William McKinley

William McKinley was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. Born on January 29, 1843, in Niles, Ohio, McKinley rose from modest beginnings to become one of the leading Republicans of the late nineteenth century. His presidency marked a major turning point in American history, overseeing the Spanish-American War, the acquisition of overseas territories, the emergence of the United States as a world power, and a return to economic prosperity after the severe depression of the 1890s.

McKinley grew up in a large, hardworking family in Ohio and received his early education in local schools before attending Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. His education was interrupted by illness and financial difficulties, and he returned to Ohio, where he studied law and eventually began working as a teacher. When the Civil War began in 1861, McKinley enlisted in the Union Army as a private in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He served throughout the war and distinguished himself at the Battle of Antietam, where he repeatedly carried food and supplies to soldiers under heavy fire. By the end of the war, he had risen to the rank of brevet major, a distinction that remained an important part of his public identity.

After the war, McKinley studied law, was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1867, and established a successful legal practice in Canton, Ohio. He entered politics as a Republican and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1876. During his fourteen years in Congress, he became one of the nation's leading advocates of protective tariffs, believing that tariffs could protect American industries and workers from foreign competition. His support for the McKinley Tariff of 1890 made him nationally prominent, although the law's high rates contributed to Republican losses in the 1890 elections and ended his congressional career. He subsequently served as governor of Ohio from 1892 to 1896, where he gained a reputation as a moderate, disciplined, and increasingly popular Republican leader. His political partnership with wealthy industrialist Mark Hanna helped secure the Republican presidential nomination in 1896.

McKinley's presidency began during a period of economic uncertainty and intense political debate, but he quickly established a program centered on economic recovery, protective tariffs, and the gold standard. The Dingley Tariff of 1897 raised tariff rates, while the Gold Standard Act of 1900 formally placed the nation's currency on a gold basis. The defining event of his presidency, however, was the Spanish-American War of 1898. Following Spain's brutal suppression of the Cuban independence movement and the destruction of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor, McKinley asked Congress for authority to intervene, and war was declared in April 1898. The United States rapidly defeated Spanish forces in Cuba and the Philippines and captured Puerto Rico and Guam. Under the Treaty of Paris, Spain surrendered control of Cuba and ceded Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States. McKinley subsequently supported the annexation of Hawaii and pursued an increasingly active American role abroad, transforming the United States into an emerging overseas power.

After winning reelection in 1900, McKinley began his second term with the country enjoying relative prosperity and greater international influence. He traveled widely during the spring and summer of 1901, including a highly publicized visit to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. On September 5, he delivered a speech at the exposition advocating expanded international commerce and friendly relations among nations. The following day, while greeting visitors at the exposition's Temple of Music, McKinley was shot twice by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist who opposed government and political authority. McKinley initially appeared to recover, but his condition suddenly deteriorated as a result of infection and gangrene. He died on September 14, 1901, at the age of fifty-eight. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him, and McKinley's death helped usher in a new era of American politics. His legacy remains closely associated with the rise of the United States as a global power, the Spanish-American War, the expansion of American territory, protective tariffs, and the transition from the nineteenth-century republic into the increasingly international and industrial America of the twentieth century.