Honors History writing 2

William McKinley
Brent Springer

The fundamental question that everyone is thinking is which presidential candidate would provide the essential change that a strong and prosperous America demands in the unsure years ahead?
In my opinion our next president should be William McKinley. Why because his main interests would be to secure the will and interest of the average working man. He has defended this interest in both domestic and foreign affairs. In domestic affairs, he proposed to reform the civil service system in the manner that employment opportunities would be given to most qualified people. McKinley argued that technical posts ought to be open to experience as well as education. Despite the fact that he agreed in principle with the Republican support of big business, McKinley gave priority to labor unions.

What is important is that his main concern was labor because he knew first hand of what it was like to be in poverty. This gave him the perfect understanding of the working class needs. He made sure that his policies were aimed at saving the safety of people, the civil rights and of course the well being of the working class and middle class. He favored civil service reform, the federal protection of voting rights, and regulation of business excesses and reflected the wishes and needs of an expanding middle and working class. During most of his political career, McKinley fought hard for the implementation of policies that would administratively regulate the power of trusts and monopolies. He supported the Anti-Sherman Act, which Congress had passed in 1890 to control monopolies and dissolve those that had already established themselves.
McKinley strongly believed in democratic system based on a respect of the public opinion. He developed a theory of democracy it was simply that the people were right. To McKinley, people have right to decent life, economic growth and political representation. His main view political thinking was a firm belief of a democratic representative government. McKinley believed in racial equality. He demonstrated a remarkable sense of courage and intellectual determination by being a strong defender of civil rights for African-Americans in the 1890s. He and many others favored enforcing the Fourteenth Amendment to give African Americans citizenship and the freedom to vote by reducing Southern representation in Congress.
The most important aspect of William McKinley's political ideal was his goal to expand the American national frontier. McKinley's view on expanding was a mixture of religious humanitarianism, economic internationalism and imperialism which later developed through time and political practice. In his inaugural address McKinley assured Americans, "We want no wars of conquest; we must avoid the temptation of territorial aggression." However, as time went on McKinley's ideal of expansion slowly increased as his goal of a dominant American world started to surface he moved towards endorsing internationalism and imperialism. Eventually he made the historic declaration, "Isolation is no longer possible or desirable"