XXIV.

WHAT THE WORLD THOUGHT OF HIM.

While this sketch was being prepared the author wrote to a number of eminent men throughout the world, asking for a word of tribute to the memory of the dead President. To this request there was a most cordial response, and it is a pleasure to present in this closing chapter some valuable estimates prepared especially for this volume, along with other choice tributes which were spoken on the platform or have appeared in the public prints.

President Roosevelt.-"President McKinley crowned a life of largest love for his fellowmen, of most earnest endeavor for their welfare, by a death of Christian fortitude; and both the way in which he lived his life and the way in which, in the supreme hour of trial, he met his death, will remain forever a precious heritage of our people."

President Diaz (Mexico).-"I have been deeply shocked by this horrible crime, which has not even the excuse that the anarchist is persecuted in the United States, since, as is well known, freedom and tolerance are there extended to him. Nor has it the excuse that President McKinley was a ruler of exclusive or aristocratic tendencies, for he was by reason of his position as a popular ruler and his own personal feelings, sympathies and habits a good friend of the people, a genuine democrat in the best sense of the word, so that this crime was as useless and unprovoked as it is abominable in every respect. With regard to Mexico, President McKinley had ever evidenced such friendly sentiments that his death will be mourned in this country hardly less keenly than in the United States; for myself, it is a loss of a warm personal friend."

Cardinal Gibbons.--"Few Presidents were better equipped than Mr. McKinley for the exalted position which he filled. He was thor

oughly conversant with the duties of his office, and could enter into its most minute details. His characteristic virtues were courtesy and politeness, patience and forbearance and masterly self-control under very trying circumstances.

"The domestic virtues of Mr. McKinley were worthy of all praise. He was a model husband. Amid the pressing and engrossing duties of his official life he would from time to time snatch a few moments to devote to the invalid and loving partner of his joys and sorrows. Oh! what a change has come over this afflicted woman! Yesterday she was the first lady of the land. To-day she is a disconsolate and broken-hearted widow. Let us beseech Him who comforted the widow of Nain that He console this lady in her hour of desolation."

Grover Cleveland.-"He passes from the public sight, not bearing the wreaths and garlands of his countrymen's approving acclaim, but amid the sobs and tears of a mourning nation. The whole nation loved their President. His kindly disposition and affectionate traits, his amiable consideration for all around him, will long be in the hearts of his countrymen. He loved them in return with such patriotism and unselfishness that in this hour of their grief and humiliation he would say to them, 'It is God's will, I am content. If there is a lesson in my life or death, let it be taught to those who live and have the destiny of their country in their keeping.'

"First in my thoughts are the lessons to be learned from the career of William McKinley by the young men who make up the students to-day of our university. They are not obscure or difficult. The man who is universally mourned to-day was not deficient in education, but with all you will hear of his grand career, and his services to his country, you will not hear that what he accomplished was due entirely to his education. He was an obedient and affectionate son, patriotic and faithful as a soldier, honest and upright as a citizen, tender and devoted as a husband, and truthful, generous, unselfish, moral and clean in every relation of life. He never thought any of

those things too weak for his manliness. Make no mistake. Here was a most distinguished man, a great man, a useful man, who became distinguished, great and useful because he had, and retained unimpaired, qualities of heart which I fear university students sometimes feel like keeping in the background or abandoning.

"There is a more serious lesson for all of us in the tragedy of our late President's death. If we are to escape further attacks upon our peace and security we must boldly and resolutely grapple with the monster of anarchy. It is not a thing that we can safely leave to be dealt with by party or partisanship. Nothing can guarantee us against its menace except the teaching and the practice of the best citizenship, the exposure of the ends and aims of the gospel of discontent and hatred of social order, and the brave enactment and execution of repressive laws.

"The uinversities and colleges cannot refuse to join in the battle against the tendencies of anarchy. Their help in discovering and warring against the relationship between the vicious councils and deeds of blood, and their steadying influence upon the elements of unrest, cannot fail to be of inestimable value.

"By the memory of our martyred President, let us resolve to cultivate and preserve the qualities that made him great and useful, and let us determine to meet the call of patriotic duty in every time of our country's danger and need."

Archbishop Ireland.-"He was the noble citizen, proud of being a son of the people, brave in the battlefield amid his country's peril, zealous of its glory, unswervingly loyal to its honor and its interests. He was the typical President of the Republic. Large minded in his vision of the questions bearing upon the country's fortune, resolute in using the authority for what seemed to him its best weal, ready as the leader of a self-governing people to hearken to the popular voice and so far as principle and conscience permitted, to obey its behests, even to the sacrifice of his personal views.

"Political opponents differed from him in matters of public policy. They did not, they could not, mistrust his sincerity or his spirit of justice and patriotism. William McKinley is now dead, stricken down by the hand of a vile assassin. This makes the nation's sorrow doubly deep, for to sorrow is added shame-shame before her own eyes, before those of the world-that in this ìand of civil liberty there should have been found a man so overwhelmingly bad as to murder her President; to murder him who served so well his fellow-men; to murder him who cherished so tenderly the free institutions of America; shame that within her own borders the majesty of the republic should have been outraged and its name disgraced, the honor of humanity assailed and its most sacred rights imperiled."

Andrew Carnegie.-"President McKinley passes into his place in history as one of the greatest rulers of men, through their affections, and beloved by his countrymen, and he stands forever with Lincoln and Garfield in the temple of martyrs, wearing like them the holy crown of sacrifice for the Republic. Our first duty in this crisis is to give to his successor under the Constitution our loyal support, in the hope and belief that power will impress him, as it may great characters known to history, and keep him in the path of his good and great predecessor."

General John B. Gordon.-"It was my privilege to know William McKinley well for a quarter of a century. I knew him as a member of Congress, as Governor of a great State, and finally as the President of this great Republic. Through all these eventful years my personal relations to him were most cordial. In official conferences and in the freedom and abandon of private intercourse I learned to admire and to love him; and now that the beatings of his great heart are stilled forever, I wish to tell you, my Southern countrymen, that no words of bitterness escaped his lips, and no sectional bigotry narrowed his vision or dwarfed his soul. As in death his faith in God placed him near his Divine Master's side, so in life his faith in his fellow

countrymen lifted him far above the passions of the partisans to the high plane of universal American brotherhood.

"Is it any wonder then that such a man should be honored and loved as few men have ever been? Is it any wonder that this city should pay him, when living, the tribute of her respect, and, when dead, the tribute of her tears? It was here that he uttered those memorable words which thrilled through Southern hearts and homes as the heavenly message 'Peace on earth and good will toward men' rang through the Judean hills. And, my countrymen, it was no thoughtless impulse that evoked this utterance. It was the sober expression of matured convictions. These words were not the plea of a political adventurer, seeking to capture votes by the demagogue's devices. He was the idol of a victorious political party, and the chosen executive of the proudest and freest government on earth. Is it any wonder that Confederates honor this knightly soldier, who, at the very zenith of political power, paid the loftiest possible tribute to former foes by invoking the power of the government to honor and protect the graves of our immortal dead? Is it any wonder that as citizens of the reunited republic we applaud him as the exemplar of personal and social integrity, stainless in all relations, noble, generous and true? Peace to his honored ashes!"

Attorney-General Griggs.-"Hear the concordance of praise that comes from every mind under the heavens!

"The East cries, 'We loved him, for he was of our stock. He thought with us. He brought us prosperity. We knew him; therefore we loved him.'

"The West: 'He was of us; he was our perfect product. We knew him; therefore we loved him.'

"The North cries: 'He fought for us; he wrought for us. understood him; he was loyal and true; therefore we loved him.'

We

"The South cries: We loved him, for he was magnanimous and just to the South; in war an honorable foeman, in peace a friend and a brother.'