1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. William McKinley

William McKinley Quotes

William McKinley was the 25th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1897, until his assassination six months into his second term. During his presidency, McKinley led the nation to victory in the Spanish–American War, raised protective tariffs to promote American industry and kept the nation on the gold standard in a rejection of free silver .

McKinley was the last president to have served in the American Civil War and the only one to have started the war as an enlisted soldier, beginning as a private in the Union Army and ending as a brevet major. After the war, he settled in Canton, Ohio, where he practiced law and married Ida Saxton. In 1876, he was elected to Congress, where he became the Republican Party's expert on the protective tariff, which he promised would bring prosperity. His 1890 McKinley Tariff was highly controversial, which together with a Democratic redistricting aimed at gerrymandering him out of office led to his defeat in the Democratic landslide of 1890. He was elected governor of Ohio in 1891 and 1893, steering a moderate course between capital and labor interests. With the aid of his close adviser Mark Hanna, he secured the Republican nomination for president in 1896 amid a deep economic depression. He defeated his Democratic rival William Jennings Bryan after a front porch campaign in which he advocated "sound money" and promised that high tariffs would restore prosperity.

Rapid economic growth marked McKinley's presidency. He promoted the 1897 Dingley Tariff to protect manufacturers and factory workers from foreign competition and in 1900 secured the passage of the Gold Standard Act. McKinley hoped to persuade Spain to grant independence to rebellious Cuba without conflict, but when negotiation failed he led the nation into the Spanish-American War of 1898. The United States victory was quick and decisive. As part of the peace settlement, Spain turned over to the United States its main overseas colonies of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines while Cuba was promised independence, but at that time remained under the control of the United States Army. The United States annexed the independent Republic of Hawaii in 1898 and it became a United States territory.

Historians regard McKinley's 1896 victory as a realigning election in which the political stalemate of the post-Civil War era gave way to the Republican-dominated Fourth Party System, which began with the Progressive Era. McKinley defeated Bryan again in the 1900 presidential election in a campaign focused on imperialism, protectionism and free silver. His legacy was suddenly cut short when he was shot on September 6, 1901 by Leon Czolgosz, a second-generation Polish-American with anarchist leanings. McKinley died eight days later and was succeeded by his Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. As an innovator of American interventionism and pro-business sentiment, McKinley's presidency is generally considered above average, though his highly positive public perception was soon overshadowed by Roosevelt. Wikipedia  

✵ 29. January 1843 – 14. September 1901
William McKinley photo
William McKinley: 22   quotes 1   like

Famous William McKinley Quotes

“Let us ever remember that our interest is in concord, not in conflict; and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war.”

William McKinley

Speech delivered at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York (September 5, 1901).
1900s

“that we not leave them to themselves — they are unfit for self-government — and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain's wars; and”

William McKinley

“When I next realized that the Philippines had dropped into our laps I confess I did not know what to do with them … And one night late it came to me this way…:”

William McKinley

1900s

“The mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation.”

William McKinley

Letter (December 21, 1898).
1890s

“Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness, and peace to all our neighbors, and like blessings to all the peoples and powers of earth.”

William McKinley

Speech delivered at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York (September 5, 1901).
1900s

William McKinley Quotes about people

“Under free trade the trader is the master and the producer the slave. Protection is but the law of nature, the law of self-preservation, of self-development, of securing the highest and best destiny of the race of man. [It is said] that protection is immoral…. Why, if protection builds up and elevates 63,000,000 [the U. S. population] of people, the influence of those 63,000,000 of people elevates the rest of the world. We cannot take a step in the pathway of progress without benefiting mankind everywhere. Well, they say, "Buy where you can buy the cheapest"…. Of course, that applies to labor as to everything else. Let me give you a maxim that is a thousand times better than that, and it is the protection maxim: "Buy where you can pay the easiest."”

William McKinley

And that spot of earth is where labor wins its highest rewards.
Speech in Boston, MA (Oct. 4, 1892) William McKinley Papers, Library of Congress.

“I have been deeply shocked by this crime. President McKinley was not a ruler of exclusive or aristocratic tendencies. He was a good friend of the people, a genuine democrat in the best sense of the word. With regard to Mexico, President McKinley had ever evidenced such friendly sentiments that his death will be mourned in this country hardly less keenly than in the United States.”

William McKinley

President of Mexico Porfirio Díaz. The Authentic Life of President McKinley, page 398.

“I am deeply affected by the news of the untimely death of President McKinley. I hasten to express the deepest and most heartfelt sympathy of the German people to the great American nation. Germany mourns with American for her noble son, who lost his life while he was fulfilling his duty to his country and people.”

William McKinley

William II, German Emperor. The Authentic Life of President McKinley, page 396.

William McKinley Quotes

“I could not have told where those damned islands were within 2,000 miles.”

William McKinley

McKinley's supposed reaction to the capture of Manila, as quoted in Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0803893477&id=soIn15_8_BEC&pg=PA360&lpg=PA362&dq=isaac+asimov&as_brr=1&sig=N7a-MSVa9fFYuZBxJbosM31-Y7M, pages 360-361.
Attributed

“that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died.”

William McKinley

Attributed by James F. Rusling "Interview with President McKinley" The Christian Advocate (22 January 1903), as remarks from a meeting with clergymen on 21 November 1899. The overtly religious part is disputed in Lewis Gould (1980) The Presidency of William McKinley.

Men , God , Education , Christ

“War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.”

William McKinley

First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1897).
1890s

War , Peace

“Illiteracy must be banished from the land if we shall attain that high destiny as the foremost of the enlightened nations of the world which, under Providence, we ought to achieve.”

William McKinley

First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1897).
1890s

World

“We need Hawaii just as much and a good deal more than we did California. It is manifest destiny.”

William McKinley

Remark to personal secretary George Cortelyou (1898).
1890s

“Expositions are the timekeepers of progress.”

William McKinley

Speech delivered at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York (September 5, 1901).
1900s

“The American flag has not been planted on foreign soil to acquire more territory but for humanity's sake.”

William McKinley

Quoted from July 12, 1900, on 1900 US campaign poster, of McKinley and his choice for second term Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt.
1900s

“Without competition we would be clinging to the clumsy antiquated processes of farming and manufacture and the methods of business of long ago, and the twentieth would be no further advanced than the eighteenth century.”

William McKinley

Speech delivered at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York (September 5, 1901).
1900s

Business

“that we could not turn them over to France and Germany-our commercial rivals in the Orient — that would be bad business and discreditable”

William McKinley
Business

“Our differences are policies; our agreements, principles.”

William McKinley

Speech in Des Moines, Iowa (1901).

“When the history of his time is written he will stand forth as the great figure in the years which have been so crowded with events. He gained the entire confidence of the nation by his patriotism, wisdom and ability, just as he won its love by his kindness and goodness to all men.”

William McKinley

Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. The Authentic Life of President McKinley, page 413.

Confidence , Time , History , Self-confidence

“I learn with deep pain that his Excellency Mr. McKinley has succumbed to the deplorable attempt on his life. I sympathize with you with all my heart in this calamity which thus strikes at your dearest affections and which bereaves the great American nation of a President so justly respected and loved.”

William McKinley

President of France Émile Loubet telegraph to Mrs. McKinley. The Authentic Life of President McKinley, page 398.

Pain , Heart , Learning , Love

“The ocean is not wide enough to hold all the sympathy that is streaming from the Old World to the New.”

William McKinley

Austrian response to McKinley's death by Vienna newspaper Neues Wiener Tageblatt. The Authentic Life of President McKinley, page 397.

World

Similar authors

Theodore Roosevelt photo
Theodore Roosevelt 445
American politician, 26th president of the United States
Abraham Lincoln photo
Abraham Lincoln 618
16th President of the United States
Andrew Carnegie photo
Andrew Carnegie 34
American businessman and philanthropist
Emile Zola photo
Emile Zola 54
French writer (1840-1902)
Orison Swett Marden photo
Orison Swett Marden 16
American writer
William James photo
William James 246
American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist
Josh Billings photo
Josh Billings 91
American humorist
Wilhelm Röntgen photo
Wilhelm Röntgen 6
German physicist
John D. Rockefeller photo
John D. Rockefeller 29
American business magnate and philanthropist
Simón Bolívar photo
Simón Bolívar 17
Venezuelan military and political leader, South American li…