Instead of traveling around the country to meet and speak to voters, McKinley stayed put at his Canton, Ohio residence. His campaign would pay for voters to travel by train to his hometown where he would then speak to them right from his front porch and the speeches were later printed in newspapers. McKinley’s main platform was to push for more protective tariffs just like he had in congress but his opponent William Jennings Bryan’s platform caused currency to become the most hotly debated issue of the election. Bryan was in support of an unlimited amount of silver coins to back our nation 's currency. McKinley proposed that doing this would increase consumer prices and pushed for the US to remain with the current “gold standard” although he had supported silver back in congress. More Americans’ agreed with McKinley as he won with over 7 million of the around 14 million votes cast. (Gould) When McKinley took office in 1897 he held strong with his protectionist views and he successfully passed the Dingley Tariff of 1897, raising import taxes to record highs. He also keep his campaign promise of using gold to back US currency by passing the Gold Standard Act of 1900. McKinley also changed the way the public and presidential office interact. He made himself much more accessible to reporters by providing them an area in the White House to work so that they could get information to the public. The first big issue McKinley had to handle was the Spanish-American War in 1898. McKinley originally hoped to stay neutral in the war between Cuba and Spain and only pressed Spain to negotiate with the rebels. Later, he said that the US would go to war if it was necessary to protect interests. When the battleship U.S.S Maine exploded in Cuba, the public was quick to blame Spain. Largely due to the pressure to act, McKinley took action and declared war on Spain. After 113 days, the US was
Instead of traveling around the country to meet and speak to voters, McKinley stayed put at his Canton, Ohio residence. His campaign would pay for voters to travel by train to his hometown where he would then speak to them right from his front porch and the speeches were later printed in newspapers. McKinley’s main platform was to push for more protective tariffs just like he had in congress but his opponent William Jennings Bryan’s platform caused currency to become the most hotly debated issue of the election. Bryan was in support of an unlimited amount of silver coins to back our nation 's currency. McKinley proposed that doing this would increase consumer prices and pushed for the US to remain with the current “gold standard” although he had supported silver back in congress. More Americans’ agreed with McKinley as he won with over 7 million of the around 14 million votes cast. (Gould) When McKinley took office in 1897 he held strong with his protectionist views and he successfully passed the Dingley Tariff of 1897, raising import taxes to record highs. He also keep his campaign promise of using gold to back US currency by passing the Gold Standard Act of 1900. McKinley also changed the way the public and presidential office interact. He made himself much more accessible to reporters by providing them an area in the White House to work so that they could get information to the public. The first big issue McKinley had to handle was the Spanish-American War in 1898. McKinley originally hoped to stay neutral in the war between Cuba and Spain and only pressed Spain to negotiate with the rebels. Later, he said that the US would go to war if it was necessary to protect interests. When the battleship U.S.S Maine exploded in Cuba, the public was quick to blame Spain. Largely due to the pressure to act, McKinley took action and declared war on Spain. After 113 days, the US was