Address at the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, N.Y.,
on Railroad Day, September 28, 1901 [excerpt]

     We are here to visit this superb exhibition of the peaceful development of our own and of our sister countries of North and South America. But we are in the hall where President McKinley was so treacherously and foully assassinated. We cannot adjourn without expressing our horror of the murder, and hope for legislation which will specially meet this worst of crimes, and our love and reverence for our martyred President. There is but one sentiment among those who voted for and those who voted against him. Americans loved William McKinley. His domestic life and tender devotion to an invalid wife are part of [49][50] every American home. He was always a warm friend of railroad men, and appointed a locomotive engineer to be Third Assistant Postmaster General, one of the most responsible positions in the Government. During his administration, by reason of increased prosperity, one hundred and ninety-four thousand additional men have been placed on the pay rolls of the railways, and one hundred and ten millions of dollars more paid yearly in wages. His past is history, and an important and brilliant chapter of the most beneficent era in our country’s life. Without prejudice or partisanship, we can all view with pride the great part he has played in the drama of nations. His legacy to his countrymen is the example of the acceptance and performance of every duty, public and private, with buoyant cheerfulness and scrupulous fidelity. He never complained of his lot or of his task, but joyously did the work before him. “It is God’s will” was the motto of his life, as it was the consolation in his death. He was a soldier of the cross without cant or rant or fads or fanaticism. It was this idea which lifted him from the ranks to be major of his regiment before he was of age, which gave him the leadership in the House of Representatives, which carried him into the Presidency and gave his administration such marvelous success. It made his last hours and dying words most pathetic, fullest of courage and resignation, and most calmly heroic. He died as he had lived—in the broadest and highest sense—a Christian and a patriot.