Edward Everett Lives
Today Hillsdale had the 5 finalists in the Edward Everett Oratory competition each give his or her 10 minute speech -- memorized -- to the audience. A very impressive young woman won, but all were very close. It's interesting to see so many kids with such self-composure stand up and speak. The topic was terrorism and the threat to personal liberty (e.g., by our government's overreacting).
Everett, of course, was the famed orator who spoke for almost two hours before Lincoln at Gettysburg. Apparently he also spoke at Hillsdale around this time, but there seems to be no extant text. And he later donated some of his library to the school. In one of the Hillsdale buildings, there is a framed copy of a letter Lincoln sent back to Everett after the Gettysburg Address, in what looks like Lincoln's hand, where Lincoln acknowledges the novelty of one part of Everett's address the day before.
One wonders: What would Everett have been like had he been confined to ten minutes like these Hillsdale students? I tried to read through his speech but couldn't get through it. Lincoln spoils you for that.
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Feb '11
Re: Edward Everett Lives
I liked the way he did "Fractured Fairy Tales."
Re: Edward Everett Lives
A suggestion, Bill: Have your students spend some time reading the first volume of American Speeches, the two-volume Library of America series edited by Clinton speechwriter Ted Widmer.
The book opens well, of course, but as soon as the founding generation passes from the scene--really, as early as the second decade of the nineteenth century--the quality drops off. The beautiful, measured prose of Jefferson or Hamilton gives way to sheer bombast. And to length. Lord. The speeches all seem endless. As a Dartmouth man, I have a soft spot for Daniel Webster. But whereas "Webster's Reply to Hayne," perhaps Webster's greatest speech, certainly contains brilliant moments, it proves, as a whole, overwrought, melodramatic and overlong. Everett falls within this tradition of bombast.
And then? Then comes Abraham Lincoln. Precise, poetic, succinct, rich, flawless.
Lincoln wasn't merely the best of a certain kind, the volume makes clear. He was sui generis. He virtually reinvented American oratory. He established an entirely new standard.
Lincoln may spoil Everett, as you say, Bill. But if you can force yourself--or, more to the point, your students--to read Everett, he'll deepen their appreciation of Lincoln.
Edited on Feb 24, 2011 at 2:37pmNov '10
Re: Edward Everett Lives
My eldest daughter participated in oratorical competitions in her sophomore year of high school. She was one competition shy of making her way into the national level. I was always so incredibly impressed with all the students' ability to write, memorize, and perfect delivery of a speech centered around an assigned topic. We tried to encourage her to enter again the following year, but public speaking was so far out of her introverted-already comfort zone that she declined. It was a great experience for both of us.
Aug '10
Re: Edward Everett Lives
Makes one envious, despite the weather, that I missed this display of the country's finest young scholars.
With a 14 yr old, I dream of Hillsdale as she dreams of who knows what .
Please thank the assemblage for Imprimis.
May '10
Re: Edward Everett Lives
Cicero took three hours for a closing address to the jury. Of course, much of the time was taken by eye-catching toga swirls.
PS, So does Rush, though never seen him in the studio with a toga. Rushius Maximus.
Edited on Feb 24, 2011 at 3:50pmMay '10
Re: Edward Everett Lives
Everett's Gettysburg oration gets knocked a lot because it was a long, florid address of the kind typical in the 19th century. Yet it is still very much worth reading and contemplating
http://www.civilwarhome.com/everettgettysburg.htm
May '10
Re: Edward Everett Lives
A question, Mr. McGurn.
I have a son, 16. He's smart and ambitious. Strong in science and math. (Not ivy-league strong, but strong.) So far he waves off Hillsdale when I raise it as a possibility. He doesn't want "political conservative" defining his future career.
What would you say to him?
May '10
Re: Edward Everett Lives
That's the Edward Everett Horton competition, I think.
Jul '10
Re: Edward Everett Lives
katievs: A question, Mr. McGurn.
I have a son, 16. He's smart and ambitious. Strong in science and math. (Not ivy-league strong, but strong.) So far he waves off Hillsdale when I raise it as a possibility. He doesn't want "political conservative" defining his future career.
What would you say to him? · Feb 24 at 6:39pm
Katie, I never even bothered to interview candidates from Hillsdale or Grove City. I just hired them.
On the other hand, I was an outlier: human resources is dominated by liberals.
Jan '11
Re: Edward Everett Lives
Funny you say that.
I remember an exercise for a philosophy class. First, we were assigned a five-pager on some topic (I forget). After handing it in, we were offered extra credit: we were to express our main point by poetry, either as a sonnet or limerick.
The professor argued that philosophy was more than a journey toward truth. It was also a journal. It wasn't enough to think. You also had to express thoughts in ways that others could understand, and perhaps enjoy. The extra credit exercise trusted poetry to discipline our expression.
At the time, I thought, there's a lofty goal. Now as I'm older, and more cynical, I realized that it cut down on the amount he had to read. Clever either way, though.
Re: Edward Everett Lives
Peter alludes to something I was speaking about with the speech director here, Kirsten Kiledal: in the 19th century, when people showed up for a speech, there was no tv, no soundbite, etc. They wouldn't come all that way for 2 minutes. So the long oration was not as tedious as it is today. It was part of the entertainment.
As for students and Hillsdale, if your worry is about being characterize a "political conservative," my guess is that if you are conservative you will have that label anyway. Hillsdale is great in the way Marines are: it's not for everyone. I'd love my daughter to come here, but one of the obstacles is just distance: it's not easy to get to from where we live.
I do think that part of the undergraduate experience is just being around other bright kids, and Hillsdale offers that. I also think it's not bad to go into the world knowing you are different.