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Search - Representative Speeches

Representative Speeches
Author: Daniel Webster

Introduction IF any justification were needed for including two of Daniel Websters orations in a series of literary masterpieces, it might be found in the words of one of his younger rivals. In his Remarks on the Death of Mr. Webster before the Suffolk Bar, on October 2Sth, 1852-an eulogy only less graceful and memorable than his more elaborate ... more »discourse delivered before the alumni of Dartmouth College the following summer-Ruf us Choate paid this tribute to the literary quality of websters speeches All that he has left, or the larger portion of all, is the record of spoken words. His works, as already collected, extend to many volumes - a library of reason and eloquence, as Gibbon has said of Ciceros-but they are volumes of speeches only or mainly and yet who does not rank him as a great American author an author as truly expounding, and as characteristically exemplifying, in a pure, genuine, and harmonious English style, the mind, thought, point of view of objects, and essential nationality of his country as any other of our authors, professedly so denominated Against the maxim of Mr. Fox, his speeches read well, and yet were good speeches-great speeches-in the deliv vii Introduction ery. For so grave were they, so thoughtful and true, so much the eloquence of reason at last, so strikingly always they contrived to link the immediate topic with other and broader principles, ascending easily to widest generalizations, so happy was the reconciliation of the qualities which engage the attention of hearers, yet reward the perusal of students, so critically did they keep the right side of the line which parts eloquence from rhetoric, and so far do they rise above the penury of mere debate, that the general reason of the country has enshrined them at once, and forever, among our classics. Webster was forty-four when he pronounced the commemorative discourse upon John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. His Ply-mouth address in 1820, six years before, had established his fame as an orator, and the Banker Hill speech of 1825 had confirmed it. The public mind instantly turned to him in the hour of intense American feeling caused by the simultaneous deaths, upon July qth, 18z the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. the two most prominent survivors of the Revolutionary struggle. This extraordinary coincidence, and the historical associations suggested by it, stirred the whole country, and the thoughts and emotions of a whole country mere never more adequately voiced by any orator than by e b s t e r esu logy in Faneuil Hall. The speech is best known to-day by two passages,, one on the nature of true eloquence, and the viii Introduction I other an imaginary speech on Independence by John Adams. But its easy narrative style, apt portrayal of character, skilful marshalling of historical events, above all, its fine dignity and fervid patriotism, are equal evidence of Websters unrivalled fitness for such a task. One would hesitate to say that the speech as a whole is greater than the Plymouth or the Bunker Hill addresses, but at least its place is by their side. Websters most celebrated parliamentary effort is no doubt his Second Speech on Foots Resolution, popularly known as the Reply to Hayne. Students of constitutional law may be more attracted to his masterly argument in reply to Calhoun, entitled The Constitution not a Compact between Sovereign States. His Seventh of March speech in 1850 perhaps affected his personal fortunes more than any other. But as an exhibition of sheer power in debate, the Reply to Hayne stands alone...

ISBN-13: 9781408640364
ISBN-10: 1408640368
Publication Date: 1/31/2008
Pages: 192
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Read Books
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
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