Ep. 12: Will and Ted’s Imperial Adventure Part I (William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt) US President William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, 1899 (1951). McKinley (1843-1901) became a lawyer and, in 1877, entered Congress as a Republican, becoming a leading tarriff expert. Elected President in 1896 and for a second term four years later, he was shot by an anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, on 6th September 1901 and died on 14th September. Roosevelt (1858-1919) was Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1898, resigning to fight in the Spanish-American War, his expoits in which gained him wide public popularity. He was Vice-President in McKinley's second term, succeeding him as President after the assassination. He was re-elected for a second term in 1904. A print from 100 Years in Pictures, A panorama of History in the Making, text by DC Somervell, Odhams press Limited, London, 1951. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images) Should republics build empires? William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and the path to the Spanish–American War.