Notable speeches by notable speakers of the greater West

Preface

This book has been compiled for the purpose of placing in permanent and accessible form some of the more notable speeches of the men who have contributed to the intellectual development of California. The aim has been to make a collection of speeches that would be a source of inspiration to students and others. The orations of Cicero, Demosthenes, and Burke may serve better as models of style, but they lack contemporary interest. Thomas B. Reed, in a collection of examples of modern eloquence, in ten volumes of four hundred pages each, failed to find place for any of the speeches of the men of the Greater West. This book shows that in effective oral expression California has plenty of material.

The various selections represent the several types of oratory, — the after-dinner remarks, the address of welcome, the eulogy, the occasional oration, the ethical sermon, and the stump speech.

The editor has drawn upon all classes for his material, — the university president, the ship-builder, the merchant, the farmer, the lawyer, the editor, the judge, the senator, the statesman, the preacher, and the priest. The pages show that he has been non-partisan and non-sectarian.

There is nothing more pitiful than an audience of a thousand or more people listening patiently but painfully to some man whose position or prestige has secured him a place on the programme, but whose education in the greatest of all arts — the art of oral expression — has been neglected. It is not what is said — it is the way it is said — that makes a speaker interesting. To speak the truth — and speak it effectively — is an art worthy of cultivation. California is a land of music, of poetry, of art, and of eloquence. May the splendid examples of the art of public speaking presented here lead the younger generation to study the art of saying things. Senator George F. Hoar, in a recent article, said: —

4 PKEFACE.

" The longer I live, the more highly I have come to value the gift of eloquence. Indeed, I am not sure that it is not the single gift most to be coveted by man. It is hard, perhaps impossible, to define, as poetry is impossible to define. To be a perfect and consummate orator is to possess the highest faculty given to man. He must be a great artist, and more. He must be a great actor, and more. He must be a master of the great things that interest mankind. What he says ought to have as permanent a place in literature as the highest poetry. He must be able to play at will on the mighty organ, his audience, of which human souls are the keys. He must have knowledge, wit, wisdom, fancy, imagination, courage, nobleness, sincerity, grace, a heart of fire. He must himself respond to every emotion as an iEolian harp to the breeze. He must

have —

" ' An eye that tears can on a sudden fill,

And lips that smile before the tears are gone.'

He must have a noble personal presence. He must have, in perfection, the eye and the voice which are the only and natural avenues by which one human soul can enter into and subdue another. His speech must be filled with music, and possess its miraculous charm and spell, —

" ' which the posting winds recall, And suspend the river's fall.' "

Contents

PAGE

INTRODUCTION. By J. A. Winans.

Public Speaking of To-day 9