The New President

“God reigns and the Government at Washington still lives” was the exclamation of Garfield when he heard of the first political assassination in our land. We who have lived to witness the third have especial reason to be grateful that a man so stamped with every quality of fitness for his high office, so tried and faithful, and withal so young and abounding in the vigor of robust manhood, has succeeded William McKinley. No more trying situation in which to enter upon the duties of a great position can be conceived than that which called Johnson, Arthur, and Roosevelt to the presidency. If there was any failure on the part of either of the first named to rise to the dignity and full responsibility of the office, we feel quite sure that that failure will not be repeated now. If any man might have competed with President McKinley for the nomination in the last Republican convention it would have been Theodore Roosevelt; and now, if the popular will were to be consulted as to the successor of the martyred statesman, the choice would fall on Roosevelt as unmistakably as if he had been named for the office of Vice-President with full foreknowledge of the event he more than all other men must deplore. This could not be said of either Johnson or Arthur, but of President Roosevelt it is true that he rules by the choice of the people.