President William McKinley, courtesy Library of Congress
Theodore Roosevelt’s public life soared after the Spanish-American War, but the president in office during that war suffered tragedy before his term ended.
An anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, shot President McKinley at the Pan American Exposition on September 6, 1901.
McKinley died of his wounds on the 14th, and Roosevelt took office. Continue reading
Secretary of State, John Hay
The end of the nineteenth century brought about the beginning of the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians. Indian agent Peter Couchman had suggested a separate facility for Indian patients in 1897, Senator Richard Pettigrew had endorsed the suggestion, and the Indian Bureau had cooperated in forwarding his cause.
The asylum, however, was a relatively minor matter for most of the country’s population, who focused, instead, on the Spanish-American War. Continue reading