Hon. John Temple Graves

              Figure

HON. JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES



The Student of Oratory should study John Temple Graves as the Student of Art studies John Ruskin.


THE IOWA DAILY CONSTITUTION
.





A SHINING FIGURE OF THE PLATFORM



T
O announce JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES for a brief return to the platform is an event of more than ordinary interest.  This popular American is known and loved in every section of the Country.  Perhaps no other man has had so many and such brilliant triumphs in public speech.




In 1908, he was the candidate of the Independent Party for Vice-President.  Beyond this he has never sought political preferment.  But he has charmed and inspired hundreds of platforms of politics and literature and patriotism.




He is famous and beloved for his own exquisite gifts and graces—for the magic of his pen which in the editorial chair of the great newspapers of the Country has spoken daily for almost 20 years to nearly twenty millions of people and held them continually by his genius and character—for the entrancing charm of his eloquent tongue—for his information, for his wholesome philosophy, for his fervent patriotism—and for the golden heart of the man.




Twenty years in Washington in the close intimate touch of personal friendship with more great men than are known to almost any other man—twenty years of contact with history in its tragic making, Colonel Graves knows more things and knows better how to tell them than most men learn in a life time.  He has no superior and scarcely an equal as an orator in the Country.




Speaking in Washington with Senators and Congressmen and residents, they have but one word of him:  
He is the most brilliant Southerner of today,
 or as it comes from Congress through the lips of the brilliant Henry T. Rainey of Illinois, 
As an orator there is nobody like him.  He is in a class all by himself—exquisite, charming, convincing, irresistible.




There is not likely to be a more brilliant and popular figure upon the platforms and lyceums of the coming season than JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES.




This Bureau takes pleasure in announcing Colonel Graves new lecture 
ARMAGEDDON
 and his brilliantly revised lectures.




The Reign of the Demagogue.




A New Woman in a New World.




Aaron Burr the Most Picturesque American.  (Probably)




No speaker of the nineteenth century, within my observation, more nearly resembles the Greek Demosthenes, in method of expression and in inspiration of delivery than John Temple Graves, of Georgia.




From DR. CHAS. FOSTER SMITH.  (Professor Greek, Wisconsin University.)






RARE PLAUDITS OF THE PRESS



NEW YORK WORLD
.  [Editorially]:


—Georgia has produced many silver-tongued orators, but not even the lamented Grady was more captivating and effective than John Temple Graves, whose eloquence and brilliant wit have charmed the Metropolis.




NEW YORK SUN
.  [Editorially]:


—No Southerner has delighted more with his brilliant eloquence than John Temple Graves of Georgia.




BOSTON GLOBE
.  [Editorially.]:


—Seldom indeed has any orator gained such instant success in Boston as that which was won on Saturday evening by Editor John Temple Graves.  It was not so much the brilliant diction of his speech, nor the fervor of his appeal that aroused enthusiasm, though these were noteworthy in every way.  What made Mr. Graves' address so peculiarly effective and interesting was its great frankness, its absolute sincerity, and the spirit of lofty patriotism which manifested itself throughout.  There is no danger that oratory will ever become a lost art while there are men like this eloquent Southerner to appeal to the heart and soul of the people of America.





BILLIANT ENDORSEMENT



CHATAUQUA [N. Y.] ASSEMBLY HERALD OFFICIAL
:


—Mr. John Temple Graves is a grand-nephew of John C. Calhoun.  His great-grandfather was a distinguished colonel in the Revolutionary War.  He comes from a race of orators.  He has spoken from the same platform with the greatest orators of the present day.  His rhetoric reminds one of that of Burke, and his oratory is the most superb ever heard here.  No utterance from our platform was ever more largely discussed.




NASHVILLE AMERICAN
:


—For style, elegant diction and opulent vocabulary he has scarcely an equal in the South, and it may be doubted, if for brilliant, old-time oratory of the Calhoun-Yancy school he has a superior in any section of the country.




RICHMOND [VA.] DAILY TIMES
.  [Editorial.]:


—The Hon. John Temple Graves, of Georgia, made one of the greatest hits ever made by an orator at the University of Virginia, where a long line of speakers of national fame have appeared.  Coming from the State of the gifted Grady, it was almost inevitable that he should be compared with him, especially as Grady delivered here only five years ago his wonderful oration on the 'Gospel of Democracy'; but the unexpected happened when many good judges declared Mr. Graves' oration to-day on 'Demagogues' as better than Grady's.  No man ever commanded more attention.




ATLANTA JOURNAL
:


—He is undoubtedly the South's most gifted orator.




GRAND RAPIDS [MICH.] DEMOCRAT
:


—Mr. Graves is to-day the foremost leader of the New South.  Usually he is mentioned as the successor of Henry Grady in eloquence and influence.  
BUT HE IS GREATER THAN GRADY
.  For, with the eloquence and poetic temperament and devotion of the now dead orator Mr. Graves combines a force of logic which Grady did not possess.




MERIDIAN [MISS.] DAILY NEWS
:


—It was the sublimest thing that ever fell from human lips in this city—that appeal to the young manhood of Mississippi to do patriotic service in behalf of the land and government which they love.




TEXAS BAPTIST STANDARD
:


—Never in the history of Waco was there a more polished, forceful and ornate oration.  It is side by side with Beecher's 'Reign of the Common People.'




STATE UNIVERSITY, IOWA CITY, IOWA
:


—The greatest lecture of a great course, and the finest oration ever heard by the University.




COLORADO SPRINGS [COLO.] GAZETTE
:


—With Wendling, Watterson, Ingalls, Conwell, Willets, 
et al.,
 on our platform this winter, the most thrilling and important utterance made there was the lecture of John Temple Graves.




PORTLAND [OREGON] CHATAUQUA
:


—You can not advertise Graves too highly.  He is by common consensus of opinion regarded the greatest man who ever spoke in Northern Oregon.





FROM STATESMEN AND AUTHORS.



HENRY WATTERSON
:—
He is the most eloquent Southerner of today.




THOMAS NELSON PAGE
:—
His speech is a mosaic of eloquence.




THEODORE ROOSEVELT AT JAMESTOWN
:—
Graves, you are the Salt of the Earth, and there is no finer speaker anywhere!




GROVER CLEVELAND
:—
He is the most brilliant and statesmanlike orator heard in New York in years.




PRESIDENT WM. MCKINLEY
:—
One of the most brilliant and beautiful speakers I ever listened to.




HENRY W. GRADY
:—
John Temple Graves has the most phenomenal eloquence I ever heard.




FRANCES WILLARD
:—
John Temple Graves' lecture on the 'Twentieth Century Woman' is the most brilliant argument for suffrage I ever heard from man or woman.




BENJ. H. HILL, U. S. SENATOR FROM GEORGIA
:—
He has the finest gift of oratory I have ever heard.




CASSIUS MERRILL
:—
Graves' 'Grady Memorial' is the finest short speech in the English language.  It is simply a miracle of oratory.




GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON
:—
Graves' 'Grady Memorial' oration is the finest piece of eloquence written or spoken within my knowledge.




JOHN H. VINCENT
:—
I thank you for the magnificent service you have rendered Chautauqua.




FROM ROBERT IRVING FULTON [DEAN OHIO WESLEYAN SCHOOL OF ORATORY
]:—
The brilliant rhetoric of Ingersoll's oratory is surpassed by that of John Temple Graves, of Georgia, while in excellence of delivery the palm clearly belongs to the great Southern orator.  I had rather have my students take him as a model than any orator I know.





FROM EMINENT PROFESSIONALS.  From Geo. R. Wendling.



(Distinguished on the platform.)




I recently heard Mr. Graves in his lecture on the Negro problem.  He impressed me as an orator whose gifts are not surpassed by those of any man on the American platform to-day.  I was not only charmed and delighted by his manner and style, but I was also profoundly stirred by his brave, lofty and original presentation of a great question.  Here is a voice from the South which I hope this whole nation will hear.




GEORGE R. WENDLING
.





From Thomas C. Trueblood.



(Professor Oratory and Elocution, Ann Arbor, Mich.)




I had the pleasure of listening to the great speech of John Temple Graves on 'Uncle Tom's Last Cabin' at Chautauqua.  It was the most eloquent oration it has ever been my lot to hear.  This statement is but an echo of the sentiments of the thousands who hung on his every word.  Other speeches there were soon forgotten.  This was the theme of conversation everywhere for days afterward.






COLONEL GRAVES' RECENT GREAT SPEECHES



In the very recent great Liberty Loans sought by the Government in time of need, and in the recent conclusive Suffrage Campaign, Colonel Graves surpassed all his previous utterances and reached high water mark even for himself
.





Masterpiece of Inspired Oratory
 Editorial by Brilliant Buford Goodwin of New Orleans States



If ever God Almighty spoke through the lips of man to a people in their need, it is my profound conviction that He has so spoken to the people of Shreveport through the lips of this gifted man.




This spontaneous tribute, voiced by the Chairman, Senator Leon R. Smith, at the conclusion of the address of Col. John Temple Graves to the Liberty Loan mass meeting at the Grand Opera House Sunday afternoon, best characterizes that remarkable effort.




It was declared by men long in public life to be the finest piece of statesmanlike oratory ever heard in Louisiana.  Former Governor Blanchard, Louisiana's scholar statesman, who has heard most if not all of the great American speeches made in or out of Congress for the last thirty years, expressed the deliberate judgment that a greater speech had not been delivered in this country within his memory, if, indeed, the effort had ever been matched.





Closing Last Great Victory Loan Campaign



At the request of the National Committee, Colonel Graves went to Albany, New York, to close the last great Victory Loan at the Capital on May 9th.  Ex-Governor Martin Glynn, Democracy's great National orator, wrote this comment editorially in his paper, the Times-Union:

John Temple Graves made a great—a simply wonderful speech for the Nation's last great Liberty Loan—one of the finest and most eloquent speeches that the Capital of New York has heard in many years.  He is indeed a marvelous speaker.  His thoughts flow limpidly and with lightning rapidity—his words are the choicest diction of the language.  He is supremely eloquent in delivery—spontaneous, charming, magnetic, wonderful.  His message grips you and is everlastingly engraven on the mind.  He is distinctly one of the most fascinating platform speakers of the generation.




NEW ORLEANS ITEM
 [Editorial.]:


—New Orleans has had no such exposition of the origin, the purposes, the probable effects of the war and the humane need of the Third Liberty Loan as was given by Col. John Temple Graves at the French Opera House last evening.
Col. Graves has grown with the years in his abilities as thinker and orator and has reached a position where it is to be doubted that he has a superior in America.  The spoken word has not lost its power to thrill and inspire in him.




Closing the final great Suffrage Campaign in the Capital of New York,
 the Albany Times-Union says editorially:

A 
GREAT SPEAKER
:—Great speeches are few and far between, but those who attended the suffrage meeting in the Assembly Chamber last night heard one from John Temple Graves.  Mrs. Philip Snowden is a fine talker—one of the best women talkers in the world; Congressman Keating is a good talker.  But John Temple Graves combines the diction, the fancy, the enthusiasm and the grace which make Southern oratory peerless and unique.  His sentences are music, his thoughts poetic.  With him argument wears a garb of attractiveness that allures and converts without assault or bombardment.  One of the great charms of the speaking of Mr. Graves is its apparent spontaneity.  Everything that happens in the hall, anything a previous speaker says, is grist to his mill.  His speeches do not smell of the lamp or rumble with echoes of memorized effort.  Like Webster, Mr. Graves believes that inspiration lies in the occasion.  And he finds it with the genius of a master.  No one can listen to John Temple Graves without coming away with the conviction that he deserves the great oratorical fame which is his.





MR. GRAVES AT HIS BEST



The Bureau especially invites attention to the remarkable comment from the Shreveport La. Daily Times on the great close of the Second Liberty Loan




Long after the greatest of all wars is ended, and the world has been made safe for Democracy throughout the ages, the splendid audience which heard it will remember the epochal speech which John Temple Graves delivered at the Grand Opera House Sunday afternoon in behalf of the Second Liberty Loan.  Lesser efforts in other great crises in the nation's history have made the speakers and the occasions famous for all time.




The audience which sat tense and silent under the spell of his matchless eloquence for more than an hour realized as he closed that they had heard a deliverance which they would not soon forget, one which must be ranked high up among the greatest forensic achievements of a section famous for great orators.




Many persons went to the opera house prepared to hear the ideal spell-binding orator.  Mr. Graves, on the contrary, is a simple, sincere, unaffected gentleman with a great message, which he voices so eloquently, so smoothly and so musically that, at times, one almost lost its great import in the fascination of its delivery.




Without being rhapsodical, it is safe to say that no man present ever heard a greater or more beautifully patriotic speech than that delivered by Mr. Graves.  It was marvelous in the new truths which he brought, in the swift, direct and easily flowing manner of its delivery and in the music of the voice with which it was spoken.




The magic of John Temple Graves' simple, quiet, but absolutely perfect oratory awakened whatever spirit and desire to give might have been somnolent in the great audience.




Mr. Graves began his speech in such a quiet manner, but in a voice of such far-reaching and insistent quality that interest instantaneously focused upon him.  From the moment he got the attention of the audience it did not waver an instant until he was done.




For the first 20 minutes of his speech he did not make a gesture.  His left hand rested in his trousers pocket, the fingers of his right hand touched the table at his side.  But all the while he was delivering facts and sentiments that set at rest any doubt about the duty—?




In all the gestureless speech, delivered with rapid-fire intensity, there was not a contradiction, not a hesitation, not a repetition nor a muddled phrase or thought.  It was a flawless production, and marvelous to relate, was unwritten and spoken without words previously chosen—an astonishing expression of genius.




Of course the Bureau would have it understood that these comments were from great occasions evoking the highest powers of a great orator.  They may not be easily repeated in effect upon a quiet evening of the lyceum or the Chautauqua platform.