Q CHAPTER XXVII Characteristics and Incidents UITE as impressive as anything else in the developments of the last four days of his life on earth was the clear light in which they showed how President McKinley's personal charms and qualities as a man had won the affection of the country. Particularly was this noticeable in Washington, where, from his long service in Congress, and his more than four years in the Presidential chair, he became known personally as to no other part of the country, except, perhaps, to his neighbors in Canton. Dr. David J. Hill, Assistant Secretary of State, once remarked to a friend when Mr. McKinley's personality was under discussion, that if "the Lord had ever breathed the breath of life into a more gracious and amiable man than Mr. McKinley," Dr. Hill had yet to find it out. This is a thoroughly characteristic estimate, and one that is by no means confined in its expression to occasions of grief and strain like the present. ALWAYS DID THE AMIABLE THING Mr. McKinley, according to the best estimates of those who knew him well, always did the amiable and courteous thing. He was thoughtful and considerate. If he ever had any feeling of injured dignity or ill-temper, he never let it be discovered even by those nearest to him. Everybody who went to the White House came away pleasantly impressed, whether Republican, Democrat, Populist, anti-Imperialist, or Socialist; a negro, a Chinese, or a Caucasian. It had not been uncommon with other Presidents for men of more or less prominence to come away from the White House saying rather unpleasant things about the treatment they had received. With McKinley it was different, and in that personal equation doubtless lay a large share of his success as a public man and party leader, in securing acceptance of the policies for which he stood. When before, it is frequently asked, has a President carried the House of Representatives in three Congresses in succession? When before has a President sustained such friendly relations with the Senators that they have rejected none of his nominations for office, or that he, in turn, has had to veto none of their bills? For this is substantially the situation. The very few vetoes and rejected nominations-and their number has been trifling-have rarely been unwelcome to the other side, but were rather in the nature of the correction of errors due to newly discovered evidence. COURTESY TO CRITICS When the Secretary of the Anti-Imperialist League first visited Washington, the President came out of a Cabinet meeting to receive him—a most unusual courtesy. Many a President who had been flattered as McKinley has been, would have taken affront at some of the utterances of the league, and, standing on his dignity, have refused altogether to see its representative. One of McKinley's predecessors steadily refused to see during his term of office an eminent doctor of divinity who several times called on public business, because he had as a preacher ailuded to his alleged Sabbath-breaking propensities. President Arthur, with all that graciousness of manner which has associated itself with his name, proved a hard master for the clerical force in his immediate employ. If he desired a letter or a paper from the files for any purpose, he could brook no delay, and was seemingly unwilling to grant that time might be necessary even for those who served a President. In fact, those who know the White House best, in its various aspects toward the public, are able to relate a great many incidents showing considerable human nature on the part of the various Presidents who have occupied it, but of McKinley they have nothing to relate but pleasant things, kindly acts, and genial ways. He seemed never offended at those who have most severely criticised him. We read in the newspapers one day that Senator Tillman declared that McKinley was gradually becoming a dictator to the subversion of the old Republic; the next day we read that Mr. Tillman went to the White House to ask for a small consulship for one of his constituents, and strange to relate that, although an opposition Democrat, he readily obtained it. In fact, Tillman has said in a public way that, in his opinion, no finer gentleman from George Washington's time to the present had ever occupied the Presidential chair. He never went to the White House in the latter part of Mr. Cleveland's administration, just as there were many Republicans of prominence that were not very neighborly with Mr. Harrison, and others who did not like Mr. Arthur. It has long become notable to outside observers, who have talked with public men after they came away from a conference with the Chief Executive, how generally he made their wishes his own. In the organization of the first Philippine Commission, one of the men, provisionally selected, hastened to Washington to tell Mr. McKinley that he was not much of a believer in his expansion policy, and that, probably knowing this, Mr. McKinley would want somebody else to serve. "Quite the contrary," was the President's answer. "We need just the element of opinion on the Commission which you represent. I am glad that I am glad that you feel as you do about it." Another man whom Mr. McKinley was about to appoint to a high office expressed, in the same way, his skepticism on the subject of protection, as indentified with Mr. McKinley's name. spirit, Mr. McKinley assured him that the view of the case which he held was the very one which the President was eager to have represented. SAW BOTH SIDES OF A QUESTION In the same McKinley was always so able to see both sides of questions, to recognize personal and local limitations, that his relations with the world and with the American public were always very pleasant. It will be recalled how enthusiastic the Democratic South became when, on his visit to that section he allowed a Confederate badge, |