The Art of Public Speaking
thousands of sick and wounded and insane to drag out miserable
lives, wrecked in body and mind. You make the American flag in
the eyes of a numerous people the emblem of sacrilege in
Christian churches, and of the burning of human dwellings, and
of the horror of the water torture. Your practical statesmanship
which disdains to take George Washington and Abraham Lincoln or
the soldiers of the Revolution or of the Civil War as models,
has looked in some cases to Spain for your example. I
believe--nay, I know--that in general our officers and soldiers
are humane. But in some cases they have carried on your warfare
with a mixture of American ingenuity and Castilian cruelty.
Your practical statesmanship has succeeded in converting a
people who three years ago were ready to kiss the hem of the
garment of the American and to welcome him as a liberator, who
thronged after your men, when they landed on those islands, with
benediction and gratitude, into sullen and irreconcilable
enemies, possessed of a hatred which centuries cannot eradicate.
Mr. President, this is the eternal law of human nature. You may
struggle against it, you may try to escape it, you may persuade
yourself that your intentions are benevolent, that your yoke
will be easy and your burden will be light, but it will assert
itself again. Government without the consent of the
governed--authority which heaven never gave--can only be
supported by means which heaven never can sanction.
The American people have got this one question to answer. They
may answer it now; they can take ten years, or twenty years, or
a generation, or a century to think of it. But will not down.
They must answer it in the end: Can you lawfully buy with money,
or get by brute force of arms, the right to hold in subjugation
an unwilling people, and to impose on them such constitution as
you, and not they, think best for them?
Senator Hoar then went on to make another sort of appeal--the appeal to
fact and experience:
We have answered this question a good many times in the past.
The fathers answered it in 1776, and founded the Republic upon
their answer, which has been the corner-stone. John Quincy Adams
and James Monroe answered it again in the Monroe Doctrine, which
John Quincy Adams declared was only the doctrine of the consent
of the governed. The Republican party answered it when it took
possession of the force of government at the beginning of the
most brilliant period in all legislative history. Abraham
Lincoln answered it when, on that fatal journey to Washington in
1861, he announced that as the doctrine of his political creed,
and declared, with prophetic vision, that he was ready to be
assassinated for it if need be. You answered it again yourselves
when you said that Cuba, who had no more title than the people
of the Philippine Islands had to their independence, of right
ought to be free and independent.
--GEORGE F. HOAR.
Appeal to the things that man holds dear is another potent form of
persuasion.
Joseph Story, in his great Salem speech (1828) used this method most
dramatically:
I call upon you, fathers, by the shades of your ancestors--by
the dear ashes which repose in this precious soil--by all you
are, and all you hope to be--resist every object of disunion,
resist every encroachment upon your liberties, resist every
attempt to fetter your consciences, or smother your public
schools, or extinguish your system of public instruction.
I call upon you, mothers, by that which never fails in woman,
the love of your offspring; teach them, as they climb your
knees, or lean on your bosoms, the blessings of liberty. Swear
them at the altar, as with their baptismal vows, to be true to
their country, and never to forget or forsake her.
I call upon you, young men, to remember whose sons you are;
whose inheritance you possess. Life can never be too short,
which brings nothing but disgrace and oppression. Death never
comes too soon, if necessary in defence of the liberties of your
country.
I call upon you, old men, for your counsels, and your prayers,
and your benedictions. May not your gray hairs go down in sorrow
to the grave, with the recollection that you have lived in vain.
May not your last sun sink in the west upon a nation of slaves.
No; I read in the destiny of my country far better hopes, far
brighter visions. We, who are now assembled here, must soon be
gathered to the congregation of other days. The time of our
departure is at hand, to make way for our children upon the
theatre of life. May God speed them and theirs. May he who, at
the distance of another century, shall stand here to celebrate
this day, still look round upon a free, happy, and virtuous
people. May he have reason to exult as we do. May he, with all
the enthusiasm of truth as well as of poetry, exclaim, that here
is still his country.
--JOSEPH STORY.
The appeal to prejudice is effective--though not often, if ever,
justifiable; yet so long as special pleading endures this sort of
persuasion will be resorted to. Rudyard Kipling uses this method--as
have many others on both sides--in discussing the great European war.
Mingled with the appeal to prejudice, Mr. Kipling uses the appeal to
self-interest; though not the highest, it is a powerful motive in all
our lives. Notice how at the last the pleader sweeps on to the highest
ground he can take. This is a notable example of progressive appeal,
beginning with a low motive and ending with a high one in such a way as
to carry all the force of prejudice yet gain all the value of patriotic
fervor.
Through no fault nor wish of ours we are at war with Germany,
the power which owes its existence to three well-thought-out
wars; the power which, for the last twenty years, has devoted
itself to organizing and preparing for this war; the power which
is now fighting to conquer the civilized world.
For the last two generations the Germans in their books,
lectures, speeches and schools have been carefully taught that
nothing less than this world-conquest was the object of their
preparations and their sacrifices. They have prepared carefully
and sacrificed greatly.
We must have men and men and men, if we, with our allies, are to
check the onrush of organized barbarism.
Have no illusions. We are dealing with a strong and
magnificently equipped enemy, whose avowed aim is our complete
destruction. The violation of Belgium, the attack on France and
the defense against Russia, are only steps by the way. The
German's real objective, as she always has told us, is England,
and England's wealth, trade and worldwide possessions.
If you assume, for an instant, that the attack will be
successful, England will not be reduced, as some people say, to
the rank of a second rate power, but we shall cease to exist as
a nation. We shall become an outlying province of Germany, to be
administered with that severity German safety and interest
require.
We are against such a fate. We enter into a new life in which
all the facts of war that we had put behind or forgotten for the
last hundred years, have returned to the front and test us as
they tested our fathers. It will be a long and a hard road,
beset with difficulties and discouragements, but we tread it
together and we will tread it together to the end.
Our petty social divisions and barriers have been swept away at
the outset of our mighty struggle. All the interests of our life
of six weeks ago are dead. We have but one interest now, and
that touches the naked heart of every man in this island and in
the empire.
If we are to win the right for ourselves and for freedom to
exist on earth, every man must offer himself for that service
and that sacrifice.
From these examples it will be seen that the particular way in which the
speakers appealed to their hearers was _by coming close home to their
interests, and by themselves showing emotion_--two very important
principles which you must keep constantly in mind.
To accomplish the former requires a deep knowledge of human motive in
general and an understanding of the particular audience addressed. What
are the motives that arouse men to action? Think of them earnestly, set
them down on the tablets of your mind, study how to appeal to them
worthily. Then, what motives would be likely to appeal to _your_
hearers? What are their ideals and interests in life? A mistake in your
estimate may cost you your case. To appeal to pride in appearance would
make one set of men merely laugh--to try to arouse sympathy for the Jews
in Palestine would be wasted effort among others. Study your audience,
feel your way, and when you have once raised a spark, fan it into a
flame by every honest resource you possess.
The larger your audience the more sure you are to find a universal basis
of appeal. A small audience of bachelors will not grow excited over the
importance of furniture insurance; most men can be roused to the defense
of the freedom of the press.
Patent medicine advertisement usually begins by talking about your
pains--they begin on your interests. If they first discussed the size
and rating of their establishment, or the efficacy of their remedy, you
would never read the "ad." If they can make you think you have nervous
troubles you will even plead for a remedy--they will not have to try to
sell it.
The patent medicine men are pleading--asking you to invest your money in
their commodity--yet they do not appear to be doing so. They get over on
your side of the fence, and arouse a desire for their nostrums by
appealing to your own interests.
Recently a book-salesman entered an attorney's office in New York and
inquired: "Do you want to buy a book?" Had the lawyer wanted a book he
would probably have bought one without waiting for a book-salesman to
call. The solicitor made the same mistake as the representative who made
his approach with: "I want to sell you a sewing machine." They both
talked only in terms of their own interests.
The successful pleader must convert his arguments into terms of his
hearers' advantage. Mankind are still selfish, are interested in what
will serve them. Expunge from your address your own personal concern
and present your appeal in terms of the general good, and to do this you
need not be insincere, for you had better not plead any cause that is
_not_ for the hearers' good. Notice how Senator Thurston in his plea for
intervention in Cuba and Mr. Bryan in his "Cross of Gold" speech
constituted themselves the apostles of humanity.
_Exhortation_ is a highly impassioned form of appeal frequently used by
the pulpit in efforts to arouse men to a sense of duty and induce them
to decide their personal courses, and by counsel in seeking to influence
a jury. The great preachers, like the great jury-lawyers, have always
been masters of persuasion.
Notice the difference among these four exhortations, and analyze the
motives appealed to:
Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay! Let not a traitor
live!
--SHAKESPEARE, _Julius Caesar_.
Strike--till the last armed foe expires,
Strike--for your altars and your fires,
Strike--for the green graves of your sires,
God--and your native land!
--FITZ-GREENE HALLECK, _Marco Bozzaris_.
Believe, gentlemen, if it were not for those children, he would