Mark Hanna

Mark Hanna

Marcus Alonzo "Mark" Hanna (born September 24, 1837 in Lisbon , Ohio , † February 15, 1904 in Washington, DC ) was an American industrialist and politician of the Republican Party . From 1897 to 1904 he sat for the US state Ohio in the Senate .

Early years

Little Mark's family moved to Ohio in 1844. There he attended Cleveland Central High School , where he befriended John D. Rockefeller . He later attended Case Western Reserve University and the Western Reserve Academy . However, he broke off his studies. He was then employed in his father's grocery store. In the further course the young man was involved in numerous, ultimately unsuccessful, companies. During the civil war he served in the directorate of the US Army . After the end of the war he worked in the coal and steel industries, where he made a considerable personal fortune. Already in his time as an entrepreneur he was interested in politics.

Campaign manager

Hanna as a slave driver in a caricature by Homer Davenport in 1896

In the 1880s, Hanna put his focus on politics. In 1888 he was responsible for Senator John Sherman's campaign when he tried to win the Republican nomination for the 1888 presidential election . Benjamin Harrison was nominated and eventually US President . In 1891, William McKinley wanted to be Speaker of the House , but lost to his party comrade Thomas Brackett Reed . In the same year McKinley successfully ran for governor of Ohio . In both election campaigns, Hanna was the person responsible. After McKinley took office, Hanna became his chief advisor.

William McKinley's greatest competitor for the Republican presidential nomination in 1896 was once again Reed. After watching a speech by Reed in Washington, Hanna realized that McKinley didn't have the charisma Reed did. McKinley was eventually nominated as a Republican candidate for the 1896 presidential election by the Republican National Convention . Hanna was elected chairman of the Republican National Committee that same year . There he supported McKinley's candidacy with a considerable sum of money, which came mainly from entrepreneurs who feared for their supremacy in an election victory for the Democrat William Jennings Bryan . During the election campaign, the Democrats had to realize that they had little chance against McKinley's nomination. So Hanna became more and more the archenemy of the Democrats, especially William Randolph Hearst .

During the election campaign, Hanna temporarily employed up to 1,400 people. His campaigning is considered to be the foundation of the modern campaign style.

senator

After McKinley named John Sherman Secretary of State , his Senate seat had become vacant. The Ohio legislature named Hanna as its successor in 1897. Hanna was designated by McKinley as Postmaster General , but he declined. Due to McKinley's foreign policy successes, Hanna was sure to be re-elected in 1900. He stepped more and more out of McKinley's shadow and played a major role , for example, in advancing the construction of the Panama Canal .

Death and trivia

Hanna ran against Theodore Roosevelt to be nominated as a presidential candidate for the 1904 election. Before a decision could be made, he died of typhus on February 15, 1904 . He was laid out in the Capitol and buried in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland.

He had a daughter, Ruth McCormick-Simms . She later became a member of the US House of Representatives .

Hanna , an unincorporated community ( unincorporated community ) in Lawrence County in South Dakota , was named after him.

Web links

Commons : Mark Hanna  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Mark Hanna in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Mark Hanna in the database of Find a Grave (English)