The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1906-08-21

DIR. 1. Il. Kin2-bnuy.
saunders, rough, ready, Of incorroe.
speech, but yIEi!c and bold. ,-s.
Fance's superior IN a rough and tuta-
bIe' discussion, showing much dexter
~ IN SelZIng upon the weak points Of
ms a~4FerSaFy'a arnOr and sending iii
arrows TO the mark, the strongest If
All Defh"cratic speakers I ever heard
DIlor to this nan have heard GOV
eFnor Bragg. d. X. McRae. Micha. i
fioke, George Davis George j.. Badge.
senate Ransom, Chief Justice W. =.
IL. smith, Judge Merrimon and some
other strong, fertile, resOuIceful speak
ers. Bragg was decidedly vigorous
n bold McRae was verv witty. saf-
castle, sometimes eloquent. George
Davis | heard but once ana it was In
1876 in Wilmington in the TI!dcu
campaign. 1t was Il speech Of trans
ctndent felicity, impressiVeness and
cIoquence. | wrote about il at length
the night ! heard it delivered. !
clear-cut, able, engaging speech
at Trinity College IN 1872, when
he was canVassing f~or'Governor. Sem
ator Ransom was always graceful, fas-
clnating. impressive, prolific and at
! times eloquent. His leading speech in
the United States Senate has not been
~equalled in that body in rhetorica! elc-
6ance and ~elOQuence a half dozen
times. perhaps, since 1865. if really
eulalled at all. Don Piatt, a jour
nalist of rare gifts. heard it and aid he
did with it What he had done with few
others. filed it away for SAT. keeping.
| Judge Badgers splendid. able, elo-
quent speech in 1S46 before the Wing
State Convention, which | heard, was
never surpassed by him. The late
Judge Edwin q. Reade. of uncommon
wit, biting tongue and intellectual re
source. said in his advanced years
having been in the Congress-, that ii
was the very greatest speech he ever
heard. | never had the pleasure Of
hearing Rev. and Hon. Josiah Crudup,
of Granville county, who was beyond
doubt one of the greatest debaters
this state has ever had. He was OF
profound philosophical and logical
mind and a debater OF such great
Qualities that he never met with a
Waterloo or even had q drawn battla.
l never heard Edward Stanly. a man
OF uncommon combination OF speaking
power nd energy. But of all l have
named there was none that %equalled
Zebulon +. Vance, | take it, all in all.
as a speaker before the people. EX-
ceiling him in this or that endowment
of quality none of them contained in
himself so many Of those gifts in high
development which enter in forming
the best popular speaker in his time or
mine. But when he ties himself to a
/ llISl llIS1I1 ~ II Is ~ (IIt l1IilItiIt1tS
preacher in the pulpit with his Wri--
ten words to be read; he clips his
wings at the start. strips himself Of
his accustomed, resolute power, and
although he may strike home it lacks
that sp~ontaneity. vitality, and pene-
trating power which mark eminently
his best unWritten efforts. When eX-
temporizing, as | heard him in 1880, in
Wilmington. for two hours in a grand
speech Of many points and eX~cellenceS
witty, humorous, argumentatiVe, in
forming. urgent, vigorous throughout,
and at times nobly eloquent, | listened
TO the very greatest political speech |
nave ever heard. Col. Mchae said to
me as We walked after the speech was
ended: ""That was the greatest poIiti-
cal speech | ever heard | agreed
With him heartily. In fact | had not
heard anything comparable to it and
in the last tWenty-SiX years nothing to
be named as worthy to keep company
With it.
When any man of high powers and
rich eXtempore gifts undertakes to
yield to the bad custom of reading ser
mons, speeches. etc. he reduces him
self to the bad custom of an athlete
clad in armor. 1t may be Of impene-
trab!e and excellent material, but it
inevitably impedes the freedom
of his limbs, cramps and confines
his DoWer and energy and reduces
himself to the standard of those who
never walked without intellectual
Crutches.
The man who is endowed by his
Maker with the art of eloquence-Witn
the gift divine TIA enables him to
lead captive the Wills of men and
control the passions with Amos omni-
fic power, ought never to fetter his
mental operations with manuscripts.
He should give free reign to his IN
tellectual cOurSerS and if sometimes,
lix e the celestial c~harioteer, his steeds
should run away With him and smash
up. the damage can be repaired. He
has had a grand ride, he has kicked
up an intellectual dust at least, his
/ chariot wheels nave thrown off mag
nifcent sparks as he rolled on in his
great race. and he has done just
that which stereotyped dullneSs and
premeditated platitude spoken through
the nose never did; he has excited
the intellections of his felloW-men.
sent a thrill of pleasure through their
hearts. kindled ideas that Will burn.
has intensified their love of the good
and the true. and their hatred of the
mean and the corrupt. He has
spoke living words-"words that
burn"-as we'll as given expression "to
thoughts that Breathe
1t NAV be true now that the halls
of the Congress, but rarely echoes To
the grand and most thrilling elo~
ouence of a Prentiss or a Preston or
y McDuffie: of Il Haskell, a Randolph
or q Clay. as it is true that the Brit
fsh Parliament very rarely, it it ever
hears the e~loquence of Burke, or
nov or chatham, o + Pitt, or Canning,
or Erskine, or Macaulay and
navar again shall such ~eloquence
# might be even heard in those state
-, halls. But eloquence Will not die
ont When the great Bryan made a
sneech in England some two years
since the London Times the "Ihun-
derer," said there was Dut one Id ~
all Great Britain who could be com
90 onred With him as a speaker and that
PoiNu VA Posebery. The latter is
Wa q Nv cultured, rhetorical, but he
has none of the h~eart-thrlll,ng oop-Ii it5
inc power of the great Amtriadn; Wa,n
= voice magical, resonant