There are a select number of U.S. Presidents who have been elected to two or more terms as President. Sixteen to be exact out of the 42 who have held the office William McKinley is one of the sixteen Presidents. McKinley was an astute President, who twice beat a hard fighting opponent representing the hopes of millions of underprivileged people (William Jennings Bryan), saw America out of a bad financial depression, beat Spain in a brief war, and won an empire for the U.S. and a position as a definite world power. So his appearance in any film is worth noting - in fact (except for a brief film appearance or two of Grover Cleveland) he is the first President to grab modern visual media like film.
In 1901 he appeared at a world's fair called the Pan American Exposition of Buffalo (the city in New York State). McKinley's appearance at the Exposition was not unusual. Had it been held in any large city he would have turned up.
From the description of the film give (which I have not seen) it shows McKinley reviewing his troops from the Spanish American War. He is basking in the love of the public, triumphant after a successful war (although there was an ongoing "insurrection" by Filippinos under Emilio Aguinaldo in the Philippine Islands). He does not realize there is one unfriendly set of eyes in that crowd.
The eyes belonged to a man calling himself Fred Nieman ("Nobody"), was a Polish-American named Leon Czolgosz (pronounced "Cholgosh"). He came from New Jersey, and was of a blue-collar background. For many years it has been assumed that the reason for Czolgosz's behavior was that he had had such a bad economic background that he gravitated to the far left - he was an avowed anarchist. It was a period of anarchist assassinations of leaders (President Sadi Carnot of France in 1894, the Prime Minister of Spain in 1897, Empress Elizabeth of Austria Hungary in 1898, King Umberto I of Italy in 1900). So his criminal action fit the period. But even in his day there were questions. Czolgosz met Emma Goldman, a real radical of her day. She felt he was a poseur or police spy. So did most other American radicals who came across Leon. Recently it has been suggested that his action was based on the desire to become politically significant and important - that what he did was a vast ego trip!
On September 7, 1901 there was a public engagement for McKinley at the Exposition's Temple of Music. He stood by a long line and shook hands with the public (McKinley, a very friendly man, had perfected a way of shaking hands quickly that made the recipient feel he or she had been treated very specially). McKinley had only his secretary, George Courtelyou, and one or two policemen near him. Up to this time, there had been only three Presidents who were attacked (Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and James Garfield), but Lincoln and Garfield had been killed in the last thirty six years (Garfield only twenty years before). For some reason no real attempt was made to beef up the security of the President.
Czolgosz had noticed a man on line with a bandaged hand, and how McKinley made full allowance for him while greeting him. Czolgosz drew a gun out and wrapped his handkerchief around the weapon. He slowly reached the President and when he did he shot him in the abdomen.
McKinley was carried to an ambulance wagon. He asked Courtelyou to be careful how the news was brought to his wife Ida (a very delicate, epileptic woman whom he loved dearly). He was taken to one of the office buildings on the fair grounds, where a group of doctors would operate to save him. But as a piece of medical work it was very far from being satisfactory. There was barely any lighting in the operation room (the sun was setting - to assist a mirror was used to let the sun rays into the room for lighting). No real attempt was made at anti-sepsis, although the work of Lister and others was known by now. As a result, McKinley developed gangrene. He died on September 14, 1901. Ironically, Ida died in 1907.
McKinley could have been saved. The Exposition had a modern, completely equipped surgery room, with an x-ray machine on display. It was ignored by the doctors, who never were asked why.
Czolgosz had an eight hour "trial" based on the testimony of the witnesses. The court appointed two attorneys, who took turns (instead of mounting any possible defense)attacking their client for his killing such a good man. It was a forgone conclusion but Czolgosz was sentenced to death. He was electrocuted at Auburn Prison in October 1901.
McKinley had run for President in 1896 with a wealthy New Jersey Republican named Garrett Hobart. They had been extremely compatible as running mates, but Hobart died of a heart attack in 1899. So when McKinley ran for reelection as President in 1900 he ran with a war hero, his former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt had been Governor of New York since the end of the war, so he had political stature across the nation. But he was more willing to shake up the status quo than McKinley had been, and McKinley's friend and campaign manager Mark Hanna had objected to the nomination. "Don't you know only one life is between that madman and this office?", Hanna reputedly said. After McKinley died, his grieving friend said, "Now that damned cowboy is President!"
McKinley deserved to be better remembered, but the spectacular personality and achievements of Theodore Roosevelt (and later Woodrow Wilson) pushed him into the shade. But he was a good President, and a loved one - except for one malcontented egomaniac.
