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.
-
William
McKinley