William McKinley (29 January 1843 – 14 September 1901) was President of the United States from 4 March 1897 to 14 September 1901, succeeding Grover Cleveland and preceding Theodore Roosevelt.
Biography[]
William McKinley was born in Niles, Ohio on 29 January 1843, and he served in the US Army during the American Civil War, ending the war as a Major; he was the last US president to have Civil War combat experience. He became a lawyer in Canton, Ohio after the war, and he was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1876 as a Republican. McKinley became the party's expert on the protective tariff, and he ran for president in 1890 as the Republican nominee. Gerrymandering on the part of the Democratic Party led to him being defeated in a landslide by Grover Cleveland, but McKinley would defeat Democratic challenger William Jennings Bryan in the election of 1896 to become the next President of the United States. During the 1896 election, McKinley built a conservative coalition of big businesspeople, professionals, and prosperous farmers to defend the "Gold Standard" against the progressive Bryan's "Free Silver" movement.
During his presidency, McKinley pursued an aggressive foreign policy, supporting imperialism. McKinley used the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor, Cuba in 1898 to justify the Spanish-American War, during which the United States conquered Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and various Pacific islands from the Spanish Empire. McKinley's administration ensured that the people of these new colonies were westernized, establishing Protestant schools, telegraph wires, railroads, and other public works. In 1898, the government also annexed Hawaii due to its abundance of natural resources and its strategic value; it could make for a great naval base. McKinley was re-elected in 1900, again defeating Bryan and the Democrats, and Spanish-American War hero Theodore Roosevelt served as vice-president.
On 6 September 1901, McKinley's six-month second term came to an end when anarchist Leon Czolgosz shot him at the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York during the Pan-American Exposition. His secretary George B. Cortelyou had twice cancelled his attendance of the event, fearing that he would be assassinated, but McKinley restored the event to his schedule both times. As he was shaking hands with some visitors at the event, McKinley was shot twice by Czolgosz, with one bullet entering his abdomen. He died of gangrene six days later.