This book is included in the US Government: Educational, Informational & Motivational section.
Preface "American Forum" is a collection of representative speeches on many of the vital and urgent questions that were threshed over from the time of the ratification of the Constitution of the United States to the twentieth century. The speeches selected are of interest to students of history, government, literature, religion, speech indeed to all readers who respond to the drama of lively exchange in ideas. For that is what this book is a record of men and ideas jostling for public acceptance in the free competition of an American forum. Obviously these speeches were not devised to be preserved in an anthology. Each was delivered to a specific audience on a specific occasion for a specific purpose. The speakers were not making literature; they were making history. Patrick Henry fighting to keep his beloved Virginia from joining the proposed Federal government; William Ellery Channing stating publicly for the first time the Unitarian credo; William Graham Stunner stanchly upholding rugged individualism; Susan B. Anthony demanding equal rights for women all were transacting public business, advancing important causes, energizing significant ideas. And it is precisely because the attention of these speakers was fixed upon the job at hand, because in their utterances can be seen the clash of ideas, policies, and principles, that these real-life debates so vividly reflect the mood and temper of the times which called them forth and the scenes into which they were projected. Anthologies of speeches tend to follow one of two patterns, neither of which does full justice to the material. Older anthologies in particular were born in an era when appreciation for the pyrotechnics of oratory was high. Anthologists were keen for heart-pounding eloquence, and each specimen they exhibited was something of a tour de force. Anthologies in this tradition were advertised as containing masterpieces of eloquence. Their editors winnowed out purple passages which they were sure would survive indefinitely as distinguished contributions to our national literature. Now that such compositions are no longer highly regarded as literature they have been consigned to the same limbo as lace antimacassars and cast-iron deer. A second type of anthology attempts to select speeches alleged to have influenced the course of history. Such collections are generally more discriminating and more objective. They often contain many genuinely notable public addresses produced at moments of tension in history and acclaimed by those who heard them, speeches that have stood the test of time and that bear unmistakable marks of rhetorical excellence. Anthologies of this type have a worthy purpose, but they are too often mere miscellanies, collections of discrete items wrenched from their settings and arranged in chronological order, or assembled under a set of conventional headings such as "types of speech." Presented without adequate context or connecting links, these speeches are but surviving fragments of some obscure whole. Generations of schoolboys nourished on such a diet have memorized the exordium and peroration of Webster's "Second Reply to Hayne" without ever discovering the nature and significance of the reply or what it was a reply to. This volume is not a garland of rhetorical flowers, a mere miscellany of eloquent passages, although many of its speeches are profoundly eloquent. Nor is its purpose that of catering to an antiquarian's sentimental attachment to monumental speeches of the past, although many of the speeches are incontestably great. Rather, we have selected and juxtaposed speeches in order to provide the substance and framework of an American forum as a venture in intellectual history through public address. We. think this is a worthy enterprise for several reasons. 1. Speech-making is important business in a free society. In the democratic theory, each person is privileged to express himself on issues of concern to him and his contemporaries. Whether or not he succeeds in gaining a hearing depends upon his endowments for speaking and his ability to find or build a platform. In its history, the United States has provided an enormous number and variety of platforms, which its citizens have not been reluctant to mount. In short, public address is one of the primary means by which popular thought and action have always been developed and energized, sustained or modified. 2. Although many important speeches of the past have been lost, the number of surviving texts is enormous. The main job of the anthologist is to winnow through extant speeches, choose those that illuminate the discussion of root issues in American life and thought, and then make them accessible. Reading speeches on critical issues brings us into direct encounter with competing schools of thought, with current assumptions, values, attitudes, and characteristic modes of address. Although a speech is primarily expressive of the mind of a speaker, it also is a gauge to the mind of his audience, both listeners and readers. What speakers choose to talk about and what listeners choose to listen to are matters esteemed by both parties. In still other ways a speech bears the impress of an audience, always covertly, often overtly. Through intuition, experience, or by precept, effective public speakers discover they must take into account the interests, belief-systems, prejudices, and caprices of their audiences. The adaptations speakers make are implicit in the formulations of their arguments, in idiomatic language, in images fashioned from life experiences of the group, and in appeals that go to the heart as well as to the head. In short, speeches on critical issues are vibrant with the immediacy of life, with the sense of interaction between speaker and listeners. 3. If a speech is to be comprehended, interpreted, and evaluated, it must be placed within the context of its time. No speech completely transcends its time, and most speeches are inextricably interwoven with the moment. Accordingly, and in broad outline, we have sketched the events and intellectual environment that constitute the backdrop for these speeches. Suggestions for acquiring additional background information may be found at the end of the volume. For these reasons, then, we have fashioned an anthology of speeches based on issues underlying the American experience. Preparing such a collection, however, poses this vexatious question: Which issues should be included? We have focused upon basic and persistent problems that commanded widespread public interest, provoked serious controversy, and continue directly or indirectly to challenge us today. Hence we excluded evanescent excitements and concentrated upon fundamental constitutional, political, economic, social, and religious questions. If read successively, the speeches on these issues will reveal some of the major cleavages and continuities in American thought and action. These speeches have been drawn from many sources. We exhumed them from crumbling pamphlets, from yellowing newspapers, from legislative debates and hearings, and from journals. If finally we decided to include certain speeches that also appear in standard collections (e.g., Henry and Madison on ratification of the Constitution), it is because we have satisfied ourselves that they are the best statements available, and not because they have become established. In selecting the twenty-six speeches in American Forum we have rejected hundreds of others. Many of those omitted have been sacrificed only with the most painful reluctance. Each reader will doubtless look in vain for some old favorite which has fallen a casualty to the limitations of space, or did not conform to the plan of this volume. Such must inevitably be the case with any collection. The anthologist can do no more and no less than to make known his standards of selection and then to stand steadfastly behind his choice. The speeches finally selected passed a number of tests. Each speech had to be the most cogent and economical statement of a position that we could find. Each had to be significantly relevant to one specific issue. Each had to deal in essentials of the specific problem, not in its tangential aspects. Each had to be representative of the case in behalf of one side or party to a controversy. Each had to be a representative expression of a foremost spokesman from among accredited exponents of a position. Each had to convey to today's reader the authentic spirit of the occasion. How reliable are the texts used? Admittedly, texts of speeches are often open to question, particularly in matters of stylistic detail. Texts of early speeches suffer from the crude systems of stenography used in those days, and from limited reportorial service. In each case we have identified the source of the text used, and we have, of course, tried always to choose what we considered the most reliable text available. We have corrected typographical errors and misspelled words. Here and there we took the liberty of modernizing archaic and eccentric punctuation when changes could be made without affecting meaning. We have been compelled by the prodigious length of some speeches, particularly the earlier ones, to modify our original resolution to present only complete texts. Where we have found it necessary to cut a text, we have tried scrupulously to preserve its real substance. We have cut remarks of local reference that lend nothing to the thought and distract today's reader. We have eliminated a few long and superfluous prefatory statements. We have cut extended amplifications of a point, or disgressions from the main line of argument In short, we have tried to retain important substantive matters and eliminate "detachable" elements whenever it was impossible to reproduce a text in toto. All omissions, however minor, are clearly indicated by ellipses. Where transitions were needed, explanatory notes have been provided. American Forum, then, is made up of twenty-six speeches, arranged chronologically in relation to basic historical issues. A short introduction to each issue and the speeches related to it supplies historical context. A brief chronology of life facts identifies each of the speakers. The bibliographical notes at the end of the book open opportunities for further study. This volume constitutes, we believe, a lively chronicle of ideas in action, to be read with profit and enjoyment for its own sake, or as a source book in the history of American public address from 1788 to 1900. A second volume, following a similar format and featuring twentieth-century speeches, will be published subsequently by Harper & Brothers. Table of Contents Preface Part I. To Form a More Perfect Union RATIFICATION OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION PATRICK HENRY Against the Federal Constitution JAMES MADISON For the Federal Constitution THE BASIS OF POLITICAL SOCIETY: A SPECTRUM OF VIEWS DAVID DAGGETT Sun-Beams May Be Extracted from Cucumbers, But the Process Is Tedious THOMAS JEFFERSON First Inaugural Address DANIEL WEBSTER Basis of the Senate GEORGE BANCROFT The Office of the People in Art, Government, and Religion RELIGIOUS LIBERALISM VS. ORTHODOXY WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING Unitarian Christianity LYMAN BEECHER The Faith Once Delivered to the Saints THE ESSENTIAL NATURE OF THE CONSTITUTION JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN The Compact Theory of the Constitution DANIEL WEBSTER The Constitution Not a Compact Between Sovereign States A HOUSE DIVIDED ROBERT TOOMBS Slavery in the United States: Its Consistency with Republican Institutions and Its Effect upon the Slave and Society WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON No Compromise with Slavery ABRAHAM LINCOLN A House Divided STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS Popular Sovereignty RECONSTRUCTION OF THE FEDERAL UNION THADDEUS STEVENS Radical Republican Theory HENRY JARVIS RAYMOND Administration Theory Part II. Ferment in an Industrial Age RUGGED INDIVIDUALISM AND SOCIAL PROTEST WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER The Forgotten Man HENRY GEORGE The Crime of Poverty THE GOSPEL OF WEALTH VS. THE SOCIAL GOSPEL RUSSELL HERMAN CONWELL Acres of Diamonds GEORGE DAVIS HEBRON The Message of Jesus to Men of Wealth REVEALED RELIGION VS. THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY T. DEWITT TALMAGE Victory for God ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL Victory for Man CRUSADE FOR THE BALLOT SUSAN BROWNELL ANTHONY For the Woman Suffrage Amendment JOSEPH EMERSON BROWN Against the Woman Suffrage Amendment THE MISSION OF AMERICA ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE The March of the Flag WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN Imperialism Notes on Sources and Supplementary Reading
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