The man, who now, in the year 1900, stands at the head of our great
land, was born at Niles, O-hi-o, on Jan-u-a-ry 29th, 1843. In the
schools near his home he was taught his let-ters and, as a child, was
fond of books, and quick to learn. He was a mere boy, when he taught
school to earn the means to go to Col-lege. The school-house in which
he taught still stands; it is a plain, square, white house, with two
win-dows in front and three on each side. His moth-er was a good
wo-man, with a clear, strong brain; she taught him, as well as his
eight broth-ers and sis-ters, to love truth, and to live brave and
strong lives.
Young Wil-liam was not long to lead a life of peace; for in 1861 he,
then but a boy of eight-een, left his books and his home, and went to
the war. Many sto-ries prove how brave he was while there; but two will
show you why he rose so fast from the ranks. At one time the guns had
been left on the road, af-ter a great fight; and it would be a hard task
to go back near the foe to get them. But, young Mc-Kin-ley said, "The
boys will haul them;" and he and a few oth-ers went back for them and
brought them into our lines. Then he was at one time two miles from the
fight, in charge of the food; he was quite safe; but he thought our men
would fight bet-ter, if they had some cof-fee and food. So he filled a
cart and drove straight to the lines, where our brave men were hard at
work. Was this not a brave act? To risk his life for the sake of tak-ing
food and drink to the worn men. He worked his way straight to the
front and came out of the war a cap-tain. He went home at once and took
up the stud-y of law in Can-ton; one of his first speech-es was for the
rights of the black men; he said that they should have the same right to
vote that white men had; and he was ev-er on the side of the black man.
In 1869 Mc-Kin-ley was mar-ried to Miss I-da Sax-ton. They were both
very young when their two lit-tle chil-dren died. The young law-yer did
all he could to cheer his wife; and she was as brave as he, and did not
let her grief keep him from his work. He rose fast in his state, and
held high place more than once; then, in 1877, he was sent to Congress.
In 1891 he was made gov-ern-or of O-hi-o; and in 1897, he had made such
a great name for him-self that he was put up for pres-i-dent by the
Re-pub-li-cans, and e-lect-ed. Just as he came in-to of-fice, the strife
in Cu-ba was at its height; and men here in our great, free land had
much pit-y for the Cu-bans, who were try-ing to get free from Spain,
just as we had tried to shake off the hand of Eng-land long years a-go.
The Span-ish rule grew worse and worse, as Spain found that Cu-ba would
not give in. At last Gen-er-al Wey-ler, a harsh and cru-el man, was sent
there to force peace on an-y terms; but Gen-er-al Go-mez knew his foes
well, and his brave men fought with a strength born of a great hate for
Spain. By and by, when Spain saw she could not win the day, she sent
word that if Cu-ba would lay down her arms, she could have the rights
for which she had asked in vain in the past.
[Illustration: WILLIAM McKINLEY.]
But it was too late; Cu-ba had no faith in Spain, and would now be free
from her hard yoke. There was much want in the big towns of Cu-ba at
this time, for Wey-ler had made all the poor folks, who had lived in
peace on their small farms, come in-to the towns. He said they gave
help to the Cu-ban troops, and so he forced them to leave their homes
and would on-ly let them bring with them just the few things that they
could put on their backs. Then he had their lit-tle homes, and their
crops which they had raised with care, all burned to the ground. He had
lit-tle food to give this great host of poor peo-ple, and ma-ny died in
the streets for the want of bread. You may be sure that our great land
saw the pain and want down in Cu-ba, and longed to give aid; but an act
of help on our part would mean war with Spain, and this Mc-Kin-ley did
not wish. But there came a day when a great cry went up through the
U-nit-ed States at a foul deed done in the bay of Ha-va-na. Our great
war ship, the "Maine," was blown up by a bomb, as she lay at an-chor in
the har-bor. The thought of our poor men sent to such a death raised the
cry of war in all hearts. "Re-mem-ber the Maine," was the war-cry; and
men cried for war at once with Spain. But Mc-Kin-ley gave Spain one more
chance to stop the fight and free Cu-ba; this she would not do. So on
A-pril 21st, 1898, once more the U-nit-ed States had to make read-y for
war. From all the states men poured in and camps sprang up here and
there, where the men were taught to load and fire their guns. Off at
Hong-Kong, in charge of our war-ships, was brave Ad-mi-ral Dew-ey. He
knew that the Span-ish fleet was in Ma-ni-la Bay, near the Phil-ip-pine
Is-lands, which were ruled by Spain; the loss of these ships would be a
great blow to Spain just at this time; so Dew-ey steered his ships there
to strike a blow for his coun-try.
It was night when he reached the spot, and be-fore the Span-iards knew
he was near, six of his great ships had slipped past their forts. Then
a fierce fire poured on him from the forts; but it did not do much harm.
At last the Span-ish fleet saw him, and at once the ships o-pened fire;
but Dew-ey's flag-ship, the "O-lym-pi-a," sent out such a storm of shot
and shell, that the first of the Span-ish ships was sunk, and all on
board killed.
The fight last-ed two hours; and at the end of that time the Span-ish
fleet had all been sunk. Great joy was felt in the U-nit-ed States when
this glad news was heard, and Dew-ey was the he-ro of the whole land.
Our men down in Cu-ba fought well, and ma-ny brave deeds were done. On
June 6th Ad-mi-ral Samp-son fired on the forts at San-ti-a-go; our men
put their hearts in their work and their aim with the great guns was
true and straight. The Span-iards did not aim so well, and their shots
did not go so far, and so the shot and shell from their forts did not
do us much harm.
Soon our men had stopped the fire from all the forts save Cas-tle
Mor-ro, and this fort was rent and torn in great holes.
On June 24th our "Rough Ri-ders," with The-o-dore Roose-velt at their
head, were sent out to clear the way to San-ti-a-go. The foe poured a
hot fire on our men from the tall grass and weeds in which they lay
hid-den; and there was great loss of life. Full of fire and pluck were
these "Rough Ri-ders," and led by their brave colo-nels, Roose-velt and
Wood, they forced the Span-ish troops back, foot by foot. The line of
fight was five miles long; the heat was fierce; and food and wa-ter
scarce. But at last the troops came to the fort of San Juan Hill; then,
with a mad rush, up, up went our men to the Span-ish fort at the head!
Cheers and shouts rose to the skies as the red, white and blue waved
from the old Span-ish fort; but the cost of this fort had been great,
for there was much loss of life on both sides. On Ju-ly 3d Cer-ve-ra,
the Span-ish Ad-mi-ral, tried to sail his fleet out of the bay of
San-ti-a-go; he was seen, though, by our men, and af-ter a hot chase
and fierce fight-ing, the whole Span-ish fleet was burned or sunk.
Spain lost scores of brave men; but on our side not one man was killed,
nor did we lose a ship.
The end of the war was near; on Ju-ly 10th we laid siege to San-ti-a-go,
and on Ju-ly 17th we went in-to the cit-y and raised ov-er it the Stars
and Stripes.
In this part of the world the last shot had been fired; but Dew-ey in
the far east did not know this, and so he struck one more blow for his
coun-try.
He took the cit-y of Ma-ni-la with the loss of but twelve men, and when
our flag waved o-ver this cit-y, the end of the Span-ish war had come.
On Jan-u-a-ry 1st, 1899, the Span-ish flag, which for four hun-dred
years had waved o-ver Cu-ba, was hauled down; the red, white and blue
of our own land took its place; and Cu-ba, free from the hard rule of
Spain, blessed the great na-tion that had come to her aid.
In Sep-tem-ber of 1899 Ad-mi-ral Dew-ey came home; and from end to end
of this land his name was cheered.
He was the guest of the cit-y of New York for three days; and well did
the cit-y hon-or the he-ro of Ma-ni-la.
When we took Ma-ni-la from Spain, and so closed the Span-ish war, it did
not give us the Phil-ip-pines. The men there were glad to have us drive
out the Span-iards, but did not wish us to take their place. Long months
of war fol-lowed, but now, A-gui-nal-do, their chief, has yield-ed and
peace seems to be at hand.
It was not eas-y to see when Mc-Kin-ley be-came pres-i-dent that we
were soon to be in the midst of war; but our land has borne her part
well. We have gained new lands in the far east, and our flag waves o-ver
strange peo-ple who have not yet learned that it stands for free-dom.
They still fear that the yoke of the U-nit-ed States will be as hard to
bear as that of Spain. This is not so, and it will not be long be-fore
all these far-off lands will learn to love and bless the Red, White and
Blue, just as ev-er-y State in our great Un-ion does to-day.