William McKinley

               We are walking in the shadow of an awful crime to-day;
               This whole nation lifts its heart to God, while fervently we pray
               That we may patiently endure this hateful sin and shame,
               Which has struck our foremost citizen at the summit of his fame!

               If an enemy had done this on a field of carnage red,
               Or a known and hunted rebel with a price upon his head,
               It would then have been a mystery to every loyal heart,
               And a national affliction in which each would bear a part.

               But when the best-beloved of this noble, western land
               Left every sign of power and state to take the outstretched hand
               Of the simplest and the greatest—of the rich and poor alike—
               Oh what dastardly disloyalty at such a heart to strike!

               We have brought this awful evil on ourselves, my fellow-men;
               Let us pause, and well consider, lest it come about again,
               Lest love of place, and thirst for power, and greed for sordid wealth
               Shall undermine our Nation’s life, and drain away her health.

               For when Liberty grows License, and “free speech” sedition’s yell
               ’Tis time for all true-hearted men to stop and ponder well,
               And sweep with one great cleansing wave from all this broad domain,
               With the besom of destruction, this foul and deadly stain!

               From Alaska’s untrod solitudes in grandeur cold and still,
               To the sacred field of Concord, and the shaft of Bunker Hill,
               From our farthest northern limit to the sunny, southern lands
               Where new possessions wait us with open hearts and hands;

               Where’er that sacred symbol floats, the old “red, white and blue,”
               Men must and shall be in their hearts to that blest emblem true!
               This is no haunt for traitors—no rallying-place for crime,
               But our doors are open, and our hearts to true men all the time.

               Oh, Columbia! Oh, my Country! sitting bowed with humbled head!
               Scenes like these awaken memories of other loved and honored dead. [34][35]
               Thrice within a generation has the foul assassin’s hand
               Cast the shadow of a causeless crime o’er our beloved land!

               It shall be so no longer! Oh! arise in all thy might;
               Not in childish spite or temper, but with power that comes from right,
               Break and crush this noisome parasite on the land of Freedom’s birth,
               Nor in mistaken kindness shield the off-scourings of the earth!

               Strike with a might that shall appal [sic] each slinking anarchist
               And grind e’en into atoms the man who dares resist!
               All this people wait such action, and will fortify thy strength,
               With thy new leader—brighter hopes—to nobler deeds at length!

                    HYDE PARK, Sept. 14, 1901.