White House gossip : $b from Andrew Johnson to Calvin CoolidgeColman, Edna M. (Edna Mary)
History
White House gossip : $b from Andrew Johnson to Calvin Coolidge
Colman, Edna M. (Edna Mary)
Presidents -- United States -- Biography; Washington (D.C.) -- Social life and customs; White House (Washington, D.C.)
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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