Back William McKinley Afrikaans ዊሊያም ማኪንሊ Amharic William McKinley AN Willelm McKinley ANG ويليام ماكينلي Arabic ويليام ماكينلى ARZ William McKinley AST William McKinley Aymara Vilyam Mak-Kinli Azerbaijani ویلیام مککینلی AZB
William McKinley | |
|---|---|
 McKinley c. 1900 | |
| 25th President of the United States | |
| In office March 4, 1897 – September 14, 1901 | |
| Vice President |
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| Preceded by | Grover Cleveland |
| Succeeded by | Theodore Roosevelt |
| 39th Governor of Ohio | |
| In office January 11, 1892 – January 13, 1896 | |
| Lieutenant | Andrew L. Harris |
| Preceded by | James E. Campbell |
| Succeeded by | Asa S. Bushnell |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio | |
| In office March 4, 1885 – March 3, 1891 | |
| Preceded by | David R. Paige |
| Succeeded by | Joseph D. Taylor |
| Constituency |
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| In office March 4, 1877 – May 27, 1884 | |
| Preceded by | Laurin D. Woodworth |
| Succeeded by | Jonathan H. Wallace |
| Constituency |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | William McKinley Jr. January 29, 1843 Niles, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | September 14, 1901 (aged 58) Buffalo, New York, U.S. |
| Manner of death | Assassination (Gangrene due to infection in gunshot wound) |
| Resting place | McKinley National Memorial, Canton, Ohio |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent |
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| Education | |
| Profession |
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| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | United States Army (Union Army) |
| Years of service | 1861–1865 |
| Rank | Brevet major |
| Unit | 23rd Ohio Infantry |
| Battles/wars | |
Other offices
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William McKinley (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party, he led a realignment that made Republicans largely dominant in the industrial states and nationwide for decades. McKinley successfully led the U.S. in the Spanish–American War and oversaw a period of American expansionism, with the annexations of Hawaii, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, and American Samoa.
McKinley was the last president to have served in the American Civil War; he was the only one to begin his service as an enlisted man and ended it as a brevet major. After the war, he settled in Canton, Ohio, where he practiced law and married Ida Saxton. In 1876, McKinley was elected to Congress, where he became the Republican expert on the protective tariff, believing protectionism would bring prosperity. His 1890 McKinley Tariff was highly controversial and, together with a Democratic redistricting aimed at gerrymandering him out of office, led to his defeat in the Democratic landslide of 1890. He was elected governor of Ohio in 1891 and 1893, steering a moderate course between capital and labor interests.
McKinley secured the Republican nomination for president in 1896 amid a deep economic depression and defeated his Democratic rival William Jennings Bryan after a front porch campaign in which he advocated "sound money" (the gold standard unless altered by international agreement) and promised that high tariffs would restore prosperity. McKinley's presidency saw rapid economic growth. He rejected free silver in favor of keeping the nation on the gold standard, and raised protective tariffs, signing the Dingley Tariff of 1897 to protect manufacturers and factory workers from foreign competition and securing the passage of the Gold Standard Act of 1900.
McKinley's foreign policy emulated the era's overseas imperialism of the great powers in Oceania, Asia, and the Caribbean Sea. The United States annexed the independent Republic of Hawaii in 1898, and it became a United States territory in 1900. McKinley hoped to persuade Spain to grant independence to rebellious Cuba without conflict. Still, when negotiations failed, he requested and signed Congress's declaration of war to begin the Spanish-American War of 1898, in which the United States saw a quick and decisive victory. As part of the peace settlement, Spain turned over to the United States its main overseas colonies of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, while Cuba was promised independence but remained under the control of the United States Army until May 1902. In the Philippines, a pro-independence rebellion began; it was eventually suppressed. McKinley acquired what is now American Samoa when his administration partitioned the Samoan Islands with the United Kingdom and the German Empire in the Tripartite Convention, during a period of warming ties between the UK and US known as the Great Rapprochement.
McKinley defeated Bryan again in the 1900 presidential election in a campaign focused on imperialism, protectionism, and free silver. His second term ended early when he was shot on September 6, 1901, by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist. McKinley died eight days later and was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. Historians regard McKinley's 1896 victory as a realigning election in which the political stalemate of the post-Civil War era gave way to the Republican-dominated Fourth Party System, beginning with the Progressive Era. The United States retains control over the major territories McKinley annexed, aside from the Philippines which became independent in 1946.
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