William McKinley Essay Example for Free

William McKinley Essay Born on January 29, 1843, William McKinley would later in life grow up to be a very important factor and figure in America’s History. He was born in Niles, Ohio and grew up in Poland, Ohio where him and his family made their life. He was the seventh of eight kids living life like most young boys. He was raised by his father and mother, who instilled in him strong work ethics, respect, honesty, and courtesy and taught him to value prayer. One thing that McKinley valued highly was his education. He attended a school run by Methodist in Poland and upon graduating he went to Alleghany College in Meadville, PA. were he only attended for one term due to financial problems and illness. At the age of 18 when the Civil War started, William joined the Army and enlisted with the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. William was constantly proving himself in this battle. He began to quickly make his way up the ranks. He commissioned to Second Lieutenant and served under Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes and his staff. Throughout his military career, Hayes became William’s mentor. After serving four years William left the Army as a brevet major. After a career in the Army, McKinley went back to Ohio to start his future in politics and law. He finished law school at Albany Law and passed his bar in 1867. Soon after he started his own legal practice in Canton. In 1869, he met Ida Saxton and two years later they would be married and have two daughters. The same year he met his wife was the same year he ran in his first election. It was for county prosecutor and he won. As things started looking up for McKinley, he began to put more focus into his politics rather than his law career. Then in 1876 he ran for Congress and won that election as well. While in Congress he became chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, here he drafted and steered the passage of the McKinley Tariff of 1890. This increased consumer prices and angered the voters, causing McKinley to be rejected and lose the race in 1890. After that he went back to Ohio and ran for governor in 1891, were he won by slight margin. While serving as governor he wanted to lessen and control disagreements between management and labor. With this in mind he developed a system of arbitration that would help settle labor disagreements. With all the negatives that were going on with the economy, McKinley proved he was skilled in his political career. Many even felt his pain and had sympathy for him when his finances suffered during the economic depression of 1893. Many of the voters began to support him again and elected him as governor one more time in 1894. Gaining much popularity and with much experience under his belt it was time for Governor McKinley to run for President. In the Republican presidential nominating convention in 1896, McKinley came out strong as a front-runner. He was very committed to protectionism as a solution to help unemployment and was highly backed by the Republican party and was put on the ballot the first time around. This Republican platform supported protective tariffs. McKinley and the Republicans wanted to restore prosperity and guarantee social order and morality. The Republicans also supported the acquisition of Hawaii, building a canal across Central America, and expanding the Navy, they also supported equal pay for equal work for women, and restricting illiterate immigrants into our lands. McKinley campaigned from his own front porch right in Canton. McKinley campaigned on economic issues which put him ahead of his opposition eventually leading him to win the election by 600,000 votes, this was the largest electoral sweep there had been in twenty-five years. His voters were made up of farmers, urban residents, industrial workers and reformists. From this point until 1932 Republican Party ran the nation. While in office McKinley gain much popularity due to his victories as commander-in-chief of the Spanish American War. He also brought the nation back to economic prosperity. Due to his gaining popularity, McKinley was nominated again in 1900, as the Republican candidate and his vice president would be Theodore Roosevelt. They would campaign for a second time against the Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan. There were two major issues that McKinley dealt with as President: tariff and bimetallism (this had to do with the money system). He made an agreement that silver and gold would be acceptable backing for big European currencies in countries such as England, France, Russia and Italy. This plan failed so McKinley wanted gold based currency and in 1900, he signed and passed the Gold Standard Act, which would place U. S. money on a gold standard, so it was fully backed by gold and each ounce was worth $20. 67. Another affair McKinley dealt with was tariff. He wanted to increase the tariff to reduce internal taxes and encourage expansion of industry and employment. He also dealt with race issues, labor issues at home. Over seas he dealt with the trying to expand overseas, the Spanish-American War, Open Door Trade Policy in China and the Boxer Rebellion. On September 6, 1901, while greeting the public, McKinley was shot in the chest by Leon F. Czolgosz who was from Detroit and an unemployed mill worker. He was rushed to the hospital and was said to be in recovery but Gangrene set in and he died on September 14, 1901.