Dixon enjoyed lecturing, and found it "an agreeable pastime". "Success on the platform was the easiest thing I ever tried." He went on the Chautauqua circuit, and was often hailed as the best lecturer in the nation. He tells us in his autobiography that as a lecturer, "I always spoke without notes after careful preparation". Over four years he was heard by an estimated 5,000,000 attendees, sometimes exceeding 6,000 at a single program. He gained an immense following throughout the country, particularly in the South, where he played up his speeches on the plight of the working man and what he called the horrors of Reconstruction.