He came back from the institution which had developed the talents of some of America’s ablest jurists, and looked about him for a good location. He chose Canton, the seat of Stark County, as offering the best opportunities for a young lawyer. And because he had been a soldier, because he was as modest as able, and as industrious as orderly, he received recognition at the hands of that portion of the public which finds litigation necessary.
He had all his life kept up his connection with the Methodist Church, and the denomination at Canton was in a flourishing condition. He was possessed of a pleasing address, and easily made and retained friendships. He was a Republican, and while never fanatical, regarded the success of that party as best for the prosperity of the nation. And as he was in all ways deserving, he won favor in the eyes of Stark County Republicans. The county was Democratic by more than a thousand majority. But when the county convention was held at Canton in 1868, William McKinley, “as a mark of recognition,” was placed upon the ticket as a candidate for prosecuting attorney.
And he was elected. He had a genius for politics, and became a campaigner whom his political opponents recognized as embodying danger to him. So, when he had completed his first term, and was honored by his party with a renomination, the opposing forces perfected their lines, and he was defeated at the polls. That year of 1870 was not a Republican year in Ohio, anyway. It certainly was not a favorable time for a young man of ability, who sturdily held that the policy of a protective tariff was theoretically right and practically a national necessity. So he continued his private practice after the expiration of his term.
In 1871 William McKinley was married. His wife was the young and beautiful daughter of J. A. Saxton, editor of the Canton Repository, a weekly newspaper, who had made enough money out of his business, and out of his talent for trading and real estate speculation, to establish a bank in the thriving and growing town. The daughter, Miss Ida Saxton, had received a good education, had enjoyed all the advantages that a prosperous and generous father could provide, and had traveled abroad, which was an unusual privilege even for wealthy women in the middle west. Two children, both daughters, were born of this union, but the privilege of bringing them up was denied the man who in all else realized the accomplishment of all his purposes. For the children died.
But it was a natural outgrowth of this period of his life that William McKinley should follow with a still more assiduous energy the path opening before him. And in 1876 he had won a place of sufficient prominence in the party to be nominated for congress. It was the old Eighteenth district, and was represented by L. D. Woodsworth, of Mahoning, a strong Democrat and an able man. But his young rival had won a host of friends in Stark County. He could “carry his own party” to the last man. And there were hundreds of Democrats who, on personal grounds, gave him their support. Added to that, Poland was in the second county of his district, and Poland people without regard to politics, had a pride in William McKinley. He had been one of them. He had gone to the war from their town. He had come back there on his furloughs through the four busy years. And he had lived among them after laying down the sword and uniform of a soldier, preparing himself for that wider field to which they knew they must resign him. And so Poland people were for William McKinley; and the Democratic majority of 1872 was more than erased. For William McKinley was elected congressman by a majority of 1,300. And his career as a statesman had begun.
Probably no one thing contributed so much to his success in this instance as the rise and development of manufacturing interests in and about his home. Because of the encouragement afforded by the protective tariff, the mills there had started; and already the impetus of a wise economic policy was felt in his native state. And he had but to point to the smoke from multiplied chimneys, to summon the laboring men who were busy and well paid, to remind the farmers of their better market and higher prices—he had but to present these, his credentials, and his fight was won. He was a young man—a congressman at thirty-three. But he was recognized from the first as one of the best informed and least timid of the advocates of the Republican policies. James A. Garfield was the member of the Ways and Means committee from Ohio, and the younger man was at first assigned to positions of less importance. But there never was an hour from William McKinley’s appearance on the floor of the House at Washington when his counsel was not sought. Fresh from the people, rooted and grounded in the soundest policy, able to express himself in a forcible, convincing and yet pleasing manner, he occupied from the start a position of importance in congressional circles.
So that it was with a sense of genuine loss that his confreres learned he had failed of re-election in 1878. But the Ohio legislature was Democratic at the time, and it redistricted the state, so that Stark County was placed in a district hopelessly opposed in politics; and he could but make a losing fight.
Yet the hope that this rising prophet of protection for protection’s sake was removed from the field of political activity was destined to disappointment. In 1880 he accomplished the impossible, and was returned to Congress, where he resumed his labors, and renewed his march to the very leadership of the greatest legislative body in the world. In 1882 he was re-elected, but by only eight votes. And it will be remembered that 1882 was not a Republican year. The Republicans, on the one great national policy which should have inspired them, were apologetic, defensive, full of excuses and promises. They could not catch the bravery of William McKinley’s policy, nor adopt the frank straightforwardness which seemed to him not only the best policy but the most creditable statesmanship. And in 1882 the Democrats, rising to a courage and vigor hardly to be expected and rarely found in that organization, with a unity of purpose in its assaults on the tariff, had carried the country by storm. Cleveland was made Governor of New York State by the astounding majority of 192,000 against Folger, a consistent Republican of the most unexceptional character. Factional quarrels between the “Stalwart” and “Mugwump” branches of the party had given the opposition its opportunity. Congress was Democratic, and McKinley’s opponent in the campaign of 1882 brought a contest into the house, for the elimination of those eight votes. And toward the end of the session the Canton man was unseated, and his place was given to the Democrat.
But it was the destiny of this man to do a great national work, to correct the national conscience, to fix a national policy of economic truth. And when his party in the Eighteenth district met in congressional convention in 1884 no name but that of “Major McKinley” was thought of. He was elected by the greatest majority ever accorded to a candidate there. He remained in the House through the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses. In 1890 his district had again been gerrymandered with a view to his overthrow, and he was defeated at the polls for the Fifty-second.
But his work in the Lower House was done, and nothing could undo it. He had made a record as the champion of the protective tariff, had called back the leaders of his party to their duty, and had reinspired them with a courage which has never since faltered nor diminished. In his second term he made a national reputation as a tariff debater, and when James A. Garfield was advanced from the House, William McKinley succeeded him on the Ways and Means Committee, the most valuable man on the most important group of men in the nation.