7/1 
 
 ,
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT,
 
 PRESIDENT WILLIAM iioKINLEY.
 
 Life and Distinguished Services 
 
 OF 
 
 William McKinley 
 
 +/ 
 
 Our Martyr President 
 
 BY 
 
 MURAT HALSTEAD 
 
 FAMOUS JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR 
 
 As Prepared by Him in 1896 and 1900 in "I,ife and Distinguished Services of 
 William McKinley" and "Victorious Republicanism" 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 SENATOR CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW 
 
 AND SPECIAL CHAPTERS BY 
 
 GENERA^ C. H. GROSVENOR, COLONEL ALBERT HALSTEAD, AND 
 THE LATE SECRETARY OP STATE, JOHN SHERMAN 
 
 MEMORIAL EDITION, OCTOBER, 1901 
 
 TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRESIDENT'S DEATH 
 
 AND BURIAL, BY 
 
 A. J. MUNSON 
 
 AUTHOR AND EDITOR 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH MANY HALF-TONE VIEWS AND PORTRAITS 
 
 MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY H. I,. BARBER.
 
 PUBLISHERS' INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Our country has been singularly fortunate in 
 having had, at nearly all times, some one states- 
 man whose honesty and wisdom strengthened him 
 to check the disturbing elements of mere poli- 
 ticians, and guide them in channels where serious 
 harm could not be done. On the republic's scroll 
 of fame there is no name that shines with greater 
 lustre because of these qualities than that of 
 William McKinley. A statesman of many parts, 1 
 and capable in all, whose ear was ever attuned to 
 the voice of the people, and whose deepest solici- 
 tude was their welfare, he was an ideal leader in 
 whom the people trusted, and in whom faith was 
 not abused. 
 
 The career of William McKinley was -exem- 
 plary. His personal virtue, his purity of charac- 
 ter, his honesty of motive, his patriotic purpose, 
 his loyalty to right, his love of justice, his spirit 
 of mercy, endeared him to the people, so that 
 when he was struck down by the assassin they 
 felt the blow as if it had been struck at them* 
 selves. 
 
 The record of such a life and such a career de- 
 serves a permanent form as is given by this vol-
 
 ume. In presenting the story of the martyr 
 president's life, the publishers have sought the 
 aid of some of the men who knew him best, and 
 who have generously added valuable information 
 to the great storehouse possessed by the author. 
 
 A portion of this volume was written by Mr. 
 Halstead, at the time Mr. McKinley was first nom- 
 inated for the presidency, and being here pre- 
 sented as then written it shows the wonderful ac- 
 curacy of the author's prophecy at that time and 
 how the estimate he then placed on Mr. McKin- 
 ley's popularity and ability has been verified by 
 later events and the action of the people. 
 
 No writer is as well qualified to write of Mr. 
 McKinley 's life and work as is Mr. Halstead. 
 Not only was he personally and intimately ac- 
 quainted with Mr. McKinley during the latter's 
 public career, but for half a century he has been 
 engaged in making through the press a public 
 record of current events. During half of that 
 time Mr. McKinley was in active public life and 
 his advancement and leadership were observed by 
 the author with the keenest interest. It is hoped 
 the book will aid in commemorating the noble 
 life of the martyr president. 
 
 THE PUBLISHERS.
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 ON the day before Major McKinley was nom- 
 inated for the Presidency, an artist distin- 
 guished for the fetching touch of his pencil 
 in catching and fixing likenesses in a few lines, stood 
 in the door of a room where the Major was seated, 
 and never having before seen the famous face, was 
 regarding it with personal and professional intensity, 
 when an acquaintance approached him and said, 
 " Have you been introduced to the Governor ?" 
 " No," said the artist ; " not yet, presently gladly. 
 Let me study him a moment unbeknown, just 
 as he is. Why there is no picture that does him 
 justice. I am right glad to see him when he has no 
 idea of a possible sketch, and no thought of himself. 
 I did not think so, but he is a great man. He is 
 splendid, and there is no one like him in the country. 
 Why did any one ever say he was not a strong man ?" 
 The artist perceived at a glance what all who study 
 Major McKinley find out that he is a strong man 
 and a great one. He is a fortunate combination of 
 excellent, admirable, and lovable traits and qualities. 
 Alike in his boyish patriotism, adventure and bravery 
 
 in war, and the experiences of his mature years io 
 
 9
 
 10 AUTHOB'S PEEFACE 
 
 the National Congress, and the straightforward dis 
 charge of executive duty as Governor of a great State, 
 there has been the heroic simplicity, unselfish and 
 constant, that has attracted the attention and populai 
 favor of ever-widening circles of his fellow-citizens, 
 until his glory has become a precious possession of 
 the American people, and inspired with it they did 
 not wait for the stated organizations to move, before 
 they proclaimed in many unmistakable ways that he 
 was their candidate for the Presidency, and the 
 National Convention of the Eepublican party, as a 
 representative assembly, ratified the public will. The 
 life of McKinley shows the stronger and more 
 graceful lines with greater strength and grace the 
 better it is known. The office of his biographer is 
 one of grateful satisfaction. His record is clear. 
 There is no line for love to lament or for charity to 
 cover no chapter for the advocate to blot or the 
 diplomat to obscure. This is one of the rarest of 
 lives, shining in every part with the inner light of the 
 truth that is honor's self; and the radiance of un- 
 clouded day reveals only stainless symmetry, and the 
 harmony of open motives with consummate achieve- 
 ment. He could not advance to the elevation he 
 occupies without encountering enmity and combat- 
 ting imputation ; but no charge was ever contrived 
 that he had other fault than that of friendliness per- 
 haps too forgiving, or of confidence too generous. 
 He is a man who will go on growing in the 
 affection of the gentle and the estimation of the
 
 AUTHOR'S PKEFACE 11 
 
 judicious. The potency of his character and intel- 
 lect and the kindliness of his heart, declare in his 
 presence, that the favorite disparagements in which 
 his assailants indulge, the conventional accusations of 
 partisan warfare, are but fictions that are frivolous. 
 The verdict of the artist, that he is a strong, great 
 man, will be confirmed by all the people, when the 
 performance of the task they appoint for him becomes 
 history. 
 
 MUKAT HALSTEAD.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Publisher's introduction , 1 
 
 Author's preface 9 
 
 Introduction 18 
 
 CHAPTER I. Personal sketch of Hon. William McKinley by Hon. 
 John Sherman 27 
 
 CHAPTER II. Ancestry Youth In the army Student of law 
 Prosecuting attorney Home life 42 
 
 CHAPTER III. McKinley in Congress The rapid growth of his 
 national reputation Became the champion of protection 
 First in a National Convention 63 
 
 CHAPTER IV. First experience as a candidate for the Presi- 
 dency Trying times and personal triumph in Chicago Pros- 
 perity under the McKinley law Gerrymandered out of Con- 
 gress Governor of Ohio 77 
 
 CHAPTER V. McKinley's career in few words The charm of his 
 personal character His habits of labor Devotion to friends 
 and family 99 
 
 CHAPTER VI. McKinley not a man of one idea His superior dis- 
 tinction as a Protectionist has caused him to be erroneously 
 accused of exclusive devotion to that subject The great 
 range of his public speeches and addresses A superb tribute 
 from General Grosvenor, giving a list of subjects 121
 
 CONTENTS 13 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER VII. McKinley on. Civic Patriotism Address at 
 Rochester, N. Y. Studying conditions of government 
 Public opinion the basis Zeal after election The people's 
 business Duty of business men Manufacturing interests 
 Our best market An extraordinary spectacle 134 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. The lessons of heroic lives McKinley a patriot 
 Oration Piety and patriotism Lessons of heroism Influ- 
 ences of Chautauqua A fighting patriot The grand review 
 A generous eulogy Illustrious names 167 
 
 CHAPTER IX. McKinley and money Nominated for Governor 
 The sound money battle A full dollar Not willing to 
 chance it Two yard-sticks Struggle against inflation A 
 high compliment Opposed to unlimited coinage Treasury 
 Report 178 
 
 CHAPTER X. The Money Standard questions have been settled 
 in and by the Republican party Silver legislation in brief 
 How the country was saved from the silver standard John 
 Sherman and William McKinley have marched together 
 The Hon. Charles Emory Smith's exposition of this question 
 The unexampled supply of gold is solving the money ques- 
 tions for the people and abolishing its issue 194 
 
 CHAPTER XI. William McKinley as a campaigner Speaking to 
 fifteen millions of people -Making one thousand speeches- 
 Constitution of iron Wondrous vitality Magnetic power 
 Excellent memory Good listener Making converts 
 Policy of Protection the hope of America 226 
 
 CHAPTER XII. McKinley's advice to boys The enterprising 
 boy Interviewing Major McKinley Boy's own account of
 
 14 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 it Painting up the town Looks like Napoleon Fatherly 
 advice An important question 241 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. The contrasted conditions Between Repub- 
 lican protection and prosperity and Democratic meddling, 
 disorganizing industry and forcing hard times, displayed in 
 speeches by McKinley in 1892 and in 1895 A plea in Boston 
 for protection and prosperity 253 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. Some views on public questions Humorous 
 speeches The feeder of Great Britain A leap in the dark- 
 Give the officials scope Importance of agriculture Arbitra- 
 tion Respect and retrospect Let England take care of her- 
 self 296 
 
 CHAPTER XV. Liberty and Labor 313 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. Mrs. McKinley at home The great Protection- 
 ist's wife Strong despite physical weakness Shares all her 
 husband's burdens "Ever happy when surrounded by 
 friends, children and roses." 339 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. McKinley on the day of his nomination His 
 good nerve and thoughtful courtesies He was quiet through 
 the storm and gave the good news with kisses to his wife and 
 mother 355 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. Major McKinley acknowledges and accepts his 
 nomination ,. 371 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. Salient extracts from Major McKinley's ad- 
 dresses to representative delegations 407 
 
 CHAPTER XX. McKinley's inaugural address A lofty appeal to 
 all patriotic Americans for the prompt solution of the great 
 and pressing problems of the National Government 430
 
 CONTENTS. 15 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. The Philadelphia convention President 
 McKinley endorsed by his unanimous nomination for a sec- 
 ond term Gorernor Roosevelt the choice for Vice-President. 446 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. Senator Lodge's speech Permanent Chairman 
 of the Eepublican Convention outlines the position of Repub- 
 lican party A scholarly effort and a concise statement 456 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. Republican Platform of 1900 Document of 
 remarkable scope and certainty Defines the party's position 
 on every issue Adopted as read 472 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. McKinley's later days Elected and inaugu- 
 rated President a second time Triumphal tour through the 
 South and the West, ended by Mrs. McKinley's illness 483 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. President McKinley's assassination Presi- 
 dent's visit to the Pan-American Exposition His great 
 speech Shot by Anarchist Leon Czolgosz A week in the 
 balance 487 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. Death of President McKinley Dies peacefully 
 at 2:15 A. M., Saturday, September 14 Fond farewell of hus- 
 band and wife Last words, "Nearer, My God, to Thee." 512 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. Burial of President McKinley Private 
 Funeral Services Lying in state at Buffalo and Washington 
 Interment at Canton 518 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. Trial and execution of assassin -. 533 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. Theodore Roosevelt Sketch of his life 539
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt ) Frontispieces 
 
 Wm. McKmley $ 
 
 McKinley at Eighteen 21 
 
 McKinley When Elected to Congress 22 
 
 Hon. Wm. McKinley's Residence 39 
 
 Hon. Wm. McKinley in His Study 40 
 
 Mrs. William McKinley 57 
 
 Mrs. McKinley's Room 58 
 
 Hon Wm. McKinley's Father 75 
 
 Hon. Win. McKinley's Mother 76 
 
 Residence of the Late J. A. Stanton, Mrs. McKinley's Father. . . 93 
 
 First M. E. Church at Canton 94 
 
 The White House, Ill 
 
 Admiral George Dewey 112 
 
 Department of State 129 
 
 Convention Hall, St. Louis, Mo 130 
 
 Republican Convention Hall at Philadelphia 147 
 
 Hon. John Sherman 148 
 
 Hon. Thomas B. Reed. 165 
 
 Hon. Chauncey M. Depew 166 
 
 Hon. Matthew Stanley Quay 183 
 
 Hon. Stephen B. Elkins 184 
 
 Hon. Chag. Emory Smith 201 
 
 Hon. Levi P. Morton 202 
 
 Hon. Mark Hanna ! 219 
 
 Hon. C. H. Grosvenor 220 
 
 Hon. Geo. F. Hoar 237 
 
 16
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 17 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Hon. W. B. Allison 238 
 
 Hon. Benjamin Harrison 255 
 
 Hon. R. Proctor 256 
 
 Late Vice -President Garret A. Hobart 273 
 
 Senator Win. E. Mason 274 
 
 Senator Cushman K. Davis 291 
 
 Senator Henry C. Lodge 292 
 
 Andrew Carnegie 309 
 
 Hon. Hazen S. Pingree 310 
 
 Hon. E. O. Wolcott 327 
 
 Hon. John Wanamaker 328 
 
 Hon. Lyman J. Gage 345 
 
 Hon. John D. Long 346 
 
 Gen. Lew Wallace 363 
 
 Ex-Secretary of State Day 364 
 
 Hon. William P. Frye 381 
 
 S. P. Dole, Ex-President Hawaiian Republic 382 
 
 Murat Halstead 399 
 
 President and His War Cabinet 400 
 
 Military Heroes of Santiago 417 
 
 Naval Heroes of Santiago 418
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 MAJOR WILLIAM McKINLEY requires 
 no introduction to the people of the 
 United States. His name and fame are 
 in every American home. It is well that the details 
 of a career so full of inspiration should be put jn 
 permanent form, and this has been admirably done 
 in this volume by the accomplished author. Public 
 men fade rapidly from even contemporary memory. 
 Only those who are so identified with a great cause 
 or principle, that the man and the measure are one 
 in the popular mind, can hope to survive the tread 
 of the ever advancing column of the ambitious and 
 successful. This rare distinction belonged fifty 
 years ago to Henry Clay and now to Governor 
 McKinley. Protection for American industries and 
 McKinley are synonymous terms. 
 
 Heroes and statesmen are admired and loved for 
 some striking characteristic. General Jackson has 
 
 18
 
 19 
 
 beeu the idol of a great partyTor more than half 8 
 century, not for the ideas he gave the organization, 
 but because he was " Old Hickory." " I will fight 
 it out on this line if it takes all summer," expressed 
 the indomitable and resistless purpose of Grant. 
 The immortal speech at Gettysburg condensed the 
 patriotism and pathos of Lincoln. The triumph of 
 McKinley over obstacles in a career which would 
 have been insurmountable for a weaker man has 
 been due to his absolute sincerity and loyalty. His 
 clear brain and warm heart are always in accord. 
 His sentiment is subordinate to his judgment, but 
 when his mind is made up his emotional nature gives 
 a contagious enthusiasm to his efforts which secures 
 devoted followers and lends a living interest to the 
 discussion of the driest subjects. 
 
 A boy of eighteen, teaching school to earn money 
 for a college education and deeply imbued with the 
 intense anti-slavery and union sentiment of Ohio, he 
 followed the flag to the front when Lincoln called 
 for volunteers. As soon as he was satisfied that lib- 
 erty and the Republic could only be saved by fight- 
 ing for them, his life belonged to his country. It is 
 always difficult to rise from the ranks, and for a 
 beardless boy well-nigh impossible. But in the 
 eighteen months during which he carried a musket 
 he was attracting the attention of the officers of his 
 regiment and such a regiment ! Its Colonel, Gen- 
 eral Rosecrans, was promoted to the command of the 
 Armies of the Tennessee and the Cumberland. Its
 
 20 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Lieutenant - Colonel, Stanley Matthews, became 
 United States Senator and one of the Judges of that 
 august tribunal, the Supreme Court. Its Major, 
 Rutherford B. Hayes, was elected Governor of Ohio 
 and President of the United States, and soon the 
 successor of Hayes in the Majority of the gallant 
 Twenty-third will also be the Chief Magistrate of 
 this Republic. Our army was retreating down the 
 Valley of Virginia ; brigade after brigade of ex- 
 hausted troops passed a battery of four guns which 
 had been abandoned in the road. " The boys will 
 haul them," said McKinley, and responding to his 
 call and example his comrades did. He was in a safe 
 place as Commissary Sergeant, two miles from the field 
 at the Battle of Antietam. His business was to 
 guard the rations until called for. Soldiers fight far 
 better on full than empty stomachs, and so thought 
 this fearless and practical Commissary Sergeant, and 
 as evening fell two mule wagons loaded with food 
 and hot coffee were going, under heavy fire from the 
 enemy, straight for the boys at the front, and the 
 driver of the first wagon, and the one which got 
 through, was Sergeant McKinley. He was the staff 
 officer selected to carry an order to a regiment in a 
 perilous position to join the main column. It was 
 believed that no one could ride across the enemy's 
 front and reach his destination alive. The gallant 
 Major never hesitated, but quietly and quickly 
 obeyed orders and saved the regiment. These battle 
 incidents, selected from many, indicate and reveal llu*
 
 McKINLEY AT EIGHTEEN.
 
 WILLIAM McKINLEY WHEN ELECTED TO CONGRESS.
 
 23 
 
 man, never fool-hardy nor boastful nor rash, but 
 with intuitive genius grasping the situation and with 
 serene confidence meeting wisely its requirements, 
 regardless of consequences or perils to himself. 
 
 Governor McKinley was born and has passed his 
 life in that manufacturing district of his native 
 State which is a hive of varied industries. From 
 early youth he has witnessed and felt the seasons 
 of employment and idleness which come to the work- 
 ers in mills and factories. He had participated with 
 his play-fellows and companions in the joyous con- 
 ditions which attend the humming spindles, the 
 whirl of machinery, and the blaze of the furnaces, 
 and his heart had been wrung by association with 
 strong men suffering and seeking only work, and 
 their sons no longer able to be at the district school. 
 He pondered deeply over the questions suggested by 
 such occurrences, and eagerly sought remedies for 
 the fluctuations which involved capital and labor and 
 the employers and employes in common ruin. With 
 Washington and Hamilton, with Webster and Clay, 
 he came, not alone, as they did, by the cold deduc- 
 tions of reason, but also by observation and experi- 
 ence, to the conclusion that the solution of our in- 
 dustrial problems and the salvation of our productive 
 industries could only be had by the policy of a Pro- 
 tective Tariff. As Union and Liberty had been the 
 inspiration of his courage and sacrifices as a soldier, 
 so now America for Americans became the active 
 priucijr J ' his efforts as a citizen. A century of
 
 jj4 INTRODUCTION 
 
 discussion had not enlivened tariff debates. They 
 were the preserves of the " dry-as-dust " speaker and 
 the dread of the orator. This question has been for 
 a century the foremost one in platforms and legisla- 
 tion, but worn threadbare in debate. When Con- 
 gressman McKinley appeared upon the floor of the 
 House of Representatives to voice the aspirations of 
 American labor for work and wages it was like Paul 
 preaching to the Gentiles. The best brains of the 
 country had been advocating the principle, but now 
 brain and heart were united in the cause. Had 
 McKinley done nothing else his popular discussions 
 of tariff questions in Congress, on the stump, and 
 before college commencements would have earned for 
 him the recognition and gratitude of his country- 
 men. His audiences at once learn that they are 
 not listening to a declaimer or a commentator upon 
 academic theories, but they are roused to wild enthu- 
 siasm by the passion and earnestness, the convictions 
 and pleadings of a sincere man, who both knows and 
 feels the wisdom and necessity of the principles he 
 advocates. No man could talk so ably, so often, and 
 so entertainingly upon this well-worn theme unless 
 he was broad-minded and versatile. 
 
 The fame of Governor McKinley as the most cap- 
 tivating orator on protection issues of this generation 
 has obscured his merits as a speaker of eminence 
 and power upon a wide range of topics. Whether 
 the theme is patriotic or educational, religious or 
 secular, a discriminating eulogy upon a departed
 
 IXTBODUCTION 25 
 
 statesman or an address before farmers or journalists, 
 we find in the speeches of Mr. McKinley the same 
 thoughtful, courageous, sincere, and lucid thinker. 
 
 The sweetest and tenderest word in our language 
 is home. The source and centre of all the saving 
 and helpful influences which form American char- 
 acter and determine American action come from the 
 family and fireside. No man could hope to repre- 
 sent our people who failed to embody in his life and 
 in popular appreciation this ideal. Our hearts and 
 sympathies are with lovers, young or old, who are 
 pure and true. The Major is both a young and old 
 lover, and always a lover. The young lady, educated, 
 accomplished," and beautiful, seeking to do something 
 useful in her father's bank, saw the handsome, frank 
 young soldier a lawyer now pass day by day, and 
 he in turn noticed this girl, so different from her 
 companions in the earnest purposes of her life. 
 Heaven blessed the union, and in the early, happy 
 days two children came to brighten their home. 
 First one and then the other was called, and their 
 loss broke the mother's health. The cares of public 
 life, the anxieties of political fortunes, and the 
 triumphs of a brilliant career have never for one 
 moment distracted or disturbed the tender solicitude 
 and affectionate devotion of this best of husbands to 
 the most self-sacrificing, helpful, and appreciative of 
 wives. They are a beautiful example of wedded 
 confidence, and their domestic life a splendid type of 
 the American home.
 
 26 I1VTEODUCTION 
 
 Our people have always been fortunate in the can- 
 didates presented for their suffrages for that highest 
 position on earth the Presidency of the United 
 States. They never have had a better example of 
 the results of American liberty and opportunity than 
 this brilliant and faithful soldier, this industrious and 
 honest citizen, this wise and practical statesman, this 
 sincere and loyal husband and friend William 
 McKinley. 
 
 /
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PEBSONAL SKETCH OF HON. WILLIAM MCKINLEY, 
 BY HON. JOHN SHEKMAN. 
 
 BY request I write this sketch of the life and 
 traits of Hon. William McKinley, nominee 
 of the Republican party for the high office of 
 President of the United States. 
 
 He was born at Niles, Ohio, January 29th, 1843, 
 and is, therefore, just past fifty-three years of age. He 
 is now in the prime of vigorous manhood, and his 
 powers of endurance are not excelled by any Ameri- 
 can of his age. The best evidence of this is the 
 rfiany campaigns which he has made during his public 
 life in behalf of the Republican party. He has 
 proved his ability and endurance by the number 
 and perfection of the speeches which he has 
 delivered. 
 
 His education, for reasons that could not be sur- 
 mounted, was limited to the public schools of Ohio, 
 and to a brief academic course in Allegheny College. 
 He taught school in the country and accumulated the 
 small means necessary to defray the expenses of that 
 iort of education. This is the kind of schooling thaf 
 
 27
 
 28 
 
 has produced many of the most eminent Americans 
 in public and private life. 
 
 McKinley entered the Union Army in June, 1861, 
 enlisting in the Twenty-Third Ohio Infantry, when 
 a little more than seventeen years of age. This was 
 a noted regiment. Among its earlier field officers 
 may be mentioned General "W. S. Kosecrans, Gen- 
 eral Scammon, General Stanley Matthews, General 
 Rutherford B. Hayes, General Comley, and many 
 other conspicuous men. He served during the entire 
 war, rising from the position of a private to the rank 
 of major. He was a soldier on the front line, served 
 in battles, marches, bivouacs and campaigns, and 
 received the official commendation of his superior 
 officers on very many occasions. He returned to 
 Ohio with a record of which any young man might 
 well be proud, and to which the old soldiers of the 
 country point with enthusiasm now that he is 
 honored by a presidential nomination. There are 
 in the United States at this time more than a million 
 soldiers of the late war who served on the Union 
 side, still living and voting, and they have sons and 
 their relatives, all of whom, taken in the aggregate, 
 become a power in a presidential election. His 
 military career, while he was not in high command, 
 is full of heroic incidents, which are proven not only 
 by contemporaneous publications in the newspapers, 
 but by official reports of his superior officers. He 
 was not only a gallant soldier, full of endurance and 
 personal energy, but he was the calm, judicious staff
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 29 
 
 officer, who won the commendations of his superiors 
 by the exhibition of good judgment and wise adminis- 
 trative capacity. 
 
 Returning from the war he found it necessary to 
 choose his employment for life, and without further 
 schooling he entered earnestly upon the study of law 
 in the office of Judge Poland, and was a careful, 
 faithful, industrious, and competent student. He 
 entered the Albany Law School, and graduated from 
 that institution with high honors. He then began 
 the practice of law to Canton with the same enthu- 
 siasm and devotion to duty which he had always 
 manifested. As a practitioner at the bar he at once 
 exhibited superior qualities, careful, studious, and 
 faithful. He was elected Prosecuting Attorney of his 
 county, and distinguished himself by his learning, 
 fidelity, and efficiency in the discharge of his duties 
 to the public and his clients. 
 
 He was elected a member of the 45th Congress, 
 and served in that Congress and the 46th, 47th, 
 48th, 49th, and was certified as elected to the 50th, 
 but was excluded by a Democratic majority in a con- 
 test, but was returned to the 51st, making his con - 
 gressional career nearly fourteen years. As a mem- 
 ber of Congress he was attentive, industrious, and 
 untiring, working his way gradually until he reached 
 the post of leader of the Republican majority of the 
 51st Congress. He did not attain this position by 
 accident or by any fortuitous circumstance, but by 
 constant attention to his duties and a careful study of
 
 30 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 
 
 the public measures of importance. He was a can- 
 didate for Speaker of the House of Representatives 
 of the 51st Congress. Mr. Reed, the successful can- 
 didate, appointed him as Chairman of the Ways and 
 Means Committee, and he entered upon the duties 
 incident to that position with great energy and intel- 
 ligence. There was a necessity and a well-defined 
 public demand for tariff legislation in that Congress. 
 The Republican party had come into power by the 
 election of Mr. Harrison, with the understanding and 
 pledge that tariff revision should be accomplished at 
 once. The tariff laws of 1883 required amendment 
 and improvement on account of the lapse of time and 
 change of circumstances. In 1890 it was decided to 
 present a complete revision of the tariff, and to this 
 work McKinley devoted himself with untiring indus- 
 try. He had upon that committee many competent 
 assistants, but the chief burdens necessarily fell upon 
 the chairman. Mr. Speaker Reed was in hearty 
 sympathy and earnest co-operation, and the House 
 of Representatives, on the 21st day of May, 1890, 
 passed the bill known as the McKinley Tariff Bill. 
 Any one turning to the great debate in the House of 
 Representatives pending the passage of that measure 
 in the Committee of the Whole will appreciate the 
 great scope of McKinley 's knowledge of the subject- 
 matter of that enactment. 
 
 It has never been claimed by McKinley's friends 
 that he was the sole author of the McKinley bill. 
 Not only did he have able supporters and assistants,
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 31 
 
 but he yielded to them under all circumstances oppor- 
 tunities for demonstrating their leadership upon sub- 
 jects connected with the bill, and over and over again 
 expressed in public and in private his great admira- 
 tion for the assistance contributed by his colleagues 
 in the Committee. But it is fair to say that Mc- 
 Kinley mastered the whole subject in Congress in 
 detail. He has made the subject of protective tariff 
 a life study. Born and reared within the sounds of 
 the rolling mill, and beneath the smoke and flame 
 of furnaces, and with the full knowledge of the calls 
 of labor and the necessities of capital, he has grown 
 up from childhood a student of the economic ques- 
 tions involved in American legislation, and so he 
 brought to this task in the 51st Congress remarkable 
 knowledge of details and thorough equipment for the 
 great work devolved upon him. McKinley is a man 
 of conspicuous modesty. He never claimed the ex- 
 clusive authorship of this measure, but it must be 
 admitted that he contributed more than any one else 
 to the policy of combining in a tariff law ample pro- 
 vision for sufficient revenue to meet the expenditures 
 of the Government, and at the same time to protect 
 and foster impartially all domestic labor and produc- 
 tion from undue competition with the poorly paid 
 labor of foreign nations. 
 
 It is often asserted that the McKinley Act failed 
 in providing sufficient revenue to support the Gov- 
 ernment. This is not true, as it did furnish revenue 
 to meet expenditures, but it did not provide a surplus
 
 32 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 
 
 equal to the sinking fund for the reduction of the 
 public debt. This was not the fault of McKinley 
 or of the House of Representatives, but of the 
 Senate, which insisted upon reciprocity clauses 
 which largely reduced the revenue provided by 
 that Act. 
 
 It was the misfortune of the McKinley Act that it 
 took effect at the opening of a Presidential contest, 
 and when "Labor Troubles" excited the public 
 mind. The election of 1892 fell with demoralizing 
 and almost crushing weight upon the Republican 
 party of the country. The law of 1890 was every- 
 where, by Republicans and Democrats, denominated 
 the McKiuley Law, and from ocean to ocean the 
 common people learned to so denominate it. At that 
 time Major McKinley not only did not seek to evade 
 the responsibility of his position, but frankly and 
 openly admitted it, and he counselled courage and 
 fortitude, and gave assurance of his strong faith in 
 the ultimate triumph of the Republican party upon 
 the very principles which then seemed .to be re- 
 pudiated by the people. 
 
 Addressing himself to an audience of discouraged 
 Republicans in February, 1893, he said : 
 
 :< The Republican party values its principles no 
 less in defeat than in victory. It holds to them 
 after a reverse as before, because it believes in them, 
 and, believing in them, is ready to battle for them. 
 They are not espoused for mere policy, nor to serve 
 in a single contest. They are set deep and strong
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 33 
 
 in the hearts of the party, and are interwoven with 
 its struggle, its life, and its history. Without dis- 
 couragement our great party reaffirms its allegiance 
 to Republican doctrine, and with unshaken confi- 
 dence seeks again the public judgment through pub- 
 lic discussion. The defeat of 1892 has not made 
 Republican principles less true nor our faith in their 
 ultimate triumph less firm. The party accepts with 
 true American spirit the popular verdict, and chal- 
 lenging the interpretation put upon it by political 
 opponents, takes an appeal to the people, whose 
 court is always open, whose right of review is never 
 questioned. 
 
 " The Republican party, which made its first appear- 
 ance in a national contest in 1856, has lost the Presi- 
 dency but three times in thirty-six years, and only 
 twice since 1860. It has carried seven Presidential 
 elections out of ten since its organization. It has 
 more than once witnessed an apparent condemna- 
 tion of Republican policy swiftly and conclusively 
 reversed by a subsequent and better considered popu- 
 lar verdict. When defeat has come it has usually 
 followed some measure of public law or policy where 
 sufficient time has not elapsed to demonstrate its 
 wisdom and expediency, and where the opposing 
 party, by reason thereof, enjoyed the widest range of 
 popular prejudice and exaggerated statements and 
 misrepresentation." 
 
 This was the language of a bold leader of public 
 opinion. There was no trimming, no hiding fron>
 
 34 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 
 
 responsibility, no shirking from the great question 
 of protection. 
 
 After the passage of the Tariff Act of 1890 the 
 country rang with the designation " McKinley Law " 
 as a term of reproach. The man who had given his 
 name to that Act when it was denounced, boldly pro- 
 claimed his responsibility for it. When the tide 
 turned in its favor he heartily acknowledged the 
 aid of his colleagues. 
 
 My familiar association as a Senator from Ohio 
 with McKinley during his service in the House of 
 Representatives enables me to say that he won 
 friends from all parties by uniform courtesy and 
 fairness, unyielding in sustaining the position of his 
 party upon every question on the floor of the House. 
 His leadership was, nevertheless, not offensive or 
 aggressive, and while he carried his points, he was 
 always courteous to his opponents, impersonal in 
 debate, and always ready to concede honest motives 
 to his opponents. At the close of the 51st Congress, 
 and when his services as a Congressman ended, 
 he retired without leaving behind him a single 
 enemy, and yet he had been unswerving in party 
 fealty and uncompromising upon every question 
 of principle. His name became linked with the 
 great measure of that Congress by the common 
 voice of the people of the whole country, and by the 
 world at large. 
 
 He, shortly after his service in Congress, entered 
 upon the campaign for Governor of Ohio. He was
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 35 
 
 nominated by acclamation in 1891. The State had 
 been carried in 1890 by the Republicans by a very 
 close majority, and the drift in the country was 
 against the success of the Republican party. The 
 discussion by Major McKinley in Ohio of the tariff 
 and currency questions was one of the most thorough 
 and instructive of all the debates in that State. It 
 was a counterpart, in large measure, of that of 1875, 
 when, after a series of defeats throughout the country, 
 growing out of the use of irredeemable paper money, 
 President Hayes, then a candidate for Governor of 
 Ohio, boldly advocated the resumption of specie pay- 
 ments, and was elected on that issue. It was a cam- 
 paign where principles won against prejudices. So, 
 in the campaign of 1891, Governor McKiuley, dis- 
 regarding threatened disasters, adhered without com- 
 promise to the platform of principles involved in the 
 tariff legislation of Congress. He neither apologized 
 nor modified his position, and his election by upwards 
 of twenty thousand majority in that year was the 
 significant result. 
 
 The office of Governor of Ohio was to McKinley a 
 new field of action. It was the first executive office 
 he had ever held. It was his first experience in 
 administrative duty. His success in that department 
 of the public service was as significant and con- 
 spicuous as his experience in the legislative depart- 
 ment of the general government had been. 
 
 He was Governor during a period involving excite- 
 ment and intense commotion in Ohio the strikes
 
 36 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 
 
 among the coal-miners, the organizing of bands of 
 tramps, and the passage across the State of great 
 bodies of turbulent people. All these things tended 
 to precipitate commotion and disorder. His admin- 
 istration as a Governor was without reproach or just 
 criticism. He was faithful to every duty, firm, 
 unyielding, and defiant in the administration of the 
 law. Whe necessary he called out the troops and 
 crushed disorder with an iron hand, but before doing 
 so he resorted to every proper expedient to maintain 
 order and the law. He was diplomatic, careful, per- 
 suasive, and generally restored order and good 
 government. 
 
 The great depression of 1894-5 brought a condition 
 of suffering to many of the leading industries of the 
 State. Charity was appealed to by the Governor 
 and aid rendered promptly and efficiently. In 
 January, 1896, he retired from the office of Governor 
 at the end of his second term with the hearty good- 
 will of all- the people of the State. He had yielded 
 to no unworthy influence, made duty, honor, integ- 
 rity, and fidelity the criterion of his administration, 
 and he took his place in the ranks of the private 
 citizens of the State in the town from which he had 
 first entered Congress. 
 
 It has been said that Governor McKinley'g knowl- 
 edge is limited to a single subject, and that his 
 speeches have been confined to the tariff question. 
 This is a great mistake. His studies and speeches 
 embraced a great variety of subjects and extended to
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 37 
 
 nearly every measure of importance discussed while 
 lie was in Congress, and his addresses to the people, 
 a long list of which has been published, cover every 
 variety of subjects appropriate to the time and place 
 when they were delivered. 
 
 On the vital question of the currency he has held 
 the position of the Republican party. When under 
 the stress of war the United States was compelled to 
 use irredeemable money, he acquiesced in conditions 
 he could not change, but every step taken to advance 
 the credit and value of United States notes while 
 he has been in public life he has supported. He 
 supported the Act for the resumption of specie pay- 
 ments and the successful accomplishment of that 
 measure. I know of no act or vote or speech of his 
 inconsistent with this position. He advocates the 
 use of both gold and silver coins as money to the 
 extent and upon the condition that they can be 
 maintained at par with each other. This can only 
 be done by purchasing as needed the cheaper metal 
 at market value and coining it at the legal rate of 16 
 of silver to 1 of gold, and receiving it in payment of 
 public dues. Gold is now the standard of value. 
 With free coinage of silver that metal will be the 
 standard of value and gold will be demonetized. 
 Governor McKinley is opposed to the free coinage of 
 silver, and has so repeatedly declared in his speeches. 
 McKinley is in favor of honest money. 
 
 In his last Gubernatorial canvass in Ohio Gover- 
 nor McKinley made this response to the declaration
 
 38 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 
 
 of his opponent, ex-Governor Campbell, that he was 
 willing to " chance it" on silver : 
 
 " My worthy opponent should not ' chance ' any- 
 thing with a question of such vital and absorbing in- 
 terest as the money of the people. The money of 
 America must be equal to the best money of the 
 world. Unlike my opponent, I will not ask you to 
 take any chances on this question ; I will clearly and 
 unequivocally say to you that my choice and influ- 
 ence are in favor of the best money that the ingenuity 
 of man has devised. The people are not prepared to 
 indulge in the speculation of free and unlimited 
 coinage. I 
 
 " The Republican party stands now, as ever, for 
 honest money, and a chance to earn it by honest toil. 
 It stands for a currency of gold, silver, and paper 
 that shall be as sound as the government and as un- 
 tarnished as its honor. I would as soon think of 
 lowering the flag of our country as to contemplate 
 with patience, or without protest, any attempt to de- 
 grade or corrupt the medium of exchanges among 
 our people. The Republican party can be relied 
 upon in the future, as in the past, to supply our 
 country with the best money ever known gold, silver, 
 and paper good the world over." 
 
 It has been said that the recent Ohio platform does 
 not declare against free coinage of silver and for 
 honest money. This is not a fair construction of 
 that declaration. The people of Ohio are for that 
 money which has the highest purchasing power, that
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 41 
 
 which yields to labor the highest wages to be paid in 
 the best money, and to domestic productions the 
 highest price in the best money, and that is gold coin 
 or its equivalent in other money of equal purchasing 
 power. This, I believe, is also the opinion of Gov- 
 ernor McKinley, and is the doctrine of the Repub- 
 lican party. 
 
 In his domestic life Governor McKinley is a model 
 American citizen. It is not the purpose of the writer 
 of this sketch to use fulsome language or to comment 
 upon his private life, beyond the mere statement that 
 he is, and has been, an affectionate son of honored 
 parents, his mother still living, a devoted husband, 
 and a true friend. In his family and social life, 
 and in his personal habits, he commends himself to 
 the friends of order, temperance, and good morals. 
 In private he is exemplary, in public life a patriotic 
 Republican. It may be said of him with great pro- 
 priety that no man can more fully represent in his 
 own career than he the great issues upon which the 
 Republican party contested the election of 1896.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ANCESTRY YOUTH IN THE ARMY STUDENT OF 
 LAW PROSECUTING ATTORNEY HOME LIFE. 
 
 THE life of William McKinley is that of an 
 American boy who made the best of his 
 opportunities, continually striving for bet- 
 ter, with no vain longings, but a continuous will- 
 ingness to work that he might learn. It is such a 
 story as should be included in every school-book, 
 not only as a lesson and an inspiration to the young, 
 but as a reminder of the possibilities of American 
 citizenship to those called upon to help children in 
 their studies. He was born at Niles, Ohio, January 
 29th, 1843, and is now in his fifty-fourth year; his hair 
 is but lightly sprinkled with gray, and he is robust 
 and alert. McKinley was descended from a long 
 line of citizens who in times of peace were foremost 
 in industry, and in the days of war always at the 
 front. On his father's side his people were High- 
 
 42
 
 43 
 
 land Scotch, brawny and brainy men, who needed 
 only the opportunities and enlightenment of educa- 
 tion. They were not of the royalist tribes of Scot- 
 land, but a sturdy set, with a determined though 
 imperfectly developed idea of freedom. Liberty of 
 conscience was real with them, and they left the 
 Highlands for the north of Ireland, seeking indepen- 
 dence, and thence to America for the greater liberty 
 they found and helped to perpetuate. 
 
 James McKinley, a fine Scotch-Irish lad of twelve 
 years, was the first to come to America. He was the 
 father of David McKinley, the great-grandfather 
 of the Republican candidate for the Presidency. 
 William McKinley came to America with James, 
 and settled in the South, where his descendants have 
 been and are men of distinction. David McKinley 
 was a revolutionary soldier, one of the sort not re- 
 membered in history, except under the grand classi- 
 fication of privates. 
 
 On his grandmother's side McKinley comes of 
 equally good and sturdy stock, Mary Rose, who mar- 
 ried James McKinley, the second, having come from 
 Holland, where her ancestors had fled to escape 
 religious tyranny in England. The first of the Rose 
 family to emigrate to America was Andrew, who 
 came with William Penn and was one of the repre- 
 sentatives of the thirteen colonies before the rebellion 
 against Great Britain. He owned the land on which 
 Doylestown stands to-day. It was his son, Andrew 
 Rose, who was the father of Mary Rose, the mother
 
 44 McKIKLEY'S EARLY DAYS 
 
 of William McKinley, Sr. This Andrew Rose did 
 more than double duty in the war for freedom against 
 Great Britain. He fought and made weapons to 
 fight with. 
 
 This is an. ancestry typically American, one of 
 soldiers and workers for the country's welfare and 
 wealth, and McKinley's good fortune cast his lot in 
 a happy home, where the true mother imbued the 
 children with love of God and the country. 
 
 In the small town of Niles, in the county of 
 Trumbull, Ohio's great son, whom the Republicans 
 have just nominated for the Presidency, was born in 
 an unpretentious frame building, a house that was 
 partly dwelling and partly country store, the dwell* 
 ing very neat and bright a good home. There was 
 no silver spoon in William McKinley's mouth, 
 though his parents were comfortably situated. The 
 Major was the seventh child, and after him there 
 were born a girl and a boy. 
 
 If William McKinley is not a member of the 
 "Sons of the American Revolution," he has a perfect 
 right to become one, for he has Revolutionary ances- 
 tors on both sides. His great-grandfather, David 
 McKinley, a Pennsylvanian, served in the Revolu- 
 tionary War, enlisting at twenty-one, serving for one 
 year and nine months. His great-grandfather on his 
 grandmother's side was not only a soldier but he was 
 a good mechanic, and molded bullets and made 
 cannon balls for the men who were fighting for" free- 
 dom. He was enlisted in the Revolution, and added
 
 MeKINLEY'S EARLY DAYS 45 
 
 to his services the mechanical genius which he 
 possessed. This union of the excellent qualities of a 
 soldier aid r>8chanic was of excellent service to the 
 cause. 
 
 David McKinley's second son, James, married 
 Mary Kose, daughter of Andrew Rose, Jr., the 
 revolutionary soldier and founder. James McKin- 
 ley raised a large family. Indeed, that seems to 
 have been characteristic of the stock. His second 
 son, William, born in Pennsylvania, was the father 
 of the present Republican candidate for President. 
 William McKinley, Sr., married Nancy Campbell 
 A lison. The Allisons were good stock. They 
 ca^ne from England to Virginia and multiplied, the 
 brunch from which Mrs. William McKinley, Sr., 
 sprung emigrating to Pennsylvania. Major Mc- 
 Kinley's grandfather, Abner Allison, married Ann 
 Campbell, in Green County, Pennsylvania, in 1798. 
 Ann Campbell was of Scotch-German origin. The 
 family moved to New Lisbon, Ohio, where their ten 
 children were born. It was at New Lisbon, in 
 1827, that William McKinley, Sr., married Nancy 
 Campbell Allison. It may be interesting to state 
 that, could the lines be fully followed out, it would 
 be found that Major McKinley is a third or fourth 
 cousin, possibly fifth or sixth, of William B. Allison, 
 of Iowa, who was a candidate for the Presidency at 
 St. Louis. The Allisons spread through the western 
 country, some of them settling in the vicinity of 
 Chillicothe. It was probably from the Pennsylvania
 
 46 McKINLEY'S EARLY DAYS 
 
 branch that William B. Allison sprung, for he was 
 born in Ohio, in a portion of the State not far from 
 New Lisbon. 
 
 It is noticeable that the McKinleys and the fami- 
 lies into which they married were all industrious, 
 hard-working people, religiously inclined, patriots 
 and pioneers a hardy race that baffled with diffi- 
 culty and helped in carving a civilization out of a 
 wilderness. The McKinley-Rose-Allison families 
 were all Pennsylvanians originally, and a people 
 with a trend toward the iron business. The Roses 
 were iron founders, so was McKinley's father, while 
 his mother's people were farmers. The combination 
 of tillers of the soil and molders of the ore was a 
 good one, and added much to the strength of charac- 
 ter and the industrious application that is so charac- 
 teristic of Major McKinley. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. William McKinley, Sr., settled first 
 at Fairfield, Ohio, another small town. There, in 
 Columbiana County, which is now a part of the 
 Eighteenth Ohio District, which his son represented 
 for fourteen years in Congress, the father established 
 an iron foundry, and for two decades he had interests 
 in iron furnaces in New Wilmington, Ohio. It is* 
 interesting to observe that McKinley's ancestry 
 makes it possible to trace his character. The lines 
 of activity pursued by his forefathers were such as 
 to leave their impress upon their offspring, and 
 much as Major McKinley owes to his own energy 
 and labor, the tendency to study, to activity, and to
 
 McKIXLEY'S EAELY DAYS 47 
 
 continued effort was inherited. He had opportu 
 nities for application, and to his credit be it said 
 he did not neglect them. He had openings and 
 chances broader and better than his ancestors, and 
 took advantage of them. It is seen from this short 
 reference to his ancestry that Major McKinley was 
 one of the people born in plain, respectable, and 
 religious surroundings. He did not have the advan- 
 tages nor the embarrassments of a great name, but pro- 
 ceeded by his own effort, by his own continuity of 
 purpose, by study and energy, to make his name great. 
 William McKinley had a good mother. That she 
 is now living, strong and well, with as active an 
 intellect as ever at eighty-seven, is one of his great 
 joys. Vigorous and energetic and strong as his 
 father was, William McKinley, Jr., had the benefit 
 of a mother's training, of her love and devotion, of 
 her gentle guidance, of her religious instruction. 
 Mrs. McKinley, as most mothers of large families, 
 was enabled to do more for her children because 
 they were numerous than had she but one or 
 two. The danger of being spoiled was obviated, and 
 the association with brothers and sisters naturally 
 produced a thoughtfulness for others, a regard for 
 different opinions, and at the same time helped 
 develop an ability to care for himself, since in a 
 family of many members, no matter how harmonious 
 and loving it be, there is always a struggle for 
 supremacy, particularly when there Is an inheritance 
 of aggressiveness.
 
 48 McKINLEY'S EARLY DAYS 
 
 William McKinley's mother is a Christian woman. 
 She loved her country ways, and trained her son to 
 patriotic views, and willingly offered him for sacrifice 
 when she consented to his entering the army to help 
 put down the rebellion when he was not yet eighteen 
 years old. She has pride in his abilities and world- 
 wide reputation, and is undoubtedly rejoiced that he 
 has been named for the greatest and most exalted 
 office in the world. But such a mother as McKinley 
 has would count this honor as nothing, would be 
 unhappy, if it had been secured unworthily. Truly 
 Mrs. McKinley's greatest happiness lies in the fact 
 that her son is an honorable man and respected even 
 by his enemies, because his life has been free from 
 stain. That good old mother lives in Canton now, 
 happy in her son's preferment, and sad only because 
 her good husband was taken away three years ago, 
 before he could see his son the Presidential candidate 
 of his party. 
 
 The family moved to Poland from Niles when 
 William McKinley was still young. The mother 
 desired her children to have educational advantages, 
 and there was in Poland, Ohio, an academy which in 
 those days had a wide reputation for the abilities of 
 its teachers. There Major McKinley's sister, Annie, 
 became a teacher and William a scholar. The young 
 boy made friends always by his quiet dignity and 
 serious habits a student always, but withal a manly 
 fellow, who could play as hard as he studied. The 
 McKinley family was held in high esteem in Po~
 
 McKIXLE Y-S EARLY DAYS 49 
 
 land, and to this day it is remembered with affection 
 and pleasure. The testimony of old friends, the 
 stories of childhood, are always true indications of 
 the character of a young man, and of McKiuley there- 
 is nothing in criticism said. Everybody liked him 
 as a boy, and, of course, bright and thorough in his 
 work as he was, there were prophecies that he would 
 make a great man. That often happens with like- 
 able children, but, alas ! it too seldom is verified by 
 the future. 
 
 The town of Poland was an agricultural and min- 
 ing village, only eight miles from Youngstown, and 
 consequently near the Pennsylvania State line, a city 
 in the now prosperous and fertile Mahoning Valley, 
 which is as famous in Ohio as the Connecticut Val- 
 ley is in New England. Poland never grew much. 
 It was too near Youngstown, but the citizens of the 
 town are proud that small as it is, the draft was 
 never enforced there, for the men volunteered from 
 patriotic motives. In fact there were always more 
 volunteers than Poland's quota justified. 
 
 A boy, while studying in the public schools, the 
 educational advantages he gained made him one of 
 their best friends and advocates. To him the 
 magnificent school system of Ohio is a matter of 
 pride In the days of McKinley's youth men and 
 boys often did chores to help the family along, and 
 that was what McKiuley himself did. McKinley 
 was a clerk in the Poland post-office when he entered 
 the war. He was studying aod marking at the same
 
 50 McKINLEY'S EAELY DAYS 
 
 time. One had a feeling of pride in the advance- 
 ment of a young man who struggled for his educa- 
 tion. So many have been educated without having 
 to work to pay for it, and have not properly regarded 
 the educational advantages, that there is a tingle of 
 satisfaction in seeing a man succeed who earned his 
 education literally by the sweat of his brow. 
 
 In June, 1861, two months after the surrender of 
 Fort Sumter, when McKinley was a youth not yet 
 eighteen, there was a meeting at the tavern in 
 Poland, In a small town the hotel is a meeting 
 place, just as a store is in a village. Here the citizens 
 had assembled, thirty-five years ago, to discuss the 
 secession of States. A speaker in a fiery talk asked 
 who would be first to defend the flag. The boys of 
 Poland came forward, one by one, and among them 
 was our next President, a slight, pale-faced young 
 man, of studious mien. Two years before he had 
 joined the Methodist church, and was a member of 
 the Bible-class, who was constantly seeking informa- 
 tion. Before the war, at seventeen, he had gone to 
 Allegheny College, but an illness called him home. 
 He did not return, but took to teaching school a 
 youth instructing scholars at a country school, some 
 of them as old as he. 
 
 McKinley at that meeting enlisted in Company E 
 of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteers, a regiment 
 that produced such men as Stanley Matthews, after- 
 ward Senator and Associate Justice of the Supreme 
 Court; President Hayes, and of which W. S k Rose-
 
 McKIXLEY'S EARLY DAYS 51 
 
 crans was first colonel. He served fourteen months 
 as a private. Speaking of McKinley's connection 
 with the regiment, General Hayes said : " At once it 
 was found that he had unusual character for the 
 mere business of war. There is a quartermaster's 
 department, which is a very necessary and important 
 department in every regiment, in every brigade, in 
 every division, in every army. Young as he was, we 
 soon found that in business, in executive ability, 
 young McKinley was a man of rare capacity, of un- 
 usual and unsurpassed capacity, especially for a boy 
 of his age. When battles were fought or service was 
 to be performed in warlike things, he always took 
 his place. The night was never too dark; the 
 weather was never too cold ; there was no sleet or 
 storm, or hail or snow, or rain that was in the way 
 of his prompt and efficient performance of every 
 duty.'' 
 
 That is a great tribute from a great man. Mc- 
 Kinley soon went on General Hayes's staff, when the 
 then major became commander of the regiment, and 
 he served in that capacity for two years, and served 
 so well that Hayes knew " him like a book and loved 
 him like a brother." That friendship continued, 
 and the writer remembers at the funeral of the ex- 
 President, in 1892, Governor McKinley, who was 
 there with his staff, cried like a child when he looked 
 at the body of his old commander and personal 
 friend. 
 
 At the battle of Antittam on September 17th ; 1862,
 
 52 McKINLEY'S EARLY DAYS 
 
 probably the bloodiest day of the war, McKinley was 
 commissary sergeant in the Twenty-third Ohio. 
 General Hayes says of his services then : " That 
 battle began at daylight. Before daylight men were 
 in the ranks and preparing for it. Without break- 
 fast, without coffee, they went into the fight, and it 
 continued until after the sun had set. Early in the 
 afternoon, naturally enough, with the exertion re- 
 quired of the men, they were famished and thirsty, 
 and to some extent broken in spirit. The commissary 
 department of that brigade was under Sergeant 
 McKinley's administration and personal supervision. 
 From his hands every man in the regiment was 
 served with hot coffee and warm meats a thing that 
 had never occurred under similar circumstances in 
 any other army in the world. He passed under fire 
 and delivered with his own hands these things so 
 essential to the men for whom he was laboring. 
 Coming to Ohio and recovering from wounds, I 
 called upon Governor Todd and told him this inci- 
 dent. With the emphasis that distinguished that 
 great war governor, he said: 'Let McKinley be 
 promoted from sergeant to lieutenant.' And that I 
 might not forget, he requested me to put it upon the 
 roster of the regiment, which I did, and McKinley 
 was promoted." 
 
 ;; Speaking of his war service, Major McKinley said, 
 just before he retired from the governorship of 
 Ohio: "I always look back with pleasure upon 
 those fourteen months in which I served in the
 
 McKINLEY'S EAELY DAYS 53 
 
 ranks. They taught me a great deal. I was but 
 a school-boy when I went into the army, and that 
 first year was a formative period in my life, during 
 which I learned much of men and of affairs. I 
 have always been glad that I entered the service as 
 a private and served those months in that capacity." 
 
 At the battle of Kernstown McKinley was on 
 General Hayes's staff. Crook's corps had been ex- 
 pecting an easy time when it appeared that the 
 enemy was in force at Kernstown, about four miles 
 from Winchester, where Crook's troops were. There 
 had been some misinformation regarding the Con- 
 federate general Early's movements, and the force 
 about to be met was that of Early, which outnum- 
 bered Crook's corps three to one. When the battle 
 began one of the regiments was not in position, and 
 Lieutenant McKinley was ordered to bring it in. 
 The road to the regiment needed was through open 
 fields and right in the enemy's line of fire. Shells 
 were bursting on his right and left, but the boy sol- 
 dier rode on. He reached the regiment, gave the 
 orders to them, and at his suggestion the regiment 
 fired on the enemy and slowly withdrew to take the 
 position where they were assigned. It was a gallant 
 act of the. boy soldier, and General Hayes had not 
 expected him to come back alive. 
 
 At the battle of Opequan he was on General Hayes's 
 staff still. There he distinguished himself for gallan- 
 try, for good judgment, and military skill. He had 
 '*>een ordered to bring General Duval's troops to join
 
 54 McKINLEY'S EARLY DAYS. 
 
 the first division, which was getting into battle. There 
 was a question as to the route to take. The young 
 officer knew it intuitively, and, acting on his own 
 responsibility, directed Duval the way to go, and 
 brought the troops up in good style, taking great 
 chances in doing so, but succeeding nevertheless. 
 Other equally courageous and dangerous things the 
 Ohio officer undertook. He served with General 
 Crook as a staff officer later on, and was finally as- 
 signed to duty with General Hancock. He entered 
 the war a private, one of the several hundred thou- 
 sand, a boy of seventeen, and left it a major in the 
 United States Volunteers by brevet, and he earned 
 every promotion by his own skill. Think of it, a 
 major at twenty-one ! Major McKinley still has his 
 brevet commission. It was given him in 1864, and 
 reads : " For gallant and meritorious services at the 
 battle of Opequan, Cedar Creek, and Fisher's Hill." 
 Who signed that? "A. Lincoln." It is a testimo- 
 nial of bravery, of patriotism, and of manliness, and 
 Major McKinley is proud of it. Who blames him ? 
 There are other records more brilliant ; others, but 
 none displayed more courage, and few had equal re- 
 sponsibilities at his age. His horse was shot from 
 under him at Berryville. He can appreciate the 
 hardships of the private soldier's life, for he endured 
 them himself. He knows the worries of the officer, 
 for these also he experienced. He understands the 
 duties of a staff officer, for he was one. There is 
 everything in his record that is creditable, and noth-
 
 McKINLEY'S EARLY DAYS 55 
 
 ing that is discreditable. H was a typical American 
 citizen soldier. 
 
 After the surrender at Appomattox, and after he 
 was mustered out, Major McKinley was offered a 
 commission in the regular army. It was a tempta- 
 tion hard to resist, for four years in the army, at the 
 formative period of his life, gave him a love for 
 military service that was hard to overcome. What 
 might have been his career had he remained in the 
 army no one can tell. There is little chance for 
 advancement there, but he would probably have ulti- 
 mately commanded a regiment, and with the prejudice 
 against officers appointed from civilian life he might 
 never have risen higher and perhaps might not have 
 attained that rank. 
 
 Acting on the advice of his father, he entered 
 civil life. He studied law in Mahoning County, 
 under Judge Glidden, who was one of the noted men 
 at the Stark County bar. Under him MeKinley 
 studied for a year and a half, and his family made 
 sacrifices to enable him to do so. Their unselfish- 
 ness enabled him to go to the Albany Law School, 
 which has developed many men of brain and ability. 
 In 1867, twenty-nine years ago, he was admitted 
 to the bar and chose Canton, then a small town of 
 about 6,000 people, for his home. Canton was not 
 important then, though the county of Stark was 
 destined to develop and prosper under the policy of 
 protection which he advocated. Great manufactories 
 were to develop there, and the Mahoning Valley was
 
 56 McKINLEY'S EAELY DAYS 
 
 to be smoke laden by the industry and the sky abovt 
 it to be lightened by the blazing chimneys of fur- 
 naces. 
 
 Major McKinley had been a good debater at 
 school. He was often the winner in such contests, 
 After he got back from the war he entered a polit- 
 ical debate, and was overcome by his opponent. Nat- 
 urally a sensitive man, he was chagrined, and re- 
 solved that never again would there be the oppor- 
 tunity given for a similar defeat. The subject of the 
 debate was protection, and McKinley knew his view 
 was right. Though worsted in the argument, he 
 had no question as to the logic of his reasoning ; but 
 he needed more facts, greater study to support them, 
 and he immediately applied himself to acquiring 
 them. 
 
 Though a newcomer, he had gained a reputation 
 for legal ability in Stark County, which was Demo- 
 cratic. It appeared as if it would be a herculean 
 task to carry it. McKinley had a natural aptitude 
 for politics, and his life as an attorney tended to 
 increase it. The Eepublicans wanted a candidate 
 for Prosecuting Attorney. Some say McKinley was 
 chosen simply because of his ability, and others that 
 while his capacity was recognized, the Eepublicans 
 did not think the place worth fighting for when de- 
 feat seemed certain, and gave it to McKinley, a new 
 man, as a mark of recognition. Now Major Mc- 
 Kinley never in his life entered a fight to lose it. 
 He never confessed himself beaten. The stem de-
 
 MRS. WILLIAM McKINLEY.
 
 59 
 
 termination of his ancestors came to him in good 
 stead, and he went into the campaign to win. He 
 was elected Prosecuting Attorney, much to the sur- 
 prise of the Democrats. There he displayed his 
 customary ability, and was renominated, only to be 
 defeated, but the opponent who overcame him won 
 by forty-five votes only. 
 
 The campaigns for Prosecuting Attorney marked 
 the beginning of McKinley's political career. 
 While practicing law he took an active part in poli- 
 tics, but did not run for office until 1876. He 
 stumped the district and often now speaks with 
 pleasure of his experiences as a young stump 
 speaker. The writer has driven through much of 
 Stark County and Columbiana and Mahoning Coun- 
 ties, which form part of the eighteenth district, and 
 remembers the pride and pleasure which the Major 
 would derive from discussing the old speech- 
 making days, and tell us that he had spoken here 
 and there, and give some incident of that life. Old 
 inhabitants of the district tell of the great demand 
 there was for the young speaker, of his eloquence 
 and control of the subject he handled. They say he 
 spoke as well as a young man as he does now, but 
 that cannot be, for practice has perfected his delivery 
 and enabled him to develop into a great orator. 
 
 After his first term as Prosecuting Attorney, dur- 
 ing the five years that passed before he ran for Con- 
 gress, Major McKinley secured a large law practice. 
 He prer^'d every case thoroughly, knew every de-
 
 60 McKINLEY'S EAELY DAYS 
 
 tail, sifted the evidence, examined witnesses to the 
 most minute detail ; in fact, when he went into a 
 trial, he knew all there was to be known of the case 
 he had in hand. It was characteristic of him to 
 study his subject. No one ever found him unpre- 
 pared. He was persuasive as an advocate, for he 
 was eloquent. This natural ability, combined with 
 his thorough understanding of the matter in hand, 
 gave him many victories and made his reputation as 
 a lawyer. The experiences at the bar in Stark 
 County were further preparations for his leadership 
 of the House. It was educational for him. 
 
 In 1871 he was married to Miss Ida Saxton, whose 
 father was a man of considerable literary ability, 
 and the editor of the Canton Repository, which to 
 this day is an able paper. He was a banker as well. 
 She was thoroughly educated, given a trip abroad, 
 which in the days following the war was an unusual 
 advantage for a young woman, particularly when she 
 came from a State six hundred miles from the sea. 
 After that trip she entered her father's banking 
 house as cashier. She left that to marry William 
 McKinley, Jr. Her father did not like the idea of 
 her marrying, but he said that Major McKinley was 
 the only man he was willing that she should marry. 
 Two girls blessed this union. One died when still a 
 baby, and the other after it had reached four years 
 and had become the joy of the house. Mrs. McKin- 
 ley had been worn by the death of her father, and 
 this additional affliction aided in breaking her health.
 
 McKINLEY'S EAELY DAYS 61 
 
 She had been a strong young woman, but the cares 
 of motherhood had brought on an illness from which 
 she has never recovered. However, she is stronger 
 since the Major left Congress, and though unable to 
 attend to any great amount of social duties, has many 
 friends, and all who know her admire her for her 
 patience and good spirits, her gentleness and devo- 
 tion, and admiration for her husband. 
 
 She likes to see her friends and loves children, 
 who know they are always welcome at her house. 
 Mrs. McKinley is an adept with the needle, and she 
 knits well, too. Many clothes and warm mitts and 
 jackets she has made for friends and for the poor. 
 They are .prized greatly by all who get them. Mrs. 
 McKinley travels a deal to be with her husband, and 
 has often heard him speak, as on four or five occa- 
 sions during the gubernatorial campaign of 1893. 
 In that prolonged contest, when the Governor spoke 
 more than three hundred times in eighty out of the 
 eighty-eight counties of the State, he was never too 
 weary after the last meeting on Saturday to take a 
 train for Columbus, or Cincinnati, or Cleveland, or 
 Chicago, where Mrs. McKinley happened to be, that 
 he might spend Sunday with her. It was a beauti- 
 ful devotion, and not at all surprising when the 
 Major's tender care and solicitude for his wife is re- 
 membered. 
 
 Though an invalid, Mrs. McKinley has been cheer- 
 ful and in trying times brave, never faltering in her 
 belief in her husband and ever ready to cheer him,
 
 62 McKINLEY'S EAKLY DAYS 
 
 Ill-health is trying and a test of disposition, but 
 Mrs. McKinley has never complained, and has always 
 been resigned. The death of her children, Kate and 
 Ida (the latter was born on Christmas, 1871), was 
 a cruel blow, but both the Major and his wife have 
 borne their sorrow patiently and with Christian 
 spirit. They have sought the happiness that their 
 children would have given in closer union and in 
 the enjoyment of the little ones of others.
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 McKinley in Congress The rapid growth of his National Repute" 
 tion Became the Champion of Protection First in a National 
 Convention. 
 
 In the five years that followed his retirement from 
 the prosecuting attorneyship of Stark County, Ohio, 
 Major McKinley had grown in popularity and in 
 the estimation of his neighbors. In the centennial 
 year he was brought forward as a candidate for the 
 Republican congressional nomination. L. D. Woods- 
 worth, of Mahoning, was the representative, and 
 there were other candidates, including three from 
 Stark County. That county then elected its dele- 
 gates to the congressional convention by primaries 
 in every township. To the surprise of his opponents 
 William McKinley, who knew, and was known, in 
 every hamlet and town and village and community 
 in the county, carried all the townships but one, and 
 that was so small that it had but one delegate. The 
 Major had been through all the other counties of 
 the old eighteenth district, and in one of them he 
 was born. It was not a difficult matter to secure a 
 majority in these counties, and as a result he was 
 nominated with a cheer on the first ballot. 
 
 It is not surprising that the old political war-horses 
 
 63
 
 64 McKINLEY IN CONGRESS 
 
 of the district were amazed at this rise of a young 
 man, only thirty-three. McKinley had triumphed, 
 and never afterward was it possible to contest his 
 right to represent that district. He dominated it. 
 The Republican party was proud of him, and though 
 it was not customary in that district, and in fact it is 
 not the habit in any Ohio district, except the one 
 which General Garfield and E. B. Taylor represented 
 for so many years, to name a man for more than two 
 terms. It is this habit that makes Ohio less of a 
 power in the national house than she would other- 
 wise be. A Congressman, as soon as he has learned 
 the ways of Congress and has been there long 
 enough to do good work for his district, is super- 
 seded by some ambitious man, unprepared to do as 
 well as his predecessor ; but the anxiety to become a 
 statesman is so general in Ohio, and there is so much 
 good timber there, that it is not surprising that this 
 should be the case. 
 
 Major McKinley represented the eighteenth dis- 
 trict for fifteen years. The Democrats gerryman- 
 dered him three times. He had been in the House 
 but two years, one term, when his county was placed 
 in a district that had a Democratic majority of 1,800. 
 Major McKinley stumped the district from one end 
 to the other, and carried it by 1,300 plurality 
 truly a great victory. In 1880 he was again elected. 
 Thus by the time he was thirty-nine he had repre- 
 sented his district in Congress three times. In 1882 
 the district was again gerrymandered. He had a
 
 McKINLEY IN CONGRESS 65 
 
 majority on the face of the returns of eight votes. 
 His opponent was named Wallace. Toward the end 
 of the session of that Congress he was unseated by 
 a Democratic House and Wallace given his place. 
 That year, 1882, was not a very bright one for the 
 Republicans. It will be recalled that then it was 
 that Secretary Folger was defeated for Governor of 
 New York by Grover Cleveland, of Buffalo, by a 
 majority of 192,000 votes. This was the beginning 
 of the rise of the man whom McKinley will succeed 
 in the Presidential chair. How remarkable it seems, 
 looking backward, that the ex-sheriff of Buffalo 
 and the ex-mayor of the city of Buffalo should 
 have been chosen Governor over such a tried and 
 true Republican as Folger. However, Mr. Cleve- 
 land is now even more unpopular than the Repub- 
 lican party was when he was elected Governor. 
 Secretary Folger told McKinley in 1882 that he had 
 won a great victory to be returned to Congress at 
 that time. 
 
 Unseated toward the end of the Forty-eighth Con- 
 gress, McKinley was re-elected to the Forty-ninth, in 
 1884, by a great majority, and remained in Congress, 
 being a member of the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, and 
 Fifty-first congresses, being defeated by a wicked 
 gerrymander for the Fifty-second. Slowly but 
 surely he has grown in influence. He had been 
 modest in his first years of congressional life. A 
 young man, full of enthusiasm and study and in- 
 heriting an interest in the industries of the country,
 
 66 McKINLEY IN CONGRESS 
 
 a natural researcher, he was from the beginning a 
 protectionist. The district he represented was a 
 manufacturing one. He studied its needs, saw where 
 protection was a benefit, and proposed to stand by 
 that cause. That he has done so is known to every- 
 body. He has been nominated for the Presidency 
 because he is a protectionist. He had the insight to 
 see what policy was most important to his country, 
 and, convinced that his view was the proper one, he 
 prepared himself to support it. That he has done 
 so ably even his enemies admit. He knows the in- 
 dustries of the country thoroughly, is informed of 
 business conditions in every section a student of 
 economics, a patient digger for information, a per- 
 sistent questioner regarding conditions everywhere. 
 This is apparent from his wonderful tariff speeches. 
 The tariff is a dull subject at best, but McKinley 
 makes the figures and statistics which encumber it, 
 and ordinarily weary, interesting. His hearers feel 
 that they are a part of himself and accordingly are 
 attracted. There is almost a poetic tinge in his elo- 
 quent tariff speeches. They are, many of them, as 
 good English as is written. Then their facts are un- 
 assailable. 
 
 It was in his second term in Congress that William 
 McKinley made a reputation as a tariff debater. 
 He had probably addressed the House on other sub- 
 iects, but then he had its attention, and it was 
 appreciated by Judge Kelley, the leader on the 
 "Republican side, tnat a new force had entered Con-
 
 McKINLEY IN CONGRESS 67 
 
 gress, an able exponent of protection was on the 
 floor. He was not a member of the Ways and 
 Means Committee then, for General Garfield repre- 
 sented Ohio on that committee at that time. Few 
 remember the Wood tariff bill of 1878 a bill in- 
 tended to scale down revenue. McKinley saw that 
 it was a blow to the protective system, that it was a 
 step toward free trade, which he has been fighting 
 ever since. He secured recognition in April of 1878, 
 and addressed the House at length. His speech is 
 very interesting reading now, and surprises even 
 those who are informed of his ability, know his 
 power and grasp of every subject, that he should 
 then, so young and comparatively inexperienced in 
 congressional work, have delivered such an admir- 
 able plea for protection, .such an appeal to the House 
 not to strike down the industries of his district of 
 the country. Every argument he made then is good 
 now against free trade. It was really a wonderful 
 speech, and it made the young congressman from 
 the old eighteenth district a figure in the House. 
 Ever after that when he spoke he received attention. 
 His voice was capable of filling the hall, whose 
 acoustic properties are so poor. He painted the 
 theory of free trade as a dream, a menace, and was 
 roundly applauded when he had finished. That 
 speech made him a reputation that was national. It 
 marked him as the successor of James A. Garfield 
 on the Ways and Means Committee, for Garfield 
 was then a candidate for the Senate, to which, it
 
 68 McKINLEY IN CONGKESS 
 
 will be remembered, he was elected before the Con- 
 vention of 1880 made him a Presidential candidate. 
 
 McKinley's Washington life was not a very social 
 one. A man of his industry and studious habits 
 had little time for the frivolities of society. Then 
 his wife's health would not permit him to enter 
 therein. He enjoyed the friendship of President 
 Hayes, who had been his war commander. Mrs. 
 Hayes took an interest in his invalid wife and they 
 were most intimate. Such a woman as Mrs. Hayes, 
 a motherly, lovable, conscientious Christian woman, 
 could not but have been interested in the little Ohio 
 woman, whose husband promised to become such a 
 man of force, and the friendship there made never 
 ended until death claimed the beloved " Lucy " 
 Hayes. But the McKinleys had friends. They were 
 not social leaders probably, though then a congress- 
 man was, if he chose, a factor in Washington 
 society. The wish of the plutocrats had not out- 
 stripped the congressional circle, and wealth was not 
 one of the requirements for a successful Washington 
 career, socially. Every one who had the pleasure 
 of knowing the McKinleys appreciated their refine- 
 ment and attractiveness. They were sought out by 
 many, but preferred a life of comparative seclusion, 
 brightened by the intimate friends who clung around 
 them. 
 
 When General Garfield retired from Congress, to 
 
 <3 ' 
 
 assume the ill-fated Presidency, Major McKinley 
 was his successor on the Ways and Means Committee.
 
 McKIXLEY IN CONGRESS 69 
 
 Older members of that brainy set of men were glad 
 to have him one of them, and Judge Kelley, the 
 leading Republican, the great exponent of pro- 
 tection, who earned for himself the title of "pig- 
 iron " Kelley, welcomed the Ohio man. It was 
 recognized that McKinley had a thorough and com- 
 plete understanding of the subject under discussion 
 and the tariff men were rejoiced to have their forces 
 so strengthened. 
 
 There can be no doubt that Major McKinley ad- 
 vocated protection because he was convinced it was 
 necessary for the prosperity of the country. It was 
 to him a public duty to support it. He had mas- 
 tered all its details, knew the theory, and was always 
 able to show that the free-trade ideas meant destruc- 
 tion if put in force. The experience of the country 
 under the present tariff reform measure, which Mr. 
 Cleveland himself said was tinged with party perfidy 
 and party dishonor, show conclusively that he was 
 right. The people believe he is, and for that reason 
 they demanded his nomination. Nothing could stop 
 it. The wave of popular approval would not be 
 hindered. It swept on and overwhelmed all oppo- 
 sition. 
 
 In 1882, as a member of the Ways and Means 
 Committee, he urged that the Tariff Commission be 
 appointed, and made an able speech in its support. 
 The results of that Commission are known. McKin- 
 ley was one of those who helped frame the tariff bill 
 of 1883, which was in force for seven years, and was
 
 70 McKINLEY IN GOK^JBESS 
 
 an admirable act. It was partially his work, and in 
 the debates on that measure he attained additional 
 reputation. He opposed reduced taxation, and 
 showed clearly that the farmers did not want it. 
 Who now will tell a farmer that a tariff hurts him ? 
 Who will urge any agriculturist to support tariff 
 reform when he has seen the injuries to agriculture, 
 the reduction in the price of farm commodities such 
 as potatoes, by reason of lessened duties thereon ? 
 McKinley knew what was best for the formers then, 
 and they now support him earnestly. After his con- 
 nection with the Tariff Act of 1883 Major McKin- 
 ley was admitted as the leading tariff advocate, its 
 best exponent. Older men retired in his favor. He 
 had won his promotion by merit, by work, and he 
 deserved it. It was hard, earnest effort that ad- 
 vanced him. Naturally bright and intellectual, he 
 improved his opportunities, and succeeded where 
 men who might be more brilliant, but less studious 
 and solid, failed. 
 
 The Act of 1883 was largely McKinley 's. He 
 and Judge Kelley had worked on it together, and 
 each sought to give the other credit for it. The 
 Morrison horizontal reduction bill came up the next 
 year, and here McKinley fought free trade, the 
 menace of reduced duties, with energy. He battled 
 in vain, because the Democracy was in the majority 
 in the House, but his speeches, his arguments, his 
 figures, his logic, added to his great reputation. In. 
 this fight Judge Kelley and Major McKinley were
 
 .McKINLEY IN CONGRESS 71 
 
 again intimately associated. They labored together 
 for protection, for the preservation of our indus- 
 tries, and staved off the era of free trade the ex- 
 periment with a lower tariff that seemed inevitable. 
 The Morrison bill proposed to reduce the duties in 
 the Act of March 3d, 1883, by twenty per cent. This 
 was the bill at which the Democrats had laughed 
 because a Tariff Commission had aided in framing 
 it. It was a singular anomaly that the Democrats 
 should have brought in this measure, the one they 
 had assaulted so vigorously, in exactly the same 
 shape as it had been enacted, with the exception of 
 the horizontal reduction of duties. 
 
 The Morrison bill never became a law, thanks to 
 a Republican Senate, but it gave Major McKinley an 
 opportunity to display his wonderful command of 
 the tariff subject, to patriotically oppose the destruc- 
 tion of industrial America. It is a striking contrast 
 the fates of Morrison and McKinley. Morrison 
 was defeated for Congress after that measure had 
 passed the House, and became the chairman of the 
 Commission on Interstate Commerce. McKinley 
 was defeated for Congress after the passage of his 
 tariff bill, and became Governor of Ohio. Morrison 
 has been a Presidential aspirant ever since, and no 
 one has recognized him except a few personal friends, 
 and in his own brain alone has the Presidential bee 
 developed. McKinley never permitted a bee to buzz 
 until the people demanded that he should run. 
 Twice he declined the nomination, or rather refused
 
 72 McKINLEY IN CONGEESS 
 
 to permit his name to be used when a nomination 
 
 was possible. 
 
 Up to 1884 Major McKinley had been known 
 chiefly for his connection with Congress. He had by 
 that time a national reputation, and was appreciated 
 as a rising man. He had not, however, entered into 
 the domain of national politics, nor taken any con- 
 siderable part in Ohio affairs. He had simply rep- 
 resented his district in Congress, but Ohio was be- 
 ginning to claim him as one of her great men. In 
 1884 he was made permanent chairman of the Repub- 
 lican State Convention at Cleveland. He displayed 
 satisfactory parliamentary abilities there. He was 
 for Elaine for President, representing the sentiments 
 of his constituents. Sherman was a candidate, but 
 Ohio, as usual, was divided, and was frittering away 
 her strength. The Elaine men exceeded in their en- 
 thusiasm, but the Sherman men seemed to be better 
 organized. They were managed by competent poli- 
 ticians, such as have always surrounded John Sher- 
 man in his native State. At that convention Mc- 
 Kinley made a' speech which was as admirable as are 
 all his deliveries. It is perhaps worth reproducing 
 in part. He, in purely extemporaneous form, drew 
 a comparison between Republicanism and Democ- 
 racy, that is as true to-day as it was twelve years ago. 
 
 " The difference," said he, " between the Republi- 
 can and Democratic parties is this the Republican 
 party never made a promise which it has not kept, 
 and the Democratic party never made a promise
 
 73 
 
 which it has kept. Not in its whole history, com- 
 mencing from 1856 down to the present hour, is 
 there a single promise made by the Republican party 
 to the people that it has not faithfully kept. And 
 then it is not a laggard party. If there is any one 
 thing the people like, it is courage. They neither 
 like laggards nor do they like shams ; and the Dem- 
 ocratic party is the embodiment of both." How 
 true are those words to-day, how aptly they describe 
 the Democracy. 
 
 It was at this convention that Major McKinley 
 showed stern determination to be true to a friend. 
 With Elaine men and Sherman men fighting for 
 the supremacy there, the contest was necessarily for 
 the delegates-at-large. McKinley had promised 
 friends who desired to go as delegates that he would 
 not be a candidate. When Judge King of Mahon- 
 ing named McKinley, the Major, from the platform, 
 withdrew his own name. There was a sentiment for 
 McKinley which would not be stilled. King of 
 Muskingum put a motion to elect McKinley a dele- 
 gate, but McKinley, as chairman, declared the 
 motion out of order. General Grosvenor, since 
 famous for his accurate figures of the progress of 
 the McKinley boom for the Presidency, put the 
 motion again and held it was carried. Again did 
 McKinley rule it out of order. His decision was 
 appealed from. He was not sustained, and General 
 Grosvenor put the motion still again to elect Mo- 
 Kinley delegate-at-large, and it was done. McKinley
 
 74 ' McKINLEY IN" CONGRESS 
 
 would not have it, and again he was overruled, f i 
 spite of his appeals. Finally there was a roll-cail 
 and, McKinley insisting that his name be not voted 
 for, was elected. In that Chicago convention Mc- 
 Kinley made a name. ^ He assumed the duties of 
 leader of the Blaine men at one time and prevented 
 an adjournment that was hostile to Blaine and 
 Elaine was nominated. He wrote the platform that 
 year, as chairman of the committee on resolutions. 
 This was his first leadership in national politics. 
 He had made himself famous in that convention.
 
 HON. WM. McKINLEY'S FATHER.
 
 HON. WM. McKINLEY'S MOTHER.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 erperfcmce M ft candidate for the Presidency Tryteg time* tai 
 iHsrsonai triumph in Chicago Prosperity tinder the MeKinley 
 e w -Gerrymandered out oi Congress Ooreraor at ObJa 
 
 In 1888 Ohio went to Chicago solid for John 
 Sherman. Difficulties had been patched up and 
 Ohio for the first time in years was unifed. Two 
 Ohio men were particularly prominent in their 
 efforts for Sherman. These were Foraker and Mc- 
 Kinley. Each was considered at different times 
 during the convention as a Presidential possibility. 
 McKinley was more prominent in that connection 
 and ha there declined to be presented as a candidate. 
 It will be recalled that there were a number of Presi- 
 dential candidates, including Sherman, Harrison, 
 Gresham, Depew, Allison, and Alger. The contest 
 was rather prolonged. There was a strong senti- 
 ment for Elaine, but he prevented any action on his 
 name by a cablegram from Scotland. During the 
 fight Ohio stood solidly for Sherman. Foraker was 
 chairman of the delegation. McKinley was recog- 
 nized as a force, and "was roundly cheered whenever 
 he came into the hall.
 
 78 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 
 
 As the contest went on it seemed as if a solution 
 would be difficult. The convention was becoming 
 weary of balloting. There was an admirable chance 
 for a dark horse. When it came to the sixth ballot 
 some one voted for the Major. The convention 
 cheered. Then he was given seventeen votes by a 
 State following. It looked as if McKinley would 
 be the man. It seemed impossible to prevent it. It 
 was recognized that he was able and brilliant, safe 
 and sound on all political subjects. His labor for 
 Sherman, his pleas for the Ohio Senator as he went 
 from delegation to delegation, had won him support 
 for himself. 
 
 It was a most trying time for the Ohio protection- 
 ist. He was then but forty-five years old, and seemed 
 younger, as with pallid face he stepped on a chair. 
 His frock coat was buttoned tightly around him. 
 His eyes flashed forth the fire that is so character- 
 istic of them, when he is in earnest. There was a 
 stern look in his face. The convention was silent. 
 The buzz had ceased. Delegates and spectators 
 leaned forward to catch what he was about to say. 
 There was a feeling that he was about to relinquish 
 the Presidential prize, that he was to sacrifice ambi- 
 tion to gain renown by faithfulness to a trust. As 
 he spoke his voice rang through the great audi- 
 torium. There was a defiant tone to it. It was 
 commanding. It was irresistible. He said : 
 
 " Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention : 
 I am here as one of the chosen representatives of my
 
 McKIXLEY'S ACTIVE TEAKS 79 
 
 State. I am here by resolution of the Republican 
 State Convention, commanding me to cast my vote 
 for John Sherman for President, and to use every 
 worthy endeavor to secure his nomination. I ac- 
 cepted the trust, because my heart and judgment were 
 in accord with the letter and spirit and purpose of 
 that resolution. It has pleased certain delegates to 
 cast their votes for me for President. I am not in- 
 sensible to the honor they would do me, but in the 
 presence of the duty resting upon me I cannot remain 
 silent with honor. I cannot consistently with the 
 wish of the State whose credentials I bear, and which 
 has trusted me ; I cannot consistently with my own 
 views of personal integrity, consent, or seem to con- 
 sent, to permit my name to be used as a candidate 
 before this convention. I would not respect myself 
 if I could find it in my heart to do or to permit to 
 be done that which could even be ground for any one 
 to suspect that I wavered in my loyalty to Ohio, or 
 my devotion to the chief of her choice and the chief 
 of mine. I do not request I demand that no dele- 
 gate who would not cast reflection upon me shall 
 cast a ballot for me." 
 
 That settled it. McKinley had won. He received 
 no more votes and Harrison was named on the 
 seventh ballot. An eye-witness remembers going 
 into the Ohio headquarters before this incident had 
 occurred. There was talk of McKinley for Presi- 
 dent that night. The Major was in an inner room. 
 He looked tired. There were lines of care on his
 
 80 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 
 
 face. It was on the Sunday prior to the final ad- 
 journment. Everywhere outside there was excite- 
 ment. Bands were playing and clubs marching. 
 McKinley was outwardly calm. It was apparent 
 that he was bothered though. He talked for ten or 
 fifteen minutes, when it was suggested that he might 
 be nominated, and said : " No, that will not happen 
 here. I came here for John Sherman, I shall stand 
 by him until he is nominated or defeated, but I shall 
 not be named." It was on that night that he 
 visited the New Jersey delegation. He had heard 
 that the New Jersey delegation proposed to vote for 
 him. He intended to prevent it, and made a stir- 
 ring appeal to the chairman of that delegation. 
 The Major spoke with suppressed feeling until he 
 said in finishing : " Rather than that I would suffer 
 the loss of that good right arm. Yes, I would suffer 
 death. To accept a nomination, if one were possi- 
 ble, under these circumstances, would inevitably 
 lead to my defeat, and it ought to lead to my 
 defeat." The last words sounded like a clarion. 
 Then the Major asked the New Jersey delegation to 
 vote for Sherman. 
 
 THE McKINLEY BILL. 
 
 Major McKinley took an especially prominent 
 part in opposing the Mills bill when it was consid- 
 ered during the Fiftieth Congress. This was an 
 ultra free- trade bill. There was no horizontal re- 
 duction about it. It was plain free trade. Mills
 
 McKIXLEY'8 ACTIVE YEABS 81 
 
 came from Texas, a State without industries. He 
 cared little for the industrial communities. He was 
 a theorist, and a more rabid free-trader than Profes- 
 sor Wilson. The fight in the House lasted for a long 
 time. Carlisle was Speaker, and naturally friendly 
 to the bill. Randall was opposing it. McKin- 
 ley was, too. As a member of the Ways and Means 
 Committee, he showed up its fallacies, its menace to 
 the country. He could not defeat it, because the 
 Democrats were in the majority, but, nevertheless, 
 he made many telling points. It was a great fight. 
 Randall was his friend. They had been drawn to- 
 gether by a community of interests, for each was a 
 protectionist. One was trying to prevent his party 
 from taking the wrong road, while the other was 
 leading his in the right direction. 
 
 McKinley, during that fight, displayed better 
 than ever his wonderful ability as a debater, and 
 many is the Democrat whom he disturbed by his 
 arguments for protection. Mr. Randall was closing 
 the general debate on the bill the last day before the 
 debate under the five-minute rule. Major McKin- 
 ley was to follow him. Randall had not finished his 
 speech when his time was up. His friends asked 
 for an extension of time, but Colonel Mills objected. 
 He feared the piercing arguments of his colleague. 
 Here it was that McKinley showed his characteristic 
 courtesy. He arose and yielded his time to the able 
 Democratic protectionist. 
 
 The November elections of 1888 had given the
 
 82 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEABS 
 
 Republicans a majority in the House. The free- 
 trade folly of the Democracy had beaten it. Mr. 
 Reed and Major McKinley were among the candi- 
 dates for Speaker. After a hot fight Mr. Reed won, 
 and appointed Major McKinley as chairman of the 
 Ways and Means Committee, thus making him 
 leader of the House. Judge Kelley had died, and 
 it was but natural that McKinley, the great protec- 
 tionist, should have been made chairman of that 
 important committee. During the twelve years of 
 his congressional life he had been preparing for 
 the opportunity. He had mastered the tariff, and 
 was ready for the work before him. The Act of 
 1883 was producing too much revenue. The changes 
 of conditions since its passage had made it necessary 
 to revise it. It was to be revised by hands friendly 
 to protection. Major McKinley was the man to 
 direct the work. The object was to reduce revenue 
 and to equalize duties where necessary, to adjust 
 them to the prevailing conditions, to afford protec- 
 tion to American industries and farmers. 
 
 For this work Major McKinley gave his time. He 
 labored early and late. The committee gave hear- 
 ings and worked incessantly. Major McKinley did 
 not permit his daily work at the capitol to end that on 
 the tariff. He was busy until midnight and later 
 in his office at the Ebbitt House, studying the question 
 more thoroughly, listening to arguments in favor of 
 certain duties, laying out the plans of the tariff. It 
 was a herculean task. He never swerved. His good
 
 McKIXLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 83 
 
 health and regular habits gave him the strength to 
 perform the almost impossible work. Under his 
 direction no interest was permitted to be injured. 
 No duties were fixed without every condition that 
 surrounded them had been considered. The work 
 was thorough. It was honest. The result of this 
 continuous application by Major McKinley and the 
 other members of the committee was that the bill, 
 when finished, was the best, the most complete bill 
 ever produced. 
 
 The committee was even more thorough in its work 
 than the tariff commission had been. Possibly it 
 may be well to explain that Mr. Cleveland had, 
 prior to the election of the Fifty-first Congress, trans- 
 mitted a free-trade tariff measure to the House. The 
 issue was accepted by the Republican leaders, and it 
 was thereon that General Harrison was elected Presi- 4 , 
 dent, along with the Reed-McKinley Congress. 
 The Republican party that had been a protective 
 institution for some time, but not so much so as the 
 President's message, defining as it did the difference 
 between Republican and Democratic revenue poli- 
 cies, enabled it to become in that campaign. It was 
 to keep the pledge made to the people in 1888, to re- 
 vise the tariff with friendly hands, that Major Mc- 
 Kinley and his committee set to work. 
 
 The Major, in presenting his wonderful bill to the 
 House, did not feel compelled to discuss at length 
 the difference between the economic policies of the 
 two parties. The people understood them, and with
 
 84 
 
 that knowledge had elected that Congress. The bill 
 reduced taxation on internal revenue products over 
 seventy millions, and as McKinley said in offering 
 it to the House for its consideration : " The tariff 
 part of the bill contemplates and proposes a complete 
 revision. It not only changes the rates of duty, but 
 modifies the general provisions of the law relat- 
 ing to the collection of duties. These modifications 
 have received the approval of the treasury depart- 
 ment." The administrative features of the McKinley 
 law there were really two laws, the administrative 
 one being enacted in July, 1890 was really the joint 
 work of McKinley and Senator Allison. Mr. Alli- 
 son had had a bill on that line passed in the Con- 
 gress before, and McKinley took it up and improved 
 on it. It was so admirable in all of its features that 
 it was little changed by the Democrats when they so 
 disastrously passed the sugar-trust-Wilson-Gorman- 
 Brice tariff bill in 1894. 
 
 It is useless to go into an extended comment on the 
 tariff fight. One thing about the bill that is worth 
 remembering is, that it recognized more fully than 
 had been done before the fact that wherever possible, 
 specific duties are the better, because they prevent un- 
 der-valuatious that fraudulently reduce the revenues, 
 and thus at the same time the rates of duties. The 
 McKinley bill also established an industry. The 
 advance of the duty on tin plate made it possible to 
 manufacture these plates in America. The Demo- 
 cratic campaign orators and others deliberately lied
 
 McKIXLEY'S ACTIVE YEAES 85 
 
 about this. The McKinley tariff established nearly 
 two hundred mills for the manufacture of tin plate, 
 which had an average of five million boxes a year. 
 The American dinner-pail and the American can- 
 ning factories were benefited by this and would 
 have been even more so had it not been for the 
 reduction of duty on tin plate made in 1894 by 
 the Wiloon bill. Yet, established as they were, 
 they have struggled along somehow or other, though 
 there are fewer mills than there would have been, 
 and they are not producing as much tin plate. That 
 was one great result of the McKinley bill. 
 
 The Major, in the debate in favor of the bill, 
 called attention to the fact that the protective tariff 
 had never failed It had aided in reducing a debt 
 of $2,750,000,000 at the close of the war at a rate of 
 sixty-two millions each year, or one hundred and 
 seventy-four thousand dollars each day, and made 
 the debt less than one billion. It might be men- 
 tioned here that Grover Cleveland's present adminis- 
 tration has added $265,315,400 to the interest bear- 
 ing debt since it came into power, or more than eighty 
 millions a year, and most of this increase was caused 
 by the Democratic tariff bill's revenue deficiencies. 
 
 The McKinley bill was amended in the Senate. 
 It is the habit of some people to assume that the 
 Senate had more to do with it than Major McKinley. 
 Without proposing to detract one whit from the 
 reputation of such able men as Senators Allison and 
 Aldrich, who have fought in the Senate the battle of
 
 86 McKIKLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 
 
 protection for years, who stood manfully against the 
 Wilson bill and did much to lessen its dangers to 
 industries, it may be said that though amended in 
 the Senate these amendments were in the line of what 
 Major McKinley approved, such as were made neces- 
 sary by conditions. The principle was his and most 
 of the schedules. More than three-quarters of the 
 changes of duties made by the Act of 1890 the 
 McKinley bill were made in the House. It is not 
 worth while to discuss these changes and the causes 
 of them. Suffice it to say that Major McKinley did 
 the greatest amount of work on the tariff of 1890. 
 He inspired it, and had it not been for him it might 
 not have been enacted. The question is not so much 
 one of schedules as of principle. The purpose of the 
 McKinley bill was to produce protection and it suc- 
 ceeded in that. For his share of it Major McKinley 
 deserves credit, and his labor was the greatest of any 
 one concerned in constructing the measure. The 
 Republican party appreciated this, and, therefore, 
 nominated him at St. Louis. 
 
 The McKinley bill has been misrepresented, ma- 
 ligned, misconstrued, vilified, and all needlessly. 
 The Democrats were intent upon their policy of free 
 trade and started an agitation that resulted in the 
 passage of the sugar trust tariff. The people now 
 understand the differences between McKinley protec- 
 tion and Wilson free trade. There is no object lesson 
 needed. The people have it now. Protection and its 
 importance and necessity is understood thoroughly.
 
 McKIX LEY'S ACTIVE YEAKS 87 
 
 Besides establishing the tin-plate industry the 
 McKinley bill made sugar free, and the workman 
 and manufacturer got his sugar twenty pounds for 
 the dollar as a result. That was a great boon, the 
 greatest possible. The Wilson bill places a duty on 
 it at the dictation of the sugar trust. That is a con- 
 tr;;<t between the two parties. Never did the coun- 
 try see better times, never were more men employed, 
 never were people happier than under the McKinley 
 bill, before a Democratic Congress and President had 
 been elected to produce panic, depression, and disas- 
 ter. Mills were running, everybody was employed, 
 business brisk. It is needless to do more than men- 
 tion this, because the past three years have showed 
 the people the truth. 
 
 In Patchogue, New York, is a lace curtain factory 
 which was established through protection McKin- 
 leyism. Plushes are also now manufactured here, a 
 great factory having moved from Huddersfield for 
 that purpose. It brought capital and gave employ- 
 ment to labor. Instead of sending our money 
 abroad for plushes, we buy them here ; the wages of 
 the workmen who make them are paid here. Then 
 pearl buttons are now made here and they were not 
 before, but why continue this argument for protec- 
 tion ? It is not needed. 
 
 In dealing with the McKinley bill it is perhaps 
 worth while to explain the reciprocity features. It 
 has often been agreed that he and Mr. Elaine were 
 not in accord on that, that McKinley was compelled
 
 88 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 
 
 to yield to the forcefulness of Elaine. Major Mc- 
 Kinley never opposed it. He never sought to take 
 from Mr. Elaine the credit for reciprocity. He lias 
 always admitted its importance and the advantages 
 that accrued from it. Perhaps there can be no better 
 way to describe the matter than by quoting from an 
 intimate friend of ex-Secretary Elaine. The gentle- 
 man referred to is William E. Curtis, formerly Secre- 
 tary of the Bureau of American Republics, and at 
 present the Washington correspondent of the Chi- 
 cago Record. Mr. Curtis is a man of marked ability 
 and high character. On August 19th, 1891, he was 
 interviewed by a reporter of the Massillon, O., Inde- 
 pendent. Mr. Curtis said that Mr. Elaine opposed 
 any disturbance of the duties on South American 
 products. To this the Ways and Means Committee 
 did not agree. Then Mr. Curtis proceeded to say : 
 
 " When Mr. Elaine found that it was proposed to 
 remove the duty on sugar he sent me to Mr. McKin- 
 ley with a proposition which he wanted added to the 
 bill as an amendment." It afterward became known 
 as the Hale amendment. It provided that the Pres- 
 ident should be authorized to take off the duty on 
 sugar whenever the sugar-producing nations removed 
 their duties on our farm products and certain other 
 articles. 
 
 " Mr. McKinley presented this amendment to the 
 Committee on Ways and Means. It was not adopted. 
 Mr. McKinley voted for it the first time it was pre- 
 sented. Then a second proposition containing some
 
 McKIXLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 89 
 
 modifications was presented, and Mr. McKinley voted 
 for that, as lie voted for the Blaiue reciprocity 
 amendment every time it was submitted in whatever 
 form. 
 
 " It has been currently reported that Mr. Elaine 
 denounced the McKinley bill with such vigor that 
 he smashed his hat. Mr. Elaine's opposition to the 
 bill was because of the free sugar clause. He criti- 
 cised the refusal of Congress to take advantage of 
 conditions which he thought were favorable to our 
 trade. They proposed to throw away the duty on 
 sugar when he wanted them to trade with it. 
 
 " When what was known as the Aldrich amend- 
 ment was adopted Mr. Elaine was perfectly satisfied, 
 and there is nothing in the current tales that he is 
 unfriendly to Major McKinley. On the contrary, 
 he is one of his warmest friends. Had it not been 
 for Mr. McKinley and Senator Aldrich, of Rhode 
 Island, the reciprocity clause in the Tariff Act would 
 never have been adopted." 
 
 DEFEATED FOR CONGRESS; ELECTED GOVERNOR. 
 
 The McKinley bill* became a law on October 1st, 
 1890. The Republican party was immediately 
 rushed into a hot campaign. The measure they 
 supported had not yet been fully understood, had not 
 had a chance to demonstrate its advantages. The 
 election of 1890 was disastrous for the party and 
 many men fell, the Democrats securing an imprece-
 
 90 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEAKS 
 
 dented majority in Congress. McKinley was one 
 of those marked for slaughter. He had to contend 
 against peculiar disadvantages. His district had 
 been gerrymandered by the Legislature of Ohio, 
 which was Democratic. Stark County, in which 
 the Major lived, was placed in a district with three 
 counties, Holmes, Wayne, and Medina, which the 
 year before had given James E. Campbell a majority 
 of 3,900. His own county was close, often Demo- 
 cratic, so Major McKinley had a hard fight before 
 him. Nothing daunted he made it, appreciating 
 that defeat was not unlikely. In truth the Legisla- 
 ture had singled him out for retirement. His oppo- 
 nent was ex-Lieutenant-Governor Warwick, a man 
 of no force, but personally popular. It was a des- 
 perate fight. McKinley was everywhere, address- 
 ing people peculiarly strange to him. He knew 
 how hard his path was, but he did not hesitate. 
 
 It was really one of the most notable contests in 
 recent years. The power and force of the national 
 Democracy was centered against him. Able speakers 
 came to oppose him. The adroit David B. Hill, of 
 New York, spent a week in . the district. Mills was 
 there and there were others. One county was very 
 benighted. It has the reputation of having less 
 education to the square inch than any other county 
 in Ohio. It is very strongly Democratic, the major- 
 ity often reaching 2,500. There McKinley met his 
 worst enemy. Peddlers had been employed at so 
 much per day to go through the country selling tin-
 
 McKIXLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 91 
 
 cups at extravagant prices. The people of the county 
 were amazed. They asked the reason why. The 
 answer was that the McKinley bill had done it. 
 Democratic shopkeepers were employed to ask addi- 
 tional prices for their goods, and it was the same 
 answer, " The McKinley bill did it." Just to think 
 of it, tin-cups, such as are ordinarily used for drink- 
 ing purposes, were retailed at a dollar apiece ! It was 
 an awful lie to overcome. 
 
 McKinley was defeated, but by 303 votes only. 
 He polled two and a half thousand more votes in the 
 district than General Harrison had two years before. 
 It was a beggarly victory, indeed. It retired Major 
 McKinley from Congress, but it made him his party's 
 candidate for Governor the following year. The 
 people of Ohio demanded it. The Republican leaders 
 of the State saw that it was the thing to do. The 
 vast majority of the party workers insisted upon his 
 nomination. Major McKinley was living in Canton 
 after the end of the Fifty-first Congress. He was 
 approached and said he would not decline a nomina- 
 tion. 
 
 The convention that nominated him was a mag- 
 nificent one. It was composed of the representative 
 men of the party. Ex-Governor Foraker moved 
 the nomination of the Major and ex-Governor Fos- 
 ter moved to make it unanimous. The writer was 
 present as a delegate and reporter. The scene when 
 the Major came to the platform to accept the nomi- 
 nation is almost indescribable. The delegates would
 
 93 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 
 
 not permit him to speak for some moments, they 
 cheered so loudly. They were enthusiastic. The 
 convention felt that victory was certain. They were 
 to a man for McKinley. There was no ill-feeling 
 beneath the surface. It was as harmonious a con- 
 vention as Ohio ever held. 
 
 The campaign was opened toward the last of 
 August, and Major McKinley made one of his won- 
 derful campaigns. He was in every county battling 
 for protection and against free silver. The Cleve- 
 land convention of the Democrats had adopted a 
 straightout free silver platform by a majority of 100. 
 Cincinnati was opposing Campbell's nomination. 
 Cincinnati Democrats were for good money. The 
 convention was piqued at the Hamilton County peo- 
 ple, and as a matter of spite, so it appeared to the 
 writer, many delegates voted for free silver because 
 Hamilton County was opposed to it. The silver 
 sentiment was strong in the Democratic ranks, but 
 there was a possibility that it might have been over- 
 come had Hamilton County not been in bad odor. 
 The campaign was an exciting one. The Democrats 
 had carried the State against Foraker two years be- 
 fore, and they were determined to do so this time. 
 They were unsuccessful, for McKinley was elected 
 by more than 21,000 plurality. 
 
 McKinley was the nominee of his party in 1893. 
 That renomination also was unanimous. The Demo- 
 cratic opponent was Lawrence T. Neal, a rabid free- 
 trader. He made a close campaign, but was beaten
 
 FIEST M. E. CHURCH AT CANTON, 
 Where Hon. Win. McKinley Attendi.
 
 McKIXLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 95 
 
 from the beginning. The writer accompanied Major 
 McKinley during that campaign, traveling with him 
 into every county but six. The people arose en masse 
 everywhere to see him. It was a triumphal journey 
 throughout. Every hall where a meeting was held 
 was overcrowded. It was often almost impossible to 
 enter. Many open-air meetings were held, and greater 
 crowds never heard a speaker in Ohio. The Gov- 
 ernor never was in better form. He stood the trials 
 of the campaign sturdily, wearing out some of those 
 who were with him. He never seemed to mind 
 fatigue. It was a hard campaign for the newspaper 
 men. There were so many things to be said of the 
 meetings, so many speeches by the Governor to be 
 reported. The election was a greater triumph than 
 the one two years before. McKinley received a plu- 
 rality of 80,995. 
 
 At the Minneapolis convention that nominated 
 Harrison, McKinley was permanent chairman. 
 There was an undercurrent in favor of his nomina- 
 tion. He had gone as a Harrison delegate, and he 
 fought against the sentiment in his own favor. It 
 was hard to keep down. Even his own State was 
 permeated with it. His best friends would not 
 listen to his pleas to them to let him alone. It will 
 be remembered that there was only one ballot for 
 the Presidency. Before Ohio had been reached 
 seventy-four votes had been cast for McKinley. His 
 protests had been unavailing. There was a hush in 
 the convention as Ohio was called. Chairman Nash
 
 96 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEAKS 
 
 of the delegation arose and announced two votes for 
 Harrison and forty-four for McKinley. The Gov- 
 ernor jumped from his chair and challenged the vote. 
 He was told that he had not the right to do so, since 
 his alternate was sitting there. Chairman McKinley 
 insisted that he had. Ex-Governor Foraker made a 
 point of order that McKinley could not challenge 
 the vote, and Chairman McKinley overruled it. He 
 demanded the calling of the roll of Ohio's delegates. 
 It was found that McKinley had forty-five votes and 
 Harrison one, and the one for Harrison was cast by 
 McKinley. He had been true to Harrison, but he 
 could not control the sentiment of his State and pre- 
 vent it from standing by him. Once before he had 
 prevented his nomination by fighting it himself, but 
 it was not to be permitted again. The Governor at 
 that convention showed clearly his high idea of 
 honor. It was natural for him to do so. 
 
 William McKinley was a model Governor. When 
 he was inaugurated, in January, 1892, he knew very 
 little of Ohio affairs, except such as he had gleaned 
 in his various readings. Of course he knew the his- 
 tory of the Buckeye State, was fully conversant with 
 its industries and needs, but as to State affairs, those 
 with which he would have to deal, he was unin- 
 formed. However, he went to work to study the 
 duties of his office thoroughly. He was a good judge 
 of men. He made admirable appointments always. 
 He managed the institutions of the State economi- 
 cally. He kept down appropriations wherever
 
 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 97 
 
 possible, but, having no veto power, was seriously 
 handicapped. However, his personal influence 
 tended to reduce the danger of unfortunate legisla- 
 tion. 
 
 The National Guard of the State reached its highest 
 efficiency under his two terms. They were in good 
 fighting trim and were several times called out. 
 There was a strike in the coal-mining regions of the 
 State. As soon as it became apparent that troops 
 were needed to preserve order, Governor McKinley 
 ordered them out. There was no hesitancy, no fear 
 of its effect on his political future. The Governor 
 saw his duty and did it. As a result there was 
 no bloodshed. The troops behaved admirably. 
 Again, when there had been a horrible crime in 
 "Washington Court House, and the people of the 
 town were about to lynch the criminal, Governor 
 McKinley sent his troops there. They were under 
 the command of a Democratic officer, Colonel Coit, 
 of the Fourteenth Regiment. In the performance of 
 his duty he ordered them to fire. Some were killed. 
 The Governor sustained him, and did what he could 
 to see that Coit got a fair trial when he was arrested 
 on the charge of murder. And again the Ohio 
 troops prevented trouble during the A. R. U.-Debs 
 revolution. Ohio has never had a Governor who 
 preserved better order, who had more courage in 
 handling the difficult questions that came before him 
 than did Governor McKinley. He retired from the 
 governorship because he wanted to do so. They do
 
 98 McKINLEY'S ACTIVE YEARS 
 
 not believe in third terms in Ohio, and McKinley, 
 able and admirable Governor that he was, wouid not 
 go counter to traditions, though he could have had 
 the nomination and would have been elected.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 McKinley's career in few words The charm of his personal cbai* 
 acter His habits of labor Devotion to friends and family. 
 
 HIS life lias been of great activity and suc- 
 cess, wrought by himself, advanced by 
 no influence, but earned by labor and 
 study, by patriotism and .statesmanship. It is a 
 record creditable throughout, and in it there is no 
 stain, no action that needs to be excused, nothing 
 that must be defended, nothing that can be assaulted 
 a manly, courageous, laborious, serious, earnest, 
 thorough, conscientious life, devoted to the service of 
 his country, and beautified by a devotion to his wife 
 that is as admirable as it is exceptional. Though 
 Major McKinley fought and struggled for every pre- 
 ferment he secured, there is nothing unusual in the 
 advance of a young man in America from humble 
 surroundings to leadership to the Presidency. But 
 McKinley's career has been so singularly patriotic, 
 so constantly opposed, because of the great principle 
 of protection that he advocated, so serious, so clean, 
 so brilliant, and so safe that it is most noteworthy. 
 The distinction just conferred on him was earned. 
 
 Major McKinley's life has not been without its de- 
 feats, its bitterness through misrepresentation, its 
 sorrow because of loss of children and his wife's in- 
 
 validism, but a full conviction in the propriety, 
 
 as
 
 100 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 
 
 righteousness, and importance of the cause which he 
 has largely represented, as well as a courageous be- 
 lief that the American people would ultimately ap- 
 prove his policy and appreciate his labors, for its 
 maintenance has guided and encouraged him, and now 
 he is about to reap the fruits of his life's labor by 
 election to the Presidency. The first return for his 
 self-sacrifice, for his devotion to country, for his pa- 
 triotism, for his integrity, and for his abilities comes 
 through the nomination just given him. It was 
 a nomination made by the people three years ago 
 when it became evident to all that the election of 
 Grover Cleveland was a serious error, that the cry 
 of tariff reform was a fraud, that the party which 
 desired to destroy protection was a menace. The 
 people, the workmen, the farmers, the merchants, 
 the capitalists all joined together in a demand that 
 he be nominated. Their earnestness overcame the 
 claims of others, some of them of distinguished 
 merit. It disregarded the services of several men of 
 statesmanship stature and it was obtained in opposi- 
 tion to the wishes and despite the interference of 
 some professional politicians. The people were not 
 satisfied until McKinley was nominated. For sev- 
 eral months before the convention it was apparent 
 that McKinley would be the candidate, though he 
 had competitors of the highest distinction. ' Those 
 who in his Ohio campaign saw how the people 
 revered him, how they longed for a return to 
 his policy of protection, believed from the time
 
 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 101 
 
 of these contests that his nomination was inevit- 
 able. 
 
 He is deserving of the distinction given him, and 
 it is undoubted that he has earned the advancement, 
 indisputable that he is able, steadfast, firm, manly, 
 trustworthy, safe, and able. The people insisted upon 
 his nomination and it was made. It is then, without 
 question, a popular choice, the selection by the peo- 
 ple of one of the people to be the people's President. 
 But two other Republican Presidential candidates 
 were practically chosen before the convention assem- 
 bled. These were heroes, and each of them men of 
 and from the people. One was Abraham Lincoln, 
 who was without real opposition, chosen for a sec- 
 ond term by a grateful party representing a brave 
 and patriotic people, that honored and revered the 
 man who helped the country through the dark and 
 sad and troublous days of the war with patience, man- 
 liness, and success. The other was Ulysses S. Grant, 
 who was twice nominated with practical unanimity. 
 Grant was a military hero, chosen because of his ser- 
 vices in the field, and not at first by reason of any 
 notable ability as a statesman. Each was a hero, 
 each a patriot, and each in a different way. William 
 McKinley is both soldier and statesman. As a boy, 
 before he had left his teens, he was an officer, fighting 
 in the field, enduring privations, and risking his life 
 for the nation. As a man, he developed in intellec- 
 tual force, strengthened by experience and study, in- 
 spired with belief in the truth and necessity of the
 
 102 PEKSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 
 
 p, !>e advocated, and spurred on by antagonism. 
 McKinley .3 a patriot. Lincoln freed the slaves. 
 McKinley will relieve the country from free trade, 
 from poverty, and from depression. 
 
 MCKINLEY'S PEESONALITY. 
 
 The world knows William McKinley as a public 
 man. His individuality is not understood, though 
 here and there glimpses have been had of his person- 
 ality, which have added to the respect in which he is 
 held. It is not surprising that Major McKinley is 
 not so well known as a private citizen, as a neighbor, 
 and friend. The public has been more concerned 
 with what he has accomplished, with what he repre- 
 sents, and with what he has opposed. The other side 
 has not been brought out, except incidentally. 
 
 There is a warmth of feeling, a generosity of spirit, 
 a sincerity, a purity of thought, a domesticity, an 
 affectionate disposition, a depth of character, a vein 
 of humor, a reserve, a patience under difficulties, a 
 devotion to friends, a personal attractiveness and a 
 breadth of character that make him admirable and 
 lovable, that delights and benefits, that charms and 
 wins, that inspires, and never wearies, that pleases 
 and gratifies, and that makes one glad to see him, 
 sorry to leave him, charmed to know him, and proud 
 to be his friend. There is a magnetism that is 
 attractive, a sunniness of disposition that is unex- 
 pected at first, an evenness of temper that is unusual,
 
 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKIXLEY 103 
 
 a resignation that is composed, a reserve that is not 
 often broken, but when it is there is a reward in 
 the manliness, charitableness, friendliness, affection, 
 trustfulness and confidence of the man. 
 
 Though imbued and filled with the importance of 
 the principles of the party of which he has so long 
 been a leader, Major McKinley is not self-centered, 
 neither is he selfish, for he often sacrifices for others, 
 always ready often to inconvenience himself for the 
 pleasure or benefit of his friends. A man who has 
 had as much admiration, as much flattery, as much 
 success must necessarily understand that he has 
 ability, must be confident of his powers, but in 
 William McKinley that is not accompanied by con- 
 ceit, for he is diffident, modest almost to bashfulness, 
 but experience has made it possible for him to con- 
 trol his tendency to seek obscurity, to enjoy quiet 
 instead of strife. 
 
 Major McKinley did not become a Presidential can- 
 didate because he sought honors, neither did he run 
 for Governor of Ohio because he desired the office. He 
 did not try to continue in Congress because he was 
 anxious to remain in public life. There are those 
 who may be unbelievers in this ; but he did so be- 
 cause he felt he had a duty to perform, a mission 
 to accomplish. Were he to follow the inclinations 
 of his wife and of himself he would not be a public 
 man now. He would not be about to go through an 
 exacting campaign. On the contrary, years ago he 
 would have settled down to the life of a lawyer,
 
 104 PEKSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 
 
 going his way quietly and unostentatiously. His 
 entrance into public life was almost a chance. That 
 naturally resulted in his continuance therein. His 
 services to the country have been at the sacrifice of 
 money, for, as a lawyer, he could have earned, even 
 in Canton, far more than he did as Representative 
 or as Governor. 
 
 For ten years, each time Major McKinley has run 
 for office, he did it in hesitation, because of the pro- 
 tests of his wife. ' To her his public career has been 
 a sacrifice for country. She has felt that he has 
 given far more than he received. On the day following 
 his triumphal re-election to the Governorship of Ohio 
 by a majority of nearly 82,000, Mrs. McKinley was 
 told that her husband would be the next President of 
 the United States. She shook her head firmly, and said 
 he would not, that the Governorship was his last 
 consent to stand for public office. She meant that, but 
 she yielded to the exigencies of the situation, and as 
 a good wife did what she could to aid him, preferring 
 all the while that he should be a private citizen. 
 Naturally Major McKinley is pleased and gratified 
 with his political advancement. He would not be 
 human if he were not, but he looks at it less as a 
 personal victory than as the success of a principle 
 which he holds most dear, and believes must be re- 
 stored to the statute books, in such form as to suit 
 the existing conditions. 
 
 There is one characteristic in Major McKinley 
 that the newspaper man does not like. He refrains
 
 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 105 
 
 from discussing questions for publication ; declines to 
 talk about them. While he was chairman of the 
 Committee on Ways and Means in the Fifty-first 
 Congress, when the tariff bill was before his com- 
 
 O 
 
 mittee in process of construction, he almost invaria- 
 bly declined to give news of its progress. Possibly 
 he did not know what news was. Certainly he would 
 never tell a man about it. Skillful correspondents, 
 accustomed to deal with public men, found difficulty 
 in exacting information from him. The better the 
 nqwsman knew the Major the less he secured, for his 
 questions would be answered fully, but there would 
 be an injunction of reserve that prevented any ad- 
 vantage from being obtained. Major McKinley 
 never sought newspaper notoriety. lie always 
 shrank from it. 
 
 William McKinley is naturally dignified ; but he 
 himself is a tease, and a persistent one if the per- 
 son made subject of his humor is teasable. It is 
 not exactly mischievousness, but a kindly, friendly, 
 and harmless pleasantry, showing an insight into 
 character that often takes one by surprise. But 
 no one ever takes any liberties with Major McKin- 
 ley. No one ever slapped him on the back without 
 finding that it was not an agreeab'le act. In fact, 
 the better one learns to know Mr. McKinley the 
 greater is the respect. There is no familiarity per- 
 mitted, and, consequently, no contempt. 
 
 While Major McKinley does not yearn to be 
 made the butt of a joke, he has a keen sense of
 
 106 PEESONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 
 
 humor, and can tell a good story as well as he can 
 make a tariff speech. He is delighted, when there 
 are no more serious matters to be considered, to listen 
 to amusing anecdotes and incidents, and has a hearty 
 and appreciative laugh. Nevertheless, he does not 
 like stories that rest for their point upon some vul- 
 garity. He never tells one himself, and has always 
 avoided having to listen to them. McKinley is 
 never profane. He seldom gives expression to irri- 
 tation, but calmly accepts what comes, patiently over- 
 looking faults and situations that cannot be pre- 
 vented. Many a time, when worn with prolonged 
 campaigning and anxious for rest, something would 
 occur that was aggravating, some arrangement would 
 not be made. On one occasion he had not received 
 his satchel containing a change of linen. Some one 
 had blundered. It was a most provoking occur- 
 rence. The Major inquired whose was the responsi- 
 bility, and contented himself with repeating several 
 times, in a rather reflective way, " Well, that is nice." 
 Then, when the culprit appeared with the valise, 
 there was no complaint ; simply thanks for getting it. 
 Major McKinley is always courtly. He is gracious 
 as well. He never forgets that he is a gentleman, 
 and is as dignified and careful of his words and 
 conduct when with intimate friends as he is in pub- 
 lic. He never forgets himself, never lounges, though 
 he will take comfortable positions. He is an invet- 
 erate smoker. He likes strong cigars and enjoys 
 them, and when on a campaign his companions knew
 
 PEESONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 107 
 
 where the cigar-box was in his valise, and it was per- 
 mitted for any one to go and help himself, and Major 
 McKinley was pleased when he discovered he had 
 been robbed. 
 
 Major McKinley is always careful about his dress. 
 His clothes fit him well, are well made, but not ex- 
 travagant. They are not such as attract attention. 
 He wears a short frock coat, with trousers of the 
 same material. The cloth is generally a black 
 diagonal, though recently he has taken to rougher 
 goods, but always black. A string tie is around his 
 neck, and his watch chain is pretty, but severely 
 plain. He wears a silk hat most of the time, though 
 when traveling frequently puts on a slouch hat, such 
 as is generally styled a Fedora. He makes a point of 
 wearing cloth of American manufacture, and to assert 
 that anything he wore was made abroad was to be 
 met with an instant denial, and the statement that 
 his tailor assured him that the cloth was of Ameri- 
 can make, and it always is good, strong, serviceable 
 goods, that is attractive and satisfactory. 
 
 Cleanliness is one of the traits of the next Presi- 
 dent of the United States. His shoes are always 
 polished and his hands well attended to. Dirt seems 
 to be abhorrent to him. He shaves himself, and can 
 carry on a conversation while cutting off the beard, 
 and do so admirably, while it is not necessary for 
 him. to look into a glass to see where the razor goes. 
 He never cuts himself, and shaves very close, seem- 
 ingly dissatisfied until he finds that he can feel no
 
 108 
 
 hair on the face, after running his hands over it 
 several times in different directions. He is smooth- 
 shaven always, and the unbearded face serves to 
 bring out the strong lines, the thought-marks on the 
 forehead and around the eyes, while the mouth shows 
 firm lines, indicating perseverance and definiteness 
 of purpose. His jaw is rather square and strong. 
 The nose is muscular and indicative of character. 
 The eyes are dark and sometimes obscured by the 
 shagginess of his eyebrows, but when they are lifted 
 up they gleam underneath and fascinate by their 
 brightness, seeming black when brightened by con- 
 versation or earnestness. The Major wears his hair 
 rather long. It is a dark brown, and of recent years 
 gray has scattered through. It is a little thin on the 
 temples and at the top of his head. It is fine and 
 silky and full of electricity. The ears are small, and 
 the teeth white and strong and well cared for. His 
 is a remarkably refined face, showing great intel- 
 lectual power, with a large head to set it off, and a 
 broad forehead that is pale, as is the face, though 
 exposure gives a brownish color. 
 
 In stature Major McKinley could be classed as 
 medium. He stands perhaps five feet seven inches, 
 just about an inch 'more than General Harrison. 
 His head is well set on a broad, vigorous, yet grace- 
 ful pair of shoulders. He has a little embonpoint, 
 which the frock coat serves to hide. His legs are 
 stocky, but well turned, and the feet small. In 
 walking McKinley swings his shoulders from side to
 
 PERSOXAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 109 
 
 side a little, goes with a firm step, the stride being 
 long for one of his stature. He plants his foot firmly 
 and raises it from the ground with a spring. His 
 gait is brisk, active, showing that he does not waste 
 time. He is not much at exercise, but often walks. 
 He prefers to ride where possible, and though in his 
 youthful days considerable of an athlete, he prefers 
 to sit and enjoy the air outside rather than to exert 
 himself by walking. Major McKinley has a deep 
 chest and a broad one, too. He has great lung power, 
 and always breathes deeply. If he were measured 
 it would probably appear that he has a chest expan- 
 sion of five or six inches at least. 
 
 McKinley's disposition is cheerful. He never 
 permits small things to worry him. Defeat never 
 makes him gloomy. Possibly he is a fatalist, but 
 he has such confidence in the ultimate triumph of 
 the principle of protection which he represents that 
 he is never discouraged. Life is serious to him, but 
 that does not prevent him enjoying it. He takes 
 it seriously and studiously, acquiring information 
 constantly, by asking questions and studying. He 
 never stops a subject until he knows it thoroughly. 
 When he says a thing is so, it is. He resembles 
 Senator Allison in that respect. 
 
 He is particularly charming to young people. He 
 seems to understand them, and children like him, 
 for he has a way of dealing with them that arouses 
 confidence and then regard. 
 
 Possibly they appeal to him because he lost his
 
 110 PEKSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 
 
 own. The children of his neighbors in Canton are 
 his friends. For them he has always a cheery 
 good morning and a friendly word. Wi$i the older 
 people he is deferential. This is particularly notice- 
 able in his treatment of his mother, who is now 
 nearly eighty-eight. He shows always the most 
 affectionate interest in her welfare, while she looks 
 at him with eyes that are full of pride and love. 
 The Governor's father died a year ago. There was 
 a friendly familiarity between them that was touch- 
 ing. There was devotion on the son's part and 
 admiration from the father. It is in his - home life 
 that McKinley is most lovable. To his wife he is 
 always the lover, showing the delicate attentions 
 that are so pleasing to a woman, and particularly to 
 one whose health is infirm. There is a tenderness 
 in his voice when he calls her name that shows he 
 speaks from the heart. When she praises him there 
 is a deprecating look, indicative of satisfaction at the 
 wifely affection, but embarrassment that she should 
 show such admiration. Mrs. McKinley looks upon 
 her husband as the incarnation of all virtues. Her 
 love, after twenty-five years of married life, is as of 
 the honeymoon. 
 
 INCIDENT OP EARLY LIFE. 
 
 After concluding his study of the law with Judge 
 Glidden, William McKinley moved to Canton, where 
 he had been preceded by his sister, Anna, who was 
 up to the time of her death the most successful and
 
 H 
 
 te 
 
 ft 
 c 
 c 
 
 o:
 
 ADMIKAL DEWEY, HERO OF MANILA BAY.
 
 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 113 
 
 popular school teacher iu the public schools of that 
 city of 38,000 people. Young McKinley stuck a 
 shingle out from a back room of the then public 
 building, a three-story brick structure which stood 
 where the court-house now stands. McKinley's 
 room was to the rear of the law offices of Judge 
 George W. Belden, who had served many years ou 
 the Common Pleas and Circuit bench, and was a 
 leader in his profession in Ohio. One evening the 
 Judge was sick. He stepped back to the office of 
 his new young neighbor and asked him to try a case 
 for him the very next morning. McKinley said he 
 couldn't. He wasn't able. He didn't know enough. 
 He was not familiar with the law in the case and 
 there was no time to look it up. The Judge said he 
 himself was sick and McKiuley could try the case 
 and must do it. McKinley sat up all night studying 
 the law points and the next day argued the case and 
 won it. As he was finishing his argument he 
 noticed Judge Belden step into the court-room and 
 take a rear seat. There was a twinkle in his eye. 
 But McKinley did not see him again for a week. 
 Then the Judge stepped into his humble office. He 
 laid down twenty-five dollars, saying : " Well, Mac, 
 you won the case ; I told you you would." 
 
 " Yes, I won it, but I don't want any pay for it, 
 ?uid if I did, I couldn't take this much." 
 
 " You must take it," replied the Judge. 
 
 " I couldn't take so much, Judge," responded the 
 young lawyer.'
 
 114: PEKSONAL SIDE OF McKlNLEY 
 
 " But that's all right," rejoined the Judge ; " I get 
 an even one hundred dollars from it, and keep the 
 seventy-five dollars for myself. And what is more, 
 I want you for a partner." 
 
 Young McKinley relented, and Belden & Me- 
 Kinley practiced together for several years, until 
 Judge Belden died. They were one of the leading 
 law firms of Eastern Ohio. 
 
 GOVERNOR McKINLEY'g MONEY TROUBLE. 
 
 The fact is familiar that Governor McKinley had 
 the misfortune to indorse paper for a friend, and lost 
 so much money that he resolved to abandon public 
 life to earn the sum so far as it was over and above 
 his means. The story was told in the New York 
 World, in explanation of some abusive remarks 
 touching McKinley, in March last, when it was seen 
 that he was becoming very prominent in the Presi- 
 dential contest. 
 
 On February 17th, 1893, every dollar McKinley 
 possessed was swept away, and he was overwhelmed 
 with an indebtedness of between $90,000 and 
 $100,000. It all came about through the failure of 
 Robert L. Walker, capitalist, banker, manufacturer, 
 and boyhood companion of Governor McKinley. 
 
 Mr. Walker lived in Youngstown. He was Presi- 
 dent of the Farmers' National Bank, the Girard 
 Savings Bank, a stamping-mill company, a stove and 
 range company, and interested in several coal mines 
 in Western Ohio and Eastern Pennsylvania. Mr*
 
 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKIXLEY 115 
 
 Walker was a potent factor in the community, had 
 the confidence of everybody, and was rated above 
 $250,000. When young McKinley returned from 
 the war and began the study of law and politics, 
 Walker had helped him. When McKinley was 
 elected to Congress he found the campaign expenses 
 heavy, and a mortgage which was due on his wife's 
 property, forced him to negotiate a loan of $2,000 
 from Walker. 
 
 This Major McKinley paid out of his salary as 
 Congressman within two years. It is probable that 
 similar loans were made and paid afterwards. Mrs. 
 McKinley was an invalid, and as Major McKinley's 
 income was only $5,000 and an occasional legal fee he 
 was never able to save anything. It was only during 
 campaigns that he required these loans, and the 
 money was expended in campaign assessments. 
 When he had won fame in Congress he was no 
 longer assessed anything, and in the last ten years 
 of his life in Congress he was able to accumulate 
 $20,000. It was invested in securities and real 
 estate. These securities consisted of stock in 
 various coal mines and undeveloped coal fields. The 
 chief real estate item was the modest home in Can- 
 ton. Early in 1893 Mr. Walker told Major McKin- 
 ley that he was hard pressed for ready money. He 
 asked the Governor to indorse his notes, which he 
 proposed to have discounted. Without investigating 
 or inquiring into the matter Major McKinley in- 
 stantly consented. He only knew that his old friend,
 
 116 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 
 
 I.: \ 
 
 the man who stood by him in early years, wanted 
 assistance, and anything he could do to help him he 
 cheerfully did. The notes were made payable in 
 thirty, sixty, and ninety days, and Major McKinley 
 indorsed, as he supposed, about $15,000 worth. They 
 were discounted as Walker planned and Major 
 McKinley thought no more of the matter until Feb- 
 ruary 17th, 1893. 
 
 On that date Youngstown and Mahoning Valley 
 was startled by the assignment of Robert L. Walker. 
 A judgment of $12,000 against the Youngstown 
 Stamping Company caused the failure. The stove 
 company, the coal mines and the other enterprises 
 went down the next day. Then the banks which 
 held -the Walker paper began to figure. Major 
 McKinley was leaving his home to go to the banquet 
 of the Ohio Society in New York when he was in- 
 formed of the disaster. He cancelled his New York 
 engagement and took the first train to Youngstown. 
 
 There he learned that instead of being on the 
 Walker paper for $15,000, his liability in that 
 direction was nearly $100,000. He could not under- 
 stand it. Banks all over the State telegraphed him 
 they had some of the paper. He was under the 
 impression the paper had been discounted in but 
 three banks. He held a conference with his friends. 
 He told them he had endorsed a number of notes, 
 but he understood that fully half of them were 
 made out to take up notes which he had first endorsed 
 and which had fallen due,
 
 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 117 
 
 A little investigation showed that the old notes 
 were still unpaid and the new notes had doubled, 
 trebled, quintupled the debt. The Walker liabili- 
 ties were about $200,000 and the assets not half that 
 
 After the conference with his Youngstown friends 
 Major MeKinley said : " I can hardly believe this, 
 but it appears to be true. I don't know what my 
 liabilities are, but whatever I owe shall be paid dol- 
 lar for dollar." 
 
 MeKinley was not interested in any of Walker's 
 business enterprises. The connection was simply 
 one of friendship. 
 
 Mrs. MeKinley owned property valued at $75,000, 
 left her by her father. On February 22d the Gov- 
 ernor and his wife made an absolute and unqualified 
 assignment of all their property to trustees II. H. 
 Kohlsaat, of Chicago ; Myron T. Herrick, of Cleve- 
 land, and Judge Day, of Canton, Ohio to be turned 
 over, without preference, for the equal benefit of the 
 creditors. 
 
 Friends urged Mrs. MeKinley to retain an inter- 
 est in her property, but she refused, and executed a 
 deed to M. A. Hanna, of Cleveland. At this time 
 Major MeKinley said: "I did what I could to liolp 
 a friend who had befriended me. The result is 
 known. I had no interest in any of the enterprises 
 Mr. Walker was carrying. The amount of my in- 
 dorsements is in excess of anything I dreamed. 
 There is but one thing for me to do one thing I
 
 118 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKlXLEY 
 
 would do meet this unlooked-for burden as best I 
 can. I have this day placed all my property in the 
 hands of trustees, to be used to pay my debts. It 
 will be insufficient, but I will execute notes and pay 
 them as fast as I can. I shall retire from politics, 
 take up the practice of law, and begin all over again." 
 
 The news of the disaster, and the stand taken by 
 McKinley and his wife, created a feeling of sympathy 
 throughout the country. The Chicago Inter-Ocean 
 started a popular fund, and money and offers of 
 assistance began to pour in. 
 
 McKinley returned the money to the contributors, 
 thanking them for their interest, but refused to accept 
 a dollar. 
 
 Finally a number of personal friends of the Gov- 
 ernor, M. A. Hanna, of Cleveland ; Philo Armour, 
 Marshal Field, and H. H. Kohlsaat, of Chicago ; 
 Bellamy Storer and Thomas McDougall, of Cincin- 
 nati ; Myron T. Herrick, of Cleveland, and others, 
 decided to subscribe privately to a fund to pay the 
 Walker notes. 
 
 Mr. Kohlsaat, who managed the fund, said to The 
 World correspondent: "One of the chief reasons 
 why the subscription plan was adopted was because 
 a number of subscriptions were received anonymously 
 and could not be returned. There were over 4,000 
 subscriptions sent in, and when the last piece of paper 
 was taken up, bearing Major McKinley's name, no 
 more subscriptions were received and some were 
 returned. No list of the subscribers was kept, and
 
 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKIXLEY 119 
 
 Governor McKinley does not know to this day, with 
 the possible exception of four or five names, who 
 contributed the money. 
 
 " When Governor McKinley saw the publication 
 of the subscription scheme he wrote me absolutely 
 declining to receive a dollar. Mr. Hanna and his 
 other friends told him to leave the matter alone, for 
 if his friends wished to assist him they should have 
 the privilege." 
 
 Myron T. Herrick, of Cleveland, was treasurer of 
 the fund and took up the paper as fast as presented. 
 
 Mrs. McKinley's property was tlien deeded back 
 to her. She is worth to-day probably $75,000. 
 McKinley has his original $20,000 and a little more. 
 He saved nothing, it is said, during his second term 
 as Governor. 
 
 The matter has been referred to as showing a lack 
 of business ability on the part of Governor McKinley. 
 This is hardly justified. George Tod, whose busi- 
 ness ability will not be questioned, says he would have 
 endorsed Robert Walker's paper for half a million 
 dollars the day before his failure. Such being his 
 standing and such the close personal relations between 
 the two men it is not strange that McKinley endorsed 
 for Walker to a large amount. 
 
 This is a perfectly straight story. Major McKinley 
 and his wife were good for the money, and resolved 
 to pay all the obligations and returned the first sub- 
 scriptions ; but the final arrangement to take up Mc- 
 Kinley's paper as fast as presented was so organized
 
 120 PERSONAL SIDE OF McKINLEY 
 
 he was constrained to submit to its execution. The 
 whole transaction was one of undue confidence in the 
 business ability, integrity, and standing of a friend, 
 and the initiation of it was in the payment of a debt 
 of gratitude. It is a chapter in the career of a man 
 who has given his labor for the general benefit, 
 paying scant attention to personal interests ; and the 
 fact that Governor McKinley was saved for the public 
 service is most creditable to the gentlemen who are 
 responsible for the adjustment, and the action of the 
 Governor himself was in every detail of his contact 
 with it that of a man of absolute probity.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 McKINLEY NOT A MAN OF ONE IDEA. 
 
 His superior distinction as a protectionist has caused him to be erro- 
 neously accused of exclusive devotion to that subject The 
 great range of his public ?i>ceclu's and addresses A superb 
 tribute from General Grosvenor, giving a list of subjects. 
 
 THE reputation of Major McKinley as the fore- 
 most champion of the American system of 
 protection has for some years been familiar 
 to all civilized people. He represents the American 
 idea, and is as prominently in the eye of the public 
 in England, France, Germany, and Austria as in his 
 own country, and is in Spain, Italy, Sweden, and 
 Russia a man of mark in all business communities, 
 and of immense conspicuity in all commercial circles 
 and manufacturing towns ; and so far as the Asiatics 
 are interested in the affairs European and American, 
 they are informed of McKinley as the man who 
 stands for the principle that the Americans should 
 diversify their industries and aid home markets with 
 home manufactories, mingling producers and con- 
 sumers on the same soil, aiding the fanners by divert- 
 ing labor to other occupations than agricultural, and 
 
 121
 
 122 McKINLEY NOT OF ONE IDEA 
 
 causing competition among our own manufacturers 
 in our own markets, by protecting them from foreign 
 intrusion upon conditions unfavorable to our higher 
 and broader interests. There is a curious bitterness 
 of personal hostility abroad to Major McKinley. In 
 some of the manufacturing districts of Germany, 
 McKinley is regarded as a public enemy almost a 
 monster. American children in German schools have 
 been astonished, offended, and mortified by these mani- 
 festations of feeling, and of one thing Americans can 
 be sure, and it is that those who make a virtue in 
 England or the Continental countries of Europe, of 
 being hostile to McKinley, are not animated by ap- 
 prehensions that his policy is injurious to the people 
 of the United States. They hold that he is disposed 
 to build up his own country at the expense of Europe; 
 that his statesmanship is American, but not cosmo- 
 politan, and that is not an unreasonable conclusion. 
 It was the earliest fame of McKinley in Congress 
 and as a Republican politician on the stump that he 
 made his protection speeches intensely interesting, 
 and that no one else did so with the same certainty 
 and efficacy ; and it was out of this that the unwar- 
 ranted impression grew that the discussion of the 
 tariff was his sole specialty. In truth no one had a 
 greater range of subjects. Born in a manufacturing 
 town in his youth up to the time he became a boy 
 soldier, seventeen years of age one of those in- 
 tently interested in the prosperity of the manufactur- 
 ing industries that demanded the protection that was
 
 McKLVLKV XOT OF ONE IDEA 123 
 
 declared in the first law passed by the American 
 Congress, McKinley was a student of this great 
 matter from infancy, and the facts and sentiments 
 of the manufacturing people were for him in the air 
 he breathed ; and lie saw and felt the advancing 
 importance of the issues of protection because the 
 world was at last so small that the nations over the 
 sea were our neighbors. Liverpool was, in Henry 
 Clay's time, further from American ports, than Can- 
 ton and Melbourne now are, and the manufacturing 
 districts of England are closer to us, in time and 
 cost of transportation, than Connecticut was at the 
 beginning of the War of States. The same thing 
 may be said of Germany and Massachusetts. 
 
 McKinley grew up with the question and was its 
 master long before he was its expounder fronting the 
 world, and its champion at home. He is popular 
 here for the same reason that he is unpopular 
 abroad. His name has swept the country as a Presi- 
 dential candidate, because of its unquestionable and 
 unexampled significance. The meaning of it is plain 
 to the people, and what it means they want. He 
 has friends who have been ardent and able organ- 
 izers and workers but they have only handled the 
 material that was abundant and seasoned. The fire 
 was not kindled in green wood with laborious pains. 
 The woods were ready to burn and the wind was 
 fair. The people have done this thing themselves 
 and they will see it through. They are dissatisfied 
 with the free-trade experiments of Mr. Cleveland.
 
 124 McKINLEY NOT OF ONE IDEA 
 
 The Democratic threats to throw down the defenses 
 of American industry were themselves disastrous 
 and the weariness of uncertainty became an intoler- 
 able misfortune and the tariff that was neither for 
 protection nor revenue was a blow that seemed, under 
 the circumstances, so unprincipled and wanton, the 
 people resented it as damaging without excuse and 
 insolent without provocation. The Hon. Charles H. 
 Grosvenor, one of the Ohio men who has served 
 long with McKinley in Congress and knew him 
 intimately in personal and public life, has contrib- 
 uted an excellent character sketch of his friend 
 notable for its firmness and accuracy of touch, and 
 breadth and clearness of view, and that has been 
 exceedingly serviceable in making known the variety 
 of the political life of the man who has been so heed- 
 lessly criticised as a statesman with one idea and one 
 speech. General Grosvenor says : 
 
 " Governor McKinley is a man of most attractive 
 personality. He was born and reared from child- 
 hood to manhood among the people of the country. 
 He learned in the school from which so many 
 graduates have risen to distinction in the United 
 States the school of adversity and personal en- 
 deavor. 
 
 "He is now fifty-two years of age, in the very 
 prime of a splendid physical and mental manhood. 
 He is not only vigorous mentally and strong from 
 every possible standpoint of manhood, but is con- 
 stantly growing and developing, and it may be said
 
 125 
 
 of him with perfect propriety that he has never 
 occupied a position in private or public life where he 
 did not fill to the fullest measure all the expectations 
 of his friends and constituents. Whether as a soldier 
 in the field young, radiant with patriotism, buoyant 
 with impassion or as a young lawyer entering upon 
 the noble profession of his choice, as a Congress- 
 man representing the great interests of his district 
 and State, or as the executive of the great State of 
 Ohio, he has, under all circumstances, risen to the 
 full measure of the opportunity and discharged every 
 duty and every trust with unwavering zeal and pre- 
 eminent success. 
 
 " He has been an ardent student of politics. He 
 left a prosperous and growing professional business, 
 and a flattering career just opening before him, and 
 entered the field of politics a young man full of 
 enthusiasm as a Republican. He has always been 
 faithful to party duty, and while maintaining his 
 own integrity of conscience, and while criticising 
 party platforms and party movements at times, yet 
 no one is truer to party obligation and party fealty 
 than he. Kindly considerate of his opponent, always 
 bearing testimony of the good faith of those of other 
 political organizations, he, nevertheless, stands firmly 
 and vigorously for the tenets of his own party. He 
 is a Republican from honest conviction, and does 
 battle for Republican organization and Republican 
 victory from a sense of public duty. 
 
 " His intense Americanism has had mucli to do
 
 126 McKIXLEY NOT OF OXE IDEA 
 
 beyond special matters of political contention. Be- 
 lieving that this country is and should be for the 
 homes and interests of the American people, he 
 advocates the principles that, in his judgment, best 
 subserve that result. 
 
 " By intense Americanism it must not be supposed 
 that he confines the definition of Americanism to the 
 men and principles exclusively of American birth. 
 He does now and always has recognized this country 
 as not only the home of American-born, but also of 
 the truly valuable citizens of other countries who 
 come here and renounce their citizenship and all 
 foreign powers, and fully assimilate the principles 
 of our government and become loyal to the Constitu- 
 tion, and industrial and faithful citizens of the United 
 States. 
 
 " During Governor McKinley's long service in Con- 
 gress he gave special attention to the subject of the 
 tariff, and as a member of the Ways and Means 
 Committee devoted much of his time to revenue 
 legislation ; but it must not be understood that Gov- 
 ernor McKinley is a man of power and a man of 
 knowledge upon a single subject. It has been said 
 of him incidentally that he is a statesman upon a 
 single question and a man of learning with a single 
 idea. No greater error could possibly be suggested. 
 
 " Since the expiration of his terra in Congress and 
 during his four years in the administration as Gov- 
 ernor of Ohio, he has delivered addresses upon a 
 great variety of questions, and discussed a large
 
 McKINLEY NOT OF ONE IDEA 127 
 
 number of subjects, all outside of his specialty in 
 national politics. He has made many notable 
 speeches upon questions wholly independent and 
 differing from mere political considerations. Among 
 the notable speeches which he made in Congress 
 other than upon the tariff question were : upon the 
 contest against Judge Taylor in the Forty-fourth 
 Congress ; the subject of free and fair elections in 
 the same Congress ; a memorial address on the death 
 of Garfield ; payment of pensions in the Forty- 
 ninth Congress ; the Dependent Pension bill in the 
 same Congress ; the purchase of government bonds 
 in the Fiftieth Congress ; memorial address on the 
 death of John A. Logan ; the question of a quorum 
 in the Fifty-first Congress ; civil service reform in 
 the Fifty-first Congress ; the Direct Tax Refunding 
 bill ; the Hawaiian Treaty ; the Eight-hour law, 
 and the Silver bill. These speeches, which are of 
 the highest order of excellence, covered a wide range 
 of subjects. 
 
 " Outside of Congress his speeches and public utter- 
 ances have covered a still wider range. Among those 
 that might be noted" as of special interest are his 
 address, at Atlanta, Ga., before the Piedmont Chau- 
 tauqua Association ; the ' American Volunteer Sol- 
 dier/ Memorial Day address, at New York City ; 
 ' Prospect and Retrospect/ an address to the pio- 
 neers of the Mahoning Valley; 'The American 
 Farmer/ an address before the Ohio State Grange ; 
 * Our Public Schools/ an address at the dedication
 
 128 MeKINLEY NOT OF ONE IDEA 
 
 of a public school building ; * New England and the 
 Future/ an address before the Pennsylvania New 
 
 ' / 
 
 England Society ; ' The Tribune's Jubilee,' an 
 address at the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of 
 the New York Tribune ; ' Pensions and the Public 
 Debt/ a Memorial Day address at Canton, Ohio ; 
 * No Compromise with the Demagogue/ at the Ohio 
 Republican State Convention of 1891 ; a Fourth of 
 July address, at Woodstock, Conn.; 'The American 
 Workingman/ a Labor Day address at Cincinnati ; 
 the ' State of Ohio/ an address before the Ohio 
 State Republican League ; * Oberlin College/ an ad- 
 dress before the Cleveland Alumni ; ' Issues make 
 Parties/ an address to the Republican College 
 Clubs at Ann Arbor, Mich.; his notification address 
 to Mr. Harrison ; a Fourth of July oration at Lake- 
 side ; ' The Triumphs of Protection/ an address 
 before the Chautauqua Association, at Beatrice, 
 Neb.; 'An Auxiliary to Religion/ an address at the 
 dedication of the Young Men's Christian Association 
 at Youngstown, Ohio ; an oration at the dedication 
 of the Ohio Building at the World's Fair at Chicago; 
 a memorial address upon the life and character of 
 Rutherford B. Hayes ; a speech at Minneapolis upon 
 questions of national-. import; an address on Wash- 
 ington before the Union League Club, of Chicago, 
 February 22d, 1893 ; an address to the students of 
 the Northwestern University at Chicago on ' Citizen- 
 ship and Education ;' 'Law, Labor, and Liberty/ 
 a Fourth of July oration before the labor organiza-
 
 [BEE UNDER WHICH SURRENDER OF SPANISH FORCES AT SANTIAGO WAS MADE,
 
 MeKINLEY NOT OF ONE IDEA 131 
 
 tions of Chicago; addresses before the National 
 Jewish Association at Cleveland ; before the National 
 Saengerfest at Cleveland ; Grant memorial address at 
 New York; an address at the dedication of the Grant 
 monument at Galena, 111. ; an address before the Ep- 
 worth League of the United States at Cleveland ; an 
 address before the Christian Endeavorers of the Bap- 
 tist Union, and before the Christian Endeavor Asso- 
 ciation of the United Presbyterian Church at Colum- 
 bus ; an address to the Lutheran Synod at Columbus ; 
 an address at Albany, N. Y., on Abraham Lincoln ; 
 an address before the Chamber of Commerce at 
 Rochester, N. Y., on ' Business and Politics ;' before 
 the State (Ohio) Chamber of Commerce on ' Busi- 
 ness and Citizenship ;' before the German Veterans 
 of the United States, at Columbus ; a Memorial Day 
 address at Indianapolis; an address before the Grand 
 Army of the Republic at Pittsburg, and most notably, 
 his splendid oration at the dedication of Chickamauga 
 and Chattanooga Park, and at the Atlanta Exposi- 
 tion his speech upon * Blue and Gray/ 
 
 "A careful perusal of these speeches, orations, and 
 addresses will show that Governor McKinley, while 
 an absolute master of all that relates to the tariff and 
 all phases of governmental revenue, has yet distin- 
 guished himself in these other fields of oratory by 
 the same thoroughness of knowledge and the same 
 beauty of oratorical effect. His oratory is of the 
 choicest character ; phrases and sentences come trip- 
 ping and bubbling forth from him apparently with-
 
 13* 
 
 out preparation, apparently without effort, forming 
 the most beautiful constellations of oratorical effect 
 and oratorical beauty. 
 
 " It is not an exaggerated statement to say that 
 Governor McKiiiley has made addresses, orations, 
 and speeches of the very highest order, judged from 
 the point of view of oratory and of thorough knowl- 
 edge of the subjects, upon a more diversified line 
 of subjects than can be justly attributed to many 
 Americans of to-day. Indeed, we are at a loss to 
 recall at this moment any one who has exhibited in 
 this country a wider range of subjects with a more 
 perfect handling of the same. He has addressed 
 more people in the United States upon the various 
 topics upon which he has spoken by far than any 
 other living man, and he has been seen by a greater 
 number of the people of the United States than any 
 other man now living. 
 
 " He is personally exceedingly popular among the 
 masses of the people. It is safe to say that since the 
 untimely death of James G. Elaine no American 
 citizen has drawn to public gatherings anything like 
 the number of men that have flocked to hear Governor 
 McKinley. In the campaign of 1894 he traveled and 
 spoke from platforms and Pullman cars in nearly all 
 the States of the Nation where political contests were 
 raging, and whether in the great Republican State of 
 Ohio, or in the close and doubtful State of Missouri, 
 or in the great crowds which met him in New Orleans, 
 his audiences were absolutely unparalleled.
 
 MeKOLEY NOT OF ONE IDEA 133 
 
 " His nearness to the people, his closeness to the 
 very sympathies and hearts of the masses of the 
 American people, has not been excelled by the 
 experience of any American within the memory of 
 man. He has had experience in high executive 
 office. For four years he has served as Governor 
 of the great State of Ohio. During that time many 
 events and some serious disturbances have happened 
 in the State which brought out his strong and com- 
 manding executive force." 
 
 The space at command will not permit the repro- 
 duction of the great mass of public utterances by 
 Governor McKinley, but we propose to present 
 enough passages, selected with the view of prefer- 
 ring that which is characteristic and that together 
 will testify the seriousness and searching studies with 
 which he has made himself familiar with a range of 
 topics equal in scope to those that have received the 
 attention of his age and country, and we devote the 
 chapters immediately succeeding this to the addresses 
 in which he has discussed affairs in his characteristic 
 style, showing the wide field of thought with which 
 he is familiar, and in the treatment of which he dis- 
 plays the energy, sincerity, and scholarship that he 
 devotes to the service of the people.
 
 CHAPTER VH. 
 
 HcKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM. 
 
 Address at Rochester, N. Y. Studying conditions of government 
 Public opinion the basis Zeal after election The people's 
 business Duty of business men Manufacturing interests 
 Our best market An extraordinary spectacle. 
 
 VERY rarely has there been a more powerful 
 statement of the obligations and importance 
 of civic patriotism than that by Governor 
 McKinley, at Rochester, N. Y., before the Chamber 
 of Commerce of that city. It is the more forcible 
 because it is in the simplest business language and 
 the direct association of good citizenship with good 
 business is remarkable and impressive. 
 
 CIVIC PATRIOTISM. 
 GOVERNOR McKiNLEY AT ROCHESTER, N. Y., FEB. 13TH, 1895. 
 
 " MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OP THE CHAMBER 
 
 or COMMERCE : 
 
 " I cannot forego making grateful acknowledg- 
 ment of the honor of the invitation of the Chamber 
 of Commerce of the city of Rochester which brings 
 
 134
 
 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 135 
 
 me here to-night. It would have been more agree- 
 able to me to have been a silent guest at your table, 
 freed from the responsibility of making an address. 
 
 " These are times when the wisest words are wanted 
 and the careless should be unspoken. I wish more 
 than ever in my life for the power to speak the words 
 which, at a crisis like the present, are so much 
 needed. The people throughout the country are at 
 this moment giving more sober consideration to the 
 duties of citizenship than probably at any previous 
 period. They are studying conditions in national, 
 State, and city governments. They are reflecting 
 upon their responsibility and power in relation to 
 these conditions, having uppermost in mind the pos- 
 sibility to improve them. 
 
 " ' What can we do to better them ?' is the inquiry 
 engaging every thoughtful mind, and which comes 
 almost unbidden from every tongue. The power, as 
 well as the responsibility, the people are beginning 
 to realize, rests with them. Their duty they want 
 to know, and knowing it, they are ready to do it. 
 
 " Our government, National, State, and Municipal, 
 rests upon public opinion. Public opinion creates 
 free governments, and upholds them for good or for 
 ill. Public opinion, however good, if indifferent, has 
 no vital force. When aroused, it may check an evil 
 in public administration, but the evil will resume its 
 sway the moment the public sentiment which arrested 
 it lapses into indifference. Public opinion, to secure 
 real reforms and hold them, must not be fitful and
 
 136 MeKINL&Y ON CIVIC PATKIOTISM 
 
 spasmodic ; it njust be vigorous, vigilant, steady, and 
 constant, and as sleepless in its activity as the enemy 
 of right is known always to be. Swift as public 
 judgment sometimes is, and justly is, in the condem- 
 nation of public officials and public policies, some- 
 thing more than this is required. Execution of the 
 public will must follow the public judgment. And 
 this is only possible when the same public is alert 
 and determined that its judgment shall not be a cold 
 formality, but a living fact, to be respected and en- 
 forced. 
 
 " Zeal after an election is quite as essential as before. 
 The cause which was successful at the polls demands 
 constant zeal for its practical realization. The best 
 agents of the popular will are made better by the in- 
 cessant watchfulness of their principals. Not watch- 
 fulness alone, but support, reinforcement, and en- 
 couragement are necessary. The battle is only begun 
 when the first line of intrenchments is taken. The 
 army is quite as necessary in the engagements which 
 are to follow. The election only determines public 
 policy. It has then to be carried out. It requires 
 the people co-operating continuously with the public 
 officers to put into the forms of law and administra- 
 tion their declared purpose. The election settles 
 much or little dependent upon how the election de- 
 crees are interpreted and executed. The election 
 only declares the people's purpose. After this 
 must come the fulfillment, for the promises of the 
 election should always be sacredly kept. Here comes
 
 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 137 
 
 ' the tug of war.' Then is not the time for relaxa- 
 tion on the part of the citizen, but for renewed and 
 redoubled effort and vigilance. If then the people 
 become iudiifereut, you may be sure the public officer, 
 however strong and true and well meaning, will be 
 inadequate for the task. The official is quick to 
 catch the spirit of the people. 
 
 " Lincoln said, as he journeyed to Washington in 
 1861, in response to the address of welcome by Gov- 
 ernor Morton, of Indiana, at the city of Indianapolis : 
 
 " ' In all the trying places in which I may be 
 placed, and doubtless I will be placed in many such, 
 my reliance will be upon you, the people of the 
 United States, and I wish you to remember now and 
 forever that it is your business, not mine alone.' 
 
 " No truth was ever more manifest or more sig- 
 nificant, then and now, than that uttered by Mr. 
 Lincoln. 
 
 " Government of the people is the people's busi- 
 ness, and if they neglect it, government and people 
 both suffer. The duty of the citizen does not end 
 when the polls are closed on election day. He has. 
 by the act of voting, performed an important duty, 
 bat the 3G4 days of the year remaining each has its 
 own distinct duty, sometimes quite as important as 
 the one on election dav. 
 
 v 
 
 "Interest in public affairs, National, State, and 
 city, should be ever present and active, and not 
 abated from one year's end to the other. No Ameri- 
 can citizen is too groat and none too humble to be
 
 138 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 
 
 exempt from any civic duty, however subordinate. 
 Every public duty is honorable. 
 
 " If the best citizens will not unite to serve the 
 State or city, the worst may and generally will be 
 in control. There is in every State and city a 
 majority in favor of the best government, and when 
 they fail to secure it, it is because the majority is 
 indifferent and without unity of purpose and action. 
 Business men cannot, with safety, stand aloof from 
 political duties. Their success or failure in their 
 own enterprises is often involved in good or bad 
 government. The great danger to the country is 
 indifferentism. 
 
 " This menace often comes from the busy man or 
 man of business, and sometimes from those possess- 
 ing the most leisure or learning. I have known men 
 engaged in great commercial enterprises to leave 
 home on the eve of an election, and then complain of 
 the result, when their presence and the good influence 
 they might properly have exerted would have secured 
 a different and better result. They run away from 
 one of the most sacred obligations in a government 
 like ours, and confide to those with less interest 
 involved and less responsibility to the community, 
 the duty which should be shared by them. What 
 we need is a revival of the true spirit of popular 
 government, the true American spirit where all not 
 the few participate actively in government. We 
 need a new baptism of patriotism ; and suppressing 
 for the time our several religious views upon the
 
 McKIXLEY OX CIVIC PATEIOTISM 139 
 
 subject, I think we will all agree that the baptism 
 should be by immersion. There cannot be too much 
 patriotism. It banishes distrust and treason, and 
 anarchy flees before it. It is a sentiment which 
 enriches our individual and National life. It is the 
 firmament of our power, the security of the Republic, 
 the bulwark of our liberties. It makes better citizens, 
 better cities, a better country, and a better civilization. 
 " The business life of the country is so closely con- 
 nected with its political life that the one is much 
 influenced by the other. Good politics is good 
 business. Mere partisanship no longer controls the 
 citizen and country. Men who think alike, although 
 heretofore acting jealously apart, are now acting 
 together, and no longer permit former party associ- 
 ations to keep them from co-operating for the public 
 good. They are more and more growing into the 
 habit of doing in politics what they do in business. 
 Strong as the party tie may be, it is not so strong 
 as the business tie. Men would rather break with 
 their party than break up their business. They 
 prefer individual and National prosperity to party 
 supremacy, and a clean public service to party 
 spoils. The business man cannot stand aloof from 
 public affairs without prejudice to his own business 
 and without neglecting the grave duties which he 
 owes the State. Wholesome political activity in the 
 business world is promotive of the general good. 
 Interest in public affairs by spurts is probably better 
 than no interest at all, but the steady, uninterrupted,
 
 140 McKIKLEY ON CIVIC PATKIOTISM 
 
 every-day interest is the crying need of the hour 
 and the only path of safety. The best results in free 
 government can be had in no other way. 
 
 " You cannot hope to improve public affairs by 
 withholding your own good offices. If you would 
 clear and purify the atmosphere of our political life, 
 you must lend your own energy and virtue and 
 intelligence and honesty to do it. 
 
 " The business men of the country have devolving 
 upon them a grave responsibility. It is no easy task 
 to keep the mighty wheels of industry in operation. 
 Idle wheels ineah idle men and idle capital. Both 
 draw upon their accumulations, and each is unprofit- 
 able when the other is unemployed. Think of the 
 vast capital invested in manufactures in this country, 
 and what skill and watchfulness are required to 
 keep it at work ! The manufactures of the United 
 States in 1890, engaged $2,900,735,884 of capital, 
 and the value of the output was $4,860,286,837. 
 The making of these products furnished steady and 
 remunerative occupation to 2,251,134 persons ; and 
 the stupendous sum of $1,221,170,454 poured into 
 the then happy and prosperous homes of the Ameri- 
 can workingmen nearly four millions of dollars 
 for each working-day, and nearly one-half million 
 dollars for every working-hour of every working-day 
 of the year 1890. Our manufactures have made 
 steady advance from 1865 to 1892 ; nearly one million 
 more persons were employed in the year 1890 than 
 in 1880, and more were employed in 1892 than had
 
 MeKIXLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 141 
 
 ever been employed in any previous year in our his- 
 tory, and more, it is needless to say, than have been 
 employed since ; and the wages paid in 1890 were 
 more than double the amount paid in 1880. The 
 value of our manufacturing products in 1890 was 
 more than 100 per cent, greater than in 1880. I do 
 not think even the business men of this country ap- 
 preciate I am sure that the people at large do not 
 appreciate the full magnitude of the manufacturing 
 interests of the United States, and the wealth which 
 agriculture and manufactures and labor working 
 together have made for the Republic. Our wealth 
 in 1890 was $61,469,000,000. In 1880 it was 
 $43,642,000,000. From 1870 to 1890 it increased 
 $31,391,000,000, or almost twice the entire wealth 
 of the Empire of Russia. Take Great Britain, the 
 richest nation in the old world, with the accumula- 
 tions of centuries, and our wealth exceeds her's in 
 1880 by $276,000,000. 
 
 " In 1880 our wealth was 23.93 per cent, of the 
 wealth of all Europe. Our earnings were 28.01 per 
 cent, of those of Europe, and our increase of wealth 
 was 49.28 per cent, of European increase. From 
 1870 to 1880 the per capita of wealth of Europe 
 decreased nearly 3 per cent., while in the United 
 States there was an increase of nearly 39 per cent. 
 The freight that passed through the St. Mary's 
 Falls Canal in 1890 exceeded by 2,257,876 tons 
 the entire tonnage of all the nations which passed 
 through the Suez Canal in 1889. Our home mar-
 
 142 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 
 
 kets have consumed heretofore five times as much 
 of our manufactured products as Great Britain ex- 
 ported of hers to all the markets of the world. Our 
 products are carried to our own people and dis- 
 tributed among them with greater facility and at 
 cheaper rates, taking into account distance, than 
 products are carried in any other country in the 
 world. 
 
 "How are we to get back what we have lost? 
 How is the vast capital now invested in manufac- 
 tures to be preserved and made profitable ? Only 
 by keeping it busy and constantly at work. Capital 
 scorns idleness ; it loves work if for no other reason 
 than that it loves gain. Capital in manufactories 
 which are shut down is not like money on deposit 
 subject to call, or in the 'strong box hoarded away, 
 which, while it earns nothing, keeps the principal 
 sum intact and unimpaired. The closed mill depreci- 
 ates the value of machinery and buildings and land 
 and everything connected with it, and it is ever 
 wearing away the capital invested in it. This is 
 followed by impoverishment to the owners, injury 
 to the community in which it is located, and desti- 
 tution to those who have been employed. 
 
 " Every business man would, therefore, rather run 
 his factory than close it, because he wants his invest- 
 ment to earn him something. When closed, his 
 capital, so far as any immediate profit is to come, is 
 stopped. It is with him a question whether he can 
 run with as little loss as he can stop. If he can, he
 
 McKIXLEY Otf CIVIC PATRIOTISM 143 
 
 will always run. If he cannot, he is bound to stop. 
 He cannot run at all if there is no demand for his 
 product. Production requires consumption. Mar- 
 kets are inseparable from manufactures. The manu- 
 facturer must have a market; he wants the best 
 market if he can get it, and he has come to learn 
 where it is and how to get it. He knows, as he 
 never knew before, how he lost it, and he knows how 
 to regain it. We know, and we do not know it any 
 better than our competitors in foreign lands, that 
 the American market our home market is the 
 best of all. We not only want to keep our home 
 market, but we want a foreign market for our sur- 
 plus products of manufacture and agriculture. We 
 do not want it, however, at the loss of our home 
 market. I am sure we do not want it when it 
 shall involve the idleness and destitution and degra- 
 dation of our own labor. We want not only to send 
 our products abroad, but we want them to go abroad 
 in our own vessels, sailing under our own flag. We 
 should not depend upon our commercial rivals for 
 the means of reaching competitive markets. We 
 can well supply, and, for the general good, furnish 
 our own transportation to foreign ports witli fair 
 encouragement, and it should not be withheld, 
 Many markets of the world are open to us if we 
 could reach them directly without trans-shipment, 
 with our own ships. 
 
 " The general situation of the country demands of 
 the business men, as well as the masses of the
 
 144 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATEIOTISM 
 
 people, the most serious consideration. We must 
 have less partisanship of a certain kind, more 
 business, and a better National spirit. We need 
 an aggressive partisanship for country. There are 
 some things upon which we are all agreed. We 
 must have enough money to run the government. 
 We must not have our credit tarnished and our 
 reserve depleted because of pride of opinion, or to 
 carry out some economic theory unsuited to our 
 conditions, citizenship, and civilization. The out- 
 flow of gold will not disturb us if the inflow of gold 
 is large enough. The outgo is not serious if the 
 income exceeds it. False theories should not be 
 permitted to stand in the way of cold facts. The 
 resources which have been developed, and the wealth 
 which has been accumulated in the last third of a 
 century in the United States, must not be impaired 
 or diminished or wasted by the application of theo- 
 ries of the dreamer or doctrinaire. Business expe- 
 rience is the best lamp to guide us in the pathway of 
 progress and prosperity. 
 
 "What a spectacle to behold! A government, 
 which, in thirty-three years, has passed through the 
 mightiest war in human history, which created a 
 debt to save the Union ; that seemed most appall- 
 ing at the time which, since that time, has paid off 
 more than two-thirds of that great war debt, and 
 which, in the three years preceding 1893, paid off 
 nearly $300,000,000 of it from the income of the 
 treasury and its surplus, which from 1865 has en-
 
 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM U* 
 
 joyed a financial credit without a parallel in the 
 world's history, to-day is without sufficient money 
 from its own receipts to pay the ordinary expenses, 
 and with a credit, upon the authority of the highest 
 officers of the government, is threatened with im- 
 pairment. We cannot longer close our eyes to the 
 situation which affects every home and hearthstone 
 and the government itself. We cannot afford to 
 quarrel over the past ; nor is it profitable to indulge 
 in inquiries as to where the responsibility of the con- 
 dition rests. It is enough for us to know it is here 
 and upon us. Whatever differences we may hav 
 had, we must all agree now that the situation is one 
 that requires the highest sagacity in statesmanship, 
 and the broadest patriotism in citizenship. Let us, 
 first of all, keep without stain and above suspicion 
 the credit of our country, which is too sacred ever to 
 be neglected. Let us provide somehow, and in some 
 sensible, practical way, for the collection of enough 
 money annually to pay all our current expenses, in- 
 terest on the public debt, pensions to soldiers, and 
 every other governmental obligation. Until that is 
 done, if we have to borrow money, that should be 
 done, and the sooner the better, but this will be only 
 a temporary cure and provision. That must be sup- 
 plemented by legislation that will raise in the taxes 
 and tariffs a steady income, full and ^mple for every 
 government need. The way to stop loans is to stop 
 deficiencies. The reserve is sure to be drained if 
 you cut off the supply. I agree with the President
 
 146 McKINLEY OK CIVIC 1'ATRIOTISM 
 
 that a ' predicament ' confronts us, and I am sure 
 there is wisdom and patriotism ample in the country 
 to relieve ourselves from that ' predicament ' or any 
 other, and to place us once more at the head of the 
 nations of the world in credit, production, and pros- 
 perity." 
 
 [AMERICAN ISRAELITE-JEWISH ORPHAN ASYLUM, JULY 15TH, 1893.] 
 EARLY EDUCATION AND THE JEWISH RACE. 
 
 " When we get out into the busy world with its 
 duties and responsibilities we have little time for the 
 acquisition of more than practical knowledge. 
 , " It is so often a question of mere sustenance, with 
 little time for earnest study, much less for mental 
 labor. And if the opportunities present at an insti- 
 tution of this character are not improved they are 
 lost to us forever. I enjoin upon you all to make 
 the best use of the great opportunities you enjoy, and 
 in after life you will find how much you have gained 
 and how much embarrassment and blundering you 
 will save yourself. 
 
 " The young men and young women who succeed 
 nowadays must succeed because of superior knowl- 
 edge. This is an age of exactness. What you know 
 you must know well and thoroughly, and to reach 
 prominence you must know it better than anybody 
 else. It will not do to know a thing half any longer. 
 You must know it all, and the man who knows a few 
 things worthy things, I mean, in science or art or
 
 HON. JOHN SHERMAN.
 
 McKIXLEY OX- CIVIC PATRIOTISM 149 
 
 mechanics or business better than those around him 
 is the man who will succeed. 
 
 " And the only way to acquire knowledge is to 
 labor. There is no substitute for it. The best time 
 to get it is when you are young. Proxies are not 
 recognized, either in the intellectual or business con- 
 flicts of the present day. To use a homely but 
 expressive phrase, * You must hoe your own row.' 
 
 " Don't try to master too many things. A few 
 things of which you are thoroughly master give you 
 better equipment for life's struggles than a whole 
 arsenal of half-mastered and half-matured things. 
 You belong to a great race and a great age, and you 
 are citizens of the greatest country on the face of the 
 earth. Every opportunity is open to you as it is to 
 me, and to every citizen, as they have never been 
 opened in any other quarter of the globe. Here is 
 absolute equality of opportunity and of advantage, 
 and those who can win must do so by force and their 
 own merit ; and here what you win you can wear. 
 
 The Jewish people have for centuries been con- 
 spicuous in almost every department of life. In 
 music they have taken the highest rank as com- 
 posers and performers. Mendelssohn, Rubenstein, 
 and Joachim have few equals. As actors they had 
 Rachael and Bernhardt and a long list beside, who 
 have been recognized as stars the world over. 
 Among the philosophers is to be named the great 
 Spinoza ; in medicine, Franke ; in Greek literature, 
 Bernays; while Benfrey was the first of Sanscrit
 
 150 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATKIOTISM 
 
 scholars ; Ricardo, conspicuous in political economy, 
 and Sir Moses Montefiore, the great philanthropist, 
 who died full of honors, a century old, whose memory 
 is cherished the world over. His intellectual and 
 physical faculties were marvelous. He retained his 
 mental faculties until the last. After he was eighty 
 years old, in the interest of his race and humanity, 
 he made four great journeys ; two to Jerusalem, one 
 to Roumania, and one to Russia. He was always 
 doing good. 
 
 " I observe from your souvenir that here in this in- 
 stitution you sacredly observe his memory. He was 
 broad-minded, not bigoted, loving his race and be- 
 lieving in it, and yet helping Gentile as well as Jew. 
 He contributed to build Protestant churches and 
 found hospitals for the Turk and the Catholic, and 
 assisted in every way to the elevation of all races and 
 all colors of men. George Eliot, writing a few years 
 ago about the Jewish race, and, as indicating the 
 rank they had already taken, said : ' At this moment 
 the leader of the Liberal party in Germany is a Jew ; 
 the leader of the Republican party in France is a 
 Jew, and the leader of the Conservative party in 
 England is a Jew.' Our own country can furnish a 
 long list of useful and conspicuous men of your race 
 merchants and bankers, philanthropists and 
 patriots, physicians and lawyers, authors and orators 
 and editors, teachers and preachers all of them 
 furnishing the young people of this Jewish orphan 
 asylum worthy models to excite their ambition to 
 become worthy successors..^
 
 McKINLEY OX CIVIC PATRIOTISM 151 
 
 THE CHARACTER AND TRAINING OP ABRAHAM 
 LINCOLN. 
 
 [February 12th, 1895, at Albany, N. Y.] 
 
 "We meet to-night to do honor to one whose 
 achievements have heightened human aspirations 
 and broadened the field of opportunity to the races 
 of men. While the party with which we stand, and 
 for which he stood, can justly claim him, and with- 
 out dispute can boast the distinction of being the first 
 to honor and trust him, his fame has leaped the 
 bounds of party and country, and now belongs to 
 mankind and the ages. 
 
 " What were the traits of character which made 
 him leader and master, without a rival, in the greatest 
 crisis in our history ? What gave him such mighty 
 power? Lincoln had sublime faith in the people. 
 He walked with and among them. He recognized 
 the importance and power of enlightened public sen- 
 timent, and was guided by it. Even amid the vicis- 
 situdes of war he concealed little from the public re- 
 view and inspection. In all he did he invited rather 
 than evaded examination and criticism. He sub- 
 mitted his plans and purposes, as far as practicable, 
 to public consideration with perfect frankness and 
 sincerity. There was such homely simplicity in his 
 character that it could not be hedged in by the pomp 
 of place nor the ceremonials of high official station.
 
 152 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATEIOTISM 
 
 He was so accessible to the public tliat he seemed to 
 take the whole people into his confidence. 
 
 " Here, perhaps, was one secret of his power. The 
 people never lost their confidence in him, however 
 much they unconsciously added to his personal dis- 
 comfort and trials. His patience was almost super- 
 human. And who will say that he was mistaken in 
 his treatment of the thousands who thronged con- 
 tinually about them ? More than once, when re- 
 proached for permitting visitors to crowd upon him, 
 he asked, with pained surprise, * Why, what harm 
 does this confidence in men do me?* Horace 
 Greeley once said : * I doubt whether man, woman, 
 or child, white or black, bond or free, virtuous or 
 vicious, ever accosted or reached forth a hand to 
 Abraham Lincoln and detected in his countenance 
 or manner any repugnance or shrinking from the 
 proffered contact, any assumption of superiority or 
 betrayal of disdain.' Bancroft, the historian, allud- 
 ing to this characteristic, which was never so con- 
 spicuously manifested as during the darker hours of 
 the war, beautifully illustrated it in these memorable 
 words : ' As a child, in a dark night, on a rugged 
 way, catches hold of the hand of its father for guid- 
 ance and support, Lincoln clung fast to the hand of 
 the people and moved calmly through the gloom. 1 
 
 " His earliest public utterances were marked by 
 this confidence. On March 9th, 1832, when announc- 
 ing himself a candidate for Representative, he said 
 that he felt it his duty to make known to the people
 
 McKIXLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 153 
 
 his sentiments upon the questions of the day. 
 1 Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition/ 
 he observed, ' and whether it be true or not I can say 
 for one that I have no other so great as that of being 
 truly esteemed of my fellow men by rendering my- 
 self worthy of their esteem. How far I shall suc- 
 ceed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be de- 
 veloped. I am young and unknown to many of you. 
 I was born and have ever remained in the most 
 humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or popular 
 relatives or friends to recommend me. My case is 
 thrown exclusively upon the independent voters of 
 the county. . . . But if the good people in 
 their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the back- 
 ground, I have been too familiar with disappointment 
 to be very much chagrined.' 
 
 " In this remarkable address, made when he was 
 only twenty-three, the main elements of Lincoln's 
 character and the qualities which made his great 
 career possible are revealed with startling distinct- 
 ness. We see therein * that brave old wisdom of 
 sincerity/ that oneness in feeling with the common 
 people, and that supreme confidence in them which 
 formed the foundation of his political faith. 
 
 " Among the statesmen of America Lincoln is the 
 true democrat, and Franklin, perhaps, excepted 
 the first great one. He had no illustrious ancestry, 
 no inherited place or wealth, and none of the pres- 
 tige, power, training, or culture which were assured 
 to the gentry or landed classes of our own colonial
 
 154 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATEIOTISM 
 
 times. Nor did Lincoln believe that these classes 
 respectable and patriotic however they might be 
 should, as a matter of abstract right, have the con- 
 trolling influence in our government. Instead, he be- 
 lieved in the all-pervading power of public opinion. 
 
 " Lincoln had little or no instruction in the com- 
 mon school ; but, as the eminent Dr. Cuyler has said, 
 he was graduated from ' the grand college of free 
 labor, whose works were the flatboat, the farm, and 
 the backwoods lawyer's office/ He had a broad com- 
 prehension of the central idea of popular govern- 
 ment. The Declaration of Independence was his 
 hand-book ; time and again he expressed his belief 
 in freedom and equality. On July 1st, 1854, he 
 wrote: 'Most governments have been based, prac- 
 tically, on the denial of the equal rights of men. 
 Ours began by affirming those rights. They said : 
 ' Some men are too ignorant and vicious to share in 
 government/ ' Possibly so/ said we, * and by your 
 system you would always keep them ignorant and 
 vicious. We propose to give all a chance, and we 
 expect the weak to grow stronger, the ignorant wiser, 
 and all better and happier together/ We made the 
 experiment, and the fruit is before us. Look at it, 
 think of it. Look at it in its aggregate grandeur, 
 extent of country, and numbers of population/ 
 
 "His antecedent life seems to have been one of 
 unconscious preparation for the great responsibilities 
 which were committed to him in 1860. Being one 
 of the masses himself, living among them, sharing
 
 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 155 
 
 their feelings, sympathizing with their daily trials, 
 their hopes, and aspirations, he was better fitted to 
 lead them than any other man of his age. He 
 recognized more clearly than any one else that the 
 plain people he met in his daily life and knew so 
 familiarly were, according to our theory of govern- 
 ment, its ultimate rulers and the arbiters of its des- 
 tiny. He knew this, not as a theory, but from his 
 personal experience. 
 
 "Born in poverty, so great that in America it is now 
 almost impossible to find its like, and surrounded by 
 obstacles on every hand seemingly insurmountable 
 but for the intervening hand of Providence, Lincoln 
 grew every year into greater and grander intellectual 
 power and vigor. His life until he was twelve years 
 old was spent either in a half-faced camp or cabin. 
 Yet amid such surroundings the boy learned to read, 
 write, and cipher, to think, declaim, and speak in a 
 manner far beyond his years and time. All his days 
 in the schoolhouse ' added together would not make 
 a single year.' But every day of his life, from 
 infancy to manhood, was a constant drill in the school 
 of nature and experience. 
 
 " His study of books and newspapers was beyond 
 that of any other person in his town or neighbor- 
 hood, and perhaps of his county or section. He did 
 not read many books, but he learned more from 
 them than any other reader. It was strength of 
 body as well as mind that made Lincoln's career 
 possible. Ill success only spurred him into making
 
 156 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATBIOTISM 
 
 himself more worthy of trust and confidence. Noth- 
 ing could daunt him. He might have but a single 
 tow linen shirt, or only one pair of jeans pantaloons, 
 he often did not know where his next dollar was to 
 come from, but he mastered English grammar and 
 composition, arithmetic, geometry, surveying, logic, 
 and the law. 
 
 " How well he mastered the art of expression is 
 shown by the incident of the Yale professor who 
 heard his Cooper Institute speech and called on 
 him at his hotel to inquire where he had learned 
 his matchless power as a public speaker. The 
 modest country lawyer was in turn surprised to be 
 suspected of possessing unusual talents as an orator, 
 and could only answer that his sole training had 
 been in the school of experience. 
 
 " Eight years' service in the Illinois Legislature, 
 two years in Congress, and nearly thirty years' 
 political campaigning in the most exciting period of 
 American politics gave scope for the development of 
 his powers, and that tact, readiness, and self-reliance 
 which were invaluable to a modest, backward man 
 such as Lincoln naturally was. Added to these 
 qualities he had the genius which communizes, which 
 puts a man on a level, not only with the highest, but 
 with the lowest of his kind. By dint of patient 
 industry and by using wisely his limited opportu- 
 nities he became the most popular orator, the best 
 political manager, and the ablest leader of his party 
 in Illinois.
 
 McKIXLEY OX CIVIC PATRIOTISM 15? 
 
 " But the best training he Imd for the Presidency, 
 after all, was his twenty-three years' arduous expe- 
 rience as a lawyer, traveling the circuit of the courts 
 of his district and State. Here he met in forensic 
 contests, and frequently defeated, some of the most 
 powerful legal minds of the West. lu the higher 
 courts he won still greater distinction in the impor- 
 tant cases committed to his charge. 
 
 " With this preparation it is not surprising that 
 Lincoln entered upon the Presidency peculiarly 
 well equipped for its vast responsibilities. His con- 
 temporaries, however, did not realize* this. The 
 leading statesmen of the country were not prepos- 
 sessed in his favor. They appear to have had no 
 conception of the remarkable powers latent beneath 
 that uncouth and rugged exterior." 
 
 THE PANIC MONEY A CONVERT. 
 [East Liverpool, Ohio, October 17th, 1893.] 
 
 "In the midst of unexampled plenty, with no 
 inflation of prices, for prices had never been so low ; 
 with no inflation of money, with every dollar in cir- 
 culation as good as every other dollar, with no pre- 
 mium on gold, we are struck by business depression 
 from ocean to ocean. What has occasioned this? 
 Is it the money of the country ? We have more 
 money to-day than we ever had in all our history, 
 and we have as good mcney as we ever hud before. 
 Every dollar is worth 1 X) cents and every dollar good
 
 158 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 
 
 to pay all debts private or public. We have every- 
 thing we had last year but prosperity. We bartered 
 that away for a change of administration. [Terrific 
 trumpeting of tin horns.] If the President were 
 here to-night he would not have to inquire whether 
 we are making tin in the United States. [Laughter 
 and renewed trumpeting.] These tin horns here 
 tell the story, and I doubt not every one of them 
 was made from American tin [applause], which two 
 years ago they said we could not make in the United 
 States. This year we have the same men, same 
 money, same machinery, and the same markets that 
 we had last year, but we have another management. 
 We have the same enterprise, same energy, same 
 magnificent manufacturing plants, but the people 
 last year decided for a change of policy. 
 
 *' The money of this country and I speak to Demo- 
 crats and Republicans alike should be as fixed and 
 unvarying as human ingenuity can make it. It 
 measures everything you have to sell ; the product 
 of the farm, the merchandise in the store, the labor 
 of your hands and the skill and genius of your 
 brain, and if it is varying in value you never 
 know what you may get for your products when 
 you sell them. Therefore it is but right that 
 you should oppose any and every attempt to resur- 
 rect the wildcat money of forty years ago. There 
 is not one Southern State that is not in favor 
 of State bank money. Do you know why ? Because 
 they still believe in State st ^ereignty. They don't
 
 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATKIOTISM 159 
 
 seem to realize that State sovereignty was shot to 
 death twenty-five years ago. [Applause.] When 
 wool buyers they come as single buyers now go 
 around they pay free trade prices, because the Demo- 
 cratic party pledged themselves to make wool free, 
 and they are in power in every branch of the Gov- 
 ernment. They have so declared in their national 
 platform and they even passed free wool through the 
 last House of Representatives, and it should to-day 
 have been a law had it not been for a Republican 
 Senate and a Republican President. The wool 
 buyer remembers this when he is buying wool, 
 and so he pays free trade prices. This is true of 
 every branch of industry. It is true of every de- 
 partment of labor. But you have still the Protec- 
 tive Tariff they say. Yes, but you are pledged 
 to repeal it, and the man who receives notice that 
 his house is about to be demolished does not wait 
 until the dynamite is put in, but moves out his furni- 
 ture as soon as he can. Now what will start your 
 factories ? [" Hundred thousand majority for Mc- 
 Kinley in November !"] What is lower tariff for? 
 It is to make it easier for foreign goods to get in the 
 United States, to increase competition from abroad. 
 
 tf The people who voted for a change last fall are 
 not satisfied, and the people who did not vote for a 
 change are not satisfied. We find Democrats petition- 
 ing to have the tariff left undisturbed. There are a 
 good many of them who have looked into it 
 ["Ikirt?"] Mr. Ikirt, my friend suggests. Your
 
 160 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 
 
 own fellow-citizen and your Representative in Con* 
 gress; he too has looked into the pottery industry 
 since last election. He says in his statement that he 
 has given consideration to it. Well, it is better to 
 give it consideration after than not at all ; but it is 
 better always to consider before election if you can. 
 He appears before the Ways and Means Committee 
 and asks them not to disturb the tariff on pottery. I 
 did not expect we would ever get so close the Doctor 
 and I. I remember he was my competitor for Con- 
 gress once. He was then a free trader, and said pro- 
 tection was a fraud, There is nothing that has done 
 my heart so much good as to find the Doctor down 
 there appealing for the continuance of a tariff of 
 sixty-five per cent, on pottery. It does my heart 
 good to find him down there fighting for a tariff 
 which I had put upon pottery myself. There is a 
 sort of pathos about this statement of the Doctor's. 
 After appealing for the pottery industry he says, 
 *To err is human, to forgive divine.' That is a 
 quotation from his speech. I suppose from that that 
 it was human for him to err last year, and we have 
 forgiven him for the errors and we welcome him to 
 us. The only thing left for the Doctor to do is to 
 get leave of absence, come home on election day and 
 vote for me for Governor, and I have no doubt he 
 will, because my competitor believes in free trade and 
 declares that a Protective Tariff is a fraud, while the 
 Doctor is in favor of sixty-five per cent, of 'inci- 
 dental ' protection. I was one of those who helped
 
 McKIXLEY OX CIVIC PATRIOTISM 161 
 
 to make that tariff. I did not regard it as incidental 
 nor accidental, I assure you. I helped to put it there 
 to protect the potters of the United States and their 
 labor, and it did it ; and every Democrat in both 
 branches of Congress voted against it every one of 
 them. Therefore I say it delights my heart to find 
 the Doctor at last won over to the ' robber tariff' that 
 cheats everybody, not only the consumer but the 
 laborer, and is willing to take sixty-live per cent, for 
 pottery. If for pottery, why not for iron and steel, 
 wool, glass, cotton, and woolen goods ?" 
 
 ADDRESS OX THE FIELD OF CHICKAMAUGA. 
 
 September 18th, 1895. 
 
 "The exhibition of high soldierly qualities dis- 
 played by both the blue and the gray will be on every 
 tongue to-day. The battle will be fought over a 
 thousand times in memory between those who lately 
 contended angrily on this field. All that is well. 
 
 " But, after all, my countrymen, what was it all 
 for ? What did it mean ? What was all this strug- 
 gle, all this exhibition of heroism, and these appalling 
 sacrifices for? A reunited country makes answer. 
 No other is needed. A union, stronger and freer than 
 ever before, a civilization, higher and nobler than ever 
 before ; a common flag, dearer and more glorious than 
 ever before ; and all, all of them secure ficm any 
 quarter, because the contestants against each other 
 ou this historic field thirty-two years ago are now
 
 McKINLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 
 
 united, linked in their might forever against any 
 enemy which would assail either union or civilization 
 or freedom or flag. 
 
 " The sacrifice here made was for what we loved, 
 and for what we meant should endure. A reunited 
 people, a reunited country, is the glorious reward. 
 
 " The war has been over thirty-one years. There 
 never has been any trouble since between the men 
 who fought on the one side or the other. The trouble 
 has been between the men who fought on neither 
 side who could get on the one side or the other, as 
 occasion or interest demanded. The bitterness and 
 resentments of the war belong to the past, and its 
 glories are the common heritage of us all. What 
 was won in that great conflict belongs just as securely 
 to those who lost as to those who triumphed. The 
 future is in our common keeping, the sacred trust of 
 all the people. Let us make it worthy of the glorious 
 men who died for it on this and other fields of the 
 war. 
 
 " It is gratifying to the State that these monuments 
 are hereafter to be in the keeping of the United 
 States Government. The government they preserved 
 should guard them ; that is where they belong. 
 Henceforth these monuments shall be the precious 
 possession of all the people. They show, Mr. Presi- 
 dent, the honor paid by a great commonwealth to 
 the patriotic valor of her sons. They are calculated 
 to encourage patriotic devotion for all time. They 
 are the nation's guarantee that the bond of Union.
 
 McKIXLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 163 
 
 shall not be broken. Their lesson is that the Con- 
 stitution is and shall remain the supreme law over all. 
 " In this great battle some fought to save the 
 Union, others to divide it. Those who fought to save 
 triumphed, and so the Union survived. Slavery was 
 abolished, peace restored, the Union strengthened, 
 and now, hand in hand, ail stand beneath the folds 
 of one flag, acknowledging no other, marching for- 
 ward together in the enjoyment of one common 
 country and in the fulfillment of one glorious des- 
 
 McKINLEY AND OHIO'S ANTI-LYNCHINQ LAW. 
 
 [Governor McICimey's Message to the General Assembly of Ohio, 
 January, 1896.] 
 
 " Within the last year tnere have been two at- 
 tempts to lynch prisoners charged with crime who 
 were under arrest and in custody of the officers of 
 the law. In both cases the aid of the military was 
 invoked by the Sheriffs of the counties ; in both cases 
 the law was upheld and the prisoners protected from 
 the lynchers, but, unfortunately in both cases, only 
 after the sacrifice of life. In the case in Seneca 
 County two men were killed before the military had 
 arrived. In the case in Fayette County the military 
 were present, acting under the orders of the Sheriff. 
 The protection of the prisoners in this case, to the 
 deep regret of all concerned, resulted in the loss of 
 a number of lives. The spirit which holds the laws
 
 164 McKIXLEY ON CIVIC PATRIOTISM 
 
 of the State and the authority of its chosen officers, 
 acting within the law, in contempt, should not be per- 
 mitted to triumph anywhere in Ohio. This State 
 has boasted, and can justly boast, of the virtue and 
 purity of its courts and the uprightness and fairness 
 of its juries. The spirit of lynching is a reflection 
 upon both courts and juries, and all the legally-consti- 
 tuted authorities of the counties and the State as well. 
 If there be a crime so repulsive that the punishment 
 inflicted by existing law is inadequate, let the pres- 
 ent General Assembly, by law, promptly increase 
 the penalty. I urge the General Assembly to use 
 all the power at its command to frown upon and 
 stamp out this spirit of lawlessness, which is a re- 
 proach upon the State and a shock to our civiliza- 
 tion. Lynching must not be tolerated in Ohio."
 
 CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE LESSONS OP HEROIC LIVES. 
 
 McKinley a patriot Oration Piety and patriotism Lessons ol 
 heroism Influences of Chautauqua A fighting patriot The 
 grand review A generous eulogy Illustrious names. 
 
 THE oration before the Chautauqua Assembly, 
 Grand Army Day, Monday, August 26th, 
 1895, is an example of the simplicity and 
 elevation of McKinley on a patriotic theme and is 
 worthy of study for purity of style and force of ex- 
 pression. 
 
 "ORATION BEFORE THE CHAUTAUQUA ASSEMBLY, 
 ON GRAND ARMY DAY, MONDAY, AUGUST 26TH, 
 1895. 
 
 " Mr. President, Comrades of the Grand Army of 
 the Republic, Ladies and Gentlemen : It would have 
 given me pleasure to meet this splendid Chautauqua 
 Assembly at any time, but my gratification is the 
 greater because I am invited to participate with you 
 on the day which you have consecrated to country,. 
 
 167
 
 168 LESSONS OF HEROIC LIVES 
 
 the day you have devoted to patriotism and the 
 memories of the past, with all their precious lessons. 
 What could be more fitting on the part of this asso- 
 ciation, whose chief objects are to exalt Christianity 
 and promote sound learning, than to set apart a day 
 to the brave men whose service and sacrifice pre- 
 served unimpaired the liberties we enjoy, for our- 
 selves and posterity ? Piety and patriotism have 
 always been closely allied. My older hearers will 
 recollect the fervent words, and recall with fond 
 affection the matchless voice of* dear old Bishop 
 Simpson, who said in 1861 : * Nail the flag just below 
 the cross ! That is high enough Christ and country, 
 nothing can come between nor long prevail against 
 them.' [Applause.] 
 
 " The lessons of heroism and sacrifice are not con- 
 fined to any age or people, nor are they limited to 
 the participants or the survivors, but are for all the 
 people living, or who may come hereafter. Fortu- 
 nately, in the economy of the Most High, the influ- 
 ence of any duty nobly done, or of courage or devo- 
 tion in any good cause, is never lost. It strengthens 
 with the ages, blessing and consecrating as the years 
 recede, and inspiring others to suffer, and, if needs 
 be, die for conscience and country. This was the 
 spirit which animated the soldiers of the Revolution 
 and the Rebellion, and distinguished both. They 
 battled neither for commerce nor conquest, but for 
 immortal principles, involving alike human rights 
 and the highest welfare of the human race. "What
 
 LESSOXS OF HEROIC LIVES 169 
 
 was lost to America in the first great struggle was 
 nobly regained in the last. 
 
 " These patriotic assemblages cannot, therefore, be 
 too frequent, which invite a proper study of the past, 
 not in hatred, passion, or bitterness, but to teach and 
 enforce more plainly the blessings of peace, union, 
 and fraternal love. They bring us closer together, 
 as a reunited and happy people, guided by the ex- 
 ample of the Master, whose life was one of sacrifice, 
 and who is glorified as the Man of Peace and Son of 
 God. 
 
 " It is easy to decry the events and institutions 
 with which we are familiar, but, after all, we have 
 many very many patriotic altars, and should have 
 many more national celebrations. All along the 
 pathway of our national life, from Lexington to 
 Appomattox, we breathe the incense of heroism. We 
 are not unmindful of the mighty deeds of the past, 
 nOr indifferent to the heroes who achieved them, 
 nor can we be oblivious to the glories of the present, 
 and the bright promise for the future. In a certain 
 sense our churches and schools, our newspapers and 
 literature, are constantly inspiring us with new and 
 greater love of home and country. The work and 
 influence of such great popular assemblages as this, 
 not only here at Chautauqua, the fountain head of 
 them all, but in other and distant States, are of price- 
 less value to the people. [Applause.] 
 
 " You have builded wise and well. You have not 
 only given to the world's vocabulary a new, beautiful,
 
 >70 LESSONS OF HEROIC LIVES 
 
 and significant name, but to the world itself a new 
 and holy zeal in the good cause of Christianity and 
 scientific and literary study. You are to be congratu- 
 lated that the religious, educational, and fraternal in* 
 fluences of Chautauqua are greater, far greater, than 
 you know, and every where,*at home and abroad, are 
 beneficial and elevating to mankind. Liberty of 
 thought, speech, and conscience hold full sway on 
 these congenial grounds. Bigotry is neither encour- 
 aged nor tolerated, but, in the true spirit of the 
 fathers, liberty and learning go hand-in-hand. In 
 such an atmosphere American patriotism must burn 
 with full flame, and as a light to the feet of all. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 For what is patriotism ? Did you ever stop to 
 reflect upon what it embraces? There is born in 
 every manly breast the determination to defend the 
 thing he loves. We strike down the enemy who 
 would invade our homes, and guard family and fire- 
 side at the peril of our lives. There is no sentiment 
 so strong as love ; no sacrifice too great for those we 
 love. This is the underlying principle of genuine 
 patriotism ; the foundation of true loj; alty to country. 
 The patriot is he who, loving his country, is willing 
 not only to fight, but, if need be, to die for it. It is 
 this sentiment which gives to human governments 
 their strength, security, and permanency. It is this 
 sentiment which nerves the soldier to duty, and gains 
 his consent to service and sacrifice. The strongest 
 and. best government is the one which rests upon the
 
 LESSONS OF HEROIC LIVES 171 
 
 reverent affection of its own people ; and the nearer 
 the government to the people, and the people to the 
 government, the stronger becomes the sentiment of 
 patriotism, and the stronger becomes the government 
 itself. The laws are of little or no value if they do 
 not have behind them the respect and love of the 
 people. When patriotism is gone out of the hearts 
 of the masses the country is nearing dissolution and 
 death. [Applause.] 
 
 " Did you ever seriously reflect what it means to 
 be a fighting patriot ? Many people preach and pro- 
 fess patriotism, but the true patriot is he who prac- 
 tices it, and he can seldom practice it by proxy. 
 Patriotism is the absolute consecration of self to 
 country ; it is the total abandonment of business ; it 
 is the turning away from plans which have been 
 formed for a life's career. It is the surrendering 
 of bright prospects, and the giving up of ambition 
 in a chosen work. It is the sundering of the ties 
 of home and family, almost the snapping of the 
 heart-strings which bind us to those we love. It 
 may mean disease contracted by exposure or from 
 wounds in battle. It may mean imprisonment, in- 
 sanity or death. It may mean hunger, thirst, and 
 starvation. 
 
 " In our own Civil War it meant all of these. With 
 all these hard conditions there were nearly three 
 million men who so loved liberty and union that 
 they were willing at any cost or hazard to follow our 
 flag. The blood of a half mill ion men was exacted
 
 172 LESSONS OF HEKOIC LIVES 
 
 in that fearful conflict to save the country ; and there 
 are to-day tens of thousands who are suffering from 
 disease contracted in the service of the government, 
 and many thousands more bearing wounds from 
 which they suffer every hour in the day, and some of 
 these, alas ! are in distressing poverty. Our asylums 
 contain many more-of the poor fellows whose hard ser- 
 vice dethroned reason and unbalanced mind forever. 
 The demands of patriotism meant for many wives 
 widowhood, for many children orphanage. They took 
 from many a mother her whole support, the love of 
 the son, upon whose strong arm she had counted to 
 lean in her declining years. There was nothing per- 
 sonally attractive or promising about any of the 
 features of enlistment in the War of the Rebellion ; 
 it was business of the most serious sort. Every sol- 
 dier took dreadful chances. His offering was noth- 
 ing short of his own life's blood, if his country should 
 require it. This, however, then seemed insignificant 
 in that overmastering love of country, in that burn- 
 ing patriotism which filled the souls of the boys in 
 blue, in that high and noble purpose which animated 
 them all, that they were to save to themselves, to 
 their families, and their fellow-countrymen the freest 
 and best and purest government ever known, and to 
 mankind the largest and best civilization in the 
 world. [Applause.] 
 
 " With that spirit nearly three million men went 
 forth to accept any sacrifice which cruel war might 
 demand. The extent of that sacrifice far exceeded
 
 LESSOXS OF HEROIC LIVES 173 
 
 human expectation, but it was offered freely on the 
 altar of their beloved country. Can we ever cease 
 to be debtors to these men ? Is there any reward in 
 reason they should not receive ? Is there any emolu- 
 ment too great for them ? Is there any benefaction 
 too bountiful? Is there any obligation too lasting? 
 Is there any honor to these patriotic men which a 
 loving people can bestow that they should not 
 extend? What the nation is, or may. become, we 
 owe largely to them. 
 
 "In the Grand Review, at the end of the war, 
 which stands unchallenged as the greatest ever wit- 
 nessed by human eyes, stretched across the great 
 marble capitol at Washington, greeting the sight of 
 every soldier who passed, was a banner bearing this 
 inscription : ' There is one debt which this nation 
 never can pay, and that is the debt it owes the brave 
 men who saved this nation/ That was true then ; 
 it is no less true now. 
 
 "If there is one of those old patriots sick at heart 
 and discouraged, should not the cheerful and the 
 strong, who are to-day the beneficiaries of his valor, 
 comfort and console him? If there is one who is 
 sick or suffering from wounds, should not the best 
 skill and the most tender nursing wait upon and 
 attend him ? Fortunately, our people have so far 
 never failed in the most generous response to all such 
 demands upon them. 
 
 " We are not a martial nation, but no government 
 of the world can boast a more devoted, self-sacrificing,
 
 174 LESSONS OF HEROIC LIVES 
 
 or patriotic citizenship than that which has estab- 
 lished and maintained our free institutions for the 
 past one hundred and nineteen years. Nor are we 
 a nation of hero worshipers, but the men who 
 fought and suffered from the Revolution to the 
 Rebellion for independence, freedom, and union, 
 are devotedly cherished in memory by the Ameri- 
 can people. The soldiers of no other country in 
 the world have been crowned with such immortal 
 meedj or received at the hands of the people such 
 substantial evidences of national regard. Other 
 nations have decorated their great captains and 
 knighted their illustrious commanders ; monuments 
 have been erected to perpetuate their names ; 
 permanent and triumphal arches have been raised 
 to mark their graves. Nothing has been omitted 
 to manifest and make immortal their valorous 
 deeds. 
 
 "In the United States we not only honor our 
 great captains and illustrious commanders the men 
 who led our vast armies to battle but we shower 
 honors in equal measure upon all, irrespective of rank 
 in battle or condition at home. Our gratitude is of 
 that grand patriotic character which recognizes no 
 titles, permits no discrimination, subordinates all dis- 
 tinction ; and the soldier or sailor, whether of the 
 rank and file, the line or the staff, infantry, cavalry, 
 or artillery, on land or sea, who fought and fell for 
 liberty and union indeed, all who served in the 
 great cause are warmly cherished in the hearts and
 
 LESSONS OP HEROIC LIVES 175 
 
 are sacred to the memories of a great and generous 
 people. [Applause.] 
 
 " From the very commencement of the Civil War 
 we recognized the elevated patriotism of the rank 
 and file of the army, and their unselfish consecration 
 to the country, while subsequent years have only 
 served to increase our admiration for their splendid 
 and heroic services. They enlisted in the army with 
 no expectation of promotion not for the paltry pit- 
 tance of pay, not for fame or popular applause, for 
 their services, however efficient, were not to be 
 heralded abroad. They entered the army moved 
 by the highest and purest motives of patriotism, 
 that no harm might befall the republic. While 
 detracting nothing from the fame of our matchless 
 leaders, we know that without that great army 
 of volunteers the citizen soldiery the brilliant 
 achievements of the war would not have been pos- 
 sible. They, my countrymen, were the great power, 
 the majestic and irresistible force. They stood be- 
 hind the strategic commanders, whose intelligence 
 and individual earnestness, guided by their genius, 
 gained the imperishable victories of the war. 
 
 " I would not withhold the most generous eulogy 
 from conspicuous soldiers, living or dead ; from the 
 leaders Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, Meade, 
 Hancock, McClellan, Hooker, Howard, Logan, and 
 Garfield who flame out the very incarnation of sol- 
 dierly valor and vigor before the eyes of the Ameri- 
 can people, who have an exalted rank in history,
 
 176 LESSONS OF HEEOIC LIVES 
 
 and fill a great place in the hearts of their country- 
 men.. We need not fear, my fellow- citizens, that 
 the great captains will be forgotten. No retrospect 
 of the war can be had, no history of the war can be 
 written, which shall omit the name of the gallant 
 Sheridan, who made the scene of Stonewall Jackson's 
 stronghold in the Shenandoah Valley his field of 
 glory ; and no contemplation of the war can be had 
 that shall pass unnoticed the name of the illustrious 
 Hancock, whose brilliant achievements at Gettysburg 
 and upon other noted fields covered him with fame. 
 And no history of this war can be written which will 
 omit the name of the glorious Sherman that grand 
 old soldier who delved into the mountains at Chatta- 
 nooga and came out splendidly triumphant at the sea. 
 No, we can never forget that majestic triumvirate, nor 
 especially the great captain who commanded all the 
 grand military divisions of the grandest army of the 
 world for Grant will be remembered forever. That 
 silent, sturdy soldier, who closed his lips on the word 
 * victory* at the Wilderness and refused to speak, but 
 fought it out on that line until the complete sur- 
 render at Appomattox, and who, while looking into 
 his own open grave, summed up in history the 
 matchless work of the Grand Army of the Re- 
 public wrought under his glorious leadership. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 " Nor can any retrospect of the war be had which 
 shall omit the names of the gallant naval officers who 
 contributed such distinguished service to the Union
 
 LESSOXS OF HEROIC LIVES 177 
 
 cause Porter, Dalilgren, Goldsborough, Dupont. 
 Foote, Am men, Rowan ; and, 
 
 " ' While old Ocean's l>roat boars a white sail, 
 
 And Hod's soft stars at rest irnide through the gale, 
 Men will ne'er thy name forget, O heart of oak, 
 Farragufc, Favragut, thunderbolt's stroke.' "
 
 CHAPTER IX, 
 
 McKINLEY AND MONEY. 
 
 Nominated for Governor The sound money battle A full dollar 
 Not willing to chance it Two yard-sticks Struggle against 
 inflation A high compliment Opposed to unlimited coinage 
 Treasury Keport. 
 
 IN 1889 James E. Campbell, in the Ohio Guber- 
 natorial race, defeated Joseph B. Foraker, who, 
 against his judgment, yielded to solicitations to 
 run for a third term, and when Campbell's term was 
 waning, he was nominated for re-election on a silver 
 platform. There were some timid people of the Repub- 
 lican persuasion who thought it would be disastrous 
 to nominate McKinley for Governor he was so 
 " extreme " and " high " a protectionist, and could 
 not win in putting that before the people. McKinley 
 was nominated, however, and then came the crisis of 
 his career as a public man. He had become famous 
 in Congress, and he had to be Governor or step aside. 
 What did he do evade the money question ? The 
 Democrats had presented themselves as for free and 
 unlimited coinage of silver. Did McKinley fail to 
 meet that issue ? On the contrary, he met it fairly 
 
 178
 
 McKINLEY AND MOKEY 179 
 
 and squarely. His opening speech in this campaign 
 of 1891 was at Niles, Ohio (his birthplace), August 
 22d, and he put the money question to the front, 
 saying : 
 
 " The Democratic platform declares for the free 
 and unlimited coinage of the silver of the world, to 
 be coined, as freely as gold is now, upon the same 
 terms and under the existing ratio. The platform of 
 the Republican party stands in opposition to any- 
 thing short of a full and complete dollar. The legis- 
 lation of the la_st Congress is the strongest evidence 
 which can be furnished of the purpose of the Repub- 
 lican party to maintain silver as money, and of its 
 resolution to keep it in use as part of our circulating 
 medium equal with gold. The law which the Re- 
 publican party put upon the statute books declares 
 the settled policy of the government to be 'to main- 
 tain the two metals upon a parity with each other 
 upon the present legal ratio, or such ratio as may be 
 provided by law.' 
 
 "The free and unlimited coinage of silver, demanded 
 by the Democratic Convention recently held in 
 Cleveland, amounts to this : That all the silver of the 
 world, and from every quarter of the world, can be 
 brought to the mints of the United States and coined 
 at the expense of the government ; that is, that the 
 mints of the United States must receive 41 2 J grains 
 of silver, which is now worth but 80 cents the world 
 over, and coin therefor a silver dollar, which, by the 
 fiat of the government, is to be received by the people
 
 180 
 
 of the United States, and to circulate among them as 
 worth a full dollar of 100 cents. 
 
 "The silver producer, whose 41 2 1 grains of silver 
 are worth only 80 cents or less in the markets of 
 this country and the world, is thus enabled to 
 demand that the government shall take it at 100 
 cents. Will the government be as kind to the pro- 
 ducer of wheat, and pay him 20 cents more per 
 bushel than the market price? The silver dollar 
 now issued under a limited coinage has 80 cents of 
 intrinsic value in it, so accredited the world over ; 
 and the other 20 cents is legislative will the mere 
 breath of Congress. That is, what the dollar lacks 
 of value to make it a perfect dollar Congress supplies 
 by public declaration, and holds the extra 20 cents 
 in the Treasury for its protection. The government, 
 buying the silver at its market value, takes to itself 
 the profit between the market value of 41 2 i grains 
 of silver and the face value of the silver dollar. 
 Now it is proposed to remove the limit and to make 
 the government coin, not for account of the Treasury, 
 but for the benefit of the silver mine-owner. 
 
 " It does not take a wise man to see that, if a 
 dollar worth only 80 cents intrinsically, coined with- 
 out limit, is made a legal tender to the amount of its 
 face value for the payment of all debts, public and 
 private, a legal tender in all business transactions 
 among the people, it will become in time the exclu- 
 sive circulating medium of the country. Gold, which 
 is 20 per cent, more valuable on every dollar, will
 
 McKINLEY AND MONEY 181 
 
 not be paid out in any transactions in this country 
 when an 80-cent silver dollar will answer the pur- 
 pose. Nor will the greenback be long in returning 
 to the Treasury for redemption in gold. We shall 
 do our business, therefore, with short dollars, rather 
 than with full dollars, as we are now doing. The 
 gold dollar will be taken from the circulating medium 
 of the country and hoarded, and the effect will be 
 that the circulating medium will not be increased, 
 but reduced to the extent of the gold circulating, 
 and we will be compelled to do the business of the 
 country with a silver dollar exclusively which, 
 under present conditions, is confessedly the poorest 
 instead of doing our business with gold and silver 
 and paper money, all equal and all alike good." 
 
 Governor McKinley quoted President Cleveland 
 and the Hon. M. D. Harter, a Democratic Represen- 
 tative in Congress, and proceeded : 
 
 " My competitor (Governor Campbell) has said in 
 his reported interviews that in sentiment, upon this 
 subject, * The Democrats of Ohio are very much 
 divided ; that the vote in the convention was a very 
 close one.' This close vote only emphasizes the 
 danger of the free coinage declaration in the minds 
 of a large number of the Democrats in the State, but 
 enjoins the importance and necessity of the friends 
 of honest money standing together, as in all the 
 contests of the past they have been forced to stand 
 together for an honest currency. Governor Campbell 
 declared in one of his interviews that, while he had
 
 182 
 
 doubts about it, be was willing ' to chance free and 
 anlimited coinage of silver.' I am not willing to 
 ' chance ' it. Under present conditions the country 
 cannot afford to chance it. We cannot gamble with 
 anything so sacred as money, which is the standard 
 and measure of all values. I can imagine nothing 
 which would be more disturbing to our credit and 
 more deranging in our commercial and financial 
 affairs than to make this the dumping ground of the 
 world's silver. The silver producer might be bene- 
 fited, but the silver user never. If there is to be any 
 profit in the coinage of silver, it should go to the 
 government. It has gone to the government ever 
 since the Bland- Allison law went into effect. The 
 new declaration would take it from the government 
 and give it to the silver producer. 
 
 " Now, the people know that, if we had two yard- 
 sticks, one three feet in length and the other two and 
 a half feet in length, the buyer would always have 
 his goods measured to him by the shorter stick, and 
 that the longer stick would go into permanent disuse. 
 It is exactly so with money." 
 
 Major McKinley proceeded to argue that the 
 bondholders had been largely paid in 100-cent 
 dollars, and that the pensioners should not be paid 
 in depreciated dollars. He said of the struggle in 
 1867: 
 
 " When the attempt was made at that time by the 
 leaders of the party that now stands in opposition to 
 the Kepublican party to repudiate the debt to tkt
 
 SIGNATURES OF AMERICAN AND SPANISH PEACE COMMISSIONERS TO TREATY OF PEACE 
 
 Reproduced from Photograph Taken by Signal Service Officers Expressly for This History, 
 
 by Permission of State Department at Washington.
 
 McKINLEY AND MONEY 185 
 
 bondholder, or pay it off in depreciated currency, 
 insisting that we never could pay it in full, the 
 soldiers stood with the party which represents good 
 faith to our creditors and the honorable payment of 
 every obligation, and swept back the tide of inflation 
 and repudiation. They said that the Union which 
 they saved from force should have no stain upon its 
 financial honor, but every debt it had contracted to 
 preserve the Union should be paid in the best coin 
 of the Republic, and every obligation should be 
 sacredly kept and observed. They were willing to 
 wait for their pensions until the great money obliga- 
 tion was discharged. The government credit was 
 therefore sustained, and over two thousand millions 
 of that great debt has been paid off, not in a clipped 
 dollar, but in a full dollar. The positions are to-day 
 reversed." 
 
 In concluding this branch of his subject, Major 
 McKinley spoke for Ohio in these clear and unmis- 
 takable terms, that are as pertinent to-day as then : 
 
 " Ohio has never in the past given her vote for a 
 debased currency, and she will not do so in the 
 future. When the country was wild for inflation 
 in 1875 under pressure of hard times (and they 
 were hard), the sober sense of the people of this 
 State, without regard of party, stemmed that awful 
 tide. The people of Ohio had more to do than any 
 other State or constituency of the Union in keeping 
 the nation upon the rock of honest finance and honest 
 Currency. Thousands of Democrats helped in that
 
 186 McKINLEY AND MONEY 
 
 great struggle not through their own party organi- 
 zation, but by leaving their party and joining with 
 the party which represented good faith and honest 
 dealing with the public creditor. They can take no 
 other course this year. And the people of Ohio will 
 take no backward step." 
 
 In the campaign with Campbell there was a joint 
 debate at Ada, October 8th, when the questions at 
 issue had been thoroughly gone over, and McKinley, 
 describing the issues, said he proposed to occupy his 
 time with two of them the question of silver (giving 
 it the first place again, it will be noticed), and the 
 other question was that of taxation. 
 
 This campaign is especially interesting in a study 
 of the Republican candidate for the Presidency, and 
 in view of the prominence given the question of 
 money standards. McKinley had been gerryman- 
 dered out of Congress by a Democratic Legislature, 
 because he was the champion protectionist one of 
 the highest compliments he ever received. He was 
 decorated with the particular displeasure of the 
 Democracy, and, from their party point of view, de- 
 served it. The people of Ohio took him up for 
 enlarged public service, and the Democratic party 
 adopted a free-silver coinage platform. The greatei 
 distinction of McKinley was as a protectionist, but he- 
 met the silver issue forced by the action of the Dem- 
 ocratic party aggressively. At his opening and birth- 
 place speech in this most critical time of his fortunes, 
 he was prompt, thorough, and emphatic in his treat-
 
 McETNLEY AND MONEY 1ST 
 
 ment of money questions, and his remarks cannot be 
 read by one who understands the history and science 
 of money without admiration for the evidence that 
 McKinley has mastered the subject. He employs 
 the right word every time to express his exact mean- 
 ing, and this precision of phrase is rare in the dis- 
 cussions of the standards. Announcing the matters 
 that were at issue between himself and Governor 
 Campbell, McKinley said there were two prominent 
 points, and " the one relates to the standard with 
 which we shall measure our exchanges and our labor 
 with each other and with the rest of the world, and 
 the other relates to the subject and the method of 
 taxation, by which we shall raise the needed revenues 
 for public purposes. 
 
 " The Republicans stood," the Major said, putting 
 the actual money question in one plain sentence, 
 "for a dollar worth one hundred cents," and he 
 added : 
 
 "You can buy to-day 371 i grains of pure silver, 
 which constitutes the silver dollar; you cnn buy it 
 in the markets of the world to-day for 76 cents. 
 Free and unlimited coinage invites the silver pro- 
 ducers of the world to bring their 76 cents' worth of 
 silver to the mints of the United States, the govern- 
 ment agreeing to coin that silver into a silver dollar, 
 and by its flat compels people to take it for 100 cents, 
 and the difference between 76 cents, which is the 
 price of silver to-day, and 100 cents, which is the 
 face value of the silver dollar, goes into the pockets
 
 188 McKINLEY AND MONEY 
 
 of the silver kings of the world ; and if we had had 
 free and unlimited coinage in the last twelve years 
 the $67,000,000, which was the seigniorage or gain 
 to the government, would have been divided among 
 the silver producers of this country and the silver 
 producers of the world. When we sell our labor or 
 our crops, we want to get for it a money that is as 
 good as the thing we gave for that money, and we 
 want the thing we get to be unvarying in value not 
 only good to-day, but good every day of every week 
 of every year ; not only good in the United States, 
 but good where every trade goes. In a word, we 
 want no short dollar, we want no short weight, we 
 want no short measure. When the farmer sells his 
 bushel of wheat he is required to give a full bushel 
 in measure ; when he gets his pay he is entitled to 
 have a full dollar in value." 
 
 But it is said Governor McKinley once thought 
 well of the " double standard." Well, he and Gov- 
 ernor Campbell threshed that over together in their 
 debate, and this is what McKinley said directly upon 
 that subject : 
 
 " In 1877 I voted to reinstate the ancient silver dol- 
 lar a part of the coinage of the United States. Silver 
 had been stricken from our coinage in 1873 stricken 
 by both political parties, the one just as responsible 
 as the other and in 1878, being in favor of both 
 gold and silver as money, to be kept at parity one 
 with the other, I voted for the restoration of the 
 silver dollar. When I did it we had but 8,000,000
 
 McKINLEY AND MONEY 189 
 
 silver dollars in circulation. When I did it silver 
 was more valuable than it is to-day. We have 405,- 
 000,000 silver dollars to-day, and that is as much as 
 we can maintain at par with gold with the price of 
 silver that prevails throughout the world. I took 
 every occasion to reinstate silver to its ancient place in 
 our monetary system, because I wanted both metals. 
 I am opposed to free and unlimited coinage, because 
 it means that we will be put upon a silver basis, and do 
 business with silver alone, instead of with gold, silver, 
 and paper money, with which we do the business of 
 the country to-day every one of them as good as gold. 
 
 "I want to tell the workingmen here and the 
 farmers that it takes just as many blows of the 
 hammer, it takes just as many strokes of the pick, it 
 takes just as much digging, just as much sowing, and 
 just as much reaping to get a short dollar as it does 
 to get a full dollar. 
 
 " A one hundred-cent dollar will go out of circula- 
 tion alongside an eighty-cent dollar, which is a legal 
 tender by the fiat of the government. And no class 
 of people will suffer so much as the wage-earner and 
 the agriculturist. If it is the farmer you would 
 benefit, there is one way to do it. Make the bushel 
 measure with which he measures his wheat for the 
 buyer three pecks instead of four, and require the 
 buyer to pay as much for three pecks as he now 
 pays for four. No man knows what the future may 
 be, but in our present condition, and with our 
 present light every consideration of safety requires
 
 190 McKINLEY A.ND MONEY 
 
 us to hold our present status until the other great 
 nations shall agree to an international ratio.'* 
 
 There is no sounder, simpler, more wholesome 
 doctrine offered this day by any professional sound 
 money man than this. More than that, there is no 
 public man who speaks from higher intelligence on 
 this subject. But they say Major McKinley was in 
 favor of the double standard, and we see those words 
 in large type and displayed as if they were criminal. 
 What he meant by the double standard he explained 
 in this luminous passage : 
 
 " I am not in favor of the free and unlimited 
 coinage of silver in the United States until the 
 nations of the world shall join us in guaranteeing 
 to silver a status which their laws now accord to 
 gold. The double standard implies equality at a 
 ratio, and that equality can only be established by 
 the concurrent law of the nations. It was the con- 
 current law of nations that made the double stand- 
 ard ; it will require the concurrent law to reinstate 
 and sustain it. Until then for us to decree free and 
 unlimited coinage of the world's silver would be to 
 ordain that our silver dollars must surely depreciate 
 and gold inevitably go to premium." 
 
 It has been much mentioned, and McKinley speaks 
 of it freely, that he voted to reinstate the ancient 
 silver dollar and[ was for it until we had demon- 
 strated by coining four hundred millions and more, 
 that this nation could not alone, and in opposition to 
 the great moneyed nations, reinstate silver. Many.
 
 McKIXLEY AND MONEY 191 
 
 have denounced this action who should know that if 
 it had not been for the coinage of silver by the 
 hundred millions, and the policy of the parity of the 
 precious metals insisted upon by the Republicans, the 
 silver flood would have broken over all bounds and 
 we should have been on the silver basis long ago. It 
 was the very policy McKinley stood for that pre- 
 vented our money from being Mexicanized. It was 
 right and true and strong then, and right and true 
 and strong now. 
 
 The Treasury report for May gives the following 
 figures of cash in the Treasury of the United States : 
 
 Gold- 
 Coin $118,644,283 02 
 
 Bars 32,6(32,859 89 
 
 $151,807,14291 
 
 Silver- 
 Dollars $376,572,499 00 
 
 Subsidiary Coin . 15,637,42437 
 Bars 119,989,914 36 
 
 $512,199,837 73 
 
 This would seem to show that there is a good deal 
 of bimetallism in our country. Of the full legal 
 tender " demonetized " silver dollars we have on 
 hand 376,644,283, forty-seven times the amount of 
 dollars coined under the free silver system in the 
 eighty years that it prevailed. That is the way this 
 precious metal has been refused its right, and rob- 
 bery of the people ensued. The silver storm still 
 rages, notwithstanding this demonstration that one 
 nation cannot restore silver except at an expense 
 that would be ruinous. It is clear, however, to the 
 calm and impartial student of our history, that with-
 
 192 McKINLEY AND MONEY 
 
 out this effort to reinstate silver when it stood almost 
 at a parity in the markets at the old ratio with gold, 
 the constant decline of the price of the white metal 
 would have been charged to the omission of the dol- 
 lar from the coinage orders and all financial troubles 
 charged to the decline, and all the misfortunes of the 
 people traced to the same source and the result 
 would have been the overwhelming election of a free 
 silver President and Congress, and we would have 
 been Mexicanized as to money. 
 
 If McKinley did make the mistake in his friendli- 
 ness to silver of overvaluing it, he repeated an error 
 of Alexander Hamilton, who fixed the original ratio 
 in our coinage at 15 to 1. We have heard of the 
 crime of the century in the demonetization of silver. 
 Well, the man who first committed it was Thomas 
 Jefferson, and here is the record : 
 
 " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, May 6, 1806. 
 " To EGBERT PATTERSON, ESQ., Director of the Mint. 
 " flir : In consequence of a representation from 
 the Director of the Bank of the United States that 
 considerable purchases have been made of dollars 
 coined at the mint for the purpose of exporting them, 
 and as it is probable that further purchases and ex- 
 portations will be made, the President directs that 
 the silvei coined at the mint shall be of small denomi- 
 nations, so that the value of the largest pieces shall 
 not exceed half a dollar. I am, etc., 
 
 ".JAMES MADISON."
 
 McKIXLEY AND MONEY 193 
 
 This was issued by President Jefferson. The coin- 
 age of dollars was stopped on this order for thirty 
 years. Many writers do not seem to have noticed 
 'this, to give it full weight and consideration. Silver 
 was exported because it was the best money. 
 
 There was great difficulty also in keeping our gold 
 coin in use, and Thomas H. Benton said on the floor 
 of the Senate in 1834 : 
 
 " The valuation put upon gold has rendered the 
 mint of the United States, so far as the gold coinage 
 is concerned, a most ridiculous and absurd institu- 
 tion. It has coined, and that at a large expense to 
 the United States, 2,262,177 pieces of gold, worth 
 $11,852,890, and where are the pieces now? Not 
 one of them to be seen ! All sold and exported ! 
 And so regular is the operation that the Director of 
 the Mint, in his latest report to Congress, says that 
 the new-coined gold frequently remains in the mint 
 uncalled for, though ready for delivery, until the 
 day arrives for a packet to sail for Europe. He cal- 
 culates that two millions of native gold will be coined 
 annually hereafter, the whole of which, without a 
 reform of the gold standard, will be conducted, like 
 exiles, from the national mint to the seashore and 
 transported to foreign regions." 
 
 This was followed by the law that reduced the 
 quantity of gold li grains to. the dollar. It will be 
 observed that we had about as much trouble with 
 gold as with silver coin,
 
 THE MONEY STANDARD QUESTIONS. 
 
 How the Money Standard Questions have been settled in and by the 
 Republican party Silver legislation in brief How the country 
 was saved from the silver standard John Sherman and Wil- 
 liam McKinley have marched together The Hon. Charles 
 Emory Smith's exposition of this question The unexampled 
 supply of gold is solving the money questions for the people 
 and abolishing this issue. 
 
 THE money questions have been settled by the 
 Republican party, and the standard of 
 sound money is like the flag of the country, 
 established, and the credit of the nation fixed. There 
 was no compromise in the peace of Appomattpx and 
 there has been none in the resumption of specie 
 payments which marked the restoration of the public 
 solvency. Republican policy has provided a national 
 currency of paper, silver, and gold, equal in volume 
 to the wants of the people, and all good as gold. 
 There was a powerful movement at the close of the 
 war to enlarge the greenback issues and extend the 
 limit of paper of that character to cover all the 
 bonded obligations of the government, but the 
 
 greenback was made as good as gold, and then the 
 
 1*4
 
 THE MONEY STANDARD 195 
 
 stress of the passionate green paper illusion passed 
 away. 
 
 The silver question took form when the country, 
 under strong and wise guidance, approached resump- 
 tion. It was then ascertained that we had partici- 
 pated so far in an international plan to employ the 
 money of resumption and secure the advantage of 
 uniformity in coin to facilitate the intercourse of 
 nations, as to omit from the mint regulations the 
 coinage of the silver dollar our only white metal 
 coin of full legal tender value and there was a for- 
 midable tendency to retain the standing of silver in the 
 mints without limitation. Silver had been " coin," 
 in the meaning of the laws and contracts, through 
 the war, and when the bonds were issued especially 
 when specie payments had been suspended and 
 there was an impressive propriety that "gold and 
 silver" should be "coin," when we resumed coin 
 payments, the same as when they were suspended. 
 There was but little variation then between the 
 mint and market value of the two precious metals at 
 their old familiar ratio of 15J to 1 in Europe and 
 16 to 1 in the United States, and the matter did not 
 seem to be momentous. The fall of silver had set 
 in, caused by the sale of silver in Germany, to estab- 
 lish the gold standard, and the enormous silver pro- 
 duction in Nevada. The general judgment at least 
 of those who had not been profound students or 
 business experts in money was that if we replaced 
 silver at the mints the value of the metal in the
 
 196 THE MONEY STANDARD 
 
 markets would advance to our ratio. Tins view of 
 the case was at first taken by Major McKinley, but 
 he supported the Allison amendment of the Bland 
 bill, which was not to have " free " coinage of silver 
 dollars, but forced commanded coinage, not less 
 than two or more than four millions per month. 
 Unquestionably this movement, originating with Mr. 
 Allison in the Senate and supported by Mr. McKin- 
 ley in the House, saved the country from the free 
 coinage of silver, and, therefore, the silver standard ! 
 John Sherman was Secretary of the Treasury, and 
 coined the minimum sum two millions a month. 
 He advised against the veto of the measure by Presi- 
 dent Hayes, suggesting that he should allow the bill 
 to become a law without his approval, as he had 
 conscientious scruples against attaching his signature. 
 The bill was passed over the President's veto, and 
 the continued fall of silver while we coined over 
 four hundred millions of white dollars was an 
 object lesson most convincing that the United 
 States could not alone restore silver as a standard 
 money of the world. 
 
 We reached the point that it was necessary to stop 
 the free coinage of silver or accept the silver standard, 
 and we stopped, pledging ourselves to maintain the 
 parity of the two money metals, and there we are 
 now, and, like France, the great bimetallic country, 
 we uphold silver as a money metal by the limitation 
 of the coinage and the direct application of the 
 public credit.
 
 THE MO^EY STANDARD 197 
 
 Major McKinley has stood with Secretary and 
 Senator John Sherman with unfaltering courage and 
 unshaken fidelity throughout this contest, and was 
 conspicuous in it for his perfect understanding of the 
 general situation, his intelligence as to the principles 
 involved and applied, and his exact information in 
 details. There is no better record for honest dealing 
 with all the people on all the questions of sound 
 money, first and last, than his. 
 
 One of the most frank, instructive, and luminous 
 discussions of the silver question has heen supplied 
 by the Hon. Charles Emory Smith, of Philadelphia, 
 and is as follows : 
 
 WHAT is FREE COINAGE? 
 
 BY HON. CHARLES EMORY SMITH. 
 
 We meet again the demand for independent, free, 
 and unlimited coinage without regard to other nations. 
 To this demand I now address myself. What is free 
 coinage ? The standard silver dollar is now worth 
 about fifty cents. Free coinage means that the govern- 
 ment shall receive all the silver which may be pre- 
 sented, and upon every fifty cents' worth put the 
 stamp of one dollar. As nobody, however, expects it 
 to be coined, it really means that the government shall 
 issue its note for one dollar in exchange for fifty 
 cents' worth of bullion, and that this note which the 
 favored bullion owner gets for fifty cents' worth of 
 his commodity shall be made a legal tender for one
 
 198 THE MONEY STANDAKB 
 
 dollar in current circulation. Now, what would be 
 the result? It would be a forced circulation of a 
 dollar worth one half its face. It would be the 
 debasement of the unit of value, and so the violent 
 disturbance of all values. It would be the destruc- 
 tion of stability, and so the overthrow of confidence, 
 security, and prosperity. 
 
 Let me be entirely frank. I know the advocates 
 of free coinage claim that their measure would raise 
 silver to the standard of gold, or perhaps they would 
 prefer to put it, reduce gold to the standard of silver 
 that, in a word, it would establish parity. They 
 point to the fact that the silver or silver certificates 
 already in circulation have been kept at par at the 
 ratio of 16 to 1, notwithstanding a far different market 
 ratio. This is true, because we have limited the coin- 
 age or purchase, because we have maintained the 
 gold reserve, because we have pledged the whole 
 credit and power of the government to sustain parity. 
 But when we enter upon unlimited coinage, under 
 present conditions, we embark upon a new and danger- 
 ous sea. The free silver champions contend that our 
 silver policy has failed, because we haven't gone far 
 enough, and they insist that free coinage would bridge 
 the divergence and remove the disparity of the two 
 metals. There is no other pretense upon which it 
 can be defended for a single instant. If it does not 
 establish the equivalence of gold and silver at the 
 determined ratio it is rank repudiation and dishonor. 
 It is the willful adoption of the debased standard
 
 THE MONEY STANDARD 199 
 
 and the compulsory circulation of a depreciated 
 dollar, with its robbery of labor, its unsettlenient of 
 all values, its derangement of all finance and trade, 
 and its incalculable wrong and dangers in every 
 direction. 
 
 But what possible hope can there be, in the light 
 of the facts already before us, that free coinage will 
 re-establish parity ? It was claimed just as confi- 
 dently that the Purchase Act of 1890 would do it. 
 What was the fact ? Its first temporary effect was to 
 raise silver so that the bullion value of a dollar 
 which was 74 cents in 1890 advanced for a short 
 time to 84 cents ; but it soon dropped back to 72 
 cents, and has been falling ever since. We were 
 then buying pretty nearly the entire silver product 
 of this country. It must be remembered, too, that 
 India, the great sink of silver in the East, was still 
 under free coinage. While we were coining or 
 purchasing nearly $600,000,000 of silver India was 
 coining over $600,000,000, and during all this time, 
 and in spite of this great market, silver kept on fall- 
 ing. India has since stopped her free coinage, and 
 how, then, can we hope to do alone what the two to- 
 gether could not do ? 
 
 Do you realize what free coinage by the United 
 States alone involves ? It involves one of two things- 
 either the lifting up of the entire volume of silver 
 in the world to the standard of gold, or else the 
 dragging down of the United States to the single 
 standard of silver. There is no possible escape from
 
 200 THE MONEY STANDARD 
 
 one horn or the other of this dilemma. The visible 
 stock of silver in the world is about $4,000,000,000. 
 Europe has over $1,000,000,000. The product of 
 the United States in 1893 was 60,000,000 ounces. 
 The annual product of the world has grown from an 
 average of 40,000,000 ounces, between 1860 and 1870, 
 to an aggregate of 160,000,000 ounces. For the 
 United States alone to enter upon free coinage means 
 that we must stand ready to buy all of this vast stock 
 that may be attracted by our open hand and open 
 mint, and that, while it is now at a ratio of 32 to 1, 
 we must undertake the stupendous and impossible 
 task of lifting it to equivalence with gold at the ratio 
 of 16 to 1. It means not only that we shall stimu- 
 late and inflate our own product, but that Europe 
 will dump its surplus silver on us. I know the silver 
 extremists deny this truth. I know they allege that 
 the silver of Europe is in use as coin and that it 
 could not be sent here without a loss. But this answer 
 will not bear examination, as a moment's considera- 
 tion will show. 
 
 Ever since bimetallism was abandoned Europe has 
 been struggling for gold. With the adoption of in- 
 dependent free coinage in this country that struggle 
 would gain new force, because it would be notice that 
 the re-establishment of bimetallism had been indefi- 
 nitely postponed. The Bank of France has $250,- 
 000,000 of silver, not in circulation, but locked up 
 in its vaults. The Bank of Germany has over 
 $150,000,000. The Bank of Spain has" about $50,-
 
 HON. CHAS. EMORY SMITH , 
 (Ex- Minister to Russia. ^
 
 HON. LEVI P. MORTON.
 
 THE MONEY STANDARD 203 
 
 000,000, the Bank of the Netherlands $35,000,000, 
 and others varying amounts. There are over $450,- 
 000,000 stored in nine banking houses. This silver 
 is worth nothing to them beyond its bullion value. 
 It serves as a part of the metallic reserve for their 
 paper money ; but they could better sustain more 
 paper on gold, and if they could make the substitu- 
 tion by sending this silver to the United States and 
 exchanging it for gold, why wouldn't they do it ? 
 Let me give you commanding authority. Henry 
 Cernuschi is the ablest champion in Europe of the 
 restoration of silver and the recognized leader of the 
 bimetallists. In his pamphlet on " The Great 
 Metallic Powers " he says : "As soon as the coinage 
 of silver by the United States was free, Europe 
 would act toward the United States just as Germany 
 acted toward France, so long as France coined silver. 
 Europe would demonetize large masses of silver and 
 send them to Philadelphia to get them made into 
 dollars, with which dollars she would get gold 
 dollars despatched to .her." And again: "Why 
 is not the coinage of silver free in France? 
 Because, were the coinage free, all the gold 
 would emigrate, and France, deprived of gold, 
 would no longer have a monetary medium, either 
 with England, or with Germany, or with the 
 United States. Very venturesome would be 
 those who should recommend the United State? 
 of America to undertake single-handed what 
 France will undertake only triple-handed." Wise
 
 204 THE MONEY STANDARD 
 
 counsel and admonition from the greatest of the 
 friends of silver ! 
 
 Let me add another impressive warning. And in 
 order to make it specific will you pardon a personal 
 allusion, and a statement which I have never publicly 
 made before, and in making which at the present 
 time I hope I am not altogether indiscreet. In 1890 
 when the bill for the free coinage of silver was pend- 
 ing in the United States Senate, I had the honor of 
 being the American Minister at St. Petersburg. The 
 Russian Minister of Finance was Mr. Vishnegradski, 
 who died a few days since a statesman of extra- 
 ordinary capacity, and perhaps the ablest Finance 
 Minister in Europe at the time. I had occasion one 
 day to call upon him, and I found him with a copy 
 of the American free coinage silver bill, then under 
 debate in the Senate, lying open on the table before 
 him. His first expressions revealed his profound in- 
 terest in the subject. He had studied the details of 
 the bill to the minutest particular. He did not hesi- 
 tate to pronounce it a most remarkable measure, in- 
 volving a most disastrous policy, which, as a friend of 
 the United States and of safe finance, he hoped she 
 would not undertake. He inquired carefully after 
 its prospects, and then in earnest words came the 
 pregnant climax, which, as others were involved, I 
 shall not in this public declaration venture to repeat 
 in as specific a form as he gave it in that more confi- 
 dential talk. But he said in substance : " If this bill . 
 becomes a law the United States will expose herself
 
 205 
 
 to dangers of which she has perhaps little idea ; there 
 is a great deal of silver in Europe ; we have some in 
 Russia ; already the proposition has been made to me 
 to join in a movement, in the event of the American 
 adoption of free coinage, to unload a part of Europe's 
 silver on the United States ; but I believe this measure 
 and this action would bring calamity, and I hope the 
 United States will make no such mistake." It was 
 the clear vision and the weighty remonstrance of a 
 statesman looking on with the truer perspective of 
 distance, and speaking with direct personal knowl- 
 edge of dangers which the silver extremists profess 
 to scout and deride. 
 
 With free coinage the surplus silver of the world 
 would flow toward our shores as infallibly as the 
 dropping apple seeks the ground. It would flow here 
 because this would be its one great market at a price 
 not offered anywhere else. Realizing the danger of 
 this deluge, some of the silver radicals have proposed 
 to limit free coinage to the American product. But 
 none of the free coinage bills has ever embraced that 
 limitation. And if you tried it how could you do it "? 
 With a temporary artificial and exaggerated price 
 here, how could you prevent foreign silver from 
 finding its way across our borders, as it has done in 
 the past ? Besides, suppose it were possible to suc- 
 ceed in such a restriction, that would not be free 
 coinage at all. It would not lift silver in the 
 markets of the world ; it would not remove the dis- 
 parity between the two metals ; it would not, there-
 
 fore,, carry the only condition upon which free coin- 
 age could possibly be justified ; it would simply 
 enable anybody who has fifty cents' worth of silver 
 bullion to take it to the mint and have it stamped 
 one hundred cents, or take it to the Treasury, which 
 would issue its note for it and force you and me to 
 receive it for a dollar. Are the American people 
 ready for that amazing folly ? 
 
 Free coinage, I repeat, means that we must be pre- 
 pared to buy the silver of the world. What would 
 be the effect ? Gold coinage would immediately stop. 
 Who would bring gold to be coined when it was 
 undervalued one half? We should pay for the great 
 influx of domestic and foreign silver in notes redeem- 
 able in coin. The notes would be presented and gold 
 demanded. If gold were paid by the Treasury, how 
 long under this great demand would the reserve last ? 
 If gold were refused we should be instantly on the 
 silver basis, and the Treasury notes and the whole 
 circulation of the United States would fall to the 
 silver level. Under such conditions gold and silver 
 would not circulate side by side. Gold would go to 
 a premium. Every dollar would be locked up or 
 exported. The government, stripped of its gold, 
 would be forced to pay its creditors in silver, and 
 that payment would reduce us at once to the silver 
 standard. There is thus, under free coinage, no 
 escape from one of the two alternatives, either 
 that we must by our action alone raise the silver 
 of the world to the gold standard, which is mani-
 
 THE MONEY STANDARD 207 
 
 festly impossible, or we must drop to the silver 
 
 standard. 
 
 This, then, being clear, we come to the next ques- 
 tion, What does the silver standard mean and what 
 would be its effect ? This question involves such 
 broad considerations and such tremendous conse- 
 quences that time will permit me to touch on only a 
 few of them. The silver dollar is now intrinsically 
 worth fifty cents. It passes for a dollar because, by 
 limited coinage and full exchangeability, the gov- 
 ernment has kept it at par with gold. Under free 
 coinage it would be worth whatever the world should 
 rate the silver in it as worth. It might be fifty 
 cents ; it might be more ; it might be less. It would- 
 follow all the fluctuations of a varying commodity, 
 going up with the demand and going down after the 
 deluge. It would still be called a dollar, but only 
 because the real dollar unit of value had been ex- 
 pelled ; and it would be a dollar in fact just as much 
 as if we were to lock up all the present yard-sticks 
 and were to make a new unit of length consisting of 
 a foot and a half, and were to assume that calling it 
 a yard would make it a yard. If it takes ten yards 
 of cloth now to make a robe, ten yards under the 
 new unit would leave the costume decidedly decollete! 
 Wage-earners might receive as many nominal dollars 
 as before, but the purchasing power of the dollar 
 would measurably be cut in two. The Mexican 
 dollar contains more silver than the American dollar ; 
 yet the American silver dollar will buy twice as
 
 208 THE MONEY STANDARD 
 
 much in Mexico as the Mexican silver dollar. The 
 American silver dollar is quoted in London at 100 
 cents and the Mexican silver dollar at about 50 
 cents. Why? Because Mexico has free silver 
 coinage and we have not ; because Mexico is on the 
 silver basis and we are not. But the free coinage 
 advocates would put us there, and so put our dollar 
 down to the level of the Mexican dollar. 
 
 The serious menace of such a change would bring 
 on a great financial convulsion, and its accomplish- 
 ment would involve a complete economic revolution. 
 It was the apprehension of going to the silver stand- 
 ard that largely caused the monetary panic of 1893, 
 and any real impending danger of such a catastrophe 
 would produce a financial cataclysm that is appalling 
 to contemplate. It would excite alarm at home and 
 abroad; it would tumble our American securities 
 back upon us ; it would dry up the springs of credit, 
 restrict loans, paralyze enterprise, cripple trade and 
 industry, halt investments, and repeat on a larger 
 scale the bitter experience of that disastrous crisis of 
 two summers ago. Even if the silver standard pre- 
 sented the advantages which some extremists profess 
 to think, the pathway to it would be strewn with too 
 many wrecks and darkened with too much sorrow 
 and sadness to be prudently undertaken. 
 
 But suppose, running these risks and making these 
 sacrifices, we had plunged to the silver standard, 
 what then ? Practical object lessons are more vivid 
 and convincing than theoretical discussions. Let us
 
 THE MONEY STANDARD 209 
 
 take a few object lessons. The amount of deposits in 
 
 the savings banks of the United States is $1,747,- 
 961,280, and the number of depositors 4,777,687. 
 The average to each depositor is $365.86. The silver 
 standard means that on an average every one of these 
 nearly five million people deposited $365, each dollar 
 worth 100 cents in gold, and would draw out $365 
 in silver, each worth 50 cents. The savings of the 
 working people of Pennsylvania go largely into 
 building and loan associations. Nevertheless, there 
 are in this State 248,244 saving bank depositors, with 
 an aggregate deposit of $66,025,821, and an average 
 individual deposit of $265.97. The silver standard 
 means that every one of these 248,244 Pennsylva- 
 nians put in 265 hard-earned 100-cent dollars, and 
 would draw out 265 50-cent dollars. 
 
 Pennsylvania has 1,239 building associations, 
 with assets amounting to $103,943,364, and a total 
 membership of 272,580. All of these members are, in 
 their organized capacity, lenders, and each is in turn 
 a borrower. Each is a capitalist, and belongs to the 
 much-denounced " creditor class " to the extent of 
 $381. These associations received last year $43,432,- 
 686, and divided $12,933,970. The whole system 
 depends on the value of the. assets in the shape of 
 mortgages, and collapses unless that is sustained. 
 On the silver basis these 272,580 persons, all wage- 
 earners, would find their $103,943,364 cut in two, 
 and the only persons who would get any compen- 
 sation would be the fraction of borrowers at that
 
 210 THE MOXEY STAXDAKD 
 
 particular time. Take another illustration. The 
 aggregate pension disbursements last year were 
 $140,772,163.78, and the number of pensioners 
 969,544, of whom 754,382 are the gallant invalid 
 veteran defenders of their country, and 215,162 
 are the widows or orphans of Union soldiers. The 
 payment to each pensioner thus averaged $144. 
 The number of pensioners on the roll of the pen- 
 sion office at Philadelphia is 57,749, and at Pitts- 
 burg 45,774, a total of 103,523 nearly a ninth of 
 the whole number in the Union. Under the silver 
 standard the $144 going on an average to each of 
 these nearly million pensioners would be 50-cent 
 dollars, worth 72 real dollars. 
 
 Take still another and impressive illustration. 
 On January 1st, 1894, the life insurance policies in 
 this country numbered 7,505,817, representing insur- 
 ance of $5,291,824,900, and assets of $919,310,131. 
 Considering wealth and population together, at least 
 an eighth of this insurance is held in Pennsylvania, 
 or say 1,000,000 policies sometimes more than one 
 for the same person representing $650,000,000 of 
 insurance and $120,000,000 of assets. The average 
 amount of a policy is $700, and so the great mass of 
 policy-holders are persons of moderate means. The 
 security for the payment of this vast insurance is 
 two-fold : first, existing assets, either mortgages or 
 shares and bonds, and their value or income would 
 be cut in two by going to the silver basis ; second, 
 fixed annual premium payments, and their purchas-
 
 THE MONEY STANDARD 211 
 
 ing power in investments would be halved, since the 
 amount was fixed on the gold basis and would be 
 paid on the silver basis. On life insurance assets 75 
 per cent, are mortgages or shares and bonds, and 
 this colossal contract for the future, involving in 
 Pennsylvania alone nearly 1,000,000 policies and 
 $650,000,000 of insurance, would, by the silver stand- 
 ard, be depreciated one-half in value. 
 
 There is yet another and momentous danger. 
 The amount of American securities owned abroad is 
 generally placed at about $2,000,000,000. Speaking 
 in the House of Commons in 1893 of t\ie volume of 
 British investments outside of the United Kingdom 
 Mr. Gladstone said: "One thousand million pounds 
 would probably be an extremely low and inade- 
 quate estimate. Two thousand millions that is, 
 in round numbers, ten thousand million dollars 
 or something even more than that, is very likely to 
 be nearer the mark." Burdett's Official Intelli- 
 gencer for 1894 places the aggregate of forejgn secu- 
 rities held by British investors, based on the income 
 tax returns, at $3,819,035,000. The United States has 
 one-half the railroads and telegraphs of the world, 
 and it has a fifth of the British foreign trade. It 
 is, therefore, a reasonable presumption that some 
 fraction between a fifth and a half of the British 
 foreign holdings are American some figure between 
 $800,000,000 and $1,900,000,000. Add other Euro- 
 pean holdings and the aggregate will reach $2,000,- 
 000,000 or over, on which from $60,000,000 to
 
 212 
 
 $100,000,000 are annually paid in dividends and 
 interest. This amount is now paid in dollars, worth 
 in London 100 cents. On the silver basis it would 
 be paid in dollars, worth in London 50 cents. Under 
 such circumstances, how long would it be before 
 these securities would be precipitated upon our 
 market with all the consequences of such a move- 
 ment? 
 
 The stock of the Pennsylvania Railroad aggre- 
 gates $129,289,000. Of this amount forty-six per 
 cent., or about $60,000,000, is held abroad. Imagine 
 the effect of having even a half of this vast propor- 
 tion or a quarter of all the shares of the Pennsylvania 
 thrown on the market ! This would be inevitable 
 unless the dividends were paid in gold, and to do 
 that would require either doubling the amount set 
 apart or halving the dividends. Not a few bonds are 
 made specifically payable in gold. In every such 
 case it would take just as much money to pay the 
 premium on gold as would be available for the divi- 
 dend or interest. The effect on all railroads may be 
 shown by a single illustration. The Illinois Central 
 pays five per cent, dividends. This takes $2,500,000. 
 Last year the road had $2,963,275 available, leaving 
 a surplus of $463,275. Of the stock about forty per 
 cent, is held abroad. To pay the foreign stock- 
 holders requires $1,000,000. If they are paid in 
 gold $2,000,000 would be required, and so the whole 
 dividend must be cut down. If they are paid in 
 silver the value abroad will be cut in two and the
 
 THE MOXEY 8T AMURD 213 
 
 foreign holder will sell. How can such a situation 
 fail to bring a crash ? 
 
 These are a few illustrations of what isolated free 
 coinage and the silver standard involve. But it is 
 claimed that if we were on the silver basis we should 
 enjoy great advantages in foreign commerce and 
 command the trade of the silver countries. We 
 should, indeed, put ourselves financially upon the 
 level of Mexico, and China, and India, but with what 
 result ? The imports of the gold standard countries 
 amount to over $8,000,000,000 a year, and those of 
 the silver standard countries to less than $1,000,- 
 000,000. The exports of the gold standard countries 
 reach annually $7,000,000,000, and those of the silver 
 standard countries only $1,000,000,000. Why should 
 we abandon the advantages of the former in a struggle 
 for the latter? 
 
 During the last fiscal year our exports to Europe 
 amounted to $690,000,000, and our imports to 
 $274,600,000. Here was a balance in our favor of 
 $415,000,000, which was paid or credited to us in 
 gold value. During the same time our exports tc 
 the silver countries amounted to $42,000,000 ant! 
 our imports to $170,000,000, Here was a balance 
 against us of $128,000,000. We should continue 
 to pay this sum in silver, or its equivalent, as we 
 do now ; but why should we be so idiotic as to 
 put ourselves on the silver basis in order that Europe 
 may pay us $415,000,000 a year in silver values in- 
 Btead of gold values ? Why should we upset our
 
 214 THE MONEY STANDARD 
 
 monetary medium with the great commercial nations^ 
 and subject our commerce to the incalculable tax and 
 burden and depression of a constantly uncertain and 
 fluctuating exchange ? 
 
 We. hear men talk loosely of the debtor class and 
 the creditor class, and flippantly reason that so- 
 called " cheap money " would help debtors at the 
 expense of creditors. Who are the debtors and 
 who are the creditors ? The creditors are every 
 depositor in a savings bank, every member of a 
 Building Association, every pensioner, every holder 
 of an insurance policy, every workiugman who has 
 saved anything out of his earnings and put it into 
 institutions or investments, dependent upon public 
 security and honssty. Borrowing requires credit. 
 It is the well-off, not the poor, who borrow most. 
 The borrowers will be found more on the stock- 
 market than on the farm or in the workshop. If a 
 man seeks loans for legitimate enterprise or needed 
 development, he is most interested in maintaining 
 the public credit and confidence, which makes easy 
 terms and low rates. What he wants is not cheap 
 money, but cheap loans. Repudiation is most costly 
 to borrowers. It multiplies the risks and hardens 
 the conditions. Depreciate the unit of value and 
 you cheat every member of the industrial classes. 
 The great body of workingrnen would be the worst 
 sufferers. Prices on a silver basis would advance, 
 because they would be paid in debased money, but 
 the last thing to rise would be the wages of labor,
 
 THE MOXEY STANDARD 315 
 
 and the sons of toil, to whom the false appeal is most 
 cunningly made, should be the most determined to 
 resist and reject it. 
 
 The depreciated currency, which is called " cheap 
 money," but which, in reality, is the dearest, is the 
 most insidious and deadly of all public perils. It 
 deceives and deludes the unwary. It comes in at- 
 tractive guise. It is, as has been said, like the cub 
 of the lioness, described by the Greek poet, which 
 was rashly taken by the hunter into his house. 
 When it was young it was fondled by the children ; 
 but when it grew and felt its strength it deluged the 
 house with blood. There are those who unthink- 
 ingly fondle this young financial folly ; but let it de- 
 velop, and it will fill the country with sorrow and 
 ruin. The dangers of the silver delusion are so 
 clear that some of the extremists recoil from the 
 abyss. They tell us they have not advocated inde- 
 pendent free coinage. I do not wonder that they 
 shrink from their own conclusion. But their record 
 confronts them. They have voted for free coinage. 
 They have sustained and upheld those who voted for 
 it. They have denounced those who did not accept 
 it. Their argument means free silver coinage, or it 
 means nothing. If they renounce the conclusion let 
 them renounce the contention. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL BIMETALLISM. 
 
 What, then, is the true remedy ? To find the 
 remedy we must find the cause. The free coinage
 
 THE MONEY STANDARD 
 
 extremists mistake the one, and so misapply the 
 other. They begin wrong, argue wrong, and end 
 wrong. They charge the fall of silver to the Act of 
 1873, which is said to have demonetized it, and they 
 say it has not been restored to its position because 
 we have not done enough for it. But the Act of 
 1873 had no more to do with the fall of silver than 
 the last eclipse of the moon. We hadn't any silver 
 to demonetize. We had coined only 8,000,000 
 silver dollars from the foundation of the govern- 
 ment, and for a quarter of a century before 1873 
 there hadn't been a dollar in circulation. As to 
 our subsequent treatment of silver, I have shown 
 that since 1873 we have done seventy-two times 
 as much for the silver dollar as we did in all our 
 previous history, and in spite of this silver kept on 
 falling. 
 
 What has caused the great monetary dislocation 
 of the past twenty years ? It was not the demone- 
 tization of silver in the United States, but the over- 
 throw of bimetallism in Europe. We had practi- 
 cally no silver coinage, and our act had no effect. 
 Europe had $1,000,000,000 of silver coinage, and 
 her proscription of silver and the stoppage of her 
 demand brought the derangement. For nearly two 
 hundred years gold and silver had maintained a prac- 
 tically steady ratio. The production of the two 
 metals had fluctuated in the most remarkable degree. 
 During the first forty-five years of this century the 
 output of silver enormously exceeded that of gold.
 
 THE MONEY STANDARD 217 
 
 During the next twenty-five years the conditions 
 were reversed, and the output of gold enormously 
 exceeded that of silver. Within the quarter of a 
 century following 1850 the mines of the world 
 poured forth as much gold as during the entire pre- 
 ceding three centuries and a half from the discovery 
 of America by Columbus. 
 
 Yet through these extraordinary changes in the 
 relative quantity of gold and silver there was sub- 
 stantially no change in their relative value. The 
 steadying influence was the bimetallic system. Not 
 all of the nations, indeed, had bimetallism. Eng- 
 land had the gold standard ; Germany and Austria 
 had the silver standard ; France and her associates 
 of the Latin Union had the bimetallic standard ; and 
 with Germany's silver balancing England's gold, 
 France and the nations of the Latin Union served as 
 what Walter Bagehot called "equalizing machines," 
 and upheld the monetary equilibrium. In 1871, 
 two years before our much-abused and unimportant 
 Act of 1873, Germany abandoned the silver and 
 adopted the gold standard, and began to accumulate 
 gold and sell her silver coin. Within seven years 
 she sold $150,000,000 worth, which flowed across the 
 borders of France and Belgium. France and the 
 Latin Union became alarmed and closed their mints 
 to silver. Holland and other nations followed. The 
 European outlet for silver was cut off. At the same 
 time the imports of silver into India fell from 100,- 
 000,000 rupees a year to 30,000,000. While the
 
 218 THE MONEY STANDAED 
 
 
 
 demand was thus largely reduced the supply was 
 largely increased. The annual production of silver 
 was more than doubled just as this restriction of its 
 use began, and it kept on until it was more than 
 quadrupled. 
 
 Here then is the cause of the monetary disturb- 
 ance and here lies the remedy. The uniformity in 
 the relative value of gold and silver prior to 1873 
 was maintained by the bimetallic system; it was 
 broken by the general abandonment of that policy ; 
 and it can only be reinstated by a general return. 
 The restoration of silver must come through the 
 concurrent action of the commercial nations. The 
 enlightened opinion of the world recognizes these 
 truths. The entire twelve members of the British 
 Gold and Silver Commission agreed that it was the 
 bimetallic system which preserved the stable ratio 
 between gold and silver down to 1873. The six 
 gold monometallist members agreed that bimetallism 
 is practical and desirable for other nations though 
 they hesitated to recommend it for England. The 
 remaining six members declared themselves unre- 
 servedly for bimetallism by international agreement. 
 Germany, perceiving the great mistake she made in 
 1871, has declared for an international conference. 
 England, impelled by the distress among her pro- 
 ducing classes, is advancing toward this policy. 
 France has been for it from the beginning. The 
 depression of Europe urges it. 
 
 The palpable advantages of bimetallism are gain-
 
 MARK HANNA.
 
 HON. C. H. GROSVENOR
 
 THE MONET STANDARD 221 
 
 ing ground for it every day. It broadens the mone- 
 tary basis of credit and enlarges the stock of available 
 sound money. It establishes monetary unity. It 
 makes an approximately fixed par of exchange be- 
 tween gold and silver countries. It promotes stability 
 of values. It minimizes the evils of an appreciating 
 metal on the one hand or of a depreciating metal on 
 the other. The restoration of this system is the 
 restoration of silver, and as its collapse was inter- 
 national so its rehabilitation must be international. 
 
 What is our true American policy ? We do not 
 want to rest upon gold alone or upon silver alone. 
 We want the joint use of the two metals upon con- 
 ditions which will make every dollar as good as every 
 other dollar in the pockets of the people, and in the 
 markets of the world. We want the re-establish- 
 ment on a broader scale of that bimetallic system 
 which for seventy years, through the severest strains, 
 through periods when the silver output was three 
 times as great in value as the gold, and through 
 periods when the gold output was nearly five times 
 as great as the silver, still kept them at a stable ratio 
 and maintained the monetary equilibrium of the 
 nations. To accomplish this result it is our duty to 
 set our faces like adamant against the independent 
 free coinage which would indefinitely postpone bi- 
 metallism and simply plunge us upon the silver 
 basis. We ought to learn from our own experience. 
 We have done more to promote the growth in Europe 
 of a demand for international bimetallism since we
 
 222 THE MONEY STANDARD 
 
 stopped the purchase of silver in 1893 than we did 
 during all the years when we were buying $600,- 
 000,000 of silver. So long as we alone were carrying 
 the burden Europe smiled and remained passive. 
 When we had sense enough to stop Europe began to 
 be aroused to the necessity of action. 
 
 Let us emphasize that lesson. Let us say to 
 Europe by our acts as well as by our words : " We 
 desire international bimetallism; we believe the 
 business of the world will be better for the broadest 
 use of both metals, but the initiative now rests with 
 you." 
 
 INCREASED DEMAND FOR GOLD. 
 
 Bad as the present situation is, we can stand it as 
 long as you can. We know the German agricultur- 
 ists are crying out for relief. We know the Lan- 
 cashire cotton-spinners are in distress and all the 
 Indian exchanges are in confusion. We are ready 
 to join you in an international agreement for the 
 restoration of bimetallism ; but if you are not ready 
 and if it is to be a struggle for gold we are going to 
 meet you on that ground. Your London market 
 was shaken when Mr. Vishnegradski boldly went in 
 and bought $70,000,000 of gold to build up Eussian 
 credit. You were watchful and solicitous when 
 Austria began to buy gold to rehabilitate her 
 finances. You replaced that treasure by drawing on 
 Us. We know that France has wisely acquired
 
 THE MOXEY STANDARD 
 
 $200,000,000 of gold while we have foolishly parted 
 with that amount. But we are richer and stronger, 
 more self-sustaining and more powerful in resources 
 than the greatest of your nations; and if you are 
 not prepared for bimetallism and if it is to be a con- 
 test for the accumulation of gold, then we give notice 
 that we are going into the markets of the world to 
 buy $100,000,000 or $500,000,000 if necessary, in 
 order to take care of ourselves. Such a notice 
 would settle the question inside of six months. 
 Europe would seek a conference and international 
 agreement would follow. That is the solution of the 
 question. Independent free coinage is the pathway 
 to the single silver basis and to untold calamity. 
 The restoration of bimetallism through international 
 agreement is the pathway to honor, safety, and pros- 
 perity. 
 
 A DANGEROUS HERESY. 
 
 I am not wishing to raise any personal issue ; but 
 I desire from a profound sense of public duty, to 
 resist a false and dangerous policy, and to sound a 
 solemn warning against any attempt to commit our 
 own people to a course of dishonor and disaster. It 
 is not the first time there has been a proposal that 
 we should falter in our devotion to honest money 
 and true public faith. There was un hour when 
 the delusion of inflated and depreciated paper seized 
 upon some minds, as the delusion of inflated and 
 depreciated silver seizes upon them now. It was
 
 224 THE MONEY STANDARD 
 
 kindred in motive and inspiration and peril. There 
 were men then as now who were disposed to palter 
 with it. But a distinguished leader of Republican- 
 ism boldly met the heresy on the platform and the 
 integrity and rectitude of our people were preserved. 
 Let us confront and confound the present heresy 
 and danger with the same determination and fidelity. 
 Let us stand inflexibly for the honest money which 
 lies at the foundation of all business security and in 
 which every dollar, whether of gold or silver or 
 paper, shall have full exchangeable equality with 
 every other dollar. 
 
 The admirable historical summary and argument 
 of Mr. Smith may be fitly supplemented by the state- 
 ment that the statistics of gold production empha- 
 size all that he has said respecting the influences that 
 affect the value of precious metals, and the difficulties 
 and limitations of bimetallism. The production of 
 gold has reached the enormous and unprecedented 
 sum of $200,000,000 a year. The truth is the in- 
 creased demand for gold in the richest and most ad- 
 vanced nations has, according to the ancient irre- 
 futable precepts and irrepealable laws of political 
 economy, augmented the supply, so that it is only not 
 improbable, but almost certain, that there will be of 
 new gold added to the money of the world during the 
 McKinley administration of four years one thousand 
 million dollars. The peculiarity of the golden 
 inflation, as was seen in California good times, is that 
 it harms no one and helps everybody. It cheers, but
 
 THE MOXEY STANDARD 225 
 
 does not inebriate. It is wholesome inspiration and 
 advancement, and there is no depression, no reaction. 
 While we maintain the existing standard, resisting 
 all extremists, disregarding factions, supporting with 
 the credit of the nation the parity of the white and 
 yellow money metals at the ratio familiar in our 
 affairs, we shall follow the example of bimetallic 
 France and close the mints firmly to the coinage of 
 legal tender silver. We have all of that sort of 
 money we can make good. There is to be no more 
 free coinage of silver that is fundamental. The 
 tendency of the gold production is to the settlement 
 of the silver questions according to the operation of 
 the laws and economics of nature, leaving less and 
 less to be determined by the legislative wisdom found 
 in the government. We have only to stand solidly, 
 as we are, for honesty and economy, to find the very 
 soil of controversy removed, and our feet on the 
 rocks that have resisted the billows of the oceans 
 and the stormy skies for all the millenniums of which 
 there are records of men.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 WILLIAM McKINLEY AS A CAMPAIGNER. 
 
 Speaking to fifteen millions of people Making one thousand 
 speeches Constitution of iron Wondrous vitality Magnetic 
 power Excellent memory Good listener Making converts 
 Policy of Protection the hope of America. 
 
 IN the past six years William McKinley has been 
 constantly in battle. There has been no rest 
 for him. It has been a continued campaign, 
 in which he was the central figure. Beginning with 
 the impossible contest for re-election to Congress in 
 the gerrymandered district and continuing through 
 the gubernatorial canvass of 1891, the Congressional 
 campaign of 1892, the second fight for the governor- 
 ship in 1893, the great Congressional contest of 1894, 
 the Ohio campaign of 1895, and the preliminary 
 struggle of 1896, Major McKinley has been under 
 an increasing strain. 
 
 In that period he has probably spoken to more 
 than fifteen millions of people, and shaken hands 
 with a million and a half more, and made a thou- 
 sand speeches, averaging an hour in length. Such 
 was a task to make any man shrink, to test the nerve, 
 
 226
 
 McKIXLEY AS CAMPAIGNER 227 
 
 the physical endurance, and the vocal powers ; but 
 Major McKiiiley went through it all without the 
 least symptom of illness, though he was often wearied 
 and worn. The ex-Governor has a constitution of 
 iron, great recuperative powers, the ability to sleep 
 under uncomfortable conditions, to eat without care 
 all sorts of food at all hours, and to digest it well, to 
 drink waters that are ordinarily unhealthy without 
 disastrous results. He has a surprising power, that 
 comes to his rescue when it would seem as if he could 
 do nothing more. He has a wondrous vitality, ex- 
 cellent lungs, and great vocal power. Instead of 
 breaking from constant use his voice seems to gain 
 in strength and volume. 
 
 It is interesting to note the way he begins a speech. 
 The hall is always filled when he is booked to talk. 
 It usually happens that it is difficult to get him into 
 the hall, because of the crowds on the outside. The mo- 
 ment he appears oft a platform is a signal for pro- 
 longed and vehement cheering. His face flushes a little 
 and his eyes flash. He breathes quickly and compresses 
 his lips, the lines around the mouth taking promi- 
 nence. He brushes the hair back from his forehead 
 with a nervous hand. Though outwardly composed, 
 it appears to those who know him that he is a little 
 anxious and a bit apprehensive, possibly almost 
 alarmed. It is worthy of note when he steps on a 
 platform and is greeted with enthusiasm, he bows low 
 and waves his hands from side to side. The silk hat 
 is always in the right hand, the brim firmly gripped.
 
 228 
 
 This is generally ruffled, for at the moment he forgets 
 that it gets pressed. The bowing continues until the 
 fury of the reception shows a sign of abatement. For 
 the last four years almost every chairman of a meet- 
 ing has introduced him as " the next President." To 
 those who campaigned with him this became some- 
 what of a joke, and there were bets made, the odds 
 being always two to one that would be the introduc- 
 tion. Now the chairman of a political meeting is 
 generally a man of consequence in the neighborhood 
 where the meeting is held. The opportunity of in- 
 troducing such an orator as McKinley does not come 
 often, and every chairman takes advantage of it. It 
 is amusing to note the expression of McKinley's face 
 when the introduction is prolonged. He frowns 
 almost imperceptibly. Only one who has studied 
 his countenance would notice it. There follows a 
 look of weariness and then of impatience. He moves 
 his feet a little and is restless. The strain is becoming 
 painful to hear and the compliments dreary. They 
 have been repeated probably twice before on the 
 same day, and it is not often that anything of keen 
 interest is said. When the inevitable " next Presi- 
 dent" comes the Major's face is impassive. One 
 would not know from his attitude that the refer- 
 ence was to him. He does not seem to hate it, but 
 would as leave it was omitted. 
 
 Finally the chairman has come to the " Fellow cit- 
 izens, I have the great pleasure, etc.," and McKinley 
 steps forward and there are cheers. The speaker
 
 AS CAMPAIGNER 229 
 
 clasps his hands behind him and bows right and 
 left, to the pit and to the gallery. He moves his 
 hand to still - the enthusiasts and begins. He has 
 discovered whether there are women present and 
 then in a voice almost inaudible says, " Ladies and 
 Gentlemen. My fellow citizens." The opening sen- 
 tence is always a striking one. It is spoken in a low 
 tone. Someone in the rear of the hall or at the 
 edge of the crowd says " Louder ! " and there are 
 many sounds of " Shu 1" McKinley pays no atten- 
 tion to the interruption except to wave one hand 
 again. The voice of the orator becomes stronger 
 and in ten sentences the words ring and reach every 
 corner of the hall. The audience is leaning forward 
 eager to catch every word. 
 
 As he proceeds the Major warms. He gesticu- 
 lates with both hands. He hits the air a little to 
 emphasize a point and while his attitude is unstudied 
 it is graceful. He owns the crowd now. It is hyp- 
 notized by his eloquence. His hair grows damp 
 with perspiration. Possibly a dark lock will stray 
 over his forehead. It is impatiently brushed back 
 and the sweep of a handkerchief cools the brow. 
 His eyes are flashing fire. His breast heaves with 
 the storm. His voice rushes from between his teeth 
 and his lips are compressed as he finishes a word. 
 His tones are pitched in a higher key. There is a 
 metallic tone in the voice and yet it is musical. His 
 bearing is impassioned. He has forgotten self and 
 is regardless of everything but his subject. One
 
 230 McKINLEY AS CAMPAIGNER 
 
 perceives that he is sincere in what he says. Every 
 one sees that he is in deadly earnest, that this is no 
 shain passion but the real thing. His words pierce 
 the air defiantly and it is astonishing any creature 
 can fail of conviction. The audience has grown in- 
 tense in its interest. Many forget to cough or move. 
 They are absorbed and their little selfishnesses are 
 neglected. Every now and then some deep voice 
 says " That is so I" or utters an "Amen." His com- 
 panions who have heard him a hundred times are as 
 interested as those who are hearing him for the first 
 time. There is no resisting the earnestness of the 
 orator, for all his soul and strength are in the speech. 
 There will be nothing more serious in the sound of 
 the last trumpet. Some one may interrupt to ask a 
 question, to try to " stump him," to catch him un- 
 awares. McKinley is so discussing his subject that 
 he fails to hear what is said. He stops and looks in 
 the direction of the ground and then says sharply, 
 " What's that ?" The audience cries " Put him out." 
 " No, no," says McKinley, " let him ask his question. 
 Never put any one out." Probably the question is 
 repeated. There is no hesitancy in the answer. 
 The Major is ready. He turns a laugh on the ques- 
 tioner by his flashing reply. He takes no mean 
 advantage, but answers the question frankly. Gen- 
 erally his reply is epigrammatic. It always is com- 
 plete. 
 
 Major McKinley has dramatic power and a mag- 
 netism as a speaker. In describing scenes he pictures
 
 McKINLEY AS CAMPAIGXEK 231 
 
 realistically. The old soldiers are always impressed 
 when he refers to them. Again and again he has 
 brought tears to the eyes of the veterans when he 
 has told of the horrors of war. Old men sob like 
 children and there is scarcely a dry eye in the multi- 
 tude. There is a sincerity in his tributes to soldiers 
 that is convincing. He has been there. He knows 
 what he is talking about. Though of any one else 
 his talk of the war might be called stagey, that criti- 
 cism is never made of McKinley. No one would 
 dare to do so, because it would be untrue. It would 
 be impossible to find a speaker who has a better 
 grasp of the subject, whether finance, protection, 
 arbitration or foreign affairs. His talk is always 
 illustrative and comprehensible and instructive. It 
 is serious. There are no anecdotes to amuse. The 
 orator does not convince by raising laughs, but rather 
 by the indisputability of statements. It is a grave 
 matter this campaigning with him. It is a mission, 
 not a jest; an attempt to convert, not to please. 
 Neither does he arouse passion or opposition by 
 assaults or trivial personalities. He assumes that 
 those who disagree with him are sincere, as he is, and 
 seeks to relieve them of their error. 
 
 When he has finished, no matter how hot the day, 
 McKinley puts on two overcoats, one light and the 
 other of gray cloth, without sleeves, but with a cape. 
 He buttons these around him to keep from catching 
 cold. He thinks it well to let the perspiration flow 
 freely for a while and then when he gets privacy
 
 232 McKINLEY AS CAMPAIGNER 
 
 rubs himself well and puts on dry clothes. Exposed 
 as he is in campaigns to all sorts and conditions of 
 weather, he must have a care not to. get a chill, and it 
 is recorded that he was never incapacitated from 
 speaking by bronchial troubles. 
 
 Major McKinley remembers faces well. He gen- 
 erally recalls a name, and when on a campaign he is 
 certain to meet old friends, and the result is pleasing 
 to both. He talks easily and freely with them and 
 is entirely without assumption of superiority. He is 
 approachable always. It is the custom when a cam- 
 paign is made for the speaker to be assigned to the 
 best hotel, or to go to some private house it being 
 preferable to lodge at a hotel. There is always a 
 committee of reception of citizens who have done 
 such good service to the party as deserves that honor, 
 or whose position in the community makes it well to 
 recognize them. Such a committee meets McKinley 
 at the station and of course there is a band. When 
 the campaign is in such a State as Ohio, the band in 
 the smaller towns is a great institution. It is the 
 pride of the community. Unfortunately the bands 
 pay more attention to securing uniforms and keeping 
 their instruments glistening than they do to har- 
 mony. The result is sometimes not alluring. They 
 often play the same tunes. An air has a sudden 
 popularity and the band must play it. The sounds 
 they make and the repetition of them add to the 
 labors of the campaigners. Major McKinley, who 
 has a good ear for music, always displays great self-
 
 AS CAMPAIGNER 233 
 
 control. He never winces, no matter how hard the 
 music tires him. Of course he would say nothing 
 about it, unless some one would mention say a 
 citizen of the community who had supported the 
 band " It is a pretty good band." The Major then 
 smiles as if in assent, but he never commits himself 
 further. If he nods it is sufficient and the baud is 
 held in higher esteem than ever. 
 
 It is interesting in campaigning to observe how 
 anxious McKinley is for information. When he 
 comes to a town he listens to the talk of the politi- 
 cians, to their statements of crop conditions, and of 
 local affairs. Then information is drawn out regard- 
 ing their industries. McKinley never cross-ques- 
 tions his informers. He simply listens, and he is a 
 mighty good listener. He says only what is neces- 
 sary to keep the stream of talk flowing. At the 
 meeting held immediately afterward it would be seen 
 that the talk had been digested that the orator had 
 gained from the conversation much to use to give a 
 touch of local color, and to make plain his general 
 arguments. 
 
 It has been the custom of those who choose to op- 
 pose Major McKinley, or to belittle him, to say he 
 can only make one speech. This is as far as possible 
 from the truth. If he is arguing on the tariff, 
 in a campaign, he must do so. The basis of the 
 speech is necessarily the same. The language and 
 the illustrations are varied. He continually adds 
 ideas and arguments, new epigrammatic phrases, and
 
 234 McKINL'EY AS CAMPAIGNEK 
 
 makes the theme constantly interesting, even to com- 
 panions in the campaign. It was always instructive 
 to notice how he develops thought builds around it, 
 and makes it effective. 
 
 The Major never seemed to get tired, no matter 
 how trying the toil. He outlasts those who accom- 
 pany him. He is always the first up in the morning, 
 though often the last to retire ; cheerful and patient, 
 accepting what was set before him with gratitude. 
 He seems somehow to have the knack of making 
 everybody around him at home, and is accessible to 
 everybody. 
 
 When traveling on a train he would naturally 
 meet the brakemen and conductors, and they seemed 
 to feel that he was one of them. They approach him 
 with friendly familiarity. They sit down by him, 
 crowd the aisles to talk with him, and go away proud 
 of having met the great protectionist. It is seldom 
 that one of them fails to thank him for his services 
 to the industries of the country, or to wish him good 
 luck. When waiting for a train he talks with the 
 baggage man or station agent, or with those who 
 waited to see him ofi\ always gaining knowledge of 
 existing conditions, and it was the better because 
 from those who gained it by personal experience. 
 He knew what the workingmen thought as he did 
 what the idea of the business men was. 
 
 On one occasion, early in the campaign of 1893 
 in Ohio, the Governor and the newspaper men who 
 accompanied him came to a small, unprepossessing
 
 McKIXLEY AS CAMPAIGNER 235 
 
 place. It was raining when the party arrived. The 
 arrangements were poor, and there was only one car- 
 riage, and the committee, to be with the Governor, 
 got in with him. The other members of the party 
 had to walk. 
 
 The Governor happened to overhear some of his 
 party complaining rather angrily of the treatment 
 accorded them. Quietly calling them aside, he said : 
 " Well, suppose you are dissatisfied ; the committee 
 did the best it could. The hotel is the best in town ; 
 we have been treated as well as the people could. 
 Remember that they do not understand that what 
 they have done is not pleasing. Remember that 
 wherever we go we will get the best that the com- 
 munity affords. What more can you expect?" 
 Thereafter there were no complaints, the lesson had 
 been a wholesome one. Major McKinley, in cam- 
 paigning, always had an eye to the feelings of the 
 people. In one campaign the party came to a town 
 on the border of Indiana. The people are religiously 
 inclined. While waiting for the meeting there was 
 nothing to do, so some of the party set about to 
 amuse themselves by playing "horse." McKinley sent 
 for them, and told them the effect it was having, and 
 they stopped. A campaign is a serious thing for 
 him. Cordial and friendly, and even jovial at times, 
 he would permit nothing that looked like levity 
 touching serious things. Once something detained 
 him while his party was on the stand waiting for the 
 meeting to begin. One of the gubernatorial crowd
 
 236 McKIKLEY AS CAMPAIGNER 
 
 had a habit of pushing himself forward, securing the 
 most conspicuous place. The members of the press 
 assigned to follow the Governor in the campaign 
 had noticed this, and the opportunity seemed to 
 have arrived for a little fun at the expense of the 
 pusher. A cry was started for him to speak. Soon 
 the people on the stand caught on, and the cry 
 increased in volume. Just then McKinley came, 
 and as he stepped to the front he turned and asked 
 sternly, "Who did this?" It was explained that 
 the forward one had expressed a wish to speak, and 
 that the opportunity seemed to have been afforded 
 him, but the Major was not appeased. In campaigns 
 there are many glee clubs. There, is one at almost 
 every meeting. The songs which rang with his 
 name never seemed to displease the Governor. Ha 
 would beat time and nod his head, and his silk hat 
 got hard treatment. 
 
 In the campaign of 1893 in Ohio and that of 
 1894, which the Governor made in sixteen States in 
 a month and a half, he was always finding new con- 
 verts to Republicanism, made so by Democratic in* 
 competence and tariff tinkering. Never was he so 
 pleased as when such a convert would grasp his hand 
 and pledge his support to the Republican party. To 
 McKinley the policy of protection is the hope of 
 America, and everything that shows a growth in its 
 favor delights him. The convert was always asked 
 to give the point that converted him, and it was 
 used by McKinley in his next speech.
 
 HON. GEORGE F. HOAR.
 
 HON. W. B. ALLISON.
 
 MeKIHLEY AS CAMPAIGNER 339 
 
 Ji is jtiard enough to deliver a speech. It is suf- 
 ficiently wearying to go through the muscular part 
 of it ; it is trying on the nerves to be constautly^eyed 
 up to the point necessary to such speeches as.Mc- 
 Kinley makes ; but worse is the hand-shaking that 
 follows, which, if the speaker be popular and of 
 course McKinley suffered more through this than 
 in any other way. He shook hands with at least four 
 hundred people every day during the Ohio campaign 
 of 1893. He seemed to enjoy it, but it wore on him. 
 It became necessary to stop often. The members of 
 the audience would clamber on a platform and fairly 
 mob the Governor in attempting to shake his hand. 
 Sometimes a scheme was worked, but not often. A 
 friend would stand behind the governor and thrust 
 his hands under McKinley's arms. The Governor 
 would hold his at his side, and the friend take the 
 cruel grip of those who in their enthusiasm forgot 
 how strong they really were. After trying this once 
 or twice McKinley declined to permit " such a fraud 
 to be practiced." It was always hard to get McKin- 
 ley to bed. He would get into a talk with friends 
 after a meeting, and he would not dismiss them, for 
 he was too polite. The only thing that could be done 
 was to go to his room, open one's watch and say, 
 " Governor, you have to get up at five, and it is now 
 midnight." That sent the crowd away. The most 
 noticeable thing about McKinley as a campaigner is 
 his indefatigability. He makes two speeches of an 
 hour and a half each and two others of from five to
 
 240 McKINLEY AS CAMPAIGNER 
 
 ten minutes, day in and day out. In his earnestness, 
 his enthusiasm, his versatility, his eloquence, his 
 magnetic power over an audience, and his dramatic 
 force, he stands unequaled.
 
 McKINLEY's ADVICE TO BOYS. 
 
 TLe enterprising boy Interviewing Major McKinley Boys' own 
 account of it Painting up the town Looks like Napoleon- 
 Fatherly advice An important question. 
 
 A FEW weeks ago an errand-boy in the New 
 York World became interesting through his 
 anxiety to become a great man, and to find 
 out how to do it by talking with great men and gaining 
 instruction with a view to his education, the man- 
 aging editor had a happy thought that the boy 
 might become an interviewer, and sent him, accom- 
 panied by a reporter, to the most accessible of great 
 men, Mr. Chauncey Depew. After the conversation 
 it turned out there was no occasion for the reporter's 
 notes or his literary skill. The memory of the boy 
 was perfect, and he had a quaint, simple way of put- 
 ting things that was attractive. The boy was a suc- 
 cess, and he was sent to interview Major McKinley, 
 and the result is a beautiful picture of the Repub- 
 lican candidate in his home, and a talk from him 
 that every boy in America should read many times, 
 
 241
 
 243 
 
 and that is worthy to go into the school-books as a 
 marvel of manly talk to a boy. 
 
 i The boy went out to McKinley's home in Canton, 
 O., from New York City, was received cordially, and 
 the statesman gave more than a half hour of his time, 
 while a half dozen politicians stood on the piazza 
 clamoring for admittance. 
 
 The boy's report of his half hour with Mr. Mc- 
 Kinley follows : 
 
 " I have been down to Ohio to see Mr. McKinley, 
 the big Republican. As I have visited many men 
 who are great, and as Mr. McKinley seems to be the 
 greatest of all at present, I wanted to see him bad, so 
 I took a call on him at Canton, Ohio, the town he 
 lives in. 
 
 " When a man gets big like him he ought to be 
 able to tell boys how to become great to, so I thought 
 It would pay me to go down there and ask of him 
 some advice on How a young boy can start in life and 
 become a great man. 
 
 " Canton isn't as big a town as New York, and 
 everybody in the place knows Mr. McKinley and the 
 family. 
 
 " It isn't easy to ask Major McKinley things for 
 the newspapers, I knew that before I started, so I 
 found Mr. Boyle, his private secretary, and told him 
 I was the boy reporter for the Sunday World, and all 
 the boys wanted to hear about Mr. McKinley, and 
 would he please fix it so I could see him. Mr. Boyle 
 was a newspaper man and he knew all about it, so I
 
 McKTXLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 243 
 
 told him I didn't want to talk politics, and that 1 
 wanted to ask Mr. McKinley how I or other boys 
 could get to be as famous as he was. 
 
 " Then Mr. Boyle laughed, and said that Major 
 McKinley was a very busy man all the time, but as 
 he liked boys awful well, I might call around to his 
 house and see him in the morning. As I had come 
 all the way from New York, and wanted to do so, so 
 much. 
 
 " Then I was glad. So when morning came I got 
 up early and started for Mr. McKinley's house, one 
 thing struck me awfully funny on the road their it 
 was that they were painting all the telegraph poles, 
 and everything else in the town white and blue, they 
 seemed tickled about something by the way they 
 were slapping the paint all over the street, and I 
 guess paint is cheap in Ohio, so I asked a man what 
 they we painting up for, and he said they're getting 
 ready to celebrate McKinley's nomination. 
 
 " So I know everybody in Canton liked the big 
 Republican, and I hurried on. His house is a 
 pretty one, made of wood and painted white, on a fine 
 broad street, and there wasn't any basements or steps, 
 like we see in New York Houses. 
 
 " It's a fine place to live in, and I'd like to liv 
 there myself. 
 
 "I knew right away that it was where Mr. McKinley 
 and his wife Mrs. McKinley lived, for Mr. Boyle had 
 told me what it looked like, he said there were two 
 big earns painted white standing in the big lawn in
 
 244 McKINLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 
 
 front of the house. They weren't anything but two 
 big flower-pots, as big as I am. 
 
 " I went up to the door and pressed the button, and 
 inquired as to see Mr. McKinley, its an electric bell, 
 and I suppose it will be worn out soon, if there's as 
 many callers come every day as come and wanted to 
 see him as while I was there. 
 
 "A young man who was an other private secretary 
 came to the door, Major McKinley has two private 
 secretaries. 
 
 " ' Come right in/ says he and he took my card, 
 and went into a room right by the door. I asked 
 for Mr. Boyle, but the young man took my card to 
 a large man, in the front room, and when he came 
 out and said, * step right in here and sit down/ I 
 walked in, and there was a big man sitting in the 
 corner. I knew him right 'off as soon as I seen him, 
 and I sat there in a rocking chair, sizing him up 
 and the room I was in. 
 
 " It was Major McKinley. 
 
 "I seen he had a round head with not much hair 
 on the top, and I knew it was him, because he 
 looked like the pictures of Napoleon at the elevated 
 stations, which the newspaper artists make him look 
 like. 
 
 " He wore eye-glasses and a black coat, and had 
 awful big eye-brows, and he didn't look like as if he 
 was in a great hurry, and I hoped he'd talk to me a 
 good d@al. 
 
 *' He was at a little desk looking over some letters.
 
 McKIKLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 245 
 
 " I liked him right off, and then I looked at the 
 room. It was his library and he uses it as his office, 
 it is very large with plenty of book shelves, which 
 are full of his favorite authors, Grant, Lincoln and 
 himself. 
 
 " Pictures were hanging on the walls of Grant, 
 Lincoln, and a lot of otheir great men and also a 
 large beautiful picture of his wife Mrs. McKinley 
 and himself. 
 
 "Then I looked at Mr. McKinley again, and I 
 seemed to be getting almost afraid to talk to him for 
 I thought he was such a big man, wise and great, but 
 I thought to myself that there wasn't any use for me 
 to come all the way from New York and not talk to 
 him. 
 
 " So I got my senses together and just then Mr. 
 Boyle came down stairs and stepped over to the 
 Major, and said right off that there was a boy there 
 to see him. Mr. McKinley got right up from his 
 chair and stared at me with a very pleasant smile on 
 his face. 
 
 " ' this is Harry Wilson/ said Mr. Boyle, * who has 
 come from New York to see you.' 
 
 " ' I'm pleased to see you/ said Mr. McKinley, and 
 he gave me his hand for to shake, and I liked him 
 more than ever, because he acted as if he was real 
 pleased to see me. 
 
 " ' Sit down/ said he, and he pointed to my rocking 
 chair, and then he sat down in front of me in one of 
 them chairs that whirl around like the Editor's chair.
 
 246 McKINLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 
 
 " And I said to him, * Mr. McKinley I am more 
 than pleased to meet you, as I think that not more 
 than one of a thousand boys could see you and talk 
 with you, and I'm proud.' 
 
 " Then I told him at once what I had come for, be- 
 cause I didn't want to keep him from his work, 
 writing letters and suchithings. 
 
 " ' Mr. McKinley,' I said, * I come to ask you if 
 you would give me some advice as to how a young 
 boy can start in life and become a great man ; I 
 thought you could tell me/ 
 
 " I wondered what he was going to say, as I've 
 asked a lot of big men like Chauncey Depew and 
 Alderman Muh the same thing. He sat still for a 
 moment holding his eye-glasses with his right hand, 
 and pushing the black bead on the cord with his 
 other hand. I saw he wears a gold ring on the left 
 hand and a pair of great big cuff buttons, not link 
 buttons, like the swells wear ; I guess his wife must 
 have given them to him. 
 
 " He thought a long time, and then talked very 
 slowly, and his voice was deep. 
 
 " 'Well,' he said, 'first a boy must be a good boy, 
 honest, always do what is right, pay attention to what 
 he is doing, and be a student ; he must go to school 
 all he can, learn all his lessons, and he mustn't be 
 afraid to study.' 
 
 " Then I thought to myself what Mr. McKinley 
 had said was perfectly right ; then I paused for a 
 moment, thinking what I should ask him next. I
 
 McKIXLEY'S ADVICE T(5 BOYS 247 
 
 had never been far outside of New York before, and 
 Canton looked like a very small town to me, and I 
 wondered if it was a good place to make smart men in. 
 
 " ' Mr. McKinley,' I said, * will you please tell me 
 do you think a boy has as much chance to study and 
 make a great man out of himself in a small place 
 like this as the boys in great cities like New York 
 have ?' 
 
 " That made him smile, but he said right off, ' A 
 boy can make anything out of himself that he pleases, 
 and he has just as much chance to do it in the 
 country as in the city ; there are good colleges in 
 small places, just the same as in New York, and a 
 boy, if he wants to, can make what he will out of 
 himself/ 
 
 " He was beginning to get warmed up and was 
 beginning to talk fast. He went on : 
 
 " ' It don't make so much difference where it is or 
 how great the part he plays, but it's the way he plays 
 it. The other night I saw a play at the theatre called 
 " The Rivals." Mr. Jefferson, and Mr. Drew and 
 Mrs. Drew, and Mrs. Tabor, and Mr. Crane and 
 Goodwin, the Holland brothers, and Francis Wilson, 
 played the parts ; every one of them was great, and 
 ! to be stars, but they were content to take some 
 parts that were very small in " The Rivals," but they 
 played them just as well as if they had been big. 
 
 " ' That is the way with boys and men ; it isn't so 
 much to be great as to do whatever you have to do 
 well, that is being great/
 
 248 McKINLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 
 
 " I began to feel as if I was hearing a sermon, and 
 the Major McKinley looked very sober. 
 
 " Then he got in a good word for Canton. ' If 
 isn't such a small place,' he said, ' and it's a very 
 nice town to live in. Some of the best farms are out 
 this way. Before you go back to New York you 
 had better take a good look around/ 
 
 " But I wasn't through with him yet. I said, ' Mr. 
 McKinley, would you please be so kind as to tell me 
 when a boy should go into politics ?' 
 
 " Then he laughed again and looked at his secre- 
 tary, Mr. Boyle, who looks a good deal like Mr. 
 McKinley. Mr. Boyle was going to say something, 
 when Mr. McKinley suddenly sprang from his chair 
 into the hall, and came in in a few moments with a 
 lady leaning on his arm. 
 
 " It was Mrs. McKinley, and she was very sweet- 
 looking, and I was delighted to see her, and I think 
 she would make folks comfortable if she lived in the 
 White House at Washington. 
 
 " Mr. McKinley is very fond of her, I am sure, and 
 he escorted her to the carriage, and she was going 
 out for a morning ride. 
 
 " Then he came back and sat down with a smile on 
 his face. When he was about to begin to talk to me 
 he was called away again, and stayed away a few 
 moments and then came in again and sat down and 
 then laughed, and began to ask me questions before 
 I could ask him some more. 
 
 " ' How old are you ; how long have you been work-
 
 McKINLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 249 
 
 ing ?' I then told him and he wanted to know how 
 long I had been reporting. I said ' eight months.' 
 
 " He then said to me, ' Harry, I believe you must 
 have a great deal of good advice by this time,' and 
 the Major laughed. So did all the rest in the room. 
 
 " I said If I could follow all I've been told I'd be 
 a great man pretty quick.' 
 
 " Mr. McKinley is very fond of his mother, who is 
 eighty-seven years old, and lives near him, so I said, 
 * Can a boy neglect his mother and get along and be 
 great, Mr. McKinley ?' 
 
 " He looked very grave and sad, and then said : 
 
 " ' Harry, a boy should always be good to his 
 mother and do everything in the world he can and 
 love her. He must comfort her, be kind and gentle 
 to her, and not only do all he can to make her 
 happy, but he should make opportunities to try and 
 do everything he can do.' 
 
 "That's just the Major McKinley's words, because 
 I wrote them down when I came out of the home. 
 
 " ' A boy cannot expect to succeed if he isn't good 
 to his mother/ the Major says. ' A boy should do 
 all the work for her because when the time comes 
 that she has got to leave for a greater world than this 
 :t ml if he has done what is right towards her, all the 
 time, then when the time comes for her to go he will 
 never regret the good he has done towards her.' 
 
 " Then I said * I have done everything in the world 
 I can do for my mother,' and then lie said, 
 
 * ' That's right, Harry, do all you can at all times.'
 
 250 McKINLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 
 
 " Then I stoped for a moment and says ' If every 
 boy would follow the advice which you have given 
 me, he never will feel sorry for the good work he has 
 done for her when the end comes.' 
 
 " Then I stoped a moment and thought that Mr. 
 McKinley hadn't told me when a boy should go into 
 politics, and I said, 
 
 " ' Mr. McKinley, will you tell me when a boy 
 ought to study politics.' 
 
 " He then stoped a moment, and then said to me, 
 
 " ' Harry, first a boy should study the History of 
 his country, and learn all the political history of the 
 country. He should learn what the leaders have 
 done for their country, so that when the time comes 
 for him to vote he will be able to do so intelligently.' 
 
 " Then some more people came in to see him, and 
 the Major McKinley went out into the hall again, 
 and I knew he was in a hurry, so I said that I wished 
 to ask one more thing. I remembered I had nearly 
 forgotten one of the most important questions. 
 
 " I then said after he had returned from outside 
 of the hall, ' Mr. McKinley I have just one more 
 question, and it is an important one.' 
 
 "I then said 'would you tell me how you earned 
 your first dollar ?' 
 
 " He sank back in his chair and looked as if that 
 wasn't what he expected me to ask him, then he put 
 his hand up to the side of his head, as if to recall 
 the years which had passed by, and then with a smile 
 said:
 
 McKINLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 251 
 
 " ' Really I can't recall the first dollar that I 
 earned/ he keeped on thinking, and I tried to make 
 him think a little harder. 
 
 "Then I said, 'did you have to saw wood, did you 
 have to drive oxes all day long, or did you have to 
 work in the field all day, can't you remember what 
 you used to do to earn money/ 
 
 "He then said to me, * why Harry I did anything 
 a boy would do around the house. When I was s. 
 boy money was very scarce, and you had to work 
 hard for what little money you got. But I can't 
 remember the first dollar. You have to ask me 
 something easy/ 
 
 " What kind of books should a boy who wants to 
 be great read ?" 
 
 " * Ah ! now I have to refer you to my private sec- 
 retary, he has a lecture which he speaks on the 
 stage that tells all that and much more/ 
 
 " So then I knew my talk was over with him. I 
 felt very sorry to say good-bye, but I said : 
 
 " ' Mr. McKinley, I want to thank you, for it was 
 very good in you to stop to talk to a boy, and I am 
 very grateful/ 
 
 " ' And I am very glad that you came to see me/ 
 says he. ' I'm always glad to talk with boys. I like 
 them and like to be with them. What is there in 
 all the world nicer than a boy, except a sweet young 
 girl ? Come again, Harry, and I hope you'll have 
 the best of luck and do some good in the world with 
 your work. Send me a paper/
 
 252 McKINLEY'S ADVICE TO BOYS 
 
 " Then we shook hands again, and Mr. Boyle went 
 out on the porch with me, and there was a lot of big 
 men polictitians, I guess and I think Mr. McKin- 
 ley was very nice to talk to me and keep them wait- 
 ing so long. 
 
 " I guess all the boys who know Mr. McKinley 
 like Mr. McKinley as well as he likes them, because 
 the boys of Canton, O., have already formed a drum 
 core. Its the first campaign club in the country, 
 and the boys are very proud of it. I'd join if I 
 lived in Canton. The boys all wear white suits and 
 drill, and are going to march for McKinley. 
 
 "HARRY WILSON." 
 
 Harry Wilson has beaten all the accomplished 
 reporters, and his photograph of McKinley at home 
 is perfect. It is valuable, for it is true all through, 
 and the wholesome, serious, earnest, kindly, loving, 
 genuine man, McKinley, stands revealed symmetri- 
 cal, strong, and genial.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE CONTRASTED CONDITIONS. 
 
 Between Republican protection and prosperity and Democratic 
 meddling, disorganizing industry and forcing hard times, 
 displayed in speeches by McKinley in 1892 and in 1895 A 
 plea in Boston for protection and prosperity. 
 
 GOVERNOR McKINLEY, on October 4th, 
 1892, in American Hall, Boston, addressed 
 the people, beginning then, as he might 
 now, saying : 
 
 "This year we have two great questions. The 
 contention of the Republican party is for the indus- 
 tries and the labor and the prosperity of the 
 country. The second contention of the Republican 
 party is for an honest currency with which to meas- 
 ure the exchanges of the people." 
 
 He proceeded to make a speech most pertinent to 
 these times, and put to the front the leading ques- 
 tions. His remarkably forcible speech is now just 
 as it was reported for the press. We quote : 
 
 " The Democratic contention, no matter what Mr. 
 Hill may have said in his Brooklyn speech, no mat- 
 ter what Mr. Cleveland may have said in his recent
 
 254 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 letter of acceptance the contention of the Demo- 
 cratic party is for free trade and for a debased, 
 worthless currency. If this is disputed, the history 
 of the most unfortunate Cleveland adminstration 
 proves it. [Applause.] The leaders of the Demo- 
 cratic party have been financially unsound for more 
 than thirty years. [Applause.] This unsounduess 
 has not always taken on the same form, but its effect 
 has always been the same to corrupt the currency 
 of the country. You will remember its opposition 
 to the greenback currency, its opposition to the 
 national bank currency, its opposition to the resump- 
 tion of specie payments, its declaration in favor of 
 the inflation of the currency without limit in value 
 and irredeemable. You will remember its declara- 
 tion for the free and unlimited coinage of silver. 
 These have been the positions of the Democratic 
 party in every national contest for the past thirty 
 years, one or the other, and driven from the one they 
 have taken up the other. Their last was the free 
 and unlimited coinage of silver. Driven by the 
 party exigency, by the near approach of a Presiden- 
 tial campaign, they abandoned the free and unlim- 
 ited coinage of silver, put in nomination a candidate 
 in opposition to the free and unlimited coinage of 
 silver, and when they did that they had to break 
 out in some other place. [Applause.] And so they 
 declared in their platform of 1892 for the abolition 
 of the ten per cent, tax on State bank circulation, 
 the only object of such a declaration being to restore
 
 HON. BENJAMIN HARRISON.
 
 HON. R. PROCTOR.
 
 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 257 
 
 such State bank circulation, and the only effect of 
 such restoration would be the retirement of the 
 national money of the country. 
 
 " This is the worst form of financial unsoundness 
 that has ever emanated from the Democratic leaders, 
 and I purpose for a few minutes, and only a few 
 minutes, to call the attention of this audience to what 
 the return to State bank circulation means means 
 to every business in the country, means to every 
 interest of the country, means to every wage-earner 
 of the country, means to every dollar of invested 
 capital in the country a proposition to go away 
 from the national bank and the greenback and the 
 treasury note currency to the wildcat currency of 
 thirty years ago. [Applause.] 
 
 " You will remember that in 1866 the Congress 
 of the United States imposed a tax on State banks. 
 The purpose of that tax was to retire State bank 
 circulation, and to substitute in its place national 
 money, and it had the desired effect. State bank 
 money went out and national currency came in. 
 And we had to do it. We had a nation to save and 
 we had to have national agencies to save it. State 
 agencies would not do. 
 
 " Now, it isproposed to go back to that, when we have 
 got the best currency in the world. And I want to read 
 you the condition of the banks of this country prior to 
 ISIJO. I have lying on this table the old Bank Note 
 Detector, which every business man had to have to 
 know whether the money he was receiving was
 
 258 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 genuine or whether it was counterfeit. Here ie the 
 old document, dated the first day of December, 1859. 
 Now, what does it show ? It shows that this country 
 at that time had 1,590 State banks of issue, exclusive 
 of what were called * State banks and their branches ' 
 1,590 of them, and the notes of but fifty of those 
 banks were at par. The notes of the 1,540 other 
 banks were at a discount. There was not a bank in 
 the State of Massachusetts that was quoted at par in 
 the city of Philadelphia. There was not a note issued 
 by any State bank in Ohio, or in any State bank in 
 Pennsylvania, or any State bank in Illinois that was 
 current at par outside of the jurisdiction and limits 
 of the State. The money was fairly good within the 
 State, but when you stepped across the State lines 
 then the holder of that currency had to look out for 
 the speculator and the shaver and stand a discount. 
 And that was the kind of money with which we did 
 the business of this country. And no man when he 
 got some of that paper was certain that before morn- 
 ing came the bank would not fail. [Laughter.] And 
 then there were 890 broken, failed, and worthless 
 banks, in addition to the 1,590, scattered throughout 
 every State of the Union, whose notes had been put 
 in circulation, had been taken by the people of this 
 country, value given for such paper money, which 
 proved to be worthless in the hands of the people, 
 and of no more account than the paper upon which it 
 was printed. The Republican party is against the re- 
 turn to the State bank circulation. [Great applause.]
 
 259 
 
 "Daniel Webster, away back in 1832, said in this 
 city, and I cannot do better than to quote his words, 
 upon this very subject of State banks : 
 
 " * These State banks, lying under no restraint from 
 the General Government or any of its institutions, 
 issued paper money corresponding to their own sense 
 of their immediate interests and hopes of gain. . . . 
 I believe, gentlemen, " the experiment " must go 
 through the experiment of State bank money. I 
 believe that every part and every portion of our 
 country will have a satisfactory test of what they call 
 the " better currency." I believe we shall be blessed 
 again with the currency of 1812, when money was 
 the only uncurrent species of property. We have 
 amidst all the distress that surrounds us men of 
 power who condemn the national bank in every 
 form, maintain the efficacy and efficiency of State 
 banks for domestic exchange, and, amidst all the 
 sufferings and terrors of " the experiment," cry out 
 that they are establishing " a better currency." ' The 
 experiment,' says Mr. Webster ' the experiment 
 upon what? The experiment of one man upon the 
 happiness, the well-being, and, I may also say, upon 
 the lives of 12,000,000 human beings '63,000,000 
 to-day is what the experiment would mean ; it was 
 17,000,000 then ' the experiment that found us in 
 health, the experiment that found us with the best 
 currency on the face of the earth, the same from the 
 North to the South, from Boston to St. Louis, and 
 possessing the unlimited confidence of foreign coun-
 
 260 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 tries, and which leaves us crushed, ruined, without 
 gain at home and without credit abroad. The Gov- 
 ernment of the United States stands chargeable, in my 
 opinion, with a gross dereliction from duty in leav- 
 ing the currency of the country entirely at the mercy 
 of others without seeking to exercise over it any con- 
 trol whatever. The means of exercising this con- 
 trol rests in the wisdom of Congress. ... It is a 
 power that cannot be yielded to others with safety to 
 the country and with credit to them. The Govern- 
 ment may as well give up to the States the power of 
 making peace or war, leave the twenty-six inde- 
 pendent States to select their own foes, raise their 
 own troops, and conclude their own terms of peace. 
 It might as well leave the States to impose their 
 own duties and regulate their own terms of trade and 
 commerce as to give up control over the currency in 
 which the whole nation is interested.' [Applause.] 
 
 " That was the language of Daniel Webster in 1832, 
 and every word of it applies to the situation to-day. 
 It is proposed by the leaders of the Democratic party 
 to give up the national currency, which is the best 
 in the world, and go back to this unstable and unsat- 
 isfactory and worthless currency which Mr. Webster 
 characterized as unfit to do the business of this great 
 country. We have to-day gold and silver and paper 
 money, each the equal of the other equal in debt- 
 paying and in legal-tender power ; good not only at 
 home, but good in every business corner of the 
 world ; worth 100 cents on the dollar every week of
 
 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 261 
 
 every month of every year. [Applause.] There is 
 not a man in this great audience who has a national 
 bank note in his purse to-night who knows where 
 that note was issued. He does not know the city or 
 the town or the county or the State from whence it 
 came. He does not know whether it was issued in 
 Maine or whether it was issued in California, and he 
 does not care [great applause], because it is good 
 wherever it was issued ; because the government of 
 the United States stands behind it [applause], and 
 that government has for its security the bonds of the 
 United States, which sell at a premium in every 
 money centre of the world. [Renewed applause.] 
 Every dollar we have got, because the government 
 stands behind it, is as good as every other dollar. 
 There is one thing the people of this country have 
 no business to trifle with, and that is the money of 
 the country, which measures the products of your 
 land and your labor, the products of your energy 
 and your skill. [Applause.] That should be fixed 
 and unalterable and unchangeable, and that is its 
 situation to-day. The currency of this country 
 should be as national as its flag. [Applause.] It 
 should be as unsullied as the national conscience 
 and as sound as the government itself. [Applause.] 
 And there is not a business man or workingman, no 
 matter to what political party he belongs, if he will 
 honestly vote his convictions, who will not vote 
 against the party that proposes to re-establish a sys- 
 tem under which this country lost millions upon
 
 262 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 millions of dollars. [Applause.] We have had all 
 of the Confederate currency we want. [Loud cheers.] 
 We are for United States currency in some form for 
 all time in the future. [Applause.] And we are not 
 only opposed to Confederate currency, but we are 
 opposed to British political economy. We not only 
 fight for our industries and our labor, that they may 
 be prosperous and well paid, but we insist that when 
 they have earned their money they shall be paid in 
 a dollar worth one hundred cents. [Great cheer- 
 ing.] When a workingman gives ten hours a day 
 to his employer ten full hours he is entitled to 
 be paid in a dollar worth full one hundred cents. 
 [Applause.] Free trade shaves down his labor first, 
 and then scales down his pay by rewarding him in 
 a worthless and a depreciated State currency. [Ap- 
 plause.] The one reduces his wages, and the other 
 cheats him in the pay. [Applause.] And that is 
 the Democratic platform of 1892. [Applause.] No 
 man can escape it. Mr. Hill undertook to do it in 
 his Brooklyn speech, but Mr. Hill undertook to do 
 in that speech what the National Democratic Con- 
 vention had declared by solemn vote it would not 
 do. [Applause.] And then, besides, if I may be 
 permitted to speak with the greatest respect of Mr. 
 Hill and in perfectly parliamentary language, Mr. 
 Hill is hardly in a position to make a platform for 
 the Democratic party which the Democratic con- 
 vention rejected when he himself was rejected by 
 the same party. [Prolonged cheers.] He says it ia
 
 COXTRASTED COXDITIOXS 263 
 
 true that protection is unconstitutional, but he is 
 willing for the good of the country to take it in 
 small quantities [great laughter], even of the un- 
 constitutional article. He says protection is a fraud, 
 but he is in favor of incidental protection that is, 
 he is in favor of an incidental fraud. A fraud by 
 accident he does not object to. A fraud by a 
 casualty he sees no objection to, or a fraud by inci- 
 dent ; but protection plain and simple, says Mr. 
 Hill, although he tries to fix up a new platform, is 
 a fraud upon the American people. And he says it 
 is unconstitutional. 'Protection unconstitutional? 
 I know of but one constitution which it violates and 
 that is the constitution of the Confederate States. 
 [Long applause and cheers.] It is in direct viola- 
 tion of that instrument. But we are not operating 
 under it. [Laughter.] That instrument went down 
 before the resistless armies of Grant and Sherman 
 and Sheridan [cheers], and the Constitution of 
 Washington and Lincoln was sustained. [Applause.] 
 And that is the Constitution under which we are 
 operating to-day the Constitution of Washington 
 and of Lincoln and of Grant. [Cheers.] 
 
 " Unconstitutional ? That is the last objection of 
 the Democratic leaders. [Laughter.] It usually 
 precedes immediate acquiescence and surrender. 
 [Laughter.] It comes after they have tried every 
 other objection. They do not seem to know that the 
 mnn who made the first Protective Tariff law we ever 
 had, in 1789 the men who made the first Protective
 
 264 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 Tariff law made the Constitution of the United 
 States. [Loud cheers.] James Madison, a member 
 of the Constitutional Convention, and who afterward 
 became President of the United States, reported that 
 bill to Congress. It passed the House of Represen- 
 tatives, composed as that body was largely of members 
 of the Constitutional Convention ; it passed that body 
 unanimously, and passed the Senate of the United 
 States by a vote of five to one, and in that body were 
 a large number of men who made the Constitution 
 itself. And that Protective Tariff law was finally 
 signed by George Washington, the President of the 
 United States. [Applause.] 
 
 " That is not all. I have always liked the fathers, 
 for they had a blunt, plain way of saying what they 
 meant. They put into that first protective law what 
 has never appeared in a Protective Tariff law since. 
 They put into the preamble of that law exactly what 
 they meant. What did they say ? They said, * We 
 levy these duties to raise money to pay the debts of 
 the government; to provide money for the expenses 
 of the United States, and to encourage and protect 
 manufactures in the United States.' [Enthusiastic 
 cheering.] There is not a historic Democrat, from 
 Jefferson down to Cleveland excluding Mr. Cleve- 
 land who has not always sustained the constitution- 
 ality of a Protective Tariff. Jefferson sustained it, as 
 did Jackson and Madison and Wright and Ben ton 
 and Buchanan, and dozens and dozens more of names 
 well known in the political history of our country,-
 
 CONTKASTED CONDITIONS 265 
 
 Is Grover Cleveland a better constitutional lawyer 
 than Thomas Jefferson ? [Shouts of ' No.'] Is 
 Adlai Stevenson a better constitutional lawyer than 
 James Madison ? [Laughter.] Is Governor Rus- 
 sell a safer expounder of the Constitution than Daniel 
 Webster ? [Applause and cries of ' No.'] Is Henry 
 Watterson safer than Henry Clay? [Shouts of 
 ' No.'] Are all of them combined as safe to be relied 
 upon as the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 which, over and over again, has sustained the consti- 
 tutionality of a Protective Tariff? [Applause and 
 cries of ' No.'] Have Mr. Cleveland and the other 
 Democratic leaders forgotten that within twelve 
 months the Supreme Court of the United States has 
 put its judicial sanction upon the tariff law of 1890 ? 
 [Applause.] And if that is not a Protective Tariff 
 law [great laughter] it is the result of accident and 
 not design. [Long applause and cheers.] 
 
 Protective tariffs are not only constitutional, but 
 in our own experience they have proved wholesome to 
 the great body of the American people. [Applause.] 
 No nation in the world has done so well as ours ; 
 not one. Match it if you can under any circum- 
 stances the world over. [Applause.] We are the 
 youngest nation on the face of the earth, and yet we 
 have reached the first rank in mining, in manu- 
 facture, and in agriculture of all the nations the 
 wide world over. [Applause.] But they said your 
 protective tariffs, and especially the law of 1890, 
 would build a Chinese wall around this country, and
 
 266 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 that you could neither get out or come in. [Laugh-* 
 ter.] That is what they said in 1890. That is what 
 they said in 1891. And if results did not overtake 
 predictions, the Democratic party would be the great- 
 est party of the world. [Laughter.] If that party 
 could be only unembarrassed by facts ! [Great ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 Keep us out of the home market ? I said in Tre- 
 mont Temple a little more than a year ago that 
 this Protective Tariff law would vindicate itself. 
 You believed it then you know it now. [Loud 
 applause and cheers.] Shut us out from our for- 
 eign trade? Why, the last twelve months, under 
 the operation of the new law, we have had more 
 foreign trade than we ever had in any twelve months 
 of our national history. [Applause.] Our foreign 
 trade amounted last year to $1,890,000,000, a point 
 never reached before in the history of the United 
 States. [Great applause.] They called the Fifty- 
 first Congress, which was Republican the Congress 
 over which the Czar presided [tremendous cheer- 
 ing] they called it a billion-dollar Congress. 
 More than that it was a billion-and-eight- 
 hundred-and-ninety-million-dollar Congress. We 
 sent more American products to Europe in the 
 last twelve months in volume and in value than 
 we ever sent in any twelve months since the govern- 
 ment began. One billion and thirty million dollars 
 of American products went to Europe, $849,000,000 
 of European products came to the United States, and
 
 COXTKASTED CONDITIONS 267 
 
 Europe paid us $240,000,000 in gold to settle the 
 balance of trade in favor of the American producer. 
 [Applause.] We never had so good a business at 
 home as we have got now, and we never had so large 
 a business abroad as we have got now. And I 
 noticed in the Evening Post, or the Morning Post, of 
 the city of Boston, a leading, double-leaded editorial, 
 telling how prosperous the Commonwealth of Massa- 
 chusetts and the city of Boston are to-day. I don't 
 know what the politics of that paper are [great 
 laughter], and I don't care, because there are no 
 politics in facts. [Cheers.] Ah ! but they say, if 
 you had not the Protective Tariff things would be a 
 little cheaper. Well, whether a thing is cheap or 
 whether it is dear depends upon what we can earn 
 by our daily labor. Free trade cheapens the product 
 by cheapening the producer. Protection cheapens 
 the product by elevating the producer. [Applause.] 
 Under free trade the trader is the master and the 
 producer the slave. Protection is but the law of 
 nature, the law of self-preservation, of self-develop- 
 ment, of securing the highest and best destiny of the 
 race of man. [Cheers.] 
 
 " Grover Cleveland says, strangely, in his letter : 
 'We must consult morals as well as maxims.' 
 [Laughter.] I suppose he means by that that pro- 
 tection is immoral. Immoral ! Why, if protection 
 builds up and elevates 63,000,000 of people, the 
 influence of those 63,000,000 of people elevates the 
 rest of the world. [Great applause.] We cannot
 
 268 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 take a step in the pathway of progress without bene- 
 iiting mankind everywhere. Weil, they say, ' Buy 
 where you can buy the cheapest.' That is one of 
 their maxims. "Buy where you can buy the cheap- 
 est. Of course, that applies to labor as to everything 
 else. Let me give you a maxim that is a thousand 
 times better than that, and it is a protection maxim : 
 ' Buy where you can pay the easiest/ [Great ap- 
 plause.] And that spot of earth is where labor 
 wins its highest rewards. What has this Protective 
 Tariff law of 1890 done ? Why, it has increased 
 factories all over the United States. It has built 
 new ones, it has enlarged old ones. It has started 
 the pearl button business in this country. [Laugh- 
 ter.] We used to buy our buttons made in Austria 
 by the prison labor of Austria. We are buying our 
 buttons to-day made by the free labor of America. 
 [Applause.] We had 11 button factories before 
 1890; we have 85 now. We employed 500 men 
 before 1890, at from $12 to $15 a week ; we employ 
 8,000 men now, at from $18 to $35 a week. 
 [Cheers.] The value of the output before 1890 was 
 less than $500,000; it is $3,500,000 to-day. We 
 are making some of the finest cotton and woolen 
 goods that can be made anywhere in the world. 
 You are making them in Massachusetts. They 
 are being made all over New England. Why, 
 we are making lace in Texas, the home of 
 Mills. [Laughter.] We are" making velvets and 
 plushes in Philadelphia. When I was here, a
 
 COXTRASTED COXDITIOXS 269 
 
 little over a year ago, the complaint in every 
 Democratic newspaper was that the tariff law of 
 1890 had put the tariff up on plushes, the garment 
 that the poor girl and woman wore. Well, it is true 
 that we did put the tariff up on plushes, but the 
 price has come down. [Applause.] And we are 
 making them in this, country, giving employment to 
 hundreds and thousands of workingmen. And we 
 are making tin plate in the United States. [Loud 
 cheers.] We have made in the last fifteen months 
 13,000,000 pounds. Ah ! but they say, you import the 
 black sheets from abroad. Well, we have, some, but 
 we have made 5,000,000 of tin plates from black sheets 
 made in American steel mills by American working- 
 men. [Applause.] Supposing we did import some 
 of the steel sheets and do the tinning that gives em- 
 ployment to labor. But what they said was that we 
 could not tin the sheet steel. That was the objection 
 originally to this tin plate tariff. Why, I saw within 
 the last three weeks, in the State of Indiana, in the 
 city of Ellwood, one of the most magnificent tin 
 plate mills in the world, manned by American work- 
 ingmen, and I saw them make tin plate from the 
 rolled steel down to the bright and shining plate 
 plate as bright and shining as was ever made in 
 Swansea, Wales. [Applause.] Cannot make tin 
 plate? Why, we can make anything wo want to 
 make. [Great cheering.] We could not make it 
 under a Democratic revenue tariff, of course. [Ap- 
 plause.^
 
 270 CONTEASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 "Well, but they said this tariff law of 1890 was 
 going to increase the price of the necessaries of life, 
 and was going to diminish the wages of labor. It 
 has done neither. The necessities of life are cheaper 
 to-day than they were eighteen months ago. The 
 commodities that go into the household of every man 
 and woman are cheaper to-day than they were 
 eighteen months ago, and the price of labor has in- 
 creased to some extent, as shown by the report of the 
 Senate Committee, consisting of three Republicans 
 and two Democrats, as shown by the reports of the 
 Commissioners of Labor of Indiana, of Massachusetts, 
 of Michigan, and of the State of New York. [Ap- 
 plause.] These reports came so thick and fast that 
 they confused the leaders of the Democratic party, 
 and they have resorted to extraordinary proceedings 
 to break their force. They have gone into the courts. 
 They are persecuting poor Peck. [Laughter.] The 
 whole National Committee is on his back. 
 
 " We are just now two years, day after to-morrow, 
 from the passage of this law of 1890. We were just 
 two years in the national campaign of 1844 from the 
 passage of the protective law of 1842. Mr. Polk 
 got in under false pretenses that the Democratic 
 party would not destroy the tariff. When he got in 
 his party did destroy it. Look out for false prophe- 
 siers. Men must stand on their platforms made by 
 their national parties. [Applause.] No man is 
 higher than his party. Every man must obey the 
 law of the convention that nominates him. [Ap-
 
 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 271 
 
 plause.] Aye, did you remember that historical 
 incident? The trial of this year is between the 
 Republicans and the Democrats on the line of pro- 
 tection and free trade. They can't get away from it 
 if they would. They mean free trade and nothing 
 else. Ah ! listen. Let me just read one more word 
 that Mr. Webster says. He describes how the mills 
 of Lowell have been closed up ; in your own State, 
 way back in 1848, how 800 men were thrown out of 
 employment, how 3,000 in another place in your 
 own State, how 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 in the State of 
 Pennsylvania were dismissed from employment 
 under the tariff of 1846, and then he characterizes 
 this free trade. He says : ' The imports of iron since 
 the new tariff are enormous, . . . and here the in- 
 crease is in articles of the highest manufacture that 
 is, articles in which the greatest quantity of labor is 
 incorporated, for there seems to be in this policy ' 
 listen to his words ' there seems to be in this policy 
 a bloodhound scent to follow labor and to run it down 
 and to seize it, and strangle it wherever it may be 
 found.' "
 
 272 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 about $3,000,000. In 1892 the amount of green- 
 backs presented for redemption was $5,352,243, 
 and during the same year $3,773,600 in treasury 
 notes were presented for redemption. In 1893, 
 after the change in administration, there were 
 presented for redemption $55,319,125 in green- 
 backs and $46,781,220 in treasury notes, or a 
 total of $102,100,345. Thus there was presented 
 for redemption in the first year paper money 
 aggregating nearly three times the volume of all 
 that had been presented in the previous fourteen 
 years. What was the occasion for this sudden de- 
 sire of the holders of greenbacks and treasury notes 
 to have them redeemed in gold ? Was it not a lack 
 of confidence? Was it not from the known fact 
 that the proposed legislation of the Democratic party 
 would tend to destroy our prosperity at home, and 
 probably result in a failure to collect enough money 
 to meet the current expenses and obligations of the 
 government ? 
 
 " Was it not from the fact that the revenues had 
 fallen short in meeting the expenditures of the gov- 
 ernment by $117,000,000, and that the treasury had 
 been compelled to borrow that vast sum, and has 
 since been compelled to borrow $62,000,000 more ? 
 During the previous years the people had been so 
 strong in their faith in the government that they 
 were satisfied with any kind of money issued by the 
 government. The government had been able to pro- 
 duce such a financial equilibrium that the people
 
 OABBHT A. HOBAHT.
 
 SENATOR WILLIAM E. MASON.
 
 COXTTIASTKD CONDITIONS 275 
 
 were utterly indifferent whether they were given 
 gold, silver, or paper. Even during Mr. Cleveland's 
 first administration, confidence was unshaken because 
 there was no Democratic Congress to disturb Repub- 
 lican legislation or overthrow or disturb the sound 
 financial policy, which was established by the lie- 
 publican party. There had been no change in the 
 status of the greenbacks or the treasury notes ; there 
 had been no financial legislation, except the repeal 
 of the purchase clause of the Sherman Act which 
 simply stopped the buying of silver. 
 
 " It was the same government. There had been 
 simply a change of administration of the affairs of 
 the government. One pledged to a new policy had 
 been given power and hence came the universal lack 
 of confidence ; not a lack of confidence in the people, 
 or in our institutions, but a lack of confidence in 
 those charged with the administration to conduct 
 the government with safety and success. From 
 March 4th, 1881, down to March 4th, 1893, thanks 
 to the Funding Act of Hayes, Sherman, and Win- 
 dom, the government of the United States had been 
 calling in its bonds and paying them off from the 
 surplus revenue in the treasury. Instead of the 
 people demanding gold for their greenbacks the 
 government was engaged in paying off the bonded 
 indebtedness of the government in gold. The same 
 work went on during Mr. Cleveland's first adminis- 
 tration, but not without opposition from him. It 
 will be -* einbered that the public debt which his
 
 276 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 administration paid off was paid from the revenues 
 of the government collected under Republican legis- 
 lation. President Harrison paid off $296,000,000 
 of the public debt and turned over to Mr. Cleve- 
 land's administration $124,000,000 surplus. There 
 was not a moment from the inauguration of Presi- 
 dent Harrison to the second inauguration of Mr. 
 Cleveland in which we did not collect for every day 
 of every year sufficient revenues to pay every demand 
 and obligation of the government. 
 
 " President Harrison's administration was a bond- 
 paying, not a bond-issuing administration. The 
 latest bond issue of President Cleveland, of $63,- 
 000,000, was made in secret with the great financiers 
 of Europe, through their agents in the United States. 
 It was made out of the sight of the public ; made 
 upon terms which were harsh and humiliating to the 
 great government of the United States ; made at a 
 lower price than the existing bonds of the govern- 
 ment were being sold in the open markets of this 
 country and the great commercial centres of the 
 world, and made at a higher rate of interest than that 
 paid on bonds sold six months before. The bonds 
 under contract to-day are selling in advance of the 
 price received by the government, both in this 
 country and in England. The President sold the 
 bonds at 104J, the syndicate sold them at 112i, a 
 gain of 71, and the subscribers to the syndicate are 
 now selling their bonds at from 116 to 120. 
 
 " It was a hard bargain for the government, but it
 
 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 277 
 
 is not the only hard bargain we have had to bear. 
 There have been a long series of them. The hard- 
 bargain business commenced in November, 1892, and 
 the bargains have been getting harder and harder 
 ever since. Out of it all, however, we get some faint 
 ray of satisfaction. It must be gratifying to every 
 American citizen to observe that the people of our 
 own country and of England both place a higher 
 estimate upon the bonds of the United States than do 
 those who are temporarily administering its govern- 
 ment. We ought to realize by this time that we 
 should not do our work nor make our loans in 
 Europe. Let us place what options we have with 
 our own capitalists, and our orders with our own 
 manufacturers, who, in the past, have been always 
 abundantly able to meet every need and demand of 
 the government and of the people. 
 
 " The people have before them in the near future a 
 greater and broader contest to wage, which will give 
 the control of the government, as I believe, back to the 
 Republican party. Until then we can do nothing 
 but wait, as patiently as we can, and submit to the 
 inevitable, hard as it is. 
 
 " If anybody thinks that our wage-earners, our 
 farmers, our trades-people, and the great masses of 
 our countrymen, in common with them, are going to 
 be satisfied permanently with the adjustment of their 
 w:<rcs and prices, business and markets, to the present 
 Democratic standard, they will very soon discover 
 their fatal error.
 
 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 " The people believe in the industrial policy which 
 promotes, not retards, American enterprises, and dig- 
 nifies, not degrades, American labor, and they will 
 take power away from any party that stands in the 
 way of the success .of that policy. [Applause.] They 
 believe in protection and reciprocity, and will give 
 power to the party which wisely and fearlessly main- 
 tains them, and will take power away from the party 
 which has weakened or destroyed them. They be- 
 lieve that we should produce our own sugar, make 
 our own tin plate, and we mean to do both. They 
 believe we should do all our other work at home 
 without being forced to pay honest labor starvation 
 wages. [Great applause.] They do not propose tc 
 give up permanently anything they have gained in 
 the industrial world in the last thirty years, and 
 they would rather hold it by retaining a Protective 
 Tariff than to hold it by reducing wages below the 
 true American standard. [Prolonged applause.] 
 
 " We want, above all, to be Americans, in the 
 truest and best sense ; and why should not Ameri- 
 cans legislate for themselves? Whose country is 
 this, anyhow ? [Tremendous applause and laughter.] 
 We want neither European policies engrafted into 
 our laws, nor European conditions forced upon our 
 people; and we will have neither the one nor the 
 other.. It is often said that we want enough money 
 to meet the needs of business, but just now the thin;.;' 
 we need most is business itself, and rest assured, the 
 more business we do the more money we will have,"
 
 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS' 279 
 
 Mr. Milner, of Plainfield " Amen." 
 
 " We know just what we want, for we have had it 
 before. [Applause.] We know when we lost it, 
 and how we lost it [laughter] ; and knowing this, we 
 know just how to get it back again. [Renewed 
 laughter ; applause.] 
 
 " Here is a case were knowledge is power ; and I 
 have never known the people quite so eager to vote 
 with their new information and recent business ex- 
 perience to guide them. B,est assured when at length 
 they do have an opportunity they will vote back into 
 power that great party of protection which encom- 
 passes in its legislation and policies the good of all 
 the section and of all the people of the whole 
 country. [Tremendous applause.] And that policy 
 will come back to stay. 
 
 " What we want in this country is a general re- 
 sumption of business. We want the restoration of 
 prosperity and confidence which we enjoyed before 
 the change. Business at home will bring it, and it 
 will bring good money, too, in abundance, and neither 
 will come in any other way. You will not restore 
 active business and good wages by a policy which 
 transplants any part of our established business to 
 Europe. No matter what kind of a currency we 
 have it will not rekindle idle furnaces and employ 
 idle men so long as we go abroad for our products 
 winch can be made at home because of the cheaper 
 labor prevailing there. If we do our work at home 
 our labor at home will be employed, and the wages
 
 280 CONTEASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 paid at home will be spent at home. This is the 
 philosophy of protection, and it cannot be abandoned, 
 amended or abated." 
 
 [Springfield, O., September 10th, 1895.] 
 
 " My friends, there is one objection to the law, if 
 there were no others, which must make its perma- 
 nency impossible. It fails to raise the needed reve- 
 nues for the daily expenses of the government. 
 That would condemn it in the judgment of the 
 American people whatever differing views they 
 might have on the question of protection and free 
 trade. The law from the date of its enactment to 
 the present time and it is now a year old has not 
 raised enough money from customs duties and inter- 
 nal revenue combined to meet the necessary expenses 
 of the government. The result has been a monthly 
 deficiency. No law like that can be approved by 
 the American people, for they prefer Protective 
 Tariffs to an increased and increasing bonded in- 
 debtedness, and they would rather have a safe bal- 
 ance in the treasury than a deficiency, and even a 
 surplus, to a tainted public credit. 
 
 " The operation of that law in respect to its reve- 
 nues alone, independent of any other consideration, 
 is vitally important in this discussion. It is worth 
 while to know from official sources the revenue-rais- 
 ing power, both of the law of 1890 and that of 1894. 
 The people themselves know from their own experi- 
 ence the difference between the two laws in respect
 
 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 281 
 
 to their own incomes and the general business of the 
 country. It is unjustly charged that the Republican 
 law of 1890 was incapable of supplying the needed 
 revenues for the government, and that the deficien- 
 cies in- the treasury, which have occurred since the 
 incoming Cleveland administration, were directly 
 traceable to it. The Republican tariff law went 
 into effect in October, 1890. The receipts under it 
 for the first nine months, commencing October 1st, 
 
 1890, to July 1st, 1891, were : From customs, $153,- 
 287,831.47 ; from internal revenue, $106,436,500.01 ; 
 the receipts from miscellaneous sources were $22,- 
 118,356.21. The total receipts for that period were 
 $281,842,687.69. The expenditures for that period 
 of nine months, from October 1st, 1890, to July 1st, 
 
 1891, were $280,710,748.34. The receipts, there- 
 fore, exceeded the expenditures by $1,131,939.35. 
 There was no deficiency up to this time. The re- 
 ceipts under the Republican law of 1890, from July 
 1st, 1891, to July 1st, 1892, were: From customs, 
 $177,452,964.15 ; from internal revenue, $153,971,- 
 072.57 ; the receipts from miscellaneous sources were 
 $23,513,747.52; total receipts, $354,937,784.24. 
 The total expenditures of the government for that 
 year were $345,023,330.58, showing an excess of 
 receipts over expenditures of $9,914,453.66. There 
 was no deficiency up to this time. The receipts 
 under the Republican tariff law for the fiscal year 
 commencing July 1st, 1892, and ending July 
 1st, 1893, were: From customs, $203,355,016.73;
 
 283 CONTKASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 from internal revenue, $161,027,623.93 ; the receipts 
 from miscellaneous sources were, $21,436,988.12 ; 
 total receipts for fiscal year of 1893, $385,819,628.- 
 78. The total expenditures for that year were $383,- 
 477,954.49, an excess of receipts over expenditures 
 of $2,341,674.29. There was no deficiency up to 
 this time. 
 
 " Now, in that year, 1893, on March 4th, the 
 present Democratic administration came into power, 
 pledged to reverse the protective policy of the gov- 
 ernment, which had existed for more than thirty 
 
 / 
 
 years. Then there were distrust and consternation 
 in every business circle. No business man knew 
 what to do, for he could not predict what the party in 
 power would do. Business collapsed. Panic and fail- 
 ures followed. Then the receipts commenced to fall 
 off, as I will show you. The receipts from July 1st, 
 1893, to July 1st, 1894> during all of which period 
 the Cleveland administration was in control of every 
 branch of the government, were : From customs, 
 $131,818,530.62; from internal revenue, $147,111,- 
 232.81 ; the receipts from miscellaneous sources were 
 $18,792,255.82 ; total receipts $297,722,019.25. 
 The total expenditures during that period were 
 $367,525,279.83. Here occurs the first deficiency. 
 Here is the first time that the receipts fell short of 
 the expenditures of the government, the deficiency 
 being$69,803,260.58. Is it any wonder that there was 
 a deficiency when we consider the condition of panic, 
 poverty, and business paralysis which prevailed at that
 
 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 283 
 
 time and which immediately followed the restoration 
 to full power of the Democratic party ? The law con- 
 tinued in operation until August, 1894, and for the 
 mouths of July and August, 1894, the receipts from 
 customs were : $26,828,595.47 ; from internal rev- 
 enue, $25,252,094.89 ; the receipts from miscel- 
 laneous sources were $2,715,971.13 ; total receipts, 
 
 ,796,661.49. The total expenditures for those 
 two months were $68,305,219.38, a deficiency of 
 
 '.,508,557.89. On August 28th, 1894, the Brice- 
 Gorman Act went into operation. The receipts 
 under that law from September 1st, 1894, to September 
 1st, 1895, were : From customs, $161,391,367.76 ; 
 from internal revenue, $115,877,954.01 ; the receipts 
 from miscellaneous sources were $15,089,503.98; 
 total receipts for that year, $292,358,825.75. The 
 expenditures during this first year were $358,953,- 
 0-5.23, an excess of expenditures over receipts for 
 the first year of this Democratic Tariff Act of $66,- 
 594,489.48. During the first year, under the Brice- 
 Gorman law, the receipts from customs and internal 
 revenue were $276,269,321.77. During the first 
 fiscal year, under the Republican Tariff law, receipts 
 from customs and internal revenue were $331,424,- 
 036.72, a difference in favor of the Republican law 
 of $55,000,000. Under the Republican law sugar 
 WMS free; under the Democratic law sugar is taxed. 
 Even in the last fiscal year when the Republican law 
 in operation, with universal di throughout 
 
 the country, there wus more money collected from
 
 284 CONTKASTED CONDITION'S 
 
 customs duties and internal revenue than was col- 
 lected during the first year under the Democratic 
 Brice-Gorman Tariff law. 
 
 " The statement of the condition of the United 
 States Treasury, on the 31st day of August 1895, 
 shows an excess of expenditures over receipts for the 
 month of August of $3,693,103.30. 
 
 " During the first nine months of the Tariff law of 
 1890 the receipts from customs and internal revenue 
 equaled within $17,000,000 the total receipts from 
 customs and internal revenue of twelve months un- 
 der the Brice-Gorman law. The average monthly 
 receipts from customs .and internal revenue, under 
 the Republican law, for the first nine months, was 
 over $28,000,000, and under the Brice-Gorman law 
 was $33,000,000. 
 
 " The average monthly receipts from customs duties 
 during the operation of the Republican Tariff law 
 were $17,066,774.67 ; the average monthly receipts 
 from customs duties under the Democratic Tariff law 
 of 1894 were $13,167,533.63 a difference in favor 
 of the Republican law of $3,899,241.04 per month. 
 One thing must not be forgotten that at no time 
 from the passage of the Republican Tariff law of 
 1890 down to the close of President Harrison's ad- 
 ministration did that law fail to raise all the revenue 
 needed to meet every expense of the general gov- 
 ernment, and during no part of that period did the 
 gold reserve fall below $100,000,000. The revenue- 
 vaising power of the Republican Tariff law was only
 
 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 285 
 
 crippled and impaired after the country had placed 
 in power a full Democratic administration pledged to 
 overthrow it. 
 
 " It is loudly proclaimed through the Democratic 
 press that prosperity has come. I sincerely hope 
 that it has. Whatever prosperity we have has been 
 a long time coming, and after nearly three years of 
 business depression, a ruinous panic, and a painful 
 and widespread suffering among the people, I pray 
 that we may be at the dawn of better times and of 
 enduring prosperity. I have believed it would come, 
 in some measure, with every successive Republican 
 victory. I have urged for two years past that the 
 election of a Republican Congress would strip the 
 Democratic party of power to further cripple the 
 enterprises of the country, and would be the begin- 
 ning of a return of confidence, and that general and 
 permanent prosperity could only come when the 
 Democratic party was voted out of power in every 
 branch of the national government, and the Repub- 
 lican party voted in, pledged to repeal their destruc- 
 tive and un-American legislation, which has so 
 seriously impaired the prosperity of the people and 
 the revenues and credit of the government. 
 
 "It is a most significant fact, however, that the 
 activity in business we have now is chiefly confined 
 to those branches of industry which the Democratic 
 party was forced to leave with some protection, 
 notably, iron and steel. There is no substantial im- 
 provement in those branches of domestic industry
 
 286 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 where the lower duties, or no duties of the Demo- 
 cratic tariff, have sharpened and increased foreign 
 competition. These industries are still lifeless ; and 
 if not lifeless are unsatisfactory and unprofitable, 
 both to capital and labor. 
 
 " There is a studied effort in certain quarters to 
 show that the apparent prosperity throughout the 
 country is the result of Democratic tariff legislation. 
 I do not think that those who assert this honestly and 
 sincerely believe it. It is worth remembering, and 
 can never be forgotten, that there was no revival of 
 business, no return of confidence or gleam of hope in 
 business circles until the elections of 1894, which, by 
 unprecedented majorities, gave the popular branch 
 of Congress to the Republican party, and took away 
 from the Democratic party the power to do further 
 harm to the industries of the country and the occu- 
 pations of the people. This was the aim, meaning, 
 and purpose of that vote. With the near and certain 
 return of the Republican party to full possession of 
 power in the United States, conies naturally and 
 logically increased faith in the country and an assur- 
 ance to business men that for years to come they will 
 have rest and relief from Democratic in competency 
 in the management of the industrial and financial 
 affairs of the government. Whatever prosperity we 
 are having (and just how much nobody seems to know) 
 and with all hoping for the best, and hoping that it 
 may stay and increase, and yet all breathless with sus- 
 pense, is in spite of Democratic legislation, and not be-
 
 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 287 
 
 cause of it. You would suppose in reading some of the 
 Democratic newspapers and Democratic literature of 
 the country that there has been a wonderful increase 
 of wages, and the Democratic leaders are claiming it 
 as the direct result of Democratic tariff legislation. It 
 is true there has been an increase in wages in some 
 brunches of industry, but a careful analysis will show 
 that wherever the increase has been had, it has been 
 in those departments of industry where protection 
 \vas not wholly withdrawn or the least withdrawn, 
 or where the home markets are secure from foreign 
 competition ; and where there is the most protec- 
 tion there will be found the best wages. Consider- 
 ing the condition in which the country has been for 
 two years and a half, any amount of work resumed, 
 no matter how little ; any increase in the demand 
 for labor, no matter how insignificant, would mean 
 more and better wages. For*two years and a half 
 wages were not only abnormally low, but employ- 
 ment was so scarce and employes so plenty that they 
 could be had upon any terms and at any price. It 
 was not a question of wage ; it was a question of 
 work; and men, rather than accept charity, and in 
 order that they might give their families even scanty 
 support, were ready to work at any price and sit 
 any employment. It must be remembered also 
 that in the fewest branches of industry, if any, 
 wage scale has been restored to what it was in 1 
 The increase of wtigos in 1895, much as it may be 
 and gratifying as it is, does not equal the decrease of
 
 288 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 wages from 1892 to 1895 ; and there is yet a vast 
 difference, as every workingman realizes, between the 
 price paid labor now and the price paid labor before 
 the Democratic party took control, in March, 1893. 
 This difference represents much, very much, to the 
 workingmen of the country, and deprives many fire- 
 sides of the comforts they enjoyed before 1893. 
 Moreover, not only are the wages less now than in 
 1892, but a vast number of men employed then are 
 out of employment now. I do not propose to make 
 comparisons between the wages paid labor now and 
 the wages paid labor prior to 1893. That is unnec- 
 essary. Every man who labors in this country 
 knows whether he is employed now as satisfactorily 
 and steadily as then, and whether he is paid as well 
 now as he was when Republican policies were in 
 operation during Republican administrations. Every 
 workingman knows what his pay-roll is now, and 
 knows what his pay-roll was then ; and he knows it 
 better than anybody can tell him ; and he knows 
 better than anybody else the exact measure of differ- 
 ence between the wages he receives now and the 
 wages he received then. Nor is he in doubt as to 
 the cause of this difference. He knows when he lost 
 it and how he lost it ; and he will vote at every 
 opportunity in opposition to the party whose policy 
 he believes produced it. This subject, therefore, can 
 well be left with the laboring men of the country. 
 
 " No one can observe the shrinkage of the wool pro- 
 duction in the United States without being pro-
 
 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 289 
 
 founuly impressed with the injustice and cr-inu, of 
 that part of the tariff law of 1894, which places wool 
 upon the free list. Among the heaviest losses since 
 1893 are those of Pennsylvania, which has fallen 
 from 9,823,296 pounds to 5,899,867 pounds ; Texas, 
 from 30,341,857 pounds to 22,669,809 pounds ; West 
 Virginia, from 4,627,887 pounds to 2,149,393 pounds; 
 Ohio, from 21,893,625 pounds to 18,534,610 pounds ; 
 Michigan, from 16,370,536 pounds to 12,140,524 
 pounds ; California, from 26,808,444 pounds to 23,- 
 153,956 pounds; and New York, from 9,328,300 
 pounds to 6,250,392 pounds. The total product of 
 the United States for 1893 was 348,538,138 pounds. 
 In 1894, 325,210,712 pounds, and in 1895, 294,296,- 
 726 pounds. It is no wonder that the wool-growers 
 of Ohio, in their convention at Columbus, last 
 Wednesday, September 4th, unanimously adopted 
 {he following resolution : 
 
 " ' Resolved, That the singling out of wool among 
 jo-called raw materials for sacrifice by the late Con- 
 gress, while the " less important ones were cared for 
 and protected, was an outrage upon agriculture, in- 
 volving far greater evils than party perfidy and party 
 dishonor/' and should be resented at the polls and 
 elsewhere in every proper way/ 
 
 " Mr. Briee will not be long in discovering that the 
 farmers of the State of Ohio do not accept the law 
 of the trusts and combinations as the final settlement 
 of this great economic question. This subject can 
 well be left with the intelligent farmers of Ohio.
 
 290 CONTKASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 They will have the opportunity at the coming elec 
 tion to directly commend or condemn our junior 
 Senator in striking down one of their greatest in- 
 dustries and chief sources of revenue. They will not 
 forget that our candidate for Senator, ex-Governor 
 Foraker, is opposed to free wool, but favors full and 
 just protection to this most important industry." 
 
 THE TWO PARTIES ON SILVER. 
 
 The two skeleton maps show far more impressively 
 than any array of figures could how the two parties 
 stand on the question of free-silver coinage and honest 
 money. On the Republican map all the States in 
 which the Republican party is for free coinage, and 
 also all the States in which it is doubtful on the sub- 
 ject and has dodged or straddled it, are shaded, 
 The figures on each State show the number of elec- 
 toral votes to which it is entitled, the delegates in 
 National Convention being double that number. At 
 a glance it is seen that the battle has been fought 
 and won in all the great States of the North and 
 West as far as the western line of the Dakotas and 
 Kansas, and also in Oregon, Wyoming, and Wash- 
 ington, and that Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, 
 iron and coal-producing States, have .broken through 
 the centre of the South, while West Virginia and 
 South Carolina have also joined the right side. 
 
 But the Southern States are not needed to elect a 
 President. The solid body of Northern States be-
 
 SENATOR CUSHMAN K. DAVIS.
 
 SENATOR HENRY C. LODGE.
 
 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 893 
 
 tween the Atlantic and the western border of the 
 Dakotas and Kansas, now all Republican, including 
 Missouri, West Virginia, and Kentucky, are of one 
 mind on the silver question. They cast, including 
 Wyoming, 302 electoral votes, or more than two- 
 thirds of the whole, without any from the South or 
 the Pacific Coast. In all these States the Republi- 
 cans had at the last election a plurality, and in all 
 except Kentucky, Missouri, and Nebraska, which 
 have thirty-eight votes, it had a clear majority over 
 Democrats, Populists, and Silver men added together. 
 The Democratic map presents a vast dark body 
 with a few white spots. The States that have de- 
 clared against free-silver coinage are white namely, 
 the eleven Eastern States, Minnesota, Michigan, and 
 South Dakota. The States which have not yet de- 
 clared or have evaded the question are half shaded 
 namely, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Louisiana. 
 All the other States are fully shaded, the Democratic 
 party in each of these States having declared in con- 
 vention or by choice of delegates for free-silver 
 coinage. Including all the undecided and doubtful, 
 the anti-silver Democrats might muster over a third 
 of the delegates in Convention, but far short of a 
 majority. No man of practical sense can look on 
 the map and imagine that the almost solid Democ- 
 racy of the West and South is going to yield its pas- 
 sionately-cherished opinions to the small fraction of 
 the party at the East,
 
 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 
 
 The figures do not quite tell the whole story. For 
 generations the seat of power in the Democratic 
 party, its home and its citadel, has been the South. 
 The Democrats of the North and West have been a 
 subject race, from boyhood educated to obey the dic- 
 tation of Southern leaders, to accept and fight for 
 their theories, and to take without flinching the 
 popular disfavor and the annual beating which sup- 
 port of such theories involved in most Northern 
 States. It is past conception that a Northern or 
 Eastern Democrat should hope to defy and resist the 
 power which has ruled the party for more than half 
 a century. The great body of its electoral votes has 
 always come from the South, far more than half its 
 votes in Congress, nearly all of its experienced men 
 and practiced leaders in either House. But the 
 home and citadel of the Republican party has always 
 been the free North, originally the Eastern and Cen- 
 tral States, between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, 
 including later their many children of the West. In 
 that region the convictions of the Republican party 
 are formed, its electoral votes are secured, and most 
 of its votes in Congress. The opinions of the East 
 and Central North are as certain to shape the action 
 of the Republican as the opinions of the South are 
 to shape the action of the Democratic party. 
 
 Let business men throughout the country contrast 
 these two pictures, and it will not take them long to 
 judge which party they can trust in any question of 
 money or finance. The ideas of the South are those
 
 CONTRASTED CONDITIONS 295 
 
 of the plantation. The Republican ^arty Is of 
 necessity, as it ever has been, the instrument by 
 which the millions of wage-earners and of business 
 men have defended and promoted their interests. 
 The North tests every question of money by the 
 needs of the wage-earners and the business men. 
 For more than thirty years they have been perpetu- 
 ally assailed and often imperilled by the theories 
 and crazy notions of the Democratic party, never 
 more unreasoning or more dangerous than now, 
 when it has gone mad over free coinage of silver. 
 To intrust power to such a party was the height of 
 folly in 1892, when its destructive capacity had not 
 been tested. To-day it would be for wage-earners 
 and business men an act of impossible madness.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SOME VIEWS ON PUBLIC QUESTIONS. 
 
 Humorous speeches The feeder of Great Britain A leap in the 
 dark Give the officials scope Importance of agriculture 
 Arbitration Respect and retrospect Let England take care 
 of herself. 
 
 IT will be interesting to quote a few paragraphs 
 from the humorous speeches made by Governor 
 McKinley. In support of the tariff commis- 
 sion in 1882 he aroused the attention of the country, 
 and indicated to old politicians that a new force was 
 arising in national politics, and that it was well to 
 watch the career of William McKinley. In the 
 House he said then : 
 
 " Who has demanded a tariff for revenue only, 
 such as is advocated by our friends on the other 
 side? What portion of our citizens? What part 
 of our population ? Not the agriculturist ; not the 
 laborer; not the mechanic; not the manufacturer; 
 not a petition before us, to my knowledge, ask- 
 ing for an adjustment of tariff rates to a revenue 
 basis. England wants it, demands it not for our 
 good, but hers; for she is more anxious to main- 
 
 296
 
 PUBLIC QUESTIONS 297 
 
 tain her old position of supremacy than she is to pro- 
 mote the interests and welfare of the people of this 
 republic, and a great party in this country voices her 
 interests. Our tariffs interfere with her profits. 
 They keep at home what she wants. We are inde- 
 pendent of her ; not she of us. She would have 
 America the feeder of Great Britain, or, as Lord 
 Sheffield put it, she would be ' the monopoly of our 
 consumption and the carriage of our produce/ She 
 would manufacture for us, and permit us to raise 
 wheat and corn for her. We are satisfied to do the 
 latter, but unwilling to concede to her the monopoly 
 of the former. 
 
 " Manufacturers, farmers, laboring men, indeed all 
 the industrial classes in the United States, are sever- 
 ally and jointly interested in the maintenance of the 
 present or a better tariff law which shall recognize in 
 all its force the protection of American producers and 
 American productions. Our first duty is to our own 
 citizens. 
 
 " Free trade may be suitable to Great Britain and 
 its peculiar social and political structure, but it has 
 no place in this republic, where classes are unknown, 
 and where caste has long since been banished ; where 
 equality is a rule ; where labor is dignified and hon- 
 orable ; where education and improvement are the 
 individual striving of every citizen, no matter what 
 may be the accident of his birth, or the poverty of 
 his early surroundings. Here the mechanic of to-day 
 is the manufacturer of a few years hence. Under
 
 898 PUBLIC QUESTIONS 
 
 such conditions, free trade can have no abiding place 
 here. We are doing very well ; no other nation has 
 done better, or makes a better showing in the world's 
 balance sheet. We ought to be satisfied with the 
 progress thus far made, and contented with our out- 
 look for the future. .We know what we have done 
 and what we can do under the policy of protection. 
 We have had some experience with a revenue tariff, 
 which neither inspires hope, nor courage, nor confi- 
 dence. Our own history condemns the policy we 
 oppose, and it is the best vindication of the policy 
 which we advocate. It needs no other. It furnished 
 us in part the money to prosecute the war for the 
 Union to a successful termination ; it has assisted 
 largely in furnishing the revenue to meet our great 
 public expenditures and diminish with unparalleled 
 rapidity our great national debt ; it has contributed 
 in securing to us an unexampled credit ; it has de- 
 veloped the resources of the country and quickened 
 the energies of our people ; it has made us what the 
 nation should be, independent and self-reliant ; it has 
 made us industrious in peace, and secured us inde- 
 pendence in war ; and we find ourselves in the begin- 
 ning of the second century of the republic without a 
 superior in industrial arts, without an equal in com- 
 mercial prosperity,with a sound financial system, with 
 an overflowing treasury, blest at home and at peace 
 with all mankind. Shall we reverse the policy which 
 has rewarded us with such magnificent results ? Shall 
 we abandon the policy which pursued for twenty
 
 PUBLIC QUESTIONS 299 
 
 years, has produced such unparalleled growth and 
 prosperity ?" 
 
 The Morrison tariff bill, which proposed a hori- 
 zontal reduction of the Act of 1883, was under dis- 
 cussion in the House on April 30th, 1884, and in 
 closing his speech in opposition, Representative 
 McKinley said in conclusion : 
 
 " Every one of the leading industries of this 
 country will be injuriously affected by this proposed 
 change, and no man can predict the extent of it. The 
 producers of cottons and woolens, of iron, steel, and 
 glass, must suffer disastrously if this bill is enacted 
 into law ; and the proprietors of these establishments 
 are neither robbers nor highwaymen, as the free- 
 traders love to characterize them. They have been 
 real benefactors, and while some of them have grown 
 opulent, in the main they do not represent the rich 
 classes of the country. Their entire capital is in 
 active employment. Many of them are large bor- 
 rowers. Your proposed action will affect the values 
 of their plants, unless except for the purposes em- 
 ployed, will diminish the value of their invested 
 capital, will decrease their sales and the ability of 
 their customers to buy, and in many cases result in 
 total overthrow and bankruptcy. You can do this, 
 if you will. You have the power in this House to 
 accomplish this great wrong; but let me beg you to 
 pause before you commence the work of destroying 
 a great economic system under which the country 
 has grown and prospered far in advance of every
 
 300 PUBLIC QUESTIONS 
 
 other nation of the world. A system established by 
 the founders of the government, recognized by the first 
 Congress which ever sat and deliberated in council 
 in this nation, sanctioned in the second Act ever 
 passed by Congress, upheld by our greatest states- 
 men, living or dead, vindicated by great results and 
 justified by all our experience, achieving industrial 
 triumphs without a parallel in the world's history. 
 Its maintenance is yet essential to our progress and 
 prosperity. The step proposed is a grave one. No 
 man on this floor can determine its consequences or 
 predict its results. 
 
 " It is a leap in the dark. No interest is press- 
 ing it. No national necessity demands it. No 
 true American wants it. If it is a party neces- 
 sity to enforce Democratic doctrines and disci- 
 pline a little segment of the party, you can afford 
 to wait, or clear your decks of mutineers in some 
 other way : let the ship be saved, and punish your 
 insubordinate associates without endangering great 
 interests temporarily confided to your care. The 
 interests of this great people are higher and greater 
 than the ambitions or interests of any party. The 
 free-traders have already demonstrated that they are 
 in control of the Democratic party, and they are a 
 large majority of that political organization ; but 
 they are happily in the minority in this country. 
 They may dictate the policy here by party caucus, 
 they may disturb the business of the country while 
 yet in power, but they will not, under the policy
 
 PUBLIC QUESTIONS 301 
 
 they are now pursuing, be long permitted to dominate 
 the popular branch of Congress, happily the only 
 branch of the government which they now control." 
 
 On July 14th, 1886, there was under discussion a 
 resolution from the Ways and Means Committee 
 directing the Secretary of the Treasury to pay a part 
 of the surplus which had given Grover Cleveland so 
 much trouble, but which has not existed in his 
 present administration on the public debt. Major 
 McKinley made an extended speech on the subject 
 which teemed with figures. His remarks then are 
 particularly important now, showing as they do that 
 he did not believe the hands of the President 
 should be tied ; in other words were he in Congress 
 now he would be active in opposition to the Demo- 
 cratic and Populistic proposition to repeal the author- 
 ity to issue bonds. The Major said, among other 
 things : 
 
 " I believe it to be a judicious thing to give the 
 officers charged with the management of the finan- 
 cial affairs of the government, charged by the people, 
 the power to call the bonds or withhold a call for 
 bonds whenever the condition of the treasury will 
 permit the one or the other. The hands of the 
 President and Secretary should not be tied ; they 
 should have full power to act under the laws as they 
 are, and then be held to the highest responsibility 
 and strictest accountability. Therefore, Mr. Chair- 
 man, unless the amendment I offered at the begin- 
 ning of this discussion, and another amendment
 
 303 PUBLIC QUESTIONS 
 
 wliicli will be offered by the gentleman from Maine 
 (Mr. Reed), and still another which will be pre- 
 sented by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 
 Long), shall be adopted by this house, I shall feel 
 constrained to give a negative vote on the resolution 
 presented by the Committee on Ways and Means. 
 Of course, we cannot help, I cannot help, no gentle- 
 man on this side can help, the Democratic party 
 voting to-day a want of confidence in its own admin- 
 istration. We cannot prevent you from passing a 
 vote of condemnation on the President of the United 
 States and his Secretary, and that is what this reso- 
 lution means if it becomes a law, and that is what 
 you are doing when you vote for it." 
 
 Major McKinley has always appreciated the im- 
 portance of tfc.e agriculturist in our national life. 
 He delivered a most eulogistic speech before the 
 Ohio State Grange, on December 13th, 1887, of 
 which the following are extracts : 
 
 " Farmers could manage to exist rather generously, 
 if not luxuriously, without us, but we could not well 
 exist without them. 
 
 " Agriculture may fairly be classed as the founda- 
 tion of all industries; it is intimately related to 
 sv*ry field of labor. No matter what our employ- 
 ment, we must draw our life every day afresh from 
 the soil, and our daily necessities can be supplied 
 from no other source. All trade, all commerce, all 
 business is but the result, direct or remote, of the 
 industrial pursuit in which you are engaged. Our
 
 PUBLIC QUESTION'S 303 
 
 city, in its earlier and later progress, is peculiarly the 
 offspring of agriculture. From it has been drawn 
 our chief income ; it has been the source of our reve- 
 nue. We have been doing little else for thirty years 
 but meeting the demands and supplying the wants 
 of the farmers. 
 
 " Tell me how the land is held, and I can tell you 
 almost to a certainty the political system of the 
 country, its form of government, and its political 
 character. When land is divided into small farms, 
 the property, as a rule, of those who till them, there 
 is an inducement, ambition, and facility for inde- 
 pendence, for progress, for wider thought and higher 
 attainments in individual, industrial life. Over such 
 a population no government but a free one, under 
 equal laws and equal rights, with equal opportuni- 
 ties, can exist for any length of time. The small 
 farm, thoroughly worked, was the ancient model, 
 commended by the early sages and philosophers ; as 
 old Vergil put it, * Praise a large farm, cultivate a 
 small one.' We must avoid in this country the hold- 
 ing of large tracts of land by non-resident owners 
 for speculative purposes, and set our faces like flint 
 against alien land-holding in small or large tracts. 
 Our public domain must be re-dedicated to our own 
 people, and neither foreign syndicates nor domestic 
 corporations must be permitted to divert it from the 
 hallowed purpose of actual settlement by real farm- 
 ers. 
 
 "One of the great lessons of history is that agri-
 
 34 PUBLIC QUESTIONS 
 
 culture cannot rise to Its highest perfection and reach 
 its fullest development without the aid of commerce, 
 manufactures, and mechanical arts. All are essential 
 to the healthy growth and highest advancement of 
 the others ; the progress of one insures the prosperity 
 of another. There are no conflicts, there should be 
 no antagonisms. They are indispensable to each 
 other. AVhatever enfeebles one is certain to cripple 
 the rest. 
 
 "Let us accept the advice of the fathers of the 
 Republic, heed their patriotic counsels, walk stead- 
 fastly in their faith, preserve the mutual helpfulness 
 and harmonies of the industries, and maintain our 
 independence, national, industrial, and individual, 
 against all the world, and thus advance to the high 
 destiny that devolves upon us and our posterity. I 
 bespeak for you a pleasant 'and profitable meeting, 
 and, with .thanks and best wishes to all, bid you 
 good-night." 
 
 To the laboring interests and to employers as well 
 it is important to know what Major McKinley's 
 views are on arbitration. They are shown in the 
 closing paragraph of his speech on that subject in 
 the House of Representatives, on April 2d, 1886: 
 
 " I believe, Mr. Chairman, in arbitration, as in 
 principle ; I believe it should prevail in the settle- 
 ment of international differences. It represents a 
 higher civilization than the arbitrament of war. I 
 believe it is in close accord with the best thought 
 and sentiment of mankind ; I believe it is the true
 
 PUBLIC QUESTIONS 305 
 
 way of settling differences between labor and capital ; 
 I believe it will bring both to a better understanding, 
 uniting them closer in interest, and promoting better 
 relations, avoiding force, avoiding unjust exactions 
 and oppression, avoiding the loss of earnings to 
 labor, avoiding disturbances to trade and transporta- 
 tion ; and if this House can contribute in the small- 
 est measure, by legislative expression or otherwise, 
 to these ends, it will deserve and receive the grati- 
 tude of all men who love peace, good order, justice, 
 and fair play." 
 
 The Republican Presidential candidate delivered 
 a speech on " Prospect and Retrospect," on Septem- 
 ber 14th, 1887, before the Mahoning Valley Pioneer 
 Association, of which this is a striking paragraph : 
 
 " We can hardly conceive that the next generation 
 will be so rich in fruitage, so prolific in invention, so 
 marvelous in achievement, so wonderful in its work j 
 but who can tell ? There seem to be a brain and a 
 conscience and a manhood always ready to rise up 
 and discover, at the appropriate moment, the forces 
 and elements necessary in the onward march of man- 
 kind. The things you and I have seen, great as they 
 are, may be insignificant contrasted with the things 
 unseen and yet to be developed. The ax and the 
 rifle, the courage and the conscience, the brain and 
 the brawn, the faith in God of the pioneer, lay the 
 foundations of the splendid institutions which make 
 possible our matchless achievements. The New Eng- 
 land school-house, which came simultaneous with his
 
 306 PUBLIC QUESTIONS 
 
 cabin and stockade, was our flaming torch, which, 
 carried grandly through the century, has filled the 
 whole world with its light." 
 
 The Home Market Club, of Boston, invited Major 
 McKinley to address them on February 9th, 1888. 
 At that time he spoke regarding free raw materials. 
 The following selection from that speech, in view of 
 the events since it was made, is most striking : 
 
 "A revenue reformer who had recently visited 
 your State, said to me a few days ago, that Massa- 
 chusetts had already received all the benefits she 
 could from protection, and that now her interests as 
 well as her inclinations lay in the other direction 
 that of free trade. Enlarging upon it he was forced 
 to confess that the manufacturing thrift and activity 
 everywhere seen in your commonwealth, the high 
 rank you had taken, and the perfection reached in 
 production, were the outcome of the system of Ameri- 
 can protection ; but now free trade, or its equivalent 
 or approximation, would place you in a position of 
 commanding advantage over those portions of the 
 country marked with less industrial development. 
 If I were to admit the truth of my friend's discourse 
 which I do not the situation would, in simple 
 language, be this : Massachusetts owes her proud 
 industrial position to a Protective Tariff, which she 
 has enjoyed by the help of other States not so far 
 advanced in manufactures, and which have neither 
 so long nor so advantageously enjoyed its benefits. 
 Now she does not need it for herself^ and is unwil.l-
 
 PUBLIC QUESTIONS 307 
 
 ing that any of her sister States shall profit by its 
 assistance and enjoy its blessings. She used it to 
 attain her high commercial position and manufactur- 
 ing development. The newer States are now moving 
 upward on the ladder which carried her before and 
 above them. Now, as my friend would have it, she 
 is ready to push the ladder down with all that is 
 upon it. [Laughter.] This I know to be a base and 
 ungenerous reflection upon Massachusetts, which 
 her industrial people will be quick to resent, and 
 which nothing in her behavior in the past would 
 justify." 
 
 On this same occasion Major McKinley delivered 
 these additional gems of thought: 
 
 " But if free wool will secure cheaper clothing to 
 the people, by the same process of reasoning, cloth, 
 duty free, and untaxed ready-made clothing will 
 diminish the price still further, and give to the con- 
 sumer the very consummation of low prices and 
 cheap wearing apparel. If every consideration but 
 the mere cheapness of the fabric be discarded, then 
 no reason can be found why, with free wool, there 
 should not come free cloth and free clothing. [Ap- 
 plause.] Things, however, are sometimes the dear- 
 est, when nominally they are the cheapest. The 
 selling price of an article is not the only measure ; 
 the ability to buy, the coin with which to purchase, 
 is an important and essential element, and must not 
 be dismissed from our consideration. If a man is 
 without meaijs ant 1 withou* employment, and there
 
 308 PUBLIC QUESTION'S 
 
 is none of the latter to be had, everything is dear to 
 him. The price is of the smallest consequence, 
 however cheap, if it is beyond his reach. If my 
 only means is my labor, and that is unemployed, 
 whether things are cheap or dear is of little moment 
 to me. 
 
 "The manufacturers of New England, and more 
 particularly the skilled labor employed by them, 
 need a Protective Tariff, and require it equally 
 with the industries and labor of other States. It is 
 imperatively demanded, not only here, but in every 
 section of the Union, if the present price of labor 
 is to be continued and maintained. Your industries 
 cannot compete successfully, even in this market, with 
 the industries of England, France, Belgium and Ger- 
 many, without a tariff, so long as the price paid labor 
 here exceeds the price paid labor there from 50 to 75 
 per cent. This inequality can only be met by a tariff 
 upon the products of cheap labor, high enough to 
 compensate for the difference. You cannot compete 
 except upon equal conditions and with like cost of 
 the competing product. Free trade will either 
 equalize the conditions by reducing your labor 
 to that of the rival laborer on the other side, 
 or it will close your factories and workshops and 
 destroy home production and competition. 
 
 " Free trade means cheap labor, and cheap labor 
 means diminished comforts diminished capacity to 
 buy, poor and enfeebled industries and a depend- 
 ent condition generally. And every step taken in
 
 % ANDREW CARNEGIE
 
 HON UAZEM 8. PINGBEJk
 
 PUBLIC QUESTIONS 311 
 
 the direction of free trade, beginning with free raw 
 material, is an advance, and a very long one and 
 a very straight one, in the direction of reduced wages 
 and a changed condition of the 'American working- 
 man, not confined to the labor engaged in preparing 
 raw materials for use, but will widen, and in the end 
 enter every department of labor and skill. 
 
 "I would secure the American market to the 
 American producer [applause], and I would not 
 hesitate to raise the duties whenever necessary to 
 secure this patriotic end. [Applause.] I would not 
 have an idle man or an idle mill or an idle spindle 
 in this country if, by holding exclusively the Ameri- 
 can market, we could keep them employed and run- 
 ning. [Applause.] Every yard of cloth imported 
 here makes a demand for one yard less of American 
 fabrication. 
 
 "Let England take care of herself; let France 
 look after her interests ; let Germany take care of 
 her own people, but in God's name let Americans 
 look after America ! [Loud applause.] Every ton 
 of steel imported diminishes that much of home pro- 
 duction. Every blow struck on the other side upon 
 an article which comes here in competition with;; 
 like articles produced here, makes the demand for 
 one blow less at home. Every day's labor upon the 
 foreign products sent to the United States takes one 
 day's labor from American work ing men. I would 
 give the day's labor to our own, first, last, and all the 
 time, and that policy which fails in this is opposed
 
 312 PUBLIC QUESTIONS 
 
 to American interests. To secure this is the great 
 purpose of a Protective Tariff. Free-traders say, 
 give it to the foreign workman, if ours will not per- 
 form it at the same price and accept the same wages. 
 Protectionists say no, the workingmen say no, and 
 justly and indignantly resent this attempted degra- 
 dation of their labor, this blow at their independence 
 and manhood. 
 
 "The party that tries to lead us back will be 
 buried beneath popular indignation. [Applause.] 
 From whom does this complaint come ? It comes 
 from the scholars, so-called [laughter], and the poets, 
 from whom we gladly take our poetry, but whose 
 political economy we must decline to receive ; from 
 the dilettanti and would-be diplomatists, the men of 
 fixed incomes ; it comes from the men who ' toil not, 
 neither do they spin ' [great applause], and from 
 those who ' do not gather into barns ' [laughter], 
 who have no investments except in . bonds and mort- 
 gages, who want every thing cheap but money, every- 
 thing easy to secure but coin, who prefer the customs 
 and civilization of other countries to our own, and 
 who find nothing so wholesome as that which is im- 
 ported, whether manners or merchandise, and want 
 no obstructions in the shape of a tariff placed upon 
 the free use of both. [Applause and laughter.]
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 LIBERTY AND LABOR. 
 
 "The hope of the Republic is in a citizenship that is faithful to home 
 and family and devotedly loyal to country." 
 
 " Mr. President, Members of the Illinois State Fed- 
 eration of Labor, of the Trade and Labor Assembly of 
 Chicago, and My Fellow- Citizens : I am glad to join 
 with you in observing this, our one hundred and 
 nineteenth National anniversary, that we may gather 
 fresh inspirations in the cause of human freedom 
 and equality and dedicate ourselves anew, in com- 
 mon with our fellow-citizens everywhere, to the good 
 work of maintaining the free Government which our 
 fathers inaugurated more than a century ago. No 
 city in America has a better right or a better reason 
 to rejoice at its majesty and strength than Chicago, 
 and no citizens of any city in any State should cele- 
 brate it with more zeal and joy than her working 
 people, who have done so much to make Chicago the 
 great inland metropolis of our country, whose mar- 
 velous progress is the admiration and wonder of the 
 world. 
 
 " We are a Nation of working people ; some one 
 
 313
 
 314 LIBERTY AND LABOR 
 
 has said that Americans are born busy, and that 
 they never find time to be idle or indolent. We 
 glory in the fact that in the dignity and elevation of 
 labor we find our greatest distinction among the 
 nations of the earth. The United States possesses 
 practically as much energy or working power as 
 Great Britain, Germany, and France combined, so 
 that the ratio of working power falling to each 
 American is more than that of to two people of any 
 other nation. But with our improved and superior 
 machinery each American laborer is enabled to 
 accomplish, relatively, still more than his European 
 competitor. The American laborer not only does 
 more and better work, but there are more skilled, 
 intelligent, and capable artisans here now in propor- 
 tion to the total population than in any other coun- 
 try of the world. No other country can boast of so 
 great a percentage of producers among her instructed 
 population, and none other can point to so large a 
 number of enlightened and educated citizens. The 
 census statistics of 1890 place the number of our 
 citizens over ten' years of age engaged in gainful 
 occupations at 22,735,000, while Sir Michael G. Mul- 
 hall, the noted English statistician, refers to the fact 
 that no other civilized country could ever before 
 boast of 41,000,000 instructed citizens. Indeed, we 
 may find in the able review of the industrial activi- 
 ties of our country ^recently published by this distin- 
 guished authority many striking texts for patriotic 
 contemplation. He states very frankly :
 
 LIBERTY AND LABOR 315 
 
 " ' If we were to take a survey of mankind in 
 ancient or modern times as regards the physical, 
 mechanical, and intellectual force of nations, we find 
 nothing to compare with the United States in this 
 present year of 1895. The physical and mechanical 
 power which has enabled a community of wood- 
 cutters and farmers to become in less than one hun- 
 dred years the greatest Nation in the world is the 
 aggregate of the strong arms of men and women, 
 aided by horse-power, machinery, and steam-power 
 applied to the useful arts and sciences of every-day 
 life. The power that traces a furrow in the prairie, 
 sows the seed, reaps and threshes the ripe grain ; the 
 power that converts wheat into flour, that weaves 
 wool or cotton into textile stuffs and garments ; the 
 power that lifts the mineral from the bowels of the 
 earth, that forges iron and constructs railroads ; the 
 power that builds up towns and cities in a word, 
 whatever force is directed for the production, con- 
 veyance, or distribution of the necessaries, comforts, 
 or luxuries of life, may be measured at each 
 National census with almost the same precision as 
 that with which the astronomer indicates the dis- 
 tances of the heavenly bodies.' 
 
 " We shall not enter upon such a computation or 
 study, interesting as it might bo, but you are to be 
 congratulated upon the fact that in every field of 
 progress and development Chicago has always been 
 to the front and borne a most conspicuous part. 
 Upon this proud record I feel that you are to be es-
 
 316 LIBEETY AND LABOR 
 
 pecially congratulated, for I am sure that to no class 
 of her citizens is this great city so much indebted for 
 her marvelous growth as to her wage-earners, arti- 
 sans, and working people. It can truthfully be said 
 that no other city in the country has been so shin- 
 ing a light, so truly an example and model in enter- 
 prise and energy for so many people in so many 
 States as Chicago. Her people have set the pace for 
 the great Northwest, now chasing other parts of the 
 country in the race of progress and supremacy. It 
 is fitting that they should rejoice, and above all most 
 appropriate that they should select this glad anni- 
 versary as the occasion for such jubilations. 
 
 " This day, forever the most illustrious in our 
 history, is crowded with patriotic memories. It 
 belongs to history, and celebrates that only which is 
 grand and inspiring in history. Every memory, 
 every tradition, every event about it must inspire 
 every patriot with true homage to country and with 
 hope, courage, and confidence for the future. It is 
 the baptismal day of freedom ; the day when the 
 hearts of Young America are proud and glad and 
 the hearts of the old are young again. It celebrates 
 the grandest act in the history of the human race the 
 Declaration of American Independence, and a ring- 
 ing protest against usurpation and tyranny in that 
 age and every other. It has no rival ; Lincoln's im- 
 mortal Proclamation of Emancipation was but its 
 fitting supplement and actual fulfillment. Yorktown 
 pointed the way, but it was Appomattox that marked
 
 'LIBERTY AND LABOR 317 
 
 the completed, unquestioned, glorious realization of 
 both. 
 
 " The Fourth of July calls us back to the most 
 heroic era of American' annals, and I can conceive 
 of nothing more profitable than a consideration of 
 the origin and meaning of our National anniversary 
 and a brief notice of some of the patriotic leaders who 
 made its celebration possible. The day records the 
 event which gave birth to the Nation, that glad event 
 to humanity out of which has arisen the great Na- 
 tional fabric that we now enjoy, and the preservation 
 and advancement of which should be our highest and 
 most sacred concern. We cannot study the early 
 history of the country without marveling at the 
 courage, the" foresight, the sagacity, and the broad- 
 mindedness of the men who promulgated the Decla- 
 ration of Independence and who subsequently 
 launched a new government under a written Consti- 
 tution. The men who framed the Declaration and 
 Constitution seem now to have been inspired for 
 their great work, to have been raised up by Jehovah, 
 like His prophets of old, especially for the supreme 
 duties and grave responsibilities He placed upon 
 them. 
 
 " Both instruments were in part the work of the 
 same men, and never was the spirit and impulse of a 
 preliminary document more apparent in the com- 
 pleted act. What illustrious men constituted the 
 Continental Congress of 1776 and most of them 
 were young men, whose subsequent careers were as
 
 318 LIBERTY AND LABOR 
 
 distinguished and useful as their first great work in- 
 dicated they would become ! Every American can 
 proudly call that roll of honor without reservation, 
 apology, or omission. From Virginia came Jeffer- 
 son, its author; Harrison, Nelson, Wythe, the Lees, 
 and Braxton, all famous in the annals of the State, 
 and all freely risking life and fortune for their be- 
 loved country. From Massachusetts came John 
 Hancock, ' the outlawed but uncompromising Presi- 
 dent ;' John Adams, ' the Colossus of Independence/ 
 &nd his equally patriotic kinsman, Samuel Adams, 
 'the Father of the Revolution/ Near them sat 
 Benjamin Franklin, the resourceful and wise philos- 
 opher, the eloquent Edward Rutledge, of South 
 Carolina, and those tireless and talented advocates 
 of freedom and union, Thomas McKean and Csesar 
 Rodney, of Delaware. In another group, perhaps, 
 were the four brave men who in later years sat with 
 Washington to frame and sign the Constitution 
 Roger Sherman, of Connecticut; George Read, of 
 Delaware, and George Clymer and James Wilson, 
 of Pennsylvania. Near them were those sweet- 
 spirited and able counselors and orators, Arthur Mid- 
 dleton, of South Carolina, and Richard Henry Lee, 
 of Virginia. Then there were John Witherspoon, of 
 Princeton College, a disciple of Christ and the Chris- 
 tian doctrine of civil liberty ; John Penn, the sturdy 
 patriot of North Carolina ; Lyman Hall, of Georgia ; 
 Chase, Paca, and Stone, of Maryland ; Bartlett and 
 Whipple, of New Hampshire ; Floyd and Living-
 
 LIBERTY AtfD LABOR 319 
 
 i 
 
 ston, of New York ; Hopkins and Ellery, of Rhode 
 Island, and the young and ardent Charles Carroll, 
 of Carrollton. 
 
 " Nor must we omit to mention two of this dis- 
 tinguished body of patriots Dickinson, the eloquent 
 1 Pennsylvania Farmer,' and his colleague, Robert 
 Morris, ' the Financier of the Revolution/ whose 
 energy, self-sacrifice, and devotion were as unbounded 
 as his integrity and probity were unimpeachable. It 
 is related that after he had already involved himself 
 to the extent of $1 ,500,000 in behalf of the Govern- 
 ment, he said to a Quaker friend : * I want money 
 for the use of the army.' 
 
 " ' What security can thee give ?' 
 
 " ' My word and my honor,' replied Morris. 
 
 " ' Robert, thou shalt have it,' was the prompt 
 reply. 
 
 " Equally as useful and perhaps as influential as 
 most of the members was the efficient Secretary of 
 the Continental Congress, Charles Thompson, who for 
 fifteen years was the faithful recorder of all its pro- 
 ceedings, and who both witnessed and directed the 
 signing of the Declaration. To him we are indebted, 
 perhaps, more than to any other, for the enrollment 
 and preservation of the historic parchment itself. 
 
 " These were the men and men like them, who 
 founded our Government, It has always seemed to 
 me most fortunate that they were a truly represen- 
 tative body, not only as to the States and sections of 
 the country, but in the character of their callings
 
 320 LIBERTY AND LABOR 
 
 and pursuits in life. The country was new and but 
 little developed, yet these men were familiar with 
 and represented in themselves every condition of 
 American life and society. Many of them were men 
 of great experience in public affairs, ' the architects 
 of their own fortunes/ who generally had risen 
 despite great odds, and were in no sense adventurers 
 or hot-headed revolutionists. 
 
 " They built, not for themselves alone, but for pos- 
 terity. Their plans stretched far out into the future, 
 compassing the ages and embracing mankind. "Not 
 alone for the present were their sacrifices and 
 struggles, but for all time thereafter. Not for 
 American colonists only, but for the whole human 
 race, wherever men and women are struggling for 
 higher, freer, and better conditions. It was as the 
 yearning of the soul for emancipation. It was the 
 cry of humanity for freedom freedom to think, 
 speak, and act within the limitations of just and 
 proper laws, which should be of their own making. 
 If it should prove ineffectual, all was lost, and tyr- 
 anny and oppression would be perpetual. It was 
 the mighty struggle of the ages for the freedom of 
 man, for the equal opportunity of all mankind. It 
 involved those ' inalienable rights, life, liberty, and 
 the pursuit of happiness ;' and it was no fault of 
 its author that the shackles of slavery were left upon 
 any human being in the Republic. What it fell 
 short of he fully comprehended, and he wrote as he 
 designed, intending that the Declaration should be
 
 LIBERTY AND LABOR 321 
 
 forever the protest of a Nation against every form 
 of tyranny, oppression, and bondage known to men. 
 
 " Liberty and conscience triumphed, and because of 
 that triumph we have enjoyed for now more than a 
 century the freest and best government in the world. 
 The liberty which was secured by so great a sacrifice 
 was not the liberty of lawlessness, not the liberty of 
 licentiousness, but liberty for law, and law always for 
 liberty, and both for all the people. It was not 
 liberty for a class merely, but liberty and political 
 equality for all the people ; notTa struggle for landed 
 proprietors, for men of wealth and gentle birth, but 
 liberty for the masses, the poor as well as the rich, 
 the low as well as the high. It was not a victory 
 easily won indeed, the wonder is that it was won at 
 all. It was a contest waged by weak and struggling 
 colonies, beset by enemies at home, as well as opposed 
 by the most powerful government in the world, * the 
 proud mistress of the seas/ their old Mother 
 Country, strongly intrenched in power, and with the 
 wealth of centuries at command. 
 
 "It took seven years of war to make the Declara- 
 tion of Independence respected as more than the idle 
 words of a few restless leaders. Yet that great 
 proclamation of freedom fell short of what Jefferson 
 intended that it should contain. It is an interesting 
 fact that the author of the Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence and some of those associated with him deeply 
 deplored the slave trade which was then actively en- 
 gaged in by several of the Colonies. It is a fact 
 20
 
 322 LIBERTY AND LABOR 
 
 worth cherishing that iii the original draft by Jeffer- 
 son he charged the king with willful participation in 
 the slave trade. Here is the passage which was 
 omitted, and it is certainly one of the most striking 
 of the wonderful document : 
 
 " ' He [King George] has waged cruel war against 
 human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights 
 of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people 
 who never offended him, captivating and carrying 
 them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur 
 miserable death in their transportation thither. 
 This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel 
 powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of 
 Great Britain. Determined to keep open the 
 market where men should be bought and sold, he 
 has prostituted his negative for suppressing every 
 legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this 
 execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of 
 horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he 
 is now exciting those very people to rise in arms 
 among us and purchase that liberty of which he has 
 deprived them by murdering the people on which he 
 also obtruded them ; thus paying off former crimes 
 committed against the liberties of one people with 
 crimes which he urges them to commit against the 
 lives of another.' 
 
 " This, alas, was left out of the otherwise perfect 
 Declaration of Independence. What a world of 
 trouble and sorrow it would have saved to posterity 
 had it remained I What a blot it would have spared
 
 LIBERTY AND LABOR 323 
 
 the fair fame of this Republic, and what thousands 
 of precious lives would have been saved if that great 
 truth had become a part of the Charter of our Lib- 
 erties, and its spirit have been ingrafted upon the 
 Constitution in 1787 ! It is doubtful whether the 
 Declaration could have been adopted if it had not 
 been eliminated. Some of the Colonies would 
 doubtless have withheld their assent, because some 
 of them, or some of the people dwelling therein, were 
 engaged themselves in the unholy traffic. It was the 
 best and all that could be done at the time ; more 
 was not required then, and need not be deeply de- 
 plored now. Jefferson reluctantly yielded the point, 
 but the passage remains as a permanent record not 
 only to his broad philanthropy and exalted patriot- 
 ism, but to his marvelous sagacity and foresight as 
 one of the ablest and noblest of American statesmen. 
 We can but reflect that what was in the hearts of 
 Jefferson and many of his associates more than one 
 hundred and nineteen years ago continued to stir the 
 hearts of mankind, and that men could not slumber 
 until slavery was totally extinguished. It took 
 nearly a hundred years of national agitation and 
 finally a war which cost the country hundreds of 
 thousands of brave men and millions of the public 
 treasury to put into the Constitution of the country 
 what Jefferson wanted to put from the first into the 
 Declaration of Independence. 
 
 " It is interesting to note what seemed the almost 
 insuperable obstacles to the final victory which
 
 324 LIBERTY AND LABOR 
 
 inaugurated free government on this continent. In 
 the limitations of an address like this it is impossible 
 to give them even a casual review. There was one 
 great menace, however, that seems to have received 
 little attention at the time which impresses me deeply, 
 and may possess some interest to you, since it bringa 
 into prominence the noble character of Washington 
 and his agency in securing the blessings we no\v 
 enjoy. It was after hostilities had ceased, although 
 no public proclamation of peace had yet been made 
 Washington had been urged to accept a kingship,, 
 but had sternly rebuked every suggestion of dictator- 
 ship on his part. The army was at Newburgh with- 
 out pay, almost without food, and suffering in rags. 
 Washington best describes its condition in a letter to 
 the Secretary of War, from which I read : 
 
 " ' Under present circumstances, when I see a 
 number of men goaded by a thousand stings of re- 
 flection on the past and anticipations of the future, 
 about to be turned on the world, forced by penury 
 and by what they call the ingratitude of the public, 
 involved in debt, without one farthing to carry them 
 home, after spending the flower of their days and 
 many of their patrimonies in establishing the free- 
 dom of their country and suffering everything this 
 side of death I repeat that when I consider these 
 irritating circumstances, without one thing to soothe 
 their feelings or dispel their prospects, I cannot 
 avoid apprehending that a train of evils will follow 
 of a very serious and distressing nature. You may
 
 LIBERTY AND LABOR 325 
 
 rely upon it, the patriotism and long suffering of this 
 Army is well-nigh exhausted, and there never was 
 so great a spirit of discontent as at present/ 
 
 " He stood between the Army and Congress, sym- 
 pathizing deeply with his brave comrades in their 
 deplorable condition, and yet in their presence, and 
 in all his relations with them, upholding Congress 
 and finding good excuses for its failure to provide 
 for the Continental Army. The greatest discontent 
 was prevalent, and a manifesto was issued and cir- 
 culated among the officers and men which was well 
 calculated to move them to acts of disorder and vio- 
 lence. This was its strong language : 
 
 " * Faith has its limits as well as its temper, and 
 there are points beyond which neither can be 
 stretched without sinking into cowardice or plunging 
 into credulity. If this be your treatment while the 
 swords you wear are necessary to the protection of 
 your country, what have you to expect from peace, 
 when your voice shall sink and your strength dissi- 
 pate by division, when those very swords, the instru- 
 ments and companions of your glory, shall be taken 
 from your sides and no remaining mark of your 
 military distinction is left but your infirmities and 
 scars? Can you consent to retire from the field and 
 grow old in poverty, wretchedness, and contempt? 
 Can you consent to wade through the vile mire of 
 despondency and owe the remnant of that life to 
 charity which has hitherto been spent in honor? 
 If you can, go, and carry with you the jest of Tories,
 
 326 LIBERTY AND LABOR 
 
 the scorn of Whigs, and, what is worse, the pity of 
 the world. Go, starve, and be forgotten/ 
 
 " ' Suspect the man/ it continued, referring directly 
 to Washington, ' who would advise to more modera- 
 tion and longer forbearance. Tell Congress that 
 with it rests the responsibility of the future ; that if 
 peace returns nothing but death shall separate you 
 from your arms, and that if the war continues you 
 will retire to some unsettled country to smile in turn 
 and mock when their fear cometh.' 
 
 " This was the situation that confronted Washing- 
 ton. These words of discontent and mutinous im- 
 port were easily caught up by many of the brave 
 but suffering men, the heroic men whom he had 
 borne on his great heart for seven long years. He 
 declared this to be the darkest day of his life ; no 
 defeat in all the years of the Revolution had borne 
 so terrible an aspect. He beheld the half-naked, 
 starving Army about to be led into mutiny, and per- 
 haps, all the horrors of a bloody and desperate civil 
 war, whose chief incentives would be rapine and 
 plunder. What was he to do in this great emer- 
 gency ? 
 
 " A meeting was called without his knowledge or 
 consent to take action. He appreciated its gravity ; 
 he realized the meeting was fraught with the direct 
 consequences to the Army and the country. It 
 might destroy all that had been accomplished in the 
 long struggle. He quickly determined his course. 
 He issued a peremptory order postponing it for four
 
 SENATOR E. O. WOLCOTT.
 
 HON. JOHN WANAMAKEB.
 
 LIBERTY AND LABOR 329 
 
 days, and prepared an address that for force of utter- 
 ance, lofty patriotism, and unselfish devotion to the 
 cause for which they had jointly fought has to me 
 scarcely an equal in the literature of the Revolu- 
 tion. He attended the meeting; it was held on 
 March 15th, 1783. It was the trying moment of 
 his life, as well as a crucial test in the fate of the 
 new and unsettled Government of the Republic. 
 He had for those brave men, as he looked upon them 
 assembled in the Temple, only love, gratitude, and 
 sympathy. He unrolled his manuscript forgetting 
 for the moment his spectacles, which had become in- 
 dispensable to him but, pausing, he took them from 
 his pocket, and before adjusting them remarked, in 
 words full of emotion : 
 
 " * These eyes, my friends, have grown dim and 
 these locks white in the service, yet I never doubted 
 the justice of my country/ 
 
 " Referring to the manifesto, he said : 
 " ' My God, what can this writer have in view in 
 recommending such measures ? Can he be a friend 
 of the country and the army ? No ! He is plot- 
 ting the ruin of both. Let me conjure you in the 
 name of our common country, as you value your own 
 sacred honor, as you respect the rights of humanity, 
 as you regard the military or national character of 
 America, to express your utmost horror and detesta- 
 tion of the man who wishes, under any specious 
 pretense, to overturn the liberties of our country, 
 and who wickedly attempts to open the flood-gates
 
 330 LIBERTY AND LABOR 
 
 of civil discord and deluge our rising empire in 
 blood/ 
 
 "After urging them to exhibit the same unselfish 
 patriotism, the same devotion to duty that had always 
 characterized them, and await with patience justice 
 from the country they had served so faithfully, he 
 said: 
 
 " ' By thus determining and acting you will pursue 
 the plain and direct road to the attainment of your 
 wishes ; you will defeat the insidious designs of our 
 enemies, who are compelled to resort from open force 
 to secret artifice, and you will give one more distin- 
 guishing proof of unexampled patriotism and patient 
 virtue rising superior to the most complicated suffer- 
 ings, and you will, by the dignity of your conduct, 
 afford occasion for posterity to say, when speaking 
 of the glorious example you have exhibited to man- 
 kind : " Had this day been wanting, the world had 
 never seen the last stage of perfection to which 
 human virtue is capable of attaining." 
 
 " Such an appeal from such a man could not be 
 unavailing. The effect was instant; his inspired 
 words were magical. His address finished, he walked 
 out of the Temple alone, leaving his words of wisdom 
 with them for such unrestrained consideration and 
 action as they might see fit to take. The officers at 
 once adopted resolutions of thanks, reciprocating the 
 affectionate expressions of their Commander-in- 
 Chief and indignantly repudiating the wicked mani- 
 festo. Civil war was at that moment averted, and
 
 LIBERTY AXD LABOR 331 
 
 did not again so seriously confront the country for 
 nearly eighty years. 
 
 " This, I repeat, is a day of patriotic memories, 
 and, perhaps, another allusion to the War for Inde- 
 pendence may prove of some interest to you. On 
 April 18th, 1783, a little more than a month after 
 the scene just described, Washington issued his 
 order announcing that hostilities had ceased. Let 
 me read it to you : 
 
 " ' HEADQUARTERS, NEWBURGH, April 18th, 1793. 
 
 "'The Commander-in-Chief orders the cessation 
 of hostilities between the United States of America 
 and the King of Great Britain to be publicly read 
 to-morrow at twelve o'clock, at the New Building, 
 and the proclamation, which will be communicated 
 herewith, to be read to-morrow evening at the head 
 of every regiment and corps of the army. After 
 which the chaplains with the several brigades will 
 render thanks to Almighty God for all His mercies, 
 particularly for His overruling the wrath of man to 
 His own glory, and causing the rage of war to cease 
 among the nations.' 
 
 " We can well pause, even at this distant day, and 
 offer our thanksgiving to that same power for His 
 mercies to us, and for the singular manner in which 
 He has preserved this Government from then until 
 now against the * wrath of man to His own glory * 
 and our most glorious advancement. 
 
 " Following this order there was a great demon- 
 stration of joy among the soldiers, and even the gal-
 
 332 LIBERTY AND LABOR 
 
 lant officers, who but a few weeks before had been 
 filled with such -great discontent, now alike joined 
 in singing with excited and jubilant air that grand 
 old anthem, ' Independence/ then so popular, but 
 long since forgotten and lost : 
 
 .'"The States, O Lord, with song and praise, 
 
 Shall in Thy strength rejoice ; 
 And, blest with Thy salvation, raise 
 
 To heaven their cheerful voice, 
 And all the continent shall ring, 
 Down with this earthly king ; 
 No king but God.' 
 
 "Interesting as these incidents may be to all who 
 would, by a correct understanding of the past, wisely 
 improve the future, we can review them no further. 
 The past is secure ; the present and the future are 
 our fields of opportunity and duty. Those who have 
 gone before did well their part. Shall we be less 
 brave and patriotic in the performance of our duty ? 
 
 " What a mighty nation has been erected upon the 
 immortal principles of the great Declaration, the 
 signing of which we celebrate to-day I We have 
 increased from thirteen to forty-four States; from 
 3,000,000 to nearly 70,000,000 people. We have 
 arisen from slavery to freedom ; from what some 
 men believed a mere confederacy of States, to be 
 dissolved at pleasure, to a mighty, eternal Union of 
 indivisible, indestructible States; from an agricul- 
 tural community to the foremost Nation of the world 
 in all the arts and sciences, in manufactures, in agri-
 
 LIBERTY AXD LABOR 333 
 
 culture, and in mining. Liberty, labor, and love 
 have accomplished it all. Labor has been dignified 
 and has vindicated the truth that the best citizen of 
 any community is its most useful citizen. All men 
 have equal rights guaranteed by our Constitution 
 and laws, and that equality must be forever pre- 
 served and strengthened and everywhere recognized. 
 We are all Americans, we are all sovereigns, equal 
 in the ballot, and that citizen is the best who does 
 his best ; who follows the light as God gives him to 
 see the light; who concedes to all the races of man- 
 kind what he claims for himself; who rigidly 
 respects the rights of others ; who is ever willing 
 and ready to assist others ; who has the best heart, 
 the best character, the greatest charity and sympa- 
 thy, and who withholds from none of his fellow-men 
 the respect, privileges, and protection he claims for 
 himself. This is the citizenship that is the need of 
 every age and to which we must educate ourselves 
 and those who are to come after us. This is the 
 citizenship that is the hope of the Republic, its 
 security and permanency, which is the hope of man- 
 kind, our own best hope; a citizenship that is faith- 
 ful to home and family, devotedly loyal to country, 
 that encourages the truest and broadest national 
 spirit, the most thorough and genuine Americanism, 
 that is ever moving onward and upward toward the 
 highest ideals of modern civilization ; a citizenship 
 that respects law and constituted authority, that 
 loyally upholds, guards, and supports the Govern-
 
 334 LIBEETY AND LABOR 
 
 ment of which it is a part, in whose administration 
 it has a voice, and that rests upon the free choice 
 and consent of a majority of the people. These 
 were the characteristics which possessed the souls of 
 the men who landed in the ' Mayflower, 7 who resisted 
 British oppression, who promulgated the immortal 
 Declaration of Independence. These are the 
 elements of character which gave us a Patrick 
 Henry, a Franklin, a Washington, a Jefferson, an 
 Adams, a Jackson, a Grant, and which produced a 
 Lincoln, whose name has enriched history, and 
 whose great Emancipation Proclamation has blessed 
 mankind and glorified God. 
 
 " It was this character of citizenship, and the aim 
 to secure it, that animated the men who fought all 
 the battles of the Republic from the Revolution to 
 the great Civil War ; that struck slavery from the 
 Constitution of the United States, that obliterated 
 caste and bondage and made freedom universal in 
 the Republic. The greatest battle which the Nation 
 has fought has been to secure to labor the right to do 
 with its skill, energy, and industry what it chooses, 
 through lawful pursuits and by peaceable means, 
 ever obedient to law and order, and respectful of the 
 rights of all ; that has given labor the unquestioned 
 right to use what it earns in its own way in the 
 elevation of home and family ; that has taught 
 labor to give conscience its full sway, and that 
 has inspired labor to improve wisely every oppor- 
 tunity which makes possible the realization of the
 
 LIBERTY AND LABOR 335 
 
 highest hopes and best aspirations of the human 
 race. 
 
 " Peace, order, and good will among the people, 
 with patriotism in their hearts ; truth, honor, and 
 justice in the executive, judicial, and legislative 
 branches of the Government, municipal, State, and 
 National ; all yielding respect and obedience to law, 
 all equal before the law, and all alike amenable to 
 law such are the conditions that will make our 
 Government too strong ever to be broken by internal 
 dissensions and too powerful ever to be overturned 
 by any enemy from without. Then will the Govern- 
 ment of the people, under the smiles of heaven, 
 bless, prosper, and exalt the people who sustain and 
 support it ! 
 
 " In America no one is born to power ; none 
 assured of station or command except by his own 
 worth or usefulness. But to any post of honor all 
 who choose may aspire, and history has proved that 
 the humblest in youth are frequently the most hon- 
 ored and powerful in the maturity of strength and 
 age. It has long been demonstrated that the philos- 
 ophy of Jefferson is true, and that this, the land of 
 the free and self-governed, is the strongest as well as 
 the best Government in the world. We accept no 
 governmental standards but our own ; we will have 
 no flag but the glorious old Stars and Stripes. 
 
 " Workingmen of Chicago, let me abjure you to 
 be faithful to the acts, traditions, and teachings of 
 the fathers. Make their standard of patriotism and
 
 336 LIBERTY AND LABOR 
 
 duty your own. Be faithful to their glorious exam- 
 ple. Whatever the difficulties of the present, or 
 problems of the future, meet them in the same spirit 
 of unflinching loyalty to country, the same devotion 
 and love for home and family, the same acknowledg- 
 ment of dependence upon God that has always char- 
 acterized those grand men. Therein rests your great- 
 est prosperity and happiness and the surest attainment 
 of your best and dearest ambitions. Have confidence 
 in the strength of our free institutions and faith in 
 the justice of your fellow-citizens, for as Lincoln 
 often said * there is no other hope in the world equal 
 to it/ 
 
 " In conclusion, let me offer the advice and ex- 
 hortation of one who spoke on an occasion somewhat 
 similar to this in the Centennial year 1876 in the 
 city of Boston, the venerable Robert C. Winthrop, 
 of Massachusetts, in his masterly Fourth of July 
 oration and one of his last great public addresses. 
 He had lived through nearly the whole period of our 
 National existence and had been an active partici- 
 pant in public affairs and a close student of our his- 
 tory and people for many years. With this training 
 and all the wisdom of experience and age, he pro- 
 foundly observed: 
 
 " * If I could hope without presumption that any 
 humble counsels of mine on this hallowed anniver- 
 sary would be remembered beyond the hour of their 
 utterance and reach the ears of my countrymen in 
 future days, I could not omit certainly to reiterate
 
 LIBERTY AND LABOK 337 
 
 the solemn obligations which rest on every citizen 
 of this Republic to cherish and enforce the great 
 principles of our Colonial and Revolutionary fathers 
 the principles of liberty and law, one and insepar- 
 able the principles of the Constitution and the 
 Union. I could not omit to urge every man to re- 
 member that self-government politically can only be 
 successful if it be accompanied by self-government 
 personally ; that there must be government some- 
 where ; and that if the people are indeed to be 
 ereigus they must exercise their sovereignty over 
 themselves individually as well as over themselves 
 in the aggregate regulating their own lives, re 
 ing their own temptations, subdning their own pas- 
 sions and voluntarily imposing upon themselves 
 some measure of that restraint and discipline which, 
 under other systems, is supplied from the armories 
 of arbitary power the discipline of virtue, in the 
 place of the discipline of slavery. I could not omit 
 to caution them against the corrupting influences of 
 intemperance, extravagance, and luxury ; I could 
 not omit to call upon them to foster and further the 
 cause of universal education ; to give a liberal sup- 
 port to our schools and colleges; to promote the 
 advancement of science and art in all their multi- 
 plied divisions and relations, and to encourage and 
 -.in all those noble institutions of charitv which 
 
 
 
 in our own land, above all others, have given the 
 crowning grace and glory to modern civilization.' 
 " It would to me be an honor beyond any other to
 
 338 LIBEETY AND LABOE 
 
 have been the author of these sublime sentiments. 
 I can and do adopt them, and beg you to heed, 
 cherish, and teach them, as a rule of action to your- 
 selves and to your children. American citizenship 
 thus molded will perpetuate freedom, exalt the free- 
 man, and distinguish the Republic beyond its past 
 glorious achievements."
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 MRS. McKIXLEY AT HOME. 
 
 The great Protectionist's Wife Strong despite physical weakness- 
 Shares all her husband's hurdens "Ever happy when sur- 
 rounded by friends, children, and roses." 
 
 [SKETCH BY Misa H. D. HALLMARK.] 
 
 " T AM very glad to meet you," she said, as I 
 neared her chair. 
 
 -*" A tone is the index which gives you the page 
 where a character is written. The moment the sen- 
 tence was finished I knew Mrs. William McKinley 
 belonged to the sincerely gracious type of women. 
 
 It only needed her face and outstretched hand to 
 verify the classification. 
 
 Governor McKinley had brought me in to meet 
 his wife through a group of politicians and friends 
 who were sitting on the terrace and wide veranda at 
 his house at Canton, O. As we walked through the 
 shadowy, spacious hall toward the sitting-room the 
 laughter and hum of feminine voices reached me. 
 
 " I will not disturb Mrs. McKinley if she is en- 
 tertaining callers, Governor," I said. 
 
 309
 
 340 MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME 
 
 "Then I very much, fear you would never see 
 her," he answered. " It is the penalty of her 
 geniality that she gladly pays. She is ever happy 
 when surrounded by friends, children, and roses." 
 
 And in that atmosphere I found her. She had 
 visitors of the gentler sex from California and Ver- 
 mont friends whom she had made in Congressional 
 days. Roses were everywhere. One seemed turned 
 loose in a conservatory. 
 
 Two tiny chairs waited occupancy. The Governor 
 turned to pick up a chubby-faced, yellow-ringleted 
 three-year-old who came with hands full of flowers 
 and lips ready to be kissed by " Auntie McKinley." 
 
 " That is my name to every acquaintance under 
 ten years of age," said Mrs. McKinley, " It used to 
 be my boast that I knew every child in Canton. I 
 fear the town grows beyond me now ; but reciprocity 
 is great, and the children seem drawn to me because 
 they know I love them so." 
 
 HER LOVE OF CHILDREN. 
 
 If Mrs. McKinley were asked " What are your 
 preferences?" the first answer would be " Children." 
 
 Twenty-three years ago she lost the two little ones 
 that came to bless the sunny house at Canton. The 
 first was born on Christmas Day and the second on 
 April 1st. 
 
 Since the music of the two tiny voices died away 
 from her ears forever Mrs. McKinley has found that
 
 MRS. McKIXLEY AT HOME 341 
 
 her heart throbs quicker at the prattle of a child than 
 aught else, and that her love is wide enough to cover 
 all small lives, whether they be the offspring of poet 
 or peasant, king or beggar. 
 
 By the side of her great reception chair stand two 
 little rockers. One belonged to their first born and 
 the other was the infant throne of Mrs. McKinley 
 herself when she was " Baby Saxton," and all Can- 
 ton loved her. 
 
 For while the branches of Mrs. McKinley 's life 
 have spread far and wide, giving shade, shelter, fra- 
 grance, and sweetness to many other lives, the roots 
 are firmly established in that thriving little Western 
 town. 
 
 Twenty-six years ago Ida Saxton was Canton's 
 belle and heiress. Her father was a business man 
 rich beyond the order for those times. Houses, lands, 
 and banks were his. 
 
 Of sturdy old Presbyterian stock, he brought up 
 his children after the way they should go, studying 
 the Westminster Confession of Faith, and commit- 
 ting the Shorter Catechism to memory. 
 
 He was a man of influence in his county, and all 
 homage was given to the pretty young daughter who 
 came home after graduating at Media, Pa., and made 
 her bow to the social circles of Canton. Her father, 
 however, had his own ideas about girls, .and it was not 
 all to be " bangs and beaux " with his daughter. 
 
 " Girls should learn to do something that will 
 bring them in money if fortune should be fickle," he
 
 342 MES. McKINLEY AT HOME 
 
 argued. And the pretty daughter was put into his 
 own bank at Canton for a year to prove that Media 
 had taught her something besides "a little Latin." 
 
 "And the prospect looked quite dreary to me/' 
 said Mrs. McKinley, in talking it over, " for all the 
 other girls hud brothers to take them out, and my 
 one was only a wee lad. But," she added, with a 
 twinkle in her great gray eyes, " every man in town 
 promised to be a brother to me, and, oh ! I did have 
 such a good time." 
 
 " And the Governor ? Was he a childhood's 
 sweetheart, as I have heard?" I asked. 
 
 " Not at all. He ran away to the army when he 
 was sixteen, and served along with President Hayes. 
 That was the strong bond between them. After that 
 he began his law practice in Canton, and why then 
 the other brothers dropped off one by one. Every- 
 one approved of the match, my father most of all - 
 and so we were married." 
 
 Where Mrs. McKinley lives now the Governor 
 brought her home a bride. For twenty-five years 
 the house on North Market Street has remained un- 
 altered, and the Governor and his wife dearly love 
 every picture on its walls and every rose that climbs 
 over the terrace. 
 
 The First Presbyterian Church, a fine piece of 
 tone architecture, was dedicated by the Saxton-Mc- 
 Kinley wedding. The builders hurried the prepa- 
 rations to completion that this wedding might be 
 the very first event inside its walls.
 
 MRS. McKIXLEY AT HOME 343 
 
 All the Saxton's are yet ardent members and sup- 
 porters of it, but Mrs. McKinley usually goes with 
 her husband to the Methodist Church, of which he 
 is an enthusiastic supporter. 
 
 As Ida Saxton was Canton's belle a quarter of a 
 century ago, so Mrs. William McKinley is the most 
 popular woman there to-day. No honors of State 
 or nation's capital have spoiled her. She inherited 
 sterner stuff than that. She is just as gracious to 
 some old beaux whose lives have come to nothing as 
 she is to an illustrious executive. 
 
 She has a keen interest in people. They are more 
 to her than position. It is the individual, not the 
 class, for which she cares. 
 
 As the Governor said, it would be hard to see 
 Mrs. McKinley when she didn't have callers. The 
 house is always open. The neighborly spirit which 
 rules in smaller towns exists in Canton to a great 
 degree, but the neighborliness to the McKinleys 
 comes from all points of the Union. 
 
 During the day I spent with them there were no 
 fewer than fifty friendly formal callers, and yet the 
 day was not a gala one. 
 
 The favorite house-corner of the Governor's wife 
 is the great triple bow window of the long western 
 sitting-room. 
 
 Here she sits for hours, talking to friends, playing 
 with children, or watching the passers-by on wheels, 
 foot, and carriage ; for North Market Street is a 
 fashionable thoroughfare and the town authorities
 
 344 MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME 
 
 wish, to shortly change the name to the more signifi- 
 cant and euphonious one of McKinley Avenue. 
 
 I say she " sits " there, for misfortune laid a heavy 
 hand on Mrs. McKinley twenty-three years ago, and 
 the muscles of her limbs are too weak to allow her 
 to walk. 
 
 For twenty-three years, therefore, she has never 
 stood upright or walked without assistance. 
 
 By her side always rests a strong mahogany cane 
 with a great gold top, and a friend's arm serves for 
 the other support. 
 
 That is the only sign of invaldism. Women with 
 far slighter physical troubles have worn weaker 
 faces. Mrs. McKinley is a tall, well-rounded, strong- 
 faced, clear-eyed woman, who needs must point to 
 the staff and say, as she does, smilingly to every 
 stranger " You see I'm not strong," before there 
 comes a sj^picion that she cannot walk and ride 
 and wheel ana do aught that strong women do. 
 
 For she looks so vital. 
 
 She is about medium height, with a full, straight 
 figure. The face has strong cheek bones, a wide 
 brow, not very high, from which her short, soft, 
 gray hair divides in broad parting and waves back 
 to the collar. 
 
 This coiffure is not one of Mrs. McKinley's choos- 
 ing, but her luxuriant hair had to be cut, as she did 
 not feel quite strong enough to bear the hairpins and 
 braids through the unflagging duties as wife of a 
 public man.
 
 HON. LYMAN J. GAGE.
 
 HON. JOHN D. LONG.
 
 MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME 347 
 
 However, it is exceedingly becoming to her. Her 
 brow, hair, and eyes reminded me singularly of those 
 of Elizabeth Stuart Phe'ps. 
 
 Mrs. McKinley's eyes are bar telling point. Had 
 the mouth been weak the eyes would have redeemed 
 it. But its strength says to the eyes, *' We are one 
 in purpose." 
 
 They are magnetic eyes. 
 
 In them one sees the discipline of Buffering, the 
 heritage of common sense, tlu ^raciousness of a 
 kindly woman, the tenderness of a wife who loves 
 wisely and well. 
 
 But behind even that one who watches sees the 
 steel badge of courage; the squareness- of judgment 
 which looks a world straight into the fatje ; and some- 
 where, away down in a spot no bigger than the small 
 end of a wine funnel, the determination to be bigger 
 than anything than can happen to her. 
 
 With such a woman fate hag no victory, circum- 
 stance no stii;g, and chance would Lave made her an 
 invalid ; herself defeated it. 
 
 THE GOVERNOR'S 
 
 Her physical weakness is no skdeton in a closet. 
 She speaks of it to all acquaintances never in a 
 desire to use the first person sir.g-ilar, but ?is an ex- 
 planation that she doesn't do more as a hostess, 
 although every one knows th*it she accomplishes 
 more than many a healthy, selfish woman.
 
 348 MES. McKINLEY AT HOME 
 
 She was speaking of it in the reception room dur- 
 ing the afternoon, saying to an enthusiastic biker 
 that wheels were a subject where she didn't have to 
 fight for the merits of her chosen one, for bicycling 
 was quite beyond her forever, "As I can't even walk," 
 she added. 
 
 A young girl quickly sighed. 
 
 Mrs. McKinley turned to her with that wonderful 
 tenderness on her face that comes to a girl's mouth 
 and eyes when her lover is mentioned, and said: 
 " But, my child, I have the great love of a noble 
 
 man." 
 
 And who could sigh after that ? 
 
 The devotion of Governor McKinley to his wife 
 is party history. Were it private talk only it would 
 be indelicate to mention it, but everyone who has 
 ever come in friendly contact with this couple know 
 of it. 
 
 He is too keen a man not to know that the strong 
 face of his wife shows a woman of sound judgment, 
 of wide-mindedness, of a good insight into men and 
 affairs and the causes that condition both, for him 
 not to make her his confidante and helpmate. 
 
 That cool-headed judiciousness in judging the 
 world, which was transmitted into her veins by her 
 clear-minded father, comes not amiss in the states- 
 man's wife. The person worth observing is observed 
 by Mrs. McKinley. 
 
 The advantages she has been given as wife of a 
 public man and the advantages fate gave her of
 
 MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME 349 
 
 remaining quiet and not wasting her vitality in flit- 
 ting to and fro, have developed that inborn trait to 
 a wonderful degree to an alarming degree, I should 
 say, to the person who wished to gain by deceiving her. 
 
 HER WIXNIXG PERSONALITY. 
 
 But this knowledge of the world does not tend in 
 the smallest to harden the face. It gives firmness to 
 sweetness, purpose to tenderness, power behind at- 
 traction. 
 
 Between the level, black eyebrows that divide the 
 two color lines of gray eyes and gray hair, there is 
 not a wrinkle or frown. Nothing but disposition 
 has done this thing. 
 
 She is temperamentally inclined not to worry, and 
 the sign is there on the smooth, white forehead. 
 The absence of any line is a special conundrum to 
 those whose grievances have been slighter, perhaps, 
 but whose command over self has been less. 
 
 I asked an old friend of Mrs. McKinley's if the 
 latter's temper was always as equable as that day. 
 It had been severely tried. 
 
 The day was hot, callers had been constant since 
 eleven in the morning, and it was then five, a good 
 dozen of visitors from out of town had remained to 
 luncheon, among whom were Mark Hanna, ex-Sec- 
 retary Proctor, from Vermont ; Judge and Mrs, 
 Speers, from California ; and several other equally 
 talked-of personages, at which table Mrs. McKinley 
 had presided.
 
 350 MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME 
 
 ** Yes," said the friend, " T. ? ve never seen her pet- 
 tish in my life. That she sometimes gets exceed- 
 ingly weary goes without saying, l>ut she seemed to 
 have schooled herself out of that common heritage 
 of woman the desire to be cross and unreasonable 
 when tired." 
 
 "Why, even when I get a cold in my head," said 
 
 the wife of an army officer, " I get simply snappish, 
 
 just as all other women do, and my husband says 
 
 warningly, * Remember Mrs. McKinley, dear/ and I 
 
 at once am ashamed of myself." 
 
 HER FAVORITE NOOK. 
 
 I spoke of the favorite place in the McKinley 
 home. It is around a great window that looks on a 
 neighbor's house and the side terrace, while the two 
 French windows in front open on the wide veranda 
 which leads down to a spacious terrace. 
 
 Mrs. McKinley's chair is drawn near the bow 
 window. The nearby table is a feature of the room. 
 It is the one exhibited at the World's Fair in the 
 Ohio Building, made of handsome Ohio woods, and 
 afterward presented to the Governor and his wife. 
 
 It is exceedingly large and beautifully carved, 
 with great claw feet. On it lie the periodicals of 
 the day, the mounted and framed photograph of the 
 Governor's horse, " Midnight," cabinets of beautiful 
 women and sandwiched everywhere, bowls and vases 
 of glorious roses. 
 
 I should not say the roses wore "sandwiched/'
 
 MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME 351 
 
 for all else were pushed around to make room for 
 the splendid June beauties that friends keep this 
 corner abundantly supplied with. 
 
 One great vase of them was sent by the fair grad- 
 uates to whom the Governor had presented diplomas 
 the night before. And one massive jar of the most 
 superb red tmes were just unpacked, sent by a Phila- 
 delphia florist, asking that they might have the 
 honor of being named " the Mrs. McKiuley," as 
 they were a new variety. 
 
 This room is furnished in simple but artistic taste. 
 This is more of a living room than a sitting room. 
 
 The pictures are mostly of family and friends. 
 Mr. and Mrs. McKiuley, Sr., are there, and Mr. and 
 Mrs. Saxton. President and Mrs. Hayes in a double 
 frame are mounted on an easel, and Mrs. McKinley 
 pointed out to me the small daguerreotypes of the wee 
 one that died, and of her husband and herself when 
 they began lite in an unpretentious way, but even 
 then with " dreams of future greatness in the eye." 
 
 Autograph pictures of great artists in the literary 
 and musical world dot the cosily papered walls, and 
 the fine piano also rose-covered shows the mu- 
 sical taste of the hostess. 
 
 Behind this sitting-room is Mrs, McKinley's sleep- 
 ing apartment. It is furnished daintily in old chip- 
 pendale and brass couch with hangings of French 
 Cretonne. The toilet table is loaded with lovely 
 silver articles and long wiiido\vs open out on more 
 green grass.
 
 352 MES. McKINLEY AT HOME 
 
 In truth, there is no outlook in summer from the 
 McKinley home where the eye doesn't meet verdure 
 and flowers. 
 
 As to the dining-room, one glance at the long 
 dining- table verifies what Fred, the colored major- 
 domo of the Governor, would tell you, that " the 
 family is two, but the table is set for twelve." 
 
 This shows the hospitality of the home. 
 
 If Mrs. McKinley becomes mistress of the White 
 House, I don't believe any exigencies in the social 
 life will be too much for her, accustomed, as she is, 
 to constant entertaining. And her entertaining, 
 mind you, is not confined to their Canton home. 
 Mrs. McKinley goes everywhere the Governor goes, 
 and all over America she has boundlessly entertained 
 and been entertained. 
 
 Some one spoke of her possible White House duties. 
 She shook her head and laughed. 
 
 " I've tried that once," she said, "and have ever 
 since said I never wanted any longer duration of it. 
 I was Lady of the White House for two weeks dur- 
 ing Mrs. Hayes's absence. 
 
 " Mrs. Hayes and I had always been on most 
 cordial terms, and I was as often at the White House 
 as she at our hotel. So she persuaded me to stay 
 there during a fortnight of unavoidable absence on 
 her part during the season. And I repeat, the posi- 
 tion is no slight tax." 
 
 Mrs. McKinley is an excellent hostess. She was 
 either born with although I don't believe anybody
 
 MRS. McKIXLEY AT HOME 353 
 
 is or she lias learned the gift of listening and of 
 bringing the guests out. And you know if one 
 proves that you are clever you are convinced of the 
 cleverness of the one who does so. 
 
 So people go away from the Governor's wife with 
 a snug, comfortable conviction about the region of 
 the heart that they have proved themselves most 
 entertaining persons. 
 
 Wonderful gift, isn't it? 
 
 But no one would laugh more at the suggestion of 
 such a trait on her part than Mrs. McKiriley. " But, 
 my dear, I am really so interested," she would say. 
 
 HER WOMAN'S RIGHTS. 
 
 When I said good-by to her I almost told her 
 how charming she was. I hope my eyes told it to 
 her. 
 
 In the secret recesses of my better sense I knew I 
 had been lured into staying too long, and yet her 
 parting graciousness was such that my sub-coating 
 of conceit was gratified. That is another straw which 
 shows her power of making friends. 
 
 Going down the terrace, where the men portion of 
 the callers sat on garden chairs, taking their ease 
 while they talked on matters of quivering import- 
 ance, I turned back to get a last glimpse of the 
 favorite corner. 
 
 The setting sun touched the rose petals into pris- 
 matic colors and glinted on the yellow curls of a 
 baby caller seated in one of the little chairs.
 
 354' MRS. McKINLEY AT HOME 
 
 Mrs. Melvinley sat in her large chair ; in her firm 
 white hand she held a. great-hearted crimson rose ; 
 on her shoulder was lightly laid the hand of the man 
 of the hour ; back of her stood several powers in the 
 affairs of the nation. 
 
 And I knew that whatever the political creed of 
 those men, they believe in woman's rights- the right 
 of their chivalry and tenderness and loyalty and de- 
 votion and homage to such a wide-minded, great- 
 hearted, fine-sonled lady. 
 
 Of such is the kingdom of woman.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 McKINLEY ON THE DAY OF HIS NOMINATION. 
 
 His good nerve and thoughtful courtesies He was quiet through the 
 storm and gave the good news with kisses to his wife and 
 mother. 
 
 JUNE 18th, 1896, was an ideal June day at Can- 
 ton ; the air full of golden sunshine. The ex- 
 pectation and strain of excitement of the people, 
 who have a passionate admiration and affection for 
 Major McKinley, were unmistakable, hut they waited 
 with the supreme dignity of confidence. 
 
 Major McKinley was awakened rather early from 
 a sound sleep by the clicking of the telegraph in- 
 struments in his office making an unusual clamor 
 that penetrated the walls, but his eye glowed with 
 energy, there was a fiery spark under his dark, 
 shaggy brows, and the fine, strong lines of his mouth 
 were accentuated. The day was not far advanced 
 when a group of newspaper men gathered on the 
 shady porch of the Major's residence, which seems 
 to be in the midst of a vast park, adorned with 
 pleasant homes, standing in glossy lawns and amidst 
 
 lovely trees. 
 
 355
 
 356 DAY OF NOMINATION 
 
 There was keen competition between the Western 
 Union and Postal Telegraph Companies and the 
 Long Distance Telephone, transmitting the Con- 
 vention news to the Major, and he was quietly seated 
 in a rocking-chair, slowly swinging and chatting, 
 and as the telegrams were handed him, he coolly 
 scanned them, repeated their substance often the 
 exact words in unconcerned tones explained them 
 upon inquiry, and, after elucidation, passed them on 
 to others. It was noticeable that he -frequently re- 
 ceived confidential messages and, of course, did not 
 share them with his visitors. 
 
 The intervals were filled with conversation, in 
 which the Major related anecdotes of the National 
 Conventions, and of Mr. Elaine and the great Re- 
 publicans of other days, and the newspaper veterans 
 drew from him old recollections. 
 
 He followed intently the story of the silver seces- 
 sion, recognizing the parliamentary situation point 
 by point, and concisely explaining the entanglement. 
 
 His face was very serious and stern when listening 
 to the account of the retirement of some of the silver 
 States, and broke into a smile, winning as the glance 
 of a boy, as the announcement was made of the alter- 
 nates taking the places of the fugitives ; and there 
 was an expression of pleasure from him when the 
 Montana man stood up and stuck to the Convention, 
 and spoke for his State in terse and ringing terms. 
 
 There were many callers, and the Major was atten- 
 tive to all, remembering the names of acquaintances,
 
 DAY OF XO.MIXATl' '^~ 
 
 asking apt and incisive questions, and commending 
 every sign of patience and the presence of a spirit 
 of conciliation in the Convention. He forgot noth- 
 ing that was courteous and appropriate, and was as 
 hearty and thoughtful as if holding a reception of 
 inconsiderable import. 
 
 The enthusiasts of the early business hours of the 
 eventful day were flitting about in the forms of de- 
 lightful young ladies, wearing breezy and bright 
 spring suits, and they had joyous faces and walked 
 as if to dancing music. They were the people who 
 had no doubts of the fortunes of the day. 
 
 As the Major rocked on his porch, enjoying the 
 freshness of the air that was balmy, though touched 
 with fire, the carriages that clattered down the broad 
 street filled with people, all contained persons who 
 recognized the hero of the day, and he returned their 
 salutes with his accustomed urbanity and manner, at 
 once graceful and stately. 
 
 Ladies of the family came up the walk from the 
 street to the house, with serious faces, and as the 
 Major rose to greet them he asked, " Is mother com- 
 ing up to-day ?" And the answer was, " Yes, she 
 will be here." 
 
 An old friend near the Major appeared to be dis- 
 turbed at the protracted discussions, as it seemed, of 
 the silver and gold question, and the Major snid, 
 " Why, Judge, you seem to be impatient. If you 
 show so much anxiety I shall have to console you." 
 The Major did not allow any word that was tinged
 
 353 DAY OF NOMINATION 
 
 with fault-finding relating to proceedings at St. Louis 
 to pass without dissent, and remarked the Conven- 
 tions were all, in many ways, alike ; and he acted up 
 constantly to the spirit of his last words to Mark 
 Hanna as that successful man was setting forth, 
 conquering and to conquer, for St. Louis the 
 Major's final word was : " Your duty now is one of 
 conciliation." This has been the policy of McKinley 
 throughout. 
 
 About one o'clock a carriage drove up and three 
 ladies descended, the Major hastening forward to greet 
 them. The venerable woman, with Roman features, 
 was the Major's mother, and with her were his sisters. 
 
 About two o'clock there was lunch, Mrs. 
 McKinley at the head of the table. She has, 
 happily, improved in health, and her conversation 
 sparkled with a sweet and pensive but pronounced 
 personality. She has not been in favor of the Presi- 
 dential business. Of course, she wants her husband 
 to win now, but she would rather he had not been 
 drawn into the stream of events that is bearing him 
 on to higher destinies, for the tendency of the great 
 office will be to absorb the Major's attention, so that 
 she can hardly, however great his devotion, have all 
 the time in his society she would fondly claim as her 
 own. 
 
 During lunch the telegrams continued to come, and 
 one from an old friend was full of congratulations by 
 anticipation, and called attention to two texts of 
 Scripture.
 
 DAY OF NOMINATION 359 
 
 There was at once curiosity to read the passages, 
 and Mrs. McKinley's Bible was brought. A gentle- 
 man at the table said that, of course, Mr. McKinley's 
 Bible could be known to him only by the cover, 
 as he was too busy a man to get acquainted with the 
 inside. Mrs. McKinley said, in a spirited way, " He 
 does, indeed, know the inside of his Bible no man 
 better, I assure you ; and I speak that which I do 
 know." 
 
 The texts that had been solemnly called to the 
 Major's attention were the following : 
 
 Jeremiah xx, 11 : " But the Lord is with me as a 
 mighty terrible one ; therefore my persecutors shall 
 stumble, and they shall not prevail ; they shall be 
 greatly ashamed, for they shall not prosper ; their 
 everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten." 
 
 Psalms xlvii, 6 : " Sing praises to God, sing praises ; 
 sing praises unto our King, sing praises." 
 
 These remarkable passages were read by a lady 
 and their fitness to the occasion commented upon by 
 the guests. The Major was silent, but he no doubt 
 thought his persecutors were stumbling and would 
 not prevail and should be greatly ashamed. 
 
 It had been the prevalent presumption up to this 
 time that there would be a recess after the platform 
 was adopted, and that the nominating speeches spun 
 out so as to throw the nomination into the night. 
 
 But lunch had hardly been concluded when the 
 St. Louis news, through the long distance telephone 
 and both wires simultaneously told that the fight was
 
 360 DAY OF NOMINATION 
 
 on to a finish that the rush of events had been has- 
 tened, and the crisis was close at hand. 
 
 McKinley's office, to which he now repaired, is 
 adorned with portraits of Lincoln and Grant and 
 Mrs. McKinley, a fine scene of a battery in a hot 
 engagement, and some personal friends. 
 
 When it was announced that the nominating 
 speeches were about to be made, the Major took his 
 seat in a heavy arm-chair, beside his working desk, 
 with a pad of paper in his left hand and a pencil in 
 his right. Behind him was the telephone apparatus 
 with an expert, connected direct with the Convention 
 Hall. Thus there were three avenues of lightning 
 line service between the Major's office and the Con- 
 vention Hall the Postal and Western Union, and 
 the Long Distance Telephone. 
 
 The Major's face was grave. There were deep 
 fires in his eyes, and his intellectual pallor, always 
 noticeable, now gave his features the stern grace of 
 carved marble. It is a fancy founded on fact that 
 Major McKinley looks like, Napoleon, but to-day he 
 looked marvelously like Daniel Webster. 
 
 The warm reception of Senator Lodge by the 
 Convention elicited an expression of sympathy from 
 the Major, who expressed his sense of the wonderful 
 fact that, though so far from the Convention, we 
 were yet so near, and knew absolutely as much of 
 the proceedings, precisely as they occurred, as if we 
 were bodily present. I mentioned to the Major that 
 my experience warranted the observation that I knew
 
 DAY OF XOMJXATION 361 
 
 more of the Convention in the seat by his side than 
 when in a reporter's seat in Convention Hall. 
 
 Suddenly there came word almost at the same 
 moment through the three wires, that Ohio had 
 been called and that Foraker making his way to 
 the platform and was received with tremendous 
 cheering, also that the hall was flooded with sun- 
 shine, welcoming the soldier-boy son of Ohio, about 
 to nominate another soldier-boy and son of the mod- 
 ern mother of Presidents. The two boy-soldiers 
 were famous ex-Governors of their State. 
 
 The word came in a moment that Foraker was 
 about to speak. McKinley was asked whether For- 
 aker's speech was probably prepared, and the Major 
 said it was not, he supposed, written, but Foraker 
 knew very well the main things he was about to say, 
 and was a keen, brilliant man, who knew how to 
 make the best of the opportunities on the spot. The 
 occasion for the inquiry as to the preparation For- 
 aker had made was that one of the correspondents 
 present had seen several of the nominating speeches 
 in type and gave interesting information as to their 
 length and character. 
 
 The young ladies in the parlor across the hall from 
 the office had a look in which glee and distress were 
 comically mingled, and the Major walked up to 
 them, saying with gayety, " Are you young ladies 
 getting anxious about this affair ?" 
 
 They admitted that they were really nervous. 
 The Major reassured them, and took his big chair,
 
 362 DAY OF NOMINATION 
 
 placing his silk hat on an adjacent table, and relaps- 
 ing into meditation. For a minute his pale, fixed 
 features showed he was thinking, perhaps as much of 
 the far-off past as of the near and rising future, and 
 no one disturbed his day dream. This was just as 
 Foraker was waiting for the storm of applause that 
 greeted him to subside, so as to be allowed to go on 
 with his speech. 
 
 It was at 3.21 o'clock, according to all the watches 
 in the Major's room, when word came that at that 
 moment Foraker pronounced the name of McKinley, 
 and then came the tornado of applause, which lasted 
 for nearly half an hour. There was a pause at our 
 end of the wire, and the Major joined in exchange 
 of recollections with the veterans about the contests 
 in cheering that distinguished the Convention of 1880 
 at Chicago, between the supporters of Grant and those 
 of Blaine the most celebrated of all the contests in 
 cheering. 
 
 The Major stepped to the telephone and listened to 
 the roar of the Convention at St. Louis. He heard 
 it distinctly, and, following his example, we could 
 make out a vast tumult, struck through with shrill 
 notes. It was like a storm at sea, with wild, fitful 
 shrieks of wind. 
 
 As time passed, and Foraker could not still the 
 tempest he had raised, some one said he might not 
 be able to regain the thread of his speech, and the 
 Major remarked it was hard on a speaker to be held 
 up in that way it was like stopping a race horse in
 
 GENERAL LEW WALLACE.
 
 EX-SECRETARY OF STATE DAY.
 
 DAY OF NOMINATION 365 
 
 full career. But the Major said Foraker would come 
 out of such a scene in triumph, and referred with 
 warm admiration to his " gem of a speech " at the 
 late Republican State Convention. 
 
 The monotony of waiting was broken by a telegram 
 from an unknown source, giving McKinley assur- 
 ance that he " would be nominated on the first 
 ballot. " This raised a laugh, but the Major only 
 smiled, and made a suggestion as to the happening 
 of the unexpected and the marvels of disappoint- 
 ment. " You may all, after all, find yourselves 
 much mistaken at last," said the Major, gravely, 
 as if in warning not to tempt Providence by being 
 too sure. 
 
 Telegrams poured in, and the Major read them 
 and directed they should be given to those outside 
 the house where were a dozen very old friends and 
 twice that number of members of the press. The 
 Major at this supreme hour directed the placing of 
 chairs for new arrivals, and had greater self-com- 
 mand than anybody else. He showed his training 
 in war and peace and as he held up telegrams in 
 one hand to read, there was not a flutter of the thin 
 sheets to tell a tale of nervousness. 
 
 The message came, " Foraker is trying to resume 
 his speech," and at this there was a smile. In an- 
 other minute the telephone expert repeated Foraker's 
 words about McKinley when he resumed, "You 
 seem to have heard of him before." 
 
 "Ah," said the Major, "that is like him. He
 
 366 DAY OF NOMINATION 
 
 knows what he is doing, and is all right. The inter- 
 ruption will not shake his speech." 
 
 The Ohio men with the Governor laughed im- 
 mensely at the stories by the triple wires of Mark 
 Hanna and Bushnell and Grosvenor and Foraker 
 hugging and fanning each other and yelling like 
 maniacs. Surely mercy and peace have kissed each 
 other, and the year of jubilee has come ! 
 
 There was a laugh over Depew's humorous illus- 
 tration of the famous saying, touching the silver 
 secessionists, of the celebrated phrase, " erring sis- 
 ters, depart in peace." 
 
 There was some levity about the effort of Penn- 
 sylvania to make a noise, over Quay's presentation 
 equal to that which welcomed McKinley's name, but 
 the face of the Major which was growing earnest as 
 the moment approached for the call of the roll of 
 States for the ballot gave no encouragement to per- 
 sonal reflections. When it was mentioned that Gov- 
 ernor Hastings had spoken, some one said to the tele~ 
 phone expert : " Ask how long the Quay applause 
 lasted." 
 
 " No, no I" said the Major, " Do not ask that ques- 
 tion," and it was riot asked. 
 
 There were a few minutes in which it was known 
 that the call of the roll for balloting was the immi- 
 nent order of exercises, and the air in McKinley's 
 office grew sultry and still. There was heat and 
 silenca McKinley picked up his pad and pencil, 
 and proposed to keep an account of the vote. He
 
 DAY OF NOMINATION 367 
 
 evidently then in fancy floated far away, and was in 
 solitude, and hummed for a few moments the air 
 of an old song. It was so soft and low that few 
 heard it, and then it was no more and was like a 
 dream within a dream something quaint, almost 
 mystical, an echo of music, perhaps, of the long ago. 
 It did not occur to me at the moment what it was, 
 but it is interesting that it was the Scotch war song 
 that Burns ennobled and immortalized in his Ban- 
 nockburn, " Scots whom Bruce has often led." 
 
 Moments passed, and then the Major whistled 
 two or three bars two or three times, quietly, un- 
 consciously. Suddenly the silence was abruptly 
 broken by the announcement: Alabama, 18 for 
 McKinley." 
 
 Then figures came thick and fast, and challenges 
 followed of the votes of several States. 
 
 Two or three present did not know what that 
 meant, and the Major, clearly and carefully, with 
 perfect command of every point raised, stated the 
 situation. 
 
 " But why," the question was asked, " do they 
 
 contested?" 
 
 " It is necessary," the Major explained, " that gen- 
 tlemen should go upon the record if they care to do 
 so," and he added, " there ar<3 disputes between the 
 delegates, and tlie chairmen of delegations who 
 enounce the figures, and it can only be settled by 
 polling tM vote of the State."
 
 368 DAY OF NOMINATION 
 
 The voice of the Major was not heard, a profound 
 silence ensued, when the telephone gave forth, " the 
 Alabama vote sustained." The Major smiled, and 
 then, as the votes for him swelled into hundreds, he 
 kept the count without a change of countenance 
 not even when the Ohio man next to him said: 
 " The Ohio vote, now to be thrown in two or three 
 minutes, will nominate you with a margin of a dozen, 
 and that will please Ohio." 
 
 The recording angel, in the guise of a beautiful 
 young lady in the hall, claimed that the Major's vote 
 was more than it had been represented, and he 
 quickly responded : " Be careful what you claim. 
 We must have a fair count." 
 
 One of the veterans asked, repeatedly : "Where 
 is Idaho ?" and there were inquiries for other States, 
 
 The Major explained that some of the States had 
 gone out, and there might be cases not covered by 
 alternates. 
 
 " Possibly, Sam," said the Major to the telephonist, 
 " Idaho went out," and so on to the last, the Major 
 was clear-headed, composed, cool, and decided. Not 
 a tremor in hand or voice, the figures his pencil 
 traced were well formed, his voice low and even, but 
 his pale, strong face seemed to grow in grandeur and 
 to take on an august expression of conscious, lofty 
 fortune, and fearful responsibility. 
 
 With firm fingers the Major wrote on his tab the 
 fateful ballots, and the mighty vote of Ohio, 46 
 strong, rolled in. The Major put that down, too,
 
 430 DAY OF NOMINATION 301) 
 
 and did not look up or seem to be aware of all it 
 exactly and conclusively meant. 
 
 The Ohio man next him threw down his pencil, 
 saying : " There, that settles it, no more figures for 
 me." 
 
 The Major looked up with an air of curiosity, say- 
 ing : " Why are you no longer interested ?" 
 
 The reply was : " Because the thing is done ; let 
 the boys cipher. The majority will be big enough. 
 Major, I congratulate you. God bless you and give 
 you all good gifts ; and now you have just a quarter 
 of a minute, before you are mobbed, to greet your 
 wife and mother." 
 
 He quickly crossed the hall to the parlor, 
 crowded with ladies, and, as his wife and mother 
 were seated side by side, stooped low to kiss them 
 and clasp their eager hands, the wife responding 
 with a bright smile and a sweet exaltation in her 
 eyes, as he told her that the vote of Ohio had given 
 him the nomination, and the grand old mother, 
 placing a trembling hand on her son's neck, and her 
 eyes streaming with tears, brighter even than smiles, 
 whispered to her illustrious boy some holy words for 
 him alone. 
 
 At this moment the bells rang, the whistles blew, 
 the cannon thundered, and beautiful Canton went 
 stark, gloriously mad. The city, under a strong 
 pressure, had kept quiet. There was a determina- 
 tion that there would be nothing done prematurely. 
 Now the city blazed with bunting. There were
 
 370 BAY OF NOMINATION 
 
 whirring carriages, galloping horses, wheel men and 
 women swift as the wind ! There seemed to have 
 been an organization, including all the men, women, 
 and children, to demonstrate instantly the moment 
 the momentous signal was given. 
 
 As I hastened to the telegraph office there was a 
 vast multitude precipating themselves in a gigantic, 
 ungovernable procession upon Governor McKinley 
 house, and there, with wife and mother at the win- 
 dow with him, he acknowledged his gratitude to his 
 neighbors first of all, and to his countrymen for their 
 personal kindness, and his voice had the fine tone of 
 resolution and sincerity that all who know him 
 know, and that they hear with joyful confidence that 
 heaven has sent a man of such manliness to serve 
 his country in her great office, and help her upward 
 and forward to her incomparable destiny.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 MAJOR MCKINLEY ACKNOWLEDGES AND ACCEPTS HIS 
 
 NOMINATION. 
 
 letter of Major McKinley, accepting his 
 nomination for the Presidency by the National 
 Republican Convention, was delivered by him 
 to the press for publication on the evening of August 
 26. It read as follows : 
 
 Canton, 0., August 26, 1896. 
 
 Hon. John M. Thurston and others, members of the 
 Notification Committee of the Republican National 
 Convention : 
 
 Gentlemen : In pursuance of the promise made to 
 your committee when notified of my nomination as 
 the Republican candidate for President, I beg to sub- 
 mit this formal acceptance of that high honor and to 
 consider in detail questions at issue in the pending 
 campaign. 
 
 Perhaps this might be considered unnecessary in 
 view of my remarks on that occasion and those I 
 have made to delegations that have visited me since 
 the St. Lous Convention, but in view of the momen- 
 tous importance of the proper settlement of the issues 
 
 371
 
 372 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 
 
 presented on our future prosperity and standing as a 
 nation, and considering only the welfare and happi- 
 ness of our people, I could not be content to ornit 
 again calling attention to the questions which in my 
 opinion vitally affect our strength and position among 
 the governments of the world and our morality, in- 
 tegrity and patriotism as citizens of that Republic 
 which for a century past has been the best hope of 
 the world and the inspiration of mankind. 
 
 We must not now prove false to our own high 
 standards in government nor unmindful of the noble 
 example and wise precepts of the fathers, or of the 
 confidence and trust which our conduct in the past 
 has always inspired. 
 
 For the first time since 1868, if ever before, there 
 is presented to the American people this year a clear 
 and direct issue as to our monetary system, of vast 
 importance in its effects, and upon the right settle- 
 ment of which rests largely the financial honor and 
 prosperity of the country. 
 
 It is proposed by one wing of the Democratic party 
 and its allies, the People's and Silver parties, to in- 
 augurate the free and unlimited coinage of silver by 
 independent action on part of the United States at a 
 ratio of sixteen ounces of silver to one ounce of gold. 
 
 The mere declaration of this purpose is a menace 
 to our financial and industrial interests and has 
 already created universal alarm. It involves great 
 peril to the credit and business of the country a 
 peril so grave that conservative men everywhere are
 
 McKIXLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 373 
 
 breaking away from their old party associations and 
 uniting with other patriotic citizens in emphatic pro- 
 test against the platform of the Democratic National 
 Convention as an assault upon the faith and honor 
 of the Government and the welfare of the people. 
 We have had few questions in the lifetime of the 
 Republic more serious than the one which is thus 
 presented. 
 
 The character of the money which shall measure 
 our values and exchanges, and settle our balances 
 with one another and with the nations of the world, 
 is of such primary importance and so far-reaching in 
 its consequences as to call for the most painstaking 
 investigation, and, in the end, a sober and unpreju- 
 diced judgment at the polls. We must not be mis- 
 led by phrases nor deluded by false theories. 
 
 Free silver would not mean that silver dollars were 
 to be freely had without cost or labor. It would 
 mean the free use of the mints of the United States 
 for the few' who are owners of silver bullion, but 
 would make silver coin no freer to the many who are 
 engaged in other enterprises. 
 
 It would not make labor easier, the hours of labor 
 shorter, or the pay better. It would not make 
 Arming less laborious or more profitable. It would 
 not start a factory or make a demand for an ad- 
 ditional day's labor. It would create no new occu- 
 pations. It would add nothing to the comfort of the 
 masses, the capital of the people or the wealth of the 
 nation.
 
 374 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 
 
 It seeks to introduce a new measure of value, but 
 would add no value to the thing measured. It 
 would not conserve values. On the contrary, it 
 would derange all existing values. It would not re- 
 store business confidence, but its direct effect would 
 be to destroy the little which yet remains. 
 
 The meaning of the coinage plank adopted at 
 Chicago is that anyone may take a quantity of silver 
 bullion now worth fifty-three cents to the mints of 
 the United States, have it coined at the expense of 
 the Government, and receive for it a silver dollar 
 which shall be legal tender for the payment of all 
 debts, public and private. 
 
 The owner of the silver bullion would get the 
 silver dollar. It would belong to him and to nobody 
 else. Other people would get it only by their labor, 
 the products of their land, or something of value. 
 
 The bullion owner on the basis of present values 
 would receive the silver dollar for fifty-three cents' 
 worth of silver, and other people would be required 
 to receive it as a full dollar in payment of debts. 
 The Government would get nothing from the trans- 
 action. It would bear the expense of coining the 
 silver and the community would suffer loss by its 
 use. 
 
 We have coined since 1878 more than 400,000,000 
 silver dollars, which are maintained by the Govern- 
 ment at parity with gold and are a full legal tender 
 for the payment of all debts, public and private.
 
 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 378 
 
 How are the silver dollars now in use different from 
 those which would be in use under free coinage ? 
 
 They are to be of the same weight and fineness ; 
 they are to bear the same stamp of the Government. 
 Why would they not be of the same value ? I an- 
 swer : The silver dollars now in use were coined on 
 account of the Government, and not for private ac- 
 count or gain, and the Government has solemnly 
 agreed to keep them as good as the best dollars we 
 have. 
 
 The Government bought the silver bullion at its 
 market value and coined it into silver dollars. Hav- 
 ing exclusive control of the mintage, it only coins 
 what it can hold at a parity with gold. The profit, 
 representing the difference between the commercial 
 value of the silver bullion and the face value of the 
 silver dollar, goes to the Government for the benefit 
 of the people. 
 
 The Government bought the silver bullion con- 
 tained in the silver dollar at very much less than its 
 coinage value. It paid it out to its creditors, and 
 put it in circulation among the people at its face value 
 of one hundred cents, or a full dollar. 
 
 It required the people to accept it as a legal ten- 
 der, and is thus morally bound to maintain it at a 
 parity with gold, which was then, as now, the recog- 
 nized standard with us and the most enlightened 
 nations of the world. 
 
 The Government having issued and circulated the 
 silver dollar must in honor protect the holder from
 
 376 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 
 
 loss. This obligation it has so far sacredly kept. 
 Not only is there a moral obligation, but there is a 
 legal obligation, expressed in public statute, to main- 
 tain the parity. 
 
 These dollars, in the particulars I have named, are 
 not the same as the dollars which would be issued 
 under free coinage. They would be the same in form, 
 but different in value. 
 
 The Government would have no part in the trans- 
 action except to coin the silver bullion into dollars. 
 It would share in no part of the profit. It would 
 take upon itself no obligation. It would not put the 
 dollars into circulation. 
 
 It could only get them as any citizen would get 
 them, by giving something for them. It would de- 
 liver them to those who deposited the silver, and its 
 connection with the transaction there end. 
 
 Such are the silver dollars which would be issued 
 under free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1. 
 Who would then maintain the parity ? What would 
 keep them at par with gold ? 
 
 There would be no obligation resting upon the 
 Government to do it, and if there were, it would be 
 powerless to do it. The simple truth is we would be 
 driven to a silver basis to silver monometallism. 
 
 These dollars, therefore, would stand upon their 
 real value. If the free and unlimited coinage of 
 silver at a ratio of sixteen ounces of silver to one 
 ounce of gold would, as some of its advocates assert, 
 make fifty-three cents in silver worth one hundred
 
 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 377 
 
 cents, and the silver dollar equal to the gold dollar, 
 then we would have no cheaper money than now, and 
 it would be no easier to get. 
 
 But that such would be the result is against reason 
 and is contradicted by experience in all times and in 
 all lands. It means the debasement of our currency 
 to the amount of the difference between the com- 
 mercial and coin value of the silver dollar, which is 
 ever changing, and the effect would be to reduce pro- 
 perty values, entail untold financial loss, destroy con^ 
 fidence, impair the obligations of existing contracts, 
 further impoverish the laborer and producers of the 
 country, create a panic of unparalleled severity, and 
 inflict upon trade and commerce a deadly blow. 
 
 Against any such policy I am unalterably opposed. 
 
 Bimetallism cannot be secured by independent 
 action on our part. It cannot be obtained by opening 
 our mints to the unlimited coinage of the silver of the 
 world at a ratio of 16 ounces of silver to one ounce of 
 gold when the commercial ratio is more than thirty 
 ounces of silver to one ounce of gold. 
 
 Mexico and China have tried the experiment. 
 Mexico has free coinage of silver and gold at a ratio 
 slightly in excess of sixteen and a half ounces of sil- 
 ver to one ounce of gold, and while her mints are 
 freely open to both metals at that ratio, not a single 
 dollar in gold bullion is coined and circulated as 
 money. 
 
 Gold has been driven out of circulation in these 
 countries and they are on a silver basis alone.
 
 S78 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 
 
 Until international agreement is had, it is the plain 
 duty of the United States to maintain the gold stand- 
 ard. It is the recognized and sole standard of the 
 great commercial nations of the world, with which 
 we trade more largely than any other. 
 
 Eighty-four per cent, of our foreign trade for the 
 fiscal year 1895 was with gold standard countries and 
 our trade with other countries was settled on a gold 
 basis. 
 
 Chiefly by means of legislation during and since 
 1878 there has been put in circulation more than 
 $624,000,000 of silver or its representative. This 
 has been done in the honest effort to give to silver, if 
 possible, the same bullion and coinage value, and 
 encourage the concurrent use of both gold and silver 
 as money. Prior to that time there had been less 
 than 9,000,000 of silver dollars coined in the entire 
 history of the United States, a period of eighty-nine 
 years. 
 
 This legislation secures the largest use of silver 
 consistent with financial safety and the pledge to 
 maintain its party with gold. We have to-day more 
 silver than gold. This has been accomplished at 
 times with grave peril to the public credit. 
 
 The so-called Sherman law sought to use all the 
 silver product of the United States for money at its 
 market value. From 1890 to 1893 the Government 
 purchased 4,500,000 ounces a year. This was one- 
 third of the product of the world and practically all 
 of this country's product.
 
 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 379 
 
 It was believed by those who then and now favor 
 free coinage that such use of silver would advance its 
 bullion value to its coinage value, but this expectation 
 was not realized. In a few months, notwithstanding 
 the unprecedented market for the silver produced in 
 the United States, the price of silver went down very 
 rapidly, reaching a lower point than ever before. 
 
 Then, upon the recommendation of President Cleve- 
 land, both political parties united in the repeal of the 
 purchasing clause of the Sherman law. We cannot 
 with safety engage in further experiments in this 
 direction. 
 
 On the 22d of August, 1891, in a public address, I 
 said : " If we could have an international ratio, which 
 all the leading nations of the world would adopt, and 
 the true relation be fixed between the two metals, 
 and all agree upon the quantity of silver which 
 should constitute a dollar, then silver would be as 
 free and unlimited in its privileges of coinage as gold 
 is to-day. 
 
 But that we have not been able to secure, and with 
 the free and unlimited coinage of silver adopted in 
 the United States at the present ratio we would be 
 still further removed from any international agree- 
 ment. We may never be able to secure it if we enter 
 upon the isolated coinage of silver. 
 
 The double standard implies equality at a ratio, 
 and that equality can only be established by the con- 
 current law of nations. It was the concurrent law 
 of nations that made the double standard; it will re-
 
 380 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 
 
 quire the concurrent law of nations to reinstate and 
 sustain it. 
 
 The Kepublican party has not been, and is not 
 now, opposed to the use of silver money, as its record 
 abundantly shows. It has done all that could be 
 done for its increased use with safety and honor by 
 the United States acting apart from other govern- 
 ments. There are those who think that it has al- 
 ready gone beyond the limit of financial prudence. 
 Surely we can go no further, and we must not permit 
 false lights to lure us across the danger line. 
 
 We have much more silver in use than any country 
 in the world, except India or China ; $500,000,000 
 more than Great Britain ; $150,000,000 more than 
 France; $400,000,000 more than Germany; $325,- 
 000,000 less than India, and $125,000,000 less than 
 China. 
 
 The Kepublican party has declared in favor of an 
 international agreement, and if elected President it 
 will be my duty to employ all, proper means to pro- 
 mote it. 
 
 The free coinage of silver in this country would 
 defer, if not defeat, international bimetallism, and 
 until an international agreement can be had every 
 interest requires us to maintain our present standard. 
 
 Independent free coinage of silver at a ratio of six- 
 teen ounces of silver to one ounce of gold would in- 
 sure the speedy contraction of the volume of our cur- 
 rency. It would drive at least five hundred millions 
 of gold dollars, which we now have, permanently
 
 HON. WILLIAM P. FEYE.
 
 8. P. DOLE, EX-PRESIDENT HAWAIIAN REPUBLIC.
 
 McKIXLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 383 
 
 from the trade of the country and greatly decrease 
 our per capita circulation. 
 
 It is not proposed by the Republican party to take 
 from the circulating medium of the country any of 
 the silver we now have. On the contrary, it is pro- 
 posed to keep all of the silver money now in circula- 
 tion on a parity with gold by maintaining the pledge 
 of the Government that all of it shall be equal to 
 gold. 
 
 This has been the unbroken policy of the Repub- 
 lican party since 1878. It has inaugurated no new 
 policy. It will keep in circulation and as good as 
 gold all of the silver and paper money which is now 
 included in the currency of the country. It will 
 maintain their parity. It will preserve their equality 
 in the futute, as it has always done in the past. It 
 will not consent to put this country on a silver basis, 
 which would inevitably follow independent free coin- 
 age at a ratio of sixteen to one. It will oppose the 
 expulsion of gold from our circulation. 
 
 If there is any one thing which should be free 
 from speculation and fluctuation it is the money of a 
 country. It ought never to be the subject of mere 
 partisan contention. 
 
 When we part with our labor, our products, or our 
 property, we should receive in return money which 
 is as stable and unchanging in value as the ingenuity 
 of honest men can make it. Debasement of the cur- 
 rency means destruction of values. 
 
 No one suffers so much from cheap money as the
 
 384 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 
 
 farmers and laborers. They are the first to feel its 
 bad effects, and the last to recover from them. This 
 has been the uniform experience of all countries, and 
 here, as elsewhere, the poor, and not the rich, are 
 always the greatest sufferers from every attempt to 
 debase our money. 
 
 It would fall with alarming severity upon invest- 
 ments already made ; upon insurance companies and 
 their policy holders; upon savings banks and their 
 depositors; upon building and loan associations and 
 their members; upon the savings of thrift; upon 
 pensioners and their families, and upon wage-earners 
 and the purchasing power of their wages. 
 
 The silver question is not the only issue affecting 
 our money in the pending contest. Not content with 
 urging the free coinage of silver, its strongest cham- 
 pions demand that our paper money shall be issued 
 directly by the Government of the United States. 
 
 This is the Chicago Democratic declaration. The 
 St. Louis People's declaration is that " our national 
 money shall be issued by the General Government 
 only, without the intervention of banks of issue, be 
 full legal tender for the payment of all debts, public 
 and private," and be distributed " direct to the people 
 and through lawful disbursements of the Govern- 
 ment.'* 
 
 Thus, in addition to the free coinage of the world's 
 silver, we are asked to enter upon an era of unlimited 
 irredeemable paper currency. The question which 
 was fought out from 1865 to 1879 is thus to be re-
 
 McKIXLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 385 
 
 opened, with all its uncertainties and cheap money 
 experiments of every conceivable form foisted upon us. 
 
 This indicates a most startling reactionary policy, 
 strangely at variance with every requirement of sound 
 finance; but the declaration shows the spirit and 
 purpose of those who by combined action are contend- 
 ing for the control of the Government. 
 
 Not satisfied with the debasement of our coin which 
 would inevitably follow the free coinage of silver at 
 16 to 1, they would still further degrade our currency 
 and threaten the public honor by the unlimited issue 
 of an irredeemable paper currency. 
 
 A graver manace to our financial standing and 
 credit could hardly be conceived and every patriotic 
 citizen should be aroused to promptly meet and effec- 
 tually defeat it. 
 
 It is a cause for painful regret and solicitude that 
 an effort is being made by those high in the counsels 
 of the allied parties to divide the people of this 
 country into classes and create distinctions among us, 
 which, in fact, do not exist and are repugnant to our 
 form of government. 
 
 These appeals to passion and prejudice are beneath 
 the spirit and intelligence of a free people, ancf 
 should be met with stern rebuke by those they are 
 sought to influence, and I believe they will be. Every 
 attempt to array class against class, " the classes 
 against the masses," section against section, l-abor 
 against capital, " the poor against the rich," or ir Merest
 
 386 McKINLETS ACCEPTANCE 
 
 against interest in the United States is in the highest 
 degree reprehensible. 
 
 It is opposed to the national instinct and interest, 
 and should be resisted by every citizen. We are not 
 a nation of classes, but of sturdy, free, independent 
 and honorable people, despising the demagogue, and 
 never capitulating to dishonor. 
 
 This ever-recurring effort endangers popular govern- 
 ment and is a menace to our liberties. It is not a 
 new campaign device or party appeal. It is as old 
 as government among men, but was never more un- 
 timely and unfortunate than now. 
 
 Washington warned us against it, and Webster said 
 in the Senate, in words which I feel are singularly 
 appropriate at this time : " I admonish the people 
 against the object of outcries like these. I admonish 
 every industrious laborer of this country to be on his 
 guard against such delusion. I tell him the attempt 
 is to play off his passion against his interest, and to 
 prevail on him, in the name of liberty, to destroy all 
 the fruits of liberty." 
 
 Another issue of supreme importance is that of 
 protection. The peril of free silver is a menace to be 
 feared ; we are already experiencing the effect of par- 
 tial free trade. The one must be averted ; the other 
 corrected. 
 
 The Republican party is wedded to the doctrine of 
 protection and was never more earnest in its support 
 and advocacy than now. If argument were needed 
 to strengthen its devotion to " the American System,"
 
 McKIXLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 387 
 
 or increase the hold of that system upon the party 
 and people, it is found in the lesson and experience 
 of the past three years. 
 
 Men realize in their own daily lives what before 
 was to many of them only report, history or tradition. 
 They have had a trial of both systems and know what 
 each has done for them. 
 
 Washington, in his Farewell Address, September 
 17, 1796, 100 years ago, said : "As a very important 
 source of strength and security, cherish puplic credit. 
 One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly 
 as possible; avoiding the accumulation of debt, not 
 only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigor- 
 ous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts 
 which unaviodable wars may have occasioned, not 
 ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden 
 which we ourselves ought to bear." 
 
 To facilitate the enforcement of the maxims which 
 he announced he declared : " It is essential that you 
 should practically bear in mind that toward the pay- 
 ment of debts there must be revenue ; that to have 
 revenue there must be taxes ; that no taxes can be 
 devised which are not more or less inconvenient or 
 unpleasant ; that the intrinsic embarrassment insepar- 
 able from *he selection of the proper objects (which 
 is always a choice of difficulties) ought to be a decisive 
 motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the 
 Government in making it ; and for a spirit of acquies- 
 cence in the measures for obtaining revenue which 
 public exigencies may at any time dictate."
 
 388 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 
 
 Animated by like sentiments, the people of the 
 country must now face the conditions which beset 
 them. " The public exigencies " demand prompt pro- 
 tective legislation, which will avoid the accumulation 
 of further debt by providing adequate revenues for 
 the expenses of the Government. 
 
 This is manifestly the requirement of duty. If 
 elected President of the United States, it will be my 
 aim to vigorously promote this object and give that 
 ample encouragement to the occupations of the Amer- 
 ican people, which, above all else, is so imperatively 
 demanded at this juncture of our national affairs. 
 
 In December, 1892, President Harrison sent his 
 last message to Congress. It was an able and ex- 
 haustive review of the condition and resources of the 
 country. It stated our situation so accurately that I 
 am sure it will not be amiss to recite his official and 
 valuable testimony. 
 
 " There never has been a time in our history," said 
 he, "when work was so abundant, or when wages 
 were so high, whether measured by the currency in 
 which they are paid or by their power to supply the 
 necessaries and comforts of life. The general average 
 of prices has been such as to give to agriculture a fair 
 participation in the general prosperity. The new 
 industrial plants established since October 6, 1890, 
 and up to October 22,- 1892, number 345, and the ex- 
 tension of existing plants, 108. The new capital in- 
 vested amounts to $40,446,060, and the number of 
 additional employees, 37,285.
 
 McKINLEY'S .UVKl'TAXCE 309 
 
 " During the first six months of the present calendar 
 year 135 new factories were built, of which 40 were 
 cotton mills, 48 knitting mills, 26 woolen mills, 15 
 silk mills, 4 plush mills and 2 linen mills. Of the 
 forty cotton mills 21 have been built in the Southern 
 States." 
 
 This fairly describes the happy condition of the 
 country in December, 1893. What has it been since, 
 and what is it now? 
 
 The messages of President Cleveland from the be- 
 ginning of his second administration to the present 
 time abound with descriptions of the deplorable indus- 
 trial and financial situation of the country. While 
 no resort to history or official statement is required 
 to advise us of the present condition and that which 
 has prevailed during the past three years, I venture 
 to quote from President Cleveland's first message, 
 August 3, 1893, addressed to the Fifty-third Congress, 
 which he had called together in extraordinary session. 
 
 " The existence of an alarming and extraordinary 
 business situation," said he, "involving the welfare 
 and prosperity of all our people has constrained me 
 to call together in extra session the people's repre- 
 sentatives in Congress, to the end that through the 
 wise and patriotic exercise of the legislstive duties 
 with which they solely are charged, the present evils 
 may by mitigated and dangers threatening the future 
 averted. 
 
 " Our unfortunate financial plight is not the result 
 of untoward events, nor of conditions related to our
 
 390 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 
 
 natural resources. Nor is it traceable to any of the 
 afflictions which frequently check national growth 
 and prosperity. 
 
 " With plenteous crops, with abundant promise of 
 remunerative production and manufacture, with un- 
 usual invitation to safe investment, and with satis- 
 factory assurances to business enterprises, suddenly 
 financial distrust and fear have sprung up on every 
 side. 
 
 " Numerous monied institutions have suspended 
 because abundant assets were not immediately avail- 
 able to meet the demands of frightened depositors. 
 Surviving corporations and individuals are content to 
 keep in hand the money they are usually anxious to 
 loan and those engaged in legitimate business are 
 surprised to find that the securities they offer for 
 loans, though heretofore satisfactory, are no longer 
 accepted. 
 
 " Values, supposed to be fixed, are fast becoming 
 conjectural and loss and failure have invaded every 
 branch of business." 
 
 What a startling and sudden change within the 
 short period of eight months, from December, 1892 to 
 August, 1893 ! 
 
 What had occurred ? A change of administration ; 
 all branches of the Government had been entrusted 
 to the Democratic party, which was committed against 
 the protective policy that had prevailed uninterupt- 
 edly for more than thirty-two years and brought 
 unexampled prosperity to the country and firmly
 
 McKIXLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 391 
 
 pledged to its complete overthrow and the substitu- 
 tion of a tariff for revenue only. The change having 
 been decreed by the elections in November, its effects 
 were'at once anticipated and felt. 
 
 We cannot close our eyes to these altered condi- 
 tions, nor would it be wise to exclude from contem- 
 plation and investigation the causes which produced 
 them. , 
 
 They are facts which we cannot as a people dis- 
 regard, and we can only hope to improve our present 
 condition by a study of their causes. In December, 
 1892, we had the same currency and practically the 
 same volume of currency that we have now. It ag- 
 gregated in 1892, $2,372,599,501 ; in 1893, $2,323,- 
 000,000 ; in 1894, $2,323,442,362, and in December, 
 1895, $2,194,000,230. 
 
 The per capita of money has been practically the 
 same during this whole period. The quality of the 
 money has been identical -.all kept equal to gold. 
 There is nothing connected with our money, there- 
 fore, to account for this sudden and aggravated indus- 
 trial change. Whatever is to be depreciated in our 
 financial system it must everywhere be admitted that 
 our money has been absolutely good and brought 
 neither loss nor inconvenience to its holders. A de- 
 preciated currency has not existed to further vex the 
 troubled business situation. 
 
 It is a mere pretence to attribute the hard times to 
 the fact that all our currency is on a gold basis. Good 
 money never made times hard. Those who assert
 
 392 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 
 
 that our present industrial and financial depression is 
 the result of the gold standard have not read Amer- 
 ican history aright or been careful students of the 
 events of recent years. 
 
 We never had greater prosperity in this country, 
 in every field of employment and industry, than in 
 the busy years from 1880 to 1892, during all of whicfo 
 time this country was on a gold basis and employed 
 more gold money in its fiscal and business operations 
 than ever before. We had, too, a protective tariff, 
 under which ample revenues were collected for the 
 Government and an accumulating surplus which was 
 constantly applied to the payment of the public debt. 
 
 Let us hold fast to that which we know is good. 
 It is not more money we want ; what we want is to 
 put the money we already have at work. When 
 money is employed men are employed. Both have 
 always been steadily and remuneratively engaged 
 during all the years of protective tariff legislation. 
 
 When those who have money lack confidence IP 
 the stability of values and investments they will not 
 part with their money. Business is stagnated th* 
 life-blood of trade is checked and congested. We can- 
 not restore public confidence by an act which would 
 revolutionize all values or an act which entails a de- 
 ficiency in the public revenues. 
 
 We cannot inspire confidence by advocating repu- 
 diation or practicing dishonesty. We cannot restore 
 confidence either to the Treasury or to the people with 
 out a change in our present tariff legislation.
 
 McKIXLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 393 
 
 The only measure of a general nature that affected 
 the Treasury and temperaments of our people passed 
 by the Fifty-third Congress was the general tariff act, 
 which did not receive the approval of the President. 
 Whatever virtues may be claimed for that act there 
 is confessedly one which it does not possess. 
 
 It lacks the essential virtue of its creation the 
 raising of revenue sufficient to supply the needs of the 
 Government. It has at no time provided enough 
 revenue for such needs, but it has caused a constant 
 deficiency in the Treasury and a steady depletion in 
 the earnings of labor and land. 
 
 It has contributed to swell our national debt more 
 than $262,000,000, a sum nearly as great as the debt 
 of the Government from Washington to Lincoln, in- 
 cluding all our foreign wars from the Revolution to 
 the Rebellion. 
 
 Since its passage work at home has been dimin- 
 ished; prices of agricultural products have fallen, 
 confidence has been arrested and general business de- 
 moralization is seen on every hand. 
 
 The total receipts under the tariff act of 1894 for 
 the first twenty-two months of its enforcement, from 
 September, 1894, to June, 1896, were $557,615,328, 
 and the expenditures, $640,418,363, or a deficiency 
 of $82,803,035. 
 
 The decrease in our exports of American products 
 and manufactures during the first fifteen months of 
 the present tariff, as contrasted with the exports of
 
 394 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 
 
 the first fifteen months of the tariff of 1890, was 
 353,320. 
 
 The excess of exports over imports during the first 
 fifteen months of the tariff of 1890, was $213,972,- 
 968, but only $56,758,623 under the first fifteen 
 months of the tariff of 1894, a loss under the latter 
 of $157,214,345. 
 
 The net loss in the trade balance of the United 
 States has been $196,983,607 during the first fifteen 
 months' operation of the tariff of 1894, as compared 
 with the first fifteen months of the tariff of 1890. 
 
 The loss has been large, constant and steady, at 
 the rate of $13,130,000 per month, of $500,000 for 
 every business day of the year. 
 
 We have either been sending too much money out 
 of the country or getting too little in, or both. We 
 have lost steadily in both directions. Our foreign 
 trade has been diminished and our domestic trade has 
 suffered incalculable loss. 
 
 Does not this suggest the cause of our present de- 
 pression and indicate its remedy? Confidence in 
 home enterprises has almost wholly disappeared. Our 
 shops are closed, or running at half time at reduced 
 wages and small profit, if not actual loss. 
 
 Our men at home are idle, and while they are idle 
 men abroad are occupied in supplying us with goods. 
 Our unrivaled home market for the farmer has also 
 greatly suffered, because those who constitute it the 
 great army of American wage-earners are without 
 the work and wages they formerly had. If they can-
 
 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 395 
 
 not earn wages, they cannot buy products. They can- 
 not earn if they have no employment and when they 
 do not earn the farmers' home market is lessened and 
 impaired, and the loss is felt by both producer and 
 consumer. 
 
 The loss of earning power alone in this country in 
 the past three years is sufficient to have produced our 
 unfortunate business situation. If our labor was well 
 employed and employed at as remunerative wages as 
 in 1892, in a few months every farmer in the land 
 would feel the glad change in the increased demand 
 for his products and in the better prices which he 
 would receive. 
 
 It is not an increase in the volume of money which 
 is the need of the time, but an increase of the volume 
 of business ; not an increase of coin, but an increase 
 of confidence ; not more coinage, but a more active 
 use of the money coined ; not open mints for the un- 
 limited coinage of the silver of the world, but open 
 mills for the full and unrestricted labor of American 
 workingmen. 
 
 The employment of our mints for the coinage of 
 the silver of the world would not bring the neces- 
 saries and comforts of life back to our people. This 
 will only come with the employment of the masses, 
 and such employment is certain to follow the re- 
 establishment of a wise protective policy which shall 
 encourage manufacturing at home. 
 
 Protection has lost none of its virtue and impor- 
 tance. The first duty of the Republican party, if
 
 336 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 
 
 restored to power in the country, will be the enact- 
 ment of a tariff law which will raise all the money 
 necessary to conduct the Government, economically 
 and honestly administered, and so adjusted as to give 
 preference to home manufactures and adequate pro- 
 tection to home labor and the home market. 
 
 We are not committed to any special schedules or 
 rates of duty. They are, and should be, always sub- 
 ject to change to meet new conditions, but the prin- 
 ciple upon which rates of duty are imposed remains 
 the same. Our duties should always be high enough 
 to measure the difference between the wages paid 
 labor at home and in competing countries, and to 
 adequately protect American investments and Ameri- 
 can enterprises. 
 
 Our farmers have been hurt by the changes in our 
 tariff legislation as severely as our laborers and manu- 
 facturers, badly as they have suffered. 
 
 The Republican platform declares in favor of such 
 encouragement to our sugar interests " as will lead 
 to the production on American soil of all the sugar 
 which the American people use." 
 
 It promises to our wool and woolen interests the 
 " most ample protection," a guaranty that ought to 
 commend itself to every patriotic citizen. Never 
 was a more grievous wrong done the farmers of our 
 country than that so unjustly inflicted during the 
 past three years upon the wool growers of America. 
 Although among our most industrious and useful 
 citizens, their interests have been practically de-
 
 McKIXLEY'S ACCEPTANCE :5!'7 
 
 stroyed and our woolen affairs involved in similai 
 disaster. 
 
 At no time within the past thirty-six years, and, 
 perhaps, never during any previous period, have so 
 many of our woolen factories been suspended as now. 
 The Republican party can be relied upon to correct 
 these great wrongs if again entrusted with the con- 
 trol of Congress. 
 
 Another declaration of the Republican platform 
 that has my most cordial support is that which favors 
 reciprocity. The splendid results of the reciprocity 
 arrangements that were made under authority of the 
 tariff law of 1890 are striking suggestives. 
 
 The brief period they were in force, in most cases 
 only three years, was not long enough to thoroughly 
 test their great values, but sufficient was shown by 
 the trial to conclusively demonstrate the importance 
 and the wisdom of their adoption. 
 
 In 1892 the export trade of the United States 
 attained the highest point in our history. The aggre- 
 gate of our exports that year reached the immense 
 sum of $1,030,278,148, a sum greater by $100,000,- 
 000 than the exports of any previous year. 
 
 In 1893, owing to the threat of unfriendly tariff 
 legislation, the total dropped to $847,665,194. Our 
 exports of domestic merchandise decreased $189,000,- 
 000, but reciprocity still secured us a large trade in 
 Central and South America, and a larger trade with 
 the West Indies than we had ever before enjoyed. 
 
 The increase of trade with the countries with
 
 398 McKItfLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 
 
 which we had reciprocity agreements was $3,560,515 
 over our trade in 1892, and $16,440,721 over our 
 trade in 1891. The only countries with which the 
 United States traded that showed increased exports 
 in 1893 were practically those with which we had 
 reciprocity arrangements. 
 
 The reciprocity treaty between this country and 
 Spain, touching the markets of Cuba and Porto Rico, 
 was announced September 1, 1891. The growth of 
 our trade with Cuba was phenomenal. In 1891 we 
 sold that country but 114,441 barrels of flour ; in 
 1892, 366,175; in 1893, 616,406; and in 1894, 
 622,248. 
 
 Here was a growth of nearly 500 per cent, while 
 our exportations of flour to Cuba for the year ending 
 June 30, 1895 the year following the repeal of the 
 reciprocity treaty fell to 379,896 barrels, a loss of 
 nearly half our trade with that country. 
 
 The value of our total exports of merchandise from 
 the United States to Cuba in 1891 the year prior to 
 the negotiation of the reciprocity treaty was $12,- 
 224,888; in 1892, $17,953,579; in 1893, $24,157,- 
 698; in 1894, $20,125,321, but in 1895, after the 
 annulment of the reciprocity agreement, it fell to only 
 $12,887,661. 
 
 Many similar examples might be given of our in- 
 creased trade under reciprocity with other countries, 
 but enough has been shown of the efficacy of the 
 legislation of 1890 to justify the speedy restoration 
 of its reciprocity provisions.
 
 MURAT HALSTEAIX
 
 THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET. 
 (Photo of Long Copyrighted 1897 by Purdy of Boston.) 
 (Photo of McKinley Copyrighted by Elmer Chickering,) 
 fPboto of Smith Copyrighted by Rockwood.)
 
 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 401 
 
 In my judgment, Congress should immediately re- 
 store the reciprocity section of the old law with such 
 amendments, if any, as time and experience sanction 
 as wise and proper. 
 
 The underlying principle of this legislation must, 
 however, be strictly observed. It is to afford new 
 markets for our surplus agricultural and manufac- 
 tured products without loss to the American laborer 
 of a single day's work that he might otherwise procure. 
 
 The declaration of the platform touching foreign 
 immigration is one of peculiar importance at this time, 
 when our own laboring people are in such distress. 
 I am in hearty sympathy with the present legislation 
 restricting foreign immigration and favor such exten- 
 sion of the laws as will secure the United States from 
 invasion by the debased and criminal classes of the 
 Old World. 
 
 While we adhere to the public policy under which 
 our country has received great bodies of honest, in- 
 dustrious citizens, who have added to the wealth, pro- 
 gress and power of the country, and while we wel- 
 come to our shores the well-disposed and industrious 
 immigrant who contributes by his energy and intelli- 
 gence to the cause of free government, we want no 
 immigrants who do not seek our shores to become 
 citizens. 
 
 We should permit none to participate in the ad- 
 vantages of our civilization who does not sympathize 
 with our aims and form of government. We should 
 receive none who comes to make war upon our institu-
 
 402 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 
 
 tions and profit by public disquiet and turmoil. 
 Against all such our gates must be tightly closed. 
 
 The soldiers and sailors of the Union should neither 
 be neglected nor forgotten. The Government which 
 they served so well must not make their lives or con- 
 dition harder by treating them as suppliants for relief 
 in old age or distress, nor regard with disdain or con- 
 tempt the earnest interest one comrade naturally 
 manifests in the welfare of another. 
 
 Doubtless there have been pension abuses and 
 frauds in the numerous claims allowed by the Govern- 
 ment, but the policy governing the administration of 
 the Pension Bureau must always be fair and liberal. 
 No deserving applicant should ever suffer because of 
 a wrong perpetrated by or for another. 
 
 Our soldiers and sailors gave the Government the 
 best they had. They freely offered health, strength, 
 limb and life to save the country in the time of its 
 greatest peril, and the Government must honor them 
 in their need as in their service with the respect and 
 gratitude due to brave, noble and self-sacrificing men 
 who are justly entitled to generous aid in their in- 
 creasing necessities. 
 
 The declaration of the Republican platform in favor 
 of the upbuilding of our merchant marine has my 
 hearty approval. The policy of discriminating duties 
 in favor of our shipping, which prevailed in the early 
 years of our history, should be again adopted by Con- 
 gress and vigorously supported until our prestige and 
 supremacy on the seas is fully attained.
 
 McKENLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 403 
 
 We should no longer contribute directly or indi- 
 rectly to the maintenance of the colossal marine of 
 foreign countries, but provide an efficient and com- 
 plete marine of our own. 
 
 Now that the American navy is assuming a position 
 commensurate with our importance as a nation, a 
 policy I am glad to observe the Republican platform 
 strongly indorses, we must supplement it with a mer- 
 chant marine that will give us the advantages, in both 
 our coastwise and foreign trade that we ought natu- 
 rally and properly to enjoy. 
 
 It should be at once a matter of public policy and 
 national pride to repossess this immense and prosper- 
 ous trade. 
 
 The pledge of the Republican National Convention 
 that our civil service laws " shall be sustained and 
 thoroughly and honestly enforced and extended wher- 
 ever practicable " is in keeping with the position of 
 the party for the past twenty-four years, and will be 
 faithfully observed. 
 
 Our opponents decry these reforms. They appear 
 willing to abandon all the advantages gained after so 
 many years of agitation and effort. They encourage 
 a return to methods of party favoritism which both 
 parties have often denounced, that experience has 
 condemned and that the people have repeatedly dis- 
 approved. 
 
 The Republican party earnestly opposes this reac- 
 tionary and entirely unjustifiable policy. It will take
 
 404 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 
 
 no backward step upon this question. It will seek to 
 improve but never degrade the public service. 
 
 There are other important and timely declara- 
 tions in the platform which I cannot here discuss. I 
 must content myself with saying that they have my 
 approval. 
 
 If, as Republicans, we have lately addressed our 
 attention with what may seem great stress and earn- 
 estness to the new and unexpected assault upon the 
 financial integrity of the Government, we have done 
 it because the menace is so grave as to demand espe- 
 cial consideration, and because we are convinced that 
 if the people are aroused to the true understanding 
 and meaning of this silver inflation movement they 
 will avert the danger. 
 
 In doing this we feel that we render the best service 
 possible to the country, and we appeal to the intelli- 
 gence, conscience and patriotism of the people, irre- 
 spective of party or section, for their earnest support. 
 
 We avoid no issues. We meet the sudden, danger- 
 ous and revolutionary assault upon law and order and 
 upon those to whom is confided by the Constitution 
 and laws the authority to uphold and maintain them 
 which our opponents have made with the same cour- 
 age that we have faced every emergency since our 
 organization as a party, more than forty years ago. 
 
 Government by law must first be assured ; every- 
 thing else can wait. The spirit of lawlessness must 
 be extinguished by the fires of an unselfish and lofty 
 patriotism.
 
 Mc-KIXLEY\S ACCEPTANCE 405 
 
 Every attack upon the public faith and every sug- 
 gestion of the repudiation of debts, public or private, 
 must be rebuked by all men who believe that honesty 
 is the best policy, or who love their country and 
 would preserve unsullied its national honor. 
 
 The country is to be congratulated upon the almost 
 total obliteration of the sectional lines which for many 
 years marked the division of the United States into 
 slave and free territory and finally threatened its 
 partition into two separate governments by the dread 
 ordeal of civil war. 
 
 The era of reconciliation, so long and earnestly de- 
 sired by General Grant and many other great leaders, 
 North and South, has happily come, and the feeling 
 of distrust and hostility between the sections is every- 
 where vanishing, let us hope never to return. 
 
 Nothing is better calculated to give strength to the 
 nation at home than to increase our influence abroad 
 and add to the permanency and security of our free 
 institutions than the restoration of cordial relations 
 between the people of all sections and parts of our 
 beloved country. 
 
 If called by the suffrages of the people to assume 
 the duties of the high office of President of the United 
 States, I shall count it a privilege to aid, even in the 
 slightest degree, in the promotion of the spirit of frat- 
 ernal regard which should animate and govern the 
 citizens of every section, State or part of the Republic. 
 
 After the lapse of a century since its utterance, let 
 us, at length and forever hereafter, heed the admoni-
 
 406 McKINLEY'S ACCEPTANCE 
 
 tion of Washington, " There snould be no North, no 
 South, no East, no West, but a common country." 
 
 It shall be my constant aim to improve every op- 
 portunity to advance the cause of good government 
 by promoting that spirit of forbearance and justice 
 which is so essential to our prosperity and happiness 
 by joining most heartily in all proper efforts to restore 
 the relations of brotherly respect and affection which 
 in our early history characterized all the people of all 
 the States. 
 
 I would be glad to contribute toward binding in 
 indivisible union the different divisions of the country, 
 which, indeed, now " have every inducement of sym- 
 pathy and interest" to weld them together more 
 strongly than ever. 
 
 I would rejoice to see demonstrated to the world 
 that the North and the South and the East and the 
 West are not separated or in danger of becoming 
 separated because of sectional or party differences. 
 
 The war is long since over; "we are not enemies, 
 but friends," and as friends we will faithfully and 
 cordially co-operate, under the approving smile of 
 Him who has thus far so signally sustained and 
 guided us, to preserve inviolate our country's name 
 and honor, of its peace and good order, of its con- 
 tinued ascendancy amongst the greatest governments 
 on earth. 
 
 WILLIAM M'KINLEY.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 SALIENT EXTRACTS FROM MAJOR McKINLEY'S ADDRESSES 
 TO REPRESENTATIVE DELEGATIONS. 
 
 EVEN before the date of the publication of his 
 brilliant letter of acceptance, and thence on 
 to the day of his triumphant election, Major 
 McKinley was called upon daily almost hourly to 
 address various visiting delegations upon the supreme 
 issue of the campaign. His speeches were always to 
 the point, pungent in phrase, and pregnant with fact. 
 As in his letter of acceptance, so in his speeches, he 
 multiplied the resources of the campaign for sound 
 money, and gave convincing arguments for an honest 
 standard of value. 
 
 Three days prior to his acceptance of the nomina- 
 tion, he addressed a body of 500 farmers, and made an 
 earnest appeal for an honest currency. In the 
 course of his address he said : 
 
 "Can the farmer be helped by free coinage of 
 silver ? 
 
 " He cannot be helped because if the nominal price 
 of grain were to rise, through an inflation of the 
 currency, the price of everything else would rise
 
 408 McKINLEY'S ADDRESSES 
 
 also, arid the farmer would be relatively no better 
 off than he was before. 
 
 " He would not get any more real value for his 
 grain than he gets now, and would suffer from the 
 general demoralization which would follow the free 
 coinage of silver. You cannot help the farmer by 
 more coinage of silver. He can only be helped by 
 more consumers for his products. You cannot help 
 him by free trade, but, as I have shown, he can be 
 hurt, and seriously hurt, by the free introduction of 
 competing products into this country. 
 
 " Better a thousand times enlarge the markets for 
 American products than to enlarge the mints for the 
 silver products of the world. You might just as 
 well understand now that you cannot add value to 
 anything by diminishing the measure, of the value 
 with which the thing is sold or exchanged. 
 
 " If you can increase the value by lowering the 
 measure of value, and you want to benefit the 
 farmer, then make the bushel smaller, the pound 
 lighter and declare a legal dozen less than twelve. 
 
 " The home market is the best friend of the farmer. 
 It is his best market. It is his only reliable market. 
 It is his own natural market. 
 
 " Prosperity of manufacturers is inseparable from 
 the prosperity of agriculture. Set all our wheels in 
 motion, set all our spindles whirling, set all our men 
 at work on full time, start up the idle workshops of 
 the country, bring back confidence and business, and 
 the farmer will at once feel the influence in the
 
 McKINLEY'S ADDKESSES 409 
 
 greater demand for his products and in the better 
 prices he would receive. When the farmer has 
 found a market for his goods, he wants his pay for 
 what he sells in such unquestioned coin that he will 
 know it is good not only to-day, but will be certain 
 to be good every day of the year and in all countries 
 of the world. 
 
 " Free silver will not cure over-production or under- 
 consumption. Free silver will not remove the com- 
 petition of Russia, India and the Argentine Republic. 
 This competition would remain if you would coin all 
 the silver of the world. Free silver will not increase 
 the demand for your wheat or make a single new con- 
 sumer. 
 
 " You don't get consumers through the mints. You 
 get them through the factories. You will not get 
 them by increasing the circulation of money in the 
 United States. You will only get them by increasing 
 the manufacturing establishments in the United 
 States." 
 
 Again, he said to the Chicago Commercial M'Kinley 
 Club on August 29th : " If there is one kind of money 
 that is good in every civilized world and another that 
 passes in only some parts of the world, the people of 
 the United States will never be content with anything 
 short of the best. 
 
 " We have been doing business on that basis since 
 January 1, 1879. We will continue that policy so 
 long as we have a just regard for our honest obliga- 
 tions and high standing as a nation.
 
 410 McKINLEY'S ADDHESSES 
 
 " Free silver at a ratio of 16 to 1, or about half its 
 true bullion value, is not a full dollar. Good money 
 never made times hard. And poor money never 
 made times good. 
 
 " My fellow-citizens, our contest this year is for the 
 country's honor and prosperity. The need of the 
 hour is work for willing hands, work and wages for 
 the unemployed and a chance to earn the good dollars 
 which are now idle and are only waiting in their hid- 
 ing places for a restoration of confidence. 
 
 " Our contest is for the good faith of the nation and 
 the welfare of the people, and we can proclaim with 
 confidence the same supreme faith in the people which 
 upheld Lincoln in every trial of the war. As he said, 
 ' Intelligence and patriotism and a firm reliance in 
 Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are 
 still competent to adjust in the best way all our pre- 
 sent difficulties.' In this faith we submit our conten- 
 tion to the great tribunal of the people." 
 
 ANTE-ELECTION SPEECHES. 
 
 It is not easy to comprise within the compass of 
 this volume even brief extracts from a few of the 
 leading ante-election addresses delivered by Major 
 M'Kinley, but we cull the following : 
 
 To the Colored Riflemen of Cleveland : " I con- 
 gratulate you, gentlemen, upon the splendid progress 
 that your race has made since emancipation. You 
 have done better, you have advanced more rapidly 
 than it was believed possible at that time : you have
 
 411 
 
 improved greatly the educational advantages wliich 
 you have had. Your people everywhere, North and 
 South, are accumulating property and to-day you 
 stand as among the most conservative of the citizens 
 of this great Republic. 
 
 " We are now engaged in a political contest and 
 your presence in such vast numbers here to-day 
 evidence the interest which you have in the public 
 questions that are now engaging the attention of the 
 American people. We have a great country and we 
 must keep it great. 
 
 " The post which the United States must occupy 
 both in wages and industries, and in the integrity of 
 its finances and currency, must be at the head of the 
 nations of the earth. To that place of honor the 
 people of the country must restore it this year. They 
 have the opportunity that they have wished for since 
 1892. Will they meet it this year ? 
 
 " We want in the United States neither cheap 
 money nor cheap labor. We will have neither the 
 one nor the other. We must not forget that nothing 
 is cheap to the American people wliich comes from 
 abroad when it entails idleness upon our own laborers." 
 
 To 3,000 Pennsylvania workingmen (on Labor 
 Day) : " When a man is out of a job he is usually out 
 of money, and to live he must draw upon his savings 
 if he has any. If not upon his savings then upon his 
 credit. What the idle morkingman w r ants is a job 
 that means money to him. The mints, if they were 
 thrown wide open to the coinage of every character
 
 412 McKINLEY'S ADDKESSES 
 
 of metal and were multiplied 100 fold in capacity, 
 would neither furnish the workingman a job nor 
 supply his exhausted savings or give him credit. 
 Nothing will accompish that but work. Work at fair 
 wages, and that will only come through confidence 
 restored by a wise financial and industrial policy. 
 
 " And there is another thing we ought to remem- 
 ber, that free silver at a ratio of 16 to 1, or any other 
 ratio, will not repeal the great law of supply and de- 
 mand. It is a great error to suppose that you can 
 enhance values by diminishing the value of money 
 that you can increase the value of anything by chang- 
 ing its measure. You can no more do that than you 
 can increase quantity by lowering the bushel measure. 
 Garfield uttered a great truth when speaking for the 
 redemption of specie payments he said: 'In the 
 name of every man who wants his own when he has 
 earned it, I demand that he do not make the wages 
 of the poor man to shrivel in his hands after he has 
 earned them. But that his money shall be made bet- 
 ter and easier until the plowholder's money shall be 
 as good as the bondholder's money. Until our stand- 
 ard is one, and there is no longer one money for the 
 rich and another for the poor.' 
 
 "I thank you, my countrymen, for this generous 
 and gracious call here to-day. One of the great 
 sources of comfort to me in this great campaign is the 
 feeling that I have behind me the workingmen of the 
 United States. It will give me pleasure now to meet 
 and greet each and every one of you."
 
 McKINLEY'S ADDRESSES 413 
 
 To a delegation from Vermont : " A people who 
 could tax themselves most heavily to equip and main- 
 tain the armies and navies of the Union, and continue 
 the most extensive and expensive war in history, will 
 not turn their backs upon the soldiers of that war, 
 nor seek to pay their pensions in dollars worth only 
 half their face value. 
 
 " A people who emerged from that war with an in- 
 terest-bearing debt of $2,382,000,000, or $70 per capita 
 for our entire population in 1865, will not now, after 
 having honestly paid three-fourths of that great debt, 
 ever seek directly or indirectly to repudiate one dollar 
 of it or cheapen the coin of payment. 
 
 " A people, I say, who proceeded in good faith to 
 pay off that debt with such unparalleled rapidity 
 that, it was estimated in 1888, up to that time they 
 had paid $123 for every minute of every day of every 
 year from 1865 to 1888, will not now falter, bargain 
 or scheme to defraud any creditor of the Government, 
 whoever or wherever he may be." 
 
 To G. A. R. veterans of Ohio : " You were good 
 citizens before you went to the war ; you were good 
 soldiers in the war ; you have been good citizens ever 
 since, standing by the same old flag, no matter where 
 you are. 
 
 Let me point to you a picture ! 
 
 See a million soldiers there, 
 Flushed with triumph, and with weap'ona 
 
 Flashing keen and bright and bare. 
 
 Vanished ! Wondrous transformation ! 
 Where is now that mighty band ?
 
 414 McKINLEY'S ADDEESSES 
 
 Do they roam, a vast banditti, 
 Pillaging their native land ? 
 
 No, we point to field and workshop ; 
 Let the world the moral see, 
 
 There, beneath the dust of labor, 
 Toil the veteran soldiery. 
 
 Ye, who, mightiest in the battle, 
 On the mountain and the plain 
 
 Wrought, yes, wrought your greatest triumph 
 When ye sought your homes again. 
 
 Sought your home, 'mid peace and quiet, 
 Grasping with your strong right hand 
 
 Implements of honest labor, 
 Toiling to rebuild the land. 
 
 " You were patriots then ; you are patriots to-day. 
 You know no politics in your Grand Army posts, but 
 you do know patriotism when you see it." 
 
 To the steel workers of Braddock, Pa. : " From the 
 hour it was determined by the American people that 
 the Republican party which with but a single inter- 
 ruption had been in control of the Government for 
 thirty years, was to go out of power and another 
 party with a different policy was to come in, that 
 moment every business man of the country assumed 
 an attitude of anxious waiting and of fear and anxiety. 
 
 " While business men were waiting to know what 
 legislation was to be, business was languishing from 
 one end of the country to the other, and labor was 
 without work. Then we commenced living from hand 
 to mouth, and we have been living from hand to 
 mouth ever since. And, as an old comrade said to 
 me the other day, the distance seemed to be getting 
 greater with every succeeding year,
 
 McKIXLEY'S ADDRESSES 415 
 
 " According to a census recently taken by a news- 
 paper in New York, it appears that in July, 1892, 
 577 employers of labor in the United States that year 
 gave work to 114,231 hands. How was it in July, 
 1896 ? The same employers gave work to 78,700 
 hands; 35,531 men who had been employed in 1892 
 were thrown out of employment in 1896 and put in 
 a state of idleness, resulting in a loss of more than 30 
 per cent, to labor. 
 
 "In July, 1892, the wages paid to the 114,231 
 hands amounted to $3,927,000; in July, 1896, the 
 earnings of the 78,700 hands amounted to only $2,- 
 469,712, a loss to labor in a single month in these 
 establishments of $1,457,000, a decrease or loss to 
 labor of 40 per cent." 
 
 To delegates from Indiana : " I believe in America 
 for Americans, native born and naturalized. I be- 
 lieve in the American pay roll. And I don't believe 
 in diminishing that pay roll by giving work to any- 
 body else under another flag while we've got an idle 
 man under our flag. 
 
 " Four years ago the laborer was agitating the ques- 
 tion of shorter hours. We then had too much to do. 
 I have heard no discussion of that kind for four years. 
 And I never heard a laboring man discussing the de- 
 sirability of having shorter dollars. 
 
 " The cause of complaint of our opponents is, first, 
 that we have not enough money, and, second, that 
 sur money is too good. 
 
 " To the first complaint, I answer that the per
 
 416 McKINLEY'S ADDEESSEB 
 
 capita of circulating medium of this country has been 
 greater since the so-called ' crime of 1873' than it 
 ever was before, and that it has been greater in the 
 past five years than it ever was in all our history. 
 
 " We have not only got the best money in the 
 world, but we've got more of it than most of the 
 nations of the world. We've got more money than 
 the United Kingdom per capita. We've got more 
 money than Germany per capita. We've got more 
 money than Italy per capita. We've got more money 
 than Switzerland, Greece, Spain, Roumania, Servia, 
 Austria, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Rus- 
 sia, Turkey. Mexico, and the Central and Southern 
 American States, and more than Japan or China per 
 capita. 
 
 " So that some other reason than the lack of volume 
 of money must be found to account for the present 
 condition of the country." 
 
 To Buffalo, N. Y., real estate men : " The courts 
 which interpret and execute the law must be pre- 
 served on that exalted plane of purity and incorrupt- 
 ibility which have so signally characterized the 
 American judiciary. These courts must be upheld 
 for the safety and defense of the citizen. When the 
 law and those whose constitutional duty it is to exe- 
 cute them are assailed the Government itself is as- 
 sailed. 
 
 " If there are those who would break down law 
 and disturb the peace and good order of society, then 
 those who value these safeguards as essential to our
 
 
 MILITARY HEROES OF SANTIAGO AND PORTO RJCO. 
 
 o or 8h eVe ^ Co P7 ri gfcted by Rockwood.) 
 to 01 Sbafter Copyrighted by Cha*. Prk*r.)
 
 NAVAL HEROES OF SANTIAGO, 
 (Photo of Hobson Copyrighted by Falk.)
 
 McKIXLEY'S ADDRESSES 419 
 
 liberty must sacredly guard and defend them by their 
 ballots. This they will do with the same earnest pa- 
 triotism that they have always displayed in every 
 great emergency in the life of the nation. 
 
 " To strike at the credit of the country is to deal a 
 blow at its prosperity. It destroys confidence, and, 
 when that is gone business stops and the currents of 
 trade are dried up. Confidence, in a measure, and in 
 a very great measure, is the capital of the world. 
 Destroy confidence and you invite ruin to every en- 
 terprise in the land. 
 
 "Absolute integrity of payment in all transactions, 
 public and private, lies at the foundation of confi- 
 dence, and, when confidence is once firmly estab- 
 lished, there is scarcely any limit to capital. This is 
 the universal experience of both government and in- 
 dividual. 
 
 "A tainted credit is a constant embarrassment to 
 government and citizens, and, when it once fastens 
 itself upon either, it is hard for them to recover. A 
 limping credit attracts no capital and inspires no con- 
 fidence." 
 
 To tin-plate men : " I submit to all of you, no 
 matter what may have been your politics in the past, 
 whether you would not prefer to have that tin-plate 
 factory in your county, and in your State than to 
 have it in Wales. The more factories you can have 
 in any community the better will be the general in- 
 dustrial conditions and the better will be the market 
 for the farmer who produces food products. But it
 
 420 McKINLEY'S ADDRESSES 
 
 is not my purpose to address you on political ques- 
 tions." 
 
 To Indiana railroad men : " Why, talk about the 
 creditors of this country! Our opponents animad- 
 vert against them. Who are the creditors of this 
 country ? They are the men who labor in this 
 country. 
 
 "The greatest creditors of this country are its 
 workingmen. Aside from what is due them on in- 
 vestments and savings, their current wages make 
 them the largest credit class in the United States. 
 
 " The employers of this country owe their em- 
 ployees every thirty days in good times more than 
 the whole debt of the bonds of the United States, 
 while nearly five hundred millions of dollars are paid 
 out annually to the railroad employees alone." 
 
 To a delegation from Centre county, Pa. : " I have 
 often wondered if Pennsylvania's powerful influence 
 for stability, conservatism and prosperity in the 
 Union and its great strength and self-supporting ca- 
 pacity as a Commonwealth in that Union were prop- 
 erly appreciated. Her agriculture, commerce and 
 manufacturing, while independent in one sense, have 
 always been mutually inter-dependent, beneficial and 
 helpful. The whole community has profited by each 
 and all of them. 
 
 " This has been the case ever since its settlement 
 in pioneer days, and under its wise system of politi- 
 cal economy, not created or fostered by the creed of 
 visionaries, but that of plain, sensible, practical men.
 
 McKIXLEY'S ADDRESSES 421 
 
 " No other similar reward of husbandry is pre- 
 sented anywhere, and I make no apology, my fellow- 
 citizens, for your getting a like policy everywhere or 
 for having always endeavored to the extent of my 
 efforts to continue this wise system under which you 
 have such splendid results in the State of Pennsyl- 
 vania. 
 
 "Call it the Pennsylvania system, if you will; it 
 only does honor to Pennsylvania and her statesman- 
 ship, for it benefits all our laborers and farmers in all 
 parts of the American Union. Why should we not 
 do all our work and spend all our own wages at home, 
 giving to both farmers and workingmen the richest 
 rewards for their labor of any country under the sun ? 
 Answer that, my fellow-citizens." 
 
 To miners from Clarion county, Pa. : " There is 
 one thing which I think we are sometimes too apt to 
 forget. We are too apt to forget what is behind us, 
 and too apt to be heedless of our own experience. 
 We can hardly realize that from 1873 to 1893 we re- 
 duced the public debt from $2,333,331,308 in 1866 
 to $570,000,000. We paid off during those twenty 
 years $1,623,581,673 of the public debt. And we 
 were under a protective and sound money system 
 when we were making the large payments. Two- 
 thirds of that great debt has disappeared, and while 
 we were paying it off we were building in this coun- 
 try the most splendid industrial enterprises, giving 
 steady employment to American labor at fair wages, 
 and giving to the farmers of the country a just reward
 
 422 McKINLEY'S ADDEESSES 
 
 for their toil and labor. During the period, for the 
 greater part of the time, we were selling more gold 
 abroad than we were buying abroad. And the bal- 
 ance of trade was, therefore, in our favor, and the 
 balance of trade, settled as it was in gold, gave us the 
 good yellow money from the other side of the ocean. 
 No, my fellow-citizens, four years ago the people of 
 this country determined to change that policy, and 
 they did change it." 
 
 To the McKinley Club, of Goodland, Ind. : The 
 idea that the Government can create wealth is a mere 
 myth. There is nothing that can create wealth ex- 
 cept labor. 
 
 " Now the best way to get this money is one of the 
 questions in this campaign. Is it easier to raise it 
 by direct taxation, by taxing the people in their oc- 
 cupations, on their property and on their lands, or is 
 it not better to raise it by putting the tax upon the 
 foreign products that come into this country to seek 
 a market in the United States ? 
 
 " The latter is the policy and purpose of the Re- 
 publican party. The Republican party believes that 
 the great bulk of the money required to pay the ex- 
 penses of the Government should be raised by put- 
 ting a tax upon the foreign products that come into 
 this country to compete with American products. If 
 we could create money by merely starting our mints 
 running, then there would be no necessity of taxes." 
 
 To the United Italian Republican Club, of Pitts- 
 burg : " We are a nation of working people ; we rec-
 
 McKINLEY'S ADDRESSES 
 
 ognize no caste and will tolerate none beneath our 
 flag. (A voice : ' We know it,' and great applause.) 
 The voice of one citizen is as potent as the voice of 
 another, and the united voice when constitutionally 
 expressed is the law of the land. The great English 
 statistician, Mr. Mulhall, declares that no other civ- 
 ilized country but the United States could boast of 
 41,000,000 instructed citizens in a total population 
 of less than 70,000,000, all of whom are equal bene- 
 ficiaries of the advantages and blessings and opportu- 
 nities of free government. 
 
 " The issues of this campaign cannot be overstated 
 in their importance. What are they? First, shall 
 .we sustain law and order and uphold the tribunals of 
 justice, which in all the trying times of the past 
 have been our greatest safety and our pride ? Shall 
 we do this, men of Italian birth and descent ? Shall 
 we continue a financial policy which is safe and sound, 
 and gives to us a money with which to do a business 
 that is stable in value and which commands respect, 
 not only at home, but in every commercial nation of 
 the world ? 
 
 " Shall we restore the industrial policy by which 
 this nation has become mightier than all the other 
 great commercial, manufacturing, mining and farm- 
 ing nations of the world ? 
 
 "On these questions there should be no two opin- 
 ions ; and I believe this year the people of this coun- 
 try of every nationality, of every race and clan, loyal 
 as they are to this Government of their adoption,
 
 424 McKINLEY'S ADDRESSES 
 
 will unitedly sustain the authority of law and the 
 Constitution. Continue an honest financial system 
 which will share work and wages and employment 
 and comforts for labor, good markets for the farmers, 
 in which all the people will participate." 
 
 To miners and oil men of McDonald, Pa. : " We 
 can truthfully claim as Americans that our na- 
 tional administrations in all the years of the past, 
 whether Federal or Democratic or Whig or Republi- 
 can, have for the most part conducted the Govern- 
 ment with credit, honor and efficiency. To our 
 credit, be it said, that not one of these administra- 
 tions, whatever may have been their mistakes and 
 failures, ever suggested, much less attempted, the 
 repudiation, directly or indirectly, of a single dollar, 
 or cent, honestly due to a citizen of this or any other 
 country of the globe, nor counseled the establishment 
 of a money for the uses of the people tainted with 
 the slightest dishonor. 
 
 " Shall we now consent or seem to consent by 
 our votes to lower that high standard or reverse 
 the proud policy which this Government has pur- 
 sued from its beginning ? Shall we tolerate now a 
 policy that would cheat any of our creditors, whoever 
 or wherever they may be ? 
 
 " Shall we tolerate a policy that would deprive 
 the brave men living, or their widows or orphans, 
 of a farthing in the pensions that a grateful Gov- 
 ernment has granted them ? 'How could we recall 
 their patriotic services, or the heroic services of
 
 X'S ADDRESSES 
 
 Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and 
 Grant, if we were to stoop to shave one dollar 
 either from the money credit of the Government, or 
 those of her creditors of the Government who were 
 willing to give their lives to save the Union?" 
 
 To a Tennessee delegation : " Tennessee can justly 
 boast that she has been the birthplace and home 
 of many of the eminent men of our country. She 
 has given to the Presidency three of her distin- 
 guished citizens Jackson, Polk and Johnson. She 
 gave to the Lone Star Republic of Texas that sturdy 
 old patriot, Sam Houston, one of its early Presi- 
 dents. She has given to the nation such splendid 
 patriots, statesmen and upright public servants, 
 among whom are Hugh L. White, John Bell, Felix 
 Grundy, David Crockett, Admiral Farragut, David 
 Givin, of California, and that distinguished journalist 
 of Kentucky, Henry Watterson. 
 
 " The record this year of Tennessee should be 
 in keeping with the principles emblazoned on her 
 State seal, Agriculture, Manufacture and Commerce. 
 With prosperity in these fields of human activity, 
 she can always advance ; without it, she must in- 
 evitably recede and decline. 
 
 " Men of Tennessee, do you stand by the prin- 
 ciples enunciated by the immortal Jackson? Do 
 you favor a protective tariff and honest money ? I 
 am glad to be assured by your voices that you do, 
 and that you have not forgotten the force and merit 
 of his great example. Do you believe in his decla-
 
 426 McKINLEY'S ADDRESSES 
 
 ration for the enforcement and the majesty of public 
 law ? Are you willing -to ' compromise ' the great 
 principles he so steadfastly upholds in defense of 
 the Constitution, the courts and the citizen ? " 
 
 To the thousands of visitors on " Illinois Day " 
 (Oct. 21st) : " You have the immortal Lincoln. 
 That's enough for one State. You have the mighty 
 Grant, who filled the world with his fame as he joru- 
 neyed in the pathway of the sun. Then you had 
 Logan. Then you have Oglesby grand old Dick 
 Oglesby, and you have Tanner. 
 
 "Your farm products have reached $270,000,000 
 in a single year, and some people seem to think you 
 would produce more if you had free silver ; or more 
 than $5 an acre for every acre of land. Now that 
 the price of wheat is going up and silver is going 
 down, and your crops have been exceptionally good, 
 I cannot see how even the most pessimistic can con- 
 vince you, or themselves, that our present gold stand- 
 ard, which we have had since 1879, can be of the 
 least possible detriment to you. 
 
 " It was announced from this platform that you 
 had made the largest registration of any State in the 
 American Union ; and that ought to mean the largest 
 majority of any State in the American Union for 
 sound money and protection. What will be your 
 answer to the open challenges to be made for public 
 honesty and public morals ? 
 
 " You can never permanently advance or prosper 
 under any system of false finance or false political
 
 HeKINLEY>S ADDRESSES 427 
 
 economy that was ever devised by the will of man. 
 You can only prosper upon honest principles, honest 
 purposes, honest laws, public and private honor. 
 
 "Agriculture will be prostrated, commerce will 
 languish, mining will decrease and manufactures di- 
 minish, if, to the misery of partial free trade, you add 
 the heresy of free silver, which in this contest means 
 the violation of the existing contracts and the utter 
 disregard of good faith and the absolute repudiation 
 in whole or in part of our public or private obliga- 
 tions. Disguise the issues as you may, the bold, 
 cold, hard facts remain, and no amount of chicanery 
 or sophistry will hide them." 
 
 To his neighbors and fellow-citizens of Canton : 
 " The American people will never take so rash and 
 wicked a step as to invalidate or impair the value of 
 their own government obligations. They .will never 
 consent by popular vote or otherwise to the repudia- 
 tion of one farthing of their national debt. They 
 will never brook the thought of not looking the 
 whole world in the face and challenging any nation 
 to point to a more honorable or creditable record 
 than ours." 
 
 To some 150 or more college students coming from 
 over thirty institutions in couples and trios : " ' Study 
 the Constitution of the United States thoroughly ; 
 contrast its teachings with the doctrines of the poli- 
 tical parties of the day, and vote with the one you 
 then believe will do the most for your country.' " 
 
 " The Republican party can well afford to submit
 
 428 McKINLEY'S ADDRESSES 
 
 to that test ; it never has shrunk from the severest 
 tests of the past and has never suffered thereby. But 
 in the alignment of parties to-day and in the vital 
 questions at issue between them, it especially and 
 cheerfully invites comparison and contrast. It has 
 no aim but the public good and the honor of the 
 American name, and confidently submits its conten- 
 tion, not to a class or a section, but to the whole 
 American people. 
 
 " Daniel Webster always stood for America, and I 
 can recall no grander words in any oration than the 
 ringing, truthful and touching sentences in which, 
 after paying his own State grand and well-deserved 
 tribute, he in terms of endearment claimed Washing- 
 ton, Henry, Marshall, Jefferson, Madison and other 
 distinguished Southerners as just as much his country- 
 men as any of the noble patriots of New England. 
 
 " He expressed in that wonderful speech the true 
 sentiment of this campaign, the dominant, moving 
 force of the present national contest. This is the 
 spirit that should animate every young man in the 
 country, in college and out, everywhere to-day a 
 national spirit a broad and comprehensive patri- 
 otism, a genuine Americanism. 
 
 61 If I could give the young men of the United States 
 a message that I would have them hear and heed, it 
 would be ' Stand up for America ; devote your life to 
 its cause ; love your own homes and prove as worthy 
 of our cherished free institutions as they are worthy 
 of your allegiance and services.'
 
 McKIXLEY'S ADDRESSES 429 
 
 " Let not the high standard of national honor raised 
 by the fathers be lowered by their sons. Let learn- 
 ing, liberty and law be exalted and enthroned. 
 
 " You come from the great educational institutions 
 of the land, and I dare say love to contemplate with 
 me their great and increasing importance. Each is 
 for his own, but proud of all, and there are none but 
 would give honor to the great public school system 
 of the country. 
 
 " In addition to the great outlay by the nation upon 
 common schools, America has just reason to be proud 
 of the private benefactions which our philanthropic 
 citizens are constantly making to our colleges and 
 universities. They have fallen off, it is true, in the 
 last three years, and they will be still more reduced 
 if we are ever so unwise as to enter upon the project 
 of free silver as now proposed, or any other scheme 
 of false finance."
 
 CHAPTER xx. 
 
 MCKINLEY'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
 
 A lofty appeal to all patriotic Americans for the prompt solution of 
 the great and pressing problems of the National Government. 
 
 FELLOW-CITIZENS : In obedience to the will 
 of the people and in their presence by the 
 authority vested in me by them, I must be both 
 " sure we are right " and " make haste slowly." 
 
 If, therefore, Congress in its wisdom shall deem it 
 expedient to create a commission to take under con- 
 sideration the revision of our coinage, banking and 
 currency laws, and give them that exhaustive, care- 
 ful and dispassionate examination that their impor- 
 tance demands, I shall cordially concur in such 
 action. 
 
 If such power is vested in the President, it is my 
 purpose to appoint a commission of prominent, well- 
 informed citizens of different parties, who will com- 
 mand publi| confidence both on account of their 
 ability andfcpecial fitness for the work. 
 
 Business psperience and public training may thus 
 be combined,: and the patriotic zeal of the friends of 
 the countrylbe so directed that such a report will be 
 
 made as to receive the support of all parties, and our 
 
 430
 
 McKINLEY'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 431 
 
 finances cease to be the subject of mere partisan 
 contention. 
 
 The experiment is, at all events, worth a trial, 
 and, in my opinion, it can but prove beneficial to the 
 entire country. 
 
 The question of international bimetallism will 
 have early and earnest attention. It will be my con- 
 stant endeavor to secure it by co-operation with the 
 other great commercial Powers of the world. 
 
 Until that condition is realized, when the parity 
 between our gold and silver money springs from and 
 is supported by the relative value of the two metals, 
 the value of the silver already coined, and of that 
 which may hereafter be coined, must be kept con- 
 stantly at par with gold by every resource at our 
 command. 
 
 The credit of the Government, the integrity of its 
 currency and the inviolability of its obligations must 
 be preserved. This will be the commanding verdict 
 of the people, and it will not be unheeded. 
 
 Economy is demanded in every branch of the Gov- 
 ernment at all times, but especially in periods like 
 the present of depression in business and distress 
 among the people. The severest economy must be 
 observed in all public expenditures, and extravagance 
 stopped wherever it is found, and prevented wherever 
 in the future it may be developed. 
 
 If the revenues are to remain as now, the only re- 
 lief that can come must be from decreased expendi- 
 tures.
 
 432 McKINLEY'S I^AUGUEAL ADDRESS 
 
 But the present must not become the permanent 
 condition of the Government. 
 
 It has been our uniform practice to retire, not in- 
 crease, our outstanding obligations, and this policy 
 must again be resumed and vigorously enforced. 
 
 Our revenues. should always be large enough to 
 meet with ease and promptness not only our current 
 needs, and the principal and interest of the public 
 debt, but to make proper and liberal provision for that 
 most deserving body of public creditors, the soldiers 
 and sailors, and the widows and orphans, who are 
 the pensioners of the United States. 
 
 The Government must not be permitted to run be- 
 hind, or increase its debt, in times like the present. 
 Suitably to provide against this is the mandate of 
 duty ; the certain and easy remedy for most of our 
 financial difficulties. 
 
 A deficiency is inevitable so long as the expen- 
 ditures of the Government exceed its receipts. It 
 can only be met by loans, or an increased revenue. 
 
 While a large annual surplus of revenue may invite 
 waste and extravagance, inadequate revenue creates 
 distrust and undermines public and private credit. 
 Neither should be encouraged. 
 
 Between more loans and more revenue, there ought 
 to be but one opinion. We should have more re- 
 venue, and that without delay, hindrance, or post- 
 ponement. 
 
 A surplus in the Treasury created by loans is not 
 a permanent or safe reliance. It will suffice while it
 
 McKIXLF.Y'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 433 
 
 lasts, but it cannot last long while the outlays of the 
 Government are greater than its receipts, as has been, 
 the case during the past two years. 
 
 Nor must it be forgotten that, however much such 
 loans may temporarily relieve the situation, the 
 Government is still indebted for the amount of the 
 surplus thus accrued, which it must ultimately pay, 
 while its ability to pay is not strengthened but weak- 
 ened by a continued deficit. 
 
 Loans are imperative in great emergencies to pre- 
 serve the Government or its credit, but a failure to 
 supply needed revenue in time of peace for the main- 
 tenance of either has no justification. 
 
 The best way for the Government to maintain its 
 credit is to pay as it goes not by resorting to loans, 
 but by keeping out of debt through an adequate in- 
 come secured by a system of taxation, external or in- 
 ternal, or both. 
 
 It is the settled policy of the Government, pursued 
 from the beginning and practised by all parties and 
 Administrations, to raise the bulk of our revenue from 
 taxes upon foreign productions entering the United 
 States for sale and consumption, and avoiding, for 
 the most part, every form of direct taxation except 
 in time of war. 
 
 The country is clearly opposed to any needless ad- 
 ditions to the subjects of internal taxation, and is 
 committed by its latest popular utterance to the sys- 
 tem of tariff taxation. 
 
 There can be no misunderstanding, either, about
 
 the principle upon which this tariff taxation shall be 
 levied. Nothing has ever been made plainer at a 
 general election than that the controlling principle in 
 the raising of revenue from duties on imports is zeal- 
 ous care for American interests and American labor. 
 The people have declared that such legislation should 
 be had as will give ample protection and encourage- 
 ment to the industries and the development of our 
 country. 
 
 It is, therefore, earnestly hoped and expected that 
 Congress will, at the earliest practicable moment, en- 
 act revenue legislation that shall be fair, reasonable, 
 conservative, and just, and which, while supplying 
 sufficient revenue for public purposes, will still be 
 signally beneficial and helpful to every section and 
 every enterprise of the people. 
 
 To this policy we are all, of whatever party, firmly 
 bound by the voice of the people a power vastly 
 more potential than the expression of any political 
 platform. 
 
 The paramount duty of Congress is to stop deficien- 
 cies by the restoration of that protective legislation 
 which has always been the firmest prop of the Trea- 
 sury. The passage of such a law or laws would 
 strengthen the credit of the Government both at 
 home and abroad, and go far towards stopping the 
 drain upon the gold reserve held for the redemption 
 of our currency, which has been heavy and wellnigh 
 constant for several years. 
 
 In the revision of the tariff, special attention should
 
 MeKIXLEY'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 435 
 
 be given to the re-enactment and extension of the re- 
 ciprocity principle of the law of 1890, under which so 
 great a stimulus was given to our foreign trade in 
 new and advantageous markets, for our surplus agri- 
 cultural and manufactured products. 
 
 The brief trial given this legislation am ply justifies 
 a further experiment and additional discretionary 
 power in the making of commercial treaties, the end 
 in view always to be the opening up of new markets 
 for the products of other lands that we need and can- 
 not produce ourselves, and which do not involve any 
 loss of labor to our own people, but tend to increase 
 their employment. 
 
 The depression of the past four years has fallen 
 with especial severity upon the great body of toilers 
 of the country, and upon none more than the holders 
 of small farms. Agriculture has languished and labor 
 suffered. The revival of manufacturing will be a re- 
 lief to both. 
 
 No portion of our population is more devoted to the 
 institutions of free government, nor more loyal in 
 their support, while none bears more cheerfully or 
 fully its proper share in the maintenance of the 
 Government, or is better entitled to its wise and lib- 
 eral care and protection. Legislation, helpful to pro- 
 ducers, is beneficial to all. 
 
 The depressed condition of industry on the farm 
 and in the mine and factory has lessened the ability 
 of the people to meet the demands upon them, and 
 they rightfully expect that not only a system of re-
 
 436 McKINLEY'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 venue shall be established that will secure the largest 
 income with the least burden, but that every means 
 will be taken to decrease, rather than increase, our 
 public expenditures. 
 
 Business conditions are not the most promising. It- 
 will take time to restore the prosperity of former years. 
 If we cannot promptly attain it, we can resolutely 
 turn our faces in that direction and aid its return by 
 friendly legislation. 
 
 However troublesome the situation may appear, 
 Congress will not, I am sure, be found lacking in di- 
 sposition or ability to relieve it, as far as legislation 
 can do so. 
 
 The restoration of confidence and the revival of 
 business, which men of all parties so much desire, de- 
 pend more largely upon the prompt, energetic, and 
 intelligent action of Congress than upon any other 
 single agency affecting the situation. 
 
 It is inspiring, too, to remember that no great em- 
 ergency in the 108 years of our eventful national life 
 has ever arisen that has not been met with wisdom 
 and courage by the American people, with fidelity to 
 their best interests and highest destiny, and to the 
 honor of the American name. 
 
 Those years of glorious history have exalted man- 
 kind and advanced the cause of freedom throughout 
 the world and immeasurably strengthened the pre- 
 cious, free institutions which we enjoy. The people 
 love and will sustain these institutions. 
 
 The great essential to our happiness and prosperity
 
 McKINLEY'S IXAUGUBAL ADDRESS 437 
 
 is that we adhere to the principles upon which the 
 Government was established and insist upon their 
 faithful observance. Equality of rights must pre- 
 vail and our laws be always and everywhere respected 
 and obeyed. 
 
 We may have failed in the discharge of our full 
 duty as citizens of the great Republic, but it is con- 
 soling and encouraging to realize that free speech, a 
 free press, free thought, free schools, the free and un- 
 molested right of religious liberty and worship, and 
 free and fair elections are dearer and more universally 
 enjoyed to-day than ever before. 
 
 These guarantees must be sacredly preserved and 
 wisely strengthened. The constituted authorities 
 must be cheerfully and vigorously upheld. 
 
 Lynching must not be tolerated in a great and 
 civilized country like the United States ; Courts not 
 mobs must execute the penalty of the law. 
 
 The preservation of public order, the right of dis- 
 cussion, the integrity of courts, and the orderly ad- 
 ministration of justice must continue forever the rock 
 of safety upon which our Government securely rests. 
 
 One of the lessons taught by the late election, which 
 all can rejoice in, is that the citizens of the United 
 States are both law-respecting and law-abiding people, 
 not easily swerved from the path of patriotism and 
 honor. This is in entire accord with the genius of 
 our institutions, and but emphasizes the advantages 
 of inculcating even a greater love for law and order 
 in the future.
 
 438 McKINLEY'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 Immunity should be granted to none who violates 
 the laws, whether individuals, corporations, or com- 
 munities ; and as the Constitution imposes upon the 
 President the duty of both its own execution and of 
 the statutes enacted in pursuance of its provisions, I 
 shall endeavor carefully to carry them into effect. 
 
 The declaration of the party now restored to power 
 has been in the past that of " opposition to all com- 
 binations of capital organized in trusts, or otherwise, 
 to control arbitrarily the condition of trade among our 
 citizens," and it lias supported " such legislation as 
 will prevent the execution of all schemes to oppress 
 the people by undue charges on their supplies or by 
 unjust rates for the transportation of their products 
 to market." 
 
 This purpose will be steadily pursued, both by the 
 enforcement of the laws now in existence and the re- 
 commendation and support of such new statutes as 
 may be necessary to carry it into effect. 
 
 Our naturalization and immigration laws should be 
 further improved to the constant promotion of a safer, 
 a better, arid a higher citizenship. A grave peril to 
 the Republic would be a citizenship, too ignorant to 
 understand or too vicious to appreciate the great value 
 and beneficence of our institutions and laws, and 
 against all who come here to make war upon them 
 our gates must be promptly and tightly closed. 
 
 Nor must we be unmindful of the need of improve- 
 ment among our own citizens, but with the zeal of 
 our forefathers encourage the spread of knowledge 
 
 32
 
 vs INAUGURAL AJ 439 
 
 and free institutions. Illiteracy must be banished 
 from the land, if we shall attain that high destiny as 
 the foremost of the enlightened nations of the world, 
 which, under Providence, we ought to achieve. 
 
 Reforms in the civil service must go on. But the 
 changes should be real and genuine, not perfunctory, 
 or promoted by a zeal in behalf of any party, simply 
 because it happens to be in power. 
 
 As a member of Congress I voted and spoke in 
 favor of the present law, and I shall attempt its en- 
 forcement in the spirit in which it was enacted. 
 
 The purpose in view was to secure the most efficient 
 service of the best men, who would accept appoint- 
 ment under the Government, retaining faithful and 
 devoted public servants in' office, but shielding none 
 under the authority of any rule or custom, who are 
 inefficient, incompetent; or unworthy. The best in- 
 terests of the country demand this, and the people 
 heartily approve the law wherever and whenever it 
 has been thus administered. 
 
 Congress should give prompt attention to the re- 
 storation of our American merchant marine, once the 
 pride of the seas in all the great ocean highways of 
 commerce. 
 
 To my mind few more important subjects so im- 
 peratively demand its intelligent consideration. The 
 United States has progressed with marvellous rapidity 
 in every field of enterprise and endeavor until we 
 have become foremost in nearly all the great lines of 
 inland trade, commerce, and industry.
 
 440 McKINLEY'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 Yet, while this is true, our American merchant 
 marine has been steadily declining until it is now 
 lower both in the percentage of tonnage and the num- 
 ber of vessels employed than it was prior to the Civil 
 War. 
 
 Commendable progress has been made of late years 
 in the upbuilding of the American navy, but we must 
 supplement those efforts by providing as a proper con- 
 sort for it a merchant marine amply sufficient for our 
 own carrying trade to foreign countries. The ques- 
 tion is one that appeals both to our business neces- 
 sities and the patriotic aspirations of a great people. 
 
 It has been the policy of the United Stat.es since 
 the foundation of the Government, to cultivate rela- 
 tions of peace and amity with all the nations of the 
 world, and this accords with my conception of our 
 duty now. 
 
 We have cherished the policy of non-interference 
 with the affairs of foreign Governments, wisely in- 
 augurated by Washington, keeping ourselves free from 
 entaglement either as allies or foes, content to leave 
 undisturbed with them the settlement of their own 
 domestic concerns. 
 
 It will be our aim to pursue a firm and dignified 
 foreign policy, which shall be just, impartial, ever 
 watchful of our national honor, and always insisting 
 upon the enforcement of the lawful rights of Ameri- 
 can citizens everywhere. 
 
 We want no wars of conquest ; we must avoid the 
 temptation of territorial aggression. War should
 
 McKIXLEY'S IXAUGURAL ADDRESS 441 
 
 never be entered upon until every agency of peace 
 has failed; peace is preferable to war in almost every 
 contingency. 
 
 Arbitration is the true method of settlement of in- 
 ternational, as well as local or individual differences. 
 It was recognized as the best means of adjustment of 
 differences between employers and employees by the 
 Forty-ninth Congress, in 1886, and its application 
 was extended to our diplomatic relations by the 
 unanimous concurrence of the Senate and House of 
 the Fifty-first Congress in 1890. 
 
 The latter resolution was accepted as the basis of 
 negotiations with us by the British House of Com- 
 mons, in 1893, and upon our invitation a treaty of 
 arbitration between the United States and Great 
 Britain was signed at Washington and transmitted 
 to the Senate for its ratification in January last. 
 
 Since this treaty is clearly the result of our own 
 initiative ; since it has been recognized as the leading 
 feature of our foreign policy throughout our entire 
 national history the adjustment of difficulties by 
 judicial methods rather than force of arms and 
 since it presents to the world the glorious example of 
 reason and peace, not passion and war, controlling 
 the relations between two of the greatest nations of 
 the world, an example certain to be followed by 
 others, I respectfully urge the early action of the 
 Senate thereon, not merely as a matter of policy but 
 as a duty to mankind. 
 
 The importance and moral influence of the ratifi-
 
 442 McKINLEY'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 cation of such a treaty can hardly be overestimated 
 in the cause of advancing civilization. It may well 
 engage the best thought of the statesmen and people 
 of every country, and I cannot but consider it fortu- 
 nate that it was reserved to the United States to 
 have the leadership in so grand a work. 
 
 It has been the uniform practice of each President 
 to avoid, as far as possible, the convening of Congress 
 in extraordinary session. It is an example which, 
 under ordinary circumstances, and in the absence of 
 a public necessity, is to be commended. 
 
 But a failure to convene the representatives of the 
 people in Congress in extra session when it involves 
 neglect of a public duty places the responsibility of 
 such neglect upon the Executive himself. 
 
 The condition of the public Treasury, as has been 
 indicated, demands the immediate consideration of 
 Congress. 
 
 It alone has the power to provide revenues for the 
 Government. Not to convene it under such circum- 
 stances I can view in no other sense than the neglect 
 of a plain duty. 
 
 I do not sympathize with the sentiment that Con- 
 gress in session is dangerous to our general business 
 interests. Its members are the agents of the people, 
 and their presence at the seat of government in the 
 execution of the sovereign will should not operate as 
 an injury, but a benefit. 
 
 There could be no better time to put the Govern- 
 ment upon a sound financial and economic basis than
 
 McKINLEY'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 443 
 
 now. The people have only recently voted that this 
 should be done, and nothing is more binding upon 
 the agents of their will than the obligation of imme- 
 diate action. 
 
 It has always seemed to me that the postponement 
 of the meeting of Congress until more than a year 
 after it has been chosen deprived Congress too often 
 of the inspiration of the popular will, and the coun- 
 try of the corresponding benefits. 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that to postpone action in 
 the presence of so great a necessity would be unwise 
 on the part of the Executive because unjust to the 
 interests of the people. 
 
 Our actions now will be freer from mere partisan 
 considerations than if the question of tariff revision 
 was postponed until the regular session of Congress. 
 We are nearly two years from a Congressional elec- 
 tion, and politics cannot so greatly distract us as if 
 such contest was immediately pending. We can ap- 
 proach the problem calmly and patriotically without 
 fearing its effect upon an early election. 
 
 Our fellow-citizens who may disagree with us upon 
 the character of this legislation prefer to have the 
 question settled now, even against their preconceived 
 views, and perhaps settled so reasonably and I trust 
 and believe it will be as to insure greater perma- 
 nence, than to have further uncertainty menacing 
 the vast and varied business interests of the United 
 States. 
 
 Again, whatever action Congress may take will be
 
 444 McKINLEY'S INAUGUEAL ADDEESS 
 
 given a fair opportunity for trial before the people are 
 called to pass judgment upon it; and this I consider 
 a great essential to the rightful and lasting settle- 
 ment of the question. 
 
 In view of these considerations, I shall deem it my 
 duty as President to convene Congress in extraordin- 
 ary session on Monday, the 15th day of March. 
 
 In conclusion, I congratulate the country upon the 
 fraternal spirit of the people and the manifestations 
 of good-will everywhere so apparent. The recent 
 election not only most fortunately demonstrated the 
 obliteration of sectional or geographical lines, but to 
 some extent also the prejudices which for years have 
 distracted our councils and marred our true greatness 
 as a nation. 
 
 The triumph of the people, whose verdict is car- 
 ried into effect to-day, is not the triumph of one sec- 
 tion, nor wholly of one party, but of all sections and 
 all the people. 
 
 The North and the South no longer divide on the 
 old lines, but upon principles and policies ; and in 
 this fact surely every lover of the country can find 
 cause for true felicitation. Let us rejoice in and cul- 
 tivate this spirit; it is ennobling, and will be both a 
 gain and blessing to our beloved country. 
 
 It will be my constant aim to do nothing, and per- 
 mit nothing to be done, that will arrest or disturb 
 this growing sentiment of unity and co-operation, this 
 revival of esteem and affiliation which now animates 
 so many thousands in both the old antagonistic sec-
 
 McKINLEY'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS ' ir> 
 
 tions, but I shall cheerfully do everything possible to 
 promote and increase it. 
 
 Let me again repeat the words of the oath admin- 
 istered by the Chief Justice, which, in their respec- 
 tive spheres, so far as applicable, I would have all 
 my countrymen observe : 
 
 " I will faithfully execute the office of President 
 of the United States, and will, to the best of my 
 ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States." 
 
 This is the obligation I have reverently taken be- 
 fore the Lord Most High. To keep it will be my 
 single purpose ; my constant prayer and I shall 
 confidently rely upon the forbearance and assistance 
 of all the people in the discharge of my solemn re- 
 sponsibilities.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE PHILADELPHIA CONVENTION. 
 
 President McKinley's Administration endorsed by his unanimous nomi- 
 nation for a Second TermGovernor Roosevelt the choice for 
 Vice-President. 
 
 McKINLEY and Roosevelt were nominated 
 at Philadelphia for President and Vice- 
 President respectively, not in a stampede, 
 but in a formal manner, showing that each was the 
 deliberate choice of the Convention. 
 
 No other candidate than McKinley was considered 
 for President. No other candidate than Roosevelt 
 was considered for Vice-President. 
 
 McKinley got all the 926 votes in the Convention. 
 Roosevelt got all but one. His was the one vote 
 not cast. 
 
 To the end he remained sincere in his belief that 
 somebody else ought to be nominated, and he carried 
 home with him the satisfying knowledge that he was 
 the only anti-Roosevelt delegate in the Convention. 
 The concluding session of the Convention took on 
 in a supreme measure the character of a great Repub- 
 
 44G
 
 THE PHILADELPHIA CONVENTION. 417 
 
 lican jubilee. Every man, woman and child stood 
 up when McKinley was placed in nomination by the 
 dashing Foraker, of Ohio, and the standards of all 
 the States traveled to the stage, where they were 
 grouped. 
 
 Mark Hanna led the cheering and waved a bunch 
 of pampas grass tied to the end of a broomstick. 
 The demonstration lasted nearly ten minutes. 
 
 Governor Roosevelt's speech seconding McKinley's 
 nomination was the signal for another demonstra- 
 tion. The Governor made the best speech of the day. 
 It was broad, thoughtful, patriotic and eloquent. 
 
 He drove his knife deep into the Democracy, and 
 when he concluded the leaders knew they had on 
 the ticket the man to answer Bryan should the Demo- 
 cratic champion tour the country from a rear plat- 
 form. 
 
 When all the speeches for McKinley had been 
 made, Senator Lodge, the Chairman, ordered the roll 
 of the States to be called for a ballot. There was 
 no other candidate, but it had been determined to 
 make the result formal and clinching. The chairman 
 
 ^ 
 
 of each State delegation arose and cast the solid vote 
 of the State for McKinley, and he was declared 
 nominated. 
 
 The nomination of Governor Roosevelt for Vice- 
 President was made amid scenes of great enthusiasm. 
 The Governor was the one popular idol in the Con- 
 vention. He was placed in nomination by Iowa. 
 
 Colonel "Lafe" Young, an Iowa editor, who was
 
 448 THE PHILADELPHIA CONVENTION. 
 
 in Cuba as a war correspondent, made the speech. 
 The nomination was seconded by Murray, of -Massa- 
 chusetts, Governor Mount, of Indiana, and Chauncey 
 M. Depew, of New York. 
 
 This, briefly, is the story of the great Convention 
 of Republicans in Philadelphia, and does not tell in 
 detail of the enormous enthusiasm when the Presi- 
 dential and Vice-Presidential candidates were unani- 
 mously chosen by their party, nor of the bands and 
 the flags, the fair women and brave men gathered 
 together to witness and be parties to an event 
 historic, a period followed by new sentences to be 
 written in gold to the honor and glory of the United 
 States. 
 
 It was a sight never to be forgotten. The great 
 hall was crowded to its full capacity, and though 
 there was not the uncertainty that makes nomina- 
 tions largely like races, spectacular and exciting, yet 
 th6re was something better than chance, the cer- 
 tainty that two great men were to be nominated by 
 their party for the two most distinguished offices in 
 the gift of " We, the people of the United States." 
 The people were there in great numbers ready to 
 voice their approval of what was certain, and 
 they had not lost their enthusiasm because there was 
 to be no fight, for they were there to hail the victors 
 of fights already won in peace and war. There 
 could have been nothing more inspiring than these 
 delegates with the names of their glorious States 
 above them, stars in the firmament of the federation,,
 
 THE PHILADELPHIA CONVENTION. 449 
 
 and the other representatives of a representative 
 government, the crowds in the galleries, those who 
 chose the choosers and those who were to choose, 
 and all of one mind. It was splendidly American 
 and unusually American, for in this country of free 
 speech and free thought we are so apt to differ that 
 this great gathering, eager and ready to pronounce 
 its unanimity of thought, was there awaiting the 
 proceedings of the Convention. 
 
 The Chairman does not have to rap twice for 
 order when there is perfect silence, the stillness of 
 those who are eager to cheer for their champion but 
 are orderly that they may hear the clear words of 
 his nomination. The entire hall catches the Chair- 
 man's words : " The next business before the Con- 
 vention is the nomination of candidates for President, 
 and the Secretaiy will call the roll of States." 
 
 "Alabama," reads the stout-lunged Secretaiy. 
 
 "Alabama gives way to Ohio," replies the chair- 
 man of the delegation. 
 
 "Alabama gives way to Ohio and the Chair recog- 
 nizes Senator Foraker, of Ohio," repeats Senator 
 Lodge, giving each word due emphasis. 
 
 Now a mighty cheer shakes the house as the 
 white-haired orator of the Buckeye State comes up 
 the aisle. Delegates are shouting and throwing up 
 their hats. Two or three are waving flags, hundreds 
 are shaking red, white and blue plumes that have 
 appeared from somewhere. It is but the beginning. 
 There is a lull at last, and the Senator begins his 
 brilliant speech.
 
 450 THE PHILADELPPIIA CONVENTION. 
 
 It is cleverly prepared, punctuated with dramatic 
 bits that serve to uncork the enthusiasm. He men- 
 tions the name of Blaine that name that has always 
 been one to conjure with and the house is in an 
 uproar. 
 
 SENATOR FORAKEE'S SPEECH. 
 
 "Alabama yields to Ohio, and I thank Alabama 
 for that accommodation. Alabama has so yielded, 
 however, by reason of the fact that would seem im- 
 portant to make the duty that has been assigned to 
 me superfluous, for Alabama has yielded because of 
 the fact that our candidate for the Presidency has in 
 fact been already nominated. He was nominated by 
 the distinguished Senator from Colorado when he 
 assumed the duties of Temporary Chairman. He 
 was nominated again yesterday by the distinguished 
 Senator from Massachusetts when he took the office 
 of Permanent Chairman, and he was nominated for a 
 third time when the Senator from Indiana yesterday 
 read us the platform, and not only has he been thus 
 nominated by this Convention but he has also been 
 nominated by the whole American people. From 
 one end of this land to the other, in every mind, only 
 one and the same man is thought of for the honor 
 which we are now about to confer, and that man is 
 the first choice of every other man who wishes 
 Republican success next November. [Applause.] 
 Oh this account it is not necessary for me or any one 
 else to speak for him here or elsewhere. He has
 
 THE PHILADELPHIA CONVENTION. 451 
 
 already spoken for himself and to all the world. He 
 has a record replete with brilliant achievements 
 [applause], a record that speaks at once both his 
 performances and is his highest eulogy. It compre- 
 hends both peace and war, and constitutes the most 
 striking illustration possible of triumphant and 
 inspiriting fidelity and success in the discharge of 
 public duty. 
 
 " Four years ago the American people confided to 
 him their highest and most sacred trust. Behold 
 with what results ! He found the industries of this 
 countiy paralyzed and prostrated; he quickened 
 them with a new life that has brought to the 
 American people a prosperity unprecedented in all 
 their history. He found the labor of this country 
 everywhere idle ; he has given it everywhere employ- 
 ment. He found it everywhere in despair; he has 
 made it everywhere prosperous and buoyant with 
 hope. He found the mills and shops and factories 
 and mines everywhere closed ; they are now every- 
 where open. [Applause.] 
 
 " And while we here deliberate, they are sejding 
 their surplus products in commercial conquest to the 
 very ends of the earth. Under his wise guidance, 
 our financial standard has been firmly planted high 
 above and beyond assault and the wild cry of 16 to I 
 so full of terror and long hair in 1896, has been put 
 to everlasting sleep alongside of the lost cause, and 
 other cherished Democratic heresies, in the cata- 
 combs of American politics. [Applause.] With a
 
 452 THE PHILADELPHIA CONVENTION. 
 
 diplomacy never excelled and rarely equaled, he 
 has overcome what at times seemed to be insur- 
 mountable difficulties and has not only opened to us 
 the door of China but he has advanced our interests 
 in every land. 
 
 " We are not surprised by this, for we anticipated 
 it all. When we nominated him at St. Louis four 
 years ago, we knew he was wise, we knew he was 
 brave, we knew he was patient, we knew he would 
 be faithful and devoted, and we knew that the 
 greatest possible triumphs of peace would be his; 
 but we then little knew that he would be called 
 upon to encounter also the trials of war! That 
 unusual emergency came. It came unexpectedly 
 as wars generally come. It came in spite of all he 
 could 'honorably do to avert it. It came to find the 
 country unprepared for it, but it found him equal to 
 all its extraordinary requirements. [Applause.] 
 
 "And it is no exaggeration to say that in all 
 American history there is no chapter more brilliant 
 than that which chronicles, with him as our com- 
 mander-in-chief, our victory on land and sea. [Ap- 
 plause.] In 100 days we drove Spain from the 
 western hemisphere, girded the earth with our 
 acquisition and filled the world with the splendor of 
 our power. [Applause.] The American name has 
 a new and greater significance now. Our flag has a 
 Dew glory. It not only symbolizes human liberty 
 and political equality at home, but it means freedom 
 and independence for the long-suffering patriots of
 
 THE PHILADELPHIA CONVEXTION. 453 
 
 Cuba, and complete protection, education and enlight- 
 enment, and ultimate local self-government and the 
 enjoyment of all the blessings of liberty to the mill- 
 ions of Porto Rico and the Philippines. "What we 
 have so gloriously done for ourselves, we propose 
 most generously to do for them. [Applause.] We 
 have so declared in the platform that we have 
 adopted. 
 
 " A fitting place it is for the party to make such a 
 declaration. Here in this magnificent city of Phila- 
 delphia, where the evidences so abound of the rich 
 blessings the Republican party has brought to the 
 American people; here at the birthplace of the 
 Nation, where our own Declaration of Independence 
 was adopted and our Constitution formed; where 
 Washington and Jefferson and Hancock and John 
 
 o 
 
 Adams and their illustrious associates wrought their 
 immortal work ; here where center so many historic 
 memories that stir the blood and flush the cheek and 
 excite the sentiments of human liberty and patriot- 
 ism, is indeed a most fitting place for the party of 
 Lincoln and Grant and Garfield and Elaine. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 " The party of union and liberty for all men for- 
 mally dedicates itself to this great duty. We are 
 now in the midst of its discharge. We could not 
 turn back if we would, and we would not if we 
 could. [Applause.] We are on trial before the 
 world and must triumphantly meet our responsibili- 
 ties or ignominiously fail in the presence of mankind.
 
 454 THE PHILADELPHIA CONVENTION. 
 
 These responsibilities speak to this Convention here 
 and now, and command us that we choose to be our 
 candidate and the next President which is one and 
 the same thing- the best fitted man for the discharge 
 of this great duty in all the Republic. [Applause.] 
 
 " On that point there is no difference of opinion. 
 No man in all the Nation is so well qualified for this 
 trust as the great leader under whom the work has 
 been so far conducted. He has the head, he has the 
 heart, he has the special knowledge and the special 
 experience that qualify him beyond all others. And 
 he has also the stainless reputation and character 
 and has led the blameless life that endear him to his 
 countrymen and give to him the confidence, the 
 respect, the admiration, the love and the affection of 
 the whole American people. [Applause.] He is an 
 ideal man, representing the highest type of American 
 citizenship, an ideal candidate and an ideal Presi- 
 dent. With our banner in his hands it will be car- 
 ried to triumphant victory in November next. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 " In the name of all these considerations, not alone 
 on behalf of his beloved State of Ohio, but on behalf 
 r of every other state and territory here represented, 
 and in the name of all Republicans everywhere 
 throughout our jurisdiction, I nominate to be our next 
 candidate for the Presidency, William McKinley." 
 
 The safety valve is off. A cheer starts and grows 
 to a roar by leaps and bounds. Delegates jump to 
 their feet. A sea of flags, plumes, umbrellas and
 
 THE PHILADELPHIA CONVENTION. 455 
 
 hats are waving in air. Hanna, all smiles, rashes to 
 the front of the stage. " Get up! Get up !" he calls, 
 waving his hands. 
 
 But they were all up before he had spoken, shout- 
 ing, cheering, singing, praising at the expense of 
 their throats their President now and to be ao-ain 
 
 o 
 
 elected. The band strikes up " Glory ! Glory ! 
 Glory Hallelujah!" and pandemonium is loosed 
 again. Dignified Senators stand on one another's 
 backs and yell like schoolboys. As if by one 
 thought a half-hundred hands grab the standards 
 that bear the names of the different States and wave 
 them in air. 
 
 The standard-bearers now, with common purpose, 
 rush to the center aisle and come marching up to the 
 stage, where they range themselves in a spectacular 
 pyramid as the storm still rages. The men with the 
 standards file down again and start to march round 
 the aisles. There is a great rush for the honor of 
 leading the procession. Now Pennsylvania is in the 
 lead. No ! Ohio has overtaken it and they are racing 
 nip and tuck down the side aisle. The other States 
 are after them pell mell, It is a regular foot race. 
 But exhaustion compels the enthusiasm to stop and 
 the tumult finally ends.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 SENATOR LODGE'S SPEECH. 
 
 Permanent Chairman of the Republican Convention outlines the position 
 of the Republican party A scholarly effort and a concise 
 statement. 
 
 THE Republican National Convention of 1900 
 was held in Philadelphia, beginning June 
 19 and continuing three days. The second 
 day the report of the Committee on Permanent 
 Organization was adopted, making Senator Lodge, of 
 Massachusetts, the Permanent Chairman. Senator 
 Lodge was at once escorted to the chair by Governor 
 Roosevelt, of New York, and Governor Shaw, of 
 Iowa. He was introduced and began his speech. 
 
 Senator Lodge's speech was not only a scholarly 
 effort, but it may be taken as a history of President 
 McKinley's first administration and as defining the 
 Republican position on the issues in. the campaign 
 of 1900. 
 
 SENATOR LODGE'S SPEECH. 
 
 "One of the greatest honors that can fall to any 
 American in public life is to be called to preside 
 
 456
 
 SENATOR LODGE'S SPEECH. 4.17 
 
 over a Kepublican National Convention. How 
 great the honor is you know, but cannot realize, nor 
 can I express the gratitude which I feel to you for 
 having conferred it upon me. I can only say to you, 
 in the simplest phrase, that I thank you from the 
 bottom of my heart. ' Beggar that I am, I am even 
 poor in thanks, and yet I thank you.' 
 
 " We meet again to nominate the next President 
 of the United States. Four years have passed since 
 we nominated the soldier and statesman who is now 
 President, and who is soon to enter upon his second 
 term. Since the civil war no Presidential term has 
 been so crowded with great events as that which is 
 now drawing to a close. They have been four 
 memorable years. To Republicans they show a 
 record of promises kept, of work done, of unforeseen 
 questions met and answered. To the Democrats 
 they have been generous in the exhibition of unful- 
 filled predictions, in the ruin of their hopes of 
 calamity and in futile opposition. to the forces of the 
 times and the aspirations of the American people. 
 I wish I could add that they had been equally 
 instructive to our opponents, but while it is true that 
 the Democrats, like the Bourbons, learn nothing, it 
 is only too evident that the familiar comparison can- 
 not be completed, for they forget a great deal which 
 it Avouldrbe well for them to remember.- 
 
 " In 1897 we took the Government and the country 
 from the hands of President Cleveland. His party 
 had abandoned him and were joined to their idols,
 
 458 SENATOE LODGE'S SPEECH. 
 
 of which he was no longer one. During the last 
 years of his term we had presented to us the melan- 
 choly spectacle of a President trying to govern with- 
 out a party. The result was that his policies were 
 in ruin, legislation was at a standstill and public 
 affairs were in a perilous and incoherent condition. 
 Party responsibilities had vanished, and with it all 
 possibility of intelligent action demanded by the 
 country at home and abroad. It was an interesting, 
 but by no means singular display of Democratic 
 unfitness for the practical work of government. To 
 the political student it was instructive ; to the coun- 
 try it was extremely painful ; to business, disastrous. 
 " We replaced this political chaos with a President 
 in thorough accord with his party, and the machinery 
 of government began again to move smoothly and 
 effectively. Thus we kept at once our promise of 
 better and more efficient administration. In four 
 months after the inauguration of President McKinley 
 we had passed a tariff bill. For ten years the arti- 
 ficial agitation in behalf of what was humorously 
 called tariff reform, and of what was really free 
 trade, had kept business in a foment and had brought 
 a treasury deficit, paralyzed industries, depression 
 panic and finally continuous bad times to a degree 
 never before imagined. Would you know the result 
 of our tariff legislation, look about you. Would you 
 measure its success, recollect that it is no longer an 
 issue, that our opponents, free traders as they are, do 
 not dare to make it an issue, that there is not a State
 
 SENATOR LODGE'S SPEECH. 459 
 
 in the Union to-day which could be carried for free 
 trade against protection. Never was a policy more 
 fully justified by its works, never was a promise 
 made by any party more absolutely fulfilled. 
 
 "Dominant among the issues of four years ago 
 was that of our monetary and financial system. The 
 Republican party promised to uphold our credit, to 
 protect our currency from revolution and to maintain 
 the gold standard. We have done so. We have 
 done more. We have been better than our promise. 
 Failing to secure, after honest effort, any encourage- 
 ment for international bimetallism, we have passed a 
 law strengthening the gold standard and planting it 
 firmer than ever in our financial system, improving 
 our banking laws, buttressing our credit and refund- 
 ing the public debt at 2 per cent, interest, the lowest 
 rate in the world. It was a great work well done. 
 The only argument the Democrats can advance to- 
 day in their own behalf on the money question is 
 that a Republican Senate, in the event of Democratic 
 success, would not permit the repeal of a Republican 
 law. This is a precious argument when looked at 
 with considerate eyes and quite worthy of the intel- 
 lects which produced it. Apply it generally. Upon 
 this theory because we have defeated the soldiers of 
 Spain and sunk her ships we can with safety dispense 
 with the army and the navy which did the work. 
 Take another example : There has been a fire in a 
 great city ; it has been checked and extinguished ; 
 therefore let us abolish the fire department and cease
 
 4GO SENATOK LODGE'S SPEECH. 
 
 to insure our homes. Distrust in our currency, the 
 dread of change, the deadly fear of a debased stand- 
 ard, were raging four years ago and business lay 
 prostrate before them. Eepublican supremacy and 
 Republican legislation have extinguished the fires of 
 debt and fear, and business has risen triumphant 
 from the ashes. Therefore abolish your fire depart- 
 ment,, turn out the Republicans and put in power 
 the incendiaries who lighted the flames and trust 
 what remains of Republican control to avert fresh 
 disaster. The proposition is its own refutation. 
 The supremacy of the party that has saved the 
 standard of sound money and guarded it by law is 
 as necessary for its security and for the existence of 
 honest wages and of business confidence now as it 
 was in 1896. 
 
 " The moment the Republican party passes from 
 power and the party of free silver and fiat paper 
 comes in, stable currency and the gold standard, the 
 standard of the civilized world, are in imminent and 
 deadly peril. Sound currency and a steady standard 
 of value are to-day safe only in Republican hands. 
 
 "But there were still other questions in 1896. 
 We had already thwarted the efforts of the Cleve- 
 land administration to throw the Hawaiian Islands 
 back to their dethroned queen and to give England 
 the foothold for her cables in the group. We then 
 said that we would settle finally the Hawaiian ques- 
 tion. We have done so. The traditional American 
 policy has been carried out. The flag of the Union
 
 SENATOR LODGE'S SPEECH. 461 
 
 floats to-day over the cross-roads of the Pacific. We 
 promised to deal with the Cuban question. Again 
 comes the reply, we have done so. The long agony 
 of the island is over; Cuba is free. But this great 
 work brought with it events and issues which no 
 man had foreseen, for which no party creed had pro- 
 vided a policy. The crisis came, bringing war in its 
 train. The Republican President and the Repub- 
 lican Congress met the new trial in the old spirit. 
 We fought the war with Spain. The result is his- 
 tory known of all men. We have the perspective 
 now of only a short two years, and yet how clear 
 and how bright the great facts stand out, like moun- 
 tain peaks against the sky, while the gathering 
 darkness of a just oblivion is creeping fast over the 
 low grounds where lie forgotten the trivial and unim- 
 portant things, the criticisms and the fault-findings 
 which seemed so huge when we still lingered among 
 them. Here they are, these great facts: A war 
 of a hundred days, with many victories and no 
 defeats, with no prisoners taken from us and no 
 advance stayed, with a triumphant outcome start- 
 ling in its completeness and in its world-wide 
 meaning. Was ever a war more justly entered 
 upon, more successfully fought, more fully won, 
 more thorough in its results ? Cuba is free. Spain 
 has been driven from the western hemisphere. 
 Fresh glory has come to our arms and crowned our 
 flag. It was the work of the American people, but 
 the Republican party was their instrument. Have
 
 462 SENATOE LODGE'S SPEECH. 
 
 we not the right to say that here, too, even as in the 
 days of Lincoln, we have fought a good fight ; we 
 have kept the faith ; we have finished the work. 
 
 "War, however, is ever like the sword of Alex- 
 ander. It cuts the knots. It is a great solvent and 
 brings many results not to be foreseen. The world 
 forces, unchained in war, perform in hours the work 
 of years of quiet. Spain sued for peace. How was 
 that peace to be made ? The answer to this great 
 question had to be given by the President of the 
 United States. We were victorious in Cuba, in 
 Porto Rico, in the Philippines. Should we give those 
 islands back to Spain ? Never, was the President's 
 reply. Would any American wish that he had 
 answered otherwise ? Should we hand them over to 
 some other power? Never, was again the answer. 
 Would our pride and self-respect as a Nation have 
 submitted to any other reply ? Should we turn the 
 islands, where we had destroyed all existing sov- 
 ereignty, loose upon the world to be a prey to 
 domestic anarchy and the helpless spoil of some 
 other nation? Again the inevitable negative. 
 Again the President answered as the Nation he rep- 
 resented would have him answer. He boldly took 
 the islands, took them knowing well the burden and 
 responsibility, took them with a deep sense of duty 
 to ourselves and others, guided by a just foresight as 
 to our future in the East, and with an entire faith in 
 the ability of the American people to grapple with 
 the new task. When future Conventions point to
 
 SENATOR LODGE'S SPEECH. 4( ' :; 
 
 the deeds by which the Republican party has made 
 history, they will proclaim with special pride that 
 under a Republican administration the war of 'i>s 
 was fought and that the peace with Spain was the 
 work of William McKinley. So much for the 
 past. We are proud of it, but we do not expect 
 to live upon it, for the Republican party is pre- 
 eminently the party of action, and its march is ever 
 forward. We are not so made that we can be con- 
 tent to retreat or to mark time. ,The traditions of 
 the early days of our party are sacred to us, and are 
 hostages given to the American people that we will 
 will not be unworthy of the great leaders who have 
 gone. The deeds of yesterday are in their turn a 
 pledge and a proof of what we promise we perform, 
 and that the people who put faith in our declarations 
 in 1896 were not deceived and may place the same 
 trust in us in 1900. But our pathway has never lain 
 among dead issues, nor have we won our victories 
 and made history by delving in political graveyards. 
 We are the party of to-day, with cheerful yesterdays 
 and confident to-morrows. The living present is 
 ours, the present of prosperity and activity in bn.>i- 
 ness, of good wages and quick payments, of labor 
 employed and capital invested ; of sunshine in the 
 market-place and the stir of abounding life in the 
 workshop and on the farm. It is with this that we 
 have replaced the depression, the doubts, the dull 
 business, the low wages, the idle labor, the frightened 
 capital, the dark clouds which overhung industry
 
 464 SENATOE LODGE'S SPEECH. 
 
 and agriculture in 1896. This is what we would 
 preserve, so far as sound government and wise legis- 
 lation can do. This is what we brought to the 
 country four years ago. This is what we offer now. 
 Again we promise that the protective system shall 
 be maintained and that our great industrial interests 
 shall go on their way unshaken by the dire fear of 
 tariff agitation and of changing duties. Again we 
 declare that we will guard the national credit, up- 
 hold a sound currency based on gold, and keep the 
 wages of the workingman and the enterprise of the 
 man of business free from that most deadly of all 
 evils, a fluctuating standard of value. The deficit 
 which made this great country in a time of profound 
 peace a borrower of money to meet its current ex- 
 penses has been replaced by abundant revenue, bring- 
 ing a surplus, due alike to prosperity and to wise 
 legislation, so ample that we can now safely promise 
 a large reduction of taxation without imperiling our 
 credit or risking a resort to loans. 
 
 "We are prepared to take steps to revive and 
 build up our merchant marine and thus put into 
 American pockets the money paid for carrying 
 American freights. Out of the abundant resources 
 which our financial legislation has brought us we 
 will build - the Isthmian canal, and lay the cables 
 which will help to turn the current of eastern trade 
 to the Golden Gate. We are on good terms with all 
 nations, and mean to remain so, while we promise to 
 insure our peace and safety by maintaining the Mon-
 
 SENATOR LODGE'S SPEECH. K;:> 
 
 roe doctrine, by ample coast defenses and by building 
 up a navy which no one can challenge with impunity. 
 " The new problems brought by the war we face 
 with confidence in ourselves and a still deeper confi- 
 dence in the American people, who will deal justly 
 and rightly with the islands which have come into 
 their charge. The outcry against our new possessions 
 is as empty as the cant about militarism and 'imperi- 
 alism ' is devoid of sense and meaning. Regard for 
 a moment those who are loudest in shrieking: that the 
 
 o 
 
 American people are about to enter upon a career of 
 oppression and that the Republic is in danger. 
 Have they been in the past the guards of freedom? 
 Is safety for liberty now to be found most surely in 
 the party which was the defender of domestic slav- 
 ery ? Is true freedom to be secured by the ascend- 
 ancy of the party which beneath our very eyes seeks 
 to establish through infamous laws the despotic rule 
 of a small and unscrupulous band of usurpers in 
 Kentucky who trampled there, not upon the rights 
 of the black men only, but of the whites, and which 
 seeks to extend the same system to North Carolina 
 and Missouri ? Has it suddenly come to pass that 
 the Democratic party which to-day aims whenever 
 it acquires power to continue in office by crushing 
 out honest elections and popular rule; has it, indeed, 
 come to pass, I say, that that party is the chosen pro- 
 tector of liberty? If it were so, the outlook would 
 be black indeed. No. The party of Lincoln may 
 be best trusted now, as in the past, to be true even
 
 466 SENATOR LODGE'S SPEECH. 
 
 as lie was true, to the rights of man and to human 
 freedom, whether within the borders of the United 
 States or in the islands which have come beneath 
 our flag. The liberators may be trusted to watch 
 over the liberated. We who freed Cuba will keep 
 the pledge we made to her, and will guide her along 
 the road to independence and stable government 
 until she is ready to settle her own future by the 
 free expression of her people's will. We will be 
 faithful to the trust imposed upon us, and if among 
 those to whom this great work is confided in Cuba, 
 or elsewhere, wrong-doers shall be found, men not 
 only bad in morals, but dead to their duty as Amer- 
 icans and false to the honor of our name, we will 
 punish these basest of criminals to the extent of the 
 law. 
 
 " For the islands of Hawaii and Porto Rico the 
 political problem has been solved and by Repub- 
 lican legislation have been given self-government and 
 are peaceful and prosperous under the rule of the 
 United States. 
 
 "In the Philippines we were met by rebellion, 
 fomented by a self-seeking adventurer and usurper. 
 The duty of the President was to repress that 
 rebellion, to see that the authority of the United 
 States as rightfully and righteous in Manila as in 
 Philadelphia was acknowledged and obeyed. That 
 harsh and painful duty President McKinley has per- 
 formed firmly and justly, eager to resort to gentle 
 measures whenever possible until yielding when
 
 SENATOR LODGE'S SPEECH. 467 
 
 treachery and violence made force necessary. Unlike 
 the opponents of expansion, we do not regard the 
 soldiers of Otis, Lawton and MacArthur as 'an 
 enemy's camp.' In our eyes they are the soldiers of 
 the United States; they are our army, and we believe 
 in them and will sustain them. Even now the 
 Democrats are planning, if they get control of the 
 House, to cut off appropriations for the army and 
 thus compel the withdrawal of our troops from the 
 Philippines. 
 
 " The result would be to force the retirement of 
 such soldiers as would remain in Manila, and their 
 retreat would be the signal for the massacre and 
 plunder of the great body of peaceful inhabitants of 
 the islands who have trusted to us to protect and 
 guard them. Such an event would be an infamy. 
 Is the Government, is the House, to be given over to 
 a party capable of such a policy ? 
 
 "Shall they not rather be intrusted to the party 
 which will sustain the army and suppress the 
 brigands and guerrillas who, under pretense of war, 
 are now adding so freely to the list of crimes com- 
 mitted in the name of liberty by usurpers and pre- 
 tenders, and who, buoyed up by Democratic promises, 
 keep up a highwayman's warfare in hope of Demo- 
 cratic success in November ? It is for the American 
 people to decide this question. Our position is plain. 
 The restoration of peace and order now so nearly 
 reached in the Philippines shall be completed. Civil 
 government shall be established and the people
 
 468 SENATOR LODGE'S SPEECH. 
 
 advanced as rapidly as possible along the road to 
 entire freedom and to self-government under our flag. 
 We will not abandon our task. We will neither 
 surrender nor retreat. We will not write failure 
 across this page of our history. We will do our 
 duty, our full duty, to the people of the Philippines 
 and strive by every means to give them freedom, 
 contentment and prosperity. We have no belief in 
 the old slaveholders' doctrine that the Constitution of 
 its own force marches into every newly acquired ter- 
 ritory, and this doctrine, which we cast out in 1860, 
 we still reject. We do not mean that the Philip- 
 pines shall come without a tariff system or become 
 part of our body politic. We do not mean that they 
 shall, under our teaching, learn to govern themselves 
 and remain under our flag with the largest possible 
 measure of home rule. We make no hypocritical 
 pretenses of being interested in the Philippines solely 
 on account of others. While we regard the welfare 
 of those people as a sacred trust, we regard the wel- 
 fare of the American people first. We see our duty 
 to ourselves as well as to others. We believe in 
 trade expansion. 
 
 " By every legitimate means within the province 
 of government and legislation we mean to stimulate 
 the expansion of our trade and to open new markets. 
 Greatest of all markets is China. Our trade there 
 is growing by leaps and bounds. Manila, the prize 
 of war, gives us inestimable advantages in develop- 
 ing that trade. It is the corner-stone of our Eastern
 
 SENATOR LODGE'S SPEECH. 4C9 
 
 policy, and the brilliant diplomacy of John Hay in 
 securing from all nations a guarantee of our treaty 
 rights and the open door in China rests upon it. 
 We ask the American people whether they will 
 throw away these new markets and widening oppor- 
 tunities for trade and commerce by putting in power 
 the Democratic party, which seeks under cover of a 
 newly discovered affection for the rights of man to 
 give up these islands of the East and make Dewey's 
 victory fruitless? The choice lies between this 
 Democratic policy of retreat and the Republican 
 policy which would hold the islands, give them free- 
 dom and prosperity and enlarge those great oppor- 
 tunities for ourselves and our posterity. The Demo- 
 cratic attitude toward the Philippines rests wholly 
 upon the proposition that the American people have 
 neither the capacity nor the honesty to deal rightly 
 with these islands. They assume that we shall fail. 
 They fall down and worship a Chinese half-breed 
 whose name they had never heard three years ago, 
 and they slander and cry down and doubt the honor 
 of American soldiers and sailors, of admirals and 
 generals and public men who have gone in and out 
 before us during an entire lifetime. We are true to 
 our own. We have no distrust of the honor, the 
 humanity, the capacity of the American people. To 
 feel or do otherwise is to doubt ourselves, our Gov- 
 ernment and our civilization. We take issues with 
 the Democrats, who would cast off the Philippines 
 because the American people cannot be trusted with
 
 470 SENATOR LODGE'S SPEECH. 
 
 them, and we declare that the American people can 
 be trusted to deal justly, wisely and generously with 
 these distant islands and will lift them up to a higher 
 prosperity, a broader freedom and a nobler civiliza- 
 tion than they have ever known. We have not 
 failed elsewhere. We shall not fail here. 
 
 " Those are the questions we present to the Amer. 
 lean people in regard to the Philippines. Do they 
 want such a humiliating change there as Democratic 
 victory would bring? Do they want an even more 
 radical change at home? Suppose the candidate of the 
 Democrats, the Populists, the foes of expansion, the 
 dissatisfied and the envious should come into power, 
 what kind of an administration would be given us? 
 What would his cabinet be ? Think what an elec- 
 tric spark of confidence would run through every 
 business interest in the country when such a cabinet 
 was announced as we can readily imagine he would 
 make. More important still, we ask the American 
 people whether they will put in the White House 
 the hero of uncounted platforms, the prodigal spend- 
 thrift of words, the champion of free silver, the 
 opponent of expansion, the assailant of the courts; 
 or whether they will retain in the Presidency the 
 Union soldier, the leader of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, the trained statesman who has borne vic- 
 toriously the heavy burdens of the last four years; 
 the champion of protection and solid money; the 
 fearless supporter of law and order wherever the 
 flag floats?
 
 SENATOR LODGE'S SPEECH. 471 
 
 " Now, at the dawii of a new century, with new 
 policies and new opportunities opening before us in 
 the bright sunshine of prosperity, we again ask the 
 American people to intrust us with their future. 
 We have profound faith in the people. We do not 
 distrust their capacity of meeting the new responsi- 
 bilities, even as they met the old, and we shall await 
 with confidence, under the leadership of William 
 McKinley, the verdict of November."
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 REPUBLICAN PLATFOEM OF 1900. 
 
 Document of remarkable scope and certainty Defines the party's 
 position on every issue Adopted as read. 
 
 THIS platform was reported and read by the 
 Hon. Chas. W. Fairbanks, Senator of the 
 United States from Indiana. It is a docu- 
 ment of remarkable scope and certainty, and if it 
 needs interpretation it must be construed by the 
 record in peace and war of the first McKinley 
 administration. 
 
 "The Republicans of the United States, through 
 chosen representatives met in National Convention, 
 looking back upon an unsurpassed record of achieve- 
 ment and looking forward into a great field of duty 
 and opportunity, and appealing to the judgment of 
 their countrymen, make these declarations: 
 
 " The expectation in which the American people, 
 turning from the Democratic party, intrusted power 
 four years ago to a Republican chief magistrate and 
 a Republican Congress, has been met and satisfied. 
 When the people then assembled at the polls after
 
 REPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1900. 473 
 
 a term of Democratic legislation and administration, 
 business was dead, industry paralyzed and the na- 
 tional credit disastrously impaired. The country's 
 capital was hidden away and its labor distressed and 
 unemployed. The Democrats had no other plan 
 with which to improve the ruinous conditions which 
 they had themselves produced than to coin silver at 
 the ratio of 16 to 1. The Republican party, de- 
 nouncing this plan as sure to produce conditions 
 from which relief was sought, promised to restore 
 prosperity by means of two legislative measures a 
 protective tariff and a law making gold the standard 
 of value. The people by great majorities issued to 
 the Republican party a commission to enact these 
 laws. This commission has been executed and the 
 Republican promise is redeemed. Prosperity, more 
 general and more abundant than we have ever 
 known, has followed these enactments. There is no 
 longer controversy as to the value of Government 
 obligations. Every American dollar is a gold dollar 
 or its assured equivalent, and American credit stands 
 higher than that of any nation. Capital is fully em- 
 ployed and everywhere labor is profitably occupied. 
 " No single fact can more strikingly tell the story 
 of what government means to the country than this 
 that while during the whole period of 107 years 
 from 1790 to 1897 there was an excess of exports 
 over imports of only $383,989,497, there has been in 
 the short three years of the present Republican ad- 
 ministration an excess of exports over imports in the
 
 474 KEPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1900. 
 
 enormous sum of $1,483,537,954, and while the 
 American people, sustained by this Republican legis- 
 lation, have been achieving these splendid triumphs 
 in their business and commerce, they have conducted 
 and, in victory, concluded a war for liberty and 
 human rights. 
 
 " No thought of national aggrandizement tarnished 
 the high power with which American standards 
 were unfurled. It was a war unsought and patiently 
 resisted, but when it came the American Govern- 
 ment was ready. Its fleets were cleared for action. 
 Its armies were in the field, and the quick and signal 
 triumph of its forces on land and sea bore equal 
 tribute to the courage of American sailors and 
 soldiers and to the skill of Republican statesman- 
 ship. To ten millions of the human race there was 
 given ' a new birth of freedom,' and to the Amer- 
 ican people a new and noble responsibility. 
 
 "We indorse the administration of William Me- 
 Kinley. Its acts have been established in wisdom 
 and in patriotism, and at home and abroad it has 
 distinctly elevated and extended the influence of the 
 American nation. Walking untried paths and facing 
 unforeseen responsibilities, President McKiuley has 
 been in every situation the true American patriot 
 and upright statesman, clear in vision, strong in 
 judgment, firm in action, always inspiring and 
 deserving the confidence of his countrymen. 
 
 " In asking the American people to indorse this 
 Republican record and to renew their commission to
 
 REPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1900. 475 
 
 the Kepublican party, we remind them of the fact that 
 the menace to their prosperity has always resided 
 in Democratic principles and no less in the general 
 incapacity of the Democratic party to conduct pub- 
 lic affairs. The prime essential of business prosperit v 
 is public confidence in the good sense of the Govern- 
 ment and in its ability to deal intelligently with the 
 problem of administration and legislation. That 
 confidence the Democratic party has never earned. 
 It is hopelessly inadequate, and the country's pros- 
 perity, when Democratic success at the polls is 
 announced, halts and ceases in mere anticipation of 
 Democratic blunders and failures. 
 
 "We renew our allegiance to the principle of the 
 gold standard and declare our confidence in the 
 wisdom of the legislation of the Fifty-sixth Congress 
 by which the parity of all our money and the sta- 
 bility of our currency on a gold basis has been 
 secured. "We recognize that interest rates are a 
 
 O 
 
 potent factor in production and business activity; 
 and for the purpose of further equalizing and of 
 further lowering the rates of interest, we favor such 
 
 .monetary legislation as will enable the varying nee* Is 
 of the season and of all sections to be promptly met 
 
 /in order that trade may be evenly sustained, labor 
 steadily employed and commerce enlarged. The 
 volume of money in circulation was never so great 
 per capita as it is to-day. We declare our steadfast 
 opposition to the free and unlimited coin;* :vcr. 
 
 No measure to that end could be considered which
 
 476 BEPUBLICAN PLATFOKM OF 1900. 
 
 was without the support of the leading commercial 
 countries of the world. However firmly Republican 
 legislation may seem to have secured the country 
 against the peril of base and discredited currency 
 the election of a Democratic President could not fail 
 to impair the country's credit and to bring once more 
 into question the intention of the American people 
 to maintain, on the gold standard, the parity of their 
 money circulation. The Democratic party must be 
 convinced that the American people will never tol- 
 erate the Chicago platform. 
 
 " We recognize the necessity and propriety of the 
 honest co-operation of capital to meet new business 
 conditions and especially to extend our rapidly 
 increasing foreign trade, but we condemn all con- 
 spiracies and combinations intended to restrict busi- 
 ness, to create monopolies, to limit production or to 
 control prices, and favor such legislation as will 
 effectually restrain and prevent all such abuses, pro- 
 tect and promote competition and secure the rights 
 of producers, laborers and all who are engaged in 
 industry and commerce. 
 
 " We renew our faith in the policy of protection to 
 American labor. In that policy our industries have 
 been established, diversified and maintained. By 
 protecting the home market the competition has been 
 stimulated and production cheapened. Opportunity 
 to the inventive genius of our people has been 
 secured, and wages in every department of labor 
 maintained at high rates, higher now than ever
 
 REPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1900. 477 
 
 before, always distinguishing our working people 
 in their better conditions of life than those of any 
 competing country. Enjoying the blessings of Amer- 
 ican common schools, secure in the right of self-gov- 
 ernment and protected in the occupancy of their own 
 markets, their constantly increasing knowledge and 
 skill have enabled them finally to enter the markets 
 of the world. We favor the associated policy of 
 reciprocity, so directed to open our markets on favor- 
 able terms for what we do not ourselves produce in 
 return for free foreign markets. In the further in- 
 terest of American workmen, we favor a more effect- 
 ive restriction of the immigration of cheap labor f n ua 
 foreign lands, the extension of opportunities of educa- 
 tion for workingmen's children, the raising of the age 
 limit for child labor, the protection of free labor as 
 against contract convict labor, and an effective sys- 
 tem of labor insurance. 
 
 "Our present dependence upon foreign shipping for 
 nine-tenths of our foreign carrying is a great loss to 
 the industry of this country. It is also a serious 
 danger to our trade, for its sudden withdrawal in the 
 event of European war would seriously cripple our 
 expanding foreign commerce. The national defense 
 and naval efficiency of this country, moreover, supply 
 a compelling reason for legislation which will enable 
 us to recover our former place among the trade-carry- 
 ing fleets of the world. 
 
 " The nation owes a debt of profound gratitude 
 to the soldiers and sailors who have fought its
 
 478 REPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1900. 
 
 battles, and it is the Government's duty to provide 
 for the survivors and for the widows and orphans of 
 those who have fallen in the country's wars. The 
 pension laws, founded in this just sentiment, should 
 be liberal, and should be liberally administered and 
 preference should be given, wherever practicable, 
 with respect to employment in the public service, 
 to soldiers and sailors and to their widows and 
 orphans. 
 
 " We commend the policy of the Republican party 
 in maintaining the efficiency of the civil service. 
 The administration has acted wisely in its effort to 
 secure for public service in Cuba, Porto Rico and 
 Hawaii and the Philippine Islands only those whose 
 fitness has been determined by training and experi- 
 ence. We believe that employment in the public 
 service in these territories should be confined as far 
 as practicable to their inhabitants. 
 
 " It was the plain purpose of the jif teenth amend- 
 ment to the Constitution to prevent discrimination 
 on account of race or color in regulating the elective 
 franchise. Devices of State Governments, whether 
 by statutory or constitutional enactment, to avoid the 
 purpose of this amendment are revolutionary and 
 should be condemned. 
 
 "Public movements looking to a permanent im- 
 provement of the roads and highways of the coun- 
 try meet with our cordial approval, and we recom- 
 mend this subject to the earnest consideration of the 
 people and of the legislatures of the several States.
 
 REPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1900. 470 
 
 " We favor the extension of the rural free delivery 
 service wherever its extension may be justified. 
 
 " In further pursuance of the constant policy of 
 the Republican party to provide free homes on the 
 public domain, we recommend adequate national legis- 
 lation to reclaim the arid lands of the United States, 
 reserving control of the distribution of water for 
 
 O 
 
 irrigation to the respective States and Territories. 
 
 " We favor home rule for and the early admission 
 to statehood of the Territories of New Mexico, Ari- 
 zona and Oklahoma. 
 
 u The Dingley act amended to provide sufficient 
 revenue for the conduct of the war has so well per- 
 formed its work that it has been possible to reduce 
 the war debt in the sum of $40,000,000. So ample 
 are the Government's revenues and so great is the 
 public confidence in the integrity of its obligations 
 that its newly funded 2 per cent, bonds sell at a 
 premium. The country is now justified in expecting, 
 and it will be the policy of the Republican party to 
 bring about, a reduction of the war taxes. 
 
 "We favor the construction, ownership, control 
 and protection of an Isthmian Canal by the Govern- 
 ment of the United States. New markets are nec- 
 essary for the increasing surplus of our farm 
 products. Every effort should be made to open and 
 obtain new markets, especially in the Orient, and the 
 administration is warmly to be commended for its 
 successful effort to commit all trading and colonizing 
 nations to the policy of the open door in China. In
 
 480 REPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1900. 
 
 the interest of our expanding commerce, we recom- 
 mend that Congress create a Department of Com- 
 merce and Industries in the charge of a Secretary 
 with a seat in the Cabinet. The United States con- 
 sular system should be reorganized under the super- 
 vision of this new department upon such a basis and 
 tenure as will render it still more serviceable to the 
 nation's increasing trade. 
 
 "The American Government must protect the 
 person and property of every citizen wherever they 
 are wrongfully violated or placed in peril. 
 
 "We congratulate the women of America upon 
 their splendid record of public service in the Volun- 
 teer Aid Association, and as nurses in camp and hos- 
 pital during the recent campaigns of our armies in 
 the East and West Indies, and we appreciate faithful 
 co-operation in all works of education and industry. 
 
 "President McKinley has conducted the foreign 
 affairs of the United States with distinguished credit 
 to the American people. In releasing us from the 
 vexatious conditions of a European alliance for the 
 government of Samoa, his course is especially to be 
 commended. By securing to our undivided control 
 the most important island of the Samoan group, and 
 the best harbor in the southern Pacific, every Amer- 
 ican interest has been safeguarded. 
 
 "We approve the annexation of the Hawaiian 
 Islands to the United States. 
 
 " We commend the part taken by our Government 
 in the peace conference at The Hague. We assert
 
 REPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1900. 481 
 
 our steadfast adherence to the policy announced in 
 the Monroe doctrine. The provisions of The Hague 
 convention were wisely regarded when President 
 McKinley tendered his friendly offices in the interest 
 of peace between Great Britain and the South Afri- 
 can Republic. While the American Government 
 must continue the policy prescribed by "Washington, 
 affirmed by every succeeding President and imposed 
 upon us by The Hague treaty, of non-intervention in 
 European controversies, the American people ear- 
 nestly hope that a way may soon be found, honorable 
 alike to both contending parties, to terminate strife 
 between them. 
 
 " Accepting by the treaty of Paris the just respon- 
 sibility of our victories in the Spanish war, the 
 President and the Senate won the undoubted ap- 
 proval of the American people. No other course 
 was possible than to destroy Spain's sovereignty 
 throughout the West Indies and in the Philippine 
 Islands. That course created our responsibility 
 before the world, and with the unorganized popula- 
 tion whom our intervention had freed from Spain, 
 to provide for the maintenance of law and order, and 
 for the establishment of good government and for^ 
 the performance of international obligations. Our 
 authority could not be less than our responsibility, 
 and wherever sovereign rights were extended it 
 became the high duty of the Government to main- 
 tain its authority, to put down armed insurrection 
 and to confer the blessings of liberty and civilization
 
 482 REPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1900. 
 
 upon all the rescued peoples. The largest measure 
 of self-government consistent with their welfare and 
 our duties shall be secured to them by law. To 
 Cuba independence and self-government were as- 
 sured in the same voice by which war was declared 
 and to the letter this pledge shall be performed. 
 
 "The Republican party, upon its history and upon 
 this declaration of its principles and policies, con- 
 fidently invokes the considerate and approving judg- 
 ment of the American people."
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 PRESIDENT MCKINLEY'S LATER 
 
 Elected and Inaugurated President a Second Time Triumphal Tour 
 Through the South and the West, ended by Mrs. McKinley'i 
 Illness. 
 
 THE Republican National Convention of 
 1900, held in Philadelphia from June 19 
 to 21, unanimously nominated President 
 McKinley as the standard bearer of the party. 
 The hearty action of the Convention was the 
 grandest possible endorsement of the President's 
 first administration. For the second place on the 
 ticket Theodore Roosevelt of New York was 
 nominated. 
 
 The campaign that followed the nomination 
 was valiantly fought because of the tactics em- 
 ployed by the opposition. In spite of the heroic 
 efforts of the Democratic party, led by Mr. Bryan, 
 President McKinley carried nearly every northern 
 and western state, receiving a larger popular 
 majority than that of four years before. This 
 
 483
 
 484 McKINLEY'S LATER DAYS. 
 
 was a magnificent attestation of his popularity 
 among the people. 
 
 In a little pavilion midway of the main east 
 door of the capitol and the heroic figure of Wash- 
 ington which faces the great building, William 
 McKinley, on the 4th of March, 1901, for the 
 second time took the oath of office as President 
 of the United States. As with uplifted hand he 
 repeated the formal vow to support the consti- 
 tution of the republic he looked into the face of 
 Chief Justice Fuller, whose snowy locks and heavy 
 black silk gown made him a statuesque figure in 
 the ceremonial edifice. 
 
 Grouped about the President just without the 
 pavilion were the members of the cabinet, foreign 
 diplomats, United States senators, representa- 
 tives, governors and the distinguished statesmen 
 of the period. The ceremony was performed 
 quickly, however, and before the throng that 
 surged toward the plaza could comprehend what 
 was going on the President became his own suc- 
 cessor and was reading his inaugural address. 
 This was marked by a strong patriotic policy and 
 was well received by the nation. The address 
 comprised a reiteration of the policy of his first 
 administration. 
 
 A few weeks after the inauguration a tour by 
 the President and his party was planned for the 
 south and far west. As originally planned the
 
 McKIXLEY'S LATER DAYS. 485 
 
 President was to go from Washington to New- 
 Orleans, stopping at several cities in the south on 
 the way. Thence to Texas, making short visits 
 at Dallas and Galveston, and possibly stopping at 
 other small cities. The trip across western Texas, 
 New Mexico, Arizona and southwestern California 
 was to be hurried, the first important stopping 
 place on the Pacific coast being Los Angeles. 
 
 From Los Angeles the party was to go to San 
 Francisco, there to remain several days participat- 
 ing in the launching of the battle-ship Ohio and 
 festivities which had been planned on an elaborate 
 scale. On the north Pacific coast the President 
 was to go to Portland, Seattle and Tacoma. After 
 leaving Puget Sound he was to stop at one or two 
 of the smaller cities in Washington, possibly in 
 Idaho, and then proceed to Helena and Butte in 
 Montana. Thence to the Yellowstone park, enter- 
 ing it on the north and reentering his train on the 
 south side of the park. 
 
 The President had never been in the great na- 
 tional park of the country and he was therefore 
 to explore it as thoroughly as he could in two or 
 three days. He was then to be whisked off to Salt 
 Lake City, thence to Denver and Colorado Springs; 
 thence to Topeka and Kansas City. Without 
 making any stops of importance, his train was to 
 be hurried to Duluth, where the President was to 
 embark for a trip down the great lakes for Buffalo.
 
 48G McKINLEY'S LATER DAYS. 
 
 On the way down he was to stop for some hours 
 at Detroit and at Cleveland, and arrive at Buffalo 
 some time between the 10th and 15th of June, 
 where he was to be the guest of the city and par- 
 ticipate in the exercises at the Pan-American ex- 
 position on President's day. 
 
 The itinerary was begun in the spring as plan- 
 ned, Mrs. McKinley accompanying the President. 
 The President was heartily received throughout 
 the South, gala days being held wherever he 
 stopped. 
 
 On reaching the Pacific coast Mrs. McKinley 
 became seriously ill, and for some days her life 
 was in danger. This ended the itinerary, and as 
 soon as she could be safely moved the Presidential 
 party returned home by special train. A rest at 
 the family home in Canton so improved Mrs. 
 McKinley's health that she was able to accom- 
 pany the President to the Pan-American exposi- 
 tion in September and be present on President's 
 Day at the exposition.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 PRESIDENT MCKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION^ 
 
 President's Visit to the Pan-American Exposition His Great Speech 
 Shot by Anarchist Leon Czolgosz A Week in the Balance. 
 
 PRESIDENT McKINLEY left Washington 
 about the middle of August . He was worn 
 out by the cares of state and through 
 worry over Mrs. McKinley's health, and went to 
 his home in Canton for a brief rest. There he 
 spent much of his time out of doors, driving 
 about the country, visiting his farm and walking, 
 and soon regained his old-time strength and vigor. 
 Mrs. McKinley also improved rapidly, and on 
 Wednesday, Sept. 4, accompanied by his wife, 
 the Misses Barber, and Miss Sarah Duncan, his 
 nieces, he left Canton for Buffalo to attend the 
 Pan-American Exposition. They arrived in Buf- 
 falo the same evening and were taken at once to 
 the north gate of the exposition grounds. 
 
 There an immense crowd gathered to welcome 
 the nation's Executive. The people shouted, can- 
 
 487
 
 488 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 
 
 nons boomed, whistles screeched, and everybody 
 and everything seemed to vie in their expressions 
 of joy over the arrival of the beloved President. 
 A few minutes later the President, with Mrs. 
 McKinley leaning on his arm, and surrounded by 
 the Reception Committee, left the train and took 
 carriages for a drive through the grounds. No 
 ruler, either ancient or modern, ever received a 
 more fervent welcome than did President McKinley 
 on this occasion. The President acknowledged 
 the cheerings and salutations of the crowds by 
 bowing and raising his hat. Mrs. McKinley, who 
 looked remarkably well after the tiresome jour- 
 ney, smiled happily. It was a happy city and a 
 happy President that night. 
 
 About 9 o'clock the party was driven to the 
 home of John G. Milburn, President of the Ex- 
 position company, where it was to be entertained 
 during the stay in Buffalo. 
 
 The day following, Thursday, September 5, had 
 been set aside on the Pan-American Exposition 
 calendar in the President's honor. It was the red 
 letter day in the exposition's history. All Buffalo 
 and thousands from all parts of the United States 
 turned out to celebrate. The President was re- 
 ceived at the exposition with all the ceremonial 
 honors, civil and military, due his office. At the 
 entrance of the grounds he was met by detach- 
 ments of the United States marines, the Seacoast
 
 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 489 
 
 Artillery, and the Sixty-fifth and Seventy-fourth 
 New York Regiments. A President's salute of 
 twenty-one guns was fired. 
 
 The President was at once escorted to the stand 
 erected in the esplanade. There was almost ab- 
 solute quiet when President Milburn arose and 
 introduced the President as follows: 
 
 " Ladies and Gentlemen: The President." 
 The great audience broke out with a mighty 
 cheer, which continued as President McKinley 
 arose, and it was some minutes before he was able 
 to proceed. When quiet was restored he spoke 
 as follows: 
 
 President Milburn, Director General Buchanan, Commis- 
 sioners, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am glad to be again in the 
 city of Buffalo and exchange greetings with her people, to 
 whose generous hospitality I am not a stranger and with whose 
 good will I have been repeatedly and signally honored. Today 
 I have additional satisfaction in meeting and giving welcome 
 to the foreign representatives assembled here, whose presence 
 and participation in this exposition have contributed in so 
 marked a degree to its interest and success. To the commis- 
 sioners of the Dominion of Canada and the British colonies, 
 the French colonies, the Republics of Mexico and of Central 
 and South America and the commissioners of Cuba and Porto 
 Rico, who share with us in this undertaking, we give the hand 
 of fellowship and felicitate with them upon the triumphs of 
 art, science, education and manufacture which the old has 
 bequeathed to the new century. 
 
 Expositions are the time-keepers of progress. They 
 record the world's advancement. They stimulate the energy, 
 enterprise and intellect of the people and quicken human
 
 490 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 
 
 genius. They go into the home. They broaden and brighten 
 the daily life of the people. Tuc-y open mighty storehouses of 
 information to the student. Every exposition, great or small, 
 has helped to some onward step. Comparison of ideas is 
 always educational, and, as such, instructs the brain and hand 
 of man. Friendly rivalry follows, which is the spur to indus* 
 trial improvement, the inspiration to useful invention and to 
 high endeavor in all departments of human activity. It exacts 
 a study of the wants, comforts and even the whims of the 
 people and recognizes the efficacy of high quality and low 
 prices to win their favor. The quest for trade is an incentive 
 to men of business to invent, improve and economize in the 
 cost of production. Business life, whether among ourselves 
 or with other people, is ever a sharp struggle for success. It 
 will be none the less so in the future. Without competition 
 we would be clinging to the clumsy and antiquated processes 
 of farming and manufacture and the methods of business of 
 long ago, and the twentieth would be no further advanced than 
 the eighteenth century. 
 
 The Pan-American Exposition has done its work thoi 
 oughly, presenting in its exhibits evidences of the highest 
 Bkill and illustrating the progress of the human family in the 
 western hemisphere. This portion of the earth has no cause 
 for humiliation for the part it has performed in the march 
 of civilization. It has not accomplished everything ; far from 
 it. It has simply done its best, and without vanity or boast- 
 fulness, and, recognizing the manifold achievements of others, 
 it invites the friendly rivalry of all the powers in the peaceful 
 pursuits of trade and commerce, and will cooperate with all in 
 advancing the highest and best interests of humanity. The 
 wisdom and energy of all the nations are none too great for the 
 world's work. The success of art, science, industry and in- 
 vention is an international asset and a common glory. 
 
 After all, how near one to the other is every part of the
 
 McKINLEY'8 ASSASSINATION. 491 
 
 world! Modern inventions have brought into close relation 
 widely separated peoples and made them better acquainted. 
 Geographic and political divisions will continue to exist, but 
 dis< ances have been effaced. Swift ships and fast trains are 
 becoming cosmopolitan. They invade fields which a few years 
 ago were impenetrable. The world's products are exchang- 
 ed as never before, and with increasing transporation facilities 
 comes increasing knowledge and trade. Prices are fixed with 
 mathematical precision by supply and demand. The world's 
 selling prices are regulated by market and crop reports. We 
 travel greater distances in a shorter space of time and with 
 more ease than was ever dreamed of by the fathers. 
 
 Isolation is no longer (possible or desirable. The same 
 important news is read, though iu different languages, the 
 same day in all Christendom. The telegraph keeps us advised 
 of what is occuring everywhere and the press foreshadows, 
 with more or less accuracy, the plans and purposes of the na- 
 tions. Market prices of products and of securities are hourly 
 known in every commercial mart and the investments of the 
 people extend beyond their own national boundaries into the 
 remotest parts of the earth. Vast transactions are conduct- 
 ed and international exchanges are made by the tick of the 
 cable. Every event of interest is immediately bulletined. 
 The quick gathering and transmission of news, like rapid tran- 
 sit, are of recent origin and are only made possible by the 
 genius of the inventor and the courage of the investor. 
 
 It took a special messenger of the government, with every 
 facility known at the time for rapid travel, nineteen days to 
 go from the city of Washington to New Orleans with a mes- 
 sage to General Jackson that the war with Euglaaid had ceast-d 
 and a treaty of peace had been signed. How different now! 
 "We reached General Miles in Porto Rico by cable and he was 
 able through the military telegraph to stop his army on the 
 firing line with the message that the United States and Spain
 
 492 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 
 
 had signed a protocol suspending hostilities. We knew almost 
 instantly of the first shot fired at Santiago, and the subsequent 
 surrender of the Spanish forces was known at Washington 
 within less than an hour of its consummation. The first ship 
 of Cervera's fleet had hardly emerged from that historic har- 
 bor when the fact was flashed to our capital and the swift de- 
 struction that followed was announced immediately through 
 the wonderful medium of telegraphy. So accustomed are we 
 to safe and easy communication with distant lands that its 
 temporary interruption even in ordinary times results in loss 
 and inconvenience. 
 
 We shall never forget the days of anxious waiting and 
 awful suspense when no information was permitted to be sent 
 from Pekin, and the diplomatic representatives of the nations 
 in China, cut off from all communication inside and outside of 
 the walled capital, were surrounded by an angry and misguided 
 mob that threatened their lives; nor the joy that thrilled the 
 world when a single message from the government of the 
 United States brought through our minister, the first news of 
 the safety of the besieged diplomats. 
 
 At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was not 
 a mile of steam railroad on the globe. Now there are enough 
 miles to make its circuit many times. Then there was not 
 a mile of electric telegraph; now we have a vast mileage travers- 
 ing all lands and all seas. God and man have linked the na- 
 tions together. No nation can longer be indifferent to any 
 other. And as we are brought more and more in touch with 
 each other the less occasion is there for misunderstandings 
 and the stronger the disposition, when we have differences, to 
 adjust them in the court of arbitration, which is the noblest 
 forum for the settlement of international disputes. 
 
 My fellow citizens, trade statistics indicate that this 
 country is in a state of unexampled prosperity. The figures 
 are almost appalling. They show that we are utilizing our
 
 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 
 
 fields and forests and mines and that we are furnishing profit- 
 able employment to the millions of workingmen throughout 
 the United States, bringing comfort and happiness to their 
 homes and making it possible to lay by savings for old age and 
 disability. That all the people are participating in this .great 
 prosperity is seen in every American community and shown by 
 the enormous and unprecedented deposits in our savings banks. 
 Our duty is the care and security of these deposits, and their 
 safe investment demands the highest integrity and the best 
 business capacity of those in charge of these depositories of 
 the people's earnings. 
 
 Our capacity to produce has developed so enormously and 
 our products have so multiplied that the problem of more 
 markets requires our urgent and immediate attention. Only a 
 broad and enlightened policy will keep what we have. No 
 other policy will get more. In these times of marvelous busi- 
 ness energy and gain we ought to be looking to the future, 
 strenghtening the weak places in our industrial and commercial 
 systems, that we may be ready for any storm or strain. 
 
 By sensible trade arrangements which will not interrupt 
 our home production we shall extend the outlets for our in- 
 creasing surplus. We must not repose in fancied security that 
 we can forever sell everything and buy little or nothing. If 
 such a thing were possible it would not be best for us or for 
 those with whom we deal. We should take from our customers 
 such of their products as we can use without harm to our in- 
 dustries and labor. Reciprocity is the natural outgrowth of 
 our wonderful industrial development under the domestic policy 
 now firmly established. What we produce beyond our domestic 
 consumption must have a vent abroad. The excess must be 
 relieved through a foreign outlet and we should sell every- 
 where we can and buy wherever the buying will enlarge our 
 sales and productions and thereby make a greater demand for 
 home labor.
 
 194 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 
 
 The period of exclusiveness is past. The expansion of 
 our trade and commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial 
 wars are unprofitable. A policy of good will and friendly 
 trade relations will prevent reprisals. Reciprocity treaties are 
 in harmony with the spirit of the times; measures of retaliation 
 are not. 
 
 If, perchance, some of our tariffs are no longer needed 
 for revenue or to encourage and protect our industries at home, 
 why should they not be employed to extend and promote our 
 markets abroad? Then, too, we have inadequate steamship 
 service. New lines of steamers have already been put in com- 
 mission between the Pacific coast ports of the United States 
 and those on the western coasts of Mexico and Central and 
 South America. These should be followed up with direct 
 steamship lines between the eastern coast of the United States 
 and South American ports. One of the needs of the times is 
 direct commercial lines from our vast fields of production to 
 the fields of consumption that we have barely touched. Next 
 in advantage to having the thing to sell is to have the conven- 
 ience to carry it to the buyer. 
 
 We must encourage our merchant marine. We must have 
 more ships. They must be under the American flag, built and 
 manned and owned by Americans. These will not only be 
 profitable in a commercial sense; they will be messengers of 
 peace and amity wherever they go. 
 
 We must build the Isthmian Canal, which will unite the 
 two oceans and give a straight line of water communication 
 with the western coasts of Central and South America and 
 Mexico. The construction of a Pacific cable cannot be longer 
 postponed. 
 
 In the furtherance of these objects of national interest and 
 concern you are performing an important part. This exposi- 
 tion would have touched the heart of that American statesman 
 whose mind was ever 'alert and thought ever constant for a
 
 McKINLEY 'S ASSASSINATION. 495 
 
 larger commerce and a truer fraternity of the republics of the 
 new world. His broad American spirit is felt arid manifested 
 here. He needs no identification to an assemblage of Ameri- 
 cans anywhere, for the name of Elaine is inseparably associat- 
 ed with the Pan-American movement which finds this practical 
 and substantial expression and which we all hope will be firm- 
 ly advanced by the Pan-American congress that assembles this 
 autumn in the capital of Mexico. 
 
 Upon the conclusion of his address a large num- 
 ber of people broke through the lines around the 
 stand and the President held an impromptu re- 
 ception for fifteen minutes, shaking hands with 
 thousands. The carriages were then brought to 
 the steps of the stand and the President, accom- 
 panied by the diplomatic corps and specially in- 
 vited guests made a tour of the Exposition 
 grounds. 
 
 Mrs. McKinley left the stand at the conclusion 
 of the speech-making and was taken to the Wo- 
 man's Building, where she was entertained by the 
 women managers. 
 
 In the evening Mr. and Mrs. McKinley visited 
 the Exposition grounds to view the illumination 
 and fireworks. 
 
 On the following day, Friday, September 6, 
 President and Mrs. McKinley, escorted by Presi- 
 dent Milburn, of the Exposition, and several dis- 
 tinguished guests, visited Niagara falls. It was the 
 second day of the President's visit and was to 
 have been the last. The programme for the day
 
 496 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 
 
 included only the visit to the falls, a public recep- 
 tion at the Temple of Music, a quiet dinner party 
 and the start for Washington. 
 
 A special train v carried the party to Niagara, and 
 from the suspension bridge the President and his 
 party viewed the mighty cataract for some time. 
 Carriages were at hand and the party drove to the 
 International Hotel, where lunch was served, and 
 soon afterward, in high spirits, the guests re- 
 entered the train and whirled back to Buffalo. 
 
 Mrs. McKinley, tired by the day's outing, did 
 not return to the Exposition grounds, but was 
 driven to the Milburn residence. The President was 
 driven direct to the Temple of Music, where the re- 
 ception was to be held. A great throng was gath- 
 ered in and around the building. On the eastern 
 side of the building was a dais on which stood the 
 great organ. During the wait for the President's 
 appearance an organ recital was given, and the 
 applause had scarcely died away when a ringing 
 cheer from the outside announced the arrival of 
 the President. A narrow lane was forced in the 
 crowd and through it the President, leaning on the 
 arm of President Milburn and followed by Secre- 
 tary Cortelyou and half a dozen secret service 
 operatives, passed quickly to the little platform 
 and took his stand near the organ. 
 
 On his right stood Mr. Milburn and on his left 
 Secretary Cortelyou. Close at hand stood the se-
 
 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 497 
 
 cret service detectives forming the President's 
 bodyguard. 
 
 To this reception the general public had been 
 invited. No man, woman, or child, no matter of 
 what color, birth, or political belief, was refused 
 admission. The President had been introduced to 
 the great crowd which had thronged the Temple 
 of Music, and all came forward in a line for a per- 
 sonal greeting. 
 
 Among those in line was Leon Czolgosz, whose 
 right hand was wrapped in a handkerchief. 
 Folded in the handkerchief was a thirty-two cali- 
 ber revolver. So carefully was the weapon con- 
 cealed, however, and so deftly had the handker- 
 chief been arranged that no suspicions were 
 aroused in the detective who stood close by the 
 President to guard against any such emergency. 
 The hand simply had the appearance of having 
 been wrapped up to cover some sore or bruise. 
 
 A little girl was led up by her father, and the 
 President shook hands with her. As she passed 
 along to the right the President looked after her 
 smilingly and waved his hand in a pleasant adieu. 
 
 Next in line came a boyish-featured man about 
 twenty-six years old, preceded by a short Italian, 
 who leaned backward against the bandaged hand 
 of his follower. The officers who attended the 
 President noted this man, their attention being 
 first attracted by the Italian, whose dark, shaggy
 
 498 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 
 
 brows and black mustache caused the professional 
 protectors to regard him with suspicion. 
 
 The man with the bandaged hand and innocent 
 face received no attention from the detective be- 
 yond the mental observation that his right hand 
 was apparently injured, and that he would present 
 his left hand to the President. 
 
 The Italian stood before the palm bower. He 
 held the President's hand so long that the officers 
 stepped forward to break the clasp and make 
 room for the man with the bandaged hand, who 
 extended the left member towards the Presi- 
 dent's right. 
 
 The President smiled and presented his right 
 hand in a position to meet the left of the ap- 
 proaching man. Hardly a foot of space intervened 
 between the bodies of the two men. Before their 
 hands met two pistol shots were fired, and the 
 President turned slightly to the left and reeled. 
 The tall, innocent-looking young man had fired 
 through the bandage without removing any por- 
 tion of the handkerchief. 
 
 The first bullet struck the sternum in the Pres- 
 ident's chest, deflected to the right, and traveled 
 beneath the skin to a point directly beneath the 
 right nipple. The second bullet penetrated the 
 abdomen, pierced both walls of the stomach, and 
 lodged in the back. Only a superficial wound was 
 caused by the first bullet, and within five minutes
 
 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 499 
 
 after the physicians had reached the President's 
 side it had been removed. The second bullet 
 the fatal one was never found. 
 
 On receiving the first shot President McKinley 
 lifted himself on his toes with something of a gasp. 
 His movement caused the second shot to enter 
 just below the navel. With the second shot the 
 President doubled slightly forward and then sank 
 back. Detective Geary caught the President in his 
 arms and President Milburn helped to support him. 
 
 When the President fell into the arms of Detec- 
 tive Geary he coolly asked: "Am I shot?" 
 
 Geary unbottoned the President's vest, and, 
 seeing blood, replied: "I fear you are, Mr. Presi- 
 dent." 
 
 It had ah 1 happened in an instant. Almost be- 
 fore the noise of the second shot sounded Czolgosz 
 was seized by S. R. Ireland, United States secret 
 service man, who stood directly opposite the Presi- 
 dent. Ireland hurled him to the floor, and as he 
 fell a negro waiter, James B. Parker, who once 
 worked in Chicago, leaped upon him. Soldiers of 
 the United States artillery detailed at the recep- 
 tion sprang upon them and he was surrounded by 
 a squad of exposition police and secret service de- 
 tectives. Meanwhile Ireland and the negro held the 
 assassin, endeavoring to shield him from the 
 attacks of the infuriated artillerymen and the 
 blows of the policemen's clubs.
 
 500 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 
 
 Supported by Detective Geary and President 
 Milburn, and surrounded by Secretary George B. 
 Cortelyou and half a dozen exposition officials, 
 the President was assisted to a chair, where he 
 sank back with one hand holding his abdomen, the 
 other fumbling at his breast. His eyes were open 
 and he was clearly conscious of all that had trans- 
 pired. He was suffering the most intense pain, 
 but true to his noble nature his first thought was 
 of others one. other in particular, his wife. 
 
 He looked up into President Milburn's face 
 and gasped: "Cortelyou." The President's secre- 
 tary bent over him. "Cortelyou," said the Presi- 
 dent, "my wife, be careful about her. Don't let 
 her know." 
 
 His next thought was of the cruel assassin who 
 had struck him down. Moved by a paroxysm he 
 writhed to the left, and then his eyes fell on the 
 prostrate form of Czolgosz, lying on the floor 
 bloody and helpless beneath the blows of the 
 police, soldiers, and detectives. 
 
 The President raised his right hand, red with 
 his own blood, and placed it on the shoulder of his 
 secretary. "Let no one hurt him," he gasped, 
 and sank back in his chair, while the guards carried 
 Czolgosz out of his sight. 
 
 The ambulance from the exposition hospital 
 was summoned immediately, and the President, 
 still conscious, sank upon the stretcher, and in
 
 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 501 
 
 nine minutes after the shooting the President was 
 waiting the arrival of surgeons, who had been 
 summoned from all sections of the city and by 
 special train from Niagara Falls. 
 
 On the way to the hospital the President said 
 to Mr. Milburn: "I am sorry to have been the 
 cause of trouble to the exposition." 
 
 Within ten minutes after he received his wounds, 
 stricken with pain as he was, the President had 
 given expression to three thoughts. First, and 
 most natural, that the news should be kept from 
 his invalid wife ; second, that the would-be assassin, 
 worthless as his life was, should not be harmed ; 
 and third, regret that the tragedy might hurt the 
 exposition and interfere with the pleasure of 
 others. 
 
 Six doctors were at the President's side within 
 thirty seconds after his arrival Dr. E. W. Lee of 
 St. Louis, Dr. Storer of Chicago, Dr. Van Peyms 
 of Buffalo, and Dr. Hall, Dr. Ellis, and Dr. Mann, 
 Jr., of the exposition hospital staff. The nurses 
 were equally prompt, for they had made ready for 
 the task of the surgeons while the ambulance was 
 coming from the Temple of Music. 
 
 The President was stripped and placed on an 
 operating table where the surgeons might see his 
 wounds. The first assistance was rendered by 
 Dr. Lee, who was the medical director of the 
 Omaha exposition. The President recognized him
 
 502 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 
 
 and [said: "Doctor, do whatever is necessary." 
 
 The hospital stewards were busy removing the 
 President's apparel when Dr. Herman Mynter ar- 
 rived. The surgeons consulted and hesitated 
 about performing an operation. The President 
 reassured them by expressing his confidence, but 
 no decision was reached until Dr. Matthew D. 
 Mann of the exposition hospital staff arrived. 
 After another consultation Dr. Mann informed 
 the President that an operation was necessary. 
 
 "All right," replied the President. "Go ahead. 
 Do whatever is proper." 
 
 Dr. Mann performed the operation. His first 
 assistant was Dr. Mynter. His second assistant 
 was Dr. John Parmenter. His third assistant was 
 Dr. Lee. Dr. Nelson W. Wilson noted the time 
 of the operation and took notes. Dr. Eugene 
 Wasdin of the Marine Hospital gave the anaes- 
 thetic. Dr. Rixey, the President's personal phy- 
 sician, arrived at the latter part of the operation 
 and held the light. Dr. Eoswell Park, who had 
 been summoned from Niagara Falls, arrived at the 
 close of the operation. 
 
 The operation lasted almost an hour. A cut 
 about five inches long was made. It was found 
 necessary to turn up the stomach of the Presi- 
 dent in order to trace the course of the bullet. 
 The bullet's opening in the front wall of the stom- 
 ach was small, and it was carefully closed with
 
 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 503 
 
 sutures, after which a search was made for the 
 hole in the back wall of the stomach. 
 
 This hole, where the bullet left the stomach, 
 was larger than that in the front wall of the stom- 
 ach, in fact, it was a wound over an inch in diame- 
 ter, jagged and ragged. It was sewed up in three 
 layers. 
 
 In turning up the stomach, an act performed by 
 Dr. Mann with rare skill, the danger was that 
 some of the contents of the stomach might go into 
 the abdominal cavity, and cause peritonitis. It 
 so happened that there was little in the President's 
 stomach at the time of the operation. Moreover, 
 subsequent developments showed that this feature 
 of the operation was grandly successful and none 
 of the contents of the stomach entered the abdomi- 
 nal cavity. 
 
 The anaesthetic administered was ether, and for 
 two and a half hours the President was under its 
 influence. He came out of the operation strong, 
 with a good pulse and steady heart action. 
 
 The operation over, arrangements were made to 
 remove the President to the Milburn house before 
 any reaction might set in. The shooting occurred 
 shortly after 4 o'clock and at 7 :25 the ambulance 
 backed up to the hospital door to remove the 
 President. The people had been told previously 
 that the operation was over and that the President 
 was in a critical condition. They fell back to a
 
 504 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 
 
 respectful distance while the body was being placed 
 in an ambulance. All heads were bare until the 
 wagon drove out of sight. 
 
 As sooji as the President had been removed 
 from the Temple of Music to the hospital, Director 
 General W. I. Buchanan started for the Milbum 
 residence, where Mrs. McKinley was resting. He 
 went to forestall any information that might reach 
 her by telephone or otherwise. The Misses Barber 
 and Miss Duncan, the President's nieces, and Mrs. 
 Milburn were also at the house. Mr. Buchanan 
 informed the nieces as gently as possible and con- 
 sulted Mrs. Milburn as to the best course to pursue 
 in telling Mrs. McKinley of the tragedy. It was 
 decided that on her awakening from her nap Mr. 
 Buchanan should see her, if, in the meantime Dr. 
 Bixey had not arrived. 
 
 Mrs. McKinley awoke at 5 :30 o'clock, and, feel- 
 ing much rested, took up her crocheting. When 
 it became dusk and her husband did not return 
 she began to worry and made inquiries of the 
 family as to the probable reason for his tardiness. 
 By this time Dr. Rixey had arrived, and it was 
 decided that he should break the news to her. As 
 to just how he informed her of the mishap to her 
 husband reports differ. 
 
 However, she was informed by Dr. Eixey, the 
 physician who has attended her for some time, 
 who went to her and said simply: ''The Presi- 
 dent has been hurt."
 
 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 505 
 
 " How was he hurt?" asked Mrs. McKinley. 
 
 " Well, a man shot at him and one of the shots 
 took effect, hut we do not think he is hadly hurt, 
 and we think he will recover." 
 
 Mrs. McKinley was excited, but she did not 
 lose her self-control. She immediately asked to be 
 told all the particulars. 
 
 u Tell me all," she said. "Do not keep any- 
 thing back. I will be brave." 
 
 And she was brave throughout the long days 
 and nights of worry. She asked to see her hus- 
 band as soon as he was brought to the Milburn 
 house, but when told that it would be injudicious 
 she became reconciled. As soon as he began to 
 mend she was allowed to see him every day for a 
 short time. 
 
 The President was taken to a large bed-room on 
 the second floor. Everything had been quietly 
 arranged for him before his arrival from the hos- 
 pital. Every medical appliance was within easy 
 reach, the professional nurses were in waiting, 
 and quarters were arranged for the doctors. 
 
 The President passed the first night after the 
 shooting fairly comfortably. His temperature 
 increased from 100 to 100.6 between 1 and 3 a. 
 m., and fears were entertained that peritonitis 
 might set in. The doctors chosen to care for 
 the case, P. M. Eixey, M. B. Mann, Eoswell Park, 
 H. Mynter, and Eugene Wasdin, were in attend-
 
 506 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 
 
 ance at the President's bedside all night, watching 
 carefully each symptom. 
 
 At 10 :40 p. m. the doctors issued this bulletin : 
 u The President is rallying satisfactorily and is 
 resting comfortably. Temperature, 100.4 ; pulse, 
 124; respiration, 24." 
 
 At 1 :30 a. m. the bulletin read: " The Presi- 
 dent is free from pain and resting well. Tempera- 
 ture, 100.2; pulse, 120; respiration, 24." 
 
 At 3:15 a. m. the bulletin read: "The Presi- 
 dent continues to rest well. Temperature, 101.6 ; 
 pulse, 110; respiration, 24. 
 
 Saturday, the day following the shooting, was 
 one of grave anxiety. The President, while hold- 
 ing his own, was approaching, so the doctors said, 
 a crisis. It was thought that Sunday would 
 decide what effect the shots fired by Czolgosz 
 would be. Dr. Eixey gave it as his opinion that 
 the President would recover. The other physi- 
 cians refused to commit themselves, saying that 
 they could not make promises until further de- 
 velopments. 
 
 An X-ray apparatus was brought from Thomas 
 A. Edison's laboratory with which it was intended 
 to locate the bullet which lodged in the back. It 
 was not used. On Sunday morning at 5 o'clock 
 the physicians issued this bulletin : " The Presi- 
 dent has passed a fairly good night. Pulse, 122; 
 temperature, 102.4; respiration, 24."
 
 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 507 
 
 Sunday proved a rather uneventful day. The 
 anticipated crisis did not materialize. The news 
 was good throughout the day. The President's 
 temperature on Sunday evening was a degree lower 
 than it was [during the morning, the pulse was 
 slower, and the respiration easier. Dr. Charles 
 McBurney of New York, one of the most noted 
 surgeons in the world, arrived during the day and 
 held a consultation with the other doctors at 3 
 o'clock Sunday afternoon. 
 
 Immediately following the consultation this bul- 
 letin was issued: " The President, since the last 
 bulletin (3 p. m.) has slept quietly, four hours 
 altogether, since 9 o'clock. His condition is satis- 
 factory to all the physicians present. Pulse, 128; 
 temperature, 101; respiration, 28." 
 
 The President improved so rapidly on Monday 
 that his friends declared he would he able to attend 
 the duties of his office within a month. The 
 worst danger was regarded as past, peritonitis 
 seemed no longer probable, and the only cause for 
 fear was the possibility of a sinking spell. 
 
 The bulletins throughout Monday were hopeful. 
 One said the President had passed a somewhat 
 restless night, sleeping fairly well; and another 
 declared the President's condition was "becoming 
 more and more satisfactory," and adding that 
 " untoward incidents are less likely to occur." 
 One ig*-.~' at 3 p. m. stated: "The President's
 
 508 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 
 
 condition steadily improves and he is comfortable, 
 without pain or unfavorable symptoms. Bowel 
 and kidney functions normally performed." 
 
 The last bulletin for the day, issued at 9:30 p.m., 
 said: "The President's condition continues favor- 
 able. Pulse, 112; temperature, 101; respira- 
 tion, 27." 
 
 Mrs. McKinley felt so encouraged that she took 
 a drive during the afternoon. 
 
 News from the bedside on Tuesday was more 
 favorable still. The danger point was regarded as 
 past, and fast recovery was the general prediction. 
 The doctors had only two services aside, of 
 course, from careful watching to perform. One 
 was to open in part the President's outside wound 
 to remove some foreign substances, and the other 
 was to give him food for the first time. It de- 
 veloped that a portion of the President's clothing 
 had been carried into the wound by the bullet, and 
 this had not all been removed at the first opera- 
 tion. As slight irritation was caused by the cloth, 
 the surgeons removed it. The operation caused 
 no harm, and little annoyance to the patient. 
 
 The President felt so well that he asked for 
 some newspapers to read. The request was denied. 
 The President enjoyed the food given him beef 
 extract. At 10:30 o'clock on Tuesday night the 
 physicians issued this bulletin: "The condition of 
 the President is unchanged in all important par-
 
 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 509 
 
 tioulars. His temperature is 100.6; pulse, 114; 
 respiration, 28." 
 
 Wednesday was another day full of hopeful 
 signs. The President continued to show remark- 
 able recuperative powers and passed the day with- 
 out the slightest unfavorable symptom. He was 
 able to retain food on his stomach, and surprised 
 and amused his doctors by asking for a cigar. He 
 was not allowed to smoke, but he was placed in a 
 new bed. He was also given a bath. His highest 
 temperature on Wednesday was 100.4. That was 
 at 10 o'clock in the evening. The highest point 
 reached by his pulse was 120 at 6 a. m. and his 
 respiration remained normal at 26. 
 
 It was on Thursday, just six days after the 
 shooting, that the President suffered a relapse. 
 Everybody was still full of hopes until 8.30 o'clock 
 in the evening, when the physicians announced 
 officially that the President's condition was not so 
 good. The problem of disposing of the food in the 
 stomach was becoming a serious one, and the 
 danger of heart failure increased. At midnight 
 the situation was critical. Calomel and oil were 
 given to flush the bowels and digitalis to quiet the 
 heart. The bowels moved soon afterwards, and 
 the patient improved. The'pulse dropped to 120, 
 and the prospect was regarded as brighter. 
 
 Shortly after 2 o'clock Friday morning, the 
 physicians and nurses detected a weakening of the
 
 510 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 
 
 heart action. The pulse fluttered and weakened 
 and the President sank toward a collapse. The end 
 appeared at hand. Restoratives were applied 
 speedily, but they did not at once prove effective. 
 It was then decided to send for the other physi- 
 cians, relatives, members of the Cabinet and close 
 personal friends of the President. 
 
 The full corps of doctors were soon on the scene 
 and all set to work as they never worked before. 
 About 6 a. m. the President rallied and seemed to 
 have a fighting chance. At 6:30 o'clock he was 
 thought to be dying. At 7 o'clock it was an- 
 announced by Abner McKinley, brother of the 
 President, that he was sleeping quietly, watched 
 closely by his physicians. 
 
 At 8:40 o'clock Mr. Milburn told a friend who 
 called to see him that they were encouraged by 
 the developments of the last half hour and that 
 they thought the President had a fighting chance. 
 
 About 9 a. rn. the following bulletin was issued: 
 "The President's condition has improved some- 
 what during the last few hours. There is a better 
 response to stimulation. He is conscious and free 
 from pain. Pulse, 128; temperature, 99.8." 
 
 The remaining hours of the day were spent in 
 hoping against hope, and in a vain fight on the 
 part of the doctors. Members of the Cabinet and 
 others near to the President, came and went at 
 frequent intervals during the day, deeply moved 
 over the situation.
 
 McKINLEY'S ASSASSINATION. 511 
 
 At 12 :30 the following bulletin was issued : 
 
 "The President's physicians report that his con- 
 dition is practically unchanged since the 9 o'clock 
 bulletin. He is sleeping quietly." 
 
 At 2.30 in the afternoon this bulletin was given 
 to the public : 
 
 "The President has more than held his own, 
 and his condition justifies the expectation of fur- 
 ther improvement. He is better than yesterday 
 at this time. Pulse, 123; temperature, 99.4." 
 
 At 4 p. m. came this bulletin : 
 
 "The President's physicians report that he is 
 only slightly improved. Since the last bulletin 
 the pulse and temperature remain the same as at 
 that hour." 
 
 This was followed by another at 5 : 48 as follows : 
 
 "The President is suffering from extreme pros- 
 tration. Oxygen is being given. He responds to 
 stimulation but poorly. Pulse, 125; respiration, 
 40." 
 
 At 6:15 this was followed by another, reading: 
 
 u ln spite of vigorous stimulation the President's 
 depression continues and is profound. Unless it 
 be relieved the end is but a question of time,"
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 DEATH OF PRESIDENT McKINLEY. 
 
 Dies Peacefully at 2:15 A. M., Saturday, September 14 Fond Farewell 
 of Husband and Wife Last Words, " Nearer, My God, to 
 Thee." 
 
 PEACEFULLY and gently like the faint flick- 
 ering of a burned-out candle, President 
 McKinley breathed his last at 2:15, Sat- 
 urday morning, September 14, 1901. Words of 
 consolation to his wife were the last that passed 
 his lips, and they came after a general " good-by " 
 said to the American people, whom he had loved 
 all his life. 
 
 Those present in the room when the President 
 died were: Dr. Rixey, Abner McKinley, Mrs. 
 Sarah Duncan, Miss Helen McKinley, Miss Mary 
 Barber, Miss Sarah Duncan, Lieutenant James F. 
 McKinley, W. C. Duncan, T. M. Osborn, Colonel 
 Webb C. Hayes, , Comptroller Charles G. Dawes, 
 Colonel W. C. Brown, Secretary Cortelyou, John 
 Barber, three nurses and three orderlies. Mrs. 
 McKinley was not present. She had taken her 
 
 512
 
 DEATH OF McKINLEY. 513 
 
 last farewell from her husband and had been in- 
 duced to retire. 
 
 Before 6 o'clock the evening before, it was clear 
 to those at the President's bedside that he was 
 dying, and preparations were made for the last 
 sad offices of farewell from those who were near- 
 est and dearest to him. Oxygen had been ad- 
 ministered steadily, but with little effect in keep- 
 ing back the approach of death. 
 
 The President came out of one period of uncon- 
 sciousness only to relapse into another. But in this 
 period, when his mind was partially clear, occurred 
 a series of events of profoundly touching charac- 
 ter. Down stairs, with strained and tear-stained 
 faces, members of the Cabinet were grouped in 
 anxious waiting. They knew the end was near 
 and that the time had come when they must see 
 him for the last time on earth. 
 
 This was about 6 o'clock. One by one they as- 
 cended the stairway Secretary Root, Secretary 
 Hitchcock and Attorney General Knox. Secre- 
 tary Wilson also was there, but he held back, not 
 wishing to see the President in his last agony. 
 There was only a momentary stay of the Cabinet 
 officers at the threshold of the death chamber. 
 Then they withdrew, the tears streaming down 
 their faces and the words of intense grief choking 
 in their throats. 
 
 At 7:55 o'clock the President recovered con-
 
 514 DEATH OF McKINLEY. 
 
 sciousness, and realizing that the end was at hand 
 he asked for Mrs. McKinley. She was taken into 
 the room and to her husband's bedside. All left 
 the room, save one nurse, and the husband and 
 wife were practically alone. The strong face of 
 the dying man lighted up with a smile as their 
 hands were clasped. 
 
 The President was able to speak faintly as his 
 wife bent over him. What he said only he and 
 she know. Those who know how tenderly and 
 constantly he has cared for her and how great his 
 anxiety has been for her ever since he was stricken 
 down by the anarchist's bullet can hardly speak of 
 that pitiful scene without almost breaking down 
 at the thought of it. 
 
 Just before the President lost consciousness 
 Mrs. McKinley knelt at his side. He knew her 
 and said: " Good-by, all; good-bye. It is God's 
 way; not our will, but Thine be done." And then 
 he said faintly, speaking to no one in particular, 
 " Nearer, my God, to Thee." It was a long leave- 
 taking, and, finally, they carried her half fainting 
 to her room. They watched over her anxiously. 
 They feared the effect of the severing of bonds 
 which were so close and upon which she was so 
 dependent. News of what was happening went 
 down stairs and out into the street. It was 
 received everywhere with tears. 
 
 ''They are saying good-bye to each other,"
 
 DEATH OF McKINLEY. 515 
 
 pie whispered in the streets, all along those 
 crowded blocks near the house. Every one was 
 thinking of what the life of these two had been, 
 of the intense, beautiful devotion each to the 
 other, of what a tender, chivalrous lover-husband 
 he had been. 
 
 It was impossible to think of this and then of 
 the scene in that room upon which the thoughts 
 of the whole world were centered, without feeling 
 the eyes grow hot under the lids and a lump come 
 into the throat. In that room it was, for the 
 moment, not the head of the mightiest nation on 
 earth who was dying, it was a husband and lover 
 standing by the dark river and giving the last 
 look of love to that sad, lonely invalid woman, to 
 whom his smile and cheerful words were literally 
 the breath of life. 
 
 As the news spread, the hush that was always 
 upon the hundred or more people within the ropes 
 seemed to become deeper. It was like the solemn 
 stillness of a church, so far as those nearest the 
 house were concerned. The only sound was the 
 swift clicking of the telegraph instruments as the 
 news was rushed away to all parts of the country. 
 
 The President continued in an unconscious con- 
 dition to the end. Dr. Rixey remained with him 
 until death came. The other doctors were in the 
 room at times, and then repaired to the front 
 room, where their consultations had been held.
 
 .516 DEATH OF McKINLEY. 
 
 About 2 o'clock Dr. Rixey noted the unmistak- 
 able signs of dissolution, and the immediate mem- 
 bers of the family were summoned to the bedside. 
 Mrs. McKinley was asleep, and it was deemed 
 desirable not to awaken her for the last moments 
 of anguish. 
 
 Silently and sadly the members of the family 
 stole into the room. They stood about the foot 
 and sides of the bed where the great man's life 
 was ebbiug away. 
 
 In an adjoining room sat the physicians, includ- 
 ing Drs. McBurney, Wasdin, Park, Stockton, and 
 Mynter. 
 
 It was now 2:05 o'clock, and the minutes were 
 slipping away. Only the sobs of those in the 
 circle about the President's bedside broke the 
 awe-like silence. 
 
 Five minutes passed, then six, seven, eight 
 
 Now Dr. Rixey bent forward, and then one of 
 his hands was raised, as if in warning. The flut- 
 tering heart was just going to rest. A moment 
 more and Dr. Rixey straightened up, and with 
 choking voice said: 
 
 "The President is dead!" 
 
 Secretary Cortelyou was the first to turn from 
 the stricken circle. He stepped from the chamber 
 to the outer hall, and then down the stairway to 
 the large room where the members of the Cabinet, 
 Senators, and distinguished officials were assem-
 
 DEATH OF McKINLEY. 517 
 
 bled. As his tense, white face appeared at the 
 doorway a hush fell upon the assemblage. 
 
 "Gentlemen, the President has passed away," 
 he said. 
 
 For a moment not a word came in reply. Even 
 though the end had been expected, the actual 
 announcement that William McKinley was dead 
 fairly stunned these men who had been his closest 
 confidants and advisers. Then a groan of anguish 
 went up from the assembled officials . They cried 
 outright like children. All the pent-up emotions 
 of the last few days were let loose. They turned 
 from the room and came from the house with 
 streaming eyes. 
 
 Leaving the stricken circle Secretary Cortelyou 
 left the house and walked down to the ropes 
 where the waiting correspondents stood ready to 
 send the sad news on lightning's wings to the 
 people who had always been uppermost in the 
 thoughts and deeds of the dead President. 
 
 "Gentlemen," he said, "the President passed 
 away at 2:15."
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 BURIAL OF PRESIDENT McKINLET. 
 
 Private Funeral Services Lying in State at Buffalo and "Washington- 
 Interment at Canton. 
 
 AS THE daily life of William McKinley 
 was marked by the greatest simplicity, 
 so were the last rites and services over 
 his casket. 
 
 The private funeral services were held at the 
 Milburn residence, Sunday, September 15, at 
 eleven o'clock in the morning. The casket had 
 been placed in the library, with the silken folds 
 of an American flag draped about it. Red roses, 
 white chrysanthemums and wreaths of purple 
 violets lay at the foot of the bier. 
 
 Two hundred cards had been issued and shortly 
 before the appointed time the invited few began 
 to arrive. Senator Hanna was among the first. 
 President Roosevelt arrived just before the ap- 
 pointed time for the services. The immediate 
 members of the McKinley family gathered in a 
 
 518
 
 BURIAL OE McKIXLEy. Dllt 
 
 room adjoining the library. Mrs. McKinley was 
 not with them, Surrounded by Mrs. Barber, Miss 
 Barber, Mrs, Garret Hobart and Dr. Rixey, she 
 was seated in the upper hallway where every word 
 pronounced over the casket that contained all 
 that she held dear in the world could reach her. 
 
 Senator Hanna was the first man of national 
 prominence to enter the library. He was followed 
 by the Cabinet members, who took places on the 
 left of the casket. As President Roosevelt entered 
 everyone rose. He walked gravely tolthe head of 
 the casket. For a moment he gazed on the face 
 of McKinley. Turning, he spoke in a low voice 
 tol Secretary Long, who stood next. He evidently 
 requested that cabinet precedence be observed, 
 for there was an immediate change in the positions 
 of the Cabinet members. 
 
 When the funeral services were held at the Mil- 
 burn house Mrs. McKinley was unable to come 
 down stairs. Sedatives had been given her and 
 the President's remains had been taken away 
 without her knowing of their removal. 
 
 At this moment Rev. Dr. Charles Edward Locke 
 of the Delaware Avenue Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, son of that Dr. Locke who for many years 
 was the McKinley pastor at Canton, entered the 
 room. 
 
 The quartette of the First Presbyterian Church, 
 made up of Miss Kate Tyrell, Mrs. Clara Barnes
 
 520 BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 
 
 Holmes, Raymond O. Rietpeister and George C. 
 Sweet, had been standing in the dining room, and 
 with the sweet strains of that favorite hymn of the 
 late President, "Lead Kindly Light," the services 
 were begun. 
 
 As the last strains died away Dr. Locke began 
 reading the chapter in the I. Corinthians, that, 
 from its sad associations, has become so familiar. 
 In a low but clear voice he read it to its conclusion. 
 
 There was a moment's pause after he had fin- 
 ished, and then the quartet sang the four verses 
 of that other hymn, so dear to the man above 
 whose bier the mourners stood, that as he passed 
 into the last unconsciousness, his lips formed its 
 words after the strength to speak had gone. 
 
 Silently the assembled men and women framed 
 with their lips the words of "Nearer, my God, to 
 Thee," as the choir sang it through. Dr. Locke 
 raised his hands as the music died away. He 
 made this eloquent appeal: "Let us pray: 
 
 O God, our help in ages past, 
 
 Our hope for years to come, 
 Our shelter from the stormy blast 
 
 And our eternal home. 
 
 *We, Thy humble servants, beseech Thee for manifesta- 
 tions of Thy favor as we come into Thy presence. We laud and 
 magnify Thy holy name and praise Thee for all Thy goodness. 
 Be merciful unto us and bless us as, stricken with overwhelm- 
 ing sorrow, we come unto Thee. 
 
 In this dark night of grief abide with us till the dawning. 
 Speak to our troubled souls, God, and give to us in this hour
 
 BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 521 
 
 of unutterable grief the peace and quiet which Thy presence 
 only can afford. We thank Thee that Thou dost answer the 
 sobbing sigh of the heart and dost assure us that if a man die 
 he shall live again. We praise Thee for Jesus Christ, Thy 
 Son, our Savior and elder brother; that He came "to bring life 
 and immortality to light," and because He lives we shall live 
 also. We thank Thee that death is victory, that ' 'to die is gain. " 
 
 Have mercy upon us in this dispensation of Thy provi- 
 dence. We believe in Thee we trust Thee our God of love, 
 "the same yesterday, to-day and forever." 
 
 "We thank Thee for the unsullied life of Thy servant, our 
 martyred President, whom Thou hast taken to his coronation, 
 and we pray for the final triumph of all the divine principles 
 of pure character and free government for which he stood 
 while he lived, and which were baptized by his blood in his 
 death. 
 
 Hear our prayer for blessings of consolation upon all 
 those who were associated with him in the administration of 
 the affairs of the government; especially vouchsafe Thy presence 
 to Thy servant who has been suddenly called to assume the 
 holy responsibilities of our chief magistrate. 
 
 God, bless our dear nation, and guide the ship of state 
 through stormy seas. Help Thy people to be brave to fight 
 the battles of the Lord, and wise to solve all the problems of 
 freedom. 
 
 Graciously hear us for comforting blessings to rest upon 
 the family circle of our departed friend. Tenderly sustain 
 Thine handmaiden, upon whom the blow of this sorrow most 
 heavily falls. Accompany her, God, as Thou has promised, 
 through this dark valley and shadow, and may she fear no evil, 
 because Thou are with her. 
 
 May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, 
 the father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us 
 all evermore. Amen,
 
 522 BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 
 
 As Dr. Locke began repeating the Lord's prayer 
 the mourners joined with him, and all bowed lo w 
 their heads as he pronounced the benediction. 
 
 Then a man, who seemed suddenly to have 
 grown old, rose from his seat beside Governor 
 Odell and slowly walked alone past the line of cab- 
 inet officers and to the side of the new President. 
 
 His hands clasped behind his back, his head 
 bent down on his great chest, Senator Hanna 
 stopd and gazed for the last time on the face of 
 the man he loved. It seemed to the mourners that 
 he stood there looking down at his dead friend's 
 face for fully five minutes. In reality it was 
 nearly two minutes before he turned, and slowly, 
 sadly retraced his steps across the room. 
 
 As Senator Hanna sat down the casket was 
 closed and the soldiers and sailors advanced from 
 the points where they had been stationed. Lift- 
 ing it gently they slowly began their solemn march 
 to the hearse, which stood waiting outside. Close 
 behind the casket followed President Eoosevelt, 
 with Secretary Root on his left and the other mem- 
 bers of the cabinet following. Slowly, very slowly, 
 they took their way into the hall, out the front 
 door, down the steps and down the walk to the 
 hearse, while a band posted across the street 
 softly played "Nearer, My God, to Thee." 
 
 As the funeral cortege passed slowly down Del- 
 aware avenue the little host that had listened to 
 the services, filed quietly out of the house.
 
 BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 523 
 
 Mrs. McKinley did not accompany the cortege 
 from the house. As the services were nearing an 
 end she exhibited marked signs of exhaustion arid 
 Dr. Rixey and her other companions gently lifted 
 her from her seat and led her to a room. 
 
 Then they closed the door that she might not 
 hear the rhythmic tread of the marching soldiers 
 as they escorted the casket from the house. She 
 was utterly worn out and within a few seconds had 
 lapsed into slumber. 
 
 The funeral cortege left the Milburn house at 
 11:45 o'clock. Slowly and solemnly, in time to 
 the funeral march, it moved between two huge 
 masses of men, women and children, stretching 
 away two miles and a half to the city hall. Nearly 
 two hours were required to traverse the distance. 
 
 During the afternoon and night the President's 
 body lay in state in the city hall. Such a sponta- 
 neous outpouring of people to show their regard 
 for a man whom they had admired and loved from a 
 distance was never equaled on this earth under 
 like circumstances. 
 
 The hours during which the public was to be 
 permitted to view the remains had been set from 
 1 to 6 o'clock. More than twice as many as could 
 hope to get through the lines in that time came 
 from all over western New York until fully 200,000 
 were massed during the morning. In the face of 
 such a concourse the limit was extended, but the
 
 524 BURIAL OF McKINLEY 
 
 patient thousands did not know it. They merely 
 stayed on through the storm and hoped. 
 
 "For nearly ten hours they streamed through the 
 city hall corridor where the President lay, passing 
 in two lines which formed faster than they melted. 
 Ten thousand an hour flowed past until weather 
 and physical collapse wore out other thousands and 
 the thin line ended at 11 o'clock at night. 
 
 In the afternoon Mrs. McKinley begged to be 
 taken to her husband. When told that the body 
 had been carried to the city hall, where the people 
 were to have an opportunity to see it, she de- 
 manded that it be brought back to her. He was 
 her husband, she had a right to him. The people 
 had all his best years, his strength, his life. In 
 death he was hers, and she would have her rights. 
 
 Hysterically she cried aloud for him again and 
 again. A council of the family was hastily called, 
 and some favored sending for the remains of the 
 President in order to calm the anguish of the widow 
 with the soothing sense of possession. But at 
 this moment Mrs. Hob art, widow of the Vice 
 President, succeeded in convincing Mrs. McKin- 
 ley that it was her duty to let the people see the 
 face of their beloved President. 
 
 Thanks to the strong influence which Mrs. 
 Hobart has always exerted over her friend, Mrs. 
 McKinley was finally calmed and induced to lie 
 down and try to sleep. Dr. Eixey prepared an-
 
 BURIAL OF McKlXLEY. 525 
 
 other glass of medicine and the crisis was momen- 
 tarily over. 
 
 Later in the day the unhappy woman again 
 demanded the body of her husband, but for the 
 second time she was comforted by her loving 
 friends. 
 
 Mrs. McKinley's anguish over her loss was the 
 saddest and most pathetic demonstration in the 
 awful tragedy. 
 
 After lying in state at the Buffalo city hall the 
 remains of President McKinley were brought to 
 Washington by special train, September 16. The 
 route was 420 miles long, passing through dense 
 masses of people in every city, town and hamlet. 
 Everywhere were signs of deepest mourning. The 
 train drew into the depot at Washington at 8:38 
 in the evening, and the body was taken to the 
 White House, where it was guarded during the 
 night by veterans of the Civil War. 
 
 At 9 o'clock on the following day the funeral 
 parade formed at the White House and started for 
 the rotunda of the capitol where the funeral ser- 
 vices were held. These were opened by the choir of 
 the Metropolitan M. E. church, where Mr. Mc- 
 Kinley had been a worshiper, singing "Lead, Kind- 
 ly Light." The Rev. Henry E. Naylor offered the 
 invocation and Bishop Andrews delivered the fun- 
 eral address. This was followed by the choir sing- 
 ing "Some Time We'll Understand." The bene-
 
 526 BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 
 
 diction was pronounced by the Rev. W. H. Chap- 
 man. Following this came one of the most dra- 
 matic incidents of the ceremony. The choir 
 began to softly syllable the first lines of the 
 hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee." For several 
 lines the choir alone followed the melodion in 
 the time. Then the volume of the song was 
 audibly increased. A few of the audience, unable 
 to restrain themselves, had joined their voices with 
 those of the chosen singers. Their example was 
 followed timidly by others until the dome rang 
 with the notes of the solemn and beloved song. 
 
 President Eoosevelt murmured the words of the 
 song along with the other auditors. The lines of his 
 face, which had been hard with the rigidity of the 
 trial and grief, softened into an expression of the 
 tenderest sympathy as his lips moved in singing the 
 hymn. Grover Cleveland, the very embodiment 
 of stately dignity, seemed even more dignified as 
 his lips parted with a barely perceptible motion in 
 response to the rhythm of the hymn. Officers of 
 the army and navy, who had seen death in its worst 
 form without a tremor and possibly who had not 
 sung a church hymn for many years, hummed the 
 tune when they could not remember the words. 
 All eyes were streaming with tears. 
 
 A respectful silence followed the end of the hymn 
 which marked the conclusion of the funeral services. 
 A few moments elapsed and then the rotunda was
 
 BURIAL OF McKINLET. 527 
 
 cleared for the body to lie in state to be viewed by 
 the great multitude who were crowding the steps 
 ready to pass through in double file on either side 
 of the coffin. The flag was draped back from the 
 head of the casket, the velvet-covered lid was re- 
 moved and the President's face was exposed to the 
 light which poured in through the upper windows 
 of the dome. 
 
 In the evening the body was removed by special 
 train to the McKinley home in Canton. All along 
 the route were evidences of the deepest mourning. 
 Everywhere people had gathered to catch a glimpse 
 of the train that was bearing away forever all that 
 was earthly of their beloved President. 
 
 The funeral services at Canton were held Thurs- 
 day, September 19. The removal of the remains 
 from the old homestead to the First Methodist 
 Church, where the services were held, levied the 
 hardest tribute upon the sorrow and love of the 
 people of Canton. Mrs. McKinley lingered by 
 the bier up to the moment it was lifted to be borne 
 from the house to the hearse. She wept hyster- 
 ically and refused to be comforted when led away 
 to her room. She did not attend the church ser- 
 vices or the ceremonies at the receiving vault in 
 the cemetery. 
 
 The casket was covered with purple orchids and 
 white roses. Every head within a block of the 
 residence was bared when the hearse, drawn by
 
 528 BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 
 
 four black horses, and under heavy escort, led the 
 way to the church. 
 
 The pulpit was a wilderness of flowers, purple 
 predominating. There were forty-six large pieces 
 on the platform, 200 in the vestibules. A small 
 portrait of the dead President was placed at the 
 head of the bier, which was spread with the 
 national colors and caught in a knot of black cord 
 at the corner. 
 
 Just above the pulpit was a panel of red roses 
 with a harp made of white immortelles. At the 
 right of the platform was a mammoth shield worked 
 in roses and bearing the letters "G. A. R.," and 
 on the opposite wing of the platform was a wreath 
 of white and purple roses bearing the inscription 
 " Our Comrade." This was presented by the late 
 President's old regiment, the Twenty-third Ohio. 
 All the floral decorations were caught with white 
 and purple ribbons. The balconies were festooned 
 with graceful curves of black cashmere, while the 
 vestibules were a solid mass of black. 
 
 All was hushed when the great church organ 
 played Beethoven's " Funeral March." Some of 
 the auditors wept, others strained their eyes to- 
 ward the sable vestibule where it was expected 
 the casket would enter. Still others looked rue- 
 fully at the old pew of President McKinley, which 
 was entirely covered with black cloth. This pew 
 is four seats from the front in the left center sec-
 
 BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 529 
 
 tion of the church. It was not occupied during 
 the services. 
 
 While the fingers of the organist still lingered 
 over the keys, a band without played "Lead, 
 Kindly Light," and the flower-laden casket con- 
 taining the remains of the late President was borne 
 into the church and laid on the bier. President 
 Koosevelt led the funeral party. He was ushered 
 into the second pew from the front of the right 
 central section. 
 
 After the casket was placed the organ rendered 
 "Nearer, My God, to Thee." Eev. 0. B. Milligan, 
 pastor of the Canton Presbyterian church, offered 
 prayer. A ladies' quartet then rendered an orig- 
 inal hymn, entitled " The Beautiful Isle of Some- 
 where." A mixed quartet sang " Lead, Kindly 
 Light." This was followed by a scripture reading 
 from the nineteenth psalm, by Dr. John A. Hall, 
 pastor of Trinity Lutheran church. Kev. E. P. 
 Herrick, pastor of the Trinity Eeformed church, 
 read from Corinthians xv, 41-58. 
 
 Kev. C. E. Manchester, pastor of the church, 
 delivered the funeral sermon. No text was 
 announced. The purpose of the speaker was to 
 pay a tribute to his friend and parishoner. The 
 sermon abounded in personal anecdotes illustrating 
 the Christian character of the illustrious dead. 
 
 At the close of the sermon Bishop L. W. Joyce, 
 of Minneapolis, offered a fervent prayer. " Nearer,
 
 630 BUKIAL OF McKINLEX". 
 
 My G-od, to Thee " was sung again. It was the 
 benediction to a notable service. A moment's 
 silence, a word of prayer and the guard again bore 
 aloft the casket. The funeral was over. 
 
 Through a parted sea of humanity extending 
 more than two miles the funeral car of the dead 
 President was drawn to its long home in Westlawn 
 cemetery. With measured tread and slow stride 
 Lieutenant General Miles headed the file of army 
 and navy officers who walked at the right of the 
 hearse. 
 
 President Eoosevelt could be seen through the 
 open windows of his carriage, but his face was as 
 expressionless as alabaster, save for the expression 
 of sorrow which overcast the features of all. 
 Chopin's funeral march was the prevailing strain 
 in the band music, while minute guns played from 
 the crest of Westlawn cemetery as the solemn 
 column wound its way westward and northward. 
 
 As the funeral party neared the approach to the 
 cemetery the way was strewn with sweet peas, which 
 had been sent in large quantities to Canton by the 
 school children of Nashville, Term. Members of 
 the Twenty-third Ohio, McKinley's old regiment, 
 wept as they picked up the pretty flowers and 
 tucked them away in the lapels of their coats. 
 
 The mausoleum where the body of the dead 
 President will await the great monument that will 
 be ereo^ed in his memory was a bower of roses.
 
 BURIAL OF McKINLEY. 531 
 
 When the funeral party reached the receiving 
 vault the casket was received by the old guard of 
 regulars and jackies and borne to the vault be- 
 tween two lines. President Roosevelt was the 
 first to move towards the vault. He was escorted 
 by Colonel Bingham and took a position at the 
 right of the mausoleum door, Secretary Boot 
 standing at the head of the left line. The mem- 
 bers of the cabinet were disposed on both sides of 
 the pathway leading to the vault, with the army 
 chiefs on the right and navy officials on the left. 
 
 As the flower-laden casket reached the portals 
 of its resting place a salvo of artillery was fired. 
 Abner McKinley, the President's brother, and his 
 wife followed the remains to the door and were 
 succeeded by other members of the family. 
 
 Bishop Joyce read the Methodist burial service, 
 consisting of the chapter in Revelations describing 
 the vision of the holy city, and offered a brief 
 prayer. Secretary Wilson wept as the preacher 
 spoke the solemn lines: "Earth to earth, ashes 
 to ashes, dust to dust." 
 
 After the relatives had returned to their car- 
 riages, taps were sounded by eight buglers of the 
 G. A. R. As the last silvery note of the bugles 
 died away sentries were posted at the door of the 
 receiving vault and the party turned to go. The 
 beloved fellow citizen had been laid to his final 
 rest amid the weeping of a nation.
 
 532 BUKIAL OF McKINLEY. 
 
 On the day of the funeral services at Canton, 
 business was suspended throughout the country 
 and the doors of every business house of any 
 respectable pretentions were closed. Memorial 
 services were conducted in the churches and me- 
 morial parades were held in the larger cities. For 
 five minutes after 2:30 o'clock there was absolute 
 silence and quiet in the cities, except the tolling 
 of church bells. Parades stopped and stood at 
 attention, street cars stopped while the men con- 
 ducting them stood with bared heads, telegraph 
 instruments ceased clicking, and railway trains 
 wherever they were stopped. Never before in the 
 history of the nation had there been such a general 
 demonstration of sorrow and such an outward 
 exhibition of respect for the illustrious dead.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF ASSASSIN. 
 
 Czolgosz Indicted and Convicted of Murder in the First Degree at 
 Buffalo Executed by Electrocution at Auburn, October 29, 1901. 
 
 LEON CZOLGOSZ, the assassin of President 
 McKinley, was American born, the son of 
 Polish emigrants. He was reared under 
 good home and church influences. As a boy he 
 was noted for his taciturn nature. After reaching 
 young manhood he became studious, with a strong 
 leaning toward the doctrines of Anarchy and 
 kindred ocial societies, and from the evidence 
 produced and his own statements, it is evident 
 that the teaching of Anarchy spurred him on to 
 commit the crime. To the last he maintained 
 that he alone was responsible for the act and that 
 he had no accomplices, saying, " I killed President 
 McKinley because 1 believed it to be my duty. 
 I don't believe one man should have so much 
 service and another man should have none." 
 By occupation Czolgosz was a laborer, and a shift- 
 
 533
 
 534 ASSASSIN'S TRIAL AND EXECUTION. 
 
 less one at that, and the foregoing statement, 
 coupled with his leaning toward Anarchy, indicates 
 that he had brooded over his condition compared 
 with that of those in the higher walks of life until 
 he became possessed by the idea that in the re- 
 moval of the President was a remedy for his 
 imagined wrongs. 
 
 Ten days after the death of President McKinley 
 his assassin had been indicted by the grand jury, 
 put to trial, and convicted of murder in the first 
 degree. The machinery of tne law moved with 
 unprecedented regularity and rapidity for a case 
 of such prominence. There were no delays or 
 dilatory proceedings. 
 
 The trial was before Judge White of Buffalo. 
 The people were represented by District Attorney 
 Penney in person, and Judge Lewis and Judge 
 Titus were appointed by the court to appear for 
 the prisoner. Czolgosz maintained during the 
 trial the same stolidity that had characterized 
 him since he committed the crime. When ar- 
 raigned he pleaded guilty, but his plea was 
 changed on the suggestion of (he court and the 
 advice of his counsel. 
 
 The testimony introduced by the people, while 
 brief, covered every essential part of the crime. 
 The defense offered no evidence. When the state 
 rested its case, Judge Lewis, amid profound 
 silence, arose to open the defense. He began his
 
 ASSASSIN'S TRIAL AND EXECUTION. 535 
 
 brief address by explaining the position of himself 
 and his colleague, and entreated that this position 
 be understood as one of legal necessity and not one 
 of choice. As he discussed the case his voice 
 trembled with deep emotion, and tears rolled 
 down his cheeks. He closed by saying : "That, 
 gentlemen, is about all I have to say. Our Pres- 
 ident was a grand man. I watched his career for 
 twenty years, and always had the profoundest 
 esteem for him. He was a tender and devoted 
 husband, a man of finest character, and his death 
 was the saddest blow I have ever known." 
 
 As he concluded he sank into a chair and 
 pressed a handkerchief to his eyes. So strange a 
 defense for a murderer had never before been 
 heard. Judge Titus then arose and said: "The 
 remarks of my associate so completely cover the 
 ground that it is not necessary for me to add any- 
 thing." 
 
 In charging the jury Judge White paid a tender 
 tribute to the memory of the dead President. The 
 jury retired, and thirty-five minutes later brought 
 in a verdict of murder in the first degree. This 
 was the 24th of September. Two days later Leon 
 Czolgosz was sentenced by Judge White to die 
 during the week beginning October 28. The assas- 
 sin showed signs of fear as the judge pronounced 
 his doom. During the night following, Czolgosz 
 was secretly removed to Auburn penitentiary to
 
 536 ASSASSIN'S TRIAL AND EXECUTION. 
 
 await his execution. On arriving at the prison he 
 collapsed and seemed to realize for the first time 
 the magnitude of his offense. 
 
 Czolgosz was electrocuted on the morning of 
 October 29, 1901, at exactly 7:12:30 o'clock. The 
 witnesses assembled in the death chamber at 7 :08 
 o'clock, and at 7:10:30 the murderer was brought 
 in. He was intensely pale, and the four guards 
 who accompanied him had , to urge him forward 
 after he had stumbled on the threshold of the en- 
 trance. The assassin had refused to make a con- 
 fession or to call a priest, but as he was being 
 seated in the death chair and the electrical appa- 
 ratus was being fitted to his head he stared at the 
 guards and said : 
 
 "I killed the president because he was an 
 enemy of the good people of the working peo- 
 ple." 
 
 His voice trembled slightly at first, but gained 
 strength with each word, and he spoke perfect 
 English. 
 
 "I am not sorry for my crime," he said loudly, 
 just as the guard pushed his head back on the 
 rubber rest and drew the strap across his fore- 
 head and chin. As the pressure of the straps 
 tightened and bound the jaw slightly he mumbled: 
 
 " I am awfully sorry I could not see my father." 
 
 It was exactly 7:11 o'clock when Czolgosz 
 crossed the threshold. He had just finished his
 
 ASSASSIN'S TRIAL AND EXECUTION. 537 
 
 last statement when the strapping was completed 
 and the guards stepped back. Warden Mead 
 raised his hand and at 7:12:30 Electrician Davis 
 turned the switch that threw 1,700 volts of elec- 
 tricity into the living body. 
 
 The rush of the current threw the body so hard 
 against the straps that they creaked perceptibly. 
 The hands clinched suddenly and the whole atti- 
 tude was one of extreme tenseness. For forty- 
 five seconds the full current was kept on, and 
 then slowly the electrician threw the switch back, 
 reducing the current volt by volt until it was cut 
 off entirely. Then just as it had reached that 
 point he threw the lever back again for two or 
 three seconds. The body, which had collapsed 
 as the current was reduced, stiffened up again 
 against the straps. When it was turned off again 
 Dr. Macdonald stepped to the chair and put his 
 hand over the heart. He said he felt no pulsa- 
 tion, but suggested that the current be turned on 
 for a few seconds again. Once more the body be- 
 came rigid. At 7:15 the current was turned off 
 for good. 
 
 The physicians used the stethoscope and other 
 tests to determine if any life remained, and at 7:17 
 the warden, raising his hand, announced: "Gen- 
 tlemen, the prisoner is dead." 
 
 The witnesses filed from the chamber, many of 
 them visibly affected, and the body was taken
 
 538 ASSASSIN'S TRIAL AND EXECUTION. 
 
 from the chair and laid on the operating table. 
 The autopsy proved that the brain was normal or 
 slightly above normal. The remains were depos- 
 ited in the prison cemetery and destroyed by acid 
 and quicklime before being covered with earth. 
 
 Such was the end of one of the most despised 
 men that ever breathed American air.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 .THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 BY MUEAT HALSTEAD 
 
 Sketch of the life of the Hero of Santiago His public career ana 
 important achievements Unanimously nominated for the Vice- 
 Presidency. 
 
 PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY has 
 reason to be proud that on the Republican 
 ticket for his re-election he has associated 
 with him, as the candidate for the Vice-Presidency, 
 Theodore Roosevelt. Both are men who were tried 
 and proven true, weighed and not found wanting, in 
 the hours of their country's peril and the days of 
 their country's peace. In time of war both were at 
 the front and both in places where there was the 
 thunder with the deadly hail of battle about them. 
 It may not be so well remembered by the brave boys 
 of to-day, who in the enthusiasm of their victory 
 over the Spaniards may forget the equally daring 
 deeds of their fathers, but it remains true that just 
 as Roosevelt urged on and was in front of his Rough 
 Riders, the First United States Volunteer Cavalry, 
 so it was with Major McKinley, of whom General 
 
 539
 
 540 THEODOKE KOOSEVELT. 
 
 Sheridan said, in an official report of his ride to 
 Winchester, that he found McKinley far in front 
 urging his men to rally, one of the officers who were 
 "doing their duty." 
 
 Another point of interest in the military careers 
 of the two men was their devotion as officers to the 
 care of their men. McKinley, then a mere lacl in the 
 commissary department, saw during a severe engage- 
 ment that though it was his seeming duty to stay in 
 the rear and watch after the stores in his charge, yet 
 the men in front were hard-pressed and without food, 
 and this made the seeming duty a certain mistake. 
 The man's part was to get to the fellow-soldiers and 
 give to them sustenance to support them in their try- 
 ing position and so the commissary sergeant, with 
 shell and shrapnell bursting on every side, went 
 ahead with his provisions and personally risked more 
 danger than the men at the front as he moved 
 among them and handed down to them in the 
 trenches coffee and hard tack. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt, when Spain was whipped 
 and the horrid hand of the tropics was snatching 
 away his brave boys, dared to be sponsor for a mes- 
 sage to the home government, in which he called 
 attention to their condition and the very real 
 necessity of bringing them home, away from the 
 pestilence and the miserable death in camp ? at which 
 the soldier shudders who can laughingly face death 
 in the battlefield. 
 
 The selection of McKinley and Roosevelt by the
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. r.tl 
 
 Republican party at Philadelphia is singularly appro- 
 priate and fitting, for both are men of the Nation ; 
 one born of humble, honorable parentage, who has 
 wisely served his Government as soldier and states- 
 man, and the other born to the heritage of the old 
 aristocracy of New York, who was equally anxious 
 to do and successful in doing a citizen's part in peace 
 and war. 
 
 Very briefly the career of Theodore Roosevelt is : 
 He was born in the City of New York on October 
 27, 1858. He is of the eighth generation of Roose- 
 velts who have lived in New York. 
 
 He began his public life in the fall of 1881 as a 
 member of the New York Legislature, having been 
 elected to the Assembly from the Twenty-first dis- 
 trict. He was re-elected three times, serving in 
 1882, 1883 and 1884. He was chairman of the 
 Cities Committee, and after his first year was the 
 Republican leader on the floor of the Assembly. 
 
 He was at the head of the Republican delegation 
 from this State to the National Convention in 1884, 
 which nominated James G. Blaine. In 1886 he ran 
 on the Republican ticket for Mayor of New Y< >rk 
 against Abrain S. Hewitt and was defeated. He 
 was appointed Civil Service Commissioner by Presi- 
 dent Harrison in 1889 and was retained by Presi- 
 dent Cleveland. He resigned in 1895 and was 
 appointed Police Commissioner in New York by 
 Mayor Strong, and was elected president of the 
 board.
 
 542 THEODORE KOOSEVELT. 
 
 He was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy 
 by President McKinley in 1897, but resigned in May 
 of the following year and came to New York to 
 become Lieutenant Colonel of the First Cavalry, 
 United States Volunteers, the world renowned 
 Roosevelt Rough Riders. 
 
 He returned to New York after the war a Colonel, 
 and was elected Governor of the Empire State. 
 
 What a splendid career this is, even in the meager 
 outline, the story of an American boy, who was not 
 overpowered by the advantages of his birth, but was 
 a worthy descendant of Americans and fitted to run, 
 forced to run, by the unanimous will of his country- 
 men with the President of humbler birth ! It was 
 truly as hard for the one as for the other to rise to 
 their exalted positions. 
 
 Governor Roosevelt of the great State of New 
 York did not want to be the Vice-Presidential nomi- 
 nee, not that he failed to appreciate the glory and 
 the honor, but because he is a man of purpose, and 
 it takes more than a single term for such a man to 
 accomplish all that should be done in the way of 
 bettering the State over which the shadow of the 
 Tammany tiger falls, as the great beast shelters the 
 brothels and the saloons, and rejoices when the poor 
 cry for ice, because that increases the price and the 
 profits of the Mayor and the Tammany associates of 
 the Ice Trust. There was further work for Roose- 
 velt to do, he felt, and as he put it at Philadelphia: 
 
 "In view of the revival of the talk of myself as a
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 543 
 
 Vice-Presidential candidate, I have this to say: It is 
 impossible too deeply to express how touched I a in 
 by the attitude of those delegates who have wished 
 ine to take this nomination. 
 
 "Moreover, it is not necessary to say how thor- 
 oughly I understand the high honor and dignity of 
 the office an olfice so high and so honorable that it is 
 well worthy the ambition of any man in the United 
 States. 
 
 " But, while I appreciate all this to the full, I 
 nevertheless feel most deeply that the field of my 
 best usefulness to the public and to the party is in 
 New York State, and if the party should see fit to 
 renominate me for Governor, I can in that position 
 help the national ticket as in no other way. 
 
 " I very earnestly ask that every friend of mind in 
 the Convention respect my wishes and my judgment 
 in this matter." 
 
 Every man is liable to be in the wrong. The 
 Governor of the State of New York had but one 
 duty, and that was to again "Kally round Flag," and 
 with his President fight the foes of honest money, of 
 national honor in dealing with the possessions thai, 
 have come to us with the war with Spain. A com- 
 ment made to a friend not long before he went to 
 Philadelphia illustrates the truth of this statement. 
 He said in effect: 
 
 " How will I ever be able to hold myself in if I 
 am Vice-President and there occurs a debate on I!M 
 floor of the Senate upon the expansion question? If
 
 544 THEODOKE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 I should hear a bitter, irritating, specious and absurd 
 speech on the anti-expansion side I should feel just 
 like flinging down the gavel, rushing from the Vice- 
 President's place to the floor of the Senate and 
 plunging into the battle." 
 
 Again "Teddy," as the people love to call him, 
 was in error. As Vice-President he will be tolerant 
 of all opposing views, but will not be wishy-washy in 
 properly suppressing those who are careless of par- 
 liamentary rules, or submitting to any false courtesy 
 of tradition among the Senators as to their preroga- 
 tives when they do not apply themselves to business, 
 or where they are directly treasonable to the United 
 States of America. 
 
 The Colonel of the Rough Riders could not be 
 better presented than he was at Philadelphia before 
 the National Republican Convention, which would 
 and did nominate him, whether he would or no. 
 
 It is interesting and very proper to state here that 
 among the many present was a young woman, a 
 typical American woman, the mother of an American 
 brood of children, who did not weep and grow 
 hysterical when Teddy went to war, and that as he 
 entered the hall he did not fail to stop and greet 
 her, the mother of his children. She heard the 
 nominating speeches, listened to her big husband 
 second the nomination of the President and wit- 
 nessed the glory of his later nomination, when the 
 crowds swarmed about him after the splendid roll call 
 of the States, the sonorous alphabet, beginning with
 
 THEODOKE ROOSEVELT. 54:, 
 
 Alabama, Laving been called and there was only one 
 delegate's vote missing, that of the Governor of the 
 State of New York, but that missing vote was many 
 times repeated in the wife's heart, so that it need 
 not be recorded against him. 
 
 Colonel Lafe Young, in presenting the name of 
 Governor Roosevelt to the Convention for the Vice- 
 Presidential nomination, said: 
 
 " Gentlemen of the Convention : I have listened 
 with profound interest to the numerous indictments 
 pronounced against the Democratic party, and, as an 
 impartial reader of history, I am compelled to con- 
 fess that the indictments are all only too true. If I 
 am to judge, however, by the enthusiasm of this 
 hour, the Republican Relief Committee sent out four 
 years ago, to carry supplies and succor to the pros- 
 trate industries of the Republic, has returned to 
 make formal report that the duty has been dis- 
 charged. [Applause.] I could add nothing to this 
 indictment, except to say that this unfortunate party 
 through four years of legislation and administrative 
 control had made it, up to 1896, impossible for an 
 honest man to get into debt, or to get out of it. 
 
 " But, my fellow-citizens, you know my purpose, 
 you know the heart of this Convention. The coun- 
 try never called for patriotic sons from any given 
 family, but more were offered than there was room 
 for on the enlistment roll. When this Convention 
 and this great party called for a candidate for Vice- 
 President two voices responded, one from the Missis-
 
 546 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 sippi Valley by birth, another by loving affection 
 and adoption. 
 
 " It is my mission, representing that part of the 
 great Louisiana purchase, to withdraw one of these 
 sons and suggest that the duty be placed upon the 
 other. I therefore withdraw the name of Jonathan 
 P. Dolliver, of Iowa, a man born with the thrill of 
 the Lincoln and Fremont campaigns in his heart and 
 with the power to stir the hearts and consciences of 
 men as part of his birthright. 
 
 " We turn to this other adopted son of the great 
 middle West, and at this moment I recall that two 
 years ago to-day as many men as there are men and 
 women in this great hall were on board sixty trans- 
 ports lying off Santiago harbor, in full view of the 
 bay, with Morro Castle looming up upon the right 
 and another prominence upon the left, with the open- 
 ing of the channel between. 
 
 " On board those transports were twenty thousand 
 soldiers that had gone away from our shores to lib- 
 erate another race, to fulfill no obligation but that of 
 humanity. 
 
 "As campaign followers there were those who 
 witnessed this great spectacle of that fleet, and on 
 the ship Yucatan was that famous regiment of 
 Rough Eiders of the far West and the Mississippi 
 Valley. [Applause.] In command of that regiment 
 was that fearless young American, student, scholar, 
 plainsman, reviewer, historian, statesman, soldier, of 
 the middle West by adoption, of New York by
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 547 
 
 birth. That fleet sailing around the point, coming 
 to the place of landing, stood off the harbor, t\\<> 
 years ago to-morrow, and the navy bombarded that 
 shore to make a place, for landing, and no man who 
 lives who was in that campaign as an officer, as a 
 soldier, or as a camp follower, can fail to recall the 
 spectacle; and, if he closes his eyes he sees the awful 
 scenes in that campaign in June and July, 1898. 
 Then, the landing being completed, there were those 
 who stood upon the shore and saw these indomitable 
 men land, landing in small boats through the waves 
 that dash against the shore, landing without har- 
 bor, but land they did, with their accouterments on 
 and their weapons by their sides. And those who 
 stood upon the shore and saw these men come on 
 thought they could see in their faces, 'Stranger, CMII 
 you tell me the nearest road to Santiago?' [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 " That is the place they were looking for. And 
 the leader of the campaign of one of those regiments 
 shall be the name that I shall place before this Con- 
 vention for the office of Vice-President of the United 
 States. [Applause.] 
 
 " Gentlemen of the Convention, I know you have 
 been here a long time and that you have had politics 
 in abundance. I know the desire to complete the 
 work of this Convention, but I cannot forbear to 
 say that this occasion has a higher significance than 
 one of politics. The campaign of this year is higher 
 than politics.
 
 548 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 " In fact, if patriotism could have its way there 
 would be but one political party and but one 
 electoral ticket in any State of the Union, because 
 political duty would enforce it. In many respects 
 the years 1898 and 1899 have been the great years 
 of the Republic. 
 
 " There is not under any sun or any clime any man 
 or government that cares to insult the flag of the 
 United States. Not one. We are a greater and a 
 broader people on account of these achievements. 
 Uncle Sam has been made a cosmopolitan citizen of 
 the world. No one questions his prowess or his 
 bravery. As the result of these campaigns and as 
 the result of the American spirit, my fellow-citizens, 
 the American soldier, ten thousand miles away from 
 home, with a musket in his hands, says to the 
 aggressor, to those who are in favor of tyranny: 
 'Halt! Who comes there?' and the same spirit 
 says to the beleaguered hosts of liberty : * Hold the 
 fort for I am coming ! ' Thus says the spirit of 
 Americanism. Now, gentlemen of the Convention, I 
 place before you this distinguished leader of Repub- 
 licanism of the United States, this leader of the 
 aspirations of the people, whose hearts are right, 
 and this leader of the aspirations of the young men 
 of this country. Their hearts and consciences are 
 with this young leader, whom I shall name for the 
 Vice-Presidency of the United States, Theodore 
 Roosevelt, of New York." [Loud cheering.]
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. MO 
 
 Senator Depew seconded the nomination of Gov- 
 ernor Roosevelt and said : 
 
 " Gentlemen of the Convention: Permit me to state 
 to you at the outset that I am not upon the pro- 
 gramme, but I will gladly perform the pleasant duty 
 of announcing that New York came here, as did every 
 other delegation, for Colonel Roosevelt for Vice- 
 President of the United States. [Applause.] 
 
 "When Colonel Roosevelt expressed to us his 
 wish that he should not be considered we respected 
 it, and we proposed to place in nomination, by our 
 unanimous vote, our Lieutenant-Governor, the Hon. 
 Timothy L. Woodruff. [Applause.] 
 
 "Now that the Colonel has responded to the call 
 of the Convention and the demand of the people, 
 New York withdraws Mr. Woodruff and puts Roose- 
 velt in nomination. 
 
 "I had the pleasure of nominating him two years 
 ago for Governor, when all the signs pointed to the 
 loss of New York in the election, but he charged up 
 and down the old State from Montauk Point to 
 Niagara Falls as he went up San Juan Hill [ap- 
 plause], and the Democrats fled before him as the 
 Spaniards had in Cuba. [Applause.] 
 
 "It is a peculiarity of American life that our men 
 are not born to anything, but they get there after- 
 wards. McKinley, a young soldier, and coming out 
 a Major ; McKinley, a Congressman, and making a 
 tariff; McKinley, a President, elected because he 
 represented the protection of American industries.
 
 THEODOKE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 and McKinley, after four years 7 development, in 
 peace, in war, in prosperity and in adversity, tne 
 greatest President save one or two that this countiy 
 ever had and the greatest ruler in Christendom 
 to-day. [Applause.] 
 
 " So with Roosevelt we call him * Teddy.' [Ap- 
 plause.] He was the child of New York of New 
 York City the place that you gentlemen from the 
 West think means ' coupons, clubs and eternal dam- 
 nation for everyone.' 
 
 - Teddy/ this child of Fifth Avenue he was the 
 child of the clubs ; he was the child of the exclusive- 
 ness of Harvard College, and he went West and 
 became a cowboy [applause] ; and then he went into 
 the Navy Department and became Assistant Secre- 
 tary. 
 
 "He gave an order, and the old chiefs of bureaus 
 came to him and said: 'Why, Colonel, there is no 
 authority and no requisition to burn this powder.' 
 4 Well,' said the Colonel, * we have got to get ready 
 when war comes, and powder was manufactured tu 
 be burned.' [Applause.] 
 
 "And the burning of that powder sunk Cervera's 
 fleet outside of Santiago harbor, and the fleet in 
 Manila Bay. [Applause.] 
 
 "At Santiago a modest voice was heard, exceed- 
 ingly polite, addressing a militia regiment, lying 
 upon the ground, while the Spanish bullets were 
 flying over them. This voice said : ' Get one side, 
 gentlemen, please ; one side, gentlemen, 'please, that 
 my men can get out.'
 
 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 "And when this polite roan got his mei. I he 
 
 open where they could face the bayonet and : 
 bullet, there was a transformation, and the trans- 
 formation was that the dude had become a cow' 
 the cowboy had become a soldier, the soldier 
 become a hero, and rushing up the hill, pistol in 
 hand [great applause], the polite man shouted to the 
 militiamen lying down: 'Give them hell, I 
 give them hell. 7 [Applciuse.] 
 
 'Jlusion has been made by one of the speakers 
 to the fact that the Democratic Convention i 
 meet on the Fourth of July. Great Scott! The 
 Fourth of July ! [Laughter.] On the Fourth of July 
 all the great heroes of the Revolution, all the g 
 heroes of the war of 1812, all the great heroes of 
 Mexico, and the heroes of the war with Spain, who 
 are not dead, will be in processions all over the 
 country, those mighty spirits, but they will not be at 
 the Democratic Convention at Kansas Citv. 
 
 w 
 
 [A voice : u And the war of the rebellion."] 
 u And the war of the rebellion. There is one gen- 
 tleman who is detained from there and from the wel- 
 come which they would delight to give him, but he 
 is at present engaged in running a foot race under 
 the blazing sun from the soldiers of the United 
 
 O 
 
 States. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 " George Washington's spirit will not be there, but 
 George Washington Aguinaldo, if he could, would 
 be there as a welcome delegate. [Laughter and 
 applause.]
 
 552 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 " And then will come the great card of the Con- 
 vention, headed by the great Bryan himself. 'Down 
 with the trusts.' 'Down with the trusts.' And 
 when the applause is over it will be found that the 
 pitchers on the table have been broken by the 
 clashing of the ice within [prolonged laughter and 
 cheering], for that ice will be making merry at five 
 cents a chunk. 
 
 " I heard a story this is a brand new story. It is 
 the vintage of June, 1900. Most of my stories are 
 more venerable. There was a lady with her husband 
 in Florida last winter. He a consumptive and she a 
 strenuous and tumultuous woman. [Laughter.] Her 
 one remark was, as they sat on the piazza, 'Stop 
 coughing, John.' 
 
 "John had a hemorrhage. The doctor said he 
 must stay in bed six weeks. His tumultuous wife 
 said : ' Doctor, it is impossible. We are traveling 
 on a time-limited ticket, and we have got several 
 more places to go to.' [Laughter and applause.] 
 So she carried him oft'. 
 
 " The next station they got to the poor man died, 
 and the sympathetic hotel proprietor said: 'Poor 
 madam, what shall we do?' She said: 'Box him 
 up. I have got a time-limited ticket and several 
 more places to go to.' [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 "Now, we buried 16 to 1 in a 1896. We put a 
 monument over it weighing as many tons as the 
 Sierra Nevada, when gold was put into the statutes 
 by a Republican Congress and the signature of 
 William McKinley.
 
 THEODOKE EOOSEVELT. 553 
 
 "Colonel Bryan has been a body-snatcher. He 
 has got the corpse out from under the monument, 
 but it is dead. He has got it in its coffin, carrying 
 it along, as the bereaved widow, because he says: 'I 
 must, I must; I am wedded to this body of sin and 
 death. I must, I must, because I have a time limit 
 which expires in November.' [Laughter and ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 " I remember when 1 used to go abroad. It is a 
 good thing for a Yankee to go abroad. I used to be 
 ashamed, because everywhere they would s<-iv: 
 1 What is the matter with the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence when you have slavery in your land?' 
 
 " Well, we took slavery out, and now no American 
 is ashamed to go abroad. When I went abroad 
 afterwards the ship was full of merchants buying 
 iron, and buying steel, and buying wool, and buying 
 cotton and all kinds of goods. 
 
 " Now, when an American goes around the world, 
 what happens to him when he reaches the capital of 
 Japan? He rides on an electric railway made by 
 American mechanics. When he reaches the territory 
 of China he rides under an electric light invented 
 by Mr. Edison, and put up by American artisans. 
 
 "When he goes over the great railway across 
 Siberia, from China to St. Petersburg, he rides <>n 
 American rails in cars drawn by American locomo- 
 tives. When he goes to Germany he finds our iron 
 and steel climbing over a $2.50 tariff, and thereby 
 scaring the Kaiser most out of his wits. [Laughter.]
 
 554 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 " When he reaches the great Exposition at Paris 
 he finds the French winemaker saying that American 
 wine cannot be admitted there for the purposes of 
 judgment. When he goes to old London, he gets 
 for breakfast California fruit. He gets for luncheon 
 biscuit and bread made of Western flour, and he 
 gets for dinner ' roast beef of old England' taken 
 from the plains of Montana. [Laughter.] His feet 
 rest . on a carpet marked 'Axminster/ made at 
 Yonkers, N. Y. [Renewed laughter.] 
 
 "Now, my friends, this canvass we are entering 
 upon is a canvass of the future. The past is only 
 for record and for reference. And, thank God, we 
 have a reference and a record. 
 
 u What is the tendency of the future ? Why this 
 war in South Africa ? Why this hammering at the 
 gates of Pekin ? Why this marching of troops from 
 Asia to Africa ? Why these parades of people from 
 other empires to other lands ? 
 
 " It is because the surplus productions of the civil- 
 ized countries of modern times are greater than 
 civilization can consume. It is because this overpro- 
 duction goes back to stagnation and to poverty. 
 
 " The American people now produce two thousand 
 million dollars' worth more than we can consume, 
 and we have met the emergency ; and, by the provi- 
 dence of God, by the statesmanship of William Me- 
 Kinley, and by the valor of Roosevelt and his 
 associates [applause], we have our market in Cuba, 
 we have our market in Porto Rico, we have our
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 555 
 
 market in Hawaii, we have our market in the Phil- 
 ippines, and we stand in the presence of eight hun- 
 dred millions of people, with the Pacific as an 
 American lake, and the American artisan producing 
 better and cheaper goods than any country in the 
 world; and, my friends, we go to American labor 
 and to the American farm and say that, with Mc- 
 Kinley for another four years, there is no congestion 
 for America. 
 
 "Let invention proceed, let production go on, let 
 the mountains bring forth their treasures, let the fac- 
 tories do their best, let labor be employed at the 
 highest wages, because the world is ours, and we have 
 conquered it by Republican principles and by Re- 
 publican persistency in the principles of American 
 industry and of America for Americans. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 " You and I, my friends you from New England 
 with all its culture and its coldness, and you from the 
 Middle West, who, starting from Ohio, and radiating 
 in every direction, think you are all there is of it ; 
 you from the West who produced, on this platform, a 
 product of New England transformed to the West 
 through New York, that delivered the best presid- 
 ing officer's speech in oratory and all that makes up 
 a great speech that has been heard in many a day in 
 any convention in this country. [Depew referred to 
 Senator Wolcott.] It was a glorious tiling to sci- 
 the fervor of the West and the culture and polish of 
 New England giving us an ammunition wagon from
 
 556 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 which the spellbinder everywhere can draw the pow- 
 der to shoot down opposition East and West and 
 North and South. 
 
 " Many of you I met in convention four years ago. 
 We all feel what little men we were then compared 
 with what we are to-day. There is not a man here 
 that does not feel 400 per cent, bigger in 1900 than 
 he did in 1896, bigger intellectually, bigger hope- 
 fully, bigger patriotically, bigger in the breast, from 
 the fact that he is a citizen of a country that has 
 become a world power for peace, for civilization and 
 for the expansion of its industries and the products 
 of its labor. 
 
 " We have the best ticket ever presented. [Ap- 
 plause.] We have at the head of it a Western man 
 with Eastern notions, and we have at the other end 
 an Eastern man with Western character [loud ap- 
 plause] the statesman and the cowboy [laughter], 
 the accomplished man of affairs and the heroic 
 fighter. The man who has proved great as Presi- 
 dent, and the fighter who has proved great as Gov- 
 ernor. [Applause.] We leave this old town simply 
 to keep on shouting and working to make it unani- 
 mous for McKinley and for Roosevelt." 
 
 The biographical sketches of Roosevelt which 
 accompanied the news of his nomination have failed 
 to give an adequate account of his notable ancestry. 
 This is characteristic, however, of the American 
 spirit, which pays little attention to what a man's 
 father and grandfather were, but a great deal to
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 557 
 
 what lie is. Governor Roosevelt's father was a mer- 
 chant of high standing and integrity. It is related 
 of him that he made it a rule to devote only five 
 days a week to his business.' Saturday he gave to 
 charitable work among the poor, and Sunday to 
 religious devotion and rest. President Hayes ap- 
 pointed Governor Roosevelt's father as Collector of 
 the Port of New York, then, as now, the leading 
 federal position in that State, but then of more polit- 
 ical influence than it is now. The Senate, however, 
 declined to confirm him. His brother, Robert B. 
 Roosevelt, uncle of the Governor, and still living, is 
 a Democrat of the gold faction. He has been 
 prominent for many years in New York State. He 
 was the first President of the State Fisheries Com- 
 mission, and has served in Congress and as Minister 
 to the Netherlands. The Governor's grandfather, 
 Cornelius V. S. Roosevelt, was noted in his day as a 
 merchant and philanthropist. He had a brother, 
 James, who long served as Justice of the Supreme 
 Court for the State. Another member of the family 
 of that generation devoted his fortune to the found- 
 ing of Roosevelt Hospital, one of the best institu- 
 tions of the kind in the city. Cornelius V. S. Roose- 
 velt was grandson of Isaac Roosevelt, who was a 
 member of the Kingston Convention of 1777, which 
 framed the first Constitution of the State, and of the 
 Poughkeepsie Convention of 178G, which ratified tin- 
 Constitution of the United States. lie little 
 dreamed that his great-great-grandson would, as
 
 558 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 Governor, execute the Constitution he helped to 
 frame, and as Vice-President help to maintain the 
 Federal Constitution which he, with others, ratified. 
 Isaac Roosevelt was one of the leading citizens of 
 his day, and served on the Committee of 100 which 
 undertook to restore order in the city in the trouble- 
 some time of 1775. He was for several years Presi- 
 dent of the Bank of New York, the oldest in the 
 city. One of his sons was a Director of the Mer- 
 chants' Bank and prominent in the sugar trade. 
 Another son, Nicholas, was an inventor and asso- 
 ciated with Fulton in the first practical application 
 of steam to navigation. Another Roosevelt of a 
 more recent generation was a noted builder of 
 church organs. The Roosevelt family dates back to 
 1648, and has been distinguished during all that 
 period. The Governor, however, is the first to 
 achieve fame in war and literature, as well as pol- 
 itics. The first of the family in this country is said 
 to have been Claes Marten eze von Roosevelt, or 
 otherwise Nicholas, son of Martin, of Rosefield, a 
 native of Holland. Theodore Roosevelt's father, 
 Theodore, married Martha, daughter of James and 
 Martha Oswald Bulloch, of Roswell, Ga., both of 
 whom were descendants from Revolutionary stock. 
 
 Of such blood came Governor Roosevelt, candidate 
 for the Vice-Presidency of the United States. As a 
 little fellow he was delicate. As he played with the 
 children of his neighbors of fashionable Murray Hill, 
 he realized that he was not as strong as they and the
 
 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT. 559 
 
 will that has since proven itself and the courage of 
 San Juan Hill were in him. He set his jaw, and 
 from " follow my leader " where he was the last boy 
 to being the pathfinder in daring risk-neck schemes 
 he pushed his way. He began to grow strong. 
 
 He was educated at home by private tutors and 
 yet to-day there is no more ardent believer in the 
 public schools. He was a hard student, the kind 
 going to work with a will, soon through, and then 
 out in the air, romping and playing with the other 
 boys. As he grew older he took up gymnastics and 
 boxing, and by his indomitable purpose learned to 
 ride a horse in a way none could emulate, and to 
 take rough knocks and give them with equal sturcli- 
 ness and courage. He was the defender of those 
 less strong than he, when he saw them abused, and 
 a comrade on equal terms with the boys of equal 
 strength. He had conquered sickness and was 
 robust and healthy. 
 
 Then he went to Harvard, where he was distin- 
 guished as a clean-minded scholar, a manly young 
 man and an athlete. The taste for letters that was 
 there begun and the ability to tell the truth as he 
 saw it, and to see all that was going on, made him 
 an editor of the Harvard Advocate. He graduated 
 from Harvard in 1880, not at the head of his cl. 
 but above the middle; has since been an honor to his 
 Alma Mater, and became early one of the heroes of 
 the other colleges, where the students and t-vcn 
 the alumni are apt to be late in appreciation of the 
 fellows from other institutions.
 
 560 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 Following Ms graduation Theodore Roosevelt 
 spent a year abroad. Immediately on his return 
 home he entered the political arena of the metro- 
 politan City of New York. He might have sat in 
 any one of the clubs to which he was eligible and 
 dawdled away the hours. He did not neglect the 
 clubs, but was popular with the members and at the 
 same time was a man with a purpose and an honor- 
 able ambition. He went out among men, shook 
 hands, and at times, when necessary, exchanged 
 blows with his fellows, so that while he was still a 
 very young man he had friends and admirers, not 
 only at the club but numbered among those he 
 knew and liked the men who drove trucks, street 
 cars, omnibuses; the men of the docks, with 
 shoulders, perhaps, broader than his, the fine sun- 
 bronzed fellows who go out to sea, the pilots and 
 tugmen, the men of the shops and the stores. With 
 them he learned the truth that " A man's a man for 
 a' that." He was elected to the Assembly of his 
 State, and it was not long before his opponents in 
 political belief knew that he was present. Even the 
 men of his own party who did not agree with him, 
 soon realized that the troublesome " whirlwind of a 
 fellow" was absolutely honest of purpose and as a 
 rule in the right. He was re-elected in the following 
 two years. He was for honesty in politics and was 
 the first to introduce a Civil Service bill in the Leg- 
 islature, which became a law in 1883. 
 
 Men began to talk about Roosevelt, and those who
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 561 
 
 did not like him said severe things. He had won 
 his spurs, for he had made bitter enemies and firm 
 friends. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt was an independent candidate 
 for Mayor of the City of New York in 1886, backed 
 by the Republican party. He had as an opponent a 
 venerable citizen of many good works, and his youth 
 told against him with the voters. He suffered his 
 first defeat at the hands of Abram S. Hewitt, and it 
 was an honorable repulse, a great compliment and 
 mark of trust on the part of the people, for he was 
 given a surprisingly big vote. Men who are fond 
 of the fellow who is not afraid had begun to see in 
 Roosevelt a leader, a man of firm and earnest prin- 
 ciple, the sort of man men admire, and the better they 
 knew him the more they became attached to him. 
 Theodore Roosevelt was more than the politician 
 staying at home mending broken fences. From time 
 to time in the days of his official vacations he visited 
 the Great West, where he had a ranch. 
 
 One of the Rough Riders who went up San Juan 
 Hill with him tells a story on the candidate worth 
 repeating. He says : " When I was about sixteen, 
 a big fellow on an easy-going horse came to the po^t- 
 office one day, and asked if their was any mail for 
 Roosevelt. The postmaster was my father and he 
 enjoyed a joke, like most folks, and he says to the 
 big man wearing ' specks' : ' Do you mean The Hon- 
 orable Theodore Roosevelt from New York?' 
 1 That's the man/ said Teddy. 'Well,' says father,
 
 562 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 'such a distinguished gentleman should bring his 
 credentials.' 'Here they are,' says Teddy, not put 
 out a bit and pulling a handful of letters from his 
 pocket. 'Thank you,' says father, ' there is some 
 mail for you here, but as I did not know when you 
 would come I put it away in a safe corner, and if 
 you'll wait I'll bring it out.' Roosevelt was wiping 
 off his glasses and father goes to the back of the 
 store and makes a remark to a friend and then he 
 began sorting out the tenderfoot's mail, handing to 
 him a letter at a time. When Tie was through a 
 change had been made in horses, for father had a 
 dead ringer of Teddy's nag, and the nastiest beast 
 thereabouts. 
 
 "Well, Teddy thanked father and went up to his 
 nag, which was tied to a post. It looked just as 
 sleepy as a sheep. Teddy takes a flying leap into 
 the saddle and the boys let loose, like Indians. 
 Then the beast began to buck and as it did not 
 throw the big fellow, though it did send his glasses 
 flying, it went through every trick a bad broncho 
 knows, until it tried to roll on him, but the man was 
 off and on as the beast rose, and then Teddy put his 
 spurs deep into the horse's sides and away they 
 went. Some time later the Honorable Theodore 
 Roosevelt came back in a cloud of dust, him astride, 
 and it stopped with a snort, or rather sigh of 
 relief, at the front of the store. Then we christened 
 him 'Teddy.' We brought out his own horse and 
 father expressed his regret that the new neighbor
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 503 
 
 living about fifteen miles distant had lost his 
 glasses. 
 
 " 'Don't mind,' says Teddy, <I always keep plenty 
 of them on hand,' and he pulls a new pair out of a 
 pocket, puts them on his nose and looks us over 
 with a smile showing his big white teeth. We took 
 off the saddle and bridle belonging to Teddy from 
 the tired horse and fitted them on to the slow 
 and easy nag. He smiled again, saw that there had 
 been no trickery with the girth, bade us good morn- 
 ing and rode back to his ranch. After that when- 
 ever he came to the postoffice, it was to find a group 
 of friends, just as he has ever since all through the 
 West, as if he was born there. The boys like 
 Teddy." 
 
 F. C. Brewer, a ranchman of the Big Horn coun- 
 try, has an equally interesting anecdote of the Kough 
 Rider's experience in the West. He says : " Gov- 
 ernor Roosevelt, of New York, was well known in 
 the West lon^ before his Rou^h Riders were 
 
 o o 
 
 thought of. 
 
 "It was in 1887 that 'Teddy' Roosevelt stopped 
 for a few days at my ranch, in Big Horn Basin, and 
 I'll bet a steer against a coyote he has never for- 
 gotten the visit. He said he had come for big game, 
 and he got it. 
 
 "A day or two after his arrival we made up a 
 party to go shooting. Now, Roosevelt gave it out 
 that he could ride a bit, and so he could, considering 
 that he is a city man. The boys were not very care-
 
 564 THEODOKE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 f ul to find Mm a gentle horse, probably thinking they 
 would have fun with him if the broncho proved 
 more than his match. 
 
 " He got on all right with the broncho until we 
 ran into a bunch of wild cattle, and ' Teddy ' could 
 not resist the temptation to rope one. He tried to 
 rope it, but the broncho was not broke, and when he 
 threw the rope the horse shied and threw this next 
 Vice-President of ours. 
 
 "The rope went wild, and so did the horse. 
 Roosevelt had ridden some distance from us, and 
 before we could come up one of the cows charged 
 him. We expected, of course, to see his finish right 
 there. 
 
 " I had nay gun out and was trying to get a shot 
 at the cow, when Roosevelt performed the most 
 daring act of his life, not barring his charge up San 
 Juan Hill. He dodged the cow when she charged, 
 and before she could turn he made a leap and was 
 on her back. 
 
 " Then he did show the boys that he could ride. 
 The cow did not know what to make of the per- 
 formance, and, after a pitch or two, she started on a 
 dead run down the gulch, through the chaparral, and 
 off into the valley. 
 
 " ' Teddy ' stayed with her until she was tired out 
 and we had overtaken them. One of the boys roped 
 the cow and he bounded off, smiling as usual, and 
 the only comment he made was that he had never 
 enjoyed a ride more."
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 505 
 
 There are innumerable stories of Theodore Roose- 
 velt's prowess and courage in the Western country, 
 of his fighting hand to hand a bear, of his endurance 
 of privation and stout heart in trying moments, of 
 his eagerness, overcoming fatigue in the hunt of the 
 mountain sheep and all these make him dear to the 
 Western heart. 
 
 There is nothing more characteristic of the future 
 Vice-President, who will in four years after his elec- 
 tion be elected President, than a remark of his about 
 killing bears and other animals that will put up a. 
 fight. 
 
 "In killing dangerous game steadiness is more 
 needed than good shooting. A bear's brain is about 
 the size of a pint bottle; and any one can hit a pint 
 bottle off-handed at thirty or forty feet. I have had 
 two shots at bears at close quarters, and each time I 
 fired into the brain, the bullet in one case striking 
 fairly between the eyes, and in the other going in 
 between the eye and ear. A novice at this kind of 
 sport will find it best and safest to keep in mind the 
 old Norse viking's advice in reference to a long 
 sword: 'If you go in close enough your s\vonl will 
 be long enough.' If a poor shot goes in close enough, 
 he will find that he shoots straight enough." 
 
 That he did not lose the admiration of his friend-* 
 in the East, but that they appreciated the sterling 
 qualities of the man, was shown when the co\vl> 
 of the plains and the young men of fortune of the 
 East were all eager to serve in Roosevelt's Rough 
 Riders.
 
 566 . THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 President Harrison in 1889 appointed Governor 
 Roosevelt a member of the National Civil Service 
 Commission, and he was retained upon it by Presi- 
 dent Cleveland until he resigned, owing to the fact 
 that he was not in touch with the other members 
 upon the larger questions, and accepted the offer 
 made by Mayor Strong of a place upon the New 
 York City Board of Police Commission. He was 
 speedily chosen president, and then began a work 
 that made him only less famous than the charge up 
 San Juan Hill. He was a terror not only to evil- 
 doers but to the police themselves. Under his rule 
 the department was brought out of its happy-go- 
 lucky methods and inefficiency and elevated to a 
 height that had never before been reached, and has 
 not since been retained. 
 
 Governor Roosevelt is an all-around man. He is 
 devoted to outdoor sports, but he is also a scholar 
 and a writer. He has written tales of adventure 
 .and also history. In 1892 he published a "History 
 of the Naval War of 1812." It was this work that 
 as said to have influenced Secretary Long to appoint 
 Mr. Roosevelt Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 
 which place he accepted in 1897. In this position he 
 insisted on making preparations for the war cloud 
 that was then hanging over us. 
 
 'There was too much fighting blood in Roosevelt's 
 veins for him to occupy a position remote from the 
 front when a war was on, so, despite protests of 
 friends, he resigned the Assistant Secretaryship of
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 5G7 
 
 the Navy and was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in 
 the First United States Cavalry, more popular! v 
 known as the Rough Riders. Roosevelt's own per- 
 sonality brought recruits to the regiment from every 
 corner of the country, and men they were after his 
 own heart ready for any deed of bravery. 
 
 Roosevelt could have been Colonel of the regi- 
 ment, but insisted that his friend and comrade to-dav, 
 Major-General Wood, a graduate of West Point, 
 should be the leader and himself took second in 
 command. The two worked in absolute harmony 
 and formed of their recruits an ideal fighting regi- 
 ment. The young men from the East, who had been 
 accustomed to lives of ease and elegance, but as ath- 
 letes had good and well trained muscles, took readily 
 to their work and labored for all that was in them. 
 The men from the plains, accustomed to be a law 
 unto themselves, were soon broken into the idea of 
 discipline and the propriety and necessity for it. 
 There were long weeks of training and drilling, and 
 when the time came for sending the troops t<> San- 
 tiago the men of the Rough Riders were seasoned and 
 fit. The story of their fighting is one of the bright 
 pages in our history of valor and dash. Cavalry 
 predestined for infantry work did it well. 
 
 The first man to die on the American side in the 
 war with Spain was a Rough Rider, the son of one 
 of New York's oldest and most influential families^ 
 an athlete at college and a soldier in the fu-M 
 Hamilton Fish. It was in the battle of Las Qu
 
 568 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 mas, just as the Americans were deploying, having 
 discovered the enemy, that he fell pierced through 
 the heart and a minute later Captain Capron met 
 the same fate. From the rank and file there came 
 exclamations which would not look well in print, but 
 are said to be a necessary accompaniment of battle, 
 and then there was the order from the commander to 
 quit swearing and "shoot," so well obeyed that two 
 thousand Spaniards were routed by half their 
 number. 
 
 Roosevelt succeeded Colonel Wood in command 
 of the First Volunteer U. S. Cavalry and especially 
 distinguished himself in the fighting about Santiago, 
 winning the undying love of his soldiers and the 
 esteem of his countrymen. He was especially con- 
 spicuous in the charge up San Juan Hill. The 
 Spaniards were strongly intrenched there and had 
 with them the larger part of the sharp-shooters of 
 their army. It was desperate and dangerous work to 
 climb the long steep slope, facing the rain of Mauser 
 bullets. Foreign military men, accompanying our 
 army, as they saw the American troops swarming up 
 the hill, agreed that it could not be done and that it 
 was murder to send men on such an errand, especially 
 as they were not protected by heavy-firing infantry. 
 They did not know our troops and their officers. 
 Up the hill Regulars, Rough Riders and other Vol- 
 unteers charged and at the head of the Rough 
 Riders was Colonel Theodore Roosevelt on horse- 
 back, the most conspicuous of the many marks the
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 5G 9 
 
 sharp-shooters could see. His horse was shot 
 under him. He and his men with the other troops 
 drove the Spaniards from their stronghold, and the 
 Colonel in a hand-to-hand fight at the top of the hill 
 laid low one Spaniard, something few officers have 
 ever done in modern warfare. Koosevelt was lead- 
 ing his troops. There could be no possible strategy 
 necessitating his presence in the rear. There was a 
 charge to be made and Roosevelt lead it. 
 
 Then there were the long days culminating in the 
 surrender of the Spaniards, the appearance of yellow 
 and intermittent fevers, dysentery and diseases that 
 waste and destroy more than the enemies' bullets. 
 Then followed the Colonel's famous suor es tion to 
 
 oo 
 
 the War Department that the boys be sent home, 
 for their work was complete and they were dying 
 for want of the air and water of the temperate 
 zone. This thoughtful ness of his men and far-sight- 
 edness was a little bit unmilitary, but characteristic 
 of Koosevelt, who is not an ardent admirer of red 
 tape, although he proved a disciplinarian and him- 
 self amenable to discipline before and during the 
 fighting days. 
 
 Roosevelt and his Rou^h Riders, with the other 
 
 O ' 
 
 troops, were sent to Montauk, L. L, to recuperate in 
 a land of cool ocean breezes, where the sound of the 
 surf lulled to sleep men weary with fever and the 
 salt waters invigorated those who were convalescing, 
 a place in the Shinnecock hills, neighboring the >]>lrn- 
 did summer homes of the rich men of the East
 
 570 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 Uncle Sam gave to his brave boys a long vacation 
 with pay at the seashore, and they grew strong and 
 prepared for the duties of peace at home. There 
 the Rough Riders were honorably discharged. 
 
 Colonel Roosevelt was the only possible candidate 
 for the Governorship of the Empire State, for the 
 people wanted him, just as in Philadelphia the 
 people, as represented by their delegates, insisted 
 that they must have, and did get, "Teddy." As 
 Governor of New York Colonel Roosevelt proved 
 himself the same active, honest man, hated by 
 thieves and their kind, but loved by those he served 
 the people. He recognized himself their servant 
 and was proud of the high office. 
 
 Governor Roosevelt has been a hard student ever 
 since he left college, and numerous interesting and 
 valuable volumes come from his pen. Among the 
 number are "The Naval War of 1812"; "Hunting 
 Trips of a Ranchman," and two volumes of a similar 
 character; two volumes of biography, having Thomas 
 H. Benton and Gouverneur Morris for their subjects ; 
 " History of the City of New York "; two volumes 
 on political topics, and a four-volume history entitled 
 " The Wild West," his most important literary work. 
 His experience in the Santiago campaign has also 
 been detailed in graphic style in "The Rough Riders," 
 published last year. 
 
 Colonel Roosevelt has been married twice. His 
 first wife was Miss Alice Lee, of Boston ; the second 
 Miss Edith Carow, of New York. He is the father
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 571 
 
 of six children, ranging from 16 to 3 years of age, 
 His domestic life is ideal Whether ensconced in 
 winter quarters at Albany or New York, or at the 
 famous Roosevelt summer home at Oyster Bay on 
 Long Island, the leader of the Rough Riders is an 
 indulgent father and romps with his children with 
 as much zest as the youngest of them. The young- 
 sters are known as the Roosevelt half-dozen, and all 
 reflect in some manner the paternal characteristics. 
 The oldest girl is Alice, tall, dark and serious look- 
 ing. She rides her father's Cuban campaign horse 
 with fearlessness and grace. The next olive branch 
 is Theodore, Jr., or " Young Teddy," the idol of his 
 father's heart and a genuine chip of the old block. 
 Young " Teddy " owns a trusty shotgun and dreams 
 of some day shooting bigger game than his father 
 ever did. He also rides a pony of his own. Alice, 
 the oldest girl, is nearly 16. She is the only child 
 by the first Mrs. Roosevelt, "Young Teddy," the 
 present Mrs. Roosevelt's oldest child, is 13. Then 
 there are Kermit, 11; Ethel, 9; Archibald, 0, and 
 Quentin, of the tender age of 3.
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT CONTINUED. 
 
 Succeeds to the Presidency on the Assassination of President McKin- 
 ley Adopts Policy of his Predecessor Pronounces for Purity 
 in Politics. 
 
 BY A. J. MUNSON. 
 
 GOVERNOR ROOSEVELT was nominated 
 for the Vice-Presidency against his wishes. 
 He did not decline to be a candidate be- 
 cause he considered the position trivial or un- 
 worthy, but because he believed he could render 
 the party and the country better service as Gov- 
 ernor of New York. When his wishes were disre- 
 garded and the nomination thrust upon him, he 
 accepted it gracefully and in terms that were a 
 guarantee that he would bring^ to the position 
 that earnestness of purpose that had characterized 
 all his public work. In his letter of acceptance 
 he said: 
 
 "The people are now to decide whether they 
 shall go forward along the path of prosperity at 
 home and high honor abroad, or whether they 
 will turn their backs upon what has been done 
 during the past three years; whether they will 
 
 572
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 573 
 
 plunge their country into an abyss of misery and 
 disaster or what is even worse than misery and 
 disaster of shame. I feel that we have a right 
 to appeal, not merely to Republicans, but to all 
 good citizens, no matter what may have been 
 their party affiliations in the past, and ask them 
 on the strength of the record that under Presi- 
 dent McKinley has been made during the past 
 three years, and on the strength of the threat im- 
 pliedjn what was done at Kansas City a few days 
 ago, to stand shoulder to shoulder with us in per- 
 petuating the conditions under which we have 
 reached at home a degree of prosperity never be- 
 fore attained in the history of the nation, and 
 under which abroad we have put the American 
 flag on a level where it never before in the history 
 of the country has been placed." 
 
 Roosevelt engaged in the campaign with his 
 usual force and vigor and contributed in no un- 
 certain degree to the success of the party. His 
 campaigning tours extended over the greater part 
 of the country and were marked everywhere by 
 popular enthusiasm. He spoke in definite terms, 
 firing his oratorical broadsides with a boldness 
 and directness of aim that carried conviction. 
 Early in the campaign numerous bands of "Rough 
 Riders" were organized throughout the country 
 in honor of Roosevelt's services in the war. Men 
 from all ranks of life joined these bands that were 
 conspicuous in the many political rallies.
 
 574 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 His brief incumbency of the Vice-Presidency 
 was uneventful. He presided over the Senate 
 during the winter session, where by his dignified f 
 and courteous treatment of the Senators he gained* 
 their friendship and esteem. 
 
 When the session ended Vice-President Roose- 
 velt went on a vacation to Colorado to hunt the 
 cougar. A month was spent in this way, a month 
 of peril, hardship and exposure, during which Mr. 
 Roosevelt personally killed fourteen of these 
 dangerous animals. The skulls of these he sent to 
 the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, that 
 they might add to the scientific data of this dis- 
 tinctly American animal. 
 
 Returning from the hunt he enjoyed a short 
 summer of rest, the first in many years, from 
 which he was called in the hour of national sor- 
 row to the highest position in the nation. 
 
 The day President McKinley was shot Mr^ 
 Roosevelt was at Isle La Motte, Vermont, where 
 he delivered an address. He had just finished 
 speaking when he was informed of the tragedy. 
 The news unnerved him and he would have fallen 
 but for timely support. When asked to speak he 
 said: "I am so inexpressibly grieved and shocked 
 and horrified that I can say nothing." 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt hastened to the side of the 
 wounded President, where he remained until the 
 physicians thought the President out of danger.
 
 THEODORE BOOSEVELT. 575 
 
 On this assurance he went" to the Adirondacks to 
 rest. Here a little after sundown on the day the 
 President died a guide found him and brought 
 him the sad news. Mr. Roosevelt started at once 
 for Buffalo. At Albany he was met by Secretary 
 of State Hay who officially informed him of the 
 death of the President. He reached Buffalo the 
 next day, where, in the library of the Wilcox 
 home, and in the presence of the members of the 
 Cabinet, he took the oath of office of President; 
 Judge Hazel administering the oath. After sign- 
 ing the parchment he said to those present and 
 through them to the nation: 
 
 "In this hour of deep and terrible bereavement, 
 I wish to state that it shall by my aim to continue 
 absolutely unbroken the policy of President Mc- 
 Kinley for the peace and prosperity and honor of 
 our beloved country. " 
 
 He then extended an earnest invitation to the 
 members of the Cabinet to continue in office that 
 the pledges he had made might the more effective- 
 ly be fulfilled. After a brief consultation among 
 themselves the members of the Cabinet assured 
 him they would remain in office. 
 
 President Roosevelt's action in adopting the 
 policy of the dead President and retaining the 
 Cabinet officers, met with the hearty approval of 
 the people. The wisdom of the act was mani- 
 fested in the fact that the sudden change of Ex-
 
 57G THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
 ecutives created no confusion in the financial and 
 commercial markets. The people had absolute 
 confidence in their new President. 
 
 Among the first things that President Roosevelt 
 did was to administer a light snub to the spoils 
 politicians. He told them that if they wanted 
 him to appoint their men to federal offices they 
 must bring men to him who have not only the 
 ability required for the positions they seek, but 
 -whose records as men are clean. Party affiliation 
 was not to be enough. If good men could not be 
 found in the Republican party, he should not 
 hesitate to seek them in the Democratic party. 
 Acting on this declaration he appointed an Ala- 
 bama Democrat to a district judgeship. He 
 called Booker T. Washington to the White House 
 that he might consult him about the political con- 
 ditions in the South, especially as these conditions 
 affect the negro race, and is reported to have said 
 to him: 
 
 "If I cannot make the Republican party in the 
 South the dominant party, I can at least make it 
 respectable. I can appoint good men to office, 
 even though I have to select Democrats." 
 
 President Roosevelt carried the same energy and 
 industry into his work as the Chief Executive as 
 he had manifested in all the positions he had held. 
 He went to his desk at 9 :30 in the morning and 
 remained there until 4:30 in the afternoon, with
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 577 
 
 but an intermission of an hour at noon. During 
 this time any honest citizen had access to him. A 
 correspondent described his activities during his 
 first few days as President, and before he took up 
 his residence in the White House, as follows: 
 
 * 'President Roosevelt is out of bed by 7 o'clock 
 and as a rule is at the breakfast table shortly 
 after 8 o'clock. He leaves for the White House 
 as soon as breakfast is over. Once he is in his 
 big working room things begin to buzz. Mr. 
 Wm. Loeb, who is in reality his secretary, his 
 stenographer, and his confidential friend, hands 
 him the letters necessary for him to see. These 
 he reads, dictates replies and sees visitors at the 
 same time." 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest man to 
 be called to the great office of President, but to 
 that office he brought the studious thought, the 
 ripe scholarship, the practical experience, the keen 
 insight into human nature and the wide acquaint- 
 ance with men in public and private life, that would 
 well become one much older than he. Add to 
 these qualities his abhorrence of wrong in public 
 life, his virile stand for right and his quiet Christ- 
 ian faith, and the people find in him a man who 
 is not only qualified to perform the duties of the 
 office, but on whom they are confident the high 
 honor has fallen to be glorified in good deeds.