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Wellington Explains
Senator Denies Making Statement Th[at?] Was Attributed
to Him.
Special to The Post Express.
Washington, Sept. 20—Senator Wellington,
of Maryland, has, at last, been heard from in reply to the general
denunciation of his recent utterance regarding the assassination
of President McKinley. This letter has been received:
[“]Cumberland, Md., Sept. 17, 1901.
“Dr. W. A. Croffut, Washington, D. C.:
“My Dear Sir—I thank you very much
for your kind letter of the 16th inst., and, in reply, would say
I have no hope of receiving decent, much less fair, treatment from
the administration papers, and for that reason have ceased making
endeavor in that direction. I gave no interview, but refused again
and again to give any expression for publication, for the reason
that McKinley had done me such injury as I could never forgive and
I felt that it would be better to say nothing at this time. Notwithstanding
these facts, the newspaper reporters have manufactured a story for
the occasion and the administration papers are making all they can
use out of it.
“As to the crime of Czolgosz, I hardly
think it necessary to say that I, like yourself, abhor an assassin.
I am as much appalled at the crime which struck down President McKinley
as any one of his warmest friends. I don’t think that any one who
knows me would, for a moment, believe that I would look with indifference
upon an act of this kind, when, as you say, it strikes at the government
itself and affects every citizen therein. Our list of murdered presidents
has been far, far too great and some drastic law should be passed
to prevent another national tragedy like that enacted at Buffalo.
“In explanation of the statement which
appeared, wherein I was made to say that I was ‘indifferent to the
whole matter,’ I wish to state that those words were not in connection
with the president’s wound or the act of the assassin. Refusing
to give the reporters an interview, they became persistent, and
finally one of them remarked that the people were expecting some
statement from me, and to that I replied that I was indifferent
to what the people expected; I would give no interview. These are
the facts in the case.
“Sincerely yours,
“George L. Wellington.”
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