1. President Cleveland was in office: a. Was successful in having the Sherman Silver
Purchase Act repealed in 1893 b. Democratic party becomes split on free silver issue. c.
. d. Silver is a central issue in the election of
1896.

2. So the Democrats nominate
William Jennings Bryan a. Congressman from Nebraska b. He gives the “Cross of
Gold” s peech- in support of silverbacked currency c. Populists join with
Democrats and hope for victory. This ended the 3rd party in 1896.

A.
B.

President William McKinley
Republican
1897-1901
Garret A. Hobart
(1897-1899),
none (1899-1901),
Theodore Roosevelt
(1901)

(1) The Election of 1896…
 Republican Candidate: William
McKinley
 Democratic Candidate: William
Jennings Bryan
 Issues: Tariff; Gold or Silver
Standard

(1 cont) McKinley won by the largest majority of popular votes since 1872!

Electoral Map of 1896
( Teal = Bryan, Green = McKinley)
Notice the # of states that vote for
Bryan…yet he still lost! Why?

 When McKinley became President, the depression of
1893 had just about died out, as well as the big fuss over silver.
 Dingley Tariff Act, 1897 –Redeemed the Republican promises to restore the high protective tariff and provided for an average rate of 49%

(12) Gold Standard Act, 1900 – under its terms, the
U nited S tates formally placed its money on the gold standard. All currency was fully backed by gold. Its price was fixed at $20.67 an ounce.

 A minority faction of
Republicans supported national prohibition, as did some Populists (mostly in
 the West rather than the
South). Since 1869, the strongest supporters of
 anti-liquor had banded together in the

Prohibition Party.

 Temperance -
Restraint in the use of or abstinence from alcoholic liquors
 Women’s Christian
Temperance Union
(WCTU) – founded in
1874, but became very popular in the 1890s

Race Relations:
 He appointed 30 African Americans to "positions of consequence" (mainly jobs in diplomatic and records offices), much less than what black
Repubs. had wanted.
 During the Spanish-American War, he overruled orders preventing the recruitment and service of black soldiers.
 This did not do much to halt the continued mistreatment of blacks in American society.

(2) The
Grandfather
Clause was passed in 1898 in Louisiana
 And soon 7 other states by 1910, the Grandfather Clause stated that all men or lineal descendants of men who were voters before 1867 did not have to meet the educational, property, or tax requirements for voting then in existence. This effectively allowed all white males to vote while denying the franchise to black men and other men of color.
The Grandfather Clause, with its voting denial, became the centerpiece of a much larger system of discrimination and racial segregation.

(11) Election of 1900- same candidates…
 Republican Candidate: William McKinley
 Republican VP Candidate: Theodore
Roosevelt
 Democratic Candidate: William Jennings
Bryan
 Issues : Currency issue dead! Focus turns to imperialistic views due to the Spanish-
American War of 1898

Electoral Map of 1900
( Blue = Bryan, Green = McKinley)
McKinley defeated Bryan by even larger margins!

(13)
 September 6, 1901, in
Buffalo, NY
 28-year-old Leon
Czolgosz, an anarchist , had fired a hidden revolver into the
President’s chest.

 Czolgosz claimed to have shot the president because he was the "enemy of the people, the good working people." The assassin expressed no remorse for his actions and died in the electric chair on October 29, 1901.

 First Lady Ida Saxton McKinley lost two infant daughters as well as her mother within three years of her marriage to McKinley. She then developed epilepsy and became
 an invalid.
McKinley gave her his full attention, breaking White
House protocol in seating her by his side at State dinners. When shot by an assassin in 1901, McKinley said to his secretary, "My wife, be careful… how you tell her -- oh, be careful."