Assassination of William Mc Kinley - Aftermath

Aftermath

He, the said William McKinley, from the said sixth day of September, in the year aforesaid, until the fourteenth day of September, in the same year aforesaid, in the city and county aforesaid, did languish and languishing did live; on which said last mentioned day he, the said William McKinley, of the said mortal wound did die.

“ ” From the indictment by the grand jury of the County Court of Erie County for first-degree murder in State of New York v. Leon Czolgosz, September 16, 1901.

An autopsy was performed later on the morning of McKinley's death; Mann led a team of 14 physicians. They found the bullet had passed through the stomach, then through the transverse colon, and vanished through the peritoneum after penetrating a corner of the left kidney. There was also damage to the adrenal glands and pancreas. Mynter, who participated in the autopsy, later stated his belief that the bullet lodged somewhere in the back muscles, though this is uncertain as it was never found: after four hours, Ida McKinley demanded that the autopsy end. A death mask was taken, and private services took place in the Milburn House before the body was moved to Buffalo City and County Hall for the start of five days of national mourning. McKinley's body was ceremoniously taken from Buffalo to Washington, and then to Canton. On the day of the funeral, September 19, as McKinley was taken from his home on North Market Street for the last time, all activity ceased in the nation for five minutes. Trains came to a halt, telephone and telegraph service was stopped. Leech stated, "the people bowed in homage to the President who was gone". In addition to the damage done by the bullet, the autopsy also found that the President was suffering from cardiomyopathy (fatty degeneration of the heart muscle). This would have weakened his heart and made him less able to recover from such an injury, and was thought to be related to his overweight frame and lack of exercise. Modern scholars generally believe that McKinley died of pancreatic necrosis, a condition that is difficult to treat today and would have been completely impossible for the doctors of his time.

Czolgosz went on trial for the murder of McKinley in state court in Buffalo on September 23, 1901, nine days after the president died. Prosecution testimony took two days and consisted principally of the doctors who treated McKinley and various eyewitnesses to the shooting. Defense attorney Loran L. Lewis and his co-counsel called no witnesses, which Lewis in his closing argument attributed to Czolgosz's refusal to cooperate with them. In his 27-minute address to the jury, Lewis took pains to praise President McKinley; Miller notes that the closing argument was more calculated to defend the attorney's "place in the community, rather than an effort to spare his client the electric chair". After a bare half hour of deliberations, the jury convicted Czolgosz; he was subsequently sentenced to death and was executed in the electric chair on October 29, 1901. Acid was placed in the casket to dissolve his body, before burial in the prison graveyard.

After McKinley's murder, newspaper editorials across the country heavily criticized the lack of protection afforded to American presidents. Though it still lacked any legislative mandate, by 1902, the Secret Service was protecting President Roosevelt full-time. This did not, however, settle the debate. Some in Congress recommended the United States Army be charged with protecting the President. Not until 1906 did Congress pass legislation officially designating the Secret Service as the agency in charge of presidential security.

The aftermath of the assassination saw a backlash against anarchists; the Buffalo police announced soon after the shooting that they believed Czolgosz had not acted alone, and a number of anarchists were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack. Czolgosz mentioned his contacts with Goldman during the interrogation; authorities arrested her family to give her incentive to turn herself in, which she did on September 10. She spent nearly three weeks in jail; she, like all other arrestees thought to have conspired with Czolgosz, was released without charge. Anarchist colonies and newspapers were attacked by vigilantes; although no one was killed, there was considerable property damage. Fear of anarchists led to surveillance programs which were eventually consolidated in 1908 as the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Anti-anarchist laws passed in the wake of the assassination lay dormant for some years before being used during and after World War I, alongside newly-passed statutes, against non-citizens whose views were deemed a threat. Among those deported, in December 1919, was Goldman, who did not have US citizenship.

Leech believed the nation experienced a transition at McKinley's death:

The new President was in office. The republic still lived. Yet, for a space, Americans turned from the challenge and the strangeness of the future. Entranced and regretful, they remembered McKinley's firm, unquestioning faith, his kindly, frock-coated dignity; his accessibility and dedication to the people: the federal simplicity that would not be seen again in Washington ... old men came to the on errands of state and politics, but their primacy was disputed by the young men crowding forward. The nation felt another leadership, nervous, aggressive, and strong. Under command of a bold young captain, America set sail on the stormy voyage of the twentieth century.

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