The Commoner
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
VOL. 9, NO. 6
Lincoln, Nebraska, February 19, 1909
Whole Number 422
LINCOLN AS AN ORATOR
Lincoln's fame as a statesman and as the na
tion's chief executive during its most crucial
period has so overshadowed his fame as an orator
that his merits as a public speaker have not been
sufficiently emphasized. When it is remembered
that his nomination was directly due to the
prominence which he won upon tho stump; that
in a most remarkable series of debates
he held his own against one of the
most brilliant orators America has produced;
and that to his speeches, more than to the argu
ments, of any other one man, or in fact, of all
other public men combined, was due tho success
of his party when all these facts are borne in
mind, it will appear plain, even to the casual
observer, that too little attention has been given
to the extraordinary power which he exercised
as a speaker. That his nomination was duo to
the effect that -his speeches produced, can not
be disputed. When ho began his fight against
slavery in 1854-he was but little known outside
of the counties in which he attended court. It
is true that he had been a member of congress
some years before, but at that time he was not
stirred by any great emotion or connected with
the discufesion of any important theme, and he
made but little impression upon national poli
tics. The threatened extension of slavery, how
ever, aroused himt and with a cause which justi
fied his best efforts, he threw his whole soul into
the fight. . The, .debates with Douglas have never
had a parallel in. this, or, so far as history shows,
in any othor country.
- In engaging in this contest with Douglas he
met a foeman worthy of his steel, for Douglas
had gained a deserved reputation as a great de
bater, and recognized th'at his future depended
upon the success with which he met the attacks
of Lincoln. On one side an institution support
ed by history and tradition and on tho other a
growing sentiment against tho holding of a hu
man being in bondage these presented a su
preme issue. Douglas won tho senatorial seat
for which the two at that time had contested,
but Lincoln won a larger victory he helped to
mould the sentiment that was dividing parties
and re-arranging the political map of the coun
try. When the debates were concluded every
one recognized him as the leader of the cause
which he had espoused, and it was a recognition
of this leadership which he had secured through
his public speeches that enabled him, a western
man, to be nominated over tho eastern candi
dates not only a western man, but a man lack
ing in book learning and the polish of the
schools. No other American president has over
so clearly owed his elevation to his oratory.
Washington, Jefferson and Jackson, the presi-
CONTENTS
LINCOLN AS AN ORATOR
"EDUCATING" THE SOUTH
MR. ROOSEVELT IS INDIGNANT
PAWNED HONOR
"NEW LAND OF PROMISE"
INFLUENCING LEGISLATORS
MISSOURI'S ANTI-MONOPOLY VICTORY
TAFT AND ROCKEFELLER
EDUCATIONAL SERIES POSTAL SAV
INGS BANKS
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE
COMMENT ON CURRENT TOPICS
HOME DEPARTMENT
WHETHER COMMON OR NOT
NEWS OF THE WEEK
Address delivered by Mr. Bryan at
Springfield, 111., February 12, 1909, at
celebration of the one hundredth an
niversary of birth of Abraham Lincoln
dents usually mentioned in connection with him,
were all poor speakers.
In analyzing Lincoln's characteristics as a
speaker, one is impressed with the complete
ness of his equipment. He possessed the two
things that are absolutely essential to effective
speaking namely, information and earnestness.
If one can be called eloquent who knows what
he is talking about and means what he says
and I know of no better definition Lincoln's
speeches were eloquent. He was thoroughly in
formed upon the subject; he was prepared to
meet his opponent upon the general proposition
discussed, and upon any deductions which. could
be drawn from it. There was no unexplored
field into which his adversary could lead him,
he had carefully examined every foot of tho
ground and was not afraid of pitfall or ambush,
and, what was equally important, ho spoke from
his own heart to tho hearts of those who lis
tened. While the printed page can not fully
reproduce the impressions made by a voice
trembling with emotion or tender with pathos,
one can not read the. reports of tho debates
without feeling that Lincoln regarded Jtfia sub
ject as far transcending the ambitions or tho
personal interests of the debaters. It was of
little moment, he said, whether they voted him
or Judge Douglas up or down, but it was tre
mendously important that the question should
be decided rightly. His reputation may have
suffered in the opinion of some, because he made
them think so deeply upon what he said that
they, for the moment, forgot him altogether, and
yet, Is this not the very perfection of speech?
It is the purpose of the orator to pursuado and,
to do this, ho presents, not himself but his sub-"
joct. Someone in describing the difference be
tween Demosthenes and Cicero said that "when
Cicero spoke people said, how well Cicero
speaks, but when Demosthenes spoke, they said,
let us go against Philip." In proportion as one
can forget himself and become wholly absorbed
in the cause which he is presenting does ho
measure up to the requirements of oratory.
In addition to the two essentials, Lincoln
possessed what may be called the secondary aids
to oratory. He was a master of statement. Few
have equalled him in the ability to strip a truth
of surplus verbiage and present it in its naked
strength. In the Declaration of Independence
wo read that there are certain self-evident
truths, which are therein enumerated. If I were
going to amend the proposition, I would say that
all truth is self-evident. Not that any truth will
be universally accepted, for not all are in a posi
tion or in an attitude to accept any given truth.
In the interpretation of the parable of the sower,
we aTe told that "the cdres of this world and the
deceitfulness of riches choke the truth," and
it must be acknowledged that every truth has
these or other -difficulties to contend with. But
a truth may be so clearly stated that it will
commend itself o anyone who has not some
special reason for rejecting it.
No one has more clearly stated tho funda
mental objections to slavery than Lincoln stated
them, and he had a great advantage over his
opponent in being able to state thpse objections
frankly, for Judge Douglas neither denounced
nor defended slavery as an institution his plan
embodied a compromise and he could not dis
cuss slavery upon its merits without alienating
either the slave-owner or the abolitionist.
Brevity is the soul of wit, and a part of Lin
coln's reputation for wit lies in his ability to
condense a great deal into a few words. He
was epigrammatic. A moulder of thought is
not necessarily an originator of the thought
moulded. Just as lead moulded into tho form
of bullets has its effectiveness increased, so
thought may havo its propagating power enor
mously Increased by being moulded Into a form
that the eye catches and tho memory holds.
Lincoln was tho spokesman of his party ho
gave felicitous expression to tho thoughts of his
followers.
His Gettysburg speech Is not surpassed, if
equalled, in beauty, simplicity, force and .ppro
priateness by any speech of the samo le gth of
any language. It Is tho world's model In elo
quence, elegance and condensation, He might
safely rest his reputation as an orator on that
speech alone.
He was rpt in illustration no one moro so.
A simple story or simllo drawn from everyday
life flashed before his hoarors tho argument
that he wanted to present. Ho did not speak
over the heads of his hearers, and yet his lan
g'uago was ' never commonplace. There is
strength In simplicity, and Lincoln's dtylo was
simplicity itself.
Ho understood the power of the Interrogatory
for some of his most powerful arguments were
condensed into questions. Of all those who dis
cussed the evils of separation and tho advan
tages to bo derived from tho preservation ol
the. union, no one ever put tho mattor more
forcibly than Lincoln did when, referring to the
possibility of war and the certainty of peace
some time, '-ven If the union was divided, he
called attention to tho fact that tho same ques
tion would have tp be dealt with', and then
asked, "Can enemies make treaties easier than
friends can make laws?"
Ho made frequent uso of Bible language and
of illustrations drawn from Holy Writ. It Is
said that when ho was preparing his Springfield
speech of 1858 he spent hours trying to find
language that would express tho idea that dom
inated his entire career, namely, that a republic
could not permanently endure half free and half
Vlave, and that finally a Bible passage flashed
through his mind, and he exclaimed, "I havo
found it" "and if a house be divided against It
self, that house can not stand," and probably
no other Bible passage ever exerted as much in
fluence as this one in the settlement of a great
controversy.
I have enumerated some, not all but the
more Important of his characteristics as an ora
tor, and on this day I venture for the moment
to turn the thoughts of this audience away from
the great work that he accomplished as a pa
triot, away from his achievements in the lino
of statecraft, to the means employed by him to
bring before the public the ideas which attract
ed attention to him. His power as a public
speaker was the foundation of his success,, and
while it is obscured by the superstructure' that
was reared upon it, it can not be entirely over
looked as tho returning anniversary of his birth
calls increasing attention to the widening in
fluence of his work. With no military career to
dazzle tho eye or excite the imagination; with
,no public service to make his name familiar to
the reading public, his elevation to tho presi
dency would have been impossible without his
oratory. The eloquence of Demosthenes and
Cicero were no more necessary to their work,
and Lincoln deserves to havo his name written
on the scroll with theirs.
fc lnl iT ig?0
"EDUCATING" THE SOUTH
At the tariff hearing in Washington the other
day the following colloquy took place:
W. II. Tift of TIfton, Ga., urged a higher duty
on the commoner grades of lumber.
"Why do you people in the south vote for
low duties and then come up here and ask for
the highest?" asked Chairman Payne.
"I did not vote' against Mr. Taft," answered
the witness. "There were forty thousand votes
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