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 W, BOSTON IA'' M 
 W, CONBITA-£>. £w 
 
MEMORIAL 
 
 WILLIAM M C KI N LEY 
 
REV. JOSEPH H. ROCKWELL SJ 
 
HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN L. BATES 
 Governor of Massachusetts. 
 
\M McKINLEY 
 
MEMORIAL 
 
 WILLIAM M C KINLEY. 
 
 CITY OF BOSTON. 
 
 PREPARED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL BY JOHN F. DEVER, 
 CLERK OF COMMITTEES. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 Municipal Printing Office. 
 1902. 
 
In Board <>i Aldermen, December 12, L901. 
 
 Ordered, Thai the Clerk of Committees, under the direction 
 of the Committee on Printing, be authorized to prepare and have 
 printed an edition of two thousand copies of a volume contain- 
 ing an accounl of the memorial services held in Faneuil Ball, 
 November 26, l'.tOl, in honor of the late President McKinley; 
 the expense of the same to be charged to the appropriation for 
 City Council, Incidental Expenses. 
 
 Passed. Sent down for concurrence. December l l' came up 
 concurred. Approved by the Mayor December 23, 1901. 
 
 JtJ 7 1903 
 D. ofD, 
 
ACTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 
 
 Satirkay, September 14, 1901. 
 
 Special meeting of both branches of the City Council were 
 held in their respective chambers, at 12 M., pursuant to the 
 following call : 
 
 Mayor's office, September 14, 1901. 
 
 To the Honorable the City Council of Huston : 
 
 Having been informed of the death, which occurred this morning, of 
 William McKinley, the President of the United States, you are hereby 
 requested to assemble in your respective chambers on Saturday, Septem- 
 ber 14, 1901, at twelve o'clock M., for the purpose of taking such action 
 touching the solemn event as would appropriately express the sym- 
 pathy of our citizens in this national sorrow, and their respect for the 
 memory of the deceased. 
 
 James H. Doyle, Acting Mayor. 
 
 IN BOARD OF ALDERMEN. 
 
 The Board was called to order by Chairman Doyle. The Clerk 
 read the call for the meeting, as printed above, and it was sent 
 down. 
 
 The following was received : 
 
 Mayor's OFFrCE, September 14, 1901. 
 
 To the Honorable the City Council: 
 
 Gentlemen, — Under the call of the Acting Mayor you are requested 
 to take proper action on the loss we suffer in the death of William 
 McKinley, President of the United States. 
 
 A suitable order is submitted herewith, to be supplemented by such 
 further resolutions and orders as you may think appropriate. 
 
 It is not needful that we praise the late President. He was among 
 the best known and best beloved of men. And as time goes on, it is not 
 likely that his just fame for purity and integrity will suffer. 
 
6 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 Like many of our public men, lie has left to ns a stainless name, to be 
 
 ] red and loved throughoul the land, especially in every American 
 
 home. As far as lies in human nature, he represented whatsoever is 
 besl in our people. lie was a true American, of the people, with the 
 
 people, for the people. May his death unite our ] pie more and more. 
 
 President McKinley will be gratefully remembered bj his close and 
 honorable connection with a period of unexampled prosperity and 
 advancement in our affairs; promoted, in the natural course ol events, 
 to the highest place in our country, he won the confidence and affi 
 
 akind. Let us unite with President Roosevelt, and with all proper 
 authorities, in the brave discharge of all our duties, thai liberty, 
 morality and true progress may be ours under Divine Providi 
 
 Respeetfully, 
 
 Tiiom \~ N. II \i;i. Mayor. 
 
 Read ami scut down. 
 
 Chairman of the Board of Aldermen, James II. Doyle, said: 
 
 Gentlemen of the Board of A ld< rmi n, — When a friend dies we mourn. 
 We review his virtues, and hold in loving memory Ids goodness of heart 
 and kindh acts. We cherish him with a sacredness of thought which 
 
 wi i ninot give to the living. To-day we are called here to mourn for 
 the ruler of this mightj nation. His virtues are widely known. It is 
 seld that a citizen of these i nited states can point to a man like our 
 
 late illustrious 1 'resident and defy anyone to lind a I law in his ch;i 
 Spotless and pure, brave and tender, loving and true. What a noble 
 
 soul: 
 
 It passes comprehension to think that such a man should fall by the 
 hand of an ignorant brute, it tills one with such amazement that 
 words fail to portray the loathing and disgust which tills one's mind 
 when one pauses to reflect on the difference between the martyr and the 
 murderer. The ways of the Almighty arc inscrutable, and we creatures 
 can but how in submission to His infinite wisdom; but we are at least 
 granted the sad privilege of mourning for our 1 'resident and of praying 
 for his afflicted wife. 
 
 His race is run. He lias been called before the judgment seat, and 
 who could more worthily answer the last call" The highest type ol 
 American manhood was exemplified by William McKinley. He died as 
 g and unflinching. 
 
 lie has died, but h( leaves behind an imperishable name. He now 
 rank with the other two rulers of this nation who died by the 
 
 assassin's hand, and with Lincoln and Garfield Will his name remain 
 enshrined in the heart of the country he fought to save, and which 
 glories to call him a son. 
 
 I |e lias fougl Ighl . and has gone to his reward. 
 
william Mckinley. 7 
 
 City Clerk Edward J. Donovan read the following : 
 
 Resolved, That the City Government of Boston learns with sorrow 
 that William McKinley, President of the United States, is no longer 
 among the living. 
 
 Resolved, That in that death of President McKinley we have sustained 
 an irreparable loss, deeply felt by our City, our Country, and mankind. 
 
 Resolved, That we honor the public and private virtues of the 
 deceased, his citizenship, his Americanism, his simplicity, and his 
 faith. 
 
 Resolved, That the members of the City Government of Boston, 
 collectively and individually, offer to the family of the late. President 
 their full sympathy in this sorrowful day of affliction. 
 
 The question came upon the passage of the resolutions : 
 Aldermen George Holden Tinkham said : 
 
 Mr. Chairman, — America weeps; the Nations mourn; tearful sorrow 
 stalks through the land; for McKinley the Good, McKinley the lirave, 
 McKinley Our President, lies dead. 
 
 One more hero, one more martyr, one more President lies dead for 
 his country and our homes. His life from Antietam has been one 
 glorious service, one saintly sacrifice to his Country and its honor. 
 
 For Union he battled in '61; for what was highest and best and most 
 enlightened he has fought since with a courage which has known no 
 faltering, with a hand which could not tremble, with an eye which 
 looked for inspiration to his God. Most beloved of the people, most 
 sanctified in life, most heroic in danger, history's illustrious man, may 
 thy soul rest in peace and the joy in the hereafter be past understand- 
 ing. 
 
 Alderman Michael W. Norris said : 
 
 Mr Chairman and Gentlemen of the Board of Aldermen, — It is our sad 
 duty to assemble here to-day to mourn for President William McKinley. 
 We mourn for him as a man and a ruler. What words I can say will be 
 of but little moment when the country is in the throes of an affliction 
 which has not befallen her for many years, and, please God, may not 
 occur at any time in the future. President McKinley dead at the hands 
 of a most contemptible person! I cannot appreciate the enormity of 
 this loss. It overwhelms me to think that such a man should be shot 
 down while surrounded by loyal citizens who delighted to honor him, 
 and were honored in turn by their choice of such a man as ruler of these 
 United States. The pity of it ! To think that a man of his noble char- 
 acter, his broad humanity and purity of thought, should be taken away 
 from us when so many useless beings cumber the earth. 
 
8 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 Winn history is written what a thrill will go through the veins of the 
 young men of this country as they read of William McKinley. He is an 
 ideal for coming generations of Americans, lie exemplified in his 
 career the broad spirit of the greatest country in the world — the I'nited 
 stairs of America. Such are the men who made this country what it is 
 to-day, and when the heroic roll oi \ merican names is scanned in future 
 ages the name of William McKinley will stand forth in letters of light 
 with the proudest of t hem all. 
 
 It is futile to endeavor to convey in words the sympathy which we all 
 feel in common for his devoted wife. God grant her the strength to 
 hear the burden of his loss, and may He console her in her agony at the 
 loss of her husband and her all, for such he has ever been to her. 
 
 When a mighty nation mourns for one of her sons, as this country now 
 does, it is his proudesl epitaph. Life is fleeting, but through the dis- 
 tant ages the Story of William McKinley's life and death will shine as a 
 guiding star for the countless children of this great country, and the 
 world is better that William McKinley did live. What a model for 
 emulation. Think of his domestic life. While such men live nations 
 thrive. He fought for his country and eventually died for it. 
 
 1 can say no more, hut I feel as millions of my fellow-citizens do, and 
 I know that the Lord in his infinite mercy and wisdom will reward one 
 of the noblest men that ever trod His footstool. 
 
 Alderman Robert A. Jordan said: 
 
 Mr. ' 'hairman, We meet as representatives of the people of Boston, ami 
 speaking for the people of Boston, we sympathize with the President's 
 family to-day. and we sympathize with the whole nation. Our sorrow 
 is part of a universal sorrow. Every civilized nation in the world 
 laments this sail event. It is only proper that Boston should do some 
 thing in the coming few days to show outwardly her sorrow, and I do 
 not think it amiss at this time to surest that the business houses and 
 homes of the citizens he properly draped with the insignia of mourning 
 to shovt their sorrow and their sympathy. It seems to me that at the 
 time set apart when the last sad rites are read over our beloved Presi- 
 dent that the places of business in this city should he closed, and all 
 places of amusement should he closed. There is no need of saying 
 words of praise of William McKinley. He is beloved by all. From the 
 time, when as ahoy, be went to the front to serve his Country his career 
 
 has been a noble one. ll« \\as an able and an honest lawyer. During 
 his career as a representative of the people, and as President, he has 
 always held the respe. t and honor of everj citizen of this country. We 
 sorrow to-daj to think that he should have been stricken down bj a 
 foul murderer who was taking advantage of an opportunity when Mr. 
 McKinley, with the full confidence oi the love of his fellow-citizens, 
 held out his hand to him. The Citj oi Boston Mr. < hairmai . can only 
 pay to tin- memory of William McKinley their whole respect, their 
 utmost sympathy, and their entire love. 
 
William Mckinley. '.) 
 
 Alderman John L. Kelly said : 
 
 Mr. Chairman, — We are assembled for the purpose of taking solemn 
 and appropriate action on the death of William McKinley, the Presi- 
 dent of the United States. 
 
 When the Executive Chief of our great nation is taken from us, by 
 the dispensation of an infinite Providence, it is fitting that we should 
 publicly express our appreciation of his services to the people, who 
 loved and honored him. It is especially fitting when the character of 
 the man in his domestic and social relations with his fellows, like that 
 of William McKinley, lends additional lustre to his worth as a states- 
 man and his loyalty as the representative of a sovereign people. 
 
 The occasion on which we are mournfully met to-day, has, however, 
 a sadness, a terror and regret, distinct from the grief which is the 
 common accompaniment of the death of those we love. Whatever the 
 sting of dissolution, when it follows upon the inevitable encroachments 
 of disease, common to all mortality ; howsoever hard it may be to 
 endure the decrees of the fate which ends our earthly efforts, there is 
 usually the consolation that the calamity is universal in its nature, and 
 we are accustomed to the form which the destroyer assumes for our 
 undoing. But in the death of William McKinley we are trebly 
 bereaved; we mourn the man, the husband, the kindly neighbor, the 
 earnest and devoted citizen, the steadfast friend, the soul of honor in 
 his relations with his fellow-men; we mourn as well the President, 
 whose guiding brain and steadfast purpose were at the service of his 
 nation in time of peace; who bared his breast to that nation's foes in 
 time of war. But we also mourn that he should have been taken from 
 us by the assassin's bullet, and we shrink in horror from the contem- 
 plation of the fact that out of the midst of the people, whom he loved 
 and served, there should have come a dastard instrument of anarchy to 
 strike a parricidal blow at him, our chief, at us, whose representative 
 he was. 
 
 The resolutions were adopted by a unanimous rising vote. 
 
 Alderman Philip O'Brien offered an order — That the City 
 Clerk be directed to transmit an engrossed copy of the resolutions 
 adopted by the City Council this day, to the bereaved widow of 
 William McKinley, President of the United States. 
 
 Passed. Sent down. 
 
 Alderman Joseph J. Norton offered an order — That a dele- 
 gation from the City Government, consisting of the Mayor, the 
 Chairman of the Board of Aldermen, and the President of the 
 Common Council, be appointed to attend the obsequies of the 
 late President of the United States. 
 
 Passed. Sent down. 
 
10 MEMOK1 \h OF 
 
 Alderman Norton offered an cider — Thai the Mayor cause 
 the City Hall, < >ld State House, and Faneuil Hall to be appropri- 
 ately draped, the flags to be displayed at half-mast upon the 
 public buildings and in the squares for a period of thirty days, 
 and the bells of the city to be tolled during the hour sel apart for 
 tin- funeral of the late President. The expenses to be charged 
 td the appropriation for Reserve Fund. 
 
 Passed. Sent down. 
 
 On motion of Axdermak Norris the vote whereby the Board 
 adjourned at the last meeting to meet on Monday. September 16, 
 was rescinded, and the Board voted, on motion of Alderman 
 Norris, as a mark of respecl to the memory of the late President, 
 to meet on Monday, September 23, at 3 P.M., and all orders of 
 notice for a prior date were postponed accordingly. 
 
 Adjourned at 1 2.58 P.M. 
 
 IN COMMON COUNCIL. 
 
 The Common Council was called to order by the President, a 
 quorum being present. The Clerk read the call for the meeting, 
 as printed above, and it was placed on file. 
 
 The Clerk read the message of His J Conor the Mayor, as printed 
 abo\ e, and it was placed on tile. 
 
 The following papers were received from the Board of Aldermen : 
 
 (I.) Resolved. That the Citj Government learns with sorrow that 
 William MiKinley. President "t tin- United States, is no longer among 
 
 t he li\ ing. 
 
 Resolvi 'I. That in .the death of President McKinley we have sustained 
 an irreparable loss, deeply felt by our city, our country ami mankind. 
 
 That we honor the public ami private virtues of the 
 deceased, lus citizenship, his Americanism, his simplicity, ami his 
 faith. 
 
 Resolved, That the members of the City Government "f Boston, 
 collectively and individually, offer to the family of the late President 
 their full sympathy in this sorrowful day of affliction. 
 
 The question came upon tin- passage of the resolutions. 
 
william Mckinley. 11 
 
 Mr. Akthue W. Dolan of Ward 5 *:tid : 
 
 Mr. President, — In the death of our beloved President I feel that we 
 have suffered a loss which cannot be repaired. And when I say it is a loss 
 which cannot be repaired, I do nut mean to intimate that he will no! be 
 worthily and honorably succeeded in office; but rather to express the 
 idea that the foulness of the deed will always live in the memory of his 
 countrymen; that it will seem to pollute the atmosphere and to throw 
 a pall over the greatest country in the world, which to-day is obliged to 
 confess with shame and horror that it has within its limits a man who 
 could commit such a cruel wrong. 
 
 I feel that it is perhaps the most shocking presidential assassination 
 ever perpetrated in this country, even more shocking than that of 
 Lincoln or that of Garfield, because of the conditions surrounding it, 
 and because of the absolute lack of reason which led to it. Lincoln 
 was assassinated thirty-six years ago, assassinated at a time when blood 
 was running high, when the North and the South had just ceased their 
 conflict, but when the thirst for blood engendered by the Civil War had 
 barely been quenched, and when the South was still fomenting. He 
 was assassinated when the strife was just closed and when the feelings 
 of men were high. Garfield was assassinated about twenty years ago, 
 assassinated by a man who had a real or fancied grievance — a supposed 
 unsuccessful office-seeker. But William McKinley was assassinated in the 
 twentieth century, in the days of the greatest enlightenment and progress 
 which this country has ever seen —done to death before the eyes of a 
 civilized and cultured populace, not for any wrong of his doing, not for 
 any wroDg that could be attributed to him, not for any act of his or of 
 those associated with him, but simply to satisfy the thirst of a man who 
 sought his blood because he had drunk in his inspiration at the fountain 
 of carnage, the fountain of slaughter and anarchy as promulgated by a 
 woman who believes in no order, no law, no government and no God. 
 As I say, the assassination of President McKinley was the more horrible 
 because it had not even the saving feature of personal hatred, but only 
 that general hatred which extends, in the hearts of those men, to all 
 things human and divine. 
 
 The people cry out, not for vengeance, because we are not anarchists, 
 but for retribution. The people cry out for protecting laws which shall 
 silence the tongues of those men and of those women, who I trust are 
 few, who seek to do nothing but to compass the death of all that is 
 good, all that is noble and all that is true. We cry out with grief at 
 the loss of our noble President, a man who, by his ability, by his stand- 
 ing in office, and by his official acts, had taken rank among the foremost 
 presidents of this country; a man who, by his own nature and his 
 position, has taken rank as a nobleman and as one of nature's gentle- 
 men; a man who, by his tender and unceasing devotion to an invalid 
 wife, has endeared himself to the hearts of the populace and has given 
 evidence of the tenderest feelings which man can have, of untiring 
 
12 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 sacrifice, of noble nature anil of noble deeds, and lias endeared bimself, 
 as I say, to those who to-day stand, millions of them, with their heads 
 bowed down with grief, and with sobbing voices cry, " Thy will be 
 done." 
 
 Mb. IIenky M. "Wing of Ward 3 said : 
 
 Mr. President, — The nation's grief is best expressed by silence. 
 There are no words in which to express the sorrow that has fallen upon 
 our republic. At lirst, our human limitations prevent any adequate 
 realization of the tragedy that has overwhelmed our beloYed country 
 and broken the heart of one of the noblest of women. But as we 
 contemplate that dreadful calamity in solemn silence, little by little we 
 shall come to realize better the full significance of the deed; our hearts 
 will be chastened, and we shall bo better men and better citizens in the 
 thoughtful contemplation of the sacrifice which, for the third time in 
 our history, has been made by the nation's highest citizen, the President 
 of the I'nited States. 
 
 Mr. Donald N. MacDonald of Ward 12 said: 
 
 Mr. President, — The tolling of the church bells and the display of 
 
 the flags at half-mast have proclaimed throughout the land the sad 
 
 news of the death of our beloved chief magistrate, William McKinley, 
 
 casting the shadow of a national calamity over the whole country, 
 
 touching every heart and bringing grief to every household. 
 
 For the second time within the brief period of a year the City Council 
 has assembled within this chamber to voice the personal sentiment of 
 each of its members and the sentiment of the citizens of Boston in a 
 final tribute of affection and high esteem of the noble character and life 
 of one of America's most illustrious men. The death of William 
 McKinley, like that of Roger Wolcott, is a sad blow to the city and to 
 the Commonwealth, a personal loss to all so mournful that no words 
 can adequately express the keen and heartfelt sorrow. What the State 
 experienced in the loss of its ex-governor, the whole country experiences 
 now in the death of its President. 
 
 The sympathy of the world is to-day extended to the bereaved ones 
 and to America and its people, the kindest words and thoughts are on 
 every lip, the expression of sincere grief and veneration for the man, 
 William McKinley. 
 
 1 trust that the resolutions will be unanimously adopted. 
 
 Mr. Thomas D. Roberts of Ward 22 said : 
 
 Mr. President, —As has just been stated, the nation has once more 
 been plunged into sorrow and grief by the dastardly hand and the cruel 
 act of the assassin. Thai tired spirit that for the past week has lain on 
 
william Mckinley. 13 
 
 that cot in the chamber at Buffalo, like a timid bird upon an open palm, 
 has taken its flight. President McKinley has gone to his reward; and 
 with him, I am sure, he carries the deepest sympathy and the highest 
 regard of these great United States. Iu the loss of President McKinley, 
 this nation has not only lost a Christian statesman, but a great and 
 patriotic soldier, a loving and true husband, a devoted and cordial 
 neighbor. I cannot but repeat what I said once before, when we were 
 called together on an occasion when death had made itself felt in the 
 ranks of this council, in reference to life. I was impressed more and 
 more with that sentiment as I came up through the city to-day — as to 
 life and its uncertainty. What is life ? Life is but the breath we 
 breathe; and we have no surety of the second gale. How frail, how 
 fickle a tenement it is, it is like a glass that is broken ere the sand runs 
 out. This is true of the humblest citizen in this great republic, as it 
 was true of William McKinley. We have no assurance of life, and we 
 know not when the brittle thread will break. We are held by a very 
 slender thread at the best; but what makes it still more uncertain is the 
 laxity of the law, iu my opinion, which should control and govern such 
 an act as that which has been perpetrated within the past few days upon 
 the chief executive of this country. There should be not only national 
 but state laws that would make impossible the repetition of such an 
 act; and there should be a law that would exclude from the shores of 
 this grand and noble country any man or any person who is tainted 
 with such a principle as that which has been manifested on the part of 
 this dastardly coward. The fault, it seems to me, lies, then, largely in 
 the law. We have no law that is equal to this occasion, in the way of 
 punishment. It is penalty that makes law. A law without a penalty 
 is no law; aud the sooner our Legislature in this country passes a 
 penalty that shall be adequate to a deed of this kind, as I have said 
 before, and which shall make its repetition impossible, the better. If 
 anything was to be gained, Mr. President, by such an act, perhaps we 
 should willingly bow the head and be submissive to it. But there is 
 nothing to be gained by this. When a brave patriot takes his life in 
 his hands and goes on to the battlefield and bares his breast to the 
 bullet because of principle, because of something which he believes 
 should be achieved by the act, then he is ready to lay his life down in 
 order that he may manifest his spirit. But I tell you, Mr. President, and 
 gentlemen of this council, I have never known, nor have you, nor has 
 the oldest citizen alive to-day, a more despicable deed than this, because 
 of the futility of it, because there is nothing in it to be accomplished. 
 
 I believe, Mr. President, that we should be like the worthy patriots of 
 old, when stirred by act of an unfilial son like Absalom, when he 
 rebelled against his father, the noble king of Israel, they showed their 
 contempt for him, and to this day when a devout Jew passes the tomb 
 of Absalom he casts a stone of contempt at the tomb. So should every 
 loyal citizen of this country, regardless of the political faith which he 
 may espouse, cast the stone of contempt at one and all who are tainted 
 
14 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 with principles that will make, not only the life of the President of the 
 United States insecure, but that of the humblest of this nation's 
 citizens. 
 
 ii i, n in s'ympathj which makes one feel another's burden as though 
 it were liis own. My sympathy goes out for the wife of ourbi 
 President. I do uot believe thai God ever made a man in a mould and 
 then broke the mould so thai another should not be cast exactly like 
 him. 1 believe William McKinley can be replaced perhaps satisfactorily 
 in an executive waj ; but it will be hard to gel one like William 
 MrKinli \ with all his virtues and all his attributes, a man as kind as he 
 to the humblest of his fellow-citizens, a man who. to my mind, 
 approached Him who was the greatest man thai ever lived, and who 
 
 spake as ii mi ever spake, willing to stand as mediator for the 
 
 assassin that hail stricken him down, and win said. "God forgive him ; 
 ma> he not he hurt." .My sympathy goes out to that wife in her afflic- 
 tion. We may not know now, but in coming years, perhaps in a bettei 
 land, we maj read the meaning of those tears, and then we'll iindei 
 stand. It may appear a mysterious condition of things to us, looking at 
 il from a human standpoint, hut God knows best, and we leave it in His 
 hands. 
 
 Mr. Henry S. Fitzgerald of Ward 6 said : 
 
 Mr. President, — It is with heartfelt sorrow that I rise Inn to-daj to 
 my sincere grief and sorrow at the loss which the country has 
 
 sustained in I lie death uf our President. It was my very great priv ilege 
 to meet President McKinley in Washington on two or three different 
 occasions. His kindly manner ami genial disposition endeared him to 
 the American people. To his wife and family I extend my sincere sv m- 
 pathy, and r trust that thev will bear up well under their great loss. 
 
 We all join in the nation's loss. 
 
 Mr. Oliver F. Davenport of Ward 20 said : 
 
 Mr. President, — It is with the deepest sorrow. I believe, that we 
 ble here to-day to mourn the loss of a leader and statesman; to 
 
 mourn the loss of a man who was elected to lill the highest position in 
 
 d. surely, words arc inadequate to properly express our deep 
 
 hat such a murderous attack should he made upon the life of 
 our chief executive. As I saw the ovation which the people gave to the 
 
 Presidi i lie en ■ ■ lunds a week a daj afternoon, 
 
 at the lair. I little thought that within forty-eight hours the man would 
 
 be lying neai thi point ol death from the murderous assault of such a 
 foul villain. The in. oi bi President I tich great value, he 
 
 has been so idolized bj the people, has I. ecu held in such high respect, 
 that ii seemed impossible that any human being, or even a crawling 
 creature, could wish tor a moment to harm the man who was at the 
 
william Mckinley. 15 
 
 head of the nation. And while we have assembled here to show our 
 marks of deep respect and sorrow at such a lamentable event as that 
 which has taken place, it is surely to be hoped that the peopleofhis 
 inner official and private family' may be given strength and courage to 
 bear up and to sustain the loss in which all the people share, joining 
 them in sympathy and offering them their greatest respect and regard. 
 
 Me, William B. Jackson of Ward 1 said : 
 
 Mr. President, — As representatives of the City of Boston, we gather 
 here to-day to express our sense of loss and our respect for the memory 
 of our departed President, and to extend our condolence to his imme- 
 diate family. As we go about the streets and see the flag which he so 
 nobly fought for, lowered at half-mast, that flag of glorious stars and 
 stripes, which never yet has been lowered in defeat or sullied by dis- 
 honor, we realize that to-day it is lowered at the inexorable hand of 
 death. But when the sunshine shall have dispelled the gloom and sor- 
 row, that flag will again be raised over this country, shining with a 
 brighter light because William McKinley lived and because William 
 McKinley died. And that llag will strike terror to lawlessness and 
 anarchy. Words are but feeble to express the sympathy which we feel 
 for the dead President's family. Yet that is all we can do in the face 
 of such a calamity as has fallen upon us. 
 
 Mr. William II. Nitz of Ward 22 said : 
 
 Mr. President, — It is with profound sorrow and in the shadow of a 
 deep gloom we are assembled here to express the sympathy of the 
 people of our district, city, state and country at the untimely death of 
 our universally beloved President of this great nation of ours at the 
 hands of a cowardly assassin. 
 
 Major William McKinley as president of the United States has 
 endeared himself to his people, and throughout the wide world sorrow 
 is sincerely manifested. 
 
 We have suffered an irreparable loss, and may the Almighty give 
 strength to the bereaved wife and relatives and may He also guide this 
 Nation of ours through this great affliction which has befallen upon it. 
 
 Mr. John E. L. Mokaghan of Ward 13 said: 
 
 Mr. President, — Ward 13, which gave to our President's support at t li is 
 last election the largest Republican vote cast in the history of the ward, 
 to-day is draped in a shroud of mourning. From the time that the news 
 first reached our city of this unfortunate occurrence at Buffalo, the 
 people of Ward 13 have prayed fervently for the recovery of our chief 
 magistrate. And when we learned this morning that another great 
 name was added to the roll of our martyed presidents, political differ- 
 
10 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 ences were abolished, and our ward was plunged in gloom. The people 
 of Ward 13 wish to record their horror and contempt tor the act of tin- 
 anarchist who plunged a bullet into the body of the nation's chief 
 executive and brought ahout his sorrowful and untimely end. We 
 extend our sincere sympathy to the beloved wife in this hour of 
 anguish. The people of Ward 13 recall with reverence the last and 
 dying words of our president, so Christian-like, so noble, so replete 
 with resignation and faith in the Almighty : "Good by, all ; good by. 
 It is God'B way. His will he done.'' May his soul rest in eternal 
 peace. 
 
 Mr. Andrew L. O'Toole of Ward 13 said : 
 
 Mr. President, — To-day the nation mourns the hiss of President 
 Mck'inley. Grief has entered into the house of every citizen in this land 
 of ours. A just and upright ruler, an honored and patriotic citizen, has 
 been removed from his post of duty by the bullet of an anarchistic 
 assassin. As we look back on the life of President McKinley, we must 
 note with a great deal of pride the great love'he had for his country when, 
 as a youth of eighteeen summers, he volunteered his services and went 
 to the front in defence of the nation. His war record was a great and 
 glorious one. Returning, he entered upon civil and political life. His 
 neighbors returned him time after time to Congress, and the people of 
 the great state of Ohio honored him by selecting him as their governor. 
 In all his political career he was marked by honest conviction and a 
 sincere purpose to do the best that was in him. 
 
 He had exercised the principle of absolute and incorruptible honesty 
 in all his dealings. But his greatest honor was still before him, when 
 the Republicans selected him as their candidate for the office of Presi- 
 dent of the United States, and he was elected by an overwhelming 
 majority. His administration was a hard and trying one. The war 
 strain came upon the old ship of state, in the summer of 1898. Some of 
 us may have differed with President McKinley on his colonial policy, 
 and on other questions, but to-day all criticism is hushed, and we 
 gather around. Democrats and Republicans, Protestant and Catholic, 
 Jew and Gentile, and offer up our prayers to the throne of the Eternal 
 Ruler (jf all Nations and pray Him that in His infinite goodness lie may 
 admit our beloved president into that realm of eternal peace and ever- 
 lasting happiness where wars and tribulations are no more. We also 
 pray Him to guide and direct the footsteps of our new President Roose- 
 velt along the paths of righteousness and honor, peace and happiness so 
 well marked out by his honored predecessor, that our eouutrj ma) 
 advance to prosperity. 
 
 President Daniel J. Kilei said: 
 
 The chief executive of our great country, William McKinley, 
 twenty fourth President of the United States, and the third to 
 
william Mckinley. 17 
 
 fall by the hand of an assassin is dead. The nation is called upon 
 to mourn his loss. The City of Boston, ever patriotic, and ever 
 loyal to the cause of liberty a,nd to those who serve her inter- 
 ests, is called upon, through their representatives here in the 
 Common Council, to testify their loyalty, their fidelity, their sympathy 
 and their sorrow to him who has just departed. Born in 1S43, we know 
 of him only as a school-boy until 1861. When but eighteen years of age 
 he first started out to do his share toward protecting, defending and 
 maintaining the honor of the country, to which he has sacrilied tho 
 most valuable years of his life. As a soldier, as a congressman, as 
 a governor, as a president, he has given to this country a shining 
 example of his honorable deeds and heroic acts. As a loving husband, 
 and as a devoted lover of his household, we know of no man in public 
 life in recent years who has been a more shining or better example of 
 the most elevated American citizenship. Sad, indeed, it is that we 
 should be called upon to meet here to-day to pass our resolutions of 
 sympathy for him. He was loved by all of the American people, regard- 
 less of party, and regardless of politics. The character of the man was 
 displayed most forcibly in the few words uttered by him a few moments 
 after the murderous bullet struck his body. Still shocked by the 
 event of that day, his noble disposition went out to the man who had 
 committed that most cowardly assault. 
 
 The City of Boston mourns his loss, the people of the Common 
 wealth of Massachusetts mourns his loss, and our hearts go out in 
 deepest sympathy to the wife he has left behind. It was his last desire 
 that the comfort of his friends should be given to her, whom he left an 
 invalid. It was my proud privilege to meet both husband and wife 
 upon the occasion of the presentation of colors to the 6th Kegiment 
 before its departure from this country to Manila. Upon that occasion 
 I had an opportunity to see into the character of the womau who has 
 been the helpmate and the wife of our most beloved President. Let us 
 give her our deepest sympathy and our heartfelt condolence at this 
 time. 
 
 The resolutions were passed in concurrence by a unanimous 
 rising vote. 
 
 (2) Ordered, That a delegation from the City Government, consist- 
 ing of the Mayor, the Chairman of the Board of Aldermen and the 
 President of the Common Council, be appointed to attend the obse- 
 quies of the late President of the United States. 
 
 Passed in concurrence. 
 
 (3) Ordered, That the Mayor cause the City Hall, Old State House 
 and Fanenil Hall to be appropriately draped, the flags to be displayed 
 at half-mast upon the public buildings and in the squares for a period 
 
18 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM McKLNLET. 
 
 of thirty days, and the bells of the city to be tolled during the hour set 
 apart Eoi the Euneral of the late President. The expense to be 
 charged to the appropriation for Reserve Fund. 
 
 Passed in concurrence. 
 
 (4) Ordered, That the City Clerk !>•> directed to transmit an en- 
 grossed copy of the resolutions adopted by the Citj Council this day 
 to the bereaved widow of William McKinley, late President of the 
 United states. 
 
 Passed in concurrence. 
 
 Mr. Frank W.Thayer of Ward 20 offered an order: That 
 
 as a further maris of respect to i lie mei v <>f the late President 
 
 of the United states, the Common Council '1" now adjourn. 
 
 Passed. 
 
 Adjourned at 1.40 P.M. 
 
MEMORIAL EXERCISES 
 
/ V///*^ (>:->/;.// 
 
 
 ■ / ,',-, ■•,:*/■/. 
 
 C0 MMITTEE on MckinlEY MEMOR| Al 
 
 
. >aaiei \ \>s. 
 
 l/.c&Sep: 
 
 COMMIT^ oTlM c KlNLE Y MEMORIAL 
 
 . 
 
COMMITTEE ON MEMORIAL EXERCISES. 
 
 Aldermen. 
 
 James H. Doyle, Chairman. 
 Joseph I. Stewart. Philip O'Brien. 
 
 E. Peabody Gerry. John L. Kelly. 
 
 Councilmen. 
 
 Daniel J. Kiley. March G. Bennett. 
 
 William L. White. William M. Curtis. 
 
 Joseph F. Carter. George McKee. 
 
 Patrick J. Shiels. Frank W. Thayer. 
 
MEMORIAL EXERCISES. 
 
 The committee appointed to arrange for the Memorial 
 Exercises fixed upon Tuesday evening, November 26, 1901, 
 as the date, and Faneuil Hall as the place. 
 
 Hon. John L. Bates, Lieutenant-Governor of Massachu- 
 setts, was selected to deliver the eulogy, and the Rev. Joseph 
 H. Rockwell, S.J., of Boston College, was selected to open 
 and close the exercises with a prayer and benediction. 
 
 The Apollo Club, a representative musical organization, 
 having volunteered their services, furnished the musical part 
 of the programme, in conjunction with the Boston Festival 
 Orchestra, conducted by Mr. Emil Mollenhauer. 
 
 Official invitations were extended to His Excellency the 
 Governor and the members of his staff, the Executive Coun- 
 cil, the Judges of the various courts, the past Mayors of the 
 City of Boston and the members of the City Council and 
 heads of departments. 
 
 Illness having prevented the attendance of Mayor Hart, 
 the Chairman of the Board of Aldermen, James H. Doyle, as 
 Acting Mayor, presided over the exercises, which were opened 
 at eight o'clock with an overture, " Egmont " (Beethoven), 
 by the orchestra. 
 
 The Apollo Club then sang " Integer Vitas," by Fleming, 
 words by Charles J. Sprague, as follows : 
 
 Lord, now the hero's mortal wars are ended, 
 Where, in the conflict, 'twas Thy power defended, 
 Thy shield that guarded and Thy hand rewarded. 
 Conqu'ror, his cause was Thine. 
 
24 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 Man judges man, the crown or chain disposing, 
 Groping in earthly shadows round him closing. 
 Lofty endeavor, truth to cull from error ; 
 But judgment, Lord, is Thine. 
 
 Oh, may his spirit, now Thy peace possessing, 
 Dwell in the joy of Thy eternal blessing 
 In Heaven, all glorious: crowned by Thee victorious. 
 Safe in Thy love divine ! 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 Prayer was then offered by the Rev. Joseph H. Rockwell, 
 S. J., as follows : 
 
 Before you unite with me in prayer for our people 
 and for our country's welfare, I wish to say a word 
 of introduction. One hundred years ago, in the year 
 18U0, a prayer for the church and state authorities 
 ascended to heaven from tlie lips of the patriot Arch- 
 bishop of Baltimore, John Carroll. 
 
 That prayer went up to heaven from the altar.- of 
 the colonies in the year 1800, and every year since 
 its echo has been heard through the land, as the people 
 have knelt before the altar of God praying for the 
 shepherds of the ehui'eh and for the rulers id' the state. 
 1 feel that it will be particularly lifting to use a por- 
 tion of that prayer as a conclusion to my petition 
 this evening, both on account of the appropriateness 
 of the prayer ami on account of the character and 
 position id' hint who composed it. John Carroll, as 
 Mm know, was the first Bishop of the I nited States. 
 
william Mckinley. 25 
 
 he was an ardent patriot, the intimate friend of Ben- 
 jamin Franklin, the schoolmate and cousin of Charles 
 Carroll of Carrollton, the signer of the Declaration of 
 Independence. 
 
 With this introduction, may I ask you to join with 
 me in offering to God the message of our trust in 
 Him, and the petition for His sustained protection. 
 
 We beseech Thee, loving Father, God of light, God 
 of love, God of strength, look down with mercy upon 
 this thy people. As little children, in our various 
 griefs we come to Thee for comfort and supj)ort. We 
 are Thy children, Thou art always our Father. Thou 
 hast fashioned us, and we are thine. In our sorrows 
 and doubts and necessities we turn to Thee, for we 
 are weak, Thou art strong. Even though the emotions 
 which agitate men's hearts be as fierce as a tempest, 
 yet there is one whose voice the storms obey. Thou 
 art He, who hast built the fabric of the universe : 
 the waters and the lands are Thy handiwork. Thou 
 art the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. 
 From Thee we have come, to Thee we shall return, 
 in Thee we shall repose on the calm sea of Thy 
 love. 
 
 Come then, to thy people, and heal the heai't-wound 
 which the nation has received. Lawful authority is 
 the very heart of a nation. The minister of Thy 
 authority, God, has been stricken down by an evil 
 hand. Thou hast uttered this word by Thy Apostle 
 Paul : " Let every soul be subject to higher powers ; 
 
26 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 for there is oo power bul from God; and those that 
 are, are ordained of God. Therefore he that resisteth 
 the power, resisteth the ordinance of God — Fur he 
 
 is God's minister to thee for good." (Rom. xiii. 1.) 
 Our President, the minister, lias been slain, our 
 nation has been wounded. Thou God, hasl I >« •. -i i 
 insulted, for all lawful authority is from Thee. 
 
 So, in our threefold grief, for the outrage to our 
 President, the injury to our nation, and the insult 
 to Thee, we come to Thee, dear Father. We grieve 
 and mourn for what has been done, we fear and 
 tremble for our future safety, for evil stalk- abroad 
 in the night and menaces us. Men have wandered 
 from the right way into darkness and error. 
 
 While our heads are bowed with grief, and our 
 faces are pale with fear, we come to Thee, and we 
 praj Thee that all our nation may turn to Thee and 
 know Thee better, for there is no safety lor men, 
 hut in Thee. 
 
 Thou art the way, only by following Thee in re- 
 ligion and godliness can nations go forth in honor, 
 integrity and true glory. 
 
 Thou art the truth, and only from the precepts of 
 Thy lips can men learn the \\a\ of national honor 
 and justice. 
 
 Thou art the life, and only by obedience to Thy 
 laws can nations live a peaceful life. 
 
 We pray Thee above all to make of this people a 
 godly nation, by a living faith and unwavering hope 
 
William Mckinley* 27 
 
 in Thee, to teach us all the true ways of godliness 
 in obedience and justice, and uprightness. 
 
 We beseech Thee, Lord to solace and comfort 
 the heart of her who was nearest to our departed 
 President, to give her peace of heart, in the hope 
 of a blessed immortality. We also beseech Thee to 
 strengthen and stimulate to noble deeds those who 
 grieve most in his loss, those who have known him 
 and loved him as a friend. 
 
 We pray Thee, God of might, wisdom and 
 justice, through whom authority is rightly adminis- 
 tered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist 
 with Thy Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude the 
 President of these United States, that his adminis- 
 tration may be conducted in righteousness, and be 
 eminently useful to Thy people, over whom he pre- 
 sides, by encouraging due respect for virtue and 
 religion, by a faithful execution of the laws in 
 justice and mercy, and by restraining vice and 
 immorality. Let the light of Thy divine wisdom 
 direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth 
 in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule 
 and government ; so that they may tend to the 
 preservation of peace, the promotion of national 
 happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety and 
 useful knowledge, and may perpetuate to us the 
 blessings of equal liberty. 
 
 We pray for his Excellency, the Governor of this 
 State, for the members of the Assembly, for all 
 
28 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 Judges and Magistrates, for the Mayor of our city 
 and for all the officers who are appointed to guard 
 our political welfare; that they may he enahled by 
 Thy powerful protection, to discharge the duties 
 of their respective stations with honesty and abil- 
 ity. 
 
 We recommend likewise to Thy unbounded mercy 
 all our fellow-citizens, throughout the United States, 
 that they may be blessed in the knowledge, and 
 sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law; 
 that they may be preserved in union, and in that 
 peace which the world cannot give, and after enjoy- 
 ing the blessings of this life, be admitted to those 
 which are eternal in a place of refreshment, light 
 and everlasting peace. 
 
 The Apollo Club then sang "The Long Day Closes" 
 (Sullivan), as follows : 
 
 I\* 1 1 star is o'er the lake 
 
 Its pale watch keeping ; 
 The moon is half awake, 
 
 Through gray mist creeping ; 
 The last red leaves fall round 
 
 The porch of roses ; 
 The clock hath ceased to sound: 
 
 The long day closes. 
 
 Sit by the silent hearth, 
 
 In calm endeavor 
 To count the sounds of mirth, 
 
 Now dumb forever. 
 
william Mckinley. 29 
 
 Heed not how hope believes, 
 
 And fate disposes ; 
 Shadow is round the eaves : 
 
 The long day closes. 
 
 The lighted windows dim 
 
 Are fading slowly ; 
 The fire that was so trim 
 
 Now quivers lowly. 
 Go to the dreamless bed 
 
 Where grief reposes ; 
 The book of toil is read : 
 
 The long day closes. 
 
 Acting Mayor Doyle then introduced Lieutenant-Governor 
 John L. Bates who delivered the following eulogy : 
 
EULOGY 
 
 JOHN L. BATES 
 
EULOGY. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Fdlow-Citizens : 
 
 To this hall the people of Boston have come when 
 deeply moved. Here have they paid loving tribute 
 to the memory of large souls. On the 6th of Sep- 
 tember last a pistol shot, fired in Buffalo, stirred the 
 world. On the 14th of September, as the result of 
 that shot, William McKinley died. Boston loved him, 
 and to-night, by the official action of her City Gov- 
 ernment, she devotes the hour to the contemplation 
 of his services and his virtues. 
 
 There are two classes of anarchists. Both teach 
 that all government is bad, and that individuals need 
 but to be freed from all restraint to enter upon better 
 conditions of life. One class would accomplish its 
 end solely through peaceful methods ; it believes in 
 non-resistance. The other would accomplish its ends 
 by force; it would strike and slay until the whole 
 world is revolutionized and the institutions of men 
 entirely changed. To become a believer in this class 
 one must first descend to a lower level than that of 
 the brute creation. He must become insensible to 
 
34 MEMORIAL [OF 
 
 ties of family and of kindred, to ties of society and 
 of country. lie must become an enemy of bis race 
 and of his God. Such an one there was at the Ex- 
 position at Buffalo on the (Jtb of September. 
 
 We have been too tolerant. We bad bad warnings. 
 We had seen the representatives of the law cruelly 
 murdered in the Haymarket riots in Chicago. We 
 had learned bow in our land the plot had been made, 
 and bow from our shores the murderer had sailed. 
 to assassinate the King of Italy. These things had 
 aroused us, but we had not dealt with the evil. We 
 had not purged the land. Soon we slept again. 
 
 What has not our country done for mankind ? 
 Who can hope for his brother, except through its 
 preservation? Who of the unfortunate and op- 
 pressed, but look to it for help? When America 
 was born, what great nation was there where men 
 governed themselves? In what country were the 
 rights of men secure? In what country were the 
 people housed and fed, and their children educated? 
 None. There was ignorance, superstition, degrada- 
 tion, poverty, and want everywhere. All this has 
 been changed. The conditions of liberty, which have 
 followed in the wake of America, have been fruitful 
 of whatever has added to the comfort of the human 
 race. The era of invention did not come until after 
 the era of political liberty. A hundred Years ago 
 
 men were content to plough with the same device 
 that they had used lor six thousand years. The 
 
william Mckinley. 35 
 
 horse, or the ox, was the locomotive; the stage was 
 the parlor car ; the tallow candle was the electric 
 light ; the wind-mill and water wheel, the only engines 
 of power. But where this terrible deed was done, 
 all that the assassin saw on every hand indicated 
 the prosperity, the comfort of men. The Exposition 
 pictured the fraternal brotherhood of America, and 
 its ten thousand exhibits revealed the comforts ami 
 the pleasures now enjoyed by all, but not permitted 
 to kings in former times. All about were the re- 
 volving wheel, the hoarse breathing of the engine, 
 and the myriad revolutions of the motor, showing 
 that the burden that had rested forever in the past 
 upon the back of man was being placed upon the 
 back, whose bones are iron, and whose sinews are 
 steel. Every invention, every product of tropical 
 and of temperate zone, every article of manufacture, 
 every statue, showed how the freedom of America 
 was contributing to the uplifting of the human race. 
 Yet, amid those surroundings, where joy was in 
 every man's heart, save one, and as the great Presi- 
 dent was kindly extending his hand in greeting, the 
 dastardly crime — most cowardly, most unprovoked, 
 most senseless — was done. 
 
 America must not forget this lesson ; there must 
 be no repetition of this event. Devotion to free 
 speech, and to jiolitical liberty must not be made a 
 cloak for riot, rapine, and murder. Human beasts, 
 seeking to prey upon mankind, and all its institu- 
 
36 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 t ions, must not be permitted to (Miter here, or here 
 to spread their treasonable doctrines. 
 
 " Wide open and unguarded stand our gates. 
 And through them presses a wild motley throng — 
 Men from the Volga, and the Tartar steppes, 
 Featureless figures of the Hoang-Ho, 
 
 Malayan. Scythian, Teuton, Kelt and Slav. 
 
 Flying the Old World's poverty and scorn : 
 
 These bringing with them unknown gods and rites. 
 
 Those tiger passions, here to stretch their claws. 
 
 (), Liberty, White Goddess! is it well 
 
 To leave thy gate unguarded ! On thy breast 
 
 Fold sorrow's children, soothe the hurts of fate, 
 
 Lift the down-trodden, but with hand of steel 
 
 Stay those who to thy sacred portals come 
 
 To waste the gifts of freedom.'" 
 
 Ours is a land in which have teen erected do 
 artificial barriers of class or lineage. We judge a 
 man not by his ancestry, but the ancestry by the 
 man. .lames MoKinlov, when twelve years old, in 
 the early part of the last century, came with his 
 relatives to America, ami settled in Pennsylvania, 
 and his son, in the fourth generation, was William 
 McKinley, the President. James, the immigrant, 
 came from the North of Ireland, ami his ancestors 
 from l he Highlands of Scotland. The line is more 
 in- less distinctly traced hack to Duncan Macduff, 
 
 the Earl of Fife, who was born aboul tin' year 
 one thousand, and who was a patriot, a foe to 
 tyrants, and ihe slayer of the usurper, Macbeth. 
 
william Mckinley. 37 
 
 The mother of the President was of both English 
 and German descent. Bnt for several generations, 
 the President's ancestors had had the environment 
 of this new world, and he was neither Scotch, nor 
 Irish, nor English, nor German. He was an Amer- 
 ican. A member of a new race, a race built on all 
 the old, and strongly characterized by the persist- 
 ence in it of those best qualities that have dis- 
 tinguished the various races from which it has 
 come. 
 
 William McKinley was born in the town of Niles, 
 in the State of Ohio, on the 29th day of January, 
 1843. His father and grandfather were iron founders. 
 His mother was a farmer's daughter, and he was 
 the seventh child in the family. His boyhood was 
 spent in Niles, and in the not distant town of Poland, 
 to which place his parents removed that their chil- 
 dren might have better opportunities for education. 
 There are several persons still living in Poland, who 
 remember the President as a boy, and tell us he was 
 a " black-haired, grave-faced, robust and manly little 
 chap," who was fond of boyish sports, and also fond 
 of his studies. His surroundings and advantages 
 were that of the average American boy of his time. 
 His father found it no easy matter, yet he succeeded 
 in providing for the large family. He was a devout 
 and patriotic man. His mother was a woman of great 
 ability, devoted to her children, sanguine and cheer- 
 ful in temperament. One who knew her well in 
 
38 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 after years said that her pride seemed to be nol so 
 
 much in the fact that her boy was President, as in 
 the tact that lie was a man of integrity and honor. 
 Americans owe much to the comparatively unknown 
 parents of their heroes, whose self-sacrifice and 
 faithful training has made possible the illustrious 
 careers which have honored the nation. McKinley's 
 father lived to see his hoy Governor of Ohio. His 
 mother lived to see him President of the United 
 States. They bequeathed him no fortune, but that 
 which was better, the memory of lives without re- 
 proach. Had he not been h sst, straight-forward, 
 
 persevering, and of rugged integrity, he would nol 
 have been like them, for they were all of these, 
 and by precept and example they taught their chil- 
 dren industry, self-reliance, honor, patriotism, and 
 religion. 
 
 The President was educated in the public schools 
 of Niles and Poland, ami in the Poland A.cademy. 
 At sixteen years of age lie entered the Junior class 
 of Allegheny College, in Meadville, Pennsylvania. 
 His health failed him. and he found it necessary to 
 leave. It seems to have been his plan to regain his 
 health, and. at the same time, by teaching school, earn 
 the money with which to complete his college educa- 
 tion. 
 
 But great events were transpiring. (Inns were 
 fired at Fori Sumpter, and the plans of a million 
 young men were shattered. McKinley's plans went 
 
william Mckinley. 39 
 
 with the rest. Before the echos of the bronze- 
 mouthed heralds of treason, at Charleston, had ceased 
 their reverberations, the young American manhood of 
 the North was stripping for the fight. A century 
 before, David McKinley, great grandfather of the 
 President, had shouldered a musket, and for two 
 years served in the American Army, when the 
 Colonists were breaking the yoke of the mother 
 country. The record of his career is brief, but elo- 
 quent, for it reveals the fact that he enlisted eight 
 times. Andrew Rose, Jr., was the President's great 
 grandfather, on his mother's side. He was a descend- 
 ant of those who had come to America for Liberty. 
 He fought on many a battlefield in the Revolution, 
 and when not fighting was employing his talents and 
 genius in the manufacture of cannon and ball for 
 the Continental Army. A generation later James 
 McKinley, grandfather of the President, was in arms 
 against Old England, in the War of 1812, and a 
 brave participant in that struggle. With these facts 
 in mind we are not surprised to learn that in the 
 Old Sparrow House, at Poland, when the impassioned 
 orator on one day in June, 1801, pointed to the flag, 
 and asked, who was there who would defend it, 
 William McKinley, grandson of James, who fought 
 under William Henry Harrison at Tippecanoe, great 
 grandson of David, who was wounded in the Revo- 
 lution, great grandson of Rose, who fought in the 
 battle of Monmouth — William McKinley, descendant 
 
40 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 of the Puritan who fled from England for conscience 
 sake, descendant of the old Covenanter, who cared for 
 neither " King nor Devil" — William McKinley was of 
 those who stepped forward modestly, and said he was 
 •• ready." 
 
 It was a musket, and not a sword, with which he 
 drilled on Poland Given. Eighteen years of age, slim 
 in figure, thoughtful and serious, with a light graj 
 eye kindling into expression with kindliness and 
 determination, he joined in the greatest struggle, the 
 most costly, the most terrible, and the most momen- 
 tous to be found in the pages of history. Its horrors 
 and its carnage were fitting obsequies for the burial 
 of slavery; its terrific contests fitting accompani- 
 ment of the new birth of a great nation. General 
 Fremont, who mustered in the recruits, remarked, as 
 he looked at McKinley, " You'll do." These words 
 were prophetic. He of whom they were spoken 
 proved them true in every duty of life. 
 
 The Twenty-third Ohio was a famous regiment. 
 It was the first of the Ohio regiments to enlist for 
 three years. It had among its officers those who subse- 
 quently acquired great distinction — Judge Mathews. 
 President Hayes, General Kosecrans — but the pri- 
 vate in Company E was destined to outrank them 
 all in fame. Of the million men who served in the 
 Union Army, he was to be the first if not the only 
 private to occupy afterward the position of President 
 of the United States. He did not seek an officer's 
 
william Mckinley. 41 
 
 commission. He obeyed orders, and, for fourteen 
 months, carried a musket. When the 19th of Septem- 
 ber, 1862, came, and Antietam was written on his- 
 tory's page in letters of blood, promotion came to him 
 for conspicuous bravery, and later, in 1864, when a 
 regiment had been saved to the Union Army through 
 his signal courage, he was made a Captain. On the 
 13th of March, 1865, he received from President 
 Lincoln a commission, brevetting him a Major, " for 
 gallant and meritorious service at the battles of 
 Opequan, Cedar Creek and Fisher Hill." 
 
 When the war was over, McKinley, twenty-one years 
 of age, had neither trade nor profession. Precious 
 years that other young men had been spending on 
 their education in college, he had given to his country 
 in the school of arms. As the result of his military 
 record, the opportunity for a life of comparative ease 
 in the regular army seemed open to him, but it was 
 not attractive, and he returned to his home and began 
 the study of law. To it he devoted his best energies, 
 and was admitted to the bar in 1867. 
 
 Poland, with its 400 inhabitants, furnished no field 
 for an ambitious young lawyer. Canton was not far 
 away. It was the home of the sister who had aided 
 him much in his preparation for his profession, and 
 had 5,000 inhabitants. There business and trade 
 thrived. McKinley went to Canton, and there, be- 
 loved by all its citizens, he made his home to the 
 time of his death. It was not lonu- before he was 
 
42 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 recognized as a conservative counsellor, an able and 
 successful advocate. 
 
 "You are the only man I have ever known to 
 whom I would entrust my daughter," said James 
 Saxton, when William McKinley revealed to him his 
 heart. Thai was thirty years ago. Saxton made no 
 mistake; neither did McKinley. "It was the besl 
 suit that I ever won," he afterwards declared. [da 
 Saxton had been the belle of Canton. Beautiful in 
 person, educated in schools at home and by travelling 
 abroad, trained to business methods as cashier in her 
 father's hank, she was fitted to grace the home at 
 Canton and the White House. The courtship of this 
 couple did nut end with marriage, but continued 
 through the years of McKinley's busy life. Her 
 health had been impaired by the bereavement that 
 came upon her in the loss of her little ones, but this 
 fact only gave opportunity for the more Erequent 
 revelation of the husband's tender solicitude and love. 
 No duty of state ever caused him to neglect his duty 
 to her. The nation cannot Eorget his example when, 
 abandoning the journey of triumph in the West, he 
 turned a deaf ear to the cheers of the people that 
 he might watch by her bedside, ami it was for her 
 that bis lirst can' was manifested when, stricken 
 down at, Buffalo, he said to his secretary, " Be 
 
 careful how you tell Mrs. McKinley." 
 
 His affection for his mother was equally noticeable 
 
 In the day of he)- death, and the people of Canton 
 
WILLIAM MoKINLEY. 43 
 
 found yet another reason for honoring the son when they 
 observed that, while the. Governor of Ohio, it was his 
 custom to leave the Capitol of the State every Sunday 
 and visit Canton that he might accompany her to 
 church. 
 
 It is quite evident that, although participating in 
 public affairs from the beginning, he did not select 
 bis place of residence with the view of entering pub- 
 lic life, for the city and the county were strongly 
 Democratic. Yet, within two years, the Republicans 
 nominated him for District Attorney, although with no 
 expectation of his election. The soldier-lawyer, how- 
 ever, entered into a vigorous contest with his political 
 opponent, was elected, and for the term of two years 
 discharged the duties of the office in a manner that 
 gave satisfaction to all the law-abiding citizens of the 
 county and added to his reputation as a lawyer. He 
 was renominated, but his political enemies were alert, 
 and this time they succeeded in compassing his defeat. 
 He had made a creditable showing, however, and was 
 content for five years to devote himself to his law 
 office, in the meantime participating much in political 
 discussions. In 1876, after an active canvas, he was 
 nominated for Congress. The district was regarded as 
 a close one, but he defeated the Democratic candidate, 
 winning by a majority of over three thousand votes. 
 It was in this year that President Hayes was elected, 
 and when McKinley, at the age of thirty-four, one of 
 the youngest men in Congress, went to Washington to 
 
44 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 begin his legislative career, lie found in the White 
 House as President the one on whose staff he had 
 served in the war. The mutual feeling of respect and 
 love formed amid the tempest of battle had never 
 diminished. With only a slight break, when he was 
 unseated on a recount, McKinley was an active member 
 of Congress from 1877 to 1800. 
 
 His fame as a protectionist tended to give the im- 
 pression thai his activities were confined to that sub- 
 ject, hut the most hasty survey uf his work in Congress 
 shows the contrary. During the uncomfortable days 
 of the Hayes administration, when the North and 
 South were still far from friendly, he was one of 
 the advocates for the protection of the ballot at any 
 cost, urging that the law for supervisors at national 
 elections could have no terror save for the law- 
 breakers. 
 
 His experience had made him the warm friend of 
 the soldier. lie was ready for his defence when 
 attacked, and efficieni in securing legislation for his 
 assistance. He argued that the bounty of the govern- 
 nient was due to the soldier, and the obligation upon 
 the country great to provide for him. 
 
 lie was among the stanchesl supporters of Speaker 
 Reed in his famous ruling on the question of a quorum, 
 a question not without importance, and one whose 
 decisional that time hail far-reaching and beneficent 
 results. He believed that when a constitutional major- 
 ity was present in the House it should be counted as 
 
william Mckinley. 45 
 
 present for the purpose of making a quorum, whether 
 or not those present responded to their names when 
 the roll was called. He was unwilling that the fic- 
 tion should longer continue that members who were 
 actually present in their seats should be constructively 
 declared absent. 
 
 He defended the Civil Service laws, and did not 
 give his assent merely that he might be in harmony 
 with the platform of his party. With him it was a 
 matter of his country's welfare. When the law was 
 attacked he declared that the Republican party must 
 take no backward step, and called upon it to correct 
 defects if any existed, and to recognize that the 
 merit system had come to stay. 
 
 He was a warm friend of laboring men, was thor- 
 oughly familiar with their history, knew their hours of 
 labor in every industry, and their advantage or disad- 
 vantage as compared with the laborers of other lands. 
 He believed in the arbitration of disputes between 
 labor and capital, and did what he could to promote 
 it, asserting that the principle was in accord with 
 the best thought and sentiment of mankind, and 
 urging it in the interest of peace, good order, justice 
 and fair play. He advocated the eight-hour law, 
 because he believed it would "improve the stamina of 
 the people," and he called on Congress to take favor- 
 able action thereon as an example to the states of 
 the Union. His addresses to workingmen were full, 
 not of the superficial politic statements of the dema- 
 
4G MEMORIAL OF 
 
 gogue, but of earnest patriotism, setting forth the 
 dignity of labor and the privileges of citizenship. 
 "Workingmen of Chicago," said lie "have confidence 
 in the strength of our tree institutions and believe in 
 the justice of your fellow-citizens." 
 
 But it was his study of tariff laws and industries 
 thai more than all else caused his political advance- 
 ment. He recognized that valuable service could 
 he rendered only by those who had superior knowledge 
 of the matter upon which they would give advice. 
 lie aspired to he thorough master of a few things. 
 rather than to lie possessed of a, -'whole arsenal of 
 half-mastered and half-matured things." 
 
 He lived in a manufacturing city, and had been 
 a keen observer. The first time he addressed the 
 House of Representatives he presented a petition 
 from the iron manufacturers of his district, and 
 his first speech on the tariff, on April 15, 1878, 
 had the attention of the House. Mr. Blaine, in his 
 '•Twenty Years in Congress," says that he "was 
 soon recognized as one of the most thorough stat- 
 isticians, and one of the ablesl defenders of the 
 doctrine of protection." Presidenl Harrison, in the 
 tariff campaign of 1888, declared in reference to him, 
 that -'no man more than he is familiar with the 
 questions that now engage public thought; no 
 man is more aide than he lucidly to >et them before 
 
 the people." Through the influence of General I lar- 
 
 field he was placed on the Committee on Ways 
 
william Mckinley. 47 
 
 and Means, and Judge Kelley, the sturdy advocate 
 of protection, saw in him a fitting successor, and ex- 
 pressed the hope that when he himself was no longer 
 chairman he might be succeeded by McKinley ; and 
 so, in 1889, realizing that his own enfeebled condi- 
 tion rendered him less fit to bear the brunt of the 
 battle, he gladly yielded the position, knowing that 
 Speaker Reed, not only because of merit, but also in 
 accordance with custom, would appoint McKinley to 
 the important place, as the one who had been his 
 foremost rival for the speakership. Hamilton and 
 Clay had advocated protection as the policy best for 
 the times. McKinley advocated it as the best for 
 all times. He made it a foremost issue before the 
 country. No tariff bill was discussed during the 
 fourteen years of his congressional life that he did not 
 oppose or champion. He had no faith in legislation 
 that did not deal with each interest separately on its 
 merits ; hence to him an attempt at a horizontal 
 reduction was "the invention of indolence." His 
 whole tariff platform was summed up in the 
 words : " The opposition favors a tariff for rev- 
 enue, with incidental protection, but I prefer a 
 tariff for protection with incidental revenue." The 
 so-called McKinley bill of 1890, reported by him as 
 Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, was 
 framed on this basis. It had the opposition of such 
 giants of the legislative forum as Carlisle and Mills, 
 but McKinley was triumphant. The amendment pro- 
 
48 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 viding for reciprocity, of which Blaine was the author, 
 had the hearty support of McKinley, and foreshadowed 
 
 his attitude on thai subject as so strikingly expressed 
 the day before the attempt upon his life, in his address 
 at Buffalo. This bill became a law, and its enactment 
 caused rapid changes in political conditions throughout 
 the country. 
 
 McKinley's triumph seemed of short duration. His 
 protection views had made enemies as well as friends. 
 His district had been changed in such a manner as 
 1o make his re-election to Congress a seeming im- 
 possibility. Yet, he was defeated by only three hun- 
 dred votes. His enemies were jubilant, but his party 
 recognized that he had shown great strength under 
 adverse circumstances, and it nominated him for 
 Governor of the State of Ohio, ami he was elected. 
 His term of office was marked by wise endeavor to 
 secure an economical and honest administration ol 
 the public service. Particular interest was shown by 
 him in the management of the public institutions. 
 Through his recommendation the State Board ol 
 Arbitration was established. His personal efforts 
 accomplished much for the relief of the miners suffer- 
 ing from want in the Hocking Valley. Be appointed 
 practical men as heads of the great department.-, was 
 firm against the gerrymandering of the State for 
 political purposes, and promptly ordered out the 
 militia for the protection of a prisoner threatened l>\ 
 an excited mob uf lynchers. 
 
WILLIAM McKINLET. 49 
 
 His honorable conduct under the trying circum- 
 stances attending financial reverses raised him to a 
 still higher place in the public favor and, together 
 with his efficient administration, resulted in his re- 
 election by the largest majority ever given to a 
 candidate in Ohio. 
 
 A wider field for bis activities Avas opening. The 
 repeal of the McKinley high tariff, followed by the 
 enactment of the Wilson low tariff bill, had not had 
 the effect anticipated by those who advocated the 
 change. The country had not become more prosper- 
 ous, but, on the contrary, was suffering from great 
 depression in business. There were armies of unem- 
 ployed, factories were closed, trade was slack, des- 
 titution and want existed in many places, the nation's 
 revenues did not equal the current expenses, and peo- 
 ple were beginning to question whether or not the 
 logic of the champion of the McKinley Bill had not 
 after all been right ; whether or not they would have 
 bad all their present troubles if that measure had 
 had opportunity to show what results it could produce. 
 It was natural, therefore, for them to turn to McKinley 
 as one to whom they were ready to entrust the 
 guidance of the affairs of the nation. His nomina- 
 tion by the Republicans was certain far in advance 
 of the convention and after an exciting campaign 
 he was elected. 
 
 Two issues had divided the country — the protective 
 tariff and the gold standard. McKinley's election 
 
50 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 meant the restoration of the one and the mainte- 
 nance of the other. Two days after his inauguration, 
 
 lir railed Congress to meet in extra session on the 
 fifteenth of March, and on that date he sent to it a 
 message calling on it to provide without delay rev- 
 enues fur the expenses of the government, and urg- 
 ing that those revenues be so raised as to preserve 
 as far as possible the home market for the home 
 producers. The result was the Dingley Tariff Bill, 
 that became a law in less time than any previous 
 tariff measure since the days of Washington. The 
 dav that it was signed, June 24, the President, 
 having redeemed his promise to restore the protective 
 tariff, sent a message to Congress in fulfilment of the 
 second great promise made in the campaign, namely, 
 to keep the currency stable in value, and equal to 
 that of the most advanced nation of the world; and 
 that necessary changes might be made for the sim- 
 plification ami strengthening of the hanking ami cur- 
 rency laws, he recommended the appointment of a 
 commission to consider the whole subject. Again in 
 his first and second annual messages he urged the 
 action of Congress on the same line, and particularly 
 pointed out the weakness resulting from the fad that 
 the currency liabilities of the country, redeemable in 
 gold, could again be paid out from the treasury and 
 again be presented by the public for redemption, thus 
 resulting in the ''endless chain." and draining the 
 Treasury of its gold reserves, lie recommended that 
 
william Mckinley. 51 
 
 when any United States notes are redeemed in gold, 
 such notes shall be kept and set apart, and paid out 
 in exchange only for gold. This recommendation was 
 adopted in the financial law of 1900, by which also 
 the gold standard was re-established. 
 
 McKinley had been proclaimed in the campaign of 
 1896 as " the advance agent of prosperity." It is cer- 
 tain that Ids election restored confidence to the business 
 world, and the passage of the tariff and currency meas- 
 ures of his administration was followed by years of 
 prosperity unequalled in the history of the country. 
 
 But it was the war with Spain that gave birth to 
 policies and determined courses that will render the 
 administration of President McKinley ever one of 
 greatest interest. It marks a turning point in his- 
 tory. McKinley was thorough. The nation has had 
 no man in its highest office who was more thorough 
 in his mastery of principles, theories, facts and details. 
 This element in his character brought him success as 
 a lawyer, and made him the foremost champion of 
 protection in the country. It was this same charac- 
 teristic that caused him, when the nation was angry 
 and hot for war with Spain, to delay the momentous 
 decision until, in the forum of the world, his course 
 was justified, and until his information was com- 
 plete and the preparedness of America sufficient to 
 insure success. Manila Bay and Santiago, sea fights 
 more strange than fiction, with results bordering 
 upon the miraculous, revealed not only the training 
 
52 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 and courage of American officers, the energy, zeal and 
 patriotism of the men behind the guns, but also the 
 wonderful foresight and the admiration-challenging wis- 
 dom of President fylcKinley and those he had called to 
 participate in the councils of the government. Mar- 
 vellous exhibitions of heroism not on the sea alone, but 
 nil the land as well, made the era forever brilliant, and 
 American youth to the latest generations will gather 
 inspiration from reading the story of Dewey who made 
 it impossible for foreign arrogance to ever again pass 
 the Stars and Stripes ■• without seeing them"; of Cap- 
 tain Philip and his magnanimous words in the hour of 
 victory, "'Don't cheer, boys, the poor devils are dying": 
 of Hobson and his heroes calmly steaming into the jaws 
 of death ; of Roosevelt and his impetuous Rough Riders 
 irresistibly storming hill and block-house. These bril- 
 liant deeds belong to McKinley's administration, and. 
 as the Commander-in-Chief is held responsible for the 
 defeats and disasters that befall those who serve under 
 him, so is he entitled to share in the fame and glory of 
 their aehie\ einents. 
 
 5Tet, it is not because of these that McKinley's 
 administration marks the beginning of a new era. It 
 is because of America's expansion in territory, and in 
 world influence. When the war began the domain of 
 our banner stopped three miles from the shore on the 
 east and the west. Now it protects Cuba; it covers 
 Porto Rico, Guam, Tutuila, Hawaii, and the Philip- 
 pines. Then, apart from trade and barter, the world 
 , i— iimed that American interests extended not beyond 
 
william Mckinley. 53 
 
 the American continent, and that the Monroe' Doc- 
 trine, that pledged our hostility to every attempt on the 
 part of any nation of Europe to gain a further foothold 
 in the New World, carried with it as its corollary 
 the proposition that America would not concern her- 
 self in the affairs of the Old. But now there are 
 ten millions of Filipinos for whose welfare we are 
 responsible. China continues on the political map as 
 an undivided country, through our influence. America 
 has expanded, and not only occupies a place at the 
 council table of nations, but in the growing light of 
 the dawn of her international greatness she seems 
 to be at the head of the table. Too little time has 
 intervened for the world to agree as to the wisdom 
 of this great change in national policy, but none to- 
 day questions the motives of the president responsible 
 for it. 
 
 He was not ambitious to extend American terri- 
 tory. He did not desire that the American people 
 should become a ruler over less favored peoples. He 
 showed in his dealing with the Chinese question that 
 he did not consider sovereignty as essential for the 
 trade interests of the United States. He had directed 
 every effort to prevent the war with honor, but the 
 American people had by their attitude declared it. 
 Convinced that it was inevitable and just he entered 
 into it determined to use every effort to compel Spain 
 speedily to seek peace. It was the avowed object of 
 the United States to stop crimes against humanity in 
 the Island of Cuba, and to make the future of that 
 
54 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 island secure by obtaining for it independence. But 
 the consequences of the struggle no one could fore- 
 see. That the object of America might be accom- 
 plished, it was necessary to strike her antagonist 
 wherever there was an opportunity to deliver a 
 decisive blow, and thus, when the war closed, it 
 was found that the United States was as much in 
 possession of the Philippines as of Cuba, and thai the 
 dictates of humanity, winch urged the championship 
 of the cause of the Cubans, equally urged the cham- 
 pionship of the cause of the inhabitants of the Philip- 
 pines. The treaty was signed, and to the United 
 States was ceded the sovereignty of those distant east- 
 ern islands. The welfare of their inhabitants must 
 be secured either through government on the part of 
 the United States, or through a home government. 
 There was no other alternative. President McKinley, 
 acting upon the information and advice of as well- 
 informed and as disinterested men as could be found 
 decided that the inhabitants of the Philippines were 
 in it equal to the task of governing themselves, ami 
 so he kept our flag there. Thus these islands were 
 prevented from becoming a prey to other nations; 
 thus they were prevented from becoming a source of 
 contention that might easily have involved great 
 nations in arms; thus they were prevented from 
 becoming victims of the disorder that was sure to 
 resull from the attempt of an ill-prepared people to 
 maintain a government for themselves; thus, the 
 
WILLIAM McKINLEY. 55 
 
 peace of the world, the welfare of the Filipinos, and 
 the obligations of the United States were secured by 
 the President. 
 
 It is unpleasant to recall that not only his policy 
 but his motives were attacked in language severe 
 and scurrilous ; that for doing the right, " as God 
 gave him to see the right," he was called "rec- 
 reant to American principles," "usurper," "traitor." 
 No men were more vilified in their lifetime than 
 Washington, Lincoln, Grant and McKinley, but all 
 men unite in loving tribute to their memories. The 
 sequence of events justified the first three as it will 
 suicly justify, aye, has already justified, the last. 
 
 In 1900 he was reelected President by the largest 
 popular majority ever given a candidate for that 
 office. This expression of the people's good-will was 
 a source of great gratification to him. It was for 
 them he had devoted his best thought and energy. 
 He had sought to win their love, and he had succeeded. 
 On his journey through the South and West, after 
 his inauguration, he was the recipient of a continu- 
 ing ovation. He saw evidence that the country had 
 not had such an era of good feeling since the early 
 days of the republic. Much of their prosperity the 
 people attributed to his wise administration. They 
 hailed him not only as President, but as a benefactor. 
 
 He went to Buffalo to greet all America. He 
 spoke with power. Without wavering in his belief 
 in the system of protection, he showed how the 
 
56 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 principles of reciprocity harmonized with it, and urged 
 it in the interests of the United States and of fra- 
 ternity among nations. With no presentiment of the 
 tragedy so sunn to be enacted he closed his speech 
 with the benediction: 
 
 "Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously 
 vouchsafe prosperity, happiness and peace to all our 
 neighbors, and like blessings to all the peoples and 
 the powers of earth." 
 
 The week McKinley lay between life and death 
 did not make him greater, but it revealed him. Those 
 who had questioned his motives recognized that they 
 had misjudged the man. and, after his death, in 
 sorrow they endeavored, by well-sounding praise, to 
 make amends, but — McKinley was dead. Shall this 
 lesson be lost? Or shall it teach American journalists 
 and statesmen. American citizens of every class, the 
 wisdom of that charily that is tolerant of the 
 opinions of others ? 
 
 McKinley was not a genius in the commonly 
 accepted interpretation of that term. lie did not, 
 nor did his friends for him. claim the possession of 
 talents of startling brilliancy; he believed in no 
 success except such as attended effort. lie did not 
 believe in fortune. '■Luck." he said, "will not last. 
 young man: it may help you. hut you cannot count 
 upon it. Labor is the only key to opportunity." lie 
 acted on this precept, and probablj averaged as many 
 hours of Labor as any man in the country. 
 
william Mckinley. 57 
 
 He was one of the most amiable of men, and 
 this amiability was sometimes misinterpreted as weak- 
 ness. His physical courage had been shown in war, 
 and his moral courage demonstrated in peace, but 
 perhaps never more conspicuously than by his calm 
 demeanor when, although bitterly assailed, he pur- 
 sued to the end the course that he had determined 
 upon in the Philippines. Gentleness and courtesy 
 are not indications of weakness, but of strength. 
 McKinley's amiability, his consideration for all with 
 whom be came in contact, never led him to be rec- 
 reant to the principles in which he believed, or to 
 a duty he was called upon to perform. 
 
 He possessed tact. No small portion of his suc- 
 cess was due to his ability to deal with men. He 
 could refuse a request in such a way as not to offend, 
 but rather to strengthen the regard for him of the 
 one whose request had been denied. 
 
 He was responsive to public opinion. He was a 
 public servant. He recognized that he, William 
 McKinley, might err in judgment, and the results be 
 grievous to those whom he desired to serve. Hence, 
 his endeavor to keep in touch with the public, that 
 he might revise or correct his own opinion if wrong, 
 or, if right, that he might bring the people to the 
 adoption of his views and thus ensure the success of 
 his policy. It was not to serve himself, or to sub- 
 stitute his individual will or opinion for that of the 
 American nation, that he held office. He recognized that 
 
58 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 the people had a right to discuss and to shape the policies 
 of their country — he believed in the people. Invested 
 with power by them, he did not seek to take advan- 
 tage of it to force them unwillingly along the lines 
 ul policies to which they were hostile. He recog- 
 nized that from the vantage ground of his position 
 he was better informed and better able to judge as 
 to the expediency or wisdom of many measures than 
 those whose opportunities for information were more 
 limited, but that did not cause him to expect their 
 blind following. Hence, when convinced as to the 
 proper course to be pursued, he look his country- 
 men into his confidence. lie desired for his policies 
 their endorsement, but there is not an instance on 
 record where he swerved a hair's breadth from the 
 line of policy dictated to him by his conscience. 
 
 He was able to judge men. The administration of 
 the Executive Department under him was thoroughly 
 systematized. He selected the ablest men that he could 
 find — men in whom he had confidence. He placed 
 responsibility upon them. They knew that he held 
 them accountable. By his ability to make use of 
 their talent- he was enabled to discharge with great 
 
 rapidity the increasing volume of public business. 
 
 lie was a partisan. He believed that, in a rep- 
 resentative government, the greatest safeguard of 
 the people's liberties was to he found ill political 
 parties, that, with jealous eye. watch each other, and 
 whose onh hope of success is through winning the 
 
william Mckinley. 59 
 
 respect of the majority of the electors. He believed 
 parties should make their contests for principles, and 
 not for offices. His partisanship had its beginning 
 and its end in patriotism, and there was no room 
 in his platform for the degrading, non-American 
 and dangerous ideas of those who place the party 
 first and make the welfare of the city, state or 
 nation secondary to it. 
 
 He exhibited the power of the great orator. 
 There were others more eloquent, but there were 
 few more convincing. He could clothe the dry 
 schedules of the tariff with attractiveness and 
 beauty ; his voice could hold the members of Con- 
 gress in their seats as very few have been able to 
 do during the present generation. He showed 
 the greatest power of endurance. Others may 
 have made as many addresses, but each of 
 McKinley's contained something of value. In the 
 National campaign of 1894 he made three hundred 
 and seventy-one speeches, and travelled more than 
 ten thousand miles. For eight weeks of this time 
 he averaged seven sjjeeches a day. 
 
 His public and private life were without stain, and 
 his ambition never led him to seek preferment by 
 questionable methods. He would not win the prize, 
 if to do so, he must tolerate practices that robbed 
 it of its true worth. He had not only rather be 
 " right than to be president," but he would not 
 have the Presidency unless it came to him in such 
 
GO MEMORIAL OF 
 
 a way that no one could question the steps by which 
 it was attained. There were things he would "nol 
 do even to be President." 
 
 I was in Buffalo. It was night. The Exposition 
 City, crowded with tens of thousands of guests, could 
 not sleep. The scene was wild, the streets were 
 filled with people. They seemed neither on pleasure 
 nor on business bent. They stood and talked in 
 groups, and went here and there, back and forth. 
 There was no harmony; all was discord. Sonic great 
 thing was wrong. Twelve o'clock, one o'clock, two 
 o'clock came, and still the streets were thronged. 
 Then there came the rushing footsteps of the news- 
 boys, and their cries readied my window, " McKinley 
 is dead! McKinley is dead!" He had held the 
 highesl place among men. had been the brilliant 
 administrator of a great nation's affairs, had been 
 consulted in the congress of nations, had marked out 
 the policies of the Old and the New World, had been 
 Commander-in-Chief of the army thai overthrew the 
 tyranny of an ancient and proud kingdom, had 
 uplifted the down-trodden, was the beloved of eighty 
 million of his countrymen, Moses died on the moun- 
 tain with the promised land in sight. The pistol 
 shot dulled forever the ears of the great Lincoln as 
 the cries of victory rose triumphant in the North. 
 The assassin's bullet loosed the kindly soul of the 
 loved McKinley when, with prophetic vision, he was 
 urging an era of fraternity and of peace. 
 
WILLIAM McKINLEV. 61 
 
 " McKinley is dead ! " cried the newsboys, and I 
 look across the prairie to the great city by the lake, 
 and I see amid the noise of traffic a motley crowd 
 of men and women of all nationalities, of all pur- 
 suits, rich and poor, high and low, the humble and 
 the proud, gathered about the bulletin. They read, 
 ■• McKinley is dead." They bare their heads, and, 
 amid the falling rain, their lips break into Christian 
 prayer and song. I hear the clicking of the tele- 
 graph, and it speaks in the voice of Edward, the 
 King — "I sympathize with the American nation in 
 the loss of her distinguished and ever to be regretted 
 President." And again it speaks, and it is the voice 
 of William, the Emperor — "Germany mourns with 
 America for her noble son." And again, and it is 
 the voice of the President of France — "I sympa- 
 thize in the calamity which bereaves the great 
 American nation of a President so justly respected 
 and loved." And again, and it is the voice of the 
 President of Mexico — " His death will be mourned 
 in this country hardly less than in the United 
 States." And then a thousand instruments begin to 
 click in every land, and the wires that bind the 
 world are heavy with the messages of sorrow from 
 kings and queens and presidents and peoples, until 
 there is no corner of the earth that has not expressed 
 its grief, no people that has not put on mourning. 
 Half-masted is the flag of mankind. And now there 
 comes a hush. The telegraph speaks no message, 
 
62 MEMORIAL l 'l 
 
 the cars in the cil \ street- stand still, the iron horse 
 pauses in his stride across the country, the mills stop 
 grinding, the shutters are on the windows, the doors 
 of the great exchanges close, and the world sobs 
 while the sepulchre "pens and into it enters all that 
 is mortal of William McKinley. lint the greal soul 
 lias moved on. 
 
 "For tho 1 the Giant Ages heme the hill 
 And break the shore, and evermore 
 Make and break, and work their will: 
 Though world on world in myriad myriads roll 
 Round us, each with different powers, 
 And other forms of life than ours, 
 What know we greater than the soul/" 
 
 The mortal is buried: the soul departed; the 
 example remains, and so long as "On God and God- 
 like men we build our trust" that example will 
 remain as the greatest gilt of MoKinley to his 
 country. It will lie an example for the American 
 youth to emulate. He was the full-rounded man — 
 uncompromising with evil, vet unfailing in courtesy: 
 •slow to act, but certain in decision ; able to grasp 
 the broad problems of statesmanship, but fully pos- 
 sessed of the merest detail of legislation; genial in 
 public and in his home: partisan, yel patriot more 
 than partisan; soldier, when his country needed, but 
 ever a lover of peace; ambitious, but for the sub- 
 stance, and not the shadow — to be, and not to 
 
william Mckinley. 63 
 
 seem to be. Would one learn of valor? He was 
 thrice promoted for valorous conduct on the field of 
 battle. Would one learn of the beauty of the mar- 
 riage vow ? See his incessant devotion to the bride 
 of his youth. Would one learn of patriotism ? Read 
 how he was ready to die for his country in war, 
 and how he lived for her in time of peace ; how his 
 every public utterance was for her ; how he loved 
 his flag, and how, when the crisis approached in the 
 policies of the nation, and history was being made 
 in a day, it was his thrilling question " Who shall 
 pull it down ? " That settled the issues of the hour, 
 and showed the nation that the way to peace and 
 honor was not through retreat and defeat, but 
 through advance and triumph. Would one learn (if 
 statesmanship? Read how, without dictation or as- 
 sumption, he brought Congress time and again to the 
 support of his policies, and how when surrounded by 
 great men in his cabinet he so dominated that none 
 impressed his own individuality upon any policy of 
 the administration. Read how he restored the 
 nation's credit; how he championed a policy which 
 caused the rivers of the nation to be harnessed 
 again to the chariots of manufacture, and set the 
 looms humming, and the spindles singing, and the 
 anvils chanting. Read how his hand directed, and 
 his voice commanded, when the nation, emerging 
 from the tempest of war, swung from her ancient 
 course, and hove into view as a world power, to 
 
64 MEMORIAL OF 
 
 be reckoned with wherever her interests were in- 
 volved, to Lie feared wherever the rights of an 
 A.merican citizen were abridged, to be loved where- 
 ever oppressed humanity was seeking for freer and 
 better conditions of life. Read how his policy led 
 A.merica to overleap her ancient bounds, and. qo 
 longer confined to the continent, hemmed in bj 
 the surges breaking on the shore, with one fool 
 upon the land, and the other upon the sea. to unfurl 
 her protecting banner, until to Hawaii there came 
 annexation, and to Cuba there came the organization 
 of a. home government, the fruition of her hopes for 
 a hundred years, and to the Philippines rest and 
 order, such as they had never known before. Read 
 how his attitude when the world clashed in China 
 resulted in saving that ancient nation from dismem- 
 berment, and contributed to the peace of mankind. 
 Read how his instructions to the delegates at the 
 Peace Conference turned their thoughts from the 
 impractical proposition of disarmament to the prac- 
 tical plan of settling international difficulties by 
 arbitration, thus hastening the day when war shall 
 be no more. Would one lean) of honor'.' Read how 
 twice he refused the highest crown among men, the 
 Presidency of the United States, because he was 
 pledged to the cause of another. -'I will not stultify 
 my character for any reward on earth," was his 
 word, and his action was suited to the word. 
 Would one learn of Christianity? Read how he 
 
WILLIAM McKINLKY. 65 
 
 prayed "May God forgive him," in the moment he 
 was struck down ! Aye ; stand by his bedside and see 
 him as he dies. Nations are there, but he is not 
 thinking of thrones, or powers, or empires ; not of 
 glory, or of men ; not of pomp or splendor ; not of 
 treaties or of conquests. His it has been to speak 
 and armies marched, navies thundered, cities sur- 
 rendered, and nations sued for peace. Yet his 
 thoughts are not on armies or navies now. He 
 hears not the plaudits of the people, nor sees the 
 weeping of mankind; the earth is fading; he speaks 
 — it is not of regret, not of vengeance, not of pride, 
 but of harmony with the purposes of the Infinite — 
 " God's will, not ours, be done," and he drifts out 
 on unknown seas under the Great Captain of the 
 Universe into the dawning eternities faintly singing 
 " Nearer my God to Thee." 
 
 "Such was he; his work is done; 
 
 But, while the races of mankind endure. 
 Let his great example stand 
 Colossal, seen of every land, 
 And keep the soldier firm, the statesman pure, 
 Till in all lands, and through all human story, 
 The path to duty be the path to glory." 
 
66 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM McKIXLKV. 
 
 At the conclusion of the eulogy the audience joined with 
 the Apollo Club in singing " Nearer My God To Thee," and 
 the exercises were closed with the following benediction by 
 Rev. Father Rockwell. 
 
 May the blessing of God descend upon you all, and 
 abide with you forever. May the blessings of 
 domestic peace enter into your homes, the blessings 
 nf family union among father, mother, son and 
 daughter. May the same favor come to all our 
 fellow-citizens. May the blessings of peace and fra- 
 ternal union bind us all together into a strong har- 
 monious nation enjoying peace among ourselves, and 
 peace with other nations. May the spirit of kindli- 
 ness and fraternity be fostered between high and low, 
 rich and poor. May health, industry, prosperity, honor 
 and godliness be always with us. God bless our 
 country. God bless you all. 
 
BIOGRAPHY. 
 
zaE 
 
 aljiif tlji'U'itij 
 i&mniment [mix? utitlj &amw fyai 
 
 10 mi longer mtunijj tifi 1 lining. 
 
 uTJjot in tljc iVntij nf 
 ^JreouVnt Jilciunli'ij m ijave &n& - 
 farinrt an imjMKtM* In**, iVi'nhj frit 
 luj our litij, our amntnj, tint mankind. 
 
ESOWED 
 
 "uTijitf m honor % 
 k miii jiriuati' virtue* of fijr iV'- 
 ?ascft, his ritueusljin, Ijis J\.iueriamicm!, 
 !|iy shu|iliritij,anit hi* faitlr. 
 
 uTIjat tl]i' imnnlu'rci of flje afg 
 government of 3!?05tOtt,roilertiveln, nnv 
 
 inoiviomtlhi, offer to tlje family of tljr 
 late president their full suHtjmtljg 
 intlji* sorrowful itan, of itffttrttou. 
 
BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 William McKinley, the twenty-fifth President of 
 the United States, was born in Niles, Trumbull 
 County, Ohio, January 29, 1843. The father of the 
 President, William McKinley, Sr., was born in Pine 
 Township, Mercer County, Pa., in 1807, and married 
 Nancy Campbell Allison of Columbiana County, 
 Ohio, in 1829. William McKinley was educated in 
 the public schools of Niles, Union Seminary, at 
 Poland, Ohio, and Allegheny College, at Meadville, 
 Pa. Enlisted at the beginning of the Civil War, 
 June 11, 1861, as a private in the 23d Ohio Volun- 
 teer Infantry. He served throughout the war and 
 received successive promotions until March 14, 1865, 
 when he was brevetted Major for gallantry in the 
 battles of Opequan, Cedar Creek and Fisher's Hill. 
 Was mustered out July 26, 1805, immediately took 
 up the study of law, and was admitted to the bar 
 in March, 1867. In 1869 was elected prosecuting 
 attorney of Stark County. On January 25, 1871, 
 married Miss Ida Saxton. Elected a member of the 
 National House of Representatives in 1876 and 
 served for fourteen years. Defeated in 1890, the 
 
70 MEMORIAL OF WILLIAM McKIXLEY. 
 
 district having been changed. Elected Governor of 
 Ohio in 1891 and re-elected in 1893. On June 18, 
 1896, was nominated for President, and was elected 
 the following November. Elected for a second term 
 in 1900. Was shot by an assassin at the Buffalo 
 Exposition grounds, September 0, 1901, and died 
 from the effects of the wound September 14. 1901. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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