Editing William McKinley (section)

===Legacy and historical image===
[[File:Harriet Anderson Stubbs Murphy - William McKinley - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|The official Presidential portrait of William McKinley, by [[Harriet Anderson Stubbs Murphy]]]]

McKinley's biographer H. Wayne Morgan remarks that McKinley died the most beloved president in history.{{sfn|Morgan|p=404}} However, the young, enthusiastic Roosevelt quickly captured public attention. The new president made little effort to secure the trade reciprocity that McKinley had intended to negotiate with other nations. Controversy and public interest surrounded Roosevelt throughout the seven and a half years of his presidency as memories of McKinley faded; by 1920, according to Gould, McKinley's administration was deemed no more than "a mediocre prelude to the vigor and energy of Theodore Roosevelt's."{{sfn|Gould|p=252}} Beginning in the 1950s, McKinley received more favorable evaluations; nevertheless, in surveys ranking American presidents, he has generally been placed near the middle, often trailing contemporaries such as Hayes and Cleveland.{{sfn|Gould|p=252}} Morgan suggests that this relatively low ranking is the result of a perception among historians that while many decisions during McKinley's presidency profoundly affected the nation's future, he more followed public opinion than led it, and that McKinley's standing has suffered from altered public expectations of the presidency.{{sfn|Morgan|p=472}}

There has been broad agreement among historians that McKinley's election occurred at a time of a transition between two political eras, dubbed the [[Third Party System|Third]] and [[Fourth Party System]]s.{{sfn|Nice|p=448}} Kenneth F. Warren emphasizes the national commitment to a pro-business, industrial, and modernizing program represented by McKinley.<ref>{{cite book|author=Kenneth F. Warren|title=Encyclopedia of U.S. Campaigns, Elections, and Electoral Behavior|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zP4wDcT3PeQC&pg=PA211|year=2008|publisher=SAGE|page=211|isbn=978-1-4129-5489-1}}</ref> Historian Daniel P. Klinghard argued that McKinley's personal control of the 1896 campaign gave him the opportunity to reshape the presidency—rather than simply follow the party platform—by representing himself as the voice of the people.{{sfn|Klinghard|pp=736–60}} Republican [[Karl Rove]] exalted McKinley as the model for a sweeping political realignment behind George W. Bush in the 2000s{{sfn|Rove}}—a realignment that did not happen. Historian Michael J. Korzi argued in 2005 that while it is tempting to see McKinley as the key figure in the transition from congressional domination of government to the modern, powerful president, this change was an incremental process through the late 19th and early 20th centuries.{{sfn|Korzi|p=281}}

Phillips writes that McKinley's low rating is undeserved, and that he should be ranked just after the great presidents such as Washington and Lincoln. He pointed to McKinley's success at building an electoral coalition that kept the Republicans mostly in power for a generation.{{sfn|Phillips|pp=156–57}} Phillips believes that part of McKinley's legacy is the men whom he included in his administration who dominated the Republican Party for a quarter century after his death. These officials included Cortelyou, who served in three Cabinet positions under Roosevelt, and Dawes, who became vice president under [[Calvin Coolidge|Coolidge]]. Other McKinley appointees who later became major figures include Day, whom Roosevelt elevated to the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] where he remained nearly 20 years, and [[William Howard Taft]], whom McKinley had made [[Governor-General of the Philippines]] and who succeeded Roosevelt as president.{{sfn|Phillips|pp=163–64}} After the assassination, the present [[United States Secret Service]] came into existence when the [[United States Congress|Congress]] deemed it necessary that presidential protection be part of its duties.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-president-william-mckinleys-assassination-led-modern-secret-service-180964868/|title=How President William McKinley's Assassination Led to the Modern Secret Service|first=Kat|last=Eschner|website=Smithsonianmag.com|access-date=December 14, 2021}}</ref>

A controversial aspect of McKinley's presidency is [[Territorial expansion of the United States|territorial expansion]] and the question of [[U.S. imperialism|imperialism]]; with the exception of the Philippines, granted [[History of the Philippines (1946–1965)|independence in 1946]], the United States still retains the territories taken under McKinley.{{sfn|Phillips|p=154}} The territorial expansion of 1898 is often seen by historians as the beginning of an [[American imperialism|American empire]].{{sfn|Phillips|p=99}} Morgan sees that historical discussion as a subset of the debate over the rise of America as a world power; he expects the debate over McKinley's actions to continue indefinitely without resolution, and notes that however one judges McKinley's actions in American expansion, one of his motivations was to change the lives of Filipinos and Cubans for the better.{{sfn|Morgan|p=468}}

A political conservative,<ref>[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Presidential_Performance/EmLZb6uoo78C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Cleveland+saw+conservative+Republican+William+McKinley%E2%80%99s+success+as+a+victory+for+his+own+policies.&pg=PA170&printsec=frontcover Presidential Performance A Comprehensive Review By Max J. Skidmore, 2014, P.170]</ref><ref>[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Gilded_Age/J8FwZ3PXVngC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=A+statement+that+is+seen+as+a+bold+move+for+the+relatively+conservative+Republican+president.&pg=PA181&printsec=frontcover The Gilded Age By Judith Freeman Clark, 2009, P.181]</ref><ref>[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/An_Interpretive_History_of_the_American/rMPnAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=drafting+a+bland+platform+on+the+money+question+but+nominating+for+the+presidency+William+McKinley+,+a+conservative+party+regular&dq=drafting+a+bland+platform+on+the+money+question+but+nominating+for+the+presidency+William+McKinley+,+a+conservative+party+regular&printsec=frontcover An Interpretive History of the American Economy By Jimmy M. Skaggs, 1975, P.239]</ref> McKinley presided over an administration that pursued conservative policies in relation to foreign policy, civil rights and the economy. In regards to the latter, one historian has argued that “Concerning government intervention in the economy under McKinley, the approach remained decidedly laissez-faire.”<ref>[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/American_Conservatism/2dymBgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Concerning+government+intervention+in+the+economy+under+McKinley,+the+approach+remained+decidedly+laissez-faire&pg=PA189&printsec=frontcover American Conservatism History, Theory and Practice By Brian Farmer, 2005, P.189]</ref>  

Morgan alludes to the rise of interest in McKinley as part of the debate over the more assertive American foreign policy of recent decades:

{{blockquote|McKinley was a major actor in some of the most important events in American history. His decisions shaped future policies and public attitudes. He usually rises in the estimation of scholars who study his life in detail. Even those who disagree with his policies and decisions see him as an active, responsible, informed participant in charge of decision making. His dignified demeanor and subtle operations keep him somewhat remote from public perception. But he is once again at the center of events, where he started.{{sfn|Morgan|p=473}}
}}
  

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:William McKinley Presidential Library & Museum.jpg|[[McKinley National Memorial|McKinley's tomb]] in [[Canton, Ohio]]
File:McKinley Memorial Ohio Statehouse.JPG|''[[William McKinley Monument]]'' by [[Hermon MacNeil]] in front of the [[Ohio Statehouse]], Columbus
File:McKinley Monument, Buffalo, NY - IMG 3693.JPG|''[[McKinley Monument]]'' by [[Alexander Phimister Proctor]] in front of [[Buffalo City Hall]], Buffalo
File:McKinley Monument, Toledo, O. - DPLA - a6478c0228d574a7add483ba5b86bfb8 (page 1) (cropped).jpg|McKinley Monument in front of [[Lucas County Courthouse and Jail|Lucas County Courthouse]], [[Toledo, Ohio]]
</gallery>
{| style="margin:auto"
| [[File:500 USD note; series of 1934; obverse.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|McKinley on the [[Large denominations of United States currency|$500 bill]] ]]
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|}