Alternative History
William McKinley
Timeline: Brothers No More

William McKinley

22nd President of the United States
March 4, 1893 – March 4, 1897

Predecessor John G. Carlisle
Successor William Jennings Bryan
Vice President Morgan Bulkeley

U.S. Representative from Ohio
March 4, 1885 – March 4, 1891

Predecessor David R. Page
Successor George P. Ikirt
Born January 29, 1843
Niles, Ohio, US
Died November 29, 1923 (aged 80)
Canton, Ohio, US
Spouse Ida Saxton
Political Party Republican (until 1872), National (1873-79), National American (1879-1923)

William McKinley (January 29, 1843 – November 29, 1923) was an American politician who served as the 22nd President of the United States.

Early Life[]

See here.

Political Career[]

McKinley won a seat in the House of Representatives in the 1884 election and steadily built a national reputation over the next six years. He narrowly lost reelection in 1890 to Democrat George P. Ikirt, but this did not dim his perceived potential in national politics. At the 1892 National American Convention, McKinley defeated his main rival Benjamin Harrison to win the presidential nomination.

While he championed the causes of protectionism and the gold standard, these issues were greatly overshadowed by the prospect of a possible second war with the Confederacy, spurred on by President John G. Carlisle. McKinley, more because of political expediency than any strong personal beliefs, took a stance against the war, promising that he would do his best to avoid bloodshed if at all possible. The question of war deeply divided the country throughout the campaign. The issue came to a head, though, on the day before the election, when the Confederate States Congress voted on a declaration of war with the United States. When directly faced with the prospect of immediate war, many voters were forced to reconsider their position- did they want revenge, or did they want to keep their sons and brothers alive? Many remained on the side of revenge, but not enough for the president to win reelection. McKinley won by over 150 electoral votes to become the 22nd President of the United States.

Presidency[]

It was easy for McKinley to fulfill his first promise as president- he did indeed not go to war with the Confederacy. That was where the positives for his presidency seemed to end, as the Panic of 1893 struck the nation shortly after McKinley's inauguration. Though this panic was caused mainly by European economic ripples and Carlisle's jingoistic sword rattling, the incumbent president naturally received much of the blame. He made a vital mistake with his messaging early on when, instead of highlighting what he would do to fix the crisis, he seemed to pass blame onto his predecessor. While he wasn't wrong in this assessment, his words were seen as cowardly and ineffective by the public, and his popularity took an immense hit.

President McKinley eventually realized his mistake and reassessed his messaging, but it was too late. He worked steadily in the background to get the economy running again, but it was a slow and painful process for the country, full of austerity measures and budget cuts. By 1895, it finally seemed like things were starting to look up. This hope was immediately destroyed by the Confederate economic collapse of 1895, caused by anti-slavery embargoes by the major European powers. Though the US itself was not embargoed, its economy remained closely tied to the Confederacy even thirty years after the end of the war, and the CS collapse caused a chain reaction which sent the Union's economy spiraling again. This was the situation as the country prepared for the 1896 presidential election.

Under normal circumstances, a challenger like William Jennings Bryan would have been easily fought off by the conventional and conservative McKinley. After all, Bryan's radical silver policies were extremely unpopular in the conservative parts of the nation, especially in the Northeast. However, with such a severe and prolonged economic crisis, many voters were willing to look at any alternative to the status quo, and so Bryan was able to run a competitive campaign against the president. The race ended up being so competitive, in fact, that it ended in a tie, with Bryan and McKinley both earning 167 electoral votes. The deadlock was broken by a one state margin in the House of Representatives vote, giving Bryan the presidency and making McKinley a one term president.

Post-Presidency[]

Unsatisfied with his time in the land's highest office, but now left with no opportunity to rehabilitate his image, McKinley quietly returned to his Ohio home. He opposed nearly all of the new president's policies but did not publicly comment on any of them. Instead, he spent his time catching up with family and friends that he had neglected during his stressful time as president, and he repeatedly assured his colleagues that he was retired from politics for good.

Despite these assurances, McKinley never let the possibility of a return to politics completely exit his mind. He could not stop thinking about his razor-thin loss, believing that perhaps he could triumph in a rematch with Bryan despite his continuing unpopularity. However, when he started exploring the prospect privately, he was thoroughly rebuked by anyone who might be his ally in such a pursuit, with party leadership refusing to consider a candidate with such negative name value. Months before the 1900 National American Convention, he firmly decided that a return to politics would be unwise and told his family that he was definitely not running again for the presidency.

McKinley found it hard to determine a course for his post-presidency life, but eventually returned to practicing law in 1901. He mostly retired from this in 1914, living the rest of his life as an elder gentleman in Ohio. He was not personally fond of the idea of going to war with the Confederacy, but when war broke out in 1915, he used his personal connections and wealth to help as much as he could. In the years after the war, Ohio became a hotbed of socialist activity and union strikes, which disconcerted the old conservative greatly. He never lived to see the destructive result of the unrest, the Second American Revolution, as he died of a heart attack in 1923 at age 80.

Legacy[]

In the midst of so much serious unrest, McKinley's death was little more than second page news in most of the country. Not being a particularly loved president, he was not celebrated much by people on his side of the political aisle, and he was openly defied by some socialist organizers after his death. With the fall of the United States government in 1928, his legacy fell even further, and he was mostly forgotten as the new government worked to erase reminders of the country's capitalist past. Today, he is not remembered for much more than the economic crisis he presided over, with mixed views on how effective he was in acting to stop it.