Twenty-Ninth Annual Session of the American Health Association [excerpt]

Memorial Service for President McKinley. Held in the 74th Regiment Armory, Buffalo, N. Y.,
     September 19th, 1901, by the American Public Health Association.

     The meeting was called to order at 10 o’clock A. M., by the President, Dr. Benjamin Lee, who spoke as follows:
     This day, the day which the National and State authorities have set apart as a day of humiliation in commemoration of our late lamented President, the ordinary business of the Association will be entirely given up.
     There are, however, one or two matters which could be properly attended to which will take very little time before the resolutions are presented.
     The Secretary will read the resolution prepared by the Executive Committee to formulate resolutions. The Chair will call upon Dr. Holton as a member of that Committee to present the resolutions of respect to the memory of the late President.

Dr. Holton:
     Mr. President and gentlemen of the Association: Your [600][601] Committee appointed to grant resolutions on the death of President McKinley, beg leave to submit the following:

     RESOLVED, that the American Public Health Association has received with deep sorrow the intelligence of the sudden and tragic death of the beloved President of the United States.
     RESOLVED, that in President McKinley we recognize the highest type of modern civilization, a patriotic citizen, a Christian gentleman and a sagacious and enlightened statesman.
     RESOLVED, that we respectfully extend our heartfelt sympathy to Mrs. McKinley in this her hour of bereavement and to other members of the family.
     RESOLVED, that a copy of these resolutions be spread upon the records of this Association and given to the press for publication.

(Signed.)

BENJAMIN LEE, Chairman. WILLIAM BAILEY. HENRY D. HOLTON. FREDERICK MONTIZAMBERT. E. LICEAGO.

President:
     The Chair would suggest that before the motion is put, some members may like to express themselves in regard to the resolutions, and we will call upon Dr. Wm. Bailey.
     The Chair has but one word to say in this connection—he is in Heaven, we upon earth; therefore, let our words be few.

Dr. Wm. Baily’s address:
     Mr. President and Members of the Association: I feel that words fail me to express the depths of sorrow that we all feel. Yet it is a sad pleasure to me to speak a word on this occasion. As expressed, I think, well in our resolution, we recognize in the late President all that is best in modern civilization in every relation in life. As a man, as a statesman, as a soldier and as a Christian, and as to his family relations, we all doff our hats when we contemplate the loyalty of this man to his afflicted wife.
     Coming, as I do, from the South, I would like simply to call attention to the fact, that no man since the war—the civil war—has done as much as President McKinley to unify this country of ours. Without partisan bias, when it came to the Spanish war we find that a Wheeler, a Lee, a Breckenridge were his prominent agents in the carrying on of this war. So that to-day in the South, as never since ’60, have we had such a feeling toward a President or toward the flag of our country. So for this we may be thankful for this man. The very heinousness of the crime precludes almost its mention, and yet allow me to express in this presence that this country, since its organization, has always been open to receive everybody from other climes who desired to come to us. While that is still our wish for those who come for the betterment of themselves and mankind and who desire to become Americanized, adopting the principles of this government as their own, yet let me say that the day has come when it must be expressed that we have no place in this country for those who come with a view of promulgating principles that are so much at variance with the principles upon which this government is founded, and that there is no longer a place in this country for such spirits to come and concoct their damnable curses.
     Simply, then, and briefly, I would offer the seconding or the adoption of these resolutions in their full spirit, that we do recognize an irreparable loss, that we recognize in this man one worthy of our deepest love, and I am sure that we likewise congratulate ourselves and feelingly return thanks for the expressions that have come to us from our sister nations and, I might say, from the world.

Dr. C. P. Wilkinson:
     In seconding the resolutions I voice the sentiments of the people of the extreme South in the section from which I come. Our city was very recently very highly honored by a visit from our now deceased President. Our people turned to him with a smile and extended hands. They held out armfuls of flowers for the man, for the citizen and for the President. The same bells, Mr. President, that rung out paens of praise for that man are now tolling deeply as his body lies just about ready to be consigned to the tomb. There is no section of the country that feels more acutely and more bitterly the killing of President McKinley than does the South. He was their friend. As in the killing of Abraham Lincoln, in the excitement of war, the South was visited, was direly punished for any hand whish [sic] she might have had in that assassination, so, to-day, Mr. President, the South mourns the loss of that President, who was, since that time, the first to extend the open hand of fellowship and ask us to join in the house of our fathers in the Union.
     To-day, sir, we find no place for any reflections upon the previous history of any party, or any man in that party, but we do recognize the onward march of Wililam [sic] McKinley towards the prosperity, towards the peace, towards the protection of our citizens alone, regardless of our State or sectional birth.
     We mourn, Mr. President, to-day more than we can express, and, on behalf of the South, I join in the deepest regret that we have to pass these resoluions [sic], but, sir, with the most heartfelt earnestness in the truth of every word they express. (Applause).

     Appropriate addresses were likewise made by Mr. Bryce (Dominion of Canada) and Dr. Liceaga (Republic of Mexico).