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Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President [excerpt]
Now we come to the
moment when he was summoned to the deathbed of his friend and chief.
Immediately upon the first news of the assassination of President
McKinley, he had hastened to Buffalo. After three days it seemed
that the President would recover, and Mr. Roosevelt left for the
mountains to be with his family.
When Mr. Roosevelt and his guides
left the Tahawus Club, in the Adirondacks, where his family was
staying, early Friday morning September 13th, for a tramp in the
mountains, the then Vice-President fully believed that President
McKinley was entirely out of danger and on the rapid road to recovery.
That this was so was made manifest by his private secretary, William
Loeb, while the special train which bore him to Buffalo was on its
record-breaking rush to the scene of the nation’s tragedy. During
the brief stop of the train at Rochester Secretary Loeb said:
“The President wishes it understood
that when he left the Tahawus Club house yesterday morning to go
on his tramping into the mountains he had just received a dispatch
from Buffalo stating that President McKinley was in splendid condition
and was not in the slightest danger.”
The Roosevelt tramping party moved
in the direction of Mount Marcy, the highest peak in the Adirondack
region. They had not been gone over three hours when a mounted courier
rode rapidly into Tahawus Club with messages to the Vice-President
stating that President McKinley was in a critical condition. The
messages had been telegraphed to North Creek, and from there telephoned
to a point ten miles south of Tahawus Club. Extra guides and runners
were at once deployed from the club in the direction of Mount Marcy
with instructions to sound a general alarm in order to find the
Vice-President as soon as possible. [489][490]
The far-reaching megaphone code and
the rifle-cracking signals of the mountain-climbing guides, as hour
after hour passed away, marked the progress of the searching mountaineers
as they climbed the slope of Mount Marcy. Just as the afternoon
began to merge with the shades of early evening and as the searchers
were nearing the summit of the lofty mountain, the responsive echoes
of distant signals were heard and answered, and gradually the scouts
and the Roosevelt party came within hailing distance of each other.
When Colonel Roosevelt
was reached and informed of the critical condition of the President,
he could scarcely believe the burden of the messages personally
delivered to him. Startled at the serious nature of the news, the
Vice-President, at 5.45 o’clock, immediately started back for the
Tahawus Club. In the meantime the Adirondack Stage Line placed at
his disposal relays of horses covering the thirty-five miles to
North Creek. A deluging thunderstorm had rendered the roads unusually
heavy.
All through the long, dreary night
the stage coach with the distinguished passenger boomed along through
the woods, the thick foliage of the trees furnishing a sombre canopy
which somewhat protected the party from the downpour of rain. Hours
passed with the Vice-President torn by conflicting emotions, in
which grief at the unexpected tidings was uppermost. The gray of
the morning had not yet begun to light the heavens when Alden’s
Lane was reached at 3.15, and, although he was then within the reach
of telephone communication, he was not apprised of the death of
President McKinley. The stop at Alden’s Lane was only of sufficient
duration to allow a change of horses, and again the stage coach
dashed forward. From the latter place to North Point, where the
special lay waiting with all steam on, the road was through heavy
forest timber and the journey was attended with actual peril. The
driveways are very narrow in many places, with deep ravines on either
side. A slight deviation would have meant a broken [490][491]
carriage or more serious trouble. But the expert guides piloted
the Vice-President safely to his objective point, and Colonel Roosevelt,
looking careworn but expressing no fatigue, alighted and dashed
up to the special train at North Creek.
That was 5.22 o’clock that morning,
and for the first time the traveler of the night learned that President
McKinley had passed away at Buffalo at 2.15 o’clock. Mr. Loeb, his
secretary, was the first to break the news to him. The new President
was visibly affected by the intelligence, and expressed a desire
to reach Buffalo as soon as possible.
The trip was a record-breaker in point
of speed, in many places exceeding a mile a minute. There was a
brief stop at Ballston to permit the Vice-President to send some
telegrams. It was 7 o’clock, and a crowd at the little station received
the new President in sympathetic silence.
A three-minute stop was made at Rochester,
the train leaving that city for Buffalo at 12.18 .., and at 1.40
the special came rushing into that city, the President going at
once to the home of Ansley Wilcox, where he arrived five minutes
later.
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