Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1901-12-03
THE MESSAGE.
Continued from First Page.)

Ire ne unlCeu the lenuer aHeCtlOnS ana
home virtues which are all-important
In the makeup of national character
A gallant soldier in the great war for
the Union, he also shone as an example
duct in the most sacred and intimate
of home relations. There could be no
personal hatred Of him, for he never
acted with aught but consideration for
the welfare of others. No one could
fail to respect him who knew him in
public or private life. The defenders
Of those murderous criminals who seek
to excuse their criminality by asserting
that 1t is exercised for political ends,
inveigh against wealth and irrespons-
ible power But for this assassination
even this base apology cannot be urged.
President Mckinley was man Of
moderate means, man whose stock
sprang from the sturdy tillers OF the
soil, who had himself belonged among
the wage-workers, who had entered
the Army as private soldier. Wealth
was not struck Mt when the President
was assassinated, but the honest toll
which Is content with moderate gains
after lifetime Of unremitting labor,
largely in the service of the public.
Still less was power struck at in the
sense that power is irresponsible or
centered in the hands of any one in
dividual. The blow was not aimed
at tyranny or wealth. 1t was aimed
at one of the strongest champions the
wage-worker has ever had; at one Of
the most faithful representatives of
the system of public rights and rep
resentative government who has ever
risen to public office. President Nc
Kinley filled that political office Tor
which the entire people vote, and no
President-not even Lincoln himself
was ever more earnestly anxious to
represent the well thought-out wishes
OF the people; his one anxiety in every
crisis was to keep in closest touch with
the peOple-to find out what they
thought and to endeavor to give eX-
preston to their thought, after hav-
ing endeavored to guide that thought
Alright. He had just been reelected to
Ihe Presidency because the majority
of our citizens the majority of our
farmers and wage-workers, believed
That he had faithfully upheld their in
terests for four years. They felt them
selves In close and intimate touch with
him. They felt that he represented so
well and so honorably all their ideals
and aspirations that they wished him
tC continue for another four years to
represent them.
And this was the man whom the
assassin struck! That there might be
rothing lacking to complete the Judas
like infamy of his act, he took advan-
tage of an occasion when the President
was meeting the people generally; and
advancing as If to take the hand out
stretched to him in kindly and brother
ly fellowship, he turned the noble and
generous confidence of the victim into
an opportunity to strike that fatal
blow. There is no baser deed in all
the annals Of crime.
The shock, the grief of the country,
are bitter In the minds of all who saw
the dark days, while the President vet
lowered between life and death. At
last the light was stllled In the kind
iy eyes and the breath went from the
lips that even In mortal agony uttered
no words save of forgiveness to his
murderer, Of love for his friends, and
of unfaltering trust in the will of the
Most High. Such a death, crowning
the glory Of such a life, leaves us with
infinite sorrow, but with such pride in
what he had accomplished and in his
own personal character, that we feel
the blow not as struck at him, but as
struck at the Nation. We mourn a
good and great President who is dead;
but while we mourn we are lifted up
by the splendid achievements of his
life and the grand heroism with which
he met his death.
THE HARM DONE.
When we turn from the man to the
Nation, the harm done Is so great as
to excite our gravest apprehensions
and to demand our wisest and most
resolute action. This criminal was
professed anarchist, infamed by the
teachings of professed anarchists, and
probably also by the reckless utter
ances of those who, on the stump and
in the public press, appeal to the dark
and evil spirits Of malice and greed,
envy and sullen hatred. The wind Is
sowed by the men who preach such
doctrines, and they cannot escape their
share of responsibility for the whirl-
alike to the deliberate demagogue, to
wind that is reaped. This applies
the eXploiter of sensationalism, and
to the crude and foolish visionary who,
for whatever reason, apologies for
crime or eXcites aimless discomfort.
The blow was not aimed at this
President, but at all Presidents; at
every symbol of government. Presi-
dent Mckinley was as emphatically
the embodiment of the popular will of
the Nation expressed through the forms
of law as New England town meet
ing is in similar fashion the embodi-
ment of the law-abidlng purpose and
practice of the people of the town.
On no conceivable theory could the