The Democratic Campaign
The national
Democratic campaign of 1900 suffered from inadequate financing
and organization, and therefore relied heavily on its
presidential nominee to carry the party’s message to the voters.
As he had in 1896, William Jennings Bryan hit the hustings to
deliver 546 speeches before an estimated audience of 2.5
million. It was a vigorous effort, but one that reached
fewer Americans than either his similar speaking tour in 1896 or
Republican Theodore Roosevelt’s campaign swing in 1900.
Bryan kicked off the campaign by
emphasizing his opposition to American control of the overseas
lands gained after the Spanish-American War. In
Indianapolis on August 8, Bryan declared that his first act as
president would be to call Congress into special session in
order to ensure the Philippines was an American protectorate
with a stable administration and independence. While he
opposed “imperialism,” he called on Democrats to lead the way in
peacefully spreading American values across the globe. The
speech persuaded some major Democratic donors to contribute and
the Anti-Imperialist League to endorse Bryan, but the
anti-expansionist focus was a political liability. The
area of Bryan’s electoral strength in 1896—the Trans-Mississippi
West—was the region most favorable in 1900 to continuing
America’s presence in the former Spanish colonies. The
effectiveness of the anti-imperial message was also undermined
by the candidate’s previous support of the treaty ceding the
territories to the United States and his approval of expansion
into “desirable” territory.
On September
18, Bryan’s official letter of acceptance emphasized the
antitrust issue. The fact that the nation was undergoing a
period of extensive business consolidation led the Democratic
nominee to charge that the Republican Party was the “sponsor at
the cradle of more trusts than ever sprang into existence
before.” Bryan’s antitrust focus was blunted by national
economic prosperity, McKinley’s forceful remarks against
monopolies and his quick response to Hanna’s misstatement, and
by the Democratic nominee’s association with Tammany Hall and
other Democratic politicians with ties to trusts. Bryan
took his antitrust message to the key electoral state of New
York in mid-October. When he ridiculed “McKinley
prosperity” during a speech at Madison Square Garden by asking,
“They say we are prosperous. Who’s we?” A voice in
the audience prompted a roar of laughter by bellowing the name
of the Tammany boss, “Croker!” The next night at
Cooper Union, the nominee’s praise of Croker as a “prophet”
provoked widespread criticism in the press.
The Election Results
On November 6, 1900,
Republican William McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings
Bryan by a margin of 292-155 in the Electoral College and
52%-46% in the popular vote. It was the first time a
sitting president had won a second term since Republican Ulysses
S. Grant in 1872. Bryan carried the South, the Border
States of Kentucky and Missouri, and four Mountain States of
Colorado, Nevada, Montana, and Idaho, for a total of 17 states,
five less than in 1896. McKinley carried the other 28
states. Nationwide voter turnout fell slightly from 1896
to 1900, marking the beginning of a downward trend that
continued throughout the twentieth century. Only 40% of
eligible voters in the South cast ballots in 1900; most who did
not were black men suffering under political intimidation.
In 1900,
McKinley had coattails carrying other Republican candidates to
victory with him. In 18 of the closest battleground
states, GOP state tickets won in 17, including New York,
Indiana, Illinois, and Bryan’s home state of Nebraska.
Republicans picked up two seats in the U.S. Senate and 11 in the
U.S. House, raising their totals to 57 and 198, respectively.
The biggest Republican gains in the U.S. House were in the most
populous states of New York (5) and Pennsylvania (6).
Results of the 1900 election consolidated the realignment begun
in 1896 of the GOP as the dominant party in national politics
through the 1920s.
Sources consulted: Paul F. Boller Jr., Presidential
Campaigns (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984);
Robert J. Dinkin, Campaigning in America: A History of
Election Practices (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,
1989); Lewis L. Gould, The Presidency of William McKinley
(Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1980);
Walter LaFeber, “Election of 1900,” in History of American
Presidential Elections, ed. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., New
York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985; Edmund Morris,
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (New York: Coward,
McCann & Geoghegan, Inc., 1979); and, Gil Troy, See How They
Ran: The Changing Role of the Presidential Candidate
(New York: The Free Press, 1991).
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