McKinley’s Last Speech [excerpt]

     President McKinley’s speech at the Buffalo Exposition, his last, and by many considered his greatest, immediately aroused world wide interest. It became at once a leading theme in the editorial columns of our daily papers, and at the same time among the cable dispatches appeared extracts from the editorials of the most prominent European journals. Then suddenly, important though it had been declared to be, discussion of it was hushed; our nation was stunned by the terrible events that followed in the assassination and death of the man who had uttered the words. The declaration of the new president in the solemn hour of taking the oath of office that President McKinley’s policy should be followed absolutely unbroken, and his later declaration that the policy of the new administration should be based upon that speech, brought it again to attention. By nearly all who expressed themselves the sentiment of the speech was approved, as indicating an insight into the most vital facts of our commercial conditions. By a few it was condemned as showing inconsistency, by most applauded as showing the courage to turn whither new insight led. By none, however, was its importance belittled.