How the Declaration of Independence Could Have Been Declared Out Loud in a Speech

Thomas Jefferson Understood the Art of Persuasive Acting in Politics Before the Era of Actors Turning into Politicians

By Gregoriancant, published Jun 28, 2007
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Many might assume that Ronald Reagan was America's first President to utilize a form of acting in his speeches that he'd learned in his prior acting career. The reality is, every politician (especially the President) has to use elements of acting in order to sell their political ideas to the American public or the Reps and Senators in Congress. Some of them have had to learn that craft the hard way as they go along in their first term...but we won't name any names. Yet others have known how to do it effectively right away without any particular training or perhaps training learned during their educational years. What a lot of people probably don't know is that Thomas Jefferson was fascinated with the elements of acting and how it could be used to make ideas cogent to the masses without giving the impression that one is actually doing any acting. The only trouble with his fascination of that was one thing: Jefferson was extremely afraid of public speaking and would always avoid making speeches whenever he could.

How the Declaration of Independence Could Have Been Declared Out Loud in a Speech

Portrait of Thomas Jefferson--who looks unusually calm despite his stage fright.

Credit: whitehouse.gov

Copyright: whitehouse.gov

Takeaways
  • A brilliant mind and being a brilliant public speaker don't always go together...
  • Jefferson's studies of effective speech also led him to study new communicative methods in music.
  • Norman Lear produced a TV special in 2001 featuring celebrities reading the Declaration...
Did You Know?
The Declaration didn't truly become a symbol of liberty and patriotism until after the war of 1812. Before that, it was usually regarded as a document symbolizing social discontent.
Comments
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Wow! So hard to believe that Jefferson was afraid of public speaking. He and I have something in common :-) Great article!

Posted on 07/01/2007 at 7:07:00 PM

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