McKinley, WILLIAM

McKinley, WILLIAM, twenty-fourth president of the United States, was born 29th Jan. 1843, at Niles in Ohio, and served in the Civil War, retiring in 1867 as major to Canton, where, after a period of study, he practised law. He was elected to congress in 1877, and repeatedly re-elected. In 1891 he was made governor of Ohio, his name having ere this been identified with the high protective tariff carried in the McKinley Bill of 1890, though subsequently modified by the Democrats in 1894. Chosen Republican candidate for the presidency in 1896, he conducted an exciting contest with W. J. Bryan, who advocated the cause of free silver, payment of debts in silver dollars, the repression of monopolies, and was understood to favour labour at the expense of capital. A large section of the Democrats, 'Gold Democrats' or 'Sound Money Democrats,' in spite of their dislike to McKinley's policy on many points (including his protective tariff), strongly supported him as against Bryan; and McKinley secured (November 1896) a majority of more than a hundred in the electoral college, being regarded as the representative of non-repudiation, a gold standard, and the interests of capital generally. For the war with Spain, see CUBA. In 1900 he again defeated Bryan by an even bigger majority.