In 1899, the three most powerful men in the US decided that current US president William McKinley would better suit their enormous appetite for wealth and power than his opponent, William Jennings Bryan. Bryan, a socialist, ran a campaign which was strictly in opposition to the status quo. He was for the worker and the farmer.
The triad of titans were reasonably terrified. So, they backed McKinley in a way that has since been made illegal — they bought the president with their preposterous pockets and platforms. But, JP Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and John Rockefeller weren’t only concerned about the White House, they were also concerned about the state house.
In the same year, 1899, the current Governor of New York had, at the time, emerged as a significant threat to the three titans of industry and all those that would follow their rise to power.
The governor held twice-daily press conferences to stay in touch with the average citizen to create a movement and he immediately began going after massive corporations with legislation and public sentiment. He was a young, smart, popular, rising star. Although William Jennings Bryan was the immediate threat, the NY governor would be next.
So, they opted to deal with them both at the same time — they wanted the governor to be the Vice President under McKinley, where he’d have no real power and where his political aspirations would likely die out.
Their plan worked perfectly. McKinley was indeed elected and the governor was safely away doing a whole lotta nothing in Washington DC.
Then, as conditions for the American worker got worse and worse, a former factory worker turned anarchist had had enough. On September 6th, 1901 Leon Czolgosz shook the president’s hand with his right hand, and shot him in the chest with his left.
The president underwent an operation and, after making strides, died from his injuries 8 days later. For Morgan, Carnegie, and Rockefeller, their plan backfired. Now, the most dangerous threat to their power was in the White House with nothing standing between them.
On September 14th 1901, Teddy “Big Stick” Roosevelt was sworn in as the 26th president of the United States and the Jig, so they say, was up.
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