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Mckinley statue 
 
Unveiling 
 
 of the 
 
 McKinley Statue 
 
 Adams, Mass. 
 
 * 
 
 October 10, 1903 
 
Gift 
 
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Unveiling of the McKinley Statue, 
 
 Adams, Mass. 
 
 (October 10, 1903) 
 
 ADAMS, where President McKinley was thrice an 
 honored and beloved guest, to-day dedicated 
 the statue which is the town's tribute to his memory. 
 
 It was an occasion of remarkable impressiveness, a 
 tribute of all the people to one who had been their 
 friend, and who had with them seen the dedication of 
 its growing industries and of the Memorial Hall before 
 which stands the monument. 
 
 A great civic and military parade and speeches by 
 the State's most prominent men were the features 
 that attended the unveiling, while the feeling of the 
 town itself was fittingly and beautifully expressed 
 bv W. B. Plunkett as chairman of the memorial com- 
 mittee, and C. T. Plunkett who received the statue 
 for the town. 
 
 In the size of the crowd which thronged the streets 
 for the parade and surrounded the statue in front of 
 the Memorial library was seen the popular nature 
 of the tribute, as well as in the fact that the statue is 
 the gift of the people of the town. 
 
 Chief Marshal Major R. A. Whipple, veteran of 
 the Civil, Cuban, and Philippine wars, with his 
 aids, Captains H. O. Hicks, George Crosier, and 
 
2 Unveiling of the McKinley Statue 
 
 Lieutenant William O'Brien, veterans of the Cuban 
 war, C. A. Waters of George E. Sayles post, G. A. R., 
 and W. S. Jenks, representing the citizens, formed 
 the procession near the statue on Park Street. 
 
 It was made up as follows : Second Regiment band, 
 battalion of militia ; platoon of police, Germania 
 band, guests in carriages, Red Men's band, George 
 E. Sayles post, G. A. R., of Adams, C. D. Sanford 
 post, G. A. R., of North Adams, E. P. Hopkins post, 
 G. A. R., of Williamstown, Berkshire post, G. A. R., 
 of Pittsfield, and the G. A. R. post of North Egre- 
 mont. These veterans, comrades of the late Presi- 
 dent, were followed by the Deutsch Kreuger, a German 
 military society of Adams, the St. Michael Polish 
 Guards, also of Adams, the Continental Drum Corps 
 and Lafayette Guards, of North Adams, and the St. 
 Jean Baptiste, Lawton camp, S. of V., of Adams, 
 Robert Emmet and A. O. H. societies of Adams, and 
 the Alert Hose Company, the latter with their parade 
 cart, F. W. Manning Garrison, A. and N. U., of Pitts- 
 field, Thomas O. Bates garrison of North Adams, 
 and David C. Ferguson garrison of Adams, Sons of 
 Veterans of Pittsfield, German Catholic societies of 
 Adams. 
 
 These organizations were all ready to move, and 
 when the special train from Pittsfield, bringing Gov- 
 ernor John L. Bates and Lieutenant-Governor Curtis 
 Guild, Jr., and staff arrived, the State officials were 
 met at the station by the Committee of Arrangements, 
 Hon. W. B. Plunkett, F. R. Shaw, F. E. Mole, Dr. 
 C. W. Burton, and George Shand, and the selectmen 
 of Adams, C. T. Plunkett, chairman, Godfrey San- 
 derson, Jr., and Horace C. Fifield. 
 
Unveiling of the McKinley Statue 3 
 
 Major Frederick Pierce of Greenfield with third 
 battalion, Companies L of Greenfield, I of North- 
 ampton, E of Orange, and M of Adams, with F of 
 Pittsfield, acted as escort for the governor. Major 
 Pierce's staff consisted of Captains Parsons and 
 Williams and Lieutenant Parkhurst of Springfield. 
 
 Carriages were provided for the gubernatorial 
 party, ex-Secretary Long, Rev. Dr. Thompson, the 
 Committee of Arrangements, selectmen, and distin- 
 guished guests, and all were formed in line and 
 marched from the station to Park Street and joined 
 the procession, which was in waiting, taking their 
 places at the head of the line, preceded by Germania 
 band. 
 
 Chief Marshal Major Whipple gave the order to 
 march shortly after two o'clock and the procession 
 moved over Columbia Street to Hoosac, to Summer, 
 to Centre, to Commercial, to Liberty, back to Centre, 
 and then returned to Park Street, to the monument. 
 
 On the right of a beautifully decorated platform 
 which covered the terraces in front of the splendid 
 Public Library were raised seats for about 1 25 singers, 
 with an orchestra of 18 pieces, which played the ac- 
 companiments, under the directorship of Thomas 
 Holloway of Adams. On the floor were the Com- 
 mittee of Arrangements and platform reception com- 
 mittee. The latter were J. C. Chalmers, A. B. 
 Daniels, Z. D. Hall, and G. B. Adams. In the centre 
 were those who took part in the exercises, facing the 
 plaza. On the south of the platform were tables for 
 the press, and adjoining were seated prominent men 
 from all parts of the State. 
 
 Arriving at the rendezvous where the reviewing 
 
4 Unveiling of the McKinley Statue 
 
 stand was located, Governor Bates, Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor Guild, ex-Governor W. Murray Crane, ex- 
 Secretary Long, and their party left their carriages 
 and mounted the stand, the parade passing in review 
 before them. 
 
 The following is the programme which was carried 
 through without alteration : 
 
 Gloria from Mozart's Twelfth Mass, Chorus. 
 
 Prayer, Rev. Dr. J. W. Thompson. 
 
 Presentation of statue to the town, by chairman of 
 committee, 
 
 W. B. Plunkett. 
 Unveiling- of statue. 
 
 Star-Spangled Banner, Band. 
 
 Acceptance of statue for the town, by chairman of 
 selectmen, 
 
 C. T. Plunkett. 
 Address, 
 
 Ex-Secretary John D. Long. 
 Hallelujah chorus. 
 Address, 
 
 Governor John L. Bates. 
 Address, 
 
 Lieutenant-Governor Curtis Guild, Jr. 
 America. 
 
COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS 
 
 GEORGE SHAND. F. R. SHAW. 
 
 W. B. PLUNKETT Chairman. 
 F. E. MOLE. C. W. BURTON. 
 
Prayer of Dr. J. W. Thompson 
 
 OTHOU, who art the confidence of all the ends 
 of the earth, and of them who are afar off upon 
 the sea ; gathered at our country's common altar, we 
 lay aside all distinctions that divide us here, and 
 address Thee as our common Father and our com- 
 mon God. Having guarded the nation at its birth, 
 Thou hast presided over its development and the his- 
 tory it has made. We gratefully recognize Thy 
 merciful and controlling Providence in its growth, its 
 progress, its intelligence, and its thrift ; and it is 
 Thy Providence that spreads over its fair face the 
 smile of prosperity and peace. 
 
 The memory we assemble to honor is of one whom 
 Thou didst own, honor, and bless. He honored 
 Thee by his faith. Thou didst beautify his life in 
 return, and thrust immortal honors upon him. We 
 therefore invoke divine blessings on an occasion that 
 seeks to extend the influence of such a life, and to 
 perpetuate the memory of such a name. While the 
 genius of the artist has left for us his manly form in 
 bronze, we are grateful for the recollection of his liv- 
 ing presence and living voice among us, the greeting 
 of his smile, and clasping of his own friendly hand, 
 with which he laid the corner-stones of these temples 
 of intelligence and industry. We invoke as well, the 
 Divine blessing on our friend and fellow-citizen, who 
 
 5 
 
6 Prayer of Dr. J. W. Thompson 
 
 has done so much to secure this great expression of 
 public regard, and on all who responded to his appeal. 
 May the life we honor to-day cease not to be an 
 inspiration to the republic's young men. 
 
 We can never contemplate this life without stand- 
 ing in the shadow of the colossal crime that, without 
 provocation, brought it to its untimely and tragic 
 close. And as we do so, may the nation's abhorrence 
 of dishonor, disorder, and crime grow with its growth 
 and strengthen with its strength. 
 
 May right prevail over all forms of error and 
 wrong. Be pleased to continue Thy Providential 
 protection of the nation's chief magistrate ; give wis- 
 dom to all in authority, and provide for the times the 
 statesmanship that is wise, far-seeing, patriotic, and 
 brave enough to rightly meet, solve, and settle the 
 great problems before us. Be Thou the guide and 
 light of the republic, guard its sacred institutions 
 against the blight, and even the approach, of evil. 
 May public corruption never rot them down. 
 
 And now we commit to Thee the exercises of this, 
 to us, interesting hour. As we tarry, paying tribute 
 to whom tribute is due, may it all be a rich contribu- 
 tion to the public good, an inspiration to the noblest 
 manhood and the truest citizenship, and Thine shall 
 be the praise, the honor, and the glory, through Jesus 
 Christ, our Lord. Amen. 
 
Presentation of Statue by W. B. Plunkett 
 
 AS chairman of the committee under whose direc- 
 tion this statue is erected, it is my most pleas- 
 ant and agreeable duty to present to the town of 
 Adams through you, its official head, this statue of 
 our beloved late President, William McKinley. It 
 perpetuates, in the town and among these hills and 
 valleys he loved so well, the memory of the greatest 
 leader of men in our nation's history. During his 
 many visitations to our town, he had become per- 
 sonally known to this people, and was deeply inter- 
 ested in our welfare. This interest it may be said 
 dated from his first visit in 1892, when as Governor of 
 Ohio he dedicated the second Berkshire mill to the 
 principles of protection and prosperity. His visit to 
 us as President in 1897, the laying of the corner- 
 stone of yonder memorial library building, and again 
 visiting us in 1899, and laying the corner-stone of 
 Berkshire mill No. 4 are all events fresh in our mem- 
 ory, and endeared President McKinley to the hearts 
 of our people. 
 
 He walked among us, frank, free, trusting, un- 
 guarded, honesty written in his every lineament, and 
 manly assurance of friendship in the cordial hand- 
 clasp that was irresistible. I esteem it a precious 
 privilege that I may stand here to-day and speak of 
 these things, of one who though of great and exalted 
 
 7 
 
8 Presentation of Statue by W. B. Phmkett 
 
 position and character was lovable beyond compare. 
 I love to recall the spirit of the man, his courage, his 
 patriotism, his tenderness, his Christian faith, and his 
 grand fidelity to his ideal of nobility. The cares of 
 state were never so exacting that he could not listen 
 to the cry of the humblest, and his mind was never so 
 troubled that his heart was not full of mercy. 
 
 Let this monument be a plea to his countrymen to 
 mark the steps of his career and walk therein — a 
 plea for moral earnestness, for industry, for highmind- 
 edness, for good habits, for intellectual courage, for 
 purity of conduct, for faith, for goodness, for nobility, 
 and trust in God. One has truly said : William 
 McKinley died with one hand clasped in ours and 
 the other in the hand of God. There was for him no 
 shadow, no valley of death, he died on the summit of 
 the mountain, as a grand day dies, beyond him the 
 radiant gates of heaven, around him the friendly 
 stars. 
 
 To the town of Adams, whose people have so gen- 
 erously contributed to the erection of this statue it is 
 now committed. 
 
 At these words Old Glory, which covered the 
 statue, was withdrawn, and the statue was unveiled, 
 while the band played " The Star-Spangled Banner," 
 and the thousands of people cheered. 
 
BOARD OF SELECTMEN 
 C. T. PLUNKETT, Chairman. 
 GODFREY SANDERSON, JR. H. C. FIFIELD. 
 
Acceptance of Statue by C. T. Plunkett 
 
 MR. Chairman : 
 On behalf of the town of Adams, and with 
 very great pleasure, I accept this noble monument. 
 
 I assure you, sir, that the gratitude of the people of 
 Adams is commensurate with the generosity of the 
 donors whom you represent. 
 
 This statue stands on a spot made historic by the 
 participation in the dedicatory exercises of the public 
 library, by him of whom the figure is such a lifelike 
 portraiture. 
 
 Were a memorial building to be erected to-day, in 
 addition to but in harmony with the imperishable 
 bronze, there would be chiselled upon the entablature 
 of that classical structure a name which would evoke 
 our admiration and reverence as completely as do 
 those of the immortal trio inscribed thereon — Wash- 
 ington, Lincoln, Grant — McKinley. 
 
 You have most eloquently expressed, sir, the affec- 
 tionate sentiments of this community and of the 
 friends who have gathered with us to celebrate the 
 unveiling of a monumental tribute, which was in- 
 spired by the deep-rooted love of thousands of our 
 townspeople for the lamented chief magistrate. 
 
 I am confident, fellow-citizens, that I voice your 
 first impressions of the unveiled statue when I say 
 that the natural pose, identical figure, and accurate 
 
 9 
 
io Acceptance of Statue by C. T. Plunkett 
 
 facial resemblance represent a marvellous artistic con- 
 ception. 
 
 I felicitate the artist whose consummate skill has 
 produced a masterpiece. I congratulate the town 
 upon the possession of it ; and I congratulate the 
 committee whose labors are crowned with such 
 abundant success. Most heartily, in the name of the 
 town of Adams, do I thank the munificent bestowers 
 of this welcome gift. 
 
HI 
 
 O 
 < 
 
 
Description of the Statue 
 
 THE statue which was unveiled to-day is the first 
 erected to the memory of the martyr President. 
 It was after the town had held a memorial service 
 in honor of him, that the citizens held a meeting, 
 formed a committee, and prepared plans for a fitting 
 memorial. 
 
 The heroic statue of President McKinley is of 
 bronze and is eight feet high. It stands with up- 
 lifted left arm and head slightly thrown back, a char- 
 acteristic pose of the late President while delivering 
 an address. The right hand rests on a standard 
 conically enveloped by Old Glory. 
 
 The statue stands on a solid granite pedestal which 
 is six feet high and beautifully carved at the top 
 and bottom, while the four sides are panelled with 
 bronze plates or tablets. All the granite is highly 
 polished. The pedestal rests on two heavy squares 
 of granite, and the base of the monument is laid on a 
 foundation of crushed stone and cement. 
 
 Surrounding the monument is a circular plot of 
 green-sward, raised from the street and curbed with 
 heavy granite, unpolished, but of the same kind as 
 the pedestal. 
 
 The four bronze plates on the stone pedestal have 
 been most appropriately selected and significantly in- 
 scribed. Each plate is twenty by thirty inches. On 
 
 ii 
 
1 2 Description of the Statue 
 
 the front is a plate showing the President in the halls 
 of Congress and inscribed : " William McKinley Ad- 
 dressing the House of Representatives on the Meas- 
 ure which became Famous under his Name," and refers 
 to the McKinley tariff bill. Beneath this tablet is 
 inscribed in bronze letters the name of him in whose 
 honor the memorial was erected," William McKinley." 
 
 The tablet on the west side of the pedestal is in- 
 scribed: "William McKinley, Commissary Sergeant at 
 the Battle of Antietam, MDCCCLXII." It pictures 
 a scene of war, with the late President as a young man 
 driving a commissary wagon, and refers to an incident 
 during his Civil War service. 
 
 The tablet on the north face is inscribed : " Let us 
 remember that our interest is in Concord, not Con- 
 flict, and that our real eminence is in the Victories of 
 Peace, not those of War." These words are taken 
 from his speech at Buffalo, and at the bottom of the 
 tablet is inscribed : " From President McKinley's Ad- 
 dress at Buffalo, September VI, MDCCCCI." 
 
 On the east side of the pedestal is inscribed : 
 " William McKinley Delivering his address at his first 
 Inauguration as President of the United States, 
 March IV, MDCCCXCVII." It represents him as 
 standing in a balcony over the steps leading to the 
 Capitol in Washington. 
 
 The statue stands at the junction of Park, Maple, 
 and Columbia streets, and is on a site given by the 
 Rev. L. O. Triganne, pastor of Notre Dame Church 
 of Adams, through Bishop Beavan of the Springfield 
 Roman Catholic diocese. It is in front of the beau- 
 tiful Memorial Public Library of which President 
 McKinley laid the corner-stone. 
 
Address by Ex-Secretary Long 
 
 IT is only six years ago that in the early fall of 1897, 
 William McKinley, then serving the first year of 
 his presidency, was a guest — may I not say a beloved 
 and familiar figure — in your enterprising village, 
 walking its streets, greeting you with a neighborly 
 nod as he met you, driving over your beautiful hills, 
 and visiting your great manufactories. Into them 
 his accession to the chief magistracy had put new 
 life which still throbs with his impulse ; and their 
 busy workers welcomed him hardly more as President 
 than as one in unaffected and helpful sympathy with 
 them in the betterment of their condition, the re- 
 wards of their labor, and the enlargement of their 
 manhood. It was the time of the ripening harvest, 
 and of the glory of the autumn foliage. Peace was 
 over the land. Prosperity had revived at his grasp 
 of the helm of state. Partisan prejudice had sub- 
 sided. No great question of national policy lowered 
 upon the horizon except the already fading question 
 of a sound currency, for which he had stood in the pre- 
 ceding campaign, and which, with the good times that 
 at once followed his election and the extra session of 
 Congress he had immediately called, became then 
 and has been ever since settled and sure. 
 
 He was then at the culmination of manhood, fifty- 
 four years of age. His demeanor was simple, his man- 
 
 13 
 
14 Address by Ex-Secretary Lo?zg 
 
 ner unpretentious and quiet. Without loss of dignity 
 on the one hand, and without affectation or interested 
 conciliatoriness on the other, he seemed to you, as he 
 was, one of yourselves — a plain American citizen. A 
 guest under Mr. Plunkett's hospitable roof, with him 
 his wife to whom his devotion is an ideal of sanctity, 
 he sat on the lawn and engaged in pleasant con- 
 versation with the neighbors who came. He had a 
 kindly word for the children. At night, when the 
 lamps were lighted and the family gathered within 
 the house, he joined in the hymns that were sung and 
 was at once in sympathy with all the inspirations and 
 associations of a New England home. 
 
 Soldier, statesman, orator, legislator, governor, presi- 
 dent, — you had known he was all these, — but when 
 he came among you you felt something more, the 
 presence of a true-hearted friend, of a fellow-citizen 
 who, while of you, was yet in the forefront of all good 
 works and influences, and to whom you could point 
 your children as a pattern of truth and righteousness. 
 That is why you especially remember him and honor 
 him. Not solely because he was soldier, statesman, 
 president, do you pay him to-day this great tribute, 
 but because he added to these the o-ood man and 
 true, and because you had faith, which was never 
 belied, in his personal identification with you, and in 
 his profession of interest in your welfare and his ac- 
 tual achievement of its promotion. No millionaire 
 tosses out of his pocket the cost of this massive 
 statue. It has been raised by even overabundant 
 popular contributions from the churches, the schools, 
 the mills, and the homes and open hands of these 
 people. You have set it up for all time in the 
 
HON. JOHN D. LONG. 
 
Address by Ex-Secretary Long 15 
 
 sight of your thresholds because — because you loved 
 him. 
 
 I have not used too strong a word. No other 
 describes the almost universal sentiment of the peo- 
 ple of the United States toward William McKinley. 
 I think of no other public man, who, in his lifetime 
 was so universally beloved. Not Washington, whose 
 rancorous enemies, personal and political, embittered 
 his life, though, when it closed, the cloud of their en- 
 mity faded quickly in the sunshine of his great fame 
 and he now stands foremost in the popular esteem. 
 
 Not Lincoln, whose second election seemed at one 
 time endangered by the outspoken hostility of many of 
 the leading men of his own party ; whom the North- 
 ern sympathizers with the seceding States pursued 
 with vituperative malice ; and whom the Southern 
 half of the nation in rebellion hated till his martyr- 
 dom disclosed to them the great heart of their truest 
 friend, and made him, next to Washington, the 
 national idol. 
 
 But party spirit spared McKinley even while he 
 lived. Members of the opposition had fair treat- 
 ment and honor at his hands, and were warm in 
 personal regard for him. Capital and Labor alike 
 trusted him and felt secure under his administration. 
 The North elected him, but the South speedily rec- 
 ognized his cordial interest in its welfare and took 
 him to its heart. White and black, all sorts and con- 
 ditions of men, all the great religious divisions, had 
 faith in him and rallied round him. 
 
 Mr. Hay, in his eloquent eulogy, said that proba- 
 bly no other President had been in such full and 
 cordial communion with Congress, if we may except 
 
1 6 Address by Ex-Secretary Long 
 
 Lincoln alone. But Lincoln is not an exception. 
 His hold on Congress was' not greater than McKin- 
 ley's. It is one of the historic marvels, — McKinley's 
 hold, not only on his own party but on the oppo- 
 sition, — the unbroken and fruitful harmony between 
 him and the legislative branch of the government. 
 
 What a story this statue tells, and will for genera- 
 tions tell ! A silent, but what an eloquent teacher, 
 supplementing and illustrating the education by 
 your schools of the American youth ! As it grows fa- 
 miliar many of you in the absorption of busy lives 
 will unheedingly pass it. But the eye of many a 
 young lad, some barefoot boy with the fine trace of 
 dream and hope in his upcast eye and sensitive face, 
 will read in its massive bronze type the story of an 
 American career, and will be inspired to manly en- 
 deavor and struggle and triumph. 
 
 That story has been often told. You all know it. 
 In its outlines is a typical story that might be told 
 of thousands of McKinley's countrymen. Strains of 
 Scotch, Irish, and Puritan blood mingled in his veins. 
 His grandfather and great-grandfather were among 
 the leading pioneers of the Ohio valley. They were 
 of that stock than which no ancestry is nobler. It 
 added to physical strength and toil the high mind, 
 the free thought, the sturdy self-respect, the religious 
 faith and guidance, the sacrifice for education, the 
 sanctity of home, which make the sure foundations of 
 State and society. It was that equality of social life 
 which is not a glib phrase but an actual condition, 
 and in which no man and no boy looked up or looked 
 down, but each stood shoulder to shoulder with his 
 neighbor and comrade. 
 
Address by Ex-Secretary Long ly 
 
 It was a life of hard work, but of absolute inde- 
 pendence. If the call came to civic or military ser- 
 vice, it was obeyed as instinctively as the breath of 
 heaven was drawn. The great-grandfather of the 
 President served in the Revolutionary War ; his 
 grandfather in the War of 1 812. His father was a 
 hard-working iron-founder, a man of characteristic 
 integrity. His mother was the true, God-fearing 
 woman, devoted to home and children, raising them 
 in simple ways but in the paths of truth and virtue 
 and in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, who 
 is so familiar a type of the mothers of that sturdy gen- 
 eration — not, let us hope, now obsolete. His sister, 
 a teacher, helped guide his upward steps to honorable 
 manhood, a saint at his side, giving from her own 
 hard earnings that he might have an education. 
 
 Such are the surroundings that insure the best 
 moral education : the inculcation of virtue, the sancti- 
 ties of a pure and honorable life. Is it any wonder 
 that the boy, losing nothing of the things that make 
 for hardihood and manliness and a robust career, was 
 yet kept sweet at the core ; that, when he was the 
 chosen of his millions of countrymen, the aged 
 mother, revered and honored, sat by his side at the 
 White House ; that his wife, frail in health and con- 
 stantly dependent upon his tender care, made with 
 him that picture of domestic affection now so dear to 
 the American hearth ; that the executive mansion 
 was never a ruler's palace, but always a family home 
 where love sat, where neighbors dropped in, where 
 old hymns were sung on Sunday nights, where chil- 
 dren were welcome, and where the spirit of this man, 
 still fragrant with the affections and associations of 
 
1 8 Address by Ex-Secretary Long 
 
 the early days of the little frame house of his birth, 
 of the village school, of the youthful start in life, and 
 still full of the memories of father, mother, sister, 
 home, diffused everywhere the sunshine and cheer of 
 a great, sweet nature ? 
 
 It was inevitable that such a boy should be stimu- 
 lated to fit for college and enter it, though the hard 
 necessities of the times soon took him away, and the 
 oncoming of the war forbade his return. He was 
 earning as a schoolmaster the means of a further 
 course when at eighteen years of age the spirit of 
 patriotism, sweeping like a fire over the land, met its 
 response in every kindling throb in his veins, and he 
 enlisted as a private in the army of the Union and 
 freedom. He was all aglow with the fervor of the 
 anti-slavery thrill. 
 
 A stripling, he shouldered his musket in a regi- 
 ment commanded by Rosecrans, and having among 
 its officers Hayes, the future President, and Mat- 
 thews, future Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States. But he, too, won his spurs. As com- 
 missary-sergeant on the field of Antietam, voluntarily 
 running the gauntlet of the enemy's fire to bring hot 
 coffee and food to his comrades at the front ; as aide, 
 ordered almost at the risk of certain death to carry 
 orders across the exposed battlefield yet never flinch- 
 ing ; ardent, faithful, devoted ; always with that 
 winning look in his beautiful and expressive eyes, he 
 rose step by step. 
 
 Too poor to buy his first uniform, an older officer 
 loaned him the money for that purpose that he might 
 in his furlough proudly wear it home. That officer, 
 whom I often saw as his guest at the White House, 
 
Address by Ex-Secretary Long 19 
 
 he never forgot ; indeed it was characteristic of him 
 that in his official elevation he never forgot the be- 
 frienders of his struggling days. He fought with 
 Sheridan, served till the last gun was fired and Lee 
 surrendered, gained the captain's bar, and was bre- 
 vetted major for gallantry in many battles — a title 
 that clung to him as long as he lived, and that became 
 every year more and more a token of endearment to 
 old comrades and to all his fellow-citizens. 
 
 The war over and its great purpose achieved, mili- 
 tary life had no further charm for him. He was a 
 man of peace. He had given four years not to mar- 
 tial glories, but to his country's need. He declined 
 the chances of the regular army, studied law, and be- 
 gan the practice of it in Canton, Ohio, henceforth his 
 home and now his last resting-place. There he mar- 
 ried, there his alert activity, his pleasant ways, his 
 quick apprehension, his power of attractive speech, 
 his spotless integrity of life, his identification with 
 moral and religious influences, all brought him fast 
 friends and confiding clients and welded him into the 
 affection and trust of the people. 
 
 Fresh from the inspiration of the war, he was an 
 ardent Republican in association and in convictions 
 and principles. To him Republicanism meant not 
 only his country's advance already gained, but its ad- 
 vance still farther forward in all that makes for human 
 enfranchisement and happiness. In a Democratic 
 county he gave himself, heart and soul, on the stump 
 and among his fellow-citizens, to the sharp political 
 contest of the times. 
 
 Already that sympathetically resonant voice had 
 learned the art of sincere, convincing, winning speech ; 
 
20 Address by Ex-Secretary Long 
 
 and when the young orator was given what seemed 
 the hopeless nomination for the post of district at- 
 torney, he, to the astonishment of all, won the prize, 
 and thus gained his first political office. 
 
 A decade later he began that famous Congressional 
 career which covered a period of fourteen years and 
 made his name a household word. He entered it 
 with his character formed and mature, his principles 
 fixed, his abilities trained. Yet in it he grew daily in 
 strength and mastery, and became the leader of the 
 great party which had the destinies of the country in 
 its hands. He had rare gifts for that arena. If not 
 a man of wide general learning, he knew thoroughly 
 the literature of American legislation. His temper 
 was perfect. Personal dignity and urbanity were 
 blended in him. There was never the slightest lack 
 of courtesy, yet never the slightest flinching from 
 firm principle. A charming humor was his, yet never 
 a coarse allusion. He was indefatigable in the study 
 of questions of finance and revenue, and made himself 
 a storehouse of details of information in that respect ; 
 he therefore drew from a full, and never from a con- 
 fused or empty mind, and spoke in debate without 
 the impediment of notes or manuscript. His voice, 
 penetrating rather than loud, at once won and held 
 attention. Starting always with the good-will of his 
 audience, already commended to it by his personality, 
 he won it closer and closer to him to the end. He 
 was a rare debater. He was quick at repartee, and 
 no one who was present will forget the telling shots 
 that interruption of his speech brought swift home 
 upon the man that lucklessly made it. His was not 
 the highest flight of the orator who rises to the poet's 
 
Address by Ex-Secretary Long 21 
 
 range of sublime imagery and conception/ but it was 
 that effective appeal to the convictions of men rather 
 than to their imagination, which turns the sentiment 
 of an audience into acquiescence and philosophical 
 sympathy with the speaker. 
 
 There were other able men on the floor of Con- 
 gress : Carlisle, whose intellectual processes were as 
 clear as crystal ; Randall, a very rock of honest 
 guardianship of the public money, lacking the ele- 
 gancies of speech, but a controlling parliamentary 
 power by the very force of his impressiveness ; and 
 Reed, the most powerful five-minute debater that 
 ever stood in Congress, whose drive during that time 
 was so like the pelting of fierce hail that his oppo- 
 nents quailed under it as men seek shelter in a storm. 
 But none made the permanent impression on the in- 
 dustrial legislation and sentiment of the nation which 
 McKinley made. 
 
 He had especially devoted himself to the develop- 
 ment of our industrial conditions and to the increase 
 of the product and returns of labor, of the farm, and 
 of capital invested in manufacture. To him, these 
 meant the better welfare of the people, better wages, 
 more comfortable homes, more of the good things of 
 the world for all. It was no selfish regard either for 
 himself or for any class or special interest that actu- 
 ated him. It was the best spirit of American prog- 
 ress. It was the same impulse which had risked his 
 life and given his budding manhood for his country 
 on the battlefield, and which now sought her true 
 glory in the enriching activities of her looms and 
 forges. 
 
 For years he was the leading representative of her 
 
22 Address by Ex-Secretary Long 
 
 industrial development on the floor of Congress ; and 
 at last, as chairman of the great Committee of Ways 
 and Means, he was charged with the framing of a meas- 
 ure to that end. That which bore his name was, 
 after every impediment of partisan delay, enacted so 
 nearly on the eve of a presidential election that there 
 was not time to test its operation and reap its benefits 
 before the shrewd distortions of an electoral cam- 
 paign had made it a bludgeon with which to knock 
 out the return of the then Republican administration. 
 The lessons of four years of financial and industrial 
 depression and ruin were necessary before, under 
 another name, it could be passed and put in opera- 
 tion to bring order out of chaos and sunshine out of 
 darkness. The immediate result of it was his rele- 
 gation to private life, although almost immediately 
 thence to the governorship of Ohio. 
 
 The reaction, so far as he was personally con- 
 cerned, came almost at once. It seemed as if the 
 popular heart turned to him in recognition of his fidel- 
 ity to the public interest. Speedily all eyes looked 
 to him as the coming man. He was less known as 
 the governor of his great state than as the President 
 next to be. The intervening hard times stimulated 
 this reaction in his favor. He spoke, too, with great 
 effect at various centres. With the faculty of straight- 
 forward, incisive speech he went directly to the point 
 and made it before the people. He made clear ; he 
 persuaded ; he convinced. 
 
 It was soon a foregone conclusion that he would 
 be nominated for the Presidency. He was fortunate 
 in his Democratic competitor, who brilliant as an 
 orator and respected for his personal worth, yet 
 
Address by Ex-Secretary Long 23 
 
 represented views on the currency and finance so 
 delirious and unsafe that the conservative elements 
 of both parties and the common sense of the great 
 body of the people rallied under the banner of 
 McKinley. His personal campaign was conducted 
 not on the stump at large, but on the sunny piazza 
 and the little lawn in front of his modest home in 
 Canton. What a unique scene it was, and how fa- 
 miliar it became ! Not a day that some delegation, 
 representing some great interest of labor or enter- 
 prise or education or social reform, did not come to 
 his open door. He was at one moment addressing a 
 visiting body of fellow-citizens and the next sitting in 
 consultation with individual representatives of the 
 various interests of his party and the country. Every 
 phase of the political situation was sprung upon him. 
 There was no let-up by day, hardly any by night. A 
 single false note, a single rash word, a single infelici- 
 tous allusion, and all was lost. But day after day for 
 months the same serene mastery of the situation, 
 always the apt, clear response, always the firm, 
 assured, unmistakable attitude on the great issues 
 before him, and always with these the sincere — in 
 Jefferson's phrase, the capable and honest — man. 
 Higher and higher rose the incoming tide of the 
 confidence and affection of the people, flooding him 
 into the presidential chair. 
 
 His presidency was an epochal time in the nation's 
 history. No previous administration except that of 
 Washington and that of Lincoln, was so marked a 
 period in the destiny of the republic. None certainly 
 ever began under more favorable or brighter auspices. 
 The country was prepared for the incorporation 
 
24 Address by Ex-Secretary Long 
 
 into legislation of his lifelong policy of the encour- 
 agement of American labor and industry, and of 
 such an adjustment of our revenue laws as should, in 
 providing ample revenue for national expenses, at 
 the same time further promote the product of Ameri- 
 can manufacture and agriculture, provide more en- 
 grossing home markets for it, increase wages, and 
 better the condition of all the people. 
 
 It was no narrow policy of selfishness or restriction. 
 It was the broad policy of national development, the 
 only risk in it, indeed, that of too rapid an inflow 
 of abundance. In its consummation, it, as shown in 
 his last memorable public words at Buffalo, recog- 
 nized, in connection with our domestic welfare, 
 liberal reciprocal trade relations with foreign nations. 
 But at the first he saw that the immediate step for 
 him to take, in justice to his own people, was to lift 
 the country from the depression and wreck in which 
 it was groaning ; and that step, with his co-operation, 
 Congress took at the extra session which he at once 
 called. 
 
 And at once what a marvel of uprising in hope 
 and then fulfilment ! The industrial forces of the 
 country leaped at a bound into activity. The " good 
 times" came, and McKinley and prosperity were 
 synonymous names. Before the first year went, the 
 clouds had fled and sunshine bathed the face of the 
 earth. 
 
 Next year, in 1898, came the war with Spain — an 
 inevitable war. The previous administration had 
 done everything it could in the way of solving the 
 Cuban problem. Inheriting the exigency, McKinley, 
 could human effort, could conciliation, could earnest 
 
Address by Ex-Secretary Long 25 
 
 and persistent negotiations with Spain, could in- 
 fluence with Congress have prevented war, would have 
 averted its horrors and would have spared the shed- 
 ding of a drop of blood. But there are diseases in 
 the human body which only the knife can eradicate ; 
 there are festers in the progress of civilization which 
 it has seemed hitherto — let us trust it will not long be 
 so — that only the sacrifice of human life on the battle- 
 field can cure. The blowing up of the battleship 
 Maine was the occasion, not the cause, of the war. 
 That cause was the eternal principle of resistance to 
 oppression. It must be that Cuba should be free, not 
 more for her own sake than for the peace and right 
 adjustment of the world. On us, as her next at 
 hand, fell the burden and the sacrifice of her emanci- 
 pation. Sooner or later in the order of things it 
 was sure to come, and it came in McKinley's time. 
 
 What need to tell of that swift, victorious, brilliant 
 national epic ! — the country and its Congress a unit with 
 the President, the unhesitating putting into his hand of 
 the resources of the national treasury, the outburst of 
 patriotism the land over, the glorious and unparalleled 
 victories of the navy, the overflowing enlistment of 
 officers and men in the army and its victories over 
 hardships and the foe, the individual heroisms on 
 land and sea, the magnanimities on both sides which 
 gave silver linings to the storm, and the generous 
 terms of peace — all in keeping with the spirit of the 
 commander-in-chief who held our destinies in his 
 hand, whose tender solicitude for the boys in the ser- 
 vice and for their anxious friends at home was 
 always on the alert, and who never harbored through 
 all that crisis a thought of personal glory, a grasping 
 
26 Address by Ex-Secretary Long 
 
 purpose for his administration, or an unjust exaction 
 for his country. He could not avert the war, though 
 he strained every effort and held it back ; but from 
 its outset, while he ensured success, it was with a 
 view to the earliest peace consistent with the necessi- 
 ties of humanity and justice. Hence the liberality of 
 his instructions to our peace commissioners, and hence 
 the easy accomplishment of their work. 
 
 The results of the war were of greater moment 
 than the war itself. That was swiftly ended. Its 
 results were at once seen to be of world-wide and 
 lasting importance. Cuba became free. Porto Rico 
 naturally adhered to our borders. The grave prob- 
 lem was the disposition of the Philippines. No man 
 can know, but he who was under it, the solemn sense 
 of duty and responsibility with which McKinley took 
 up this burden. The duty of their emancipation 
 from the yoke of Spanish oppression was plain. To 
 give them the empty shadow of an independence 
 only nominal — because, in fact, only the local and 
 shifting government of those various and changing 
 forces and factions among themselves which should 
 happen to be the strongest for the time being and 
 which would rend one another until all were a prey 
 to some foreign power — was a manifest shirking of 
 duty. Equally so any protectorate on our part, sure 
 to be a political football at home, and sure to bring 
 upon us grievous cost and burden, and to involve our 
 incessant and prolific entanglement with other nations 
 which, in their natural reach for profit or greed for 
 empire, would hover over this carcass and lose no 
 opportunity to make it their spoil. 
 
 It was only under the most conscientious and 
 
Address by Ex-Secretary Long 27 
 
 prayerful compulsion, not unawed by the conscious- 
 ness of the consequent great epoch-making departure 
 in our governmental system, that the President acted, 
 recognizing that, under the providence of God, 
 nations, like men, have and cannot stay their growth, 
 and that their duty is to meet it by accepting it 
 fearlessly and directing it aright. 
 
 So it was that he flung the banner of his country 
 over these islands of the sea, and that, seeing them 
 stripped by thieves and wounded, he had compassion 
 on them and took care of them. It is true he fore- 
 cast their ability to become in due time a compen- 
 sating resource to us in their abundant product and 
 in commerce, but I believe, as I believe I am stand- 
 ing here, — believe ! I know, — that in the fear of God 
 and in the solemnity and heavy solicitude of his heart 
 and conscience, it was his controlling purpose at 
 that crucial time, as it was also his mature judg- 
 ment, to do justice to those islands as well as to his 
 own country ; that, as his primal thought and object, 
 he recognized to the full his responsibility to the 
 Filipinos, which he knew was not only his responsi- 
 bility but the responsibility of the American people 
 and the American conscience ; and that to that he 
 must answer for all time. It was to their progress, 
 their education, their full enlistment in all the lines of 
 our own civilization, aye, their ultimate political in- 
 dependence, when fitted for it and equal to its main- 
 tenance, that he had regard. If God should spare his 
 life it was to all this that he prayed he might look 
 back as the work of his hand done in the spirit of 
 our national traditions and in the spirit of Christian 
 brotherhood. 
 
28 Address by Ex-Secretary Long 
 
 To criticise those who have a thing to do, and 
 who do it however conscientiously and well, is pro- 
 verbially easy for those who have nothing to do but to 
 criticise. And criticism is good. And yet even criti- 
 cism in this matter is practically spent. To-day the 
 action of President McKinley is regarded by few as 
 otherwise than in harmony with his duty and with 
 the irresistible order of events in the world's progress. 
 Even those who differ from him in this respect are 
 lost in the recognition, which is now substantially 
 universal and which was emphatically spoken in his 
 re-election in 1900, of the honesty and righteousness 
 of his attitude towards the new dependencies com- 
 mitted to our hands by the war. 
 
 Read his state papers, his instructions to insular 
 officials, his every word in connection with Cuba and 
 Porto Rico and the Philippines. Was there ever 
 such generosity as that which, under his lead, re- 
 deemed the Gem of the Antilles not only from 
 foreign oppression, but from her own blindness and 
 ruin, paid her soldiers, gave her good government 
 and schools and highways, and held her up along the 
 paths of internal recuperation till she could walk 
 alone, a new and self-sustaining and happy republic, 
 and then made her free — the noblest chapter in inter- 
 national helpfulness that was ever enacted or written. 
 And not one step in it all in which the spirit of 
 McKinley did not breathe ! 
 
 It was the same with Porto Rico and the islands of 
 the Orient. Governor Taft has deservedly won un- 
 stinted acclaim by the wise and generous administra- 
 tion, by himself and his associates, of the government 
 of the Philippines. And yet he has but carried out 
 
Address by Ex-Secretary Long 29 
 
 the instructions of his chief. It is the hand of Taft, 
 but the still-living voice of McKinley. Those in- 
 structions should be emblazoned in letters of gold 
 on the page of history. They insure to every Fili- 
 pino the same personal rights of life, liberty, and 
 the pursuit of happiness which we ourselves enjoy. 
 They are the very essentials of our own constitu- 
 tional charters, extended to the humblest dusky isl- 
 ander. It has been said that the hand which put 
 those instructions in written form was not his ; but 
 whoever was the amanuensis, we who were with him 
 at the time know that every vital phrase and senti- 
 ment they embody came warm from the overflowing 
 reservoir of his earnestly considered thought and pur- 
 pose, and were the embodiment of his mature and 
 deliberate policy. 
 
 That policy was not one of dollars and cents, and 
 its success is not to be measured to-day by any such 
 sordid rule. It was a policy of justice and the best 
 well-being of those whose fortunes and destiny had 
 fallen into his hands. And how that policy has been 
 vindicated ! Civil government has been established ; 
 officials are chosen by popular election ; natives sit 
 with Governor Taft on the governing commission, 
 on the bench of the insular supreme court, and in 
 executive chairs of internal and municipal govern- 
 ment ; millions have been spent for public improve- 
 ments, good roads made, sanitary precautions assured, 
 and diseases exterminated ; schools opened with 
 American and thousands of native teachers ; a rev- 
 enue system applied ; the currency adapted to insu- 
 lar needs ; police and civil-service systems put in 
 practice, and every personal right safeguarded. 
 
30 Address by Ex-Secretary Long 
 
 The whole movement, though but two or three 
 years old, has won the appreciation and co-operation 
 of the Filipinos, who never before had had any 
 experience in self-government, and most of whom 
 welcome American sovereignty and civilization and 
 see in them their own interest. In view of the short 
 time elapsed, the result is assuring beyond all ex- 
 pectation. When the enlightened Filipino, in some 
 future generation, shall write the history of his 
 islands, he will appreciatingly seek perhaps to recall 
 the names of those among us who, not fully informed, 
 at first hastily though honestly questioned whether 
 the attitude of our government toward the Philip- 
 pines had been considerate ; but when he makes his 
 list of the great benefactors who gave them the 
 breath of life and freedom and progress, his conclud- 
 ing line will be : " Lo ! McKinley's name leads all the 
 rest." 
 
 Not only to these great problems of his admin- 
 istration did McKinley give painstaking attention, 
 but also to its details. His appointments to offices 
 were all made with comprehensive care and were, for 
 places of great trust, of the highest character and es- 
 pecial fitness. He did not limit them to men of his 
 own party, but gave representation to the other, 
 especially in cases of great moment. Pursuing his 
 healing policy toward the South he made choice of 
 its strongest men for many important posts. Many 
 boards and commissions were made necessary by 
 special exigencies arising from the war, and it would 
 be difficult to suggest better selections for them, 
 commanding more the public confidence, than his. 
 Like other presidents he has been criticised in this 
 
Address by Ex-Secretary Long 31 
 
 respect, though less than almost any other. Even 
 Lincoln was the despair of so distinguished an ob- 
 server as Mr. Charles Francis Adams, who, con- 
 ferring with him on the eve of Mr. Adams's vital 
 mission to England, lost heart at Lincoln's apparent 
 absorption in what seemed the petty business of the 
 distribution of official places. But Secretary Root 
 has acutely, and, from observation, suggested that 
 Lincoln was wiser than his critics ; and that no man, 
 unless on the spot, can have any conception how far 
 the most vital questions of legislation, essential to 
 successful executive administration, turn on the per- 
 sonal attitude toward the president of senators and 
 representatives, and how many of these are often 
 conciliated or estranged, and so great policies are 
 forwarded or defeated, by petty considerations of 
 local patronage— all which Lincoln and McKinley 
 and every other true President has despised and 
 chafed under as heartily as the irresponsible reformer 
 
 in his closet. 
 
 McKinley's trials in this respect were far less than 
 Lincoln's ; and his marvellous hold on Congress was 
 by no means due so much to the conciliation of its 
 members in this way as it was to his thorough famil- 
 iarity, through long service in it, with its temper, to 
 his frank and constant conference with its leaders, to 
 the persuasive representation to them of his views, 
 and to the confidence he won from them alike in his 
 good judgment and in his spirit and purpose. 
 
 He had a penetrating insight into the character, 
 motives, and qualifications of men, and rarely went 
 amiss. He surrounded himself with the best in- 
 fluences. He carefully consulted men of weight 
 
32 Address by Ex-Secretary Long 
 
 outside of official life. The officials who carried 
 out his policies or advised in their conception were 
 almost always the right men in the right place. 
 Those who rose to his measure he grappled to him 
 with hooks of steel. Two of his cabinet appoint- 
 ments, a secretary of state and a secretary of war, 
 will rank — do now rank with the ablest ministers of 
 government not only in our own annals but in the 
 annals of the world. 
 
 It was a delight to serve in his cabinet, for it was 
 service, not with the president alone, but with the 
 man — the kindliest, most considerate, and lovable of 
 men. There he was untrammelled ; there his happy 
 humor ran free ; there we saw the simple goodness of 
 his heart, the unaffected, eager desire to discharge 
 his duty and to do right. How patiently he listened, 
 whether to cabinet adviser, or congressman, or citizen 
 at large : how, if he differed, there came, not the 
 blunt and mortifying repulse, but the helpful sugges- 
 tion that some other course of action or appointment 
 might be better ; and almost invariably how much 
 better, as quietly outlined by him, it was ! He was al- 
 ways even in his moods, never loud, however emphatic. 
 He bore no resentments. If some opponent had 
 been bitter and malignant, and some head of a de- 
 partment, remembering this, suggested that no favor 
 should be shown a request from such a source, the 
 President's answer was, " I would not like to dis- 
 appoint him : help him if you can." 
 
 No appeal, from however humble a suitor, ever 
 brought an expression of impatience ; no summons 
 from his invalid wife, even during the most important 
 official conferences, disturbed him ; no child, eager 
 
Address by Ex-Secretary Long 33 
 
 to "see the president," went not happy away from 
 his presence, with the memory of his welcome for- 
 ever in its heart and a flower from his table in its 
 hand. Even during the tremendous exactions of the 
 war, when his watches ran into the night, and mes- 
 sages were hissing over the wires from Cuban waters 
 or the Orient, and the full beating of the storm of 
 battle was on, he was serene and undisturbed. 
 
 This spirit of peace and graciousness he carried 
 everywhere. It was effluent from him in his journeys 
 over the land and at the occasions in city or country 
 where he spoke or stood before his fellow-citizens. 
 It went straight home to the hearts of the South, 
 which intuitively recognized in him its helper and 
 friend. No man has so healed the wounds of the 
 Civil War. Nor was this with him merely a matter 
 of good-nature or happy phrase. It was a well- 
 matured policy of reconciliation. It was the large- 
 ness which, yielding nothing of principle as to the 
 past, yet promoting the present unity of all sections 
 of the country in political relation, bent every force 
 to make it also a unity of national compatriotism and 
 sympathy. Of the tears that fell upon his martyr- 
 dom, none were sincerer than those from hearts 
 whom he linked to him in the sweet nobilities of 
 peace as closely as he had gallantly confronted them 
 in battle. 
 
 I have referred to him as a typical American. It 
 seems to me that, with all his distinction, his great 
 distinction was this, — if it be not a paradox to say 
 it, — that he was not distinct from the popular genius ; 
 that in his ancestry, in his home training and kin- 
 ship, in his education, his military service in the 
 
34 Address by Ex-Secretary Long 
 
 ranks and line, his political start and career, his sym- 
 pathy with the needs, demands, and sentiment of his 
 countrymen, and in his later expression and still later 
 enforcement of them he was the embodiment of the 
 best qualities and characteristics of the American 
 people. 
 
 We have no upper class ; we have no educated 
 class ; we have no governing class. Education, so- 
 cial position, potential influence, are at the command 
 of all who truly seek them. Ask and it shall be 
 given you. To all these he rose as naturally as a 
 bird spreading its wings soars into the upper air. 
 And in the upper air he beckons the ingenuous youth 
 of his native land to rise with equal ease above all 
 meaner things and breathe with him an atmosphere 
 of high ideals and high service. What a model of 
 the pure and wholesome conduct of life he is to them ! 
 How genuine and unaffected were his piety and re- 
 ligious faith, associated with the memory of a mother's 
 prayers, and kept, as long as he lived, with loving and 
 consecrated fidelity ! His life needs no explanation 
 or apology. It had no secrets. Public or private, 
 it was so plain that he who ran might read it. 
 
 As we study history — thank God, it is true rather 
 of past than present history ! — what vice, what filth, 
 what selfishness, what insolence, what grinding of the 
 poor, what indifference to human suffering, what rot 
 and shame and meanness have been the personal 
 characteristics, though sometimes associated with 
 great qualities and achievements, of the rulers of the 
 world ! What wonder that revulsion has sometimes 
 come in revolution and riot and rivers of blood ! 
 What a relief to turn to this chosen of the people 
 
Address by Ex-Secretary Long 35 
 
 without stain or spot, this pure in heart and blessed 
 of the Lord ! 
 
 I thought, and once suggested to him — with, it 
 seemed to me, acquiescence on his part — that his 
 model was Lincoln. It seemed to me that, in his 
 purpose, his patient forbearance, his relation to the 
 people, his sympathies with right and justice, his con- 
 ception of administrative obligations, he patterned 
 after that great model. Could there have been a 
 nobler ideal, and is it to be wondered at that with it 
 he rose to the height of his great place ? Alas, that 
 the same martyrdom, at the hand of the assassin, 
 should come to both ! 
 
 Oh, the horror of such a taking-off — the inexplica- 
 ble, meaningless horror of such a mad blow, not at 
 the victim alone, but at the security, the welfare, the 
 peace of every home and hearth in the land ! To 
 our human ken his work was not done. He had put 
 his hand to the plough, but the furrow was not yet 
 turned to the end. Competent to every new de- 
 mand of his country, each new crisis found him more 
 resourceful than before. He grew and broadened 
 steadily. How spontaneous, when, after breathless 
 anxiety the news of his death broke every heart, was 
 the utterance : Would that he might have lived to 
 keep the ship of state right in its voyage amid the 
 perils and demands of the new century ! Would 
 that that large conciliatory and harmonizing spirit, as 
 wise as it was kindly, might have still closer united 
 all sections of the land and all the conflicting interests 
 which sway like mighty winds the trembling founda- 
 tions of the state ! 
 
 Of the death-scene let me quote the description in 
 
36 Address by Ex-Secretary Long 
 
 the admirable eulogy of Charles Emory Smith : " If 
 he was great in life he was sublime in death. The 
 cruel shot rangf with horror around the world. His 
 country and all mankind followed the clanging re- 
 ports with alternations of high hope and of deepest 
 gloom. But through all the fluctuations of that an- 
 guishing week, whether encouraged by the highest 
 human skill or looking through the open portals to 
 the eternal morn, he and he alone waited with un- 
 quailing spirit, with serene patience and crowning 
 trust. In that hour he rose to his full height. What 
 a noble exhibition of a Godlike nature ! Would you 
 know his generosity ? Recall his words as he looked 
 upon the miscreant, ' Don't let them hurt him.' 
 Would you understand his thoughtful chivalry ? Re- 
 mark his immediate admonition, ' Do not let them 
 alarm my wife.' Would you appreciate his consider- 
 ate courtesy ? Turn to his fine sense, ' I am sorry 
 that the Exposition has been shadowed.' Would you 
 measure his moral grandeur ? Dwell upon that final 
 utterance of sublime submission, ' It is God's way ; 
 His will, not ours, be done.' " 
 
 I have never seen anything more significant than 
 the journey with McKinley, dead, from Buffalo to 
 Washington that September day two years ago ; the 
 wife of his heart, around whom in her frail physical 
 health his arm never before had failed to be a support, 
 entering the presidential car bereaved of his devoted 
 care ; the school children with their little flags at 
 every station, as we passed it, standing with uncov- 
 ered heads ; the lines of workingmen and of his old 
 comrades of the Grand Army, as we went through 
 manufacturing villages, drawn up with their hats held 
 
Address by Ex-Secretary Long $j 
 
 in salute against their breasts, every face among them 
 eloquent of personal grief and sense of loss ; and the 
 greater crowds at the large towns and cities from 
 whom, as the train paused, burst almost spontane- 
 ously it seemed, his favorite hymn, " Nearer My God 
 to Thee." 
 
 He has joined the great group in heaven, the 
 mighty constellation of American patriots. One fan- 
 cies them welcoming him among them with a Well 
 done, good and faithful servant ! In the elysian 
 fields he walks with Washington and Lincoln, whose 
 example inspired him ; with Hamilton and Clay, 
 whose systems of revenue he applied ; with Webster, 
 whose brow and deep-set eyes his own were like ; 
 with Grant and Sherman and Sheridan, who no 
 longer differ in rank from this private soldier who 
 shared their battles and now shares their fame. 
 
 He has gone, but his works do follow him. He 
 lives in our memories, in American history, in this 
 eternal bronze. He lives a model to American youth, 
 not more in his comradeship with the great and good 
 than in his contrast with the traitors who have been 
 false to their trust, the self-seekers who have held 
 office only to prostitute it, the thieves who have 
 robbed the public treasury, the scoundrels who, rich 
 only in money, have debauched politics and bought 
 their nominations and elections to office, the whited 
 sepulchres who within are full of all uncleanness, the 
 mountebanks who have gotten wealth by trick and 
 sharp practice and spent it only to bedaub themselves 
 with its vulgarity. Turn from these false lights, oh 
 youth, to this pure fountain of living waters ! 
 
 A strain of music strikes the ear — some exquisite 
 
38 Address by Ex-Secretary Long 
 
 song or melody. The eyes close, and shut out the 
 world about us. The fancy floats afar on the wings 
 of beatific vision. The years fall off and it is the 
 elysium of the dream of youth. So with us gathered 
 here to-day. This statue has withdrawn us from our 
 daily round. Our gaze is absorbed and riveted on it. 
 And lo, as we lose ourselves in the mesmeric haze, 
 the figure slowly stirs, then quickens into life. The 
 eyes, those eloquent eyes, again look into ours ; the 
 benignant face lights up as of old ; the lips open 
 with the old cordial greeting ; the hand closes on 
 ours with the old warm grasp ; and McKinley still 
 lives. 
 
Address by Governor Bates 
 
 THE commonwealth of Massachusetts is indebted 
 to those public-spirited citizens whom love of 
 their fellow men has led to dedicate for the use, 
 pleasure, and profit of all the people, libraries, halls, 
 schools, parks, and monuments. By such means men 
 lengthen the span of their influence in the world far 
 beyond the few years that intervene between the 
 cradle and the grave. 
 
 On behalf of the commonwealth I thank the man 
 whose heart prompted the erection of this magnificent 
 monument, and I congratulate the town of Adams on 
 being the recipient of this work of art, this tribute to 
 greatness ; this visible expression of a community's 
 appreciation of the noble dead. 
 
 We do not erect monuments to men that we may 
 not forget them, but because we cannot forget them. 
 It may be that their lives have made men particularly 
 indebted to them, and humanity by its memorials 
 seeks not to discharge its debt but to show its 
 gratitude. 
 
 For such a reason the monument to Dr. Morton 
 stands in the public gardens in Boston. His discov- 
 eries and experiments banished from the world much 
 human sufferings. For such a reason our State has 
 recently erected a monument to Joseph Hooker, a 
 
 39 
 
4-0 Address by Governor Bates 
 
 mighty soldier in the war that kept all the stars in the 
 flag in one constellation. 
 
 To others, memorials have been placed because 
 they championed some great cause that has much 
 affected the people. For this reason Horace Mann, 
 the educator, and Daniel Webster, the defender of 
 the Constitution, stand at the right and the left of the 
 portals of our Capitol, while William Lloyd Garrison, 
 the once despised abolitionist, sits on eternal granite 
 in the shade of the trees on the finest avenue in 
 America. 
 
 But there are others to whom we have erected 
 monuments, not only as an expression of gratitude 
 for distinguished service ; not only because they rep- 
 resented some one cause, but because in addition to 
 these they represent also American ideals, the 
 possibilities of American citizenship. Such men were 
 Washington, Lincoln, and McKinley. 
 
 However we may differ as to the extent to which the 
 policy of protection should be carried, we all recog- 
 nize that that policy has been a great cause of growth 
 to American industries and that for many years Wil- 
 liam McKinley was its greatest exponent, and that 
 there is not a home in the land but what has received 
 benefit therefrom. He was not unmindful of the 
 songs of birds at the breaking of the morning, nor of 
 the rhythm of the tree tops in the wind, nor of the 
 chanting of the surges on the ocean's shore ; but 
 sweeter to him than these, sweeter than the sound of 
 human voice, and grander than martial music were the 
 singing of spindles and the chanting of the looms 
 that told of happiness and comfort in the homes of 
 men. 
 
GOVERNOR JOHN L. BATES. 
 
Address by Governor Bates 41 
 
 But McKinley represented other great national 
 policies. He made America the champion of the 
 oppressed and the avenger of the weak. He caused 
 her to step forth a world power with obligations com- 
 mensurate with her strength and her opportunity. 
 l^ More than this he stands as a representative of the 
 American ideal, of what a man should be in his home 
 life and in his public life, as a citizen and a soldier, as 
 statesman and as Christian. 
 
 We do not make men greater by erecting monu- 
 ments to their memory, but the silent bronze forever 
 testifying to the virtues of a great character may tend 
 to produce loftier sentiments, grander ideals, better 
 citizenship in those who look upon it from day to 
 day. 
 
 So let him stand, colossal amid the beauty of your 
 hills. They cannot hide him. Rather are they the 
 setting, grandly fashioned by nature to clasp and 
 guard forever this representative of God's noblest 
 work — a man. 
 
Address by Lieutenant-Governor Guild 
 
 THE statue of McKinley has been erected and 
 dedicated by the public spirit of your generous 
 townspeople, the appreciation of the commonwealth 
 has been uttered by her chosen chief magistrate, the 
 eulogy has been pronounced by the dead President's 
 friend, who spoke to and for him with a voice of 
 Massachusetts in the supreme council of the nation. 
 
 It is a privilege to be associated with such men on 
 such an occasion and for such a purpose. It would 
 be an abuse of that privilege to attempt by any further 
 oratory to impose filigree upon gold. 
 
 All that can be spoken in words has been spoken. 
 
 More eloquent than ephemeral human speech 
 stands this statue of a sagacious statesman, an in- 
 trepid soldier, a pure man ; the statue of a President 
 of the United States slain by calumny, whose hideous 
 necromancy portrayed even murder as patriotism to 
 the distorted vision of its miserable dupe. 
 
 The statue of Memnon spoke but at the rising of 
 the sun. Not in the pale light of morning only but 
 amid the bustle of noon and under the silent stars, 
 this wide-flung arm of bronze shall eternally appeal, 
 in war to the soldier, in peace to the citizen, for the 
 performance of every military or civic duty, for the 
 respect for law, for truth, for honor, for each other, 
 
 42 
 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR CURTIS GUILD, JR. 
 
Address by Lieut ena?it- Governor Guild 43 
 
 which, from the enemy that in great crises attacks 
 from without and from the poison that daily assaults 
 from within, have saved and shall yet save the re- 
 public for her destiny. 
 
The splendid choir and orchestra which had mag- 
 nificently rendered the Gloria and Hallelujah Chorus 
 now led thousands of voices in singing " America," 
 therewith closing the dedicatory exercises, the memo- 
 ries of which might be preserved by tradition, but 
 the powerful inspiration of a grand life is better per- 
 petuated by the noble words spoken on this occasion. 
 
 The addresses are therefore presented to the citi- 
 zens of Adams in this Memorial Volume together 
 with a description of the statue and the exercises at- 
 tending its unveiling. 
 
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