The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-27
President Mckinley and Harvard.


most ancient and honorable educational
foundations. had not voluntarily and
formally invited the Hon. William Nc
Kinley, President of the United States,
to honor 1t by accepting the honorary
degree of Doctor of Laws, the same
having been conferred upon him pre-
viously by Yale, we might be able to
ignore academic objections which are
being offered to the proposed bestowal,
if they had been filed against merely
suggested honor AS it is, we are
shocked by the bad taste and bad man
ners exhibited by few Harvard alum
nj and their self-appointed organs, the
"New York Evening Post" and the
Nation its weekly annex.
A few days ago we had occasion tore
fer to the same subject, and to express
our regret that Americans could be
found who deliberately would cast slurs
upon a distinguished gentleman occu-
plying the position of Chief Magistrate
of the Republic, and by virtue of the
peoples will its First Citizen. In view
of published statements since that time,
we are now compelled to recognize the
fact that after the university has COM
mitted itself, there are persons who
have been graduated from it who would
bring discredit upon the alma mater
and the whole country by protesting
against the extension of a natural
courtesy to practically the ruler of
great empire, whose military. legal, and
political accomplishments, and his gem
eral command of great affairs and
knowledge and erudition, far from be-
ing inadequate to the honor intended,
would compare brilliantly with the
qualifications of the men who annually
receive the same distinction without OBJ
lection being offered.
We resent this spirit of un-American
caddishness. 1t is vulgar and unman-
nerly; and especially we resent the tone
of a labored article on the subject
printed in the Nation" in its issue of
April 25. The publication which allows
such an editorial attack upon the per-
sonality of the President of the United
States certainly is sailing under false
colors when il calls itself the Nation"
There is nothing national about 1t. AS
a cold matter of fact, there never was.
No person or paper in the country has
been more independently critical of Mr..
Mckinley public policy and course than
The Times: but it has not been and has
no right to be oblivious of the truth that
both have been twice endorsed by I'M
precedented pluralities of the American
people at the polls We are entitled to
and do believe that it was a mistake
to continue in power an Administration
which during four years had seemed TO
be under the influence of the trusts,
and whose history had been marked by
Hannaism. Algerism, and the like. The
voting masses Of the country did not
agree with us, and returned President
Mckinley to the office of President last
November. This is a land wherein ma
jorities or pluralities rule. The system
may be open to objection, but the fact
remains, and, as long as they do, it
does not lie in the mouths Of a few I'M
important college graduates and a
bilious daily and weekly newspaper to
say that they are all wrong. Aside
from this proposition, no one who
knows the scholar and gentleman who
occupies the White House can have any
doubt that he fully deserves the doc
torate which Yale, to its credit, con-
ferred upon him several years ago, or
that the same honor, If conferred by
Harvard, would add anything apprecia-
bly, to his dignities.
The animus of the movement TO pre-
vent the bestowal upon the President
of the degree which has been officially
offered him is unhappily shown in the
following lines of the Nation article
above referred to. That journal, dis
cussing the first departure from the
Harvard practice of giving the doctor
ate of laws to the Massachusetts Gov
ernor Of the day, in the case of Gov
ernor Benjamin F. Butler. says:
at is idle to say that the office of President
of the United States is vastly superior in dignity
10 that Of Governor o. Massachusetts,. The gov
ernorship had nevertheless, come to be regularly
treated emitting the holder ipso factO TO Har-
wards doctorate of laws. single breach in that
practice, growing out Of consideration Of the
character Of the man, brought the whole fabric
TO the ground. The degree instantly became
worth something. while the Office invested
with added dignity, ar reserved, in Har-
What Is now contemplated, in the name Of rev.
erence for the Presidency, is really attack
upon its pre-eruinence- Honors paid to licen-
tious clergyman. 20 quack Doctor 10 a rogues'
lawyer, undermine popular respect for these pro-
LESSONS. Just surely the way 10 bring the
Presidency into contempt is to make Of it
blanket 10 hide the nskedness of the iDcum-
bent This viii be felt by the luckless official
charged with the duty OF preparing the Latin
closy TO accompany the bestowal Of McKinley's
degree"
To compare the position of President
Mckinley in the premises with that of a
''hccntious clergyman" or a "quack
doctor" or a "rogues' lawyer" is. of
course. not lese majestic. because. for
tunately, we have nothing Of that sort
In this country. AT the same time It is
an impudent and low bred assault upon
that American sentiment which holds
the office OF American President IN
veneration. and its incumbent in the
respect to which the high station TO
which he has been elevated by the pop
ular suffrage entities him. The Ma
ton" continues:
'.In Republic like ours. distinctions between
offceholder aid citizen tend properly and in
evitably 20 be miniinized almost 10 cffacement.
The universal passion for Office II proof Of this
because the -yulgsrest ambition j. capable Of being
gratihed somewhere along the line. Al no point
In . hierarchy created and maintained by universal
senrage en- Office viewed abstractly suddenly
become object Of worship. Power patronage,
and e'nolumcnts will make more enyiable than
ehcthcr, but none aIrogate 10 itself Gessler's
hat and the freeman's uncovering. A United
States Senators, " for instance, has every title
TO respect. XSse. that the Presidency has.
In concrete terms Nv. whom Senator H0ar has
never felt ashamed 10 =, associated with at the
Capitol might, al a Harvard commencement.
especially II there By ioars invitation, exact