William McKinley served as the 25th President of the United States, from 1897 to his assassination in 1901. McKinley was the last president to serve in the Civil War, president during the Spanish-American War of 1898, and was committed to boosting the domestic market by increasing protective tariffs on imported goods.
Early Career
In 1843, William McKinley Jr. was born in Niles, Ohio to William McKinley Sr. and Nancy McKinley. He briefly attended Allegheny College until the Civil War broke out. He served as a private in the Union Army, but was promoted to brevet major of the volunteers by the end of the war. After studying law at Albany Law School, he opened an office in his home state of Ohio. There, he met and married his wife, Ida Saxton, with whom he had two daughters.
The youngest of his daughters passed soon after her birth, and the older succumbed to Typhoid fever at a young age. Consequently, his wife, Ida, who was diagnosed with epilepsy, fell into a state of depression and required the attention of McKinley. President McKinley supported and cared for his wife throughout her life.
In October of 1877, McKinley’s political involvement began when he took his congressional seat. He climbed the ranks quickly due to his likeable and exemplary personality. Soon after winning a seat in Congress, he was appointed to the Ways and Means Committee, the most powerful committee in the House. He spent 14 years in the House of Representatives and became known as a Republican protective tariff expert. After his time in the House, he was elected to serve as the Governor of Ohio, in which role he served two terms.
After his political career as a congressmen and governor, Marcus Alonzo Hanna, a wealthy businessman from Cleveland and friend of McKinley, promised that McKinley would be nominated for president. After securing the greatest majority of popular votes since 1872, Republican McKinley won the presidential election and started his term on March 4, 1897.
Presidential Tenure
McKinley began his presidency at the tail end of the 1893 depression. Early into his service, he issued one of the highest tariffs in American history. Although many initially viewed McKinley as submissive to Hanna, who was serving as the representative of the trusts, this was evidentially not the reality. In fact, McKinley disapproved of the trusts and believed that they provoked “dangerous conspiracies” that would negatively impact the public.
On the foreign front, McKinley kept quite busy. After decades of the Cuban campaign for freedom from Spanish rule, the war for Cuban Independence broke out. Despite McKinley’s peaceful approach, American’s generally sided with the Cuban rebels and called for McKinley to support a war against the Spanish. After failed negotiations with Spain, and after the sinking of the USS Maine, which killed 266 crew members McKinley delegated the issue to Congress. Congress declared war on Spain, which ended with the Paris Peace Treaty of 1898. The United States became a leading colonial power, as it obtained Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Islands. Unfortunately, after the war had ended, Filipino nationalists revolted in another war that would last until 1902. The Filipino revolt claimed the life of 5000 Americans and 200,000 Filipinos. In one of the most memorable policy statements ever issued by the U.S., the McKinley administration issued the “Open Door” policy, which would prevent the Europeans and Japanese from closing the Chinese ports to U.S. commerce.
On the domestic front, McKinley had several ambitious goals. Most prominently, McKinley was committed to bolstering the domestic economy by implementing tariffs on international goods. His administration also worked on trust regulation, although his successor, Theodore Roosevelt, would more aggressively regulate trusts. In terms of racial issues, McKinley feared alienating the white South, and as a result, he failed to make any notable civil rights reforms during his presidency.
In the 1900 election, McKinley’s popularity secured him the presidency for a second term. After his inauguration, he and his wife took a 6-week tour of the country, but he had to limit his public events when his wife became ill. His security team was concerned about McKinley’s safety, epically given the assassinations in Europe. Despite this concern, McKinley insisted on addressing the public. Despite a failed first attempt, Leon Czolgosz fired at President McKinley’s abdomen twice on September 6, 1901. At 2:15am on September 14th, McKinley succumbed to his injuries and passed. Theodore Roosevelt quickly took the oath of office as President of the United States.
