William McKinley

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"Self-preservation is the first law of nature, as it is and should be of nations."
William McKinley quoted in William McKinley.

William McKinley

Born January 29, 1843
Niles, Ohio
Died September 14, 1901
Buffalo, New York

25th president of the United States

The Spanish-American War and the subsequent acquisition of colonies by the United States were the most important events of William McKinley's presidency. McKinley sought guidance in these matters from two sources that were important to him: his Christian faith and his devotion to business.

Fighting between Spain and the United States took place in the Spanish colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines from April until August 1898. After America's decisive military victory, McKinley faced the difficult question of what to do about the Philippines, where America had defeated the Spanish navy. McKinley found an answer only after falling to his knees in the White House and praying to God for guidance. His decision to buy the colony from Spain pleased the American businesses that sought Asian markets for their goods.

Ancestry and boyhood

William McKinley inherited his devotion to God and business from a family of Christian businessmen. McKinley's father, William McKinley Sr., operated a charcoal furnace near Niles, Ohio. In 1829, the elder McKinley married Nancy Allison, a Methodist whose ancestors hailed from Scotland. Together, the couple had nine children; the seventh, William, was born in the family's wooden cottage on January 29, 1843.

Young William went to school in Niles; after his family moved when he was nine, he attended Poland Academy, a Methodist seminary in Poland, Ohio. There, McKinley made a lifelong commitment to the Methodist faith. At age sixteen, McKinley entered Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, but health problems forced him to leave before graduating. McKinley worked as a teacher and a postal clerk until 1861, when he felt a patriotic duty to enlist in the Union army in the American Civil War (1861-1865).

The American Civil War

The Civil War began with the Battle of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. The war was fought between the United States and the Confederacy: twelve southern states that had seceded—meaning withdrawn—from the Union. The southern Confederate states sought to protect states' rights, including the practice of slavery, on which their cotton plantation wealth depended. Northern states, on the other hand, wished to end slavery and build the nation around their growing manufacturing industries.

McKinley enlisted in the Union Army on June 11, 1861, as a private in Company E of the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteers. He first served under Commander William S. Rosecrans and First Major Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893), who would later become president of the United States. McKinley displayed courage and leadership by helping his fellow soldiers. On one occasion, he led a team of mules through heavy fire to the front lines to feed soldiers in the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. When the Civil War ended in 1865, McKinley left the army and returned to Ohio.

Attorney and husband

Back home, McKinley set out to become a lawyer. He studied as a clerk for a year with a judge and then attended Albany Law School before joining the Ohio bar and opening a practice in the city of Canton. Becoming interested in politics, McKinley received the Republican nomination for the office of prosecuting attorney in Stark County, Ohio. He won the election in 1869. McKinley fought crime in that position for two years until losing the next election in 1871. For the next five years, he practiced law until he was elected to Congress in 1876.

Meanwhile, McKinley had become a husband, marrying Ida Saxton on January 25, 1871. Together, McKinley and Saxton had two daughters, Katherine and Ida. Both daughters died young, causing considerable grief for the McKinleys.

U.S. congressman

McKinley won election to the U.S. House of Representatives from his district in Ohio in 1876. His old friend from the Civil War, the newly elected President Hayes, advised McKinley to make the tariff—or tax—issue his specialty in Congress because it promised to be one of the most important issues for the nation. By taxing imports, tariffs would give American manufacturing industries a competitive advantage. McKinley thought tariffs were necessary not only to protect businesspeople but also to keep wages high for American workers.

Except for a two-year period after losing a reelection bid in 1882, McKinley stayed in the House until 1891. In May 1890, the House passed the McKinley Tariff Act, which raised some tariffs to all-time highs and replaced others with direct subsidies, meaning payments, to American producers. These tariffs resulted in higher prices for consumers, making McKinley and other Republicans unpopular with many citizens. McKinley lost his bid for reelection that year and returned to Ohio.

From the governor's mansion to the White House

Back home again, McKinley served two terms as governor of Ohio from 1892 to 1896. During this time, he nurtured his friendship with Marcus A. Hanna, a multimillionaire industrialist from Cleveland whose money and connections would later help get McKinley to the White House. After receiving the Republican presidential nomination in June 1896, McKinley campaigned from the front porch of his house in Canton. Tens of thousands of Americans took trains to hear him speak there. McKinley won the election and took the oath of office in Washington, D.C., in March 1897.

American business during McKinley's presidency

Three things drove McKinley's presidential policies and even his approach to the Spanish-American War: the economy was finally strong again after going through a depression that began in 1893; the U.S. Census Bureau had announced that the American frontier was closed because Americans had begun settling all areas of the continent; and American industries were producing more goods than the public could consume.

As a result of these forces, American businesses sought to develop foreign markets for their goods. Imperialists, those who advocated control of foreign people who lack representation in government, believed the United States should acquire colonies for this purpose, as European and Asian powers did. Anti-imperialists opposed colonialism and wanted the United States to negotiate favorable trade agreements with foreign countries.

Speaking in his inaugural address, McKinley opposed imperialism. As told by Edwin P. Hoyt in William McKinley, McKinley said, "We want no wars of conquest. We must avoid the temptation of territorial aggression." Yet territorial aggression dominated McKinley's presidency in the form of the Spanish-American War.

The Cuban War for Independence

When McKinley took office in March 1897, Cubans had been rebelling against the government in Spain for two years. The American press carried stories of Spain's brutal treatment of Cuban civilians and rebels. This coverage led to growing public support for U.S. intervention in Cuba. During the prior presidential administration, Grover Cleveland (1837-1908; served 1885-1889 and 1893-1897) had chosen neither to recognize the Cuban insurgents nor to intervene to support them.

When he took office, McKinley was determined to take the same course. As a Christian, he wished to see negotiations lead to peace in Cuba. As a friend of business, he did not want war to disrupt America's recovery from the depression of 1893. Judging from magazines and journals of the time, American businesses shared these concerns. McKinley did work, however, to set up relief funds for Americans and Cuban civilians who suffered under Spain's harsh policies.

Things changed in 1898. On February 15, the U.S. warship Maine mysteriously exploded in Havana harbor in Cuba, killing more than 250 people aboard. McKinley had sent the ship there in January to protect American interests after riots had broken out in Havana. The American public blamed Spain for the catastrophe and demanded war. In late March, McKinley learned that bankers, brokers, business leaders, editors, clergy members, and big corporations all were ready for war, too. The Cuban revolution was damaging America's annual trade with the island, valued at around $100 million.

The stress on McKinley was so great that he often burst into tears in the White House. Writing about the president in The Mirror of War, Gerald F. Linderman said, "He required drugs in order to sleep. He aged visibly. He paced a path through the White House grounds."

On March 27, McKinley finally demanded that Spain end the hostilities in Cuba immediately. Although Spain was prepared to end the fighting by mid-April, it was still unwilling to set Cuba free. As the Cuban rebels would not stop fighting without gaining their freedom, McKinley ordered a naval blockade of Cuba on April 21, and Congress declared war on April 25. Speaking to his private secretary two years later, according to Linderman, McKinley said, "[D]eclaration of war against Spain was an act which has been and will always be the greatest grief of my life. I never wanted to go to war with Spain. Had I been let [alone] I could have prevented [it]. All I wanted was more time."

The Spanish-American War

The United States faced war with a regular army of only twenty-eight thousand troops compared to Spain's force of two hundred thousand in Cuba. When war appeared imminent, McKinley called for 125,000 Americans to volunteer for army service; over one million volunteers answered the call. Hoping to erase any lingering hostility from the American Civil War, the president selected officers from both the North and the South to lead the growing army. The appointments included ex-Confederate soldiers, such as Alabama native and member of Congress Joseph Wheeler (1836-1906), who would lead an entire division into battle in Cuba.

After setting the wheels of war into motion, McKinley delegated operational control to War Secretary Russell Alger (1836-1907) and the heads of the various military departments. Remaining in Washington, D.C., throughout the summer, the president welcomed the news of naval victories by Commodore George Dewey (1837-1917; see entry) in the Philippines on May 1 and by Commodore Winfield S. Schley (1839-1909) in Cuba on July 3. Unsure of its exact location, McKinley had to locate the Philippines on a map torn out of a schoolbook. When his fellow Americans discovered the location, many of them urged the president to seize the islands as the spoils of war.

Hostilities ended after the United States and Spain signed a peace protocol on August 12 (although one last battle took place in Manila, Philippines, on August 13 before news of the truce arrived there). The United States had been victorious in Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam. Because Congress had promised not to acquire Cuba when it had voted to declare war, McKinley had to let Cuba become independent. No official promises bound the United States with respect to the other three colonies, however.

According to Ivan Musicant in Empire by Default: The Spanish-American War and the Dawn of the American Century, McKinley did not want to give the Philippines back to Spain, for Spain had not governed the colony well, in McKinley's opinion. McKinley personally did not like the idea of taking the colony for commerce, but popular opinion pressured him to pursue this route. Moreover, he thought giving the Philippines independence would result in the country falling into chaos and eventually being conquered by another European power. As reported in Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present, after falling to his knees and praying to God many times for guidance, McKinley heard God advise him to take the Philippines so that Americans could teach the Filipinos principles of Christian self-governance.

In the Treaty of Paris, signed in December 1898, Spain gave Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States to cover its war costs. The United States bought the Philippines from Spain for just $20 million. Although McKinley got the islands at a bargain price, his country paid heavily afterwards with the blood of its soldiers. In February 1899, a group of Filipinos led by Emilio Aguinaldo (1869-1964) launched a revolution against American colonization. Aguinaldo said that Admiral Dewey, who had been promoted from commodore after his May 1 victory, had promised independence for the island nation in exchange for Filipino rebel assistance during the war in Manila. The Filipino revolt lasted until July 1902 before the U.S. military crushed it.

McKinley never saw the end of the rebellion, however. After starting a second term in 1901, he went on a summer tour of the United States that ended at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Greeting his fellow citizens there on September 6, McKinley was shot by an anarchist (one who supports the abolition of government, sometimes through violence) named Leon Czolgosz. McKinley clung to life for a week before he died during the early morning hours of September 14. According to Charles H. Grosvenor in William McKinley: His Life and Work, McKinley's last words were, "Goodbye all. It is God's way. His will, not ours, be done."