1896 U.S. presidential election

In 1896 Republican William McKinley of Ohio defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska by 271 electoral votes to 176, with about 51 percent of the popular vote. McKinley swept the industrial Northeast and Midwest, while Bryan carried the South and most of the West. Bryan was also nominated by the Populists, who chose to back him rather than run their own candidate. Turnout was about 79 percent.²

The background was the Panic of 1893 and the depression that followed, with mass unemployment, bank failures and strikes, under a Democratic president, Grover Cleveland. The great issue was money. Under the gold standard every dollar was backed by gold, and prices had fallen for two decades, which raised the real burden of farmers' debts. Bryan's side wanted free coinage of silver at 16 ounces of silver to one of gold, which would expand the money supply and raise prices. At the Democratic convention in Chicago in July, the 36-year-old Bryan won the nomination with his 'Cross of Gold' speech, declaring, 'You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.'²

The campaign changed how Americans ran for president. Bryan made an unprecedented speaking tour, traveling about 18,000 miles by train and giving hundreds of speeches. McKinley stayed home in Canton, Ohio, speaking from his front porch to delegations brought in by railroad, while his manager, Mark Hanna, raised millions of dollars from businesses and flooded the country with pamphlets warning that silver would cut the value of wages and savings. Urban workers and many immigrants voted for McKinley. The result began a period of Republican dominance that lasted until 1932, interrupted only by Woodrow Wilson's two terms, and in 1900 Congress put the country formally on the gold standard.¹²⁴