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 Leon
Czolgosz, an American
anarchist of Polish descent, he was succeeded by Vice President
Theodore Roosevelt.
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.
When McKinley was nine
years old, he moved to Poland, Ohio
, where he attended Poland Seminary. 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.
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
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. 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
Domestic policies
McKinley's inauguration marked the beginning of the greatest
movement of
consolidation
that American business had ever seen. 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.
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.
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). 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.
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:
Election of 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.
Significant events during presidency
Administration and cabinet

President McKinley and his
cabinet.
Judicial appointments
Supreme Court
McKinley
appointed the following Justice to the Supreme
Court of the United States
:
Other judges
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
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!" 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 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. 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 . He was 58. His last words were "It is God's way; His will
be done, not ours."
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.
Image:Temple of Music postcard.jpg|"Temple of Music,
Buffalo, N.Y. (Where Pres. McKinley was
shot)," historical postcard.Image:McKinley last photo.jpg|McKinley
entering the
Temple of Music shortly
before his assassination.Image:McKinleyAssassination.jpg|
Leon Czolgosz shoots President McKinley with a
concealed revolver.Image:McKinley Capitol casket.jpg|McKinley
casket at Capitol.
Image:McKinley passing
Treasury.jpg|McKinley's coffin passing the Treasury
building
.Image:Mckinleymemorial.jpg|Albumen print of
the McKinley Memorial, shortly after its completion, ca.
1906–1915.
Monuments and memorials
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. [5968]
- 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. 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), MayagĂĽez, 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).

Series 1928 or 1934 $500 bill,
Obverse
- 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 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.
See also
Notes
- RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: McKinley
Family.
- Jensen (1971) ch 10
- http://www.mckinley.lib.oh.us/McKinley/biography.htm
- truTV.com
- William McKinley: Post-Shooting Medical Course at
Medical History of American Presidents
- 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.
- 1920 World
Book, Volume VI, page 3575
- “Mr. McKinley’s End”, McKinleydeath.com.
- “The McKinley-Roosevelt Administration”,
McKinleydeath.com.
- For a discussion of this question, see Gould (1980), pp.
140–142.
References
Primary sources
Secondary sources
- 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
External links