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State Funeral of William McKinley

"Our Martyr Presidents", a 1901 drawing showing the bust of William McKinley being raised next to those of Abraham Lincoln and James Garfield
Date	September 29, 1901
Location	Washington, DC

The State funeral of William McKinley, 25th president of the United States, took place in Washington, DC in 1901, XXX days following his assassination in Buffalo, New York. It consisted of a funeral procession, memorial service in the rotunda of the United States Capitol, and lying in state. It was proceeded by a public observances in Buffalo, New York composed of a memorial service, funeral cortege, and lying in repose. The actual interment of the body took place on September XX in Canton, Ohio following elaborate ceremonies. The death was marked by official ceremonies throughout the United States on September 19, proclaimed a national day of mourning by President Theodore Roosevelt, and by separate memorials in many nations around the world.

Background

McKinley was shot September 4, 1901, and died 12 days later.

On XXX, 1901, William McKinley, following a tour of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, received members of the public in the Hall of Music at the fairgrounds. Concerned there might be an attempt on the president's life, McKinley's private secretary George B. Cortelyou had arranged for additionally tight security. Officers of the Buffalo Police Department guarded the doors to the exposition hall and persons approaching the president had to pass through a cordon of six U.S. Army soldiers who had been instructed to close around anyone who appeared suspicious. Two United States Secret Service special agents stood next to the president.

Though there was a general rule in place that anyone approaching the president must do so with their hands open and empty, the heat of the day meant it was not being enforced as many people were carrying handkerchiefs. One of those, Leon Czolgosz, used his handkerchief to conceal a pistol which, when he had come to within point blank range of McKinley, he used to shoot the president twice. Before Czolgoz could take a third shot, he was tackled by one of the soldiers, a Buffalo police officer, and civilian bystander James Parker. Secret service agent George Foster searched and arrested Czolgoz and he was moved to the Buffalo police station. McKinley, meanwhile, was carried out of the hall and taken by ambulance to the infirmary at the fair where an operation was performed to remove a bullet that had penetrated his abdomen. Afterwards, he was removed to Milburn House, where he had been staying to recover.

Theodore Roosevelt, Vice-President of the United States, appraised of McKinley's worsening condition, arrived in Buffalo at 1:00 p.m. on XXXX. He was met at the train station by a private carriage and escorted under heavy guard to the home of Ansley Wilcox, an old friend. From there he made his way to Millburn House, arriving minutes after McKinley's death at 2:30 p.m. An hour later, after a formal request from the Secretary of War that Roosevelt assume the office of president, he received the oath of office from Judge John R. Hazel of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York.

Departure from Buffalo

Memorial service

Following McKinley's death on September 14, his body was placed in a coffin which was carried down from the bedroom where he had been cared for and placed in the Millburn House's drawing room. The coffin was draped in the United States flag and surrounded by wreaths of purple violets. A guard of United States Marines was stationed outside the room. Once placed, Ida Saxton McKinley, accompanied by the president's physician, Dr. Bixby, spent several minutes alone with the coffin after which Theodore Roosevelt entered the room, bowed in front of the coffin, and sat down. A small assembly of guests were then led into the room and a brief service presided over by Rev. XXX that lasted 25 minutes. The service consisted of a benediction led by XXX, the reading of 1 Corinthians by Bixby, and two hymns performed by a vocal quartet.

The Cortege

At the conclusion of the service, eight military pallbearers carried the coffin to a waiting hearse outside the house. Accompanied by an escort of a thousand soldiers, sailors, and marines, the cortege marched toward Buffalo City Hall to Chopin's Marche funèbre performed by the band of the U.S. Army's 14th Infantry Regiment. It was estimated 50,000 people lined the route.

Lying in repose

Over ten hours, 200,000 mourners attended the coffin.

State funeral

Mrs McKinley, who had become hysterical with grief upon arriving back in Washington, was unable to attend the funeral observances. She remained at the White House under the care of physicians during the funerary rites.

Procession

The hearse carrying the remains of William McKinley moves down the White House drive to meet the waiting escort.

At 9:00 a.m. the pallbearers lifted McKinley's coffin and carried it from the front of the White House as the United States Marine Band, stationed across the street, played Nearer My God to Thee. The coffin was placed in a waiting hearse drawn by six caparisoned black horses which made its way down the White House drive, followed by the carriages of the principal dignitaries. At the main gate of the White House the caravan fell in between the military and the civil escorts. The procession then proceeded down Pennsylvania Avenue to the sound of the The Dead March and the tolling of all of the city's church bells. The procession moved one mile along Pennsylvania Avenue to the United States Capitol where the coffin was carried up the steps into the rotunda, then placed on the Lincoln Catafalque for the lying in state.

Order of the procession	Order of the procession (cont.)
1. Major-General John R. Brooke (mounted)	11. Battalion of the District of Columbia National Guard (foot)
2. Gen. Brooke's aides (mounted)	12. Major-General Henry V. Boynton (mounted)
3. the U.S. Army Artillery Band (foot)	13. Delegation of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (foot)
4. Squadron of the 1st United States Cavalry (mounted)	14. Delegation of the Grand Army of the Republic (foot)
5. Battery of the 3rd United States Artillery (horse-drawn gun carriages)	15. The Hearse
6. Company of the XXX Engineers (foot)	16. Grover Cleveland, Rear Admiral Robley Evans, Major-General John Wilson (carriage)
7. Battery of the XXX Coast Artillery (foot)	17. Theodore Roosevelt, XX Roosevelt, Commander W.S. Cowles (carriage)
8. United States Marine Band, "The President's Own" (foot)	18. other carriages carrying members of the Cabinet of the United States, the Supreme Court of the United States, and the diplomatic corps
9. Battalion of (foot)	19. the 57th Congress of the United States (foot)
10. Marching unit of sailors drawn from U.S. Navy North Atlantic Squadron (foot)	20. leaders of Masonic lodges

Rotunda memorial

McKinley lay in state upon the Lincoln Catafelque, shown here in 2006.

Dignitaries followed the coffin into the capitol. A service began with the choral performance of the hymn Lead Kindly Light. Rev. Henry Naylor, presiding elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Washington, delivered an invocation which was followed by a sermon by Bishop Edwin Andrews. The assembled then rose and Nearer My God To Thee.

Church service

At the conclusion of the eulogy, the choir attempted to sing Nearer My God to Thee but the lead soprano, F.H. Lyford, collapsed in hysterical grief and had to be removed from the cathedral. The performance was unable to continue and the congregation, shaken at the spectacle, was dismissed.

Lying in state

McKinley's successor as president, Theodore Roosevelt, followed in the second carriage behind the hearse.

1. Representatives of the Loyal Legion of the United States (foot)
2. Representatives of the Grand Army of the Republic (foot)
3. The hearse accompanied by a guard of honor drawn from senior Army, Navy, and Marine Corps officers
4. Grover Cleveland, Rear Admiral Robley Evans, Major-General John Wilson (carriage)
5. Theodore Roosevelt, XX Roosevelt, Commander W.S. Cowles (carriage)
6. other carriages carrying members of the Cabinet of the United States, the Supreme Court of the United States, and the diplomatic corps

Other observances

In most cities in the U.S., five minutes of silence was observed at 2:30 p.m. on September 19, the time at which McKinley's body was to be interred. AT&T, Western Union, and the Associated Press terminated all traffic on the United States telegraph system. To enforce the telegraphic silence, the dynamos at the telegraph headends were disconnected, draining the entire telegraph system of electricity and rendering it unable to transmit.

Many major cities organized individual public and church observances in addition to the five minutes silence, and flags throughout the nation were lowered to half-mast. All Army and Navy posts capable of doing so firing one volley of artillery every hour for twenty-four hours.

American colonies

• In Hawaii, memorial services were held at Kawaiahaʻo Church which was draped in black. The band of the Hawaii National Guard performed funeral dirges outside as dignitaries arrived, including Governor Sanford B. Dole, and the consuls of the United Kingdom, Sweden, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Mexico, China, and Japan, as well as the senior officers of the United States armed forces in Hawaii, the Hawaii National Guard, and other colonial officials. Separate observances were held by the Roman Catholic and Jewish communities in Honolulu.
• In the Philippines, all businesses and government offices were closed on September 19. An official memorial observance was held in Malacañang Palace, following Governor-General of the Philippines William Howard Taft led the colonial government to Luneta Park where "all available troops, sailors, and marines were assembled" as were several thousand spectators. Cayetano Arellano, chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, delivered a memorial address.
• In Puerto Rico, a memorial gathering was held at a theater in San Juan.

In Canada, the Earl of Minto declared September 19 a day of national mourning for McKinley.

Foreign

• In Canada, the Earl of Minto, then Governor-General of Canada, declared September 19 a day of national mourning. All banks and government offices were closed and the Canadian flag flown at half-mast. The Duke of Cornwall, who was visiting Canada, canceled his public appearances.
• In Denmark, flags were lowered to half-mast on September 19. British, Russian, and Danish naval vessels in the harbor in Copenhagen all fired gun salutes.
• In Germany, Emperor Wilhelm ordered all flags flown at half-mast and cabled personal condolences to Mrs. McKinley. A memorial service was held at noon on September 19, attended by all of the members of the imperial cabinet, except Count von Buelow who was away from Berlin at the time. Smaller memorial services were held in other cities, including Dresden, Cologne, Stuttgart, and Munich.

On September 19, Royal Navy ships moored at Gibraltar raised the jack of the United States.

• In Mexico, President Porfirio Díaz and his cabinet attended a memorial service presided by United States Ambassador Powell Clayton.
• In Russia, a church service led by the United States Ambassador was attended by Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich of Russia, and the members of the diplomatic corps.
• In the United Kingdom, King Edward VII ordered the Court of St James's to wear mourning dress for one week following the assassination. In the British Raj, all banks and public offices were ordered closed on September 19, while Gibraltar fired a twenty-one gun salute from its shore batteries and Royal Navy ships in harbor raised the jack of the United States. In an article of forty thousand words, The Times eulogized McKinley, writing that "the British people share to the full the thoughts and sentiments expressed with touching dignity in the proclamation in which President Roosevelt appoints the day when the body of his predecessor is committed to the grave." The Morning Post opined that "President McKinley lives for all time in the grateful recollection of the peoples of two continents; the name of his murderer is execrated, and his memory blotted out. The blood of Elizabeth of Austria, of Humbert of Italy, and of William McKinley of the United States, to go back but three years in history, cries aloud from their untimely graves.”
• In Venezuela, three days of national mourning were declared and President Cipriano Castro delivered condolences to the United States ambassador.