President McKinley

——————————

Somerville, New Jersey.          

TO MRS. MCKINLEY:
     The Daughters of the American Revolution of New Jersey offer unto you our tender love and sympathy. Your loss—our loss. Your grief—our grief. May the everlasting arms of mercy enfold you.

——————————

     DURING the week wherein the President, Mr. McKinley, lay prone, stricken and suffering, the Nation was on its knees in prayer for his recovery. Now that God has seen fit to take him unto Himself and “gather him unto his Fathers,” the country is bowed in an anguished sense of loss, and all classes of American citizens—all men, women and children—grieve together.
     Remembering that the Daughters of the American Revolution are descendants of the forefathers who made this a Nation, who died that it might live, it seems not unfitting that members of the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution should testify their grief at the death of the Nation’s head, by wearing an unostentatious evidence of mourning. The regent of the New York City Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, therefore suggests that each member of the chapter wear a small badge of mourning upon the left breast, for a period of thirty days from this, the date of the President’s death, September 14, 1901. Such badge may consist of a small piece of crêpe, or soft black material, pinned by the insignia of the Daughters of the American Revolution or the pin of the New York City Chap- [443][444] ter, Daughters of the American Revolution, or by a miniature flag of the Nation.
     Commingling with the horror of the dastard deed which brought death to the country’s chief, and the natural distress of all citizens, is a peculiar and poignant grief felt by women. One of their sister-women is cruelly bereft—she may well cry aloud: “Was ever sorrow like unto my sorrow?” The lover who became a husband, the husband who remained a lover, the man perfect in his relations to the woman, torn from the arms of a wife whose sole source of light and life he has been!
     Let every woman pray for peace to that bereaved heart!
     On September 7, immediately following the shooting of the President, the regent of the New York City Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, sent the following telegram to Mrs. McKinley:

     “Four hundred New York women, who are your sister-Americans, share to-day your anxiety and your prayers for the President’s recovery.”

    (Signed)

E. MCLEAN (Mrs. Donald McLean),               
Regent New York City Chapter, Daughters American Revolution.          

     Expressions of the present profound sympathy of the chapter will be duly forwarded at the proper time.
     I, your regent, stretch forth my hands to every member of our New York City Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, that, together, we may sorrow in this hour of our Country’s woe, and pray for our Country’s weal.

EMILY N. RITCHIE MCLEAN (Mrs. Donald McLean),               
Regent N. Y. C. C., D. A. R.          

     Cooperstown, N. Y., September 14, 1901.

——————————

     MARY FLOYD TALLMADGE CHAPTER of Litchfield, Connecticut, at the regular meeting, September 17th, passed the following resolutions:

     Resolved, That we, the Mary Floyd Tallmadge Chapter, of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, whose watchword is patriotism and whose first concern is for all that affects the welfare of our beloved country, do here record our par- [444][445] ticipation in the deep sorrow that has come upon the nation. We desire to express our personal grief for the loss of him who, in his life and in his death, was a willing sacrifice to his country’s service; who tried to learn the will of the people who chose him as their chief representative, and having learned it to fulfill it with a faithfulness which won the confidence of all. We honor him for his steadfastness in the paths of duty and patriotism; for his simple manliness, his loyalty and truth, his gentleness and dignity in all the public and private walks of life; for his courage and Christian forbearance in the hour of his assassination; we shall ever preserve his memory in love and reverence, and shall regard his cruel death with horror and indignation; and we do here express our detestation of a crime so unspeakably abhorrent and inhuman.
     Resolved, That we deplore the existence in our midst of men and women so benighted as to be dead to all sense of law and order; dead to all sense of gratitude toward a country which affords them a refuge from the oppressor and an opportunity to begin life afresh under the protection of that freedom which they abuse; and dead to all instincts of humanity in that they murder and incite to murder those whose goodness and greatness they cannot understand.
     Resolved, That hereafter the nation should more strictly guard him whom it entrusts with its welfare and its destinies; that in our opinion an assault upon the life of the president of the United States, whether successful or unsuccessful, whether perpetrated in times of war or times of peace, is an assault upon the life of this nation, and as such is as much an act of high treason as any assault upon United States troops or the giving of aid and comfort to an enemy in times of war; that such assault should come within the jurisdiction of the federal courts, and be punishable therein as an act of treason against the nation;
     Resolved, That it is now the duty of every American citizen to further such laws as shall hereafter prevent the recurrence of a calamity which has now come upon us for the third time within the life of a single generation; that it is our duty to stamp out anarchy’s fiendish and unholy cult, and not only to make an example of the misguided and infatuated assassin, but also to bring to just retribution those who incite him to his hideous crime against society.
     Resolved, That our hearts go out in grief and sympathy to the wife whose sorrow and bereavement are greater even than that of the nation; and that we bid God-speed to him, our new president, so suddenly and terribly called to assume the burden and responsibilities of his high station.

ELIZABETH C. BARNEY BUEL,               
Regent.