William McKinley was an American.
The Fourth Party System is the term used in political science and history for the period in American political history from about 1896 to 1932 that was dominated by the Republican Party , excepting the 1912 split in which Democrats held the White House for eight years . William McKinley . Historians regard McKinley 's 1896 victory as a realigning election , in which the political stalemate of the post -- Civil War era gave way to the Republican-dominated Fourth Party System , which began with the Progressive Era .