The American Presidential Election of 1896

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The 28th episode in a very long series about the American presidential elections from 1788 to the present. In 1896, the first dude without facial hair in a long time channels future Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump to unite many Americans against the 1%. But as McKinley will prove, the 1% is hard to take down.

Feeling extra dorky? Then visit here:
http://www.countingthevotes.com/1896

The 28th Presidential election in American history took place on November 3, 1896. Turnout was high, and people were saying things like “this is the most important election ever.” Yeah right, as if they don’t say that every election.

Grover Cleveland’s second term didn’t go so well. For most of it, the country had been stuck in a severe economic depression. And while the Populist Movement was at its peak, with poor people pointing fingers at “the man,” everybody seemed to be losing money during this time, even the rich.

The Republicans rallied behind a new face on the national scene- William McKinley, the former governor of Ohio. They nominated Garret Hobart as his running mate, a former New Jersey legislator.

The Democratic Party had generally shifted away from Cleveland to a more “free silver” monetary policy, calling for inflation to help ease the economic crisis. In fact, they had adopted several of the Populist ideas. At first, there was no obvious successor to Cleveland, and several candidates emerged, like ol’ “Sliver Dick” himself, Richard P. Bland, the former U.S. Representative from Missouri. However, soon another dude stood out quite a bit, mostly for his incredibly awesome speeches.

William Jennings Bryan, a former U.S. Representative and lawyer from Nebraska, gave his famous “Cross of Gold” speech at the Democratic National Convention. In the speech, he sounded very much like a Populist, passionately attacking big-city corporations and the gold standard while calling for government relief for farmers and others hurt by the depression. His speech was so dramatic that after he was done some delegates carried him on their shoulders as if he was the quarterback who had just scored the winning touchdown. Needless to say, Bryan got the nomination.The Democrats nominated Arthur Sewall, a shipbuilder from Maine, to be his running mate.

The Populist Party also endorsed Willing Jennings Bryan, since his party basically co-opted their ideas, and so did the newly formed Silver Party, so it was quite a fusionist election.

Meanwhile, Democrats who were not on board with the Free Silver movement formed their own political party, called the National Democratic Party. Also known as Gold Democrats, they were more aligned with Cleveland and would absolutely not support Bryan. They met in August and nominated John Palmer, a U.S. Senator from Illinois, for President, and Simon Buckner, the former governor of Kentucky, for Vice President. Palmer was 79 years old and Buckner 73, making the two the oldest combined presidential ticket in American history.

The Prohibition Party split in two for this election. Some wanted to go beyond just the Prohibition issue, and so they went off and formed a different Prohibition Party. So basically, the Prohibition Party had two tickets- Joshua Levering and Hale Johnson forming the traditional single issue ticket, and Charles Bentley and James Southgate forming the more broad-based issues ticket.

Let’s get real here. McKinley and Bryan were the only ones who stood a chance. And so, this became a battle of the Williams. Unlike any presidential candidate before him, Bryan criss-crossed the country to campaign. He traveled 18,000 miles in 3 months, In just 100 days, he gave over 500 speeches. On one of those days, while he was in St. Louis, he gave 36 speeches in one day. By doing this, he reached millions of people, and everywhere he went huge crowds showed up. He didn’t get much sleep, and often lost his voice, explaining in a hoarse voice he left his real voice at the previous places he visited to keep firing up the people.

Meanwhile, William McKinley mostly just stayed home. He didn’t have to criss-cross the country, as his buddy Mark Hanna did all the work and brought the people to McKinley’s front porch. Hanna orchestrated a masterful campaign that was successful at raising millions of dollars, much more than Bryan could raise. In fact, Hanna literally invented a new form of campaign financing that has been the norm ever since. He went straight to businesses to get donations, making propositions. The McKinley campaign was successful at making many businesses fear a Bryan presidency.

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