Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural
National Historic Site
Events Leading To the Inauguration
In the spring of 1901, the Pan American Exposition opened in Buffalo in recognition of increasing friendly relations with our Latin American neighbors. President McKinley had been invited to open the Exposition but at the last minute his wife became ill and he had to reschedule his visit for September. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt came in his place on May 20th and officially opened the Exposition. Many special days and events were scheduled over the coming months, but none so special as President's Day, September 5th. The next day President William McKinley was honored at a public reception at the Exposition's Temple of Music.
A record breaking crowd passed through the doors of the Temple of Music in order to shake the hand of the President. Toward the end of the reception a young man named Leon F. Czolgosz stepped toward the President. His hand, wrapped in a handkerchief, held a gun. Feigning a handshake, he pushed the gun to the stomach of President McKinley and shot him twice.
Vice President Roosevelt, on a speaking trip in Vermont, was immediately summoned to Buffalo where Cabinet members had already assembled to carry on the affairs of the government. Upon his arrival in the city, Roosevelt was invited to stay at the home of Ansley Wilcox and make full use of it during his stay. After immediate surgery at the emergency hospital on the Exposition grounds, President McKinley was moved to the home of John G. Milburn for recovery. Here, under the close scrutiny of the city's best doctors, the President's health seemed to improve, and Roosevelt was assured that McKinley's chances of recovery were excellent.
By September 10th, as an assurance to the nation that the danger had passed, Roosevelt decided to leave Buffalo and join his family vacationing in the Adirondacks. Roosevelt arrived at the Tahawus Club in the Adirondacks on September 11th. The following day he embarked on a hike up Mt. Marcy. At about 5 p.m. on his way down he spotted a man hurriedly approaching him. "There wasn't a thought in my mind but that the President would live," Roosevelt later recalled, "...[but] when I saw the runner, I instinctively knew he had bad news, the worst news in the world."
After Theodore Roosevelt's departure from Buffalo on September 10th, McKinley's condition had worsened. The bullet the doctors were unable to remove, coupled with poor drainage methods, caused a gangrenous infection that the President could not fight off.
Upon receipt of the telegram, Roosevelt took a relay of carriages that had been arranged to transport him 35 miles to the nearest train station. Upon boarding a train to Buffalo, he was told of the President's death. He went first to the Wilcox home and then to the Milburn home to pay his respects to the late President and Mrs. McKinley. Roosevelt then returned to the Wilcox home where the Secretary of War, Elihu Root, suggested that the oath of office be taken at once, and so on September 14, 1901 taking the oath of office from U.S. District Court Judge John R. Hazel in the library of the Wilcox Mansion, Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th President of the United States.
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