American History Hit - The Assassination of President McKinley

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

On 5th September, 1901, President William McKinley attended a public reception at the Pan American Exposition, a 6-month-long World’s Fair, in Buffalo, New York. He was at the height of his power, having been re-elected at the beginning of the year. But one of the people who stood in line to meet him was an anarchist, determined to carry out the first US presidential assassination of the 20th century.  Produced by Benjie Guy. Mixed by Joseph Knight. Senior Producer: Charlotte Long. For more History Hit content, subscribe to our newsletters here.If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts, and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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We are inside the Temple of Music, a domed Italian Renaissance-style concert hall designed for the exposition. The venue is hosting a public reception for President William McKinley, who begins his second term at the beginning of the year. Members of the public line up to shake the president's hand. As a security measure, those who approach the president are usually instructed to do so with their hands open and empty. But it is a hot afternoon, and many people are carrying handkerchiefs to wipe away sweat, so no such rule is enforced. Next in line to greet the president is a man with a handkerchief wrapped around his right hand. He is not injured, as it might appear, but holding a revolver with which he is about to carry out the first presidential assassination of the 20th century.

Everyone, welcome to American History Hit. I'm Don Wildman. Great to have you. In September 1901, Buffalo, New York was a place glowing with optimism and promise. Over the previous four months of summer, the city had been the site of the new Pan American exposition, a world's fair intended to showcase Buffalo's finest attributes as a center of high culture, technical innovation, and industrial might. Buffalo was the best of what a booming United States of America had to offer. and visitors had streamed in from all parts of the country and from around the globe to experience the celebration. But it had taken U.S. President William McKinley, now serving in his second term and at the height of his power and influence.

Several months to find an opportunity in his busy schedule for him and his wife Ida to visit. Originally, he intended to appear in May but had to postpone. Now with autumn just around the corner and the exposition closing in a matter of weeks, the popular and gregarious McKinley was eager to make his presence known. After delivering an effective speech to an audience of tens of thousands, McKinley determined against the stern advice of his security detail that he should more closely engage with the public eager to see their president. It would be a choice that would seal his fate

and steer the nation onto a new course for a new century. Buffalo, New York. It's a great town, great football team, and has always been an illuminating and eventful place and today we have a local to tell us all about it. A historian Lindsay Lauren Visser will take us back to this pivotal moment in American history. Greetings, Lindsay Lauren, welcome to the podcast. Hi, Don. Thanks so much for having me.

1901. Buffalo, New York was the place to be, especially with the Pan American Exposition. Yes, it absolutely was. Buffalo at the turn of the previous century was the eighth largest city in the nation. And it was selected to be the host city for the Pan American Exposition because of its geographical location being at the crossroads of the Midwest, the northeast, on the border with Canada. And it also was within one day's train journey for about 40 million people. So it was selected because it was the center of economic prosperity, innovation, but also just absolutely accessible and about 30 miles from Niagara Falls, which was a built-in tourist attraction as well. So Buffalo, in terms of its significance nationally, was well-established as a prominent city. But when they were looking to host,

this specific World's Fair, Buffalo was really at the forefront of everybody's mind. And just industrially speaking, I mean, this was a Silicon Valley of that time frame, that sort of gilded age technical innovation. You had Tesla, you had Edison. Everything that was happening that was new and cutting edge was happening in Buffalo. It really was. And again, the geography, I can't stress enough, is how it really did play out that way. But the confluence of the Erie Canal, the proximity to Niagara Falls,

really allowed Buffalo to be a center of commerce. and that in and of itself does fuel a certain degree of innovation. So you have things like the invention of the grain elevator, the whole current war between Tesla and Edison really does play out in Niagara Falls, the fact that you can have the hydroelectric power. Buffalo ends up having the first illuminated street in 1888 on Ganssen Street. So there's so much happening. And it really does speak to the energy of the nation at this point. Obviously, America is merging as a world power. It is emerging as an economic and industrial powerhouse. And Buffalo does really embody that in so many respects. These world fairs that happened back then. I mean, they really happened into the

1960s as sort of a legitimate showcase for nations and cities to show themselves off. But back in these days, they were very influential. Why Pan American? What was happening at that time set the stage for me there? Sure. The Pan American Exposition is, yes, a world's fair, but maybe not in the way that we would conventionally think of one. It's Pan-American very specifically because it is focusing on the relationships between North, Central, and South America. The United States had carved out the Western Hemisphere as its sphere of influence, and it really wanted to showcase the relationship and the prosperity of the Americas. So you don't really see the European countries playing as big a role here in the Pan American Exposition. It really does focus on exhibitions and pavilions from

South America and Central America. And a lot of it is very indicative of the time. It definitely has some imperialist overtones. It's interesting because every aspect of the Pan American Exposition is very well thought out. It is a pretty significant fair, obviously, it's 350 acres. While it's all temporary, there are still 90 buildings and pavilions and things that you can go see. But to set it apart from the previous World Fair, that kind of was its point of reference, Colombian exposition of 1893, Buffalo made itself the rainbow city. And so color was a really big part of the staging of the Pan American exposition. And again, playing upon those kind of imperialist overtones, they intentionally made it. So as you made your way from the outside of the

exposition where a lot of the pavilions of South and Central America were located, the colors went from being very bold primary colors to softer pastels. And it was supposed to imply a certain degree of the onward move toward the pinnacle of civilization. And so there was the uniting color of the Pan American exposition, the Niagara Green, but the really iconic building that if you do look back at images of the Pan American exposition, the electric tower, which is supposed to symbolize the pinnacle of the electrical accomplishments and art and civilization and it's a beautiful building, has that Niagara Green inlay in it. And it's a white building with just the Niagara Green, and it's supposed to symbolize that you have arrived at the heart of civilization.

For anyone who might be younger who's listening, these expositions had everything to do with the sort of greatness of these cities, not only in their present form at the time of those expositions, but many of the buildings or several of the buildings were built to last. And you go to any American city, San Francisco, Chicago, Chicago, Philadelphia. There's always one of these buildings that you say, how did that get there? It was actually probably built there and then surrounded by other exposition buildings that were themselves built of sort of fragile material and taken away at the end of the exposition,

but they leave the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Field Museum in Chicago and in Buffalo, the Buffalo History Museum, am I right? Correct. The exposition was designed to be temporary and where it was located was kind of at the upper edge, the northernmost boundary of the city at that point. And so when they were looking at what buildings were going to be permanent, what buildings were going to remain, and how they were going to design this city, They intentionally selected the History Museum as the permanent building because the historical society was actually looking for a permanent home.

They were able to match some of the funding and they were able to utilize their resources to make a permanent structure. The Albright Knox Art Gallery, I should say Albright Knox, gun lock now, that art gallery was actually supposed to be built and time to be utilized for the Pan American Exposition. Unfortunately, a minor strike in the quarry in Vermont where the marble was drawn from meant that it wasn't completely. it until I think it's 1904, 1905. So it was supposed to be part of the lasting infrastructure, but really it was designed almost as this kind of cultural attach to our Frederick Law Olmsted Park, which is Delaware Park. So they intentionally did it this way. But exactly to your point, in a world before the Internet, in a world before you could kind of figure out what technology and innovation was out there, these World's Fair really gave people an opportunity to interact with

things that they simply would never have encountered in everyday life. When I used to teach this in school, I'd always ask my students, could you imagine a world in which you wouldn't be able to just go out and get Mexican food? But realistically, 1901 you couldn't have. And the Pan American Exposition brought these restaurants, brought this midway attraction of experiences that allowed you to travel without actually leaving home. And so not only could you go out onto the midway and see things like an x-ray machine and infant incubators next to exhibits on the streets of Mexico, or other things. It really was this opportunity to experience the best of the world, the best of the nation,

without actually having to travel and see everything yourself. Yeah, it was a big adventure for people. So we set the stage here. This is a big time in America. We're coming out of the Spanish-American War, a victorious war for America, a victorious war for President William McKinley. This is his second term. He's a very popular president.

Why is that? Is it just a war? No. It is unfortunate from his legacy's perspective that he is overshadowed by his successor. But President McKinley, in his own right, was an enormously popular president. He had established himself out of Ohio politics as somebody who was very good at balancing the interests of labor and business. He was an early advocate of the protective tariff, which ends up being part of the reason why America experiences this economic boom going into the new century. He was a fairly

charismatic politician. Again, during that time, it was really required that people could be out in and amongst the people shaking hands, making those personal connections and really winning people over. And McKinley was very good at that. And so he had a very unique confluence of industrial, innovation, economic boom. And so he really was benefiting

from the circumstances that just happened to before all his presidency, but also from his own personal attributes that made him well qualified. And by the time he was up for re-election, his vice president, the seat was going to be vacant for his second term. he selects

Fyodor Roosevelt, former governor of New York, hero of the Spanish-American War, an enormously popular figure in American pop culture, and the ticket that they produce is hugely popular. He wins re-election

pretty comfortably with about 51% of the popular vote. Again, he's also running against William Jennings Bryan at this point, who is, for all intents and purposes, a little bit more economically extreme as some of the things

that he's proposing for the country. So McKinley really does come across as a steady, calm, reassuring figure, capable, and providing economic prosperity. So he comes to Buffalo and is heralded as this wonderful president. We're so excited to have him. And he was supposed to, in his capacity as president, open the Pan American Exposition in May of that year.

Grover Cleveland, another Buffalo boy, had ceremonially thrown the switch at the Colombian Exposition of 1893, illuminating the White City. it was supposed to be McKinley's honor to do precisely the same thing in Buffalo in 1901 and to illuminate the Rainbow City. Unfortunately, he was coming to Buffalo on the heels of a longer national tour. His wife Ida, who is fairly frail to begin with, fell ill, so much so that they thought she may not actually survive. They rerouted the trip to D.C. so that they could take care of her. And instead, he sends his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt, to do the ceremonial duty. But McKinley really did want to attend it.

It's one of those things where he actually personally was a bit of a fan of expositions. He famously called them the timekeepers of progress. So it was important to him to come to the Pan American exposition and to experience it, but also have that opportunity to connect with the people in Buffalo. McKinley is one of those presidents Americans don't know enough about. One of the Ohio presidents, a Republican, he comes out of a very bad economic time in the early 1890s, and we're on one of those upswings in America, especially having won the Spanish-American War acquiring new territories. This is a, we're flirting with an imperial empire under William

McKinley. So it's a good time for him to be seen in public. It's a good time for him to, you know, celebrate his presidency. Aside from the exposition, that's why he's showing around. He's on a bit of a victory lap at this point. Right. The election of 1900, it's kind of important to remember. the inauguration wouldn't have been until March. We didn't really move them back up until January until FDR. So he's just won re-election. He's supposed to be kind of celebrating that with the Pan American Exposition. And it is really important in that time period to be seen.

And it's hard because there are a few opportunities for politicians to, you know, go out and get the notoriety that they need to be successful. And especially during this time period, these tours of the country going to these events, shaking hands, being out and amongst the people is critical to their success and how they're viewed publicly. So by the time that McKinley is coming to Buffalo, there are a lot of really great things that he's celebrating. And the speech that he gives at the Pan American Exposition is a testament to that. The protective tariff was a big piece of why America was able to rebound from the financial panic. The fact that we were as successful as we were in the Spanish-American War, the new territories that were acquiring, how we're starting to manage them,

we're starting to realize the benefit of having these holdings in the Pacific. And it really is ushering in this feeling of America has finally arrived. And it isn't just this kind of offshoot of the former British colony. It is in its own right emerging as a world power that's being taken seriously on the world stage. And you'll see only a few years later, Theodore Roosevelt really capitalizing on that. But up until this point, there's kind of this energy and this, you know, you know something fabulous is about to happen, but you don't know exactly what. So McKinley's vice president is Theodore Roosevelt, former very young governor of New York. He is now in the McKinley world. And tell

me about his career at this point. Absolutely. Theodore Roosevelt is the byproduct of New York state politics through and through. He comes from a very financially wealthy family out of New York City. He develops an interest in politics and public service as almost a byproduct of this age of the gospel of wealth and doing good with your money and being a public servant to try to improve a lot of other people's lives. And he really does take that to heart. And I really do think that that is a big motivating factor in his public career. So he's in the New York State Assembly. He ends up being police commissioner in New York City and develops a bit of a reputation of being somebody who comes in and really wants to start enacting change. He is not a complacent politician

who's just holding the office. He is a hard worker, energetic, determined. individual. And so he has this kind of career in which, through his own ambition and to some extent a desire to not have to deal with all of his progressive politics, he keeps getting promoted to these different positions, running for governor, becoming assistant secretary of the Navy. He resigns the post in the Navy so that he can fight in the Spanish-American War. Again, he is just this individual who really wants to be on the front lines of everything that's going on. And when the war breaks out, he immediately volunteers to make a volunteer regiment. He personally leads them in Cuba, again, in his custom Brooks Brothers made uniform, which I think is a beautiful depiction of

the dichotomy that is Theodore Roosevelt, a man of absolute wealth and affluence, but also views himself wholeheartedly as a man of the people and a man on the front lines. And so there he is on horseback, leading the charge personally up San Juan Hill. So he has this glorious moment of victory and comes back and is just this larger-than-life figure in terms of being a national hero. And so he catapults into national fame, ends up as governor of New York, and drives everybody absolutely crazy because he wants to just fix Albany. And that's not something that the party bosses want during that time. And they come up with a brilliant idea. They're going to kick Teddy upstairs.

And they suggest that he should run for vice president under McKinley's reelection ticket and that it will be the perfect. office for him because he can't do anything in it. And that's more or less how it happens. And there are some people who are opposed to that. And McKinley's very good friend, Senator Marcanna, very famously says, you don't want to have that man that close to the presidency. I think the actual quote is something to the effect of, don't you realize that that madman is just one heartbeat away from being president?

Definitely had that vibe to a lot of the more established traditional politicians at that time. But he was enormously popular. and captivated the public. And that helped McKinley and helped McKinley's already successful popularity, but the two of them together

were powerhouse. I'll be back right after this short break with more from Lindsay Lauren Visser. McKinley and his wife, Ida, have finally arrived at the exposition. And McKinley sticks around for a few days. He goes up and sees Niagara Falls. He climbs around on rocks.

He's a very athletic guy. He makes his way back to the fair and delivers a, huge and very successful speech. I mean, when you read about it, it's always described that way. He was an extraordinary orator. But he wants to be closer to the people. And this is a fateful decision. His security detail suggests not, but finally he persuades everyone that he's going to do it at the temple of music and literally have the public stream in one at a time and squeeze their hands. Yes. It is almost unfathomable for us with our modern sensibilities to

think back to a time period in which the public would have such easy access to the president of the United States. But it's critical to him to be able to be out and amongst the people. He realizes there's a threat. It's not as though it's something he's dismissive of. We have had two presidential assassinations in the immediate 36 years prior to this moment. So it's not out of the question. King Umberto of Italy had just been assassinated the year before. And so his private Secretary George Cordelieu actually pulls this specific engagement from his schedule on two separate occasions. And it's McKinley personally who says no and even goes so far as to say, no, who would want to hurt me? And I don't think it was necessarily in the I'm not thinking

that I'm at danger because he absolutely knew that there was. But he realized there was more of a benefit to being able to be amongst the people and out in the crowds and shaking hands. And so they come to a compromise. The event is only going to be 10 minutes long. And to try to assuage the fears in terms of security, they're going to have an increased number of guards and police to really try to contain the crowd, ensure that the people are approaching the president in single file. It's a lot of eyes that are going to be searching these people. Theoretically, this should ensure that this event can go off without a hitch. The problem is that is exactly what causes the problem that allows the assassination attempt to occur. And it's a little bit hard to visualize without seeing the floor plan of the

temple of music. But during this time frame, the Secret Service is an entity that is responsible for protecting the president, not necessarily to the extent that we picture today. McKinley was traveling with two agents of the Secret Service that were there to scan the crowd. They were very used to these kinds of, we're going to have to be scanning the crowd, we're going to have to keep an eye on the president. And they had a formation that they would normally use that had been fairly successful. He would have one of the Secret Service agents stand immediately to his right so that agent could see as the people are approaching the president who is coming, where are their hands, what is the situation and try to get a read for it. However, that day in the Temple of Music, everything was off. In order to

try to help the president recognize some of the important dignitaries that are gathered, it's John Milburn who's standing to the right of the president. John Milburn is president of the Pan American Exposition. And so he knows all of the people who are coming by and he's kind of doing that, okay, Mr. President, this is Mr. Skechard and this is so-and-so, so that the president can be seen as being magnificent, knowing everybody and making them feel personally special. That means that his Secret Service offertive has to be directly opposite the president,

meaning his line of sight is severely limited. And it's limited even further by the sheer number of guards that are lining the walkway. So really, they don't have a clear view of who's coming to the president and what exactly they're looking for. It's kind of congested. It's not the best circumstances.

And even though this event is only supposed to be 10 minutes long, McKinley's a very good handshaker. There's a legend that says he could shake 50 hands in a minute. Whether or not you want to use that as the exact metric or not, he could get through a crowd and he could get through a crowd quickly. So 10 minutes, that's still several. hundred people. And unfortunately for McKinley, this is precisely the moment where everything goes sideways. There is a man in the crowd who has come with a special agenda. Tell me about the

pistol-carrying fellow. Yes, Leon Sholgas. 28 years old, he is a self-proclaimed anarchist, and he has made up his mind that he is going to shoot the president. He actually had been utterly captivated by the assassination of King Umberto of Italy the year before. He had studied it in great detail, consumed so many of the news reports, and even went so far as to buy the exact caliber revolver that Gaetano Bresci used to assassinate King Umberto. So it's the same gun. And he follows McKinley around the entire time that he is in Buffalo. When McKinley's giving the speech at the Triumphal Bridge, Shogas is in the crowd. When he goes to to Niagara Falls, Sholgoss follows after.

And there's this just chilling idea that everywhere the president is going, there's this man who's just waiting for this moment to take his life. He had come from somewhere else, though, not a buffalo man. He was not. He's originally from Cleveland. He had moved around a little bit, had worked in Detroit, and really was of that Great Lakes Midwestern industrial community and had actually worked as a factory worker before going back to his father's farm.

He's an anarchist. What does that mean? Excellent question. He is an anarchist, but it's interesting because a lot of the anarchists of the time would not have considered him one of them. Anarchist ideology, as it were during this time, is an offshoot of communism, except it's a hyper individualized idea. So obviously it is predicated on the social injustice and the economic injustice of rapid industrialization and wealth that the people who have the means of production, the factory owners, are becoming incredibly wealthy and this new class of worker

is getting left behind. And the anarchists internalize that instead of having that kind of communal, we're going to overthrow the ruling class, there's this threat of anarchism that sets it apart that really truly believes that the individual is capable

of launching these attacks against the system. And it's something that they refer to as propaganda of the deeds that these egregious and dramatic deeds can help spread the anarchist cause because one individual, if they are acting outside of our social

structure, can really do a lot of damage. And that's what's so terrifying about it. And there are these anarchist communities and groups, especially Emma Goldman is one of them in Chicago. And Shoghoss makes his way to these different groups and tries to become part of the anarchist community. And he's so awkward about it and is so like, hey guys, can I join your secret anarchist society? they think he's a spy. And they regularly send out these dispatches saying, if you see this guy, treat him with caution because we're pretty confident that he's trying

to undermine what we're doing. And so ultimately, he gets radicalized even further from the anarchists because the anarchists won't accept him. And so he really feels compelled to do something to demonstrate his commitment to the cause, to make it clear where he's, stands on these issues and he settles on the idea of assassinating McKinley. It's not something that he really spent an enormous amount of time calculating and plotting and planning. It was McKinley's

coming to Buffalo. The train ticket costs a nickel and we're going to see what happens. And so he gets on the train, no real plans, buys the gun the same day McKinley arrives in the city and just follows him around. So this anarchist is in the crowd and approaching McKinley. Kinley. Is Roosevelt anywhere nearby? No. As is fairly common, the president and the vice president, often when they're traveling, don't travel together. They don't necessarily go to a lot of engagements together. Roosevelt had his own schedule. He was in Vermont, Isle Lamont, at a Fish and Wildlife Gaming Convention. He was doing his own thing. And in fact, really wasn't even totally aware of McKinley's schedule and movements in Buffalo at that time. So it actually takes

about an hour and a half for word to even reach Roosevelt that anything's happened. So Leon Shulgas is in the line and he's holding a gun. Explain to me how he's gotten this concealed weapon so close to the U.S. President. Again, from our modern ears, it's going to sound absolutely absurd. However, Leon Shulgas is standing in line. He has the 32 caliber Iber Ivor Johnson revolver in his hand and he has it concealed with a handkerchief, which seems like the absolute worst way going through a line of security to keep a firearm concealed. However, it is September. It is 1901. Contrary to popular belief, Buffalo does actually occasionally get warm and these Victorian men in their three-piece suits are perspiring in the September heat.

And so plenty of people are dabbing their faces with handkerchiefs, having one in hand, isn't viewed as inherently suspicious. The one thing that's, Sholgoss did really think through was that he was concerned if he had to get the gun out of his pocket. That would alert the security to something. So he had to have it ready and available. And so essentially, he kind of has it looking like his hand is bandaged in this handkerchief. Really, there's a gun inside. And he makes his way through the crowd. In fact, purely coincidentally, and has nothing to do with Shulgass, the man in front of Leon actually seems more suspicious to the Secret Service than Sholgoss does. So he kind of takes some of the attention off of Shulgoss. He's just a little bit too excited about meeting the president and needs to be moved along, as they say. And so everybody has their eyes focused on this person and not Shogas immediately behind him. So as he approaches, his hand is bandaged.

McKinley looks at him, realizes he's going to have to shake his left hand as opposed to his right hand. So McKinley shifts his body position ever so slightly, which opens him up a little bit further. and as soon as the person in front of him has cleared, Shulgas fires two shots. The first ricochets off of a button on McKinley's jacket. It is a glancing blow. The second lodges in his abdomen. Before he could fire any subsequent rounds,

he is immediately punched in the back of the neck and tackled to the ground, not by security, not by the Secret Service, by an African-American waiter who was in line behind Shulgass to meet the president. Just absolutely jumps on him immediately. As soon as he's, on the ground, that's when the Secret Service comes over, takes the gun, apprehend shulgas, and essentially in a 1901 interrogatory fashion, says, why'd you shoot the president?

And before he could answer, punches him in the face. McKinley, seeing this, says to them, go easy on him, boys. And almost not realizing what's happened is asked by the ambassador to Mexico, Mr. President, have you been shot? And at that point is when McKinley says, I think I have. And that sets everything in motion. The Secret Service immediately has to apprehend Shulgas. The crowd has just seen this.

There's now several hundred people in this building who have seen somebody shoot the president. They want to take him and they want to hang him. They physically want to take justice into their own hands. So the Secret Service has to take Shulgas, lock him into a room to keep him safe, but also to try to try to interrogate him. And that leaves the secretary and some of the other dignitaries to try to address the president who's just been shot. He was completely coherent.

He was not in any dramatic sense having been wounded. It's not until later that they find out how serious the wound really is. Correct. The immediate aftermath is a little bit chaotic. Obviously, the president has been shot. Nobody knows how seriously he is aware. He is cognizant. And essentially, they're left with this moment of what exactly do we do next.

And really, there are two options. The first option is almost the best set of circumstances that anybody could have been in in this particular instance having just been shot. And that is because Buffalo, again, for all of the reasons that I mentioned at the beginning of this, is actually one of the few places in the country where there's an incredibly modern medical facility at Buffalo General with some of the best doctors in the country, if not the world. thoroughly modern medical operating theater with electric lights, the best possible circumstances really would have been to take him to Buffalo General.

It's built to accommodate trauma of this nature. The only real problem is it's the complete opposite side of the city. And because nobody's quite sure how serious the wound is, they're really afraid to take the time to transport him because they're afraid that he could die on route,

that it could do more damage. There's a lot of considerations is going on. The second option is the Pan American Hospital. Now, there is a hospital located on the Pan Am grounds, although hospital is a bit of a strong word. It's really a glorified first aid station. And so the idea is, do we take him? Do we risk the time and the transportation to take him to Buffalo General? Or do we prioritize expediency and begin treating him on the Pan Am grounds? So he ends up being treated at the infirmary on the exposition grounds, which is not an ideal situation there. Neither the doctors nor the facility is capable for this kind of trauma.

Meanwhile, Teddy Roosevelt is vice president in the middle of nowhere up there in Vermont. He's told about this event, yes? Yeah. So he receives word an hour and a half after the actual time of the shooting. In fact, most of the country isn't really clear. The Associated Press doesn't report it right away. An official ward isn't issued from Washington until three hours later. So Roosevelt has to get to Buffalo.

But at the same time, the cabinet, other government officials, everybody is en route to Buffalo because they really don't know what the next few hours or few days are going to hold. So how does Roosevelt get back to Buffalo? He's got to come right away. He does. He takes a private train across the state. Ultimately ends up in Buffalo where he's greeted by the rest of the government. By the time he arrives, the surgery is over. and at this particular point, the doctors feel like the president is in critical condition,

but he has survived. He survived the initial worst event. And he begins to feel better. Well, right. They don't think that it's safe to transport him, but they do take him to the Milburn House where he's able to recuperate and they keep him under really close surveillance for the next several days, during which time he does actually start to improve. There's a certain sense that having Theodore Roosevelt, the vice president, waiting in the wings, gives the impression that perhaps the president isn't quite as healthy or the prospects aren't quite as rosy

as the doctors are trying to suggest that it is. And so in an effort to try to instill confidence in the president's recovery, the cabinet decides that Theodore Roosevelt should leave Buffalo. And in fact, many of the other cabinet members do the same thing. And they really want to send the message to the nation, the message to the economy, which is now also in tumult because of the fact that the president is possibly, on death doorstep, really unclear.

Having the president incapacitated is an incredibly dangerous moment for the nation. So they're trying to do everything they can to put the nation and the world's mind at ease. And the easiest thing they can do is send the vice president away, right? Because the vice president would have to be the one to take the oath of office if the president dies. So if he's not around, it's because we don't think the president's going to die. So Roosevelt had a family vacation in the Adirondic Mountains scheduled as his next engagement. And the cabinet says confidently, it's okay. Go ahead.

Go resume your normal schedule. And so on September 10th, that's exactly what Theodore Roosevelt does. He leaves, he goes to the Anerotic Mountains. And because it's Theodore Roosevelt and he doesn't do anything by half measures, he sets his site on Mount Marcy, the highest peak in all of New York State. So he spends the next several days making his way to the top of the mountain. At which point, things take a dark turn for McKinley. Unfortunately, that is pretty.

precisely where Theodore Roosevelt is when Ward reaches him that McKinley is not doing as well as he had been. The doctors feel like it's necessary that Theodore Roosevelt comes back to Buffalo. At this point, it is simply just a change in the president's condition. It is not that the president has passed away, but they do feel like it is necessary to have the vice president on hand at this moment. And as I mentioned, this is the top of Mount Marcy. So they want Theodore Roosevelt in Buffalo as soon as possible. possible, which it's taken him three days to get up to this point. Now he has to get down and across the state post haste. And unfortunately, by the time that the word reaches him and he's ready to leave,

it's about midnight. So the plan is they're going to get Roosevelt across the state by train. But before they can get him into a train, he has to get himself to the nearest train station, which happens to be North Creek Rail Station located at the bottom of the mountain. Under normal, good circumstances. This journey is about seven hours by horse and carriage. Because again, it's 1901. We're not talking about paved roads. We're not talking about the best possible driving conditions and whatnot with street lights and well-marked signs. We're talking about winding dirt roads in a mountain, no lights in a horse-drawn carriage. And these are the conditions that Theodore Roosevelt sets often to make his way to North Creek Rail Station. And as if that one,

weren't bad enough. It starts to rain. So now you have the vice president in this open horse drawn carriage, pitch black, blacker than anybody can imagine because we're used to that city haze, right? This is true Adirondack darkness. What? Dirt roads, winding mountain paths, and our vice president is hurtling down a mountain because our president is on death's doorstop. And what is this man yelling? Theodore Roosevelt, of course. He's dangling outside of the carriage, holding a lantern so that his driver could see just a little bit more

of that winding mountain road in front of them. And he's yelling to him, I'm not afraid, if you're not afraid, go faster. He keeps them running so hard that they actually change teams of carriages and horses twice along the route so that they could go full speed. So I said this is supposed to take seven hours. theater Roosevelt did it in four hours and 45 minutes he sets a legitimate record that many try and fail to beat under better conditions but he makes it down to the train station and he's greeted with the worst possible news on the route mckinley's passed away he's not just going to buffalo to be on standby he's now quite literally going to buffalo to become our 26th president and today you can visit that site which i've done my myself, the Theodore Roosevelt inaugural site, where he takes his oath of office in what is essentially a living room. It's hard to convey both the horror of this event, but also the sort of innocence of it,

that a vice president could be in such a position to be so far away in the middle of the woods up a mountain. But this will begin a massive pivot during his administration, really, to America becoming a much bigger power in the world and having a different kind of identity all the way around, both domestically and internationally, it all begins right there in Buffalo. And you are the storyteller working on a book about this very subject as we speak. I am indeed. As you mentioned, Peter Roosevelt's presidency ends up ushering in truly the American century. It is the confluence, as we talked about, of everything that McKinley had, but it really is the unique positions that Roosevelt took on things like business and labor and conservation in foreign policy that really set the precedence that all of his successors continue to

follow. And his expansion of the executive office is really come to define the modern presidency. And not insignificantly, the influence of his larger-than-life persona can still be felt in pop culture in so many ways. So I think even, you know, 120 years after his presidency, he's still considered one of the best presidents in American history. And he's consistently ranked amongst the top 10. But most importantly, he ushers in this American century, the American presidency, and America on the world stage in a way that really sets the course for everything that follows. And it all started here in Buffalo. It's kind of fascinating.

In the most dramatic way of it possible. Thank you very much, Lindsay Lauren Leviser. You're working on a book on this subject. You can listen to podcasts of Lindsay Lawrence. Just go to the Buffalo History Museum and you can find all kinds of stuff to listen to about the fascinating stories of Buffalo. Thank you so much for joining us. And we'll come back to you soon. Thank you.

Thanks for listening to this episode of American History Hit. I hope you enjoyed it. Please don't forget to like, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. I'll see you next time. This podcast includes music from Epidemic Sound.