Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents | Page 2

powers to whose hands, in the course of the ages, is intrusted a
leading part in shaping the destinies of mankind. For weal or for woe,
for good or for evil, this is true of our own mighty nation. Great
privileges and great powers are ours, and heavy are the responsibilities

that go with these privileges and these powers. Accordingly as we do
well or ill, so shall mankind in the future be raised or cast down. We
belong to a young nation, already of giant strength, yet whose political
strength is but a forecast of the power that is to come. We stand
supreme in a continent, in a hemisphere. East and west we look across
the two great oceans toward the larger world life in which, whether we
will or not, we must take an ever-increasing share. And as, keen-eyed,
we gaze into the coming years, duties, new and old, rise thick and fast
to confront us from within and from without. There is every reason
why we should face these duties with a sober appreciation alike of their
importance and of their difficulty. But there is also every reason for
facing them with highhearted resolution and eager and confident faith
in our capacity to do them aright. A great work lies already to the hand
of this generation; it should count itself happy, indeed, that to it is
given the privilege of doing such a work. A leading part therein must
be taken by this the august and powerful legislative body over which I
have been called upon to preside. Most deeply do I appreciate the
privilege of my position; for high, indeed, is the honor of presiding
over the American Senate at the outset of the twentieth century.
MARCH 4, 1901.

MESSAGE.
WHITE HOUSE, _December 3, 1901_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_
The Congress assembles this year under the shadow of a great calamity.
On the sixth of September, President McKinley was shot by an
anarchist while attending the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, and
died in that city on the fourteenth of that month.
Of the last seven elected Presidents, he is the third who has been
murdered, and the bare recital of this fact is sufficient to justify grave
alarm among all loyal American citizens. Moreover, the circumstances
of this, the third assassination of an American President, have a
peculiarly sinister significance. Both President Lincoln and President
Garfield were killed by assassins of types unfortunately not uncommon
in history; President Lincoln falling a victim to the terrible passions
aroused by four years of civil war, and President Garfield to the
revengeful vanity of a disappointed office-seeker. President McKinley

was killed by an utterly depraved criminal belonging to that body of
criminals who object to all governments, good and bad alike, who are
against any form of popular liberty if it is guaranteed by even the most
just and liberal laws, and who are as hostile to the upright exponent of a
free people's sober will as to the tyrannical and irresponsible despot.
It is not too much to say that at the time of President McKinley's death
he was the most widely loved man in all the United States; while we
have never had any public man of his position who has been so wholly
free from the bitter animosities incident to public life. His political
opponents were the first to bear the heartiest and most generous tribute
to the broad kindliness of nature, the sweetness and gentleness of
character which so endeared him to his close associates. To a standard
of lofty integrity in public life he united the tender affections and home
virtues which are all-important in the make-up of national character. A
gallant soldier in the great war for the Union, he also shone as an
example to all our people because of his conduct in the most sacred and
intimate of home relations. There could be no personal hatred of him,
for he never acted with aught but consideration for the welfare of others.
No one could fail to respect him who knew him in public or private life.
The defenders of those murderous criminals who seek to excuse their
criminality by asserting that it is exercised for political ends, inveigh
against wealth and irresponsible power. But for this assassination even
this base apology cannot be urged.
President McKinley was a man of moderate means, a man whose stock
sprang from the sturdy tillers of the soil, who had himself belonged
among the wage-workers, who had entered the Army as a private
soldier. Wealth was not struck at when the President was assassinated,
but the honest toil which is content with moderate gains after a lifetime
of unremitting labor, largely in the service of the public. Still less was
power