Volume V Part 26 (1/2)
Next behind him followed a boyish-looking workman, his right hand swathed in a handkerchief. As the first made way Mr. McKinley extended his hand to the young man's unenc.u.mbered left. The next instant the bandaged right arm raised itself and two shots rang on the air. The President staggered back into the arms of a bystander, while his treacherous a.s.sailant was borne to the floor.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
President McKinley at Niagara Ascending the stairs from Luna Island, to Goat Island.
Copyright, 1901, by C. E. Dunlap.
[Ill.u.s.tration: McKinley and several other men ascending steps.]
The last photograph of the late President McKinley.
Taken as he was ascending the steps of the Temple of Music, September 6. 1901.
Grievously wounded as he was in breast and in stomach, the President's first thoughts were for others. He requested that the news be broken gently to Mrs. McKinley, and, it was said, expressed regret that the occurrence would be an injury to the exposition. As cries of ”Lynch him”
arose from the maddened crowd, the stricken chief urged those about him to see that no hurt befel the a.s.sa.s.sin. The latter was speedily secured in prison to await the result of his black deed, while President McKinley was without delay conveyed to the Emergency Hospital, where his wounds were dressed.
Except for continued weakness and rapid heart action, the symptoms during the early days of the succeeding week gave strong hopes of the patient's recovery. At the home of Mr. Milburn, President of the exposition, whose guest he was, President McKinley received the tenderest care and most skilful treatment. So far allayed was anxiety that the Cabinet officers left Buffalo, while Vice President Roosevelt betook himself to a sequestered part of the Adirondacks. The President himself, vigorous and naturally sanguine, did not give up till Friday, a week from the date of his injury.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
The Milburn Residence, where President McKinley died--Buffalo, N. Y.
Copyright, 1902, by Underwood & Underwood.
Upon that day his condition became alarming. The digestive organs abdicated their functions, nourishment even by injection became impossible, traces of septic poison were manifest. By night the world knew that McKinley was a dying man. In the evening he regained consciousness and bade farewell to those about him. ”Good-by, good-by, all; it is G.o.d's way; His will be done.” The murmured words came from his lips, ”Nearer, my G.o.d, to Thee; e'en tho' it be a cross that raiseth me.”
At the early morning hour of 2.45, Sat.u.r.day, September 14th, the rest which is deeper than any sleep came to the sufferer. The autopsy showed that death was due to gangrene of the tissues in the path of the wound, the system having failed to repair the ravages of the bullet that had entered the abdomen.
The next Monday morning, after a simple funeral ceremony at the Milburn mansion, the remains were reverently borne to the Buffalo City Hall, where, till midnight, mourning columns filed past the catafalque. The body lay in state under the Capitol rotunda at Was.h.i.+ngton for a day, and was borne thence, hardly a moment out of hearing of solemn bells or out of sight of half-masted flags and dumb, mourning mult.i.tudes, to the old home at Canton, Ohio. Here the late Chief Magistrate's fellow-townsmen, his old army comrades, and other thousands joined the procession to the cemetery or tearfully lined the streets as it pa.s.sed.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
Ascending the Capitol steps at Was.h.i.+ngton, D, C., where the casket lay in state in the Rotunda.
On the day of the interment, September 19th, appropriate exercises, attended by enormous concourses of people, occurred all over the country, and even in foreign parts. In hardly an American town of size could a single building contain the crowd, overflow meetings being necessary, filling several churches or halls. Special commemorative services were held in Westminster Cathedral by King Edward's orders.
No king was ever honored by obsequies so widespread or more sincere.
Messages of condolence poured in upon the widow from the four quarters of the globe. Business was suspended. For five minutes telegraph clicks and cable flashes ceased, and for ten minutes, upon many lines of railway and street railway, every wheel stood still.
None but the rash undertook, at once after his lamented decease, to a.s.sign President McKinley's name to its exact alt.i.tude on the roll of America's ill.u.s.trious men. Ardent eulogists spoke of him as beside the nation's greatest statesman, Lincoln, while his most p.r.o.nounced opponents in life accorded him very high honor. During his career he had been accused of opportunism, of inconsistency, of partiality to the moneyed interests of the country. His views of great public questions underwent change. One of his altered att.i.tudes, much remarked upon, that concerning silver, involved, as pointed out in the last chapter, no change of essential principle. In regard to protection he at last swung to Blaine's position favoring reciprocity, which, as author of the McKinley Bill, he had been understood to oppose; but it should be remembered that his final utterances on the subject contemplated an industrial situation very different from that prevalent during his early years in politics. The United States had become a mighty exporter of manufactured products, competing effectively with England, Germany, and France in the sale of such everywhere in the world.
American material supplied in large part the Russian Trans-Siberian Railroad. American food-stuffs and meats wakened agrarian frenzy in Germany. The island-hive of England buzzed loudly with jealous foreboding lest America capture her world-markets. From an average of close to $163,000,000 annually from 1887 to 1897 United States exports of manufactured products reached in 1898 over $290.000,000, in 1899 over $339,000,000, in 1900 nearly $434,000,000, and in 1901, $412,000,000. As coal-producer the United States at last led Britain, American tin-plate reached Wales itself, American locomotives the English colonies and even the mother-country, while boots and shoes from our factories ruled the markets of West Australia and South Africa. For bridge and viaduct construction in British domains American bids heavily undercut British bids both in price and in time limit.
His progressive insight into the tariff question betrayed Mr. McKinley's mental activity and hospitality, as his final deliverances thereupon exhibited fearlessness. None knew better than he that what he said at Buffalo would be challenged by many in the name of party orthodoxy. Even greater firmness was manifest when, at an earlier date, speaking at Savannah, he ranked Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson as among America's ”great” sons. With this brave tribute should be mentioned his commendable nomination of the ex-Confederate Generals Fitz-Hugh Lee and Joseph Wheeler as Major-Generals in the United States Army. Such words and deeds showed skilled leaders.h.i.+p also. Each was fittingly timed so as best to escape or fend criticism and so as to impress the public deeply.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Funeral parade.]