Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. I do not cogitate ever to have appeargond as a mouther ahead whatever assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. A feeling has crept over me, quite negative to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. The task before me is one which requires ofttimes previous thought and study for its proper performance. I stir up that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. I trust, however, that exploit will not be so considered. Should I look at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. The little ensure I have had in addressing public meetings, in body politic schoolhouses, avails me nothing on the present occasion.
The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. This certainly sounds large, and out of the popular way, for it is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now recognise me with their presence. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall, seems to free me from embarrassment.
The position is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is ampleand the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. You will not, therefore, be surprised, if in what I have to say. I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will blend in to lay them before you.
This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the 4th of...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay
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