49 Facts About President William McKinley

1. In 1898, President William McKinley led the nation into war with Spain over the issue of Cuban independence; the brief and decisive conflict ended with the US in possession of Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam.

2. President William McKinley died on September 14, 1901, eight days after being shot and just six months into his second term as President.

3. President William McKinley reversed the policy of his predecessor, Grover Cleveland, and advocated for Hawaii to become a US territory.

4. President William McKinley entered Ohio politics in 1869 and rose through the ranks as a Republican, winning election to the US Congress in 1876.

5. President William McKinley sent teachers to Ellis Island in New York to teach new immigrants English, which was the language of business.

6. President William McKinley usually rises in the estimation of scholars who study his life in detail.

7. President William McKinley was a major actor in some of the most important events in American history.

8. President William McKinley pointed to McKinley's success at building an electoral coalition that kept the Republicans mostly in power for a generation.

9. President William McKinley's died only months before the completion of the large marble monument to her husband in Canton, which was dedicated by President Roosevelt on September 30, 1907.

10. President William McKinley's was thought too weak to attend the services in Washington or Canton, although she listened at the door to the service for her husband in her house on North Market Street.

11. President William McKinley drifted in and out of consciousness all day; when awake he was the model patient.

12. President William McKinley was taken to the Exposition aid station, where the doctor was unable to locate the second bullet.

13. President William McKinley had managed to get close to the presidential podium, but did not fire, uncertain of hitting his target.

14. President William McKinley intended the speech as a keynote to his plans for a second term.

15. President William McKinley refused, and Cortelyou arranged for additional security for the trip.

16. President William McKinley affirmed that the choice belonged to the convention, not to him.

17. President William McKinley considered other prominent candidates, including Allison and Cornelius N Bliss, but none were as popular as the Republican party's rising star, Theodore Roosevelt.

18. President William McKinley initially favored Elihu Root, who had succeeded Alger as Secretary of War, but McKinley decided that Root was doing too good a job at the War Department to move him.

19. President William McKinley toured the South in late 1898, promoting sectional reconciliation.

20. President William McKinley had spoken out against lynching while governor, and most African Americans who could vote supported him in 1896.

21. President William McKinley had built his reputation in Congress on high tariffs, promising protection for American business and well-paid American factory workers.

22. President William McKinley was successful, and a new treaty was drafted and approved, but not before McKinley's assassination in 1901.

23. President William McKinley was satisfied with the terms, but the Senate rejected them, demanding that the United States be allowed to fortify the canal.

24. President William McKinley came to office as a supporter of annexation, and lobbied Congress to act, warning that to do nothing would invite a royalist counter-revolution or a Japanese takeover.

25. President William McKinley stood firmly in that demand even as the military situation on Cuba began to deteriorate when the American army was struck with yellow fever.

26. President William McKinley proposed to open negotiations with Spain on the basis of Cuban liberation and Puerto Rican annexation, with the final status of the Philippines subject to further discussion.

27. President William McKinley insisted that a court of inquiry first determine whether the explosion was accidental.

28. President William McKinley needed to have Hanna appointed to the Senate so Senator Sherman was moved up.

29. President William McKinley always though of himself as a "tariff man" and expected that the rival monetary issues would fade away in a month.

30. President William McKinley was drawn as a child, easily controlled by big business.

31. President William McKinley made himself available to the public every day except Sunday, receiving delegations from the front porch of his home.

32. President William McKinley needed 453½ delegate votes to gain the nomination; he gained nearly half that number from the South and border states.

33. President William McKinley supported Foraker for Senate and Bushnell for governor; in return, the new senator-elect agreed to back McKinley's presidential ambitions.

34. President William McKinley campaigned widely for Republicans in the 1894 midterm congressional elections; many party candidates in districts where he spoke were successful.

35. President William McKinley was easily re-elected in November 1893, receiving the largest percentage of the vote of any Ohio governor since the Civil War.

36. President William McKinley objected to delegate votes being cast for him; nevertheless he finished third, behind the renominated Harrison, and behind Blaine, who had sent word he did not want to be considered.

37. President William McKinley introduced and supported bills that raised protective tariffs, and opposed those that lowered them or imposed tariffs simply to raise revenue.

38. From his first term in Congress, President William McKinley was a strong advocate of protective tariffs.

39. President William McKinley voted for the Bland–Allison Act of 1878, which mandated large government purchases of silver for striking into money, and joined the large majorities in each house that overrode Hayes' veto of the legislation.

40. President William McKinley attended the state Republican convention that nominated Hayes for a third term as governor in 1875, and campaigned again for his old friend in the election that fall.

41. President William McKinley found time to join a Freemason lodge in Winchester, Virginia before he and Carroll were transferred to Hancock's First Veterans Corps in Washington.

42. President William McKinley spent the winter substituting for a commissary sergeant who was ill, and in April 1862 he was promoted to that rank.

43. President William McKinley initially thought Scammon was a martinet, but when the regiment finally saw battle, he came to appreciate the value of their relentless drilling.

44. President William McKinley quickly took to the soldier's life and wrote a series of letters to his hometown newspaper extolling the army and the Union cause.

45. President William McKinley was an honorary member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

46. President William McKinley defeated Bryan again in the 1900 presidential election in a campaign focused on imperialism, protectionism and free silver.

47. President William McKinley hoped to persuade Spain to grant independence to rebellious Cuba without conflict, but when negotiation failed he led the nation into the Spanish–American War of 1898—the United States victory was quick and decisive.

48. President William McKinley promoted the 1897 Dingley Tariff to protect manufacturers and factory workers from foreign competition and in 1900 secured the passage of the Gold Standard Act.

49. President William McKinley was elected governor of Ohio in 1891 and 1893, steering a moderate course between capital and labor interests.