The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-08-11

The second great fact, to be taken into con-
sderation in accounting for what is popularity
termed the decay of oratory", is, that the pub
lie addressed has changed wonderfully within
even the last twenty-five years. =
The auditories are now composed in
great degree Of a much better educated class
than formerly. The men of the present day
depend more upon reading newspapers than
they formerly did. In what are called the
"pamy days" of the Republic, nearly the
whole of the political knowledge of the voters
was obtained from the addresses of the ora
tors, and consequently they exercised much
greater power over their hearers than at pres
ent, when books and newspapers are in every
ones hand.
The greater purity of comparatively ig-
norant people depended upon two facts: first,
the leaders of the different parties were purer
men than they are at present, though there
was even then more corruption among them
than is now generally believed Secondly,
immigration hardly existed, and the land had
not then been deluged with crowds of foreign
ers from the corrupt European States, nor
had universal suffrage given the power ofrule
to class of men who have not the same in-
terest in preserving the purity of government
as had our forefathers.
From all these causes results the tact that
the speakers of the present day address them
selves, not to proving their principles to be
the true ones on moral grounds, and using all
the logic and rhetoric at their command for
that purpose, but they appeal to the interests
of the masses, and they do this in such plain
and dire ct manner as to be easily understood
by them. When they wish to influence their
passions, they do SO by such coarse vituper-
alton as will reach, not the understanding bat
the base natures of the worst part of their
hearers. ..... .ty. .It....5
So, then, the greater spread of education
among the better classes of voters prevents
the denagogue from having any interest in
enlightening them with true oratery, which
would be out Of place aud useless; and with
the baser classes Of a population, it would be
equally out of place, since the result can be
only obtained with the latter kind of people
by appealing to them in a style that suits
their gross character.
Nevertheless, alter all that has been said
l.,
modern constituencies not So corrupt as they
too often are, and these orators speak in a
different style from that of the great speak
ers OF old. This change is caused by the
fact that the issues are at best chiefly ma
terial ones now, and not involving great pe-
hteai principles. as in the days OF our fore
fathers. The speakers have to deal in arith-
metic, and not defamation; they appeal to
the science Of Numbers, and not to the inagi-
nation
The Consequence of all this is, that the style
Of modern speaking is conversatio nal, such as
would be used by a man talking with his
friends about the taxes of county or adj
dressing town meeting about how much it
would cost to build railroad
In our opinion, public speaking is destined
to become even more prosaic and matter-of-
fact than it is at present, even when addressed
to sensible auditories, and more detestable in
ITS vulgar yituperation. when addressed to
what constitutes now the voting population
Of too large a portion OF the United States
We are compelled to draw the conclusion
that the oratory of CICERO, Of BURKE, of PAT
RICK HENRY, and WEBSTER. is thing of the
past, which will never be heard again by
ourselves, or by our descendants s..