Portal:Speeches
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Speeches are examples of the art of oratory, which is almost as old as speech itself. Speeches are a form of communication that adds to the knowledge and wisdom of listeners, or that influences their attitudes or behavior.
Speeches are often given on regular occasions, and for ceremonial or traditional reasons, such as the United States State of the Union Address or the British Queen's Speech; however, particularly in Parliamentary democracies, they can be much less formal and are an essential part of political debate. In other countries they may have a less traditional or ritualised role but are still an effective tool in informing listeners and motivating them to action.
The purpose of the Speeches Portal is to provide one central point to co-ordinate, organise and increase our collection of speeches. Guidelines on the addition, format and proofreading of speeches are available at Speeches Guidelines.
For information on copyright see Speeches Copyright.
Our featured speech this month is A house divided given by Abraham Lincoln on 16 June 1858 on the issue of slavery in the United States.
...A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South. Have we no tendency to the latter condition?... Continued
- Northwestern University Commencement Address - Barack Obama, (15 June 2006)
- Remarks on Taking Back America - Barack Obama, (14 June 2006)
- A New Compact for Iraq - Joe Biden, (21 June 2005)
- Pericles's Funeral Oration - Pericles, (recorded in Thucydides's The Peloponnesian War)
- For Publius Quinctius - Cicero (81 BC)
- Speech to St Augustine - Ethelbert of Kent, (597)
- Sermon to the Birds - Saint Francis of Assisi, (c.1220)
- Cast off the Yoke of Bondage - John Ball, (June 1381)
- A Vindication of the Doctrine that the Sacrifice of the Mass is Idolatry - John Knox, (4 April 1550)
- Speech to the Troops at Tilbury - Queen Elizabeth I of England, (1588)
- Farewell Speech - Queen Elizabeth I of England, (30 November 1601)
- Gunpowder Plot Sermon - Lancelot Andrewes, (5 November 1606)
- Dissolution of the Long Parliament - Oliver Cromwell, (20 April 1653)
- Sanquhar Declaration - Richard Cameron, 1680
- The Standing Army - William Pitt the Elder, (4 February 1738)
- Give me liberty or give me death - Patrick Henry, (23 March 1775)
- Speech on the Rebellion in the American Colonies - George III, (27 October 1775)
- Disapproving and accepting the Constitution - Benjamin Franklin, (17 September 1787)
- On the Horrors of the Slave Trade - William Wilberforce, (12 May 1789)
- Farewell Address - George Washington, (17 September 1796)
- War Message to Congress - James Madison, (1 June 1812)
- Catholic Emancipation - Duke of Wellington, (2 April 1829)
- The Dangers which Menace States - Robert Peel, (3 March 1831)
- Copyright Law - Thomas Babington Macaulay, (5 February, 1841)
- What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? – Frederick Douglass, (5 July 1852)
- To Arms - Giuseppe Garibaldi, (1860)
- Gettysburg Address - Abraham Lincoln, (19 November 1863)
- On Women's Rights to Vote - Susan B Anthony, (1873)
- Universal Religion - Keshub Chandra Sen, (1870)
- On the Death of General Gordon - Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, (20 July 1885)
- The address of the president of the American Bar Association at their eighth annual meeting - John W. Stevenson, (19 August 1885)
- Irish Home Rule Speech - William Ewart Gladstone, (7 June 1886)
- The Case Against Vaccination - Walter Hadwen, (25 January 1896)
- The True Conception of Empire - Joseph Chamberlain, (31 March 1897)
- The World's Famous Orations (Ireland)
- The Citizenship of Women: A Plea for Woman's Suffrage - Kier Hardie, (1905)
- The Man in the Arena: Citizenship in a Republic - Theodore Roosevelt, (23 April 1910)
- The problem of small nations in the European crisis - Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, (1915)
- The Bohemians (Czechs) In The Present Crisis - Charles Pergler, (28 May 1916)
- The story of the Jones County Calf Case - Charles E. Wheeler, (24 June 1920)
- Pan-Asianism - Sun Yat-sen, (1924)
- Scopes Monkey Trial Summation (undelivered) - William Jennings Bryan, (1925)
- Abdication - Edward VIII, (20 January 1936)
- Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat - Winston Churchill, (13 May 1940)
- We shall fight on the beaches - Winston Churchill, (4 June 1940)
- Their Finest Hour - Winston Churchill, (18 June 1940)
- The Arsenal of Democracy - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, (29 December 1940)
- Pearl Harbor speech - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, (8 December 1941)
- Checkers speech - Richard M. Nixon (23 September 1952)
- The Suez Crisis - Anthony Eden, (31 October 1956)
- Cuban Missile Crisis - John F. Kennedy, (22 October 1962)
- Ich bin ein Berliner - John F. Kennedy, (26 June 1963)
- The Ballot or the Bullet - Malcolm X, (3 April 1964)
- Resignation - Richard M. Nixon, (8 August 1974)
- Evil Empire speech - Ronald Reagan, (8 June 1982)
- Nelson Mandela's address on his release from prison - Nelson Mandela, (11 February 1990)
- September 11, 2001: Attack on America - George W. Bush, (20 September 2001)
- Hurricane Katrina and Global Warming - Al Gore, (9 September 2005)
- Document Licenses and the Future of Free Culture - Eben Moglen, (4 August, 2006)
- An Honest Government, A Hopeful Future - Barack Obama, (28 August 2006)
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Not all speeches added to this archive are complete, various sources omit portions of speeches, particularly those given before the invention of the internet. In order to improve wikisource if you have access to the complete text of these speeches please add those portions which are omitted, or add (and proof read) the whole text of the speech. All abridged speeches are listed in Category:Abridged speeches.
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- The Speeches of the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, ed. A. W. Hutton and H. J. Cohen (1902)
Can't find scan Looks like this is a 10-volume set, but only v9, v10 are immediately obvious (files uploaded). Inductiveload—talk/contribs 19:10, 21 September 2020 (UTC)
- Per various libraries (British, Oxford, London, etc.) only volumes 9 and 10 were ever published. MarkLSteadman (talk) 23:25, 22 December 2023 (UTC)
- Socialism - Kier Hardie
- Unsure what speech this is. If it was in the House of Commons (e.g. this one in 1901, it should be easy to find a transcript? Inductiveload—talk/contribs 16:50, 12 November 2020 (UTC)
- Blood and Iron - Otto von Bismarck
- Is there a full text of this? I can see some German original text at here (top of col 2, Oct 6, 1862). Inductiveload—talk/contribs 16:50, 12 November 2020 (UTC)
- @Inductiveload Best I can find are this in Fifty major documents of the nineteenth century and this in the Life of Bismarck. Another scan here has a line of the speech and makes reference to a French translation, here, which in turn points to pp. 33–34, vol. 1 ed. 2 (which I could not locate, though it might be helpful for French Wikisource). Apparently, though, no verbatim transcript of the speech exists. Shells-shells (talk) 16:58, 15 March 2022 (UTC)
- @Inductiveload I have zero clue why I didn't mention the German-language transcript of Bismarck's speech listed as a source in Fifty major documents: namely, "Horst, Kohl, ed., Die politischen Reden des Fürsten Bismarcks: historische-kritische Gesammtausgabe (14 vols.; Stuttgart, 1892-1904), II, pp. 29-30." A scan is available here. Shells-shells (talk) 05:08, 25 October 2022 (UTC)
- Is there a full text of this? I can see some German original text at here (top of col 2, Oct 6, 1862). Inductiveload—talk/contribs 16:50, 12 November 2020 (UTC)
- Jeannette Rankin's sole dissenting vote, and the speech that accompanied it, against US participation in WWII
- Vote at Cong. Rec. v.87, part 9, p. 9536. But I do not see a speech by Rankin (note there are two Rankins) on that date, just some comments/points of order. Presumably the speech was then not made on the House floor that day? Inductiveload—talk/contribs 20:47, 10 November 2020 (UTC)
- @Inductiveload Is there any reason to believe that she gave a speech at all? Here's all I can find: Rankin objected to the declaration of war (p. 9520, col. 2); then, after some sixteen pages of her colleagues' oratory, she attempted to speak but was refused the floor. Two days later (p.
94969646, column 3) w:Clare Hoffman mentioned "that I noticed on the day war was declared that recognition was denied to a Member of the House, the gentlewoman from Montana [Miss Rankin] to express her views." Rankin shows up again on the 15th (p. 9798, col. 3) to object to a bill proposing a death penalty in cases of wartime sabotage, and then seems to disappear from the record. If Rankin did have a speech prepared for the declaration of war, it does not appear in Part 9; nor can I find it in the Appendix. Did she publish it elsewhere? Shells-shells (talk) 05:35, 25 October 2022 (UTC)
- @Inductiveload Is there any reason to believe that she gave a speech at all? Here's all I can find: Rankin objected to the declaration of war (p. 9520, col. 2); then, after some sixteen pages of her colleagues' oratory, she attempted to speak but was refused the floor. Two days later (p.
- Vote at Cong. Rec. v.87, part 9, p. 9536. But I do not see a speech by Rankin (note there are two Rankins) on that date, just some comments/points of order. Presumably the speech was then not made on the House floor that day? Inductiveload—talk/contribs 20:47, 10 November 2020 (UTC)
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