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 Last and Greatest Speech 
 
 Outlining HIS MASTERLY and STATESMAN- 
 LIKE POLICY for the AMERICAN NATION and 
 
 ^resilient &oo0efcelf0 
 
 Proclamation of that Speech 
 
 as the POLICY of HIS ADMINISTRATION 
 

 The Winthrop Press 
 
 32-34 Lafayette Place 
 
 New York 
 
 Copyright, 1901, by The Winthrop Prbss 
 
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A GREAT NATION pays the last sad 
 rites to her best beloved son. In 
 life he personified the highest ideals 
 of American manhood, — the foremost states- 
 man of his time, the Christian gentleman, 
 the loving husband, the constant friend. 
 In death he leaves to the nation the heritage 
 of a prosperity which he established, and the 
 example of a noble life that will be as a 
 beacon light to all generations. The name 
 of William McKinley will stand in history 
 with those of Washington and Lincoln. In 
 the midst of his high duties he was stricken 
 down by the hand of a merciless and ignorant 
 assassin. Only the day before, he had 
 delivered his last speech, which was instantly 
 and universally recognized to be an immortal 
 deliverance. This speech should be pre- 
 served and cherished by every American as 
 a fitting memorial of a great man gone. 
 
Gfyt presfoent'sf ifatoorite $?£mit. 
 
 Lead, kindly Light ! amid the encircling gloom, 
 
 Lead Thou me on ; 
 The night is dark, and I am far from home, 
 
 Lead Thou me on ; 
 Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see 
 The distant scene ; one step enough for me. 
 
 I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou 
 
 Shouldst lead me on ; 
 I loved to choose and see my path ; but now 
 
 Lead Thou me on ; 
 I loved the garish day ; and, spite of fears, 
 Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years. 
 
 So long Thy power hath blessed me, sure it still 
 
 Will lead me on 
 O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till 
 
 The night is gone ; 
 And with the morn those angel faces smile 
 Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile ! 
 
 — Cardinal Neivman. 
 

 President Milburn, Director-General Bu- 
 chanan, Commissioners, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 I am glad to again be in the city of Buf- 
 falo and exchange greetings with her people, 
 to whose generous hospitality 1 am not a 
 stranger, and with whose good will I 
 have been repeatedly and signally honored. 
 To-day I have additional satisfaction in 
 meeting and giving welcome to the foreign 
 representatives assembled here, whose pres- 
 ence and participation in this Exposition 
 have contributed in so marked a degree to 
 its interest and success. To the Commis- 
 sioners of the Dominion of Canada and 
 the British Colonies, the French Colonies, 
 the republics of Mexico and of Central and 
 South America, and the Commissioners of 
 Cuba and Porto Rico, who share with us 
 in this undertaking, we give the hand of fel- 
 lowship, and felicitate with them upon the 
 triumphs of art, science, education and 
 manufacture, which the old has bequeathed 
 to the new century. 
 
 Expositions are the time-keepers of prog- 
 ress,, They record the world's advancement. 
 They stimulate the energy, enterprise and 
 intellect of the people, and quicken human 
 
President McKinleys 
 
 genius. They go into the home. They 
 broaden and brighten the daily life of the 
 people. They open mighty storehouses of 
 information to the student. Every exposi- 
 tion, great or small, has helped to some 
 onward step. 
 
 Comparison of ideas is always educational, 
 and as such instructs the brain and hand 
 of men. Friendly rivalry follows, which 
 is the spur to industrial improvement, the 
 inspiration to useful invention and to high 
 endeavor in all departments of human ac- 
 tivity. Jt exacts a study of the wants, 
 comforts, and even the whims of the people, 
 and recognizes the efficacy of high quality 
 and low prices to win their favor. The 
 quest for trade is an incentive to men of 
 business to devise, invent, improve, and 
 economize in the cost of production. Busi- 
 ness life, whether among ourselves or with 
 other peoples, is ever a sharp struggle for 
 success. It will be none the less so in the 
 future. Without competition we would be 
 clinging to the clumsy and antiquated proc- 
 esses of farming and manufacture, and the 
 methods of business of long ago, and the 
 twentieth would be no further advanced than 
 the eighteenth century. But though com- 
 mercial competitors we are, commercial 
 enemies we must not be. 
 
 The Pan-American Exposition has done 
 its work thoroughly; presenting in its ex- 
 
Last Speech 7 
 
 hibits evidences of the highest skill and 
 illustrating the progress of the human family 
 in the western hemisphere. This portion of 
 the earth has no cause for humiliation for 
 the part it has performed in the march of 
 civilization. It has not accomplished every- 
 thing ; far from it. It has simply done its 
 best, and without vanity or boastfulness, and 
 recognizing the manifold achievements of 
 others, it invites the friendly rivalry of all the 
 Powers in the peaceful pursuits of trade and 
 commerce, and will cooperate with all in ad- 
 vancing the highest and best interests of 
 humanity. The wisdom and energy of all 
 the nations are none too great for the world's 
 work. The success of art, science, industry, 
 and invention is an international asset, and a 
 common glory. 
 
 After all, how near one to the other is 
 every part of the world. Modern inventions 
 have brought into close relation widely 
 separated peoples and made them better ac- 
 quainted. Geographic and political divisions 
 will continue to exist, but distances have 
 been effaced. Swift ships and fast trains are 
 becoming cosmopolitan. They invade fields 
 which a few years ago were impenetrable. 
 The world's products are exchanged as never 
 before and with increasing transportation 
 facilities come increasing knowledge and 
 larger trade. Prices are fixed with mathe- 
 matical precision by supply and demand. 
 
8 President Mc Kinley' 's 
 
 The world's selling prices are regulated by- 
 market and crop reports. We travel greater 
 distances in a shorter space of time and with 
 more ease than was ever dreamed of by the 
 fathers. Isolation is no longer possible or 
 desirable. The same important news is read, 
 though in different languages, the same day 
 in all Christendom. 
 
 The telegraph keeps us advised of what 
 is occurring everywhere, and the press fore- 
 shadows, with more or less accuracy, the 
 plans and purposes of the nations. Market 
 prices of products and of securities are hourly 
 known in every commercial mart, and the 
 investments of the people extend beyond 
 their own national boundaries into the re- 
 motest parts of the earth. Vast transactions 
 are conducted and international exchanges 
 are made by the tick of the cable. Every 
 event of interest is immediately bulletined. 
 The quick gathering and transmission of 
 news, like rapid transit, are of recent origin, 
 and are only made possible by the genius of 
 the inventor and the courage of the investor. 
 It took a special messenger of the Govern- 
 ment, with every facility known at the time 
 for rapid travel, nineteen days to go from 
 the city of Washington to New Orleans 
 with a message to General Jackson that the 
 war with England had ceased and a treaty of 
 peace had been signed. How different now. 
 We reached General Miles, in Porto Rico, 
 
Last Speech Q 
 
 and he was able through the military tele- 
 graph to stop his army on the firing line with 
 the message that the United States and Spain 
 had signed a protocol suspending hostilities. 
 We knew almost instantly of the first shots 
 fired at Santiago, and the subsequent sur- 
 render of the Spanish forces was known at 
 Washington within less than an hour of its 
 consummation. The first ship of Cervera's 
 fleet had hardly emerged from that historic 
 harbor when the fact was flashed to our 
 Capital, and the swift destruction that 
 followed was announced immediately through 
 the wonderful medium of telegraphy. 
 
 So accustomed are we to safe and easy 
 communication with distant lands that its 
 temporary interruption, even in ordinary 
 times, results in loss and inconvenience. We 
 shall never forget the days of anxious wait- 
 ing and suspense when no information was 
 permitted to be sent from Pekin, and the 
 diplomatic representatives of the nations in 
 China, cut off from all communication, inside 
 and outside of the walled capital, were sur- 
 rounded by an angry and misguided mob 
 that threatened their lives ; nor the joy that 
 thrilled the world when a single message 
 from the Government of the United States 
 brought, through our Minister, the first news 
 of the safety of the besieged diplomats. 
 
 At the beginning of the nineteenth century 
 there was not a mile of steam railroad on the 
 
IO President McKinley s 
 
 globe ; now there are enough miles to make 
 its circuit many times. Then there was not 
 a line of electric telegraph ; now we have a 
 vast mileage traversing all lands and all seas. 
 God and man have linked the nations 
 together. No nation can longer be indifferent 
 to any other. And as we are brought more 
 and more in touch with each other, the less 
 occasion is there for misunderstandings, and 
 the stronger the disposition, when we have 
 differences, to adjust them in the court of 
 arbitration, which is the noblest forum for 
 the settlement of international disputes. 
 
 My fellow citizens, trade statistics indi- 
 cate that this country is in a state of un- 
 exampled prosperity. The figures are almost 
 appalling. They show that we are utilizing 
 our fields and forests and mines, and that we 
 are furnishing profitable employment to the 
 millions of workingmen throughout the 
 United States, bringing comfort and happi- 
 ness to their homes, and making it possible 
 to lay by savings for old age and disability. 
 That all the people are participating in this 
 great prosperity is seen in every American 
 community and shown by the enormous and 
 unprecedented deposits in our savings banks. 
 Our duty in the care and security of these 
 deposits and their safe investment demands 
 the highest integrity and the best business 
 capacity of those in charge of these deposi- 
 tories of the people's earnings. 
 
Last Speech jj 
 
 We have a vast and intricate business, 
 built up through years of toil and struggle, 
 in which every part of the country has its 
 stake, which will not permit of either neglect, 
 or of undue selfishness. No narrow, sor- 
 did, policy will subserve it. The greatest 
 skill and wisdom on the part of manufacturers 
 and producers will be required to hold and 
 increase it. Our industrial enterprises, which 
 have grown to such great proportions, affect 
 the homes and occupations of the people and 
 the welfare of the country. Our capacity to 
 produce has developed so enormously, and 
 our products have so multiplied, that the 
 problem of more markets requires our urgent 
 and immediate attention. Only a broad and 
 enlightened policy will keep what we have. 
 No other policy will get more. In these 
 times of marvelous business energy and 
 gain we ought to be looking to the future, 
 strengthening the weak places in our indus- 
 trial and commercial systems, that we may be 
 ready for any storm or strain. 
 
 By sensible trade arrangements which will 
 not interrupt our home production we shall 
 extend the outlets for our increasing surplus. 
 A system which provides a mutual exchange 
 of commodities is manifestly essential to the 
 continued and healthful growth of our export 
 trade. We must not repose in fancied 
 security that we can forever sell everything 
 and buy little or nothing. If such a thing 
 
j2 President McKinley* s 
 
 were possible it would not be best for us or 
 for those with whom we deal. We should 
 take from our customers such of their pro- 
 ducts as we can use without harm to our 
 industries and labor. Reciprocity is the 
 natural outgrowth of our wonderful industrial 
 development under the domestic policy now 
 firmly established. 
 
 What we produce beyond our domestic 
 consumption must have a vent abroad. The 
 excess must be relieved through a foreign 
 outlet, and we should sell everywhere we can 
 and buy wherever the buying will enlarge 
 our sales and productions, and thereby make 
 a greater demand for home labor. 
 
 The period of exclusiveness is past. The 
 expansion of our trade and commerce is the 
 pressing problem. Commercial wars are 
 unprofitable. A policy of good will and 
 friendly trade relations will prevent reprisals. 
 Reciprocity treaties are in harmony with the 
 spirit of the times; measures of retaliation 
 are not. If, perchance, some of our tariffs 
 are no longer needed for revenue or to 
 encourage and protect our industries at home, 
 why should they not be employed to extend 
 and promote our markets abroad ? Then, 
 too, we have inadequate steamship service. 
 New lines of steamships have already been 
 put in commission between the Pacific coast 
 ports of the United States and those on the 
 western coasts of Mexico and Central and 
 
Last Speech 13 
 
 South America. These should be followed 
 up with direct steamship lines between the 
 western coast of the United States and South 
 American ports. One of the needs of the 
 times is direct commercial lines from our 
 vast fields of production to the fields of con- 
 sumption that we have but barely touched. 
 Next in advantage to having the thing to sell 
 is to have the conveyance to carry it to the 
 buyer. We must encourage our merchant 
 marine. We must have more ships. They 
 must be under the American flag, built and 
 manned and owned by Americans. These 
 will not only be profitable in a commercial 
 sense ; they will be messengers of peace and 
 amity wherever they go. 
 
 We must build the Isthmian Canal, which 
 will unite the two oceans and give a straight 
 line of water communication with the western 
 coasts of Central and South America and 
 Mexico. The construction of a Pacific cable 
 can not be longer postponed. In the fur- 
 therance of these objects of national interest 
 and concern you are performing an impor- 
 tant part. This Exposition would have 
 touched the heart of that American statesman 
 whose mind was ever alert and thought ever 
 constant for a larger commerce and a truer 
 fraternity of the republics of the New 
 World. His broad American spirit is felt 
 and manifested here. He needs no identi- 
 fication to an assemblage of Americans any- 
 
££ 
 
 where, for the name of Blaine is inseparably 
 associated with the Pan-American movement 
 which finds here practical and substantial ex- 
 pression, and which we all hope will be firmly 
 advanced by the Pan-American Congress 
 that assembles this autumn in the capital of 
 Mexico. The good work will go on. It 
 can not be stopped. These buildings will 
 disappear ; this creation of art and beauty 
 and industry will perish from sight, but their 
 influence will remain to " make it live beyond 
 its too short living with praises and thanks- 
 giving." Who can tell the new thoughts 
 that have been awakened, the ambitions fired 
 and the high achievements that will be 
 wrought through this Exposition ? 
 
 Let us ever remember that our interest is 
 in concord, not conflict ; and that our real 
 eminence rests in the victories of peace, not 
 those of war. We hope that all who are 
 represented here may be moved to higher 
 and nobler effort for their own and the 
 world's good, and that out of this city may 
 come not only greater commerce and trade 
 for us all; but, more essential than these, re- 
 lations of mutual respect, confidence and 
 friendship which will deepen and endure. 
 Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously 
 vouchsafe prosperity, happiness and peace 
 to all our neighbors, and like blessings to all 
 the peoples and powers of earth. 
 
fBresfoent ^cKmle^tf Hast &ptet\) ti)t 
 platform anD holier of pre0iDent Hooaebelt 
 
 IT is a significant fact of momentous importance to 
 the nation and the world at large that President 
 McKinley's last speech has been publicly and definitely 
 announced by President Roosevelt to be the platform and 
 policy of his administration. After the obsequies over 
 the late President at Washington on September 17th, 
 the Cabinet assembled at President Roosevelt's request. 
 So closely will President Roosevelt follow the ideas of the 
 late President, that he told the members of the Cabinet 
 collectively what he had already told them individually, 
 that he desired them all to remain in their places, 
 and he did so, he said, with the hope and expectation 
 that they would serve through his term. He tendered 
 the appointments, he added, as if he had been elected 
 President and were making an original Cabinet. 
 
 The President declared that he had no intention of in- 
 augurating a new policy, and he added that he regarded 
 the speech of President Mc Kin ley at the Buffalo Expo- 
 sition as outlining the policy of this country, which he will 
 closely follow. 
 
 The strength of American securities both on Wall Street 
 and in all foreign bourses is a substantial indication of the 
 confidence of the financial world that the nadonal policy 
 of President McKinley will continue unchanged by the 
 Administration of his successor. President Roosevelt, 
 therefore, starts out on his Administration with this pre- 
 cise and well defined policy. He represents the same 
 party, the same spirit and the same policy which were 
 represented by President McKinley. While the nation 
 is overwhelmed by this dreadful assassination, President 
 Roosevelt is not at sea without a chart. 
 
" 3ft to toll's tea?, f^tfi totll 6e tjone ; 
 not ours." 
 
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