William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, was shot on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition in the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901, six months into his second term. He was shaking hands with the public when an anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, shot him twice in the abdomen. McKinley died on September 14 of gangrene caused by the wounds. He was the third American president to be assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James A. Garfield in 1881.
McKinley enjoyed meeting the public and was reluctant to accept the security available to his office. Secretary to the President George B. Cortelyou feared that an assassination attempt would take place during a visit to the Temple of Music and took it off the schedule twice, but McKinley restored it each time.
Czolgosz had lost his job during the economic Panic of 1893 and turned to anarchism, a political philosophy adhered to by contemporary assassins of foreign leaders. He regarded McKinley as a symbol of oppression and was convinced that it was his duty as an anarchist to kill him. He was unable to get near the president during an earlier visit, but he shot him twice as McKinley reached to shake his hand in the reception line at the temple. One bullet grazed McKinley; the other entered his abdomen and was never found.
McKinley initially appeared to be recovering, but his condition deteriorated on September 13 as his wounds became gangrenous. He died at 2:15 am on September 14 and was succeeded by his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt. A month later, Czolgosz was convicted of first degree murder and was sentenced to death. He was executed by the electric chair on October 29. Congress later passed legislation to officially charge the Secret Service with the responsibility for protecting the president.
Background
In September 1901, William McKinley was at the height of his power as president. Elected in 1896, during the serious economic depression resulting from the Panic of 1893, he had defeated his Democratic rival, William Jennings Bryan. McKinley led the nation both to a return to prosperity and to victory in the Spanish–American War in 1898, taking possession of such Spanish colonies as Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines in emulation of the era's overseas imperialism. Re-elected handily in a rematch against Bryan in 1900, according to historian Eric Rauchway, "it looked as if the McKinley Administration would continue peaceably unbroken for another four years, a government devoted to prosperity".
McKinley's original vice president, Garret Hobart, had died in 1899, and McKinley left the choice of a running mate to the 1900 Republican National Convention. In advance of the convention, New York's Republican political boss, Senator Thomas C. Platt, saw an opportunity to politically sideline his state's governor, Theodore Roosevelt, by pushing for his nomination as vice president. Roosevelt accepted the nomination and was elected on McKinley's ticket.
Leon Czolgosz was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1873, the son of Polish immigrants. The Czolgosz family moved several times as Paul Czolgosz, Leon's father, sought work throughout the Midwest. As an adult, Leon Czolgosz worked in a Cleveland factory until he lost his job in a labor dispute in 1893. Thereafter, he worked irregularly and attended political and religious meetings, trying to understand the reasons for the economic turmoil of the Panic of 1893. In doing so, he became interested in anarchism. By 1901, this movement was feared in the United States – New York's highest court had ruled that the act of identifying oneself as an anarchist in front of an audience was a breach of the peace. In Europe, anarchists had assassinated or attempted to assassinate a half-dozen officials and members of royal houses, and had been blamed for the 1886 Haymarket bombing in Chicago.
Two American presidents had been assassinated in the 19th century: Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James A. Garfield in 1881. Even considering this history, McKinley did not like security personnel to come between him and the people. When in his hometown, Canton, Ohio, he often walked to church or the business district without protection, and in Washington he went on drives with his wife without a guard in the carriage.
Presidential visit
Plans and arrivals
McKinley gave a short speech at his second inauguration on March 4, 1901. Having long been an advocate of protective tariffs, and believing the Dingley Tariff, passed during his first year in office, had helped the nation reach prosperity, McKinley planned to negotiate reciprocal trade agreements with other countries. This would open foreign markets to American manufacturers that had dominated the domestic market thanks to the tariff, and who sought to expand. During a long trip planned for the months after his inauguration, he intended to make major speeches promoting this plan, culminating in a visit and address at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo on June 13.
McKinley, his wife Ida, and their official party left Washington on April 29 for a tour of the nation by train, scheduled to conclude in Buffalo for a speech on what had been designated as "President's Day". He met with rapturous receptions in the Far West, where many had never before seen a president. In California, the first lady became seriously ill, and for a time was thought to be dying. She recovered in San Francisco, but her husband canceled the remainder of the tour and the McKinleys returned to Washington. The speech at the Exposition was postponed until September 5, after McKinley spent some weeks in Washington and two months in Canton. He used his time in his Ohio home working on the Buffalo speech and in supervising improvements to his house. He intended to remain based in Canton until October.
Czolgosz had lived on his parents' farm near Cleveland beginning in 1898, working little – he may have suffered a nervous breakdown. He is known to have attended a speech by anarchist Emma Goldman in May 1901 in Cleveland: he approached her before the speech and asked her to recommend books on anarchism; she obliged. The talk, in which Goldman did not advocate violence but expressed understanding for those driven to it, was a great influence on Czolgosz; he later stated that her words burned in his head. He came to see her at her Chicago home in July as she was about to depart on a trip to Buffalo to see the fair, and the two anarchists rode together to the train station. Goldman expressed concern to another radical that Czolgosz (who was using the alias Fred Nieman) was following her around; soon after, he apparently departed Chicago. William Arntz, a worker at a park in Canton, stated that he had seen a man resembling Czolgosz in mid-1901, when the president was staying at home and sometimes visiting the park. The man was wearing two guns, and when Arntz reminded him that firearms were not permitted outside the park's shooting range, responded dismissively. Arntz sought the police, but the man was never found.
Later in the summer, Czolgosz moved to Buffalo for unknown reasons. Author and journalist Scott Miller speculated that he may have chosen Buffalo because of its large Polish population. He boarded in the suburb of West Seneca and spent much of his time reading. Czolgosz then left for Cleveland, though what he did there is uncertain; he may have picked up anarchist literature or procured more money. Then Czolgosz went to Chicago, where he saw a newspaper mention of McKinley's impending visit to Buffalo. He returned to Buffalo, as yet uncertain of what he would do; at first, he only sought to be near the man who to him embodied injustice. On Tuesday, September 3, he made up his mind. Czolgosz later stated to the police:
It was in my heart, there was no escape for me. I could not have conquered it had my life been at stake. There were thousands of people in town on Tuesday. I heard it was President's Day. All those people seemed bowing to the great ruler. I made up my mind to kill that ruler.
On September 3, Czolgosz went to Walbridge's Hardware Store on Buffalo's Main Street and purchased a .32-caliber Iver Johnson revolver. He had as yet no clear plan for the assassination. The following day, William and Ida McKinley arrived in Buffalo by train. The cannon that fired a salute to the president on his arrival in the city had been set too close to the track and blew out several windows in the train, unnerving the first lady. About a dozen people on the platform, believing the damage was caused by a bomb, shouted "Anarchists!" As William McKinley stepped down from the train to the official welcome, Czolgosz shoved his way forward in the crowd, but found the president too well guarded to make an attempt on his life.
A day at the fair; excursion to Niagara Falls
McKinley's trip to Buffalo was part of a planned ten-day absence from Canton, beginning on September 4, which was to include a visit in Cleveland to an encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic; he was a member as a Union veteran. The McKinleys stayed in Buffalo at the Milburn House, the large home of the Exposition's president, John G. Milburn. On Saturday, September 7, they were to travel to Cleveland and stay first at the home of businessman and future Ohio governor Myron Herrick, a friend of the president, and then with McKinley's close friend and adviser, Ohio Senator Mark Hanna. Upon arrival in Buffalo, the presidential party was driven through the fairgrounds on the way to the Milburn House, pausing for a moment at the Triumphal Bridge at the Exposition so the visitors could look upon the fair's attractions.
While in Buffalo, McKinley had two days of events. On Thursday, September 5, he was to deliver his address and then tour the fair. The following day, he was to visit Niagara Falls, and, on his return to Buffalo, meet the public at the Temple of Music on the Exposition grounds. Part of the reason for bringing McKinley repeatedly to the fair was to swell the gate receipts; the popular president's visit was heavily advertised. The public reception at the Temple of Music was disliked by his personal secretary, George B. Cortelyou, who, concerned for the president's security, twice tried to remove it from the program. McKinley restored it each time; he wished to support the fair (he agreed with its theme of hemispheric cooperation), enjoyed meeting people, and was not afraid of potential assassins. When Cortelyou asked McKinley a final time to cancel the event, the president responded, "Why should I? No one would wish to hurt me." Cortelyou warned McKinley that many would be disappointed since the president would not have time to shake hands with all who would line up to meet him. McKinley responded, "Well, they'll know I tried, anyhow." Unable to persuade the president to alter his schedule, Cortelyou telegraphed authorities in Buffalo, asking them to arrange extra security.
On Thursday morning, the fair gates were opened at 6:00 a.m. to allow the crowds to enter early and seek good spots to witness the president's speech. The Esplanade, the large space near the Triumphal Bridge where the president was to speak, was filled; the crowd overflowed into the nearby Court of the Fountains. Of the 116,000 fairgoers that day, about 50,000 are believed to have attended McKinley's speech. The route between the Milburn House and the site of the speech was packed with spectators; McKinley's progress by carriage to the fair with his wife was accompanied by loud cheering. He ascended to a stand overlooking the Esplanade, and after a brief introduction by Milburn, began to speak.
In his final speech, McKinley urged an end to American isolationism. He proposed trade arrangements which would gain American manufacturers new markets. He stated,
The period of exclusiveness is past. The expansion of our trade and commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial wars are unprofitable.
The crowd greeted his speech with loud applause; at its conclusion, the president escorted his wife back to her carriage, as she was to return to the Milburn House while he saw the sights at the fair.
McKinley toured the pavilions of other Western Hemisphere nations, attracting crowds and applause wherever he went. He presided over a luncheon at the New York State Building (now the Buffalo History Museum) and attended a by-invitation-only reception at the Government Building. He was heavily guarded by soldiers and police, but still tried to interact with the public, encouraging those who tried to run to him by noticing them, and bowing to a group of loud young popcorn sellers. He made an unscheduled stop for coffee at the Porto Rican Building before returning to the Milburn House in the late afternoon. Despite a Cortelyou warning to the organizers that she might not attend due to her delicate health, Ida McKinley had been present at a luncheon in her honor by the Exposition's Board of Lady Managers, and after dinner, the president and first lady returned to the fairgrounds, pausing at the Triumphal Bridge to view the fair illuminated by electricity as the sun set. They went by boat to the Life Saving Station to watch the fireworks from there before returning to the Milburn House.