At the McKinley Memorial Ceremonies in the Capitol at Albany, March 4, 1902

     LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: We meet to-night to pay our tribute of respect to the memory of a man who in his life illustrated the possibilities of American manhood, to one who had by his devotion upon the field of battle and in the halls of our national legislature, as well as in the highest office within the gift of our people, won the respect and admiration of the world. The patriotic manner in which he met every question and every new responsibility that he was called upon to assume, marked him as a man of fearless character, whose devotion to his country was only measured by her needs. Springing, as is so often the case, from humble parentage, struggling with the vicissitudes and hardships of life, with indomitable courage he carved out for himself a name that will be long remembered and be inscribed upon the tablets of fame with those of other great Americans who had preceded him.
     Meeting his fate because in his person he typified the institutions which our forefathers had established, he passed from the active theatre of life with a faith and a fortitude [which] illustrated far better than words his belief [291][292] in an Omnipotent power. Dying, his deeds still live, and the evolution of government which has marked the successive generations of men still goes on and our country becomes stronger because of such lives and of such influences as characterized that of William McKinley. For the love of freedom and the ability to organize liberty into institutions is a feature which makes of America, of our country, a stable government that can withstand the shock of arms and the blows of anarchy. America and her institutions are a protest against all those who have and who do oppose freedom and the patriotism of her youth is the guarantee of her future. While therefore we mourn our loss, death has not robbed us of the influences which those who have labored for our country have left behind them as a heritage to our people.
     We are fortunate to have with us one whose privilege it was to have been associated with our martyred President during his lifetime, who has kindly consented to address you, and because of his old associations within our State, to speak for us as we lay upon the bier the flower of grateful recollection for one who is now but a memory. I take great pleasure in introducing to you the Honorable Charles Emory Smith, the orator of the evening.