Presidential Tour: William McKinley 25th President of the United Sates of America 1897-1901

Originally Posted April 23, 2009

William McKinley may be our most over looked US President.

At the age of 18 he served under Rutherford B Hayes in the Civil War. His actions there merited the Medal of Honor, but when his name was in the consideration process he asked that his name be removed from consideration. McKinley claimed that his actions were no different than those of any other good Christian, and pointed out that the actions were also in disregard to a direct order fro his superior (providing food and aid to solders in the heat of battle during a fight at Antietam)

McKinley was also the last Civil War veteran to serve as President of the United States. His time in office is considered as the unification and revitalization the country had been struggling to find during “Reconstruction” many of his predecessors were unable to provide.

He won the office of President overwhelmingly on both runs. The trivia question that comes up here is “what is the name of his Vice President?” You would be correct that the second one was Teddy Roosevelt, one of the famous four stoned guys on Mount Rushmore. But his first Vice President was a poor soul named Garret Hobart who died of “kidney problems.”

You can read and interpret his domestic and international policies on your own. Like many Presidents I find he did some good, some messed up things, and had to bend to pressures of the world he could not resist.

It would be easy to gloss over a few more points with McKinley as just another politician - McKinley was a lawyer, nearly all politicians are; he was a congressman, there are many congressmen; he was a governor, many Presidents are governors; but where he starts to separate himself is when you see that he got to the White House in that order. On top of that both his daughters died at very young ages, the oldest only lived to four. His wife Ida was “distraught” afterwards to the point that she was nearly incapacitated.

A few more points on the man who I find is unjustly over looked. First, many of the successes that we think of TR for were actually set into place under McKinley. When you hear the phrase “speak softly and carry a big stick” the “big stick” TR refers to is the “great white fleet” which was in place because of the programs under McKinley. The plans for the Panama Canal were already under way when TR took office. Second, front porch campaigns and campaign buttons, both tactics that McKinley (and his advocate Hanna) made hugely successful to put him over the top in votes.

My trip was one I had planned to have a few weeks ago, before things changed with work. But I decided to go when I found a good hotel rate.

Wednesday was a four-hour drive to Canton Ohio and a stay at the McKinley Grand. It was fine for an independent hotel, and it was fine if you are going to find your self in Canton (for McKinley or the Pro Football Hall of Fame.)

In the morning I was up early, had breakfast, and there for the opening of the McKinley Museum and Memorial. The memorial is a local attraction for runners and those getting in shape on a beautiful morning. There are lots of steps and four laps around the circle drive equals one mile.

Like many memorials it is majestic and is a lasting impression of a legacy.

The McKinley Museum = Epic Fail. I didn’t think I could be so disappointed in a place. There were just as many photos and artifacts at the official “William McKinley Presidential Library and Museum” as there were at the “McKinley Grand Hotel.” But the hotel photos were larger. In this two-story building there are three glass cases of McKinley and one video in a closet sized room. The rest of the building is a promotion for local furniture production, a re-imagined turn of the century city street (all post 1900, McKinley died in 1901), a telescope, a tribute to “Hoover” the vacuum, and a basement full of bad science projects and plastic dinosaurs.

An hour and a half north east of Canton is Niles Ohio. Birthplace of McKinley and site of the “The National McKinley Birthplace Memorial.” This is a very nice building with many artifacts and interesting information on the man. Unfortunately I arrived during a three-year renovation.

The nice thing about the site is it is all about McKinley. It is a self-guided tour. This means that you call ahead and set up an appointment, or ask the very nice people there to unlock the door for you. This is what I did. They unlocked the door, turned on the lights and I spent an hour or more wandering the hall. I did not pocket anything, although I know I could have.

Afterwards one of the curators took me to the recreation of his birthplace and gave me a personal tour.

He was one of nine kids, and there were eleven people in that small house. What did he do most of the time? Well, when he wasn’t reading, he was gathering wood for the wood stove, which sounds like another son of Ohio I know.

My time with McKinley leaves me with the feeling that he is under appreciated. I did not expect the rock start status of Lincoln or the homespun midwestern values of Ford. My expectation was something along the lines of his former C.O. Hayes. But it turns out that aside from a great workout at his gravesite, he has faded in the minds of the nation replaced by telescopes, vacuums, and T-Rex. His memorial is a stone shroud surrounded by the busts of Ayn Rand characters that run empires not knowing how or why they operate.

There are a hundred plus busts tucked into every corner on these grounds. Most are powerful men of industry from the 1900's and other are political figures who served under McKinley. The busts were a fund raiser.

He died as a result of an assassin shot, before he could plan his legacy. Both children passed long before that day. His wife was in no state of mind arrange how we would remember him. So I guess it is just by practical means that we have few artifacts and articles outside his policy and work to remember him by.