"That's all a man can hope for during his lifetime - to set an example - and when he is dead, to be an inspiration for history." (William McKinley)

Although he is often overlooked in American history today, few presidents marked a turning point for the country quite like William McKinley. As the last president to have served in the Civil War, he represented the end of an era, while at the same time his pro-business policies set in motion the Progressive Era, a period almost universally associated with Theodore Roosevelt.

Of course, the reason that period is aligned with Roosevelt is because McKinley had the unfortunate distinction of being one of the only four presidents to be assassinated. In September 1901, the city of Buffalo was full of celebration. The Pan-American Exposition was ongoing, and it brought notable figures to northern New York, including President McKinley, who had been reelected less than a year earlier.

But also in Buffalo was Leon Czolgosz, a young man who had turned to anarchy, years earlier, after losing his job. Embracing his philosophy wholeheartedly, Czolgosz believed it was his mission to take down a powerful leader he considered oppressive, and McKinley’s attendance gave him the chance.

President James Garfield had been assassinated just 20 years earlier, but McKinley didn’t worry about presidential security or his own safety, and that was the case in Buffalo. McKinley’s insistence on greeting the public and shaking hands allowed Czolgosz to walk up to him on September 6, 1901, at a public reception in the Temple of Music on the expo grounds and shoot him point blank, with one bullet grazing the president and another lodging in his abdomen.

In the aftermath of the shooting, as Czolgosz was beaten and seized by the crowd, he uttered, "I done my duty." For his part, McKinley said, “He didn't know, poor fellow, what he was doing. He couldn't have known."

Despite being president, McKinley’s medical services were shoddy, and given the still primitive medical standards of the early 20th century, gunshots to the abdomen often brought death. One of the best known aspects of the assassination is that Thomas Edison’s x-ray machine was on hand and may have been used to try to locate the bullet that doctors couldn’t find, but for reasons that remain unknown, the x-ray machine was not used.

Nevertheless, McKinley seemed to improve over the next few days, and people became optimistic that he would be all right. As H. Wayne Morgan, one of McKinley’s biographers, noted, “His hearty constitution, everyone said, would see him through. The doctors seemed hopeful, even confident. It is difficult to understand the cheer with which they viewed their patient. He was nearly 60 years old, overweight, and the wound itself had not been thoroughly cleaned or traced. Precautions against infections, admittedly difficult in 1901, were negligently handled.” 

Ultimately, McKinley’s wounds became gangrenous a week after he was shot, and after he took a turn for the worse, he died on the morning of September 14, nearly eight days after he was shot.

William McKinley: The Life and Legacy of the Third President to Be Assassinated chronicles the life and death of the president.