Acclamation

“ Persistent rumour had said that the extreme party meant to attempt an acclamation. Therefore many believed it possible that in one brief sitting the basis of infallibility might be shifted from that of an infallible Church to that of an infallible man.
Other rumours asserted that some French prelates had let it be known that if any attempt at getting up an acclamation should be made, they would leave the Council. But what might take place behind those charmed walls, who could tell? ”

“ Their claims are so affecting, and so obvious, the remedy that would save them from all pain is so cheap and simple, that it is, we feel, only necessary to appeal to the public to obtain by acclamation a verdict in their favour. ”

“ As we drove up a buzz of greeting came from the people upon the fringe which was nearest to us, spreading and spreading, until the whole multitude had joined in the acclamation. Then an instant later a second shout broke forth, beginning from the other side of the arena, and the faces which had been turned towards us whisked round, so that in a twinkling the whole foreground changed from white to dark. ”

“ We must not always judge of the generality of the opinion by the noise of the acclamation. ”

“ Our people hear some great orators as they witness a play. The delight of taste, even intellectual gratification, caused by what is well said, is one thing. Conviction is quite another. The printing-press and the reporter, the consultation in the jury-room, the reflection in the Judge's chamber, the delay of the election to a day long after the speech, are protections against the mischief of mere oratory, which the ancients did not enjoy.
I heard a debate in the House of Commons in 1860, on the paper duties, in which Lord John Russell, Palmerston, Gladstone, and John Bright took part. ”

“ I have no faith in outspoken resolves of wordy declamation: not sure of ourselves, we fortify our weak resolutions through the ear and the eye, by spoken and written adjurations, and promises of amendment. ”

“ Not only has the time of the Legislature become too precious to be wasted upon the mere gymnastics of rhetoric, but even those graces, with which true Oratory surrounds her statements, are but impatiently borne, where the statement itself is the primary and pressing object of the hearer. ”

“ Do you attribute any greater weight or any meaning to the words “I swear,” and to the fact of kissing the book, beyond the words of ordinary promise?—Not beyond the words of ordinary promise made under statutory obligation. ”

“ There is no act of Congress, and nothing to be found in American jurisprudence, which bears very directly on the subject. In the English law the instrument is thus defined: 'Proclamation proclamatio-is a notice publicly given of anything whereof the king thinks fit to advertise his subjects. ”

“ He tells me that an Act of Comprehension is likely to pass this Parliament, for admitting of all persuasions in religion to the public observation of their particular worship, but in certain places, and the persons therein concerned to be listed of this, or that Church; which, it is thought, will do them more hurt than good, and make them not own, their persuasion. ”

“ And that such person or persons, whom Wee shall appoint specially by Our Privie Seale, to take care and charge of the execution of Our pleasure in the premisses, shall have the one halfe of all the Fines, to bee imposed upon every offendour against this Our Proclamation, for their encouragement to bee diligent and faithfull, in, and about the performance of that service, We shall so commit unto them. ”

“ I say here, Sir, before you, with all the solemnity man can command, that I know the words of the oath the statute requires me to take, that I am ready to take that oath according to law, and that I will not take an oath without intending it to be binding upon me, and that if I do take the oath it will be binding upon my honor and conscience. (Conservative cries of “Oh! oh!”) Members of the House who are ignorant of what is honor and conscience—— (Loud cries of “Order,” “Oh, oh,” and “Withdraw,” from the Opposition.) ”

“ Every pleader who acts in the business of another should have regard to four things:—First, that he be a person receivable in court, that he be no heretic, nor excommunicate, nor criminal, nor man of religion, nor woman, nor ordained clerk above the order of sub-deacon, nor beneficed clerk with the cure of souls, nor infant under twenty-one years of age, nor judge in the same cause, nor open leper, nor man attainted of falsification against the law of his office. ”

“ The king never issues out a proclamation but to enjoin what the law permits him. He will not issue out a proclamation against law; or, if such a thing should happen by a mistake, we are no more obliged to obey it, than to run our heads into the fire. ”

“ This may serve to refute those, that teach that the assurance of election crosseth the practise of piety, whereas there is as great an agreement betwixt these, as is betwixt the effect and the cause, which absolutely agree.
2. To condemne those, that from this doctrine of the assurance of election, take occasion to cast off all care of piety: these are they that the Apostle speaks of, chapter 3 verse 16. who being unlearned and unstable, wrest the Scriptures unto their owne destruction. ”

“ If any man, as idle as myself, should take the trouble to review and canvass my arguments I am ready to yield so indifferent a point to better reasons. Should declamation alone be used to contradict me, I shall not think I am less in the right. ”

“ Do you attribute any more meaning to those words than a pledge to human beings around you?—I attach no more meaning to those words than I do to a pledge to human beings authorised by law to take such a pledge from me under similar solemn circumstances. ”

“ If thou art a leader (or administrator) , hear quietly the speech of the petitioner. He who is suffering wrong desires that his heart be cheered to do that on account of which he hath come ....... It is an ornament of the heart to hear kindly. ”

“ Whenever the legislature has accurately determined what are the facts which shall give commencement, and what those which shall give termination to a right, the whole confused and intricate mass of what in English law is called Pleading, reduces itself to those clear and simple elements. A begins, by affirming some one of the facts which gives commencement to a right. ”

“ It is within your knowledge that some men, and not a few men, who do not absolutely refuse to take an oath, still greatly prefer to make an affirmation?—If it would not be impertinent to say it, many Members of the House have told me so since this question has been pending. ”

“ In Congress, nibbling and quibbling as usual. There is no greater mortification than to sit with half a dozen wits, deliberating upon a petition, address, or memorial. These great wits, these subtle critics, these refined geniuses, these learned lawyers, these wise statesmen, are so fond of showing their parts and powers, as to make their consultations very tedious. ”

“ And whereas We are desirous, that none of our loving Subjects should be ignorant of the said Encouragement, We have thought fit, with the Advice of our Privy Council, to publish the same, by this Our Royal Proclamation, to the End that all Officers, Seamen, Marines, Soldiers, and others, Our Subjects, may be fully informed of the Benefit thereby intended for such of them, as shall be willing to assist by their Endeavours in the vigorous Prosecution of the War, and the Annoyance of the Enemy. ”

“ So there are three kinds,—one of judgment, one of deliberation, one of embellishment; and this last, because it is chiefly employed in panegyric, has its peculiar name from that.
IV. C. F. What objects shall the orator propose to himself in these three kinds of oratory?
C. P. In embellishment, his aim must be to give pleasure; in judicial speaking, to excite either the severity or the clemency of the judge; but in persuasion, to excite either the hope or the fear of the assembly which is deliberating. ”

“ If the legislative body is not assembled, the king shall cause a proclamation to be published, in which shall be set forth this oath and the promise to reiterate it as soon as the legislative body shall assemble. ”

“ The original Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln is written upon very heavy white unruled paper that is folded once. The fold is at the left, like a sheet of four-paged letter-paper, and each page is ten by fourteen inches in size. It begins, as do all Presidential proclamations, 'By the President of the United States of America—A Proclamation.'
"The first line is written with a pen in a bold hand, and the words, 'A Proclamation,' form a line of themselves—printing characters, although executed with a pen. ”

“ The tribunals, in former times, when good taste prevailed, were greatly adorned by our advocates, when orators of spirited eloquence—laborious and accomplished scholars—shone pre-eminent in genius, honesty, fluency, and every kind of embellishment of language. ”

“ All the acts which had been voted were embodied into a declaration, entitled an acknowledgment of his majesty’s prerogative, which, together with the oath of allegiance, every person holding a place of public trust was required to subscribe, and all other persons who should be required by his majesty’s privy council, or any having authority from them, should be required to take and swear ”

“ Even the Emancipation Proclamation—that one flag stone in the wide morass of despondency on which the wearied man at last set firm foothold, did not at first seem to be a first step into the land of promise. ”

“ PROCLAMATION. An instrument which is published by the constituted authority of government, whereby the country at large is advertised of something, and whereby the people are sometimes required to do, or not to do certain things. A proclamation has all the efficacy of law, because it must be in concord with or founded upon the law already in being. ”

“ You may now well write of men “whom no oath can bind.” The oath you took you have broken; and yet it was because you had, in the very church itself, taken this oath, that you for many years held more than one profitable preferment in the Established Church of England. ”

“ These references to the pleadings are sufficient, without more, to exhibit the real issue between the parties, and to show the proper application of the several propositions of fact maintained on the one side and the other in the argument at the bar. ”

“ But inasmuch as no one came forward and my lord the Archbishop gave me and my proctors no locus standi, therefore, in the name of justice, I entreat his Majesty, the Queen, their advisers, and the Prefect of the entire court to grant to me due attestation of this fact—namely, that I made the above declaration, and publicly posted up a letter concerning this matter, and that no one in the whole kingdom stood forth against me. ”

“ And in order that it may be discharged with a conscientious regard to truth, and a fidelity becoming its importance, you are bound by the solemn tie of an oath to execute this office without malice, without resentment, without favour, and without affection. Under this sacred obligation, your fellow-subjects have reason to hope and expect that you will hear with patience, enquire with diligence, judge with candour, and present with impartiality. ”

“ The above is the truth, according to the oath of the deponent, who declares that he has not spoken out of malice, but solely in obedience to his conscience, and having been read to him, is declared to be correctly recorded. ”

“ Those political writers, who have had recourse to a promise, or original contract, as the source of our allegiance to government, intended to establish a principle, which is perfectly just and reasonable ”

“ A Proclamation, made and divysed by the Kyngis Highnes, with the advise of His Honorable Counsaile, for dampning of erronious bokes and heresies, and prohibitinge the havinge of Holy Scripture translated into the vulgar tonges of englische, frenche, or duche, in suche maner as within this proclamation is expressed. ”

“ Perhaps the petitioners expect from their counsel, that they should display the fecundity of their imagination, and the elegance of their language; that they should amuse us with the illusions of oratory, dazzle us with bright ideas, affect us with strong representations, and lull us with harmonious periods ”

“ The laying on the hand and kissing the book, is an action directly related to the imprecation, and not to the oath, but only by consequence, as the imprecation is subservient to the oath, as the oath is to the assertion. ”

“ For praise, or blame, or the statement of an opinion, or accusation, or denial, ought all to effect different ends. In judicial investigations the object of inquiry is, what is just; in demonstrative discussion the question is, what is honourable; in deliberations, in our opinion, what we inquire is, what is honourable and at the same time expedient. For the other writers on this subject have thought it right to limit the consideration of expediency to speeches directed to persuasion or dissuasion. ”

“ While I am willing to allow that declamation, or the powers of an effervescent imagination, are no evidences of wisdom, the House must admit that the mere dullness of a special pleader without his accuracy does not imply any pretensions to knowledge. ”

“ Your petitioner, and the people who ordained him, conceived his ordination was sufficiently notorious, as the article was subscribed by every member of the society; and the honourable court considered him a public teacher of Piety, Religion, and Morality. ”

“ The fact that in many acts of congress cited by counsel that body has used the word to signify a statement in writing, whether sworn to or not, as the foundation in many cases of official action, or as preliminary to the assertion of rights by the party who makes the declaration, is far from proving that the use of the word in the act concerning perjury is limited to these cases. ”