I suppose this fact, which excited the wonder
of Cicero, exists in our country and our time. There is a
foreign country which is to us as a posterity. If we reckon
those Americans only as great orators who are accepted in
England as such, or who, belonging to past generations are
so accepted now by their own countrymen, the number is very
small. A few sentences of Patrick Henry are preserved, as
a few sentences of Lord Chatham are preserved. The great
thoughts of Webster justify, in the estimation of the reader,
the fame he enjoyed with his own generation. The readers
of Fisher Ames--alas, too few--can well comprehend the spell
which persuaded an angry and reluctant majority to save the
treaty to which the nation had pledged its faith, and, perhaps,
the life of the nation itself. With these exceptions, the
number of American orators who will live in history as orators
can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
I have never supposed myself to possess this gift. The instruction
which I had in my youth, especially that at Harvard, either
in composition or elocution, was, I think, not only of no
advantage, but a positive injury.
Pages:
1299
1300
1301
1302
1303
1304
1305
1306
1307
1308
1309
1310
1311
1312
1313
1314
1315
1316
1317
1318
1319
1320
1321
1322
1323