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

of William McKinley, Sr. This Andrew Rose did more than double duty in the war for freedom against Great Britain. He fought and made weapons to fight with.

This is an ancestry typically American, one of soldiers and workers for the country's welfare and wealth, and McKinley's good fortune cast his lot in a happy home, where the true mother imbued the children with love of God and the country.

In the small town of Niles, in the county of Trumbull, Ohio's great son, whom the Republicans have just nominated for the Presidency, was born in an unpretentious frame building, a house that was partly dwelling and partly country store, the dwelling very neat and bright-a good home. There was no silver spoon in William McKinley's mouth, though his parents were comfortably situated. The Major was the seventh child, and after him there were born a girl and a boy.

If William McKinley is not a member of the "Sons of the American Revolution," he has a perfect right to become one, for he has Revolutionary ancestors on both sides. His great-grandfather, David McKinley, a Pennsylvanian, served in the Revolutionary War, enlisting at twenty-one, serving for one year and nine months. His great-grandfather on his grandmother's side was not only a soldier but he was a good mechanic, and molded bullets and made cannon balls for the men who were fighting for freedom. He was enlisted in the Revolution, and added

to his services the mechanical genius which he possessed. This union of the excellent qualities of a soldier and echanic was of excellent service to the

cause.

David McKinley's second son, James, married Mary Rose, daughter of Andrew Rose, Jr., the revolutionary soldier and founder. James McKinley raised a large family. Indeed, that seems to have been characteristic of the stock. His second son, William, born in Pennsylvania, was the father of the present Republican candidate for President. William McKinley, Sr., married Nancy Campbell Allison. The Allisons were good stock. They came from England to Virginia and multiplied, the branch from which Mrs. William McKinley, Sr., sprung emigrating to Pennsylvania. Major McKinley's grandfather, Abner Allison, married Ann Campbell, in Green County, Pennsylvania, in 1798. Ann Campbell was of Scotch-German origin. The family moved to New Lisbon, Ohio, where their ten children were born. It was at New Lisbon, in 1827, that William McKinley, Sr., married Nancy Campbell Allison. It may be interesting to state that, could the lines be fully followed out, it would be found that Major McKinley is a third or fourth cousin, possibly fifth or sixth, of William B. Allison, of Iowa, who was a candidate for the Presidency at St. Louis. The Allisons spread through the western country, some of them settling in the vicinity of Chillicothe. It was probably from the Pennsylvania