The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-09-20
MANKATO FREE PRESS.

ington, whose population represents
every congressional district in the
country. Presidents have come and
gone in that city, but not all of them
have been personally popular there
among all classes of the people.
Call to mind the presidents since the
war. Washington was essentially
confederate stronghold during that
struggle and southern people there,
respecting sentiment south of the Poto-
mac, regarded Lincoln with deadly
hatred After Lincoln came johnson,
who was loved by nobodylin Washing
ton. Grant came on the scene too soon
after the war for southern people in
Washington to forget that he had been
the leader of the northern armies
Washington had no respect for Hayes
1t might have loved Garfield: but he
was president too short a time to make
an impression on finally developed. He
appealed to the upper classes but the
common people regarded him with in
difference. Cleveland was unpopular
in Washington during both his terms,
and Harrison, whose magnificent in
| tellect commanded respect and admlra-
ton, had nothing in his makeup with
which to inspire love.
With Mckinley it was vastly differ
MI Snia Of ,z,pGtnial WnGhIn Ofnn
had known him for many years and
had learned to love him long before he
went into the white house. The thing
which first caused the public heart
there to go out to him was his patient
and tender affection for his invalid
wife. He might have been much less
attentive and SOLICITORS than he has
and still have fully met the expecta-
tions of the people.
have known him to leave cabinet
meetings and all other official business
to sit by her bedside. So deep and
strong and unchaDging was his love
that for years he had had soothing
influence over her possessed by nobody
else and frequently when the physi-
clans could do nothing to quiet her
sensitive and throbbing nerves, he
would sit down beside her, take her
hand in his, and at the end of few
minutes see her drop off to sleep like
tired child. At other times the pres
sure of his hand on her forehead would
stop the ache and bring her quickly
under peaceful control.
1t is no wonder that Washington,
which had been the unostentatious
scene of this unusual devotion for
years, felt that Mckinley was good
man and that the country would be
safe in his hands When shortly after
his elevation 10 the presidency he be-
gan to develop a craftsmanship of
which even his closest friends of the
earlier days did not think probable,
Washington added to its love profound
and rapidly expanding respect and
confidence, which since the Spanish
war has made Mckinley the city's
i deal of the ruler of a great people.
His democracy was simple and I'M
affected. With an unerring instinct
the people knew him to be one of
them. and they rejoiced in his achieve
ments with a sincerity that was never
questioned.
On the night of the shooting half of
Washington emptied itself into Penn
syIvania avenue between the Star and
Post buildings and, with tears stream
ing down their faces, fully 90, 900
people shouted like mad whenever a
favorable bulletin was posted. A third
of the crowd were women and at 2
o'clock in the morning on my way
home I passed thousands sitting on
their doorsteps anxiously waiting for
the mounted newsboys with the latest
extras.
What is the tone of Washington is
the tone of the country as whole and
it certainly is no extravaganza to say
that no president since Washington
has possessed during his lifetime so
large a share of love of the whole peo-
pie.
The circumstances attending his
death will emphasize the great speech
he delivered in Buffalo the day before
the shooting. By that one utterance
he forever answered the occasional
criticism of his political opponents,
seldom heard, however, in the later
years, that he was not man of pub
lie courage and could never develop
into real leader The Buffalo ad-
dress placed the president upon adj
vanced ground regarding tariff and rec
iprocity, the great questions of the
future, and marking his public break
ing away from association with those
ultra protectionists of the eastern
states with whom he had been closely
associated and whose mouthpiece he
had been for many years