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For membership information, see: http://nebraskahistory.org/admin/members/index.htm Article Title: Popular Appeals in the Campaign of 1896 Full Citation: Rebecca Edwards, “Popular Appeals in the Campaign of 1896,” Nebraska History 77 (1996): 129- 139 URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NH1996Bryan_Campn_1896.pdf Date: 4/19/2013 Article Summary: In 1896 Bryan broke with tradition and undertook a series of exhausting campaign tours to sell his ideas directly to the voters. Many political cartoons of the time reflected this new combination of business and politics. Cataloging Information: Names: William Jennings Bryan, William McKinley, Mark Hanna, Homer Davenport, Carl Browne, Sarah Dudley Pettey, Ida B Wells, C W Post Keywords: William Jennings Bryan, William McKinley, Mark Hanna, Homer Davenport, Carl Browne, currency, silverites, gold standard Photographs / Images: (Fig 1) inset advertisement, “Great Silver Jubilee,” Rocky Mountain News, October 18, 1896; (Fig 2) Homer Davenport caricature of Republican manager Marcus Hanna, New York Journal, September 12, 1896; (Fig 3) “Hanna, the friend of Labor,” St Louis Post-Dispatch, October 30, 1896; (Fig 4) Carl Browne caricature, “We Want no Crown of Thorns, No Cross of Gold—Like This,” Coxey’s Sound Money, August 20, 1896; (Fig 5) “The Dollar Bryan Would Like to Give Us,” Pioneer Press, St Paul, September 6, 1896; (Fig 6) “The 16 to 1 Bargain Counter of the (Bryan) Future,” New York World, November 1896; (Fig 7) “The true laboring man that we all honor and admire, and who desires nothing but a chance to work” and “The self-styled „down-trodden son of toil‟ who works nothing but his jaw,” Los Angeles Times, September 20, 1896; (Fig 8) “A Modern Application of the Story of Potiphar‟s Wife,” Los Angeles Times, November 4, 1896; (Fig 9) “Tried to Force Social Equality in His Opera House Decision,” Raleigh News and Observer, October 30, 1896; (Fig 10) untitled cartoon expressing disgust with the currency question, The New Orleans Bee, September 12, 1896; (Fig 11) “The True Situation,” New Road, August 9, 1896; (Fig 12) “Warning of the Ghost of Kansas: „Beware, Little Girl; He Ruined Me,‟ ” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 27, 1896; (Fig 13) “Mark Hanna‟s Medicine,” Raleigh News and Observer, October 8, 1896; (Fig 14); “Lightning Changes in Politics,” Chicago Record, October 10, 1896; “Falstaff (Bryan) Reviews His Ragged Army,” Judge, August 29, 1896; “Little Billy Bryan Chasing Butterflies,” Judge, October 17, 1896; “Only a Comet . .,” Judge, October 31, 1896; “Fishing For Suckers,” Judge, September 5, 1896; “The Boy Stands On the Burning Deck, Whence All But Him Have Fled,” Judge, August 8, 1896; “The Sacrilegious Candidate,” Judge, September 19, 1896 Fo ular Appeals In the ampalgn oh 1896 By Rebecca Edwards By all rights, the presidential election of picnics. and barbecues. Newspapers reo with tradition and undertook a series of 1896 should have t·een a snoozer. A ported brawls between rival partisans. exhausting campaign lours. In Septem­ massive depression had hit the United With a bicycle craze sweeping the na· ber and October he covered almost States in 1893, and voters in the 1894 lion, RepUblicans organized cyclists for l3,OOO miles, speaking 10 huge crowds congressional election had sent droves impromptu tours. A National Women's and sometimes appearing Oil the train of Republicans to Washington. appar­ Silver League fonned to oppose the platform at 3 A.M. to wave to admirers. ently blaming the economic crisis on Republican Women's National Sound By nineteenth·century standards, both Democrats who held power. President Money League; local affiliates of both campaigns were astounding feats of Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, declined groups sponsored lectures and teas _ showmanship. McKinley said privately, to run again and abandoned a party in Citizens sent each candidate thousands WI might JUS! as well put up a trapeze on disarray. With ~ majority of voters fol­ of lellers and an overwhelming number my Irontlawn and compete with some lOWing the Republican trend of 1894. of gifts, including pies, qUills, caged professional alhlele as go but speaking the 1896 campaign sealed Democrats' bald eagles, live pigs. and a giant against Bryan." Mark Hanna. McKinley's fate as a minority parry for fiBeen years .' waterm elon .'j campaign manager, put on his own This resull . however. was not clear Campaign e.xcilement reached all skillluf show, Theodore Roosevelt ob­ until/he retums came in. In July 1896 sectors of American society. At Madi­ served that I-Ianna marketed his candi­ young William Jennings Bryan of Ne· son Square Garden, 12,000 New York­ date "like a palent medicine."> braska captured the Democrats' Chi· ers-including many poor laborers­ The campaign was thus a milestone cago convention wilh a dramatic waited hours in heavy rain to hear in the hislory of American marketing, as speech He sweptlhe nomination and Bryan give his acceptance speech . Simi­ business and politics intertwined. Tak­ then won endorsement from the farmer­ lar crowds met Bryan in St. Paul, where Ing advantage 01 a new fad, New York Jnd labor-based People 's Party. De­ Populists organized a series of meehngs st reet vendors sold buttons declaring nouncing the gold standard as detrimen­ "especially [or women." In North Caro­ "Free Silver or Bust." "In Gold We Trust: tal 10 both business and workers, Bryan lina , African American relormer Sarah and "Don'l Be an _ " (the latter depict­ issued a famous challenge to capitalists Dudley Pelley exhorted men to vote for ing a Democratic donkey). In Denver, and financiers: "You shall not press McKinley, whose election would bring whose residents were ovelWhelmingly down upon the brow of labor this crown "better times occasioned by good , pro·silver, the owner of Appel's Big of thoms, you shall not cructfy mankind sound money." Though black men Slore advertised lhat he would contrib­ upon a cross of gold." On this platform, pressed for a seat on Ihe Republican Na­ ute 10 percent of one day's sales 10 the against overwhelming odds, Bryan gave tional Committee. GOP leaders instead Bryan campaign (figure 1). C. W. POSl, Republican candidate William McKinley created a separate "Colored Bureau." inventorol PoslUm breakfast drink, en­ a run for his money,l whose list of speakers included anti­ couraged women to send postcards to With enthusiasm, Americans joined a lynch109 activist Ida B. Wells. 1 his headquarters, choosing the candi· campaign that in rEtrospect was the last The candidates adopted markedly date Ihey would vote for, il they could, hurrah of an old political order. In different campaign styles. Following Re­ Of course, the Post company printed towns and cities nationwide, marching lJubhcan precedent, McKinley ran a "Instructions for Voting" on the labels of clubs of McKinley Guards and Bryan front-porch campaign from his home in Postum. available at the local grace!)'." Knights organized torchlight parades, Canlon. Ohio. Tens 01 thousands of visi­ Most nineteenth-century newspapers lars tromped through the McKinleys' had mainlained slrong party allegiances Rebecca Edwards receIVed her Ph.D from the yard, made speeches of support, and in exchange for subsidies during a cam­ Uf/I'versiry of Virginia She is asslslont professor drank lemonade with William and his paign, or in hopes of patronage. The of his/ory a/ Vassar College wife Ida. As the underdog, Bryan broke 1896 campaign revealed changes in 129 Nebraska History - Fall/Winter 1996 Great Silver Jubilee To::Morrow. ,.a.'.' Bdln'"l 1,10 lit: (ftc dUly of every I"'YII ,rUle" DI Co.o/~do 10 .ald 111 tht: ell.d.lon I.'~O UII'. ~4~:::':'~~ 1!-S MC'ft'.a Sui'., ar WILLIAM JENNINGS BRY1\N . ._x:,..... .. ad t)vlI:rt'ollllb '0 .ftC f'r':!lldf"ey-. "rv-e _uUtorTrc.d W,. M..". io r~" ,~'~~ ;;:••ow ~o 1~ lOPER eENT. @~ 8'LlfO' e·":.:r. ~" fUll Ttl0 a 5 a les O~ ..... 1I-srOKf 1I0"ftO'l­ ~~~:~,., ' rn "'t Mno." 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October 18. 18Q6 these old arrangE'JTlents; while many to personify the pro-tariff, hard·money small lown newspapers still received capilalists who contributed more Ihan party funds. large urban dailies worried $3,000,00010 the Republican campaign .