William McKinley

For a long time, William McKinley was considered a mediocre President, a chief executive who was controlled by his political cronies and who was pressured into war with Spain by the press. Recent historians have been kinder to McKinley, seeing him instead as a decisive President who put America on the road to world power. McKinley's difficult foreign policy decisions, especially his policy toward China and his decision to go to war with Spain over Cuban independence, helped the U.S. enter the twentieth century as a new and powerful empire on the world stage.

Our diplomacy should seek nothing more and accept nothing less than is due us. We want no wars of conquest; we must avoid the temptation of territorial aggression. War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed; peace is preferable to war in almost every contingency. First Inaugural Address
First Inaugural Address

Legacy

McKinley’s administration ushered in a new world view––that of the U.S. as a dominant global power. As Americans became aware of the plight of Cuban revolutionaries fighting against the Spanish to gain their freedom, the public pressured a reluctant McKinley and Congress to act. The U.S. thus declared war to liberate Cuba. In the 100-day Spanish-American war, the U.S. destroyed the Spanish fleet, seized Manila in the Philippines, and occupied Puerto Rico, thereby ending Spain’s empire in the Americas and the Pacific. McKinley succumbed to the increasingly American imperialist sentiment and annexed the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. The U.S. also divided Samoa with Germany.

McKinley also enacted the highest tariff in history via the Dingley Tariff, which raised taxes on imports.

William McKinley

William McKinley

Legacy

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