It was midnight when Secretary Long of the Navy arrived. He found his beloved chief alive, but unconscious, and Dr. Mann told him, as he stood in the hallway, “The President is pulseless and dying, but he may live an hour.”
At half an hour past midnight Coroner Wilson arrived at the Milburn house, and an unfounded announcement of McKinley’s death was quickly telegraphed to all parts of the country. He left as soon as he found that the order summoning him was a mistake.
But the President, now finally unconscious, and breathing but faintly, struggled on. Midnight, 1 and 2 o’clock, found him wavering on the verge, and the men of science could but stand and marvel at the wondrous but hopeless fight which he had maintained so long. Intervals of apparent consciousness came upon him. Sometimes he opened his fading eyes and gazed calmly around.
At 2 o’clock the dim, gray light began to fall across his shrunken face, and then—death won!
He had been unconscious, the doctors said, for nearly six hours. During all this time he had been gradually sinking. For the last half hour he had been in such condition that it was difficult to tell when he breathed.
With him at the time of his death was Dr. Rixey, alone of all the physicians, and by the side of the bed were grouped Senator Hanna and members of the President’s family.
He died unattended by a minister of the gospel, but his last words were an humble submission to the will of God, in whom he believed. He was reconciled to the cruel fate to which an assassin’s bullet had condemned him, and faced death in the same spirit of calmness and poise which has marked his long and honorable career.
His last conscious words, reduced to writing by Dr. Mann, who stood at his bedside when they were uttered, were as follows:
“Good-by, all; good-by. It is God’s way. His will be done, not ours.”
His relatives and the members of his official family were at the Milburn house, except Secretary Wilson, who did not avail himself of the opportunity and some of his personal and political friends took leave of him. This painful ceremony was simple. His friends came to the door of the sick room, took a longing glance at him and turned tearfully away.
He was practically unconscious during this time, but the powerful heart stimulants, including oxygen, were employed to restore him to consciousness for his final parting with his wife. He asked for her and she sat at his side and held his hand. He consoled her and bade her good-by.