The American Elections of 1896 essays

The American Elections of 1896 essays The election of 1986 is considered as one of the most important in the nation's history since it marked a sea change in the evolution of the modern presidency. Though the status of this election was unclear, it is frequently considered as a realigning election that stands for a serious difference from previous patterns of voting. Mainly, it refers to any one of several United States presidential elections in which geographic bases of power for each of the two parties were radically altered, resulting in a new political power structure and status quo. It is believed that a realigning election happens only after a shift in partisan preferences in the general populace. Furthermore, in this case, James Weaver of the People's Party, who had finished a reputable third four years before, threw his aid to the Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan. John M. Palmer of the National Democratic Party received 133,435 votes (1.0%), and the Prohibition Party's Joshua Levering 125,072 votes (0.9%). Many of the Prohibition voters went to Bryan in this election, but this was insufficient to overcome Republican candidate William McKinley. Besides, this election was one of huge importance to money. It's main issue was which metal should back U.S., gold or silver. Bryan supported silver whereas McKinley supported gold. The Populists had supported Bryan because they as well supported the silver issue. The diverse political parties had some support for each but the main ones were gold for Republicans and silver for Democrats. On November 3, 1896, 14 million Americans went to the polls, giving Republican William McKinley a winning total of over 7,100,000 votes (51%) and 276 in the Electoral College against about 6,500,000 popular ballots (46%) and 176 electoral votes for Democrat William Jennings Bryan. It was the largest margin of victory since President Ulysses S. Grant's reelection in 1872. William McKinley's political back up ca...