What an interesting accent. Very forcefully spoken. Makes me wonder what even earlier presidents would sound like, like Lincoln, or maybe even Washington himself.
This was before amplification, and the folks of that day were precise in their speech, syntax, etc-If is startling how we have devolved in colloquialisms, soundbites, 30-second spots, "gotcha" questions, etc-in our political process. Like him or not, I like that Newt Gingrich wants to challenge Obama to a series of Lincoln-Douglas-style debates--no moderator, just talking about the real solutions without "gotcha" questions. It would be neat to find out which President lost their British accent.
Sorry to bust everyone's bubble, this is NOT the voice McKinley, but that of a studio performer. It's also missing the middle section, as well as a spoken intro that would have ID'd the speaker--the complete recording plays for about 2.5 minutes. It's listed in the United States Phonograph Co. catalog for Sept. 1896, which was geared for proprietors owning coin-operated machines in arcades. The catalog entry also mentions "audience sounds." 4 other records listed were of Wm. J. Bryan speeches.
@travellinman321 Interesting you should comment on the accent! It's actually a historical phenomenon called the "Transatlantic" or "Mid Atlantic" accent that was prevalent in the US until shortly after WWII. It mixed English and American accents without being predominantly one or the other. FDR had it, and a lot of famous actors at the beginning of Hollywood were trained to speak like this. Look it up on Wikipedia! It's absolutely fascinating!
This is one of my great cousins, wierd sentence never used it lol, and I didn't think that his voice would sound like this. His face is very similiar to my other uncles though. Not the voice at all, though.
The bullet that pierced Goebel’s breast Can not be found in all the West. Good reason: it is speeding here [to Washington] To stretch McKinley on his bier.
@tristconroytv Sorry bro, the man has no direct descendants. You could be related to him in other ways but you're not his "great x 7 grandchild." But since you're so sure why don't you submit your genealogy findings to the McKinley Museum? Just google it and it'll be the top hit. I'm sure they'd LOVE to hear about this mystery wife/child theory of yours. Then you can call them dumbasses when they prove you wrong too.
Funny enough, one of the most unknown presidents is one of the most controversial. For some he's one of the best, for some he's one of the worst. Go figure.
This was still when politics wasn't as bullshit as it is now. Nowadays, political matters are dealt as a business, rather than what's in the best interests.
This is great, i have to do a speech and a report on this president :) So now i know how to talk infront of my class. (We're judeged based on our constumes, our acting, and speech delivery.) Thanks
@travellinman321 Indeed. Thing is McKinley was born just a few minutes from my hometown in northeast Ohio, and spent a lot of time in the Canton area, and nobody I know talks like this. That there gives you an idea of how different American speech was then
Too bad he was shot by a crazy Ukrainian anarchist... however it did give Theodore Roosevelt the Presidency, which really expanded this country as we know it. Yes, McKinley did get Hawaii and Cuba, but which one of those do we still have today?
@44t56 Hawaii. But you forget Guam, Puerto Rico, the Philipenes, which he did not give up, He gave up Cuba almost immediately because he felt that they were too rebellious.
@RonocDondra352 Yes, but we lost the Philippines as well. Really, the only reason we went into Cuba anyway was due in part to Yellow Journalism. Honestly, the American people wouldn't have known what was going on if it weren't for self-spoken reporters giving their opinion-based arguments to enter into it.
Actually FDR's accent is a New Yorker accent amongst most European-Americans up until the 50's. His was more Dutch than Scots-Irish as President McKinley.
This is wonderful audio. Thank you so much for posting it. It's amazing to hear someone of his calibur talking about the "United States." That was music to my ears.
I'm making an educated guess here that his accent was more the result of a trained style of oration than a preservation of his family heritage. His Ohio accent was probably more like Taft's; what we hear in this recording was likely his way of sounding more elegant in a public setting. Such a style wasn't necessarily cultivated out of snobbishness; McKinley was just a product of his time.
I'm making an educated guess here that his accent was more the result of a trained style of oration than a preservation of his family heritage. His Ohio accent was probably more like Taft's; what we hear in this recording was likely his way of sounding more elegant in a public setting. Such a style wasn't necessarily cultivated out of snobbishness; McKinley was just a product of his time.
He is overrated. He fueled Monopoly with the Gold Standard Act and the Dingley Tariff. If you ever wondered where all the trusts TR was busting came from, McKinley is responsible for their creation.
In foreign Policy, McKinley gave in and went to an unnecessary war with Spain, but worse he went on to take control of the Philippines and waged a bloody war on them for wanting their freedom back. McKinley was an average president at best,who saved Cuba, enslaving the Philippines instead.
McKinley opposed the rothschild international jew banking mob. He spoke of an "honest dollar" as opposed to the federal reserve notes introduced a short time after his assassination by a radical jew. He had the Treasury issue real Treasury note dollars backed by american gold which kept us independent of the rothschild banks who tried 3 times before to keep their central bank in the USA. When their central bank charters were revoked Treasury notes were worth the same for decades. Fed = inflation
@travellinman321 Yes, it's indeed captivating to hear what Americans sounded like before the bland homogenization fostered by the mass media. Clearly many were far more articulate than today's "modern" jabberers: No "likes", "ya knows" or other verbal diarrhea.
Many these days tend to imagine that we're so much more "advanced" than our ancestors were, but in many of the most important ways, we're savages in comparison.
@AnnihilatingAngel Right, but someday a hundred years or so from now this late 1800's way of speaking might seem altogether too antiquated for 22nd century ears, and our current 2011 way of speaking may be well appreciated and admired by the self hating people of 2100. It's the same mentality in my opinion as how modern music isn't fully appreciated until generations later. The Beatles and Elvis were once scorned by people over 25 years old but are now considered legends.
According to what I have read from authorities on recordings, McKinley never actually recorded his voice. This recording was probably made by a studio performer at Edison or Columbia.........
McKinley resisted his own Party bosses and named Theodore Roosevelt as his running mate for reelection in 1900. An underrated, popular, president for sure, perhaps Teddy was his greatest legacy.
WOW! "A struggle to restore the FINANCIAL HONOR of the government". We don't hear those *@(!*@&!!! in Washington speaking like that anymore. Maybe because they don't know the meaning of the word "honor".
@wrestlefanatic77 Hard to say. I doubt he would have had so much inflection but the prep school accent itself was probably fairly natural. It was pretty common at the time for public speakers and the upper crust to take on certain inflections when speaking.
Listening to this totally changes my perception of how people spoke back then. He sounds British. So it makes me presume that maybe other American figures such as George Washington or Abraham Lincoln also spoke like Englishmen...I don't know, it just kinda blows my mind, because they are always portrayed in movies and documentaries and stuff as sounding just like modern Americans.
@C3P0meetsData Well, it's wasn't very much like how the British spoke, especially then. It was just how the high class spoke. With "refinement" and "dignity."
McKinley was a classic Republican; rabidly bro-business & anti-labor as well as a pro-war imperialist. Perhaps he was reincarnated and lived again as George W. Bush...
Just played this in McKinleys stenographers house in Canton. It was used as offices for the 1896 campaign. Dark, stormy, alone...that was pretty spooky. Its been a long time since his voice resonated in here. Thanks for sharing.
What did he say at :21? He said "we have a struggle to preserve the government of the united states and a struggle to preserve the financial ( ? ) of the government".
The reason for his speaches being made on his poarch in Canton, Ohio, is that his wife could not walk & travel the campaingn trail with him. Yes, he is grossly under rated. McKinley truly loved the people of this nation, but his wife even more, One truly awesome man. He was shot, Sep 1901, Buffalo, NY, inside the Temple of Music, not far from the first demo of the X-Ray machine, which could have saved his life.
The nation was in a depression when he became President that began under Grover Cleaveland. The poor lived by the factories while the rich lived up in the hills away from the dirty air.
@lildwayne21 - The Panic of 1893 may have gotten its beginnings on February 23, 1893 with the bankruptcy of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad.
You may know it on your Monopoly board as the "Reading Railroad" (I grew up in Reading territory and still live less than a mile from what was the RDG Bethlehem main line, which is now home to an occasional freight train).
This occurred during the Benjamin Harrison administration. Cleveland didn't take office until March 4, 1893, ten days later.
@WilMusgrave90 Yes, the Edison phonograph cylinders they recorded on back then were made of wax, so obviously, the audio could be a little warped over the years. With the coming of the record, did we hear audio much clearer and recordings that lasted much longer than the wax cylinders. The record started to be mass produced in the early 1910s (roughly).
"He almost sounds as though he's speaking with a Scottish accent. "
You might be hearing a little Scotch-Irish accent. McKinley's ancestors were Scotch-Irish, from Ballymoney in Northern Ireland. I have ancestors from that area also. They have a small monument to McKinley in Ballymoney.
A Mid-Atlantic accent has nothing to do with the Mid-Atlantic states (as someone said below, that it meant an accent from NJ and the surrounding states). Instead, it refers to "in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean," in other words, an accent that is part Northeast American and part basic-English-accent.
Modern American accents are actually more like the British accents spoken in the 18th century, British accents changed during the first few decades of the 19th century (such as introducing the silent "R" in the end of words, which didn't happen in America save parts of the American south). Modern Irish accent is probably the last remnant of the old English accent.
@ClinicalAttacked No. There is always divergence, why would modern americans sound more like antiquated British accents? It makes no sense linguistically. In fact, listen to this man. He sounds more like a modern Briton than a modern American.
@lildwayne21 He did get shot...I'm not sure if there was anything remarkable that has happened during his time as President, save for stock market crashes, labor strikes, and the advent of the Progressive Era.
@Agent1W Quite a few remarkable things happened during his presidency. The Spanish-American War in 1898 marked America's entry onto the world stage, and the annexation of the Philippines started a debate over imperialism and the balance of being a world power while maintaining a republican government. He also passed a protectionist tariff and supported what we call "mergers" today and they called "trusts" back then. It was actually a prosperous time, the next "panic" wasn't until 1907.
@aharoldcampbell That's true, but if it wasn't for the USS Maine incident, he would have avoided war as much as possible. Public opinion is a helluva motivator for a President. But the concept of war is more of Teddy Roosevelt's ambition.
Dunno why he supported trusts. That was a time when companies grew too large and powerful, such as Rockefeller's Standard Oil. Progressivism sought to rebalance that sort of thing.
@Agent1W Before the military-industrial complex came about after World War II, business tended to be against war because it disrupted normal commerce. The simple reason McKinley supported trusts was because the Republicans were the party of big business. His campaign adviser was Mark Hanna, a large industrialist from Ohio who later became U.S. senator. Hanna was also one of the first to say that government's role is to promote business. McKinley capitalized on the war to expand U.S. markets.
@aharoldcampbell If he supported trusts, then I'd wager that big businessmen supported his bid for President. As the Progressives saw it, big businessmen were monstrous, greedy robber barons! Indeed, many different commodities and resources are created and put to use in wartime, which America wasn't really a militaristic nation.
Getting the Philippines was a GREAT asset for reaching Asia, which I'm sure McKinley believed we would hold that country better than Spain.
Actually it's Mid Atlantic. It's an accent that can still be heard today in New Jersey and surrounding states. It's the poor quality of the recording equitment+emphisis on words (which was often overdone duringthe speeches of the day) that makes him sound british.
......This is pretty typical Mid-Atlantic accent. It doesn't even sound remotely british. Not even the founding fathers spoke with modern british accents.
FREAKING LIKE REALLY FREAKING AWESOME, i wan't to share something, and mabey someone has that to, I like to keep small things with large meanings, i still have a peanut of 3 years old, from the last time I ate in my favorite restaurant, in America with my grandmother (she is still alive, but I don't see here that often).
At 0:50, what in the world is that? It sounds really creepy, especially since it is over a hundred years old. It really is amazing to have something like this from such a long time ago!
OH YES!!! The old photos of Calhoun seem to depict an Old Testament Prophet dressed for the 1800's! He's got hard, crazy eyes and a HUGE head of hair combed back like he was in a wind tunnel. I agree. John. C. Calhoun was scarier-looking!!! All though...now, I guess he looks like an ageing rock star.
The recording of McKinley's Buffalo speech is on the Michigan State University Vincent Voice Library. website. It's remarkably clear. It has a heavily edited version of that speech to fit on a short cylinder. But would McKinley have had the time to record it before his shooting? Possibly, but I can't find any confirmation that he did. This 1896 recording seems slowed down and distorted. But accounting for its poorer quality, I think both recordings were made by the same man. I presume McKinley.
Many of the supposed voice recordings from the Robert Vincent Library at MSU are not authentic - not even Groliers. Alas, there is no genuine recording of Wm McKinley.
The record catalogs of the period advertize many "celebrities" for sale, but the technology of the day did not permit that for political figures - just studio elocutionists. Such mass recordings did not become feasible until the molding process, and certainly little before 1908.
There's strong reason to suspect the 1901 McKinley recording. The timing of it is highly suspicious. Granted studio elocutionists made many recordings. Are we to also suspect records of Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison? Perhaps. But the Harrison voice at the very least was not done by a strong public speaker. That MIGHT be genuine for that reason alone. The 1896 McKinley recording would not have the timing element working against it. Well, who's to say? More evidence is needed.
I agree that the Harrison recording may be genuine since there is some evidence that he visited the Bettini 'factory' premises at the top of the Judge Building in NYC. In addition, there are contemporary newspaper accounts of such a record being made. But there is no evidence at all for the McKinley and Cleveland records, and some companies (like Columbia) occasionally admitted that they used elocutionists like Len & Harry Spencer to issue their (studio) celebrity series.
I looked through 1901 newspapers on line to find any report that McKinley made a recording while at Buffalo. Nothing caught my eye in September 5 and 6 papers. He was shot on the 6th, so papers after that were filled with assassination reports. Again, nothing to support the recording's authenticity. I've sent e mails about the recording to the Voice Library and elsewhere. Response: "We don't know."
Makes you wonder about a lot of 1890s celebs supposedly on records.
Well, the existing cylinders by P. T. Barnum, Florence Nightingale, and Sir Arthur Sullivan appear to be genuine and are part of the authentic incunabula of recorded sound. There are even some mangled words of the actual Queen Victoria which yielded a book on the subject, as well as Tchaikovsky. But McKinley, Cleveland, and Whitman do not make the cut, nor does a supposed 'Mark Twain.'
Sullivan I know of (I'm a G&S fan). I've heard W.S. Gilbert's voice dimly on a home recording device (c. 1905). Queen Victoria I thought ordered all records of her voice smashed, but I see a link on line for this. I've heard Twain was never recorded.
Re presidents, I've read Rutherford B. Hayes had his voice recorded just after the phonograph's invention in 1877. But the recording is not extant. Earliest sound I've heard comes from 1888 (except for a recently discovered c. 1861 one).
Actually Twain recorded himself in his effort to transcribe his new novel, The American Claimant, in a series of 200 brown wax cylinders. But these have not survived. Some attributed to him are actually by Wm Gillette. Queen Victoria, as you say, usually ordered her recording(s) smashed (no one can command the Monarch), but perhaps 16 words survive on a Tainter cylinder. Edison visited the White House in April 1878 with his new invention, but the tinfoil has indeed been lost.
Listen to the decidedly Ohio accents of his contemporaries such as Taft, Cox, Harding and you will notice that the recording of McKinley has none of that local flavor. But if you listen to this recording I believe you hear the voice of Arthur Collins as he tried to create a more effected and offical sound to his voice. I so wish it was McKinley, but I fear it is not. Just like the recording of of Walt Whitman, it is not by Whitman..although we only wish it was. This is just my observation
As someone who values fact in the study of US history, I am grateful to you for pointing out that this is probably NOT the actual voice of President McKinley, but dismayed that YouTube would announce it as his speech.
I have an issue with this recording. The speaker sounds a lot like Arthur Collins 1863-1933. The quality is more like a studio recording of the period circa 1896 or 1900. It was very common for studio performers to do speeches on record as doine by great politicians. There is on youtube now a recording of McKinley doing his last speech at the Pan American Exibition in Buffalo. But the voice is that of Len Spencer 1869-1914. Both recordings I believe were made by studios. (part 1)
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What an interesting accent. Very forcefully spoken. Makes me wonder what even earlier presidents would sound like, like Lincoln, or maybe even Washington himself.
IAmCaptainMarvel 2 weeks ago
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IAmCaptainMarvel 2 weeks ago
That was a great speech! Wish that politicians would do that nowadays...
jcsv12345 1 month ago
This was before amplification, and the folks of that day were precise in their speech, syntax, etc-If is startling how we have devolved in colloquialisms, soundbites, 30-second spots, "gotcha" questions, etc-in our political process. Like him or not, I like that Newt Gingrich wants to challenge Obama to a series of Lincoln-Douglas-style debates--no moderator, just talking about the real solutions without "gotcha" questions. It would be neat to find out which President lost their British accent.
BigBingFan 1 month ago
I think it's sad that the English language has devolved (especially in the US) into what it is today....
davidbehman 3 months ago 3
Sorry to bust everyone's bubble, this is NOT the voice McKinley, but that of a studio performer. It's also missing the middle section, as well as a spoken intro that would have ID'd the speaker--the complete recording plays for about 2.5 minutes. It's listed in the United States Phonograph Co. catalog for Sept. 1896, which was geared for proprietors owning coin-operated machines in arcades. The catalog entry also mentions "audience sounds." 4 other records listed were of Wm. J. Bryan speeches.
CosmoPrimo1 3 months ago
he was assinated
gamecocksrule2001 4 months ago
@gamecocksrule2001 in 1901.
Professor6871 1 month ago
0:53 sounds like ghosts wailing 0.0
Strava124 4 months ago 4
@travellinman321 Interesting you should comment on the accent! It's actually a historical phenomenon called the "Transatlantic" or "Mid Atlantic" accent that was prevalent in the US until shortly after WWII. It mixed English and American accents without being predominantly one or the other. FDR had it, and a lot of famous actors at the beginning of Hollywood were trained to speak like this. Look it up on Wikipedia! It's absolutely fascinating!
SpringFeb2011 4 months ago 2
@NJBoston90s No, McKinley has no direct descendants. Check the McKinley museum website. :)
mzmudcat 4 months ago
This is one of my great cousins, wierd sentence never used it lol, and I didn't think that his voice would sound like this. His face is very similiar to my other uncles though. Not the voice at all, though.
LionheartAWPS 5 months ago
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LionheartAWPS 5 months ago
The bullet that pierced Goebel’s breast Can not be found in all the West. Good reason: it is speeding here [to Washington] To stretch McKinley on his bier.
Ambrose Bierce
EdFugg 6 months ago
guys this is my great great great great great great great grandfather pretty cool right
tristconroytv 6 months ago
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CharlestonChica 6 months ago
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@tristconroytv Liar. Both of his kids died before they were 5. Therefore, no grandchildren.
CharlestonChica 6 months ago
@tristconroytv Both of William McKinley's kids died in childhood.
mzmudcat 5 months ago
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@mzmudcat whos to say that he didnt have secret or anoher wife u dont know dumbass its my family history
tristconroytv 5 months ago
@tristconroytv Sorry bro, the man has no direct descendants. You could be related to him in other ways but you're not his "great x 7 grandchild." But since you're so sure why don't you submit your genealogy findings to the McKinley Museum? Just google it and it'll be the top hit. I'm sure they'd LOVE to hear about this mystery wife/child theory of yours. Then you can call them dumbasses when they prove you wrong too.
mzmudcat 5 months ago in playlist mzmudcat's Favorited Videos 8
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@mzmudcat im pretty sure my elders know alot more then u ya dumb
tristconroytv 5 months ago
No wonder why this guy was a role model for Frank Baum's "Wizard of Oz." He sounds like the wizard in the 1939 film!
kiss031575 6 months ago
Funny enough, one of the most unknown presidents is one of the most controversial. For some he's one of the best, for some he's one of the worst. Go figure.
jaredabccrisscross 7 months ago
great accent
cormacob2000 7 months ago
His accent! This is exciting history.
alexvlk 8 months ago
incredible
1TakeVlog 8 months ago
This was still when politics wasn't as bullshit as it is now. Nowadays, political matters are dealt as a business, rather than what's in the best interests.
RyanKaufman 9 months ago
He sounds like Pilate from "Monty Python and the Life of Brian". What I would give to hear him say "Biggus Dickus". :)
DellDuckfan313 10 months ago 3
This is great, i have to do a speech and a report on this president :) So now i know how to talk infront of my class. (We're judeged based on our constumes, our acting, and speech delivery.) Thanks
nitole12345 10 months ago
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@travellinman321 Indeed. Thing is McKinley was born just a few minutes from my hometown in northeast Ohio, and spent a lot of time in the Canton area, and nobody I know talks like this. That there gives you an idea of how different American speech was then
rondunderfunk 10 months ago
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rondunderfunk 10 months ago
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rondunderfunk 10 months ago
Too bad he was shot by a crazy Ukrainian anarchist... however it did give Theodore Roosevelt the Presidency, which really expanded this country as we know it. Yes, McKinley did get Hawaii and Cuba, but which one of those do we still have today?
44t56 10 months ago
@44t56 Hawaii. But you forget Guam, Puerto Rico, the Philipenes, which he did not give up, He gave up Cuba almost immediately because he felt that they were too rebellious.
RonocDondra352 9 months ago
@RonocDondra352 Yes, but we lost the Philippines as well. Really, the only reason we went into Cuba anyway was due in part to Yellow Journalism. Honestly, the American people wouldn't have known what was going on if it weren't for self-spoken reporters giving their opinion-based arguments to enter into it.
44t56 8 months ago
@travellinman321 It seems like FDR was the last President to have this similar accent...
MIKESOWELL 11 months ago 6
@MIKESOWELL
Actually FDR's accent is a New Yorker accent amongst most European-Americans up until the 50's. His was more Dutch than Scots-Irish as President McKinley.
smartwarlord 6 months ago
@smartwarlord Yes, it is not the same. But I said similar in my earlier comment.
MIKESOWELL 6 months ago
@MIKESOWELL and George Bush Jr. of course
dannyd1572 5 months ago
0:50 Is that people cheering or music playing?
MrGeorge2220 11 months ago 2
@MrGeorge2220 I think cheering
RonocDondra352 9 months ago
I love this video!
klenmn 11 months ago
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you rock McKinley
alcaponefan1 11 months ago
you rock mckinly
alcaponefan1 11 months ago
This is wonderful audio. Thank you so much for posting it. It's amazing to hear someone of his calibur talking about the "United States." That was music to my ears.
123pocu 11 months ago
Can you tell me what he is saying???
???
Mrlovestardoll 1 year ago
corrupt bastard...
JP1226294 1 year ago
woah, its absolutely chilling to hear someone's voice from 115 years ago
bass4onelastfriday 1 year ago 2
@bass4onelastfriday Agreed. It's really creepy, like hearing a ghost talk.
blahblahmr 5 months ago
mckinley was awsome stinks he got assasinated in buffalo
dunmer2001 1 year ago
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@travellinman321
I'm making an educated guess here that his accent was more the result of a trained style of oration than a preservation of his family heritage. His Ohio accent was probably more like Taft's; what we hear in this recording was likely his way of sounding more elegant in a public setting. Such a style wasn't necessarily cultivated out of snobbishness; McKinley was just a product of his time.
AvuncularFeldspar 1 year ago
@travellinman321
I'm making an educated guess here that his accent was more the result of a trained style of oration than a preservation of his family heritage. His Ohio accent was probably more like Taft's; what we hear in this recording was likely his way of sounding more elegant in a public setting. Such a style wasn't necessarily cultivated out of snobbishness; McKinley was just a product of his time.
AvuncularFeldspar 1 year ago
He is overrated. He fueled Monopoly with the Gold Standard Act and the Dingley Tariff. If you ever wondered where all the trusts TR was busting came from, McKinley is responsible for their creation.
In foreign Policy, McKinley gave in and went to an unnecessary war with Spain, but worse he went on to take control of the Philippines and waged a bloody war on them for wanting their freedom back. McKinley was an average president at best,who saved Cuba, enslaving the Philippines instead.
jaredabccrisscross 1 year ago
he looks like (and kinda sounds like) Sam the Eagle from the Muppet Show lol.
Vash1286 1 year ago
McKinley opposed the rothschild international jew banking mob. He spoke of an "honest dollar" as opposed to the federal reserve notes introduced a short time after his assassination by a radical jew. He had the Treasury issue real Treasury note dollars backed by american gold which kept us independent of the rothschild banks who tried 3 times before to keep their central bank in the USA. When their central bank charters were revoked Treasury notes were worth the same for decades. Fed = inflation
angstotheclown 1 year ago
@travellinman321 Yes, it's indeed captivating to hear what Americans sounded like before the bland homogenization fostered by the mass media. Clearly many were far more articulate than today's "modern" jabberers: No "likes", "ya knows" or other verbal diarrhea.
Many these days tend to imagine that we're so much more "advanced" than our ancestors were, but in many of the most important ways, we're savages in comparison.
AnnihilatingAngel 1 year ago
@AnnihilatingAngel Right, but someday a hundred years or so from now this late 1800's way of speaking might seem altogether too antiquated for 22nd century ears, and our current 2011 way of speaking may be well appreciated and admired by the self hating people of 2100. It's the same mentality in my opinion as how modern music isn't fully appreciated until generations later. The Beatles and Elvis were once scorned by people over 25 years old but are now considered legends.
jbjindra 1 year ago
According to what I have read from authorities on recordings, McKinley never actually recorded his voice. This recording was probably made by a studio performer at Edison or Columbia.........
Lucius1958 1 year ago
McKinley resisted his own Party bosses and named Theodore Roosevelt as his running mate for reelection in 1900. An underrated, popular, president for sure, perhaps Teddy was his greatest legacy.
JimHeathONN 1 year ago
He sounds British
lildwayne21 1 year ago
@lildwayne21
Everyone sounded British back then lol.
etopla 1 year ago
WOW! "A struggle to restore the FINANCIAL HONOR of the government". We don't hear those *@(!*@&!!! in Washington speaking like that anymore. Maybe because they don't know the meaning of the word "honor".
63gstone 1 year ago
Lol, he sort of ounds like Mr. Sulu on the old Star Trek episodes.
iwebber88 1 year ago
why do they never talk about his assasination in school.My entire 12 yrs in school he was mentioned maybe a few times
smithdsmit 1 year ago 2
Seems like his voice is a bit distorted, probably due to the age of the recording. I'm sure he truly didn't speak that way if we saw him today.
wrestlefanatic77 1 year ago
@wrestlefanatic77 Hard to say. I doubt he would have had so much inflection but the prep school accent itself was probably fairly natural. It was pretty common at the time for public speakers and the upper crust to take on certain inflections when speaking.
UNCfan102 1 year ago
Mckinley was not "east coast" -- he was a midwesterner from Ohio
Seversonronald8 1 year ago
@Seversonronald8 He wasn't from the east coast but he was east coast.
UNCfan102 1 year ago
Listening to this totally changes my perception of how people spoke back then. He sounds British. So it makes me presume that maybe other American figures such as George Washington or Abraham Lincoln also spoke like Englishmen...I don't know, it just kinda blows my mind, because they are always portrayed in movies and documentaries and stuff as sounding just like modern Americans.
C3P0meetsData 1 year ago
@C3P0meetsData Most did. William Mkinely was east coast and educated, hence the proper accent. Most recordings from that time don't sound like this.
UNCfan102 1 year ago
@C3P0meetsData Well, it's wasn't very much like how the British spoke, especially then. It was just how the high class spoke. With "refinement" and "dignity."
iwebber88 1 year ago
0:51 those cheers are CREEPY!
abelincoln1809 1 year ago
It is british Accent
2008hatim 1 year ago
im related to that guy!!!! hes europian
!!!!!i am totally related to him!!! SO COOL
Shannymanny7 1 year ago
McKinley was a classic Republican; rabidly bro-business & anti-labor as well as a pro-war imperialist. Perhaps he was reincarnated and lived again as George W. Bush...
marcostar57 1 year ago
Wow so this they guy who killed many of my ancestor wow great job Mr President
TheRPdefender1989 1 year ago
He was unfortunately underrated; and inevitably one of the greatest! =D
RyanShortFilms 1 year ago
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kavadidle 1 year ago
@kavadidle He also stole Hawaii from the sovereign, black Queen.
Soulblackman 1 year ago
this guy sounds european wtf?
WarThug13 1 year ago
@WarThug13 He was upperclass and educated so he has what is called a "mid-atlantic accent". This was still fairly common into the 1950s.
UNCfan102 1 year ago
Just played this in McKinleys stenographers house in Canton. It was used as offices for the 1896 campaign. Dark, stormy, alone...that was pretty spooky. Its been a long time since his voice resonated in here. Thanks for sharing.
Adobewankanobi 1 year ago
What did he say at :21? He said "we have a struggle to preserve the government of the united states and a struggle to preserve the financial ( ? ) of the government".
Debatewithme 1 year ago
@Debatewithme
"we have a struggle to preserve the government of the United States which is a struggle to preserve the financial honor of the government"
lorrephile 1 year ago
i think its the best video i have ever seen.
TheLindaOz 1 year ago
im related to him.
mekel01 1 year ago
Wow! We are very lucky to still have this kind of audio 113 years later! For 113 years old, it sounds fantastic.
Hotrodx199 1 year ago
@mrwario1 oh sorry my bad. i didnt know you liked cocks in your ass till your last comment.
blazed24sevn 1 year ago
Comment removed
JeanScallopsidi 1 year ago
The reason for his speaches being made on his poarch in Canton, Ohio, is that his wife could not walk & travel the campaingn trail with him. Yes, he is grossly under rated. McKinley truly loved the people of this nation, but his wife even more, One truly awesome man. He was shot, Sep 1901, Buffalo, NY, inside the Temple of Music, not far from the first demo of the X-Ray machine, which could have saved his life.
satsman56 1 year ago
he looks like fester from the adams family and has a cool accent
dingdongditch98 2 years ago
The nation was in a depression when he became President that began under Grover Cleaveland. The poor lived by the factories while the rich lived up in the hills away from the dirty air.
lildwayne21 2 years ago
@lildwayne21 - The Panic of 1893 may have gotten its beginnings on February 23, 1893 with the bankruptcy of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad.
You may know it on your Monopoly board as the "Reading Railroad" (I grew up in Reading territory and still live less than a mile from what was the RDG Bethlehem main line, which is now home to an occasional freight train).
This occurred during the Benjamin Harrison administration. Cleveland didn't take office until March 4, 1893, ten days later.
OldsVistaCruiser 1 year ago
He almost sounds as though he's speaking with a Scottish accent.
Glennishking 2 years ago
It's the aging of the recording. If you also heard the whistle thing in the background at 0:51, which I believe is cheering.
VilquinProductions 2 years ago
just want to make sure i understand so the reason he sounds like he has an accent it cause of the recording being 115 years old right?
WilMusgrave90 2 years ago
@WilMusgrave90 Yes, the Edison phonograph cylinders they recorded on back then were made of wax, so obviously, the audio could be a little warped over the years. With the coming of the record, did we hear audio much clearer and recordings that lasted much longer than the wax cylinders. The record started to be mass produced in the early 1910s (roughly).
VilquinProductions 2 years ago
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"He almost sounds as though he's speaking with a Scottish accent. "
You might be hearing a little Scotch-Irish accent. McKinley's ancestors were Scotch-Irish, from Ballymoney in Northern Ireland. I have ancestors from that area also. They have a small monument to McKinley in Ballymoney.
doncirelli 2 years ago
Great Republican and representative of the values of the party
sandythebear 2 years ago 7
A Mid-Atlantic accent has nothing to do with the Mid-Atlantic states (as someone said below, that it meant an accent from NJ and the surrounding states). Instead, it refers to "in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean," in other words, an accent that is part Northeast American and part basic-English-accent.
BridgePhobia 2 years ago
Yes but you can still hear it today among the older generation in many of the Northeastern states.
UNCfan102 2 years ago
"preservation of the home market and reciprocity with foreign markets". This is still true today and still not happening under that fool Obama.
Celtic450 2 years ago
That, "you seem retarded, you have my sympathy", is some funny ass shit!!!!
utubeboob9 2 years ago
you both have my sympathy for arguing with eachother over youtube!
blazed24sevn 2 years ago
Modern American accents are actually more like the British accents spoken in the 18th century, British accents changed during the first few decades of the 19th century (such as introducing the silent "R" in the end of words, which didn't happen in America save parts of the American south). Modern Irish accent is probably the last remnant of the old English accent.
ClinicalAttacked 2 years ago 2
@ClinicalAttacked No. There is always divergence, why would modern americans sound more like antiquated British accents? It makes no sense linguistically. In fact, listen to this man. He sounds more like a modern Briton than a modern American.
MrMorg19 1 year ago
he stuck in the bathroom....ha
abnercv 2 years ago
None of his policies are relevant anymore so it's kind of hard to relate to him...
Firstworldleader 2 years ago
You seem retarded. You have my sympathy.
JeanScallopsidi 2 years ago
Perhaps you've forgotten McKinley's 1899 "Our Future Lies in Vietnam" speech?
JeanScallopsidi 2 years ago
McKinley's policies led us into Vietnam.
JeanScallopsidi 2 years ago
He sounds very well educated and British surprisingly
lildwayne21 2 years ago
McKinley was perhaps the finest President our country has ever known.
iwugrad 2 years ago
He was a unique orator. His vocal style sounds pretty over the top compared to someone like Taft, or William Jennings Bryan.
2ndOfficerCHL 2 years ago
My favorite Mckinly quote "Protectionism had vindicated itself"
fistofthenorthstar89 2 years ago 2
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What is that piece of shit accent????
kloratis 2 years ago
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jajaja, parece que le hablo a un grupo de fantasmas en 0:51 JAJAJAJAJA!!!!
Tiglatfalazar 2 years ago
Mckinley was a very underrated President
lildwayne21 2 years ago 26
Agreed my friend
eman626 2 years ago 2
@lildwayne21 Not by neocons and warmongerers.
Tsnore 1 year ago
@lildwayne21 He did get shot...I'm not sure if there was anything remarkable that has happened during his time as President, save for stock market crashes, labor strikes, and the advent of the Progressive Era.
Agent1W 1 year ago
@Agent1W Quite a few remarkable things happened during his presidency. The Spanish-American War in 1898 marked America's entry onto the world stage, and the annexation of the Philippines started a debate over imperialism and the balance of being a world power while maintaining a republican government. He also passed a protectionist tariff and supported what we call "mergers" today and they called "trusts" back then. It was actually a prosperous time, the next "panic" wasn't until 1907.
aharoldcampbell 1 year ago
@aharoldcampbell That's true, but if it wasn't for the USS Maine incident, he would have avoided war as much as possible. Public opinion is a helluva motivator for a President. But the concept of war is more of Teddy Roosevelt's ambition.
Dunno why he supported trusts. That was a time when companies grew too large and powerful, such as Rockefeller's Standard Oil. Progressivism sought to rebalance that sort of thing.
Agent1W 1 year ago
@Agent1W Before the military-industrial complex came about after World War II, business tended to be against war because it disrupted normal commerce. The simple reason McKinley supported trusts was because the Republicans were the party of big business. His campaign adviser was Mark Hanna, a large industrialist from Ohio who later became U.S. senator. Hanna was also one of the first to say that government's role is to promote business. McKinley capitalized on the war to expand U.S. markets.
aharoldcampbell 1 year ago
@aharoldcampbell If he supported trusts, then I'd wager that big businessmen supported his bid for President. As the Progressives saw it, big businessmen were monstrous, greedy robber barons! Indeed, many different commodities and resources are created and put to use in wartime, which America wasn't really a militaristic nation.
Getting the Philippines was a GREAT asset for reaching Asia, which I'm sure McKinley believed we would hold that country better than Spain.
Agent1W 1 year ago
@lildwayne21 Yo, fuck McKinley.
bealio721 1 year ago
@bealio721 your a smacktard
ArthurofBritain 1 year ago
@ArthurofBritain Pick up a history book. McKinley was a tool of big business.
bealio721 1 year ago
He has an English accent.
Fronika 2 years ago 5
It seems like every president until FDR had an English accent.
SouthHrbrBlvd 2 years ago
I don't think Harding, Taft, Wilson, or Hoover sound very British. :P
I'd definitely be willing to say that McKinley has a unique voice, though.
ROFLMFAOMGTG 2 years ago
i agree. they all talk so proper. then we got dubya. i wonder how people will think of these recording 100 or 200 years from now
djwolf12 2 years ago
Actually it's Mid Atlantic. It's an accent that can still be heard today in New Jersey and surrounding states. It's the poor quality of the recording equitment+emphisis on words (which was often overdone duringthe speeches of the day) that makes him sound british.
UNCfan102 2 years ago
......This is pretty typical Mid-Atlantic accent. It doesn't even sound remotely british. Not even the founding fathers spoke with modern british accents.
UNCfan102 2 years ago
Wow, I bet he never thought his voice would still be being listened to 113 years later.
Liolar43 2 years ago 44
Holy shit jiffis123,your right!
ThatRunescaper 2 years ago
FREAKING LIKE REALLY FREAKING AWESOME, i wan't to share something, and mabey someone has that to, I like to keep small things with large meanings, i still have a peanut of 3 years old, from the last time I ate in my favorite restaurant, in America with my grandmother (she is still alive, but I don't see here that often).
meenksellaan1 2 years ago
At 0:50, what in the world is that? It sounds really creepy, especially since it is over a hundred years old. It really is amazing to have something like this from such a long time ago!
FinalFantasyFan300 2 years ago 4
train
barcalonga 2 years ago
I think it's people chearing, but because it's a very low resurched technology piece, it's very bad detail.
meenksellaan1 2 years ago 3
i think he said foreign market.
BJ713NewYork 2 years ago
damn I gotta get this on my i-pod and rock out!
beatlefied70 2 years ago 7
OH YES!!! The old photos of Calhoun seem to depict an Old Testament Prophet dressed for the 1800's! He's got hard, crazy eyes and a HUGE head of hair combed back like he was in a wind tunnel. I agree. John. C. Calhoun was scarier-looking!!! All though...now, I guess he looks like an ageing rock star.
VandalStork 2 years ago 5
I can't decide who I think was scarier-looking: him, or Warren G. Harding.
disneyclint 2 years ago 4
I don't think this is McKinley. I heard a recording of the speech he gave in Buffalo the day before he was killed, and his voice was much higher.
UncleMikeNJ 3 years ago
The recording of McKinley's Buffalo speech is on the Michigan State University Vincent Voice Library. website. It's remarkably clear. It has a heavily edited version of that speech to fit on a short cylinder. But would McKinley have had the time to record it before his shooting? Possibly, but I can't find any confirmation that he did. This 1896 recording seems slowed down and distorted. But accounting for its poorer quality, I think both recordings were made by the same man. I presume McKinley.
prchristman 3 years ago
Many of the supposed voice recordings from the Robert Vincent Library at MSU are not authentic - not even Groliers. Alas, there is no genuine recording of Wm McKinley.
The record catalogs of the period advertize many "celebrities" for sale, but the technology of the day did not permit that for political figures - just studio elocutionists. Such mass recordings did not become feasible until the molding process, and certainly little before 1908.
Allen
allenamet 2 years ago
There's strong reason to suspect the 1901 McKinley recording. The timing of it is highly suspicious. Granted studio elocutionists made many recordings. Are we to also suspect records of Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison? Perhaps. But the Harrison voice at the very least was not done by a strong public speaker. That MIGHT be genuine for that reason alone. The 1896 McKinley recording would not have the timing element working against it. Well, who's to say? More evidence is needed.
prchristman 2 years ago
I agree that the Harrison recording may be genuine since there is some evidence that he visited the Bettini 'factory' premises at the top of the Judge Building in NYC. In addition, there are contemporary newspaper accounts of such a record being made. But there is no evidence at all for the McKinley and Cleveland records, and some companies (like Columbia) occasionally admitted that they used elocutionists like Len & Harry Spencer to issue their (studio) celebrity series.
Allen
allenamet 2 years ago
I looked through 1901 newspapers on line to find any report that McKinley made a recording while at Buffalo. Nothing caught my eye in September 5 and 6 papers. He was shot on the 6th, so papers after that were filled with assassination reports. Again, nothing to support the recording's authenticity. I've sent e mails about the recording to the Voice Library and elsewhere. Response: "We don't know."
Makes you wonder about a lot of 1890s celebs supposedly on records.
Paul
prchristman 2 years ago
Well, the existing cylinders by P. T. Barnum, Florence Nightingale, and Sir Arthur Sullivan appear to be genuine and are part of the authentic incunabula of recorded sound. There are even some mangled words of the actual Queen Victoria which yielded a book on the subject, as well as Tchaikovsky. But McKinley, Cleveland, and Whitman do not make the cut, nor does a supposed 'Mark Twain.'
Allen phonobooksDOTcom
allenamet 2 years ago
Sullivan I know of (I'm a G&S fan). I've heard W.S. Gilbert's voice dimly on a home recording device (c. 1905). Queen Victoria I thought ordered all records of her voice smashed, but I see a link on line for this. I've heard Twain was never recorded.
Re presidents, I've read Rutherford B. Hayes had his voice recorded just after the phonograph's invention in 1877. But the recording is not extant. Earliest sound I've heard comes from 1888 (except for a recently discovered c. 1861 one).
prchristman 2 years ago
Actually Twain recorded himself in his effort to transcribe his new novel, The American Claimant, in a series of 200 brown wax cylinders. But these have not survived. Some attributed to him are actually by Wm Gillette. Queen Victoria, as you say, usually ordered her recording(s) smashed (no one can command the Monarch), but perhaps 16 words survive on a Tainter cylinder. Edison visited the White House in April 1878 with his new invention, but the tinfoil has indeed been lost.
Allen
allenamet 2 years ago
So, is this the oldest recording of a president available?
crosbymalkin07 3 years ago
There's also a recording of Benjamin Harrison here on youtube. That was the first I believe.
mariomasta 3 years ago
Harrison or Cleveland
VanWADebbie 2 years ago
He sounds about like how I expected him to sound.
AllenbysEyes 3 years ago 3
Why don't people sound like this anymore?
BJ713NewYork 3 years ago 3
We think of the 20th century as the only important century, but this shows how america was before the destruction of the monroe doctrine.
thank you for sharing. Its like a window to the past!
1989kirby 3 years ago 2
it sounded like munchkins responding at the end
kissed61 3 years ago
the first time i heard some1 speak in the 1800's!
paddythetinker 3 years ago 5
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Jesus fucking christ, that "cheering" sounds like a bunch of farm animals.
Woah, spacey... I'm tripping.
Zeanu 3 years ago
Many pre WW2 politicians had that English aristocratic accent when they gave speeches.
bittergunowner12 3 years ago 2
When the movies with sound replaced the silent films actors had to take elocution classes.
A lot of actors did not make the transition to the soundies because of their voices. I.E. Clara Bow had a brooklyn accent that wouldn't quit.
ekocentric 3 years ago
Listen to the decidedly Ohio accents of his contemporaries such as Taft, Cox, Harding and you will notice that the recording of McKinley has none of that local flavor. But if you listen to this recording I believe you hear the voice of Arthur Collins as he tried to create a more effected and offical sound to his voice. I so wish it was McKinley, but I fear it is not. Just like the recording of of Walt Whitman, it is not by Whitman..although we only wish it was. This is just my observation
jfs78 3 years ago
As someone who values fact in the study of US history, I am grateful to you for pointing out that this is probably NOT the actual voice of President McKinley, but dismayed that YouTube would announce it as his speech.
Pectoris4 3 years ago
I have an issue with this recording. The speaker sounds a lot like Arthur Collins 1863-1933. The quality is more like a studio recording of the period circa 1896 or 1900. It was very common for studio performers to do speeches on record as doine by great politicians. There is on youtube now a recording of McKinley doing his last speech at the Pan American Exibition in Buffalo. But the voice is that of Len Spencer 1869-1914. Both recordings I believe were made by studios. (part 1)
jfs78 3 years ago
hahahahahahah!
Soulblackman 3 years ago
This was an accent used for emphasis when making speeches. This was not used when in casual conversation.
rinck17