

And State Papers 241 



mankind that there should exist creatures so foul 

 that one among them should strike at so noble a 

 life. 



We are gathered together to-night to recall his 

 memory, to pay our tribute of respect to the great 

 chief and leader who fell in the harness, who was 

 stricken down while his eyes were bright with "the 

 light that tells of triumph tasted." We can honor 

 him best by the way we show in actual deed that 

 we have taken to heart the lessons of his life. We 

 must strive to achieve, each in the measure that he 

 can, something of the qualities which made Presi 

 dent McKinley a leader of men, a mighty power for 

 good his strength, his courage, his courtesy and 

 dignity, his sense of justice, his ever-present kindli 

 ness and regard for the rights of others. He won 

 greatness by meeting and solving the issues as they 

 arose not by shirking them meeting them with 

 wisdom, with the exercise of the most skilful and 

 cautious judgment, but with fearless resolution when 

 the time of crisis came. He met each crisis on its 

 own merits; he never sought excuse for shirking a 

 task in the fact that it was different from the one 

 he had expected to face. The long public career, 

 which opened when as a boy he carried a musket in 

 the ranks and closed when as a man in the prime 

 of his intellectual- strength he stood among the 

 world's chief statesmen, came to what it was be 

 cause he treated each triumph as opening the road 

 to fresh effort, not as an excuse for ceasing from 

 effort. He undertook mighty tasks. Some of them 



