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William McKinley Essay

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William McKinley 25th President of the United States. William McKinley was born on January 29, 1843 in Niles, Ohio, a town of about 300 people. He was the 7th child born to William and Nancy Alison McKinley His family moved to Poland, Ohio when he was nine years old so that the children could go to a private school called the Poland Academy. In school William liked to read, debate, and he was the president of the school’s first debate club. When he was 16 he went to Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, for a while before he got sick and had to return home .he did not go back to Meadville, because the family had no money. Instead, he worked as a postal clerk for awhile. When the Civil War started on April 12, 1861, he taught at …show more content…

He was rarely seen, while serving as congressman and governor, without his trademark carnation. McKinley served 7 terms in Congress from 1877-1891, except for a 9-months in 1884-1885. The House ruled that his opponent, lawyer Jonathan Wallace, had received the most votes in the 1882 election, so Wallace took McKinley’s seat for the rest of the term. McKinley easily got back to the office in the 1884 election. McKinley consistently won re-election even though the districts he represented were heavily Democratic. As a congressman, he focused his energies on the tariff problem and became known as a protectionist and as a persuasive speaker. He was usually associated with being on the side of big business, but he also worked hard for labor and later, as governor of Ohio, he encouraged employees to join labor unions and to criticize employers who refused workers the right to organized. Also as congressman he supported gold over silver as the backbone of America’s money system. In 1889, Thomas Reed of Maine defeated him in the position of Speaker of the House. McKinley lost his next bid for Congress and returned to Canton in 1891. As governor, a position he held for two terms from 1891-1895, he proposed laws to protect railroad workers and address the issue of child labor, and a state board of arbitration was established to deal with labor and business problems. During this time as governor he became friends with millionaire industrialist Mark Hanna

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