which yields to labor the highest wages to be paid in the best money, and to domestic productions the highest price in the best money, and that is gold coin or its equivalent in other money of equal purchasing power. This, I believe, is also the opinion of Governor McKinley, and is the doctrine of the Republican party.

In his domestic life Governor McKinley is a model American citizen. It is not the purpose of the writer of this sketch to use fulsome language or to comment upon his private life, beyond the mere statement that he is, and has been, an affectionate son of honored parents, his mother still living, a devoted husband, and a true friend. In his family and social life, and in his personal habits, he commends himself to the friends of order, temperance, and good morals. In private he is exemplary, in public life a patriotic Republican. It may be said of him with great propriety that no man can more fully represent in his own career than he the great issues upon which the Republican party contested the election of 1896.

CHAPTER II.

ANCESTRY-YOUTH-IN THE ARMY-STUDENT OF LAW-PROSECUTING ATTORNEY-HOME LIFE.

TH

HE life of William McKinley is that of an American boy who made the best of his opportunities, continually striving for better, with no vain longings, but a continuous willingness to work that he might learn. It is such a story as should be included in every school-book, not only as a lesson and an inspiration to the young, but as a reminder of the possibilities of American citizenship to those called upon to help children in their studies. He was born at Niles, Ohio, January 29th, 1843, and is now in his fifty-fourth year; his hair is but lightly sprinkled with gray, and he is robust and alert. McKinley was descended from a long line of citizens who in times of peace were foremost in industry, and in the days of war always at the front. On his father's side his people were High

land Scotch, brawny and brainy men, who needed only the opportunities and enlightenment of education. They were not of the royalist tribes of Scotland, but a sturdy set, with a determined though imperfectly developed idea of freedom. Liberty of conscience was real with them, and they left the Highlands for the north of Ireland, seeking independence, and thence to America for the greater liberty they found and helped to perpetuate.

James McKinley, a fine Scotch-Irish lad of twelve years, was the first to come to America. He was the father of David McKinley, the great-grandfather of the Republican candidate for the Presidency. William McKinley came to America with James, and settled in the South, where his descendants have been and are men of distinction. David McKinley was a revolutionary soldier, one of the sort not remembered in history, except under the grand classification of privates.

On his grandmother's side McKinley comes of equally good and sturdy stock, Mary Rose, who married James McKinley, the second, having come from Holland, where her ancestors had fled to escape religious tyranny in England. The first of the Rose family to emigrate to America was Andrew, who came with William Penn and was one of the representatives of the thirteen colonies before the rebellion against Great Britain. He owned the land on which Doylestown stands to-day. It was his son, Andrew Rose, who was the father of Mary Rose, the mother