He was the first presidential candidate since Stephen Douglas in 1860 to canvass directly, and the first ever to criss-cross the nation and meet voters in person. The novelty of seeing a visiting presidential candidate, combined with Bryan's spellbinding oratory and the passion of his believers, generated huge crowds.
"The 1896 Realignment," American Politics Research, (Jan 2005) 33#1 pp. 3–32 Wanat, John and Karen Burke, "Estimating the Degree of Mobilization and Conversion in the 1890s: An Inquiry into the Nature of Electoral Change," American Political Science Review, (1982) 76#2 pp. 360–70 in JSTOR Wells, Wyatt.
Rhetoric of the standards: The debate over gold and silver in the 1890s," Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2015).
Bryan then won the nomination of the Populist Party, which had won several states in 1892 and shared many of Bryan's policies.
Formed in 1892, the Populists represented the philosophy of agrarianism (derived from Jeffersonian democracy), which held that farming was a superior way of life that was being exploited by bankers and middlemen.
In the presidential election of 1892, Populist candidate James B.
Coxey !!1 |} ==== Silver Party nomination ==== The Silver Party was organized in 1892.
The Portland Morning Oregonian reported on June 27, 1892 that a Silver Party was being organized along those lines. Nevada silverites called a state convention to be held on June 5, 1892, just days following the close of the Democratic National Convention.
The convention noted that neither the Republicans or Democrats addressed the silver concerns of western states and officially organized the "Silver Party of Nevada." Proceeding by itself, the Silver Party swept the state in 1892; James Weaver, the People's Party nominee for president running on the Silver ticket, won 66.8% of the vote.
He altered the People's Party platform from 1892 and eliminated planks he felt would be divisive for a larger party and began to lobby silver men around the nation.
But to change the outcome, the additional fall in crop prices would have had to be large." ===General results=== McKinley received a little more than seven million votes, Bryan a little less than six and a half million, about 800,000 in excess of the Democratic vote in 1892.
It was somewhat less, however, than the combined vote for the Democratic and Populist nominees had been in 1892.
In contrast, McKinley received nearly 2,000,000 more votes than had been cast for Benjamin Harrison, the Republican nominee, in 1892.
The 1896 campaign, which took place during an economic depression known as the Panic of 1893, was a political realignment that ended the old Third Party System and began the Fourth Party System. Incumbent Democratic President Grover Cleveland did not seek election to a second consecutive term (which would have been his third overall), leaving the Democratic nomination open.
McKinley prevailed by a wide margin on the first ballot of the 1896 Republican National Convention. Since the onset of the Panic of 1893, the nation had been mired in a deep economic depression, marked by low prices, low profits, high unemployment, and violent strikes.
A superb orator, Bryan hailed from Nebraska and spoke for the farmers who were suffering from the economic depression following the Panic of 1893.
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.
Weaver carried four states, and in 1894, the Populists scored victories in congressional and state legislature races in a number of Southern and Western states.
Senate. The success of the Nevada silverites spurred their brethren in Colorado to action; the Colorado Silver Party never materialized, however. In the 1894 midterm elections, the Silver Party remained a Nevada party.
John Edward Jones was elected Governor with 50% of the vote; Newlands was re-elected with 44%. Following the Democratic Party debacle in 1894, James Weaver began agitating for the creation of a nationwide Silver Party.
Bragg !!130.5!! 118.5 |} ==Campaign strategies== While the Republican Party entered 1896 assuming that the Democrats were in shambles and victory would be easy, especially after the unprecedented Republican landslide in the congressional elections of 1894, the nationwide emotional response to the Bryan candidacy changed everything.
The first major statement by the national Silver Party was an address delivered to the American Bimetallic League, printed in the Emporia Daily Gazette on March 6, 1895.
The 1896 United States presidential election was the 28th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1896.
The 1896 campaign, which took place during an economic depression known as the Panic of 1893, was a political realignment that ended the old Third Party System and began the Fourth Party System. Incumbent Democratic President Grover Cleveland did not seek election to a second consecutive term (which would have been his third overall), leaving the Democratic nomination open.
The 1896 Democratic National Convention repudiated the Cleveland administration and nominated Bryan on the fifth presidential ballot.
McKinley prevailed by a wide margin on the first ballot of the 1896 Republican National Convention. Since the onset of the Panic of 1893, the nation had been mired in a deep economic depression, marked by low prices, low profits, high unemployment, and violent strikes.
Louis, Missouri, held between June 16 and 18, 1896, the Republicans nominated William McKinley for president and New Jersey's Garret Hobart for vice-president.
The delegates approved the minority report that had been rejected at the Prohibitionist Convention calling for free coinage and greenbacks, government control of railroads and telegraphs, direct election of Senators and the President, and an income tax among others. ==== Socialist Labor Party nomination ==== The Socialist Labor Convention was held in New York City on July 9, 1896.
By 1896, some Populists believed that they could replace the Democrats as the main opposition party to the Republicans.
At their national convention in 1896, the Populists chose Bryan as their presidential nominee.
The 1896 election was particularly detrimental to the Populist Party in the South; the party divided itself between members who favored cooperation with the Democrats to achieve reform at the national level and members who favored cooperation with the Republicans to achieve reform at a state level. As a result of the double nomination, both the Bryan-Sewall Democratic ticket and the Bryan-Watson Populist ticket appeared on the ballot in many states.
Bragg !!130.5!! 118.5 |} ==Campaign strategies== While the Republican Party entered 1896 assuming that the Democrats were in shambles and victory would be easy, especially after the unprecedented Republican landslide in the congressional elections of 1894, the nationwide emotional response to the Bryan candidacy changed everything.
"The 'Cow-bird' Grounded: The Populist Nomination of Bryan and Tom Watson in 1896," Mississippi Valley Historical Review (1963) 50#3 pp. 397–423 in JSTOR Edwards, Rebecca.
"The election of 1896." OAH Magazine of History 13.4 (1999): 28–30.
From the Front Porch to the Front Page: McKinley and Bryan in the 1896 Presidential Campaign (2006) focus on the speeches and rhetoric Kazin, Michael.
"The 1896 Realignment," American Politics Research, (Jan 2005) 33#1 pp. 3–32 Wanat, John and Karen Burke, "Estimating the Degree of Mobilization and Conversion in the 1890s: An Inquiry into the Nature of Electoral Change," American Political Science Review, (1982) 76#2 pp. 360–70 in JSTOR Wells, Wyatt.
(2010) Realigning America: McKinley, Bryan, and the Remarkable Election of 1896 (University Press of Kansas) 250 pp ===Primary sources=== Bryan, William Jennings.
The First Battle: A Story of the Campaign of 1896 (1897), speeches from 1896 campaign. * This is the handbook of the Gold Democrats and strongly opposed Bryan. Porter, Kirk H.
It was larger than the Democratic Party was to poll in 1900, 1904, or 1912.
Repeatedly they depicted Bryan's prospective defeat, and a credible showing for Palmer, as paving the way for ultimate recapture of the Democratic Party, and this did indeed happen in 1904. {|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- | colspan="3" | Presidential ballot |- ! Ballot !! 1st before shifts !! 1st after shifts |- !John M.
It was larger than the Democratic Party was to poll in 1900, 1904, or 1912.
It was larger than the Democratic Party was to poll in 1900, 1904, or 1912.
Sectionalism was thus marked in this first election of the Fourth Party System. This was the last election in which the Democrats won South Dakota until 1932, the last in which the Democrats won Utah and Washington until 1916, and the last in which the Democrats won Kansas and Wyoming until 1912.
It was also the last time that South Dakota and Washington voted against the Republicans until they voted for the Progressive Party in 1912.
Sectionalism was thus marked in this first election of the Fourth Party System. This was the last election in which the Democrats won South Dakota until 1932, the last in which the Democrats won Utah and Washington until 1916, and the last in which the Democrats won Kansas and Wyoming until 1912.
The Democratic Party's repudiation of its Bourbon faction largely gave Bryan and his supporters control of the Democratic Party until the 1920s, and set the stage for Republican domination of the Fourth Party System. == Nominations == === Republican Party nomination === ==== Other candidates ==== At their convention in St.
This was the first time a Republican presidential candidate had ever carried Kentucky, but they did not do so again until Calvin Coolidge in 1924.
Sectionalism was thus marked in this first election of the Fourth Party System. This was the last election in which the Democrats won South Dakota until 1932, the last in which the Democrats won Utah and Washington until 1916, and the last in which the Democrats won Kansas and Wyoming until 1912.
"The 1896 Realignment," American Politics Research, (Jan 2005) 33#1 pp. 3–32 Wanat, John and Karen Burke, "Estimating the Degree of Mobilization and Conversion in the 1890s: An Inquiry into the Nature of Electoral Change," American Political Science Review, (1982) 76#2 pp. 360–70 in JSTOR Wells, Wyatt.
Johnson of Cleveland, Ohio, summed up the campaign as the "first great protest of the American people against monopoly – the first great struggle of the masses in our country against the privileged classes." According to a 2017 National Bureau of Economic Research paper, "Bryan did well where mortgage interest rates were high, railroad penetration was low, and crop prices had declined by most over the previous decade.
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