"The Great Democratic Show of 1896./The Great Democratic Show of 1900. It is the same old show, the same old proprietor, the same old band, and the same old monster. The only change is in the name of the monster." (Collection of Allen Frey)

Presidential election of 1900

This election was a rematch of one of the most dramatic and complex in American history—the 1896 race between Republican William McKinley and his unsuccessful Democratic challenger William Jennings Bryan. A former Nebraska congressman, Bryan was charismatic, a brilliant orator, and in 1896 remarkably young (at 36 the youngest ever nominated for president by a major party). Bryan won the nomination with his passionate "cross of gold" speech—considered one of the greatest in American political history—in which he defended farmers and factory workers struggling to survive the economic depression that followed the Panic of 1893. Bryan proposed to quit the gold standard and instead back paper money by silver, to allow an increase in currency and thereby lift impoverished farmers and the nation out of debt. Fearful of inflation, Republican businessmen and bankers were sufficiently terrified to contribute to McKinley's successful campaign $3.5 million (equivalent to $3 billion today).

In 1900, the return of economic prosperity and the recent American victory in the Spanish-American War—where McKinley's popular running mate, Theodore Roosevelt, became a national hero—enabled the Republicans to win decisively. McKinley, again campaigned on the gold standard. Bryan resurrected the free silver issue, attacked Republican imperialism, and—as seen in this cartoon that appeared in the Republican magazine Judge in 1899—focused as well on the giant trusts formed by firms and corporations for what he considered the benefit of the privileged classes and the detriment of the masses. Bryan's slick oratorical skills and his tireless national speaking tour by train inspired artists to often depict him as a court jester, an entertainment figure, playing to huge crowds.