Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History (29 page)

Stephen Samuel Wise, the American Jewish visionary, was asked in 1914 to give a Lincoln’s Birthday address at Springfield, Illinois. Below is a portion of that speech, delivered February 12, 1914.

The Zionist leader and rabbi who founded the Free Synagogue of New York in 1907, Wise became widely recognized for his oratorical power. His sermons, attracting large audiences to Carnegie Hall, focused on American and Jewish concerns, particularly issues that would lead Wise into world politics. In 1936, he became the founder of the World Jewish Congress, an outspoken organization in the fight against Hitler and nazism.

In contemplating Abraham Lincoln, Wise enumerates the qualities that set apart this leader from other “servants of the Republic.” Paraphrasing Hamlet’s tribute to his dead father, Wise warns against the assumption
“that we shall never look upon his like again.” This is the line in Shakespeare’s
Hamlet
—“He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again”—that has been used so often in eulogies that it has become a cliché. Instead, Rabbi Wise offers the example of Lincoln as the model for all Americans and leaders.

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WE DWELL IN
times of great perplexity and are beset by far-reaching problems of social, industrial, and political import. We shall not greatly err if upon every occasion we consult the genius of Abraham Lincoln. We shall not falter nor swerve from the path of national righteousness if we live by the moral genius of the great American commoner.

Instead of following Lincoln, we too often strive to make it appear that he is following us. Instead of emulating him, we too often venture to appropriate him. Instead of sitting at his feet as his disciples, and humbly heeding the echoes of his lips, we attribute to him our own petty slogans. The truth is that Lincoln belongs to no party today, though in his time he stood well and firmly within party ranks. His spirit ought today to inform all parties. He was a partisan second, an American first, as he is the first of Americans. Men and measures must not claim him for their own. He remains the standard by which to measure men. His views are not binding upon us, but his point of view will always be our inspiration. He would not be blindly followed who was open-minded and open-visioned. He did not solve all the problems of the future, but he did solve the problem of his own age. Ours is not to claim his name for our standards but his aim as our standard.

Lincoln is become for us the test of human worth, and we honor men in the measure in which they approach the absolute standard of Abraham Lincoln. Other men may resemble and approach him; he remains the standard whereby all other men are measured and appraised….

Such a standard is Lincoln become for us, save that we dare not hope that any American may serve his country better than did Lincoln. However covetous of honor for our country we may be, we cherish no higher hope for the land we love than that the servants of the Republic in all time may rise to the stature of Abraham Lincoln.

In his lifetime Lincoln was maligned and traduced, but detraction during a man’s lifetime affords no test of his life’s value nor offers any forecast of history’s verdict. It would almost seem as if the glory of immortality were anticipated in the life of the great by detraction and
denial whilst yet they lived. When a Lincoln-like man arises, let us recognize and fitly honor him. There could be no poorer way of honoring the memory of Lincoln than to assume, as we sometimes do, that the race of Lincolns has perished from the earth, and that we shall never look upon his like again. One way to ensure the passing of the Lincolns is to assume that another Lincoln can nevermore arise. Would we find Lincoln today, we must not seek him in the guise of a rail-splitter, nor as a wielder of the backwoodsman’s ax, but as a mighty smiter of wrong in high places and low.

Not very long ago I chanced upon a rarely beautiful custom in the city of Florence. It was the day of the martyrdom “of a prophet sent by God.” A multitude stood before the spot where he was done to death—his hands miraculously uplifted in blessing in the very moment of torture and death—and every man brought a rose petal in token of reverence and gratitude to the martyred soul. This day every American citizen, every American man and woman and child has in spirit brought a petal to the grave of Lincoln, who sleeps tonight beneath a wilderness of love tokens from men of all faiths and tongues and races and backgrounds—who are become one and indivisible in their love and honor for the memory of Abraham Lincoln.

I have sometimes thought that the noblest tribute paid to the memory of Lincoln was the word of Phillips Brooks in Westminster Abbey when, pointing out that the test of the world to every nation was “Show us your man,” he declared that America names Lincoln. But the first word spoken after the death of Lincoln is truest and best—the word of Secretary of War Stanton, standing by the side of that scene of peace—“Now he belongs to the ages.” It was verdict and prophecy alike, for Lincoln is not America’s, he is the world’s; he belongs not to our age, but to the ages; and yet, though he belongs to all time and to all peoples, he is our own, for he was an American.

When Woodrow Wilson died on February 23, 1924, solemn eulogies and serious orations followed in abundance. Great American humorist Will Rogers, however, chose to pay tribute in his own way, which called for a lighter vein.

With a humanizing eulogy drawn from his personal experience of President Wilson, Rogers offers a glimpse of the man’s greatness outside of the White House, in the everyday setting of a theater. In “Wilson Could Laugh at a Joke on Himself,” the humorist recounts his first occasion to perform before our twenty-eighth president.

The eulogy’s narrative structure is typical of the storytelling technique that Rogers used to great comic effect. In this case, though, the jokes are secondary to the purpose of illustrating one of President Wilson’s most memorable qualities: the ability to laugh at himself.

***

SOME OF THE
most glowing and deserving tributes ever paid to the memory of an American have been paid in the last few days to our past president, Woodrow Wilson. They have been paid by learned men of this and all nations who knew what to say, and how to express their feelings. They spoke of their close association and personal contact with him. Now I want to add my little mite, even though it be of no importance….

The Friars Club of New York, one of the biggest theatrical social clubs in New York, had decided to make a whirlwind tour of the principal cities of the East, all in one week. We played a different city every night. We made a one-night stand out of Chicago and New York. We were billed for Baltimore, but not for Washington. President Wilson came over from Washington to see the performance. It was the first time in theatrical history that the president of the United States came over to Baltimore, just to see a comedy show.

It was just at the time that we were having our little set-to with Mexico, and when we were at the height of our note-exchanging career with Germany and Austria.

The house was packed with the elite of Baltimore. The show was going great. It was a collection of clever skits, written mostly by our stage’s greatest man, George M. Cohan, and even down to the minor bits was played by stars with big reputations. I was the least-known member of the entire aggregation, doing my little specialty with a rope, and telling jokes on national affairs, just a very ordinary little vaudeville act, by chance sandwiched in among this great array.

Finally a warden knocked at my dressing room door, and said, “You die in five minutes for kidding your country.” They just literally shoved me out on the stage.

Now, by a stroke of what I call good fortune (for I will keep them always), I have a copy of the entire act that I did for President Wilson on the five times I worked for him. My first remark in Baltimore was “I am kinder nervous here tonight.” Now, that is not an especially bright remark, and I don’t hope to go down in history on the strength of it, but it was so apparent to the audience that I was speaking the truth that they laughed heartily at it. After all, we all love honesty.

Then I said, “I shouldn’t be nervous, for this is really my second presidential appearance. The first time was when William Jennings Bryan spoke in our town once, and I was to follow his speech and do my little roping act.” Well you all know that Bryan never made the White House, even though he was the Democratic candidate three times, but I heard them laughing, so I took a sly glance at the president’s box, and sure enough he was laughing just as big as anyone. So I went on, “As I say, I was to follow him, but he spoke so long that it was so dark when he finished, they couldn’t see my roping.” That went over great, so I said, “I wonder what ever become of him?” That was all right, it got over, but still I had made no direct reference to the president.

Now, General Pershing was in Mexico at the time, and there was a lot in the papers for and against the invasion into Mexican territory to capture Pancho Villa, after he had raided an American town.

I said, “I see where they have captured Villa. Yes, they got him in the morning editions, and then the afternoon ones let him get away.” Now everybody in the house before they would laugh looked at the president, to see how he was going to take it. Well, he started laughing, and they all followed suit.

“Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico. We had a man on guard that night at the post. But to show you how crooked this Villa is, he sneaked
up on the opposite side. We chased him over the line five miles, but run into a lot of government red tape, and had to come back. There is some talk of getting a machine gun, if we can borrow one. The one we have now they are using to train our army with in Plattsburg. If we go to war, we will just about have to go to the trouble of getting another gun.”

Now, mind you, the president was being criticized on all sides for lack of preparations, yet he sat there and led that entire audience in laughing at the gags on himself.

At that time there was talk of forming an army of two hundred thousand men. So I said, “We are going to have an army of two hundred thousand men. Henry Ford makes three hundred thousand cars every year. I think, Mr. President, we ought to at least have a man to every car. I see where they got Villa hemmed in between the Atlantic and Pacific. Now all we got to do is to stop up both ends. Pershing located him at a town called Los Quas Ka Jasbo. Now all we got to do is to locate Los Quas Ka Jasbo….”

After various other ones on Mexico, I started in on European affairs, which at that time was long before we entered the war. “We are facing another crisis tonight, but our president here has had so many of them lately that he can just lay right down and sleep beside one of those things.” Then I pulled the one which he afterwards repeated to various friends as the best one told on him: “President Wilson is getting along fine now to what he was a few months ago. Do you realize, people, that at one time in our negotiations with Germany he was five notes behind?”

How he did laugh at that! Well, due to him being a good fellow and setting a real example, I had the proudest and most successful night I ever had on the stage. I had lots of gags on other subjects, but the ones on him were the heartiest laughs with him; and so it was on all other occasions I played for him. He come backstage at intermission, and chatted and shook hands with all.

What he stood for and died for will be strived after for years. It will take time, for with all our boasted advancement and civilization, it’s hard to stamp out selfishness and greed. For after all, nations are nothing but individuals, and you can’t even stop brothers from fighting sometimes. But he helped it along a lot and what a wonderful cause to have laid down your life for! The world lost a friend. The theater lost its greatest supporter. And I lost the most distinguished person who ever laughed at my little nonsensical jokes. I looked forward to playing for him every year.

Now I have only to look on it as my greatest memory.

This is an example of a mildly humorous and quite graceful toast by a layman to a group of specialists.

Stanley Baldwin, on June 6, 1928, was prime minister of England. He would later become known for his firmness in opposing the marriage of King Edward VIII to the divorced Wallis Simpson, and his lack of foresight as the threat of Hitler arose in Europe. At the time of this address in Goldsmiths’ Hall in London, his purpose was to “do justice to the merits” of William Craigie, the foremost lexicographer of his day, in charge of bringing up to date the monumental Oxford English Dictionary with a four-volume supplement.

From rising under a mock “feeling of oppression and depression” at the seeming weightiness of his toast to concluding with an apt quotation of Samuel Johnson (who defined
lexicographer
in his great, early dictionary as “a harmless drudge”), Baldwin showed how a statesman can shape a toast with gentle humor and infuse erudition with rhetorical warmth.

Note the use of internal dialogue: “When I ask myself in what mood we are gathered here tonight…” He makes his quotation set up his simple peroration with “It is in that spirit” and gives a sense of form to his remarks by introducing his conclusion with “I end as I began.” The word men gathered must have been charmed by the politician’s skilled use of words.

***

I HAVE SPOKEN
at many dinners—I have never been allowed to dine without speaking—but I have never risen under such a feeling of oppression and depression as I do tonight, partly by the weight of learning in this room and partly by the weight of the toast which I have to propose.