It .is very apparent that the Demo
cratic press of the country, and more
especially of the southern states, is
traveling the same path with reference
to President Roosevelt that it pursued
in its treatment of the late lamented
President McKinley. During the cam
paign that preceded his election in 1896
and 1900, Mr. McKinley was criticised,
denounced and abused with no less
severity and rancor than has charcter
ized Mr. Roosevelt's treatment by the
opposition press in the campaign of
this year. Mr. McKinley was declared
to be a pliant tool of the trusts and the
creature of Mark Hanna, and all sorts
of dire misfortunes were prophesied as
inevitable consequences of his eleva
tion to the presidency in the first in
stance, and his continuance in oflice
for a second term. Immediately fol
lowing his re-election, however, an
"era of good feeling" began. Papers
and politicians that had been foremost
in heaping obloquy upon the president
became quite as prominent in testify
ing to his virtues and good intentions,
and when the hand of the assassin laid
him low a few months later, the sorrow
and horror begotten by the foul deed
were no less universal and sincere
than the recognition of the mar
tyred president's patriotism, probity
and purity of character. He is all but
canonized in the hearts and memories
of his countrymen, without distinction
of party or class, and scarcely a shred
of recollection survives to recall the
partisan attacks to which he was sub
jected in the heat of the political cam
paigns that preceded his two elections
as president.
