The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1900-06-28

hardly bold enough to dispute, is
that under conditions extraordinarily
complicated and at times actually APP
palling the President has performed
the duties of his great Office with pru-
dence, sagacity and firmness equal to
every essential requirement, and now
stands before the people as the embod-
iment of their deliberate will and
their loftiest aspirations.
1t will be said by those who would
depreciate the merit of leadership
the main results of which they are
compelled to approve that President
Mckinley has had Unprecedented OPP
portunities to gain strength and
fame; that events placed him to a
great extent beyond the reach of
political jealousy and intrigue, gave
him clear field for action and offered
him a reward which it would have
been difficult to miss. But the real
effect of such attempted disparage-
ment is to celebrate the unusual
qualities of the man. The oppor-
tunities have indeed been great, but
the difficulties and risks have been in
proportion. Confidence was patrio-
tically and generously reposed in
President Mckinley, as it would
have been reposed in any President
confronting situation which sum-
moned the Nations moral forces into
action; but that confidence would
have been surely withdrawn if he
had proved unworthy of it, and if
measure of support barely equal to
the occasion had continued to exist
while it was imperatively needed the
passing of the emergency would have
consigned him and his party to hope
less ruin. Both had reason to dread
the inevitable reaction following a
war hurriedly begun and ended while
initial mistakes and mischances were
still fresh in the public mind, and
there is ample cause for surprise and
pride in the fact that searching in
quiry, free discussion and copious
complaint have disclosed so few
points at which the Administration is
vulnerable.
The Republican party does not as
sumo, except by the mouths of its
least valued orators, titles which it
cannot defend. 1t does not claim
credit for bountiful harvests or any
of the manifold gifts of Heaven. But
it does maintain that it has organized
the conditions which enable the just
and the unjust to utilize those gifts,
and confidently appeals to the people
for conclusive acknowledgment of
that service. 1t undertook four years
ago to revive an industrial policy
essential to the restoration of pros
perity, and the country is now pros
pering as it never prospered before.
1t promised to advance and keep
inviolable the public credit, and to-
day the financial standing of the
United States is the highest in the
world. 1t bound itself to promote
the welfare of the Nation and to pro-
tect its honor under all circumstances
that might arise, and its response to
unforeseen and momentous demands
has been instant and adequate. 1t
specific pledges, and with special
emphasis guarantees the faithful per-
Torrance of these new obligations,
however arduous they may prove to
be.
We have said that the denomination
of President Mckinley is as satisfac-
tory as it was certain. 1t is equally
obvious that Governor Roosevelt was
the Conventions only choice for Vice
President. 1t is conceivable that if
he had been willing to assume an
attitude of positive defiance at Phila
delphia he might have escaped the
nomination which he tried to refuse,
but there was never the slightest
doubt as to the desire and determine
ton of vast majority of the dele
gates, and to say that he is not album
dainty justified in believing that he
bowed to the inevitable would be
virtually equivalent to saying that
there is no degree of pressure to
which a resolute spirit is compelled
to yield.