The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1901-09-20
McKINLEY'S LIFE.
Continued from first page

blllUus
AS he returned to the side of
Hayes, the latter said:
Lieutenant, l feared | would
never see you alive again."
On July 25 following he was
promoted to be a captain. On June
26, 1865, he was mustered out with
his regiment, and returned to Po-
land, with the record of having
been present and active in every
engagement in which his regiment
had participated, and in perform
ing with valor and judgment every
duty assigned to him.
He at once began the study Of
the law, first in the office of Gid
den & Wilson at Youngstown, o.,
and afterward ut the Law School
in Albany, N. Y. In March, 1867,
he was admitted to the bar at
Warren, O. He settled at Canton,
which ever afterward was his home,
and soon attracted attention AS
lawyer Of diligence, sobriety and
eloquence. Though the county was
strongly Democratic, he was an
uncompromising Republican, and
was elected one term as prescott
ing attorney. He threw himself
into every political campaign with
all the energy of his nature, and
his services were so highly valued
that he spoke more frequently in
his county and district than even
the principal candidates on the
ticket. When Rutherford b. Hayes
ran for the governorship of Ohio
against the Greenback candidate,
Allen, Mckinley was an eloquent
and passionate advocate of honest
money and resumption.
Meanwhile, 1871, he had mar
ried Miss Ida Saxton, leading
belle of Poland, O. 1t was a love
match in its inception; itremained
a tender and beautiful idyl to the
very end. Indeed, no public man
has ever been a nobler exponent
of all the domestic virtues than
Mckinley. His mother worshiped
him, his wife idolized him.
ELECTED TO CONGRESS.
1t was in 1876 that he announced
himself as a candidate for Con
gress. The sitting representative,
L. d. Woodwork, with Judge
Frease, and other prominent Re-
publicans, three of them from his
own county, were his opponents
for the nomination.
The Stark county delegates to
the Congressional convention were
elected by a popular vote. McKin-
ley carried every township in the
county but one, and that had but a
single delegate. In the other coun-
ties he was almost equally success
full, and the primaries gave him a
majority Of the delegates in the
district. He was nominated on
the first ballot over all the other
This sudden rise into prominence
and popularity naturally gave the
cid politicians a shock. Here was
. new and unknown factor in the
politics of the district. He had ,
been accorded an opportunity that
to them seemed hopeless, had ac- /
,epted and won recognition. 1t {
was soon discovered that he had
not only come into the politics of /
he district, but that he had come !
% stay. For fourteen years after |
his event he represented the dis {
riot of which Stark county was a
part; not the same district, for the ,
Democrats did not relish the prom |
nent part he was playing in Con {
gress, and gerrymandered him
,hree times, the last time lin 1S90) '
successfully. {
The first attempt to change his !
district was made as early as 1878 {
" the Democrats, who, by gerry {
the county, put him :
nto a district that had 1900 Dem '
'cratic majority. Mckinley car |
led it by 1900 votes. In 1882 he t
lad another narrow escape. 1t will 6
70 recalled that 1882 was bad s
rear for Republicans. The New !
FORK State convention resented a
President Arthur using his infu- t
nee to nominate his Secretary Of c
he Treasury, Judge Folger, for Q
he governship of that State. The 9
'arty was also torn up in Pennsyl- 9