The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-03-06
CUTE TO THE DEAD.
Secretary Hay, McKinIey's Chief
Counselor, Pays Honor to
His Memory.
his GREAT PUBLIC eARtfR is ANAL zfD
The Secretary of State Points Ont Public
and Private Virtues in the Life of the
Martyr President In An Address Be
fore Congress.


WASHINGTON, Feb. 27.-In his trib-
ute to his late chief, William McKin-
ley, before the two houses of Congress
today, Secretary Hay began by say
ing:
For the third time the Congress OF
the United States is assembled to
commemorate the life and the death
of President slain by the hand of an
assassin. The attention of the future
historian will be attracted to the fea-
lures which reappear with startling
sameness in all three of these awful
crimes the usefulness, the utter lack
of consequence of the act, the obscur-
ity, the insignificance of the criminal,
the blamelessness-so far as in our
sphere of existence the best of men
may be held blameless-of the victim.
Not one of our murdered Presidents
had an enemy in the world; they
were all of such pre-eminent purity
of life that no pretext could be given
for the attack of passional crime;
they were men of democratic instincts
who could never have offended the
the most jealous advocates of equal
ity; they were of kindly and generous
nature, to whom wrong or injustice
was impossible; of moderate fortune,
whose slender means nobody could
envy. They were men of austere vir-
tue, of tender heart, of eminent abil-
tiles, which they had devoted with
single minds to the good of the Re-
public. II ever men walked before
God and men without blame, it was
these three rulers of our people. The
only temptation to attack their lives
offered was their gentle radiance-to
eyes hating the light that was offense
enough"
The Secretary then went on to say
that in Republic like this the rul-
er may fall, but the State feels no
tremor," and then speaking of assas-
sins, said:
THE sayings of celestial wisdom
have no date; the words that reach
us, over 1900 years, out of the dark
est hour of gloom the world has ever
known, are true to the life today:
They know not what they do The
blow struck at Que dear friend and
ruler was as deadly as blind hate
could make it, but the blow struck
at anarchy was deadlier still.
What world of insoluble prob
lens such an event excites in the
mind! Not merely in its personal,
but in its public aspects, it presents a
paradox not to be comprehended.
Under a system of government so
free and impartial that we recognize
its existence only by its benefactions;
under social order so purely demo
cratic that classes cannot exist in it.
affording opportunities so universal
that even conditions are as changing
AS the winds, where the lab0rer of to-
day is the capitalist of tomorrow; I'M
der laws which are the result of ages
of evolution, SO uniform and so bene-
fieient that the President has just the
same rights and privileges as the ar
tisan; we see the same hellish growth
of hatred and murder which dogs
equally the footsteps of benevolent
monarchs and blood-stalned despots,
How many countries can join with us
in the community of kindred sor-
row! | will not speak of those distant
regions where assassination enters in.
to the daily life of government But
among the nations bound r rs by
the ties of familiar interco& who
can forget that wise and mild autocrat
who had earned the proud title OF
the Liberator? that enlightened and
magnanimous citizen whom France
still mourns? that brave and chival
rous King of Italy who only lived fol
his people? and, saddest of all, that
lovely and Borrowing Empress whose
harmless life could hardly have ex
cited the luminosity of demon
Against that devilish spirit nothing
avails-neither virtue, nor patriot
ISM, nor age nor youth, nor conscience
nor pity. We cannot even say that
education is a sufficient safeguard
against this baleful evil-for most Of
the wretches whose crimes have sc
shocked humanity in recent years are
men not unlettered, who have gone
from the common schools, through
murder, to the scaffold.
THE life of William Mckinley was
from his birth to his death, typically
American. There is no environment
should say, anywhere else in the
world which could produce just such
a character. He was born into that