Herbert Hoover was an honest public servant who entered politics reluctantly. He lacked the personal ambition of many of his contemporaries and truly believed his role in government was to serve the American people. Nonetheless, history initially unfairly portrayed the president as cold and uncaring, and Hoover became forever identified with the misery and suffering of the Great Depression. Hoover was not a dynamic speaker. His public addresses tend to contain a high degree of technical and policy information, but they lack dynamism. He believed that the public could be swayed through logic and detail, and he looked down on other politicians who adopted a populist tone or who appealed to emotion in their messages. Consequently, many of his speeches and messages were intended to persuade people through the recitation of facts and figures, not necessarily to inspire. In his “Rugged Individualism” campaign speech, delivered at Madison Square Garden in October 1928, Hoover outlined his personal and political philosophy, highlighting personal liberty as the bedrock of the American system of government.