Victor Alvin Ketcham

“ I was glad to express my gratitude at Quincy, and I re-express it here, to Judge Douglas,—that he looks to no end of the institution of slavery. That will help the people to see where the struggle really is. It will hereafter place with us all men who really do wish the wrong may have an end. And whenever we can get rid of the fog which obscures the real question, when we can get Judge Douglas and his friends to avow a policy looking to its perpetuation,—we can get out from among that class of men and bring them to the side of those who treat it as a wrong. ”

“ The man who is an expert in the use of argument holds the master key to success in all lines. It is an invaluable asset to every one who has to deal with practical affairs. It matters not whether you are to address one individual or a thousand—whether you wish to persuade to a certain course of action, your employer, a committee, a board of directors, a town council, the senate of the United States, or an auditorium full of people, knowledge of the use and application of the rules of argumentation, and good training in the art of debate is a most valuable asset. ”

“ I stand by the platform of the Democratic party, and by its organization, and support its nominees. If there are any who choose to bolt, the fact only shows that they are not as good Democrats as I am.
My friends, there never was a time when it was as important for the Democratic party, for all national men, to rally and stand together, as it is to-day. We find all sectional men giving up past differences and continuing the one question of slavery; and when we find sectional men thus uniting we should unite to resist them and their treasonable designs. ”

“ If slavery is right, all words, acts, laws, and constitutions against it are themselves wrong, and should be silenced and swept away. If it is right, we cannot justly object to its nationality—its universality; if it is wrong, they cannot justly insist upon its extension—its enlargement. All they ask we could readily grant, if we thought slavery right; all we ask they could as readily grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right and our thinking it wrong is the precise fact upon which depends the whole controversy. ”

“ I look upon it as a great evil, and deeply lament that we have derived it from the parental government and from our ancestors. I wish every slave in the United States was in the country of his ancestors. But there they are; the question is, How can they best be dealt with? If a state of nature existed, and we were about to lay the foundations of society, no man would be more strongly opposed than I should be to incorporate the institution of slavery among its elements.”
The principle upon which I have insisted in this canvass is in relation to laying the foundations of new societies. ”

“ Silence will not be tolerated—we must place ourselves avowedly with them. Senator Douglas’s new sedition law must be enacted and enforced, suppressing all declarations that slavery is wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, in pulpits, or in private. We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our free State constitutions. The whole atmosphere must be disinfected from all taint of opposition to slavery, before they will cease to believe that all their troubles proceed from us. ”

“ And how much would it avail you, if you could by the use of John Brown, Helper’s book, and the like, break up the Republican organization? Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed. There is a judgment and a feeling against slavery in this nation, which cast at least a million and a half of votes. You cannot destroy that judgment and feeling—that sentiment—by breaking up the political organization which rallies around it. You can scarcely scatter and disperse an army which has been formed into order in the face of your heaviest fire ”

“ If it chooses to keep slavery forever, it is not my business, but its own; if it chooses to abolish slavery, it is its own business,—not mine. I care more for the great principle of self-government, the right of the people to rule, than I do for all the negroes in Christendom. ”

“ In short, while the gentlemen of the opposition are standing as the champions of swollen fortunes, magnates, and a governing aristocracy founded upon wealth and corruption with the center of power at Wall Street, we stand for the suppression of corruption, the resurrection of individual opportunity, and government by the great mass of the common people with the center of power at Washington. The negative would foster an aristocracy; we would perpetuate democracy. ”

“ Has anything ever threatened the existence of this Union save and except this very institution of slavery? What is it that we hold most dear amongst us? Our own liberty and prosperity. What has ever threatened our liberty and prosperity, save and except this institution of slavery? If this is true, how do you propose to improve the condition of things by enlarging slavery,—by spreading it out and making it bigger? You may have a wen or cancer upon your person, and not be able to cut it out, lest you bleed to death ”

“ He may say he don’t care whether an indifferent thing is voted up or down, but he must logically have a choice between a right thing and a wrong thing. He contends that whatever community wants slaves has a right to have them. So they have, if it is not a wrong. But if it is a wrong, he cannot say people have a right to do wrong. He says that upon the score of equality, slaves should be allowed to go in a new Territory, like other property. This is strictly logical if there is no difference between it and other property. If it and other property are equal, his argument is entirely logical. ”

“ The power of a speaker does not exist in the development of any one trait. He must study methods of delivery, and must not weary of painstaking physical and mental preparation. Back of all of this must be the man himself, entrenched in mental and moral strength. No defect is too trifling to be overcome by constant vigilance, no improvement so unimportant as not to merit the most arduous striving. The student who is ambitious to acquire the art of persuasion should practice constantly and neglect no opportunity to appear before an audience. ”

“ I have met Judge Douglas in that point of view. I have not only made the declaration that I do not mean to produce a conflict between the States, but I have tried to show by fair reasoning, and I think I have shown to the minds of fair men, that I propose nothing but what has a most peaceful tendency. The quotation that I happened to make in that Springfield speech, that “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” and which has proved so offensive to the Judge, was part and parcel of the same thing. ”

“ It is not a trick by which an argument may be decorated for parade. Style is the thought and the man behind that thought. It is the thought presented in all its native force and completeness; it is the man with all his earnestness and sincerity put into his words. No writer or speaker can obtain good style by imitating that of another person. ”

“ It was not a slave insurrection. It was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt among slaves, in which the slaves refused to participate. In fact, it was so absurd that the slaves, with all their ignorance, saw plainly enough it could not succeed. That affair, in its philosophy, corresponds with the many attempts, related in history, at the assassination of kings and emperors. An enthusiast broods over the oppression of a people till he fancies himself commissioned by Heaven to liberate them. He ventures the attempt which ends in little else than his own execution. ”

“ Refutation is entirely destructive as distinguished from constructive argument. While the work of rebuttal includes both a defense of one’s own argument and an attack upon that of an opponent, refutation consists of weakening or destroying the arguments of the opposition. From the destructive nature of refutation it is plain that it must be adapted to the argument against which it is directed. This involves keen powers of analysis and adaptation, an exact knowledge of the theory and practice of argumentation, and a thorough insight into both sides of the proposition under discussion. ”

“ They were speaking of white men. They alluded to men of European birth and European descent,—to white men, and to none others,—when they declared that doctrine. I hold that this government was established on the white basis. It was established by white men for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, and should be administered by white men, and none others. But it does not follow by any means, that merely because the negro is not a citizen, and merely because he is not our equal, that, therefore, he should be a slave. ”

“ I understand, I hope, quite as well as Judge Douglas or anybody else, that the variety in the soil and climate and face of the country, and consequent variety in the industrial pursuits and productions of a country, require systems of law conforming to this variety in the natural features of the country. I understand quite as well as Judge Douglas that if we here raise a barrel of flour more than we want, and the Louisianians raise a barrel of sugar more than they want, it is of mutual advantage to exchange. That produces commerce, brings us together, and makes us better friends. ”

“ The graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments and studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men, when their own lives, and the fate of their wives, their children, and their country, hang on the decision of the hour. Then words have lost their power, rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself then feels rebuked and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. ”

“ Equality among all the States of this Union is a fundamental principle in our political system. We have no more right to throw the weight of the Federal Government into the scale in favor of the slaveholding than the Free States, and last of all should our friends in the South consent for a moment that Congress should withhold its powers either way when they know that there is a majority against them in both Houses of Congress. ”

“ Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from its actual presence in the nation; but can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the national Territories, and to overrun us here in these free States? ”

“ No ostentation or striving after effect should be allowed to hold a place in the speaker’s thoughts, for the day of bombastic oratory is passed. This is a practical age; the world demands results, and results demand directness. Simplicity of thought begets simplicity of expression, and the orator with but a single idea underlying his argument has this irresistible power.
In delivering the argument the debater must forget himself, so far as his preparation and personality are concerned, and think only of what he is saying. ”

“ It is surely safe to assume that the thirty-nine framers of the original Constitution, and the seventy-six members of the Congress which framed the amendments thereto, taken together, do certainly include those who may be fairly called “our fathers who framed the government under which we live.” And so assuming, I defy any man to show that any one of them ever, in his whole life, declared that, in his understanding, any proper division of local from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in the Federal Territories. ”

“ The keynote of adapting a speech to the speaker is sincerity. Sincerity begets naturalness. To be sincere and know that he is in the right leads the speaker to treat his subject in a manner which will show forth the best qualities of his character.
The argument should manifest the utmost fairness. It should be clear that the speaker or writer desires truth and justice to prevail. When stating an opponent’s position for purposes of refutation the speaker or writer should be sure that his statements are fair and reasonable and will bear the inspection of unprejudiced judges. ”

“ What has jarred and shaken the great American Tract Society recently, not yet splitting it, but sure to divide it in the end? Is it not this same mighty, deep-seated power that somehow operates on the minds of men, exciting and stirring them up in every avenue of society,—in politics, in religion, in literature, in morals, in all the manifold relations of life? ”

“ Vagueness in delivery is just as harmful as vagueness in language or substance. If one word in a sentence is pronounced so ineffectively that it is not understood, it may be impossible for the person hearing that sentence to grasp its meaning. In any event it requires the listener to make the mental effort of figuring out what the sentence means, and this mental effort tires the hearer, prevents him from giving his undivided attention to the substance of the argument, and ultimately results in his losing all interest in the discussion. ”

“ If the work has been done carefully the student will have confidence in the solidity of his argument. He cannot feel secure if he suspects that his analysis is defective.
The question of analysis is not only of supreme importance in relation to a particular proposition for discussion, but it is also of the greatest importance in all the practical affairs of life. No mental quality is so necessary as the analytical habit of mind. Practically all the men whom history calls great have possessed in a large degree the habit of analyzing everything. ”

“ Upon this sound basis must every argument find its ultimate justification. Even inductions and deductions may be traced to their source where the law of cause and effect will finally determine their validity. It is therefore of the utmost importance that we give careful consideration to this class of arguments. As in the case of imperfect induction, we are reasoning from the known to the unknown; from things of which we are conscious to things that are beyond the realm of our perception. ”

“ It may be argued that there are certain conditions that make necessities and impose them upon us, and to the extent that a necessity is imposed upon a man he must submit to it. I think that was the condition in which we found ourselves when we established this government. We had slaves among us, we could not get our Constitution unless we permitted them to remain in slavery, we could not secure the good we did secure if we grasped for more; and having by necessity submitted to that much, it does not destroy the principle that is the charter of our liberties. ”

“ No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle. ”

“ This form of ignoring the question may arise from a deliberate attempt to misrepresent the opposition or from an honest mistake as to just what argument has been advanced. In either case it ignores the question at issue and is a useless expenditure of time and effort. Sometimes a debater cannot refute the arguments advanced by his opponents and he therefore seeks to occupy his time by arguing against contentions which he thought would be advanced but which in reality have not been mentioned. It is far better not to argue at all than to ignore the real points at issue in this manner. ”