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Georgia, and began a series of house parties, in which McKinley was a sort of permanent guest, or main attraction. Influential Republican politicians from all over the South were royally entertained at these parties, and they all had a chance to meet McKinley informally, and to find out how delightful he was, personally. The guests had been carefully selected, and by the time the season was over, nearly all the Southern delegates were strong McKinley men.

Once the South had been captured, Hanna returned to his home in Cleveland, and gave another series of parties, this time to Republicans from the West. More delegates were converted to McKinley's candidacy. By January, 1896, numerous Republican newspapers throughout the country were "booming" McKinley. They dwelt upon the hard times following the panic, the incompetence of the Democrats, and the general prosperity which had prevailed under the beneficent McKinley Tariff. Voters have notoriously short memories, and the readers of these carefully prepared articles forgot all about the Treasury deficits, the reduced wages, and the widespread signs of distress in evidence before Harrison's term ended. Heralded as the "advance agent of prosperity," McKinley was advertised as the man best fitted to save the country from ruin. This press campaign, planned and directed by Hanna, created the impression that McKinley's popularity was tremendous.

When Platt and Quay saw the McKinley boom steadily gaining in strength, fearful of being left in a helpless minority, they announced their readiness to deliver their respective delegations for proper consideration. McKinley, however, had given specific orders to Hanna not to promise any jobs, Cabinet or otherwise, in return for delegates, so no agreement could be reached. Platt and Quay then turned to the South to pick up as many delegates as possible, for bargaining purposes. But Hanna had done his work so well, even though he had done it quietly, that as the great New York boss put it, “He had the South practically solid before some of us waked up." They did succeed in detaching about two dozen delegates from the McKinley following, but no more. By May 1, six weeks before the convention met, Hanna held the pledges of a majority of delegates, so there was every reason to believe that his candidate would be nominated on the first ballot.

Of course the work up to that point had been fairly expensive, not because of bribery, for there seems to have been none of that, but to

pay speakers, printers, and to run the house parties. Hanna paid out one hundred thousand dollars to secure McKinley's nomination, but that of course was before the days of the direct primary. It would cost more now. Colonel Procter, of Ivory Soap fame, who tried to play Mark Hanna for Leonard Wood in 1920, somewhat ruefully admitted paying a half million dollars, and even then his man did not get the nomination.

When the Republicans assembled in Convention at St. Louis on June 16, McKinley's nomination was really settled, but Hanna would take no chances. The McKinley forces made sure that the officials of the Convention were favorable to them, and then they decided the contesting delegations in favor of McKinley.

The first real difficulty was encountered in connection with the platform. Many of the Western delegates leaned toward silver, and McKinley himself posed as a bimetallist. The Eastern delegates wanted to commit the party to the gold standard, and Hanna agreed with them. But it would have been poor strategy to publish his opinions at the beginning, so he tried to force the currency question into the background, and to emphasize the tariff. The story of how the gold plank got into the Republican platform has been told in various ways by different people. One version, which has the external appearance of veracity, runs in this way. Hanna carried the draft of a gold plank with him to St. Louis, and he intended to have it embodied in the platform. But he did not intend to offer it voluntarily. If he could make it appear that he had been compelled to approve the gold standard against his will, he might demand concessions in return. The gold delegates became alarmed at rumors of a possible compromise, and they delivered an ultimatum to Hanna, giving him just one hour to accept the gold standard. This was the very thing he wanted; he "surrendered," and the gold plank went in. McKinley got the nomination.

The platform called attention to "the calamitous consequences of full and unrestricted Democratic control of the government," and referred to Cleveland's administration as "a record of unparalleled incapacity, dishonor, and disaster." The Democrats "precipitated panic, blighted industry and trade . . . closed factories, reduced work and wages, halted enterprise, and crippled American production." "Every consideration of public safety and individual interest demands that the government shall be rescued from the hands of

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those who have shown themselves incapable of conducting it without disaster at home and dishonor abroad, and shall be restored to the party which for thirty years administered it with unequaled success and prosperity. ." Critics of these remarkable statements should remember the purpose for which they were written. The Republicans proclaimed their loyalty to the principle of protection and of bounties for the sugar raisers. The currency plank declared: "We are therefore opposed to the free coinage of silver, except by international agreement with the leading commercial nations of the world

until such agreement can be obtained the existing gold standard must be preserved." After the adoption of the gold plank thirty-four of the silver delegates withdrew from the convention.

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The definite acceptance of the gold standard by the Republicans tended to consolidate the silver elements, and as the time for the Democratic convention approached, it became more and more plain that the silver men would be in control. The Convention met at Chicago, on July 7. The delegates from the Northeast favored gold; from all other sections they were almost solidly for silver. But while the silver men had a majority, and unlimited enthusiasm, they had no organization, and no leadership. The Convention had assembled in the Coliseum, a large building, with a roof of glass and iron. The weather was hot, almost unbearably hot, hotter even than the tempers of some of the delegates. When the national committee presented its candidate for temporary chairman, he was promptly defeated, and the silver majority put in a man of their own. Then they settled all the contested delegations by admitting the silver advocates. The regular Nebraska delegation favored the gold standard; it was turned out, and the silver delegation, with William Jennings Bryan as a member, was seated. The platform demanded "the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold" at the ratio of sixteen to one. The minority tried to secure the convention's approval of a plank praising the Cleveland administration, but it was defeated, ayes three hundred fifty-seven, noes five hundred sixty-four. The mere introduction of this plank enraged the convention. Tillman of South Carolina attempted to speak, but he lost his temper so completely that no one could hear a word. David B. Hill of New York tried to talk, but the Convention howled him down. By that time the Con

vention had become "a surging mass of men, frantic with excitement." The crowd of twenty thousand, delegates and spectators, had simply gone mad. Everybody was yelling, shouting, or cursing, at the top of his lungs.

At that point William Jennings Bryan rose to speak, realizing that an opportunity which few men ever see had suddenly come to him. Calm and undisturbed, he faced the crowd coolly, with the utmost self-possession. Before he said a single word, the noise had almost ceased, and when he began to speak, absolute stillness prevailed. His voice carried easily to every part of the great hall, and it took only three or four sentences to capture the Convention. "Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention. I should be presumptuous, indeed, to present myself against the distinguished gentlemen to whom you have listened, if this were a mere measuring of abilities; but this is not a contest between persons. The humblest citizen in the land, when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error. I come to speak to you in defense of a cause as holy as the cause of liberty-the cause of humanity.

"We stand here representing people who are the equals before the law of the largest cities in the state of Massachusetts. When you (the gold delegates) come before us and tell us that we shall disturb your business interests, we reply that you have disturbed our business by your course. We say to you that you have made too limited in its application the definition of a business man. The man who is employed for wages is as much a business man as his employer. . . . The merchant at the cross-roads store is as much a business man as the merchant of New York. The farmer who goes forth in the morning and toils all day . . . is as much a business man as the man who goes upon the Board of Trade and bets upon the price of grain. . . ." "We come to speak for this broader class of business men. We do not come as aggressors. Our war is not a war of conquest. We are fighting for the defense of our houses, our families, and posterity. We have petitioned, and our petitions have been scorned. We have entreated, and our entreaties have been disregarded. We have begged and they have mocked when our calamity came. We beg no longer; we entreat no more; we petition no more; we defy them!"

"You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the gold standard. I tell you that the great cities rest upon these broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and

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your cities will spring up again as if by magic. But destroy our farms, and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in this country." "If they say bimetallism is good, but that we cannot have it until other nations help us, we reply that, instead of having a gold standard because England has, we will restore bimetallism, and then let England have bimetallism because the United States has it. If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests, and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand 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."

These extracts give an idea of the subject matter of the speech, but they can give no idea of the speech itself. Bryan was a genuine orator, the sort of man who can hypnotize almost any audience, an orator with a pleasing voice and a perfect delivery. As he approached the climax of his appeal, the crowd broke out into roar after roar of applause. When he finished, the whole twenty thousand were frenzied with enthusiasm. Had the nominations started then, Bryan would have won on the first ballot.

The silver delegates, strong in numbers, had been groping around for a leader. They found one in Bryan, much to the disgust of some Democrats from the East. "Lunacy having dictated the platform," the New York World said, "it was perhaps natural that hysteria should evolve the candidate." On the following day the balloting began, and after the usual complimentary votes for the "favorite sons," Bryan received the nomination on the fifth ballot. In the East, over the offices of some Democratic newspapers, flags were hung at half mast, and many former Democrats proclaimed their intention of voting for McKinley. Other "gold Democrats" started a party of their own, with Palmer and Buckner for their candidates. The enthusiastic adoption of silver by the Democrats left the Populists in an embarrassing dilemma. The Democrats had run away with their big issue; if they fused with the Democrats, they would lose their identity as a party; if they did not fuse, the Republicans were certain to win.

The Populist Convention met at St. Louis in July. Among the delegates were heroes of the twenty-five-year campaign for agrarian