Editor’s Note Book [excerpt]

     The dreadful blow which laid low William McKinley, the beloved president of our nation, was aimed at the principles upon which our republic is founded. Our fathers gave their lives for these principles and established this government that men might rule themselves and enjoy that more abundant liberty which is possible only under a republic. Its essential purpose is the establishment and maintainance of liberty by law, under which there can be no tyranny and no anarchy. This principle can only be kept by eternal vigilance. Our society was founded

     “To carry out the injunction of Washington in his farewell address to the American people, ‘To promote, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge,” thus developing an enlightened public opinion, and affording to young and old such advantages as shall develop in them the largest capacity for performing the duties of American citizens.
     “To cherish, maintain, and extend the institutions of American freedom, to foster true patriotism and love of country, and to aid in securing for mankind all the blessings of liberty.”

     The Daughters of the American Revolution have their duty to perform in this emergency. We must proceed along the lines which we have already laid out in the public schools and among our foreign population. But we must work with renewed zeal. Each chapter, by carefully looking over the field in their own vicinity, can no doubt find the work to do best suited to the needs of that place. The work of teaching an enlightened patriotism is as important as that our mothers did in Revolutionary times. The Daughters must not falter now. Let us work while it is day in the cause of liberty under law. “His will be done.”