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 SUBMITTED AND ADOPTED JUNE 4th. A. D. 1902. 
 
 DAVENPORT, IOWA! 
 
 EGBERT. FIDLAR, & CHAMBERS. 
 
 1902. 
 
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(extract from the records.) 
 
 In Grand Lodge, June 4th. 1902. 
 
 ISrpnrt ^pprial (Cninmittrr — #riKinlpi| Mpitmrial. 
 
 Brother Morcombe (25). Chairman of the Com- 
 mittee, presented the report, which — 
 
 Upon motion of Brother Wilkinson (423), was 
 adopted by a rising vote. 
 
 Brother Hugg (18) moved that a copy of the 
 memorial, as read, be appropriately printed and sent 
 to Mrs. McKinley, which motion — 
 
 Carried. 
 
Aitrirut. Ifvtv, atxh Arrpptr^ iHasnns. 
 
 , N Grand Lodge, Fifty-ninth Grand Annual 
 
 Communication, lield at Dubuque, Iowa, 
 
 June 3d to 5th. A. D. 1902, A. L. 5902, 
 
 the following Proceedings were had, and 
 
 are here extracted from the records. 
 
 The Most Worshipful Grand Master, Lewis 
 
 Jackson Baker, in his Annual Address, referred to 
 
 the death of Brother and President McKinley in the 
 
 following language : 
 
®ur fflarturrii |JrrBi&ntt. 
 
 N Saturday morning, the 14th day of 
 last September, Brother William 
 McKiNLEY, the President of these 
 United States, died from the effects 
 of a bullet wound received about eight 
 days before from a man — mankind, 
 I beg your pardon — an enemy of government, of 
 civilization, of progress, a dastardly, lawless being, an 
 anarchist, who with a revolver concealed in his right 
 hand, which had been bandaged so as to convey the 
 impression that it had been injured, extended his left 
 to be greeted by our President, whom he then shot 
 twice. Shot our President, did I say? No, my 
 brethren, it was our country he tried to assassinate 
 and destroy — your home, my home. Every Mason 
 and every true American, yea, humanity throughout 
 the civilized world, was appalled at the crime and 
 bowed in grief and sorrow. " He was a man of the 
 people and for the people." A devoted lover of home, 
 state, country, and humanity, in defense of which he 
 offered his life upon the field of battle. He died as 
 he lived — true to humanity and his God. Listen to 
 his dying words, " Good bye ; it is God's way : His will 
 be done." 
 
 Masonry has an absolute abhorrence for all people 
 who by disdainful word or act endeavor to weaken the 
 
pride in or love of country. Masonry stands for 
 home, for country, for God, and for humanity. 
 
 I would recommend that a committee be appointed 
 to prepare a proper memorial to be presented to Mrs. 
 McKinley by the Grand Lodge, and further, that a 
 suitably inscribed memorial tablet be placed in our 
 annual Proceedings. 
 
 ■ ■ He fell at the post of duty. 
 
 And the nation's heart is wrung: 
 No death of greater beauty 
 
 By poet hath been sung, 
 In silence deep he shares the sleep 
 
 That falls on old and young. 
 
 " Out of the crime and madness, 
 
 Out of the gloom and pain. 
 Out of the shame and sadness. 
 
 The purpose of God is plain — 
 That the nation rise through sacrifice. 
 
 And turn its loss to gain." 
 
In the report of the Grand Secretary we find this 
 allusion to the 
 
 AaaaiBsinatimi nf Irntlirr fHrlKiulnr. 
 
 INCE our last meeting the black shadow of 
 grief has fallen across our land. The 
 hand of a coward has stricken down the 
 President of these United States in the 
 period of his ripest usefulness, and when 
 his wisdom and experience seemed most 
 necessary to the well-being of the nation. There 
 followed a brief time of world-wide anxiety and earnest 
 prayer — and then the end. The nation ceased its 
 labors, that it might kneel reverently beside the bier of 
 its dead ruler, servant, and friend, while the whole world 
 for a space forgot its bickerings to join in sympathy 
 and mourning. 
 
 To the Masonic fraternity this death brought added 
 grief. As citizens, we felt the loss as keenly as did 
 our fellows, while we also mourned the brother 
 "Stricken down in the performance of his duty, a 
 martyr to his fidelity." At this communication of the 
 Grand Lodge, the first since his death, it is meet and 
 fitting that some action be taken which shall stand on 
 record forever as an expression of grief for our eminent 
 brother, loyalty to the land we love, and detestation of 
 the horrid crime, and the hellish doctrines which made 
 it possible. 
 
The Committee on the Grand Master's Address 
 subsequently presented the following : 
 
 We most heartily endorse that part of the Grand Master's 
 address wherein he recommends the appointment of a com- 
 mittee to draft a suitable memorial in honor of our m.artyred 
 President. Brother William McKinley. We recommend that 
 the committee be appointed and report at the present session. 
 We also recommend that a tablet be inserted in this year's 
 Proceedings in conformity with his recommendation. 
 
 Whereupon the Grand Master announced as a 
 Special Committee on the "McKinley Memorial" 
 Brothers Morcombe (25) and Coburn (521), to report 
 at present session. 
 
 During the afternoon of the session of the second 
 day, Brother Morcombe, from the Special Committee, 
 presented and read the following tribute to the memory 
 of our late Brother, President McKinley; which, on 
 motion of Brother Wilkinson (423), was adopted by a 
 rising vote. 
 
._e 
 
 ^n 
 
 frMemarmm. 
 
 Y ways incomprehensible, the purposes 
 of God are wrought in the affairs of 
 men and the destinies of nations. Ever 
 and again there is demanded from the 
 individual or the people a supreme sacrifice, that on 
 the painful path of sorrow men may rise to higher 
 things. In the hour of national pride death claims the 
 manliest and kingliest, that the lesson of humility may 
 be learned and faith be not forgotten. 
 
 Thrice within the life of a generation has this 
 nation bent in grief at the bier of its noblest and best, 
 death-stricken by murderous hand : thrice, with bowed 
 head, has it shared in the black sacrament of grief, 
 hoping against hope through dark days of suspense 
 and long nights of agony ; thrice has a whole people 
 paced with slow and solemn tread in funeral march ; 
 and thrice with reverent hands have the names of our 
 martyrs been inscribed on Fame's entablature and 
 Sorrow's symbols given place to the bronze-lettered 
 record of everlasting remembrance. 
 
It is not wise nor needful that we again or here 
 recite the cause of grief. Forever let the name of the 
 misguided wretch who struck the coward blow be 
 stricken from the records which men preserve for the 
 future. Let us remember the act of the poor crazed 
 brain only that we may guard against a repetition. 
 But as to the hell-spawned creed, black with the slime 
 of the pit and foul with the poisonous breath of 
 malignant hate, which then worked to deadly end, and 
 ever works in secret to other deeds of blood, let it not 
 be forgotten. There is in this remembrance the call 
 to stern duty — not prompted by revenge — but by the 
 instinct of self-preservation. There is before us as men 
 and as citizens the stamping out of this whole alien 
 brood, generated in the old world mire of want and 
 ignorance and cast as refugees or refuse upon our 
 shores. 
 
 But we turn rather from these vile lives which 
 degrade our estimate of humanity to him we mourn, 
 whose character and manly virtues shall serve as 
 example for generations yet to be. Clean and pure in 
 body and in soul — 
 
 "Amid the mirk and mire he kept his heart 
 A temple for the Beautiful! All warm 
 And ^bright, with blessed light of Love, that window 
 Of our dim life which ever opes on God ! " 
 
 It is to the lives of such men as this we point as 
 being typical of what is best in American manhood — 
 
and, let me add, in American Masonry. Whatever 
 the duty presented, humble or high, it becomes to such 
 souls the imperative, God-given work of the present. 
 To the future is left its own labors and its own 
 responsibilities. Reward may well be trusted to the 
 justice of men, the approval of conscience, and the 
 approbation of the All-Wise. 
 
 The life of William McKinley teaches us that 
 opportunities are made by human effort and energy ; 
 that high place and honor comes to him who deserves 
 well of his fellows, without the adventitious aids of 
 wealth and birth. We follow this expanding and ever- 
 rising career with interest and with profit in the 
 contemplation. We find him ever bearing full share 
 of citizen duty in civic life, answering to the call when 
 men were sorely needed to test war's stern arbitrament, 
 and after battle taking up again the homely round of 
 toil. 
 
 So from point to point we trace his path until the 
 suffrages of the nation had placed him as the peer of 
 earth's greatest. We see him with head bared and 
 bowed imploring God's guidance as he takes up his 
 mighty task. He hears the cry of a suffering race in 
 the islands of the sea. When protest was without avail 
 and time had ripened to the purpose, he launched 
 against ancient wrong the young strength of American 
 manhood, and made a free people of those who had 
 struggled ineffectually in their bondage. In the fiery 
 
heat of political bitterness he preserved his soul in 
 calm, and cherished with jealous care the honor of 
 his people. 
 
 Then the Master saw, perchance, what our blinded 
 eyes might not behold — that this life had reached its 
 height of earthly greatness, and that as remembered 
 example and incentive it might give more and be 
 more to the nation and the world than if it wrought 
 longer in the ways of mortality. 
 
 In olden story there is told of one, who sat at 
 Arthur's table, type and pattern of all true manhood 
 and perfect knighthood while the world may last, 
 "whose strength was as the strength of ten, because 
 his heart was pure." Into his tranced and sinless sight 
 there swept a vision of the Holy Grail, unseen by 
 grosser eyes. So to the soul of this our brother we 
 believe there was vouchsafed, or ere he passed, a vision 
 of things unutterable in mortal speech ; that his clean 
 spirit looked beyond the mists of time into the spaces 
 of eternal sunlight. And thus seeing the glory, as Sir 
 Galahad beheld the holy vessel swinging down paths of 
 heavenly splendor through the night, our brother gave 
 to the tearful watchers his last message, that it might 
 forever reinforce the faith of all men: " It is God's 
 way; His will be done." 
 
 Need we here recount his private virtues, or tell you 
 yet again of that manhood strong and true and tender, 
 whose strength found noblest, most chivalric use in 
 
i 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
loving guardianship of home ; whose tenderness never 
 failed for those he loved. The fierce and pitiless light 
 which beats on those in high places found no flaw or 
 blemish of which even jealous calumny might whisper 
 to his detriment or shame. 
 
 His love was a life-long idyll ; no dream of a 
 summer day, to pass when flowers had faded. There 
 was no call so imperative, no duty so engrossing, no 
 pleasure so alluring but that his thoughts were turned 
 by night or day to the wife who so sorely needed his 
 constant support. 
 
 And when at last the black-winged angel touched 
 his lips to miUteness, still he turned fast-failing eyes to 
 that pallid face beside his bed, that he might repeat 
 yet again in soul language a message of love and 
 comfort to the frail but cherished flower of his life. 
 
 God be thanked, in an age of indifference, when 
 men boast of all the ties of home relaxed and broken, 
 and stray hither and thither in disregard of vows and 
 duty, that one true soul, standing full high to catch 
 attention and enforce respect, has set example of 
 manly virtue and domestic honor. To such as this 
 there comes anew the promise uttered first on the 
 Mount of Beatitudes : " Blessed are the pure in heart, 
 for they shall see God." 
 
 You can recall the sudden shock with which the 
 nation heard the news of murderous assault. You 
 remember the short period of prayer, of anxiety, and 
 
 12 
 
then of anguish as in the solemn night hour there was 
 flashed over land and sea to watchers everywhere the 
 fatal message. Upon the whole land there fell the 
 hush of silent grief. In cottage home and in the 
 mansion of wealth there was the black emblem of 
 mourning. 
 
 And then came the last sad scene, such as no 
 land nor time had known before, when from the 
 nation's capitol passed the funeral cortege to the old 
 Ohio home and thence to the grave. The busy wheels 
 of a continent's commerce ceased, the factory's hum 
 was hushed, labor put by its tools, while tolling bells 
 and booming guns beat out the solemn strokes of time 
 from sea to sea. 
 
 It was finished. The thorny crown of earth's 
 agony had become the star - tipped diadem of a 
 martyr's glory — 
 
 "All Saviour-souls have sacrificed. 
 
 With nought but noble faith for guerdon ; 
 
 And ere the world hath crown' d the Christ, 
 
 The man to death hath borne the burden ! 
 
 "And heart-strings sweetest music make 
 When swept by suffering s fiery fingers ! 
 And thro' soul-shadows starriest break 
 
 The glories on God's brave light-bringers." 
 
 As Masons we have pride in such a record as this 
 of our dead. We have shared to the full in the grief 
 of the nation at his untimely end ; we have joined in 
 
 13 
 
t 
 
reprobation of the crime and the dogma of bitterness 
 which prompted it. Devoted to God, to loyalty, and 
 to our fellow-men, we wish to thus place ourselves on 
 record. But for the brother passed, faith takes up for 
 us a jubilant strain, and we believe that — 
 
 •• When 
 His life burst its worn manacle of clay 
 And wore God's splendor 'round it like a raiment. 
 Throbbing with glory like a midnight star. 
 All Heaven was hushed to hear the Lord's ' Well done ! ' 
 Then shining hosts and quiring orbs sang ' Welcome ! ' 
 And angels crown' d him in their capital. 
 For in his heart he kept God's image bright. 
 Love was his life-blood. Thro' the long work-day — 
 The dark and terrible night-time — aye, to death. 
 He nursed his love : and God Himself is love. ' ' 
 
 To the suffering souls God giveth comfort, to those 
 who mourn time brings relief, and when such national 
 bereavements, seemingly without purpose, prompt 
 despair — 
 
 " Take heart ! Tho' sown in tears and blood. 
 No seed, that's quick with love, hath perished, 
 Tho' dropped in barren by-ways — God 
 Some glorious flower of life hath cherished. ' ' 
 
 Joseph E. Morcombe, , 
 
 > Committee. 
 G. F. COBURN, 
 
Attest : 
 
 A true copy from the records. 
 
 Witness our hands and the seal 
 of the M.-. W.-. Grand Lodge of 
 Iowa, at Cedar Rapids, this first 
 day of August, A. D. 1902. 
 
 Grand Master. 
 Grand Secretary. 
 
 15 
 
Maaunir ^8^^n•^ nf Hilliam iHrlKiulni. 
 
 LLIAM McKlNLEY'S entrance into the 
 Order was an incident of the war between 
 the States. In Winchester there was a 
 regular Lodge of Masons, officered by 
 Confederate soldiers, or citizens on parole. 
 The desire of young McKinley was made known to 
 the officers of Hiram Lodge, No. 21, of Winchester, 
 his petition was presented, and he was elected. On 
 the night of May 1 st, 1 865, at 7:30 o'clock, he presented 
 himself for initiation. J. B. T. Reed, a Confederate 
 chaplain, was Master of the Lodge, and conferred the 
 Degree of Entered Apprentice upon the candidate. On 
 the following morning he was instructed in the work, 
 and on the evening of the same day the Degree of 
 Fellow Craft was given. There was more instruction 
 on the day following, and on the afternoon of May 3d, 
 at three o'clock, he received the Master Mason Degree. 
 But three Masons are now living who witnessed the 
 initiation. 
 
 Returning from the war, Major McKinley demitted 
 from the Winchester Lodge, and first affiliated with 
 Canton Lodge, No. 60, of Canton, Ohio. When Eagle 
 Lodge, No. 431 , also of Canton, was organized. Brother 
 McKinley became one of its charter members, and 
 
continued his membership therein until his death. His 
 interest in Freemasonry was marked, and never flagged 
 nor failed. At different times in his busy career he 
 left the affairs of state to attend to his Masonic duties. 
 He was Grand Orator of the Grand Lodge of Ohio on 
 the occasion of laying the corner-stone of the Masonic 
 Temple at Canton. 
 
 In 1883 Brother McKinley received the Degrees 
 of Royal Arch Masonry in Canton Chapter, No. 84, 
 R. A. M., and in the following year (December 18th 
 and 23d, 1884) he received the Illustrious Order of 
 the Red Cross, and was created a Knight Templar in 
 Canton Commandery, No. 38, K. T., at Canton, Ohio, 
 in both of which branches of Masonry he thereafter 
 took great pleasure. 
 
 — Adapted from Proceedings Grand Lodge of Ohio. 
 
 17 
 
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