The Friday evening, Sept. 6 edition of the Geneva Daily Times published an EXTRA: \u201cPRESIDENT MCKINLEY ASSASSINATED AT BUFFALO TODAY.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wire-service dispatch reflected the reporter\u2019s shock, which undoubtedly mirrored the nation\u2019s reaction, including most Genevans. \u201cThe shooting was done by an insane man, who is now under arrest.\u201d President McKinley was at the Pan-American Exposition, greeting large crowds lined up to shake his hand, when \u201cthe crank\u201d ran to a spot near the president, shouted something in an unintelligible tone, raised the pistol, and discharged two shots in quick succession.<\/p>\n
While the President was attended by physicians in a nearby house, \u201cthe greatest excitement prevailed on the grounds. People ran hither and thither, and it was only with difficulty that the police were able to prevent the president\u2019s assailant from being lynched.\u201d The assailant disappeared into the crowd but was quickly apprehended. The dispatch said that information was limited and \u201cit is almost impossible to get definite statements as to the president\u2019s condition.\u201d The physicians consider McKinley\u2019s recovery \u201ca matter of doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Saturday evening edition had front-page updates. The President had undergone surgery and was conscious and alert. One bullet penetrated his stomach, and while the operation to repair the damage was successful, the doctors feared the complication of peritonitis.<\/p>\n
At first, the assailant told police his name was 28-year-old Fred Nieman (which means \u201cno man\u201d in German) and that he was a blacksmith. Under the pressure of questioning, he admitted that his name was Leon Czolgosz (ZOHL-gosh) from Ohio, and that he was an anarchist. \u201cHe is well known in most of the larger American cities as a socialist. He is also known as Fred Nieman, and is a Pole.\u201d (He was an American citizen, the son of Polish immigrants.)<\/p>\n
The reporter used what now seem to be odd turns of phrase. Describing the rapidity of the two gunshots, the dispatch said: \u201cIt all happened in a tinkling \u2014 in less time than it takes to snap four fingers twice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colloquially, \u201ctinkling\u201d was often confused with \u201ctwinkling,\u201d in the sense of Paul\u2019s prophecy to the Corinthians: \u201cIn a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. . . . the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed\u201d (1 Corinthians 15:52, King James Version). As for how to \u201csnap four fingers twice,\u201d I could find no contemporary source.<\/p>\n
Czolgosz was \u201cseized by S.R. Ireland, a United States Secret Service man,\u201d and a \u201chuge negro named John Parker leaped upon him as he fell, and they rolled over on the floor.\u201d Then soldiers detailed to participate in the ceremony \u201csprang upon the pair, and exposition police and Secret Service detectives also rushed upon him,\u201d intent on beating Czolgosz to a pulp. Parker and Ireland shielded Czolgosz from their blows, holding him down while Czolgosz was disarmed.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the wounded McKinley, who was seated on a chair and white as a sheet, witnessed the melee. He told his secretary, \u201cBe careful about my wife. Do not tell her.\u201d He reacted to the pummeling of Czolgosz, \u201c \u2018Let no one hurt him,\u2019 he gasped, and sank back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Word spread through the crowd: \u201cThe light of vengeance gleamed in their eyes and the doom of a murderer hovered over the throng.\u201d As officials thrust the bleeding Czolgosz into a carriage, the angry crowd removed the thick rope that authorities had passed through stanchions before the assassination to control crowds. Once the rope was freed, calls of \u201cLynch him!\u201d were followed by a rush toward the site where the President had been shot, while soldiers and police tried to hold the angry crowd back. The driver of the carriage, Captain Vallely, chief of the Pan-American Exposition Police Detectives, lashed the horses into a gallop to enraged yells of \u201cMurderer! Assassin! Lynch him! Hang him.\u201d The crowd of \u201cmen, women and children tore at the guards, sprang at the horses and clutched the whirling wheels of the carriage.\u201d The military, faced with the surging mob, \u201cfought a way clear at the head of the horses and, pursued by infuriated thousands, the carriage whirled across the esplanade and on to police headquarters.\u201d<\/p>\n
When questioned, Czolgosz said he was \u201can anarchist and had done his duty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originating in Europe in response to the economic inequities of industrial capitalism, anarchism overlapped with Marxist communism. While both ideologies agreed that workers should own production, Marxists advocated a strong, centralized government to control the economy. Anarchist theorists, most notably Peter Kropotkin (1842 to 1921), argued for a stateless society, one based on mutual cooperation and aid, and voluntary social organizations. In America, Benjamin R. Tucker embraced a different form of anarchism, sometimes called individualist anarchism. He advocated free markets and socialism, which in his thinking meant something akin to libertarianism.<\/p>\n
In the Times editorial of Sept. 7, the editor offers his solution to the threat posed in the United States and abroad by the members of the \u201cbloody band\u201d of \u201cred-handed anarchists. \u201cSpeech can be too free. Is it freedom to permit warped and weak minds to advocate their nefarious plans and their red-handed principles at our very doors? Is the toleration of anarchy essential to liberty? These are the questions we are asking ourselves while our president lies at the door of death.\u201d<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t the first, and certainly wouldn\u2019t be the last, to advocate sacrificing the foundations of democracy in order to fend off a foe who wanted to destroy democracy.<\/p>\n
McKinley lingered until Sept. 14, 1901.<\/p>\n
Linda Robertson is a retired faculty member from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where she started the Media and Society Program. She has made several documentaries about the history of abolition in upstate New York, including Geneva. Her new historical novel, \u201cThe Lusitania Code: A Lady Butterschloss Mystery\u201d (Level Best Books, 2026), is now available at all major online booksellers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Friday evening, Sept. 6 edition of the Geneva Daily Times published an EXTRA: \u201cPRESIDENT MCKINLEY ASSASSINATED AT…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[59846,59848,59836,59842,59850,59841,59837,59831,59847,59834,59843,59849,65,23855,23853,13624,59854,59835,41746,59853,59844,59832,59840,59852,23854,32992,72,13485,59845,59839,69,59830,59838,59851,59833],"class_list":["post-122725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-alter-globalization","tag-anarchism","tag-anarchism-in-the-united-states","tag-anti-capitalism","tag-anti-fascism","tag-anti-globalization-movement","tag-anti-ideologies","tag-assassination","tag-criticism-of-capitalism","tag-crowd","tag-economic-ideologies","tag-far-left-politics","tag-geneva","tag-geneva-daily-times","tag-geneva-in-1901","tag-ideologies","tag-individualism","tag-individualist-anarchism","tag-labour-movement","tag-left-libertarianism","tag-left-wing-politics","tag-leon-czolgosz","tag-libertarian-socialism","tag-libertarianism","tag-linda-robertson","tag-pan-american-exposition","tag-police","tag-political-ideologies","tag-political-movements","tag-political-spectrum","tag-politics","tag-president-mckinley","tag-social-ideologies","tag-socialism","tag-william-mckinley"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}