It was a tremendous lesson and had a far-reaching influence. In the future, although McKinley thought as much of his friends as ever, he signed no notes, or in fact any documents, public or private, until he was absolutely sure of what he was doing.
"I was entirely unsuspecting," he told a close friend. "Mr. Walker and I had been great friends. I thought it my duty to assist him all I could."
Some of his political enemies endeavored to make capital out of this failure by calling McKinley a bad business man and one not fit to occupy such an important position as governor. But this report was soon exploded by a gentleman in high financial circles, who gave it out that the failure of R. L. Walker was entirely unexpected, and that he himself would have indorsed notes equal to those indorsed by McKinley, had he been called upon to do so. As for his great misfortune, it has been said, and very likely with wisdom, that it strengthened his future hold upon the American people as nothing else could have done, for it made him known as a man
