William McKinley

William McKinley I INTRODUCTION William McKinley (1843-1901), 25th president of the United States (1897-1901). McKinley led an administration that marked the beginning of vast changes in American attitudes and ways of living. During his administration the United States emerged from more than a century of isolation from world affairs to become one of the great powers of the world. His election in 1896 stifled demands for radical economic and social reforms, but his assassination at the beginning of his second term paved the way for the moderate reforms that followed. Although he was extremely popular, McKinley was not a strong president. He was opposed to going to war with Spain to liberate Cuba but took no effective action to prevent it. He was in sympathy with the plight of farmers and laborers who were being victimized by the growing economic and political power of big business, but he believed that it was the result of natural forces with which the government had no right to interfere. II EARLY LIFE McKinley was the seventh of nine children born to William and Nancy Allison McKinley, both of Scots-Irish descent. His grandfathers had both fought in the American Revolution (1775-1783), and in 1830 his paternal grandfather had settled in Niles, Ohio, and opened a small pig-iron foundry. William McKinley, Jr., was born in Niles on January 29, 1843. When he was nine he moved with his mother to nearby Poland, Ohio, where the educational opportunities were greater. His father stayed behind for a few years to manage the foundry. McKinley enrolled at Poland Seminary, a private school, and studied there for eight years. He was a serious, quiet boy who excelled in public speaking. He was very much attached to his mother, and her influence on him was great. He accepted without question her strict moral standards and her conviction that wealth was a reward for virtue and poverty was a punishment for sloth and vice. Extremely religious, she hoped that her son would enter the ministry of the Methodist Church, to which they belonged (see Methodism). III EARLY CAREER A Civil War Soldier When the Civil War broke out in 1861, McKinley enlisted in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. His superior officer was Major Rutherford B. Hayes, a successful lawyer and future Republican president of the United States (1877-1881). The regiment was sent to western Virginia, where it spent a year fighting small Confederate units. McKinley's bravery under fire impressed Hayes, and he was promoted to commissary sergeant. In September 1862 at the Battle of Antietam, McKinley drove a mule team loaded with meat and coffee through heavy enemy fire to supply troops at the front. For this heroic action he was promoted to second lieutenant and made an aide on Hayes's staff. In 1865 he left the army with the rank of major. B Lawyer Returning to Ohio, Major McKinley, as he now preferred to be called, studied law in the office of county judge Charles E. Glidden of Youngstown. In 1866 he attended law school in Albany, New York, and the next year was admitted to the practice of law in Canton, Ohio. He had only moderate success as a lawyer, but he was active in civic affairs and soon became one of Canton's most popular citizens. In 1869 McKinley met Ida Saxton, daughter of a wealthy Canton businessman and banker. Two years later they were married, and they had two daughters. One child died after five months, and Mrs. McKinley suffered a mental breakdown. The shock of the second daughter's death from typhoid fever in 1873 was more than she could bear. For the rest of her life she suffered epileptic seizures and bouts of mental depression. B1 Entrance into Politics In 1869 McKinley was elected prosecuting attorney of Stark County. He also became active in the Republican Party. In 1876, the year of Hayes's election to the presidency, McKinley was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. C United States Congressman McKinley served in the Congress of the United States from 1877 to 1891 with the exception of one term. In 1882 the boundaries of his congressional district were changed to prevent him from being reelected, but he won reelection two years later (see Gerrymander). As a congressman he was known as a powerful speaker and a hardworking but very conservative legislator. C1 McKinley Tariff In Congress, McKinley became the foremost supporter of a high tax on imports, called the tariff. Tariffs on imports were intended to raise money for the government and to protect U.S. businesses from foreign competition by increasing the cost of importing those goods. Industries in Northern urban areas and banking interests tended to favor high tariffs because they helped domestic businesses; agricultural areas in the West and the South tended to oppose them because they made it harder for people to buy cheap foreign goods such as clothing. McKinley said his belief in a laissez-faire economic system, in which government did not interfere with business, did not deter him from demanding high tariffs to protect American industry from foreign competition. In 1890 he wrote the tariff act that bears his name. The McKinley Tariff imposed the highest tariffs that the United States had ever placed on imports. C2 Bimetallism McKinley took a more moderate stand on the other pressing issue of the day, the demand by Western factions for the unlimited coinage of silver, a position called bimetallism. Western farmers wanted the government to issue more silver dollars, which would raise the prices for their crops; a larger money supply would also decrease the value of a dollar and enable farmers to repay their debts with less valuable money. Large banks and industries, located mostly in the East, wanted to maintain the gold standard, a monetary system in which paper money may be converted, on demand, into gold at a rate fixed by law. This would limit the supply of money, protect creditors, increase the value of their loans, and keep prices high. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, which pledged the government to issue more silver coins, was a compromise between silver advocates and supporters of the gold standard. McKinley voted for it in exchange for support for his tariff bill. His vote angered Eastern bankers and industrialists but helped lessen Western opposition to his stand on the tariff. D Governor of Ohio Because he was a champion of protective tariffs, as well as an extremely popular politician, McKinley attracted the attention of a Cleveland industrialist, Marcus Alonzo Hanna. Hanna was eager to be the maker of a president and to be the man who exercised power behind the scenes. In 1890, as a result of popular reaction against his tariff and of another Democratic redistricting, McKinley lost his congressional seat. With Hanna's help, McKinley was elected governor of Ohio in 1891 and reelected in 1893. As governor, McKinley improved Ohio's roads and public departments and established an arbitration board to settle labor disputes. He showed some sympathy to workers by carefully avoiding the use of force in breaking a labor strike. McKinley also had the opportunity to speak out on national issues, and at the Republican National Convention of 1892, Hanna made a brief attempt to win the presidential nomination for him. But when the cause became hopeless, Hanna and McKinley threw their support to the moderate Republican president, Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893), who was seeking a second term. McKinley's political career was almost ruined in 1893 when a friend, whose bank notes he had endorsed, went bankrupt and left McKinley responsible for his debt of $130,000. McKinley was saved from ruin only when Hanna and his wealthy friends and associates agreed to repay the debt. As a reflection of the esteem in which he was held, McKinley also received many donations from the public, all of which he returned. E Election of 1896 An economic crisis called the panic of 1893, coming as it did with a Democratic president in office, made the Republicans optimistic about winning the presidency in 1896. In the congressional elections of 1894, McKinley made 371 speeches throughout the nation and was widely seen as man who could restore prosperity. Hanna left his private business to devote full time to McKinley's candidacy. He did his work well, and on the first ballot (vote) at the Republican National Convention in 1896, McKinley was nominated for the presidency. Garret A. Hobart of New Jersey received the nomination for vice president. The reaction of the Eastern industrialists and financiers to McKinley's nomination was not overly enthusiastic. Used to controlling the candidates of both major parties, they were confident that the Democrats would nominate a stronger supporter of the gold standard. E1 Nomination of Bryan For three decades farmers in the South and West had been dissatisfied with bankers' and industrialists' domination of the federal government. The gold standard had forced prices and wages down. Manufactured goods, favored by high tariffs and corporate practices that restricted competition, fell only slightly, but farm commodity prices declined sharply. This meant that farming communities had less money to buy the manufactured goods for which prices had not fallen. In the early 1890s the farmers' revolt came to a head. The Populist Party made great strides throughout the West with a platform of extensive social and economic reforms that would, they argued, curb the power of the wealthy and benefit agriculture. The Populists also attempted to forge an alliance with the more radical labor unions and thus threatened to become a potent third force, following the Democrats and the Republicans, in American politics. The most important demand of the Populists, as well as of Western Democrats and Republicans, was the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the legal ratio of 16 to 1 with gold. In 1896 the silverites gained control of the Democratic convention and, largely on the strength of his famous "cross of gold" speech, William Jennings Bryan, a 36-year-old orator, journalist, and former United States congressman from Nebraska, was nominated for the presidency. Later in the year the Populists also nominated Bryan, who proceeded to tour the country making fiery speeches for free silver and against wealth, privilege, and business control of the government. E2 The Front Porch Campaign Alarmed by Bryan's attack on wealth and privilege, and urged on by Hanna, big businesses rallied in support of McKinley, contributing the unprecedented sum of $3.5 million to the Republican campaign. The money was put to good use. The country was flooded with McKinley campaign pamphlets and posters, and Republican speakers toured the nation to argue against bimetallism and to portray Bryan's crusade for social justice as a rebellion of fanatics who would destroy the government. To reinforce these arguments, factory managers warned their workers that a victory for Bryan would mean depression and loss of their jobs. Refusing to compete with Bryan's around-the-country campaign, McKinley stayed at home, receiving delegates from all over the country and issuing such statements as "Good money never made times hard." The image of the honest, upright Major McKinley contrasted favorably with that of Bryan, who was challenging many of the American businesses' most sacred beliefs. Sweeping all the large industrial states, McKinley won the election by 271 electoral votes to Bryan's 176. He also won the popular vote by 602,555 votes out of 13,620,659 votes cast. The election also had an effect far beyond the naming of a president. It set up coalitions of interests and political alliances that lasted for the next 16 years. The Republicans held the presidency until Democrat Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated in 1913. IV PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES When McKinley entered Washington, D.C., for his inauguration, he was a handsome, vigorous man of 54 years. With him was his wife, who, despite her poor health, took part in many of the social activities at the White House. McKinley devoted much of his inaugural address to foreign affairs. "We want no wars of conquest," he said. "We must avoid the temptation of territorial aggression." His original Cabinet, his group of advisers and department heads, consisted of businessmen and aged politicians. But the appointment of the writer and diplomat John M. Hay as secretary of state in 1898 and New York district attorney Elihu Root as secretary of war in 1899 gave stature to his administration and greatly aided its conduct of foreign and internal affairs. Many of McKinley's detractors believed that Hanna, who was now a United States senator, would be the real power in the administration. However, McKinley, though often vacillating, proved to be his own man and exercised strong control over his advisers. A Return of Prosperity McKinley's election victory gave the business world renewed confidence, and in 1897 prosperity returned, taking much of the steam out of the demands for economic reform. That year, McKinley pushed the Dingley Tariff Act through Congress, which levied even higher duties than had his own tariff of 1890. The Dingley Tariff also recognized the increasing importance of world trade to large U.S. industries. It allowed the president to negotiate reciprocal trade agreements with other countries, under which the two countries would agree to lower tariffs on specific goods that they traded with each other. The demand for silver money also decreased because the discovery of gold in the Yukon Territories, Canada, near the Alaskan border, increased the amount of money in circulation. In addition, agricultural prices rose. In 1900 Congress passed the Gold Standard Act, which placed the United States on a single gold standard, with only a few protests from the bimetallists in the West. The United States remained on the gold standard until President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal program in 1933. Because McKinley openly represented large business interests, he sponsored no reform legislation and ignored existing laws such as the Interstate Commerce Act and the Sherman Antitrust Act, which were designed to regulate big business. B Calls for United States Intervention Abroad McKinley's first term also coincided with a movement away from traditional isolationism, which advocated avoiding alliances with other nations. Many in business began to favor expanded foreign trade to obtain new markets for their products. As foreign trade grew, so did demands for territorial expansion, so that markets could more easily be developed and controlled. Some people believed that the United States had a moral duty to use its power to help oppressed nations free themselves and construct democratic nations like the United States. Many people came to believe that the United States had a Manifest Destiny, or God-given right, to rule the western hemisphere. Although McKinley wanted peace, he made little effort to curb the growing sentiment for territorial expansion. A revolution in Cuba encouraged these groups. Revolts and conspiracies against the Spanish regime had dominated Cuban political life throughout the 19th century, and the Cuban struggle for independence became an active revolution in 1895 after Spain failed to institute reforms promised to the Cuban people in 1878. In response to the fighting Spanish troops drove much of the population into confinement camps, and thousands died of disease and malnutrition (see Cuba: History). The reports of Spanish cruelties shocked the United States, and many Americans sympathized with the Cuban cause. Sensational journalism, especially in New York newspapers owned by the competing publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, was enormously successful in creating demand for U.S. intervention. Theodore Roosevelt, McKinley's assistant secretary of the navy, also supported intervention. As a disciple of the influential naval strategist Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, Roosevelt advocated the use of naval power to assert U.S. influence throughout the world. B1 Spanish-American War On February 15, 1898, the American battleship Maine exploded in the harbor at Havana, Cuba, and 266 men died. The cause of the explosion was not known, but most Americans were certain that it was the work of Spain. (A study by the U.S. Navy, published in 1976, suggested that spontaneous combustion in the Maine's coal bunkers caused the explosion.) Congress, on April 25, enacted a resolution declaring war on Spain. The Spanish-American War lasted less than four months, from April to August 1898. Two American victories, one by Admiral George Dewey at Manila Bay in the Philippines and the other by Admiral William Sampson at Santiago Bay in Cuba, showed the world that the United States was a power to be reckoned with. However, U.S. conduct of the war was largely characterized by bungling and scandalous inefficiency. Food, clothing, equipment, medical care, and sanitation were woefully inadequate, and for every man killed by the enemy, ten died as a result of disease. B2 Imperialistic Ventures Successful conclusion of the war with Spain brought peace to Cuba and economic concessions to American business. Many politicians and intellectuals also accused McKinley of imperialism, the practice by which powerful nations or peoples seek to extend and maintain control or influence over weaker nations or peoples. Much of the support for military action in the Spanish-American War had come from those who saw the newly freed countries as new markets in which U.S. businesses could sell their goods, but the victories also created many new military problems. As part of the peace settlement, for example, the United States also acquired Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. However, the people of the Philippines wanted American domination no more than they wanted Spanish domination, and McKinley had to suppress their insurrection against American occupation. From 1899 to 1902, 70,000 U.S. troops and perhaps as much as $175 million were used to crush the resistance, which was led by Emilio Aguinaldo. Aguinaldo's rebels fought using guerrilla warfare, in which small bands of soldiers attacked suddenly and then vanished into the mountain jungles afterward. United States soldiers, finding it difficult to stop Aguinaldo's ambushes and seeing the civilian population as the enemy, burned entire villages and killed many innocent villagers in retaliation. McKinley also supported the annexation of Hawaii in 1898. In 1893 American businessmen had overthrown Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani with help from U.S. troops. Democratic President Grover Cleveland (1885-1889; 1893-1897) had found the rebellion dishonorable and refused to annex the islands. McKinley saw the issue differently. "We need Hawaii just as much and a good deal more than we did California," he said. "It is manifest destiny." In 1899, by agreement with Britain and Germany, the United States also acquired the island of Tutuila in Samoa Islands (see American Samoa). Its excellent harbor at Pago Pago became an important American naval station. McKinley further consolidated the nation's position in East Asia with the Open Door Policy, which announced that all nations should have equal access to China's markets. In China, a group known in the West as the Boxers opposed European and Japanese influence in that country. In 1900 these Chinese nationalists launched the Boxer Uprising, an attack upon foreigners living in Beijing. McKinley sent 5000 troops to help European countries crush the rebellion and hunt down those responsible. C Election of 1900 In the presidential election of 1900 McKinley ran against Bryan once again. Bryan, having lost the previous election with a reform platform, based his campaign on the question of imperialism. In opposing McKinley's policies, Bryan argued that no nation could endure as half republic, a form of government in which all citizens had the same representation, and half empire, a form under which many people might have no voice at all. McKinley's running mate was the ardent interventionist and reformer Theodore Roosevelt, who had returned a hero from the Spanish-American War to become governor of New York. McKinley based his campaign on the issue of prosperity, promising to maintain a "full dinner pail" for the next four years. He was reelected with the largest popular victory in a presidential election to that date, 7,218,491 votes to Bryan's 6,356,734. He took 28 states and won 292 electoral votes out of a total of 447, leaving Bryan only the South and four silver-mining states. V SECOND TERM AS PRESIDENT McKinley's reelection brought a continuance of prosperity, although the United States' new position in world trade persuaded him to abandon protectionism in favor of reciprocal trade. To promote reciprocity in trade, McKinley arranged to speak at a Pan-American exposition in Buffalo that fall. On September 6, 1901, while greeting visitors at the fair, McKinley was shot twice by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist (a person who opposes any type of government, see Anarchism). One bullet grazed his ribs, and the second bullet penetrated his abdomen. Czolgosz was immediately pounced upon by the crowd, and only McKinley's order, "Don't let them hurt him," saved him from a fatal beating. He was executed the following month in Auburn, New York. McKinley underwent immediate surgery in Buffalo. But gangrene, then incurable, set in and the president died on September 14, 1901. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded McKinley in office. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.