The Civil War Presidents: William McKinley (Part 2-McKinley the President)
When the Civil War ended, William McKinley turned down offers to remain in the army and returned home to Ohio. He studied law and became a lawyer in Poland, Ohio. His friend and mentor from the army, future President Rutherford B. Hayes, was nominated for governor in 1867, and McKinley made speeches on his behalf. In 1869, McKinley was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney of Stark County. He narrowly lost his bid for re-election in 1871.
McKinley remained politically active with the Republican Party. He campaigned again for Hayes, both in the latter's run for Governor of Ohio, and for the Presidency in 1876. That year, McKinley undertook a high-profile case defending a group of coal miners arrested for rioting after a clash with strikebreakers. The mine owners included Mark Hanna, a Cleveland businessman. McKinley took the case pro bono (without fee), and was successful in getting all but one of the miners acquitted. The case made McKinley popular with labor, an important segment of the local electorate. It also introduced him to Hanna, who would become his strongest backer in years to come.
McKinley ran for the Republican nomination for Ohio's 17th congressional district and he won. He was elected to Congress in November of 1876 and he continued to win re-election, even after a Democratic controlled state house tried to gerrymander his district in 1878. In 1889, with the Republicans in the majority, McKinley ran for Speaker of the House, but lost to Thomas B. Reed of Maine. Speaker Reed appointed McKinley chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and McKinley was able to guide the McKinley Tariff of 1890 through Congress.
For 1890, the Democrats gerrymandered McKinley once again, placing Stark County in the same district as one of the strongest pro-Democrat counties. The Republican Party sent its leading orators to campaign on behalf of McKinley, including Secretary of State James G. Blaine, Speaker Reed and even President Benjamin Harrison. The Democrats played dirty. They hired young men to pretend to be peddlers, who went door to door offering 25-cent tinware to housewives for 50 cents, explaining the rise in prices was due to the McKinley Tariff. In the end, McKinley lost by 300 votes, but the Republicans won a statewide majority.
In 1892 McKinley ran for Governor of Ohio. In the state, the governor had relatively little power. For example, he could not veto legislation. But Ohio was then, as now, a key swing state, so its governor was a major figure in national politics. President Benjamin Harrison faced an uphill battle winning his party's nomination for president in 1892. Harrison was concerned that McKinley might been seen as a candidate for the nomination so he arranged for McKinley to be permanent chairman of the convention in Minneapolis, requiring him to play a neutral role. Nevertheless McKinley finished third in the balloting, behind the renominated Harrison, and James G. Blaine. McKinley campaigned loyally for the Republican ticket, but Harrison was defeated by former President Cleveland in the November election.
McKinley was now seen as the likely Republican candidate for President in 1896 and the nomination played out as predicted. McKinley defeated his Democratic Party opponent William Jennings Bryan in the election on November 3, 1896. He won the entire Northeast and Midwest. He received 51% of the popular vote and won the Electoral College by a margin of 271 to 176.
With McKinley’s election in 1896, African Americans were hopeful of progress in the area of equality and civil rights. Most African Americans who could vote supported him in 1896. But many were disappointed by his policies and appointments. McKinley made some appointments of African Americans to low-level government posts. Blanche K. Bruce, an African American who during Reconstruction had served as senator from Mississippi, received the post of register at the Treasury Department. McKinley appointed several African-American postmasters, but when whites protested the appointment of Justin W. Lyons as postmaster of Augusta, Georgia, McKinley asked Lyons to withdraw. Lyons was later given the post of Treasury register after Bruce’s death in 1898.
The administration’s response to racial violence was less than expected. When African-American postmasters at Hogansville, Georgia in 1897 and at Lake City, South Carolina the following year were assaulted, McKinley made no statement. His supporters said that there was little the president could do to intervene, but his critics replied that he could at least publicly condemn such incidents, as President Harrison had done.
The major issue during McKinley's presidency was the war with Spain. McKinley proceeded cautiously, but when war was ultimately declared, African Americans saw the war as an opportunity to display their patriotism. African-American troops, called "Buffalo Soldiers" under the command of John J. Pershing fought bravely at El Caney and San Juan Hill. But African Americans in the peacetime Army were harassed by southern whites as they traveled from to Tampa for go to war. McKinley ordered the War Department to commission African-American officers above the rank of lieutenant. The heroism of these troops did not have any effect on racial tensions in the South. The latter half of 1898 saw several outbreaks of racial violence in southern states. Eleven African Americans were killed in riots in Wilmington, North Carolina. McKinley toured the South in late 1898, hoping for sectional reconciliation. He visited the Tuskegee Institute and met with black educator Booker T. Washington. He also addressed the Georgia legislature, and visited Confederate memorials. In his tour of the South, McKinley kept silent on the subject of racial tensions or violence. Many African Americans, excluded from official welcoming committees, felt alienated by the President’s lack of attention to their plight and their exclusion from tour events. McKinley's biographer Lewis Gould wrote: “McKinley lacked the vision to transcend the biases of his day and to point toward a better future for all Americans”.
McKinley won re-election to a second term as President in 1900, once again defeating William Jennings Bryan, this time by an even greater majority (292 to 155 in the electoral college). After his second inauguration on March 4, 1901, William and Ida McKinley embarked on a six-week tour of the nation. Traveling mostly by rail, the McKinleys were to travel through the South to the Southwest, and then up the Pacific coast and east again, to conclude with a visit on June 13, 1901 to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. But , the First Lady fell ill in California. Part of the tour was cancelled and McKinley postponed the visit to the fair until September.
On September 5, McKinley attended the Exposition in Buffalo and gave his final speech. The next day at the Temple of Music on the Exposition grounds, McKinley met the public in a reception line after his return from Niagara Falls. Assassin Leon Czolgosz concealed his gun in a handkerchief, and, when he reached the head of the line, shot McKinley twice in the abdomen. McKinley was taken by electric ambulance to the Exposition hospital where Dr. Matthew D. Mann cleaned and closed the wound. After the operation, McKinley was taken to the Milburn House. In the days after the shooting McKinley appeared to improve. By September 12, McKinley’s doctors were confident enough of his condition to allow him toast and coffee. But unknown to the doctors, gangrene was growing on the walls of his stomach, slowly poisoning his blood. On the morning of September 13, McKinley becoming critically ill.
At 2:15 a.m. on September 14, 1901, President McKinley died. He was the last President to have been a veteran of the Civil War.
McKinley remained politically active with the Republican Party. He campaigned again for Hayes, both in the latter's run for Governor of Ohio, and for the Presidency in 1876. That year, McKinley undertook a high-profile case defending a group of coal miners arrested for rioting after a clash with strikebreakers. The mine owners included Mark Hanna, a Cleveland businessman. McKinley took the case pro bono (without fee), and was successful in getting all but one of the miners acquitted. The case made McKinley popular with labor, an important segment of the local electorate. It also introduced him to Hanna, who would become his strongest backer in years to come.
McKinley ran for the Republican nomination for Ohio's 17th congressional district and he won. He was elected to Congress in November of 1876 and he continued to win re-election, even after a Democratic controlled state house tried to gerrymander his district in 1878. In 1889, with the Republicans in the majority, McKinley ran for Speaker of the House, but lost to Thomas B. Reed of Maine. Speaker Reed appointed McKinley chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and McKinley was able to guide the McKinley Tariff of 1890 through Congress.
For 1890, the Democrats gerrymandered McKinley once again, placing Stark County in the same district as one of the strongest pro-Democrat counties. The Republican Party sent its leading orators to campaign on behalf of McKinley, including Secretary of State James G. Blaine, Speaker Reed and even President Benjamin Harrison. The Democrats played dirty. They hired young men to pretend to be peddlers, who went door to door offering 25-cent tinware to housewives for 50 cents, explaining the rise in prices was due to the McKinley Tariff. In the end, McKinley lost by 300 votes, but the Republicans won a statewide majority.
In 1892 McKinley ran for Governor of Ohio. In the state, the governor had relatively little power. For example, he could not veto legislation. But Ohio was then, as now, a key swing state, so its governor was a major figure in national politics. President Benjamin Harrison faced an uphill battle winning his party's nomination for president in 1892. Harrison was concerned that McKinley might been seen as a candidate for the nomination so he arranged for McKinley to be permanent chairman of the convention in Minneapolis, requiring him to play a neutral role. Nevertheless McKinley finished third in the balloting, behind the renominated Harrison, and James G. Blaine. McKinley campaigned loyally for the Republican ticket, but Harrison was defeated by former President Cleveland in the November election.
McKinley was now seen as the likely Republican candidate for President in 1896 and the nomination played out as predicted. McKinley defeated his Democratic Party opponent William Jennings Bryan in the election on November 3, 1896. He won the entire Northeast and Midwest. He received 51% of the popular vote and won the Electoral College by a margin of 271 to 176.
With McKinley’s election in 1896, African Americans were hopeful of progress in the area of equality and civil rights. Most African Americans who could vote supported him in 1896. But many were disappointed by his policies and appointments. McKinley made some appointments of African Americans to low-level government posts. Blanche K. Bruce, an African American who during Reconstruction had served as senator from Mississippi, received the post of register at the Treasury Department. McKinley appointed several African-American postmasters, but when whites protested the appointment of Justin W. Lyons as postmaster of Augusta, Georgia, McKinley asked Lyons to withdraw. Lyons was later given the post of Treasury register after Bruce’s death in 1898.
The administration’s response to racial violence was less than expected. When African-American postmasters at Hogansville, Georgia in 1897 and at Lake City, South Carolina the following year were assaulted, McKinley made no statement. His supporters said that there was little the president could do to intervene, but his critics replied that he could at least publicly condemn such incidents, as President Harrison had done.
The major issue during McKinley's presidency was the war with Spain. McKinley proceeded cautiously, but when war was ultimately declared, African Americans saw the war as an opportunity to display their patriotism. African-American troops, called "Buffalo Soldiers" under the command of John J. Pershing fought bravely at El Caney and San Juan Hill. But African Americans in the peacetime Army were harassed by southern whites as they traveled from to Tampa for go to war. McKinley ordered the War Department to commission African-American officers above the rank of lieutenant. The heroism of these troops did not have any effect on racial tensions in the South. The latter half of 1898 saw several outbreaks of racial violence in southern states. Eleven African Americans were killed in riots in Wilmington, North Carolina. McKinley toured the South in late 1898, hoping for sectional reconciliation. He visited the Tuskegee Institute and met with black educator Booker T. Washington. He also addressed the Georgia legislature, and visited Confederate memorials. In his tour of the South, McKinley kept silent on the subject of racial tensions or violence. Many African Americans, excluded from official welcoming committees, felt alienated by the President’s lack of attention to their plight and their exclusion from tour events. McKinley's biographer Lewis Gould wrote: “McKinley lacked the vision to transcend the biases of his day and to point toward a better future for all Americans”.
McKinley won re-election to a second term as President in 1900, once again defeating William Jennings Bryan, this time by an even greater majority (292 to 155 in the electoral college). After his second inauguration on March 4, 1901, William and Ida McKinley embarked on a six-week tour of the nation. Traveling mostly by rail, the McKinleys were to travel through the South to the Southwest, and then up the Pacific coast and east again, to conclude with a visit on June 13, 1901 to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. But , the First Lady fell ill in California. Part of the tour was cancelled and McKinley postponed the visit to the fair until September.
On September 5, McKinley attended the Exposition in Buffalo and gave his final speech. The next day at the Temple of Music on the Exposition grounds, McKinley met the public in a reception line after his return from Niagara Falls. Assassin Leon Czolgosz concealed his gun in a handkerchief, and, when he reached the head of the line, shot McKinley twice in the abdomen. McKinley was taken by electric ambulance to the Exposition hospital where Dr. Matthew D. Mann cleaned and closed the wound. After the operation, McKinley was taken to the Milburn House. In the days after the shooting McKinley appeared to improve. By September 12, McKinley’s doctors were confident enough of his condition to allow him toast and coffee. But unknown to the doctors, gangrene was growing on the walls of his stomach, slowly poisoning his blood. On the morning of September 13, McKinley becoming critically ill.
At 2:15 a.m. on September 14, 1901, President McKinley died. He was the last President to have been a veteran of the Civil War.