William McKinley (1843 - 1901) was an American politician who served as the twenty-fifth president of the United States from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. [1] He presided over victory in the Spanish-American War, the acquisition of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, and the annexation of Hawaii, and championed the protective tariff and the gold standard. He was shot in Buffalo, New York, in September 1901 and died eight days later, the third American president to be assassinated. [2]
Early life and Civil War service
McKinley was born on 29 January 1843 in Niles, Ohio, the seventh of nine children in a family of iron founders. [1] He attended Poland Seminary and briefly Allegheny College, leaving because of illness and financial pressure.
In 1861 he enlisted as a private in the 23rd Ohio Infantry, serving under Rutherford B. Hayes, and rose to the rank of brevet major by the end of the Civil War. [2] He was the last president to have served in that conflict. After the war he studied at Albany Law School, was admitted to the bar, and established a practice in Canton, Ohio.
Congress and the governorship
McKinley was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1876 and served, with one interruption, until 1891. [1] He became the leading Republican advocate of protective tariffs, and as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee gave his name to the McKinley Tariff of 1890, which raised duties to unprecedented levels and contributed to Republican losses in that year's elections.
He was elected governor of Ohio in 1891 and re-elected in 1893, governing during the severe depression that followed the Panic of 1893 and building a reputation for conciliating labour and business. [2] With the organisational and financial backing of the industrialist Mark Hanna, he won the Republican presidential nomination in 1896 and defeated William Jennings Bryan, campaigning for sound money and protection largely from his own front porch in Canton.
Presidency and the Spanish-American War
McKinley's first term restored the high tariff through the Dingley Act and secured the Gold Standard Act of 1900. [1] The defining event of his presidency was the crisis over Cuba. After the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbour in February 1898 and mounting public pressure, he asked Congress for authority to intervene, and war with Spain was declared in April.
The conflict lasted only a few months and ended with the Treaty of Paris, under which Spain relinquished Cuba and ceded Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to the United States. [3] The decision to retain the Philippines led to a protracted and costly war against Filipino forces seeking independence. During the same period the United States annexed Hawaii and, through the Open Door notes, sought to preserve commercial access to China.
Assassination and legacy
Re-elected in 1900 with Theodore Roosevelt as his running mate, McKinley was shot on 6 September 1901 by the anarchist Leon Czolgosz while greeting the public at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. [2] He died of his wounds on 14 September, and Roosevelt succeeded him. The killing prompted Congress to assign the Secret Service formal responsibility for protecting the president.
Assessments of McKinley have varied considerably. He is credited with modernising the executive office, managing a return to prosperity, and forging the Republican electoral coalition that dominated national politics until 1932, while his administration's overseas expansion, particularly the war in the Philippines, remains the most criticised part of his record. [4]
