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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 Cubamarker. Later he annexed the former Spanish territories of the Philippinesmarker, Puerto Rico, and Guammarker, and set up a protectorate over Cubamarker. 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 assassinationmarker in 1901 by Leon Czolgosz, an American anarchist of Polish descent, he was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.

Early life

Born in Niles, Ohiomarker, 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, Ohiomarker, where he attended Poland Seminary. He graduated from Poland Seminary and attended Mount Union Collegemarker, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and attended Allegheny Collegemarker 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 Virginiamarker, 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 Antietammarker, 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 Yorkmarker 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 Mainemarker, 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 Hawaiimarker 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 Switzerlandmarker and Turkeymarker), professional diplomats such as Andrew Dickson Whitemarker, 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 Departmentmarker. 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 Havanamarker 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 Guammarker, the Philippinesmarker, 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 Manilamarker; 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.marker Supreme Courtmarker 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 Statesmarker:

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 Yorkmarker. He delivered a speech about his positions on tariffs and foreign trade on September 5, 1901. The following morning, McKinley visited Niagara Fallsmarker 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, Ohiomarker, in the receiving vault. His remains were later moved to the McKinley Memorialmarker, also in Canton.

Czolgosz was tried and found guilty of murder, and was executed by electric chair at Auburn Prisonmarker 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 buildingmarker.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 Housemarker, United States Capitolmarker and finally to the late President's home in Canton for a memorial. Memorials for the President were held in London, England at Westminster Abbeymarker and St Paul's Cathedralmarker.
Series 1928 or 1934 $500 bill, Obverse


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

  1. RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: McKinley Family.
  2. Jensen (1971) ch 10
  3. http://www.mckinley.lib.oh.us/McKinley/biography.htm
  4. truTV.com
  5. William McKinley: Post-Shooting Medical Course at Medical History of American Presidents
  6. 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.
  7. 1920 World Book, Volume VI, page 3575
  8. “Mr. McKinley’s End”, McKinleydeath.com.
  9. “The McKinley-Roosevelt Administration”, McKinleydeath.com.
  10. 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




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