William McKinley

Source

• Born: 29 January 1843
• Birthplace: Niles, Ohio
• Died: 14 September 1901 (assassination)
• Best Known As: President of the United States, 1897-1901

A Republican congressman from Ohio, William McKinley beat out William Jennings Bryan in 1896 to become the 25th president of the United States. McKinley called for war against Spain in 1898, partly over the sinking of the battleship Maine. The war was over in four months, with the U.S. gaining control of Guam, Puerto Rico and The Philippines. McKinley was easily re-elected, this time with a new vice president, Theodore Roosevelt. Six months after his second inauguration, McKinley was shot twice in the chest by assassin Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley died eight days later and Roosevelt became president.

McKinley's inauguration was the first one ever filmed... McKinley had a distinguished career during the Civil War; in 1865, at the age of 22, he was breveted a major... McKinley's political career relied heavily on the financing of Ohio businessman Marcus A. Hanna... McKinley wore a pink carnation in his lapel.

(click to enlarge)
William McKinley (credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

(born Jan. 29, 1843, Niles, Ohio, U.S. — died Sept. 14, 1901, Buffalo, N.Y.) 25th president of the U.S. (1897 – 1901). He served in the American Civil War as an aide to Col. Rutherford B. Hayes, who later encouraged his political career. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1877 – 91), where he favoured protective tariffs; he was the principal sponsor of the McKinley Tariff of 1890. With the support of Mark Hanna, he won two terms as governor of Ohio (1892 – 96). As the Republican presidential candidate in 1896 he decisively defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan. In 1897 he signed the Dingley Tariff, the highest protective tariff in American history to that time. In 1898 the USS Maine exploded and sank in the harbour of Havana, Cuba, then a colony of Spain; believing the Spanish responsible, McKinley demanded independence for the island, which Spain refused. The U.S. easily won the brief Spanish-American War. McKinley supported ratification of the peace treaty that ceded the Spanish possessions of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the U.S., claiming that the U.S. had an obligation to assume responsibility for "the welfare of an alien people." Following his inauguration in 1901 he began a speaking tour of the western states, during which he urged control of the trusts and commercial reciprocity to boost foreign trade. On Sept. 6, 1901, he was fatally shot by an anarchist, Leon Czolgosz. He was succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt.

For more information on William McKinley, visit Britannica.com.

Born and raised in Ohio, McKinley enlisted in 1861 as a private in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Regiment. A commissary sergeant at the Battle of Antietam (1862), he was later promoted to captain and ended his military service as brevet major. His career in law and Republican politics included terms as congressman, senator, and two‐term governor of Ohio before his election as president in 1896.

The president's own military experience and the opposition of big business made him reluctant to lead the nation into war, so he pressed the Spanish government to control a rebellion that had begun in Cuba in 1895. An astute politician, McKinley was aware of his countrymen's growing impatience as the conflict persisted, particularly after the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor. When the Spanish government proved unable to end the war, he asked Congress for a war declaration in April 1898.

As commander in chief in the Spanish‐American War, McKinley monitored all phases of the conflict. He also stepped in to run the War Department when Secretary of War Russell Alger proved incapable of the demands of managing a 27,000‐man regular army and thousands of volunteers. Fortunately, the Spanish were war‐weary and poorly supplied, and the U.S. Navy was newly outfitted. Only 379 Americans lost their lives in combat.

McKinley gave subordinates such as Commodore George Dewey in the Philippines and Gen. Rufus Shafter in Cuba considerable latitude, though he approved all key decisions, such as sending ground forces to support Dewey's tenuous naval control. (He welcomed Shafter's negotiation of a peaceful occupation of Santiago de Cuba after that city had fallen under U.S. siege.)

The president controlled the diplomatic agenda as well. He supported the Teller Amendment to the war declaration that ruled out annexation of Cuba, but refused to extend recognition to the rebel governments in Cuba or in the Philippines. The occupation government that Gen. Leonard Wood established in Cuba was removed only when the Cubans approved the Platt Amendment (1901) that effectively made their island a U.S. protectorate. McKinley demanded that Spain relinquish control of the Philippines to the United States in the peace treaty signed in Paris 10 December 1898, and he authorized the use of U.S. troops to put down a bloody guerrilla war against U.S. occupation of the Philippines.

[See also Cuba, U.S. Military Involvement in; Philippine War; Philippines, U.S. Military Involvement in the; Spanish‐American War.]

Bibliography

• Lewis L. Gould, The Presidency of William McKinley, 1982.
• John Dobson, Reticent Expansionism, 1988

McKinley, William (1843-1901)25th president of the United States (1897-1901), born in Niles, Ohio. During the Civil War McKinley fought with an Ohio infantry unit and displayed bravery in combat at Antietam (1862). As a U.S. representative (1877-91), he was identified with the protective tariff and economic nationalism. He became chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in 1889. The McKinley Tariff of 1890, which raised customs duties but authorized trade reciprocity, cost him his seat in the next election. After two terms as governor of Ohio (elected 1891, 1893), McKinley obtained the Republican nomination for president in 1896 and conducted his famous “front-porch” campaign against William Jennings Bryan on a platform endorsing the gold standard as well as the protective tariff. Remaining at his Ohio home while the oratorically flamboyant Bryan toured the country, McKinley, aided by an intense and expensive promotional print campaign, won both the popular and electoral vote. McKinley proved a forceful executive who traveled widely and cultivated the press, setting aside space in the White House for daily news briefings from the administration. Domestically his tenure was marked by increased tariffs and consolidation of the gold standard. In foreign policy, the key event of his tenure was the Spanish-American War (1898), brought about by the rebellion against Spanish rule in Cuba and precipitated by the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor (February 1898). Throughout the short conflict and later protracted Philippine insurrection, McKinley played a key role as commander in chief, giving the attack order that sent George Dewey to Manila Bay and then governing the islands through the war powers. McKinley shaped the strategy of the peace talks that resulted in U.S. acquisition of the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. His administration also initiated the open door policy with China and oversaw the treaty that cleared the way for the building of the Panama Canal. His foreign policy record coupled with prosperity and complemented by Theodore Roosevelt as a running mate led to a decisive victory in the 1900 presidential election, in which his opponent was again Bryan. A few months after his inauguration, McKinley was shot by an anarchist while visiting the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. He died eight days later.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

William McKinley (1843-1901) was the twenty-fifth president of the United States. During his administration the Spanish-American War of 1898 over shadowed the two important issues of tariff and currency, presenting the United States with new problems of world power and territorial expansion.

With the growth of post-Civil War industrialism, serious social and economic problems developed in the United States. Agricultural depression brought severe hardship and farm unrest; relations between laborers and employers deteriorated; and Americans argued over what monetary policies the U.S. government should adopt to maintain a healthy economy.

As congressman, governor, and president, William McKinley emphasized obtaining prosperity by stimulating American business via a favorable tariff structure. Although early in his career he directed his energies toward protective tariffs on finished materials, he later favored tariffs modified by reciprocity treaties. Under these, he hoped that raw materials would enter the United States at low tariff rates, making possible low prices on finished goods, which could then compete on the world market. By agreeing to admit raw materials with low tariffs, the United States would gain low tariff entry to other nations for finished products.

Second in McKinley's thinking was the currency problem. Much of the political debate in the late 19th century focused on the currency question - whether the amount of currency in circulation should be increased and, if so, by what means. For 30 years McKinley advocated limited silver coinage. Yet, by the time he became president, he had been converted to international bimetallism: an agreement by several countries to base currency on both gold and silver, set at a fixed ratio. If international bimetallism was unobtainable, he favored maintaining currency soundness by using the gold standard. Devoted to business interests and a healthy economy, McKinley supported a foreign policy creating new markets for United States products. This was particularly manifest in his handling of the Spanish-American War and in the open-door policy with China.

Background and Early Career

William McKinley was born in Niles, Ohio, on Jan. 29, 1843. He was educated and later taught school in Ohio. In the Civil War he fought with the Union Army. Discharged with the brevet rank of major, he studied law briefly at the Albany Law School and opened an office in Canton, Ohio, in 1867, simultaneously plunging into Republican politics.

First elected to public office as Stark County prosecuting attorney in 1869, McKinley became a congressman in 1876. In and out of the House of Representatives until 1890 (depending on the gerrymandering of his district) he rose steadily in influence within Ohio Republican politics as well as in national circles. During this period, many prominent politicians came from Ohio. Although this made competition for leadership in the state very keen, it also assisted ambitious young men. For example, having served under Rutherford B. Hayes in the Civil War, McKinley continued to benefit from his counsel and prominence.

The Ohio Republican party, mirroring the diversity of the state, was held together through compromises, by middle-of-the-roaders. Moreover, Ohio was a two-party state, with Democrats effectively vying for all offices. A successful politician had to be sensitive to the wishes of farmers, steel mill owners, emerging labor unions, urban ethnic enclaves, city machines, soft-currency men, and powerful figures in commerce and finance. Aware of this, McKinley tried to balance between extreme positions on tariffs and on fiscal policy. This moderation was a key to his handling of men and his approach to problems.

McKinley made some concessions to the Ohio forces demanding bimetallism, cloaking his restrained advocacy of silver coinage with exhortations that currency must be stable and safe. On one side, gold proponents argued that every dollar should be backed by gold and the government should purchase no other metals. On the other side, silver forces argued for widespread silver purchasing and distribution of paper based on silver. Greenback forces advocated increasing the volume of paper money, without attempting to maintain deposits of metal sufficient for redemption. Finally, some argued that the best system would be an international agreement for currency based on both gold and silver. McKinley accepted something of each argument, emerging with views that were palatable rather than consistent or rational.

Not innovative in approaching issues, McKinley responded to others' suggestions without becoming a captive of their ideas. To some extent, his interest in tariff problems exceeded the sophistication of his economic analysis: in this, he shared the view widespread in the Republican party that tariff legislation was critical to the nation's economy.

Skilled in organization and administration, McKinley was effective with other politicians and convincing to constituents. He was considered sincere and amiable. Identified first with the Ohio gubernatorial campaign of Rutherford B. Hayes, he later supported Joseph Foraker for governor, Hayes for president, and, still later, John Sherman and then James G. Blaine for the presidency. At several national Republican conventions, he played a prominent role, primarily because he was able to compromise party disharmony and to defend the tariff policy.

Congressman and Governor

McKinley's forte in Congress was the tariff, which he believed was the key to economic vitality. He defended the tariff as a means of producing higher wages by expanding home markets; expanding home markets would be possible only if low-cost foreign products were kept off United States markets. Initially he supported high protective tariffs, but later he advocated a scheme of selective tariffs tied to reciprocity provisions.

After serving on the House Judiciary Committee and the Ways and Means Committee, McKinley became chairman of the latter in 1889, charged with bringing forth a new tariff bill. The McKinley Tariff of 1890, including limited reciprocity provisions, was oriented toward protection and included many compromise provisions favorable to special-interest groups. His tariff posture helped spread his fame outside the halls of Congress, even though he was defeated in the election of 1890.

Mark Hanna, a wealthy Cleveland industrialist, lent assistance to McKinley after 1890, helping him win the Ohio gubernatorial race in 1891 and secure reelection in 1893. Hanna, a skillful organizer and generous donor, encouraged McKinley to travel and to speak on public issues, especially the tariff. McKinley's views on fiscal policy had not been consistent, and he viewed the passion of the silver issue as misdirected.

As governor, McKinley won labor sympathy by contributing to relief funds for strikers, as well as by passing laws favorable to labor. Labor leaders, normally suspicious of a politician so sympathetic to industry, gave him lukewarm backing.

By the opening of the 1896 Republican convention in St. Louis, McKinley was the logical choice for the presidential nomination. Hanna's planning, McKinley's identification with tariffs as the protectors of prosperity, plus his ability to blur issues and to hold together a party split over both tariffs and currency gave him important advantages. As nominee, McKinley campaigned from Canton, Ohio, in a restrained manner, stressing that a Republican victory would mean prosperity for the nation. His opponent, William Jennings Bryan, traveled extensively, emphasizing the merits of free silver and seeming to challenge the familiar patterns of American politics. To many, Bryan seemed a threat to the whole system of government, if not to the social order. After a bitter campaign, McKinley, benefiting from the anti-Democratic voting pattern visible since 1893, swept handily into the White House.

The President

For his Cabinet, McKinley chose politicians and businessmen, including John Sherman as secretary of state. Later, he added several other men of considerable stature and ability. Though he had enjoyed cordial relations with colleagues in Congress, he settled for a cautious domestic program, central to which was tariff reform. The Dingley Tariff, incorporating additional reciprocity features, raised tariffs to new heights. Administration efforts to promote international bimetallism came to naught, opening the way to the passage of the Gold Standard Act of 1900 (legalizing the gold standard and setting aside special funds for currency redemption). The battle between gold and silver was for all practical purposes at an end, as world production of gold increased simultaneously with the return of prosperity.

Benefiting from better times, McKinley skillfully manipulated both politicians and the public, welding a more united Republican party with tours and personal charm. His domestic program and achievements as party leader were overwhelmed, however, by the diplomatic imbroglio that led to the Spanish-American War and annexation of overseas territories.

The Cuban revolution of 1895 against Spain inflamed United States citizens for various reasons: the press reported in detail the savage repressive techniques used by the Spanish army; American sugar companies decried the interruption of their trade and profit by protracted war; and some business and financial leaders saw declaration of war against Spain as necessary for the growth of American trade and the stability of the stock market. Meanwhile, proponents of world power and leadership for the United States spread the opinion that Spanish tyranny had to be curtailed in the Western Hemisphere. The fever pitch of interest in the 1896 election and the agrarian resentment of the 1890s were replaced by widespread calls for war.

To these pressures McKinley responded reluctantly, resisting congressional insistence on war in favor of negotiation with Spain. He preferred an autonomous Cuba, perhaps loosely linked to Spain - a suggestion that Spain at first resisted strongly and then accepted. But events moved too fast: domestic pressure for war was very strong, and McKinley hardened his policy, going to Congress with a war message in April 1898. By that time Spain had met most of McKinley's earlier demands, but it was too late to avert a military clash.

The Spanish-American War was brief, with United States forces triumphant over the Spanish fleet in the Philippines and later over both land and naval forces in Cuba. In establishing peace terms, the United States faced the vexatious problem of how to dispose of former Spanish colonies. The President, admitting to indecision and lack of knowledge, was urged by anti-imperialists to renounce permanent sovereignty or protectorate arrangements as hostile to American traditions of freedom of choice for peoples. However, the proannexation forces carried the day, arguing that national interest lay with expansion, that it was America's duty to uplift the people of the Spanish possessions, and that relinquishing the Philippines would invite a power scramble among other nations. Confused and uncertain, McKinley finally opted for annexation of the Philippines, which was accomplished by the Treaty of Paris (ratified in 1899). Cuba was set free of Spain; Puerto Rico and Guam were ceded to the United States. In choosing territorial expansion, McKinley was enhancing the prospects for development of United States trade, an end to which he had long been devoted.

One of the key pins of American diplomacy was securing trade rights, preferably without political or military intervention. To safeguard trading rights in the Far East, McKinley sent to the Great Powers the open-door notes of 1899 and 1900. Basically, these stipulated that the United States expected nations with spheres of influence in China not to interfere with American rights and privileges nor to discriminate against other nations in setting port and railroad rates.

The major issue of the 1900 campaign, in which McKinley was again opposed by Bryan, was imperialism, though for all practical purposes the decisions had already been taken. McKinley was reelected by a large margin. Of great concern during his second administration were problems of governing the new dependencies. But before McKinley could turn to another round of tariff reform, he was shot by Leon F. Czolgosz, an anarchist, in Buffalo, N.Y., on Sept. 6, 1901. McKinley died eight days later.

Further Reading

The best biographies of McKinley are Margaret Leech, In the Days of McKinley (1959), and Howard W. Morgan, William McKinley and His America (1963). George H. Mayer, The Republican Party, 1854-1966 (2d ed. 1967), describes Republican politics on the national level; and Joseph R. Hollingsworth, The Whirligig of Politics: The Democracy of Cleveland and Bryan (1963), emphasizes the contest between the Republican and Democratic parties at the turn of the century. The excitement of the 1896 election is captured in Paul W. Glad, McKinley, Bryan and the People (1964). For an overview Harold U. Faulkner, Politics, Reform, and Expansion, 1890-1900 (1959), is helpful. A broader view of the problems in the United States faced after Reconstruction is offered by Robert H. Wiebe, The Search for Order, 1877-1920 (1967).

• Born: Jan. 29, 1843, Niles, Ohio
• Political party: Republican
• Education: Allegheny College, 1860; Albany Law School, 1866
• Military service: 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 1861–65
• Previous government service: prosecuting attorney, Stark County, Ohio, 1870–71; U.S. House of Representatives, 1877–85, 1887–91; governor of Ohio, 1892–96
• Elected President, 1896; served, 1897–1901
• Died: Sept. 14, 1901, Buffalo, N.Y.

William McKinley protected the interests of big business while doing little to alleviate the social problems caused by industrialization. McKinley's victory in the Spanish-American War made the United States into a world power and transformed the Presidency into an office of world leadership.

McKinley grew up in a small town in Ohio. During the Civil War he enlisted in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, serving as an aide to Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes. He was promoted to major for bravery in the Battle of Fisher's Hill.

After the war McKinley studied law. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Stark County in 1869 but was defeated for reelection two years later. In 1876 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he gained a reputation for supporting high tariffs. His grandfather and father were iron manufacturers, which may explain why he championed business interests as chair of the Committee on Ways and Means. But the high rates of the McKinley Tariff Act of 1890 were so unpopular with the voters that he was defeated in the next election. He then organized two successful campaigns for governor of Ohio with the help of Mark Hanna, a Cleveland businessman and political fund-raiser.

In 1896 the Republican convention nominated McKinley for President on the first ballot, and Hanna organized his successful campaign. McKinley sat on his front porch in Canton, Ohio, and greeted 750,000 visitors from 30 states while his Democratic opponent, William Jennings Bryan, frantically traveled 18,000 miles by rail. Hanna organized a pro-tariff, probusiness coalition for McKinley, who won by a healthy margin in the electoral college.

McKinley presided over a period of industrial expansion. He supported the record-high Dingley Tariff of 1897. Soon he had to turn his attention to foreign affairs. Spain was trying to put down a rebellion in its Cuban province that had begun in 1895. The Spanish commander, known as Butcher Weyler, put Cuban civilians into concentration camps and American opinion swung solidly behind the rebellion. The sinking of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, with the loss of 260 lives, fanned the war fever in the United States. On March 1, the U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry sent its findings to Washington–results that implicated Spain (though the U.S. Navy much later, in 1976, agreed with the results of the Spanish investigation that claimed that the explosion was an accident). McKinley tried to prevent war by winning some concessions from Spain, including the closing of the concentration camps and an armistice with the Cuban rebels. But two days after the Spanish made those concessions, McKinley finally bowed to public opinion and asked Congress for a declaration of war. On April 19 Congress passed a joint resolution authorizing U.S. intervention to win Cuban independence from Spain.

With Admiral George Dewey's destruction of the Spanish Pacific fleet in Manila, the Philippines, on May 1, 1898, the United States became a world power with global influence. Three days later, Congress approved a long-standing resolution of annexation for the Hawaiian Islands. According to the terms of the Treaty of Paris with Spain in December 1898, the United States became a colonial power, occupying Cuba (temporarily), Puerto Rico, and Guam and gaining Wake Island and Samoa in 1899.

McKinley then won a series of victories in Congress for his foreign policy. He got Senate consent for the Treaty of Paris in spite of the opposition of House Speaker Thomas Reed and the Anti-Imperialist League, an American organization opposed to the acquisition of colonies. McKinley's tariff reciprocity policies, designed to encourage free trade in selected markets–trade under low or no tariffs–were accepted by Congress even though they contradicted traditional Republican support for protectionist tariffs. He won passage of the Spooner Amendment, which allowed him to institute military government in the Philippines, and the Platt Amendment, which permitted U.S. intervention in Cuban affairs.

In his annual message to Congress in 1899, McKinley denied the claim of the Philippine leader Emilio Aguinaldo that Admiral Dewey had promised independence to the islands in return for local help against the Spanish. The McKinley administration was determined to keep the islands. To do so, it put down a bloody rebellion of Philippine patriots that lasted three years and employed 120,000 U.S. soldiers.

In 1900 the McKinley administration intervened in China with 2,500 troops (along with Japan and several Western nations) to put down the Boxer Rebellion against Westerners in Beijing. The United States received a payment of $25 million from China for damages suffered but returned $18 million so that Chinese students could study in the United States. McKinley also intervened twice in Nicaragua to protect lives and property.

McKinley's Vice President, Garret Hobart, died in office in 1899, and McKinley accepted Theodore Roosevelt as the choice of the Republican convention to be his running mate in 1900. Mark Hanna opposed the nomination. “Don't you realize there's only one life between this madman and the Presidency?” he asked convention delegates. McKinley's margin over William Jennings Bryan improved in their 1900 rematch, and he became the first President since Ulysses S. Grant to win a second consecutive term.

McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901, and died of his wounds eight days later. Hanna and the Republican party would now have to deal with Teddy Roosevelt and his progressive policies.

See also Hobart, Garret; Roosevelt, Theodore; Treaty powers

Sources

• Margaret Leech, In the Days of McKinley (New York: Harper, 1959).
• Lewis L. Gould, The Presidency of William McKinley (Lawrence: Regents Press of Kansas, 1980).
• H. Wayne Morgan, William McKinley and His America (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1963)

(1843-1901), twenty-fifth president of the United States. Born in Ohio, McKinley attended Allegheny College in Pennsylvania until his ill health forced him to return to Ohio, where he taught school. When the Civil War came, McKinley, who was eighteen, joined Rutherford B. Hayes's regiment as a private and after four years of fighting was breveted a major. After the war, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1867.

A staunch Republican and good campaigner, McKinley owed his rapid rise in Ohio politics to his friend Hayes. Although his district was strongly Democratic, McKinley was elected to serve in Congress from 1877 to 1883 and from 1885 to 1891, losing only in the Democratic landslide years of 1882 and 1890. In Congress he became the most conspicuous champion of protectionism and the primary author of the McKinley Tariff of 1890; he included in it (at the behest of James G. Blaine) a novel feature authorizing reciprocal trade agreements designed to enhance American exports abroad.

Elected governor of Ohio in 1891 and 1893, McKinley was by 1896 a leading Republican, and aided by his political lieutenant Marcus Alonzo Hanna, he easily secured the presidential nomination. The Democratic party, led by William Jennings Bryan, was discredited, demoralized, and divided by the depression following the panic of 1893. Whereas Bryan wished to inflate the currency by the unlimited coinage of silver, McKinley stressed protection and prosperity, defended the gold standard, and triumphed decisively.

McKinley's amiable personality, his pragmatic approach to issues, his willingness to compromise, and his patient, unobtrusive maneuvering toward his objectives masked his strength of character and his capacity to deal with Congress and dominate his advisers. After his inauguration McKinley called for a special session of Congress to revise the tariff. With rates higher than the McKinley Tariff, the new Dingley Tariff (1897) also included the reciprocity feature. Not a doctrinaire supporter of gold currency, McKinley initially favored international bimetalism, but when the British rejected that system, he abandoned it and in 1900 approved the Gold Standard Act.

Questions of war and empire, however, not domestic problems, dominated McKinley's presidency. In Cuba a bloody rebellion against Spain, which began in 1895, outraged many Americans who clamored for war with Spain. Using diplomacy and the threat of military intervention, McKinley secured some concessions from Spain, but when it would not give up Cuba, he led the nation into war in 1898. He personally directed the war effort and made the crucial decisions that brought the United States a colonial empire in the Caribbean and the Pacific. His administration suppressed armed Philippine resistance to American rule with tactics similar to those Spain had employed in Cuba, established an American protectorate in Cuba, negotiated the Hay-Pauncefote treaties (1900, 1901), which allowed the United States to construct unilaterally an isthmian canal, and circulated the Open Door notes (1899, 1900), which opposed the dismemberment of China.

McKinley, who had done much to enhance the power and prestige of the presidency, was reelected in 1900, but his second term ended abruptly when he was assassinated by an anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, the next year.

Bibliography:

Lewis L. Gould, The Presidency of William McKinley (1980); H. Wayne Morgan, William McKinley and His America (1963).

Author:

Ari Hoogenboom

See also Elections: 1896 , 1900; Hanna, Marcus Alonzo; Tariff. For events during McKinley's administration, see Caribbean-U.S. Relations; Hawaii Annexation; Open Door Policy; Panama Canal; Philippines; Platt Amendment; Spanish-American War.

A political leader of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; he was president from 1897 to 1901. McKinley, a Republican, led the United States during the Spanish-American War, although he at first opposed taking action against Spain. The United States annexed the Philippines in his presidency. McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist (see anarchism) shortly after his reelection.

William McKinley served as the twenty-fifth president of the United States, from 1897 until his death from an assassin's bullet in 1901. A conservative Republican who advocated high tariffs to protect U.S. industry, McKinley waged the Spanish-American War and at the end of it gained overseas territories for the United States.

McKinley was born January 29, 1843, in Niles, Ohio. As a young man, he briefly attended Allegheny College, in Meadville, Pennsylvania; taught school; and fought in the Union army during the Civil War, attaining the rank of major. McKinley was aide-de-camp to the regimental commander, Rutherford B. Hayes, who was later governor of Ohio and the nineteenth U.S. president. After the war McKinley studied law with an attorney and attended Albany Law School, in New York. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1867, and established a law practice in Canton, Ohio, which remained his official residence for the rest of his life. From 1869 to 1871, he served as county attorney.

McKinley's political ambitions were nurtured by Hayes. McKinley became active in Ohio Republican politics and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1876. McKinley was an outspoken advocate of higher tariffs, believing that U.S. industry and U.S. workers were protected by the taxation of imported foreign goods. His stand on tariffs culminated in the McKinley Tariff Act of 1890, which raised duties on many imports to the highest levels up to that time. The act was an unpopular measure, and McKinley was voted out of office in the election of 1890.

McKinley returned to Ohio, where he was elected governor in 1891 and reelected governor in 1893. Mark Hanna, a wealthy Ohio industrialist and a leader in national Republican politics, became McKinley's benefactor and helped him secure the 1896 Republican presidential nomination. The Democratic candidate was William Jennings Bryan, who supported free coinage of silver, arguing that it would increase the money supply and thus help farmers and small-business owners. McKinley, who advocated retaining the gold standard, defeated Bryan, with Hanna raising large sums of money from big business to support the campaign. The money was used to help fund more than three hundred delegations and more than 750,000 people who traveled to McKinley's front porch in Canton to hear him campaign.

As president, McKinley signed the Currency Act of 1900 (31 Stat. 45), institutionalizing the gold standard until the 1930s. However, his first term was dominated by foreign affairs and overseas territorial expansion. When McKinley took office, a national independence movement had arisen in Cuba, seeking freedom from Spain. The United States tried to remain neutral while negotiating a solution acceptable to both sides. On February 15, 1898, the U.S. warship Maine blew up in the Havana harbor. Though later investigation suggested that a boiler explosion sank the Maine and killed its crew, immediate public reaction, inflamed by the newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst, blamed Spain for the attack. At McKinley's request Congress approved a declaration of war.

The Spanish-American War was brief, with Spain agreeing to terms in August 1898. Cuba gained its independence, though the United States reserved the right to intervene to ensure stability. Under the peace treaty, Spain transferred to the United States its claims to Puerto Rico and the Philippine Islands. In addition, the U.S. Congress voted in July 1898 to take possession of the Hawaiian Islands. This territorial expansion increased the United States' international prestige as a imperialist power, but some citizens questioned its constitutionality and whether it fit with the U.S. national character. The U.S. Supreme Court decided the legal question in 1901 in a set of decisions known as the Insular cases. The Court held that these new possessions were domestic territory of the United States, under the full control of Congress, and the residents of these new dependencies did not have the rights of citizens (De Lima v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 1, 21 S. Ct. 743, 45 L. Ed. 1041; Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244, 21 S. Ct. 770, 45 L. Ed. 1088).

In the 1900 presidential election, McKinley easily again defeated Bryan, who continued to campaign for free silver and against U.S. imperialism.

On September 6, 1901, McKinley was shot by Leon F. Czolgosz, an anarchist who had dreamed of killing a prominent person, at the Pan-American Exposition, in Buffalo, New York. An infection set into McKinley's wound, and he died September 14, in Buffalo. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded McKinley as president.

Quotes:

"The mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation."

"Let us ever remember that our interest is in concord, not in conflict; and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war."

This article is about the 25th President of the United States; for other people named William McKinley, see William McKinley (disambiguation).

William McKinley
President William McKinley at the turn of the century, by Charles Parker
25th President of the United States
In office March 4, 1897 – September 14, 1901
Vice President	Garret A. Hobart (1897–1899) None (1899–1901) Theodore Roosevelt (1901)
Preceded by	Grover Cleveland
Succeeded by	Theodore Roosevelt
39th Governor of Ohio
In office January 11, 1892 – January 13, 1896
Lieutenant	Andrew Lintner Harris
Preceded by	James E. Campbell
Succeeded by	Asa S. Bushnell
Born	January 29, 1843(1843-01-29) Niles, Ohio
Died	September 14, 1901 (aged 58) Buffalo, New York
Birth name	William McKinley, Jr.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Ida Saxton McKinley
Alma mater	Allegheny College Albany Law School
Occupation	Lawyer
Religion	Methodist
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States of America Union
Service/branch	United States Army Union Army
Years of service	1861–1865
Rank	Captain (brevet major)
Unit	23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment
Battles/wars	American Civil War

William McKinley Jr. (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the 25th President of the United States, and the last veteran of the American Civil War to be elected to the office.

By the 1880s, McKinley was a national Republican leader; his signature issue was high tariffs on imports as a formula for prosperity, as typified by his McKinley Tariff of 1890. As the Republican candidate in the 1896 presidential election, he upheld the gold standard, and promoted pluralism among ethnic groups. His campaign, designed by Mark Hanna, introduced new advertising-style campaign techniques that revolutionized campaign practices and beat back the crusading of his arch-rival, William Jennings Bryan. The 1896 election is often considered a realigning election that marked the beginning of the Progressive Era.

McKinley presided over a return to prosperity after the Panic of 1893. He launched the Spanish-American War, widely popular due to the efforts of the yellow press, using the pretext of Spanish atrocities in Cuba. Later he annexed the former Spanish territories of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam, and set up a protectorate over Cuba. He also presided over the annexation of the formerly independent Kingdom of Hawaii. McKinley was reelected in the 1900 presidential election after another intense campaign against Bryan, this one focused on foreign policy. After McKinley's assassination in 1901 by an anarchist, he was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Legal and early political career 2.1 United States House of Representatives 3 Governor of Ohio 4 The 1896 election 5 Presidency 1897–1901 5.1 Domestic policies 5.2 Foreign policies 5.3 Civil Rights 5.4 Election of 1900 5.5 Significant events during presidency 5.6 Administration and cabinet 5.7 Judicial appointments 5.7.1 Supreme Court 5.7.2 Other judges 6 Assassination 7 Monuments and memorials 8 Media 8.1 Disputed quotation 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 11.1 Primary sources 11.2 Secondary sources 12 External links

Early life

Born in Niles, Ohio, on January 29, 1843, William McKinley was the seventh of nine children. His parents, William and Nancy (Allison) McKinley, were of Scots-Irish and English ancestry.^[1] When McKinley was nine years old, he moved to Poland, Ohio, where he attended Poland Seminary.^[2] He graduated from Poland Seminary and attended Mount Union College, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and attended Allegheny College for one term in 1860.

McKinley at 19, in 1862

In June 1861, at the start of the American Civil War, he enlisted in the Union Army, as a private in the 23rd Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The regiment was sent to western Virginia, where it spent a year fighting small Confederate units. His superior officer, another future U.S. President, Rutherford B. Hayes, promoted McKinley to commissary sergeant for his bravery in battle. For driving a mule team delivering rations under enemy fire at Antietam, Hayes promoted him to Second Lieutenant. This pattern repeated several times during the war, and McKinley eventually mustered out as Captain and brevet major of the same regiment in September 1865. In 1869, the year he entered politics, McKinley met and began courting his future wife, Ida Saxton, marrying her two years later when she was 23 and he was 28. Within the first three years of their marriage the McKinleys would have two daughters, Katherine and Ida, but neither child lived to see the age of five.

Legal and early political career

Following the war, McKinley attended Albany Law School in Albany, New York and was admitted to the bar in 1867. He practiced law in Canton, and served as prosecuting attorney of Stark County from 1869 to 1871. In June 1876, 33 striking miners in the employ of the industrialist Mark Hanna were imprisoned for rioting when Hanna brought in strikebreakers to do the work. McKinley chose to defend the miners in court, and was able to get all but one of them set free. When the miners came to McKinley to pay their legal fees, he refused to accept their money, which they had barely been able to raise. He first became active in the Republican party when he made "speeches in the Canton area for his old commander, Rutherford Hayes, then running for governor" in the state of Ohio.^[3]

Congressman William McKinley, photographed by Mathew Brady around 1877.

United States House of Representatives

With the help of Rutherford B. Hayes, McKinley was elected as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives for Ohio, and first served from 1877 to 1882, and second from 1885 to 1891. He was chairman of the Committee on Revision of the Laws from 1881 to 1883. He presented his credentials as a member-elect to the 48th Congress and served from March 4, 1883, until May 27, 1884. He was succeeded by Jonathan H. Wallace, who successfully contested his election. McKinley was again elected to the House of Representatives and served from March 4, 1885 to March 4, 1891. He was chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means from 1889 to 1891. In 1890, he wrote the McKinley Tariff, which raised rates to the highest in history, devastating his party in the off-year Democratic landslide of 1890. He lost his seat by the narrow margin of 300 votes, partly due to the unpopular tariff bill and partly due to gerrymandering.

Governor of Ohio

After leaving Congress, McKinley won the governorship of Ohio in 1891, defeating Democrat James E. Campbell; he was reelected in 1893 over Lawrence T. Neal. He was an unsuccessful presidential hopeful in 1892 but campaigned for the reelection of President Benjamin Harrison. As governor, he imposed an excise tax on corporations, secured safety legislation for transportation workers and restricted anti-union practices of employers.

In 1895, a community of severely impoverished miners in Hocking Valley telegraphed Governor McKinley to report their plight, writing, "Immediate relief needed." Within five hours, McKinley had paid, out of his own pocket, for a railroad car full of food and other supplies to be sent to the miners. He then proceeded to contact the Chambers of Commerce in every major city in the state, instructing them to investigate the number of citizens living below poverty level. When reports returned revealing large numbers of starving Ohioans, the governor headed a charity drive and raised enough money to feed, clothe, and supply more than 10,000 people.

The 1896 election

The Home of William McKinley, at Canton, Ohio

Main article: United States presidential election, 1896

Governor McKinley left office in early 1896 and, at the instigation of his friend Marcus Hanna began actively campaigning for the Republican party's presidential nomination. After sweeping the 1894 congressional elections, Republican prospects appeared bright at the start of 1896. The Democratic Party was split on the issue of silver and many voters blamed the nation's economic woes on incumbent Grover Cleveland. McKinley's well-known expertise on the tariff issue, successful record as governor, and genial personality appealed to many Republican voters. His major opponent for the nomination, House Speaker Thomas B. Reed of Maine, had acquired too many enemies within the party over his political career, and his supporters could not compete with Hanna's organization. After winning the nomination, he went home and conducted his famous "front porch campaign," addressing hundreds of thousands of voters, including organizations ranging from traveling salesmen to bicycle clubs. Many of these voters campaigned for McKinley after returning home. Hanna, a wealthy industrialist, headed the McKinley campaign. His opponent was William Jennings Bryan, who ran on a single issue of "free silver" and monetary policy. McKinley was against silver because it was a debased currency and overseas markets used gold, so it would harm foreign trade. McKinley promised that he would promote industry and banking and guarantee prosperity for every group in a pluralistic nation. A Democratic cartoon ridiculed the promise, saying it would rock the boat. McKinley replied that the protective tariff would bring prosperity to all groups, city and country alike, while Bryan's free silver would create inflation but no new jobs, would bankrupt railroads, and would permanently damage the economy. McKinley was able to succeed in getting votes from the urban areas and ethnic labor groups. Campaign manager Hanna raised $3.5 million from big business, and adopted newly invented advertising techniques to spread McKinley's message.^[4] Although Bryan had been ahead in August, McKinley's counter-crusade put him on the defensive and gigantic parades for McKinley in every major city a few days before the election undercut Bryan's allegations that workers were coerced to vote for McKinley. He defeated Bryan by a large margin. His appeal to all classes marked a realignment of American politics. His success in industrial cities gave the Republican party a grip on the North comparable to that of the Democrats in the South.

Presidency 1897–1901

Chief Justice Melville Fuller administering the oath to McKinley as president in 1897. Outgoing president Grover Cleveland stands to the right.

Domestic policies

McKinley's inauguration marked the beginning of the greatest movement of consolidation that American business had ever seen.^[5] He validated his claim as the "advance agent of prosperity" when the year 1897 brought a revival of business, agriculture and general prosperity. This was due in part to the end, at least for the time, of political suspense and agitation, in part to the confidence which capitalists felt in the new Administration.^{[citation needed]}

On June 16, 1897, a treaty was signed annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States. The Government of Hawaii speedily ratified this, 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 and 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.

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 regular a large number of temporary appointments made without examination, besides rendering eligible, as emergency appointees, without examination, thousands who had served during the Spanish War.

Republicans pointed to the deficit under the Wilson Law with much the same concern manifested by President Grover Cleveland in 1888 over the surplus. A new tariff law must be passed, and, if possible, before a new Congressional election. An extra session of Congress was therefore summoned for March 15, 1897. The Ways and Means Committee, which had been at work for three months, forthwith reported through Chairman Nelson Dingley the bill which bore his name. With equal promptness the Committee on Rules brought in a rule, at once adopted by the House, whereby the new bill, in spite of Democratic pleas for time to examine, discuss, and propose amendments, reached the Senate the last day of March. More deliberation marked procedure in the Senate. This body passed the bill after toning up its schedules with some 870 amendments, most of which pleased the Conference Committee and became law. The act was signed by the President July 24, 1897. The Dingley Act was estimated by its author to advance the average rate from the 40 percent of the Wilson Bill to approximately 50 percent, or a shade higher than the McKinley rate. As proportioned to consumption the tax imposed by it was probably heavier than that under either of its predecessors.

Reciprocity, a feature of the McKinley Tariff, was suspended by the Wilson Act. The Republican platform of 1896 declared protection and reciprocity twin measures of Republican policy. Clauses graced the Dingley Act allowing reciprocity treaties to be made, "duly ratified" by the Senate and "approved" by Congress. Under the third section of the Act some concessions were given and received, but the treaties negotiated under the fourth section, which involved lowering of strictly protective duties, met summary defeat when submitted to the Senate.

Foreign policies

McKinley campaigns on gold coin (gold standard) with support from soldiers, businessmen, farmers and professionals, claiming to restore prosperity at home and prestige abroad.

McKinley hoped to make American producers supreme in world markets, and so his administration had a push for those foreign markets, which included the annexation of Hawaii and interests in China. While serving as a Congressman, McKinley had been an advocate for the annexation of Hawaii because he wanted to Americanize it and establish a naval base, but Senate resistance had previously proven insurmountable as domestic sugar producers and committed anti-expansionists stubbornly 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.

Charges of cronyism emerged around his elevation of aging Ohio Senator John Sherman to head the State Department. While McKinley had hoped Sherman's reputation would bolster public perceptions of an otherwise lackluster Cabinet, Marcus Hanna's victory in the special election for the Ohio senate seat proved damaging to McKinley's reputation in some circles. Contrary to popular belief, however, McKinley had not selected Sherman to pave the way for Hanna. The president-elect had initially offered Hanna the largely honorific position of Postmaster General, which the Cleveland industrialist refused. McKinley's first choice for the State Department, Senator William Allison of Iowa, declined the offer. Sherman, who had previously served as Secretary of the Treasury, appeared a strong selection. Although Sherman was an experienced public servant, he was advanced in years and continually dodged rumors of advancing senility, charges that were not without merit. McKinley's longtime friend William Rufus Day operated as acting Secretary of State during the crucial months leading up to the Spanish-American War.

McKinley fires a cannon into an imperialism effigy in this cartoon by W. A. Rogers from Harper's Weekly of September 22, 1900

During this time there were some overseas conflicts, mainly with Spain. The U.S. had interests in Cuba, the Philippines, Hawaii and China. McKinley did not want to fully annex Cuba, just control it. In the Philippines, he wanted a base there to deal with China that would give the U.S. a voice in Asian affairs. Stories began to emerge of horrible atrocities committed in Cuba and of Spain's use of concentration camps and brutal military force to quash the Cubans' rebellion. Spain began to show it was no longer in control as rebellions within the rebellion broke out. The Spanish repeatedly promised new reforms, then repeatedly postponed them. American public opinion against Spain became heated, and created a demand for war coming mostly from Democrats and the sensationalist yellow journalism of William Randolph Hearst's newspapers. McKinley and the business community opposed the growing public demand for war, aided by House Speaker Reed.

As a matter of protection for U.S. interests around Havana, a new warship, the U.S.S. Maine, was dispatched to Havana harbor. On February 15, 1898, it mysteriously exploded and sank, causing the deaths of 260 men. (In 1950, the Navy ruled that "the Maine had been sunk by a faulty boiler" and not by attack as was assumed at the time).^[6] Public opinion heated up and a greater demand for war ensued. McKinley turned the matter over to Congress, which voted for war, and gave Spain an ultimatum for an armistice and a permanent peace. Although the Army was poorly prepared, militia and national guard units rushed to the colors, most notably Theodore Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders." The naval war in Cuba and the Philippines was a success, the easiest and most profitable war in U.S. history, and after 113 days, Spain agreed to peace terms at the Treaty of Paris in July. Secretary of State John Hay called it a "splendid little war." The United States gained ownership of Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico, and temporary control over Cuba. McKinley had said, "we need Hawaii just as much as we did California", and Hawaii was annexed (see above).

McKinley had begun by wanting only a naval base in the Philippines at Manila; in the end, he decided to take all the Philippines, a move that led to the Philippine-American War, where over 1,000,000 Filipino civilians were killed.

Throughout these ordeals, McKinley controlled American policy and news with an "iron hand". McKinley was the first president to have the use of telephones and telegraphs giving him access to battlefield commanders and reporters in mere minutes, and he used this to his full advantage. These ordeals also gave life to an Anti-Imperialist League movement at home.

Civil Rights

McKinley has the distinguishing fact and honor of being the last Civil War veteran to be elected U.S. President, being promoted to Major for acts of bravery. He was raised a Methodist and an abolitionist by his mother in Poland, Ohio and carried African American sympathies for their struggles under the "Jim Crow" laws throughout the nation while he was President. However, McKinley was unwilling to use federal power to enforce the 15th Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. At the time during his Presidency there were many murders, torturings, and civil rights violations throughout the country against African Americans.^[7]

McKinley was unwilling to return to the Reconstruction methods of the Congress after the Civil War during the Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant Administrations and did not take steps to ameliorate the effects of the 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson. In that decision the Supreme Court declared that public facilities that were "separate but equal" could be used to segregate African Americans from White society.

McKinley made several speeches on African American equality and justice:

“

It must not be equality and justice in the written law only. It must be equality and justice in the law's administration everywhere, and alike administered in every part of the Republic to every citizen thereof. It must not be the cold formality of constitutional enactment. It must be a living birthright.[8]

”

“

Our black allies must neither be forsaken nor deserted. I weigh my words. This is the great question not only of the present, but is the great question of the future; and this question will never be settled until it is settled upon principles of justice, recognizing the sanctity of the Constitution of the United States.[8]

”

“

Nothing can be permanently settled until the right of every citizen to participate equally in our State and National affairs is unalterably fixed. Tariff, finance, civil service, and all other political and party questions should remain open and unsettled until every citizen who has a constitutional right to share in the determination is free to enjoy it. [8]

”

Election of 1900

Main article: United States presidential election, 1900

McKinley was re-elected in 1900, this time with foreign policy paramount. Bryan had demanded war with Spain (and volunteered as a soldier), but strongly opposed annexation of the Philippines. He was also running on the same issue of free silver as he did before, but since the silver debate was ended with the passage of the Gold Standard Act of 1900, McKinley easily won re-election.

	Campaign speech of 1896 Phonograph recording of a McKinley campaign speech from 1896.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Significant events during presidency

• Dingley Tariff (1897)
• Maximum Freight Case (1898)
• Annexation of Hawaii (1898)
• Spanish-American War (1898)
• Philippine-American War (1899–1902)
• Boxer Rebellion (1900)
• Gold Standard Act (1900)

Administration and cabinet

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.

Assassination

Main article: William McKinley assassination

McKinley's last speech delivered September 5, 1901 at the Pan-American Exposition.

Police mug shot of Leon Czolgosz #757.

President and Mrs. McKinley attended the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. 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 pistol in his right hand concealed by a handkerchief. At 4:07 p.m. Czolgosz fired twice at the president. The first bullet grazed the president's shoulder. The second, however, went through McKinley's stomach, pancreas, and kidney, and finally lodged in the muscles of his back. The president 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 even called out "Boys! Don't let them hurt him!"^[9] 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.^[10]

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 the President 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.^[11] However, by afternoon he began to experience discomfort and his condition rapidly worsened. McKinley began to go into shock. At 2:15 a.m. on September 14, 1901, eight days after he was shot, he died from gangrene surrounding his wounds ^[12]. He was 58. His last words were "It is God's way; His will be done, not ours."^[13] He was originally buried in West Lawn Cemetery in Canton, Ohio, in the receiving vault. His remains were later moved to the McKinley Memorial, also in Canton.

Czolgosz was tried and found guilty of murder, and was executed by electric chair at Auburn Prison on October 29, 1901.

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.

"Temple of Music, Buffalo, N.Y. (Where Pres. McKinley was shot)," historical postcard.	McKinley entering the Temple of Music shortly before his assassination.	Leon Czolgosz shoots President McKinley with a concealed revolver.	McKinley casket at Capitol.	McKinley's coffin passing the Treasury building.
Albumen print of the McKinley Memorial, shortly after its completion, ca. 1906–1915.

Monuments and memorials

McKinley memorial in front of the Ohio Statehouse

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.^[14][15]

• 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. [1]
• McKinley Birthplace Home and Research Center, Niles, Ohio, a reconstruction on the site where he was born.
• The statue of McKinley in Muskegon, Ohio is believed to be the first raised in his honor in the country, put in place on May 23, 1902.^[16] It was sculpted by Charles Henry Niehaus.
• At Bluff Point, near Plattsburgh, New York, a small monument topped with a memorial urn was erected following the assassination at the site of a large pine tree, known locally as the "McKinley Pine." Beneath this tree, the President would often relax while summering at the nearby Hotel Champlain. One year after the assassination, the tree was struck by lightning and destroyed. Little remains of the monument today.
• McKinley Classical Junior Academy, middle school in St. Louis, Missouri.
• McKinley Monument, Buffalo, New York.
• McKinley Monument, Springfield, Massachusetts.
• McKinley Monument, Scranton, Pennsylvania.
• McKinley Statue, Adams, Massachusetts.
• McKinley County, New Mexico is named in his honor.
• Mount McKinley, Alaska is named after him.
• McKinley Statue, Arcata, California.
• McKinleyville, California.
• McKinley Statue, Dayton-Montgomery County Public Library, Dayton, Ohio.
• McKinley Statue, Walden, New York.
• McKinley Memorial, Redlands, California commemorates visit by the President.
• McKinley Monument, Antietam Battlefield, Maryland.
• McKinley Statue, Lucas County Courthouse Toledo, Ohio.
• McKinley Monument, Columbus, Ohio on the grounds of the Statehouse McKinley worked in as Ohio's Governor.
• McKinley Statue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania outside Philadelphia City Hall.
• Calle McKinley (McKinley Street), Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
• McKinley Vocational High School, Buffalo, New York.
• McKinley Technology High School, Washington, DC.
• McKinley Parkway, part of the Frederick Law Olmsted Park System of Buffalo, New York.
• McKinley Mall, Blasdell, New York (Southtown of Erie County, New York).
• William McKinley Junior High School, Bay Ridge, New York.
• McKinley Elementary Schools: Elgin, Illinois; Kenosha, Wisconsin; Toledo, Ohio; Marion, Ohio; Lakewood, Ohio; Fort Gratiot, Michigan; Port Huron, Michigan; Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan; Casper, Wyoming; Bakersfield, California; Corona, California; Redlands, California; Beaverton, Oregon; Arlington, VA; Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; Parkersburg, West Virginia; York, Pennsylvania; Wyandotte, Michigan; Tacoma, Washington;and Cadillac, Michigan.
• McKinley High Schools: Washington, D.C.; Honolulu, Hawaii; Canton, Ohio; Niles, Ohio; Sebring, Ohio; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Saint Louis, Missouri (now McKinley Middle Classical Leadership Academy).

The $500 Bill with McKinley's portrait.

• McKinley Middle Schools:Racine, Wisconsin; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Kenosha, Wisconsin; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
• McKinley Street, Dearborn, MI.
• McKinley Avenue, Tacoma, WA.
• McKinley's, a cafeteria in the Campus Center building at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, where President McKinley briefly attended as an undergraduate student.
• The $500 bill featured a portrait of William McKinley.
• McKinley Park in Soudan, Minnesota: a state park and campground named in his honor.
• Obelisk that was created to honor a visit from McKinley in Tower, Minnesota.
• McKinley Mezzanine: Albany Law School of Union University, Albany, NY.
• McKinley Neighborhood, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Media

William 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

Disputed quotation

In 1903, an elderly supporter named James F. Rusling recalled that in 1899, McKinley had said to a religious delegation:

“

The truth is I didn't want the Philippines, and when they came to us as a gift from the gods, I did not know what to do with them... I sought counsel from all sides - Democrats as well as Republicans - but got little help. I thought first we would take only Manila; then Luzon; then other islands, perhaps, also. I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed to Almighty God for light and guidance more than one night. And one night late it came to me this way - I don't know how it was, but it came: (1) That we could not give them 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, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow men for whom Christ also died. And then I went to bed and went to sleep and slept soundly.

”

The question is whether McKinley said any such thing as is italicized in point #4, especially regarding "Christianize" the natives, or whether Rusling added it. McKinley was a religious person but never said God told him to do anything. McKinley never used the term Christianize (and indeed it was rare in 1898). McKinley operated a highly effective publicity bureau in the White House and he gave hundreds of interviews to reporters, and hundreds of public speeches to promote his Philippines policy. Yet no authentic speech or newspaper report contains anything like the purported words or sentiment. The man who remembered it—an American Civil War veteran—had written a book on the war that was full of exaggeration. The supposed highly specific quote from memory years after the event is unlikely enough—especially when the quote uses words like "Christianize" that were never used by McKinley. The conclusion of historians such as Lewis Gould is that, although it is possible this quote is legitimate (certainly McKinley expressed most of these sentiments generally), it is unlikely that he spoke these specific words, or that he said the last part at all.^[17]

See also

American Civil War portal

United States Army portal

• History of the United States (1865-1918)
• List of assassinated American politicians
• U.S. presidential election, 1896
• U.S. presidential election, 1900

Notes

1. ^ RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: McKinley Family.
2. ^ "William McKinley". Ohio Fundamental Documents. Ohio Historical Society. http://www.ohiohistory.org/onlinedoc/ohgovernment/governors/mckinley.html. Retrieved 2009-02-28. 
3. ^ "William McKinley: 1892–1896". Ohio Governors, Ohio Historical Society. http://www.ohiohistory.org/onlinedoc/ohgovernment/governors/mckinley.html. Retrieved 2008-03-07. 
4. ^ Jensen (1971) ch 10
5. ^ Josephson, Matthew (1979 (reprint of 1840 version)). The President Makers. New York, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. pp. 9. ISBN 0-399-50387-0. 
6. ^ Beschloss, Michael (September 17, 2001). "Bush Faces the Greatest Test". NYT. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05E3DC1F38F934A2575AC0A9679C8B63&scp=12&sq=%22President+McKinley%22&st=nyt.. Retrieved 2008-01-22. 
7. ^ http://www.mckinley.lib.oh.us/McKinley/biography.htm
8. ^ ^{a b c} McKinley, William (1893). Speeches and addresses of William McKinley: from his election to Congress to the present time. D. Appleton and Company. http://books.google.com/books/download/Speeches_and_addresses_of_William_McKinl.pdf?id=Qe5gk4hoJXAC&output=pdf&sig=ACfU3U0UQ8BcdphRBLyvGIZUrIFeZUz9qA&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0. 
9. ^ truTV.com
10. ^ "Biography of William McKinley". http://www.mckinley.lib.oh.us/McKinley/biography.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-04. 
11. ^ William McKinley: Post-Shooting Medical Course at Medical History of American Presidents
12. ^ Rixey PM, Mann MD, Mynter H, Park R, Wasdin E, McBurney C, Stockton CG: The official report on the case of President McKinley. JAMA 1901; 37: 1029–1059.
13. ^ 1920 World Book, Volume VI, page 3575
14. ^ “Mr. McKinley’s End”, McKinleydeath.com.
15. ^ “The McKinley-Roosevelt Administration”, McKinleydeath.com.
16. ^ "Monuments erected to McKinley throughout country". CantonRep.com. January 24, 2005. http://www.cantonrepository.com/index.php?Category=8&ID=204383&r=0. Retrieved 2008-03-07. 
17. ^ For a discussion of this question, see Gould (1980), pp. 140–142.

References

Primary sources

• 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 his election to Congress to the present time (1893)
• 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)

Secondary sources

• Andrews, E. Benjamin (1912). History of the United States. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 
• Harold U. Faulkner, Politics, Reform, and Expansion, 1890-1900 (1959). general history of decade
• H. Wayne Morgan, William McKinley and His America, Syracuse University Press, 1963, the standard biography
• John L. Offner, An Unwanted War: The Diplomacy of the United States and Spain over Cuba, 1895-1898, University of North Carolina Press, 1992.
• Lewis L. Gould, The Presidency of William McKinley, University Press of Kansas, 1980, standard history of his term
• Margaret Leech, In the Days of McKinley (1959), Pulitzer Prize winning biography
• Paul W. Glad, McKinley, Bryan, and the People (1964), brief history of 1896 election
• Richard Jensen, The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888-1896, University of Chicago Press, 1971, analysis of McKinley's campaigns in Ohio and 1896
• Stanley L. Jones. The Presidential Election of 1896, University of Wisconsin Press, 1964
• Matthew Josephson. The President Makers, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1979
• Walter LaFeber, The New Empire: An Interpretation of American Expansion, 1860-1898, Cornell University Press, 1963 an influential, though controversial, examination of the causes of the Spanish-American War and William McKinley's foreign policy
• Eric Rauchway, Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt's America, New York : Hill and Wang, 2003. Examination of McKinley's assassination and the subsequent investigation.

External links

Find more about William McKinley on Wikipedia's sister projects:

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Learning resources from Wikiversity

• William McKinley at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved on 2008-10-19
• William McKinley: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• 1st State of the Union Address
• 2nd State of the Union Address
• 3rd State of the Union Address
• 4th State of the Union Address
• Assassination Site
• Audio clips of McKinley's speeches
• Biography of William McKinley
• Encyclopedia Americana: William McKinley
• First Inaugural Address
• Internet Public Library: William McKinley
• Library of Congress films of McKinley
• Presidential Biography by Stanley L. Klos
• Second Inaugural Address
• McKinley Assassination Ink: A Documentary History
• William McKinley Presidential Library and Memorial
• White House biography
• Works by William McKinley at Project Gutenberg
• Essay on William McKinley and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs

Political offices
Preceded by Grover Cleveland	President of the United States March 4, 1897–September 14, 1901	Succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt
Preceded by James E. Campbell	Governor of Ohio January 11, 1892–January 13, 1896	Succeeded by Asa S. Bushnell
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Isaac H. Taylor	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 18th congressional district March 4, 1887 – March 4, 1891	Succeeded by Joseph D. Taylor
Preceded by David R. Paige	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 20th congressional district March 4, 1885 – March 4, 1887	Succeeded by George W. Crouse
Preceded by Addison S. McClure	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 18th congressional district March 4, 1883 – March 4, 1885	Succeeded by Jonathan H. Wallace
Preceded by James Monroe	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 17th congressional district March 4, 1881 – March 4, 1883	Succeeded by Joseph D. Taylor
Preceded by Lorenzo Danford	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 16th congressional district March 4, 1879 – March 4, 1881	Succeeded by Jonathan T. Updegraff
Preceded by Laurin D. Woodworth	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 17th congressional district March 4, 1877 – March 4, 1879	Succeeded by James Monroe
Preceded by Roger Q. Mills	Chairman of the United States House Committee on Ways and Means 1889–1891	Succeeded by William M. Springer
Party political offices
Preceded by Benjamin Harrison	Republican Party presidential candidate 1896, 1900	Succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt
Honorary titles
Preceded by John A. Logan	Persons who have lain in state or honor in the United States Capitol rotunda September 17, 1901	Succeeded by Pierre Charles L'Enfant

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v • d • e Cabinet of 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 the 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)

v • d • e   Philippine Revolution (1896–1898)   Events Prelude: Gomburza · Katagalugan (Bonifacio) · Tejeros Convention · Republic of Biak-na-Bato · Biak-na-Bato Elections · Pact of Biak-na-Bato · Spanish-American War · Declaration of Independence · Malolos Congress · República Filipina · Negros Revolution · Treaty of Paris · Philippine–American War · Katagalugan (Sacay) · Moro Rebellion · Epilogue: Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916 · Philippine Independence Act · Commonwealth of the Philippines · Treaty of Manila · Republic of the Philippines Organizations American Anti-Imperialist League · Aglipayan Church · Katipunan · La Liga Filipina · La Solidaridad · Magdalo faction · Magdiwang faction  · Philippine Constabulary · Philippine Revolutionary Army · Pulajanes · Propaganda Movement · Republic of Negros Objects El filibusterismo · Flags of the Philippine Revolution · Kartilya ng Katipunan · Lupang Hinirang · Malolos Constitution · Mi último adiós · Noli Me Tangere · Flag of the Philippines · Spoliarium People Juan Abad · Gregorio Aglipay · Baldomero Aguinaldo · Emilio Aguinaldo · Melchora Aquino · Juan Araneta · Andrés Bonifacio · Josephine Bracken · Dios Buhawi · Francisco Carreón · Ladislao Diwa · Gregoria de Jesús · Gregorio del Pilar · Marcelo H. del Pilar · George Dewey · Papa Isio · Emilio Jacinto · Antonio Ledesma Jayme · León Kilat · Aniceto Lacson · Graciano López Jaena · Vicente Lukbán · Antonio Luna · Juan Luna · Apolinario Mabini · Sultan of Maguindanao · Miguel Malvar · Arcadio Maxilom · William McKinley · Patricio Montojo · Simeón Ola · José Palma · Mariano Ponce · Artemio Ricarte · José Rizal · Paciano Rizal · Macario Sakay · Sultan of Sulu · Martin Teofilo Delgado  · Manuel Tinio · Mariano Trías ·

Persondata
NAME	Mackinley, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	American politician and President
DATE OF BIRTH	January 29, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH	Niles, Ohio
DATE OF DEATH	September 14, 1901
PLACE OF DEATH	Buffalo, New York

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