McKinley, William

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.

William McKinley

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

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▪ president of United States

born January 29, 1843, Niles, Ohio, U.S.

died September 14, 1901, Buffalo, New York

      25th president of the United States (1897–1901). Under McKinley's leadership, the United States went to war against Spain in 1898 and thereby acquired a global empire, including Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. (For a discussion of the history and nature of the presidency, see presidency of the United States of America.)

      McKinley was the son of William McKinley, a manager of a charcoal furnace and a small-scale iron founder, and Nancy Allison. Eighteen years old at the start of the Civil War (American Civil War), McKinley enlisted in an Ohio regiment under the command of Rutherford B. Hayes (Hayes, Rutherford B.), later the 19th president of the United States (1877–81). Promoted second lieutenant for his bravery in the Battle of Antietam (Antietam, Battle of) (1862), he was discharged a brevet major in 1865. Returning to Ohio, he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1867, and opened a law office in Canton, where he resided—except for his years in Washington, D.C.—for the rest of his life.

      Drawn immediately to politics in the Republican Party, McKinley supported Hayes for governor in 1867 and Ulysses S. Grant (Grant, Ulysses S.) for president in 1868. The following year he was elected prosecuting attorney for Stark county, and in 1877 he began his long career in Congress as representative from Ohio's 17th district. McKinley served in the House of Representatives until 1891, failing reelection only twice—in 1882, when he was temporarily unseated in an extremely close election, and in 1890, when Democrats gerrymandered his district.

      The issue with which McKinley became most closely identified during his congressional years was the protective tariff, a high tax on imported goods which served to protect American manufacturers from foreign competition. While it was only natural for a Republican from a rapidly industrializing state to favour protection, McKinley's support reflected more than his party's pro-business bias. A genuinely compassionate man, McKinley cared about the well-being of American workers, and he always insisted that a high tariff was necessary to assuring high wages. As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, he was the principal sponsor of the McKinley Tariff of 1890, which raised duties higher than they had been at any previous time. Yet by the end of his presidency McKinley had become a convert to commercial reciprocity among nations, recognizing that Americans must buy products from other countries in order to sustain the sale of American goods abroad.

      His loss in 1890 brought an end to McKinley's career in the House of Representatives, but with the help of wealthy Ohio industrialist Mark Hanna (Hanna, Mark), McKinley won two terms as governor of his home state (1892–96). During those years Hanna, a powerful figure in the Republican Party, laid plans to gain the party's presidential nomination for his good friend in 1896. McKinley went on to win the nomination easily.

   Cabinet of President William McKinleyThe presidential campaign of 1896 was one of the most exciting in American history. The central issue was the nation's money supply. McKinley ran on a Republican platform emphasizing maintenance of the gold standard, while his opponent—William Jennings Bryan (Bryan, William Jennings), candidate of both the Democratic and Populist parties—called for a bimetallic standard of gold and silver. Bryan campaigned vigorously, traveling thousands of miles and delivering hundreds of speeches in support of an inflated currency that would help poor farmers and other debtors. McKinley remained at home in Canton, greeting visiting delegations of Republicans at his front porch and giving carefully prepared speeches promoting the benefits of a gold-backed currency. For his part, Hanna tapped big businesses for enormous campaign contributions while simultaneously directing a network of Republican speakers who portrayed Bryan as a dangerous radical and McKinley as “the advance agent of prosperity.” McKinley won the election decisively, becoming the first president to achieve a popular majority since 1872 and bettering Bryan 271 to 176 in the electoral vote. (The table provides a list of cabinet members in the administration of President William McKinley. Cabinet of President William McKinley)

 Inaugurated president March 4, 1897, McKinley promptly called a special session of Congress to revise customs duties upward. On July 24 he signed into law the Dingley Tariff, the highest protective tariff in American history to that time. Yet domestic issues would play only a minor role in the McKinley presidency. Emerging from decades of isolationism in the 1890s, Americans had already shown signs of wanting to play a more assertive role on the world stage. Under McKinley, the United States became an empire. (See primary source document: First Inaugural Address (William McKinley: First Inaugural Address).)

      By the time McKinley took the oath of office as president, many Americans—influenced greatly by the sensationalistic yellow journalism of the Hearst (Hearst, William Randolph) and Pulitzer (Pulitzer, Joseph) newspapers—were eager to see the United States intervene in Cuba, where Spain (Spanish-American War) was engaged in brutal repression of an independence movement. Initially, McKinley hoped to avoid American involvement, but in February 1898 two events stiffened his resolve to confront the Spanish. First, a letter written by the Spanish minister to Washington, Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, was intercepted, and on February 9 it was published in American newspapers; the letter described McKinley as weak and too eager for public adulation. Then, six days after the appearance of the Dupuy de Lôme letter, the American battleship USS Maine (Maine, destruction of the) suddenly exploded and sank as it sat anchored in Havana harbour, carrying 266 enlisted men and officers to their deaths. Although a mid-20th century investigation proved conclusively that the Maine was destroyed by an internal explosion, the yellow press convinced Americans of Spanish responsibility. The public clamoured for armed intervention, and congressional leaders were eager to satisfy the public demand for action.

      In March McKinley gave Spain an ultimatum, including demands for an end to the brutality inflicted upon Cubans and the start of negotiations leading toward independence for the island. Spain agreed to most of McKinley's demands but balked at giving up its last major New World colony. On April 20 Congress authorized the president to use armed force to secure the independence of Cuba, and five days later it passed a formal declaration of war. (See primary source document: War Message (William McKinley: War Message).)

      In the brief Spanish-American War—“a splendid little war,” in the words of Secretary of State John Hay (Hay, John)—the United States easily defeated Spanish forces in the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Combat began early in May and ended with an armistice in mid-August. The subsequent Treaty of Paris (Paris, Treaty of), signed in December 1898 and ratified by the Senate in February 1899, ceded Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States; Cuba became independent. The ratification vote was extremely close—just one vote more than the required two-thirds—reflecting opposition by many “anti-imperialists” to the United States acquiring overseas possessions, especially without the consent of the people who lived in them. Although McKinley had not entered the war for territorial aggrandizement, he sided with the “imperialists” in supporting ratification, convinced that the United States had an obligation to assume responsibility for “the welfare of an alien people.”

      This desire to care for the less fortunate was characteristic of McKinley and was nowhere better illustrated than in his marriage. McKinley married Ida Saxton (Ida McKinley (McKinley, Ida)) in 1871. Within two years, the future first lady witnessed the deaths of her mother and two daughters. She never recovered, and she spent the rest of her life as a chronic invalid, frequently suffering seizures and placing an enormous physical and emotional burden on her husband. Yet McKinley remained devoted to her, and his unflagging attentiveness earned him additional admiration from the public.

  Renominated for another term without opposition, McKinley again faced Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the presidential election of 1900. McKinley's margins of victory in both the popular and electoral votes were greater than they were four years before, no doubt reflecting satisfaction with the outcome of the war and with the widespread prosperity that the country enjoyed. Following his inauguration in 1901 (see primary source document: Second Inaugural Address (William McKinley: Second Inaugural Address)), McKinley left Washington for a tour of the western states, to be concluded with a speech at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Cheering crowds throughout the journey attested to McKinley's immense popularity. More than 50,000 admirers attended his exposition speech, in which the leader who had been so closely identified with protectionism now sounded the call for commercial reciprocity among nations. (See primary source document: Reciprocal Trade Agreements (William McKinley: Reciprocal Trade Agreements).) The following day, September 6, 1901, while McKinley was shaking hands with a crowd of well-wishers at the exposition, Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, fired two shots into the president's chest and abdomen. Rushed to a hospital in Buffalo, McKinley lingered for a week before dying in the early morning hours of September 14. He was succeeded by his vice president, the man Mark Hanna sneeringly referred to as “that damned cowboy,” Theodore Roosevelt (Roosevelt, Theodore).

Additional Reading

Reliable biographies are Charles S. Olcott, The Life of William McKinley, 2 vol. (1916, reprinted 1972); and Margaret Leech, In the Days of McKinley (1959, reprinted 1986). McKinley's administration is addressed in Lewis L. Gould, The Presidency of William McKinley (1980). Lewis L. Gould and Craig H. Roell, William McKinley (1988), is an annotated bibliography.

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