not having begun. In this period a formidable native Filipino army had been organized and a provisional government created. The warfare waged by these Filipinos against the United States, while having for the most part a desultory and guerilla character, was of a very protracted and troublesome nature. Sovereignty over the Filipinos having been accepted by virtue of the ratification of the Paris treaty, President McKinley was not at liberty to do otherwise than assert the authority of the United States and use every endeavour to suppress the insurrection. But there was bitter protest against this “imperialism,” both within the party by such men as Senators George F. Hoar and Eugene Hale, and Thomas B. Reed and Carl Schurz, and, often for purely political reasons, from the leaders of the Democratic party. In the foreign relations of the United States, as directed by President McKinley, the most significant change was the cordial understanding established with the British government, to which much was contributed by his secretary of state, John Hay, appointed to that portfolio when he was ambassador to the court of St James, and which was due to some extent to the friendliness of the British press and even more markedly of the British navy in the Pacific during the Spanish War. Other important foreign events during McKinley’s administration were: the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands (see Hawaii) in August 1898, and the formation of the Territory of Hawaii in April 1900; the cessation in 1899 of the tripartite (German, British, and French) government of the Samoan Islands, and the annexation by the United States of those of the islands east of 171°, including the harbour of Pago-Pago; the participation of American troops in the march of the allies on Pekin in August 1900, and the part played by McKinley’s secretary of state, John Hay, in securing a guarantee of the integrity of the Chinese empire. In 1900 McKinley was unanimously renominated by the National Republican Convention which met in Philadelphia on the 19th of June, and which nominated Theodore Roosevelt, governor of New York, for the vice-presidency. The Republican convention demanded the maintenance of the gold standard, and pointed to the fulfilment of some of the most important of the pledges given by the Republican party four years earlier. The intervening period had been one of very exceptional prosperity in the United States, foreign commerce having reached an unprecedented volume, and agriculture and manufactures having made greater advancement than in any previous period of the country’s history. The tendency towards the concentration of capital in great industrial corporations had been active to an extent previously undreamt of, with incidental consequences that had aroused much apprehension; and the Democrats accused President McKinley and the Republican party of having fostered the “trusts.” But the campaign against McKinley and the Republican party was not only “anti-trust” but “anti-imperialistic.” William Jennings Bryan, renominated by the Democratic party in July (and in May by the Fusion People’s party) on a free silver platform, declared that imperialism was the “paramount issue” and made a second vigorous campaign; and the opposition to McKinley’s re-election, whether based on opposition to his economic or to his foreign policy, was not entirely outside of his own party. As the result of the polling in November, 292 Republican presidential electors were chosen, and 155 Democratic electors, elected in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and the Southern states, represented the final strength of the Bryan and Stevenson ticket. The Republican popular vote was 7,207,923, and the Democratic 6,358,133. Since 1872 no president had been re-elected for a second consecutive term.
In the term of Congress immediately following the presidential election it was found possible to reduce materially the war taxes which had been levied on the outbreak of the Spanish-American War. Arrangements were perfected for the termination of the American military occupation of Cuba and the inauguration of a Cuban Republic as a virtual protectorate of the United States, the American government having arranged with the Cuban constitutional convention for the retention of certain naval stations on the Cuban coast. In the Philippines advanced steps had been taken in the substitution of civil government for military occupation, and a governor-general, Judge William H. Taft, had been appointed and sent to Manila. Prosperity at home was great, and foreign relations were free from complications. The problems which had devolved upon McKinley’s administration had been far advanced towards final settlement. He retained without change the cabinet of his first administration. After an arduous and anxious term, the president had reached a period that promised to give him comparative repose and freedom from care. He had secured, through the co-operation of Congress, the permanent reorganization of the army and a very considerable development of the navy. In these circumstances. President McKinley, accompanied by the greater part of his cabinet, set forth in the early summer on a tour to visit the Pacific coast, where he was to witness the launching of the battleship “Ohio” at San Francisco. The route chosen was through the Southern states, where many stops were made, and where the president delivered brief addresses. The heartiness of the welcome accorded him seemed to mark the disappearance of the last vestige of sectional feeling that had survived the Civil War, in which McKinley had participated as a young man. After his return he spent a month in a visit at his old home in Canton, Ohio, and at the end of this visit, by previous arrangement, he visited the city of Buffalo, New York, in order to attend the Pan-American exposition and deliver a public address. This address (Sept. 5, 1901) was a public utterance designed by McKinley to affect American opinion and public policy, and apparently to show that he had modified his views upon the tariff. It declared that henceforth the progress of the nations must be through harmony and co-operation, in view of the fast-changing conditions of communication and trade, and it maintained that the time had come for wide-reaching modifications in the tariff policy of the United States, the method preferred by McKinley being that of commercial reciprocity arrangements with various nations. On the following day, the 6th of September 1901, a great reception was held for President McKinley in one of the public buildings of the exposition, all sorts and conditions of men being welcome. Advantage of this opportunity was taken by a young man of Polish parentage, by name Leon Czolgosz, to shoot at the president with a revolver at close range. One of the two bullets fired penetrated the abdomen. After the world had been assured that the patient was doing well and would recover, he collapsed and died on the 14th. The assassin, who, it was for a time supposed, had been inflamed by the editorials and cartoons of the demagogic opposition press, but who professed to hold the views of that branch of anarchists who believe in the assassination of rulers and persons exercising political authority, was promptly seized, and was convicted and executed in October 1901. McKinley’s conduct and utterances in his last days revealed a loftiness of personal character that everywhere elicited admiration and praise. Immediately after his death Vice-President Roosevelt took the oath of office, announcing that it would be his purpose to continue McKinley’s policy, while also retaining the cabinet and the principal officers of the government. McKinley’s funeral took place at Canton, Ohio, on the 19th of September, the occasion being remarkable for the public manifestations of mourning, not only in the United States, but in Great Britain and other countries; in Canton a memorial tomb has been erected.
Though he had not the personal magnetism of James G. Blaine, whom he succeeded as a leader of the Republican party and whose views of reciprocity he formally adopted in his last public address, McKinley had great personal suavity and dignity, and was thoroughly well liked by his party colleagues. As a politician he was always more the people’s representative than their leader, and that he “kept his ear to the ground” was the source of much of his power and at the same time was his greatest weakness: his address at Buffalo the day before his assassination seems to voice his appreciation of the change
