The Republican journal., 1907-02-21
Politics and Oratory.
No Man Famous as an Orator has Attained
the White House.

At this time, when several men in
| Congress and the Cabinet are grooming
themselves for the Republican presi-
| Dental nomination, it becomes highly
interesting to mentally speculate re-
garding the qualifications that chiefly
| contribute to the attainment of com
| plete success in such a laudable am
bition-meaning election.
| Forensic ability has secured nomina-
tions from badly divided conventions;
but never has man famous as an ora
tor attained the White House!
Not going back any further than our
own memories will serve, most of us
can recall Stephen A. Douglas. He was
much more finished orator than Lin
coin. He had seen Webster and Clay.
who had staked their fates on oratory,
fail of success in their ambitions to be
at the head of this country. If Edward
Everett had tried to be President, no.
body knew the fact. But the plain
'rall-splitter" of his own State swept
Douglas out of public life. A. X. Nc
Clure says that Lincoln was nomina-
ted by a convention in which two-thirds
of the delegates were for Seward" In
the second contest with Lincoln, Nc
Clellan wasn't an orator.
IL uIC opluSSlC pCbNCNi 'iai0 anu
| Seymour, the oratory of the Demo
cratic candidate was of mild charac-
ter, but he had fine presence on the
rostrum and talked with readiness and
| ease.
| Horace Greeley would have been a
| fine orator had he possessed a voice;
| but the high falsetto key in which he
| always spoke at first amused and then
annoyed his hearers. The silent man of
AppomattOx was elected.
Tilden was fine talker before a court
of judges sitting In banc, despite his in
significant figure. Whether or not he
thought himself an orator would be
| hard to guess. But countryman from
Ohio, named Hayes, got the White
House job. Hayes had been capable
soldier. He bad never been trapped,
although he had been cup against sew
eral of the cleverest tacticians of the
Confederacy. He was rarely listened
to with attention when in the House Of
of Representatives. Ben. Butler, "the
holy terror" dominated that legislative
body most Of the time Hayes was there,
and was wont to "sit upon" Garfield
and Hayes whenever he pleased. Blaine
had been suggested at Cincinnati by
| IngerSOll, but was defeated.
Garfield thought himself an orator,
but he wasn't one in any sense of the
word. He could talk, as could Benja-
min Harrison, but at that time there
were half dozen cleverer men on the
floor of Congress. Hancock was SOL
der and never made a speech during
| the campaign. The New York Sun dis
posed of him by announcing his weight
as $50 pounds.
The Cleveland Blaine contest of 1854
brought to the front the most magnetic
orator in public life this generation has
known. Webster may have been more
ponderous, Clay may have been more
logical and scholarly; but Blaine had
voice that was delight to the ear He
was keen at fence, quick to divine a
thrust and to anticipate it; popular in
the same sense as Ciay--an all-round
brilliant character. And yet, he was
defeated on the very ground where he
ought to have been invulnerable. A
lot of fussy parsons secured an ap-
pointment for an audience; their spokes-
man interjected into his ''few remarks"
passing reference to 'Rum, Roman
ism and Rebellion" which Blaine didn't
hear. A World reporter was the only
scribe who caught the words and print
ed them. That the language was used
never was denied; but Blaine was
caught mapping and failed to denounce
the speakers attack upon faith to
which his own family belonged. He
could and would have rebuked Bur-
chard in way that would have made
capital for the candidate had he been
up to his usual mental alertness; but
his splendid oratOry during that cam
paign didn't save Blaine. Cleveland,
who couldn't be described as an orator