Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 91
I heard your speech and understood every word
you said? "
President Lincoln gave this reply to the question
asked, to what secret he owed his success in
public debate: " I always assume that my audiences
are in many things wiser than I am, and I
say the most sensible things I can to them. I
never found that they did not understand me."
The power of simple statement is one of the
chief characteristics of Mr. Douglass' style of
speaking, and in this respect he resembles Fox,
the great British statesman, who, above all his
countrymen, was distinguished on account of
plainness, and, as I may express it, homeliness of
thought which gave him great power in persuading
and moving his audience.
Mr. Douglass' influence in public speaking is
due largely to the fact that he touches the hearts
of his hearers—that he impresses them with the
belief of his sincerity and earnestness. His heart
is in what he says. " Clearness, force, and earnestness,"
says Webster, " are the qualities which
produce conviction. True eloquence, indeed, does
not consist in speech ; it cannot be brought from
far; labor and learning may toil for it, but they
will toil for it in vain. Words and phrases may
be marshaled in every way, but they cannot
compass it; it must exist in the man, in the subject,
and in the occasion,"