President McKinley: Architect of the American Century by Robert W. Merry (review)

This fine biography about William McKinley is persuasive. The journalist William Merry, who has written a convincing study about President James K. Polk, depicts William McKinley as a well-mannered, decisive, and as an effective state and national leader. Consisting of twenty-nine chapters, this biography extensively treats McKinley as a Gilded Age leader whose industrial views and aggressive foreign policy helped especially to bring the nation into the twentieth century.

The first seven chapters are devoted to McKinley’s achievements during his early life. He was born on January 29, 1843, in Niles, Ohio, as the seventh son of Nancy and William McKinley. After the family moved to Poland, he attended the town’s academy. Following his father’s passing, he briefly attended Allegheny College in Meadville and then returned to Niles to work as a teacher. McKinley then participated in the Civil War, serving in the 23rd Ohio Infantry under Rutherford B. Hayes; McKinley distinguished himself as a leader at the second Battle of Antietam and during battles in the Shenandoah Valley. Prior to the war’s end, he was promoted to the rank of major and was called Major McKinley throughout his life.

Chapters 4 through 7 reveal his legal and early national and political achievements: he studied law briefly in Albany, New York, and then in 1867 went to Canton and practiced law. An ardent Republican, McKinley was elected in 1869 as Stark County’s prosecuting attorney. Two years later, he married Ida Saxton, a Canton banker’s daughter who had epilepsy, but who was well cared for by her husband. Having served in Congress between 1879 and 1891, he was known for the 1890 McKinley Tariff, which helped American industries and their workers. As Ohio governor between 1892 and 1896, McKinley significantly helped Ohio during the 1893 Panic.

Chapters 11 through 23 reveal his role during his first presidential term and his leadership during the “splendid little war” with Spain. With financial help from Marcus Hannah, he became known for his “front-porch” campaign and defeated William Jennings Bryan in 1896.Two years later, he led America in its war against Spain: McKinley succeeded in suppressing Spain in Cuba and sent Commodore George Dewey to capture Manila Bay. By the terms of the 1898 Paris Treaty, America developed a presence in Cuba and annexed the Philippines and Guam.

The final chapters focus on McKinley’s second presidential term. During this term, McKinley, who had again defeated the Populist Bryan, was assassinated during Buffalo’s Pan American Exposition by the anarchist Leon Czolgosz and died on September 14, 1901.

This biography, which is well documented, is splendid. This lucidly written work, which is superior to the studies of Margaret Leech and H. Wayne Morgan, superbly demonstrates that this Buckeye president succeeded as a Gilded Age leader and more importantly as an American empire builder.