William McKinley, Jr. (
January 29,
1843 –
September 14,
1901) was the twenty-fifth
President of the United States, and the last veteran of the
Civil War to be elected. By the 1880s, this Ohio native was a nationally known
Republican leader; his signature issue was high tariffs on imports as a formula for prosperity, as typified by his
McKinley Tariff of 1890. As the Republican candidate in the
1896 presidential election, he upheld the gold standard, and promoted pluralism among ethnic groups. His campaign, designed by
Mark Hanna, introduced new advertising-style campaign techniques that revolutionized campaign practices and beat back the crusading of his arch-rival,
William Jennings Bryan. The
1896 election was a
realigning election that marked the beginning of the
Progressive Era. McKinley presided over a return to prosperity after the
Panic of 1893 and was reelected in
1900 after another intense campaign against Bryan, this one focused on foreign policy. As president, he fought the
Spanish-American War. McKinley for months resisted the public demand for war, which was based on news of Spanish atrocities in
Cuba, but was unable to get
Spain to agree to implement reforms immediately. Later he annexed the
Philippines,
Puerto Rico, and
Guam, as well as
Hawaii, and set up a protectorate over Cuba. He was assassinated by
Leon Czolgosz, an
anarchist, and succeeded by
Theodore Roosevelt.
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