The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-14
The Fourteenth OF September, 1901.

This is the second anniversary OF the
death of WILLIAM MCKINLEY. and the
two years that have elapsed since that
deplorable misfortune have in no wise
attenuated it.
We knew WILLIAM MCKINLEY before
he was sent to Congress, and ne was a
decent man and an inconspicuous citi-
zen. We knew him when he represented
his State in Washington, and there was
nothing brilliant about him. He was
a good, ordinary member Of Congress,
with fair capacity for work. clear,
sharp eve for whatever WIS worth see
ing, a comprehensive amiability, and as
little of the statesman in his makeup
as might be. His Identification with
tariff legislation gave him more notoriety
than popularity, and was indeed more
nominal than actual, while his career
in his own State did little or nothing to
accentuate his character. He came to
the Presidency politician indifferently
chastened by calumny, as respectable
as any there were and entirely common
place.
From the day that WILLIAM MCKIN-
LEY entered the White House to the day
he was murdered he never ceased to
grow. If ever man was clothed with
the Presidency it was WILLIAM MCK1N-
LEY. His mind expanded beyond belief.
The simplicity the lucidity, the breadth
and the humanity of his intellectual
scope were amazing His tone was one
of serious exaltation tempered by an
exceeding kindness. 1t was marvel
lolls to see the statesman emerge from
the politician, to witness, step by step,
the evolution of MCKINLEY the President
The very physical aspect of the man
changed One would think he had in
creased in stature.
There we're times then in the White
House that tried mems souls, times of
such perplexity that it seemed beyond
man to choose any path whithersoever,
and it was then that the mind of WILLIAM
MCKINLEY was inscr,ltable in its proc
esses. Out of what to all Others was
chaos, peril and confusion, he seized,
one by one, with unerring decision, the
threads of wisdom; and often, to those
who looked on, it was as il the force that
worked was more than his, more than
human.
But there was the man. He put on the
Presidency like well worn cloak and
he wore it in such fashion that the whole
nation took of its hat to him as being by
nature the First American. the man for
the place, the man by right as well as by
choice. It could do no more for him
than make him President, but it gave
him its confidence, its esteem and its
affection as it gave them to no other
President in his lifetime-no, not LIN
COLIN, not WASHINGTON. No one was
ever President Of the whole American
people as WILLIAM MCKINLEY was.
Such was the progress of simple
American citizen, from the people,
through the White House, to his grave
With this idea Of what it really means to
be the President Of the United States,
to our humble way of thinking the great
est Of all earthly distinctions, we threw
prudence and reserve to the winds and
plunged headlong to the conviction that
what the place had done for one man it
would do for. another. We knew, or
thought we knew, all the disabilities of
THEODORE ROOSEVELT; we had ever had
an indulgent and an oblivious eye to the
ebullitons of his perennial youth, and
had, in good faith, set all his mistakes and
all his shortcomings down to boyish
lIHptlloo WHICH ilc ilusI ucCcoSdlH ny out-
grow and put away from him.
If ever. it seemed 10 US, a man had
an invocation to sobriety OF the mind
to the placement within him Of every
selfish or personal inclination, it was
THEODORE ROOSEVELT in the fearful
circumstances Of his accession. 1t was
impossible that he should be insensible
to them: MCKINLEY, the President, a
man illIstriOus in the eyes Of all man
kind, noble in every relation OF life
public and private, great and com
handing world-hgure, suddenly assassi-
mated obiterated wiped out Of exist
ence by thunderbolt Of crime, and he,
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, in his placel
IL might shake the reason Of many a
man, but none surely could escape the
overwhelming significance Of IL, It's re-
sponsibiity, its moral dimensions.
And so We were certain that il there
were any man alive that could rise to
the office, expand TO its every require
ment and be himself as great IA his
place, IL Was THEODORE ROOSEVELT