McKinley, William

(1843–1901) twenty-fifth U.S. president; born in Niles, Ohio. After briefly teaching, then serving in the Civil War, he studied law in Ohio and began practice in 1867. His interest in politics took him to the U.S. House of Representatives (Rep., Ohio; 1877–91), where his campaign for a protective trade policy finally resulted in the high McKinley Tariff of 1890. Although that tariff contributed to his losing his seat in 1890 (and the Republicans' losing the presidency in 1892), he became governor of Ohio (1891–97). In 1896 he ran a successful presidential campaign with the help of big business and Republican kingmaker, Mark Hanna. A new high tariff soon appeared, but more urgent matters took precedence; reluctantly giving in to widespread militant sentiment, he declared war on Spain in 1898. After a short war, America found itself a colonial nation in possession of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, and McKinley was soon endorsing international initiatives from Cuba to China. He was reelected in 1900 with Theodore Roosevelt as vice-president, but on September 6, 1901, he was shot by an anarchist, Leon F. Czolgosz, and died eight days later. Although personally decent, honest, and well intentioned, McKinley would always be associated with the special interests of big business and party politics.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

McKinley, William

Born Jan. 29, 1843, in Niles, Ohio; died Sept. 14, 1901, in Buffalo, N.Y. American statesman. Member of the US Congress from 1877.

In 1890, on McKinley’s initiative, a law increasing customs tariffs on imported goods (by an average of 50 percent) was passed that led to price increases on goods of mass demand and promoted the growth of monopolies and an increase in their profits. A member of the Republican Party, he was president of the USA from 1897 to 1901. Practicing the politics of imperialist expansion, McKinley’s administration unleashed the Spanish-American War of 1898 and in 1899 advanced the doctrine of the Open Door in China. On Sept. 6, 1901, McKinley was wounded by an anarchist and died on September 14.

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References in periodicals archive

Caption: Tomb of President McKinley in Canton, Ohio.

The Major: President McKinley: Architect of the American Century

Brig Gen Leonard Wood was appointed military governor of Cuba with the mission, in the words of President McKinley, "to get the people ready for a republican form of government....

Civil-Military relations and the dynamics of American military expansion

"In changing the name from Mount McKinley to Denali, we intend no disrespect to the legacy of President McKinley," Interior Department officials said.

Denali Is The New Name

Consul General in Cuba and former Confederate General, requested that President McKinley dispatch a battleship to Havana Bay in support of a possible evacuation.

Challenges in irregular warfare: U.S. strategic messaging and the Cuban Revolution of 1898

never even bothered to meet Aguinaldo." This was in compliance with President McKinley's own decision not to settle with Aguinaldo, but to press on with war.

Relevant today: lessons from the Spanish-American war

Under increasing pressure to act, President McKinley had ordered the Maine to Havana to protect the sizeable American investments in Cuba's sugar, tobacco, and mining industries.

'Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!' How the United States emerged from the Spanish-American War as a true global power

Here a competition involves the Professor in electrical inventing when President McKinley is assassinated and a peddler and child turns up missing.

Fatal Induction

The author attempts to bridge discrepancies in the various American, Spanish, and Cuban versions of what is known in the US as the Spanish American War, and seeks to understand how the actions of American administrations, starting with President McKinley, affected Cuba's independence.

Expansionism; its effects on Cuba's independence

1901: Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th American President, after the death of President McKinley. 1946: Security in Downing Street was tightened, following the theft of the Chancellor's cigarette case from Number 1.

HAPPENED THIS DAY

Moreover, president McKinley personally read and approved, and often extensively amended, all important diplomatic correspondence emanating from the State Department to foreign nations and bearing the signature of his secretaries of state.

William McKinley's Values and the Origins of the Spanish-American War: a reinterpretation

Three years later President McKinley's practice of leading public opinion by means of extensive speaking tours of the country by rail, sometimes with his entire cabinet in tow, afforded an opportunity for yet another celebration of the Galesburg Debate on October 7, 1899.

The debates remembered: the case of Galesburg

The chapter on the Spanish-American War questions the traditional historical wisdom that it was yellow journalism, and not President McKinley's policies, that brought about this conflict.

Why America Fights: Patriotism and War Propaganda from the Philippines to Iraq