234 Presidential Addresses 



every man who fought therein. He who when 

 little more than a boy had seen the grim steadfast 

 ness which after four years of giant struggle re 

 stored the Union and freed the slaves was not there 

 after to be daunted by danger or frightened out of 

 his belief in the great destiny of our people. 



Some years after the war closed McKinley came 

 to Congress, and rose, during a succession of terms, 

 to leadership in his party in the lower House. He 

 also became Governor of his native State, Ohio. 

 During this varied service he received practical 

 training of the kind most valuable to him when he 

 became Chief Executive of the Nation. To the 

 high faith of his early years was added the capacity 

 to realize his ideals, to work with his fellow-men at 

 the same time that he led them. 



President McKinley's rise to greatness had in it 

 nothing of the sudden, nothing of the unexpected 

 or seemingly accidental. Throughout his long term 

 of service in Congress there was a steady increase 

 alike in his power of leadership and in the recogni 

 tion of that power both by his associates in public 

 life and by the public itself. Session after session 

 his influence in the House grew greater; his party 

 antagonists grew to look upon him with constantly 

 increasing respect, his party friends with constantly 

 increasing faith and admiration. Eight years be 

 fore he was nominated for President he was al 

 ready considered a Presidential possibility. Four 

 years before he was nominated only his own high 

 sense of honor prevented his being made a formida- 



