why did william jennings bryan lose the 1896 election

[151] The poet Vachel Lindsay, 16years old in 1896, passionately followed Bryan's first campaign, and wrote of him many years later: Where is that boy, that Heaven-born Bryan,That Homer Bryan, who sang from the West?Gone to join the shadows with Altgeld the Eagle,Where the kings and the slaves and the troubadours rest.[152]. "[16], Even as Cleveland took office as president in March 1893, there were signs of an economic decline. Many Republican leaders had gone on vacation for the summer, believing that the fight, on their terms, would take place in the fall. Coletta noted the problems faced by Bryan in obtaining the nomination, and how his groundwork helped overcome them: The maneuver that paid Bryan highest dividends was his fifteen months of missionary work in behalf of silver and cultivation of the Chicago delegates. In 1986, he began his long tenure as the U.S. read more, William Seward (1801-1872) was a politician who served as governor of New York, as a U.S. senator and as secretary of state during the Civil War (1861-65). Bryan. The position involved no day-to-day duties, but allowed him to publish his political commentaries. "[110][111][112] August 12 was an extremely hot day in New York, especially for the crowd jammed into the Garden; when Missouri Governor William J. (Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images). Bryan was present when it was announced that his delegation would not be initially seated; reports state he acted "somewhat surprised" at the outcome. The paper editorialized on the same page that even if the Democratic candidate was not insane, he was at least "of unsound mind". But they had limited room to maneuver in a period of extremely tight competition. Bryan and many other Democrats believed the economic malaise could be remedied through a return to bimetallism, or free silvera policy they believed would inflate the currency and make it easier for debtors to repay loans. After running unsuccessfully for the Senate in 1894, Bryan returned to Nebraska and became editor of the Omaha World-Herald. Wherever his train went people, who had travelled from nearby farms and villages, waved and shouted encouragement. McKinley won with 7.1 million votes to Bryan's 6.5 million, 51% to 47%. Any possible candidacy depended on silver supporters being successful in electing the bulk of convention delegates; accordingly Bryan backed such efforts. The book included (as foils to the title character) many of Chicago's most prominent men of business; some, such as banker and future Secretary of the Treasury Lyman Gage, issued denials that they had participated in any such lectures. The 1900 United States presidential election was the 29th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1900.In a re-match of the 1896 race, incumbent Republican President William McKinley defeated his Democratic challenger, William Jennings Bryan.McKinley's victory made him the first president to win a consecutive re-election since Ulysses S. Grant had accomplished the same . [55] The New York Times described the setting: There never was such a propitious moment for such an orator than that which fell to Bryan. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Bryan later asked the Platform Committee chairman, Arkansas Senator James K. Jones why he was given such a crucial role as closing the platform debate; Senator Jones responded that he had three reasons: Bryan's long service in the silver cause, the Nebraskan was the only major speaker not to have addressed the convention, and that Jones had a sore throat. In anticipation of a presidential campaign, he spent much of 1895 and early 1896 making speeches across the United States; his compelling oratory increased his popularity in his party. His 'Cross of Gold' speech, given to conclude the debate on the party platform, immediately transformed him into a favorite for the nomination, and he won it the next day. The Republicans, at the request of their nominee for president, former Ohio governor William McKinley, included a plank in their party platform supporting the gold standard. The 1878 BlandAllison Act and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 required the government to buy large quantities of silver and strike it into coin. [2][3], While attending law school from 1881 to 1883, Bryan was a clerk to former Illinois senator Lyman Trumbull, who influenced him in a dislike for wealth and business monopolies. He made 27speeches, including seven in Omaha, the last concluding a few minutes before midnight. There is no legal or constitutional requirement that the loser of a U.S. presidential election must concede. [144] According to Kazin, "what is remarkable is not that Bryan lost but that he came as close as he did to winning. Despite his electoral losses, Bryan continued to exert considerable influence through his fervently religious speeches as well as a weekly magazine, the Commoner. The billionaire businessman ran as a Republican and scored an upset victory over his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 read more, John McCain first entered the public spotlight as a Navy fighter pilot during the Vietnam War. He won the prize in his junior year, and also secured the affection of Mary Baird, a student at a nearby women's academy. His campaign focused on silver, an issue that failed to appeal to the urban voter, and he was defeated in what is generally seen as a realigning election. [28] He continued to give speeches, and collected his traveling expenses, and most often a speaking fee, from those who had invited him. Former Governor William McKinley, the Republican candidate, defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan. Both had openly declared their candidacies, and were the only Democrats to have organizations seeking to obtain pledged delegates. Roosevelt was extremely popular as president, and many thought he might reconsider and run as 1908 neared. As the economic downturn continued, free silver advocates blamed its continuation on the repeal of the silver purchase act, and the issue of silver became more prominent. McKinley was supported by middle-class and wealthy voters, urban laborers, and prosperous farmers; this coalition would keep the Republicans mostly in power until the 1930s. [20], In March 1895, the same month he left Congress, Bryan passed his 35thbirthday, making him constitutionally eligible for the presidency. The 1896 presidential race is generally considered a realigning election, when there is a major shift in voting patterns, upsetting the political balance. In addition to the frontrunners, other silver men were spoken of as candidates. He spoke some 600 times, to an estimated 5,000,000 listeners. As an evangelical Christian and a believer in the literal interpretation of the Bible, Bryan also saw a grave threat in the application of Charles Darwins theory to human society. A free silver policy would inflate the currency, as the silver in a dollar coin was worth just over half the face value. In 1896 it was kept as a forum, and by day and night men and womenmet there to talk about the Crime of '73, the fallacies of the gold standard, bimetallism and international consent, the evils of the tariff, the moneybags of Mark Hanna, the front porch campaign of McKinley. However, many delegates disliked Sewall because of his wealth and ownership of a large business, and believed that nominating someone else would keep Populist issues alive in the campaign. A devout Protestant, his populist rhetoric and policies earned him the nickname the Great Commoner. In his later years, Bryan campaigned against the teaching of evolution in public schools, culminating with his leading role in the Scopes Trial. President Cleveland, stunned by the convention's repudiation of him and his policies, decided against open support for a bolt from the party, either by endorsing McKinley or by publicly backing a rival Democratic ticket. They read Bryan when they couldn't go off to listen to him. [126] In what Williams describes as "a political campaign that became an American legend",[106] Bryan traveled to 27 of the 45 states, logging 18,000 miles (29,000km), and in his estimated 600 speeches reached some 5,000,000 listeners. Much of the blizzard of paper the Republican campaign was able to pay for concentrated on this area/ By September, this had its effect as silver sentiment began to fade. At that time, Nebraska was suffering hard times as many farmers had difficulties making ends meet due to low grain prices, and many Americans were discontented with the existing two major political parties. These Truths: A History of the United States. Crowds assembled hours or days ahead of Bryan's arrival. The central issue was the country's money supply. "[75] On the first ballot, Bryan had 137 votes, mostly from Nebraska and four southern states, trailing Bland who had 235; Boies was fourth with 67 votes and was never a factor in the balloting. Why did William Jennings Bryan lose the 1896 election? An ardent read more, A native of Tennessee, Al Gore served as vice president of the United States under President Bill Clinton from 1992 to 2000, after a long tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. [81][82] Amid talk that the Gold Democrats would form their own party, Senator Hill was asked if he remained a Democrat. He also argued in support of a graduated income tax, antitrust laws and other government regulation of business, womens suffrage and the prohibition of alcohol. Not even supporters thought the Gold Democrats would win; the purpose was to have a candidate who would speak for the gold element in the party, and who would divide the vote and defeat Bryan. If this robbery is permitted, the farmer will be ruined, and then the cities will suffer. He was utterly confident that he would succeed, believing "the logic of the situation," as he later put it, dictated his selection. In March 1898, two years into William McKinley's first term as president, he gave Spainwhich was in the midst of a brutal campaign of repression in . Although Bryan was successful in winning the non-binding popular vote, Republicans gained a majority in the legislature and elected John Thurston as senator.[11]. The biggest announcement in the run-up to the 1908 presidential election came in 1904 when, on the evening of his election, Pres. On April 22, 1893, the amount of gold in the Treasury dropped below $100million for the first time since 1879, adding to the unease. The presidential election in 1896, a contest between the Republican candidate, William McKinley (1843-1901), and the Democrat candidate, William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925), was contested over McKinley's pledge to maintain the gold standard for the nation's currency, in contrast to Bryan's promise to increase the supply of money by expanding the . [18], In 1893, bimetallism had been just one of many proposals by Populists and others. Bryan affirmed that the people could be counted on to prevent the rise of a tyrant, and noted, "What we need is an Andrew Jackson to stand, as Jackson stood, against the encroachments of organized wealth. "[142] By the end of 1896, Bryan had published his account of the campaign, The First Battle. The song was "Sift Sand, Sal", the source does not explain the relevance of this to Bryan. Taken prisoner after his plane was shot down, he suffered five and a half years of torture and confinement before his release in 1973. Ordinarily, it was torn down after that event. They quickly endorsed Bryan and Sewall, urging all silver forces to unite behind that ticket. [95], The Populist strategy for 1896 was to nominate the candidate most supportive of silver. I will not aid them to press down upon the bleeding brow of labor this crown of thorns."[26]. The coalition of wealthy, middle-class and urban voters that defeated Bryan kept the Republicans in power for most of the time until 1932. If those in favor of honest money don't do something to offset its influence the country is going to the dogs. [53] Once White started the proceedings, he turned over the gavel to Senator Jones, who read the proposed platform to great applause from silver delegates, and hissing from gold men. His widow accompanied his body in a special train car to Washington, where he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. By early October, the DNC, at the urging of Populist officials who felt Bryan was being worn out, procured the services of North Carolina journalist Josephus Daniels to make travel arrangements, and also obtained a private railroad car, The Idlera name Bryan thought somewhat inappropriate due to the strenuous nature of the tour. Why did the populist party support william jennings Bryan for president in the presidential election of 1896? If the USA had been on a bimetallic standard between 1875 and 1890, the economy could have expanded far more than it did, restricted as it was in its monetary straight jacket. The jury predictably found Scopes guilty, but Bryans performance in the trial, and his thrashing in the national press, marked a less than stellar end to his long career as a public figure. [147] This was evidenced in the tariff question: Bryan spent little time addressing it, stating that it was subsumed in the financial issue; Republican arguments that the protective tariff would benefit manufacturers appealed to urban workers and went unrebutted by the Democrats. [73] As Missouri Senator George Vest nominated Bland, his oratory was drowned out by the gallery, "Bryan, Bryan, W.J. Sherman's act required the government to pay out gold in exchange for silver and paper currency, and through the early months of 1893 gold flowed out of the Treasury. The increasing economic struggles of poor farmers during the 1870s and 1880s led to the Populist movement. To that end, it was important that the Populists not nominate a rival silver candidate, and he took pains to cultivate good relations with Populist leaders. I was thinking of finding a book for him for Christmas that could help his research. Retrieved May 19, 2012. After the fourth ballot, the Illinois delegation caucused and Altgeld was one of only two remaining Bland supporters, thus giving Bryan all of the state's 48 votes and bringing him near the two-thirds mark and the nomination. Bryan remained at his hotel, sending word to his fellow Nebraskans, "There must be no pledging, no promising, on any subject with anybody. The election of 1896 is seen as the beginning of a new era in American politics, or a "realignment" election. Bryans inability to differentiate between social Darwinism and the scientific theory of evolution galvanized his more fundamentalist, religious supporters but earned him the disdain of many others who shared his progressive politics. According to historian Stanley Jones in his account of the 1896 election, "it seemed in retrospect a curious logic that gave a capitalist from Maine a leading role in a campaign intended to have a strong appeal to the masses of the South and West". On July 26, 1925, five days after the verdict was issued, Bryan died in his sleep after suffering a stroke. [4] Looking for a growing city in which his practice could thrive, he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1887. Neither candidate had much money to spend on his campaign. [118] Starved of money, the Democrats had fewer speakers and fewer publications to issue. In the 1892 presidential election, former Democratic president Grover Cleveland defeated the Republican incumbent, Benjamin Harrison, to regain his office. Chicago banker Charles G. Dawes, a McKinley advisor who had known Bryan when both lived in Lincoln, had predicted to McKinley and his friend and campaign manager, Mark Hanna, that if Bryan had the chance to speak to the convention, he would be its choice. They also lost the next 2 elections, in spite of their strong backing in the popular classes. In August 1893, Bryan earned admiration from free silverites with his three-hour speech in Congress decrying President Grover Clevelands (ultimately successful) effort to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 and again tie U.S. currency to the gold standard. Why was the 1896 election devastating for Populist movement? His speech, set as the only one besides Bryan's in favor of silver, portrayed silver as a sectional issue pitting the poorer folk of the South and West against gold-supporting New York and the rest of the Northeast. At the center of these efforts was a campaign to end the teaching of evolution in public schools. He knew that hard work could turn the discontent of the people into a revolt against the gold wing of the party, and no group of individuals ever labored more diligently to gain their political ends than did the silver men in the [Democratic Party] between 1893 and 1896. This was not the case: the mining industry was seeing poor times, and had little money to donate to Bryan. In the speech, Bryan, who was from . The Democrats lost control of both houses of Congress in the 1894 midterm elections, with a number of southern states, usually solid for the Democrats, electing Republican or Populist congressmen. He was not yet done with campaigning, however; on November 2, he undertook a train journey across Nebraska in support of Democratic congressional candidates. [32] Once delegates were selected, Bryan wrote to party officials and obtained a list; he sent copies of his speeches, clippings from the World-Herald, and his photograph to each delegate.[28]. [29], Bryan faced a number of disadvantages in seeking the Democratic nomination: he was little-known among Americans who did not follow politics closely, he had no money to pour into his campaign, he lacked public office, and had incurred the enmity of Cleveland and his administration through his stance on silver and other issues. The left-wing Populist Party (which had hoped to nominate the only silver-supporting candidate) endorsed Bryan for president, but found Sewall unacceptable, substituting Thomas E. Watson of Georgia. 3). [1] As a judge's son, the younger Bryan had ample opportunity to observe the art of speechmaking in courtrooms, political rallies, and at church and revival meetings. The leading candidates were former Missouri congressman Richard P. Bland and former Iowa governor Horace Boies. [138] Palmer received less than 1% of the vote, but his vote total in Kentucky was greater than McKinley's margin of victory there. "[52], On the morning of July 9, 1896, thousands of people waited outside the Coliseum, hoping to hear the platform debate. At a speech in Chicago on Labor Day, Bryan varied from the silver issue to urge regulation of corporations. Bryan, with this declaration, set the theme of his argument, and as it would prove, his campaign: that the welfare of humanity was at stake with the silver issue. At every stop, he made contacts that he later cultivated. To those who cling to the gold standard, he declared in closing: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.. Palmer was a 79-year-old former Union general, Buckner a 73-year-old former Confederate of that rank; the ticket was the oldest in combined age in American history, and Palmer the second-oldest presidential candidate (behind Peter Cooper of the Greenback Party; Bryan was the youngest). In 1890, he agreed to run for Congress against William James Connell, a Republican, who had won the local congressional seat in 1888. He ran for president a second time in 1900 and a third time in 1908, each time losing. He was defeated in the general election by the Republican candidate, former Ohio governor William McKinley . [127], Republican newspapers painted Bryan as a tool of Governor Altgeld, who was controversial for having pardoned the surviving men convicted of involvement in the Haymarket bombing. No delegation must be permitted to violate instructions given by a state convention. Even in the South, Bryan attracted 59% of the rural vote, but only 44% of the urban vote, taking 57% of the southern vote overall. United States presidential election of 1896, American presidential election held on November 3, 1896, in which Republican William McKinley defeated Democrat - Populist William Jennings Bryan. "[102], Historian R. Hal Williams, in his book about the 1896 campaign, believes that the Populist nomination did Bryan little good; most Populists would have voted for him anyway and the endorsement allowed his opponents to paint him and his supporters as extremists. Why did William Jennings Bryan lose? Bryan, an attorney and former Congressman, galvanized support with his Cross of Gold speech, which called for a reform of the monetary system and attacked business leaders as the cause of ongoing economic depression. He lost a presidential bid to George W. Bush in 2000. [62][64] He responded to an argument by Senator Vilas that from silver forces might arise a Robespierre. She became his wife, and was his principal assistant throughout his career. Writers such as Edgar Lee Masters, Hamlin Garland and his fellow Nebraskan, Willa Cather, like Bryan came from the prairies; they wrote of their admiration for him and his first battle. Bryan". Bryan signed on as chief prosecutor, facing off against the criminal defense attorney Clarence Darrow. Illinois Senator John M. Palmer was eager to be the presidential candidate, and the convention nominated him with Kentucky's Simon Bolivar Buckner as his running mate. Everybody seemed to go mad at once. Populism and the Election of 1896. William McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan, winning 292 electoral votes to Bryan's 155. [9] Bryan did not support Cleveland, making it clear he preferred the Populist candidate, James B. Weaver, though he indicated that as a loyal Democrat, he would vote the party ticket. Bryan did not; Senator Jones (as the new Democratic National Committee chairman, in charge of the campaign) stated, "Mr. Sewall, will, of course, remain on the ticket, and Mr. Watson can do what he likes. Bryan spent most of October there160 of his final 250 train stops were in the Midwest. Their enthusiasm at the unrehearsed rear platform appearances and in the formal speeches was spontaneous and contagious. The book, composed of accounts of (fictitious) lectures on the silver issue given by an adolescent named Coin to Chicago audiences, became an immense bestseller. William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925), the U.S. congressman from Nebraska, three-time presidential nominee and secretary of state, emerged near the end of the 19th century as a leading voice in the Democratic Party and the nation. Bryan, a former Democratic congressman from Nebraska, gained his party's presidential nomination in July of that year after electrifying the Democratic National Convention with his Cross of Gold speech. The 1896 Democratic National Convention repudiated the Cleveland administration and nominated Bryan on the fifth presidential ballot. Populist leaders correctly believed the Republicans unlikely to nominate a silver man. [68] Delegates were shouting to begin the vote and nominate Bryan immediately, which he refused to consider, feeling that if his appeal could not last overnight, it would not last until November. [105], After the Democratic convention, Bryan had returned triumphantly to Lincoln, making speeches along the way. [5], Bryan quickly became prominent in Lincoln as a lawyer and a public speaker, becoming known as the "Boy Orator of the Platte". This would restore a practice abolished in 1873. He was slim, tall, pale, raven-haired, beaked of nose. The day after his Cross of Gold speech, Bryan won the Democratic presidential nomination; he also won the support of the Populist and National Silver parties. [10], In May 1894, Bryan announced he would not seek re-election to the House of Representatives, feeling the incessant need to raise money to campaign in a marginal district was inhibiting his political career. Southern newspapers stayed with Bryan; they were unwilling to endorse McKinley, the choice of most African Americans, though few of them could vote in the South. overcoming discrimination to become a self made millionaire why is madame CJ walker remembered? There was little advantage to the Democratic Party in nominating a candidate from Nebraska, a state small in population that had never voted for a Democrat. They hoped the Democrats either would not endorse silver in their platform or if they did, that the Democratic candidate would be someone who could be painted as weak on silver. 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