The McKinley Assassination
The assassination of President William McKinley by an anarchist in 1901 turned Americans against immigrants and radicals, enhanced presidential security, and ushered in the Progressive era with the ascension of Theodore Roosevelt.
The Pan-American Exposition
President William McKinley and his wife attended the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York on September 5, 1901. In a speech at the exposition, McKinley declared, “God and man have linked the nations together… Isolation is no longer possible or desirable.” McKinley also informed the audience that he was reconsidering his protectionist views on tariff policy. A new era was unfolding, and quicker than expected.
In attendance was Leon Czolgosz (pronounced “Chol-gosh”), an anarchist son of Polish immigrants. Czolgosz was an unemployed factory worker and farmhand. He had been staying in a boardinghouse outside Buffalo when he read in a newspaper that McKinley would be attending the exposition. Czolgosz determined to kill the president, but at McKinley’s speech, he was prevented from approaching the stage by Secret Service agents.
Czolgosz Shoots McKinley
The following day, McKinley returned to the exposition at 3:30 p.m. to greet the public in the Temple of Music. In the building, a large crowd had formed a line to shake hands with the president. In that line was Leon Czolgosz, his right hand wrapped in a handkerchief. Concealed in the handkerchief was an Iver Johnson .32-caliber revolver.
McKinley’s secretary, George Cortelyou, disliked these types of receptions because of their security risk. At the time, the president did not have an official bodyguard force. The Secret Service, created in 1865 as part of the Treasury Department to combat counterfeiting, was occasionally assigned to provide informal protection to the president. Thus, a few Secret Service agents were on hand, along with some Buffalo detectives and a detachment of U.S. Army soldiers patroling the premises. While this security force scrutinized the crowd, no searches were conducted.
Flanked by aides and guards, McKinley stood and shook hands with people filing by in a long line as soft music played in the background. He requested that the line be speeded up so he could shake more hands. Czolgosz moved forward, keeping his hand concealed to make it appear as if it was injured. A Secret Service agent asked Czolgosz if he needed first aid, but Czolgosz replied that he wanted to meet the president first.
When Czolgosz reached the front of the line, he extended his left hand. McKinley shook the left hand and Czolgosz moved on. After some more people passed through the line, Czolgosz returned at 4:07 p.m. A Secret Service agent grabbed Czolgosz’s shoulder to move him along, but Czolgosz brushed his hand away, lunged forward and fired twice through his handkerchief into the president standing no more than three feet away.
McKinley shuddered, stiffened, stared at Czolgosz in astonishment and stumbled back into the arms of surrounding aides. His white shirt reddened with blood. Secret Service agents and detectives knocked Czolgosz to the floor and extinguished the handkerchief, which was on fire. Czolgosz was severely beaten but McKinley, still conscious, ordered that Czolgosz not be harmed. McKinley also asked that care be taken when informing his chronically ill wife of the event.
McKinley’s Medical Treatment
McKinley remained standing in his aides’ arms while guards dragged Czolgosz away. At 4:18 p.m., an ambulance arrived and took McKinley to the hospital on the exposition grounds. At the hospital, the president underwent emergency surgery. The first bullet deflected off McKinley’s breastbone and caused minimal damage; it was easily found and extracted. However, doctors could not find the second bullet. They determined that it had passed through his stomach and hit his colon, pancreas, and kidney before lodging in his back muscles.
The doctors feared that attempting to extract the bullet would cause more harm than good, so they left it alone and closed the wound. An experimental x-ray machine was at the exposition, but doctors were reluctant to use it on McKinley because they feared the rays could cause side effects. There was also no electric lighting in the operating room, even though the exposition buildings were filled with electric light bulbs. Doctors used a pan to reflect sunlight onto the operating table as they treated McKinley’s wounds.
After the operation, doctors were optimistic that the president could recover. McKinley, still unconscious from the ether used to sedate him, was taken to the home of exposition director John Milburn to begin his recovery.
Interrogating Leon Czolgosz
Meanwhile, Leon Czolgosz had been beaten so badly that some did not think he would live to stand trial. The evening of the shooting, Czolgosz confessed to the crime and insisted he had acted alone. He claimed to be an anarchist who did not believe in governments, rulers, voting, religion, or marriage. He also claimed to be heavily influenced by prominent anarchists such as “Red” Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.
It was learned that Czolgosz was mostly a recluse who spent much time alone reading radical tracts, as well as socialist and anarchist newspapers. Czolgosz had also contacted various anarchist groups, but there was no evidence that anybody assisted him or knew of his plan to shoot McKinley.
Czolgosz believed that the U.S. was unjust because the wealthy enriched themselves by exploiting the poor. Authorities believed that he was simply mimicking the assassination of the king of Italy the year before; the king had been killed by an anarchist claiming to be defending the common man. In a handwritten confession, Czolgosz complained that “McKinley was going around the country shouting about prosperity when there was no prosperity for the poor man.” Czolgosz was sent to a New York prison to await trial.
McKinley’s Health Deteriorates
At John Milburn’s home, President McKinley appeared to be recovering from his wounds. The day after the shooting, he was relaxed and conversational. After a few more days, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt and cabinet members who had visited the president expressed confidence that he would recuperate.
On September 12, doctors informed the press that they believed McKinley would recover. McKinley continued his convalescence and received the first food orally since the shooting—toast and a small cup of coffee. But by afternoon, the president began feeling pain and nausea, and his pulse weakened.
The next day, McKinley began rapidly deteriorating, and he went into shock. He was given adrenaline and oxygen, but it was no use. At 2:15 on the morning of September 14, McKinley died of infection and gangrene surrounding his gunshot wounds.
William McKinley was the third U.S. president to have been assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln and James Garfield. McKinley’s body was placed aboard a train, and the funeral procession went through the streets of Buffalo to Washington, DC, then on to his final resting place at Canton, Ohio.
The Trial of Leon Czolgosz
Just nine days after McKinley’s death, Leon Czolgosz went on trial. He was assigned two lawyers for his defense, but he refused to speak to them, claiming he did not believe in courts or lawyers. Czolgosz also refused to talk to the medical expert assigned to test his sanity. Instead, Czolgosz only spoke with his prison guards.
The defense argued that Czolgosz was insane, but prosecutors refuted that assertion by pointing to his affiliation with anarchist groups. Czolgosz’s lawyers produced no witnesses and did not contest unanimous medical testimony that Czolgosz was legally sane. Czolgosz showed no interest in the proceedings and refused to take the stand.
In a trial that lasted only eight hours and 26 minutes, Czolgosz was found guilty and sentenced to death in the electric chair. He showed no emotion when the verdict was delivered. On October 29, Czolgosz was escorted to his execution at Auburn State Prison in New York, where he proclaimed, “I killed the president because he was the enemy of the good people—the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime.”
Alternating 1,800 and 300-volt charges were sent through Czolgosz until he was pronounced dead. The following year, the execution was reenacted and recorded by Thomas Edison’s kinetoscope, providing a primitive motion picture account of the event.
The Aftermath of McKinley’s Assassination
The assassination of William McKinley turned Americans against immigrants and radical political groups. It touched off a wave of arrests and attacks on anarchists, and Congress passed strict laws limiting the influence of radical organizations. Ironically, Czolgosz’s act inflamed public opinion against the cause that he claimed to champion.
In addition, the Secret Service began providing full-time security to McKinley’s successor, Theodore Roosevelt, in 1902. In 1906, legislation was enacted that officially designated the Secret Service as the agency empowered to protect the president at all times. With McKinley’s death, reconstruction following the Civil War ended and the Progressive era under Roosevelt began.
