Meeting of the Illinois Bankers [excerpt]

     The dates for which the Twenty-seventh Annual Convention of the American Bankers’ Association was originally called were September 24th, 25th, and 26th, but the sad death on September 14th of our beloved and martyred President, through violence by the hand of a foul assassin, plunged our nation into such grief and gloom and had such a paralyzing effect on business, that the officers of the Association, not then knowing when Mr. McKinley was to be buried, and being unable to foresee the trend of events for the immediate future, deemed it wise to postpone the convention indefinitely.
     Inasmuch as Mr. McKinley’s interment occurred at an [262][263] early date, and since he was succeeded as President by such an able and trusted man as Mr. Roosevelt, who at once announced his intentions of retaining as his cabinet the efficient gentlemen who had been Mr. McKinley’s advisers, with the further fact that he proclaimed it as his desire to continue, as nearly as would be possible for him to do so, the policies of Mr. McKinley, under which the business interests of the country had prospered in such a large measure, at once dissipated the shadow that hovered over the business world, and the officers of the Association, feeling certain that there would be no disturbance in financial matters, and believing that bankers could safely leave their business for a brief period, called the convention to meet in Milwaukee on October 14th, 15th, and 16th.