McKinley Assassination A Political Assassination

President McKinley William McKinley, Jr. (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the twenty-fifth President of the United States, and the last veteran of the Civil War to be elected. By the 1880s, this Ohio native was a nationally known Republican leader; his signature issue was high tariffs on imports as a formula for prosperity, as typified by his McKinley Tariff of 1890.

1896 Election Electoral vote: States carried: Popular vote: McKinley: 7,112,138 [51%] Bryan: 6,508,172 [46.7%]

McKinley Administration McKinley presided over a return to prosperity after the Panic of 1893 and was reelected in 1900 after another intense campaign against Bryan, this one focused on foreign policy.

The Assassination The William McKinley assassination took place on September 6, 1901, at the Temple of Music, in Buffalo, New York. President William McKinley, attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, was shot twice by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist. McKinley initially appeared to be recovering from his wounds, but took a turn for the worse six days after the shooting and died on September 14, Theodore Roosevelt succeeded McKinley as President. McKinley was the third of four American presidents to be assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James Garfield in 1881 and preceding John F. Kennedy in After McKinley's murder Congress would officially charge the United States Secret Service with the physical protection of American presidents. Leon Czolgosz shoots President McKinley with a concealed revolver.

Leon Czolgosz

Czolgosz Czolgosz was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1873, the son of Polish immigrants. Czolgosz had become interested in anarchism in the years preceding the McKinley murder. In May of 1901 he attended a speech, given by famous anarchist Emma Goldman, in Cleveland, Ohio. Czolgosz traveled to Goldman's home in Chicago on July 12 and spoke briefly to Goldman before she left to catch a train. Goldman was later arrested and briefly detained on suspicion of involvement in McKinley's murder. Leon Czolgosz mugshot, from the day after the shooting

Scene of the shooting In his statement, which he gave on Sept. 7, Czolgosz said that he had read eight days prior, in Chicago, that McKinley would be attending the Exposition. He immediately took a train to Buffalo and rented a room. Czolgosz was at the fair on Sept. 5 for President's Day, and heard McKinley's speech. He was tempted to shoot the President then but did not because he could not get close enough. Instead, he came back to the Exposition the next day. Goldman's speech from May was still "burning [him] up". He joined the line of people waiting to shake the president's hand. Czolgosz wrapped up his hand with a white handkerchief to hide the pistol he was carrying. Scene of the shooting inside the Temple of Music. Spot where McKinley was shot marked with an X.

Roosevelt becomes president, 1901 Roosevelt then boarded the train.The train stopped briefly in Albany before pulling into Buffalo at 1:30 p.m. There he met his friend Ansley Wilcox and went to Wilcox's house in Buffalo, one mile from Milburn's house where McKinley's body lay. After cleaning up, Roosevelt went to the Milburn house to pay his respects. He met Root, Cortelyou, and most of the rest of the Cabinet there, but could not see McKinley's body as the autopsy was already underway. Root recommended holding the ceremony there, but Roosevelt thought that "inappropriate" and decided to return to the Wilcox house for the swearing-in ceremony. Roosevelt took the oath of office as the 26th President of the United States at 3:30 p.m. Six weeks away from his 43rd birthday, he was and still is the youngest man ever to hold the office of President.

Aftermath Emma Goldman brought a huge amount of bad publicity on herself by writing an article in which she compared Czolgosz to Brutus and called McKinley the "president of the money kings and trust magnates". Goldman found that even other anarchists and radicals were unwilling to help her effort to aid Czolgosz, believing that he had discredited the anarchist movement.

Protecting the president After McKinley's murder Congress took up the question of Presidential security. In the fall of 1901 they informally asked the Secret Service to control presidential security, and the Service was protecting President Theodore Roosevelt full-time by However, this was not yet official. Some in Congress recommended the United States Army be charged with protecting the President. Not until 1906 did the Congress pass legislation officially designating the Secret Service as the agency in charge of presidential security.