Assassinated Presidents-Leaders taken out of leadership.

Throughout the entire United States history, there has been a total of 43 elected Presidents. However, within the 43, there has been a few that were assassinated and taken out of leadership before their time in the Presidential office was up.

One of these brave men was none other than one of the most famous Presidents in history, Mr. Abraham Lincoln. Another, James A. Garfield, was also dreadfully killed in the days of his time in office too. The third we will be discussing is that of the assassination of President William McKinley.

The comparisons between these men are astounding. First, the death that of Abraham Lincoln. One night, Lincoln and his wife,Mary, were off to one of their favorite spots in Washington, Ford's Theater. Lincoln and his first lady LOVED the theater more than any other hobby at the time. On April the 14th, of the year 1865, the gawky President and his plump wife headed off to the theater just as they had done many times before. The show-Our American Cousin. The killer to be- infamous actor John Wilkes Booth. The stage was set. The actors in costume. The President arrives fashionably late with Mary at his side. The day had proved to be one of the few good days in marriage for Mary and Abe. As the two arrived, they entered the box specifically set aside for the President and the play was on. Moments later, Booth entered the box (he was allowed to because being an actor of the day, was curious to meet the President). Without Lincoln's acknowledgement, Booth viciously took out a pistol and shot Lincoln in the head from behind him. Mary screamed. As John Wilkes Booth leaped off the box balcony, he landed onto the theater's stage and broke his leg. However, this didn't stop him from leaving the theater. He left, got on an escape horse waiting for him out back and was chased down until he eventually died. Lincoln lay extremely bloody in the Peterson House across the street, where the next morning, sadly, he passed away.

The next assassination was that of President James A. Garfield. Unlike Lincoln, Garfield had only 4 short months in office before his assassin took charge. Charles J. Guiteau was the dreaded attorney who brutally shot President Garfield for not being given a higher position career-wise that he so desperately wanted. Walking through a train station on his way to make a speech at his previous college, Garfield was suddenly shot by Guiteau twice, one bullet grazing his arm and the other lodged in his spine, near his lungs, causing there to be NO absolute way in which he could survive. Finally on July 2nd, 1881, President James A. Garfield died, all because he wouldn't give one man the position of being the U.S. counsel in Paris, France.

Lastly, we have the comparison of the assassination of William McKinley. Again, McKinley died from being horribly shot, just like the other two previously mentioned presidents. Mc Kinley and his lovely wife, Mrs. Ida McKinley, were at an Expo in Buffalo, New York, when a stander-by, Leon Frank Czolgosz held a pistol in hand. As the President approached the steps of the place he was about to give his speech, Czolgosz fired twice at the President without a doubt in his corrupted mind. Like Garfield before him, McKinley was grazed by the first bullet on the shoulder, and struck by the second through his colon, kidneys, and stomach, which later proved to be unswervingly fatal when reaching his back muscles. On September the 14th, in 1901....EIGHT days after the fact of being shot, McKinley died due to the gangrene surrounding his bullet wounds. 2:15 a.m. was the last anyone ever saw McKinley alive again. His last words spoken were, "It is God's way; His will be done, not ours." McKinley is forever remembered as being a true believer until the end of his time.

Sad as all of these assassinations may be, these brave Presidents will always be remembered as great men, no matter if the term of each of them as either short or long. Lincoln, Garfield, and finally McKinley, all proved to be American heroes 'til the very end.

Books:

Bergen, Lara; Stuck on the Presidents. Grosset & Dunlap; New York, 2001.

Encyclopaedia Britannica. Publications International, LTD.; Chicago, Illinois, 1992.