From his place as private citizen, on through many and increasing honors to his final post as ruler of his people, he remained true to the highest ideals.
By the people of the nation at large and by the world he was known and will live in grateful annals as a gentleman of noble heart, an affectionate husband, a sturdy friend, and a faithful and illustrious President.
In a long public life, ever open to his fellows, nothing was ever found, even by intemperate partisan zeal, that would cast a shade upon his character.
The kindly and unselfish attributes which his colleagues knew and loved, the public felt, and now men of every faith and following join in reverent acknowledgment of those distinctive virtues and abilities that lift him among the truly great of all ages.
The passing of Presidents and Kings usually evokes tributes of praise, but in William McKinley's life there was an element that made him more than ruler, and which, in the hour of his death, is above the tribute of speech and tears.
The ordinary tributes paid to the memory of the great when they pass from earth utterly fail to satisfy the mind in an attempted application of them to our dead President.
L.J. GAGE,
Secretary.
CERTIFICATE OF THE CORONER.
FORMAL RECORD OF MCKINLEY'S DEATH FOR BUREAU OF VITAL STATISTICS.
The coroner of Erie County issued the following certificate of death of the late President: