William McKinley Jr. was born in Ohio in 1843, the seventh of nine children. He grew up in a small town with only 300 inhabitants. His father produced pig iron. His Methodist mother was opposed to slavery and encouraged education.

As a small boy, Will drove the cows to and from pasture. In winter, his feet were so cold, he warmed them up by pressing his feet in the soil where the cows had lain to enjoy the “pure luxury” of their leftover warmth.

He didn’t swear, but didn’t judge those who did. At just 10, he accepted Jesus at a camp meeting. He was a good student. He most enjoyed giving speeches in elocution class. He was elected president of his student debating society and debated against slavery.

At 17, he entered Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, but his family couldn’t afford to keep him there so he dropped out and took jobs as a school teacher and postal clerk to help out. He walked three miles every day to and from the school.

When the Civil War broke out, he signed up to be a soldier at 18 years old. He served under Rutherford B. Hayes who he admired. As a soldier, he developed a fondness for cigars and the poetry of Lord Bryon. Once, one of his lieutenants thrust his bayonet into the brush, thinking the sound he heard was an enemy, but the “venomous smell” that instantly issued forth told them he’d pierced a skunk instead.

McKinley got assigned to the quartermaster corps and charged with distributing supplies. He got promoted to commissary sergeant. Upon hearing that Union soldiers at Antietam Creek didn’t have food, McKinley loaded up a wagon and headed towards them. He was twice told to turn back since the enemy position was too well fortified, but he ignored the orders and proceeded. The back of the wagon was shot away by a cannonball, but he managed to get the food and water to the troops. Hayes promoted him to second lieutenant for his efforts.

He continued to serve under Hayes during assignments to stop rebel guerrilla activity in Ohio and Virginia. During a battle in the Shenandoah Valley, McKinley was assigned to deliver an order to retreat to a regiment positioned in a nearby orchard. The regiment would surely be destroyed if they didn’t retreat in time. Hayes didn’t think McKinley would survive under such heavy enemy fire. Once, an exploding shell created so much dust, McKinley disappeared from sight. But when the dust settled, he was still alive and able to deliver the order.

At the age of 21, McKinley was promoted to captain and began serving under General Crook as his leading administrative officer. McKinley’s job was to dash across the battlefield delivering orders. It was hazardous work. He once had his horse shot out from under him. At Opequon Creek, McKinley was ordered to determine if troops on a distant hill were blue or gray. He rode out them, then quickly turned around as the enemy opened fire upon him, killing the orderly riding with him. McKinley was promoted to brevet major by the war’s end.

After the war, McKinley trained to be a lawyer and enrolled at Albany Law School. He often studied until one or two in the morning and showed little interest in sports, although he did enjoy theatre. He was good-natured and optimistic, avoiding quarrels. He wanted to become a member of Congress like his mentor Rutherford B. Hayes.

When he tasted ice cream for the first time, he told the hostess she had somehow allowed the custard to freeze. Upon realizing his mistake, he was able to laugh at himself for being a simple country boy.

He passed the bar in 1867. He settled in Canton where his sister lived. A prominent lawyer in town named George Belden came to McKinley’s office, dropped a sheaf of papers on his desk and said he wasn’t feeling well enough to try the case tomorrow morning. McKinley said he couldn’t take over at such short notice, but Belden said if he didn’t do it, no one would. McKinley won the case with Belden watching from the rear of the courtroom. Afterward, Belden offered to make him a partner in his law firm.

McKinley joined many organizations including veteran’s organizations, the Knights of Pythias and the Masonic lodge. He became president of the local YMCA and superintendent of the Sunday school of the First Methodist Church. He became chairman of the local Republican committee. Townspeople referred to him as “the Major”, although his law partner called him Mac.

He campaigned for Hayes to become governor and also campaigned for Grant to be president. McKinley was elected county prosecuting attorney and went after saloons that sold liquor to underage boys. He barely lost reelection. By the mid-1870s, McKinley’s successful law practice was earning him $10,000 a year. His parents moved in with him.

His future wife Ida Saxton grew up in luxury in Canton’s largest home with three live-in servants. She had the best education money could buy and worked in her father’s bank, first as a teller and eventually as a manager. Unlike McKinley’s parents, she saw no harm in dancing or card games and was a fan of shopping, opera, theatre, strenuous hikes, and playing the piano. Her primary suitor was John Wright, a man who’d fought for the Confederates, but she also caught McKinley’s eye when he saw her at a lakeside inn devouring her creamed chicken on waffles in an unladylike manner.

While she was on tour in Europe, she got the news that John Wright had died of meningitis. She was devastated. She met McKinley again at her bank and started going to dances with him. They got engaged, although the prudish McKinley who often kept his thoughts to himself didn’t seem an obvious match for the outgoing Ida. A thousand people attended their lavish wedding and they went on a three-week honeymoon to New York and other major cities.

While Ida was pregnant with their second child, her mother died of a mysterious and painful disease. Her second child died of cholera within five months of birth. Ida herself had an accident and was bedridden for months. McKinley had to carry her to their carriage whenever they needed to take a trip. Ida also suffered from epilepsy which was considered a form of insanity at the time, but McKinley had no intention of shutting her away in an institution.

Will and Ida moved in with Ida’s father and Ida recovered somewhat, although she never fully recovered. McKinley’s father-in-law helped him with his legal career and also included him in real estate ventures. Their first daughter Katie then died of scarlet fever. Ida was thrown into a deep depression and refused to eat. McKinley did what he could to lift her spirits.

When a mine strike erupted into violence, McKinley was the only lawyer willing to represent the miners. He ended up getting acquittals for all the miners except one and he waived his legal fee. This made him popular enough to win election to Congress the same year his mentor Hayes was elected president.

In the 1888 Republican Convention, when people wanted to nominate McKinley for president, he firmly declined since he was already pledged to help get Sherman elected. Benjamin Harrison ended up getting the nomination, but McKinley’s stance grew his reputation as a party loyalist.

His wife’s ill health continued. On one camping trip, the yelling of young boys gave her a headache and she had to retreat to the tent. On another occasion, she got so jealous when McKinley mentioned that another woman was attractive, it triggered an epileptic seizure. McKinley remained devoted to her throughout. Once, upon learning his wife had a fever, he immediately left Washington, rushing from the House floor, and caught the next train home to Canton to be with her for the next several months.

When she recovered enough to travel, he brought her back with him to Washington and didn’t leave her side unless he absolutely had to be on the House floor. When reporters learned of this, a newspaper article praising him for caring for his invalid wife made him more popular.

As a politician, McKinley followed Haye’s advice to not speak on every issue, but rather to specialize in a single area: tariffs. There were over 1,500 tariffs at this time and McKinley knew them all. When Harrison became president, McKinley wrote a bill to raise tariffs that made it into law. This caused prices to rise and cost him reelection.

He ran for governor of Ohio and kicked the campaign off in his birthplace town of Niles where Republicans had erected a huge tin arch. Tin was the symbol for his campaign since high tariffs would supposedly help America’s tin industry. He won and pushed for improving safety for rail workers, renovating Ohio’s canal system, redistricting, and overhauling the tax system.

Each morning when he reached the capitol steps, he would turn and doff his hat to his wife watching from her hotel window. She would wave her handkerchief in reply. At exactly 3 every afternoon when he left the capital, they would repeat this ritual.

In 1893 when he was 50, McKinley learned his friend Robert L. Walker had defrauded him by tricking him into signing blank notes claiming they were routine loan extensions. McKinley suddenly owed over $130,000 that he couldn’t afford to pay. His wife offered to sell her jewelry which would pay off about half of the debt, but this would look bad politically. Fortunately, McKinley had several rich friends who took care of it for him. He insisted on paying them back by sending a portion of his paycheck to them for the rest of his life.

His detractors said McKinley couldn’t take care of his own finances, and shouldn’t be trusted to handle government money. The fact several rich people bailed him out made it look like he was politically beholden to their interests. However, he seemed to remain generally popular and thousands of regular citizens were sympathetic to him and sent in donations to help him out.

The drought of 1887 caused farmers to be unable to pay their mortgages. Railroads, which had been operating on borrowed money, couldn’t cover their debt as farm shipments dried up. This caused other industries that relied on the railroad to have downturns. Stock prices fell which led to a run on gold supplies. By the time of McKinley’s reelection to governor, 500 banks had failed and over 15,000 companies had gone bankrupt. This was good news for Republicans since voters blamed the economic downturn on Democrats. Republicans won big in the next election.

During his second term as governor, he sent in troops to deal with striking mine and railroad workers. During the midterm elections of 1894, he gave hundreds of speeches in 17 states to help Republican candidates. He retired from the governorship in January 1896 and celebrated his 25-year wedding anniversary with 1,000 guests. Ida was experiencing a loss of muscle control and was bound in bandages to counter this.

McKinley was loyal, even-tempered, and sensitive to other’s feelings. His stenographer only witnessed him lose his temper once as governor when someone told an off-color joke. When running for president, McKinley refused to give patronage and appointments to the political bosses of the Republican party in exchange for their support. They fought against his nomination, but ultimately failed. He won the Republican nomination for president.

The biggest issue of the presidential campaign was whether the nation should adopt a gold standard favored by Republicans or use both gold and silver currency favored by the Democrats. McKinley’s people flooded the nation with 120 million pamphlets, brochures, posters, buttons, and newspaper articles written in more than a dozen languages. 275 separate messages were tailored to particular regions and audiences. The campaign spent more than $3.5 million, double what Harrison spent on the previous election.

His opponent, William Jennings Bryan, had a budget a tenth as big, but made up for it by giving 570 speeches in 29 states, once making 23 speeches in a single day starting at 7 in the morning in Muskegon, Michigan and ending at midnight in Lancing. McKinley instead followed Harrison’s lead and held a front porch campaign. Instead of going to the voters, he invited them to come to him. This way, he didn’t have to leave his ill wife. Visitors were offered lemonade, coffee, beer, and sandwiches. Over the course of several months, 750,000 people came to hear him speak.

Bryan claimed wheat prices were low because there wasn’t enough gold currency, but a wheat shortage in other countries led to the price of wheat going up right before the election, proving him wrong. Support for silver currency started to wane. McKinley won the election and his mother prayed for God to keep him humble. He became the 25th president at the age of 54.

Cuban rebels were fighting for independence from Spain. General Weyler of Spain forced 400,000 Cuban peasants into military camps to isolate rebel sympathizers, but tens of thousands died from disease and starvation in these camps. Many rebel leaders in New York and Miami raised money and churned out propaganda to encourage the US to join the fight. The US was tied to Cuba by trade. 87 percent of Cuba’s exports went to the US, mostly sugar. Ships transporting supplies, money, and men to Cuba to help the rebels were known as filibustering expeditions. US officials stopped most of these vessels, but not all.

President Cleveland avoided involvement in Cuba except for protecting US citizens and property. McKinley agreed with this approach and hoped to avoid war.

A group of white people took over the Kingdom of Hawaii during the Harrison administration and wanted it to become a state, but it still wasn’t a state by McKinley’s presidency. At this time, Japan was considering taking Hawaii over (a quarter of Hawaii’s population was Japanese). Germany was also interested. Hawaii held a strategically important position in the Pacific Ocean, which would be a threat to the US if any other country controlled it.

McKinley was kind, patient, thoughtful, dignified, but aloof. He always wore a carnation in his lapel to give to small children. Unlike Harrison and Cleveland, McKinley sought to maintain good relationships with members of Congress and signed very few vetoes. He preferred to subtly nudge them towards his way of thinking. Unlike Cleveland, he also maintained a cordial relationship with the press. His top White House staffers briefed reporters daily. He also gave more public speeches than his predecessors. He went on forty speaking tours during his presidency to sway public opinion. Mining, manufacturing, and farming increased despite McKinley’s high tariffs and McKinley took credit.

As his wife was often ill, McKinley sometimes served as his own first lady, handling menus, invitations, entertainment, and flower arrangements for White House parties, while giving Ida the credit. She had good days and bad days. If she had a seizure during a formal dinner,  her face contorted and she’d emit a hissing sound. McKinley would walk over, put a large napkin over her head until it passed, then remove the napkin when she was herself again.

She sometimes used a wheelchair and sometimes walked with a cane, but couldn’t go upstairs even at the best of times. The White House elevator was frequently not working, so McKinley would carry her upstairs. She enjoyed knitting and crocheting slippers which she donated to charities. On good days, she had a wonderful sense of humor and was good at doing impressions of prominent people. She hated to lose card games, so McKinley made sure everyone let her win.

She avoided the color yellow in her clothing and décor because it unsettled her, but she loved blue. She read magazine articles, but books gave her headaches. She wore small bonnets and also wore her hair in a loose “shingle bob” to lessen her headaches, which started a fashion trend. She took sedatives to avoid having seizures at White House functions. A doctor in New York prescribed her medicine by mail without seeing her in person. She brought popular music such as rag-time to social events to which guests danced the cakewalk and two-step.

Since McKinley devoted all his time to caring for his wife, he only engaged in hobbies like croquet, walks, and carriage rides that he could do with her. Ida disliked going out on Sunday mornings, so McKinley attended church alone at the Metropolitan Methodist Episcopal Church. He enjoyed having cigars and talking politics. He once brought out a package of Cuban cigars favored by the emperor of Austria that cost two dollars each which were eight inches long and an inch and a half in diameter.

There were more Japanese in Hawaii than native Hawaiians, and there were more native Hawaiians than whites, however, Hawaii was ruled by a white government antagonistic to the Japanese. They rejected hundreds of Japanese immigrants in violation of a previous treaty. Japan sent their biggest warship to Hawaii and demanded the Japanese living in Hawaii be given voting rights and that Japanese people be allowed to immigrate there. Roosevelt called for war with Japan over Hawaii and war with Spain over Cuba. McKinley agreed and began preparing for war. He also asked the Senate to annex Hawaii. Japan didn’t want war and backed down.

There were some US citizens in Cuban jails. No one knew how many. Ricardo Ruiz, a Cuban who became a US citizen then returned to Cuba, was the most prominent. He’d been put in solitary confinement after being charged with blowing up a train and died of brain injuries Spanish authorities insisted were self-inflicted. McKinley sent a commission to investigate the death. Cause of death was unknowable, but since Spain detained him illegally, they determined Spain was responsible for the death. It was also reported that houses and fields had been burned down and banana trees cut down to starve the rebelling population.

McKinley called on Congress to appropriate $50,000 for the hundreds of Americans in Cuba who were starving or in need of medicine and the Senate voted unanimously in favor in just 18 minutes with the House following a few days later.

In 1897, at a reunion with his old regiment, McKinley visited the gravesite of his mentor Rutherford B. Hayes, and gave a speech in which he said, “My comrades, the memories of the war are sweeter than service in the war.”

McKinley pressured Spain to end the war with the Cuban rebels either by defeating them or giving them independence. Spain intended to defeat them soon and blamed American support (particularly a group known as the New York Junta) for them lasting so long. Tensions rose when a leaked letter from Spain’s minister spoke ill of McKinley and revealed Spain wasn’t serious about a proposed trade treaty.

In February 1898, the USS Maine blew up in Havana Harbor, killing over 200. No one knew whether the explosion was an accident or an attack. McKinley called for calm while an investigation took place. However, many, including assistant navy secretary Theodore Roosevelt, called for immediate war with Spain. Newspaper editors falsely claimed there was proof Spain had done it. Both countries increased military spending in case the situation led to war. However, Spain was deeply in debt. The insurgents offered to pay Spain $200 million for Cuban independence, but Spain refused.

The investigation into the USS Maine determined it had not been an accident (to this day, it’s unknown what exactly caused the explosion). McKinley still wanted to avoid war. He pressured Spain to reach an agreement with the Cuban rebels within a few days or he’d turn the matter over to Congress, which essentially meant war. He asked Spain to give Cuba independence, end the fighting, and end the military camps in which so many people were starving to death. Spain agreed to a temporary ceasefire as a delaying tactic.

Calls for war intensified. McKinley was burned in effigy in Richmond, Virginia. Pope Leo XIII offered to serve as mediator between the US and Spain and Spain expressed interest in the pope’s call for an armistice, but it was only another delaying tactic. McKinley was on the verge of calling for war, when he was asked to delay a few days so Americans in Cuba had a chance to get out. In response to this delay, Roosevelt said the president’s backbone was “as soft as a chocolate éclair.”

McKinley finally ended up declaring war on Spain. He ordered an attack on the Philippines which successfully subdued the Spanish there. Commodore George Dewey, who led the attack, became an instant celebrity. A new gum called Dewey Chewies was created in his honor and his portrait appeared on paperweights, plates, shaving mugs, teething rings, and rattles. One senator joked that Dewey could win the presidency from McKinley. (When McKinley was running for reelection, there was in fact a lot of support for Dewey instead.)

McKinley’s leadership style involved listening more than talking, soliciting advice from numerous sources, and keeping his opinion to himself (while subtly nudging others in the same direction) until it came time to make a decision. McKinley continued to be devoted to his wife, immediately dropping everything he was doing anytime she requested to speak to him and bringing her her favorite flower, lilies of the valley. He made up for these interruptions by working late, sometimes past midnight.

America’s navy was ready for war, but the army wasn’t, and an army would be needed to take Cuba. 300 railroad cars full of supplies arrived in Tampa without invoices, so officers had to check each car to determine whether it contained clothing, grain, balloon material, horse equipment, ammunition, or guns. When Roosevelt arrived from Texas with his Rough Riders, they had to buy food with their own money as the commissary was overwhelmed.

McKinley wanted to take Cuba before the rainy season when yellow fever would be rampant. After several delays, he ran out of patience and ordered them to depart before they were fully ready. Roosevelt’s cavalry had to leave behind their horses.

They finally landed in Cuba and began taking cities. One former Confederate general apparently forgot who he was fighting and shouted after the retreading Spanish, “We’ve got the damn Yankees on the run!” The Spanish surrendered the capital of Cuba, then the Americans went on and captured Puerto Rico as well.

However, while peace negotiations were going on, malaria and yellow fever ran rampant through the troops. McKinley learned of this not through official channels, but in the newspaper. Sick and wounded soldiers being moved from Cuba back to America often lacked sufficient food and proper medical attention during transit. Worse, when they arrived at the transfer camp, there weren’t enough tents, beds, clothing, food, doctors, or medicine. While 281 troops died in combat, almost 2,500 died from typhus and other diseases. Many viewed the army as incompetent and McKinley called for an investigation.

The investigation found the Medical Department didn’t have enough personnel and was slighted by top authorities. Incompetence in the Quartermaster Department meant they didn’t get enough medical supplies. Field commanders ignored sanitation instructions and belittled medical personnel who tried to enforce them. There were also allegations that the new-fangled canned and refrigerated beef was poisoned, but an investigation showed the beef was healthy to eat.

Spain surrendered Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and other islands, but wanted to hold on to the Philippines. However, Filipinos were opposed to being ruled over by brutal Spanish rule once again and if they were left to rule themselves, they’d probably be conquered by a different European power. McKinley decided America must be in charge of the Philippines and paid Spain $20 million for it.

In the Philippines, US forces organized police and garbage operations, built health facilities, immunized children, established military courts and reopened schools. However, many troops were racist and abused the natives. The Filipino people wanted to be independent and had understood that the US would give them independence in exchange for helping to expel the Spanish. Battle broke out between the Americans and the Filipinos with thousands dead. McKinley thought the resistance would soon be stamped out, but resistance continued and McKinley continued to increase troop levels.

By taking the first steps to turn America into a global imperialist empire, McKinley gained many enemies including his former friend Andrew Carnegie, former presidents Harrison and Cleveland, and famous writers Mark Twain and Ambroise Bierce. Both Democrats and Republicans were against his expansionist policy in the Philippines, however many Americans were in favor of it. In December 1899, McKinley acquired several Samoan islands which Britain, Germany, and New Zealand had their eye on.

With regards to lynchings and black people losing the right to vote in the Southern states, McKinley chose to remain silent. He did recruit blacks into the armed forces, but other than this, he didn’t stand up for black people.

During McKinley’s presidency, the US pulled ahead of Britain in terms of iron and steel production. The US officially switched to the gold standard in 1900. The economy was doing great, but the Philippines had become a quagmire he’d need to fix if he wanted to get reelected. He sent William Howard Taft to the Philippines with instructions to gradually transition it to self-government.

Puerto Rico’s transfer to the United States caused it to lose its Spanish and Cuban markets. McKinley called for giving Puerto Rico free trade with US markets in compensation, but US tobacco and sugar growers were against the policy. This prompted the question of whether Puerto Rico should be treated as a US territory (governed by the Constitution) or a colony to which the Constitution didn’t apply. In the end, it was decided the US Constitution didn’t apply to Puerto Rico, but it would have only a small tariff to save the island from financial ruin.

Famine, wars, and rebellions had left China weak. European countries and Japan had taken control of parts of China. Christian missionaries told them their gods and cultural practices were despicable. Worse, Christian missionaries were exempt from local laws and often flaunted this brazenly.

Chinese groups known as “secret societies” attacked Westerners as part of a growing tide of anti-imperialist sentiment. One group known as Yi-He quan (translated as Righteous and Harmonious Fists) was called the Boxers by the West. The group arose spontaneously among peasants and initially targeted Chinese Christians. China’s Empress Dowager Cixi financed the Boxers and beheaded anti-Boxer officials. The Boxers were emboldened and started killing Westerners.

In June 1900, the Boxers laid siege to the British legation compound. The British attacked China. The empress ordered Chinese troops to help the Boxers fight. The US military was told to avoid hostilities unless the Chinese committed an act of war. US Admiral Kempff positioned his ship close enough to the battle that it was fired upon, which he then considered an act of war and joined in the fight on the side of the European-Japanese Alliance. McKinley sent in extra troops and the Alliance forces took Beijing and rescued those trapped in the legation compound.

Britain, Japan, and Germany were interested in taking Chinese territory, but the US and Russia were opposed to carving up China. After his victory over Spain, McKinley had enough clout to convince the other nations to do things his way. This was the first time in American history a US president had this kind of diplomatic sway over the world’s greatest powers. This was also a turning point away from the European colonialism of the past.

Sir Robert Giffen, a British statistician, said America had become the most powerful nation in the world based on population and resources, making it one of the global superpowers along with Britain, Russia, and Germany. McKinley got reelected with Theodore Roosevelt as his vice president.

Ida was worried McKinley would be assassinated and she had good reason. Empress Elisabeth of Austria and King Umberto of Italy had both been killed by anarchists in recent years and another assassin had attempted to kill the Prince of Wales a few months earlier. Newspapers reported that two or three Italians had been sent to America to kill McKinley. Anytime McKinley was gone too long, Ida would fall apart and cry like a child fearing for his safety. McKinley himself didn’t take the threat seriously, however.

Ida fell into a deep depression. She also retained her characteristic peevishness. On one trip, when the president invited three volunteers to ride in his carriage, Ida raised such a fuss about not being with her husband, the volunteers had to be disinvited. In Chicago, when McKinley and Ida were scheduled to attend separate events, Ida refused to fulfil her obligations unless McKinley was with her. She also started experiencing memory loss.

A new doctor diagnosed Ida with “bromism” a condition caused by over-use of bromides (which she took to control her epilepsy) that caused memory loss, social aggression, and depression. McKinley remained devoted to her, immediately dropping whatever he was doing when she asked for a pen or needle or book to hurry and fetch it.

McKinley was no longer in favor of high tariffs, but his fellow Republicans wanted to continue them. McKinley embarked on a tour of the country to promote his antitrust (anti-monopoly) and trade reciprocity (fair trade) views. He was joined by Ida who was doing better now that she was taking less bromides. However, she developed a bone felon on her finger in El Paso, as well as dysentery. She was semi-conscious by the time they reached San Francisco and doctors warned McKinley that she might die soon. He cancelled the rest of his tour. They returned to Washington where Ida slowly recovered.

Other than Ida’s health, the summer of 1901 was filled with victories for McKinley. The US negotiated with Cuba, agreeing to withdraw from the island on the condition that they be allowed to establish a naval base there. In China, McKinley objected to the Europeans’ call for exorbitant indemnity and death sentences for an excessive amount of people with little evidence. McKinley won out and the Europeans withdrew from China, sparing many from death. The Supreme Court ruled that Puerto Rico was a territory, not a part of the United States, just as McKinley wanted. England agreed to let America build a canal in Central America, overriding a previous treaty.

However, monopolies were a looming threat. US Steel was moving to control its competitors. Salt producers were planning a global trust. The coal industry was planning to consolidate into a single company. Industrialists were planning to control the railroads. Also, Congress was still opposed to lowering tariffs. McKinley planned to give a speech about these issues at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo that September.

Meanwhile, anarchist Leon Czolgosz was planning to kill him. Born of Polish immigrants, Czolgosz was born in Detroit and lived in Cleveland. Bitter and envious because he never had much luck in anything, he became an anarchist after hearing a speech by Emma Goldman, “the queen of anarchy” who advocated the assassination of all rulers everywhere. 

At Buffalo, Czolgosz got in line to shake hands with the president. He held a .32 caliber pistol in his right hand concealed beneath a handkerchief to simulate an injury. He shot McKinley twice in the chest. Czolgosz was tackled by the Secret Service and a black waiter named James Parker.

McKinley was guided to a chair. Not caring for himself, he told his secretary, “My wife – be careful, Cortelyou, how you tell her – oh, be careful.” Seeing that his assassin was being beaten bloody, McKinley said, “Let no one hurt him.”

He was taken to an emergency hospital. Surgeons removed one bullet, but couldn’t find the other. They decided probing for the bullet would cause more damage than leaving it in. McKinley whispered the Lord’s Prayer as he received the ether. Surgeons sutured the holes in his stomach, removed blood clots, washed the wound with hydrogen dioxide, and applied dressing.

When Ida learned what happened, she fainted. McKinley seemed to recover over the next few days, but his pancreas shut down and he suddenly worsened. As he lay dying, he whispered in Ida’s ear, “It is God’s way. His will, not ours, be done.”

“I want to go with you,” she whispered back.

“We are all going, my dear,” he said. Then he whispered the words to his favorite hymn, “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” He died on the morning of September 14, 1901.

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I’ve been trying to rank presidents based on their body count. This is tricky because it involves making judgement calls regarding which wars are justified. Does war sometimes save more lives in the long run than avoiding war? Is war sometimes the only option? Over 60,500 died in the Spanish-American War, although McKinley did try diplomacy first and he was fighting the war to liberate Cuba. In the lead up to the war, he provided humanitarian aid to hundreds of Americans living in Cuba and he prevented filibustering expeditions which would have saved some lives.

Over 200,000 died in the Philippine-American War. McKinley didn’t feel the Filipinos were ready to self-govern, but would less have died if he’d let them? He threatened war with Japan over Hawaii which would have resulted in deaths if Japan hadn’t backed down.

100,000 died in the Boxer Rebellion which began as a Chinese-British conflict, but several other countries including America joined in. Would it have been possible to end the conflict diplomatically or was military intervention the only option? On the plus side, McKinley spared many from death sentences and didn’t allow European countries to colonize China in the aftermath.

McKinley turned a blind eye to lynchings and voter disenfranchisement in the American South. This isn’t mentioned in the book, but 14-300 black people were killed in the Wilmington Massacre of 1898 which McKinley didn’t do anything about or even condemn.

McKinley contributed to a massive amount of death, but it seems unfair to compare him to earlier presidents since America wasn’t a world power yet. Some of the earlier presidents would have been involved in bigger wars if they’d had the resources to do so. On the other hand, some of the earlier presidents would have avoided many of the conflicts McKinley took part in. It’s hard not to be sympathetic to someone after reading a glowing biography of them, and I think McKinley did mean well, but it’s hard to overlook all the deaths he contributed to.