Senator J. P. Dolliver

              Senator J. P. Dolliver
Senator J.P. Dolliver
Recognized as the most Brilliant Orator in the         United States Senate.
A BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY A FRIEND.
A FEW years ago Hon. Sam Clark visited Fort Dodge to address the Upper Des Moines Editorial Association.    He was the guest of   Sen. J. P. Dolliver, and when he went home he wrote the best short biography of our Congressman that has appeared: ; "Two days passed with Mr. Dolliver, at his home, made us know this great young orator in a way we have desired.    When we last met Congressman Dolliver he was tall and slight; now he is filled out almost massively, and he moves and looks every inch a king of the platform.   When he was younger his head was smaller, after the fashion of Shelley, Bryan and Keats, but now it is large and proportionate to his body*    He was born Feb. 6, 1858, on a West Virginia farm.   Ten years later his father moved to Morgantown to i educate his children.   J. P. entered the public schools at once;  at thirteen he passed into the freshman class of the State University there, and four years later he graduated*   He read law and taught school, was admitted to the bar in 1878, came to Iowa in 1881 and set-tied at Fort Dodge.    Since then his growing fame as an orator, and as a Congressman, is part of the pride and present history of the State.    As we expected, you cannot put out your hand at his home without putting it on a book.   He is surrounded by them.
We all have our times when our thoughts go as high as anybody's; we don't keep them there, but let them come down and go commonplace ways.    But the choice souls, great men and women, refused to be commonplace.    They say with Emerson:   ' I am a freeman of the whole realm of mind; what Plato has thought I may think*'   And these fashion them-selves into the rare and thoughtful souls that are monuments and leaders to idle folks*   We were glad of the thoughtfulness and dignity with which Mr. Dolliver said everything*   It shows that he does not have one parade day of brilliant display and then throw the blade of his wit and speech on the ground or in the gutter to rust there; but that we have in him a man who will not deteriorate, but starting high, will grow upward and not downward"
Subjects for Lectures:
" The Working Man of Nazareth." "A Poor Man's Government and a Poor Boy's Country."
"The Nation of America" "Public Virtue as a Question of Politics."
. . Press Commendations . .
Friday was Dolliver Day at Chautauqua, and he brought out the best attendance of the season. He is the most eloquent orator who has ever visited this section, and fairly hypnotized his hearers to a man with his magic oratory. He touched on the Philippine question by saying that if imperialism meant a large navy, that is what we are going to have. If it meant standing up like men under re¬sponsibilities, the administration would do it in a
patriotic manner. He hoped that the statesmen would be as brave in discharging their duties as have the brave soldiers and sailors. Mr. Dolliver is entirely free from angularity in body or mind, and his speeches are masterpieces of oratory. The brilliancy of his imagination and his abundant humor, his effective wit, his great power of ex-pression captivate his hearers.—Sioux City (/a.) Journal special from Big Stone, S. D.
At the Chautauqua.
Congressman J. P. Dol¬liver, who lectured at Mon¬ona yesterday afternoon on ''The Nation of America,'' Is an ideal American, both physically and mentally. His tall, well-knit physique is in itself quite sufficient to command attention any¬where, and when speaking, his manly appearance coupled with the wit and brilliancy of his utterance, win for him the good will of his audience at once. Mr. Dolliver is an orator in the true sense of the word. His delivery is im¬pressive—passionate when he cares to rise to that high pitch; his rhetoric is pol¬ished and artistic, sentence after sentence flowing from his tongue with such ease and fluency that the per¬fection of their structure was the constant surprise of his auditors. One of the officials, and a man whom every one would recognize as a competent critic, said of him after the lecture yes¬terday : '' That man is an orator, an optomist, a statesman. I never heard a more polished address de¬livered on these grounds, and I've been here many seasons. — Wisconsin State Journal, Madison,  Wis,
One of the Brightest Men in Congress.
FROM  THE  ILLUSTRATED  AMERICAN.
WITH the exception of the Speaker, no man in Congress is more famed for his witty epigrams and bright comparisons than Jonathan P. Dolliver.
It was he who described the attitude of the dem¬ocrats on the tariff question as that of men ' 'empty¬ing hard-coal ashes in a high wind, with their eyes shut and their backs to the subject."
"Mugwumps," he said on another occasion, "treat their consciences like the stock in trade of a baking powder company, they solmnly insist that everybody's conscience has alum in it except their own."
When the Democrats, during the pendency of the Wilson bill, were trying to reach a conclusion, he told them that it would be " as easy to fit the hundred-headed dog of the ancient fable with a straw hat as to put an intelligible tariff platform under the feet of the Democratic party." And it was he who first characterized Major McKinley as 11 the advance agent of prosperity."
But Mr. Dolliver is more than a humorist. His speeches are noted for their breadth and thorough¬ness, as well as for their striking interest. He has spoken in nearly every large city in the country. Among his most noted addresses were those at the McKinley banquet in Madison Square Garden in 1890, at the Lincoln dinner of the Republican Club in New York, before the Boston Merchants' Asso¬ciation and to the veterans on Memorial Day at Gettysburg and at Arlington.
Althongh still under forty, he has been, within the last ten years, three times chairman of the Republican State Convention of Iowa, and the speeches he has made in Congress would fill a large book.
Thrilling: Address.
The Hon. Mr. Dolliver's speech was an oratorical Iowa cyclone to the tune of "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name." It is impos¬sible to give any idea of this unique and thrilling address. His subject was "Organic Union." Before him sat the stalwarts of Southern Methodism, to whom the idea of organic union is the bogie of the age—stern, unyielding ec¬clesiastical bourbons. And yet, so excellent was the orator's spirit, so adroit his presentation of his theme, so fearless the swing of his speech, that the Gen¬eral Conference gave him and his message such an enthusiastic reception as it has seldom given to any man. Like Dewey, he went right ahead, thunder¬ing to right and left, re-gardless of the hidden mines of prejudice, and, like Dewey, he won a famous victory. Think of Dr. Barbee cheering a man who was pleading with im¬passioned eloquence for the reunion of churches. The world do move! Praise the Lord! "A great speech,'' is what everybody says at this writing.—Epworth Era May, 1898,
A Masterly Speech.
Representative Doliver's speech in the House in support of the war revenue bill deserves a place among the most noble and eloquent utterances that either branch of Congress has heard in recent years. Masterly in its treatment of the subject immediately at issue, and magnificent in its expression of patriotic sentiment, this splendid effort of the bril¬liant young leader from Iowa will live in the records *sa fadeless gem of American oratory.—New York Mai/ and Express
A Notable Speech.
The most notable speeches of this session, from the standpoint of eloquence and able presentation, have been made by Iowa members of the Houseo Representative Cousins' speech on the destruction of the Maine almost reached the dignity of a classic. Representative Dolliver's speech on Wednesday on the war revenue measure fully substantiated the remark that Mr. Blaine once made about him as the most eloquent orator he had ever heard.— Washing¬ton Post
•  . Press Commendations . .
Dolliver at New York.
One of the most notable speeches of Memorial Day yesterday, and one of the best speeches of the kind, was that delivered by Congressman Dolliver at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. It vas a speech worthy of the great audience assembled \here, representing the wealth, culture, commercial influence and power of the great metrop¬olis. Mr. Dolliver's speeches show a steady im¬provement in the qualities of abiding merit. While there is less of mere ornamentation there is more of solid dignity and strength, with no loss of those graces which give them beauty. His speech last night was a splendid exam¬ple of Memorial Day ora¬tory. It was lofty in theme, render and pathetic in sen¬timent, inspiring in its patriotism and fruitful in suggestiveness. The young orator had a very difficult place to fill His predeces¬sors upon that platform on similar occasions had been such men as Chauncey De-pew and Robert G. Inger-soll, princes of oratory and masters of the art of beau¬tiful and persuasive ad¬dress. To have been chosen to follow them was a great compliment; to have sustained himself so well under those circum¬stances was the test and triumph of Mr. Dolliver's powers. His Iowa friends will rejoice at this splendid success of one who is already ranked with the lead¬ing orators of Congress. His speech last night will extend the bounds of his growing reputation. It will honor Iowa as well as the strong and stalwart and noble orator who so worthily represents the best life and noblest aspirations of Iowa people.— Register, Des Moines, May 31, 1895.
Dolliver on the Tariff.

Iowa's Great Statesman and Orator
DE MOINES STATE REGISTER.
MR. DOLLIVER, though a Virginian by birth and education, belongs to Iowa in every sense. Born in the East, in his birth the West and the future of the West seem to have been antici¬pated. He is part of the growth and the glory of the young State of Iowa. The State has heaped many honors upon him, but he, in turn, has hon¬ored the State quite as signally. He belongs to that strong race of men who confer distinctions upon cities and honors upon States. But even dearer than his public achievements is the high ideal of home life and a fine family feeling which have been the aim and daily realization of the home of which Jonathan Prentis Dolliver is the most conspicuous member. He has shown enough devotion to his father and his father's home to confer distinction on a man among those who know him best.
L
Some one was needed to answer him, and the Republicans put forth the finest orator in the House, Dolliver, of Iowa. * * Mr. Dolliver, on the other hand, is entirely free from angularity in body and mind and his speeches are masterpieces.—New York Independent, Feb. 2, 1899
Oratory, after all, is not dead in Congress. Yesterday's tariff debate was stale, flat and unprofit¬able; to-day's was worthy of the occasion.
The leading speech was made by Representative Dolliver of Iowa, one of the most graceful, polished and forcible orators in either branch. It was un¬fortunate that he was not selected to open the debate; had he been, the great question would! have been put before the House in a way befitting its importance.
Mr. Dolliver had been eagerly waited for by J
large audience in the galleries and upon the floor
for he is famous as an oraJ
tor and is  noted,   besides,
as  a  master  of  the  tariff
question.    As a member of]
the Ways and Means Com-J
mittee of the House he has!
been   conspicuous   in   the]
framing of the bill which
bears Mr. Dingley's name,!
and   if   had   been   noised I
about   that    Mr.   Dolliveil
would adopt a frank method!
of explaining the methods I
which had been followed in]
the   construction   of   that
measure.
The general expectation of hearing something from I Mr. Dolliver's lips more in-1 teresting than the average! stereotyped    tariff    speech was not disappointed.    In a few moments the eloquent young  man   from   North-J western  Iowa had all  the Republican  members  applauding   him,   time   andj again, while all the  Democrats and  Populists sat and listened without caring to interrupt.
At times the enthusiasm among the Republicans was  tremendous.    A number of Senators, having! heard that one of the greatest speeches of the year was being delivered, came over to the House and I sat in admiration.
Mr.   Dolliver spoke without notes, and in the free and easy way characteristic of him, discussed] all phases of the question, not forgetting to pay his 1 respects in inimitable wit and satire, to his  friends of  the   other   side0—Boston   Daily   Globe,  March] 24., 1897
Direction of
The Central Lyceum Bureau
213 Walnut Street,  Harrisburg,  Pa. JNO. S. ARNOLD,  Manager.