The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-09-20
PRESIDENT
WAS LOVED.
Held in High Regard All Over
the Country.
The South Trusted ard Believed in Him.
--.Had the Eiemepts of Great
Leader.

The Washington correspondent Of
the Minneapolis Journal gives the
following showing how the late Presi-
dent Mckinley was held in high re-
gard in the south as well as by the rest
of the nation:
The Boston special on the Lake
Shore from Cleveland, where the G.
A. r.. eucampment had just closed
did not reach Buffalo until o'clock
this morning. AS l turned into Main
street, in front of the Courier and
Inquirer offices, I found my way
blocked by at least 10, 900 people who
were standing in front of the news
paper bulletin board reading the
words which announced the president s
death.
1t was mournful gathering. Tears
were flowing down nearly every face
and nobody attempted to hide his
grief. Twenty policemen were trying,
with but partil success, TO keep the
street open for the passage of cars,
and they told me that the crowds L
then saw were duplicated at all the
telegraph and newspaper offices in the
city and had been growing since early
evening, when it became apparent that
death was not far off.
The entire city acts like man
stunned by heavy blow. So strongly
had hope been set on recovery that
the people with the greatest reluct-
ance permit the sad truth to sink into
their minds. In no way is the strong
hold which the dead chief magistrate
had upon the affection of the whole
people more strikingly shown than in
the undisguised sorrow of the Buffalo
crowds, which at this time of the
Pan American exposition represent
every section Of the country. North,
south, east and west are represented
here and all feel with equal force the
effect of the blow and show with equal
emphasis that their hearts are sad.
:. 1t has all the force of q personal
bereavement, not only to the thous
ands who know the president person
ally but to many thousands more who
never had any opportunity to hear the
sound of his voice. In the mornings
crowd on Main stcreet was the tall,
stately figure of Fl. G.. Wetherell, a
wealthy business man of Atlanta, Ga,
here with his family to visit the ex-
position.
"We of the SOUTH" he said, ''have
loved Mckinley as tenderly and have
trusted him as implicitly as you of the
north. This is startling statement,
for it can be said truthfully of no
other president since the civil war.
Other presidents had come to us talk
ing against sectionalism and pleading
for unity of thought and purpose as
there is unity of destiny. They
spoke fair words, but always we thought
we could discover something in their
manner that was not entirely candid
and sincere. Mckinley came to us
speaking the same words, and we be-
lieved him. His great heart beat for
the south asz.for the north and when
we felt it's throbs, all were drawn
toward him with love which was as
genuine as his own. And then, too,
we liked his foreign policy, his sound
money and his wonderful prosperity.
While am Democrat, l can truth
fully say that now that the negro ques-
ton is being settled down our way,
through amendments to state constitu-
tions, the day is not far distant when
the leading southern states will en-
brace the Mckinley policy, no matter
what name the party may wear, which
will then represent it. !"
Mckinley was more universally
popular with the people during his
lifetime than any president since
Washington, and his tragic death will
be the means of placing him side by
side in our list of immortals with Lin
coin This is not an extravagant as
sertion. All of out presidents since
Washington, even the greatest of them,
had may stormy days during their
terms of Office. All, whether justly
or not, made bitter and malignant
enemies who were perpetual thorns in
their sides. Lincoln, himself. the
greatest of them all, was perhaps more
bitterly attacked during his lifetime
than any man who has occupied the
presidents chair. The exclusive place
which he now has in the affections of
the people came years after his death.
The tender love of the people for
Mckinley is well illustrated by the
hold he has on the affections of Wash