Returning to the table. Norton smith, and karl anthony. Tonight, we will start our program with some film. This is the first time that a president and first lady have ever been captured on film in the United States. This rare footage is of president mckinley and mrs. Mckinley arriving on stage at the pan American Exposition in buffalo new york on september 5th, 1901. The data significant because the very next day, the president would be killed by an assassins bullet. Lets look at the footage. What was it about this exhibition that attracted the president want to go in the first place . It was the worlds fair that cannot have been better time. It was a celebration and some waves of americas new place in the world. And the mckinley presidency was surprising in many ways. Mckinley had been identified throughout his political career through protectionism. He would be the president who took the country on to the world stage next to hawaii in 1898. Fought the spanish american war. From a republic to an empire. At the end of his life, in the last speech that he gave at that fare in effect, recanted his earlier protectionist outlook. He talked in ways that years later, we can all appreciate about america to the world. They were looking at our facebook and twitter postings. Everyone is asking about what is known of ida mckinley. Her ill health. What did the country think of the first lady and know about her at that point as opposed to what we know about her today . It is an interesting dichotomy because this is the pattern of her life. She has been grossly miscast by history as this victorian invalid on the couch. That was not the truth. There were times when she was that way, and she had three chronic illnesses. One was seizure disorder. Known as epilepsy, otherwise. She had some kind of a neurological damage along her left leg, which often led to a mobility or periods of it. She also had a weekend compromised immune system. She was susceptible to infections. They took a tour across the country, six months before he was shot. When they got to california, she almost died and San Francisco and the presidency was at the cabinet with the secretaries and everybody. The way they used to travel they set up the western white house. The whole nation, the whole world was focused on. They had this thought of her knee invalid, then six months later, she was walking unassisted. As we said, the very next day, september six 1901, an assassin struck and killed president mckinley. Who was he . What were his motives . If you can spell it, you will do a whole lot better than i could. He was a drifter. He was an anarchist in his politics. He believed with many people at the turn of the century that the existing systems of the government, particularly monarchs in europe, existed to the detriment of the common man. Again some and a artists were against all organized governments. They were certainly against the system that was taught by the powerful mckinley had power and he had planned on killing the president. I think it was earlier in the year. Mckinley had been murdered. They later said that leon would stay up at night reading the news about the death of the king. He made plans to kill the president and ironically the secret service protection. There was one guard at the white house. He retired early that night. I have to say, we asked this with the last assassination, i mean this is the third president to be assassinated. Which is what we finally got serious about protecting president s. The secret service of at that time was busy working on counter fitters. But the president s secretary slash chief of staff, wanted very much to cancel the reception at the fair. He worried about such a threat. Ironically, he got in and managed to wrap the gun around a bandage so it would go unnoticed. Leon czolgosz shot the president twice. About a week later, he took a turn for the worst, and in a very real, odd way, that is the last time the American People focused on William Mckinley rather than his successor, Theodore Roosevelt. Here is an illustration of ida mckinley at the president s death. She was not at his side when the assassination took place. How did it all play out . At this point, and we will later on get to the story of her epilepsy and cesar disorder. Finally, among the string of doctors she had, she had one who really committed to helping her, at least and trying to control the seizures. Part of that required a very strict regiment of food, diet, but also rest at regular points. She had been with him at the opening day there. Then they went to niagara falls. But then, the doctor said, it is time for your rest. Both the president and mrs. Mckinley had bought off on that. She was taking her schedule her scheduled rest. She suspected something had happened when the hour started going by and he did not come back. She was very calm, actually, when she was told. Not only calm, but really rose to the occasion. In fact, almost like and some extraordinary way, there is a story of her during this period of convalescence when there was hope that he would recover. She went out and walked along the sidewalk on her own and talks to the reporters. This defies the perception of her. We have some video that we will show of mckinleys funeral. What was it like in the country at that time . The country was convulsed. Youve got the fact is if you talk to the man on the street and september of 1901, he would have told you mckinley was certainly the greatest president since lincoln. There were people, in fact, we compared him to lincoln. He was not simply admire. This was the man who had brought us out of the greatest depression to that date in American History. Then projected american power, economic and military on to the world stage. He is a very large presence, for someone to have be come almost forgotten. So when he died, much as was the case with hearting. I would argue more deservedly, there was enormous grief in the country. One reason why people they didnt vote for him is what it is because what people saw the tenderness and devotion to his wife. Going back in time and learning more about ida saxton and her life with William Mckinley. We will go back to her early days in her hometown of ohio, taking you to the Saxton Mckinley house, which is what its called today. Where ida grew up. This is our first video you will see tonight. We are in the former for your of this accident mckinley house. It is significant in the life of ida saxton mick henley because this is the house in which he was born. She grew up in this house along with her sister and brother and parents and grandmother. This is the house that she lived and right up to the time that she met and married future president William Mckinley. This is the family parlor where the family would have spent evenings reading and conversing with each other. This is not a place where they would entertain. We have on the wall here, one of the earliest known photographs of item acutely and the center. Along with her sister mary, also known as the little one, and her brother george. On the wall above the mantle, we have a portrait of idas father, james saxton. Over on this wall, we have a photograph of idas beloved mother, kate saxton. This room was actually replicated from a photograph that we received from the descendant. It is one of the few interior photographs that we have of the house. We are in the formal parlor of the house. In this room, we have examples of ideas love for music. We have ideas piano sitting over here. During the white house years idas music was part of idas formal education. When ida and her sister went on a torn 1869, one of the items she brought home was this wonderful music box. She bought this music box in geneva switzerland. There are letters that she wrote home to her parents throughout the trip. Talking about looking for music boxes and she sees music boxes in different places, but she does not care for the quality. She says, i think i will wait until i go to geneva, switzerland. I will buy a music box there. This is the box she bought for her mother. We are going into the storage to see some of her letters. Letters that we have our written to her parents from her and her sister mary. They went to europe to see all of the countries that they could. The letters we have detail a lot of the things that they saw. Countries that they went to. This one is from edinburgh from scotland. She said people ought to travel to see how much there is to learn and read. How much i will enjoy reading anything burns has written. And the scenes of so many of the things he has written. She really made the most of her trip. She was intensely studying the Different Countries and seeing the things that you should see on this grand tour which took six months. We have a few other things that represent her life as a young girl. This is the item she would have carried in her hands to go to and from church. This is before she met and married mckinley. She was a sunday school teacher. These are some of the hymns that she would have some at church. Another piece that we have representing her early life is one of my favorites. This is the actual wedding license that William Mckinley junior signed. He dropped the junior after his father died. This would have been what they filed before they got married in january of 1871. At the time, it was not necessary for the woman to sign it. William mckinley signed it. Ida did not. Carl anthony, she was born in 1847 to, obviously well off parents. Whats important to know about her earliest years . Her parents were not only well off, but they were what you would almost call radically progressive. Particularly on the issues of abolition. They were rapidly against slavery slavery. On equal education as well for women. Idas mother was extremely well educated. Ida mckinley is the most fully educated of all the first ladies up to that time. Her father also was friends with a fellow abolitionist. Her grandfather was friends with horse greenly. Really involved ohio was very much the california of the day. Sort of in the earlier part of the 19th century, represented almost the far west. That is where you really find this movement for equal education for women. Ive us father idas father helps to bring this womans famed abolitionist whose name i cannot remember right now, but ida then follows her when her teacher goes to teach at the academy during the civil war. Then she goes on to study and cleveland. Then she goes to steady at brooke hall seminary and pennsylvania. What you see here is a worldly educated young woman with an interest and finance and capability for mathematics. Also great physical activity. She was an unusually physically fit young woman. She hikes upwards of ten miles a day on that trip to europe. Two significant factors on a trip to europe. One, she sees for the first time, poor and working class women working in belgium on lace. She finds out how very little they make and have to live on. She is sort of devastated by this. Its reflected in her letters. She starts to buy a lot of lace as a way to try and do her part to help them. Technically, she sees an artist who is born with no hands. He is painting, and at first she is put off by this. But she starts to open up and reflects a real sense of empathy for People Living with disabilities. She was so good at numbers, her father gave her a job first as a teller. She worked her way up to manager of the bank. Was it normal for a woman during that time to work or was it okay because it was from her father. . The answer is certainly not. Not in a managerial capacity. Secondly, it tells you a lot about the relationship with her father. We want to invite you to join. We are already using your tweet and Facebook Comments here on air. Twitter, use the hashtag first ladies. Go to cspans facebook page. There is already a conversation about ida mckinley. Add your comments to it. We have the google Fashion Television phone call. You can call us we have the phone number on the screen. Divided by region of the country. She met at the bank, major William Mckinley. Who was . He it must be said that mckinley merit up. There is no doubt, from what carl said. This is a young woman with a pretty cosmopolitan, sophisticated background. He was born in ohio. From a family that had been in the iron making business. People think thats where the seeds of his interest and protectionism were planted. He went to a place came back home sick. Then of course, has real classroom was the war. He entered as a private. He ended the war as a major. Along the way, critically, found the patronage of his fellow iowan hayes took a liking to this young man. He became a protege of sorts. Years later, ida with spent a good deal of time in the hays white house. She actually baby sat for the haze children for a couple of weeks. That relationship became a very significant one. She was 23, he was 27. What were there early years like . It was the frankly a little bit conventional. She stopped working. He was interested in politics. There is no question in writing this new biography of her, that you see the very first legal cases. The business he was handling was all through the saxton family. That family really helped build the city of canton. Canton went on to become a major and important Industrial Center in ohio at that time. Certainly, idas father and grandfather helped build it. Mckinley helped sustain it and making it famous. He rose and prominence largely because of her. Just a few years after they got married in 1873, and on set of problems came for him. What were they . They were living in a house that had been mistakenly described as their house. It was a house that her father had bought and least to them. She gave birth on christmas day, 1873, to their first daughter, katie, who is very healthy. She was the central focus of their lives. Idas mother became very ill. It turns out she had cancer. I should say that that house. This accident mckinley house was owned by idas maternal grandmother. It may have been the only house that had passed four generations of all women. I was very close to her mother and grandmother. She was pregnant at the second time when her mother had cancer. Two weeks before she gave birth, her mother died. There was a fall out of the carriage, either stepping into the carriage or out of it. Her mothers burial service. Ida, from what we can tell, people later on in life recalled it, that she had struck her head and may have had some kind of bad injury to her spine. She gives birth two weeks later to a child who only lives for months, and at this time, at this age starts to develop a seizure disorder. Jennifer on facebook says, ive heard she suffered from depression after her second daughter passed away. It got worse after the other daughter passed away. My question is, whether more depression episodes happened throughout her time as first lady. It comes and goes. One of the great discoveries, i think, that this new brag roughly will point out is that for almost the entire first half of mckinleys years in the white house, ida mckinley was fine. She was traveling on her own to new york, baltimore. She was really relatively active. She was still disabled in a sense that she had the most ability problem, but she adapted the role of first lady and she did not hide the fact that she had this occasional walking problem. The depression you know, ida mckinleys physical problems and the resulting frustrations and emotional problems, sometimes frustrations with her husband, because even though it was an extremely loving and devoted relationship, there were, like any marriage, there were times of strain. It is all well and good about being optimistic and not giving into depression when you are the one who can get up and walk away. But there were times when this young woman had been so active suddenly found herself confined. I want to ask a quick question. Ive read and you would know more about it certainly. Halfway through that first term, there was this amazing scandal that entailed the murder of the first ladys brother. Supposedly by a discarded mistrust. Then a trial, which must have been very sensational, in which the mistress was acquitted. Supposedly, there was a cause and effect following that, she went into a severe depression. That was a story that was largely put out by a book called, the days of mckinley by margaret leach. Aida was treated more as a character that happened in october of 1998. It is not until june of 1899, a good amount of time after the trial is over, that other factors, his Reelection Campaign and his not telling her that he will run for reelection, begin to cause this depression that your viewers asked about. We will take a few phone calls. Glenn from new jersey. Thank you for having me on this wonderful program. My question is relates specifically to the whole bars and the mckinleys. More specifically, the world that jenny barred played as sort of an acting first lady during the years that they were in the white house when they were with the mckinley. Can you speak of that issue . Yes. Ill summarize it by saying its actually false. She was there more as a friend and a support. Ida mckinley never was absent from any of the official duties of first lady and had someone substitute for her. She had her young nieces, particularly one, mary barbara, with whom she was very close. Sometimes she was frustrated because they did not want to come and undertake this kind of social obligation. She was very close to her. She advised the president you are president. If you want to change the seating arrangements ida really considered her a very genuine friend. But she never substituted for mrs. Mckinley. Maria is watching us from rhode island. Hi. Thank you so much for having me on. My question is how did make item it can lead deal with the death of her children in comparison to other first ladies, such as mary lincoln . She was not up in the attic writing letters to them, but it clearly was a trauma to her. It is the worst thing that a parent can go through. That is universal. The second child katie, who lived i should and picking up the threat of what we are talking about. She then moved out of the house. That house later on was on postcards. It became famous. The mckinley home, the honeymoon all these sorts of euphemisms that were used. They only lived there for two and a half years. They moved into the saxton midkeenly house. Actually, mckinley lived longer in the Saxton Mckinley house than any other place at all that he had ever considered his official residence. Katie came with them. She died of scarlet fever. This is after ida has already been through the trauma and is going through dealing with this very bewildering new factor in her life.