American Speeches Vol. 2 (LOA #167): Political Oratory from Abraham Lincoln to Bill Clinton

by Ted Widmer (Editor)

Overview

The history of American oratory exhibits, in the words of William F. Buckley, “powerful ignition points for hot flashes of indignation, contempt, rage, veneration and yearning.” This volume (the second of an unprecedented two-volume collection) gathers the unabridged texts of 83 eloquent and dramatic speeches delivered by 45 American public figures between 1865 and 1997, beginning with Abraham Lincoln’s last speech on Reconstruction and ending with Bill Clinton’s heartfelt tribute to the Little Rock Nine. During this period American political oratory continued to evolve, as a more conversational style, influenced by the intimacy of radio and television, emerged alongside traditional forms of rhetoric.

Included are speeches on Reconstruction by Thaddeus Stevens and African-American congressman Robert Brown Elliott, Frederick Douglass’s brilliant oration on Abraham Lincoln, and Oliver Wendell Holmes’s “touched with fire” Memorial Day Address. Speeches by Robert Ingersoll and William Jennings Bryan capture the fervor of 19th-century political conventions, while Theodore Roosevelt and Carl Schurz offer opposing views on imperialism. Ida B. Wells and Mary Church Terrell denounce the cruelty of lynching and the injustice of Jim Crow; Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Carrie Chapman Catt advocate the enfranchisement of women; and Woodrow Wilson and Henry Cabot Lodge present conflicting visions of the League of Nations.

Also included are wartime speeches by George Patton and Dwight Eisenhower; an address on the atomic bomb by J. Robert Oppenheimer; Richard Nixon’s “Checkers Speech;” Malcolm X’s “The Ballot or the Bullet;” Barry Goldwater’s speech to the 1964 Republican convention; Mario Savio urging Berkeley students to stop “the machine;” Barbara Jordan defending the Constitution during Watergate; and an extensive selection of speeches by Franklin Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan.

Each volume contains biographical and explanatory notes, and an index

LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781931082983
Publisher:	Library of America
Publication date:	10/05/2006
Series:	Library of America: The American Speeches Collection , #2
Pages:	875
Product dimensions:	5.17(w) x 8.13(h) x 1.13(d)

About the Author

Ted Widmer, editor, is the Beatrice and Julio Mario Santo Domingo Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University and the author of Martin Van Buren in The American Presidents Series and of Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City. He was director of speechwriting at the National Security Council and a senior advisor to President Clinton from 1997 to 2001.

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American Speeches

POLITICAL ORATORY FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN TO BILL CLINTON

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By Ted Widmer

THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA

Copyright © 2006 Literary Classics of the United States, Inc.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-931082-98-3

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Contents

Abraham Lincoln: Speech on Reconstruction Washington, D.C., April 11, 1865.................................................................................................1 Thaddeus Stevens: Speech in Congress on Reconstruction Washington, D.C., December 18, 1865.................................................................................6 Sojourner Truth: Speech at Meeting Commemorating Emancipation Boston, January 1, 1871......................................................................................19 Susan B. Anthony: Is It a Crime for a Citizen of the United States to Vote? Monroe County, N.Y., March-April 1873; Ontario County, N.Y., May-June 1873.....................22 Robert Brown Elliott: Speech in Congress on the Civil Rights Bill Washington, D.C., January 6, 1874........................................................................48 Benjamin F. Butler: Speech in Congress on the Civil Rights Bill Washington, D.C., January 7, 1874..........................................................................67 Frederick Douglass: Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln Washington, D.C., April 14,1876..................................................................................74 Robert G. Ingersoll: Speech Nominating James G. Blaine Cincinnati, June 15, 1876...........................................................................................85 Chief Joseph: Reply to General Howard Bear Paw Mountains, Montana Territory, October 5, 1877...............................................................................88 Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.: Memorial Day Address Keene, N.H., May 30, 1884.................................................................................................89 Grover Cleveland: Address at the Dedication of the Statue of Liberty New York City, October 28, 1886.......................................................................98 Elizabeth Cady Stanton: The Solitude of Self Washington, D.C., January 18, 1892............................................................................................99 Ida B. Wells: Lynch Law in All Its Phases Boston, February 13, 1893........................................................................................................110 John Peter Altgeld: Labor Day Address Chicago, September 8, 1893...........................................................................................................129 Booker T. Washington: Address at the Atlanta Exposition September 18, 1895.................................................................................................137 William Jennings Bryan: Speech to the Democratic National Convention Chicago, July 9, 1896.................................................................................142 Theodore Roosevelt: The Strenuous Life Chicago, April 10, 1899.............................................................................................................150 Carl Schurz: The Policy of Imperialism Chicago, October 17, 1899...........................................................................................................161 Theodore Roosevelt: The Man with the Muck-Rake Washington, D.C., April 14, 1906............................................................................................195 Mary Church Terrell: What It Means to be Colored in the Capital of the United States Washington, D.C., October 10, 1906....................................................204 Theodore Roosevelt: The New Nationalism Osawatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910................................................................................................213 John Jay Chapman: Speech at Prayer Meeting Coatesville, Pennsylvania, August 18, 1912......................................................................................229 Woodrow Wilson: First Inaugural Address Washington, D.C., March 4, 1913....................................................................................................233 Woodrow Wilson: Address to Congress on War with Germany Washington, D.C., April 2, 1917....................................................................................238 Robert M. La Follette, Sr.: Speech in the Senate on Free Speech in Wartime Washington, D.C., October 6, 1917...............................................................247 Carrie Chapman Catt: Address to Woman Suffrage Convention Washington, D.C., December 1917..................................................................................286 Eugene V. Debs: Speech to the Court Cleveland, September 14, 1918..........................................................................................................308 Woodrow Wilson: Address to the Senate on the League of Nations Washington, D.C., July 10, 1919.............................................................................314 Henry Cabot Lodge: Speech in the Senate on the League of Nations Washington, D.C., August 12, 1919.........................................................................327 Herbert Hoover: "Rugged Individualism" Speech New York City, October 22, 1928..............................................................................................356 Franklin D. Roosevelt: Speech to the Democratic National Convention Chicago, July 2, 1932..................................................................................373 Franklin D. Roosevelt: Speech to the Commonwealth Club San Francisco, September 23, 1932...................................................................................384 Franklin D. Roosevelt: First Inaugural Address Washington, D.C., March 4, 1933.............................................................................................398 Huey Long: Every Man a King Washington, D.C., February 23, 1934............................................................................................................403 Franklin D. Roosevelt: Speech to the Democratic National Convention Philadelphia, June 27, 1936............................................................................415 Franklin D. Roosevelt: Second Inaugural Address Washington, D.C., January 20, 1937.........................................................................................421 Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Arsenal of Democracy" Fireside Chat Washington, D.C., December 29, 1940............................................................................426 Franklin D. Roosevelt: Eighth Annual Address to Congress Washington, D.C., January 6, 1941..................................................................................437 Franklin D. Roosevelt: Address to Congress on War with Japan Washington, D.C., December 8, 1941............................................................................447 George S. Patton: Speech to Third Army Troops England, Spring 1944.........................................................................................................449 Dwight D. Eisenhower: Address to the Allied Expeditionary Forces England, June 6, 1944.....................................................................................453 Harry S. Truman: Statement on the Atomic Bomb Washington, D.C., August 6, 1945.............................................................................................454 J. Robert Oppenheimer: Speech to Los Alamos Scientists Los Alamos, N.M., November 2, 1945..................................................................................458 George C. Marshall: Speech at Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 5, 1947....................................................................................472 Hubert H. Humphrey: Speech to the Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia, July 14, 1948..............................................................................476 Harry S. Truman: Speech to the Democratic National Convention Philadelphia, July 15, 1948..................................................................................480 Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience Washington, D.C., June 1, 1950.............................................................................................487 William Faulkner: Nobel Prize Address Stockholm, December 10, 1950.........................................................................................................493 Douglas MacArthur: Address to Congress Washington, D.C., April 19, 1951....................................................................................................495 Richard M. Nixon: "Checkers" Speech Hollywood, California, September 23, 1952..............................................................................................504 Martin Luther King, Jr.: Speech to the Montgomery Improvement Association Montgomery, Alabama, December 5, 1955............................................................516 Dwight D. Eisenhower: Second Inaugural Address Washington, D.C., January 21, 1957..........................................................................................520 John F. Kennedy: Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association Houston, September 12, 1960.........................................................................525 Dwight D. Eisenhower: Farewell Address Washington, D.C., January 17, 1961..................................................................................................529 John F. Kennedy: Inaugural Address Washington, D.C., January 20, 1961......................................................................................................535 John F. Kennedy: Address at American University Washington, D.C., June 10, 1963............................................................................................539 John F. Kennedy: Address to the Nation on Civil Rights Washington, D.C., June 11, 1963......................................................................................548 John F. Kennedy: Speech in the Rudolph Wilde Platz Berlin, June 26, 1963...................................................................................................554 Martin Luther King, Jr.: Address at the March on Washington August 28, 1963................................................................................................556 Betty Friedan: The Crisis in Women's Identity San Francisco, 1964..........................................................................................................561 Malcolm X: The Ballot or the Bullet Cleveland, April 3, 1964...............................................................................................................574 Barry Goldwater: Speech to the Republican National Convention San Francisco, July 16, 1964.................................................................................595 Ronald Reagan: Speech on Behalf of Barry Goldwater Los Angeles, October 27, 1964...........................................................................................604 Mario Savio: Speech in Sproul Plaza Berkeley, California, December 2, 1964.................................................................................................616 Martin Luther King, Jr.: Nobel Prize Address Oslo, December 10, 1964.......................................................................................................619 Lyndon B. Johnson: Address to Congress on Voting Rights Washington, D.C., March 15, 1965...................................................................................623 Lyndon B. Johnson: Address at Howard University Washington, D.C., June 4, 1965.............................................................................................633 Robert F. Kennedy: Address at the University of Cape Town South Africa, June 6, 1966.......................................................................................641 Martin Luther King, Jr.: Speech on the Vietnam War New York City, April 4, 1967............................................................................................651 Martin Luther King, Jr.: Sermon at National Cathedral Washington, D.C., March 31, 1968.....................................................................................668 Martin Luther King, Jr.: Speech at Mason Temple Memphis, April 3, 1968.....................................................................................................681 Robert F. Kennedy: Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King Indianapolis, April 4, 1968..........................................................................693 Barbara Jordan: Statement to the House Judiciary Committee Washington, D.C., July 25, 1974.................................................................................695 Richard M. Nixon: Remarks on Leaving the White House Washington, D.C., August 9, 1974......................................................................................700 Jimmy Carter: Address to the Nation on Energy Policy Washington, D.C., July 15, 1979.......................................................................................705 Edward M. Kennedy: Speech to the Democratic National Convention New York City, August 12, 1980.............................................................................715 Ronald Reagan: Address to Members of Parliament London, June 8, 1982.......................................................................................................724 Ronald Reagan: Address at Pointe-du-Hoc Normandy, June 6, 1984.............................................................................................................736 Jesse Jackson: Speech to the Democratic National Convention San Francisco, July 17, 1984...................................................................................741 Ronald Reagan: Address to the Nation on the Challenger Disaster Washington, D.C., January 28, 1986.........................................................................754 Ronald Reagan: Speech at the Brandenburg Gate Berlin, June 12, 1987........................................................................................................756 William J. Clinton: Speech at Mason Temple Memphis, November 13, 1993......................................................................................................763 William J. Clinton: Speech at Central High School Little Rock, Arkansas, September 25, 1997................................................................................773 Biographical Notes..........................................................................................................................................................783 Note on the Texts...........................................................................................................................................................801 Notes.......................................................................................................................................................................810 Index.......................................................................................................................................................................859

Chapter One

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Speech on Reconstruction

Washington, D.C., April 11, 1865

We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy peace whose joyous expression can not be restrained. In the midst of this, however, He, from Whom all blessings flow, must not be forgotten. A call for a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part gives us the cause of rejoicing, be overlooked. Their honors must not be parcelled out with others. I myself, was near the front, and had the high pleasure of transmitting much of the good news to you; but no part of the honor, for plan or execution, is mine. To Gen. Grant, his skilful officers, and brave men, all belongs. The gallant Navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take active part.

By these recent successes the re-inauguration of the national authority-reconstruction-which has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. Unlike the case of a war between independent nations, there is no authorized organ for us to treat with. No one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with, and mould from, disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and means of reconstruction.

As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I can not properly offer an answer. In spite of this precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge that I am much censured for some supposed agency in setting up, and seeking to sustain, the new State Government of Louisiana. In this I have done just so much as, and no more than, the public knows. In the Annual Message of Dec. 1863 and accompanying Proclamation, I presented a plan of reconstruction (as the phrase goes) which, I promised, if adopted by any State, should be acceptable to, and sustained by, the Executive government of the nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the only plan which might possibly be acceptable; and I also distinctly protested that the Executive claimed no right to say when, or whether members should be admitted to seats in Congress from such States. This plan was, in advance, submitted to the then Cabinet, and distinctly approved by every member of it. One of them suggested that I should then, and in that connection, apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the theretofore excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana; that I should drop the suggestion about apprenticeship for freed-people, and that I should omit the protest against my own power, in regard to the admission of members to Congress; but even he approved every part and parcel of the plan which has since been employed or touched by the action of Louisiana. The new constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation for the whole State, practically applies the Proclamation to the part previously excepted. It does not adopt apprenticeship for freed-people; and it is silent, as it could not well be otherwise, about the admission of members to Congress. So that, as it applies to Louisiana, every member of the Cabinet fully approved the plan. The Message went to Congress, and I received many commendations of the plan, written and verbal; and not a single objection to it, from any professed emancipationist, came to my knowledge, until after the news reached Washington that the people of Louisiana had begun to move in accordance with it. From about July 1862, I had corresponded with different persons, supposed to be interested, seeking a reconstruction of a State government for Louisiana. When the Message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, reached New-Orleans, Gen. Banks wrote me that he was confident the people, with his military co-operation, would reconstruct, substantially on that plan. I wrote him, and some of them to try it; they tried it, and the result is known. Such only has been my agency in getting up the Louisiana government. As to sustaining it, my promise is out, as before stated. But, as bad promises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise, and break it, whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is adverse to the public interest. But I have not yet been so convinced.

I have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able one, in which the writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be definitely fixed on the question whether the seceded States, so called, are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps, add astonishment to his regret, were he to learn that since I have found professed Union men endeavoring to make that question, I have purposely forborne any public expression upon it. As appears to me that question has not been, nor yet is, a practically material one, and that any discussion of it, while it thus remains practically immaterial, could have no effect other than the mischievous one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may hereafter become, that question is bad, as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing at all-a merely pernicious abstraction.

We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper practical relation with the Union; and that the sole object of the government, civil and military, in regard to those States is to again get them into that proper practical relation. I believe it is not only possible, but in fact, easier, to do this, without deciding, or even considering, whether these states have even been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between these states and the Union; and each forever after, innocently indulge his own opinion whether, in doing the acts, he brought the States from without, into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it.

The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new Louisiana government rests, would be more satisfactory to all, if it contained fifty, thirty, or even twenty thousand, instead of only about twelve thousand, as it does. It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. Still the question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it stands, is quite all that is desirable. The question is "Will it be wiser to take it as it is, and help to improve it; or to reject, and disperse it?" "Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining, or by discarding her new State Government?"

Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore slave-state of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the rightful political power of the State, held elections, organized a State government, adopted a free-state constitution, giving the benefit of public schools equally to black and white, and empowering the Legislature to confer the elective franchise upon the colored man. Their Legislature has already voted to ratify the constitutional amendment recently passed by Congress, abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These twelve thousand persons are thus fully committed to the Union, and to perpetual freedom in the state-committed to the very things, and nearly all the things the nation wants-and they ask the nations recognition, and it's assistance to make good their committal. Now, if we reject, and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse them. We in effect say to the white men "You are worthless, or worse-we will neither help you, nor be helped by you." To the blacks we say "This cup of liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your lips, we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined when, where, and how." If this course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, has any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with the Union, I have, so far, been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we recognize, and sustain the new government of Louisiana the converse of all this is made true. We encourage the hearts, and nerve the arms of the twelve thousand to adhere to their work, and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to a complete success. The colored man too, in seeing all united for him, is inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring, to the same end. Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps toward it, than by running backward over them? Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it? Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the national constitution. To meet this proposition, it has been argued that no more than three fourths of those States which have not attempted secession are necessary to validly ratify the amendment. I do not commit myself against this, further than to say that such a ratification would be questionable, and sure to be persistently questioned; while a ratification by three fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unquestionable.

I repeat the question. "Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State Government?"

What has been said of Louisiana will apply generally to other States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each state; and such important and sudden changes occur in the same state; and, withal, so new and unprecedented is the whole case, that no exclusive, and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as to details and colatterals. Such exclusive, and inflexible plan, would surely become a new entanglement. Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.

In the present "situation" as the phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some new announcement to the people of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail to act, when satisfied that action will be proper.

Chapter Two

THADDEUS STEVENS

Speech in Congress on Reconstruction

Washington, D.C., December 18, 1865

A candid examination of the power and proper principles of reconstruction can be offensive to no one, and may possibly be profitable by exciting inquiry. One of the suggestions of the message which we are now considering has special reference to this. Perhaps it is the principle most interesting to the people at this time. The President assumes, what no one doubts, that the late rebel States have lost their constitutional relations to the Union, and are incapable of representation in Congress, except by permission of the Government. It matters but little, with this admission, whether you call them States out of the Union, and now conquered territories, or assert that because the Constitution forbids them to do what they did do, that they are therefore only dead as to all national and political action, and will remain so until the Government shall breathe into them the breath of life anew and permit them to occupy their former position. In other words, that they are not out of the Union, but are only dead carcasses lying within the Union. In either case, it is very plain that it requires the action of Congress to enable them to form a State government and send representatives to Congress. Nobody, I believe, pretends that with their old constitutions and frames of government they can be permitted to claim their old rights under the Constitution. They have torn their constitutional States into atoms, and built on their foundations fabrics of a totally different character. Dead men cannot raise themselves. Dead States cannot restore their own existence "as it was." Whose especial duty is it to do it? In whom does the Constitution place the power? Not in the judicial branch of Government, for it only adjudicates and does not prescribe laws. Not in the Executive, for he only executes and cannot make laws. Not in the Commander-in- Chief of the armies, for he can only hold them under military rule until the sovereign legislative power of the conqueror shall give them law.

There is fortunately no difficulty in solving the question. There are two provisions in the Constitution, under one of which the case must fall. The fourth article says:

"New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union."

In my judgment this is the controlling provision in this case. Unless the law of nations is a dead letter, the late war between two acknowledged belligerents severed their original compacts, and broke all the ties that bound them together. The future condition of the conquered power depends on the will of the conqueror. They must come in as new States or remain as conquered provinces. Congress-the Senate and House of Representatives, with the concurrence of the President-is the only power that can act in the matter. But suppose, as some dreaming theorists imagine, that these States have never been out of the Union, but have only destroyed their State governments so as to be incapable of political action; then the fourth section of the fourth article applies, which says:

"The United States shall guaranty to every State in this Union a republican form of government."

Who is the United States? Not the judiciary; not the President; but the sovereign power of the people, exercised through their representatives in Congress, with the concurrence of the Executive. It means the political Government-the concurrent action of both branches of Congress and the Executive. The separate action of each amounts to nothing, either in admitting new States or guarantying republican governments to lapsed or outlawed States. Whence springs the preposterous idea that either the President, or the Senate, or the House of Representatives, acting separately, can determine the right of States to send members or Senators to the Congress of the Union?

To prove that they are and for four years have been out of the Union for all legal purposes, and being now conquered, subject to the absolute disposal of Congress, I will suggest a few ideas and adduce a few authorities. If the so-called "confederate States of America" were an independent belligerent, and were so acknowledged by the United States and by Europe, or had assumed and maintained an attitude which entitled them to be considered and treated as a belligerent, then, during such time, they were precisely in the condition of a foreign nation with whom we were at war; nor need their independence as a nation be acknowledged by us to produce that effect. In the able opinion delivered by that accomplished and loyal jurist, Mr. Justice Grier, in the prize cases, all the law on these points is collected and clearly stated. (2 Black, page 66.) Speaking of civil wars, and following Vattel, he says:

"When the party in rebellion occupy and hold in a hostile manner a certain portion of territory; have declared their independence; have cast off their allegiance; have organized armies; have commenced hostilities against their former sovereign, the world acknowledges them as belligerents, and the contest a war."

And

"The parties belligerent in a public war are independent nations. But it is not necessary, to constitute war, that both parties should be acknowledged as independent nations or foreign States. A war may exist where one of the belligerents claims sovereign rights as against the other."

The idea that the States could not and did not make war because the Constitution forbids it, and that this must be treated as a war of individuals, is a very injurious and groundless fallacy. Individuals cannot make war. They may commit murder, but that is no war. Communities, societies, States, make war, Phillimore says, (volume three, page 68:)

"War between private individuals who are members of a society cannot exist. The use of force in such a case is trespass and not war."

(Continues...)

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It’s nice to be reminded that American politics has arguably the richest oratorical tradition in the history of Western tradition.” — Los Angeles Times

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