Speeches in world history facts on file, 2009

Speeches
In World
History



Speeches
In World
History
Suzanne M c Intire
With additional contributions by
William E. Burns


For Jud
AS
SPEECHES IN WORLD HISTORY
Copyright © 2009 by Suzanne McIntire
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Speeches in world history / [compiled by] Suzanne McIntire ; with
additional contributions by William E. Burns.

p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8160-7404-4
ISBN-10: 0-8160-7404-6
1. Speeches, addresses, etc. I. McIntire, Suzanne, 1951- II. Burns,
William E., 1959PN6122.S64 2008
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Contents
AS

List of Illustrations ......................................................xii
Foreword by William E. Burns.................................. xv
Acknowledgments .......................................................xx
How to Use This Book................................................xxi

THE ANCIENT WORLD TO . 550 ..
Introduction to the Ancient World .................... 1
Speeches ..................................................................... 5
Dan, Duke of Zhou: The Shao Announcement
(ca. 1036 ..., China)................................... 7
Jeremiah: “O Earth, Earth, Earth, Hear
the Word”
(605 ..., Jerusalem) .................................... 9
Darius I: “The Rule of One”
(522 ..., Persia).......................................... 11
Gautama Buddha: Sermon at Benares
(ca. 521 ..., India)..................................... 13
Artemisia: Advice to Xerxes I
(480 ..., Greece) ....................................... 16
Pericles: Funeral Oration
(431 ..., Athens) ....................................... 18
Socrates: The Trial Addresses
(399 ..., Athens) ....................................... 21
Demosthenes: On the Crown
(330 ..., Athens) .......................................26
Alexander the Great: “To This Empire
There Will Be No Boundaries”
(326 ..., India, now Pakistan) ................29

Publius Cornelius Scipio: Against
Hannibal (218 ..., Italy) .......................... 32
Gaius Marius: On Humbleness of Birth
(106 ..., Rome) ..........................................34
Marcus Tullius Cicero: First Oration

against Catiline
(63 ..., Rome) ............................................ 37
Julius Caesar: “The Alternative of Exile”
(63 ..., Rome) ............................................40
Cato the Younger: “Foes Are within Our Walls”
(63 ..., Rome) ............................................43
Catiline: To His Soldiers
(62 ..., Italy) ..............................................45
Hortensia: “When Have There Not Been Wars?”
(42 ..., Rome) ............................................ 47
Jesus of Nazareth, The Sermon on the Mount
(28–30 .., Israel) ........................................49
Claudius I: “United under Our Name”
(48 .., Rome) ............................................... 53
Caratacus: To Emperor Claudius
(51 .., Rome)................................................ 55
Boudica, “A Woman’s Resolve”
(60 .., Britain).............................................56
El’azar ben Yair: Speech at Masada
(73 .., Judaea, now Israel).........................57
Agricola: “Britain Is Explored and Subdued”
(84 .., Caledonia, now Scotland) ............ 59


vi  Speeches in World History

St. John Chrysostom: On Sanctuary in 
the Church 
(399, Constantinople).................................... 61
St. Augustine: Sermon on the Happy Life

(413–414, Carthage)......................................64
Theodora: “Purple Is the Noblest Shroud”  
(532, Constantinople)....................................67

The Expanding World (ca. 550–1450)
Introduction to the Expanding World. ............ 71
Speeches.................................................................... 75
Æthelberht: Welcome to Augustine  
(597, Kent)........................................................77

The First Global Age (1450–1750)
Introduction to the First Global Age..............107
Speeches.................................................................. 111
Lorenzo de’ Medici: On the Pazzi Conspiracy  
(1478, Italy)....................................................113
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: “Oration  
on the Dignity of Man” 
(1486, Italy)....................................................115
Girolamo Savonarola: “Let Me Be Persecuted”
(1497, Italy).....................................................119
António de Montesinos: “Are They Not Men?”
(1511, Española)............................................122

Muhammad: The Farewell Sermon  
(632, Mt. Arafat, near Mecca)..................... 79

Moctezuma: Welcoming Hernán  
Cortés to Mexico 
(1519, Tenochtitlán, or City of Mexico)...124

Abu Bakr: Upon Succeeding the  
Prophet Muhammad 
(632, Medina, now Saudi Arabia)............... 81

Martin Luther: “I Stand Here and Can  
Say No More” 
(1521, Germany)...........................................127

Emperor Kotoku: On the White Pheasant  
(650, Japan)......................................................83
Tariq ibn Ziyad: Before the Battle of Guadalete
(711, Gibraltar)................................................85
Musang: Preaching the Dharma  
(ca. 728–762, China)...................................... 87
Wulfstan II: Sermon of the Wolf to the English 
(1014, England)...............................................88
William the Conqueror: Before the  
Battle of Hastings 
(1066, England)...............................................90
Pope Urban II: Calling for a Crusade  
to the Holy Land 
(1095, France)..................................................92
St. Bernard of Clairvaux: Calling for  
a Second Crusade 
(1146, France)..................................................95

Hernán Cortés: “These Shabbily Dressed Men”
(1524, Mexico)..............................................130
Bartolomé de Las Casas: The Valladolid Debate 
(1550, Spain)..................................................132

Queen Elizabeth I: “The Heart and  
Stomach of a King” 
(1588, England).............................................135
James I: “Kings Are Justly Called Gods”  
(1609, London)..............................................137
Powhatan: To Captain John Smith  
(1609, Virginia).............................................139
John Winthrop: “We Shall Be as a City  
upon a Hill” 
(1630, off the coast of England).................142
Galileo Galilei: Abjuration before the  
Roman Inquisition 
(1633, Rome)..................................................144

Moorish Elder of Lisbon: “This City Is Ours”
(1147, Portugal)...............................................98

Thomas Rainborow: “All Law Lies in 
the People” 
(1647, England).............................................146

St. Francis of Assisi: Sermon to the Birds 
(1214, Italy)....................................................100

Charles I: From the Scaffold 
(1649, England).............................................148

Nichiren: “My Life Is the Lotus Sutra”  
(1271, Japan)..................................................102

António Vieira: “The Sins of Maranhão” 
(1653, Brazil)................................................. 151

John Ball: “All Men by Nature Were  
Created Alike” 
(1381, England).............................................104

Joseph-Antoine de La Barre: Address  
to the Five Nations 
(1684, United States)....................................154


Contents  vii
Garangula: “Do Not Choke the Tree
of Peace” (1684, United States)..................156
Andrew Hamilton: In Defense of Freedom
of the Press
(1735, New York City).................................158
John Wesley: “The New Birth”
(1740, Great Britain).................................... 161

The Age of Revolution and Empire
(1750–1900)
Introduction to the Age of
Revolution and Empire..................................167
Speeches.................................................................. 171
Minavavana: “You Know That His
Enemies Are Ours”
(1761, United States)....................................173
William Pitt the Elder: Toward Repealing

the Stamp Act
(1766, England)............................................. 175
William Pitt the Elder: “Justice to America”
(1775, England)............................................. 178
Edmund Burke: On Conciliation with America
(1775, England)............................................. 181
Patrick Henry: “Give Me Liberty or
Give Me Death”
(1775, United States)....................................185
Samuel Adams: “No Other Alternative
Than Independence”
(1776, United States)....................................188
William Pitt the Elder: “You Cannot
Conquer America”
(1777, England)............................................. 191
Benjamin Franklin: To the
Constitutional Convention
(1787, United States)....................................193
William Wilberforce: “The Number of
Deaths Speaks for Itself”
(1789, England).............................................195
William Pitt the Younger: “An
Inexcusable Injustice”
(1792, England).............................................199

Charles James Fox: “The Principle
Which Gives Life to Liberty”
(1795, England).............................................207
Napoleon Bonaparte: To His Soldiers
on Entering Milan

(1796, Italy).................................................... 210
George Washington: “Observe Good
Faith and Justice to All Nations”
(1796, United States)....................................212
Toussaint Louverture: “A Land of
Slavery Purified by Fire”
(1802, Haiti)...................................................215
Robert Emmet: “My Country Was My Idol”
(1803, Ireland)............................................... 217
Red Jacket: “We Never Quarrel about Religion”
(1805, United States)....................................220
Miguel Hidalgo: The Cry of Dolores
(1810, Mexico)...............................................223
José María Morelos: “Spirits of
Moctezuma . . . Take Pride”
(1813, Mexico)...............................................226
Simón Bolívar: “The Illustrious Name
of Liberator”
(1814, Venezuela)..........................................228
Daniel Webster: The Bunker Hill Oration
(1825, United States)....................................230
Daniel O’Connell: “Justice for Ireland”
(1836, England).............................................233
Frederick Douglass: Against Slavery
(1846, England).............................................235
Victor Hugo: Against Capital Punishment
(1851, France)................................................239
Louis Kossuth: “Become the Lafayettes
of Hungary”
(1851, New York City)..................................241

John Bright: “The Angel of Death”
(1855, England).............................................243
Lucy Stone: “A Disappointed Woman”
(1855, United States)...................................245

Georges-Jacques Danton: “Always to Dare!”
(1792, France)................................................202

David Livingstone: “Commerce and
Christianity”
(1857, England).............................................248

Maximilien de Robespierre: “Louis Must
Perish because Our Country Must Live”
(1792, France)................................................204

Thomas Henry Huxley: “An Ape
for His Grandfather”
(1860, England).............................................251


viii  Speeches in World History

John Bright: Against American Slavery
(1862, England).............................................252

Roger Casement: On Loyalty to Ireland
(1916, England).............................................301

Abraham Lincoln: The Gettysburg Address

(1863, United States)....................................254

Woodrow Wilson: “The World Must Be
Made Safe for Democracy”
(1917, United States)....................................304

John Stuart Mill: On the Right of
Women to Vote
(1866, England).............................................256
Susan B. Anthony: “Are Women Persons?”
(1873, United States)....................................258
William Gladstone: On Empire
(1879, Scotland)............................................261
Henry Edward Manning: Condemning
Anti-Semitism
(1882, England).............................................263
Frederick Engels: Eulogy on Karl Marx
(1883, England).............................................266
José Martí: “Mother America”
(1889, New York City)..................................269
Machemba: “I Am Sultan in My Land”
(1890, German East Africa,
now Tanzania)..............................................272
Wobogo: “Never Come Back”
(1895, Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso)......273
Máximo Gómez: “Respect Our
Revolution” (1896, Cuba)............................ 274
Max Simon Nordau: Address to the
First Zionist Congress
(1897, Switzerland).......................................275

Émile Zola: “Dreyfus Is Innocent!”
(1898, France)................................................279

Crisis and Achievement (1900–1950)
Introduction to Crisis and Achievement.......285
Speeches..................................................................289
Mohandas K. Gandhi: The Pledge to Resistance
(1906, South Africa)....................................291

Charles E. Stanton: “Lafayette, We Are Here”
(1917, France).................................................307
Emma Goldman: Trial Address (1917,
United States)................................................308
V. I. Lenin: “A Workers’ and Peasants’
Revolution”
(1917, Russia).................................................312
Woodrow Wilson: On Behalf of
the League of Nations
(1919, United States).................................... 314
Marie Curie: On Discovering Radium
(1921, United States).................................... 316
Mohandas K. Gandhi: “I Want to Avoid
Violence” (1922, India)................................. 318
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk: “Women and
Men Will Walk Side by Side”
(1923, Turkey)...............................................321
Adolf Hitler: “The Drummer of National
Germany”
(1932, Germany)...........................................323
Stephen S. Wise: Madison Square Garden

Address
(1933, United States)....................................325
Ernst Toller: “The Arm of Hitler”
(1934, Scotland)............................................328
Haile Selassie I: Address to the League
of Nations
(1936, Switzerland)......................................333
Dolores Ibárruri: “Fascism Is Not Invincible”
(1937, Spain)..................................................336
Edouard Daladier: “The Slaves of Nazi Masters”
(1940, France)................................................339

Mark Twain: Farewell to England
(1907, England).............................................294

Winston Churchill: “Blood, Toil, Tears
and Sweat”
(1940, England).............................................341

Emmeline Pankhurst: “This Women’s
Civil War”
(1913, England).............................................296

Winston Churchill: “We Shall Fight on
the Beaches”
(1940, England).............................................344

Patrick Pearse: “Ireland Unfree Shall
Never Be at Peace”
(1915, Ireland)...............................................299

Winston Churchill: “This Was Their
Finest Hour”
(1940, England).............................................347


Contents  ix
Charles de Gaulle: “France Is Not Alone!” 
(1940, England).............................................349

Nicholas Nyaradi: “I Saw Stalin’s Timetable”  
(1952, United States)....................................405

Princess Elizabeth: To the Children of  
the Commonwealth 
(1940, England).............................................351

Jomo Kenyatta: “We Want Self-Government”  
(1952, Kenya).................................................408

Franklin D. Roosevelt: “Four Essential  
Human Freedoms” 
(1941, United States)....................................353
Clemens August von Galen:  
Opposing Nazi Euthanasia 
(1941, Germany)...........................................356
Franklin D. Roosevelt: “A Date Which  
Will Live in Infamy” 
(1941, United States)....................................360
Wendell Willkie: “Lidice Lives . . . in This 

Little Village in Illinois” 
(1942, United States)...................................362
Douglas MacArthur: “Today the Guns  
Are Silent” 
(1945, Japan)..................................................365
Robert H. Jackson: Opening Address  
at the Nuremberg Trials 
(1945, Germany)...........................................368
Winston Churchill: Iron Curtain Speech  
(1946, United States)...................................372
Bernard Baruch: “A Choice between the  
Quick and the Dead” 
(1946, United Nations)................................375
George C. Marshall: Announcing the  
Marshall Plan 
(1947, United States)....................................378
Jawaharlal Nehru: “A Tryst with Destiny”  
(1947, India)...................................................381
Jawaharlal Nehru: “A Glory Has Departed”  
(1948, India)..................................................384
Eleanor Roosevelt: The Struggles for the
Rights of Man 
(1948, France)................................................387
Harry S. Truman: The Four Point Speech  
(1949, United States)....................................392

The Contemporary World  
(1950–the present)
Introduction to the Contemporary World. .....399
Speeches..................................................................403

Kwame Nkrumah: The Motion of Destiny  
(1953, Ghana)................................................411
Fidel Castro: “History Will Absolve Me”  
(1953, Cuba)................................................... 414
Carlos Peña Romulo: “Changing the  
Face of the World” 
(1955, Indonesia)..........................................418
Nikita Khrushchev: The Secret Speech  
(1956, USSR)..................................................421
Luis Muñoz Marín: “An America to  
Serve the World” 
(1956, United States)....................................424
Golda Meir: “Peace with Our Arab  
Neighbors”  
(1957, United Nations)................................428
Richard Nixon: To the Russian People  
(1959, USSR)..................................................431
Harold Macmillan: “The Wind of Change” 
(1960, South Africa).....................................434
Patrice Lumumba: Independence Day Address
(1960, Democractic Republic of  
the Congo).....................................................438
Patrick Duncan: “An Unjust Law Is  
No True Law” 
(1960, South Africa).....................................441
Dwight D. Eisenhower: The MilitaryIndustrial Complex 
(1961, United States)....................................445
John F. Kennedy: Inaugural Address  
(1961, United States)....................................448

Gideon Hausner: “Six Million Accusers”  
(1961, Israel)..................................................451
Adlai Stevenson: Speech at the United Nations 
(1962, United Nations)................................455
Julius Kambarage Nyerere: On Dancing the  
Gombe Sugu 
(1962, Tanganyika, now Tanzania)...........457
John F. Kennedy: American University
Address (1963, United States)....................460
John F. Kennedy: “Ich bin ein Berliner”  
(1963, West Germany).................................464


  Speeches in World History

Nelson Mandela: The Rivonia Trial
Address (1964, South Africa).....................466
Martin Luther King, Jr.: Nobel Peace Prize
Address (1964, Norway).............................471
Robert F. Kennedy: “A Desert of Our
Own Creation”
(1968, United States).................................... 474
Chaim Herzog: “The Aim of Zionism”
(1975, United Nations)................................478
Anwar Sadat: To the Israeli Knesset
(1977, Israel)..................................................481
Natan Sharansky: “At Peace with My
Conscience”
(1978, USSR)..................................................486
Wei Jingsheng: “These Leaders Are

Not Gods”
(1979, China).................................................488
Jacobo Timerman: “The Books Were
the First Victims”
(1981, United States)....................................492
Ronald Reagan: The “Evil Empire”
Speech (1983, United States)......................496
Susan Hannah Rabin: “We Are Children
Who Fear for Our Lives”
(1983, Finland)..............................................500
Lech Wałęsa: “The Value of Human Solidarity”
(1983, Norway)..............................................502
Nelson Mandela: “Your Freedom and
Mine Cannot Be Separated”
(1985, South Africa).....................................506
Elie Wiesel: Remembering the Jewish
Children of Izieu
(1987, France)................................................509
Ronald Reagan: “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear
Down This Wall!”
(1987, Germany)........................................... 511
Salah Khalaf: “No Peace without the
Palestinians”
(1989, Israel).................................................. 514

Václav Havel: “A Contaminated Moral
Environment”
(1990, Czechoslovakia)................................523
Severn Cullis-Suzuki: Address to the
Earth Summit

(1992, Brazil).................................................526
Rigoberta Menchú Tum: “Freedom for
the Indians”
(1992, Norway)..............................................528
Paul Keating: The Redfern Address
(1992, Australia)...........................................531
Aung San Suu Kyi: On the Rightful Place
of Women
(1995, China).................................................535
King Hussein: Eulogy to Yitzhak Rabin
(1995, Israel)..................................................539
Kim Phúc: At the Vietnam War Memorial
(1996, United States)....................................541
Diana, Princess of Wales: “This Terrible
Legacy of Mines”
(1997, England).............................................542
Benazir Bhutto: “One Billion Muslims
Are at the Crossroads”
(1997, United States)....................................545
Craig Kielburger: “Free the Children”
(1997, Canada)...............................................550
Boris Yeltsin: Apology for the Murder of
the Romanovs (1998, Russia).....................553
Nkosi Johnson: At the 13th International
AIDS Conference
(2000, South Africa)....................................555
Vojislav Koštunica: “Dear Liberated Serbia!”
(2000, Yugloslavia).......................................558
Pope John Paul II: Apology for the Sack
of Constantinople

(2001, Greece)...............................................560
Jean Chrétien: “With the United States
Every Step of the Way”
(2001, Canada)..............................................562

Viktor Orbán: On the Reburial of Imre Nagy
(1989, Hungary)............................................ 518

Johannes Rau: “America Does Not
Stand Alone”
(2001, Germany)...........................................564

Fang Lizhi: “The Terror That Has
Filled Beijing”
(1989, China).................................................520

George W. Bush: To the United Nations
on the Terrorist Attacks
(2001, United Nations)................................566


Contents  xi
Kofi Annan: “Two States, Israel and Palestine”
(2002, Lebanon)............................................569
Mahathir bin Mohamad: “Muslims
Everywhere Must Condemn Terrorism”
(2002, Malaysia)...........................................572
Muhammad Yunus: “Poverty Was All
around Me”
(2003, England)............................................575

Gerhard Schröder: “I Bow My Head
before the Victims” (2005, Germany)......579
Mikhail Gorbachev: “The Historical
Achievement of Perestroika”
(2005, United States)...................................582

Albert Gore, Jr.: “A Planetary
Emergency”
(2006, United States)...................................593
Wangari Muta Maathai: “Our Future Is in
Our Environment”
(2007, United States)....................................597
Appendix 1 Writing a Persuasive Speech..............601
Appendix 2 Delivering a Great Speech...................603
Appendix 3 Working with Speeches as
Primary Sources.....................................................605
General Bibliography..................................................607
Speeches by Title......................................................... 611

Alberto Mora: “Cruelty Disfigures Our
National Character”
(2006, United States)...................................587

Speeches by Nationality............................................. 619

Akbar Ganji: “The Struggle against
Violence” (2006, Russia).............................590

Comprehensive Index................................................625

Speeches by Orator..................................................... 615
List of Rhetorical Devices.........................................624


List of Illustrations
AS

Darius I the Great, detail of a relief,
Persepolis, Persia, 491–486 ......................... 12

Portrait of Pico della Mirandola ........................... 117

Photograph of the Great Buddha statue in
Kamakura, Japan, built 1252 .............................. 15

Moctezuma greets Cortés in an illustration
from the History of the Indians, by
Diego Durán, 1579............................................... 125

Portrait of Girolamo Savonarola, ca. 1498 ......... 120

Photograph of the bust of Pericles, said to be
from Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli, Lazio, Italy ..... 19

Engraving of Hernán Cortés ................................. 130

Alexander the Great of Macedonia, detail
from a mosaic originally from the Casa del
Fauno, Pompeii ....................................................... 30

Engraving of Chief Wahunsonacock of
the Powhatan Confederacy ............................... 140
Galileo Galilei answers charges of heresy
before the Roman Inquisition, in a painting
from 1633 ............................................................... 145

Marcus Tullius Cicero addressing the
Senate, painting by Cesare Maccari ................. 38
Julius Caesar, a bronze statue near Trajan’s
Forum........................................................................ 41

Portrait of Charles I, king of England ................. 149
Engraving of John Wesley ...................................... 162

Caratacus addresses Emperor Claudius I
in Rome..................................................................... 55

Engraving of William Pitt the Elder .....................176
Engraving of Patrick Henry ................................... 186

Boudica (or Boadicea) rides among her troops .. 56

Engraving of William Wilberforce from 1814 .. 197

Portrait of Saint Augustine of Hippo .................... 65

Engraving of Maximilien de Robespierre .......... 205

A detail of Byzantine empress Theodora and
her court, from a mosaic in S. Vitale,

Ravenna, Italy.......................................................... 67

François-Dominique Toussaint, engraving from the
book The Negro in the New World, by Sir Harry
H. Johnston, 1910................................................. 215

King Æthelberht of Kent receives Augustine,
the Roman missionary ......................................... 77

Lithograph of Robert Emmet ................................ 219
Portrait of Red Jacket, or Segoyewatha,
Seneca chief ........................................................... 221

Abu Bakr, Ali ibn Abi Talib, and Muhammad,
painting from the book Life of the Prophet,
1594 ............................................................................81

Father Miguel Hidalgo leading an army of
Mexican peasants ................................................ 224

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux preaches a
Second Crusade in France, 1146........................ 96

Photograph of Daniel Webster.............................. 231

Saint Francis preaching to the birds ................... 100

Photograph of Frederick Douglass....................... 236
xii

List of Illustrations
Daguerreotype of Lucy Stone................................ 246
David Livingstone, engraving, 1857 ...................... 248
Abraham Lincoln speaking at Gettysburg,
November 19, 1863 .............................................. 255
Photograph of John Stuart Mill, 1884 ...................... 257
José Martí, portrait on the Cuban one
peso note ................................................................ 270

Photograph of Max Nordau ................................... 276
Mohandas K. Gandhi outside his law office in
South Africa, 1902 ............................................... 292
Portrait of Mark Twain as public speaker.......... 295
Emmeline Pankhurst, arrested in London,
May 1914 ................................................................ 297

Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon during
the Kitchen Debates, Moscow, July 24, 1959 ... 432
Dwight D. Eisenhower at John F. Kennedy’s
inauguration, January 20, 1961 ........................446
Julius Nyerere and Milton Obote in Kampala,
Uganda, July 1969 ................................................ 458
John F. Kennedy addressing Berliners,
June 26, 1963 ......................................................... 465
Nelson Mandela leaving court, Pretoria,
South Africa, August 1958 ................................ 468
Chaim Herzog at the podium in the
UN General Assembly, 1975 ............................. 479
Anwar Sadat at a press conference, 1977 ........... 482

Woodrow Wilson giving the declaration of
war to Congress April 2, 1917 .......................... 305

Demonstrators protesting the imprisonment
of Wei Jingsheng .................................................. 489

Photograph of “Red Emma” Goldman ................ 309

Ronald Reagan delivering the “Evil Empire”
speech, Orlando, Florida, March 8, 1983 ...... 497

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin waving to the crowd
in Red Square, Moscow, October 1917 .......... 313
Photograph of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk .............. 321
Photograph of Ernst Toller, 1933.......................... 329
Edouard Daladier with other signers of the
Munich Pact, 1938...............................................340
Winston Churchill walking through the
Blitz bomb damage.............................................. 342
Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth
during a World War II radio broadcast ......... 352
Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the declaration
of war ...................................................................... 354
General Douglas MacArthur, signing of surrender
instruments on USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay..... 366
Robert H. Jackson speaking at the
Nuremburg Trials ................................................ 369
Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi,
Bombay, July 1946................................................ 382

Eleanor Roosevelt speaking at the
United Nations ..................................................... 388
Jomo Kenyatta receiving the Instruments
of Independence, Nairobi, Kenya,
December 12, 1963 .............................................. 409
Fidel Castro speaking to American reporters,
Washington, D.C., April 15, 1959 ................... 415
Photograph of Golda Meir ..................................... 428

Lech Wałęsa leaving the Lenin Shipyards
Gdanśk, Poland, June 17, 1983 ......................... 503
Elie Wiesel at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration
camp, Poland, January 17, 1988 ........................510
Václav Havel toasting Czech Politbureau
resignation ............................................................. 525
Rigoberta Menchú Tum addressing crowd,
Guatemala City, October 17, 1992 .................. 529
Aung San Suu Kyi delivering a speech,
Rangoon (Yangon), Myanmar (Burma),
June 1996 ................................................................ 536
Benazir Bhutto leading a protest rally, Islamabad,
Pakistan, November 10, 2007........................... 546
Craig Kielburger during a news conference,
Ottawa, Canada, February 1996 ...................... 551
Nkosi Johnson speaking at the annual International
Aids Conference, Durban, South Africa ....... 556
Vojislav Koštunica addressing reporters,
Belgrade, September 24, 2000.......................... 559
Kofi Annan sitting at the Arab League
summit, Beirut, March 27, 2002...................... 570

Mikhail Gorbachev, toasting with Ronald Reagan,
Washington, D.C., December 9, 1987 ............ 583
Wangari Maathai planting a tree with
children, Kenya..................................................... 598

xiii



Foreword
AS

N

o one knows who was the first human to address his
or her fellows as a group. Perhaps this person was
someone organizing a hunting or gathering expedition, or
urging that a clan relocate in the face of climate change or
the coming of dangerous animals. Whoever it was, he or
she was inaugurating a long and varied tradition of public
speaking, extending through a myriad of civilizations and
societies to the present day.
This book contains some of the highlights of this
long human tradition. The speeches cover the time from
the dawn of ancient civilization in the Middle East to the
21st century and are the work of people ranging from
kings to ordinary, sometimes even anonymous, people.
Some of the speakers, such as Jesus, Muhammad, and
Abraham Lincoln, rank among the very greatest names in
history. Others are more obscure or even unknown, but

their words are often equally eloquent. By studying their
words, we can learn more about speaking and also about
the human condition.
Speeches in World History contains more than 200
speeches by people from all walks of life on every continent—from a Chinese ruler (Dan, duke of Zhou) who
helped found the Chinese political system almost 3,000
years ago to an African woman (Wangari Maathai) who
won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for pioneering environmental conservation as a road to world peace. You will
find significant speeches from U.S. history, little known
speeches from Latin America, important addresses from
the Muslim world, and speeches from the ancients on topics so timeless they are still debated today. The selections
include revolutionary and patriotic addresses, eulogies,
sermons, debates, trial and gallows speeches, parliamentary addresses, and incitements to battle. Most were made
in response to great issues of the day—salvation and right
living, war, democracy, slavery, religious and racial preju-

dice, colonialism, self-determination, women’s rights, fascism and communism, nuclear proliferation, free speech,
terrorism, the rights of indigenous peoples, even environmental degradation.

POLITICAL ORATORY
Politics is the area in life most strongly associated with
making speeches. But not all political regimes provide
a place for the orator. Dictatorships and absolute monarchies often leave little room for anyone other than
the ruler himself or herself to address the public, as
powerful speakers can threaten authority. Pluralistic
regimes—republics and democracies that value freedom of speech—are more open to the voice of an orator.
Many politicians in free societies have built their careers
around their speechmaking abilities, from Cicero of
Rome and Demosthenes of Athens in the ancient world
to Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, and Barack

Obama in modern times.
Political speeches vary greatly by both audience
and the persuasive mission of the speaker. At times the
speaker is a ruler or authority figure, giving commands
to subjects and subordinates or inspiring loyalty and
enthusiasm. (Kings and dictators are not the only ones to
fall into this category; so do generals, such as Napoleon,
who address their troops, or revolutionary leaders, such
as Lenin, who inspire their followers.) Other times, the
speaker addresses equals, as a member of a legislature,
for example, William Pitt, who desperately tried to save
Britain from fatally alienating its American colonies. A
legislative speech can be organized around specific arguments and examples and conclude with a call to carry out
a particular action, or it can appeal to the emotions of its
hearers. Legislatures also often have specific rules about
how long a speech can last and what things can and canxv


xvi  Speeches in World History
not be said, as is demonstrated by the elaborate codes
of the British parliament and U.S. Congress that forbid
members to refer to each other by name, as in the British parliamentary phrase, “The honourable member for
Westminster.”
Other political speakers may be addressing people outside the elite, in an attempt to gain their support. Anticolonial leaders, including Simón Bolívar
and Mohandas Gandhi, have addressed the poor and
oppressed in an attempt to mobilize them for violent
or nonviolent action. Speakers in countries with open
political systems have given speeches to ordinary people advocating particular policies or attempting to garner votes in an election. Such “campaign speeches” can
outline a particular agenda, but arguments for these
specific positions often play only a minor role. The real

focus of many “positive” campaign speeches is persuading hearers that the speaker is a good person who shares
their opinions and deserves their vote. “Negative” campaign speeches attempt to convince hearers that the
speaker’s opponent is unworthy of their support.
Speaking is also often part of public ceremonial
occasions, as when Lincoln made his Gettysburg
Address at the dedication of the memorial on the Civil
War battlefield. Ceremonial addresses are very different from campaign speeches. At a ceremonial address
it is considered in poor taste for a speaker to draw too
much attention to him or herself or to attack political
enemies. A tone of humility, as displayed by Lincoln, is
often more effective than “blowing your own horn.” The
focus of a ceremonial speech should be on the occasion
that has brought speaker and hearer together.

Religious Oratory
Rivaling and sometimes even eclipsing politics as a place
for an orator’s voice to be heard is religion. Speechmaking has been an important part of religious life for millennia. Founders of major world religions—the Buddha,
Jesus, and Muhammad, to name a few—were renowned
for their persuasiveness and speaking ability. The message of Judaism was never so powerfully expressed as by
the voice of its prophets such as Jeremiah, who fearlessly
scourged Jewish society for its failure to live up to the
demands of its God. Each religion, with many others,
has spawned a tradition of sermons, often integrated
into services, such as the Christian Sunday sermon or
the Islamic Friday khutba.
There are many differences of terminology between
religious and political speakers. Rather than orators,
religious speechmakers are preachers, and their orations are not speeches but sermons. Even so, there are
many similarities in practice. Like a political speaker,
a religious speaker must take his or her audience into

account. Religious speakers sometimes address those
who are already followers of their religion, explicating
religious doctrine and law or urging hearers to greater
piety. The mission of Bernard of Clairvaux and other
medieval “crusade preachers” was to convince committed Christians to take the extra step of vowing to go
on crusade. At other times, religious speakers address
unbelievers, particularly in the early days of a religion
or when it is expanding to a new area through the work
of missionaries, such as the Korean Buddhist monk
Musang, a seventh- and eighth-century missionary in
China. In these addresses speakers must make their
religious message as appealing as possible to people
who do not share many of their assumptions. Once a
religion is established, a parish priest or congregational
rabbi might use his weekly sermons to address a community he knows intimately, building a relationship
that can last for decades. A traveling revivalist such
as John Wesley was, on the other hand, has the task of
addressing an audience full of strangers he may never
see again and must rely on themes that will move a
crowd. Sometimes religious speakers claim direct
inspiration from their God or gods. The enthusiastic
speaker claiming divine inspiration (the term enthusiasm in the original Greek referred to possession by a
god) has often been viewed as a threat by established
religious hierarchies.
Religious speeches, like political speeches, vary in
themes and tone from the emotionalism of the “revival”
to the perfunctoriness of many short sermons. Some
preachers appeal to the intellect, constructing their sermons as logical arguments, while others focus on the
passions, relying on rhetorical appeals and variations

in tone of voice to move the crowd. “Hellfire” Christian preachers use vivid depictions of the torments of
the damned to frighten their hearers into repentance.
Others evoke the sufferings of Jesus on the cross or the
joys of heaven. Some religious speeches are reserved
for special holidays or ceremonial occasions such as
the Christmas and Easter sermons of Christian ministers, the Ramadan khutbas of Muslim preachers, or the
Asarna Bucha sermons of Thai Buddhist monks. Hearers expect these sermons to focus on a well-worn set
of images and ideas. Christmas sermons, for example,
frequently draw on the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth
(the reason for the holiday).
Of course, given the intertwining of religion
and politics throughout history, religious and political speechmaking have never been totally separate.
Many political speeches include some rhetorical appeal
to God, and religious idioms have greatly influenced
political speakers. Candidates for election in the United
States routinely refer to God and their faith in their


Foreword  xvii
campaign speeches. American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., an ordained minister, drew on the
tradition of the African-American sermon to make fundamentally political speeches. Many preachers of the
world’s religious traditions have included political messages in their sermons.

Forensic Oratory
The courtroom has often been an arena for speechmakers. Some of the greatest orators were also lawyers, who
became as renowned for speeches made in the courtroom as in the public forum. The role of speechmaking
varies greatly by legal system and by individual cases
and settings. A lawyer addressing the U.S. Supreme
Court, for example, will use different rhetorical tactics
than a lawyer addressing a jury in a criminal trial. A

legal speech can be a calm recounting of the evidence
and law, or a passionate appeal meant to stir a jury or
a judge. Lawyers are not the only ones to have spoken in legal settings. Some systems of law have also
allowed the accused to make a statement. Even the
repressive legal system of the Soviet Union allowed the
dissident Natan Sharansky to speak at his trial. Persons
condemned to death have even spoken immediately
before their executions, maintaining their innocence
or demonstrating their repentance for their crimes.
King Charles I of England’s moving speech from the
scaffold had a great influence on hearers and subsequent readers.
Legal and political systems are intertwined, and
some of the greatest political speakers from the ancient
world to today have also been effective legal speakers. Cicero’s speeches at trials were preserved alongside his political speeches in the Roman Senate. In the
19th century Daniel Webster, among many others, was
known for his triumphs in the courtroom as well as
the U.S. Congress. The skills of a trial lawyer—effective
advocacy and the ability to sway hearers by combining
reason with passion—are often the skills of a political
speaker as well.

Speechmaking and Gender
For most of history, the principal realms of oratory—
politics, religion, and the law—have been reserved for
males. Many societies defined the “public sphere” as
male and relegated women to the “private,” or “domestic,” sphere. The outspoken man has been praised, the
outspoken woman often depicted as a screeching harridan. Modesty and quiet, not oratorical talent, have been
held up as the virtues for women. Because of this, there
are few examples of major orations by women before
the 20th century, and those rare exceptions have mostly

been the speeches of queens such as Queen Elizabeth I

of England. The slow opening of political and religious
activism and leadership to women in the 20th century
has led to a surge of women’s speaking. Women such as
Golda Meir of Israel, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, and
Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma now lead republics, serve
in legislatures, head political parties and movements,
and make their voices heard in public assemblies, courtrooms, and religious gatherings.

The Art of “Rhetoric”
Since speechmaking has been so important to human
society, people have studied how to do it most effectively.
With its roots in ancient Greece and Rome, this study
is called “rhetoric”—the science of persuasive speech.
Rhetoric attracted some of the greatest minds of the
ancient world, including Aristotle and Cicero, and was
part of the core curriculum of ancient schools. In the
Middle Ages, there was less interest in Latin rhetoric,
but it was revived during the Renaissance. Renaissance
“Humanists,” namely, students of the ancient Greeks
and Romans and their surviving texts, viewed rhetoric
as one of the most precious legacies of the ancient world,
and they promoted its study in the schools they founded.
Rhetorical skill was intimately associated with leadership, and it was taught to the upper classes, who were
expected to fill positions of authority in state, church,
and private enterprise.
We owe the preservation of some of the finest
speeches of the ancient Western world to their use as
texts in rhetoric classes. For centuries after the issues

they had originally addressed had fallen into dust, students memorized and declaimed the orations of Cicero,
Demosthenes, and their peers. Rhetoricians taught the
use of various “figures of speech” and different speaking
styles, from the lush, wordy “Asiatic” style to the terse,
unadorned “Attic” style. They instructed their pupils on
which styles were appropriate for different occasions.
They also taught the mechanics of speechmaking, how
to speak clearly with the appropriate emphases, and
how to hold their bodies and their hands most effectively. Generations of boys—rhetoric was mostly taught
as a male, “public” skill—were drilled in how to speak
effectively, as a skilled speaker, trained or not, could be
appreciated even by those who did not agree with his
position. In the modern United States and other Western societies, rhetoric and debate continue to be taught,
but now to boys and girls alike.

Spoken and Written Speeches
The experience of hearing a speech was originally evanescent. To hear and understand a speaker, you literally had to be there. Once writing had been invented,
speeches did not always perish immediately after being


xviii  Speeches in World History
given. Some had an afterlife that could go on for centuries or millennia. However, this afterlife was imperfect.
Like other texts, speeches originally had to be copied
by hand. Each manuscript copy could take hours or
days of the labors of a skilled copyist. And few copyists
were perfect—errors would creep in, and would then be
compounded as copies of copies were made. And over
the centuries many speeches, like other texts, would
be lost.
Beginning in the 15th century in the Western

world, and earlier in east Asia, the circulation of written texts including speeches increased vastly with the
development of the printing press. Some speeches had
far more impact as printed texts than they did when
they were actually given. Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, coming at the end of a long day after a
two-hour speech by scholar Edward Everett, attracted
little notice at the time. Today, it is considered among
the greatest speeches in American history.
However reproduced, the written texts of speeches
come in two forms: one a prepared text that the speaker
reads and the other a transcription of what the speaker
said. In either case, the speaker is not necessarily the
author of the speech. One of the most important questions to think about when looking at any written speech
is how much the speech-as-written reflects the reality of
the speech-as-spoken. Composing a speech and delivering it are different skills, often possessed by different
people. Many people obligated to give speeches have
no interest, energy, or time to write them. For centuries
collections of sermons were sold to preachers unable
or unwilling to write their own. The 20th century saw
the rise of the political speechwriter profession. Few
modern politicians, particularly in the United States,
are suspected of writing their own speeches, at least
without a lot of help. Traditionally the speechwriter
is expected to be a discreet figure in the background
and the speaker is treated as the author of the speech
by a polite fiction. However, many speechwriters have
become celebrities themselves. Theodore Sorensen,
John F. Kennedy’s speechwriter, and Peggy Noonan,
who worked for Ronald Reagan, are two examples.
Reading a speech can be a pale shadow of hearing
and seeing it delivered. A great orator is more than just

the reader of a text. By putting emphasis on certain
words and varying pitch and rhythm, a written speech
is transformed into a spoken one. Not only is delivery
important, but so is gesture, and even how speakers
hold their bodies. A speaker making eye contact with
his or her audience conveys a message different from
one whose eyes are lifted to the heavens. Many speeches
by great speakers may read as flat and lifeless, lacking

the spark of live delivery, while the best-written speech
will be powerless if the delivery is poor. Speakers also
often improvise or deviate from written texts. Transcriptions of speeches are often “cleaned up” with mistakes, hesitations, and false starts eliminated. The gap
between the speech-as-spoken and the speech-as-published goes back to the ancient world. Ancient historians like Thucydides and Sallust considered it acceptable
to vastly alter speeches, or even make them up before
inserting them in their histories, as the speeches they
put in the mouths of historical characters were used to
reinforce the main themes and analyses of their histories as a whole.

Speechmaking and Technology
In its origin, speechmaking was not a technology-driven
activity—all the speaker needed was a voice (preferably
a loud one), and perhaps an elevated place to stand. (The
terms “stump speech” and “soap-box orator” refer to
some primitive ways for a speaker to be elevated above
the listening crowd—tree stumps and the wooden crates
in which soap was shipped.) However, speechmaking,
particularly in the 20th century, has been greatly influenced by the development of technology.
The 20th century saw several new technologies
that affected speechmaking, including loudspeakers,
sound and video recording, and broadcast technology.

Loudspeakers and other amplification systems meant
orators were no longer restricted to the range of the
human voice. The loud, bawling speaker straining to
make himself heard to a crowd of thousands became a
memory. Now a speaker could address a crowd of many
thousands without raising his or her voice, though it
took some time for orators to learn the new skills of the
microphone.
Eventually the audience did not even need to be
physically present to hear a speech. Radio and television enabled speakers to address “virtual” audiences
numbering in the millions. Many, many more people
will hear a politician on television or the radio during
the course of his or her career than will ever hear him
or her in person. Because of this, orators are increasingly judged on how they come across on radio and
television. American political conventions, always
showcases for oratory, are now organized as television spectaculars, with the hearers physically present in the convention hall a decided afterthought. The
real audience is the millions watching on television.
The new technologies have also altered speechmaking
styles. Radio demands an intimacy epitomized by U.S.
president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “fireside chats”
while television has increasingly put a premium on


Foreword  xix
short, punchy statements that can be excerpted from
a speech and endlessly repeated on video (and now on
Internet) sound bites.
Television, radio, and most recently the Internet
have also contributed to the development of a worldwide audience. Speakers opposing tyrannical governments in their own countries such as China’s Fang
Lizhi, an astrophysicist who actively demanded democratic reforms, can now easily address people in other

lands, hoping to gain international support for their
cause. Causes not linked with a specific nation—such as
fighting AIDS, banning landmines, or even Osama bin
Laden’s call for an international jihad—are now advocated in front of a worldwide audience as well.
The development of recording technology has also
changed speechmaking. Speakers can make a speech
over and over again, as speeches that are captured in
sound recordings can be repeated. Tapes of a speaker
can be smuggled into dictatorships, enabling him or her
to gain a mass following without even setting foot in the
country. Video recordings preserve not just the words
of orations, but the speaker’s visual presentation as well.
Even so, however, an image on a screen is not the same
as a live orator, and some of the immediacy of a politi-

cal speech disappears when the issues it addresses are
no longer relevant.
Recording technology, particularly when coupled
with the rapid dissemination of audio and video files via
the Internet, has also made it more difficult for political
speakers. Gaffes—misstatements, slips of the tongue,
and other statements that hurt rather than help the
speaker—are now repeated endlessly, such as American
presidential candidate Howard Dean’s famous “scream”
following his defeat in the Iowa caucuses in 2004. (Some
have even blamed the “scream” for Dean’s failure as a
candidate.) It is also harder for speakers to get away
with the time-honored technique of delivering different messages to different audiences. Now anything a
speaker says within range of even a simple device, such
as a cell phone, can instantly be sent to a worldwide

audience, often one with very different concerns than
the speaker’s immediate audience.
All history has been described as a struggle against
silence and forgetting. The words of the speakers in this
collection are eloquent testimony that that struggle is
worth fighting.
—William E. Burns
Instructor, George Washington University


Acknowledgments
AS

I

am very grateful to acknowledge the historians, editors, and wise advisers and assistants who helped me along the way: With his remarkable knowledge of world history,
Bill Burns was a fount of information and excellent ideas. My capable editors, Claudia
Schaab and Melissa Cullen-DuPont, with Alexandra Lo Re, made the entire process
as pleasant as possible. My hardworking research assistant, Natalie Deibel, and photo
researcher, Phinney McIntire, pitched in when time was pressing. Also providing leads
and suggestions, translations, and all-around wisdom were Colin Archer, Dennis Barton, Jane Dorfman, Susan Douglas, Elaine English, Ruth Feldman, Darra Goldstein,
Richard Knight, Peter Lee, Gareth Lloyd, Will McIntire, Keith Patman, Hiraku Shimoda, Richard Thornton, and the reference and interlibrary loan staff at Arlington
County Libraries. Thank you all!

xx


How to Use This Book
AS

A

Spatial limitations have sometimes prevented the
inclusion of an entire speech. In those cases, Speeches in
World History includes excerpts covering the most important or the most famous and influential passages.

rranged chronologically, Speeches in World History
treats the development of speaking as part of the
development of human society. Readers can gain fresh
perspective on significant events of history, and even of
our own time, by reading the words of speakers who made
or witnessed the great changes of the moment.
Readers of Speeches in World History can become
better speakers themselves by observing how the orators
arranged their arguments, adapted topics to diverse audiences, and engaged hearers with powerful appeals to reason and feeling.
A wide variety of genre and geography should allow
readers to find speeches of interest to them personally.
The 200 selections come from 48 countries and include
political addresses, gallows speeches, eulogies, sermons,
debates, and the speeches of commanders before battle.

ILLUSTRATIONS
Seventy-five illustrations shed light on the speakers’ personalities and historical place, from a mosaic of Alexander
the Great to the very young Mohandas Gandhi in his first
law office to cold-war opponents Reagan and Gorbachev
raising a toast at a summit dinner.

RHETORICAL DEVICES AND
FAMOUS LINES
Because so much of the beauty and power of speechmaking comes from the use of rhetorical devices, frequent

sidebars use examples from the speeches to illustrate 44
different rhetorical devices, such as metaphor, parallelism,
antistrophe, rhetorical question, and hyperbole. In some
examples you may find more than one type of device.
Rhetorical devices are tools an orator may use to
make sure he or she engages the audience. They help draw
the audience’s attention to the points the speaker wants to
make, and even arouse emotion in the listeners. Many of
these devices are commonly used in writing and even in
daily speech. Others—and there are dozens of them—may
require more effort to use. Do not be intimidated by their
unusual names, many of them Greek. While a few rhetorical devices are invaluable to a brilliant speech (or a
research paper), you would not want to use too many in
one composition!
Additional sidebars present famous lines from the
speeches.

ORGANIZATION
The book is divided into six chapters based on the eras
used in the National Standards for World History: Ancient
World (to 550 ..), Expanding World (550–1450), The
First Global Age (1450–1750), The Age of Revolution and
Empire (1750–1900), Crisis and Achievement (1900–1950),
and The Contemporary World (1950 to the present).
Each chapter includes an introductory essay setting
the speeches in an overall historical context. Each speech
is preceded by a fact box that lists the name of the speaker;
the speaker’s birth/death or reign dates; and the title, location, and date of the speech. Each also includes an introduction—providing information about the speaker, the
occasion on which the address was given, and the social
and political climate at the time of its delivery—and a

source for the speech.
xxi


xxii

SPEECHES IN WORLD HISTORY

APPENDIXES
The appendixes include three essays to aid students in
working with speeches and speechmaking. The first,
“Writing a Persuasive Speech,” describes the process
of choosing a topic; constructing the speech with an
assertion, supporting arguments, and conclusion (peroration); and using rhetorical devices to persuade an
audience of the speaker’s sincerity and to arouse their
emotions.
“Delivering a Great Speech” covers such concerns as practicing the speech beforehand (even using

the speeches in this book for “declamation”), pacing,
demeanor, and appropriate language.
“Working with Speeches as Primary Sources” offers
a number of issues to consider when using a speech in
historical research: the speaker’s point of view and message, choice of language, the audience, the occasion, and
possible bias.
At the back, readers will find a general bibliography
including both print and electronic publications and a
variety of indexes, including lists of speeches by title,
orator, and nationality of the speaker; a list of the featured rhetorical devices; and a comprehensive index.

THE ANCIENT WORLD
(to ca. 550 C.E.)