Arizona daily citizen., 1901-09-14
DEATH OF McKlNLEY.


to history in the same class as Lin
coin and Garfield. His name will
be reverenoed forever and the fame
of his achievements will be main
tanned as sacred trust by his
countrymen.
This does not mean that those
who honestly differed with the po-
Iitical policies advocated by Nc
Kinley will be less strenuous in
resisting their final adjustment to
American institutions; but merely
that the man disassoclated from
his principles will be revered, and
that his opponents will yield unto
his memory the full, flowing, meas
ure of belief in his honesty of pur-
pose, his absolute integrity and
undoubted patriotism.
Mckinley was public servant
absolutely and completely. 1t
used to be said that he kept his
ear near the ground to hear the
rumblings of the popular will.
This was largely true. He believed
in the people, and his desire at all
times was to be responsive to their
will. He was a great popular lead
er rather than great intellectual
leader He had more of the ele-
ments of Lincoln than of Garfield in
his makeup, He had by no means
the intellectual strength of Garfield
but he was by far a more pro-
found student of our institutions,
an abler executive, and much bet
ter versed in practical statesman
ship.
But the purely personal side of
Mckinley furnished his chief
charm. He had a sunny disposi-
tion. Kindness, gentleness, cour-
tesy were freely blended in his
character. He was devoted to his
friends and forgiving to those who
were his opponents. If he had any
personal enemies they were not of
public record. He was stronger
advocate than an opponent.
With the shock of McKinley's
death there must be mingled in
every thoughtful mind feeling
of gloom and depression at the
thought that with all our boasted
civilization, progress and power we
should apparently be little su
perior in respect to the safety of
our Presidents to the monarchs
and emperors of Europe, who wear
their crowns with fear and tremb-
ling, or to the rulers of South Am
erican countries, who take their
lives in their hands when they as
sumo office. But while the gener-
al shock and indignation are un-
diminished there is sensation of
relief to know that the murderer
is an anarchist and that it was not
an American motive that prompt
ed him. Both the criminal and
the crime are un-American, alien
alike in character and inspiration,
and whatever the lesson they teach,
it is happily, not that of national
degeneracy. Assassination is not
an American trait. Even in the
two previous cases in which politi-
cal reasons inspired the assassins,
it is now we'll known they were of
unsound mind and utterly irres-
ponsible for their acts. So, although
the hand of the assassin has been
raised for the third time in less
than half a century against the
nations highest representative, we
can feel that these mad and dread
full acts were. not in any sense in
dicative of national sympathies or
tendencies, a fact made especially
plain in the present instance by the
avowal and the antecedents of
Csolgosz.
But though the blow to our in
sstitutions and our republican pres
tige is not 80 severe as it would
have been had the murderer been
of American ancestry and his crime
the directresult Of political causes,
III il severe enough to give us pause
and to suggest the Importance of
more careful method of dealing
with the dangers which threaten