Pinback button promoting William McKinley for president and Theodore Roosevelt for vice president, 1900. The Whitehead and Hoag Co., Newark, New Jersey. 

When Col. Theodore Roosevelt returned from Cuba, hero of his Rough Riders cavalry unit, Republican Party bosses in New York recognized a golden opportunity and tapped him to run for governor in 1898. There were doubts, however, about his loyalty. Roosevelt had been a New York State assemblyman in the 1880s who had built a reputation for charting his own course politically. As governor, he became an energetic reformer, passing progressive legislation and rooting out graft wherever he found it, and the bosses now badly wanted to be rid of him.

They saw another golden opportunity in 1900. There would be a vacancy on President McKinley's reelection ticket, thanks to the timely death of Vice President Hobart. Roosevelt was drafted to run, and the McKinley-Roosevelt ticket handily swept the field in November. Historically, the vice presidency was a dead end job, a sinecure with no real power that usually concluded a politician's career. For Roosevelt, however, it would readily serve as a means of advancement to higher office, for barely six months into his second term, President McKinley was dead at the hand of an assassin. Instead of a maverick in the governor's mansion at Albany, he now resided in the Executive Mansion at Washington—what the 42-year-old President Roosevelt, in a symbolic break with the past, would officially rename the White House. The rest is history.

This pinback from 1900 pictures McKinley, the last 19th century president, and Roosevelt, the first 20th century president.

William McKinley (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the 25th President of the United States from March 4, 1897 until his assassination in September 1901, six months into his second term. McKinley led the nation to victory in the Spanish–American War, raised protective tariffs to promote American industry, and maintained the nation on the gold standard in a rejection of inflationary proposals.

McKinley was the last president to have served in the American Civil War, and the only one to have started the war as an enlisted soldier, beginning as a private in the Union Army and ending as a brevet major. After the war, he settled in Canton, Ohio, where he practiced law and married Ida Saxton. In 1876, he was elected to Congress, where he became the Republican Party's expert on the protective tariff, which he promised would bring prosperity. His 1890 McKinley Tariff was highly controversial; which together with a Democratic redistricting aimed at gerrymandering him out of office, led to his defeat in the Democratic landslide of 1890. He was elected Ohio's governor in 1891 and 1893, steering a moderate course between capital and labor interests. With the aid of his close adviser Mark Hanna, he secured the Republican nomination for president in 1896, amid a deep economic depression. He defeated his Democratic rival, William Jennings Bryan, after a front-porch campaign in which he advocated "sound money" (the gold standard unless altered by international agreement) and promised that high tariffs would restore prosperity.

Rapid economic growth marked McKinley's presidency. He promoted the 1897 Dingley Tariff to protect manufacturers and factory workers from foreign competition, and in 1900, he secured the passage of the Gold Standard Act. McKinley hoped to persuade Spain to grant independence to rebellious Cuba without conflict, but when negotiation failed, he led the nation into the Spanish–American War of 1898; the U.S. victory was quick and decisive. As part of the peace settlement, Spain turned over to the United States its main overseas colonies of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines; Cuba was promised independence, but at that time remained under the control of the U.S. Army. The United States annexed the independent Republic of Hawaii in 1898 and it became a U.S. territory.

Historians regard McKinley's 1896 victory as a realigning election, in which the political stalemate of the post–Civil War era gave way to the Republican-dominated Fourth Party System, which began with the Progressive Era. McKinley defeated Bryan again in the 1900 presidential election, in a campaign focused on imperialism, protectionism, and free silver. However, his legacy was quickly cut short when he was shot on September 6, 1901 by Leon Czolgosz, a second-generation Polish-American with anarchist leanings; McKinley died eight days later, and was succeeded by his Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. As an innovator of American interventionism and pro-business sentiment, McKinley's presidency is generally considered above average, though his universally positive public perception was soon overshadowed by Roosevelt.

Item Details:

This button is in MINT condition and will be a fantastic addition to upgrade any collection large or small.

This button measures 7/8 inches in diameter.

Please disregard any glares or shadows.  The button is in MINT condition.

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