From the Front Porch to the Front Page: McKinley and Bryan in the 1896 Presidential CampaignTexas A&M University Press, 2005 - 230 pages The last presidential campaign of the nineteenth century was remarkable in a number of ways. -It marked the beginning of the use of the news media in a modern manner. -It saw the Democratic Party shift toward the more liberal position it occupies today. -It established much of what we now consider the Republican coalition: Northeastern, conservative, pro-business. It was also notable for the rhetorical differences of its two candidates. In what is often thought of as a single-issue campaign, William Jennings Bryan delivered his famous "Cross of Gold" speech but lost the election. Meanwhile, William McKinley addressed a range of topics in more than three hundred speeches--without ever leaving his front porch. The campaign of 1896 gave the public one of the most dramatic and interesting battles of political oratory in American history, even though, ironically, its issues faded quickly into insignificance after the election. In From the Front Porch to the Front Page, author William D. Harpine traces the campaign month-by-month to show the development of Bryan's rhetoric and the stability of McKinley's. He contrasts the divisive oratory Bryan employed to whip up fervor (perhaps explaining the 80 percent turnout in the election) with the lower-keyed unifying strategy McKinley adopted and with McKinley's astute privileging of rhetorical siting over actual rhetoric. Beyond adding depth and detail to the scholarly understanding of the 1896 presidential campaign itself (and especially the "Cross of Gold" speech), this book casts light on the importance of historical perspective in understanding rhetorical efforts in politics. |
From inside the book
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... radical Populist and National Silver parties , wrenched the Democratic Party away from its traditional reactionary stance and transformed it into a party of the ordinary worker who resented the wealthy and powerful . Thus Bryan paved ...
... radical . The usual proposal was to coin silver at a ratio of 16 to 1 with gold by weight . This infusion of money , the silverites contended , would stimulate the economy , halt the deflation of currency , increase employment , and ...
McKinley and Bryan in the 1896 Presidential Campaign William D. Harpine. a radical version of bimetallism . Bryan succinctly stated his fun- damental position on free silver in many campaign speeches . In a typical speech at a railroad ...
... radical rhetoric , was a divisive speech that was poorly adapted to the national audience . Many scholars believe that it was at least in part because of this speech that the dark - horse candidate Bryan was able to gain the Democratic ...
... radical rhetoric is to advocate a shift in power toward less - favored groups . Radical speakers sometimes reject compromise because it might perpetuate the inequalities against which they protest . 18 Or they may be com- mitted to the ...
Contents
13 | |
26 | |
37 | |
56 | |
Unmade by One Speech? Bryans Trip to Madison Square Garden | 69 |
McKinleys Front Porch Oratory in September 1896 | 90 |
McKinleys Speech to the Homestead Workers | 111 |
Bryans Railroad Campaign in September 1896 | 128 |
The Closing Weeks of the Front Porch Campaign | 146 |
The End of Bryans First Battle | 160 |
Identification and Timeliness Revisited | 176 |
Notes | 187 |
Index | 221 |