the anniversary at Plymouth, the laying of the corner-stone
of Bunker Hill monument, and the deaths of Jefferson and Adams.

_Edward Everett_

Edward Everett was a man of scholastic tastes and habits. His speaking
style was remarkable for its literary finish and polished precision. His
sense of fitness saved him from serious faults of speech or manner. He
blended many graces in one, and his speeches are worthy of study as
models of oratorical style.

_Rufus Choate_

Rufus Choate was a brilliant and persuasive extempore speaker. He
possest in high degree faculties essential to great oratory--a capacious
mind, retentive memory, logical acumen, vivid imagination, deep
concentration, and wealth of language. He had an extraordinary personal
fascination, largely due to his broad sympathy and geniality.

_Charles Sumner_

Charles Sumner was a gifted orator. His delivery was highly impressive,
due fundamentally to his innate integrity and elevated personal
character. He was a wide reader and profound student. His style was
energetic, logical, and versatile. His intense patriotism and
argumentative power, won large favor with his hearers.

_William E. Channing_

William Ellery Channing was a preacher of unusual eloquence and
intellectual power. He was small in stature, but of surpassing grace.
His voice was soft and musical, and wonderfully responsive to every
change of emotion that arose in his mind. His eloquence was not forceful
nor forensic, but gentle and persuasive.

His monument bears this high tribute: "In memory of William Ellery
Channing, honored throughout Christendom for his eloquence and courage
in maintaining and advancing the great cause of truth, religion, and
human freedom."

_Wendell Phillips_

Wendell Phillips was one of the most graceful and polished orators. To
his conversational style he added an exceptional vocabulary, a clear and
flexible voice, and a most fascinating personality.

He produced his greatest effects by the simplest means. He combined
humor, pathos, sarcasm and invective with rare skill, yet his style was
so simple that a child could have understood him.

_George William Curtis_

George William Curtis has been described in his private capacity as
natural, gentle, manly, refined, simple, and unpretending. He was the
last of the great school of Everett, Sumner, and Phillips.

His art of speaking had an enduring charm, and he completely satisfied
the taste for pu