to a tyrannical usurpation; in dutiful respect to the early fathers whose aspirations are now ignobly thwarted; in the name of the Constitution, which has been outraged, of the laws trampled down, of justice banished, of humanity degraded, of peace destroyed, of freedom crushed to earth; and in the name of the Heavenly Father, whose service is perfect freedom, I make this last appeal.

(3) A famous example of the impassioned conclusion is found in Burke's opening speech at the trial of Warren Hastings. The concluding sentences furnish a fine

example of the impassioned climax:

I impeach Warren Hastings, Esquire, of high crimes and misdemeanors. I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great Britain, in Parliament assembled, whose parliamentary trust he has betrayed. I impeach him in the name of all the Commons of Great Britain, whose national character he has dishonored. I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose laws, rights, and liberties he has subverted, whose property he has destroyed, whose country he has laid waste and desolate. I impeach him in the name and by virtue of those eternal laws of justice which he has violated. I impeach him in the name of human nature itself, which he has cruelly outraged, injured, and oppressed, in both sexes, in every age, rank, situation, and condition of life.

(4) A frequent and important type of the impassioned conclusion takes the form of prophecy or vision. A modern illustration of this type is chosen from a speech delivered in the national house of representatives by Hon. Frank H. Hurd, on “ A Tariff for Revenue Only":

With the opportunity of unrestricted exchange of these products, how limitless the horizon of our possibilities! Let American adventurousness and genius be free, upon the high seas, to go wherever they please and bring back whatever they please, and the oceans will swarm with American sails, and the land will laugh with the plenty within its borders. The commerce of the Venetian Republic, the wealth-producing traffic of the Netherlands, will be as dreams in contrast with the stupendous reality which American enterprise will develop in our own generation. Through the humanizing influence of the trade thus encouraged, I see nations become the friends of nations, and the causes of war disappear. I see the influence of the great republic in the amelioration of the condition of the poor and the oppressed in every land, and in the moderation of the arbitrariness of power. Upon the wings of free trade will be carried the seeds of free government, to be scattered everywhere to grow and ripen into harvests of free peoples in every nation under the sun.

The conclusion of William Jennings Bryan's famous "Cross of Gold" speech contains at once the qualities of argument, vision, and appeal, presented with such impassioned eloquence as to arouse in the convention to which it was spoken a frenzy of enthusiasm and at the same time secure for the political "platform" which it advocated the support of that convention and for the speaker, himself, the nomination for the presidency:

This nation is able to legislate for its own people on every question, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation on earth; and upon that issue we expect to carry every State in the Union. I shall not slander the fair State of Massachusetts nor the inhabitants of the State of New York

by saying that, when they are confronted with the proposition, they will declare that this nation is not able to attend to its own business. It is the issue of 1776 over again. Our ancestors, when but three millions in number, had the courage to declare their political independence of every other nation; shall we, their descendants, when we have grown to seventy millions, declare that we are less independent than our forefathers? No, my friends, that will never be the verdict of our people. Therefore, we care not upon what lines the battle is fought. If they say bimetallism is good, but that we cannot have it until other nations help us, we reply that instead of having a gold standard because England has, we will restore bimetallism, and then let England have bimetallism because the United States has. If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests, and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.

The preceding examples will serve to illustrate some of the qualities of style that belong to oratory of the noblest type.

CHAPTER XII

GENERAL QUALITIES OF ORATORICAL

STYLE

AVING thus noted some of the qualities of style

that are especially appropriate to the introduction and the conclusion, it now remains to consider some of the qualities of oratory as a whole. For, while there are certain characteristics that peculiarly pertain to the opening and closing portions, there are likewise qualities that belong to this type of discourse in all its parts. These qualities are necessitated by the nature of the art itself.

It must be remembered that oratory is popular discourse. It is preeminently to and for the people. In its highest and best sense, it is not for any exclusive grade of culture and condition in life. It is, rather, adapted to the understanding, tastes, motives, and interests of the great mass of men who, in their general average of intelligence, training, passions, and purposes are termed "the people." It is to such an audience, made up of men of both high and low degree, of men swayed by sudden impulses or long cherished prejudices, by likes and dislikes, by hopes and fears, by ambitions, selfishness, large

heartedness, and meannesses, and all the mighty and seemingly self-contradictory motives that make up what we call human nature, but nevertheless an underlying basis of fairness and a substructure of common sense,it is to an audience made up of such men that the orator must address himself and his speech.

Since oratory is popular discourse, it must possess those characteristics that fit it to the populace. These characteristics have to do with the three elements of thought, structure, and expression.

1. In the first place, then, the thought and the expression of the thought must be adapted to the popular mind. This does not mean that an audience must agree with the speaker at the outset. Indeed, the presumption is that the contrary is true. If there were such agreement there would be little need for speaking. Oratory is persuasion, and, if all agree, persuasion is not always called for by circumstances. Some of the greatest triumphs of oratory have been won over hostile audiences; as witness the speeches of Henry Ward Beecher in England during the Civil War and those of Alexander Hamilton in the long struggle over the question whether New York would adopt the Constitution of the United States, by which he changed a very large majority against adoption to a majority in its favor. What is meant, rather, is that the thought should be presented in so plain, so direct, so simple a manner, and must show that the details of each idea have such an obvious bearing upon the main question, that its significance and appro