# Best real-world speeches? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 15, 2009, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503 "2009-05-15T07:06:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/1 "2009-05-15T07:06:07Z")
We’ve had several threads on this board about speeches or monologues from plays/movies/etc. How about real-world speeches? Which bits of speechifying from a politician, or activist, or what have you, make you want to go out and give your all for The Cause to this day? (Note: For the purposes of this thread, let’s stick to historical speeches, and try to avoid contemporary politics. Say, no more recent than fifty years.) I’d nominate Winston Chuchill’s 1941 “Speech to the Allied Delegates”, [PRIME MINISTER WINSTON CHURCHILL'S SPEECH TO THE ALLIED DELEGATES](http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/timeline/410612bwp.html). You can see a partial recording here: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTRL\_QraUrA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTRL_QraUrA). No one does controlled, outraged _menace_ like Churchill: > [@](#): > > We cannot see how deliverance will come or when it will come, but nothing is more certain that every trace of Hitler’s footsteps, every stain of his infected, corroding fingers will be sponged and purged and, if need be, blasted from the surface of the earth. And the take-away point is pure poetry: > [@](#): > > This then, my lords and gentlemen, is the message which we send forth today to all states and nations, bound or free, to all the men in all the lands who care for freedom’s cause. To our Allies and well-wishers in Europe, to our American friends and helpers drawing ever closer in their might across the ocean, this is the message-lift up your hearts, all will come right. Out of depths of sorrow and sacrifice will be born again the glory of mankind. What are your picks? ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/2 "2009-05-15T07:43:49Z")
…not a speech, as such, but a debate. David Lange was one of New Zealand’s finest statesman and IMHO our best Prime Minister. He was a quick wit and fantastic with words, and one of his most memorable moments was the Oxford Union Debate in 1985. Lange had the unenviable task of taking on the Rev. Jerry Falwell and arguing that “Nuclear Weapons are Morally Indefensible” For those that don’t remember New Zealand was at the forefront of protests to stop nuclear testing in the South Pacific and in 1984 banned nuclear armed ships from entering her waters. Here is the speech: the entire transcript and audio available on the public address link. You really need to listen to the whole thing… > **[Nuclear Weapons are Morally Indefensible • Great New Zealand Argument •...](https://publicaddress.net/1578)** [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OeHTziiFVx0/hqdefault.jpg "david lange Oxford Union Debate, 1 March 1985") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeHTziiFVx0) > [@](#): > > The simple fact is that I make no pretence that the problem which confronted New Zealand is that same as that which confronts Western Europe. And you point out - and you have the right to point out, and I am glad that you did, notwithstanding that you allege that you oppose me - that people from New Zealand, a country which has never been attacked, have willingly taken up arms in Europe. They have died in African campaigns, they have their bones bleaching in deserts, they are buried in Italy. They have fought in Vietnam. We have forces right now in Sinai. We have a battalion in Singapore where the British used to be! > > … > > But the result has been that we have been told by some officials in the United States administration that our decision is not, as they put it, to be cost-free; that we are in fact to be made to pay for our action. Not by our enemies, but by our friends. We are in fact to be made an example of; we are to be ostracised, we are to be convicted of some form of heresy and put on probation. We are going to be kept there until we are compelled to resume our seat in the dress circle of the nuclear theatre. > > We have been told that because others in the West - and their advocates are here tonight - carry the fearful burden of a defence which terrorises as much as the threat it counters, we too must carry that burden. We are actually told that New Zealanders cannot decide for themselves how to defend New Zealand, but are obliged to adopt the methods which others use to defend themselves. > > … > It is self-defeating logic, just as the weapons themselves are self-defeating: to compel an ally to accept nuclear weapons against the wishes of that ally is to take the moral position of totalitarianism, which allows for no self-determination, and which is exactly the evil that we are supposed to be fighting against. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/3 "2009-05-15T08:04:22Z")
I think the Gettysburg Address is masterful and unsurpassed among American political speeches. I also love Churchill’s “Fight them on the beaches” speech. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/4 "2009-05-15T08:24:41Z")
Are you placing a historical limit? Because Cicero’s speeches, particularly In Catalinam, are very good, but the record we have is not what he actually said, but a dressed-up version. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/5 "2009-05-15T08:30:33Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Are you placing a historical limit? Because Cicero’s speeches, particularly In Catalinam, are very good, but the record we have is not what he actually said, but a dressed-up version. I’d prefer speeches that are _at least_ fifty years old, to avoid contemporary political wrangling. (Though the NZ link was very interesting). I think Cicero (or his ghostwriter) qualifies. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/6 "2009-05-15T14:07:42Z")
In general, anything by Lincoln is golden. Although the aforementioned [Gettysburg Address](http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm) is the best surviving example, and one of the best speeches in the English language, his [first](http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres31.html) has moments of genius, perhaps overshadowed by density and bureaucratic language. His [second inaugural](http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres32.html) was much better. There’s the famous “[House Divided](http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/divided.htm)” speech, too. I also like his best-known “[Message to Congress](http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/congress.htm)”: “we shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.” But Lincoln fans might be missing his very best work. Lincoln’s famous [Lost Speech](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%27s_Lost_Speech) in 1856 was reportedly so good that trained reporters stopped taking notes and sat open-mouthed. The other possibility rumored is that it was so polarizing that it was suppressed for the good of a nation on the brink of civil war. We may never know exactly _why_ the speech was lost. But all who attended spoke forever afterward in awe of this speech: Writing in the Chicago Democrat, reporter John Wentworth said, [“Abraham Lincoln for an hour and a half held the assemblage spellbound by the power of his argument, the intense irony of his invective, the brilliancy of his eloquence. I shall not mar any of its fine proportions by attempting even a synopsis of it.”](http://home.att.net/~rjnorton/Lincoln63.html) Lincoln’s friend Herndon concluded, “His speech was full of fire and energy and force. It was logic; it was pathos; it was enthusiasm; it was justice, equity, truth, and right set ablaze by the devine fires of a soul maddened by the wrong; it was hard, heavy, knotty, gnarly, backed with wrath.” I would love to have _that_ speech to share with you here. ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/7 "2009-05-15T15:41:06Z")
When I saw Churchill’s name in the OP, I thought it would be the “Blood, toil, tears and sweat” speech. > [@](#): > > We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? > > I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, “come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.” > **[Non GamStop Casinos UK Feb 2026 – Best Sites Not on GamStop](https://bettingwow.co.uk/)** > > Discover the best non GamStop casinos UK 2026: huge bonuses up to 777%, fast payouts, crypto deposits & no restrictions. Catherine of Aragon’s divorce speech was short, but moving. > [@](#): > > I loved all those whom ye loved, only for your sake, whether I had cause or no, and whether they were my friends or enemies. This 20 years or more I have been your true wife… [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/sixwives/inherwords/ca\_words.html](http://www.pbs.org/wnet/sixwives/inherwords/ca_words.html) Also, of course, MLK’s ‘I have a dream’ speech. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/8 "2009-05-15T16:29:51Z")
Lou Gerhig’s farewell speech: [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Gehrig#.22The_Luckiest_Man_on_the_Face_of_the_Earth.22), [American Rhetoric](http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechprideoftheyankees.html), and [Major League Baseball](http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20030618&content_id=381132&vkey=lou_gehrig&fext=.jsp&c_id=null) web sites. I remember hearing on NPR a few years ago that there is no reliable transcript of the speech. Everyone covering the speech was too overcome with emotion to write down what was spoken, and the voice recording at the time was bad or lost. I’m not a sports fan, and I am fighting off tears just reading the speech. ---
**Author:** ![Scathach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Scathach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scathach)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/9 "2009-05-15T17:03:04Z")
I always had a soft spot for Éamon de Valera’s reply to Churchill after he criticised Ireland’s neutrality during WWII. [QUOTE=Churchill] This was indeed a deadly moment in our life, and if it had not been for the loyalty and friendship of Northern Ireland we should have been forced to come to close quarters with Mr. de Valera or perish forever from the earth. However, with a restraint and poise to which, I say, history will find few parallels, we never laid a violent hand upon them, which at times would have been quite easy and quite natural, and left the de Valera Government to frolic with the German and later with the Japanese representatives to their heart’s content. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=de Valera] …Mr. Churchill makes it clear that, in certain circumstances, he would have violated our neutrality and that he would justify his action by Britain’s necessity. It seems strange to me that Mr. Churchill does not see that this, if accepted, would mean Britain’s necessity would become a moral code and that when this necessity became sufficiently great, other people’s rights were not to count. It is quite true that other great Powers believe in this same code-in their own regard-and have behaved in accordance with it. That is precisely why we have the disastrous succession of wars-World War No. I and World War No. 2 and shall it be World War No. 3?.. …Could he not find in his heart the generosity to acknowledge that there is a small nation that stood alone not for one year or two, but for several hundred years against aggression; that endured spoliation’s, famines, massacres in endless succession; that was clubbed many times into insensibility, but that each time on returning consciousness took up the fight anew; a small nation that could never be got to accept defeat and has never surrendered her soul?.. [/QUOTE] [http://forum.stirpes.net/modern-contemporary-history/18149-eamon-valeras-answer-churchills-victory-speech.html](http://forum.stirpes.net/modern-contemporary-history/18149-eamon-valeras-answer-churchills-victory-speech.html) E.T.A. The link is to a post in a forum which is fairly obviously biased to Irish nationalism but I couldn’t find the full text of the speech anywhere else ---
**Author:** ![Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/13edae/32.png) [@Interconnected\_Series\_of\_Tubes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interconnected_Series_of_Tubes)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/10 "2009-05-15T17:31:38Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > (snips) > I’d nominate Winston Chuchill’s 1941 “Speech to the Allied Delegates” He does it better with a [time machine.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW6jW9y59JY) ---
**Author:** ![Claire\_Beauchamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/11 "2009-05-15T17:59:01Z")
> [@Omega\_Glory](#): > > Catherine of Aragon’s divorce speech was short, but moving. > [The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Catherine of Aragon. in her own words | PBS](http://www.pbs.org/wnet/sixwives/inherwords/ca_words.html) This is a very good one, and right on the money. Elizabeth I’s “Heart and Stomach of a King” is pretty good. No Kennedy speeches have been mentioned? “Ask not what you can do for your country” etc. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/12 "2009-05-15T18:12:53Z")
> [@Claire\_Beauchamp](#): > > Elizabeth I’s “Heart and Stomach of a King” is pretty good. The speech to the troops at Tilbury. It’s pretty badass. > [@](#): > > My loving people, > We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit our selves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and We do assure you in the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean time, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/13 "2009-05-15T18:47:20Z")
Pop-up warning here, but here is [American Rhetoric’s list of the top 100 speeches of the 20th Century.](http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html) Many of these fall inside the OP’s 50-year limit, and I certainly haven’t read every one, but there’s much to admire regardless of politics and religion. The King speeches are obviously magnificient, but I’d suggest Reagan’s Challenger address and Clinton’s remarks after the Oklahoma City bombing for recent examples. There’s other stuff in there that is momentous but not great oratory and not particularly truthful either, but still. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/14 "2009-05-15T19:08:18Z")
Woodrow Wilson, for years a staunch advocate of neutrality, finallly bringing the US into WWI: [Link.](http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/wilsonwarmessage.htm) > [@](#): > > It is a distressing and oppressive duty, Gentlemen of the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. > > But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts, for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world at last free. > > To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other. He got a standing ovation after this adn then went to his private quarterrs and despaired that the times allowed for a man to get a standing ovation for sending men of to kill and be killed. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/15 "2009-05-15T19:28:27Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Pop-up warning here, but here is [American Rhetoric’s list of the top 100 speeches of the 20th Century.](http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html) Many of these fall inside the OP’s 50-year limit, and I certainly haven’t read every one, but there’s much to admire regardless of politics and religion. The King speeches are obviously magnificient, but I’d suggest Reagan’s Challenger address and Clinton’s remarks after the Oklahoma City bombing for recent examples. There’s other stuff in there that is momentous but not great oratory and not particularly truthful either, but still. One of the [links](http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mariosaviosproulhallsitin.htm) on that page is to Mario Savio’s speech at the University of California, Berkeley, in particular, this part, “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can’t take part! You can’t even passively take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus – and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it – that unless you’re free the machine will be prevented from working at all!!” It’s remarkable as it comes from a non-politician and for being apparently extemporaneous. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/16 "2009-05-15T21:35:56Z")
Lincoln is my favorite (never knew about that lost speech…very cool albeit sad it is lost to us). Churchill certainly gets an honorable mention. Reaching a little farther afield I’ll toss out Ralph Waldo Emerson’s commencement address to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard in 1837 titled: The American Scholar I really think the speech needs to be read in its entirety for best effect. Here is a little taste and link to the full speech: > [@](#): > > The mind now thinks, now acts; and each fit reproduces the other. When the artist has exhausted his materials, when the fancy no longer paints, when thoughts are no longer apprehended, and books are a weariness, — he has always the resource to live. Character is higher than intellect. Thinking is the function. Living is the functionary. The stream retreats to its source. A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think. Does he lack organ or medium to impart his truths? He can still fall back on this elemental force of living them. This is a total act. Thinking is a partial act. Let the grandeur of justice shine in his affairs. Let the beauty of affection cheer his lowly roof. Those “far from fame,” who dwell and act with him, will feel the force of his constitution in the doings and passages of the day better than it can be measured by any public and designed display. > > SOURCE: [The American Scholar : Ralph Waldo Emerson 1837](http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/transcendentalism/emerson/american_scholar.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/17 "2009-05-15T23:06:25Z")
The speech Bartolomeo Vanzetti made in 1927 at his sentencing to death for his participation with Nicola Sacco in an armed robberry that resulted in two deaths is the most moving words I have ever read. When it came time for his final words, this semi-literate workman was poetic. I was moved when I read it 55 years ago and thought he was innocent and I am still moved by it today even though I now think he was guilty. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/18 "2009-05-16T05:16:47Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > One of the [links](http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mariosaviosproulhallsitin.htm) on that page is to Mario Savio’s speech at the University of California, Berkeley, in particular, this part, “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can’t take part! You can’t even passively take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus – and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it – that unless you’re free the machine will be prevented from working at all!!” > > It’s remarkable as it comes from a non-politician and for being apparently extemporaneous. It was also featured on Battlestar Galactica. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/19 "2009-05-16T06:15:18Z")
> [@Claire\_Beauchamp](#): > > No Kennedy speeches have been mentioned? “Ask not what you can do for your country” etc. I like Robert Kennedy’s [speech](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPYNb4ex6Ko) after MLK was assassinated. The most amazing part of the speech is the fact that he made a speech at all. Right after MLK is assassinated he goes out and talks to a crowd that could get hostile and dangerous if he says the wrong thing. He gives the speech anyway and no violence broke out in Indianapolis while violence broke out in other cities around the country. My favorite speech is the “Cross of Gold” speech delivered by William Jennings Bryan on July 9, 1896, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. I like it more for its background (same as the Kennedy speech) than for its words. Bryan was probably America’s first politician to truly champion the cause of populism. There was a populist uprising in America by 1896 and most politicians were ignoring its cause, which was to have money backed by silver. Probably a bad idea, but no even listened to the lower classes back then. So while the silver supporters were walking around the Democratic Convention not expecting anything to happen, in walks Bryan and tells them exactly what they wanted to hear. > [@](#): > > We come to speak for this broader class of businessmen. Ah. my friends, we say not one word against those who live upon the Atlantic Coast; but those hardy pioneers who braved all the dangers of the wilderness, who have made the desert to blossom as the rose—those pioneers away out there, rearing their children near to nature’s heart, where they can mingle their voices with the voices of the birds—out there where they have erected schoolhouses for the education of their children and churches where they praise their Creator, and the cemeteries where sleep the ashes of their dead—are as deserving of the consideration of this party as any people in this country. > > It is for these that we speak. We do not come as aggressors. Our war is not a war of conquest. We are fighting in the defense of our homes, our families, and posterity. We have petitioned, and our petitions have been scorned. We have entreated, and our entreaties have been disregarded. We have begged, and they have mocked when our calamity came. > > We beg no longer; we entreat no more; we petition no more. We defy them! > [@](#): > > If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. My favorite Clinton speech is the one he gave at [Coretta Scott King’s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNc9IuK0hNc) funeral. And if anyone is wondering what Hillary sounded like before she became a superficial political caricature, watch [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqbH_G-1go0&feature=related). Here is that [whole](http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/hillaryclintonbeijingspeech.htm) speech. ETA: [Link](http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/) to the full “Cross of Gold” speech. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503/20 "2009-05-16T15:44:30Z")
I’ve read that Bryan didn’t actually care that much about the gold standard, and that speech certainly didn’t help him get elected any of the three times he tried. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-real-world-speeches/496503.md?page=2)