• William McKinley was born in Ohio and was teaching in a country school when the Civil War broke out. Enlisting as a private in the Union Army, he was mustered out at the end of the war as a brevet major of volunteers. Afterward, he studied law and opened an office in Canton, Ohio.
• At 34, McKinley won a seat in Congress. He was appointed to the Ways and Means Committee. During his 14 years in the House, he became the leading Republican tariff expert, giving his name to the measure enacted in 1890.
• The next year he was elected governor of Ohio, serving two terms.
• At the 1896 Republican Convention, in time of depression, wealthy Cleveland businessman Marcus Alonzo Hanna ensured the nomination of his friend McKinley as “the advance agent of prosperity.” He won by the largest majority of popular votes since 1872.
How he defined the office
• President McKinley’s many difficult foreign policy decisions, especially his policy toward China and his handling of the Boxer Rebellion, coupled with his decision to go to war with Spain over Cuban independence, helped the United States literally enter the 20th century as a force to be reckoned with on the world stage.
Successes and failures
• When McKinley became president, the depression of 1893 had almost run its course. He called Congress into special session to enact the highest tariff in history, the Dingley Act, on foreign goods to protect U.S. businesses and industries.
• In the 100-day Spanish-American War, the United States destroyed the Spanish fleet outside Santiago harbor in Cuba, seized Manila in the Philippines and occupied Puerto Rico. The U.S. eventually annexed the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico.
• McKinley’s second term, which had begun auspiciously, came to a tragic end in September 1901 at the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition when a deranged anarchist shot him twice. He died eight days later.
• “War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.” — from his first inaugural address March 4, 1897.