e General, ignorant of the
ground, refused to move without definite orders. "Then," said McKinley,
who knew that there was urgent need of the movement, "by command of
General Crook, I order you to move your command up this ravine to a
position on the right of the army." The movement was made at once, and
proved successful. McKinley was also in the fierce fight at Cedar Creek,
and afterward served on Hancock's staff. In March, 1865, he received
from President Lincoln a commission as Major by brevet for gallant
services.

With so much of manly character developed at the age of twenty-two, and
so much experience in the greatest conflict of modern times, he turned
to the study of law--first in an office, and then in the Albany Law
School--and was admitted to the Bar in 1867. He settled in Canton, which
was thenceforth his home, and there in 1871 he married Miss Ida Saxton,
who was cashier in her father's bank. Their devotion for thirty years,
and the tenderness and constancy with which he watched over her in the
latter years when she was an invalid, form a chapter that never can be
mentioned without touching the hearts of their countrymen.

Mr. McKinley made his first political speech in 1867, and in 1869, as a
Republican, was elected prosecuting attorney for Stark County. In 1875
he made effective speeches for honest money and the resumption of specie
payments, and in 1876 he was elected to Congress by a large majority. He
was re-elected six times, but in 1890 was defeated by the gerrymandering
of his district. In 1891 he was nominated for Governor of Ohio, and was
elected by a plurality of 21,500. He was re-elected in 1893 by a
plurality of more than 80,000.

In Congress he had been a prominent debater on many important questions,
but he was chiefly conspicuous as an advocate of protection, and, as
Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, he was largely the author
of the tariff bill of 1890 which bears his name. It was slow work
getting the bill through Congress, and it did not become a law till
October. The most amazing misrepresentations of it were set afloat, and
it had not time to vindicate itself before the Congressional elections
came on in November, when the party that had carried it through was
overwhelmingly defeated.

During these years Mr. McKinley was almost constantly in the field as a
political speaker, and he became known as one of the most popular and
effective that our country has produced. It is