Welcome to our collection of quotes by William McKinley
Wikipedia Summary for William McKinley
William McKinley (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. McKinley was president during the Spanish–American War of 1898, raised protective tariffs to boost American industry, and rejected the expansionary monetary policy of free silver, keeping the nation on the gold standard.
A Republican, McKinley was the last president to have served in the American Civil War; he was the only one to begin his service as an enlisted man, and end 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 and, 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" (the gold standard unless altered by international agreement) 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, requested and signed Congress's declaration of war to begin 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, beginning with the Progressive Era. McKinley defeated Bryan again in the 1900 presidential election in a campaign focused on imperialism, protectionism, and free silver. His achievements were cut short when he was fatally shot on September 6, 1901, by Leon Czolgosz, a second-generation Polish-American anarchist. McKinley died eight days later and was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. As an innovator of American interventionism and pro-business sentiment, McKinley is generally ranked above average. His popularity was soon overshadowed by Roosevelt's.
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 the earth.
The liberty to make our laws does not give us the freedom nor the license to break our laws!
The path of progress is seldom smooth. New things are often found hard to do. Our fathers found them so. We find them so. But are we not made better for the effort and scarifice?
The American flag has not been planted on foreign soil to acquire more territory but for humanity's sake.
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.
The most popular systems are those that apply a disciplined systematic technique, .. The hardest part for investors is finding a system that fits their lifestyle, and that is a critically important component.
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.
Unlike any other nation, here the people rule, and their will is the supreme law. It is sometimes sneeringly said by those who do not like free government, that here we count heads. True, heads are counted, but brains also.
We go to war only to make peace. We never went to war with any other design. We carry the national conscience wherever we go.
Strong hearts and helpful hands are needed, and, fortunately, we have them in every part of our beloved country.
I do not prize the word cheap. It is not a word of inspiration. It is the badge of poverty, the signal of distress. Cheap merchandise means cheap men and cheap men mean a cheap country.
Our faith teaches that there is no safer reliance than upon the God of our fathers who has so singularly favored the American people in every national trial and who will not forsake us so long as we obey His commandments and walk humbly in His footsteps.
The best way for the Government to maintain its credit is to pay as it goes-not by resorting to loans, but by keeping out of debt-through an adequate income secured by a system of taxation, external or internal, or both.
The Working Man's Creed: A short day is better than a short dollar
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I am a tariff man, standing on a tariff platform.
The free man cannot be long an ignorant man.
That's all a man can hope for during his lifetime -- to set an example -- and when he is dead, to be an inspiration for history.
Cuba ought to be free and independent, and the government should be turned over to the Cuban people.
The mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation.
I have never been in doubt since I was old enough to think intelligently that I would someday be made president.
Expositions are the timekeepers of progress.
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.
We need Hawaii just as much and a good deal more than we did California. It is Manifest Destiny.
In the time of darkest defeat, victory may be nearest.
Our differences are policies; our agreements, principles.
War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.
Half-heartedness never won a battle.