American Presidents: Totalus Rankium - 25.1 William McKinley

Episode Date: April 11, 2020

We are back up  and running after a pesky pandemic knocked us down for a bit! Recording from our individual homes, we cover the early life of William McKinley. Is there more to this man than he loved a tariff? Join us as we revisit Haye's diaries and Rob introduces Jamie to the joys of Bruce Springsteen! 

Welcome to Totalus Rankium. This week, we'll in the delay. Part 1! Hello, and welcome to American Presidents. So tell us, rank him. I am Jamie. And I am Rob, ranking all of the presidents from Washington to Trump. And this is episode 25.1, William McKinley. And if you are just ploughing through the presidents and skipped our special Edward Norton episode. That wasn't an episode. That'd be an amazing episode.

Skipped our Emperor Norton episode. You might not realise that the coronavirus just hit. So we are recording this remotely. Yes. Which is why we might sound slightly different. I can't see you, Rob. No. I mean, I'm five weeks into this lockdown now.

Oh, gosh, yeah. This is my third week and I'm a bit oh a bit bored now yeah you doing anything to entertain yourself a lot of drinking good good healthy yeah that works healthy yeah fair enough right okay positive start to today's episode yeah right william mckinley uh heard of him before absolutely not oh isn't there a mckinley? There's a McKinley station in Star Trek, but that's the closest I've come to it. Right. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. I have no idea if that is linked in any way to our McKinley. Me neither. Probably not. Probably not, but who knows. Okay, well, let's jump into this then, shall we, if you want to start us off? You want to colour? Colour anything, really.

I mean, just give me something to work with okay let's have let's have a tornado ripping through a farmstead nice i like it so open on a tornado ripping through a farmstead yeah i think like start of twister yeah i can't remember if that opens on a tornado but i'm guessing it Probably. Because it's all about tornadoes. But yeah. Oh, no, Wizard of Oz. Let's go Wizard of Oz. Okay.

Because we're sort of in the right time period. Not really. So start on a tornado, ripping through a farmstead, and then just keep pulling back from it and pulling back from it until it's in the distance, quite small, just going over some fields. Yeah. But you can still hear the screams, even from this distance. Oh, no, no. It's in the distance, quite small, just going over some fields. Yeah, but you can still hear the screams, even from this distance. Oh, no, no, it's in the distance.

Okay. You can imagine screams if you want to. Yeah. It's really quite far away. And then it pans back over the shoulder of someone wearing a military uniform. Because it's panned backwards, you never get to see their face. But you've just got the back of someone's head and their shoulder looking at this tornado in the distance.

And then as the person turns away, the camera turns with them and you see just a big camp full of soldiers, Union soldiers. And this figure, you're almost in like a third person computer game at this point because the camera just follows this figure in full military uniform through the camp he's saying hello to people lots of people looking up and smiling yeah there's a lot of smiling going on

and this person who you're following is just waving and saying hello to pretty much everyone. And then he finally walks into his tent. And in the tent is a young man, late teens, early twenties, full of hope on his face and a go-get-them attitude. Right. I assume he hasn't yet heard about the tornado. No, that's in the distance. That's fine. I mean, well, maybe he could ask about it. He looks up and says, sir, is the tornado close? and the figure we're following says no don't worry it's bypassing us and then the young figure lets out a huge sigh and says thank goodness major haze i was worried there for a moment

haze oh yeah and then as he says that spins round, and there is the grinning, happy face of Hayes. He just says the word splendid. And as he says the word splendid, McKinley part one smashes up on the screen. Oh, it's good to get him back again. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Aw.

Hayes is back. Yes. So there you go. That's the opening of today's episode. Nice. I think you're very skillfully That's the opening of today's episode. Nice. I think you're very skillfully into Weave the Tornado there. I like the way you didn't just brush it aside as well.

Oh, no, no. I brought it back. You see, it wasn't completely instrumental. I should probably point out that I have not read anywhere that the Ohio volunteers stationed in West Virginia were ever anywhere near a tornado. Who knows? I'm not from America. In my head, America's full of tornadoes. Yeah. All over the place.

Can't move for them. Yeah. So there you go. Bound to what happens. Kansas. Kansas is where they have tornadoes. Yes, they do. Oklahoma.

Yeah, we're not near there. Okay, right. But tornadoes move about. Well, they do, yeah. They're known for it. They're not static, are they? Exactly. They don't grow like trees.

Yeah. It's all good. We've definitely do, yeah. They're known for it. They're not static, are they? Exactly. They don't grow like trees. Yeah. It's all good. We've definitely got this right. Yeah. It's fine. History. Yeah. Okay, right.

You're ready to begin. I'm ready. I've got my pen, I've got my book, everything. Okay. We start in northeast Ohio back in 1803. James and Danny Heaton found ore that was lining Yellow Creek. Ore. Ore.

Ore. They built a blast furnace along the shore, and they will go on to build the cannonballs that helped the Union win the war. If anyone is a Bruce Springsteen fan out there, you'll realise I am now just reading the lyrics to the song Youngstown. Yeah. But I got excited. McKinley's born right next to Youngstown. Yeah. But I got excited. McKinley's born, like, right next to Youngstown.

Okay. In a town founded by James Heaton, and there's a Bruce song all about this. I went, oh, look, it's Youngstown. Well, maybe that's playing in the background. You never know. Go and listen to that song. It's a very good song. It's on his Ghost of Tom Joad album. It's very good.

What's it called again? Sorry? The Ghost of Tom Jode. The song is called Youngstown. Youngstown. Are you going to have a listen? Yeah, I'll have a little listen, see how good this song really is.

Oh, Bruce Springsteen, here we go. Let's have a listen. Oh. That wasn't it. No, that's an advert. That's an advert. that's an advert They built a blast furnace Here along the shore And they made the cannonballs That helped the Union win the war

Here in Youngstown That sounds really familiar. Yeah, yeah. Well, the lines, yeah, it is. That's because it was us. Yeah. That's the start of this episode. Yeah, so there you go.

We're in 1803. James and Danny Heaton, they find some ore, they do, and they build a blast furnace, and, yeah, the area starts to be built up. James Heaton, a few years after this, built another blast furnace in a nearby settlement that then grew into a town. The town was known as Heaton's Furnace,

which I think is a really cool name into a town. The town was known as Heaton's Furnace, which I think is a really cool name for a town. Yeah, but then they unfortunately changed the name to Niles Town, which is just not as good. That's really not. No, named after a Baltimore editor of the Niles Weekly Register. Right. Which was a widely popular news magazine. It's just not as fun.

It's really not. No, flash forward 40 years to 1843, and the region's starting to develop into an industrial powerhouse. Now, a couple of things happen in 43. First of all, the town changes its name once again. Niles Town doesn't sound Nathanoff, apparently, so they changed it to just Niles. Ooh, right.

Which, yeah, just just niles that's awful i just not i mean don't get me wrong niles from frasier the best one of the best characters ever yeah niles from uh the east street band bruce springsteen brilliant guitarist that's very brucy this episode yeah the nile uh very impressive river yeah yeah i should probably point out it's actually niels rather than niles with uh niles laughlin but anyway the point is good name for some people bad name for a town yes that's what i'm sticking with that's all right for the all right for a river as well i suppose anyway uh niles is small only has three churches three stores and a blast furnace a mill and a nail factory and a population of about 300

people. So a very, very small provincial sort of thing. Yeah, with a massive blast furnace and a huge nail factory. So don't think small little village, people living around the factory, basically. According to Birmingham in the 1800s, like all factories, a few people live in there. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, yeah, that's the first thing that happens in 43, the change from Niles Town to Niles. The second thing that happens in Niles is the seventh of nine children is born into the McKinley family. This is a boy called William McKinley, who we're doing our episode on today.

Ah. Now, the father of this child was called William McKinley, who we're doing our episode on today. Ah. Now, the father of this child was called William McKinley Senior. Of course. And he was an iron worker, just like his dad had been. The mother of the child was Nancy, who was also from an iron-making family, because if you were in Niles, you were somehow involved in the iron-making business. So she's a bit like an iron maiden, isn't she? She is an iron maiden.

That's exactly what she is. She listened to Iron Maiden and she kept an iron maiden in the shed. Yes. Well, there's lots of nails to use, so, you know, that as well. All good. Yeah, don't picture William McKinley Senior

as a poor down-and-out factory worker, though. He'd actually done quite well for himself and by this point managed several furnaces throughout the region. Oh, wow. So we're talking sort of middle to upper management here. Apparently he still very much got involved in the actual physical part of labour just because there's so many people

and there's lots of work to do in the factories. So apparently he was quite a big, tough man who chopped work and worked iron around, but he also ran the factories. Yeah. He was also the treasurer of the local school district, so he was starting to be a man of influence.

Has he got a really strong Northern Sheffield-style accent? Definitely. You're not my son, William. You'll be an ironmonger just like me. You're going to the factory. If you're not from the UK, our centre of iron making in this country was up north. So, yeah, that's why Jamie's thinking of Northern accents.

Yeah. Game of Thrones accents. Yes. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Before everyone heard that accent and thought dragons, most people thought industrialisation. And cutlery, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Before everyone heard that accent and thought dragons, most people thought industrialisation.

And cutlery, yeah. Iron forks. So, yeah, William McKinley Senior, big fan of Shakespeare and Burns, and he really made sure his home was well stocked with books and newspapers. He valued education. The McKinley family would gather each evening, apparently,

and take turns in reading from these newspapers and books. That must be nice. Yeah, nice. You don't often get that much now, do you? It's more of a social family because, you know, no tablets, no phones. Everyone gathering together, trying to listen to the sounds of a four-year-old struggling through taming a shrew over the sound of nails being made.

It was a nice family time. That's not his, but quicker! Doonk! Doonk! Your master will read Shakespeare. Could use the hammering of the nails being made as like a metronome to

really get your pace going. See? That's all good good to be or not to be that's my big pentameter so william senior uh however he was he was away for long periods of time because he supervised uh other factories in the area that were a fair distance apart so he'd spent several weeks at a time away from the home. Even that, he was just trying to get away from the family. Who knows? So Nancy, mum, therefore, was the major force in William's upbringing. She had the final say on the children's education.

William Senior just saying, OK, yeah, no, you make all the decisions. I'm busy running my factories. So Nancy believed very much that all her children should be very well educated. So for the first 11 years of William's life, he grew up in a small but industrialised village. But then it was decided, for the good of the children's education, perhaps the McKinleys should move to where there were better schools. Because the schools apparently weren't great in Niles.

Do you think the father would find that very tricky? Kind of like, yeah, you know, but my work's here. Well, his work's all over the place. Yeah, that's true, yeah. Yeah, yeah, he travels a lot. That's all right then. I think that's fine. So they decide to move to Poland.

Not the country, I assume. It would be brilliant if it was. It's fine, Nancy, I'll just commute every day. Don't worry. This is the nearby town of Poland. Yeah, not too far away. William later described his new home as, and I'll quote here,

trim neat with its tasty white frame dwellings, its dear old academy and village stores. Which sounds nice, doesn't it? It sounds very picturesque. It does. Gives you a sense of what William McKinley was like when he was older as well. Oh dear. The academy, obviously, is what brought the family there. Soon enough, William was in school, finding mathematics, poetry, Greek and Latin,

the subjects he did best at. He did his best work inside the classroom, apparently, but was not, and I quote, indifferent to athletics of all kinds. So he enjoyed sports, but he preferred studying. Yeah. He wasn't indifferent to them, take it or leave it. Really? Yeah.

Apparently he would occasionally dance. Right. He was an occasional dancer, was McKinley, as a child. I don't know what that means it's just a line i came across um when one of his old teachers was talking about him so maybe maybe he just broke into dance a lesson only for about 30 seconds here so i've done my greek essay in this medium of dance yeah you're splendid i'm gonna say he did that yeah then in 1859 william was old enough to enter college he was enrolled in the allegany college splendid i'm gonna say he did that yeah then in 1859 william was old enough to enter college he was enrolled in the allegany college if i'm pronouncing that in any way correctly uh

in meadsville pennsylvania where he was noted for his winsome personality apparently however the strong start soon fell apart it's not clear uh exactly what it was, either physical or mental health problems, most likely both, but he started to retreat and was not well for a while. In fact, he later said, I felt so much discouraged that I seemed I would never look forward to anything again.

I was discontented for many, many months. It seemed to me my whole life was to be spoiled by my unfortunate nervousness. Aww. So, yeah, full-on depression, struggling to concentrate, get anything done. It also seemed to affect his physical health as well.

Things are not good for William when he joins college. Yeah. In fact, he was forced to take a break from his studies and headed back home. His health, physical and mental, seemed to improve quite a bit after a while. when he joins college. In fact, he was forced to take a break from his studies and headed back home. His health, physical and mental, seemed to improve quite a bit after a while, but the family was struggling by this point.

His father's businesses were in trouble, as were other family members' financial ventures. Money was tight for the first time in their lives. Oh, dear. Yeah, one of his brother-in-laws mentions How this was the hardest time In their lives They had to all scrimp and save as a family So William couldn't go back to school

Even if he wanted to Even if he was feeling better He had to go out and make money for the family So what do you do if you dropped out of college And you don't really have any prospects Law, study law No, no, no Oh, ar, of course.

No? No. Come a teacher, Jamie. Oh, yes. Oh, obviously. Come a teacher. So he taught for a bit and he also was the assistant to the postmaster of Poland, which sounds a lot more impressive

than it actually is. Again, I really hope it's the country, but I don't think it is. I'm assuming it is for the rest of this episode. Yeah, definitely. So 17-year-old William starts to feel better within himself, even if times are hard. He seems to take to the life of working better than when he was in college and things seem to be improving for him personally.

Partly because he had just met 16-year-old Linda Wadsworth. Wadsworth. Lydia, sorry. Lydia Wadsworth. Lydia Wadsworth. Wadsworth, which is a very English butler-sounding name, if ever you want one. However, unfortunately, not long after this, the parents of Lydia, who I assume were both butlers, found out about their meetings and forbid their daughter from ever seeing this young man ever again.

And the relationship fell apart. But for a while there, there was a bit of a love interest. So when he wasn't teaching and assisting the post for an entire European country or chatting up young women, William was heavily involved in the church. Apparently his mother and sisters had become so involved in the Poland church that they essentially ran it, apart from the actually preaching part. Yeah.

So, yeah, all the admin running of the place fell to the McKinley women. Nancy hoped that her son might consider a path to become a Methodist bishop. This was the direction that Nancy wanted her son to go in. An opinion shared by their reverend,

Aaron D. Morton. Morton was the religious leader for the region, but also an active member of the region's Underground Railway, attempting to find safe passage for those escaped slaves trying to get to Canada. So, yeah, he was doing that. And he said many of us

thought he would become a minister, talking about McKinley, who's just seemed an obvious way for this young boy to go. So, that's what everyone was expecting. But then something happened, which changedckinley's life forever um he did he cease oh a civil war oh yes the civil war erupts young william signed up

to the poland guard that's a bit far away isn't it it's not going to get old no unfortunately we don't see much of Poland after this. So this is the last time we can pretend to misunderstand and think that he's actually gone to Poland. But yeah, no, he's part of the Poland guards now. Yeah, he's signed up. This was after Lincoln made his call for volunteers. So yeah, he decided he was going to do his bit for the country. He wrote to his sister telling her that it was his duty

and saying that by the end of the war she will definitely know that he didn't act foolishly and he'd made the right decision. Okay. Which implies some of his family weren't too keen on the idea of their son slash brother signing up for the army. But still,

he's signed up now. The Poland Guard soon found themselves in Camp Jackson and formed into a new regiment and became, unfortunately, no longer the Poland Guard, but E Company, which is nowhere near as exciting, though does have the benefit of being the same company that is in Band of Brothers. Oh, yeah.

And robots, electronic, electricity, E Company. Yes, probably should call them Company E because that's how I saw it written down, but I just thought e-company because of Band of Brothers. Anyway, he's in an e-company. They were then informed that they would not be voting for their own commanders, which was usual. Usually they'd get together, they'd choose someone to lead them.

That had been going on for a while so far in the war, but then the Union side realised that, actually, we do need to win this war. Maybe we should start putting people in charge who know what they're doing, rather than just people who are the most popular within the new regiments. Well, there's an idea. Yeah. So instead, the volunteers were told, no, we're going to choose your commanders. One company refused to begin

with, but eventually it was accepted. Leading them would be Colonel Rosecrans, with Matthews as the lieutenant colonel, and as major, a man named Rutherford B. Hayes. I remember him. Oh, yes. So, McKinley spent his time drilling, at least four hours a day. In his spare time, So McKinley spent his time drilling at least four hours a day. In his spare time, he read Byron because he was at that age where holding out a book of Byron whilst everyone else is trying to sleep. It just makes you feel clever, doesn't it? Well, I guess so.

Yeah. Who knows? Maybe he actually enjoyed Byron. Yeah, he read Byron and he wrote his diary. But unfortunately, we don't get a full detailed diary of the war for McKinley because he just gave up on it not long afterwards because the duties just became too much and he didn't have time to write his diary. So, yeah, that stops fairly soon. Anyway, the regiment were completely unprepared to head off for war, as you can imagine.

America had not seen a war on this scale ever before and no one was ready for the Civil War and McKinley and the men around him didn't even have uniforms or weapons. That's a problem if you're fighting. Yeah, it literally was just a bunch of volunteers in a field

in tents. I'm not trying to be picky here but if you're being an army you really need a few weapons. Yeah, I mean, uniforms are nice, but not necessary. Weapons kind of are. But no, they had nothing. After six weeks of this, eventually some muskets

arrived. How many? There were quite a few muskets, to be fair, but they were very old muskets. They were not in great condition. I'm imagining full-on blunderbuss kind of things. But, yeah, who knows? Yeah, exactly. But, I mean, they worked.

They were weapons. But the soldiers were not happy and started talking very loudly about how they deserved better. They'd volunteered to fight for their country. The least the government could do is provide decent weapons for them. The commanders soon gave orders, stop moaning about the weapons and accept the weapons seriously. What is this? Oh, yeah.

The soldiers weren't too pleased and refused to take the weapons, and a standoff started. Then Major General Fremont, if you remember, the first Republican to stand for President for Lincoln, he came to inspect the regiment. And it was very hastily agreed upon that, look,

okay, all of you pick up the weapons for the inspection because someone's coming in with a clipboard. It doesn't mean you're going to accept them, but can we all just pretend that we're not actually falling apart at the seams in front of the Major General, and for the love of god hold it the right way around yeah come on just just for the looks of things can you pick up your gun we're meant to be an army so it was decided okay everyone will pick up their musket and they will stand in

formation and be inspected mckinley himself was personally inspected by Vermont, who walked in front of him, sort of punched him in the chest, and declared he was fit to be a soldier, in that kind of way you see in many army firms. Then McKinley doubled over in pain with the bit. Yeah, I'm guessing it was like one of those sort of light sort of punch, not a full-on just trying to collapse the other man's lungs kind of punch. But who knows?

Who knows? Yeah, anyway, Fremont inspected the troops and then went on his way. And most companies then sort of went, oh, fine, we'll take the muskets. It's fine. It was only E! Company who refused the guns still, so the one with McKinley in.

A very angry Lieutenant Colonel Matthews caught them out, lined them up and informed them they would all be shot if they keep this up. We're at war, this is mutiny, what are you playing at? Yeah. So it was then decided that

ten of the best shooters would be taken out of E Company, go and actually use the guns, and then report back to the company. So it was then decided that 10 of the best shooters would be taken out of e-company, go and actually use the guns, and then report back to the company, and hopefully say, yeah, they were all right, and the guns would be accepted. So that was the compromise reached. As e-company waited, a Major Hayes suddenly appeared before them. Hello! Hello there!

Hayes did not shout at them. He did not threaten them. He simply told them that many of the most decisive battles in history had been won with rudimentary weapons. Look at Lexington and Bunker Hill during the Revolution, he pointed out. In fact, look at the entire Revolutionary War. And then he said, and I quote, Should we hesitate at the very start of another struggle for liberty and union because we're not pleased with our muskets.

McKinley wrote afterwards that Hayes' manner, and I'll quote him here, was so generous and his relations with the men so kind and yet always dignified that he won my heart almost from the start. From that moment on, our confidence in our leader never wavered so uh yeah haze and just as a niceness won over young mckinley it did yeah a bit of kindness gets you everywhere yeah then the sharpshooters came back and admitted actually yeah these guns look a bit rough but they shoot fine it's like i pointed one in front of me and shot, and the bullet came out and hit the thing in front of me. What more could you want?

Yeah, it worked. So in the end, the company accepted the guns, and the problem was over. Soon after this, they moved to Western Virginia. Still not technically West Virginia yet, but it will be soon. It wasn't long after that that the regiment saw their first battle. This is Carnifex Ferry. Now, before the battle, McKinley was struggling to walk because of the amount of marching they'd been doing. Many of the men

were not used to this much walking and had huge blisters on their feet. McKinley apparently was very kindly offered a horse so he didn't have to walk the whole day. That's how bad it got. But still, as the battle started, McKinley was back on his feet.

And he found himself in one of the four companies that were being led personally by Major Hayes. And this means much, much to my delight that I got to jump right back into Hayes's diaries. Yes. Which is great. And I'll quote. that I got to jump right back into Hayes' diaries. Yes! Which is great. And I'll quote, My little detachment did as much of the real work, hard work, as anybody. Hayes and his four companies, including McKinley,

were originally held in reserve, but they were then selected to attempt to flank the Confederate forces. So McKinley is in the action early on. In fact, McKinley wrote, We went on quick time through the meadows on. In fact, McKinley wrote, All of this was on their knees or hunched over, doing sort of army crawls, I'm guessing. They're just trying to sneak around, trying not to be seen, basically. Yeah.

However, they soon realised that they could not get into the position where they could flank the Confederate forces. So they decide to head back. There's nothing they can do. On their way back, they suddenly heard a noise to the right of them. Hayes pulled out his revolver and McKinley and the rest of the men got ready to be ambushed. This did not look good. There was a tense moment when the four companies of the 23rd ran into the 28th Regiment, which happened to be led by one of Hayes' closest friends, a fellow lawyer called Mark Bright. In fact, I'll quote Hayes here, it so happened, curiously enough, that I was the extreme right man of my body, and Mark Bright was the left man of his. We had a jolly laugh and introductions to surrounding officers as partners, etc. So yeah,

middle of the battlefield, Hayes bumps into a friend and they just have a bit of a laugh and a joke. Yeah. McKinley later said he'd never forget the way Hayes greeted Mark Bright and how Hayes was joking about how Mark Bright was forgiven for having run away from the law office back home. You get the impression the soldiers are all bricking it, thinking they're about to be ambushed, and they all just look at Hayes, who's laughing and joking away. And it made an impression.

Yeah, well, it would. It would. This man does not fear death. Ultimately, the Union forces did enough to drive back the Confederate ones in this battle. It was a fairly light skirmish in the grand scheme of the war, but an important one for young McKinley. In fact, I'll quote him again.

This was our first fight. It gave us confidence in ourselves and faith in our commander. We learned that we could fight and whip the rebels on their own ground so it's not long after this that he was assigned to the brigade quartermaster office it's not clear but perhaps hayes had something to do with this he wrote to the colonel around this time keep your eyes on that young man there's something in him which uh it sounds like it could be medical advice but i i'm guessing it was just a recommendation so yeah the war for mckinley changed quite dramatically instead of hours of drilling uh he was suddenly dealing with shipments and receipts by halfway through 62 he was promoted to quartermaster sergeant uh because of this he's no longer expected to be on the front line uh he no longer needs to perform guard duty uh he often had a horse uh that he could ride

instead of going on foot when they went places uh and he also had a reserved space on a wagon for his personal items so he's going up in the world yeah that's said i mean it's not without complete danger um being the sergeant quartermaster, he would be expected to go to the front line and resupply the men and go out foraging for food in areas held by the enemy. But his survival chances have significantly improved. Well, he's got a horse. Yeah, exactly.

That's a meal, that. Well, I mean, he's in charge of all the food, so he's not going to go hungry. Well, yeah. One of the facts of the job. So the regiment were involved in several skirmishes as it pulled east to attempt to join up with Pope's army in Virginia.

But as we saw in Hayes' episode, the forces were delayed and instead were sent to cut off General Lee, who was advancing into Maryland. They encountered the Confederates on the 14th of September in the Battle of South Mountain. Now you may remember, although I know you won't, because why would you? But listeners who have maybe listened to the episode more recently may remember that this is the battle where Hayes was shot and had a lovely conversation with

the Confederate soldier who was lying in the mud next to him as bullets passed over their heads and I quote, pretty warm. Yeah. So we've got to that point. Right. As we saw, this was a Union victory, but at a heavy cost. Hayes survived and was taken, if you remember, to be snug as a bug in a rug with some citizens that were living in a nearby town.

That is fantastic. Yeah. McKinley, however, carries on with the regiment. And if South Mountain had seemed bad, it was just a warm-up for the next battle, because a few days later, the Battle of Antietam happens. This is one of the worst battles in the entire war, with over 20,000 casualties and at least 3,500 men lying dead on the field by the end of it.

Wow, okay. Now, I don't have time to go into all the details of this battle, so I'm just going to focus on what McKinley did. McKinley's regiment had fought their way to a defensive position and then had to dig in. Huge simplification there, but that's all you really need to know.

Yeah. This also happened before supplies could be set into place. then had to dig in a huge simplification there but that's all you really need to know yeah this also happened before supplies could be set in place and the regiment were in place at 2 a.m with no food 12 hours later the order still had not been given to give the attack but it was going to come soon and the men understandably were flag. They'd been awake all night, and they'd eaten nothing. So apparently, McKinley, realising that when the attack order came, it would be a weakened, demoralised force that went forward, decided himself to get food to the men. So he headed two miles back to where the supplies were being kept,

and started loading a wagon with meat and beans and crackers and coffee and other things that they had. Right. Then McKinley and another man named John Harvey set off for the front line in their wagon full of supplies. That's very risky. Oh, it is definitely very risky. They were going down a narrow track through a heavily wooded area when a Union officer and a few men suddenly came across them and told them, no, no, don't come down this road. Turn back.

The Confederates have the road further up and they've set up a blockade. There's no way through. So, yeah, you need to go. And then the officer and his men headed off through the woods, trusting that McKinley would turn around because that's the only thing to do. However, the track was a narrow one,

and there was no way they could turn the wagon around, so all they could do was abandon it. McKinley decided not to do that, however. John Harvey wrote about it later. The regiment was almost in sight of us, and Sergeant McKinley was so anxious to carry out his point and give the half-starved boys something to eat he made one more appeal to me to run the blockade he himself

risking his life in taking the lead i followed and horses going full speed past the blockade we had the back end of the wagon shot away by small cannon shots. In a very few minutes, we were safe in the midst of the half-vanished regiment. Ooh. Yeah, so they just ran the blockade, smashed through it. Yeah. Full Hollywood style. I'm guessing it was on a slight hill, so the wagon and the horses left the ground

for a good few slow motion seconds. Oh, yeah, yeah. As they went through. Horses looking terrified. Close-up of Confederate soldiers just shooting the back of the wagon and then looking at each other. And one of them hits the other one around the back of the head after they realised

they got away. Yeah, that kind of thing. There you go. A little bit of a hero moment for McKinley there. After Antietam, which was a victory, but as I said, a very hard-won one, McKinley and his regiment were pulled back to West Virginia. It's around this time Hayes, who still snuggles a bug in a rug, remember,

and recovering from his gunshot wound, received a letter from a Dr Webb who worked in the 23rd Regiment. This letter informed Hayes that the regiment were being pulled back to West Virginia, but he also wrote, and I quote here, our young friend, William McKinley, commissary sergeant, would be pleased with a promotion and would not object to your recommendation for the same. Without wishing to interfere in the matter, it strikes me he is about the brightest chap spoken of for the place. And it would appear that Hayes agreed, as did several others,

because McKinley was soon promoted to second lieutenant. He was also given orders to go back to Ohio and recruit some troops. But, I mean, essentially this is a go home, visit your family, do a little bit of work quietly there, and then come back. So, yeah, he gets a bit

of a break, he goes home and visits his family. And when he came back, he found that hayes was also back in the regiment and very pleased to see mckinley in fact he wrote in his diary our new second lieutenant mckinley returned today an exceedingly bright intelligent and gentlemanly young officer he promises to be one of our best oh yeah high praise yeah now mckinley and the men saw a little action for a while uh but in his new position mckinley became closer with hayes Oh, yeah, high praise. to my disappointment, there wasn't any funny stories or notes that he made about McKinley. Most of it was, had dinner with McKinley, or McKinley popped in to say hello. So yeah,

but we can assume they had many good conversations. Hayes then put McKinley in charge of the entire brigade supplies as its quartermaster. So he's now like a quartermaster in charge. as its quartermaster. So he's now like a quartermaster in charge. He's, in fact, in charge of the clerks, a carpenter, a forage master, which is a brilliant title. That is wonderful.

In my head, the forage master's just wearing a big green cloak and only ever whispers. And you never know if he's in the room or not. You just turn around and just go, oh, forage master, you're back. And then he just pulls out some pears or something. I've got a different view. I've got somebody wearing like a brown jumper and walking like an old hill walker with a white beard.

Very cheerful, can identify birds and everything. He's like, oh, I've got some lovely moss here on this rock. That'd be great for us to eat. That can be lovely stew for us all. And everyone hates him because of it. And he vegetarian as well so he doesn't forage for animals it's just you know yeah it's just like a very polite and english bear grills it's bear grills english i have no idea yeah yes yeah okay so anyway he's in charge of the forage master i i'm gonna say there were two forage masters,

one that you described and one that I described, and they took it in turns, one day on, one day off. No one's fully sure if the guy in the cloak is actually just the other guy in the jumper, just with a cloak on. No one knows. Yeah. Yeah, mysterious. Anyway, I'll continue the list. The next one's not quite as impressive.

He was in charge of a wagon master, which sounds like a very grand title to give yourself as the person who owns the wagon. I'm guessing the person who repairs the wagons and stuff. Important job in the army. Yeah. Also, another master here. Do you want to guess what the next master is?

Oh, master of food. No, no. Master of condiments. No, that would be good. The Harness Master. Oh. Well, that's a very different career option, I feel. Yeah. He only wears gowns. Yeah.

His entire clothing is just made up of harnesses. Yeah. He's also in charge of two blacksmiths and five teamsters. Teamsters? Wagon drivers. people transporting the goods. So yeah, basically, the logistics of the regiment

basically go through McKinley now. Now, McKinley saw a little action throughout 63. There is one point where Hayes' wife, Lucy, came to visit. Remember she came to visit occasionally? Yeah. Yeah, one time their child died and Hayes said it was a splendid visit. Yeah, anyway, I'm guessing this is a different time she visited because she borrowed McKinley's horse and went off for a ride,

which is nice. Oh. Yeah, that's just one of those small little details I gleaned from Hayes' diaries. That story goes nowhere but I just thought I'd sprinkle it in for a bit of flavour. Anyway, early in 64, the army was reorganised

and Hayes' brigade was placed under General George Crook and McKinley was placed on Hayes' staff. So they're getting even closer now. He was still in this position in July of 64, during the Battle of Kernstown. The Union forces were outnumbered three to one, and due to some misinformation, they were just not prepared for this fight. They got caught out of position.

They were always going to lose this one, but they had no choice. They had to fight. The battle began, but one of the union regiments was out of position mckinley was ordered to bring it into place now the only way to get to the regiment was through open fields in front of the confederate line so again rousing music slow motion time here mckinley rode his horse through the field with shawls landing to his left and his right his horse rear up at one point mckinley leans forward, sword in the air, proud look on his face, cape billowing in the wind. Oh, yeah, he definitely had a cape.

In fact, you see all of this from Hayes' perspective, who's watching from a hill, and you just see McKinley riding and then a big explosion and lots of dust and smoke, and you can't see anything. But as the smoke clears, you just see the horse rearing and the cape billowing oh yes good stuff splendid wonderful yeah uh anyway um yeah in real life he was probably just swearing to himself the whole way uh and sweating a lot. And then eventually he manages to get through. Yeah, he got past the danger zone, as he called it himself.

Danger zone. Yeah, and gave the ordnance to the regiment there, who were then able to reposition, which is good, but didn't help because they still lost. But Hayes described McKinley's actions as very gallant, which is nice. Yes, good, yeah. After the defeat and retreat, McKinley was promoted to captain and moved on to general crook staff. So he's moved away from Hayes.

In fact, Hayes writes, I was sorry to lose McKinley, but I couldn't, as a friend, advise him to do otherwise. So as you can see, the two are close now. It's no longer seen as officer and underling. Hayes is seeing young McKinley as a friend. Then September 64 rolls

round. This is the Battle of Berryville. McKinley had his horse shot from under him, but he was personally unhurt. And then, for the next couple of months, McKinley was involved in several more battles, all very hard fought. If you remember from Grant's episode,

by this point Grant's in charge of the Union forces and he was starting to be accused of being a butcher. This is where the body counts really start to rise. In one battle, McKinley again was ordered to go and reposition a division who weren't quite in the right place. So he wrote to the commander of the 2nd Division and told the commander that they had to move. However, there was a debate on which route to take, and the officer said he would only move

if a specific route was given as an order by Crook. Right. Now, McKinley had not been given an order for the route, so in theory should have rode back to get the order. However, he weighed up the options and chose a route himself and said, and I quote, By order of General crook i command you and then told them which way to go now had the maneuver not have been a complete success he

probably would have gotten in quite a bit of trouble for this because he made up orders in his general's name um yeah but the route that was chosen turned out to be a good one and the division was put in the correct place quickly so it worked out all right good a good example of it's fine to break the rules as long as the results are fine yeah exactly then october 64 mckinley takes place in his last significant battle of the war he's involved in a lot more than I've covered, by the way, but there's no way to go into all of the detail. But this battle is the Battle of Cedar Creek. By this time, he'd been promoted once again and was now a brevet major, so a temporary major.

So he's doing all right. He survives this battle, and he doesn't know it himself, it's his last battle, but there you go. Things are looking good for him. Shortly after this, it's election day, and at the age of 21, McKinley voted for the first time. He, Hayes, Crook, and Sheridan, another famous general who I've not really talked about, but anyway, together,

they all went and used an ambulance that was being used as a polling booth. And McKinley, unsurprisingly, voted for Lincoln. Now, not long after this, Crook was captured by Confederate forces. Again, if you remember Hayes' episode, he finds this very amusing. Because apparently Crook was constantly talking about how vigilant everyone always had to be. And then he was captured himself. Wonderful.

Yeah. So McKinley was moved to work on the staff of four different generals in the space of two weeks as they tried to find a place for him. But eventually landed with General Carroll. However, it's not long after this that Lee surrenders to Grant. And the war is over. Ah, good. McKinley was encouraged to stay in the army as a lieutenant, but he decided that, no, the war's over now.

It's time to go home at the age of 22. Wow. Yeah, all of that and he's only 22 years old. Oh, by the age of 22 I could, well, nothing really. No, I think I just about figured out how to go out and do a job. So, yeah, back in Poland he decides not to go back to the college that he was attending before the war. As we saw, he'd already kind of dropped out anyway. And also, he'd made connections during the war.

So he hoped to do a bit better than going to college. Maybe he could just start his career. And this works out. He very quickly got a job in a law office and began studying. And then, within the year, perhaps using some of those connections during the war, he was able to attend the

Albany, New York law school. A quite prestigious law school in the capital of New York. I knew he'd get into law at some point. Of course he got into law at some point. I can't remember the last one who didn't get into law. Grant?

So yeah, he was at Albany, New York law school for less than a year before he was admitted to the bar. So yeah, nice and quick, he becomes a lawyer. Yeah. And obviously, he decides to open up his own law firm uh in canton ohio so he's still close to home uh in in the city of canton he and his partner did very well for themselves over the next few years uh in fact mckinley was able to buy up an entire block of buildings uh which he then rented out for a healthy profit. In 1867, his good friend and old mentor, Hayes, was nominated for governor of Ohio, which obviously gives McKinley even more connections. McKinley gave speeches for Hayes during this time, and to McKinley's delight, Hayes during this time and to McKinley's delight Hayes wins.

He said earlier he was quite well he spoke quite well and people liked him. Probably leads into his good speaking his good oracy. He gave a good speech apparently he did. Perhaps this is what gives McKinley the idea to get into politics

although it was probably always the plan. Either way in 69 McKinley the idea to get into politics although it was probably always the plan um either way in 69 mckinley ran for and got the position of stark county prosecutor uh nice this was usually seen as a safe uh democratic uh seat um in fact mckinley was more running for it for the experience of running many people did not expect him to get it at all. But to many people's surprise, he got the seat. It made some in the state's Republican Party take notice of this young friend of Hayes. Maybe he's going places. That said, it was a safe Democratic seat, and he lost the re-election two years later in 71. But it was impressive he got it in the first place. Well, yeah.

Still, McKinley's probably not too upset. His firm is doing very well. He's starting to make some serious money, and he had met somebody. Oh, yes. The Saxtons were a prominent family in Canton. In fact, Grandad John Saxton had founded the city's only newspaper, and his son had become a prominent banker. He and his wife Catherine then had a daughter called Ida,

who currently is in her early 20s. Ida and McKinley met in 67 during a picnic. Yeah, they did. 1867, I should probably clarify. Oh. But Ida was then off on a grand tour around Europe, which was a very popular thing for the elite of America to do at the time. So she was going to be gone for a couple of years exploring Europe.

However, once she came back she got a job as a cashier in one of her father's banks which is a job at the time usually reserved for men so this was seen as quite impressive or just scandalous depending on how sexist you were anyway she and William

met once more and soon were engaged and then married in January of 71. And Ida was soon pregnant. And little Katie was born that December. So... Oh, they've got a kid. Yeah, everything's nice, isn't it?

Oh, don't say that. That implies bad things. Everything's nice. It's all good. Yeah, but you asked a question at the end of it. Business doing well. New wife. New child. Friends's all good. Yeah, but you asked a question at the end of it. Business doing well. New wife, new child. Friends with the governor.

Go in places. Who dies? Let's find out, shall we? When Katie was two years old, Ida became pregnant again. See? It's fine. It's all good. Oh, no. While Ida was pregnant, Ida's mother fell ill.

And days before she was due to give birth, her mother died. A distressed Ida then went through a very troubled labour. The child, also called Ida, was born but was very sickly and died four months later. No. Yeah, Ida spiralled. Being a deeply religious family, she fully believed that God must be punishing her for something. Her spiralling mental state then started to impact her physically, and she developed epilepsy at this time, and also the veins in her legs would start to swell up,

causing her a lot of pain. Oh, gosh. Yeah. She became utterly convinced that Katie was going to be taken next. She spent hours weeping over the possibility of her own surviving child's death. This affected little Katie, who was getting just about old enough to understand

what was going on around her. In fact, once, apparently, an uncle suggested that they go for a walk in the garden to get some fresh air, and little Katie said, and I quote, if I go out into the yard, God will punish my manner some more. Oh, that's not okay that's not okay it gets worse um yeah because it turns out that ida's fears were actually completely well founded because in 75 little katie suddenly developed typhoid fever and died within days. Oh. Yeah. Ida just breaks at this point.

Her mother and her two children die within a handful of years. Her mental and physical health just falls apart to the point that it was feared she had brain damage from the seizures. Yeah, so she was very heavily medicated because that's what we did back then and still today. So, yeah, she was essentially just sedated for the rest of her life with large quantities of sedatives. So that was the mid-'70s for the McKinley family.

Not a pleasant time. As for William, I mean, as we'd already seen, he'd already suffered from depression before the war. Now, there's no mention of this during the war that I found. It would appear that the war actually, for him personally, mentally did him some good because it gave him a focus, despite all the horribleness. But the death of his children brought it all back.

It hits him very hard. Not as bad as Ida uh but it's still not good apparently he withdrew uh became very guarded with his speech he went through a period of forgetting important details and cases that he was meant to be um prosecuting or defending um and he'd often just gaze off into nothing at all uh in the middle of conversations so um not not nice no however yeah however unlike ida he at least had work to take his mind off things and as is with life things move on and he starts to think about his career again a case came to him in 76 of 33 miners who were imprisoned for rioting during a strike. McKinley was able to get all but one of them off

and then refused to take payment from the down-on-their-luck workers. Oh, that'll bode well in the future, I imagine. Oh, yes, there's a reason why I'm mentioning it. The name McKinley was soon well-known by the workers of the county. This becomes very useful later on. Then his friend and mentor, Hayes, becomes the president, as we have seen. And this coincided with McKinley moving through the ranks as a politician, because at the same time as Hayes running for president, McKinley runs for a seat in the House. And he gets it. So there you go.

He's now in Congress. In Washington, McKinley found himself in the minority party. And therefore, as a new man in the House, was given no important roles at all. Because why would he be? But he apparently worked hard and got on with his job. There's actually very little to say of him at this time, as is often the case when people become a congressman. You tend to just work hard and live in Washington and not do much else but work and

go to parties in the evening. You'd think that being good friends with the president would help him out at this time, but if you remember, Hayes had won his presidency after some dodgy dealings in the committee, and he was not a well-respected man in the capital. So his friendship with Hayes opened a few doors, apparently.

One door it did open, though, obviously, was the door to the White House itself. William and Ida were frequent guests to Hayes and even stayed in the mansion for two weeks looking after the Hayes children as Hayes and Lucy took a break. So, yeah, that's nice. Again, reading Hayes' diaries,

there's a few mentions of McKinley and Ida coming round for dinner and it being very nice. But that's not to say that Ida's suddenly feeling better. No, of course not, of course not. No, William did not have much of a social life at all because apparently he spent most of his evenings caring for Ida, who was still very much a mess, understandably so. She just simply wasn't up for the high society of Washington

and just kept to herself, apart from occasionally going to the White House. William, however, did manage to make some friends, and according to some, it was William's devotion to Ida that won him round to many people. They noticed how much he cared for his wife and figured he must be a decent guy. figured he must be a decent guy. Now, despite not having any important committee positions, the Democrats spotted McKinley as one to watch and therefore one to bring down. He might be a problem in the future. So because he was friends of the president and also then was also close to Garfield, who was just being elected to become the next president. McKinley was clearly a rising star for the Republicans. So the Democrats sought to de-seat him, get him out of Congress.

What's the best way to get someone out of Congress? Kill them. Yes, but they don't go for that. Oh. No, because this is... Vote them out. Lies. Gerrymandering. That's the one. Yes.

McKinley, as I've said before, came from a strongly Democratic area. Therefore, Democrats pushed hard, gerrymandering McKinley's area in an attempt to drive them out. But it didn't work. McKinley was just too popular, despite being a Republican. Partly, the name he built up for himself defending the workers. In fact, Hayes wrote in his diary, and I'll quote, Oh, the good luck of McKinley.

He was gerrymandered out and then beat the gerrymander. We all enjoyed it as much as he did. Which is great. Hayes wasn't annoyed that the Democrats were gerrymandering. No, he just found it delightful that we could be defeated. So there you go. Garfield became

president and then he was shot and then took 80 days to die. Arthur became president afterwards and it became very clear that the half-breeds were going to push for Blaine from Maine to be nominated next. Sorry, you shocked me when you said

you got shot and ate it. I thought you were talking about McKinley for a second. I was like, what? But no, I'm with you. No, Garfield. Garfield was shot and died. Yeah, I'm just keeping you up to date with what's going on as McKinley is working in Congress.

Yeah. Yeah, McKinley's just getting on with his work, basically, whilst all this chaos is happening around him. He was selected as a delegate for that year's National Convention, so he's starting to become more important. In fact, his standing rises within the party over the next few years. In 89, he was one vote from being elected Speaker of the House. So, I mean, as you can see very much

rising star uh but uh because he lost he was instead offered the chair of the ways and means committee uh the highest profile chair to to hold uh and this is where we first came across mckinley and harrison's episode okay as in benjamin harrison obviously uh yeah when we doubt with the mckinley tariff oh yeah how yeah that's because we talked about mckinley tariff and that is this mckinley and now don't worry i took a while thinking about this uh there were different ways i could go and in the end i decided we're not going to take a deep look at the tariff um oh good yeah no we're not it's very hard to find a biography about McKinley that isn't literally over 50% talking about these tariffs wow in fact I was gonna say the last episode was quite tariff heavy yeah well I could tell you lots of facts such as and here's some if you want some

after 550 amendments the tariff act of 1890 was passed and increased average duties across imports from 38 to 49.5 in an attempt to stimulate the infant domestic tin plate industry the act raised the duty level from 30 to 70 oh%. Oh, thank goodness. There's chapters upon chapters of this stuff. I'll be honest, I just don't think it's that interesting. We're not going to dwell on it. I mean, it is important, but important does not mean the same as interesting. And we're looking at how interesting the president's lives were. I don't think we need to go into a huge amount of detail here.

That said, it is an important factor in McKinley's political rights. So I am going to do a brief overview and give you a bit of a reminder, because for you, it's a long time ago we recorded the last episode on a president, and you've probably forgotten what's going on with these tariffs. So for a small reminder here, hugely simplified. So for a small reminder here, hugely simplified. So the Democrats at this time want to lower the tariffs and the Republicans want to raise the tariffs. Right. The Democrats argued that lowering the tariffs would lower the national surplus.

Remember, the government's making too much money. Yeah. So if you lower the tariffs, we'll make less money and also everything will become cheaper for everyone because there's less tax on everything. Yeah, in particular, this will help people working in agricultural industries rather than manufacturing ones, because the tariffs were higher in the manufacturing industry. Now, the Republicans argued that rising the tariffs would also lower the national surplus, because the tariffs would be so high, fewer people will be buying things, so we'll make less money. Not only that, it will protect US jobs, because more people will be buying things from American businesses, so Americans will

still have work. So those are the two main arguments between the two parties at this time. Now, as the head of the Ways and Means Committee, when the tariff bill comes through, it's McKinley's name that's on the bill. Now, this doesn't mean that he agreed with everything in it. In fact, he states afterwards that it's a committee. There are many things I disagreed with, even though it's my bill. But that said, he was broadly happy with bringing in the highest tariffs that the country had ever seen. The local government went tariff happy. Now, the McKinley Act also gave the president the power to place a tariff on goods that came from that country as a bit of a bargaining chip slash bargaining stick to beat people with.

Is that similar to what Trump was doing with China? It's not quite the same. Yes, we're in the same ballpark. And again, we'll get to that in Trump's episode. But yeah, for example, sugar, tea and coffee were not taxed when they came into the country. They didn't have a tariff on them. This was to keep these things that people enjoyed and liked cheaper, so everyone was just a bit happier. But now the Harrison government could threaten companies in south america where these products were coming from that they would place tariffs on tea sugar and coffee unless you agree with this deal and therefore people in america would stop buying things from those south american countries now there have been earlier examples, but here we really see the starts of

the United States using their economy to dominate other countries. We're not going to use the word bully, but... Keep an eye on this. Keep an eye on it. It's a trend that, let's just say, grows a little bit. And... Never stops. Never stops, no. We really are now at the point where um you can no longer argue that the united states is the plucky underdog country uh yeah they're just not in that status anymore they still are looking at the grand empires of uh europe warily um but uh it's yeah they are

definitely dominating very successfully countries around them. Anyway, as we saw in Harrison's episode, this bill hugely backfires on the Republicans. The public, seeing the prices of goods in general rise, did not care about job protection anymore. They were already struggling to eat. Many people in the country were starving. Working conditions were awful. For the average person, that life was tough. Yes, we need a job. But what's the point of having a job if you work all day, ridiculous hours, and then you still can't afford to eat because prices are going up? Well, yeah.

Yeah. So the Republicans were reduced in the House from 171 seats to 88. Wow. Yeah, these were the midterms, and they were wiped out utterly. Gosh. Huge defeat. McKinley himself had an uphill battle, obviously. Not only was his district gerrymandered once more, district gerrymandered once more um but the biggest issue of these midterms literally had his name on it he was mckinley um yeah yeah so he spent his time trying to convince the constituents in his area uh the mckinley tariff was a good thing in fact i'll quote him the tariff was framed for the people as a defense to their industries as a protection to the labour of their hands, as a safeguard to the happy homes of American working men, and as security to their education, their wages, and their investments. It will bring this country a prosperity unparalleled in our own history and unrivaled in the history of the world. And then someone probably me for a cabbage,

and someone else shouted a bad word. Yeah. Yeah. Most simply looked at rising prices around them and simply did not believe McKinley. It's like, well, you say this, but life's hard, and things are expensive, and we don't like it. Well, yeah.

It did not help that one very underhand, but I've got to admit it, ingenious democratic campaign trick here was to send young boys house to house pretending to just be peddling goods. So they turn up at your door with a tray full of things, general food goods or just knickknacks that you'd normally need to buy yeah so they turn up at your door offer to sell you something um and soon it will be revealed that everything in the tray cost about twice as much as they usually did uh when the person in the house obviously complained said why why are you charging that much uh the young boy would say oh it's the mckinley tariff governor i'm imagining them with a company accent um yeah it's driving all the prices up not my fault i'm cutting my own throat yeah that's quite clever oh yeah yeah this worked i mean people started to really believe

that the mckinley tariff literally doubled the prices of everything which wasn't true i mean prices were rising but not that bad uh yeah it worked mckinley lost his seat see gerrymandering just annoys me i mean how that's still legal is ridiculous but this one yeah oh no i think this is just good politics i mean terrible lying through your teeth but i like it I mean, terrible, lying through your teeth, but I like it. Got to admire it in a way. So he's essentially out of politics now. You know, he's been on the national stage. He's now gone.

Well, yes, but McKinley's got a plan. Because he kind of realised there was a good chance he was going to lose his seat. So beforehand, he met with several prominent Ohioans. Ohioans? Ohioans? Ohio men. People from Ohio. People from Ohio, yeah. Anyway, they were keen for him to run for governor. The current governor was the Democrats,

who was up for re-election the following years. They figure if we start pushing, we might be able to get McKinley into the seat. So McKinley spent most of 91 campaigning and finding himself as popular as ever. He managed to win this by over 20,000 votes, which was a good chunk of votes. Yeah, as we've seen before, being the governor in many states

is a relatively powerless position. And it's the same in Ohio. If you remember Hayes' episode, he didn't really do much. He opened a couple of libraries. That's about it. So, yeah, but it looks good. And also because Ohio was a swing state and because three presidents had come from the states in recent years,

the governor of Ohio was often talked about nationally can i just interrupt you slightly um everyone talks about swing states yeah it's mentioned a lot in 2016 i'm not 100 sure what that is i assume they have more more sway into the outcome because they have more representatives or something it's all about how many parks they have and swing to slide ratio. Ah, well, that makes sense. Yeah, it does. So swing states will change from election to election, although generally roughly stay the same. You more see long periods of change.

Obviously, with the Electoral College, different states, just people vote within the states, and the states put their Electoral college votes forward based on those elections. Most states are a done deal, very much like in this country with the system we use. If you're in a safe Republican or a safe Democratic state, your vote is pretty much useless because your state will almost certainly be either democratic or republican a swing state is the state where it's really close it could go one way or the other now okay what that means is realistically the national election to elect a president usually revolves around just a handful of states where it could go one way or the other so that's why everyone puts all their campaign money into just the

swing states so if you live in a safe Republican state no one's coming campaigning near you because they know they've already got your vote so at the moment Florida is one of the biggest swing states which is why you hear of Florida a lot in recent elections, like the one just gone and also Bush's one in 2000. Whereas back in the days we're talking about, Ohio is a huge swing state. New York is the most important swing state because it's the biggest.

Right. Yeah. So there you go. That's swing states for you. Oh, that's Right. Yeah. So there you go. That's swing states for you. Oh, that's fascinating. Yeah, it's just a way to quickly point out that the democracy is completely flawed and broken in America. Never mind, eh?

Don't get me wrong. Like I say, the easiest way to explain it is it's based on how it works in this country. Well, yeah, it's a different side of the same coin. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Anyway, Ohio, swing state. That means that the next election, there will be a lot of time and effort spent by politicians and the press looking at Ohio, looking at which direction it's going to go in. looking at which direction it's going to go in. If you have a politician from a swing state running as president,

it's more likely that state will vote for them. This is one of the reasons why in this time we suddenly have a whole bunch of people from Ohio becoming president because it's a swing state. Also because they all know each other, so they give each other a leg up, like McKinley's been given a leg up by Hayes. So yeah, anyway anyway all fascinating stuff um mckinley now being governor of ohio is known nationally he's talked about nationally even though his job's not that important it's seen as a bit of a stepping stone if you're the governor of ohio it probably means you're going on to bigger things

so mckinley soon learned that the political hit that the Republicans took in 1890 during the midterms was going to hit them again in 92 because it seemed that Harrison was definitely going to lose and it seemed that Cleveland was going to be put

back in the White House and sure enough he was. However, things were looking bad for his party, but they were actually looking quite good for him personally. He was well-known and respected in the party by this point. His name was even bandied about as a possible dark horse candidate against Cleveland in the election just gone. But that had gone nowhere.

But it did prove that he's on the national scene now. Anyway, once Cleveland became president for the second time, and it became clear that Harrison and Blaine were not the way to go anymore, many of the Republicans started talking about McKinley for the 96th election, so the one in four years. Then the economy just completely collapsed, as we saw. Oh, yes, I remember that. As we saw in Cleveland's episode.

And many people started to struggle more than they already were. Again, for McKinley, politically, this was fantastic news. People started losing their jobs. And he's the man of Labour, isn't he? Well, he was able to sit back and just wait for people to start pointing out that, well, hadn't it been McKinley who was saying that his tariffs were protecting all the jobs? And then the economy had collapsed as soon as the Democrats had gotten in and removed those tariffs. All of a sudden, I'm out of a job,

and the man who said he was protecting my jobs, well, turns out he was right then, isn't he? Now, economies are hugely complex, and it very rarely makes a difference who the president is one day to the next for the economy. I mean, boom and bust is just bigger than who sits in the White House. On top of this, it's fairly clear that the Democrats did not cause the crash by lifting the tariffs, and the Republicans cannot be fully blamed for crashing the economy by lifting the tariffs. And the Republicans cannot be fully blamed for crashing the economy by raising them either. It's just more complex than that. I mean, to try and put it simply,

as per usual, it was businesses overextending and banks being reckless with stocks and bonds that caused the crash. Obviously, this can be aided and abetted by governments but yeah this is why the economy crashed really uh but that doesn't matter it's the perception that matters and the perception was that the economy tanked just after the democrats got in and changed the way things were ran so uh mckinley with his history protecting laborers could i mean he wouldn't say this but he could say I told you so and because of that he became

ever more popular he breezed through his governor re-election campaign no problems at all however it was then that the economic crash hit him it hit him in a way there was no way he would have foreseen

however he was doing fine financially because he was doing very well by this point Trash hit him. It hit him in a way there was no way he would have foreseen, however. He was doing fine financially, because he was doing very well by this point. And as per usual, the people who are doing very well are usually fairly well insulated. However, an old school friend of his had lent money to McKinley when they were younger. And ever since then, as a term favour,

McKinley had been a guarantee in his friend's business. So I'm good for this money, and if it all falls through, my friend McKinley will foot the bill. Yeah. It's fine. McKinley was more than happy to do this. He was guaranteed for about $17,000, a huge sum back then, but he certainly could afford it that was no problem and he never expected to have to pay for it because it's his good friend um his name was

robert walkers and walkers was a good man he's a good businessman there's no reason why he's going to suddenly become bankrupt yeah walkers then went bankrupt because the economy had fallen apart. So he came to McKinley for payment, or at least the people he owed money to did. And McKinley suddenly learnt that he in fact owed over $100,000 because his friend had been a bit more than liberal with the truth. Even now that's a lot of money. It's close to $3 million today. I mean, McKinney was doing well but

this this was enough to to ruin him uh it's just overnight that's it his career's gone everything's ruined falling apart uh he told his friends that he was going to quit being the governor and go back to work as a lawyer and just try to work off his debt for the rest of his life basically um ida had an estate inherited from her father that was worth seventy thousand dollars so a good chunk seventy percent of that of what was up yeah um she put that forward to be used if needed but obviously ideally they didn't want to get rid of their estate um however in a display of how the rich elite operate in politics uh mckinley's friends decided uh to help out and they had a bit of a whip around oh it's like someone held out a hat and it's like oh mckinley's in trouble you've got a spare ten thousand so you could just

pop in yeah build a spare change there's no indication at least i certainly found none uh that any offices were sold um or any dodgy dealings took place so we can only assume it was through the goodness of people's hearts uh that the money was soon raised through donations right yeah who knows uh maybe it was maybe it was i after all, if you think about it, the American dream very much being pushed during this time, during the Gilded Time, and the whole idea of the American dream did not look kindly on those who went bankrupt. Because after all, if all you need to do to succeed is work hard,

then going bankrupt must mean that you somehow didn't work hard enough. I mean, that's just self-evident. It therefore must be your own fault if you went bankrupt. However... That's the thing that's similar now, isn't it? It's like, you're obviously poor, it's your own fault. Hashtag second Gilded Age. Yes, very much.

Yeah, however, don't forget, McKinley hadn't gone bankrupt. He had been tricked by someone, nonetheless, who had not worked hard enough themselves to keep from going bankrupt. McKinley was the unfortunate party here. So however it happened, McKinley found himself out of crippling debt almost as suddenly as he found himself in it as uh friends and the republican party just made it all go away debt what debt yeah one hundred thousand dollars we'll get rid of that for you yeah that's enough so there you go i mean in a way that's nice because i mean it certainly wasn't in any way his fault. But there were countless people in the country during this time who were now in utter ruin due to no fault of their own. And they certainly didn't have that safety net.

So it's good to be in the political elite. That's for sure. It is. Yeah. Makes things easier. Yeah. Anyway, because he's now free from the debt he's able to start thinking about running for president it's not clear when he decides he's going to do this uh but it probably

was around the time he started looking to become a governor as a stepping stone but there's never a clear obvious right i'm going to go for president uh if he'd not before however by this point he definitely is. Now, to begin with, things look positive because he won the support of a man named Mark Hanna. We've not come across Hanna before. He's a Robert Barron type. He was schoolmates with John D. Rockefeller and then went into business with his father-in-law and made millions before he was 40. And as per usual, then got into politics as a way of making sure the policies helped his business out. Of course.

Yeah, he'd recently been leading a faction within the Republican Party to get Sherman nominated. This is the brother to the General Sherman from the Civil War, who we have come across before. Yeah, Hannah was very anti-blame he did not like the half-breeds and he also supported the gold standard now listeners might be surprised that i've not gone into the whole gold uh and silver coinage issue uh in this episode but again i feel like we covered it enough for you to understand what was going on with it in previous episodes. And we'll come back to that at a future time.

But don't forget the huge debate at the moment on whether to use the gold standard or use gold and silver. Hannah, very much in the gold camp. So he spent his time pushing to get Sherman elected. But this had failed in 84 and in 88. And Sherman was now too old to run. So Hannah swung his faction behind McKinley. Now McKinley and Hannah had known each other and been friends for about 20 years at this point. They weren't strangers. And McKinley also had supported Sherman in the last convention. Soon enough, the Sherman supporters start looking at McKinley as

Sherman's successor, as someone they could get behind. Now this makes sense. McKinley's love of a high tariff to help industry, such as the ones Hannah and his faction happened to own, meant that he was well-liked in that group of people. I mean, yeah, high tariffs, you protect American workers, but you're also protecting, therefore, the American businesses and the American business owners. So Hannah becomes the full-time campaign manager for McKinley. McKinley directed the overall strategy, selected issues they'd run with, and was very much the face of the campaign, whereas Hannah worked the back rooms, made the deals,

smoked the cigars, put together alliances. Very similar to Blaine from Maine. Blaine from Maine was more of a front guy. Conkling was more of a backroom guy. Blaine from Maine kind of straddled both. He did backroom deals and he was a front guy as well. Whereas Conkling never ran really, never tried to push himself forward. He always wanted to be the man behind the throne. But yeah, very much like that. For example, in order to get the Eastern party bosses on side, remember, during this time, the Republicans were ran by party bosses in New York and Philadelphia,

the likes of Conkling and Blaine that we've seen. Anyway, in order to get those party bosses on side, Hannah went over to see them, and then came back to McKinley with the offer that was given. and then came back to McKinley with the offer that was given. They'd said that the eastern states would support McKinley if local patronage was given over to them. In other words, once you're president, we get to decide who gets certain jobs in our states. We've seen this before with Hayes and Garfield, Arthur. However McKinley refused.

He's not going to do it. If he won, he was not going to be in the pocket of the bosses from the East. Fair enough. So he decides, no, I'm going to win this without the help of the party bosses. Then Benjamin Harrison announced he wasn't going to run again. So that was it.

It seemed like a sure thing for McKinley. I mean, he was already the most popular man apart from Harrisonrison with no harrison in his way but surely he's got this in the bag uh mckinley and hannah had simply organized quicker than anyone else when the eastern party bosses attempted to fill their own man after their deal fell through they sent out feelers throughout the rest of the country and found that hannah and mckinley had gotten their first every single time and made their own deal. One of them said afterwards, and I quote, Hannah had the South practically solid

before some of us even awakened. So yeah, there's a good solid political machine going on here. And because of that, the result was that for the first time since Grant, the Republican Party nominated someone who was not a last-minute compromise. If you think about everyone since Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison, it's always been a dark horse or a compromise or a back-deal manoeuvre. But not this time. There was one. Yes, that's right, counted one round of voting during the convention. That's never happened before.

I didn't think to check if it's ever happened before. I can't think of a time it happened off the top of my head. I mean, obviously, going back to the times of Washington and Adams, the political scene was so different back then, it's hard to compare. But yeah, this is fairly unprecedented. So yeah, McKinley wins pretty much hands down. And for once, the actual election itself is more interesting than the nomination, which is something I have found more and more fascinating as we've gone on. The nomination and the conventions tend to be more interesting than the actual election. It also explains, because I always did find it odd, I don't know if you're the same, In American politics, the two parties seem to spend most of their time

tearing themselves apart during the nominations. Yeah. And then at the end, a beaten and bruised candidate sort of staggers into the general election. And then suddenly they reverse all opinions. Now let's support them. Which just makes everyone sound hypocritical all the time surely

you all need to back one person yeah you don't get in this country the same in politics um because the parties choose their own leader and just put them forward there is no nomination process so i mean you've seen a bit with it uh within uh labour and the tallies recently in fact the most we've ever seen in our lives, I'd argue. But it's nowhere near on the same scale. You're sort of de-ammunising your frontrunner, aren't you? Yeah. And you're giving the opposition the ammunition they need to attack

because you've just said it all. It certainly forces a weakness, but you could argue it's more democratic that way. But it means everyone is really beaten up during the process. But in this time, it really wasn't. McKinley just goes in and takes it. And then we go into the general election. Now, the Democrats, if you remember, have just nominated Brian.

Brian. Brian, who I was informed after i mentioned him last time uh apparently he is almost always given the three name check of william jennings brian everyone always talks about him as william jennings brian and after i was told this i have noticed yeah everyone always gives him the three name check uh i'm not doing that he's brian nope because yeah that amuses me uh it's just it's just brian brian was uh only 36 years old that's pretty young that is very young but he was gaining a lot of popularity after his famous cross of gold speech which i mentioned uh in the last episode right he was known for being an excellent speaker i mean like seriously good next level you know like almost a preacher who can

convince you of anything kind of speaker yeah yeah um in fact i'll quote uh a bit of the cross of gold speech here having behind us all the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses we shall answer their demands for gold standard by saying to them you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold it's a fire and brimstone revolutionary style talk that's what this is uh so yeah like like i say the debate for this election is uh very much whether to keep the gold standard or go to silver and gold the farmers generally poorer and wanted silver if you remember they wanted inflation

because they wanted their debts to reduce uh the silver mine owners wanted silver so they could sell their silver uh business owners generally wanted gold uh manufacturing would generally be safer and do better under a gold standard. Now, if you remember, the Farmers' Alliances sprang up. Do you remember talking about them? Yes. Yeah, these were coming from largely Republican areas who suddenly started saying to themselves,

yeah, we've always voted Republican ever since the war, but we're poor and the Republicans keep propping up industry and not helping us out. We don't want to vote Democrats because we just don't do that. So maybe Farmers Alliance and a new popular party, a people's party, and you start seeing the first what could be described as a left-wing movement rising up. Well, as we saw last episode, that then collapsed almost immediately. But the people in the Farmers' Alliances then tended to swing behind Brian, despite the fact he was a Democrat. He was very much seen as a radical Democrat. And people who didn't usually vote Democrats started thinking, OK, maybe even though he's a Democrat, maybe I'll vote for him.

All of a sudden, for the first time ever, you've really got a genuine Labour voice in national politics. McKinley is known for being behind Labour, but he's also accused of just being in the pocket big business. And you can see why. Brian was very much talking about really helping the common man. He was anti-imperialism. He was pro the poor. A lot of people liked his message. The Republican Party, full of factory owners and bank owners, absolutely terrified, absolutely terrified.

So they pour a huge amount of money into the McKinley campaign. Hannah encouraged McKinley to try and match Brian's touring. Brian was touring all over the place, giving his excellent speeches and converting a lot of people. McKinley just refused to do this, though. In fact, I'll quote him, I might just as well set up a trapeze on my front lawn and compete with some professional athlete as go out speaking against Brian. I have to think when I speak.

McKinley wasn't known for being bad at speeches, but realised he just wouldn't be able to stand up against Brian, so he just didn't attempt to do it. Instead, he sat up on his front porch and just said, anyone wants to come and talk to me, come and talk to me. And sure enough, lots of important people went to talk to him and they were covered in the press in lots of detail with lots of pre-prepared statements that had been made. It was a very safe campaign from the Republicans. It sounds it. Yeah, let's make sure no one says the wrong thing.

Now, despite Brian's swelling popularity, most Democratic-leaning newspapers refused to back the new Democratic candidate because, obviously, the Democratic newspapers were owned by large business owners and they didn't like this new radical Democrat coming along talking about how the poor people should i don't know be not so poor so with the press against him uh and him being seen as just a touch too radical by most this led to mckinley finally winning with 51

percent of the vote to brian's 48 in the popular, which translates to 271 electoral college votes to 176. It was relatively close, considering Brian really did stand for something new. I mean, you can debate whether it would have worked or not, but Brian was actually something new in politics at this point. Which is, was that more unusual at the time? Because now something new is just not really heard of. It's just, you know, the same old people. Well, you could argue some politicians at the moment are trying to do something new. They keep being defeated, very much like Brian.

Yeah. It does seem very similar to today's politics, this. It really does. Yeah. So McKinley gets it. He wins. He is going to be the 25th president leading arguably the most unified party since the war uh so there you go he's president gosh let's see how he does next time there you go thoughts um he seems well liked he's got the

backing of uh the workers which is important i get well yeah that kind of starts to fall apart towards the end as people just say no you're just doing this for the big businesses rather than the workers it certainly helped to begin with and there is an argument put forth by some historians that no one but mckinley could have beaten brian because he did have that history of helping workers it blunted brian's message slightly uh but yeah he doesn't seem like a bad guy does he i mean we've had some awful people recently he just but at the same time he doesn't seem amazing he just seems like a no he's plodding along yeah he was in the right place at the right time and made connections and his life became

very easy apart from the hideousness of his personal life where everything fell apart um but yeah are we gonna hear more from is it nancy that was his mom wasn't it ida that was his wife oh yeah do you want to say that again are we gonna hear more from ida smooth that sounded natural i impressed. I'll edit that in, no problem. Absolutely, yeah, you can choose. Don't worry, this whole thing's staying in now. A bit. We will see how her story goes. Her story's a tragic one, isn't it? It really is. Yeah. Yeah. So there you go. That's McKinley part one. That's the last time we see a president fighting in the Civil War as well.

Oh, is it? Yes. It's goodbye to the Civil War. That stuck with us for a while, didn't it? It has, yeah. Yeah. But there you go. Civil War's over, officially.

Bye, Civil War. Yeah. But don't worry. Other things are coming up. I mean. Yay. We are, after all, in 1897 now so uh yeah oh we're touching the new millennium we are touching the new millennium yeah we don't worry we get there

next episode we hit 1900 and it's no longer like real history in my mind because everything post 1900 it's just like what happened a bit ago not real history yeah yeah that's true that's definitely true um right okay but thank you very much for everyone who is listening if you are listening and you're up to date so you're listening to this during this time i hope you are well and everything is safe around you please leave the reviews keep leaving the reviews you're doing contact us on twitter and, that's keeping us entertained during the lockdown and the only other thing we really need

to say then is goodbye Goodbye Ah Master Forager. Details, please. We've got 5,000 men very hungry out there. I hope you've managed to come up with something. Ah, well, Lieutenant McKinley, lovely to see you. Well, I've been out with my wicker basket and I found a few items that I think would be splendid.

Okay, right. Again, 5,000 men very hungry. So I don't want to alarm you, but we're running out of crackers. Oh, well, we're not going to have any of that manufactured food. We're going organic. We're going natural here. So here, if you look at my basket, I found four and a half, a treat for you, four and a half mushrooms. Four and a half, half a mushroom? Yes.

Forger, did you eat half of the mushroom on the way back? Well, that's neither here nor there. I saw the mushrooms, I picked them, and they were delicious. After all, I had to check if they were poisonous, but it's fine. Right, so, okay. So you have four and a half mushrooms that you're convinced aren't poisonous. Anything else at all, Forager? Well, yes, I walked around almost 40 feet,

and I found this beautiful lichen adhered to this rock. Yes, I walked around almost 40 feet, and I found this beautiful lichen adhered to this rock. It was sandstone, I believed. And I used my scraping to scrape the lichen off. And here we go. We can have a lichen salad. That's just some bits of dust. This is a bit of a pebble.

What is this? I can't eat this. This is a bit of a pebble. What is this? I can't eat this. I liken it to a good meal. Right, Forager, if the next thing you tell me isn't that you have a wagon load of oats or something out there, I'm not going to be best pleased. We've talked about this before.

Well, you're quite lucky. I do have a wagon load. Of? Moss. Moss. Moss. Moss. You can't eat moss, Forager. You can't digest moss, but you can certainly eat it. Look.

Just checking for poison again. We're always wearing that hat. Forager, are you okay? I like the times I dig new. You're foaming at the mouth. Forager, are you okay? I like the times I dig you. You're foaming at the mouth, Forager. Oh, dear. This is just like last week all over again.

Obviously, the way the elections work in America is that... I just heard your cat. I just heard your cat. The coal mines of Appalachia The story's always the same 700 tons of metal a day And sir, you tell me the world's changed Once I made you rich enough Rich enough to forget my name In Youngstown In Youngstown