The Birth of the Modern Presidency 

The Inauguration

On Thursday evening, September 12, Roosevelt and a group of family and friends hiked up Mt. Marcy and spent the night there. Back in Buffalo, McKinley's condition had taken a turn for the worse and he was rapidly deteriorating. During his return from the hike on Friday afternoon, Roosevelt was met by a messenger, who carried the news that McKinley was dying and the Vice President should return to Buffalo as soon as possible.

TR WalkingTR left his cabin in the late evening of Friday, September 13 for the thirty-five mile carriage ride to the nearest train station at North Creek. He arrived there just before dawn and was told of the President's death. He took a train to Albany and another one to Buffalo, arriving there at about 1:30 p.m. McKinley had died at 2:15 that morning, September 14, 1901. His death was attributed to gangrene of both walls of the stomach and pancreas.

A New President is Sworn In

Theodore Roosevelt arrived in Buffalo at 1:30 pm. He was met at the train station by Ansley Wilcox. After a visit to the Milburn home to pay his respects to President McKinley's grieving widow, Roosevelt returned to the Wilcox home to be inaugurated. This site was chosen by Roosevelt as the most appropriate place for the ceremony. It took place in the Wilcox library at approximately 3:30 p.m.

A small crowd was assembled, including a number of newspaper reporters, who were allowed to take notes. Photographers were barred from the room until after the ceremony. Because he had been called to Buffalo from an Adirondack vacation, Roosevelt had to borrow formal clothing suitable for the occasion. Federal District Judge John R. Hazel administered the oath. Immediately following the swearing-in, Roosevelt held a brief Cabinet meeting in the library and then proceeded to the morning room to draft his first presidential proclamation.

A Reenactment of the Historic Inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt

The First Proclamation of President Roosevelt

"By the President of the United States of America. A proclamation:

A terrible bereavement has befallen our people. The president of the United States has been struck down; a crime committed not only against the Chief Magistrate, but against every law-abiding and liberty-loving citizen.

President McKinley crowned a life of largest love for his fellow-men, of most earnest endeavor for their welfare, by a death of Christian fortitude; and both the way in which he lived his life and the way in which, in the supreme hour of trial, he met his death, will remain forever a precious heritage of our people.

It is meet that we as a nation express our abiding love and reverence for his life, our deep sorrow for his untimely death.

Now, therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do appoint Thursday next, September nineteenth, the day in which the body of the dead President will be laid in its last earthly resting-place, a day of mourning and prayer throughout the United States.

I earnestly recommend all the people to assemble on that day in their respective places of divine worship, there to bow down in submission to the will of Almighty God and to pay out of full hearts their homage of love and reverence to the great and good President whose death has smitten the nation with bitter grief."

 

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