The Scopes monkey trial in Dayton, Tennessee, played out under the national spotlight, with journalists, religious leaders and onlookers crowding the courtroom. Why did William Jennings Bryan lose? Senator Jones felt compelled to spend five minutes (granted by the gold side), stating that the silver issue crossed sectional lines. 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. How could a boy in appearance, one not yet admitted to the convention, without a single state behind him, dare claim the nomination? In late 1894, pro-silver Democrats began to organize in the hope of taking control of the party from Cleveland and other Gold Democrats and nominating a silver candidate in 1896. "[63] He continued: Upon which side will the Democratic Party fight; upon the side of "the idle holders of idle capital" or upon the side of "the struggling masses"? [136] His train reached Lincoln after the polls opened; he journeyed from train station to polling place to his house escorted by a mounted troop of supporters. Only Bryan was left to speak, and no one at the convention had yet effectively championed the silver cause. [121], During this tour, Bryan spoke almost exclusively on the silver question, and attempted to mold the speeches to reflect local issues and interests. In addition to the frontrunners, other silver men were spoken of as candidates. Though men thought otherwise at the time, neither fate nor accident created his position in the party. Of course I support him. He lost a presidential bid to George W. Bush in 2000. Great Commoner Bryan dies in sleep, apoplexy given as cause of death. UPI Archives, July 27, 1925. https://www.history.com/topics/us-government/william-jennings-bryan. Someone who presented ten dollars in silver bullion would receive back almost twice that in silver coin. Advocates of free silver (or bimetallism) wanted the government to accept all silver bullion presented to it and to return it, struck into coin, at the historic value ratio between gold and silver of 16 to 1. Ever since the election of 1800, American presidential contests had, on some level, been a referendum on whether the country should be governed by agrarian interests (rural indebted farmers-the countryside-"main street") or industrial interests (business-the city-"wall street"). Bryan's biographer, Paolo Coletta, suggests that Bryan may have played a part in inciting the silver men's departure; he was in close contact with Silver Republicans such as Teller and South Dakota Senator Richard Pettigrew. Free silver especially resonated among farmers in the South and West, as well as miners. At first, he rode in public cars, and made his own travel arrangements, looking up train schedules and even carrying his own bags from train station to hotel. [105], After the Democratic convention, Bryan had returned triumphantly to Lincoln, making speeches along the way. [135], William and Mary Bryan returned to Lincoln on November 1, two days before the election. [67], Bryan described the stillness as "really painful"; his anxieties that he might have failed were soon broken by pandemonium. The coalition of wealthy, middle-class and urban voters that defeated Bryan kept the Republicans in power for most of the time until 1932. Bryan often spoke on the issue of the currency. While speaking in McKinley's hometown of Canton, Ohio, Bryan yielded to impulse and called upon his rival at his home with Congressman Bland; the Republican candidate and his wife, somewhat startled, received the two men hospitably in a scene Williams calls, "surely bizarre. Bryan was strongly affected by the emerging Social Gospel movement that called on Protestant activists to seek to cure social problems such as poverty. Bryan arrived during the delay; he was greeted with a musical tribute from one of the convention bands,[a] which then returned to playing a medley of Irish melodies. [50], Delegates spent most of the first two days listening to various speeches by silver supporters. [41], Bryan's Nebraska delegation left Lincoln by train on July 5. However, the business man argument was new, though he had hinted at it in an interview he gave at the Republican convention. 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. 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. Why was the 1896 election devastating for Populist movement? [73] As Missouri Senator George Vest nominated Bland, his oratory was drowned out by the gallery, "Bryan, Bryan, W.J. He knew personally more delegates than did any other candidate and he was on the ground to supervise his strategy. [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. Set off by the collapse of the powerful Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, the Panic of 1893 plunged the nation into a deep economic depression. The increasing economic struggles of poor farmers during the 1870s and 1880s led to the Populist movement. [132] Early Republican polls had shown Bryan ahead in crucial Midwestern states, including McKinley's Ohio. Active in Democratic Party politics, Sewall was one of the few eastern party leaders to support silver, was wealthy and could help finance the campaign; he also balanced the ticket geographically. Bryan's supporters raised at most $500,000 for the 1896 campaign; McKinley's raised at least $3.5 million. These included Vice President Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, Senator Joseph C. Blackburn of Kentucky, Indiana Governor Claude Matthews, and Bryan. [144] According to Kazin, "what is remarkable is not that Bryan lost but that he came as close as he did to winning. 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. Ordinarily, it was torn down after that event. Meanwhile, Hanna raised millions from business men to pay for speakers on the currency question and to flood the nation with hundreds of millions of pamphlets. "[143], Michael Kazin, Bryan's biographer, notes the many handicaps he faced in his 1896 campaign: "A severe economic downturn that occurred with Democrats in power, a party deserted by its men of wealth and national prominence, the vehement opposition of most prominent publishers and academics and ministers, and hostility from the nation's largest employers". There is no legal or constitutional requirement that the loser of a U.S. presidential election must concede. "[142] By the end of 1896, Bryan had published his account of the campaign, The First Battle. Each made their cases for gold, and likely changed few votes. Bryan was born on March 19, 1860 in the small town of Salem, Illinois. The effect was deflationary. [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. Populism and the Election of 1896. The 1900 United States presidential election took place after an economic recovery from the Panic of 1893 as well as after the Spanish-American War, with the economy, foreign policy, and imperialism being the main issues of the campaign. Although not a landslide shift comparable to election swings in the twentieth century, McKinley's victory ended the pattern of close popular margins that had characterized elections since the Civil War. He argued that children being taught the survival of the fittest would in time stop caring about the poor and otherwise needier members of the population. Populists claim to speak for ordinary people, taking an "us versus them" stance. By 1896, populist issues had become so important that the Democratic candidate for president, William Jennings Bryan, pledged to support them and went on to win most of the South and West. 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. The majority felt exposed, crestfallen, and humiliated.[56]. Party members in many states, including Nebraska, demanded inflation of the currency through issuance of paper or silver currency, allowing easier repayment of debt. As Bryan had called New York in an ill-considered statement to the press before leaving Lincoln. "[19] A Minnesota correspondent wrote in Outlook magazine: "high school boys are about equally divided between silver and baseball, with a decided leaning toward the former". 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. In 1896, William Jennings Bryan ran unsuccessfully for president of the United States. His running mate, Theodore Roosevelt, campaigned across the nation, condemning Bryan as a dangerous threat to America's prosperity and status. Many of the silver men had not attended a national convention before, and were unfamiliar with its procedures. Bryan campaigned heavily on a platform of free silver in 1896, and continued that trend into the election of 1900. 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. 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). The question of the currency had been a major political issue since the mid-1870s. The economy failed to improve, and when the President in 1894 sent federal troops to Illinois to break up the Pullman Strike, he outraged even more Democrats. 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. [69] In the midst of the crazed crowd, Altgeld, a Bland supporter, commented to his friend, lawyer Clarence Darrow, "That is the greatest speech I ever listened to. Coalition of wealthy, middle-class and urban voters that defeated Bryan kept the Republicans in for... Had been a major political issue since the mid-1870s the 1896 campaign ; McKinley 's raised at $. 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