McKinley Quotes
Some scholars believe that it was Henry Cabot Lodge to whom he made this remark.
In many recent Presidential elections many have thought a Vice Presidential candidate superior to the Presidential candidate. Such was also the case in 1900.
“Waving the bloody shirt” was a term that some Southerners accused Northern post Civil War politicians of inflaming Northern public opinion by relating incidents of Northerners who wanted to help uphold the equal rights of Blacks in the South and were murdered by the Klu Klux Klan and waving a bloodstained shirt belonging to the dead martyr. There never was an incident that could be documented of actually waving a bloody shirt. But many Northern politicians related events of Southern lynchings and other assaults on Blacks and Whites who were guilty of nothing but claiming lawful rights for Negroes. Northerners who remembered the Civil War and the atrocities and war crimes of Andersonville and Quantrill’s Raiders when they heard these speeches were outraged and angry. This created much anti-Southern attitudes in the North and the West some of which exist to this day.
Macdarland’s role was the equivalent of the Mayor of Washington DC. As an ally and apologist for McKinley, he felt that the President was doing the best he could to deal with the monopolies who were then keeping competitive capitalism from functioning properly. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt thought McKinley weak and vacillating especially on the “trusts”, and when he assumed the Presidency, he accomplished much more. TR however did not discover the Trust problem. As this quotation shows, there was general political awareness amongst the politicians of the day of the Trust/Monopoly problem in America. It was Roosevelt who did something about it to the distress of many of his own party leaders who had previously intimidated McKinley into inaction.
In 1864 Mariani combined Bordeaux wine with cocaine and sold the mixture throughout the world. For over 50 years it was a leading consumer product in Europe and the United States. President William McKinley was a user and praised the product. Two popes conferred the title of "Benefactor of Humanity" upon Mariani for his invention.
This was the first of what would be several American wars where public support for the conflict waned, and there was little to be gained for the United States by continuing the war. However, the President dared not terminate the war lest it appear that the U. S. was beaten and/or we were abandoning the principles upon which we justified the war. Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan followed with similar problems for the Presidents and macho Americans Emilio Aguinaldo was the leader of the Filipino revolutionists and nationalists.
His role was the equivalent of the Mayor of Washington DC. This quotation is historically important as it shows is the norms for appointments in this era. The local party leaders essentially had the privilege of selecting an appointee provided he was reasonable qualified. Where not he did appoint a few Democrats.
