The suburban citizen., 1901-09-21
LIFE AND WORK OF MR.. Mckinley

mckinley and all
LIFE AND WORK OF Mr.. MCKINLEY
Career Of the Late President-Lawyer Sol.
dier and Statesman
William Mckinley, twenty-fourthN
President of the United States, was bora
at Niles, Trumbull county, Ohio, on
January 20, IS4; After attending the
public schools he went to Poland Acadc-
my, and subsequently to Allegheny Col
ege, but before attaining his majority
had become a teacher in the public
schools On June II, 1861, when he was
in his nineteenth year, he enlisted as
private in the Tweny-third Ohio Vol
unteers, becoming commissary sergeant
on April IS, 1862, second lieutenant on
September 23 of the same year, first lieu
tenant on February 7, 1868, and captain
on July 25 1904. He served successivelyi
on the staffs of Gems. r. B. Hayes,
George Crook and Winfield S. Hancock
h and towards the close of the war was de-i
Hailed as acting assistant adjutant general
1 of the First Division, First Army Corps,
on the staff of Gen. S. S. Carroll. He
was brevetted major of volunteers for
h gallantry in battle in March, 1865, and in
July following was mustered out of the
service.
Major Mckinley then applied himself
\ to the study of law, which he completed
h by course at the Albany On. W Law
School. In 1867 he was admitted to the
bar and settled down at Canton, o., in
the practice of his profession that town
since remaining his home. In 1860 he
was elected prosecuting attorney of Stark
county but served only one term in that
office. In 1867 he made his entrance upon
the field of national politics, and was
elected a member of the lower house of
4 Congress, in which for the next IA years
& he represented the congressional district
of which his county was a part. AS
chairman of the Ways and Means Com
mittee he reported the tariff law of 1890,
in the preparation of which he took a
leading part, and it has always been
known by his name. In November of
that year Major Mckinley was defeated
for reelection to Congress, the new ap-
lportionment of the state having been so
gerrymandered as to throw him into a
Democratic district, but he succeeded inl
reducing the usual adverse majority
from 5000 to 900. There was, however,
practically no interval in his public cal
reer, for in 1891, few months after
he retired from the House, he was
elected governor of Ohio by a plurality
of 2I,sII over James E. Campbell, the
Democratic incumbent of the Office
Two years later he was reelected by al
plurality of 8o,oos over Lawrence T.
Neal, Democrat, and retired from the
'governorship at the close of 1906.
Major Mckinley served as a delegate-I
at-large in the Republican National Con-
vention of 1884, when he supported
Blaine for President and as a member
of the committee on resolutions read the
platform to the convention. In 1888 heI
was again a delegate-at-large from Ohio,
supported John Sherman for the nomi-,
nation and as chairman of the committed
on resolutions again reported the plat,
form. In 1862 he appeared for the third
time as a delegate -at-large from Ohio,
and served as permanent chairman of the
convention. On that occasion Major
Mckinley advocated the denomination
OF President Harrison, but notwith-
standing his refusal to permit the use of
his name, I82 votes were cast for him
for the Presidential nomination. At the
national convention held at ST. Louis in
June 1896, Major Mckinley was made
the Presidential candidate of the Repub-,
|lican party, receiving 66IH votes to 84H
for Thomas Reed. ooH for Matthew s.
Quay, So for Levi P. Morton, 3sH for
William B. Allison and for ]. Donald
Cameron, with "a delegates absent, the
number of votes necessary for a choice
being 462. In November following Ma
jor Mckinley received 7,Io6,Ioo votes
to 6,5o2,68s for William J. Bryan, giving
Ia plurality of 6o3,5I4, and clear ma
jority of the popular vote of 2S8,753 over
all opposition. In the Electoral College
the vote stood 27I for Mckinley to I76
for Bryan
On June FL, 1000 the National Repub-
lican Convention at Philadelphia rcnomi-
mated Mr. Mckinley for President. He
received o26 votes Gall the votes of the
On November 6, 1901, Mr.. Mckinley
was reelected, defeating Mr.. William
j. Bryan the second time.
During the administration of Presi-
dent Mckinley the most important mat
tiers that have engaged his attention have
been the war with Spain, beginning in
April, 1893, and being concluded in Au-
gust of the same year; the trouble with
the Filipnos, which followed the attack
on the American troops by the Filpinos
in February, 1900, and which still con-
tinues in a desntory sort of fashion: the
passage of the Porto Rican bill, applying
to the use of the inhabitants of the island
the duties collected; the passage of the
Financial bill at the last session of Con-
gress by which the gold standard was
made secure; and the trouble in China
which followed the attack Of the Boxers
on the foreigners in China, which neces-
STATED sending American troops to Chi
nn. some OF which arc sill there