Duncan E McKinlay

Politician

• Born: October 6, 1862
• Birthplace: Orillia, Ontario
• Died: December 30, 1914
• Place of death: Berkeley, California

Contribution: Duncan E. McKinlay was a Canadian-born lawyer and politician who immigrated to the United States, where he embarked on a successful career as a statesman. After earning admission to the bar in California in 1892, McKinlay held several prominent positions in American government, serving as the assistant US attorney in San Francisco, as well as three terms in the US House of Representatives. McKinlay supported construction of the Panama Canal and received a presidential appointment as surveyor of customs in San Francisco.

Background

Duncan E. McKinlay was born October 6, 1862, in Orillia, Ontario, where he attended school and later worked as a carriage painter at Tudhope Carriage Works. The trade served him well when he left Ontario to move to the United States; he worked his way across the country, settling in California, where he enrolled in law school and was admitted to the bar. He set up a legal practice in Santa Rosa, California, in 1901, which he continued until 1907.

Political Career

McKinlay was a gifted orator who worked to familiarize himself with a wide range of subjects through careful, independent study. In 1901, McKinlay was appointed second assistant to the US attorney at San Francisco and became first assistant in 1904, a position he held until 1907. In 1905, he ran for Congress for the first time as a member of the Republican Party. McKinlay won and represented California’s Fifty-Ninth Congress.

After winning his first election, McKinlay was invited to accompany future president William Howard Taft, who was the US secretary of war at the time, on an official state trip to Japan. As a personal friend of the current president, Theodore Roosevelt, McKinlay was also commissioned to visit the Philippines, where he was responsible for generating an official report on the country’s political and economic conditions. When William Taft became president, he named McKinlay as the United States surveyor of customs for San Francisco.

McKinlay was reelected to the US House of Representatives on two subsequent occasions, serving the Sixtieth and Sixty-First Congresses until March 3, 1911, was after being defeated in the election for the Sixty-Second Congress in 1910.

Later Life and Death

During his years as a congressman, McKinlay developed a strong interest in the Panama Canal, recognizing its strategic importance to the United States. During a visit to his hometown of Orillia in 1908, McKinlay gave a speech about the Panama Canal to a local political organization and later authored a book on the subject. Published in 1912, The Panama Canal laid out McKinlay’s reasons for his strong support of the Panama Canal’s construction development.

McKinlay lived the rest of his life in California, passing away in Berkeley on December 30, 1914, at the age of fifty-two. He was buried in Sunset View Cemetery in El Cerrito, California.

Bibliography

“Duncan E. McKinlay Resigns.” San Francisco Call (28 Feb. 1905). California Digital Newspaper Collection. Web. 13 Aug. 2013.

McKinlay, Duncan E. The Panama Canal. San Francisco: Whitaker, 1912. Print.

McKinlay, Duncan E. The Tariff Bill—Japanese and Chinese Competition with American Industries. Washington: GPO, 1909. Print.

“McKinlay, Duncan E., (1862–1914).” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. US Congress Office of Art and Archives, n.d. Web. 9 Aug. 2013.

Wagner, Harr, ed. “Duncan E. McKinlay: Abraham Lincoln.” Notable Speeches by Notable Speakers of the Greater West. San Francisco: Whitaker, 1902. Print.