ry of
our country, for the purpose of illustrating the short story that I
have to tell you and to point a moral and adorn a tale which may not
be without value to us. For it is true that

"Lives of great men all remind us
We may make our lives sublime,
And departing leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time."

William McKinley was the incarnation, not only of the possibilities of
the humblest American boy who, by diligence, integrity and devotion to
the best interests of the country, rose by steady strides to the
highest dignities in the gift of the people, but he was also the
embodiment of that grand sweep of American business genius which has
spread over the world, and promises to predominate it. If this man who
now rests from his labors with his honors full upon him represented
anything, it was the logic of business development in its largest and
best sense, for, as Governor of Ohio and member in Congress and
President of the United States, his name is indissolubly associated
with the commercial promotion, protection and expansion of American
trade.

He was not only a great executive and a great legislator, but, when
yet a youth, when the great Republic was in the agony of possible
dissolution, he heroically shouldered a musket and went to the front
as a private to preserve the union of the states bequeathed to us by
the noble fathers and the heroism of the American revolutionary
soldier in that memorable struggle, the first victim of which was
Crispus Attucks, the lineaments of whose personality have been
chiseled in marble and will stand a monument upon Boston Common, to
show a "Man's a man for a' that and a' that," and that the rank is but
the guinea's stamp.

Ah, well, we faithful hearts and true, who were never false to a
friend, who have always loved the flag, even when the flag waved not
over us, who fought with Washington at Valley Forge and with Perry at
Lake Erie, with Jackson at New Orleans, with Shaw at Fort Wagner, and
with Butler at New Market Heights, who went up San Juan Hill with
Theodore Roosevelt and the immortal Rough Riders and followed little
Joe Wheeler in Luzon, who, although a Southern brigadier, as a
reconstructed unionist in a reunited country showed in Cuba and Manila
that he had the same regard for a black soldier as for a white one
when he was loyal to the flag and faithful to his country, are here to
mourn our loss. This great heart that loved his countr