History is funny about how it remembers people. Most folks can tell you all about the Rough Rider, the big stick, and the tiny glasses of Teddy Roosevelt. But if you ask who was president before Theodore Roosevelt, things get a little hazy for the average person. It was William McKinley.
He wasn't just some placeholder. Honestly, McKinley was a powerhouse in his own right, a guy who basically dragged the United States into the 20th century whether the rest of the world was ready or not. He was the bridge between the old-school, post-Civil War era and the high-octane imperial power we recognize today.
McKinley’s presidency didn't end because of an election. It ended because of a bullet. That single moment in Buffalo, New York, shifted the entire trajectory of the American executive branch.
The Man Who Came Before the Storm
William McKinley was the 25th President of the United States. He was a Methodist from Ohio, a veteran of the Civil War—actually the last president to have served in that conflict—and a man known for being incredibly kind, even to his enemies. People loved him. He had this way of making you feel like the only person in the room.
His path to the White House in the 1896 election was a massive deal. It was the "Front Porch Campaign." Instead of traveling the country, he literally sat on his porch in Canton, Ohio, and let hundreds of thousands of people come to him. It worked. He beat William Jennings Bryan by championing the gold standard and high tariffs.
He wanted stability. He got a global empire instead.
The Spanish-American War: A Turning Point
You can't talk about who was president before Theodore Roosevelt without talking about the war that made Roosevelt famous. McKinley didn't actually want to fight. He’d seen the horrors of the Civil War firsthand at Antietam. He famously said he had seen enough "dead bodies piled up" to last a lifetime.
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But the public was screaming for blood after the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor.
McKinley eventually gave in. The war lasted only about a hundred days. It was a "splendid little war," according to John Hay. By the time it was over, the U.S. had grabbed Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Suddenly, McKinley wasn't just a domestic policy guy; he was an imperial leader.
The 1900 Ticket: How Teddy Got Involved
McKinley won re-election in 1900 with a new running mate. His first Vice President, Garret Hobart, had died in office. The Republican establishment actually hated Theodore Roosevelt. He was a loudmouth, a reformer, and a general pain in the neck for the party bosses in New York.
They figured the best way to shut him up was to "bury" him in the Vice Presidency.
It’s one of the greatest backfires in political history. Thomas Platt, the New York political boss, pushed for Roosevelt to be on the ticket just to get him out of Albany. Mark Hanna, McKinley’s right-hand man, was horrified. He famously yelled, "Don't any of you realize that there's only one life between this madman and the Presidency?"
He was right.
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The Pan-American Exposition Tragedy
In September 1901, McKinley traveled to Buffalo for the Pan-American Exposition. He was at the height of his power. On September 6, he was shaking hands at the Temple of Music. A man named Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist who felt the government was inherently corrupt, approached the President with a revolver concealed under a handkerchief.
He fired two shots.
One bullet grazed McKinley; the other went deep into his abdomen. Even as he fell, McKinley’s first instinct was for others. He told his guards not to hurt the assassin, and he worried about how the news would affect his wife, Ida, who was in poor health.
The Long Week and the Rise of TR
For a few days, it looked like McKinley might actually make it. Doctors couldn't find the bullet, but they thought he was stabilizing. Roosevelt, who had rushed to Buffalo, was told the President was out of danger. He even went on a hiking trip in the Adirondacks.
Then, infection set in. Gangrene.
In 1901, we didn't have the medical tech to handle internal infections like that. McKinley died on September 14.
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Theodore Roosevelt had to be tracked down on a mountain. He took the oath of office in a library in Buffalo, wearing borrowed clothes, becoming the youngest president in history at age 42. The transition was jarring. McKinley was a "safe" conservative; Roosevelt was a progressive firebrand who wanted to break up trusts and regulate everything in sight.
Why McKinley Matters Today
If you ignore the guy who was president before Theodore Roosevelt, you miss the context of why the 20th century looked the way it did. McKinley shifted the U.S. toward a managed economy and international interventionism. He set the table, and Roosevelt just sat down and started eating.
- Economic Policy: McKinley was the "High Priest of Protectionism." He believed tariffs protected American jobs. Sound familiar? We're still having that debate today.
- Foreign Influence: He moved the U.S. away from isolationism.
- Modern Campaigning: His 1896 campaign was the first to use massive amounts of data, surrogate speakers, and corporate funding on a modern scale.
Most historians, like Lewis L. Gould, argue that McKinley was the first "modern" president because he expanded the power of the office significantly before TR ever touched it.
Common Misconceptions
A lot of people think Roosevelt was the one who started the war with Spain. Nope. He was just the Assistant Secretary of the Navy who pushed for it and then quit to go fight. McKinley was the one who actually signed the declaration.
Another weird one? People think McKinley was a puppet for big business. While he was definitely pro-business, he had a mind of his own. He was starting to move toward "reciprocity" in trade—basically early free trade agreements—right before he died.
What to Do With This History
Knowing who was president before Theodore Roosevelt helps you understand that history isn't just a list of "great men." It’s a series of messy, connected events. If you want to dive deeper, here are some practical ways to explore this era:
- Visit the McKinley Presidential Library & Museum: It's in Canton, Ohio. It has a massive collection and really shows the transition from the 19th to the 20th century.
- Read "The President and the Assassin" by Scott Miller: It reads like a thriller and covers the parallel lives of McKinley and Czolgosz.
- Check out the Buffalo History Museum: They have incredible archives on the 1901 Exposition and the assassination site (which is now just a plaque in a residential neighborhood).
- Compare Tariffs: Look at the McKinley Tariff of 1890 versus modern trade policies. You'll see that the "new" arguments about trade are actually over 130 years old.
The story of the presidency didn't start with the loud, charismatic guys we see in the movies. It started with the quiet, methodical ones like McKinley who built the foundation.