Career of President McKinley
climbing upward, from country lawyer to President of the United
States, William McKinley overcame poverty, acquired a knowledge
of the sufferings of sorrowing humanity, and has left a clean record
behind him. Before his first election to the Presidency, he had
been twice Governor of Ohio, had served fifteen years in Congress,
during which fame came to him as the author of the tariff act of
1890 known as the McKinley Bill, had been Prosecuting Attorney of
an important county in Ohio, and had served in the War of the Rebellion
as officer after having marched in the ranks with the private soldiers,
himself a private.
The McKinleys are of Scotch-Irish
descent, and came to this country about one hundred and fifty years
ago. William McKinley, father of the President, was an iron manufacturer.
He lived to see his son Governor of Ohio. The present William McKinley
is fifty-eight years old. He was born at Niles, Trumbull County,
Ohio. In 1860, he entered Alleghany College, Meadville, Pennsylvania,
but his health was broken by overstudy, and he became a clerk in
the post-office at Poland, to which place the family had moved from
Niles. When came the call to arms, he enlisted as a private in the
Twenty-third Ohio Volunteers. Among the officers of this famous
regiment were General W. S. Rosecrans, and Rutherford B. Hayes,
who afterward became President. For his services in the winter camp
of Fayetteville, young McKinley, in 1862, was made commissary-sergeant.
In recognition of his bravery at the battle of Antietam, he was
given a commission as second lieutenant. In 1863 he was promoted
to first lieutenant, and served on the staffs of Generals R. B.
Hayes, Crook, and Hancock. In 1864 he was made captain, and in 1865
brevetted major by President Lincoln for gallantry.
After the war he studied law in Canton,
Ohio, and at the Albany Law School, and was admitted to the bar
in 1867. He settled in Canton, and has made his home in that city
ever since. He soon attracted attention as a lawyer of exceptional
ability, and in 1869 was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Stark County,
though that county was Democratic.
From this time forward, politics engaged
Mr. McKinley’s special attention and interest. In 1876 he was elected
to Congress, where he remained until 1890, having been re-elected
seven times. It was as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee
that he gave the nation the bill that bore his name.
In 1891, and again in 1893, Mr. McKinley
was elected Governor of Ohio. He had become one of the recognized
leaders of the Republican party. As political speaker and leader
in Congress, and in various political conventions, he had made himself
known and admired throughout the country. The confidence of the
people in his principles and purposes was so firmly established
that no great surprise was felt when he was nominated for the Presidency,
on the first ballot, at St. Louis in 1896. The electoral vote that
followed stood 271 for McKinley and 176 for Bryan.
In 1871, Major McKinley was married
to Miss Ida Saxton of Canton. Two daughters were born to them, but
both died in early childhood. During his official career the President
has received the degree of Doctor of Laws from a number of universities.