viii SPEECHES IN WOrLD HISTOrYJohn Bright: Against American Slavery 1862, England ...252Abraham Lincoln: The Gettysburg Address 1863, United States ...254John Stuart Mill: On the right o
Trang 2Speeches
In World
History
Trang 5SPEECHES IN WORLD HISTORY
Copyright © 2009 by Suzanne McIntire
Foreword and chapter introductions, copyright © 2009 Facts On File
All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Speeches in world history / [compiled by] Suzanne McIntire ; with
additional contributions by William E Burns
our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755
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Text design by Erika K Arroyo
Cover design by Takeshi Takahashi
Printed in the United States of America
Trang 6List of Illustrations xii
Foreword by William E Burns xv
Acknowledgments xx
How to Use This Book xxi
THE ANCIENT WORLD TO 550 .. Introduction to the Ancient World 1
Speeches 5
Dan, Duke of Zhou: The Shao Announcement (ca 1036 ..., China) 7
Jeremiah: “O Earth, Earth, Earth, Hear the Word” (605 ..., Jerusalem) 9
Darius I: “The Rule of One” (522 ..., Persia) 11
Gautama Buddha: Sermon at Benares (ca 521 ..., India) 13
Artemisia: Advice to Xerxes I (480 ..., Greece) 16
Pericles: Funeral Oration (431 ..., Athens) 18
Socrates: The Trial Addresses (399 ..., Athens) 21
Demosthenes: On the Crown (330 ..., Athens) 26
Publius Cornelius Scipio: Against Hannibal (218 ..., Italy) 32
Gaius Marius: On Humbleness of Birth (106 ..., Rome) 34
Marcus Tullius Cicero: First Oration against Catiline (63 ..., Rome) 37
Julius Caesar: “The Alternative of Exile” (63 ..., Rome) 40
Cato the Younger: “Foes Are within Our Walls” (63 ..., Rome) 43
Catiline: To His Soldiers (62 ..., Italy) 45
Hortensia: “When Have There Not Been Wars?” (42 ..., Rome) 47
Jesus of Nazareth, The Sermon on the Mount (28–30 .., Israel) 49
Claudius I: “United under Our Name” (48 .., Rome) 53
Caratacus: To Emperor Claudius (51 .., Rome) 55
Boudica, “A Woman’s Resolve” (60 .., Britain) 56 El’azar ben Yair: Speech at Masada
Contents
Trang 7on the dignity of Man”
(1486, italy) 115girolamo Savonarola: “let Me Be persecuted” (1497, italy) 119António de Montesinos: “Are They not Men?” (1511, española) 122Moctezuma: Welcoming hernán
cortés to Mexico (1519, tenochtitlán, or city of Mexico) 124Martin luther: “i Stand here and can Say no More”
(1521, germany) 127hernán cortés: “These Shabbily dressed Men” (1524, Mexico) 130Bartolomé de las casas: The Valladolid debate (1550, Spain) 132Queen elizabeth i: “The heart and
Stomach of a King”
(1588, england) 135James i: “Kings Are Justly called gods” (1609, london) 137powhatan: to captain John Smith
(1609, Virginia) 139John Winthrop: “We Shall Be as a city upon a hill”
(1630, off the coast of england) 142galileo galilei: Abjuration before the
roman inquisition (1633, rome) 144Thomas rainborow: “All law lies in
the people”
(1647, england) 146charles i: From the Scaffold
(1649, england) 148António Vieira: “The Sins of Maranhão” (1653, Brazil) 151Joseph-Antoine de la Barre: Address
to the Five nations (1684, United States) 154
Trang 8Garangula: “Do Not Choke the Tree
of Peace” (1684, United States) 156Andrew Hamilton: In Defense of Freedom
of the Press (1735, New York City) 158John Wesley: “The New Birth”
(1740, Great Britain) 161
THE AGE OF rEVOLUTION AND EMPIrE
(1750–1900)Introduction to the Age of revolution and Empire 167
Speeches 171Minavavana: “You Know That His
Enemies Are Ours”
(1761, United States) 173William Pitt the Elder: Toward repealing the Stamp Act
(1766, England) 175William Pitt the Elder: “Justice to America”
(1775, England) 178Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with America (1775, England) 181Patrick Henry: “Give Me Liberty or
Give Me Death”
(1775, United States) 185Samuel Adams: “No Other Alternative Than Independence”
(1776, United States) 188William Pitt the Elder: “You Cannot
Conquer America”
(1777, England) 191Benjamin Franklin: To the
Constitutional Convention (1787, United States) 193William Wilberforce: “The Number of Deaths Speaks for Itself”
(1789, England) 195William Pitt the Younger: “An
Inexcusable Injustice”
(1792, England) 199Georges-Jacques Danton: “Always to Dare!”
Charles James Fox: “The Principle Which Gives Life to Liberty”
(1795, England) 207Napoleon Bonaparte: To His Soldiers
on Entering Milan (1796, Italy) 210George Washington: “Observe Good
Faith and Justice to All Nations”
(1796, United States) 212Toussaint Louverture: “A Land of
Slavery Purified by Fire”
(1802, Haiti) 215robert Emmet: “My Country Was My Idol”
(1803, Ireland) 217red Jacket: “We Never Quarrel about religion”
(1805, United States) 220Miguel Hidalgo: The Cry of Dolores
(1810, Mexico) 223José María Morelos: “Spirits of
Moctezuma Take Pride”
(1813, Mexico) 226Simón Bolívar: “The Illustrious Name
of Liberator”
(1814, Venezuela) 228Daniel Webster: The Bunker Hill Oration (1825, United States) 230Daniel O’Connell: “Justice for Ireland”
(1836, England) 233Frederick Douglass: Against Slavery
(1846, England) 235Victor Hugo: Against Capital Punishment (1851, France) 239Louis Kossuth: “Become the Lafayettes
of Hungary”
(1851, New York City) 241John Bright: “The Angel of Death”
(1855, England) 243Lucy Stone: “A Disappointed Woman”
(1855, United States) 245David Livingstone: “Commerce and
Christianity”
Trang 9viii SPEECHES IN WOrLD HISTOrY
John Bright: Against American Slavery (1862, England) 252Abraham Lincoln: The Gettysburg Address (1863, United States) 254John Stuart Mill: On the right of
Women to Vote (1866, England) 256Susan B Anthony: “Are Women Persons?”
(1873, United States) 258William Gladstone: On Empire
(1879, Scotland) 261Henry Edward Manning: Condemning Anti-Semitism
(1882, England) 263Frederick Engels: Eulogy on Karl Marx (1883, England) 266José Martí: “Mother America”
(1889, New York City) 269Machemba: “I Am Sultan in My Land”
(1890, German East Africa, now Tanzania) 272Wobogo: “Never Come Back”
(1895, Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso) 273Máximo Gómez: “respect Our
revolution” (1896, Cuba) 274Max Simon Nordau: Address to the
First Zionist Congress (1897, Switzerland) 275Émile Zola: “Dreyfus Is Innocent!”
(1898, France) 279
CrISIS AND ACHIEVEMENT (1900–1950)
Introduction to Crisis and Achievement 285
Speeches 289
Mohandas K Gandhi: The Pledge to resistance (1906, South Africa) 291Mark Twain: Farewell to England
(1907, England) 294Emmeline Pankhurst: “This Women’s
Civil War”
(1913, England) 296Patrick Pearse: “Ireland Unfree Shall
Never Be at Peace”
(1915, Ireland) 299
roger Casement: On Loyalty to Ireland (1916, England) 301Woodrow Wilson: “The World Must Be Made Safe for Democracy”
(1917, United States) 304Charles E Stanton: “Lafayette, We Are Here”
(1917, France) 307Emma Goldman: Trial Address (1917,
United States) 308
V I Lenin: “A Workers’ and Peasants’
revolution”
(1917, russia) 312Woodrow Wilson: On Behalf of
the League of Nations (1919, United States) 314Marie Curie: On Discovering radium
(1921, United States) 316Mohandas K Gandhi: “I Want to Avoid Violence” (1922, India) 318Mustafa Kemal Atatürk: “Women and Men Will Walk Side by Side”
(1923, Turkey) 321Adolf Hitler: “The Drummer of National Germany”
(1932, Germany) 323Stephen S Wise: Madison Square Garden Address
(1933, United States) 325Ernst Toller: “The Arm of Hitler”
(1934, Scotland) 328Haile Selassie I: Address to the League
of Nations (1936, Switzerland) 333Dolores Ibárruri: “Fascism Is Not Invincible”
(1937, Spain) 336Edouard Daladier: “The Slaves of Nazi Masters”
(1940, France) 339Winston Churchill: “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat”
(1940, England) 341Winston Churchill: “We Shall Fight on the Beaches”
(1940, England) 344Winston Churchill: “This Was Their
Finest Hour”
(1940, England) 347
Trang 10Face of the World”
(1955, indonesia) 418nikita Khrushchev: The Secret Speech (1956, USSr) 421luis Muñoz Marín: “An America to
Serve the World”
(1956, United States) 424golda Meir: “peace with our Arab
neighbors”
(1957, United nations) 428richard nixon: to the russian people (1959, USSr) 431harold Macmillan: “The Wind of change”
(1960, South Africa) 434patrice lumumba: independence day Address (1960, democractic republic of
the congo) 438patrick duncan: “An Unjust law is
no true law”
(1960, South Africa) 441dwight d. eisenhower: The Military-
industrial complex (1961, United States) 445John F. Kennedy: inaugural Address
(1961, United States) 448gideon hausner: “Six Million Accusers”
(1961, israel) 451Adlai Stevenson: Speech at the United nations (1962, United nations) 455Julius Kambarage nyerere: on dancing the
Gombe Sugu
(1962, tanganyika, now tanzania) 457
Trang 11x SPEECHES IN WOrLD HISTOrY
Nelson Mandela: The rivonia Trial Address (1964, South Africa) 466Martin Luther King, Jr.: Nobel Peace Prize Address (1964, Norway) 471robert F Kennedy: “A Desert of Our
Own Creation”
(1968, United States) 474Chaim Herzog: “The Aim of Zionism”
(1975, United Nations) 478Anwar Sadat: To the Israeli Knesset
(1977, Israel) 481Natan Sharansky: “At Peace with My
Conscience”
(1978, USSr) 486Wei Jingsheng: “These Leaders Are
Not Gods”
(1979, China) 488Jacobo Timerman: “The Books Were
the First Victims”
(1981, United States) 492ronald reagan: The “Evil Empire”
Speech (1983, United States) 496Susan Hannah rabin: “We Are Children Who Fear for Our Lives”
(1983, Finland) 500Lech Wałęsa: “The Value of Human Solidarity”
(1983, Norway) 502Nelson Mandela: “Your Freedom and
Mine Cannot Be Separated”
(1985, South Africa) 506Elie Wiesel: remembering the Jewish
Children of Izieu (1987, France) 509ronald reagan: “Mr Gorbachev, Tear
Down This Wall!”
(1987, Germany) 511Salah Khalaf: “No Peace without the
Palestinians”
(1989, Israel) 514Viktor Orbán: On the reburial of Imre Nagy (1989, Hungary) 518Fang Lizhi: “The Terror That Has
Earth Summit (1992, Brazil) 526rigoberta Menchú Tum: “Freedom for the Indians”
(1992, Norway) 528Paul Keating: The redfern Address
(1992, Australia) 531Aung San Suu Kyi: On the rightful Place
of Women (1995, China) 535King Hussein: Eulogy to Yitzhak rabin (1995, Israel) 539Kim Phúc: At the Vietnam War Memorial (1996, United States) 541Diana, Princess of Wales: “This Terrible Legacy of Mines”
(1997, England) 542Benazir Bhutto: “One Billion Muslims Are at the Crossroads”
(1997, United States) 545Craig Kielburger: “Free the Children”
(1997, Canada) 550Boris Yeltsin: Apology for the Murder of the romanovs (1998, russia) 553Nkosi Johnson: At the 13th International AIDS Conference
(2000, South Africa) 555Vojislav Koštunica: “Dear Liberated Serbia!”
(2000, Yugloslavia) 558Pope John Paul II: Apology for the Sack
of Constantinople (2001, Greece) 560Jean Chrétien: “With the United States Every Step of the Way”
(2001, Canada) 562Johannes rau: “America Does Not
Stand Alone”
(2001, Germany) 564George W Bush: To the United Nations
on the Terrorist Attacks (2001, United Nations) 566
Trang 12Kofi Annan: “Two States, Israel and Palestine”
(2002, Lebanon) 569
Mahathir bin Mohamad: “Muslims Everywhere Must Condemn Terrorism” (2002, Malaysia) 572
Muhammad Yunus: “Poverty Was All around Me” (2003, England) 575
Gerhard Schröder: “I Bow My Head before the Victims” (2005, Germany) 579
Mikhail Gorbachev: “The Historical Achievement of Perestroika” (2005, United States) 582
Alberto Mora: “Cruelty Disfigures Our National Character” (2006, United States) 587
Akbar Ganji: “The Struggle against Violence” (2006, russia) 590
Albert Gore, Jr.: “A Planetary Emergency” (2006, United States) 593
Wangari Muta Maathai: “Our Future Is in Our Environment” (2007, United States) 597
Appendix 1 Writing a Persuasive Speech 601
Appendix 2 Delivering a Great Speech 603
Appendix 3 Working with Speeches as Primary Sources 605
General Bibliography 607
Speeches by Title 611
Speeches by Orator 615
Speeches by Nationality 619
List of rhetorical Devices 624
Comprehensive Index 625
Trang 13AS
Darius I the Great, detail of a relief,
Persepolis, Persia, 491–486 .. 12
Photograph of the Great Buddha statue in Kamakura, Japan, built 1252 15
Photograph of the bust of Pericles, said to be from Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli, Lazio, Italy 19
Alexander the Great of Macedonia, detail from a mosaic originally from the Casa del Fauno, Pompeii 30
Marcus Tullius Cicero addressing the Senate, painting by Cesare Maccari 38
Julius Caesar, a bronze statue near Trajan’s Forum 41
Caratacus addresses Emperor Claudius I in Rome 55
Boudica (or Boadicea) rides among her troops 56
Portrait of Saint Augustine of Hippo 65
A detail of Byzantine empress Theodora and her court, from a mosaic in S Vitale, Ravenna, Italy 67
King Æthelberht of Kent receives Augustine, the Roman missionary 77
Abu Bakr, Ali ibn Abi Talib, and Muhammad, painting from the book Life of the Prophet, 1594 81
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux preaches a Second Crusade in France, 1146 96
Saint Francis preaching to the birds 100
Portrait of Pico della Mirandola 117
Portrait of Girolamo Savonarola, ca 1498 120
Moctezuma greets Cortés in an illustration from the History of the Indians, by Diego Durán, 1579 125
Engraving of Hernán Cortés 130
Engraving of Chief Wahunsonacock of the Powhatan Confederacy 140
Galileo Galilei answers charges of heresy before the Roman Inquisition, in a painting from 1633 145
Portrait of Charles I, king of England 149
Engraving of John Wesley 162
Engraving of William Pitt the Elder 176
Engraving of Patrick Henry 186
Engraving of William Wilberforce from 1814 197
Engraving of Maximilien de Robespierre 205
François-Dominique Toussaint, engraving from the book The Negro in the New World, by Sir Harry H Johnston, 1910 215
Lithograph of Robert Emmet 219
Portrait of Red Jacket, or Segoyewatha, Seneca chief 221
Father Miguel Hidalgo leading an army of Mexican peasants 224
Photograph of Daniel Webster 231
Photograph of Frederick Douglass 236
List of Illustrations
Trang 14Daguerreotype of Lucy Stone 246
David Livingstone, engraving, 1857 248
Abraham Lincoln speaking at Gettysburg,
November 19, 1863 255
Photograph of John Stuart Mill, 1884 257
José Martí, portrait on the Cuban one
peso note 270
Photograph of Max Nordau 276
Mohandas K Gandhi outside his law office in
South Africa, 1902 292
Portrait of Mark Twain as public speaker 295
Emmeline Pankhurst, arrested in London,
May 1914 297
Woodrow Wilson giving the declaration of
war to Congress April 2, 1917 305
Photograph of “Red Emma” Goldman 309
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin waving to the crowd
in Red Square, Moscow, October 1917 313
Photograph of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk 321
Photograph of Ernst Toller, 1933 329
Edouard Daladier with other signers of the
Munich Pact, 1938 340
Winston Churchill walking through the
Blitz bomb damage 342
Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth
during a World War II radio broadcast 352
Franklin D Roosevelt signing the declaration
of war 354
General Douglas MacArthur, signing of surrender
instruments on USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay 366
Robert H Jackson speaking at the
Jomo Kenyatta receiving the Instruments
of Independence, Nairobi, Kenya,
Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon during the Kitchen Debates, Moscow, July 24, 1959 432
Dwight D Eisenhower at John F Kennedy’s inauguration, January 20, 1961 446
Julius Nyerere and Milton Obote in Kampala, Uganda, July 1969 458
John F Kennedy addressing Berliners, June 26, 1963 465
Nelson Mandela leaving court, Pretoria, South Africa, August 1958 468
Chaim Herzog at the podium in the
UN General Assembly, 1975 479
Anwar Sadat at a press conference, 1977 482
Demonstrators protesting the imprisonment
of Wei Jingsheng 489
Ronald Reagan delivering the “Evil Empire”
speech, Orlando, Florida, March 8, 1983 497
Lech Wałęsa leaving the Lenin Shipyards Gdanśk, Poland, June 17, 1983 503
Elie Wiesel at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, Poland, January 17, 1988 510
Václav Havel toasting Czech Politbureau resignation 525
Rigoberta Menchú Tum addressing crowd, Guatemala City, October 17, 1992 529
Aung San Suu Kyi delivering a speech, Rangoon (Yangon), Myanmar (Burma), June 1996 536
Benazir Bhutto leading a protest rally, Islamabad, Pakistan, November 10, 2007 546
Craig Kielburger during a news conference, Ottawa, Canada, February 1996 551
Nkosi Johnson speaking at the annual International Aids Conference, Durban, South Africa 556
Vojislav Koštunica addressing reporters, Belgrade, September 24, 2000 559
Kofi Annan sitting at the Arab League summit, Beirut, March 27, 2002 570
Trang 16No one knows who was the first human to address his
or her fellows as a group Perhaps this person was
someone organizing a hunting or gathering expedition, or
urging that a clan relocate in the face of climate change or
the coming of dangerous animals Whoever it was, he or
she was inaugurating a long and varied tradition of public
speaking, extending through a myriad of civilizations and
societies to the present day
This book contains some of the highlights of this
long human tradition The speeches cover the time from
the dawn of ancient civilization in the Middle East to the
21st century and are the work of people ranging from
kings to ordinary, sometimes even anonymous, people
Some of the speakers, such as Jesus, Muhammad, and
Abraham Lincoln, rank among the very greatest names in
history Others are more obscure or even unknown, but
their words are often equally eloquent By studying their
words, we can learn more about speaking and also about
the human condition
Speeches in World History contains more than 200
speeches by people from all walks of life on every
con-tinent—from a Chinese ruler (Dan, duke of Zhou) who
helped found the Chinese political system almost 3,000
years ago to an African woman (Wangari Maathai) who
won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for pioneering
envi-ronmental conservation as a road to world peace You will
find significant speeches from U.S history, little known
speeches from Latin America, important addresses from
the Muslim world, and speeches from the ancients on
top-ics so timeless they are still debated today The selections
dice, colonialism, self-determination, women’s rights, cism and communism, nuclear proliferation, free speech, terrorism, the rights of indigenous peoples, even environ-mental degradation
mon-to Winsmon-ton Churchill, John F Kennedy, and Barack Obama in modern times
Political speeches vary greatly by both audience and the persuasive mission of the speaker At times the speaker is a ruler or authority figure, giving commands
to subjects and subordinates or inspiring loyalty and enthusiasm (Kings and dictators are not the only ones to fall into this category; so do generals, such as Napoleon, who address their troops, or revolutionary leaders, such
as Lenin, who inspire their followers.) Other times, the speaker addresses equals, as a member of a legislature, for example, William Pitt, who desperately tried to save Britain from fatally alienating its American colonies A
Foreword
Trang 17xvi SPEECHES IN WOrLD HISTOrY
not be said, as is demonstrated by the elaborate codes
of the British parliament and U.S Congress that forbid
members to refer to each other by name, as in the
Brit-ish parliamentary phrase, “The honourable member for
Westminster.”
Other political speakers may be addressing ple outside the elite, in an attempt to gain their sup-
peo-port Anticolonial leaders, including Simón Bolívar
and Mohandas Gandhi, have addressed the poor and
oppressed in an attempt to mobilize them for violent
or nonviolent action Speakers in countries with open
political systems have given speeches to ordinary
peo-ple advocating particular policies or attempting to
gar-ner votes in an election Such “campaign speeches” can
outline a particular agenda, but arguments for these
specific positions often play only a minor role The real
focus of many “positive” campaign speeches is
persuad-ing hearers that the speaker is a good person who shares
their opinions and deserves their vote “Negative”
cam-paign speeches attempt to convince hearers that the
speaker’s opponent is unworthy of their support
Speaking is also often part of public ceremonial occasions, as when Lincoln made his Gettysburg
Address at the dedication of the memorial on the Civil
War battlefield Ceremonial addresses are very
differ-ent from campaign speeches At a ceremonial address
it is considered in poor taste for a speaker to draw too
much attention to him or herself or to attack political
enemies A tone of humility, as displayed by Lincoln, is
often more effective than “blowing your own horn.” The
focus of a ceremonial speech should be on the occasion
that has brought speaker and hearer together
religious oratory
rivaling and sometimes even eclipsing politics as a place
for an orator’s voice to be heard is religion
Speechmak-ing has been an important part of religious life for
mil-lennia Founders of major world religions—the Buddha,
Jesus, and Muhammad, to name a few—were renowned
for their persuasiveness and speaking ability The
mes-sage of Judaism was never so powerfully expressed as by
the voice of its prophets such as Jeremiah, who fearlessly
scourged Jewish society for its failure to live up to the
demands of its God Each religion, with many others,
has spawned a tradition of sermons, often integrated
into services, such as the Christian Sunday sermon or
the Islamic Friday khutba.
There are many differences of terminology between religious and political speakers rather than orators,
religious speechmakers are preachers, and their
ora-tions are not speeches but sermons Even so, there are
many similarities in practice Like a political speaker,
a religious speaker must take his or her audience into
account religious speakers sometimes address those who are already followers of their religion, explicating religious doctrine and law or urging hearers to greater piety The mission of Bernard of Clairvaux and other medieval “crusade preachers” was to convince com-mitted Christians to take the extra step of vowing to go
on crusade At other times, religious speakers address unbelievers, particularly in the early days of a religion
or when it is expanding to a new area through the work
of missionaries, such as the Korean Buddhist monk Musang, a seventh- and eighth-century missionary in China In these addresses speakers must make their religious message as appealing as possible to people who do not share many of their assumptions Once a religion is established, a parish priest or congregational rabbi might use his weekly sermons to address a com-munity he knows intimately, building a relationship that can last for decades A traveling revivalist such
as John Wesley was, on the other hand, has the task of addressing an audience full of strangers he may never see again and must rely on themes that will move a crowd Sometimes religious speakers claim direct inspiration from their God or gods The enthusiastic
speaker claiming divine inspiration (the term
enthu-siasm in the original Greek referred to possession by a
god) has often been viewed as a threat by established religious hierarchies
religious speeches, like political speeches, vary in themes and tone from the emotionalism of the “revival”
to the perfunctoriness of many short sermons Some preachers appeal to the intellect, constructing their ser-mons as logical arguments, while others focus on the passions, relying on rhetorical appeals and variations
in tone of voice to move the crowd “Hellfire” tian preachers use vivid depictions of the torments of the damned to frighten their hearers into repentance
Chris-Others evoke the sufferings of Jesus on the cross or the joys of heaven Some religious speeches are reserved for special holidays or ceremonial occasions such as the Christmas and Easter sermons of Christian minis-
ters, the ramadan khutbas of Muslim preachers, or the
Asarna Bucha sermons of Thai Buddhist monks ers expect these sermons to focus on a well-worn set
Hear-of images and ideas Christmas sermons, for example, frequently draw on the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth (the reason for the holiday)
Of course, given the intertwining of religion and politics throughout history, religious and politi-cal speechmaking have never been totally separate
Many political speeches include some rhetorical appeal
to God, and religious idioms have greatly influenced political speakers Candidates for election in the United States routinely refer to God and their faith in their
Trang 18campaign speeches American civil rights leader
Mar-tin Luther King, Jr., an ordained minister, drew on the
tradition of the African-American sermon to make
fun-damentally political speeches Many preachers of the
world’s religious traditions have included political
mes-sages in their sermons
Forensic oratory
The courtroom has often been an arena for
speechmak-ers Some of the greatest orators were also lawyers, who
became as renowned for speeches made in the
court-room as in the public forum The role of speechmaking
varies greatly by legal system and by individual cases
and settings A lawyer addressing the U.S Supreme
Court, for example, will use different rhetorical tactics
than a lawyer addressing a jury in a criminal trial A
legal speech can be a calm recounting of the evidence
and law, or a passionate appeal meant to stir a jury or
a judge Lawyers are not the only ones to have
spo-ken in legal settings Some systems of law have also
allowed the accused to make a statement Even the
repressive legal system of the Soviet Union allowed the
dissident Natan Sharansky to speak at his trial Persons
condemned to death have even spoken immediately
before their executions, maintaining their innocence
or demonstrating their repentance for their crimes
King Charles I of England’s moving speech from the
scaffold had a great influence on hearers and
subse-quent readers
Legal and political systems are intertwined, and some of the greatest political speakers from the ancient
world to today have also been effective legal
speak-ers Cicero’s speeches at trials were preserved
along-side his political speeches in the roman Senate In the
19th century Daniel Webster, among many others, was
known for his triumphs in the courtroom as well as
the U.S Congress The skills of a trial lawyer—effective
advocacy and the ability to sway hearers by combining
reason with passion—are often the skills of a political
speaker as well
sPeechmaking and gender
For most of history, the principal realms of oratory—
politics, religion, and the law—have been reserved for
males Many societies defined the “public sphere” as
male and relegated women to the “private,” or
“domes-tic,” sphere The outspoken man has been praised, the
outspoken woman often depicted as a screeching
harri-of England The slow opening harri-of political and religious activism and leadership to women in the 20th century has led to a surge of women’s speaking Women such as Golda Meir of Israel, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, and Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma now lead republics, serve
in legislatures, head political parties and movements, and make their voices heard in public assemblies, court-rooms, and religious gatherings
the art oF “rhetoric”
Since speechmaking has been so important to human society, people have studied how to do it most effectively
With its roots in ancient Greece and rome, this study
is called “rhetoric”—the science of persuasive speech
rhetoric attracted some of the greatest minds of the ancient world, including Aristotle and Cicero, and was part of the core curriculum of ancient schools In the Middle Ages, there was less interest in Latin rhetoric, but it was revived during the renaissance renaissance
“Humanists,” namely, students of the ancient Greeks and romans and their surviving texts, viewed rhetoric
as one of the most precious legacies of the ancient world, and they promoted its study in the schools they founded
rhetorical skill was intimately associated with ship, and it was taught to the upper classes, who were expected to fill positions of authority in state, church, and private enterprise
leader-We owe the preservation of some of the finest speeches of the ancient Western world to their use as texts in rhetoric classes For centuries after the issues they had originally addressed had fallen into dust, stu-dents memorized and declaimed the orations of Cicero, Demosthenes, and their peers rhetoricians taught the use of various “figures of speech” and different speaking styles, from the lush, wordy “Asiatic” style to the terse, unadorned “Attic” style They instructed their pupils on which styles were appropriate for different occasions
They also taught the mechanics of speechmaking, how
to speak clearly with the appropriate emphases, and how to hold their bodies and their hands most effec-tively Generations of boys—rhetoric was mostly taught
as a male, “public” skill—were drilled in how to speak effectively, as a skilled speaker, trained or not, could be appreciated even by those who did not agree with his position In the modern United States and other West-ern societies, rhetoric and debate continue to be taught, but now to boys and girls alike
Trang 19xviii SPEECHES IN WOrLD HISTOrY
given Some had an afterlife that could go on for
centu-ries or millennia However, this afterlife was imperfect
Like other texts, speeches originally had to be copied
by hand Each manuscript copy could take hours or
days of the labors of a skilled copyist And few copyists
were perfect—errors would creep in, and would then be
compounded as copies of copies were made And over
the centuries many speeches, like other texts, would
be lost
Beginning in the 15th century in the Western world, and earlier in east Asia, the circulation of writ-
ten texts including speeches increased vastly with the
development of the printing press Some speeches had
far more impact as printed texts than they did when
they were actually given Abraham Lincoln’s
Gettys-burg Address, coming at the end of a long day after a
two-hour speech by scholar Edward Everett, attracted
little notice at the time Today, it is considered among
the greatest speeches in American history
However reproduced, the written texts of speeches come in two forms: one a prepared text that the speaker
reads and the other a transcription of what the speaker
said In either case, the speaker is not necessarily the
author of the speech One of the most important
ques-tions to think about when looking at any written speech
is how much the speech-as-written reflects the reality of
the speech-as-spoken Composing a speech and
deliver-ing it are different skills, often possessed by different
people Many people obligated to give speeches have
no interest, energy, or time to write them For centuries
collections of sermons were sold to preachers unable
or unwilling to write their own The 20th century saw
the rise of the political speechwriter profession Few
modern politicians, particularly in the United States,
are suspected of writing their own speeches, at least
without a lot of help Traditionally the speechwriter
is expected to be a discreet figure in the background
and the speaker is treated as the author of the speech
by a polite fiction However, many speechwriters have
become celebrities themselves Theodore Sorensen,
John F Kennedy’s speechwriter, and Peggy Noonan,
who worked for ronald reagan, are two examples
reading a speech can be a pale shadow of hearing and seeing it delivered A great orator is more than just
the reader of a text By putting emphasis on certain
words and varying pitch and rhythm, a written speech
is transformed into a spoken one Not only is delivery
important, but so is gesture, and even how speakers
hold their bodies A speaker making eye contact with
his or her audience conveys a message different from
one whose eyes are lifted to the heavens Many speeches
by great speakers may read as flat and lifeless, lacking
the spark of live delivery, while the best-written speech will be powerless if the delivery is poor Speakers also often improvise or deviate from written texts Tran-scriptions of speeches are often “cleaned up” with mis-takes, hesitations, and false starts eliminated The gap between the speech-as-spoken and the speech-as-pub-lished goes back to the ancient world Ancient histori-ans like Thucydides and Sallust considered it acceptable
to vastly alter speeches, or even make them up before inserting them in their histories, as the speeches they put in the mouths of historical characters were used to reinforce the main themes and analyses of their histo-ries as a whole
sPeechmaking and technology
In its origin, speechmaking was not a technology-driven activity—all the speaker needed was a voice (preferably
a loud one), and perhaps an elevated place to stand (The terms “stump speech” and “soap-box orator” refer to some primitive ways for a speaker to be elevated above the listening crowd—tree stumps and the wooden crates
in which soap was shipped.) However, speechmaking, particularly in the 20th century, has been greatly influ-enced by the development of technology
The 20th century saw several new technologies that affected speechmaking, including loudspeakers, sound and video recording, and broadcast technology
Loudspeakers and other amplification systems meant orators were no longer restricted to the range of the human voice The loud, bawling speaker straining to make himself heard to a crowd of thousands became a memory Now a speaker could address a crowd of many thousands without raising his or her voice, though it took some time for orators to learn the new skills of the microphone
Eventually the audience did not even need to be physically present to hear a speech radio and televi-sion enabled speakers to address “virtual” audiences numbering in the millions Many, many more people will hear a politician on television or the radio during the course of his or her career than will ever hear him
or her in person Because of this, orators are ingly judged on how they come across on radio and television American political conventions, always showcases for oratory, are now organized as televi-sion spectaculars, with the hearers physically pres-ent in the convention hall a decided afterthought The real audience is the millions watching on television
increas-The new technologies have also altered speechmaking styles radio demands an intimacy epitomized by U.S
president Franklin Delano roosevelt’s “fireside chats”
while television has increasingly put a premium on
Trang 20short, punchy statements that can be excerpted from
a speech and endlessly repeated on video (and now on
Internet) sound bites
Television, radio, and most recently the Internet have also contributed to the development of a world-
wide audience Speakers opposing tyrannical
govern-ments in their own countries such as China’s Fang
Lizhi, an astrophysicist who actively demanded
demo-cratic reforms, can now easily address people in other
lands, hoping to gain international support for their
cause Causes not linked with a specific nation—such as
fighting AIDS, banning landmines, or even Osama bin
Laden’s call for an international jihad—are now
advo-cated in front of a worldwide audience as well
The development of recording technology has also changed speechmaking Speakers can make a speech
over and over again, as speeches that are captured in
sound recordings can be repeated Tapes of a speaker
can be smuggled into dictatorships, enabling him or her
to gain a mass following without even setting foot in the
country Video recordings preserve not just the words
of orations, but the speaker’s visual presentation as well
Even so, however, an image on a screen is not the same
as a live orator, and some of the immediacy of a
politi-cal speech disappears when the issues it addresses are
no longer relevant
recording technology, particularly when coupled with the rapid dissemination of audio and video files via the Internet, has also made it more difficult for political speakers Gaffes—misstatements, slips of the tongue, and other statements that hurt rather than help the speaker—are now repeated endlessly, such as American presidential candidate Howard Dean’s famous “scream”
following his defeat in the Iowa caucuses in 2004 (Some have even blamed the “scream” for Dean’s failure as a candidate.) It is also harder for speakers to get away with the time-honored technique of delivering differ-ent messages to different audiences Now anything a speaker says within range of even a simple device, such
as a cell phone, can instantly be sent to a worldwide audience, often one with very different concerns than the speaker’s immediate audience
All history has been described as a struggle against silence and forgetting The words of the speakers in this collection are eloquent testimony that that struggle is worth fighting
—William E BurnsInstructor, George Washington University
Trang 21AS
Iam very grateful to acknowledge the historians, editors, and wise advisers and
assis-tants who helped me along the way: With his remarkable knowledge of world history, Bill Burns was a fount of information and excellent ideas My capable editors, Claudia Schaab and Melissa Cullen-DuPont, with Alexandra Lo Re, made the entire process
as pleasant as possible My hardworking research assistant, Natalie Deibel, and photo researcher, Phinney McIntire, pitched in when time was pressing Also providing leads and suggestions, translations, and all-around wisdom were Colin Archer, Dennis Bar-ton, Jane Dorfman, Susan Douglas, Elaine English, Ruth Feldman, Darra Goldstein, Richard Knight, Peter Lee, Gareth Lloyd, Will McIntire, Keith Patman, Hiraku Shi-moda, Richard Thornton, and the reference and interlibrary loan staff at Arlington County Libraries Thank you all!
Acknowledgments
Trang 22Arranged chronologically, Speeches in World History
treats the development of speaking as part of the
development of human society Readers can gain fresh
perspective on significant events of history, and even of
our own time, by reading the words of speakers who made
or witnessed the great changes of the moment
Readers of Speeches in World History can become
better speakers themselves by observing how the orators
arranged their arguments, adapted topics to diverse
audi-ences, and engaged hearers with powerful appeals to
rea-son and feeling
A wide variety of genre and geography should allow
readers to find speeches of interest to them personally
The 200 selections come from 48 countries and include
political addresses, gallows speeches, eulogies, sermons,
debates, and the speeches of commanders before battle
ORGANIZATION
The book is divided into six chapters based on the eras
used in the National Standards for World History: Ancient
World (to 550 ..), Expanding World (550–1450), The
First Global Age (1450–1750), The Age of Revolution and
Empire (1750–1900), Crisis and Achievement (1900–1950),
and The Contemporary World (1950 to the present)
Each chapter includes an introductory essay setting
the speeches in an overall historical context Each speech
is preceded by a fact box that lists the name of the speaker;
the speaker’s birth/death or reign dates; and the title,
loca-tion, and date of the speech Each also includes an
intro-Spatial limitations have sometimes prevented the
inclusion of an entire speech In those cases, Speeches in
World History includes excerpts covering the most
impor-tant or the most famous and influential passages
ILLUSTRATIONS
Seventy-five illustrations shed light on the speakers’ sonalities and historical place, from a mosaic of Alexander the Great to the very young Mohandas Gandhi in his first law office to cold-war opponents Reagan and Gorbachev raising a toast at a summit dinner
per-RHETORICAL DEVICES AND FAMOUS LINES
Because so much of the beauty and power of ing comes from the use of rhetorical devices, frequent sidebars use examples from the speeches to illustrate 44 different rhetorical devices, such as metaphor, parallelism, antistrophe, rhetorical question, and hyperbole In some examples you may find more than one type of device.Rhetorical devices are tools an orator may use to make sure he or she engages the audience They help draw the audience’s attention to the points the speaker wants to make, and even arouse emotion in the listeners Many of these devices are commonly used in writing and even in daily speech Others—and there are dozens of them—may require more effort to use Do not be intimidated by their unusual names, many of them Greek While a few rhe-torical devices are invaluable to a brilliant speech (or a
speechmak-How to Use This Book
Trang 23xxii SPEECHES IN WORLD HISTORY
APPENDIXES
The appendixes include three essays to aid students in
working with speeches and speechmaking The first,
“Writing a Persuasive Speech,” describes the process
of choosing a topic; constructing the speech with an
assertion, supporting arguments, and conclusion
(per-oration); and using rhetorical devices to persuade an
audience of the speaker’s sincerity and to arouse their
emotions
“Delivering a Great Speech” covers such
con-cerns as practicing the speech beforehand (even using
the speeches in this book for “declamation”), pacing, demeanor, and appropriate language
“Working with Speeches as Primary Sources” offers
a number of issues to consider when using a speech in historical research: the speaker’s point of view and mes-sage, choice of language, the audience, the occasion, and possible bias
At the back, readers will find a general bibliography including both print and electronic publications and a variety of indexes, including lists of speeches by title, orator, and nationality of the speaker; a list of the fea-tured rhetorical devices; and a comprehensive index
Trang 24THE ANCIENT WORLD
(to ca 550 C.E )
Trang 26In the period to 550 . many of the great traditions and
religions of civilization were built Hinduism, Judaism,
Buddhism, Greek philosophy, Confucianism, Daoism, and
Christianity were all formed in this period Although it
also saw the invention, improvement and spread of many
forms of writing, the spoken word remained the
princi-pal vehicle of communication The Buddha, Confucius,
Socrates, the prophets of Israel, and Jesus are all known
to us not by their writings, but by their spoken words
remembered and written down by their disciples
The early history of humanity is marked by such
advances as the discovery of fire and agriculture The
invention of agriculture enabled much denser populations,
and eventually cities evolved, at first in the great river
val-leys of the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia, the Nile
in Egypt, the Indus in India, and the Yangtze in China
Along with these cities arose more complex religious
sys-tems that led people to move beyond the simple hope that
the gods would be favorable to them to ask questions about
the right way to live There also developed political
societ-ies, creating the demand for political leadership and the
ability to articulate politics in words The words of rulers
such as China’s Duke of Zhou (r 1043–1036 ...) and
King Darius of Persia (r 521–486 ...) helped define the
missions of their governments for centuries
RELIGIOUS AND
PHILOSOPHICAL SPEAKERS
One of the most important changes in human history
was the rise of religions focusing on individual salvation
“Buddha” is a title meaning “enlightened one”) Buddhism was the first religion to produce a body of sermons Sid-dhartha Gautama, the Buddha, was known as a preacher, and his profound new message was disseminated through the spoken word The Buddha’s “Fire Sermon” and “Bena-res Sermon” (the latter included here) became funda-mental Buddhist texts and set the pattern for legions of Buddhist preachers in the following centuries
Public speaking was also important to the Buddha’s contemporaries, the Jewish prophets in Israel Although
nowadays the word prophet is often used to refer to
some-one who predicts the future, that was only a small part of
a prophet’s task Prophets such as Jeremiah, who began preaching in Jerusalem in 628 ..., viewed themselves as inspired by God to proclaim His will on earth They called the Jewish people not merely to correctly and faithfully perform ritual and sacrifice, but also to lead moral and faithful lives and to build a society pleasing to God The prophets denounced the corruption of their own times in
a way that resonated for many centuries among Jews and Christians, and their message continues to inspire to this very day
The people of both India and Israel sought quence primarily in religious contexts The first societies
elo-to break away from a fundamentally religious approach were China and Greece At the end of the sixth century
.. China produced the philosophy of Confucianism, which set forth a plan for an ideal social order without reference to the divine Greece produced a series of intel-
lectual innovators, philosophers, literally “lovers of
wis-Introduction to the Ancient World
Trang 272 SPEECHES IN WOrLD HISTOrY
the universe Like Jeremiah and the Buddha, Socrates
was known as a speaker—there are no references to
written works by him His student and greatest follower,
Plato, wrote a long series of dialogues in which Socrates
expounded on the truths of philosophy The culture of
Greek philosophy remained strongly oral throughout
the history of the classical world Debates between
lead-ing philosophers were major spectator events in Greek
cities
Political eloquence in greece
and rome
At the heart of the classical Greek city was the agora, a
public place for speaking The roman republic, which
fol-lowed in the footsteps of the Greek cities in many ways,
called their similar space the forum The agora and the
forum became synonymous with a tradition of oratory
Many political careers were built on the ability to stand
up in front of a Greek assembly or the roman Senate or
Assembly of the People and give a powerful, persuasive
speech Many Greek and roman speakers—particularly
Demosthenes of Athens (ca 384–322 b.c.e.) and Marcus
Tullius Cicero of rome (106–43 b.c.e.)—have become
legendary Their speeches, including Demosthenes’ “On
the Crown” and Cicero’s “First Oration against Catiline,”
were studied in schools and became models for orators
for many centuries after
So important was persuasive speech that the sical era produced the discipline of rhetoric, one of
clas-the major branches of clas-the liberal arts Elite boys were
trained in it in order to participate in public affairs
rhetoric included the study of figures of speech and
how to construct a persuasive argument, as well as
prac-tical advice for speakers on how to make themselves
heard and put their points across most effectively
Another discipline that was marked by the tance of speech was the writing of history Greek his-
impor-torians such as Herodotus and Thucydides of the fifth
century b.c.e included speeches as important parts of
their histories However, the speeches found in their
works were not always simple transcriptions of what
was actually said The Greeks thought part of a
histo-rian’s job was composing polished speeches that clearly
laid out the fundamental issues at stake in historical
conflicts as well as the character of the speaker
Some-times the speeches were embellishments of the actual
speeches given at the time, and sometimes they were
completely fabricated by the historian roman
histo-rians such as Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus of the first
cen-turies b.c.e and c.e inherited this practice from their
Greek role models Speaking was also important in the
law The idea of evidence was not as developed in the
ancient world as it is today, and many a case hung on which party could make the most persuasive oration
The great speakers of Greek and roman politics were often also skilled and highly sought-after lawyers
The city-states of Greece fought off the mighty sian Empire in the fifth century b.c.e., but they were caught in a brutal series of wars with each other The most important of these was the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta from 431 to 404 b.c.e
Per-As chronicled by one of Greece’s greatest historians, Thucydides, the war prompted the Athenian political leader Pericles’ memorable account of the greatness of Athens However, Pericles died of disease before the war ended, and it was Sparta that carried away the victory
Several of Socrates’ students became part of the group
of Spartan collaborators who ruled Athens after the defeat, the “Thirty Tyrants.” The Athenian democracy was restored after the overthrow of the collaborators and it was this democracy that condemned Socrates to death—an act that may have been political payback for his association with the “Tyrants.”
The Spartan victory did not end the wars of the Greek cities, and after they exhausted each other they were conquered in the fourth century b.c.e by the northern kingdom of Macedonia under Philip II and his son Alexander the Great, considered by many to be the greatest military leader in history Alexander went on to conquer the still formidable Persian Empire and spread Greek culture and the Greek language from Egypt to northern India It was not defeat that caused him to turn back from India, but the fact that his exhausted soldiers would no longer follow him Soon after Alex-ander’s death in 323 b.c.e., his empire fragmented into several kingdoms, referred to as the “Hellenistic” mon-archies The older city-states like Athens were either absorbed by the new kingdoms or found themselves politically marginalized The change was not a good one for Greek eloquence In the Hellenistic kingdoms a poli-tician advanced not through public speechmaking in front of his peers or the people but through cultivating a private relationship with the monarch Oratory became
a pastime for education or public entertainment
rome From rePublic to emPire
Like the city-states earlier, the Hellenistic monarchies sapped their strength through endless wars with each other The power that would eventually sweep them away was rome rome grew from a backward city on the Tiber river in Italy to an empire that encompassed the entire Mediterranean world and much more, even-tually stretching from the border of Scotland to the border of Persia by the second century c.e For centu-
Trang 28ries as it grew, rome was a republic in which ultimate
power lay in the hands of the Senate The word “senate”
literally means a gathering of old men, although the
roman Senate included many younger members of the
ruling class as well The Senate and the other important
political grouping, the Assembly of the roman People,
could be swayed by eloquent speakers Speechmaking
was also important in elections and for generals such as
Publius Cornelius Scipio—who fought the Carthaginian
general Hannibal in the Second Punic War (218–202
b.c.e.)—when addressing their soldiers Every roman
politician was expected to be a good speaker and every
boy of the roman elite was trained in oratory
The great age of political oratory in rome ended the same way it had in Greece—with the transition from a
republic to a monarchy The roman republic, unable
to handle the transition from ruling a small city-state
to vast territories in Europe, Africa, and Asia, fell after
its own civil wars in the first century b.c.e Political
and military leaders including Marius, Sulla, Catiline,
Cicero, Pompey, and Julius Caesar contended for power
Eventually the republic was overthrown by Julius’s
nephew, Augustus Caesar, who became the first roman
emperor in the year 27 b.c.e It was no coincidence that
Cicero lost his life at the hands of the new leaders of
rome His kind of oratory would have no place in the
new monarchy
The eloquence of the new roman Empire was only
a pale shadow of the old republic’s, but not all
politi-cal speechmaking died out roman emperors such as
Claudius used speeches to announce their policies, but
they were addressing subjects, not peers A first century
c.e historian of the empire, Cornelius Tacitus,
contin-ued to incorporate speeches into his histories,
includ-ing the words of enemies of rome such as Boudica, the
warrior queen of the Iceni, and Caratacus, the ruler of
southern Britain, as well as roman champions such as
Gnaeus Julius Agricola, his father-in-law Flavius
Jose-phus, a Jewish historian also of the first century c.e.,
did the same, incorporating the last speech of the
defi-ant rebel and leader of the Jewish revolt against rome,
El’azar ben Yair, in his The Jewish War.
the birth oF christianity
Almost at the same historical moment as the roman
republic and its great tradition of public speaking was
dying, another tradition of religious eloquence was
being born This was the Christian sermon ing on Jewish practice, preaching goes as far back in Christianity as Jesus Christ himself, who, like the Buddha, was renowned as a persuasive preacher His most famous utterance is the “Sermon on the Mount,”
Draw-which has become a prototypical sermon as well as
a source of moral challenge and reflection for many generations of Christians Christianity spread ini-tially among the urban lower classes of the roman cities, many of whom were illiterate (particularly women, who seem to have been attracted to the new religion more than their male contemporaries, pos-sibly because they had less involvement in the “pub-lic” cults of official paganism) Speaking, whether to crowds in the agora or to smaller, clandestine groups during periods of persecution, was essential to spread-ing the Christian message
Probably the most important event in the history
of the roman Empire after its founding was the tion of Christianity as its official religion around the year 312 This decision, made by the Emperor Constan-tine, greatly increased the power and prestige of Chris-tian bishops and priests, who were able to address far wider audiences Preachers such as John Chrysostom
adop-in the Greek-speakadop-ing East and Ambrose of Milan adop-in the Latin-speaking West were eventually able to defy the emperors themselves The thoughtful, powerful ser-mons of Augustine of Hippo became one of the founda-tions of Western Christianity Classical paganism held out stubbornly for over a century, but it eventually died out
The adoption of Christianity may have slowed the decay of the roman Empire, but it could not stop it By the end of the fifth century, the roman Empire in the west had vanished, replaced by a series of non-roman kingdoms with little interest in polished rhetoric The learned tradition in Latin nearly vanished, but the case was different for Greek Before its fall, the roman Empire had been divided into eastern and western halves, and the eastern empire with its capital at Constantinople (modern Istanbul) survived its western counterpart as the Byzantine Empire The eastern area had been the Greek-speaking territory of the Empire, and it adopted Greek as its official language, eventually losing all famil-iarity with Latin The language of Demosthenes and Socrates lived on in the words of Chrysostom and the Byzantine empress Theodora
Trang 30Speeches peeches Speeches
Trang 32One of the five most ancient Chinese texts is the
Clas-sic of Documents, sometimes called ClasClas-sic of
His-tory It contains reports and speeches purportedly by
ancient kings and other court authorities Confucius
(551–479 ...) is supposed to have edited these texts,
and they were old when he worked on them For centuries
the Chinese people have studied these texts as important
sources of knowledge and as models for good
govern-ment The Classic of Documents begins with reports from
the legendary Chinese sage-kings Yao and Shun and
con-tinues through the Xia (2070–1600 ...) and Shang (or
Yin, 1600–1046 ...) dynasties and the early (Western)
Zhou dynasty (beginning 1045 ...) (A dynasty is a
succession of rulers from a powerful family.) King Cheng
was the second of the Western Zhou dynasty rulers; he
reigned from 1043 to 1021 ..., not long after his father,
King Wu, conquered the last Shang king King Cheng
was a child when he came to power; his father’s younger brother—Dan, the powerful duke of Zhou—assumed the regency for seven years until Cheng was old enough to
assume the Mandate of Heaven (or tianming), the
reli-gious power that entitled him to rule In the last year
of his regency, as a new city, Luoyang, was being built, the duke made this speech, the Shao Announcement, describing the mandate received by a virtuous king and his heirs as long as they ruled with wisdom and benevo-lence When a dynasty crumbled, possibly from corrup-tion or cruelty, and the family was dethroned, it was said they had lost the mandate that entitled them to govern by divine right In his speech the duke refers to the Yin, the people of the previous, defeated Shang dynasty The duke
of Zhou was one of the founding fathers of the Chinese political system; the Western Zhou dynasty he helped found would last nearly 275 years through 12 kings
Ah! August Heaven, High God, has changed his principal son and has revoked the
Mandate of this great state of Yin When a king receives the Mandate, without limit is
the grace thereof, but also without limit is the anxiety of it Ah! How can he fail to be
reverently careful!
Heaven has rejected and ended the Mandate of this great state of Yin Thus, although Yin has many former wise kings in Heaven, when their successor kings and
successor people undertook their Mandate, in the end wise and good men lived in
mis-ery Knowing that they must care for and sustain their wives and children, they then
called out in anguish to Heaven and fled to places where they could not be caught Ah!
Heaven too grieved for the people of all the lands, wanting, with affection, in giving its
Mandate to employ those who are deeply committed The king should have reverent
care for his virtue
Look at the former peoples of ancient times, the Xia Heaven guided, indulged, and cherished them, so that they would strive to understand what Heaven favors, but by this
time they have let their Mandate fall to the ground Now look at the Yin; Heaven guided
them, stayed near them, nourished them, so that they would strive to comprehend what
Heaven favors; but now they have let their Mandate fall to the ground
Now a young son succeeds to the throne; let him not, then, neglect the aged and
JK
Trang 338 SPEECHES IN WOrLD HISTOrY
the king must not dare to be slow, but should be prudently apprehensive about what the people say
The king will come representing the High God and himself undertake [the ment here] in the midst of the lands I, Dan, say, “Let a great city be made here; may
govern-he from this place function as tgovern-he mate of August Heaven, reverently sacrificing to tgovern-he higher and lower spirits May he from this place centrally govern.” When the king has
a fully effective mandate, his governing of the people will then enjoy [Heaven’s] grace
Undertaking [the administration of] the Yin managers of affairs, the king should first associate them with our Zhou’s managers of affairs, so as to discipline their natures, and they will day by day advance
Let the king reverently function in his position; he cannot but be reverently careful of his virtue We cannot fail to mirror ourselves in the Xia; also we cannot fail to mirror our-selves in the Yin We must not presume to suppose that the Xia received the Mandate of Heaven for a fixed period of years; we must not presume to suppose that it was not going
to continue It was because they did not reverently care for their virtue that they early let their Mandate fall We must not presume to suppose that the Yin received the Mandate of Heaven for a fixed period of years; we must not presume to suppose that it was not going
to continue It was because they did not reverently care for their virtue that they early let their Mandate fall Now the king has succeeded them in receiving their Mandate; let us also, in regard to the mandate of these two states, continue it with like achievements; [if
we do,] then the king will [truly] now begin to undertake the mandate
Ah! It is like bearing a child: all depends on what happens when it is first born; one gives it oneself its allotment of [future] wisdom Now as to whether Heaven is going to give an endowment of wisdom, of good fortune or bad, or an endowment of so-and-so many years, we [just] know that now we begin the undertaking of the Mandate
Dwelling in this new city, now let the king just earnestly have reverent care for his virtue If it is virtue that the king uses, he may pray Heaven for an enduring Mandate
As he functions as king, let him not, because the common people stray and do what
is wrong, then presume to govern them by harsh capital punishments; in this way he will achieve much In being king, let him take his position in the primacy of virtue The little people will then pattern themselves on him throughout the world; the king will then become illustrious
Those above and below being zealous and careful, let them say, “As we receive Heaven’s Mandate, let it grandly be like the long years enjoyed by the Xia, and not fail
of the years enjoyed by the Yin”—in order that [as one would wish] the king, through the little people, may receive Heaven’s enduring Mandate
Source: Zhou, Duke of “The Shao Announcement.” In Sources of Chinese Tradition Vol 1, edited
by William Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom New York: Columbia University Press, 1999,
p 35 Copyright © 1960 reprinted with permission of the publisher.
Trang 34(ca 640–586 . . .)
“O Earth, Earth, Earth, Hear the Word”
Jerusalem
605 . . .
Jeremiah was born near Jerusalem, about 640 ...,
during the reign of the pious King Josiah of Judah
He became one of the major prophets of the
Chris-tian Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible He was
the author of the Book of Jeremiah, and is thought to
have written the Book of Lamentations Jeremiah felt
called to prophesy as a young man Believing that the
people had fallen away from God, he began to preach
in 628 .. He aided King Josiah in removing idols
from the temples and returning worship to the Hebrew
God He preached against immorality, false prophets,
idolatry, and social injustice After Josiah’s death,
King Necho II of Egypt attacked Jerusalem and took
Josiah’s successor, Jehoahaz (named Shallum at birth,
and uninterested in upholding his father’s reforms),
captive Jeremiah warned repeatedly that Jerusalem
faced destruction by an angry God, and that the people
of Judah must submit to their Egyptian conquerors
(and the Babylonian invasion he predicted) and await
God’s judgment To reinforce this message he wore a
wooden oxen yoke around his neck Jeremiah found
much to protest during the calamitous reign of King Jehoiakim (another son of Josiah), which began about
609 ...; among other things, Jehoiakim allowed a return to idolatry In the following speech Jeremiah prophesied that Jehoiakim would be buried like an ass The king resented these speeches, and when he received a written copy of one, he burned it page by page; the prophet he threw into prison No one listened
to Jeremiah’s prophecies that Babylon would capture the city (as Nebuchadnezzar II did in 598 .. and
in 586, destroying the Temple) Jehoiakim’s son and successor, Coniah, was taken into Babylonian exile, as Jeremiah also had predicted Jeremiah was an unhappy man; in religious art—such as the Sistine Chapel ceil-ing painted by Michelangelo—he is shown sad and weeping “Mine heart within me is broken,” he said (Jeremiah 22) Today, a “jeremiad” is a long, bitter lam-entation on society’s ills, usually with warning of ruin The “throne of David” refers to the revered King David
of Israel, who reigned earlier, 1007 to 1005 .. ead was a fertile region east of the Jordan River
Gil-Thus says the Lord: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and there speak this
word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of
David, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates!’”
Thus says the Lord: “Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the dered out of the hand of the oppressor Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger,
plun-the faplun-therless, or plun-the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place
“For if you indeed do this thing, then shall enter the gates of this house, riding
on horses and in chariots, accompanied by servants and people, kings who sit on the
I will prepare destroyers against you, every one with his weapons; they shall cut down
your choice cedars and cast them into the fire
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Trang 3510 SPEECHES IN WOrLD HISTOrY
Weep not for the dead, nor bemoan him;
weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country
For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went from this place: “He shall not return here anymore, but
he shall die in the place where they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more
“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice, who uses his neighbor’s service without wages and gives him nothing for his work, who says,
‘I will build myself a wide house with spacious chambers, and cut out windows for it, paneling
it with cedar and painting it with vermilion.’
“Shall you reign because you enclose self in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well Was not this know-ing Me?” says the Lord
your-“Yet your eyes and your heart are for ing but your covetousness, for shedding innocent blood, and practicing oppression and violence.”
noth-Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:
“They shall not lament for him, saying, ‘Alas, my brother!’ or ‘Alas, my sister!’ They shall not lament for him, saying, ‘Alas, master!’ or ‘Alas, his glory!’
“He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem
“Go up to Lebanon, and cry out, and lift up your voice in Bashan; cry from Abarim, for all your lovers are destroyed
“I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not hear.’ This has been your manner from your youth, that you did not obey My voice
“The wind shall eat up all your rulers, and your lovers shall go into captivity; surely then you will be ashamed and humiliated for all your wickedness
“O inhabitant of Lebanon, making your nest in the cedars, how gracious will you
be when pangs come upon you, like the pain of a woman in labor?
“As I live,” says the Lord, “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet on My right hand, yet I would pluck you off; and I will give you into the hand
of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you fear—the hand
of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the hand of the Chaldeans
“So I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another country where you were not born; and there you shall die But to the land to which they desire to return, there they shall not return
“Is this man Coniah a despised, broken idol—a vessel in which is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his descendants, and cast into a land which they do not know?”
O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord!
Thus says the Lord: “Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper
in his days; for none of his descendants shall prosper, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling anymore in Judah.”
Source: Jeremiah, Chapter 22 New King James Version® Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson,
Inc Used by permission All rights reserved.
RhetoRical Device apostrophe: Breaking off to address a person, or
group, separate from the speaker’s audience
O earth, earth, earth,
hear the word of the Lord!—Jeremiah
O ye immortal gods, where on earth are we? In
what city are we living?—Marcus Tullius Cicero
Lafayette, we are here —Charles Stanton
Spirits of Moctezuma, Cacamatzín, Cuauhtémoc,
Xicotencatl, and Caltzontzín, take pride in
this august assembly, and celebrate this happy
moment in which your sons have congregated to
avenge your insults —José María Morelos
Trang 36Six years after secretly murdering his brother
Smer-dis in order to reign unchallenged, the mad Persian
king Cambyses II (son of Cyrus the Great) died An
imposter who claimed to be Smerdis pronounced
him-self king at Media (the portion of the Persian Empire
that is now Iran) Cambyses’ father-in-law detected the
fraud and, with several noblemen, killed the
impos-ter on September 29, 522 .. Among the
conspira-tors was 29-year-old Darius, who was the son of the
satrap (governor) of Parthia, and cousin to
Camby-ses The seven conspirators debated how the kingdom
should be ruled now that both Smerdis and
Camby-ses II were dead One recommended “the rule of the
many” (democracy), saying monarchs were too likely to
become tyrants; instead, “raise the people to power,” he
said Another suggested government only by “the best
men” (oligarchy, or rule by a select group among
citi-zens), as the people were too ignorant and unbridled
Darius took another view—rule by “the very best man
in the whole state” (monarchy) The seven elected ius as their king, although the Greek historian Herodo-
Dar-tus, who recorded the events in The Histories, relates
that the kingship was decided by which man’s horse neighed first the following morning (Some modern scholars think the entire imposter story may have been invented by Darius to justify his taking power.) Darius was soon known as Darius the Great He became a con-queror of many lands and an able administrator of a vast empire, which included what is today Afghanistan, Turkey, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Pal-estinian territories, in addition to parts of Pakistan, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and the Black Sea coasts
of Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine His system of erning, using satraps (subordinate officials) to rule the
gov-20 Persian provinces, was so effective that Alexander the Great later used it as well Darius attempted to add Greece to his realm—embarking on the Persian Wars
to do so—but he died without succeeding
(ca 549–486 . . .)
“The Rule of One”
Media, Persia October 522 . . .
Take these three forms of government—democracy, oligarchy, and monarchy—and let
them each be at their best, I maintain that monarchy far surpasses the other two
What government can possibly be better than that of the very best man in the whole state? The counsels of such a man are like himself, and so he governs the mass of
the people to their heart’s content; while at the same time his measures against
evildo-ers are kept more secret than in other states
Contrariwise, in oligarchies, where men vie with each other in the service of the commonwealth, fierce enmities are apt to arise between man and man, each wishing to
be leader, and to carry his own measures; whence violent quarrels come, which lead to
open strife, often ending in bloodshed Then monarchy is sure to follow; and this too
shows how far that rule surpasses all others
Again, in a democracy, it is impossible but that there will be malpractices These malpractices, however, do not lead to enmities, but to close friendships, which are
formed among those engaged in them, who must hold well together to carry on their
villainies And so things go on until a man stands forth as champion of the
com-monalty, and puts down the evildoers Straightway the author of so great a service is
admired by all, and from being admired soon comes to be appointed king; so that here
JK
Trang 3712 SPEECHES IN WOrLD HISTOrY
ered our freedom for us, my sentence is that we keep to the rule of one Even apart from this, we ought not to change the laws of our forefathers when they work fairly, for to
do so is not well
Source: Herodotus The History of Herodotus Translated by George rawlinson New York:
Appleton & Co., 1889, p 395.
Darius I the Great receives his subjects in a detail of a relief in the Treasury of the Palace at
Persepolis, Persia (Iran), 4–486 b.c.e (SEF/Art Resource, NY)
Trang 38( 563–483 . . .)
Sermon at Benares
Benares, India
ca 521 . . .
Siddhartha Gautama was born about 563 ..., a
minor king’s son, in a kingdom in what is now Nepal
According to tradition, even as a baby Siddhartha was
destined to be a great ruler or a great holy man Although
his family wished him to become the former, he became
Gautama Buddha, the wandering thinker regarded as the
father of Buddhism With five companions, Gautama set
out searching for enlightenment He joined an ascetic, or
self-denying, religious group, but after living a life of such
complete deprivation that he was near death, he realized
asceticism would not lead to Truth He sat beneath a fig
tree and resolved not to leave until he had discovered
the true path to Nirvana, a state of higher
conscious-ness—free from human emotion and suffering He found
Nirvana in the Middle Way, between asceticism and
worldliness While meditating, Buddha (which means
“Enlightened One”) discovered the Four Noble Truths
These truths are: “All life is suffering; suffering is caused
by desire; to eliminate suffering eliminate desire; and to eliminate desire, follow the Eightfold Path.” In his Ser-mon at Benares, often compared to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Buddha was responding to his companion’s greet-ing The five bhikkhus (monks) had seen him approach; from his appearance they concluded he had given up the ascetic life and “become a man who lives in abundance and indulges in the pleasures of worldliness.” They hailed him as a friend, not a holy man In this address he lays out the eight paths that lead ultimately to the cessation of suffering: right view, right aspiration, right speech, right behavior, right livelihood, right effort, right thoughts, and right contemplation Tathagata was the name Buddha used when he referred to himself; it means “one who has thus gone,” and was meant to indicate his passage from being to nonbeing, in which there is no personal self The
Sermon is from the gospel Samyutta-Nikaya, or
Con-nected Sayings
Do not call the Tathagata by his name nor address him as “friend,” for he is the Buddha,
the Holy One The Buddha looks with a kind heart equally on all living beings, and they
therefore call him “Father.” To disrespect a father is wrong; to despise him, is wicked
The Tathagata, does not seek salvation in austerities, but neither does he for that reason indulge in worldly pleasures, nor live in abundance The Tathagata has found
the middle path
There are two extremes, O bhikkhus, which the man who has given up the world ought not to follow—the habitual practice, on the one hand, of self-indulgence which
is unworthy, vain and fit only for the worldly-minded; and the habitual practice, on the
other hand, of self-mortification, which is painful, useless and unprofitable
Neither abstinence from fish or flesh, nor going naked, nor shaving the head, nor wearing matted hair, nor dressing in a rough garment, nor covering oneself with dirt,
nor sacrificing to Agni, will cleanse a man who is not free from delusions
Reading the Vedas, making offerings to priests, or sacrifices to the gods, fication by heat or cold, and many such penances performed for the sake of immortality,
self-morti-these do not cleanse the man who is not free from delusions
Anger, drunkenness, obstinacy, bigotry, deception, envy, self-praise, disparaging
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A middle path, O bhikkhus, avoiding the two extremes, has been discovered by the Tathagata—a path which opens the eyes, and bestows understanding, which leads to peace of mind, to the higher wisdom, to full enlightenment, to Nirvana!
What is that middle path, O bhikkhus, avoiding these two extremes, discovered
by the Tathagata—that path which opens the eyes, and bestows understanding, which leads to peace of mind, to the higher wisdom, to full enlightenment, to Nirvana?
Let me teach you, O bhikkhus, the middle path, which keeps aloof from both extremes By suffering, the emaciated devotee produces confusion and sickly thoughts
in his mind Mortification is not conducive even to worldly knowledge; how much less
to a triumph over the senses!
He who fills his lamp with water will not dispel the darkness, and he who tries to light a fire with rotten wood will fail And how can anyone be free from self by leading
a wretched life, if he does not succeed in quenching the fires of lust, if he still hankers after either worldly or heavenly pleasures But he in whom self has become extinct is free from lust: he will desire neither worldly nor heavenly pleasures, and the satisfaction
of his natural wants will not defile him However, let him be moderate, let him eat and drink according to the needs of the body
Sensuality is enervating: the “self-indulgent” man is a slave to pleasure to his sions, and pleasure-seeking is degrading and vulgar
pas-But to satisfy the necessities of life is not evil To keep the body in good health is a duty for otherwise we shall not be able to trim the lamp of wisdom, and keep our mind strong and clear Water surrounds the lotus-flower, but does not wet its petals
This is the middle path, O bhikkhus, that keeps aloof from both extremes
The spokes of the wheel are the rules of pure conduct: justice is the uniformity of their length, wisdom is the tire; modesty and thoughtfulness are the hub in which the immovable axle of truth is fixed
He who recognizes the existence of suffering, its cause, its remedy, and its cessation has fathomed the four noble truths He will walk in the right path
right views will be the torch to light his way right aspirations will be his guide right speech will be his dwelling-place on the road His gait will be straight,
RhetoRical Device Polysyndeton: using a series of conjunctions like “and,” “or,” “nor” between each
word or phrase They provide formality and slow down the rush of thought
Neither abstinence from fish or flesh, nor going naked, nor shaving the head, nor wearing matted hair, nor dressing in a rough garment, nor covering oneself with dirt, nor sacrificing to Agni, will cleanse
a man who is not free from delusions —Gautama Buddha
This right of the journalist is as sacred, as necessary, as imprescriptible,
as the right of the legislator —Victor Hugo
No realistic American can expect from a dictator’s peace international generosity, or return of true independence, or world disarmament,
or freedom of expression, or freedom of religion—
or even good business —Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Trang 40for it is right behavior His refreshments will be the right way of earning his live-lihood right efforts will be his steps, right thoughts his breath; and right con-templation will give him the peace that follows in his footprints.
Now, this, O bhikkhus, is the noble truth concerning suffering:
Birth is attended with pain, decay is painful, disease is painful, death is pain-ful Union with the unpleasant is painful, painful is separation from the pleasant, and any craving that is unsatisfied, that too is painful In brief, bodily condi-tions which spring from attachment are painful
This, then, O bhikkus, is the noble truth concerning suffering
Now this, O bhikkhus, is the noble truth concerning the origin of suffering:
Verily, it is that craving which causes the renewal of existence, accompanied by sensual delight, seeking satisfaction now here, now there, the craving for the grati-fication of the passions, the craving for a future life, and the craving for happiness
in this life
This, then, O bhikkhus, is the noble truth concerning the origin of suffering
Now this, O bhikkhus, is the noble truth concerning the destruction of suffering:
Verily, it is the destruction, in which no passion remains, of this very thirst; it is the laying aside of, the being free from, the dwelling no longer upon this thirst
This then, O bhikkhus, is the noble truth concerning the destruction of suffering
Now this, O bhikkhus, is the noble truth concerning the way which leads to the destruction of sorrow Verily! it is this noble eightfold path: that is to say:
right views; right aspirations; right speech; right behavior; right livelihood; right effort; right thoughts; and right contemplation
This, then, O bhikkhus, is the noble truth concerning the destruction of sorrow By the practice of loving kindness I have attained liberation of heart, and thus I am assured that I shall never return in renewed births I have even now attained Nirvana
Source: Buddha “Sermon at Benares.” The Gospel of Buddha Edited by Paul Carus Chicago:
Open Court Publishing Co., 1894, p 49.
Gautama Buddha founded Buddhism in India in the sixth century b.c.e Buddhism followed the silk road to China and reached korea in 32 c.e and Japan in 46 c.e The Great
Buddha in kamakura, Japan, was built in 252 (Henry William
Fu/Shutterstock)