Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from President William University of Illinois Memorial Convocation, the Armory, September 19, 1901
For the third time in the brief period of a generation the President has been wounded to the death by assassination. In that period no President has died in office from natural causes. Three of the seven men who, since 1860, have been carried to the head of the purest democracy in the world by the free voice of the people thereof, have met violent deaths by foul and murderous hands. And the dark deed has, in each case, been as unprovoked as foul, as senseless as murderous. Each time the blow has fallen upon a plain man, of generous impulses and gentle ways, who had given no personal offense or provocation. Each blow has caused the deepest sorrow and stirred the noblest emotions in every part m. The land. In each case the stupid and brutal hand which moved to destroy has served to build up, for as the millions have gathered once and again, and yet again, at the bier of their Chief Magistrate to tell the story of their common grief, they have looked upon the flag and recalled what it has cost and what it signifies; they have again, and yet again, invoked the help of the Father of All and dedicated themselves anew to the task of making the Government of the people yet more secure. Once again the Nation stands in sorrow and humiliation at the portals of the grave of a President struck down with savage cunning and deliberate plan at the very center of the world's highest civilization. It is not strange that the shock, for the moment, stunned the sensibilities of eighty millions of freemen. It is not unnatural that the immediate impulse was for vengeance upon the monster who had shot the President the people loved. It is a signal encouragement that, in these four or five funeral days, reason has strongly asserted her sway and the popular thought has clearly seen that vengeance is but a savage and not an effective remedy for a brutal and an un natural crime. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
