No man is fit to be a Senator... unless he is willing to surrender his political life for great principle.

After obtaining copies of several speeches by Senator Roscoe Conkling a prominent 19th-century orator Ashurst developed his speaking range and ability by thundering the words of other to the plants and rocks of the surrounding countryside. S. Ashurst kept a journal from June 1910 to July 27 1937 which contains pen portraits of several fellow Senators.

theatrical engagement on record" by Time Ashurst's political career was noted for a self-contradictory voting record the use of a sesquipedalian vocabulary and for a love of public speaking that earned him a reputation as one of the Senate's greatest orators. Called "the longest U.