CHAPTER XXVIII

The Presidential Campaign of 1896-William Jennings BryanPolitical Conditions-The Republican National ConventionThe Democratic National Convention-Its Platform-The Democratic State Convention-The Republican State Convention-The Gold Democrats and the Indianapolis Convention— Other Conventions-The Campaign-Bryan in Ohio-The Election.

The campaign of 1896 brought forth the most remarkable Democratic leader the country has seen since Andrew Jackson. Like Jackson he first attracted attention by unstable vagaries, like Jackson he is guided more by animosities and prejudices than by patriotism, yet like the great fire-eater he is not without statesmanlike qualities, and, moreover, he is so highly gifted as an orator that since he has ripened he is able to present his political beliefs in the most attractive form and even to garb revenge in the mantle of justice.

The Republican Party began the Presidential campaign in 1895. The party was rich in Presidential timber and a full year before the National Convention could be held the friends of several aspirants were busy in their behalf. The most prominent candidates were William McKinley of Ohio, Thomas B. Reed of Maine, Levi P. Morton of New York, and William B. Allison of Iowa. There seemed to be but one issue, the tariff; and toward that the minds of the people were constantly directed by the politicians.

The Panic of 1893, for which there had been no political cause, having been produced mainly through the disturbance of public confidence by the wanton clamor of the Republican Press, had left the country with an impression that the Democratic Party was responsible for the money stringency and the hard times. Cleveland's Fair Trade policy had been pictured like the seven lean kine of Egypt which followed and devoured the seven fat kine, and still remained lean.

The

protective tariff was lauded as the cure-all for every commercial and financial trouble. The Democrats attributed the hard times to the scarcity of gold, which, being the single and only standard of values for all other commodities, paralyzed business because of its scarcity. To this they added the further arguments that Republican spellbinders disturbed the people and that the high tariff was oppressive to the workingman and the farmer. Because of Republican assaults the Democracy of the country allowed the Republicans to hold their national convention first and outline their policy to the country.

The Republican National Convention met at St. Louis, June 16, 1896, and nominated William McKinley for President by acclamation amid a scene of wild enthusiasm. The nomination was announced to the world by a Presidential salute from a battery stationed outside the convention hall.

The Republican platform pledged the party to a gold standard, a high protective tariff and opposition to the free coinage of silver, except by international agreement with the leading commercial nations of the world. The platform assailed the Democratic Party in the following language:

"For the first time since the Civil War the American people have witnessed the calamitous consequences of full and unrestricted Democratic control of the Government. It has been a record of unparalleled incapacity, dishonor, and disaster. In administrative management it has ruthlessly sacrificed indispensable revenue, entailed an unceasing deficit, eked out ordinary current expenses with borrowed money, piled up the public debt by $262,000,000 in time of peace, forced an adverse balance of trade, kept a perpetual menace hanging over the redemption fund, pawned American credit to alien syndicates, and reversed all the measures and results of successful Republican rule."

This quotation illustrates the lamentable disregard of truth which politicians too often evince. Congress at the time that platform was written was constituted as follows: In the Senate there were 45 Republicans, 39 Democrats and 6 Populists; in the House 246 Republicans, against 104 Democrats, a Republican majority of 147. Whatever that Congress had done could not be charged against the Democrats, and President Cleveland was one of the strongest gold standard

advocates in the country. Congress had been Democratic under the last half of President Harrison's regime, but he had the power of veto in his hands and was equally culpable with Congress for any unwise legislation. The truth is that neither Congress deserved reprobation. Also the repeal of the Bland-Allison Bill had ended the coinage of silver and the gold standard was perfectly safe with Cleveland in the President's chair. The hard times and discontent were the result of wild assertions like the above made by the Republican Party. To disturb public confidence is to disturb business.

Garret A. Hobart of New Jersey was nominated for Vice-President on the ticket headed by William McKinley.

The Democratic National Convention met at Chicago, June 7, 1896. It was called to order by Chairman Harrity of the National Committee who announced the selection of David B. Hill of New York for temporary chairman. The Silverites objected to Hill, believing him to be a rigid gold standard man, and this brought on a contest in which the silver forces put forward John W. Daniel of Virginia for temporary chairman and he was elected. The Silverites also selected the permanent chairman, choosing Stephen M. White of California.

Almost as soon as the convention met it became apparent that the delegates favoring the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 were largely in the majority and they continued to increase in strength by the accession of gold standard men who surrendered to them, thinking it the only course to pursue. At first the Silverites had a majority but not two-thirds of the convention. The defection of the sound money men increased the majority to more than two-thirds. Had it not been for this, the two-thirds rule, which had been in force in Democratic national conventions since the nomination of James K. Polk in 1844, would have prevented the nomination of an extreme advocate of the free coinage of silver. When the platform came up for consideration strong speeches were made against the adoption of the free coinage plank, but it was adopted by an overwhelming majority. The resolutions were read by James K. Jones of Arkansas, and a minority report was presented by David B. Hill of New York, William F. Vilas of Wisconsin, and fourteen others.

Hill, Vilas, and Governor Russell of Massachusetts led in speeches in favor of the minority resolutions, while Benjamin R. Tillman of South Carolina and William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska spoke in favor of the silver plank. Bryan closed the debate in a speech which not only brought him the nomination for President but made him the dictator of the Democratic Party from that time to this. In his peroration he uttered that wonderful sentence which must always remain one of the gems of English metaphor: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." The money plank in the platform read:

"Recognizing that the money question is paramount to all others at this time, we invite attention to the fact that the Constitution names silver and gold together as the money metals of the United States, and that the first coinage law passed by Congress under the Constitution made the silver dollar the unit, and admitted gold to free coinage at a ratio based upon the silver dollar unit.

"We declare that the act of 1873 demonetizing silver without the knowledge or approval of the American people has resulted in the appreciation of gold, and a corresponding fall in the price of commodities produced by the people; a heavy increase in the burden of taxation and of all debts, public and private; the enrichment of the money-lending class at home and abroad; prostration of industry and the impoverishment of the people.

"We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation. We demand that the standard silver dollar shall be a full legal tender, equally with gold, for all debts, public and private, and we favor such legislation as will prevent for the future the demonetization of any kind of legal tender money by private contract."

A resolution was presented to the convention endorsing the administration of President Cleveland in these words: "We commend the honesty, economy, courage and fidelity of the present Democratic national administration." The report as a whole was rejected by 628 to 301, whereupon David B. Hill demanded a separate vote