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William McKinley
McKinley and his Secretary of War were accused of negligence and corruption in the conflict, including forcing soldiers to eat "embalmed beef."
On September 8, 1898, Secretary of War Russell A. Alger formally petitioned President William McKinley for an investigation into the War Department's conduct of the war with Spain.
Although his flamboyant successor, Theodore Roosevelt, greatly overshadowed him, William McKinney deserves credit for establishing the United States as a global power, acquiring Hawaii and Puerto Rico, establishing the “fair trade” doctrine, and paving the way for TR’s accomplishments.
That’s what the newspapers called him, and he spent an increasingly reckless career trying to edit out the adjective. But even winning a war single-handed didn’t get him what he wanted.
On the night of March 22, 1901, as fierce rains battered his campsite in the wildest reaches of Luzon Island, Frederick Funston pondered what awaited him the next day. In a career that had been full of mortal risks, he was about to take by far the greatest risk of all.
Conjectural or speculative history can be a silly game, as in “What if the Roman legions had machine guns?” But this historian argues that to enlarge our knowledge and understanding it sometimes makes very good sense to ask …
What if any of the pre-Civil War Presidents had gone mad?
What if Andrew Johnson had been successfully impeached?
What if William McKinley had not been assassinated?
Presidential candidates stayed above the battle until William Jennings Bryan stumped the nation in 1896; they’ve been in the thick of it ever since
The most confident prediction that can be made about the 1980 presidential campaign is that the nominees will invest enormous energy, time, and money in stumping the country.
The United States remained officially neutral, but many Americans fought alongside both opposing armies and several became legendary heroes
“I have been absorbed in interest in the Boer War,” wrote Theodore Roosevelt to his friend Cecil Spring Rice in 1899. He was not alone. Most Americans took a keen interest in this remote conflict.
exhibit one in a gallery of men who fought the good fight in vain
To the question of acquiring new territories overseas, and owning colonies, one group of Americans answered with a resounding “No!”
While Bryan stumped up and down the land, McKinley let the voters come to his lawn in Canton—and they came
In 1896, the depression which had followed the Panic of ’93 was in its third year. Debt, business failure, unemployment, and labor unrest were spreading; to many, revolution seemed just a step away.
"The current was too strong, the demagogues too numerous, the fall elections too near"
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