It occurred to me that I could render a very great service to my country, during my absence, if I could be instrumental in getting a declaration from England and France that those countries would join with the United States in an attempt…

This contribution, I thought, if Great Britain went no farther, would give great support to silver, and would ensure the success of the concerted attempt of the other commercial nations to restore silver to its old place.

In my opinion it saved the Presidential election, and, in my opinion, in saving the Presidential election, it saved the country from the incalculable evil of the free coinage of silver.

He pointed out the danger, indeed the ruin, of undertaking to reestablish silver without the consent of foreign nations.

But he declared that the happiness and, perhaps, the safety of the country rested on Bimetallism.

The great increase in the gold product of the world, and the constant diminution in the value of silver, have put an end to the danger of the movement for the free coinage of silver, and made the question purely academic or theoretic, at…

One thing especially distinguishes our modern orator from the writer in the closet, where he writes solely for his readers, or where he has prepared his speeches beforehand--that is, the influence of the audience upon him.

There is nothing like it as a stimulant to every faculty, not only imagination, and fancy, and reason, but especially, as every experienced speaker knows, memory also.

Everything needed seems to come out from the secret storehouses of the mind, even the things that have lain there forgotten, rusting and unused.

He cannot follow nor frame ideals; his choice is to be what his age would have him, what it requires in order to be moved by him, or else not to be at all.

He seemed to have mastered the whole vocabulary of English speech, and to have a rare gift of choosing words that accurately expressed his meaning, and he used so to fashion his sentences that they were melodious and delightful to the ear.

Why it is that two words or phrases which mean precisely the same thing to the intellect, have so different an effect on the emotions, no man can tell.

To understand it, is to know the secret not only of reaching the heart, but frequently of convincing the understanding of man.

He maintained that constitutional liberty could never be permanent where two countries with separate legislatures were under one sovereign.

He said the sovereign would always be able to use the military and civil power of one to accomplish his designs against the liberty of the other.

But I incline to the belief that, while undoubtedly there may be great truth in the opinion, the spirit of liberty will overcome that danger.

Hungary and Hungary's chief city seem rapidly to be asserting control in their own affairs and an influence in the Austro-Hungary Empire which no monarch will be able to withstand, and which it is quite likely the royal family will not…

In these days monarchs are learning the love of liberty, and I believe in most cases to-day the reigning sovereigns of Europe are eager to promote constitutional government, and prefer the title of Liberator to that of Despot.

He seemed never to care for the soundness of his opinion before he uttered it, or for the truth of the fact before he said it, if only he could produce a rhetorical effect.

If he failed to make an impression by argument, he took to invective.

He never gave the people wise counsel, and rarely told them the honest truth.

I have given the best study I could to the grave evil of the accumulation in the country of vast fortunes in single hands, or of vast properties in the hands of great corporations-- popularly spoken of as trusts--whose powers are wielded…

The difficulty is increased by the fact that many of the evils caused by trusts, or apprehended from them, can only be cured by the action of the States, but cannot be reached by Congress, which can only deal with international or…

I claimed, however, further, that Congress had, in my opinion, the power of controlling the whole matter, by reason of its right to prescribe terms on which any corporation, created by State authority or its own, should engage in…

A rash or unskilful remedy might bring infinite trouble or ruin to lawful business.