to his awkwardness....  When he began speaking his voice was shrill, piping and unpleasant.  His manner, his attitude, his dark yellow face, wrinkled and dry, his oddity of pose, his diffident movements; everything seemed to be against him, but only for a short time. . . .  As he proceeded, he became somewhat more animated. . . .  He did not gesticulate as much with his hands as with his head.  He used the latter frequently, throwing it with him, this way and that. . . .  He never sawed the air nor rent space into tatters and rags, as some orators do.  He never acted for stage effect.  He was cool, considerate, reflective—­in time, self-possessed and self-reliant. . . .  As he moved along in his speech he became freer and less uneasy in his movements; to that extent he was graceful.  He had a perfect naturalness, a strong individuality, and to that extent he was dignified. . . .  He spoke with effectiveness—­and to move the judgment as well as the emotion of men.  There was a world of meaning and emphasis in the long, bony finger of the right hand as he dotted the ideas on the minds of his hearers. . . .  He always stood squarely on his feet. . . .  He neither touched nor leaned on anything for support.  He never ranted, never walked backward and forward on the platform. . . .  As he proceeded with his speech, the exercise of his vocal organs altered somewhat the pitch of his voice.  It lost in a measure its former acute and shrilling pitch and mellowed into a more harmonious and pleasant sound.  His form expanded, and notwithstanding the sunken breast, he rose up a splendid and imposing figure. . . .  His little gray eyes flashed in a face aglow with the fire of his profound thoughts; and his uneasy movements and diffident manner sunk themselves beneath the wave of righteous indignation that came sweeping over him."(4)

A wonderful dramatic contrast were these two men, each in his way so masterful, as they appeared in the famous debates.  By good fortune we have a portrait of Douglas the orator, from the pen of Mrs. Stowe, who had observed him with reluctant admiration from the gallery of the Senate.  “This Douglas is the very ideal of vitality.  Short, broad, thick-set, every inch of him has its own alertness and motion.  He has a good head, thick black hair, heavy black brows, and a keen face.  His figure would be an unfortunate one were it not for the animation that constantly pervades it.  As it is it rather gives poignancy to his peculiar appearance; he has a small handsome hand, moreover, and a graceful as well as forcible mode of using it. . . .  He has two requisites of a debater, a melodious voice and clear, sharply defined enunciation.  His forte in debating is his power of mystifying the point.  With the most offhand assured airs in the world, and a certain appearance of honest superiority, like one who has a regard for you and wishes to set you right on one or two little matters, he proceeds to set up some point which is not that in question, but only