majority had been several hundred. This was the beginning of his political career. The next step was not taken until after five years more of hard study and diligent practice at the bar.

Mrs.

MARRIAGE AND Home Life.—On Jan. 25, 1871, Major McKinley married Miss Ida Saxton of Canton. McKinley was born and bred in Ohio.

Of good fam

ily on both sides, she has the distinction of being a granddaughter of John Saxton, who for sixty years. was the editor of the Ohio Repository, which is still published in Canton. The father of Mrs. McKinley, the late James A. Saxton, was a banker and capitalist. After her marriage Mrs. McKinley became a communicant of the Methodist church, of which her husband was a lifelong member. In the course of time two children, both girls, christened Kate and Ida, were born to them. Just previous to the birth of her second child Mrs. McKinley was called upon to face the first great sorrow of her life in the death of her mother. From this blow she never quite recovered. She was still suffering from the shock when her second little girl, Ida, sickened and died, to be soon followed by Kate. These bereavements, coming after each other in such rapid succession, were too heavy a load for the tender heart of Mrs. McKinley. Her whole being was affected, her strength impaired, and she never was in robust health again. But with infinite patience, with the most delicate solicitude and tenderest affection, her husband made life a pleasure for her, and she requited his love with unlimited devotion and confidence. Their married life was an ideal one.

One who knew them well thus happily writes of their beautiful domestic life:

"His domestic life was as clear as sunshine. He married his sweetheart and the love she inspired grew stronger with every recurring day of their exquisite communion. Hers kept happy pace with his. Their thoughts of each other intermingled like the perfume of two rich roses. His solicitude for her was indescribably sweet. To each other their wishes were commands. None who ever heard McKinley address his wife failed to be struck by the tenderness of his inflection. It was as caressing as a mother's touch upon her sleeping child. He called her 'Idy,' her name being Ida-a Western peculiarity of pronunciation which led him to call Cuba 'Cuby.'"

An instance of his responsiveness to every one of his darling's desires occurred on the night of his second inauguration, last March, when they were proceeding in their carriage from the Executive Mansion to the inaugural ball. It is always the custom at these functions for the first gentleman and the first lady of the land to promenade through the ball room previous to taking their departure. On this occasion Mrs. McKinley said, while the carriage was rolling toward the Pension Building:

"Dear, I don't think I feel able to make that march to-night."

Quick as thought his hand dropped caressingly upon

hers.

"All right, Idy," he said tenderly, "then we won't make it."

The sad parting of this devoted and loving couple forms one of the most pathetic instances either in history or romance.

CHAPTER V

ELECTED TO CONGRESS

In the early summer of 1876 Major McKinley announced himself as a candidate for representative in Congress from the Stark-Columbiana district. Не won the Republican nomination against two rivals, and was then elected by a flattering plurality. In 1877 Ohio elected a Democratic legislature, which promptly gerrymandered the congressional districts, so that when McKinley sought re-election in 1878 he found himself in a district normally Democratic by at least 1,800. Nothing daunted, he entered the campaign, and was successful by a majority of 1,300. Then the former district lines were restored, and he was easily returned for his third and fourth terms. Getting possession of the Ohio legislature again in 1883, the Democrats gerrymandered the state once more, putting McKinley in a district Democratic by from 1,200 to 1,500. But the people of eastern Ohio knew and appreciated the statesman who had so well represented them, and they re-elected him for his fifth term by over 2,000 majority. The sixth and seventh terms followed, as a matter of course. In 1889 came another Democratic victory and a third gerrymander, which threw Major McKinley in 1890 into a district which had the year before given a Democratic plurality of 2,900. He accepted the challenge, made a gallant fight, and was defeated by only 302 votes. It

is interesting to recall, in view of this one defeat, that McKinley had been for some years before twitted in Congress by Mr. Springer on having been returned at the previous election by a somewhat diminished. majority. Mr. Springer said: "Your constituents do not seem to support you." McKinley's reply is worthy of remembrance: "My fidelity to my constituents," he said, "is not measured by the support they give me. I have convictions which I would not surrender if 10,000 majority had been entered against me."

To tell the story of McKinley's seven terms would be to tell in a large measure the history of Congress and the nation for fourteen years. From the beginning he was an active and conspicuous member of the House. He was an American, and he considered nothing that concerned Americans unworthy of his notice. He recognized, however, that in view of the vast development, extension and multiplication of human interests there was little hope for success as a universal genius. A man must be a specialist if he would attain the greatest eminence and the greatest usefulness. Already, indeed, he had devoted his attention especially to the subject of the tariff and its bearings on American industry. The story is told that soon after he opened his law office at Canton, while he was as yet an untrained youth, he was drawn into a debate on that subject. Pitted against him was a trained, shrewd and experienced lawyer, who had at his tongue's end all the arguments in favor of free trade. The older and more expert debater won a seeming victory, but McKinley, though silenced for a time, was not convinced. "No one will ever overcome

me again in that way," he said to a companion. "I know I am right and I know that I can prove it." Thenceforth the study of books and men and conditions of industry to attain that end was the chief labor of his life.

BLAINE'S TRIBUTE.-Mr. Blaine, in his "Twenty Years in Congress," made fitting mention of this

feature of his younger colleague's work. "The interests of his constituency," he wrote, "and his own bent of mind led him to the study of industrial questions, and he was soon recognized in the House as one of the most thorough statisticians and one of the ablest defenders of the doctrine of protection."

FIRST SPEECH IN CONGRESS.-The first speech he made in Congress was on the subject of the tariff, and was in opposition to the nonprotective bill introduced by Fernando Wood, of New York, in 1878. That