Free Republic

McKinley’s thumb stolen – mayor offers reward, starts repair fund If the bronze likeness of President William McKinley on the Plaza seems a bit diminished in stature these days, it is. His right thumb has been broken off and stolen. The statue’s outstretched right hand now bears a jagged stump where the thumb once obtruded. The disappeared digit was first noticed the morning of Wednesday, May 21. Police have no suspects, and the thumb has not been located. Created by sculptor Haig Patigian and donated to the City in 1906, McKinley’s stolid figure has, through the decades, been garbed...

To be cutting edge in this presidential election, you have to learn the lessons of the '96 campaign. 1896, that is. ...At the headquarters of Texas Gov. George W. Bush, over cocktails with former GOP party chairman Haley Barbour, in the corridors of rightward think tanks, the party of Lincoln and Reagan has gone dizzy over William McKinley. ... The swami of McKinley Mania is Bush strategist Karl Rove, who got hooked two years ago during a class at the University of Texas. A tenacious student of political history, Rove dug deeply into the story of a canny, soothing heartland...

KARL ROVE, President Bush's resident political genius, has long had a fascination with another Republican president, William McKinley. In his first election in 1896, McKinley defeated the legendary populist Democrat William Jennings Bryan and created a new Republican majority built on the rising industrial elite. Republicans won six of the next eight presidential elections. Rove likes the implications for Bush. That was all very interesting before Sept. 11. But Rove's McKinley metaphor has only become more relevant since. It can help us understand how new foreign policy challenges necessarily alter domestic politics. To go back to McKinley: Between his election...

When Leon Czolgosz was removed from the Temple of Music and taken to Buffalo Police Headquarters, he was in near death condition. Having suffered a terrible beating at the hands of President McKinley's military escort and the secret service, it was questioned as to whether or not he would survive to go to trial. The police had a terrible time trying to keep the angry mobs of Buffalo away from Czolgosz. If given the chance the mobs would tear him apart, so security and protection for the assassin was a constant problem. On September 27, 1901, Czolgosz was moved...