Comprehensive information and links about William McKinley

William McKinley (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the 25th President of the United States. He was elected twice, in 1896 and 1900, but served only part of his second term, as he was assassinated in 1901. He fought the Spanish-American War to liberate Cuba, and afterwards annexed the Philippines and Puerto Rico, and annexed Hawaii. He promoted high tariffs as a formula for prosperity, helped rebuild the Republican party in 1896 by introducing new campaign techniques, and presided over a return to prosperity after the Panic of 1893. He was succeeded by his Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt.

Born in Niles, Ohio on Sunday January 29, 1843, William McKinley was the seventh of nine children. His parents, William and Nancy (Allison) McKinley were of Scots-Irish ancestry. He attended Poland Academy, and Allegheny College, but McKinley fell ill, and decided to return home. While at Allegheny, McKinley joined the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

On June 23, 1861, at the start of the American Civil War, he enlisted in the Union Army, as a private in the Twenty-third Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The regiment was sent to western Virginia where it spent a year fighting small Confederate units. His superior officer, another future U.S. President, Rutherford B. Hayes, promoted McKinley to commissary sergeant for his bravery in battle. For driving a mule team delivering rations under enemy fire at Antietam he was promoted to second lieutenant by Hayes. This pattern repeated several times during the war, and McKinley eventually mustered out as Captain and brevet Major of the same regiment in September 1865.

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Legal and early political career

Following the war, McKinley attended Albany Law School in Albany, New York, being admitted to the bar in 1867. He commenced practice in Canton, Ohio. He was prosecuting attorney of Stark County, Ohio, from 1869 to 1871, and was elected as a Republican to the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, and Forty-seventh U.S. Congress (March 4, 1877-March 3, 1883). He was chairman of the Committee on Revision of the Laws (Forty-seventh Congress). He presented his credentials as a Member-elect to the Forty-eighth Congress and served from March 4, 1883 until May 27, 1884, when he was succeeded by Jonathan H. Wallace, who successfully contested his election. McKinley was again elected to the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, and Fifty-first Congresses (March 4, 1885-March 3, 1891). He was chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means (Fifty-first Congress). In 1890, he authored the McKinley Tariff, which hurt his party in the off-year elections of 1890, in which he lost his seat. McKinley was elected Governor of Ohio in 1891, and re-elected in 1893, serving until January 13, 1896.

Policy

William McKinley defeated William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. Presidential election of 1896, in what is considered the forerunner of modern political campaigning. Republican strategist Mark Hanna raised an unprecedented sum for the campaign and made extensive use of the media in managing the McKinley victory. McKinley promised that he would promote industry and banking and guarantee prosperity for every group in a pluralistic nation. The Democratic cartoon ridicules the promise saying it will rock the boat.

McKinley led the country into the Spanish-American War, bringing the former colonies of Spain in the Pacific (Guam and the Philippines) and the Caribbean Sea (Cuba and Puerto Rico) under American control. In addition, the territories of Hawaii and Wake Island were annexed during his first term. Despite some vocal domestic opposition, his administration ushered the U.S. into the "New Imperialism" of the era.

He was re-elected in 1900, defeating the Democratic candidate, Bryan, by an even larger margin.

Supreme Court appointments

McKinley appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz, a Republican turned anarchist, on September 6, 1901, while attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Aged 58, he died of blood poisoning from his infected wounds at the house of John Milburn (currently, the student parking lot for Canisius High School is located on the site), at 2:15 a.m. on Saturday, September 14, 1901. It has been posited that had the surgical treatment he received been better and cleaner he might have survived his injuries.

He was the third U.S. president to be assassinated. His was interred in the McKinley Memorial Mausoleum adjacent to West Lawn Cemetery in Canton, Ohio. President Theodore Roosevelt, Ohio Governor Andrew L. Harris, and other speakers saluted the fallen President at the McKinley Memorial.

McKinley was the first president to ride in an automobile (the electric ambulance that took him to the hospital after he was shot).Video clip of the "Black Horse Cavalry" leading the presidential delagation down Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington D.C. for the inauguration of McKinley. (Beck ReillyWilliam McKinley is an alternative 20th century following the failed assassination of strong