The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1865-06-29
Speech Making.
From the New York Tribune.

Brevity Is the soul of wit. This means
either that man who has nothing to say
will simply say nothing, or that a witt,
man will not drown drop of meaning il
an ocean of words Here are two speeches
made 10y General Grant on recent occasions
in this city: &
l. 8 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN | have never
been accustomed to speaking in public
you will pardon me if | think that am
now too old to learn l thank you--thank
you deeply for these great manifestations OF
your esteem, and only wish that had de-
served them better. | can say nothing more
than this--I thank you.'
The next is more excellent still:
GENTLEMEN AND SOLDIERS OF THE SEVENTH
REGIMENT: bid you good night, and am
very much obliged to you for this recep-
| ton"
| Demosthe mes could not have spoken bet
ter. In truth, we do not think that De.
mosthenes could have spoken SO well. He
would, at the briefest, have made a little
Grafton rhetoricaly constructed, consuming
at least thirty minutes of time and occupy
ing next morning an entire column Ill this
soreIy CROWDED newspaper. 10 General
Grant we hereby return our heartfelt thanks.
TO use his own eloquent language, I'VE are
very much obliged to him" He had us at
his mercy-never "a city which he had cap
tured was more SO. If it had pleased him
to speak ten hours. and to have uttered
words enough to fill. when Photographed
and written out, and put in type, and ar
ranged in columns, two pages of the Ird-
6uat, we should have been miserably III
capable of saying No" We should have
been swamped, and bothered, aud put to
our trunps at o'clock in the morning
We should have been forced, in agony of
spirit to leave imprinted that which impor
demanded printing and what be-
tween the speech and the report of the as
sassnaton trial, and the reckless effort to
make square inches equal in AREA to square
feet, and the exasperaIing attitudnosity OF
the Thermometer, we should have had
new and not over pleasant lesson in the
great art of earning our bread by the sweat
If our brow. Some orators we could have
quietly snubbed off with what the reporters
call "a sketch - but the mperious public
would have expected General Grant at
ength, as indeed it now has him--the said |
ength thank the stars! being de
cously inconsiderable.
For protracted speeches we do not believe |
lie American people care so much as is
generally supposed. They submit, martyr
ike, it is true, to the infiction of unlimited |
ong windedness. and rather than else think
hiatt is religious to bear it without groan-
ng. just az the Puritan congregations sutf
red without sigh, and with only brief I
md occasional d, soniuolency, to the six
eenthly'' of sermon but who has not ex-
the thrill of reIie1 running like
agnetism through packed audience,
Wien a verbose lecturer has fairly found
red TO his hus, and read the last page Of
lis corpulent manuscript? In a political
meeting there are subsidiary consol atoms
ou can smoke you can talk with your
eighbor, ifof potatory disposition you
AN take something, and if fairly blown,
'ou can walk quietly home to the silent
heets. 1t must be a source Of inward
abstraction te a conscientious man like
General Grant that he did not return evil
or good-that he did not relnorseessly
ore the kindly hearted crowd, that he did
ot invade the columns of the morning
ews papers. and that his q. breakfast next
morning was not turned into dust and ash
s Ivy his own blunders or those of his re-
orters. rC9E |
1t will, we think, astonish the reader if
e will phiiosophically consider the rarity
f the occasions which demand prolonged
locution. There are, il is true topics
ecclesiastical or legal, which can
lot I've adequately treated iii ten Ininutess :;
nut when the purpose of the speaker is sim,
lily TO animate, to congratulate or to con
rm opinion already enter tanned, the more
uckly the WORK is done, the better it will
e done. The main evil i'll Congress oand
lsewhere is speech making for the sake of
making a speech, not intended to changed
otes or to alter the current of sentiment a
hing rarely occurring in Legislative bodies,
ut to be printed in the newspapers and
ent III the shape of a pamphlet to con
lot one i'll five Of which will ever
cad it. True debate is sharp. short and
olioquial, and the business Of CougI ess is TO
ass with just SO much of debate as may he :
eedtul for their full comprehension by the :
1enl0ers and the public But we must not
III INTO the tedIousness which We condemn. |
We thank General Grant for bis great SER
ice to the neglected cause If point and
urpose and end 10y assuring him that no
'1isIble man thinks the worse of him be-
inse he is simply soldier, nd not a flu
ut public talker
E9-A day or two since, in conversation
nth Gen. Grant, a gentleman inquired why
ie review was to occupy two days? He
'piled;E 1t will consume two entire
ays to pass the army across the Long
ridge" adding that IF the same amy.
ere moving against the enemy, with all