1900
Candidate |
Popular
|
Electoral
|
William McKinley Republican |
7,218,039
|
292
|
William J. Bryan Democrat |
6,358,345
|
155
|
Eugene V. Debs Socialist |
86,935
|
0
|
William Jennings Bryan, 1908 (public domain) |
Bryan and McKinley met again in 1900, but although Bryan insisted on including the free silver plank in the platform, the war with Spain and the acquisition of Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Hawaii forced him to attack the Republicans with charges of imperialism. His free silver "act" was old, and politically, it was not a wise route to follow, as these cartoonists point out (29A-1067032, 29B-1067033). Bryan was depicted as "about run down." (29C-1067034) However, he waged an active campaign, again touring the country, on an anti-imperialist platform (29D-1067035, 29E-1067036).
McKinley ran on his record of prosperity, promising "four more years of the full dinner pail." Here Bryan is shown as a defeated Don Quixote, having tried to tilt with the dinner pail windmill (29F-1067037).
Mark Hanna, who did some campaigning for McKinley and again ran his campaign, is pictured as a loud, braying pail, but he captivated crowds of people wherever he went(29G-1067038). Theodore Roosevelt, McKinley's running mate, did much campaigning, a situation parodied here (29H-1067039). Hanna was caricatured again as a nursemaid, here looking on while "Willie McKinley" meets his new playmate "Teddy." (29I-1067040). And here, sitting on "Teddy" for "making too much racket during the campaign." (29J-1067041) In spite of the racket, or perhaps because of it, McKinley and Roosevelt were elected.