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<h2 align="center"> Election of 1896</h2>
<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><font face="Arial">A watershed in U.S.
economic/social history, the Election of 1896 witnessed the last great
surge of agrarian populist protest clashing against the growing power of
an urbanizing, industrial America. Despite a spirited campaign,
comprising more than 600 speeches and 18,000 miles across 27 states,
William Jennings Bryan (D), the "silver- tongued orator" and "boy wonder of the
Prairie," was narrowly defeated by William McKinley (R) by under
600,000 votes. The electoral results -- McKinley's 271 to Bryan's 176 -- did
not tell the real story. A slight shift of less than 20,000 votes across
California, Oregon, Kentucky, North Dakota, West Virginia and Indiana
would have given victory to Bryan. Outspent 10:1, and with little
organization to match McKinley's "front porch campaign," Bryan's momentum spooked the Republican deep pockets. Mark Hanna,
McKinley's campaign manager, raised enormous sums from Wall Street,
which were used to finance an army of 1,400 anti-Bryan speakers and a
widespread variety of "dirty tricks." Post-election analysis
cast a pall of doubt on the McKinley results with gross election
irregularities reported in Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. Comparisons to
1876 were common. Some observers stated that 1896 showed a premeditated
"fix" had rigged the outcome in <b>advance</b>, whereas twenty
years earlier the dirty work was done <b>after</b> the election. Money
and raw power were becoming more sophisticated in denying the will of the
people (see <i>Election of 1876)</i>.</font></span>
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<p align="center"><a href="bryan.htm"><font size="2">William Jennings Bryan</font></a></p>
<p align="center"><a href="default.htm"><font size="2">Home</font></a></p>
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