The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-19
THE PEOPLE MOURN.

Great events and crises in a nations his
tory are apt to bring out dormant qualities
in the national character. 1t was so at
the firing on Fort Sumter. at the assassina-
ton Of Abraham Lincoln by misguided
fanatic, at the destruction of the Maine,
and it is so in the experience through which
the Nation is now passing. The best quail
ties of the American people appear in their
seIf-control, their answering loyalty to
their government, their consuming anger
against its enemies, and their love for the
great leader and good man who has been
stricken down. In a nation of nearly eighty
millions of people those who do not mourn
the dead President as for a personal loss
are so few and so conspicuous that they
become objects of contempt and in many
cases of violence. Sectional and party lines
are for the time obliterated, and the en-
tire population is bowed in grief under an
affection which the people take to heart
as they never have any similar one before
The tributes Of foreign governments and
people, and those of the press throughout
the world, and the spontaneous action of
municipalities. civic organizations, CONNER
cial bodies and representative men of all
civilized countries are impressive, and their
sympathy is grateful, as sympathy always
is to those in trouble. But the most i'm
pressive feature of the situation is the
universal and unfeigned grief of the Amer
lean people themselves. 1t is not merely
In Buffalo, in Washington, or in Canton,
where thousands have shown their anxiety
to take a last look at the dead President,
nor along the routes between these places,
where other thousands have poured from
cities, towns, villages and country homes to
get a glimpse of the train that bore his
body to it's final resting place. but it is
everywhere, from ocean to ocean and from
the lakes to the gulf. The continent is in
mourning, and the hearts of millions upon
millions of people are weighted with a
common sorrow. The people do well TO
mourn. Their grief is honorable to them
as much so as their wrath against the
cause of it. 1t shows that the dead Pres
ident was something more to them than the
chief executive of the government, the
ruler elect of a free people. 1t shows they
appreciated Mckinley as man. and all
the more since the noble qualities he dis
played in the closing hours Of his life. A
people does we'll to mourn such man. In
the closing words of Bishop Andrews s
! funeral sermon at the national capital:
If there is a personal Immortality before
him let us also rejoice that there is an i'm
mortality and memory in the hearts of a
large and eVer-grOwing people, who,
through the ages to come, the generations
that are yet to be, will look back upon
this life, upon its nobility and purity and
service to humanity and thank God for it.
The years draw on when his name snail
be counted among the illustrious of the
earth. William of Orange is not dead.
Cromwell is not dead. Washington lives in
the hearts and lives of his cOuntrymen.
Lincoln. with his infinite sorrow, lives to
teach Us and lead us on. And Mckinley
shall summon all statesmen, and all his
countrymen, to purer living, nobler aims,
sweeter and immortal blessedness.