William McKinley and Mark Hanna
With many of the early Presidents, it is difficult to discern who that President's closest adviser was. But for William McKinley, that's an easy one. Ohio Senator Mark Hanna was the man who made William McKinley President. He was the James Carville, the Karl Rove and the David Axelrod of his day. He was a superb strategist and it was Hanna who successfully managed McKinley's two presidential election campaigns, and it is Hanna who was McKinley's closest adviser.
It is unclear when McKinley and Hanna first met. In later life, neither man said that he could remember their first meeting, but McKinley said that their friendship dated back to the 1870s and Hanna thought that he had met McKinley before 1876. The two men certainly met in 1876, when McKinley, a lawyer, represented a number of coal miners who had rioted following attempts by owners to cut the men's wages. Hanna was one of the mine owners affected by the unrest. The militia, called in by Governor Rutherford Hayes, had fired on the strikers and 23 miners were arrested and put on trial in Canton, Ohio, McKinley's hometown. McKinley was hired to represent them, and only one was convicted. McKinley's victory won him the gratitude of labor leaders, and he won election to Congress later that year. Hanna said, "I became intimate with him soon after he entered Congress, and our friendship ripened with each succeeding year."
Both men were delegates to the 1888 Republican National Convention. Hanna managed and financed Ohio Senator John Sherman's campaign while Sherman, as was customary at the time, remained in Washington. The convention deadlocked, with Sherman in the lead but unable to secure the nomination. A group approached McKinley with the suggestion that he let himself be nominated. McKinley refused, and expressed his loyalty to Sherman. This greatly impressed Hanna. Bejnamin Harrison was elected president after a campaign in which Hanna raised considerable funds for. When Harrison gave Hanna no control of any patronage in return for his fundraising, Hanna determined to bring an Ohioan to the presidency. With Harrison likely to be the Republican candidate in 1892, the first real chance would be in 1896. Hanna had come to be a fan of McKinley`s. The two men shared many political views and they forged a close friendship.
In November 1889, Hanna traveled to Washington to manage Congressman McKinley's campaign for Speaker of the House, but the effort failed and another Republican, Thomas B. Reed of Maine, was elected. In 1890 McKinley was defeated for re-election to Congress, due to Democratic gerrymandering of his district and because of his sponsorship of a tariff bill. In 1891, McKinley won the Republican nomination for Governor of Ohio. Hanna raised funds for the campaign and McKinley won the race. McKinley's victory in what was generally a bad year for Republicans made him a possible presidential contender.
Although McKinley did not seek the Republican nomination for President in 1892 because Benjamin Harrison was an incumbent Republican President. Instead, McKinley and Hanna began to prepare for the 1896 campaign. McKinley was never a declared candidate in 1892, but he still finished third in the final vote. Many delegates viewed McKinley as their nominee for 1896. Although Harrison harbored some resentment against McKinley, McKinley campaigned loyally for Harrison, who was defeated by former president Grover Cleveland in the November election.
During the financial panic of 1893, McKinley had guaranteed the loans of a friend, out of gratitude for loans he had received from the friend in his younger days. He was called upon to pay over $100,000 and planned to resign as governor and try to earn the money as a lawyer. McKinley's wealthy supporters, including Hanna, bought the notes. McKinley was reluctant to take gifts, but he eventually agreed to accept money only from those who expected nothing from him but repayment. McKinley and his wife Ida put their property in the hands of the supporters, who served as trustees, but Hanna did some fundraising and all of McKinley`s property was returned, and when President McKinley died in 1901, no claims were made against his estate. A request by McKinley for the names of the subscribers so he might repay them was refused by the trustees. The episode made McKinley even more popular with the public.
McKinley was re-elected as governor in 1893, in spit of the poor economic times in Ohio. He followed the usual Ohio custom and stepped down at the end of two two-year terms, returning home to Canton in January 1896. In 1895 Hanna turned over management of his companies to his brother Leonard so that he could devote himself to McKinley`s presidential campaign. Hanna rented a house in Thomasville, which permitted him to meet many southern Republicans, including African-Americans. Although southern Republicans rarely had local electoral success, they elected a substantial number of delegates to the national convention. Hanna met with political bosses such as Senators Matthew Quay of Pennsylvania and Thomas Platt of New York. When Hanna returned to Canton, he informed McKinley that the bosses would guarantee his nomination in exchange for control of local patronage. McKinley was unwilling to make such a deal, and Hanna promised to gain the nomination for McKinley without machine support.
Hanna financed much of the campaign. McKinley's most formidable rival for the nomination was former president Harrison, but in February 1896, Harrison declared he would not run for president a third time. Eastern bosses were hostile to McKinley for failing to agree to the offer they had made to Hanna, and they decided to seek support for local favorite son candidates. Publisher William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal sent reporters to Canton to dig up dirt on McKinley. None of this mattered, McKinley was nominated easily. Hanna was elected chairman of the Republican National Committee for the next four years.
In the election campaign, McKinley and Hanna decided to campaign for maintenance of the gold standard. McKinley expected the election to be fought on the issue of tariffs because he was a well-known protectionist. The Democrats nominated former Nebraska representative William Jennings Bryan, who gave his famous"Cross of Gold speech", decrying the gold standard, which he believed disproportionately hurt the working classes. In 1896, as the country was mired in an economic slowdown that affected millions. Bryan`s campaign was poorly financed. He made an unprecedented itinerary of whistle stop appearances by train. McKinley felt he could not match Bryan's speaking tour, as the Democrat was a better stump speaker. Despite Hanna's urging to the candidate to get on the road, the former governor decided on a front porch campaign. He remained at home in Canton and let the people to come to him. McKinley's wife Ida had health issues so his image was spun as being as a good husband by staying at home.
Hanna's task was to raise money and other campaign officials decided how to spend it. John D. Rockefeller, of Standard Oil, gave $250,000. Hanna also gave large sums himself. This money went to pay for advertising, brochures, printed speeches and other means of persuading the voter. McKinley spoke from the front veranda of his house in Canton to almost any delegation that wrote to McKinley in advance. Delegations ranged up to thousands of people. Despite the initial popularity of Bryan's message, the silver enthusiasm waned by September and Bryan had nothing else to fall back on. During the campaign, the Democratic newspapers, especially the papers owned by Hearst, attacked Hanna for his supposed role as McKinley's political master. The articles and cartoons have contributed to a lasting popular belief that McKinley was not his own man, but that he was effectively owned by the corporations, through Hanna.
Hanna's fundraising campaign was unprecedented in its scale. The first Harrison campaign had raised about $1.8 million. The McKinley campaign raised just over $3.5 million, though this did not include spending by state and local committees. Contributions to Bryan's campaign were much smaller; he had few wealthy supporters and the largest donor was most likely Hearst, who donated about $40,000.
On Tuesday, November 3, the voters had their say in most states. McKinley won 271 electoral votes to Bryan's 176. McKinley took 51.0% of the vote, the first presidential majority since Grant in 1872. The intense voter interest in the campaign resulted in a turnout of 79.3%. On November 12, 1896, the President-elect wrote to his longtime friend, offering him a position in his Cabinet. In the letter, McKinley wrote:
We are through with the election, and before turning to the future I want to express to you my great debt of gratitude for your generous life-long and devoted service to me. Was there ever such unselfish devotion before? Your unfaltering and increasing friendship through more than twenty years has been to me an encouragement and a source of strength which I am sure you have never realized, but which I have constantly felt and for which I thank you from the bottom of my heart. The recollection of all those years of uninterrupted loyalty and affection, of mutual confidences and growing regard fill me with emotions too deep for the pen to portray. I want you to know, but I cannot find the right words to tell you, how much I appreciate your friendship and faith.
Hanna stated that he would accept no office in the McKinley administration. He had wanted to become a senator for a long time, and Senator Sherman, now aged almost 74, faced a difficult re-election battle. On January 4, 1897, McKinley offered Sherman the office of Secretary of State. He immediately accepted. This led to attacks on Hanna, suggesting that a senile man had been placed in a key Cabinet position to accommodate Hanna. The stories were not believed by McKinley either, who called accounts of Sherman's mental decay "the cheap inventions of sensational writers or other evil-disposed or mistaken people".
Hanna was appointed to fill Sherman's senate vacancy. The 1897 Ohio Republican convention voted to support Hanna, as did county conventions in 84 of Ohio's 88 counties. The Republicans won the election, with the overwhelming number of Republican victors pledged to vote for Hanna. However, a number of Republicans, mostly of the Foraker faction, did not want to re-elect Hanna, and formed an alliance with the Democrats. When the legislature met on January 3, 1898, the anti-Hanna forces succeeded in organizing both houses of the legislature. In the end, Hanna was re-elected with the barest possible majority.
Mark Hanna and William McKinley continued their friendship as they assumed their offices in March 1897. Senator Hanna was looking for a residence and President McKinley suggested that he stay at the Executive Mansion (as the White House was still formally known) until he found one. Hanna soon moved into the Arlington Hotel, close to the White House, where he occupied a large suite. After the death of Vice President Hobart in November 1899, Hanna took over the lease on his house on Lafayette Square, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.
Hanna had a voice in a number of McKinley's appointments, but the President made the final decision. Hanna was allowed to recommend candidates for the majority of federal positions in Ohio. Hanna was also dominant in the South, where there were few Republican congressmen to lobby the President. Hanna and McKinley gave few places to those who had served under Harrison, as the two presidents were not friendly. "Silver Republicans", who had bolted the party at the convention or later, received nothing.
As the year 1900 began, Hanna hinted that he might not want to run McKinley's re-election campaign, citing problems with rheumatism. McKinley saw this as an opportunity to show the public that he was not Hanna's puppet. This was a source of great stress to Hanna, who was concerned about the campaign and his relationship with McKinley. But in late May, the President announced that Hanna would run his campaign. McKinley biographer Margaret Leech suggested that McKinley was angry at Hanna for unknown reasons, but others dispute this.
Soon after Hanna was appointed to the Senate, McKinley called Congress into special session to consider tariff legislation. During the session, a number of resolutions were introduced calling for independence for Cuba, by force if necessary. When the press asked Hanna if he felt there would be action on Cuba during the session, he responded: "I don't know. You can't tell about that. A spark might drop in there at any time and precipitate action." Through 1897, McKinley maintained neutrality on Cuba, hoping to negotiate a solution for the island. Pro-war elements, prominently including the Hearst newspapers, pressured McKinley for a more aggressive foreign policy. On May 20, 1897, the Senate passed a resolution favoring intervention in Cuba, 41–14, with Hanna in the minority. As the crisis slowly built through late 1897 and early 1898, Hanna became concerned about the political damage if McKinley, against popular opinion, kept the nation out of war.
On February 15, 1898, the American warship Maine sank in Havana harbor. Over 250 officers and men were killed. McKinley ordered a board of inquiry while asking the nation to withhold judgment pending the result, but he also quietly prepared for war. The Hearst newspapers, with the slogan, "Remember the Maine and to hell with Spain!" pounded a constant drumbeat for war and blamed Hanna for the delay. According to the Hearst papers, the Ohio senator was the true master in the White House, writing: Senator Hanna, fresh from the bargain for a seat in the United States Senate, probably felt the need of recouping his Ohio expenses as well as helping his financial friends out of the hole when he began playing American patriotism against Wall Street money ... Hanna said there would be no war. He spoke as one having authority. His edict meant that Uncle Sam might be kicked and cuffed from one continent to another.
As the nation waited for the report of the board of inquiry, many who favored war deemed McKinley too timid. Hanna and the President were burned in effigy in Virginia. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt shook his fist under Hanna's nose at the Gridiron Dinner and stated, "We will have this war for the freedom of Cuba in spite of the timidity of the commercial classes!" Nevertheless, Hanna supported McKinley's patient policy and acted as his point man in the Senate on the war issue.
The Navy's report blamed an external cause, believed by many to be a Spanish mine or bomb, for the sinking of Maine (modern reports have suggested an internal explosion within a coal bunker). When it became clear that the United States would accept nothing but Cuban independence, which the Spanish were not prepared to grant, negotiations broke off. On April 11, McKinley asked Congress for authority to secure Cuban independence, using force if necessary. Hanna supported McKinley in obtaining that authority, though he stated privately, "If Congress had started this, I'd break my neck to stop it." Spain broke off diplomatic relations on April 20; Congress declared war five days later, retroactive to April 21.
The war resulted in a complete American victory. Nevertheless, Hanna was uncomfortable with the conflict. He stated during the war, "Remember that my folks were Quakers. War is just a damn nuisance." After the Battle of El Caney, he viewed the American casualty lists and stated, "Oh, God, now we'll have this sort of thing again!" After the war, Hanna supported McKinley's decision to annex Spanish colonies such as Puerto Rico and Guam.
Vice President Hobart had died in late 1899. President McKinley was content to leave the choice of a vice presidential candidate for 1900 to the upcoming Republican convention. New York Senator Platt disliked his state's governor, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, who had pursued a reformist agenda in his year and a half in office. Platt hoped to sideline Roosevelt politically by making him vice president. Roosevelt was a popular choice in any event because of his well-publicized service during the Spanish-American War. Hanna felt Roosevelt was overly impulsive and did not want him on the ticket. As many of the delegates were political appointees, Hanna hoped to persuade McKinley to use patronage to get the delegates to vote for another candidate. After emerging from the telephone booth from which he had tried and failed to get McKinley to agree, Senator Hanna stated, "Do whatever you damn please! I'm through! I won't have anything more to do with the convention! I won't take charge of the campaign! I won't be chairman of the national committee again! Why, everybody's gone crazy! What is the matter with all of you? Here's this convention going headlong for Roosevelt for Vice President. Don't any of you realize that there's only one life between that madman and the Presidency?
On his return to Washington after the convention nominated McKinley and Roosevelt, Hanna wrote to the President, "Your duty to the country is to live for four years from next March." The Democrats nominated Bryan a second time at their convention. Bryan attacked McKinley as an imperialist for taking the Spanish colonies. Hanna summed up the Republican campaign in four words, "Let well enough alone."
Hanna was called upon to do only small amounts of fundraising this time. The President gave only one speech, the formal acceptance of his nomination in Canton in July. Roosevelt, on the other hand, traveled widely across the nation giving speeches, traveling 21,000 miles in the campaign. Hanna wanted to campaign for the Republicans in the western states, but McKinley was reluctant, as Hanna had varied from the administration's position on trusts in a recent speech. McKinley sent Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith to Chicago to talk him out of campaigning. Hanna told Smith: "Return to Washington and tell the President that God hates a coward." McKinley and Hanna met in Canton several days later and settled their differences over lunch. Hanna made his speaking tour in the West.
In September, a strike by the United Mine Workers threatened a crisis which might cause problems for McKinley. Hanna believed that the miners' grievances were just, and he persuaded the parties to allow him to arbitrate. With Hanna's aid, the two sides arrived at a negotiated settlement.
On November 6, 1900, the voters re-elected McKinley, who took 51.7% of the popular vote, a slight increase from 1896. He won 292 electoral votes to Bryan's 155.
McKinley traveled much during his presidency, and in September 1901, journeyed to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. On September 6, 1901, while receiving the public in the Temple of Music on the Exposition grounds, McKinley was shot by an anarchist, Leon Czolgosz. On learning of this, Hanna, hurried to the President`s bedside. As the President lay, wounded, he asked "Is Mark there?" The doctors told him that Senator Hanna was present. McKinley appeared to be improving, and Hanna, with the doctors' reassurance, left Buffalo for a speaking engagement in Cleveland. While there, he received a telegram stating that the President had taken a turn for the worse, and hurried back to Buffalo. There he found an unconscious McKinley, whose sickbed had become a deathbed. On the evening of September 13, Hanna was allowed to see the dying man. Hanna, weeping, went to the library in the Milburn House where the President lay, and as he awaited the end, made the necessary plans and arrangements to return his friend's remains to Canton. At 2:15 am on September 14, President McKinley died.
McKinley's death left Hanna devastated both personally and politically. Although the two had not been allies, the new president, Roosevelt, reached out to Hanna, hoping to secure his influence in the Senate. Hanna indicated that he was willing to come to terms with Roosevelt on two conditions: that Roosevelt carry out McKinley's political agenda, and that the President cease from his habit of calling Hanna "old man", something which greatly annoyed him. Hanna told Roosevelt, "If you don't, I'll call you Teddy." Roosevelt, who despised his nickname, agreed to both terms. Hanna remained in the senate until his death in February, 1904 at the age of 66, from Typhoid Fever.
Historian R. Hal Williams summarized the relationship between McKinley and Hanna:
McKinley and Hanna made an effective team. The Major commanded, decided general strategies, selected issues and programs. He stressed ideals ... Hanna organized, built coalitions, performed the rougher work for which McKinley had neither taste nor energy. Importantly, they shared a Hamiltonian faith in the virtue of industrialism, central authority, and expansive capitalism.
It is unclear when McKinley and Hanna first met. In later life, neither man said that he could remember their first meeting, but McKinley said that their friendship dated back to the 1870s and Hanna thought that he had met McKinley before 1876. The two men certainly met in 1876, when McKinley, a lawyer, represented a number of coal miners who had rioted following attempts by owners to cut the men's wages. Hanna was one of the mine owners affected by the unrest. The militia, called in by Governor Rutherford Hayes, had fired on the strikers and 23 miners were arrested and put on trial in Canton, Ohio, McKinley's hometown. McKinley was hired to represent them, and only one was convicted. McKinley's victory won him the gratitude of labor leaders, and he won election to Congress later that year. Hanna said, "I became intimate with him soon after he entered Congress, and our friendship ripened with each succeeding year."
Both men were delegates to the 1888 Republican National Convention. Hanna managed and financed Ohio Senator John Sherman's campaign while Sherman, as was customary at the time, remained in Washington. The convention deadlocked, with Sherman in the lead but unable to secure the nomination. A group approached McKinley with the suggestion that he let himself be nominated. McKinley refused, and expressed his loyalty to Sherman. This greatly impressed Hanna. Bejnamin Harrison was elected president after a campaign in which Hanna raised considerable funds for. When Harrison gave Hanna no control of any patronage in return for his fundraising, Hanna determined to bring an Ohioan to the presidency. With Harrison likely to be the Republican candidate in 1892, the first real chance would be in 1896. Hanna had come to be a fan of McKinley`s. The two men shared many political views and they forged a close friendship.
In November 1889, Hanna traveled to Washington to manage Congressman McKinley's campaign for Speaker of the House, but the effort failed and another Republican, Thomas B. Reed of Maine, was elected. In 1890 McKinley was defeated for re-election to Congress, due to Democratic gerrymandering of his district and because of his sponsorship of a tariff bill. In 1891, McKinley won the Republican nomination for Governor of Ohio. Hanna raised funds for the campaign and McKinley won the race. McKinley's victory in what was generally a bad year for Republicans made him a possible presidential contender.
Although McKinley did not seek the Republican nomination for President in 1892 because Benjamin Harrison was an incumbent Republican President. Instead, McKinley and Hanna began to prepare for the 1896 campaign. McKinley was never a declared candidate in 1892, but he still finished third in the final vote. Many delegates viewed McKinley as their nominee for 1896. Although Harrison harbored some resentment against McKinley, McKinley campaigned loyally for Harrison, who was defeated by former president Grover Cleveland in the November election.
During the financial panic of 1893, McKinley had guaranteed the loans of a friend, out of gratitude for loans he had received from the friend in his younger days. He was called upon to pay over $100,000 and planned to resign as governor and try to earn the money as a lawyer. McKinley's wealthy supporters, including Hanna, bought the notes. McKinley was reluctant to take gifts, but he eventually agreed to accept money only from those who expected nothing from him but repayment. McKinley and his wife Ida put their property in the hands of the supporters, who served as trustees, but Hanna did some fundraising and all of McKinley`s property was returned, and when President McKinley died in 1901, no claims were made against his estate. A request by McKinley for the names of the subscribers so he might repay them was refused by the trustees. The episode made McKinley even more popular with the public.
McKinley was re-elected as governor in 1893, in spit of the poor economic times in Ohio. He followed the usual Ohio custom and stepped down at the end of two two-year terms, returning home to Canton in January 1896. In 1895 Hanna turned over management of his companies to his brother Leonard so that he could devote himself to McKinley`s presidential campaign. Hanna rented a house in Thomasville, which permitted him to meet many southern Republicans, including African-Americans. Although southern Republicans rarely had local electoral success, they elected a substantial number of delegates to the national convention. Hanna met with political bosses such as Senators Matthew Quay of Pennsylvania and Thomas Platt of New York. When Hanna returned to Canton, he informed McKinley that the bosses would guarantee his nomination in exchange for control of local patronage. McKinley was unwilling to make such a deal, and Hanna promised to gain the nomination for McKinley without machine support.
Hanna financed much of the campaign. McKinley's most formidable rival for the nomination was former president Harrison, but in February 1896, Harrison declared he would not run for president a third time. Eastern bosses were hostile to McKinley for failing to agree to the offer they had made to Hanna, and they decided to seek support for local favorite son candidates. Publisher William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal sent reporters to Canton to dig up dirt on McKinley. None of this mattered, McKinley was nominated easily. Hanna was elected chairman of the Republican National Committee for the next four years.
In the election campaign, McKinley and Hanna decided to campaign for maintenance of the gold standard. McKinley expected the election to be fought on the issue of tariffs because he was a well-known protectionist. The Democrats nominated former Nebraska representative William Jennings Bryan, who gave his famous"Cross of Gold speech", decrying the gold standard, which he believed disproportionately hurt the working classes. In 1896, as the country was mired in an economic slowdown that affected millions. Bryan`s campaign was poorly financed. He made an unprecedented itinerary of whistle stop appearances by train. McKinley felt he could not match Bryan's speaking tour, as the Democrat was a better stump speaker. Despite Hanna's urging to the candidate to get on the road, the former governor decided on a front porch campaign. He remained at home in Canton and let the people to come to him. McKinley's wife Ida had health issues so his image was spun as being as a good husband by staying at home.
Hanna's task was to raise money and other campaign officials decided how to spend it. John D. Rockefeller, of Standard Oil, gave $250,000. Hanna also gave large sums himself. This money went to pay for advertising, brochures, printed speeches and other means of persuading the voter. McKinley spoke from the front veranda of his house in Canton to almost any delegation that wrote to McKinley in advance. Delegations ranged up to thousands of people. Despite the initial popularity of Bryan's message, the silver enthusiasm waned by September and Bryan had nothing else to fall back on. During the campaign, the Democratic newspapers, especially the papers owned by Hearst, attacked Hanna for his supposed role as McKinley's political master. The articles and cartoons have contributed to a lasting popular belief that McKinley was not his own man, but that he was effectively owned by the corporations, through Hanna.
Hanna's fundraising campaign was unprecedented in its scale. The first Harrison campaign had raised about $1.8 million. The McKinley campaign raised just over $3.5 million, though this did not include spending by state and local committees. Contributions to Bryan's campaign were much smaller; he had few wealthy supporters and the largest donor was most likely Hearst, who donated about $40,000.
On Tuesday, November 3, the voters had their say in most states. McKinley won 271 electoral votes to Bryan's 176. McKinley took 51.0% of the vote, the first presidential majority since Grant in 1872. The intense voter interest in the campaign resulted in a turnout of 79.3%. On November 12, 1896, the President-elect wrote to his longtime friend, offering him a position in his Cabinet. In the letter, McKinley wrote:
We are through with the election, and before turning to the future I want to express to you my great debt of gratitude for your generous life-long and devoted service to me. Was there ever such unselfish devotion before? Your unfaltering and increasing friendship through more than twenty years has been to me an encouragement and a source of strength which I am sure you have never realized, but which I have constantly felt and for which I thank you from the bottom of my heart. The recollection of all those years of uninterrupted loyalty and affection, of mutual confidences and growing regard fill me with emotions too deep for the pen to portray. I want you to know, but I cannot find the right words to tell you, how much I appreciate your friendship and faith.
Hanna stated that he would accept no office in the McKinley administration. He had wanted to become a senator for a long time, and Senator Sherman, now aged almost 74, faced a difficult re-election battle. On January 4, 1897, McKinley offered Sherman the office of Secretary of State. He immediately accepted. This led to attacks on Hanna, suggesting that a senile man had been placed in a key Cabinet position to accommodate Hanna. The stories were not believed by McKinley either, who called accounts of Sherman's mental decay "the cheap inventions of sensational writers or other evil-disposed or mistaken people".
Hanna was appointed to fill Sherman's senate vacancy. The 1897 Ohio Republican convention voted to support Hanna, as did county conventions in 84 of Ohio's 88 counties. The Republicans won the election, with the overwhelming number of Republican victors pledged to vote for Hanna. However, a number of Republicans, mostly of the Foraker faction, did not want to re-elect Hanna, and formed an alliance with the Democrats. When the legislature met on January 3, 1898, the anti-Hanna forces succeeded in organizing both houses of the legislature. In the end, Hanna was re-elected with the barest possible majority.
Mark Hanna and William McKinley continued their friendship as they assumed their offices in March 1897. Senator Hanna was looking for a residence and President McKinley suggested that he stay at the Executive Mansion (as the White House was still formally known) until he found one. Hanna soon moved into the Arlington Hotel, close to the White House, where he occupied a large suite. After the death of Vice President Hobart in November 1899, Hanna took over the lease on his house on Lafayette Square, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.
Hanna had a voice in a number of McKinley's appointments, but the President made the final decision. Hanna was allowed to recommend candidates for the majority of federal positions in Ohio. Hanna was also dominant in the South, where there were few Republican congressmen to lobby the President. Hanna and McKinley gave few places to those who had served under Harrison, as the two presidents were not friendly. "Silver Republicans", who had bolted the party at the convention or later, received nothing.
As the year 1900 began, Hanna hinted that he might not want to run McKinley's re-election campaign, citing problems with rheumatism. McKinley saw this as an opportunity to show the public that he was not Hanna's puppet. This was a source of great stress to Hanna, who was concerned about the campaign and his relationship with McKinley. But in late May, the President announced that Hanna would run his campaign. McKinley biographer Margaret Leech suggested that McKinley was angry at Hanna for unknown reasons, but others dispute this.
Soon after Hanna was appointed to the Senate, McKinley called Congress into special session to consider tariff legislation. During the session, a number of resolutions were introduced calling for independence for Cuba, by force if necessary. When the press asked Hanna if he felt there would be action on Cuba during the session, he responded: "I don't know. You can't tell about that. A spark might drop in there at any time and precipitate action." Through 1897, McKinley maintained neutrality on Cuba, hoping to negotiate a solution for the island. Pro-war elements, prominently including the Hearst newspapers, pressured McKinley for a more aggressive foreign policy. On May 20, 1897, the Senate passed a resolution favoring intervention in Cuba, 41–14, with Hanna in the minority. As the crisis slowly built through late 1897 and early 1898, Hanna became concerned about the political damage if McKinley, against popular opinion, kept the nation out of war.
On February 15, 1898, the American warship Maine sank in Havana harbor. Over 250 officers and men were killed. McKinley ordered a board of inquiry while asking the nation to withhold judgment pending the result, but he also quietly prepared for war. The Hearst newspapers, with the slogan, "Remember the Maine and to hell with Spain!" pounded a constant drumbeat for war and blamed Hanna for the delay. According to the Hearst papers, the Ohio senator was the true master in the White House, writing: Senator Hanna, fresh from the bargain for a seat in the United States Senate, probably felt the need of recouping his Ohio expenses as well as helping his financial friends out of the hole when he began playing American patriotism against Wall Street money ... Hanna said there would be no war. He spoke as one having authority. His edict meant that Uncle Sam might be kicked and cuffed from one continent to another.
As the nation waited for the report of the board of inquiry, many who favored war deemed McKinley too timid. Hanna and the President were burned in effigy in Virginia. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt shook his fist under Hanna's nose at the Gridiron Dinner and stated, "We will have this war for the freedom of Cuba in spite of the timidity of the commercial classes!" Nevertheless, Hanna supported McKinley's patient policy and acted as his point man in the Senate on the war issue.
The Navy's report blamed an external cause, believed by many to be a Spanish mine or bomb, for the sinking of Maine (modern reports have suggested an internal explosion within a coal bunker). When it became clear that the United States would accept nothing but Cuban independence, which the Spanish were not prepared to grant, negotiations broke off. On April 11, McKinley asked Congress for authority to secure Cuban independence, using force if necessary. Hanna supported McKinley in obtaining that authority, though he stated privately, "If Congress had started this, I'd break my neck to stop it." Spain broke off diplomatic relations on April 20; Congress declared war five days later, retroactive to April 21.
The war resulted in a complete American victory. Nevertheless, Hanna was uncomfortable with the conflict. He stated during the war, "Remember that my folks were Quakers. War is just a damn nuisance." After the Battle of El Caney, he viewed the American casualty lists and stated, "Oh, God, now we'll have this sort of thing again!" After the war, Hanna supported McKinley's decision to annex Spanish colonies such as Puerto Rico and Guam.
Vice President Hobart had died in late 1899. President McKinley was content to leave the choice of a vice presidential candidate for 1900 to the upcoming Republican convention. New York Senator Platt disliked his state's governor, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, who had pursued a reformist agenda in his year and a half in office. Platt hoped to sideline Roosevelt politically by making him vice president. Roosevelt was a popular choice in any event because of his well-publicized service during the Spanish-American War. Hanna felt Roosevelt was overly impulsive and did not want him on the ticket. As many of the delegates were political appointees, Hanna hoped to persuade McKinley to use patronage to get the delegates to vote for another candidate. After emerging from the telephone booth from which he had tried and failed to get McKinley to agree, Senator Hanna stated, "Do whatever you damn please! I'm through! I won't have anything more to do with the convention! I won't take charge of the campaign! I won't be chairman of the national committee again! Why, everybody's gone crazy! What is the matter with all of you? Here's this convention going headlong for Roosevelt for Vice President. Don't any of you realize that there's only one life between that madman and the Presidency?
On his return to Washington after the convention nominated McKinley and Roosevelt, Hanna wrote to the President, "Your duty to the country is to live for four years from next March." The Democrats nominated Bryan a second time at their convention. Bryan attacked McKinley as an imperialist for taking the Spanish colonies. Hanna summed up the Republican campaign in four words, "Let well enough alone."
Hanna was called upon to do only small amounts of fundraising this time. The President gave only one speech, the formal acceptance of his nomination in Canton in July. Roosevelt, on the other hand, traveled widely across the nation giving speeches, traveling 21,000 miles in the campaign. Hanna wanted to campaign for the Republicans in the western states, but McKinley was reluctant, as Hanna had varied from the administration's position on trusts in a recent speech. McKinley sent Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith to Chicago to talk him out of campaigning. Hanna told Smith: "Return to Washington and tell the President that God hates a coward." McKinley and Hanna met in Canton several days later and settled their differences over lunch. Hanna made his speaking tour in the West.
In September, a strike by the United Mine Workers threatened a crisis which might cause problems for McKinley. Hanna believed that the miners' grievances were just, and he persuaded the parties to allow him to arbitrate. With Hanna's aid, the two sides arrived at a negotiated settlement.
On November 6, 1900, the voters re-elected McKinley, who took 51.7% of the popular vote, a slight increase from 1896. He won 292 electoral votes to Bryan's 155.
McKinley traveled much during his presidency, and in September 1901, journeyed to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. On September 6, 1901, while receiving the public in the Temple of Music on the Exposition grounds, McKinley was shot by an anarchist, Leon Czolgosz. On learning of this, Hanna, hurried to the President`s bedside. As the President lay, wounded, he asked "Is Mark there?" The doctors told him that Senator Hanna was present. McKinley appeared to be improving, and Hanna, with the doctors' reassurance, left Buffalo for a speaking engagement in Cleveland. While there, he received a telegram stating that the President had taken a turn for the worse, and hurried back to Buffalo. There he found an unconscious McKinley, whose sickbed had become a deathbed. On the evening of September 13, Hanna was allowed to see the dying man. Hanna, weeping, went to the library in the Milburn House where the President lay, and as he awaited the end, made the necessary plans and arrangements to return his friend's remains to Canton. At 2:15 am on September 14, President McKinley died.
McKinley's death left Hanna devastated both personally and politically. Although the two had not been allies, the new president, Roosevelt, reached out to Hanna, hoping to secure his influence in the Senate. Hanna indicated that he was willing to come to terms with Roosevelt on two conditions: that Roosevelt carry out McKinley's political agenda, and that the President cease from his habit of calling Hanna "old man", something which greatly annoyed him. Hanna told Roosevelt, "If you don't, I'll call you Teddy." Roosevelt, who despised his nickname, agreed to both terms. Hanna remained in the senate until his death in February, 1904 at the age of 66, from Typhoid Fever.
Historian R. Hal Williams summarized the relationship between McKinley and Hanna:
McKinley and Hanna made an effective team. The Major commanded, decided general strategies, selected issues and programs. He stressed ideals ... Hanna organized, built coalitions, performed the rougher work for which McKinley had neither taste nor energy. Importantly, they shared a Hamiltonian faith in the virtue of industrialism, central authority, and expansive capitalism.