Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-09-15
MEMORIAL SERMON.
For the Late President Mckinley al
Methodist Church.
An Eloquent Tribute to the Dead h.
Rev. r.. e. Dunnaek.

The Rev. H. E. Dunnack preached ar
!; eloquent sermon at the Methodis,
: church, yesterday, in memory of III
late President Mckinley, from the tex,
4 BY it he being dead yet speaketb ,
from Hebrews XII, 4. s.Igs 80
Mr.. Dunnack said: r. sac -sa1fn-
We have assembled to honor ntbe
memory of murdered President
Lincoln fell at the close of miobty
II struggle in which the passions of mar
had been deeply stirred. Garfield Voc
stricken in a time of peace whom
brother had been reconciled to brother
and when anger and hate had been we'll
nigh banished from the land. McKin-
kinley fell when unprecedented nros-
perlty was everywhere, and after tho
Nation had come out of a foreign
struggle with glory undimmed; when
the laborer, the merchant, the scholar
and the statesman were looking for
| ward to a future with courage. homo
and joy. Our President represented
all those virtues which make tho
statesman honored abroad and reyered
at home; the soldier. the idol of the
brave; the citizen, loved and respected:
the son and husband, the representa-
tive of the chivalrous knights.
Since the day the Pilgrims landed at
Plymouth, seeking intellectual freedom
and ecclesiastical independence. the
stream of immigration has brought to
our shores from every land types Of
| every possible character. Among
| these are the ScOtch-Irish, who have
given to American history such names
as Patrick Henry, James Monroe. An
drew Jackson, James X. Polk, James
Buchanan, U. S. Grant, r. B. Hayes.
Chester A. Arthur, Horace Greeley.
James G. Blaine, and William McKin-
ley. 1t is good blood and true, for in it
there is an Inheritance of courage, of
manliness, of imperishable love of lib
erty, and of undying fidelity to princi-
pie. And it was this blood which
flowed in the veins of our third mar
| tyred President.
| Mckinley was not born to wealth
neither did he know the poverty that
| inlpovishes, stunts and kills. He was
of that great middle class which build
up this Nation. His father was a me-
chanic and manufacturer in iron-a
| strong, rugged character giving all
| that strength to his family with de-
votion equalled, but not exceIled by his
| illustrious son. While his home did
| not know the ease which comes from
wealth, it did know the culture, refine
| ment and courtesy that are born in the
| home of an honest man where that
sweetest and noblest queen of the
world presides-an American, Christian
| mother. Mckinley was thus born
we'll; noble past urged him on and
up; he was trained wisely, for the iron
and courage and honor of his Scotch
| Irish ancestry entered into his life. He
was born at an opportune time to give
these great qualities a chance, and in
| a place best calculated to inspire to
noble effort. In baby days the eyes Of
| a Christian mother smiled back into
his, and the songs of Zion on her lips
| huShed him to sleep .oat eventide. In
| his early youth he became a disciple
| of the Nazarene and was taught by
| piouS example the eternal might and
wisdom "the Golden Rule" Born in
| the great Western Reserve with it's
| New England atmosphere, it's roomy
extent, it's open fields, its mighty land
scapes. and it's boundless opportuni-
| ties; surrounded with the air of social,
| political and industrial discussion, he
appeared just as the clouds were grow
| ing black above the Nations horizon,
when statesmen were becoming weak,
and strong men were about to falter.
The enemies of the Union were proud,
defiant and insolent; the true, the
tried and the brave men were looking
into each others eyes to read there a
| strange, new lesson of character. In
such a home, with such surroundings
| William MpKin-
ley's childhood was passing. The pub
lie schools secured by the land
| grants of one square mile in every
| township by the ordinance of 1775 and
| 1877. afforded the boy the very best
(McKinley said in 1896, The hope and
safety of the Republic must rest upon
the great public school system.D
Then he fitted for college at the old
time Conference Seminary at Poland,
Ohio, under wise Christian teachers.
A college course was not for this
youth of the great Western Reserve:
few terms of school teaching, few
months in the postoffice to secure the
money to pay his way in college and
then his naturalization at Allegheny
Collese-then this boy of scarcely
|
Poland of Sumpter, the flag in the dust,
and the Unions peril, then the stored-up
energies Of generations of patriotic
blood burst forth and the student was
a soldier: that record you know; a
private, commissary sergeant, sec
ond lieutenant. first lieutenant,
captain, a major:-how simple, how
easy. how common place. But go
back and see the two ships anchored,
the one at jamestown and the other at
Plymouth, and watch the two princi-
pies as they grow from the slight sow
ing at these points on the Atlantic
coast. Stand in the United States Sen
ate as there they contend for su-
premacv: sail with Lincoln down the
: Mississippi and mark the cruelty of one
system: go to New England and see
, the stern faces of the sons of the Pill
grims grow sterner; see the black curse
in the Southland and look you there
see the heavy skirmish lines are clos
ing in for the last, giant grappel over
the free soil of the great Northwest
) See. a tall. solemn visaged man comes
TO the White House. Quickly the
arena of the contest has changed from
the bustirgs and the forem to the bat
II i, ~ yricpn-pQn oh If is