The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-24

An Array of SiIver-TOngucd Speakers
of the Present.
Philadelphia Bulletin.

A New York newspaper falls into plant
over the gradual decay of that eloquence
which has hitherto played so important a
part in the history of American politics"
This is a. somewhat melancholy observation
which has been in vogue, On the part of the
thoughtlesS and the doleful, ever since the
beginning of American politics. 1t was not
uncommon. when Congress sat at Sixth and
Chestnut streets, even when Fisher Ames
made his great speech there on the Jay
treaty. The paper referred to is moved to
make il because, although the country has
just enhed momentous war, the occasion
has not yet produced a single great
speech" But can it point TO any such
speech that has come down to us from the
war of 1912, unless ii be some of John Ran
dolphs or Charles j. Ingersoll's now al
most forgotten anti-British rhetoric, or to
any that Immediately followed the close of
the Mexican war and reached enduring
fame? Yet each of these wars was far more
prolonged than the one we have just passed
through, and more exciting In its effects on
the national mind 1t is quite true that the
Spanish war has not produced any mighty
burst of eloquence, but this is an insult
ficient reason for asking again the question
whether the art Of oratory has passed away,
and for comparing our supposed loss in that
respect with the redundancy of orators in
times when the ability to deliver an elo-
Guent address on the vital topics of the day
was accepted the ordinary endowment OF
any one who aspired to political leadership.
The fact is that not n few of the fore
most American political leaders were sad
ly deficient not simply IN oratory, but
even in capacity for ordinarily effective
puDnC utterdnce. FGdlklltl, the most COLI
spicuous of our statesmen up to the con-
stitutional period, had no gifts in that or
rection, and even, at times, hesitated for
words. Washington could not deliver him
self of his first inaugural speech without
making his hearers wonder why so cour-
ageous and powerful a man in his ply
sique should act as if he were frightened.
and had no faculty whatever for extern
poraneous utterance. Indeed, with the eX-
ception OF the two Adamses, there was no
President during the first sixty years
of the Republic who enjoyed oratorical
reputation of anything like high order
Down to the time of Lincoln there was
certainly no other who has left to pos
terity a single Grafton which to-day IS
quoted. Grover Cleveland's cyclopaedic
speeches on his tour in 1887 gave much
amusement to his countrymen, but they
were not drier than the dull ones Monroe de-
summer of 1917. Madison was a SMALL
unimpressve man - little wee Jimmy "
or a withered little apple-John," he was
called in the political linso Of the day
and the greatest party leader the country
has ever had was painfully shy when
he attempted. to speak; Indeed. Thomas
with his friends in the intimacies Of
comradeship. but in public he was awkward
rambling in his discourse, while in debate he
was feeble figure
On the other hand, take our Presidents
since the time of Lincoln, and with the
exception of Grant, they all have had
facility of utterance. Few men of lbs
Ntime were. more gifted rhetoricians than
tongue of any man that ever lived in the
White House. and the many speeches
which BENJAMIN Harrison delivered as a
candidate under his roof tree, on his trip
across the continent and at public din
ners were models in the variety of their
simple, luminous and manly eloquence. Mr..
Mckinley is quite as ready. if not so varied
and fertile. as Harrison, and the grafton
which he delivered at the Academy of Music
before the University of Pennsylvania last
winter was a specimen of well-considered
and well-delivered utterance.
Twenty-Five years ago | heard Daniel
Doughetry use as theme for one of his
cieVefest dlScourseS the text which the
World is now using He had all but reached
the conclusion that oratory was a lost art
and that it had been. or would be. supplant-
ed by the printing press. Henceforth there
would be plain and practical defamation.
scores of orations which will compare favor
ably with the oratorical products of any
other twenty-five years in our political his
tory. Mr. Blaine, for example, won reputa-
ton as the most magnetic speaker of his
generation. Mr. Conkling, in voice, action
and mien, was kingly in the magnitcence
of his dictiou and his delivery Colonel In
geFsoll leaped into fame with single burst
of oratory on the floor of a national conven-
ton. Chauncey NJ. Depew has developed
into an admirable Crichton of the oratorical
art in all its phases. George William Curtis
reached recognition as a master OF grave,
high-minded speech, rich In the organ-like
music of his rhetoric. John j. ingalls, on
more than one occasion showed a mordancy
of sarcasm and brilliancy Of invective not
unworthy of comparison with the style of
John Randolph. Bourke Cochran, in a ma
tional convention of the Democratic party.
at o'clock I'm the morning. conquered a
vast. half hostile audience by an exhibition
of all the resources that have been credited
to O'Connell in an emergency, and showed
q power of speech which may yet reach, on
a great occasion. the highest level of Amer
lean oratory. VIM. j. Bryan emerged from
obscurity to snatch presidential nomina-
ton By the magic force of a twenty min
utes' flow of melodious cadence, which, on
the popular ear at least. had all the effect
ever. attributed 10 the foremost political
orators of the past in their appeals to the
people.
These are some of the examples which
show that Mr. Dougherty was wrong when
he thought he saw the downfall of oratory
In this country, and which go far to re-
fnte the notion that I'VE have lost this
healthful ana stimulating influence in our