Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/272

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS

hilation to compromise, but the palm of com- mon sense, and, I will say, of enlightened patriot- ism, belongs to the men like Grant and Lee, who knew when they had fought enough for honor and for country.

So it came naturally about that in 1876 — the beginning of the second century of the Republic — he began, by an election to Congress, his polit- ical career. Thereafter for fourteen years this chamber was his home. I use the word advisedly. Nowhere in the world was he so in harmony with his environment as here; nowhere else did his mind work with such full consciousness of its powers. The air of debate was native to him; here he drank delight of battle with his peers. In after days, when he drove by this stately pile, or when on rare occasions his duty called him here, he greeted his old haunts with the affection- ate zest of a child of the house; during all the last ten years of his life, filled as they were with activity and glory, he never ceased to be home- sick for this hall. When he came to the presi- dency, there was not a day when his congres- sional service was not of use to him. Probably no other president has been in such full and cordial communion with Congress, if we may except Lincoln alone. IMcKinley knew the legis- lative body thoroughly, its composition, its methods, its habit of thought. He had the pro- foundest respect for its authority and an in- flexible belief in the ultimate rectitude of its pur- poses. Our history shows how sure an executive 234

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