William McKinley

McKinley, William (1843–1901), 25th president of the United States. McKinley—last in a long line of presidents who had fought in the Civil War—led the U.S. during its war with Spain, and presided over a nation emerging from a period of isolation to become a world power.

Early life

McKinley attended Allegheny College at Meadville, Pa., but illness forced him to return home after a few months. He taught school until the Civil War broke out. McKinley, then 18, enlisted in the 23rd Ohio Volunteers. His bravery in the Battle of Antietam earned him a higher commission; by the war's end, he had reached the rank of brevet major. After studying law in Albany, N.Y., he was admitted to the bar in 1867 and set up a practice in Canton, Ohio. In 1871, he married Ida Saxton; they had two children.

Political career

McKinley entered Republican party politics soon after moving to Canton. In 1876, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served, except for one term, until 1891. He sponsored the McKinley Tariff Act of 1890, which set record-high protective duties. The tariff's unpopularity contributed to his reelection defeat in 1890, but he was elected governor of Ohio in 1891 and 1893. In 1896, the Republicans nominated him for the presidency. McKinley was elected after a bitter campaign in which opponent William Jennings Bryan, the famous orator, portrayed McKinley and his running mate, Garret A. Hobart, as supporters of “rule of the rich.”

President

In his administration's early years, McKinley had to cope with the nation's economic problems. By 1898, however, the depression that had lasted for five years was ending. As the severe economic and social problems of the 1880s and 1890s subsided, U.S. attention turned outward and foreign-affairs problems took center stage. Spanish outrages during a Cuban insurrection that had begun in 1895 aroused indignation in the U.S. war hysteria grew after the battleship U.S.S. Maine was blown up in Havana's harbor on Feb. 15, 1898. McKinley hoped to avoid war, but eventually yielded to public opinion and that of many Congress members and other high officials by asking Congress to authorize U.S. intervention in Cuba. On Apr. 24, two days after Congress authorized a U.S. blockade of Spanish ports, Spain declared war on the U.S.

The Spanish-American War, which lasted only 113 days, brought the U.S. into the arena of international politics and made it an imperial power. During the war, the U.S. annexed Hawaii; the following year, the U.S. demanded equal trade opportunities with China.

The war had brought on a period of booming prosperity, helping McKinley and running mate Theodore Roosevelt, who promised “a full dinner bucket” for four more years, to win the 1900 election.

Assassination

In 1901, McKinley took a national speaking tour to call for freer trade and an end to U.S. isolation. As he greeted a crowd in Buffalo, N.Y., he was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. McKinley died eight days later.