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William McKinley
(b. Jan. 29, 1843, Niles, Ohio, U.S.--d. Sept. 14, 1901, Buffalo, N.Y.), 25th president of the United States (1897-1901); a staunch Republican who rose to national prominence by championing tariff protectionism and opposing free silver </elections/micro/219/20.html>, he came to be identified with the global imperialism associated with U.S. territorial acquisitions following the Spanish-American War </elections/micro/559/57.html> (1898). 
During the U.S. Civil War (1861-65) McKinley served under Col. Rutherford B. Hayes (later the 19th U.S. president, 1877-81), who made him his aide-de-camp and subsequently encouraged his political career. Two years after his admission to the bar at Canton, Ohio (1867), he entered public life as county prosecuting attorney. 
Elected to Congress, where he served for 14 years (1877-91), McKinley became particularly well known for his support of high tariffs to protect U.S. industry from foreign competition; as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, he was the principal sponsor of the McKinley Tariff of 1890, which raised duties on many imports to the highest levels up to that time. 
McKinley was defeated for reelection in 1890, but he had won the admiration of Mark Hanna </elections/micro/257/99.html>, a wealthy Ohio industrialist who was active in the Republican Party. With the support of Hanna he was elected governor of Ohio and served two terms (1892-96), while Hanna laid plans to win the Republican presidential nomination for him in 1896. McKinley won the nomination easily on a platform stressing high protective tariffs and the maintenance of the gold standard. This position directly opposed that of the Democratic-Populist candidate, William Jennings Bryan, who advocated a bimetallic standard of gold and silver. The dynamic Hanna raised enormous sums of money from big business and directed a vigorous campaign; McKinley remained at home, daily addressing from his front porch streams of visitors who flocked to Canton by railroad. The Republicans won with an electoral vote of 271 to 176. 
In office the new President promptly called a special session of Congress to revise customs duties upward (the Dingley Tariff). All other domestic concerns were eclipsed, however, by the nation's preoccupation with the Cuban insurrection and Spain's reported mistreatment of insurgents. McKinley hoped to avoid U.S. involvement, but after the mysterious sinking of the U.S. battleship "Maine </elections/micro/368/75.html>" in the harbor at Havana (Feb. 15, 1898), sentiment in the United States increasingly demanded armed intervention and congressional leaders were anxious to satisfy the public demand for action. Despite evidence that Spain was prepared to make major concessions, McKinley referred the issue to Congress, which authorized him to intervene with armed force to secure the independence of Cuba (April 20, 1898). In the short war that followed, the United States defeated Spanish forces in Cuba and on the seas. By the end of July, Spain was seeking an armistice. 
Though McKinley had not entered the war for territorial aggrandizement, he was now faced with the disposition of the former Spanish territories. He declared that Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and other strategically located islands must not be allowed to fall into unfriendly hands and must therefore be made U.S. dependencies. Despite opposition to this "imperialism" from certain Republicans, McKinley stood fast in his decision throughout the peace negotiations. 
McKinley was renominated by the Republicans without opposition and, in a period of prosperity, was returned to office by a large majority in the election of 1900. With the war out of the way, he spoke throughout the country on two subjects that had been overshadowed by it: the control of trusts and--in a change from his previous position--commercial reciprocity as a stimulant to foreign trade. He ended his tour at the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, where he was fatally shot on Sept. 6, 1901, by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist. McKinley was succeeded in office by his vice president, the Progressive Republican Theodore Roosevelt. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Reliable biographies are Charles S. Olcott, The Life of William McKinley, 2 vol. (1916, reprinted 1972); and Margaret Leech, In the Days of McKinley (1959, reprinted 1986). McKinley's administration is addressed in Lewis L. Gould, The Presidency of William McKinley (1980). Lewis L. Gould and Craig H. Roell, William McKinley (1988), is an annotated bibliography.