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The Call to a Day of Mourning
The new President’s first public utterance to the people of the
nation was issued on the 14th, and is a call to a day of national
mourning. It reads thus:
A terrible bereavement has befallen
our people. The President of the United States has been struck
down; a crime committed not only against the chief magistrate,
but against every law-abiding and liberty-loving citizen. President
McKinley crowned a life of largest love for his fellowmen, of
most earnest endeavor for their welfare, by a death of Christian
fortitude, and both the way in which he lived his life and the
way in which, in the supreme hour of trial, he met his death,
will remain forever a precious heritage of our people. It is
meet that we as a nation express our abiding love and reverence
for his life, our deep sorrow for his untimely death.
Now, therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt,
President of the United States of America, do appoint Thursday
next, Sept. 19, the day in which the body of the dead President
will be laid in its last earthly resting place, as a day of
mourning and prayer throughout the United States. I earnestly
recommend all the people to assemble on that day in their respective
places of divine worship, there to bow down in submission to
the will of Almighty God, and to pay out of full hearts their
homage of love and reverence to the great and good President
whose death has smitten the nation with bitter grief.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto
set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Buffalo, the 14th day of September, A. D.
One Thousand Nine Hundred and One, and of the independence of
the United States the One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth.
(Seal)
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T R.
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| By the President,
J H, |
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Secretary of State.
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