William McKinley

William McKinley was the seventh of nine children born to William and Nancy Allison McKinley. He was born in the Niles in 1843. His grandfathers had both fought in the American Revolution, and in 1830 his paternal grandfather had settled in Niles, Ohio. There, he opened a small pig-iron foundry. When he was nine, he moved with his mother to nearby Portland, Ohio, where there were more opportunities to receive education. His father stayed behind for a …

…out of the demands for economic reform. That year, McKinley pushed the Dingley Tariff Act through Congress, which levied even higher duties than had his own tariff of 1890. The Dingley Tariff also recognized the increasing importance of world trade to large U.S. industries. It allowed the president to negotiate reciprocal trade agreements with other countries, under which the two countries would agree to lower tariffs on specific goods that they traded with each other.