Eliot said, he was regarded as one of the
greats. Of course, a lot of that was forgotten
after Teddy Roosevelt came into the picture.
While Eliot admits that Roosevelt had more
fl ash and star quality, there’s more to the
presidency than that.
“In terms of sheer ability to conduct the
presidency, there was no question he was
better than Teddy Roosevelt,” Eliot said.
Eliot said there were many things he didn’t
know when he started the research on the
book. He spent countless hours in libraries,
sorting through personal papers, periodicals,
newspapers and more. Because McKinley
served as president during the Spanish-
American war, one of his main sources of
reference was Army historical records.
“I looked through a lot of old, moldy
volumes,” Eliot said.
The thing that amazed and inspired him the
most, he admitted, was the loyalty that
McKinley felt toward the black community, and
how it played a huge part in his presidency.
When McKinley was a congressman, and then
president, things were very bloody in terms of
racial relationships: It was a continuing confl ict.
“He was a friend of the black community,”
Eliot said. “He hired a lot of black men in the
government, and he had many key principle
black advisors. No other president reached out
they way he did, to the black community.”
The black men McKinley surrounded himself
with were self-educated. They may have been
born in slavery, but they became lawyers,
politicians, ministers … they did what they
could to make a name for themselves, and to
encourage those around them. Many of them
were barred in most places from administering
their chosen professions, and barred from
doing business in general – they had to work
with what they had.
One of the things McKinley was able to do,
more than any other president from that time
period, was to appoint well-paying jobs to
competent people serving in government, no
matter what the color of their skin happened
to be. What was a $2,500 annual salary during
that time would be $60,000 to $80,000 now.
Eliot understood that the more things have
changed with race relations, the more some
things stay the same.
“That’s one contribution I can make with this
book,” he said. “It’s been a hard lesson ... and
we still have more to go.”
When he fi nished the book, he said, it was a
great relief.
“I was hoping I would have a chance to fi nish
it, but my cancer left me a very short time, and
I wasn’t sure I could do it. I did it ... I fi nished it
up.”
Eliot admitted that his wife, Louisa, played a
vital role in the creation of this book. She is now
well-versed in the life of McKinley, and has her
own favorite parts.
“It was not a book written for the academic
community, but more for a general reader’s
consumption,” she said. Those who have read it
have declared a ‘great read.’ If you look on the
cover, you’ll see that McKinley is standing on
a porch ... his front porch. People would come
from miles around to hear him speak. His wife,
Ida McKinley, brought ragtime to the White
House (hence the name of the book).
Eliot explained that Ida McKinley had a
starchy diplomatic assembly one time, and she
cleared the dance fl oor to bring out several
scores of young people to dance to what some
during that time called “dubious” music, now
known as ragtime. There were several “fi rsts”
during McKinley’s presidency, some that have
not been repeated since.
“He was a commanding presence in the
presidency, an extraordinary individual,” Eliot
said. “We can look to him as a role model for
the position.”
The last paragraphs of the book is very telling
of the preceding pages.
McKinley was an outstanding national leader
during diffi cult times; he wrestled with issues
familiar to us today, and did so with great skill.
His decisions infl uenced national policy far
beyond his time in offi ce. The boldness and
breadth of his foreign policy laid the
foundation for what America would become in
the twentieth century.
But what stands out is how he conducted his
presidency: with modesty, tolerance and
integrity, always with the national interest
foremost in his mind. McKinley’s presidency
would serve us well as a model for the
presidency in the twenty-fi rst century, a
reminder that great leadership does not always
require a loud voice.
“Ragtime in the White House: War, Race and
the Presidency in the Time of William
McKinley” is available on Amazon and
through most major bookstores.