policy maintained, and also for the firmness of Speaker Reed in ruling the House of Representatives so as to allow a majority to do business rather than have the House controlled by the minority.

The Harrison administration was accompanied by great prosperity in every department of trade and industry, and was called the golden era of prosperity. President Harrison was defeated for re-election in 1892, and the Democrats repealed the McKinley law, substituting for it the Wilson tariff law. They also repealed the Federal election law. The Cleveland administration was attended with commercial disaster throughout the country, and the Republicans again turned to William McKinley, the author of the McKinley tariff law, as the "advance agent of prosperity." He was nominated at St. Louis in 1896, and the platform condemned the tariff act passed by the 53d Congress and favored protection. It opposed the free coinage of silver and favored the “existing gold standard." President McKinley was elected by the largest popular vote ever given to a candidate. His administration has redeemed all Republican pledges made in his platform. He called an extra session of Congress within ten days after his inauguration and within three months the Dingley bill had been enacted and signed. Cuba was freed from the cruel domination of Spain. A foreign war was fought for humanity and new glories added the army and navy; and the Philippines and Porto Rico were ceded to the United States. The gold standard was fixed by law.

The Republican party has in forty years made this a nation and not a confederation of States, and at the beginning of the twentieth century it is to demonstrate anew that this government possesses national power and that Congress has the power to legislate for all American territory.

CHAPTER II.

PRESIDENT WILLIAM MCKINLEY-CAREER OF AN ILLUSTRIOUS SOLDIER AND STATESMAN-THE WAR PRESIDENT

William McKinley brought to the Presidency not only tried ability and ripe experience as a statesman, but the tact to manage men and bring his party into perfect harmony on all issues it had to meet, and also the party of the opposition on the great war issues which had to be settled by his administration. When it is remembered that in the past there has never been a war without "a peace party," the success of President McKinley in bringing to his support the unanimous vote of Congress and the enthusiastic approval of all sections of the country, the tact of the man is made conspicuous. And this is no insignificant quality in an executive of the nation. There have been Presidents whose ability was universally acknowledged, whose courage was beyond question, whose experience was great, but whose want of the tact to manage men and draw about them the enthusiastic support of those who represented the co-ordinate branches of the government has hampered their efforts to wisely govern and secure the best results for their administrations.

President McKinley's success in bringing all branches of the government and all parties to his support on critical issues has been unprecedented. He has united the co-ordinate branches of the government in a harmonious purpose as never did any of his predecessors. He has deferred to Congress and Congress has come to his support until it has become an axiom that the great popular branch of the government has looked to the President as the leader in all national and international policies. It might be said that Congress has during this administration been the Cabinet of the President, so little has been the friction between these two co-ordinate branches of the government.

William McKinley came to the office of President as a man of the people, with a larger personal following than any man who had been elected to the office since Washington. Few public men ever enjoyed the confidence and enthusiastic admiration of the American people as did he, and they failed in their ambition. He has through all the trying period of war and the controversies over the fruits of the war, retained this

confidence of the masses to such a degree that the leaders of the opposition parties have hesitated to attack him or even criticise his conduct as the Executive. They have accorded to him the greatest praise as a patriotic and loyal leader of the people, and for the first time in many years men of all parties in Congress have consulted freely with the President and have been invited into his councils where questions of the general public welfare were considered. The tact of William McKinley has been one of the distinguishing features of his whole public career, and it has been as forceful in the White House as the Executive of the nation as it was in Congress as the Champion of Protection, in Ohio as the Republican leader, and in great national campaigns where he was the idol of the people.

William McKinley was born on January 29, 1843, at Niles, Trumbull County, Ohio, where his father was interested in one of the early iron furnaces of that section. His boyhood was spent among the laborers in that field and his natural education was along the lines of protection to American labor. He was educated in the common schools of his native village and at the Poland Academy. In 1860, at the age of seventeen, he entered Allegheny College, but taken sick early in the term, he returned home and that winter taught a country school. His duties ended in 1861, and it was his intention to return to Allegheny College in the fall, but just about the time his country school closed, secession reared its head in the South and sought to dismember the Union. Armed treason stalked through the South and the American flag over Fort Sumter was fired upon. Abraham Lincoln called for soldiers to defend the Union and the flag. Ohio's response was a ready one. In June the 23rd regiment of Ohio volunteers was organized at Columbus. Its first Colonel was William S. Rosecrans, afterward Major-General and commander of the Department of the Cumberland. Its LieutenantColonel was Stanley Matthews, who became afterwards United States Senator and later Justice of the Supreme Court. Its Major was Rutherford B. Hayes, thrice elected Governor of Ohio and then President of the United States. There marched in the ranks of Co. E as a private soldier, William McKinley, the young school-teacher of Niles, Ohio. This regiment was hurriedly mustered in and sent to West Virginia. For fourteen months private William McKinley served in the ranks, one of the hundreds of thousands who marched and fought and made major-generals famous. They saved the Union. William McKinley

performed every duty of a private soldier. He shouldered the musket and carried the knapsack, and in camp and on the march, on picket and in battle, he bore his part. It was said of Napoleon's soldiers that they were invincible because "each man carried in his knapsack the baton of a marshal of France" and fought to win it. William McKinley carried in his knapsack the scepter of civic power swayed by the President of the United States. In war he not only learned the stern duties of obeying the commands of superior officers, but he also learned to study men in that great school. Recently in speaking of his army experiences President McKinley said: "I always look back with pleasure upon those fourteen months in which I served in the ranks. They taught me a great deal. I was but a school boy when I went into the army and that first year was a 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 and served those months in that capacity."

It was a stern school and the war taught our soldiers other lessons than those of marching and fighting. It taught them self-reliance, quick perception, and ready action in cases of emergency. Private McKinley saw his first battle when Rosecrans defeated the rebel Floyd at Carnifex Ferry. After the West Virginia campaign his regiment joined the army of the Potomac and fought under McClellan. At An tietam and South Mountain the young soldier saw war in its grimmest aspect. After Antietam he was promoted to Second-Lieutenant, but just previous to this promotion he had been made Commissary-Sergeant. He was on the staff of Colonel Hayes. It was at the battle of Antietam, which President Hayes has called the bloodiest day of the whole war, that Sergeant McKinley attracted attention to himself and won his promotion by his service which, while not set down in war histories as a part of the glorious deeds of that day, was nevertheless one that helped to win the fight. Under the hottest fire, with men lying dead and dying all about him, with men suffering bitterly from the want of a bite to eat and a drop to drink, Sergeant McKinley organized a staff and went over that bloody field distributing food and coffee to the fighting men, cheering them on with brave words and never for an instant seeming to care for the shot and shell that were flying about him. Colonel Hayes noticed this young man and while recovering from his wounds he called upon Governor Todd of Ohio and told him the incident. The Governor immediately ordered the promotion of Sergeant McKinley and further

ordered that the promotion should be placed upon the roster of the company.

Step by step the young man won his way up until three months before he was mustered out he was made Major by brevet "for gallant and meritorious service at the battle of Opequan, Cedar Creek and Fisher Hill." That commission was signed "A. Lincoln."

At the battle of Opequan, McKinley, then a Captain, won the regard and respect of his superior officers. The Twenty-third Ohio took a conspicuous part in this battle and the brigade and division to which McKinley belonged made a most gallant charge across a morass. General Hayes led this charge and McKinley was on his staff. General Crook's corps, to which McKinley belonged, was held in reserve. The battle opened with the Sixth and Nineteenth Corps. A dreadful crash and slaughter occurred. The Union lines were driven back and Crook by direction of Sheridan sent for his reserve corps to come. up. Every staff officer had been sent to hurry them. McKinley was the last one left with Crook. Both Crook and Sheridan said "Captain McKinley, for God's sake go back and bring up those troops." McKinley found, on his way back, that the road over which the first division had come, was strewn with horses, broken caissons and dismantled artillery, and that it was obstructed to such an extent that it was impracticable for troops to pass over them. He found the first division slowly picking its way along this road to the front. He advised the commanding officer to make haste and then went to the second division, commanded by General Isaac H. Duval. He explained to General Duval the conditions at the front and the absolute necessity of the troops getting there as early as possible. He also explained the difficulty of making any headway along the pike, and suggested to the General that there was a dirt road running parallel to the pike which would enable the division to get to the front more promptly. When McKinley made this suggestion to General Duval the General answered that he had not been commanded to take the dirt road. The young Captain paused only for an instant, then rising in his stirrups, he said, "General Duval, by command of General Crook I command you to take the dirt road and proceed to the front with all possible speed." The General obeyed, moved his division along the dirt road and reached the front in time to save the day. When this incident was reported to General Crook he called the young