McKinley and Bryan were presidential candidates again in 1900. It was certain long beforehand that they would be, even when Admiral Dewey announced that he was available. The admiral seemed to offer himself reluctantly, and to be relieved when assured that all were sorry he had done so.
McKinley was unanimously renominated. Unanimously also, yet against his will, Governor Theodore Roosevelt, of New York, was named with him on the ticket. The Democratic convention chose Bryan by acclamation; his mate, ex-Vice-President Adlai E. Stevenson, by ballot.
The 1900 campaign called out rather more than the usual crop of one-idea parties. The Prohibitionists, a unit now, took the field on the “army canteen” issue, making much of the fact that our increased export to the Philippines consisted largely of beer and liquors to curse our soldiers. The anti-fusion or “Middle-of-the-road” Populists, the Socialist Labor Party, the Socialist-Democrats, and the United Christian Party all made nominations.
The Gold Democratic National Committee, while recommending State committees to keep up their organizations, regarded it inexpedient to name a ticket. They reaffirmed the Indianapolis platform of 1896, and again recorded their antagonism to the Bryan Democracy. Certain volunteer delegates who met in September found themselves unable to tolerate either the commercialism which they said actuated the Philippine war, or “demagogic appeals to factional and class passions.” They nominated Senator Caffery, of Louisiana, and Archibald M. Howe, of Massachusetts. These gentlemen declined, whereupon it was decided to have no ticket.
W. J. Bryan accepting the nomination for President at a Jubilee Meeting held at Indianapolis, August 8, 1900.
A number of loosely cohering bodies accorded the Democratic ticket their support while making each its own declaration of doctrine. The Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union, through its Supreme Council, gave anticipatory endorsement to the Democratic candidate so early as February. May 10th the Fusion Populists nominated Bryan, naming, however, Charles A. Towne instead of Stevenson for the vice-presidency. Towne withdrew in Stevenson’s favor. The Silver Republicans likewise nominated Bryan, making no vice-presidential nomination. The Anti-imperialist League, meeting in Indianapolis after the Democratic convention, approved its candidates, its view as to the “paramount issue,” and its position thereon.
For a time after his able Indianapolis speech accepting the various nominations, Mr. Bryan’s election seemed rather probable spite of incessant Republican efforts to break him down. He had personally gained much strength since 1896. There was not a State in the Union whose Democratic organization was not to all appearance solid for him, an astounding change in four years. An organization of Civil War Veterans was electioneering for him among old soldiers. Powerful Democratic and independent sheets which had once vilified now extolled him. He was sincere, straightforward, and fearless. His demand at Kansas City that the platform read so and so or he would not run, while probably unwise, showed him no trimmer.
Many Gold Democrats had returned to the party. The gold standard law, approved March 14, 1900, made it impossible for a President, even if he desired to do so, to place the country’s money on an insecure basis without the aid of a Congress friendly in both its branches to such a design. There was, to be sure, effort to make this law appear imperfect; to show that Mr. Bryan, if elected, could, without aid from Congress, debauch the monetary system. But these assertions had little basis or effect. Silver dollars could be legally paid by the Government for a variety of purposes; but outside holders of silver could not get it coined, and the Treasury could not buy more.
New issues—imperialism and the trusts—seemed certain to be vote-winners for the Democracy. The cause of anti-imperialism had taken deep hold of the public mind, drawing to its support a host of eminent and respected Republicans. The Democratic platform expressly named this the “paramount issue” of the campaign. The party in power defended its Philippine policy in the manner sketched at the end of the last chapter, ever asserting, of course, that so far as consistent with their welfare and our duties the Filipinos must be accorded the largest possible measure of self-government. In this tone was perceived some sensitiveness to the anti-imperialist cry. Though Republican campaign writers and speakers affected to ignore this issue, some of them denying its existence, imperialism was more and more discussed.