rebellion against the imperial authority. If this be the case, I most solemnly urge upon your majesty's government to give public assurance whether the foreign Ministers are alive, and, if so, in what condition. "2. To put the diplomatic representatives of the powers in immediate and free communication with their respective governments and to remove all danger to their lives and liberty. "3. To place the imperial authorities of China in communication with the relief expedition so that coöperation may be secured between them for the liberation of the legationers, the protection of foreigners and the restoration of order. "If these objects are accomplished, it is the belief of this government that no obstacles will be found to exist on the part of the powers to an amicable settlement of all the questions arising out of the recent troubles, and the friendly good offices of this government will, with the assent of the other powers, be cheerfully placed at your majesty's disposition for that purpose. "WILLIAM MCKINLEY. "By the President: JOHN HAY, Secretary of State. "July 23, 1900." By reason of the good offices of President McKinley, a settlement of the Chinese troubles was had that was equitable to all parties concerned. It is doubtful if such a result could have been reached otherwise. As it was, instead of attempted dismemberment of the Chinese Empire, and a program of wholesale looting, spoliation and consequent disturbances between the powers interested, the matter was settled with honor to all the world. McKinley's kindly heart and hand was of the leaven that leavened it all. CHAPTER XXV. MCKINLEY: BUILDER OF A WORLD POWER. The traveller standing close at the foot of a mountain can form no idea of its altitude nor of its bulk. He can have no conception of its grandeur, of its majesty, of the myriad beauties which embellish its sides and crown its summit, nor of the limitless riches concealed in its bosom. It is only when time and distance and reflection; when frequent returns and thoughtful visits have set the scene in fair perspective that he appreciates the marvels of the mountain. The American citizen to-day cannot easily appreciate the full value of William McKinley's life work. It was not his career as a soldier, his record as a lawyer, his achievements in the halls of Congress; it was not as Governor nor as President that posterity will recognize him at his very greatest, and it was not in either of these capacities that he made his mightiest impress upon the American Republic. His master work was in giving his country its proper place in the family of the world. Extravagant eulogy would say he reconstructed the Republic; that he conjured a new nation into life; that he lifted the millions of his countrymen from darkness into light; that he bestowed the grandeur of imperial sunshine upon the humble inhabitants of a neglected land. The extravagant eulogy would not be wholly inaccurate in essence, nor necessarily offensive in terms. And yet the more modest statement more nearly comprehends the essential truth. He did not recreate the Republic. Practically all the elements here at the end of his life were here at the beginning. He did not conjure up a new nation. The mighty people who followed his bidding in 1898 and so on to the end could never have been conjured from its elements by any force less potential than Omnipotence! And yet the true American can get a better conception of the dignity of his citizenship; a better estimate of the majesty of national life, a prouder view of world-wide actions upon the theater of the world if he will but patiently and justly consider the steps in the transition which certainly has occurred, and trace the credit through each crisis to the influence most potent in producing that result. It is believed the work and influence of William McKinley was that most potent force; that, more than any other one man he has led his people from the halls of an heritage of which they were justly proud up to the threshold of an estate immeasurably more magnificent. Let us begin at the beginning. When he came back from the army he deliberately studied the whole situation. He saw the national condition then existing, judged with astonishing accuracy what would be the salient successive features in its future development, calculated with rare discrimination what treatment would be best in each era, and devoted all his energies to aiding in that progress to the very limit of his ability. He had never a doubt from the first what the end would be. But he did have a more sure foresight of what the future held than had most other Americans then living. One cannot say that he foresaw the time when the Republic should issue its mandate to a monarch of the old world, when it should serve notice of ejectment upon a king; when it should lay the restraining hand upon a mob of emperors and potentates struggling in disgraceful melee for the spoliation of an ancient nation. And yet, standing in the shadow of his funeral flags, with the echoes of knelling bells in the ears, and the memory of that mighty work so late accomplished, one can but see abundant reason for the belief that HE KNEW! How else shall one account for that conduct which admits of explanation on no other ground than that the guiding spirit understood? How else shall one justify the actions which committed him to criticism, which could reflect honor upon him only in the event of this marvelous accomplishment? It was clear to him that for twenty years after the war the nation would be busy in construction; that the general aim would be to establish productive industries-North and South-that men would be building homes, advancing into new country, opening new mines, reaching farther into the wilderness, reclaiming more and more of the waste land, building more railroads, launching more steamships; and that there would come a period of erecting new homes, of beautifying, of adornment, of polish; and that then would come an era of study toward the conservation of forces, the learning of less expensive ways of doing what had been effectively done before—the era of economizing-to be swiftly followed by the era of stupendous wealth. And let that man who contends the essentials of this picture were not foreseen by William McKinley account on any other basis, if he can, for that |