What is deliberative oratory?

John Quincy Adams, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

John Quincy Adams answers

Deliberative oratory is the oratory of assemblies — of men gathered to decide what shall be done.¹ Its characteristic measure is utility: the deliberating body weighs a proposed action against the standard of what is expedient or beneficial, either to themselves or to those they represent, and the orator's task is to persuade them that the measure he recommends, or the measure he opposes, answers that standard.²

Deliberation presupposes alternatives; it presupposes that the issue is genuinely open. Where submission is the principle, there can be no deliberation, and where there is no deliberation, this species of eloquence has no ground on which to stand. It is, moreover, the only kind of oratory in which eloquence and the art of persuasion may be considered perfectly synonymous.³

Demonstrative oratory — the panegyric, the public celebration — terminates in itself; it leads to no vote, verges to no verdict.⁴ Judicial oratory manages the litigation of causes in courts of justice, and its relation is always to time past, to what was done.⁵ Deliberative oratory alone looks forward: its relation is always to future time, its issue a measure to be adopted or rejected.⁶

The practical consequence of this distinction is not merely academic. Under our forms of government, from the framing of a national constitution to the management of a turnpike, every object of concern to more than one individual is transacted by deliberative bodies.⁷ National conventions, Congress, state legislatures, town meetings, parishes, incorporated societies of every description — all of these present occasions for deliberative eloquence, and the citizen who has not been trained to it is at the mercy of whoever has.⁸

That is why I insisted, in delivering these lectures to Harvard undergraduates, that the principles of deliberative oratory are important also in the ordinary concerns of life: whoever is called to give advice or to ask a favor must address the same principles of action as the orator before an assembly, for the arguments that persuade a body are the same that are calculated to persuade a single man.⁹

One further distinction is worth fixing precisely. The task of dissuasion is materially easier than the task of persuasion. To defeat a measure it is sufficient to show either that it is impracticable or that it is inexpedient — one alternative will serve.¹⁰ To carry a measure, both its possibility and its expediency must be made to appear; the proposer must support both, and the opponent need only substantiate one.¹¹ A speaker who understands this asymmetry will never waste his effort proving more than the case requires.

Sources

1. from the formation of a national constitution to the management of a turnpike, every object of concern to more than one individual is transacted by deliberative bodies.

   Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, Vol 1

2. the characteristic common measure of this class is utility... His task is to inspire them with the belief, that the adoption of that, which he recommends, or the rejection of that, which he dissuades, would be useful either to the hearers themselves, or to their constituents, whom they represent.

   Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, Vol 1

3. It is in deliberative oratory, and in that alone, that eloquence and the art of persuasion may be considered, as terms perfectly synonymous.

   Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, Vol 1

4. Demonstrative orations terminate in themselves. They lead to no vote; they verge to no verdict.

   Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, Vol 1

5. Judicial oratory manages the litigation of causes public or private, civil or criminal, in the courts of justice. In other words it is the eloquence of the bar.

   Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, Vol 1

6. The difference between deliberative and judicial oratory... is, in relation to the objects of which it treats, the difference between time future and time past.

   Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, Vol 1

7. from the formation of a national constitution to the management of a turnpike, every object of concern to more than one individual is transacted by deliberative bodies. National and state conventions for the purpose of forming constitutions, the congress of the United States, the legislatures of the several states, are all deliberative assemblies.

   Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, Vol 1

8. you are all citizens of a free republic; you are all favored with the most liberal and scientific education, which your country can afford. That country, in her turn, will have a peculiar claim upon you for the benefit of your counsels.

   Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, Vol 1

9. The principles of deliberative oratory are important also in another point of view; inasmuch as they are applicable to the ordinary concerns of life. Whoever in the course of human affairs is called to give advice, or to ask a favor of another, must apply to the same principles of action, as those, which the deliberative orator must address.

   Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, Vol 1

10. for the rejection of a measure it is sufficient to show, either that it is impracticable, or inexpedient.

    Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, Vol 1

11. for its adoption, both its possibility and its expediency must be made to appear. The proposer of the measure must support both the alternatives; the opponent needs only to substantiate one of them.

    Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, Vol 1