The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-06-19
IL.
IN CIVIL LIFE

He was 22 when he returned to Ohio
and civil life. His four years service
mad given him taste for army life,
and but for his fathers opposition he
might have entered the regular army,
as General Carroll desired him to do. A
mans career often turns upon a
chance. Had he Joined the regular army
there Is room for curious speculation as
to his future. Promotion has been
slow since the civil war. He might still
be Major Mckinley. but while the regu-
lar army would have gained a good
soldier, the nation would have lost n
great statesman.
however. he chose civil live, studied
law with Charles Il. Glidden and David
Wilson. Of Mahoning county, took q
course at the Albany, N. Y, law school
and in 1867 was admitted to the bar
and located in Canton, Stark county,
since his home. Two years later he ran
Tor prosecuting attorney Of the county.
stark county was Democratic, but Nc
kinley was elected and served two
years. He ran for reelection, but fell
short by forty-five votes. Meanwhile
he had become active in politics, He
took the stump for his party and soon
made himself power among the people.
In 1876 he announced himself a candi-
date for congress. The sitting congress
man, l.. d. Woodwork, of Mahoning,
Judge Frease and several other Republl-
cans, three of them from his own coun.
ty, were opponents for the nomination.
In Stark county delegates to the con-
gressiOnal convention were elected by
a popular vote. Mckinley carried every
township In the county but one, and that
had but single delegate. In the other
counties he was almost equally success
full, and the primaries gave him q ma
1ority of all the delegates in the district.
He was nominated on the first ballot
over all the other candidates.
The old stagers We're surprised. Here
was new factor In politics. The Aus.
trian marshals were not more aston
ished when the young and unknown
Napoleon crossed the Alps and dropped
his army upon them on the plains OF
Italy as unexpectedly as though It had
dropped from the clouds. And the new
man had come to stay. For fourteen
years he had represented the district of
which Stark county was part--not
the same district. for the Democrats
did no relish the prominent part he was
playing congress, and gerry ry-mandered"
him three times. They began early at
1t, too. for In 1878 he was put into a
district that 1900 Democratic majority.
Mckinley carried 1t by 1900 votes. In
1884 they tried similar "gerrymander,"
but Mckinley was not to be downed,
and made 1900 Democratic majority,
1,53O the other way. Finally, in 1890, the
year he had placed upon the statute
books of the nation the famous NC
Kinley BILL" partisan intolerance had
its most 'iniquitous expression. Stark
county was put in a district with Wayne,
Medina and Holmes. One year before
these counties had given Campbell,
Democrat, $500 majority for governor.
Mckinley made the fight, and against
ex-Lieut. Gov. Warwick, a prominent.
and popular democrat. Not, perhaps,
since Abraham Lincoln contested I'LL
nois for the senatorship against Stephen
A. Douglass, has there been ain one
sense--local political struggle which
the whole country watched with such
intense interest. 1t was indeed battle
royal. Some curious schemes were re-
sorted to by his opponents. The cry
that the Mckinley bill had raised the
prices of necessaries was harped upon,
necessarily. 1t Is even said that in
Holmes county. a Democratic strong
hold, the Democrats sent men purport-
Ing to be tin peddlers. These offered
ordinary tin drinking cups at 81 apiece.
When the people demonstrated, the
answer was:
1.-THE Mckinley bill has put so heavy
a duty on tin plate that the prices Of
tinware have gone away up"
Despite the heavy odds against him,
and such electioneering methods az
these. Major Mckinley was beaten BY a
beggarly 303 votes. And that on the
fullest vote ever cast in the district.
He polled $500 more than had been
given Harrison In 1888. This defeat in
1880 took him out of congress. 1t made
him governor Of Ohio In 1891.
There was another time during his
congressional career when ne barely
escaped defeat at the polls, and only to
be unseated by q Democratic house.