A Tribute to William McKinley
TIEEY LAFAYETTE FORD[edit]
Tirey L Ford was born on a farm in Monroe County Missouri 29 1857. He came to California in February 1877 and various experiences as farm hand and student of law was admitted to practice law. He settled in Downieville Sierra County, was twice elected to the office of district attorney. In 1892 he was elected state senator and in 1898 was elected attorney general of the state, resigning the latter office in 1902 to become the general of the United Railroads of San Francisco. General Ford figured in many important legal cases and has achieved remarkable success for so young a man. He is one of the most popular and effective speakers in the West. His voice has splendid timbre, personality is magnetic, his reasoning logical and forceful.
A TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM McKINLEY[edit]
Delivered at opening meeting of campaign in San Francisco on August 26 1896. Not in the heat and turmoil of an excited and excitable convention, not under the hypnotic spell of impassioned eloquence was William McKinley chosen the standard bearer of the Republican party. From the quiet of a million firesides, from anxious faces in the workshop in the factory and in all the industrial pursuits of a great nation came the ceaseless and irresistible demand for Protection's greatest general. Like the onward flow of some mighty river the steady current of public opinion swept aside all obstacles and yielded not to the skill and energy of those who would turn it from its true course. The greatest political leaders of the age strove in vain to check the popular will and to divert it into other channels but they failed utterly failed. Far over against the morning sun in the old Pine Tree State a prince of parliamentarians a born leader of men saw his high ambition buried beneath the rising tide that all New England was powerless to resist. The great Empire State with all its wealth and power and with the prestige of a popular chief executive was compelled to bow before the determined will of an earnest people. From the Keystone State came that master of American politics whose genius for organization has carried his name throughout the length and breadth of the land and he too like all the rest who broke a lance against McKinley's shield surrendered to the all pervading sentiment that swept our country with such resistless force. Nor did that grand and rugged statesman of the West the favorite son of great and glorious Iowa meet with any greater measure of success. All all were made to stand aside for the chosen leader of a determined people.
Never did a nomination for the high office of President come more directly from the hearts of the people and never was a nomination more fittingly bestowed. A youth of toil and frugal industry had opened the heart and mind of William McKinley to the necessities of American labor in its ruinous competition with the ill paid labor of other lands while as a soldier he mastered the art of war and gave the noblest proof of a patriot's loyal love. As a member of the national Congress for fourteen years he conquered the details of legislation and rose to the proud position of leader in the Lower House of Congress while as governor of his native state he displayed an executive ability that demonstrated his fitness for the high position he now seeks.
Above all as a husband he has given to the world a sublime example of that high ideal which embraces all of manly devotion sacred love and a tenderness unrivaled among men.
Such in brief is the man whose name the Republican party presents to the nation and for whom we speak to night a man developed and disciplined in that severest of all schools adversity and who represents in its true sense the highest and best type of American manhood.
We present to you to night no gilded flowers of polished rhetoric no spectacular creation of the wizard's brain no crown of thorns no cross of gold but we present to you a man who knows and feels the needs of this great country and of all her people who scorns the false and shallow efforts of the demagogue to array one class of citizens against another or the more despicable attempt to divide our people along geographical lines who recognizes in every citizen an American freeman man and whose great heart beats warmly for the humblest citizen in the land.
Citizens of San Francisco and of California we ask you to seriously consider the grave and far reaching issues of the campaign upon which we are now entering and when election day shall have arrived and you come to exercise the highest duty of a citizen we ask you to vote for the American home and all that it implies, for the American laborer in his struggle against the sharp competition which a low tariff has forced upon him, for American industry for national honor and national prosperity in short for him who typifies all these and more, William McKinley of Ohio.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
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