WILLIAM MCKINLEY.
By the President:
JOHN HAY,
Secretary of State.
At a meeting of the Commission held on October 15, 1901, the following resolution relative to the lamented death of President McKinley was unanimously adopted by the Commission:
Resolution.
Since this Commission last convened the President of the United
States has met a tragic death.
The manner of his death was a blow at republican institutions and felt by every patriotic American as aimed at himself. It can truly be said that of all our Presidents William McKinley was the best beloved; no section of the country held him as an alien to it. Partisan differences never led to partisan hatred of him; party faction did not touch him. Nearly half the people differed with him on public questions, but his opponents accorded to him the same honesty of purpose which he always accorded to them. He was the President of the whole people, and was received by them as such with the honors due his great office and his splendid manhood, from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Lakes to the Gulf. Pure of life, lofty of purpose, and patriotic in every endeavor, he was the highest type of our American citizenship.
The prayers of an united people were wafted on high to spare our President, but "God's will, not ours" was done, and the pain of personal grief was felt in every American home.
Resolved by the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission,
First. That in the death of President McKinley, the United
States have lost a President who fulfilled the best ideals of
the Republic.
Second. That in every walk of life, in peace and in war, in
private and in public station, he was faithful to every trust
and did his duty as God gave him light to see it.