Mr. Wolcott’s Friendships [excerpt]

     When, in 1901, McKinley succumbed to the wound inflicted by an irresponsible assassin’s bullet, Mr. Wolcott said in an interview:

     The tragic death of President McKinley is too recent, and my feeling of personal grief too great, for me to care at this time to dwell upon it. He was the one man in this country against whom no breast could harbor malice; and his probity and rectitude of purpose and nobility of character will serve as an example to young American manhood for all time. I was abroad at the time of his assassination, and, notwithstanding the jealousies and apprehension which our commercial supremacy has aroused, it was touching to an American to witness how all Europe shared our grief and sympathized in our loss.