William McKinley: “Benevolent Assimilation” Proclamation

About the Author

William McKinley was born in Ohio in 1843. He fought in the Civil War and then was elected to the House of Representatives, where he served from 1876 to 1890. From 1892 to 1896 he was governor of Ohio. Nominated by the Republicans for the presidency in 1896, McKinley was elected and served from 1897 until he was assassinated in 1901. During his four and a half years in office, a dispute with Spain over the rebellion of Cuba against the Spanish led to war in 1898. That conflict, in turn, resulted in an American victory and the negotiation of a peace treaty in Paris. The outcome of the war led to America's acquisition of Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. McKinley was reelected to the presidency in 1900. He was shot by an anarchist sympathizer on September 6, 1901, and died on September 14, 1901.

McKinley was the first modern president. Although he had been elected largely on domestic issues in the campaign of 1896, he became a significant chief executive in the area of foreign policy. During his administration the United States fought the Spanish-American War over the fate of the island of Cuba. McKinley used his power as commander in chief to direct the war effort, govern the possessions that were added from the peace treaty with Spain, and prosecute a war in the Philippines. The administration also sought to penetrate the Far East for American trade through the policy of the Open Door with China, a concept developed in the mid-nineteenth century and stating that all nations, in principle, should have equal trading rights in China. These developments accelerated the process by which the United States became a world power.

McKinley's importance also stemmed from his impact on the office of the presidency itself. In forging closer relationships with the press, traveling extensively to promote his programs, and working closely with Congress, McKinley set precedents that subsequent executives emulated during the twentieth century. By the start of his second term, there were complaints in some quarters that McKinley had accumulated too much power and was stretching the authority of the presidency in directions the framers of the Constitution had not anticipated. Such criticisms attest to the significant impact McKinley's policies and his public articulation of the goals of his administration had in reshaping the way Americans saw their presidents.

In domestic affairs, McKinley's presidency witnessed an economic rebound from the depression of the 1890s. The enactment of the Dingley Act (1897) and the Gold Standard Act (1900) were key elements in the Republican program of a protective tariff and a sound, reliable currency, respectively. As businesses consolidated during the years of returning prosperity, the issue of “the trusts” (monopolies) became an important one in American politics. McKinley was assassinated before he could fully engage the issue, but there were indications as his second term began that he intended to regulate the trusts along the lines that Theodore Roosevelt later followed in his first term as president. Even though he had been an advocate of a protective tariff early in his career, McKinley endorsed liberalizing of American trade and planned to make that a hallmark of his second term. His last speech, delivered in September 1901 in Buffalo, New York, was a significant indication of the direction in which he, as president, wanted to take the country.