Words of Forgiveness

     Miss Margaret Morris, a trained nurse who was sent to Buffalo as a delegate from St. Luke’s hospital, New York, happened to be in the Emergency Hospital when President McKinley was brought in after being shot. In reference to the president she said:

     I had the honor of being in attendance on the president while he was being operated upon in the hospital. I wish I could describe everything after he was brought here. I gave him the first hypodermic of strychnine and morphine. He did not want to take it, for he did not feel faint. He said, “I feel good.” He was brought in and laid on the operating table and was entirely conscious all the time until the anesthetic was given. I think as a man the president is just perfect. He lay there so quietly, talking very little. He repeated a few times, “The poor fellow. He could not have known what he was doing.”

     It is evident from this direct testimony that in this hour of trial the president’s mind turned to the assassin with feelings of pity and forgiveness.
     What a testimony is this as to the character of the martyred executive!