Excerpt from Modern Eloquence, Vol. 4: Lectures A E What we call in America Stump Oratory - Oratory in its roughest and most familiar shape - still plays a great part - a part which hardly seems to lessen in its influence over the people at large. TO be fully satisfied, they must hear the man speak', and give themselves up to the sound of his voice. Whenever a campaign comes on, all the available vocal power is called into action, and Whoever watches the effect will see that the oratory of the campaign is a very powerful and invigorating force. In 1872 a large number Of the leading men and news papers had placed themselves in opposition to General Grant, and there were weeks during which his election seemed more than doubtful; but the campaign orator had not been at work a fortnight before you could feel the change. Not only were there words, but you had looked into the face of the man who said them. When you read what is written, the power of the written word depends much upon your mood. When you hear a man speak, his power depends much on his mood. You natu rally lend your thoughts to him. Moreover, the rest Of your fellows in the audience do their part, and there comes on that irresistible power of human sympathy which gives you your share of the emotion of others and mingles your thoughts with theirs. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.