McKINLEY 



3569 



McKINLEY 



sion there in 1671; soon after it became a 

 military post, and Old Fort Mackinac, built in 

 1712, still stands. In 1761 it was surrendered to 



ARCH ROCK 



The water of the strait is over 200 feet below 

 the opening, and a delightful view is presented. 



the British, but it became American property 

 after the Revolutionary War. During the War 

 of 1812 it was an important military post, was 



captured again by the British and held suc- 

 cessfully against American attacks. It was re- 

 stored to the United States in 1815. 



The city of Mackinac Island, lying under the 

 hills and below the fort, was chartered in 1899. 

 Old Fort Mackinac, formerly a government 

 preserve, was given by the United States gov- 

 ernment to the state of Michigan and is main- 

 tained as a state park. This park covers more 

 than half the island; one of its most pictur- 

 esque spots is Arch Rock. 



McKINLEY, makin'li, MOUNT, the highest 

 mountain of North America, situated in Alaska, 

 150 miles north of the head of Cook inlet. It 

 is covered with perpetual snow, and has many 

 glaciers. The actual summit has never been 

 reached by man, but Dr. Frederick A. Cook, 

 of polar exploration notoriety, laid claim to 

 the accomplishment of the feat. He failed, 

 however, to prove his right to the honor. In 

 1912 two explorers ascended to a height of 

 20,300 feet; the peak rises only a few feet 

 higher. See COOK, FREDERICK A. 



M c Kinley's Home 

 Canton. Ohio 



.cKINLEY, ma kin' U, WILLIAM 

 (1843-1901), an American soldier and states- 

 man, twenty-fifth President of the United 

 States and the third President to lose his life 

 at the hands of an assassin. McKinley's life 

 is still too recent for historians to form a final 

 estimate of his public or private character, but 

 there are certain characteristics which time will 

 not erase from memory. Quiet and dignified in 

 his manner, both among his friends and on the 

 public platform, he was a man to inspire confi- 

 dence. McKinley was true to the thousands of 

 his friends, and he had the warmest sympathy 

 for men of all classes and all nations. He had 

 a remarkable gift for foreseeing the trend of 

 public opinion, and shaped his course accord- 

 ingly. For years he held devotedly to his ideal 

 of commercial protection, yet when he saw the 

 United States outgrow it, like a wise man he 

 changed and broadened his ideal. This atti- 

 tude was not the attitude of a cheap politician ; 

 224 



on the contrary, it was a characteristic which 

 enabled McKinley to rise above petty con- 

 troversies. He was preeminently a man of high 

 principles, of unchallenged integrity. 



Ancestry and Youth. McKinley was born on 

 January 29, 1843, at Niles, Ohio. His great- 

 great-grandfather, a Scotch-Irishman, came to 

 America in 1743 and settled in Pennsylvania. 

 James McKinley, the grandfather of the Presi- 

 dent, moved to Ohio about 1830, and laid the 

 foundations of the family fortune in the iron 

 industry. William McKinley, like his father 

 before him, began to work in the iron foundry 

 when he was still a boy, but he later went to 

 school and finally entered Allegheny College in 

 1859. He was brilliant in his studies, especially 

 mathematics and languages, but withdrew from 

 college after a year on account of ill health. 



Military Career. At the outbreak of the War 

 of Secession McKinley, though only a boy of 

 eighteen, was teaching school. He at once en- 



