ADDRESS OF

Senator CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW.

The President: Ladies and Gentlemen: The next speaker requires no introduction to any audience in these United States of America (Applause). Not to know Senator Depew is to argue one's self unknown. Ever since he attained his majority he has labored in the service of this great country for the people by the people and of the people. He will pay tribute to our late President, William McKinley, and we all know he will speak with a full heart of our late loved and lamented President (Applause).

TOAST-A TRIBUTE TO MCKINLEY.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:

William McKinley was the product and representative of that development of Americanism which has aroused intense interest and discussion at the commencement of the 20th Century. Industrial America owes more to him than any other statesman. Though never a business man or an employer of labor he created those enterprises which have given unequalled position, wages and work to his countryman. Though never a manufacturer he gave the impulse and opportunity for manufacturers which have placed the surplus of the mills and factories of the United States in the markets of the world and given them success not only in the competitive countries of the East but upon the soil and alongside the most highly organized industries of Europe. Though always a poor man and leaving an estate which was the result only of the savings from his salary as President and his life insurance, he made possible the gigantic fortunes which have been amassed by master minds in the control, use and distribution of iron, coal, oil, cotton and wool and their products. Though never an organizer or beneficiary of combinations or trusts, yet the constant aggregation of most idustries in vast corporations of fabulous capital, while due to tendencies of the age and common to all countries, received tremendous acceleration from his

policies. The dominant idea which governed his public life was that measures which brough out our National resources and increased our National wealth, added to the security, comfort and happiness of every citizen. Some might profit more than others, but everyone shared in greater or less degree in the general prosperity. Pride in his country and love for his people were the mainsprings of his career. The period of impressionable youth was passed in Ohio which was a storm center of slavery agitation and Union controversy. He heard all about him the mutterings of the coming storm which was to put to the test of arms the existence of the Republic. Slavery became to him not only the sum of abominations but the one and only menace to the union of the States. He was an eager listener to the fiery speeches of that remarkable body of advocates of freedom led by Joshua Giddings and Benjamin Wade. Webster's immortal

speech in reply to Hayne for "Liberty and Union, one and inseparable now and forever," became imbedded in his mind and heart. With this preparation, though only seventeen years of age when the Civil War broke out, nothing could keep him from enlistment and impulsive patriotism, swept away all objections to his youth.

The temptations of the camp, the march and the foray and the perils of battle tested the character and courage of this boy to the uttermost. But the religious training of a pious mother and a godly father, and his absorbing attachment to the cause of liberty and union kept him as pure in thought and action as if in the associations of home, or in the emulous and invigorating studies and companionship of school and college.

McKinley the soldier moulded McKinley the statesman. For four years the one object before him, at sunrise and sunset, leading the way in toilsome marches, its folds illuminating the tented field and inspiring defense and assault, was the flag. It was dearer to him than life, and for it he repeatedly risked his life. It stood for country, home and liberty. It became sacred in his eyes, and he followed it with devotion amounting almost to adoration. He rarely, in after years, ever made speech which did not have some affectation or patriotic allusion to Old Glory. It fixed his career and public life. Where he could advance the best interests of the Republic became his aim and ambition.

But the Army developed and strengthened another characteristic. The comradery of the camp appealed to his sympathetic nature. His fellow soldiers were more than comrades; they were intimate friends. He knew them in health and in the hospital, in the fury of the fight and the exhaustion of wounds and disease. He was first at their side when in danger or distress and the soul

ADDRESS OF SENATOR CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW.

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of sport at the feast or the jollification. Thus he became in its best sense a lover of his fellow men.

No official was ever so considerate of the feelings of others. He delighted in the bestowal of office and was grieved when he had to deny the applicant. His greatest pleasure was in meeting and greeting his countrymen and countrywomen. Whether they were friends or strangers that cordial grasp, that kindly smile, that honest interest in every one who came near him sent both the successful and disappointed from his presence feeling that the meeting was itself a decoration. It was the irony of fate that the most lovable and the best loved man who ever attained the Presidency should die at the hands of an assassin.

But the game of war could not interest this most sympathetic of men (I was about to say humane but the word is inadequate). No matter how great his own sorrows or troubles those of a friend at once claimed his care and his were for the time forgotten. Confidence in another and ignorance of business drew from him the endorsements of notes which swept away his little property and involved him in a mountain of indebtedness. His wife threw her estate into the vortex and they were bankrupt at a period in life when to take up a profession or engage in business successfully is impossible. He was full of resentment, but when the friend through whom he had suffered explained the terrible results of his failure to himself and his family, McKinley burst into tearshad no thought except for the rescue of the man, and cried "We must find a way to save you. We will find a way to save you."

Americanism with him meant the victories of peace. To see the United States controlling its own markets and successfully competing with other nations in the markets of the world was his idea of the true glory of his country. That Americans had won in the bids for a bridge over the Nile, or rails for Russian roads, or cars for Australia, or had introduced successfully agricultural machines and electrical appliances on the Continent of Europe and textile fabrics in Great Britian, gave him more pride and pleasure than any possible triumph on land or sea. He would exhaust every resource of diplomacy and adopt every measure of conciliation and arbitration before going to war.

He entered Congress at the most critical period of our legislative history. The pacification of the Nation, the reconstruction of the States, the welding of the broken bonds of Union into a free Republic which should be as loyally supported by those who had sought to destroy as by those who had fought to save it, and financial and industrial problems rested the whole fabric of prosperity were the questions to be met.

The happiness of the American home and the welfare of the individual American citizen were the aims of McKinley. He believed that in industrial success were good character, good habits and good citizenship. Employment which should be easily attainable for everybody upon a renumerative and ascending scale of wages, making it possible for energy, industry and intelligence to buy and maintain a cottage or a farm, dotting the land with enterprises which would develop the resources or power of the neighborhood and bringing farms and factories together were his remedies for all National ills, his panacea for insuring National greatness and a contented people. A large number of his countrymen differed widely with him in the measures by which he sought to accomplish these beneficient ends, but they did not question the purity of his purposes or the sincerity of his convictions. He thus became the most eloquent and convincing advocate of the policy of a protective tariff and the embodiment and representative of the principle of fostering by legislation industrial development. Three statesmen served long together in the House of Representatives and left lasting impressions on the history of the country. They were William McKinley, James A. Garfield and James G. Blaine. The ambition of each was to be President of the United States. Two attained that distinction and Blaine lost the great prize by an accident when it was within his grasp. They were rivals but loyal friends, and their emulous strife never impaired their relations or their efforts for the one who for the time was the favorite of their party. Blaine was a picturesque and brilliant leader with a rare talent for the initiative in formulating policies which won popular favor and in devising measures to meet popular demands. His alert genius was quick to see and seize advantages in foreign or domestic policies. Garfield was rather a parliamentary than a popular leader. His field was in Congress in the appeal for and the defence and management of the bills which the caucus and its committees had decided must pass. Their labors covered the whole field of debatable questions and party activity. McKinley possessed the greater industry and steadfastness of purpose. He bent all the power of a superior intelligence to the perfection and triumph of the principle in whose practical application he belived lay the security and prosperity of the country. In large and in detail he was a profound student of economic problems. While he had neither the training nor the temperament for success in business he knew better the conditions and prospects, at home and abroad, of every branch of industry than those who had spent their lives in its development and accumulated fortunes by their sagacity. He could not practically conduct any trade, but was able to sug

gest and provide laws for the benefit of all manufactures so wise and beneficient that the captains of industry bowed to his judgment and followed his lead. His profound knowledge of these questions, his eagerness to have the people agree with him and his deep convictions gave an earnestness and force to his advocacy which educated an orator of uncommon power. He was not magnetic like Blaine nor emotional like Garfield, but there was wonderful force in his eloquence. An honest, earnest, sympathetic speaker, master of his subject, and possessed of a singularly lucid style, pleaded like an evangelist for the material salvation of the people. Much speaking on the same subject gave his efforts an axiomatic style which coined maxims and phrases that became part of the current thought and common language of the country. While he never rose to the majestic heights of Webster's reply to Hayne he was always immensely interesting and at times it seemed in the splendor of his speech that by a supreme effort he might advance one step further and stand beside the immortal orators of inspired genius.

Most public men cultivate seclusion and owe much to a fascinating mystery which surrounds them; but McKinley delighted in crowds. While with singular unanimity the people dread the assembling of Congress and regard its adjournment as a blessing, he was never so happy as when the National Legislature was in session. If a Senator or Member of the House failed to appear frequently he noted his absence and gently chided him. He was just as glad to see and greeted as cordially his political opponents as his friends. The representatives of the people were for him-the telephones of public opinion. No President has ever had such influence with Congress. His ability to allay strife in his own party and win support from the other was marvelous. The disappointed office-seeker nursing a grievance and lying in wait for vengeance, and the most stubborn opponent, were alike clay in his hands. In that forum, Congress, where every President has repeatedly been foiled, McKinley never suffered defeat.

His faith in the public intelligence and conscience was supreme. He believed the people knew more than any man, no matter how great his talents or opportunities. He never tried. to lead, but studied so constantly public opinion that he became almost infallible in its interpretation. Great audiences in the open were his intelligence offices. He would mingle with the crowd. as a man and a brother. He could not comprehend that the world held a wretch so depraved or so criminal so vile as to abuse the simple and sacred trust which a President thus put in the people who had chosen him for their ruler. And yet one, defaming and