William Mckinley ran in the election of 1895, and won the title of presidency. In the election, Mckinley faced William Bryan, who thought attacking the gold standard and encouraging the coinage of silver would win him the presidency. Unfortunately for him, Mckinley won the popular vote by about 600,000, the biggest victory in the prior 25 years. Mckinley called a special session of congress in order to heighten custom duties, which he believed would reduce taxes and encourage growth of domestic industry. This resulted in the Dingley Tariff Act, the highest protective tariff in U. S. istory.
Mckinley’s presidential legacy would depend on foreign affairs, beginning with the Spanish attempting to repress a revolutionary movement in Cuba. A formal declaration of war summoned on the 25th of April. American forces fought with spain from May to late August, eventually defeating them. The Treaty of Paris, signed in December of that year, officially ended the Spanish-American War. Mckinley also pursued the “Open Door” policy, supporting American commercial interests in China and guaranteeing a strong U. S. position in world markets. [ADD MORE] In 1900, Mckinley faced William Bryan again.
Mckinley now ran on an anti-imperialism idea, and was re-elected with a higher margin of victory than his first election. After his second inauguration, Mckinley set out on a quest to western states, where cheering crowds greeted him. His tour ended in Buffalo, NY, where he gave a speech in front of 50,000 people at the Pan-American Exposition. The next day, Mckinley was standing in a line at the exposition when Leon Czolgosz shot him twice in the chest. Mckinley was rushed to a nearby Buffalo hospital, where he received a good prognosis, but gangrene began to set around his wounds.
He fought hard, but ended up dying eight days later. Theodore Roosevelt, his Vice President, succeeded him. Theodore Roosevelt With William Mckinley’s assassination, Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th president, at the age of 42, making him the youngest president in history. He took the view that the president should take whatever action necessary to better the public, unless strictly forbidden by a law or the constitution. As President, he held the idea that government should be the great authority of the conflicting economic forces within the nation.
Roosevelt emerged as a “trust buster” by forcing the conclusion of a great railroad combination in the Northwest. Roosevelt steered the nation more into world politics and issues. Roosevelt soon declared and ensured the building on the Panama Canal, being aware of the need for a passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Soon after, he won a Nobel Peace Prize for moderating the Russo-Japanese War, reached an agreement on immigration with Japan. Some of Theodore Roosevelt’s most effective accomplishments were in conservation.
He added immensely to the national forests in the West, reserved some land for use of the public, and made great irrigation projects. He fought endlessly on matters both big and small, exciting audiences with his high-pitched voice and pumping fist. Roosevelt’s “Square Deal” domestic program incorporated a promise to battle large industrial trusts, which threatened to put a hold on trade. In 1902, he brought on a successful suit under the last unsuccessful Sherman Antitrust Act. He also interrupted an extended coal strike in Pennsylvania that same year, which brought a pay increase for miners.
Like Mckinley, Roosevelt sought out to bring the U. S. out of isolationism and fulfill its responsibility as it should be, a world power. He believed the nation should “speak softly and carry a big stick” in the area of international affairs and that the president should be open to use force to back up any diplomatic agreements. After many European nations attempted to forcibly collect on debts owed to them, Roosevelt issued a consequence to the Monroe doctrine. It stated that the U. S. would bar foreign interactions in Latin America and act to protect the hemisphere, promising that countries paid their international debts.
Roosevelt sought to build up America’s country defenses, to prepare the nation for its expanded role on the world stage/By the end of his presidency he changed the United States Navy into a major international force on the sea. He led negotiations to end the Russo-Japanese War, which led to Japan’s acceptance of the ongoing United States presence in the Philippines. As the 1908 election got closer, Roosevelt unhappily prepared to fulfill the campaign pledge he made in 1904, to not run for president again. He quickly threw his support behind William Howard Taft, his Secretary of War.
While campaigning in Milwaukee, Roosevelt was shot in the chest, but quickly recovered. Roosevelt’s presidency marked the most successful third-party campaign in U. S. history. Roosevelt was an early candidate of U. S. introduction into World War I, which broke out in 1914. He strongly criticized Wilson’s policy of neutrality. Once the U.. entered the War, all four of Roosevelt’s children fought in it. Physically and Politically active until the end, Roosevelt died in his sleep at his family house in Oyster Bay, on January 6, 1919. He was 60 years old.
