Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/705

 1896-7] McKinley elected President. 673 Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, South Dakota, and Nevada, withdrew from the Convention. The platform further declared that Protection and reciprocity were " twin measures of Republican policy " ; and that the United States ought to control Hawaii, own the Nicaragua Canal, buy the Danish West Indies, prevent European encroachments in America, and use its " influence and good offices " for the peace and independence of Cuba. In his letter of acceptance dated August 26, McKinley, the presidential nominee of the party, gave the chief place to the free coinage issue. The Democratic National Convention, which met in Chicago early in July, fell completely into the grasp of the radical silver element. President Cleveland's administration not only failed to secure approval, but was obviously condemned. The^)latform denounced the issue of bonds in time of peace and the "trafficking with banking syndicates," de- manded that paper-money should be issued only by the government, criticised the income-tax decision of the Supreme Court, and condemned " government by injunction " and the " arbitrary interference by Federal authorities in local affairs. 1 ' Its spirit and purpose were summed up in the demand for the "free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver, at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation." The delegates opposed to this resolution took no active part after its adoption in the proceedings of the Convention. William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, was nominated for the Presidency. The Populists afterwards nominated him for the same office, but absolved him from endorsing their platform as a whole. It was not, however, essentially unlike the platform promulgated at Chicago. Bryan's letter of acceptance was devoted chiefly to the advocacy of the free coinage of silver. The Chicago Convention was followed by the defection of prominent Democrats all over the country ; and early in. August a conference at Indianapolis, representing thirty-five States, issued a call for a convention of the " National Democratic Party " to be held in that city on September 2. In this Convention all the States, except Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada, were represented. This Convention declared for the gold standard and endorsed the adminis- tration of President Cleveland. It nominated candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency. Its proceedings were publicly approved by President Cleveland and all the members of his Cabinet, with the exception of Smith. Secretary of the Interior, who had resigned his place in August. The Republicans carried every State north of the Potomac and the Ohio and east of the Mississippi. They made great gains in the West and even in some of the States in the South. Their plurality in New York was nearly 270,000. In the electoral college McKinley received 271 votes, while Bryan received 176. President McKinley was inaugurated on March 4, 1897. In his inaugural address he praised arbitration and declared that peace was " preferable to war in almost c. M. H. vii. en. xxi. 43