RESPONSIBILITY OF MOTHERHOOD.
By Mary Wood-Allen
[An address delivered by Dr. Mary Wood-Allen, to thousands assembled in University Hall, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Sept. 15, during memorial services for President McKinley.] I AM asked to speak at this time for the women of America. What special need have we to mourn in this national calamity? As citizens we weep; but why as women have we greater cause to mourn? We mourn not only the statesman, but for the man whose burdens of statecraft never caused him to forget the tender duties of home. We have read much of his devotion to his wife. Three years ago it was my privilege to spend an hour with President and Mrs. McKinley in the White House. There were not more than six persons present, so the occasion was quite informal, and we saw not merely President McKinley, the ruler of the nation, but the man,—genial, courteous, and charming, and ever most tenderly watchful of Mrs. McKinley, anticipating her every wish, and guarding her from any possible unpleasantness. We who saw it could well believe that after every absence from the White House, his first act on returning was to find Mrs. McKinley, and assure himself of her welfare. His devotion to his mother was equally remarkable. To the end of her life, he was the thoughtful,11deferential son, even tho he stood on the pinnacle of earthly fame. The wife never displaced the mother. Each had her own place in his heart, where each reigned supreme. Surely wifehood and motherhood have been dignified by such devotion. Emerson says, “All the world loves a lover,” and surely all the world of womankind must love the man who proved that amid the trials and perplexities of national affairs, he could still be the lover, tender and true to the end of his days. To have given such a man to the world must place the mother beyond the noblest queen. But while we glory in the motherhood that gives us the power to give to earth her heroes and her martyrs, we must not forget another mother who to-day must weep over the shame of having brought into life one whose name will remain through all time as a synonym of cowardice and crime. We do not know her. We have no means of learning whether it was the impress of her own murderous thought upon her child before he became a separate, visible entity, which made him capable of wielding the assassin’s weapon; but in studying the lives of the other assassins of our presidents, we can see indications that the mother’s influence upon the impressionable structures of the embryo were woven into the texture of their being, and eventuated in murderous deeds. Here is an object-lesson before which we should pause in solemn contemplation. Mothers alone drink sorrow’s deepest dregs. No deeper grief could come into a life than that of knowing that one child has gone astray because we are untrue to the divinest impulses of motherhood. No joy can equal that of knowing that we have made it easy for our children to be true because we have been true. But there is still another lesson for us to learn from the assassin’s deed. Where does lawlessness begin? We talk of the home as the foundation of national greatness. Do we remember that in the home also is often found the germ of national disruption? The uncontrolled child bids fair to be the uncontrollable man. The boy of two who kicks and strikes if he can not have his own way, has started toward the man who shoots on slight provocation. The boy who at six is beyond the control of his mother, at sixteen is quite likely to need confining in a prison cell because he defied the law of the State. Obedience to rightful authority is “the duty of the whole of life.” This obedience should be learned in the home; and the first teacher is the mother. Therefore it is not too much to say that upon the mother rests largely the responsibility of creating the type of national character. It is a help when the father is himself all that it is desirable that the children shall be; but many of our noblest men have grown up under the care and training of widowed mothers. In Lincoln’s case, it was a step-mother to whom he said he owed all that he was. Poverty and struggles can be used to develop sturdy qualities, while wealth may be the means of destroying endeavor. In many log cabins in our land have grown up boys who have become towers of national strength, because in those cabins were taught the lessons of obedience and true greatness; while in homes where every wish was gratified, the children have grown up weaklings because not trained to habits of self-control and strength of moral character. What would our martyred president say to us with respect to the one who took his life? Not words of retaliation and revenge. There must be other remedy. Until a few days ago, these two families were ignorant of each other. Each is a part of the great web of humanity; and no home is safe till all are safe. Has not God put it within the power of woman to banish such evils from our land? The child is first committed to woman. It is first taught by mother; then by woman teacher, woman friend, sweetheart, and wife. There is no injustice but we are responsible. If this dark tragedy shall teach the nation the value of parenthood, it will not have occurred in vain. May God grant us His healing power.