The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-03-29
ORATORS And ORATORY


You can not make orators Dy cultiVa-
tion. by training. 1t is impossible TO
create what does not exist. You may
develop. improve, even magnify natural
qualities by assiduous discipline and elo-
cutionary headings, but you can not i'm
plant the germ of true eloquence. 1t is
born in man just as music is, or the
true, noble gift of poetic genius and ex-
preston. Art develops and guides, but
art cannot bestow germinal gifts. That
is the work of nature. The schools of
elocution are unable to turn out one
true, great orator in an age unless
IT,, be the natural product to be fash
toned and changed and developed in high
artistic effects. The Athenians were
great in oratory. There was more elo-
quence in proportion to population than
was ever heard in all the world. Not only
was the oratory Astounding, and often
splendid, highly finished and controlling,
but it was of an imperial kind. That
great and most charming essayst and
critic, Lord Macaulay, held that the
world never saw much compositions in
their perfection in kind as were tue
great Athenan orators. He holds that
ii was the influence eXerted at Athens
that produced 1.-The singular excellence to
which eloquence attained" There was
never such an average audience for ora
tors to address. The intelligence or the
Inhabitants of Athens has had no equal
since The greatest orators achieved
their grandest success by careful pre-
paration. Macaulay mentions that
Demosthenes the greatest of Greek
orators transcribed six times the His
AthenianS
ticed a very great deal the gift of public
speech. They took share in the Vari-
GUS continuous and animated discus
sions. and thus became experts In IAN
guage, and this obtained that knowl-
edge and understanding of an audience,
which are far more valuable to an orator
than the greatest logical powers.
Macaulay says truly that 1.-The object of
oratory alone is not truth, but persua-
sion" The test of oratory is effect. A
fine essay, a charming production full of
rhetorical beauty and grace, produces no
great effect upon an audience. This is
not oratory, such at least as the Greeks
INDUCED and loved. A master of COM
position is not necessarily an orator.
Does oratory still live? Occasionally
have seen editorials in the newspapers of
both great sections contending that
oratory had greatly declined. If you will
turn to certain recent Northern works
on oratory, you will conclude at least
that in so far as tho South is concerned
there has never been much oratory IN
it, and that consequ2 1tiv it never bad
but very few real orators, and only three
or four of genuine force and eloqucnce
But really in the past there have been n
this glorious Southland of ours many ora
tors of splendid, commanding parts
Men in both sections are paraded as
great orators when in fact they did moi
deserve that descriptive title. Men can
be cited in both sectors who rank as
orators in a high sense who were not
really of comma nding oratorical powers.
Were Webster or Calhoun, Everett or
Winthrop of supreme excellence in ora
tory? If so, what is oratory? They
created or spoke addresses of marked
ability and power but what kind OF
speakers were they? Many man of
great abilities was not consummate
master of speech and did not produce
signal results by his defamation. The
greatest philosophical statesman of the
world, and the most splendid rhetorician
OF all, the producer of the greatest array
of grand and splendid speeches to read,
Edmund Burke, was known in the British
Parliament as 1.-The dinner BELL, as he
so often emptied the seats of the House
of Commons when delivering one of his
noble, magnificent speeches. He lacked
oratory in high sense. Men prefer to
read his grand. imperial addresses rather
than to hear him deliver them. There
was some how lack of charm in deliv-
ery-the fine art Of thrilling, magnetic
power Mr. Burke had imagination above
other famous speakers and statesmen
He had fluency and readiness ant
rhetoric. and yet he utterly failed tC
command, to think, to retain his audi
ence His emotion and spontaneity were
in some way deficient. He failed. anG
vet to this day, after more than an hun.
dred years, a more splendid and noble
volume OF orations can be selected from
his many addresses than from any Other
English, French or American speaker
His 'Nabob or Arcots Debts" speech re
mains the most genuinely magnificent
speech in English. He is studied by al
great statesmen and orators. Webster
constantly read him. And yet it is a
least doubtful if the great Irish states
man was an orator. There is a constan
tendency to over-rate the speaking abili
~ and TO over-praise prominent men.
have rarely ever heard a distinguished
speaker measure up to the promise Man.
have been painfully deficient, very
much of failures. The trumpets blew il
advance too high a note of praise, in
dulged too grand a flourish of noises
There have been great orators in thi
country. but many so paraded were hard
ly entitled to the position, as | am con
strained to believe. The trouble is as L
what true oratory is-what does 1t i'm
port? Loud talking. stamping the feet
saving the air, slapping the hands, split
ting the welkin, rapid speech, rush o
words, a torrent OF explosives, VIII
sweep of rhetorical gush terrific ex
pectoration of grandiloquent, hamboy
ant periods--these do not constitute or
atory, or eloquence. or high power even
The thought may be thin, the languag
poor, the information pretentious, III
wisdom lacking, the genuflections un
graceful.
n1 he La