The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-25
SOME IF THE OLD TIME CAMP PA|GNERS Great Men of the Past Whose
 Fame Still Last HAD ORATORICAL POWERS Names of Henry Clay and Daniel Web ster Head the Roster of Great
 Campaign Orators of
 the Past.
HAD 0RAT0RICAL POWERS
From the Pittsburg Dispatch.

No chapter in our political annals is
 richer in human interest than the one
 which has to do with the men whose
 gift of eloquence and persuading speech
 has been a deciding influence in more
 than one presidential canvass.
 The names of Henry Clay and Daniel
 Webster head the roster of the great
 campaign orators of the past.
 Clay was, perhaps, a more popular ora
 tor than Webster His was a voice of
 great compass, power and melody, and
 with it at will he moved even a hostile
 assembiage to smiles and tears and
 thusiasm. Clay's skill in electioneering,
 however, was largely due to his famil-
 iarity with the manners and customs of
 farmers, tenants and laborers. When he
 was first a candidate for the Kentucky
 legislature he gained the support of
 company of rifiemen by successfully
 shooting at a mark. Clay's opponents often ascertained to their cost that he
 could be ironical and sarcastic. but he
 usually resorted to satire In self-defense. Webster's triumphs on the stump were of a different but no less decisive order. When he was to speak no hall was big enough to contain those who desired to
 hear him, and what with his pre-eminent
 power of speech, his singular charm of presence and his dignity of carriage and demeanor, he never failed to move his auditors. The impression has been cur
 rent that Websters great speeches were
 unstudied, but as a matter of fact he was
 always laborious student, and In the
 early part of his career he expended Q
 great deal of time In the preparation of his public addresses.
 After Clay and Webster the most pop- ,ilo for of no fret hall of ho
 last century was Thomas Corwin of Ohio A born humorst, Corwin, at every stage of his long career, made a business of searching out the jocularities of current issues and using them to tighten the se- riousness of statesmanship. But humor was not his only gift He possessed also a poetic sense. which he had cultivated by a diligent study of the best English poets, and he knew how to temper that sense so that 1t would appeal to the throng. Thus it was that his speeches, based on solid political truth, were also illustrated by wit by anecdote and by imagery rich, yet simple, such as the layman could un- derstand. Corwin was unexcelled as a stump orator while he lived, and his su- perior has not appeared since his death. The people of Ohio were at his feet. and there was no office in their gift that they did not bestow upon him.
 s. S. Prentiss.
 Another famous campaign orator of 60 years ago was Sergeant s. Prentiss, a native of Maine who, removing at an early age to Mississippi, there rose, in a space of time extraordinarily brief, to a master place at the bar. Prentiss as an orator was inferior to Webster and Clay | in vigor and strength, but he was the equal of any man of his time in the ready eloouence which captivates pop ,,Io- oooapoblv Ha was never at a loss for an epigram or a retort, and his m- | promptu speeches were his best efforts. The campaign efforts of John Van Buren and of James W. Nye belong to | a somewhat later period in our political history. Wan Buren," said Gen. Thom- l as l.. James not long ago, was the 1 finest stump speaker brought forward l father. Martin Van Buren, Prince John was of splendid proportions. Like | Conkling he was a man whom it did l the eve good to look upon when he | appeared in public; but unlike Conk- l 1inr he attracted by delightful man. ] nerism. and gained extraordinary popu- larity. which Is illustrated nowadays l bv the sobriquet of Prince, first ap- l nlied to him by Thurlow Weed, by
 which he was always afterward known. l He did not dislike to be called Prince | John. He had achieved a fine reputa- | tion as a lawyer before he took very active part in politics, and had he been | possessed of that ambition that mas l tered his father he might have gained as many successes as the father won. l Prince John. however, was a hail -fei- l low -well-met, yet always dignlneu l fond of the good things of life, pos sessed of wonderful animal spirit, q | keen sense of humor, with repug- | nf Q and trials of office holding. The young men of the present generation can | hardly realize the extent of his popu- l arIty nof how great was his 1ame. | The older generation alone rememper him, and 1t does seem strange that ' ! man who had such extraordinary s'i's