Historians still debate the legacy of William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, who served from 1897 until his assassination by an anarchist in 1901. The man with an Alaskan mountain once named for him believed in the power of tariffs, though they didn’t always work the way he hoped. He was criticized for imperialist ambitions, though he first tried to avoid war. McKinley supported workers’ rights, though he often took a laissez-faire approach to big business and powerful trusts. Here are other interesting details about the “Napoleon of Protection,” as his opponents called him:
1. Last in Union Blue
McKinley was the last American president who served in the Civil War. At 18, he enlisted as a private in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment in 1861, but rose to the rank of major by the end of hostilities. Befriended and mentored by Major Rutherford B. Hayes, who later became the 19th president, McKinley saw plenty of action. At the 1864 Battle of Berryville in Virginia, he had a horse shot out from under him. And during the bloody Battle of Antietam in 1862, he braved heavy enemy fire to deliver coffee and rations to fellow soldiers on the front lines. In 1896, those men nominated him for the nation’s highest military recognition—the Medal of Honor—which he declined.
2. Titan of Tariffs
McKinley strongly supported the use of tariffs, but had mixed results with them. As a Republican congressman from Ohio in 1890, he proposed what became the McKinley Tariff, which placed a 50 percent duty on many imported consumer goods. This controversial plan led to retaliatory tariffs by other countries, which drove up prices for a disenchanted American public. So unpopular was this tariff that it led to McKinley losing his seat in the House of Representatives that same year, along with 92 other House Republicans.
After serving two terms as governor of Ohio, he made it to the White House in 1897 and helped push through—no surprise—another tariff, the highest in American history to that time. Dubbed the Dingley Act, it favored a more targeted approach with duties on foreign competition that threatened American manufacturers and factory workers. Toward the end of his presidency, however, McKinley changed his thinking on tariffs and began to support reciprocal trade agreements. In his final speech, given one day before being shot, he said, “The period of exclusiveness is past… Reciprocity treaties are in harmony with the spirit of the times; measures of retaliation are not.”
3. ‘Front Porch’ Campaign
For the 1896 presidential election, McKinley stayed in Ohio and stumped from his “front porch,” while his Democratic rival William Jenning Bryan undertook the first presidential “whistle-stop” rail campaign. Throughout the election, McKinley gave speeches from the comfort of his Canton, Ohio home, which had been converted to a campaign office, with McKinley and his wife living in a few rooms in the back. With railroad companies offering Canton excursion packages at cut-rate prices (four days, including travel and meals, for $28), it’s estimated that some 750,000 visitors ventured to see the candidate before Election Day.
In what is considered the first modern presidential campaign, McKinley’s team was the first to send out election messages via direct mail—upward of 120 million copies of 275 different pamphlets, some translated into multiple languages. The campaign also hired traveling salesmen—including Fuller brush hawkers—to talk him up to their customers.
4. First US President in a Car
In 1899, McKinley became the first American president to ride in an automobile. Freelan Stanley, inventor of the Stanley Steamer along with his twin brother Francis, convinced McKinley to go for a spin after assurances the vehicle was safe. McKinley wasn’t convinced. He told a friend he thought the car could blow up at any moment or the driver might lose control. “Stanley’s overoptimistic, I think, when he says those things will someday replace horses,” McKinley reportedly said. However, it wasn’t the last time the 25th president rode in an automobile. Following the assassination attempt on September 6, 1901, McKinley was transported in an electric ambulance to an emergency hospital in Buffalo.
5. Devoted to His Sick Wife
On Jan. 25, 1871, McKinley married Ida Saxton, who gave birth to daughter Katie on Christmas Day. All was well at first, until Ida’s mother developed cancer and died in 1873. At the funeral, the future First Lady, who was pregnant with her second daughter, fell and struck her head. After that, Ida suffered from undiagnosed seizures. Then both children died within two years of each other, sending McKinley’s wife into a grief-stricken depression that exacerbated her ill health. She often had to be sedated at state dinners, and the McKinleys defied White House seating protocol by having Ida seated next to the president, so he was nearby in case she had a seizure. For the rest of his political career, McKinley remained devoted to Ida and spent considerable time caring for her, which often impacted his duties as president.
6. Expanded US Territory Overseas
In 1898, Spain engaged in a brutal war with revolutionaries in Cuba. Concerned about atrocities, McKinley urged the European power to soften its approach to its Caribbean colony. Then, on February 15, the battleship USS Maine mysteriously exploded in Havana harbor and Spanish agents were blamed, prompting McKinley to engage the U.S. militarily. During the resulting Spanish-American War, the U.S. defeated Spain in eight months, taking possession of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines as territories, while Cuba became an independent country protected by the U.S. During the “splendid little war,” as Secretary of State John Hay called it, McKinley displayed his patriotism by getting his pet parrot, named Washington Post, to whistle “Yankee Doodle.”
7. Criticized as an Imperialist
While some viewed the war as defending a neighbor’s independence, others viewed it as the first major act of U.S. empire-building. Protests against U.S. foreign expansion began before the Spanish-American War ended. Industrialist Andrew Carnegie joined with author Mark Twain, former president Grover Cleveland, labor leader Samuel Gompers and other luminaries to become leaders of the American Anti-Imperialist League. With the slogan “Save the Republic!” they spoke out against the U.S. annexation of the Philippines, where rebels were soon fighting American soldiers in a costly civil war. In China, McKinley advocated for an “open-door policy” to check foreign powers, who were dividing the weakened Asian country into “spheres of influence.” That effort collapsed in 1899, when the Boxer Rebellion erupted and forced the U.S., Japan and several European countries to invade and rescue their citizens.
8. Face of the $500 Bill
Like several dead presidents, McKinley has had his face displayed on paper money. Though discontinued, the $500 bill featured his portrait from 1928 through 1945, the last year it was printed. First issued in 1861, the 1918 version of the note included the image of John Marshall, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1801 until his death in 1835. Today, banks are required to send any $500 bill showing up at teller windows to the Treasury Department for destruction.
