Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/219

Rh officers thought it impossible, owing to the ex- hausted condition of the men. "The 23d will do it," said McKinley, and, at his call for volunteers, €very man of his company stepped out, and the guns were hauled off to a place of safety. The next day, 25 July, 1864, at the age of twenty-one, McKinley was promoted to the rank of captain. The brigade continued its fighting up and down the Shenandoah valley. At Berryville, 3 Sept., 1864, Capt. McKinley's horse was shot under him. After service on Gen. Crook's staff and that of Oen. Uancock. McKinley was assigned as acting assistant adjutant-general on the staff of Gen. Samuel S. Carroll, commanding the veteran re- serve corps at Washington ; where he remained through that exciting [>erio(l which included the surrender of Lee to Grant at Appomattox and the assa-ssination of Lincoln. Just a month before this tragedy, or on 14 March, 1865, he had received from the president a commission as major by brevet in the volunteer U. S. army, " for gallant and meritorious services at the battles of Opequan, Cedar Creek, and Fisher's Hill." At the close of the war he was urged to remain in the army, but, deferring to the judgment of his father, he was mustered out with his regiment, 26 July, 1865, and returned to Poland, fie luul never been ab- sent a day from his command on sick leave, had only one short furlough in his four years of ser- vice, never asked or sought promotion, and was E resent and active in every engagement in which is regiment participated. On his return to Po- land with his old companv, a complimentary din- ner was given them, and he was selected to re- spond to the welcoming address, which he did with great acceptability.

He at once began the study of law under the preceptorship of Judge Charles E. Olidden and his partner, David M. Wilson, of Youngstown, Ohio, and after a year of drill completed his course at the law-school in Alljany. N. V. In Slarch, 1867, he wa" admitted to the bar at Warren, Ohio. On the advice of his elder sister, Anna, he settled in Canton, Ohio, where she was then and for many years after a teacher in the public schools. He was already an ardent republican, and did not for- sake his party l)ecau.se he was now a resident of an opposition county. On the contrary, in the autumn of 1867 he made his first political siJceches in favor of negro suffrage, a most unpopular doctrine throughout the state. Nominations on the repub- lican ticket in Stark county were considered empty honors; but when, in 18UU, he was placed on the ticket for prosecuting attorney he made so ener- getic a canvass that he was elected. He discharged the duties of his trust with fidelity and fearless- ness, but in 1871 he failed of re-election by 45 votes. He thereup<in nwumed his increasing pri- vate practice, butconlinue<l his interest in fwTitics, and his services as a speaker were eagerlv sought. In the guljernatorial campaign between Hayes and Allen, in 1875, at the heigiit of the greenbm^k craze, he made numerous effi-ctivc s|)eeches in favor of honest money and the resumption of specie [wiy- ments. Stewart L. Woodford, of New ork. spoke at Canton that autumn, and on his return to Co- lumbus Mr. WotMlford made it a point to see the state committee and urge them to put McKinley upon their list of six-akers. They ha*l not heanl of him Ijefore, but they put him on the list, and he has never liecn off it since. The next year, 1876, McKinley was iiomiiialwl for congress over several older comiH'liloni, on the first ballot, and was electeil in Octolx-r over Leslie L. Lanborn by 3.;t00 majority. During the progressof the canvass, while visiting the centennial exposition in Philadelphia, he was introduced by James G. Blaine to a great audience which Blaine had been addressing at the Union league club, and scored so signal a success that he was at once in demand throughout the countrv. Entering congress on the day when his old colonel assumed the presidency, and in high ! favor with hira, McKinley was not without influ- I ence even during his first term. On 15 April, 1878, he made a speech in opposition to what was known as '-the Wood tariff bill," from its author, Fer- nando Wood, of New York. His speech was pub- lished and widely circulated by the republican congressional committee, and otherwise attracted ] much attention.

' In 1877 Ohio went strongly democratic, and the ' legislature gerrymandered the state, so that Mc- Kinley found himself confronted by 2,580 adverse I majority in a new district. His opponent was Gen. ! Aquila Wiley, who had lost a leg in the national I army, and was competent and worthy. Not de- terretl, McKinley entered the canvass with great I energy, and after a thorough discussion of the I issues in every part of the 3istric^, was re-elected I to the 46th congress by 1,284 majority. At the , extra session, 18 April, 1879, he opixised the repeal I of the federal election laws in a speech that was I issued as a campaign document by the republican national committee of that and the following year. As chairman of the republican state convention of ' Ohio, of 1880, he made another address devoted principally to the same issue. Speaker Randall gave hira a place on the judiciary committee, and in December, 1880, appointed him to succeed Presi- dent Garfield as a member of the ways and means committee. The same congress made him one of the house committee of visitors to West Point mili- tary academy, and he was also chairman of the committee having in charge the Garfield memorial exercises in the house in 1881.

The Ohio legislature of 1880 restored his old congressional district, and he was unanimously nominated to the 47th congress. His election was assured, but he made a vigorous canvass, and was chosen over Leroy D. Thoinan by 3,571 majority. Ho was chixscn by the Chicago convention us the Ohio member of the republican national committee. and accompanied Gen, Garfield on his tour through New York, speaking also in Maine, Indiana. Illi- nois, and other states. The 47th congress was re- publican, and, acting on the recommeiulation of President Arthur, it proceeded to revise the tariff. After much discu-ssion it was agreed to constitute a commission who should prepare such bill or bills as were necessary and report at the next session. In the deljate on this project McKinley delivered an extremely interesting speech, 6 April, 1882, in which, while not giving his unqualified approval to the creation of a commission, lie insisted that a protective policy should never for an instant be abandoned or impaired.

The elections of 1882 occurred while the tariff commission was still holding its sessions, and the republicans were everywhere most disastrously de- feated. The democracy carried Ohio by 19.000, and elected 13 of the 21 congressmen. McKinley had been nominated, after a sharp contest, for a fourth term, and was elected in October by the narrow margin of eight voles over his democratic competitor, Jonathan II. Wallace. At the short session an exhaustive report by the tariff commis- sion was submitted, and from this the ways and means committee framed and i)romptly introduced a bill reducing existing duties, on an average, about 20 per cent. McKinley supported this measure in