McKinley, William

I

Introduction

McKinley, William (1843-1901), 25th president of the United States (1897-1901); his administration inaugurated a period of Republican party dominance, aided business, and made the United States a world power through its victory in the Spanish-American War.

II

Early Life

Born on January 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 to be a mature, serious student and attended Allegheny College for a year. At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, McKinley enlisted in the Union army 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 practising 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 US House of Representatives (1877), growing influence among Republicans in his state and in Congress, and a term as governor of Ohio (1892-1896). 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. The only unhappy aspect of McKinley's life lay with his family: In 1871 he married Ida Saxton of Canton, who became an invalid after the deaths of their two young daughters and took almost no part in political or social life.

III

Domestic Policy

The 1896 election formed a major turning point in American politics. McKinley advocated the tariff as a way of protecting business and labour 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 re-elected by a still larger vote in 1900.

IV

Foreign Policy

Foreign affairs initially presented a troublesome distraction, as the Cuban revolution for independence from Spain created pressures on the United States to help free the island. After resisting such sentiment for a time, McKinley decided in 1898 to intervene. The United States defeated Spain easily in three months and acquired Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Although the war was popular in the United States, 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, an anarchist, shot him in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901. He died eight days later, the third president of the US to be assassinated in 36 years.