Why McKinley?

In his second inaugural address, Donald Trump called on President William McKinley as a source of inspiration for his second term. Why McKinley? The 25th president of the United States was elected in 1896 and again in 1900 but was cut down by an assassin’s bullet in September 1901. Believing that McKinley is one of the more underrated of his predecessors, Trump said, “President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent.” Trump has restored McKinley’s name to the highest mountain in North America, which was changed by President Obama to Denali in 2015.

It might seem strange for a president to chart his path forward using a figure from the past as his inspiration, but other presidents have done so. Reagan was an admirer of Calvin Coolidge; Clinton’s hero was John F. Kennedy; George W. Bush was inspired by his father, George H. W. Bush; and Biden wanted his presidency to bring forth radical change like that seen during the LBJ and the FDR administrations.

Some commentators have found McKinley an unlikely historical benchmark to serve as Trump’s inspiration. For one thing, McKinley is not exactly well-known to a lot of Americans today. He was the last of those 19th century, post-Civil War presidents who don’t do much to fire the imagination. He also preceded the great Theodore Roosevelt, who stands at the dawn of the 20th century like a colossus. After Trump cited McKinley in his inaugural, no doubt people all over America turned to Google to find out who McKinley was.

More disturbing is how others consider McKinley as a classic bad guy in American history. Hysterical takes on McKinley as an imperialist aren’t hard to find. And Trump’s admiration for McKinley, after all, is rooted in his protectionist trade policy. Over at The Nation, Chris Lehmann’s assessment is contained in a piece titled “Donald Trump is Building a Bridge to 1896,” a riff off of Bill Clinton’s 1996 Democratic nomination acceptance speech in which he proclaimed he was building a bridge to the 21st century.

Progressive commentators are often quick to suggest that any inspiration taken from the past must always be regressive, backward, and ignorant. Nonsense. In looking to one of his predecessors, Trump is being informed by tradition, that indispensable guardrail that helps manage and direct change away from radicalism and ruin. A historically informed presidency has more potential for success than one that turns its back on the past.

Born in 1843, McKinley grew up in a strongly Methodist and abolitionist household. As an 18-year-old, he enlisted as a private in the Union army when the Civil War broke out and fought at the Battle of Antietam, which resulted in the bloodiest day in American history. When the war was over, McKinley left the army with the rank of major, entered the legal profession, served in Congress, and was governor of Ohio. He saw tragedy also, losing his only two young daughters to illness. By the time McKinley ran for president in 1896, Americans considered him to be an honorable patriot. He easily defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan.

One of his first acts as president was to approve the Dingley Tariff of 1897, which became the highest tariff in American history to that time. The American economy had been hit hard by the Panic of 1893, the worst depression in American history until the 1929 stock market crash ushered in the Great Depression. By 1897, prosperity was returning, mainly because of an influx of gold into American mints largely from mines in Alaska. But by 1898, foreign affairs swallowed up the issue of the tariff. Between February and July 1898, the United States had suffered the loss of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor, declared war on Spain, and concluded the war having established a temporary protectorate over Cuba, acquired the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam, and annexed the Hawaiian Islands. It was the first time that the United States had undertaken a colonial project.

When McKinley ran for re-election in 1900, he did so with Theodore Roosevelt, the hero of San Juan Hill at his side. He won handily in another contest with Bryan, and when he died on Dec. 14, 1901, after having been shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y., the nation sincerely mourned him.

McKinley was not a perfect man, nor was he a perfect leader. The Spanish American War was not without controversy, and imperialism was not a policy with which he was altogether comfortable. But under McKinley, America rose to world power. America’s rise, resulting directly from its acquisition of overseas colonies and, arguably, from McKinley’s protectionist trade policies, were good for the world in the long run. Would the United States have been in a position to defeat military expansionism in the First and Second World Wars without a powerful standing in the world?

Looking to the past for inspiration on how to lead in the future is a start to forming wise domestic and foreign policies. It is good for Trump to look to McKinley as he works to restore American prosperity and security and to position the nation for strength in the remainder of this century.