William McKinley

William McKinley was the 25th president. He was a Republican from Ohio — the Idol of Ohio — and served from 1897 until his death in 1901. He won in 1896, was re-elected in 1900, and was killed in 1901. He linked prosperity at home to the gold standard and protective tariffs. Good times in the late 1890s helped him win again. In 1896 he ran a “front porch” campaign in Canton, Ohio: voters took trains to hear him while he stayed home.

In 1898 the USS Maine blew up in Havana Harbor, and war with Spain followed. “Remember the Maine” became a war cry. The Spanish-American War lasted only a few months, but it was a turning point: the United States became a world power, not only a continental one. After the war the United States took charge of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Cuba was freed from Spain (it did not become a U.S. state). Hawaii was annexed as U.S. territory in 1898; it later became the 50th state in 1959. McKinley’s Open Door notes said the United States wanted China kept open to American trade. After Spain left the Philippines, a war followed between U.S. forces and Filipino fighters.

McKinley was the third president to be assassinated, after Lincoln and Garfield. Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, shot him in September 1901 at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, while he was greeting the public. He died eight days later. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt took the oath. After Buffalo, presidential protection by the Secret Service became a full-time job.