Best Speeches given on July 4
Fourth of July speeches are a tradition, and are usually delivered with the old subjects. Speakers, usually local politicians, talk about what the audience has heard on many previous Independence Day. They cite familiar subjects such as the Founding Fathers, the Liberty Bell, patriotism and freedom. However, these are three Fourth of July speeches that are just as impressive, but dwell on other subjects.1. There was one historic Fourth of July speech when the orator at the podium expressed his deep sorrow that not all Americans were free at that time. The occasion was 1852, just 76 years after the first Independence Day. Frederick Douglass reminded his July Fourth audience in Rochester, New York, of the millions of Black people still in bondage in the South.His speech title was, “What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?" Douglass emphasized the differences between those who celebrated freedom with people who had no freedom. Although he was actually a highly-educated and free African-American, his words explained his sad feelings on what he considered a sadly tainted Independence Day.Speaking as if he were actually a slave, Douglass angrily criticized the audience, “To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, is inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony.”Nine years later, the Civil War began.2. Author Mark Twain gave a humorous twist to his Fourth of July speech in Keokuk, Iowa, in 1886. Following more serious and much more wordy speakers, Twain told the audience he would keep his speech mercifully short.Mocking the previous orators of the past two hours, he said, “You have heard the Declaration of Independence with its majestic ending, which is worthy to live forever, which has been hurled at the bones of a fossilized monarch, old King George the III, who has been dead these many years, and which will continue to be hurled at him annually as long as this Republic lives.”Twain went on briefly about how the orators had turned from cursing English royalty to praising General Ulysses S. Grant and other great Americans of the era. He ended his short speech rather abruptly by saying, “All I have to do is to add the verdict, which is all that can be added, and that is, 'It is a successful day.'”3. Baseball great Lou Gehrig made a speech on July 4, 1939, in Yankee Stadium. It had nothing to do with Independence Day, but was one of the most memorable speeches in American history. He was suffering from an advancing paralysis that had ended his very impressive career at age 36. He was wasting away from what is now called Lou Gehrig’s Disease, with the technical name of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).He wanted to make his last public appearance at Yankee Stadium to thank his fans. He said, “You have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.”
Lou Gehrig died less than two years later.The best historic speeches given on the Fourth of July are not necessarily those that boast of patriotism, flag-waving and freedom. The most effective speeches are those that come from the heart of people who are thankful they live in a nation where they’re able to speak freely.
