Editing William McKinley (section)

===Spokesman for protection===
{{for|additional information on the currency question|Cross of Gold speech#Background}}
{{quote box | align = right | width = 24em | salign = right
| quote =  Under [[free trade]] the trader is the master and the producer the slave. Protection is but the law of nature, the law of self-preservation, of self-development, of securing the highest and best destiny of the race of man. [It is said] that protection is immoral&nbsp;... Why, if protection builds up and elevates 63,000,000 [the U.S. population] of people, the influence of those 63,000,000 of people elevates the rest of the world. We cannot take a step in the pathway of progress without benefiting mankind everywhere. Well, they say, "Buy where you can buy the cheapest"&nbsp;... Of course, that applies to labor as to everything else. Let me give you a maxim that is a thousand times better than that, and it is the protection maxim: "Buy where you can pay the easiest." And that spot of earth is where labor wins its highest rewards.
| source = William McKinley, speech made October 4, 1892, Boston, Massachusetts}}

McKinley took his congressional seat in October 1877, when President Hayes summoned Congress into special session.{{efn|Until the ratification of the [[Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution|20th Amendment]] in 1933, the Constitution prescribed that Congress begin its regular sessions in early December. See [[US Senate]], [[US Congress]].}} With the Republicans in the minority, McKinley was given unimportant committee assignments, which he undertook conscientiously.{{sfn|Leech|p=20}} McKinley's friendship with Hayes did McKinley little good on [[Capitol Hill]], as the president was not well regarded by many leaders there.{{sfn|Leech|p=37}} The young congressman broke with Hayes on the question of the currency, but it did not affect their friendship.{{sfn|Morgan|p=47}} The United States had effectively been placed on the [[gold standard]] by the [[Coinage Act of 1873]]; when silver prices dropped significantly, many sought to make silver again a legal tender, equally with gold. Such a course would be inflationary, but advocates argued that the economic benefits of the increased [[money supply]] would be worth the inflation; opponents warned that "[[free silver]]" would not bring the promised benefits and would harm the United States in international trade.{{sfn|Horner|pp=180–81}} McKinley voted for the [[Bland–Allison Act]] of 1878, which mandated large government purchases of silver for striking into money, and also joined the large majorities in each house that overrode Hayes's veto of the legislation. In so doing, McKinley voted against the position of the House Republican leader, [[James Garfield]], a fellow Ohioan and his friend.{{sfnm|Morgan||1pp=46–47|Horner||2pp=181–82}}

[[File:Mckin.jpg|thumb|left|McKinley as a Representative {{circa}} 1870s]]

From his first term in Congress, McKinley was a strong advocate of protective tariffs. The primary intention of such imposts was not to raise revenue, but to allow American manufacturing to develop by giving it a price advantage in the domestic market over foreign competitors. McKinley biographer [[Margaret Leech]] noted that Canton had become prosperous as a center for the manufacture of farm equipment because of [[protectionism|protection]], and that this may have helped form his political views. McKinley introduced and supported bills that raised protective tariffs, and opposed those that lowered them or imposed tariffs simply to raise revenue.{{sfnm|Leech||1pp=36–37|Phillips||2pp=42–44}} Garfield's election as president in 1880 created a vacancy on the [[House Ways and Means Committee]]; McKinley was selected to fill it, gaining a spot on the most powerful committee after only two terms.{{sfn|Morgan|p=55}}

McKinley increasingly became a significant figure in national politics. In 1880, he served a brief term as Ohio's representative on the [[Republican National Committee]]. In 1884, he was elected a delegate to [[1884 Republican National Convention|that year's Republican convention]], where he served as chair of the Committee on Resolutions and won plaudits for his handling of the convention when called upon to preside. By 1886, McKinley, Senator [[John Sherman]], and Governor [[Joseph B. Foraker]] were considered the leaders of the Republican party in Ohio.{{sfn|Phillips|pp=60–61}} Sherman, who had helped to found the Republican Party, ran three times for the Republican nomination for president in the 1880s, each time failing,{{sfn|Morgan|pp=73–74}} while Foraker began a meteoric rise in Ohio politics early in the decade. Hanna, once he entered public affairs as a political manager and generous contributor, supported Sherman's ambitions, as well as those of Foraker. The latter relationship broke off at the [[1888 Republican National Convention]], where McKinley, Foraker, and Hanna were all delegates supporting Sherman. Convinced Sherman could not win, Foraker threw his support to [[Maine]] Senator [[James G. Blaine]], the unsuccessful Republican 1884 presidential nominee. When Blaine said he was not a candidate, Foraker returned to Sherman, but the nomination went to former [[Indiana]] senator [[Benjamin Harrison]], who was elected president. In the bitterness that followed the convention, Hanna abandoned Foraker. For the rest of McKinley's life, the Ohio Republican Party was divided into two factions, one aligned with McKinley, Sherman, and Hanna, and the other with Foraker.{{sfn|Horner|pp=59–60, 72–78}} Hanna came to admire McKinley and became a friend and close adviser to him. Although Hanna remained active in business and in promoting other Republicans, in the years after 1888, he spent an increasing amount of time boosting McKinley's political career.{{sfn|Horner|pp=80–81}}

In 1889, with the Republicans in the majority, McKinley sought election as [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker of the House]]. He failed to gain the post, which went to [[Thomas Brackett Reed|Thomas B. Reed]] of [[Maine]]; however, Speaker Reed appointed McKinley chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. The Ohioan guided the [[McKinley Tariff]] of 1890 through Congress; although McKinley's work was altered through the influence of special interests in the Senate, it imposed a number of protective tariffs on foreign goods.{{sfn|Phillips|pp=27, 42–43}}