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Current History [excerpt]
T event
of the month which causes all others to dwindle into insignificance
was the death of President McKinley. He was shot by Leon Czolgosz
on the afternoon of September 6th and died at 2:15 a. m. September
14th. He was the twenty-fifth president and universally esteemed
for his sterling manhood. History will accord him high rank
not only because he was a martyr, but also because he was a just
man.
[omit]
T concluding
sentences of President McKinley’s speech at Buffalo on the day before
his assassination became his farewell address to his own people
and to the world and will live as the expression of a noble generous
soul:
“Let us ever remember that our interest
is in concord, not conflict; and that our real eminence rests in
the victories of peace, not those of war. We hope that all who are
represented here may be moved to higher and nobler effort for their
own and the world’s good and that out of this city may come not
only greater commerce and trade for us all, but more essential than
these, relations of mutual respect, confidence, and friendship which
will deepen and endure. Our earnest [505][506]
prayer is that God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness,
and peace to all our neighbors and like blessings to all the peoples
and powers of earth.”
[omit]
I the
event of President Roosevelt’s death the succession to the presidency
would fall upon members of the cabinet in the following order: the
secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury, the secretary
of war, the attorney general, the postmaster general, the secretary
of the navy, and the secretary of the interior. The department of
agriculture was not created at the time of the passage of this law
(1884) but Secretary Wilson would not in any event be eligible to
the office as he was not born in this country.
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