Hey guys! Shockingly enough, I'm behind on the blog. We even celebrated McKinley's birthday a few days early, but his birthday passes yesterday and I didn't even have the blog up yet.
So, I thought I'd get you covered. I'm not sure anyone is going to read all these, they are lengthy. It's just I have so many more resources than I did last go around! I don't know where to stop anymore. Now, I print these out with hefty lines between paragraphs and in really large font so I can "read" then while doing my lesson, but FDR is 60 pages (we are splitting him into two days), but that gives you perspective.
If you want a shorter version, you can always check out his birthday on the last go around
For now though, here's our William McKinley birthday!
I like to dress the part for my lesson if I can (I am really debating on getting a Tippecanoe and Tyler too shirt for William McKinley's birthday), but the Ohio shirt Cort sent me as a gag gift works for a total of 8 presidents who Ohio lays claim to. Also, my Publix had no red carnations, so I made my own out of felt, and a tiny one for my little McKinley pez dispenser.
The Story of William McKinley
2020 Edition: By Corinne Waterstraut
177 years ago on this very day, our
25th President was born into a strict Methodist household, where he
couldn’t do anything fun like dance, enjoy the theater or even play cards.
Instead for fun, a young William
would play army games with his friends, fish, hunt, camp, horseback ride, and
ice skate, and he’d do it all walking around barefoot. It didn’t even matter
the temperature. Cold Day? No problem, he’d just shove his feet in the dirt
where the cows slept to warm them up.
The most exciting thing to happen to
William as a child was almost drowning in the “Old Swimmin’ Hole”. A friend
jumping in, unknowingly saving the future president of the United States.
His father read to him at and his 8
siblings at home, and he wore books thin by reading them over and over again.
William basically had an all-american mid-19th century upbringing.
At his one-room school house, where
girls had to sit on one side of the room and boys on the other, things were
equally as uneventful. Although William once did get in trouble and for
punishment he had to sit on the girls side of the room. Spoiler Alert: William
didn’t mind. His schoolhouse superlative would have almost certainly been
something like “most likely succeed”, since he was a smart, good-looking guy
with excellent public speaking skills.
William eventually headed off to
Allegheny College, where his life was equally as boring, and his dating profile
would list things like, idea of a good time: carriage ride at dusk.
But William’s overachieving-self
worked himself into physical exhaustion after just a year. It was bad timing
too. The economy had taken a downturn and after a brief break to gather
himself, working as a postal clerk and a teacher, William couldn’t afford to
head back to school.
So what’s a guy to do during the
Civil War when he’s broke, weak, and sickly, but volunteer to join the Union
Army? William had zero fighting or combat experience, so the army sent him
straight to work.. in the kitchen.
Even there, though, William
overachieved. He rushed out to the front lines just to serve the soldiers. He
even fed the guys on the front lines at the Battle of Antietam (the bloodiest
battle in the Civil War), because if he was going to die serving his country,
he was going to be literal about it. He was so good at feeding everyone without
dying, he got promoted several times for his bravery.
Eventually, McKinley rose to the
ranks of major, a rank he would use as a nickname for the rest of his life. He
might have been the last US president to fight in the Civil War, but he was
serving under another Ohioian you might have heard of, Rutherford Birchard
Hayes. McKinley had found an idol, and Hayes was equally as impressed with
McKinley.
He spent four years on duty for the
Union Army, where he was sure he would die, but he was fine with it. William
wrote that at least he was going to die for something he believed in.
When the fighting was over, and the
Union was victorious, William, now strong, healthy and confident took the usual
path to the White House by becoming a lawyer.
He rose through the ranks there too,
becoming the prosecuting attorney of Stark County. Being the Prude of 1869, he
advocated for stricter alcohol licensing laws, and complete abstinence of
alcohol. William’s household growing up didn’t allow the use of any alcohol or
tobacco, and William for his part only had the occasional Scotch before bed,
pairing it with the occasional cigar (which he also occasionally broke in half
and ATE.)
Meanwhile, that Hayes guy had become
pretty popular and decided to run for governor of Ohio. William, still an
excellent public speaker, gave speeches on his idol’s behalf. Hayes, also
prudish in his ways (ahem, Lemonade Lucy) was a heavy weight in the ‘temperance
movement’. While we’re still just over 50 years from Prohibition, there were
people like McKinley and Hayes who wanted to ban alcohol all together, while
placing a huge emphasis on things like closing businesses on Sunday and
requiring Bible Reading in schools. They were the “Keep Christ in Christmas”
guys of the mid 1800’s.
William’s persuasive ways helped
Hayes win Stark County and the Governorship in a squeaker. But more importantly
for our story about how William McKinley became president: this is when he was
bitten by the political bug. Hayes would later go on to return the favor and
stump for William when he ran for the House of Representatives, and Governor of
Ohio (Hayes died before McKinley ran for president).
Now 26, William was quite the catch.
And one, Ida Saxton, took notice when she ran into him at a picnic of Canton,
Ohio elites.
Ida was born into wealth. She was a world
traveler (Europe), beautiful, and full of an infectious energy. She was
brilliant and educated, attending la-de-da fancy private schools, and learned
about business from her banker father. Ida even worked at the bank and became a
manager, an incredibly rare event for her time. She was the envy of all women,
and she could have had any guy in Canton, Ohio.
William considered himself the
luckiest guy in Canton when Ida agreed to marry him. For two glorious years they
had the most blissful married life. They were given a house by Ida’s father,
and had two baby girls.
But then tragedy struck. When their
second baby girl was born, Ida had a hard labor and delivery. The baby died
before she was even five months old, and that coupled with the death of Ida’s
mother sent her into a tailspin, complete with a nervous breakdown.
Ida would suffer from headaches,
weakness, stomach pains, terrible periods, and even seizures for (almost) the
rest of her life. Worse than that, Ida firmly believed God was punishing her
for being a bad mother and went full on crazy-overprotective of her remaining
daughter, Katie, in a desperate attempt to keep another child from dying.
This becomes a curse for three year
old Katie. Ida would keep her locked in the house, smothering her with
affection while crying uncontrollably. For obvious reasons this instilled Katie
with a unhealthy, god-fearing doom not good for anyone, let alone a toddler.
Once, Katie was invited to go for a walk with her uncle and Katie informed him
she couldn’t leave the yard or God would punish her mom some more.
No amount of smothering helped. Katie
died of typhoid fever before she even turned four, and Ida went even further
into a depression. The beautiful, brilliant, social butterfly Ida Saxton became
a shell of her former self.
William’s response was to shower Ida
with all the attention, love, and affection he could muster while
simultaneously climbing the political ladder.
Whether Ida required him to be so
attentive, or William wanted to make his wife his top priority is up for debate.
To some it seemed like Ida took advantage, treating William as slave to her
every whim.
But there is no debate that for
whatever reason, William was a supportive, boarder-line saintly devoted husband
with an enormous sense of duty to his ailing wife. He did whatever he could to
make Ida more comfortable. Everyday he’d eat breakfast with her, then head off
to his office across the street, where everyday at 3 pm he’d go to his window
just to wave at Ida, who laid in her bed staring at portraits of William and
Katie.
Sickly, and depressed, Ida took up
one hobby: crocheting. She would go on to crochet over 3,500 pairs of slippers
for charity (color coded for the intended wearer- blue) for those who sided
with the north during the Civil War, and grey for Southern Sympathizers).
William, no matter what he was in the middle of, would drop everything if she
needed more yarn.
But McKinley wasn’t just kind to Ida,
it was just his sweetheart personality that everyone knew him for. The wasn’t
just a nice guy: he was one of the kindest there ever was.
Exhibit A: While running for
Congress, a reporter followed him from stump speech to stump speech trying to
make McKinley look bad. One particularly cold night, William was riding in his
carriage when he heard some coughing. A man, sitting with the driver on the
seat in the front was clearly ill. William told the driver to stop, and insisted
the man get into his carriage with him to warm up, even giving the sick man his
coat. The man was the reporter, and told McKinley “you must not know who I am”
and confessed he was on his way to the speech to ‘rip McKinley to pieces”.
McKinley responded “I know, but you get inside and get warm so that you can do
a good job.”
The reporter must not have done a
good job, because McKinley won and he spent 12 years in the US House of
Representatives. His biggest claim to fame here was the McKinley Tariff, which
was a tax on imported goods.
Eventually though, his tariff ended
up bringing unexpected high prices to consumer goods. Republicans like William
McKinley and President Benjamin Harrison paid the price by not being
re-elected.
William was a nice enough guy though,
and people didn’t stay mad for long. Two years after losing the house, William
McKinley became the Governor of Ohio.
Ida rose to the occasion of being the
first lady of Ohio, conscious of the toll her condition took on William. She went
through a slew of tests from doctors trying to find a cure for her ailments.
They had no answers, and put her on lithium and pain killers. Despite it all,
Ida maintained enthusiasm for William’s career and did what she could to help
advance it. That didn’t stop people from calling her erratic, and needy.
McKinley was a popular governor
though (working to control and lessen the discord between workers and
management), and that helped springboard him to the Republican Nominee in the
Election of 1896. Well, that and a guy by the name of Mark Hanna.
Mark was the Chair of the Republican
National Committee. He grew up in Cleveland, and went to High School with John
D. Rockefeller who would go on to own one of the world’s largest fortunes
(also, grandfather of the ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ guys.)
This is important because despite
being expelled from college, Mark Hanna was always around money. He worked in
coal and iron, before expanding his interests to include banking,
transportation, and publishing. By the time he was 40, Mark Hanna was a
millionaire.
Mark was convinced that the
Republican Party was the only way to produce to a prosperous nation, because
the Republicans would protect businesses and industrialists, and prosperous
businesses would lead to a prosperous nation that only the prosperous
Republican party could produce, and round and round we go.
But, Mark wasn’t presidential
material. He was old, with too much baggage. So he found someone who was. Mark
spotted McKinley 12 years earlier (when he was Congressman McKinley) and began
grooming him for president. McKinley easily won the nomination in 1896 on the first
ballot at the Republican Convention.
And Mark was willing to use his
connections and spend his money to make his guy president. In fact, Mark and
his fancy pants business friends (especially the guys in oil) paid over 3
million dollars to make it happen.
When I say the 1896 election was all
about the money, though, it has less to do with Mark’s fortune and more to do
with gold vs. Silver. It was the Battle of the Standards.
Thanks to the Panic of 1893, America
was still suffering from economic depression. There were low prices, but low
profits. There was high unemployment and violent strikes.
Americans were looking for a way to
boost the economy, and a fight over using silver or gold for the money supply
ensued. It didn’t just
follow party lines, everyone seemed to have an opinion on Gold vs. Silver.
The “Gold Bugs” thought staying the
course on the Gold Standard was the way to go. (The Gold Standard was a monetary
system where a country's money is backed by an equal amount of gold.)
Others, labeled the “Silverites”,
favored switching to free and unlimited coinage of silver at a ration of 16
ounces of silver to one ounce of gold.
The idea was if there was more physical money to go around it would help
the ‘little guy’.
But before we get to that, we have to
get a Democratic Candidate.
The Democrats would not be nominating
Grover Cleveland for a second consecutive term, he was a “Gold Bug” Democrat
and the “Silverites” were not too excited about having him for President for
four more years.
But without Grover Cleveland, there
was no clear successor. So all hell broke loose and a whole slew of guys, got
votes on the first few ballots. If there was a frontrunner, it was Robert
Bland. But the guy lived up to his name. He was pretty boring and bland.
And then, a young, handsome
charismatic Silverite by the name of William Jennings Bryan crossed the stage
to give the most rousing speech about currency you’ve ever heard.
Bryan, with little political
experience besides a four years in the House of Representatives representing
Nebraska, announced "you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of
gold". For more than an hour, Bryan went on about businesses and banks
only being interested in building their fortunes with complete disregard for
the hard pressed farmers and labor workers. He had the delegates at the convention shouting, cheering,
and even weeping.
The speech got a name: the “Cross of
Gold Speech”, and if your speech gets a title, you know it’s one that’ll go down
in history as one of the greatest speeches in America history.
More than that, it also shot WJB to
the top contender for the nomination, and he won on the Democratic nomination
for President of the United States on fifth ballot.
His Vice Presidential Candidate would
be Arthur Sewall, a rich ship builder who held no elected office above city
councilman. But, Democrats were hoping he’d use some of his fortune to help
bankroll the campaign. Spoiler Alert: he didn’t.
So the stage was set. It was a battle
of the standards, and the battle of the Williams: William Jennings Bryan vs.
William McKinley.
William Jennings Bryan was just 36
years old, making him the youngest man to ever be nominated for president by a
major party. His energy, coupled with his good looks and magnetic voice was
infectious. He wasn’t necessarily a deep or original thinker, but man could he
deliver a speech.
He took that youth, those speaking
skills, that energy and headed out on the road. He traveled 18,000 miles by
train, made more than 600 speeches, and addressed more than 5 million people. He
campaigned through 27 states, giving up to 36 speeches in a single day. He ate
six meals a day just to keep his energy up.
He canvased the country talking about
farm prices, mortgage rates, and the need for credit and railroad regulations,
but mostly he talked about silver vs. gold. That was his “super issue”.
It was everyone’s super issue, in
fact. Republicans made toy coins that said “Free coinage 16 to 1”, and there
was a story that circulated about a little girl who refused a silver filling,
telling the Dentist “I am for McKinley”.
William Jennings Bryan was convinced that
silver helped the ‘classes and the masses’ while gold only helped the
‘classes’. Basically, WJB could be the
OG of calling out Trickle Down Economics. Don’t take it from me, take it from
this WJB quote: “There are those who believe that if you will only legislate to
make the well to do prosperous, their prosperity will leak down through those
below. The Democrats idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the
masses prosperous, their prosperity will find it’s way up through every class
which rests upon them.”
WJB became known as the “Great
Commoner” and the “Silver Knight of the West”.
White metal became synonymous with Democracy, and the people. While gold
metal became a symbol for Wall Street, elitists, privilege, and special
interests.
It became the election of
Hard-pressed farmers vs. prosperous industrialists; The underprivileged many
vs. the privileged few.
Bryan, who became known as the “Boy
Orator” stumped so hard, he lost his voice.
William McKinley, meanwhile, was a
devout “Gold Bug” backed by one of the goldest bugs of all: Mark Hanna.
McKinley refused to try and keep up
with WJB and his travel schedule. He wouldn’t force that upon Ida, and he
wouldn’t leave her. So Mark decided to take a page out of the Benjamin-Harrison-
for-president playbook and run a “front porch campaign” from McKinley’s home in
Canton, Ohio. There, McKinley could give carefully prepared speeches. McKinley
was not a ‘fly by the seat of his pants’ kind of guy. He wanted everything
meticulously planned.
Mark Hanna knew, though, that if
McKinley wasn’t going to go to the people, he’d need the people to come to him.
So he called in some favors from his friends and got the railroad companies to
bring in 100s of delegations of voters to Canton, Ohio, to hear McKinley give
his carefully prepared speeches from his front porch. They brought in farmers,
workers, businessmen, veterans, clergy men, college students, lawyers, and
doctors. 750,000 people in all came to see McKinley from 30 different states.
Supporters could hand write
questions, and submit them the night before a McKinley Front Porch Speech.
McKinley would then carefully craft his response to carefully chosen questions.
His speeches, though highly prepared, were popular. His fans took pieces of his
porch and fence as souvenirs until there was almost nothing left.
Mark Hanna amassed massive funds from
banks, corporations, and insurance companies to distribute pamphlets and
banners and posters. McKinley was in fact the first candidate to use campaign
buttons, all because Mark Hanna bankrolled them with his own fortune and his
connections. He bought billboards along the train routes to remind voters that
Gold equaled stability and prosperity, while silver meant anarchy and economic
collapse.
McKinley was a nearly perfect
candidate. But he had one problem: Ida. Ida’s condition drew attention, and
rumors swirled she was a spy, or a victim of spousal abuse, so naturally Hanna
threw some more money at the problem creating a campaign pamphlet for people to
get to know her.
McKinley didn’t have to go after WJB
himself, he had Mark Hanna and his posse for that. And man, did Republicans go savage
on WJB. They likened him to Charles Guiteau, James Garfield’s assassin. They
labeled him as a madman, a communist, a lunatic, a thief, a traitor, and stop
me if you’ve heard this one before: a socialist. They claimed if WJB won,
‘there’d be a madman in the White House”. He was the first candidate to attract
psychologists asking “Is Bryan certifiably crazy?”
It paid to know people in high places
too. Hanna had connections with the newspapers as well, which meant they were
generally friendly to McKinley and absolutely brutal for WJB. The New York
Times called him “irresponsible, ignorant, prejudiced, pathetically honest, an
enthusiastic crank.” The New York Tribune called him a “wretched boy, mouthing
resounding rottenness”. The Philly Press accused Bryan’s followers of being
“hideous, repulsive vipers.”
Bryan just didn’t have the money to
compete. He didn’t have an in with any newspaper head honchos. The $50,000 he
had to spend on his campaign was nothing compare to Mark and his millions.
And he was running against one of the
nicest guys in the country. Nobody could really even attack McKinley, so any
criticism he got usually was about Mark Hanna instead. The few newspapers that
supported WJB, called Mark the puppet master, and they featured cartoons of
“Dollar Mark Hanna”, a greedy, bloated guy surrounded by money bags while a
little McKinley sat in the background.
Some claimed Hanna could “shuffle
McKinley and deal him like a deck of cards”, but insiders disagreed. Mark, a
hardened politician, and pure- as the driven snow McKinley had their
disagreements, and Hanna didn’t always win.
Case and point: Republican bosses
were insisting McKinley agree to appoint Senator Thomas Platt of New York as
Secretary of the Treasury. Hanna told McKinley to agree in order to appease the
bosses, but McKinley refused, saying “There are some things in the world that
come too high. If I cannot be president without promising to make Tom Platt
Secretary of the Treasury, I will never be president.” (And it’s not like
McKinley didn’t want it, here’s another McKinley quote for you: “I have never
been in doubt since I was old enough to think intelligently that I would
someday be made president.”)
Things got worse for Bryan as the
smear campaign against him intensified. In part of Bryan’s stump speech he’d
ask people to raise their hands if they had gold in their pockets, and then if
they had silver. That just made his supporters and easy target for
pick-pocketers, so much so the pick pocketers started following the Bryan
campaign. It got so bad he had to use some of his money to hire security.
Then there was the Republicans theory
that Bryan was a drunk. He didn’t help matters because for some reason he
thought smelling of alcohol was better than smelling a little ripe from lack of
showering. Bryan would often rub himself down with gin to get the stink of
being on the trail off of him.
In yet another campaign stop, Bryan was
run out of Yale by hecklers. The press complained that the crowd has as much
right to hiss and boo as they do to cheer. WJB didn’t blame the college kids,
though, he later said “Do not blame the boys, you cannot expect much more of
them- their father’s, some of whom have gotten rich by the oppression of the
poor, have threatened their employees with discharge if they vote their
convictions.”
And he wasn’t wrong. Some employers
were putting warning slips into their worker’s pay envelopes and telling them
if Bryan was elected “do not come back to work, the plant will be closed.” Bankers were telling farmers their mortgages
would be foreclosed if they voted Democratic. Anyone with any power was trying
to strong arm votes for “Gold Bug” McKinley.
In the end, WJB just couldn’t compete
with Mark Hanna and William McKinley. The combo of a vicious, ruthless Mark
Hanna, and the likability of candidate McKinley was too much for WJB. He lost 176 to 271 in the electoral college,
getting 600,000 less votes than the Republicans.
The 1896 Election was the liveliest
election since the Civil War. But, it did more for the future of politics than
it did for anyone one candidate. The 1896 Election changed both political
parties forever.
The New Republican party was
supported by the businesses, the urban upper-middle class and some blue collar
workers.
The Democratic party was now the
party of populist politics (populist meaning a member of a political party
claiming to represent the common people), moving away from Jacksonian minimal
government to a more positive government view.
But lets head back to 1897, when McKinley,
and his VP, Garrett Hobart (also hand picked by Mark Hanna) were heading to the
White House, and Republicans had taken control of both Houses of Congress. A down-but-not-out
WJB, declared McKinley had won the “first battle” and headed back to Nebraska.
Fun fact, sidenote: Also headed to
the White House was McKinley’s Mexican Parrot he named “Washington Post” who
would whistle “Yankee Doodle” as a duet.
Anyway, by the time McKinley’s
inauguration rolled around, the depression was letting up and Republicans
(though not even in office yet) could claim to be the party of prosperity. And
ironically enough, gold mines were soon opened in South Africa, Australia and
Alaska, doubling the world’s gold supply (and as a result the Treasury
Department issued more bank notes, increasing the money supply like the
Silverites wanted- just with gold instead of silver!)
Spoiler Alert: The Gold Standard
would also be short lived. FDR will take the US off the Gold Standard in 37
short years, or for birthday purposes, tomorrow when we learn FDR’s story.
But for now, William is our brand
spanking new 25th President (and another fun tidbit for you: his
inauguration is the first to be filmed).
New President McKinley needs a
cabinet, and he promptly appoints the current Senator of Ohio as his Secretary
of State, leaving the Senate seat open. An open Senate Seat in Ohio? That was
Mark Hanna’s dream job! and since he had just helped to get McKinley elected,
Hanna cashed in his favor taking the seat for himself.
Ida also has a new role: First Lady
of the United States. The night of his inauguration they showed up at his
inaugural ball and Ida quickly passed out cold. McKinley simply picked her up, and
scooted her out without any sort of fanfare or explanation.
Ida was now sicker than ever
before. She was having more headaches,
and more frequent seizures. Most of the time she was downing pills, but she
still found time to speak out against McKinley’s critics, and offer him advice
on political matters.
Ida also channeled her inner hostess
that she had used so many years ago, before tragedy struck, and insisted on
taking her place in receiving lines, greeting guests while sitting in her
velvet blue chair. Events were a burden
for her, but she refused to delegate her duties. She was stubborn as ever, that
Ida.
The pills and narcotics she was on, put
her in a state of semi-conscious sedation that made her look like the undead.
But she could at least dress the part. She still had elegant dresses and
fashionable accessories to wear to events. In fact she set a trend with her
aigrette (a headdress with egret feathers) that became so popular egrets became
endangered.
She even had the White House
decorated to her specifications. Her portraits of William and Katie accompanied
her. And no yellow was allowed in the White House, because she hated the color.
(Even the yellow flowers were removed from the garden).
Many people saw Ida as selfish and
demanding, a wife who took advantage of her husbands kindness. He might have
been leader of the free world, but he still had a sense of duty to his wife,
and she still had him wrapped around her finger. He was seen as admirable,
inspirational even for how he tended to her, even dropping political talks to
sit with her if she was feeling uneasy. He checked in on her often, sometimes
hourly.
A forward-thinking McKinley made no
attempt to hide her, and even broke protocol to accommodate her. It was
customary for the President’s wife to sit across from him at dinner parties,
but William insisted Ida sit next to him. That way if a seizure came on, he
could place a napkin over her face until it passed- the darkness would soothe
her while simultaneously spare her any embarrassment from having people watch
her face seize. Once it had passed, he would remove the napkin and carry on
like normal. If it was particularly bad,
he’d arrange an exit for her.
DC ate it all up, they were taken by
his obvious devotion to his wife. McKinley just appeared to be the nicest man
there ever was. He was polite, and gave everyone the benefit of the doubt.
Democrats and Republicans were charmed by him. Even his advisories would enter
his office upset, and leave giving McKinley a pat on the back as if they’d been
friends for years.
He just heaped on the kindness,
adding to his nice guy persona. He had an ability to remember names, making
people feel important. He would turn people down, but phrase it in a way that
made them feel like he had done them a favor.
But, don’t be fooled. McKinley knew
how he was perceived, and he used his nice guy persona to his advantage. He
installed the first White House pressroom, and welcomed coverage, promoted it
even. He had journalists eating out of his hand with his carefully chosen flow
of information. He would sometimes completely sensor them, but nobody seemed
phased by it because that McKinley is just such a nice guy!
He even got the press not to report
on Ida’s condition. By now, it was pretty common knowledge she had epilepsy
(although historians also think it’s possible she had some kind of cancer or
other ailments), but reporters always carefully avoided the word “epilepsy” at
William’s direction.
The biggest issue facing William’s
presidency was the unrest in Cuba. Cuba was a Spanish Colony, but wanted
independence and riots were breaking out. A lot of Americans were living in
Cuba, so McKinley sent the U.S.S. Maine to Havana to protect them.
Three weeks later, the U.S.S Maine
was sunk and 266 Americans died. Everyone was up and arms and ready to go to
war, US Newspapers were working Americans into a frenzy about it, with their Yellow
Journalism (journalism that is based upon sensationalism and crude exaggeration)
and “Remember the Maine” propaganda.
But McKinley dragged his feet. Some
saw him as indecisive, including Teddy Roosevelt (of charging up San Juan hill
fame) who claimed “McKinley has no more backbone than a chocolate éclair”. But
McKinley was just thinking. He never made any decision in life, or in the
presidency without careful planning.
While journalists cried the ship was
sunk on purpose, the US Navy reported it was an accident (over 75 years later,
researchers confirm it was in fact an accident- an accidental fire broke out,
and exploded a bunch of ammunition).
But at this point, Americans were all
behind a war- Northerners, Southerners, whites, blacks- it was a nice change of
pace after the divides of the Civil War, even if it was everyone getting behind
another war. At least this one would be united.
Eventually McKinley saw eye to eye
with the American people and declared
war on Spain. And he declared the crap out of it. He became super involved,
using all the newest technology of telegraphs to keep in touch the soldiers
daily on the front lines. In less than 4 months, the US had destroyed the
Spanish Fleet all over the world, and taken control of Spain’s global empire
while suffering more casualties from disease than actual combat.
The US was now the proud owner of
Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Did we want them? Not necessarily, we
just didn’t want Japan to take control of them if we didn’t. Did we know where
the Philippines even were? Well, McKinley didn’t. Someone had to bring him a
globe.
Once he knew where exactly
the Philippines were, he’d have to figure out what to do with them. He didn’t
want to give them back to Spain, he thought that would be ‘cowardly &
dishonorable”. It’d be “bad business” for the oriental countries if he gave
them to France of Germany. If he just simply left them to themselves, McKinley
believed they’d be unfit for self-government and fall into anarchy. In McKinley
eyes, that left him one option: Take all the islands, educate them, civilize
them and CHRISTIANISE them.
Because, just ask Christopher Columbus, that always
goes really well. Not shockingly, the Filipino’s weren’t super excited about
this idea. They didn’t want a change in Colonial Rulers. They wanted
Independence.
Fighting broke out between American forces and
Filipino nationalists led by the guy they recognized as their first (and
youngest) president, Emilio Aguinaldo.
The ensuing Philippine-American War lasted three
years and resulted in the death of over 4,200 American and over 20,000 Filipino
combatants. It ended when the US captured Aguinaldo, and he took an oath of
allegiance to the United States. As many
as 200,000 Filipino civilians died from violence, famine, and disease. (For a
nice guy, that is quite the body count on his watch).
But, no matter how it was done,
McKinley’s acquisitions along with his ambitious agenda advanced the US as an
international force. McKinley expanded America’s ability to compete for trade
in China, adapting an “Open Door Policy” where all nations would freely trade
with China without violating China’s boarders.
Even with his world domination,
including his annexing of ‘The Sandwich Islands’ (Hawaii) ---Annexing is just a
nice way of saying “that’s mine now”-- McKinley maintained his nice guy persona,
and his charming super power.
McKinley’s Secretary of War once said
“he had a way of handling men so that they thought his ideas were his own”,
which is ironic since McKinley was trying to get him to resign. When McKinley’s
nudging didn’t seem to work, the president turned to his number two: Vice
President Garrett Hobart.
Hobart’s tact and good humor was helpful
to McKinley, he was the most valuable veep since Martin Van Buren to Andrew
Jackson. He presided over the Senate in spectacular fashion. And he was William
McKinley’s nice guy shield. If he needed someone to do his dirty work, Hobart
was there.
Only Garrett Hobart was now deathly
ill, suffering from heart failure. But that didn’t stop McKinley from enlisting
his Vice President to deliver the pink slip to the Secretary of War.
Even on his deathbed, Garett carried
out McKinley’s wishes, then promptly keeled over. McKinley didn’t replace
Garrett Hobart, claiming nobody outside of Garett’s family felt the loss more
deeply than him.
When the election of 1900 came
around, McKinley was basking in the glow of a recovering economy, a plentiful
gold supply, and a victory in war. He was an easy nomination for the
Republicans.
The Democrats weren’t ready to give
up on William Jennings Bryan, still just 40 years old. They wanted to give him
a second chance, and he won the nomination easily.
This time around WJB’s running mate
was Adlai Stevenson I. Adlai had been Vice President under Grover Cleveland.
His grandson Adlai Stevenson would run for president in 52 (and 56 years
later).
But, McKinley still needed a Vice
President, and he was willing to leave it up to the Republicans to make their
pick. Enter the Rough rider himself, Theodore Roosevelt, fresh off his victory
in the Spanish American War at San Juan Hill, he was the current governor of
New York.
Teddy, playing it cool, acted as though
he wasn’t that interested in the VP slot. But Teddy showed up to the convention
wearing his brimmed “rough rider” hat, and everyone knew he was down for it.
(The hat got dubbed the “acceptance hat”).
Teddy also had some over zealous
supporters. People clamored for him at the convention, chanting “we want Teddy!
We want Teddy!” The western delegations were crazy about Teddy, but McKinley
wasn’t. Teddys manic energy and impulsiveness didn’t gel so well with McKinley,
who had hoped for someone a little “softer and saner”. But McKinley refused to
intervene.
And then there was Mark Hanna who
HATED the idea. He told party leaders “Don’t you realize there is only one life
between that madman and the presidency?”
Of course Teddy won the VP slot, and
Hanna told McKinley “it is your duty to the country to live for the next four
years from next March.” Spoiler Alert: That doesn’t work out.
William Jennings Bryan, perhaps,
thought of the Election too much of a rematch of 1896. With the influx of gold,
and McKinley signing the Gold Standard Act ending the debate, his silver
argument was a lot less persuasive. The issue was pretty much dead. But WJB
just wouldn’t give it up (Even leading to Speaker of the House to say “Bryan
would rather be wrong than president”.)
In an effort to find a new issue,
Brayan went after McKinley on Imperialism. Bryan claimed McKinley was trying to
create an Empire by annexing all of those territories after the Spanish
American War.
Bryan campaigned the same, going
around the country giving speeches, while McKinley opted out of front porch
speeches, which would have been a little awkward on the White House lawn. Instead
he sent out Teddy, who could match WJB in youthfulness and enthusiasm, to give
speeches on the trail.
Teddy, however, caused some raised
eyebrows, especially with Mark Hanna, when he seemed to be acting as if WJB was
HIS opponent, not McKinley’s. Teddy, being Teddy, also liked to call out WJB as
a pansy, saying “we are a nation of men, not a nation of weaklings.”
The 1900 election just didn’t have
the same gusto as 1896. Even the GOP’s rally chant was pretty weak: “McKinley
drinks soda water, Bryan drinks Rum. McKinley is a gentleman, Bryan is a bum!”
The most exciting thing about the
1900 election is probably the first doctored photo being used in a
campaign. McKinley had taken a photo
with Hobart, and then there appeared an identical photo, with McKinley wearing
the same clothes in the same pose, circulating with Teddy. Nobody remembered
the two ever sitting together for the picture, and there is a faint line in the
middle of it, making historians believe it was doctored.
WJB never really had a chance against
the precious “Idol of Ohio” (McKinley had more competition with that title then
for president Within a 28 year time span, Ohio sent 5 men to the White House.)
McKinley beat Bryan even worse the
second time around: 292 to 155. William Jennings Bryan lost some of the western
states he had won 4 years earlier (probably thanks to Teddy), and even lost his
home state of Nebraska.
The Republicans gained even more
seats in both the House and the Senate. Congress got even whiter with the win
too. The only African-American in Congress, George White, declined to run
again, and another African American wouldn’t be elected for 25 more years.
So what
becomes of our two-time loser, William Jennings Bryan? Well, stay tuned, because we’ll be seeing
him again in September when we celebrate William Howard Taft’s Birthday. In the
meantime, he’ll be hanging out in Nebraska with his wife and three kids running
a newspaper and touring the country speaking.
McKinley for his part, wouldn’t live
to see what happens to his opponent. On September 6, 1901 less than six months
into his second term, McKinley headed to Buffalo New York to the PanAmerican
Expo.
McKinley stood in a receiving line
greeting guests wearing his signature red carnation on his suit jacket.
McKinley wore them
because Ida liked them, and because she
believed them to be good luck. William often took them off to give to people,
but would promptly find another one to wear. In fact, he once gave one to a
little boy, then put another one on so he could also give it to the little
boy’s brother. William had just given his lucky carnation to a little girl when
Leon Czolgosz approached him.
Leon was a steel worker and an
anarchist. It wasn’t that he hated McKinley, he thought all governments
oppressed their people, and he was going to put an end to it, by putting an end
to William McKinley.
With his hand wrapped in a bandage,
Leon hid a gun. When it was his turn to shake the president’s hand, he instead
fired two shots into the president’s stomach.
Of course, after getting shot and
falling to the ground, nice guy William had two thoughts: He told the mob that
had jumped on Leon not to hurt him (a request that saved Leons life, at least
for a moment- he would later be convicted of murder and executed), and then
thought of Ida and told everyone to be “careful how you tell her”.
McKinley was rushed to the hospital,
but there was only a gynecologist to tend to him, and without an xray machine
(which ironically was debuting at the very expo he was shot at), nobody could
find the bullet, they stitched him up and hoped for the best.
Ida was oddly calm through the whole
thing. For 8 days she sat by William’s beside comforting him without any
breakdowns, returning the favor of tending to him the way he had for their
nearly 30 years together. In fact, Ida never suffered another seizure after
William was shot.
Gangrene would eventually claim the
life of William McKinley at 2:15 am on September 14. He was the third president
to be assassinated. After his death the Secret Service would be put in charge
of protecting the president.
Remember what Mark Hanna had told
McKinley? The whole ‘You’re job is to live for the next four years’. Well,
McKinley failed at that. Mark, showing little sympathy after learning about
McKinley’s death, immediately thought of Teddy: “Now that damn cowboy’s in the
White House!”
He wasn’t wrong, exactly. They had to
call Teddy back from a hunting trip to take the oath of office. Teddy Roosevelt
would become the youngest man ever to be sworn into the presidency, and work to
carry on McKinley’s agenda.
Perhaps his biggest tribute project
was the Panama Canal: before William McKinley was shot he had been working on
creating a shortcut through Central America to improve the ability to transport
goods to the west coast. Teddy saw it through (though would be completed in 1914, under Woodrow
Wilson).
The nation, Ohio, and Ida were all
heartbroken. There was an outpouring of love and grief, similar to when JFK
would be assassinated 62 years later. William McKinley laid in state in the
Executive Mansion, and then the Capitol before he was taken to Canton, Ohio
where he would eventually be laid to rest in the largest interment site for a
president.
Ida had no more crutch. She returned
to Canton to live out her days sick and lonely, hoping there wouldn’t be too
many of those days. She prayed daily for death to come collect her too.
Eventually she decided she wanted to live long enough to see the mausoleum
built. She died six years after William, and just days before the dedication of
the mausoleum.
McKinley’s biographer says he died as
one of the most beloved presidents. At least in Ohio, that’s probably true. After
his death, there was a rush to memorialize McKinley.
There are 20 schools in Ohio that
bare his name. His name bestows streets, civic organizations and libraries. In
1904, Ohio adapted the red carnation as it’s state flower in honor of McKinley.
Monuments of McKinley adorn the state. McKinley has the largest statue on the
grounds of the state capitol. He sits out in front, alone, while other Ohio
gems like Grant, Hayes and Garfield have to share.
Ida even gets her own nod. Her family
home is on the site of The First Ladies National Historic Site in Canton.
Established in 2000, it’s the first official historical site dedicated to first
ladies.
In the aftermath of his
assassination, we might have gone a little overboard in naming things after
McKinley. There was even a motion to name the Philippines, “the McKinley
Islands”, which probably wouldn’t have gone over so well there.
Instead, we decided to piss off a
different native people: those of Alaska. Some guy had “discovered” a peak in
Alaska during the election in 1896, or discovered it again as much as Columbus
discovered America. But, he named the peak “ Mount McKinley” to boost support
in Alaska for the president. The name stuck, and was used more widely after
McKinley’s assassination.
Eventually, Native Alaskans wanted
their name back. For them, the Mountain always
was Denali. You wouldn’t think it’d be too hard for Alaskans to change the name
of a mountain in their own state. Except there’s a rule “If a name for a
geographic feature is pending in Congress, the US Board on Geographical Names
will not act on it”. So, sneaky Republican Ohio Congressmen just made sure for
years there was some bill floating out there about Mount McKinley, just to
block anyone from renaming it. The bill didn’t have to be voted on, or moved-
just in the hopper.
This went on for years. President
Obama eventually bypassed Congress and went ahead and restored the name back to
Denali.
Eventually, McKinley’s star faded. He
goes the way of those guys we just don’t remember. He is overshadowed in death
by his successor, Teddy Roosevelt. But he did set the Republican Party off in a
new direction that would create a dominate party for the next 32 years (Woodrow
Wilson is the only lone Democratic President in that stretch).
But William’s nice guy persona hasn’t
necessarily followed him into his legacy. Some classify his pro-imperial,
annexation-heavy foreign policy as ruthless. Others think he helped make us a
world power.
But either way, if he gets remembered
in one sentence, McKinley has one he hoped applies: "All a man can hope for during his
lifetime is to set an example, and when he is dead, to be an inspiration for
history."
So tha'ts the story folks! If you made it through, good for you!
Hayden drew his William Jennings Bryan and his McKinley
And put Ida on his First Lady Dream Team, mostly because there isn't any competition. He gave her 'all around badass' for Ida pre-breakdown/illness. She was, afer all, a bank manager and for the late 1800s, that's something!
He only gave the election of 1896 a 6 on the Sleaze-o-meter, which I found shocking. That Mark Hanan stuff is disturbing. But, for 1900 he gave it a two, and I'd agree. Pretty unexciting for a rematch.
Hayden decided to go ahead and put up William McKinley's Legacy through Rose Colored Glasses,
As opposed to the Scathing Review.
He was like "some of those events are the same on both sides" and I was like "exactly, it's all in how you see it!"
And then he put McKinley much closed to National Treasure than Richard Nixon or Millard Fillmore. (I'm lacking a picture here, maybe I'll remember to add it later, though)
For dinner we had breakfast with Porkchops. I found a maple glazed porkchop reciepe from the Ohio Pork Association website, and we had breakfast potatoes, a McKinley favorite: scrambled eggs, and some pineapple. I kind of miss the countries project, it had better food. But, this was fine.
So that's it for McKinley. Today we're moving on to FDR. Hopefully I'll get up a 'what we've been up to' blog soon.
Next Up: We're having three sets of visitors in just over a month. Jake's already been here, and my mom arrives on Tuesday.
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