<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> "The current was too strong, the demagogues too numerous, the fall elections too near"</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> While Bryan stumped up and down the land, McKinley let the voters come to his lawn in Canton—and they came</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck"> To the question of acquiring new territories overseas, and owning colonies, one group of Americans answered with a resounding “No!”</span> </p>
<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> The United States remained officially neutral, but many Americans fought alongside both opposing armies and several became legendary heroes</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Presidential candidates stayed above the battle until William Jennings Bryan stumped the nation in 1896; they’ve been in the thick of it ever since</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Conjectural or speculative history can be a silly game, as in “What if the Roman legions had machine guns?” But this historian argues that to enlarge our knowledge and understanding it sometimes makes very good sense to ask …</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck">That’s what the newspapers called him, and he spent an increasingly reckless career trying to edit out the adjective. But even winning a war single-handed didn’t get him what he wanted.</span></p>
<p>Although his flamboyant successor, Theodore Roosevelt, greatly overshadowed him, William McKinney deserves credit for establishing the United States as a global power, acquiring Hawaii and Puerto Rico, establishing the “fair trade” doctrine, and paving the way for TR’s accomplishments.</p>
