William McKinley

William McKinley (1843-1901) was born in Niles, Ohio, on January 21, 1843. He was the son of a small-scale iron manufacturer, who also went by the name William McKinley. The younger McKinley would attend school in Poland, Ohio, before receiving an education from Allegheny College. McKinley would then teach at a rural school, before enlisting in the Union Army. During the Civil War, he would serve in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Regiment, which was under the command of Rutherford B. Hayes, who would later serve as the 19th President of the United States. McKinley would eventually earn the rank of Major. After the war, McKinley decided to pursue a career in law. He undertook his study of the law at Albany Law School, and by 1867, he had established a legal practice in Canton, Ohio.

In 1876, McKinley would commence his run for public office, campaigning primarily on the question of protection. He would be elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican later that year. In Congress, McKinley formed an intimate friendship with fellow protectionist William D. Kelley, with both of them being regarded as two of the leading spokesmen for protection. In 1880, McKinley would be appointed to the Ways and Means Committee, and then by 1889, he would run for Speaker of the House, but would lose out to Thomas Brackett Reed. As consolation, Reed, also a prominent Protectionist, would appoint McKinley as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. As committee chairman, McKinley would be responsible for framing the Tariff Act of 1890, which became known as the McKinley Tariff. In the 1890 election, however, McKinley would be unseated, primarily due to electoral redistribution. He would then run successfully for the governorship of Ohio in 1891, a position he would retain until 1896. In 1896, McKinley would secure the Republican presidential nomination, and would go on to defeat William Jennings Bryan in the presidential election.

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McKinley would contribute to the doctrine of protection through his speeches as well as several written works on the topic. These speeches are too numerous to give an extended commentary, but some of his more important congressional speeches include his speech on The Wood Tariff Bill delivered in 1878, which was also his first speech to Congress; his Tariff Commission speech of 1882; and his speech on The Tariff of 1890. McKinley also made numerous speeches and addresses outside of Congress. Some of the more valuable of these include an address given in 1888 entitled Protection and the South; his 1889 campaign speech Protection and Revenue; and his 1892 speech The Triumph of Protection. In addition to his speeches and addresses on the topic, McKinley also produced a major treatise in 1896 entitled The Tariff in the Days of Henry Clay and Since. This work was prepared in connection with the 1896 republication of Calvin Colton’s Works of Henry Clay, and it provides an exhaustive review and commentary of the tariff legislation of the United States. A second edition of the work would appear posthumously in 1904, under the title The Tariff: A Review of Tariff Legislation of the United States from 1812 to 1896. McKinley would also write various articles on the question of protection. One of the more significant articles was “On the Value of Protection,” which appeared in The North American Review in 1890. William McKinley would go on to successfully recontest another term as President, defeating William Jennings Bryan for a second time. On September 6, 1901, six months into his second term, McKinley would be shot twice in the abdomen, whilst attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. He would later pass away from the injuries on September 14, 1901.

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