White House gossip

by Edna M. Colman

In reply to their announcement that an immediate operation was necessary, he calmly replied, “Gentlemen, do what in your judgment you think best.”

After a half-hour operation the surgeons were unable to locate the bullets. Preparations were made to take the mortally wounded man to the Milburn home.

When it was long past the hour for the President to return, Mrs. McKinley had grown anxious and nervous, for she feared some accident had befallen him. While every effort had been made to keep her in ignorance of the shooting, she had to be informed as the President was being carried to the house. To everyone’s amazement, she took the news quietly. Since her husband seemed uncomfortable at her absence from his bedside, she was brought in.

Five days after the shooting, the physicians gave the impression that he was out of danger and would probably recover. But all of the sixth day he failed so perceptibly that Mrs. McKinley was led to his room to take her farewell of the husband who for so many years had given her the most constant, solicitous care. She kept calm and tearless until she reached her own room, when her control gave way to grief, heartrending, intense, and so absorbing that none could console her. He grew weaker and repeated in his last period of consciousness words from “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” then, a little later, “Good-bye, all, good-bye. It is God’s way; His will be done.” The periods of consciousness lapsed, and at two fifteen on September 14th he passed away in a peaceful sleep.

The body of President McKinley was brought to Washington and placed in the East Room of the White House, while a guard of honour maintained a vigil until it was carried to the Capitol for the state funeral, after which the funeral cortège started for Canton, where interment took place on September 19, 1901.

The grief of the nation was universal, and from coast to coast, every possible expression of love and honour and grief was given.

From out of the depths of the national sorrow came a resolve to pursue a different course with this wretched murderer who felt proud of his deed. It was determined that his punishment should be swift and sure and that his act should be made hideous in the eyes of the world, and robbed of the limelight and publicity that had gratified the perverted vanity of his predecessors in presidential murder. His name was to perish from the record of men. He was a Polish anarchist who had no grievance whatsoever against the nation of our President save that aroused by the destructive doctrines that he had imbibed. He was promptly tried, condemned to death, and executed in the state prison at Auburn, on October 29, 1901, within a few weeks after the commission of his crime.

From the hand of Mark Hanna, McKinley’s closest personal friend, political adviser, and campaign manager, came a remarkable tribute to the character of the martyred President which sums up his public and private life in a graphic and colourful picture and presents him as only one so intimately associated with him could. Copied from the Washington Post, it reads:

“The one absorbing purpose in William McKinley’s political career was to keep closely in touch with the people, so that he might promote their material and moral welfare.

“He seemed to study and watch current events as a barometer, gauging the growth of public sentiment keenly and particularly watching the development of the new industries and new resources. He accentuated the American idea in everything he undertook.