sentiment, and in sweeping

the strings of popular feeling; but in sheer intellectual

might,
all

in

that comprehensiveness of vision which sees

the sides of a subject

in that largeness

and judges

it

in all its relations,

and weight of utterance which give

which links conclusion to conclusion

the greatest impressiveness to everything that one says,

and in hard

logic,

324

OKATOKY AND OUATOKS.

like a chain of iron,

neither

Clay, nor Calhoun, nor any-

other American, was ever equal to Webster.

phatically the orator of the understanding,

He was emand
for this

reason, because he spoke to the head rather than to the

heart,

because
^

his qualities

were those imperial ones that

love,

compel admiration, rather than win

a favorite of the populace.

he

was never

The young men

of the coun-

try worshiped him, and the thinking

men

looked up to
of

him with admiration, but generally he was the pride

the people rather than their idol.
It is a notable

fact that

Webster, like Bacon, was a

sickly child,

and but for that reason might never have

It is

been sent to college.

at the

a curious fact

also, that,

when

academy

in Exeter, he

was

afflicted

with such an

extreme shyness that he took no part in the declamations.

Many

pieces

were committed
the

to

memory and
all

re-

hearsed again and again

his

by him in his room; but when

school-room, and
eyes

name was

called

in

were fastened upon him, he was glued to

impressive
floor

his seat.

Upon
the

entering college, however, he became at once an easy and

speaker and
the
first

debater,

and when he took

for

time in Congress he sprang by one

bound

to the

very front rank of American parliamentary

debaters.

His speech was so weighty, luminous, and con-

vincing, that Chief Justice Marshall prophesied his future

eminence.
of oratory,

With

his

advent at Washington, a new school

as "the his
orait

now known throughout the country Websterian," was formed, even thus early
for
all

tory had mainly

in

the qualities which characterized

his riper years.

it

In

its

Demosthenian simplicity and

to the flowery sentimental-

strength,

was alike opposed

ism of Wirt and to the frigid

vehemence and pedantic

POLITICAL OKATORS
dassicality of
thian,

WEBSTER.

325

Pinkney.

His style was Doric, not Corinits

reminding one by

massive strength of the shafts

native state.

hewn from the granite

at this time, as

hills of his

He was

he continued to be throughout his whole

the personification of the understanding,

subsequent

life,

as distinguished tive imagination.

from the intuitive reason and the crea-

The
sense.

basis of his intellect

was an un-

common common
but won them

He

did not dart to his conclu-

sions with the swift

discernment of the eagle-eyed Clay,

by sheer force of thinking.

He

concenper-

trated all his mental faculties

upon a confused and

plexing mass of facts, and

it

was at once resolved and

luminous, as under the powerful vision of the telescope

the milky

way breaks

into

stars.

He had no

sophisms

or verbal dexterities,
er before the jury,

no intellectual juggleries.
court, senate,

His pow-

and audience, lay not and im-'

Mr. Parker, in
tells

in his intellectual subtlety, or displays of feeling

agination, but in his appeals to facts.

his "

Golden Age of American Oratory,"

in

of a case

about two car-wheels,

look;

which,

by a sentence and a
wheels,

Webster crushed one of Choate's subtlest and most

fine-spun

arguments
eyes

to

atoms.
if

common
Choate

looked as

The made from

which

to

the same

model,

endeavored to show, by a train of hair-splitting

reasoning

and by a profound discourse on " the fixation

of points,'' had hardly a

" But," said

shadow of

essential resemblance.

Webster, and his great eyes opened wide and

at

black, as he stared

the

big twin wheels

before

him,

"gentlemen
and
as

of the jury, there they are,

look

at 'em!"

he thundered

out

these words, in tones of vast

volume, the distorted wheels

similarity,

shrunk into their original and the cunning argument on " the fixation of

326

OEATOEY AND OEATOES.

Webster did not
excel in
it

points " died a natural death.

abstract

reasoning,
it

at

least, it

was not

his forte, as

was Calhoun's;
feet

was when, Antaeus-like, he planted you

felt his

his

upon the

earth, that

power.

His grasp

of facts, and skill in arranging them, were alike prodigious.

His understanding swept over the whole extent

subject, classified

of a
tails,

and systematized and made

it

its

tangled de-

discerned

its

laws,

so
it.

luminous, that

the simplest intellect could apprehend

He

illuminated

dark themes, obscured by sophistry, with such a blaze of

light that the hearer, finding

them

so

transparent, un-

derrated the difficulty overcome.

Like Lord Mansfield, he

was distinguished

for his skill in statement.

His narra-

tive of the facts in a case

was

itself
it

a demonstration.

Giant-like as was his intellect,

gish and heavy, and required, as

was naturally

slug-

we have

said, the stimulus

its

of a great occasion or a great antagonist to call forth

slumbering power.
ship,

He was

like a

mighty

line-of-battle

which
she
is

is

not easily set in motion, but whose guns,

when

once fairly engaged, crush everything opposed

to her.

On

a small subject, he was dull.

If required to

speak at a public dinner, or on a parade day, he floundered

" like a whale in a frog-pond."

As Grattan

said of Flood,

" put a distaff in his hand, and, like Hercules, he makes

sad
the

work of it; but give him a thunderbolt, and he has arm of a Jove." We heard him speak at the Harvard

Centennial Celebration in 1838, at which two thousand

alumni were gathered, and we are sure that he wearied

all

who

listened to him.
It

Legar6, Bancroft, Story,

all sur-

passed him.

was not merely because he lacked

the

necessary stimulus that he failed on these occasions, but

because he had too

much

intellectual integrity for this kind

POLITICAL OEATOES
of

WEBSTER.

327

sham oratory; he had no taste for exalting molehills into mountains, or killing humming-birds with Paixhans.
In his attempts at

humor he was sometimes

successful, but

oftener reminded one of an elephant gambolling, or, "to

make" men
haps
his

"sport, wreathing his lithe proboscis."

effort

Per-

best

in

this

line

was in a speech at

Rochester,
"

New

York:

of Rochester, I am glad to see you, and I am glad to see your noble Gentlemen, I saw your falls, which I am told are one hundred and fifty Gentlemen, Rome had her Caesar, feet high. That is a very interesting fact. her Scipio, her Brutus; but Rome, in her proudest days, never had a waterfall Gentlemen, Greece had her Pericles, her Deone hundred and fifty feet high mosthenes, and her Socrates; but Greece, in her palmiest days, never had a Men of Rochester, go on. No people waterfall one hundred and fifty feet high " ever lost their liberties, who had a waterfall one hundred and fifty feet high

Men

city.

One of
friend, Mrs.

his

best witticisms

Seaton, at Washington,
late

was a reply made to his who said to him one

from the Cabinet, that he
revising Presi-

day,

when he came home

looked fatigued and worried.

He had been

dent Harrison's inaugural, which was brimful of pedantic

allusions to

Roman

history,

and especially to the Roman

" I really

proconsuls, which the old hero, in spite of Webster's protest,

had been obstinately bent on retaining.

hope," said Mrs. Seaton, " that nothing has

"

happened."

You would think something had happened," Webster replied, " if you knew wha,t I have done. I have killed
seventeen
of them."

Roman

proconsuls as dead as smelts, every one

If it

In debate Webster was quick at retort.

was a personal insult that roused the slumbering

lion, his

roar of rage was appalling, and the spring and the death-

blow that followed, were like lightning in their suddenness.

"But
was

it

was on momentous

occasions,
full

when

grea<

public

interests

were at stake, that the

might of his

intellect

visible.

When

feebler

men, awed by the darkness of

328

OEATOET AND OEATOES.

for

the political sky, fled

shelter

from the tempest, he

all his

rushed forth exultingly to the elemental war, with

faculties stimulated to their utmost.

When

the thunders

of Nullification muttered in the distance, he coolly watched

the coming storm; and

to the bolts, like the
off as

when they

burst, he bared his head

they

fell.

mammoth No man ever

It has

of tradition, shaking them

spoke, in

whose utterances,

even the simplest, the power of a great personality was

more deeply

felt.

been justly said that " the apits gilt

pearance of his blue coat with

buttons, and his

buff vest, was always as inspiring to his friends, and as

dispiriting to his enemies, as the gray overcoat

and cocked
of

hat of Napoleon.

Wellington estimated the presence

battle-field as equivalent to

Napoleon on the

a reinforce-

ment

of fifty thousand troops (on his side), and the moral

similar.''

grandeur and influence of Webster were

No triumph

that he ever

won seemed-

to tax all

his

powers or to drain the secret fountains of his strength.

Behind the strongest arguments he put forward, there

was always a vast reserved

force.

The heavy guns thunIt

dered forth, sending shot and shell directly to the mark,

but behind them you saw the massed supports.

was

the advanced guard only that was in action; the Imperial

Guard was
riods,

still kept back. It has been said of Edward Everett that he " seemed to spend himself upon his pe-

while Webster stood behind his periods."

listened to

You

felt

as

you

him

that the

man was
The very

greater than
fact that his
ordi-

his words, superior to his work.

temperament was torpid and sluggish, making him

narily dall

and unimpassioned, rendered

If it

his

vehemence

the
fires

more impressive.

took long to light up the

in his vast intellectual furnaces, they

burned with

POLITICAL ORATORS
proportional
fury,

WEBSTER.

329

and consumed the hardest substances

in their blaze.

Webster rarely attempted pathos, but when he did

never
failed

so,

to

unseal

the

fountains

of

feeling.

His

celebrated 1830,

apostrophe to Massachusetts, in the speech of

like

made hoary men weep

the

children;

and when
grave

he closed his argument in the Dartmouth

so

College case,

overpowering was

pathos

that

even the

judges of the

Supreme Court could not check

utterances,

their tears.
/

There was a vein of sadness in his nature, which tinges

nearly
all his

and

is

visible,

we

think, in his

grave, severe,
lined " like

and somewhat solemn

side

face,

furrowed and

the

of a

hill
is

where the torrent hath

of

been."

The countenance

that

man on whom

"the burden of the unintelligible world" has weighed

more heavily than on ordinary men.

Yet he loved to
After

unbend, at. times, in the presence of his friends.

his great

Plymouth and Adams and Jefferson

orations,

he

was " as playful as a kitten," says Mr. Ticknor.

ster

Web-I

was not a learned man.

He

read much, not manyl

j

books.

few authors, Shakspeare, Milton, and Burke,

till

he seems to have read

their ideas

were held

in his!
es-

own mind

in constant solution.

His great speeches,

pecially the reply to

Hayne, are adorned with

felicitous

quotations and applications from the

two

poets,

and the

germs of some of

his finest

thoughts and metaphors

may

be found in Burke.

There are great generals who can

handle a force of ten thousand

men

so as to

make them

more
and

effective

than

fifty

thousand directed by other chiefs;

facts

so it

was with the

and ideas marshalled and

In jury trials

hurled against an adversary by Webster.

14*

he culled and grouped the essential testimony of his wit-

330
nesses,

OEATOEY AND ORATORS.

put their words
it

into

solid

mass,

and then

"hurled

home

in comparatively

few sentences,

few,

but thunderbolts."

Webster was not a rhetorician

like Everett

and Wirt.

/Though nice in his choice of words, he was not, like Pink-

ney and Choate, constantly racking dictionaries to obtain an afEluence of synonyms.

Though

possessing an ample

command
moved
see
"

of expression, he

rarely wastes

a word.

He
said,

once criticised Watts for saying in a

hymn
The

that an angel
line,

with most amazing speed."

" It

he

conveyed no sense.

would amaze us," he added,

it

" to

an oyster move a mile a day;

would not amaze us

to see

a greyhound run a mile a minute."

No

one of

our great orators had a greater horror of epithets and

adjectives, or

more heartily despised

For
all

all

grandiloquence or

sesquipedalia verba.

cant and rhetorical trickery,

for all

" the shades of rights of

"bunkum" talk and windy declamation about Hampden and Sidney " and " the eternal
for scorn.

generally,

man," cheap enthusiasms and spread-eagles he had a supreme Pew orators of equal
have
so

imagination

few figures of speech.

There are
in
all

more metaphors in ten pages of Burke than

Webster's works.
in circumlocutions or digressions.

of

In discussing a subject he loses no time

He

uses no scattering

fowling-piece that sends

hit,

its

shot around the object to be

but plants his

rifle-ball in the

very centre of the

tar-

get.

Commonly he prepared himself with

conscientious
out, but
all the

care for his speeches,

not

by writing them
In

by

thinking over and over what he had to say,

while

mentally facing his audience.

many

passages, no doubt,

the very language was pre-chosen,

discrimination,

selected with the nicest

especially, on critical occasions,

and in the

POLITICAL ORATORS
closing paragraphs, in whicli

WEBSTER.
It is

331

were condensed the very pith

not easy to
eloquence, the " daz-

and marrow of his entire argument.

believe thajt the gorgeous bursts of
zling

fence

''

of

rhetoric,

the

exquisite

quotations

and
to
re-

allusions,

and the compact arguments, in the reply

all

Hayne, were

in

impromptu language.

We

must

member, however,

that, in

preparing his speeches for the

press, he corrected them with merciless severity, and some-

times used the

Starr

file

till

it

weakened instead of polishing.

to

King observes that the reply

is

Hayne, unlike the

"It

"Oration on the Crown," which

invective, is free

veined with the fiercest

is

from taunts and sarcasms.

Christian."

not
the

only

crushing, but

Certain

hearers

of

speech, however, report one

personal thrust which never

said Webster,
in

appeared in print.
shook the

" Sir,"

tones

that

Senate chamber,

" the

Senator said that he

should carry the power.

war

into Africa,

if God

gave

Mm

the

But, sir,"

said

Webster, glowering down upon

Hayne with a look of

him the power.
given
I

ineffable scorn, "

it

God has not given

put

to the

gentleman, God has not

him

the power.'"

It is rarely,

however, that the lanlips.

guage of scorn thus

falls

from Webster's

He

neither

mocks

his antagonist like Gavazzi,

nor insults him like

the
intellect

O'Connell, but
hearer,

appeals

directly

to

of the

and

is

more anxious
school, the

to convince than to excite.

Webster was as far as possible from being an orator

of the

Macaulay

members of which

pickle

and

preserve their sentences for use.

His forte was in argu-

ment, not in epigram; and he certainly would never have

thought of writing revised editions of a phrase, like Sheridan.

Even when he had conned a speech most more than once

lifted

carefully,

he was

out of his grooves, and

332

ORATORY AND OUATORS.

borne upon the heaving ground swell of his passion into

extemporaneous splendor.
complains that Webster
is

An

able

English

critic,

who
his

not uniformly refined in

is

language, admits that the style of his speeches

ite

of granfee-

strength and texture, and therefore

is

not of the

ble order

which depends upon the collocation of an

epithet,

that, as

Erskine said of Pox's speeches, "in their most

imperfect reliques the bones of a giant are to be diseovered."

Webster's manner in speaking was usually calm, quite

the opposite of Clay's or Calhoun's.

He was

the most de-

liberate of our great orators, expressing himself in meas-

ured sentences with great economy of words.

His voice

was deep- toned,

like that of

a great bell or organ, yet

to his sinewy, Anglo-Saxon

was musical, and well adapted

words and weighty thoughts.
the whole

On

great occasions, when

roll,

man was

roused,

its

swell and

we

are

told,

struck upon the ears of the spell-bound audience in deep

and melodious cadence,

" far-resounding sea."

as

waves upon the shore of

the

Except in moments of high

excite-

ment, he had

little action,
all.

^an

occasional gesture with the

still

right hand being

In his law-arguments, he was

more sparing of gestures;

his

his keen, deep-set eye glancing,

speaking countenance and distinct- utterance, with an

occasional emphatic inclination of the body, being the only

means by which he urged home

his

arguments.
his

The

vast

mass of the man did much to make

words impressive.

"He
ical

carried men's minds, and overwhelmingly pressed his

thought upon them, with the -immense current of his physenergy."

all

Of

our great orators Daniel Webster was the

at

freest

from egotism, while

the-

same time he manifested a

POLITICAL ORATORS

WEBSTER.
his fierce assault

333

magnificent self-reliance, based on a just estimate of his

own powers.

When Hayne made

it

upon
the

New
ster's

England,
friends,

was feared by many, even of Mr. Webit

that

could

not be answered.

On

evening before his reply, he read over to

Edward Everett
make, in so dry,

some of the points which he intended

business-like a

to

waj

that the latter expressed a fear that

he was not aware of the magnitude of the occasion.

it

But

was speedily evident that he was equal to the exigency

his

that
first

calmness was not that of indifference, but the

It

repose of conscious power.

the storm.

was the hush that precedes

North Carolina,
said of his
started, but " they

As Mr.

Iredell, of

speech, the lion

had been

had not

yet heard his roar or felt his claws."

While the

New

Englanders in Washington were quaking with fear, their

champion, never more playful or in higher spirits than
that evening, slept that night,
" slept soundly.''

and

" So,"

says Everett, in one of his happiest passages, " the great

Cond6

slept

on the eve of the battle of Bocroi; so Alex-

ander the Great slept on the eve of the battle of Arbela;

and

so they

awoke

to deeds of

immortal fame.

As

saw
from

him

in the evening (if I

may borrow an

illustration

his favorite

amusement), he was as unconcerned and free

in spirit as

some here present have seen him, while

floating

in his fishing-boat along

a hazy shore, gently rocking on

the tranquil tide, dropping his line here the varying fortune of his sport.

and there with

The next morning he

was some mighty admiral, dark and terrible; casting the

long shadow of his frowning tiers far over the sea, that

seemed

to sink

beneath him; his broad pennant streaming

at the main, the stars

and

stripes at the fore, the

like

mizzen

and the peak; and bearing down

a tempest upon his


334

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

antagonist, with all his canvas strained to the wind, and

all his

thunders roaring from his broadsides."

defeat

so terrible

was never, except once, known before. It was when the Archangel drove Satan from heaven, and
"With the sound Of torrent floods, or of a numerous host. He on his Impious foes right onward drove.
Gloomy
It
as night."

seems almost incredible that this greatest and most

lasting six hours, dur-

memorable of American speeches,

was
sounded, abounding
in

ing which every key in the entire

gamut

of eloquence

argument,

logic, wit, irony,

poetry, pathos, and passion,

almost every

page of which

has been declaimed to death in colleges and academies,

should have been extempore.

paper, of which the the bolts of this

Into half a sheet of letter

brief consisted,

were condensed
There
is

all

marvellous reply.

no doubt

that the orator had, in one sense, been long prepared for

the assault which he repelled with such crushing energy.

He had

long ago weighed and answered in his

own mind
rejoiceth

the arguments for Nullification, and like the war-horse of

the Scriptures,

who

"

paweth in the

valley,

and

in his strength," he

had awaited the onset of the enemy

Indeed, he himself has
rose to reply.

with a stern and impatient joy.

left

on record

his feelings

when he

Not
felt

until he took the floor,

and saw the concourse, and

the hush, did he feel the slightest trepidation.

Then

for

an instant the responsibility of

his position rushed

upon
dizzy

and nearly unmanned him.

But

after

this

first

moment was
around him,

over, during which the sea of faces whirled after a single recollection

how

his brother

had

fallen dead, a year before

in a similar climax of exeffort, his trepidation;

citement,

he subdued, by a strong

POLITICAL OEATOKS
"

WEBSTEK.

335

my

feet,"

he says, "

felt

the floor

again, they seemed

rooted like rocks,

and

all that I had ever read or thought

or acted in literature, in history, in law, in politics,

to unroll before
easy, if I

seemed
it

me

in glowing

panorama, and then

to

was
it

wanted a thunderbolt,
smoking
by.'"

reach out and take

as

it

tvent

Some
one had
genius.

of Webster's indiscriminate eulogists are fond of

comparing him with Burke.

The

difference

was, that

the very highest order of talent, the other had

Burke was,
and
to this

like

the

poet, " of

imagination

all

compact,''
ness,
tics,

he added profound culture, earnestWebster's forte was in dialecof

in

and moral

sensibility;

in calm, masterly exposition, in massive strength in

all

style,

the

qualities

that
"

give

men

leadership

debate.

As another has

said,

Where Webster
like

reasoned,

Burke philosophized; where Webster was serene, equable,

ponderous, dealing his blows

an ancient catapult,

Burke was clamorous,

fiery,

multitudinous, rushing for.

ward

like his

own

'

whirlwind of cavalry.'

Webster

was the Roman temple,

Gothic cathedral,

stately, solid, massive;

Burke, the

fantastic,

aspiring,
roll

and
like

many-colored.
the blasts of
like the

The sentences of Webster

echoes of an organ in

along

the trumpet on the night air; those of

Burke are

some ancient minster.

and

Webster

advances, in his heavy logical march,

his directness of

purpose, like a Csesarean legion, close, firm, serried, square

Burke, like an oriental procession, with elephants and trophies,

and the pomp of banners."

Webster never could

have delivered any one of the speeches of Burke on the

trial of

Hastings, blazing as they do with the splendors

of a gorgeous rhetoric;

nor could Burke, on the other

hand, have

made

that overwhelming extempore reply to

"

336

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

full

Hayne, so

and running over with mingled

logic, wit,

irony, satire, persuasion,

and pathos.

Among

the various classifications of public speakers,

is

one of the broadest and most natural

that of orators

and rhetoricians,
become such by
less art,

natural
art.

orators and orators

iirst class

who have
inspira-

Since the

employ more or

and the

latter

have occasional bursts of

like
it

tion,

these

divisions,

all
is

others,

partially
less

overlap

or cross each other, yet

none the

a just one,

which will suggest

itself

to

every student of eloquence.

The natural, or born

His soul

orator, speaks

from an

irresistible

impulse, a "necessity, an insatiable craving of his nature.

is

stirred to its depths

by the thoughts and

feel-

ings that clamor for utterance, and he can no more check

their expression than one can check a

mountain torrent
will not
act-

in

its

flow.

His emotions, like Banquo's ghost,

his bidding;

"down "at
ing,

he

is

rather acted upon than

and in the height of

his frenzy,

has no more choice

as to

what he
she
is

shall utter

than the Sibyl who utters the

oracles

inspired to pronounce.

Even when

such
rote

an orator, on a great occasion, " cons and learns by

his ideas

and language, he

finds it almost impossible to

make them run

prepared.

in the groove which he had previously

When

the storm

is

up within him, he

is

swept

onward, in spite of himself, in directions of which he had

not dreamed;

some of the arguments and

illustrations

which he had most carefully pre-studied are

forgotten,

and others more vivid and

originating in his cooler
his brain;

effective

crowd upon him

incessantly on

sentiments, ideas, and fancies, which he was incapable of

moments,
is

flash

the whole

man

transfigured to the hearers.

POLITICAL ORATORS
and, as they listen to his tones,
pet-stop of a

EVERETT.
seems " as
if

337
the trum-

it

grand organ were opened, and the hand of

its

a wizard coursed along

orician,

keys."
his

Not

so with the rhetto art.

the

speaker

who owes

power

He

is

not stung and goaded into eloquence by the very imjjulses

of his being.

He

is

never troubled with thoughts that

till

are

a torment to him,

they are wreaked upon ex-

pression,

and

reflected

from the faces and echoed from

His eloquence does not " come

the throats of his hearers.

like the

outbreaking of a fountain upon the earth, or the

bursting forth of volcanic fires."

With him
it is

art

is

not

merely an aid to
embellished;
it
is

oratory, by which

decorated and
it

the very fountain from which

flows.

He

has cultivated and

enriched his mind with the most

sedulous care.
literature,

He

has drunk at the fountains of modern

the sweetness of the Greek and
his thoughts

and

distilled

Roman

springs.

Not only

and

illustrations,

but his very words and tones are carefully pre-studied, and
every look and gesture
his
is

rehearsed before a glass.

All

climaxes and cadences, his outbursts of passion and

practiced beforehand, and not

his explosions of grief, are

a look nor an attitude, not a modulation nor an accent,

is

left to

the inspiration of the

moment.

To

this class of speakers

belongs

Edward Eveeett,

the

most consummate rhetorician that America has yet produced.*

Probably not one of our public speakers was ever

to say finical, in his preparation
is

more conscientious, not

for the rostrum.

Nothing with him

left to

chance or
the less
" malice

improvisa'tign

all his oratorical flights, as v(rell as

ambitious parts of his discourse, are

made with
'^

* For convenience we have placed Everett in the list of though he more properly ranlzs as a platform speaker.

Political Orators,"

15

338

ORATOEY AND OEATOES.

Not a word but has been

prepense and aforethought."

fitted into its

place with the precision of each stone in a

mosaic; not an epithet but has been weighed in the hair-

balance af the most fastidious taste; not a period but has

been polished and

nicest art,
till
it is

repolished,
totus
teres

and modulated with the

atque rotundus, and muhis attitudes

sical as the tones of

flute.

Even

and

ges-

tures have all been carefully practiced in his study, and

their

precise

effect

calculated with a critical

eye.

One

of his tricks of delivery was to provide himself before-

hand with certain physical

to

objects

to

which he designed

refer,

and hold them

at

the

proper

moment

to the

eyes of his aiidience.

Thus, in delivering the magnificent

passage upon Webster, which

as

we have quoted on page

" his

333,

Everett

pealed

out

the words,

broad pennant
table, as

streaming at the main," he caught up from the

if
it

unconsciously, an elegant flag of the Union, and waved

to

and

fro

amid the shouts of

his

ravished and enin

thusiastic

hearers.

At another time,

an agricultural

address,

having dwelt in glowing terms upon a New-

England product which he declared was brighter and

better than California gold, he produced and

brandished
curito

before the eyes of the people, at the

osity

moment when
of
corn.
occasion,

was on
a

tiptoe,

golden

ear

Again,

illustrate

remark,

he,

on

another

put

his
off;

finger in a tumbler of water,

and

let a

drop trickle

and, yet again, in an academic address, having spoken of the electric wire which was destined to travel the deep-

among the bones of lost Armadas, he " realized" the description by displaying an actual piece
soundings of the ocean,
of the

Submarine Atlantic Cable.

Proceeding to compare

that wire,

murmuring

the

thought of America through

POLITICAL OEATOES

EVERETT.
it

339

leagues of ocean, to the printed page, which, he declared,

was a yet greater marvel, since

thought of

murmured

to us the
to

Homer through

centuries,

he held up

view

a small copy of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey."

In reading Everett's speeches, you feel that they are

the highest triumph of art,

rhetoric
genius.
ton's
It

the

acme of

literary finish,

in "its finest

and most absolute burnish." In

them we have

his thoughts " thrice

winnowed," the

ripest

and best products of his varied scholarship and

his rare

may

be said of his oratorical muse, as of Milis

Eve, that " grace

to this

in

all

her steps."
is,

The only
too apt to

drawback
lack

kind of oratory

that

it

is

abandonment, that self-forgetfulness and fervor which

it

are the soul of oratory, and without which, though

tickle the ear, it does
zle

may
daz-

not thrill the heart.

of heat lightning,

It

may
it

you by

its

flashes

but

never

strikes

you with the thunderbolt.

It is like the

music of

a fine barrel-organ

compared with the ever-varying har-

monies of the orchestra.

the

Every one knows that much of

those

power of an orator depends upon

glowing

thoughts and expressions which are struck out in the excitement and heat of debate, and which even the speaker
himself
is

unable afterward to

recall.
is

Perhaps the larger

part of the poetry of eloquence

is

of this character.
life

There

a secret magic in the " electric kindling of

velocities

between

two or more minds," in the

of debate, which

and contagious ardor

forces, as well as

arms a man with new

in

with

new

dexterity

wielding

old

ones,

suggesting

thoughts,

arguments, analogies, and illustrations, which

to

would never have occurred

study.

him

in the stillness of the

De Quincey has remarked

effect of

that great organists find

the

same

inspiration, the

same result of power

340
creative

OBATOBY AND ORATORS.

and revealing,
in the

mere movement and

velocity

of their
ton,

own

voluntaries, like the heavenly wheels of Miloff

throwing

fiery flakes

and bickering flames; these

fioriture,

impromptu torrents of music create rapturous

beyond
all

capacity in the artist to register, or afterward

to imitate.

All the great works of eloquence are, or ap-

pear, like those bronze statues

at a single sitting.

which the

artist has

cast

Everett
rhetorical

is

an example of

all

that can be done by mere

and

elocutionary training to

charm and
his

per-

suade;

but no one can doubt that, had nature framed

nature,

him with a more emotional

would have been greater.

achievements

He

has
its

the

art

and mechhe
is

anism of eloquence, rather than

genius;
the

the

Kemble rather than the Kean

of

rostrum.

One

of his friendly critics quotes the saying of a shrewd old

lady concerning John Poster's nominally extemporaneous

prayers, that they were " Poster's Stand-up Essays," and

adds that, triumphant and charming as these orations are,

the hearer never forgets that they are Everett's " Stand-

up

Essays.''

It is well

known

that their author failed in

fine,

Congress,

not

because his speeches were too

but beparlia-

cause they were not sufficiently condensed

for a

mentary assembly, and because they were rather eloquent

pieces of writing than speeches in the proper sense of the

term.
in

There

is

a colossal grandeur and a massive strength

Webster's speeches that remind you. of an Egyptian

the symmetry and classic elegance of Everett mind the Greek temple. Everett has no pithy,

pyramid;
call

to

pointed phrases, like Webster's, in which a whole argu-

ment
are

is

packed.

Choate well said:

"Webster's phrases
they run through

much more

telling than Everett's;

POLITICAL ORATORS
the land
vis that is

EVERETT.
it
is

341
et

like coin."

After

all,

the acer spiritus

the

first

element of oratory.

Some Frenchman
it is

says: "L' Eloquence

continue ennuie"; and

true that,

ere

long, the

honeyed phrases of the mellifluous orator

style that
is

grow wearisome; the flowery

poetry palls upon us.
as do
is

mistaken for

Again, Everett never impresses you,

Webster and Clay, with the feeling that the man

his periods.

more puissant than

His expressions do not

suggest a region of thought, a dim vista of imagery, an

oceanic depth of feeling, beyond
sentences.

what

is

compassed by his

He
It is

never seems to struggle with language in

it words enough for his wealth of not an example of " Strength, half leaning

order to wrest from

thought.

on

its

own

right arm," but of Beauty

endowed with every

natural and artificial charm.

Nevertheless, let us not
ett's

fail

to

do justice to Mr. Evergreat ones.

in

real merits, for he has

many and
lie

The
trait,

great charm of his orations does not

any one

but in their symmetry and

finish,

the proofs they exhibit

on every page that they are the

careful culture.

products of the

most

The

style

seems to us the very perfecstyle.

tion of the epideictic, or

demonstrative

Artificial it

undoubtedly

is,

and occasionally, though rarely, may bebut

it
is

tray the artist's tooling;

a style formed by the

polished

most assiduous painstaking, and

exquisitely sensitive as a blind

by a

taste

as
it

man's touch.

If,

has been well said,

the reach of art,
reach.
It
is

as

it

does not snatch a grace beyond

it

certainly snatches all that are within

is

a style which
its

remarkable alike for

rising

its

seeming ease and for

it

flexibility,

and

falling, as

does,

with the theme,

at

now

plain and

now ornamental,

one moment swelling in climaxes, and at the next

342
sinking to
its

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

or picturesque,

ordinary always responding

level,

terse or flowing, pointed

to the

dominant mood
and

of the speaker, as the instrument responds to the touch

of

the

master's
its

fingers.

Above
cadences,

all,

does

it

thrill

charm by

delicious

some

of which

linger

forever in the ear like strains of delicious music.

There

are occasional pages of transcendent beauty that one can-

not read without a tremor, a shiver in the blood, such as

perfect verse

sometimes produces.

It

is

for

this reason

that so

many

passages from Everett's speeches are treas-

ured in school-books, selected for declamation, and quoted on

festal days.

July orator.

He What

is

the very beau iddal of a Fourth of

can be more felicitous than the choice

and collocation of the words in the following passages from

his addresses?

" The awful voice of the storm howls through the rigging. The laboring masts seem straining from their base ; the dismal sound of the pumps is heard the ship leaps, as it were, madly, from billow to billow; the ocean breaks, and settles with engulphing floods over the iloating deck, and beats with deadening weight against the staggered vessel." " Greece cries to us by the convulsed lips of her poisoned, dying Demosthe^ nes; and Rome pleads with us, in the mute persuasion of her mangled Tnlly." " Before the heaving bellows had urged the furnace, before a hammer had been struck upon an anvil, before the gleaming waters had Hashed from an oar. before trade had hung up its scales or gauged its measures, the culture of the To dress the garden and to keep it,' this was the key-note struck soil began. by the hand of God himself in that long, joyous, wailing, triumphant, troubled, pensive strain of life-music which sounds through the generations and ages of our race." ''They come from the embattled cliffs of Abraham; they start from the heaving sods of Bunker's hill they gather from the blazing lines of Saratoga and Yorktown; from the blood-dyed waters of the Brandywine; from the dreary snows of Valley Forge, and all the hard-fought fields of the war."

'

In glancing over his published volumes,

we

are struck
treated,

by the vast number of

them.

topics

which Everett has

and the affluence of learning with which he has

illustrated
col-

Here are elaborate literary addresses before

lege and academic audiences, anniversary discourses cele-

POLITICAL ORATORS

EVERETT.

343

brating the great battles of the Revolution, Pourth-of-July

orations, eulogies
as

on La Fayette and American patriots,

Adams and

Jefferson,

and John Quincy Adams; lyeeum

tem-

lectures;

festival, agricultural, scientific, educational,

etc.,

perance, charitable, legislative addresses,

any one of
felicity

which shows a wealth of knowledge

and a

of

treatment sufficient to make the reputation of an ordi-

nary speaker.
these

One knows not which most

to

admire in

discourses, the

comprehensive grasp of mind, the

power of minute observation, and the strong common sense

which they reveal, or the vivid imagination, the glowing
fancy,
the

and the exquisite

taste,

which have caused even

new, intenser, and

most hackneyed topics

to receive a

brighter illumination from his pen.

ican

The thoroughly Amerwill

tone

of

his

historical

discourses

strike

every

reader, as
depicts

will

also

the

pictorial
scenes.

power with which he

Like certain
animals

past

events
is

and

whose color
grow, he
soil. is

that of the trees or earth on which they

always blended and identified with his natal

One
fense

of his noblest efforts

is

his

first

Phi-Beta-Kappa
It

Oration, delivered at
of

Cambridge in 1824.

was a

de-

republican institutions, as affecting the cultiva-

tion of letters
flush of early

and

science.

The orator was then

all

in the

manhood, and astonished

of
his

who heard him

richness
his

by the

amplitude

learning, the

of his

fancy, the captivating

and luxuriant beauty of

his

meta-

phors and
elocution.

tropes,

and the witchery of

is

diction

and

The

style

polished to the last degree of art,

and the concluding passages, particularly the address to

Lafayette, stir the blood like the sound of a trumpet.

The

Plymouth and Concord addresses are

also masterpieces of

344
their kind,

OKATOET AND ORATORS.

and we doubt whether Macaulay, among
all

his gorgeous pieces of historical

painting, has anything

more impressive than the celebrated description of the

landing of the Pilgrims, or the vivid picture of the death-

bed of Copernicus.

The eulogy on La Fayette, with its masterly contrast between La Fayette and Napoleon, and

the concluding apostrophe to Washington's picture and the

bust of

La

Fayette,

abound

also in that vigor of concep-

tion, that

luxuriance of imagery, that felicity of allusion,

that beauty of word-painting, and that exquisite rhythmus,

which characterize

all his

productions.

He

has

rifled the

gardens, both of ancient and

modern

literature,

of their

amaranthine flowers, and their fragrance breathes from

every sentence that drops from his pen.
All these gifts
his phys-

would have been comparatively unavailing, had

ical gifts

not corresponded to them.

Happily, Nature did

not tantalize him in this way, but gave

him

fine, well-

proportioned figure, a countenance in which gravity and

thoughtfulness were mingled with gentleness, and an eye
large and beaming, and dilating, at times, with wonderful
lustre.

She gave him

full,

also,

a voice clear and sweet, as

It

well as

rich,

and varied.

was equally

fitted

to

utter the softest tones of pity, and the loftiest accents of

indignation;

its

lowest whisper was distinctly heard in a

large hall, and

ence,
too, if
it

when

its

full

volume

rolled over

an audi-

was

like the

swell of an organ.

His gestures,

not so impressive as those of more impassioned or-

ators,
ate.

were singularly graceful, expressive, and appropriIn short, to

not so

sum up, Everett's eloquence was marked much by any one predominating excellence, as by
It

the fusion of various excellences into one.

was not due

to richness of thought, to affluence of fancy, to ripe schol-

POLITICAL ORATOES
arship, to

EVEKETT.
a

345

an exquisite sense of the proprieties and harunion as perfect

ray of
light.

monies of speech, to silvery tones, or expressive gestures,

but to a happy blending of them
all,

as the blending of the prismatic colors in a

He
ersj

did not merely convince, or move, or

charm

his hear-

but they were subdued and captivated by an appeal

to their reason, heart,

and

senses, together.

To read

his
is

addresses,

now
;

that his silvery accents are hushed,

rare pleasure
spell

but to hear them, accompanied by the magic

of

his

delivery,

by
and

the cadences and tones, "the

swells

and sweeps and subsidences of feeling," the poetry

eye,

of gesture, attitude, sent them-

with which the enchanter

heart,

home

to the

mind and

was

a felicity

which one
sion to
it

may no more
in words.

forget than he can give expres-

CHAPTER

XII.

FORENSIC ORATORS.
the long roll of

IN

names
is

whicli have shed lustre on

the British bar, there

no one about which clusters

more of romance and undying interest than about that The remarkable circumstances unof Thomas Eeskine.
der which he was called to the bar,

the giant
human

strides

by

which he rose to the very heights of the profession,

brilliancy of his eloquence,

the the
rare

his

profound knowledge of
passion,

human nature and

coolness

the workings of

singular union in his

mind

of courage with caution, of

and self-possession with

enthusiasm,

powers of persuasion,
magnetism,

his

his elegant physique

and personal
this

^all

have invested the name of

great

Nisi Prius leader with a fascination which attaches to that

of hardly any other great lawyer, from Sir
to Sir

Thomas More
fine bust of

William
is

Pollett.

"Nostrce eloquenfim forensis facile

princeps"

the inscription placed

upon the

Lord Erskine by Nollekens, and by universal admission,

the defender of
the

Tooke and ^tockdale has been awarded

all

palm over
the

compeers,

while

one of his

biogra-

phers, himself

an occupant of the woolsack, has pronounced

advocate, as well
as

him

greatest

the

first

forensic

orator,

who

ever appeared in any age.

of his early life are well

The circumstances
all.

known

to

The family

to

which he belonged was one of ancient

FORENSIC ORATORS
pedigree,
ents,

ERSKINE.
prolific in

347

and had been remarkably

men

of tal-

but was

now reduced

to the very verge of poverty.

his father,

The means of the Earl of Buchan,

was therefore obliged

had been

exhausted in educating his two eldest sons, and the youngest

to start in life
it

with but

little

training and a scanty stock, if stock

classical learning.

could be called, of

While

at school he exhibited a reten-

tive

memory, and when roused by extraordinary

promise of future distinction.
his lively fancy

stimuli,

great capacity for labor; but, on the whole, he was lazy,

and gave
fulness

little

His play-

and love of fun,

and nimble wit,

made him,
of
all,

nevertheless, the favorite of his schoolmates

to

indeed,

who knew him; and when we add

to these

high social qualities the great natural ability, prodigious

capacity of application, absolute egotism, which
ful,

and self-confidence amounting

he
possessed, it
is

not wonder-

perhaps, that

when

called to the bar, he

was able

to

place himself in the very front

rank of

his fellow-gowns-

men.
in the

At the age of fourteen he became a midshipman navy, where he remained four years, till, upon the
Being ordered with his regiment
to Minorca,

death of his father, he decided to try his fortune in the

army.

and

finding himself, at the age of twenty, shut

island, exiled
his

up

in a small

from congenial

society,

and thrown upon

own

resources, he applied himself diligently to study,

and

to the cultivation

of the naturally powerful genius

Laboriously and systemat-

with which he was endowed.

ically

he tried to master the English literature, and read

Milton

thoughtfully the great classics of our language.

and Shakspeare were his favorite authors, and he read and

re-read their pages, with those of Pope and Dryden, until

he had them almost by heart.

Returning

to

England,

348

OEATOKY AND ORATORS.

he was promoted to a lieutenancy, but grew weary of

trudging about from one provincial town to another,

pecially as he

es-

was compelled

all

the while to

keep his

family in a barrack-room or in lodgings.

Conscious of

powers that

fitted

him

to

adorn a larger sphere, he chafed

against the iron circumstances that

hemmed him

in, like

an eagle against the bars of his cage.

he chanced to attend a
while listening with
trial

At this juncture before Lord Mansfield, and,

argu-

the

keenest interest to the

ments of the able counsel, fancied that he could have

made a
not even
at once

better

speech

than any of them, on whichever

it

side retained.

The thought then struck him that

be too late to become a lawyer.
this

might
Acting

now
upon

thought with a self-confidence which

was

itself

almost a sure prophecy of success, he was en-

tered in April, 1775, as a student of Lincoln's Inn, and

in July, 1778,

was

called to the bar.

traits of his

The distinguishing
in

eloquence were shown,

a large degree, in

his

very

first

jury address, which

was made in the following November.

of the case were these:

The circumstances

certain Captain Baillie, a vet-

eran seaman of great worth, who, for his services, held

an

office

at

the

Greenwich Hospital, discovered

in

the
tried

establishment the grossest of abuses.

to obtain a redress of

Having vainly

these evils, he

published a state-

ment of the

case, severely

censuring Lord Sandwich, First

for electioneering purposes,

Lord of the Admiralty, who,

had placed in the Hospital many landsmen.

Captain B.

was at once suspended by the Board of Admiralty, and, instigated by Lord Sandwich, who himself kept in the
background, some of the inferior agents
a criminal information for
libel.

filed

against Mr. B.

The

case excited great


FORENSIC OEA.TOES
public interest, and the facts

EESKINE.

349

were everywhere canvassed.

Captain Baillie was

Dining at a friend's house where

present, Erskine,

who was
to

a stranger to the Captain, de-

nounced with great severity the corrupt and scandalous

practices

imputed

Lord Sandwich.

Inquiring

who

the

young man was,

called to the bar,

Baillie

was

told that he

had just been

theI'll

and had formerly been in

said, "

navy,

upon which the Captain at once

for

Then

have him

my
the

counsel."
to

When
Erskine
;

Michaelmas came round, a brief

but to his dismay he found upon

was delivered
it

names

of

four senior counsel, and, despairing of

being heard after so

many

predecessors, he gave himself

no trouble about the matter.

Moreover, the other counsel

had

so little

hope of success that they advised Captain

costs

Baillie to

pay the

and escape a
"

trial, as

the prosecu-

tion

had proposed.

But Erskine strenuously

dissented,

and
for

the defendant agreed with him.

me,''

You

are the

man
his

he

said,

hugging the young advocate in

Once more

arms,

" I will never give up."

his star favored him.

When

the cause

came

on, the aflBdavits

were

so long,

and
with

some of the counsel

so tedious,

a tediousness

aggravated

by the circumstance that one of them was

aflHicted

strangury, and had to retire once or twice in the course

of his argument,
till

that Lord Mansfield adjourned the cause

young advocate a thoughts, and enabling him
faculties

the next morning, thus giving the

whole night to arrange his

to address the

court

when

its

were awak* and

and

freshened.

The next day, the judges having taken

their seats,

the court being crowded with an eager audience, to the

general surprise " there arose from the back seat a young

gentleman whose name as well as whose face was unknown

350

OKATOBY AND OHATOBS.

and who,
in a collected, firm, but
his

to almost all present,

sweet, modest,

and conciliating tone," began

address.

After a short exordium, he proceeded to show that his

client

had written nothing but the truth, and had acted

within the line of his duty.

strictly

He

then denounced

in

that vehement and

indignant language of which he

afterward proved himself so consummate a master, the

injustice

which had suspended such a

man from

office

without proof of his guilt, and mentioned Lord Sandwich

by name,

when

Lord Mansfield interposed, and reminded

was

the counsel that the First Lord of the Admiralty was not before the Court.
It

at this critical

moment

that was

manifested for the

first

time by Erskine that heroic courage

which shone forth

career.

so conspicuously in all his subsequent

Unawed by

the words

or venerable presence of
in Westminster Hall

Mansfield, whose
for a quarter of

word had been law

a century, the intrepid

young advocate

burst forth impetuously: I know that he is not formally before the court, but, for that very reason, I wUl bring him before the court. He has placed these men in the front of the
^'

order to escape under their shelter, but I will not join in battle with up to the highest pitch of depravity, are not of dignity enough to vindicate the combat with m. I will drag him to light who is the dark mover behind this scene of iniquity. I assert that the Earl of Sandwich has but one road to escape out of this business without pollution and disgrace, and that is, by publicly disavowing the acts of the prosecutors, and restoring Captain Baillie to his command ... If, on the contrary, he continues
battle, in

thera; their vices, though screwed

to protect the prosecutors in spite of the evidence of their guilt,

cited the abhorrence of the

this injured
shall

numerous audience who crowd

this court, if

which has exhe keeps

man suspended, or dares to turn that suspension into a removal, I then not scruple to declare him an accomplice in their guilty a shameless oppressor, a disgrace to his rank, and a traitor to his truH. *' My lords, this matter is of the last importance. I speak not as an advocate alone, I speak to you as a mn, as a member of the state whose very existence depends upon her naval strength. If our fleets are to be crippled by the baneful influence of elections, we are lost indeed. If the seaman, while he exposes his body to fatigues and dangers, looking forward to Greenwich as an

asylum for infirmity and old age, sees the gates of it blocked up by corruption, and hears the mirth and riot of luxurious landsmen drowning the groans and complaints of the wounded, helpless companions of his glory, he will tempt the

FORENSIC ORATORS

ERSKINE.

351

seas no more. The Admiralty may press his body indeed, at tlie expense of humanity and the constitution, but they cannot press his mind; they cannot press

the heroic ardor of a British sailor; and, instead of a fleet to carry terror all around the globe, the Admiralty may not be able much longer to amuse us with

even the peaceable, unsubstantial pageant of a review. (There had just been a naval review at Portsmouth.) Fine and imprisonment ! The man deserves a palace^ instead of a prison^ who prevents the palace built by the public bounty of
his country

security to the interests of

from being converted into a dungeon, and who humanity and virtue "
!

sacrifices his

own

It

is

scarcely necessary to say that

the decision was

this bold

for the defendant.

The

effect

produced by

and

impassioned burst of eloquence was prodigious.

Erskine

had entered Westminster Hall that morning a pauper;

he
left
it

a rich man.

As he marched along the

fees rained

hall,

after the judges

had

risen, the attorneys flocked

around

him with

their briefs,

and retainer

upon him.

From

this

time his business rapidly increased until his

annual income amounted to 12,000.

rise so rapid is

hardly paralleled out of the fairy tales of the Arabian

Nights.

Considering

all

the circumstances under which

the speech

was delivered,

that

it

was the maiden

effort

of a barrister only just called,

and wholly unpracticed in

public speaking, before a court crowded with

greatest distinction,

men

of the

and of

all parties in

the state,

that

the debutant

came

after four

eminent counsel, who might

have been supposed to have exhausted the subject,

that
which

he was checked "in mid-volley" by no less a judge than

Mansfield,

we

do not wonder that Lord Campbell pro-

nounces

it " the

most wonderful forensic

effort of

we have any account in British annals. The exclamation, 'I will bring him before the court!' and the crushing denunciation of Lord Sandwich, in which he was enabled

to persevere

from the sympathy of the bystanders, and

even of the judges, who, in strictness, ought to have checked

his irregularity,

are

as soul-stirring as

anything in

this

352

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

by ancient or modern

species of eloquence presented to us

times."

Mr. Erskine's

first

important argument before a jury

was made

in

defense of Lord George Gordon, in 1781.

His speech in that case sounded the death-knell of constructive treason.

Lord Campbell,
to the

in speaking of

it,

says:

" Eegularly trained

law, having practiced thirty

years at the bar,

having been Attorney-General above

seven years, having been present at

treason,

many

trials of high

and having conducted several myself,

again

peruse with increased astonishment and delight, the speech

delivered on this occasion.
.

Here

I find not only

won-

derful acuteness, powerful reasoning, enthusiastic zeal, and

burning eloquence, but the most masterly view ever given

of the English law of high treason, the foundation of
all

our liberty."

It was,

however, in the celebrated state

trials

during the "Reign of Terror," from 1792 to 1806, that

Erskine

won

his highest

fame

as

an advocate,

when

by

his genius

and exertions he obtained verdicts of

acquittal
as his

in the teeth of a strong government,

and rescued,
from danger.
in
all,

friends

believed, the public

liberties

His

speeches for and

against

Thomas Paine,

defense of

Hardy,

Home

Tooke, Thelwall, and, above

the one in

defense of Stockdale, are masterpieces of argument and

eloquence which have never been surpassed in Europe or

America.

The

latter

is

admitted by

common

consent to

be the chef-d'oeuvre of Lord Erskine's orations, and, take

it

all

in

all,

the most

consummate specimen of

forensic

oratory in our language.

What

can be finer than the

is

following apology for excess, which

one only of many

gems

in this oration?

FORENSIC ORATORS

ERSKIKE.

353

"From minds thus subdued by the terrors of puDiahment there could issue no works of genius to expand the empire of human reason, nor any masterly compositions on the general nature of government, by the help of which the great commonwealths of mankind have founded their establishments; much less any of those useful applications of them to critical conjunctures, by which, from time to time, our own constitution, by the exertions of patriot citizens, has been brought back to its standard. Under such terrors all the great lights of science and civilization must be extinguished, for men cannot coumiunicate their free thoughts to one another with a lash held over their heads. It is the nature of everything that is great and useful, both in the animate and inanimate world, to be wild and irregular; and we must be contented to take them with the alloys which belong to them, or live without them. Genius breaks from the fetters of criticism; but its wanderings are sanctioned by its majesty and wisdom when it advances in its path: subject it to the critic, and you tame it into dullness. Mighty rivers break down their banks in the winter, sweeping to death the. flocks which are fattened on the soil that they fertilize in the summer, the few may be saved by embankments from drowning, but the flock must perish for hunger. Tempests occasionally shake our dwellings and dissipate our commerce but they scourge before them the lazy elements which without them would stagnate into pestilence. In like manner. Liberty herself, the last and best gift of God to his creatures, must be taken just as she is. You might pare her down into bashful regularity, and shape her into a perfect model of severe scrupulous law but she would then be Liberty no longer, and you must be content to die under the lash of this Inexorable justice, which you had exchanged for the banners of
;

freedom.''

It

was in the same speech that he delivered

" that vic-

torious
it,

and triumphant passage," as Lord Brougham terms

contributed, doubtless, largely to the deliver-

" which

ance of his client, and will remain an everlasting monu-

ment of
its

his

own

glory, whilst the

name

of England and

language shall endure":

'*I have been speaking of man and his nature, and of human dominion, from what I have seen of them myself among nations reluctant of our authority. I know what they feel, and how such feehngs can alone be repressed. I have heard them in my youth from a naked savage, in the indignant character of a prince, surrounded by his subjects, addressing the governor of a British colony, holding a bundle of sticks in his hands, as the notes of

his urllettered eloquence.

'

Who

is it,'

said the jealous ruler of the desert,

'

encroached upon by the restless foot of English adventure, who is it that causes to blow the loud winds of winter, and that calms them again in summer? Who is it that causes this river to rise in the mountains, and to empty itself in the ocean? Who is it that rears up the shade of these lofty oaks, and blasts them with the quick lightnings at his pleasure? The same Being who gave you a country on the other side of the waters, and gave ours to us;

and by this title we will defend it,' said the warrior, throwing his tomahawk upon the ground, and raising the war-sound of his nation. These are the

15*

354
feelings of subjugated

OEATOEY AND
man
all

OJRATOES.
it,

round the globe; and depend upon

vain to look for affection."

nothing

but fear will control where

it is

It is

interesting to

know

that the speech upon which

recollection of

Lord Erskine most prided himself, and the

which afforded him dnring
satisfaction,
all

his

life

the
trial

profoundest
of

was that delivered on the

Thomas

Paine for his blasphemous work, " The Age of Eeason."

The speech abounds

finest is that in

in

gorgeous passages, of which the

which he bursts into a glowing apostrophe

of thp devout, holy and sublime spirits

who have

in all

ages held to the faith of God's word, and appeals to the

testimony of Hale, Locke, Boyle, Newton, and especially

Milton, who, having been deprived of the natural light of

the body, enjoyed the clear shining of the celestial day,

which enabled him "to justify the ways of God

to

man."

The speech was printed by

sion of

the Society for the Suppres-

Vice, and had an immense circulation, " which gave me," he says, " the greatest satisfaction, as I would

rather that all of

my

other speeches were committed to

in oblivion, than that

the flames, or in any

manner buried
lost."

a single page of

it

should be

The question naturally suggests

qualities of

itself,

What were
it

the
pro-

Erskine's eloquence which

made

so

foundly impressive, and enabled him in the outset of his

career to place himself by a single bound in advance of
all his rivals?

profound lawyer he was not, nor was

It

he well equipped with the learning of the schools.

was not
its

to its rhetorical qualities, to its

beauty of

diction,

richness of

ornament or

illustration, its wit,

humor,

or sarcasm, that his oratory

owed

its

power and charm,

His
first all

but to

its

matchless strength and vigor.

great
other

excellence

was

his devotion to his client, to

which

FORENSIC ORATOES
eonsiderations were
in the

ERSKINE.
Prom
The
the

356

made secondary.

Self was forgotten

character he personated.

moment

the

jury were sworn he thought of nothing but the verdict

till

it

was recorded in

his

favor.

earnestness, the

vehemence, the energy of the advocate were ever present

throughout his speeches, impressing the arguments upon

the

mind of the hearer with a

force

which seemed to

compel conviction.

He

resisted every temptation to

mere

declamation which his luxuriant fancy cast in his path,

and won his verdicts not more by what he said than by

what he refrained from saying.

his

Even

in the longest of

speeches there

is

no weakness, no flagging; but the

same earnestness of manner, the same lively statement of

facts,

the

same luminous exposition of argument, from beclose.

ginning to

Hence
to

it

was that

his hearers never

yawned or went
the court

sleep

under

his oratory;

that after

and jury had listened for days

till

to witnesses

and

other barristers,

their endurance
five

was nearly exhausted,

minutes when. e\ery

he had but to address them for

feeling o^ weariness

would vanish, and they would hang

words.
rivals,

spell-bound

upon

his

Less deeply versed in the

law than many of his

he had a marvellous power

for his use

of availing himself of the

knowledge collected
in

by others.
Juries, he
is

In

his

speech

defense of the Eights

of

admitted to have exhibited a depth of learn-

ing that would have done honor to Selden or Hale;

so

and

thoroughly had he mastered the materials of his brief

which black-letter lawyers had spent months in searching out, that he poured forth all this learning in his ar-

gument before the court with the freshness and

of one

precision

who had spent

his life in such researches.

Grasp-

ing

all

the facts and principles of a case, he never forgot

356

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

a decision, an analogy, or the pettiest circumstance which

made
tage

for

his client;

while his dexterity in avoiding the

difficulties of his case,

and in turning to
disclosures

his

own advan-

the

unexpected

which were sometimes

positively wonderful.

made

in the course of a trial,

was

Another marked peculiarity of Erskine's oratory was

the keen insight which the
it

displayed of the workings of

it

human mind.

He

spoke,

has been well said, as his

if

clients

would respectively have spoken,

Mr. Eoscoe, in
his

endowed with

his genius.

"Lives of Eminent British

Lawyers," remarks that there never was an advocate who

studied with nicer discrimination and

more

deliberate tact

the feelings of a jury than did Erskme.

orator, he

Like every great

was largely dependent upon, and aided by, that

his hearers

sympathy of by inch."
of oratory,
his subject,

which Cicero says

"

is

the support

and food of a public speaker.

He

felt his

ground inch

Even in his loftiest and most thrilling bursts when he was apparently wholly absorbed in
forgetful of all things else, he

was

intently

scanning the faces of the jury, and watching the impression of his speech, as

revealed in their changing looks.

Guided by

this index,

he varied the tone of his address;

rise,

now

rising, as

he saw the feelings of the jury

of

into

impassioned

displays

oratory,

now

subsiding, as he

saw the passions of the jury

perate

subside, into cool

and tem-

argument.
this

His speeches

abound in observations
In his speech on

which exhibit

remarkable faculty.

the trial of Lord George Gordon, he exclaimed, "Gentle-

men,

see

your minds revolt at such shocking

proposi-

tions!"

On

the trial of Stockdale he said, "Gentlemen, I

observe plainly, and with infinite satisfaction, that you are

shocked and offended at

my

even supposing

it

possible

FORENSIC ORATOES
that

ERSKIKE.
still

357

you should pronounce such a detestable judgirent."

after he

Even

had sat down, his eye was

on the jury.

The order in which Erskine marshalled

showed a profound knowledge of the
contributed greatly to their
eral,
effect.

his

arguments

human mind, and

In-

Like a skillful gen-

he massed his forces on one point of assault.

frittering

stead of
as

away the strength of

his reasonings,

do so

under so

many even able advocates, by arranging them many distinct heads, he proposed a great lead-

ing principle, to which all his efforts were referable and

subsidiary,

which

ran through the whole of his address,

governing and elucidating every part.

As

the

rills

and

streams of a valley, whether they run hither or thither,

northward or southward, yet meet and mingle at

one,
till

last into

the thousand brooks

facts,

become a torrent,

so the ar-

guments,

and

illustrations in one of these speeches

were made to rush together into a

strike with

common

channel, and

tremendous impact on the mind.

As

in at-

tack so in defense; choosing

some one strong

position, he

concentrated

upon

it

all
if it

his

powers of logic and argu-

ment, knowing that

ble, it

only could be

made impregnapoints,

mattered

little

what became of minor

prove
fatal

the

defense
case.

would

infallibly

to

his

adversary's
to strength-

The

effect of this

method was not only

en his arguments, but greatly to facilitate their remembrance by his hearers.

"

If he sometimes diverged
his

from the

grand trunk line

.

" of

reasoning, as he occasionally

did to relieve the overburdened

minds of
his

his hearers, he

made even the digression enforce

or apt
illustration

argument; for from

earnest appeals a
his speeches

every excursion he brought back some weighty argument

which gave to

his

new and

startling force.

While the matter of

358

OKATOKY AND ORATORS.

to their object,

was thus admirably adapted

was equally
flexible

the

manner

excellent,

the style

being the obedient and

Chaste, polished, and
full of

instrument of the thought.

it

harmonious,
force,

was

at the

same time

energy and
all

and was equally free from mannerism and from

straining after effect.

In simile and metaphor he rarely

in wit, but

indulged,
straight

still

more rarely

sent his appeals

home

to the reason rather than to the taste and

imagination of his auditors.

as in those of Grattan,

The rhythmus

of his sentences,

was wondrously beautiful; Lord

his eloquence to

Campbell attributes much of the charm of

" the exquisite sweetness of his diction, pure, simple, and

mellifluous,

the

cadences not being borrowed from

any

model, nor following any rule, but marked by constant

harmony and variety." To all these attractions must be added the charms of an elegant person, and a magnetism in the eye which was " His form was peculiarly graceful, almost irresistible. slender, and supple, yet, when warmed by an address, quivering with the pent-up excitement of the occasion.
features were regularly beautiful, and susceptible of
nite variety of

His
infi-

expression,

and at times lighted up with

Juries,

a smile

of surpassing sweetness."

according to

Lord Brougham, have declared that they

ble to

felt it impossi-

remove their looks from him, when he had

it

riveted,

and, as
it

were, fascinated them by his

first

glance; and

used to be a

common remark

of

men who

observed

his motions, that they resembled those of a blood-horse; as

light, as limber, as

much betokening

strength and speed,

as free

from
all

all

gross superfluity or encumbrance.

Of

the lawyers that ever lived, Erskine seems to

have made the closest approach to the ideal of a forensic

FORENSIC ORATORS
advocate.

PINKNET.

359

In reading his speeches, and thinking of the

looks, tones,

and action that accompanied their delivery, we

are tempted to ask, in the language of Choate concerning

Kossuth:
lyre of

"When

shall

we

be quite certain again that the

to a tran-

Orpheus did not kindle the savage native

sient discourse of reason,

did

not suspend the labors and

charm the pains of the damned,

of the grave asleep,

did

not lay the keeper

and win back Eurydice from the world

air! "

beyond the river, to the warm, upper

of acute

As examples

and powerful reasoning, enlivened by glowing

eloquence, these speeches are

class

among

the grandest of their

in

our language;

and a profound study of them

would do much to correct the leading vices of American

oratory.

Let the young attorney, in particular, devote his

till

days and nights to analyzing 'their excellences,

he has

mastered the secret of their power

and

if,

after a micro-

scopic survey of their qualities, he fails to "

form

to theirs

the relish of his soul,"

and can

still

delight in " spread-

eagleism,"

we
him,

will agree that his faults are incorrigible,

and

bid

in

the

words of

Horace,

" stultum

esse

Ubenter."

America has produced a great number of forensic orators,

and among them few have

left

so great

name

as

William Pinknet, of Maryland.

cipal speeches

Unfortunately the fame

of his eloquence rests chiefly on tradition,

none of

his prin-

having been preserved.

He was

enthusiall

astically fond of his profession, and, his contemporaries,

beyond almost

of

ambitious of

its

triumphs.

Emulation

and the love of distinction, even more than his keen appetite

for knowledge,

were the motives that urged him on

in his indefatigable efforts at self-improvement,

and they

360

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

it

allowed him no rest while

intellectual
stores.

was

possible to increase his

" I

never heard him allow," said a

friend of his, " that any

thing,
. . .

man was

his

superior in anyhis great

especially in oratory, on

which
his

am-

bition rested."

Even when serving

country as a dipto

lomatist
his
ety,

in

Europe, he applied himself indefatigably

law

studies.

All other pursuits, the pleasures of soci-

and even the repose which nature demands, were

to

sacrificed

this

engrossing object.
stock

Even

after he

had
ap-

accumulated

vast

of

legal

knowledge, he
"

proached every
one

new
his

cause

with the ardor and zeal of

who had
all

still

his reputation to earn.

He was
its

never
facts,

satisfied," says

biographer, " with exploring

and

the

technical

learning which

it

involved."

In

preparing

bis

speeches,

whether

for

the
toil.

forum or the
All his
life

Senate, he was equally

unsparing of

he declaimed

much

in private, and he carefully premedi-

tated, not only the general order of his speeches,

and the

topics

of illustration, but
last

also the

rhetorical

embellish-

ments, which

he sometimes wrote out beforehand.

these, he noted

To

supjDly himself with

in

his

reading

every allusion or image that could be turned to use.

He

piqued himself on his

language, of whose

critical

knowledge of the English and vocabulary he had a

Being

structure
if

minute knowledge,
mortified,

not a thorough m.astery.

when in England, by his inability to answer

classical literature,

some question in
sical

he resumed

his clasto

studies,

and put himself under an instructor

acquire a better knowledge of ancient literature.

In what lay the charm of his oratory,

say.

it is

not easy to

The Supreme Court room

at

Washington was always

and however dry

crowded when he was about

to speak,

FOEEKSIC OEATOES
the theme, or

PINKKEY.
till

361

abstruse his arguments, he held the un-

flagging attention of his hearers

of the popular interest in
his

he sat down.

Much

speaking must have been

due to the energy and earnestness of his manner, to his

rare

command

of beautiful and expressive diction, and to

the flowers of fancy with

arid and unpromising

which he embellished the most

themes.

Rufus Choate regarded

him

as

the

most

consummate master of a manly and

as a

exuberant spoken English that he ever heard, and he had

him always in view

model

for imitation.

No Ameriall

can advocate ever bestowed more pains upon his manner.

He

practiced

speaking before a mirror, and

facial

his atti-

tudes, gestures,

expressions,

etc.,

were apparently

studied beforehand, to the minutest action.

to

When

about

argue a

case,

he was nervous and restless, burning

with a kind of impatient

Ticknor,

rage

for the

fray.

Professor
as he

who saw him once

in the

Supreme Court,

was waiting to begin an argument, says that he showed

by frequently moving his
twitches of his face,
conflict.

seat,

and by the convulsive

ceased

how
the

anxious he was to come to the

to

"At

last

judges

read,

and he

sprang into the arena like a lion

by

his

keepers on the gladiator

elocution

who had been loosed who awaited him." His

style of

was evidently borrowed from no one.

as if he

Beginning with some timidity, and speaking in low and

indistinct

murmurs,

were conjuring up the

spirit
off

of his
his

elocution

by muttered incantations, he shook

as

embarrassment

he advanced, and, raising his voice

to a higher
tide of

and higher key, was soon borne along on the

Both in

an impetuous and overwhelming oratory.

his senatorial

and

his

forensic

speeches, he " spoke with

great vehemence, rushing

16

from thought to thought with

362

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

fiery, his nostrils distended,

a sort of ferocity; his eye

his lips covered

and

with froth, which he would wipe away."

His right arm was not brandished in the usual manner, but " brought in frequent His gesture was also peculiar.
sweeps along his side; his right foot advanced, and
his

body alternately thrown back as

heaved forward again, as
if

if

about to spring, and

to

in act

strike

down

his

adversary; big drops of sweat all the while coursing along

their channels

from

his forehead." his admirers,

It is evident,

from the accounts even of

that his elocution was too vehement and declamatory for

legal discussions, if not for jury addresses, as
also, that his rhetoric
it
is

evident,
to

was too

stilted

and overwrought

merit the highest praise.

We

are told by his biographer,

that Johnson and Gibbon were his favorite English prosewriters

;

and

to his

admiration for their elaborate, pompous,

style,

and somewhat

frigid

which he thought the proper

attribute in part the vices
all

models for an orator, we

of his diction.

may

By

a strange paradox, with

real fire

his vehe-

mence there was a lack of

his

and fervor; and while

warmth,

if it

could be called such, was that of the

rhetorician, his figures,

which were sometimes far-fetched

cold,

and over-fanciful,
on the web of

"

seemed

and rather embroidered

it."

his discourse

than woven into

Even

in

the loftiest and most impassioned climax of his impetuous

speech, he seemed never so absorbed in his

theme

as to

be wholly self-forgetful.

As with the orator mentioned

was
self-defeating;
life,

by Cicero, who, metuens ne vitiosum, etiam verum sanguinem

deperdebat, his anxiety to appear well

and

it

was not

till

at a late period
all his

in his

that he

learned to press on with

energies to the goal, with-

out stopping to pick up the flowers that tempted him on

"

FOKEKSIC ORATORS
the way.
It

PINKNET.
before the

363

was

in the discussion,

Supreme
his

Court, of questions relating to the interpretation of the

federal

constitution

and to international law, that

great abilities appeared to the most signal advantage.

His arguments before that " more than Amphictyonic Council

were generally characterized by an earnestness, gravity,

eloquence, and force of reasoning, as well as a depth of
learning,

which were fully proportioned

to the

magnitude

of the occasion,

and which convinced

all

who heard him

that he gave expression not merely to the sentiments of

the hired advocate, but also to those of the patriot.

He

was preeminently a legal logician, having, as Eufus Choate

truly said, " as fine a legal head as ever

was grown in

America."
In appearance Pinkney was robust, square-shouldered,
and firm-set.

He had

a somewhat low forehead, and an

oval head; with eyes that

were changeful in expression,

but quickly lighted up by excitement.

pression of his face

The habitual
it

ex-

was mirthful, yet

however,

was deeply furhis

rowed with the lines of thought.

disposition,

The haughtiness of

which,

was

shown

to

his

peers,

never to his inferiors, was manifested in his carriage, of

which

it

has been said that

it

was more than

and

erect,

it

might be called perpendicular.

His port at the bar

defiant.

to-

ward
alert

his

equals was antagonistic

Always

and guarded, he granted no favors, and he asked

none.

"His courtesy in

this

arena was a mere formula,

than avoided
it.''

and rather suggested

conflict

Few

per-

sons of equal ability have been so attentive to the minutest details of their personal appearance.
his toilet

He changed

twice a day, and was always elaborately dressed,

without regard to fashion, in the style which he deemed

364
best fitted to

ORATORY AND. ORATORS.

show
off his fine person.

His nicely brushed

blue coat, white waistcoat with gold buttons, snowy-white

linen, gold studs, boots shining
tle

with the highest polish,

lit-

cane twirling in his saffron-gloved fingers, with his air

of ease, abandon, and " devil-may-care jauntiness," suggest-

ed a

Brummel

or a

the American bar.

Beau Nash rather than the giant of Not unfrequently, we are told, " he
costume
It is

carried his whole array of dandyism into court, and opened

his

harangue with

all his butterfly

intact,

fastidiously dressed at every point."

even said that

he wore corsets to check his growing corpulence, used

cosmetics to smooth the roughnesses of his face, and rub-

bed his body with ointment to stimulate his mental faculties.

Probably no advocate that ever

lived,

great advocate,
rical effects.

ever

certainly no

betrayed more fondness for theattrick of his,

It

was a common

when

called

upon
tion,

to

argue a great cause, to plead a want of preparaargument.

though he had been toiling night and day for weeks

his

upon
before

Sometimes he would show himself

at a fashionable party or at a public meeting, the night

he was to speak in court, so as to give the im-

pression that his logic and eloquence were off-hand, and

would then go home and spend the whole night in elaborating " impromptu " bursts for the morrow. In spite of all this foppishness and affectation, which were the more unworthy of him as he did not need any such deceptive
recommendations, he was one of the giants of the bar and
the senate; and

"no man,"

says Wirt, "dared to grapple

with him without the most perfect preparation, and the

full possession of all his strength."

We have a good specimen of Pinkney's peculiar eloquence in his argument on the famous case of the Ne-

FORENSIC OEATORS
reide, in

CHOATE.

365

which arose the novel question of international law, whether a neutral could lawfully lade his goods on
an armed enemy's
" The idea
is

vessel.

formed by a union of the most repulsive ingredients. It It exhibits such exists by an unexampled reconciliation of mortal antipathies. a rare dUcordia rerum, such a stupendous society of jarring elements, or (to ube an expression of Tacitus) of res imociabiles, that it throws into the shade the wildest Actions of poetry. I entreat your Honors to endeavor a personification of this motley notion; and to forgive me for presuming to intimate that, if after you have achieved it, you pronounce the notion to be correct, you will have gone a great way to prepare us, by the authority of your opinion, to receive, as credible history, the worst parts of the mythology of the Pagan world. The Centaur and the Proteus of antiquity will be fabulous no longer. The prosopopoeia, to which I invito you, is scarcely, indeed, within the power of fancy, even in her most riotous and capricious mood, when she is best able and most disposed to force incompatibilities into fleeting and shadowy combination but, if you can accomplish it, will give you something like the kid and the lion, the lamb and the tiger portentously incorporated, with ferocity and meekness coexistent in the result, and equal as motives of action. It will give you a modern Amazon, more strangely constituted than
;

whom ancient fable peopled the borders of the Thermidon, her compounded of the tremendous shout of the Minerva of Homer and the gentle accents of an Arcadian shepherdess, with all the faculties and inclinations of turbulent and masculine War, and all the retiring modesty of virgin Peace. We shall have, in one personage, the })liareirata Camilla of the yEneid, and the Peneian maid of the Metamorphosis. We shall have Neutrality, soft
those with
voice

and gentle, and defenseless in herself, yet clad in the panoply of her warlike neighbors, with the frown of defiance upon her brow, and the smile of conciliation upon her lip, with the spear of Achilles in one hand, and a lying protestation of innocence and helplessness unfolded in the other. Nay, if I may be allowed so bold a figure in a mere legal discussion, we shall have the branch of olive entwined around the bolt of Jove, and Neutrality in the act of hurling the latter under the deceitful cover of the former."

Of the eloquence of Rufus Choate,

est forensic advocate,

America's
A

great-

William Pinkney not excepted,

one
more

should

have a genius as rare and peculiar as that of

Choate himself, to give an adequate description.

unique and original, not to say odd and eccentric, yet at the

same time powerful and

a jury at his will.

effective speaker,

never moulded

Neither in his looks, action, language,

or style of argumentation, did he copy

from or resemble

366

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

living.
It

any other advocate, dead or

in the courts

was our good

for-

tune in 1838, and again in 1847-1856, to hear him both

been

and the lecture-room; yet never have we more impressed with the impotence of language than when trying " to wreak upon expression " the impressions made upon us by his extraordinary looks and
speech.
gait,

His

tall,

robust, erect frame; his rolling, swaying

and

bilious, coffee-colored, oriental

complexion;

his

haggard, deeply furrowed face;

eyes, lit

his large, dark, lustrous

at

times with an unearthly glare, and almost

startling one with their

burning intensity of expression;

his hair, luxuriant, curling,

and black as the raven's;

his

musical voice,

now

gentle and persuasive,

now vehement
as if " to

and ringing;
flung

his slouching

garments which seemed

said

upon him, including a cravat which was

atoms";

meet in an indescribable knot that looked

itous concurrence of original
to portray singly, but of the " full force

like the fortu-

all these it is

easy

and

joint result

of all "

they give no more idea than an alphabet gives

of a poem.

But when we add

his

to these details, his appear-

ance in the grand climacteric moments,

full

when he was

in the

swing of

impetuous oratory, and

so absorbed in

his

theme and
looks

isolated

from

his

surroundings as to be in
photographing

" a sort of trance state," the difficulty of

his

and manner amounts

to

an impossibility.
in his

The
like

vehemence with which he swept on

that

argument,

a lightning-express train, pouring out his words so fast

it

was

said that, if the magnetic telegraph

were

af-

fixed to his
all

mouth, they would heap upon the wires,

yet,

the while, with the coolest method in his fury, scan-

ning every look and motion of the judge and jury; the
ever-changing tones of his voice, ranging through
all the

FORENSIC ORATORS
notes in the scale,
positive

CHOATE.

367
to

from the lowest audible whisper

scream;

the

tremulous fingers, long and bony,

which he would run through his curling locks, that dripped

with perspiration; the clinched
fists,

which he would now

his opponent's face;

swing in the
the

air,

and now shake at

convulsive jerks of the

body with which he would

its

seem to shake every bone in

socket;

the triumphant

manner

in which, after a series of

burning sentences, he

would straighten up his quivering body, throw his head

back,

and draw in a

full

volume of breath through

bis

nostrils

with a snufiling that was heard over the whole

;

court-room

his strange habit of dofiing

and donning three

or four different-colored overcoats, in the progress of his

speech, according
his

to the degree

in

which he perspired;
his grotesque exag-

weird wit and arch

his

pleasantry;
of

geration;

multiplication

adjectives,

as

when he
'

spoke of a harness as " a safe, sound, substantial, suitable,

second-rate, second-hand harness," or spoke of the

Greek

mind

as " subtle, mysterious, plastic, apprehensive,

compre-

hensive, available," (a dissertation in six words); his laby-

rinthine sentences, his cumulative logic

by which one
so as to

idea,

image, or argument, was piled

upon another,
his

make

up an overwhelming mass;
rhetoric,

gorgeous,

many-colored

all

together simply beggar description.

Probably no orator ever lived

who threw

himself with

more energy and utter abandonment into the advocacy

of a cause.

When

addressing a jury, his whole frame

was charged with

emotion.

electricity,

and

literally

quivered with

The perspiration stood in drops even upon the

and he reminded one of the pythoness

hairs of his head;

upon her tripod.

Sometimes he was

so racked

and

ex-

hausted by a forensic speech that he could hardly stagger,


368
without

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

aid, to his carriage;

and

often,

though he had an

iron frame, he would be tormented with sick headache,

to

which he was

all

his

life

a martyr, for several days

afterward.

In addressing the bench, on the other hand,

he was so quiet and subdued in manner as to appear

like

another being.

Probably there never was an advo-

more opposite elements were united. At one moment he burns with a tropical heat, the next
cate in whose brain

he

is

as cool as

an iceberg.

Keenly sensitive to the

slight-

est impressions^

he has as perfect a self-control as a vet-

eran swordsman.

Hurrying other men along

his

in a whirlfeelings
if,

wind of passionate declamation, he holds

all

own

the while in check with as complete a mastery as

like drilled

and veteran

troops, they

had been taught

to

be "impetuous by rule."
serves that
it is

Mr. E. P. Whipple acutely ob-

one of Choate's peculiarities that he comintellect

bines a conservative

with a radical
;

sensibility,

that
less

he

is

a kind of Mirabeau-Peel

and

this is doubt-

the happiest solution of the strange anomalies and

puzzling contradictions in his character.

the few

He
is

is

one of

men who have triumphantly

achieved that feat

the tragedy
ecliptic

which, Emerson once said in the " Dial,"

of genius,

attempting
is

to drive along the

with

one horse of the heavens and one horse of the earth,

the result of which

almost always discord and ruin

and downfall
ination of

to chariot

and charioteer.

With an imagactivity,

intense

vividness

and preternatural

Choate was as practical as the most sordid capitalist that

ever became an " incarnation of fat dividends."

Beginning
chiefly

his legal career at

Danvers and Salem,

Mass.,

with the practice of criminal law, he rose rapidly

till

in his profession,

he had no superior in the state or

FOKENSIC ORATORS
nation.

CHOATE.

369
Plunket, once

It is said that the Irish advocate,

defended a horse-stealer in a country town of his circuit with such

consummate

tact

that all

the thieves in the

court-room were in an ecstasy of delight, and one of them,

unable to control his admiration, burst out into an exclamation,
steal,

"Long

life

to you, Plunket!
I'll

The
!

first

horse I

boys,

by Jekers,

have Plunket "

The criminals
them
Choate

of Essex

county must have cherished a similar enthusiastic

admiration for Choate, for his success in clearing

was such that the attorney-general declared that the days

of the

Salem witchcraft had returned again.

to Boston, all the

When

moved

veteran practitioners of the bar

looked askance and shook their double chins at him, saying

of his unique style of speaking, as did Jeffrey of Wordsworth's poetry, " This will never do " the public,
;

too,

laughed at his vehemence of gesture and droll exag-

geration; but

when

it

was found that there was "a methall these

od in his madness,"

that

seeming oddities were

simply means to an end,

the jurors'

that

he was aiming to keep

attention

alive,

and that beneath the roses

steel,

and flowers there was hidden a blade of Damascus

above

all,

witchcraft

when they found that by some inexplicable of manner or sorcery of speech he won verwhich their
" coldly correct

dict after verdict

and

critically

dull " addresses failed to extort,

" If I live,"

they changed their

all

tone.

he wrote one day in bis diary, "

the block-

heads which are

shall

shaken at certain mental peculiarities

feel

know and
" those

a lawyer, a reasoner, and a

man

of

business"; and live he did to confound all gainsayers, and

make

who came

to seoft'

remain " to

praise.

In his happiest days, to hear

him argue a cause

to a

jury was regarded even by the most cultivated critics of

370
the

OBATOKY AND OKAXOKS.

American Athens
as

an intellectual

feast.

The flowers

of fancy which he scattered along the pathway of his rapid

and vivid speech

ciful,

the profusion of analogies, real and fanfortified

with which his teeming fancy

every propo-

sition,

and

illustrated every theme;

the choice, felicitous,

and often recondite language gathered from books and the

market-place; the charming literary, biographic, and historic

allusions;

the ingenious and

apt illustrations; the

sudden

flashes of wit;

the electric bursts of

humor;

the

" quick, trampling interrogations with whijch he assailed an

antagonist proposition, and gave to his argument an almost

muscular power "

the rapid transition from pleasantry to

pathos, from subtle analysis

and searching

logic to grand

outbursts of sentiment, which uplifted the

hearers, and invested

souls of his

them

for the

moment with a

portion

of the orator's

own
spell

greatness,

all

these were elements

in the composition of that complex

and indescribable

elo-

quence whose

was

felt

equally by judge and juror,

listen

by scholar and clown, and to which no one could

unmoved

unless he was either " a yahoo or a beatified inIt

telligence."

mattered

little

how

obscure the arena or

how

small the circle of hearers, in which and to

whom

he

spoke.

In the ofRce of a justice of the peace, or before

hall of a country tavern, he

two or three referees in the

afiiuence of diction, the

would squander the same treasures of learning, the same same

felicity of allusion, the

same

frenzy of feeling, as

when hg spoke

before the most learned

and august tribunal or the most lettered audience.

It has

been justly said that though his

style

lacked

simplicity,

and suggested by
it

its

richness and luxuriance

to

an oriental origin, yet

its

was wonderfully well adapted

purpose, and never failed to be poetic and suggestive.

FORENSIC ORATORS

CHOATE.

371

One who was apparently a frequent listener to his enchanting rhetoric, speaks of his discoursing to a jury somer
times " in tones that linger on the

memory
fife,

like the part-

ing sound of a cathedral bell, or the dying organ.

note of an
has often a

Thrilling

it

can be as a

but

it

plaintive cadence, as

though his soul mourned, amid the

loud and angry tumults of the forum, for the quiet grove
of the

academy, or in these times sighed at the thought

of those

charms and virtues which we dare conceive in

boyhood, and pursue as men,

the

unreached paradise of
with
all his

our despair."

And

yet, strange to say,

poetry

and
oric,

pathos, his soarings of fancy

it

and

his flights of rhet-

was not in these that lay his principal power.

as

Though he had,
that rose with

Edward Everett
his

said, "

an imagination

easy wing to the highest invention of init

vention," yet
his

was mainly

dialectic

skill

that

won

victories.

In a dry law-argument, hinging on purely

he
could
be,

technical

points,

Judge Sprague declared,

In his arguments, not
its

" learned, logical,

and profound, or exquisitely refined and

required.

subtle," as the occasion

only was each topic presented in all

force,

but they

were

all

arranged and dovetailed with the most consumso as to furnish a

trial,

mate

skill

mutual support.

During a

nothing, in his nlost passionate moments,

escaped his eagle-eyed vigilance.

ing out,

One day a lady, in gomade some noise by the rustling of her silk dress.
if

Being asked
I

he noticed

it,

Mr. Choate said: "Notice

!

it!

thought forty battalions were moving "

quick as a

While he was
mazes

as

hawk

to detect a fallacy,

he could be as slow
all
its

as a ferret in

pursuing a sophism through

and sinuosities.

No

lawyer,

blot in his cause,

could

when there was a hitch or a keap it more dexterously out of

372
view, or hurry
blot

OEATOEY AND ORATORS.

it

more trippingly over; and

side,

yet, if the

was on the other

he had the eye of a lynx and

the scent of a

hound

to detect

and run down

his

game.

With

all his

profusion of language, every word was used

its

with discriminating accuracy, and had

of meaning, which

precise shade

made

it

necessary to

the

picture

he

drew.
his

Though he spoke at times in thunder tones, yet

In a cause in which we were a witness,
attention to a significant point in the
tes-

most telling points were often made in a low conver-

sational voice.

wishing to

call

timony, he stepped in front of the foreman, and said in

low
jury,

fireside

tones:

you

will

the cars for

"About this time, gentlemen of the was seen taking remember that this S K-e-e-n-e, N-e-w H-a-m'-p-s-h-i-r-e. Stick a
Afterward, in denouncing the
real

pin THERE, Mr. Foreman."

same person,
plaintiif

whom

he justly suspected to be the

in the case, he called the attention of the jury

to " the spectacle of a witness

all

burning and freezing with

the

feelings of a client,"

and again thundered out

"

When

he passed this check to

my

clients,

he knew, gen-

tlemen, that he was a bankrupt; he knew that he was a

drowning man catching

not

at straws;
in,

he knew that he was

worth the shirt he stood

that,

had he died

at

that
to

moment,

his estate

would not have yielded enough

of

defray his funeral charges."

No
his

advocate ever scanned more watchfully the faces

hearers

while speaking.

By

long

practice

he had
if

learned to read their sentiments as readily as

hearts had been throbbing in glass cases.

their

In one jury

address of five hours, he hurled his oratorical artillery for three of

his bolts

them

at the hard-headed foreman,

upon whom
last,

all

seemed to be spent in vain.

At

the iron

FOEENSIC ORATORS

CHOATB.
Another of

373

countenance relaxed, the strong eyes moistened, and Choate

was once more master of the situation.

peculiarities

his

was

the " fertility of his

mind

in possibilities

and plausibilities," his infinity of resources in an unexpected emergency, or sudden turn of a cause,
ness, tact,

the

cool-

and

facility

with which, like Napoleon at Rivoli,

all points,

after his lines

had been forced at

hopelessly

and the day

he would

had apparently gone

change
the
air
his front,

against him,

rearrange his order of battle, and, with

tri-

and bearing of one who scents a coming

for a fresh

umph, prepare

and

fiercer onslaught

on his

astonished antagonist. In his literary discourses, on academic

sions,

and other occa-

Mr. Choate's style diifered materially from his style

l^"

in the court-room.

One of

its

most marked peculiarities

was the enormous length and complexity of the sentences,

some of which had as

many

joints as a boa-constrictor.

The interminable journey on which he sometimes drove

his

"substantive and six" before he overtook the verb that

completed the sense and the sentence, could only be paralleled

by the wanderings of Japhet in search of his father,

or the never-ending travels of the

times, in listening to

Wandering Jew.

Some-

him, one thought of Satan's flight

through chaos, as depicted in "Paradise Lost":

" O'er bog or steep, through straight, rough, dense, or rare. With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,

And swims

or sinlis, or

wades or creeps, or

flies."

Reporters complained bitterly of the difficulty of straight-

ening out his sentences.

in

You

set

out with him, they said,

hope and trust, and get on well over fiowery meadows,

and through mountains and thunder-storms, feeling several

shocks of earthquake,

and seeing two or three volcanic

374
eruptions;

ORATORY

A'ST)

ORATORS.
is

but by the time he

ready to wind up the

journey, you are so lost in the mazes of his diction, and

so spell-bound

by the grandeur and glory of

his

triumphal

progress, that

you have

lost all sight of the starting-point;

it,

and, even if you can catch a faint glimpse of

cannot

distinguish the beginning from the middle, nor the middle

from the end.

that having

There

is

a mythical story of a stenographic

reporter, which, perhaps, only burlesques an actual fact,

been so magnetized by the orator on one

pencil,

occasion that he dropped his in

and simply

listened

mute astonishment, he excused

It

his

neglect by saying,

"Who
and

can report chain-lightning?"

in his literary
ele-

must not be supposed, however, that

political

addresses

he dealt exclusively in these

phantine
style
is

sentences.

as

often

As Mr. Everett happily says, " his marked by a pregnant brevity as by a

sonorous amplitude.

He

is

sometimes

satisfied in concise,

epigrammatic clauses, to skirmish with

his

light

troops

and

to drive in the enemy's outposts.

It is only

on

iit-

ting occasions,

when great
told;
is

principles are to be vindicated

and solemn truths

when some moral

or

political

Waterloo or Solferino

to be fought, that he puts

It
is

on

the entire panoply of his gorgeous rhetoric.

then

that his majestic sentences swell to the dimensions of his

thought; that you hear afar

rifled

off

the awful roar of his

heights

ordnance;

and when he has stormed the

and broken the centre, and trampled the squares, and

turned the staggering wings of the adversary, that he
sounds his imperial clarion along the whole line of
battle,

and moves forward with

all

his

thoughts in one over-

whelming charge."
Dryden says of
Virgil, that such
is

the magic of

his

FOREKSIC ORATORS
style that

CHOATE.

375

he makes even his husbandmen toss the dung

In like manner the imagination
the

with an air of dignity.

of Choate transfigured

meanest things, and depicted

the commonest

acts

in

words that haunt the memory.

Thus, in

speaking of the skipper of a vessel,

who was
the inof

looking into a law-book while passing the island of St.

Helena, he said:
visible

"Such were
client

his meditations as

currents of the ocean bore

him by the grave

replied, "

Napoleon."
who,
I've

Of a

whom

a witness found crying, and

when asked what was the matter,

run against a snag," Choate

I'm afraid
his feel-

said: "

Such were

ings

and such his actions down to that fatal Friday night,

when, at ten o'clock, in that flood of tears, his hope went

out like a candle."
tated to

Again, speaking of a person

offense

commit a small
it

who hesiwhen contemplating a

greater crime, " Is

ally that if a

possible,"

he asked, " to think ration-

person was going to plunge into a cataract

below the precipice, he would be over-careful not to moisten

his feet

with
"

dew?"
no more

Of a witness' statement he declared

like the truth

that

it

was

than a pebble

is

like

a star; or,"
is

he added after a pause,

"a

witch's broomstick
vessel he de-

like a banner-stick."

Of an unseaworthy
the
eternal

clared:

"The

vessel,

after

leaving the smooth water of

Boston
ocean,

harbor,

encountered

motion of the

which has been there from creation,' and will be

till

there
the

land and sea shall be no more.

a

She went down

thing,

harbor

painted

and

perfidious

but soul-

freighted, a cofBn

for the living,

a cofiin for the dead."

else

The wit of Choate was

as

unique as everything

belonging to his singular genius.

The

effects it

produced

were owing partly to the queer association of opposite

ideas,

and partly to the solemn and

dignified,

and some-

376

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

times sepulchral utterance with which he would mask the

point of a joke.
to him, " There's

When

a counsel in a patent case said

nothing original in your patent; your

at it naturally,'" Choate replied, with

client did not

come

a half- mirthful, half-scornful look:

"What

does

my

brother

mean by naturally? Naturally! We don't do anything. naturally. Why, naturally a man would walk down Washington street with his pantaloons
!

off

"

One day he was

interrupted in an argument by a United States judge, and

told that he

must not assume that a certain person was

and had made many enemies,

in a large business,

that

he was a physician, and not in business.

replied Choate, instantly, with a
" he's a physician,

" Well, then," of the eye,

he's killed
his female

merry twinkle
Of one of

and the friends of the people

his
is

by his practice are

clients

enemies."
a sinner,
is

he said: "She

no, not

a sinner, for

she

is

our client; but she

a very disagreeable saint." Not

only does his wit exercise itself upon subjects intrinsically

ludicrous, but even into his gravest utterances

upon

the

most serious themes there

is

often injected a vein of

humor

or drollery which affects one like a jest on a gravestone,

or in a ledger.

Sometimes
is

this is

done unconsciously, and

sometimes

it

accompanied with a merry twinkle,

a
inis

queer, quizzical look,

audible crow,
good.

indicating

kind of subdued chuckle, or

a consciousness that the jest

In a railroad case the person injured by the

col-

lision of the cars

with his wagon, was declared by a wit-

ness to have been intoxicated at the time he

was
it,

driving.

When

cross-examined, the witness said he

knew

because

he leaned over him, and found by his breath that " he had been drinking gin and brandy."
testimony, Choate said:

Commenting on

this

"The

witness swears he stood by

FOBENSIC ORATORS
the dying

CHOATE.
What was
to
it

377
he there

man

in his last

for?" he thundered out.

assiduities

"Was

moments.

administer those

which are ordinarily proffered at the bedside

it

of dying
of that

men? Was
religion

to extend to

him the

consolations

which for eighteen hundred years has

No, gentlemen, no!

comforted the world?

He

leans over

the departing sufferer; he bends his face nearer and nearer

to

him,

and

what does he do?"

a yet higher key)

"What

(raising his voice to

does he do?

Smells gin and

brandy!"
said:

Of the bankruptcy of a dry-goods merchant, he

I heard that the vast possessions of Alex-

"So have

ander the Conqueror crumbled

in the

away

in dying dynasties,

unequal hands of his weak heirs."

is

A
the

good illustration of his peculiar exaggeration

fur-

nished by a passage in his speech before a committee of

Massachusetts legislature on the disputed boundary

question between that state and

as soon," said

Rhode Island:

" I

would

he, in a

nervous tone and with startling

energy, " think of bounding a sovereign state on the

North

by a dandelion, on the West by a blue-jay, on the South by a hive of bees in swarming time, and on the East by
three hundred foxes with firebrands tied to their tails, as
of relying

upon the

loose

and indefinite bounds of com-

missioners a century ago."

Touching

his

marvelous copi-

ousness of style,

it

used to be said by the Boston wits

;

that he " drove a substantive that

and six " and it is related when Chief-Justice Shaw, of Massachusetts, was told
edition of Worcester's dictionary
five

that a fresh

was com-

ing

out,

with

thousand new words, he said:

let

"For

heaven's sake, don't

multiplied, but

Choate hear of it!"

He

not only

sometimes repeated adjectives and other

effect,

words with telling

16*

as

when

in

a will case, im-

378

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

testator's sanity,

pugning the
facts

he closed a statement of the

tending to establish the insanity with the sorrowing

cadence:

"No, gentlemen

of the jury, the

mind

of Oliver

Smith never signed that paper.

dead,

That mind was dead,

a profound impression.

dead."

Eepeating the word each time with a slower

and sadder

articulation, he

made

One
of so

of Choate's most marvellous gifts was his power

emphasizing a point verbally that a jury w.ould

see it clear into the roots of their optic nerves.

good

example of
case:

this is

a passage in his speech in the Tirrell

against
the

witness

prisoner

(whom
called

Choate
out of

was defending), having been absent, was

turn, and after the defense .was in.
this

procedure, Mr. Choate said:

Commenting upon "Where was this tardy

to tell

and belated witness, that he comes here

that he knows, and
all

us

all

that he doesn't know, eight and

forty hours after the evidence for the defense has been

closed?

Is the case so

obscure that he has never heard

of it?

Was

he

ill,

or in custody?

Was

he in Europe,

Asia, or Africa?

Was

he on the Red Sea, or the Yellow

Sea, or the Black Sea, or the Mediterranean Sea? at Land's End, or

Was

he

John O'Groat's northeastern boundary, Or was he

fleet-

drawing and defining that much vexed line?

with General Taylor and his army, or wherever the

ing southwestern boundary line of this expanding country

may
at

at

any time happen

to be?

No, gentlemen, he
access;

was
but,

none of these places

I

and
was

comparatively easy of
it

would emphasize upon your

fact,

attention, Mr.

Foreman, the

and urge

upon your

consideration,
inaccessible
so

he

in that

more incontiguous, more

to

region,

so

hard

come

at,

and from which

few

travelers return,

Eoxbury!"

(Roxbury adjoined Boston.)

CHAPTER

XIII.

PULPIT ORATORS.

IP

one were asked

that ever lived,
it

wbo was

the greatest pulpit orator

to deter-

would be a nice question

of

mine, so various are the styles of sacred eloquence, and

so different are the tastes

even the most competent

effects

judges.

But

if

we were to judge by the

to hesitate in

produced,

we should hardly need

his printed

pronouncing Geoege
In reading

WiiiTEFiELD the Demosthenes of the pulpit.

sermons, as in reading the speeches of Fox or

are
utterly

Sheridan,
electrical

we

puzzled to
latest
is

account for

their

effect.

One of the
Mr. Gledstone,
their

biographers of the
to

great
their

preacher,

compelled

confess

" tameness,"

" feeble

thought and unpolished

language"; and though,

there are a few striking

among

the extracts he has given,

and dramatic passages, they are

to

neither

numerous or powerful enough

discredit

his

statement.

When

pressed to print his sermons, Whitefield

might well have answered with a popular French divine,

"Gladly, provided that
fact in

you print the preacher."

is

Yet no

the history of eloquence

effects

better attested than

oratory.

the overpowering
in his youth,

of

Whitefield's

Even

when, being but twenty-one years of age,

and deeming himself unfit for the pulpit, he had " prayed, and wrestled, and striven with God," that he might not
yet be called to preach, complaint
379

was made

to his bishop

380

OEATOKT AND ORATORS.

that he had driven fifteen persons

mad by

his

very

first

sermon,

to

which the worthy prelate replied that

" he

hoped the madness might not be forgotten before the

next Sunday."

For thirty years Whitefield was listened to with breathless interest

it

in both hemispheres.

His preaching tours,

has been truly said, were often like triumphal proces-

sions, in

which he was escorted by bands of enthusiastic

to place,

horsemen from place

and awaited at every halt

by crowds of insatiate

listeners,

who

could never have

enough of

his heartfelt oratory.

Shut out from the Engfields,

lish churches,

he turned to the open

" To that cathedral, boundless as our wonder, Whose quenchless lamps the sun and moon supply, Its choir the winds and waves, its organ thunder, Its dome the sky,"

and there, with the

hillside for his pulpit,

harangued the

men, women, and children, who came trooping from north,

south, east,

and west, even before daylight, to hear him.

Preaching four times on Sunday, and on every day of the

week, talking sometimes from seven in the morning
late at night,
till

he showed no signs of exhaustion, but every-

where and
spell of his

at all times

subdued and charmed men by the

fervid oratory.

At Kingswood, Kensington,
hours on his
far into
lips;

and other places, audiences of twenty, thirty, and even

forty thousand,

hung
rain,
if

for

sometimes
standing

through

pelting

or

the

night,

around him as
selves

entranced, and unable

all these

to tear

them-

away, and over

vast assemblies he ruled

silence,

supreme, at his will hushing them into awe-struck

or melting

them

to tears, or

drawing from them

cries

and

groans that almost drowned his voice.

At

Bristol,

where the Bishop threatened him with

ex-

PULPIT ORATOKS
communication,
diocese, his
if

WHITEFIELD.
wag
his
less signal.

381

he should dare to

tongue in the

triumphs were no

Before day the

people might be seen going with lanterns to hear

so vast

him

and

was the throng, that men clung

to the rails of the

organ-loft,

and climbed to every accessible place to get

within reach of his voice.

Even the rude

colliers of the

mining-regions, and the rabble of Moorfields,

motley

crowd of mountebanks, merry-andrews, and persons of the

vilest character,

attested

his spiritual triumphs.

In spite
he

of a furious opposition, and though the whole

said, "

field, as

seemed ready, not for the Eedeemer's, but for Beelharvest"; though missiles of the most offensive

zebub's

kind were hurled at him, and he was lashed, at by a whip,

assaulted with a sword,

and

his voice

drowned at times by
for

drums and trumpets; he preached

hundred and

three days

to

throng of twenty-five thousand persons, of

fifty

whom

three

were converted, and a thousand pricked

during the
first

in their consciences

twenty-four hours!

Among
was no

the

wary and thoughtful Scotch the excitement

In vain
did
sectarian

less

intense.

narrowness

oppose his efforts; in vain did the Presbyterians denounce

the revivals

that

followed his preaching as " a

wark

of

the deevil," stigmatize

him

as

''

a false Christ," and even

keep a fast on the occasion of his reappearance; the people flocked

by thousands

to

hear him, and the stoutest

hearts
electric

shook and trembled under his impassioned

appeals.

and

On one
over
his

occasion,

we

are told, as the

his

night darkened

vast audience,

word went

through
casting

it

like

a shot piercing a regiment of soldiers,

many

to the ground,

groaning and fainting under

the

vehemence of their emotions.

Nor was

this only

when

they were led by the great preacher to Sinai, and

saw the

382

OEATORY AND ORATORS.

lightnings flash and heard the thunders roar; far greater

numbers were overcome when

cents, of

told,

in

the tenderest ac-

redeeming

love.

Fourteen times he visited "Auld

Scotia" with the same results; and so happy was he there,

that he called the day of his departure execution day.

Crossing

the

Atlantic

thirteen

times,

he spent nine

years in " hunting for sinners in the wilds of America,"

and everywhere with the same

results.

At Boston,

at
fell

New
like

York, at Philadelphia, at Charleston, his words

a

hammer and like fire on all who heard him. Some who listened to him were struck pale as death,
others sank
lifted

into the

arms of their

friends,

and others
for

up

their eyes to

heaven and cried out to God

"I could think of nothing," he says on one of these occasions, " when I looked upon them, so much as They seemed like persons awakened by the great day.
mercy.
the last trump, and coming out of their graves to judg-

ment."

Opposition, instead of checking, only increased, the

impetuous flow of his speech.

or jeer, speedily
sions of his

The men who came

to scoff

found that he was superior to the passubmitted to the

of their sport.
spell

audience, and either

of his oratory, or slunk

away cheated
Not only the

Nor was

Whitefield, as Dr. Johnson supposed, merely

unlettered, but

the orator of the mob.

men

of the highest culture, yielded to the fascination of his

speech.

The

cold, skeptical

Hume

declared that he would

go twenty miles on foot to hear Whitefleld preach; and

in his chapel

might be seen the Duke of Grafton, not yet

heartless

pierced by the arrows of Junius, the

George
Pitt,

Selwyn, Lord North, Charles James Fox, William

and Soame Jenyns.

John Newton, the friend of Cowper,

used to get up at four in the morning to hear the great

PULPIT OfiATOKS
preacher
at five;

WHITEFIELD.
full of lanterns as the

383

and he says that even at that early

hour the Moorfields were as

spell, that, "

Hay-

market of flambeaux on an opera night.

last,

So great, at

was the

when
"

the scandal could be con-

cealed behind the well-adjusted curtain, 'e'en mitred auditors

would nod the head.'

Franklin caught

Even the calm and unimat Whitefield's

passioned

fire

burning

words; and perhaps no more signal proof of the orator's

power could be given than

dence of Poor Eichard.
lin

its

triumph over the pru-

Whitefield had consulted Frank-

about the location of a proposed orphan house, but

had refused to adopt his advice, and thereupon Franklin

decided not to subscribe.
says, " to attend I perceived

" I

happened soon

after,"

he

one of his sermons, in the course of which

I

he intended to finish with a collection, and he should get nothing from me.
I

silently resolved

had

in

my

pocket a handful of copper money, three or four

silver dollars,
I

and

five pistoles in gold.

As he proceeded
of that,

began to soften, and concluded to give him the copper.

Another stroke of his oratory made

and determined
admirably that
lector's dish,

me ashamed
and he

me
I

to give the silver,

finished so
col-

emptied

my

pocket wholly into the

gold and all."

The same sermon was heard by a friend of Franklin's,

who, agreeing with him about the location of the house,
had, as a precaution, emptied his pockets before he

came

from home.

But, before the discourse was ended, he beg-

ged a neighbor,

who

stood near him, to lend

If

him some
resist-

money

for a contribution.
it

any men could have

ed the preacher's spell,

must have been the haughty

and brilliant Bolingbroke, and the worldly and fastidious

Chesterfield; yet the former,

we

are told, was once deeply


384

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

icy

moved; and the

latter were,

decorum and

self-possession of the

on one occasion, as completely overpowered

collier

as if he

had been an English

or a

Welsh miner.
dog.

The

preacher had presented the votary of sin under the

figure of a blind beggar, led

by a

little

The dog
between

breaks his string.

The

old

man, with

his staff

both hands, unconsciously gropes his

a frightful precipice.

way

to the edge of
feels

Step by step he advances; he

drops

along with his

staff; it

down

the descent, too far to

send back an echo; his foot trembles on the ledge; another

moment, and he

will fall headlong into the valley below,

peer, crying out in

when up

starts the

an agony,
is

as he

springs forward to save him,

"Good God! he
faculty,

gone!"*
It lay

What was

the secret of this marvellous power?

partly in his extraordinary dramatic

and partly

in his burning love for the souls of sinful men.

He was
Greek,

not a learned man, nor was he a profound and original

thinker.

He had

apparently no

Hebrew and
scholastic

little

and was acquainted neither with

divinity nor

with the great divines of modern times.

profoundly in earnest, and concentrating
of mind, soul, and body,

But he was
faculties

all his

upon

one great end, forgot every-

thing else in his intense desire for the salvation of his

fellow men.
exquisite voice
ible.

When

to this

was added the charm of

his

and delivery, the combination was

irresistit

Whitefield had a rare dramatic genius, and

similar testimony

was

was once borne to tlie eloquence of Dr. Kirk, of Once, says Dr. R. S. Storrs, in his '' Preaching without Notes," when " he described the way Dr. Kirk was preaching at Pittsfleld, Massachusetts, of worldly pleasure and gain, without thought of God, as a smooth broad road, along whose easy and gradual slopes men carelessly walked, till they came on a sudden to the precipice at the end; and so vivid was the final image, as it flashed from his mind upon the assembly, that when he depicted them going over the edge, a rough-looking man rose in his place, and looked over th& gallery front, to see the chasm into which they were falling."
Boston.
.
.

*A

PULPIT OKATOES

WHITEFIELD.
it

385
force.

aided by every other gift that could lend

fine

To a

person and an expressive countenance, was added a

voice of unequalled depth

and compass, whose ever-chang-

ing melodies, as
tion,

it

swept over the whole scale of modula-

could be heard by thirty thousand hearers, and for

distance

the

of nearly a

mile.

It

could
its

thunder like

Sinai,

or whisper like a zephyr, and

tones of pathos

were such that the words, "

suificient to

the wrath to

come " were

bring tears to the eyes of a vast audience.

gifts

To these physical

were added an emotional tempera-

ment scarcely ever possessed by any other man,

passionate weeping,
nation, or

a temfeli-

perament which would at one moment break out into

and at the next

flash into lofty indig-

melt

into contagious tenderness,

to

and a

city of gesture

which gave significance

every sentence,

and brought before his audience each scene that he described as vividly as if it

had been present to their

eyes.

His vehemence, especially, was a marked feature of his

preaching.

poor

man

said that he preached like a lion.

Sometimes he stamped, sometimes he wept, sometimes he

stopped, exhausted by emotion,
to expire.

and appeared almost ready

said, as of

Of him

it

might be

an early German

reformer, vividus vultus, vividi ocuU, vividae manus, denique

omnia

vivida.

Besides

all

this,

Whitefield had cultivated

the histrionic art to a degree rarely attained

by the most
Foote and
his

eminent

men who have trodden

him
often,
its

the stage.

Garrick heard

and they both declared that

oratory was not at

full height until

he had repeated
his

a discourse forty times.

Weeding out from

them

sermons
all

every

weak and

ineffective passage,

and retaining

the

impressive ones, he gradually improved

to the utter-

most; while his delivery

17

was

so

improved by frequent repe-

386
tition,

ORATORY AND OEATOES.

every

accent, every

emphasis, every modulation

of the voice, was so perfectly toned,'

that,

according to

Franklin, the effect was like that of beautiful music.

So

perfect was his dramatization, that the public, instead- of

calling

him

the Garrick of the pulpit, paid

him the

far
of

higher compliment of calling Garrick the Whitefield

the stage.

In his art of rhetoric, apostrophe and personification,

which quickened the coldest abstractions into

the
first place.

life,

held

On one

occasion, after a

solemn pause, he

told his hearers that

the attendant angel was about to

leave the sanctuary and ascend to heaven.

"And

shall

he ascend," cried the preacher, "

the

and not bear with him

all

news of one

sinner,

among

this

multitude, re-

claimed from the error of his ways?"

Here he stamped
to heaven,

with his

foot, lifted

up

his

hands and eyes

and

cried aloud: "Stop! Gabriel, stop! ere

portals,

you enter the

sacred

and yet carry with you the news of one sinner

"
!

converted to God

This bold apostrophe to an imaginary

being, as to a real messenger between earth and heaven,

was accompanied with such animated yet natural

that the philosophic

action,

Hume

declared that

it

surpassed any-

thing he had ever seen or heard in any other preacher.

At another
is

time, after exclaiming,

"Look yonder! What

that I see?" he depicted the Savior's agony in the garso vividly, that it

den

seemed

to be passing before the eyes

of the congregation.

"Hark! hark! do you not hear?"

were not
difiicult to catch the

he exclaimed, as

if it

sound

of the Savior praying.

Though
his

this

passage was again

those
it for

and again repeated in

addresses, it impressed
as

who knew what was coming,

the
first

though they heard

close

time.

Sometimes at the

of a sermon, we

"

PULPIT OKATOKS
are told, he
last

WHITEFIBLD.
With

387

would personate a judge about to perform the

ofl&oe.

awful duty of his

his eyes full of tears,

falter, after

and an emotion that made his speech

a pause

which kept the whole audience in breathless expectation

of
to

what was
put on

to

come, he would proceed: "

cap.

am now

about
it:

my condemning

Sinner, I must do

must pronounce sentence upon you!" and then, in a

tre-

mendous strain of eloquence, describing the eternal punishment of the wicked, he would recite the words of Christ;
"

Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting

fire,

pre-

pared for the devil and his angels."

When

he related
bit-

how
terly, to

Peter, after the cock crew,

went out and wept

he had always a fold of his

gown ready
by

in

which

hide his face.

We

have already mentioned how he

his pictorial

startled the fastidious Chesterfield

power.

An

equally great oratorical

conquest was that in

New
in

York, when, preaching to

thrilling

the

seamen, he described

language a ship dismantled and thrown on her

squall,

beam ends by a

and at the exclamation, "

long boat!

What

next? " they rose to their feet as one man, shouting out
in their

excitement,

"The

take to the long

boat!

All this
it

may

be called acting, and, in a certain sense,

was acting that has never been surpassed.

But

it

was

more than acting, for the

uttered no sentiment, which
he did not
feel.

man

personated no emotion,
his heart

from the depths of

It

was out of a soul at white heat, consouls, that these

sumed by the love of other

ations

impersontaste

sprang;

and the more they offend our

at

times, the

more they shock our ideas of the solemnity

to

that

belongs

holy
skill

things,

the

more

exquisite

must
lofty

have been the

which made them appear the

388

OEATOEY AND ORATORS.

and irrepressible outbursts of a mind carried away by its Had Whitefield not been a Christian and a conceptions.
philanthropist, his tastes, in all
led

probability,

would have

him

to the stage,

where he would have rivalled or

eclipsed Garrick.

Though

Whitefield's sermons were repeated again and

again in his travels, even for the hundredth time, yet no

speaker was ever quicker to seize upon any passing incident,
ing,

and turn
shadows

it

to account.

If

a storm was gatherfield

the

flitting

across
life;

his

congregations

were emblems of human

the heavy thunder-cloud

and the

flash

of lightning were

emblems of the day

of

wrath; and the rainbow that spanned the sky spoke of

the grace that offered salvation in Jesus Christ.
fer's levity
tial

scof-

would point a stern rebuke; and the peniten-

tear trickling

down

a sinner's cheek would prompt

a word of loving encouragement.

It

was

this

deep sympathy for his hearers, this intense

love of sinful

human

souls, that
it,

was the great

secret of

Whitefleld's power.
his eloquence,

Without

neither his energy, nor

gifts,

nor his marvellous dramatic

to

nor

all

these united,

would have enabled him

he
did.

work a

tithe of

the miracles the

" If

ever philanthropy burned in

human
It

heart with pure and intense flame," says Sir

" it

James Stephen,
field."

was in the heart of George Whitehis

was not the theology of

literal,

sermons, which
spirit,

was often hard,

that

and

gross,

but the preacher's

won

the people's ear and heart.

Plentifully " dow-

ered with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, the love
of love," he lived and toiled, not for
self,

but for his dy-

ing fellow-men.
says, is

Love, as one of his latest biographers

more than theology, both with God and man, and

PULPIT ORATORS
loTe

WHITBPIELD.

389

was never absent from any sermon of Whitefield.

preference but for the poor, the ignorant, and

He had no

the miserable.

In their cause, as they plainly saw, he

shrank from no privation, and declined neither insult nor

hostility;

in

their
It

behalf, if necessary, he

would gladly
even

have died.

was the perception of

this fact which,

more than
gutters

his passionate

oratory, melted the

murderous

miners at Cornwall, and caused tears to run " in white

down

the black faces of the colliers, black as they

coal-pits," at

came out of the

It
is

Kingwood.

doubtful whether any other preacher ever im-

pressed his hearers with so profound a conviction of his

disinterested

love of

for them, as Whitefield

impressed on
his
lips.

the

hearts

the
it

thousands that hung upon

They knew that

plexed,

was

for

no

selfish

end that he was

sorrowing, per-

wearing himself out in behalf of

frail,

and dying men;

repose, his

that,

with the exception of brief

life

intervals of

whole

was consumed,

so to
in-

speak, in the delivery of

one continuous or scarcely

terrupted sermon.
for his tithes,

"

The parochial clergyman,

in return

was content

to give his parishioners a sin-

gle discourse one

day in the week, under the delivery of

which some of them

clock, others

were looking impatiently

and others sleeping.

at

the

thinking of the price of stocks or the pros-

pects of the next crop,

But here
life

was a

man who,

without pay, was spending his

be-

tween the saddle on which he hurried from one congregation to another, and the pulpit from which he addressed

them, and was preaching in words of

fire

all

over the

kingdom, at the rate of forty and often sixty hours a

week,

filling

up the

intervals with

prayers and intercalled

it

cessions

and spiritual songs,

and

who

being

'

390

ORATORY AND OEATOES.

ex-

pat on short allowance, when, to save him from utter

haustion, he was limited to one a day and three times on

Sunday.''

And when

this

man

stood before them, pouring

out his soul in the most impassioned entreaties and appeals,

with floods of tears,

thrill passed

it

was no wonder that a sympathetic

to heart,

from heart

and rugged natures were

subdued, and long-sealed eyes learned to weep."

Once, and once only,
hearers
fall asleep.

we

are told, did one of Whitefield's

sat in front

It

was an old man, who

of the pulpit,

when

the preacher was discoursing on a rainy

day to a rather drowsy congregation in

stead of sitting

New

Jersey.

In-

down and weeping,

as Dr.

Young

did in

a royal chapel under similar circumstances, the preacher

stopped;
his tone, his face darkened with a frown; and, changing he cried out: " If I had come to speak to you in

my own

name, you might rest your elbows on your knees,

sleep,

and your heads upon your hands, and

while look up and say,
'

and once

in a
?

What

does the babbler talk" of

But

have not come to you in

to

my own

name.

No:

have

come

you in the name of the Lord of Hosts,"

here
The

he brought his hand and foot

the building ring,

down with

a force that made

''

and

must and

will be heard!"

congregation started, and the old

man

woke.

"Ay, ay,"

said Whitefield, fixing his eyes on him, " I have

* His

waked you

panacea for Ms ailings was perpetual preaching; and just before he "A good pulpit sweat would give me relief." James Stephen, " a preacher who, daring the passage of the sun through the ecliptic, addresses his audience every seventh day in two discourses of the dwarfish size to which sermons attam in this degenerate age, and multiply his efforts by forty, and you do not reach the measure of Whitefield's homiletical labors, during each of his next five and thirty years. Combine this with the fervor with which he habitually spoke, the want of all aids to the voice in the fields and the thoroughfares he frequented, and the toil of rendering himself distinctly audible to thousands and tens of thousands, and, considered merely as a physical phenomenon, the result is amongst the most
died, he said:

" Given," says Sir

curious of well-authenticated marvels."

PULPIT ORATORS
up, have I?
I

HALL.
I

391

meant

to do

it.

am
I

not come here to

preach to stocks and stones: I have come to you in the

name

of the

Lord God of Hosts, and

must, and I

will,

have an audience."
dolence that day.

There was no more sleeping or

in-

pulpit orator of a far different stamp from the great

Methodist

who

sleeps at

Newburyport, was the celebrated

Baptist preacher, the friend of Sir

James Mackintosh and

old, to

John Poster, Eobeet Hall.

and slow of perception,

Delicate and feeble in infancy,

unable,

when two years

walk or speak,

he

gave no promise of the physical and

intellectual athlete

which he afterward became.

Learning
he

the alphabet

from

his nurse on the village grave-stones,

became a talker almost as soon as he could speak, and possessing himself of the signs of thought, he

became at once

a quick and earnest thinker.

cocity almost stagger belief.

The

stories told of his presix years of age,

While but

he would steal away after school-hours to the grave-yard,

with his pinafore stuffed with books (including an English

dictionary, to help

him understand

the hard words), and

then, spreading out his

at his studies

volumes on the long grass, continue

till

with grave and moody face

told, "

the curfew

sounded the knell of day.

Before he was nine he read

and re-read, we are

Edwards's works on
ten, he

with intense interest," Jonathan

Affections" and

"The

"The Will";

at

had become

a prolific writer, elaborating, systemahis

tizing,

and pouring forth

knowledge in the form of

chair,

essays

and sermons, which, mounted on a parlor

he preached with eloquence, solemnity

brothers

and pathos
his

to his

and

sisters;

and at eleven,

school-teacher

confessed, with

an ingenuous honesty which has few prece-

392

ORATOET AND ORATORS.

and

dents, his utter inability to keep pace with his pupil,

begged that he might be removed from the

after this a friend of his father's

school.

Soon

was

so struck with the

boy's gift of speech, that he prevailed on

him on

several

occasions to deliver a kind of

sermon

to a select

assembled for the purpose, at his house,

impropriety "
recall

" an

company,
egregious

which Mr. Hall in manhood could never

grief.

without

In thinking of such mistakes of good

men, he was wont

to say with Baxter:

"Nor

should

men
is

turn preachers as the river Nilus breeds frogs (saith Herodotus),

when one

half moveth before the other half

is

made, and which yet

It

but plain mud."

kindled in young

was the hearing of a sermon while attending an

at

academy

Northampton which

first

Hall's breast the flame of oratory.

It is

remarkable

that,

though burning and panting

first efforts, like

for oratorical

renown, his

those of Sheridan and Curran, were ig-

nominious

failures.

Attempting an address

at Broad-

mead

chapel, he

"stuck" almost

at the beginning.

Speak-

ing for a few minutes with facility, he suddenly stopped,

covered his face with his hands, and sobbing aloud, " 0,
I

have

lost

all

my

ideas " burst into

a flood of tears.

Even

in this failure, however, the audience

had the pene-

tration to discover a species of triumph, declaring, as they

went away,
session,

" If that

young man once acquire

self-pos-

he will be the most eminent speaker of his day."

second trial a week after, in the same place, ended in

a more agonizing failure.

to sobs
;

This time he did not give

way

and tears but, springing from the desk in a kind

In vain did

of impatient rage, he hurried to the vestry.

the deacons and other friends strive to calm his excited

feelings
;

dashing out of the room, he hurried precipitately


PULPIT OEATOES

HALL.
hand, " Well,

393

home, and, entering his room, startled two of his companions,

who were waiting

humble me, the

his arrival,

by exclaiming; as he
if this

struck the table with his

does not
trial

clinched

devil

must have me!"

third
like

was made, and from that hour, though he shook

an aspen-leaf at the proposal, he began to take rank as

the most brilliant pulpit orator of England.

Spending four years in hard study at King's College,

Aberdeen, he
powerful, and
its

came away with a mind

intensely active, and

richly furnished,

began pouring forth

time, he
city,

treasures of thought and feeling at Broadmead, Bris-

tol.

Though but twenty-one years

Going next
to

old at this

drew crowds, including the most eminent men in the

to hear him.

Cambridge, he succeeded to

Dr. Eobinson, the leader of the Evangelical

ists,

Nonconform-

and during fourteen years preached to crowded houses

with ever-increasing brilliancy and power.

The magnet-

ism of his genius penetrated beyond the narrow and conventional boundaries of sects; and senators, clergymen of
the Established Church,

and University men, from under-

graduates to heads of colleges, gladly

hung upon

his lips.

At

this

time the excesses of the French Revolution were

producing the intensest excitement in England, and Mr.

Hall was speedily engulfed in the whirlpool.

was

iirst

a powerful pamphlet

"On

the

The result Freedom of the

Press,"

and next an eloquent and magnificent sermon,

perhaps his masterpiece,

this
its

on

"Modern

Infidelity."

With

powerful discourse the fame of Robert Hall attained

zenith.

Dr. Parr, Sir James Mackintosh, statesmen of

intellectual
to do

all parties,

men

of every rank and profession,

to his genius.

now hastened
ates, tutors,

homage

Undergradu-

and fellows of the University flocked in such

394

ORATORY AND
to

0RAT0It8.

numbers

hear him, that the heads of colleges became

it

alarmed, and discussed the expediency of preventing

by an order; but Dr. Mansel, afterward Bishop, then Master of Trinity, the largest college, declared he could not

be

party to such a measure, and thanked Mr. Hall not

only for his sermon, but for his powerful efforts in behalf
of the Christian cause.

The general thanksgiving which

thereafter,
his

followed the Peace of Amiens, brought forth his splendid

discourse on

"War''; and when, a few months

"

Napoleon suddenly broke the peace. Hall delivered

still

more masterly discourse on

It

The Sentiments Proper

ringing sermon,

to the Present Crisis."

was

in this

which has

all

the

fiery

energy of a waT-lyric, that he

respect
to the

grandly declared England to be, in

war

waging between

liberty

and despotism, the very "Ther-

mopylae of the universe."

A still

abler effort than this last

was

his discourse

on the

death of the Princess Charlotte, delivered at Leicester, the

scene of his next pastorate.
extinction of its hopes,
of grief

A nation

was weeping over the

its

and genius poured out

strains

and admiration in a thousand pulpits; but not

one of the other discourses, eloquent as

were, could for a

many

of

them
and

moment compare
this

in majesty of thought
this

and diction with the tribute which

radical thinker,

dissenter

reformer and friend of the people,

" In reading

laid at the feet of a Christian princess.

it,"

says a writer, " one marvels at the imperial grandeur

of the execution, as the

mighty preacher groups together

and manages with a master-hand, and with the apparent,

ease of a child at play, the various
tions

momentous
to

considera-

which the event was

fitted

awaken

in a

mind

capable of a comprehensive survey."

PULPIT ORATORS

HALL.

395

To analyze the eloquence of Robert Hall, and point out

the sources of
lished sermons,
its

power,

is

not an easy task.

His pub-

most of which are from the scanty notes of

according to
all

his hearers, give,

the accounts of him, but

a faint idea of his imperial genius.

the

In the redistillation
of "

aroma has

fled.

The

effect is like that

champagne

in decanters, or Herodotus

in

Beloe's version."
" the sublimest

late

skeptical writer pronounces

him

and purest
long time

genius

among modern

divines." *

For forty years he had

no rival in the English pulpit.

During

this

men

of all sects and parties,

men

of the highest intellect

and culture, the leaders of the Church, the Bar, and the
Senate, sat
speech.
it

with rapt attention under the spell of his

the secret of this attraction?

What was

Was
Or

in his personal

magnetism,

the

majesty of his mien,

his gestures, or the

musical intonations of his voice?

was

it

in his

rhetorical skill, the exquisite

arrangement

and rhythmical flow of his periods, and the dazzling imagery in which his affluent imagination clothed his ideas?
In

many

of these oratorical gifts he

was wanting.

He had

a large-built, robust figure, and a countenance " formed,

as if

on purpose, for the most declared manifestation of

all

power"; but

his

life

he was a sufferer from acute

physical pains, necessitating the use of large doses of stim-

ulants and narcotics; his voice

was weak,

his action

heavy

and ungraceful, and in

the

all

the tricks of the rhetorician,

of oratory, he
it

pomp and circumstance

His
is

was lacking

altogether.
pressiveness,

style,

while

has great vigor and imto

too

highly Latinized

be popular;

it

abounds in technical phrases and abstract forms of expression, and, except in

*

certain highly-wrought passages,

W.

E. Greg, author of " The Creed of Christendom."

396
is

OKATORT AND ORATOES.

It was, apparlay,

quite devoid of pictorial embellishment.

ently, in

no one predominant quality that his power

but in the harmony and

faculties,

momentum

in action of all his

faculties which,

whether of mind or heart, have

rarely been so admirably adjusted and finely proportioned

in

any other human being.

In natural endowment and variety of acquisition, in

power of metaphysical analysis and in force and sweep

of imagination, in finished scholarship and in philosophical
culture, he

was equally distinguished;

and over

all

his

powers of mind, natural and acquired, he had an absolute

mastery, rendering them obedient at a nod.

His eloquence

was not the product of

art,

but the spontaneous outgush-

ing of a mind full to bursting of intellectual riches, and

of a heart burning with zeal for truth, and love for

God

and man.

When

he was thoroughly roused, his oratory

still

was

like

an impetuous mountain torrent in a

night.

He

took his place

it,

among

the kings of oratory, not because

it

he sought for

but because

was

his

by divine

gift.

systematic reader, he was also a profound and untram-

meled thinker, and was eloquent because he was tethered

by no theological chain, and spoke out courageously what

was in him, even at the

risk of startling orthodox nerves.

His manner in the pulpit was as original as the man.

The introductory
assistant,

services

were usually performed by an

told, the

during which, we are

preacher, with

his eyes closed, his features as still as death,

and

his

head

sinking

down almost on

his chest, presented

an image of
but would

entire abstraction.
to

For a moment, perhaps, he would seem same

wake

to a perception of the scene before him,

state.

instantly relapse into the

discourse, there

When

he began a

was usually

little

expression in his coun-

PULPIT ORATORS
tenance;

HALL.

397

and sometimes, when he was not much excited

expression

by his themes, or was suffering from physical pain, there

was
other

little

during

the

entire

delivery.
on,

At
and

times his face would

kindle as

he went

toward the close would " light up almost into a glare."

He would announce

his text

in the

most unpretending

manner imaginable, and, though

audible.

athletic in frame,

would

speak for some minutes in a tone so low as to be barely

During even the

first

twenty minutes there

would be nothing in

his discourse indicating to his hear-

ers that a giant stood before

them;

all

the time, perhaps,

if

he would be pulling the leaves of his Bible, " as

he

were a bookbinder, engaged in taking a book to

pieces,

while his eyes would be steadfastly fixed in one direction,

as if

his

whole audience were gathered into one corner

Presently the scene would change;
his

of the

room."

voice
to a
fect

would swell from an almost unintelligible whisper

trumpet peal; and when he was concluding, the
ef-

upon the nervous system of the

listener

was

like

the shock of artillery.

One of the most obvious and noteworthy of Mr. Hall's

characteristics
self,

as

a preacher, was

the

total

oblivion of
his sub-

his utter

abandonment and absorption in

ject.

" There

was not the semblance of parade," says an

that betrayed the least thought of be-

American clergyman* who once heard him at Broadmead

Chapel,

" nothing

ing eloquent; but there was a

power of thought, a grace

facility of

and beauty, and yet force of expression, a

com-

manding the best language, without apparently thinking

of the language at
all,

combined with a countenance

all

glowing from the fire within, which constituted a fascina* "Visits to

European Celebrities," by W. B. Sprague, D.D.

398
tion that

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

was
to

me

perfectly irresistible."

John

Foster,

who

often heard Mr. Hall, notes one, and only one, pecu-

liarity of action in his friend's preaching.

Under the

ex-

citement of his theme,

when

it

rose to the highest pitch,

at-

he unconsciously acquired a corresponding elation of

titude and expression;

would turn, though not with

step back

fre-

quent change, toward the different parts of the assembly;

and would,

for a

moment, make one

from

his

position at the last

word

of a climax, or at the sentence

which decisively clinched an argument,

an

action which

inevitably suggested the idea of the recoil of heavy ord-

nance.

Original as Mr. Hall was, in thought and manner, he

twice in his youth aped the

manner

of another.

When

he was twenty-three years old he heard Dr. Eobinson, of

Cambridge,

and was
his
style,

so

captivated

that

he

thought he
Like other
years

would copy
imitators, he

matter, and

manner.

made an

utter failure.

When, some

afterward, a friend alluded to this, Mr. Hall said:

sir,

"Why,

was

too

proud to remain an imitator.

After

my

second

trial,

as I

was walking home,

'

heard one of the

congregation say to another,

us of Mr. Robinson.'

Really, Mr. Hall did remind

to

That was a knock-down blow

my

vanity,

and

I at once resolved that, if ever I did acit

quire reputation,

should belong to
likeness.
I

my own
sir,

character,

and not be that of a

Besides,

if I

had not
ridic-

been a foolish young man,

ulous
it

should have seen

how
its

was

to imitate such

a preacher as Mr. Robinson.

He had
tions;

a musical voice, and was

master of

intona-

he

had wonderful

self-possession,

and could say

what he pleased, when he pleased, and how he pleased;

while

my

voice and

manner were naturally bad; and

far


PULPIT OEATOKS

HALL.
I

399

from having self-command, I never entered the pulpit

without omitting to say something

wished to say, and

saying something that I wished unsaid;

this,

and besides

all

ought

to

have known that for

sir,

me

to

speak slow
is

was ruin.

You know,
what
is

that force or

momentum

conjointly as the
is

body and velocity; therefore, as

my

voice

feeble,

wanted

in

body must be made up in

velocity, or there will

not be, cannot be, any impression."

At another time he tried the elephantine manner of Dr.

Johnson: "Yes,
son, and, I
sir, I

aped Johnson and

preached Johnsen-

am

afraid, with little

to

more of evangelical
his

timent

than

is

be found
it

in

essays;
folly.

but
I

it

was
as

youthful
well

folly,

and

was very great

might

have attempted to dance a hornpipe

of

in the

cum-

brous costume

Gog and Magog.

My puny

thoughts
I tried to

could not sustain the load of

clothe them."

words in which

But though he abandoned Johnson

as

model, there

is

considerable resemblance between the struc-

ture of his sentences

bler."

and those of the author of the " Ramsimpler words and shorter sentences,

He employs
swing

but avails himself of " all the arts of the balance, from
the ponderous
It is

to the

sharp emphatic point."

an interesting fact that Mr. Hall, who so habit-

ually " spoke as he

at

was moved," and not

at

for effect, was,

life,

one time,

probably

an early period of his

tormented by a desire of preaching better than he could;

and yet he says that to his ear

it

would have been any-

thing but commendation, had any one said to him: "

You
trial

have given us a pretty sermon."

for

" If I

were upon
his

my

life,"

he adds, " and

my

advocate should amuse

the jury with his tropes

and

figures,

burying

argu-

ment beneath a profusion of flowers of

rhetoric, I

would

400
say to him
: '

OEATOET AND ORATORS.

Tut, man, you care

more
tell

for

your vanity

than for

my

hanging.

Put yourself in

my

place, speak in

view of the gallows, and you will

your story plainly

a lady's winding

and

earnestly.'

have

no- objections to
it

a sword with ribbons, and studding

she presents
will
it

with

roses,

when

to her lover;

but in the day of battle he

tear

away the ornaments, and present the naked

edge to the enemy.''

striking contrast to the style of Robert Hall

was that
It

of the great pulpit orator of Scotland, De. Chalmers.

would be hard

to

name an
first

orator of equal fame

who had
elo-

so few of the usual external helps

and ornaments of

quence; and hence the

feeling of almost every hearer

whom
ment.

his

fame had attracted, was a shock of disappointrose to

As he

speak,

and the hearer contrasted

with his ideal of an orator, or with his preconceived notions, the middle-sized,

and somewhat strange and uncouth

its

figure before him, with

its

broad but not lofty forehead,

its

prominent cheek bones, and

as he observed

drooping, lack-lustre

eyes;

the abrupt

and awkward manner,

or

apparently
both,

indicating

embarrassment or irreverence,

and listened

to the harsh croaking tones, the broad

Pifeshire tongue,* while the speaker bent over his

script,

manu-

and following

it

with his finger, read every word

this could be

like a schoolboy,

it

seemed incredible that

the
for

man who had stormed

more than
thirty years,

the hearts of his countrymen

and whose published discourses

productions of the great

had rivalled in their

sale the

Wizard of the North.

All

this,

however, was but the

* He pronounced " pariBh "as if it were written "poari7t," and the words " iBBue of whicli " as if they spelt " isshy of whucfi,^''

PULPIT ORATORS

CHALMERS.
to the reverberating

401

gathering of the clouds as a prelude to dazzling and flashing outbursts of lightning,

der-peals in the heavens.

and

thun-

Gradually the great preacher

would unveil himself; the ungainly attitude, the constraint

and awkwardness, the vacant look, and feebleness of voice and manner, would be cast
retained,
aside,

or if in

some degree
in the deepstill

would be overlooked by the hearer

ening interest of the theme; the voice, though

harsh

and unmusical, would ring out and

the
eye,

thrill

like a clarion;

which was

so

dull
;

and

half-closed,

would be

lighted
the

up with

intelligence
fro,

the breast would heave, and

body sway to and

with the tumult of the thought;

voice

and face would seem bursting with the fury of ex-

citement, while his person

the

was bathed with perspiration;

words,

before

so

slow,

would

leap

forth

with the

rapidity

and force of a mountain torrent; argument would

follow argument, illustration

would follow

illustration,
till

and

appeal would follow appeal, in quick succession,

all

at last
flood

hearts were subdued, and carried captive

by the

of an
If

overwhelming and

resistless eloquence.

we may

believe Mr. Lockhart, the world never pos-

sessed

an orator whose minutest peculiarities of gesture

eflfeet

and voice had more power in increasing the

he said,

of

what
that

whose delivery was

the

first,

the second, and the

third excellence of his oratory,

more truly than was

him
as

of Dr. Chalmers.

Hazlitt depicts

looking

like a
diffi-

man

in mortal throes

and agonies with doubts and

culties,

and

asserts that the description of Balfour of

Bur-

ley in his cave,

with his Bible in one hand and his sword

contending with the imaginary enemy of

in

the

other,

mankind, gasping for breath, and with the cold moisture

running down his

17*

face, gives

no inadequate idea of Chal-

402

OEATOEY AND OEATOBS.

Another writer was
his

mers's prophetic fury in the pulpit.

so

struck

with his prodigious energy,

native

feral

force, that

he declares that, had

it

not been intellectual"

ized

and

sanctified, it

would have

made him, who was

the greatest of orators, the strongest of ruffians, a mighty

murderer upon the earth."

One

of the most striking

features in Chalmers's ora-

tory was his iteration.

in the ability to
it

Eew

speakers have surpassed him

compose variations on a given theme, and

was

to this that he

owed much of
peculiarity;

his success in

charm-

ing the

popular ear.
less of

Robert Hall declared that even

Burke had
the
as

this

an idea thrown into

is

mind
if

of the great Scotch preacher, he said, "

just

thrown into a kaleidoscope.

Every turn presents

form; but the object

the object in a

new and

beautiful

presented

is

just the same.

His mind seems to move on

is

hinges, not on wheels.

There
yes,

incessant motion, but no

it
is
!

progress."
!

One

idea

but what an idea

fable,

" One,

but a lion " said the lioness in the

animal, that boasted of
its

when another
off-

numerous but want of

insignificant

spring, reproached her with her

fecundity.

"The
is

one idea of Chalmers," says the eloquent Bethune, "

worth a month's preaching from the

him."
It

critics

who

cavil at

must be admitted in the great Scotchman's

favor, that

what was only a

rigid unity in his discourses

was often confounded with an absolute sameness of ideas. The cast of his mind was mathematical and hence, in;

stead of accumulating arguments

sition,

in support of a propo-

and maintaining
to
it

it

by their united weight, he was

wont
about
out

bring forward a single decisive reason, grouping

all

his

facts

and

illustrations,

and drawing

it

link

by link

with

untiring

continuity and

never

PULPIT OEATOBS
wearying iteration.

CHALMERS.
it

403
his

Beginning with a statement of

thought as a whole, he proceeded to develop

ticularly

more parhis disto

and slowly in the subsequent parts of and because he thus adhered tenaciously
critics

course;

the

one point he had in view, some

that

hastily concluded

he had

all

the

while

been only amplifying some

small

thought with which he had started.

it

But
"

if

he

hurled but one idea at the audience,

a giant's force,

was hurled with

reminded

and was no pigmy thought, but

one
fight

of

the

missiles

thrown by the holy angels in their

with Satan's legions,

when they

^Main promontories flung, which in the air Came shadowing, and oppressed whole legions arm'd.^ "

The overwhelming
remarkable when

effect of

Chalmers's oratory

is

the

more

we

consider that he preached from

man-

uscript only, and, except for a brief season, did not extemporize.

At an early period in
"If that

his career,

Andrew

Puller,

the Baptist preacher

and theologian, heard him preach,

and declared:

man would

but throw away his

papers in the pulpit, he might be

King of Scotland." He
It

threw away his papers, and again and again tried to extemporize
;

but every attempt ended in failure.

was

not that he lacked nerve,

memory,

intellectual energy, or

abundance of thought; on the contrary, he suffered from

an overmastering fluency of mind, from mental plethora.

He used
"

to

say of himself that

he was like B.ousseau,

to a bottle full

slow but ardent"

and compared himself

up,
it

of liquid;
first,

when suddenly turned

its

cannot flow at

from

very fullness, and only bursts and splutters.

He

therefore wisely abandoned all further attempts to ex-

temporize, and ever afterward read his sermons,

a pro-

cedure which would seem fatal to the electric effects they

404
produced, did
Hall, George

OKATORY AKD OBATORS.

we not know from
the examples of

Newman

Thompson, Lord Brougham, and many other

eloquent speakers, that a

man may

hold an audience with

a manuscript as truly,
as without one.

if

not as long and as spell-bound,

In

this
;

matter no Procrustean rule can

that
is is

be made for

all

speakers

the best cat which catches

the most mice, and that

the best

way

of preaching, in

a particular case, which enables one to win the most souls.

The

secret of Chalmers's success

under the disadvantages

feeling which possessed

we have named, was

temperament,
him,

the intensity and impetuosity of his

the leading him

warm human

to compose, not only his sermons, but

his other writings not intended for oral delivery,

with the

constant sense of an assemblage of people before him.

The moment he took up

his

pen in the study, he

if stand-

throbbed and glowed and mentally thundered as

ing up before the listening multitude.

He had

always,

we
ness

are told, this stimulus of the great orator, even in

the privacy of the closet, and in the silence and solitariof midnight
study.
"

He wrote
if

everything to be
it,

spoken; he wrote everything as

at
least

he were speaking
sounds;

in

feeling, if

not in

actual

he wrote

everything with an audience glaring in his

his

face.

Hence
and

sermons have

all

the

advantage,

all

the

verve

palpitation, of direct extempore address.

They have none

of the chilliness of discourses written before, nor the luke-

warmness of discourses served up

the peculiarity of which the
pith of preparation, and

after the delivery.

From
all

we have
all

spoken, they have

the quick leap of imthis

promptu."

Not only did he write with

if

inspiration

of the speaker, as

thousands were hanging upon his

words, but he wrote with great rapidity, rarely pausing

PULPIT ORATORS
to

CHALMERS.
discourses

405

ohoose

his words,

though spending much time upon

have
"all
the

the

thought;

and

hence his

bounding liveliness of improvisation."

The manuscript, from which he poured forth

with a force and fervor rarely equaled by an
speaker,

his ideas

impromptu
thrilled

was never thought of by those who were

by his oratory.
of him,
it

An
fell

old

woman

is

reported to have said

"Ah,
said

it's

reading,

yon!''''

is,"

the

fastidious Jeffrey, after hearing

is

"I know not what him in

remarkable
of what one reads

1816,

" but

there

something

altogether

about that man!

of
as

It

reminds

me more

the
I

effect

of the

eloquence

of Demosthenes than

anything

ever

heard."

The

brilliant

Canning, who
to

went with Wilberforce, Huskisson, and Lord Binning

hear Chalmers, in London, in 1817,

was melted
he

to tears.

Though disappointed
"

at

first,
!

he

said, as

left the

church,

The tartan beats us

all

"

We

are told that Professor

Young, of Glasgow, scarcely ever heard Chalmers without

weeping like a child; .and upon one occasion. Dr.
tells

Hanna

us,

he was so electrified that he leaped up from his

the bench,

seat on

and stood breathless and motionless,

till

gazing at the preacher

all

the burst was over, the tears

his cheeks;

the while

rolling

down

and on another
himself,
his

occasion, forgetful of

time and place,

fancying

perhaps, in the theatre,

he

rose

and loudly clapped

hands in the ecstasy of his delight.

But the most striking

er's

illustration of the great preach-

power

is

furnished by an incident which occurred in

Chapel, London, as the great Scotchman
little after

Rowland

Hill's

was preaching there a

his

fame had traveled

beyond the precincts of Scotland.

His audience was nucircles.

merous and principally of the higher

Upwards of


406

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

one hundred clergymen were present, to

seats in the gallery

whom

the front

were appropriated.

In the midst of

these sat Hill, in a state of great

his

anxiety, arising from

hopes, and fearful lest

Chalmers should not succeed

,

before
as

an audience so refined and

critical.

The doctor
and
his

usual

began

in

his

low, monotonous

tone,

broad provincial
delicate

dialect was visibly disagreeable to the

his

ears

of

metropolitan

audience.

Poor Hill

was now upon the rack; but the

man

of God, having

thrown
ed

his chain

around the audience, took an unguard-

moment

to touch it with the electric fluid of his ora-

tory,

and in a moment every heart began to throb and

fill.

every eye to

Knowing

well

how

to take

advantage
so majesat-

of this bold stroke, he continued to ascend;

tic

and

and rapid was

his flight, that in a

few minutes he

tained an eminence so high that every imagination was

enraptured.

The rapid change from depression

to elation to

which Hill experienced, was too much for him

bear.

He

felt so

bewildered and intoxicated with joy, that un-

consciously he started from his seat, and before his breth-

ren could interfere, he struck the front of the gallery

with his clinched

voice,

fist,

and roared out with a stentorian

"Well

done, Chalmers!''''

CHAPTEE

XIV.

A PLEA FOE ORATORICAL CULTURE.

the preceding chapters of this work we have INtempted to point out and illustrate the aim, power,
at-

and influence of the public speaker.

men, and make them
conscious of

To

give to the noblest

thoughts the noblest expression; to penetrate the souls of

feel as if

they were
loftier

new

creatures,

new powers and

wisdom and

purposes; to

make
re-

truth and justice,

ligion, holier

virtue, patriotism

and

and more majestic things than men had ever

to

dreamed them

be before; to delight as well as to conarouse, to calm, to warn, to

this
is

vince; to charm, to win, to

enlighten,
orator.

and

to

persuade,

the function of the

In concluding this work,

let

us ask whether in
art, its cultivation
is,

view of the prodigious influence of his

should be neglected, as
it

comparatively

both by indi-

viduals and in our schools

and colleges?

We

say "pro-

digious"

influence,

for,

after

every allowance has been

made

for

the

supposed diminution of that influence in

modern

times,

we

still

believe that there

is

is

no other accom-

plishment for which there

so constant a

demand

in the

church, in the senate, at the bar, in the lecture-room, at

the hustings,
to

and elsewhere, or which

rapidity.

raises its possessor

fiery

power with equal

tyranny,

themes of
sions

Some of the most eloquence may have passed away with the
outrage,

occa-

of

and oppression that created

408

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

them; but though the age of "Philippics" has happily

gone, yet so long as wickedness and misery, injustice and

wretchedness, prevail on the earth,

so long as the Millen-

nium

is still

distant,

and Utopia a dream,

the' voice of the

orator will

still

be invoked to warn, to denounce, to terrify,

and to overwhelm.

Hobbes defined a republic to be an

by the mon-

aristocracy of orators, interrupted at times

archy of a single orator; and assuredly in a country like

ours,

where the grandest rewards and the proudest

positions

are the prizes open to su.ccessful eloquence,

we may
"

well

wonder that
heat."

so

few strive for mastery in the race

is

where

that immortal garlaiid

to be

won, not without dust and

for this neglect?
Is there

we account any adequate reason why the

shall
less

How

art of persuasive speaking

less

should be

thoroughly studied and understood, or

effectually practiced

now, than
Is

at

any former period

in our

country's history?
faults

there any necessity that the fearful

in

attitude,

tone,

and gesture, exhibited in the

oratory of the pulpit, the bar, and the platform, at the present day, should be perpetuated?
in professions
Is it

pardonable that

whose most

effective
its

and conspicuous func-

tion employs the voice as

instrument, there should be

so little recognition of the

importance of improving that

it

instrument, and of rendering

as capable as possible of
Is it

producing

its

legitimate effects?

necessary that the

majority of pulpit speakers should read the hymns, as they do, without feeling, grace, or appreciation, as the clerk
of a legislative

assembly might properly read a

bill,

or

as a lawyer's clerk

might read an inventory of a bankit

rupt's their

assets?

Is

desirable

that

when they

deliver

sermons, they should cling to the velvet cushion

with both hands, keep their eyes glued to the written page.

A PLEA FOR OEATOBICAL CtTLTUEE.

409

and speak of the ecstasies of joy and fear with a voice and
face

which indicate neither?

Is it desirable

that "every

semi-delirious sectary

who pours

forth his animated non-

sense with the genuine voice

gesticulate

and look of passion, should

of the

away the congregation

most profound

and learned divine" who has had a liberal education,

"

and in two Sundays preach him bare to the very sex-

ton"?
sin

Why
them

"call in the aid of paralysis to piety?

Is

to be taken from men, as Eve was from Adam, by

casting

into a deep

slumber"?
is

That the cultivation of oratory

the present day, needs,
forty years

thus neglected at

More than " ago a writer in the " North American Review
think,

we

no proof.

bewailed this neglect in the following words: "Anything,''

says he, " like settled, concentrated, patient effort for im-

provement in oratory;

anything like an

effort

running

through the whole course of education, renewed with every

day as the great object, and pursued into the discharge
of professional duties,
is

scarcely

known among

us.

The

mass of our public speakers would as soon think of taking

up some mechanical trade or subsidiary occupation would think of adopting

Cicero's practice

of life as they

of daily declamations.

We

do not believe that, on an

average, our clergymen have spent ten weeks of preparation

on

this

most important part of their professional

is

duties."

To-day, this neglect

even more marked.

Not

a year passes but

we

see

hundreds of young

men turned
assured

out of our colleges whose failure in public

in advance, because they

life is

have acquired, and probably will

acquire,

no mastery of the arts of expression.

Men

with a

tithe of their
strip

knowledge and a
life,

tithe of their culture out-

them

in the race of
18

because, though they

know

410
less,

ORATOET AND ORATORS.

they have been unwearied in their efforts to acquire

the art of communicating

what they know

in a pleasing
is

and attractive way.

In

many

of our colleges not only

no provision made for the study of elocution, but the study

is

discouraged by the absorbing attention demanded by

Skill in oratory is identified
it

other studies.

with

intellect-

ual shallowness; and

seems to be feared that

if

a young
is

man

once begins earnestly to cultivate his voice, he

et

in

danger of becoming vox

preterea nihil.

leading
it

New
of
its

York journal

stated a year or

two ago, that

by

knew

a college, the speaking of whose students at one of

commencements ought

to

have been

felt

its officers

as

a burning disgrace, whose trustees, nevertheless, rejected the application of. a teacher of reputation and experience
to

be permitted

to

give

gratuitous

instruction

in

that

branch of education,
did reader?

for

what

reason, do

you think, can-

Not because they questioned the competency

of the teacher, but because they "didnt believe in teaching

elocution at all!"

Even

in those colleges

where

lessons

in elocution are given, the instruction, in

many

instances,

does not exceed, during the whole four years' course, six

weeks of teaching,
of
its difficulty

a treatment of the
is

art which, in view

and value,

only a sham and a mockery.

seminaries
the
art of

In nearly
oratory
is

all

our theological

treated with similar neglect, not to say con-

tempt.
pains

In the theological equipment of their pupils, no

are spared.

The newly-fledged graduate

all

is

well

versed in
religious

church history, and knows

belief,

the

shades of
tell
tell

ancient

and modern.

who Novatus

was, and

who Novatian.

He He

can can

you

you

to a nicety the difference

between Homoousians and Ho-

moiusians. Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians, Monophysites and

A PLEA FOE OEATORICAL CULTUEE.

Monothelites, Jansenists
all

411

and Molinists.

He

has explored

the transactions of the Councils of Nice, Chalcedon,

Trent, and Dort; he can give

you a minute history of and

all

the controversies that have vexed the peace of the church,

recite the sixteen articles of the Priscillian creed,
tell

you whether filioque

church, and

is

properly in the creed of the Latin

precise heresy of Eutyches. tolerable
facility,

what was the

He
split

can read

Hebrew with
with
skill

and can

hairs in metaphysical theology, if not with

tilty,

Hermaic suband bafBe an

his

at least

enough

to puzzle

ordinary caviller.

But while he has crammed

head

with knowledge, he has never once learned

how

to

make

an effectual use of his knowledge.

his

While he has packed

exegesis, he is

brain with history and

Hebrew and

either

uneducated in the all-important art of communi-

cating the results of his erudition in a fascinating, or, at

least,

unforbidding

way,

or

he has been

instructed to

despise that art.

He

has acted like a

man who
them

spends

years in gathering materials for the erection of a mighty

edifice,

yet never attempts to arrange

in an order

which will secure beauty, strength, or convenience.

is

There

no doubt that

many

a sermon which has been written

if

with burning tears in the study, has been struck, as

by magic, with the coldness of death in the pulpit.

preacher

The
trans-

who was
is

all

alive a

few hours before

is

formed into a marble statue.

What
er
it is

the cause of this neglect of elocution,

wheth-

because, as has

been charged, these seminaries

" freeze the genial current of the soul,"

and generate a

kind of

fine,

high-bred sanctified disdain of heartiness and

enthusiasm, leading one to care more for what Quintilian

calls

an " accurate

exility "

than for force and fervor of

412
style,

OEATOEY AND OEATOES.

we

do not pretend to decide.

We

are inclined,
lies

however, to believe that the secret of this neglect

partly in an unwillingness to believe that oratory
art,
is

an
can

and that excellence in

this, as in

every other

art,

be attained only by careful training, persistent painstaking,

and the study of the best models, and partly in the

that

illusion

because
it

religion

is

the most

important of
its

human

concerns,

needs for the enforcement of

claims

few or no adventitious helps.

as one of their

Pious and worthy divines,

are too apt to
be; to suppose
style

imagine that

men

number long ago declared, are what they ought to

that the novelty and ornament, the

elocution, which

charm of

and of

are necessary to enforce every temporal

doctrine, are wholly superfluous in religious admonition.

They are apt

because
it
is

to think

that the world at large consider

all

religion as the

most important of
whereas the actual

concerns, merely

so;
is

facts

show that the

Sydney

very reverse

the case.

" If a clergyman," says

Smith, " were to read the gazette of a naval victory from

the pulpit, he would be dazzled with the eager eyes of his

audience,

they would

sit

through an earthquake

to hear
fall

him.

On

the other hand, the cry of a child, the

is

of

a book, the most trifling occurrence,

suflicient to dissi-

pate

religious thought,
;

and to introduce a more willing

is

train of ideas

a sparrow fluttering about a church

an

antagonist which the most profound theologian in Europe

is

wholly unable to overcome."

Since, then,

men

are comparatively indifferent to the

reception
to cavil

of

religious

truth, since they are prone,

the shadow of an excuse,

too,

when they have

success

what
dis-

can be more important than

preacher's

that every obstacle to the

should be removed, and that the

A PLEA FOR ORATORICAL CULTURE.

413

courses which they are invited to hear should be adapted

to will

and keep their attention?

When

will our theo-

logical

teachers learn, and act uj^on the conviction, that

is

preaching

not philosophizing, not setting forth dogmas

with orthodox preciseness, nor exhibiting the results of

profound learning in
.

G-reek or

Hebrew
be,

particles or idi-

oms,

needful

as

these

may

all

but

the

earnest,

anxious, successful
voice, the eye,

manifestation of truth by
all

the living

and the gesture,

shedding forth their

mysterious magnetism, and compelling sympathy and conviction

by a profound and manifest sympathy with huneeds?

It is the

man

miseries and

fashion with some

call

preachers

who

pride themselves on

what they
artillery,

their
is

" solid sermons,"

but whose spiritual

however,

more remarkable for bore than for

popular
logical

calibre, to sneer

at

preachers,

who have more eloquence than

acumen; but
it
is

theocer-

learning

or metaphysical

tain that

no

man

ever

won
it

the public ear without some

far better to search
it.

genuine attraction; and

would be

out and emulate this attractiveness than to despise

The main cause, however, of the neglect of attention

to oratory, is the

heresy,

theological

heresy,

that
left

which
to

is

as
is

pestilent as

any

eloquence

a gift

of

Nature
foolish,

purely,

and must be
told,

her direction.
orator.

It is

we are

to think of

making an

speaker

may

be taught to articulate his words distinctly, and to

gesticulate, if

not gracefully, at least with propriety; he

to

may be taught
accommodate

master his subject thoroughly, and to

of speaking to his audience; and

his style

by continual practice he may overcome his natural timidity as

well

as his

awkwardness, and acquire a habitual

ease

and

self-possession.

But when you have done

all,

414

ORATORY AND ORATOBS.

orator.

you have not made an

given
inspiration, the
to

Unless he have the Godgenius, which

is

inborn he

predestines

him*
as

public

speaking,

as

far

from eloquence
faithfully

any scholar in Eaphael's

studio,

who has
to lay
all this

learned to draw, to mix

canvas,
is

his colors,

and
In

them on the
there
is

from being a Raphael.

large

amount

of truth, and (especially in

it)

the inference

drawn from
out
a

an equal amount of error.

Of

course,

nobody supposes that a

spark

man

can become an orator withgenius.

of oratorical
its

Mere

scholasticism,
oil,

which derives
readily admit,

brilliancy

from the midnight

the

we

can never

compete with

inspiration

which springs, armed and ready, from a sudden occasion,

like Pallas

from the head of Jove.

In

all lofty

eloquence

there

cause, appealing, with plausible, if not with profound

must be a great and earnest soul behind a great and

Without these
essential

weighty reasons, to a sympathetic audience for immediate

action.

prerequisites, the inci-

dents of modulation, gesture, rhythm, accent, pronunciation,

and

all

the other adjuncts of declamation, are but

sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.

But though nature

they can furnish the
are not the orators
all

and circumstance may do much toward the production of

eloquence, they cannot do
all.

If

world with ready-made orators,

forthcoming
?

why
that

How

happens

it

the

successful
successful,

speakers, and just in the degree that they

were

have been conspicuous for their intense study of their art?

If inspiration
cles here,

and spontaneity can achieve such miranot trust to inspiration in architecture,

why

not in the arts of music, sculpture, and

painting?
also,

Why
we

and in landscape gardening?

There are born gym-

nasts, too,

suppose, and born marksmen, chess-players,


A PLEA FOB OKATOKICAL CULTUKE.
pedestrians,

415

and boatmen.

Do

all

these persons trust to

the inborn faculty, to spontaneous

impulse, without apdiet, the early

prenticeship or training?

Are the careful

and
skill,

hours, the daily testing of vigor

stinence
eye,

the total ab-

from hurtful drinks and

ear,

food, the training of the

the

the

hand, or whatever of these or other

to acquire skill

means are employed,

and ensure
Does the

success,

are

all these

spontaneous actions?

man who

pulls the

stroke oar, or the

it

man who

disarms his oppoto the fullest

qualities,
its

nent at fence, do
extent, that

by spontaneity?
in
its

Admit

eloquence
is

fundamental
it

groundwork,

a natural gift, yet

by no means follows

that the speaker can dispense with art

and study.

Though

the great orator must, in a certain sense, be born such,

though
build,

men

are organized to speak w&ll, as truly as

birds are organized to sing, dogs to bark,

and beavers

to

though

to be eminently successful in oratory, one

must have a special constitution of mind and body, by which he is called incessantly and almost irresistibly, by
a mysterious and inexplicable attraction that sways
his

whole being, to reproduce his mental

yet he

life

in this way,
as laboriously

must learn

his craft as slowly

and

as the painter, the sculptor, or the

musician.

"

To

conit

form to nature, or rather to know when to conform,"

has been truly said, "

we should

previously
it

know what

nature

is,

what
is,

it

prescribes,

and what

includes."

"
;

much about born orators," and what they call " a natural and artless
The truth
those persons

who

talk so

eloquence," are guilty of a transparent fallacy.

Nature
of an that

and

art, so

far

from antagonizing each other, are often

the self-same thing.

True

art,

instrument of culture,

art

in the sense

is

drawn

directly

from

all

416

OBATOEY AND OBATOES.

is

can be learned of the perfect in man's nature, and

de-

signed not to repress or extinguish, but to develop, train,

and extend what he already

son

possesses.

Nearly every perof oratory, finds

gift.

who has what

is

called the "gift"

that he has

great defects associated with his native

He
a

has a harsh or feeble voice, an indistinct articulation,

personal, provincial, or

national

twang, an

awkward

manner, a depraved taste; and instead of developing the

divine faculty, he has
struct
it.

been laboring

to

thwart and obtliat

What

is

more natural than

or, if

he should

endeavor to overcome these defects,

rid of

he cannot get

them

altogether, at least to diminish

them by

vocal

exercises,

by studying the best models, and by listening

to the advice of a judicious friend?

But what

is all

this

but a resort ta
to

art, or

the deliberate application of means

an end?

yet, is it art that is in the slightest degree

inconsistent

with

nature?

If

so,

then

every

civilized,

every thoughtful and moral man,

who

represses his natsel-

ural impulses to be indolent, improvident, rude, and

fish,
is

so far unnatural.

It is evident, therefore, that in

admitting to the fullest extent the necessity of a natural

manner we say
society,

in speaking, of a

we do not exclude
that he

culture.

When
like

gentleman that he has a natural manner in

we do not mean
or

demeans himself

a savage

an unlettered boor, but the very

grace,

reverse.

We

mean
its

that he

has mingled in the best society, and

caught

ease, quietness,

and

self-possession,

till

he reproduces them instinctively, without a thought of

his

manner, in

his

own deportment and

bearing.

When
bris-

landscape gardeners talk of a natural style, they do not

mean woods

full of

underbrush and marshes, lands

tling with sharp rocks, briers,

and

thistles,

any more than

A PLEA FOE OEATOBICAL CULTURE.

they

417

mean grounds

laid

out in

stiff,

formal plats, with

rectangular walks, exotic plants, and trees

the shape of

trimmed

into
skill-

peacocks'

tails.

They mean grounds

fully diversified,

with gentle slopes, land and water, here

a bit of native rock

and there a clump of native oaks,

wildness

with just enough

the beauty of

of

and roughness
so

to

set

off

the lawns, and the whole

artistically,

but not artificially arranged, as to be a copy of nature

in her happiest

moods.

So a truly " natural " oratory

is

one in which the speaker's natural powers are so trained

as to

produce their happiest

effect.
is

No

effort is

made

to

repress his native genius,

into
is

nor

he moulded and twisted

any conventional forms.

gifts,

All the culture he receives

based on his natural

and

is

directed simply to

giving

them the

fullest

play and

development, and to

pruning away every thought or peculiarity which

may

weaken their

force.

But

it

is

said

that,

somehow

or other, any system of

instruction

is

apt to do injury, by fettering and constrainstiff,

ing the intellect, and substituting a

mechanical moveIf

ment

for the ease, flexibility,

and freedom of nature.

this objection

be just,

we

see not

why

it is

not equally

valid against instruction in vocal

and instrumental music.

The

drill of

the true teacher will never reappear in the

performance of the accomplished speaker, any more than

the food he eats will

show

itself

unchanged in

his physique,

but will be merged in the personality of the pupil.

result of oratorical training has
stiff,

If the

been to make a speaker

it is

unnatural, and mechanical,

either because

he
les-

has had a poor teacher, or has

son.

but half learned his

The

fault lies not in the art, but in the imperfect

it.

acquisition of

As Pascal says

to those

who complain

418

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

is

of the grief that

intermixed with the consolations of

especially at its beginning, that
it
is

the Christian's

life,

not the

effect of the

piety which has

still

begun in him, but

of the impiety which

remains, so

we may

say of the

bad habits which survive the best courses of instruction.

To charge
truth

these habits

upon the very systems which

is

ex-

pose and denounce them,

is,

the height of paradox.

to

The

the tendency in

young minds

some of the
is

various forms of

spurious and artificial eloquence

so

deep-rooted that
it;

it resists

the utmost efforts to counteract

and he who ascribes

this false oratory to the instruction to banish

which has been employed with but partial success

it,

might with as much propriety say of some spot of land

which had been but partially cultivated, and from which

the weeds, so prodigally

sown by nature, had been impercomes of gardening and

if

fectly pulled up, " See, this

ficial

arti-

culture "

Who

can doubt that

the rules of any

other art were learned as partially, and as feebly followed, the result would be equally unsatisfactory?

of.

We admit

that an over-minute system of technical rules,

especially, if

one

is

enslaved to them,

may, and almost

that they attempt

necessarily will, have the effect which has been complained

The great

fault of such systems

is

to establish

mathematical rules for utterance, when they

of place here as they would be in a treatise

are as

much out

on dancing.
pression in

It has

been justly said that the shades of

so

ex-

language are often

delicate

and

indistin-

guishable, that intonation will inevitably vary according

to the

temperament of the speaker,

what he

his appreciation of the

sense,

and the intensity with which he enters into the

utters.

spirit of

Some
to the

of the best elocutionists

stress

have differed with regard

words on which the

A PLEA FOE ORATORICAL CULTURE.

should
fall

419

in certain passages,

and whether certain words

;

should be uttered with the rising or the falling inflection nor

is it

easy to decide between them.

Some

authorities insist

that the gesture should precede the utterance of the words,

others that
for

it

should accompany

it.

There are many cases

which no rules can provide, and even when the wit

and ingenuity of

man have done

their best in devising a

system of merely general principles, passion and emotion,

when genuine and overpowering,

to scorn.

will often laugh

them

Nevertheless, there

must be some great general

principles of oratory,
for to

which should be studied and followed,

be to question whether

question this would

men

speak best by accident or by design,

thought,

when

they take no

and when they previously consider what they

It

are about to do.

has been contended, however, that

any attempt

to establish a practical

system of elocutionary
asked,

rules, is useless

and absurd.

Who,

it is

would think
blow with

of telling the pugilist that, in order to give a

due

effect,

he ought to

know how

the muscles depend for

their

powers of contraction and relaxation on the nerves,

and how the nerves issue from the brain and the spinal

marrow, with similar

of study for their

facts,

requiring, perhaps, a life-time

comprehension?

"When Edmund Kean

words

thrilled the heart of

a great audience with the tones of

indescribable pathos which he imparted to the

^

Otliello's

occupation

is

gone,'

it

would have puzzled him to

'

tell
'

whether the sentence

imperfect
loose.'

was

a simple declarative

'

or an

He
and and

knew

as little of 'intensive slides,' 'bends,' 'sweeps,'

'closes,' as

Cribb, the boxer, did of osteology.

He

studied

the intonation

which most touched

his

own

heart;

he gave

it,

reckless of

rules, or, rather,

guided by that

420

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

wliich seeks the highest triumphs of art

paramount rule
If
his

in elocution in the
it

most genuine utterances of nature."

be meant by this to intimate that

toil,

Kean
to

achieved

triumphs without

we have only
style
is

say that he
"

himself has expressly contradicted the assertion.

think," said he, " because
ural, that I don't study,
ttiy

People

new and

appears nat-

and talk about the sudden impulse

all

of genius.
is

There

is

no such thing as impulsive acting:

studied beforehand."

"Acting," says Talma, in the same

spirit, " is

a complete paradox.

The

skillful actor calculates

his eifects beforehand.

sion, or

He

never improvises a burst of pas-

an explosion of

grief.

The agony which appears

to

instantaneous,
tarily,

the joy that seems have

gush forth involunwhich

the tone of the

voice, the gesture, the look,

pass for sudden inspiration,

been rehearsed a hun-

dred times.

No, believe me, we are not nature, but art;

lies

and in the excellence of our imitation

mation of our
objections
all
is

the consumto all these

skill."

But our main reply

that they are the stale commonplaces which

the

enemies of systematic and accurate knowledge,

and the eulogists of common sense and practical education,

have been repeating since the dawn of science.

all

They

have been urged against

systems of logic, of rhetoric,

and of grammar, and they might be urged with equal

propriety and force against every treatise on music, architecture, agriculture, chess-playing, or
ever.
oric,

any other art what-

Indeed, Macaulay mocks at books of logic and rhet"filled

with idle distinctions and definitions which

has learned them makes haste to forget.
better," he asks, " for

every

man who

Who

ever reasoned

having been

taught the difference between a syllogism and an enthy* "

The standard Speaker," by Epes

Sargent, p. 23.

A PLEA FOB ORATOEICAL CULTURE.

meme?
pesis?"*

421

Who
To

ever composed with greater spirit and ele-

gance because he could define an oxymoron or an aposiothis

that a person

we reply who masters

that nobody ever pretended

work on
if

logic or rhetoric
it;

will reason better at first

than
it

he had not studied

but

if

any of the principles

unfolds stick in his memory,

and he afterward, consciously or unconsciously, shapes and

corrects his conclusions, or fashions his style

by them, can

any one doubt that he reasons or

v/rites better?

Every

art,

from reasoning down to riding and rowing,

from speaking to fencing and chess-playing,

is

learned
that

by ceaseless practice; and can any sane

its

man doubt
if

principles will be

more quickly and thoroughly massystema?

tered,
tized,

and more faithfully applied in practice,

than
if left

to each

man

to discover for himself

Can any one doubt that a great speaker can give a novice
in the art

many

useful hints which

lessons

way

anticipate and

abridge

the

costly

of experience, and
Is

save

him

both time

and trouble?

there

any reason why the

out his

young speaker should be

the lead-line only,

left

to grope

way by
a chart

when he may be provided with

and compass?
is

proper system of oratory or elocution

not a system of artificial rules, but simply a digest of

the

methods adopted and practiced by

lived.
it

all the great orators

who have ever

As
is

to the

illustration

drawn from
necessary to
in

the pugilist, who,

said, does

not find
learn

it

study anatomy and

the

physiology, and

what way
that the

muscles of the
is

arm

operate,
It

etc.,

we reply

would be in point if any advocate of elocutionary or oratorical studies had contended that the young speaker should study the anatomy
example
not in point.
* " Trevelyan's Life," Vol.
I,

p. 360.

422

ORATOET AND OEATOKS.

of the complicated organs of speech, the formation and action of the muscles of the

arm and

face,

and

all

the

other organs used in expression or gesticulation; but such

advice
is

yet to be given.

That Kean

" thrilled

great

audiences," while
" bends,"

profoundly ignorant of " slides " and

the

and

all

other technology of

elocution,

is

doubtless true;
electriiied

and

so it is equally true that

men have

and ravished great audiences by their musical

of counterpoint or thorough
;

genius

who knew nothing

ships

base, of "octaves" or " semibreves "

that

men have

naviof

gated

across

the

ocean

without a knowledge

astronomy or logarithms; and that

crops though they have
of
soils,

men have

raised large

known nothing

of the constitution
treatise on

and have never even looked into a

agricultural chemistry.
It is doubtless true that, in

some

eases,

men

without

special

oratorical

training have

exhibited

a might and

majesty, a freedom
those of other

and grace of eloquence, surpassing

devoted years to the study

men who have

of their art.

So a Colburn or a Safford, without mathe-

matical instruction,

may

solve problems over

which trained

students of inferior natural gifts

in vain.

may

rack their brains

So

the

Shakspeares, Wattses, Arkwrights, and

a college education, can
callings than
all their

Franklins,

who have never had

results

achieve greater

in their

the

vast

majority of college graduates, with

ful study

years of pain-

and

discipline.

When
are
to

Mozart was asked how

do

he set to work to
once you think

compose a symphony, he replied: "If

it,

how you

you

will

never

write anything worth hearing; I write because I cannot

it." But there has bfeen but one Mozart, and even he must have been at some time a profound student of

help

A PLEA FOR ORATORICAL CULTURE.

his art.

423

Certain

it is

that no general rules can be

drawn
if

from the anomalous success of a few prodigies of genius

that are formed to overcome all disadvantages.

Even

we
has

allow,

what

is

not true, that the

this

men whom
full justice

nature

endowed with

heaven-born genius are a rule unwithout

to themselves,

and can do themselves

instruction, the question still remains,

how

to

improve to

the utmost the talents of those

ers,

who must be

public speak-

yet have no pretensions to the inspiration of genius,

men on whom
or

nobody dreams that the mantle of Cicero

fallen.
it

Chatham has ever

We

sometimes hear

said that but one rule can be

given in oratory, namely, " Be natural."

But

this advice,

though correct enough,

less.

is

so

vague

as to be utterly usetell his

As well might a teacher of the piano

keys, expecting

pufin-

pil

"to be natural," and give him no directions as to

that

gering the

he will thus become a

to rival Paganini

finished player; as well

might one hope

on the

violin,

Stevenson as a machinist, or

Blondin

in

rope-walking, by copying nature, without study,

expect,
to play
.

as one

by following
with
skill

this

vague and
instruments,

indefinite

direction,

upon that grandest, most musical, and

all

most expressive

of

the

human
As the

voice,
in-

which the Creator has fashioned by the union of an

tellectual soul

with the powers of speech.

pianist

or violinist
ecute easily

must tutor

his fingers to pliancy, so as to exall

and instantaneously

the movements neces-

sary for the quick production of sounds,

as the singer
all
dil-

must, by ceaseless, painful drudgery, learn to master

the

movements of
labor,

his throat,

so

must the

orator,

by

igent

by vocal exercises multiplied without end,

acquire a mastery over those contractions and expansions

424

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

of the windpipe, and over all the other organs of speech

which modify and

fraction of
its scale.

inflect the voice

in every degree

and

Then, and then only, will his voice

;

be obedient to the least touch of his will

sical sounds, that

then will mucharm men and hold them while they

charm, flow spontaneously from his

theless, of the subtlest art,

"

lips,

the result, never-

like the

waters of our foun-

tains, which,

with great cost and magnificence, are carried

to flow forth

from our rivers into our squares, yet appear

naturally."

But, says one, " can gesture be taught or

I raise

learned?
it

Must

my

hand

at this point,

and lower

at that, exactly according to rule?

me
ask:

a clock-work of mechanism ?

"

Would you make As well might you

"Must

frame

my

sentences according to rule, and

think of Lindley Murray, whenever I wish to speak?"

Of course,

all rules,

to be

good for anything, must be

so

familiarized as to operate spontaneously.

No man knows

how
must

to

play a piano,
It is

strike.

only

who stops to think which keys he when his fingers glide from one

key to another mechanically, automatically, with hardly a

thought of anything but the ideas he wishes to express,
that
rids

one

has

really mastered the art.

is

The lunge

that

you of your adversary

the inspiration of the mo-

ment, never the remembered lesson of the fencing-master.

Let the young speaker master thoroughly the rules of

art,

his

and

his perceptions will be

quick and vigorous as his

feelings

warm

with delivery, and nature will prompt with

happy

exactness.

He

will

combine the force of apt words,

the point of finished periods, the melody of natural tones,

and the charm of spontaneous gestures, with an

fervid
sincerity,
it

air of

which will render

his oratory as capti-

vating as

will be powerful

and impressive.

A PLEA EOK ORATORICAL CULTURE.

425

"But," says an objector, "is there not a great deal of

quackery in the elocutionary profession?

Does not the

eloquent Dr. Philip Brooks say in his late Yale Seminary

lectures,
'

I believe in the true elocution teacher as I be-

lieve in the existence of Halley's

comet, which comes into

sight

of this

earth

once
is

in

about seventy-six years'?"

sciolism

We

admit that there

as

much

and charlatanry,
But,

as much pedagogism
as in

and pedantry,

in the teaching of
the true with

oratory as in any other department of instruction.

other matters,

we do not confound
If sagacity,

the false,

reject the
so

genuine with the counterfeit,

why

should

we do

here?

good sense, and judg-

ment, are required in choosing an attorney, a physician, or

a teacher of other branches than elocution,
to
is it

a reproach

sound oratorical

instruction

that

it

cannot be

had

without some care, caution, and trouble in looking for it?

There are some public speakers who, because Nature

has been niggard to

them of her

gifts,

can never hope to

" There are those,"

reach a high standard of excellence.

says the eloquent Bethune, "

whose attenuated length of

limb and angularity of frame, no calisthenist could ever

drill into

grace; whose voices are too harsh and unpliant,

or their musical sense too dull, ever to acquire a pleas-

ing modulation; upon whose arid brain the dews of fancy

never

fall,

the thoughts which

grow

in

it

being like cer-

tain esculents without bud, blossom, or leaf,

ty,

naked, knotthey cannot be

gnarled, and unseemly.

Yet even

these, if they cannot

if

be graceful,

may become

less

awkward;

musical in utterance, they need not screech or mumble;

or, if

they have no fancy, they

it."

may

cease to be grotesque

by absurd imitations of
occasion
to

Let no one, then, who has

address his
X8*

fellow-men, forego the study of

426
oratory, because

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

his
is

gifts

are small.

While the highest

as

oratorical genius

of rare occurrence,

have already
tively

said, as the epic

or dramatic, yet

rare, as

we

it is posi-

certain

that

there

is

no other faculty whatever,

which admits of such indefinite growth and development,

or which

may

be so improved by care and labor, as that

of public speaking.

When

Sir Isaac

Newton was asked

it."

how he had
he replied:

discovered the true system of the universe,

"By

continually thinking upon

to vocal culture,
till

In like

manner, attention

practice

in elocution

under intelligent guidance,

the voice has been develspeakers,

all,

oped, the frequent hearing of the best living the living in an atmosphere of oratory, above

constant recitation in

private with

careful
utters,

attention to
will develop

the meaning and spirit of

what one
style

and perfect an oratorical

gift

in

any one who has the

degree;

of eloquence, even

in a moderate

and

for

any other a thousand professors can do no more than

teach the avoidance of positive faults.

But
ened.

too

many who have

they were

the gift are apt, because they

do not succeed at once, to be despondent and disheartIf

learning

to

play

upon a

flute,

violin, or a piano,
all
its

they would not dream of drawing out

combinations of harmonious sounds without years

yet they fancy that a far

of toil;
difficult,

more complex, more

voice,

and more expressive instrument, the human

may
tice.

be played upon with a few months' study and prac-

Coming
its

to it

mere

tyros,

with the profoundest

all

igits

norance of
stops,

mechanism, they think to manage

its

and command the whole sweep of

lowest note to the top of

vast and va-

ried
it

power; and finding that they cannot at once sound

"

from

its

its

compass," they

A PLEA FOR ORATORICAL CULTURE.

heave a sigh of despair, and settle
tion that they

427

down

in the convic-

must be

"

Orator Mums."

Men

with real

oratorical gifts are, perhaps,

most

likely to be thus dis-

couraged, because the same judgment and taste which are

needed to work up into force or

feelings

beauty thoughts and

imperfectly developed, must,

when coupled with

the characteristic sensitiveness of genius, induce frequent

misgivings as to the degree of success one has achieved.

Too many would-be orators are

ental

like the dwellers in Ori-

lands of

whom

Sir Joshua Reynolds spoke

in

his

address to the pupils of the Royal

elers in the

Academy.

"

The

travig-

East,"

he says, "tell us that when the

norant inhabitants of those countries are asked concerning the

ruins

of

stately edifices

yet remaining

among
'

them, the melancholy

monuments of

their former grand-

eur

and long-lost science, they always

gulf between

answer,

They
a
of

were built by magicians.'

vast
its

The untaught mind

finds

own powers and

it is

those works

complicated art, which

it

utterly unable to fathom; and

supposes that such a void can be passed only by super-

natural powers."
is

What
this

this great painter says of his art

true of oratory.

As Pycroft has happily observed,

passage, " those

in

his

comment on

who know not

the

cause of anything extraordinary

and beyond them, may

and what the uncivil-

well

be astonished at the

effect;

ized ascribe to magic, others ascribe to genius;

two migh-

ty pretenders,

who
by

for the

most part are

of
their

safe

from rivalry
dis-

only

because,

the

terror

name, they

courage in their

own

peculiar sphere that resolute and

is

sanguine spirit of enterprise which

essential to success.
let

But

all

magic

is

science

in disguise;

us proceed to
objects of

take off the mask,

to

show that the mightiest

428

OEATOET AND OEATORS.

our wonder are mere

their superiority

men

like

ourselves;

have attained

by

steps

which we can follow; and that

we

can, at all events,

walk in the same path, though there

between us."
so far, in his letters to his son,

remains at

last a space

Lord Chesterfield went

as to tell

him that any man of fair abilities might be an orator. The vulgar, he said, look upon a fine speaker as a supernatural being, and endowed with some peculiar
gift

of

he^iVen.
is

He

himself

maintained
as

that

good

speaker

as

much

a mechanic

a good

shoemaker,

and that the two trades were equally to be learned by

the

same amount of application.

if

This

is

an extreme
Cicero's

view, and yet

nificent

by "orator" we mean not

mag-

myth, who unites in himself every possible accom-

plishment, but simply a pleasing and persuasive speaker,

his lordship

was much nearer the truth than those who

Chesterfield himself

are frightened from all attempts to speak by the bugbear

of "

want of genius."
some

was an

illus-

tration, to

extent, of his

own

theory, for he declares

to

that he succeeded in
succeed.

Parliament simply by resolving

He

labored indefatigably to perfect himself not

only in public speaking but in conversation, and Horace

Walpole says that he was the

If a schoolboy

first

speaker of the House.

the most illustrious

were required

to

name

example of defects subdued and excellence won by unwearied perseverance, he would name Demosthenes.
His

discouragements would have appalled an ordinary man.

Constitutionally feeble, so that he shrank from the vigorous physical training

deemed

so essential in a

Greek education,
his youth,

he

also,

as

we have

seen,

stammered in

the

most unlucky infirmity that could

tor.

befall a

would-be ora-

He

passed

two or three months continuously in a

A PLEA FOE ORATORICAL CULTURE.

subterranean
cell,

429

shaving one side of his head that he

to

might not be able

show himself

in public, to the inter-

ruption of his rhetorical exercises.

his defect, so that

At

last

he overcame

he was able to articulate the stubborn

" Exercitatione fecisse ut pleniscritical

guttural most sime diceret."

plainly.
Still,

having the most

and

fastidi-

ous assembly in the world to speak before, he was hissed

from the bema in his early

house with covered head
disheartened.
in

efforts,

and retired

to

his

and in great

distress, yet

not

deep dejection,

At one time he was returning to his home when Satyrus, a great and popular actor,
Demosthenes comby

entered into conversation with him.

plained that though he was the most painstaking of all

orators,

and had nearly ruined

his health

his intense

application, yet he could find

no favor with the people,

illiterate

and

even drunken seamen and other

persons

were preferred to him.

I will

" True," replied the actor, " but

if

provide you with a remedy,

you will repeat

to

me some
such a

speech in Euripides or Sophocles."

Demosthenes
Aided
indus-

complied, and

then Satyrus recited the same speech in

it

way

that

was

like a revelation to him.

by such hints, and urged on by his

try,

own marvellous

he

by-and-by achieved a distinct success in the law

courts,

and at

last

became the most renowned of

is

orators.

In

all this

we

see little that

suggestive of a heaven-

born genius.

No

doubt Nature had planted in him the

germ
the

of oratory; but it

was grown and matured only by

ceaseless
care,

in tensest

labor

and the most

such
fair

labor and

such care as would enable any

to

man with

natural
verdicts

abilities

"sway

listening

senates" and

win

from juries. The great Eoman orator subjected himself

to a train-

430

OBATOEY AKD ORATORS.

famous Greek.
it

ing as severe as that of the

before us in his works;

His

life is

and from them

the

appears that
of
elo-

he directed

all

his

energies to

cultivation

quence, the absorbing passion of his

life.

Placing himself

under the instruction of Molo the Rhodian, he declaimed

daily in

the

presence of some

friend,

sometimes in

his

native language, but oftener in Greek, a language with

which he was perfectly familiar, and of which he transferred some of the rich luxuriance to his

more unadorned

and meagre native tongue.

He

was, apparently, master

of logic, ethics, astronomy, and natural philosophy, besides

being well versed in geometry, music, grammar, and, in

short, every one of the fine arts.
sisted natural gifts,
It

was from no unas-

but from deep learning and the united

confluence of the arts and science^, that, as Tacitus afSrms,

the resistless torrent of that amazing eloquence derived
its

strength and rapidity.

If

we read

the biographies of the great

modern

orators,

we

shall find their success to

have been owing to similar

causes.

They have

all

been deeply impressed with the

truth of Cicero's maxim, "

res,

magnus dicendi labor, magna magna dignitas, summa autem gratia." (Pro Murena, From Chatham downward, not one of them has 13.)
his fellow-men

become an adept in the art of persuading

the end.
of

without a careful and persistent adaptation of means to

When

Robert Walpole
for
"

first

spoke in the House

Commons, he paused
and stammer.

want of words, and could only

future

stutter

What

promise,"

it

was

asked, "

was there in that sturdy, bull-necked, red-faced

for Castle Rising,

young member

who

looked like the son

of a small farmer,

and seemed by

his gait as

though he
It is not

had been brought up

to follow the

plough?"

A PLEA FOK OEATOEICAL CULTUKE.

surprising that the brilliant and accomplished

431

Henry

St.

John (Lord Bolingbroke), whose

ever

first

speech on the same

evening was loudly applauded, laughed at the idea of his

old

schoolfellow

becoming

his

competitor.
to

Yet in
falsify all

spite of this

bad beginning, Walpole lived

these croakings,

and to become by practice and painstakIf ever a

ing a powerful debater.

man was

born with

great oratorical powers, and could afford to dispense with

all

helps to success,

it

was Lord Chatham.

Yet even

he,

the king of British orators, did not trust to the gifts of

which Nature had been so prodigal, but, as we have

al-

ready seen, labored indefatigably to improve them by study

and

discipline.

As a means of acquiring copiousness of

task.

diction
to a

and precision in the choice of words, he submitted

most painful

He went

twice through a large folio

dictionary,
its

examining each word attentively, dwelling on

various shades of

meaning and modes of construction,

His

thus endeavoring to bring the whole range of our noble

and affluent tongue completely under his control.

son,

William

Pitt, toiled still

harder to perfect his natural

ceaseless

gifts;

and they were so sharpened by

According

practice

that failure in his case

would have been more wonderful

to

than success.
asked
for

Lord Stanhope, when he was

qualities

to

what he principally ascribed the two

his

which

eloquence

was conspicuous,

namely,
and the

the
his

lucid order of his reasonings

and the ready choice of

words, he answered that " he believed he owed the former

to
to

an early study of the Aristotelian

his

logic,

latter

father's practice of

making him every day,

after

reading over to himself some

late it

passage in the classics, trans-

aloud and continuously into English prose."

Not

only did these rhetorical exercises receive a large share

432

ORATOET AND ORATOBS.

of his attention, but he was assiduous in his efforts to

cultivate

and improve
round and

his

powers of elocution.

By

long

practice he
cession of
tion,

was able at

last " to

pour forth a long sucwithout premedita-

stately periods

without ever repeating a word, in a voice of silver

clearness,

and with a pronunciation

so articulate that not

a letter was slurred over."

" Probably

no man of genius

since the days of Cicero,'' says Professor Goodrich, " has

ever submitted to an equal amount of drudgery."

Of the silver-tongued Murray, field," as he was called in his own

" dropped manna,"

" the great Lord Manstime, him w'hose words

it

who

" spoke roses,"

was

said

by Bish-

op Hurd, that though his powers of genius and invention

were confessedly of the

less to

first

size,

yet " he almost owed

them than

to the diligent and studious cultivation of

his

judgment."

Distinguished at school more for his excel-

lence in declamation than in any of the other exercises, he,

nevertheless, spared no pains to improve his natural gifts,

and studied oratory with the utmost

" Those
onist of

zeal

and

diligence.

who

look upon

him with admiration

as the antag-

Chatham," says Lord Campbell, " and who would

merely the

rival his fame, should be undeceived if they suppose that

oratorical skill

is

gift of nature,

and should

know by what laborious

oratory,

efforts it is acquired."

He

read

everything that had been written upon the principles of

and familiarized himself with

all

the great masters

original

of ancient eloquence.

composition,

He also diligently practiced and spent much time in translation.

and he used

Cicero

was

his favorite writer,

to declare that there

was not a single oration extant of

this great forensic

and

senatorial orator which he had not translated into English,

and, after an interval, according to the best of his

A PLEA EOE ORATORICAL CULTURE.

ability,

433
skill

re-translated

into

Latin.

To give him

in

extemporaneous speaking, he joined a debating society at

Lincolu's Inn,

where the most abstruse legal points were

For these exercises he prepared him-

elaborately discussed.
self

beforehand so thoroughly and minutely, that his notes

proved of great service to him afterward, both at the bar

and on the bench.

Mastering in succession

ethics,

the

Roman
these

civil

law, international law, the feudal law, and

still

the English municipal law, he

found time, amid

to

all

multifarious

and severe

studies,

attend to his
it,

oratorical exercises,

and even,

as

Boswell expresses

to

"drink champagne with the wits," and cultivate elegant

literature.

Among

his early acquaintances

was Alexander
accomhis voice,

Pope,

who was struck with admiration by

all,

his rare

plishments, and, above

by the silvery tones of

which was one of the most noticeable peculiarities of his

subtle
day, a

and insinuating eloquence.

It is related that

one

gay Templar having unceremoniously entered his

room, young

Murray was surprised

in the act of practic-

ing oratory before a glass, while the poet sat by in the

character of an instructor.
of those " born orators,"
able to dispense

Such were the

toils

of one

who

are vulgarly supposed to be

with labor.

Who

does not see that

it

was by intense study and self-discipline that Mansfield

acquired
his

masterly art of putting things,

that

art
difii-

which, as Lord Ashburton said, "

cult to

made

it

exceedingly

answer him when he was wrong, and impossible

right."
all

when he was

That Burke, with

works themselves.
"

his transcendent genius,

is

was a

prodigious worker, no other proof

required than his

upon

all

he did,"
19

The immense labor which he bestowed says an able writer, " was his constant


434
boast.

OaATOEY AND OKATOKS.

He

disclaimed superior talent, and always appealed

to his superior industry.

at last soar at any

... By incessant labor he could moment to his highest elevation, as

His innate genius
it

though

it

had been

his natural level.

was wonderful, but he improved

to the uttermost.

By

reading and observation he fed his rich imagination; to books he owed his vast and varied knowledge; from his
extensive acquaintance with literature he derived his inexhaustible

command

of words; through his habits of inces-

sant thought he was enabled to

draw the inferences which

have won for him the renown of being the most sagacious
of politicians
;

and by the incessant practice of composition

in

he learned to embody his conclusions

a style more

grandly beautiful than has ever been reached by any other

Englishman

vyith either the

tongue or the pen."

probable there never was a
not acquire his mastery by
Charles James Fox

So great and so long continued are the labors necessary

to

make an

.orator that

it

is

successful speaker

who

did

the constant torment of his hearers.

acquired such

skill

and readiness in speaking, that he

His mind was so richly

could begin at full speed, and roll on for hours without

fatiguing himself or his audience.

supplied with knowledge, and so charged with intellectual

heat, that it needed but collision with other

minds

to flash

instantaneously into light.

But even

his talents

had been

gradually developed by practice.

speak every night in Parliament,

He made it a point to for his own improvement;

his

and we are told by Lord Holland,

whether

nephew, that

in

whatever employment or even diversion he was engaged,

dress, cards, theatricals, or dinner,

he would

ex-

ercise his faculties

till

with wonderful assiduity and attention

at-

he had reached the degree of perfection he aimed

A PLEA FOK OBATOKICAL CULTUKE.

Canning was almost equally laborious in his
perfect
efforts

435
to

himself

in

the

oratorical

art.

When

he

was
"

about to

make an important
it

speech, his whole

mind was

absorbed in

for

two or three days beforehand.

He

spared no labor,"

we

are told, " either in obtaining or in

arranging his materials.

He always drew up
on which he meant

a paper

(which he used in the House), with the heads, in their

order, of the several topics

to touch,

and these heads were numbered, and the numbers sometimes extended to

four or

five hundred.''''

Minute points of

accuracy and finish, which

many

other orators would have

disdained to look after, received his sedulous and careful

attention.

The

severity of

Curran's oratorical training

reminds one of that of the old Greeks.

.

Earely has so

great an advocate been made out of such unpromising

materials.
ling
voice,

Small in stature, with no feature but a spark-

eye to a

redeem

his

hasty

articulation,

mean appearance; with a harsh and an awkward manner;

Jack Curran," and in a

known

at school

as " stuttering

debating society to which he belonged as " Orator

Mum,"
and

on account of a
nevertheless,
to

failure in his

first

speech;

he resolved,

overcome

all

these

disadvantages:

overcome them he did so completely, that they almost

passed out of
ideas,

men's recollections. To gain a stock of he spent his morning " in reading even to exhaus-

tion,"

and gave the

rest of the

day

to

literary studies.

A
He

portion of his time

was given

to the classics, of which

he became

passionately enamored,

especially

of Virgil.

carried a copy of the latter always in his pocket, and,

sea, his

during a storm at
over the fate of the

biographer found him crying

unhappy Dido, when every other person on board would have seen Dido hung up at the yard-

436

ORATORY AND ORATORS.

indifference.

arm with
to

He made

himself familiar with the

whole range of English literature, and not only learned

speak French like a native, but read every eminent

author in that language.

While pursuing these

studies
efforts

with indefatigable

zeal,

he was unremitting in his

to perfect himself as a speaker.

Constantly on the watch

against bad habits, he practiced daily before a glass, recit-

ing passages from the best English orators and authors.

Speaking often in debating-clubs, in spite of the laughter

which

his early failure provoked,

he at last surmounted
shrill

every obstacle.

"

He turned
free

his

and

stumbling

brogue
voice
;

into

flexible,

sustained,

and
;

finely-modulated

his action

became

and

forcible

and he acquired

perfect readiness in thinking on his legs,"

in a word, he

became one of the most eloquent and powerful

advocates that the world has seen.
Erskine,

forensic

Brougham, Pulteney, Grattan, Gladstone,

all

the leading orators of Great Britain, whatever their genius,

labored
the art

with equal diligence to perfect themselves

in

of speaking.

The same industry,

easily be

shown, had we space for examples,

has

as could
distin-

guished the most celebrated French orators.

talembert, one of the

Count Monof the

at

present century,

most eloquent Frenchmen when he was attending school

La-

Roche, Guyon, in 1827, wrote thus to a friend, at the age

of seventeen, concerning his
oratorical
exercises:
if

"

Yeu

would laugh
see

heartily,

my

dear friend,

you could but

me

in one of

my

rambles, whilst I follow one of

my

favorite pursuits, declamation.

By

times, in the depths

of the woods, I begin an extempore philippic against the

cabinet ministers; and

all

at

once, thanks to

my

near-

sightedness, I find myself face to face with

some wood-

A PLEA FOE OKATOEICAL CULTURE.

cutter or peasant girl,

437

who

stares
as a

at

and probably looks upon

from a Bedlam.

me

me in amazement, madman just escaped

I take to

So, quite

ashamed of myself,
set to

my

heels;

and once more

wort

at

gesticulating

and declaiming."

The orators of America are no exception

touching the price of excellence.

to the rule

Not one

of them, whose

biography has been

road to -success " a

given to the public, has found the

primrose path of dalliance."

We

have

many
in

fifth-rate speakers

who, having boundless confidence

their

native

gifts,

scorn the drudgery of a long ap-

prenticeship to their art, and trust on each occasion, not

to a careful

preparation, but to " the inspiration of the

find

hour," confident that they will

their themes,

something

to say to

on

when they have

inspiration

" fairly

warmed up

them."

But no American orator

relies

whom

the

people flock to hear,

occasion,

on

the

of the

unless

it

is

strengthened

and

intensified

by that surer, deeper, and

more trustworthy inspiration which comes from years of

self-culture

and from conscientious preparation

for each

oratorical effort.

The half-educated young lawyer or

rep-

resentative to the legislature

possession of intuitive

may dream
he

over the fancied

powers which

never displays;

but those

the contest,
discipline,

who have entered the arena and engaged in know that mental vigor can come only from
skill

and
is

from persevering
orator

practice.

If

there

one American
to

more than another,

the excitement

who might be supposed

from
of
his

have derived his inspiration

own "heaven-born genius" and

rather

the

hour,
to

than

from hard study, and who

seemed able

embody

fervid feelings in vivid and gloweffort,

it

ing language without the slightest

was Henry

438
Clay.
gifts,

OKATOKT AKD ORATOKS.

But though endowed with the greatest natural
he was no exception to the rule that orator
Jit.

He

attributed his success not to sudden illuminations while

speaking, but mainly to the fact that he began at the age

of twenty-seven,

and for years continued the practice of

" These ofif-hajid
cornfield,

daily reading

and speaking upon the contents of some

efforts,"

historical or scientific book.

says, "

he

were sometimes made in a

at others in

the forest, and

not unfrequently in some

distant
It
is

barn,
to this

with the horse

and ox

for

my

auditors.

early practice in the great art of all arts, that I

am

in-

debted for the primary and leading impulses that stimulated

me

forward, and shaped and moulded

my

subsequent

entire destiny.

Improve, then, young gentlemen, the suLet not a day pass

perior

advantages you here enjoy.

without exercising your powers of speech."

ready seen what
efforts

We

have

al-

Pinkney and Wirt made

to per-

fect their oratorical

styles.

The

latter,

with

all his flu-

ency and constant experience in debate, would never speak,

if

he could help
:

it,

without the most laborious preparain

tion

and

for

extemporaneous after-dinner speeches,

particular, he

had a mortal horror.

Locke,
the

He was

a diligent

student of literature as well as the law,

especially of
of

Bacon, Boyle, Hooker, English literature,

and the other fathers

among

moderns, and among the

ancients, of Quintilian, Seneca,

and Horace; and a pocket

edition of the latter poet, well

his constant

thumbed and marked, was

"

companion upon

his journeys.

He was

al-

ways," says one

sionally of

who knew him, "a man

also,

of labor; occa-

most intense and unremitting labor.

I

He was
for I can

the

most improving man,

ever

knew
after

truly say that I never heard

him speak

any length


A tLBA FOR ORATORICAL CULTURE.
of time, without being surprised

439
his im-

and delighted at

provement, both in manner and substance."

to a

In a letter

young law-student, he gives

to

this advice:

"I would
by
culti-

commit

memory and

recite

la

mode de Garrick,

the finest parts of Shakspeare, to tune the voice

vating all the varieties of its melody, to give the muscles

of the face all their

motion and expression, and to acquire

an habitual use and gracefulness of gesture and

of the stronger passions of the soul.
I

command
recite
;

would

my

own

compositions, and compose

them

for recitation

would

address

my own
if I

recitations to trees

and

stones,

and falling

streams, if I could not get a living audience,

and blush

not even

were caught at

it."

Daniel Webster was a prodigy of physical and intellectual

endowment; but

his greatest gift

was a prodigious

capacity for hard work.

Par from furnishing encourage-

ment
tory,

to those

who

trust to their inborn powers of ora-

he furnishes one of the most striking of the thou-

sand illustrations of the truth that the greatest genius,

like the richest soil, yields
its

choicest fruits only to the

most careful

tillage.

He

told Senator Fessenden that the

most admired figures and illustrations in his speeches, which

were supposed to have been thrown

of the

off in

the excitement

moment, were,

like the

"hoarded repartees" and cutoccasion he told, with ex-

and-dry impromptus of Sheridan, the result of previous

study and meditation.

On one

traordinary

effect,

an anecdote which he had kept pigeon-

holed in the cells of his brain for fourteen years, waiting for an opportunity to use
it.

The

vivid and pictur-

esque passage on the greatness and power of England,

than which neither Burke nor Chatham ever conceived

anything more brilliant,

was conceived and wrought out

440
years before
it

OBATOET AND OEATOKS.

was delivered, while
its

author was stand-

ing in the citadel at Quebec, listening to the drum-beats

that

summoned

the British soldiers to their posts.

Mr.

Webster once

told his friend Peter

Harvey that

his great

speech in reply to Hayne, which was generally supposed

to

have been delivered without preparation, had been sublong before, for another but not
dis-

stantially prepared

similar occasion, so that

when he was

called

upon sudagainst the

denly to defend the honor of

fiery Carolinian's attacks,

New England

he had only to turn to his " notes

tucked away in a pigeon-hole," and refresh his

memory

with

his

former well-weighed

arguments and glowing

he had only to reach out
him.
to
is

periods.

As he himself
he
said,

said,

for a thunderbolt,
tried,"

and hurl

it at

" If
fit

Hayne had
notes, he

" to

make a speech
At another
his

my

could not have hit

it better.

No man

inspired

by the

occasion; I never was."

time, being questioned

by a young clergyman about

delivered

speeches

which were

upon the spur of the moment, Mr. Webster

opened his large eyes, with apparent surprise, and exclaimed, "

Young man,

there is

no such thing as extempo'acquisition,'" remarks

raneous acquisition!"

"The word

Mr. Harvey, " was exceedingly well chosen.

Mr. Webster

knew

that there was extemporaneous 'speaking every day.

What

he evidently intended to convey was, that knowlit

edge could not be acquired without study; that

not come by inspiration or by accident."

did

Even

in writ-

ing a brief letter, or note of presentation in a volume,

he was fastidious in his choice of words and phrases, trying different forms of expression again and again before

he could satisfy his severe and exacting taste.

Edward

Everett, the most scholarly of all our public

A PLEA FOE ORATORICAL

speakers,
torical

OULTIIKE.

441

was unwearied in

his efforts to

improve his orahis speeches

talents.

Not only did he write out

and the mechanism
well, say that

with the most fastidious care, but he took great pains to

perfect
his

gestures

of

his
till

voice.

Persons

who knew him

even

he was

sixty years old,

you might have heard from

his library,

in the

hush of evening, the low tones of familiar talk in

which he was practicing his utterances for the platform.

Of course,

it

is

possible, as that speaker did latterly, to

carry this too far.

his

We

would counsel no person

to

waste

vitality in

the study of petty effects, as lj.verett did

his

when he pressed

handkerchief to his eyes so

many hun-

dred times at jsrecisely the same point in his eulogy on

Washington; or when he wrote to a friend and asked

whether,
if,

in a certain passage in a lecture which he

was about to give, he should put his finger into a tumbler of water,

and allow the water

effect

to trickle off

drop by
Tricks

drop,
like

it

would produce an

on the audience.

these

are too transparent, and are not to

be

con-

founded with the study of natural and appropriate gestures.

Everett was the last of the

artificial

school
all

of
his

orators

who

practiced

them, and even he, with

splendid rhetoric, lived to see the

wane

of his artificial

power before the hard sense and sturdy realism of the

nineteenth century.

In nine cases out of ten persons

tionary studies

who

object to elocu-

and

exercises,

are

thinking not

of the

legitimate results of such a training, but of extreme cases

like that of this great rhetorician.
It is

not so

much

to

elocutionary skill that they object, as to the artistic air

which

kills

everything,

to a

manner

perfectly shaped by

conscious skill and regulation.

There are few who will


442

OEAtORT AND OKATOKS.

if

not agree with them that

a speaker so trained gets to

is

be absolutely faultless, that

possible,

about the greatest fault

it
is

and

that, after

such an exhibition,

even
'

re-

freshing, as Dr. Bushnell says, " to imagine the great

bler' at

bab-

Athens jerking out

his

his

grand periods, and stam-

mering
a
little

thunder in a way so uncouth as to become

contemptible to himself."

Far preferable

to the

over-finished and artificial

oratory of Everett,

who had
at

mastered every art of elocution but that of concealing

art,

was the more natural and spontaneous, though

times bizarre and eccentric, oratory of Rufus Choate.

The

most accomplished advocate of America, he was a splendid illustration of

self-training can do.

what laborious culture and systematic Never, for a moment, did he think
Forensic eloquence was the study

of trusting to native genius or the inspiration of the oc-

casion in his speaking.

of his
life,

and

for forty years

he

let

no day pass without

an

effort to perfect

himself in the art of addressing his

as so

fellow-men.

Far from sneering,

many

do, at the

teachings of the elocutionist, he said to one of his students,

I

'''Elocutionary training

I most
I first

highly approve of;

if I

would go
I

to

an elocutionist myself,

could get time.

to Congress,

...

have always, even before

went

practiced daily a sort of elocutionary culture, combined with

a culture of the emotional nature^

his training, to develop, invigorate,

In the symmetry of

and the incessant zeal with which he strove

and

discipline every faculty of

mind
Of no

and body, he reminds us of the ancient Greeks.

man

can

it

be more truly said that his genius was mainly

" science in disguise."

Of

all

the

living
is

pulpit orators of America,

Henry

Ward Beecher

confessedly one of the

most

brilliant.

A PLEA FOE OEATOEICAL CULTURE.

443

The son of a great pulpit orator, endowed with the rarest

and most versatile
abilities, he, if

any man could do

so,

might dispense, one would suppose, with a tedious and

protracted training in the art of speaking.

But what do

we

find to

have been

his education?

Did he shun the

professors

of elocution, believing, as do so

many

of his

brethren, that oratory, like Dogberry's reading and writing,

comes by nature?

No, he placed himself, when at

college,

under a

skillful teacher,

and

for three years

was and

drilled

incessantly,

he

says,

in

posturing, gesture,

voice-culture.
in

Luckily he had a teacher who had no faith

Procrustean systems, and never cared to put " Prof.

Lovell, his

x mark " on

his pupils, but simply helped his

pupils to discover

and bring out what was in themselves.

Mr. Beecher continued

Later, at the theological seminary,

his drill.

There was a large grove between the seminary

it

and his father's house, and

was the

habit, he tells us,

of his brother Charles and himself, with one or

ers, to

two

oth-

make

the

night,

and even the day, hideous with

their voices, as they passed

backward and forward through

from the bottom
to

the wood, exploding all

the vowels

the very top of their voices.

And what was

it

the result
style of

of all

these exercises?

Was

stiff,

cramped
"

speaking, or
I

was

it

omnis effusus labor?

The

drill that

underwent,'' says this many-sided orator, "produced, not

a rhetorical manner, but a flexible

instrument, that ac-

commodated

itself

readily to every kind of thought and

every shape of feeling, and obeyed the inward will in the

outward realization of the results of rules and regulations."

How

signally do the examples

we have

cited illustrate
effects

the truth of Sir Joshua Eeynolds's

of genius

remark that the

must have

their causes,

and that these may,

for

444

OEATOET AND OKATORS.

the most part, be analyzed, digested, and copied, though

sometimes they
written art!

may

be

too

subtle, to

be reduced to a

They prove

conclusively,

we

think, that the

great orators, of ancient and

modern

times, have trusted,

it

not to native endowments, but to careful culture; that

was

to the infinitus labor et quotidiana meditatio, of

which

Tacitus speaks, that they owed their triumphs; that, marvellous as were their gifts, they were less than the igno-

rant rated them;

and that even the mightiest, the

elect

natures, that are supposed to be above all rules, conde-

scended to methods by which the humblest

may

profit.

In answer to
oratory" of

all this,

some one may

cite the "

natural

Abraham

Lincoln,

who owed

as little to books

and teachers as perhaps any

man

of equal eminence.
toil.

But
finest

even he did not win his successes without

effort,
is,

His

the immortal Gettysburg speech,

which, brief

as it

will be read

and remembered long after Edward Ever-

ett's

ambitious oration, which occupied hours in the deliv-

ery, shall

have been forgotten,

was

prepared with extra-

ordinar}'' care.

According to the statement of Mr. Noah

it

Brooks, his friend,

times.

was written and re-written many

in the

The same conscientious painstaking, even

veriest trifles, distinguishes all the great actors

and public
It is said

readers

who have won

his

the ear of the public.

that a person once heard a

man
it

crying " murder," in the

room under

own, in a

hotel, for

two hours in

succession.

Upon

inquiry, he found that

was Macready, the trage-

dian, practicing

on a word, to get the right agonized tone.

gentleman in Chicago,* who has had occasion to learn

secrets of Charlotte

some of the
art, tells

Cushman's mastery of her

us that she never, in her public readings, read

*

Mr. George B. Carpenter.

A PLEA FOK OEATOEICAL CULTURE.

445

the pettiest anecdote, or even a few verses, without the

most careful and laborious preparation.

sion, in

On

one occa-

Chicago, she prepared herself for an encore by

selecting a comic negro anecdote that

filled

met her

eye,

which

about twenty

lines in a

newspaper.

For three or
of recitation,

four days she read and re-read this story in her private

room, trying the

effect

of different

styles

now emphasizing
voice to one

this

word,

now

that,

now

pitching her

key and now to another,

till

she had discov-

ered what seemed to be the best

way

to bring out its

ludicrous features into the boldest relief.

When
it,

Each el

was about to play in Paris a scene from

nerolle," she spent three

" Louise de Lig-

hours in studying

though

it

comprised but thirty

all

lines.

Every word was rehearsed in

and most penethat the greatest geniuses

possible ways, to discover its " truest

trating utterance."

So true

is it

in every art invariably labor at that art far

all others,

more than
to per-

because their very genius shows them the neceslabor,

it

sity
sist

in

and value of such it! So true is

which

and thus helps them

that whether in oratory, poetry,

music, painting, or sculpture,, no artist attains to that excellence in

ition,

effort concealed steals the

is

unless he
is

totus in illo,

unless, as
life,

charm of Bulwer

intusays,

" all
is

which

observed in ordinary

as well as all

which

observed in severer moments, contributes to the special

faculties

which the art

itself

has called into an energy so

habitually pervading the whole intellectual constitution,

that the

mind

is

scarcely conscious of the

work which
toil,

it

undergoes"!

The prodigies

of genius, so far from being

favored by nature and allowed to dispense with

would

probably, as Professor Channing, of Harvard, says, show

to
us, their

short-sighted

worshipers, were they able to


446

OEATOEY AND ORATORS.

more
thor-

reveal to. us the mystery of their growth, a far

ough course of education, a more

strict,

though perhaps

unconscious obedience to principles, than even the most

dependent of their brethren have been subjected

to.

We

say, then, to the

mighty power,
the words of
his art:

the
all,

Would you thunderbolt, of oratory?

reader,
to

wield the
Listen to
pupils in

Salvini, the great actor,

the

"Above

study,

study,

study.

All the genius

art, unless

in the world will not help

you along with any

It

you become a hard student.

master a single part."
pied with the role of

has taken

The same performer

me years to is now occuit

King Lear, which he

says

will take

him

two years to study thoroughly.

To speak

as

Nature
feel-

prompts,

to give utterance to

one's thoughts

and

ings in appropriate tones and with appropriate gestures,

seems too easy to require

much

labor.
is,

But, as
is

it

has been

well observed, simple as truth

difficult to attain as it is
is

it

almost always as
It

triumphant when acquired.

into the

said

that one day a youth walked

studio of

Michael Angelo in his absence, and with a bit of chalk

dashed a slight line on the wall.

returned, he did not need to ask
little

When
who had

the great master

visited

him; the

line, as

true as a ray from heaven, was the unmis-

takable autograph of Eaphael.

sion there are

Doubtless in every profes-

training;

men who leap to the heights without much but we know not how much higher they might
had they added
of
all

have

risen,
gifts

possible

acquired ability

to the

nature.

"

Where

natural logic prevails

not," says Sir

Thomas Browne,

"artificial too often faileth;

but when industry builds upon nature, we

may

expect

Pyramids."

INDEX.

Acting, "impulsive,"' 420.

Actors, 114.

when most successful,

113,

Adams, John, his eloquence, 18. Addison, his failure in oratory,

187.

Ames, Fisher, his study of the

Scriptures, 167: 180.
Aristotle,

his eloquence,

Apostrophe, examples of, 95. on metaphors, 104. Athens, its oratory, 33. Automatic action of the mind,
191, 192.

Bacon, Lord, his oratory, 197, 326. Baron, the actor, 114. Baxter, Richard, saying of, 128. Beecher, Edward, D.D., anecdote
of, 87.

Beecher, Rev. Henry Ward, on the voice, 87; his elocutionary

training, 442, 443. B6ranger, 187. Berryer, M., 86. Betterton, the actor, saying of, 110. Bolingbroke, Lord, his oratory, 13, 327-232; his style, 188, 338330; his natural and acquired talents, 227, 228; Chatham's opinion of his eloquence, 338; excluded his invective, 229 from Parliament, 329; his writings, 331; Brougham's opinion of his oratory, 331.
;

his preparation of 180. Bourdaloue, his eloquence, 33. Brooks, Phillips, quoted, 138. Brougham, Lord, his physical constitution, 64; on speaking, 86; his voice, 134; on the test of oratorical power, 136; his power in reply, 137; recommends the practice of translation, 171; his use of the pen, 179, 184; his style, 188; his oratory described, 258-367; his energy, 91, 93, 358; his faults, 359, 360; his force in assault, 360 ; his irony, sarcasm, and invective, 261; his personal appearance, 261, 263 his speech on Law Reform, 363 his relicity in description, 363 his invective against Pitt, 263 his speeches on Negro Emancipation, 263, 364; ms power as an advocate, 264, 365 his speech

Bible, 167;

a sermon,

in defense of Williams, 265267; his contrast of Burke with Demosthenes, 274.

Bulwer, Sir

Henry L., on the House of Commons, 305.

anecdote
of,

Burgess, Tristam,
146.

Burke, Edmund, his

Bossuet, his eloquence, 23-24; on the death of Henriette Anne d'Angleterre, 28; his classical studies, 167; his study of the
417

speech at Hastings's trial, 15, 16; on the oratory of his own age, 32; his quotations from the classics, 59; his voice, 74; a master of metaphor, 104; his popularity as a speaker, 134; his readiness in retort, 155 insulted in the House of Commons, 155; his quotations from the poets, 166; unpopular as a speaker, 304; his invectives, 316; his oratory
;

448

INDEX.
extempore preaching, 403; illustrations of his power, 405, 506.

described, 368-375, 300; his encyclopaedic knowledge, 268; his imagination, 369; his prejudices, 369; his oratorical defects, 270373; criticised by Henry Rogers, 371; his lack of dehcacy, 373; his speech on the Nabob of

Chatham, Lord, an orator, 14;

his influence as his voice, 74, 333; his force, 91, 334; his oratorical frenzy, 109; his fastidiousness and painstaking, 133, 233; his

Arcot'sdebts,373-275; on Sheridan's eloquence, 281; his laborious self-culture, 433, 434. Bushnell, Horace, D.D., on the dearth of eloquent ministers,
68.

treatment of Erskine,153; roused by opposition, 157; his translations, 170 ; his oratory not always successful, 307; his percharacterization of his oratory, 333-339; his lack of learning, 333; his force of assertion ,334; anecdotes of, 334r-336; his wordiness and iteration, 336, 337; described by Wilkes, 338; his oratorical selfculture, 431. Chesterfield, Lord, his translations, 170; on the House of Commons, 304; on oratory, 438.
sonalities, 315, 316;

C
CaffareUi, 77.

Calhoun John C his logical mind, 139; his personal appearance

,

and manner in speaking, 313, 313; debate with Clay in 1840, 813-315; his mental and moral qualities, 331, 333; contrasted
with Webster and Clay, 331,
323.

Choate, Rufus, on Webster's eloquence, 36; on abstractions in tory, 119, 120. oratory, 103 his oriental looks Canning, G-eorge, his speech on and style, 138; his nervousness, Portugal, 16; on Parliamentary 150; his study of literature and oratory, 47; his irony, 131; his words, 166, 167; on translation, first speech in the House of 171; his admiration of PinkCommons, 145; his use of the ney, 175; commends the use of pen, 179; his oratory characthe pen, 183; his success with terized, 351-258; his personal juries, 310; his oratory characappearance, 353; his early terized, 865-378; his personal speeches, 353; his failure in appearance, 866, 367; his enerdTeclamation, 353; his excessive gy, 367; his defenses of crimielaboration, 353, 354; extracts nals, 369; his triumph over from his speeches, 355-258; his Boston prejudice, 869, 370; his knowledge of finance, 355; his dialectic skill, 871 his skill in wit, 356; his contests with jury cases, 871-873; his long Brougham, 261 his preparation sentences, 378; his style defor speaking, 435. scribed by Everett, 374; exCarlyle, Thomas, on Daniel Webtracts from his speeches, 375; ster's eyes, 333. his wit, 376, 377; his exaggeraCastlereagh, Lord, 335. tion, 877; his copiousness of Chalmers, his oratory, 33; his style, 877; his emphasis, 378; massiveness of frame, 65; his his oratorical training, 442. manner of speaking, 134; his Chrysostom, his classical studies, failure in extempore speech, 165, his eloquence, 33. 148; his oratory characterized, Cicero, power of his oratory, 13, 400-406; his personal appear18; on the eloquence of Demosance and manner, 400-403; his thenes, 68; his intense feeling,

Calmness,

its

advantages in ora-

iteration, 403, 403; his failure in

109; on Asiatic oratory, 187; his

INDEX.
nervousness and timidity in speaking, 147, 148; his severe
oratoricai training, 439, 430. Clay, Henry, his voice, 75, 134, 319; his oratory described, 311322; his personal appearance, 311, 813, 819; his debate with Calhoun in 1840, 813-315; his slender education, 316, 817; his success as a lawyer, 318; his partial failures in speech- making, 319; his absorption in his themes, 319; his speech at Lexington, after leaving Congress, 320; his oratorical training, 437, 438.
consfield),

449
his

sarcasms,

133,

318, 319.

Edwards, Jonathan,
the pulpit, 24. Eldon, Lord, 150.

his

power

in

Climate, its effect on eloquence, 137-139. Cobden, Richard, his first speech,
144.

Coleridge, S. T., saying of, 158. Congress, the U.S., its personalities, 215. Conversation, an aid to oratory,
190.

Curran, John Philpot, his physical vigor, 65; his skill in cli-

Elocution, objections to its study, 89, 419-438, 421. Eloquence, the study of specimens, 172-174; its tests, 198213; is in the audience, 303; inconsistent with deep thinking, 303-305; contrasted with wisdom, 204; a relative term, 213, 213, 281; cannot be reported, 316; not a gift of nature purely, 413-417. {See Oratory.) Emerson, R. W., on oratory, 10, 50; on the eloquence of a Boston preacher, 34; on insincerity of speech, 113, 138. Emmet, his misquotation, 61. Emmons, Nathaniel, D.D., 108. Energy in oratory, 89-103; a characteristic of Demosthenes, Chat-

max, 103; his metaphors, 105; on the use of tropes, 107; his
wit, 131; his first speech, 144; his readiness, 153; his use of the pen, 179; his defenses of political prisoners, 207, 308; his oratorical studies, 435, 486.

ham, and Brougham, 91, 93, 358; alsoof John Marshall, 92; increased by interrogation, 94, 95; by exclamation and apostrophe, 96; by gesture, 95; by
expression of countenance, 99 dependent on choice and number of words, 100; should be
accrescent, 101, 103.

Cushman, Charlotte, her painstaking, 444.

Erskine, Harry, 153, 154. Erskine, Lord, his physique, 65, 358; his skill in climax, 102; D'Alembert, on oratory, 10. on the source of eloquence, 109; Demosthenes, his voice, 80; his his wit, 138; his embarrassforce, 91; saying of,112; his toil, ment in his maiden speeches, for 133; his careful preparation 144; his sensitiveness to annoyspeaking, 185; his triumph over ance, 151, 153; his study of English Uterature, 166,347; his diflSoulties, 438, 439. use of the pen, 180; on repetiDe Quincey, Thomas, on tautology tion, 197; his success in jury in popular oratory, 197, 198; on addresses, 207, 208; his opinion the inspiration of organists, 389. of one of Burke's speeches, 273; Dewey, Orville, D.D., his elocuhis oratory characterized, 846tion, 86. between 859; his early education, 847; contrast Discourses, his speech in defense of BnUlie, spoken and printed, 193-300. 348-852; his rapid success, 357; Disraeli, Ben.iarain (Lord Bea19*

460

INDEX.
Fox, Charles James, his ignorance of political economy, 47; his earnestness, 113; his oratory
his immoralities, 136, 137; his manner, 134; his classical studies, 165; his failure as a writer, 187; on speeohec that read well, 195; his adtioe to Romilly, 197 his oratory characterized,344r-351; his eafly training, 344; his passion for gaming, 345; his love of Ital' ian literature, 345; his love of argument, 347; his painstaking, 347 his habits of dissipation, 348; his ignorance of philosophy and political economy, 349; his power in reply, 349; his social qualities, 349 his wit, 350; contrasted with Pitt, 250, 351; his practice of speaking, 434.
; ; ;

his defense of Lord George Gordon, 353; his speeches on the state trials, 353; extracts from his defense of Stockdale, 853, 358; his speech on the trial of Paine, 354; his oratorical excellences, 854-358; his knowl-

weakened by

edge of the

human mind,

356;

his study of the feelings of juries, 856; his concentration in argument, 858; his personal magnetism, 358; his speeches commended as models, 359.

Everett,

Edward, contrasted with John B. Gough, 185; his mem-

orizing of his speeches, 176, 177; his description of Webster's appearance when replying to Hayne, 333, 334; his oratory described, 337-345 his fastidious preparation of his speeches, 337-388; his polished rhetoric, 339; his lack of aban- Franklin, Dr. Benjamin, on the donment, 339; his speeches, importance of honesty to an orator, 135, 136. "stand-up essays," 840; his phrases contrasted with Web- French and English oratory comster's, 340; his oratorical merpared, 312. its, 341-345; his style, 341, 342; passages from his speeches, 343; the variety of his discourses, 343, Gardiner, Wm., on loud tones, 85. 843; his first Phi-Beta- Kappa Gavazzi, 96. oration, 343; his Plymouth and Gesticulation, 95-98; Quintilian Concord addresses, 343; his euon, 96-97; Daniel Webster's, logy on La E'ayette, 844; his 96; excessive, 98; faults of, 98, looks, voice, and gestures, 344; 99. his self-culture and preparation Gibson, T. Milner, M.P., his wit, of his speeches, 440, 441. 120; on the House of Commons, Exclamation, 95. 204. Expression of countenance, 99. Gladstone, Wm., M.P., his classic quotations, 63; his voice, 75; as a speaker and writer, 188. Fenelon, Archbishop, his oratory, Goethe, on beauty, 189; on writ3. ing and speaking, 193. Ferguson, of Pitfour, anecdote of, Gough, John B., and Edward 46. Everett contrasted, 185. Pollett, Sir William, 149. Grattan, Henry, his emulation of Force in oratory, see Energy. Chatham, 174; his retort upon Forsyth, William, on forensic oraFlood, 216, 217; on Chatham's tory in England, 36. eloquence, 383; his oratory charFostPr, John, on Lord Chatham's acterized, 387-293; his admiraforce, 91; on Robert Hall's tion of Chatham, 387; his pripreaching, 398. vate declamations, 387 ; hi
;

INDEX.
dehis grandeur, 288; his excellences and faults, 289-390, 300; passages from his speeches, 290298; on C. J. Fox, 291; a born orator, 293. Gray, the poet, saying of, 114.
scribed

451

neural

defects, 287, 388;

by Mr. Lecky, 288;

on the Stamp Act, 304, 305; his speeches in support of American independence, 305-307; his speech on the British refugees, 307; his ridicule of John Hook,
307,308; his personal appearance and manner, 308, 309; his success in jury trials, 310; compared with Chatham, 310. House of Commons, the oratory successful in, 304, 205; personalities in, 214-319.
I

Guido, 90. Guthrie, Thomas, D.D., contrast between his spoken and printed sermons, 199.

H
Hall, Robert, his oratory characterized, 391-392; his precocity, 391; his early failures in the pulpit, 893; his education, 393; his popularity, 393; his principal sermons, 393, 394; his personal appearance, 395; the secret of his power, 395,396; his manner, 396; his self-abandonment; his imitation of Doctors Robinson and Johnson, 398, 399 on tropes and figures, 399; on Chalmers's iteration, 403. Hamilton, Alexander, 183. Hamilton, W. G., his advice to public speakers, 183, 184. Handel, the composer, his sensibility, 114, 115. Hastings, Warren, his trial, 15, 16. Hazlitt, William, on Burke's style, 104; on speakers and writers, 302; on eloquence and wisdom, 204. Head, Sir Francis, on Indian ora;

Imagery, excessive, 106. Imagination, essential to the orator, 103-107; repressed by the
din of the age, 107. Indignation, a stimulus to eloquence, 331. Inspiration, the result of previous
toil, 186. Instruction, not necessarily injurious in oratory, 417-419; may be over- technical, 418, 4l9. Interrogation, 94, 95; employed by Cicero and Demosthenes, 94, 95.

Jefferson,
Jeffrey,

J Thomas,
93.

his voice, 77;

on Mirabeau,

Lord, his timidity as a speaker, 148. Johnson, Dr. Samuel, not fitted for
oratory, 188.

K
Kean, Edmund,
419, 420, 433.
his voice, 79; his

tory, 36.

ignorance of elocutionary rules,

Henry, Patrick, his speech on "the tobacco case," 17,303,304; his speech on American inde?endence, 18; his affectation, 33: his timidity as a speaker,
148; his coolness in crises, 157;

Kemble, John, anecdote of, 114. Kennedy, J. P., his anecdote of a

novitiate, 144.

King, Dr., 165.

Kirk, Edward, quence, 384.

D.D.,

his

elo-

a proof of his eloquence, 310; his oratory characterized, 301311; his defective education, 301; his distaste for labor, 303; his taste for reading and the study of character, 303 his first law case, 303, 304; his speech
;

Labor the price of excellence, 436.

Laurence, Dr. French, his elocution, 88.

Law

(Lord EUenborough), 60.

452
Lecky,

INDEX.

W.

E. H., on Grrattan's

oratory, 288; 296.

on O'Connell's,
his

Monvel, French' actor, 83. Mozart, saying of, 433.

LegouvS, M., Rachel, 77;

anecdote

of

N
203.

on the voice of Napoleon I, on his generalship, actors, 78; on the influence of 131; his tactics at Auaterlitz, love on articulation. 80; on M.
Andrieux's voice, 82, 83.
Naturalness,
425.

Lincoln, Abraham, his Gettysburg speech, 444. Lowell, J. R., on Webster's eloquence, 21. Luther, Martin, 13; sayings of, 221, 259.

how

attained, 185.
in oratory,

Nature and art

413-

North, Lord, his wit, 133, 323.

Macaulay, Lord, on the House of Commons, 48, 205; not able in reply, 137; his maiwaise honte,
149; his oratorical habits, 181; on the personalities in Parliament, 217 ; contrasted with
Shell, Grattan, and Burke, 299, 300; on logic and rhetoric, 420. McDuffie, of South Carolina, his assault upon Trimble, 219, 220.

Markmtosh,
201.

Sir James, 47, 187,

Macready, William, 444. Magnetism, personal. 111.

Malibran,

O'Connell, Daniel, his massive frame, 65; his voice, 75; his wit, 121, 122; his blarney, 201; on great speeches, 206 his eloquence in Parliament, 206, 207; his versatility, 213; his coarse sarcasms, 325; his oratory described, 293-299; his skill as an advocate, 293-295; his coarseness and power of inveotive,295 his sarcasm on Disraeli, 395; his qualities as a popular orator, 396-398; his merits and defects, 298-299. Orator, the, quahfications of, 63;

Madame,

79.

Mansfield, Lord, his lack as an orator, 112; cowed by Chatham, 157; his translations, 170; his oratory, 173, 213.; his study of
oratory, 432, 433.

Marshall, Thomas, M.C., 158. Massillon, 22. Memorizing speeches, 176-184. Metaphors, 104-106; Burke's, 104, 105; Curran's, 105; Shell's, 105; Plunket's, 106.

139; both and made, 66; his physical qualifications, 63-5, 69; vulgar qualities'sometimes useful to, 70; knowledge needed by, 73, 73; his voice, 73-89, power of the "natural," 92, 93; why the radical is successful, 93; his need of force, 89103; his need of imagination, 103-107; his need of sensibility, 107-121; his need of wit, 120125; his trials, 140-160; hi&

bom

Mirabeau, his oratory, 14, 15; his

physical gifts, 64; his voice, 75; his manner, 134, 149; stimulated by opposition, 157; his elocution, 195; superbest in his rages,
232.

need of presence of mind, 150; his need of courage and patience, 160; his helps, 161-193; conviction his aim, 178 should hsten to best speakers, 174; aided by the pen, 175-185; advised not to memorize an entire speech, 177, 178; aided by conversation, 190; needs selfconfidence, 190; aided by "unconscious cerebration," 191; his
;

Montalembert, De, Count Charles, his study of British eloquence,

174; his elaboration of his speeches, 180; on his oratorical exercises, 436.

; ;

; ;

INDEX.
use of philosophy and logic, 196 must often repeat his statements, 196-199; persuasion his chief aim, 300 cannot be a first-rate man, 203; causes of his failures, 308-311; the rarity of great ones, 68, 69; the defects of some celebrated ones, 69; two classes of modem,70; great ones
;

453

appear in clusters, 71; why nervous before audiences, 141-144; English political, 336-367; Irish political, 368-300 American political, 301-345; forensic, 346378; pulpit, 379^06; contrasted with the rhetorician, 336, 337. Oratory, its power and influence, 9-39; D'Alembert and Emerson on, 10; its triumphs immediate, 10; its influence in Greece
;

useless art, 49-58; its new dowry of power, 51; of the platform and lecture-room, 51, 53; its statuary and millinery no longer potent, 53; why comparatively cold to-day, 53-54; its influence not diminished in modern times, 54; its effects to-day gradual, 55, 56; how affected by character, 56, 57; its advantages today, 57, 58 change in Parlia;

mentary, 58-63; the qualifications it demands, 63-139 comes by inspiration, 66, 67; examples of spontaneous, 66, 67; not the
;

and Rome, 11-13;

power of

Cicero's, 13; its influence in the Dark Ages, 13; its triumphs in

America, 17-21;
sacred, 21-34; its

triumphs of

power to-day,

lands,

34-35; not confined to civilized 36; its perishableness, 26-39; not a lost art, 80-63; its supposed decay in Prance, 31; lamentations on its decline, 30, 31; the chief sources of, 33; Tacitus On, 33; Athenian, 33; Roman, 33, 34; contrast between ancient and modem, 3445, 53 decline of forensic, 36, 37 ancient and modernforensiccompared, 86-38; ancient training in, 39; regarded by the ancients
;

result of precepts and labor merely, 67; Socrates on, 67; superior to music and pain ting, 97 when most triumphant, 115; its essential secret hidden, 139-136 its many varieties, 133, 135; test of power in, 136, 187; effect of climate on, 137-139; the study of specimens commended, 173-174; superiority of spoken, 193-200; its proper style, 195; lies in the ear of the hearer, 197 qualities of the Greek, 198; its objects, 300; may be too profound, 303; not always tested by its success, 305, 308; not re-

cognized when perifect, 309-313; French and English compared, 312; British during the Commonwealth, 337; changes in English, 353; its abhorrence of
lengthiness

and

philosophic

370-371; "Webdiscussion, sterian," 334; dependent on the as a fine art, 89; how affected excitement of debate, 339; a by the printing-press, 40, 44, 45 now addressed to the general plea for its culture, 407-446; its general neglect, 407-413; its public, 42; the kind demanded influence, 407, 408; neglected to-day, 43, 48, 49, 100, 101; in colleges and theological semhow affected by reporting, 43; inaries, 410; objections to its how affected by party spirit, 45, study considered, 413-425 may 46; its changes within a cenbe taught too technically, 418; tury, 46-48, 59-63; no longer a persons who cannot excel in it, passport to office, 47; Sir J. how skill in it may be atCanning on 435; Mackintosh and tained, 436; Lord Chesterfield Parliamentary, 47; decried in on skill in, 438. England, 48; in the House of Commons, 48, 49; not now a Otis, James, his eloquence, 17.
;

454

INDEX.
nestness, ib.

Paganini, 85. Palmerston, Lord,

214

described by Lord on Pox's social qualities, 250; denounced by

;

North, 243

Pantomime,

73, 74.

Broughain, 263;
Sheridan. 377;

rebuked by

oratorical studies, 431, 433. Parliamentary oratory, changes in Plunket, Lord, 106, 180. British, 46-49, 59-63. Political orators, 236, 345. Parsons, Theophilus, C. J. of Porter, D.D., on his voice, 80. Preachers, why unsuccessful, 109. Mass., his pleading, 210. Party spirit, its effects on oratory, Preaching defined, 413. 45, 46. Prentiss, Sargent S., 138. Peel, Sir Robert, his power in Press, the, its influence on oratory, reply, 137; assailed by Disraeli, 40 44 45. 318, 319. Priestly,' Dr! Richard, 334. Pen, the, use of commended, 175, Prose, has its melody as well as 184. poetry, 164. Personalities in debate, 314^325. Pycroft, Rev. James, quoted, 473.

Parker, Theodore, on impressive speaking, 73.

his

Philip of Macedon, saying

of, 13; his offer for an orator, 50. Phillips, Wendell, his elocution, 87, 88. Pinkney, William, his manner when speaking, 150; his attention to literature, 166; his use of the pen, 183; his oratory characterized, 360-365; his painstaking, 360, 361 ; his study

Q
Quackery in elocutionary teaching, 435.

Quarterly Review, London, on eloquence, 309. Quintilian, on conversational public speaking, 81. Quotation, classic, 58-63, 335.

of the English language, 360; his vehemence, 361; his legal arguments, 363; his personal appearance, 363; his haughtiness, 363; his dandyism, 363, 364; his fondness for theatrical effects, 364; extract from his " Nereide " argument, 365.
Pitt,

Rachel, anecdote of, 77 her pains taking, 445. Randolph, John, 69.
;

Reading, commended to orators,

161-168. Repetition, in oratory, 196-199. Reply, power in, a test of oratorical force, 136, 137.

William, the younger,

why

successful as a speaker, 44; his

quotations from the classics, 59, 60; his voice, 74; his sarcasm, 13i; his eloquence strengthened

Review, North American, quoted,

409.

Reynolds, Sir Joshua, quoted, 437.

443. Rhetoric,

by his

integrity, 126; his stately elocution, 134, 342; his readiness in an emergency, 154; his

why

in disrenute, 311.

Rhetoricians contrasted with orators, 336.

reading of the poets, 165; his

translations, 170; his oratory described, 239-251; his precocity, 339; his education and training, 339-341 his mock debates, 341; his maiden speech,
;

Rhythmus, 161-164. Robertson, Rev. P. W., 118. Rogers, Henry, on Burke's

tory, 371.

ora-

241; compared with Chatham, 343; his sarcasm, 243; his ear-

Rome, its oratory, 33, 34. Rules, elocutionary, must be familiarized, 434.

INDEX.
Russell, Lord John, 213; his courtesy, 219.

455

S
Sainte-Beuve, C. A., on the voice,

on 77; speeches, 180.

76,

Montalembert's

Salvini, the actor, quoted, 446. Savonarola, his eloquence, 22. Scarlett, Sir James (Lord Abinger), 211. Scipio Africanus, 53. Sensibility, essential to the orator, 107-130, 143; excess of, 116, 120, 143; its veiled expression most powerful, 118. Shakspeare, quoted, 119. Sheil, Richard Lalor, his voice, 69; his rapid delivery, 184; quotes Exodus, 168; his elaboration, 180; compared with Macaulay, 399.

his speech on the Irish coercion bill, 16; his voice, 75'; his uneasiness before speaking, 149. Storrs, R. S., D.D., his first sermon in Brooklyn, 146. Strength, physical, necessary to the orator, 64, 65. Style, influenced by the voice, 81, 83. Success, as a test of oratory, ' 305208. Summerfield, John, 69.

T
Tacitus,

on the power of the Ro;

man

orator, 41

quoted, 177.

Talma, Madame, anecdote of, 77. Talma, the actor, his voice, 79;
anecdote of, 98; saying of, 118; on "impulsive acting, 430.
'

Titian, Sir Joshua Reynolds on, ness, 138; his failure in his first 100. speech, 144; his sarcasm upon Tooke, Home, his failure in oraBrougham, 360; his oratory detory, 188. scribed, 375-386; criticised by commended to oraDe Quinoey, 376; his appear- Translation tors, 168-172. ance and manner, 376; his wit, Trimble, of Ohio, his reply to Mc377, 281-285; his rebuke of Pitt, Duffie, 319, 220. 277; his speeches on Hastings's impeachment and trial, 201, 378-381; Byron's verses on, Virtue, its value to the orator, 135-138. 375-379; his denunciation of the East India Company, 379; Voice, the orator's, 73-89; its power, 74; its cultivation by his oratorical defects, 381; his fascination as a speaker, 363; actors and singers,77,78; Saintehis studied "improvisations," Beuve on, 76, 77; qualities of, 179, 282-285; his intense toil, 78; may be improved by cul386. ture, 79, 82; care bestowed on it by the ancient orators, 81 Siddons, Mrs., the actress, 114. its connection with style, 81; Smith, Sydney, on the reading of distinct articulation necessary sermons, 43; on reHgious audito its effectiveness, 83; our igences, 413. 67. norance of the working of its Socrates, on eloquence, in how "delivered" organs, 88; comparative merits Speeches, of the bass, tenor, and soprano, Congress, 43, 44; the practice S3-85; its loudness confounded of "filing," 44. with force, 85; faults in its Stanley, Lord (tie Earl of DerbyJ,

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, his ignorance of finance, 47; on Rowland Hill, 109; on Fox's earnestness, 113; his good sense and wit, 131; his untrustworthi-

Taylor, Father, of Boston, 158. Theological students, their ignorance of elocution, 411.

Thucydides, saying of, 12. Tioknor, Prof. George, on Webster's address at Plymouth, 19.

; ;

466
management,
Cotta's, the

INDEX.
85-87;

Beeoher on, 87;

H. W. weakness of
orator, 83.

Roman

W
in Congress, 128.

Walpole, Sir Horace, on Fox, 248. Whately, Richard, Archbishop, Walpole, Sir Robert, 430, 431. Washington, George, his weight on the failures of public speakers, 208, 209.

trasted with Burke, 395; his preparation for his speeches, 439, 440; his fastidiousness, 440; on "extemporaneous acquisition," 440. Wesley, John, saying of, 109.

Webster, Daniel, Prof. Geo. Ticknor on his eloquence at Plymouth,

his defense of the Nullification, 20, 21; his speech, in 1850, in Faneuil Hall, 21; \xis physiq-tie, 64; his voice, 76; his reply to Dickinson, 76; his eulogy on Adams and Jefferson, 76; his gestures, 96; on the Revolutionary Fathers, 106; his success with his cases, 113; his power in reply, 136; silenced by a Shanghai, 152; his study of the poets, 166; his first Bunker Hill address composed in part while angling, 285; his oratory characterized, 323-336; his personal appear19;

Whipple, Edwin

Union against

P., quoted, 368, 380. Whitefield, George, on the coldness of preachers,110; his elocution, 195; dullness of his printed sermons, 198, 199, 379; his oratory characterized, 379-391 his precocity, 379 his immense audiences, 380, 381; his successes in America, 383; admired by men of culture, 382; moves
;

Franklin,

Bolingbroke,

and

ance, 323; described by Sydney Smith and Carlyle, 323; com-

pared with Clay and Calhoun, 333; the orator of the understanding, 324, 325; his boyhood, 324; his first speech in Congress,

Chesterfield by his eloquence, 383, 384; his earnestness, 384; his physical and other gifts, 385; his vehemence, 385; his histrionic talent, 385; examples of his eloquence, 386, 387, 390; his philanthropy, 388-389; Sir James Stephen on his labors, 390.

324; his strong common sense, 325; his reply to Choate in the car- wheel case, 325; his grasp of facts, 326; not eloejuent on small occasions, 336; his wit and humor, 327; his readiness ntretort,337 his magnetism, 3as his 439. reserved force, 338; his pathos 329; his playfulness, 329; his Wit, a qualification of the orator, reading, 329; his hatred of dif65; in oratory, 120-125; Fox's, 350. fuseness and bombast, 330 his careful preparation for speak- Wood, George, his wit, 124, 173. ing, 330; his abstinence from Words, economy of, 101. personalities, 331; his reply to Writers, why they fail as speakHayne, 331, 333, 334, 440; his ers, 186-190, 202. account of his feehngs on that occasion, 334; his style, 382; his voice and action, 333; his Young, Dr. Edward, his "Nightself-reliance, 332, 333; conThoughts," 114.
;
;

Wilberforce, William, 69. Wirt, William, on the eloquence of "The Blind Preacher," 19; his speech in the " steamboat case," 60-62; on classical quotation, 62; on the style of eloquence demanded to-day, 93, 94; anecdote of, 159; his preparation for pubHc speaking, 438 commends the study of oratory,