THE DEBATING SOCIETY.
The plans of Nat for a debating society were successful, and
arrangements were made accordingly. Permission was obtained to use the
school-house for the purpose, and Tuesday evening was appointed as the
time to organize.
"Much will depend upon beginning well," said Nat to Marcus. "We must
make it a good thing if we expect any favors in the village."
"Shall we admit spectators?" inquired Marcus.
"After we have fairly commenced," answered Nat. "There won't be much
room, however, if all the members attend, and other young people who
want to come in."
"I should think it would be well to have some declamations and dialogues
occasionally," added Marcus; "it will give more variety. I imagine that
our debates will want something else to back them up. And then some will
be willing to declaim who will not attempt to debate."
"That is true," replied Nat; "but we form the society for debating, and
therefore this ought to be the principal object. It may be well enough
to have some declamations and dialogues occasionally--I think it would.
But it will do us more good to debate. We shall be more interested in
reading upon the subjects of debate, and then our debates will be better
in consequence of our reading."
Tuesday evening arrived. Nat and his intimate associates had prepared a
constitution, so that an organization could be effected without delay. A
good number of young people assembled, of both sexes, and a society was
formed in a most harmonious manner. The unanimity of feeling and action
was a lesson to most legislative bodies, and to the Congress of the
United States in particular. It was decided to hold weekly meetings for
debate, and a question was voted for the meeting of the following week.
Nat was appointed to open the discussion, and three others to follow on
their respective sides of the question. A small fee of membership was
required of the male members to defray necessary expenses.
"A good beginning last night," said Charlie to Nat, on the next morning.
"Much better than I anticipated," was Nat's reply. "The thing has taken
better than I supposed it would; but many a good beginning has a bad
ending. We must do our best to keep up the interest, and make it
respectable."
"I was glad to hear you suggest that by-rule about good order," said
Charlie. "I think some voted for it last evening who would not have done
so if it had been deferred until disorder commenced."
"I knew what I was about," answered Nat. "There are some fellows in the
village who would think they could have a good time in spite of the
officers, because they are of the same age, and I thought it would be
well to get them to vote for good order in the first place. We shall
never accomplish any thing in such a society unless we have as much
decorum as there is in the meetings of adults, and without it we shall
have a bad reputation."
Here Nat exhibited one trait of his youth--a strong desire to make every
thing in which he engaged respectable. A few years later he manifested a
feeling in the same direction, when he was made captain of the fire
company. He introduced rules to guard against those vices that are so
likely to find their way into such associations; and his arguments were
generally so good, and his appeals so forcible, that he always carried
his propositions. The result was a model fire company that won the
confidence and respect of the citizens. In his boyhood the same trait of
character caused him to care for his appearance, so that in his poverty
he was usually more neat and tidy in his dress than many sons of the
rich with far costlier apparel. And it was this that had somewhat to do
with the general manly character for which he was known when young.
"I suppose," continued Charlie, "that some men think we only mean to
have a good time, and that there will be more play than profit in our
society."
"And we must show them that it is otherwise by conducting it in the best
way possible," added Nat. "For one, I want it for my own improvement. I
had better stay at home and read than to go there and spend an evening
to no advantage. Fellows who are not able to go to school, but must work
from morning till night for a livelihood, are obliged to improve their
odd moments if they would ever know any thing. You remember that rule of
Dr. Franklin, 'Lose no time,' I suppose?"
"I can never forget Dr. Franklin where you are," answered Charlie. "You
think he is law and gospel in every thing but the way to wealth."
The new-formed debating society filled the thoughts of Nat much of the
time, and the first question for discussion was pretty thoroughly
investigated before the time of the meeting. We do not know precisely
what the question was, only that it was a common one, such as "Which is
the greater curse to mankind, war or intemperance?" Suffice to say,
that it was discussed on the evening appointed, in a manner that was
creditable to all who participated, though the palm was readily conceded
to Nat. The success of the first debate created a strong appetite for
more, and from week to week the interest increased.
It happened one evening, for some reason, that no question was assigned
for discussion. The members came, and a good number of spectators, but
there was no provision made for a debate.
"What shall we do?" inquired Charlie, before the hour for opening the
meeting arrived.
"Decide upon a question now, and, as soon as the meeting is opened, vote
to discuss it," replied Nat, promptly.
"What! Do you mean to discuss it to-night?" asked John.
"To be sure I do. It would be a pretty joke to come together, and go
home without doing any thing."
"I will agree to it," said Marcus.
"And I, too," said Frank.
"And I, too," added other voices.
So it was decided to have a discussion, and a question was agreed upon
by the time the hour for commencing arrived. The meeting was opened, and
the minutes of the last meeting read, when it appeared that there was no
question for debate. Immediately Nat arose, and said, "Mr.
President,--By some misunderstanding it appears that we have no question
for discussion assigned for this evening. I think it would not be for
our credit to go home without a debate, since those who have come here
are expecting a discussion. I therefore move that we debate the
following question this evening (at the same time reading the question),
and that the President appoint the disputants as usual."
Frank seconded the motion, and it was carried. Next, the President
appointed Nat to open the debate, and Marcus, Charlie, and Frank for the
other three disputants. There was some curiosity on the part of
spectators to see how the boys would get along, and they were all eager
to have Nat begin. All looked very pleasant, however, and well they
might, for who could view this young parliament scene without a smiling
face. Still, it was possible to trace an anxious feeling upon the
countenances of the debaters, unless we except Nat.
All other preliminary business being disposed of, Nat commenced,
proceeded, and ended, in a speech of twenty minutes, that was not
inferior to any of his previous performances. His speech had a
beginning, middle, and end, and he stopped when he got through, which is
not always the case even with some noted public speakers. The others
followed, speaking about as well as usual, and gaining much applause to
themselves. It was the general opinion, at the close of the evening,
that there had not been a more interesting and profitable discussion in
all their previous meetings.
"Nat, you was made for a debater," said Frank to him, at the close of
the evening.
"That is a fact," added Charlie, who heard the remark. "You have
superior abilities to examine and discuss a subject, and you command
language as if you had studied the dictionary all your life. I suspect
that pocket of yours holds the secret."
"No wonder that he takes such a stand," said Marcus, "he is always
digging away for knowledge. I doubt if he has wasted a moment for five
years. I am fully of the opinion, however, that uncommon abilities is
the real cause of his success."
These tremendous compliments were flung directly into Nat's face, and he
found it more difficult to reply than he did to speak on the unstudied
question. At length he answered,
"You do not know me, boys. You overrate me. If I have any success in
speaking, it is not because I have any greater abilities than you have.
I have a taste for such discussions; I love to speak on the questions;
and I desire to do it just as well as I can, and to improve upon it
every week, and that is half the battle. I enter into it with all my
soul, and don't stop to say I can't: that is all the difference."
"Pshaw, Nat! You will never make me believe that," said Charlie. "You
don't believe it yourself. You are making the way to learning and
eloquence as easy as Dr. Franklin's way to wealth, and I know what you
think of that," and the roguish look that he cast upon him seemed to
say, "I have you now."
"I say just what I believe," answered Nat. "The most eminent writers
think that a person may be about what he determines to make himself, and
I think it is true. If a man starts with the determination to be the
best kind of a machinist or carpenter, he will ordinarily become so. And
so if he is really determined to excel in any branch of knowledge, he
will usually accomplish his object. Tell me of a great scholar or
statesman who has not worked his way up by perseverance and incessant
labor."
"All that may be very true," replied Marcus, "but it has nothing at all
to do with the point in question. We do not say that the most gifted man
will distinguish himself without improving his time by close
application. We only say that one man is more highly endowed by nature
than another."
"I admit that to a certain extent," answered Nat, "and still there is
not so much truth in it as many people suppose. I really believe that if
all the boys would set about improving every moment, as I have done for
some years, you would not observe half so much difference in them as you
do now."
The boys were rather unceremonious in piling such a load of compliments
upon Nat. There were more than he could dispose of handily. Yet, the
views which he advanced, and which he has always maintained from that
time to this, are substantiated by the best authors we have. His views
were essentially like those of Buxton, who said that he placed his
confidence of success in "ordinary powers, and extraordinary
application." Buxton's language, on one occasion, was very strong indeed
upon the certain success of a firm purpose. "The longer I live," said
he, "the more I am certain that the great difference between men,
between the feeble and the powerful, is energy--invincible
determination--a purpose once fixed, and then death or victory. That
quality will do any thing that can be done in this world; and no
talents, no circumstances, no opportunities will make a two-legged
creature a man, without it." Here is a view of success exactly like that
advanced by Nat to his companions; and other men, in the different
callings of life, have expressed a similar opinion. Each youth must
depend upon his own personal exertions, and not upon superior
endowments, or wealthy or honored ancestry, for eminence. If his name is
ever carved upon the temple of fame, he must carve it himself.
The debating society had a happy influence upon Nat. It called forth
into exercise the latent powers of his mind that otherwise might have
slept and slumbered. Such an organization has proved a valuable means of
improvement to many persons in their early studies. The Irish orator,
Curran, was indebted to such a "club" for much of the renown that
attached to his after life. He was modest and retiring even to
bashfulness, and had a very marked defect in his articulation, so that
his schoolmates called him "stuttering Jack Curran." He joined a
"debating club," determined to improve if possible, but there one of the
first flings he received was to be called "Orator Mum," in consequence
of his being so frightened when he arose to speak that he was not able
to say a word. But he persevered until he became the champion of the
"club," and laid the foundation of his future eminence as an orator. A
living American statesman, who has already made his mark upon the land
of his birth, considers the influence of a debating society to which he
belonged in his youth, among the first stimulating causes of the course
he has pursued. The highly distinguished English statesman, Canning,
organized a House of Commons among his play-fellows at school, where a
speaker was regularly elected, and ministerial and opposition parties
were formed, and debates carried on, in imitation of Parliament. Canning
became the star of this juvenile organization, and there began to
develop those powers by which, a few years after, as another has said,
"he ruled the House as a man rules the high-bred steed, as Alexander
ruled Bucephalus, of whom it was said the horse and the rider were
equally proud." Henry Clay, the American orator, said to some young men,
"I owe my success in life chiefly to one circumstance,--that I commenced
and continued for years the process of daily reading and speaking upon
the contents of some historical or scientific book. These off-hand
efforts were made, sometimes in a cornfield, at others in the forest,
and not unfrequently in some distant barn, with the horse and ox for my
auditors. It is to this early practice of the art of all arts that I am
indebted for the primary and leading impulses that stimulated me onward,
and have shaped and moulded my subsequent destiny." What speaking to the
forest trees and beasts of the stall was to Clay, that was the debating
society to Nat. It was a place where he could use the knowledge he
acquired by reading, while, at the same time, his mind was stimulated to
action, so that he began to utter "thoughts that breathe and words that
burn."
Some twelve or fourteen years ago, the author was passing Tremont Temple
in Boston, when he observed an illuminated sign over the door of one of
its basement rooms, "Boston Young Men's Total Abstinence Society," and
in connection with it was a most cordial "WALK IN." We accepted
the silent invitation, and entered. There we found a few young men
engaged in a debate, and some five or six spectators, among whom was
Deacon Grant, listening. After the close of the exercises, the young men
came forward in a most cordial and genial way to converse, and I learned
that they had a small library, and were accustomed to debate questions
of a social and literary character at their meetings. Only a few
belonged to the society; for it has always been true that total
abstinence societies have not been well supported in Boston, and the
fact is a stain upon its social character, and the piety of its
churches; but those few were anxious to make the society a means of
mental improvement, at the same time it contributed to prosper the cause
of temperance. For some years the organization was conducted in this
way; and what was the result? We are not able to point to all the
members as they now meet the stern duties of meridian life, but we know
the whereabouts and position of a few. One of them, who was a mason by
trade, at the time referred to above, is the popular editor of a daily
paper in a New England city, and his charming eloquence has more than
once delighted a Boston audience. Another has worked his way along
through a course of education, and now occupies an honorable position as
a preacher of the gospel. Yet another applied himself to
self-improvement with industry and perseverance, and the world know him
now as the talented author, Oliver Optics. And still another, a
merchant's clerk, now stands at the head of the large mercantile house
in which he then served, possessing wealth and position that many an
older man would be proud to call his own. His beautiful city mansion
contains a study, where leisure hours are profitably employed, showing
that the stimulus of those early debates is still felt. His voice is
often heard in public assemblies, and he now takes his turn, with a
corps of divines and lawyers, in editing a religious magazine. Not one
of these young men had wealth, or titled ancestry, or superior
advantages, to aid them; and all will say that the debates of their
society exerted a powerful influence over them, and contributed largely
to their success.