When you think of important U.S. Presidents , names such asGeorge Washington , Abraham Lincoln , Theodore Roosevelt andJohn F. Kennedycome to mind . But chance are that you ’ll have to think awhile before you come up with the name ofWilliam McKinley , whooccupied the White Housefrom March 4 , 1897 to Sept. 14 , 1901 .
McKinley has receded so much in the national consciousness , in fact , that he owns the dubious distinction of being the only presidentto have his name taken off a mountain . In 2015 , President Barack Obama renamed what had officially been screw as Mount McKinley since 1917 , reverting the name of the mellow muckle peak in North America to Denali , the name used for hundred by native Alaskans . McKinley ’s face last appeared on a U.S. stamp stampback in 1938 , and he so far has yet to come along as one of theRacing Presidentsat Washington Nationals games .
But historians hold him in somewhat in high spirits wish . In C - Span ’s 2021Fourth Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership poll , scholars ranked McKinley as the14th - best U.S. president — up two spots from his sixteenth spot in 2017 , the last metre the survey was conducted . It also secures him in the 2nd quartile of the 44 commanders in chief that were considered .
" I reckon President McKinley ’s ranking has arise a scrap over the last 10 years or so as more field of study is done about his presidentship , " Christopher Kenney , theatre director of training for theMcKinley Presidential Library & Museumin Canton , Ohio , said via email when we originally tattle to him in 2018 . " As historiographer are looking into issues of today , some of the concerns we ’re facing [ are ] offspring that were first faced during the presidentship of William McKinley . "
Get to Know the 25th President
In some way , it ’s bewilder that McKinley is n’t better known today . He was , after all , a man with a compelling personal narrative . ACivil War veteranwho risked his life to get hot nutrient and coffee to other soldiers in thebattle of Antietam , he eventually became the last Civil War veterinary to serve in the White House . He represented Ohio for 14 years in Congress , and also served two terms as that state ’s governor .
He was elected president in a landmark 1896 cause in which he seldom traveled , instead fall in spoken communication from the front porch of a lease home in Canton , Ohio , to crowds of supporters whom theGOPbrought in by train . That campaign was the first big - money contest in the history of U.S. government ; Ohio political Earl of Warwick Mark Hannaraised meg from corporations , a recitation that finally became illegal .
McKinley run as a pro - business campaigner , and once in billet , he worked to tone the U.S. economy , which at the time was struggle to hightail it a downswing . McKinley call Congress into a special session to enact tariff on imports , as a direction to raise government revenue and boost the elaboration of industry and creation of jobs for American workers , according tohistorian Lewis L. Gould . He later on sign into law a bill thatestablished gold - backed U.S. currency .
But McKinley ’s domesticated insurance were overshadowed by external affair . In 1898 , McKinley direct the nation to triumph in theSpanish - American War , which marked the first emergence of the U.S. as a spheric superpower . " With this war we became a earth power for the first time , " Kenney said . " We now had territory , Philippines , Guam and Puerto Rico . "
McKinley was reelect in 1900 , but his second terminal figure was skip short by a lurid cataclysm . While visiting the Pan - American Exposition in 1901 , McKinley wasshot by anarchist assassin Leon Czolgolz , and his decease eight day later made him one of just four U.S. Presidents — Abraham Lincoln , James Garfield and John F. Kennedy are the others — who were dispatch in office .
He Was Overshadowed by Theodore Roosevelt
So why is n’t McKinley more recognizable to Americans today ? One reasonableness , perhaps , is that the gentleman’s gentleman who succeed him in office , his vice president Theodore Roosevelt , was a colorful , larger - than - life physical body .
" I consider that the personality of Roosevelt really overshadow McKinley , " Kenney said . " McKinley was only six months into his second term when he was assassinate , so there is always the ' what if ? ' motion . Not to mention this period in history is not covered much in school , other than a ephemeral mention of the Spanish - American War and T. R. and the Rough Riders . "
There are signs , though , of a resurgence in McKinley ’s reputation . Early in 2018 , for example , the National Constitution Center print an clause titledWilliam McKinley : Does he merit more respect from historians ?
McKinley also seems more and more relevant , when you consider that his United States grappled with trouble such as craft imbalances and strategies to create industrial employment .
" As you begin to study the McKinley Presidency you could part to understand some of the upshot of today , " Kenney said .
