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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.

At a glance: the election of 1896

The nominations

The presidential campaign of 1896 was one of the most exciting in American history. The central issue was the country’s money supply. An economic depression had begun in 1893, and public opinion—and even the Democratic Party—was split between those who favored the gold standard and those who favored free silver, a type of currency inflation, to help alleviate the depression. Most Republicans, as well as Democratic supporters of Pres. Grover Cleveland, were in favor of the gold standard. Southern and western Democrats and Populists (also known as the People’s Party)—many of them farmers who were suffering financially—vied for free silver, which ultimately helped bring those two parties together.

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In June at the Republican national convention in St. Louis, Missouri, former Ohio congressman and governor William McKinley, who was popular in his party for his moderate views on gold and silver, easily won the Republican presidential nomination. Garret A. Hobart of New Jersey was chosen as his running mate after Thomas Reed, who had vied for the presidential ticket, rejected the vice presidential nomination.

At their convention in Chicago the following month, the Democrats chose magnetic orator and former Nebraska congressman William Jennings Bryan. Although he was only 36 years of age, Bryan’s famous “Cross of Gold” speech (July 8), given in closing debate on the party platform and in favor of including a plank endorsing free silver, so electrified the convention that he was nominated for president, winning on the fifth ballot. His solution for the depressed economy was an “easy money” policy based on the unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio to gold of 16 to 1. On that platform he also received the nominations of the Populist and National Silver parties. Arthur Sewall, an executive from Maine, was chosen as the Democrats’ vice presidential candidate. The Populists, trying to preserve their party as separate from the Democrats, nominated Thomas E. Watson as their vice presidential candidate.

The campaign

McKinley ran on a Republican platform emphasizing maintenance of the gold standard, while his opponent called for the bimetallic standard of gold and silver. Bryan campaigned vigorously, traveling thousands of miles and delivering hundreds of speeches in support of an inflated currency that would help poor farmers and other debtors. McKinley remained at home in Canton, Ohio, greeting visiting delegations of Republicans at his front porch and giving carefully prepared speeches promoting the benefits of a gold-backed currency. Prominent Republican industrialist Mark Hanna tapped big businesses for enormous campaign contributions while directing a network of Republican speakers who portrayed Bryan as a dangerous radical and McKinley as “the advance agent of prosperity.” Although Bryan rallied a devoted voter base, sweeping the South and most of the mountain West, McKinley won the election decisively, carrying the North and Pacific West and becoming the first president to achieve a popular majority since 1872. In the electoral college, McKinley defeated Bryan 271 to 176.

For the results of the previous election, see United States presidential election of 1892. For the results of the subsequent election, see United States presidential election of 1900.

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Results of the 1896 election

The results of the 1896 U.S. presidential election are provided in the table.

American presidential election, 1896
presidential candidate political party electoral votes popular votes
*Includes a variety of joint tickets with People's Party electors committed to Bryan.
Sources: Electoral and popular vote totals based on data from the United States Office of the Federal Register and Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections, 4th ed. (2001).
William McKinley Republican 271 7,104,779
William Jennings Bryan Democratic* 176 6,502,925
John M. Palmer National Democratic 133,435
Joshua Levering Prohibition 125,072
Charles H. Matchett Socialist Labor 36,356
Charles E. Bentley Nationalist Prohibition 19,363
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Mindy Johnston.
Quick Facts
Born:
March 19, 1860, Salem, Illinois, U.S.
Died:
July 26, 1925, Dayton, Tennessee (aged 65)
Political Affiliation:
Democratic Party
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William Jennings Bryan (born March 19, 1860, Salem, Illinois, U.S.—died July 26, 1925, Dayton, Tennessee) was a Democratic and Populist leader and a magnetic orator who ran unsuccessfully three times for the U.S. presidency (1896, 1900, and 1908). His enemies regarded him as an ambitious demagogue, but his supporters viewed him as a champion of liberal causes. He was influential in the eventual adoption of such reforms as popular election of senators, income tax, creation of the Department of Labor, Prohibition, and women’s suffrage. Throughout his career, his Midwestern roots clearly identified him with agrarian interests, in opposition to those of the urban East.

Bryan was reared in Illinois. He practiced law in Jacksonville (1883–87) before moving to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1890. Renowned as a gifted debater, he opposed high tariffs and came to be considered the national leader of the Free Silver Movement (bimetallism) as opposed to the “hard money” policy of the Eastern bankers and industrialists, who favoured the gold standard.

Defeated for the U.S. Senate in 1894, he spent the next two years as editor of the Omaha World-Herald and as a popular public lecturer. The climax of Bryan’s career was undoubtedly the 1896 presidential campaign. At the Democratic convention in Chicago, his famous “Cross of Goldspeech (July 8) won him the nomination at the age of 36.

A 1912 poster shows Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and William Howard Taft, all working at desks, superimposed on a map of the United States. The three were candidates in the 1912 election.
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If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.

His solution for the depressed economy after the panic of 1893 was an “easy money” policy based on the unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio to gold of 16 to 1. On that platform he also received the nominations of the Populist and National Silver parties. In the ensuing campaign, he traveled more than 18,000 miles (29,000 km) through 27 states and attracted a large and enthusiastic following, but the well-financed Republican machine won 271 electoral votes for William McKinley to Bryan’s 176. Bryan lost to McKinley again in 1900 and to William Howard Taft in 1908.

In recognition of his role in securing the Democratic nomination for Woodrow Wilson in 1912, Bryan was appointed secretary of state the following year. Despite his diplomatic inexperience, he made a distinctive contribution to world law by espousing arbitration to prevent war. Bryan convinced 31 nations to agree in principle to his proposal of new treaties that would provide a “cooling-off” period of one year during which a question in dispute could be studied by an international commission. In the meantime, World War I broke out. An avowed pacifist, Bryan finally resigned over Wilson’s second note to Germany (June 8, 1915) protesting the sinking of the Lusitania. Nonetheless, he urged loyal support of the war when it was finally declared.

The concluding episode of his life was the famous Scopes trial in July 1925. A firm believer in a literal interpretation of the Bible, Bryan went to Dayton, Tennessee, to assist in the prosecution of a schoolteacher accused of teaching Darwinism, or the theory of the evolutionary origin of man, rather than the doctrine of divine creation. With Clarence Darrow as chief defense counsel, the trial attracted worldwide attention as a dramatic duel between fundamentalism and modernism. John T. Scopes was found guilty and fined (later overruled), but the excesses and passions of the court battle took their toll: six days after the trial, Bryan died in his sleep.

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.