Unfortunate Presidential History in Philadelphia

My recent trip to Philadelphia brought a convergence of three presidents of the United States, all of whom had been assassinated. A week before the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy I took a stroll over to the plaza that bears his name adjacent to City Hall. I was a little disappointed in that I was expecting some sort of monument of memorial. But perhaps my disappointment was because it was so close to the anniversary.

McKinley outside City Hall in Philadelphia

That same weekend I read in The Guardian that the Harrisburg Patriot-News had retracted its editorial criticizing the Gettysburg Address as “silly remarks” that would “be no more repeated or thought of.” The retraction came days before the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s delivery of the address on 19 November.

Finally, on the same day as the Guardian article, I happened to be walking on the opposite side of City Hall from JFK Plaza and noticed a statue of William McKinley.  McKinley, the twenty-fifth president, was assassinated in September 1901. Although not widely remembered today, his death was a shock to the country and there were memorials erected around the country, and especially in McKinley’s home state of Ohio. The statue that is next to City Hall in Philadelphia reads: “Soldier, Statesman, Martyr.”