ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AT CANTON, OHIO
SEPTEMBER 30, 1907
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1907
We have gathered together to-day topay our meed of respect and affection tothe memory of William McKinley, whoas President won a place in the hearts ofthe American people such as but three orfour of all the Presidents of this countryhave ever won. He was of singular uprightness[4]and purity of character, alike inpublic and in private life; a citizen wholoved peace, he did his duty faithfully andwell for four years of war when the honorof the nation called him to arms. AsCongressman, as governor of his State,and finally as President, he rose to theforemost place among our statesmen,reaching a position which would satisfythe keenest ambition; but he never lostthat simple and thoughtful kindness towardevery human being, great or small, lofty[5]or humble, with whom he was brought incontact, which so endeared him to ourpeople. He had to grapple with moreserious and complex problems than anyPresident since Lincoln, and yet, whilemeeting every demand of statesmanship,he continued to live a beautiful and touchingfamily life, a life very healthy for thisnation to see in its foremost citizen; andnow the woman who walked in theshadow ever after his death, the wife towhom his loss was a calamity more crushing[6]than it could be to any other humanbeing, lies beside him here in the samesepulcher.
There is a singular appropriateness inthe inscription on his monument. Mr.Cortelyou, whose relations with him wereof such close intimacy, gives me the followinginformation about it: On thePresident’s trip to the Pacific slope in thespring of 1901 President Wheeler, of theUniversity of California, conferred thedegree of LL. D. upon him in words so[7]well chosen that they struck the fastidioustaste of John Hay, then Secretary of State,who wrote and asked for a copy of themfrom President Wheeler. On the receiptof this copy he sent the following letter toPresident McKinley, a letter which nowseems filled with a strange and unconsciousprescience:
Dear Mr. President:
President Wheeler sent me the inclosedat my request. You will have thewords in more permanent shape. Theyseem to me remarkably well chosen, and[8]stately and dignified enough to serve—longhence, please God—as your epitaph.
Yours, faithfully,
John Hay.
“University of California,
“Office of the President.
“By authority vested in me by the regentsof the University of