Complete Life of William McKinley and Story of His Assassination: An Authentic and Official Memorial Edition, Containing Every Incident in the Career of the Immortal Statesman, Soldier, Orator and PatriotEverett, Marshall
History
Complete Life of William McKinley and Story of His Assassination: An Authentic and Official Memorial Edition, Containing Every Incident in the Career of the Immortal Statesman, Soldier, Orator and Patriot
At 9 o’clock Tuesday morning, September 17, 1901, the funeral cortege of
William McKinley, twenty-fifth President of the United States, third
incumbent of the office to fall by an assassin’s hand, started from the
White House toward the capitol. President Roosevelt, accompanied by his
wife and sister, arrived half an hour earlier at the Executive Mansion,
and were given seats in the big Red Room. Almost immediately after came
former President Cleveland, with Daniel Lamont. Others, notable in the
official and social life of the nation, quickly assembled, and the rooms
and corridors were filled with a silent, sorrowful throng. Just before 9
o’clock Senator Hanna came into the room. He is visibly aged by the
events of the past fortnight. His face seems drawn and pallid, his form
is less erect, and all that vigorous, quickly deciding manner seems
gone.
Precisely at the hour appointed the big men from the ranks of the Army
and the Navy lifted the black casket of him who had been named “Our Well
Beloved,” and carried for the last time through the doors and down to
the waiting hearse. There was on the part of the thousands, both those
of the party and the throngs outside, an instant recognition of the
contrast between this departure from the White House, and William
McKinley’s other passings through its doors.
A long line of carriages waited in the streets, and scores of others
were massed in the ample grounds at the east front of the mansion. The
muffled drums beat the long roll, the military band played “Nearer, My
God, to Thee;” and then, as the solemn march began, the mournful strains
of the “Dead March from Saul” were borne by the morning breezes over the
assembled thousands.
President Roosevelt, with his wife and sister, occupied the first
carriage behind the hearse, a band of black crepe bound about his arm.
The carriage was drawn by four black horses. Next in order came the
carriage of Grover Cleveland, who was accompanied by General John M.
Wilson and Robley D. Evans. Following directly came the Justices of the
Supreme Court, in their robes of office. Army and navy men, in full
uniform, continued the slow moving procession. Representatives of
foreign governments in all their trappings of state, followed in order.
One carriage was occupied by Hon. Gerald Lowther, of the British
Legation, assigned by a cabled order to personally represent King Edward
VII. of England.
Major-General John R. Brooks commanded the entire line, riding a
splendid black charger. He was surrounded with his aides, all well
mounted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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