Complete Life of William McKinley and Story of His Assassination

No figure of modern American history appeals so strongly to the patriotism and love of the American people as William McKinley, and no volume can have greater interest and value at the present day, or be more dearly prized, than a history of his life in which every event of his great career as a noble youth, a gallant soldier, an able lawyer, a brilliant orator, a grand statesman, a brave patriot and an heroic martyr is set forth accurately, and in a spirit of love and reverence.

The author of this memorial edition has produced exactly the volume described.

In graphic words he has described the assassination of President McKinley. It is a word picture that will linger forever in the memory of every reader, calling forth sympathy and patriotism on behalf of the martyr President and undying contempt and horror of the assassin and the foul and cowardly thing called anarchy. Every detail of that now historic scene is told so vividly that the reader sees it as if he were an eye-witness.

McKinley’s gallant fight for life, his cheerfulness, his patience, his tender solicitude for his invalid wife, his trust in God and all the beautiful attributes of his grand Christian spirit are recorded with fidelity to truth and a just appreciation of the nobility of such a grand character.

Nothing in history is more touching and beautiful than the author’s description of the death-bed scene of President McKinley—the tender parting of devoted husband and loving, clinging wife, and the noble resignation of the dying man to the will of the Creator as expressed in the last words he uttered, addressed to his sorrowing wife: “God’s will, not ours, be done!”

Another chapter describes the efforts of surgical and medical science to save and prolong the life so dear to the nation.

With the closing of the last chapters of that fearful scene at Buffalo, the painless death and the national funeral services, the author takes up the boyhood life of William McKinley and follows it step by step, up, up and ever upward to the very summit of his greatness when he fell a martyr to liberty and lawful government.

His early Christian training by his noble mother—“Mother McKinley” 4as the whole nation learned to call her—who lived to see her boy in the White House, and all the events which went to shape his character are depicted with interest.

Next in order is his career as a soldier in the Civil War—in which the author gives every thrilling incident and exciting experience in which William McKinley figured during that great struggle. Later, it is told how in after years he did so much to reunite the sections of his country and wipe out all bitter memory of that war between brothers.

As a congressman, governor and President, nothing is omitted in this history that is a part of the life of this great American statesman. The history of his campaigns and administrations is given in full, together with his management of the Spanish war, the policy of expansion, the growth of national commerce and all the other great achievements and policies that were a part of his life work.

In other words, this volume is exactly what it purports to be, a COMPLETE life of William McKinley.

The beautiful illustrations in this volume have been made from actual photographs, and reproduced by the well-known half-tone process. There are hundreds of scenes of interest in the life, death and funeral of President McKinley. The pictures of the assassination, the death-bed scene and the places and people of the great tragedy are true to life in every particular and have an historic interest and value for every American citizen.

This volume is in every respect truly a memorial edition of the Complete Life of William McKinley, whose memory will ever remain in the minds of loyal Americans inseparably associated with his two fellow martyr-Presidents, Lincoln and Garfield, and the record of whose patriotic and noble life is contained herein.