United States presidential election, 1896
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| United States presidential election, 1896 |
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| 3 November 1896 | ||||
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| Nominee | William McKinley | William Jennings Bryan | ||
| Party | Republican | Democratic | ||
| Home state | Ohio | Nebraska | ||
| Running mate | Garret Augustus Hobart | Arthur Sewall, Thomas Edward Watson | ||
| Electoral vote | 271 | 176 | ||
| States carried | 23 | 22 | ||
| Popular vote | 7,112,138 | 6,508,172 | ||
| Percentage | 51.0% | 46.7% | ||
 Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Bryan/Sewall/Watson, Red denotes those won by McKinley/Hobart. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state. |
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The United States presidential election of November 3, 1896 saw Republican William McKinley defeat Democrat William Jennings Bryan in a campaign considered by historians to be one of the most dramatic in American history. In political science the 1896 campaign is often considered to be a realigning election. McKinley forged a coalition in which businessmen, professionals, skilled factory workers and prosperous farmers were heavily represented; he was strongest in the Northeast, Upper Midwest, and Pacific Coast states. Bryan was the nominee of the Democrats, the Populist Party, and the Silver Republicans. He was strongest in the South, rural Midwest, and Rocky Mountain states. Economic issues, including bimetallism, the gold standard, Free Silver, and the tariff, were crucial. Republican campaign manager Mark Hanna invented many modern campaign techniques, facilitated by a $3.5 million budget. He outspent Bryan by a factor of ten. The Democratic Party's repudiation of the Bourbon Democrats (their pro-business wing, represented by incumbent President Grover Cleveland), set the stage for sixteen years of Republican control of the White House, ended only by a Republican split in 1912 that resulted in the election of Democrat Woodrow Wilson. However, although Bryan lost the election, his coalition of "outsiders" would dominate the Democratic Party well into the twentieth century, and would play a crucial role in the liberal economic programs of Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson.
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[edit] Nominations
[edit] Democratic Party nomination
Democratic candidates
- William Jennings Bryan, former U.S. representative from Nebraska
- Richard P. Bland, former U.S. representative from Missouri
- Horace Boies, former U.S. governor of Iowa
- Robert E. Pattison, former U.S. governor of Pennsylvania
- Joseph Blackburn, U.S. senator from Kentucky
- John Roll McLean, newspaper owner and publisher from Ohio
[edit] Candidates gallery
When the Democrats met for their convention in Chicago, most of the Southern and Western delegates were committed to implementing the free silver ideas of the Populist Party. The convention repudiated President Cleveland's gold standard policies and then repudiated Cleveland himself. This, however, left the convention wide open: there was no obvious successor to Cleveland.
An attorney, former congressman and unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate named William Jennings Bryan filled the void. A superb orator, Bryan hailed from Nebraska and was widely regarded as a prominent spokesman for millions of rural Americans who were suffering from the economic depression following the Panic of 1893. According to many historians, Bryan delivered one of the greatest political speeches in American history, the "Cross of Gold" Speech, at the Democratic National Convention. In this speech Bryan offered a passionate defense of farmers and factory workers struggling to survive the economic depression, and he attacked big-city business owners and leaders as the cause of much of the economic suffering. He called for reform of the monetary system, restoring the issuing power of currency to the government at the expense of the Nationally-chartered banks. Bryan's speech was so dramatic that after he had finished many delegates carried him on their shoulders around the convention hall. The speech also united the convention delegates and earned Bryan their presidential nomination; he defeated his closest competitor, former Senator Richard "Silver Dick" Bland by a 3-to-1 margin. Arthur Sewall, a wealthy shipbuilder from Maine, was chosen as the vice presidential nominee. It was felt that Sewall's wealth might encourage him to help pay some campaign expenses. At just 36 years of age, Bryan was - and remains - the youngest man ever nominated by a major party for President.
[edit] Republican Party nomination
Republican candidates
- William McKinley, former U.S. governor of Ohio
- Thomas B. Reed, Speaker of the House from Maine
- Matthew S. Quay, U.S. senator from Pennsylvania
- Levi P. Morton, U.S. governor of New York
- William B. Allison, U.S. senator from Iowa
[edit] Candidates gallery
As they did in 1876 and 1880, the Republicans dipped into the talent pool that was the Governor's office of Ohio to nominate William McKinley for President, and New Jersey's Garret Hobart for Vice President. With the platform calling for strong support for the gold standard, many Western Republicans walked out of the Republican Convention in Saint Louis to form the National Silver Party supporting the Democrats.
McKinley's campaign manager, a wealthy and talented Ohio businessman named Mark Hanna, visited the leaders of large corporations and major banks after the Republican Convention to raise funds for the campaign. Given that many businessmen and bankers were terrified of Bryan's populist rhetoric and support for ending the gold standard, Hanna had few problems in raising record amounts of money. In the end Hanna raised a staggering (for the time) $3.5 million for the campaign, outspending the Democrats by an estimated 5-to-1 margin. As a per cent of GDP, this is equivalent to $3 billion today.[1] McKinley was the last veteran of the American Civil War to be nominated for President by either major party.
[edit] National Democratic Party nomination
National Democratic candidates
- John M. Palmer, U.S. senator from Illinois
- Grover Cleveland, President of the United States from New York
- William Vilas, U.S. senator from Wisconsin
- John G. Carlisle, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from Kentucky
- Julius Sterling Morton, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from Nebraska
- William Lyne Wilson, U.S. Postmaster General from West Virginia
[edit] Candidates gallery
Cleveland Democrats who supported the gold standard and limited government bolted from the Democratic convention and nominated a National Democratic (or "Gold Democratic") ticket headed by John M. Palmer a former governor of Illinois and Simon Bolivar Buckner, Sr., a former governor of Kentucky.
[edit] Other nominations
The Republicans and Democrats were joined by more "third party" candidates than ever before in 1896, with the Socialist Labor, Prohibition, National Prohibition and National Democratic parties each offering tickets for President and Vice President. The Silver Party endorsed the Democratic ticket. The Populist Party nominated Bryan, but offered their own Vice Presidential choice, Thomas E. Watson of Georgia.
[edit] General election
[edit] The Fall Campaign
The primary issue of the 1896 campaign involved this economic question: would America remain on the gold standard, as McKinley and the Republicans wished, or would the nation's economy switch to following the free silver theories espoused by Bryan and the Populists? Bryan argued that by leaving the gold standard and having paper money backed by silver instead of gold, it would allow more paper currency to enter the national economy (a popular Bryan slogan was "16-to-1", based on the claim that 16 silver-backed dollars could be printed for every one dollar backed by gold). Bryan and his supporters argued that this "easy money" would allow impoverished farmers in the South and West to get out of debt and pay their bills, and that having more paper money circulating in the economy would help lift the nation out of the economic depression which had started in 1893. However, McKinley and the Republicans responded that the gold standard was vital to the American economy, and that if the nation went off the gold standard paper currency would lose its value by half. To ridicule what they believed were Bryan's radical and unwise economic policies, the Republicans printed fake dollar bills which had Bryan's face and which read "IN GOD WE TRUST...FOR THE OTHER 53 CENTS", thus illustrating their claim that a dollar bill would be worth only 47 cents if it was backed by silver instead of gold.
Since he was being outspent by the Republicans by a nearly ten-to-one margin, Bryan decided his best chance to win the election was to conduct a vigorous national speaking tour by train; in that way he could speak to the voters directly. He was the first presidential candidate to travel across the nation and meet voters in person; prior to 1896 it had been considered undignified for presidential candidates to widely travel before an election. Nevertheless, Bryan's imposing voice and height made a deep impression on many who thronged to hear him. The novelty of such an event, combined with Bryan's spellbinding oratory and the passion of his beliefs, led to huge crowds turning out to see him. In many parts of the South and West Bryan supporters welcomed him with parades, speeches, and wild demonstrations of support. Although Bryan traveled to most sections of the nation, he focused his efforts on the Midwest, which he believed would be the decisive battleground in the election. In just 100 days, Bryan gave over 500 speeches to several million people, a remarkable feat at the time.
In contrast to Bryan's dramatic efforts, McKinley conducted a traditional "front porch" campaign from his home in Canton, Ohio. Instead of having McKinley travel to see the voters, Mark Hanna brought thousands of voters by train to McKinley's home; once there McKinley would greet the groups of voters and give a speech to them from his porch. McKinley labeled Bryan's proposed social and economic reforms as a serious threat to the national economy. With the depression following the Panic of 1893 coming to an end, support for McKinley's more conservative economic policies increased, while Bryan's more radical policies began to lose support among Midwestern farmers and factory workers. To ensure victory, Hanna paid large numbers of Republican orators (including Theodore Roosevelt) to travel around the nation denouncing Bryan as a dangerous radical. There were also reports that some potentially Democratic voters were intimidated into voting for McKinley. For example, some factory owners posted signs the day before the election announcing that, if Bryan won the election, the factory would be closed and the workers would lose their jobs. McKinley gained a narrow but solid victory, carrying the core of the East and Northeast, while Bryan did well among the farmers of the South, West, and rural Midwest. The large German-American voting bloc supported McKinley, who gained large majorities among the middle class, skilled factory workers, railroad workers, and large-scale farmers. However, in the national popular vote the election was close, as McKinley took 51% to Bryan's 47%. In the electoral college McKinley received 271 electoral votes to Bryan's 176 (224 were needed to win).
[edit] Results
(The addition of Utah earlier in the year raised the number of states participating to 45)
| Presidential Candidate | Party | Home State | Popular Vote | Electoral Vote |
Running Mate | Running Mate's Home State |
RM's Electoral Vote |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Pct | |||||||
| William McKinley | Republican | Ohio | 7,112,138 | 51.0% | 271 | Garret Augustus Hobart | New Jersey | 271 |
| William Jennings Bryan | Democratic/ Populist |
Nebraska | 6,510,807 | 46.7% | 176 | Arthur Sewall(a) | Maine | 149 |
| Thomas Edward Watson(b) | Georgia | 27 | ||||||
| John McCauley Palmer | National Democratic | Illinois | 133,730 | 1.0% | 0 | Simon Bolivar Buckner | Kentucky | 0 |
| Joshua Levering | Prohibition | Maryland | 125,088 | 0.9% | 0 | Hale Johnson | Illinois | 0 |
| Charles Horatio Matchett | Socialist Labor | New York | 36,359 | 0.3% | 0 | Matthew Maguire | New Jersey | 0 |
| Charles Eugene Bentley | National | Nebraska | 19,391 | 0.1% | 0 | James Southgate | North Carolina | 0 |
| Other | 1,570 | 0.0% | – | Other | – | |||
| Total | 13,936,448 | 100 % | 447 | 447 | ||||
| Needed to win | 224 | 224 | ||||||
Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1896 Presidential Election Results. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (August 5, 2005).
Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (July 31, 2005).
(a) Sewall was Bryan's Democratic running mate.
(b) Watson was Bryan's Populist running mate.
[edit] See also
- American election campaigns in the 19th century
- History of the United States (1865–1918)
- Political interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
- Third Party System
- United States House election, 1896
[edit] References
- Books
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- Coletta, Paolo E. (1964). William Jennings Bryan, Political Evangelist, vol. 1, University of Nebraska Press.
- Fite, Gilbert C. (2001). "The Election of 1896", in Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., ed.: History of American Presidential Elections, vol. 2.
- Glad, Paul W. (1964). McKinley, Bryan, and the People.
- William D. Harpine. From the Front Porch to the Front Page: McKinley and Bryan in the 1896 Presidential Campaign (2006) focus on the speeches and rhetoric
- Jensen, Richard J. (1971). The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict 1888–1896.
- Kazin, Michael. A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan (2006).
- Williams, R. Hal (1978). Years of Decision: American Politics in the 1890s.
- Jones, Stanley L. (1964). The Presidential Election of 1896.
- Journal articles
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- James A. Barnes, "Myths of the Bryan Campaign," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 34 (Dec. 1947) online in JSTOR
- David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, "Gold Democrats and the Decline of Classical Liberalism, 1896-1900,"Independent Review 4 (Spring 2000), 555-75.
- Gilbert C. Fite. "Republican Strategy and the Farm Vote in the Presidential Campaign of 1896" in American Historical Review, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Jul., 1960) , pp. 787-806 online in JSTOR
- Jeansonne, Glen. "Goldbugs, Silverites, and Satirists: Caricature and Humor in the Presidential Election of 1896." Journal of American Culture 1988 11(2): 1-8. ISSN 0191-1813
- Kelly, Patrick J. (2003). "The Election of 1896 and the Restructuring of Civil War Memory". Civil War History 49.
- Mahan, Russell L. (2003). "William Jennings Bryan and the Presidential Campaign of 1896". White House Studies 3.
[edit] Primary sources
- Books
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- Bryan, William Jennings. The First Battle: A Story of the Campaign of 1896 (1897), speeches from 1896 campaign.
- National Democratic Committee (1896). Campaign Text-book of the National Democratic Party.
- This is the handbook of the Gold Democrats and strongly opposed Bryan.
- Journal articles
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- Chandler, William E. (August 1896). "Issues and Prospects of the Campaign". North American Review 163 (2): 171–182.
- Quincy, Josiah (August 1896). "Issues and Prospects of the Campaign". North American Review 163 (2): 182–195.
[edit] External links
- 1896 popular vote by counties
- How close was the 1896 election? - Michael Sheppard, Michigan State University
[edit] Navigation
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