The President’s Silent Salute: McKinley and the Grand Army on Memorial Day
As thousands gathered in Seattle to honor Civil War dead, a minor diplomatic incident involving Mayor Hewitt revealed the deep fractures within the veteran community.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Memorial Day was cloudy. Bays were entirely reopened and flags were flying at half-mast. The procession was very large, and hundreds of throngs filled the streets through which it passed.
The band tested with Secretary Shively and his staff at 10 o'clock. Shortly after, objecting the president, accompanied by the officers of the Grand Army of the Republic committee, entered open carriages and rode down to the head of the procession. Following in other carriages were Secretary Elwell, ex-Mayor Folsom. The crowd was dense enough to continue.
The previous experts [officials] expect to return to Washington to offer tribute. When the head of the procession reached the reviewing stand on Madison Square the president alighted. As he appeared to the stand he was greeted with cheers from the throng who filled the square. When the Richmond Grays [company] saluted every man saluted and the colors were displayed.
There were fifteen divisions of Grand Army posts, all of them saluting the president. The floral decoration, which was the last part of the procession, contained forty large trucks filled with flowers to be placed on the soldiers' graves in the cemetery.
The absence of Mayor Hewitt from the reviewing stand excited comment among the Grand Army men. He says he was not invited, but the Grand Army men say he was and that their knowledge of the fact he was excluded excited their resentment by his treatment is spreading away.
At 4 o'clock in the afternoon the smoke of eighty rides [rifles], held by the Richmond Grays, seated over the Elmo from before General Grant's flower-covered tomb. The jugs of the monument were covered with immortelles, in which were the words 'His words were few,' and 'His actions were decisive.' Many and beautiful flower designs stood before the vault and inside the iron casket was buried with beautiful flowers. Several military bodies were in attendance. The Methodist conference was represented by Bishops Bowman, Kneer, Merrill, Andrews, Mahalie, Fowler, Vincent, Warren, Cross, Feats, Hunt, Andrews, Joyce, Newton and Stevens. Gen. Grant, Jr., and Mrs. Grant and daughter were the only members of the Grant family present. Chopin's funeral march was rendered. The grand ritual of Decoration Day was then paid and General Stewart L. Woodford followed with an oration.
This account captures a moment when civic leadership in Seattle was visibly fractured, with Mayor Hewitt excluded from the official Memorial Day review—a snub that sparked public resentment among veterans. It mirrors modern tensions where political figures are often sidelined by community groups or where ceremonial inclusion becomes a flashpoint for broader civic disputes.
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