Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-09-18
HE RES1S IN PEACE.

P"OAAO" noiuei' dlstIlcb attorney, con-
gresham, governor, president Ameri-
can OF Americans, q marty sacrificed
ON the altar of devotion to his country
ana slain by the hand of an assassin,
rests in peacs and his works do follow
him
What manner of man he was we al
know AS soldier, neither darkness,
cold, heat, sleet, storm, hail, snow nor
rain was in the way of his prompt and
efficient performance of duty He al.
ways regarded his army experience a.
the most potent educating influence in
patriotism, discipline of mind and body
the subordination of self to duty and
in the intellectual development received
from close association with older men
ofsuperior ability. Singleness of pur-
pose and motive was the key note of his
! life He was tenacious of his religious
beliefsas of the protective tariff. eyidenc-
ing herein the strain of Scotch Coven-
anter blood which was in him. The
same tenA ity and sing eness of purpose
which made him successful as soldier,
he brought to bear on his studies and
work as lawyer. Mckinley was never
a man of side issues. A few main aims
in life he has pursued with a quiet and
answering directness that has shaped
| circumstances and compelled fate. Pres
ident William Mckinley was an ardent
republican Tohim republicanism meant
union, freedom, progress--the cause for
which for four years he had fought.
AS q politician, he has always been of
thoughtful and serious type. In the
ordinary acceptation of the term, he
was not an orator but he was one in
the true sense of the word. His talk
was persuasive, not antagonistic. One
Tails to ind single word or phrase of
abuse OF an opponent in any speech he
ever uttered. His style was character
lied by simplicity, directness of state
ment, a clear far reaching voice, a win
ming personality, an Unborn faculty for
giving to spoken thoughts such a pro-
Jectlle force as would secure for them
lodgment in other minds together with
splendid and large physical endurance
Not as magnetic and spontaneous as
Blaine, he had the great gift of going
straight to the understanding OF the
people. Always serious and earnest,
poetry and anecdotes found NO place in
his speeches. Starting out to convince
? the understanding of his hearers be
| presented facts and reasons, logically
persuasively, and with voice like a
trumpet, his form seeming follower above
a his fellows, with sledge hammer blows
I ne drove truth and argument home.
a Critics, inside and outside of the re
4 publican party, have charged William
Mckinley with having no back bone,
man with one idea and an opportunist
s His speeches on free aud fair elections
q equal suffrage, labor arbitration, public
: schools, civil service reform, the eigh
It hour law, the American farmer. soldie
o and workman, contradict this charge.
II The character Of William McKinle,
= was an open book. For a quarter of
o century conspicuous figure in stat
It and national politics his convictions OF
n public issues and his consistent actor
is in line Herewith are known of all men
II And vet, perhaps, in this hour of sadnes
IT and sorrow, tainted with horror and in
lie dlgnation at the manner of his death
d we may wish and prefer to think o
IA President Mckinley as q man and Al
W American, as the devoted husband who
II thirty years ago, saw before him tn
tragic vision of two children dead. tn
grieved wife and mother wrecked i,
health and cripple. A childless lif
and the companionship of an incursbl
. invalid was to be his portion. Wit
&c self-abnegation of the highest order, TO
'o twenty-five years he has, unfalteringl,
~ been to that wife a faithful and skillfu
- nurse, and given to her every hou
he could spare from his life's work an,
duty to tightening her SORROWS an,
:. cheering her broken life This TRACED
;. did not sour President McKinley's dis
= position, but rather gave to it additions
sweetness and strength,
10 Surely such a man rests in peace an
- his works will follow him as high
;, reckoning onward his fellow country
men to high and noble al self -sacrific
ing citizenship.
r ~, :,