Making History Come Alive Newsletter offers new article, Near Brushes With Disaster by Michael Thomas Leibrandt
Butler, PA — Unfortunately, America’s past involving violence against the executive branch runs deep. Too deep. On Saturday at a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — former President Donald Trump was struck when a bullet pierced his ear-lobe. Before the gunman was neutralized by law enforcement snipers, one attendee was killed and two remain in a hospital.
As historians, we’ve all known the tragedies of John F. Kennedy’s death in Dallas in November of 1963 at the hands of Lee Harvey Oswald, Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theater in 1865, and of course President’s Garfield and McKinley who passed away from injuries suffered by their assailants.
Even more unfortunate is the number of attempts made on US Presidents like the one on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.
It was a cold January day in 1835 when President Andrew Jackson got out of a carriage and proceeded to enter the Capitol. He barely noticed the man concealed behind a pillar. As Jackson approached, Richard Lawrence pointed a derringer at him and the gun misfired. Lawrence drew a second weapon — which also misfired and then faced the wrath of Jackson who started swinging his cane. Lawrence was tackled to the ground.
On October 14, 1912 — President Theodore Roosevelt walked onto the back of a train car in Milwaukee. Thirty-six year old James Schrank walked up with a .38 caliber revolver and shot Roosevelt in the chest. The bullet was slowed by a 50-page speech and steel glasses case in his pocket. After a brief pause, Roosevelt not only finished the speech but also stopped the crowd from pummeling Schrank. Former football player Elbert E. Martin was first to reach the would-be-assassin and tackled him to the ground. Roosevelt even came face to face with Schrank in an attempt to recognize him before turning him over to the authorities.
Theodore Roosevelt would finish the speech.
One day, President Abraham Lincoln was out for a ride when he came upon an old woman pointing a shotgun right at him. “If I ever met a man uglier than myself, I would shoot him on the spot,” she said. Lincoln replied,
“Ma’am, if I’m uglier than you, fire away.”
Michael Thomas Leibrandt lives and works in Abington Township, PA.