Knoxville Daily Chronicle

SILENT MEN.—Washington never made a speech. In the zenith of his fame he once attempted it, failed, and gave it up confused and abashed. In the framing of the Constitution of the United States, the labor was almost wholly performed in committee of the whole, of which George Washington was day after day the chairman, but he made two speeches during the convention, of a few words each, something like one of Grant's speeches. The convention, however, acknowledged the master spirit, and historians affirm that had it not been for his personal popularity and the thirty words of his first speech, pronouncing it the best that could be acted upon, the Constitution would have been rejected by the people. Thomas Jefferson never made a speech. He couldn't do it. Napoleon, whose executive ability is almost without a parallel, said that his greatest difficulty was in finding men of deeds rather than words. When asked how he maintained his influence over his superiors in age and experience when commander-in-chief of an army in Italy, he said by reserve. The greatness of a man is not measured by the length of his speeches or their number.