The Democratic Nomination
Due largely to the economic
depression and the unpopularity of President Cleveland’s
policies, the Republicans did well in state and local elections
in 1893 and then recaptured both houses of Congress in 1894.
With further Democratic losses in 1895 state and local
elections, many party members concluded that free silver was the
party’s only hope in 1896. In the spring of 1896,
silverites won control of numerous state delegations to the
National Democratic Convention, although no candidate appeared
as a clear choice for the presidential nomination.
Congressman Bland was a leading candidate, but he was hindered
by opposition from Populists (who the Democrats hoped would
support a free-silver nominee) and prejudice against his wife’s
Catholicism. A chief competitor was Horace Boies, a former
governor of Iowa (1890-1894), who had placed a distant third for
the Democratic presidential nomination in 1892. Other
possibilities included Senator C. S. Blackburn of Kentucky and
Governor Claude Matthews of Indiana.
Although a leader of the free-silver
movement, William Jennings Bryan’s youth (36) and relative
political inexperience made it appear doubtful that he could win
the nomination. However, most delegates arrived at the
national convention uncommitted to any candidate, and Bryan’s
own attendance meant that he could present himself as the right
choice for the needs of the party and nation. Since
leaving Congress in March 1895, he had written letters and
articles and delivered speeches across the country for the
free-silver cause. In that effort he worked with various
free-silver groups while maintaining his independence and
alienating none. In the spring of 1896, Bryan first wrote
letters and sent his speeches to delegates, and then asked them
directly for support. When the convention began in early
July, he had the backing of some delegates from the South and
West, along with a few newspaper endorsements. There was
still much work to be done for the nomination, though. A
pre-convention poll of delegates on July 5 ranked him last among
seven candidates.
On the opening day of the
Democratic National Convention, July 7, silver delegates
signaled their dominance by rejecting the National Committee’s
candidate for chairman, Senator David B. Hill of New York, for
Senator John W. Daniel of Virginia. The Resolutions
Committee adopted a free-silver plank written by Bryan:
“We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and
gold at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one…” The
platform denounced selling government bonds to private bankers
for gold (a clear indictment of the Cleveland administration);
endorsed tariffs for revenue only, but said the issue should
wait until the money question was resolved; called for
equalizing the tax burden and more federal oversight of big
business; and vowed to protect American workers from “the
importation of foreign pauper labor.” The plank condemning
arbitrary federal interference in local affairs as
unconstitutional later became controversial.
Bryan maneuvered so that he
addressed the delegates last during the platform debate on July
9. Receiving a lively welcome, he claimed to speak “in
defense of a cause as holy as the cause of liberty—the cause of
humanity.” He identified the gold standard with
impoverishing Americans and agriculture as the foundation of
American wealth. Bryan ended his rousing oration with
religious imagery: “Having behind us the producing masses
of this nation and the world … we will answer their demand for a
gold standard by saying to them: ‘You shall not press down
upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not
crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.’” After a momentary
stunned silence, the convention broke into celebratory
pandemonium.
The next morning, July 10, voting
for the presidential nomination began with Bland leading on the
first three ballots. However, Bryan quickly gathered
strength so that he edged ahead on the fourth ballot, 280-241,
and surpassed the requisite two-thirds majority on the fifth
ballot to win the nomination. The following day, delegates
selected Arthur Sewall, a free-silver businessman from Maine, as
the vice-presidential nominee. It was hoped that the
pro-protectionist shipbuilder and banker would calm fears in the
business community over the nomination of Jennings, and that the
wealthy running mate would contribute liberally to the
campaign.
Although there was no walkout of
gold-standard delegates from the Democratic convention, several
partisans were disgruntled by the free-silver platform and
Jennings nomination. Some Democrats in the Northeast
privately or publicly supported the Republican ticket, while
some in the Midwest formed the National Democratic Party.
In early September, the breakaway faction convened in
Indianapolis, where they nominated Senator John Palmer of
Illinois for president and Simon Bolivar Buckner, a former
Confederate general and governor of Kentucky (1887-1891), for
vice president.
The Republican Nomination
The continuing poor economy,
divisions within the Democratic Party, and GOP electoral success
over the previous three years boded well for a Republican
presidential victory in 1896. Former President Benjamin
Harrison and Senator John Sherman of Ohio declined to run, but
Speaker of the House Thomas B. Reed of Maine and Senator William
Allison of Iowa actively sought the nomination. However,
the overwhelming favorite entering the convention was Governor
William McKinley of Ohio.
McKinley was the party’s most
prominent spokesman for high protective tariffs, and as the
former chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee
had ensured passage of the steep McKinley Tariff of 1890.
He lost his Congressional seat that November, but was elected
governor of Ohio in 1891 and reelected two years later. At
the 1892 Republican National Convention, McKinley, who was not
an active candidate for president, received a respectable number
of votes from delegates dissatisfied with President Harrison.
During the 1894 campaign, McKinley collected political IOUs by
delivering stump speeches for Republican candidates across the
country. He had several assets in the 1896 presidential
race: executive experience in a key electoral state,
nationwide support, identification with the GOP’s core issue of
tariff protection, a reputation of good moral character, and
skillful avoidance of the controversial money question.
To run his presidential campaign,
McKinley turned to Mark Hanna, a wealthy Ohio industrialist who
retired in 1895 to dedicate himself fulltime to the cause.
McKinley rejected Hanna’s initial strategy of gaining the
nomination by promising patronage to powerful state party bosses
like Thomas Platt of New York and Matthew Quay of Pennsylvania.
Instead, the Ohio governor ran on the slogan of “The People
Against the Bosses.” Hanna applied his business skills to
the campaigns for the nomination and the presidency, organizing
Republicans into effective bureaus, distributing millions of
pamphlets, dispatching hundreds of speakers, and raising an
enormous sum of money, all in the effort of “selling” his
candidate. Many of his opponents considered McKinley to be
a puppet in the hands of a new type of political boss, Mark
Hanna, but the politician was always in charge.
By the time the Republican
National Convention opened in St. Louis on June 16, 1896,
McKinley was virtually guaranteed the nomination. He
overwhelmed the competition, winning a first-ballot victory with
661½ votes to 84½ for Reed, 61½ for Quay, 58 for Governor Levi
P. Morton of New York, and 35½ for Allison. Garret Hobart,
a businessman and state politician from New Jersey, was
nominated for vice president. As hoped, he helped
Republicans carry his home state in November for the first time
since 1872.
The Republican platform began by
judging the first Democratic control of the White House and
Congress since before the Civil War to have been “calamitous”
for the nation, resulting in economic “panic, …closed factories,
reduced work and wages…” The Republicans promised to
“rescue” the country from “disaster at home and dishonor
abroad.” Foremost, the document emphasized trade policy.
It stood by protective tariffs as “the foundation of American
development and prosperity” and called for the expansion of
reciprocal trade agreements with other nations. The
platform also supported Union veterans’ pensions, annexation of
Hawaii, and American control of an interoceanic canal in
Nicaragua. It expressed sympathy with Armenians suffering
under Turkish rule and Cubans fighting for freedom from Spanish
rule. The platform condemned lynching and demanded a free
and unrestricted ballot (both planks aimed at anti-black
activities in the South). The document supported economic
opportunities for women and welcomed their participation in the
upcoming campaign, but remained silent concerning voting rights.
The only notable dissention at
the convention was over the money question. The platform
committee had drafted a plank backing the gold standard and
parity of silver and paper currency with gold, explicitly
rejecting free silver except under international agreement
(which was highly improbable). Senator Henry Teller of
Colorado spoke passionately in opposition. After the
plank’s adoption by the full convention, Teller and Senator
Frank Cannon of Utah led an exodus of 21 other free-silver
delegates from the assembly. The next day, they issued a
statement endorsing free silver and suggesting Teller as the
best nominee for the Democratic and Populist Parties. The
advice went unheeded.
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