Tribute to President McKinley
Imperative, accumulative, holy demands rested on the life and labors of our late beloved President, William McKinley. Presiding over the destinies of a nation meant more to him than a mere rehearsal of aphorisms, a uniting of breaches soon to widen, a quiet assent or dissent. His work began with heavy strokes, measured movements, reaching from the infinitesimal to the infinite. It began by warming the marble of politics into zeal according to wisdom, quenching the volcanoes of partizanship, and uniting the interests of all peoples; and it ended with a universal good overcoming evil.
His home relations enfolded a wealth of affection, — a tenderness not talked but felt and lived. His humanity, weighed in the, scales of divinity, was not found wanting. His public intent was uniform, consistent, sympathetic, and so far as it fathomed the abyss of difficulties was wise, brave, unselfed. May his history waken a tone of truth that shall reverberate, renew euphony, emphasize humane power, and bear its banner into the vast forever.
While our nation's ensign of peace and prosperity waves over land and sea, while her reapers are strong, her sheaves garnered, her treasury filled, she is suddenly stricken, — called to mourn the loss of her renowned leader! Tears blend with her triumphs. She stops to think, to mourn, yea, to pray, that the God of harvests send her more laborers, who, while they work for their own country, shall sacredly regard the liberty of other peoples and the rights of man.
