William McKinley (1843-1901) once wrote that â??the march of events rules and overrules human action.â? In the case of his presidency, and its untimely end, those words were prophetic.
Our 25th president was inaugurated in 1897 with modest ambitions, but the currents of history transformed him into (in Walter Lordâ??s words) the â??apostleâ? of Americaâ??s increasingly prominent place on the world stage at the dawn of the 20th century. When McKinley arrived in Buffalo on September 5, 1901, to speak at the lavish Pan-American Exposition, the nationâ??s economy hummed and its flag waved over exotic lands previously the possession of powerful empires. Less than 24 hours later, a young anarchist stepped forward from a receiving line and fired two shots from his Iver Johnson revolver into the president.
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