The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1896-07-02
Convention Oratory.


Arising in the presence Of that vast
audience that sat in the old Chicago
wigwam on that fateful day in May,
1860, William M. Evarts said: take
the liberty 70 name as a candidate to be
nominated by this convention for the
Office of president Of the United States
William H. Seward" and amidst
thunders of applause he took his seat.
Next followed Norman B. Judd: Il
desire on behalf of the delegation from
Illinois to put in nomination as candi-
date for president of the United States
Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, !" and he,
too, was applauded to the echo. How
bald, jejune and uninspiring, and yet
such was the formula of the time.
Who will deny that Mr.. Evarts could
have presented the name of Mr.. Seward
to that convention with rare eloQuence
and logic? Who questions that there
| were orators in that assembly who
could have made the nomination OF
Lincoln memorable in the recollection
of every man and woman gathered
there?
Robert G.. Ingersoll was the orator
that first thrilled a convention with a
nominating speech, and it will be
long time before that wonderful COM
posite of tinseled rhetoric will be for
gotten by the American people.
After an exordium that attracted and
held as by a spell every nearer, the
orator went on to describe the needs OF
the party and of the country and the
qualifications demanded in the candi-
date and closed with this peroration:
We call for the man that has torn
from the throat of treason the tongue OF
SANDER; a man that has snatched the
mask of democracy from the hideous
! face of rebellion; man who, like an
intellectual athlete, stood in the arena
of debate, challenged all corners, and
who, up to this moment, is total
7 stranger to defeat. Like an armed
warrior, like plumed knight, James
G.. Blaine marched down the halls OF
the American congress ard threw his
shining lances full and fair against the
brazen forehead of every defamer of his
country and maligner Of its honor.
This was the famous "plumed
knight" speech and its immediate eff
feet upon the convention has never
been equaled since that day.
The year 1880 saw the high tide OF
convention oratory, both on the floor
and on the rostrum, at Chicago. 1t
was the greatest display ever wit
messed, the most superb oratorical bat
tie eyer fought to finish in a conven-
tion hall. 1t was an occasion to quick
| en- rivalry and stir ambition, and if
Conkling won the intellectual admira-
ton of the lookers-on, Garfield won the
conventions heart. To Conkling was
awarded the palm of eloquence, to
Garfield the prize of the contest.
In the three convention years since
that time many eloquent and brilliant
speeches have been delivered, and we
have had such orators as Depew, Cur
tbs, Foraker, West and Thurston
among the republicans, and Dougherty,
Cochran, Voorhees,, Daniels and others
among the democrats, for the demo-
Gratis quickly followed the custom be-
gun by Ingersoll.
In fact, it is custom highly ap-
proved by the people and lends an
added attraction to these quadrennial
gatherings. People come from all
parts of the country to attend these
conventions, as the ancient Greeks
gathered together in the Agora at
Athens to hear their own great orators.
The people desire to see and hear as
we'll as to read. Thus they keep in
touch with their leaders and true dem
ocracy bears sway Times Herald.