M INTRODUCTION. AJOR 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 in 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 been the idol of a great party for more than half a 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 liberty and the Republic could only be saved by fighting 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, General Rosecrans, was promoted to the command of the Armies of the Tennessee and the Cumberland. Its 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 exhausted 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 ineidents, selected from many, indicate and reveal the |