William McKinley

This article is about the 25th President of the United States. For other people with the same name, see William McKinley (disambiguation).

William McKinley
25th President of the United States
In office March 4, 1897 – September 14, 1901
Vice President	Garret Hobart Theodore Roosevelt
Preceded by	Grover Cleveland
Succeeded by	Theodore Roosevelt
39th Governor of Ohio
In office January 11, 1892 – January 13, 1896
Lieutenant	Andrew Harris
Preceded by	James Campbell
Succeeded by	Asa Bushnell
Personal details
Born	January 29, 1843(1843-01-29) Niles, Ohio, U.S.
Died	September 14, 1901(1901-09-14) (aged 58) Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Ida Saxton
Children	Katherine, Ida
Alma mater	Allegheny College, Albany Law School
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Methodism
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States Union
Service/branch	United States Army Union Army
Years of service	1861–1865
Rank	Captain Brevet major
Unit	23rd Ohio Infantry
Battles/wars	American Civil War

William McKinley (born William McKinley, Jr.; January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the 25th President of the United States (1897–1901). As the Republican Party spokesman for high tariffs to promote industrialization and high wages, as well as the gold standard he won one of the most hotly contested elections in history in 1896. His victory solidified the realignment marking the turnover from the Civil War-related issues of the Third Party System to the new issues of the Progressive Era. He was easily reelected in 1900 after the nation returned to prosperity, adopted the gold standard, raised the tariff, went to war with Spain over Cuba, and took control of Hawaii and the Philippines.

McKinley was born in northeastern Ohio in 1843 of Scots-Irish and English descent. After service in the Civil War as major he moved to Canton, Ohio, where he practiced law. In 1876, he was elected to Congress, where he became the party's leading expert on the protective tariff, which he promised would bring prosperity and high paying jobs, as well as a rich domestic market for farmers. He designed the 1890 McKinley Tariff, which provided a target for Democratic party, which won sweeping national victories in 1890 and 1892 on the tariff issue. He was defeated in 1890, but was elected governor in 1891 and 1893.

As the Republican candidate in the 1896 presidential election, opposing Democrat William Jennings Bryan, he promoted pluralism among ethnic groups. His campaign, designed by Mark Hanna, introduced revolutionary advertising techniques, and defeated the crusade of archrival Bryan.

McKinley presided over a return to prosperity after the Panic of 1893, with the gold standard as a keystone. He demanded that Spain end its atrocities in Cuba, which were angering Americans; Spain resisted the interference and the Spanish-American War began in 1898. The U.S. victory was quick and decisive, as the weak Spanish fleets were sunk and both Cuba and the Philippines were captured within a few months. As a result of the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the former Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were annexed by the United States as unincorporated territories, and U.S occupation of Cuba began; this occurred in the face of opposition from Democrats and anti-imperialists who feared a loss of republican values. McKinley also annexed the independent Republic of Hawaii in 1898, with all its inhabitants becoming American citizens.

McKinley was reelected in the 1900 presidential election following another intense campaign against Bryan, which focused on foreign policy and the return of prosperity. President McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist in September 1901 in Buffalo, and was succeeded by his Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt. Scholars often see McKinley as having been an average president, but also one who invented the modern White House.

Early life and family

William McKinley, Jr., was born in 1843 in Niles, Ohio, the seventh child of William, and Nancy (Allison) McKinley. The McKinleys were of English and Scotch-Irish descent and had settled in western Pennsylvania in the 18th century. There, the elder McKinley was born in Pine Township. The family moved to Ohio when the senior McKinley was a boy, settling in New Lisbon (now Lisbon). There he met and married McKinley's mother, Nancy Allison, in 1829. Nancy Allison's ancestors were mostly English and were among Pennsylvania's earliest settlers. The family trade on both sides was iron-making, and McKinley senior operated foundries in New Lisbon, Niles, Poland, and finally Canton, Ohio.

The McKinley household was, like many from Ohio's Western Reserve, steeped in Whiggish and abolitionist sentiment. Religiously, the family was staunchly Methodist and young William followed in that tradition, becoming a member of the local Methodist church at the age of sixteen. He would remain a pious Methodist for his entire life. In 1852, the family moved from Niles to Poland so that their children could attend the school there, which they judged better than the schools near Niles. McKinley was a diligent student and participated in debating societies. Graduating in 1859, he enrolled the following year at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. He remained at Allegheny for only one year, returning home in 1860 after becoming ill and depressed. Although his health recovered, family finances declined and McKinley was unable to return to Allegheny, first working as a postal clerk and later taking a job teaching at a school near Poland.

Civil War

McKinley at 19 years old in 1862

Western Virginia and Antietam

When the southern states seceded from the Union and the American Civil War began, thousands of men in Ohio volunteered for service. Among them were McKinley and his cousin, William McKinley Osbourne, who enlisted as privates in the newly formed Poland Guards in June 1861. The men soon left for Columbus where they were consolidated with other small units to form the 23rd Ohio Infantry. The 23rd Ohio contained an unusual number of men who would rise to post-war prominence, including two presidents (McKinley and Rutherford B. Hayes), a Supreme Court justice (Stanley Matthews), and two lieutenant-governors of Ohio (Robert P. Kennedy and William C. Lyon). The men were unhappy to learn that, unlike Ohio's earlier volunteer regiments, they would not be permitted to elect their officers; they would be designated by Ohio's governor, William Dennison. Dennison appointed Colonel William Rosecrans as the commander of the regiment, and the men soon began training at Camp Chase on the outskirts of Columbus. McKinley quickly took to the solider's life and wrote a series of letters to his hometown newspaper extolling the army and the Union cause. Delays in issuance of uniforms and weapons soon brought the men again into conflict with their officers, but Major Hayes convinced them to accept what the government has issued them; his style in dealing with the men impressed McKinley, beginning an association and friendship that would last until Hayes' death in 1893.

After a month of training, McKinley and the 23rd Ohio set out for western Virginia (today part of West Virginia) in July 1861 as a part of the Kanawha Division. Rosecrans had been promoted, so the 23rd Ohio was now led by Colonel Eliakim P. Scammon. McKinley initially thought Scammon was a martinet, but when the regiment finally saw battle, he came to appreciate the value of their relentless drilling. Except for encounters with bushwhackers, they passed the next few months out of contact with the enemy until September, when the regiment encountered Confederates at Carnifex Ferry in present-day West Virginia and drove them back. Three days after the battle, McKinley was assigned to duty in the brigade quartermaster office, where he carried out clerical duties as well as working to supply the regiment. In November, the regiment moved deeper into western Virginia, where they entered winter quarters near Fayetteville. McKinley spent the winter filling the duties of a commissary sergeant who was ill, and in April 1862 he was promoted to that rank. The regiment resumed its advance that spring with Hayes in command (Scammon now led the brigade) and fought several minor engagements against the rebel forces.

That September, McKinley's regiment was called east to reinforce General John Pope's Army of Virginia at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Delayed in passing through Washington, D.C., the 23rd Ohio did not arrive in time for the battle, but joined the Army of the Potomac as it hurried north to cut off Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, which was advancing into Maryland. Marching north, the 23rd was the lead regiment to encounter the Confederates at the Battle of South Mountain on September 14. After severe losses, they drove back the Confederates and continued to Sharpsburg, Maryland, where they engaged Lee's army at the Battle of Antietam. The 23rd was also in the thick of the fighting at Antietam, and McKinley himself came under heavy fire when bringing rations to the men on the line. McKinley's regiment again suffered many casualties, but the Army of the Potomac was victorious and the Confederates retreated into Virginia. After a brief pursuit of some rebel cavalry, the regiment was detached from the Army of the Potomac and returned by train to western Virginia.

Shenandoah Valley and promotion

Rutherford B. Hayes was McKinley's mentor during the Civil War and afterward.

While the regiment went into winter quarters near Charleston, Virginia (present-day West Virginia), McKinley was ordered back to Ohio with some other sergeants to recruit fresh troops. When they arrived in Columbus, Governor David Tod surprised McKinley with a promotion to second lieutenant in recognition of his service at Antietam. After a brief visit home, McKinley finished his recruiting and returned to the regiment. They saw little action until July 1863, when the division skirmished with John Hunt Morgan's cavalry at the Battle of Buffington Island. Returning to Charleston for the rest of the summer, McKinley spent some time in the town courting a local girl until Hayes banned his officers from such fraternization. Early in 1864, the Army command structure in West Virginia was reorganized, and the division was assigned to George Crook's Army of West Virginia. They soon resumed the offensive, marching into southwestern Virginia to destroy Confederate salt and lead mines there. On May 9, the army engaged Confederate troops at Cloyd's Mountain, where the men charged the enemy entrenchments and drove the rebels from the field. McKinley later said the combat there was "as desperate as any witnessed during the war." Following the rout, the Union forces destroyed Confederate supplies and skirmished with the enemy again successfully.

McKinley and his regiment moved to the Shenandoah Valley for the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Crook's corps was attached to Major General David Hunter's Army of the Shenandoah and soon back in contact with Confederate forces, capturing Lexington, Virginia on June 11. They continued south toward Lynchburg, tearing up railroad track as they advanced. Hunter believed the troops at Lynchburg were too powerful, however, and the brigade returned to West Virginia. Before the army could make another attempt, Confederate General Jubal Early's raid into Maryland forced their recall to the north. Early's army surprised them at Kernstown on July 24, where McKinley came under heavy fire and the army was defeated. After the battle, he was promoted to captain. Retreating into Maryland, the army was reorganized again, with Major General Philip Sheridan replacing Hunter, and McKinley was transferred to General Crook's staff. By August, Early was retreating down the valley, with Sheridan's army in pursuit. They fended off a Confederate assault at Berryville, where McKinley had a horse shot out from under him, and advanced to Opequon Creek, where they broke the enemy lines and pursued them farther south. They followed up the victory with another at Fisher's Hill on September 22, and were engaged once more at Cedar Creek on October 19. After initially falling back from the Confederate advance, McKinley help to rally the troops and turn the tide of the battle.

After Cedar Creek, the army stayed in the vicinity through election day, when McKinley cast his first presidential ballot for Abraham Lincoln. The next day, the moved north up the valley into winter quarters near Kernstown. The year 1865 opened with Union forces across the country advancing, and McKinley and his fellow soldiers were in good spirits. That changed in February when Crook was captured by Confederate raiders. Crook's capture added to the confusion as the army was reorganized for the spring campaign, and McKinley found himself serving on the staffs of four different generals over the next fifteen days—Crook, John D. Stevenson, Samuel S. Carroll, and Winfield S. Hancock. Finally assigned to Carroll's staff again, McKinley acted as the general's only adjutant. Lee's army surrendered to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant a few days later, and the war was nearly at an end. McKinley found the time to join a Freemason lodge in Winchester, Virginia before he and Carroll were transferred to Hancock's First Veterans Corps in Washington. Just before the war's end, McKinley received his final promotion, a brevet commission as major. In July, the Veterans Corps was mustered out of service, and McKinley and Carroll were relieved of their duties. Carroll and Hancock encouraged McKinley to apply for a position in the peacetime army, but he declined and returned to Ohio the following month.

Legal career and marriage

Ida Saxton McKinley

After the war ended in 1865, McKinley decided on a career in the law and began studying in the office of Charles Glidden, an attorney in Poland, Ohio. The following year, he continued his studies by attending Albany Law School in New York. After studying there for a year, McKinley returned home and was admitted to the bar in Warren, Ohio in March 1867. That same year, he moved to Canton, the county seat, and set up a small office. He soon formed a partnership with George W. Belden, an experienced lawyer and former judge. McKinley's practice was successful enough for him to buy a block of buildings on Main Street in Canton, which would provide him with small but consistent rental income for decades to come. When Hayes was nominated for governor in 1867, McKinley spoke on his behalf around Stark County, his first foray into politics. The county was closely divided between Democrats and Republicans but Hayes carried it that year. In 1869, McKinley ran for the office of prosecuting attorney of Stark County, an office usually held by Democrats at the time, and was unexpectedly elected. When McKinley ran for re-election in 1871, the Democrats nominated William A. Lynch, a prominent local lawyer, and McKinley was defeated by 143 votes.

McKinley's social life was developing at the same time as his professional life, as he began courting Ida Saxton, the daughter of a prominent Canton family. They were married on January 25, 1871 in the newly built First Presbyterian Church of Canton, although Ida soon joined her husband's Methodist church. Their first child, Katherine, arrived on Christmas Day 1871. A second daughter, Ida, was born in 1873, but died the same year. McKinley's wife descended into a deep depression at her baby's death and her health, never robust, grew worse. Two years later, in 1875, Katherine died of typhoid fever; Ida never recovered from her daughters' deaths, and the McKinleys never had any more children. She developed epilepsy around the same time and hated for McKinley to leave her side. He remained a devoted husband and tended to his wife's medical and emotional needs for the rest of his life.

Ida insisted that McKinley continue his increasingly influential career in law and politics. He attended the state Republican convention that nominated Hayes for a third term as governor in 1875, and campaigned again for his old friend in the election that fall. The next year, McKinley undertook a high-profile case defending a group of coal miners arrested for rioting after a clash with strikebreakers. Lynch, McKinley's opponent in the 1871 election, and his partner, William R. Day, were the opposing counsel, and the mine owners included Mark Hanna, a Cleveland businessman. Taking the case pro bono, he was successful in getting all but one of the miners acquitted. The case raised McKinley's standing among laborers, a crucial part of the Stark County electorate, and also introduced him to Hanna, who would become his strongest backer in years to come.

McKinley's good standing with labor became useful that year as he campaigned for the Republican nomination for Ohio's 17th congressional district. Delegates to the county conventions thought he could attract blue-collar voters, and in August 1876, McKinley was nominated. By that time Hayes had been nominated for President, and McKinley campaigned for him while running his own congressional campaign. Both were successful. McKinley, campaigning mostly on his support for a protective tariff, defeated the Democratic nominee, Levi L. Lamborn, by 3300 votes.

Congressional career

Congressman McKinley

For additional information on the currency question, see Cross of Gold speech#Background.

McKinley first took his congressional seat in October 1877, when President Hayes summoned Congress into special session. With the Republicans in the minority, McKinley was given unimportant committee assignments, which he undertook conscientiously. The McKinleys paid few social calls in Washington because of Ida's health; their closest friends there were President and Lucy Hayes. In later years, Ida McKinley (who always loved children) was fond of telling friends of two weeks spent with her husband at the Executive Mansion (as the White House was still known) supervising the Hayes children while their parents were away on a trip.

The friendship with Hayes did McKinley little good on Capitol Hill; the President was not well-regarded by many leaders there. The young congressman broke with Hayes on the question of the currency, but it did not affect their friendship. The United States had effectively been placed on the gold standard by the Coinage Act of 1873; when silver prices dropped significantly, many sought to make silver again a legal tender, equally with gold. Such a course would be inflationary; advocates argued that the economic benefits of the increased money supply would be worth the inflation; opponents warned that "free silver" would not bring the promised benefits and would harm the United States in international trade. McKinley voted for the Bland-Allison Act of 1878, which mandated large government purchases of silver for striking into money, and also joined the large majorities in each house that overrode Hayes' veto of the legislation. In so doing, McKinley voted against the position of the House Republican leader, his fellow Ohioan and friend, James Garfield. Later, in the 1896 presidential campaign, McKinley became a strong advocate of the gold standard, a change Hanna explained, "He did not pretend to be a doctor of finance and followed the popular trend of that time."

From his first term in Congress, McKinley was a strong advocate of protective tariffs. The primary purposes of such imposts was not to raise revenue, but to allow American manufacturing to develop by giving it a price advantage in the domestic market over foreign competitors. McKinley biographer Margaret Leech noted that Canton had become prosperous as a center for the manufacture of farm equipment because of protection. He introduced and supported bills which raised protective tariffs, and opposed those which lowered them or imposed tariffs simply to raise revenue. This was a popular stance—Leech noted the unpopularity of foreigners (especially the British) in America at the time: "Though McKinley was too reasonable and temperate to become a demagogue, his diatribes against foreign importations, and against the products of British industry in particular, were appeals to popular prejudice." Garfield's election as president in 1880 created a vacancy on the House Ways and Means Committee; McKinley was selected to fill it, placing him on the most powerful committee after only two terms. In 1889, with the Republicans in the majority, McKinley sought election as Speaker of the House. He failed to gain the post, which went to Thomas B. Reed of Maine; however Speaker Reed appointed McKinley chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. The Ohioan guided through Congress the McKinley Tariff of 1890, which though heavily amended in the Senate, imposed a number of protective tariffs on foreign goods.

McKinley increasingly became a significant figure in national politics. In 1880, he served a brief term as Ohio's representative on the Republican National Committee. In 1884, he was elected a delegate to that year's Republican convention, where he served as chair of the Committee on Resolutions and won plaudits for his handling of the convention when called upon to preside. By 1886, McKinley, Senator John Sherman, and Governor Joseph B. Foraker were considered the leaders of the Republican party in Ohio. Sherman, who had helped to found the Republican Party in the 1850s, ran three times for the Republican nomination for president in the 1880s, each time failing, while Foraker began a meteoric rise in Ohio politics in the 1880s. Hanna, once he entered public affairs as a political manager and generous contributor in the early 1880s, was a supporter of Sherman's ambitions, as well as those of Foraker. The latter relationship broke off at the 1888 Republican National Convention, to which McKinley, Foraker, and Hanna were all delegates supporting Sherman. Convinced Sherman could not win, Foraker threw his support first to the unsuccessful Republican 1884 presidential nominee, Maine Senator James G. Blaine. When Blaine stated he was not a candidate, Foraker supported the ultimately successful candidate, Indiana Governor Benjamin Harrison, who was elected president. In the bitterness which followed the convention, Hanna abandoned Foraker, and for the remainder of McKinley's lifetime, the Ohio Republican Party was divided into two factions, one aligned around McKinley, Sherman, and Hanna and the other around Foraker. Hanna had come to admire McKinley, and in the years that followed, became a close adviser to him.

Recognizing McKinley's potential, the Democrats, whenever they controlled the Ohio legislature, sought to redistrict him out of office. In 1878, McKinley faced election in a redrawn 17th district; he won anyway, causing Hayes to exult, "Oh, the good luck of McKinley! He was gerrymandered out and then beat the gerrymander! We enjoyed it as much as he did." After the 1882 election, McKinley was unseated on an election contest by a near party-line House vote. Out of office, he was briefly depressed by the setback, but soon vowed to run again. The Democrats again redistricted Stark County for the 1884 election; McKinley was returned to Congress anyway. For 1890, the Democrats gerrymandered McKinley one final time, placing Stark County in the same district as one of the strongest pro-Democrat counties, Holmes. Damaged by the redistricting and voter resentment over the tariff that had caused prices to rise, the congressman was projected to lose by 3,000 votes, based on past votes. McKinley was defeated, though only by 300 votes.

Governor of Ohio

Even before McKinley completed his term in Congress, he met with a delegation of Ohioans urging him to run for governor. James E. Campbell, who had defeated Foraker in 1889, was to seek re-election in 1891. McKinley, who was already ambitious to be president, considered waiting until 1892 and then seeking a return to Congress, but ultimately decided to run for governor. The Ohio Republican party remained divided, but McKinley quietly arranged for Foraker to nominate him at the 1891 state Republican convention, which chose McKinley by acclamation. The former congressman spent much of the second half of 1891 campaigning against Campbell, beginning in his hometown of Niles. Hanna, however, was little seen in the campaign; he spent much of his time raising funds for the election of legislators pledged to vote for Sherman in the 1892 senatorial election. McKinley won the 1891 election by some 20,000 votes; the following January, Sherman, with considerable assistance from Hanna, turned back a challenge by Foraker to win another term in the Senate.

Ohio's governor had relatively little power—for example, he could recommend legislation, but not veto it—but with Ohio a key swing state, its governor was a major figure in national politics, consulted by congressmen and Cabinet officials. Although McKinley believed that the health of the nation depended on that of business, he was evenhanded in dealing with labor, procuring legislation to set up an arbitration board at which work disputes could be settled, and obtaining passage of a law to fine employers who fired workers for belonging to a union. This led to accusations against Governor McKinley that he went too far in accommodating labor; he retorted, "My whole public life has been devoted to the advocacy of a system which gave men employment and kept the shops running."

President Harrison had proven unpopular; there were divisions even within the Republican party as the year 1892 began and Harrison began his re-election drive. Although no declared candidate emerged to oppose Harrison, many Republicans were ready to dump the President from the ticket if an alternative emerged. Among the possible candidates spoken of were the aging Blaine, Speaker Reed, and McKinley. Fearing that the Ohio governor would emerge as a candidate, Harrison's managers arranged for McKinley to be permanent chairman of the convention in Minneapolis, requiring him to play a public, neutral role. Hanna established an unofficial McKinley headquarters near the convention hall, though no active effort was made to covert delegates to McKinley's cause. Although McKinley objected to delegate votes being cast for him, he nevertheless finished third, behind the renominated Harrison, and behind Blaine, who had sent word he did not want to be considered. By most accounts, McKinley did not wish the nomination, but wanted to have his name before the delegates to set up a future run. According to Hanna biographer William T. Horner,

[McKinley was] clearly building a foundation for the future, beyond 1892. McKinley was certainly ambitious, but he was also a very skilled politician. He knew an open attempt to win the nomination in 1892—which Hanna's canvassing told him would fail—would hurt him in future campaigns. Even if he thought it was possible to wrest the nomination from Harrison, there was a strong feeling that no Republican could win the general election ... Much of McKinley's public performance at the convention in Minneapolis was a show of downplaying the efforts of Hanna and his other boosters.

Although McKinley campaigned loyally for the Republican ticket, Harrison was defeated by former President Cleveland in the November election. In the wake of Cleveland's victory, McKinley was seen by some as the likely Republican candidate in 1896.

In 1893, hard times struck the nation with the Panic of 1893. A businessman in Youngstown, Robert Walker, had lent money to McKinley in their younger days; in gratitude, McKinley had often guaranteed Walker's business notes. The governor had never kept track of what he was signing; he believed Walker a sound businessman. In fact Walker had deceived McKinley, telling him that new notes were actually renewals of matured ones. Walker was ruined by the recession; McKinley was called upon for repayment. The normally composed McKinley raged on the train to Youngstown about what he would say to Walker; when the two men met, the governor expressed no anger, but was gentle and encouraging. The total owed was over $100,000 and a despairing McKinley initially proposed to resign as governor and earn the money as an attorney. Instead, McKinley's wealthy supporters, including Hanna and Chicago publisher H. H. Kohlsaat became trustees of a fund from which the notes would be paid. Both William and Ida McKinley placed their property in the hands of the fund's trustees (who included Hanna and Kohlsaat), and the supporters raised and contributed a substantial sum of money. All of the couple's property was returned to them, and when McKinley, who had promised eventual repayment, asked for the list of contributors, it was refused him. Many people who had suffered in the hard times sympathized with McKinley, whose popularity grew. He was easily re-elected in November 1893, receiving the largest percentage of the vote of any Ohio governor since the Civil War.

In 1894, the economic upset led to strikes among coal miners in the Hocking Valley in southern Ohio. When owners brought in strikebreakers from Virginia and West Virginia, the miners responded by destroying a railroad trestle. The local sheriff wired McKinley using alarming terms, and the governor responded by sending a large force of militia, correctly assuming, based on his Civil War experience, that an overwhelming force would make violence unlikely. In January 1895, upon learning that many miners were starving, he made a statewide appeal for funds, and quickly sent trains loaded with food and other necessities to relieve them. McKinley was criticized by conservatives for his actions towards the miners; the Cleveland Plain Dealer noted that "bridge burners, trainwreckers, and highwaymen are usually shot on sight". However, McKinley biographer Kevin Phillips noted that although McKinley was later caricatured as a puppet of heartless capitalists, "the reality was altogether different."

McKinley campaigned widely for Republicans in the 1894 midterm congressional elections; many party candidates in districts where he spoke were successful. His political efforts in Ohio were rewarded by the election of a Republican successor, Asa Bushnell in November 1895, and a Republican legislature that elected Foraker to the Senate. McKinley supported Foraker for Senate and Bushnell (who was of Foraker's faction) for governor; in return, the new senator-elect agreed to back McKinley's presidential ambitions. With party peace in Ohio assured, McKinley turned to the national arena.

Election of 1896

Main article: United States presidential election, 1896

Obtaining the nomination

McKinley's close adviser, Mark Hanna

It is unclear when William McKinley began to seriously prepare a run for president. As Phillips noted "no documents, no diaries, no confidential letters to Mark Hanna (or anyone else) contain his secret hopes or veiled stratagems." From its earliest days, McKinley's preparations had the participation of Hanna: according to Horner, "what is certainly true that in 1888 the two men began to develop a close working relationship that helped put McKinley in the White House." Sherman did not run again after 1888, and so Hanna could support McKinley wholeheartedly. Indeed, not only was McKinley preparing to lead his party to the presidency, his party was preparing to be led by him. Phillips noted that with with Blaine dead only months after the 1892 convention, and Harrison discredited by his defeat by Grover Cleveland, the party was looking for a new leader to lead it to future success. Phillips argued that the dissenting votes against Harrison's renomination in 1892 "were the party's fond wave to the past—to its "Plumed Knight", James G. Blaine—and its nod to better prospects under McKinley".

Backed by Hanna's money and organizational skills, McKinley quietly built support for a presidential bid through 1895 and early 1896. When other contenders, such as Speaker Reed and Iowa Senator William B. Allison sent agents outside their states to organize Republicans in support of their candidacies, they found that Hanna's agents had preceded them. According to historian Stanley Jones in his study of the 1896 election, "Another feature common to the Reed and Allison campaigns was their failure to make headway against the tide which was running toward McKinley. In fact, both campaigns from the moment they were launched were in retreat. The calm confidence with which each candidate claimed the support of his own section [of the country] soon gave way to ... bitter accusations that Hanna by winning support for McKinley in their sections had violated the rules of the game".

Hanna, on McKinley's behalf, met with the eastern Republican political bosses, such as Senators Thomas Platt of New York and Matthew Quay of Pennsylvania, who were willing to guarantee McKinley's nomination in exchange for promises regarding patronage and offices. McKinley, however, was determined to obtain the nomination without making deals, and Hanna accepted that decision. Many of their early efforts were focused on the South—Hanna obtained a vacation home in southern Georgia where McKinley visited and met with Republican politicians from the region. McKinley needed 453½ delegate votes to gain the nomination; he gained nearly half that number from the South and border states. Lamented Platt in his memoirs, "[Hanna] had the South practically solid before some of us awakened."

The bosses still hoped to deny McKinley a first-ballot majority at the convention by boosting support for local favorite son candidates such as Quay, New York Governor (and former vice president) Levi P. Morton, and Illinois Senator Shelby Cullom. Delegate-rich Illinois proved a crucial battleground, as McKinley supporters, such as Chicago businessman (and future vice president) Charles G. Dawes, sought to elect delegates pledged to vote for McKinley at the national convention in St. Louis. Cullom proved unable to stand against McKinley despite the support of local Republican machines; at the state convention at the end of April, McKinley completed a near-sweep of Illinois' delegates. Former President Harrison had been deemed a possible contender if he entered the race; when Harrison made it known he would not seek a third nomination, the McKinley organization took control of Indiana with a speed Harrison privately found unseemly. Morton operatives who journeyed to Indiana sent word back that they had found the state alive for McKinley. Wyoming Senator Francis Warren wrote, "The politicians are making a hard fight against him, but if the masses could speak, McKinley is the choice of at least 75% of the entire [body of] Republican voters in the Union".

By the time the national convention began in St. Louis on June 16, 1896, McKinley had an ample majority of delegates. The former governor, who remained in Canton, followed events at the convention closely by telephone, and was able to hear part of Foraker's speech nominating him over the line. Ohio's vote gave McKinley the nomination, which he celebrated by hugging his wife and mother as his friends fled the house, anticipating the first of many crowds which would gather at the Republican candidate's home. Thousands of partisans came from Canton and surrounding towns that evening to hear McKinley speak from his front porch. The convention nominated Republican National Committee vice chairman Garret Hobart of New Jersey for vice president, a choice actually made, by most accounts, by Hanna. Hobart, a wealthy lawyer, businessman, and former state legislator, was not widely known, but as Hanna biographer Herbert Croly pointed out "if he did little to strengthen the ticket he did nothing to weaken it".

General election campaign

For additional information on the currency question, see Cross of Gold speech#Background.

Prior to the 1896 convention, McKinley tried to avoid coming down on one side or the other of the currency question. William Allen Rogers cartoon from Harper's Weekly, June 1896.

Prior to the Republican convention, McKinley had been a "straddle bug" on the currency question, favoring moderate positions on silver such as accomplishing bimetallism by international agreement. In the final days before the convention, McKinley sought advice about what the currency plank in the Republican party platform should say. After hearing from politicians, and from advisors such as Hanna, Kohlsaat, and Cleveland businessman Myron Herrick, McKinley decided that the platform should endorse the gold standard, though it should allow for bimetallism by international agreement. Adoption of the platform caused some Republican delegates, led by Colorado Senator Henry M. Teller to walk out of the convention. However, compared with the Democrats, Republican divisions on the issue were small, especially as McKinley promised future concessions to silver advocates.

The poor economic times had continued, and strengthened the hand of forces for free silver. The issue bitterly divided the Democratic Party; President Cleveland firmly supported the gold standard; but an increasing number of Democrats did not. Discontent with Cleveland led silver advocates on a successful insurgency, taking over the Democratic Party in 1896. They did not attempt to dictate the choice of presidential candidate, as any nominee would have to be acceptable to silver forces; former Congressman Richard Bland, originator of the Bland-Allison Act, was deemed the frontrunner. However, another former representative, William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska stampeded the Democratic convention with his Cross of Gold speech. Bryan's speech, in which he championed the concerns of the common man, and his subsequent nomination for president shocked Eastern financiers—they considered his program of inflationary money akin to revolution. Although initially hesitant to give to McKinley's campaign when approached by Hanna, they eventually contributed millions of dollars. This money went to print over 200 million books and pamphlets advocating the Republican position on the silver and tariff questions, for paid speakers to travel and advocate that dogma, and even for the nation's first campaign film, showing McKinley giving a speech.

Bryan's campaign had less money than his rival's; with his eloquence one of his major assets in the race, he decided on a whistle-stop political tour by train on a then-unprecedented scale. While presidential candidates had travelled and given speeches before, it was then considered somewhat undignified—candidates wished to be seen as George Washington, called forth to the presidency, rather than as a pandering office-seeker. In any event, few Democratic voters had the money to travel to Bryan's Nebraska home to hear him speak. Once Bryan's plans became clear, Hanna urged McKinley to match Bryan's tour with one of his own, the candidate declined on the ground that the Democrat was a better stump speaker, "I might just as well set up a trapeze on my front lawn and compete with some professional athlete as go out speaking against Bryan. I have to think when I speak." Instead of going to the people, McKinley would remain at home in Canton and allow the people to come to him; according to historian R. Hal Williams in his book on the 1896 election, "it was, as it turned out, a brilliant strategy. McKinley's 'Front Porch Campaign' became a legend in American political history."

William and Ida McKinley (to her husband's right) pose with members of the "Flower Delegation" from Oil City, Pennsylvania before the McKinley home. Although women could not vote in most states, they might influence male relatives and were encouraged to visit Canton.

McKinley made himself available to the public every day except Sunday, receiving delegations from the front porch of his home. He did this continuously from July to November, excepting three days in July when he fulfilled nonpolitical speaking engagements elsewhere in Ohio, and a weekend of rest in late August. The railroads subsidized the delegations with low excursion rates—the pro-silver Cleveland Plain Dealer disgustedly stated that going to Canton had been made "cheaper than staying at home". Canton in the summer and fall of 1896 had a daily parade, as delegations (usually of Republican partisans, though Democrats, including Bryan, also visited) trooped through the streets from the railroad station to McKinley's home on North Market Street, ceremoniously escorted by local militia and passing under an arch with McKinley's portrait. If McKinley was still dealing with the previous delegation, they were halted on the far side of the arch from McKinley's home, and were offered beer (or if they did not drink, lemonade) to refresh them as they waited. Delegations were accompanied on their march by bands, playing music tailored to their industry or state. Once outside the McKinley home, they crowded close to the front porch—from which they surreptitiously whittled souvenirs—as their spokesman addressed McKinley. The candidate then responded, speaking on campaign issues in a speech molded to suit the interest of the delegation. The speeches were carefully scripted to avoid extemporaneous remarks; even the spokesman's remarks were approved by McKinley or a representative. This was done as the candidate feared an offhand comment by another that might rebound on him, as had happened to Blaine in 1884 (an unfortunate remark by a minister at a Blaine event was deemed by some crucial in losing him the election).

There was intense public interest in the campaign, and McKinley's workers did their best to accommodate it; the campaign had special departments for black voters, though most in the South were disenfranchised, and for women, who could only vote in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Jones wrote,

For the people it was a campaign of study and analysis, of exhortation and conviction—a campaign of search for economic and political truth. Pamphlets tumbled from the presses, to be read, reread, studied, debated, to become guides to economic thought and political action. They were printed and distributed by the million ... but the people hankered for more. Favorite pamphlets became dog-eared, grimy, fell apart as their owners laboriously restudied their arguments and quoted from them in public and private debate.

"A Man of Mark" 1896 Homer Davenport cartoon of McKinley as Hanna's creature, from William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal

Most newspapers, even those Democratic in perspective, refused to support Bryan, the major exception being the New York Journal, controlled by William Randolph Hearst. The publishing magnate directed Journal staff to cover Bryan favorably, and McKinley less so. As McKinley was widely admired as a good man and husband, even among those who disagreed with him politically, Hanna proved an easier target. In reporting and through the cartoons of Homer Davenport, Hanna was viciously characterized as a plutocrat, often seen trampling on labor. McKinley was drawn as a child, easily controlled by the businessmen who had bought him by buying up the Walker notes, which had nearly ruined him in 1893. Journal reporter Alfred Henry Lewis put it vividly:

Bucked and gagged behind doors, barred against all visiting questions, McKinley is left in Canton. Hanna owns McKinley and what was the price? One hundred and eighteen thousand dollars worth of McKinley-Walker notes, paid off and up by the great McKinley syndicate. Where are the notes? Ask Hanna, ask Herrick, ask any of them. They won't answer, but they know. They are not cancelled, those notes, they exist in force and effect. Hanna, as he strutted through the Southern Hotel today, could have begun suit against his candidate for $118,000 and interest thereon, and taken judgment.

Even today, these depictions still color the images of Hanna and McKinley: one as a heartless businessman, the other as a creature of Hanna and others of his ilk. Although recent scholarship, such as by McKinley biographer Lewis L. Gould, has attempted to dispel these myths, they still persist.

The battleground proved to be the Midwest—the South and most of the West were conceded to Bryan—and the Democrat spent much of his time in those crucial states. The Northeast was considered most likely safe for McKinley after the early-voting states of Maine and Vermont supported him in September. By then, it was clear that public support for silver had receded, and McKinley began to emphasize the tariff issue. By the end of September, the Republicans had discontinued printing material on the silver issue, and were entirely concentrating on the tariff question. On November 3, 1896, the voters had their say in most of the nation. McKinley won the entire Northeast and Midwest; he won 51% of the vote and an ample majority in the Electoral College. Bryan had concentrated entirely on the silver issue, and had not appealed to urban workers. Voters in cities supported McKinley; the only city of more than 100,000 population to be carried by Bryan was Denver, Colorado.

The 1896 presidential election is often seen as a realigning election, in which McKinley's view of a stronger central government building US industry through protective tariffs and a dollar based on gold triumphed. The voting patterns established then displaced the near-deadlock the major parties had seen since the Civil War; the Republican dominance begun then would continue until 1932, another realigning election with the ascent of Franklin Roosevelt. Phillips argued that, with the possible exception of Iowa Senator Allison, McKinley was the only Republican who could have defeated Bryan—he theorized that eastern candidates such as Morton or Reed would have done badly against the Illinois-born Bryan in the crucial Midwest. According to the biographer, though Bryan was popular among rural voters, "McKinley appealed to a very different industrialized, urbanized America."

Presidency 1897–1901

Electoral map shows McKinley's 1896 victory (in red).

First year popularity

President McKinley's first year in office opened popularly with what would be known as a "presidential honeymoon". In contrast to President Cleveland, who was viewed as reclusive, President McKinley opened the White House to the public and walked openly around the Capitol. In 1897, President McKinley publically dedicated Grant's Tomb, unveiled a statute of founding father George Washington, and opened up museums in Philadelphia. These initial actions encouraged an increase of public sentiment for the office of the Presidency.

Domestic policies

McKinley, then aged 54, became the nation's chief executive at a salary of $50,000. The family became regular attendees at the Metropolitan Methodist Church and Mrs. McKinley appeared quite ready and able, with some assistance, to assume her duties as the White House hostess. When he had initially filled all of his cabinet positions, all but two were over the age of 60, and only three would continue in office for more than two years. His inauguration marked the beginning of the greatest consolidation in American business that had ever been seen. The administration did not aggressively enforce the Sherman Antitrust Act, as Theodore Roosevelt later would, and therefore business trusts were allowed to expand.

McKinley's claim as the "advance agent of prosperity" was confirmed when 1897 brought a revival of business, agriculture, and general prosperity, ending the Panic of 1893 which dated back to the Civil War and was marked by persistent underconsumption. The end of the deflationary period resulted largely from a gradual adoption of gold, culminating in passage of the Gold Standard Act of 1900, which set the value of the dollar and alleviated monetary concerns that had plagued the United States since the 1870s. This wave of prosperity, bolstered by US victory in the Spanish-American War, continued into the 20th century until the Panic of 1907, and ensured McKinley's reelection in 1900.

In civil service administration, McKinley reformed the system to make it more flexible in critical areas. The Republican platform, adopted after President Cleveland's extension of the merit system, emphatically endorsed this, as did McKinley himself. Against extreme pressure, particularly in the Department of War, the President resisted until May 29, 1899. His order of that date withdrew from the classified service 4,000 or more positions, removed 3,500 from the class theretofore filled through competitive examination or an orderly practice of promotion, and placed 6,416 more under a system drafted by the Secretary of War. The order declared as permanent a large number of temporary appointments made without examination, including thousands who had served during the Spanish War. In the way of patronage, McKinley adeptly employed appointments to cultivate the favor of members of the Senate, but also made appointments which flowed to his singular benefit. While many suspected otherwise, newly appointed Senator Mark Hanna was not allowed to assume an insider's role in McKinley's appointments. The President had earlier offered Hanna the patronage-dispensing position of Postmaster General, which Hanna refused.

George B. Cortelyou served as the first presidential press secretary of sorts. He was the first individual in the president's office who regularly called for correspondents when an announcement was to be made, provided them with workspace in the White House, and also prepared and distributed statements to the press.

Tariffs and bimetallism

McKinley depicted on a gold coin with support from soldiers, businessmen, farmers and professionals.

Two of the great issues of the day, tariff reform and free silver, became intertwined in 1897. Nelson Dingley, Jr., a Maine Republican who had succeeded McKinley as chairman of the Ways and Means committee, introduced a new tariff bill (later called the Dingley Act) to revise the Wilson–Gorman Tariff Act of 1894. McKinley supported the bill, which increased tariffs on wool, sugar, and luxury goods, but the proposed new rates alarmed the French, who exported many luxury items to the United States. The Dingley Act passed the House easily, but was delayed in the Senate as they assessed the French objections. French representatives offered to cooperate with the United States in developing an international agreement on bimetallism if the new tariff rates were reduced; this pleased silverite Republicans in the Senate, whose votes were necessary for passage. The Senate amended the bill to allow limited reciprocity (giving France some possibility of relief), but did not reduce the rates on luxury goods. McKinley signed the bill into law and agreed to begin negotiations on an international bimetallism standard.

American negotiators soon concluded a reciprocity treaty with France, and the two nations approached the United Kingdom to gauge British enthusiasm for bimetallism. The British government of the Marquess of Salisbury showed some interest in the idea and told the American envoy, Edward O. Wolcott, that they would be amenable to reopening the mints in India to silver coinage if the colonial government there agreed. News of a possible departure from the gold standard stirred up immediate opposition from its partisans, and misgivings by the Indian colonial government led Britain to reject the proposal. With the international effort a failure, McKinley turned away from silver coinage and embraced the gold standard. Even without the agreement, agitation for free silver eased as prosperity began to return to the United States and gold from recent strikes in the Yukon and Australia increased the monetary supply even without silver coinage. Both the gold standard and the Dingley tariff would remain in place for the rest of McKinley's term in office.

Civil rights

In the wake of McKinley's election in 1896, blacks were hopeful of progress towards equality. McKinley had spoken out against lynching while governor, and most blacks supported him in 1896. McKinley's priority, however, was in ending sectionalism, and blacks were disappointed by his policies and appointments. Although McKinley made some appointments of blacks to low-level government posts, and received some praise for that, the appointments were less than blacks had received under previous Republican administrations. Former Mississippi Senator Blanche K. Bruce received the post of register at the Treasury Department; this post was traditionally given to a black under Republican administrations. McKinley appointmented several black postmasters, however when whites protested the appointment of Justin W. Lyons as postmaster of Augusta, Georgia, McKinley asked Lyons to withdraw; he was given the post of Treasury register after Bruce's death in 1898. The President did appoint George B. Jackson, a former slave, to the post of customs collector in Presidio, Texas. However, northern blacks felt their contributions to McKinley's victory were overlooked; few were appointed to office.

The administration's response to violence against blacks was minimal; according to historian Lewis L. Gould in his study of the McKinley administration, "from expectant hope when McKinley took office, Negro leaders moved to deep disillusionment as the president failed them." When black postmasters at Hogansville, Georgia in 1897 and at Lake City, South Carolina the following year were assaulted, McKinley issued no statement of condemnation. When black leaders criticized McKinley for inaction, supporters responded there was little the president could do to intervene. Critics replied that he could at least publicly condemn such events, as Harrison had done.

During the Spanish-American War, blacks hoped that McKinley would advocate for their civil rights, having served notably in both Cuba and the Philipines. In 1898, when racial violence occurred against blacks in the South and South West, including the North Carolina, Wilmington Riots that resulted in the death of 11 blacks, McKinley was silent. When black postmasters were attacked in Georgia in 1897 and North Carolina in 1898, McKinley did not acknowledge the violence nor publicly criticize the white perpetrators. Many blacks were upset when McKinley toured the South and publicly sympathized with the Confederate soldiers who had died during the American Civil War. In 1899, African Americans were also upset with McKinley's imperial policies in the Philippines. McKinley, however, did support the enlistment of blacks in the U.S. military and stated, "the colored troops fight magnificantly". In order to gain support from the African American community McKinley formed two black regiments in the Philipines that began service in January 1900. McKinley made certain that black soldiers served, and even countermanded army orders preventing recruitment of African-American soldiers. Such efforts, as Gerald Bahles points out, however, did little to "stem the deteriorating position of blacks in American society."

In his 1899 State of the Union Address, McKinley, condemned public lynching and stated "Those who, in disregard of law and the public peace, ...constitute themselves judges and executioners should not escape the severest penalties for their crimes". Despite McKinley's laudatory rhetoric, the political realities prevented any real action on the part of his administration in regards to race relations.. McKinley did little to alleviate the backwards situation of black Americans because he was "unwilling to alienate the white South."

In December 1899, Wisconsin Republican National Committeeman Henry C. Payne proposed a change in allocation of convention delegates among the states. Each state was allocated delegates based on its population; thus the South, where the Republicans rarely won electoral votes, had considerable weight at the convention. Many of the delegates from the South were black, and McKinley, who initially favored the proposal, persuaded Payne to withdraw the proposal; McKinley feared the effect on the Republican vote among blacks. According to Gould, given the political climate in the South, with white legislatures passing Jim Crow laws such as that upheld in Plessy v. Ferguson, there was little McKinley could have done to improve race relations, and he did better than later presidents Theodore Roosevelt, who doubted black equality, and Woodrow Wilson, who supported segregation; later biographer Phillips agreed. However, Gould concluded, "McKinley lacked the vision to transcend the biases of his day and to point toward a better future for all Americans".

Foreign policies

McKinley strove to advance the interests of American producers in world markets, and so his administration promoted the opening of foreign markets, especially in China. While serving as a Congressman, McKinley supported annexation of Hawaii because he wanted to Americanize it and establish a naval base, but Senate resistance previously proved insurmountable as domestic sugar producers and committed anti-expansionists blocked any action. One notable observer of the time, Henry Adams, declared that the nation at this time was ruled by "McKinleyism", a "system of combinations, consolidations, and trusts realized at home and abroad." Although many of his diplomatic appointments went to political friends such as former Carnegie Steel president John George Alexander Leishman (minister to Switzerland and Turkey), professional diplomats such as Andrew Dickson White, John W. Foster, and John Hay also capably served. John Bassett Moore, the nation's leading scholar of international law, frequently advised the administration on the technical legal issues in its foreign relations.

John Sherman

William Rufus Day

Alvey A. Adee

Discussions of the possible annexation of Hawaii by the United States began during the Harrison administration, but had been tabled by Grover Cleveland. McKinley immediately reopened negotiations and on June 16, 1897, an annex treaty was signed. The Government of Hawaii speedily ratified this, and the Japanese protested it, but it lacked the necessary two-thirds vote in the U.S. Senate. The solution was to annex Hawaii by joint resolution. The resolution provided for the assumption by the United States of the Hawaiian debt up to $4,000,000. The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) was extended to the islands, and Chinese immigration from Hawaii to the mainland was prohibited. The joint resolution passed on July 6, 1898, a majority of the Democrats with several Republicans, among these Speaker Reed, opposing. Shelby M. Cullom, John T. Morgan, Robert R. Hitt, Sanford B. Dole, and Walter F. Frear, made commissioners by its authority, drafted a territorial form of government, which became law April 30, 1900.

The President's selection of leadership in the State Department was a mélange. First, McKinley's appointment of aging Ohio Senator John Sherman to head the State Department was questioned from the outset. While McKinley genuinely hoped Sherman's reputation and experience would bolster the integrity of his Cabinet, it quickly became apparent that Sherman was too old to function in his role. (McKinley's first choice for the State Department, Senator William Allison of Iowa, declined the offer.) Sherman, who previously served as Secretary of the Treasury, initially appeared to be a strong selection. Although Sherman was indeed an experienced statesman, he was too advanced in years, but succeeded for a time in obscuring his increased senility. McKinley named longtime friend William Rufus Day as First Assistant to Sherman, to serve as the de-facto department head, even though Day lacked any experience as a diplomat, and demonstrated it. McKinley further relied on the deaf career diplomat, Alvey A. Adee, as Second Assistant to Sherman, to mentor Day in his role. This lineup was thus often maligned: "The Secretary knows nothing, the First Assistant says nothing, and the Second Assistant hears nothing."

Spanish-American War

The seminal endeavor of McKinley's presidency was the Spanish-American War. The conflict between the two countries stemmed from Spanish atrocities in Cuba, spearheaded by Governor General Weyler in attempts to curb a rebellion by the people. The Spanish repeatedly promised, and then postponed new reforms. Some historians believe that Democrats and the sensationalist yellow journalism of William Randolph Hearst's newspapers were primarily responsible for the American public opinion against Spain, but according to biographer Leech, the newspapers did not create the frenzy, but solidified the public belief that intervention was required based on the situation in Cuba. McKinley and the business community, as well as House Speaker Reed, did not share the public's preference for war. While McKinley understood the public's anger toward Spanish atrocities, he was slow in engaging the Spanish, initially by delay in getting his minister to Spain, General Stewart L. Woodford, to assume the post. Spain's new Premier, Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, then replaced General Weyler with Gen. Ramon y Arenas in Cuba to allay the fear of continued atrocities, allowed the U.S. to send food and medicine to Cuba, and all U.S. citizens held in Cuba were released. In the wake of these actions, McKinley asked the country to exercise patience.

The USS Maine, whose explosion triggered the Spanish-American War

Nevertheless, to demonstrate continued American resolve for immediate reform, a warship, the U.S.S. Maine, was dispatched to Havana harbor and placed on call for the U.S. consul general Fitzhugh Lee, to be later joined by the Montgomery. The Department of the Navy, led by Secretary John D, Long, was to be more directly involved in the Cuban problems than any other department, except for State. Long, recently well recovered from a nervous breakdown, was an ambitious member of the cabinet, while also yearning for the peace and quiet of his farm at home. With the rank of admiral having lapsed, this civilian boss dealt directly with line officers in running the department. Notably at his right hand was a younger, irrepressible and energetic Assistant Secretary, Theodore Roosevelt, anxious to modernize and enlarge the fleet. Long initially succeeded in reining in his junior, at least as concerned increasing the fleet – one additional battleship and accompanying torpedo boats were approved in the Pacific.

On February 15, 1898, the Maine mysteriously exploded and sank in the Havanna harbor, causing the deaths of 250 men, along with a hew and cry from the public for war against Spain; at the same time the State Dept. began intense efforts at negotiations with Spain. The Navy named a board of inquiry to investigate, and McKinley asked the public to withhold judgment until the inquiry, as well as diplomatic negotiations, were complete. The President received a report of the investigation on a Friday, which concluded the explosion was caused by a submarine mine of unknown origin. McKinley immediately prepared a message for Congress, which included a key request for its "deliberate consideration" as well as forbearance while negotiations for peace continued. A copy of the report was leaked that weekend, and significant Congressional and public support for war was emboldened. The President's message was then delayed by another 5 days, to allow for military preparations and evacuation of American citizens from Cuba.

When the President finalized his message to Congress, he softened his stance of preference for negotiation, in favor of a policy of "neutral intervention". Congress initially passed a joint resolution, recognizing Cuban independence (but not a free standing republic), demanding Spanish withdrawal from Cuba, and directing the President to use armed forces for enforcement. The Maine tragedy also led to a sudden realization of naval ill-preparedness, and Congress quickly passed an appropriation bill for $50 million for defense. In operational charge of the Navy Department was Assistant Secretary Theodore Roosevelt, who wanted war and scorned the more pacifistic McKinley as "having no more backbone than a chocolate éclair." Nevertheless, Mckinley had promptly issued an ultimatum to Spain to cease and desist, and also ordered a blockade of Cuba. A few days later Congress voted to declare war against Spain, effective with the blockade. The Teller Amendment on April 20, 1898, stated that the U.S. "hereby disclaims any disposition of intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island except for pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people." Annexation was thus ruled out. The Spanish military's concentration camp policy on Cuban citizens gave the Senate a humanitarian cause to support the war effort.

A week after the President's ultimatum, the Navy Department pressed for authority to immediately begin offensives against the Spanish fleet in the Philippines, in light of Britain's declared neutrality and presence in the area. The President responded with authorization to Asiatic Squadron commander George Dewey. Dewey's victory in the Philippines was quick and decisive, and the President promoted him to Rear Admiral for his efforts. McKinley assigned Major General Wesley Merritt the role of military governor in the Philippines, with orders to establish military rule, but to avoid severity upon civilians, and to disown any intent to make war or to ally with any faction. Merritt's mission temporarily stalled in California, for lack of personnel and transportation.

Expeditious victory despite missteps

War Secretary Russell A. Alger

At the outset of the war, in many respects the War Department was thus not well prepared, under the leadership of Secretary Russell A. Alger. McKinley was also forced to suspend his initial order for an attack on Havana, due to inadequate supplies and troops to proceed. Alger placed unsupported blame on the President for restricting expenditures to coastline defenses. The Navy Department as well was not without its own difficulties in its initial offensive operations in the Caribbean. While the Spanish naval commander Pascual Cervera idled in port at Santiago, U.S. commander Winfield Scott Schley refused to carry out orders to pursue the Spanish fleet, claiming a shortage of coal. Shley also refused to recognize rival William T. Sampson as the top commander in the Cuba operation.

It was only after multiple false starts and chaotic supply management and transportation problems that the Army succeeded in dispatching 17,000 troops (the largest force in U.S. history at the time) from Tampa en route to Santiago under the leadership of William R. Shafter. Once in transit, Shafter consistently directed the campaign of the ground war with minimal consultation or even communication with Sampson and the Navy, shunning use of the marines or the benefit of Naval bombardment. By his own admission, Shafter commented, "there was no strategy about it – just to do it quick." Once unloaded, the troops' orders were first and foremost to move rapidly on Las Gasimas; the offensive was a success, except for the fact that due to continued inefficiencies in the Quartermaster Corps., Shafter had outrun his supplies.

The President was very much aware of the inefficiencies of waging war, and worked mightily to reduce the problems; nevertheless, he had witnessed first hand much worse, in fresh memories of the Civil War. There was a fair amount of finger pointing inherent in the midst of military missteps; McKinley was reluctant to react precipitously, assuming that some of these problems would be experienced regardless of who was in place. Nevertheless, he was quick to point out shortcomings when frustrated, as when Shafter delayed in finishing the campaign in Santiago, when he said to Shafter, "What you went to Santiago for was the Spanish army. If you allow it to evacuate with its arms you must meet it somewhere else. This is not war." While the war was still in its infancy though, McKinley had already begun to focus on the terms of peace, saying, "We must be certain to keep what we have worked to acquire." The President did ultimately ask for Secretary Alger's resignation in the wake of the War Department's many inefficiencies; many thought the action came later than warranted.

Volunteer militia and national guard units indeed rushed to the colors, including Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders". The famous Battle of Las Guasimas and Battle of San Juan Hill were pivotal successes in the war effort, though they came at an inordinate number of casualties equal to ten percent of Shafter's forces. The naval war in Cuba was ultimately also a success, the shortest war in U.S. history. Secretary of State John Hay called it a "splendid little war."

Peace, annexation and criticism of the War Department

McKinley's main conditions for peace in negotiating with the Spanish were 1) relinquishment of Spanish sovereignty over Cuba; 2) cession of Puerto Rico and other islands in the West Indies; and 3) relinquishment of the Philippines including Manila and additional territory. At the Peace Conference, which grew out of an initial armistice agreement, Spain sold its rights to the Philippines to the U.S., which took control of the islands and suppressed local rebellions, over the objection of the Democrats and the newly formed Anti-Imperialist League.The President included three senators on the U.S negotiating team so as to facilitate ratification of the resulting treaty. He made the following statement on the negotiations: "We took up arms...in the fulfillment of high public and moral obligations. We had no...ambition of conquest. The United States in making peace should follow the same high rule of conduct...and not ulterior designs which might tempt us into excessive demands." Ratification was assured after conflict erupted on the island of Luzon so as to allow the administration to respond to the emergency there.

Jules Cambon, the French Ambassador in the U.S., signs the peace treaty for Spain

McKinley sent William Howard Taft to the Philippines and then to Rome to settle the long-standing dispute over lands owned by the Catholic Church. By 1901 the Philippines were peaceful again after a decade of turmoil. The United States also gained possession of Guam and Puerto Rico from Spain, and political and economic control over Cuba through the Platt Amendment. According to many historians, the United States had thus begun to display attributes of strong imperialism. Hawaii, which for years had tried to avoid overthrow of their beloved monarchy, was annexed.

In the wake of the combat in Cuba came a scandal over the evacuation of ill and injured troops on two private ships, the Seneca and the Concho, chartered by the Army. Allegations included severe overcrowding on board as well as profiteering in the chartering arrangements. Secretary Alger was said to have acted as an intermediary on behalf of the charter companies which resulted in the premature conclusion of the investigation ordered by the President. Indeed, the rapid victory could not overshadow many areas of mismanagement found in the War Department, including supply management problems by the Quartermaster, food poisoning found throughout the Commissary, and incompetence within the Medical Corps. By the time of the mid-term elections, the President was under pressure from the press, emboldened by public comments critical of the Army from General Nelson Miles; McKinley formed a commission, lead by Granville M. Dodge, to investigate the various issues within the War Department. Miles' testimony was discounted as politically motivated, and the final report of the commission, viewed with considerable skepticism, found deplorable lapses in war preparations but no corruption.

There is a disputed recollection by one person who said McKinley told him in 1899," ... one night it came to me this way...(1) That we could not give them [the Philippines] back to Spain – that would be cowardly and dishonorable; (2) that we could not turn them over to France or Germany – our commercial rivals in the Orient – that would be bad business and discreditable; (3) that we could not leave them to themselves – they were unfit for self-government – and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain's was; and (4) that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them." The above recollection is not corroborated, according to biographer Gould, who rejects the quotation as unlikely to have been made.

Historians Schweikart and Allen indicate that the "Christianize" point represented a minor factor in the President's policy, though Protestant American missionaries had a presence on the islands. Other historians have dismissed the missionary element as an excuse for sheer secular expansionism. Leech points out that the Fillipinos represented the largest group of Catholics in the Far East. McKinley's policy in favor of annexation was in large part based on the inability of the U.S. to defend the various islands from a limited position in Manila. Great Britain was in favor of the policy and Spain was financially unable to sustain the islands. Annexation was a difficult position for the President, as he had previously denounced "the greed of conquest" and "the criminal aggression of annexation".

Election of 1900 and second term

As this campaign poster indicates, McKinley ran on his record of prosperity and victory in 1900, winning easy reelection over Bryan.

Main article: United States presidential election, 1900

The President was nominated by his party with Theodore Roosevelt as his running mate. He was publicly silent on the V.P. choice, but privately preferred Sen. William B. Allison, the "father of the Senate" as the V.P. nominee, who declined the offer; McKinley thought Roosevelt should head the War Department. He was re-elected in 1900, this time with economic prosperity in hand and an ebullient national mood after the successful war. Foreign policy was the paramount issue, with the Democrats denouncing the colonialism of the Republicans and insisting the Constitution should follow the flag to annexed territories. William Jennings Bryan, again the Democratic candidate, also reprised the silver issue. McKinley easily won re-election, giving Republicans the largest electoral margin since 1872.

All of McKinley's cabinet at the time of the election continued in service with the exception of the Attorney General. In early 1901 the President pressed for settlement of the constitutional and governmental questions in Cuba so that the focus could be turned to the Philippines. He also led negotiations with Congress on the Spooner bill authorizing establishment of a civil government in the Philippines. Taft was made provisional governor there to demonstrate the nation's resolve to emphasize civil versus military solutions.

The President and Mrs. McKinley took a trip west to California in May 1901. She became quite ill on the trip, and McKinley spent most of his time with his wife, but he was able to deliver a speech in San Jose, California on May 13 and to attend his parade in San Francisco on May 14. The president went to Oakland without his wife, to speak on May 17. The President visited the Union Iron Works of San Francisco to observe the launching of the battleship, USS Ohio (BB-12). Mrs. William McKinley attended the ceremony, but the First Lady became critically (though temporarily) ill in San Francisco and a planned tour of the Northwest was cancelled.

Assassination

Main article: Assassination of William McKinley

Anarchist and Assassin Leon Czolgosz

The President and Mrs. McKinley spent the summer of 1901 at home in Canton, Ohio and then attended the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York beginning in late August. He delivered a speech about his positions on tariffs and foreign trade on September 5, 1901. The following morning, McKinley visited Niagara Falls before returning to the Exposition. That afternoon McKinley had an engagement to greet the public at the Temple of Music. Standing in line, Leon Frank Czolgosz waited with a .32 caliber pistol in his right hand concealed by a handkerchief. At 4:07 pm Czolgosz fired twice at the president. The first bullet grazed his shoulder, but the second went through his stomach, pancreas, and kidney, and finally lodged in the muscles of his back. McKinley whispered to his secretary, George Cortelyou, “My wife, Cortelyou, be careful how you tell her, oh be careful.” Czolgosz would have fired again, but he was struck by a bystander and then subdued by an enraged crowd. The wounded McKinley reportedly called out, "Boys! Don't let them hurt him!" because the angry crowd beat Czolgosz so severely it looked as if they might kill him on the spot.

One bullet was easily found and extracted, but doctors were unable to locate the second bullet. It was feared that the search for the bullet might cause more harm than good. In addition, McKinley appeared to be recovering, so doctors decided to leave the bullet where it was.

The newly developed x-ray machine was displayed at the fair, but doctors were reluctant to use it on McKinley to search for the bullet because they did not know what side effects it might have on him. The operating room at the exposition's emergency hospital did not have any electric lighting, even though the exteriors of many of the buildings at the extravagant exposition were covered with thousands of light bulbs. The surgeons were unable to operate by candlelight because of the danger created by the flammable ether used to keep the president unconscious, so doctors were forced to use pans instead to reflect sunlight onto the operating table while they treated McKinley's wounds.

McKinley's doctors believed he would recover, and he convalesced for more than a week in Buffalo at the home of the exposition's director. On the morning of September 12, he felt strong enough to receive his first food orally since the shooting – toast and a small cup of coffee. However, by afternoon he began to experience discomfort and his condition rapidly worsened. McKinley began to go into shock. At 2:15 am on September 14, 1901, eight days after he was shot, he died at age 58 from gangrene surrounding his wounds. His last words were, "It is God's way; His will be done, not ours." He was originally buried in the receiving vault of West Lawn Cemetery in Canton, Ohio. His remains were later reinterred in the McKinley Memorial, also in Canton.

Czolgosz was indicted and tried by Erie County District Attorney Thomas Penny, and was convicted of President McKinley's assassination. Czolgosz was executed with the relatively new technology of the electric chair at New York's Auburn State Prison on the morning of October 29, 1901. After the execution, Czolgosz's body was buried on prison grounds following the autopsy. Prison authorities poured sulfuric acid into Czolgosz's coffin so that his body would be completely disfigured. The warden estimated the acid caused the body to disintegrate within 12 hours.

The scene of the assassination, the Temple of Music, was demolished in November 1901, along with the rest of the Exposition grounds. A stone marker in the middle of Fordham Drive, a residential street in Buffalo, marks the approximate spot where the shooting occurred. Czolgosz's revolver is on display in the Pan-American Exposition exhibit at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society in Buffalo.

McKinley was the last veteran of the American Civil War in the White House; he was the last president of the 19th century and the first of the 20th.

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  "Temple of Music, Buffalo, N.Y. (Where Pres. McKinley was shot)," historical postcard.

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  McKinley entering the Temple of Music shortly before his assassination.

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  Leon Czolgosz shoots President McKinley with a concealed revolver.

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  McKinley casket at Capitol.

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  McKinley's coffin passing the Treasury building.

Administration and appointments

President McKinley and his cabinet

The McKinley Cabinet
Office	Name	Term
President	William McKinley	1897–1901
Vice President	Garret A. Hobart	1897–1899
	None	1899–1901
	Theodore Roosevelt	1901
Secretary of State	John Sherman	1897–1898
	William R. Day	1898
	John Hay	1898–1901
Secretary of Treasury	Lyman J. Gage	1897–1901
Secretary of War	Russell A. Alger	1897–1899
	Elihu Root	1899–1901
Attorney General	Joseph McKenna	1897–1898
	John W. Griggs	1898–1901
	Philander C. Knox	1901
Postmaster General	James A. Gary	1897–1898
	Charles E. Smith	1898–1901
Secretary of the Navy	John D. Long	1897–1901
Secretary of the Interior	Cornelius N. Bliss	1897–1899
	Ethan A. Hitchcock	1899–1901
Secretary of Agriculture	James Wilson	1897–1901

Judicial appointments

Supreme Court

McKinley appointed the following Justice to the Supreme Court of the United States:

• Joseph McKenna – 1898

Other judges

Main article: William McKinley judicial appointments

Along with his Supreme Court appointment, McKinley appointed six judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, and 28 judges to the United States district courts.

Monuments and memorials

McKinley memorial in front of the Ohio Statehouse

McKinley's tomb in Canton

A funeral was held at the Milburn Mansion in Buffalo, after which the body was removed to Buffalo City Hall where it lay in-state for a public viewing. It was taken later to the White House, United States Capitol and finally to the late President's home in Canton for a memorial. Memorials for the President were held in London, England at Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral.

• William McKinley Presidential Library and Museum, Canton, Ohio.
• McKinley Memorial Mausoleum, Canton, Ohio, his final resting place.
• National McKinley Birthplace Memorial Library and Museum, Niles, Ohio, designed by McKim, Mead and White, dedicated October 5, 1917.
• McKinley Birthplace Home and Research Center, Niles, Ohio, a reconstruction on the site where he was born.
• The statue of McKinley in Muskegon, Michigan is believed to be the first raised in his honor in the country, put in place on May 23, 1902. It was sculpted by Charles Henry Niehaus.
• McKinley Monument, Buffalo, New York
• William McKinley Monument, Panhandle park and McKinley Square Park, Potrero Hill (dates to 1870, renamed for McKinley), San Francisco, California
• William McKinley Monument, Antietam National Battlefield, Sharpsburg, Maryland (dedicated October 13, 1903)

Film of McKinley's inauguration

McKinley was the first President to appear on film extensively. His inauguration was also the first Presidential inauguration to be filmed. Most of the films were recorded by the Edison Company.

Video clip of the "Black Horse Cavalry" leading the presidential delegation down Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington D.C. for the inauguration of McKinley

Sources

Books

• Armstrong, William H. (2000). Major McKinley: William McKinley and the Civil War. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. ISBN 0873386574. 
• Cherny, Robert W. (1994). A Righteous Cause: The Life of William Jennings Bryan. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806126671. 
• Gould, Lewis L. (1980). The Presidency of William McKinley. American Presidency. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0700602062. 
• Hoogenboom, Ari (1995). Rutherford Hayes: Warrior and President. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 9780700606412. 
• Horner, William T. (2010). Ohio's Kingmaker: Mark Hanna, Man and Myth. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. ISBN 9780821418949. 
• Kazin, Michael (2006). A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0375411356. 
• Leech, Margaret (1959). In the Days of McKinley. New York: Harper and Brothers. OCLC 456809. 
• Morgan, H. Wayne (2003). William McKinley and His America (revised ed.). Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press. ISBN 9780873387651. 
• Phillips, Kevin (2003). William McKinley. New York, New York: Times Books. ISBN 0805069534. 
• Williams, R. Hal (2010). Realigning America: McKinley, Bryan and the Remarkable Election of 1896. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 9780700617210. 

Articles

• Nichols, Jeannette P. (December 1933). "Silver Diplomacy". Political Science Quarterly 48 (4): 565–588. JSTOR 2142930. 
• Weisenburger, Francis P. (June 1934). "The Time of Mark Hanna's First Acquaintance with McKinley". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 21 (1): 78–80. JSTOR 1896406. 

Works cited

• Gould, Lewis L. The Spanish–American War and President McKinley (1982)
• Hamilton, Richard. President McKinley, War, and Empire (2006).
• Jensen, Richard. The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888–1896 (1971)
• McKinley, William. Speeches and Addresses of William McKinley: from his election to Congress to the present time (1893)
• Olcott, Charles S. The Life of William McKinley. (1916), online at Google
• Schweikart, Larry; Michael Allen (2004). A Patriot's History of the United States. Easton Press. 

Other sources

Domestic issues and politics

• Armstrong, William H. Major McKinley: William McKinley and the Civil War (2000) excerpt and text search
• Faulkner, Harold U. Politics, Reform, and Expansion, 1890–1900 (1959). standard scholarly survey online edition
• Glad, Paul W. McKinley, Bryan, and the People (1964). short history of 1896 election
• Jones, Stanley L. The Presidential Election of 1896. the standard history.
• Josephson, Matthew. The Politicos: 1865–1896 (1938) a leftist perspective
• Morgan, H. Wayne. From Hayes to McKinley: National Party Politics, 1877–1896 (1969), online edition
• Rhodes, James Ford. The McKinley and Roosevelt Administrations, 1897–1909 (1922), early scholarly history full text online
• Saldin, Robert P. "William McKinley and the Rhetorical Presidency," Presidential Studies Quarterly (March 2011) 41#1 pp 119–134, DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-5705.2010.03833.x
• Skrabec, Quentin R. William McKinley, apostle of protectionism (Algora, 2008) 269 pages excerpt and text search
• Williams, R. Hal. Years of Decision: American Politics in the 1890s (1993) survey by scholar

Foreign policy

• Crompton, Samuel Willard (2009). The Sinking of the USS Maine: Declaring War Against Spain. New York,: Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60413-049-2. 
• Dobson, John M. Reticient Expansionism: The Foreign Policy of William McKinley. (1988).
• Fry Joseph A. "William McKinley and the Coming of the Spanish-American War: A Study of the Besmirching and Redemption of an Historical Image," Diplomatic History 3 (Winter 1979): 77–97
• Harrington, Fred H. "The Anti-Imperialist Movement in the United States, 1898–1900," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Sept. 1935), pp. 211–230 in JSTOR
• Holbo, Paul S. "Presidential Leadership in Foreign Affairs: William McKinley and the Turpie-Foraker Amendment," The American Historical Review 1967 72 (4): 1321–1335. in JSTOR
• May, Ernest. Imperial Democracy: The Emergence of America as a Great Power (1961)
• Offner, John L. "McKinley and the Spanish-American War," Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 34#1 (2004) pp 50+. online edition
  • Offner, John L. An Unwanted War: The Diplomacy of the United States and Spain over Cuba, 1895–1898 (1992) online edition
• Paterson. Thomas G. "United States Intervention in Cuba, 1898: Interpretations of the Spanish-American-Cuban-Filipino War," The History Teacher, Vol. 29, No. 3 (May 1996), pp. 341–361 in JSTOR
• Trask, David. The War with Spain in 1898. (1981).

Speeches and manuscripts

• McKinley, William. Abraham Lincoln. An Address by William McKinley of Ohio. Before the Marquette Club. Chicago. February 12, 1896(1896)
• McKinley, William. Speeches and Addresses of William McKinley: from March 1, 1897, to May 30, 1900 (1900)
• McKinley, William. The Tariff; a Review of the Tariff Legislation of the United States from 1812 to 1896 (1904)

External links

• Essay on William McKinley and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
• William McKinley: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• McKinley Assassination Ink: A Documentary History
• William McKinley Presidential Library and Memorial
• Works by William McKinley at Project Gutenberg, presidential messages
• A film clip McKinley's inaugural parade is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• Q&A interview with Scott Miller on The President and the Assassin, June 22, 2011