So, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the kansas city public library. Robert merry, this is his second presentation in the somewhat hallowed halls of the kansas city public library. Five star library this week from the public journal. Thank you. Hes a graduate of the university of washington. He has a masters degree from Columbia University school of journalism. Hes been a reporter for the observer, the wall street journal, managing editor, executive editor and editor in chief of Congressional Quarterly and more recently, the american conservative. The american conservative, he says its collaborative, but it sounds like robert merry. This is a description of their philosophy. We believe in constitutional government, fiscal prudence, sound monetary policy, clearly delineated borders, authentically free markets and Foreign Policy mixed with diplomatic acuity. We adhere closely to institutional max um, principles over party. One could wish there were more of that kind of true conservatism wandering around the beltway than some who profess to be conservatives. Hes also the author of books on those ultimate journalistic insiders, student and joseph alsop. Hes written an analysis and a lament for american Foreign Policy. And a rehabilitation of president james poke and now, president mckinley, architect of the american century. Both poke and mckinley, he makes the case for the the importance of their expansion in america. In extending their boundaries further than anyone other than Thomas Jefferson in the louisiana puchls and mckinley in the non colonial imperialism, i quote him, that did bring us gee graphical expansion in hawaii with the acquisition of puerto rico. More importantly, the expansion of American Power as a world power manifested in the war, the battles in cuba and the philippines and control over cuba and the philippines for an extended period of time. The open door of china and the american economy. Hes been called the most successful president , in what he proposed to do as president incorporate california, oregon, texas, reduced the tariff and reinstate the independent treasury. You can see me after class to explain that one. Were all accomplished. Hes the only president who saw his entire Program Written into law. Hes also called one of our most morally degraded because of the shenanigans associated with the mexican war, which made part of that program possible. Robert merry sides with the diagnosis of him as a successful politician. With mckinley, he gives us a more subtle case, but perhaps just as Important Program of the president to give the United States a new place in the international stage. The only stated program of the mckinley campaign for president was on the tariff. With which he was more than anyone else identified the high tariff. Historians have had a hard time discerning a Foreign Policy, but merry makes a strong case that he was the guide who gave us empire and it wasnt lodge or roosevelt or hahn or john hay, but the deliberate, very subtle mastery of William Mckinley. This book is a continuation of an ongoing effort of merry to reverse the trend of contemporary academics to, i quote him, devour our heritage of moralizing from a safe distance of the ivory tower. Hes created a character study of one of the architects of the american century. Ladies and gentlemen, robert merry. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you very much. It is a pleasure to be here and a great pleasure to see all of you here. This is actually my third time at this library and ive spoken at a number of libraries. Not a lot of five star libraries. So congratulations on that. So i entitled my introduction to this volume on mckinley, i was pleased to see that the wall street journal sort of picked up on that in writing a headline over its review of my book, which by the way, was very favorable. Thats my effort to emulate donald trump. I have to say that didnt set out to solve the mystery of William Mckinley because i didnt know there was a mystery. I didnt understand mckinley well enough when i started this project. To understand that theres something mysterious about him, and it can be explained in two sentences, which was given all the consequential things that happened on his president ial watch, why does he not rise higher in americas historical consciousness of today . Given the fact he was a nonflamboyant, undramatic personage, how did all those consequential things happen on his presidency . So as i got into the progress, the guy started to drive me crazy because i had a hard time getting a handle on him. He was not a forceful man, yet all these things happened on his presidency. And i was having a hard time sort of bringing this to life. The historical consensus on him was that yeah, yeah, okay, big things happen on his watch. Yeah. Fine. But he didnt have anything to do with it. He was just president. And that didnt really strike me as being totally credible. Thats what i called the leaf in the wind theory of William Mckinley. An example is a book by allen richtman and ken desell, 13 keys of the presidency. Which i quote a lot. Its about how the presidency works. But they have a chapter on mckinley and they write that he enjoyed quote, one of the more successful incumbencies in American History, but then add that he found himself quote, benefitting in part from circumstances beyond his control. And theres the rub. Beyond his control. He was seen as less than the sum of his deeds. What struck me, which i talked about some years ago, that in those polls, he come powers. He created a concept with trade reciprocity, which when i was covering trade policy in the 1980s, when it was a hot issue for the wall street journal, reciprocity was really what was then called sort of fair trade. Make it even so we can have this exchange of goods across borders. He created the concept of noncolonial imperialism. Which i believe is picked up by Franklin Roosevelt when he was transforming the world at putting america at the center of it. It was on his watch that we established a special relationship with britain. Under the cleveland administration, we almost went to war with britain over a silly border dispute in south america, but after that, we never had anything like that. Anything like that with Great Britain because of this special relationship. And he created the gold standard. We tend to look down on gold standards these days, but in those days, it was a big deal. He ran when the currency issue was probably the hottest in our history and he essentially solved that in his first term. So this is a big collection of accomplishments that occurred on his watch, and the question is, to what extent does he deserve the credit . I came to the idea that the leaf in the wind theory was a myth and i set out to explode that myth in this book. Ill let you decide in whether i succeed in that and im happy to do that because you cant decide unless you buy the book, so. So who was this man . Born in 1843, he was the seventh of nine children. Eight of whom lived to adulthood. He grew up in ohio. Small town ohio. Imbued with what you might call the ohio culture at the time. Which was a reflection of what people of those times, in those times, considered christian values. Thrift optimism. Modesty. Hard toil. His father ran and owned blast furnaces around ohio. Worked very, very hard. His mother had a strong sense of civic and religious duty. She was a very civic minded. Worked hard for her church and communities. Wherever they happened to be. They were in poland for most of the growing up years of william. The mother also was imbued with all those things that i just talked about. Those socalled christian values and one of my favorite stories about her was she took a train to columbus later in her life. To visit her son, the governor of ohio. Lady next to her struck up a conversation. Are you going to columbus . Yes, i am, she said. Oh, do you have family there . I have a son there. Thats all she said. Didnt feel any need to explain that her son was governor of the state. So at 17, Young William goes off to college in pennsylvania. First year, he developed some kind of an illness, an ailment. It was never quite explained or understood stood what it was, but he had to return to poland where he recuperated, but by the time he recuperated, he couldnt go back to college because economic difficulties had rendered a need for all of the family members to go to work. So he got two jobs. He was a schoolteacher. Like 17 at that time. 18. And he was a postal clerk. And then comes the civil war. I cant say that he enlisted immediately. He gave himself two days to think it over and sort of try to figure out with his cousin, whether this was the right thing to do. His family was very, very strong abolitionist. His mother, particularly. She subscribed to Horace Greeleys weekly tribune that you could get in the mail and reenforced that sentiment. So he and his cousin, william osborne, decided within day and a half that they couldnt stay out of that war and they enlisted. He had, i think i can accurately describe as a Pretty Amazing war record. He entered as a 18yearold private. Immediately, his commanding officer, rutherford b. Hayes, later president. Great mentor of him. But Rutherford Hayes was an officer. Became a general. Was wounded five times in the war. Became a congressman. Became governor then president. And hayes saw that this young man had a remarkable organizational ability. So he made him a sergeant and made him Quarter Master sergeant. So he was sort of taking care of supplies. At the battle of antetum, the bloodiest battle in our history, he was two miles behind the lines because his job was to provide provisions, and he heard about a unit that had gotten caught, trapped essentially, in the area of the battle where they couldnt move, they couldnt get out. Nobody would get in to help them. And they were starving. And they had, had run out of water. The battle began very early in the morning so they hadnt had breakfast. Now its late afternoon, they hadnt had lunch and had run out of water well before noon. They l beforehand. So, these things, and Young Mckinley concocted the idea of letting up a wagon with bread and coffee and water and a few other things, and getting that wagon to these troops. He gets some other young soldier to help him letup the wagon and get the wagon and his hat out to the surrounding forest, and encounter two officers who say you have to go back. After they left mckinley and his associate ignored it, i and they got to the clearing, and i made a run for it. Elixir wasing by, and the back of the wagon was shot away, but they managed to get provisions. He immediately, as a result of that, was promoted to commission, became lieutenant, and he had other experiences, someone like that, and put himself very directly and harms way and each time he got another commotion, so he ended the war as a major, 22yearold major. So, he goes to poland, the size he wants to be a lawyer and wants to work for Congress Like his mentor, rather for hayes, and he sent a letter starryeyed letter to hayes telling him this is what he wants to do, he wants to do it he did. He writes back and says, yeah, thats pretty good, but you know, frankly, with all this industrialization going on, i think maybe you should go into business. You could become a wealthy man by age 40, take care of your wife. Mckinley started carefully preserved a letter, but discarded the advice. So he moves to ohio, where his sister had become a schoolteacher, and after he becomes a lawyer, and hangs out a shingle, and becomes a civic leader. He joined everything, he joined veterans groups, you join the church, he joined the chamber of commerce, and immediately he was pulled up into positions of leadership. There is Something Special about this guy that led people to turn to him for leadership, even though he was not a flamboyant person. I have a little passage in my book here describing him after the civil war experience, and i think we see here in the book, the firsthand of what becomes an element of the mystery of William Mckinley. So, i read, the civil war transformed young William Mckinley wright as his father got iron ready for more sophisticated uses. He went to war as an unceasing teenagers only a big sense of what he was or what he would do with his life. He left the army an adult, and tested questions of intellect, the ministers ability, leadership, and courage. He passed these tests and demonstrated it, gravitating to, and many were drawn into roles of solicitous membership. It is no confidence and sense of self settled upon him softly, without bravado. It matched with the simplicity of government to produce a demeanor of heavy, quiet. He learned the power of mystique, of leading on said that which didnt need explicit expression, of keeping people guessing his intentions or motives. This led some to underestimate his intellect or resolve, he didnt seem bothered by it. A congenial easygoing demeanor shrouding and increasingly restless ambition. So he does run for congress, he serves 14 years, becomes chairman of the committee where he is in position to push his pet issue tariffs, high trade tariffs to protect American Manufacturing and agriculture, at a time when america was emerging as a productive machine. And he even, as chairman, creates a tariff bill, the mckinley tariff, he called it, of 1890. It turned out to be a bad move. The tariffs didnt go on to in fact for quite some time, and a lot of businesses took the opportunity to raise prices. We American People did like that very much. And the result was a disaster from public. And for mckinley, sitting in his office as it comes in to shovel the officers messed up with posters everywhere and papers. He sitting there, smoking a cigar and in walks his good friend, and the editor says its all over. Mckinley says nothing. He said what will i see in this paper . And muscular looks up and says in a time and a time of darkest travel, victory is nearest. What . He just couldnt get pessimistic about anything, it was impossible. So he lost his seat he serves to your terms and how hes ready to run for president of the United States. He begins his campaign in 1895. He senses good friend and his man who serves him so well, mark, a very successful industrialist of ohio from cleveland, he sends it to new york on an important mission. He wants to find out from the big bosses, the tom plot of new york, owned the Government Party in that state, and in pennsylvania, and all the patronage. He wanted to know if they had lesser bosses that worked under them. To support mckinley soviet he was a front runner anyway, you wouldve had this nomination set up, i wouldnt even have been a battle. They go into his study lined with books and the subtle themselves and you overstaffed chairs and light up their cigars. Hannah is pretty excited, he says governor, these guys will all go for you. There are conditions. You dont see disturbed by the conditions. Mckinley says, what are they . He says, well, he wants the patronage in new york, and in pennsylvania, and manly wants the whole new england and takes off a couple others, and plaid also wants to be treasury secretary. And he wants it in writing. It seems that eight years earlier, the beginning of that administration, he had gotten a similar commitment from harrison for his support, treasury secretary, he wanted to be promised. Mckinney looks ahead, puffs on a cigar, stands up and walks a couple steps back and forth in terms to mark in size, mark, theres some things in life that just come, if thats the price, its worth nothing to me, it is worthless to the American People. If thats the price, im out of it. Hold on, governor, hold on. Im just saying that we could set up tomorrow, but we dont need to set up tomorrow, i need to beat these guys. Thats what they had to do because these guys were so upset that they went to other major politicians and various stations, trying to become favorite sons in those states, so it could deny mckinley a first ballot nomination, in which case the thought maybe they could pull of Something Else but their game and pay their price. But he beat him. He beat him and he became the nominee, and then he had to go up against William Jennings brian, and you know the story. I dont realize this was 36 years old, and 1896. Two terms in the house, he ran for the senate, and he was one of the greatest in history. We all know that he got himself on this platform, a podium that they never buy convention. And he gave a classical speech. You shall not press that cross. A crown of thorns on my head. You shall not crucify us on a cross of gold. Blood was trickling down the head. The reason was the panic of 1893 was still very much with the country in the south the, west particularly. There was not enough liquidity so would they need it was silver. Thats what the rallying crowd was. We became the man who is going to relieve that charge. And he did. He got him train any crisscross the country. He was all over the place. He spent amazing amounts of times. Hed have days where his first speech would be at seven in the morning, his last speech 10 00 at night. We couldnt compete with that. He had a wife was infirmed. And he did not want to leave her in canton, washington. So he concocted this famous front porch strategy. 750,000 americans came to canton, ohio. Lined up, came and spoke with the governor. As he stayed in his front porch. The story it was amazing effort where we think politics they control the mess, while mckinley controlled the message. It could be a church group, African American organization, or various things they would send a letter saying would you like to come. The stay works for us. It works for you. All these people working on this. And they sent back a letter and say what youre going to say . What questions do you have . What is the point you want to make . He knew exactly what they were going to say. All the reporters from all over the country where there. And it was all orchestrated, basically. It worked he became president. So now, im going to step back and try to describe what kind of a man he emerge through the experiences starting with the civil war and the sense of self that he developed and his ultimate success in the war. He seemed on the outside to be a very pleasant person. Congenial. He did not seem to be a man of force. A lot of people wondered whether he was really a leader. He was an incrementalist in terms of the way he manage things. He did not try to push too hard. I would say that he was not a visionary. He was not a man of imagination. In his day, Theodore Roosevelt was a man of imagination. Henry lodge. These were men of imagination. We have this great vision of american greatness and how it could bust out into the world. That was not who mckinley was. But it turns out he had an amazing cat thats city to see events as they unfolded. He would find ways to sort of mesh them in ways that would allow him to nudge events in the favor direction this gave him a great deal of a sort of subterranean force. That heavy quiet i was talking about. On top of that, he had an iron win will. He always seemed to get his way, somehow. Sometimes he did it by convincing people to do what he wanted them to do while thinking that it was their idea. He was one of the great lawyers of his time. As war secretary said that he always got his way because he did not care who got the credit. It was not important to him at all, unlike tea are. He had a close friend who said i dont think mckinley would let anything stand in the way of his own advancement. Julia for recur who is the wife of a very prominent politician at that time mid an ally and an adversary, more often an adversary, talked about the masks that he wore. The masks or not phony. He was a laughable man. He was pleasant. He was generous. But behind those masks was this iron will and this desire to succeed. My favorite example of this is words from a congressman from that period by the name of ben butter worth. They were Close Friends and they have a lot of letters going back and forth. We could initially conclude that butterworth was part of the politicians circle that clustered around him, mckinley. It became kind of clear as i got more and more into these letters and then i came across a Washington Post article, in which but are worth was talking about mckinley. He uses an illustration for an idea of how mckinley operated. He said if mckinley and i were walking through an orchard with but one bearing tree, and that tree had but two apples, mckinley would walk under that tree, he would take the two apples would put one in his pocket, take a bite out of another one, turn to me and say ben, do you like apples . I think what butterworth was trying to say is he was very congenial, but he always seemed to get the apples. He says he managed by indirection from the shadows. So im going to talk a little bit about some of the elements, examples of the mckinley resolve that emerged in a big way during his presidency, and one would be war. The book on mckinley that im going to talk briefly later about, i think what has kept him from having a reputation that i think he deserves, but the book on mckinley is that he did not really want to go to war with spain. The American People and congress thrust him against his will, forged a war that he did not want. My view is that if you study this carefully and you understand mckinley, you realize this is not what happened at all. When mckinley was elected, it was a terrible, very awful insurrection going on in cuba. Indigenous folks. They wanted independence from the spanish. This had been going on. There had been a previous tenyear insurrection that had claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. I cant remember exactly. How many. They have settled finally and suddenly reemerged. It was destabilizing the caribbean that was putting americans who are trying to do business in cuba at risk it was also opening up the possibility that other european powers could see the chaos would come in, take over cuba, which would be the last thing the United States would want. Its one thing to have a fading power like spain in the caribbean, which we consider to be our sphere of influence. There is a legacy imperial power, but to have germany say, or some other european power come in, that is untenable. So there was a great deal of anguish and anger in congress and around the country. Most of it was based on humanitarian grounds. Not your political factor. That was a factor as well. Mckinley comes into the presidency and takes over grover cleveland. He had favored the spanish, not because he liked the spanish particularly, but because he was a state of school guy. He wanted stability. His view was as soon as think it put down the insurrection, like a go back to stability and everything will be fine. Not very realistic. Mckinley rejected that out of hand from almost day one. From day one, he concluded, i think the record is very clear if you study it carefully. He wanted spain out of the caribbean. He wanted spain out of cuba. He didnt want to go to war and it, if you could avoid that or. What did he do . He opened up a negotiation, a program of diplomacy with spain, and spain realized that america is becoming a powerful country, and this is our neighborhood, and it would be very difficult to go to war with us. They dont want a war with us. They entered into the diplomacy as well. Pretty soon they could see that mckinley, is diplomacy was behind this affability and velvet gloves, an iron fist. He was saying to them we want the swore to and. We dont care how you do it. You can win it or you can negotiate an end to it, and that means more autonomy weve you cubans would accept that, but they dont seem to want that we. Thats a possibility. You can back out, youve got to get this war over, its destabilizing the region, and its untenable, we and we the American People are not going to put up with it for much longer. We so, spain finally said, he cant talk to us like that, we are sovereign country, people belongs to us, doesnt matter how close it is to your shores. No, but out, they said. Mckinley never wavered, he kept pushing. They got more and more angry. Who knows it would have happened if the battleship had not blown up in the harbor. The fact that battleship was there is a testament also to mckinleys resolve that he was going to make sure that the spanish were out of the caribbean because they, ostensibly, is to protect american lives that might be at risk as a result of the insurrection because the spanish people in cuba were getting increasingly angry in america. Nevertheless, it did blow up and war became inevitable. Rain another example is hawaii. We have to understand, its an amazing story, not a particularly entirely savory story about the americans. But why a has been a stopping off place for americans for decades, and for other countries as well. Ultimately, people with, or from america settled there, and generations mostly running sugar plantations, getting fabulously wealthy in the process, and pretty soon they had so much financial power, they felt they should have political power go with it. They ended up and doing the royalty, the polynesian royalty yin governing and presiding over the Hawaiian Islands for decades, centuries. And that happened on harrisons watch, cleveland in the second term was upset about it, and he contemplated going in there, removing those people. He didnt really want a war, didnt have americans fighting, americans or former americans, and that was a state of play. Mckinley, again, rejected the policy of his predecessor. We made it very clear through subterranean to pelosi he liked subterranean diplomacy, that he was very interested through annexation. The americans are not running cuba wanted that also. It generated a lot of antiexpansion sentiment, and fervor even, and congress can one of the places, its intellectuals, writers, mark twain, others ask. He never wavered. He got the negotiation, he sent it to congress, he couldnt get it through the senate as a treaty, so he said it back to congress as a main to be dealt with by both houses, which to require two thirds vote, it only required majority in both houses and thats how we got hawaii. And then there is the philippines. He, when the spanish super piece after three months of that were yin, he basically said, fine, and more than happy to negotiate a peace treaty, but here is the deal. Spain has to leave cuba, we will take it temporarily, but it will be independent, spain has to leave puerto rico, that came out of nowhere, but we have conquered puerto rico. And spain has to give us an island in the pacific, and that has to happen before we even and negotiations. That is really tough diplomacy. And then he basically said, as for the philippines, which we have essentially acquired, we took over after george destroyed the spanish fleet in the bay, he said the disposition of the philippines is open to negotiation. Well, thank you, mister negatively, they asked the french ambassador of the United States to operate on their behalf, and negotiate for them. He said two mckinley you can barely get more than you already have gained in this war of yours, so i am assuming youll be very generous strap. The question was, what was he going to do about the philippines . Well the negotiations in paris for going on, the peace treaty negotiations, he plundered it, and he kind of concluded ultimately that he had to have a station, we were building this big navy, and you can have a global navy without stations with. You couldnt have that with controlling territory around the globe. He had to have a calling station, and the best place would be in the bay, but he couldnt really control the bay unless it had all of the island anne. And if we had was on, the whole rest of the philippines and spain was not gonna keep the philippines, the people in the philippines hated the spanish. Now that they have been defeated, they werent going people to go back in their. The question was, whos going to have the philippines . It wasnt going to be the filipino people, unfortunately. It was going to have to be either us or it was going to be germany, or some other european power, mostly germany. They were on the prowl for possessions, for colonies. And of germany had all these other islands, then they would not be secure. They basically decided, im taking the whole thing. That got him into the war, as you know, very much like the vietnam war. It was insurrection, another warfare, it was very difficult, a very sympathetic figure, magic, around the insurrection. He was captured, and it broke the back of the institution, but i went on for years to Teddy Roosevelt administration. So, as i say, that seems to be a consequential presidency. So, why doesnt he get more credit . Why does he get no respect . One reason has to do with his successor, Teddy Roosevelt, and if you read my book, you see that Teddy Roosevelt, i admire roosevelt, i think he was a great genius, the one who became president , what that guide could do, that rain if it was Pretty Amazing, but he never shared credit with anybody, and he was self absorbed we, even his kids said that he longed to be the bride at every wedding, and the corpse at every funeral, and he won mckinney was killed in buffalo, six months into his second term, Teddy Roosevelt immediately when became president said words to the effect of i intend to govern just as my predecessor did, and his agenda will be my agenda, etc. Two days at the white house from buffalo, he brings in a bunch of reporters, and the market did poorly, so you dont feel like he had to say it. He said i am to the governor says if the electors had elected me as president , and not mckinley. Which was remarkable thing to be said, mckinley was lying in state. In the capital of rotunda. But roosevelt was always conscious of the narrative, and he always put himself at the center of the narrative, and over the succeeding decades, his admiring with high geographic adoring biographers basically brought the narrative and the negative narrative required work they said well t. R. Did marvelous incredible things. But the foundations were laid by his predecessor. In my view, mckinley gets kind of the short end of the stick in terms of that interpretation. In describing this turn of events in this historical narrative building, i describe t. R. And i will quote from here. Impetuous, valuable, im using, grandiose, prone to marking his territory with political defiance. Roosevelt sturdy him agitation of the American People as mckinley never had. For the major solidity, safety and caution, a rough writer offered in mind that moved by flashes moves and sudden impulses isnt William Island white described it. He took the American People on a political rollercoaster ride and to many, it was thrilling. It was significant. It helped define american. Behind him was William Mckinley, who may be mysterious but as a consequential president , and i think perhaps he was even worse the three year worth the three years of toil i put in on his behalf. Thank you very much. I think we can have some questions. [applause] can you please come up to the microphone if you have a question so people at home watching on tv can hear you . Have you changed your ranking of mckinley since your book . Where i stand does not actually offer i do not offer my own ranking. I talk about what president s have done and what constitutes greatness, mediocrity or whatever. But the answer to that is my own estimation of mckinley is yes, its higher. When i note those president s that i consider to be failures or not consequential, i would put him above those people. I think he would preside in my pantheon 11, 12, Something Like that. Maybe. I have been focused on where it would put him directly, but somewhere around there. No more questions . Here we go. Can you talk about ida as an invalid law and how that shaped it can leads American Public compassion for him and the death of the children . Its a poignant story. When mckinley moved as a young lawyer in canton. After youve been there a while and been to war, law school, etc, he encountered young ida. She was the bell of canton. She was the daughter of the richest man in canton. Her grandfather had bought a train press from pennsylvania. He started the canton depository. It was a successful newspaper. And her father went into mining, thanking and other things. She grew up. She was quite lovely. She was a sparkling personality. She was scintillating in many ways. She had many many suitors, but she fixated on mckinley. They were married. There were 1000 people at her wedding. According to the repository. It was an exaggeration, i dont know, but nevertheless nevertheless it was a big wedding. At the time he was just moving up in the power place. It was kind of a storybook thing. A year after they were married, the first daughter arrived. Katie. About a year later and a little bit more than a year after that, her second daughter arrived. She became pregnant for the second time. During that pregnancy she learns that her mother is dying, probably have cancer. They were very close. It affected her greatly. Whether it affected her pregnancy is not clear. She had a troubled pregnancy and her daughter lived only five months. It sent her into a tremendous depression. It was not clear that she was ever able to come out of it. He would coax her out of it through a lot of patience and just refusing to let go. Then, sometime after that, the first daughter, katie died. Then she went back into a terrible depression. During this time, Something Else happened. It is described as a carriage accident. Nobody really knows what happened. I suspect she fell backwards and hurt her spine in some way. She became rather a mobile. It was intermittent, but she was often confined to a wheelchair. She would walk with a cane if she wasnt in the chair. She would walk down the stairs with a cane. The elevator in the white house did not work much of the time. He would have to carry her up the stairs. Then on top of all this, she developed epilepsy, which in those days was considered a kind of mental illness. You did not want to know and you didnt want anybody to know you are mentally ill. The seizures would come. It affected the marriage. It affected their lives. It affected ida tremendously. Her father let her run the bank when he was traveling around on his other business duties. In her twenties she is running this bank. It was very unusual in those days. Now she is sort of reduced to a solitary live. She crochets. She becomes narrow in her outlook. Very devoted to her husband. She thinks hes the greatest politician in the history of america. But she becomes somewhat peevish. Somewhat difficult. He never wavered in his devotion to her. He just basically accept that as part of life. When this became kind of known and seen as emerging as a National Figure politically, it became an element of identity for mckinley. The man who took such good care of his troubled wife. There are some people, and i dont gain say this that all, who suspect that it was manipulated to some extent as a political advantage. That is the story. Yes, sir. The first Vice President s, what happened to him that t. R. Was able to get on the ticket . Night of cancer in the middle of the term. The result was that mckinley did not have a Vice President for a significant part of his first term. Tea are, meanwhile, t. R. Had been his assistant navy secretary. Mckinley was not sure he wanted to get t. R. That job, he did not know t. R. All that well. He tended to be impetuous and he was pushing for him to have that shot. They promised him no, t. R. He wont do that. He will be controllable. He was not. He did an amazing thing. When the war came, he resigned the office. He put together the rough riders. He did an extremely courageous, to the point of insanity, he ran up what the san juan ranch. Comes along with george dewy, one of the two greatest heroes from that war. The American People loved him. He knew exactly how to play it. When the given the Second Convention comes up in 1900, the Convention Just goes crazy for teddy. It was a forced major. He could not be resisted. Mckinley had to send a note to him saying cease and desist, because you cannot put me in this position of being against the sentiment of the convention. So he becomes Vice President. Mike hanna sends a note to mckinley after the convention. He had to admonish me but im happy with it. Your job now is to live the next four years. When he died, mark hanna was quoted as saying now that cowboy is going to be the president of the United States. Yes, sir. Im curious as to how mckinley held the confederacy at that time. Of course, the south with still sort of in and out of the union. And of course that brings up civil rights and things like that. But what was his policies toward the form of Confederate States . Did he want them back . Was he forgiving person . Did you want to reconcile with the south, and indirectly have that civil rights its a very positions good question . And they cant be ignored. Heres what i say about that, you have to go back to his great mentor rutherford behaves. He became president i mucking what you might call a deal to and reconstruction. A lot of recent historians who are giving a revisionist view of reconstruction did a terrible thing because it kept African Americans in the south down for the next hundred years but the deal was essentially, look, youve got to stage this country back together, and it wont be easy. So, we are just going to have to sacrifice civil rights for a period of time, they were liberal on civil rights, but they cut that deal, so but how mckinley was president he still was concerned about bring the sections back together. The war held a great deal, offs but he got one of the great generals and gave him a command and when he is in cuba and got the spanish on the run, he kind of lost sight of where he was and said weve got those yankees on the run. We werent yankees, there is spanish, but he has positioned towards African Americans wound up being patronizing. There are worse words you can use, but basically by patronizing i mean he had a Good Relationship with a lot of African American organizations and he praised them for working so hard under difficult circumstances. People are doing wonderful things, keep at it, but he wasnt lifting his finger for them and ultimately towards the end of his presidency, some of these groups were becoming agitated. One quick followup, was any of his cabinet former confederates . Now, he wanted to get somebody who was a southerner, he ended up getting the one person that was assumed to be sympathetic of the south from maryland, and i was as far south as he got in terms of his cabinet making strong. Yes, sir . Who would be the politician in recent times what you would say it was most similar to mckinley. I would say the eisenhower. I see very significant perilous within highs an hour and mckinley, my front wrote the book called hidden hand presidency how eisenhower managed from the shadows, and managed by interaction, people bumbling and he didnt want to explain something, youd become inarticulate. And he said, you know, especially stevenson would say that this guy cant even express himself, but it was all with a purpose. I think that was somewhat the way we can be operated. Those two people who are quite similar. Two unrelated questions, first is, you mentioned mckinleys relationship to imperialism, or empire in 1888, there is an anti imperialist william james, a harvard professor, was against imperialism. You Say Something about which in the and how he reacted to that criticism on imperialism. The other question us about his assassination. Asked just have a worried about that. Yes, indeed, there was a very strong top anti imperialist wave of sentiment that emerged in america. Mark twain was evolved in it, various other people of prominence. Back and mckinley was stung somewhat. Some of these people were friends and, but he never took, personally any of the turmoil of politics. So, he also had upped the incidents of the president talking to the American People. You travel on, made a lot of speeches. Some of them designed to be major policy address ors, and he would explain what the policy, was and why he had done it. So he understood he had this opposition, and it was particularly bad when Foreign Affairs got bad. With the philippine korean insurrection. He was on the defensive, but he handled it as part of being the american debate. Assassination, he was supposed to be at the American Exposition and buffalo in the spring of 1901. He was traveling in california, part of that policy he had, or practice of traveling around giving speeches, explain himself to the American People. He felt that was very important. One of the things that led one of his academic biographer is to suggest that he was the first modern president among other things. Nevertheless, i think he developed an infection that got into her blood, and she almost died. And they went right back to washington, and soon San Francisco we. They never made it. So, his appearance of the exposition was postponed to the fall, to september, and thats when the anarchists is concocted the idea of assassinating him. Mckinley it was very fatalistic about may be part of that optimistic of his, the prospect that anyone could possibly harm the president. He would talk openly people, speak with Service People like crazy. The area but much, and he had his hand an advantage, and hustling like youve been injured. He reached for his left hand, in his right hand, for the pistol in his chest, and fired point blank. He did not penetrate very much, but making them a back on his heel and was fired a second time, and went into his abdomen. Lodged there. They couldnt find the bullet. They operated but they couldnt find the bullet that they were looking for because it was probably more dangerous and living it. So, they did and he was recuperating nicely. But didnt really understand infection and those things that emerged, and that took him down. I think he lasted Something Like two weeks after the assassination before he died. I believe thats it. Thank you very, very much. Thank you. I he will be signing the book in the hall. Thank you. Weeknights this month on American History tv, we are teaching the contenders of serious that looks at 14 different president ial candidates who lost the election that had a lasting effect on u. S. Politics. Tonight, we feature eugene depths who was a fivetime president ial candidate for the socialist party. Watch tonight, beginning at eight eastern and enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan 3. Every saturday at 8 pm eastern on American History tv on cspan 3, go inside a Different College classroom and hear about topics ranging from the american resolution, civil rights, and u. S. President s. To 9 11. Thanks for your patience and for logging into class. With most College Campuses closed due to the coronavirus, watch professors transfer teaching to a virtual setting to engage with their students. Gorbachev did most of the work to change the soviet union, but reagan met him halfway, reagan encouraged him, reagan supported him. We should just mention madison called it freedom of the use of the press, and it is indeed freedom to print things, and publish things. It is not a freedom for what we now refer to as the press. Lectures in history on American History tv on cspan 3. Every saturday at 8 pm eastern. Lectures in history is available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. You are watching American History tv. Every weekend on cspan 3, explore our nations past. Cspan 3, created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. On lectures in history, robert of the university of maryland talked about labor in social unrest at the turn of the 20th century as well as the reforms instituted to combat this discontent. He describes the tension between corporations, workers, and the government over issues such as working conditions which oftentimes lead to strikes. Professor begins his class with a brief example of spirit music. Welcome back everybody. As you know we have been in the gilded age for some time now. Weve already seen the technological innovations