William McKinley and Mark Hanna

A Political Partnership

William McKinley and Mark Hanna enjoyed a close political relationship. Hanna was a Cleveland, Ohio industrialist who became active in Ohio Republican Party politics and who managed McKinley's 1896 campaign. Hanna had worked closely with McKinley starting in 1880, admiring the politician's support for a high protective tariff. In the 1896 campaign, Hanna raised $3,500,000, a record amount for the time, and the Republicans vastly outspent their Democratic and Populist opponents, both parties of which nominated William Jennings Bryan for the presidency. The Ohio General Assembly elected Hanna to the United States Senate in 1897.

Because of his wealth, and his connections to William McKinley, and to other powerful business titans of the day, Hanna was often satirized in the Democratic press.

Although The Verdict was very much a pro-Democracy and anti-McKinley and anti-Hanna weekly, the paper did from time to time offer more flattering portraits of the persons it attacked, as in this case of Hanna.