William McKinley

25th President of the United States

### Siblings

David Allison McKinley (brother), Anna McKinley (sister), James Rose McKinley (brother), Mary McKinley (sister), Helen Minerva McKinley (sister), Sarah Elizabeth McKinley (sister), Abigail Celia McKinley (sister), Abner Osborn McKinley (brother)

### Education

Allegheny CollegeMount Union CollegeAlbany Law School

### Hair color

Brown

**William McKinley** was the 25th President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1897, until his assassination on September 14, 1901, after leading the nation to victory in the Spanish-American War and raising protective tariffs to promote American industry.

*The Presidency of William McKinley spanned the period in United States history that encompasses the events of the Maturation Era or the Gilded Age. President William McKinley represented the Republican political party which influenced the domestic and foreign policies of his presidency and his Open Door Policy.*

## Biography

At the 1896 Republican Convention, in time of depression, the wealthy Cleveland businessman Marcus Alonzo Hanna ensured the nomination of his friend William McKinley as “the advance agent of prosperity.” The Democrats, advocating the “free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold”–which would have mildly inflated the currency–nominated William Jennings Bryan.

While Hanna used large contributions from eastern Republicans frightened by Bryan’s views on silver, McKinley met delegations on his front porch in Canton, Ohio. He won by the largest majority of popular votes since 1872.

Born in Niles, Ohio, in 1843, McKinley briefly attended Allegheny College, and was teaching in a country school when the Civil War broke out. Enlisting as a private in the Union Army, he was mustered out at the end of the war as a brevet major of volunteers. He studied law, opened an office in Canton, Ohio, and married Ida Saxton, daughter of a local banker.

At 34, McKinley won a seat in Congress. His attractive personality, exemplary character, and quick intelligence enabled him to rise rapidly. He was appointed to the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Robert M. La Follette, Sr., who served with him, recalled that he generally “represented the newer view,” and “on the great new questions .. was generally on the side of the public and against private interests.”

During his 14 years in the House, he became the leading Republican tariff expert, giving his name to the measure enacted in 1890. The next year he was elected Governor of Ohio, serving two terms.

When McKinley became President, the depression of 1893 had almost run its course and with it the extreme agitation over silver. Deferring action on the money question, he called Congress into special session to enact the highest tariff in history.

In the friendly atmosphere of the McKinley Administration, industrial combinations developed at an unprecedented pace. Newspapers caricatured McKinley as a little boy led around by “Nursie” Hanna, the representative of the trusts. However, McKinley was not dominated by Hanna; he condemned the trusts as “dangerous conspiracies against the public good.”

Not prosperity, but foreign policy, dominated McKinley’s Administration. Reporting the stalemate between Spanish forces and revolutionaries in Cuba, newspapers screamed that a quarter of the population was dead and the rest suffering acutely. Public indignation brought pressure upon the President for war. Unable to restrain Congress or the American people, McKinley delivered his message of neutral intervention in April 1898. Congress thereupon voted three resolutions tantamount to a declaration of war for the liberation and independence of Cuba.

In the 100-day war, the United States destroyed the Spanish fleet outside Santiago harbor in Cuba, seized Manila in the Philippines, and occupied Puerto Rico.

“Uncle Joe” Cannon, later Speaker of the House, once said that McKinley kept his ear so close to the ground that it was full of grasshoppers. When McKinley was undecided what to do about Spanish possessions other than Cuba, he toured the country and detected an imperialist sentiment. Thus the United States annexed the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

In 1900, McKinley again campaigned against Bryan. While Bryan inveighed against imperialism, McKinley quietly stood for “the full dinner pail.”

His second term, which had begun auspiciously, came to a tragic end in September 1901. He was standing in a receiving line at the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition when a deranged anarchist shot him twice. He died eight days later.

## Personality

The character traits of President William McKinley can be described as outgoing, genial, witty, fair, determined, honest, cheerful and friendly. It has been speculated that the Myers-Briggs personality type for William McKinley is an ESFJ (Extraversion, Sensing, Feeling, Judgment). An outgoing, sociable, expressive character and a nurturer of established social institutions. William McKinley Personality type: Friendly, gregarious, cooperative, observant and informative.

## Nicknames

* "Wobbly Willie"
* "Ohio Napoleon"
* "The Liberator of Cuba"

*Meaning: The nickname of President William McKinley provides an insight into how the man was viewed by the American public during his presidency. The meaning of the William McKinley nickname "Wobbly Willie" refers to his opponents criticism that he was indecisive. The meaning of his nickname "Ohio Napoleon" was in reference to his firm backing (as fearsome as Napoleon) of the 1890 Tariff Act that increased almost 50% duty on imports to protect domestic industries.*

## Inaugurations

### First Inauguration

The **first inauguration of William McKinley** as the 25th president of the United States took place on Thursday, March 4, 1897, in front of the Old Senate Chamber at the United States Capitol, Washington, D.C. This was the 28th inauguration and marked the commencement of the first, and eventually only full term of William McKinley as president and the only term of Garret Hobart as vice president. Chief Justice Melville Fuller administered the presidential oath of office. This was the first inauguration to be recorded on film, and was the last presidential inauguration to take place in the 19th century. Hobart died 2 years, 262 days into this term, and the office remained vacant since there was no constitutional provision which allow an intra-term vice-presidential office filling; it would be regulated by the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967.

### Second Inauguration

The **second inauguration of William McKinley** as president of the United States was held on Monday, March 4, 1901, at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the 29th inauguration and marked the commencement of the second and final term of William McKinley as president and the only term of Theodore Roosevelt as vice president. McKinley died 194 days into this term, and Roosevelt succeeded in the presidency. Chief Justice Melville Fuller administered the oath of office. This was the first inauguration to take place in the 20th century. This was also the first inauguration to be arranged by the Joint Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies and organized by both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

## Presidents who died during his Presidency

* Benjamin Harrison
* *(Died in Office)*

## Famous Film

Monkeyshines is believed to be the first films shot in the United States, released in 1889.

## Accomplishments and major events

*The major accomplishments and the famous, main events that occurred during the time that William McKinley was president  the Spanish-American War (1898), 1898 Treaty of Paris, the Annexation of Hawaii (1898), the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) and the Gold Standard Act (1900). The period also witnessed the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the completion of Grant's Tomb and the invention of the Zeppelin Airship.*

**The 1897 Dingley Tariff**

Summary: The Dingley Tariff was passed on July 24, 1897 and  increased duties by an average of 52% and on some items 57%. The Dingley Tariff was the highest protective tariff in the history of the United States.

**The 1898 Spanish-American War**

Summary: The Spanish-American War (April 25, 1898 – August 12, 1898) was a short conflict with Spain fought in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam gave United States new international status and power

**The 1898 Treaty of Paris**

Summary: The 1898 Treaty of Paris followed the Spanish-American War in which the United States annexed Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. Spain renounced all rights to Cuba and ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States and sold the Philippine Islands for $20,000,000.

**The 1898 Erdman Railway Labor Act**

Summary: The 1898 Erdman Railway Labor Act set up arbitration procedures to settle railway disputes and alleviate labor unrest in the railroad industry.

**Grant's Tomb - 1897**

Summary: Grant's Tomb, aka General Grant National Memorial, was dedicated as the final resting place of President Ulysses S. Grant on April 27, 1897, on the 75th-anniversary ceremony of the general's birthday.

**The City of Greater New York**

Summary: The expanded  City of Greater New York was created on January 1, 1898 by the consolidation of the existing City of New Yorkwith Staten Island, East Bronx, Brooklyn and most of Queens County.

**The 1898 Annexation of Hawaii**

Summary: Queen Liliuokalani was the last Queen of Hawaii until the Annexation of Hawaii in 1898.

**The Boxer Rebellion**

Summary: The Boxer Rebellion erupted in China (1899 - 7 September 1901). The Battle of Peking resulted in joint forces of eight foreign nations based in the capital ended the Boxer’s siege of Peking on August 14, 1900.

**The Gold Standard Act of 1900**

Summary: The Gold Standard Act of 1900 was signed into law by William McKinley on 14 March 1900.  establishing gold as the only standard for redeeming paper money.

**The Galveston Hurricane**

Summary: The Galveston Hurricane in Texas hit the town on September 8, 1900 and resulted in the destruction of over 3,600 homes were destroyed. It is estimated that 20% (1 in 5) of the population, nearly 8000 people, were killed in the deadly Galveston Hurricane.

**The Zeppelin Airship**

Summary: The Zeppelin Airship was patented in the United States in 1899.

## Assassination

Although McKinley enjoyed meeting the public, Cortelyou was concerned with his security because of recent assassinations by anarchists in Europe, such as the assassination of King Umberto I of Italy the previous year. Twice he tried to remove a public reception from the president's rescheduled visit to the exposition. McKinley refused, and Cortelyou arranged for additional security for the trip. On September 5, McKinley delivered his address at the fairgrounds before a crowd of 50,000. In his final speech, McKinley urged reciprocity treaties with other nations to assure American manufacturers access to foreign markets. He intended the speech as a keynote to his plans for a second term.

A man in the crowd named Leon Czolgosz hoped to assassinate McKinley. He had managed to get close to the presidential podium, but did not fire, uncertain of hitting his target. After hearing a speech by anarchist Emma Goldman in Cleveland, Czolgosz had decided to take action that he believed would advance the cause. After his failure to get close enough on September 5, Czolgosz waited until the next day at the Temple of Music on the exposition grounds, where the president was to meet the public. Czolgosz concealed his gun in a handkerchief and, when he reached the head of the line, shot McKinley twice in the abdomen at close range. McKinley urged his aides to break the news gently to Ida, and to call off the mob that had set upon Czolgosz, a request that may have saved his assassin's life. McKinley was taken to the exposition aid station, where the doctor was unable to locate the second bullet. Although a primitive X-ray machine was being exhibited on the exposition grounds, it was not used. McKinley was taken to the home of John G. Milburn, president of the Pan-American Exposition Company.

In the days after the shooting, McKinley appeared to improve and doctors issued increasingly optimistic bulletins. Members of the Cabinet, who had rushed to Buffalo on hearing the news, dispersed, and Vice President Roosevelt departed on a camping trip to the Adirondacks. On the morning of September 13, McKinley's condition deteriorated. Specialists were summoned; although at first some doctors hoped that McKinley might survive with a weakened heart, by afternoon they knew that the case was hopeless. Unknown to the doctors, gangrene was growing on the walls of McKinley's stomach and slowly poisoning his blood. McKinley drifted in and out of consciousness all day, but when awake he was a model patient. By evening, McKinley too knew he was dying, "It is useless, gentlemen. I think we ought to have prayer." Relatives and friends gathered around the death bed. The first lady sobbed over him, saying, "I want to go, too. I want to go, too." Her husband replied, "We are all going, we are all going. God's will be done, not ours", and with final strength put an arm around her. He may also have sung part of his favorite hymn, "Nearer, My God, to Thee", although some other accounts have the first lady singing it softly to him. At 2:15 a.m. on September 14, 1901, McKinley died. Theodore Roosevelt rushed back to Buffalo and took the oath of office as president.

## Funeral

According to Gould, "The nation experienced a wave of genuine grief at the news of McKinley's passing." The stock market, faced with sudden uncertainty, suffered a steep decline that went nearly unnoticed in the mourning. The nation focused its attention on the casket that first lay in the East Room of the Executive Mansion and then laid in state in the Capitol before being transported to Canton by train. Approximately 100,000 people passed by the open casket in the Capitol Rotunda, many having waited hours in the rain. In Canton, an equal number did the same at the Stark County Courthouse on September 18. The following day, a funeral service was held at the First Methodist Church. The casket was next sealed and taken to the McKinley house, where relatives paid their final respects. It was then transported to the receiving vault at West Lawn Cemetery in Canton to await the construction of the memorial to McKinley already being planned.

## Facts and trivia

* William McKinley was the last Civil War Veteran to be elected President of the United States. In fact, at 18, the first unit he was assigned to during the war, was commanded by another future President, Rutherford B. Hayes, who was McKinley's mentor.
* A native of Niles, Ohio, McKinley was born the seventh of nine children to William McKinley Sr. and Nancy Allison McKinley.
* The McKinleys were of English and Scots-Irish descent and had settled in western Pennsylvania in the 18th century. Their immigrant ancestor was David McKinley, born in Dervock, County Antrim, in present-day Northern Ireland. William McKinley Sr was born in Pennsylvania, in Pine Township, Mercer County.
* The Allison family on McKinley's mother's side, was of mostly English descent and among Pennsylvania's earliest settlers. The family trade on both sides was iron-making. McKinley senior operated foundries throughout Ohio, in New Lisbon, Niles, Poland, and finally Canton.
* The McKinley household was, like many from Ohio's Western Reserve, steeped in Whiggish and abolitionist sentiment, the latter based on the family's staunch Methodist beliefs.
* McKinley also followed in the Methodist tradition, becoming active in the local Methodist church at the age of sixteen. He was a lifelong pious Methodist.
* In 1852, the family moved from Niles to Poland, Ohio, so that their children could attend its better schools. Graduating from Poland Seminary in 1859, McKinley enrolled the following year at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. He was an honorary member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He remained at Allegheny for one year, returning home in 1860 after becoming ill and depressed. He also studied at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio, as a board member.
* Although his health recovered, family finances declined and McKinley was unable to return to Allegheny. He began working as a postal clerk and later took a job teaching at a school near Poland, Ohio.
* When the Southern states seceded from the Union and the American Civil War began, thousands of men in Ohio volunteered for service. Among them were McKinley and his cousin William McKinley Osbourne, who enlisted as privates in the newly formed Poland Guards in June 1861. The men left for Columbus where they were consolidated with other small units to form the 23rd Ohio Infantry.
* McKinley was the only U.S. President to begin his service in the Civil War as an enlisted man, and end as a brevet major.
* After the war ended in 1865, McKinley decided on a career in the law and began studying in the office of an attorney in Poland, Ohio. The following year, he continued his studies by attending Albany Law School in New York state. After studying there for less than a year, McKinley returned home and was admitted to the bar in Warren, Ohio, in March 1867.
* Later in 1867, McKinley moved to Canton, the county seat of Stark County, Ohio and set up a small office. He soon formed a partnership with George W. Belden, an experienced lawyer and former judge. His practice was successful enough for him to buy a block of buildings on Main Street in Canton, which provided him with a small but consistent rental income for decades to come.
* When his Army friend Rutherford B. Hayes was nominated for governor in 1867, McKinley made speeches on his behalf in Stark County, his first foray into politics. The county was closely divided between Democrats and Republicans, but Hayes carried it that year in his statewide victory.
* In 1869, McKinley ran for the office of prosecuting attorney of Stark County, an office that had historically been held by Democrats, and was unexpectedly elected. When McKinley ran for re-election in 1871, the Democrats nominated William A. Lynch, a prominent local lawyer, and McKinley was defeated by 143 votes.
* As McKinley's professional career progressed, so too did his social life blossom: he wooed Ida Saxton, the daughter of a prominent Canton family. They were married on January 25, 1871, in the newly built First Presbyterian Church of Canton. Ida soon joined her husband's Methodist church.
* The McKinley's first child, Katherine, was born on Christmas Day 1871. A second daughter, Ida, followed in 1873 but died the same year. McKinley's wife descended into a deep depression at her baby's death and her health, never robust, declined. Two years later, Katherine died of typhoid fever. Ida never recovered from her daughters' deaths, and the McKinleys had no more children. Ida McKinley developed epilepsy around the same time and depended strongly on her husband's presence. He remained a devoted husband and tended to his wife's medical and emotional needs for the rest of his life.
* Ida McKinley insisted that her husband continue his increasingly successful career in law and politics. He attended the state Republican convention that nominated Hayes for a third term as governor in 1875, and campaigned again for his old friend in the election that fall. The next year, McKinley undertook a high-profile case defending a group of striking coal miners, who were arrested for rioting after a clash with strikebreakers.
* McKinley's good standing with labor became useful that year as he campaigned for the Republican nomination for Ohio's 17th congressional district. Delegates to the county conventions thought he could attract blue-collar voters, and in August 1876, McKinley was nominated. By that time, Hayes had been nominated for president, and McKinley campaigned for him while running his own congressional campaign. Both were successful. McKinley, campaigning mostly on his support for a protective tariff, defeated the Democratic nominee, Levi L. Lamborn, by 3,300 votes. Hayes won a hotly disputed election to reach the presidency. McKinley's victory came at a personal cost: his income as a congressman would be half of what he earned as a lawyer.
* As a member of Congress, McKinley became the Republican Party's expert on the protective tariff, which he promised would bring prosperity.
* McKinley designed the McKinley Tariff, which raised rates on imports to the highest in history, all to promote the sale of American products. However, it was highly controversial and, together with a Democratic redistricting aimed at gerrymandering him out of office, led to his defeat in the Democratic landslide of 1890.
* McKinley was elected governor of Ohio in 1891 and 1893, steering a moderate course between capital and labor interests.
* With the aid of his close adviser Mark Hanna, McKinley secured the Republican nomination for president in 1896 amid a deep economic depression. He defeated his Democratic rival William Jennings Bryan after a front porch campaign in which he advocated "sound money" (the gold standard unless altered by international agreement) and promised that high tariffs would restore prosperity.
* Historians regard McKinley's 1896 victory as a realigning election in which the political stalemate of the post-Civil War era gave way to the Republican-dominated Fourth Party System, beginning with the Progressive Era.
* McKinley was sworn in as president on March 4, 1897, as his wife and mother looked on. The new president gave a lengthy inaugural address; he urged tariff reform, and stated that the currency issue would have to await tariff legislation. He warned against foreign interventions, "We want no wars of conquest. We must avoid the temptation of territorial aggression."
* McKinley was the first President to appear on film, taking place during his Inauguration.
* McKinley's most controversial Cabinet appointment was that of John Sherman as Secretary of State. Sherman had an outstanding reputation but old age was fast reducing his abilities. McKinley needed to have Mark Hanna appointed to the Senate so Senator Sherman was moved up.
* McKinley was the last President of the 19th century and the first of the 20th century.
* Rapid economic growth marked McKinley's presidency. He promoted the 1897 Dingley Tariff to protect manufacturers and factory workers from foreign competition and in 1900 secured the passage of the Gold Standard Act.
* McKinley hoped to persuade Spain to grant independence to rebellious Cuba without conflict, but when negotiation failed, requested and signed Congress's declaration of war to begin the Spanish-American War of 1898. The United States victory was quick and decisive. As part of the peace settlement, Spain turned over to the United States its main overseas colonies of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines while Cuba was promised independence, but at that time remained under the control of the United States Army. The United States annexed the independent Republic of Hawaii in 1898 and it became a United States territory.
* McKinley defeated William Jennings Bryan again in the 1900 U.S. presidential election in a campaign focused on imperialism, protectionism, and free silver.
* McKinley's achievements were cut short when he was fatally shot on September 6, 1901, by Leon Czolgosz, a second-generation Polish-American anarchist at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley died eight days later from gangrene caused by the gunshot wound. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt rushed back to Buffalo and took the oath of office as president.
* McKinley was the third U.S. President to be assassinated, after Abraham Lincoln and James A. Garfield.
* McKinley's assassin Leon Czolgosz, put on trial for murder nine days after McKinley's death, was found guilty, sentenced to death on September 26 and executed by electric chair on October 29, 1901.
* There was a widespread expectation that Ida McKinley would not long survive her husband; one family friend stated, as William McKinley lay dying, that they should be prepared for a double funeral. However, this did not occur, and the former first lady accompanied her husband on the funeral train.
* McKinley's casket lay in repose the East Room of the White House and then laid in state in the Capitol before being transported to Canton, Ohio by train. Approximately 100,000 people passed by the open casket in the Capitol Rotunda, many having waited hours in the rain. In Canton, an equal number did the same at the Stark County Courthouse on September 18. The following day, a funeral service was held at the First Methodist Church. The casket was next sealed and taken to the McKinley house, where relatives paid their final respects. It was then transported to the receiving vault at West Lawn Cemetery in Canton to await the construction of the memorial to McKinley already being planned.
* The McKinley National Memorial was completed six years after McKinley's assassination. Ida McKinley died only months before the completion of the large marble monument to her husband in Canton, which was dedicated by President Roosevelt on September 30, 1907. William and Ida McKinley are interred there with their daughters atop a hillside overlooking the city of Canton.
* In addition to the Canton site, many other memorials honor McKinley. The William McKinley Monument stands in front of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus and a large marble statue of McKinley is situated at his birthplace in Niles. Twenty Ohio schools bear McKinley's name, and several more schools in the United States are named McKinley School.
* Statues bearing McKinley's image may be found in more than a dozen states, and his name has been bestowed on streets, civic organizations and libraries. In 1896, a gold prospector gave McKinley's name to Denali, the tallest mountain in North America at 20,310 feet (6,190 m). The Alaska Board of Geographic Names reverted the name of the mountain to Denali, its local appellation, in 1975. The Department of the Interior followed suit in August 2015 as a part of a visit to Alaska by President Barack Obama. Similarly, Denali National Park was known as Mount McKinley National Park until December 2, 1980, when it was changed by legislation signed by Jimmy Carter.
* As an innovator of American interventionism and pro-business sentiment, McKinley is generally ranked as an above-average president. However, his popularity was soon overshadowed by his successor Theodore Roosevelt.

## References

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William\_McKinley
* https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/william-mckinley/
* https://www.american-historama.org/presidents-united-states/william-mckinley.htm
* https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/McKinley-184