A Dinner with Heroes [excerpt]

     Replying to the toast, “The President of the United States,” Mr. John Wanamaker, recalling the assassination of President McKinley at Buffalo, said:
     “A country from sea to sea, and from the mountains to the Gulf, shook and shuddered at the awful martyrdom upon the altar of liberty, and all eyes turned to the young man who stood next to the grave of the great McKinley. In the solemnity of a great crisis, conscious of the overwhelming responsibility, with great dignity, surrounded by [276][277] the old counsellors [sic] of McKinley, full of the spirit and policy of his administration, this young man with the fear of God in his heart and love for all the people in his soul, bowed his heart to God’s will, and bowed his shoulders to whatever burden it brought with it. The years of study and the months of the mountains, gave him a well-stored mind, large health, and a ready hand, and the heroic soldier of San Juan, was sealed by the trust and homage of the people, as the executor of the lamented William McKinley, and still more, the administrator of the will of the people of the United States.”