CHAPTER I.

Birth and Education of President McKinley-His Brilliant Career in the Army and Promotion for Bravery-Distinguished as a Lawyer, Congressman and GovernorChampion of the Rights of Labor.

A CROWDED public reception in the Temple of Music at the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo. President McKinley shaking hands with the throng. Suddenly the sharp crack of a pistol shot, repeated in an instant. The President twice wounded by a desperate assassin. Horror, commotion and indignation on every side.

Such is the short and appalling story of that fatal Friday afternoon, the sixth of September, 1901. Our honored President, who held so strong a place in the hearts of the whole American people was stricken by the dastardly hand of a coward and murderer. The shot was winged with death.

Men were

He was in the apparent enjoyment of health, honor and every token of happiness. He was applauded by the vast throng that crowded around him at the Exposition Grounds. In the twinkling of an eye a ghastly change came over the whole scene. petrified by the infamous deed; others were maddened to desperation. We shall relate the story of Mr. McKinley's life, with the earnest endeavor to make these pages worthy of the illustrious President, whose tragic death has stirred the hearts of the whole American people to their lowest depths.

Seldom in the public life of the statesmen of this republic has the wisdom of pertinacious, continuous application to one broad issue of national policy as a road to highest preferment been so completely approved as in the career of President William McKinley. Twice his conspicuous championship of protection and home markets for American workmen almost stampeded conventions to his nomination, when acceptance

would have been violative of the high stand, and of personal honor, which has marked his public and private life.

Quiet, dignified, modest, considerate of others, ever ready to postpone his own ambitions in favor of those of veterans of longer service, faithful to friends, unwavering in integrity, tactful in silencing opposition, but unyielding in matters of principle, strong in his sympathy with the toilers, unchanged by success, abounding in hope under defeat, of unspotted private life, he won his way to the top as one of the best examples of courageous, persevering, vigorous manhood that the nation has ever produced.

IN TOUCH WITH PLAIN PEOPLE.

More than any other who has reached his proud preeminence, save only Abraham Lincoln, his touch was closest with those "plain people" upon whom the martyred Lincoln relied with such unhesitating confidence. While yet a youth he marched in the ranks, a private soldier, and saw four years of the bloody struggle which made the country all free. In poverty he wrought to acquire his profession. These years of self-denial brought with them the self-reliance and self-control which resulted in his leadership on the floor of Congress at an age when no other American, save Henry Clay, had ever achieved similar prominence.

He bore his part in great debates in a manner quiet, selfpossessed and dignified. His incisive logic, caustic raillery at antagonists, and sarcastic comments on the shortcomings of his own party, gave him a mastery in debate which won the admiration even of those who opposed him. Mr. McKinley's personality like his career was the fruit of a peculiarly logical and systematic character. Where others knew superficially he knew thoroughly. This thoroughness and skill in handling a slender majority of twenty-two enabled him to pass that tariff bill which bears his name, which found less favor when enacted than it has enjoyed since its revision. He afterward stood as the embodiment and apostle of that principle.

It is not easy always to analyze the causes of a popular

favorite's hold upon the masses. High principle, personal magnetism, gallantry, boldness even to rashness, great skill in debate or ability as a platform orator-all these may in turn be cited as reasons why a man should be liked or respected. But to awake the love and warmest admiration of a people require qualities which well nigh defy analysis. It has been Mr. McKinley's good fortune to be able to offer a very large class of his fellow-citizens just what they seemed to need.

He aroused and attracted their sympathies, and this tremendous logical fact is what brought about the overwhelming ground-swell which swept other aspirants off their feet, and landed him an easy winner over men of larger public service and greater brilliance in many of the attributes of statesmanship. "All things come to him who waits," and William McKinley's self-denial received its great reward.

CAME FROM A STURDY PARENTAGE.

Mr. McKinley had a long expectation of life if the longevity of his parents can be taken as an indication. His father, William McKinley, Sr., died in 1893, at the ripe age of 85, and his mother, Mrs. Nancy McKinley, died in 1899, at Canton, the proud recipient of the filial attentions of her distinguished son. Mrs. Nancy McKinley's father was of German birth, and her mother was of Scotch descent. William McKinley senior's grandfather was a Scotch-Irishman, and his mother was an Englishwoman. Mr. McKinley, Sr., was born in Mercer County, Pa., but his family moved to New Lisbon, Columbiana County, O., in 1809, where for many years he was manager of a blast furnace.

It was in New Lisbon that he met his wife, whom he married in 1838. Two sons, David and James, were born there, but owing to lack of educational facilities the father established his family in a little house in Niles, Trumbull County. It was in this house that William McKinley was born, February 26, 1843. It is worth remark that a considerable number of prominent Americans were natives of counties of Ohio, in the near vicinity of Niles.

Cuyahoga, thirty miles away, was the birthplace of James A. Garfield. Senator Allison, of Iowa, lived only thirty miles from Canton, and Senator Manderson, of Nebraska, lived and married only fifteen miles from that city. Ex-Senator Thomas Collier Platt kept store at one time in Massillon, only eight miles away, and Senator Quay's home at Beaver is only sixty miles off. Rutherford B. Hayes was a native of Delaware County, near by, and Senator Sherman and General William T. Sherman were born and reared at Lancaster, O., less than a hundred miles away.

Several of Mr. McKinley's brothers and sisters died in infancy. His oldest brother, David, was a resident of San Francisco, where he discharged the duty of Hawaiian Consul to the United States. James, the next older brother, died about 1890. Abner, a younger brother has been engaged in business in New York. William McKinley entered the village school in Poland, to which his family had removed when only five years old. He remained in the schools of that town until in his seventeenth year, when he made enough money by teaching in a near by district public school to pay his matriculation fees in Allegheny College.

CALL TO ARMS FOUND HIM READY.

He remained at the college only a few weeks when the call to arms for the Civil War came, and the pale-faced, grey-eyed, earnest and patriotic young student flung aside his books and decided to shoulder a musket for the preservation of the Union. This step was taken only after earnest conference with his parents. Owing to his youth and physical immaturity they were loath to consent to interruption of his studies and the incident exposure to the hardship of campaigning.

But the enthusiastic patriotism of the youth kindled like emotion in the Scotch-Irish blood of his parents and bore down their opposition, for they saw that in spite of his youth there was plenty of fighting stuff in him. And so his education in books ended, and that broader education of stirring events and the ways of men began.

Young McKinley entered the Union army a mere stripling, without influence or powerful friends, with only a heart brimful of patriotism and love for his flag. He joined a company of volunteers from his own neighborhood, which, after the fashion of the time, took the pretentious name of "The Poland Guards." The company had already selected its officers. The captain, a youth named Zimmerman, was chosen because of a brief service in a Pennsylvania militia company, in which he had learned the facings and a few other rudiments of the school of the soldier. He was the only man in the company who had any military training whatever.

Another young fellow named Race was first lieutenant, and J. L. Botsford, second lieutenant. This company was mustered into the volunteer service at Columbus by General John C. Fremont in June, 1861, and was attached to the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, of which William S. Rosecranz was colonel and Rutherford B. Hayes major.

HARDSHIPS OF A SOLDIER'S LIFE.

The regiment saw service first in General George B. McClellan's campaign in the Kanawha, which wrested West Virginia from the parent State and added another star to the sisterhood of States. It was a campaign of few battles, hard marches and plenty of experience in the hardships of soldiering. Of the fourteen months which McKinley served in the ranks he once said: "I always look back with pleasure on those fourteen months of soldiering. They taught me a great deal. I was only a school-boy when I entered the ranks, and that year was the formative period of my life, during which I learned much of men and affairs. I have always been glad that I entered the service as a private."

Promotion came to him after Antietam. During that battle he was acting commissary for his company, and in the heat of the fight he took cooked rations to the front to feed his hungry comrades who had been in battle line for twenty four hours. The fighters fell back in squads to refresh themselves, and were