Mark Hanna

Marcus Alonzo Hanna (also known as Marcus A. Hanna, and Mark A. Hanna ) (September 24, 1837 – February 15, 1904) was an industrialist and Republican politician from Ohio. He was one of the most powerful members of the U.S. Senate.

Moving to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1844, the young Hanna became involved in numerous unsuccessful business ventures. He served as a quartermaster in the Army during the Civil War, and was always close to veterans' organizations. (It is not true that he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor--that was an unrelated Marcus Hanna.) After 1867 he became rich as a shipper and broker serving the coal and iron industries. Cleveland was emerging as a major transhipping point between the Great Lakes ore deposits and the mills of eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, and Hanna loved making deals and bargains on a daily basis over a wide range of products and services. Hanna was one of the few industrialists fascinated less by profits than by the outdoor spectacle and indoor bargaining of politics.

Hanna made a transition into politics during the 1880s and in 1888, he managed Ohio Senator John Sherman's unsuccessful effort to gain the Republican presidential nomination. Hanna, who had helped McKinley win the 1891 and 1893 elections for Governor of Ohio, became his chief advisor. When McKinley won the 1896 Republican nomination for president, Hanna raised an unprecedented $3.5 million for McKinley's campaign for the gold standard, high tariffs, high wages, pluralism and renewed prosperity. Most of the money came from corporations who feared that William Jennings Bryan's more radical Free Silver policy would ruin the entire economy. By October the Democrats realized they were losing on the money issue and targeted Hanna as the arch-villain who threatened to put corporate interests ahead of the national interest. As McKinley was highly likeable, Hanna became a target of newspapers and Democrats, especially William Randolph Hearst and his New York Journal.

Hanna's campaign employed 1,400 people, who concentrated a flood of pamphlets, leaflets, posters, and stump speakers. McKinley defeated Bryan by an electoral vote of 271 to 176. At the time, it was the most expensive campaign ever in U.S. politics, with the McKinley campaign outspending Bryan's by nearly 12 to 1. Today it is considered the forerunner of the modern political campaign for its adroit use of publicity, its overall national plan, its strategic use of issues, and especially the candidate's own speech making.

Once elected, McKinley appointed Senator Sherman to his Cabinet, and Hanna was elected in March of 1897 to fill the remainder of that term, and then re-elected to the subsequent term. As the economy recovered and international triumphs against Spain bolstered McKinley's popularity, the 1900 rematch was an easy victory for Hanna. Taking his place in the Senate, he came out from McKinley's shadow and played an influential role in terms of selecting the Panama route for a canal. More important Hanna worked with the Civic Federation as a concilator regarding labor strife. He succeeded to a considerable extent in attracting labor unions into the Republican fold and heading off major strikes that would be not only economically damaging but politically and socially divisive.

Hanna and Theodore Roosevelt had been allies when they met in 1884, but they became rivals, initially due to their disagreement about the Spanish-American War. Roosevelt strongly favored war with Spain; Hanna resisted war until public opinion demanded it. In 1900, New York politicians wanted to kick Governor Roosevelt upstairs to Vice President. Hanna lacked the political power to stop it. One of the leading powers in the conservative faction of the Republican party, Hanna lost influence when McKinley was assassinated, replaced by the somewhat more progressive Roosevelt. Upon hearing the news, Hanna reputedly remarked that "Now that damn cowboy is president." However, Hanna and Roosevelt worked together (particularly on the Panama Canal) and although they remained personally cordial, they considered each another political rivals.

Hanna was expected to run against Roosevelt for the Republican nomination for president in the 1904 election. The rivalry was cut short by Hanna's death of typhoid fever, at the peak of his power, in February of that year. Hanna is buried in Cleveland's Lakeview Cemetery.

Hanna was the father of Ruth Hanna McCormick. The only good study is Herbert Croly, Marcus Alonzo Hanna: His Life and Work (New York, 1912)

External links

• McKinley and Hanna
• The American Experience: Mark Hanna
• Roosevelt and Hanna