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.”