Name/Title
Transcript of Joseph Butler's addressEntry/Object ID
2015.4.194vDescription
Traisncript of the Address given by Joseph G. Butler, Jr. at the dedication of the National McKinley Birthplace Museum. This speech was repeated during the centennial re-dedication on October 14, 2017, by his great-great granddaughter, Dorothy Butler.
The text of the transcript reads as follows:
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http://mckinley.advantage-preservation.com/Viewer/?pt=31188&by=1917&bm=10&bd=5&pbd=10/05/1917-10/05/1917&fn=the_niles_daily_news_usa_ohio_niles_19171005_english_1&df=1&dt=10&tc=40&cnt=United%20States%20of%20America&sn=Ohio&cn=Niles&pn=The%20Niles%20Daily%20News
My Dear Friends:
The dedication of this beautiful memorial means more to me that most of you can fully understand. It is the culmination of more than seven years of persistent effort, the crowning achievement of a long and busy life, and the evidence of trust and confidence on the part of a host of generous friends. But it is even more than that. It means to me the discharging of a high duty on the part of the American people and performance of an obligation on the part of the Mahoning Valley. And it means that we have here given testimony of our love and veneration for one of America's greatest men, whose character and example deserve to be kept in perpetual memory.
It was my privilege to know William McKinley intimately. He was my friend from childhood to the end. I knew and loved him as a boy, as a man, as a gallant soldier, as a member of Congress, as Governor of this State, and as President of the United States. No gentler character ever lived than he. I have never known a friend more sincerely and true. As a statesman, his work lives after him and speaks for itself. As a patriot, he rendered to his country "the last full measure of devotion." What he did for America by his vision concerning our country's needs and his steadfast efforts on behalf of protection to our then struggling industries may never be fully known; but it is safe to say that much of our present greatness and the proud position we occupy in the present crisis of the world's history would have been impossible if he had never lived.
We have reared here on the spot where he was born, within a stone's throw of the little old white school where he attended as a boy, a structure worthy of its purpose because of its dignity and beauty, but even more so because it has been designed to benefit the living as McKinley would have it do.
Today we dedicate this memorial to the honor of the man whose statue will here preserve the memory of his living form; but we must also dedicate ourselves the high things for which he is honored if they are to be preserved. His gentle spirit, his rectitude of heart, his love of country and his wisdom-these things cannot be embalmed in marble. They are to be perpetuated only in our own hearts and in the hearts of our children, and there has never been a time in the history of the world when they should have such a meaning for us as now. When William McKinley spoke at the dedication of the monument erected in memory of soldiers and sailors at Cleveland, Ohio, July 4th, 1894, he used these words:
"We are the freest government on the face of the earth. Our strength rests in our patriotism. Peace and order and security and liberty safe so long as love of country burns in the hearts of the people."
These are strong words in the light of our position today as the only power on earth that can make the world safe for democracy. That we are such a power, and that our vast natural resources have been developed so rapidly as to be available on the side of right and justice and liberty at this critical time, is due to the vision and the devotion to a great principle of this man whose memory we seek to perpetuate and whose emulation this structure should inspire. The world owes him a debt as great as that of America-a debt it can never adequately repay.
I should like to tell you something of what the erection of this beautiful memorial has meant to me and to others. It would give me pleasure to tell you of the care and thought devoted to it by the Trustees of the National McKinley Birthplace Memorial Association; of the generosity of the many friends whose contributions have made it possible; of the effort made to secure a design that would suitably honor the man in whose memory it was built and at the same time permit it to be a useful and educational institution, such as McKinley would wish it to be. But there is not time for this, and I shall merely call your attention to the fact that, like other great and beautiful monuments, it has been erected for the living as well as for the dead, and that in all of us here present, as well as in the multitudes who will come to gaze upon it when we are gone, this memorial to William McKinley, next to Lincoln the best loved President of the United States, should inspire in some degree the purity and loftiness of his patriotism, the gentleness, patience and serenity of his disposition, his undemegogic democracy, and his broad sympathy with human kind."Collection
ScarmuzziAcquisition
Accession
2015.4.0Source or Donor
Patricia A. ScarmuzziAcquisition Method
Gift