Great speeches thread.

[lg325]

American Rhetoric: Dwight D. Eisenhower -- Farewell Address Starting this thread of great speeches so those who may have never heard or read them before may be inspired and learn.

 

[Natural Citizen]

On November 14, 2012, retiring Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) gave his farewell speech to Congress. In a public career that included three stints in Congress (1976-1977; 1979-1985; and 1997-present) and a run for president as the Libertarian Candidate (1988), no living elected official has done more to advance the ideals of limited government and a libertarian approach to federal government. His longshot bids for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2012 radically altered the national conversation on entitlements, fiscal and monetary policy, foreign policy, and crony capitalism, and his success with online fundraising and organization has set the example that others will be following for years to come. The groups he has created, including Young Americans for Liberty and Campaign for Liberty, will continue to grow in size and influence.

Paul used his final address in the House of Representatives to draw attention to growing violations of civil liberties, a chronic economic crisis brought on out-of-control government spending and debt, the ease with which the country goes to (undeclared) war, and the immoral willingness to use violence to achieve desired social ends.

As Paul's biographer, Reason staffer Brian Doherty, noted, Ron Paul is "a true American original. No politician talks like this, and I suspect it will be a long time before another does. Ideas like this will be much harder to find in the House of Representatives with Paul gone, and we will all be the poorer for it."

 

[Winston]

Bryan's "Cross of Gold" Speech: Mesmerizing the Masses

historymatters.gmu.edu

William Jennings Bryan "Cross of Gold" speech. Still the greatest political speech in American history.

 

[Winston]

Newburgh Address: George Washington to Officers of the Army, March 15, 1783

On March 15, 1783 the officers under George Washington's command met to discuss a petition that called for them to mutiny due to Congress' failure to provide them back pay and pensions for their service during the American Revolution. George Washington addressed the officers with a nine-page...

www.mountvernon.org

George Washington's Newburgh Address. Greatest speech by an American military leader in history

 

[Winston]

Alexander the Great--Opus Mutiny, servant leadership described.

 

[White 6]

On November 14, 2012, retiring Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) gave his farewell speech to Congress. In a public career that included three stints in Congress (1976-1977; 1979-1985; and 1997-present) and a run for president as the Libertarian Candidate (1988), no living elected official has done more to advance the ideals of limited government and a libertarian approach to federal government. His longshot bids for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2012 radically altered the national conversation on entitlements, fiscal and monetary policy, foreign policy, and crony capitalism, and his success with online fundraising and organization has set the example that others will be following for years to come. The groups he has created, including Young Americans for Liberty and Campaign for Liberty, will continue to grow in size and influence.

Paul used his final address in the House of Representatives to draw attention to growing violations of civil liberties, a chronic economic crisis brought on out-of-control government spending and debt, the ease with which the country goes to (undeclared) war, and the immoral willingness to use violence to achieve desired social ends.

As Paul's biographer, Reason staffer Brian Doherty, noted, Ron Paul is "a true American original. No politician talks like this, and I suspect it will be a long time before another does. Ideas like this will be much harder to find in the House of Representatives with Paul gone, and we will all be the poorer for it."

I always liked him better than his son.

 

[DrLove]

This one tops my list for impromptu, heartfelt, and bravery ...

 

[Otis Mayfield]

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

 

[Natural Citizen]

I always liked him better than his son.

I used to feel that way. There was a time when I didn't really agree with Rand working from within the Republican party. I didn't agree with him playing nice with people who would just as soon spit on him after their interests were met. Especially after the way they screwed us over at the convention. All in the interest of 'party unity", they said. Heh heh. But as the Republican party has gradually been taken over by posers I've changed my mind about that. We need people like Rand to demonstrate just how lazy, complicit and completely inept most so-called representatives in the Republican party actually are.

Anyway. I've got things to do. I'm trying to cut my time on here.

Though his farewell speech was really well spoken and touched on all of the major issues, this is actually my favorite Ron moment...

 

[DrLove]

Sorry, I couldn't resist Biden's hairy leg speech while surrounded by black children.

Go troll somewhere else please. Adults are talking.

 

[White 6]

I used to feel that way. There was a time when I didn't really agree with Rand working from within the Republican party. I didn't agree with him playing nice with people who would just as soon spit on him after their interests were met. Especially after the way they screwed us over at the convention. All in the interest of 'party unity", they said. Heh heh. But as the Republican party has gradually been taken over by posers I've changed my mind about that. We need people like Rand to demonstrate just how lazy, complicit and completely inept most so-called representatives in the Republican party actually are.

Anyway. I've got things to do. I'm trying to cut my time on here.

Though his farewell speech was really well spoken and touched on all of the major issues, this is actually my favorite Ron moment...

I really don't view him as any better, but don't follow him closely. I voted for his dad in the Republican primary in 2012.

 

[lg325]

Go troll somewhere else please. Adults are talking.

Reported post not on thread subject

 

[DrLove]

We had a perfectly good thread going here & a mod fucked it up again

 

[lg325]

We had a perfectly good thread going here & a mod fucked it up again

Just got rid of the troll post that's all. Lets keep it going.

 

[MarathonMike]

lg325 If Mods are going to delete my humorous post, then I expect every time a Liberal tries to hijack one of my threads and turn it into YABUT TRUMP blah blah blah it will be deleted too as being "not related to the OP". Ha yeah that will happen.

 

[MarathonMike]

lg325 No sense of humor.

 

[lg325]

lg325 No sense of humor.

Not a place for humor . It is a serious thread. Apology for upsetting you.

 

[DrLove]

Just got rid of the troll post that's all. Lets keep it going.

So it went to “writing” which no one has even heard of?
Okee

 

[lg325]

There was a time when men in power would admit to a military disaster and then still lead.

 

[lg325]

Extract from Gladstone’s 3rd Midlothian speech on foreign policy​

By Tony Little · William Ewart Gladstone
Type: History

Following his electoral defeat in 1874, Gladstone resigned the Liberal leadership and, in his sixties, hoped to spend the rest of his life in retirement. The Balkan Massacres of 1876 drew him back to politics in protest at what he saw as Disraeli’s (Lord Beaconsfield’s) cynical reaction and his own party’s supine response.
His anger at Conservative financial and foreign policies were the driving forces in the Midlothian campaign.
In 1878 Gladstone indicated his intention to retire from his Greenwich seat, sparking off a competition to offer him a new constituency. He chose Midlothian (the county seat surrounding Edinburgh) as a Conservative seat which with effort and enthusiasm could be won. In late 1879 he travelled north to meet his prospective new constituents, not with a single speech but with a whole campaign planned in advance to denounce the faults and failings of Disraeli’s years in power. If Gladstone’s speeches supplied the effort, it was met with an enthusiasm only found nowadays for pop groups. At the end of the campaign, Gladstone calculated his total audience to have been 86,930. When the general election came in April 1880 he won not only Midlothian but a second premiership.
In the speech delivered at West Calder on 27 November 1879, Gladstone focussed on two themes, free trade and foreign policy. Agricultural free trade was being threatened by competition from the American prairies, and the resulting agrarian depression was a key factor in Disraeli’s 1880 defeat. Gladstone’s moral principles of foreign policy were derived from his mentor Lord Aberdeen in the 1840s. They formed the basis for an attack on Disraeli’s balance-of-power strategy towards those old antagonists Turkey and Russia. He represented the Tories as both encouraging Russian aggression and using Turkish weakness as a pretext for grabbing Crete, an unprincipled extension of the British Empire. However, this was not the speech of a rabble-rouser but one that took the audience into the leader’s confidence, strengthened their resolve and flattered their intelligence.
Inspired by the Love of Freedom – Extract from the third Midlothian Speech, Tuesday 27th November 1879 at West Calder
I first give you, gentlemen, what I think the right principles of foreign policy. The first thing is to foster the strength of the Empire by just legislation and economy at home, thereby producing two of the great elements of national power namely, wealth, which is a physical element, and union and contentment, which are moral elements and to reserve the strength of the Empire, to reserve the expenditure of that strength, for great and worthy occasions abroad. Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home. My second principle of foreign policy is this that its aim ought to be to preserve to the nations of the world and especially, were it but for shame, when we recollect the sacred name we bear as Christians, especially to the Christian nations of the world the blessings of peace. That is my second principle.
Cultivate And Maintain The Concert Of Europe
My third principle is this. Even, gentlemen, when you do a good thing, you may do it in so bad a way that you may entirely spoil the beneficial effect; and if we were to make ourselves the apostles of peace in the sense of conveying to the minds of other nations that we thought ourselves more entitled to an opinion on that subject than they are, or to deny their rights-well, very likely we should destroy the whole value of our doctrines. In my opinion the third sound principle is this – to strive to cultivate and maintain, ay, to the very uttermost, what is called the concert of Europe; to keep the Powers of Europe in union together. And why? Because by keeping all in union together you neutralize and fetter and bind up the selfish aims of each. I am not here to flatter either England or any of them. They have selfish aims, as, unfortunately, we in late years have too sadly shown that we too have had selfish aims; but then common action is fatal to selfish aims. Common action means common objects; and the only objects for which you can unite together the Powers of Europe are objects connected with the common good of them all. That, gentlemen, is my third principle of foreign policy.
My fourth principle is – that you should avoid needless and entangling engagements. You may boast about them; you may brag about them. You may say you are procuring consideration for the country. You may say that an Englishman can now hold up his head among the nations. You may say that he is now not in the hands of a Liberal Ministry, who thought of nothing but pounds, shillings, and pence. But what does all this come to, gentlemen? It comes to this, that you are increasing your engagements without increasing your strength; and if you increase engagements without increasing strength, you diminish strength, you abolish strength; you really reduce the Empire and do not increase it. You render it less capable of performing its duties; you render it an inheritance less precious to hand on to future generations.
My fifth principle is this, gentlemen, to acknowledge the equal rights of all nations. You may sympathize with one nation more than another. Nay, you must sympathize in certain circumstances with one nation more than another. You sympathize most with those nations, as a rule, with which you have the closest connection in language, in blood, and in religion, or whose circumstances at the time seem to give the strongest claim to sympathy. But in point of right all are equal, and you have no right to set up a system under which one of them is to be placed under moral suspicion or espionage, or to be made the constant subject of invective. If you do that, but especially if you claim for yourself a superiority, a pharisaical superiority over the whole of them, then I say you may talk about your patriotism if you please, but you are a misjudging friend of your country, and in undermining the basis of the esteem and respect of other people for your country you are in reality inflicting the severest injury upon it. I have now given you, gentlemen, five principles of foreign policy. Let me give you a sixth, and then I have done.
In Freedom You Lay The Firmest Foundations Of Loyalty And Order
And that sixth is, that in my opinion foreign policy, subject to all the limitations that I have described, the foreign policy of England should always be inspired by the love of freedom. There should be a sympathy with freedom, a desire to give it scope, founded not upon visionary ideas, but upon the long experience of many generations within the shores of this happy isle, that in freedom you lay the firmest foundations both of loyalty and order; the firmest foundations for the development of individual character, and the best provision for the happiness of the nation at large.

Related themes​

• Foreign policy

Related time periods​

• 1859-1886

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