The National McKinley Birthplace Memorial; Erected by the National McKinley Birthplace Memorial Association. Corner Stone Laid November Twentieth, Nineteen Fifteen, Dedicated October Fifth, Nineteen Seventeen (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 edition. Excerpt: ...so valuable in their early career in the end has stunted their growth and disappointed expectation. Their fluency has made them content with the inspiration of the moment, and their addresses have lacked orderly arrangement, conciseness of statement and argument, and originality and force of thought. They fall into graceful platitudes and a self-satisfying verbosity. McKinley's course was very different. His speeches in Congress and on the stump and as President showed always the effect of careful preparation--never too long, always clear. They were grouped around one or more epigrammatic texts, successfully Worked out to fasten his thought in the minds of his hearers. He was a most successful practical political speaker. He never slopped over. The natural excitement of the occasion, the enthusiasm of his audience, prompted by the love they felt for the man never led him to excessive or unwise expression. Applause never disturbed his poise. This was as much due to his habit of careful preparation as it was to his fair-mindedness, his levelheadedness and his judicial moderation of mind and thought. He had the faculty of directing and accepting the work of others in his preparation. That which he took he made his own by conforming it to his critical nicety of judgment in matter of style and limitation of meaning. A man of substantial figure but not tall, of most dignified and graceful bearing, with a beautiful profile and fine head and eye, he was marked in an assembly in which he took part. As he spoke, he attracted at first ' the attention, then the sympathy, and finally the conviction of his audience. I will long remember the profound impression he made upon me, then a young student of the law, on the platform of the great political...