Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1900 — CAMPAIGN ASSAULT [ARTICLE]

CAMPAIGN ASSAULT

History of Its Defeat In Methodist General Conference. PRESIDING ELDER’S STORY Prohibition rst's Charge, Disproved and Attack Defeated. The Outcome of a Charge of Tippling Against the President and its Investigation—McKinley “a Pure, Christian Statesman of Whom I the'Church Might Be Proud - ’ Defense of the President by a Political Opponent Who Served In Congress With Him. A presiding eldef of one of the most conferences in the northvest, thoroughly familiar with all of. the facts he presents, has written the following to a friend: “President McKinley should, receive the support of the whi’le moral and religious influence of the country. He h entitled to it by the purity of his private life, by the grand record he has made in congress and. since he became president, and by all of the glorious possibilities for the nation and the world that are involved and assured in his re-election. As is well known. President McKinley is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church It is also widely known that Samuel Dickie, for several years Chairman of the Prohibition national committee, stated before several meetings of Methodist preachers and In his paper. The New Voice, that, at a banquet in Chicago, he saw Mr. McKinley drink four kinds of wine. During * meeting of the missionary committee held In Washington, November, 1899. the bishops being present. Bishop Walden called on the president and asked him a# to the facts in the cast- referred to by Mr. Dickie. Mr. McKinley frankly replied that it had la-en his custom at banquets not to turn bis glasses down, but to leave them to be filled by the waiters the same as the glasses of other guests. But Knee he became president, and for many years previously, he had not drank wine at banquets and similar occasions; but he would call for a glass of apollinaris. water, as that was Ids favorite drink on those occasions: that he did not drink the wine at the Chicago banquet as charged.

A Pure, Christian? Statesman. “Bishop Walden related this conversation to the other bishops and at a reception given to the committee by President McKinley at the white house the bishops heartily concurred In the commendatory resolutions passyed by the committee, which spoke of Mr. McKinley as a ‘pure Christian statesman of whom the church and the, nation might well feel proud.’ At ti.e general conference in May. 1900. Mr. Dickie was chairman of the committee on temperance, ami. undoubtedly chagrined that the bishops and great majority of Methodist preachers and laymen had perfect confidence In President McKinley’s'word, evidently' determined to use the general conference to humiliate the president before his own church and. the nation. His report, which he succeeded in pushing through the committee, censured the president in sever® and bitter terms. When presented to the general conference by Mr. Dickie it produced a decided sensation, especially that part of the report which held the president responsible for the opinion of Attorney General Griggs relative to the canteen and for the sale of intoxicating liquors in the Philippine islands. Dr. ,T. E. .Price presented & minority report, temperately phrased, omitting all censure of President McKinley. This brought rhe issue squarely before the general conference and gave rise to the most exciting debate. Hon Charles B. Lore of Delaware, conceded to be one of the ablest laymen in the general conference, said:

A PoHti-al Opponent's Tribute. “Nothings but an Imperative sense of duty compels me to speak. I am j heartily and earnestly in favor of the Adoption of the minority report for two reason.- The first is. the major- I Ity report is historically inaccurate, and for this reason: President Me- : Kinley is blamed in that report for practically nullifying the laws of the UrKed States. Did you go back and attack congress because it saw fit to adopt a law which Is susceptible of two interpretations? And the interpretation of Attorney General Griggs fs recognized by some of the ablost legal minds throughout the United States as the only legal Interpretation of the law. Have you passed censure npon congress? No. You praise it. Again, you say that Hon. John Long Is worthy of praise because he Abolished liquor from the navy. Do you know that that is the act of William McKinley 7 through John D. Long? And, on the other hand, do you lay your hands upon the president who has given, In his judgment, a correct opinion? Here you have divided yourselves and cannot stand. Again let me say to you, I served four years with Wiliam McKinley' in the Fortyeighth and Forty-ninth congresses. I was politically opposed to him. I am not in favor of bls policy today—if you will allow n judge to have an opinion —ln many respects. Lint I stood boside that man four years and I learned to love hls elemental rjinhood. lie was brought up tn a Methodist atmosphere and taught by a good old Meth<Mlist mottxcr. Ho stood b< fore me ntypical man. He said to me por«g>rAtty, Phgn his seat was contested in Uousd of representatives, ‘lf you

cannot vote for me, honestly believing that I was clewed fully and fairly, do not do it. I will go home to my constituents again.’ I watched his life, as he moved up and down in those halls. I found in Washington congressmen in fiie saloons and in worse places. I have heard of them being there. I will not say I saw them there.. That would not be fair. I watched Mr. McKinley's course up and down. Let me tell you that Mr. McKinley, when not at his duty in the halls of congress or in the committee room, was with his invalid wife and did Ills work in her presence and under her inspiration. He was one of the purest and best men in the Fortyeighth and Forty-ninth congresses And while I differ from him, I am unwilling to see this gfeat Methodist conference strike down one of the most loyal men within her borders.’ Defeat of the Attack. . “Similar strong, ,manly, noble words ..were spoken by other delegates, and when the vote came to be taken Mr. i Dickie had the pleasure f.T of seeing that his attack upon fhe.prcsideht had proven a booimwang and that portion ' of his report-criticising Mr. McKinley entirely stricken out ami the general I conference <:ved from being m:ide<the ■agent to s w the sinister designs of ' unfair ami unscrupulous partisanship. ! President McKinley is not only stronger in The Methodist church, but in all the churches, than ever before. Men of all shades of religious and political : opinion admire him for his purity of ■ life and for his careful, conservative > administration of the duties of his great office. Considering all the diffiI cult problems he has had to deal with, rdomestic and 'foreign, he liaa shown ■ himself so wise, so self-poised, so fair ■ to all legitimate interests, so strictly : impartial in the conduct of public as- ! fairs, that the people of every section i of the country, north, south, east and west, speak of him as ‘Our President.’ ; That he will be re-elected by a much larger majority than in the election of 1896 is the wish, the prayer, and the patriotic purpose of every citizen who believes in the progress, the stability, the safety and ever expanding glory of the American republic.”