The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-04

one instance PRECEDENT Mckinley has gone
contrary to public opinion. OF course. he
mas reason for taking his stand. That
there will be opposition 10 Simpsons ad-
Vancement in the Senate is to be antici-
pated The President fully understands
tins condition. Nevertheless, he will stand
by Sampson, and insist upon his conflr-
nation.
That the President is a reasonable man
everybody comedies. Therefore, he has
good and sufficient reason for standing
by sampson at this time. What his reas-
ons are cannot be divulged. But l know
that Sampson has not made a single mis-
take "a his work, and has always been
Iathtul and intelligent in the performance
OF his duty in every particular There
Iore' he should not be an object of cen
sure. Because of his absence on public
duty when The battle occurred and Ger
vera heet was destroyed. the people will
never regard Sampson as hero. But
the people believe in fair play. and they
Will admit that Sampson has done no
wrong, has fulfilled every expectation of
the navy department, and of the Presi-
cent; and the people will ultimately in
dorse his advancement in rank
Ihese expressions of opinion were inter
estlng and somewhat instructive; but an
oId politician, one of the best of Republi-
can spell-binders, told story which sholld
go into history. He said
one of McKinley's friends called on
MN at Canton a few weeks after his
electlon, and, in the course of conversa-
ton, he complimented Mckinley on three
points of his campaign. First, that Nc
Nlhley 6 health was perfect and through
out the entire summer no word was sent
70 the country other than that the can
dldate was well and enjoying his ardu-
Gus daily duties. Second, every speech
which was made gave strength to the Re-
publican party throughout the country.
Ihlrd, not a single word was uttered
which could give aid and comfort to he
enemy Upon these three points the spell
binder compimented Mckinley He was
surprised, however, when the major told
him that there was another point in the
campaign, of vaster greater Importance,
of which the people know absolutely 10th
ing; and that was that Mckinley had care
fully edited every speech which was made
In this way" he said, Mckinley vas
to him before it's delivery.
wise enough to prevent Burchard bush
EesS. He determined that no fool friend
and no secret enemy should cause the Ut
terance of anything on his premises which
should prove prejudicial to his campaign.
Mckinley knew several days in advance
what delegations were coming, and he pre-
pared to meet them. 1t was hard work cay
and night; but he stuck to his stint like
hired man. He kept ever in mind the aW
full blunder of Blaine in 1884, when Bur-
chard pronounced his speech about Rum,
Romanism and Rebellion a biunder COM
mitted by a well-meaning preacher poll
tician blunder which was fatal because
Blaine was so stunned that he was I'M
able to Immediately make reply to it.
Blaine was the readiest debater In Con-
gross, but he was not quick enough 10
meet that emergency. Mckinley was never
a ready debater, but always required time
10 consider every question that came up.
Mckinley knew himself so well that he
determined 10 ward off any surprises; and,
therefore, he adopted that only safe
method of preventing fatal errors or blum
ders
Occasionally a delegation would come
to Canton without sending word in ad-
vance In such cases Mckinley would ask:
who is your spokesman? Having selected
his man Mckinney would take him up into
his private den and request him to re-
hearse his speech. In almost every case
Mckinley was Obliged to request the elm
nation of some dreadfully and horribly
brilliant paragraph. If the orator under
took to insist upon delivering his speech as
he had prepared it Mckinley would simply
tell him that he could go home without de-
livering any speech at all. That usually
settled the fellows with the inconsiderate
pyrotechnics.
During the last week of the campaign
there came a delegation from West Vir-
ginia, with a Presbyterian preacher for
spokesman AS soon as Mckinley found
that ne was to be confronted with young
Presbyterian preacher, he shuddered ana
thought of Burchard. He took the young
man into his upstairs den and listened TO
his rehearsal. The first page was good.
The second page was better the third page
was eloquent. On the fourth page there
came a gem of oratory which would have
been as bad as Burchard's bad break. Nc
kinley stopped the preacher and request
fIut er~ a nh
The young divine insisted that IL was cor
rect and well Worded, and all of it true.
Mai Mckinney admitted that it was beau
tiful, and all true. but its present utter
ance would be unwise. The young man de-
clared that he would make the speech with
that sentence in 1t, or not at all. MAI. NC
Kinley then arose, smiled, shook hands
with the young man, and said: L am very
sorry that you have come so far for moth
ing l will not receive your delegation, and
hence will not listen 10 your speech in
public as / had hoped to do [ can only
thank you personally for your caI and
bid you goodbye.
'"The young man wanted to deliver that
speech. Fie was very anxious about it, and
keenly realized that his friends and neigh
bors would never forgive him for making
failure of their trip to Canton. He sub
mitted and said that he would leave that
part of his speech out if the major would
!
originally intended. Thereupon Mckinley
said:
" If you are in earnest take this stub
pen and erase that entire paragraph Erase
and blot and blur it so that if you should
fall dead before or after delivering it no
body could make out a single word or
syllable of it.
THE preacher did as directed, and then
Mckinley went down on his front porch
and listened to the grafton, to which he
made a suitable reply
This story about Mckinley, which has
never before been published, reminds the
writer of a similar instance of McKinleys
caution. On the Sunday following the
nomination of Bryan the writer visited
Canton and spent several hours at McKin-
ley's house. In the course of the after
noon he told Mckinley that the Demo-
cratic managers al Chicago were talking
of having Bryan issue a challenge for
Joint debate with Mckinley. The major
smiled and said q am not a ready de-
baier, and never have claimed ability or
! a