25. WILLIAM MCKINLEY (Shufflin' off to Buffalo)
Born: January 29, 1843, Niles, Ohio
Died: September 14, 1901, Buffalo, New York (assassinated)
Term: March 4, 1897- September 14, 1901 (assassinated)
Political Party: Republican
Vice President(s): Garret Hobart, Theodore Roosevelt
First Lady: Ida Saxton McKinley
Before the Presidency: William McKinley grew up with a happy childhood. His mother was deeply religious and taught young William the vales of honesty and prayer among other things while his father taught young William to have a strong work ethic.
It was this work ethic that made William want to get a good education. Entering Allegheny Collage in 1860, he had to drop out after a year, because of illness and financial difficulties.
His illness must not have been too debilitating, however, as he joined the Twenty-Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry at the start of the Civil War. As a Private, he fought bravely at Antietam. Later, he was a Lieutenant under Colonel Rutherford B Hayes. He considered Hayes his mentor and they would enjoy a lifelong friendship. By the time the war ended, McKinley was a Brevet Major.
After the Civil War, McKinley entered Albany Law School, passing the bar in 1867. He opened a practice in Canton, Ohio and it was there where he met his wife, Ida Saxton.
He became involved in Republican politics in 1869 and won an election as County Prosecutor that year. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1876. He served three terms before losing in 1882 but he won his seat back two years later.
It was as Chairman of the House and Ways Committee where he became nationally known. He drafted and pushed through what was known as the very protectionist McKinley Tariff of 1890. It had an effect of raising consumer prices and McKinley ended up losing his second election that year.
He didn’t try to return to the House. Instead, McKinley made a run for Governor of Ohio where he won by a razor thin margin.
McKinley had considerably better success as a Governor as he tried to lessen the rift between management and labor. McKinley was certainly pro- business but that didn’t stop him from developing a system of arbitration designed to settle labor agreements. It wasn’t all fun and games, however, as Governor McKinley called in the National Guard to quell strike related violence by the United Mine Workers in 1894.
McKinley was personally affected by the Panic of 1893, and he could sympathize with voters when he ran for re-election in 1894. Voters sympathized with him as well and he was re-elected Governor easily.
And it put him in position as a candidate for President in 1896.
Summary of offices held:
1861-1865: US Union Army, Brevet Major
1869-1871: Prosecuting Attorney, Stark County, Ohio
1877-1883: US House of Representatives, Ohio
1885-1981: US House of Representatives, Ohio
1889-1891: Chairman, House and Ways Committee
1892-1896: Governor of Ohio
What was going on: Spanish American War, The Philippine Insurrection, the Gold Standard, the Gay Nineties
Scandals within the administration: Oregon land fraud scandal
Why he was a good President: The United States more or less was recognized as a global power after the Spanish-American War. And, though his tariffs were controversial from a historical standpoint, the economy was improving.
Why he was a bad President: The concept of big money controlling elections more or less started with him. He wasn’t corrupt by any means, but some of his followers, well… He was also something of an Imperialist President so that doesn’t go well on his resume either.
What could have saved his Presidency: Historically speaking, I’d say maybe if he had shown more restraint when it came to wars, particularly the ill-advised Philippine one. I would have also liked to have seen him take a stand on civil rights.
What could have destroyed his Presidency: If people knew more about the Philippine resurrection. If they hadn’t discovered more gold, which had a lot to do with the now booming economy.
Election of 1896: 1896 is something of a historic election, for a new political Machiavellian was taking over the Republican Party. He was an affluent businessman from Ohio named Mark Hanna. He especially pushed for McKinley, and he won on the first ballot.
The Democrats, burned from the Panic of 1893, were looking for some new blood. They found it in a young Populist, William Jennings Bryan. Bryan, of course, would be remembered mostly for being the prosecutor in the infamous Scopes trial of 1925. For anyone interested, I’ll explain that trial later (assuming Trollheart doesn’t beat me to it first). Anyway, basically Bryan was an Evangelical Christian, certainly not a handicap in 1896 and not even a factor in the campaign.
The Republican and Democratic platforms were quite different in 1896. The Republicans wanted to stay on the Gold Standard, pushed for protectionist policies, and supported the annexation of Hawaii.
The Democrats, through the charismatic Bryan, was primarily for the Silver standard. His passion for free silver was likely the dominant issue in both campaigns. It was in this campaign where Bryan made his famous Cross of Gold speech. The Democrats also opposed protectionism, pushed for cheap foreign labor through immigration, and the use of injunctions to end strikes. They also supported an income tax (that still goes so well with Americans even today- yes, I’m being sarcastic).
The third party Populists lost their platform to Bryan, so they nominated him as their candidate as well.
The campaigning styles were quite different as well. McKinley, as was the tradition, ran a front porch campaign. But, Bryan campaigned all over the country, 18,000 miles in all. He spoke to enthusiastic crowds and painted McKinley as a puppet to big business (and, in a sense he was, $4 million dollars was donated to his campaign by, um, big business).
Bryan’s campaign seemed to be going fairly well, but there was a faction of Gold Democrats who bolted from the party. Bryan would go on to be, the Scopes trial notwithstanding, to be one of the most decent people ever to run for President (wait till we get to Woodrow Wilson, and I’ll tell you why).
But he was not to be President. William McKinley would win by over 600,000 votes and pulled a solid win in the all-important Electoral College.
First term: The first thing President McKinley did upon entering office was to go after the tariffs. He would sign the Dingley Tariff act that raised the average tariff by nearly 50%
But it would be wars that would dominate McKinley’s first term, notably, the Spanish-American war. Expansionists had been looking for an excuse to take Spain’s territories in the Caribbean and Pacific, even if it meant war with Spain. In fact, some were hankering for a war with Spain, no longer the powerhouse they were during Colonial times. McKinley, to his credit, did everything he could to avoid going to war.
But the saber rattlers had their excuse when an explosion on the Battleship Maine was blamed on the Spanish off Cuba. Yellow journalists, led by William Randolph Hearst, convinced the public that Spain was essentially the epitome of evil (Actually, they weren’t far off the mark; Spanish authorities were indeed guilty of some human rights abuses in Cuba).
So, President McKinley sent in the military to free Cuba from the Spanish. The Rough Riders were formed by Congress and McKinley’s Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, resigned to lead one of the regiments in Cuba.
The war was more or less a rout as Spain surrendered within months. As a result, Hawaii was finally annexed, the US also gained Puerto Rico and Guam, Cuba was independent, and the Philippines was up in the air.
And that created an issue that isn’t much talked about today, for a rebellion was brewing in the Philippines and the US was going to get caught right in the middle of it. Called the Philippine Insurrection, McKinley sent troops to the islands in order to stifle the rebels. It only made matters worse, and McKinley just avoided ending up with his own Vietnam. Thanks, strangely enough and inadvertently, of course, to Leon Czolgosz. (It would be Theodore Roosevelt that got us out of that quagmire).
President McKinley would also send troops to China as the Boxer Rebellion was underway in 1900. McKinley had adopted an Open Door policy regarding China. What he didn’t know that there was a group, known as the Boxers, who wanted all foreigners out of the country and went on a rampage, massacring Western missionaries, diplomats, garbage collectors, you get the picture.
So, McKinley sent troops and gunboats along with Britain, Germany, Russia, and Japan to crush the rebellion. In the end, the Chinese had to shell out $300 million in indemnities to the five nations.
So, whatever the economic climate was in the US (and it was good for the most part), McKinley’s successes in war (two out of three isn’t bad I guess) put him in fairly good position for re-election.
Election of 1900: The election of 1900 was more or less a repeat of 1896 as the popular McKinley won re-nomination easily, the only drama being who would be his running mate. His Vice-President, Garret A. Hobart, had died in office, so they had to find someone to counter McKinley. They went with Theodore Roosevelt, the hero of San Juan Hill, and the Republicans left very happy with their ticket.
The Democrats decided to go with the popular Williams Jennings Bryan for a second time, going with former Vice President Adlai Stevenson as the running mate. An interesting rematch was brewing.
Some of the issues were old as Bryan continued to push for free silver. The Democrats also opposed the Philippine War and American Imperialism in general. The Republicans, of course, had the success of the Spanish-American war on their side and could point to the economic upturn as the result of gold discoveries in Alaska and South Africa (and, by the way, the Boer War involving Britain and Germany, was going on then too).
In the end, the silver issue was more or less dead and McKinley would win re-election rather easily.
Second Term: The second term got off to a good start as the leader of the Philippine rebels, Emilio Aguinaldo, surrendered, and the US gained the upper hand. Fighting still would continue for another year, however.
The next months would be rather quiet as President McKinley worked on trade and tariff issues. It was about tariff reciprocity that dominated a speech President McKinley made in Buffalo during the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.
It was the last speech he would ever make.
Assassination: The next day, September 6, 1901, would prove a fateful one for President McKinley. He was visiting the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. After making his speech, he stood last in a line of greeters shaking hands with admirers, well, mostly admirers.
Because, at 4:07 in the afternoon, McKinley offered his hand to a professed anarchist named Leon Czolgosz. Czolgosz happened to have a concealed weapon under his shirt and fired point blank into McKinley’s chest. He fell backwards, telling his Secret Service men not to hurt the assailant. He also worried on how they would tell his wife, for the First lady was very emotionally dependent on her husband and he obviously loved her as well.
It was hoped that McKinley would survive the wound (and he might have under today’s technology), but gangrene set in, and he would die eight days later. At least he didn’t have to suffer the way Garfield had.
Odd notes:
McKinley had a pet parrot named Washington Post
https://www.visitcanton.com/blog/sta...-may-not-know/
Wife Ida hated the color yellow
10 Interesting Facts About William McKinley
Final Summary: William McKinley, in some ways, is an example of being beholden to special interests. It wasn’t all his fault of course; Mark Hanna deserves much of the blame. But it is true that more money poured into McKinley’s two Presidential campaigns than any candidate previously. We became a world power during his administration and some of it can be attributed to McKinley’s foreign policy and, of course, a rather formidable military, but, as in the Polk Administration, was it worth losing our souls?
Still, while I can’t say I was a fan of McKinley’s economic policies (I’m definitely not a protectionist), the economy did improve significantly during his one term plus. Yes, it had more to do with external factors such as the new gold discoveries than of McKinley’s policies. I guess you can say, on that score, McKinley was quite lucky.
But of course, and tragically, he wasn’t lucky at all.
Overall rating: C
https://millercenter.org/president/mckinley