Editing William McKinley (section)

===General election campaign===
{{for|additional information on the currency question|Cross of Gold speech#Background}}
[[File:McKinley straddle.jpg|thumb|left|Before the 1896 convention, McKinley tried to avoid coming down on one side or the other of the currency question. [[William Allen Rogers]]'s cartoon from ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'', June 1896, showing McKinley [[Riding a rail|riding the rail]] of the currency question.|alt=A political cartoon. An imperially confident-looking man in an exaggerated military officer's uniform is [[Riding a rail|riding a plank of wood]] marked "Financial question," which is balanced between two saw-horses. The man's weight is bending the wood rather dramatically.]]

Before the Republican convention, McKinley had been a "straddle bug" on the currency question, favoring moderate positions on silver such as accomplishing [[bimetallism]] by international agreement. In the final days before the convention, McKinley decided, after hearing from politicians and businessmen, that the platform should endorse the gold standard, though it should allow for bimetallism through coordination with other nations. Adoption of the platform caused some western delegates, led by Colorado Senator [[Henry M. Teller]], to walk out of the convention. However, compared with the Democrats, Republican divisions on the issue were small, especially as McKinley promised future concessions to silver advocates.{{sfn|Phillips|pp=52, 81–82}}{{sfn|Cherny|pp=55–56}}{{sfn|Jones|p=177}}

The bad economic times had continued and strengthened the hand of forces for [[free silver]]. The issue bitterly divided the Democratic Party; President Cleveland firmly supported the gold standard, but an increasing number of rural Democrats wanted silver, especially in the South and West. The silverites took control of the [[1896 Democratic National Convention]] and chose [[William Jennings Bryan]] for president; he had electrified the delegates with his [[Cross of Gold speech]]. Bryan's financial radicalism shocked bankers—they thought his inflationary program would bankrupt the railroads and ruin the economy. Hanna approached them for support for his strategy to win the election, and they gave $3.5&nbsp;million for speakers and over 200&nbsp;million pamphlets advocating the Republican position on the money and tariff questions.{{sfn|Gould|pp=10–11}}{{sfn|Leech|pp=85–87}}

{{listen
| filename     = William McKinley campaign speech 1896.ogg
| title        = McKinley speaks from his front porch
| description  = Historic recording of William McKinley. The final 1:08 of this sound file (starting at 5:40) contains an excerpt from one of his 1896 campaign speeches.
}}

[[William Jennings Bryan 1896 presidential campaign|Bryan's campaign]] had at most an estimated $500,000. With his eloquence and youthful energy his major assets in the race, Bryan decided on a [[Whistle stop train tour|whistle-stop]] political tour by train on an unprecedented scale. Hanna urged McKinley to match Bryan's tour with one of his own; the candidate declined on the grounds that the Democrat was a better [[stump speech|stump speaker]]: "I might just as well set up a trapeze on my front lawn and compete with some professional athlete as go out speaking against Bryan. I have to ''think''<!-- italics in original --> when I speak."{{sfn|Williams|pp=130–31}} Instead of going to the people, McKinley would remain at home in Canton and allow the people to come to him; according to historian R. Hal Williams in his book on the 1896 election, "it was, as it turned out, a brilliant strategy. McKinley's '[[Front Porch Campaign]]' became a legend in American political history."{{sfn|Williams|pp=130–31}}

[[File:Flower delegation.jpg|thumb|left|William and Ida McKinley (to her husband's left) pose with members of the "Flower Delegation" from [[Oil City, Pennsylvania]], before the McKinley home. Although women could not vote in most states, they might influence male relatives and were encouraged to visit Canton.]]

McKinley made himself available to the public every day except Sunday, receiving delegations from the front porch of his home. The railroads subsidized the visitors with low excursion rates—the pro-silver [[Cleveland Plain Dealer|Cleveland ''Plain Dealer'']] disgustedly stated that going to Canton had been made "cheaper than staying at home".{{sfn|Leech|pp=88–89}}{{sfn|Harpine|p=52}} Delegations marched through the streets from the railroad station to McKinley's home on North Market Street. Once there, they crowded close to the front porch—from which they surreptitiously whittled souvenirs—as their spokesman addressed McKinley. The candidate then responded, speaking on campaign issues in a speech molded to suit the interest of the delegation. The speeches were carefully scripted to avoid extemporaneous remarks; even the spokesman's remarks were approved by McKinley or a representative. This was done as the candidate feared an offhand comment by another that might rebound on him, as [[1884 United States presidential election#Campaign|had happened to Blaine in 1884]].{{sfn|Leech|pp=88–89}}{{sfn|Williams|pp=131, 226}}{{sfn|Jones|p=285}}

[[File:Man of Mark.png|thumb|right|upright|''A Man of Mark'' 1896 [[Homer Davenport]] cartoon of McKinley as Hanna's creature, from [[William Randolph Hearst]]'s ''[[New York Journal]]''|alt=A political cartoon. A closed fist protrudes from a jacket-sleeve covered in dollar signs; a cuff-link is marked "MARK $ HANNA". The hand tightly grasps a chain from which hangs a tiny, sorry-looking figure marked "McKinley". "A Man of Mark!" concludes the cartoon's caption.]]

Most Democratic newspapers refused to support Bryan, the major exception being the New York ''Journal'', controlled by [[William Randolph Hearst]], whose fortune was based on silver mines. In biased reporting and through the sharp cartoons of [[Homer Davenport]], Hanna was viciously characterized as a [[Plutocracy|plutocrat]], trampling on labor. McKinley was drawn as a child, easily controlled by big business.{{sfn|Jones|pp=176–77}} Even today, these depictions still color the images of Hanna and McKinley: one as a heartless businessman, the other as a creature of Hanna and others of his ilk.{{sfn|Horner|pp=272, 318}}

The Democrats had pamphlets too, though not as many. Jones analyzed how voters responded to the education campaigns of the two parties:

{{blockquote|For the people it was a campaign of study and analysis, of exhortation and conviction—a campaign of search for economic and political truth. Pamphlets tumbled from the presses, to be read, reread, studied, debated, to become guides to economic thought and political action. They were printed and distributed by the million&nbsp;... but the people hankered for more. Favorite pamphlets became dog-eared, grimy, fell apart as their owners laboriously restudied their arguments and quoted from them in public and private debate.{{sfn|Jones|p=332}}
}}

McKinley always thought of himself as a tariff man and expected that the monetary issues would fade away in a month. He was mistaken, silver and gold dominated the campaign.{{sfn|Morgan|p=170}}

The battleground proved to be the Midwest—the South and most of the West were conceded to Bryan—and the Democrat spent much of his time in those crucial states.{{sfn|Kazin|p=68}} The Northeast was considered most likely safe for McKinley after the early-voting states of Maine and [[Vermont]] supported him in September.{{sfn|Phillips|p=75}} By then, it was clear that public support for silver had receded, and McKinley began to emphasize the tariff issue. By the end of September, the Republicans had discontinued printing material on the silver issue and were entirely concentrating on the tariff question.{{sfn|Morgan|p=184}} On November 3, 1896, the voters had their say. McKinley won the entire Northeast and Midwest; he won 51% of the vote and an ample majority in the [[Electoral College (United States)|Electoral College]]. Bryan had concentrated entirely on the silver issue and had not appealed to urban workers. Voters in cities supported McKinley; the only city outside the South of more than 100,000 population carried by Bryan was [[Denver]], Colorado.{{sfn|Kazin|pp=76–77}}

[[File:ElectoralCollege1896.svg|right|thumb|upright=1.25|1896 Electoral vote results]]