1896 Republican National Convention

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The 1896 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States was held in Exposition Building, Saint Louis, Missouri, from June 16 to June 18, 1896.

Ohio Governor William McKinley was nominated on the first ballot with 661½ votes to 84½ to House Speaker Thomas B. Reed of Maine, 61½ votes for Pennsylvania Senator Matthew S. Quay, 58 votes for New York Governor Levi P. Morton who was Vice President under Benjamin Harrison. New Jersey banker Garret Augustus Hobart was nominated for Vice President over Henry Clay Evans of Tennessee. Joseph B. Foraker of Ohio placed McKinley's name in nomination.

[edit] Platform

The Republican platform of 1896 favored the gold standard but left the door open to free coinage of silver, it also supported acquisition of Hawaii and parts of the Danish West Indies, favored a canal across Central America, naval expansion, sympathized with revolutionaries in Cuba and Armenia, wanted exclusion of all illiterate immigrants, applauded gains in women's rights and pledged "equal pay for equal work". It also supported creation of a "National Board of Arbitration".