Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1901-10-10
PRESIDENT MElNLEY.

tne CndDce5 IN favor OF President Nc
kinley surviving his terrible wound.
He never had any. We do not believe
the story OF poison; that in mere aug.
gestion of surgeons who fancy them
selves diHcredited by their mistaken
diagnosis. The heavy bullet Of the muir.
derer's revolver, SO different from the
light bullet of the Mauser rifle, which
makes clean cut, rent its way through
the body, paralyzed the powers of the
stomach, and set up gangrene along
the whole course of the wound. The
i'll fated President was strong man.
who had lived temperate though over
worked life, and he survived for seven
days; but they were days practically
without food, and when the ganRranous
mischief reached certain point his
strength, weakened at once by shock
and by starvation, suddenly collapsed.
He died expressing his resignation to
the will of the Ali Wise, and soothed,
We would fain hope, by the knowledge
that in two continents all who speak
English would fain have preserved him
il they could. The sorrow of his own
people Is hardly deeper or more sincere
than that of Englishmen, for though
the latter are free-traders they regard
the proteotionist illusion as an error in
economics rather than a political Of
fence, and they were hardly conscious
Of the Presidents graver mistake, his
habit of regarding himself as one
bound by his position to be the funnel
for the popular will That, we feel con-
WINGED, was the key to the mind of
William Mckinley. Personally the
kindest of men, always straight 10 con-
duct, and with high sense of duty,
he thought that duty compelled him
always TO keep his ear to the gound, SO
| that he might, as head OF the Executive,
| interpret in action the general desire
OF the people, He thought they wished
| that merioa should in all things suffice
to herself, and perceiving that, allowed
his proteetionist ideas to develop into
sort of fanaticism, which, nevertheless,
| when he recognized the general desire
| for wider markets, he was prepared at
their bidding to suppress. His very
last speech before his death was in
effect promise that he would exchange
protection for reciprocity and though
he probably shared the movement of
the popular mind, and had begun to
recognize that if you will not buy
neither can you sell, the sense that the
people were marching like himself to
new conviction made that conviction
appear to him not only more acceptable
| but more wise. He was personally one
of those men who alike from pity and
from religious feeling abhor war; but
when he perceived that the scenes in
Cuba had berome abhorrent to the peo-
pie be accepted the hard necessity, and
when, after the sinking of the Maine,
they would allow no longer delay he
made war with all the energy he pos
sessed. He was said to he the slave of
the trusts; but in reality he approved
them because the people believed that in
them was a source of prosperity, and
had they changed that view he would
have changed also, AS he In great mea-
sure actually did about the standard of
value He had great bimetallist lean
ings till he saw that the whole CONNER
DIAL class, followed by majority, was
10 favor Of single standard, aud then
he became determined advocate Of
gold. He was perfectly sincere, but he
held 1t his duty to be an interpreter,
not a leader, of democracy 1t is in this
capacity that history will Judge him, and
IL is,woith while to consider for mo-
ment how far he was wrong or right.
We hold with the English people that
like any other king, will decide rightly
only II the advisers he trusts are sincere
and give him always the benefit Of their
actual opinions. They are generally
wiser than the mass; they, and they
only, are in possession OF all the facts |;
they are trusted by the sovereign,
| whether he is a man or a multitude |;
and they are therefore bound as honest
men TO press their conclusions frankly,
and, IL they are not accepted TO resign.
The wishes OF the people constitute, of
course, one factor in the formation of
a sound judgment; but it is only one,
and In cases involving any moral issue
--for example, the choice between war
and peaoe-it ought not TO be the
strongest We hold Fox's judgment on
the war with Napoleon to have been
wrong, for the great Italian would never
have rested until he had established q
universal monarchy, which would have
stereotyped mankind; but he was abso
lutely right in risking his party as we'll
as his career 10y expressing the intense
opinion he had formed. Moreover, it is
held hero. and, as we think, on sound
grounds, that democracy is conscious
OF its own points Of failure, that il signs
for leaders, and that the man who will
not lead will never receive full meas
ufe of its confidence The premier
who will not or cannot form an opinion
is therefore deprived of portion alike
Of his power and his courage, buth of
which may in an hour of emergency be
OF vital Importance to his country. And
finally, It. may be taken as certain that
IL leadership is not allowed the most
conretent of all will never rise, except
by accident, to the headship of the
state, which must, If that is the policy
to be adonted, be served by second-rate
men. That is the case in both the
| American and French Republics, though
this record is broken by Abraham Lin
coin, and in less degree by Gamhetta,
and it IS difficult TO deny that both Re-
| publics have suffered though it, though
in America the limitation in the func-
! tions OF tie central government has in
great measure concealed the fact from
the world. In country with such re-
sources, without frontiers, and with no
rebellious class, the average sense of
the community suffices to produce pros
perity, and till the hour Of danger ar
rives tie inadequacy of the chiefs Of the
state is scarcely perceived. 1t would,
however, have been terribly perceived
in America il Spain at 6fst had be3n
| triumphant, and il President Mckinley.
as might have happened, had felt that
his insight was insufficient for oIroum-
stances so grave.
To knglishmen it is hardly necessary
to press this side of the argument, and
yet It is not to be denied that there is
another side. 1t is, in the first place,
much more convenient for any State to
be able to do without leaders, for they
are few aud hard TO discover: while of
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