During this year’s presidential primary, Americans once again had an opportunity to observe the oratory of three very different politicians. While John McCain’s arguments may have been well taken from a Republican point of view, his delivery often appeared wooden and stumbling. He lectures but he rarely arouses enthusiasm.
Hillary Clinton’s articulacy made her come across as the midwestern egghead she is. She was trying to impress her audiences with emotional anecdotes about the travails of “ordinary” Americans and about her own “hard” work for them--“throughout all of my adult life.” Yet, she also could be quite catty when, for example, she attacked her Democratic opponent for being “all mouth and no muscle.”
When he was not tired, Obama’s soaring cadences could be building up to the kind of inspirational lift that is so reminiscent of both John F. Kennedy’s and Martin Luther King’s speeches. The first time the public sees Obama and McCain in a one-on-one debate, the contrast between the two may well be reminiscent of the exchanges between Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle.
It so happens that precisely 150 years ago, two very prominent Americans, Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, made noteworthy speeches right here in Illinois in their effort to win a seat in the U.S. Senate. On June 16, 1858, more than 1,000 Republican delegates met in Springfield’s statehouse for their state convention where Lincoln spellbound them with a memorable speech about imminent danger to the Union. His very first paragraph set the tone and the theme:
“If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed. ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.”
By paraphrasing a widely known statement by Jesus--“a house divided against itself”--, Lincoln succeeded in awakening Republicans not only to the perils of the times but also in challenging Douglas and his advocacy of squatter sovereignty.
Lincoln’s friend Gustav Koerner of Belleville described his impressions of Lincoln and Douglas in Chicago on July15: “Neither he nor Douglas indulged in rhetoric; both were mainly argumentative. But while Douglas, powerful as was his speech, never showed anything like genius, there came from Lincoln occasionally flashes of genius and burning words, revelations as it were from the unknown, that will live as long as this English language lives. Lincoln was deeply read in the Bible and Shakespeare. ... Douglas was eminently talented; Lincoln was original. But what made Lincoln vastly more effective in this contest was that even the most obtuse hearer could see at once that Douglas spoke for himself, and Lincoln for his cause.”
At the debate in Alton, Koerner observed: “Without any apparent effort, he stated his position clearly and tersely, and his whole speech was weighted with noble and deep thoughts. There were no appeals to passion and prejudice. ... When Douglas opening speech had been made, he was vociferously cheered. When, after Lincoln’s speech, which made a powerful impression, Douglas made his reply, there was hardly any applause when he closed.”
For modern political campaigners to achieve the stirring oratory of Paine, Webster, or Lincoln is a tall order. Obama has shown moments of high promise but his most difficult tests are still to come.