Mark Hanna

Early life and business career

Marcus Alonzo Hanna was born on September 24, 1837, in New Lisbon (in 1895 renamed Lisbon), Ohio, to Dr. Leonard and Samantha Hanna. Leonard's father, Benjamin Hanna, a Quaker of Scotch-Irish descent, was a wealthy store owner in New Lisbon. Dr. Hanna practiced in Columbiana County, where New Lisbon was located, until he suffered a spinal injury while riding. After the accident, he joined the family business, B., L., and T. Hanna, by then a major grocery and goods brokering firm. Samantha, née Converse, and her parents had journeyed west from Vermont when she was 11; she was of English, possibly Irish, and French Huguenot descent.

Mark's uncle Kersey Hanna described Mark as a boy as "short, strong and rugged, with a full round figure". Young Mark attended the local public school, which conducted class in the basement of the Presbyterian church. He competed in the local boys' debating society, and on the question of whether the black man had more cause for complaint than the Indian, carried the day arguing for the blacks.

Members of the Hanna family invested in a canal project to connect New Lisbon, distant from waterways, to the Ohio River. The canal was a failure, and the family lost large sums of money. Most Hanna family members left New Lisbon in the early 1850s. Dr. Hanna went into partnership with his brother Robert, starting a grocery business in Cleveland, and relocated his family there in 1852. In Cleveland, Mark attended several public schools, including Cleveland Central High School, which he went to at the same time as John D. Rockefeller and was one of his classmates. After graduation in 1857, Hanna attended Western Reserve College, but was dismissed for distributing mock programs at a solemn ceremonial. Hanna served in various capacities in the family business, learning it from the bottom up.

Civil War service

By the start of the Civil War, he was a major participant in the business. Dr. Hanna had fallen ill with complications from his spinal injury (he died on December 15, 1862), and Mark Hanna, even before his father's death, was made a partner.

With an ill father and many business responsibilities, Mark Hanna could not be spared by his family to join the Union Army, hiring a substitute to enlist in his place. Instead, he became a member of the Perry Light Infantry, a regiment of National Guard troops consisting mostly of young Cleveland businessmen. In 1864, his regiment was briefly mustered into active service as the 150th Ohio Infantry and sent to be garrison troops at Fort Stevens, part of Washington, D.C.'s defenses. During the time the Perry Light Infantry was in service, it saw brief combat action as Confederate General Jubal Early feigned an attack on Washington. However, Hanna, who had been commissioned a second lieutenant, was absent during that time, having been sent to escort the body of a deceased soldier back to Ohio. The regiment was mustered out in August 1864.

Post war

Even before his service during the Civil War, Hanna had fallen in love with Charlotte Augusta Rhodes, whom he met in 1862, shortly after her return from a finishing school. Her father Daniel Rhodes was an ardent Democrat and was distantly related to Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas, the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president in 1860. Rhodes disliked the fact that Hanna had supported the successful Republican candidate, former Illinois Congressman Abraham Lincoln. Daniel Rhodes eventually yielded, and Mark and Charlotte Augusta Hanna were married on September 27, 1864.

The 1850s and 1860s were a time of great expansion for Cleveland, which grew from a small lakeside town to a major player in Great Lakes commerce and a rival to the southern Ohio city of Cincinnati. With peace restored in 1865, Hanna struck out on his own ventures. Foreseeing a demand for petroleum products, he built a refinery, and also invested his own money in the Lac La Belle, a swift Great Lakes steamer. The ship sank and the refinery burned, uninsured. The losses reduced Hanna to near-insolvency. According to Hanna biographer Herbert Croly, "he had gained little from the first nine years of his business life except experience." His father-in-law, appreciating Hanna's potential, took him into his own business in 1867 as a partner and soon retired. The firm, Rhodes and Company (later M.A. Hanna and Company), dealt principally in coal and steel, but under Hanna expanded into many fields. The firm had close dealings with the railroads—especially the Pennsylvania Railroad, which carried much of its freight. Hanna later became director of two railroads, including one of the Pennsylvania's leased lines.

In the 1868 presidential election, Hanna supported the Republican, former Union General Ulysses S. Grant. The flood of inflationary greenback currency issued during the war made Rhodes and Company's dealings in the new confederation of Canada difficult; merchants would accept a dollar in paper money as the equivalent of 35 cents in gold. Hanna hoped that Grant, who was elected, would institute policies which would return full value to the currency. The firm built many vessels and also gained interests in a wide variety of firms, which in turn used the Rhodes steamers. Hanna also purchased Cleveland's opera house, allowing it to remain open at times when it could not pay its full rent.

During Grant's first four-year term, Hanna began to involve himself in politics. At first, his interest was purely local, supporting Republican candidates for municipal and Cuyahoga County offices. In 1869, he was elected to the Cleveland Board of Education, but as he was traveling a good deal for business at the time, was able to attend less than half the meetings. In 1873, disgusted by local scandals and the influence of party bosses, he and other Republicans briefly abandoned the party to elect a Democrat running for mayor of Cleveland on a reform agenda.

Aspiring kingmaker (1880–1888)

In 1880, Hanna added The Cleveland Herald newspaper to his business empire. This was resented by Edwin Cowles, who owned the Republican newspaper in Cleveland, The Cleveland Leader. For the next five years, until Hanna sold the newspaper, he was bitterly attacked by Cowles in his paper. According to Hanna biographer William T. Horner, the episode was the start of the negative image of Hanna in the press which would be further developed by the Hearst newspapers over a decade later. Cowles's paper attacked Hanna personally, dubbing him "Marcus Aurelius". Cowles's choice of nickname was dictated by the coincidence of name, without regard to that emperor's good reputation. The nickname remained with Hanna throughout the remainder of his career.

The incumbent in 1880, President Rutherford Hayes, had no interest in seeking a second term; after 36 ballots, the Republicans nominated Ohio Representative James Garfield. The nominee had gone to the convention as manager of the campaign of his fellow Ohioan, Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman. Garfield had emerged as a candidate after delegates were impressed by his nomination speech of Sherman. Although Hanna did not attend the convention, he was very active in the fall campaign. The industrialist helped found a businessman's fundraising club to raise money for Garfield's personal expenses in the campaign. Garfield, who ran a front porch campaign, often had to entertain politicians and others who came to meet him at his home in Mentor. According to Charles Dick, who succeeded Hanna in the Senate after the latter's death in 1904, "Mr. Hanna had as much to do with the election of Mr. Garfield as any single individual in the country."

Hanna, according to his biographer Croly, was in charge of the arrangements for the campaign visit of former President Grant and New York Senator Roscoe Conkling to the state. Croly credits him with persuading the two men, who were Stalwarts hostile to Garfield's Half-Breed wing of the party, to visit Garfield in Mentor. Having Grant go to Mentor would be an important show of party unity—Grant had sought the presidency again in 1880, but his faction had failed to gain the nomination for him. However, later biographer Horner believes the tale dubious, suggesting that Grant made the decision unaided by Hanna. Garfield favored civil service reform, a position disliked by Hanna, who felt that public jobs should be used to reward campaign workers. Nevertheless, he strongly supported Garfield as a fellow Ohioan, and the Republican candidate defeated his fellow Civil War general Winfield Hancock by a narrow margin in the November election. Hanna did much fundraising work, roaming the state to persuade business owners to contribute to the Garfield campaign.

McKinley partisan (1888–1896)

Early relationship

It is uncertain when William McKinley and Mark Hanna first met—neither man in later life could remember the first meeting. McKinley, in 1896, referred to a friendship with Hanna that had lasted over twenty years; Hanna, in 1903, stated after some thought that he had met McKinley before 1876. McKinley biographer H. Wayne Morgan suggests that the two men may have met as early as 1871, although initially without making much impression on each other.

The two men certainly met in 1876, when McKinley, a lawyer, represented a number of coal miners who had gone on strike following attempts by owners to cut wages. Hanna was one of the mine owners affected by subsequent unrest. The militia, called in by Governor Rutherford Hayes to restore order, had fired on the strikers, and 23 miners were arrested and put on trial in Canton, Ohio, the hometown of Major McKinley (as he was often known, for his Civil War service). McKinley was hired to represent them, and only one was convicted. McKinley's victory won him the gratitude of labor elements in both major parties, and he won election to Congress later that year. Hanna remembered, "I became intimate with him soon after he entered Congress, and our friendship ripened with each succeeding year."

With Cowles's enmity ended by Hanna's sale of the Herald, the latter had little trouble being elected as a district delegate to the 1888 Republican National Convention. Among the delegates, at-large were Governor Foraker and Congressman McKinley. Hanna financed many of the arrangements for the Sherman campaign and was widely regarded as its manager. Sherman, as was customary at the time, remained in Washington and did not attend the convention in Chicago. There was widespread speculation in the press that Governor Foraker, nominally a Sherman supporter, would declare a favorite son candidacy or else support Blaine if he entered the race. The convention deadlocked, with Sherman in the lead but unable to secure the nomination. According to Hanna biographer Thomas Beer,

At the Republican convention of 1888, an accident displayed Major McKinley favorably to Marcus Hanna. A distinct faction, made up of men from every part of the country, approached him with a suggestion that he let himself be nominated. McKinley refused, and bluntly. He had come there pledged to support John Sherman and he would support John Sherman ... Mr. Hanna's admiration of Major McKinley was profuse. He appreciated men who stuck to a losing bargain.

Preparing for a run

As early as 1892, McKinley and Hanna began to prepare for the 1896 campaign. Charles Dick recalled being asked to take the Republican state chairmanship:

I went first to see Governor McKinley. He urged me to accept and asked me to see Mr. Hanna, which I did the next day. The reasons both urged were that the campaigns from 1892 down to 1896 must be conducted with a view to bringing about McKinley's nomination in 1896. McKinley spoke of it and so did Mr. Hanna.

President Harrison had proven unpopular even in his own party, and with the start of 1892, McKinley was talked about as a potential candidate. At the 1892 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, McKinley's keynote address sparked wild applause from a convention friendly to him. This popularity did not translate into delegate votes; Harrison's supporters were in control of the convention throughout. Hanna, a delegate from Ohio, promoted McKinley to delegates. McKinley, never a declared candidate, finished third, a fraction of a vote behind Blaine, who had declared himself not to be a candidate. Despite Harrison's success, McKinley was carried from the convention hall to his hotel by supporters after he adjourned the convention. According to Morgan, many delegates "saw in [McKinley] their nominee for 1896".

Harrison and his adherents were unimpressed by McKinley's conduct, recalling that he had cut off talk of a candidacy in 1888, but had not done so in 1892. Nevertheless, Hanna wrote in a letter that "I do not consider that Governor McKinley was placed in any false position by what was done ... Governor McKinley's position today as a result of all that transpired at Minneapolis is in the best possible shape for his future. His bearing and conduct and personal magnetism won the hearts and respect of everybody." McKinley campaigned loyally for President Harrison, who was defeated by former president Cleveland in the November election, and according to the governor's secretary, Charles Bawsel, "[McKinley] is bound to be the nominee for the presidency, and the very fact of the defeat this year will elect him the next time."

Among those who suffered reverses in the financial Panic of 1893 was a McKinley friend in Youngstown. McKinley, out of gratitude for loans in his younger days, had guaranteed the friend's business notes, without ever grasping the full amount of the obligations he was taking on. He was called upon to pay over $100,000 and proposed to resign as governor and earn the money as an attorney. Hanna was absent from the state when the crisis broke, causing the governor to say "I wish Mark was here." McKinley's wealthy supporters, including Hanna once he learned of the situation, undertook to buy up or pay the notes. McKinley was reluctant to take gifts, and eventually agreed to accept money only from those who expected nothing by lending the money but repayment. Even though both McKinley and his wife Ida insisted on putting their property in the hands of the supporters, who served as trustees, Hanna and his associates fundraised with such success from business owners and the general public that all McKinley property was returned intact, and when President McKinley died in 1901, no claims were made against his estate. A request by McKinley for the names of the subscribers so he might repay them was refused by the trustees. The episode made McKinley more popular with the public, as many Americans had suffered in the hard times and sympathized with the Ohio governor.

Campaign of 1896

Nominating McKinley

After leaving business, Hanna rented a house in Thomasville, Georgia, expressing a dislike for northern winters. He was joined there by the McKinleys in 1895, even before the governor left office, and also in the winter of 1896. The location was a plausibly nonpolitical vacation spot for McKinley and also permitted him to meet many southern Republicans, including blacks. Although southern Republicans rarely had local electoral success, they elected a substantial number of delegates to the national convention.

During 1895, Hanna journeyed east to meet with political bosses such as Senators Matthew Quay of Pennsylvania and Thomas Platt of New York. When Hanna returned to Canton, he informed McKinley that the bosses would guarantee his nomination in exchange for control of local patronage. McKinley was unwilling to make such a deal, and Hanna duly undertook to gain the former governor's nomination without machine support.

Historian R. Hal Williams summarized the relationship between McKinley and Hanna:

McKinley and Hanna made an effective team. The Major commanded, decided general strategies, selected issues and programs. He stressed ideals ... Hanna organized, built coalitions, performed the rougher work for which McKinley had neither taste nor energy. Importantly, they shared a Hamiltonian faith in the virtue of industrialism, central authority, and expansive capitalism. That faith, triumphant in the 1896 presidential election, became one of the reasons for the vital importance of that election.

Through the months leading up to the Republican convention in June in St. Louis, Hanna built his organization, paying for expenses, and applying the techniques of business to politics. Hanna met with many politicians at his Cleveland home. He paid for thousands of copies of McKinley's speeches to be printed and shipped quantities of McKinley posters, badges, and buttons across the nation. New Hampshire Senator William E. Chandler commented, "If Mr. Hanna has covered every district in the United States, in the same manner, he did those in Alabama, McKinley will be nominated."

McKinley's most formidable rival for the nomination was former president Harrison, but in February 1896, Harrison declared he would not run for president a third time. The eastern bosses were hostile to McKinley for failing to agree to the offer they had made to Hanna, and they decided to seek support for local favorite son candidates, believing that McKinley could be forced to bargain for support at the convention if he was denied a majority. The bosses supported candidates such as Speaker Reed, Senator Quay and former vice president Levi P. Morton of New York. Hanna spent much money and effort to undercut Reed in his native New England, and on "McKinley Clubs" in Pennsylvania to force Quay to spend time and money shoring up his base.

Currency question and Democratic nomination

A major issue, going into the 1896 election cycle, was the question of the currency. The United States, since 1873, had effectively been on the gold standard—the metal, if presented to the government, would be assayed and struck into coin for a slight charge to cover expenses. Silver, in contrast, though widely mined, could not be presented for conversion into coin, but had to be sold as a commodity. The gold standard was unpopular in many agricultural and mining areas, as the quantity of gold available limited the money supply, making it difficult for farmers to obtain loans and pay debts. Advocates of the free and unlimited coinage of silver believed that doing so would cure the country's economic malaise by increasing the money supply. Advocates of the gold standard argued that a "free silver" policy (sometimes called "bimetallism") would inflate the currency, and lead to difficulties in international trade with nations on the gold standard. At the time, the precious metal in a silver dollar was worth about $0.53, and under such proposals, silver worth that much would be returned to depositors as a one-dollar coin, "free"—that is, without a charge for the Mint's costs for assaying and coining.

Despite the controversy in the country, McKinley and Hanna decided that an explicit mention of the gold standard in the party platform would be a better strategy than remaining silent on the issue. McKinley sent Hanna to the convention with a draft plank calling for maintenance of the gold standard, which Hanna successfully placed in the party platform. The adoption of the plank caused some Republicans, mostly from the West, to walk out of the convention. As they left, Hanna stood on a chair, shouting "Go! Go! Go!"

McKinley expected the election to be fought on the issue of tariffs; he was a well-known protectionist. The Democrats met in convention in July in Chicago; former Missouri congressman Richard P. Bland was deemed likely to be the nominee. As McKinley awaited his opponent, he privately commented on the nationwide debate over silver, stating to his Canton crony, Judge Day, that "This money matter is unduly prominent. In thirty days you won't hear anything about it." The future Secretary of State and Supreme Court justice responded: "In my opinion in thirty days you won't hear of anything else."

On the third day of the Democratic convention, former Nebraska representative William Jennings Bryan concluded the debate on the party platform. Bryan stampeded the convention with what came to be known as the "Cross of Gold speech", decrying the gold standard, which he believed disproportionately hurt the working classes. To the horror of Wall Street, the Democrats nominated Congressman Bryan for president, a nomination in which the Populist Party soon joined. Hanna had taken a yachting vacation in early July before beginning general election work; with a wave of popular support for Bryan, Hanna wrote "The Chicago convention has changed everything" and returned to his labors.

General election campaign

According to Horner, "In 1896, as the country was mired in an economic slowdown that affected millions, a real, substantive policy debate was conducted by candidates who believed firmly in their respective positions." Bryan, whose campaign was ill-financed, felt that his best means of persuading the voter of his position was personal communication, and embarked on an unprecedented itinerary of whistle stop appearances by train. If the train passed any large group of homes and did not stop for Bryan to speak, it would at least disgorge a bundle of political tracts for local distribution. McKinley felt he could not match Bryan's speaking tour, as the Democrat was a better stump speaker. Despite Hanna's urgings to the candidate to get on the road, the former governor decided on a front porch campaign; he would remain at home in Canton and allow the people to come to him. As McKinley's wife, Ida, was an invalid, this also boosted his image as a good husband.

When McKinley, Hanna and their associates saw the emotional appeal of the Bryan campaign for free silver, they decided upon an extensive and expensive effort to educate the electorate. The McKinley campaign had two main offices; one in Chicago, effectively run by Dawes, and one in New York, used by Hanna as a base of operations as he sought to gain support from New York financiers. Hanna's task was to raise the money; other campaign officials, such as Dawes, determined how to spend it. Being relatively unknown on the national scene, Hanna initially had little success, despite Wall Street's fear of Bryan. Some Wall Street titans, although disliking Bryan's positions, did not take him seriously as a candidate and refused to contribute to the McKinley campaign. Those who did know Hanna, such as his old schoolmate Rockefeller—the magnate's Standard Oil gave $250,000—vouched for him. Beginning in late July 1896, Hanna had an easier time persuading industrialists to give to the McKinley/Hobart campaign. J.P. Morgan entertained him aboard the Corsair II and he obtained money from other bankers. Hanna also gave large sums himself. This money went to pay for advertising, brochures, printed speeches and other means of persuading the voter; the country was flooded with such paper.

According to Rhodes, McKinley "spoke from the front veranda of his house in Canton to many deputations, some of them spontaneous, others arranged for." Any delegation was welcome in Canton, so long as its leader wrote to McKinley in advance and introduced himself and his group. Delegations ranged up to thousands of people; if possible, delegation leaders were brought to Canton in advance to settle with McKinley what each would say. If this could not be arranged, the delegation was met at the train station by a McKinley agent, who would greet it and learn what the leader proposed to say in his address. The agent would suggest any fine-tuning necessary to make it fit within campaign themes, and send the information ahead by runner to McKinley, giving him time to prepare his response. The delegations left behind gifts, which were put to use when possible, but four eagles, named "McKinley", "Mark Hanna","Republican", and "Protection", were donated to the local zoo.

Senator (1897–1904)

McKinley advisor (1897–1901)

In the wake of McKinley's election, according to historian James Ford Rhodes (who was also Hanna's brother-in-law, though a Democrat), "Mark Hanna occupied an enviable position. Had it been usual, the freedom of Cleveland would have been conferred upon him." According to John Hay, who would later become Secretary of State under McKinley, "What a glorious record Mark Hanna has made this year! I never knew him intimately until we went into this fight together, but my esteem and admiration for him have grown every hour."

Hanna stated that he would accept no office in the McKinley administration, as he feared it would be seen as a reward for his political efforts. He had long wished to be a senator, speaking of this desire as early as 1892. Senator Sherman, now aged almost 74, would face a difficult re-election battle with the Democrats and the Foraker faction in 1898. On January 4, 1897, McKinley offered Sherman the office of Secretary of State; he immediately accepted. The poor record Sherman posted prior to his departure from office in 1898 led to attacks on Hanna, suggesting that a senile man had been placed in a key Cabinet position to accommodate him. Foraker, in his memoirs, strongly implied that Sherman was moved out of the way to allow Hanna to have his Senate seat. An embittered Sherman stated in a letter after his departure as secretary, "When [McKinley] urged me to accept the position of Secretary of State, I accepted with some reluctance and largely to promote the wishes of Mark Hanna. The result was that I lost the position both of Senator and Secretary ... They deprived me of the high office of Senator by the temporary appointment as Secretary of State."

Horner argues that the position of Secretary of State was the most important non-elective post in government, then often seen as a stepping stone to the presidency, and though Sherman no longer sought to be president, he was aware of the prestige. According to Rhodes, "Sherman was glad to accept the Secretaryship of State. He exchanged two years in the Senate with a doubtful succession for apparently a four years' tenure of the Cabinet head of the new Republican administration, which was undoubtedly a promotion." Rhodes suggested that Hanna did not give credence to warnings about Sherman's mental capacity in early 1897, though some of those tales must have been told by New York businessmen whom he trusted. The stories were not believed by McKinley either; the President-elect in February 1897 called accounts of Sherman's mental decay "the cheap inventions of sensational writers or other evil-disposed or mistaken people".

Roosevelt years and death (1901–1904)

McKinley's death left Hanna devastated both personally and politically. Although the two had not been allies, the new president, Roosevelt, reached out to Hanna, hoping to secure his influence in the Senate. Hanna indicated that he was willing to come to terms with Roosevelt on two conditions: that Roosevelt carry out McKinley's political agenda, and that the President cease from his habit of calling Hanna "old man", something which greatly annoyed the senator. Hanna warned Roosevelt, "If you don't, I'll call you Teddy." Roosevelt, who despised his nickname, agreed to both terms, though he imperfectly carried out the second condition.

Hanna was a supporter of building a canal across Central America to allow ships to pass between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans without making the lengthy journey around Cape Horn. The senator believed a route across the Colombian province of Panama to be superior to its Nicaraguan rival. How he came to support this route is uncertain, though attorney and lobbyist William Nelson Cromwell later claimed to have personally converted Hanna to the Panama cause in 1901. This was disputed by the French canal promoter, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, who stated that at the end of his meeting with Hanna at the Arlington Hotel, the senator exclaimed, "Monsieur Bunau-Varilla, you have convinced me."

The Nicaragua route had many supporters and a bill sponsored by Iowa Congressman William Peters Hepburn, which would authorize the construction of a canal on the Nicaragua route, had passed the House of Representatives. In June 1902, it was considered by the Senate, and on June 5 and 6, Hanna made a speech against the Hepburn Bill. In his speech, he referred to enormous maps, which were displayed in the Senate Chamber as he spoke. This was a novel technique, especially as he referred to the possibility of active volcanoes on the Nicaragua route in his speech, and the maps showed active volcanoes marked with red dots and extinct ones with black. There was an almost continuous band of black dots through Nicaragua, with eight red ones; no dots were placed on the map of Panama. Hanna pointed out many advantages of the Panama route: it was shorter than the Nicaraguan route, would require much less digging, and had existing harbors at either end. Hanna was in poor health as he gave the speech; Alabama Senator John Tyler Morgan, the Senate sponsor of the Hepburn Bill, tried to ask Hanna a question, only to be met with, "I do not want to be interrupted, for I am very tired." At the end, Hanna warned that if the US built the Nicaragua canal, another power would finish the Panama route. One senator stated that he had been converted to the "Hannama Canal". The bill was amended to support a Panama route, according to some accounts in part because Cromwell remembered that Nicaragua depicted volcanoes on its postage stamps, and combed the stock of Washington stamp dealers until he found enough to send to the entire Senate. The House afterwards agreed to the Senate amendment, and the bill authorizing a Panama canal passed.

Views and legacy

According to Professor Gerald W. Wolff, "the one solid absolute in [Hanna's] life was a profound belief in the living standard capitalism had brought to America." Hanna believed, like many conservative businessmen of his time, that labor, business, and government should work together cooperatively for the benefit of society. These views, which had coalesced in Hanna by the 1876 coal strike, informed his political views once he turned to that field. According to Croly, Hanna always did his best to foster good relations with his workers; the biographer proffered in support of his statement a quote from the Cleveland Leader of April 28, 1876: "This morning Mr. Hanna, of Rhodes & Co., met the striking laborers on the docks at Ashtabula Harbor, and after consultation the men accepted the terms offered and resumed work." According to Wolff, after the coal strike, Hanna "tried diligently to show by example how relations between labor, capital, and management could be ordered for the benefit of all".

Despite his efforts at harmonious worker relations, Hanna was often depicted by Davenport during the 1896 campaign with his foot on a skull labeled "Labor". During the following year's Ohio legislative elections, which determined Hanna's electors for his 1898 re-election bid, he was accused of being harsh to his employees. He responded in a speech,

Go to any of the five thousand men in my employ ... Ask them whether I ever pay less than the highest going wages, ask them whether I ever asked them whether they belonged to a union or not ... Ask them whether, when any men or any committee of men, came to me with a complaint if I ever refused to see them ... Ask them if I ever in my life intentionally wronged any workingman. I never did.

After Hanna issued the challenge, unions representing his workers confirmed his statement. Hanna became the first president of the National Civic Federation (NCF), which tried to foster harmonious relations between business and labor. The NCF opposed militant labor unions; it also resisted businessmen who sought to entirely prevent regulation. It recognized labor's right to organize to seek better wages and conditions. In a 1903 speech to a labor convention, Hanna stated that the efforts of labor to organize into unions should be considered no more shocking than those of businesses organizing into trade groups.

A phrase sometimes attributed to Hanna is: "No man in public office owes the public anything". This phrase supposedly appeared in a letter by Hanna to Ohio Attorney General David K. Watson in 1890, urging him to drop a lawsuit against the Standard Oil Company. The phrase became an issue against Hanna in the 1897 campaign in Ohio. Watson, a Republican, denied that Hanna had written the phrase, but refused to discuss the matter further with reporters. Hanna's early biographers, Croly and Beer, found the supposed quote dubious but as they did not definitely deny that Hanna had written it, a number of later works attribute the quote to Hanna. However, Professor Thomas E. Felt, who wrote an article about the controversy, believed Hanna unlikely to use such an inflammatory phrase to a man with whom he was not close, and which, in any event, did not accurately represent his political views.

Posthumous public image

New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley published a volume of memoirs, Time Present, Time Past in 1996. In it, the Democrat mentioned having written a high-school report on Hanna—his history teacher, Bradley related, told him that the lesson of the 1896 campaign is that money is power. Bradley, a former basketball player, mentioned that when he was being interviewed in high school, he stated that Hanna was one of his heroes. By the time he wrote the book, however, Bradley had come to believe in limits on campaign spending and blamed Hanna for a sharp escalation in campaign costs. Bradley also stated what Horner terms mischaracterizations of Hanna: that he was the Republican boss of Ohio, and that he did his best to disrupt Roosevelt's presidency. Bradley alleged that since 1896, Republicans have raised money easily from the rich. Despite his condemnation of Hanna, Bradley wrote that he regretted that he could not find a Hanna-like figure who could play an analogous role in advancing his political career.

In 2000, Texas Governor George W. Bush successfully ran for the presidency. As the campaign progressed, the media compared Hanna and Bush adviser Karl Rove, who was believed by some to hold a Svengali-like influence over the Texas governor. During the campaign, and until his departure from the White House in 2007, media members often suggested that Rove was able to manipulate Bush, and that Rove exerted considerable control over the government. Bush's advisor was deemed a present-day incarnation of Hanna, who was almost invariably presented negatively and at variance with historical fact. For example, writer Jack Kelly in a 2000 column incorrectly stated that McKinley's front porch campaign was at the direction of Hanna to ensure the candidate did not vary from campaign themes, rather than McKinley deciding that it was his best response to Bryan's national tour. These comparisons were fuelled by Rove's interest in, and from some reports, liking for Hanna. Rove studied the McKinley administration at the University of Texas under McKinley biographer Lewis L. Gould, and believes that Hanna's influence has been overstated.

According to Horner, Davenport's depiction of Hanna still lingers in 2010 as the modern image of the former senator:

The portrait of Hanna that has stood the test of time is of a man who was grossly obese; a cutthroat attack dog for the "Trusts"; a cigar-smoking man clad in a suit covered with dollar signs who stood side by side with a gigantic figure representing the trusts, and a tiny, childlike William McKinley. He will forever be known as "Dollar Mark".

Family

On September 27, 1864, Hanna married Charlotte Augusta Rhodes (1843 - 1921). Through her father Daniel Rhodes, she was related to US Senator Stephen A. Douglas. Hanna's brothers-in-law were industrialist and historian James Ford Rhodes, who won a Pulitzer Prize; and Col. James Pickands, a cofounder of Pickands Mather & Company. His cousin Edith Hanna married William Yale of the Yale family, who was a spy for Standard Oil of the Rockefellers, and a companion of Lawrence of Arabia. His nephew, Thomas B. Yale, was an OSS spy during World War II and became Director of Finance of the CIA under George H. W. Bush. He was involved in Project Azorian with Howard Hughes.

The couple had three children:

Daniel Rhodes Hanna, born Dec. 27, 1866, married to Daisy Gordon, and secondly to May Harrington. He owned Cleveland News and The Cleveland Leader.

Mabel A. Hanna, born June 13, 1871, married Harry Parsons, the personal assistant of her father. They lived in a mansion in Clifton Park.

Ruth Hanna, born March 27, 1880, married to Congressman Albert G. Simms. She became a congresswoman and political activist.

Electoral history

All elections are by the Ohio General Assembly, as state legislatures elected senators until the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913.