President William McKinley Writes to His Out-of-Town Wife: "I Shall Miss You Greatly"

Background

William McKinley was America’s third president to be assassinated in less than forty years. Moreover, McKinley was unfortunate to be a leader during the golden age of international political assassinations, which saw six heads of state killed within a nine year time frame. The wave of anarchist violence that claimed McKinley’s life is a pointed contrast with the private letters of a man known for his tenderness and devotion to his wife. Ida, whom he always saw as the most beautiful woman on earth, was his world - and everything else, including being the President of the United States, was secondary. Her rare absences from his side filled him with apprehension. This letter is one such example.

On the morning of November 30th, 1900, Ida McKinley travelled from Washington, D.C. to New York for some Christmas shopping. McKinley received a telegram confirming her safe arrival in Manhattan in the afternoon, and now, sometime between an afternoon’s drive in his fine carriage with aide Henry C. Corbin, and dinner with Los Angeles newspaper magnate Harrison Gray Otis, McKinley writes to Ida about what he is doing, what he will do, and notes that her choice of dress for New Years Day is of “the greatest importance.”

Ida McKinley’s Christmas shopping and what she would wear on New Years Day was also of interest to a burgeoning print media. At the turn of the century, there were - counting dailies, weeklies, monthlies, and quarterlies - 20,000 different “newspapers,” and all of them, hungry for content. Suddenly, "First Ladies", and the wives of candidates, became newsworthy - and the beautiful, delicate, frequently ailing, and sometimes heavily sedated, Ida, had a national audience. This meant, of course, that her husband William’s compassion for her, and tenderness to her, became part of his appeal as a candidate.

McKinley’s tenderness to his wife was expressed in its ultimate form less than a year later. After being fatally shot, one of the first things he said to his private secretary was “My wife—be careful, Cortelyou, how you tell her—oh, be careful.” Thirty years of devotion to his wife came to an end in a moment that revealed that his first instinct was, and had always been, for Ida’s welfare.

Physical Description

Autograph Letter Signed, as President, 3 pages, octavo, Executive Mansion, Washington, November 30, 1900. To his wife "Mrs William McKinley". With Autograph Envelope, signed in the text and with McKinley's initials.