The Youngest President [excerpt]

     President McKinley had served six months of his second term when the great tragedy at Buffalo, in September, 1901, shocked the nation and changed the whole course of events in the country. The assassination of President McKinley was a more dastardly act than that which made martyrs of two other Presidents. There was neither the strife of civil war nor the heat of politics to engender the hate necessary to take the life of such a gentle character as McKinley. In his lofty soul there was only the desire to do good to all people and govern the Republic in the interests of the whole country.
     Perhaps for his place in history it was well that [354][355] his career should have closed when he had reached the summit of success. He is enshrined forever in the hearts of the people as one of the great men, a President who stood for peace, but conducted a war to a successful conclusion, and who, to the best of his ability, was trying to solve the problems and bear the responsibilities which that war imposed.
     “If it were not for Ida [Mrs. McKinley], I would prefer to go as Lincoln went,” said Mr. McKinley to his close personal friend, Herman H. Kohlsaat, long before he became the victim of an assassin’s bullet. Perhaps he had a premonition that he might fall at the zenith of his career. There are some things that no one can explain. I would like to publish a letter I wrote after the Republican convention in 1900, but can only make a few extracts: “They think they have shelved Roosevelt by nominating him for Vice President. . . . You know that to a certain extent I believe in manifest destiny. I feel sure that Roosevelt will become President during his term of Vice President.”