Editing Mark Hanna (section)

==== Campaign of 1900 ====
[[File:Two Bills.png|thumb|upright|Although the currency question was not as prominent in 1900 as in 1896 this ''Judge'' magazine cover shows it still played its part in the campaign.|alt=An illustrated magazine cover. Two dollar "Bills" are shown; the top one bears the face of Bill McKinley, and is marked "1 gold dollar. Worth 100 cents or one dollar in gold, prosperity, gold standard". The other shows Bill Bryan, and is denoted "16 to 1 1 dollar. Worth 53 cents only, hard times, free silver".]]

Vice President Hobart had died in late 1899.  President McKinley was content to leave the choice of a vice presidential candidate for 1900 to [[1900 Republican National Convention|the upcoming Republican convention]].  New York Senator Platt disliked his state's governor, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, who had pursued a reformist agenda in his year and a half in office.  Platt hoped to sideline Roosevelt politically  by making him vice president.  Roosevelt was a popular choice in any event because of his well-publicized service during the Spanish–American War, and Platt had little trouble persuading state delegations to vote for Roosevelt after McKinley's renomination.  Quay was a close Platt ally in the effort to make Roosevelt vice president.  Hanna, who felt Roosevelt was overly impulsive, did not want him on the ticket, but did not realize that the efforts were serious until he was already at the convention in Philadelphia.  As many of the delegates were political appointees, Hanna hoped to persuade McKinley to use patronage to get the delegates to vote for another candidate.  After emerging from the telephone booth from which he had tried and failed to get McKinley to agree, Senator Hanna stated, "Do whatever you damn please! I'm through! I won't have anything more to do with the convention! I won't take charge of the campaign! I won't be chairman of the national committee again!"{{sfn|Dunn|pp=334–335}}{{sfn|Horner|pp=260–266}}  When asked what the matter was, Hanna replied,

{{blockquote|
Matter! Matter! Why, everybody's gone crazy! What is the matter with all of you? Here's this convention going headlong for Roosevelt for Vice President. Don't any of you realize that there's only one life between that madman and the Presidency? Platt and Quay are no better than idiots! What harm can he do as Governor of New York compared to the damage he will do as President if McKinley should die?{{sfn|Dunn|pp=334–335}}
}}

On his return to Washington after the convention nominated McKinley and Roosevelt, Hanna wrote to the President, "Well, it was a nice little scrap at Phila[delphia].  Not exactly to my liking with my hand tied behind me.  However, we got through in good shape and the ticket is all right.  Your duty to the country is to live for four years from next March."{{sfn|Horner|p=266}}

The Democrats nominated Bryan a second time [[1900 Democratic National Convention|at their convention]].  This time, Bryan ran with a broader agenda, and attacked McKinley as an imperialist for taking the Spanish colonies.  The Democratic candidate also urged increased use of the [[antitrust]] laws, and alleged that McKinley had been lax in their enforcement.{{sfn|Horner|pp=270–271}}  Hanna summed up the Republican campaign in four words, "Let well enough alone."{{sfn|Croly|p=304}}

Hanna was called upon to do only small amounts of fundraising this time:  no great educational campaign was required, and the corporations were willing to give.{{sfn|Leech|p=543}} The President gave only one speech, the formal acceptance of his nomination in Canton in July.{{sfn|Morgan|p=381}}  Roosevelt, on the other hand, traveled widely across the nation giving speeches.{{sfn|Gould|p=229}}  The New Yorker traveled {{convert|21000|mi}} in the campaign, reaching 24 of the 45&nbsp;states.{{sfn|McCullough|p=247}}  Hanna was now a public figure, and wanted to campaign for the Republicans in the western states.  McKinley, however, was reluctant, as Hanna had varied from the administration's position on trusts in a recent speech.  McKinley sent Postmaster General [[Charles Emory Smith]] to Chicago, where Hanna then was, to talk him out of the trip.  Hanna rapidly discerned that Smith had been sent by the President, and told him, "Return to Washington and tell the President that God hates a coward."  McKinley and Hanna met in Canton several days later and settled their differences over lunch.  Hanna made his speaking tour in the West.{{sfn|Leech|pp=554–557}}  According to Hanna biographer Thomas Beer, Hanna's tour was a great success, though many viewers were surprised he did not wear suits decorated with the "dollar mark".{{sfn|Beer|pp=230–233}}

Hanna spent much of his time based at the campaign's New York office, while renting a seaside cottage in [[Elberon, New Jersey]].{{sfn|Leech|p=553}}  In September, a [[Coal strike of 1902#The 1899 and 1900 strikes|strike by the United Mine Workers]] threatened a crisis which might cause problems for McKinley.  Hanna believed that the miners' grievances were just, and he persuaded the parties to allow him to arbitrate.  With Hanna's aid, the two sides arrived at a negotiated settlement.{{sfn|Gould|p=228}}

On November 6, 1900, the voters re-elected McKinley, who took 51.7% of the popular vote, a slight increase from 1896.  He won 292 electoral votes to Bryan's 155.  McKinley took six states that Bryan had taken in 1896 while holding all the states he had won.  Although the majority was not large by later standards, according to historian [[Lewis L. Gould]] in his study of the McKinley presidency, "in light of the election results since the Civil War, however, it was an impressive mandate."{{sfn|Gould|p=229}}