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THE OLD
MEMBERS OF THE CALHOUN AND KALAMAZOO
COUNTY BARS BY A. D. P. VAN BUREN
Bradley had chosen the profession for which his genius best fitted him, and in that profession he won the highest honors. He had a firm will, indomitable energy, and, in every inch of his being, was a pioneer. As a speaker he was earnest, impassioned, and had the rare talent of inspiring au audience with his own enthusiasm. He had an intuitive perception of the" avenues for reaching the sympathies and feelings of his hearers. Here lay the source of his great success as au orator—of his great power in swaying the multitude.
In height he was about live feet, ten, well proportioned, had a fine eye, light complexion, and a curly, bushy head of brown hair. There was a modest, unstudied ease about his manner, an air of bonhomie that won his way successfully among the masses, with whom be was always a great favorite. The humorous stories and anecdotes that he told with such riant effect, not only enlivened but strengthened his speeches. He could make them most powerful agents in carrying the crowd. His face had a natural reading, or, as the deaf man said of Garrick, "his face is a language. " His conclusions were so striking, his descriptions so perfect, his objects so ludicrously exposed to view, that gravity was out of the question; it was Hogarth acting and describing, not drawing his pictures.
Bradley had all the elements of the orator; he was logical, argumentative, endowed with that regal faculty, the imagination, fluent speech, and, says Senator Stuart, "in wit and ridicule I never knew a man who equalled him. " He was the orator of the pioneer epoch, the most eloquent one during the beet days of the old democratic party in Michigan.
Michigan
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