President McKinley’s Death

     The untimely death of President McKinley, at the hands of an assassin, has filled the entire nation with a sadness scarcely paralleled in its history. Coming from the people, he stood as the representative of the highest type of American citizenship, and felt a pleasure in mingling with the people, characteristic of a man whose rise had been through such successive channels. Not only to the President himself was this a source of joy, but to the people as well, who could point with unconcealed pride to him as representing the possibilities to the individual in a government “of the people, for the people, and by the people.[”]
     Such accidents are, however, mere incidents in the growth of the human race in general, and it is safe to infer that their occurrence will not retard the steady advancement of democracy, nor prevent other Chief Magistrates of our nation from enjoying that freedom of intercourse with the people which their station, as representatives of the people entitle them. It will, however, stimulate the people to surround their representatives with more stringent safeguards, through the enactment of such laws as will prevent similar occurrences, save by the act of some of the numerous “harmless” lunatics.