“Mr. President, there is only one action possible; that is, intervention for the independence of Cuba. But we cannot intervene and save Cuba without the exercise of force, and force means war; war means blood. But it will be God’s force. When has a battle for humanity and liberty ever been won except by force? What barricade of wrong, injustice, and oppression has ever been carried except by force?
“Force compelled the signature of unwilling royalty to the great Magna Charta; force put life into the Declaration of Independence and made effective the Emancipation Proclamation; force beat with naked hands upon the iron gateway of the Bastile and made reprisal in one awful hour for centuries of kingly crime; force waved the flag of revolution over Bunker Hill and marked the snows of Valley Forge with blood-stained feet; force held the broken line of Shiloh, climbed the flame-swept hill at Chattanooga, and stormed the clouds on Lookout Heights; force marched with Sherman to the sea, rode with Sheridan in the valley of the Shenandoah, and gave Grant victory at Appomattox; force saved the Union, kept the stars in the flag, made “niggers” men. The time for God’s force has come again. Let the impassioned lips of American patriots once more take up the song—
‘In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me;
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.’
“Others may hesitate, others may procrastinate, others may plead for further diplomatic negotiation, which means delay; but for me, I am ready to act now, and for my action I am ready to answer to my conscience, my country, and my God.”
The following is the climax and closing of Watter-son’s great oration on Abraham Lincoln:
“I look into the crystal globe that, slowly turning, reveals the story of the life of Abraham Lincoln, and I see a little heart-broken boy, weeping by the outstretched form of a dead mother, then bravely, nobly trudging a hundred miles to obtain her Christian burial. I see this motherless lad growing to manhood amid scenes that seem to lead to nothing but abasement; no teachers; no books; 110 chart except his own untutored mind; no compass except his own undisciplined will; no light save light from heaven; yet, like the caravel of Columbus, struggling on and on through the trough of the sea, always toward the destined land. I see the full-grown man, stalwart and brave, an athlete in activity of movement and strength of limb, yet vexed by weird dreams and visions of life, of love, of religion, sometimes verging on despair. I see the mind, grown as robust as the body, throw off these phantoms of the imagination and give itself wholly to the practical uses of this work-a-day world; the rearing of children; the earning of bread; the multiplied duties of the husband, the father, and the citizen. I see the party leader, self-confident in conscious rectitude; original, because it was not his nature to follow; potent, because he was fearless, pursuing his convictions with earnest zeal, and urging them upon his fellows with the resources of an oratory which was hardly more impressive than it was manysided.
“And, last scene of all, that ends this strange, eventful history, I see him lying dead there in the capitol of the nation, to which he had rendered ‘the last full measure of his devotion,’ the flag of his country wrapped about him, the world in mourning, and, asking myself, how could any man have hated that man, I ask you, how can any man refuse his homage to his memory? Surely, he was one of God’s elect; not in any sense a creature of circumstance or accident. Recurring to the doctrine of inspiration, I say again and again, he was inspired of God, and I cannot see how any one who believes in that doctrine can regard him as anything else.”
Then tenderly the great orator finished his work of love. While many in the audience were in tears and the rest hushed to silence, his great voice turned to pathos, he portrayed the martyred Lincoln’s translation back to God:
“Born—as—lowly—as—the—son of God, in a hovel,” he said slowly; “of what ancestry we know not and care not; reared in penury, squalor, with no gleam of light or fair surroundings; without graces, actual or acquired; without name or fame or official training; it was reserved for this strange being, late in life, to be snatched from obscurity, raised to supreme command at a supreme moment, and intrusted with the destiny of a nation.
“Where did Shakespeare get his genius? Where did Mozart get his music? Whose hand smote the lyre of the Scottish plowman and stayed the life of the German priest? God, God, and God alone; and as surely as these were raised up by God, inspired by God was Abraham Lincoln; and a thousand years hence, no drama, no tragedy, no epic poem will be filled with greater wonder, or be followed by mankind with deeper feeling, than that which tells the story of his life and death.”
CHAPTER V.
The Value of Repetition and Suggestion
Mr. Dooley expressed the value of repetition and suggestion when he wrote: “I belave annything at all, if ye only tell it to me often enough.”
In public speaking and conversation there are many ideas which must be repeated over and over again before they obtain the proper maximum effect.
This has already been illustrated in the climax of Senator Thurston’s oration, “A Plea for Cuba,” where the repetition of the word “force” added greatly to the emphasis of the idea.
Of this character is Webster’s celebrated sentence, the climax of his great speech on “American Institutions.”
“Our government can stand trial, it can stand assault, it can stand adversity, it can stand persecutions, it can stand everything but the weakness of our own strength, it can stand everything but disorganization, disunion and nullification.”
The reiteration of the same word gives strength and consistency to the above sentence, and the word “stand” repeated again and again, comes at last to be like the blows of a hammer, riveting attention to the subject.
The following letter written by General Putnam to Sir Henry Clinton in 1777, is a wonderful example of terseness and repetition:
Edmund Palmer, an officer in the enemy’s service, was taken as a spy lurking within our lines. He has been tried as a spy, condemned as a spy, and shall be executed as a spy, and the flag is ordered to depart immediately.
Israel Putnam.
P. S.—He has accordingly been executed.
The last paragraph of the first inaugural of President Lincoln, wherein is concentrated faith, hope, love and charity for all, expressive of the great heart of the greatest of Americans, will fitly close this chapter.
It was the fourth of March, 1861. The South was already arrayed in arms against the government. Though saddened and depressed by the situation of brother arrayed against brother, Lincoln never faltered or relaxed his faith in the ultimate triumph of right and union, and closing in the following prophetic words that have no equal in our literature:
“I am loath to close. We are not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriotic grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of Union, when again touched, as they surely will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
CHAPTER VI.
How to Make Speeches That Will Have Effect
By Elmer E. Rogers, Member of the Chicago Bar
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