Economic depression due to the Panic of 1893, mountains chock full of silver, and a charismatic, populist leader who appealed a great deal to the people who lived there.
You would think that the 1893 Panic would have hurt the party in power in 1896.
It should have, but it was understood that Cleveland and Bryan had precisely nothing in common.
Disagreed.
Both were anti-imperialists and in favor of free trade.
Granted, those seemed to be Democratic prerequisites of the time.
That being said, anti-imperialism was hardly the big, important issue of 1896, and their opposition to tariffs can be cast in two very different lights. On the one hand, Cleveland was a free market absolutist who'd be damned if those protectionist Republicans got their way. On the other, Bryan was an agrarian who had little stake in strengthening domestic industry and pushing the economy away from agriculture.
