The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1902-03-06

coin for gallantry in oattle.
William Mckinley gladly laid down
his sword and betook himself to his
books. He quickly made up the time
lost in soldering. He attacked his
Blackstone as he would have done
hostile entrenchment; was admitted
to the bar and settled down to prac-
tice-a brevetted veteran Of 24-in
the quiet town of Canton.
Ideal of Christian Marriage
Here many blessings awaited him:
high repute, professional success and
a domestic affection sc pure, so de-
voted and stainless that future poets,
seeking an ideal Of Christian mar
riage. will find in it a theme worthy
Of their song. This is a subject to
which the lightest allusion seems
PROCLAMATION; but it is impossible to
speak Of William Mckinley without
remembering that no truer, tenderer
knight to his chosen lady ever lived
among mortal men. If to the spirits
of the just made perfect is permitted
the consciousness Of earthly things,
we may be sure that his faithful soul
is snow watching over that gentle
sufferer who counts the long hours
| in their shattered home in the desc
late splendor of his fame.
A man possessing the qualities
with which nature had endowed Nc
Kinley seeks political activity as
naturally as 3 growing plant seeks
light and air. A wholesome ambi-
ton; a rare power of making friends
and keeping them; faith, which
may be called religious, in his coun-
try and its institutions: and, flowing
from this, a belief that a man could
do no nobler work than to serve such
a country-these were the elements
in his character that drew him ire
sistibly into public life. he had
from the beginning remarkable
equipment: a manner OF singular
grace and charm; a voice Of ringing
quality and great carrying power
vast as were the crowds that gath
cred about him, he reached their ut
most fringe without apparent effort.
He had an extraordinary power of
marshaling and presenting signifi-
can't facts, so as to bring convection
to the average mind His range Of
reading was not wide; he read only
what he might some day find useful,
and what he read his memory held
| like brass. He was not often i'm
passioned; he rarely resorted to the
aid of wit or humor; yet | never saw
his equal in controlling and c>Dvinc-
ing popular audience by sheer APP
peal to their reason and intelligence.
He had the divine gift of sympathy,
which, though given only to the
elect, makes all men their friends.
His Political Career
| So il came naturally about that il
E1S76-the beginning of the second
century of the republic began by
4
an. election to congress, his political
career. Thereafter for fourteen
years the chamber was his home
Nowhere in the world was be so in
harmony 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 occasions his
duty called him here, he greeted his
old haunts with the affectionate zest
Of childsof the house; during all the
last ten years Of his life, filed as
they were with activity and glory,
he never ceased to be homesick for
this hall. When he came to the
presidency, there was nota day when
his congressional service was not Of
use to him. Probably no other presi-
dent has been in such full and cor
dial communion with congress, if we
may except Lincoln alone.
He was a republican. He could
not be anything else. A union sol
der grated upon Clay whig, he
necessarily believed in the "Ameri-
can system in protection to home
Industries; in strong, aggressive
nationality; in liberal construction
of the constitution. What any self
reliant nation might rightly do, he
Il e. II L r