The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1865-12-20

The Senators and Legislators of Virginia, in
c General A hl,, Ee.a Of o-~te-,-.
There is a strong tendency on the part of homo
rable gentlemen to define their positions, to
set themselves right before the country, and to
speak out in the face of the world. They do
not realize the fact that oratory is a thing of
the past, and that great orators, like epic
poets, belong to a half -civilized age; that gen
tlemen meet here to do, and not to say; and
that the best possible speaking is only an OBJ
struction TO business. But when the rhetoric
is not fine, and the logic not convincing, then
affairs become much worse; then does luke
warm eloquence rule the honr, and diluted
oratory take every form from the pompous
periods of the gentleman from Puff Bah to the
solid statistics of the gentleman from Leaden-
head There are as many different sorts Of bad
oratory as there are different kinds of ugly
men and public speaking, like the human
face, is deformed by narrowness of brow, dim
ness Of eycsight, vacancy of expression, and
superabundence Of jaw.
For instance, there is the honorable gentle
man who docs "nOt rise, Mr.. President, for
the purpose Of protracting this debate ana
who Immediately, then and there, docs pro
tract it, Then there is the gentleman WIN
rises I" for the purpose of making only slnsic
remark and who proceeds at once 10 NIKE !"
hundred remarks-Or, rather, the same iei'l''' =
= hundred times over. AnotheE sehlenisll
s,ys no is very 10th to occupy '' the time OF the
legislature ut this stage of the debate and
who straightway does violence to his feelings
nv consuming much of that time-time for
which the State pays about one thousand dol
lars day. There are others who rise without
apology, and who, with baleful self-possession,
clear their threats, call for a glass of water,
gather books and papers around them for re-
ference and quotation, and 60 with great de-
liberation into the business of saving their
country. H T--~Hz
If honorable gentlemen, who are orators,
were listened to only by other honorable gem
tlemen, who are also orators, it would all be
Well. The men who suffer would have their
revenge. But there are many steady old Vir-
ginia gentlemen In the Legislature who never
make speeches themselves, and who do not
seem to be unclaimed by the eloquence of those
who do These gentlemen sometimes do rise
and give n few sentences of plain talk, or give
straightforward answers to straightforward
ques tions and this is doing better than they
would il they were all Patrick HExRys. In
the English Parliament, speech making is
obsolete. Questions Of the greatest impor lance
to England, and often to the world, are dis
cussed in colloquial way. ANY gentleman
attempting an Grafton would be coughed down
Mt once, and deserve it, too.
There are many men who talk well enough,
who cannot speak. They make an elaborate
cxordium, prepared beforehand; and by tbs
time they get TO the end Of that they find to
their cons ternation that the portico is too big
for the house that after taking q high view
Of the subject in high pitch OF voice, that de-
scent is impossible. Then odd ends and odd
beginnings of sentences come tumbling, leap
frog. from his lips illogical deductions arr
drawn from absurd premises, and the hand
held aloft for impassioned gesticulation hal
| nothing In particular 10 do And then thu
honorable member sits him down amid nm mp
palling silence without having said what HI
fain would have said what perhaps might
have been Of value; and what he could hay.
said well enough II he had only talked with.
out attempting to make . speech.
| O, that onr Senators and Legislators, Il
Ge6eral Assembly, would only realize how
dtsgnsting thing II n 70 make speech!