The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-02-28

| His range OF reading was not wide; ne
read only what he might some day hnd
| useful and what he read his memory held
| like brass These who knew him Well In
those early days can never forget the
| consummate skill and power With winch
he would select d few pointed facts and,
blow upeh blow, weuid hammer them into
! the attention OF great asSemblages IN
Ohio. as Jael drove the nail into the head
! of the Canaanite captain. He was not
often impassioned; he rarely resorted to
| the aid of wit and humor; yet | never
saw his equal in controlling and conVihc-
ing a popular audience by sheer appeal to
their reason and intelligence. He did not
Halter or eajole them, but there was ah
| implied compliment in the serious and
sober tone in which he addressed them.
He seemed one OF them. in heart and
feeling he was one Of them. Each arti
san in great crowd might say: That
J is the sort of man / would like to be,
and under more favoring circumstances
| might have been. He had the divine gift
of sympathy, which, though given only to
the elect, makes all men their friends
So 1t came naturally about that in 1876
the beginning the second century of
! the Republic-he began ~by an election to
| Congress, his political career. Thereaf-
ter for fourteen years this chamber was
his home. / use the word advisedly.
| Nowhere in the world was he so in har-
mony with his environment as here;
nowhere else did his mind work with
such full consciousness of it's powers.
| The air of debate was native to him;
here he drank delight of battle with his
peers. In after days, when he drove by
| this stately pile, or when on rare occas-
ions his duty called him here, he greet
ed his old haunts with the affectionate
zest of child of the house; during all
the last ten years of his life, filled as
they were with activity and glory he
never ceased to be hOmesick for this
Hall. When he came to the Presidency,
there was not a day when his Congress
sional service was not of use to him.
Probably no other President has been in
such full and cordial communion with
Congress if we may except Lincoln alone.
Mckinley knew the legislative body
thoroughly, its composition. it's methods.
its habits of thought He had the pro-
'foundeSt respect for its authority and an
inflexIble belief in the ultimate rectitude
Of it's purposes. Our history shows how
surely an executive courts disaster and
ruin by assuming an attitude of hostili-
ty or distrust to the Legislature; and, on
the other hand, McKinley's frank and
sincere trust and confidence in Congress
were repaid by prompt and loyal support
and cooperation. During his entire
term of office this mutual trust and re-
gard-s0 essential to the public welfare
was never shadowed by a single cloud.
He was a Republican. He could not be
anything else. A Union soldier grated
upon Clay Wing, he necessarily believed
in the American System"-in protection
to home industries: in a strong, aggres-
sive nationality; in a liberal construc-
tion of the Constitution. What any
self-reliant nation might do. he felt this
nation had power to do, if required by
the common welfare and not prohibited
by our written charter.
Following the natural bent of his mind
he devoted himself to questions O.
, finance and revenue, to the essentials o
!, the national housekeeping. He took higi
rank in the House from the beginning
. His readiness in debate his mastery OF
every subject he handled, the bright anC
: amiable light he shed about him, anC
. above all the unfailing courtesy and gooC
will with which he treated friend ant
: foe alike-one of the surest signatures o
nature born to great destines-mad,
i, his service in the House pathway of un
: broken success and brought him at las
to the all-important post of Chairman o
. Ways and Means and leader of the ma
. sjority. OF the famous revenue &C
= which, in that capacity. he framed ant
: carried through Congress. it is not m
purpose here and now to speak. TIL
. members of the controversy in the mids
of which that law had its troubled beinj
;, are yet too warm to be handled on da
like this. ! may only say that it wa
= never sufficiently tested to prove TIL
praises CT its friends or the criticism O
it's opponents After a brief existence
: PASSED away, for time, in the storm
that swept the Republicans out of power
\ Mckinley also passed through brie
. zone of shadow; his Congressional dis
= trict having been arranged for that pur
= pose by hostile Legislature.
: M'KINLEY THE GOVERNOR.
Someone has said it is easy to low
cur enemies; they help us so much NOR
T. than our friends. The people who's
n. alcvolent skill had turned Mckinley on
= of Congress deserved well of him and G
9 the Republic. Never was Nemesis nor
swift and energetic. The Republicans c
Ohio We're saved the trouble of choosin
6 Governor-the other side had chose
one for them. A year after McKinle
~ left Congress he was made Governor c
Chic, and two years later he was re
: elected, each time by majorities unhope
for and overwhelming. He came to fill
y space in the public eye which obscured
y great portion of the field of vision. |
two national conventions the Presidenc
9 seemed within his reach. But he ha
= gone there in the interest of others an
I bifs honor forbade any dalliance wit
= temptation. So his nay was nay-dcliy
cred with tone and gesture there wa
!, nc denying. His hour was not yet come
a There was, however, no long delay. H
a / became from year to year, the mos
y prominent politician and orator in tn
. country. Passionately devoted to tn
Z principles of his party, he was alway
r 1 ready to do anything, to go anywhere.
4 procl-im its ideas and to support its car
). djdates. His face and his voice becan
a familiar to millions of our people; an
v wherever they were seen and heart
=, nen became his partiSans. His face We