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Background
Among the earliest surviving pieces of correspondence from William McKinley's presidency — written on the very first morning after he took the Oath of Office — is not political in nature at all, but a short, warm invitation to a family member. Here, the newly inaugurated president invites his brother-in-law, Marsh, to join him and Ida for breakfast at a quarter to nine the next morning. The gesture stands out against the usual pattern: most presidents were bombarded by the pressures of the job from their very first morning. Garfield was swarmed by office-seekers from his earliest days in 1881, and Cleveland's first term saw similar crowds press in before he'd barely had his coffee.
Before the machinery of the presidency could fully claim him, McKinley reached for the least political member of the family he could find. Marsh Barber had married Ida's sister in 1873, and the two families had lived under the same roof for years at Saxton House, Ida’s family home, in Canton, Ohio — a closeness that predated the presidency by decades and had little to do with politics. As one of McKinley’s first letters on Executive Mansion (White House) stationery, it speaks plainly to where his priorities sat — and it set the tone for daily life in the McKinley White House, where family time would always be sacrosanct.
Typically, McKinley would start his mornings at 8:30 followed by family prayer at 8:45 before taking breakfast with Ida at 9:00 and then getting to work. When he took lunch at 13:00 or 14:00 it was also with Ida, excluding Tuesdays and Fridays, when he was in cabinet meetings. At 15:00 McKinley took a daily carriage ride with Ida - and he would stick to this habit even on the rare occasion that Ida was absent. By 19:00 the McKinleys would sit down to family dinner, followed by cards or games with close friends. Despite the demands of the presidency, the McKinleys made sure to include family time no less than four times a day, and on this, their first day, that included Ida’s sister and her husband.
Throughout his presidency, McKinley would write relatively few letters, and those he did write he typically signed with his full name — William McKinley — even when writing to his wife. His signature here, on his first day in office, is notably different: “W McKinley,” the shortened form he had used before becoming president.
Physical Description
Autograph Letter Signed, as President, 1 page, octavo, Executive Mansion, March 5, 1897. To his brother-in-law Marshall Barber. Scarce in autograph in office.