The Character and Career of William McKinley

President McKinley had not only fewer enemies, but he also had a greater number of attached and devoted friends, than any other man who has ever been in American public life. This magazine,—in personal character sketches, in contributed reviews of his public policies and achievements, and in editorial comment upon almost countless occasions,—has published to the world the grounds on which it has believed William McKinley to be entitled to the hearty support and admiration of his countrymen. Its bound volumes for years past are in large part a history of William McKinley and his times. We find nothing whatever to modify or revise in the many and extended estimates of his career, his character, his statesmanship, and his services to the country that we have published. As a man, his nature was at once so sincere and so friendly that he not only made hosts of friends, but succeeded in keeping them. His habitual unselfishness and consideration for others not only made him admirable in his private life, but undoubtedly furnished one of the principal keys to his success in public affairs. He could consider public questions the better because of his own sincerity and disinterestedness, and he could work well with his colleagues when in Congress, and with his cabinet and with other public men while holding the office of President, because no complications arose out of defects or peculiarities in his nature or personal character.