Volume V Part 16 (2/2)
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Arthur Sewall.
To Southern Populists Democrats were more execrable than Republicans.
Westerners of that faith were jealous of Sewall as an Eastern man and rich. Too close union with Democracy threatened Populism with extinction. Rightly divining that their leaders wished such a ”merger,”
the Populist rank and file insisted on nominating their candidate for the vice-presidency first. Bryan was made head of the ticket next day.
The silver Republicans acclaimed the whole Democratic ticket, Sewall as well as Bryan.
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Ex-Senator Palmer.
The Democratic opponents of the ”Chicago Democracy” determined to place in the field a ”National” or ”Gold” Democratic ticket. A convention for this purpose met in Indianapolis, September 3d. The Indianapolis Democrats lauded the gold standard and a non-governmental currency as historic Democratic doctrines, endorsed the Administration, and a.s.sailed the Chicago income-tax plank. Ex-Senator Palmer, of Illinois, and Simon E. Buckner, of Kentucky, were nominated to run upon this platform, Gold Democrats who could not in conscience vote for a Republican here found their refuge.
Parties were now seriously mixed. Thousands of Western Republicans declared for Bryan; as many or more Eastern Democrats for McKinley.
Party newspapers bolted. In Detroit the Republican Journal supported Bryan, the Democratic Free Press came out against him. Not a few from both sides ”took to the woods”; while many, to be ”regular,” laid inconvenient convictions on the table.
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Simon E. Buckner.
The campaign was fierce beyond parallel. Neither candidate's character could be a.s.sailed, but the motives governing many of their followers were. Catchwords like ”gold bug” and ”popocrat” flew back and forth. The question-begging phrase ”sound money”--both parties professed to wish ”sound money”--did effective partisan service. Neither party's deepest principles were much discussed. Many gold people a.s.sumed as beyond controversy that free coinage would drive gold from the country and wreck public credit. Advocates of silver too little heeded the consequences which the mere fear of those evils must entail, impatiently cla.s.sing such as mentioned them among bond-servants to the money power.
So great was the fear of free silver in financial circles, corporations voted money to the huge Republican campaign fund. The opposition could tap no such mine. Never before had a national campaign seen the Democratic party so abandoned by Democrats of wealth, or with so slender a purse.
Nor was this the worst. Had Mr. Bryan been able through the campaign to maintain the pa.s.sionate eloquence of his Chicago speech, or the lucid logic of that with which at Madison Square Garden he opened the campaign, he would still not have succeeded in sustaining ”more hard money” ardor at its mid-summer pitch. His eloquence, indeed, in good degree continued, but the level of his argument sank. Instead of championing the cause of producers, whether rich or poor, against mere money-changers, which he might have done with telling effect, he more and more fell to the tone of one speaking simply against all the rich, an att.i.tude which repelled mult.i.tudes who possessed neither wealth nor much sympathy for the wealthy.
Save for one short trip to Cleveland the Republican candidate did not, during the campaign, leave Canton, though from his doorstep he spoke to visiting hordes. His opponent, in the course of the most remarkable campaigning tour ever made by a candidate, preached free coinage to millions. The immense number of his addresses; their effectiveness, notwithstanding the slender preparation possible for most of them severally; the abstract nature of his subject when argued on its merits, as it usually was by him; and the strain of his incessant journeys evinced a power in the man which was the amazement of everyone.
Spite of all this, as election day drew near, the feeling rose that it post-dated by at least two months all possibility of a Democratic victory. Republicans' limitless resources, steady discipline, and ceaseless work told day by day. They polled, of the popular vote, 7,104,244; the combined Bryan forces, 6,506,853; the Gold Democracy, 134,652; the Prohibitionists, 144,606; and the Socialists, 36,416.
CHAPTER XI.
MR. McKINLEY'S ADMINISTRATION
[1897-1899]
The Nestor of the original McKinley Cabinet was John Sherman, who left his Senate seat to the swiftly rising Hanna that he himself might devote his eminent but failing powers to the Secretarys.h.i.+p of State. Upon the outbreak of the Spanish War he was succeeded by William R. Day, who had been a.s.sistant Secretary. In 1898 Day in turn resigned, when Amba.s.sador John Hay was called to the place from the Court of St. James. The Treasury went to Lyman J. Gage, a distinguished Illinois banker. Mr.
Gage was a Democrat, and this appointment was doubtless meant as a recognition of the Gold Democracy's aid in the campaign. General Russell A. Alger, of Michigan, took charge of the War Department, holding it till July 19, 1899, after which Elihu Root was installed.
Postmaster-General James A. Gary, of Maryland, resigned the same month with Sherman, giving place to Charles Emory Smith, of the Philadelphia Press. The Navy portfolio fell to John D. Long, of Ma.s.sachusetts; that of the Interior to Cornelius N. Bliss, of New York; that of Agriculture to James Wilson, of Iowa. In December, 1898, Ethan Allen Hitchc.o.c.k, of Missouri, succeeded Bliss.
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