Editing William Jennings Bryan (section)

===Presidential election of 1896===
{{main|William Jennings Bryan 1896 presidential campaign}}

====Democratic nomination====
{{quote box
|title = The [[Cross of Gold speech]] (excerpt)<ref name="FT"/>
|quote = 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.
|width    = 30em
|align    = right
|qalign   = center
|bgcolor  = }}

By 1896, free silver forces were ascendant within the party. Though many Democratic leaders were not as enthusiastic about free silver as Bryan was, most recognized the need to distance the party from the unpopular policies of the Cleveland administration. By the start of the [[1896 Democratic National Convention]], Representative [[Richard P. Bland]], a long-time champion of free silver, was widely perceived to be the frontrunner for the party's presidential nomination. Bryan hoped to offer himself as a presidential candidate, but his youth and relative inexperience gave him a lower profile than veteran Democrats like Bland, Governor [[Horace Boies]] of Iowa, and Vice President [[Adlai Stevenson I|Adlai Stevenson]]. The free silver forces quickly established dominance over the convention, and Bryan helped draft a [[party platform]] that repudiated Cleveland, attacked the conservative rulings of the Supreme Court, and called the [[gold standard]] "not only un-American but anti-American".<ref>Kazin (2006), pp. 53–55, 58</ref>
[[File:"IN BRYAN WE TRUST" political satire in 1896, from- "Bryan Money," ca. 1896 (4360222454) (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|275x275px|"UNITED SNAKES OF AMERICA" "IN BRYAN WE TRUST" [[political satire]] token of 1896, known as "[[Bryan Money]]"]]
Conservative Democrats demanded a debate on the party platform, and on the third day of the convention, each side put forth speakers to debate free silver and the gold standard. Bryan and Senator [[Benjamin Tillman]] of South Carolina were chosen as the speakers who would advocate for free silver, but Tillman's speech was poorly received by delegates from outside the South because of its sectionalism and references to the Civil War. Charged with delivering the convention's last speech on the topic of monetary policy, Bryan seized his opportunity to emerge as the nation's leading Democrat. In his [[Cross of gold speech|"Cross of Gold" speech]], Bryan argued that the debate over monetary policy was part of a broader struggle for democracy, political independence and the welfare of the "common man". Bryan's speech was met with rapturous applause and a celebration on the floor of the convention that lasted for over half an hour.<ref>Kazin (2006), pp. 56–62</ref>

[[File:William-Jennings-Bryan-speaking-c1896.jpeg|thumb|Bryan campaigning for president, October 1896]]
The next day, the Democratic Party held its presidential ballot. With the continuing support of Governor [[John Altgeld]] of Illinois, Bland led the first ballot of the convention, but he fell far short of the necessary two-thirds vote. Bryan finished in a distant second on the convention's first ballot, but his Cross of Gold speech had left a strong impression on many delegates. Despite the distrust of party leaders like Altgeld, who was wary of supporting an untested candidate, Bryan's strength grew over the next four ballots. He gained the lead on the fourth ballot and won his party's presidential nomination on the fifth ballot.<ref name="kazin6263"/> At the age of 36, Bryan became the youngest presidential nominee of a major party in American history, a position that he still holds.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Glass |first1=Andrew |title=William Jennings Bryan born, March 19, 1860 |url=https://www.politico.com/story/2012/03/william-jennings-bryan-born-074146 |access-date=August 3, 2018 |publisher=Politico |date=March 19, 2012}}</ref> The convention nominated [[Arthur Sewall]], a wealthy Maine shipbuilder who also favored free silver and the income tax, as Bryan's running mate.<ref name="kazin6263">Kazin (2006), pp. 62–63</ref>

====General election====
Conservative Democrats, known as the "[[National Democratic Party (United States)|Gold Democrats]]", nominated a separate ticket. Cleveland himself did not publicly attack Bryan but privately favored the Republican candidate, [[William McKinley]], over Bryan. Many urban newspapers in the Northeast and Midwest that had supported previous Democratic tickets also opposed Bryan's candidacy.<ref>Kazin (2006), p. 63</ref> Bryan, however, won the support of the Populist Party, which nominated a ticket consisting of Bryan and [[Thomas E. Watson]] of Georgia. Though Populist leaders feared that the nomination of the Democratic candidate would damage the party in the long term, they shared many of Bryan's political views and had developed a productive working relationship with Bryan.<ref>Kazin (2006), pp. 63–65</ref>

The Republican campaign painted McKinley as the "advance agent of prosperity" and social harmony and warned of the supposed dangers of electing Bryan. McKinley and his campaign manager, [[Mark Hanna]], knew that McKinley could not match Bryan's oratorical skills. Rather than giving speeches on the campaign trail, the Republican nominee conducted a [[front porch campaign]]. Hanna, meanwhile, raised an unprecedented amount of money, dispatched campaign surrogates and organized the distribution of millions of pieces of campaign literature.<ref>Kazin (2006), pp. 65–67</ref>

[[File:ElectoralCollege1896.svg|thumb|1896 electoral vote results]]

Facing a huge campaign finance disadvantage, the Democratic campaign relied largely on Bryan's oratorical skills. Breaking with the precedent set by most major party nominees, Bryan gave some 600 speeches, primarily in the hotly-contested Midwest.<ref>{{cite book|author=William Safire|title=Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EKkO4JBxtVkC&pg=PA922|year=2004|publisher=W.W. Norton|page=922|isbn=978-0-393-05931-1}}</ref> Bryan invented the national [[stump speech (politics)|stumping tour]], reaching an audience of 5 million in 27 states.<ref>Richard J. Ellis And Mark Dedrick, "The Presidential Candidate, Then and Now" ''Perspectives on Political Science'' (1997) 26#4 pp. 208–216 [http://www.uvm.edu/~dguber/POLS125/articles/ellis.htm online]</ref> He was building a coalition of the white South, poor northern farmers and industrial workers and silver miners against banks and railroads and the "money power". Free silver appealed to farmers, who would be paid more for their products, but not to industrial workers, who would not get higher wages but would pay higher prices. The industrial cities voted for McKinley, who won nearly the entire East and industrial Midwest and did well along the border and the West Coast. Bryan swept the South and Mountain states and the  wheat growing regions of the Midwest. Revivalistic Protestants cheered at Bryan's semi-religious rhetoric. Ethnic voters supported McKinley, who promised they would not be excluded from the new prosperity, as did more prosperous farmers and the fast-growing middle class.<ref>{{cite book|author=Michael Nelson|title=Guide to the Presidency|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fK_lCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA363|year=2015|publisher=Routledge|page=363|isbn=978-1-135-91462-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Karl Rove|title=The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q_agDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA368|year=2016|pages=367–369|publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4767-5296-9}}</ref>

McKinley won the election by a fairly comfortable margin by taking 51 percent of the popular vote and 271 [[Electoral College (United States)|electoral votes]].<ref>Kazin (2006), pp. 76–79</ref> Democrats remained loyal to their champion after his defeat; many letters urged him to run again in the [[1900 United States presidential election|1900 presidential election]]. William's younger brother, [[Charles W. Bryan]], created a card file of supporters to whom the Bryans would send regular mailings to for the next thirty years.<ref>Kazin (2006), pp. 80–82</ref> The Populist Party fractured after the election; many Populists, including James Weaver, followed Bryan into the Democratic Party, and others followed [[Eugene V. Debs]] into the [[Socialist Party of America|Socialist Party]].<ref>Kazin (2006), pp. 202–203</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%;"
|-
! colspan="6" | 1896 United States presidential election<ref>{{cite web|author=David Leip|publisher=Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=1896&fips=42&f=1&off=0&elect=0&minper=0|title=1896 Presidential General Election Results – Pennsylvania|access-date=March 24, 2018}}</ref>
|-
! colspan="2" style="width: 15em" |Party
! style="width: 17em" |Candidate
! style="width: 5em" |Votes
! style="width: 7em" |Percentage
! style="width: 5em" |Electoral votes
|-
! style="background-color:#FF3333; width: 3px" |
| style="width: 130px" | '''[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]'''
| '''[[William McKinley]]'''
| align="right" | '''7,108,480'''
| align="right" | '''50.99%'''
| align="right" | '''271'''
|-
! style="background-color:#3333FF; width: 3px" |
| style="width: 130px" | [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| ''William Jennings Bryan''
| align="right" | 5,588,462
| align="right" | 40.09%
| align="right" | 
|-
! style="background-color:#CCFFCC; width: 3px" |
| style="width: 130px" | [[Populist Party (United States)|Populist]]
| ''William Jennings Bryan''
| align="right" | 907,717
| align="right" | 6.51%
| align="right" | 
|-
! style="background-color:#777777; width: 3px" |
| style="width: 130px" | [[Silver Party|Silver]]
| ''William Jennings Bryan''
| align="right" | 12,873
| align="right" | 0.09%
| align="right" | 
|-
! style="background-color:#B2BEB5; width: 3px" |
| style="width: 130px" | Total
| William Jennings Bryan
| align="right" | 6,509,052
| align="right" | 46.69%
| align="right" | 176
|-
! style="background-color:#FFC02D; width: 3px" |
| style="width: 130px" | [[National Democratic Party (United States)|National Democratic]]
| [[John M. Palmer (politician)|John Palmer]]
| align="right" | 134,645
| align="right" | 0.97%
| align="right" | 0
|-
! style="background-color:#FF00FF; width: 3px" |
| style="width: 130px" | [[Prohibition Party|Prohibition]]
| [[Joshua Levering]]
| align="right" | 131,312	
| align="right" | 0.94%
| align="right" | 0
|-
! style="background-color:#DD051D; width: 3px" |
| style="width: 130px" | [[Socialist Labor Party of America|Socialist Labor]]
| [[Charles Matchett]]
| align="right" | 36,373
| align="right" | 0.26%
| align="right" | 0
|-
! style="background-color:#f09; width: 3px" |
| style="width: 130px" | [[Prohibition Party|National Prohibition]]
| [[Charles E. Bentley (politician)|Charles Bentley]]
| align="right" | 19,367
| align="right" | 0.14%
| align="right" | 0
|-
! style="background-color:#FFFFFF; width: 3px" |
| style="width: 130px" | ''No party''
| [[Write-in candidate|Write-ins]]
| align="right" | 1,570
| align="right" | 0.01%
| align="right" | 0
|-
|-bgcolor="#EEEEEE"
| colspan="3" align="right" | '''Totals'''
| align="right" | '''13,940,799'''
| align="right" | '''100.00%'''
| align="right" | '''447'''
|}