Do you smoke? A 1900 McKinley campaign button.

[BillJones]

President William McKinley ran for re-election in 1900 on one achievement, a greatly improved economy. In 1896 the U.S. was coming off a brief but steep economic recession, the Panic of 1893. William Jennings Bryan's solution had been the free coinage of silver, which would have greatly increased the money supply. That policy would have resulted in price inflation, perhaps hyper inflation at a time when The United States was beginning to emerge as a world power. McKinley supported the Gold Standard and based much of his presidential campaign around that policy. McKinley won the 1896 election in part because his supporters far out spent the Bryan campaign and because the free silver message began to wear thin as the months passed toward Election Day.

 

In 1900 the economy had fully recovered for most Americans, and McKinley took full advantage of it. His message was people were back to work, and it made no sense to support Bryan's risky free silver scheme. That message was symbolized on this classic pin.

 

 

At first Bryan tried to run on his free silver message, but he quickly saw that his old campaign theme had pretty much run its course. In an effort to salvage his presidential bid, he branched out to other issues. One was that The United States was a republic not an empire. This referred to the Spanish - American War which had increased the amount of territory that was under American control. The trouble was it was hard to argue against a war that had already been won, especially a war that had been won so easily.

 

Bryan also came out against thrusts. A few years later that issue would work well for Theodore Roosevelt, but in 1900 it got little notice for Bryan.

 

Here is a jugate button that shows Bryan and his running mate Adlai Stevenson, Stevenson was grandfather of the man who ran on the Donkey Party ticket in 1952 and '65. Their free silver message is conveyed with the cornucopia image that is positioned between their portraits.

 

 

And here is the classic Bryan clover pin that advertised the additional issues that he tried to incorporate into his 1900 campaign. Perhaps if he had made it into a four leaf clover, he would have done better.

 

 

[jpcienkus]

Very cool pins and interesting background.

[123cents]

Great write up Bill and I love the Campaign pins!

[Walkerfan]

Nice looking graphics on those pins and a good, interesting write-up.