William McKinley

BORN: January 29, 1843 • Niles, Ohio

DIED: September 14, 1901 • Buffalo, New York

U.S. president

"War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed."

William McKinley was once considered by historians to be a weak president who was controlled by his own administration. More recent scholars have revised that point of view and generally see McKinley as a politician who tried to avoid war but who remained firm in his commitment once it was made. As the last president of the Gilded Age, McKinley paved the way for the twentieth-century leaders who would guide America through the constantly changing times of the Progressive Era. The Gilded Age was the period in history following the Civil War and Reconstruction (roughly the final twenty-three years of the nineteenth century), characterized by a ruthless pursuit of profit, an exterior of showiness and grandeur, and immeasurable political corruption. The Progressive Era was the period that followed the Gilded Age (approximately the first twenty years of the twentieth century); it was marked by reform and the development of a national cultural identity.

Born shy

William McKinley was born on January 29, 1843, the seventh of eight children. He spent the first ten years of his life in the small town of Niles, Ohio, where father William owned an iron foundry. At age ten, McKinley and his family moved to a nearby town called Poland. McKinley's childhood was typical of boys during that time. He went fishing, hunting, swimming, and horseback riding. From his mother, he learned the value of honesty, while his father instilled in him a strong work ethic.

After finishing his basic education, McKinley attended Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. He never graduated, though, because of financial hardships and illness. McKinley joined the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry at the start of the Civil War (1861–65). He repeatedly showed courage on the battlefield. As a second lieutenant, McKinley served under Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–93), a man who would be president of the United States one day. After the war, McKinley went home to Ohio and studied law at Albany Law School.

After passing the bar exam in 1867, McKinley opened his legal firm in Canton, Ohio. In 1869, he met Ida Saxton. The two married in January 1871 and had two daughters, Katherine and Ida. Katherine, born on Christmas Day 1871, lived only until 1875. Her sister, born in 1873, died at the age of four months.

Enters politics

McKinley earned a living as a lawyer, but he was passionate about politics. He was elected county prosecutor in 1869, and he won a Republican seat in Congress in 1876, where he served until 1891. (During that time, he lost only one election, in 1882.) McKinley was appointed chair of the House Ways and Means Committee in 1889, a powerful position. He used his power to help pass the McKinley Tariff of 1890. The bill increased the cost of imported goods by almost 49.5 percent, an increase that was reflected in the prices consumers were forced to pay for products. The monumental increase angered voters, and McKinley was defeated in the 1890 election.

McKinley was elected governor of Ohio in 1891. He spent his first term trying to improve relations between management and labor in industry. He developed an arbitration (negotiation) program and managed to convince the state's Republicans to support it. Traditionally, Republicans refused to recognize the rights of labor, but McKinley changed their position with his gifted public speaking.

Although he publicly acknowledged the rights of workers, he refused to give in to them if he believed their requests were not rational. In 1894, he called in the National Guard to break up a strike (formal protest of workers who refuse to work until negotiations are made) of the United Mine Workers.

America suffered an economic depression (a long-term economic state characterized by high unemployment, minimal investment and spending, and low prices) in 1893. This depression was one of the worst in American history. The unemployment rate (percentage of the total working population that was out of a job) exceeded 10 percent for half a decade, something that had never happened before and would not happen again until the Great Depression of the 1930s. No city or region was left unscarred. One of every four workers in Pennsylvania was unemployed; in Chicago, Illinois, one hundred thousand people were sleeping on the streets.

McKinley himself suffered financial hardship through the depression. He had cosigned a loan for a friend, and then the friend went bankrupt, leaving McKinley to pay off the debt. That he suffered right along with millions of other Americans only increased his popularity, and he was reelected for another term.

Election of 1896

The presidential campaign and election of 1896 was one of the most complicated and interesting in history. McKinley was the Republican candidate. Although Democrat Grover Cleveland (1837–1908; served 1885–89 and 1893–97; see entry) was the president at the time, he had angered America so much with his lack of response to the Panic of 1893 that his party did not nominate him as its candidate, but instead chose William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925; see box).

Party platforms

In addition to the Democrats and Republicans, the 1896 election involved the Populist Party. Displeased farmers and laborers who believed their interests and concerns were not fairly represented or considered by either major political party formed this party in 1892. The Populists wanted public ownership of railroads so that prices could be controlled. They wanted the government to issue more silver and paper currency in the hope that the increase of money in circulation would raise prices and help farmers pay off their debts. Populists campaigned for the graduated income tax (where the more money people made, the more taxes they paid). The graduated tax would redistribute wealth by taxing the rich more heavily than the poor. Populists wanted postal savings banks, which would give the poor a safe place to deposit their money because the banks would be government-owned. This new party supported the direct election of U.S. senators (rather than having them appointed by state legislatures). Populists wanted a reduction in tariffs and called for an eight-hour workday. Unlike the Republicans and the Democrats, corporate America did not influence the Populists. The Populists represented the working class and tried to give these voters a voice.

William Jennings Bryan: Popular Presidential Candidate

William Jennings Bryan was born in Salem, Illinois, on March 19, 1860. He practiced law in his home state until 1887, when he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. From 1891 to 1895, Bryan held a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

A gifted public speaker, Bryan used his skill to defend and champion the small farmer and laborer, two factions of America that the Democrats and Republicans often overlooked. His efforts included supporting the Free Silver movement, which would require the government to use silver to back the dollar at a value that would increase the prices farmers received for their crops. This, in turn, would help them pay their debts, which were considerable.

At the Democratic convention in 1896, Bryan gave his most famous speech, known as the "Cross of Gold" speech. In the address, Bryan dramatically compared the gold standard (at the time, the government's policy of backing paper money with equal amounts of gold) to crucifixion (death by being hung on a cross). As reported on Vassar College's 1896 Web site, Bryan closed his heartfelt speech with these words:

If they say bimetallism is good, but that we cannot have it until other nations help us, we reply, that instead of having a gold standard because England has, we will restore bimetallism, and then let England have bimetallism because the United States has it. If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.

Bryan did not win the 1896 election, nor did he win the presidential elections of 1900 and 1908. America never elected the man as president, but many of the causes he supported eventually came to be upheld: a woman's right to vote; the graduated income tax, in which the amount of one's taxes is linked to the amount of one's income; the establishment of the U.S. Department of Labor; and the popular election of senators.

When Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924; served 1913–21) was elected president in 1912, he appointed Bryan his secretary of state, a position he held until his resignation on June 9, 1915. His fame intensified in 1925, when he took on the role of prosecutor in the Scopes Trial. Tennessee high school teacher John T. Scopes (1900–1970) was on trial because he dared to teach his students the theory of evolution, which suggests that humankind descended from a lower order of animals. At the time, a Tennessee state law called the Butler Act forbid the teaching of any theory that did not include the creation of human beings by God, as taught in the Bible.

Bryan was pitted against famous attorney Clarence Darrow (1857–1938). Bryan's own personal devotion to and belief in religious fundamentalism fueled his prosecution of Scopes, and he won a guilty verdict. Scopes was ordered to pay $100 by the judge, but the sentence was later overruled because the jury, not the judge, should have chosen the amount the defendant was ordered to pay. The Butler Act was upheld until 1967.

Bryan's beliefs were ridiculed in the courtroom by Darrow, who called the lawyer to the stand as an expert on the Bible. Once there, Bryan faltered in his answers to Darrow's questions. On June 26, 1925, five days after the grueling trial ended, Bryan died.

In an effort to increase the party's appeal, the Populists decided in January 1895 to downplay some of the more radical reforms of their platform (for example, transportation and land reforms, for which some party members wanted government ownership of all railroads and a portion of public lands to be set aside for settlers). Instead, they focused on the money issue. Party leaders promoted free silver as a way to gain control of the federal government. Many Populists balked at the change in campaign strategy. They wanted the whole Populist platform or nothing at all and feared a change in focus would distract the movement from issues they considered equally important.

The Populists approached the election of 1896 as a split party. Those in favor of focusing on the issue of bimetallism (the use of both gold and silver coins) to the exclusion of all other issues were also in favor of blending their platform with the Democrats, who shared their perspective on the money issue. Those who preferred to stay with the original platform established in 1892 remained committed to participating in the election as an independent political party. They were against free silver (another term for bimetallism) because they did not believe it would change the existing system of commerce and banking. This faction of Populists felt the issue of industrial monopolies was more important than free silver.

In comparison to the Populists, the Republican platform favored high tariffs and the gold standard. Since the mid-1700s, the U.S. monetary system had been based on bimetallism. But the California Gold Rush in 1849 resulted in the discovery of such large quantities of gold that its value decreased. Before 1849, gold had been sixteen times more valuable than silver.

People soon began melting their silver dollars and using the metal for other purposes, such as jewelry. In 1873, Congress ceased making silver coins, and America was placed on a gold standard. A series of silver strikes beginning in 1875 and continuing throughout the 1880s in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado and nearby regions caused the price of silver to fall even further. In spite of this decrease in value, silver mining as an industry continued to grow. Farmers, however, were going further into debt as prices per bushel of their crops continued to decrease quickly due to increased foreign competition and supply. In order to remain competitive, farmers had to continue lowering their prices, yet they still had monthly payments to make on expensive farm equipment and mortgages.

Although most Republicans were in favor of the gold standard, some were not. These Silver Republicans would eventually side with the Democrats and Bryan. Bryan spoke out against the gold standard in his famous "Cross of Gold" speech in which he portrayed gold supporters as crucifiers of Christ and silver supporters as true Christians. In other words, he portrayed the gold standard as the downfall of the American economy.

Early in the campaign, the Populist Party realized it could not win; it simply could not compete against the two major parties. Given that the gold standard was driving them into poverty, the Populist voters supported Bryan. The Populists were aware that although Bryan shared their concerns about gold versus silver, he showed little interest in other issues that mattered to them. Still, the silver issue was important enough to give him their vote.

Campaign, election

The Republicans raised $4 million for their campaign, an unheard-of amount in 1896. Most of that money came from big business and bankers, all of whom wanted to keep tariffs high. Republican campaigners used the money to print and distribute 200 million pamphlets. McKinley delivered 350 speeches from his front porch in Canton, Ohio. Campaigners traveled the nation rallying support for their candidate.

Bryan was much more active in his campaigning. He traveled 18,000 miles (28,962 kilometers) in three months. An even more engaging speaker than McKinley, Bryan painted McKinley as a puppet of big business. His speeches were moralistic in tone, almost as if he were a church preacher. This turned some of his more progressive supporters against him.

McKinley beat Bryan with 271 electoral votes compared with Bryan's 176. Electoral votes are the votes a candidate receives for winning the majority of popular votes in a particular state. If a candidate wins the most popular votes in a state, he wins all of that state's electoral votes. Not all states are worth the same number of electoral votes. That number is determined by how many U.S. representatives it has in the House plus two, one for each of the state's U.S. senators. In order to win a presidential election, a candidate must have more than 50 percent of electoral votes. McKinley also took 52.2 percent of the popular vote (citizens' votes). His victory marked the beginning of what would be a Republican White House until Democrat Woodrow Wilson's inauguration in 1913.

Domestic and foreign issues

By the time McKinley took office, the depression was all but over. People's fear was subsiding, and so was the uproar over bimetallism versus the gold standard. Although McKinley had supported the gold standard, he spent most of 1897 pursuing an international agreement to bimetallism with Italy, Russia, England, and France. When negotiations failed late in the year, McKinley endorsed a gold-based currency and signed the Gold Standard Act in 1900. With that legislation, all currency was backed by gold at a fixed price of $20.67 per ounce.

Among McKinley's campaign promises was the one to raise tariffs. In 1896, taxes on certain products used in the United States brought in fairly large amounts of money. Alcohol taxes brought in $114.5 million, tobacco another $30.7 million. McKinley wanted to increase tariff levels so that internal taxes could be reduced; this, in turn, would allow taxpayers to spend less on those items they used more often. A raise in tariff rates would also encourage the expansion of American industry and increase the number of jobs because people would not want to buy from abroad when doing so would cost more.

In 1897, U.S. congressman Nelson R. Dingley (1832–1899) of Maine sponsored the Dingley Tariff Act, which raised rates to an average of 49 percent. The bill also gave the president authority to negotiate reductions of up to 20 percent. He also could move items to what was called a "free list," which meant those items would not be subject to the tariff. Other items could be dropped completely if all those in positions of authority agreed upon it. McKinley remained a committed supporter of high tariffs until the end of his life. Just days prior to his death, he announced his shift in attitude and gave his support to reciprocal trade treaties (trade agreements in which both countries benefit).

For McKinley, the issue of trusts (a group of companies who band together to form an organization that limits the competition by controlling the production and distribution of a product or service) was not one that could be easily categorized. He believed trusts were useful in terms of international competition, where Americans could compete against foreign businesses. But he thought they were not so desirable within the American market, where they curbed competition between American businesses. He limited his support of legal suits against trusts that hurt interstate (within the nation) commerce only.

McKinley was a supporter of the labor movement, and his time in the White House increased his popularity among workers throughout the nation. He endorsed the Erdman Act of 1898, which developed a means for negotiating wage disputes involving international railroad companies. McKinley also favored the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited Chinese immigrants from settling in America and taking jobs that Americans could fill. He had strong professional relationships with a number of leaders in the labor movement as well. Despite his support of America's workers, McKinley sent in federal troops to keep order at a mining strike in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in 1899. The incident ended in the arrest of about five hundred miners, who were kept in a large pen from the time of their arrest in April until September. This five-month detention of miners was the one incident during his presidency in which McKinley angered the organized-labor voting population.

President McKinley put little effort into improving race relations while in office. He spoke against lynching (illegal hanging) in his first presidential address in 1897 but did not condemn the practice formally with legislation or any other efforts. Nor did he take measures to limit the racial violence in the South. For the most part, McKinley's reaction to the race issue was to appear as if he was doing something about it. For example, he appointed thirty African Americans to official positions in diplomatic and records offices. This seemed to whites to be enough, but it fell far short of what African American voters had expected. McKinley also allowed African American soldiers to fight in the Spanish-American War (1898), which went against the wishes of the majority of the military. Still, these measures did little to help African Americans.

McKinley undid much of the reform work Cleveland had done within the civil service. The civil service is the system in which civilians work for various government agencies and departments. Cleveland reformed the system so that appointment to positions was based on a person's qualifications rather than on favors done or political party affiliation only. As a result, Republicans were unhappy that many of the most influential positions within the civil service were filled with Democrats. McKinley bowed to Republican pressure and removed about four thousand positions from the list. This satisfied Republican congressmen but led many of his citizen supporters to change their minds about him. It now looked as though the president was being controlled by, rather than in charge of, the Republican Party.

Territorial expansion

As the twentieth century drew closer, many Americans believed that to increase the greatness of the nation, the nation ought to increase its size and power. Others believed just as strongly that expansionism would cost too much money and bring too many non-white people into the country. Their stance was called "anti-imperialism." Some of its better-known supporters were former president Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901; served 1889–93; see entry); William Jennings Bryan; industrialist Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919); and writer Mark Twain (1835–1910; see entry).

In 1897, McKinley negotiated a treaty with Hawaii that would annex it (make it a U.S. territory). He not only recognized the island's value as a military strategic point but also realized other world powers would want to lay claim to the land if the United States did not. Anti-imperialists and Democrats were against the annexation and delayed it until 1900. At that point, Congress successfully petitioned McKinley to pass the resolution for annexation with a simple majority (more than 50 percent) vote, rather than the usual two-thirds majority vote. In 1959, Hawaii became the fiftieth state admitted to the Union.

The Spanish-American War

During this period of imperialism versus anti-imperialism, President McKinley had to deal with a problem he had inherited from the Cleveland administration: Cuba. Spanish rule in Cuba was based on repression (put down or controlled with force), and Cubans revolted in 1895. Spain's response was to round up three hundred thousand Cubans and put them in camps where they could not help the rebels. Spain's behavior angered many Americans, who believed Cuba should be independent of Spain's rule.

Throughout 1897, McKinley tried to convince Spain to give Cuba its independence. In November of that year, Spain gave Cuba limited independence (regarding political matters within Cuba, it could govern itself; Spain would still handle international matters). Spain then closed the camps. The peace was short lived, when in January 1898, pro-Spanish demonstrators rioted in the streets of Havana, Cuba. McKinley sent the U.S. battleship Maine to the Havana harbor to protect American citizens who had arrived to help Cuba. His moves howed Spain that America still valued its relationship with Cuba.

Spanish minister to the United States Enrique Dupuy de Lome (1851–1904) wrote a private letter to a friend in Spain that was stolen from the post office by the Cubans. The Cubans, in turn, leaked the letter to the U.S. media. The letter described McKinley as weak and indicated that the Spanish were not negotiating in good faith with the United States. The letter was published in the New York Journal. Americans, who saw it as an attack on the honor of both their president and their nation, were furious.

Things got worse when the Maine exploded and sank on February 15, 1898. The explosion killed 266 crew members. A Navy investigation concluded that the explosion had been caused by an outside source, presumably a Spanish mine. (More recent scholarship has speculated, however, that the explosion more likely occurred because of problems in the ship itself.) Although McKinley did not want to go to war, he saw no alternative at this point. He ordered U.S. ships to block Cuba's ports; America and its president wanted an end to the Cuban crisis. On April 23, 1898, Spain declared war on the United States. Two days later, America declared war on Spain. The war lasted just over three months, and fewer than four hundred American soldiers died in battle. Many more died from disease.

The Spanish-American War ended with the signing of the Paris Peace Treaty on December 10, 1898. The treaty gave Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States and allowed America to buy the Philippine Islands for $20 million. Spain gave up its hold on Cuba, which would be a protectorate (under the protection and partial control) of the United States until 1934. The United States, under McKinley's leadership, had become one of the world's great colonial powers.

War in the Philippines

The war with Spain left America with a global influence it had not previously enjoyed. Filipinos, at first, viewed American troops as liberators. It became clear to the U.S. government almost immediately that the Philippines were not ready to govern themselves. McKinley disagreed with American anti-Imperialists and decided that the islands were too strategically valuable to be left to the inexperienced rule of the Filipinos themselves. The president took it upon himself to educate the islanders and bring them to Christianity, which he believed would make them more capable of self-rule.

McKinley sent twenty thousand troops to the Philippines, but the islanders proved more adept at defending themselves than the United States had predicted. They revolted, and the conflict there lasted until 1902, as American troops fought battle after battle against island rebels who employed tactics of guerrilla warfare, a strategy the United States was little prepared to combat. In guerrilla warfare, soldiers gain the support of local citizens, who help them carry out plans of deception, assassination, and sabotage, often behind enemy lines. Although McKinley predicted the war would be rather bloodless as far as war goes, it cost more than five thousand American lives and two hundred thousand Filipino lives.

The Boxer Rebellion

China soon became a concern to McKinley as well. He knew that other world powers, such as Japan, Germany, and France, were also trying to establish influence throughout the world. In an effort to guarantee that Chinese ports would remain open to U.S. business, the president authorized an "Open Door" policy to China. This policy put China on an equal status with America in terms of trade and business. There would be no restrictions or tariffs, and the United States would support an independent China. The policy became useless at the end of World War II (1939–45), when China was recognized as a sovereign (self-governing) nation. As such, no country had the right to influence or attempt to exclude it from trade. By 1949, China had become a Communist country, and the Open Door Policy was rejected. The government did not wish to promote foreign trade or investment. Despite its demise, the Open Door policy remains one of the most important ever issued by the federal government.

In June 1900, a group of Chinese rebels known as Boxers killed a number of western missionaries and Chinese converts to Christianity. The Boxers did not want foreign influences in their country or on their national identity. The group also invaded foreign populations in the city of Peking. McKinley sent over twenty-five hundred troops and several gunboats to China without first getting congressional approval. In addition to U.S. military support, Russia, Britain, Germany, and Japan assisted China. The allied (combined) troops put down the Boxer Rebellion by August. China was forced to pay reparations (costs of war) of more than $300 million, $25 million of which went to America.

Death comes early

In 1900, the Republicans once again spent several million dollars on the presidential campaign. They printed 125 million campaign documents, including millions of inserts that were sent to more than 5,000 newspapers every week. They hired 600 speakers and poll watchers. As was the case the first time, McKinley stayed home and delivered his speeches from his front porch. His running mate was Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919; see entry), who had recently returned home from the Spanish-American War a hero. (McKinley's vice president during his first term, Garret A. Hobart [1844–1899], had died in office.)

McKinley's opponent was a familiar face: William Jennings Bryan. Again, McKinley won both the popular and the electoral vote. He won by an even greater margin this time, receiving 114,000 more votes than in the 1896 election. In addition, the Republicans also held the power in Congress (197 House seats compared with the Democrats' 151, and 55 Senate seats compared with 31).

On September 5, 1901, McKinley delivered a speech at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. At its conclusion, he attended a reception where he got to meet and greet the public. Just after 4:00 pm, McKinley was shot by a twenty-eight-year-old Polish immigrant named Leon Czolgosz (1873–1901). The bullet hit McKinley in the chest and knocked him to the ground. The president was rushed to a hospital, where doctors expected him to recover. Gangrene (decay of skin tissue due to blood loss) set in around his wounds, however, and the president died on September 14, 1901, just six months after his second term had begun. His assassin died in the electric chair on October 29, 1901.

McKinley did not have the charm of some of the earlier presidents. Nor was he as outgoing and outspoken as his successor, Theodore Roosevelt. He did not use his power to convince all Americans to share his beliefs or support his policies. Instead, McKinley was a president whose self-confidence allowed him to make decisions and stand behind them, even when the public did not agree. His successes in territorial expansion took America's power to a new level, and it paved the way for future presidents to carry on in that tradition.

For More Information

BOOKS

American Presidents in World History. Vol. 3. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003.

Cherny, Robert W. American Politics in the Gilded Age: 1868–1900. Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson, 1997.

Dolan, Edward F. The Spanish-American War. Brookfield, CT: Millbrook Press, 2001.

Gerber, Elizabeth R. The Populist Paradox. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999.

Kazin, Michael. A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan. New York: Knopf, 2006.

Riehecky, Janet. William McKinley: America's 25th President. New York: Children's Press, 2004.

WEB SITES

"William Jennings Bryan." 1896: A Website of Political Cartoons.http://projects.vassar.edu/1896/bryan.html (accessed on September 4, 2006).

"William McKinley." American President.org.http://americanpresident.org/history/williammckinley/biography (accessed on September 4, 2006).

"William McKinley." 1896: A Website of Political Cartoons.http://projects.vassar.edu/1896/mckinley.html (accessed on September 4, 2006).

"William McKinley: First Inaugural Address." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online.http://www.bartelby.net/124/pres40.html (accessed on September 4, 2006).

"William McKinley." The White House.http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/wm25.html (accessed on September 4, 2006).

Wolf, Mari Artzner. "A Home of His Own." Wm. McKinley Presidential Library & Museum.http://www.mckinleymuseum.org/mckinleyfeature.html (accessed on September 4, 2006).