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25th President · 1897–1901

William McKinley

The last Civil War veteran to serve as president, who led the nation through the Spanish–American War and into a new role as a Pacific and Caribbean power.

Portrait of William McKinley
William McKinley, c. 1900Photo: Unknown photographer, Library of CongressPublic domainSource
Born
January 29, 1843Niles, Ohio
Died
September 14, 1901
Home state
Ohio
Vice presidents
Garret A. Hobart, Theodore Roosevelt

Life & Offices

McKinley enlisted as a private in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry at eighteen and left the Army as a brevet major. As a congressman he became the leading advocate of the protective tariff, chairing the Ways and Means Committee and writing the Tariff of 1890 that bore his name. He was twice elected governor of Ohio.

In 1896 McKinley defeated William Jennings Bryan on a platform of sound money and protection, campaigning from his front porch in Canton while his manager, Mark Hanna, organized an unprecedented national effort. The victory built a coalition of business, industrial workers and farmers in the Northeast and Midwest that kept Republicans dominant in national politics for most of the next three decades.

After the battleship Maine exploded in Havana harbor in February 1898, McKinley sought a negotiated settlement with Spain over Cuba before asking Congress for authority to intervene. The brief war that followed ended Spanish rule in Cuba and brought Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines under American control; Hawaii was annexed the same year. Reelected in 1900 with Theodore Roosevelt as his running mate, McKinley was shot by the anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo on September 6, 1901, and died eight days later.

Offices before the presidency

  • Union Army soldier and officer; brevetted major (1861–1865)
  • Prosecuting attorney of Stark County, Ohio (1869–1871)
  • U.S. House of Representatives, Ohio (1877–1884, 1885–1891)
  • Governor of Ohio (1892–1896)

Eras: III. Industrial America · IV. Roosevelt and Republican Progressivism

The Record

  • 1897

    Dingley Tariff

    McKinley called Congress into special session, which passed the Dingley Tariff raising protective duties sharply.

    Historical Record

  • 1898

    Spanish–American War

    Congress declared war in April 1898. U.S. forces destroyed Spanish fleets at Manila Bay and Santiago de Cuba, and hostilities ended with an armistice in August, less than four months after the war began.

    Historical Record

  • 1898

    Annexation of Hawaii

    After a treaty of annexation stalled in the Senate, Congress annexed Hawaii by joint resolution, which McKinley signed on July 7, 1898.

    Primary Source

  • 1898–1899

    Treaty of Paris

    Signed December 10, 1898, and approved by the Senate in February 1899, the treaty ended Spanish sovereignty over Cuba and transferred Puerto Rico, Guam and — for $20 million — the Philippines to the United States.

    Primary Source

  • 1899–1902

    Philippine–American War

    Filipino forces that had fought Spain resisted American rule. The war that followed lasted until 1902 and cost the lives of more than 4,000 American soldiers and far larger numbers of Filipino fighters and civilians.

    Historical Record

  • 1899–1900

    Open Door notes and the Boxer Rebellion

    Secretary of State John Hay asked the powers to respect equal trading rights in China, and in 1900 American troops joined an international force that relieved the foreign legations besieged in Beijing during the Boxer uprising.

    Historical Record

  • 1900

    Gold Standard Act

    Signed March 14, 1900, the act made gold the sole standard for redeeming paper currency, settling the monetary contest of the 1896 campaign.

    Historical Record

Criticism & Debate

Opposing View / Debate

Was overseas expansion in 1898 a duty or a departure from American principles?

The acquisition of the Philippines divided the country. The Senate approved the Treaty of Paris by just one vote more than the required two-thirds.

Expansionists

McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge argued that the islands could not be returned to Spain or left to rival powers, that the United States had obligations to their inhabitants, and that naval bases and Asian markets were vital national interests.

Anti-imperialists

Anti-imperialists — among them Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, Massachusetts Senator George F. Hoar and, in the 1900 campaign, William Jennings Bryan — argued that governing people without their consent contradicted the Declaration of Independence, and they condemned the harsh conduct of the war against Filipino independence forces.

Sources

  1. William McKinley: Foreign Affairs · Miller Center, University of Virginia

Documents

Sources

  1. William McKinley · Miller Center, University of Virginia
  2. William McKinley · White House Historical Association
  3. William McKinley: Presidential Documents · The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara
  4. McKINLEY, William, Jr. · U.S. House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives