McKINLEY, William
(1843–1901), 25th president of the U.S. (1897–1901);
his administration inaugurated a period of Republican party dominance,
aided business, and made the U.S. a world power through its victory
in the Spanish-American War.
Born on Jan. 29, 1843, to a devout Methodist family in the
small town of Niles, Ohio, McKinley was the seventh of nine children
of a storekeeper and iron founder. He showed himself early as a
mature, serious student and attended Allegheny College for a year.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, McKinley enlisted
and served for the duration, first as an enlisted man in the commissary department
and later as an officer, after receiving a battlefield commission
for bravery. For the rest of his life he was known as “Major” McKinley.
McKinley began practicing law in Canton, Ohio, in 1867 and,
entering politics, won his first office as county attorney in 1869.
Thereafter, his political rise was steady, with election to the
U.S. House of Representatives (1877), growing influence among Republicans
in his state and in Congress, and a term as governor of Ohio (1892–96).
By 1896 he had become the most likely Republican presidential nominee because
of his leadership in the critical state of Ohio, his long services
and wide connections within the party, and his championship of economic
issues, particularly the protective tariff. In addition, he had
gained an able, devoted political and financial manager in Mark
Hanna. In 1871 McKinley married Ida Saxton (1847–1907)
of Canton, who became an invalid after the deaths of their two young
daughters and took almost no part in political or social life.
The 1896 election formed a major turning point in American
politics. McKinley advocated the tariff as a way of protecting business
and labor from foreign imports and defended the gold standard against
his Democratic opponent William Jennings Bryan, who espoused the
free coinage of silver, which would have inflated currency and aided
debtors. The Republicans ran an efficient, lavishly financed campaign,
and McKinley won the election by the largest popular margin since
the Civil War. His administration enacted a higher tariff in 1897,
committed the country to the gold standard in 1900, and generally
promoted business confidence. Probably in part because of these
policies, the economy recovered from a severe depression, and the
Republicans became identified with economic prosperity, which made them
the dominant party until the 1930s. McKinley received public vindication
when he defeated Bryan again and was reelected by a still larger
vote in 1900.
Foreign affairs initially presented a troublesome distraction,
as the Cuban revolution for independence from Spain created pressures
on the U.S. to help free the island. After resisting such sentiment
for a time, McKinley decided in 1898 to intervene. The U.S. defeated
Spain easily in three months and acquired Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
Although the war was popular, these new possessions aroused controversy,
along with the recognition that the nation had become involved in
world politics as a great power. Disquiet also arose from the unprecedented
growth of big businesses, called trusts, including the first billion-dollar
corporation. McKinley showed an awareness of these concerns as his
second term began, but whatever changes might have come were cut
short when Leon Czolgosz (1873–1901), an anarchist, shot
him in Buffalo, N.Y., on Sept. 6, 1901. He died eight days later,
the third president of the U.S. to be assassinated.
McKinley was an astute manager who relied on subtle persuasion
rather than flamboyant advocacy. Although not a visionary or an
activist, he built a lasting political coalition and presided over
some of the most momentous developments in American history.