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When the Civil War began, 18 year old William McKinley Jr. enlisted along with his cousin. It was during his military service that he began a lifelong friendship with Rutherford Hayes. He saw action at the Battle of Antietam, where McKinley, a commissary sergeant, came under heavy fire when bringing rations to the men on the line. He ended the war as a brevet major (a wartime promotion that did not carry over into peacetime) and for many years after his military service, he was referred to as "Major McKinley" or "the Major". After the war, McKinley settled in Canton, Ohio, where he practiced law and married Ida Saxton. In 1876, he was elected to Congress, where he became the Republican Party's expert on the protective tariff. His 1890 McKinley Tariff was highly controversial, and led to his defeat in the Democratic landslide of 1890. He was elected Ohio's governor in 1891 and 1893, where he was regarded as a moderate influence among the competing capital and labor interests.
With the help of his close adviser Mark Hanna, he secured the Republican nomination for president in 1896, amid a deep economic depression. He defeated his Democratic rival, William Jennings Bryan, after a front-porch campaign in which he advocated "sound money" and promised that high tariffs would restore prosperity.
Rapid economic growth boded well for McKinley's presidency. He promoted the 1897 Dingley Tariff to protect manufacturers and factory workers from foreign competition, and in 1900, he secured the passage of the Gold Standard Act. McKinley hoped to persuade Spain to grant independence to rebellious Cuba without conflict, but when negotiation failed, he led the nation in the Spanish–American War of 1898. A quick and decisive victory came about and as part of the peace settlement Spain turned over to the United States its main overseas colonies of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Cuba was promised independence but at that time remained under the control of the U.S. Army. The United States annexed the independent Republic of Hawaii in 1898 and it became a U.S. territory.
McKinley defeated Bryan again in the 1900 presidential election, in a campaign focused on imperialism, prosperity, and free silver. But just six months into his term McKinley was assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in September 1901, while at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. He died later that month and was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.
Historians regard McKinley as a strong President who presided over both territorial expansion and prosperity after a string of mediocre Presidents. His biographer H. Wayne Morgan wrote:
"McKinley was a major actor in some of the most important events in American history. His decisions shaped future policies and public attitudes. He usually rises in the estimation of scholars who study his life in detail. Even those who disagree with his policies and decisions see him as an active, responsible, informed participant in charge of decision making. His dignified demeanor and subtle operations keep him somewhat remote from public perception. But he is once again at the center of events, where he started."