1. At eighteen, William McKinley enlisted in the 23rd Ohio and fought through the entire Civil War.
2. McKinley received a battlefield commission as second lieutenant for heroism at age nineteen, then went on to become a brevet major, a title he preferred to any other for the rest of his life.
3 and 4. After the Civil War, McKinley began practicing law in Canton, Ohio, where he met and married Ida Saxton, a young, spirited woman from one of the town’s most prominent families.
5. McKinley called his first daughter, Katie, his “favorite Christmas present.” His second daughter, Ida, was born a year later.
6. Ida doted on Katie, but after Baby Ida and Katie both tragically died—Baby Ida of cholera and Katie of scarlet fever—Ida suffered from seizures and depression, becoming a virtual invalid.
7. Ida and William’s Canton, Ohio, home would eventually become the site of the Front-Porch Campaign.
8. Ida and William’s Canton, Ohio, home.
9. After winning his first congressional race in 1876, McKinley rose to become the GOP’s preeminent spokesman on protective tariffs, an issue that deeply divided the parties and the country.
10. After being gerrymandered out of Congress in 1890, McKinley resurrected his political career by becoming governor of Ohio.
11. Marcus Alonzo Hanna and McKinley met in 1876, but their consequential friendship would not blossom for a dozen years.
12. Political novice Charles G. Dawes would work on the Major’s behalf in the Midwest soon after meeting him in 1894. He would go on to manage his Illinois primary campaign and then his Chicago headquarters in 1896.
13. McKinley’s loyalty to fellow Ohioan John Sherman at the 1888 GOP national convention convinced many—especially Hanna—that the Major should be president.
14. To win the Republican nomination, McKinley needed Ohio governor “Fire Alarm” Joseph B. Foraker in his corner to help unite the state. That was a huge challenge, given Foraker’s own large ambition.
15. Republican bosses like New York senator Thomas Collier Platt—the “Easy Boss”—were accustomed to controlling national conventions, where they would trade their support for favors, patronage, and power.
16. Along with Platt, Pennsylvania senator Matthew S. Quay led “the Combine,” an alliance of state party bosses. McKinley would have to beat them to win the Republican nomination on his terms.
17. The front-runner for 1896, U.S. House Speaker Thomas B. Reed of Maine, was content with leaving his efforts in the hands of others, while McKinley broke with tradition and aggressively organized as early as 1894.
18. Massachusetts senator Henry Cabot Lodge was one of Reed’s chief supporters and helped lead the fight at the GOP convention for a plank supporting the gold standard.
19. Long before Theodore Roosevelt was McKinley’s second vice president, he worked against the Major. As New York police commissioner, Roosevelt saw Reed as his ticket to a job in Washington and worried that McKinley was weak.
20. Platt and Quay relied on favorite-son candidates to tie up delegates and keep the race fluid until the national convention. Iowa senator William B. Allison was a leading proxy candidate because of his ties throughout the Midwest.
21. Illinois was the most important Republican primary contest. McKinley’s victory over Illinois senator “Uncle” Shelby Cullom, the Combine’s favorite-son candidate in the race, was a sign the bosses were beat.
22. Illinois representative William Lorimer (the “Blond Boss”).
23. Illinois GOP chairman John R. Tanner.
24. Texas Republican powerhouse Norris Wright Cuney. All worked on behalf of the Combine, causing problems for McKinley at their state conventions. Lorimer and Tanner later maneuvered their way to the U.S. Senate and Illinois governor’s mansion, respectively.
25. At the 1896 Democratic convention, incumbent president Grover Cleveland was repudiated by his party’s Free Silver wing.
26. Colorado senator Henry Teller bolted the 1896 Republican convention over the silver issue and attempted to run as the silver presidential candidate, but could not get enough Republican or Democrat support.
27. The Irish-born Bourke Cockran would use his oratorical powers to urge fellow Democrats to break with their party and support Republican William McKinley.
28. Republicans seized on the radical and often bigoted attacks of South Carolina’s “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman to tarnish Bryan and the entire Democratic ticket in 1896.
29. The Democratic front-runner for 1896, Missouri congressman Richard “Silver Dick” Bland, had led the fight for three decades for the free and unlimited coinage of silver, believing an inflationary currency would create prosperity.
30. Though few Americans had heard of William Jennings Bryan before the 1896 Democratic National Convention, his fiery Cross of Gold speech galvanized the delegates and won him his party’s presidential nomination.
31. At his first major appearance after the national convention at Madison Square Garden, Bryan flopped. He was exhausted and ill-prepared.
32. Both McKinley and Bryan chose Easterners for running mates: New Jersey’s Garret Hobart for the Republicans and Maine’s Arthur Sewall for the Democrats.
33.
34. Political buttons have long been part of the campaign process. Samples of those pushing McKinley, Bryan, and Free Silver are shown here.
35. Mark Hanna served as RNC chairman in 1896, the GOP’s chief fund-raiser and the man responsible for reconciling with the Combine bosses after their defeat by McKinley.
36. McKinley’s character was so respected that William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal instead vilified Hanna, depicting McKinley as his puppet.
37. By Election Day, Bryan had covered enough miles to travel three quarters of the way around the world. The frantic pace did not always serve Bryan well.
38. Hanna and others pushed McKinley to hit the trail, but he refused and instead campaigned from his front porch, delivering tailored remarks to delegations that traveled to Canton, Ohio, to meet him. Though Bryan clocked more miles, McKinley’s messages were better prepared and more helpful to his cause.