out preparation, apparently without effort, forming the most beautiful constellations of oratorical effect and oratorical beauty.

"It is not an exaggerated statement to say that Governor McKinley has made addresses, orations, and speeches of the very highest order, judged from the point of view of oratory and of thorough knowledge of the subjects, upon a more diversified line of subjects than can be justly attributed to many Americans of to-day. Indeed, we are at a loss to recall at this moment any one who has exhibited in this country a wider range of subjects with a more perfect handling of the same. He has addressed more people in the United States upon the various topics upon which he has spoken by far than any other living man, and he has been seen by a greater number of the people of the United States than any other man now living.

"He is personally exceedingly popular among the masses of the people. It is safe to say that since the untimely death of James G. Blaine no American citizen has drawn to public gatherings anything like the number of men that have flocked to hear Governor McKinley. In the campaign of 1894 he traveled and spoke from platforms and Pullman cars in nearly all the States of the Nation where political contests were raging, and whether in the great Republican State of Ohio, or in the close and doubtful State of Missouri, or in the great crowds which met him in New Orleans, his audiences were absolutely unparalleled.

"His nearness to the people, his closeness to the very sympathies and hearts of the masses of the American people, has not been excelled by the experience of any American within the memory of man. He has had experience in high executive office. For four years he has served as Governor of the great State of Ohio. During that time many events and some serious disturbances have happened in the State which brought out his strong and commanding executive force."

The space at command will not permit the reproduction of the great mass of public utterances by Governor McKinley, but we propose to present enough passages, selected with the view of preferring that which is characteristic and that together will testify the seriousness and searching studies with which he has made himself familiar with a range of topics equal in scope to those that have received the attention of his age and country, and we devote the chapters immediately succeeding this to the addresses in which he has discussed affairs in his characteristic style, showing the wide field of thought with which he is familiar, and in the treatment of which he displays the energy, sincerity, and scholarship that he devotes to the service of the people.

CHAPTER VII.

MCKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM.

Address at Rochester, N. Y.-Studying conditions of government— Public opinion the basis-Zeal after election-The people's business-Duty of business men-Manufacturing interestsOur best market-An extraordinary spectacle.

V

ERY rarely has there been a more powerful statement of the obligations and importance

of civic patriotism than that by Governor McKinley, at Rochester, N. Y., before the Chamber of Commerce of that city. It is the more forcible because it is in the simplest business language-and the direct association of good citizenship with good business is remarkable and impressive.

CIVIC PATRIOTISM.

GOVERNOR MCKINLEY AT ROCHESTER, N. Y., FEB. 13TH, 1895.

"MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE :

"I cannot forego making grateful acknowledgment of the honor of the invitation of the Chamber of Commerce of the city of Rochester which brings

me here to-night. It would have been more agreeable to me to have been a silent guest at your table, freed from the responsibility of making an address. "These are times when the wisest words are wanted and the careless should be unspoken. I wish more than ever in my life for the power to speak the words which, at a crisis like the present, are so much needed. The people throughout the country are at this moment giving more sober consideration to the duties of citizenship than probably at any previous period. They are studying conditions in national, State, and city governments. They are reflecting upon their responsibility and power in relation to these conditions, having uppermost in mind the possibility to improve them.

"What can we do to better them?' is the inquiry engaging every thoughtful mind, and which comes almost unbidden from every tongue. The power, as well as the responsibility, the people are beginning to realize, rests with them. Their duty they want to know, and knowing it, they are ready to do it.

"Our government, National, State, and Municipal, rests upon public opinion. Public opinion creates free governments, and upholds them for good or for ill. Public opinion, however good, if indifferent, has no vital force. When aroused, it may check an evil in public administration, but the evil will resume its sway the moment the public sentiment which arrested it lapses into indifference. Public opinion, to secure real reforms and hold them, must not be fitful and

spasmodic; it must be vigorous, vigilant, steady, and constant, and as sleepless in its activity as the enemy of right is known always to be. Swift as public judgment sometimes is, and justly is, in the condemnation of public officials and public policies, something more than this is required. Execution of the public will must follow the public judgment. And this is only possible when the same public is alert and determined that its judgment shall not be a cold formality, but a living fact, to be respected and enforced.

"Zeal after an election is quite as essential as before. The cause which was successful at the polls demands constant zeal for its practical realization. The best agents of the popular will are made better by the incessant watchfulness of their principals. Not watchfulness alone, but support, reinforcement, and encouragement are necessary. The battle is only begun when the first line of intrenchments is taken. The army is quite as necessary in the engagements which are to follow. The election only determines public policy. It has then to be carried out. It requires the people co-operating continuously with the public officers to put into the forms of law and administration their declared purpose. The election settles much or little dependent upon how the election decrees are interpreted and executed. The election. only declares the people's purpose. After this must come the fulfillment, for the promises of the election should always be sacredly kept. Here comes