Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-06
PROTECT PRESIDENT
Effort to Be Made to Pass
Bill.
NECESSITY OF ACTION
THREATS MADE IN CLEvELANDS
ADMINISTRATION.
History Of the Legislation During the
Fifty-Seventh Congress-The Presi-
Dental Succession.

The President, for personal reasons, may
not see fit to impress upon Congress at its
coming session the necessity for proper
legislation affecting attempts upon the life
of tine President. but his cabinet officers
feel that Congress will be negligent of it's
| duties If it does not at the coming session
put uCon the books some law that will
| make more severe the punishment of those
who seek the life of the President
Mr.. Roosevelt in his first message made
this his leading recommendation to Con-
gress. He called attention to the fact that
three of the last seven elected Presidents
had been murdered He made three
specific recommendations. He recon-
mended the suppression of anarchists and
anarchistic literature; also that the fed
eral courts should be given jurisdiction over
any man who kills or attempts to kill the
President, or any person who by the Con-
stitution or by law is in the line of sue
cesSion for the Presidency, while the pun
ishment for an unsuccessful attempt should
be propOrtioned to the enormity of the Of
fense against our institutions Mr.
Roosevelts third proposal related to the
adoption of treaties by the civilized powers
for the suppression of anarchy, just they
now combine against piracy and the slave
trade. Such treaties would give the federal
government some power of dealing with
the crime.
Threats for Mr.. Cleveland.
During the second Cleveland administra-
ton. when hard times pervaded the land.
and the rabid silverites Of the west regard
ed themselves as tricked and defrauded, the
White House mail was loaded with threats
of presidential assassination. 1t was not
unusual for cranks about the city to speak
in nose inhammatory language. Coxey's
a .had n a G a
ton to lawlessness in the vanity and desire
for notoriety of it's leaders. In these cir
cumstances the White House guard was
strengthened. two secret service men in a
buggy followed President Cleveland's car
riage on most of his drives. But these
things were so persistently emphasized in
newspapers and rfdiculed by partisan oppo-
nentS that they were gradually withdra wn.
Even the little watch house which was
| erected in an incenspicuous place on the
| White House grounds for the comfort of
| the guards cold winter nights, was de-
| risively labeled Fort Thurber."
President Roosevelt has been better pro-
| tected than any Of his predecessors, and no
secret is any longer made of the presence
| of Chief John Wilkes men, But this is
already beginning to provoke remark in
| Tammany Hall circles and elsewhere. Gov.
| McMillin of Tennessee has virtually charged
| the President with coWardce in a recent
| interview for adopting these precautions.
| The section of the bill which Congress con-
sfdered. but allowed to fail of passage, pro-
viding for the detail of a guard of enlisted
men from the War Department, was ridi-
culcd in Congress and out.
Everybody realizes that this is an exceed
| inGly difficult question to- deal with. I'm
| less the President has an escort sufficiently
| formidable to keep designing persons at a
distance physically, there is little more
| that can be done than now, where private
secretaries ascertain the business of all
Intending callers. and secret service men
and police officers are constantly around to
nIylt nrf ,,friT, oh,
service man stood near President McKin-
ley at Buffalo. He was not SO prominent
however. as such representatives are now
allowed to be. In those days efforts were
made to keep the presence of such officials
more or less of secret. The secret service
bureau of the treasury never makes pub
lie the extent of its work, or the number of
men whom it maintains in the White House
corps The point is always raised that to
advertise precautions of this kind is to add
fuel to the flames In the same spirit the
presence of the guard has been opposed on
the ground that 1T would be saying to the
anarchists: Now you cannot get at him. -
and so stimulate their bravado.
Jurisdiction of Federal Courts.
The proposal to give the federal courts
jurisdiction over any man making an at
tack upon the life of the President pro-
voked bitter dispute between the leaders
of the judiciary committees of the two
Congress, was a great stickler for dis
unction between the President as an indi-
vidual and as an official. Mr.. Ray was
willing to give federal courts jurisdiction
when tthe attack was made upon the Pres
ident. because he was the occupant of that
office. The Senate thought this distinction
might operate to defeat the ends of justice
instead of advancing them, and refused
to go into 1T. The House made equally
short work of the Senate's provision for a
guard of enlisted men, and between the
two bodies all legislation failed in the Win
ter following President Mckinley's assas-
sinai ton
In the Closing Hours.
In the closing hours of the Fifty-seventh
Congress Senator Hoar chairman of the
judiciary committee. gave notice that, al
| though the pending legislation might not be
consummated. the bill ultimately would
pass. 1t is thought that renewed impetus
will be given the efforts by the recent visits
of cranks to the White House.
When the Fifty-seventh Congress con-
vened, few months after the tragedy at
Buffalo, one of the first measures intro
dueed was a bill to protect the President
Each House had bill before it, the terms
of the proposed law differing in each case.
The Senate passed it's bill first, and for
which the House proposed a substitute.
The legislation went into conference at the
close of the first session and action was de-
ferred until the second session
The confereeS were Senators Hoar and
Fairbanks and Representatives Jenkins,
Overstreet and De Almond. They had
come to a complete agreement upon the
substitute, involving features of the bill
preferred by each house.
Provisions Of the Bill
The bill prescribed the death penalty for
the killing of the President or Vice Presi-
dent Of the United States, or any officer
upon whom the duties of President de-
volved by the Constitution and the law
The penalty also extended to any ambassa-
dor or minister of foreign state or coun-
try while duty. Attempt to cause the
death of any of these persons was made
punishable by death or at the discretion of
the court Imprisonment for no less than ten
years.
The bill provided that any one within the
Jurisdiction of the United States who should
aid, abet, advise or counsel the killing OF
the President Vice President, or other
officer upon whom the powers of the Presi-
dent would devolve. or who should counsel
the killing of the sovereign chief mag
istrate OF any foreign country, or who