The Dickinson press., 1901-09-28

in acknowledging our deep debt to the
faithful man who has laid down his life
for. his nation; Tor although the world will
little note nor long remember the things
that are being said of him these days, it
will never forget the things he did 1t
will long think OF him as the model
patriot, statesman and kindly citizen and
that during his administration our nation
rose to a place beyond the empires of the
world.
= No public man in our nation, since the
martyred Lincoln, has been tried in so
many wavsa as our third martyred presi-
dent. There are men whose characters
will bear the test of a few s%earchings
but not many that can be tried at all
points.
The early youth Of the martyr was
spent in the public schools Of his native
state, Ohio, either AS scholaftor teacher.
When I8 years of age he; was preparing
to enter college but God had ordained
another and a harder training than a
literary one.
Fort Sumpter had been fired upon and
when Lincoln called for men to defend
the flag our dead hero was one of the first
to respond.
The regiment he served in was one of
the most illustrious of the war. Rose.
Grams was colonel, Stanley Mathews,
lieutenant colonel, and Rutherford b,
Hayes, major.
1t was love of country that turned the
tide of this young mans life from peace
full channels TO those of war. For four
teen months he marched, served and
fought as a private. These fourteen
months as a common soldier were not
months of dress parade. That regimen,
was called the Fighting regiment" and
deserved the name. The first engagement
was at Carnifex Ferry and twas atbloody
Antietam that young Mckinley ex.
changed his gun for a %lieutenant's sword
and for four long years, until the end Of
the war, he fought, oftentimes drenched
by the incessant rains, suffering the
greatest ~hardships and sometimes going
days without sufficient food. He engaged
in over thirty battles. amongst them
South Mountain. Fishers Hill, Cedar
Creek, Winchester and Antietam, and
when he was mustered out in IS, he was
only twenty-five years of age yet a vet.
Gran in one of the greatest wars the
world has ever seen.
At the close of the war he returned to
his Ohio home to engage in the practice
| of law, in which he was eminently sue.
c~essful. But a man of his qualities mus
move forward and, having taken an in.
terest II public affairs, in 1876 he offered
himself for Congress and was elected
| and, as for fourteen months he had served
| his country as a common soldier, so nov
ior fourteen years of distinguished ser.
vice he represented his COUNTRY in the
halls Of legislature .ar r.; and fitted himself fol
On Lincoln's grave at Springfield q
tiny shrub, finding Judgment in a crevice
of the masony, split BY its, quiet and
natural growth the solid stone of the
monument, and the character that pos
sesses the germs of true greatness will,
tgrow and expand even amidst the mos
'nntoward surroundings.
Mr.. Mckinley rose as a soldier and
citizen, not because he was OF common
lstock Or was especially favored above hi:
Fellows, but because he had in him those
elements of greatness thNR.cannot BE-
Suppressed. Every high s6uled Ameri
can youth is born of royal blood; he may
be a ruler in the earth.
There were several things in the char
acter of o martyred president tina
made him a prince among men. Those
that stood out..most prominently were hi:
integrity, craftsmanship, patriotism
observation-disclosures, leadership and hi:
domestic and religious virtues.
Heswas one of the truest of men; hi
was never known to be unfaithful to III!
friends. Twice he might have received
nomination to the presidency, but he hae
-lzl-.l lie u,Nrl ~ o-<
he sacrificed his ambition to his honor
When he enlisted, the recruiting Officer
looked into his clear, bright eye and a
his we'll knit frame and slapping him or
the back said, you'll do" and since ther
his country, looking into the same true
eve and at the same noble brow, sale
under many trying circumstances "you'l
do A man SO faithful to his own word
who would not play fast and loose witt
promises was a safe man in whose hand
to lay a nations honor. In tn,
trying times Of 'o8, when North ant
South were urging a declaration of wa
with Spain, as in 81 and 81 when tn
North cried "On to Richmond" the hest
fancy Of Mr.. Mckinley was due to a tru
sense of honor. War is terrible an,
he was slow to plunge his nation into it
horrors without such warrant that al
future time would justify.
When one thinks of the martyred ma
he does not think of him as an Ohioal
nor a member of particular church; b
belongs to us all; he was a citizen of tn
union. AS he daily walked before u
how conscious we became of his su
premacy and princeliness! His opponen
in the last election said Of him at hi
death:
1T is impressively sad. His persona
qualities were such that he had n
enemies. We all feel the humiliatio
our country has suffered and our heart
are with the lonely woman from whom
brutal assassin has taken one of the mos
faithful Of husbands" These words vi
tered by a political opponent were nc
spoken of a small man but a primo
among men.
His craftsmanship is SO. closely joine
to his life in the halls of Legislature a
representative, governor and presider
that a history of the former is record (
the later. So wise was hispiloting of til
ship of state that when he went into til
South on that memorable tour no,
warmly was he received by the oppt
nents of forty years ago whose homes b
had helped to desolate and against whor
he had led an invading and conqaerin
army!
But he shone most brightly as a simpl
citizen OF the greatest republic in th
earth. How sublimelv simple and ides
was his home life! Queen Victoria ha
been praised because Of her househol
virtues. The mother spirit in her lif
endeated her to her W nation and I
all the world. And what shall we say q
our " dead hero? Did not his HON
life in its purity become a model 10 thi
loose living age? How closely those tw
chung to each other all these years! Sc
him when he comes back from the tran,
continental trip, giving up all his plan
for that dear wife's sake. See him whe
she has recovered, glad as a boy just le
loose from school. See him as he lay
aside the cares of state and goes BAG
with his now recovered wife to the HON
where he first had learned to love he,
unconsciouslyt to spend with her the, las
days Of his noble life far away from til