As the exigencies which prompted, at a late date, the change of plansin the compilation of this work, left the messages and papers of theMcKinley administration incomplete and defective, it has been felt thatthe time has now arrived for their collection. In this supplement areincluded the messages, proclamations and executive orders of PresidentMcKinley which do not appear in Volume X, and those of his successor,President Roosevelt, to date. They set forth the home affairs of thenation, and illustrate the stability of the government and institutionsof the United States. They demonstrate that affairs were conducted withattention and directness unaffected by the apparently distracting, butglorious, incidents, which marked her interposition by arms and theextension of her sheltering aegis to Cuba. They teach us that thefoundations of this country are deep-rooted and that the process ofnation-building, as recounted in these volumes, has proceeded uponright lines and with an unbounded fidelity to principle and purpose.
GEORGE RAYWOOD DEVITT.
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 1, 1902.
(For portrait and early biographical sketch see Vol. X, pp. 125, 126,127)
At the National Republican Convention which met at Philadelphia in June,1901, William McKinley was again nominated the Republican candidate forthe Presidency of the United States. At the November election he wasre-elected, receiving 292 electoral votes, against 155 votes for WilliamJ. Bryan.
In September, 1901, he accepted an invitation to be present at thePan-American Exposition at Buffalo. On September 5 he delivered hislast public utterance to the people, in the Temple of Music, to a vastaudience. The next day, returning from a short trip to Niagara Falls, heyielded to the wishes of the people and held a reception in the Temple.Among those who, passing in single file, took him by the hand, was onewho approached with his hand wrapped and held to his breast as thoughinjured. Concealed within the covering was a loaded revolver; and as hegave his other hand to the President, a token of friendship, he quicklyfired two shots, from the effects of which the President sank into thearms of those near him. He was taken to the residence of Mr. John G.Milburn, President of the Exposition Company, where on September 14,1901, after an unexpected relapse, he died. The body was taken toWashington, D.C., and the state funeral was held in the rotunda of theCapitol. Thence the body was taken to his home in Canton, Ohio, forinterment.
The period covered by the administration of William McKinley was,undoubtedly, more crowded with events calculated to try and to touch thevery heart of the nation than was any period since the Civil War. TheUnited States has passed t