CHAPTER XXX

MEMORIAL ORATION BY SENATOR JOHN B. FORAKER [Delivered at Music Hall, in Cleveland, Ohio, Sept. 19, 1901.]

"Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens:

Never was

'In the midst of life we are in death.' the truth of these words more strikingly exemplified than by the tragedy that brings us here.

"In the vigor of robust manhood; in the possession of all his faculties; in the midst of a great work of world-wide importance; in the enjoyment of the admiration, love and affection of all classes of our people to a degree never before permitted to any other man; at a time of profound peace, when nothing was occurring to excite the passions of men; when we were engaged in a celebration of the triumphs of art, science, literature, commerce, civilization and all that goes to make up the greatest prosperity, advancement and happiness the world has ever known; surrounded by thousands of his countrymen, who were vying with each other in demonstrations of friendship and good will, the President of the United States, without a moment's warning, was stricken down by an assassin, who, while greeting him with one hand, shot him to death with the other.

"History has no precedent for such treachery and wickedness since Joab, stroking his beard as though to kiss him, inquiring, 'Art thou in health, my brother?' smote unsuspecting Amasa in the fifth rib and 'shed out his bowels on the ground.'

"Imagination cannot picture a situation of greater apparent security than that by which the President was surrounded.

"But what was all life and health and happiness one moment, was turned to dismay, horror and death the next. Verily,

"Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud,

A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,
Man passeth from life to his rest in the grave.”

"The whole world is shocked, and Americans everywhere are humiliated, dazed and plunged into unspeakable grief and sorrow.

"We can hardly realize that such a crime was possible, much less that it has been actually committed, and our sorrow is yet too fresh, our grief too poignant and our indignation too acute for us to contemplate it dispassionately or discuss it considerately.

"But while we cannot now speak becomingly of the murderer and his awful crime, we can fittingly employ this hour to commemorate the virtues of his victim and to recount in part at least his great services to his country.

"The allotted age of man is three score years and ten, but William McKinley was not yet 59 when his career ended. In these short years he did a wondrous work. In its accomplishment he was unaided by fortuitous circumstances. He was of humble origin and without influential friends except as he made them.

"His public service commenced in 1861, when he enlisted as a private soldier in the Twenty-third Ohio Regiment.

"Among the officers of that command were an unusal number of men and ability and high character, who afterward attained great public distinction.

"Rutherford B. Hayes, afterward President of the United States, was one of them, and Stanley Matthews, afterward an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was another.

"These men were quick to note the bright, frank, genial and zealous young boy who had placed his services, and, if need be, his life, at the command of his country, and it was not long until they promoted him to a sergeantcy.

"With responsibility he developed and showed competency for something higher. One promotion followed another, all earned by efficiency and gallantry, until, at the close of the war, he was mustered out with the rank of Major.

"In due time he was admitted to the bar and elected prosecuting attorney of his county. His professional successes were of the most promising character, but just when he began to feel assured of distinction in the practice of the law, he was again called into the public service and sent to Congress, where he served fourteen years with constantly increasing distinction, influence and usefulness.

"He represented a manufacturing district, and on this account, as well as from natural taste and disposition, he gave particular attention to economic questions.

"He was a thorough protectionist of the Henry Clay school and soon became the leading advocate of that policy.

"During all the years of his service in Congress the

demands of our home markets were far greater than our manufacturers could supply. There was a constant importation from abroad to meet this deficiency.

"It was his contention that our resources were practically unlimited; that the employment of our labor should be diversified as much as possible; that wages should be higher in this country than in any other, because our standard of citizenship must be higher; and, therefore, it should be our aim so to legislate as to secure the development of our resources, the multiplication of our industries, and the ever-increasing employment of wage earners who would make a home market for the products of the farm, to the end that we might, as quickly as possible, supply all our wants and thus make ourselves independent of all other countries.

"He contended, as did Garfield and all other orthodox tariff men, that the only way to ever reach free trade, or tariff for revenue only, as to articles of our own production, without injury to the country, was through the operation of the policy of protection, whereby we would in time reach the point where, fully supplying our own demands, we could go into the markets of the world to dispose of whatever surplus we might have.

"As chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives he embodied these views in a bill to revise the tariff and adapt it more perfectly to the conditions then existing, which was reported and passed under his leadership in 1890, after a protracted debate, in which he gained great prestige by his successful championship of the measure.

"The act was known as the McKinley law. It went

into operation just prior to the elections of that year, at which time the country had not yet felt its effects.

"It was bitterly assailed and denounced as increasing the burdens of taxation, and one provision in particular that which, for the first time, made it possible to manufacture tin plate in this country-was both denounced and derided.

"Taxation is always odious. It is easy to excite prejudice against any measure that is charged with its unnecessary increase.

"It requires argument and practical results to meet such charges, and in this instance there was no time for either.

"The result was that, aided by a congressional gerrymander, Major McKinley, the author of one of the greatest measures of the kind ever placed on our statute books, was defeated for re-election to that body, in which he had served with such patriotism and distinction.

"He was not alone in his defeat. There were crushing defeats for the Republican candidates all over the country. His measure seemed to be condemned, and from every quarter there came criticisms for its author.

"It was a dark hour for protection, a dark hour for the Republican party, and especially a dark hour for William McKinley. It was a time that would have made most men waver; but not so with him.

"The defeat, so far as he was personally concerned, only brought out in clearer light his strong qualities, his splendid self-control, his confidence in his faith and his sublime courage, with which the country has since become so familiar.