Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-02-27
Congress Spends the Day In Eulogizins the
Martyred President.
sECRETARY HAY THE ORATOR OF THE DAY
Tile and Character OF Dead Statesman Portrayed Eloquent
and Fitting Notable Gathering OF Distinguished
Government Officials Present at the Services.
Prince Henry Atends-.Text OF Hays Grafton.

and cabinet. All now being ready. Sen
ator Frye called the assemblage to or
der and. after a fervent prayer by the
house chaplain, DR.. Couden, he intro
duced the orator of the day. With inn
pressive dignity Secretary Hay arose
and spoke, in part, as follows:
Hays Grafton.
For the third time the congress of
the United States are assembled to
commemorate the life and the death of
q president slain by the hand of an as
sassin. The attention of the future
historian will be attracted to the fea-
lures which reappear with startling
sameness in all three of these unlawful
of consequence of the act; the obscuri-
ty, the insigniticance 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 We're
all of such pre- -eminent purity of life
that no pretext could be given for the
attack of passional crime; they were all
men OF democratic instincts, who could
never have offended the most jealous
advocates of equality; they We're Of
kindly and generous nature, to whom
wrong or injustice was impossible: of
moderate fortunes, whose slender
means nobody could envy. They We're
men of austere virtue, of tender hearts,
of eminent ability, which they had de-
voted with single minds to the good Of
the republic. If even men walked be-
fore God and man without blame, it
was these three rulers of our people.
The only tempetation to attack their
lives offered was their gentle radiance
Ito eyes hating the light that was Of
Tense enough.
The stupid uselesSneSs of such an
infamy affronts the common sense of
the world. One can conceive how the
death of dictator may change the po-
litical conditions Of an empire. how
the extinction of a narrowing line OF
kings may bring in an alien dynasty.
But in a well-ordered republic like ours
the ruler may fall, but the state feels
no tremor Our believed and revered
leader is gone-but the natural process
of our laws provides us a successor,
identical in purpose and ideals, nour-
ished by the same teachings, inspired
by the same principles, pledged by ten
Ger affection as well as by high loyal
ty to carry to completion the immense
task committed to his hands. and to
smite with iron severity every mani
festation of that hideous crime which
his mild predecessor, with his dying
breath. forgave. The sayings of celes-
tial wisdom have no date: the words
that reach US, over two thousand years,
out of the darkest hour of gloom the
world has ever known. are true to the
life today: They know not what they
do.' The blow struck at our dear
friend and ruler was as deadly as blind
hate could make 1t; but the blow
struck at anarchy was deadlier still.
What a world of insoluble problems
such an event excites in the mind!
Not merely in its personal, but in it's
public aspects it presents a para
dox not to be comprhended. I'm
der a system of government so free and
so impartial that we recognize its ex-
istence only by Its benefactions: under
a social order so purely democratic
that classes can not exist In it. afford
ing opportunities so universal that
even conditions are as changing as the
winds, where the laborer of today is the
capitalist of tomorrow; under our laws
which are the result of ages of evolu-
ton, so uniform and so beneficent that
the president has just the same rights
and privileges as the artisan; we see
6a ha11 ch Of
murder which dogged equally the foot
steps of benevolent monarchs and
blood-stained despots. How many
countries can join with us in the COM
munity of a kindred sorrow. / will not
speak of those distant regions where
assassination enters into the daily life
of government. But among the nations
bound to us by the ties of familiar in
tercourse-who can forget that wise
and mild autocrat who had earned the
proud title of the Liberator? That en-
lightened and magnanimous citizen
whom France still mourns? That brave
and chivalrous king of Italy who lived
only for his people? And, saddest of
all, that lovely and sorrowing empress,
whose hassnless life could hardly have
excited the animosity of a demon?
Against that develish spirit nothing
avails-neither virtue nor patriotism,
nor age. nor youth nor conscience, nor
pity. We can not even say that educa-
ton is a sufficinent safeguard against
this baleful evil-for most of the
wretches whose crimes have so shocked
humanity in recent years are men not
unlettered, who have gone from the
common schools, thru murder, to the
scaffold.
"Our minds can not discern the origin
nor conceive the extent of wickeiness
so perverse and so cruel; but this does
not exemept us from the duties of try
ing to control and counteract it. This
problem of anarchy Is dark and intri-
cate, but it ought to be within the com
pass of democratic government-altho
no sane mind can fathom the mystery
of these untracked and orbitless ma
tures-to guard against their aberra-
tions, to take away from them the hope
of escape, the long luxury of scandalous
days in court, the unwholesome SYM
pathy of hysterical degenerates, and
so by degrees to make the crime not
worth committing, even to these abnor-
NAL and distorted souls,
y