By Kathleen Hall Jamieson
How vital are presidential debates this day? to reply to this query, the authors position glossy debates of their cultural and old context, tracing their origins and improvement within the American political culture, from the eighteenth century to the current, and concluding with feedback for bettering their present effectiveness.
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Extra resources for Presidential Debates: The Challenge of Creating an Informed Electorate
Example text
Election Debates Beyond the strictly deliberative applications of argumentation, debate has been an important element of elections in America from 1788 through the twentieth century. That is not to say, however, that the earliest election debates looked very much like our own. Presidential candidates did not campaign for the office in person until late in the nineteenth century. Even Winfield Scott's single speech defending himself against opponents' accusations in 1840 occasioned a fuss over propriety.
The "beacon fires" of their hills were lighted up, not for the encouragement of their friends, but as signals to the enemy; and in the gloomy hours of midnight the very lights burned blue. Such were the dark and portentous signs of the times which ushered into being the renowned Hartford Convention. 16 In reminding conservative northern politicians of their secessionist pasts, Hayne sought to blunt the attack on nullification. By so doing, he gave Webster the chance to repudiate the Hartford Convention and to cast himself as a champion of the people.
That they would take time away from their practices during such a volatile period is ample testimony to the value the profession attributed to debate skills. Thomas Jefferson stressed the importance of debate to young attorneys. "24 He also recommended a study of the principles of rhetorical practice, citing particularly Hugh Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (London, 1783) and Thomas Sheridan's Course of Lectures on Elocution and the English Language (London, 1759) as useful texts.