THE ELECTION OF 1896 IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA1 MARIAN SILVEUS were hard all over the United States as the presidential year Times1896 opened. Although some progress toward recovery from the panic of 1893 had been made, the fact was not perceptible to the com- mon people. In western Pennsylvania the basic industries had been hard hit and mills and mines were closed or working only part time. Prices of the main products of the section were rising, but they were still twenty-four to thirty per cent below the 1890 level.2 Under such con- ditions, it is but natural that the dominating sentiment of the people should have been a desire for the return of prosperity, and in January, 1896, two panaceas were being offered to them. One of these panaceas was the restoration of the protective tariff. The McKinley Act of 1890, the Republicans argued, had been responsible for the prosperity of the years 1890—92, and the mere anticipation of its withdrawal, when the Democrats came into power in March, 1893, was responsible for the crash. The Cleveland administration had been plagued by insufficiency of governmental revenue simply because the tariff was not high enough. As always, the Republicans talked much of the inability of Democrats to govern and more or less implied that hard times would automatically vanish when the Democrats got out of Wash- ington, but they relied upon the tariff to prove even this. In western Pennsylvania the tariff argument was used with telling effect, for the section had unquestionably been favored under the McKinley Act.Natu- rally Republican, the section was now more strongly so than ever. 3 1This paper was read by Dr. Marian Silveus at a meeting- of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania on February 28, 1933. Ed. 2 For example, pig iron declined from $15.78 in 1890 to $9.75 in 1894 and rose to $10.94 »n 1895. Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1923, p. 842-844. 3 The typical Republican viewpoint is presented by Theodore Roosevelt in the Cen- tury Magazine, n.s., 29:68-72 (November, 1895). Files of the Times and the Dispatch 99 May 100 MARIAN SILVEUS The other panacea, however, was the one that was stirring the coun- try as a whole. This was the proposal for the restoration of the free coin- age of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one. The proposal had been dis- cussed since the middle seventies, but only since 1889 had propaganda agencies been at work; and it was with that date that the movement for establishing free coinage had begun to grow by leaps and bounds. Espe- cially since the panic of 1893 had great strides been made inpopularizing the free-coinage idea, and leaders were claiming, at the beginning of 1896, that the majority of the people believed init. Various arguments were used inurging free coinage, but the tenor of all of them was the same. A crime had been committed in 1873, it was said. Congress, in collusion with the eastern moneyed forces, had demonetized silver, rob- bing the people of a large portion of their circulating medium and reduc- ing prices and wages. The remainder of the money supply, that is, gold, could be—and was—controlled by Wall Street inits own interests. The escape from this yoke was simple enough —it lay in the restoration of free silver. And the leaders of the silver movement claimed that the ratio should be the one existing before the crime, that is, sixteen parts silver to one of gold. There can be no question but that the very agitation for free coinage had a disturbing effect on business and postponed recovery from the hard times, but it was hard to convince people of this. 4 The South and the West were the sections in which the free-silver sentiment had its greatest vogue. It was not absent, however, in the East, including western Pennsylvania; and especially in the northwest- ern corner of the state did ithave a strong foothold. The Populists had polled over nineteen thousand votes in the state in 1894, 5 and, although Populists were for other things too, they were definitely for free silver. Inaddition to the positive sentiment for free silver, such an open-mind- edness existed among the rank and file of the people that sound-money radiate the self-satisfaction of the Republicans. (Where newspapers are referred to with- out indication of place, Pittsburgh is to be understood. Ed.). 4 By far the most influential exposition of the silver argument was William H. Harvey, Coin?5 Financial School, originally published in Chicago in 1894, which achieved an enormous circulation. 5 Small's Legislative Handbook and Manual */the State of Pennsylvania, 1895, p. 428. , 933 THE ELECTION OF 1896I890 IOI newspapers of the section had constantly tobe explaining and re-explain- ing the shortcomings of the free-silver panacea. Largely responsible for the free-silver sentiment in northwestern Pennsylvania was Joseph Sibley of Franklin, several times a millionaire and a horse-fancier of national reputation. He had been elected to Con- gress in 1892 from the Erie-Crawford district,6 and in August, 1893, had fought the repeal of the Sherman Act. Defeated for reelection in 1894, he had become more vigorous than ever in his denunciation of gold monometallism. He had cooperated in an attempt in February, 1895, to organize the silver Democrats and almost simultaneously he had allowed himself to be recommended by a group of radical silver leaders as the logical candidate for the presidency on an independent silver ticket. During the summer of 1895 he had toured the Far West in the interests of free silver and of his candidacy, but his boom had not gained great proportions, mainly because most silverites hesitated to cut their party ties before it was absolutely necessary. In his home district he was looked upon either with great affection or with great scorn; and it was taken for granted that his friends would try to send him back to Congress in 1896 if the presidency did not claim him.7 Such, in brief, was the political situation at the beginning of 1896. Everything pointed to an exciting campaign. In western Pennsylvania the activity of the two major parties was to occupy the center of the stage during the spring, but Pittsburgh, in addition, was to be the scene of the national conventions of two third parties, events that served to divert the attention of the people for a time. The Prohibition national convention, which met in the old Exposition Building on May 27 and 28, was watched withinterest by Pittsburghers. Homer L.Castle as chairman of the local committee on arrangements acquitted himself admirably, providing every convenience for the dele- gates. One of his greatest problems was to see to it that the delegates were properly housed, since many of the hotels inPittsburgh were con- 6The twenty-sixth district. He lived in the twenty-fifth, but established a residence in Meadville for political purposes. 7The Sibley Scrapbooks, in the possession of Mrs. Celia Sibley Wilson of Franklin, present a full account of Sibley's public career as recorded in newspapers from the mid- eighties to about 1910. May 102 MARIAN SILVEUS sidered nothing but saloons. His speech of welcome to the delegates was a choice panegyric on Pittsburgh; among other things he said that he knew of no other city "with darker skies and brighter men and women ; with dirtier hands and cleaner hearts; with narrower, crookeder streets, and broader, straighter hospitality." 8 The chief significance of the con- vention lay in the fact that itillustrated the extent to which the silver question had become paramount, even with people who were members of a "one-idea" party. The delegates were divided on the question as to whether or not a free-coinage plank should be included in the platform ; and when the faction opposing such action finally won, the silver advo- cates bolted and organized another party. Pittsburgh newspapers for the most part gave the convention sympathetic, dignified treatment in their columns. 9 Very different was the attitude taken toward the National Reform party, which was organized at a conference held in Old City Hall on March 10, n, and 12 and which apparently breathed its last at its national convention held simultaneously with the prohibition convention in May. Widely advertised as a national gathering, it attracted only twenty to thirtypeople to its regular meetings, and only a very few were from out of the state. The leaders of the movement were Prohibitionists, apparently, with a sprinkling of Populists. Their hope was to organize a party that would unite under one banner all reformers, and their decla- ration of principles included everything from women's suffrage and direct election of senators to free silver and suppression of the liquor traffic. The only successful session, from the point of view of numbers, was the open meeting, at which Joseph Sibley talked on free silver. Old City Hall was two-thirds full on that occasion. When leaders of the old third parties showed no inclination to support the National Reform party, it died a natural death. 10 8 Voice (New York), December 19, 26, 1895, April 2, May 21, June 4, 1896} Dis- patch, May 28, 1896. 9See especially the Dispatch, May 27-29, 1896. 10 Dispatch, March 3, 10, 13, May 25—28, 1896. Daniel Swoger and Carl Stewart of Pittsburgh and Edward Evans of Tonawanda, New York, were the leaders of the movement. Persons from outside the state who were interested in the project and con- tributed to the diversity of opinion included Jacob S.