The Assassination of President McKinley

     It is with a feeling of the deepest sorrow and regret that we have to record the committal of a foul and dastardly crime, as a consequence of which the nation has been deprived of its President, and a kindly, courteous gentleman has been removed from our midst. On September 6th, whilst greeting the people assembled to do him honor at the Pan American Exposition at Buffalo, President McKinley was shot down by an avowed anarchist who came forward to shake his hand. After lingering until the 13th of September, the President died at Buffalo amidst the deepest sorrow of people of all classes and shades of politics. Whether agreeing with the political views of the deceased President or not, people all over the country had learnt to regard him with affection and respect for his kindly, courteous bearing towards all and his evident desire to do what in him lay for the advancement of the interests of the nation and the welfare of the people of every section. We do not propose in this brief notice to enter upon a discussion of the question of any of the causes which may have led up to this terrible crime, but we cannot conceal from ourselves the conviction that it is in some sense the outcome of that perversion of liberty into license which is becoming more patent from day to day, and which, we regret to say is, in our opinion, much advanced by a large section of the press of the country, which day by day holds up to ridicule and contempt those placed in positions of authority and power, and thus engenders in the unthinking masses a passion to revenge themselves for fancied grievances by striking in one way or another at all in power. These journals, and too many people, forget the fact that there are two kinds of freedom—the false, where the man is free to do what he likes; the true, where a man is free to do what he ought. They exalt freedom without distinguishing the true from the false, and the result is license, which must end in anarchy. Far better would it be for all if the words of the Wise man of old were always kept before the minds of the people, “Fear God, honor the king, and meddle not with those who are given to change.” If these thoughts were sunk deep down into the hearts of all the people by constant iteration and reiteration the nation would not have to lament such a terrible crime as that which has deprived it of its President, nor should we have that unrest nor those outbursts of passion evidenced by the crime of lynching and interference with the execution of the law so characteristic of the times.