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Mr. McKinley died on September 14,
eight days after the two bullets of an assassin had been fired at
him, when he was shaking hands with [673][674]
the people in the Pan-American Exposition. Everybody knows the story
of the shooting, the hoped-for recovery, the relapse, the death,
the mourning, the state funeral, the interment at Canton, and the
assumption of power by President Roosevelt. How well the lesson
will be learned that law is not yet able, in this country or any
other, to prevent assassinations and other high crimes we do not
know. Attempts will be made, and properly, in many states, to pass
laws to repress the carrying of concealed weapons, and especially
to prevent the meeting together of men banded to strike at the vitals
of government. Foes of all government seem to abound, especially
in the large cities, and certainly they will not be permitted to
congregate and to promote and publish at will their pernicious doctrines.
For why should they? A government of law can only stand when it
is founded upon a respect for law. But, alas! there can be no legal
panacea for similar crimes in the future. Murders will never cease
while men are depraved. We have plenty of laws to repress such acts
of crime as this at Buffalo, but they are of no effect on fiends
in human shape. It is a sad commentary on our civilization that
thrice within forty years this nation, which is the freest of oppression
under the skies, has had its chief ruler assassinated. Not one monarchy
can show such a record as that.
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