The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1905-02-03

as imminent. is was transferred to
his successor glowing, living. spien-
! did fact! 1e aa
nor the greatest lesson that McKin-
| ley learned in war That greatest les
son was reverence for liberty, regulat-
! ed by law, and a belief as deep as the
nature of man that the last great ex-
emplification and province of liberty
regulated by law Is in the American
union; that while forms of governs
ment elsewhere may change. and de-
tails here be altered, yet there is not,
there will not be, there must not be.
an abandonment of the high ideals
which have ruled the councils of the
American nation. And so to the end
he stood devoted, in all of it's entirety.
to the integrity of the union and the
true grandeur of the nation, to the
laws, the constitution. and the well
fare of the people.
| But he learned another lesson scarce
less tremendous; in the ranks Of the
great army were held councils as pro-
found as those of the generals. They
did not result in great strategic cam
paigns, but they fixed for generations,
and let us hope forever. a belief in
natural right of every man to the pur-
suit of happiness and to freedom from
organized wrong. and that other tru-
ism, that oppressive government is
natural emnity to mankind. There
never was philosophers school that SO
fixed these elemental beliefs in the
human thought as did the discussions
around the campfres of the army Of
freedom. Why else should freemen
strive? Why else should women weepR
Why else all the pain and cost and
blood and tears? And the plea Of the
first murderer, Am | my brotherss
keeper?" was repudiated by q soldiery
who believed that men were brothers
the world around. So it befel that when
the cry of Cuba appealed to God the
old trumpet rang out the old notes,
the old ranks were reformed, and Nc
k1nley found a vast array from every
section ready for war of humanity;
and at the head of the array the prt-
vate of 81, the subaltern of '65.
1.
came the broad and elevated vision OF
reconcilement and national fraternity.
It was for these that the war in which
: he bore his part was waged--not for a
vulgar conquest, not for bloody glory,
: but that the country might be through
all the centuries to come the home of
l brothers, and that the bloody seam in
l the garment of the Nation might he
: rolled away and forgotten in the per-
J, fectness Of its new and splendid habil-
, iments. And so in the high Office to
e which he was exalted he recognized
e the citizenship and common right Of
+ all Americans; he put by bitterness
5 and resentments, remembering and
1 cherlshing the great words of the
= Great Chief of our armies; and to him
] the solemn adjuration Let us have
: peace" meant peace not as an armed
h truce, but peace arising out Of mutu-
II al concessions, mutual forbearances.
q of forgiveness, of Kindly oblivion, and
= above all of a great common interest
g subserved by a common and loving
! government. When Grant died, the
a soldiery, North and South, mourned
d a great leader fallen, great foeman
A dead; when Mckinley fell, the people
q wept over an able, honored and be-
9 loved friend; and the difference In
:, the sentiments marks the even pro-
a cesses of the intervening years which
; ALL largely by the administration of
Mckinley himself, bore balm and so,
- lace to unhealed wounds. His was O
=, great opportunity, and greatly did he
fulfil It,; his was the opportunity OF
fulfill 1t; his was the opportunity oi
ment; his was the opportunity of turn.
ing the tremendous strength of. the
&C united Nation into the common chan
nels of a mutual struggle; and as he
II had listened to Lincoln and Grant in
e their words of pacihcation, so he him
self was permeated by their spirit and
8 upborne by their lofty purpose.
q No man can be a great and mag
q nanimous soldier unless he has in him
!; some of the elements of a great relig.
d ion. All that Mckinley did in the way
If Of reconcilement and restoration was
!: done in pursuance of the maxims Of
e the Master, whose last word, spoken
d nineteen hundred years ago, found
ID echo at the bedside of this dying Pres,
d ident who at the moment of his assas,
d sination stayed the hand of violence
+. upraised against his murderer, and
If who with his last breath whispered
= in the ears of his faithful wife, "God's
Is will, not ours, be done" Herein was
IS the full fruition Of the teaching which
IL the Indiana soldier on Gettysburg
% field felt, which had illumined Mo
N Kinley's peaceful days and which gilds
re his tomb with that divine light kin
Ie died on Calvary so long ago.
q 1t is well with Mckinley now. Nc
" griefs, no troubles vex; no ills, no dan
!. phrs coma Rnt uastnrdnu nj his ,cor,,.