Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1903-02-05

course, looking back, II is Eow easS
to see that it would have been both
absurd and wicked to abandon the
Philippine archipelago and let the
scores of different tribes-Christian
Mohammedan and pagan, in every
stage of semi-Asiatic barbaris sm-turn
the islands into a welter of bloody say
agery with the absolute certainty that
some strong power would have TO
step in and take possession. But
though now it is easy enough to see
that our duty was to stay in the is
lands, TO put down the insurrectlon
by force of arms, and then to es-
tablish freedom-giving civil govern
ment, it needed genuine statesman
ship to see this and to act accord
ingly at the time of the first revolt.
\ weaker and less far-sighted man
than President Mckinley would have
shrunk from a task very difficult i'll
itself, and certain to furnish occa
sion for attack and misrepresenta+
tion no less than for honest mis-
understanding. But President Nc
KinlCy never finched. He refused to
consider the thought of abandoning
our duty in our new possessions.
While sedulously endeavoring to act
with the utmost humanity toward
the insurrectionists, he never fai-
tered in the determination to put
them down by force of arms, alike
for the sake of our own interests and
honor, and for the sake of the in
terest of the islanders, and particu-
iarly of the great numbers of friend
ly natives, including those most high
ly civilized, for whom abandonment
by us would have meant ruin and
death. Again his policy was most
amply vindicated. Peace has come 10
the islands, together with a greater
measure of individual liberty and
self-government than they have ever
before known. All the tasks set us
as a result of the war with Spain
have so far been well and honorably
accomplished, and as a result this
nation stands higher than ever be-
fore among the nations of mankind
President McKinley's second cam
paign was fought mainly on the is
sue of approving what he had done
in his first administration, and spe-
officially what he had done as re-
CARDS these problems springing out
of the war with Spain. The result
was that the popular verdict in his
favor was more overwhelming than
it had been before.
The Tragedy at Buffalo.
No other president in our history
has seen high and honorable effort
crowned with more conspicuous per-
sonal success. No other president en-
tered upon his second term feeling
such a right to profound and peace
full satisfaction. Then, by stroke
of horror, so strange in it's fantas-
tic iniquity as to stand unique in
the black annals of crime, he was
struck down. The brave, strong, gen
tie heart was stilled forever, and
word was brought to the woman who
wept that she was to walk thence
forth alone in the shadow. The hid
eous infamy of the deed shocked the
nation to its depths, for the man
thus struck at was in a peculiar sense
the champion of the plain people, in
a peculiar sense the representative
and the exponent of those ideals
which, if we live up to them, will
make, as they have largely made, our
country a blessed refuge for all who
strive to do right and to live their
lives simply and well as light is given
them. The nation was stunned, and
the people mourned with a sense of
bitter bereavement because they had
lost man whose heart beat for them
as the heart of Lincoln once had
beaten. We did right to mourn; for
the loss was ours, not his. lie died
in the golden fullnesS of his tri-
umph. He died victorious in that
highest of all kinds of strife-the
strife for an ampler. iuster and more
generous national life. For him the
laurel; but woe for those whom he
left behind; woe to the nation that
lost him.
His Legacy to His Countrymcn.
We are gathered together tonight
to recall his memory, to pay our trib-
ute of respect to the great chief and