For a personal pet project I’m doing in my spare time, I’m putting together a list of primary sources related to election history; it includes speeches from political conventions.
What speeches at pre-1984 American political conventions, asides from those delivered from the presidential candidates themselves, influenced people or left a legacy? In other words, which made an important mark in election history?
These are the ones I’ve found so far:
Eleanor Roosevelt’s in 1940, Humphrey’s in 1948, Goldwater’s in 1960, RFK’s in 1964, Rockefeller’s in 1964, Reagan’s in 1964, Ribicoff’s in 1968, Reagan’s in 1976, and Ted Kennedy’s in 1980.
In 1912 Champ Clark had the majority, but not the two-thirds votes, needed to get the Democratic
nomination. After New York City’s Tammany hall endorsed Clark, William Jennings Bryan who had been neutral, gave a speech slamming Clark as the Wall Street candidate and endorsing Wilson and turning the tide for his nomination. A split in the Republicans between Taft and Roosevelt insured Wilson’s victory. And after winning election in 1916 on the slogan “He kept us out of war”, Wilson promptly got us into war to protect Wall Street’s interest. Of course Kaiser Germany was sheer idiotic in its Zimmerman telegraph but a wise President would have recognized it and not gone to war and unleash a campaign of hate and repression in jailing opponents like Eugene Debs. Bryan was long gone by then as Wilson’s Secretary of State.
FDR nominating Al Smith in 1924, marking his (FDR’s) return to national politics after being stricken with polio, and giving Smith the “Happy Warrior” nickname. At the same convention Newton Baker gave a famous and impassioned plea for American entry into the League of Nations, which ended with Baker collapsing in exhaustion. Not much of a legacy though since we never joined the League.
Technically not delivered to the convention, but to a caucus of his supporters during the convention: Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, “We stand at Armageddon and battle for the Lord.”
Robert Ingersoll nominating James G. Blaine in 1876, giving him the “Plumed Knight” nickname.
Abraham Lincoln’s “Lost Speech.” Lincoln spoke at an Anti-Nebraska convention in Bloomington, Illinois, on May 29, 1856. The response to his speech among anti-slavery Republicans (then a very new party) seems to have been wildly enthusiastic – the speech launched Lincoln to national prominence. It supposedly was so awesome a speech that no one recorded it:
[QUOTE=Wikipedia] Why it was lost
The traditional reason given for the lack of any written recollection of the Lost Speech is that Lincoln’s skilled and powerful oration had mesmerized every person in attendance. Reporters were said to have laid down their pencils and neglected note taking, as if hypnotized by Lincoln’s words. When the speech ended no notes existed, so media reports of the day simply recorded the fact that the speech had been delivered.[4]
There is evidence in Herndon’s recollections that the fact that the speech was “lost” may not have been an accident. So strongly worded was Lincoln’s oration that others in attendance feared the words might lead to a crumbling of the Union and that Lincoln consented to suspending “its repetition”
[/QUOTE]
Certainly many people who had been present described it in glowing terms and became Lincoln supporters from that time forward.
As the Wikipedia entry hints, it may have been suppressed because of the fear that it would split the union and destroy the United States as it was then known, which frankly is almost more awesome than the idea that no one could remember it.
Whatever the truth, it was apparently a hell of a speech, and by catapulting Lincoln into prominence, indeed contributed to the Civil War and all that followed from that.
Bryan was the candidate in 1896. I’d seen a reference to Dirksen’s speech, but wasn’t sure if it was important. Incidentally, I also saw a reference to a speech from Herbert Hoover at that same convention…was that an important speech?
[QUOTE=Jim’s Son]
William Jennings Bryan who had been neutral, gave a speech slamming Clark as the Wall Street candidate
[/QUOTE]
Don’t know how I missed that one! Thanks!
The others I missed for understandable reasons…thanks, and thanks in advance for any other additions, I’m keeping up with this thread.
The 1852 Democratic Convention Franklin Pierce didn’t get any votes until the 35th ballot when he was endorsed by the Virginia delegation as a compromise candidate in a convention that had four major candidates. He hovered in fifth place, moved up to 4th and 3rd getting the nomination all of a sudden on the 49th ballot. Wiki doesn’t say anything about a speech, just the Virginia delegation supported the New Hampshire politician/Mexican War general as a compromise candidate. Stephen Douglas, one of the losing candidates quipped that from now on, no private citizen was safe from being a presidential nominee.
Oddly enough, the earliest conventions didn’t allow speechifying on behalf of candidates. They would just throw open the floor to nominations, and say “Illinois nominates Abraham Lincoln”, “New York nominates William Seward”, and so on. The nominating speech didn’t come into vogue until after the Civil War.
True, but he wasn’t the candidate yet at the time of the speech. (There were no “acceptance speeches” until 1932.) The Cross of Gold is certainly the most famous speech ever delivered in debate of a party platform.
Not especially. Moreover, Hoover’s speech to the 1940 convention ranks as one of the all-time flops. The Republican Convention didn’t have a clear favorite for the presidential nomination that year. Hoover was invited to address the convention as a former president, and his reputation was benefiting from the bounce most former presidents get after about eight years. There was a movement to renominate him, and a feeling that if he gave a good speech the movement might get stronger.
As it happened, however, the microphones weren’t working properly (was there sabotage?), the delegates had trouble hearing him, and he fell completely flat. His boom never got off the ground.
Not really a speech but at the 1944 Democratic convention the drama was would Henry Wallace be renominated as Vice president or a group of party bosses get him dumped. FDR’s role was really byzantine from a master of the trade, sending out a lukewarm telegraph saying if he was a delegate, he would vote for Wallace (FDR wasn’t at the convention, he was meeting with General MacArthur).
It looked like a group of Wallace supporters would stampede the convention when chairman Samuel Jackson refused to recognize Wallace supporter Claude Pepper and instead called for a motion to dismiss, that he said was approved (it was pre arranged he would do so). Truman’s main nominator was drunk (sobered up but gave a mediocre speech) and the labor leader who also gave a speech said he didn’t know Truman but said he was the best man for the job being an American and a Democrat. A lot of people could see that president Roosevelt’s health was failing and had an idea they were nominating two presidents at the convention.
Jackson’s “speech” adjourning the convention had major implications as Truman almost certainly turned out to be a far different president that what Wallace would have been.
FDR’s speech in 1932 surely must qualify. It established the tradition of acceptance speeches.
Goldwater’s famous “Extremism in the defense of liberty” speech in 1964 should be considered as well. It marks the beginning of the takeover of the Republican Party by reactionary right wingers.
In recent years, Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention was awe-inspiring and effective – it was the moment that many Democratic Party insiders recognized that ‘this guy is an up-and-coming star’, and started to seriously think about him as a future national leader. It was a big part of the reason that many jumped to support him 4 years later.
He gave a brief and impromptu address because he happened to be in the hall. It isn’t comparable to the stage-managed acceptance speech pioneered by FDR.
As Davis said, “It may be, and I think when I am duly advised of your mandate it will be, my duty to speak further on these and kindred themes.” At that time the formal “acceptance speech” was delivered at a “notification ceremony” in the candidate’s home town, several weeks after the convention.
Also, the 1988 Democratic National Convention was when Ann Richards gave the speech in which she said that George H. W. Bush was “born with a silver foot in his mouth” and Bill Clinton gave a long, really boring speech.
And the American Rhetoric website has a list of the top 100 American speeches of the twentieth century, including Mario Cuomo’s speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention, Barbara Jordan’s and Jesse Jackson’s at the 1976 DNC, Jesse Jackson at the 1988 DNC, Hubert Humphrey at the 1948 DNC, Ted Kennedy at the 1980 DNC and Elizabeth Glazer at the 1992 DNC. (Note that the site is not Democratic-centric, but no RNC addresses are listed, although there are plenty of non-convention speeches from Republicans.)
See, Ann Richards gave a very funny speech… but was it “important” in any way? Apart from a few great punchlines, what do you remember about it? Did it sway anybody’s opinion on any important issues? No. And she gave that speech in support of Michael Dukakis, who got skunked in the general election.
Similarly, Mario Cuomo gave one of the greatest speeches ever at the 1984 Democratic convenions… but while it gave chills to listeners, was it “important”? Not at all- it swayed nobody’s opinion about anything, and was made in service of a candidate (Walter Mondale) who got stomped in the election.
I’ve seen a few great speeches at conventions, a few lousy ones, and a lot of okay ones… but I’ve never seen one that I’d consider “Important,” at EITHER party’s conventions.
I would agree that Obama’s speech was important in that it marked him as a future star. Ronald Reagan’s speech in support of Goldwater at the 1964 GOP convention did the same… though th speech itself is generally forgotten.
No speech I can think of really changed anything. At best, some speeches inspired or galvanized part yfaithful who were ALREADY inclined to agree wit hthe speaker.