Following the attack on President McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition on September 6th, 1901, the world watched as his life hung in the balance. Members of the cabinet, congressmen, senators, governors, and of course, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt rushed to Buffalo prepared for the worst, but optimistically hoping for the best.
By September 10th, it appeared as though the worst had passed. The doctors seemed confident that the president would make a full recovery. Headlines read “McKinley’s Recovery Expected” and “Surgeons at the president’s bedside say recovery is now assured– nation joyous”. To further put the nation’s mind at ease, it was decided that the Vice President should leave Buffalo and resume his normal schedule. Having him remain at the president’s bedside would only undermine the positive prognosis.
Prior to the attempt on McKinley’s life, Roosevelt and his family had planned a vacation to the Adirondack Mountains. TR was an avid outdoorsman and relished the opportunity to hike and camp. He left Buffalo on September 10th. But, in the event the President’s condition should change, he left an itinerary and contact information with his friend Ansley Wilcox with whom he had been staying while in the city. The majority of the Cabinet remained in Buffalo, but many began making plans to depart as well.
Now I know I said Roosevelt was an avid outdoorsman, but even that feels like an understatement. Let’s not forget that this is the man who would go on to hunt big game in Africa and brave the rainforests of Brazil to find the headwaters of the Amazon. So naturally, by September 13th, Roosevelt was not only in the Adirondack mountains, but he was near the summit of Mount Marcy– the tallest peak in all of New York State…
As Mckinley’s health began to fail, word was sent across the state that the Vice President should immediately return to Buffalo. By the time the messengers were able to reach Roosevelt’s party on the mountain, it was already dark. Plans were already in motion to transport the Vice President–a special train was waiting at the nearest rail station– but before he could make the cross-state journey, Roosevelt had to make the descent down the mountain.
Just after midnight, TR began his trek down Mt Marcy. Now keep in mind, it’s 1901… There are no paved roads and no street lights. Roosevelt would have to descend the dark, winding, mountain roads in an open horse-drawn carriage. To make matters worse, as he left, it started to rain. Undeterred, he urged his driver onward. He reputedly even dangled out of the open carriage with a lantern in hand so that his driver could see more of the treacherous road in front of them. In the midst of the sounds of the pouring rain, the galloping hooves, and the splashing of puddles beneath them, the Vice President of the United States was yelling to his driver, “I’m not afraid if you’re not afraid– Go Faster!”
As the President of the United States lay dying in Buffalo, the Vice President was quite literally, throwing himself down the side of a mountain.
Now, under the best of conditions, the journey to North Creek station would take around seven hours. Under the cover of night and in terrible conditions, Roosevelt and his driver made the journey in less than five. As they made their way down the mountain, they changed teams of horses twice so that they could maintain maximum speed for the entire journey. The descent legitimately set a record that many would try and fail to beat.
When they arrived at North Creek station at 4:45 am, TR was informed that the President had passed away hours earlier at 2:15 am. At this moment, the weight of the situation changed. Roosevelt was no longer heading to Buffalo to be on standby…..He was now, quite literally, en route to becoming the 26th president of the United States.
As morning broke in Buffalo, word of the President’s passing was beginning to circulate. The cabinet and all of the assembled dignitaries made their way to the Milburn residence to pay their respects to the President’s widow and to pay tribute to their fallen friend. Throughout the city, there was a great deal of sadness over the loss of the President, but also a fair amount of speculation in regard to when and how the Vice President would be sworn in….No firm plans were made, but many suspected the solemn ceremony would take place at the Milburn residence, where McKinley had passed. Also, keep in mind, at this point, very few people even knew where the Vice President was, let alone when he was expected to arrive.
While the US Constitution delineates the branches of our government in great detail, it’s instructions for the inauguration of a new President are fairly plain. One private citizen, one federal magistrate, and one sentence are the only requirements to elevate an ordinary citizen to the highest office in the land. While we’ve all seen televised presidential inaugurations, all the pomp and circumstance are added to mark the importance of the occasion. But none of it is necessary. Instead, the ceremony is, by design, simple, solemn, and symbolic.
As the only federal magistrate in the city, Judge John R. Hazel suspected that he would be called upon to administer the oath. In preparation, Hazel asked his clerk to go out and buy a bible so that should they be summoned, they would have one at hand. The clerk did as he was instructed, but when he returned to the office, he expressed concern that it might be rude to bring their bible as opposed to using the bible in whatever home to which they were summoned. Hazel agreed and the pair set off for the Milburn house sans bible.
Roosevelt’s train arrived in Buffalo shortly after 1:00 pm and he returned to the home of his friend, Ansley Wilcox. The Vice President had traveled throughout the night and, despite his exhaustion, began to prepare himself for the long day still ahead.
The previous night, he was in such a hurry to leave for Buffalo, he left with only the clothes on his back. When he arrived at the Wilcox house, he was still wearing his camping clothes. In need of attire befitting such an occasion, Wilcox lent him a suit jacket. Another Buffalonian, John Scatcherd, gave TR his top hat for the ceremony.
By this point, it had been roughly twelve hours since the President had passed away and the cabinet was eager to have Roosevelt sworn in. However, TR was adamant that he wished to pay his respects to the President’s widow as a civilian and refused to take the oath until after he visited the Milburn residence. With so much of the cabinet already assembled there, there was discussion of administering the oath right there. However, many felt it was in poor taste to swear in the new president so close to the fallen President. Instead, Wilcox offered his home—just a few blocks south—to host the solemn event.
All those assembled at the Milburn house made their way to the carriages outside. After the decision had been made to reconvene at the Wilcox house, Senators Mark Hanna of Ohio and Charles Fairbanks of Indiana arrived at the Milburn house just as most people were exiting. It’s unclear as to whether they misheard the plan, missed it entirely, or chose not to attend, but the men instructed their driver to take them to the Buffalo Club—another potential inauguration location—rather than the Wilcox house.
Now it seems odd to think that a Senator might choose not to attend the inauguration of a new President, but Mark Hanna was one of President McKinley’s closest friends. In fact, it was Hanna who had encouraged McKinley to run for the office in the first place, but had advised against adding Roosevelt to the ticket in 1900 saying, “Don’t any of you realize that there’s only one life between that madman and the Presidency?” Upon receiving word of McKinley’s passing Hanna was reported to have said, “Now we’ve got that damned cowboy as President!” Suffice to say, Hanna was not eager for Roosevelt to take McKinley’s place.
Those that did make their way to the Wilcox house did so in a caravan of carriages down Delaware Avenue. Judge Hazel’s clerk was actually in the last carriage with John Millburn and, in his account of the events, remembered that Milburn was not excited about the change in venue. He felt the inauguration should have taken place at his house and thought Wilcox had been a little too eager to host the ceremony.
Now I just want to take a second to draw attention to Mrs. Mary Grace Wilcox. With almost no notice, fifty of the most important people in the country and the city along with the press arrive at her doorstep to inaugurate a president. It’s a small detail, but one that speaks to the impromptu nature of the events….in the photographs taken on the day of the inauguration, the Wilcox’s library looked…. lived in. There are stacks of books out to be put away, wrinkles in the furniture, and other little details that suggest that up until the moment of the groups’ arrival, this was a family home. Two weeks after the inauguration, when the photographers return to photograph—this time with advance notice— the room is pristine. Not a single thing is out of place. While Ansley Wilcox was eager for his home to serve as the backdrop for such a significant historical event, Mary Grace was horrified that she didn’t even at least have a chance to tidy up first.
But just after 3:30 on that day, September 14th, as the cabinet, government officials, Vice President, dignitaries, and the media made their way into the Wilcox’s library, their thoughts were hardly on the state of the room, but rather the significance of the ceremony they were about to witness. Those present were six of the eight members of McKinley’s cabinet: Secretary of War Elihu Root, Secretary of the Navy John D. Long, Attorney General Philander C. Knox, Secretary of the Interior Ethan Hitchcock, Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith, and Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson. Also present was Federal magistrate Judge Hazel, Judge Albert Haight of the New York Court of Appeals, and United States Senator from New York Chauncey Depew, as well as several local dignitaries and members of the Wilcox family.
Also amongst the group were two photographers. Now one was invited to photograph the event, the other… well we aren’t exactly sure how he managed to slip in, but as everyone was taking their position the two photographers began to set up. Keep in mind, cameras in 1901 are big bulky boxes on tripods, so they are anything but discreet. We can’t be certain whether it was the invited photographer or the uninvited photographer, but one of their tripods collapsed. It caused such a commotion that TR, who was already fairly nervous to begin with, kicked both the photographers out of the room. For that reason, we have no photographs of the event.
Now I mentioned earlier that Federal Magistrate, John Hazel, had sent his clerk to purchase a bible for the ceremony but felt it would be in poor taste to bring it. Ironically, when he asked to use the Wilcox family bible, the book could not be located. So, the oath was administered without a bible. But as I previously mentioned, the bible was a traditional element of the ceremony, not a constitutional requirement.
Of the members of McKinley’s cabinet in Buffalo, which at this point was all but two, Secretary of War Elihu Root was the highest ranking. So just after 3:30 pm, Root began the proceedings by asking the Vice P resident if he was prepared to take the oath of office, but Root could hardly get through the simple sentence without becoming overwhelmed by emotion. According to the September 15th issue of the Buffalo Courier, the emotion in the room was palpable.
“Mr. Vice-President, I […]” commenced Secretary Root, but his voice broke and for fully a minute he could not utter another word. His Cabinet confreres were all affected. Tears came into their eyes. It was a touching scene at this moment and about every head was bowed as there welled up in the hearts of these devoted men the memory of the beloved man whose life had been offered as a sacrifice on the altar of his country. Tears trickled down the cheeks of Secretary Root. The Vice-President’s eyes were moist and he clutched nervously at the lapel of his frock coat….
Taking a step toward Secretary Root the Vice-President said, in a voice that wavered at first, but grew stronger with each succeeding word: “I will take the oath at once in accord with the request of you members of the Cabinet, and in this hour of our deep and terrible bereavement I wish to state that it shall be my aim to continue absolutely unbroken the policy of President McKinley for the peace, the prosperity and the honor of our beloved country.” …Judge John Hazel read the oath and Col. Roosevelt repeated it after him: ” I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States….And thus I swear.”
Following the ceremony, Roosevelt asked to briefly meet with the members of the cabinet in the library. Afterward, he sat down at Ansley Wilcox’s desk to pen his first presidential proclamation. Typically following an inauguration, a new president would give an inaugural address, but given the sudden and solemn nature of this transition of power, Roosevelt opted instead for a written proclamation.
As he sat down to draft it, one can only imagine the enormous weight he felt. McKinley’s death marked the third presidential assassination in a 36-year period. In fact, McKinley’s Secretary of War Elihu Root, who was present in Buffalo was also present at Chester Arthur’s unexpected presidential inauguration in New York City almost exactly 20 years earlier and had vivid memories of Lincoln’s assassination in 1865.
If you ask anyone who was alive during the Kennedy assassination, it is a day that is burned into their memory. The assassination of a President is a national tragedy and the grief is enormous. Today it’s almost unimaginable to fathom three presidential assassinations in such a short period of time, but it would be the equivalent of Reagan dying from the attempt on his life in 1981, Clinton being assassinated in 1997, and Trump being assassinated in 2017. The trauma that would inflict on the nation, regardless of political affiliation would be immense.
All of this was weighing on Roosevelt as he sat to write his first proclamation. In fact, it’s clear from the surviving draft that he agonized over his words, scribbling and reworking several sections. When he finally finished the draft he actually threw it in the wastebasket.
Luckily for us, Ansley Wilcox had the presence of mind to realize the historical significance of everything that was happening and retrieved the crumpled-up document. A few years later Wilcox donated everything he saved along with his written account of the events to the Buffalo and Erie County Historical society where it is still in our collection today.
For the duration of Roosevelt’s stay in Buffalo, telegrams poured in from around the world. Many offered their condolences on the death of McKinley and their well wishes for the new president. The majority were handled by Roosevelt’s private secretary, but a few were marked for personal review by the president. One of the correspondences Roosevelt directly handled was a note to Booker T. Washington, the noted African American reformer. Originally TR had planned to meet with him on his next visit to the South, but given everything that had just happened the visit would need to be postponed.
Instead, the telegraph Roosevelt sent to Washington (on Executive Mansion letterhead postmarked from Buffalo, New York) expressed his regret that the meeting would have to be canceled and asked if Washington was planning on traveling to D.C. That telegram would ultimately lead to the famous meeting between the two at the White House which was the first time an African American was invited to dine with the president.
On September 15th, a private memorial ceremony was held for McKinley at the Milburn house followed by a public viewing in what is now County Hall. Thousands came to pay tribute to the fallen leader.
From September 14th to 16th, Roosevelt remained at the Wilcox residence and conducted official business from the home– which became a hub of activity. In addition to hosting the cabinet members and government officials, Roosevelt even welcomed future President Woodrow Wilson following McKinley’s private memorial service.
The Wilcox home is one of only four locations to hold a presidential inauguration outside of the nation’s capital and of those four, it’s one of only two that were legally binding–aka met all the constitutional requirements and did not need to be repeated. To commemorate its historical significance, on September 14, 1971, the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site opened as part of the National Parks Service.
The other three inaugurations were Chester Arthur in NYC and Calvin Coolidge at his father’s house in VT (both of which needed to be repeated in Washington D.C.) and Lydon B. Johnson on air force one. Interestingly LBJ’s inauguration legally binding as Sarah T Hughes was a federal magistrate– but it’s also the only time the oath of office was administered by a woman.
Though Roosevelt assumed the office under the worst possible circumstances, he served the full 3.5 years which remained of McKinley’s term, and went on to win reelection in his own right in 1904. The positions he took on the issues of business, labor, conservation, and foreign policy set precedents his successors continue to follow. His expansion of the office of the executive has come to define the modern presidency and the influence of his larger-than-life persona can still be found in pop culture. Even 120 years after his presidency he is still considered one of the best presidents in history, consistently ranking in the top ten. And, most importantly, his presidency, which began here in Buffalo, helped define the century that followed.
Lindsey Lauren Visser 