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  • Chapter 3 - The Statesman’s Address

  • from Part I - Form and Genre
  • Edited by William Huntting Howell, Boston University, Greta LaFleur, Yale University, Connecticut
  • Book:
    American Literature in Transition, 1770–1828
    Published online:
    09 June 2022
    Print publication:
    23 June 2022, pp 34-51

  • Summary

    This chapter explores the formative role that political oratory played in the literary culture of the early republic, with a particular focus on the statesman's address. American literature bears a strong relationship to oral forms and styles. In the period covered by this volume, the interplay of oral and written language shapes the works of Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin, while oratory figures importantly in such notable novels as Modern Chivalry (1792–1815), Wieland (1798), and Last of the Mohicans (1826). Political speech was far more central to the literary culture of the day than was the novel, with oratorical culture dominating English education until after the Civil War. “The Statesman's Address” considers the influence of Native American oratory and evangelical preaching on a genre that came into its own in the Revolutionary period and gained importance as the contours of the new republic were defined and contested.