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"I have been through one war; I have seen the dead piled up; and I do not want to see another:” The American Civil War and William McKinley’s Worldview
Jones, Andrew Elliot
Jones, Andrew Elliot
Abstract
Initially conceiving my thesis, I approached it from the broad topic of U.S. foreign policy between the Civil War and WWI. I then began a brief study into the Presidents of this era and found William McKinley fascinating. He was the only president to serve in the enlisted ranks, yet he rose to major by the end of the war. After this, he began a modest political rise that led to his victory in the 1896 and 1900 Presidential elections. After settling on McKinley, I wanted to
answer the question of how his service in the Civil War affected his worldview and, therefore, his policy. I initially tackled his decision to go to war with Spain in 1898. Here, I discovered the most significant and constant block to my research. McKinley was extremely private: he took face-to-face meetings, opposed employing a secretary, and never kept a journal. Therefore, my research on his thoughts involved documents written not by the president himself, but by those around him. Following this, I dove into his belief in protectionism, specifically the Tariff Act of 1890, and his decision-making around the 1898 annexation of Hawaii. My anticipated results are that the Civil War was the defining experience in McKinley’s life; the horrors and bloodshed he witnessed made him specifically care about humanitarian issues and created a desire to ensure American economic independence and protect national security. The implications of my thesis lie in its ability to contrast the veteran president with other leaders, namely ones who never experienced the true horrors of war.
Description
Date
2025-05
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Publisher
William & Mary