page_title: Joseph B. Foraker
section_title: Rivalry with Hanna
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph B. Foraker / Senator (1897–1909) / Rivalry with Hanna
caption_attribution_description: English: Opening of the United States Senate session, December 1902. Among the senators shown are William B. Allison of Iowa, third from left, and the two Ohio senators, Mark Hanna, who is the shorter man prominently at right center, and Joseph B. Foraker, who stands behind Hanna and slightly to the right.
context_page_description: Joseph Benson Foraker was an American politician of the Republican Party who served as Governor of Ohio from 1886 to 1890 and as United States Senator from Ohio from 1897 until 1909.
  Foraker was born in rural Ohio; he enlisted at the age of 16 in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He fought for almost three years, attaining the rank of captain. After the war, he was a member of Cornell University's first graduating class, and became a lawyer. Interesting himself in politics, he was elected a judge in 1879 and became well known as a political speaker. He was defeated in his first run for the governorship in 1883, but was elected two years later. As Ohio governor, he built an alliance with Cleveland industrialist Mark Hanna, but fell out with him in 1888. Foraker was defeated for reelection in 1889, but was elected U.S. senator by the Ohio General Assembly in 1896, after an unsuccessful bid for that office in 1892.
  In the Senate, he supported the Spanish–American War and the annexation of the Philippines and Puerto Rico; the Foraker Act gave Puerto Rico its first civil government under American rule.
context_section_description: During the 1896 campaign, Hanna served as chairman of the Republican National Committee, in charge of McKinley's campaign, and obtained millions for his presidential candidate by soliciting donations from wealthy businessmen.  After the November election, Foraker met with Hanna and was surprised to learn that President-elect McKinley and Hanna planned that Sherman would be appointed Secretary of State and that the industrialist would take Sherman's place in the Senate.  Foraker objected to both components of this plan, feeling that Hanna was not qualified as a legislator, and that Sherman, whose faculties were starting to fail, should not become Secretary of State.  Foraker met with McKinley, but failed to convince him.
  Bushnell (who would get to appoint a temporary replacement) and Foraker (a close political ally of the governor) did not want to appoint Hanna; their faction had several candidates, including Bushnell himself, for the next election for Sherman's seat in 1898.  Bushnell and Foraker resisted for a month once the pending appointment of Sherman became known in January 1897, during which time the governor offered the seat to Congressman Theodore E. Burton, who declined.  It was not until February 21 that Bushnell finally announced Hanna's appointment, effective upon Sherman's resignation. This controversy to some extent overshadowed Foraker's swearing-in as senator on March 4—Hanna adherents claimed that Bushnell had delayed the effective date of the industrialist's appointment until Foraker took his seat so that Hanna would be the junior senator.  In his memoirs, Foraker denied this, noting that Sherman was unwilling to resign until the afternoon of March 4, after the new president and Congress were sworn in and the new Cabinet, including Sherman, was confirmed by the Senate.  Hanna was given his commission as senator by Bushnell on the morning of March 5.
  Foraker had known that with McKinley in the Executive Mansion (as the White House was still formally known) and Sherman expected to be senior senator, he could expect only limited patronage appointments for his supporters. With McKinley's close friend Hanna instead in the Senate, Foraker was allowed to recommend appointees to the President, but McKinley allowed Hanna to exercise a veto over Foraker's candidates.
  Foraker was not visibly involved in the unsuccessful efforts to deny Hanna re-election in 1898, but several of his allies, including Bushnell and Kurtz, were part of the opposition.  Foraker nominated McKinley again at the 1900 convention; his florid praise of the president pleased the delegates.  As McKinley's original vice president, Garret Hobart, had died in 1899, he required a new running mate for the 1900 campaign, and the convention chose the popular Spanish–American War hero, New York governor Theodore Roosevelt.  Foraker had maintained friendly relations with Roosevelt since the two men met at the 1884 convention, but Hanna bitterly opposed the choice.  Foraker spoke widely during McKinley's successful re-election campaign.
  After President McKinley was assassinated in September 1901, Foraker attended the funeral services and addressed a large memorial meeting at the Cincinnati Music Hall.  When politics resumed after the mourning, Foraker spoke in defense of President Roosevelt's inviting Booker T. Washington, a black man, to the White House.  This helped ensure support from the black community in Foraker's successful re-election bid in January 1902, which was not opposed by the Hanna faction.
  Both Hanna and Foraker had been spoken of as possible Republican presidential candidates in 1904; with President Roosevelt now likely to be the nominee, both men's presidential ambitions were pushed back four years.  Hanna in particular was reluctant to publicly put aside his presidential candidacy, believing that keeping it alive would help assure his re-election by the legislature in 1904.  In 1903, Foraker saw an opportunity to embarrass Hanna and boost his own chances for 1908 by getting the Republican state convention to pass a resolution endorsi
caption: Drawing of the opening of the Senate session in December 1902.  Foraker's rival Mark Hanna is the shorter man to the right of the clerk; Foraker stands behind Hanna and slightly to his right.
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