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Message of President William McKinley nominating John Sherman to be Secretary of State -- Courtesy of: National Archives and Records Administration
WILLIAM McKinley, Jr. was born in Niles, Ohio on January 29, 1843. He was the seventh of the nine children of William and Nancy Allison McKinley. Both of his grandfathers had fought in the Revolutionary War and his father’s father had opened a small iron foundry and settled in Niles, Ohio. His mother was a strong woman and a leader in their small village. When William was nine, she moved her family to nearby Poland, Ohio in order that they could pursue a better education, leaving their father behind for a few years to manage the family foundry.
McKinley was enrolled at Poland Seminary, which was a private school, and he studied there for eight years. He showed great skills in oratory and became president of the Everett Literary and Debating Society. His mother held a great influence over young McKinley and he was greatly attached to her. She had hopes that he would enter the Methodist ministry and he accepted without question her strict moral standards.
When he was seventeen, McKinley went to Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. However, his studies there were cut short by an illness. He returned home in 1861 and taught school briefly. That same year as the Civil War broke out, McKinley enlisted in the 23rd Ohio Volunteers. His superior officer was Major Rutherford B. Hayes, the future president of the United States. McKinley’s bravery under fire impressed Hayes and he was promoted and eventually made an aide on Hayes’s staff. McKinley left the army in 1865 with the rank of major.
After the war, McKinley began the study of law in the office of county judge Charles E. Glidden of Youngstown. In 1866 he attended law school in Albany, New York and the following year was admitted to the Ohio bar. He settled in Canton, Ohio to practice law and participate in politics. He was moderately successful as a lawyer, but became one of Canton’s most popular citizens. He worked successfully on the campaign of Hayes, his former commanding officer. In 1869, Republican McKinley was elected the prosecuting attorney for Democratic Stark County. He also had met his future wife, Ida Saxton, daughter of a wealthy Canton businessman and banker. Two yea.rs later, on January 25, 1871, they were married. The couple had two daughters, Katherine McKinley, born in 1871 and Ida McKinley, who died after five months. After Ida’s death in 1873, Mrs. McKinley suffered a mental breakdown and when Katherine died from typhoid fever in 1873, it became more than she could bear. She suffered seizures and bouts of mental depression for the rest of her life
In 1876, McKinley at the age of 33 was elected to represent the northeastern Ohio district in Congress. He held that seat for 14 years with the exception of one term. He was noted for his honesty, and as a powerful speaker – a hardworking, conservative politician.
In 1889, McKinley was elected chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which developed financial legislation and he became a prominent national figure. In 1890, he wrote the McKinley Tariff Act that imposed the highest tariffs that the United States had ever placed on imports. It was devised to protect all American manufacturers but it was very unpopular because it made it hard for Americans to purchase cheap foreign goods.
McKinley attracted the attention of Cleveland industrialist, Marcus A. Hanna who was eager to be the maker of a president and to be the man who exercised power behind the scenes. McKinley was a champion of protective tariffs and an extremely popular politician and with Hanna’s help, he was elected Governor of Ohio in 1891. Governor McKinley supported tax reform including higher rates for corporations and even though he had called out the National Guard on a coal miner strike that had turned violent, he retained the support of the workingman.
In 1893, McKinley’s political career was almost ruined when a friend went bankrupt and left McKinley responsible for debt of $130,000 through bank notes he had endorsed. Hanna and his wealthy friends who repaid the debt saved McKinley.
In 1896, with the aid of Hanna, who had left his private business to devote full time to his candidacy, McKinley was nominated for the presidency. His opponent was William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic nominee. The campaign was unusual. Bryan toured the country delivering his famous “cross of gold” speech and McKinley waged a “front porch” campaign from his home in Canton. Hanna urged big businesses to rally in support of McKinley and they contributed an unprecedented sum of $3.5 million to the Republican campaign. The country was flooded with McKinley pamphlets and posters and factory managers warned their workers that a victory for Bryan would mean depression and loss of their jobs. Sweeping all the large industrial states, McKinley won the election by 271 electoral votes to Bryan’s 176. The Republicans also won control of both houses of Congress. During the next four years McKinley was able to fulfill party pledges and for the next 14 years, there was unbroken Republican control of the Presidency, the Senate and the House.
At 54 years of age, McKinley was a handsome vigorous man at his inauguration. Despite Ida’s poor health, she accompanied her husband and took part in many of the social activities of the White House. McKinley never allowed formal duties to interfere with his care for her. His attentiveness to her and his concern for domestic harmony was mirrored in his efforts to seek harmony in society at large.
In the friendly atmosphere of the McKinley Administration, industrial combinations developed at an unprecedented pace. Prosperity returned and took the demands for economic reform out of the picture. McKinley openly represented large business interests; he sponsored no reform legislation and ignored existing laws that were designed to regulate big business. But foreign policy dominated the McKinley Administration, as many businesses began to favor expanded foreign trade to obtain new markets for their products.
On February 15, 1898, the American battleship Maine exploded in the Havana, Cuba harbor and 266 men died. On April 25th, Congress enacted a resolution declaring war on Spain and 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. Successful conclusion of the war with Spain brought peace to Cuba and economic concessions to American business.
McKinley also supported the annexation of Hawaii in 1898. In 1893, American businessmen had overthrown Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani with help from American troops. President Grover Cleveland had found the rebellion dishonorable and refused to annex the islands. McKinley saw the issue differently stating the country needed Hawaii just as much and more that we did California.
In 1900, McKinley again campaigned against Bryan. Although McKinley did not personally campaign, he received the largest popular majority ever given a presidential candidate up to that time. He led in electoral votes 292 to 155.
On March 4, 1901, McKinley was inaugurated for a second time. His term began auspiciously, but came to a tragic end in September. He appeared at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York to make an important speech on America’s world role. On September 6th, while greeting visitors in the Temple of Music at the fair, twice Leon Czolgosz, a deranged anarchist, shot McKinley. One bullet grazed his ribs and a second bullet penetrated his abdomen. The crowd pounced upon Czolgosz and only McKinley’s order “Don’t let them hurt him” saved Czolgosz from a fatal beating. Despite early hopes for his recovery, McKinley died eight days later on September 14, 1901 in Buffalo. Czolgosz was executed in October in Auburn, New York.
Presidents
of the Continental Congress
United Colonies of The United States
Peyton
Randolph
September 5, 1774 to October 22, 1774
and May 20 to May 24, 1775
Henry Middleton
October 22, 1774 to October 26, 1774
John
Hancock
October 27, 1775 to July 1, 1776
Presidents
of the Continental Congress
United States of America
John
Hancock
July 2, 1776 to October 29, 1777
Henry
Laurens
November 1, 1777 to December 9, 1778
John
Jay
December 10, 1778 to September 28, 1779
Samuel
Huntington
September 28, 1779 to February 28, 1781
Presidents of the United States
in Congress Assembled
Samuel
Huntington
1st President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
March 1, 1781 to July 6, 1781
Thomas
McKean
2nd President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
July 10, 1781 to November 5, 1781
John
Hanson
3rd President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
November 5, 1781 to November 4, 1782
Elias
Boudinot
4th President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
November 4, 1782 to November 3, 1783
Thomas
Mifflin
5th President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
November 3, 1783 to June 3, 1784
Richard
Henry Lee
6th President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
November 30, 1784 to November 23, 1785
John
Hancock
7th President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
November 23, 1785 to June 6, 1786
Nathaniel
Gorham
8th President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
June 1786 - November 13, 1786
Arthur
St. Clair
9th President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
February 2, 1787 to October 29, 1787
Cyrus
Griffin
10th President of the United States
in Congress Assembled
January 22, 1788 to March 4, 1789
Presidents of the United States
under the
United States Constitution
George
Washington (F)
John
Adams (F)
Thomas Jefferson (D-R)
James Madison (D-R)
James Monroe (D-R)
John Quincy Adams (D-R)
Andrew
Jackson (D)
Martin
Van Buren (D)
William H. Harrison (W)
John Tyler (W)
James K. Polk (D)
David Atchison (D)*
Zachary Taylor (W)
James
Buchanan (D)
Abraham Lincoln (R)
Jefferson Davis (D)**
Andrew Johnson (R)
Ulysses S. Grant (R)
Rutherford
B. Hayes (R)
James
A. Garfield (R)
Chester Arthur (R)
Grover
Cleveland (D)
Benjamin
Harrison (R)
Grover Cleveland (D)
William McKinley (R)
Theodore Roosevelt (R)
William H. Taft (R)
Wilson Woodrow (D)
Warren
G. Harding (R)
Calvin
Coolidge (R)
Herbert C. Hoover (R)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (D)
Harry S. Truman (D)
Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)
John F. Kennedy (D)
Lyndon B. Johnson (D)
Richard M. Nixon (R)
Gerald R. Ford (R)
James Earl Carter, Jr. (D)
Ronald Wilson Reagan (R)
George H. W. Bush (R)
William Jefferson Clinton (D)
George W. Bush (R)
*President for One Day
**President Confederate States of America
Research Links
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Presidential Libraries
Rutherford
B. Hayes Presidential Center
McKinley
Memorial Library
Herbert
Hoover Presidential Library and Museum - has research collections containing
papers of Herbert Hoover and other 20th century leaders.
Franklin
D. Roosevelt Library and Museum - Repository of the records of President
Franklin Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor Roosevelt, managed by the National
Archives and Records Administration.
Harry
S. Truman Library & Museum
Dwight
D. Eisenhower Presidential Library - preserves and makes available for
research the papers, audiovisual materials, and memorabilia of Dwight and Mamie
D. Eisenhower
John
Fitzgerald Kennedy Library
Lyndon
B. Johnson Library and Museum
Richard
Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation
Gerald
R. Ford Library and Museum
Jimmy
Carter Library
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
- 40th President: 1981-1989.
George
Bush Presidential Library
